Nathan Eovaldi – Page 2 – Keefe To The City

Jul 27, 2015

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blogs • Yankees

Jul 13, 2015

Yankees-Red Sox Weekend Diary

The Yankees went to Boston for the weekend with a chance to end the Red Sox’ season and they called up their second baseman of the future along the way.

In August 2006, the Yankees ended the Red Sox’ season with five-game sweep at Fenway. This past weekend, the Yankees had a chance to end the Red Sox’ season in Boston once again.

The Yankees needed to win one game this weekend in Boston. Just one. Anything more would be a bonus and anything left a disaster, but one win would mean three more games off the schedule with the Red Sox only picking up one game in the standings and a missed opportunity to truly get back into the AL East race.

I decided to go to the diary format that I have used for so many Yankees-Red Sox series before. Just pretend like you’re reading this in one of those black-and-white Mead composition notebooks.

FRIDAY
A few weeks ago, a rumor surfaced that the Yankees were interested in Clay Buchholz, who I wanted no part of, even if he might be a better rotation option than CC Sabathia. (The Yankees already have two better options than CC Sabathia: one (Adam Warren) they put in the bullpen and the other (Luis Severino) is wasting bullets in the minors). I didn’t care that the Red Sox’ version of Phil Hughes had pitched to a 1.99 ERA over his last 10 starts entering Friday because I know the real Clay Buchholz and I have seen his inconsistencies since 2007 and I have seen his fragile makeup. And that fragile makeup forced him to leave the game in the fourth inning and now he’s on the DL with a strained flexor muscle, which pretty much ends any trade rumors surrounding him. During the game, I thought Buchholz decided to pull himself after giving up a double to the left-center gap to Didi Gregorius and then nearly a three-run home run to Stephen Drew, but maybe this strained flexor muscle is real.

A-Rod has always owned Buchholz, but then again, the Yankees have always owned Buchholz. Before Friday, Buchholz had a 3.85 career ERA with 50 losses. He had a 6.38 career ERA against the Yankees and they were responsible for 16 percent (eight) of those 50 losses. So it made sense when A-Rod hit a solo bomb over the Green Monster on a 2-1 pitch in the first inning to set the tone for the game and the weekend.

When Buchholz left the game, Robbie Ross Jr. nearly got out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth before All-Star Brock Holt bobbled a routine grounder that was followed by an infield single and a walk with three more runs in. (With the last-place Red Sox trailing 4-0 in the fourth inning of a must-win game and must-sweep series, a “Yankees suck” chant broke out at Fenway.) And with Michael Pineda on the mound and Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller waiting in the bullpen, that was the game.

Pineda had a start skipped at the beginning of June and he returned to get rocked by Baltimore (4.1 IP, 9 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 1 HR). With four days rest, he beat Miami in his start (6.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, 1 HR), but then got rocked by Philadelphia on four days rest in his next start (3.1 IP, 11 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 1 HR). Since then he has had five days rest for his three starts against Houston, Tampa Bay and Boston and this is his line: 21.2 IP, 19 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 24 K, 1 HR, 1.25 ERA, 0.938 WHIP.

Pineda will pitch on Saturday against Seattle, giving him seven days rest, and with the Yankees having an off day on the Monday after the All-Star break, his next start after that will likely be that Friday in Minnesota on five days rest. There’s definitely reason to believe he’s going to be shaky against Seattle and dominate Minnesota since he appears to need to stick to his routine and extended time off works against him. Let’s just hope Brian Cashman and Joe Girardi have come to the conclusion that they know absolutely nothing about starting pitching and innings limited and preventing injuries and let Pineda pitch as much as possible in the second half.

The most important thing on Friday was getting the one win needed over the weekend and then there was the news that Rob Refsndyer would be called up for Saturday.

SATURDAY
I have been calling for Rob Refsnyder to be in the majors since last season when he was dominating Triple-A and the Yankees were scoring one or two runs a night. But Brian Cashman kept telling everyone that his defense wasn’t ready, even as Gregorius, Drew and Chase Headley kept booting balls and throwing them away, while failing to his too. But after more than half of the season, I guess the Yankees realized that the Yankees of all teams shouldn’t be starting the hitter with the worst batting average in the majors and decided to finally join the rest of the baseball world, which has been implementing youth on their rosters throughout the season.

After the Yankees won on Friday and accomplished their mission of winning once in this series to keep the Red Sox at bay, I was pretty calm about Saturday’s game. I figured the Yankees would get shut down by Eduardo Rodriguez with him being a young left-hander they have never faced and that happened for the most part with the Yankees scoring just two runs against him in 6 1/3 innings.

I knew it was going to be hard to sweep the Red Sox again at Fenway and with the Yankees’ winning streak against them sitting at five straight after Friday’s win, I wasn’t surprised or upset with the 5-3 loss. All it did was put the standings back to where they were the day before with another game off the schedule and the Red Sox running in place.

It’s hard to know what to expect from Ivan Nova since he had made only four starts now since returning from Tommy John surgery and despite pitching to a 3.42 ERA in those four starts, the Yankees are just 1-3 in them. I do like that Nova holds himself and not his repaired arm accountable for the losses saying that you can’t blame losses on Tommy John surgery and not relate wins to it either. His strikeouts are down and right now with 4.6 K/9, he’s pitching to his lowest strikeout totals of his career, but if anything can be attributed to his recent return from surgery, I think it should be that and him getting the feel back for his pitches and being on a Major League mound. I still trust Nova more than 2015 CC Sabathia or any version of Nathan Eovaldi, and if we’re talking postseason rotations on July 13, then Nova gets the ball in Game 3.

SUNDAY
The Yankees led 2-0 early then trailed 3-2 thanks to an “Eovaldi” (which is the inevitable inning for every Nathan Eovaldi start in which he allows a crooked number), but they battled back to tie the game at 3 in the fifth and then took the lead for good with three runs in the sixth to officially end the Red Sox’ season.

Rob Refsnyder got his first hit in his sixth at-bat in the majors and followed up that seventh-inning single with a two-run home run in the ninth inning, which proved to be the difference after some sloppy defense in the bottom of the ninth and guaranteed his place in the lineup after the break. I’m not sure if Stephen Drew has realized yet that his starting job is long gone or if he’s still going to go on and on about being unlucky for two years now, but I’m sure Gregorio Petit realized his roster spot is gone for good after the hit and home run and a copy of the Amtrak and Bolt Bus schedule being left in his locker after the game.

The win gave the Yankees their third straight series win and gave them the 6-3 record they needed in the “Necessary Nine” to end the first half. Here are the AL East standings after the first half.

Let’s say the Yankees play .500 baseball over their final 74 games and go 37-37. They would finish the season at 85-77. Here is what the rest of the division would have to do if that happened:

Tampa Bay: 39-32 (.549, +.044)
Baltimore: 41-33 (.554, +.054)
Toronto: 40-31 (.563, +.068)
Boston: 43-30 (.589, +.117)

So not only would the Yankees have to play awful .500 baseball and 45 points below their season winning percentage, but every other team would have to play well above their first-half performances as well.

It’s absolutely incredible that the Yankees are in first place and have a four-game lead in the loss column after 88 games despite having the worst hitter (Stephen Drew) in the league playing every day, letting a young shortstop (Didi Gregorius) get his feet wet and waiting for him to turn it around in the Bronx both offensively and defensively, letting two horrible starts (CC Sabathia and Nathan Eovaldi) make up 40 percent of the rotation, putting their most consistent starter (Adam Warren) in the bullpen with no set role, watching yet another bad contract (Chase Headley) develop, dealing with a $45 million outfielder (Carlos Beltran) who aged 15 years in one offseason between 2013 and 2014 and missing arguably their three best players (Masahiro Tanaka, Jacoby Ellsbury and Andrew Miller) at the same time for most of the first half. If A-Rod and Mark Teixeira didn’t turn back the clock and if Brian McCann didn’t start to earn his contract and if Brett Gardner didn’t suddenly find consistency for the first time in his career, this Yankees team would be on the same path as the last two.

About as much as can you ask to go your way in a Major League Baseball season has gone the Yankees’ way. It just needs to continue for 74 more games.

Blogs • Email Exchanges • Yankees

Jul 10, 2015

Yankees Can Once Again End Red Sox’ Season

The Yankees put an end to the Red Sox’ recent resurgence and end their comeback bid with a win or two at Fenway Park this weekend.

In August 2006, the Yankees swept the Red Sox in a five-game series in Boston and ended the Red Sox’ season. It was a glorious four days with wins of 12-4 and 14-11 in a doubleheader on Friday, 13-5 on Saturday, 8-5 in 10 innings on Sunday and 2-1 on Monday. This weekend, the Yankees can end the Red Sox’ season once again and all they really have to do is win once at Fenway Park.

With the Yankees and Red Sox meeting for the third time this season, I emailed Mike Hurley of CBS Boston because that’s what I do when the Yankees and Red Sox play.

Keefe: It’s feel like forever since the Yankees and Red Sox played and therefore it feels like forever since I was up in Boston taking in the first Yankees sweep at Fenway Park since 2006.

Unfortunately, I missed the 2006 Boston Massacre as I had to sell my tickets to one of the doubleheader games being made up from Johnny Damon’s Fenway return that May, and I never got over missing out on being there for the five-game sweep and the end of the Red Sox’ 2006 season. This weekend I will be on the West Coast for this series and once again will miss out on the opportunity for the Yankees to end the Red Sox’ season, much like that August 2006 series.

But we have so much more to talk about before we get to what could be the end for the Red Sox. Let’s start with how we got to this point. And by “this point”, I mean, how we got to the All-Star break with the preseason AL East favorite Red Sox turning back the clock to 2012 and 2014 with another last-place worthy performance.

Hurley: It should be noted that you never – ever – do one of these things when things are going well for Boston sports. Red Sox and Bobby V are going down in flames? Podcast! Patriots lose in the playoffs? Podcast! DeflateGate accusations? Email exchange!

So it’s not surprising to see you pop up in the inbox with the Red Sox in last place before the All-Star break.

Nice to see you.

How’d we get to this point? We know how we all got this point. The Red Sox pitching was atrocious for the first month of the season and has yet to really recover. The starting staff used to be worst in the majors in collective ERA; now they’re fourth-worst.

That’s over-simplifying things, of course, but the teams worse than the Red Sox in starting ERA – Milwaukee, Colorado, Philadelphia – all find themselves in last place as well. No starting pitching, no bueno.

Keefe: How dare you say I only contact you when things aren’t going well for Boston teams. That couldn’t be any less true.

As it stands right now, the Yankees are 46-39 and in first place and the Red Sox are 41-45 and in last place. Six games separate them in the all-important loss column, and well, since I know you love it so much, here we go:

The Yankees have 77 games left. If they go 39-38 in those games, they will finish 85-77. The Red Sox would have to go 44-32 just to tie them. I don’t think the Yankees are going to play .506 baseball the rest of the way and I’m pretty sure the Red Sox aren’t about to go on a .579 run.

What does all of this mean? It means the Yankees basically have to win just once this weekend to keep the Red Sox at bay. That will give them a five-game lead in the loss column for the “second half” with three more games off the schedule.

All of the pressure is on the Red Sox and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Hurley: Yeah. Optimism is running a little too high around here. The Red Sox have won 9 of 13 and 13 of 19. It’s a nice run. But it’s not going to keep up.

I choose to look at the entirety of the Red Sox season, as well as what the Red Sox have been the past four years. I know they won it all in 2013, thereby ruining your life and making you mad to this very day, but they put forth an epic choke in 2011, they crapped the bed with Bobby V. in 2012, and they were the most boring last-place team in sports history last year.

I know what they are. People can make reasonable statements about their chances, such as the games back, the number of games left in the schedule, blah blah blah. But just look at how many games this team has given away due to bad pitching, idiotic mistakes or a combination of both.

They are what they are, and I don’t think the past two weeks means they’re suddenly a new team.

But here’s my question: I follow you on Twitter. I read your columns. I would be hard-pressed to find an instance of you saying one positive thing about the Yankees this year. You drooled all over A-Rod a lot, but then you complain about Joe Giradi’s use of him. You seemingly hate the outfield, and the infield, and the starting rotation. What makes you so confident that the Yankees are a plus-.500 team from now until the end of the season.

Keefe: I only complain about bad baseball decisions, bad baseball players and bad baseball plays.

If Joe Girardi wants to give players a day off on a Wednesday after having a day off on Monday and having another one on Thursday, I will complain.

If the Yankees want to take their best first-half starter (Adam Warren) and put him in the bullpen as a right-handed specialist while they continue to give CC Sabathia starts and then have the Steinbrenners apologize to us at the end of the season for not giving us a championship and that’s their only goal, I will complain.

If Brian Cashman signs Stephen Drew to a one-year, $5 million deal and then continue to give him at-bats, despite hitting .181/.257/.374 and citing “bad luck” over a two-year span, I will complain.

If Brett Gardner, an All-Star this year, decides to try to steal third with no outs or one outs in a game to get into what I call “better scoring position” and then gets thrown out, I will complain.

I only complain about things that are worth complaining about. The one spot where maybe I am wrong is with Mark Teixeira, given the 2009 throwback season he is having, but I’m not someone who lets three good months erase three years of not playing because of ridiculous injuries and underachieving when playing.

The thing that gives me most confidence with the Yankees is that they are in first place right now after having Masahiro Tanaka out from April 23 to June, Jacoby Ellsbury out from May 19 to July 8 and Andrew Miller out from June 9 to July 8. Wednesday was the first time they had their supposed best starter (Tanaka), best all-around player (Ellsbury) and arguably best reliever (Miller) since April 23, yet they managed to not only stay afloat, but stay at the top of the division. If hundreds of at-bats for Didi Gregorius and Stephen Drew, first-base and left-field appearances from Garrett Jones, starts from CC Sabathia and relief appearances from Esmil Rogers and David Carpenter couldn’t derail the Yankees’ season without their star players for so long, I have to believe in this team.

On the other hand, I can’t believe you don’t believe in Rick Porcello (and his $82.5 million contract), Wade Miley, Joe Kelley, Justin Masterson and Clay Buchholz! Right now the only Red Sox pitcher that scares me is Eduardo Rodriguez and I’m expecting him to throw a complete-game, two-hit shutout this weekend.

Hurley: I wasn’t necessarily saying your complaining wasn’t without warrant, though most of the time it is. And then when the Yankees win you never say anything. You’re the worst.

Anyways, Eduardo Rodriguez absolutely saved the Red Sox season. They were spiraling out of control and no starter could get to even the fourth inning. The kid is awesome.

Buchholz has been pretty great too. He’s got a 1.99 ERA in his last 10 starts. But all it takes is a butterfly to land on his shoulder and he’ll spend the next two months on the DL. I don’t think anyone’s banking on him the rest of the way.

I could sit here and make a case for the Red Sox much like you did yours. They’re actually getting standard production out of every position now except first base, and probably right field. And I do think they’re a little bit better now than they were in May.

But even if I can see them playing better baseball, and even if I can see the Yankees slipping, I can’t see the other three AL East teams simultaneously falling apart to give the Red Sox an avenue to the postseason. That would just be so miraculous, it would be stupid to talk about it seriously.

Still, a sweep one way or the other this weekend, and things get really interesting. If either team takes two out of three (WHICH ALWAYS HAPPENS FOR CHRIST’S SAKE), I will be thoroughly bored.

Keefe: I do talk when the Yankees are winning and am very supportive of A-Rod, Betances, Miller, Gardner, Chris Young, Tanaka, Pineda and Chasen Shreve though that’s about it.

I think Friday is the most important game of the series for the Yankees with Pineda starting. Ivan Nova has only made three starts (two great, one bad) since coming back from Tommy John and with Rodriguez pitching, that game is not likely to go well. That leaves us with Sunday where Nathan “Hits” Eovaldi is sure to give up 10 hits in five innings and Wade Miley is likely to give up his share too. However, that Sunday night game will probably end up being the 2-1 game and the other two will be blowouts.

I just hope Pineda shuts down the Red Sox on Friday, Buchholz implodes early like he did on Sunday Night Baseball in the Bronx in April and the Yankees win that game, quiet Red Sox fans and make the Saturday and Sunday games much less important.

But I’m not stupid enough to think that is going to happen. No game and no lead has ever been safe Yankees at Fenway Park and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Yankees lost the first two games of the series. That would make Sunday a must-win and that would mean my weekend in Los Angeles/San Diego will be ruined.

Why can’t the Red Sox just go away and then all of the attention can be on Tom Brady and his suspension, which is how I’m sure you want it anyway.

Hurley: I was looking up Eovaldi earlier. An 8-2 record with a 4.55 ERA? That is ridiculous. He gets over seven runs of support each start. I think even Neil Keefe could win games with that kind of run support, and I’ve seen him pitch a Wiffle Ball, and he is absolute garbage.

A part of me wants the Red Sox to sweep, because that’ll make for an interesting July, August and September. But another part of me likes to watch the world burn. Please don’t tell that to anybody in Boston though.

Keefe: If you mean having a career Wiffle ball ERA of somewhere around 0.50 as “absolute garbage” then I guess that phrase fits the bill.

Well, I figure you already have all of Pittsburgh, part of Canada and Indianapolis hating you, so you should throw your hometown of Boston into the mix. There is too much optimism in Boston, or at least that’s the feeling I get, about the Red Sox considering that even with a sweep of the Yankees this weekend, they will enter the All-Star break under .500. I don’t care how crammed the AL East standings are, playing under .500 for this long shouldn’t give anyone optimism, so it’s refreshing to hear that you aren’t in that boat.

And since you’re not in that boat and you want to become the next generation’s Dan Shaughnessy, why not dust off that Yankees hat you made your day buy you when you were a kid and jump on board? There will always be a seat for Michael F. Hurley on the Yankees train.

Hurley: I guess I could refer to the time to when I was the Albert Pujols to your Brad Lidge as “garbage,” but then I would be discrediting my own greatness. So I won’t do that. I’ll say you were a pretty good Wiffle Ball pitcher. Until you met me. Yeah, I might have thrown my arm out that day and my arm strength has never been the same, but at the same time I destroyed your career for several years, so it was worth it.

I won’t be a Yankees fan, but I will say, when my men’s league team needed a new name, I pushed for the Yankees. I kind of liked the idea of showing up to fields around Massachusetts in full pinstripes, just having everyone who sees us be disgusted and full of rage. Turns out I was the only one on the team who liked this idea. Oh well.

Go Red Sox!

Blogs • Yankees

Jun 22, 2015

Alex Rodriguez and the 3,000th Hit Ball

If I had caught A-Rod’s 3,000th hit, I would have returned it. Why? Because what am I going to do with A-Rod’s 3,000th hit? Put it on my mantle as if it’s my 3,000th hit?

I was fortunate to be at Yankee Stadium on Aug. 4, 2007 for Alex Rodriguez’s 500th home run, at Yankees Stadium on Aug. 4, 2010 for his 600th home run, at Fenway Park on May 1, 2015 for his 660th home run and at Yankee Stadium on May 7, 2015 for his 661st home run. So when I decided to not go to the Stadium on Friday night with A-Rod’s next chance at reaching 3,000 career hits, I watched from home for history to be made.

A-Rod’s first-inning solo home run off Justin Verlander made him the 28th player in baseball history with 3,000 hits, doing it in the best way possible, the way Derek Jeter did nearly four years ago. But looking back on the moment, A-Rod would have been better off with a seeing-eye single between short and third or a broken-bat bloop over the the first baseman’s head or a swinging bunt down the the third-base line because hitting a home run where A-Rod hit it was the worst imaginable result.

If I had caught A-Rod’s 3,000th hit, I would have returned it. Why? Because what am I going to do with A-Rod’s 3,000th hit? Put it on my mantle as if it’s my 3,000th hit? Show off A-Rod’s ball like I achieved something by being lucky enough to have it land in my hands? I would return it to A-Rod, after shaking the legend’s hand and asking him to join my Central Park Softball League team upon retirement. But before that I would hand over a list of demands to the Yankees front office:

1. I want to take batting practice with the team at the next home game, shag fly balls and throw a bullpen session. I would take jersey number 86 (Sidney Crosby/Patrick Kane style) since all of the single-digit numbers are retired and Masahiro Tanaka wears 19.

2. I want Legends season tickets. Yes, I love and enjoy sitting in 203, but sitting between the bases for free every game would be more enjoyable.

3. I want a night of beer and baseball storytelling with Ken Singleton, David Cone and Paul O’Neill.

4. I want Stephen Drew designated for assignment. The Yankees have proved they aren’t going to go with my plan of moving Drew back to shortstop, playing either Jose Pirela or Rob Refsnyder at second and benching Didi Gregorius, so the only move is to DFA Drew.

5. I want to trade Nathan Eovaldi and Garrett Jones back to the Marlins for David Phelps and Martin Prado.

Those would be my demands, and once they are met, then I would gladly give A-Rod his ball. If he wants to throw some cash my way, or let me join his entourage (which would likely be just me), I wouldn’t say no. But unfortunately, for me, and more unfortunately for A-Rod and the Yankees, I didn’t catch A-Rod’s 3,000th hit.

Of all the people in the world, Zack Hample (known as “Foul Ball Guy”) would be everyone’s last pick to catch a meaningful home run. A 37-year-old baseball collector, who still brings his glove to games, has made a life out of catching and collecting everything from batting practice balls to foul balls to balls ticketed for a kid’s hands that he has stepped in front of and taken. So of course A-Rod’s 3,000th hit would be a home run and of course out of all the hands it could have landed in at Yankee Stadium, it landed in Hample’s, who was supposedly in the wrong seats, waiting there with his glove like a Little Leaguer taking in big league action, all while wearing a hat with the MLB logo on it.

Hample has said he has no plans to give the ball to A-Rod, because in his words, “It’s kind of like, well, I don’t like you and I have something you want and you can’t have it. I wanted you to not take steroids and be the greatest of all time and you disappointed me.”

Those are real-life words from Hample, who apparently has the mentality of so many nerd beat writers and reporters that feel lied to and disrespected because a baseball player and entertainer that they don’t know outside of asking him questions with a microphone in his face used performance-enhancing drugs. Hample, like those with Hall of Fame vote, feel as though A-Rod owed it to them (as if he owes them anything) to not make the choices in his baseball career he has made, which is an opinion so insane I can’t even wrap my head around it. How dare a baseball player who once signed a 10-year, $252 million contract and opted out of it to sign a 10-year, $275 million contract let everyone down. We should all expect more out of someone who made $197,530.86 per game for two years (2009 and 2010) to play baseball.

Now Hample is doing every TV and radio interview he can, thinking he is the celebrity in the situation and believing he is the one who achieved 3,000 hits with an opposite-field home run rather than a grown man wearing a glove at an MLB game, who happened to be in the right place (which was actually the wrong place for his ticket stub) at the right time. So the “baseball collector” who is holding A-Rod’s 3,000th hit hostage for either very strange (he’s 37 and collects baseballs), very odd (he thinks A-Rod should have not disappointed him personally) or very scummy (he wants a payday from the Yankees since collecting baseballs probably isn’t keeping the power on) reasons.

Maybe Hample will continue to use someone else’s personal achievement as his own crowning moment or maybe he will ultimately decide to return it to A-Rod and the Yankees once their price tag grows high enough for him. Either way, now on it’s third day, this charade has gone on for too long and Hample is the one everyone should be disappointed in.

Blogs • Email Exchanges • Yankees

Jun 9, 2015

Bryce Harper at His Hopeful Future Home in the Bronx

The Yankees haven’t lost in June with six straight wins and now it’s time for a two-game series with the Nationals and Bryce Harper’s first games at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees haven’t lost in June with six straight wins and back-to-back sweeps over the Mariners and Angels. After struggling through the second half of May, the Yankees are still on top of the AL East heading into a two-game series with the NL East’s first-place Nationals. That means Bryce Harper is going to play at Yankee Stadium for the first time.

With the Yankees and Nationals meeting in the Bronx for their second of two short two-game series, Patrick Reddington of Federal Baseball joined me to talk about Max Scherzer’s incredible start to the season, Bryce Harper becoming the early favorite to win NL MVP and the concern about Stephen Strasburg’s future.

Keefe: The Yankees will face Max Scherzer on Tuesday night because the Yankees never seem to be able to dodge their opponent’s ace in any series. Whether it’s Scherzer or David Price or Matt Harvey or Sonny Gray or Felix Hernandez, the Yankees never seem to get any back end of a rotation.

Scherzer enters the game with a 1.85 ERA, allowing more than two earned runs in a start just twice in 11 starts this seasons, but somehow has lost four of his 11 starts because of a lack of run support.

Has Max Scherzer exceeded your expectations?

Reddington: We all knew Max Scherzer was going to be good, but he seems to have adjusted to the Nationals league fairly well thus far. What I didn’t expect, having not watched him as often as I probably should have while he was in the AL, was just how fiery a competitor he is on the mound. Not in a way that shows up opposing teams, but just really an ultra-competitive streak and an ability to maintain his stuff throughout his starts, hitting 95, 96 and 97 even late in his outings after sitting 92, 93 and 94 throughout the game.

But he’s in a three-way tie for highest fWAR so far this season (+2.8), the 1.85 ERA is fifth lowest in the majors so far, and that’s after he gave up four earned runs last time out. He has a .201 BAA. More importantly, and less noticeably, he’s also working with and helping the other pitchers on the staff, with Gio Gonzalez, among others talking about how he’s picked things up from Scherzer already this season. So, yeah, I’d say he’s exceeded expectations, which is even more impressive considering how high they were when he signed that $210 million deal.

Keefe: Part of that run support problem has been because no one other than Bryce Harper is having a good offensive season except for maybe Yunel Escobar, but even he doesn’t provide the usual power and production from their base. Aside from Harper, no one on the Nationals has more than seven home runs and Danny Espinosa is second in slugging percentage at second base.

Are you worried about the Nationals’ offense and what it will mean for their postseason chances and winning the NL East?

Reddington: Anthony Rendon just returned to the lineup. Jayson Werth started the season on the DL and was hurt not too long after returning from offseason surgery and struggled to produce while he was available. Ryan Zimmerman has transitioned to first base well, but the bat isn’t playing thus far this season. I wouldn’t say Harper is the only one who’s gotten it done, though no one is coming close to his production thus far.

Escobar is collecting a lot of hits, but doesn’t hit for power. Denard Span missed time at the start, but has been solid offensively since returning. Ian Desmond is having a hard time getting into a rhythm at the plate. I dare say not too many people would have predicted Danny Espinosa’s success thus far, to the point where there are hints he may see some time in the outfield to keep his bat in the lineup now that the infield is mostly healthy.

Though the production Werth was providing wasn’t up to his usual standards, Michael Taylor, Tyler Moore and Clint Robinson have been able to approximate what Werth was giving them as a group, though that’s still a little disappointing.

It’s another one of those “just wait until the lineup is healthy and see” seasons, where it’s hard to judge them with all the injuries and different lineups. I wouldn’t say it has me worried about their chances in the division, though there are some signs that the same problems which plagued them in October (aside from the fact that the Giants’ pitching just matched up well against the Nationals’ hitting) are still there and could be a problem.

Keefe: The last time I talked with Federal Baseball, I joked about Bryce Harper becoming a Yankee someday. Well, I actually wasn’t really joking since I do hope and plan on Harper becoming a Yankee when he is finally a free agent.

Harper has continued to rake this season and become the early-season NL MVP favorite hitting .326/.464/.706 with 19 home runs and 46 RBIs. He showed his power against the Yankees in the first inning of their four-run comeback against Nathan Eovaldi back on May 19.

So once again, how fun is it to see Harper becoming the best hitter in the game in what is looking like an MVP season?

Reddington: I wouldn’t go fitting Harper for pinstripes just yet. Though he’s a Scott Boras client and there’s the history of his clients going to free agency, there’s just as much anecdotal evidence right now that Harper likes the idea of spending an entire career with one team.

Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo, who scouted, drafted, and oversaw his development from a very young age, has talked often about the “special relationship” the two of them have and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Mike Stanton-esque contract discussed at some point in the future provided Harper can stay healthy and continue to do what he’s been doing this season, because right now he looks every bit like the sort of once-in-a-generation-type talent he was hyped up to be when he was growing up.

Keefe: Stephen Strasburg was off to a rocky start the last time the Nationals played the Yankees three weeks ago, and that rocky start continued for his next three starts and now he’s on the 15-day disabled list with a neck issue.

Is this a you’re-not-pitching-well-so-we’re-putting-you-on-the-DL DL stint or is he really hurt? Are you worried about the future of Strasburg?

Reddington: It’s hard not to be worried about Stephen Strasburg. He’s 26, he’s already undergone Tommy John surgery, he’s struggled mightily this season and as far as the Nationals are saying, his mechanics are completely out of whack and he’s causing himself back issues with mechanics he altered because of an ankle injury he suffered this season. They’ve been very clear that they don’t see any signs of a problem in his shoulder or elbow, which is good news, but they’ve also been unable, two-plus months in to get him straightened out and back to what everyone, including Strasburg knows he’s capable of doing.

He’s frustrated, he was hurting the team with short outings before the DL stint and the issues have seeming moved around his back over the last few starts, so they really have to get him sorted out and make sure he’s 100 percent before they even consider bringing him back. I don’t think it’s a create-a-DL stint “injury”, but I do think it’s a good chance for him to get straightened out without having to try to do it against major league hitters in games that count, but he’s a huge part of this rotation and they need “Stephen Strasburg” back, not the pitcher they’ve had thus far this season.

Keefe: Three weeks ago, the Nationals were red hot, and you seemed to not be worried at all about their chances of winning the NL East. The Nationals are only a 1/2 game back of the Mets with one game in hand on them, but the Braves, despite being under .500 are only 3 1/2 games back in the division.

Every team has their question marks and with the Nationals’ offense struggling and their rotation not being what it was projected to be, are you still confident in the Nationals winning the East?

Reddington: I am confident that the Nationals’ talent will ultimately win out in the division, and that’s taking nothing away from the Mets, who are doing it without their franchise third baseman and the Braves, who completely reassembled to the roster around their young talent and are impressing me thus far this season with what they’ve been able to accomplish. That being said, which is a rhetorical device for wiping away that praise, I still think the Nationals are a better team than either of those two clubs.

After the Nationals dropped three of four to the Cubs this past weekend, Matt Williams said he wasn’t worried, noting that they struggled in April, turned it on in May and are back to struggling again. “Ebbs and flows” etc. But I don’t think it’s just manager speak. I think they have to get as healthy as possible and get Strasburg and Doug Fister back in the rotation before we can really judge just what the team is this season.

Tag: Nathan Eovaldi

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