With their starting rotation in trouble, middle relief has become as important as ever for the Yankees. Could Montgomery and Burawa be any worse than Aceves, Daley and Claiborne?

After Monday night's Yankee loss to Seattle, Joe Girardi took some flak for his decision to leave David Phelps in the game, even as he loaded the bases in a 2-2 tie in the seventh and ultimately surrendered the lead. The problem for Girardi is that even though Phelps was laboring after a strong first six innings, a lack of depth in the rotation and the pen - and an overall inability by Yankee pitchers not named Tanaka to last deep into games - has left him without the luxury of pulling his de facto number three starter with fewer than 100 pitches.

There isn't much the Yankees can do right now to improve their rotation. Phelps, Chase Whitley and Vidal Nuno are all still green as starters, Hiroki Kuroda has looked his age this year and the prognoses for eventual returns by Michael Pineda and CC Sabathia keep getting cloudier. The trade market won't heat up for another few weeks, so for the time being, lengthy outings by starting pitchers will remain a rare feat in the Bronx.

If they can't upgrade their starters maybe something can be done about a mixed-bag bullpen that's been taxed by the rotation woes. Despite his horrific outing Sunday, David Robertson's been solid at closer, and Dellin Betances and Adam Warren have been spectacular setting him up. Behind War-Bet-Son, though, things get shaky. Matt Thornton has done alright as a LOOGY, holding lefties to a .250/.333/.267 line, but he also turns the average right-handed hitter into Joe DiMaggio. Matt Daley, Preston Claiborne and Alfredo Aceves have combined for a 4.88 ERA and 1.40 WHIP in 48 innings pitched with Aceves in particular attaining Mitrean levels of ineptitude far too often. Shawn Kelley will be back next week, barring setbacks, and that should help, but the past two seasons have taught us the hard lesson that "barring setbacks" isn't a phrase to take lightly.

Without many relievers he can trust, and starters that scarcely get him more than eighteen outs, it's not hard to understand why Girardi has moved away from his usual conservative style of bullpen management and used Betances and Warren more often than he'd prefer. As of Monday night, the two righties ranked third and fifth in the majors respectively with 32.2 and 31.1 relief innings pitched. They're both on pace to toss more than 90 frames out of the pen, a mark that no Yankee has reached since the notoriously abused Scott Proctor threw 102.1 in 2006. Betances and Warren are converted starters, and their workloads have been necessary to keep the Yankees afloat, but if it continues, it'll be tough for them to keep their effectiveness later in the season and beyond.

The Yankees have relievers at Triple-A who could potentially help. Right-handed 23-year-old Mark Montgomery has been the organization's top bullpen prospect for the past few years, and after a down 2013, he's regained some of his prestige, posting a 2.59 ERA, a hit-per-nine rate of 5.5 and a K-rate of 10.4 for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre thus far. Unfortunately, he's also got a walk rate of 6.3, which isn't exactly what you'd want to see trotting into a tight game, especially with runners on base.

Scranton's best reliever has been 25-year-old Suffolk County native Danny Burawa, who's wowed to the tune of a 1.53 ERA, a 1.13 WHIP and an 11.7 K-rate through 17.2 innings this year and hasn't allowed a home run since May 23rd of 2013. He, too, cedes a few too many walks, but Daley and Claiborne haven't exactly shown off pinpoint control either, as both share walk rates over 4.0, and a little wildness is still more attractive than Aceves throwing batting practice.

It's worth mentioning Pat Venditte who everyone knows as the switch-pitcher who's been knocking around the Yankee farm system since being drafted way back in 2007. He's probably the longest bet of this trio to get a shot in the Majors, but the 28-year-old has been largely untouchable in 29.2 innings split between Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and Double-A Trenton this year (0.61 ERA, 0.71 WHIP and 10.9 K-rate). His stuff has never really been considered big league level, but desperate times...

None of these guys are currently on the Yankees' 40-man roster, but that shouldn't be too hard to work around. Aceves, Daley and Claiborne are all likely to clear waivers if DFA'd, and if some team scoops one up, more power to ‘em. The middle of bullpens isn't usually a place that boasts much quality, but with everything else that's tormenting the Yankees this year, those roles have suddenly become much more important. The bullpen has been the one area where Yankee player development has actually been a successful program, so there's no reason they shouldn't keep looking for more of the same. With a staff hampered by injuries and an offense that's not good enough to outscore bad pitching, it's time for an all-hands-on-deck approach in the Yankee organization. Montgomery and Burawa look like some of the better options they've got.

The Yankees will try again to take down the red hot Oakland Athletics after last night's deflating loss.

Gardner 7, Jeter 6, Ellsburu 8, teixeira 3, McCann DH, solarte 5, Roberts 4, Suzuki 9, Murphy 2, nuno p #yankees

— Meredith Marakovits (@M_Marakovits) June 4, 2014

The Yankees lineup will have Brett Gardner, Derek Jeter, and Jacoby Ellsbury at the top of the order. Mark Teixeira is still in there batting cleanup and Brian McCann is the designated hitter. Yangervis Solarte, Brian Roberts, and Ichiro Suzuki follow, with John Ryan Murphy behind the plate and batting ninth.

Over in injury update land, Shawn Kelley was seen throwing batting practice to a few Yankees. He reportedly threw a simulated game and will play a rehab game on Saturday. CC Sabathia, who had just recently started running on his knee, played catch and felt fine. He will throw again tomorrow as well. Carlos Beltran is on his way to New York and could be back with the team tomorrow.

The Yankees have also designated Alfredo Aceves for assignment and optioned Preston Claiborne to Triple-A. To take their places, Wade LeBlanc and Jose Ramirez are in the clubhouse. LeBlanc, a lefty, will be used as the long reliever, while Ramirez could be used as a multi-inning reliever. He was previously up with the team before, but never got in the game. Once he does, it will be his major league debut. If you're keeping track at home, the Yankees now have an open spot on the 40-man roster, so let the anticipation mount!

MLB Draft Insider included the Yankees in their most recent mock draft and had them choosing catcher/outfielder Chase Vallot as the 55th overall pick. Vallot was also picked to go to the Yankees by the Minor League Ball community mock draft, so maybe there's something there.

Turns out Vidal Nuno and the bullpen with all its best arms resting is an awful combination. Huh!

On a sucky night for Yankees fans caused by the sad passing of former bench coach Don Zimmer, the Yankees only briefly provided some entertainment. Although they held a lead at one point thanks to a Jacoby Ellsbury dinger, the pitching staff had a piss-poor night on the mound, and the Athletics came back to win it. The Yankees have now lost four games in a row. Yippie skip.

Vidal Nuno ran into a bit of trouble in the first when the baseball gods decided to screw with him. There were two outs and no one on when Josh Donaldson dribbled a slow grounder up the third base line. It literally rolled along the third base line and came to a stop just shy of third base in fair territory for an infield single. Baseball. Yoenis Cespedes lined a single to left, but Nuno managed to strike out Derek Norris to end the inning.

Both Nuno and Oakland starter Jesse Chavez kept the game relatively uneventful until the bottom of the third, when Ichiro Suzuki worked a leadoff walk. One out later, Brett Gardner laced a single to center field, sending Ichiro to third and giving the Yankees their first big opportunity. Gardner stole second to put another runner in scoring position, and Derek Jeter followed with a slow chopper to shortstop that he beat out for an infield single. Ichiro scored and the Yankees were on the scoreboard. Ellsbury then blasted the big hit the Yankees had so desperately missed the past week or so by sending a long ball into the bullpen in right-center field, his third homer of the season. To say that it was refreshing to see that ball go over the fence is an understatement.

Armed with the lead, Nuno promptly gave up a long Cespedes homer to Monument Park, possibly the most predictable homer of the year given Nuno's unimpressive repertoire and Cespedes's power bat. (As an aside, Michael Kay tried to make a point of how guys with shaky stuff need to hit their spots to succeed, then compared Nuno's repertoire to 2008 Mike Mussina. Preposterous.) Norris singled to left on a grounder through the left side, but Nuno managed to work out of the jam by fanning Brandon Moss and inducing a 5-4-3 double play from Kyle Blanks. Although it looked like the Yankees might get the A's back for that run when Ichiro and Gardner were on first and second with two outs in the fourth, Chavez snuffed out the rally by getting a called strike three on Jeter.

With over 70 pitches already in the books, Nuno took the mound for the fifth and immediately ran into trouble against the bottom of the A's lineup. He walked Alberto Callaspo and Nick Punto sent a single up the middle to bring the tying run to the plate with nobody out. Craig Gentry hit a grounder toward first that Mark Teixeira reached and made a nice dive to first, beating Gentry to the bag, though both runners moved up. Jed Lowrie sent a long fly to the right field wall, enough to score Callaspo. With Donaldson due up, Joe Girardi decided that was enough from Nuno, and lifted him after just 4 2/3 innings--another short outing from a member of the rotation. Womp. Thankfully, Matt Daley got Donaldson to lift a lazy fly to right field to end the inning.

The productive outing did not last for Daley, who promptly gave up a Yankee Stadium special homer to Cespedes, his second of the game. Norris reached on a bad throw by Jeter, and Girardi brought lefty Matt Thornton into the game. The southpaw didn't really do his job, as Moss singled and Blanks walked to load the bases with nobody out. He did a decent job working out of the jam, surrendering only the tying run on a sacrifice fly by Callaspo, but Thornton will have to buy Yangervis Solarte a nice suit sometime. Solarte saved the inning with a great charge on a slow roller from Gentry, and he fired to first just in time to end the inning and preserve the tie.

Rookie Jose Ramirez entered for the seventh after being called up today to provide some bullpen help after several dominant game out of the 'pen in Triple-A Scranton. In his first big league inning, he had the tall task of facing the heart of Oakland's lineup. Even the best of relievers might falter under such conditions, and sure enough, Donaldson took Ramirez deep to left field with one out to give the A's a 5-4 lead. Ramirez retired all three other hitters, but the damage was done.

Meanwhile, the Yankees reverted back to their non-scoring ways. They had a chance to score in the sixth when after reaching on a fielder's choice, Ichiro stole second with two outs and advanced to third on a bad throw from Norris. John Ryan Murphy could not capitalize on this investment opportunity though, and he bounced out to end the inning. The Yankees had another shot in the seventh when Jeter reached on an error by Lowrie and Ellsbury singled him to scoring position with one out. Unfortunately, Teixeira could only ground into a force out against new reliever Dan Otero, and Brian McCann also hit one weakly, bringing the rally to a halt.

The Yankees couldn't manage much of anything else at the plate, and fresh(?) mop-up man Wade LeBlanc gave up two more runs in the ninth to effectively end hopes of a comeback with dominant reliever Sean Doolittle coming in for the ninth. Surprise, surprise.

The only plus side is that Masahiro Tanaka pitches tomorrow in an attempt to get the Yankees their first win since he was last on the mound. So it goes these days. Sigh.

Box score
Graph score

I miss Zim.

Last Time on Pinstripe Alley

• Yankees 4, Athletics 7: Ellsbury homer provides only a fleeting lead
• Former Yankees bench coach Don Zimmer passes away at age 83
• Yankees lineup vs. Athletics - Aceves DFA'd, Claiborne optioned; Jose Ramirez called up
• The Yankees should look for bullpen depth from within
• A salute to one of the most important scouts in MLB history: Paul Krichell
• Daily Yankees Predictions 6/4/14: Offense would be nice
• MLB Draft 2014: How to watch, TV schedule, and time
• Baby Bomber Recap 6/3/14: Rob Refsnyder still red-hot in Thunder win

Yankees News

New York Daily News | Bill Madden: Longtime Yankees bench coach and baseball legend Don Zimmer has passed away at the age of 83.

It's About the Money | Brad Vietrogoski: It's already looking like the Yankees will be stuck with CC Sabathia's albatross contract.

LoHud | Chad Jennings: Alfonso Soriano talks about the slump he is going through.

NJ.com | Brendan Kuty: Carlos Beltran is expected to return to the Yankees today.

New York Post | Ken Davidoff: The Yankees need Mark Teixeira to remain healthy and productive to take the strain off the bullpen.

Pinstriped Pundits | Chris Mitchell: A look at how some of the second-tier prospects have done this season, including Jake Cave, Mark Montgomery, and Danny Burawa.

The Wall Street Journal | Daniel Barbarisi: Matt Thornton, Jacoby Ellsbury, and David Robertson look back at the sports they gave up to play professional baseball.

ESPN New York | Andrew Marchand: The oral history of the rise and fall of Brien Taylor, the Yankees No.1 overall draft pick from 1990.

CBS New York | Sweeny Murti: If Paul O`Neill and Tino Martinez are getting plaques, then Willie Randolph and Graig Nettles should be honored too.

MLB.com | Teddy Cahill: A look at how the first rounders from the 2013 draft are doing in 2014, including Aaron Judge, Eric Jagielo, and Ian Clarkin.

It's About the Money | Katie Sharp: Vidal Nuno has been pretty good on the road, but it all goes down hill in Yankee Stadium.

Recapping the Yankees' minor league affiliates' results from June 4th.

Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders:L 7-14 vs. Norfolk Tides

2B Jose Pirela 3-5, RBI, SB, E4(6th) - batting .400/.444/.540 over his last 10 games
LF Zoilo Almonte 2-5, RBI
CF Adonis Garcia 0-3, 2 BB
DH Kyle Roller 1-4, HR, 3 RBI, BB - fourth homer w/ SWB
3B Zelous Wheeler 1-5, 2 K
1B Corban Joseph 0-4, RBI, 2 K
RF Russ Canzler 1-4, BB, K - batting .279 this season
C Austin Romine 2-5, double, K
SS Carmen Angelini 3-4, RBI

Joel De La Cruz 3.2 IP, 9 H, 7 R/3 ER, 2 BB, 2 K - 46 of 81 pitches for strikes
Jairo Heredia 0.2 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
Mark Montgomery 1.2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K - 2.42 ERA this season
Danny Burawa 1 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 2 BB
Jim Miller 2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K

Double-A Trenton Thunder:L 4-6 vs. Richmond Flying Squirrels

CF Mason Williams 0-4, K
LF Ben Gamel 1-4, RBI, 2 K
1B Tyler Austin 1-4, HR, RBI - second homer of the season
C Gary Sanchez 1-3, BB, K, E2 - pickoff error, ninth of the season
RF Peter O'Brien 2-3, HR, RBI, BB, K - 21st homer of the season (11th w/ Thunder)
2B Rob Refsnyder 2-4, RBI - nine-game hitting streak (.439/.465/.829)
DH Yeral Sanchez 0-4, 2 K
3B Dan Fiorito 1-4
SS Ali Castillo 1-4, SB

Bryan Mitchell 4 IP, 6 H, 3 R/2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K - 43 of 72 pitches for strikes
Tyler Webb 1 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
Manny Barreda 2 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, WP
Cesar Cabral 1 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, K

High-A Tampa Yankees:W 7-6 vs. Charlotte Stone Crabs

CF Jake Cave 2-5, triple, RBI, K, OF assist - batting .306 this season
SS Cito Culver 2-5, double, 2 RBI, K
DH Greg Bird 2-3, double, BB
1B Zach Wilson 1-3, 3 RBI
LF Danny Oh 1-4, RBI, K
3B Jose Toussen 1-4
C Trent Garrison 0-2, 2 BB
RF Cody Grice 0-4, K
2B Claudio Custodio 0-4, 4 K

Dan Camarena 5.2 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, WP, hit batsman - 7 GO/5 AO
Alex Smith 1.1 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, K
Nick Rumbelow 2 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K - fourth win of the season

Low-A Charleston RiverDogs:L 1-3 vs. Hickory Crawdads

LF Michael O'Neill 1-4, 2 K, OF assist
SS Tyler Wade 2-4, double, SB - batting .278 this season
DH Aaron Judge 0-4, RBI, 3 K
1B Mike Ford 1-4
C Jackson Valera 1-4, K, SB
RF Dustin Fowler 1-4
3B Miguel Andujar 2-4
CF Brandon Thomas 0-2, BB, K, OF assist, HBP
2B Gosuke Katoh 0-4, K

Luis Severino 6 IP, 8 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, E1, pickoff, hit batsman - 4 GO/5 AO
Rony Bautista 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 3 BB
Cesar Vargas 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, K

Well, the Yankees scored more than two runs. Progress, I suppose. Meanwhile, Tanaka will once again play the role of 'stopper' and try and salvage one game of this series with the A's. Also, DP questions and answers!

I'm still very sad by the passing of Don Zimmer. R.I.P. Zim.

6/4/14 Daily Prediction Answers

No winners today. Just a bunch of 2,000 point ties. That's boring.

6/5/14 Daily Predictions & Fun Question

Favorite Don Zimmer moment?

What other food do you think goes best with Peanut Butter?

Favorite "Disaster" movie?

Current song stuck in your head?

Masahiro Tanaka, Best AL pitcher for the month of May, takes the mound against the Athletics in an attempt to salvage a game this afternoon. We can all use some sweet, sweet Tanaka Time right about now.

Go Yankees. Please.

In limited time, Whitley has shown (so far) that he deserves a shot at a permanent spot in the starting rotation.

Chase Whitley is not a flashy prospect. His fastball is underwhelming, stuff and velocity-wise, and the only plus-pitch he really features is his changeup. That's all he has needed so far; Whitley has pitched to the tune of a 2.37 ERA and 2.27 FIP in 19 innings thus far. That's an extremely small sample; is it possible that this continues? Probably not.

Whitley has faced teams like the Cubs, Twins, and the Mets (and the Cardinals, too), so part of his success can be attributed to the fact that he faced three below-average offensive teams. He's also new to starting; he was converted from a full-time reliever just last season and has yet to be stretched out to the length associated with a starter as he has yet to pitch more than five innings in an outing. That doesn't mean he can't be successful over an extended period of time.

By all measures, Whitley's performance is not a total fluke. In terms of batted ball data, Whitley has not gotten lucky at all as he's had a BABIP of .339, a mark that is much higher than any mark he has had throughout his career. And while I won't say that this figure will regress to his minor league mean, it certainly is a good sign. He has not allowed a home run so far, so that will obviously come to an end. That doesn't mean he will become a home run machine, but I would expect them to pop up. Whitley's strikeout rate is stable at 7.11 K/9 and Steamer believes it will settle at around 6.9. His walk rate is relatively low at 1.42, and Steamer says it shoud land around 2.85-3.58.

What has also been working is his changeup and slider: Whitley has gotten a 16.5% Swinging Strike% and 68.8% GB% from his changeup. And while that actually is creating negative value from FanGraphs' pitch value metric, the fact that he is getting the swings and misses mean that that number will regress to a higher value. His slider, meanwhile, has induced a 29 wRC+ against and has gotten a 17.5% Swinging Strike% and 30.8% K%.

Chase Whitley has accumulated the third most fWAR (0.7) of any Yankee starter and it's no surprise given how he's pitched so far. Do I think he will continue to pitch at this pace? I highly doubt it. But with many of his peripherals stable (other than HR/FB%) and his plus-pitches working, it's clear that he will have some success at the Major League level. Considering that he is the eighth starting pitcher on the depth chart, the Yankees have to be happy about his performance thus far.

Whitley is not going to blow anybody away and he's not going to put up gaudy numbers, but he will be adequate. If the Yankees are lucky and he pitches to his abilities, I wouldn't be surprised if he pitched around 90 FIP-. While the Yankees thought they had a bounty of young pitching to fill out the back end of their rotation (Nova, Pineda, and Phelps), Whitley could be a dark horse in that race for a long-term spot.

Masahiro Tanaka Day is here, so now the Yankees can finally get a win.

#Yankees lineup vs. OAK Gardner LF Jeter SS Ellsbury CF Teixeira 1B Beltran DH Solarte 3B McCann C Soriano RF Roberts 2B Tanaka P

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) June 5, 2014

Brett Gardner, Derek Jeter, and Jacoby Ellsbury are at the top of the lineup, as usual. Mark Teixeira bats cleanup, while Carlos Beltran returns to the lineup as the designated hitter. Girardi has said that he will use Beltran exclusively as a DH for now, meaning that three-year contract is looking pretty bad already. Yangervis Solarte bats sixth and Brian McCann has been dropped to seventh in the order. Alfonso Soriano is in right field and has dropped to eighth, so this should be a pretty ugly day for him on both sides of the ball. Brian Roberts is also still hanging on as he bats ninth.

To make room for Carlos Beltran, the Yankees have designated Scott Sizemore for assignment for some reason or another. Sizemore hasn't been overly impressive, but he hasn't been bad either. Throw in the fact that neither Kelly Johnson nor Brian Roberts have been very impressive and after placing Michael Pineda on the 60-day DL they also designated Alfredo Aceves for assignment, this move was completely unnecessary and unhelpful to the team. Now the Yankees' 40-man roster stands at 38 and it remains to be seen what they intend to do with those spots.

UPDATE:

Team official says Scott Sizemore DFA actually an Optional Assignment Waiver situation, meaning he stays w/ Yanks -basically optioned to AAA

— Daniel Barbarisi (@DanBarbarisi) June 5, 2014

Ok, this makes more sense now. The 40-man roster stands at 39.

When a man spends 66 years in baseball, everyone will have a story. Here's mine.

There used to be such a thing as "colorful" characters in baseball. Men who added something to the game that couldn't be measured sabermetrically, or with any other metric. Typically, I have little use for such judgments as I feel they often attempt to measure something that by definition is unmeasurable, and there's a built-in contradiction from the get-go.

Don Zimmer was one of those guys -- not a particularly gifted player or manager, but still an historic one. He compiled over 3500 plate appearances in the major leagues. Not mentioned among the most brilliant managerial tacticians, he also managed four teams and over 1700 games.

Here's my addition to the oeuvre of Don Zimmer stories -- the number of times he was ejected as a player, manager or coach:

Clearly, Zimmer was a man of strong opinions and had a willingness to share them with umpires no matter his role. Being tossed 12 times as a coach is something remarkable, the third-highest total of coaching ejections for as long as Retrosheet has data, which goes back to around 1900 (behind Cal Ripken Sr. with 23 and George Myatt with 13).

Oddly enough, last night both Rick Renteria of the Cubs and Robin Ventura of the White Sox were ejected, only the seventh time managers of both Chicago teams were ejected on the same day. With 12 hours of hindsight, I'd like to think both did it as an homage to Zimmer. Thanks for the memories, Don, I'll never forget the pleasant surprise that were the 1989 Cubs.

Follow Scott on Twitter @ScottLindholm

The Yankees have only won one game since our last recording and Don Zimmer passed away, so you can imagine how cheery we are.

Hey, remember when the Yankees were playing decently and had just taken two out of three from the Cardinals? Well, that didn't last.

[0:00] R.I.P. Don Zimmer =(
[1:21] The crappy losses recently have begun to blend together...
[3:15] Defending David Robertson and trying to make sense of the ever-changing bullpen
[11:14] Short outings from most of the rotation are not helping the relievers stay rested
[13:13] Remembering our favorite Don Zimmer memories
[21:20] Can Carlos Beltran's activation provide a boost to the lineup? Should they still pursue Kendrys Morales?
[25:00] Yankees 'pen is missing Shawn Kelley and thoughts on Francisco Cervelli's possible return
[27:37] Tweetbag: Yangervis Solarte's possible impact on Alex Rodriguez's return in 2015, improving the offense, Manny Banuelos for the 2015 rotation, and any guesses on what Michael Pineda and CC Sabathia could bring to the rotation upon their returns
[38:15] Yankee/Mitre of the Week
[47:23] Final thoughts: Amusing names of possible 2014 draftees to be selected later this week

Podcast link (Length: 51:46)

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A great outing by Pomeranz is spoiled when the offense fails to show up, and the A's lose an exciting pitcher's duel. What a dumb way to start off a morning.

Maybe we were never meant to win this game.   

It’s tough to say that now, after the countless missed chances. But to be honest, I had written this game off as a loss as soon as I saw the pitching matchup. Cy Young favorite Masahiro Tanaka versus marginal 5^th starter/long reliever Drew Pomeranz? I fully expected to lose the game 5-0 or something. I would’ve been fine with that.

But then we knocked out Tanaka after 6 innings, and Pomeranz turned in the best start of his career. That’s right: Drew Pomeranz outdueled Masahiro Tanaka. But that’s not just because Pomeranz was great – Tanaka was bad. He only stuck out 4 batters, a career/season low. He only lasted 6 innings, a career/season low. He allowed the first homer in his last 39 innings. He was bad. But we failed to pile on and make the big hits when it was needed, and  he walked away with only one ER. He was certainly off enough to break his quality start streak, if the A’s could’ve capitalized. But they didn’t, and so it goes.

I really can’t say enough good things about Drew Pomeranz today. 7 IP, 1 ER, 7 K, 1 BB. Just an absolutely incredible game when we really needed an incredible game to win. But a Moss error in the OF allowed an unearned run to score, and so it goes.

The game started off on a really hopeful note: John Jaso homered on the seventh pitch of the game. Don’t look now, but his wRC+ is up to 150, and he’s already matched last year’s fWAR total. ZiPS and Steamer both have him putting up close to the best season of his career. John Jaso is good. For a guy we had written off as a pure DH three months ago, and talked about trading for SP depth last month, he’s been incredible and an indispensable part of this team.

Right fielder Stephen Vogt (???) also had a weirdly impressive game, going 2-4 and making an impressive running catch to end a Yankees rally. He was also the only outfielder that left today’s game without an error, just like we all expected.

I really can’t wait for the inevitable 3 catcher lineup BoMel will roll out. Bring back Daric Barton, and we’ll have 5 players that came up as catchers on the field! Ray Fosse would squeal in delight.

Unfortunately, when the offensive high point comes about 2 minutes into a game, the game usually isn’t great.

Tanaka immediately settled down and set down 10 batters in a row, before beginning the awful tightrope act that would define the A’s offense for the rest of the game. The A’s left two men on base in the 4^th, 5^th, and 8^th innings. They went a combined 0-7 with RISP.

The eighth inning was the killing blow. Crisp and Jaso singled to start off the inning, so Runs DMC had three out to tie up the game. Donaldson had the most inexplicably terrible at-bat I’ve seen from him this year: swinging through a slider, bunting a ball foul (???), and then striking out on a hanging slider.  Moss tried his darnedest, but Ichiro is just as annoying on the East Coast as he was in Seattle. And then Cespedes had a predictable K. So it goes.

The other big scoring threat came in the ninth, when Vogt hit a one-out single. Pinch runner Craig Gentry stole 2^nd, and Callaspo hit a single up the middle… except it wasn’t a single, because closer David Robertson managed to kick it to Teixeira,for the routine 1-3-1 putout. Norris struck out with the tying run 90 feet away. So it goes.

I could talk about the bizarre strikezone, but that would just obfuscate the main factor in the game: the offense couldn’t get it done. The pitching was great from both Pomeranz and Jim Johnson. The defense was bad, but only Moss’s error that turned a single into a double really made a difference – and even then, you can’t expect to win a game in which you only score one run.

We’re the top rated offense in baseball, although the Jays are rapidly contesting that mark.  Games like this don’t happen often, but they do happen. The 1927 Yankees scored one run or less 10 times. We’ve only done it 6 times.

If we had won, I’d be talking about how ridiculous and unexpected it was that we managed to steal a Masahiro Tanaka vs. Drew Pomeranz game. This team is ridiculous and unexpected, but that doesn’t mean the expected never happens. So it goes.

That's an ace.

Even though Masahiro Tanaka was battling one of the best teams in baseball with a dangerous lineup and was given very little cushion by his offense, the Yankees' ace held Oakland's hitters to five hits and one run over six innings for his ninth win of the year. It was not Tanaka's most dominant outing of the season, striking out only four batters, but he walked only one and kept runs off the board to give the Yankees' scuffling offense a chance to squeak by with a narrow victory to avoid being swept.

In previous years, the bullpen formula of David Robertson, Rafael Soriano, and Mariano Rivera was what the team strived to make it to. Get it to the back end of the bullpen and everything will be okay. That has been true more often than not this season, and certainly played out today. The players are different now, of course. Dellin Betances, Adam Warren, then Robertson is the new formula, and it worked to perfection today with the team clinging to a one-run lead after Tanaka left the game. Betances struck out one batter in his inning of work, Warren allowed two hits but got two big strikeouts in the eighth inning, and Robertson struck out two in the final frame. Just like that, the Yankees' losing streak was over.

The lone blemish on Tanaka's record today was a first inning home run by John Jaso. Other than that, there was very little to complain about how he performed against one of the tougher match ups he'll face in the American League this season. He remains the AL ERA leader, dropping his season average to 2.02.

Two runs out of the Yankees' offense seems to be a bit of a pattern recently, and that was no different today. After falling behind on Jaso's home run, the Yankees' tied the game after Brian McCann singled and advanced to second on a fielding error by Brandon Moss. Alfonso Soriano drove in McCann to snap an ugly prolonged slump at the plate. Brett Gardner put the Yankees on top for good with a solo home run into the second deck in the third inning. It was Gardner's fourth long ball of the season.

Jacoby Ellsbury very nearly went yard for the second straight game when he laced a double off the very top of the wall in right field. It was originally ruled a home run on the field before replay quickly overturned the call. Ellsbury has really broken out of his May-long slump of late, reaching base three times today and stealing two bases. He is now the owner of a nine-game hitting streak. Soriano doubled on a ball that Coco Crisp lost in the sun for the Yankees' third and final extra base hit of the game. Carlos Beltran went 0-3 with two strikeouts in his return to the lineup.

The Yankees now hit the road to take on the Kansas City Royals for a four-game set this weekend. The Royals are currently in last place in the AL Central, having gone 4-6 over their last ten games. Hopefully a struggling team can get our own struggling team back on track. Chase Whitley will face Jeremy Guthrie in the first of the four games tomorrow at 8:10 pm.

You can hang around Pinstripe Alley tonight for MLB Draft coverage beginning at 6:30 with an open thread. We'll also have a post up about the Yankees' only selection tonight in the second round, as well as complete coverage of the later rounds tomorrow and Saturday.

Scott Boras: Nope.

The draft pick compensation tied to Kendrys Morales will no longer exist once the 2014 MLB Draft kicks off in a little over an hour. The slugging first baseman will then become much more valuable and desirable to teams in need of an offensive boost with a few weeks to go before trade season heats up. The Yankees have been rumored to be interested in Morales on multiple occasions, but it's difficult to see where he would fit into the lineup with Mark Teixeira entrenched at first base and Joe Girardi claiming that Carlos Beltran will serve primarily as the DH while he tries to avoid surgery on a bone spur in his elbow.

Signing Kendrys Morales no longer a terrible idea

Injuries to Mark Teixeira and Carlos Beltran could make signing Morales make sense for the Yankees.

According to Jon Heyman, the Yankees asked Morales' agent Scott Boras to "wait a few days" to sign until they could evaluate the injury statuses of both Teixeira and Beltran, but Boras, expectedly, was not willing to do that. An injury to one of the two sluggers would obviously open up playing time for a 1B/DH type like Morales, but he isn't going to unseat either Teixeira or Beltran if they are healthy. Other teams who do not feel the need to wait and see on Morales are likely to scoop up the free agent in the next day or so. It wouldn't be particularly surprising to see him signed tonight or tomorrow, but he would likely need a bit of time to get ready after sitting out the season to this point along the same lines as Stephen Drew.

Offensively, the Yankees have really struggled to put runs on the board. Adding a prolific bat like Morales' to that mix could help boost the output at the plate. However, his inability to play any position other than first base or DH severely limits the impact he can have on the Yankees. If Teixeira is healthy, he is going to be the first baseman. His wrist pain could very well flare up multiple times over the rest of the season, but the team can surely not promise any regular playing time to Morales at first base as long as Teixeira isn't on the disabled list. Carlos Beltran may find himself unable to play through the pain of the bone spur in his elbow through the help of cortisone for the remainder of the season without needing to undergo surgery. Still, his three-year deal is going to keep the Yankees from committing to a player to serve as the DH as long as Beltran and others need to occupy the spot regularly.

It seems like another team would be a better fit for Morales at this point, which means his chances of joining the Yankees are quite slim. It's possible that the Steinbrenners will panic and sign him anyway, but teams like the Brewers, Mariners, and Rangers are probably much better bets. Either way, Morales' eventual destination should be known sooner than later.

Welcome to the first day of the 2014 MLB Draft. If you've been following along with us at home, you'll know that the Yankees don't have a draft pick in the first round because of their signings of Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann, and Carlos Beltran. They will still draft today, though, as their first pick will come 55th overall in the second round. While this might be less exciting, there is still plenty of talent the Yankees could pick up tonight.

If you're someone who likes to read up on who is on the board, take a look at these helpful resources:

External Resources

• Baseball America top 500 draft prospects
• MLB.com top 200 draft prospects
• Minor League Ball's top 350 draft prospects
• Top prospects by region: California, Carolinas, Deep South, Florida, Georgia, Islands, Mid-Atlantic, The Midwest, North, Northeast, Ohio Valley, Pacfic Northwest, Southwest and Rockies, Texas and Oklahoma

Pinstripe Alley Resources

• I looked at the history of the 55th overall pick to give you a sense of what kind of talent the Yankees could find.
• Chris Mitchell looked to see whether the Yankees prefer drafting high school or college players.
• Caitlin looked back at the 2013 draft to see how likely it could be that a top-50 pick falls to the Yankees.
• I pulled out some names from Minor League Ball's top 350 list that could correspond to the 55th overall pick.
• I created an interactive map of where each Yankees draft pick was taken from over the last five years to see what regions the organization prefers to draft from.
• Minor League Ball did a community mock draft for the first four rounds.
• We ran a series taking a look at the Yankees' current depth to show you what they might need the most in 2014: Starting pitching, relievers, corner infielders, middle infielders, and outfielders

If you're new to PSA, we'd like to welcome you to the party and hope that you stay with us going forward. Please, feel free to click around, say hi, and talk baseball with everyone.

The Mariners are 31-28, as good a time as any to talk about this elephant in the dugout.

Robinson Cano signed a very large, very long contract to come to Seattle to hit baseballs. And hit he has. As of this moment, he has 72 of them, good for a batting average of .330. We don't talk about the importance of batting average much around here, because, well, it's not all that important. But when you give Robinson Cano the old fashioned eyeball test, it's a nice reminder of what professional hitters used to look like when they wore a Mariner uniform.

The problem, of course is this:

It has been well documented that while Robinson Cano might be hitting, he's not hitting for much power. Yes, he has 17 doubles which most projections place him on a pace somewhere around 36 to 38 doubles, but that's still a five-year low for Cano. And then there's the two home runs. Indeed, after averaging better than 28 of them the past five seasons as a member of the New York Yankees, Robinson Cano has had the incivility to plate himself just twice.

It could be that some had elevated expectations. Even the most optimistic of projection systems saw Cano hitting about .285 with a slugging percentage around .460, hitting 22 home runs. This is in large part due to Cano moving from one of the worlds friendliest places to hit home runs as a left handed batter to one that was well below league average. Of course, also wrapped up in this was the fact that Cano is 31, and everything we've learned about hitter aging points to a slow, steady, deterioration. Even if you're a star hitter, that appears to be generally true. To borrow an image from the venerable Jeff Zimmerman on ISO and aging (this one is particularly fun, because of the differences in those two groups of seasons):

As granny used to say, "Dear, we're all dying. Every day. Have a cookie." Sigh.

But let's try to look objectively at Cano's current body of work as a Mariner, and a little about how pitchers are approaching him in 2014.

Many have taken a cursory glance at his batted ball profile and asserted that he's simply hitting too many ground balls, and that certainly seems to be the case thus far, but there's more to his batted ball profile:

His line drive rate is up, and the eyes would corroborate that. His ground ball rate is up by 4.5%, which I wouldn't call a smoking gun.The fly ball rate is certainly low given his career rate and then -- needle scratch -- check that HR/FB rate. His HR/FB rate in the last three seasons has been 17%, 24%, 17%. Park factors aside, there's no reason to expect Robinson Cano to leave the yard just 4% of the time on the few fly balls he manages to hit. So has he been unlucky?

This chart, courtesy of the nerd factory at Fangraphs allows us to not only see the distribution of batted balls, but you can go ahead and mouse over the pretty blue dots to see how many times Cano has gone warning track and come up empty.

Source: FanGraphs

Maybe it's the park, maybe it's bad luck, maybe he's dying every day. But that looks like a goodly number of deep fly outs to me. However, if we borrow once again from the Kansas City great Jeff Zimmerman and his baseballheatmaps.com, we can look at the average distance of his home runs and fly balls over the past several seasons. Which yields this:

So maybe not so unlucky. His average distance on home runs and fly balls is just 274 feet, a five year low. Of course, should he hit a couple moon shots today, poof, irrelevant table. As for the angle, I included that just because I find it super interesting, although unrelated directly to his power output. The angle represents the range of possible landing spots on a -45 to 45 spectrum where -45 is the left field line and 45 is the right field line. On fly balls and home runs, Cano has gotten progressively more prone to going the other way, something that could become potentially problematic to his home run totals in a place like Safeco Field.

As for his opposition sixty feet six inches away, pitchers do seem to be approaching Cano differently as a Mariner than over the course of his career, and it's a bit counter intuitive on the surface:

As a Mariner, there's been an uptick in four seam fastballs Cano has seen and a pretty sharp decline in sliders. But perhaps opposing pitchers are more than willing to let Cano swing given a lack of Stefen Romero fear or something of similar ilk. Or, perhaps they've gotten wise to the fact that Cano slugged .616 with an ISO of .326 on the 284 sliders he saw in 2013. Of the three most likely pitches he saw last year, it was far and away his favorite to feast on.

This is particularly evident against right handed pitchers, representing almost the entirety of the drop in usage. And in fact, right handed pitchers, even when they are ahead, appear entirely reluctant to give him too much in the way of junk. In 2013 when right handed pitchers were ahead in the count, Cano could count on about 34% four seam fastballs. In 2014, it's almost 50%. It's hard to determine why, and what's perhaps more important, why it hasn't allowed him to hit for a Cano-esque power profile as he has in the past.

As for the power, I'll leave you with this gif nugget comparing his 10x10 zones last year to this year:

There's an obvious decline in the middle of the plate in 2014, but there is a sizable disappearance of power up and over the plate. What has historically been wheelhouse territory for Cano has been mostly barren so far this season. And if you're inclined to be irritated by his ground ball rate, you can target that zone as part of the problem:

Yes, there's a small sample size in play here, but you can see those up and over the plate offerings have turned into ground balls at a pretty high rate in comparison to 2013.

I can't say I have a tidy bow to wrap around this. Robinson Cano is hitting, and he's hitting quite well, even leading all second basemen in on base percentage. But his lack of power production has begun to become a thing, for better or for worse. While it is a little easier to ignore it as the Mariners are winning more baseball games than they are losing, it is nevertheless a story that won't go away until Cano makes it go away. I get the sense that once he adjusts to how pitchers are approaching him, coupled perhaps with a little better luck on fly balls, Cano is going to have a stretch that makes all this talk about his power early season folly and articles like this one will be widely panned. And I would very much welcome that.

Go M's.

Second base prospect Rob Refsnyder has been on quite the rampage against Double-A competition.

After being selected in the fifth round of the 2012 draft, then outfielder (now second baseman) Rob Refsnyder has quickly climbed the minor league ladder in the Yankees' organization. After a bit of a sub-par first impression (91 wRC+) with the Low-A Charleston RiverDogs, Refsnyder bounced back very, very strongly (173 wRC+) at the same level to start 2013. In turn, Refsnyder earned a promotion to the High-A Tampa Yankees in mid-May, where he continued to rake, hitting .283/.408/.404. Now in Double-A, Refsnyder keeps making serious noise with the bat here in 2014.

Through 57 games and 228 plate appearances, Refsnyder is hitting .327/.371/.539 with the Thunder. While those numbers are very encouraging, it is, at the same time, interesting to see Refsnyder hit for much more power and draw fewer walks compared to what he did in 2013. Despite playing in 73 fewer games, Refsnyder's six home runs this season already match last year's total. And his overall power, in terms of ISO, is a staggering 92 points higher than last year's mark (.212 vs. .120). On the flip side, the walks are way down this year compared to last (14.7% vs. 5.6%), but if he's hitting for this kind of power, you can live with it. We'll worry about the lack of walks when (if?) he stops crushing Double-A competition.

Now, if you've been reading Tanya's Baby Bomber Recaps, you'd notice that Refsnyder has been on quite the tear recently. Over his last 10 games, Refsnyder is hitting .476/.500/.905; since the start of May (34 games) he's hitting .366/.390/.641; and even since April 17 (45 games), Refsnyder is raking to a .365/.402/.590 line. No matter where you pick your endpoint, Rob Refsnyder is flat-out making a mockery of the Eastern League.

Defensively, Refsnyder still has work to do at second, but strides have been made. Remember: this is just his second season at the position since high school, so of course there were going to be bumps in the road. Refsnyder is athletic enough to man the position, has pretty decent range, and has a strong arm; he just needs to continue to get reps and experience at the position.

Considering we're still in the early stages of June, it might still be too soon to really think of a possible promotion to Triple-A for Refsnyder, but he is sure making his case. If he continues to hit well (it doesn't even have to be this well), come the All-Star Break in mid-July, perhaps a one-way ticket to Scranton, PA could be in order. Second baseman Jose Pirela is currently in Triple-A, but the general consensus is that Refsnyder is the better prospect, so the former should move off the position in favor of the latter in that event. In the meantime, Refsnyder is, at least, providing fans of some hope that the team could have its future second baseman just a couple steps away from the major leagues.

History is like a city bus or a subway car. If you miss one, a virtually identical model will be along shortly. While baseball should in no way be equated to something as serious as a war (right, Big Papi?), sometimes there are useful analogies to be found.

In the Red Sox-Rays game of May 24, a contest that went 15 innings, Red Sox manager John Farrell's bullpen usage came under some unfair criticism. Of the seven relievers utilized by Red Sox manager John Farrell, Koji Uehara, presumably the best of the lot, threw the fewest pitches. He was gone after just a dozen offerings, whereas lesser luminaries such as Edward Mujica threw twice as many.

In the absence of other information, we might consider it criminally negligent to give Mujica -- until recently a very fine pitcher, but also one who has clearly had something wrong with him since last September, and the owner of an 8.26 ERA in the 28.1 innings he's thrown subsequently -- more playing time than Uehara in anything other than a blowout. However, Uehara has a long injury history himself, including some right-shoulder soreness this spring, and Farrell's in-and-out with his closer can be interpreted as his saying, "This May game is not one which I find worth gambling Uehara's health."

Flash forward 11 days, to Wednesday night of this week. Boston's fortunes turned some thanks to a seven-game winning streak, but the team was still nowhere near where World Series champions would be expected to be. The Sox had followed that positive streak by dropping two in a row to the Indians at Progressive Field, so we can imagine -- forgive the tiniest bit of mind-reading here, just this once -- that on Wednesday, when confronted with another tie game, Farrell might have thought of the standings, considered the later date, and put more emphasis on stopping the Sox' slide at two. This time, he let Uehara work two innings and throw 30 pitches.

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At that point, having failed to break the tie, he went back to Mujica, who swiftly Mujica'ed it up, allowing two singles and a walk-off three-run home run to Asdrubal Cabrera. Sometimes you do the right thing and the fates still squelch you. Yes, there is some inconsistency in Farrell's approach here, but he's the manager precisely so as to make value judgments such as these.

In pushing Uehara, Farrell had finally honored one of the smartest observations Hall of Fame manager Leo Durocher ever made. Durocher had faults too numerous to mention here, but he was as right as anyone ever was about anything when he said, "Never save a pitcher for tomorrow. Tomorrow it might rain."

This goes to the quizzical way bullpens are managed these days. As I and others have pointed out, the emphasis on using closers in save situations tends to off-shift innings to pitchers who, at least by their designation as non-closers, are not the best in the bullpen. Here are the 2014 innings pitched leaders among pure relievers as contrasted with the innings pitched totals for the leaders in saves, through Wednesday's games:

With the 150^th anniversary of the war years upon us, the Civil War has never been far from my mind. Not that one needs an excuse -- books on every conceivable aspect of the war continue to be published at a fantastic rate. The next 50 Shades of Grey-like phenomenon will probably be something like Clara Barton's Excessively Sanguinary Petticoats.And so it is that, after consideration during these fatigue-cap days and nights, it has come to seem to me that modern bullpen usage is a bit like one of the most important moments of the conflict, the Battle of Antietam, which took place on September 17, 1862.

Back-breaking tomes have been written on what remains one of the bloodiest days in American history and.this is a baseball site, so I assume you really don't want to know from me what you could more easily get from Ken Burns. As such, rather than do the impossible and try to give you every detail, I'm just going to supply the broadest of outlines.

So: in September of 1862, the Confederate Army of Virginia under General Robert E. Lee crossed the Potomac River and invaded Maryland, moving towards Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The Army of the Potomac, commanded by General George McClellan, gave chase. Due to a bit of good luck -- someone had wrapped Lee's orders around some cigars and dropped them -- McClellan knew that Lee had sent a good chunk of his army to Harper's Ferry, about 17 miles away from his main concentration of troops near Sharpsburg, Maryland.

Given this knowledge, McClellan understood that Lee's army was diminished and could be picked apart. Instead, because he was obsessed by the idea that Lee was trailing 100,000 reserves around with him in some giant invisible lawn-and-leaf bag, McClellan sat on the information. This allowed Lee to get himself organized along a series of ridges around the town of Sharpsburg, with the Antietam Creek separating his army and McClellan's. McClellan set up his headquarters about a mile and a half from there, which in those days might as well have been in the next state.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The battle that followed basically unfolded in three stages over one very long day. Put extremely simply, first McClellan tried Lee's left. This resulted in some ultra-violence done to an innocent cornfield, but it didn't work out. Then he tried the center, where the Rebels had an excellent position along a sunken road which functioned something like a World War I trench, the occupying soldiers having piled fence rails in front of it. Somehow, that kind of did work, because the Bluecoats managed to get a position astride the road and fire down into it. The sunken road became "Bloody Lane" as its defenders were mowed down.

And yet, as had become typical of his management style, McClellan declined to press an advantage. McClellan initially outnumbered Lee three to one. He had reserves back with him in his faraway bolt-hole, General William Franklin's VI Corps. "Put me in, coach!" Franklin said, or words to that effect.

"It would not be prudent to make the attack," McClellan replied, visualizing the 100,000-strong clone army that Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas had commissioned in the last days of the Galactic Republic, which McClellan for some reason believed Lee had in reserve. In fact, the entire white male population of the South not in uniform at that time numbered about 11, but no one could convince George and his effulgent mustache of that. Thus, Lee found time to reinforce his center by transferring troops from quiet sectors of the battlefield.

General Ambrose Burnside and his sideburns (Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons)

Finally, though Antietam Creek was not particularly deep, Union General Ambrose Burnside, one of the war's true incompetents, sent most of his IX Corps across a narrow bridge within range of Confederate guns, thoughtfully allowing the enemy to pick them off one by one in shooting gallery fashion. Somehow, Burnside's men got a foothold on the other side -- right around when the troops Lee had sent to Harper's Ferry, hastily recalled, arrived on the scene. Much confusion ensued, as some of the new combatants were wearing captured blue uniforms.

Burnside sent to McClellan for reinforcements. This time it was General Fitz John Porter and his V Corps all warmed up in the bullpen. Well, maybe not quite so warmed up. Does the manager ever signal to the bullpen for a reliever and have the pitcher refuse to enter the game? That's what happened here. McClellan opened his mouth to say something -- we'll never know what -- and Porter cut him off by shaking his head. "Remember, General," he chided, "I command the last reserve of the last army of the Republic."

So McClellan, visualizing Lee's secret army of White Walkers, goblins, balrogs, and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine coming over that ridge, stream-rollering past him, and sacking Washington, again said no. Burnside's men were thrown back across the bridge. Battle over. Total casualties: about 22,700 Americans, 12,401 on the Union side, 10,316 on the other.

The Confederates retreated back into Virginia, so the battle was enough of a victory that President Lincoln felt he could follow up with the Emancipation Proclamation, but a great opportunity to hasten the war's end was lost. One of McClellan's aides later observed, "McClellan brought superior forces to Sharpsburg, but he also brought himself." As for the General's own postgame assessment, he reported to his wife, "Those in whose judgment I rely tell me that I fought the battle splendidly and that it was a masterpiece of art."

It was, incidentally, comments like these after getting shelled that got Ian Kennedy traded away from the Yankees. They also got McClellan elected governor of New Jersey later in his life, which if you know New Jersey makes a certain kind of sense. In between, Lincoln waited for McClellan to follow Lee past those damned hills, and when six weeks passed without anything happening, Lincoln fired him.

Abraham Lincoln meets with General George McClellan after the Battle of Antietam. Note that Lincoln lacks his customary mellow expression. (Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons)

Managers who save their closers the way McClellan saved his reserves should suffer the same fate, but skippers conduct themselves as if McClellan was their hero. For me, the quintessential version of this self-emasculating strategy will be Joe Torre holding Mariano Rivera out of Game 4 of the 2003 World Series so that the great Jeff Weaver could serve up a walk-off home run to shortstop Alex Gonzalez. It was a tie game on the road, you know.

It is fair to argue that a closer can only throw a certain number of innings/pitches in a given season and that a manager must pick his spots, just as a general must choose the right moment to throw in his reserves. At the outset, I said that John Farrell is in his position to make just those kinds of value judgments, although as Burnside and McClellan attest, not all generals are created equal. McClellan was blind to his opportunities. It remains to be seen whether today's managers will ever awaken to theirs.

Tanaka helped the Yankees salvage one game against the A's. Perhaps they can build upon yesterday's win. Chase Whitley takes the mound in Kauffman Stadium to face the Royals. PSA DP takes the forum now!

BLAH

6/5/14 Daily Prediction Answers

The Aardvarks are both happy and sad. Happy that there was little math to do, but sad that there were only three participants yesterday. Even with that, there were no winners. ASR & selftitled85 tied with 3,000 points. Aaron Uno will be in the corner, crying.

6/6/14 Daily Predictions & Fun Question

Burgers: Favorite way to have your burger prepared? (Cooked, toppings, etc)

Favorite draft beer?

If you were drafting prospects for the Yankees, what's your number one priority?

What color do you wear the most?

Chase Whitley will pitch against the Royals tonight in the Kauf. Whitley still needs to show he can pitch deeper into the game, but there's been little wrong with his stuff. We really need him and other pitchers not named Tanaka to give us some length. Speaking of giving us some length, how about a round of applause for Tanya & Jason for all the work they're doing for the MLB Draft.

Let's Go Yankees

The Yankees selected left-handed reliever Jacob Lindgren out of Mississippi State with their first and only pick in Day One of the draft. Today, they'll have quite a few more chances to bring in new talent to infuse the lower levels of the minor league system with. The Pinstripe Alley staff will have coverage of each of the Yankees' picks today, so stay tuned through out the day to find out which players the Yankees selected.

Rounds 3-10 will take place today, and you can follow along on MLB.com and right here for all the Yankees picks. The first pick of the day for New York will come at #91. Round Three will begin at 1:00 pm EDT. The Yankees don't play until 8:00 pm tonight, so you have plenty of time to hang out with us this afternoon!

Here are some posts to check out while you wait for the Yankees to make their first selection today:

• Yankees select LHP Jacob Lindgren 55th overall
• Scouting report and addition information on newest Yankee Jacob Lindgren
• Draft Day One Open Thread
• Pinstripe Alley's 2014 Draft stream with all draft-related information

Yankees take their third straight pitcher of the draft.

With their fourth round pick of the 2014 MLB Draft, the Yankees took their third straight pitcher with left-hander Jordan Montgomery out of University of South Carolina at 122nd overall. MLB.com had Montgomery at #160 on their draft list, and Baseball America ranked him at #120. Montgomery is ranked fifth in the state of South Carolina and is generally seen as a player with an easily obtainable floor and a limited ceiling. The MLB Network analysts called him a backend starter without a ton of upside, but one who should be able to make it to the majors.

Montgomery has been South Carolina's top starter for the past two seasons with a fastball that sits between 87 and 91 mph. He's not going to light up the radar gun, but he manages to stay effective even without extremely impressive velocity. His best pitch is his changeup, but he also throws a curveball and a cutter. He should be another player that has the capability to move through the system quickly as a college pitcher that doesn't require a lot of development. He may only make it as a #4 or #5 starter, but that is his floor that most agree he will be able to reach if all goes according to plan.

Here's Baseball America's scouting report on Montgomery:

Montgomery's track record in the SEC pushes him up some draft boards in spite of pedestrian stuff. He stepped into South Carolina's weekend rotation as a freshman, helping the Gamecocks reach their third straight College World Series finals in 2012. He replaced Michael Roth as the Gamecocks' ace in 2013, posting a 1.48 ERA that ranked 11th in the nation. He hadn't been quite as good this year but still ranked second in the Southeastern Conference with 60 strikeouts in 65 innings. Montgomery is no power pitcher, despite his 6-foot-5, 225-pound frame. At his best he locates an 88-92 mph fastball, though he often parks more at 89-90. When he locates his fastball inside, he's able to pitch away with his above-average changeup. It's his best pitch thanks mostly to his exceptional feel for it. He has a fringy, slow curveball and has mixed in a cutter to give hitters a different look.

You can follow Montgomery on Twitter @Gumbynation34. What do you think of this pick by the Yankees?