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Tag: David Carpenter

Blogs • Monday Mentions • Yankees

Sep 28, 2015

Monday Mentions: Bad Pitching, Hitting, Managing and Contracts

The good news is that the Yankees are going to the playoffs for the first time in three years. The bad news is they’re going to be in the one-game playoff.

Joe Girardi

The Yankees are going to be hosting the one-game playoff next Tuesday thanks to what happened last week in Toronto. The good news is that they’re going to the playoffs for the first time in three years. The bad news is they’re in the one-game playoff. The worse news is if they win the one-game playoff, they’re likely going to have to go to Toronto and not Kansas City for the first two games of the ALDS.

Here is another installment of “Monday Mentions” focused on questions and comments from Twitter about what happened over the last week to the Yankees.

I’m a Chasen Shreve fan, so it’s hard for me to talk badly about him, considering he was good for and only recently fell apart. I’m not sure if it’s fatigue or that the league has adjusted to him or a combination of the two, but something is certainly off with him. Look at these two pitching lines from him:

First 50 appearances: 53.1 IP, 33 H, 12 R, 11 ER, 27 BB, 60 K, 6 HR, 1.86 ERA, 1.125 WHIP.

Last seven appearances: 4.1 IP, 11 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 5 BB, 4 K, 3 HR, 12.46 ERA, 3.695 WHIP.

The guy was lights out for nearly the entire season and helped save the bullpen and essentially the summer when Andrew Miller was on the disabled list. Outside of Shreve and Dellin Betances, and I guess Justin Wilson, there was no one and I mean no one else who could get an out in the bullpen. That’s when Esmil Rogers and David Carpenter were still being asked to pitch regularly. Here’s to hoping Shreve bounces back quickly and these last seven appearances goes down as nothing more than a bad stretch at a bad time.

https://twitter.com/Thereal_ktex/status/646513736316923905

After playing in the one-game playoff, the next scariest part of the postseason is that Joe Girardi will sit down and try to decide which pitchers not named Masahiro Tanaka, Luis Severino, Michael Pineda, CC Sabathia, Andrew Miller, Dellin Betances and Justin Wilson he is going to carry in the playoffs. After those seven, there really isn’t anyone worthy of a spot, but five or six more pitchers are going to make it.

If the Yankees win the one-game playoff and reach the ALDS and trail in any of those games are in any of the games in the postseason at all, Girardi needs to realize the game is not lost. You would think this would be obvious, but in the 2011 ALDS, he brought in Luis Ayala twice before bringing in David Robertson once, in games the Yankees started to mount comebacks in. In the 2009 World Series, he brought in Brian Bruney and Phil Coke into the ninth inning of Game 1 and they gave up two runs to increase their deficit from 4-0 to 6-0. In the bottom of the ninth, the Yankees had two on with no outs to start the inning. They only scored one run, but they were one swing away from being back in the game. Don’t bring B and C and D relievers into a playoff game. The division was already lost partly because of this.

https://twitter.com/MattyinMaine/status/646467891886452736

I never wanted Jacoby Ellsbury. I wrote about it the second Robinson Cano signed with the Mariners and the Yankees turned around and threw their Cano money at Ellsbury. It was the exact type of signing the Yankees preached about avoiding in the future because they were going through the effects from the contracts given to Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira and CC Sabathia and what they had previously endured with Jason Giambi. But that doesn’t mean I want to call Jacoby Ellsbury “The Thief”. I would much rather call him something that resembles him earning his $130,511.46 per game.

Outside of one great season in Boston, Ellsbury has been Brett Gardner. You could even say Gardner has been better than him. So why did the team give Gardner $13 million a season and give Ellsbury $21.1 million per season? They essentially bid against themselves since the Red Sox supposedly didn’t even make an offer to Ellsbury and none of the other big spenders were about to give that kind of money to a player whose entire game is based on speed and who is on the other side of 30.

It’s not out of the question that Ellsbury was given the worst contract in Yankees history. Everyone will always point to Carl Pavano, but he made his entire deal in less than two years of Ellsbury’s, and Ellsbury’s is a seven-year deal. If he’s this bad and this unproductive and this injury prone as a 32-year-old center fielder, what exactly is he going to be when he’s 36 and 37?

Hey, if me calling Ellsbury “The Thief” and Chase Headley “The Bum” could in any way turn around their seasons with a week to go and the one-game playoff waiting next Tuesday, I will gladly create a negative name for every player on the team. Though it will be hard to think of one for Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller.

I gave Chase Headley the nickname “The Bum” recently because he perfectly fits the description of a “bum.” Well, so does Jacoby Ellsbury, but he’s already “The Thief,” so I have to spread the names around.

I remember the rumors that Headley’s agent started that he had an offer for five years and $65 million on the table. I know this was a rumor and never actually a real offer because his agent wouldn’t have had time to leak this number to the media because Headley would have been signing it as fast as humanly possible. Headley received four years and $52 million from the Yankees because they were desperate for a third baseman and there was nowhere else to turn on the free-agent market. If the team willing to spend the most money needed to fill a position and they gave you one year and $13 million less than you reportedly were offered, well, it never happened.

Headley has been horrible. He hasn’t hit for average, he hasn’t fit for power, he has played some of the worst defense in the league, he has no speed and his throws are wild. Is there an opposite of a five-tool player because that’s what Headley is.

https://twitter.com/Shane_Corey/status/646854052203102208

Joe Girardi definitely had a hand in the Yankees losing the division over the last week-plus when he turned to Triple-A relievers and made questionable decisions in the biggest games of the season. But for as bad as Girardi has been recently and for as much as I have crushed him, there are two real reasons why the Yankees lost the division:

Chris Capuano
The Yankees gave Capuano $5 million to return this season after he pitched to a 4.25 ERA in 65 2/3 innings last year for them (after he was released by the last-place Red Sox on July 1). You know who else got a one-year, $5 million deal? Stephen Drew. (We’ll get to him.) I guess a one-year, $5 million deal is the going rate for pitchers and players that aren’t good and that no one else wants. I’m pretty sure neither of those players was going to get that much money from any other team in baseball.

But it’s not about the money with Capuano. It’s about the fact that he was given three starts in May and lost all of them. And then he was brought into an extra-inning game against the Nationals on June 10 and lost that. And then in his next and what was his last start (to this point), he gave up five earned runs and got only two outs in the first inning in Texas, but luckily, the offense backed him with a 21-run game.

Second Base
All season we had to watch Stephen Drew and Brendan Ryan struggle to get base hits and at times struggle to field despite supposedly playing because of their defense. Everyone in the world had a theory as to why the two were being given unlimited chances to succeed while Rob Refsnyder kept on playing in Triple-A. Eventually, I gave up and just figured there was no chance Refsnyder would be given another chance, even after September call-ups, and had to settle for the idea he would have to win the job in spring training next year (though he should have won the job in spring training this year). Then, with a postseason berth on the line, Refsnyder started a game, and another one and another one and kept on starting. Between Refsnyder against left-handed pitchers (and sometimes against right-handed pitchers) and Dustin Ackley against right-handed pitchers, the Yankees suddenly had an unacceptable Major League platoon and weren’t giving up an out every time that spot came up in the order.

Now Ackley hadn’t been on the team all season and once he was traded to the Yankees at the deadline he instantly went on the disabled list after about 15 minutes. But Refsnyder has been with the organization and wasn’t allowed to play nearly the whole season until the stretch run with the team trying to clinch a playoff spot? How does that make any sense? If the Yankees really wanted him to wait until next season, they would be giving him at-bats here and there over these final weeks to continue to get his feet wet in the majors. But to make him the starting second baseman as part of a platoon with Ackley, while Drew and Ryan continue to sit goes against everything we have been led to believe by the Yankees this season.

Now that #GiveRobTheJob has worked and Capuano no longer hurts the team as a member of the rotation and barely a member of the bullpen, the Yankees are a better team. But they could have been this team all season and because they weren’t, they have to play in the one-game playoff.

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Blogs • Yankees

Jun 11, 2015

I Already Miss Andrew Miller

When I heard Andrew Miller was headed for the disabled list, I thought about going to CVS and buying all the “Get Well Soon” cards in the store, but instead I wrote this.

Jacob Lindgren

Before the start of the season, I wrote the annual Order of Importance for the Yankees. Masahiro Tanaka was ranked No. 1. Jacoby Ellsbury was No. 3. Tanaka landed on the disabled list and was out of the rotation for six weeks. Ellsbury landed on the disabled list and is still there, having already missed three weeks. Despite the team’s best starter and best all-around player missing significant time in the first two-plus months of the season, and their absences overlapping for a couple weeks, the Yankees have survived. At 33-26, they are in first place in the AL East.

Now the Yankees will be without Andrew Miller for an unknown amount of time. I ranked both Miller and Dellin Betances as the fourth most important Yankees for 2015, and if I redid the order now I would put them both at No. 1, as the two have combined to be the MVP of the Yankees.

Here’s Dellin Betances’ pitching line: 32.1 IP, 11 H, 4 R, 1 ER, 14 BB, 54 K, 0 HR.

Here’s Andrew Miller’s pitching line: 26.1 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 10 BB, 43 K, 1 HR.

Betances and Miller have turned Yankees games into seven-inning games and they have turned games in which the Yankees lead after seven innings into wins. They have become the most dominant back end of a bullpen in the majors and they have allowed the Yankees to withstand losing their ace for the end of April, all of May and the beginning of June and their best all-around player until whenever he returns.

I was nervous when Tanaka landed on the disabled list because of his right elbow issue that destroyed his 2014 season and I was worried when Jacoby Ellsbury landed on the disabled list because of his history of long and mysterious DL stints and his fragile and soft demeanor and how Joe Girardi handled the 31-year-old making $21.1 million with kid gloves even before this knee injury. Even though I was nervous and worried for those two, I thought I would have been petrified, but I wasn’t. However, I’m petrified about the loss of Miller.

Outside of Betances and Miller, the Yankees’ bullpen is a group of unproven and underachieving arms, which could pitch to their abilities and keep the Yankees’ June going the way it has, or ruin games bringing us back to May 12-24. The loss of Miller moves Betances into the closer role, which is where he was expected to be before the season began, but after him, it’s unclear how Girardi will navigate the middle innings and where he will now get three extra outs from in the vacant eighth-inning role.

When the news was announced that Miller was headed for the disabled list and wouldn’t pick up a baseball for 10-14 days, I thought about going to CVS and buying all the “Get Well Soon” cards in the store, but instead I wrote this. Here is how the Order of Trust for the non-Betances and non-Miller Yankees’ bullpen from least trustworthy to must trustworthy.

Number 53, Esmil Rogers, Number 53
I wouldn’t trust Rogers to tell me what time it is or even what day of the week it is. Rogers has no place on this team, or any team, but I hope he lands on another team, and one the Yankees play regularly. He shouldn’t see any game action unless the Yankees are trailing by double digits. That’s the only instance he can be trusted to pitch in as he continues to be a New York Yankee and a Major League Baseball pitcher despite lacking the necessary ability to be either.

Number 26, Chris Capuano, Number 26
When Capuano entered Wednesday’s game in extra innings, it was only a matter of time until the Nationals scored. After pitching a scoreless 10th inning, the Yankees had to score in the bottom of the 10th if they wanted to win because there was no chance Capuano was pitching a scoreless 11th. The Yankees didn’t score, the Nationals scored against Capuano in the 11th and the seven-game winning streak ended.

Capuano shouldn’t have been re-signed in the offseason for one year and $5 million, like another Yankees … cough, cough, STEPHEN DREW, cough, cough … but he was. He lost all three of his starts as part of the rotation, allowing nine earned runs in 12 2/3 innings, and with Wednesday’s loss, he’s now responsible for four Yankees losses in six appearances. He’s the long man for now and apparently the extra-inning man too. Let’s hope the Yankees don’t play any extra-inning games until Miller is back.

Number 41, Justin Wilson, Number 41
The Yankees traded Francisco Cervelli for Wilson and he was supposed to be the hard-throwing left-handed option out of the bullpen, but right now, I have him third on the left-handed bullpen depth chart. Unfortunately, Girardi loves Wilson and I have a feeling he will be given the eighth inning.

Wilson walks way too many hitters (11 in 21 IP) to be given the eighth inning or any set inning really, and his strikeout numbers aren’t exactly impressive (15 in 21 IP) to trust him to protect a close game.

Number 57, Chris Martin, Number 57
Martin hasn’t pitched for the Yankees since May 8 after getting hurt. He has struck out 13 in 12 2/3 innings with just three walks and only allowed earned runs in three of 15 appearances. He hasn’t pitched in over a month, and his time away from the team has actually built his trust stock for me because while he has been getting healthy, the other relievers have been showcasing their abilities (or inabilities) and that hasn’t helped me believe in them in this time of need. Martin getting hurt and not pitching has actually played into his favor when it comes to trust.

Number 64, Jacob Lindgren, Number 64
If Lindgren doesn’t give up that game-tying home run on Wednesday, he might be higher, but he did. One bad pitch shouldn’t change his ranking (especially when Nathan Eovaldi never should have been in to give up that leadoff single and Stephen Drew should have turned two to end the inning), but when he only has 6 1/3 career innings under his belt, one appearance holds a lot of stock.

Lindgren admitted after the game he’s still “getting his feet wet” in the majors, and considering he was pitching for Mississippi State last year, was drafted by the Yankees a year ago and pitched just 46 2/3 innings in the minors, that’s a reasonable quote from him. His minor league numbers were insane with a 1.74 ERA and 77 strikeouts in those 46 2/3 innings and he never gave up a home run in the minors against 196 batters, but has now given up two to 27 in the majors.

At some point, Lindgren will be the best Yankees reliever not named Betances or Miller, but that’s going to take some more time and it’s likely to take Girardi even longer to trust him because that’s how Girardi is.

Number 45, Chasen Shreve, Number 45
I bet the Yankees thought David Carpenter would be the prized return on the Manny Banuelos trade, but now Carpenter is with the Nationals after being designated for assignment by the Yankees, and Shreve has become the third-best Yankees reliever when Miller is healthy, and the second-best reliever now that Miller is on the disabled list.

In 25 innings, Shreve has the best strikeout numbers (25 in 25 IP) in the bullpen after the Big Two, has allowed only 16 hits and has a 0.960 WHIP. As a left-hander, he has actually been better against right-handed hitters (.153 BAA) than he has against left-handed hitters (.250 BAA).

When Shreve made the Yankees out of spring training, I was surprised they went with him over Lindgren or other more appealing options. When he then allowed a home run on Opening Day, I wasn’t surprised and laughed that of course Chasen Shreve made the Yankees out of spring training and allowed a home run on Opening Day. But now a little over two months later, he is the most trusted option out of the bullpen after Dellin Betances.

Get well soon, Andrew Miller.

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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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Opening Day • Podcasts • Yankees

Mar 30, 2015

Podcast: Chad Jennings

Opening Day is now a week away, so it’s time to check in down in Tampa with the latest from spring training before the games actually matter.

Alex Rodriguez

One week to go. One week. That’s it. That’s all that’s separating us from baseball season and Opening Day at Yankee Stadium. It seems a little ridiculous to think that the Yankees will be playing here next Monday considering it was snowing this weekend, but after back-to-back postseason-less seasons and a brutal winter, I’m willing to watch the Yankees play in snow to have baseball back in my life.

Chad Jennings, the Yankees beat writer for The Journal News and the LoHud Yankees Blog, joined me to talk about the Yankees as spring training winds down in Tampa, what to expect from Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira, why Stephen Drew is still the starting second baseman, the state of the rotation, why Joe Girardi should revolutionize baseball with his bullpen and how Yankees fans should feel about this team right now.

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