Assorted News and Notes

Wanted to briefly go over some relevant news that’s developed in the last day or so. It’s amazing that even on off days there are so many nuggets of information that pop up and warrant some discussion.

---Touching on what I wrote yesterday, Darrell Rasner has been officially named the starter for Tuesday night’s game in Toronto, replacing disabled Dan Giese. Chris Britton will be in the bullpen tonight to take Giese’s place on the roster. Britton has become quite the punchline in the “Yankees Universe”. I honestly don’t know what to make of keeping a player in such limbo as Britton. I guess he must be glad that the team keeps calling his number to come up to the big leagues, but he is never given a real chance to pitch with the Yankees so I doubt he’s ever really that thrilled to show up in the clubhouse anymore. Oh well, I’m sure he’s crying a lot when he looks at his six-figure paycheck.

---Tyler Kepner wrote on the NY Times blog that the Yankees’ 1st round pick in this June’s draft, right-handed high school starter Gerrit Cole, has decided to forgo signing with the Yankees, instead choosing to go to college. The way it seemed to shake down: Cole is represented by the nefarious Scott Boras, with Cole also receiving influential counsel from his father. Boras’ demands apparently were for a major-league contract with a $9 million signing bonus. So that would mean that Cole would be added to the Yankees’ 40-man roster, even though he is a ripe 18 years old and years (3 or 4 in best case scenario) from cracking the majors. Furthermore, to put the rumored money demands into perspective, the Rays signed the draft’s #1 pick, shortstop Tim Beckham, to a minor-league deal with a bonus of $6.15 million. So, Boras has decided that Cole deserves to get the richest bonus of any player in the draft. It seems possible that the Yankees might be okay with the obscene money demands (since they are, after all, the Yankees) but would not be willing to give up a precious 40-man roster spot. The team gave last year’s #1 pick Andrew Brackman a big-league deal with a 40-man roster spot, but he is years older than Cole. Plus, giving one #1 pick a spot should not dictate a norm for years to come, especially since the Yankees have had to juggle their 40-man all year to keep from losing players.

A truly sticky situation is what the Cole process seems to be. Kepner’s post makes it seem as though the deal is totally dead because Cole and his father will turn down any offer and are fully set on Gerrit attending U.C.L.A. in the fall. In that scenario, though, he wouldn’t be eligible for the draft again till his junior year, which is an eternity for a young pitcher—his stock could completely disintegrate in that time, and he may never approach the type of interest/deal he could get this year from the Yankees. However, this is Scott Boras that is involved with these negotiations, and the deadline for draft picks to sign is tonight at midnight, so I don’t think this issue is completely dead. If anything changes, I will be sure to post an update.

---Sports talk radio in New York has seen a radical change announced yesterday: Mike and the Mad Dog, mainstays on WFAN for 18 years, will no longer be on the air. Chris Russo is leaving WFAN, apparently signing a big-money deal with Sirius Satellite Radio, leaving Mike Francessa solo on the airwaves at The Fan. I never enjoyed listening to or watching their show, but they were the biggest names in the country’s biggest market. Oodles of New York sports fans tuned in to their show every afternoon and listened to these two buffoons preach on the good and bad of every team in the city (except for hockey because, to them, it wasn’t a real sport). The writing had been on the wall for their split for quite a while, so this news comes as no surprise.

---Rehab notes: Hideki Matsui’s scheduled debut in the Single-A Tampa Yankees’ lineup was sidetracked by rain last night. He is scheduled to play tonight, so it will be interesting to see how he comes through that. Phil Hughes is still scheduled to start Sunday in Scranton, and should get up above 90 pitches for the first time in his rehab appearances. There is mucho speculation that it will be his last appearance in the minors, and I think that will be case as well—but if he struggles with control or labors in any way, I think the team takes it slow with him. The struggles early in the year of both Hughes and Kennedy, and the short leash on Kennedy when he returned last week, makes me believe that they would rather let those guys work it out at AAA then put them in the majors before they’re completely ready.

---Speaking of Ian Kennedy, Chad Jennings’ S/WB Yankees blog has his catcher and pitching coach saying he threw approximately 30 curveballs in his start (5 IP 6 H 1 ER) for Scranton last night. They told him to work on his secondary pitches, and Ian took the note and ran with it, also throwing many two-seam fastballs, a pitch that seemed non-existent in his starts in the big leagues. He was in a lot of 3-ball counts as a result of the experimentation, causing his start to only last 5 innings. But it seems like the focus is not on his numbers, but instead on his ability to refine his pitches and be more than just a four-seam fastball/change-up guy. The next start for him will seem to be a big test, as he says in the Jennings post that he will look to incorporate the entire arsenal into one start. The key will be throwing his curveball for a strike—when he showed that pitch in the majors, it was never in the strike zone so hitters didn’t have to respect it. If he builds up consistency with that pitch and can throw it in any count, he becomes less predictable and ultimately less hittable, even in the majors. Should be interesting to see how he looks once he gets recalled in September, after doing all this work to reinvent his approach ¾ of the way through the season.

I’ll be back later with a preview of this weekend’s 3-gamer against the Kansas City Royals.

Rock Bottom, Revisited: Sweep to Make You Weep

Amazing that I don't post for almost 3 months yet the same issues are at the forefront of the Yankees' universe. Situational hitting has been an absolute nightmare all season long. It is almost unfathomable that a collection of hitters with as impressive track records as the Yankees' hitters have can look so utterly incapable of picking up runs when they are ripe for that picking.

I tuned into yesterday's game in the 7th inning. John Lakcey appeared to be on the ropes as he'd yielded an RBI single to Johnny Damon, giving the Yankees a 2-run advantage and a serious threat for more. Damon and Melky were on 2nd and 3rd, respectively, following a head-scratching yet still acceptable sacrifice bunt from Derek Jeter (2 runners in scoring position with 1 out is better than a potential rally-killing double play, something Derek has become extremely familiar with this year).

My viewing seemingly brought extremely bad omens to what appeared to be a promising situation. Bobby Abreu, who has been one of the team's better hitters with RISP this year, sharply grounded to second. Melky, running on contact within the infield, was gunned down at home. That brought up the team's worst offender in potentially run-producing situations lately, the flailing reigning MVP A-Rod. A strikeout later, Lackey was out of the jam.

2 innings later, the Yankees bullpen allowed 10 runs, completely flushing a great performance from rotation addition Dan Giese.

That 7th inning offensive flop carried over this afternoon: 2 for 12 with RISP, 14 men left on base total. They were within a few big hits of winning all 3 games against the best team in baseball. That, considering that Ian "2008's Biggest Flop Award Recipient" Kennedy only lasted 2 innings in his start Friday, makes this weekend's sweep even more disappointing.

The team limps into Minnesota with extremely bleak postseason prospects. Tampa Bay has not slowed down and has a comfortable 8.5 game lead in the AL East. The only solace to take from this so-far disgustingly ugly road trip is that Boston has done nothing to separate themselves in the Wild Card race-a 4 game disadvantage, considering how bad the team currently looks, is in no way insurmountable. Especially since the teams still play each other 6 times before season's end.

Needless to say, though, a lot has to change in order to make this season anything more than a total wash that will ultimately be chalked up to too many injuries and too much inconsistency. A good place for something to change would be in Minnesota, a team that is still ahead of the Yankees record-wise and could ultimately be a team they have to contend with for the Wild Card. Back tomorrow with the pitching match-ups and a preview of the series.

Multiple Signs of Life, Even in Death

Three important little baby steps last night for pivotal Yankees in this 2008 season. We'll start with the only one that occurred outside of The Bronx.

Ian Kennedy's line in his first start at AAA Scranton: 7.1 IP 1 H 0 R 0 BB 8 K. A drastic turnaround from Ian's putrid performances in pinstripes thus far this year. The quality of the Charlotte Knights lineup he decimated may be less than what an American League opponent can offer, but he needed to see that he could still pitch to a high level somewhere. He wasn't going to get this type of sudden boost of confidence pitching in New York, where only slight improvement would have still left questions swirling about his status in the rotation. Now, though, he shifts the pressure onto Kei Igawa and Darrell Rasner this upcoming weekend. He gets to rest until Sunday, and gets to know that if either of those two falters in Motown, he could pitch his way back into the Bombers' rotation.

The likelihood of one or both of the newly-added starters faltering this weekend seems high, especially considering the track record of Kei Igawa. That allows Kennedy to put the pressure on himself to perform well in his next start on Sunday, knowing that it might get him a ticket back to New York for a start next week. I honestly trust Kennedy performing under the self-implied pressure of trying to pitch his way back to NY, more then I trust Igawa and Rasner both performing well under the real pressure of being in the Yankees rotation and facing a great lineup.

Even though the Yankees lost last night's game in crushing fashion, two big things to take away from it were key hits by Jason Giambi and Robinson Cano. The more shocking to me was seeing Giambi drive in runs with a hit to left field. Who knows if he'll be able to build off that, but seeing that he actually got a semi-important hit for once is enough success for one day. Cano has had little spurts of productivity during his slump (his home run Sunday, last night's hit), so the key for him seems to be just putting together a legit slump-busting hot streak.

For a night they no longer could be categorized as certified corpses in the middle of the Yankees' lineup. Neither could Andy Pettitte be faulted on this night, as he turned in an excellent performance, keeping the starting pitching momentum going into tonight when Wang matches up with the surprisingly unhittable Cliff Lee. The lefty will probably mean Shelley Duncan and Morgan Ensberg both in the lineup, meaning more nearly-automatic outs at the bottom of the order.

There's no need to spend too much time deliberating over Joba Chamberlain's failure last night. He's due to have some games where he gets beat, and last night was one of them. It's a story because he rarely slips, but it won't snowball into a concern because he's got too good of an arm and too strong of a psyche to let it.

I'll be real interested to see how tonight's game goes, though, and if Cliff Lee can really keep his unreal season going.

Kennedy's Demotion

While the news of Ian Kennedy being shipped to Scranton is no big surprise, the handling of the situation seems strange to me. First, according to not only the AP story detailing Kennedy's demotion but also John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman, Darrell Rasner is getting guaranteed another start. Nevermind the fact that he's already in a 2-0 hole as I write this, but why guarantee Rasner job security?

The organization grew weary of Ian Kennedy's job security and job ineffectiveness, and so when the opportunity presented itself they shipped him out. Now, a vote of confidence for Darrell Rasner before he even throws a pitch in the big leagues this season?

It's all psychological warfare from Joe Girardi and Brian Cashman. By telling Rasner that he has another start guaranteed, he doesn't put as much pressure on himself in today's outing against Seattle. It also reeks of an attempt to light a fire under Ian Kennedy, as now Girardi's statements have been non-committal about whether Kennedy is just being shipped out to stay active until the team needs a 5th starter again.

Now there are whispers emerging about Kei Igawa coming up to fill that 5th starter slot on May 10th, what to me is a nightmare waiting to happen. Igawa hasn't even been that successful in the International League, pitching to a 2-3 record and giving up almost a hit per inning against lineups that, obviously, pale in comparison to what he'd face in the American League. In his last start on Apr. 28th, he gave up 7 hits in 5 innings and took the loss against the Buffalo Bisons, walking 2 and striking out 3. Pedestrian performances against AAA lineups don't warrant getting called up to try your luck as a member of the rotation.

Specifically, when you'd be beginning to test Igawa's luck on May 10th against the Detroit Tigers, just the type of lineup that would salivate at the prospect of facing an inept lefty.

The focus, then, shifts to how Kennedy and Igawa perform over the next week. Kennedy 's day would be this Tuesday, not sure if he'll actually be starting in Scranton on that day, but his performance will be a big determinant of the identity of that #5 starter in pinstripes. Igawa's on the mound this afternoon, so at some point I'll go over his performance for Scranton. All in all, it seems like the mystery of the Joe Girardi Era continues to build.

Home Grays

Very gray in New York today, fittingly synonymous with the aura that surrounds the team in the Bronx these days. Showers are possible all throughout the evening, so the nasty conditions that persisted throughout last night’s game might be repeated tonight. Rain might be a blessing, considering notorious Yankee-dominator Erik Bedard takes the hill for Seattle, his first start in the Bronx for his new West Coast club.

Looking at Bedard’s numbers against the Yankees for the past 2 seasons, and considering how badly the lineup has done against lefties and against everyone this year, there is little hope to hold on to for ending the current 3-game losing skid. Here’s his compiled performances against the Yankees for the ’06 and ’07 seasons:

5 GS 3-0 W/L 33 IP 20 H 9 BB 35 K 1.77 ERA 0.96 WHIP .179 Opp. AVG

Bedard has been dominant across the board, and the only solace one might take is that he’s battled injuries and his control thus far this year. He missed a few weeks with an inflamed hip, but upon his return he threw up a strong performance of 6.2 IP 2 H 0 ER 4 BB/4K against Oakland. The walks might be the one thing the Yankees floundering lineup can exploit.

On the other side, Chien-Ming Wang comes in completely cemented as the ace of the Yankees’ rotation. His 5-0 start has been impressive, and he’s only had 1 truly bad outing (against Boston in the Bronx). Otherwise, he’s been the model of consistency and, even occasionally, greatness. Runs most likely will be at a premium, especially since the recent history of Wang vs. Seattle is almost as impressive as Bedard vs. New York:

4 GS 4-0 W/L 29.1 IP 21 H 5 BB 11 K 1.87 ERA 0.89 WHIP .202 Opp. AVG

The recent history says runs will be at a premium for both sides. Most likely, anyone could have guessed that by just looking at the names of tonight’s starters. Regardless, I like to turn to the numbers at least once in a while, so as to not form my opinions on nominal value alone.

Turning back to last night, the Ian Kennedy situation looks as though he’ll be skipped his next turn in the rotation. If they’re going to do that, then he should go down to Scranton to at least stay on schedule and try and work through his problems (be they mechanical, or approach, or whatever). The interesting thing is if you send Kennedy down to start at Scranton and go with a 4-man rotation, he can be re-inserted should Darrell Rasner prove horribly ineffective this Sunday. Likewise, if Rasner is successful, then you can just bring Ian (or whoever pitches the best from Scranton’s rotation in the next week or so) back up when a 5th starter is needed again.

It keeps all parties covered: Kennedy continues to get his work in, Rasner gets his audition for the rotation, Kei Igawa can tell himself that he’s got a shot of getting called up even though every Yankee fan shudders at the mention of his name, and so on. My hope is that Kennedy doesn’t get outright demoted and told that he’s out of the rotation, considering that the team still needs him to be successful if they are going to cover for the loss of Hughes. You need one of the two rotation components of the youth movement to fight through their horrible struggles this year, and if Hughes isn’t going to resume the fight until the middle of the summer, then it would help if Kennedy kept throwing punches through the spring months.

But, then again, Joe Girardi seems convinced to not follow any consistent train of thought. He’d rather not lay out any plan, or make any clear statements regarding his team, his players, his rotation, his lineup, his diet, his anything…something that’s quickly annoying the members of the New York press corps. I think both major tabloids referred to him as “Belichik-like” in terms of secretiveness and sneakiness. Not exactly the kind of guy you want the media comparing you to, unless it means you’ve done nothing but win championships, something Girardi seems extremely far away from doing as it stands this year.

It’s amazing that he’s used 27 different lineups through the team’s first 30 games. Injuries have something to do with it, but so does a manager’s uncertainty in both himself and his players. I’d imagine tonight will be #28, and I highly doubt that this time around the results will suddenly be better.

Stupid Name, Stupid Writer

Apparently, Filip Bondy of the NY Daily News has unearthed some new evidence about two of the Yankees current starters who just happen to be two of their top prospects: The organization is worried about both of their out pitches.

I refer to this article in today's Daily News, where Filip unearths the fact that the Yankees are worried sick. No, not about the fact that they've been forced to rely on neophytes Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy and Joba Chamberlain so heavily in this year's pennant race. Their worries instead are with "Hughes' slow curve", and "Kennedy getting away with a lot of change-ups." And of course, in true b.s. NY tabloid nature, Mr. Bondy wants to see the Yankees maximizing Joba's usage, so when Joba goes in for Tommy John surgery in the middle of the 2008 season he can go back to one of his Bill Pulsipher/Jason Isringhausen/Paul Wilson stories from the 90's and just change the names around a bit to make it work and save him some stress near a deadline.

In all seriousness, though, just where the hell did this nugget of a scouting report emerge from? Did Brian Cashman, quoted here on page 2 of this story in the Post, near a Stadium elevator no less, gushingly referring to Mr. Wonder-Phil was "awesome", sour on his organization's best pitching prospect? Did Ian Kennedy, in his solid first start against the D-Rays, just get by with a mediocre big league change-up?

Pitching Guru Filip Bondy apparently thinks so. Of course, he saw no need to flip through a scouting report of either Ian Kennedy or Phil Hughes, or else he would have figured out this fun fact: Kennedy's change-up is his #1 out-pitch, and Phil...ditto with the hook, my friend. Fans shouldn't have too much trouble identifying that fact with Phil, since they've been able to watch a fair amount of him by now. But to suddenly claim that the pitch that propelled him through the minors worries the team that brought him up early in the year while he was still 20 years old in order to solidify the starting rotation, is now a problem? Idiotic.

Kennedy's case, at least Filip can use the excuse of unfamiliarity, since I doubt he spends any time reading anything about prospects or watching prospects or even using the word "prospect" in a coherent sentence. But, like I've already said, all you've got to do is a little research. According to this scouting report I found (via Pending Pinstripes), "His best secondary pitch is the changeup, a plus offering that he particularly outstanding command of."

So, of course, he got away with his best pitch in his first start in the majors. That's usually how it works, you know, logically, in the baseball world.

I'm not trying to attain lieutenant status in The Official Ian Kennedy Fan Club, I'm just looking for some due diligence from some sort of featured sports columnist at the Daily News. Kennedy has not been as highly touted as Joba and Phil because he doesn't project as a high-end, #1 or #2 starter as those fellows do due to their dominating pitches. Joba's dominating pitches are apparent to any idiot who watches baseball (i.e. Filip Bondy of the NY Daily News), thanks to the flashy radar gun numbers that get the Stadium oohing and aahing in his every appearance. Phil's dominating pitch apparently is Suspect #1 in the Yankees universe. And Ian Kennedy, forget about him actually having an effective pitch. He just got away with the soft stuff; he couldn't possibly be a right-handed control/soft-stuff pitcher, could he? Why would the Yankees have any of those kinds of guys when they could all be like Joba?

A maddening bit of scouting from Baseball America's next head writer, Filip Bondy. A stupid name for a stupid baseball writer.