Antonio Bastardo the Next Justin Wilson?

The New York Yankees and their GM Brian Cashman have stated it many times, the team wants to emulate the Kansas City Royals in almost every way. The most obvious way New York wants to emulate the defending World Series Champions is to have what they are referring to as a "super bullpen." New York is already well on their way with Andrew Miller closing games in the Bronx, Dellin Betances setting up for Miller for anywhere from one out to two innings at a time, and Justin Wilson striking out guys no matter if they are left-handed or right-handed at an alarming rate. Wilson is one of many left-handed relief pitchers the Yankees have at their disposal next season, could they add another in Antonio Bastardo?

Many fans trusted Wilson in 2015 and he was one of the few that could be trusted. Chasen Shreve fell off at the end of the season, although there is evidence that it was fatigue that caused it, Adam Warren was bounced back and forth between the rotation and bullpen leading to some rust and inconsistency and the team had a new reliever every other day up from Triple-A Scranton. New York may turn to the trade market to acquire another reliable arm much like they acquired Wilson last season from the Pittsburgh Pirates for backup catcher Francisco Cervelli or they could simply turn to the free agent market and get an exact clone of Wilson in Bastardo.

According to Baseball Reference and their projections systems I mean it when I say CLONE:

Bastardo:

Year	Age	W	L	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	WHIP	H9	HR9	BB9	SO9	SO/W
2016	30	4	3	3.60	60.0	49	26	24	5	25	62	1.233	7.4	0.8	3.8	9.3	2.48

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Wilson:

Tm	Age	W	L	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	WHIP	H9	HR9	BB9	SO9	SO/W
Proj.	28	4	2	3.54	61.0	53	26	24	5	22	58	1.230	7.8	0.7	3.2	8.6	2.64

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

That's an awful lot of left-handed relievers in one bullpen. Miller, Shreve, Wilson Bastardo and possibly Jacob Lindgren but if these pitchers can get batters on both sides of the plate out what does it matter? The Yankees also love having a LOOGY and Bastardo held left-handed batters to a .138 batting average against in 2015, how huge would that be late into games or inside Yankee Stadium? So huge it can't be put into words. Bastardo is 30-years old and will be likely to command a smaller contract in terms of years, maybe even one year, and dollars, the new Yankees way. Sign him?

The Daily Dozen - 9/3/14

The Daily Dozen - September 3, 2014 Edition
(Twelve Takeaways from Last Night's Game vs. the Last Place Red Sox)

1. Comparing Jeter and Ortiz.  For some reason ESPN felt it necessary to compare the great Derek Jeter to David Ortiz.  Not really sure why...they don't play a similar game, they aren't both retiring, and they aren't both Captains of their teams.  Derek Jeter didn't reportedly used steroids either.  But here were those comparitive stats: Jeter had 2,643 starts at Shortstop (the most in MLB history), Ortiz has 1,742 games started at DH (also the most).  Do you really "start" at DH? Jeter had 3,446 hits (6th all-time) coming into the game and Ortiz had 461 home runs (most by a DH all-time).  Jeter had 158 playoff games (most all-time) vs. Ortiz' 82 (2nd among active players).  Jeter had 5 World Series titles to Ortiz' 3 rings.

2. The Yankees started the game 5 back of a playoff spot behind the Detroit Tigers. The chances of ending Jeter's career in the postseason look to be dwindling.  The Yanks need to go on a very hot streak to continue the Jeter-love-fest.

3. Was it just me or were there a TON of empty seats in Yankee Stadium last night? The official box score said there were 40,007 in attendance.  Could have fooled me.

4. Hiroki Kuroda has 4 straight years of 11+ wins in a season.  He had 9 coming into the game (and now 10).  When did 11 game win seasons begin to be something to celebrate?  The more impressive stat is that he has gone 42 straight starts with 90+ pitches.  He also tied his season high with 8 strikeouts in the game.

5. Double steal fiasco.  There have been so many base running errors this season.  I'm not sure if it's just being over aggressive or if the base coaches are terrible, but I am seriously getting sick of promising innings being ended due to outs on the basepaths.

6. Brian McCann hits bomb #17.  This opened up the scoring for the Yankees in the 2nd inning as he put a deep ball into the right field stands.  I'm beginning to think this arrangement with the new catcher will work out just fine.  He seems to finally be adjusting to New York.  Hell, he can hit .200 all year as long as he rakes against Boston!

(Courtesy of Jeff Quagliata's Twitter feed)

7. Two of the nine starters for Boston's 2013 World Series team now play for the Yankees.  Pretty interesting fact there.  Boston is definitely a different team without Ellsbury although I'm sure they will tell everyone that Jackie Bradley, Jr. is the future of the franchise.  Maybe two more of the players from the 2013 Championship team will soon join the Yankees in Lester and Ortiz...you never know!

8. Okay...more on McCann.  He went 4 for 4 as shown above.  He also got nailed in the junk behind the plate.  Anyone remember a week ago when Cervelli got nailed in the same spot?  The Yankees won that game and Francisco had a big hit.  Maybe someone should hit the catcher before the game EVERY game just to make sure they get production that night...

These stats will make you go nuts!

9. Gardner needed to become more of a power hitter.  It's the only way to make up for his atrocious base running.  With his speed, he should be in the 60-70 stolen bases per year...not getting thrown out in a double steal...ugh.

10. Dellin Betances.  He recorded 240 outs coming into the game with 120 of those coming as strikeouts.  He recorded 2 more out of 3 outs total to give him 122 for the season, only 8 away from tying Rivera's franchise record for a relief pitcher.

11. I know the Yankees "gave up" Kelly Johnson for Stephen Drew.  What I'm getting at here is that they shouldn't have even given up a bucket of base balls for him.  Worthless.  Hopefully he changes my mind next season?

12. David Robertson puts a Golden Sombrero on Craig.  Man, how's that trade working out for the Red Sox?  Allen Craig looks lost at the plate.  His 4 strikeouts were added to by 8 additional Ks on the night by the Boston players.  They suck!

The Daily Dozen - August 27, 2014

The Daily Dozen - August 27th, 2014 - The David Price Gets Blown Up Edition
(Twelve Takeaways from Tonight's Game vs. the Detroit Tigers)

1. The Yankees needed a win tonight to keep their playoff hopes alive.  With the Seattle Canos losing earlier in the day 12-4 to the Rangers, the Bronx Bombers had a chance to cut the lead in the race for the 2nd Wild Card down to 2.5 games and only 2 behind Detroit.  And of course they would have to do it against David Price, who only gave up 1 hit in his last start...

2. My parents were at the game tonight to see Jeter's last game in Detroit.  This is a true statement unless Detroit can catch the Royals in the AL Central.  My dad was rooting for the Yankees and my mom was rooting for the Tigers.  Something about a house divided... By the way, I realized there was a 30 second delay on the ESPN broadcast when I talked to my dad in the 8th inning on the phone.

3. The third inning.  That should be all I have to say unless you have been living under a rock for the last 3 hours.  David Price basically got owned.  The Yankees put together 9 straight hits and 8 runs against the former Cy Young winner including 2 sacrifice flies after he was out of the game.  That inning showed what the Yankees are capable of doing and in my opinion should have been doing all season.  Want to see the inning again?  Check out this picture provided by WFAN:

4. How did the Tigers respond in the bottom half of the inning?  With NADA.  Shane Greene got the shutdown inning, which proved to be very important later in the game.

5. Shane Greene for Cy Young? Rookies have now started 53 games for the Yankees this year posting an impressive 34-19 mark.  That's a .642 winning percentage by the way.  The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of Orange County of California have the best overall record in the majors and their win percentage is .595.  Shane Greene is sporting a .167 batting average against which is 4th in the majors and a .474 ops by opposing batters which is 9th in the majors.  He finished the game with 7 strong innings with 8 strikeouts, only 1 walk, and 69 of his 101 pitches were strikes.  In fact, he threw a first pitch strike to 20 of the 29 batters he faced.  Most importantly...he is now 4-1 in 9 starts.

He seems a long way from this picture.  Might as well
just change the 'T' to a 'C'. (Photo Credit: MiLB.com)

6. David Price was less than stellar tonight to say the least.  He tied a record for hits allowed in a start with 12 (previously gave up 12 on 4/29/11 vs. the Angels) and had his second shortest outing in his career pitching 2+ inning (the shortest being on 7/4/09 vs. the Rangers).  He also tied a dubious personal record with 8 runs allowed in an inning and shattered the hits allowed in an inning with 9 (the previous mark being 5).

7. Mandatory Derek Jeter Update.  With Jeter's RBI double in the 3rd inning he now has 3,442 hits and 1,295 RBI in his career.  He's predicted to only get 30 more hits according to ESPN, which would leave him 43 hits shy of 5th place all-time.

8. Through 3 innings the Yankees were 8 for 14 with RISP.  This bucked a trend set all year long.  In fact, the Yankees hitters were 8 for 9 in the 3rd inning alone after stranding 2 runners in each of the first 2 innings. In 2014, the Yankees have averaged leaving 3.43 runners in scoring position per game (stats courtesy of TeamRankings.com).  Tonight that number was 2. #RE2PECT

De-rek Je-ter...De-rek Je-ter...De-rek Je-ter...

9. Miguel Cabrera knocks home the first Tiger run.  Of course he did!  He's been money against the Yankees since 2003 when he took the Marlins offensively on his back and delivered a World Series ring to a crappy organization that sold the players like used parts the next offseason.  Cabrera's career batting average against the Yankees is .355 in 51 regular season games including a .323 average against pitchers currently on the roster.  He has batted .371 in 20 games at New Yankee Stadium, which seems anemic to the .409 he hit in 6 games at Old Yankee Stadium.  But this season? He's only hitting .143 against the Yankees.  Yeah...something is probably really wrong with his legs.  I wish I could hit .307 with just my arms.

10. How often do catchers get hit in the groin region by a baseball?  One time too many if you ask Francisco Cervelli!

11. Victor Martinez hit his 26th home run tonight.  This is a career high for him, which seems like an awfully low number for such a good hitter.  But on further inspection, he has had several injuries that have hampered his power.  His previous high was 25 for Cleveland in 2007.  Since then he has hit 2 (injury-riddled season), 23 (traded to Boston in mid-season), 20, 12, 0 (missed 2012 season for Tigers), and 14.  His 162-game average is 21, so Tigers fans have to be feeling pretty good about that.

12. Mandatory Playoff Odds Update.  The Yankees sit 2.5 games out of the 2nd Wild Card position held by the Mariners.  The odds of the Yankees making the playoffs as of August 26th was 12.3%, the highest probability since August 12th.  This percentage will likely jump to 15% after tonight's win.  SO YOU'RE SAYING THERE'S A CHANCE!?!  Baltimore's chances sit at 96.6%  On August 3rd, the Royals had a 16% chance of making it...they now sit at 68%.  Detroit is at 64%. Seattle 49%.