Future Yankee Roster Moves

Yesterday Sergio Mitre was reacquired by the Yankees from the Brewers for cash and Buddy Carlyle was Designated for assignment. Some people have become very upset about this due to a fear that Joe Girardi will use Mitre in high leverage outings like he did with Chad Gaudin. The problem of course is that Girardi didn't use Gaudin in high leverage situations that were not extra innings in any situation except for one in September. You may remember it was the game were he walked in the tying run in the sixth and then we scored 4 in the bottom of the inning, that was an odd choice but it was one incident and despite what some people may think Mitre is not that bad of a pitcher and he is definitely a good pickup for injury rocked bullpen. Also if he is bad then they can just release him, its an easy and smart decision. Plus for all of you who wanted to keep Buddy, I doubt he is going to get picked up so he will back in AAA being mediocre.
This trade made me think of the upcoming roster moves that the Yankees will need to make with players returning from the disabled list. Bartolo Colon will be an easy one as the Yankees will more than likely send down Brian Gordon unless they think Gordon is a better choice in the bullpen than Noesi. Its also easy to see that when Jeter comes back that Pena will be sent down because the Yankees want Nunez to get more AB in the big leagues.
Phil Hughes is looking like he may be back for a start before the all star break and when he comes back not only will the Yankees need to make a 25 man roster move but they will also need to make a 40 man roster move because Hughes has been on the 60 day DL. I think what is likely to happen is that the Yankees will choose to send down Ivan Nova to AAA and Hughes will take his rotation spot and they will also DFA someone likely Jeff Marquez or Kanekoa Texeira to clear the 40 man spot. While the Yankees would probably prefer to keep Nova in the rotation they likely will not want to sacrifice the depth that they have with Nova sitting in AAA in case any of the 4 non Sabathia starters breaks down or prove ineffective and chances are that one of them will. If all the starters stay healthy then in September then they can use Nova to keep everybody fresh for the playoffs or give him Garcias rotation spot and use Garcia as a spot starter.
Soriano's return likely will not be  before the allstar break as reports indicate that he is just getting ready to throw off a mound. When he eventually returns you will likely see whomever was not DFA for Hughes DFA here and either Hector Noesi or Corey Wade will be sent down. Wade or Noesi will likely depend on who looks better before Soriano's return, but if I had to guess I would say that it would be Noesi who gets sent down.
Another person who we have almost forgotten about is corners infielder Eric Chavez who looks like he may return after the all star break and the Yankees will be glad to have him back. The spot he will take is easy as Chris Dickerson will get sent down to AAA because right now the Yankees don't really need a 5th outfielder. To put him back on the 40 man the Yankees will have to make an interesting decision as they wont want to DFA Chris Dickerson with both Colin Curtis and Justin Maxwell done for the season. What they could do is promote Justin Maxwell to the Yankees and then immediately put him on the 60 day DL which would clear up his 40 man spot and he would be happy because he would make the league minimum salary despite not actually playing. They could DFA a pitcher but my guess is that they will want to keep as much pitching depth around as possible.
Mark Prior is a guy who we haven't heard from lately and while he is recovering I kind of doubt that he will make a big league appearance this year. Prior is just now starting to throw off a mound and is going to have to rehab in the low minors to come back and pitch in AAA. He could be ready for the MLB by September but he needs to prove himself in AAA before a roster move can even be considered and even then I don't know if they will want to make a roster move to put him on the 40 man. At this point I hope that Prior sticks around so that he can try and make the bullpen next year out of spring training.

I'd also like to point out that Gustavo Molina is still on the 40 man and not Jesus Montero and neither is Montero in the Bronx where he should be.



Seriously why is he still in AAA?



Phil Hughes New Britain Rehab Start

Its very nice to get a post in dealing with some real Yankees news that's happening in CT and since I go to school in New Britain getting to the game was fairly easy. When I saw that the Trenton Thunder were coming to play the New Britain Rock Cats I had already decided to go back in April due to my hope of seeing Manny Banuelos, Dellin Betances, Pat Venditte, Melky Mesa and Austin Romine. Then of course it was announced that Hughes would make his rehab start at Fridays game and I was very excited to go, especially since there was no chance of Venditte pitching due to throwing 60 pitches the day before and Mesa has been on the DL. It also looked like Romine would not play but he was activated for that game. Hughes start was printed in the local paper and a lot of Connecticut Yankee fans came out to see him pitch.
I came with my girlfriend who is an even bigger fan than I and we were handed a pair of free tickets as we walked up to the box office which was cool. Hughes  fastball velocity was consistent in the low 90's staying at 91-92 for the entire game with one 89 mph fastball that I saw during his outing. He did seem to be having some issues with locating the ball, however he did seem to be dealing with a slightly erratic strike zone. He did seem to struggle to put away batters which concerns me because that was his issue last year, he would get 2 strikes on a batter and be unable to put them away. He did also suffer from a poor defensive play that likely should have gotten him out of the inning. I don't know why it wasnt scored an error but Jose Pirella, who already has 17 errors in 63 games at SS this year, caught the ball on the ground and instead of immediately doing a quick throw to the second baseman he laid on the ground for several seconds and then threw the ball to second baseman Corban Joseph who then tried to get the out at first. If the play had been done correctly the run would not have scored and Hughes would have completed 4 innings instead of 3.1. That being said Hughes definitely needs some more rehab work because if he was MLB ready then he never should have had an issue at all. I expect that Hughes will make another rehab start in AA and then move on to AAA. Here are some photos and video of a fly out that Hughes got in the game.

Romine did a good job behind the plate and made a good block on a breaking ball in the dirt and I was very happy to see him catch. Also Kruml's HR was an absolute bomb that went out to right center and was a good 6 feet above the 20ft wall out there. I would have liked to have stayed the whole game but my girlfriend was suffering from a massive migraine and the screaming kids and stadium lights did not help, so I did not get to see the walk off walk that was achieved by the Rock Cats. Here are some more photos.

Kruml High Five after hitting his HR

Lyerlay at 1B

Lyerlay at bat

Austin Romine during infield warmups

Trade Targets: Left handed relievers

My posts about Hiroki Kuroda and Wandy Rodriguez were both about starting pitchers, but the Yankees seem frustrated with Boone Logan and they were believed to be targeting Lefty help either way. Left handed relievers are hard to come by and with Pedro Feliciano out for the year the Yankees were going to have to acquire someone. They did sign Randly Flores and Greg Smith to minor league deals but neither have been especially impressive in AAA and Smith has been a starter in the past. Right now Flores seems like a better option right now than Logan and the recent Lefties who have passed through waivers seems to imply that Logan would likely not be claimed and would go down to AAA Scranton. Tim Dierkes of MLBTR recently wrote a piece about potentially available lefty relievers. The Yankees will likely look for a lefty who is only signed for this year and not within the division so that narrows down those potentially available. I doubt that the Dodgers would make Kuo available and Hideki Okajima was not picked up off waivers by anyone so I doubt he is going to traded for. The A's posses three lefties Brian Fuentes, Jerry Blevins and New Haven, Connecticut native Craig Breslow. Fuentes is signed until 2012 and has a $6.5 million team option for 2013, while Breslow and Blevin are both under team control after this year. Breslow has the best ERA, but his split against lefties this year is even worse than Logans with lefties hitting .409 against his, however his career split against lefties is .218 and lefties are hitting .318 against Blevin, but again they have hit .237 against him in his career. Fuentes has also not done well against lefties this year with lefties hitting .300 against him despite hitting only .217 during his career. Randy Choate is another option and while he is signed for 2012 as well he is signed to an extremely team friendly contract of $1 million in 2011 and $1.5million in 2012. In 13 innings he has been fantastic giving up only 1 ER and holding lefties to a .108 BA, however his team friendly contract would likely make it hard to pry him away from the Marlins.
That leaves really one option of a lefty reliever whom the Yankees can acquire and he's one that we just saw recently, that would be Cubs lefty John Grabow.  Grabow's showing against the Yankees was not particularly impressive but he faced two right handed batters and got Martin to pop out and Swisher out at the plate. Grabow has held lefties to .178 BA in 30.1 IP, but his career numbers are not great with lefties hitting .258 against him and even last year they hit .294 against him. Grabow has a big salary this year making $4.8 million and he may be easily acquired by the Yankees for salary relief and a low level prospect or two. The problem of course with Grabow is that we could acquire him and he could do almost nothing and the Yankees may choose to go after a better LOOGY candidate but it will be hard to get one who is effective and is a rental.

Trade Targets: Hiroki Kuroda

Hiroki Kuroda

The man from Japan Hiroki Kuroda has been solid in the dodger rotation despite only posting a winning record once in his 4 years in the states. There is no Cliff Lee or Roy Oswalt available on the market this year and Kuroda is probably the best rental starter available which means that the Yankees and the Red Sox will both be looking into him, as well as other contenders who need a starting pitcher. Kuroda has posted a 3.56 ERA in a total of 586.2 IP. Kuroda has a full no-trade clause and he did re-sign with the Dodgers this off-season despite all the McCourt mess that is going on. That being said while his ERA is lower than last year he has give up 11 HR in 89.2 IP while he gave up 15 all last year in 196.1 IP and while is still early his WHIP is much higher and his K rate is down slightly from last year. Another interesting note is that despite playing in the National League Kuroda is a horrendous batter and has only 2 RBI's in 205 PA and a BA of .096, I would assume that he would have gotten better over time, but both those came in his first year in the MLB. Personally I would much prefer Wandy Rodriguez to Kuroda due to his being a lefty, younger than Kuroda and the fact that Wandy is under contract until 2014 while Kuroda has a 1 year deal. I would much prefer Kuroda or Wandy to Big Z and Ryan Dempster which others seem obsessed with. Normally a team would not be able to ask for too much for Kuroda but in this thin market and with Kuroda's no trade clause he will draw more for the Dodgers especially if teams get into a bidding war, but the Yankees do always have the advantage of being able to take on more money from his $12 million deal.

My thoughts on Andruw Jones

Andruw Jones signed with the Yankess for 1-year/ $2 million with $1.2 Million in incentives possible and he was brought in to face tough Lefties for either Gardner or Granderson which in the offseason was necessary due to both of their poor numbers against LHP and while he did not mash LHP as much as Marcus Thames he did have the ability to play the field which Thames did not. Then Granderson decided to mess everybody up and he is currently hitting LHP better than RHP this year but still has absolutely great numbers against both and Gardner is also hitting decently against LHP with a .250 BA against lefties. In fact Gardner is hitting better than Jones's .245 BA against lefties and Jones is 2-16 against RHP, with all of his HR and RBI's coming against Lefties. The only category that Jones is better than Gardner in is Slugging in which Gardner has a very poor .286 against Lefties while Jones has a .531 slugging rate.
Benching Granderson or Gardner last year for Thames made sense because Thames was mashing Lefties, but this year benching Gardner or Granderson for Jones hasn't worked out, however having a veteran right handed bat on the bench can be very useful, especially when you have two left handed bats in the outfield. However if I were the Yankees I would be wondering how useful keeping Jones would really be as he isn't hitting well and he's not good enough anymore to be a defensive replacement. The Yankees could easily give his spot to Greg Golson who is great defensively and has a rocket arm, he could be the Yankees right handed bat. However as we do play in the American Leagee we sometimes do not appreciate how useful having a solid bat off the bench can be and a bench bat with some real offensive possibility is a real plus. Greg Golson is a .264 career hitter in the minors and only got his first hit last year with the Yankees, but all of his 6 of his hits came against Lefties and he also some speed on the base paths. That being said the Yankees do not likely view Golson as a leftie smasher and the conundrum of what to do with Jones continues. Next year the Yankees will not bring Jorge Posada back and they may go the road of not having a single DH as they could decide to platoon their Veterans with Jesus Montero who will likely be the backup catcher next year behind Russel Martin. In that situation the bench will likely have Eric Chavez, Eduardo Nunez and a backup outfielder like Greg Golson, Colin Curtis, Justin Maxwell or Chris Dickerson. That would leave the Yankees wanting a veteran outfielder who has the potential for some offense as he would likely take some AB as the DH as well. I think the Yankees would like someone like Andruw Jones to fill that role, but his offensive production this year has been poor and it has been declining for years and I don't know if the Yankees would choose to get someone else next year. That being said if Jones can pick up his offensive production I think the Yankees would likely tender him a new contract for 2012 as long as he stays around the $2-3 Million range. As of right now though its completely up in the air.

Bullpen Options

So it looks like Joba Chamberlain will likely have to undergo Tommy John Surgery and as a result will be out for about a year. With Rafael Soriano, Damaso Marte and Pedro Feliciano all currently on the DL the Yankees bullpen is running out of arms. The Yankees bullpen has been very good so far this year and they have been able to live with the injuries, because Soriano was easily replaced with Joba and We already had a lefty in the bullpen and out bullpen is good at getting out Lefty's anyway. With Joba's injury Robertson is moved in to the set up role and the Yankees bullpen now feels off due to Robertson's previous role as the fireman. Cashman has recently stated that he does not expect Feliciano or Sorianol back soon and so in my mind the Yankees are likely looking for an a high level RHP and a LOOGY because as much as I like Boone Logan he is not doing a good job as the LOOGY this year. The Yankees may look internally for bullpen help or look to trade for relief help. The Yankees called up Kevin Whelan who had been doing a great job of closing in AAA Scranton and after a bad first appearance, he bounced back with an outing of 1 K and 1 BB  in 1 IP after walking 4 batters in .2 innings of work.  The Yankees also called up Jeff Marquez who will likely be used as the long man and they have indicated that they could use Hector Noesi in the bullpen as more than just a long reliever, which likely means that Lance Pendelton will be sent down for Brian Gordon who the Yankees will officially sign 6/15 at 6pm unless he is called up by the Phillies. Four other Internal options that may be used are LHP's Randy Flores and Greg Smith as well as RHP's Corey Wade and possible Tim Norton although he is currently on the DL right now. Wade is the most likely to be called up as he sports very good numbers in AAA with a 1.23 ERA and an 8.3 k/9 rate and his numbers in the majors aren't bad.
If the Yankees do choose to look outside the organization for bullpen help then they will likely look to a number of teams that have or will soon become sellers. Several names that frequently come up are K-Rod, Kerry Wood, The entire bullpen of the Twins ans A's and Joakim Soria. Soria and Wood are very unlikely especially Soria who has regained his closer role with the Royals who along with the Indians and the Nationals are very close to contending in the next few years and Wood's price is to low for the Cubs to want to trade away. K-Rod is a definite possibility, but the Mets arent eager to trade with the Yankees I think that the Rangers will end up with him as they need really need bullpen help, but if the Rangers make other moves to shore up their bullpen then K-Rod does become more likely because I doubt he will be used as the closer for any team after his trade. Even then though the Mets will likely want bullpen help in exchange and the Red Sox and the Tigers may be able to give more for K-Rod than the Yankees will offer. Bullpen help sells high every year and teams like San Diego with a MLB leading 2.35 Bullpen ERA will be able to get a lot of return for that, remember top prospect Wilson Ramos was traded by the Twins for Matt Capps and the Twins are still sporting the worst Bullpen ERA in the majors. The Twins bullpen is in shambles and their bullpen may not help anyone, but if San Diego, Florida or Oakland decide to sell then they could get some good players back especially since all 3 AL division leaders are ranked in the bottom 10 in worst Bullpen ERA, (ironically all  3 NL division leaders are in the top 3).
The Yankees are actually fairly well off, but ideally they would like 1 more solid RHP and a LOOGY and they will likely try and solve the problems internally, but this bullpen has not been tested yet in a tight game and they may bite the bullet and overpay for an 8th inning rental guy. We all do need to thank Luis Ayala for being spectacular especially considering that he was a spring training invitee and right now he is our only solid MR arm.

An apology to Posada

I recently wrote a post about Jorge Posada in which I said that Posada was hurting the Yankees. Posada evidently reads this blog because he responded by hitting .469 over the last two weeks and has raised his BA to .228 when it was sitting around .175 all season and while he has not yet hit a home run he has come very close and will likely hit one before too long. Posada has taken all that criticism and turned it into raw offensive production and despite the fact that he is still a liability on the base paths it looks like the Yankees will not need to bring in someone to DH for them and that patience that the Yankees had exhibited has proven to be worth it and the Yankees will not need to release a Yankee great. I really hope that Posada will keep up this hitting and he has shown in his 2 starts at 1st that is still able to play the field and hopefully with Interleague coming up he will get an opportunity to catch.