The Yankees set a new club record of 52 players used in a season when JR Murphy made his major league debut. We all know the team has been hit with plenty of injuries, so it's not surprising, but still, 52 players is a lot of players. They essentially used their entire 40-man roster and then 12 more. That's double the active roster, like two teams, plus two more dudes.
The Bombers have been present for several of Tanaka's starts, per Hale's source, and sent assistant GM Billy Eppler and scout Don Wakamatsu to watch the right-hander pitch last week.
Tanaka has been touted as the "next Yu Darvish" since pretty much the moment the Rangers right-hander left Japan two years ago, so he is likely to be incredibly expensive if he's put through the posting system this winter.
While the Yankees' endeavor to get under the luxury tax threshold next year may price them out of big free agents domestically, it may not hurt their pursuit of Tanaka. The way the posting system is currently run, the Yankees could pay an arm and a leg for the chance to negotiate with Tanaka and not have to worry about hitting the luxury tax limit.
As it stands now, all the money from the winning blind bid goes to the player's NPB club, meaning none of it counts against payroll. MLB and NPB are in discussions to change this about the posting system, however, so the Yankees may not have this advantage much longer.
Tanaka, 24, owns a 1.20 earned-run average in 172 innings with the Rakuten Golden Eagles this season and is in the midst of a record 23-straight winning decisions, dating back to last year. He owns a 2.32 ERA over 1,275 innings in seven full seasons with Rakuten, having joined the ichigun ("first league") at the age of 18.
He made his first appearance on an American stage this spring in the World Baseball Classic, striking out 12 and allowed just two runs in seven innings of work.
Brett Marshall began 2013 as the consensus best pitching prospect in the Yankees system on many prospect lists (mostly by default due to injuries), Top 10 on both Fangraphs' and John Sickel's preseason rankings of the Yankees top prospects. But it has not been a particularly stellar year for Marshall, as he has struggled making the transition from AA to AAA.
Marshall was never considered a power arm, and would have to rely on his control and plus-changeup in order to succeed in the majors. But walks and home runs have hurt him during his time in Scranton this year. Marshall did have a cup of coffee with the big league club in May, when he pitched 5 2/3 innings in relief in the May 15th matchup against the Seattle Mariners. It was a tough thing to watch, as the youngster was allowing to languish on the mound to the tune of five runs allowed, with one strikeout, five walks and two home runs. Small sample size of course, but first impressions are always preferred to be good ones.
How can Brett Marshall help the team?
The Yankees could always use extra arms, so as not to burn up any of their most important relievers in the case of a blowout. And considering the tenuous grip that Phil Hughes has on the last spot in the rotation, a player like Marshall could fill in as a long man if Adam Warren or David Huff need to slotted in to the fifth starter spot to replace Hughes. And maybe, just maybe, he can push Joba Chamberlain further and further to the back of the bullpen until he starts sporting cobwebs.
What can we expect from Brett Marshall?
As noted before, it's been a tough season for Marshall, so keep the expectations muted. He's not a dynamic guy like Dellin Betances, don't expect power sliders and 97 MPH fastballs. Hopefully the time with Yankees can be a valuable experience for the youngster, because barring something unforeseen, he should figure into the Yankees plans in 2014 in regards to long relief and spot starts, like David Phelps of a few years ago. Some nice innings this month and a good spring next year could go a long way to cementing his role in the club's future.
Are there any possible nicknames/puns for Brett Marshall?
I believe I've seen "The Marshall Plan" used before, which I have an affinity for. I also like "Marshall, Marshall, Marshall!". Feel free to one-up me in the comments.
So lets all give a warm hand to the return of Brett Marshall, and hope that his appearances are during games that the Yankees have ten run leads. It's about as high-leverage a situation that we're going to see him in.
Erik Johnson was officially added to the roster on Tuesday, and he'll see his first action on Wednesday. Robin Ventura said the White Sox's top prospect will make his major-league debut against the New York Yankees in the series finale. His first start will be against C.C. Sabathia, who will be making his 412th.
Johnson opened the year at Birmingham before advancing to Charlotte, and it's safe to say both his promotions this season are deserved:
Control issues have been few and far between, but one of his erratic starts took place in his Triple-A debut. He walked five batters on top of five hits over six innings, but escaped only allowing one run. The timing could be coincidental -- his demeanor suggests that he's not that excitable -- but new-levels jitters would be understandable, being human and all. He'd just probably pay a bigger price for them this time around.
He's taking Hector Santiago 's start, which probably comes as a disappointment to the Newark native. When he started against the Mets at Citi Field earlier this year, scores of friends and family came to watch him pitch. He might have had plans for this series, too, if this story from May held up:
It was Santiago’s second outing in New York — last season he made a relief appearance against the Yankees. But this time it was different. Santiago didn’t know he would be pitching against the Mets until last week because he is now in the starting rotation due to injury.
As a result, only 70 friends and family members attended the game. When he pitched against the Yankees, nearly 200 people were in attendance, including players from the Rick Cerone and Roberto Clemente Little Leagues in Newark.
Santiago said the plan is to have little leaguers watch him pitch when the White Sox visit Yankee Stadium in early September.
Robin Ventura said the Sox will stretch their rotation to six men from here on out, although "rotation" may be a little too strictly defined. With Charlie Leesman also in the mix, it will probably be hard to project scheduled starters past the upcoming series.
Johnson is among six September callups. Leesman and Bryan Anderson preceded him, and three others joined Johnson on the roster today:
Leesman was the only player already on the 40-man roster, but the White Sox made room by moving Flowers and Brian Omogrosso to the 60-day disabled list. Omogrosso underwent season-ending surgery on Aug. 4 to "remove four loose bodies and shave down a bone spur in his right shoulder," which sounds more salacious than it probably is.
Phil Hughes is out. David Huff is in. Finally, Hughes has been taken out of the rotation after compiling a 4.86 ERA and a 4.54 FIP on the season. He's had a 5.71 ERA in the second half and had a 6.46 ERA in the month of August, though his FIP (4.80/4.18) hasn't been quite so out of control. The main reason he's being taken out is because he hasn't earned a win since the first week of July and out of his last 11 starts, he's only made it out of the fifth inning in five of them.
The decision was made not just because he has been ineffective, but because he is taxing the bullpen and not giving the Yankees the best chance to win down the stretch. He had already been moved in the rotation to give the team a better matchup, so it was clear they were running out of patience with him. David Huff at least gives them a better chance.
While Huff has a career ERA of 5.18 and FIP of 4.82, he has stated that his time with Larry Rothschild has helped him more in one bullpen session than his five seasons with the Cleveland Indians. In the second half of 2013, Huff has 0.60 ERA with a 3.57 FIP in 15 innings pitched. While he has provided two 5+ inning outings and surrendered only one run between the two, it's unlikely that the 29-year-old will suddenly be a revelation. What the Yankees hope Huff provides on Saturday is an improvement over Phil Hughes, which shouldn't be too difficult. Perhaps he can at least prove he has a place on this team in 2014, while Hughes is looking more likely to be elsewhere.
Winning games is difficult work for the White Sox this year, but a three-run lead with five outs to go and Chris Sale on the mound is as close to comfortable as most games will get.
Tonight, it didn't matter. Not even that, but I don't think Addison Reed even warmed up. The Yankees rallied from a 4-1 deficit with
The Yankees rallied from a 4-1 deficit with a five-run eighth inning off four different White Sox pitchers. Mariano Rivera struck retired the side in order to seal yet another Sox loss. They're now 0-5 on the road trip, and that was the last Sale start of the swing.
Sale started the eighth inning with 102 pitches and struck out Brett Gardner to start the frame. But Derek Jeter followed up with a single, and Robin Cano lined a fastball (after not seeing two sliders well) off the wall in left for a double to end Sale's night.
Nate Jones inherited runners on third, and they both scored when Alfonso Soriano took an 0-2 slider -- the third straight breaking ball he saw -- to center for a two-run single. Alex Rodriguez went the same way to put runners on the corners, and Robin Ventura called for Donnie Veal.
Veal fell behind 3-1 on Curtis Granderson, who then took the fastball to (wait for it) center field to tie the game at 4. Veal rebounded to strike out Mark Reynolds, which meant he retired one more batter than Jones. But when Eduardo Nunez came to the plate, Ventura called for Matt Lindstrom. That made no difference, because Nunez dug out a sinker and rifled it into the left field corner to drive in both runs and cap off the rally.
Until that point, it looked like Sale might climb to 11-12 on the season. He pitched beautifully through seven, allowing just one unearned run and withstanding incompetence from his teammates in the two other facets of the game.
The only other run Sale allowed was unearned. He took the mound in the second with a 1-0 lead (that could've been more had Avisail Garcia and Conor Gillaspie not struck out with the bases loaded in the first). With one out, he gave up an infield single to Vernon Wells when Gordon Beckham couldn't come up with a bouncer up the middle.
It would've been a tough play even if Beckham gloved it, so that part's not his fault. However, the ball clanked off his glove and into shallow left field, and then he fell down while approaching the ball and kicked it even farther away, which allowed Wells to take second.
Sale struck out Reynolds, and then appeared to get out of the inning when Nunez hit a chopper to third. Gillaspie fumbled the exchange from glove to hand and couldn't recover for a throw to extend the inning.
Then the Yankees took advantage of the White Sox's lack of awareness. Nunez took off for second, and Josh Phegley made the throw to second with Beckham charging to anticipate the throw home. But Phegley's throw was low, which cost Beckham a smooth transfer, and Beckham's throw home was wide, which cost Phegley a chance at a tag. Wells stole home and tied the game at 1.
But the White Sox recovered to take a 3-1 lead in the fifth on an Alexei Ramirez two-run triple. Ramirez stood on third with nobody out, but he couldn't score, because Adam Dunn tapped out, and Paul Konerko hit a weak liner to short. Ramirez broke home before doubling back, but it was too late to avoid getting doubled off.
Alejandro De Aza got that run back in the seventh with a solo homer off Hiroki Kuroda that ended his night. He went deep to right field after just missing the foul pole in that direction earlier in the at-bat, and that was the last neat thing that happened to the Sox all night.
Newsday | Steven Marcus: MLB has announced that executive vice president Rob Manfred and senior vice president Dan Halem will defend Alex Rodriguez's 211-game suspension.
Short Season-A Staten Island Yankees:W 6-2, L 0-2 vs. Vermont Lake Monsters
Game One:
CF Brandon Thomas 1-4, BB, K LF Michael O'Neill 0-5, 2 K 3B Eric Jagielo 2-5, K 1B Mike Ford 0-4, BB RF Yeicok Calderon 2-4, HR, 4 RBI, K - 10th homer of the season DH Kale Sumner 1-3, HR, RBI, BB - third homer of the season C Trent Garrison 1-3, BB, HB SS Tyler Wade 1-4, RBI 2B John Murphy 0-3, BB, K, E4 - missed catch, sixth error of the season
Conner Kendrick 3 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K - five groundouts, zero flyouts Sam Agnew-Wieland 3 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, K - six groundouts, one flyout Chad Taylor 3 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, BB, 3 K
The Yankees won the prior day's suspended game via a late inning rally with four runs in the top of the eighth inning to break a 2-2 tie.
Game Two:
SS Abiatal Avelino 1-3, 2 E6 - two fielding errors, fifth and sixth with SI LF Michael O'Neill 0-3, 3 K 3B Eric Jagielo 1-3 - batting .271 this season DH Yeicok Calderon 2-3 CF Brandon Thomas 1-3, 2B, K - eighth double of the season 1B Bubba Jones 0-3, K RF Daniel Lopez 0-3, K 2B Derek Toadvine 0-3, 2 K C Isaias Tejeda 0-2, K
Giovanny Gallegos 4.2 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K - five groundouts, three flyouts Cale Coshow 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, BB, K
Staten Island failed to score in the second game of their doubleheader, dropping them to 32-41 on the season in their next to last game.
Stealing home is hard! That's why straight steals of it are one of the more exciting -- and rare -- events in a baseball game. When a straight steal isn't on the table, though, we have to make do with the double steal. It's not as elegant, but that's the point: one team fools the other into chasing the wrong baserunner, and voila, a run is scored, and the opposition looks foolish.
The Yankees pulled this very thing off against the White Sox on Tuesday night, when Eduardo Nunez took off for second before freezing halfway between the bases, allowing Vernon Wells to speed home:
At the time, it was a 1-0 game with White Sox ace Chris Sale on the mound, with the White Sox in the lead -- Wells tied things up against a difficult opponent, and from there, the Yankees would go on to win 6-4.
The victory helped them keep pace with the Rays and pass the Orioles in the wild card standings, and narrowed the gap with the Athletics to just 2.5 games.
Chicago White Sox pitching prospect Erik Johnson will make his major league debut today against the New York Yankees. 2013 has been a very strong year for the young right-hander, and a good run in September will put him at the forefront of Chicago's plans for 2014. White Sox boosters are understandably intrigued, but fantasy owners and general baseball fans need to pay attention to Johnson as well.
Johnson was a starting pitcher for three years at the University of California. His junior year in 2011 was solid: 2.83 ERA, 102/59 K/BB in 105 innings, just 68 hits allowed. His command needed work, but he dominated at times and was selected in the second round of the draft that spring. Some shoulder soreness delayed his debut in 2012, limiting him to 43 innings for Low-A Kannapolis (2.30 ERA, 39/19 K/BB) and 49 more innings for High-A Winston-Salem (2.74 ERA, 48/10 K/BB). He was successful at both levels, but the split stat line made it easy to overlook him if you weren't careful.
Opening at Double-A Birmingham for 2013, he made 14 starts, going 8-2, 2.23 with a 74/21 K/BB in 85 innings. Promoted to Triple-A Charlotte in late June, he went 4-1, 1.57 in 10 starts with a 57/19 K/BB in 57 innings.
Overall this season, Johnson has gone 12-3, 1.96 ERA with a 131/40 K/BB in 142 innings, allowing a mere 100 hits and a .197 average against. He has been one of the most successful pitchers in the minors this year, but hasn't received much attention for it outside of White Sox circles.
Johnson is a big guy at 6-3, 235 pounds, a right-handed hitter and thrower, born December 30, 1989. He had control problems in college due to balky mechanics, but the Sox smoothed his delivery out and it is much more consistent now. As a result, his command took a large step forward. Stuff was never the problem: he can hit 96 MPH, works consistently at 91-94, and locates the fastball well. He has a full array of secondary pitches, featuring an above-average slider, a solid curveball, and a change-up that has greatly improved over the last two years.
Debuting in Yankee Stadium is a trial by fire. At this point, the main goal for September is to get his feet wet and make him ready for a larger role in 2014. He needs to put the finishing touches on his command, which still wobbles at times.
Johnson has the frame of a workhorse and generally projects as an inning-eating mid-rotation starter. That might be underselling him a bit; he has come a long way in the last two years, and continued improvements would make him quite formidable.
It took a while, but the Yankeesmoved Phil Hughes to the bullpen and inserted David Huff into the rotation in his place. Although I backed Hughes more than most, this was a move that desperately needed to be made. Although the team has done well the past three and a half weeks, Hughes was still a major weak spot and needed to be jettisoned from the rotation if the team wanted to continue its push to the postseason.
Hughes, who pitched to an ugly 4.86 ERA (83 ERA+) and 4.54 FIP, proved to be too much dead weight for the Yankees to carry in their starting staff. Not only did he post well below sub-par peripherals, he failed to pitch deep into games on a numerous amount of occasions to boot. In 10 of his 25 starts (excluding his 1.1 inning rain-shortened outing on Monday against the White Sox), Phil failed to complete at least five innings. For those scoring at home, that's 40% of his starts in which the bullpen would need to pick up at least 12 outs. I don't care how good your bullpen is, that's incredibly taxing and a move needed to be made, and, thankfully, it finally has been.
Now that Hughes is in the bullpen, he presumably, as a starting pitcher, finishes his Yankee career with a 4.72 ERA and 4.50 FIP. Oddly enough, or I guess unsurprisingly enough, those numbers are similar to the numbers he posted this year, which are both well below average. Thankfully, there is hope; those numbers do not include his relief appearances. Hughes has been pretty awesome as a reliever, albeit with 51.1 of his career 56.1 innings as a reliever coming in one season, 2009, but just look how he's done in the 'pen compared to as a starter:
Role
Games
IP
ERA
FIP
K/9
BB/9
HR/9
Opp. wOBA
Starter
129
715.2
4.72
4.50
7.3
2.8
1.4
.334
Reliever
49
56.1
1.44
1.97
11.2
2.7
0.3
.213
Those certainly aren't bad numbers, at least on the relief end. As noted earlier, all but five of those relief innings came in 2009, when he emerged as Mariano Rivera's setup man en-route to the team's 27th World Championship. Like this season, he struggled as a starter and was demoted to the bullpen in '09. Not surprisingly, his fastball velocity jumped from 93 mph in his seven starts to begin the year, to nearly 95.5 mph as a reliever. An extra 2.5 mph on the fastball may not sound much, but it can make a difference; his whiff-per-swing% on his four-seamer jumped from 16% in the rotation to 27% in the 'pen. A little extra oomph on the heater can, in fact, pay dividends.
Although Hughes flourished as a setup man in '09, it'll be interesting to see how they use him this time around, whether that be as a longman or more of a one-inning guy. With the rosters expanded, the Yankees still have, at the very least, two longmen (Adam Warren and Brett Marshall) who can soak up garbage innings/go deep if the starter gets knocked out early if need be. He may not deserve high-leverage innings right away, but it'd be nice to see them use Phil as a short, one-inning reliever nonetheless. They can have him come in, throw gas, focus on and throw either his curve or slider as his secondary pitch, and hopefully there will be positive results that follow. Besides, if Hughes is used as a short reliever, it further decreases the odds we see Joba Chamberlain in a close game, which is something I'm sure we could all get around.
A baseball podcast for you with the Yankees within a couple games of the Wild Card!
We unfortunately had some technical difficulties when my connection spazzed out and everything from the Tweetbag forward wasn't recorded even though it said it was recording. So we had to record it again, and sadly we missed out on an awesome scenario Tanya envisioned for next year with David Robertson about to enter on Opening Day, the record scratching, "Enter Sandman" suddenly coming on, and Mo entering the game in a comeback. Sigh.
[1:30] The Yankees beat Chris Sale? [4:30] Sweeps are beneficial for playoff hopes, but they must conquer a familiar(?) foe: a rookie starter with no MLB experience (Erik Johnson) [6:15] On September call-ups [7:12] The Yankees' catching future with Murphy, Chris Stewart, Austin Romine, and Francisco Cervelli [12:41] Cesar Cabral and Dellin Betances [14:02] Yankees in the playoff race [15:53] We are still not fans of Joba Chamberlain [20:53] "Phil Hughes 2 teh pen" is happening! David Huff has his work cut out for him though. [24:22] Ivan Nova is still in ridiculous mode but Jason forgot him [26:57] On the big Yankees/Red Sox series [29:56] Mariano Rivera's final regular season games at Yankee Stadium [32:00] Hiroki Kuroda slowing down [37:44] Tweetbag: Who to start in a potential Wild Card playoff, Girardi wants Mo back in 2014?, non-Yankee series to watch [42:51] Yankee/Mitre of the Week
Sound off in the comments if you have any questions you'd like us to answer for next time, or if you have any feedback on the podcast! Send your tweets to the Tweetbag by tweeting @pinstripebible.
New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi plans on talking to closer Mariano Rivera this offseason about reconsidering plans to retire at the end of the year, reports Ian O'Connor of ESPN New York.
Rivera, 43, has been pretty adamant all year that this season will be his last, and all the evidence seems to point in that direction. If his press conference at the beginning of the year wasn't convincing enough, the farewell tour he's been on for the past few months has pretty much sealed the deal. (Would you want to give all those gifts back?)
Girardi doesn't seem convinced, however:
"I'll tell him when the season's over, 'Take a month. Take a month and a half, two months, and make sure this is really what you want to do. Because once you do go, it's hard to come back ...'
"As I've said, sometimes when you're a player in the midst of a season and you're grinding it out, your mind is one thing, but when you get away for a couple of months and your body feels pretty good...
"Your mind is another thing."
Girardi added that he didn't want his own career to end until he physically could not do it anymore, and that Rivera's good health and solid performance this year could lead to second thoughts in that regard. Girardi did ultimately say that he believes Rivera will retire, but the rest of his statement indicates doubt.
Rivera is pitching as well as ever this season. He owns a 2.12 earned-run average and a strikeout-to-walk ratio of better than five-to-one in 51 innings, adding another 40 saves to his all-time record total. He did blow three consecutive saves for the first time in his career last month, but that was merely a small blip in an otherwise stellar season.
Considering how well Mariano Rivera has pitched this season, it shouldn't surprise anyone that someone's having second thoughts about his impending retirement.
Nope, not Rivera. He still sounds like a guy who's on his way out. It's his manager who's not ready to say goodbye:
Joe Girardi will spend part of the coming offseason advising Mariano Rivera to reconsider his scheduled retirement, the New York Yankees' manager told ESPNNewYork.com.
--snip--
"I don't see any reason why he couldn't do it next year, I don't," Girardi said. "He's made it pretty clear that he doesn't want to [return], but I always say, you know, January rolls around and sometimes you have a different feel about what you want to do."
Rivera, 43, announced during spring training that his 19th season with the Yankees would be his last.
--snip--
"I believe he's going to retire," Girardi said. "But as I've said, sometimes when you're a player in the midst of a season and you're grinding it out, your mind is one thing, but when you get away for a couple of months and your body feels pretty good, your mind is another thing."
Good luck, Joe. I hope your entreaties carry the day.
But I'll be shocked if they do.
I believe Girardi's exactly right: There's no obvious reason why Rivera couldn't pitch brilliantly again next year, too. Without any context, we would not expect a 44-year-old relief pitcher to thrive against the best hitters on Earth. But without any context, we would not expect a 43-year-old relief pitcher save 40 games with a 2.11 ERA and five times more strikeouts than walks. But that's what Mariano Rivera is doing this season.
Would relying on a 44-year-old closer be risky? Sure. But just slightly more risky than relying on a 43-year-old closer, and that's worked out pretty well. I suspect Girardi wants Rivera back for two reasons. One, he likes having a great pitcher in his bullpen; fortunately for Girardi, he's got David Robertson next season. And two, Girardi, a baseball lifer, will simply miss seeing baseball royalty every day in the clubhouse, and often on the mound.
I won't miss Rivera's saves. I will miss his himness, and so I selfishly hope the missing-himness is delayed for as long as possible.
I think we've got another month, though. Maybe a bit longer if the Yankees actually sneak into the playoffs. But that's it. I don't imagine that quitting something you're good at is easy. Especially when it pays exceptionally well. I've found that something difficult becomes easier when I tell someone I'm going to do it. I suspect that Rivera announced his retirement for a number of reasons, and that one of them was that he thought he might be tempted to come back in 2014. But by announcing his retirement last spring, and then going through a carefully choreographed farewell tour, he's made it very difficult for himself to reverse course.
Might he come back? Sure, anything's possible. But Mariano Rivera strikes me as a man of his word. I do hope he breaks his word, this time. But one of the reasons we love him is because he probably will not.
With September first's roster expansion, David Adams has been recalled from Triple-A. Now that he's back for the stretch run, what can we expect?
The Yankees selected Adams from the University of Virginia in the third round of the 2008 draft and assigned him to Staten Island of the Short Season-A NY-Penn League. He played 67 games, all at second base, and hit .257/.350/.393. He spent the first half of 2009 at Charleston in the Single-A Sally League, batting .290/.385/.394 in 67 games, starting 51 games at second base and 14 games at third base. After a promotion to the High-A Florida State League, he played 65 games for Tampa, all at second base, and hit .281/.360/..498. He started the 2010 season at Double-A Trenton, and hit .309/.393/.507 in 39 games. Unfortunately, he suffered a horrific ankle injury in game 39, missing the rest of the season and most of the 2011 season. In 2011, he played 17 rehab games in the Gulf Coast Rookie League, and 12 games at Tampa. He spent the 2012 season back at Trenton, and started 42 games at second base, and 23 games at third base. In 383 plate appearances, he hit .306/.385/.450. He started the 2013 season at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, splitting his time between third base (30 starts), second base (28 starts) and first base (two starts), batting .268/.366/.405 in 255 PAs. In almost 1800 minor league PAs, he's hit .291/.376/.441.
While interpreting these numbers, keep in mind that every Yankees' minor league affiliate is in a pitchers league, and all those affiliates play in pitchers' parks relative to those leagues. Over the 2010-12 seasons, for example, PNC Park in Scranton had a park factor of .922, meaning the park suppressed scoring by almost eight percent relative to the rest of the league. In fact, it was the third toughest park to score in out of 120 full-season teams. What does all this mean to David Adams? In 129 plate appearances at home, he hit .217/.344/.333; in 91 PAs on the road, he hit .341/.400/.505, so I feel comfortable saying that he's probably a better hitter than his triple-slash line implies.
So you take a guy who has hit well at every minor league stop, and plays adequate defense at second base and third base, but who totally bombed his first major league audition to the tune of a .194/.257/.271 line in 141 major league plate appearances in May, June and July. What does that mean NOW, in September, in the middle of a pennant race (or second wild-card race)?
It probably doesn't mean much. First of all, this isn't the same team that Adams played on earlier in the year. He was part of a parade of fill-ins for Alex Rodriguez, but Rodriguez is back and playing very well. He made three starts at first base, but the Yankees now have righty Mark Reynolds to platoon with lefty Lyle Overbay. He also made four starts at second base, but if anyone other than Robinson Cano is playing there regularly, it's a lost cause. Secondly, quite frankly, this isn't an organization that gives opportunities to young players, so I expect him to provide in-case-of-emergency-break-glass depth at the non-shortstop infield spots, and not much else. He might get a few garbage time innings here and plate appearances there, but unless (or until) the Yankees are eliminated from wild card contention, he won't get many starts unless he's spelling Rodriguez in a day game following a night game.
It's not nice to play with an old man's emotions like this, but somebody in Detroit has successfully riled up Jim Leyland and generated a stupid controversy out of nothing by asking about the run support that Max Scherzer has had.
Now, it's true. That run support has been spectacular. The Tigers have scored almost six runs per start in Scherzer's outings, which has allowed the best #2 starter in baseball to rack up the double-yous more reliably than anyone else in the game. There's no doubt that, without that sterling run support, Scherzer would have had a far worse record in 2013.
Leyland was reportedly annoyed by the question, saying he doesn't...
...believe in any of that [stat] stuff. I won't listen to any of it and have no interest in talking about it. You can figure out whatever you want. My view of pitchers' stats is this: Did he give us a chance to win? If he did that on any kind of consistent basis for me, then he's a very good pitcher.... If you want to simplify it, it's just been Scherzer's year but don't make it sound as if he hasn't pitched good.
While strident about being anti-stat, Leyland is essentially right here. The run support Max Scherzer gets is irrelevant to the fact that he's had a tremendous season, and perhaps been the best pitcher in the American League. The unspoken subtext of the writer's question was that Scherzer doesn't deserve the success he's having, that he's not as good a pitcher as his record indicates, and that he doesn't deserve the Cy Young that he's going to win.
That's just flat out wrong. It sets up some kind of idiotic stat geeks vs. old school argument that isn't even going on right now, and whoever asked it was being disingenuous. Even if you remove the run support, and therefore the won-loss record from the debate, it's not at all clear that Scherzer's not the best pitcher in the AL. As of Wednesday morning, here's what pitcher wins above replacement leaderboards look like:
Go ahead, try and definitively pick the best pitcher in the AL from that list. You can't. WAR isn't that precise. Meanwhile, Scherzer is third in ERA, first in WHIP, second in strikeouts, and fifth in innings (just six innings behind the leader), and he's had all of this success pitching for most of the year in front of one of the league's leakiest defenses -- things are better with Jose Iglesias around, but that's a handful of starts. Indeed, Scherzer has been as good as any pitcher in all of baseball, and will wind up being a perfectly fine selection when he does win the Cy Young Award. Not a single stathead should complain about it. In this instance, the new school and the old are pretty well aligned and in the same corner.
So, yes, Jim Leyland was right to be annoyed. But he should be annoyed with whichever writer stoked the embers of the old nerds vs. jocks rivalry, and not with "all that stat stuff." At least, that is, until someone asks him about Mike Trout and Miguel Cabrera again.
Double-A Trenton Thunder:W 6-5 (10 innings) vs. Binghamton Mets
CF Mason Williams 0-5, 2 K LF Ramon Flores 2-5, K, E7 - fielding error 2B Jose Pirela 3-5, 2B C Gary Sanchez 1-5, RBI, 3 K RF Tyler Austin 3-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI, K 1B Kyle Roller 1-3, BB PR Casey Stevenson 1-1, RBI DH Ben Gamel 2-5, 2 RBI, 3 K 3B Reegie Corona 0-4, K SS Ali Castillo 0-4, 2 K
Bryan Mitchell 5 IP, 7 H, 3 R/2 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, 2 WP - four groundouts, two flyouts Francisco Rondon 2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K Danny Burawa 1.1 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, BB, 2 K Pat Venditte 1.2 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, K
After trailing Binghamton by double digit games in the division, the two teams kicked off their best of three playoff series in Trenton on Wednesday. Both teams exchanged runs in the first and fourth innings before the offenses fell silent through the remainder of the nine innings. The Mets scored two runs in the top of the tenth to pull ahead 5-3. Williams and Flores were sat down quickly to kick off the bottom of the tenth before Pirela doubled, Sanchez singled to drive in a run, and Austin hit an infield single. Stevenson, who ran for Roller earlier in the game, singled to score the tying run before Gamel singled home Austin for the walk-off victory. Trenton hosts Game Two of the series tonight at 7:05 pm. The Thunder will advance with a win.
Short Season-A Staten Island Yankees:W 5-2 (5 innings) vs. Vermont Lake Monsters
SS Abiatal Avelino 3-3, 2B, 3 RBI CF Brandon Thomas 1-3, RBI, 2 K - batting .214 this season 3B Eric Jagielo 0-3, K DH Mike Ford 1-3, 2B, RBI - seventh double of the season RF Yeicok Calderon 0-3, 2 K LF Michael O'Neill 1-3 1B Bubba Jones 0-2, K C Trent Garrison 2-2 - batting .262 this season 2B Derek Toadvine 1-2, 2B, K, E4(11) - seventh double of the season
David Palladino 4 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, K - four groundouts, two flyouts Charles Haslup 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB
The Yankees finished their season with a win in a rain-shortened game against Vermont. Staten Island got on the board first with a run in the first inning before breaking out for three runs in the top of the fourth.
Jim Callis used to be Baseball America's prospect expert, but now he's MLB.com's prospect expert and he recently talked about Yankees prospects on twitter.
On the Yankees 2013 draft class, Callis believes their best pick was first round draft pick Eric Jagielo, who hit .271/.381/.459 with six home runs in 215 plate appearances for the Staten Island Yankees. He also believes he will be the first Yankee prospect to make it to the big leagues out of this draft class.
Callis called eighth round draft pick Brandon Thomas the most underrated prospect of the team's draft. He hit .213/.318/.338 with six home runs and nine stolen bases in 277 plate appearances. Callis even complimented second round draft pick Gosuke Katoh and third round draft pick Michael O'Neil, saying the Yankees had a strong top of the draft.
When asked about first base prospect Greg Bird, Callis believes Bird has legitimate power and is interested in seeing how he handles the upper levels of the minors. Bird hit .288/.428/.511 with 20 home runs and 107 walks for Low-A Charleston in his first full year of professional baseball.
The Pinstriped Bible's twitter account asked him who would be a better option behind the plate for the 2014 Yankees, JR Murphy or Austin Romine. Callis believes that Murphy has more long term value, but he's not sure if he's ready to make the jump to major league regular. Murphy, of course, hit .269/.347/.426 with 12 home runs across Double-A and Triple-A this season and even collected his first big league hit after a September call up.
The Yankees minor league system is often declared to be underwhelming and their prospects overhyped, but if someone like Jim Callis has nice things to say about them, hopefully they live up to the hype this time around. Prospects like Jagielo and Bird aren't especially close to making a big league impact, so there's plenty of time for things to go wrong or go very very right.
