Yankees & Royals Preview

The Yankees are coming off a 7 game road trip and 16 consecutive games without getting a day off until yesterday.  Their road trip didn’t go as well as planned in Detroit as they dropped 3 out of 4 to the Tigers, but then took 2 out of 3 from the Rangers in Arlington.  The Yankees are now 5-5 in their last ten games, but are currently in first place in the AL East!

The Royals who are in second place in the AL Central, have won 6 of their last 10 games.  They actually have a record over .500, at 18-16. (I honestly can’t remember the last time this team had such a good record)  This is attributed to their MLB High, “Home Wins” at 15.  Lucky for the Yankees, the Royals also boast the MLB Low, “Road Wins” at 3!  Even with this drastic split between home and away games, this isn’t the same Royals of the past as they have made some pretty good signings like Melky Cabrera and Jeff Francoeur, and have some good young players they have been developing in their system like first baseman Eric Hosmer, and set-up man Aaron Crow.   Although they have lost Zach Greinke, they still have one of the best closers, Joakim Soria.  Don’t underestimate this Royals team!

STARTING PITCHERS

Tues May 10:  Kyle Davies (1-4, 7.32 ERA) vs.  Freddy Garcia (1-2, 2.88 ERA)

-Davies is coming off three consecutive losses which has contributed to his inflated ERA

-Davies has pitched 4 games on the road this season lasting only 18 total innings with a 10.00 ERA, and allowing 29 hits.

-Davies allowed Arod’s 500^th Home Run.

-Garcia had a tough outing last week against the Tigers allowing 4 runs on 10 hits over 7 innings

-Garcia has 21 strikeouts in his last 3 games

BIG BATS AGAINST DAVIES

-In 11 at bats, Cano is hitting .364 off Davies

-In 21 at bats, Granderson is hitting .333 against Davies with 2 Home Runs

-In 10 at bats, Arod is batting .500 with 1 Home Run

BIG BATS AGAINST GARCIA

-In 9 at bats, Mike Aviles is hitting .667 off Garcia

-In 11 at bats, Billy Butler is batting .455 off Garcia

Wed May 11:  Bruce Chen (4-1, 3.59 ERA) vs.  A.J. Burnett (4-2, 3.71 ERA)

-Chen is coming off a strong start against the Orioles where he received a win after pitching 7 innings

-Chen only has 8 Strikeouts in his last three starts

-Burnett is 1-2 in his last three starts with a 3.00 ERA

-Burnett’s last start he allowed 5 runs, but only 2 were earned runs

BIG BATS AGAINST CHEN

-In 11 at bats, Texeira is hitting .545 off Chen with 4 home runs

-In 13 at bats, Jeter is hitting .385 off Chen

-In 9 at bats, Granderson is hitting .444 off Chen

BIG BATS AGAINST AJ

-Nobody with over 5 plate appearances against AJ is hitting higher than .300 against him.

THURS MAY 12: Sean O’Sullivan (1-2, 3.41 ERA) vs. Ivan Nova (3-2 4.08 ERA)

-O’Sullivan took the loss against the A’s last week after pitching 8 innings with 89 pitches and allowing 3 runs

-In his previous start, O’Sullivan walked 7 batters

-Nobody on the Yankees has more than 9 plate appearances against O’Sullivan

-Nova pitched into the 8^th inning for his first time, in his last start against the Rangers allowing only one unearned run.

-Nova is 2-0 in his last three starts with a 1.35 ERA

-Nova has never faced the Royals

YANKEES NOTES

-Following this series, the Red Sox are coming to the Bronx for the weekend! ... and just for the record, the Red Sux are still not playing .500 ball

-On this previous road trip, Jeter was hitting .393 with a .452 on base percentage.  By the looks of his swing, Jeter’s back!

-During the road trip, Granderson was hitting .292 with a .452 on base percentage and a whopping .667 slugging percentage.

-Gardner was also hot during the road trip batting .350 with a .458 on base percentage

-Cano couldn’t be happier to be home after he was hitting only .167 on the road trip.

-Martin had a tough road trip as well, hitting only .125

-Granderson leads the league with 11 Home Runs

ROYALS NOTES

Welcome Bank Melky Cabrera who is now with the Royals and on quite a hot streak.  Melky is 7 for his last 18 over his last 4 games…. The Melk Man Delivers!  In case you don’t remember, Melky was traded after the 2009 World Series to Atlanta for Javier Vazquez.

-Kansas City’s starting pitching has the fewest strikeouts in major league baseball.

Kansas City's Billy Butler has hit safely in 114 consecutive series, currently the second longest active streak in the Majors

-Kansas City has called up first baseman Eric Hosmer, who is one of the most highly touted prospects in the minor league system.  Hosmer was the 3rd overall pick in the 2008 draft, and drafted over Buster Posney on the Giants and Justin Smoak on the Mariners.

-The Royals have a 5.93 ERA on the road compared to only 3.51 at home

Time to Worry About Hughes????

After Sunday's poor performance, Hughes is getting a lot of attention about his velocity, or lack thereof.  He averaged about 88 mph yesterday and was mostly throwing his fastball around 87 - 89 mph, although he did top out in the 1st inning with  91 mph. He never hit 91 again for the rest of the game, (he only went 4 innings) and the Tigers never took a swing and missed on Hughes' fastball the entire game.

All the attention about his velocity is coming from the media and it may be a little premature to begin worrying.  I mean, how come the media isn't talking about Jeter's offense over the last three games?  Jeter only squeezed out two infield singles that weren't hit hard this past weekend.

This should not be something everyone is terribly concerned with.... just yet, but it must be looked at over the next few starts.  I would go farther and say the velocity must be gauged when the weather warms up a bit.  It simply could just be the cold weather that Hughes isn't used to yet.  Joba's velocity was down yesterday as well in the 85-88 mph range.  The problem with the Weather issue though is, scouts were reporting that during spring training Hughes' velocity was low, and that was down in sunny Florida.  Hughes' next start is Friday in Boston (another cold weather city) against Lackey, and I am sure this will be the talk of every radio show Friday, but it seems a bit premature.  On the bright side, Lackey looked awful this past weekend in Texas.

I am more concerned about how many homeruns Hughes allows.  Last year, he gave up a career high 25 home runs in 31 starts and on Sunday he allowed Miguel Cabrera to hit 2.  The first of Cabrera's home runs came on an 88 mph fastball.  Although Cabrera owns Hughes and is 7-14 against him, Hughes must do something to prevent all these home runs this season, especially in Yankee Stadium.  It may be just building up his arm strength, or it could be working on his new cutter pitch, but something has to give.