Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
Due to the rash of injuries that have placed Mike Mussina and Carl Pavano on the disabled list alongside Chien-Ming Wang and Jeffrey Karstens, the Yankees were forced to dip into their minor league system for a starter for tonight's (and likely Sunday's) game. The three pitchers whose turns fell on the right day were Tyler Clippard and Steven Jackson in triple-A and Chase Wright in double-A. Of the three, Wright was both the only one already on the 40-man roster and the pitcher who'd had the most success in his two starts thus far this season. Clippard's had two middling outings for Scranton. Jackson has faired a tad better, but neither has lasted more than five innings in either outing. Wright, meanwhile, has dominated in a pair of seven-inning outings and will make his major league debut tonight in the Bronx against the Indians.
Here's what I wrote about Wright back in February:
L - Chase Wright (24)A third-round draft pick in 2000, Wright has spent six years in the Yankees system without cracking double-A. He's made large strides over the last three seasons however. Check these trends:
Year League Level ERA H/9 K/9 BB/9 2004 Midwest A 5.44 10.47 5.34 5.97 2005 Sally A 3.75 8.00 6.88 4.31 2006 Florida State A+ 1.88 7.14 7.52 3.23 Wright claims the difference has simply been an uptick in confidence. I suppose it could be that after bottoming out in 2004 he figured he couldn't do any worse if he just challenged hitters. If so, it worked. Wright's best pitch is a changeup that works off his low-90s fastball, and he's working on developing his curve. He's still a work in progress, but it's certainly encouraging to see such rapid progress by a lefty starter. Indeed, he's come far enough that the Yankees had to add him to the 40-man to protect him from the Rule 5 draft last fall.
To that I'll add his spring training and double-A lines from this year:
| Level | ERA | H/9 | K/9 | BB/9 | IP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring Training | 2.84 | 6.39 | 7.10 | 4.26 | 12 2/3 |
| AA | 0.00 | 2.57 | 12.21 | 0.64 | 14 |
Those 14 innings at double-A are divided evenly between two equally excellent starts in which Wright has posted a fantastic 2.29 groundball-to-flyball rate. Accordingly, Wright hasn't allowed a home run in any of his 26 2/3 innings thus far this year and allowed just one round-tripper in 119 2/3 innings last year.
After I wrote the above, I received a note from Kevin Goldstein, Baseball Prospectus's minor league guru. Kevin said that one thing he felt I got wrong was my estimation of Wright's velocity (which I got from assimilating various on-line scouting reports). According to Goldstein, Wright's fastball tops out in the high 80s, adding something to the effect that if Wright did throw in the low 90s, he'd be a world-beater. Judging by his recent results this season and last, I tend to wonder if Wright's recent improvement has had as much to do with an uptick in velocity as with an increase in confidence. I'll certainly be keeping an eye on the YES radar gun tonight. If it turns out that he is indeed working in the low-90s . . . look out world.
Wright's promotion has conjured up memories of fellow lefty Sean Henn's May 4, 2005 major league debut, in which he made the leap from double-A at the age of 24 to start in Tampa Bay in place of Randy Johnson, who had tweaked his groin in his previous outing. The comparison is unavoidable, but here are two key ways in which the two differ:
Sean Henn pitched a full season (27 starts) in double-A in 2004 and was repeating the level in 2005 when he was called up. Chase Wright had never pitched above A-ball prior to his two starts for Trenton earlier this month.
Sean Henn had (and still has) never dominated any league in any season the way Wright dominated the Florida State League last year (he was named the league's pitcher of the year). Part of the reason for that is that Henn missed the 2002 season due to Tommy John surgery, spent 2003 rehabbing in the FLS after starting out in Rookie ball, and was thrust into double-A in 2004 despite a middling performance the year before only to see his effectiveness decline in Trenton. Wright, on the other hand, has been brought along exceedingly slowly as the Yankees waited for the sort of breakout he had last year before having him make the leap to double-A. Between that careful development pace, the results above, and especially his stellar groundball rate, I think it's safe to say that the Chase Wright who will start tonight for the Yankees is a clearly superior pitcher to the Sean Henn who made his debut almost two years ago under similar circumstances.
"Wright Chased in Debut"
thank you, thank you. i'll be here all night...
In any case, I hope he's lights out tonight. It'd be nice to see a lefty-pitching prospect in the Yanks' system.
Unless its the 7th inning, score close, bases loaded, and Stinky's due up . . . in which case Torre better wake up and pinch-hit with Phelps. I can't bear another GIDP or weak infield pop up.
Isn't the YES gun known to be juiced?
If Wright is anything close to what Wang was two years ago (not the way he throws but as a more than capable pitcher), well, Glass's DL trip may once again be a blessing in disguise.
wikipedia gave me nuttin.
On Wright: I hope he takes some beta blockers or something, cause those first-time-in-Yankee-Stadium jitters have bitten a lot of rooks in the past. Hopefully Guidry will keep a small flask of ol' no. 7 behind the dugout to keep the nerves relaxed and the ball down. Come on, baby! Let's rock this sheet.
LET'S GO YANKEES! (clap, clap, clap clap clap)
"Chase Wrighted Yankees Ship in Debut"
http://www.sonsofsamhorn.net/wiki/index.php/MLB_Rules_and_Procedures
In order to have someone on the 40 man roster but not the 25 man roster, either you need to use an option or he needs to clear waivers. Either is good for the full year, I believe.
Removing someone from the 40 man roster (outright assignment) always requires clearing waivers (or trading or releasing them). Or you could put someone on the 60-day DL, where they don't count against the 40-man roster.
Quite the start for young Chase.
Ok, one out, just two more...
Schweet.
I see the game is tied.
Horrible delay on gameday for me.
Still showing Arod's transparent avatar...
But hey, he brought in a run. Yay!
What's the situation like now?
Yes! We're leading!
Let's go Chase!
Overwhelmed? Any signs of settling down?
Seriously. WTF? That's his second hit of the season, right?
Of course, this means that Minky just bought himself the rest of the first half of the season
I hope Joe was asleep for that.
The Clipper..
The Mick...
and now...
The Myziewtzkwiczs
Thats it Kay, you can't criticize the administration, so give it to the fans.
Torre just announced that Minky and A-Rod will swap spots in the order...
The guys on the bench really seem to be discussing how easy those pitches were to hit. And the Cap'n had a look saying "why wasn't I invited to the party?"
89 Yeah, no kidding. Wish I had waited for extra innings. But, on the other hand, just getting to watch is worth it...
91 I wouldn't say more reliable. Its better quality, but its got some bandwith issues, as in, it sucks it all up and slows down the computer.
Come on out... nice and loose.
Man, let the guy bask it in, will ya? :)
But with the Yanks' offense tonight, who cares?
Gameday gets stuck. Resumes. Minky homers.
Stuck again. Resumes. Arod homers.
Stuck again. Resumes. Posada homers.
I've never been this pleased with the gameday delays.
145 No next time when it gets stuck again, who do you think it's gonna be?
Re: previous thread- I guess Hafner figured it out, just needed to face some minor league pitchers.
I used safari today instead of firefox which seems to make a big difference, who knows...
And Kay jixs it yet again
c2coke@gmail.com.
Can you send it on to zack_gill@hotmail.com too?
Daisuke running into trouble! Oh happy moment.
Be nice if Cashman resigns him first.
Why the hell were people talking about Wright's no-hitter here?
I swtiched gameday over to the Sox game and Wells promptly singled, following by a complete loss of command by Dice-K, so I didn't want to point it out and risk karma, but Clayton kills all karma anyway
10+ minutes without refreshing.
I hope this means Minky's gonna grand slam.
(I'm done.)
Minky Auto-Out in, again?
Well, let's hope Melkzilla is in the house.
http://www.proxy4free.com/page1.html
Why couldn't it have waited until AFTER A-Rod's home run?
Chase Wright - can't type Wright, reminds me of Jaret - looked OK from what I saw. He just has to relax, keep throwing strikes, and not walk anyone else (Torre hates the walks).
A six run lead ought to get him through the 6th, right? Right?
http://portforward.com/networking/static-xp.htm
Dice-K K's the side
At first I was worried that Jason Davis was an URP, but I looked him up, and he's been around since 2002. Don't know why I don't remember him.
223 To hear the third person commentary alone would be awesome! You know Rickey could win too.
Given the sports guys they've already had on - always tall guys - I'd expect Winfield to be the one they asked. I bet he'd be a good dancer too.
Someone tell me that it's true that a AA pitcher has kept the Tribe to 3 runs over 4 innings and the Dougie Eyechart hit a home run?
If someone does that, I may just go back to work.
I so hope for the best for Giambi.
Let's go, Giambi.
ONE MORE, CHASE!
Aw, Mr. Wright must be so proud.
Here's the Dougie we all know.
6 IP, 10 SO, 3 H,and 2 ER Good
3 BB including a bases loaded BB, and a 2/6 ground to air out ratio Bad
Losing 2-1 in the 7th
Hey, Johnny! That ball was tagged.
Good game by Wright, huh? I only caught two innings of his start on the radio.
Nice catch by Damon!
Who's pitching the seventh?
(Actually I think he hit it hard, though I'm only listening not watching.)
I dunno. I don't like 'saving guys for later'. This is the seventh inning!
Oh well...
AN IT'S OVAH!!!! Dice-K gets da loss!
Nice, a 2-1 loss for our buddy Dice.
333 They're good. But too many injuries right now, they're really hurtin', and not as able to compensate as the Yanks.
2005 = .029
2006 = .036
2007 = .078 (BEFORE THAT AB)
lol!
Oh, unbelievable! Maybe Yankee Stadium really does induce errors...
Knoblauch got a tan?
Jeter needs a half-inning rest?
Minky, ya done good (passable) tonight.
Thanks.
Finally, a 1000 runs season? :)
;-)
Now playing the role of Everyday Scott Proctor - Brian Bruney. Man, I hope his arm holds up.
Meanwhile, Proctor must be beside himself. Joe used to ask him to pitch 5 innings in games like tonight's! Now he gets the night off. ;)
Yeah, Scotty is feeling unloved, for sure. But at the same time, somehow, less fatigued and he misses that sore, dizzy feeling.
Very nice game tonight!
Man, EI would be especially sweet if they stayed with the post-game shows. Gotta flip over to Gameday Audio for Sterling and Suz, but I'm not complainin'...
Go, Yanks!
Chase did well. Another Win in the bag. Very nice.
I like this team. If we can play like this with a AA pitcher against a pretty good team like the Indians we can go far.
But where were Mo and Proctor? Did someone tie up Torre in the dugout? GOOD!
374 Here's the good part, though: we have so many good relievers, it will be impossible... well, difficult, for Joe to burn any of them out by overuse.
I guess the breakup with whatsherface was tougher than we thought.
BA BOOM
Thanks folks, I'll be here all night!!
(BTW, please don't tell me that someone already wrote that, I feel good about my impending career in comedy)
And say what you want, but I still love Sterling's HR calls, they never get old ;-)
I meant I was sorry to hit the submit button twice. But I'm not sorry for crossing the fingers. We've won!
Waldman: Torre was very impressed by Chase Wright, liked how we was around the plate a lot and focused after a rough start... His next start? Something to the effect of "I'm not sure, we got a lotta guys around here"...
A-Rod: Also excited for Wright. "I saw a lot of bad swings out there tonight..."
Karsten, Wang, Moose are coming back in that order.
And well...like I said...Glass is shattered...
Well, good, I like that. Here's hoping Wright goes 6 or more innings next outing. He throws enough strikes for it.
"I hate when the count is 0-2 and the pitcher throws that ball low and away (the batter knows just as well as we do that it's coming so why not throw it in the zone for the love of God)."
What?! Can someone translate this? Although, the rest of the blog is pretty cool. I love the internet.
Until then and beyond, the Banter is the best jernt to get our Yankees fix, at least...
Other than that, we were jazzed about loadiing up with younger arms, and here they come. Maybe not a moment to soon, we'll see...
Other than that, I have no problem with her :-)
BTW, just went through some local news articles re: Wang. He seems pretty anxious to get back. "I ask Conners when can I go back to New York everyday I see him."
When I read this, I couldn't help but picture Wang sitting at the backseat bugging the hell out of a driving Conners with ARE-WE-THERE-YET's. :D
I wish I was an editor for yankees.com. Then I could get paid for sitting on my ass and not doing anything.
Re: Milano- I just don't understand what she means. If the batter knows the pitch is going to be low and away, why wouldn't he just take it? And why would the pitcher deliver a meatball in any circumstance, let alone one in which he has the upper hand?
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