Wednesday, September 2, 2015

The Next Line of September Call Up Reinforcements


The New York Yankees announced their first wave of September call ups and reinforcements for the big league club yesterday before their game with the Boston Red Sox. The Yankees brought up Robert Refsnyder, Jose Pirela, Dustin Ackley, Austin Romine, Caleb Cotham, Rico Noel, Jamez Pazos and Andrew Bailey and the team may not be done there. Taking a quick glance at the organization, the Yankees big league club needs and the 40 man roster we may be seeing a backup wave of reinforcements on the way to the Bronx real soon.

Nick Goody and Nick Rumbelow are coming up to the Major Leagues which should come as no surprise to anyone reading this. Both players were up last week and optioned meaning despite the fact that rosters have expanded across Major League Baseball they both still have to wait for the ten-day rule to expire. When those ten days are up expect both to be up in the Bronx and in the Yankees bullpen.

Chris Capuano was designated for assignment for a fourth time this season just last week and for a fourth time decided to go back to Scranton/Wilkes Barre with the RailRiders. Brian Cashman stated he wanted to see Capuano get on a bit of a starter’s schedule with the RailRiders before coming back up but if the Yankees need an arm, a spot starter or some length you would have to believe Capuano would don the pinstripes a fifth time in 2015.

Tyler Austin has, albeit very limited, experience playing first base in his minor league career which could be worth its weight in gold right now for the Yankees. With Mark Teixeira still battling his bone bruise in his shin and Greg Bird as the only true first base option the team may look to Austin as a right-handed option sometime in September. Austin hasn’t done much to warrant a call up to the Major Leagues, especially after being demoted back down to Double-A with the Trenton Thunder, but his first base experience, right-handed bat and 40 man roster spot may get him the call up anyway. This is all contingent on him actually clearing waivers after being designated for assignment and coming back but weirder things have happened. 


Slade Heathcott was finally a healthy player already on the 40 man roster until the Scranton/Wilkes Barre RailRiders announced that Heathcott was battling a quad injury. If he’s healthy before the end up September I expect him to be up but the Yankees may be cautious and shut him down for the season just to be sure. Heathcott may or may not come up, stay tuned.  

Game Thread: New York Yankees @ Boston Red Sox 9/2


The New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox have taken the field inside Fenway Park ready to finish off their three game set. The Yankees are off tomorrow before traveling home to the Bronx to play host to the Tampa Bay Rays who are chasing New York in the Wild Card and American League East Division standings while the Boston Red Sox go back to the mediocrity littered land they lay low in while waiting for the next series with the Yankees. New York will send Masahiro Tanaka to the mound this afternoon looking to fetch his third win against Boston this season while the Red Sox will counter with Henry Owens. The game will be played at 4:35 pm ET and can be seen on the YES Network, MLB Network and MLB TV.

You’re running out of chances to see the Yankees live inside Yankee Stadium this season so be sure to click the Yankees tickets link at the top of the blog to see the team live in the Bronx before 2015 is over. Also keep in mind that I don’t get off work till 5:00 and then I have to drive home so I will be late tonight on my twitter game but I will be there, rest assured Yankees family. Head over and give @GreedyStripes a follow and I’ll be with you all shortly.

Happy Tanaka Day everybody! Go Yankees!

The Story of How Chad Jennings of Lohud Made Me Shut Up

Anyone who is reading this knows me by now, I’m very opinionated and I’m not afraid to voice my opinion even if it goes against the grain. I admit that sometimes I get a little too out of hand or a little too worked up over certain things, one of those certain things being the fact that Robert Refsnyder has basically been kept down in Scranton all season long, which causes me to get discouraged. I got so disgusted and discouraged by the Refsnyder situation this season that I simply stopped beating the drum for Ref and I stopped really checking the stats of either him or Stephen Drew because I realized I was fighting a losing battle.

With September call ups now in full effect and Refsnyder in the Major Leagues once again I fired up the Greedy Pinstripes site ready to post something along the lines of “it’s about time Refsnyder was up” and “he should start against every lefty for the remainder of the season” until I checked out the amazing blog run by Chad Jennings and company over at the Yankees Lohud. Chad had me beat on the whole Refsnyder vs. Drew post but he took a very different side of things, a side that really made me eat my crow very, very quietly.

First and foremost Chad posted Drew’s stats since June seen below:

June: .230/.310/.514
July: .245/.315/.408
August: .236/.313/.417

I quickly dismissed those stats until he had a side-by-side comparison of Drew’s stats to Refsnyder’s stats since the MLB All-Star break:

Drew: .248/.315/.416 in New York
Refsndyer: .222/.292/.363 in AAA


Is it over-grooming? Is Refsnyder simply discouraged or did Drew maybe, sort of, kind of figure it out in New York after essentially a season and a half of mediocrity? All of the above? Maybe. 

Game Preview: New York Yankees @ Boston Red Sox 9/2


The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox are ready to finish off their three game set this afternoon in Fenway Park with New York desperately needing another victory in the series. With the Toronto Blue Jays playing as well as anybody right now and team’s like the Texas Rangers, Minnesota Twins and Tampa Bay Rays not going away any time soon every game is almost like a must win for all teams involved in the division races and the playoff chase. The Yankees will send Masahiro Tanaka to the mound this afternoon looking for that victory while the Red Sox will counter with Henry Owens. The game will be played at 4:35 pm ET and can be seen on the YES Network, MLB Network and MLB TV.

  • Tanaka showed obvious signs of rust in the first few innings last time out against the Atlanta Braves but seemingly righted the ship to a victory when all was said and done. Tanaka allowed three runs on five hits in seven innings of work setting the tone for the Yankees sweep. Tanaka is 2-2 against the Red Sox this season beating them on April 12th and August 4th already.


  • Owens has helped solidify the Red Sox rotation a bit as of late as the left-hander has only given up two earned runs in his last 13 innings of work. Owens made his Major League debut against the Yankees on August 4th limiting the Bronx Bombers to just three runs on five innings in an eventual loss to Masahiro Tanaka.



Tanaka’s out for Red Sox blood and the Yankees are out for blood as well offensively. The team continues to struggle with consistency on the offensive side of the ball so while a blowout victory would be a nice way to head into the off day tomorrow you have to be thinking somewhere in the back of your head what it will mean for the Yankees game on Friday. That’s baseball I guess, Go Yankees!

Dave Dombrowski “Open to Trading w/ Yankees”


Dave Dombrowski has won everywhere he has gone in Major League Baseball and has swindled away some major Yankees prospects and players along the way, especially as the GM of the Florida Marlins and the Detroit Tigers. Remember when the Yankees traded Mike Lowell to the Marlins or Phil Coke, Austin Jackson and Ian Kennedy in that three team deal that brought back Curtis Granderson? Those were Dombrowski and those are just two of many examples we could have given of the Yankees getting the short end of the straw dealing with Dombrowski. When Dombrowski signed on to be the President of baseball operations in Boston many of us let out a sigh of relief finally figuring that the Yankees GM Brian Cashman was safe until this week when Dombrowski told the media he was open to trading with the Yankees as a member of the front office for the Boston Red Sox.

Ending the Cold War type standoff between the Yankees and Red Sox would be significant, and no I don’t consider the Stephen Drew (sucks) for Kelly Johnson trade from 2014 significant, in the way New York does business. Giving New York’s GM Brian Cashman a new trading partner could open up a whole new realm of possibilities for New York, for better or worse, and could really make things interesting in the American League East.

Just for fun here is what I believe to be a complete list of every significant trade between these two clubs in their history in Major League Baseball:

 Source: Boston Red Sox

August 13, 1997: 
The New York Yankees traded a player to be named later and Tony Armas to the Boston Red Sox for Randy Brown (minors) and Mike Stanley. The New York Yankees sent Jim Mecir (September 29, 1997) to the Boston Red Sox to complete the trade.

March 28, 1986: 
The New York Yankees traded Don Baylor to the Boston Red Sox for Mike Easler.

March 22, 1972
The Boston Red Sox traded Sparky Lyle to the New York Yankees for a player to be named later and Danny Cater. The New York Yankees sent Mario Guerrero (June 30, 1972) to the Boston Red Sox to complete the trade.

August 3, 1967: 
The New York Yankees traded Elston Howard to the Boston Red Sox for a player to be named later and Pete Magrini. The Boston Red Sox sent Ron Klimkowski (August 8, 1967) to the New York Yankees to complete the trade.


December 26, 1919: 
The New York Yankees purchased Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox for $100,000.

Meet a Prospect: Rico Noel


Jabionski Rico Noel was born on January 11, 1989 in Ville Platte, Louisiana and is the latest Yankees farm hand to be called up as a member of September call ups. While Noel was born in Louisiana his family moved to Oklahoma when he was a junior in High School.  Many people don’t know the name Rico Noel so I thought it would be good to catch up with him and all you all to meet a prospect, Rico Noel.

Noel attended Lawton High School in Lawton, Oklahoma where he starred for the school’s baseball and football teams. It was there where Noel decided he would rather pursue baseball full-time over football and enrolled at Coastal Carolina University to play college baseball for the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. Noel began his amateur career as a second baseman before switching to center field in his sophomore year.

Noel did enough at Coastal Carolina to catch the attention of the San Diego Padres who came calling in the fifth round of the 2010 MLB First Year Players Draft along with a $163,000 signing bonus. Noel’s professional career started off well and the speedy outfielder even stolen 90 bases in 2012 while playing in High-A. Noel was also named a Minor League Baseball All Star for May of 2013 but his steep decline with San Diego began shortly after the nod. He began the 2015 season inside the Padres organization but asked for his release in hopes of making it to the Major Leagues.

The Padres released Noel in July and he almost immediately signed with the New York Yankees. Noel struggled mightily in Triple-A with the Scranton/Wilkes Barre RailRiders and struggled to the point where he was used as a pinch runner only for the club. That two to three weeks of pinch running has prepared him for his identical role with the Yankees big league club as a September call up.


Welcome to the club Rico, steal me some bases. 

Weekly Check In: James Kaprielian


James Kaprielian’s professional career did not start out the way anyone had planned as he struggled in his first few appearances of the season. Kaprielian, like most Scott Boras “advised” clients do, went down to the absolute wire before signing his deal with the Yankees and may have been battling a bit of rust to begin his Yankees tenure while he also had to adjust to coming out of the bullpen at first. Kaprielian has since been bumped up to the New York-Penn League’s Staten Island Yankees as a starter and has made the most of his time there thus far.


Kaprielian has shown the fans and the doubters a shimmer of hope and a glimpse into the future as a starter with the Staten Island Yankees and now looks to finish the season strong. Kaprielian is now debuting for the 2016 season where he may is unlikely to repeat short season ball and will likely head to either Charleston with the Riverdogs or Tampa with the High-A Tampa Yankees. 

YearLevWLERAGIPHRERHRBBSOWHIPH9HR9BB9SO9
2015A--Rk015.8747.28650481.5659.40.04.79.4
2015Rk0011.5722.12430221.7147.70.07.77.7
2015A-013.3825.16220261.50010.10.03.410.1

This Day In New York Yankees History 9/2: Mussina's Perfect Game Ends w/ 2 Outs In 9th


Sunday Night Baseball, ESPN, New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox, Mike Mussina on the mound, all the makings for a great pitcher's duel and a great game. Mussina takes a perfect game into the ninth inning with two outs and two strikes before Red Sox pinch hitter Carl Everett singled in the bottom on the inning. Mussina would beat the Red Sox 1-0 for his fourth career one hitter.

Interestingly enough this 1-0 Yankees victory was one of four games on the day that ended 1-0, a major league record. New York beat Boston, San Diego beat Arizona, Houston beat Milwaukee, and Toronto beat Detroit all by the score of 1-0.

Finally on this day in 1996 David Cone made his return to the mound from his May operation to remove an aneurysm in his right throwing arm and pitches seven no hit innings. The Yankees would beat the Oakland Athletics 5-0 with Mariano Rivera giving up the first and only hit of the ball game to Jose Herrera in the bottom of the eight inning on an infield single.