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Tag: CC Sabathia

Blogs • Email Exchanges • Yankees

Aug 11, 2015

Indians Fans Found Out the Real Nick Swisher

After being swept and scoring one run in three games, the Yankees find themselves desperately needing to get back on track in Cleveland before heading to Toronto.

The weekend series against the Blue Jays couldn’t have gone worse for the Yankees. After being swept and scoring one run in three games, the Yankees find themselves desperately needing to get back on track in Cleveland before heading to Toronto for another three-game series against their newest rival.

With the Yankees and Indians meeting for the first time this season, Matt Lyons of Let’s Go Tribe joined me to talk about Nick Swisher playing himself off the Indians, the late rise of Corey Kluber and the perception of Terry Francona in Cleveland.

Keefe: After thankfully watching Nick Swisher leave New York following the 2012 season, I couldn’t believe a team was willing to give him a four-year, $56 million deal, but the Indians were that team. But now Swisher is gone and he’s no longer an Indian, as the Braves were stupid enough to trade for him. Even though the Indians have to pay $10 million to cover a portion of Swisher and Michael Bourn’s salary, I think you should be happy to no longer have Swisher on your team.

Swisher finished his time in Cleveland as a .228/.311/.377 hitter and only played one full season (145 games in 2013). I’m sorry your Indians lost the 2013 wild-card game to the Rays, but I happily watched him go for 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in that game to continue his career postseason failures.

Now that Swisher is gone and will play out the final one-plus years of his contract with the Braves, how will you remember his time in Cleveland?

Lyons: It’s difficult for me to hate or blame Swisher personally. He did not ask to be over 30 and have crippling knee injuries. I was not thrilled with the big contract to begin with, but that is more on the Indians front office than Swisher accepting money that was offered to him. On the field he was a total disappointment, no doubt, but it was genuinely refreshing to have a big name free agent come over to Cleveland and be so excited about the city and the team. Even with his lack of production, he still did a lot of good off the field in terms of exciting the fan base. Granted, this is all easier to say now that he’s gone and no longer dragging down the payroll.

However, I will say that the whole “bro” thing got old real fast. At least he toned it down when his production dipped.

Keefe: For the last couple of years, it seems like a lot of preseason predictions favored the Indians to get over the hump and be in position to win the AL Central. After missing out on the second wild card by three games last year, the Indians are in last place in the Central and are 7 1/2 games back for the second wild card.

When you look at the 2015 Indians, while the offense hasn’t been anything special, the entire pitching staff has serious strikeout number and you would think a team with so much power pitching would be in a much better spot than they are in at 51-59.
What has gone wrong for the 2015 Indians?

Lyons: It’s all Sports Illustrated’s fault for picking the Tribe and jinxing it!

No, I think offensively it all comes down to lack of hitting with runners in scoring position and a bunch of players just slumping at the same time. The Tribe as a team has consistently been at the bottom of the league when it comes to hitting with RISP despite being great at nearly everything else. You always expect a player or two to underperform, but almost everyone in the lineup not named Jason Kipnis was bad to start the season.

Pitching wise, don’t forget that this staff struggled early. The fifth spot was a rotating door between Bruce Chen, Shaun Marcum and others, which was a guaranteed loss every week. For a while, it felt like one of the starters, bullpen or offense would blow the game every night. Nothing clicked at the same time.

Injection of young players like Giovanny Urshela and Francisco Lindor have helped the offense a bit and been a tremendous boon for the defense. Although it’s arguably too little too late at this point.

Keefe: Corey Kluber won the Cy Young last season after leading the league in wins (18) and FIP (2.35). This season, Kluber has had similar numbers aside from ERA, which is over a run higher (2.44 to 3.46) and leads the league in innings pitched, but also leads the league in losses with 12.

What changed for Kluber from 2012 to 2013 and from 2013 to 2014 that made him the pitcher he is today, as sort of late bloomer the way Cliff Lee was for the Indians? Do you believe in him as a true ace the way Indians fans believed in Lee or CC Sabathia?

Lyons: Developing a cutter/sinker, for sure. Prior to 2012, Kluber was a typical fastball/slider/changeup guy, but he developed his cutter in the minor leagues, which he now leans on in the majors. Movement in general on his fastballs can be devastating, but when that sinker is working, he is unhittable.

The losses and his ERA are not an indicator of much for him. He consistently has some of the lowest run support in the league, and before Urshela and Lindor were called up, he (and the rest of the staff) was at the mercy of a terrible left side of the infield. I still wake up in panicked cold sweats thinking about this team’s defense in April/May.

He is an ace, absolutely, and not many Indians fans are going to dispute that. It’s no fault of Kluber’s but he hasn’t played on many big playoff run teams so he hasn’t a chance to produce a lot of heroic performances that help the Tribe in the end and grab a lot of national attention. Because of that, I don’t think he’s as well regarded as Lee or CC quite yet.

Even in the 2013 run, the story on the staff was Ubaldo Jiminez, not Kluber. I still see team’s fans asking who this 2014 Cy Young winner is when the Indians go up against them, so I can’t wait until he gets that chance to get more attention.

Keefe: Terry Francona is now in his third season with the Indians after taking the year off in 2012 following the end of his tenure in Boston. Looking back, Red Sox fans aren’t happy with the decision to get rid of Francona after the Bobby Valentine disaster and now second last-place finish in three years under John Farrell.

Francona has led the Indians to a 228-206 (.525) and the calm demeanor he brought to Boston has carried over to Cleveland. Even though his time with the Indian hasn’t translated into consecutive postseason appearances or a championship like it did with the Red Sox, he seems to have the Indians on the right track for the future.
Are you a Francona fan and has his stock remained as high as it was two years ago

Lyons: I’m a mixed bag on Francona. I love some things he does, like bullpen management and the team’s general attitude, but his small ball mentality can make the team unwatchable. It’s just frustrating how often the team bunts. His lineup configurations can be bizarre at times, but I never get too hard on a manager for lineups.

At least from my own observations, I’ve never seen too much “Fire Francona” chatter when the team stumbles, which is interesting. The manager is usually the first piece thrown under the bus, but I get the idea a lot of the Indians fan base believes in him.

Keefe: After reaching the playoffs in 2013 for the first time since 2007 and then coming within three games of going back to the playoffs last year, what were your expectations heading into this season?

Now that we’re in August and things aren’t looking so good for the Indians’ postseason chances, what do you want to see down the stretch and what will your expectations be for 2016?

Lyons: Can I lie and say I saw this collapse coming? No? OK … well I was fully on the hype train coming into 2015. This pitching staff looked nasty from the start, and I thought for sure the lineup would be something special. Surely Jason Kipnis would bounce back after his poor 2014 season (which he did), surely Yan Gomes would keep better (nope), surely Carlos Santana would keep being Carlos Santana (nope), surely Jose Ramirez would keep being a solid defensive shortstop (nope), surely Lonnie Chisenhall would take the next big step (nope). Just a whole bunch of things we all thought would happen did not pan out this year.

As for the rest of the year, I just want to watch young players. It’s already happening with Lindor, Urshela and outfielders Jerry Sands, Tyler Holt and maybe even Tyler Naquin down the line. Watching Lonnie Chisenhall play effectively in right field since being called back up from Triple-A has also been a treat, and I want to keep an eye on how that develops.

2015 has been such a weird year of no one playing like they are “supposed to” and that it makes it hard to predict for 2016. Will any of these players bounce back, or is this what they are? Unless it involves trading one of the big four starting pitchers, I don’t see the front office making any big deals so this is more or less the team we have for 2016. I would be equally surprised to see them go all the way, as I would be to see them as a basement dweller. It’ll be exciting either way.

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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 10, 2015

Podcast: Shelley Duncan

The former Yankee joined me to talk about the 2007 ALDS, the midges in Cleveland, playing under Joe Torre and Joe Girardi and the differences in playing at the old and new Yankee Stadium.

Shelley Duncan

For a long time, no matter who the Yankees called up or signed it would work out. In the summer of 2007, needing some additional right-handed power to add to a lineup that was trying to overcome a double-digit game deficit in the standings to reach the postseason for the 13th straight year, the Yankees dipped into Triple-A for a 6-foot-5 version of Shane Spencer.

Former Yankee Shelley Duncan joined me to talk about hitting home runs for the Yankees, the 2007 ALDS against the Indians, the midges in Cleveland, playing under Joe Torre and Joe Girardi, the differences in playing at the old and new Yankee Stadium, his patented forearm bump and brawls in baseball.

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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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