Ty Hensley Likely To Miss 2013

Back in February I was lucky enough to speak with Ty Hensley over the phone. I wanted to ask questions that haven't already been answered by Ty during other interviews, and therefore we talked about his chances of playing college football, his very athletic brother, playing video games, along with a few other things. Looking back I wish I asked more, but I was happy to get through the few questions I did without sounding like a total fool.

One of the things we didn't talk about was his shoulder "abnormality", which cost Hensley $400,000 in signing bonus money (he was originally set to be signed for $1.6 million, but after the Yankees found the "abnormality" that bonus was knocked down to $1.2 million). So when I heard that Tyler would likely miss all of 2013 due to injury, I assumed his shoulder was the problem. That wasn't the case though, but unfortunately the real issue isn't much better.

Chad Jennings reported that, according to VP of Baseball Operations Mark Newman, Ty Hensley had surgery on his hip to repair labrum damage. And when Newman was asked about Hensley's target return date, he answered "Spring Training".

I am still, and forever will be, grateful that Ty took the time to speak with me. He's an incredible person, and we here at The Greedy Pinstripes wish him the best.

Game 34 Lineup: Yankees @ Rockies

No, what you're seeing isn't a typo. David Phelps is actually hitting 8th...before the catcher. Here's the lineup.

Brett Gardner CF
Robinson Cano 2B
Vernon Wells LF
Lyle Overbay 1B
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Jayson Nix SS
Chris Nelson 3B
David Phelps P
Austin Romine C

Game Thread NYY @ COL 5/7

The Yankees play their first interleague game in over a year as they travel to Coors Field tonight to play the Rockies. Hiroki Kuroda will be on the mound as he has once again been the Yankees best pitcher this year and not getting any of the recognition for it. Feel free to use this thread to talk during the game, if you feel like staying up till midnight to see the end of this game, or tweet with us on twitter by following @GreedyStripes. 

Here is the Yankees lineup

Ichiro Suzuki CF
Jayson Nix SS
Robinson Cano 2B
Vernon Wells LF
Ben Francisco RF
Lyle Overbay 1B
Chris Nelson 3B
Chris Stewart C

Hiroki Kuroda 

Daily Yankees Injury Updates From Tampa

Michael Pineda pitched in an extended spring training game today and came through everything as planned. Michael is still rehabbing on a right throwing shoulder surgery that he got last season. Pineda is reportedly throwing in the mid 90's as he continues to try and get back from the majors. Pineda is expected back some time in June for the Yankees.

Cesar Cabral has been pitching in extended spring games as well and looks good and healthy. With Cabral only being a reliever and not having to build up as many innings as Pineda he is expected to be back in early June. The Yankees still have a 30 day rehab window clock that they can use to allow him to get some AA and AAA innings before coming up to the majors.

Francisco Cervelli told Anthony McCarron that he is still about five or six weeks away from any kind of baseball activities after breaking his right hand and getting surgery on the hand. This would make the original time table of six weeks missed obviously unrealistic. With Cervelli on the 60 day DL I guess some of kind of wondered if this was going to take longer than the original six weeks but I think we were all afraid to say it out loud, I know I was.

Ivan Nova is expected to pitch in an extended spring training game tomorrow and is lined up to pitch one of the game against the Cleveland Indians next Monday when we have a straight double header. Girardi said that it is a definite possibility that Nova could be activated off the DL to make this start even without any starts in the minors.

I think tampa climatized me.. Lil chilly here in Scranton
— Clay Rapada (@pada5something) May 7, 2013

Clay Rapada is in Scranton with the Railriders after rehabbing his shoulder bursitis in his left throwing shoulder. Just as a reminder Clay is not on the DL and can join the Scranton team any time following an obvious roster move. Clay signed a minor league deal with the Yankees after being designated for assignment late in the spring.

Curtis Granderson got five more at bats down in extended spring training working towards his goal of 50-75 at bats before returning to the majors. I do not have an official or unofficial count on his at bats but we have to be in the double digits by now.

David Robertson is expected to throw before the game and make the decision on whether he is available or not then. Both Joe Girardi and David Robertson expect for David to be ready for tonight but at this point we cannot take anything for granted with anyone. The Yankees desperately need the bullpen help so let's hope for the best for David.

Yankees Announce Mariano Rivera Bobble Head Day

The Yankees have announced that they will be giving away Mariano Rivera bobble head dolls on September 24th when the Yankees host the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankees Stadium. There is no better way to say goodbye and thank an icon than to immortalize him in a bobble head. Make sure to buy your Yankees tickets for the game now because this is definitely selling out fast.

TiqIQ's job is to find the best deals and sellers out there on the market, and for Yankees tickets, check out the Yankees Official Ticket Exchange.

New York Yankees @ Colorado Rockies 5/7

The Yankees will travel to a National League park for the first time this season when they travel to Coors Field and face the Colorado Rockies. The Yankees will be short handed in a NL park without Eduardo Nunez in an infield that is already extremely short handed so this should be an interesting series. The Yankees will send Hiroki Kuroda to the mound to face off with Jorge De La Rosa. The game will be televised at 8:40 pm ET on YES and MLB TV.

Game 33 Lineup: Yankees @ Rockies

It's the first game of Interleague with the Yankees and Rockies! Here is the starting lineup!

Ichiro Suzuki CF
Jayson Nix SS
Robinson Cano 2B
Vernon Wells LF
Ben Francisco RF
Lyle Overbay 1B
Chris Nelson 3B
Chris Stewart C
Hiroki Kuroda P

Notes:

-- David Robertson will test his knee before the game. He anticipates that he'll be able to pitch today.

-- Brett Gardner will sit at least the beginning of the game out. Taking Gardner out of the lineup gives Joe Girardi some pinch-hitting options with Gardner, Travis Hafner and Brennan Boesch. In a dire situation, which one would you want?

This Day In Yankees History 5/7

On this day in 1903 the rivalry would begin as the New York Highlanders, soon to be known as the New York Yankees, and the Boston Pilgrims, soon to be known as the Boston Red Sox, would play their first game against each other. The Pilgrims would win the game 6-2.

On this day in 1999 Yankees pitcher Hideki Irabu and Mariners pitcher Matt Suzuki would face off in the first match up of two Japanese starting pitchers in Major League history. The Yankees would win the game 10-1 but Irabu is still a fat toad.

On this day in 2000 the Yankees celebrated 50 years of the "Voice of God" by having Bob Shepard Day at Yankees Stadium. Yankees legends like Yogi Berra, Don Larsen, and Reggie Jackson were on hand for the ceremonies before the game.

Yankees Players Rehabbing In Tampa Today

The New York Yankees had basically half their team down in Tampa at their baseball complex rehabbing from various injuries.

Alex Rodriguez hit off a tee, ran, and played catch for the first time since his hip surgery only four months ago. This is the first set of baseball activities that A Rod has done since the surgery. Alex is on a 30 day rehab schedule set up by team doctors and officials and this way day 1 of 30 as the Yankees plan to take things one month at a time. Alex is still on schedule to return sometime around or after the All Star break as long as everything goes well.

Curtis Granderson is rehabbing his broken forearm down in Tampa. Kevin Youkilis is rehabbing his lumbar sprain in his back down in Tampa as well. Mark Teixeira is rehabbing his injured wrist from the World Baseball Classic down in the Yankees minor league complex. Francisco Cervelli is nursing his broken right hand down in Tampa. Michael Pineda is also rehabbing his right throwing shoulder down in Tampa as well.

Hughes On the Rise

Phil Hughes takes a lot of grief from Yankees fans for not living up to the ace that he was hyped up to be. Most of this grief has been unearned because just because Hughes is not Matt Harvey or Stephen Strasburg does not mean he is not a solid pitcher. The calls for him to be taken out of the rotation whenever he struggles are mind boggling. Right now, only Hiroki Kuroda is pitching better than him on the Yankees, and Hughes has demonstrated the best stuff on the team.

In his past four starts, Hughes has pitched 28 innings, allowed six earned runs for a 1.93 ERA, 23 hits, five walks and 30 strikeouts. This has lowered his ERA for the season from 4.67 to 3.60.

Hughes was the reason the Yankees didn’t get swept this weekend, as he turned in a masterful eight innings against Oakland and allowed only one run. The Yankees needed all eight innings out of Hughes as well because the bullpen would have likely blown the lead without Joba Chamberlain and David Robertson. His fastball was absolutely dominant, as he seemingly got ahead 0-1 to every Oakland hitter. Out of Hughes’ 118 pitches, 79 of them were fastballs, 60 of them were thrown for strikes and he got 12 swings and misses out of his fastball. Also, his fastball had the velocity on it that we had not seen from Hughes for awhile now, as he topped out at 95 MPH without losing control. With Hughes’ short arm delivery, his fastball gets on hitters very quickly, so it appears even faster than that.

Hughes’ two main problems over his career have been his inability to put batters away and allowing too many home runs. His HR/FB rate is 9.6% this season compared to 12.4% last season, so he has improved there. For the season, Hughes’ foul ball rate on his fastball is still 26.17%, which is still too high. However, with 18 strikeouts over his last two outings, he is starting to show improvement there as well.

Part of the reason for the added strikeouts has been the development of Hughes’ slider. He implemented it around the middle of last season when he started to have success and it has really taken off this season. Hughes has thrown his slider 20.7& of the time this season compared to just 4.2% last season. His slider has a whiff percentage of 14.75% this season. It has replaced his curveball as his number one off speed pitch, which is good because Hughes’ curveball just was not effective enough to be an out pitch, but it is much better served to be his third pitch. Also, he has completely scrapped his cutter, which was an awful pitch for him, as it had a higher line drive percentage (6.67%) than whiff percentage (5%) last season.  He has four solid pitches to get people out and he can control of all of them, as his outstanding 8.74 K/9 and 1.80 BB/9 this season.

Hughes is in a contract season and if he keeps this up he will be in line for a very big deal. He should get around the five-year deal worth $77.5 million that Anibal Sanchez received from the Tigers. Hughes would be even more valuable to a team with a big ballpark, as more of his fly balls would not turn into home runs. It has been assumed that Hughes will be out of the Yankees’ price range due to the $189 million budget. However, with CC Sabathia being the only pitcher you can count on being under contract next season, the Yankees will have a big hole in the rotation. With talk of the Yankees maybe going away from that budget, perhaps there is more of a chance Hughes returns. If Hughes does leave as a free agent, fans will miss him more than they think, and maybe they will finally appreciate him.