Jacob Lindgren Added to Triple-A Disabled List

Interesting. Jacob Lindgren has been placed on the AAA disabled list. James Pazos (who's been outstanding) has been promoted from AA to AAA.

— Lohud Yankees Blog (@LoHudYankees) June 16, 2015

And this would explain why he struggled in his last two or three appearances in the Bronx.

Game Thread: New York Yankees @ Miami Marlins 6/16

For the final time in Marlins Park the New York Yankees and the Miami Marlins will face off head-to-head tonight with Nathan Eovaldi facing off against David Phelps. The game will be played at 7:10 pm ET and can be seen on the YES Network and MLB TV.

The Yankees will be back at home in the Bronx tomorrow night to face off with Giancarlo Stanton and this same Miami Marlins team so to be there and catch one of his home run balls click the Yankees Tickets link at the top of the blog. You can have your tickets in hand by tomorrow night and still have your arm and your leg that you would have to sacrifice paying those other ticket sites. If you can’t make it live then that’s no problem just jump on Twitter and follow @GreedyStripes to interact with us during each and every game.

Mr. Eovaldi is back in Miami and is ready to take his next step in his growth as a starting pitcher with the Yankees. Will we see Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Eovaldi tonight? Stay tuned, Go Yankees!

Jacoby Ellsbury Not Ready To Begin Rehab

According to Joe Girardi, Jacoby Ellsbury is "not where he needs to be", and therefore will not stay in Florida in order to start his rehab. Although Girardi still believes Ellsbury will return before the All Star break.

It certainly stinks not to have Jacoby around, as he's a big assett to the offense and defense, but I'd rather the team be careful with him so he's 100% for the second half of the season. After all, the Yankees have won a few games without him, and are still well within the AL East title hunt.

USA Today’s MLB Weekly Power Rankings

It is Tuesday so like every Tuesday we bring you the weekly Major League Baseball Power Rankings courtesy of the USA Today. With the Toronto Blue Jays setting a franchise records for consecutive wins this week you have to expect them to move up while the Minnesota Twins hit a wall called June. How far would the Blue Jays rise and how far would the Twins fall?

We sort of gave it away in the first paragraph but the biggest rise this week was the Toronto Blue Jays who climbed up 12 spots all the way to the #6 position while the Minnesota Twins were the biggest fall when they fell five spots to the #10 position. The New York Yankees were in the #6 position last week and with that spot currently being occupied by the Blue Jays the Yankees had to slide back one spot to the #7 position. To fill out the rest of the American League East division the Tampa Bay Rays came in 10^th, the Baltimore Orioles came in at #17 and the Boston Red Sox finished with the #27 spot.

The Top Five teams in MLB according to the rankings in order are the St. Louis Cardinals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Kansas City Royals, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Houston Astros. The five worst teams in descending order are the Colorado Rockies, the Boston Red Sox, the Oakland Athletics, the Milwaukee Brewers and the Philadelphia Phillies.

Another week at the top of the American League East division and another week in the Top 10 of the USA Today Power Rankings which is probably not a coincidence. The Red Sox are in the cellar of the AL East and are consistency hovering around the #25 position on the rankings which, again, is probably not a coincidence. These rankings finally mean something and will mean something until the team’s rosters are shaken up, for better or worse, at this year’s July 31^st trading deadline.

Stay tuned. 

Looking Ahead to ARod3K

Alex Rodriguez is now just five hits away from the very impressive milestone of 3,000 hits. Like the guy or hate the guy because of his attitude and steroid admissions and suspensions but you cannot take away a milestone like this one. There have been tons of players in Major League Baseball history that have taken steroids and never gotten 1,000 hits let alone 3,000 to go with 666 home runs. But anyway before we get too far off topic with this and the argument of whether steroids helped or hurt Rodriguez in the long run, and they hurt him more than they helped him let’s be honest with the time away for the suspension and the multiple hip surgeries, I’m more interested in when and where the historic 3,000^th hit will take place.

Looking ahead to the schedule the Yankees have one more game in Miami tonight, a game that Alex is unlikely to get into, before returning home for two games with those same Marlins in the Bronx. After two nights off I expect Alex to be fresh, well rested and ready to go as he knocks in at least three hits knocking the total down to just two hits away.

After the Marlins series the team stays home for three games with the Detroit Tigers and three games against the Philadelphia Phillies. With eight straight games at home and just a handful of hits away from 3,000 Alex almost has to get the big hit at home inside Yankee Stadium. With HOPE Week and Old Timer’s Day going down at Yankee Stadium next week Alex will get the hit and intentionally take the spotlight away from an Old Timer or a very deserving charity or organization in true Alex fashion, I kid.

My prediction is that Alex gets the historic hit at Yankee Stadium on June, 20^th. Old Timer’s Day. Write it down because it’s going to happen. 

Royals Fans Are Making A Joke Out of MLB

"Are they serious?"

I'm not the first person to write about the problems with the All Star game voting this season, but in case you don't read anything except The Greedy Pinstripes (and why would you bother to?), the Kansas City Royals have players currently leading at every position but one.

And that wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for the fact that only one of those players from Kansas City may actually deserve it. Here, I'll show you the vote leaders...

Catcher - Salvador Perez 
Perez is the current leader in votes at this position by about 4 million, even though his wRC+ of 114 is well behind that of Stephen Vogt (153) and Russell Martin (147).

First Base - Eric Hosmer
Hosmer is leading his position by about 476,000 votes, even though his wRC+ of 132 is not even close to the leader in that category at 1B, Miguel Cabrera at 186.

Second Base - Omar Infante
This may be the most ludicrous thing you'll ever see in baseball. Omar's wRC+ currently stands at 35, while Stephen Drew... yeah, the guy Yankees fans all seem to hate... has a wRC+ of 63.

Third Base - Mike Moustakas
Moustakas has a lead of about 1.7 million, and he is the lone Royals player that may actually deserve to start the All Star game. He's hitting .320/.378/.564, and while Moustakas is behind Josh Donaldson in wRC+ (156 to 136), it's only because of Donaldson's home run total.

Shortstop - Alcides Escobar
Escobar is currently fourth in wRC+ among AL shortstops, behind Marcus Semien, Brad Miller, and Xander Bogaerts. And while none of those three players ahead of Alcides are lighting things up, their wRC+ is 25 to 30 points higher.

Outfield - Lorenzo Cain, Mike Trout, Alex Gordon
Cain is the leading vote getter among AL outfielders, about 700,000 ahead of Mike Trout. While the voting at second base may be the most insane thing happening with ASG voting this year, this isn't too far behind. That would be thanks to the fact that both Nelson Cruz and Mike Trout have a wRC+ of 169, followed by Josh Reddick at 156 and Jose Bautista at 151. Cain is actually 17th among AL outfielders in wRC+ at 110, while Gordon is 9th at 131 (yep, Royals fans couldn't even get the order of their own players right). Oh, and the 4th place vote-getter in the AL outfield is currently Alex Rios, a guy that's hit a pathetic .214/.247/.300 in only 19 games this season.

Designated Hitter - Kendrys Morales
Morales leads this position by about 550,000 votes, which isn't that bad seeing as how his wRC+ is 122. The problem with that, though, is that there are 29 hitters in the league doing better than that.

I would have said that the manager of the AL all star team should play all those Royals for a just one inning, before replacing them with players that are more deserving. But the manager of this year's AL squad is the Royals' manager Ned Yost, so that probably won't happen. In fact, Yost found no problem in the voting process, saying that if fans don't like it they should get out and vote more.

Then Eric Hosmer came out and said that it can't just be Royals' fans voting for players from KC. He said that that was due to the fact that three guys (at the time) had gotten 4 million votes, and they "can't be just coming from Kansas City."

First of all, Mr. Hosmer, as hard as it may be to accept, I'm sure there are a few Royals fans that live outside of Kansas City.

Secondly, fans can vote up to 45 times. So let's do the math... There are 467,000 people in Kansas City. Take 467,000 and multiply it by 45, and that equals 21,015,000. That means there are over 21 million possible votes coming from the Royals' home town alone. While I'm sure not all of the people living in that city are baseball fans, it's absolutely possible for every one of those 4 million votes he spoke of to come from Royals fans.

Look, if some fans want to treat the All Star Game like a joke that's fine. I don't like it, as I would hate to see the MLB All Star Game end up being as pointless as the NFL All Pro Game (edit: the fact that I got the name of the game wrong is a testament to how "great" it is). However, allowing a joke to affect the World Series makes the World Series look... well... like a joke. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred is worried so much about pace of play, but he should worry more about the integrity of the game, which is being hurt a lot worse by it's championship being made to look bad.

Game Preview: New York Yankees @ Miami Marlins 6/16

Last night we watched as Masahiro Tanaka took his at bats against the Miami Marlins and tonight we watch as Nathan Eovaldi faces off against his old team. Eovaldi and Garrett Jones were traded from Miami to New York this winter for Martin Prado and David Phelps so there will be some reunions on both sides tonight with Eovaldi taking the mound for the Yankees. Facing off with Eovaldi is Phelps for the Marlins. The game will be played at 7:10 pm ET and can be seen on the YES Network and MLB TV.

• Eovaldi faces off with his former team tonight for the first time in his career and he comes with a new pitch, the splitter. Eovaldi started throwing the split last September under then pitching coach Chuck Hernandez and has continued to work on it and a forkball under current pitching coach Larry Rothschild.

• Phelps faces off with his former team tonight for the first time in his career as he comes off easily his best performance of his career. Phelps threw eight shutout innings against the Colorado Rockies last time out in a victory for Miami improving his record to 3-3 with a 3.62 ERA in 11 starts.

The Yankees return home to play host to these same Miami Marlins tomorrow night in the Bronx with “Big Mike” Michael Pineda taking the mound for New York. I’ll just be happy when I don’t have to see our pitchers taking at bats anymore because it scares me, I’m not going to lie. Go Yankees!

Yankees Interested in Cueto & Leake?

It seems like the July 31^st trade rumor mill begins earlier and earlier every season with the addition of the second Wild Card in each league. Every team almost is on the bubble and hovering between the contender and pretender slot while some teams, like the New York Yankees, are stockpiling talent hoping for a deep October run. Then you have the teams like the Cincinnati Reds who are not fooling themselves into thinking they have a shot this season and are open for business and ready to sell off some high priced talent in order to start a rebuild, that’s where RHP’s Johnny Cueto and Mike Leake come into the picture.

The Yankees recently sent scout Jeff Datz to Wrigley Field over the weekend to watch the Reds starting pitching duo on the mound as Yankees GM Brian Cashman begins compiling his shopping list and checking it twice. Both players will be a free agent at the end of the season meaning both players would be true rentals and likely expensive to acquire in terms of prospects. Cueto is 29 years old and could be an ace on most teams with a $15 million price tag while Leake figures to settle in more as a third or fourth starter with a $9.78 million price tag associated with his services.

Leake is 3-4 with a 4.35 ERA in 13 games in the National League making me lean towards the fourth starter mold while Cueto has posted a 4-4 record with a 2.85 ERA in 12 starts. Leake in his career is 56-46 with a 3.95 ERA while Cueto boasts an 89-61 record with a 3.24 ERA in his career. The Yankees have a ton of starting pitching options but it would still be nice to get greedy and add at least one of these starters. While Cueto would be nice and the ideal choice the acquisition of Brandon McCarthy in 2014 leaves me hopeful for a similar resurgence from Leake in 2015.

The Reds have reportedly scouted the Yankees system and have specifically watched Ramon Flores, Mason Williams and Bryan Mitchell along with the obvious choices of Luis Severino and Aaron Judge leaving some wiggle room for a potential trade. It seems unlikely that New York would trade either Severino or Judge for a rental but you never know, it’s Cashman and he’s unpredictable. You have to think New York would hold onto Severino and Judge rather than trading them away for rentals, especially when those rentals cannot fetch draft compensation after this season by declining a qualifying offer. Whether New York acquires Cueto, Leake, Cole Hamels or any other starting pitcher at the trade deadline remains to be seen but I just hope, as a fan, that the deal at least makes sense for both sides and doesn’t gut the farm system that I have grown so attached to over the past few seasons.

TGP Daily Poll: Jacob Lindgren Back in 2015

Jacob Lindgren was unfortunately sent down to Triple-A last week after a bout with the home run ball but have no fear Yankees fans and Lindgren fans, #LingoLightning will be back with the big league club in 2015.

Vote in our prediction poll on Knoda.com

Weekly Check In: Aaron Judge

I know it’s early and you probably haven’t had your cup, or pot, of coffee yet but raise your hand if you’re tired of the defensive liability that Carlos Beltran has become in right field? I had to put my hand down to finish typing out this post but trust me I’m right there along with you. I’m real big on bringing the best 25 players with you in order to win games regardless of the backs of their baseball cards, their number of years in the league, their salaries etc. Now with that mindset we wouldn’t have Beltran batting fifth every night and we wouldn’t have him in right field anymore. It might be Heathcott when he returned or it could be Mason Williams, Ramon Flores or even Aaron Judge but it definitely would not be Beltran.

Judge would likely be the lowest man on that totem pole since he hasn’t played about Double-A but as a polished college bat you expect him to move through the system rather quickly. On many teams this batting line would at least be in Triple-A by now, and any time now I expect that call to come from the Yankees, or he may even be in the majors by now on other teams. So is the curse of being a Yankees prospect. With stats like these the team is not going to be able to justify keeping him down much longer, especially with Beltran letting easy pop flies and east fastballs get by him on the regular. 

Year	Lev	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
2015	AA	57	257	230	32	65	14	3	10	37	1	22	66	.283	.350	.500	.850

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

This Day in New York Yankees History 6/16: RIP Tony Gwynn

On this day in 2014 Major League Baseball lost a great soul when Tony Gwynn lost his battle with cancer and passed away at his home.

Also on this day in 2006 the Yankees played a regular season game in Washington D.C. for the first time in 35 years. The Yankees would beat the Nationals at RFK Stadium 7-5. The last time the Yankees played in the nation's capital was September 30, 1971 where the Yankees beat the Washington Senators 9-0. The fans were upset about losing the Senators for the second time since 1961 and refused to leave the field with their team ahead by two runs in the season finale.

Also on this day in 1997 the New York Mets would play, and beat, the New York Yankees for the first time ever in the regular season. The Mets would win 6-0 behind a Dave Milicki complete game shutout.

Also on this day in 1996 the legendary Mel Allen lost his battle with heart failure, he was 83 years old, Allen was in the Hall of Fame and best known for his play by play work with the New York Yankees. Allen was best known for his "How About That?" moniker.

Also on this day in 1962 Jerry Kindall of the Cleveland Indians hits a two run walk off home run to give his team a 10-9 victory. Yogi Berra was playing left field and probably had a bit of deja vu after seeing Bill Mazeroski's Game 7 home run in the 1960 World Series also go over his head for a big loss.

Finally on this day in 1953 the New York Yankees 18 game winning streak comes to an end at the hands of the St. Louis Browns. The Browns would snap their own 14 game losing streak in the battle in the Bronx that handed Whitey Ford his first loss in eight decisions.