Enter Sandman

So last week, I wrote a post about the Red Sox bullpen and how they have locked down the 7^th, 8^th & 9^th innings. You can read that HERE.  This week, its about the Yankees bullpen locking down the 7^th, 8^th & ….. Usually the 9^th inning.

I love this picture!

9^th Inning:  Mariano is the Yankees go-to guy for the 9^th inning, but this week he showed signs that he may actually be human.  He has now allowed runs to score in the past three games he appeared in.  It started Sunday in Boston when he blew the save, continued on Tuesday blowing the save against the Angels and yesterday again he almost blew the save again.  It this wasn’t Mo, I think everybody would be pulling the hair out of their heads and screaming for Girardi’s job.

Since Rivera is as clutch as you can possibly be, he gets a pass.  The 9^th inning is his and he owns it like no other pitcher.  It is somewhat unusual what is happening though as lefties seem to be hitting him better than before.  The pitch to Abreu on Tuesday which was drilled for a home run was a cutter and so was yesterday’s pitch to Branyan which was also drilled for a big home run.  Both Branyan and Abreu are lefties, who typically have problems hitting Mo’s cutter.  After looking over Mo’s past week, it seems that his cutter is a little flat, but he also had some location issues with it.  For instance, Abreu’s pitch was over the plate and he was able to get the bat head around quick enough to drive the ball, rather than having the cutter end up close to his hands and shatter the bat. 

I’m sure that Mo will bounce back from this, but it should be worth keeping an eye on his cutter against lefties.  Lefties are hitting .269 against Mo this season which doesn’t bode well for his cutter, but I think lefties know which pitch is coming and are cheating a bit and getting out in front of it more.  It could just be the aggressiveness of lefties, rather than a problem with the cutter.  That’s just my theory but all this could just be a ‘blip on the screen’ like Girardi says, and we may not think about this blip again for the rest of the season.  Either way, the 9^th inning is still Mo’s.

8^th Inning:  David Robertson has owned the 8^th inning this season since Soriano went on the DL.  Robertson has a 1.35 ERA and 1.2 WHIP.  His WHIP is inflated as he issues too many walks, but he makes up for it with his strikeouts – 13.7K/9IP! The strikeout ratio is just amazing and blows me away!  Robertson had one bad outing against Oakland on July 24, and since then he has only allowed 1 hit over 7 appearances and no runs.  Prior to the bad outing against Oakland, Robertson had only allowed 1 run dating back to May 11. 

7^th Inning: Soriano was slated to be the 8^th inning, set up man for Mariano when the season started but when he went on the DL his role was taken by Robertson.  Since Robertson has been so hot as the set-up man, it doesn’t look like Soriano will get that role back.  Instead, Soriano took over the 7^th inning and has been dominating since returning to the DL.  He now has pitched 6 innings since returning to the DL and yesterday was the first time he allowed a baserunner since May 13!  Besides the number, Soriano has been stellar and had a great outing on Wednesday in relief of Nova.  Nova left Soriano with a bases loaded jam with no outs and Soriano managed to escape the inning with only 4 pitches.  Although he allowed a run to score, the baserunner scored during a double play and he put the next batter down with no problems.  Soriano had some major issues with inherited runners earlier this season, but it looks like he has figured that problem out, and with him pitching the 7^th, Robertson in the 8^th and Mo for the 9^th – it’s a 6 inning game for the Yankees pitching.

Injury Updates

Pedro Feliciano who signed a 2 year, 8 Million dollar contract with the Yankees this past offseason injured himself during spring training.  He is recovering from a torn shoulder capsule and yesterday the Yankees announced that he suffered another setback. He will be shut down for at least another week before he is even allowed to throw a ball again, and it’s doubtful that he will pitch at all for the rest of the season.  Great Signing!

Eric Chavez started out the season hot with the Yankees, but then fractured his foot in May.  He has been working on rehabbing the foot, but then a week or two ago suffered a setback with an unrelated back injury.  In the past week, the Yanks have announced that Chavez has suffered a new injury and is being sent to New York for tests on his abdomen.  Turns out it was a kidney stone and he was sent back to Tampa.  Looks like he has a case of Nick Johnson Syndrome.  Hopefully he can rejoin the Yanks this season, but I wouldn’t count on it.

Rafael Soriano has been working down in Tampa and has been throwing off a mound.  Although he hasn’t faced batters yet, he has been throwing bullpen sessions.  So far he has only thrown fastballs in these bullpen sessions, but has been making progress lately.  I think it’s very likely that he will return to the Yankees following the All Star Break.  He may be with the Yankees when the go up to Toronto next weekend if he continues his progress.  I suppose that drops Robertson back to the 7^th inning guy.

Mariano Rivera has not been placed on the DL but has a nagging elbow issue since blowing the save against the Mets this past Sunday.  Mo says it’s nothing serious and I will give him the benefit of the doubt that he is telling the truth.  Girardi said Mariano wasn’t available last night, but it’s very possible to see him play against the Rays this evening.  The injury seems to be nothing more than elbow soreness.

Damaso Marte who is recovering from a shoulder injury threw a bullpen session yesterday.  Last season he had shoulder surgery and was not expected to pitch this entire season.  It looks like there is a chance, albeit a very small chance, that Marte could rejoin the team later this season.  Don’t hold your breath though.

Joba Chamberlain was sidelined with Tommy John surgery and is light years away from pitching again. I think it’s doubtful he will return next year, and if he does I doubt he would be reliable.  Most pitchers need a full season of recovering before they are effective again.  Poor Joba.

Yankees... By The Numbers

So the Yankees have played 84 games this season which is just slightly more than the halfway through the season.  Lets look at some of the team leaders and see where they stand compared to years past

HOME RUN LEADERS

Granderson – 25 Home Runs.  The Grandy Man only had 24 home runs for the entire season in 2010 and he already hit that mark last night with his 2 home runs.  His career high is 30 back in 2009, and I think it’s fair to say that he is on pace to break his own record, but could he possibly he 50 Homers this year?

Texeira – 25 Home Runs.  Tex has been keeping up with Granderson despite a slower start to the season and already has the same amount of homers as last season already.  Tex’s career high home runs was 39 back in 2009, and looks like he could break his own record.  Hopefully he can crush 50 for the year if he keeps this up.

RBI LEADERS

Texeira – Tex leads the Yanks with 65 RBI’s.  Last season Texeira only had 108, but 2010 was not a great year for him.  He should be able to hit more than 108 this year, but I doubt he can break his own record of 144 back in 2005.

Granderson – He is on fire this year, and I don’t think anybody would have predicted that Granderson would have more RBI’s that Arod with 62.  The Grandy Man is on pace to easily beat his career high RBI’s with 74 back in 2007.  He only needs 12 more to do it and we are only halfway!

Rodriguez- Arod isn’t far behind Granderson with 52 RBI’s.  He is on pace to have less than his 125 RBI’s in 2010, and I think it’s fair to say his best RBI years are behind him.  Arod had 156 RBI’s back in 2007 which I find highly unlikely that he will reach again.  On the bright side, Arod has 19 doubles already this season and only hit 29 all of last year.  Seems like he lost some power (surprise, surprise) but is still getting the base hits.

TRIPLES

Granderson – Once again Granderson is topping the charts with 7 triples on the season, which is already as many as he hit for the entire 2010 season.  His career high was 23 back in 2007 and I doubt he will that that many this season, but Granderson has been a pleasant surprise this year.

Gardner- Gardner is having another speedy season and has hit 5 triples so far this year.  He is on pace to break his record of 7 that he set in 2010.

JOSE REYES- I have to mention him here as he already has 15 Triples on the season.  Extremely impressive! 

STOLEN BASES

Gardner- The speedy Gardner leads the team with 22 stolen bases, and that is following a rough start to the season where he was being criticized for not stealing enough and getting caught stealing too often.  Gardner has found his groove, but is slightly off pace from his 47 stolen bases in 2010.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see Gardner get 50 this year though as his baserunner has drastically improved throughout the season and he is getting more at bats than he was in April/May.

Granderson- Granderson is among the leaders in every offensive category and stolen bases is no different.  He has 15 for the season already and is on pace to break his own record of 26 back in 2007.

Nunez- Although Nunez is not an everyday player, he still has 10 stolen bases.  If this kid continues to work on his defense, he has the potential to be a great player on the Yankees and a decent offensive infielder who poses a threat on the bases.

STRIKEOUTS

Granderson-  With the good comes the bad.  Although Granderson leads the Yanks in most categories, he strikes out quite often.  This season he leads the Yanks with 86 strikeouts.  He is on pace to break his own record of 116 from last season.

Rodriguez- Arod comes in 2^nd place with 65 K’s.  I doubt he will break his record of 139 for 2005 & 2006, but he will come close.

FOR THE PITCHERS

WINS

Sabathia- CC just won his 12^th game of the season last night and leads all pitchers in MLB for Wins.  Last season he won 21 games for the first time with the Yankees and he is on pace to have another 20+ win season, especially if he continues pitching like last night!

SAVES

Rivera- Mo has 21 saves on the season already.  His career high is 53 back in 2004.  It’s difficult to gauge whether he can achieve 53 again since the score of the game factors into how many appearances that he will make, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him hit 53 again.  Maybe not this season, but he is still the best closer of all time.

STRIKEOUTS

Sabathia- CC’s 11 strikeouts last night and 33 over the past 3 games have brought him to a total of 117 on the season.  He is on pace to beat the 197 K’s in 2010.

Burnett- AJ already has 91 strikeouts on the season and is having a considerably better season than in 2010.  He should be able to get more than 145 K’s that he had in 2010 but I doubt he will reach his career high of 231 back in 2008 with the Jay’s.

The State of the Yankees

The Yankees tied the series 1-1 after today's win against the Rangers and maintained their half game lead in the AL East.  The Yankees are now 8-5 on the season.

Freddy Garcia pitched 6 scoreless innings and got the win.  Garcia pitched very well, especially for a guy who hasn't started since March 29, nearly three weeks ago.  He doesn't have the speed that he used to, but Garcia is a different pitcher these days.  His fastballs are only hitting 87-88 mph, but his command today was perfect.  Garcia mixed in breaking pitches and offspeed pitches, that kept the Rangers guessing all day.  He only allowed 2 hits, as the Rangers looked confused against him.

The bullpen came in and finished things off with Chamberlain in for the 7th, Soriano in the 8th and of course Mo finishing it off in the 9th getting his 6th save of the season.  The bullpen has looked dominant so far, and today was no exception although Soriano came close to giving up a homer to Beltre today.  The Yankees bullpen has only allowed 3 Earned Runs in the past 23 innings!

The last two games, the Rangers have used left handed starting pitching.  The Yankees bat Jeter leadoff against lefties due to his strong career numbers against lefty pitchers.  Since Gardner is having some trouble offensively, Andruw Jones has been starting in left field.  Without Gardner in the lineup, Nick Swisher gets moved up in the batter order to #2.  He seems to like batting in the 2-spot, as Swish has four hits over the last two games batting second.  This formula seems to be working so far.

Tomorrow night the Yankees will try to win this series before hitting the road to Toronto & Baltimore.  CC Sabathia will get the final start against Alexi Ogando.  Sabathia has yet to get a win despite strong starts and only a 1.45 ERA.  Ogando who is a converted relief pitcher, is 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA.  He has pitched 13 scoreless innings over his previous two starts.  He has never started a game against the Yankees and has only pitched very limited innings in relief, so tomorrow may be a battle of starting pitchers.  Hopefully CC will get a win already!

Burnett will pitch Tuesday in Toronto but after him the starting rotation is a big question mark.  Hughes has been placed on the DL with a "dead arm" so Colon will likely take his spot, but it may be possible to see Nova get the start on Wednesday in order to allow Colon to try and stretch himself out a bit.  Right now, Colon can only pitch about 80 pitches.  Since the Yankees have Thursday off, that should give Freddy Garcia the chance to pitch Friday night in Baltimore, followed by Sabathia who would pitch Saturday giving him 5 days rest.  It's entirely possible that Sabathia may pitch Friday rather than Saturday and Garcia or Colon would start Saturday night. 

Girardi needs to make some big decisions with the starting rotation as the only reliable starters are CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett, although after last season, I don't think anybody likes using "reliable" as a adjective to describe Burnett. 

Things Going As Planned

The bullpen situation for the Yankees has gone pretty much as planned.  Plug Joba in to fill the 7th inning, then Soriano for the 8th and Mo to close it out.  Last night Joba looked sharp and didn't allow any hits in the 7th inning.  Soriano continued to prove himself as a great signing by Cashman and Mo continues to be.... Mo!  With three relievers to dominate the last three innings of a game, the Yankees have essentially created a game that lasts 6 innings.  As long as the Yankees can take a lead early in the game, there is little chance they will lose the game.


Side Notes

Ivan Nova looked sharp last night.  His fastball had movement and was always down in the zone.  He had no problems the first time through the order, and although he got himself in a little jam in the 4th inning (Jim Thome is still a threat!), he pitched himself out of trouble, causing Mauer to ground out on a curveball to end the inning.  If Nova continues to battle batters the second and third time through the lineup, he will have a great season.  We already know how dominant he is the first time through the batting order.

The Yankees have now won the last 18 of 20 games against the Twins.... poor Gardenhire!

Tonight they play again and it looks like Jeter will get the leadoff spot in the order as Andruw Jones will be starting in the outfield giving either Granderson or Gardner the day off.

Arod is continuing the hot streak from spring training, hitting another A-Bomb last night.  I think I speak for most fans when I say..... Save a little for October!!!

Hughes' New Pitch

It probably doesn’t need to be said, but Phil Hughes is hands-down my favorite Yankee.  I remember skipping classes in law school to watch his major league debut, and even watching games while sitting in the back of my labor law class in awe of the movement on his fastball.  It’s been great watching the young prospect move up from the minor leagues and develop into an 18 game winner last season.  Hughes continues to develop as a pitcher by developing his secondary pitches and yesterday came up with something new.

He pitched in last night’s game against the Jays and introduced his new Slider.  It may not exactly be a slider, but it’s not a curve or cutter either.  The new pitch is actually a variation of Hughes’ cutter.  It lacks the velocity of his cutter and fastball, yet still looks like a fastball to the batters when it’s released from his hand.  Batters are forced to commit early, which caused 6 batters to strike out on that pitch alone last night. (7 total strikeouts on the night)  In the minor leagues, Hughes threw a slider which was cast to the side when he made his way to the Yankees in lieu of his cutter.  His cutter has caused him some problems this spring so Larry Rothschild tweaked his grip, which helped create this new pitch.

Hughes stated this new pitch will be used to get batters off his fastball, which seems to work so far.  It was thrown last night against right handed batters due to the sharp break.   The cutter on the other hand will be used more against lefties, similar to Mariano Rivera.  Obviously it’s much too early to say whether it will be effective long term, but anything that makes his fastball more effective, will yield more strikeouts. 

Now Hughes needs to really develop that changeup and he can have another 18 win season.  Last year he just couldn’t get that changeup down which caused him problems, especially giving up home runs.  Most critics don’t believe AJ Burnett will bounce back to his old self (although everyone thinks Beckett will pitch Boston to the World Series… go figure), but if AJ gets it together, the Yankees could have a monstrous 1-2-3 starting pitcher combination.

Crossroads for Joba

From the weight issues to the trade rumors, Joba has been a hot topic of discussion this spring training.  He came into camp noticeably heavier but claimed it had to do with his offseason workouts.  He said he built a gym in his house and was working out more, so he gained somewhere between 20 - 25 pounds.  I find this to be somewhat unlikely, especially since he still looks like a fat guy, and refuses to discuss it further with the media.  Cashman has been conspicously tight lipped about this as well, most likely because there is a chance Joba can be worked into a trade deal.  

It seems like Joba may be at the crossroads of his career.  Reports from Tampa indicated during Monday's game, numerous scouts were keeping a close eye on Joba.  (More than usual for a spring training game)  Now that Joba has been replaced as the 8th inning set-up man for Mo, there is a good chance the Yankees bullpen may be strong enough without him.  They will have Mitre as the long man and Robertson made a great debut these last two seasons.  With Feliciano and Logan as the lefties, the bullpen looks solid.  Joba can make great trade bait, but the Yankees can't just give him up for nothing.  Bottom line is the Yankees need a strong starter for the #4 or #5 spot.... or even #3 if AJ has a season that looks like last year.

 

Joba's performance this spring has been OK.  He had a perfect inning this yesterday and this past Monday.  His fastball is in the 92-94 mph range right now, which is higher than where it's been during past spring trainings.  He changed his mechanics slightly by starting his hands at his waist, which makes it look as though he is starting from the stretch.  Working out of the stretch was a problem for him last year, but his new routine is being credited for improving his fastball.  If he has a good fastball, the rest of the pitches will improve as a result.  

He also pitched last Saturday and allowed 2 runs on 2 hits over 1 inning.  He was not as sharp as his previous appearance the previous week against the Astros when he had 2 scoreless innings which included a double play to end one inning, after allowing 2 singles.  Maybe it was from experience, or from the mechanics, or it just could be spring training numbers which mean nothing, but I personally think the double play was a good sign that indicates even when he gets into a little jam, he can pitch through it.  His numbers this spring are very limited and not indicative of his performance, but he has a 3.60 ERA, with 6 Hits, 2 Walks, and 2 strikeouts in 6 total innings.

Many rumors have been swirling about the Yankees looking to trade Joba for Liriano.  I don't think the team is planning on trading him anytime soon.  In fact, I think they really want to see how he begins the season and how the team begins the season before they make a move.  Spring training numbers are good, but ultimately they are not very indicative of results over the full season.  The Yankees also want to keep an eye on how Liriano develops this spring since he complained of shoulder tightness a week or two ago.  Reports from the Twins indicated Liriano didn't do the strength training exercises during the offseason, which most likely led to the shoulder tightness once he began throwing again.  If that is not a sign to hold off, I dont know what is. 

If the Twins were willing to deal Liriano, I would assume the Twins would want something more than Joba in this trade (likely one of the Killer B’s), so it would be a good deal for them.  Joba is getting paid nearly nothing (1.4 Mil), will be arbitration eligible again next season, and the Twins could benefit with having Joba as the set up man for Nathan.  Losing Liriano would hurt them, but they do have a good starting core:  Pavano (I know, I know), Baker, Duensing, Blackburn, & Slowey.  Adding somebody like Joba to take care of middle relief for them could really benefit them and they may actually be able to win a game against the Yankees in the playoffs.

To make this trade more enticing to the Twins, Joba needs to stay healthy.  By “Staying Healthy” I mean, losing some weight and not looking like such a sweaty drunk while on the hill.  Having David Wells in Yankees camp to help train some of the pitchers is a huge mistake since it seems like Joba is facing some of the same negative issues Wells faced…. Like being a drunk and off field distractions.  Although Wells goes down in Yankees lore as part of those legendary teams, realistically he caused many problems in the clubhouse and was not always loved the way he is now.   

Hopefully we will see more of the Joba we saw in 2007-2008, and even possibly losing a few pounds.  If other teams see improvement, we may have an opportunity to land a legitimate 4 or 5 starter.  One way or another, he must get a new photo of himself to use on the big screen  ----->

 

 
 

 

 


 

Enter Sandman

So far, we haven't heard much about Mariano Rivera in spring training.  That is because there was no news to actually report.  Typically Rivera doesn't start pitching until a little bit later in spring training.    He knows his body best and the Yankees can't argue with the results.  Simple as that.  

Mo pitched for the first time yesterday, when he threw his first live batting practice of the spring.  He probably will pitch in a game sometime next week at the very earliest.