Friday, August 31, 2012

8/31 Podcast



In this podcast we talk about the Yankees struggles and the potential return of some injured players.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Nova to the DL

Ivan Nova was sent back to New York on Wednesday after feeling something pull in his shoulder in the 6th inning of his start in Chicago. Nova has been diagnosed with inflammation in his rotator cuff and has been placed on the 15-day DL. The treatment is just rest and medication, and he won’t pick up a baseball for at least five days. I expect the club to be very conservative given the Pineda stuff, so it wouldn’t be a total surprise if Nova has already pitched his last game of 2012. Phelps will take his spot in the rotation and CC Sabathia will take Nova's spot on the roster. CC will start on Friday against Cleveland and Phelps will open the series at home against the Blue Jays.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Michael Pineda busted for DUI

The story of Michael Pineda grows more frustrating. The 23 year old was arrested this morning in Tampa, Florida around 2:30 a.m. with a blood-alcohol level over the legal limit. There is really no excuse for drinking and driving. Ever. its more frustrating that he should be focused on his rehab from shoulder surgery.
Unfortunately, this just darkens the cloud that has hung over the trade since the Yankees have only gotten a few starts out of Jose Campos to show for what was supposed to be the acquisition of a young, fireball pitcher to carry the rotation for years to come. No one knows what kind of pitcher Pineda will be when he returns, but now we know he will have a pretty significant mistake in judgement hurled at him by the general population whenever he fails to live up to expectations.
What a terrible development in what has already been a disappointing story so far.

Kuroda dominant even without run support

Over his past 7 starts Hirki Kuroda has given up eight runs in 51 2/3 Innings of  1.39 ERA baseball and has still managed to only go 5-2.

In Hiroki Kuroda's 4 years with the Los Angeles Dodgers he pitched 114 starts of 3.45 ERA ball and went 41-46 due to his lack of run support from the Dodgers. Then he came to the Yankees and the Yankees ability to score runs looked like it would help him rack up the wins. While Kuroda is only one shy of his career high in wins he has been doing it without much run support from the second best offense in baseball.

Kuroda has only received an average of 3.84 run support, which breaks down into 96 runs across 25 starts, compared to 501 total runs in the 96 games started by everyone else this year. That’s an average of 5.22 runs per game. For whatever reason, the Yankees are scoring one and a third fewer runs per game with Kuroda on the mound this season than they are with anyone else out there. In the last 12 years the Yankees the lowest run support a starting pitcher with 25 starts has received was Mike Mussina back in 2001 with 4.12 runs per game. Bartolo Colon received the club’s worst run support last season at 4.50 runs per game, but he went 8-10 with a 4 ERA.

This is just a fluke and means nothing and other than his start against King Felix he isn't losing some good starts as much as he is simply not getting the win in them. It be nice of the Yankees to score some runs as they haven't scored more than five runs in a start by Kuroda since July 18th when Kuroda tossed an abbreviated Shutout against Toronto. Kuroda's next start comes against the Indians and it would be a good time to give Kuroda a big safe win that he deserves.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

A True Yankee Podcast 8/16



Brooke and I talk about the Yankees struggles, the state of baseball around the MLB. We also talk about CC Sabthia's injury, Hiroki Kuroda and a bunch of other Yankees related things.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Melky Cabrera suspended 50 games for PED

Well this may be a sign of where Melkys breakout came from as he admitted to using a PED and the MLB has suspended him for 50 games, essentially ruling him out for the rest of the season and seriously hurting the Gianst playoff chances. Melky also really hurt his wallet as he may now be looking at another one year deal or just a severely reduced deal from his projected 5 year $60 million deal. Its really too bad because he was one of the better stories of the last two years and I hope its at least somewhat because of talent and not just steroids.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Big teams on the outside looking in at the Playoff race

What do the  Phillies, Red Sox, Angels and Tigers all have in common? If the season ended today then none of them would make the playoffs and they rank 2-5 in payroll behind only the Yankees. If you look at their payroll and roster everyone of these teams should make the playoffs and at the beginning of the year all of them were projected by most people to make the playoffs. All year we have heard that the Tigers team was so much better than the White Sox that soon they would just blow by them and win the division easily  and you know what that hasn't happened. The same goes for the Angels, who many have said are better than anyone else in their division, but as of August they sit behind both the Oakland A's and the Texas Rangers despite what is supposedly a superior roster featuring Jerad Weaver, Albert Pujols and Mike Trout. The Phillies were supposed to win the NL East despite the injuries because their pitching staff was just too good, but they sit 11 games under .500 and have been trying to move some of their bloated contracts. The Red Sox are in the same boat as everyone said their problems from last September wouldn't carry over and yet they have struggled all year and have been under .500 this season more often than not.Fans of everyone of these teams will cry foul and say injuries have hurt their season, but every team deals with injuries, the Yankees have lost Mariano Rivera, Michael Pineda, Andy Petitte, CC Sabathia, Brett Gardner and ARod and have still manged to have the best record in the AL.
My point in this is not to rip these teams as much as it is to point out that at a certain point you cannot keep saying this team will do better because of the talent on their roster or another team will slide and acknowledge that after 110 games these teams probably are what they appear to be. It is certainly possible that the Pirates or the Orioles could self destruct or the Tigers/Angels could go on an epic tear but that does not seem to be likely. The most likely scenario is that these teams keep it close toward the end of the season and we have a hard fought wild card race and some tight division races as well.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

David Phelps to start Monday

The Yankees signed Derek Lowe and we all spent about 20 minutes bemoaning the idea of Lowe starting on Monday before it was announced that Phelps would start on Monday not Lowe. I also am just going to point out that if the Cleveland Indians do not want a player then your team definitely should not want him. That being said all Lowe is for the Yankees is a veteran mop guy, he will probably back up Phelps because he will not be able to throw more than 60 pitches this start and 75-90 the next start. After that I doubt Lowe will even be on the team unless CC's activation gets pushed back to September. You have to feel a little bad for Adam Warren because he lined up well to make the start on Monday, but the club didn't have the confidence in him if he had to make a few starts. However Warren is also the Yankees only backup for a starting pitching injury if anyone else goes down. Phelps will have to face the Texas Rangers on Monday so lets hope he can make that limited pitch count.....count. Lowe will be activated Monday so Igarashi will be up for tomorrows game.

CC Sabthia dealing with Elbow issue

Update 4:35pm: Yankees have announced that they will place CC Sabathia on the 15 day DL for his elbow stiffness. They were debating putting him on the DL but they were concerned that his inflammation had not gone away. It sounds like he will be on the DL for the minimum amount of time and he will be eligible to come off the DL on August 23rd. The Yankees have not announced what their rotation will do after Phil Hughes start Sunday. Feel better big man 

Via Mark Feinsand, left-hander CC Sabathia has experienced some minor soreness in his left elbow since his last start. He threw his regular bullpen session yesterday, though there is still a chance the team plays it safe and skips his next start. “Right now, it’s a low-level concern … Long-term, it’s not a big concern,” said Feinsand’s source.
"He's okay," Joe Girardi said Saturday morning. "It's just preventive stuff that all our guys do."
Sabathia is slated to make his next start on Monday at Yankee Stadium against the Rangers, though that could change if his elbow isn't feeling better.
Sabathia is 12-3 with a 3.56 ERA this season, throwing 141 2/3 innings in 20 starts. He missed more than three weeks, including the allstar break with a minor groin injury, but his arm has not been an issue.

I expect that the Yankees will just move everybody up a day and then see if CC needs the DL stint becuase he would not pitch until his next start anyway. While we may want to see Phelps get the start, Warren would probably get called up becuase he is already stretched out.