Tonight Ivan Nova is trying to end the Yankees 3 game losing streak. The game will be televised at 7:05 pm ET on FOX and YES Network. Chris Young will be on the mound for the Yankees and he is probably the Yankees best shot at getting a victory.
Joba Chamberlain (ankle, elbow) will throw live batting practice on Monday, his first time facing hitters as part of his rehab. Brian Cashman wouldn’t put an exact date on it, but he expects that the right-hander ““will help us” this season. In other news, Joba got rear-ended on the way to the Tampa complex yesterday but is fine.
David Aardsma (elbow) will appear in his second minor league rehab game tomorrow, and Cashman confirmed that if “everything goes all right, in 31, 32 days, he’ll join us.” Aardsma’s 30-day rehab clock started earlier this week, putting him on target for a return shortly after the All-Star break.
Austin Romine (back) has been playing catch and hitting off a tee in Tampa. “Assuming there are no setbacks,” he will play this year according to Cashman. A few weeks ago we heard that a July return was in the cards.
Pedro Feliciano (shoulder) will throw off a half-mound today and a full mound on Tuesday. He expects to pitch this season but I wouldn’t count on it. Maybe he gets healthy in time to serve as a third lefty reliever during the expanded rosters in September, but anything they get out of him is gravy.
For the last time this season the Subway Series will be on center stage in New York, this time in Citi Field. The Yankees and the Mets will go head to head three more times to see who is the King of New York. The Yankees swept the first series, the start of a 10 game winning streak, at Yankee Stadium. Tonight Andy Pettitte takes the mound for the Yankees and faces off against Mets righty Jon Niese. The game will be televised at 7:10 pm ET on MY9 and MLB Network.
Lineups
The Yankees are still 2.5 games ahead of the Baltimore Orioles and 3.5 games ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays for first place in the AL East. Watch out though because the Boston Red Sox are still in the hunt and are winners of 6 straight games.
Charleston outfielder Tyler Austin has been named to the U.S. Team for next month’s Future’s Game in Kasas City.
The 20-year-old right fielder is hitting .336/.409/.655 with 14 home runs and 50 RBI through 58 games. The converted corner infielder is playing the outfield for the first time, and he’s emerged as one of the top position prospects in the organization.
The Futures Game features will be played on All-Star Sunday, July 8, begin at 5 p.m. ET and televised on ESPN2 and MLB.TV. Major League Baseball, in conjunction with the Major League Baseball Scouting Bureau, MLB.com, Baseball America and the 30 Major League team, selected the 25-man rosters for both the U.S. Team and the World Team. Each organization is represented and players from all full-season minor leagues were eligible to participate.
Congratulations to Tyler! He is my favorite Yankees prospect so to see him flourishing really makes me happy. Tell him and his mother congratulations, both Greedy Pinstripes followers, on twitter @taustin2323 and @austinmom23
Hey, Joe, your glasses don't hide the fact that you're an idiot.
Maddon was furious after the game, calling Johnson's actions "cowardly," "bush" and "bogus."
Let's take this one word at a time...
"Cowardly" - Davey Johnson saw a guy, or knew of a guy, breaking the rules and informed the umpires about it. The umpires found that a rule was indeed being broken, and reacted accordingly. It's not "cowardly" in the least. Is it "cowardly" to question the judgement of an umpire on a home run call, ask for video review, and have the call overturned in your favor? No... it's not. It's trying to put your team in position to win.
"Bush" - What? "Bush"? Things that are "bush" are those that are not against the rules, but frowned on by players. Like when Alex Rodriguez yelled "hey" at Howie Clark in 2007. What Davey Johnson did is not "bush" what-so-ever.
"Bogus" - Merriam-Webster defines "bogus" as "not genuine". Joe Maddon needs to be told that, because the word "bogus" does not fit into this situation at all. Other than that, I don't know what to say here.
How about some more Joe Maddon?...
"there's also reading between the lines in some situations that needs to be looked at, too."
What "reading between the lines"? What is Joe talking about? The MLB rulebook states that a pitcher may not "apply a foreign substance of any kind to the ball". What is there to read into that other than "you can't put pine tar on a baseball"? On top of that it is the umpires job to interpret the rules, so if there's any issue with "reading between the lines" then Maddon should take this up with the umpires... not Davey Johnson.
"If you want to talk about -- I don't know if that's a form of cheating or what -- but that's really kind of underhanded, I believe, to use that kind of information."
Yet another example of me not knowing what Maddon is talking about. Should Davey have turned in his own pitcher back when he managed Joel Peralta? It's not up to one manager to do the job of the other manager. In this case, it wasn't up to Johnson to point out the rule violation for the other team. From what Maddon has been saying he was aware of Peralta putting pine tar on the ball, so Joe is guilty himself of not fixing this before somebody else... such as Davey Johnson... nailed Peralta on it. Davey Johnson is getting paid to help the Washington Nationals win. That's it.
Joe Maddon went on to say that pine tar shouldn't be illegal, as he doesn't believe it really helps that much anyway. He says pine tar just gives the pitcher better grip of the ball. THAT'S CHEATING! A batter can't put pine tar on the barrel of his bat, which would give the bat better grip on the ball, so why should a pitcher be able to use it? And again, Maddon shouldn't be whining at Davey Johnson about this. This is for MLB.
Andrew Friedman, general manager of the Rays, went on to say that "I highly doubt that it's something that we would ever initiate". Really? Then you're not doing your job! It's a rule, it could be hurting your team's hitters, so you should be checking it out. Just like any other possible rules violation. I'm all for protecting you players, coaches, and other employees, but that doesn't mean you have to make an ass out of yourself in the process.
The most ridiculous thing Joe Maddon has said regarding this situation, and that's saying something since he's said some pretty dumb things, was this...
"If I'm a major league player that may happen to want to play for the Nationals in the future, I might think twice about it. Because this is one of their former children here that had really performed well and all of a sudden he's going to come back to this town, and they're going to rat on him based on some insider information, insider trading, whatever."
*laughing out loud* Seriously? Look, it all comes down to one simple thing, which was summed up by Jim Carrey's character in the movie "Liar, Liar"...
Via Jesse Sanchez, the Yankees will sign 18-year-old Cuban left-hander Omar Luis Rodriguez for a bonus in the $4-5M range. It is a minor league contract. He became a free agent earlier this month and would have been subject to the spending restrictions implemented by the Collective Bargaining Agreement had he not signed by July 2nd. More to come.
Rodriguez first garnered serious attention at the World Junior Championships back in 2010, when he threw a complete game shutout against Team USA in the title game. He did get hit around while pitching in Cuba’s top professional league as a 16-year-old a few years ago, but that’s not terribly surprising. Rodriguez is a projection guy with an 88-92 mph fastball to go with a curveball and changeup that still need development, and he’s drawn raves for his poise in the past. Pretty much exactly what the Yankees look for.
Freddie Freeman, Martin Prado, Jayson Heyward, and David Ross all homered for the Braves
Derek Jeter. Eric Chavez, Alex Rodriguez, and Robinson Cano all homered for the Yankees
At the beginning of the 7th inning the Braves are leading 6-4
Yankees lose 10-5
This afternoon is the rubber match of a three game series and the last time we will be playing the Atlanta Braves this season barring my World Series prediction coming true. The Yankees had their 10 game winning streak snapped last night against Tim Hudson and the Braves and will look to start a whole new winning streak starting this afternoon. On the mound for the Yankees is Phil Hughes and for the Braves is going to be righty Tommy Hanson. The game will be televised on YES and MLB Network at 1:05 pm ET.
Lineups
Derek Jeter DH Curtis Granderson CF Alex Rodriguez 3B Robinson Cano 2B Nick Swisher RF Raul Ibanez LF Eric Chavez 1B Russell Martin C Jayson Nix SS
The Yankees remain 2.5 games ahead of Baltimore and 3 games ahead of Tampa Bay for first place in the AL East.
Michael Pineda showed up at Yankee Stadium for a checkup on his shoulder on Tuesday. He told reporters that he is hopeful to be ready by next Spring Training and that doctors expect that he can begin throwing by mid-September.
“The doctors say everything is great right now, so I’m continuing this plan,” Pineda told Chad Jennings of the Journal News. “… Now I’m just starting working on my exercises. I go to physical therapy every day. No throwing right now.”
Pineda’s next stop is in Tampa to continue his rehab. It sounds like he’s being dilligent about his rehab and multiple sources claimed that he looked to be in better shape than in the spring.
It’s hard to get too excited by this considering he is still so far away. Shoulder injuries can be nasty and sometimes lead to various setbacks too. So far, so good though and his shoulder surgery wasn’t as bad as some. I think at this point it is fair to hope for him to come back and contribute next season, but maybe not smart to count on it just yet.
I was taking a look at the team stats at ESPN.com and saw that while the Yankees have hit the most home runs in the American League, then are 5th in runs scored. I was ready to write about the fact that home runs are hits too, so people shouldn't worry so much about those "evil" home runs, as many of them would be hits anyway. But then I thought that would be a waste, because if you didn't already realize that then I don't know what else to say.
So I went to the 2012 Yankees' Baseball Reference page and was looking through the players stats, and decided to take a closer look. Here are some things I noticed...
In terms of line drive percentage, six of the eight Yankee regulars are above the AL average of 18%. One of the two men currently below average, Mark Teixeira, has had a LD% of 19, 19, and 17 the previous 3 years in New York. And the other, Russell Martin, is at 17%... the same he hit last year with the Pinstripers.
Four Yankee regulars are above the league average in strikeout percentage, while the other four are below league average. One of those players above league average in this category is Alex Rodriguez, who has been just below league average the previous 3 seasons with New York. And the 17% mark Russell Martin is currently at is his highest K% of his career.
When it comes to drawing walks the Yankees are pretty darn good. Other than the fact they've drawn the 3rd most in the AL, only two of the eight regular hitters are below league average. One of the men under that average, Derek Jeter, has been taking less walks the last few years. But outside of his horrendous 2011 Raul Ibanez, the other guy currently with a BB% below average, hasn't been under that 8.3% since 2004.
It's no surprise that the Yankees have quite a bit of "pop" in their lineup. But it's worth nothing that six of the eight Yankee regulars are above the league average in terms of isolated power (ISO). One of the two under that league average is no surprise... Derek Jeter, who hasn't been at the current league average of .154 since 2004. But the other is Alex Rodriguez, and his current .149 ISO is just a bit below his average ISO with the Yankees of .250, so... yeah... no worries there.
So while it's true the Yankees can credit much of their current 10-game winning streak to the starters and their 1.87 ERA during that run, it's not as if the Yankee offense is sputtering. So count me among those Yankee fans that aren't worried about when the Yankee starters come down to Earth.
Can the Yankees make it 11 straight victories , all against National League East teams, tonight when they go up against the Atlanta Braves for the 5th time in a little over a week? On the mound to try and put the win streak at 11 is Yankees Hiroki Kuroda. On the mound opposing him will be Braves righty Tim Hudson. This is a rematch of the game last Wednesday, June 13th, that I attended down in Atlanta. The game will be televised on MY9 and MLB Network at 7:05 pm et.
Lineups
Derek Jeter SS Curtis Granderson CF Alex Rodriguez DH Robinson Cano 2B Mark Teixeira 1B Raul Ibanez LF Nick Swisher RF Eric Chavez 3B Russell Martin C
The Yankees are 2.5 games ahead of the Baltimore Orioles and 4 games ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays for 1st place in the AL East
Michael Pineda showed up at Yankee Stadium for a checkup on his shoulder on Tuesday. He told reporters that he is hopeful to be ready by next Spring Training and that doctors expect that he can begin throwing by mid-September.
