Friday, April 19, 2013

What's Been The Biggest Surprise Of The Season?


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Game Thread NYY @ TOR 4/19


The return of Andy Pettitte happens tonight on YES at 7:00 pm. Feel free to use the comment section of this post to talk during the game with us or give us a follow on twitter, @GreedyStripes, and talk with us there. Here is the Yankees lineup for tonight


Brett Gardner CF
Robinson Cano 2B
Kevin Youkilis 3B
Travis Hafner DH
Vernon Wells LF
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Eduardo Nunez SS
Lyle Overbay 1B
Francisco Cervelli C
LHP Andy Pettitte

New York Yankees @ Toronto Blue Jays 4/19


The Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays start a weekend three game series tonight when the Yankees travel to Rogers Centre for the first time this season. The Yankees will send Any Pettitte to the mound for the first time after having two starts in a row pushed back due to back spasms. The Blue Jays will send Brandon Morrow to the mound to face off with the 40 year old left hander. The game will be televised at 7:05 pm ET on YES and MLBTV.

The Curse Of The Yankees Captains?

Kid Elberfeld served as the Yankees captain in 1906 and kept the title until the 1909 season was over with the Highlanders. Kid was nicknamed The Tabasco Kid because of his fiery temper and actions both verbally and physically on the field with the umpires. One time while in the minor leagues Kid threw a ball of mud into an umpires open mouth and later in the Major Leagues he assaulted an umpire physically and had to be removed by the police. This was not a stat that was kept up with back in the early 1900's but most historians say that Elberfeld was thrown out of more games than anyone else in his era. Elberfeld managed the Highlanders in 1908 and finished with the worst record in the league with a 27-71 record. 


Hal Chase was considered to be the first official Yankees/Highlanders captain when he was named the captain in 1910 and kept the title until 1912. Hal was considered to be the best defensive first baseman in all of baseball and even drew rave reviews from the likes of Babe Ruth and Walter Johnson during his playing career for his glove. Hal's legacy is extremely tainted though with rumors of him betting on baseball games and suspicion in throwing baseball games and purposely losing. This kind of stuff is why we will never see guys like Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson in the MLB Hall of Fame but somehow Hal not only got away with it but is still a member of the hall.


Frank Chance was only the Yankees captain for one season, the 1913 season, and it did not exactly go as planned. The Cubs released him and negotiated to get him on the Yankees after multiple surgeries to remove blood clots in his brain that were caused by being hit in the head by pitches in the 1912 season. The Yankees signed him to a three year deal in 1913 and never played more than 12 games in a single season for the Yankees. The Yankees spent much of the 1913 season in last place but a late season push, including a win in the next to the last game, had the Yankees finish 7th in that season. Not exactly as planned for Frank and the Yankees. 


Lou Gehrig was named the Yankees captain in 1935 and would remain the captain until he retired in the 1939 season due to a disease which is commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Lou retired at the young age of 36 so who would know how much more revered he would be had he been able to see the latter years of his 30's in baseball. The Iron Horse played in 2,130 consecutive games which was not surpassed until Cal Ripken Jr. passed it in 1995, a mere 56 years later. Gehrig finished with great stats in his career but was absolutely decimated by ALS. Lou would retire from baseball in the 1939 season at the age of 36 stating that he was "The Luckiest Man On The Face Of The Earth" and would die only two years later in 1941 at the age of 38. 


Thurman Munson was named the Yankees captain in 1976 and kept the title until 1979. The Yankees would lose the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds in 1976 but would win back to back World Series in 1977 and 1978 behind the bat of Reggie Jackson. The Yankees would not make an appearance in the 1979 World Series with the Pittsburgh Pirates beating the Baltimore Orioles but what else happened in 1979 would hurt the Yankees and Munson more. Munson owned his own plane and was taking flying lessons because he got so homesick and wanted to be able to go to Cleveland to his family whenever he wanted. Thurman was practicing taking off and crashed his plane on August 2, 1979 and died.


Don Mattingly was named the Yankees captain in 1991 and would keep the title until he retired after the 1995 season. The Yankees were generally a terrible team when Don Mattingly was on the team only making the playoffs once in his tenure in 1995. A strike shortened 1994 season would have probably seen the Yankees in the playoffs as well but we will never know but the greed of the MLB Players Association is a discussion for another day. Mattingly injured his back in 1987 though and was never the same after that season and would prematurely end his career after allegedly horse playing with teammate Bob Shirley.


Derek Jeter has five World Series rings,a Rookie of the Year award, 13 All Star Game appearances, a World Series MVP award, has gotten an MVP vote in 12 seasons and finished as high as 2nd place in 2006, has five each of Gold Gloves and Silver Slugger awards, and would have earned $261,159,364 in his baseball career before any kind of endorsements and such by the time his current contract is up after the 2014 season, assuming he uses his player option. On top of all of that Derek Jeter has a pretty impressive spread of women to boast about as well, seen HERE on the Yankees Wives & Girlfriends section of the site, so yeah who am I kidding? What curse?




Game 17 Lineup: Yankees @ Blue Jays

Brett Gardner CF
Robinson Cano 2B
Kevin Youkilis 3B
Travis Hafner DH
Vernon Wells LF
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Eduardo Nunez SS
Lyle Overbay 1B
Francisco Cervelli C

LHP Andy Pettitte

 

The History Of The Yankees Captains


There have been 14 players named the team captain in the Highlanders/Yankees history. Some Yankees/Highlanders players are listed as captains but the first to be officially recognized as the Yankees captain was Hal Chase in 1910. Three of the first four Yankees "captains" were not officially recognized as Yankees captains but I have included them as well with the 11 official captains in our history.

Let's take a look at the complete list now.

(P) Clark Griffith 
Spent 1891-1914 as a Yankees player
Spent 1903-1905 as a Yankees captain


(SS) Kid Elberfeld 
Spent 1898-1914 as a Yankees player
Spent 1906-1909 as a Yankees captain



(1B) Hal Chase #1
Spent 1905-1919 as a Yankees player
Spent 1910-1912 as a Yankees captain


(1B) Frank Chance 
Spent 1898-1914 as a Yankees player
Spent 1913 as a Yankees captain


(SS) Roger Peckinpaugh #2 
Spent 1910-1927 as a Yankees player
Spent 1914-1921 as a Yankees captain



(OF) Babe Ruth #3
Spent 1914-1935 as a Yankees player
Spent 1922 as a Yankees captain


(SS) Everett Scott #4
Spent 1914-1926 as a Yankees player
Spent 1922-1925 as a Yankees captain


(1B) Lou Gehrig #5
Spent 1923-1939 as a Yankees player
Spent 1935-1939 as a Yankees captain



(C) Thurman Munson #6
Spent 1969-1979 as a Yankees player
Spent 1976-1979 as a Yankees captain


(3B) Graig Nettles #7
Spent 1967-1988 as a Yankees player
Spent 1982-1984 as a Yankees captain


(2B) Willie Randolph #8
Spent 1975-1992 as a Yankees player
Spent 1986-1988 as a Yankees co-captain



(P) Ron Guidry #9
Spent 1975-1988 as a Yankees player
Spent 1986-1988 as a Yankees co-captain


(1B) Don Mattingly #10
Spent 1982-1995 as a Yankees player
Spent 1991-1995 as a Yankees captain


(SS) Derek Jeter #11
Spent 1995-Present as a Yankees player
Spent 2003- Present as a Yankees captain


Four Yankees captains have been elected into the Hall of Fame, and obviously it will be five when Derek Jeter retires, including Clark Griffith, Frank Chance, Babe Ruth, and Lou Gehrig. It is really amazing to think that players like Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Whitey Ford, Phil Rizzuto, or Catfsh Hunter to name a few have never been named a Yankees captain. It is also interesting to point out that Babe Ruth has only been a captain for a single season in 1922. George Steinbrenner kind of watered down the whole prestige behind being the Yankees captain when he handed the honor out six times in his tenure as Yankees owner but Derek Jeter is doing his best to make the best of the situation and bring the prestige back to the most honored spot in all of baseball, the captain of the New York Yankees.

Minor League Week In Review

SWB RailRiders images

The RailRiders ended up with four straight rainouts, but caught up a bit with a doubleheader on Sunday and finished up at 4-2 the last seven days. David Adams led the charge this week for Scranton, going 8-16 with a HR and an RBI. He raised his season batting average top .355 and his OPS to .976. With a lack of right handed bats and the news of Jeter being out until after the All Star break, there may be an opening for David to get some cuts in the majors. Corban Joseph got things rolling in the last few days, getting 8 hits in the last 26 AB's including a pair of doubles and a homer. He drove in three while walking once and striking out three times. Zoilo Almonte also had a strong showing, going 10-21 with three doubles and a home run. The standout part of his performance this week was his lone strikeout while taking six free passes. That's been his achilles heel, and if he can show some plate discipline while still hitting for power and not sacrificing hits he'll make a much better case for getting himself a job with the big club. Melky Mesa went just the opposite, taking only one walk while striking out six times.

On the pitching front, Nuno continued his excellent work on the mound tossing 6 scoreless. He allowed just four hits, walked one and struck out eight. Nuno would be number one on my AAA depth chart right now as Brett Marshall (4.1 IP, 6H, 5R, 4BB, 3K) has been getting knocked around a bit while returning Chien Ming Wang will make his AAA debut tonight, and it's yet to be seen how he will fare. Chris Bootcheck chipped in another solid stand-in performance throwing six scoreless of his own. Graham Stoneburner stepped in with a spot start and had his own scoreless outing of six innings, allowing just four hits while walking none and striking out a pair. Dellin Betances made two starts this week, opening with a pathetic outing that lasted just .2 IP, allowing six earned on four hits and two walks. His next outing wasn't much better, although he managed to last four innings while allowing five earned runs. This is Dellin's last chance to make something of himself before he becomes a FA, and so far it's more of the same. Here's to hoping that the change in his stride eventually pays off, because his time is running out. On the relief end Mark Montgomery continues to throw zeroes, going two innings, allowing a single hit, zero walks while striking out three. Codey Eppley and Craig Claiborne combined with 5.1 scoreless innings of their own while lefty Juan Cedeno tossed 2.1 innings of scoreless ball on three hits. He walked one and struck out a pair.

Trenton Thunder DownloadedFile

The Thunder offense had a heyday this week, finishing up at 4-3. Their record could have been a lot better if it were not for the pitching. JR Murphy continued to raise his line, going 10-21 with a pair of doubles and a three home run performance last night that should have been the nail in the coffin were it not for ten earned runs given up by Matt Tracy. Murphy got his average up to .375 and his OPS to 1.097 after his own personal derby. Rob Segedin chipped in a pair of bombs of his own, and together drove in 18 runs on the week. Tyler Austin may be coming around a bit, as he went 8-27 with a double and 7 RBI's. He also took 6 walks to go with 7 strikeouts. Ramon Flores pulled off nine hits of his own, including three doubles and a triple while driving in seven. He walked and struck out three times each. Slade Heathcott made his way back from a stiff neck, but is in limbo still, chipping in just a single hit in eleven AB's. His OPS stands at .573, a far cry from his fall league performance.

As mentioned earlier, Matt Tracy got lit up in his last performance, allowing ten runs over three innings. His previous start was far better, as he went 5 scoreless on three hits. He struck out four and walked four in that appearance. Nik Turley made some more steps to a solid performance tossing 4 innings of 2 run ball, allowing three free passes while striking out seven. He's gotten a bit better each time out, so here's to a quality start next time around. Francisco Rondon as a starter experiment continued as he had two outings combining for 9 innings of five run ball. Walks are a bit of an issue and the righties are eating him alive... in fact he's yet to allow an earned run to a left handed hitter yet. If anything this gives him plenty of innings to pitch and a move to the pen won't require any stretching out, so if/when they decide to ditch this idea he could step in and help the big club rather soon if needed. Tommy Kahnle came out of the pen to pitch three scoreless on two hits, allowing three walks and racing up six K's. Zach Nuding worked four innings resulting in 5 runs, two of them earned. Danny Burawa was Jeckyl and Hyde, tossing 2 scoreless and then getting tuned up for four runs in just a single inning. While there were a couple of highlights and things to look forward to, the pitching overall was the downfall this week. With all the runs scored they could have gone 7-0.

Tampa Yankees DownloadedFile-1

Tampa had it's share of offense this week as well. Gary Sanchez turned on the lights knocking three over the wall along with a double to go 8-23 on the week driving in ten runs and working his OPS up to 1.113. Mason Williams also went 8-23 including a pair of doubles and a triple. He got his batting average up to .289 on the season and his OPS to .860. Ben Gamel continues to spray the ball all over the field, going 9-28 with a pair of doubles and a pair of triples that he knocked in just last night. He's yet to go deep, but 9 of his 20 hits thus far have gone for extras. The long ball power could be just around the corner. Carmen Angelini... yes... that guy, is hitting .308 on the year. In fairness he's 24 so don't take this as being a late bloomer, just way too old for his level. Matt Snyder is in the dark so far, posting a .088/.139/.147/.286 line. Yikes. Angelo Gumbs was placed on the DL and replaced on the roster with Robert Refsnyder. I have an unconfirmed report that he's suffering from a strained tendon, and I wonder if it had any effect on his performance thus far, which has been pretty dismal.

Bryan Mitchell got straightened around his last time out, throwing 5 innings of 4 hit ball. He walked two but also only struck out two. With his kind of stuff you'd think we see more knockouts. Shane Greene made two starts; his first he gave up 5 runs over six innings, walking one and striking out four. In his second outing he went 6.1 IP and allowed a pair of runs, giving away zero free passes and struck out six. Corey Black made another start this past week, going 5 innings while allowing 4 earned. He walked a pair and struck out eight. The thing to watch with him is his velocity, as last year in his first go around in the pros he tended to lose his FB in the latter innings. He's a guy that can run it up to triple digits, but falls considerably as he tires. Manuel Barreda appeared in two games and pitched four innings of one hit ball. He walked a pair and struck out five.

Charleston RiverDogs robert-refsnyder

Robert Refsnyder led the Dogs this week to go 3-3 before getting promoted to the Tampa club. He parted with a .370/.452/.481/.933 slash line, and went 1-6 in his high-A debut. That was about it for the highlights of the greater known prospects. Greg Bird has been in a major funk as of late. He went 4-22 with zero XBH's this past week, although he did drive in three. Dante Bichette Jr. also drove in three but had one fewer hit. Cito culver, after starting out on a good note, had just three hits himself including a double. He's making K Law's limited look at him earlier this week appear pretty spot on. As noted earlier, Gumbs was sent to the DL with what is supposedly a strained tendon after posting an anemic .286 OPS. Pretty fugly all the way around, save for Refsnyder who is now in Tampa, and Peter O'Brien who went 6-18 with 5! doubles and a HR. He struck out five times, walked twice and has his OPS up to 1.041 on the year.

The pitching end was a bit brighter, led by Gabe Encinas who tossed 11 innings of one run ball. He allowed six hits, three walks and struck out eleven in the process. He's sporting a sub one ERA right now and is the unsung star of the show. Rafael DePaula took another trip to the mound and tossed six innings of 3 run ball. He had some yips his previous start and couldn't find the zone but bounced back a bit this time out, allowing just a single walk while striking out seven. For those of you interested, he's leading the SAL with a K/9 north of 18. Jose Campos made his third start after spending most of last year on the DL. He was limited to just three innings again, allowing one earned run while walking three and striking out five. His command and control should continue to come around as he works his way back and continues to build his arm strength. Looks like they're taking it easy on the younger guys; wondering if it's the Patterson effect in play. Ceasar Vargas chipped in 5.1 innings of two run ball, striking out four and allowing three free passes. Daniel Camarena continued to struggle, throwing three unfortunate innings of five run ball. He struck out two and walked two.

This Day In Yankees History 4/19


On this day in 1949 the Yankees revealed monuments in Monument Park for former Yankees stars Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Miller Huggins. The Yankees held ceremonies in center field on Opening Day in the 1949 season to honor these men.