Daily Archives: April 7, 2003

ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS

It was fun to watch Tampa Bay’s young rookies Carl Crawford and Rocco Baldelli play agains the Yanks this past weekend. Baldelli is a very tall kid, and has exceptional speed for a right-handed hitter. He actually looks a bit like a giant version of Chris “Maddog” Russo, the manic-New York-radio personality (the fact that his name is Rocco only makes the comparison more fitting). Baldelli looked good in the field, and at the plate, if you discount his four-strikeout performance vs. Rocket Clemens yesterday (he did come back with an RBI single in his 5th at-bat).

Way t’go, Rocco.

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

Derek Jeter and now Junior Griffey. Damn. Last night on “Baseball Tonight,” Bobby Valentine warned that bad things happen in 3’s, and gave fair warning to the rest of players in the Majors. Griffey dislocated his right shoulder attempting to make a diving catch against the Cubs over the weekend, and is out for at least a few months. Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus has a linkable column for all of you who do not subscribe to the Premium package. See what you’ve been missing.

Carroll reports:

Griffey’s injury is much more reminiscent of Phil Nevin’s injury than Derek Jeter’s, both in mechanism and result. Reports from Cincinnati indicate that, like Nevin, Griffey is likely out for something in the order of months rather than weeks.

…Mechanism is a fancy way of saying how an injury occurred and what forces acted on someone’s anatomy in a way that caused damage. Some injuries have such clear, repeatable mechanisms that they become predictable; watch a football player collapse after a dead stop on turf and you can quickly say to everyone “oooh, ACL tear,” and be right nine times out of 10. For Griffey and Nevin, the shoulder was forced from the glenoid fossa (the shoulder socket) to the rear after force was applied to the arm due to dives and amplified by the weight of the body. For Jeter, his humerus (upper arm) was forced forward from the fossa by the weight of a foreign body (Ken Huckaby). While seemingly a small difference, it is the likely explanation of why Jeter has escaped with a much less serious injury.

Jeter is scheduled to recieve a second opinion on his status from Dr. James Andrews today. On Friday, Yankee doctors determined that Jeter would not need surgery and could return in 4-6 weeks. Carroll thinks that is overly optimistic but could see Jeter returning before the All-Star game.

MASHIN’

The Yankees bullpen blew a 5-3 lead on Saturday evening, which resulted in the Bombers first loss of the season, but the team regrouped yesterday and continued mashing just about everything in sight. Jeff Weaver wasn’t particularly sharp on Saturday night, but he pitched good enough to win. Yesterday, Roger Clemens earned career win #295.

Alfonso Soriano should officially have his named changed to Superfreak. The Yankees lead-off hitter has had two or more hits in the first six games of the year. On Saturday, the kid actually Cadillac’ed his way into a triple. If the fat bastard had been hustling out of the box it would have been an inside-the-park homer, easily.

Raul Mondesi has been as hot as Johnny Blaze. On Saturday the two outs he made were hit as hard as his two hits (a double and a spectacular triple). What’s been impressive is that Mondesi has been patient, taking a strike and working deep into the count. Mondesi was held hitless yesterday, until late in the game. He fouled a ball off of his foot and after hobbling around for a few moments, rocketed a double into the left field corner.

Hideki Matsui has been interesting to watch. Godzilla has a six game hitting streak to start the season, which should put him in good graces with the Opening Day crowd at the Stadium tomorrow (the Opener, originally scheduled for this afternoon was post-poned due to a freakin’ snow storm that is supposed to hit later today). He reminds me a bit of Wade Boggs at the plate. He is poised and patient, and though he has hit the ball on the nose several times, it looks as if he’s simply going with the pitch, trying to put it in play. He doesn’t look like a home run hitter. Matsui also made a couple of good plays in the field. He has played the ball well off the wall, and he makes a quick, accurate relay throw.

Bernie Williams and Nick Johnson are also swinging good sticks right now (Bernie made a say-hey, over-the-shoulder catch on Saturday night too). About the only Yankee who isn’t locked in is Jason Giambi, who continues to draw walks all the same, and oh by the way, does have 3 home runs.

We’ll see if the Yankees offense stays this hot when they return to the cold weather up north (they have played their first six games indoors).