A True Yankee Podcast 7/31

Our Newest installment of A True Yankee Podcast. We discuss the Yankees and the league after the trade deadline.

The Yankees after the Trade deadline

Well the trade deadline passed and several players have changed teams. The Dodgers were busy as they picked up Hanley Ramirez from the Marlins, Brandon League from the Mariners and Shane Victorino from the Phillies, all mostly for Salary relief. In response the Giants traded for Hunter Pence, this is the Kind of arms race we used to see in the AL East and its great because the Dodgers/Giants rivalry is probably the best in baseball right now.
The Yankees made their biggest moves before the deadline acquiring Ichiro Suzuki for DJ Mitchell after Gardner was ruled out for the year, It was a great pickup and I talked about it earlier. When ARod went down with a broken hand the Yankees were said to be looking for a third baseman to platoon with Eric Chavez and they did that at the deadline when they traded Chad Qualls to the Pirates for Casey McGehee. The Pirates had been platooning McGehee with Garret Jones at first and after they traded for Gaby Sanchez they did not need him anymore. Its a good pickup and I wonder if Nix or Pena will go down as they do not need Nix to play third anymore and his defense at shortstop isn't very good. Granted the Yankees could also decide to call up Eduardo Nunez to be the backup middle infielder, but we will have to wait and see. The Yankees were also connected to Ryan Dempster for Angelo Gumbs or Dante Bichette Jr, but he ended up going to the Rangers who needed him a lot more.

CCSU loves Evan Scribner

Scribner with the CCSU Blue Devils

Evan Scribner with the Oakland A's

Evan Scribner is a relief pitcher for the Oakland Athletics and more importantly is a Central Connecticut State University Alumni and a Connecticut native. He is the first CCSU alumni to pitch in the majors since Ricky Bottalico ended his career with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2005. Scribner was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks following his senior season with the Blue Devils in 2007, in which he led them to the College World Series. Scribner made 74 appearances, including 33 starts, during his four-year career with CCSU. He compiled a 23-16 record and collected a Blue Devil-record 14 saves, I know that does not sound like a lot but remember this is college ball they do not play as many games and he switched between the bullpen and rotation a lot. Additionally, Scribner, who is among the all-time wins leaders in school history, recorded 20 complete games, five shutouts and a combined shutout. He totaled 288.0 innings on the mound, striking out 224 while walking just 57 and having a college 3.34 earned run average.

In his senior season in 2007, Scribner went 6-6 with a team-low 2.78 ERA. He made 21 appearances, starting nine games. He had seven complete games and one shutout while also notching seven saves. In 2004, Scribner won Northeast Conference Tournament Most Valuable Player honors for his efforts in helping lead the Blue Devils to a NCAA Tournament appearance as a freshman. He was also a 2006 All-NEC selection. Scribner has only pitched 12 innings so far with the A's but has already worked his way into some high leverage innings.

Scribner made his MLB Debut with the San Diego Padres  in April 2011 but was DFA in the offseason and picked up off waivers by the A's. Scribner achieved his first MLB save this season against his former club the San Diego Padres. Scribner sports a fastball at 90-94 mph, followed by a 12-6 curveball that is known to have a 20 mph difference. He has a changeup but he seldom uses it and is primarily a two pitch pitcher. Scribner has great control as he has a 18/6 Strike out to walk ratio.He is only the third CCSU alum to make it to the major leagues. Ricky Bottalico, and Skip Jutze are the only other two Blue Devils to make it that far.

I hope that Scribner can one day find his way to the Yankees, but until then I wish him the best of luck in Oakland from one CCSU Alumni to another. You can also follow Evan on Twitter @Evanscribner

The myth of the Yankees inability to develop pitching

Shhh, Nova doesnt know the Yankees can't develop Starting pitching

The Yankees cannot develop pitchers....thats the narrative, their organization is incapable of developing a single good pitcher which is why they need to buy pitchers. The problem of course is that its a total myth, the Yankees have been developing pitchers consistently the last few years but people have been looking at the failure of Joba Chamberlain as a starting pitcher and saying that the Yankee organization is incapable of developing pitchers. Yes the Yankees messed up Joba in 2009 with their stupid Joba rules,  he had that amazing run in 2008 but he needed more development time after pitching only half a season in the minors. He had great stuff and the Yankees rushed him and they got burned, it happens to everybody, for all the praise the Rays get for player development they have a ton of draft busts or players that underwhelmed or burned out. Part of the problem is that New York is different, somebody can pitch through a bad year if you play in Minnesota or San Diego, but in New York you do badly and your out the door. I talked about this in the first A True Yankee podcast, but people seem to have this idea that teams should develop these ace pitchers, but the only team who seems to develop pitchers out of nothing is the Rays; its a crap shoot, some pitching prospects succeed some don't. The Giants trio of Lincium, Cain and Bumbgardner being good isnt a sign of how good they are at developing pitchers, these guys were all 1st round draft picks that were expected to be good. The Yankees had their big three in Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy and despite the idea that the big three was a bust they are all successful Major league pitcher, I know the Killer B's have been a bust but not all prospects work out.

Lets also take a look at the starting pitchers that were developed in the Yankees system the last few years: Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy, Zach Mcallister, Ivan Nova, David Phelps, Hector Noesi, Chien-Ming Wang, Jeff Karstens, Ted Lilly. Ian Kennedy was the highest draft pick of any of these pitchers at 21st overall so the Yankees miss out on the cream of the crop in terms of pitching talent, but still if you include Jose Quintana then the Yankees account for 10 of the 150 Starting pitchers in baseball right now or two full team rotations, that seems pretty good to me.

To be fair this talk has died down a little since Nova came on the scene and Hughes turned his season around but I wonder if people will still be talking about this stuff in the next few years as the Yankees look to rely more on their homegrown players to keep costs down. If in 2013 the rotation is 3/5 homegrown pitchers is it still gonna be said the Yankees cannot develop pitchers. Lets also be clear in that the Yankees have been been better than anyone in finding Power arms late in the draft and turning them into great bullpen pieces. Part of the problem is that the Yankees have a fan base and media following that wants five aces and anything less than that is not going to be good enough. The fact that the Yankees have not only survived their starting pitcher injuries but have flourished is a testament to their pitching depth and you get depth by developing pitchers. If you wanna read a little bit more detail about this topic check out this article written by Greg Corcoran of Bronx baseball daily.

ARod out until September with Broken Hand and other Yankees news

KEVIN P. CASEY/AP

ARod joined the list of the wounded with a non-displaced hand fracture that will sideline him for the next 6-8 weeks. With the exception of the switch hitters Teixeira and Swisher, ARod was the Yankees only regular right handed power bat and now the injury prone Chavez will need to play almost everyday. The Yankees could make a move for a third baseman, but I do not know how likely that is as I expect that it is more likely they could look for a versatile bench bat or just platoon Chavez and Nunez when he is healthy. They could also look for another bounce back candidate like Scott Rolen but I do not expect they will get involved for Chase Headley. The other bats are going to need to step up with ARod out especially with the Red Sox series coming up and some tough games in August. One interesting name to consider is Marco Scutaro if the Rockies make him available as he could play both Short Stop and Thirdbase. The Yankees have recalled Ramiro Pena for the time being.

Joba Chamberlain pitched a perfect rehab inning yesterday and will rehab again today. The hope is that he can be back at the end of the month and that bullpen really needs it as the shortcomings of three match up guys in a seven man bullpen are really showing lately.

This one is not technically Yankees related but the Tampa Bay Rays DFA former Yankee Hideki Matsui who had only hit .147/.214/.221 with two home runs and one double in 103 PA. This is likely the end for Matsui as he struggled to find a job this season and looks to be done. When he played against the Yankees you could see that his power was gone as the balls off his bat just were not going out. Matsui was my favorite Yankee from when he first came to the team in 2003 and we will still have to wait to see if Matsui decides to walk away now that it seems he cannot play at the MLB level anymore.

Yankees acquire Ichiro Suzuki

Ichiro in photoshopped pinstripes

Ichiro Suzuki has been traded to the Yankees for minor league pitchers DJ Mitchell and Well there is a set of words I do not think I ever thought I would write, but the Yankees have been full of these types of moves the last several years. Nobody thought Pineda would be acquired, or Javier Vazquez would be acquired or that A.J Burnett would actually be moved and that is just what Brian Cashman did. Ichiro has been declining for the last few years and the Yankees are hopeing that he can bounce back, but on top of that Ichiro provides his still solid defnse and ability to play everyday in the field which will be great since the alternative would have been a combination of Wise, Jones and Ibanez. Suzuki also provides some speed that the Yankees really needed since losing both Nunez and Gardner and Granderson suddenly unable to steal bases its a definate lift for the Yankees.
This is a definate good move for the Yankees as they gave up pitching prospects D.J. Mitchell and Danny Farquhar both of whom are very minimal impact players. Its going to be intresting to see how Ichiro plays out the rest of the year as he is apparently done with the Mariners as he requested the trade from the Mariners ownership and this is a very intresting storyline for the Yankees and baseball.

Is Rick Ankiel a great fit?

Rick Ankiel was DFA today by the Washington Nationals and it has been immediately suggested that the Yankees should acquire Ankiel and that it would be a great fit. I however along with SB Nations Ed Valentine have suggested that this may not be as great an idea as it seems. Sure Ankiel is still a plus defender but is he really an upgrade over Dewayne Wise? Wise is currently hitting well in his limited playing time, while Ankiel was only hitting .228 in 158 PA and I do not see how Ankiel is a real upgrade over Wise. It also helps that the Yankees would seem to have to make a trade for Ankiel as I seriously doubt that he would fall to them as he would have to go through every other team in baseball first. It also seems unlikely that Ankiel would be able to turn around his season in New York as he has been declining since 2008 and replacing Wise with Ankiel also takes away about th eonly speed the Yankees really have on the base paths. In short I just do not see how this move would help the Yankees, despite what some may claim.

A True Yankee Podcast Episode 2

This is our second edition of A True Yankee Podcast and I hope that you all enjoy it. In this episode we talk about the Yankees recent success, the approaching trade deadline as well as several other Yankees topics. The Sound quality unfortunately got a little messed up , but I hope you all can enjoy it anyway. Also subscribe on ITUNES. Enjoy

Don't skim the truth with Melky

After Melky Cabrera's stellar year, not to mention his winning the all star game MVP, many fans have faulted the Yankees for letting Cabrera go. Lets be clear hear if you think this you are wrong, Melky then and Melky now are two completely different players and it also requires you to ignore significant parts of how Cabrera came to be where he is now.  Melky was a 4th outfielder thrust into the starting center field role in 2009 over Brett Gardner and quire frankly having him start over Gardner was the wrong move. Cabrera was liked for his clutch hits and some amazing catches but he never hit very consistently and was a bad fielder. He was traded to Atlanta as part of the package for Javier Vazquez and was one of the worst players in baseball, he was then released by the Braves at the end of the year. Melky had always been called lazy and apparently he took his release from the Braves as a sign that he needed to change his attitude, he got in shape and signed with the Royals. Melky has tore it up ever since and this off season he is going to get a big contract. If the Yankees had kept Melky he would not have become the player he is today and so faulting them for not keeping his is ridiculous. Melky Cabrera's offensive WAR in his five year career as a Yankee was 3.5, in one year with the Royals he had 4.7 and so far in 85 games with the Giants he has 3.2. Unfortunately many fans have this problem where they see the success of former Yankees and feel that it is success that the team has cost itself. Also to anyone who thinks the Yankees will acquire Melky through a trade or in the off season your wrong, its just not going to happen.

Yankes sign first round pick Ty Hensley

Well the Yankees agreed to terms with their first round draft pick RHP Ty Hensley, who was deciding between signing with the Yankees and going to college at Old Miss. Hensley was expected to go in the middle of the first round, but somehow fell to the Yankees 30th pick overall. At 6’5″ and 220 lbs,t he right handed pitcher sits low 90′s with his fastball, but has the ability to touch the upper 90′s. With better conditioning and mechanics, the 18 year old has could reach the majors throwing extremely hard, and he’s hoping that only a couple years away. Hensley is likely a top 5 prospect in the Yankees system, and falls somewhere around Jose Campos in in terms of pitchers. Hensley has however had his bonus reduced from $1.6 million to $1.2 million because of some shoulder damage that showed up on his MRI. He doesn't have any issues or pain but obviously it does raise some concern. Best of luck as a Yankee Ty.

The rest of the AL East at the Trade Deadline

The All star break generally marks the unofficial halfway point of the MLB season with all teams having played more than 81 games. as of right now the standings are thus:

AL East	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
New York Yankees	52	33	.612	—	25–16	27–17
Baltimore Orioles	45	40	.529	7	22–20	23–20
Tampa Bay Rays	45	41	.523	7½	24–19	21–22
Boston Red Sox	43	43	.500	9½	22–24	21–19
Toronto Blue Jays	43	43	.500	9½	23–19	20–24

The Yankees are a full 7 games up on the Orioles but the rest of the division is very close to one another and they all suffer from a lot of problems and only the Yankees have been over .500 the last 10 games. I talked about the Yankees necessary moves earlier.

Baltimore Orioles
The Fighting Showalters came out of the gate on top and their pitching had been decent which is a big step up from absolutely horrible which had been the norm. Their bullpen ERA still ranks as the second best in baseball but their starter ERA now ranks 26th with no starter being particularly good with Chen and Hammel having fallen back down to earth. Their offense hasn't fared much better as of late as they have fallen down to 19th. They traded for Jim Thome and have been linked to Zach Greinke, but quite frankly buying big pieces would be a bad idea for Baltimore. The Fighting Showalters have played way above their heads and their -36  run differential shows that. Dan Duquette has the right idea with investing in pitching but the team isnt one pitcher away they are three pitchers away from contending. The crap the Orioles throw out there for 3 out of five games is awful, Brian Matusz was the best of the three before being demoted and his ERA was 5.42! Their pitching is almost as bad as Boston and Toronto's and their offense is worse than Tampa Bays, you cannot win with that and I doubt it will get better. The Orioles should give every opportunity to their young players and maybe try and swing a deal for a starter who is under team control such as Matt Garza or Wandy Rodriguez. I'd love to see the Orioles make the playoffs but I think they finish .500 at best.

Toronto Blue Jays
I did not realize how good the Jays offense was this year until I looked it up which shows just how bad their pitching has been. The Jays are in the top three and Bautista and Encarnacion are both crushing the ball as is the rest of the lineup but that pitching staff has been devastated by injury and they relied too much on their internal pitching. The Jays have a real shot of making the postseason if they can assemble a decent pitching staff but like the Orioles they do not need one pitcher as much as they need three fifths of a rotation. Toronto is really close but I think what they need to try and do is extend Encarnacion and possibly Johnson and if they cannot then trade them. The Blue Jays have some really good pieces in Morrow, Romero and Alvarez but they need some solid inning eaters and should target some team controlled pitchers. Garza is a really good fit for Toronto as he has experience in the AL east and is a solid pitcher who eats innings and is a top of the rotation pitcher. Jason Vargas is another possibility and Alex Anthopoulos loves making trades.

Tampa Bay Rays
Unfortunately for the Rays they came into the year with a lot of expectations and alot has been going wrong for them. Pena has been mediocre, Longoria has been hurt, the signings of Luke Scott and Hideki Matsui have not worked well and to top it all off they are 29th in attendance which is just wrong. Sorry Tampa Bay, I know your stadium is crap and that it is actually in St.Petersburg but you have made the playoffs three of the last four years and if you don't go then you don't deserve an MLB team. The Rays are considering selling but they also have arguably the best rotation in the MLB and are still definitely in contention. Even on a down year the Rays could get a ton for James Shields but thst might also kill their chances of winning this year. The Rays need offense and they really can't solve that problem through free agency with their lack of fans. If the Rays want to win this season then they should try getting interesting with some trades, try getting the Cubs to pick up almost everything of Alfonso Soriano's contract for prospects or trade BJ Upton for a shortstop or catcher. Unfortunately for the Rays the team they match up with the best is probably the Toronto Blue Jays as they have both Catcher and Shortstop to spare and desperately need a solid starting pitcher who can eat innings and is under team control, which is James Shields to a T. Even without any moves the Rays should be in the thick of the playoff race.

Boston Red Sox
The thing that people in New York have the biggest trouble understanding is that in Connecticut we have non pink haters here who still think that the Red Sox are this gritty underdogs. The fact is that the Red Sox are a top-5 big market team and have the same pressure from their fan base to always win that the Yankees do. The Red Sox are in a situation right now where they do not have the money to pursue what they need which is a good starting pitcher and do not have the balls to make a big move. They made bad moves in signing Lackey and Crawford and now they are totally handcuffed by these moves. The biggest problem for the Sox is that they have a bunch of mediocre starting pitchers who are getting paid a lot of money and have no real depth behind them, just to point out Felix Doubront is their best starter with an ERA of 4.41. That being said this team is not hopeless but they do rank 27th in terms of starter ERA and have honestly been facing a lot of crappy teams. Fans seem to want to blow the team up and you could definitely get a big haul if you blow it up, but you need to improve that rotation and get some good bullpen pieces as that bullpen is not as good as it appears.  I seriously doubt that the Sox have the balls to make any big trades that shake things up, I mean it took them how long to trade their declining, soon to be free agent third baseman despite already having his replacement?

The end result is that every team in the AL East except the Yankees have giant holes that they need to fill with anyone of them being possible buyers or sellers at the deadline.

A True Yankee Inagural Podcast

Contributing writer Brooke and myself decided to start a podcast of which we hope to do on a bi-weekly basis. In our first show we talked about the injuries to Andy Pettitte and CC Sabathia, as well as minor league promotions, the trade deadline, Nick Swisher and the Yankees bullpen. Give it a listen and tell your friends.





download the episode from podOmatic here

Yankees Promote Promote prospects Williams, Austin, Sancez and More!

Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE - Presswire

 Well it was bound to happen soon and the Yankees decided to do their first round of prospect promotions. From the Low A affiliate Charleston RiverDogs the Yankees promoted catcher Gary Sanchez and outfielders Mason Williams and Tyler Austin to the High A Tampa Yankees. All of these guys were mashing and made the South Atlantic League All-Star team, the promotion were well deserved. Williams continued to sow why he shot up the top prospect list by hitting .304/.359/.489 on the season with eight home runs for Charleston to go along with excellent defense in Center field.
Catcher-turned-third-baseman-turned-right-fielder Tyler Austin burst onto the scene was 2nd in the Sally League with 14 homers and a .320/.405/.598 batting line for the year and deserved this promotion more than anybody. It will be interesting to see this Tampa outfield which will consist of Heathcott, Williams and Austin.
Sanchez wasn't even expected to have to stay in Charleston but he needed to work behind the plate more and his defense as improved. He still is a work in progress as a catcher but he has already destroyed Low A pitching so a promotion was necessary. One of the biggest reasons why Sanchez had remained in Charleston was that he was blocked by another top Yankee Catching prospect JR Murphy who despite some underwhelming numbers (.257/.322/.374 5 HR) was promoted to AA Trenton. Third Baseman Rob Segedin (.291/.358/.446 7 HR) was also promoted from Single A Tampa to AA Trenton.
Neil Medchill also moves back to Trenton from Tampa in hopes of after an earlier promotion saw him hit only .125.Also on the move are Jose Toussen, Tyson Blaser, and Eduardo Sosa, who will be joining the Charleston RiverDogs and Kyle Higashioka, who is moving back to Tampa from Trenton.

Corey Wade optioned and Chad Qualls activated

Well it figures that right after I write a post about how good Corey Wade has been and he goes on an epically terrible streak. He raised his ERA three runs and has been completely unusable and they needed to either send him down or DL him. The Yankees traded for Chad Qualls and he will now take Wades spot until Wade can work it out in the minors. I really do not know if this was the best move as Qualls has been pretty bad and I do not know if he will be better than some of pitchers in AAA like Ryoto Igarashi or Manny Delcarmen. Qualls has an ERA of 4.40 for the Phillies this year but he is completely unusable against Lefties this season as they are hitting .377 off him and have an OPS of 1.195 in 60 AB. If Qualls struggles I really hope that they bring up Kevin Whelan who has a 12.9 K/9 ratio right now. I doubt Qualls will be on the team for long as David Aardsma and Joba are on their way back and they will take his place.

New York Yankees upgrades at the Trade deadline

Well the Yankees rotation took a terrible blow by losing CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte with Pettitte being out until September. That being said the Yankees have enough rotation depth that losing Sabathia in the short term and Pettitte in the long term will not impact them terribly as they can fill the hole with Garcia and Phelps depending on who does better. With the struggles of Corey Wade the Yankees could target a bullpen piece but they do have some good pieces in AAA if they give up on him and I doubt they will make a significant move for a bullpen piece, especially with Joba and David Aardsma on their way back. If they do feel the need to get a starter than i expect they will target middle of the pack types like Ryan Depster or Bartolo Colon. The offense is also something that the Yankees cannot really change unless Gardner is going to be out longer and then they will probably target a player that could fill in for Swisher next year too but that is not the case as of now.
The biggest note going into the trade deadline is that Derek Jeter has batted .232 in June and has only had five extra base hits and the reason goes beyond a slowdown from a hot start, its also the fact that Jeter has had to play shortstop in 62 of the teams 71 games which is not something that the 38 year old should be doing. The Yankees demoted Eduardo Nunez because of his poor defense and they are feeling the repercussions of it now as they do not trust Jayson Nix to play shortstop even once a week which is what they really need.What this really means is that the only real upgrade that I think the Yankees need to look at is their bench and they do need a better player than Jayson Nix. Its not that Jayson Nix has been that bad its just that he can't really play shortstop and so Derek Jeter has been wearing down as a result. This may not seem like a big deal but We have all seen how Jeter has been wearing down and the Yankees have made it clear that they aren't going to use Nunez in a utility role right now. If they change their mind and Nunez can be decent defensively then that problem solved, but I really doubt that they will. The problem is that the Yankees obviously want a guy who can use the bat or else Ramiro Pena would be up but guys who can hit and are good defensively are generally starting shortstops. A couple names that jump out to me are Wilson Valdez of the Reds, Irving Falu of the Royals and Jonathan Herrera of the Rockies. However I doubt that Wilson Valdez will be available unless the Reds make a move because he has been getting a lot of at bats from Dusty Baker.
I would expect that Falu and Herrera would both warrant similar packages and they would probably be a pitcher and a replacement bench player like Kevin Russo, Ramiro Pena or Jayson Nix. I do not know if either Herrera or Falu is available but the Yankees do need to try and upgrade Nix because they need Jeter to be better and he can only do that if he gets regular rest.