Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Whelan clears waivers

The Yankees outrighted Kevin Whelan to Triple-A, MLB.com's Bryan Hoch tweets. Whelan posted a 2.75 ERA with 9.3 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9 in 52 1/3 innings at Triple-A in 2011. The 2005 fourth rounder owns a 3.23 ERA with 11.1 K/9 and 5.0 BB/9 in seven minor league seasons. He was designated for assignment last week.
Although 28 is kind of old for a minor leaguer, I'm happy to see him back. I just don't believe that he'll put up a K/BB ratio of 0.20 for his MLB career (that was what Kevin did in 1.2 innings for the Yanks last season), after having a ratio of 2.20 in the minors. Not to mention 11.1 strikeouts per 9 innings in the minors.

SI.com releases preseason Power Rankings

SI.com's Joe Lemire released it's preseason MLB Power Rankings, and the Yankees finished 2nd behind the Texas Rangers. Here is what Joe had to say about the Bombers...
The Yankees had the AL's best regular-season record in 2011 and then improved two of its rotation spots with rookie All-Star Pineda and veteran Kuroda, who is fresh off a 202-inning, 3.07-ERA season for the Dodgers. Both will now have to adjust to life in the AL East but should be good enough to turn an area where New York was good-but-not-great (starting pitching) into a strength. While Montero may be a star for his career, the Yankees can surely find replacement production for 2012 by adding a free agent or cycling its veteran stars through the DH spot.
The write-up shows pretty much exactly what I thought of the Montero/Pineda trade. The Yankees had offense to spare, but needed pitching. And the pitching they received was as good as one could hope... young, very high ceiling, and under team-control for 5 more years.

In case you were wondering, and are too damn lazy to click the link and read it yourself, here is what Lemire had to say about the top ranking Rangers...
The Rangers were one strike away from a World Series title (twice), so it's hard to say they had any real holes on their club, just a few areas for mild improvement. One was first base, but they didn't match the years and dollars to get Prince Fielder and will be fine starting Mitch Moreland against righty pitchers and either Michael Young or Mike Napoli at first against lefties. The other was the rotation, and they swapped out Wilson for Darvish -- a dominant ace in Japan -- and signed Nathan to allow Neftali Feliz to try to become the third Texas pitcher in as many years, after Wilson and Alexi Ogando, to successfully go from the bullpen to the rotation.
In my opinion, the Rangers have more questions than the Yankees. There's no assurance, at all, that Darvish can replace Wilson's effectiveness from 2011 (2.94 ERA in 223.1 innings). Who's to say that Nathan will be able to finish 56 games (32 saves) in 62.1 innings, with an ERA of 2.74. And if Joe thinks the combination of Moreland/Young/Napoli will be equal to what Fielder could do then he's kidding himself.

Look, it's not a big deal at all. I don't care where any of my teams are ranked preseason, whether it's preseason college football rankings or whatever. Just pointing out that the Yankees are currently in as good a position as any other team to make a great run in 2012.

Boredom + Wikipedia


I was bored last night and decided to look at the Wikipedia entry for Russell Martin, to try and get a better idea of who the guy was. With talk of the Yankees possibly signing him beyond this next season, I wanted to get to know more about the him. That's when I saw this...

In an effort to quit the use of chewing tobacco, Martin began wearing a custom-fitted mouthpiece during the 2009 World Baseball Classic and Spring Training.

So I decided to go through the current Yankees and see if any of them had anything interesting going on. Here's what I found...

Mark Teixeira - Teixeira enjoys Broadway theatre and identifies Les Misérables as his favorite production.

Robinson Cano - Due to his charity work, The Hackensack University Medical Center named a pediatric rehabilitation ward after him.

Derek Jeter - There is a wax figure of Jeter at the Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in New York. pretty sure I heard this before, but decided to include it anyway

Alex Rodriguez - Rodriguez owns a Mercedes-Benz dealership in League City, Texas.

Curtis Granderson - As a child, Granderson grew up a fan of the Atlanta Braves, choosing not to root for the hometown Chicago Cubs because he often rushed home from school to watch Saved by the Bell and was disappointed when a Cubs game was on instead.

Nick Swisher - As a strong safety he was recruited by several Division I-A colleges, including Notre Dame, but chose to pursue baseball.

CC Sabathia - Despite throwing with his left hand, Sabathia is right-handed.

Phil Hughes - As a child, Hughes was a Red Sox fan and had a poster of Nomar Garciaparra with the slogan "Reverse the Curse" on his bedroom wall. I knew there was something about him I didn't like.

Mariano Rivera - Rivera and his wife Clara have known each other since elementary school, and they were married on November 9, 1991.

Joba Chamberlain - When Joba (then Justin) was a little boy, his two-year-old cousin was unable to pronounce her brother (Joba's other cousin) Joshua's name correctly, pronouncing it as Joba instead. Harlan Chamberlain heard this and liked the nickname, so he began referring to Justin (instead of cousin Joshua) as Joba. Harlan said the name was "dynamic." Joba agreed, and eventually had his name legally changed. I had to read this a few times to understand what was going on, but once I did I thought it was cool.

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