Monday, February 25, 2013

Gardner gets work in while Yanks fall to Orioles 5-1

The travel roster for today's Yankees/Orioles game seemed a bit off. Only one locked in Opening Day starter made the trip while the rest of the travel roster included non-roster invitees, minor leaguers and players off the 40-man roster. The Orioles played a lot of their regulars, overpowering the young minor leaguers while the Yankees dropped their second straight Spring Training game 5-1 in Sarasota.


There wasn't much offense for the Yankees but today's game seemed more about getting work in for  Brett Gardner. The Yankees had seven hits. Gardner had three of them. Jayson Nix, who is expected to make the team in a bench role had two hits. Not a lot of offense for the Yankees today but one of the hits that Brett Gardner did cause a bit of concern.


While Yankees fans and staff enjoy Gardner's grittiness, Gardner dove into first base to confirm a lead-off infield single. The single was good. The issue? Gardner dove into first base one day after Curtis Granderson broke his forearm. Gardner quickly erased his small error, perfecting a bunt single and hitting a line drive into left center field.


The lone run for the Yankees came in the 9th inning after young Corban Joseph prolonged the inning with a single, then stealing second which was a risky move since there were two outs in the inning.


What's Next:


-- The Yankees will play the Philadelphia Phillies in Clearwater, tomorrow at 1:05pm. Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano, Ichiro Suzuki, Kevin Youkilis, Joba Chamberlain and David Robertson are expected to make the 20 minute bus trip. The game will air on MLB.TV and I was also told it would air on MLB Network.

4 comments:

  1. Watching the game on MLB Network and was impressed with young Lefty Vidal Nuno who looked like he was in mid-season form. Threw 2 innings against Baltimore's Major Lg lineup and he gave up a run on 2 base hits. But he showed poise and aggressiveness. Absolutely attacked the strikezone with all of his pitches and struck out 5 hitters including Markakis, Wieters, Chris Davis & Machado.

    To say he pounded the strikezone would be an understatement....threw 19 strikes and just 1 ball in 2 innings! He's a kid who isn't a big prospect because he doesn't have big-time stuff (88-90) but he's a Lefty with pitchability who can throw 4 pitches for strikes......he doesn't have a high ceiling but I could see him pitching in the Majors for someone.....will be depth in AAA this year.

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  2. Bryan Mitchell and Corey Black both looked like typical February pitchers......just getting started, throwing mostly Fastballs with rusty breaking balls. Mitchell has a simple, nice and easy delivery with minimal effort.

    Black has nice mechanics and gets good downhill action on his Fastball despite being a smaller guy. Showed some good movement on his FB but seemed to get around his breaking ball. Still soooo early so not much to judge a guy on but it's interesting to see new guys.

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  3. black has some nice run on his FB. only saw a few pitches from him though. i really like nuno.... he's got a great bag of tricks and when he's on he cruises. he's got the control to throw strikes, but his command will have to be spot on to succeed at the ML level. i'm not gonna sit around and hope for injuries just so he gets his shot in the BX, but there could be much worse options to have to go to. i'd rather have him than Warren in a callup TBH. wouldn't be terrible if he were the number five in 2014

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  4. Both pitchers look like they have major league potential but I would think they are a few years away. Pitchers like Montegomery and Whitley will get the first shots if they stay on their same path.

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)