Yankees Injury Updates: Johnson, Aceves, Thames, Mitre

A lot of teams have been dealing with injuries and fortunately the Yankees injuries have been relatively mild. Here is a rundown of a couple of players and how they’ve been doing:

Nick Johnson – Out with a wrist injury, he has been hitting off a tee this week with hitting coach Kevin Long. No ETA as of now, but Yankees are hoping by August.

Alfredo Aceves – Out with a back injury, Aceves has been throwing bullpens and despite the lack of a time table, he should be back on the roster soon. A rehab stint will be necessary before a Bronx return though.

Marcus Thames – Out with a strained hamstring, Thames has been playing rehab games in Triple-A Scranton. Last night he played in the field for five innings and appeared about ready. Should be the first one back on this list.

Sergio Mitre – Out with an oblique strain, Mitre was scheduled to pitch a rehab inning today. He’ll probably appear in another game or two before the Yankees know exactly when to expect him back. If anybody beats Thames back to active duty it will be Mitre.

Thoughts: This is mostly good, not bad, news. Two players are likely back before the All-Star break and one shortly after. I don’t think anybody expects anything certain when it comes to Nick Johnson, early August still seems slightly optimistic.

(thanks to Bryan Hoch of MLB.com).

Yankees Notes: Recap, Moseley, Oppenheimer, Montero, Burnett

The Yankees had a slim lead for most of yesterday’s game and then with two-outs in the 8th inning CC Sabathia gave up the lead as the Mariners tied the game at two, but Alex Rodriguez hit a two-run homer to help the Yankees win 4-2.

Here are some notes:

• Sabathia is heating up. In his last 6 starts he has a 6-0 record with a 2.00 ERA and has not pitched less than 7 innings.
• RHP Dustin Moseley has been called up, LHP Boone Logan has been sent to Triple-A.
• The D-Backs fired their manager and GM and the Yankees scouting director Damon Oppenheimer is said to be getting “serious consideration” for the GM position.
• Joel Sherman of the NY Post agrees with me, the Yankees should call up catcher Jesus Montero. It’s time for the second coming.
• The Yankees open a 3 game series against the Blue Jays today. AJ Burnett (6-7, 5.25) is on the hill for the opener. It will be his first start since pitching coach Dave Eiland has come back.
• Burnett had a strong April, but he is 2-7 with a 7.71 ERA in his last 10 starts. That’s just awful over the course of a third of the season.

It’s July 2nd and the Yankees still have the best record in baseball and are on pace for a 100-win season. They also hold a 1.5 game lead over the second place Red Sox who just lost Dustin Pedroia. It seems like expectations are higher than ever in the Bronx this year, but the Yankees are doing just fine up until this point. It’s a long season and there are still a lot of games left to play.

Cervelli Makes Me Wonder if the Yankees Should Call Up Montero

In the middle of May it looked like the Yankees had such a good backup to catcher Jorge Posada that they might even have a future starter on their hands. After all through Francisco Cervelli‘s first 20 games he had a staggering .400 batting average and an impressive .987 OPS. Obviously he wasn’t likely to keep that up, but if he could come even close to that the Yankees had a real secret weapon.

The problem is that Cervelli hasn’t even sniffed those numbers and has been about as close to an automatic out as you can get. This coming at a time in Posada’s career where he is just not able to handle the load of everyday catching.

Here are Cervelli’s numbers since May 18:

33 G, 101 AB, 6 R, 19 H, 2 2B, 1 3B, 0 HR, 14 RBI, 11 BB, 17 SO, .188 AVG, .274 OBP, .238 SLG, .511 OPS.

With numbers like those the Yankees might as well have Chad Moeller as their backup catcher.

At this point it could be reasonable to wonder how bad this will get before the Yankees make a change. Not only has Cervelli gone over a month under the Mendoza-Line (under .200), but he has almost no power whatsoever in his bat.

What’s making this harder is that Jesus Montero is in Triple-A and after a very slow start to his season he has picked it up. During the month of June Montero hit .283 with nine doubles, two triples, and three homers. That’s 14 extra-base hits compared to Cervelli’s three over the same span.

Cervelli is a skilled backup catcher, especially defensively, but he has almost been the Yankees regular with Posada dealing with foot problems. At a certain point it might be wise to carry three catchers including Montero until Nick Johnson returns from his wrist injury. Montero might not be 100 percent ready, but it’s probably better than having an automatic out in the lineup everyday.

Yankees Notes: Gardner, Moseley, Thames, Aceves, Mitre, Rivera, and Outfield Grass

The Yankees have played back-to-back games against the Mariners and have not faced one reliever. A night after Cliff Lee went the distance and beat the Yankees, Felix Hernandez got a complete game shutout and won 7-0. Javier Vazquez didn’t pitch especially well or bad, but he is on hook for the loss.

Here are some notes:

• Brett Gardner has been out for the past couple of days with a forearm issue, but he is in the lineup today.
• RHP Dustin Moseley is expected to be added to the roster today. Chad Gaudin and Chan Ho Park are the most likely to get DFA’d.
• Marcus Thames has begun playing in rehab games and should be back soon. Either Chad Huffman or Colin Curtis will be sent down.
• Sergio Mitre and Alfredo Aceves have thrown off a mound this week. Mitre could get into a rehab game soon.
• How is it that Mariano Rivera is so damn good? Watch this video. Trust me, you’ll like it.
• The Yankees outfielders haven’t liked the condition of the outfield grass since the Yankees held a boxing match at the stadium about a month ago.

I thought that the Yankees were going to have issues with the outfield this season. I go to a fair amount of Brooklyn Cyclones games and they regularly hold concerts on that field and it shows. I hoped that the Yankees are hiring better grounds crew guys, but their talents can’t make up for putting a few thousand pounds of metal on a field like that. This news is especially bad because the Yankees are already planning two Jay-Z/Eminem concerts there in September and their stage will be bigger than the boxing ring was.

Several Current Free Agents That Could Help The Yankees Bench

As usual, there have been a lot of rumors that continue to swirl around the Yankees as the trade deadline approaches in July.

However, the Yankees might not have to trade anything to add depth to their bench because there are some very talented free agents available that could get the job done just as easily as somebody the Yankees could trade for.

This is also a better option, due to the fact that the Yankees wouldn’t have to give up any prospects, and some of the players out there might be cheaper than picking up the contract of a traded player.

Mark Grudzielanek is a hard-nosed veteran player who has had a very solid 15-year career in the big leagues.

He has over 2,000 career hits and a career batting average of .289, along with a .986 fielding percentage. He was an All-Star way back in ’96 and won a Gold Glove in 2006.

Grudzielanek started this season with the Cleveland Indians, and hit .279 with 11 RBI and 10 runs scored, but was released because the Indians wanted to give their younger players a shot, realizing their season was over.

He would give the Yankees a much needed veteran presence on the bench, while providing solid defense in the middle infield and an average bat, for a cheap price too.

An option for the corner infield spots and occasional DH is Joe Crede, who has dealt with some back issues over his career, but may be worth the risk to the Yankees.

He hit 15 home runs in a injury interrupted season with the Twins a year ago, and has hit 140 homers over his career.

The Yankees could use some of that power off the bench right about now, considering the four players warming the bench right now have a grand total of zero home runs, at least not until Marcus Thames returns. A power outage indeed.

Crede would be a big risk, considering his injury history, and he probably wouldn’t come cheaply (not with Scott Boris as his agent), but the Yankees do need some pop from the bench.

Another veteran, and former teammate of Crede, Jermaine Dye is also still available, which simply amazes me that a player of his caliber can’t find a job.

He too would get the job done for the Yankees in the power department, he hit 27 home runs and had 87 RBI for the White Sox last year.

Dye would be a major upgrade over any of the outfielders currently on the bench or Thames, he is 35 but still has a cannon of an arm in the outfield.

These guys could all help the Yankees with their very young and inexperienced bench.

Yankees Notes: Moseley, Moeller, Cell Phones, and T-Shirts

The Yankees got beat up by the Mariners yesterday and things don’t look great today either as they have Javier Vazquez going up against King Felix Hernandez.

Here are some notes:

• The Yankees have until tomorrow to decide to call-up RHP Dustin Moseley or let him opt-out. He has a 4-4 record and a 4.21 ERA in 12 starts.
• The Yankees DFA’d catcher Chad Moeller last week and he has cleared waivers and been reassigned to Triple-A.
• Hate D-Bags at baseball games who sit on their cell phones the entire time? Watch this video of a guy getting hit in the face.
• Also, Alex Rodriguez has inspired a pretty funny t-shirt. I’m thinking about buying one.

It’s hard to tell if the Yankees are going to call up Moseley or not. If they did obviously it would be out of the bullpen. If they called him up it could be the end for Chan Ho Park or Chad Gaudin.

Let The Criticism Begin: Hughes Gets Batted Around After Skipped Start

The “Phil Hughes Rules” have claimed their first start, which would have been last Friday. Those same rules have also claimed their first loss.

The Seattle Mariners are among the worst teams in the Majors in terms of offense, and with Phil Hughes on the mound, with a 10-1 record, the game would appear to be a good match up for the Yankees.

That is of course, not mentioning the 10 days in between tonight and Hughes’s last start, due to the innings limit that forced him to miss his last scheduled start on Friday.

Hughes pitched very poorly, he allowed at least one run in every inning except for the first, and was pulled after five and two thirds innings pitched 

The Mariners ripped a home run, four doubles, a total of 10 hits, and six earned runs off him, that coming from a terrible offensive team, against arguably the best pitcher for the Yankees this year.

If you ask me that sounds like he either had a really bad night, or something was hindering his effectiveness on the mound. MY9 Broadcaster, Al Leiter thought the latter of the two:

“By limiting his innings and skipping his last start, I think it has affected his effectiveness tonight.”

Either way, he pitched very poorly, and hopefully this will serve as a lesson to the Yankees to not skip any more starts, but I’m sure they will just say that he had a bad outing. Yeah, a bad outing due to 10 days off!

Nick Swisher accounted for two of the Yankee runs, with two solo shots off Cliff Lee, but the rest of the Yankee offense was unable to pick it up, and the Mariners beat the Bombers 7-4, behind a complete game by Cliff Lee.

An embarrassing performance by New York, and one that could be the first of many to come, if Hughes is unable to pitch like he did before the “rules” came into effect.

A game that the Yankees, seemingly, should have won turned out to be an easy win for the Mariners, whose offensive woes ended against a pathetic Phil Hughes.

The Fallacy of The Matchup

Sunday night’s game between the Yankees and the Dodgers was certainly one of the most exciting of the 2010 season thus far. Robinson Cano delivered the big hit in the 10th inning, a 2-run homerun off of lefty George Sherrill.  When Joe Torre called for the lefty (wow, it’s been awhile since I wrote that), it seemed like a logical matchup.  Cano was 0-11 in his career against Sherrill, as the announcers were quick to point out.  But was it? While Sherrill has been good in recent years, he’s been terrible this year, with a WHIP over 2 and an ERA+ below 70. Cano has been one of the hottest hitters in baseball all season.

Does that mean it was the wrong move? Not necessarily, because honestly I don’t know how many options Torre had. Ramon Troncoso hasn’t been very good, so leaving him in was no sure bet. I guess Torre could have gone to Jeff Weaver, but we all know the pitfalls there.

Anyways, the point I’m trying to make here is not to kill this one move. What I do think is worth noting is how 2 of the most important factors managers use when determining what matchup they want – handedness and matchup history – are probably overrated.

One of the biggest issues I have with Joe Girardi’s bullpen use is that he uses too many guys.  My logic has always been that if a reliever is pitching well, you should stick with him, since relievers by nature are so volatile.

Back to the case of Cano though. If you look at his splits, he gets on base more versus righties but hits for more power versus lefties. So no huge platoon split. Consequently, aren’t you better simply going with whatever pitcher is the best?  Sure, for guys like David Ortiz, Ryan Howard, and yes, Curtis Granderson, it might make sense to go to the lefty even if the lefty isn’t as good. But for everyone else? It’s debatable.

Matchup history is also flawed as it is a great example of a small sample size.  In some ways, you could argue that matchup history means the opposite of what it suggests. Cano was 0-11? Well then, considering how good a hitter Cano is, it would seem that that number must regress back to the mean. Using this kind of logic, you can justify any result based on the matchup history, which essentially makes it useless.

It is up to the manager to try and get his pitchers who are pitching the best on the mound when the team needs them and looking at a pitcher’s handedness and matchup history doesn’t accomplish that.

Time For The Yankees to Bury The Red Sox

The Yankees play 13 games from now until All Star Break; those 13 games consist of seven games against Seattle, three against Toronto, and three against Oakland. Very average teams for the Yanks.

The Bombers should take 10 of those 13 games, considering Seattle is in last place, and both Oakland and Toronto are third place teams.

On the other hand, the always pesky Red Sox play six games against Tampa Bay, three against Baltimore, and three against Toronto. While the Rays prove a tough series for Boston, Baltimore and Toronto are usually both winnable series for them.

Unfortunately, for Boston, they will be without their starting catcher Victor Martinez, who was placed on the 15-day DL, and their starting second baseman Dustin Pedroia for all of those games. They also might have to skip Clay Buchholz next start due to injury.

Though Boston’s injuries deeply sadden me, the Yankees could very easily put some major distance between them and their rival by taking advantage of their misfortunes.

My prediction is that the Rays are going to win both series against the Sox; two out of three in Boston and a sweep in Tampa.

Toronto will be a handful for the hobbled Sox as well, and might win two out of three against them since it is being played north of the border.

As far as Baltimore, my high school baseball team could probably beat them so a few Sox on the DL isn’t going to hurt their chances of winning.

The Red Sox have already climbed out of an early hole this season and are just two games back of the Yankees presently. If the Yanks can win at least 10 of their next 13 games, and get a little help from their AL East neighbors, they could put the Sox right back into that same hole they were in earlier in the season.

Cano and Mo Steal the Show: Yankees Comeback to Beat the Dodgers in 10 Innings

The Yankees looked down and out when the Dodgers brought in Jonathan Broxton with a four run lead in the ninth inning, but the Bombers soon changed that.

Broxton struck out Teixeira to start the inning, but the wheels fell off the wagon shortly after.

A-Rod singled to left, Robinson Cano followed with an RBI double to right field, cutting the lead to three runs.

After a very lengthy at-bat, Jorge Posada ripped a single to right field, putting runners at the corners with one out, followed by Granderson’s walk to load the bases.

The rookie, Chad Huffman, after a long at-bat, hit a two-run single to right field, bringing the Yankees to within a run of the lead, with Granderson standing on third.

Fellow rookie Colin Curtis grounded out to first base, James Loney’s throw back to the plate was not in time, as Granderson scored to tie the game at six runs a piece.

With Huffman at second and first base open, Broxton intentionally walked Derek Jeter, bringing up pinch hitter Francisco Cervelli, who grounded out to end the inning.

Broxton ended up throwing 48 pitches and allowing four runs in one inning, certainly his worst outing of the year.

Mariano Rivera sent the game to extra innings after a controversial one-two-three inning in the bottom of the ninth, in which Garret Anderson was ejected and Joe Torre voiced his opinions to home plate umpire Chris Guccione and his strike zone.

Teixeira led off the top of the tenth with a base hit to right, A-Rod grounded into a force out, leading Joe Torre to bring in George Sherrill to replace Ramon Troncoso, with Robinson Cano coming up.

At first it looked like a smart move by Torre, since Cano had been 0-11 against Sherrill coming into the game. Apparently, Torre and Sherrill hadn’t received the memo that Cano is the best hitter in the Majors.

After swinging at a slider for strike one, Cano launched his 15th home run to center field, giving the Yankees an 8-6 lead heading to the bottom of the 10th.

Rivera allowed a lead-off single by James Loney, but after Russell Martin was called out on strikes and was ejected for slamming and breaking his bat, Reed Johnson struck out and Jamey Carroll grounded out to Jeter to end the game.

Rivera won the game after pitching two innings for the second time in the past week, each of the last two series have ended in extra innings with Rivera going two innings both times.

The Yankees won their first series against a Joe Torre managed team since his departure from New York, and also managed to keep Manny Ramirez in the park over the three games.

Next up, the Yankees welcome the Seattle Mariners to town on Tuesday, after the travel day on Monday. Phil Hughes will be opposite Cliff Lee, marking Lee’s first game at Yankee Stadium since his dominant performance in game one of last years World Series.