Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
Despite their recent rash of injuries, things have been going fairly well for the Yankees since they opened the season by dropping four of their first five games on a West Coast swing. Since returning to the Bronx for their home opener, the Yanks have lost just two of eleven series (their lone game in Fenway not counting as a series) and have only lost back-to back games twice. The problem is that they did this against the Royals, Orioles, Devil Rays, Twins (who were one of those series losses), Rangers, and a crippled A's team. True, the did take three of five from the Blue Jays, who currently trail them by just a half game in the standings, but they also dropped three of four to the Red Sox, who lead them by the same distance.
Starting tonight, the Yankees will play six games against their two closest rivals, who also happen to be two of the three teams in baseball (the Blue Jays being the third) with the most similar records to the Bombers. Following that, they'll alternate series against patsies (Royals, O's) and the first place Tigers and Red Sox (yes, again). In total, 14 of the Yankees next 20 games will come against teams that currently sport better records than the Yanks'.
This isn't the best time for this sort of thing. Hideki Matsui's out until August at the very earliest. Gary Sheffield is nursing a mysteriously slow-healing wrist injury. Carl Pavano's return has been dashed. Octavio Dotel isn't here yet. Shawn Chacon's shin will indeed force him to yield Sunday's start to Aaron Small. And now Bubba Crosby has hit the DL with a hamstring injury, yielding his roster spot to Mitch Jones.
Jones has a strong throwing arm and a ton of pop in his bat, but will make Melky Cabrera look like Willie Mays in the outfield and Andy Phillips look like Rod Carew at the plate. Jones struck out 174 times in 128 games with Columbus last year and had 41 Ks in 39 games before being called up. Jones is a career .247 hitter in the minors, and was hitting .239 in Columbus this year. Yes, players such as Adam Dunn can be tremendously valuable despite high K-rates and low averages due to exaggerated power and patience, but Jones is unlikely to pull off such a feat making his major league debut at age 28. Unlike Andy Phillips, who's major league debut would have come much earlier if not for an injury and the Yankees' refusal to reward his triple-A performance appropriately, Jones has never appeared to be a major league-ready player, and to my mind, still doesn't. Not that Jones will see much action. As a righty OF/1B, he'll slot in behind Andy Phillips on the depth chart. That's a frightening place to be.
The good news is that Jason Giambi's tweaked neck didn't cause him to miss more than one game. He returned to DH duty two days ago and played in the field yesterday, collecting two walks and a double in seven trips to the plate. He'll be the starting first baseman throughout the weekend's DH-less series at Shea Stadium. The Yankee outfield will be Melky Cabrera, Johnny Damon (who's nursing a foot injury that has been alternately described as bone chips and a stress fracture), and Bernie Williams. Jones, Phillips and Kevin Reese will be limited to pinch-hitting duty, though I must say, I'd rather have the righty Phillips and the lefty Reese pinch-hitting than Miguel Cairo and Bubba Crosby. Kevin Thompson, meanwhile, remains in Columbus as the Yankees want him to continue to start down there rather than ride pine in the majors.
As for this weekend's opponent. The Mets season has thus far has been an exaggerated mirror image of the Yankees'. They built up what was briefly the majors best record against awful teams (7-1 against the Nats and Fish to start the season), and built upon it by splitting against middle-rung opponents (5-4 vs. Atlanta, splits with the Brewers and Padres, a 2-1 series win against the Giants) and adding a 3-1 stretch against the Pirates and Nationals.
The worm has turned, however, as the Mets have gone 3-6 against the Phillies, Brewers and Cardinals over the last nine games as injuries have reduced their rotation to employing the likes of tonight's starter Jeremi Gonzalez and, yes, Jose Lima. Injuries have bit both teams hard. While the Yankees are losing outfielders on what feels like a daily basis, the Mets have a small Tommy John epidemic on their hands as three of their pitchers, ex-Yankee Juan Padilla, and both pitchers from the Scott Kazmir trade, Victor Zambrano and Bartolomo Fortunato, have had the surgery in the last two months.
Indeed, just as the Yankees are paying the price for their failure to sign a strong fourth outfielder, the Mets are paying dearly for Omar Minaya's string of dreadful starting pitching transactions. Beyond the Kazmir trade--which has Bagwell-Anderson, Ryan-Fregosi, Brock-Broglio written all over it--Minaya flipped Jay Seo for Duaner Sanchez and Steve Schmoll this past offseason and dealt Kris Benson for the abysmal Jorge Julio and also injured John Maine. True both Sanchez and Julio have pitched reasonably well thus far this year (Sanchez has a pretty ERA but unimpressive peripherals, Julio has an ugly ERA but, much to my surprise, better peripherals), but apparently neither inspires enough confidence in Willie Randolph to convince him to move Aaron Heilman, who has been nails as a setup man, into the rotation. The Mets handling of Heilman is yet another item on an increasingly long list of mistakes Minaya and Randolph have made with their rotation. The end result is that they've managed to turn Scott Kazmir into Jose Lima. Good work, guys.
Randy Johnson faces Jeremi Gonzalez tonight. That used to be a mismatch. Until Johnson proves otherwise, it looks a lot like a shootout right now.
New York Mets
2006 Record: 24-16 (.600)
2006 Pythagorean Record: 23-17 (.584)
Manager: Willie Randolph
General Manager: Omar Minaya
Home Ballpark (2005 Park Factors): Shea Stadium (99/99)
Who's Replacing Whom?
Current Roster:
1B – Carlos Delgado (L)
2B – Kazuo Matsui (S)
SS – Jose Reyes (S)
3B – David Wright (R)
C – Paul Lo Duca (R)
RF – Xavier Nady (R)
CF – Carlos Beltran (S)
LF – Cliff Floyd (L)
Bench:
R – Julio Franco (1B)
L – Jose Valentin (UT)
R – Chris Woodward (UT)
L – Endy Chavez (OF)
R – Ramon Castro (C)
Rotation:
R – Pedro Martinez
L – Tom Glavine
R – Steve Trachsel
R – Jose Lima
R – Jeremi Gonzalez
Bullpen:
L – Billy Wagner
R – Duaner Sanchez
R – Aaron Heilman
R – Chad Bradford
R – Jorge Julio
L – Pedro Feliciano
L – Darren Oliver
15-day DL: R – Brian Bannister, S – Anderson Hernandez (IF), R – John Maine
60-day DL: R – Victor Zambrano, R – Juan Padilla, R – Bartolome Fortunato
Typical Lineup:
S – Jose Reyes (SS)
R – Paul Lo Duca (C)
S – Carlos Beltran (CF)
L – Carlos Delgado (1B)
R – David Wright (3B)
L – Cliff Floyd (LF)
R – Xavier Nady (RF)
S – Kazuo Matsui (2B)
Pavano said his arm was so swollen he couldn't bend it, and he hadn't felt like this since he had surgery to remove bone chips. Sure enough...the doctors say he's got more bone chips.
Sheff is supposed to see a doctor today, and if given the okay, may start swinging a bat Sunday or Monday.
Is there any chance that Sheff's mysterious injury will be mysteriously resolved this weekend?
Anybody know how long Crosby's gonna be on the DL? Or is it still day-to-day basis?
Bubba got put on the 15-day DL, which means he can't come back for 15 days. If they weren't so shorthanded, they might have kept him day-to-day, but they just couldn't afford it, what with the Mets and the Red Sox coming up. The Boss has made it clear that he expects the Yanks to win these series.
If they have to operate its 2 mos. minimum, right? That's the middle of July at best. At worst.....? What's the over/under on the time between his last ML start and his next in years?
Oh Meatless, we hardly knew ye
Weather update, anyone? We gonna have baseball tonight?
BP
Whatever Sheffield's story, the Yankees better not pick up his option until after the season, period.
At this point, I am just hoping that Pavano pitches at least one more time before his contract expires.
Johnny Damon CF
Derek Jeter SS
Jason Giambi 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Jorge Posada C
Robinson Canó 2B
Bernie Williams LF
Melky Cabrera RF
Randy Johnson P
Bernie in left. I dunno. I think maybe I'd try Damon in left. He's got more experience than Bernie.
And Giambi gets another walk...
Unit to give it all back in the bottom half?
and RJ batting is, as always, hilarious.
when they show the pitch speed on the TV broadcast, does that data come from the stadium guns, or is it an independent system?
i ask because kaat mentioned a few games ago that he thought the yankee stadium guns were 2-3 MPH on the high side.
Maybe it's just one rough inning...
Only two years ago. He can't have fallen apart that much. It's gotta be part mental, at least.
Big problem with gamecast, it overfills the screen on 800 x 600, yet I don't like the 1024 x 768. That doesn't work on this screen. So it is gamechannel tonight.
Of course I need to ice my knee, so I'm going to watch that other natural and historic rivalry: Toronto Blue Jays vs. Arizona Diamondbacks. I predict a beanball war in that series.
This is like a freakin' nightmare.
YES read Torre's lips. He said "spasms," so they think it's back spasms.
#84, it's probably Cairo.
At least Jeter is having fun. He was cracking up over the Randy's batting attempts.
Have they all been sitting on their couches during spring training? I kept on thinking WCS has something to do with it...I am just guessing out of no where.
A-Rod struck out, and is really ticked off. He just got right in the umpire's face. He's still fuming.
It was a bad call, but I suspect they won't be getting any better after that...
they had him picked off, cano never threw back.
they had him picked off, cano didnt throw back to first.
Story:
http://tinyurl.com/gwo2s
Duffy's stats:
http://tinyurl.com/chdbu
87 pitches through 4. How many pitches does the Big Eunuch have in him?
Al Leiter is providing really interesting commentary on Randy's mechanics. They're not good.
Oh and Mendoza just finished up another start at AAA, just in case they have to put the eunuch on the DL or something:
6 IP, 7H, 1ER, 1BB, 6K
http://tinyurl.com/r8xfk
"Duffy did let it be known that he was unhappy that the Pirates tried to get him to change his approach at the plate so that he could better fit the prototypical mold of a leadoff hitter."
http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060519&content_id=1461567&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
And I had forgot about this but the Pirates had put Jody Gerut on the restricted list as well. I wouldn't mind him either...
looks like the Big "STINK" is giving up all in HRs.. it resembles the TOR game when we took a 4 run lead or something and he gave the lead in 2 inings..
Raise your hand if you think I'm surprised that RJ has given up 5 in 4. Are they all earned?
Raise your hand if you think I'm surprised that the Yankees have scored 6 in 5.
We have DrProctor.
We also now have FnRJ.
Is the FO going to do something about RJ?
We have guys on the Farm who would be better.
I read somewhere that RJ is favoring his knees, and has thus altered his mechanics (in a very bad way). If this is true, he ain't getting better.
Any opinions?
How worse is that.. This is plain embarassing..
i would have hoped he had pitched game 2 of this series that way he will "miss" the boston series..
Cashman.. make that damn call to Clemens already
...
is there anyone warming? and yeah, he'll be at 120 by the end of the inning.
someone should start warming now.
Does anyone know if we recoup any $$ from insurance on this guy? This will be 1 1/2 years out, straight.
Are Robby and A-Rod going out together each night and partying until 4 am or something?
And Erickson's warming...
I was thinking next yr we buy out Wright and sign 2 new starters.. now it looks like we need 3..
Pettite, Mulder (no thanks - way too hittable - he scares the crap out of me)& Zito
http://www.mlb4u.com/0607FA.html
Pavano out for year.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2451143
And hey, don't diss the lineup. The bottom of the lineup has hits tonight. Including the amazing Randy.
Otherwise it isn't news.
Andrews also will operate next week on reliever Tanyon Sturtze to repair a small tear in his right rotator cuff.
"I think it's unfair for us to count on him the rest of the year," Torre said.
I'm kidding. But there's a point of no return beyond which a desperation deal or deals will still leave the Bombers hopelessly crippled...
Unless the farmhands turn in the Miracle on Ice on the Diamond.
Kay and Kitty put Leiter on the spot, telling him that Proctor credited him (Leiter) with teaching him the two-seamer that's made such a big difference in his game this year. Leiter got really embarrassed.
http://tinyurl.com/cm786
ARod is off his game.. both on O and D.
Giambi is slumping badly.
Damon is playing hurt.
Fly balls are dropping in the outfield like rain.
It's amazing we are staying this close.
Oh for G-d's sake I'm kidding. He'd probably snap my cane into matchsticks using his powerfully muscled forearms.
Shows what you know. It's a tie game on the road ya know. You always bring your closer in in that situation. Haven't you been following Torre?
ugh, this mets feed sucks
They said Torre doesn't want Farnsworth to pitch more than an inning at a time, but Mo can go two, if necessary.
Oh, well. I was expecting to lose this one anyway, just because Randy Johnson was the starter.
YAAAAAHHHHHHGGGGG oh darn.
Go get 'em Moose. And hitters, be Pedro's daddy tomorrow.
It's not like they're one player away either. If the GM doesn't trade the kids, I might start to like him again.
Then again, Scott Erickson is still available for this weekend.
It silly to even question the fact. Same with Unit. If they're not hurt, their roles won't change until they retire.
If this team got old all of a sudden this year, the best thing to do is stop and wait for the kids to catch up.
I am however terrified with all the injuries. Yes, they are a veteran team but it's not time for MOST of them to suddenly get old this year. The daily injury problem is unbelievable.
I think Rob is right on Mo, got to relax and let him work his way through it. As to the other guy got no option right now but to untwist the panties and relax also. He ain't going anywhere.
He says he'd have pitched the 9th if not for that.
Face it, this team is old. If anything this is what happens and why you need depth.
BTW: Farns would have come for the 9th but he felt a strain in his back. He said he pitched with the same thing last year.
Farnsworth sore back? What next, do Alex and Cliff show up with carpal tunnel? Jeesh
Sheffield's first attempt at hitting off a tee did not go well. He felt discomfort and cut short a practice session, retreating to the trainer's room to ice his wrist.
With outfielder Kevin Thompson dealing with his own hamstring injury at Class AAA Columbus, the Yankees purchased the contract of another outfielder, Mitch Jones, to replace Crosby."
Will the real big unit plz stand up .. plz stand up... will the real big unit plz stand up ..... we're going to have a problem here ... ... when ur ace barely matched a scrub pitcher..... and is pitching worse than everyone else in the rotation...
Mo ... is this just not going into groove yet or simply starting to lose something ?
Ah well, at least tomorrow we'll have a real game :/
Pavano.... can they sue him or use insurance policy or something? this is getting ridiculas, he'll end up pitching 1 year for 40 million or something...
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During the game, three more players sustained injuries less severe. Catcher Jorge Posada left after one inning with tightness in his upper back, reliever Kyle Farnsworth lasted just one inning because of a lower-back problem, and left fielder Bernie Williams hurt his buttocks.
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On YES, they were speculating about Jeter's arm, but didn't actually ask him about it (that I saw, anyway).
And about Sheff:
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He took 10 swings and he was sore," Torre said. "We'll know more tomorrow."
Torre had said before the game that Sheffield might take batting practice today, but that almost certainly will not happen now.
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