Comments on: Spilt Lemonade

By: monkeypants

monkeypants — Sun, 02 May 2010 16:51:50 +0000

[23] Agreed. There is no reason he should not be expected to be around a league average pitcher in the AL, which is basically what he was with the White Sox for three years. And he was fine in NY in 2004 through half the season. Surely he is better than what he has done so far, but how long should the team try to let him work things out in the rotation. right now I lean toward pulling him and giving Mitre a turn or two. In effect, I don’t care who pitches the innings so long as they get 200 INN of not awful production out of the Javy-Mitre-Pitcher X spot in the rotation.

By: Raf

Raf — Sun, 02 May 2010 15:57:50 +0000

[19] Vazquez has pitched in the AL before. Part of the problem is the expectations that he was going to post a season similar to the one he posted last year. While he may not be that good, he shouldn’t be as bad as he as shown so far. What I find amusing is that analysis seems to boil his ineffectiveness down to the events of 2004, which I find ridiculous.

By: The Hawk

The Hawk — Sun, 02 May 2010 15:53:00 +0000

[21] I bet the could trade him. They might have to eat some of his salary but I know if I were an NL team in need of starting pitching, I’d take him. Definitely seems mental at this point so it would figure that a change of scenery would benefit him.

I’d advocate releasing him as an option, just to get his stench out of the clubhouse.

By: Yankee Mama

Yankee Mama — Sun, 02 May 2010 15:38:50 +0000

[20] The other thing is that Javy didn’t come cheap, so their options are limited. They can’t trade him or release him. So fixing him is the only potential solution. He looked absolutely defeated. Between his mechanics and his brain, he needs to regroup and hope for a rebirth.

By: ms october

ms october — Sun, 02 May 2010 15:00:13 +0000

[19] i’m definitely in favor of using the dl judiciously – the sox have been masters at this with their pitchers for several years now.
the yanks were off to the right start with putting cmw on the dl last year before they foolishly rushed him back.
i think they should give it a shot with javy and see if they can fix any mechanical issues – and if there really is a more serious health issues by all means he should be on the dl.

By: Yankee Mama

Yankee Mama — Sun, 02 May 2010 14:49:58 +0000

Cliff, that was some opening paragraph; one that synthesized the whole baseball experience.

I’m wondering if Javy pitching in the big-boy league is example of the glaring difference between the American League and the National League in terms of offensive strength. I know he has velo issues. He pitched well in spring training, but he was pitching against both leagues. I didn’t love his signing, but I wasn’t at-arms about it either, mostly curious.

The fictional dl might be their only recourse because they can’t automatically pencil in a loss every five days.

As for a new outfielder, I say that they start from within the organization and give Dave Winfree a shot. Why not?

By: The Hawk

The Hawk — Sun, 02 May 2010 14:33:01 +0000

[14] Yeah, I’m the same way but I guess when you factor in another “stat” (23 vs 29) it stings even more.

We’ll see what happens with Jackson; he probably won’t hit .350 but I think there’s a good chance he’ll make us regret the move.

By: randym77

randym77 — Sun, 02 May 2010 14:30:19 +0000

[13] I was really bummed to lose Ajax. I’d been following him in Scranton, and was really looking forward to seeing him called up to the Bronx.

By: ms october

ms october — Sun, 02 May 2010 14:29:35 +0000

[7] oh mp we just need mitre to be lucky as he was so *unlucky* last year.

if joba goes to the rotation i will prepare a 4 course meal for mk and sit there and listen to him blab the entire meal.

[8] what to me is the big red flag is his just complete lack of control. he has always put up reasonable walk rates and managed to eat up innings because he is not a high walk guy.

[9] yeah i would like a real cf backup as well.

we also need to hope gritner sustains good numbers (i certainly don’t expect he sustains a 390 woba – but mid 300s would be wonderful)

By: randym77

randym77 — Sun, 02 May 2010 14:29:15 +0000

I don’t think Melky’s that great on defense, to be honest. Compared to Bernie and aging Damon, he looked good. But the various defensive ranking systems find him below average. One of them even rated him the worst defensive CFer in the league.

By: monkeypants

monkeypants — Sun, 02 May 2010 14:27:15 +0000

[13] Some here may recall that I was among the most skeptical of trading Ajax for Granderson. That said, what’s done is done, I’ve grown to like Grandy (slump and all), and we all know that AJax is not going to hit .350 this year.

By: The Hawk

The Hawk — Sun, 02 May 2010 14:25:20 +0000

This is probably unhealthy but here’s Austin Jackson’s line with the Tiggers:

BA: .356
OBP: .412
SLG: .481 .

That kinda hurts

By: monkeypants

monkeypants — Sun, 02 May 2010 14:23:24 +0000

[10] I’d rather the Yankees explore the possibility of getting a more or less real corner OF and not worry about getting a BUCF. Sure, it’s dangerous to play with only one legit CF, but then again, I’m not sure a team can realistically plan to go three deep at every position.

As for the corner OF, I’m not sure Melky is a real corner OF. But if he can be had for cheap…

By: The Hawk

The Hawk — Sun, 02 May 2010 14:21:54 +0000

[10] I would take Melky’s season with the Braves thus far with the same amount of salt the Yankee brass ought to have taken Vasquez’s season with the Braves last year.

I bet if he came back he’d improve. However Cano might go in the tank.

Speaking as a Melky fan, I’d rather get rid of Vasquez than get Melky back. But neither is gonna happen.

By: OldYanksFan

OldYanksFan — Sun, 02 May 2010 14:12:07 +0000

Some one suggested we get Malky back in trade. Truth is, he’s doing so badly, he may be undervalued, and I wonder if he can be had. At $3m, he ain’t cheap and needs to have 100 OPS+ of better to earn he keep….

But some deep, demented part of me likes to explore the idea.
Do the Braves have any OF help on the farm?
Melky’s not a great bat, but he fit’s in with keeping good D even if we sacriface some O.

If Grady IS out for 6 weeks of more, would Mekly be a good fit?

By: randym77

randym77 — Sun, 02 May 2010 13:56:06 +0000

I think Granderson is going to be on the DL a lot longer than two weeks. Grade 2 groin strain…I wouldn’t be shocked if he missed months, and was bothered by it the whole season.

I don’t mind Gardy in CF, but he needs a real backup. I don’t want to see Winn or Swisher in CF if Gardner runs into another wall.

By: monkeypants

monkeypants — Sun, 02 May 2010 13:07:55 +0000

The most frustrating thing about Javy so far is not that he has not repeated his excellence from last season. As someone pointed out yesterday, his Atlanta season is just not representative of his career. That being said, neither is this season representative. For as good and as bad as he has been over his long career, he has always been able to put up at least serviceable numbers. More important, he has basically thrown 200+ innings every season since 1999.

And that is the killer. Even mediocre-to-bad Javy, let’s 90 ERA+ or more, would be fine if he were at least chewing up innings.

Now, we have to hope that some Mitre + Javy combo can provde those 200+ INN.

By: monkeypants

monkeypants — Sun, 02 May 2010 13:01:33 +0000

[4] I would love to see Joba in the rotation for a variety of reasons, but I really don’t think it will happen, at least not any time soon. Joba has only thrown 5 and 3 pitches in his last two appearances. He has been used for no more than 1.1 INN, 7 BF and 33 pitches since the season began. To put him in teh rotation would mean the old in-season stretch-’em-out routine. And again, I just don’t see that happening, especially with the rest of the short BP (Robertson, Marte) struggling. Once again, Mitre will inherit the spot over someone who is (or is supposed to be) the next one in line (see Hughes 2009).

Now, Joba did not pitch yesterday. If he comes in for two innings today, then things might be different. The Yankees could then option him to AAA to stretch him, instead of returning Melancon. Then they skip Javy next time around (following the offday), use Mitre as a spot starter once or twice, then replace him with Joba.

Nah, it’s just never gonna happen.

So, let’s just hope that Mitre is good, or at least not bad, rather than Lucky.

By: Yankster

Yankster — Sun, 02 May 2010 12:44:40 +0000

Also, the offense last night continued to be impressive. Danks is a great pitcher and they did a decent job fouling off pitches and getting him out of the game. Gardner, whatever his lack of offensive skills, doesn’t seem to have any psychological problems coming up to the plate in big situations (or he’s just been lucky). But some guys can seem over-eager to be heroic in that situation, and gardner just does his nintendo physics thing. It was great to see Swish get his hr too.

By: Yankster

Yankster — Sun, 02 May 2010 12:41:19 +0000

Top Notch write up. And a hell of a depressing one. I wonder if there’s any chance they use Joba which I see is asked above [4], but it seems unlikely at this stage since Mitre is already the long relief and Joba has been mostly short relief.