Daily Archives: March 25, 2010

Blue II By Joan Miro (1961)

Brad Bergesen and company shut down the Yankees road lineup while the Orioles hitters beat up on Alfredo Aceves. Orioles win 8-0.

Lineup:

R – Derek Jeter (SS)
L – Nick Johnson (DH)
S – Mark Teixeira (1B)
R – Alex Rodriguez (3B)
L – Robinson Cano (2B)
S – Nick Swisher (RF)
R – Marcus Thames (LF)
S – Randy Winn (CF)
R – Francisco Cervelli (C)

Subs: David Winfree (1B), Justin Snyder (2B), Kevin Russo (SS), Ramiro Peña (3B), P.J. Pilittere (C), Jon Weber (RF), Greg Golson (DH)

Pitchers (IP): Alfredo Aceves (2), Boone Logan (1), Sergio Mitre (2), Chan Ho Park (2), David Robertson (1)

Big Hits: A double by Randy Winn who had three of the Yankees’ five hits, picking up a safety in each of his three at-bats. Winn is now hitting .259 on the spring (7-for-27 with a walk, a double, and seven Ks).

Marcus Thames, meanwhile, is hitting .094 (3-for-32) with just one walk and no extra-base hits after going 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts. Joe Girardi keeps talking about Thames’ track record, and it still seems as though Thames will make the team. That should tell you just how much spring performances really matter. Thames came into camp with a huge lead on his lone remaining challenger, David Winfree, a 24-year-old with 116 games of experience above Triple-A and none in majors. Winfree, who went 0-for-1 in this game and is hitting .263 (5-f0r-19, also with one walk and no extra-base hits) on the spring, likely hasn’t done enough to close the gap. Still, it’s interesting to see the Yankees giving him some work at an infield corner as he has played 250 games at the hot corner as a pro and thus offers some versatility that Thames, who has a strong arm but a glove and feet made of lead, doesn’t.

Who Pitched Well: Chan Ho Park worked around a pair of singles while striking out two and walking none for a pair of scoreless frames. David Robertson stranded a single and a walk in a scoreless ninth.

Who Didn’t: Alfredo Aceves‘s first poor outing of the spring was his last, and this one was worse. He gave up six runs (five earned) on a pair of walks and six hits, including a two-run Adam Jones homer, while striking out no one. He pitched to four batters in the third, but failed to get an out before getting the hook.

Who Did Neither: Competing for the final spot in the bullpen, Boone Logan came in with two on and none out and got a groundball to second only to have Robinson Cano throw it away and let both runs score and the batter reach second. That batter-runner then scored on a pair of productive outs before Logan got out of the inning. You can’t really blame Logan for the first two runs, but the third kept him out of the “Pitched Well” category. Meanwhile, his competition, Sergio Mitre, gave up a run on a walk and a pair of singles in his two innings of work. Neither pitcher struck out a batter. Logan gets the edge there for not allowing a hit or a walk, but it wasn’t a convincing victory.

Oopsies: Robinson Cano made a big throwing error in the third that let two runs score and put a third in scoring position that later came around on a pair of productive outs. It was his first error of the spring.

Other: CC Sabathia got lit up by the Phillies’ Triple-A campers, allowing seven runs on a walk, a hit batsman, and seven hits, including a pair of homers while using up 88 pitches in just 3 2/3 innings. Remember, CC was 1-3 with a 4.85 ERA after his first six starts last year and 18-5 with a 3.06 the rest of the way. In 2008, he was 0-3 with a 13.50 ERA after four starts and 17-7 with a 1.88 the rest of the way. The big man takes a while to get rolling. Don’t sweat his performance until May. In other rotation news, Chad Gaudin was released. I already dealt with that likelihood in my Mitre post on Tuesday.

Check out this great site if you’ve got the stomach. It’s about as depressing as it gets:

Scrolling through pictures of the wreckage, all I hear in my head is this tune:

Phil Hughes has been named the fifth starting pitching in the Yankees rotation. This report from the AP has the details.

Kalustyan’s:

Cheap it ain’t, but if you don’t feel like schlepping out to Queens, it’ll do the trick.

This update is powered . . . by a song about Canada, sung in German, by animated cartoon characters:

• Curtis Granderson adjusts to life with contact lenses.
• Joel Sherman on the strategy behind the release of Chad Gaudin:

Instead the key date is March 31 at 2 p.m. That is the deadline to release players with non-guaranteed contracts and owe just 45-day’s pay. So if the Yanks are unable to trade Gaudin between now and then, they almost certainly will release him and pay him that severance, which will be around $720,000.

Since the Yanks are obligated to that amount, I would assume they would be willing to pay at least that much of his salary as part of a trade and, perhaps, a bit more. The one advantage of having Gaudin pass through waivers is that the Yanks can send him to the minors. But there is no chance they would pay him $2.9 million to begin in the minors. After paying the $720,000, they could re-sign him at a lower rate and send him to the minors, but Gaudin probably would not accept that since he likely can find major league work elsewhere if the Yanks outright release him.

(more…)

The official announcement of the Yankees’ fifth starter will be the big news today, but Wednesday’s headline was the performance of fourth-starter Javier Vazquez, who carved up an admittedly weak Nationals lineup as the Yankees cruised to a 3-1 win. Well, that and the fact that Ramiro Peña will once again be the Opening Day utility infielder.

Lineup:

R – Derek Jeter (SS)
L – Nick Johnson (DH)
S – Mark Teixeira (1B)
R – Alex Rodriguez (3B)
L – Robinson Cano (2B)
S – Jorge Posada (C)
L – Curtis Granderson (CF)
S – Nick Swisher (RF)
L – Brett Gardner (LF)

Subs: Juan Miranda (1B), Kevin Russo (2B), Ramiro Peña (SS), Francisco Cervelli (3B), P.J. Pilittere (C), Greg Golson (RF)

Pitchers (IP): Javier Vazquez (6), Damaso Marte (1), Mariano Rivera (1), Mark Melancon (1)

Big Hits: A triple by Alex Rodriguez (2-for-3), Doubles by Nick Swisher (1-for-3), and Nick Johnson (1-for-3, BB).

Who Pitched Well: Javier Vazquez needed just 77 pitches to get through six innings plus one batter. He didn’t issue a walk and allowed just one run on four singles while striking out six. Mark Melancon pitched a perfect ninth striking out two. Mariano Rivera worked around a double for a scoreless eighth, striking out two as well.

Who Didn’t: Vazquez gave up a single to the only man he faced in the seventh. Damaso Marte then allowed that inherited runner to score on a double by former Yankee Alberto Gonzalez, though Gonzalez was the only baserunner Marte allowed in his one inning of work.

Oopsies: Brett Gardner was caught stealing second by the former Yankee battery of Brian Bruney and Wil Nieves.

Cuts: The first real significant batch:

Kevin Russo: Russo hit .333 in camp, but Russo has always hit. The issue is that he’s not really a viable shortstop, and twith Alex Rodriguez now six years and one hip surgery removed from the position, the Yankees likely reasoned that they couldn’t go into the season with Russo as Derek Jeter’s sole backup at the position. Russo moved his name toward the top of the list of replacement bench players, but with the Yankees hoping to get 150 games or more out of each of their infielders, they properly opted to go with Ramiro Peña’s glove and versatility over Russo’s batting-average-dependent offense. It will be interesting to see if the Yankees stick him back at second base in Scranton or give him more exposure at short and third in the hope of increasing his defensive value.

Juan Miranda: Miranda didn’t hit much in camp and, as Scranton’s first baseman, will have to fend off the advances of Jorge Vazquez while battling with Jesus Montero to be the first name called when Nick Johnson goes down with an injury. Given that Miranda’s also in the last year of his contract, success in Scranton could just as easily get him traded as promoted.

Greg Golson: Golson hit .300/.364/.550 in camp and struck out just four times in 20 at-bats, which offers some hope that the tweaks made to his swing and approach by Kevin Long are already yielding results. If Golson can control the strike zone, he has the tools (speed, power, glove) and athleticism to be an upgrade on Brett Gardner, but he’ll have to prove it over a larger sample as Scranton’s center fielder.

Mark Melancon: Melancon was fantastic in camp, but there’s just no room in the Yankee bullpen: Mariano Rivera, Joba Chamberlain or Phil Hughes, Damaso Marte, David Robertson, Chan Ho Park, Alfredo Aceves, Sergio Mitre. That’s seven. I’d like to have seen Melancon make the team over Mitre, but as I explained Tuesday night, I’m kind of okay with Mitre making the team, particularly given how strong the rest of the pen seems to be. Had Melancon pitched better in his extremely brief major league opportunities last year, he might have had the edge. As it is, he’ll likely force his way onto the major league roster in the first half of the season.

Jonathan Albaladejo: Albaladejo made the Opening Day roster each of the last two seasons but got hurt in 2008, failed to distinguish himself in 2010, was lit up in camp this year. If there’s no room for Melancon in the bullpen, Albaladejo has no chance. He should follow Edwar Ramirez out of the organization shortly.