Daily Archives: March 20, 2009

Again, nothing but good news as the Yanks beat the Twins, 4-2.

Lineup:

L – Brett Gardner (CF)
R – Robinson Cano (2B)
S – Mark Teixeira (1B)
L – Hideki Matsui (DH)
R – Jose Molina (C)
R – Shelley Duncan (RF)
R – Austin Jackson (LF)
S – Eduardo Nuñez (SS)
S – Ramiro Peña (3B)

Subs: Juan Miranda (1B), Doug Bernier (2B), Justin Leone (3B), Frank Cervelli (C), Todd Linden (RF), Seth Fortenberry (LF), P.J. Pilittere (DH)

Pitchers: Phil Hughes, Jason Johnson, Anthony Claggett, David Robertson, Kei Igawa

Big Hits:

Solo homers by Mark Teixeira (1-and-3), Austin Jackson (1-for-4), and Todd Linden (1-for-2), and a double by Shelley Duncan (1-for3). Teixeira’s name hasn’t popped up much in my recaps, and this was his first home run of the spring, but he’s hitting .414/.455/.621 on the spring. This is what I expect from Teixeira, not that batting line, but that sort of quiet, almost stealthy excellence.

Who Pitched Well:

Phil Hughes didn’t strike anyone out in his 4 1/3 innings, but he also only allowed one run on three hits and a walk and got 10 of his 13 outs on the ground, which is an especially good sign, as Hughes major league struggles have often been accompanied by a spike in his flyball rate. David Robertson struck out three of the five batters he faced, the other two walked and flew out. Anthony Claggett pitched around a walk for a scoreless seventh inning.

Who Didn’t:

Jason Johnson allowed a run on two doubles, a single and a walk in 1 2/3 innings.

Battles:

Brett Gardner went 1-for-3 with a stolen base. David Robertson helped his cause yet again. Kei Igawa loaded the bases in the ninth before stranding all three runners to end the game.

Ouchies:

Robinson Cano (shoulder) played the first five innings at second base and went 1-for-3. He said he felt fine. Catching Andy Pettitte in a minor league game, Jorge Posada (shoulder) made three throws to second base. All three runners were safe, but two of the throws beat the runner, and the third attempting thief stole the bag off Pettitte (at least according to Pete Abe‘s account). The third throw, chronolocially speaking, was the best, which was a good sign. Posada had made just one throw in his three prior games behind the plate, that one going to third base, but again failing to catch the runner. MLB.com’s Brian Hoch has a full story on Posada’s day and the state of his throwing arm.

The Yankees tend to treat the waiver wire as an afterthought, but I’d like to see them take an aggressive approach and make a play for Josh Bard, newly released this week by the Red Sox. Perhaps Bard would take a minor league deal, with the stipulation that he has to be on the major league roster by a certain date. Why am I singing the praises of Bard, he of the .270 on-base percentage and .279 slugging percentage in 2008? There are several reasons. Over a much larger sample size of games in 2006 and ’07, Bard was a very good offensive catcher. Anyone who can slug .537 while playing half of his games at Petco Park, as Bard did in 2008, has some measure of offensive talent. Bard is also a switch-hitter, giving the Yankees some flexibility in case Jorge Posada hits the disabled list for the second straight season. Additionally, Bard is a relatively young 30, having never caught more than 108 games in a single season dating back to 2002.

Bard was hitting over .400 for the Red Sox this spring, but fell victim to the Tim Wakefield hex. On a team where Jason Varitek, a highly skilled defensive catcher, has inexplicably never adjusted to the nuisance of the knuckler, the Red Sox’ backup catcher must be able to catch Wakefield every fifth day. (The job goes to rookie George Kottaras.) Bard cannot handle the knuckleball with any more dexterity than Varitek, but that’s not a problem for a Yankee franchise that hasn’t had a knuckleballer since Joe Niekro in 1987. (I’m not including Wade Boggs’ one-game cameo in 1997.) At the very least, Bard would represent an upgrade over no-hit wonder Kevin Cash, currently slated to do most of the catching at Scranton-Wilkes Barre . . .

***

While we’re on the subject of the knuckleball, the Yankees have had very little connection to the pitch during the expansion era. According to research, they have had only three fulltime knuckleballers over the last 50 years. Not surprisingly, two of them were the Niekro brothers, whose Yankee days stretched from 1984 to 1987. The third was a journeyman right-hander named Bob Tiefenauer, who appeared in ten games for the Yankees in 1965.

At least five other Yankee pitchers have thrown the knuckleball with some regularity over the past five decades. They are Doyle Alexander (1976, 1982-83) and Luis Tiant (1979-80), who mixed occasional knucklers into their wide assortments of pitches. (Perhaps Alexander should have used the knuckler more often during his second Yankee stint.) From the 1960s, we find relievers Bud Daley, Ryne Duren and Pedro Ramos as intermittent practitioners of the knuckleball.

***

The Yankees’ announcement that Hideki Matsui will not play the outfield until at least June is one of the least surprising developments I’ve heard this spring. With five fulltime outfielders (Damon, Gardner, Cabrera, Nady, and Swisher) expected to be on the Opening Day roster, the Yankees really have no need to play Matsui—the worst defender of the bunch—in the outfield over the first two months. If the Yankees want to work Posada into the DH mix, they can always use him against left-handers, sitting Matsui down and making him available for late-inning pinch-hit chores.

The more pertinent news has to do with the way that Matsui looks at the plate this spring. Through Wednesday’s action, Matsui had compiled a .588 slugging percentage in his DH-only role. After watching “Godzilla” play on Tuesday night against the Pirates, I’m ready to proclaim him the early favorite for AL Comeback Player of the Year honors. The game marked Matsui’s fourth consecutive start at DH, an indication that his right knee is nearly ready for the start of the season. In his first at-bat, Matsui turned on an inside fastball, launching a tower-scraping drive high over the right field wall at Steinbrenner Field. It was the kind of swing missing most of last season, as Matsui struggled on balky knees, one of which was recovering from surgery while the other was anticipating a similar procedure. While much of Yankee camp has centered on the abilities of new third baseman Cody Ransom, Matsui’s early season role has been underplayed. With Alex Rodriguez on the DL, Matsui will serve as the Yankees’ cleanup hitter, making him resident protection for Mark Teixeira. A good start for Godzilla will help soften the blow of losing A-Rod for any length of time, whether it’s four, five, or six weeks.

Bruce Markusen can be reached via e-mail at bmarkusen@stny.rr.com.

My apologies for being a bit behind the curve on these game recaps over the past week. The Yankees haven’t seemed to mind, as they’ve won seven straight going back to Saturday’s split squad sweep. Yesterday’s patsies were the Blue Jays, who went down 7-4.

Lineup:

S – Jorge Posada (C)
L – Johnny Damon (LF)
S – Nick Swisher (1B)
L – Hideki Matsui (DH)
R – Xavier Nady (RF)
R – Cody Ransom (3B)
S – Melky Cabrera (CF)
R – Angel Berroa (2B)
R – Ramiro Peña (SS)

Subs: Shelley Duncan (1B), Doug Bernier (2B), Eduardo Nuñez (SS), Justin Leone (3B), Kevin Cash (C), Todd Linden (RF), Austin Jackson (LF-CF), John Rodriguez (LF), Francisco Cervelli (DH)

Pitchers: A.J. Burnett, Brian Bruney, Steven Jackson, Mariano Rivera, Edwar Ramirez, Dan Giese

Big Hits:

A two-run homer off David Purcey by Eduardo Nuñez in the latter’s only at-bat. A triple by Xavier Nady (1-for-3), and doubles by Jorge osada (1-for-3), Nick Swisher (2-for-2), Ramiro Peña (1-for-3), and Kevin Cash (1-for-2).

Who Pitched Well:

Mariano Rivera needed five pitches to toss a perfect sixth. Edwar Ramirez pitched around a single in the seventh. Steven Jackson retired the only man he faced.

Who Didn’t:

Brian Bruney gave up two runs on a single, a double, and an alarming four walks in a mere inning and a third. Dan Giese gave up four hits in his two innings of work, one of which was a home run by Bradley Emaus. Giese is looking awful homer-prone this spring, allowing four in 12 1/3 innings (or 2.9 HR/9).

Battles:

The only other Yankee to allow four home runs this spring is Alfredo Aceves, who has done so in a mere ten frames. With Joe Girardi recently mentioning Kei Igawa as a long-man candidate for the bullpen, it would seem Giese and Aceves have both punched their tickets for Scranton.

That said, Igawa isn’t on the 40-man roster, nor is long-man leader Brett Tomko, and there’s no longer any obvious dead weight on the 40-man that can be removed to make room for him. The Yankees will also need to clear up a 40-man spot for a reserve infielder with Cody Ransom set to start the season as the everyday third baseman in place of the injured Alex Rodriguez. The only solution I can see would be to drop Juan Miranda, who is something of an afterthought with Mark Teixeira having secured first base. The Yankees would have to eat the $800,000 left on Miranda’s major league contract, but he just might slip through waivers.

Two other ways to clear space on the 40-man would be: 1) a trade; 2) outrighting Melky Cabrera, handing Brett Gardner the center field job without a net and exposing Cabrera to waivers. I imagine the Yankees are agressively shopping Cabrera right now–prompting Joe Girardi’s recent praise for him–though I can’t imagine that anyone would offer them anything beyond a marginal single-A player for him given the impending roster cruch.

Cabrera went 1-for-3 yesterday and has gone 2-for-9 with a double while Gardner has been away attending to a personal issue the last three days.

Here’s the latest on the Nick Swisher extra-base hits vs. Xavier Nady walks battle: Swisher XBH 3, Nady BB 0. All three of Swisher’s extra-baggers have been doubles. That said, with both outfielders getting their averages up to the .280s, Nady’s composite line is starting to look better to GPA (which is like OPS, but adjusted to the batting average scale and with on-base percentage properly weighted):

Nady: .286/.306/.571, GPA: .280

Swish: .281/.415/.344, GPA:.273

Of course, those stats don’t include the two WBC exhibitions, which included the first of Swisher’s three doubles.

Edwar Ramirez has quickly gotten his hat back in the ring with three scoreless, walk-less innings in which he’s struck out three batters.

Finally, I find myself leaning toward Ramiro Peña for the temporary utility infielder job. Angel Berroa continues to smack the ball around, but I’m convinced that once he cools off (likely upon facing better pitching), he’ll stay cold. Peña, meanwhile, won’t hit a lick, but he’s a better fielder and has a better plate approach (14 PA/UIBB, 2.22 K/UIBB in his minor league career vs. Berroa’s 27 PA/UIBB and 3.93 K/UIBB in the majors).

Obviously some part of me is seeing what it wants to see in the small-sample/weak-competition stats compiled by Berroa and Brett Gardner, but that part of me is guided by track record and scouting. Berroa’s just not a good baseball player, even if he gets hot now and again. Gardner, and to far a lesser degree Peña, are good baseball players, and while Gardner will surely cool off, he and Peña both do other things well that will help them retain value when they’re not hitting an unreallistic .415. In Peña’s case, that value is minimal, but it should be enough for three-to-six weeks of riding pine and serving as a pinch-runner and defensive replacement, rolls for which Berroa is a particularly poor fit.

Ouchies:

A.J. Burnett seems to have had no ill-effects from the ball he took off his pitching arm. Because of his tatoos, Joe Girardi can’t even tell if he bruised. Phil Coke does have a bruise from a comebacker that hit his leg on Wednesday, but he’s still expected to pitch over the weekend. Damso Marte (shoulder) threw another bullpen yesterday and is scheduled to pitch in Sunday’s game.

Let’s get right to it ….

• Chien-Ming Wang has been getting some pitching advice from . . . A.J. Burnett?:

One of the points that Burnett has stressed to Wang since arriving in camp has been the urgency of developing his other pitches, playing off a bowling-ball sinker that has been regarded as one of the league’s best.

The suggestion is not a new one for Wang, who was tinkering with his offspeed pitches leading up to a season-ending injury last season. But hearing it from a power pitcher like Burnett may ratchet up the intensity of the message.

“A.J. told me a lot about changing speeds,” Wang said. “More changeups, more sliders.”

As the days of Spring Training begin to wane, Wang is making a conscious effort to mix in more variety. Though Burnett wasn’t in the ballpark on Wednesday — remaining behind with the Yankees in Tampa, Fla. — credit him with a long-distance assist.

• BaseballProspectus.com has their Team Health Report for the Yankees posted, and as you can expect, BP’s injury database system has lots of “reds” and “yellows” scattered throughout the Bomber’s lineup. A-Rod was a “green” . . . here’s his write-up:

Injuries can happen to even the least risky of players. The hip problem was undervalued by the system since he played through it, leaving him green when we ran the rankings in late January. He’s had the ‘hybrid’ surgery now, and while he’ll miss some time at the beginning of the season, there are no comps at all for how he’ll come back, or even when. The prognosis is solid . . . The interesting thing here is that PECOTA catches a comparison of Rodriguez and Henry Aaron, who had a “down” season at a similar age. (Anyone remember why?) One last thing to keep in mind, since we’ve discussed it already, is the “iron man syndrome” we hinted at with Damon and Matsui; Rodriguez hit the DL last year with a bad quad, and now he’ll begin this season on the DL with the hip. Will this be the new norm for him? . . .

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