The Sommer Frieze

Rockwell’s painting. The now long-gone Ebbets Field. Classic. 

Game RAINED OUT.

YANKEES
Damon LF
Cabrera CF
Abreu DH (Bobby gets a rest).
Jeter SS (Huh? 8 XBH out of his 41 and he’s cleaning up? This really stresses how the Yanks miss Alex and Posada vs. lefty pitchers).
Giambi 1B
Duncan RF
Cano 2B
Molina C
Gonzalez 3B (The return of Gonzo. Interesting that they are playing him above Ensberg, don’t you think?)
Pettitte LHP (3-3, 3.77)

There will be NO Minor league report today.

In what turned out to be an omen, SWB at Indy and Trenton at Akron have both been postponed. Tampa and Charleston were both off today.

So no games anywhere to report on.

One thing….CONGRATS to Greg Maddux for win # 350 yesterday. A great achievement.

YANKEES
Damon LF
Cabrera CF
Abreu DH (Bobby gets a rest).
Jeter SS (Huh? 8 XBH out of his 41 and he’s cleaning up? This really stresses how the Yanks miss Alex and Posada vs. lefty pitchers).
Giambi 1B
Duncan RF
Cano 2B
Molina C
Gonzalez 3B (The return of Gonzo. Interesting that they are playing him above Ensberg, don’t you think?)
Pettitte LHP (3-3, 3.77)

Pete Abraham’s notes: Even for Joe Girardi, that’s an interesting lineup. Jeter has hit cleanup one previous time in his career. … It’s supposed to start raining (and a lot) around noon. Fairly decent chance they won’t get the game in. Or it will rain long enough to screw up our flight to Tampa tonight. … Cano has hit in six straight at 8 of 22. … Kyle Farnsworth has thrown 8.2 consecutive scoreless innings. … The Big G is 5 of 13 with six RBI and five extra-base hits.

Post stating that Yanks are looking at Brett Jacobson, a 6′6″ righty pitcher from Vandy for their 1st pick in the draft (28th overall). The Yanks sure have BIG pitchers. Hughes, Betances, Farnsworth, Brackman, McCutchen, McAllister—all these guys are tall. Jacobson hits 98, and has experience starting and closing. Stats not impressive at Vandy, but Yanks must like his arm and potential.

Igawa (Josh says the Iguana, I say Ugh-Gawa and am considering Ig-Awful….maybe we should have a poll? We’ve been thinking of some trivia and polls, but haven’t had time yet…Give your pick.) didn’t think he pitched poorly. He thought his change and slider were ok. He must be the only one.

Yanks OPS+ is 108. 4th in BA, 8th in walks. 5th in OBP, 3rd in SA. ERA+ 95. ERA 4.30 (9th).

The Post has an article on David Robertson. Welcome to the club. I’ve been hyping him since…?? Trenton pitching coach Scott Aldred (who, I think, is the REAL COACHING STAR in the system) says Robertson doesn’t throw anything straight. Good 4 to 6 inch Cut fastball at 92, above average curve, and circle change whch is developing. He doesn’t think Robertson has the repertoire necessary to succeed as a closer. (I wonder, how about set-up?)

Guess who is throwing at 60 ft. from level ground and will go from a half-mound later this month. Carl Pavano. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Meanwhile, Humberto Sanchez could face hitters in two weeks.

Interesting quote from an AL official. He thinks the Yanks, media and fans placed too high of an expectation for Hughes this year. “He was the youngest starter in the big leagues, pitching in the A.L. East.” He thinks Hughes will be really good. “You don’t put up the numbers he did in the minor leagues and produce the kind of scouting reports he produced unless you are really good.”

Ouch. We remember when Godzilla broke his wrist. Now Vernon Wells of Toronto does it in a similiar fashion.

The Brewers DFA’d Turnbow, and have you checked Gagne’s stats recently? Meanwhile, the Padres are cutting loose Jim Edmonds, who if he retires (as he probably should?) would retire with a .286 and 363 HR.

Remember the “Get Miggy Cabrera” crowd? Miggy has been moved off 3B due to poor D. He got a nice new contract. The stats aren’t bad so far, but they aren’t Miggy-like. He’s still just 25. But 25 and having to be moved to 1B because of bad D is distressing.

That’s it for now.

I’ll be in and out. Mother’s Day, you know. Priorities.

I read where rain is expected in Detroit today, so we’ll see about today. Pettitte vs. Robertson. Albaladejo won’t need surgery, but he’ll be out a while (was 0-1, 3.95). Great Britton is back. Betemit goes on the 15-day DL with a hammy strain. Gonzo returns.

When will newspapers wise up and instead of printing stats in the Sunday paper batting averages down, print what is REALLY important…OPS or OPS+ down????? Batting averages are deceiving. Here is an example.

.340 OBP .398 SA OPS .738 OPS+ 105
.336 OBP .473 SA OPS .809 OPS+ 123

You will notice that I purposely left out batting average. Who do you think is having a better year? I won’t give you batting averages and who they are yet (Maybe you have figured it out just by those numbers.)

Anyway, when the papers come out, player one will be on top because he is hitting .308, player two will be on the bottom because he is hitting .183. Look at the numbers again. Who did you think was doing better? Probably player two, right? A reason why BA is overrated. Walks and what KIND of hits you get do matter.

In case you haven’t figured it out, Player one is Derek Jeter. Player two is Jason Giambi. This isn’t a knock on Derek. Hopefully he can walk more and show a bit more power. He’s a far better baserunner and defender than Giambi.

It does point out something on Giambi, however. If only the Big G could run. But it shows that even in a slump, Giambi can be dangerous. It also shows how dangerous Giambi can be if he heats up…which he appears to be doing.

Jason from Heartland Pinstripes will be on YFCR this evening.

Church beckons. Back with more later.

AAA: SWB lost 5-1. All runs given up were unearned. Dan Giese went 7, giving up 3 unearned runs. (2-2, 1.13). David Robertson gave up 2 unearned runs in 1 IP (3.86). SWB made 3 errors. SWB only had five hits, so a bad day all around.

AA: Trenton lost 3-1. George Kontos 7 IP, 3 R, only 1 earned. (1-4, 3.38). J.B. Cox a scoreless IP. Trenton had just five hits.

A (Advanced): Tampa lost 5-1. The offense had…you guessed it….five hits. Grant Duff (1-2, 2.86) gave up 2 R in 4 IP. Stephen Artz gave up one run (unearned, natch) in 3 IP. Andres Perez 2 hits.

A: Charleston got bombed 8-0. Bad night for Dellin Betances. 7R, 5 ER (where was the d tonight…all levels?) in 4 IP. (4-2, 3.73). Betances gave up 3 gopher balls. Charleston’s offense had….four hits. (Thought I’d write five, didn’t you?)

Recap: Darrell Rasner once again gave the Yanks six strong innings, (2 R, 4 H, 1 BB, 1 K) and Derek Jeter hit his first HR of the year as the Yanks got back to .500. Kyle Farnsworth got in and out of trouble in the 7th, and Joba and Mo closed out the game with their usual 8th and 9th excellence. Gonzo is coming back, since Wilson Betemit hurt a hammy running to second on a double and is DL’d. As for Alby, looks like no surgery, but he’ll be out for some time. For some details, hit more. I did watch the game with friends, then stayed to watch the Celts, so I wasn’t around. At least the Yanks won. [Read more →]

AAA: SWB came back from a 5-1 deficit to win 6-5. Old buddy Kevin Thompson was batting 3rd and playing RF for Indy. He’s hitting .330. Not so good buddy Craig Wilson is there at 1B. Wilson did HR. With Igawa up, Heath Phillips got the start and was awful, 4 R in 2 2/3 IP. Jason Lane had 2 doubles and 3 RBI. Nick Green, Greg Porter and Matt Carson had 2 hits apiece. Since being called up from Trenton, Carson is hitting .455. Scott Patterson went 1 1/3 for the save, striking out 3 (3.45 ERA). 

AA: I’d rather see lefty Chase Wright than Igawa. Yes, I know Wright is at AA right now, but he did spend half of 2007 at AAA, and of course was with the Yanks for a brief (and for one night, history-tying—in the wrong way) time. He is 5-1, 2.54 at Trenton. Trenton won 12-1 tonight, and Wright went 7, gave up 1 run, unearned, on six hits, 3 walks, 3 Ks. Chris Malec 3 hits, 2 RBI. Ramiro Pena 2 hits, 2 RBI. Reegie Corona 2 hits, 2 RBI. Edwar Gonzalez 3 hits, RBI (.321 since promoted from Tampa). Colin Curtis 2 hits, RBI.

A (Advanced): Tampa won 6-5. Jose Gil had 3 hits and an RBI. Edwar Nunez had 3 hits. 2 RBI for Kevin Smith. Andres Perez 2 hits and an RBI. Ivan Nova (2-5, 4.31) got the win despite giving up 5, 4 earned, in 7 IP.

A: Charleston lost 9-3. Zach McAllister (4-2, 2.57) got lit up tonight. 9 R, 8 ER in 3 IP. Justin Snyder had two doubles, and Taylor Holliday HRd.

Instead of signing Igawa, the Yanks
should have just done this with the $46 million.

Recap: Igawa pitched. Enough said. Unfortunately, we are going to be subjected to him at least one more time. (Breaks down weeping). Albaladejo left with an injury. Betemit was a Spanish Bullfighter at third. Awful. On one bright side, it does appear as if Giambi and Cano are starting to come alive. The Yanks came close by scoring 3 in the 9th. For the gruesome Igawa line, hit more.

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Igawa vs. The “Coward of the County” tonight. UPN 9 game, so I don’t know if I’ll join my friends tonight or not. With Igawa going, that poor Friday night UPN 9 record (4-10 in 2007 and 0-2 this year) just might continue.

Nice Moose stat. After starting 1-3, 5.75, he is 4-0, 3.13 in his last four starts.

This comic strip’s logo is a good example of what Yankee fans would do to Hank Steinbrenner if he persists in his David Wells delusions.

David Wells is making overtures to get back into baseball…with the Yankees. Hank Steinbrener admits that Wells has crossed his mind. Hank is also dropping subtle hints (as the N.Y. Post points out) that he’s growing disillusioned with the Yanks’ youth movement. Nice patience Hank. Six weeks. Real nice.

I’d like to bind and gag Hank. If he does sign Wells (most likely over Cashman’s dead body), it means that Hank had no mind at all for Wells to “cross” in the first place. Say No, Hank. Please. We’ve already seen an old retread in Clemens last year. We’ve gone through Randy Johnson. We don’t need a me-first Wells polluting the young pitching staff with his presence. Ask Pettitte and Moose how much they would relish having Wells around again before you do anything. He’s going to be 45 for crying out loud.

Some fans actually clamor for Wells. If they want to see him, ask the Yanks to bring him back for Old-Timer’s day. Wells blames Joe Torre for not wanting him. Never mind the fact that Wells’ lack of conditioning led to him leaving after one inning of Game 5 of the 2003 World Series, and that, along with the Jeff Weaver decision in Game 4, led to the Series turning to the Marlins.

Wells was a combined 9-9, 5.43 (ERA + 77) for SD and LA last year. There is no future here. Don’t consider it. Please. Live and die with the kids. I’d rather die with the kids and build for the future than to do with Wells in 2008 what the Yanks did with Clemens in 2007 (albeit at a cheaper price).

Say no, Girardi. Say no, Cashman. And after you do, get out the rope and bandanna. Bind and gag Hank for a while.

By the way, that bricklayer cartoon I put up the other day? He’s still working….right, Lebron?

The Charleston score is now up on the Minor League Report. It was a late finish, after I retired for the evening. A happy ending though, as Jesus Montero (remember, he’s just 18) HRs in the top of the 13th to decide it. 

Update: Apparently Farnsworth’s suspension was reduced from three games to one. That suspension will be served tonight.

AAA: SWB won 5-4 in 11. Justin Christian bases-loaded walk for the GW. He was 0 for 3 but had 2 RBI. Greg Porter had 2 hits. Jeff Marquez started. 3 R, 1 ER in 6 IP. Lowers his ERA to 6.51. David Robertson back on track (See my post of the other day) two scoreless innings (Attaboy!) Traber blew the lead in the 9th, and Strickland got the win with 2 2/3 scoreless.

AA: Trenton won 7-2. Edwar Gonzalez 2 hits, 3 RBI. Carlos Mendoza 3 hits, 3 RBI. Jason Jones 5-0, 2.36. 2 R in 5 IP. Claggett 3 scoreless IP.

A+: Tampa wins 4-2. Aceves 1 R, 1 H, 2 walks, 6 K in 5 1/3. 4-1, 2.48. Melancon 2 1/3, unearned R, 2.70. Sublett 2 hits, Cooper 3-3, RBI.

A: Couldn’t get this result up until I woke up Friday morning. A late ending. Charleston wins 7-6 in 13 innings on Jesus Montero’s HR (5th). Montero was 3 for 6, the HR, 3 RBI (.326, 28 RBI). Braedyn Pruitt, Austin Krum and Brian Baisley had 3 hits apiece. Jason Stephens, in his first start of the season, gave up no runs in 5 IP.

Homers by Giambi, Cano and Betemit give them Redemption for now,
and don’t worry about Joba’s psyche. He gets Redemption too.

Recap: Damon had a HR and RBI double, but the game really was about redemption. Giambi had a two-run HR, Cano a double and HR, and Betemit also HR’d. Three guys who were struggling greatly. Joba gets his own redemption after the loss the other night by having a 1-2-3 eighth inning. Mo was…Mo. Hit more for live game details.

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