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Tag: Brendan Ryan

Blogs • Monday Mentions • Yankees

Aug 10, 2015

Monday Mentions: The Worst Yankees Weekend

The Blue Jays have gone from eight games back in the AL East to 1 1/2 games back in 12 days and the Yankees’ postseason chances are fading the same way they did the last two years.

New York Yankees vs. Toronto Blue Jays

I want to pretend that I didn’t spend all of Sunday night wondering if the Blue Jays are going to prevent me from watching the Yankees in the postseason. I want to pretend that the Yankees’ unwillingness to trade for David Price isn’t going to be difference between going straight to the ALDS or having to worry about winning a one-game wild-card playoff. I want to pretend like the Blue Jays haven’t gone from eight games back in the AL East to 1 1/2 games back in 12 days.

Here is another installment of “Monday Mentions” focused on questions and comments from Twitter about the Yankees’ disastrous weekend against the Blue Jays.

It’s hard to win games when you don’t score. The Yankees scored one run, ONE, in their biggest series of the season and the biggest series they have played since the end of 2012 and let the Blue Jays get within 1 1/2 games of them after a Stadium sweep. The Yankees needed to win one game this weekend to keep the Blue Jays five back in the loss column and prevent the weekend from being a complete disaster, but they couldn’t do that. Their best chance to win a game this weekend was on Friday, which is the only game they scored a run, but before they could score a second run, Joe Girardi lost the game.

I have written an unhealthy amount of words on set innings for relievers and how absurd it is, but Girardi is a big believer in having a seventh-inning guy and an eighth-inning guy and a ninth-inning guy and no matter the situation, he’s going to stick with it.

On Friday night, the Yankees and Blue Jays were tied 1-1 in the seventh inning. Nathan Eovaldi was still pitching and after a Mark Teixeira error and a Chase Headley bobble, the Blue Jays had runners on first and second with one out. Girardi called on Justin Wilson to relieve Eovaldi and he struck out Ben Revere on four pitches. Then Girardi called on Dellin Betances to relieve Wilson and he walked Troy Tulowitzki on four pitches and then got Josh Donaldson to ground out.

Betances returned in the eighth inning and after a Jose Bautista leadoff single, he retied Edwin Encarnacion, Justin Smoak and Russell Martin to end the inning.

Girardi called on Andrew Miller to relieve Betances in the ninth and he needed just six pitches to get through the inning against the Blue Jays’ 7-8-9-1 hitters.

The Yankees were unable to score in the bottom of the ninth, so the game went to 10th, and Girardi relieved Miller with rookie Branden Pinder to face the middle of the Blue Jays’ order: Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion. This would have been a frustrating but understandable move if it were the 14th or 15th inning, but it was the 10th inning. But it wasn’t the 14th or 15th, it was the 10th, and it was irresponsible for two reasons.

1. Miller had thrown SIX pitches in the ninth inning. SIX. Miller had thrown five pitches on Sunday against the White Sox and 17 pitches on Thursday against the Red Sox. So after Friday’s ninth inning, he had thrown 28 pitches in six days or 4.7 pitches per day for the week. Is 28 pitches over the course of a week too much? Was the nine pitches it took to retire the Yankees in the bottom of the ninth too much of a layoff between innings for Miller to return for the 10th?

2. Wilson, Betances and Miller had been used. So let’s pretend like Miller really couldn’t go a second inning after throwing SIX pitches and that Girardi had to go to the bullpen. Chasen Shreve and Adam Warren were both still in the bullpen yet Girardi decided that rookie Branden Pinder and his 14 2/3 career innings was the best choice to get through the heart of the order of the best team in Major League Baseball in as close to a playoff game in the regular season as there can be on Aug. 7.

I’m not going to get into Girardi’s bullpen decisions on Saturday and Sunday, which were also incredibly questionable, because the team didn’t score a run in either game. The Yankees are going to have a hard enough time keeping the Blue Jays from overtaking them in the AL East, they don’t need Joe Girardi managing them to losses.

I really don’t understand what Adam Warren’s role is with the team. After being the most consistent starter for the first half of the season, the Yankees put him in the bullpen and left CC Sabathia in the rotation because of money and now Warren is randomly used. Sometimes he pitches with a lead, sometimes he pitches to hold a deficit, sometimes he pitches in the sixth inning, sometimes he pitches in the eighth innings, sometimes he faces on batter, sometimes he pitches multiple innings.

I have no idea when Warren will come into a game or how long he will stay in one. I have no idea what the long-term plan for him is because I have no idea what the current and short-term plan is for him. He went from most reliable starter to being put behind Andrew Miller, Dellin Betances, Justin Wilson and Chasen Shreve on the bullpen pecking order. I would say the Yankees’ handling of him has been very odd, but then again, this is exactly how the Yankees handle pitchers.

https://twitter.com/craigmiller/status/629088613301657600

That tweet was from last Wednesday and five days ago. After that tweet, Drew went 0-for-9 in three games to watch his batting average drop back down to .192 after having gotten it up to a season-high(!) .199 on Sunday in Chicago. Drew has never seen .200 this season. Not on Opening Day. Not in the first week of the season when averages change hundreds of points with each hit and out. Never.

Today is Aug. 10. Stephen Drew is still a Yankee. How that is possible hurts my head to even think about. Drew has started 79 games this season and has gone hitless in 37 of them. So in 47 percent of Drew’s starts, he hasn’t gotten a hit.

The Yankees clearly don’t like Rob Refsnyder as a player and don’t want to give him a chance to become the everyday second baseman. Maybe he does have an attitude problem, which has been rumored, but who cares? If he can hit, I don’t care if one person on the team likes him. If the Yankees aren’t willing to give him a chance right now, what makes anyone think they are going to give him one in September when rosters expand? Just because they won’t have to DFA anyone to have him in the majors at that point doesn’t mean he will playing and not riding the bench, especially if the team is fighting for a postseason spot.

The Yankees chose not to improve the roster at the trade deadline while the Blue Jays and Orioles made big moves to make a run at the division and wild card, while the Royals, Astros, Angels and Rangers all made moves to improve their teams to contend. The Marlins were willing to trade Dan Haren to the Cubs with the Dodgers still paying all of Haren’s $10 million, so I’m pretty sure the Marlins would have been willing to trade Martin Prado back to the Yankees, considering the Yankees were already paying $3 million of his $11 million salary this season and next.

The Yankees traded for Dustin Ackley, designated Garrett Jones for assignment, put Michael Pineda on the DL, called up Luis Severino, put Ackley on the DL and re-signed Jones. Those were the Yankees’ trade deadline moves. Essentially, they did nothing. Ackley would have been the same or worse than Jones, Drew and Brendan Ryan and Severino replaces Pineda, so basically, everything cancels each other out.

https://twitter.com/Timbo367/status/630482347666862080

On July 31, the Yankees had a six-game lead in the AL East. Today, that lead is 1 1/2 games. In the span of nine games, the Yankees managed to blow 75 percent of their lead and now they are a bad road trip in Cleveland and Toronto from being in second place in the division and suddenly in the wild-card game.

But since I was asked … If the Yankees play .500 baseball the rest of the season and go 26-26, here is what the rest of the AL East would have to do just to tie them: Toronto 26-23, Baltimore 31-21, Tampa Bay 31-19, Boston 37-13. That closed quickly.

There is this rhetoric that even after the weekend and even after going 1-4 in their last five games that the Yankees are still in first place. That’s nice, but like I said in that tweet, it’s like being up $1,000 at a casino and giving $950 back and still technically being “up”. The Yankees still have a lead in the division, but from where it was a week ago, or even three days ago, it doesn’t feel like they do.

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Podcasts • Yankees

Aug 3, 2015

Podcast: Bald Vinny

The face of the Bleacher Creatures joined me to talk about the hype around Luis Severino’s debut, the Yankees’ decision to hold on to their prospects at the trade deadline and believing in Didi Gregorius.

Luis Severino

After their 10-game road trip to Minnesota, Texas and Chicago, the Yankees won’t play another game outside the Eastern Time Zone this season. For a team with a 5 1/2-game lead as they return home to Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, the Yankees are in a perfect position for the stretch run and to lock up a spot in the ALDS for the first time in three years.

Bald Vinny of the Right Field Bleacher Creatures and Bald Vinny’s House of Tees joined me to talk about talk about the Yankees’ recent 10-game road trip, the hype around Luis Severino’s debut on Wednesday, the Yankees’ decision to hold on to their prospects at the trade deadline, believing in Didi Gregorius and not believing in CC Sabathia, missing the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, the Yankees-Mets rivalry gaining steam for September, who the Yankees’ MVP is through four months and Tanyon Sturtze and Charlie Hayes’ visit to the bleachers this coming Friday.

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Blogs • Monday Mentions • Yankees

Aug 3, 2015

Monday Mentions: The Post-Trade Deadline

The trade deadline has come and gone and it was uneventful for the Yankees unless you like adding former highly-touted prospects that turned into busts and now can’t hit and have no position.

The trade deadline has come and gone and it was uneventful for the Yankees and Yankees fans unless you like adding former highly-touted prospects that turned into busts and now can’t hit and have no position. If you like players like that then you must like the Yankees’ trade for Dustin Ackley.

Here is another installment of “Monday Mentions” focused on questions and comments from Twitter about the Yankees now that the trade deadline is over.

The answer is three since that’s how many the Yankees have now.

I’m not sure why the trade for Ackley was made. Is it because he was the second overall pick in 2009 and the Yankees think he will now develop into that talent at age 27? Is it because he hit two home runs against Masahiro Tanaka after the All-Star break? Is it because he is a lifetime .296/.397/.481 hitter at Yankee Stadium?

The most puzzling part of the Ackley trade is that the Yankees don’t see him as a second baseman, but rather as a first baseman and outfielder. As long as Robinson Cano was sad when Ackley informed his teammates that he was being traded to the Yankees then I’m OK with the trade since I want Cano to feel the pain I have felt with him in Seattle and the Yankees starting Brian Roberts, Kelly Johnson, Stephen Drew, Gregorio Petit and Brendan Ryan at second base since he left.

Apparently, you’re not aware that Stephen Drew’s dad and Brian Cashman’s dad were roommates in college and Brendan Ryan is married to Brian Cashman’s cousin. That’s the only explanation I have for these two to still be on the team at the SAME TIME while everyone else around them gets designated for assignment. Here’s to hoping Stephen Drew never touches .200 this season.

The Yankees definitely had an odd trade deadline strategy. They weren’t willing to give up any of their top prospects, which is fine, but then they were targeting Craig Kimbrel rather than a starting pitcher. Unless their plan was to pitch Kimbrel, Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller for three innings each every fifth day, I’m not sure how not going after a starting pitcher helped improve their shaky rotation.

If Kimbrel had been traded to the Yankees, it would have been intereting to see how the Yankees handled the ninth inning. Kimberl has always been a closer and has led the National League in saves the last four years, which were his first four full seasons in the league, but Miller has been a perfect 23-for-23 in save opportunities this season and dominant in the role. It’s an impossible decision and I’m happy it’s one that doesn’t need to be made now.

That’s a good way to make me cry. The Yankees could have had Johan Santana for three pitchers that are no longer with the organization.

Santana won 16 games in 2008 for the Mets with a 2.53 ERA. The Yankees went 89-73 and missed the playoffs by six games. Darrell Rasner made 20 starts for the Yankees, Sidney Ponson made 15, Joba Chamberlain made 12, Ian Kennedy made nine and Phil Hughes made eight. Those five pitchers won 12 games combined with Kennedy and Hughes winning none.

Santana gave the Mets three great years from 2008-2010 before missing 2011 and then making 21 starts in 2012, and he hasn’t pitched since. I would have gladly paid Santana to not pitch in 2011, 2013 and 2014 if it meant having him for 2008-2010.

On another trade note, remember when Brian Cashman wouldn’t include Eduardo Nunez in a deal for Cliff Lee in July 2010, so the Rangers got Cliff Lee, beat the Yankees in the ALCS and then Lee signed with the Phillies in December 2010? I don’t remember it either.

CC makes about $700,000 per start. That’s a seven followed by five zeroes. Here is what he has done in his last two starts:

5.2 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 2 HR

5.0 IP, 9 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 3 HR

In years past, it would be an automatic loss with Sabathia facing the Red Sox at the Stadium like he is on Thursday, but it’s actually a blessing. The Yankees play the Blue Jays on Friday at the Stadium and the new-look Blue Jays missed out on facing Sabathia by one day. On Monday, the first four hitters for the Blue Jays were Troy Tulowitzki, Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista and Edwin Incarnation. However, the Yankees and Blue Jays have 13 games left this season, so while the Yankees might be able to hide Sabthia from the Blue Jays this weekend and next weekend, it’s going to be hard to hide him forever against the Blue Jays unless they remove him from the rotation.

Mets fans are always so quick to go from a laughingstock to the most overconfident irrational fans in the world. I was at Citi Field on July 23 for Clayton Kershaw’s near perfect game against the Mets and the team was an embarrassment and the fans couldn’t have been more quiet and Citi Field couldn’t have been less full with the best pitcher in the world pitching. Fast forward to Sunday Night Baseball with the Mets looking to sweep the Nationals and the Citi Field crowd chanting “OVER-RATED” at Bryce Harper, who is hitting .330/.454/.667 with 29 home runs and 68 RBIs, which are as bad and ill-timed as the “Yankees suck” chants that will be coming at the end of the month at Fenway Park with the Red Sox a million games behind the Yankees.

I remember the good old days of “Reyes is better than Jeter” debates, which were equally as funny as the “Nomar is better than Jeter” debates I had to listen to growing up. Reyes is 32 years old, now playing for his fourth team in five years and is owed $22 million in 2016 and 2017 with a $22 million team option of $4 million buyout in 2018. There’s a 100 percent chance that option gets bought out when Reyes is 35. When Jeter was 35, he won his fifth World Series. Good debate.

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Blogs • Yankees

Jul 27, 2015

It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Pre-2013

When things are going well for the Yankees, I tend to look at the standings a lot. During 2013 and 2014, I tried my best to avoid the standings, especially in August and September after each season-crushing loss.

Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez

When things are going well for the Yankees, I tend to look at the standings a lot. From when I was eight years old during the 1995 season through when I was 25 years old during the 2012 season, I looked at the standings A LOT (with the exception of 2008). During 2013 and 2014, I tried my best to avoid the standings each day, especially in August and September after each season-crushing loss.

But ever since the Yankees went to Fenway Park for the last three games of the first half, I have spent an exorbitant amount of time looking at studying the standings as if it were pre-2013 once again. And after the Yankees’ sixth straight series win on Sunday to improve to 14-5 in July, here is how the AL East standings look:

AL East Standings

A 6 1/2-game lead in the division with the Orioles being the closest in the loss column at seven back has the Yankees sitting incredibly well for the final 67 of the season. Let’s say the Yankees went 34-33 in the final 67 games, playing .507 baseball for the rest of the season. They would finish 89-73. Here is what the rest of the AL East would have to do just to tie them.

Toronto, 39-23 (.629)
Baltimore, 41-24 (.631)
Tampa Bay, 40-22 (.645)
Boston, 45-18 (.714)

But the Yankees aren’t going to play just .507 baseball the rest of the way and those four teams, none of which are above .500, aren’t going to play as well as those numbers say they need to, which would have only tied them with the Yankees choking away the season. The Yankees are on their way to where they haven’t been in three years and it’s all because everything that went wrong in 2013 and 2014 is going right in 2015.

After two years of everything and I mean everything going wrong for the Yankees, everything is going right for them in 2015. Well, maybe not everything since Stephen Drew is still playing second base and Brendan Ryan is still on the team, but even those two examples prove how fortunate the Yankees have been this season. If it were 2013 or 2014, not only would Drew be starting, but so would Ryan, in the same infield every day and likely hitting in the middle of the order the way that Ichiro, Lyle Overbay and Vernon Wells were asked to nearly every day in 2013. Instead, the Yankees have managed to have the second-best record in the AL as of today with their everyday second baseman hitting .188.

The team was able to overcome an embarrassing 3-6 start to the season and a frustrating 1-10 stretch in May, which is when the 2013 and 2014 Yankees fell apart and never recovered. They have won games started by Jacob deGrom, David Price, Max Scherzer, Chris Archer, Scott Kazmir and two games started by Felix Hernandez. They have kept on winning even with Joe Girardi constantly giving unnecessary days off to his best players like how he sat Brett Gardner against a lefty on Saturday or how he sat A-Rod on Sunday after he hit three home runs on Saturday (fortunately the Yankees won both games). And they have overcome having two reliable starting pitchers (both of which are frequently given extra rest between starts), having two starters (CC Sabathia and Nathan Eovaldi) who are coin flips every five days and having their most consistent first-half starter put in the bullpen because of money (Sabathia) and “stuff” (Eovaldi) instead of results. The Yankees have overcome injuries, underachieving, questionable signings and irresponsible roster and lineup decisions to get to where they are.

To think that the Yankees could be where they are right now with arguably their best three players in the rotation, field and bullpen in Masahiro Tanaka, Jacoby Ellsbury and Andrew Miller not having all been healthy at the same time from April 24 to July 7 isn’t remarkable or impressive, it’s flat-out ridiculous. And they are where they are even with those three extended absences because Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira have turned back the clock to 2009-2011 when it was Teixeira who would hit third and A-Rod who would hit fourth as the most feared 3-4 combination in the majors; and because Brett Gardner went on the hottest of his patented hot streaks imaginable; and because Dellin Betances, Chasen Shreve and Justin Wilson got everyone out. The performances of A-Rod and Teixeira and Gardner and the bullpen overshadowed Chase Headley’s abyssmal first full season with the Yankees, Didi Gregorius’ New York growing pains, Carlos Beltran’s inability to produce and stay healthy and the constant struggle for Sabathia and Eovaldi to pitch six innings.

Now there are 10 weeks left in the season and the Yankees are as healthy as they can be without any regular position player, starter or reliever on the DL (knock on all of the wood around you) and they are another stretch like they have had the last two weeks from running away and hiding with the AL East.

Some Yankees fans just wanted a return to the postseason in any form in 2015 and that meant accepting a spot in the wild-card game. Me? I wanted the Yankees to win the AL East when the season began the same way I do every season. I wanted to know that the Yankees would be playing past Game 162 and Opening Day wouldn’t be the only day with bunting draped over the second and upper decks at the Stadium. I wanted everything to be the way it used to be and now it looks like it will be.

It feels good to have the Yankees back where they’re supposed to be. It feels good to have the baseball world right again.

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Blogs • Yankees

Jun 4, 2015

The Yankees’ DFA Waitlist

David Carpenter was finally designated for assignment. Now that he’s gone, it’s time to to turn to the next three Yankees in line on the DFA Waitlist.

Esmil Rogers

On Wednesday, after 22 games and 18 2/3 innings, David Carpenter was designated for assignment. It was the start of a pleasure-filled day with the removal of one of Joe Girardi’s most-trusted, yet horrible relievers, followed by the return of Masahiro Tanaka pitching a gem in a 3-1 win. After looking like the team that pissed away a nine-games-above-.500 record for most of May, the Yankees have gotten back on track in June with three straight wins and a sweep of the Mariners to remain in first place in the AL East. But back to Carpenter …

Carpenter had been bad for most of the nearly two months he was a Yankee. The Yankees traded once heralded prospect Manny Banuelos to the Braves in the offseason for Carpenter and left-hander Chasen Shreve, who has climbed the Joe Girardi Bullpen Pecking Order. Carpenter’s strikeout numbers had drastically declined this season, and after striking out 10.1 per nine innings in 2013 and 9.9 in 2014, that number had dipped to 5.3 this season. He failed to record a strikeout in his final five appearances for the Yankees, facing 12 batters over that span, and with an increase in walks and an increase in contact against him, four of his last six inherited runners scored. Carpenter had just one perfect appearance in May. It was time to go and so he went.

The move had been long overdue, but when it comes to Girardi and Brian Cashman, no move is ever made on time or before disaster strikes. The Yankees are all about second and third and fourth and fifth and sixth and seventh chances for players with limited ability or players who clearly not working out or players with no future or who have reached their ceiling or who have a history of being bad. It’s why Esmil Rogers, a 29-year-old with a 5.50 career ERA, is still on the team. It’s why Stephen Drew, who has hit .163/.235/.301 over his last 482 plate appearances is still a Yankee. It’s why Chris Capuano, a career starter who has been detrimental to the team in all four of his appearances this season, is still a Yankee. And it’s those three that are on the DFA Waitlist.

UP: Esmil Rogers
Esmil Rogers has made 16 appearances for the Yankees. One of those has been perfect. That appearance came on Opening Day when he faced one hitter (Jose Bautista) and struck him out. Since then, Rogers has been the same old hittable Esmil Rogers that has pitched to a 5.50 ERA in 452 career innings.

On Opening Day, Rogers was the long man, but now with Capuano being forced to the bullpen, he doesn’t have a role anymore. In 10 of Rogers’ 16 appearances this season, he has either allowed at least one earned run or at least one inherited runner to score. So you can scratch the idea of him being trusted as a right-handed middle reliever in a big spot. His role now is to wake up every morning and thank God he is a Major League Baseball player for the New York Yankees making $1.48 million (!!!) this season.

Unfortunately, the only two right-handers in the bullpen for the Yankees now are Rogers and Dellin Betances. Girardi would rather pick a right-handed person out of the crowd to face a right-handed hitter prior to the eighth inning than let one of his left-handers face the righty, so this is a problem. As long as Rogers is on the roster, Girardi is going to find work for him, and if the situation calls for a righty and it’s not the eighth or ninth inning, it’s going to be Rogers getting the call until Girardi realizes that ability matters more than the arm you throw with.

If the Yankees designate Rogers for assignment (I say “if” because they let Sergio Mitre and Chad Gaudin hang around forever), I would bet heavily against another team picking him up.

ON DECK: Stephen Drew
I said Stephen Drew had full-season “Ladies and gentlemen” immunity after his grand slam in Baltimore in April, but I didn’t say he had “DFA” immunity.

The Yankees finally sat Drew down on the West Coast to give Jose Pirela a chance to play more than once a month and just when it looked like Drew was playing himself off the team, he came up with a game-saving hit against Fernando Rodney on Tuesday night. But like Stephen Drew does, he followed it up with an 0-for-3 on Wednesday to drop to .165. He hasn’t seen .200 all year with his highest average of .193 coming on April 27.

Drew has been lucky that he is the only player on the team that can play both second and short with Didi Gregorius only being able to play short and Jose Pirela only being able to play second. But Brendan Ryan is on his way back and he can play anywhere, so Drew will now have to play with some urgency, even though I would take Stephen Drew over Brendan Ryan every day of the week and twice on Sunday because the best Brendan Ryan is going to do for you is hit a single. At least Drew can hit for some power.

If it was my call, I would play Drew at short, Pirela or Rob Refsnyder at second and sit Didi Gregorius down, as he has been a disaster in the field, at the plate and on the bases. Put Drew back in the only position he ever played before becoming a Yankee and let him try to regain the comfort level he had with the Red Sox in 2013. However, Cashman will never admit to his mistake of trading for Gregorius and likely still views the player who lost his starting job with the Diamondbacks in 2014 as the shortstop of the future for the Yankees, so that idea is out of the question.

If Drew doesn’t start to hit with some consistency, he is going to lose his job. And he is going to lose it to .234 career hitter with 19 career home runs.

IN THE HOLE: Chris Capuano
The Yankees should have never re-signed Chris Capuano. The Yankees should have never done a lot of things they have done in the last two offseasons, but they did. Capuano made three starts for the Yankees going 0-3 with this line: 12.2 IP, 18 H, 11 R, 9 ER, 4 BB, 12 K, 2 HR. For $5 million, which is what Capuano is making, I could have made three starts for the Yankees and lost all of them.

Now that Tanaka is back, Capuano is in the bullpen, which is where he was for all 28 of appearances for the Red Sox last season before he was designated for assignment by them. Capuano’s only job will be as a long man since he doesn’t have the stuff to translate into a middle reliever or late-innings role. If he pitches the way he did in his three starts as a reliever, he will be designated for assignment for the second time in as many years.

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