Daily Archives: April 10, 2009

The Yankees scored two in the top of the first against Sidney Ponson yesterday afternoon, and Andy Pettitte made those runs hold up with seven stellar innings in which he allowed just one run on three hits and a walk as the Yankees beat the Royals 4-1 in Kansas City’s home opener.

Pettitte’s was the best performance by a Yankee starting pitcher this season and underlined the strength of this year’s team: starting pitching depth. There’s not a man in the Yankees’ rotation that you wouldn’t want to have on the mound on any given day (yes, even A.J. Burnett, my complaints about him stem largely from his injury history and his contract, in other words the possibility of having him not on the mound but still on the books). The Yankees opened the season by having their top two starters, CC Sabathia and Chien-Ming Wang, get lit up, but Burnett and Pettitte brought them right back to even in the blink of an eye. Sabathia takes his second turn tomorrow, then Joba Chamberlain gets his first on Sunday, then back around again. If those five starters can stay healthy (admittedly a huge “if”), the Yankees will have a very realistic expectation of winning every game they play. They’ll still lose about 60 of them, but it won’t be because they were outmatched on the mound. That’s a tremendous advantage for a ballclub, in terms of strength and strategy as well as confidence.

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Kansas City Royals

2008 Record: 75-87 (.463)
2008 Pythagorean Record: 72-90 (.444)

Manager: Trey Hillman
General Manager: Dayton Moore

Home Ballpark (multi-year Park Factors): Kauffman Stadium (97/98)

Who’s Replaced Whom:

• Mike Jacobs replaces Ross Gload
• Coco Crisp replaces Joey Gathright and Mark Grudzielanek
• Willie Bloomquist replaces Esteban German
• Brayan Peña replaces Mitch Maier (minors) and Ryan Shealy (minors)
• Sidney Ponson replaces Brian Bannister (minors)
• Horacio Ramirez replaces Luke Hochevar (minors) and Brandon Duckworth (minors)
• Kyle Davies takes over Brett Tomko’s starts
• Juan Cruz replaces Ramon Ramirez
• Kyle Farnsworth replaces Leo Nuñez
• Doug Waechter replaces Joel Peralta
• Jamey Wright replaces Yasuhiki Yabuta (minors) and Jimmy Gobble

25-man Roster:

1B – Mike Jacobs (L)
2B – Alberto Callaspo (S)
SS – Mike Aviles (R)
3B – Alex Gordon (L)
C – Miguel Olivo (R)
RF – Mark Teahen (L)
CF – Coco Crisp (S)
LF – David DeJesus (L)
DH – Billy Butler (R)

Bench:

R – Willie Bloomquist (UT)
R – John Buck (C)
R – Tony Peña Jr. (SS)
S – Brayan Peña (C)

Rotation:

R – Gil Meche
R – Zack Greinke
R – Kyle Davies
R – Sidney Ponson
L – Horacio Ramirez

Bullpen:

R – Joakim Soria
R – Juan Cruz
R – Kyle Farnsworth
L – Ron Mahay
R – Robinson Tejeda
R – Doug Waechter
R – Jamey Wright

15-day DL: RF – Jose Guillen (groin), LHP – John Bale (thyroid surgery)

Projected Lineup:

S – Coco Crisp (CF)
S – Alberto Callaspo (2B)
L – David DeJesus (LF)
L – Mark Teahen (2B)
L – Mike Jacobs (1B)
R – Billy Butler (DH)
L – Alex Gordon (3B)
R – Miguel Olivo (C)
R – Mike Aviles (SS)

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In the wake of the Wall Street Journal article highlighting the hard times for baseball beat writers, I’m in the process of getting comments from former colleagues and current and former beat writers on the baseball beat, and other beats, to get their takes.

There were some great comments here at the Banter, so if you have any questions you’d like to submit, e-mail me here.

The Yankees lost the first two games of the season because their starting pitchers weren’t sharp. CC Sabathia and Chien-Ming Wang combined for this line in those two games: 8 IP, 17 H, 13 R, 1 HR, 8 BB, 0 K, 3.13 WHIP, 14.63 ERA. End of story. Neither was suffering from anything worse than poor mechanics (Wang) or a simple lack of feel (Sabathia). I’m not concerned about either, and Sabathia will be back on the bump tomorrow.

The bullpen coughed up four insurance runs after the Yankee offense pulled within a run in the opener, but in the last two games, the bullpen contributed eight hitless, scoreless innings. Included among those were perfect frames from Phil Coke and Brian Bruney, who had given up the four runs on Monday. Every man in the pen pitched in the series. The only one who remains a concern moving forward is Damaso Marte, who faced two batters on Monday. He gave up a two-RBI double to the lefty (both runs being charged to Bruney) before getting the righty to ground out.

Also encouraging is that the offense scored 21 runs in the first three games, showing resiliency by rallying back to within a run of the O’s in the first two games, then dropping 11 runs on Baltimore in the finale. Perhaps the best news to come out of the opening series is that the hitting star of the series was Robinson Cano, who went 6-for-11 with a double, a home run, and three walks. Last April, it took Cano eight games to get six hits, 12 games to get two extra-base hits, and 19 games to draw three walks; this year each took him just three games.

The other hitting star of the series was Nick Swisher, who only started in yesterday’s finale, but delivered a pinch-hit double in the opener and a pinch-hit walk in the second game. Yesterday, he went 3-for-5 with a double and a tie-breaking home run, collecting a career-high five RBIs. Xavier Nady had two doubles and a walk himself, but Swisher has already given Joe Girardi reason to reconsider how he deploys his two right fielders.

Other positives: Jorge Posada picked up a double, a 425-foot home run, and a walk in eight trips. He also threw out a stealing Brian Roberts by so much that Roberts turned around and headed back to first base (where he was tagged out). Derek Jeter went 5-for-13 with a homer, a walk, and a steal. Ramiro Peña singled in his first (and still only) major league at-bat yesterday. After starting the season 0-for-8 with a walk, Mark Teixeira went 3-for-6 with a double and a game-tying homer to finish the series; the double came in his only right-handed at-bat. Johnny Damon went 3-for-11  with a triple, two walks, and a steal. Even Jose Molina reached base twice in four trips.

The bad: While Hideki Matsui homered in the opener, that was the only time he reached base in ten at-bats. In his pinch-hit appearance yesterday (his only at-bat of the series), Melky Cabrera missed badly on three straight Matt Albers breaking balls.

Less noticeable was the fact that the Yankees won the war on the bases. The Bronx Burners went 4-for-4 in their own steal attempts and threw out (or picked off) four of the seven attempting Oriole base stealers.

Finally, the defensive upgrades at first base and center field, as well as in right field when Nick Swisher was out there yesterday, where instantly noticeable, and Cano’s fielding seems to have rebounded along with his bat.

Of course, it was just three games . . .

Today’s news is powered a nicely-done video tribute to Nick Adenhart:

• The Yankees react to the news of Adenhart’s death:

Jose Molina and Edwar Ramirez both played with Adenhart in the Angels organization, and each of them remembered the 22-year-old as a terrific teammate.

“He was an awesome kid,” said Molina, who was in spring training camp with Adenhart in 2006-07. “He was kind of quiet, but that may have just been because he was a rookie.”

Ramirez said he used to hitch rides with Adenhart every day in spring training. He was thrilled when he heard the pitcher had made his big-league debut last May, then watched the highlights Wednesday night after Adenhart pitched six scoreless innings against the A’s.

“It’s shocking. He was a great guy,” Ramirez said. “When I saw that he made it to the majors, I was so happy for him. And after last night? It’s horrible.”

• MLB.com’s wrap-up of Thursday’s game.
• MLB also reports on Nick Swisher’s adjustment to a bench role:

While Swisher is grappling with the idea of not being an everyday player, he keeps a random assortment of artists like Akon and Flo Rida filling the air. There may not be four guaranteed at-bats a night, but the beat must go on.

“Whether you’re playing or not, you try to keep the energy level high,” Swisher said. “It’s a little different when you’re not playing, but you try your best to keep it up. You want to try to be the same guy all the time, and sometimes it’s tough. But we’ve got a great group of guys.”

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There was one kid on my high school team who took baseball very seriously.  It almost hurt to see how much he cared.  Birdie was one of the two best players on the team and he desperately wanted to play professionally.  His father was a constant, critical presence, sitting in a lawn chair by himself up the first base line.  Brooding, silent.  When Birdie struck out, tears welled in his eyes.

He went to Vanderbilt and then transferred to a smaller school in Southern California so that he could play ball.  Birdie became a relief pitcher.  He was wild, a red ass.  He grew a beard, put on weight and his claim to fame was that one season he led his league in appearences and hit batsman.

Birdie is in his late Thirties now but he still pitches, still plays in the summer leagues.  He called me from Florida last night where he spent the past week vacationing with his wife and small son.  I told him that the Yankees won their first game and that AJ Burnett pitched okay. 

“You know I love that guy,” Birdie said.  “He’s just my kind of pitcher.  Great stuff, but horsesh** erratic.”

Burnett didn’t throw a gem but he pitched okay.  His fastball was in the 91-94 range, not 95+, but his breaking ball–what I’m guessing is a hard slider–was impressive and he featured it almost every time he got two strikes on a batter.  Burnett worked out of a bases loaded jam in the third, allowing just one run to score in the process, and he pumped his fist (something he did several times) when he struck out Aubrey Huff on a full count slider.

“That takes some guts,” Teixeira said of the pitch selection. “If he doesn’t get the right feel on the ball, that’s ball four and who knows what can happen. He threw a great pitch.”
(Mark Feinsand, N.Y. Daily News)

It’s funny how time works in baseball.  Mark Teixeira hit a home run on the second pitch he saw in the top of the fourth inning and quickly rounded the bases, tying the score at one (Luke Scott later hit a solo shot off Burnett to left center field in almost the same spot).  Three batters later, Nick Swisher was badly fooled on the first pitch, a change up in the dirt, and put forth a half-hearted swing.  He smiled and nodded his head and then looked at the next four pitches before swinging again and fouling off a 3-2 fastball.  In the meantime, the pitcher Alfredo Simon threw over to first to check on Robinson Cano a few times, and also met with his catcher.  The at-bat must have lasted a good five minutes.  It was almost boring as a spectator but it made me appreciate the level of focus and concentration that is required of the pitcher, batter, fielder and umpire on each at-bat during a game.   Swisher ended the showdown when he popped a fly ball just over the fence in right for a two-run homer that gave the Yanks the lead for good.

Swisher ended the day with three hits and five RBI, while Cano had three hits, a walk and scored four runs.  Cano has drawn three walks in three games.  Go figure that now. 

In the end, it was a blow-out, 11-2 win.   Burnett threw 98 pitches and was removed with one out in the sixth.  A quartet of Yankee relievers–Coke, Veras, Bruney and Rivera–kept the O’s scoreless the rest of the way and the Bombers secured their first “w” of the season.

Ramiro Pena singled in his first major league at bat in the ninth inning.  He was batting from the left side but is a switch hitter.  Before I got off the phone with Birdie he asked me if I could name any left-handed hitting shortstops.  Not switch hitters but strictly left-handed hitters.  For the life of me, I couldn’t.  

Little help?