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Tag: Michael Pineda

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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Podcasts • Yankees

Sep 4, 2015

Podcast: Bald Vinny

The face of the Bleacher Creatures joined me to talk about why it takes Mark Teixeira so long to heal, Didi Gregorius and Stephen Drew turning around their seasons and what a CC Sabathia return would mean.


This is it. The stretch run. When spring training begins, you hope your time is playing meaningful September games and the Yankees are once again. Except for the first time in three years their games will have even more meaning since they are headed for the postseason and now it’s just a matter of being the AL East winner or a wild-card winner.

Bald Vinny of the Right Field Bleacher Creatures and Bald Vinny’s House of Tees joined me to talk about why it takes Mark Teixeira so long to heal from every injury, Didi Gregorius and Stephen Drew turning around their seasons, what a CC Sabathia return would mean and who should start a potential one-game playoff for the Yankees.

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Podcasts • Yankees

Aug 20, 2015

Podcast: Bald Vinny

The face of the Bleacher Creatures joined me to talk about the emergence of Luis Severino and Greg Bird, how Stephen Drew and Brendan Ryan are still on the team and the Creatures’ relationship with Nick Swisher.

Twins at Yankees

The Yankees took care of business over the weekend in Toronto and returned to the Bronx with a chance to get fat against some weak competition on a 10-game homestand. After sweeping the Twins with three come-from-behind wins, the Yankees are taking care of business once again.

Bald Vinny of the Right Field Bleacher Creatures and Bald Vinny’s House of Tees joined me to talk about the good and bad against the Blue Jays, the emergence of Luis Severino and Greg Bird, how and why Stephen Drew and Brendan Ryan are still on the team, the Bleacher Creatures’ relationship status with Nick Swisher and celebrating Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte at the Stadium.

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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

Aug 14, 2015

Yankees-Blue Jays Begin Seven-Week Battle

Two weeks ago, the Yankees looked like they would cruise to the ALDS and now they’re fighting for their season and to stay out of the one-game playoff.

Toronto Blue Jays

Two weeks ago I thought the Yankees would cruise to the ALDS and possibly earn the 1-seed in the AL. Now I’m writing this wondering if I have enough alcohol for to get me through this weekend’s series against the Blue Jays.

With the Yankees and Blue Jays meeting for the second time in a week, Tom Dakers of Bluebird Banter joined me to talk about the Blue Jays’ recent run and bandwagon in Toronto, David Price’s domination with the Blue Jays and if Blue Jays fans would now consider the wild card a disappointment.

Keefe: Two weeks ago, the Yankees were set. They had an eight-game lead in the AL East and their team was healthy and getting hot at the right time, proving they didn’t necessarily need to make a deadline move. Then Michael Pineda got hurt. The entire offense stopped hitting and the starting pitching and bullpen faltered. The Blue Jays on the other hand made their moves and haven’t lost since and might never lose again.

Last week you told me Toronto was going wild for the Blue Jays and since then they have moved into first. How much better has the mood gotten?

Dakers: Yeah, we are getting bandwagon fans by the thousands. Games are selling out weeks in advance. The team has opened up seating that has been covered for years and are talking about selling standing room only tickets. National news broadcasts are talking about the team. Everyone is talking about the team. When I’m walking around wearing my Jays cap, people will stop to talk about the team.

Baseball, of course, is game number 2 (at best) in Canada. Hockey is the big sport. To get the attention of the casual fan, the Jays have to really do something. It’s nice that they have the public’s attention again. There is a new song about the Jays by a Canadian band, The Isotopes, has the line “Let’s party like it’s 1993”. I’m hoping we do that.

Keefe: The Yankees needed to win once last weekend. Instead they didn’t win at all and scored two runs in three games. The Blue Jays swept them in the Bronx and put me into a depression I might not ever get over if the Yankees continue to spiral out of control.

Were you surprised with last weekend?

Dakers: Yeah I was, I was hoping for a series win, a sweep was too much to hope. And I didn’t expect our pitching to be that good. Holding the Yankees to one run over three games (and a run that needed a long replay timeout, at that) was better than my best dreams. The pitching has been the concern all season. For the first half of the season it was far worse than we had figured. This month has made up for that.

And manager John Gibbons has finally enough good arms in the bullpen to use it the way he would like. Earlier in the year, the only pitching he trusted was Roberto Osuna, and Roberto was pitching a lot and would go more than an inning to get a save at times. Now he has setup men he trusts. And, if Osuna needs a day off, he has guys he’s willing to put out there to get a save.

The offense is something we expect, the pitching has been the surprise. If they can keep pitching like this, we should be seeing playoff baseball in Toronto.

Keefe: I hope the David Price the Yankees embarrassed in April and last August shows up on Friday.

Price looks like he has kicked it into a gear on his new team in a playoff race. Does he seem and look better than expected?

Dakers: The big surprise, for me, is how well he’s fit in and how he seems to be saying and doing all the right things. He’s clearly enjoying his time in Toronto. He had a little scooter to make the short trip to Rogers Center for games, and some of his teammates asked him about it and he ordered scooters for any teammate who expressed any interest.

On the mound? Yeah, two games 15 innings, six hits, one earned, 18 strikeouts, yeah even though we had high hopes, he’s cleared that bar easily. He sure isn’t hurting his free agency value. I’m hoping he enjoys being in Toronto enough that he considers sticking around.

Keefe: At some point the Jays’ top four hitters have to go cold? Right? RIGHT?

I don’t know why teams still pitch to them rather than attack the bottom of the order, but it keeps happening and I guess there’s no way around it.

The scary part is the starting pitching just has to be decent for the Jays to keep winning. Quality starts are guaranteed wins.

Maybe if I keep talking positivity about them, a reverse jinx will kick in?

Dakers: You know that Josh Donaldson hasn’t been intentionally walked yet this season? Of course with Jose Bautista hitting behind him, it’s a touch choice on who you would rather face. As a team, we’ve only been handed six intentional walks, which seems very low, considering all the power hitters.

The great part is there is a new hero every day. No one guy has to carry the team on his shoulders. Heck, Ryan Goins hit a three-run homer yesterday, to give us a 4-2 win. R.A. Dickey, who has a 1.80 ERA for August, talked about how great it feels to know that you just have to do your job, that you don’t have to be the star every time out.

The Jays have gotten more out of the bottom of the order than I expected. They have been good at, at very least, getting on base enough to get us back to the top of the order again quickly.

Keefe: Last week you said there was enough time to win the division and boom it happened. Now that the Jays are in first will you be upset if they don’t win the East and play on the wild-card game?

Dakers: No, I wouldn’t be upset. I think we have the right guy for a 1-game playoff, I think Price would be tough to beat in that game.

There are enough games left that the team will likely have a couple of hot and cold stretches, but I am feeling pretty good about our chances. All season long the Jays have been underperforming their Pythagorean Record, we hoped that there would be a correction at some point.

The nice and more unnoticed part of the deals made at the deadline is the improvement in defense that the Jays have made. Troy Tulowitzki is hugely better than Jose Reyes was at the shortstop position. He has fair more range and doesn’t seem to have Reyes’ ability to make an error at the worst possible moment. And, as much as Chris Colabello is hitting far better than we had any right to hope, he played defense roughly as well I would in left. Ben Revere is at least average in left and makes all the catches you’d expect and the occasional excellent one. Now I don’t shutter every time a ball goes towards left field. We’ll gone from an average defensive team, with a couple of black holes. Now I think we have a good defensive team.

I’m hoping, going forward, that the Jays won’t be an offense only team, that they can win some games with pitching and defense.

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