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.

AL Rookie Of The Year Candidates 2011

We are closing in on the end of the season and it’s about time to start discussing some possible Rookie of The Year Candidates, especially since we will see a handful of them during this next week. This past week the Yankees played the Angels before the Rays come to the Bronx, and then the Yankees go to Kansas City.  Each of these teams has a rookie of the year candidate, so let’s take a look.

ANGELS

Mark Trumbo has been a big addition to this Angels team this season at first base.  Not only does Trumbo make a solid defensive first baseman, he hits for power.  Trumbo was called up from the minors to replace Kendrys Morales, who still has never recovered from falling on his bat after celebrating a walk off home run last year… one of the more bizarre injuries I have ever seen.  Those were big shoes for Trumbo to fill as Morales hit .306 with 34 homeruns and 108 RBI’s back in 2009 (his last full season).  Trumbo has done a great job filling in and is hitting .261 with a .302 on base % and .493 slugging %.  He leads all rookies with a .796 OPS, 22 home runs, 63 RBI’s and 21 doubles. 

The scouting report on Trumbo is that he swings at too many pitches – especially outside the strike zone.  It’s a common rookie issue, but the Yankees exploited this against him during the past three games keeping him 2-11 during the series.

Although Trumbo doesn’t hit for average, the power numbers are ‘glamour stats’ which could be a big factor for him to win the Rookie of the Year.  He reminds me of Mark Texeira and his numbers are somewhat similar to Tex’s .247/.341/.512 line with 17 doubles, 32 homeruns and 86 RBI’s.  He’s Tex-Light

Jordan Walden pitched against the Yankees on Tuesday night and got the save when Mo blew the game.  I didn’t think Walden had a great outing, but he did get out of trouble thanks to Granderson getting caught stealing to end the game.  I doubt that Walden could actually win the rookie of the year award, but he’s worth a mention as he is a rookie closer which is somewhat unique.  His ERA is 2.74 with a 1.19 WHIP and he does have 26 saves but unfortunately he has 7 blown saves as well which I would think eliminates his name from contention.  He also gets wild and this causes his walk rate to balloon up to 3.3BB/9IP which is not what you want in a closer.  His control issues stem from the fact that he almost exclusively uses a fastball which hits 97 mph (about 80% of pitches) but if he can’t locate the fastball, then he has nothing else.

RAYS

Jeremy Hellickson will pitch Saturday against the Yankees for the second time this season following a great game against the Royals this past week where he allowed only 1 run over 7 1/3 innings.  In his first game against the Yankees he held them to a .192 batting average and struck out 7.  Hellickson has had a great season and since the All Star Break has been somewhat dominating.  In his past 4 starts since the All Star Break, Hellickson is 2-0 with a 2.39 ERA.  Overall, he has a 3.05 ERA with a 1.13 WHIP and holds opposing batters to a .208 batting average (5^th best in the AL).  Hellickson only throws in the low 90’s with his fastball, but his changeup which he throws 30% of the time, is his ‘out’ pitch .

Hellickson is not a bad pick for the AL rookie of the year, but the Rays are keeping an eye on his innings limit and there is a chance he may be shut down early this season, especially with the Rays out of contention for the postseason.  If he gets shut down early, I think he could be eliminated from contention.

ROYALS

Eric Hosmer was the 3^rd overall pick in the 2008 draft by the Royals and has been considered a highly touted prospect since the draft which prompted the Royals to call up the 21 year old so early.  Since getting called up he is hitting .276 with a .332 on base % and a .764 OPS.  Hosmer has 10 home runs, 19 doubles and 48 RBI’s which pale in comparison to Trumbo’s numbers, but Hosmer is still a good young player with lots of potential.  His 10 home runs are 3^rd among AL rookies (Trumbo is #1, Arencibia is #2).  Hosmer seems to be having some difficulty with lefty pitchers as his line against lefties is .220/.271/.256 compared to strong numbers against righties at .300/.356/.508.  Sounds like he could use the Curtis Granderson treatment from Kevin Long to improve his numbers against lefties!

So far this season, Hosmer is 4 for 12 against the Yankees with 2 home runs and 4 RBI’s.  I don’t think he has the numbers for rookie of the year especially as he is competing with Trumbo who’s numbers are better but he is definitely a young prospect to keep an eye on over the next few seasons.

YANKEES

Ivan Nova is having a great season for the Yankees and he only seems to be getting better as the season progresses.  Although his ERA and WHIP are a bit inflated at 3.85 and 1.38 respectively, his numbers during the second half show improvement.  His second half ERA is 2.61 with a 1.01 WHIP compared to 4.12 and 1.47 in the first half.  In the month of July his ERA dropped to a 2.25 and in August so far is 2.63… the Yankees better not send him back to Triple-A after this 6 man rotation fails!  Even his strikeout ratio improved from 5K/9IP in the first half to 7K/9IP in the second half and that includes this past start against the Angels when he had 0 strikeouts! Nova’s clearly pitching much better now than he did at any point last season or the beginning of this year.  He seems to have gotten used to his surroundings and has not had a bad outing since May. 

It’s hard to say whether Nova will be a leading candidate for AL rookie of the year as I tend to be very biased when it comes to the Yankees, but I have watched him pitch all season and develop into a great starting pitcher which is reflected in his 11-4 record.  He has developed secondary pitches like his slider and curve ball to use in conjunction with his sinker and proven himself to be a worthwhile starter in the Yankees organization.

Eduardo Nunez is likely not going to even be considered for the rookie of the year, probably due to his fielding errors alone.  He doesn’t have enough playing time either as he is a utility infielder, but he deserves some credit as he has been doing a great job filling in throughout the infield when needed.  Nunez puts up decent offensive numbers and seems to come up big in clutch situations.  If he can get his fielding straightened out, he will get some more playing time at shortstop and third base as Jeter and Arod will need more rest over the next few season with Father time breathing down their necks.

RED SOX

Josh Reddick had the winning hit this past Sunday in Fenway to take the rubber game from the Yankees.  Reddick is the backup outfielder for the Red Sox and since he is backup, he doesn’t have enough playing time to compete for AL Rookie of the Year, but he is worth a honorable mention as he is hitting .322 with a .368 on base % and .895 OPS.

This is just a list of names that we have either seen over the past week or will see in the next week.  It is NOT an exhaustive list of candidates.  There are numerous guys on the candidate list who I didn’t mention, and in fact I think Michael Pineda will win the AL Rookie of the Year for Seattle, but since the Yanks aren’t playing the Mariner’s soon he was temporarily ignored.  I will come back to this post at some point later this season and update it all with all the leading candidates, but this should give you a good preview of the next week or two and who to keep an eye on.

Another Update On a Killer B

Last week I had a post about Manny Banuelos being called up to the Triple-A Scranton Yankees & his first start which was very succesful.  You can read that HERE.

In the midst of all the Yankees & Red Sox action this past weekend, I almost forgot that Banuelos pitched again this past Sunday for the Scranton Yanks.  He pitched 6 full innings, and probably had enough left in the tank to come back out for the 7th.  This was an improvement over his first Triple-A start as he pitched only 5 innings.  In this second start, Banuelos allowed 7 hits (3 to lefties) and 2 runs (1 earned).  Banuelos had no control issues and didnt allow any walks in his 6 innnings, and struck out 5.  He topped out at 93 mph and sat in the low 90's throughout the game.  Banuelos had no problem getting ahead in most counts, but seemed to have difficulty getting a third strike while ahead 0-2 in the count.

No different than his first start in Triple-A, Banuelos got himself into a little trouble but was able to escape with relatively little damage.  In the second inning he put a man on 1st and 3rd with no outs, but escaped the inning allowing only 1 run.  He worked himself out a trouble in the 5th inning as well ,after allowing a runner advance to third with no outs but got out of the inning without a hitch allowing no runs.  These are the intangibles that demonstrate the progress he has made throughout this season and what could allow the Yankees to call him up as a reliever this season.  I'm not saying it will happen as the bullpen is solid, but it's not out of the question!

Saturday Morning Videos

 

In honor of the Yanks Weekend Series against the Red Sox, here's a highlight video of Manny Banuelos from Spring Training against Boston.  This kid is going to be a good pitcher! Glad to see the Yankees held onto him at the trade deadline.

This second video is Dante Bichette Jr's highlight video from before he was drafted by the Yankees.  Although the music blows, the footage from the home run derby is pretty good.  This kid was hitting bombs while still in high school.  Congrats to Dante for being named Gulf Coast League's player of the month!

Locking Down the 7th, 8th & 9th Innings

Since we have a big AL East showdown this weekend I took a look at the Red Sox bullpen to see how they have been holding up.  Yesterday I put up a post discrediting Theo Epstein's poor signing of John Lackey, but I got to give him some credit today for creating a tough bullpen.  By making some trades and developing a couple pitchers, Epstein has essentially shut down the 7^th, 8^th & 9^th innings. They have the best strikeout to walk ratio in the AL with 2.70 and the best WHIP in the AL with 1.195.  The Yankees will need to do some damage early in these games if they want to score some runs!

9^th Inning:  Jonathan Papelbon has been Boston’s most consistent closer over the last several years and this year is no different.  Right now, Jonny boy’s ERA is up at 3.35 which is somewhat deceiving as his WHIP is only at 1.02.  He’s done well this season and each month seems to be getting better.  In the month of July opponents only hit .208 off him, down from .242 in the month of June.  Papelbon is actually the only closer in MLB with a strikeout to walk ratio higher than 7.5, checking in at 7.7 (Mo is at 7.4)  He may not be lights out, but he is pretty damn good!

8^th Inning:  This season Daniel Bard has taken over as the 8^th inning set-up man and been doing an impressive job.  So impressive that I think there is a good chance the Red Sox may let Papelbon walk next season and replace him with Bard.  Bard did not allow ANY earned runs in the months of June and July – a total of 25 innings pitched.  In those 25 innings he allowed only 11 hits and struck out 24 batters.  This past week was the first time he surrendered any runs in over 7 weeks keeping his ERA down at 2.28 and a WHIP of .877.

7^th Inning:  The 7^th inning has been split up between four guys : Alfredo Aceves, Matt Albers, Franklin Morales & Dan Wheeler.  Each is given an opportunity to handle the 7^th in various situations but Aceves has been a great surprise for Boston.  Opposing hitters are only hitting .204 against this crew with a .282 on base percentage in the 7^th inning!

Aceves:  Aceves has been able to help the Red Sox both as a starter and a reliever, although he has only started 4 games in 27 appearances.  Aceves also shows the versatility to throw more than one inning which I’m sure Francona loves.  Right now his ERA is up at 3.16 on the season, but when you look at his numbers in relief he only has a 2.38 ERA and is holding opponents to a .196 batting average against him.  Since he has not had any injuries he has been able to pitch the entire season so far and has only gotten better as the season progresses.  In June Aceves held opponents to hitting .233 against him but in July he got hotter as opponents hit .174 off him.

Albers:  Albers is on fire this season and seems to be striking everyone out.  His strikeout ratio is 9K’s/9IP’s and in the month of June was 10.8K/9IP.  Albers has the best ERA of his career at 2.25 and the best WHIP of his career at 1.18 and just like the other relievers is getting hotter as the season continues.  During the month of June he had a 1.93 ERA in the 9 innings he pitched, and got better in July with a 0.00 ERA and a .975 WHIP.  In July he pitched 13 innings and had 16 strikeouts to give him a 10.8K/9IP ratio.

Morales:  Since coming to Boston Morales has only pitched 16 innings so it’s not a large sample size to look at but in that period he has 3 times as many striekouts than walks – 15 to 5 respectively.  Since coming to Boston his WHIP is down to 1.28.

Wheeler:  He started off the season terrible as his ERA in the months of March/April was 8.31, but since the month of April he has a 1.78 ERA and 4 times as many strikeouts than walks – 28 to 7. Wheeler had a hot July like the rest of the Red Sox and finished with a 2.08 ERA and .846 WHIP

Check Out the Yankees & Red Sox Series Preview HERE

Yankees vs Red Sox Preview

Here we are in August and both the Yankees and Red Sox are tied for 1^st place with records 68-42.  One of these teams will come out of this weekend in first place and looking for home field advantage in the playoffs as the division winner.  The Yankees come into this series red hot with a 7 game winning streak where they outscored their opponents 63-19.  They have also won 8 of their last 10 games. The Red Sox come into this series after splitting a 4 game set with Cleveland and taking 2 of 3 in Chicago.  Boston has won 10 of the last 15 games they played and 6 of their last 10.

The last time these two teams played was back on June 9^th in the Bronx and the Yankees were swept. Now it’s time for some vindication and they Yankees are looking to keep their offensive numbers going and hopefully walk out of this series claiming 1^st place.  Although it’s only August and they will meet twice more, these games are very important and that is why Colon was bumped to start Friday’s game. 

I think the keys for the Yankees to win this series are to score runs early as Boston’s bullpen has been shut down in the final three innings.  If the Yankees can manufacture some early runs similar to what they have been doing over the last 30 games or so, they can take 2 of 3.  The Yankees pitchers will need to be careful with the Boston batters as their lineup is tough and will make them pay for any mistake.  

Here's an in depth look at the Red Sox Bullpen Situation

PITCHING MATCHUPS

FRI: Bartolo Colon (8-6, 3.30 ERA) vs. John Lester (11-4, 3.17 ERA)

-Colon pitched last Saturday against the Orioles and struggled a bit with his command but was able to pitch well enough for the win.  He allowed only 2 runs on 5 hits, but used 105 pitches so he was pulled from the game following the 5^th innings.

-Colon is 2-1 with a 2.45 ERA over his last 3 starts with 19 strikeouts

-Colon is 3-3 on the road in the 10 games he started this season.  His road ERA is 2.83 with 55 strikeouts and 1 complete game shutout against the A’s.

-Colon has faced the Red Sox twice this season and allowed only 3 runs over 10 1/3 innings with 9 strikeouts, but allowed 10 hits.  Colon wasn’t at his best against the Red Sox and had to be pulled early from each game.

-Marco Scutaro is hitting .571 against Colon

-Lester is coming off a strong start against the White Sox last weekend after he pitched a solid 8 innings allowing only 2 runs and 4 hits.

-Opponents are hitting .245 off Lester this season

-Lester is 3-3 with a 3.86 ERA in 8 starts at Fenway park this season

-Lester is 1-0 with a 1.56 ERA and 19 strikeouts over his last three starts

-Lester is 8-1 against the Yankees in his young career with a 3.56 ERA.  He has pitched a total of 86 innings and struck out 92 yankee batters.

SAT: CC Sabathia (16-5, 2.55 ERA) vs. John Lackey (9-8, 6.23 ERA)

-CC wasn’t his sharpest in his last outing against the White Sox this past week but managed to get the win after pitching 8 full innings.  He did allow 10 hits as he labored through the start but allowed the White Sox to score only 2 runs.  Even when CC doesn’t have his A-Game, he still finds a way to get the win.

-CC is 2-1 with a 1.96 ERA and 28 strikeouts over his last 3 games

-CC is 9-1 since June 14^th with a 1.01 ERA over his previous 8 games

-CC has 3 of his 5 losses this season against the Red Sox.  In those 3 games, he’s allowed 24 hits, 9 walks, 13 runs in 19 innings with only 15 strikeouts.  Clearly, he hasn’t pitched his best against Boston…. Yet!

-Carl Crawford is hitting .325 against CC

-Marco Scutaro is hitting .318 against CC

-Youk is hitting .409 against CC

-John Lackey is having another poor season for the Red Sox and had another subpar outing this past week against the Indians allowing 5 runs on 8 hits over 6 2/3 innings.  Although many Boston fans thought this was a step in the right direction for Lackey as he lasted into the 7^th inning, he still made errors  & allowed back to back home runs.  You can read more about Lackey’s Dissapointing season HERE

-Lackey pitched against the Yankees once this season and allowed 7 hits and 6 runs over 5 innings.

-Lackey is 2-0 with a 4.19 ERA and 12 strikeouts over his last 3 games

-Chavez is hitting .300 against Lackey

-Jeter is hitting .343 against lackey

-Posada is hitting .556 against Lackey

Sun: Freddy Garcia (10-7, 3.22 ERA) vs Josh Beckett (9-4, 2.20 ERA)

-Garcia has now won his past three starts and in those starts he has a 2.21 ERA with 18 strikeouts.  This game against Boston should prove more difficult for him as they are a hard hitting offensive team. It will be a big test for the Big Chief to see how his soft throws will hold up against this offense

-Garcia is 0-2 against the Red Sox this season

-Garcia has a 2.88 ERA on the road this season with 43 strikeouts in 53 innings pitched

-Beckett shut down the Yankees in the last Sunday night game they played allowing only 2 hits over 8 shutout innings with 10 strikeouts.  Beckett looked solid on the mound against the Yankees in every game he’s pitched against the Yankees this season.  In the 21 innings pitched versus the yanks, Beckett has allowed only 10 hits and 2 earned runs over 21 innings while striking out 23!

-Beckett is 1-1 with a 2.70 ERA and 22 strikeouts over his last three starts

-Beckett has started 21 games this season for the Red Sox and they have only lost 5 of those games

-Beckett’s ERA is 2.20 which is second best in the AL.  His WHIP is .92 which is 2^nd in the AL.  He has allowed only 91 hits which is the lowest for the AL.

-Cano is hitting .339 against Beckett with 12 RBI’s

-Jeter is hitting .200 against Beckett with 9 RBI’s

It Could Be Worse

I think it’s fair to assume that most Yankee fans are a bit frustrated with AJ Burnett as he has never really panned out as the #2 starter that we anticipated.  When he was signed in 2009, I think everyone envisioned him to be at least a capable starter who could keep the Yankees in the game.  Ultimately, It seems that AJ may be one of the worst signings for the Yanks in recent memories.  I’m sure everyone will get on Cashman for this signing, but Cashman isn’t the only GM out there making bad signings.  It’s just the nature of the beast.

By all accounts, Theo Epstein is a great GM up in Boston and has delivered two World Series for Boston fans.  It seems like anytime these two teams play on national television, Epstein gets thrown on TV from his luxury box and the ESPN announcers kiss his butt about what an incredible job he is doing in structuring this team.  But Epstein made a signing very similar to the Burnett signing, which may actually be worse yet he doens't seem to take the heat, the way Cashman does.  I’m talking about signing John Lackey to a 5 year deal, which is possibly the worst signing Epstein made since becoming the GM.

Prior to the 2010 season, the Red Sox signed Lackey to a 5 year deal worth 82.5 million dollars.  A year before that, the Yankees signed Burnett for the same amount of 82.5 million over 5 years as well.  Their contracts are nearly identical, as far as money goes, except Lackey actually got a 3.5 million dollar signing bonus on top of the crazy money they pay him over the next 5 years.  I actually wonder whether Boston signed Lackey in response to the Yankees winning the World Series – A Reaction signing to which Yankee fans are all too familiar. 

Since coming to the Red Sox, Lackey has been a failure.  In his first season with the Sox in 2010, he went 14-11 with a 4.40 ERA and 1.41 WHIP.  Anytime he faced a strong offensive lineup he struggled and anytime there seemed to be a high-pressure situation, he crumbled.  2011 has actually fared worse for Lackey as he is 9-8 with a 6.23 ERA and 1.55 WHIP. 

From the moment that he arrived in Boston all his numbers dropped including his strikeouts.  In 2005 Lackey had a 8.6K/9IP strikeout ratio which was the best of his career, followed by several years that were around 7K’s/9IP.  Since coming to the Red Sox, Lackey’s strikeout ratio dove down to 6.5K/9IP in 2010 and sunk again in 2011 to 6.1K/9IP.  If you take a look at his ERA, Lackey’s best season was 2007 with 3.00, but then it went downhill with 3.75 in 2008 and 3.83 in 2009 before coming to Boston.  Once in Boston those numbers became inflated to 4.40 and 6.23.  Even his WHIP has jumped from 1.2 (and change) in 2006 – 2009 up to 1.55 this season.  With his numbers slipping gradually each year, I don’t see any indication these numbers will ever get better and he is signed through 2014.

It looks like all GM’s make some bad signings every now and then.  I’m not ready to just give up on AJ yet (as I would if Lackey was with the Yanks) but I am certainly not happy when I watch him start to give up a 13-1 lead against the White Sox and have to be pulled in the 5^th inning.  It’s somewhat embarrassing to have a #2 starter on the New York Yankees who has a losing record of 8-9 and hasn’t won a game since June when the team is 25 games above the .500 mark.  That being said, it’s still better than Lackey! 

Here's another Look At Theo Epstein & How He Built Up The Red Sox Bullpen

Check Out The Yankees & Red Sox Series Preview Here

Congratulations To Dante Bichette Jr.

It’s always nice to see some success with a young player the Yankees have signed and this week Dante Bichette Jr. was named the Gulf Coast League’s Player of the Month.  Bichette was only recently signed by the Yankees in June when he was picked up by the Yankees as their first pick of the 2011 draft and was immediately placed in their Gulf Coast League system.

So far this season with the Gulf Coast league Bichette has played in a mere 34 games but put up some big numbers.  He is hitting .341 with a .460 on base percentage.  Bichette has been hitting for power which attributes for his .535 slugging percentage, .995 OPS and his 3 home runs.  He also leads the league with 34 RBI’s in 34 games.  His power numbers seem to overshadow another impressive statistic that his walk rate is 16%, which indicates his headiness at the plate- something that is uncharacteristic for young players.

Although it’s a small sample size, its worth noting that his splits against lefty’s are quite impressive with a .432 batting average,  .522 on base percentage and whopping 1.251 OPS. (Babe Ruth only had a 1.16 OPS!)  It’s also exciting to see that Bichette is hitting .344 with runners in scoring position.

Although the numbers reflect a great signing by the Yanks, it is only the Gulf Coast League which may not be terribly much different than high school baseball for Bichette and he could just be ahead of the curve.  Either way, hopefully he keeps up the big numbers and we may see him take over at third base one day.

Here is Dante Bichette's Highlight Video

Update On A Killer B

I may be a day or two late with the news but Manny Banuelos, the 20 year old lefty was promoted to Triple-A this past week and made his Triple-A debut on Tuesday.  Banuelos who had previously been with the Double-A Trenton Thunder, is considered one of the biggest prospects in the Yankees organization.  He was valued so high that Cashman wasn't even considering him as a trade chip in the Ubaldo Jimenez sweepstakes.  Instead, the Yankees want to develop the young lefty and I can’t say I blame them.

Tuesday’s game went very well for Banuelos as he allowed only 2 runs on 7 hits over 5 innings.  He did allow 3 walks, but they all came early in the game before he settled down a bit.  Notwithstanding the walks, Banuelos impressed everyone with his 8 strikeouts and his fastball hitting 93 consistently throughout the evening.  He finished the game with 100 pitches – 62 of which were strikes.  Overall, it was a great debut for Banuelos.

Although his numbers look great in the debut, statistics only tell part of the story.  I find the more important factor in this start was his ability to get himself out of trouble.  With two outs in the fifth inning, Banuelos gave up back to back singles.  Both baserunners stole bases and were in scoring position in a tie game.  Banuelos didn’t allow the pressure to get to him and struck out the next batter with a 93 mph fastball (his 100^th pitch) to get himself out of the 5^th.  If we continue to see progress like this from Banuelos, there is a chance we may see him as a starter by the end of next season.

That’s not to say that Banuelos doesn’t have some issues he needs to work out first.  Most importantly, he needs to work on his command as he is allowing way too many walks.  In Double-A he has allowed 52 walks over 95 innings which puts his walk ratio at 5.4BB/9IP.  This is a clear sign that Banuelos is not ready for MLB just yet. 

Banuelos has been working on his changeup which has developed into an effective secondary pitch especially against righties, and has developed his curveball as well but not to the extent of his change.  Since he is only 20 years old, I am certain we will see more pitches developed from Banuelos over the next year or two, but in the meantime he needs to work on his command.  Specifically, Banuelos must develop his fastball command which is causing too many walks, similar to his Triple-A start.  The walks have attributed to his inflated WHIP of 1.5 and his ERA of 3.59.  On the flip side, he is absolutely dominating batters with strikeouts as his ratio is 8.9K’s/9IP. Just to give you an idea of strikeout ratio’s – CC Sabathia has a 8.3K/9IP ratio and Banuelos’ is higher!

It is extremely unlikely the Yankees will call up Banuelos this season to start a game, as Cashman made it perfectly clear before the season that none of the Killer B’s would start this season.  But, there is a chance that Banuelos may get a chance to pitch in the bullpen for the Yankees this season. When Cashman was asked about that during the past week, he just said “We’ll See” which leaves the door open.  Right now the Yankees don’t have a second lefty for the bullpen other than J.C. Romero down in Triple-A, who was released by the Phillies about halfway through this season.  If Banuelos can continue his progress, I believe there is a chance the Yanks could call him up.  After all, Banuelos has very good numbers against lefties who are only hitting .229 against him this season with 0 home runs compared to righties who are hitting .277 with considerably more walks.  The Yankees will need a second lefty in the bullpen if they expect to beat the lefty heavy boston lineup and Boone Logan, although doing better in the second half, just isn’t getting the job done. 

This will be something to keep an eye on with every start Banuelos makes down in Triple-A.  At the same time, the Yankees must balance the need to not screw things up with Banuelos’ role as a starter versus reliever similar to Hughes & Joba.  I’m sure I will have some more updates on Manny Banuelos so check back.

Here's a Link to a Highlight Video Of Banuelos.  Click HERE

Yankees vs White Sox Preview

The Yankees are off to Chicago today for the start of a 4 game set against the White Sox.  This begins the start of a 7 game road trip for the Yankees who will actually play 21 of 30 games on the road during the month of August.  This season the Yankees are only 27-20 on the road compared to 37-22 at home.  The Yankees just took 3 of 4 games from the Orioles this past weekend in the Bronx, and are looking to try and gain some momentum before they travel to Boston for this weekend’s series in Fenway. 

Although it looks like the White Sox have given up for the post-season as they recently traded starter Edwin Jackson, they are not an easy opponent and at the very least will give the Yankees a challenge.  They are only 4 games behind Detroit for the AL Central but they are 2 games under .500 although they have won 4 of the last 6 series they have played.  This past weekend Boston took 2 of 3 from Chicago in Fenway as the White Sox offense came up short in Sunday’s matchup ultimately leaving 12 men on base for the loss. 

The White Sox are 4-10 against the Yankees in their last 14 games but the last time these two teams met was back in late April when they split a 4 game series in the Bronx.  The Yankees came into that series as an explosive offense but their offense was shut down for the first three games.  The Yanks lost the first two games to the Sox then came back to win the next two.  Phil Humber pitched game two for the Sox in this series and nearly no-hit the Yankees.You Can Read All About Philip Humber HERE for a scouting report.  Although the White Sox were outscored in that series 17 to 9, they out-hit the Yanks 31 to 26.

PITCHING MATCHUPS

Monday:  CC Sabathia (15-5, 2.56 ERA) vs Jake Peavy (4-4, 5.27 ERA)

-CC is coming off a really impressive start that I still believe would have been a no-hitter or even possibly a perfect game had there not been two rain delays.  He allowed 3 unearned runs over 7 innings and finished the game with a season high 14 strikeouts for his 15th win.  In general, CC has been amazing this season and defines what makes a true ace.  You can read more about CC’s success lately RIGHT HERE

-Sabathia is 2-1 with a 1.57 ERA and 30 strikeouts in his last three starts

-CC is 17-4 with a 3.68 ERA against the White Sox in his career over 30 starts

-Sabathia has only allowed 5 earned runs over his last 58 2/3 innings he’s pitched

-Over his last 7 games, CC is 6-1 with a .82 ERA

-Alexei Ramirez is batting .400 against CC in his career

-Peavy had a tough month of July going 0-3 with a 6.67 ERA over his last five starts. 

-In Peavy’s last start he took a no decision against Detroit after allowing 4 runs on 10 hits over 6 innings.

-Peavy is 0-2 with a 3.60 ERA against the Yankees in his career

-Scouting Report on Peavy is that he uses a mix of 6 pitches.  His 2 and 4 seamers are used in tandem very effectively while he also uses his cutter & slider fairly often as his secondary pitches.  He also uses a curve and changeup to keep the batters guessing.

-Peavy has not faced the Yankees since coming to the White Sox and the last time he faced the Yankees was while he was with the Padres in 2008 allowing 4 runs over 4 innings.

Tuesday: Phil Hughes (1-3, 8.24 ERA) vs. John Danks (4-8, 3.79 ERA)

-Hughes is coming off a no decision against the Mariners last week but it was a less than stellar performance which seemed to indicate that his arm is still not back to 100% as his velocity dies down after the 1^st/2^nd innings and he has trouble putting batters away after getting ahead in the count.  You can read all about Phil Hughes’ last start HERE in greater depth.  Although the Yankees have been tight lipped about Hughes, this could be very well be his last start this season as Nova has proven himself more worthy.

-Hughes is 1-1 with a 6.06 ERA over his last 3 starts with 11 strikeouts

-Danks is 4-0 with a .98 ERA since June 1st

-Danks is going to come into this game throwing lots of changeups to righties as he typically does. 

-Danks has not allowed more than 2 runs in his past 5 starts

-The last time that Danks started against the Yanikees was August 28 of last season when he allowed 8 runs over 4 innings.

-Cano is batting .500 against Danks and Swisher is hitting .400 against him.

Wednesday: AJ Burnett (8-9, 4.23 ERA ) vs. Gavin Floyd (9-9, 3.96 ERA)

-AJ is coming off one of the more unusual games I have seen him pitch this past Friday night.  He struck out 10 batters over 8 innings but gave up 4 runs on 4 hits to take the loss.  Overall he pitched great and I think that he improved as the game continued but just made a few mistakes which he paid for.

-AJ has pitched at least 5 innings in all his starts this season and has only allowed more than 4 runs twice.

-Floyd is coming off his 3^rd straight win against the Red Sox this past Friday night allowing only 1 run on 3 hits over 7 innings. In his last 3 starts he is 3-0 with a .81 ERA and 16 strikeouts.

-Although he has been getting more strikeouts lately, Floyd's strikeout rate is fairly low at 6.4/9IP which is down nearly 1 strikeout per nine than last year.

-The last time Floyd pitched against the Yankees was in April when he took the win after throwing 8 innings of 2 run ball.  He used his cutter fairly often that day to shut down the Yanks.

Thursday:  Ivan Nova (9-4, 4.01 ERA ) vs. Philip Humber (8-7, 3.44 ERA)

-As of today the Yankees are still listing Bartolo Colon as Thursday’s starter but from what I have seen during the postgame and interviews in the last two days, it seems like the yanks will be using a 6 man rotation over the next week in order to allow Colon to pitch against the Red Sox this weekend.  I think it’s the smart move at this point since Colon is likely shaping up to be a #2 starter in the postseason if he continues his dominance and a start against Boston will really put him to the test.  In turn, Nova will pitch Thursday as it is his regularly scheduled start and Colon will get bumped and work around CC’s 5 day schedule

-Nova had a strong start on Saturday night against the O’s pitching 7 full innings and allowing only 2 runs on 6 hits and striking out 6.

-Nova pitched against the White Sox in late April taking the loss to Gavin Floyd after pitching 6.1 innings and only allowing 1 run.

-Humber had a tough time against Boston this past weekend and was unable to make it out of the 5^th inning after allowing 4 runs.

-Over his past 3 starts, Humber is 0-3 with a 9.00 ERA

-Humber nearly pitched a no hitter against the Yankees in April allowing no runs on 1 hit over 7 innings.

-Humber has the best ERA on the White Sox this season.

-Humber’s strikeout ratio is very low at 5.9/9IP.  Looks like he is having trouble putting batters away.

-Read a full breakdown on Philip Humber HERE

YANKEES NOTES

-Derek Jeter is Day to Day due to a bruised middle finger.  The X Rays were negative but Jeter is having problems holding the bat tight so its likely the Yanks could give him a few days off.  There has also been some rumblings that Jesus Montero may join the Yankees very soon and with Jeter out of the lineup, this could be a big opportunity for Montero even if he just DH’s.

-Texeira is on a hot streak lately and went 13-39 with 4 homeruns during this past homestand in the Bronx.

-Swisher is still hot as well going 15-36 in the homestand with 3 homeruns.

-Gardner had some trouble during the past homestand going a mere 7-28, but I think it’s fair to give him a pass as he delivered the decisive bases clearing triple on Sunday against the Orioles.

WHITE SOX NOTES

-Paul Konerko is day to day after getting hit with a pitch Sunday by the Red Sox.  Konerko pulled himself out of the game after being hit in the calf.  If Konerko does not play during this series it would be a big loss for the White Sox as he leads the team with a .305 average, 25 home runs and 76 RBI’s.  Konerko has some big numbers against the Yankees as well so his injury couldn’t have come at a better time for the Yanks. (.315, 20 HR’s in his career vs Yankees)

-Juan Pierre is on a heater over the last month hitting .345 in his last 28 games

-Brent Morel has gotten hot lately with 5 hits in his last 10 at bats

-Alex Rios hit a little slump recently and has only 3 hits in his last 23 at bats

-Carlos Quentin is only 4 for his last 22 at bats.

-I’m not sure what happened to Adam Dunn since coming to the White Sox but he is only hitting .195 this season.