Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Kuroda, Teixeira Help Yankees Avoid Toronto Sweep 5-3

Since May 28's rubber game in St. Louis, Yankees' Pitcher Hiroki Kuroda has failed to get a win.

The 39-year-old right-hander, an unfair 4-5 going into tonight, hasn't been terrible during the month-long drought, something ruined by a recurring lack of offensive support.

Fortunetaly, that annoying absence of justice ended in this evening's contest in Toronto, as Kuroda got a solid five runs from his bats in a much-needed, 5-3 victory, ending the Yanks' four-game losing streak.

As expected, the night didn't start particularly well for #18, who surrendered a home run to Jose Reyes on the first pitch he threw.  

Still, Kuroda did pitch overall nicely for the Bombers, cruising through 6.1 innings while giving up just 3 earned runs, evening up his record at 5-5 and lowering his ERA to 4.12.

No, those numbers aren't perfect, but thanks largely in part to a four-run top of the third they were good enough to get the W.

In that frame, the recently-activated Francisco Cervelli tied it up with a double, followed later by an RBI Single from Jacoby Ellsbury and a line-drive, two-run homer from Mark Teixeira, his team-leading 14th of the year.

After those four crossings of home, Blue Jays' Starter Drew Hutchison was destined to lose, with his final line eventually reading 6 innings with no further damage. 

In the top of the seventh, the aforementioned Teixeira drove home an insurance run with a bases-loaded sac fly, setting up a pretty stress-free seventh, eighth, and ninth frames, in which Shawn Kelley, Matt Thornton, and Adam Warren each recorded an out.

Following Warren in the bottom of the eighth was Closer David Robertson, who retired each of the five guys he faced for his 18th save of the season.

Interestingly, the late action was the first for Robertson since last Wednesday, when he also shutout the Jays in a game at Yankee Stadium.

Quick Hits: Brian Cashman Dig His Grave In 2014?


Did Brian Cashman dig his own grave with the signings this offseason? Remember, Cashman is a free agent after this season.

Let's look at WAR:

McCann, Ellsbury, and Beltran have a combined WAR of 0.9
Cano and Granderson have a combined WAR of 4.2

The Yankees trio have 19 home runs
Grandy and Cano have 14 home runs

Yankees: 194 games played
Former Yankees: 144 games played

McCann is being outhit, out-slugged, and flat out out-produced by his 23 year old backup. Ellsbury has been terrific, Beltran is a DH only and battling bone spurs in his elbow.

Cano hasn't had the power he once showed but still has a triple slash of .329/.389/.437 and has driven in 43 RBI's. Granderson has 10 home runs and 35 RBI's while hitting .234/.356/.409.

Game Thread: Yankees @ Blue Jays 6/25


Welcome to tonight's game day and open thread with the New York Yankees playing in the finale of the three game set played at Rogers Centre this week. The Yankees will send Hiroki Kuroda to the mound to face off with the Blue Jays Drew Hutchison. The game will be played at 7:07 pm ET and can be seen on the YES Network, MLB TV, and can be heard on the radio with WFAN.

Get your Yankees tickets for this game if your one of neighbors to the north or get your Yankees for Big Papi and the Red Sox as they come to the Bronx this weekend HERE on the blog. Follow us on Twitter by following @GreedyStripes or search for The Greedy Pinstripes on Facebook to interact with us on social media or drop us a line in the comments section of the site.

Enjoy the game Yankees family and enjoy the rest of your evening.

Padres Ask Permission To Talk w/ Billy Eppler

The San Diego Padres have fired their General Manager Josh Byrnes and are now targeting the Yankees Billy Eppler to replace him. Since Eppler is under contract with the Yankees the Padres had to ask for permission to chat with the Yankees assistant General Manager. Eppler is a San Diego native and will likely be seriously considered for the job.

Eppler has been with the Yankees since 2004 when he was the director of pro scouting. Eppler has also widely been considered to be the heir apparent to Brian Cashman when he decides to leave, whether it be 2015 or beyond, but may jump ship for a sure deal. Good luck to Eppler either way.

Yankees Sign Mark Payton & Chris Gittens

The New York Yankees have signed seventh round pick Mark Payton out of Texas and 12th rounder Chris Gittens out of Grayson County College. Payton signed for $45K which is $133.3K below slot, most of that money will go to Austin DeCarr. Gittens signed for $125K so because Gittens was technically above slot, all players signed after the 10th round are slotted at $100K, the Yankees will need to find an extra $25K laying around.

Payton is a small guy with no power and all speed and defense and is nothing more than an organizational prospect at this point in his career. Gittens is a big guy with great numbers but his conditioning is constantly being brought up as a concern. Both should be fun to watch this season and next.

The Many Faces Of Colby Rasmus..... Meme


I don't know why this cracks me up so much, maybe because it's so true. I posted this sometime last season but I had to bring it back for 2014. Colby Rasmus, coming to a team near you in 2015.


I wanted to post this one but I try and keep the site family friendly.... whoops.

6/25 Yankees Game Preview vs. Toronto Blue Jays


The Toronto Blue Jays will host the New York Yankees for the final time in this three game set in Rogers Centre before the Yankees head home to face off with the Boston Red Sox. The Yankees will send Hiroki Kuroda to the mound to face off with the Jays Drew Hutchison. The game will be played at 7:07 pm ET and can be seen on the YES Network, MLB TV, and can be heard on the radio with John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman on WFAN.

Kuroda took a no hitter into the sixth inning last time out before losing it, and his command, against the Baltimore Orioles. Kuroda gave up four hits and two runs in the inning and took a no decision on the Carlos Beltran walk off home run. Kuroda struck out six and walked just one last time out.

Hutchison struggled with his command and the New York Yankees offense made him work last time out. Hutchison was not helped by his defense last time out and threw a ton of pitches early before coming out in another loss to the Bronx Bombers in Yankee Stadium. Hutchison allowed four runs and six hits in five innings while throwing 99 pitches.

Get your Yankees tickets for this weekend's battle with the Boston Red Sox right here on the blog without the costly fees and shipping charges associated with other sites. No fee's, no shipping charges, and you don't have to use your costly printer ink (or your job's printer ink) to print your tickets, you get actual tickets with actual stubs to put in your Derek Jeter scrapbook.

Go Yankees!!

Yankees Sign Noteware, Alexander & Palmer


The New York Yankees have signed two more undrafted free agents, Mike Noteware and Tyler Palmer. The Yankees also signed catcher Kevin Alexander to a minor league deal according to the transactions page on Yankees.com

Noteware is a pitcher out of Lewis & Clark State College and stands at 6'1" and 185 lbs. Noteware suffered a shoulder injury that cost him much of his 2013 season but had a 2.16 ERA in 2014 while striking out 74 batters.

Palmer is an infielder that was drafted in the 4th round out of High School in the 2011 draft but shortly punched through a window and sliced up a lot of muscles and tendons in his arm. Originally he was told he would never play baseball again and had three surgeries on the hand before regaining some feeling. Palmer has stopped switch hitting and is not as slick as he once was with the glove but the Yankees got themselves a former Triple Crown winner from 2013 for next to nothing.

Kevin Alexander is a guy to keep an eye on. His MiLB page has nothing on it, no stats, nothing. He is a 23 year old catcher out of Dallas Baptist College and stands at 5'11" and 210 lbs.

Betances Considered Playing College Basketball Before Signing With Yankees

After watching him pitch as nicely as he has in 2014, you'd probably not think of Yankees' Reliever Dellin Betances as much of a basketball player.

The 26-year-old rookie, 4-0 with a 1.43 ERA in 44 innings so far this season, has easily been one of the most reliable men in the Yanks' bullpen, a pretty big statement when that group already contains guys like David Robertson and Shawn Kelley.

But yes, it is true that coming out of high school Betances considered a career in America's third most popular sport, even going as far as to say he "definitely" would've been able to play Division II.

"I felt like I could play at least college," Betances told the Newark Star Ledger's Brendan Kuty before the Yanks lost to the Blue Jays yesterday. "I mean, I would have definitely played D II. But D I would have been tough."

In last night's defeat, Betances tossed a pair of big scoreless innings, with the latter of them (the bottom of the eighth) featuring a bases loaded, one out jam.

Fortunately for the Bombers, the always-confident right-hander was able to escape that mess without allowing a run, again proving how smart his decision to play baseball was, as he's clearly pretty good at it.

My Review of “Closer” by Mariano Rivera


I finally got around to reading the book “Closer” by the Yankees great and recently retired Mariano Rivera and wow what a book. I know I am probably way behind on this but so is the life of a father, a husband, a 40+ hour a week worker, a blogger, and a professional writer. I do what I can when I can, you know? Anyway back to the book, I loved it. Mariano delivered the book the same way he wanted to deliver his pitched, quick, concise and to the point and it was well appreciated.

If you’re a Yankees fan you know about how Mariano blew the save in 2001 in the World Series, you know about getting the final out in the 1998, 1999,2000, and 2009 World Series. You know about the blown saves and the triumphs of Mariano so he didn’t spend too much time on those stories. Instead he spent time telling us things we didn’t know, like how he almost punched a drunk guy in a New York pizza parlor. Or how he almost died when his dad’s fishing boat had a faulty water pump and had to escape on a life boat. Or how the Yankees and Chico Heron originally scouted Mariano as a shortstop and thought he didn’t have enough of a bat and only got on the mound because the team needed a guy to take one on the chin and finish a game.

While I wish we heard more about coming up with Andy Pettitte, Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, and playing with the likes of Don Mattingly, Bernie Williams, etc. I understand why we didn’t hear about it. I would have loved to hear more about Ruben Rivera stealing Derek Jeter’s glove in the clubhouse or stuff like that but Mo wasn’t one to ruffle feathers and such. He wanted his books overall message to be about his relationship with the Lord and that’s what he delivered, whether it be with a baseball or the pen in his right hand.

It was a great book, one I will likely read again. I have brought it up to my son to read a chapter a night before bedtime but he is still stuck on his Plants vs. Zombies books so maybe later, but I cannot wait ti share this story with my son and it comes highly recommended from this guy, buy it now.


Eat This, Not That: The Yankees Edition



Eat this: 

Adonis Garcia, outfielder: .312/.349/.460 in 232 PA

Not that:

Alfonso Soriano, outfielder: .232/.256/.391 in 219 PA



Eat this:

Kyle Roller, first basemen: .286/.366/.476 15 home runs

Not that:

Kelly Johnson, first base backup: .222/.294/.389 4 home runs



Eat this:

Jose Pirela, second basemen: .319/.358/.447 and 24 years old 

Not that:

Brian Roberts, second basemen: .244/.326/.344 and 36 years old



Eat this:

Zelous Wheeler, third basemen: .317/.369/.482
.
Not that:

This whole Yankees offense not named Mark Teixeira, Jacoby Ellsbury, Brett Gardner, and Carlos Beltran.

Giveaway: "The Fight Of Their Lives" Book


As many of you may or may not know I am a member of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, or the IBWAA, and with that comes certain benefits and such. A fellow IBWAA member, John Rosengren, is an author and his latest book is called The Fight Of Their Lives.

For this giveaway all we need you to do is one of three things to enter. You can either put a comment on this post telling us about the fight of your life, tweeting us the same answer by tweeting and following @GreedyStripes, or emailing us the same answer by sending a line to thegreedypinstripes at gmail. Multiple answers and submissions will be allowed.

Instead of me trying to tell you about the book I'll let John tell you himself:
One Sunday afternoon in August 1965, on a day when baseball’s most storied rivals, the Giants and Dodgers, vied for the pennant, the national pastime reflected the tensions in society and nearly sullied two men forever. Juan Marichal, a Dominican anxious about his family’s safety during the civil war back home, and John Roseboro, a black man living in South Central L.A. shaken by the Watts riots a week earlier, attacked one another in a moment immortalized by an iconic photo:  Marichal’s bat poised to strike Roseboro’s head.
The violent moment–uncharacteristic of either man–linked the two forever and haunted both. The Fight of their Lives examines the incident in its context and aftermath, only in this story the two men eventually reconcile and become friends, making theirs an unforgettable tale of forgiveness and redemption.
The book also explores American culture and the racial prejudices against blacks and Latinos both men faced and surmounted. As two of the better ballplayers of their generation, they realized they had more to unite them than keep them apart.

Also here is what Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated had to say about it: 
“John Rosengren does a terrific job illuminating the people and times behind one of the ugliest incidents in baseball history. The friendship and forgiveness between Juan Marichal and John Roseboro is a powerful story well told.”
Also Andrew Dawson, Hall of Famer, had a few words to say about the book:
“This is a story about passion and pride. It’s a story about two men who came from very different backgrounds but shared a common bond. It is also a story about forgiveness with a theme that shows it’s never too late to make amends. John Rosengren extraordinarily depicts how two men long since retired taught the world a valuable lesson—that it is okay to forgive.”

This Day In New York Yankees History 6/25


On this day in 1934 Lou Gehrig, the Yankees first basemen, would complete one of his two career cycles in his career, the other coming in 1937. Also in the game John Broaca tied a major league record by striking out five consecutive times in the game but still gets the victory over the Chicago White Sox by the score of 11-2 in Yankee Stadium.


On this day in 1985 the Yankees bat boy Butch Wynegar is hit by a line drive foul ball. The line drive caused the Yankees to instate a new rule mandating that the team's bat boy must wear a helmet while on the field for all games.