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Tag: Eduardo Nunez

Blogs • Monday Mentions • Yankees

Aug 17, 2015

Monday Mentions: Yankees Are Back on Track

The panic button was pushed with the Yankees getting beat up by the Blue Jays and Indians, but a road trip to Toronto momentarily paused the state of worry.

Luis Severino

The Yankees blew their seven-game lead in the AL East and might have been left playing for a wild-card spot over the final seven weeks of the season if not for their performance in Toronto. The Yankees were able to regain first place in the division, but they will have to hold off the Blue Jays the rest of the way to avoid going from the ALDS to a one-game playoff.

Here is another installment of “Monday Mentions” focused on questions and comments from Twitter about the Yankees after their near collapse in the AL East.

https://twitter.com/baker_fake/status/631530302234456064

When this tweet was written, yes, it was completely justified. I spent last Sunday after the Blue Jays swept the Yankees at Walmart stocking up on bottled water, flashlights, batteries, and non-perishable foods for when the Yankees blow the division and either end up in the wild-card game (for which I will buy a respirator) or out of the playoffs completely.

However, since then, the Yankees won the series finale in Cleveland and managed to win two out of three in Toronto to get back on top in the division. When the Yankees trailed 3-0 late in Toronto on Friday night I was in bad place, but with the biggest win of the season and the win on Saturday, I have stopped adding to my Blown Seven-Game Lead Emergency Survival Kit. For now, we’re safe. That could change with any sort of losing streak at this point in the season.

I have enjoyed all three of Luis Severino’s start and am still upset that the official scorer in Toronto gave Troy Tulowitzki a double on a ball that Carlos Beltran lost in the sun and deflected off his body. Severino should have finished the game with six innings and no earned runs, but instead he was charged with three earned runs. Even with that he has now pitched 17 innings, allowing six earned runs and if he had any sort of run support, he would be 3-0. Instead he is 0-2 with a no-decision, while Nathan Eovaldi keeps on racking up the wins with the most incredible run support ever. Severino has made me believe in the future when it comes to the rotation that includes an already-torn elbow in Masahiro Tanaka, the oft-injued Michael Pineda, the recently-retuned-from-surgery Ivan Nova, the frustrating and inconsistent Nathan Eovaldi and the Ghost of CC Sabathia.

I have never been a fan of Jacoby Ellsbury. I think that’s well documented. It would be hard to find a nice thing I have written about the $153 million man, who obviously would never live up to that deal in its entirety, but he won’t even live up to it for one season. If I’m Brett Gardner, I’m holding out for $101 million and three more years on my contract to be equal to Ellsbury, who is an inferior player to Gardner.

https://twitter.com/Mr_B_Roe/status/631632680795435008

Unfortunately, it’s going to take more than a few good weeks for an apology to ever come, and it will likely never come. Any player that is given infinite chances will eventually succeed. Look at Stephen Drew. He has hit 15 home runs this season because he’s had 345 plate appearances. Given his average and on-base percentage, he should have been designated for assignment or benched a long time ago. It shouldn’t be a surprise when he occasionally hits a home run and it shouldn’t be treated as if he might finally turn it around. He has sucked for just about two full seasons now for a reason: because he sucks.

https://twitter.com/kevinmurraysays/status/632361408475365376

I’m not sure if I will get over this. Maybe when the Yankees win the World Series again I will, but even then, I will always think about what could have been in 2010. If Brian Cashman includes Eduardo Nunez in the trade for Cliff Lee, the rotation is Lee, CC Sabathia, Andy Pettitte and Phil Hughes. The Yankees lost Game 3 of the 2010 ALCS to Lee. If Lee’s on the team, that game doesn’t happen and A.J. Burnett never pitches Game 4 and loses. The Yankees at least get to the World Series, and once there, who know what could have happened?

After A.J. Burnett, I think the player I have written the second-most words about is Boone Logan though Stephen Drew is making his move up the all-time words list. It puts a smile on my face when Logan gives up a big hit or blows a game even now two years removed from him being on the Yankees. Unfortunately, the Yankees don’t play the Rockies this season, so we won’t get the chance to see him give back one of the games he cost them over four seasons.

Yes, the Yankees make the playoffs. As for the second part of this question, well, they better win the division.

I don’t care what people thought of them before the season or where people thought they would finish. None of that matters. What matters is this is a team with a $217 million payroll that is expected to contend every season. And once they got out to a seven-game lead, anything other than winning the East and going straight to the ALDS is unacceptable. If this team has to play in the wild-card game, I don’t even know how I will mentally, physically and emotionally handle it. I haven’t even really given it a lot of thought yet because I don’t want to and I hope I don’t have to.

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Blogs • Email Exchanges • Yankees

Jul 3, 2014

The Yankees’ Trash Has Turned into the Twins’ Treasure

The Yankees need to start winning and they need to start now. There’s no better place for that than a four-game series in Minnesota against the Twins.

Phil Hughes

The Yankees followed a four-game winning streak with a four-game losing streak. Then after back-to-back wins they have now lost five straight. What does that mean? Other than that they have been a bad team for a while now, I have no idea. But I hope it means that they are about to go on a 12-game winning streak.

With the Yankees and Twins meeting in Minnesota for a four-game series, Jesse Lund of Twinkie Town joined me to talk about Phil Hughes’ first half-season with the Twins, Eduardo Nunez’s surprising production and how two failed Twins starters have become reliable relievers.

Keefe: The last time we talked was on May 30 for the last Yankees-Twins series. A lot has happened in those five weeks. Mainly, the Yankees have gone in the tank. Before that series, the Yankees were 28-24 and since then they have gone 13-18. I thought after finishing their nine-game road trip with four wins in five games that they would use a home series against the Twins to start a summer run, but that didn’t happen. The Twins didn’t use their series win over the Yankees in the Bronx to start a run of their own either, going 14-18 since since then.

What has gone wrong for the Twins since the last time they played the Yankees?

Lund: I don’t know if as much has gone wrong as much as it’s just the Twins playing to their true talent level. Some guys could be doing better (Nolasco, Arcia) and some guys have cooled off (Dozier, Escobar, Suzuki), but it’s really just an issue with inconsistency. And that’s to be expected when you have a roster of middle-of-the-road talent … and that tag is probably being a little generous.

This team has some pretty good role players, but with Mauer out and one of their new hot hands (Danny Santana) also on the disabled list, the lineup has been patchwork and being competitive is mostly down to the starting pitcher having a good night.

Keefe: My worst nightmare came true on June 1 at Yankee Stadium and I was in the Stadium to watch it unfold: Phil Hughes beat the Yankees. Not only did he beat the Yankees, but he was in line for a loss after giving up two earned runs over eight innings before David Robertson had a meltdown and the Yankees gave up six runs in the ninth for a 7-2 loss.

Since that start, Hughes has slowly started to return to being the Phil Hughes that pitched for the Yankees in 2013, allowing five earned runs in three of his five starts. The biggest difference about 2014 Phil Hughes is that he isn’t walking anyone. He has walked just 10 in 103 innings this season after walking 42 in 145 2/3 innings last season. (As you can tell and as I told you last time, I’m rooting heavily against Hughes after how he pitched his way out of the Bronx after being sold to Yankees fans for about a decade.)

Are you waiting for pre-2013 Phil Hughes to show up in Minnesota or do you think 2014 Phil Hughes is here to stay?

Lund: I don’t think he’s as good as he was the first two months of the season, but I still think he’ll be better for Minnesota than he was for the Yankees. He’s established a nice rapport with Kurt Suzuki, who has a better acumen for game-calling than I expected, but Hughes has also been pitching with a good deal of confidence. To live and die up in the zone, I guess you need to have a good deal of faith in your abilities. I see Hughes stabilizing as a solid No. 3, which will make him well worth his contract and, until Alex Meyer arrives, also probably makes him the best pitcher on staff.

Keefe: In the ninth inning of that nightmare June 1 loss, Eduardo Nunez doubled in the ninth in his only at-bat of the game. If I’m rooting heavily against Phil Hughes this season then I’m rooting incredibly against Eduardo Nunez after his Yankees tenure and his projected future costing the Yankees Cliff Lee in 2010, as I told you during the last email exchange.

Nunez is hitting .305/.337/.463 for the Twins this year with three home runs in 87 plate appearances after hitting .260/.307/.372 with three home runs for the Yankees in 336 plate appearances last year. As for Yangervis Solate, Nunez’s replacement on the Yankees, well after carrying the Yankees through the first two months of the season, he was sent down to Triple-A on Thursday prior to the start of this series.

What are your thoughts on the man the Yankees referred to as Nuney?

Lund: I think he’s one of those fine role players I mentioned earlier. The Twins organization’s inability to plan for issues in center field has led to a lot of infielders playing in the outfield somewhere, and that’s opened up a few opportunities for Nunez. As long as we don’t need him to step in for anything more than a couple of games at a time, he’s a perfectly suitable bench option, provided he keeps producing. You’ve seen firsthand how quickly he can lose his ability to produce, and I sincerely doubt that he’s suddenly tapped into his missing potential now. It’s not easy to be one of those guys – a guy who only gets playing time when he produces but can’t get playing time when he doesn’t produce and so how to you earn the playing time to produce when you’re not producing, but for now he looks like a nice get. I just wish he’d be willing to take a walk.

Keefe: I remember in 2009 when Glen Perkins was a starter and Brian Duensing was a starter, starting Game 1 of the 2009 ALDS. That was five years ago and now the two are no longer starters and haven’t been for a couple of years now. However, Perkins has turned into a reliable closer for the Twins and Duensing a reliable middle reliever.

Are you disappointed with how the potential starting careers of the two turned out, or are you happy that they turned out to be viable options in the bullpen?

Lund: It’s different for each guy. For Duensing, he was durable enough to start but he didn’t have the stuff and right handed hitters ate him for breakfast. So he’s turned into a pretty reliable middle innings reliever, even if Gardy doesn’t utilize platoon advantages as much as he could to get the most out of the lefty.

For Perkins, he seemed destined to be a wash out. His fastball sat right around 90, the curveball was too big and too slow, and he was just hit hard. Constantly. No doubt you’ve experienced this before as a fan — a guy with decent potential can’t make the adjustment to big league ball, his performance suffers, maybe says the wrong things to the wrong people in the organization and he’s in the dog house and you can already hear signatures going onto his walking papers.

But then he told the organization there wasn’t anywhere else he wanted to be, the team gave him an opportunity out of the bullpen, he started throwing 97, developed a slider and gave up on the curve, moved up the bullpen hierarchy and now he’s one of the best relievers in the American League. So while for Duensing it was a situation of low expectations and just being glad the guy found a place to be effective, with Perkins it was the case of a first round draft pick nearly going bust before being reinvented. There’s no disappointment there, just surprise.

Keefe: When we last talked, you said you thought the Twins would win 70 games before the season started and on May 30 you still believed that to be true. At 38-45, the Twins are 10 games out in the Central and would need to go 32-47 the rest of the way to meet your prediction, which won’t exactly be hard for them to do. After another month of baseball and half the season left, are your feelings on these Twins still the same and how your opinion on their future changed at all?

Lund: I think I’m willing to up my projection to 75 games. Now that’s without taking into account the fact that the Twins should be selling off spare parts at the trade deadline, which would change things again. But at the halfway mark they are on pace to win 76 games – a ten-game improvement over 2013 – and that’s a big step in the right direction. It’s been a rough two or three weeks here, but it’s definitely been a lot of fun watching the team be more competitive this year.

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Blogs • Email Exchanges • Yankees

Apr 29, 2014

The Yankees and Mariners Have More Connections Than Just Robinson Cano

Robinson Cano is back in the Bronx for the first time since signing with the Mariners and I still don’t blame him for leaving the Yankees for $240 million.

Robinson Cano

Robinson Cano is back in the Bronx for the first time since signing with the Seattle Mariners for 10 years and $240 million. When it comes to Cano’s decision to go to the highest bidder and saying the Yankees “disrespected” him, I’m still on his side. Cano would have been a Yankee if the Yankees really wanted him to be, but instead they chose to spend their money elsewhere. So far it’s worked out in their favor.

With the Yankees and Mariners meeting this week at the Stadium, I did an email exchange with Scott Weber of Lookout Landing to talk about Robinson Cano’s 10-year contract, what’s happened to Jesus Montero and if Mariners fan play out the way the Cliff Lee trade should have gone in their heads as much as I do.

Keefe: It’s going to be weird to see Robinson Cano playing against the Yankees for the first time on Tuesday night. Sure, I have already seen him in several games for the Mariners this season, but once you see him on the same field as the Yankees playing against the team he played nine seasons for, it will officially set it. Up to this point it has almost felt like he is just on the disabled list and we’re waiting for him to come back in the lineup. Unfortunately, that’s never going to happen.

Back in December when Cano chose the Mariners’ $240 million offer, I wrote this column based around the lyrics of Pearl Jam’s “Black” as I said goodbye to Cano. But I’m not mad at Cano, the same way I’m not mad at anyone who takes more money to do their job, especially when their former employer isn’t willing to up their dollars, or in this case, is more concerned about paying for outside talent. The Yankees could have afforded Cano if they weren’t so willing to overpay for Jacoby Ellsbury and Robinson Cano could have been a Yankee for life, if the Yankees really wanted him to be or cared for him to be. But now Cano is and will be a Mariner for 10 years, or until they trade him somewhere and agree to pay part of his salary.

What were your initial feelings on the Mariners’ negotiations with Cano and were you for the decision to sign him to such a lengthy and high-priced contract?

Weber: The Cano saga is really fairly simple to me. The Mariners have had trouble attracting free agents in the past thanks to stigmas about the pitcher-friendly ballpark and their recent string of failure on the field, so when they had a chance to sign a superstar, they just took it. They didn’t really need a second baseman as much as they needed a starting pitcher, first baseman, or outfielder, but there’s no guarantee you can land those players if you wait around. So, the Mariners blew Cano out of the water.

Nobody knows how he’ll age, but Cano profiles as such a pure, easy hitter that it’s likely he’ll be able to hold at least some sort of value in future years as a hitter. But I think we all know that his contract isn’t going to be worth it in years 6-10. For a franchise like Seattle, landing a guy like Cano is as much about changing the free agent culture as it is getting fair value in return. He’ll provide value in other ways to the franchise – at least that was surely the thought process. The money would have been wiser spent across multiple pieces, but the Mariners simply couldn’t plan like they could land the three pieces they wanted instead of Cano.

Keefe: I was excited for the Jesus Montero era in the Bronx after what he did in just 18 games during the 2011 regular season and then in the 2011 ALDS. I bought into the hype and Manny Ramirez-like comparisons and because of it, I wasn’t sure if I should be for or against the trade of him for Michael Pineda before the 2012 season. The Yankees did need young starting pitching and Pineda had been dominant for the majority of his rookie season, so I was fine with saying goodbye to what was supposed to be the the future heart of the order for the Yankees.

After the trade, Pineda spent the next two seasons not pitching and Montero spent that time regressing, getting sent down and then getting fat. But now Pineda has returned to his 2011 form (minus the pine tar disaster at Fenway) and Montero is playing in Triple-A.

What has happened to Jesus Montero since becoming a Mariner and how do you feel when you see Michael Pineda pitching like it’s 2011?

Weber: I’d like to see Pineda pitch without the pine tar before I anoint him back to form, but there’s no question that the Yankees look like they’re ahead on that trade now. For Montero, it was always about the bat, and if he could hit enough to stomach the defense. The bat was bad with flashes of brilliance, but the defense was miserable. Montero lacked basic fundamentals at the plate, all coming to a head when the Mariners lost a game on a force play at home by half a step. Montero’s positioning was set up for a sweep tag, with the wrong foot on the bag, glove side in. Had he been reaching out with the glove hand with his right foot on the plate, the Mariners might have salvaged that game. Basic stuff, just knowing the game situation and thinking about all possibilities before the pitch. It wasn’t long after that the Mariners bailed on Montero as a catcher, and not long after that he was popped with a 50-game suspension for his involvement with Biogenesis – after he repeatedly lied about it.

Then, Montero showed up to camp overweight, and the Mariners front office expressed their disappointment with him, reasonably so. But since then, he’s gone back to Triple-A, where he’s really hitting. He’s a first baseman and DH now, and while the power is impressive, the walk rate is not. He still has a lot to prove in order to get back into the conversation, but the Mariners don’t have any long-term options at 1B/DH. At the very least, he still probably has a future as a platoon bat in this league, and maybe more. He’s still only 24 years old, and doesn’t turn 25 until after the season is over. His future is up to him.

Keefe: Really, Jesus Montero should have been a Mariner long before he was traded to them after the 2011 season. He should have been one in July 2010 when the Yankees and Mariners seemed to have a deal in place that would have sent Cliff Lee to the Yankees and would have given the Yankees their second consecutive World Series. Instead a breakdown in talks because of Eduardo Nunez, who was DFA’d by the Yankees this season, and an injury to David Adams, who has played 43 games in the majors led to the Mariners sending Lee to the Rangers for Justin Smoak.

Do you ever think about what could have been if the Yankees and Mariners had completed their deal and Smoak never became a Mariner and Lee ended up in the Bronx? (I’m only wondering because I do daily.)

Weber: I’m not so sure you can automatically assign a World Series victory with Cliff Lee on the squad — Lee got shelled and lost both his games in the 2010 World Series — but surely it’s a move lamented by the Yankees. I’ve never been much of a Justin Smoak believer after his first two seasons, but there’s no doubt he’s provided more value than Jesus Montero has at this point, even if his contributions and eternal tease have prevented the Mariners from moving on. I don’t think about it much because both sides would have ended up pretty bad for Seattle. What I do think about is how the Mariners managed to get Cliff Lee in the first place for a bag of peanuts, and how they promptly managed to lose 101 games with him and Felix Hernandez pitching together. It was a fun three months, though.

Keefe: In 2010, Felix Hernandez went 3-0 against the Yankees with this line: 26 IP, 16 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 8 BB, 31 K. He made one mistake in 26 innings against the Yankees and it led to a Nick Swisher home run. They were three of the most dominant starting pitching performances in a single season I have ever seen and to me Felix had become the best pitcher in the world, taking over the title from Roy Halladay.

It’s insane that Felix first came into the league in 2005 and is just turned 28 this month. Given his age, dominance and health, I felt like his seven-year, $175 million deal was a steal for the Mariners and a bargain for the franchise.

What has it been like watching Felix grow in the majors from the time he was 19 to now and what are your thoughts on his contract?

Weber: I feel a lot better about Felix’s contract than Cano’s simply because of his age. Felix has also shown that he can pitch without his velocity, which is more than I can say for some of the pitchers who signed mega-deals after Felix inked his. Felix doesn’t thrown that mid/high 90’s heat anymore, but he’s striking out more batters every single year. He just knows how to pitch, and he’s a joy to watch. I’m thrilled that he’s here, and even more thrilled that he loves Seattle as much as he loves us. It was unbelievably exhausting to hear Yankee fans constantly pepper Mariner fans with “can’t wait until Felix is a Yankee in X number of years.” Not to associate you or your readers with that kind of fan — every city has them — but in Seattle, we took extra pleasure in keeping him out of pinstripes. As we say on the site, Felix is ours and you can’t have him.

Keefe: After their 85-77 finish in 2009, it looked like the Mariners might finally be heading back to being the team they were at the beginning of the decade, but instead they finished last in the AL West in 2010, 2011 and 2012 and if it weren’t for the Astros joining the AL last year, they would have finished last again in 2013. While the Rangers have grown to be a contender in recent years, the A’s have rebounded after a few down seasons and the Angels have been in the mix, the Mariners are the one AL West team (we won’t count the Astros in this conversation) who have been unable to regain their relevance and make a legitimate push for the postseason. Normally I don’t care about the success or failure of teams not named the Yankees, but I feel like I need to see Felix pitch in a postseason game (unless the Yankees and Mariners meet in the postseason during his career).

What are your expectations for the Mariners this season and the direction of the team? When will they finally get back to where they were 11-plus years ago?

Weber: The future of the franchise rests squarely on the young players. While I’m not a fan of the path the front office took to get to this point, long and winding with a lot of needless mistakes along the way, the talent around the field is all there. Now it’s up to them to perform, avoid injury, and take steps forward as this franchise grows. The team the Mariners assembled this year is their best in years, and looked like a .500 team on paper before all the injuries to Hisashi Iwakuma, James Paxton, and Taijuan Walker. For three major pitching contributions, their losses have been devastating. There’s just so much variability here. The Mariners could win 85 games as easily as they could love 85, and I wouldn’t be surprised either way. This slow start hasn’t helped, but if they can keep things respectable until their rotation gets back into shape, they could make some noise — but again, it’s up to the kids. They will be a playoff team at some point, but I’m unconvinced it’ll ever happen with GM Jack Zduriencik at the helm.

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Blogs • Yankees

Apr 2, 2014

Opening Day Disaster

CC Sabathia let me down on Opening Day once again, but really I let myself down for thinking this Opening Day would be any different from the other Opening Days he has started for the Yankees.

The wait for Opening Day is forever. This year the wait was 183 days.

Given how depressing the 2013 season was and how the entire baseball season ended with the Red Sox winning their third championship in 10 seasons and that the 2014 Yankees would have so many new players to watch and that this will be Derek Jeter’s final season (and let’s not forget how miserable the weather in New York City has been), the hype and anticipation this offseason for Tuesday night in Houston was like to the months leading up to Y2K. But like New Year’s Day 14 years ago, when the day finally came, nothing happened and nothing changed. Opening Day 2014 might as well have been Game 163 of 2013.

The first 30 minutes of Yankee baseball in 2014 couldn’t have gone worse. Between Dexter Fowler’s leadoff double and CC Sabathia giving up four first-inning runs and another two in the second and Joe Girardi pulling the infield in in the first inning of an American League game on Opening Day with Scott Feldman as the opposing pitcher and Brian McCann’s errant throw and Mark Teixeira’s awful throw, you couldn’t have imagined a more confidence-crushing start to the season. The only comparison for the drop in my confidence level and feelings about the 2014 Yankees from 7:10 p.m. to about 7:40 p.m. is Mike McDermott’s blank stare and shock as his three stacks of high society are lost to Teddy KGB in the opening scene of Rounders.

In 2009, we had the letdown in Baltimore. In 2010, we had the blown lead in Boston. In 2012, we had the grand slam at the Trop. Last year, we had the Opening Day Debacle. This year, we have the Opening Day Disaster. The one constant between them all? CC Sabathia. After 16 consecutive scoreless innings to finish spring training, Sabathia put together his usual Opening Day performance to remind everyone once again not to put any stock into spring training. Sabathia threw 99 pitches and generated just nine swings-and-misses from a lineup that looked like it came out of Ken Griffey, Jr. Presents Major League Baseball for Super Nintendo. Here is the Houston Astros lineup from the 1994 video game:

W. Eisner
S. Ditko
J. Kirby
M. Caniff
W. Gaines
H. Kurtzman
J. Davis
D. Martin

And here is the Astros lineup from Opening Day 2014:

D. Fowler
R. Grossman
J. Altuve
J. Castro
J. Guzman
C. Carter
M. Dominguez
L.J. Hoes
J. Villar

That lineup scored six runs, hit two home runs and had four extra-base hits against an Opening Day starter, who made around $700,000 for his six innings of work. Here’s what that starter has now done in six Opening Day starts with the Yankees.

April 6, 2009 @ BAL: 4.1 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 5 BB, 0 K

April 4, 2010 @ BOS: 5.1 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 4 K

March 31, 2011 vs. DET: 6 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K

April 6, 2012 @ TB: 6 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 7 K

April 1, 2013 vs. BOS: 5 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 4 R, 4 BB, 5 K

April 1, 2014 @ HOU: 6 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 1 BB, 6 K

Sabathia has pitched well in one of the six starts (2011) and has been awful in the other five. But Tuesday should have come as no surprise as he has just one win and a 6.12 ERA in 11 Opening Day starts (five with Cleveland). So I shouldn’t be mad at Sabathia for his Game 1 egg, but rather at myself for believing that this Opening Day would be different from the other five he has started for the Yankees, especially now that he’s no longer a power pitcher.

But for as bad as Tuesday night was and it was really bad, there was some positive news from Opening Day. No, I’m not talking about Derek Jeter’s Jeterian single off Chad Qualls or Mark Teixeira showing signs of life at the plate or the work of Dellin Betances and Vidal Nuno. I’m talking about Eduardo Nunez being designated for assignment.

Nunez will always hold a special place in my baseball life (and it’s not a good kind of special place) because he (along with Brian Cashman) cost me Cliff Lee. Yes, the trade that never happened is more on Cashman for believing that Nunez projected as an everyday major league player, but I still blame Nunez for being the player he was, even if it wasn’t his fault the Yankees kept trying to make him work out and trying to make him work out around the infield and even the outfield. But if Cashman hadn’t been so high on Nunez and had been willing to let him go four years ago this June, the Yankees would have had Cliff Lee in 2010 and would have gone to the 2010 World Series. That’s a fact. The series was tied 1-1 before his Game 3 dominance, which led to A.J. Burnett’s Game 4 disaster before Sabathia won Game 5. If Lee wins Game 3 for the Yankees, the series is 2-1 in their favor and they need to win just two of the next four to advance to the World Series with Lee, Sabathia and Pettitte available to start three of those four games. The Yankees win the ALCS and go back to the World Series for the second straight year if Cashman gives up Nunez to the Mariners.

Nunez is no longer a member of the Yankees, but Sabathia is and will be through at least 2016 (and possibly 2017 depending on his vesting option). He needs to figure out how to pitch like his so-called best friend in Cliff Lee and his former teammate Andy Pettitte, like I said when I ranked him No. 1 on The 2014 Yankees’ Order of Importance. Maybe the Yankees’ rotation will end up being as deep and as reliable as I think and hope it can be and Sabathia won’t have to be the most important Yankee and then it won’t matter that there’s a chance the Yankees’ rotation was set backwards. The Yankees might not need CC Sabathia to be pre-2013 CC Sabathia if the other four starters can carry the load (that’s not a fat joke since Sabathia is now skinny), but they can’t afford to have him pitch like he did on Tuesday in Houston and become a Phil Hughes-like automatic loss every five days with average stuff and location.

It’s hard not to get upset about an Opening Day loss after waiting so long for baseball to return. It’s even harder to not get upset when your $23 million starting pitcher takes you out of the game in the first inning against a team that finished 51-111 last season. Thankfully, there are 161 more of these. None of them can be this bad.

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Blogs • Yankees

Mar 28, 2014

The 2014 Yankees’ Order of Importance

The one time I don’t write an Order of Importance for the Yankees before the season and they don’t make the playoffs. It’s time to change that.

In 2011, I wrote my first Order of Importance for the Yankees. In 2012, I wrote an updated version of the  Order of Importance. In 2013, I didn’t write an Order of Importance. What’s wrong with this picture? The Yankees won the AL East both times I wrote an Order of Importance and didn’t make the playoffs the other time. That’s right, I’m the reason for the Yankees missing out on the playoffs and not the devastating injuries to Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, Curtis Granderson, Alex Rodriguez, Kevin Youkilis, Travis Hafner, Francisco Cervelli, or the incompetence of CC Sabathia and Phil Hughes. I take full responsibility for the Yankees’ 85-77 finish and missing out on the playoffs for the second time since 1993. But don’t worry, the Order of Importance is back for 2014, so there’s no need for you to worry this year, the Yankees are going to win the division and go back to the playoffs. You’re welcome.

In 2012, I ranked the 15 most important Yankees. CC Sabathia was No. 1 and Freddy Garcia was No. 14. Yes, Garcia was important once upon a time and more important than 11 other Yankees. Back in 2011, I ranked the 14 most important Yankees. That year, I also had CC Sabathia at No. 1, but guess who was No. 2? Phil Hughes. (To my credit, Hughes was coming off an 18-win season in his first full season as a starter.) Things change as does the Order of Importance for the Yankees and it’s never changed as much as it has from 2013 to 2014 with so much turnover on the roster.

This time I have ranked the 14 most important Yankees once again from least important to most important based on the criteria of what it would mean to the team if they missed significant time or performed so badly in 2014 that it was like they were missing time.

Number 35, Michael Pineda, Number 35
After two years of an injured Pineda (thanks to all the beat writers who felt the necessity to document the velocity of every Michael Pineda fastball during 2012 spring training, which forced the then-23-year-old newcomer to try to prove his worth by overextending himself after getting a late start to his offseason regimen because of the trade), I thought Pineda might never pitch for the Yankees. But after two years of dreaming what a rotation with Pineda at the front of it would look like, my dream has nearly been realized with Pineda in the rotation, just at the back of the rotation. Signing McCann, Ellsbury and Beltran was nice and giving $155 million to an unproven pitcher was needed, but the most significant move of the Yankees’ offseason might end up being Pineda getting healthy. Because if 2014 Michael Pineda is anything like 2011 Michael Pineda, the Yankees have a No. 1-2-type starter pitching in their No. 5 spot.

Number 11, Brett Gardner, Number 11
Back in the 2012 Order, I wrote this about Gardner:

A lot of people thought Brett Gardner could be the Yankees’ Jacoby Ellsbury or better. And if I remember correctly, two years ago Peter Gammons admitted that Gardner had passed Ellsbury. Well I think that race is over now.

And I also wrote this about him in that same Order:

Gardner doesn’t need to be Ellsbury for the Yankees with this lineup. He doesn’t even need to a spark plug for the offense or play a significant role. He just needs to play great defense and find ways to get on base and use his speed to change the game. If he can develop to be an even base stealer, that will be enough of an offensive contribution.

The same still holds true for Gardner two years later.

Number 18, Hiroki Kuroda, Number 18
After eight shutout innings against the Angels on Aug. 12 last year, Kuroda was 11-7 with a 2.33 ERA. Kuroda finished the season 11-13 with a 3.31. How did he go winless over the last six-plus weeks of the season and raise his ERA by a full run? Here is the line for his last eight starts of 2013, in which he went 0-6: 46.2 IP, 62 H, 38 R, 34 ER, 14 BB, 40 K, 6.56 ERA, 1.628 WHIP.

Kuroda has come a long way from the “Coin Flip” nickname I gave him at the beginning of the 2012 season when you didn’t know which Kuroda you would get every five days and he looked like another NL pitcher who couldn’t cut it in the AL. His 27-24 record isn’t indicative of how good he has been for the Yankees in two seasons (his 3.31 ERA over two years is) as he was given Matt Harvey-esque run support last year.

Number 12, Alfonso Soriano, Number 12
I was devastated when Soriano was traded to the Rangers back in February 2004 even if the return was Alex Rodriguez, and if we could have seen into the future of the next nine-plus seasons with A-Rod and without Soriano, I’m sure he never would have been traded a decade ago.

Soriano was the MVP of the 2013 Yankees and kept them in the postseason race and kept them from being mathematically eliminated well before Game 158, which is when they finally were. Thanks to outfield depth, he’ll spend most of the season just swinging a bat, which is a good thing, and while it’s Derek Jeter’s Farewell Tour, it’s also likely Soriano’s too (at least as a Yankee). And I’m going to make sure I soak it all in for the man who made the build-up and anticipation for a potential leadoff home run so fun growing up.

Number 33, Kelly Johnson, Number 33
I trust the stability and health of the Yankees’ infield about as much as I trusted Phil Hughes to put away a hitter with two strikes on him. Jeter will be 40 in June and is coming off a season in which he played 17 games after undergoing ankle surgery. Teixeira will be 34 in April and is coming off a season in which he played 15 games and underwent wrist surgery. Roberts is coming off a season in which he played 77 games, after playing 115 games in the three previous seasons (2010-2012) after undergoing various injuries. Johnson is going to be the starting third baseman and is pretty much the only option as a backup first baseman if Teixeira goes down. And if you remember Teixeira’s preseason forwarding about injuries last year, don’t count it out. (Will someone start teaching Ichiro how to play first?) As of now, Johnson just has to play a solid third base and anything offensively will be viewed as a bonus, but there’s a very real chance he could be more important to the Yankees than he ever  should be or you would ever want him to be.

Number 36, Carlos Beltran, Number 36
Beltran should have been a Yankee nine years ago when he would have been 27 on Opening Day. This would have been the Yankees lineup on that Opening Day (which was really an Opening Night with Randy Johnson against David Wells and the Red Sox on Sunday Night Baseball):

1. Derek Jeter, SS
2. Alex Rodriguez, 3B (I hit A-Rod second in this lineup because Joe Torre had him hit second in the actual lineup in the game.)
3. Carlos Beltran, CF
4. Gary Sheffield, RF
5. Hideki Matsui, LF
6. Jorge Posada, C
7. Jason Giambi, 1B (Yes, Giambi hit seventh in the actual lineup, but that’s because he was pretty worthless at this point before he magically had a resurgence in the middle of the season.)
8. Bernie Williams, DH
9. Tony Womack, 2B (Ah, Tony Womack. Thankfully Robinson Cano became a Yankee one month later.)

Can we get a redo and sign Beltran instead of trading for Johnson and signing Carl Pavano and Jaret Wright? And if we can do a redo, can we go back to 2004 first and sign Vladimir Guerrero instead of Gary Sheffield?

Number 47, Ivan Nova, Number 47
I have gone through Ivan Nova’s game logs for each of his seasons more than any person should ever go through anyone’s game logs in search of an answer for why he is either an ace in the making or the next Phil Hughes in the making. I still don’t have an answer why a 27-year-old with 7.8 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9 over the last two years can fall into extended funks that have me longing for the Sidney Ponson-Darrell Rasner days. But I will keep searching.

Number 22, Jacoby Ellsbury, Number 22
I wasn’t a fan of the Jacoby Ellsbury signing because I’m not a Jacoby Ellsbury fan. I made that clear when I defended Robinson Cano’s decision to sign with the Mariners after he was mistreated by the Yankees. Ellsbury would be more important than seventh on this list (I actually had him at No. 2 before I really sorted things out), but because of the depth of the outfield and the Yankees’ ability to put Soriano or Ichiro in the field, he isn’t.

Number 2, Derek Jeter, Number 2
I’m still waiting for Derek Jeter’s “Just kidding” press conference. It’s coming. Just wait. We still have six months for him to hold it, so I will hold out hope like Helen Hunt waiting for Tom Hanks’ return in Castaway. But until then, the Yankees need 2012 Derek Jeter and not 2013 Derek Jeter or I’m going to need to find something else to do this spring and summer since Eduardo Nunez and Brendan Ryan aren’t going to cut it in an infield that’s like a ticking timebomb. Let’s make sure this farewell tour goes better than Number 42’s did.

Number 19, Masahiro Tanaka, Number 19
There’s a chance Tanaka could be in the Top 3 of the 2015 Order, but for now, considering no one knows how his stuff will translate to Major League Baseball, he will have to settle for being No. 5, which is still impressive since there’s a chance his signing and contract could be a disaster.

I thought it was strange that the Yankees would slot him in the fourth spot to start the season unless they wanted to alleviate some of the pressure he is going to face every single start this season. But Erik Boland of Newsday told me on the podcast that he thinks it has to do with splitting him up from Kuroda, who has a similar delivery, which could give the Yankees an edge. I’m buying the theory, but Tanaka is going to have to pitch more like a No. 1-2 than a No. 3-4 this year.

Number 30, David Robertson, Number 30
There are some shoes you just don’t want to fill and Mariano Rivera’s are the biggest. I’m not sure how anyone handles stepping in for the best closer in the history of baseball a season after the Yankees missed the playoffs for just the second time in 20 years and watched their rival win the World Series for the third time in 10 years. Robertson is going to blow a save at some point and he’s going to blow more than one. And each time he blows one, the back pages of the Daily News and Post (we are getting closer to when we won’t measure the importance of events on if they appear on the back pages of these two papers) and the WFAN phone lines will be sure to let Robertson know he isn’t Rivera and that there will never be a Rivera. So let’s get that out of the way now.

David Roberston is not Mariano Rivera. He will never be Mariano Rivera. There will never be another Mariano Rivera.

Now that we have gotten that out of the way, the only thing I can ask of Robertson other than to avoid blowing his first save opportunity of the season and to avoid becoming the Yankees’ version of Jose Valverde (in both histrionics and blown saves) is to have a short memory and provide stability to a role that will be scrutinized more than anyone is or can be prepared for.

Number 34, Brian McCann, Number 34
Last year, the Yankees’ Opening Day catcher was Francisco Cervelli. To put it into perspective just how bad it was for the New York Yankees to have Francisco Cervelli as their Opening Day catcher not because of injury or unfortunate circumstances, but because they willingly went into the season with him in this role, here is what I wrote about Cervelli on June 21, 2011:

When I think of Cervelli I think of the scene in The Mighty Ducks where Coach Gordon Bombay finds Fulton Reed in an alleyway ripping slap shots with empty soda cans into a trashcan. The following conversation transpires…

Bombay: Why don’t you play for us?

Reed: I can’t.

Bombay: What do you mean?

Reed: I mean, I can’t.

Bombay: You afraid?

Reed: No, I mean I can’t, you moron. I don’t know how to skate.

Bombay: Whoa! Is that all that’s stoppin’ ya?

So it got me thinking about a possible similar conversation that happened between Brian Cashman and Francisco Cervelli that led to Cervelli being a Yankee…

Cashman: Why don’t you play for us?

Cervelli: I can’t.

Cashman: What do you mean?

Cervelli: I mean I can’t.

Cashman: You afraid?

Cervelli: No, I mean I can’t, you moron. I can’t hit for power. I can’t hit for average. I’m not fast. I can’t field my position. I can’t make throws to second base. I can’t sacrifice bunt.

Cashman: Whoa! Is that all that’s stoppin’ ya?

I might be the biggest Brian McCann fan in the world and he hasn’t played in a single game for the Yankees yet. That’s how excited I am for the Brian McCann era and the state of catching for the Yankees. And McCann’s importance in the middle of the lineup and behind the plate is tied to the fact that the person who would replace him is … Francisco Cervelli.

Number 25, Mark Teixeira, Number 25
I know what you’re thinking: Is this real life? Yes, yes it is.

Teixeira isn’t worth the $22.5 million he is going to make this year and next year and the year after that. He isn’t going to be the .292/.383/.565 hitter he was in 2009 when he finished second in the AL MVP voting. He isn’t going to play in 156 or 158 games the way he did from 2009-2011. The Yankees don’t need Teixeira to be an AL MVP candidate as much as they need their rotation to work out, but they need him to stay healthy, they need him to play and they need him to produce power numbers as his transformation into 2003-2008 Jason Giambi becomes complete. Teixeira is going to have to hit the ball the other way, avoid popping up to short every other at-bat and maybe even lay down a few bunts and do things he hasn’t wanted or liked to do since he saw the “314 FT” writing on the wall down the right-field line five years ago. This isn’t because the Yankees don’t have any other trustworthy offensive options because they have plenty in Beltran, Soriano, Ellsbury and McCann. It’s because they don’t have anyone who can do what Teixeira can do when he’s healthy at first base. They don’t even have a backup first baseman. So yes, Mark Teixeira is way more important to the 2014 Yankees than anyone should want him to be.

Number 52, CC Sabathia, Number 52
He’s still No. 1 on the list and has been since he got here in 2009. The only way it will change is if Sabathia really hasn’t figured out how to pitch with less velocity like his former teammate Andy Pettitte and his so-called best friend Cliff Lee (who he couldn’t convince to come here after the 2010 seas0n). If Sabathia tries to pitch with a power-pitcher mentality and tries to pitch the way he did pre-2013 then he won’t be No. 1 on this list a year from now. If he isn’t No. 1 on this list a year from now then the 2014 season will end the same way the 2013 season did.

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