Yankees clinch Playoff berth

The Yankees clinched a playoff berth with a win today and an Angels loss, as did the Rangers and Orioles. It looked like the Yankees would be doomed to 2nd place as they trailed by four runs after five innings, but the Yankees showed grit and rallied to split the series in Toronto. The Orioles and Yankees remain tied for the division lead with the last series remaining and the Yankees have the clear advantage in facing the Red Sox in the Bronx, while the Orioles face the Rays at Tropicana field. Hopefully the games swing the right way and they will not have to use Hiroki Kuroda in Wednesdays game, otherwise he would have to pitch on three days rest in game two. The end result though is that the Yankees need to win these games so that they can avoid the one game playoff and on a side note, congratulations to the Baltimore Orioles fan base on your first playoff berth in 15 years.

A True Yankee Podcast 9/25

I posted this later today than I wanted to but here it is.Sorry about the delay between this one and the last one but we had some issues, but we will make it up to you by having another episode next Thursday after the season is over. Anyway Chris guest appears for Brooke and we talk about the Yankees recent winning ways including the two walk offs against the A's. We also talk about Andy Pettitte, Ichiro, Raul Ibanez and the Yankees remaining schedule.

Yankees activate Aardsma and Gardner

The Yankees have activated both Brett Gardner and David Aardsma off the 60-day DL. Its not clear what Brett Gardner will do exactly but he apparently will do something and Aardsma will pitch a few times. To make room the Yankees designated Steve Pearce and Justin Thomas for assignment.
Also in unrelated news Yankees farm hand Pat Venditte will likely miss much of 2013 after undergoing shoulder surgery on a torn labrum in his right shoulder. If you recall Venditte is a switch pitcher, but I doubt that the Yankees want him on the field with a shoulder injury, even if he could still pitch lefty. However that does make Gardner's activation seem odd.

The Emergence of David Phelps

Fear the Phelps

The Emergence of David Phelps has been an important piece of the Yankees success this year as he has been able to bounce between the rotation and the bullpen and more importantly have success in both. As a starter he has pitched to a 3.81 ERA in 10 starts with his best start coming in the double header against the Blue Jays in which he pitched 6.2 innings of one run ball and struck out 6, in fact he has struck out 6 or more in four of his ten starts. Even more impressive may be his success coming out of the bullpen where he has a 2.50 Era over 40 innings and a impressive 41-11 strike out to walk rate.
Phelps story is even better because most people had Phelps behind Adam Warren, both as a prospect and on the pitching depth chart, likely due to his injury last season June. If you don't remember Phelps was going to make a spot start for the Yankees, but they instead signed Brian Gordon who made two starts before heading to play to Korea. Phelps was not even expected to make the active roster out of spring training, but he beat out Adam Warren and D.J Mitchell for the long relief spot after Freddy Garcia had to move to the rotation.
I don't know if it is somehow different from his previous approach but Phelps has been getting accolades for consistently pounding the strike zone, especially in relief where he has been needed due to the Yankees failure to acquire a quality middle reliever after Mariano Rivera's injury. However the  upside that Phelps has shown as a starter is one the Yankees will undoubtedly want to take advantage of as they try and rein in their spending. Phelps could be very critical next year as he may very well have a rotation spot, wither for the year or until Michael Pineda recovers from his injury. All in all the future is bright for David Phelps as a New York Yankee.

Ichiro turns back the clock and Dominates

Ichiro is pleased

Well Ichiro Suzuki turned back the clock and went 9 for 12 with three doubles a home run and four stole bases. He was the key cog in the Yankees sweep of the Jays, especially the second game of the double header in which he stole all four of his stolen bases and hit the go ahead run in the 8th. Perhaps the most impressive part of the series is how well he hit left-handers, he went 7 for in the series with all his extra base hits coming against lefties. Even better one of those doubles would have been an easy triple and very likely an inside the park home run, but it bounced into the stands.The Yankees acquired Ichiro to essentially be a platoon left fielder, but Andruw Jones has been so brutally ineffective in the second half that Suzuki will be pressed into full-time duty going forward and so far it looks like it will be well deserved. Also the speed element that Ichiro showed the last two days has been great as only he and Eduardo Nunez are true stolen base threats with Brett Gardner out and Ichiro wasn't even close to being out on any of his four steals. It cannot be overstated of how good Ichiro looked in this series and how pivotal he was to the sweep of the Blue Jays.

Its been said on this blog that everyone has just been waiting for Ichiro to be a Yankee and this series is exactly what everyone had in mind when they thought about Ichiro in Pinstripes. This series has also sparked many people to ponder the idea of the Yankees retaining Ichiro next season and it does remain a possibility, however if the Yankees retain Nick Swisher then there is no chance. Ichiro just had a great series, but don't forget he is 38 and entering the twilight of his career but these flashes of his former greatness should be great to see for all fans.

Andy Pettitte will start Tuesday

Well in addition to Ivan Nova taking Freddy Garcia's spot on Saturday, Andy Pettitte will take David Phelps spot on Tuesday when the Yankees take on the Toronto Blue Jays. Obviously David Phelps will move to the bullpen, but if Nova struggles then Phelps could take his spot after his good start against the Sox. Pettitte declared himself “ready” following his latest simulated game yesterday, though he’s going to be held to a 75-pitch count in his first start back. The Yankees will have to make a 40-man roster move to activate Andy off the 60-day DL and I expect Derek Lowe will be kicked to the curb.

PLAY CHRIS DICKERSON!!!

.226 that is what Raul Ibanez is currently hitting and its below .200 for the last few months and yet the Yankees continue to put out Raul Ibanez in the outfield. Chris Dickerson is clearly a better option than Ibanez right now and the Yankees need to stop playing Ibanez regularly as they afford the automatic outs. Dickerson is a better hitter than either Jones or Ibanez right now and is a better fielder so it makes no sense to keep running those guys out there, but the Yankees will likely keep Jones out there against lefties but it does not make any sense to keep playing Ibanez over Dickerson and I am calling out the Yankees on it right now. Chris Dickerson also gets credit for being a legitimate stolen base threat so in every single facet of the game Dickerson is the better choice. During this pressured pennant race Girardi has made some questionable decisions and to me playing Ibanez over Dickerson is chief among them.

Derek Jeter leaves game with injured Ankle

Update 11:12pm Apparently it is actually a bone bruise on his ankle and Jeter will try and play tomorrow, probably as the DH. So potentially not that bad.

Update 10:38pm Its reportedly a sprained Ankle. I have no idea what the time table for that is but it shouldn't be too long.

Derek Jeter hurt his ankle when he grounded into a double play in the 8th inning. Bryan Hoch reports that it is an ankle injury. No word on the severity of the injury yet and Jeter was replaced by Jayson Nix at short stop in the bottom of the 8th inning.

Mark Teixeira out 10-14 days and Melky Mesa called up

So that sucks but the Yankees need to win despite Mark being out. Also if you were unaware Melky Mesa is a outfielder for the Yankees who primarily played in Double A this season but had been up with the Tripe A Yankees before they were eliminated from the playoffs. Mesa will probably be a defensive replacement and pinch hitter/runner. Although I would like to see them use him against a left hander over Andruw Jones who has been terrible and Mesa does have 23 homers on the year in the minors.

Jerry Meals and thoughts on the Baltimore series

Jerry Meals is blind

The Yankees split the series against the Orioles when they won 13-3 Sunday behind a offensive surge and a great performance from the bullpen. But the thought on every Yankees fans mind is that the Yankees were cost a game because of Jerry Meals horrendous call at first base when he called Mark Teixeira out when he clearly beat the throw. In my mind, which is probably biased, its one of the worst calls of the last three years behind only the Armado Galarraga call and the Jerry Meals 19th inning call. Apparently after Saturdays game Joe Girardi and Joel Sherman, the Yankees writer from the New York Post, got into a screaming match over something, we don't know what. But in the Sunday edition of the Post, Sherman wrote a scathing critique of the Yankees entitled "Blaming umps is loser talk". Yes the Yankees offense let them down, as did their Ace CC Sabathia but it doesn't change the fact that the Yankees did rally and tie it but were cost the tying run on a call that ended the game. Blaming the ump is loser talk, but their comes a certain point when you have the right to be frustrated by a terrible call and this was one of them; good teams take that frustration and put it out on the diamond and lets all hope that its exactly what the Yankees did today by blowing out the the Orioles. Overall I think the Yankees played really well this series, their offense stepped up but their pitching let them down in two of the games.

The Yankees had tied the game on Thursday and David Robertson of all people gave up the lead. Does this mean that Robertson is now not one of the the best relievers in the game? No it does not, Robertson for some reason wasn't throwing his curve ball and I think its because he was trying to cut down on his walks by throwing a cutter and its not as good of a pitch. He looks like he is going back to the curve after he used it more on Friday so looks like it wasn't an injury but only time will tell. The other story is one that certain people have been piping is that CC is not and never has been an ace. This story upsets me because its a sign of how short-term fans memories are, CC is struggling right now because he isn't getting the swings and misses that he should and I guarantee it is because of his arm problems this year. I do not know if this is a long term problem but we all need to hope it is not. Saying that CC is not the Yankees ace though is wrong and every pitcher struggles, Felix Hernandez gave up 6 runs the other day is he not an ace?

Also Mark Teixeira's injury sucks the Yankees really needed him back and if he is out for awhile then he may miss the beginning of the playoffs. The ideal scenario is that he is only out for a week and the Yankees can build that lead back up in the division. Next up comes the Red Sox who just got swept by the equally terrible Blue Jays and have won 1 of their last 10.

Looking at Pettitte's return

Via Joel Sherman, left-hander Andy Pettitte (fractured left leg) threw three innings and 46 pitches during his latest simulated game this afternoon. Pitching coach Larry Rothschild said it went “good, very good, super.”

 Pettitte will getting checked out by the team doctors on Monday, and if all goes well he will start ramping up his workouts in advance of rejoining the team later this month. Pitching coach Larry Rothschild said that Pettite will have no minor league rehab games and will instead have more simulated games. Joel Sherman believes that in the next 7-10 days Pettitte will throw another simulated game, going about 4 innings. The hope here is that after that rehab start Pettitte could rejoin the rotation.

Stretch run Predictions

Well here we are in September, the official stretch run and the Yankees are going to be playing meaningful baseball against the Rays, which is not surprising and the Orioles, which is extremely surprising. Of the eight playoff spots seven are still decently up in the air, but as we saw last September any lead can evaporate. Here are my predictions for the playoff spots.

American League

AL East-Yankees
Quite honestly the division could easily go to the Rays or the Orioles, but the Yankees are the ones with the lead and are hopefully going to get Mark Teixeira, Arod and Andy Pettitte back soon so that should only be an improvement over the current roster. For all the pessimism from Yankees fans, the Yankees still have the best team in the AL East and should still win the division.

AL Central- White Sox
Ive talked about this quite a bit, I know the Tigers are the better team but the White Sox have been ahead of them for long enough that people need to accept that they are not going to just conceded to the Tigers. The White Sox lost three of four to the Orioles are are still three games up on the Tigers. The White Sox have a good enough team to win the division and the Tigers have played crappy baseball all season, why wouldn't they in September?

AL West- Rangers
This one is easy, despite the injuries the Rangers have suffered they are four games up on the A's and 8.5 games up on the Angels. The A's could make a run, but that Texas offense is too good to lose the division and Ryan Dempster will probably adjust to the AL.

AL Wild card- Rays v. Tigers
How awesome is the playoff going to be if the pitching match up is  David Price vs. Justin Verlander. The Tigers are 3 games back, but the AL east is going to beat up on each other which will leave an opening for the Tigers or A's and I expect the Tigers will prevail.


National League

NL East-Nationals
I know they are going to shut down Stephen Strasburg, but unless the other four members of the rotation forget how to pitch they are going to win that division, they are just too good.

NL Central- Reds
The Reds currently have the best record in baseball without Joey Votto and he's coming back soon. Johnny Cueto is a legitimate CY Young candidate and both Todd Frazier and Zach Cozart being NL ROY candidates. Their Rotation and Offense are both great and they have the best shot of finishing with the best record in baseball having won 80 games already.

NL West- Giants
The Dodgers had their mega deal with the Sox and the Giants lost Melky, but the Giants are playing better right now and winning the games they need to win. Even with Timmys troubles their pitching is better than the Dodgers and I expect they will ride that pitching into October. It also helps that Buster Posey is having an MVP caliber season.

NL Wild card- Atlanta v. Cardinals
Atlanta is having a great year and do not look like they will fall like they did last season, also despite the Dodgers acquisitions, they aren't clicking right now and while that can change I think that the Cardinals are built to make a run better than the Pirates or Dodgers. I initially went with the Dodgers but I do not know if they can make up that deficit without Chad Billingsly.