Saturday, August 3, 2013

Nova's dominance lifts Yankees to shutout win over Padres

Ivan Nova pitched seven scoreless innings while striking out 8 tonight as the Yankees took this weekend's middle game from the Padres, 3-0. In those seven frames, Nova gave up just four hits, walked just one, and got the win, improving his record on the season to 5-4. 

With the game in a scoreless tie in the top of the seventh inning, Curtis Granderson stepped up to the plate and hit a two-run home run (his second of year) to right field to give the Bombers the lead. After that, Granderson would score again in the ninth on a single by Nix. With this win, the Yankees record on the year is now 57-52, 3.5 games behind the Indians for the wild card. 

Alex Rodriguez Asks Yankees To Buy Out His Contract


Alex Rodriguez may be feeling the heat from Major League Baseball and their looming suspension from the Biogenesis fallout and has contacted the Yankees about a possible buy out of his remaining contract. Alex Rodriguez has something in the neighborhood of $90,000,000 left on his contract and is looking to collect his money before MLB suspends him and potentially could ban him from the game for life. All this came after Alex Rodriguez tried to plea with MLB, reportedly, to give him an 80-100 game suspension with an agreement to retire after the suspension ends. The thing was he still wanted to be paid his entire contract and MLB shot that down after his press conference last night in Trenton. Now Alex is desperate to get his money before the suspension comes so tune in tomorrow and Monday when we finally get the conclusion to The Bronx Is Burning II.

Alex Rodriguez Walks Off In Latest Rehab Game


Alex Rodriguez walked off tonight in his latest rehab game with the Trenton Thunder but not in the way you would think. Alex went 0-0 with four walks tonight while playing seven innings at third base for the Thunder team. With the Trenton team off tomorrow there is much speculation this could potentially be the last game of Alex Rodriguez's career and looks to definitely be the final one of 2013.

David Phelps Scratched From Next Rehab Start


David Phelps has been scratched form his schedule start tomorrow after complaining about right forearm stiffness and pain. Phelps admits that he is not feeling 100% and Joe Girardi and company want to take no chances with this guy, especially with elbow soreness and pain in the throwing arm. Phelps will be sent back to the minor league complex in Tampa to get more tests before we see what the next step is.

Jeter Will Be Out For The Rest Of The Weekend


Derek Jeter will miss the remainder of the series this weekend with the San Diego Padres complaining about something in his right calf. Jeter said he woke up Monday after the Los Angeles Dodgers series feeling something in the calf and it feels better today then it did that day but Joe Girardi is taking no chances and will sit him for the weekend. Jeter is said to be available to pinch hit and would probably DH if we were in an American League park but we're not so that is where we are at. Jeter will be evaluated before Mondays game with the Chicago White Sox and judging by the way this season has gone will probably be added to the disabled list.

Game Thread: Yankees @ Padres 8/3


The Yankees and the Padres play game two of their three game set at Petco Park tonight on YES and MLB TV. The pitching match up is Ivan Nova for the Yankees and Tyson Ross for the Padres. Nova had an amazing July with a 2.03 ERA in four starts holding opponents to a .188 batting average, not that the offense helped him much in those starts. Hopefully Nova has turned the corner and can build on this success and ride it all the way to the playoffs. Ross was dominant in his last start against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Ross sports a very healthy 2.90 ERA this season in six decisions so hopefully we can get to him early and often.

Here is the Yankees lineup

Brett Gardner CF
Robinson Cano 2B
Alfonso Soriano LF
Curtis Granderson RF
Lyle Overbay 1B
Eduardo Nunez SS
Brent Lillibridge 3B
Chris Stewart C
Ivan Nova RHP

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Alfonso Soriano And Wife Added To Wives & Girlfriends


Alfonso Soriano and his wife Angelica Soriano have been added to the Wives & Girlfriends section of the site so go check that out. All I can say is.. DAMN! CLICK HERE to see Alfonso and Angelica Soriano.

New York Yankees @ San Diego Padres 8/3


The New York Yankees and the San Diego Padres play their second game of a three game set at Petco Park this evening. The Yankees will send Ivan Nova to the mound to face off with Tyson Ross of the Padres. The game will be televised at 8:40 pm ET on YES and MLB TV. Weird start time I know and they wonder why the media has such an East Coast bias.

Alex Rodriguez: "I'm Going To Keep Fighting"


Check out A Rod's press conference from last night after his rehab game with the Trenton Thunder. 

Gary Sanchez Promoted To AA Trenton Thunder


Gary Sanchez has finally gotten the bump up from High A Tampa to AA to play with the Trenton Thunder. Gary should be in the lineup tonight with Alex Rodriguez when the Thunder take on the Reading team at home in Arm & Hammer Park. This is long overdue and exciting for us fans as our arguably #1 prospect takes the next step to the major leagues.

Game 109 Lineup: Yankees @ Padres

Well...let's try this again. Here's today's lineup. 

Brett Gardner CF
Robinson Cano 2B
Alfonso Soriano LF
Curtis Granderson RF
Lyle Overbay 1B
Eduardo Nunez SS
Brent Lillibridge 3B
Chris Stewart C
Ivan Nova RHP

Some Notes:

-- Derek Jeter has been scratched from the lineup and will not play for the next two days. Girardi said that if there were a DH then Jeter could have played.

-- David Phelps has been scratched from his start in Trenton due to elbow soreness. He's slated to get tests done.



MLB, Yankees no longer negotiating deal with A-Rod after comments

250px-Alex_Rodriguez_2008-04-19It looks as if this time, Alex Rodriguez's mouth has gotten him into some serious trouble with the people that he's supposed to negotiate a deal with: Major League Baseball.


After Alex Rodriguez's comments following last night's Trenton Thunder game, Major League Baseball and the New York Yankees are no longer willing to negotiate a deal with him regarding his suspension. Now it looks as if A-Rod could be facing either a 214 game ban (which is the rest of this year and next year) or a lifetime ban should MLB choose that route.


Let's backtrack a moment into the latest chapter of the Alex Rodriguez saga. Following last night's game, Rodriguez met with reporters and media members, and a couple of his comments had people wondering whether he was crazy, or if he was pretending to care about the other players involved by using himself as an example.



“I think it is pretty self-explanatory. I think that is the pink elephant in the room,” he said. “I think we all want to get rid of PEDs. That’s a must. All the players, we feel that way. But when all this stuff is going on in the background and people are finding creative ways to cancel your contract and stuff like that, I think that is concerning to me. It’s concerning to present players and I think it should be concerning to future players, as well.”

Look at that. A-Rod really does care about the other players. There's just one thing--there are no other players in Major League Baseball that have to worry about their contracts getting ripped to shreds. It seems that Rodriguez thinks that there is a conspiracy theory at works, and his comments made rounds to manager Joe Girardi following last night's 7-2 loss to the Padres in San Diego.


When asked about Rodriguez's comments, here is what Girardi had to say:



"I was not there, and if I had a chance to sit down and talk with him, I might talk about that, but I’m not there."

Following Rodriguez's comments, Major League Baseball made it public that they are no longer negotiating with Rodriguez on his suspension and it looks as if this case could ultimately make it to the Federal Courts, should A-Rod and his camp decide to. The New York Yankees also aren't talking negotiations with Rodriguez because they have no part in the negotiation or suspension process. If/When Rodriguez is suspended, he also can't go to Japan to play baseball since Japan honors Major League Baseball's suspensions. So it looks like another ugly season of "As The World Turns on A-Rod" is awaiting us. Well...it's better than what's on cable now.

The Nightmare That Is 2013

No pictures this time, as I'm in no mood for humor.

I got home from work last night at around 10:45 pm. My girlfriend had dinner waiting for me, and then mentioned that the Yankee game was on... although it had started about a half hour ago. Normally I'd turn the game on right away, but this time I responded by saying "nah, I'd rather not watch them tonight."

I don't think I've been this down about the Yankees since 1992, when they won only 78 games and finished in 4th place in the AL East. Do you know who the best hitter on that team was? No, not Don Mattingly, who hit .288/.327/.416. But Danny Tartabull, who put up a triple-slash of .266/.409/.489. To take that further, Baseball Reference says that the Yankees top player that year was Melido Perez, whose record was 13-16. Oh, and Perez had the most wins out of all Yankee pitchers, as Scott Sanderson was the only other pitcher to record double-digit wins (12).

For over 20 years I, and many other Yankee fans, have glued myself in front of the television to see as many games as possible. But here I am on August 3rd, and I'm not the least bit upset over the fact I'm going to miss tonight's game due to being at work.

But why is that? Let me see...

The 2013 Bombers are currently 56-52, 8.5 games out of first place in the AL East, and 4 games away from the second Wild Card berth. Their run differential is -11, a 108 run difference from the 1st place Boston Red Sox.

By the way, the fact that Boston currently has the most wins in the American League doesn't help things one bit.

And it's not as if the Yanks are playing well, either. They have scored only 414 runs this season, better than only the Houston Astros and Chicago White Sox. That is thanks to having the third lowest on-base percentage, second lowest batting average, and lowest slugging percentage in the league. Not to mention having hit the second lowest amount of home runs, something that Yankee teams have been pretty darn good at doing for years before.

Injuries have been out of control in 2013. Sixteen players have spent time on the disabled list, some of them going on the DL more than once. Here's the list...

  • Curtis Granderson has been hit by pitches that broke bones twice this season, missing a total of 101 games.
  • Derek Jeter finally returned from rehabbing his broken ankle (suffered in the 2012 postseason), but went right back on the DL with a quad strain. He's missed 96 games.
  • Mark Teixeira's wrist tendon sheath has caused him to hit the DL a couple of times, making him miss all but 15 games.
  • The man that was signed to replace Alex Rodriguez at third base, Kevin Youkilis, has missed 78 games due to lower back problems. Not a surprise seeing his injury history, but it has hurt quite a bit since his replacements have done even less than he did.
  • Eduardo Nunez, who was supposed to be on the bench this season, has actually been an important player with Derek Jeter being out most of the season. But Nunez has had issues with his left arm, right wrist, and his ribcage, leading to 59 missed games.
  • Breakout player Francisco Cervelli, who has hit .269/.377/.500 in 2013, has missed 89 games so far this season, and could miss the rest of the year due to his involvement with Biogenesis. How have his replacements done? Don't ask.
  • Michael Pineda, who could have been the second pitcher in a strong 1-2 punch with CC Sabathia, has yet to appear in a single Yankee game while having and recovering from shoulder surgery.
  • That leaves Jayson Nix, Travis Hafner, Luis Cruz, Zoilo Almonte, Andy Pettitte, Ivan Nova, Joba Chamberlain, and Phil Hughes, as players that spent time on the DL.
You may notice one name absent from that list of injured players... Alex Rodriguez.

ARod has not only been out all season while recovering from hip surgery, but he may not play another game in pinstripes until 2015. He is not only accused of having used performance enhancing drugs, which he allegedly got from Biogenesis, but he also is being accused of getting in the way of MLB's investigation into the Biogenesis matter. The evidence that Bud Selig says he has could even banish Rodriguez from MLB entirely.

A suspension that runs through the 2014 season, let alone for life, could be huge for the team in terms of getting under the Luxury Tax threshold, while at the same time putting a competitive team on the field. But the on-field product has suffered since ARod, while not being the MVP-caliber player he was earlier in his career, would provide a boost to a faltering lineup.

A few more reasons why 2013 has not been good to Yankee fans...

  • Four Yankee regulars have an on-base percentage under .300... David Adams (.263), Lyle Overbay (.299), Jayson Nix (.295), and Vernon Wells (.283). Nix and Wells have seen their roles on the team greatly reduced, but the damage has been done.
  • Outside of Robinson Cano's batting average of .293, no Yankee has a BA at or above .280.
  • Other than David Phelps and his ERA of 5.01, CC Sabathia... the "ace" of the rotation... has the highest ERA among all pitchers to have started at least one game this season (4.78).
And finally, do you remember all the talk about 5 years ago about the "Big 3" Yankee prospects? It was a big blow to some prospect huggers out there when one of them, Ian Kennedy, was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks as part of the three-team deal that got the Yankees Curtis Granderson. Well, the other two parts of the "Big 3" are likely on their way out of New York too. 

Phil Hughes has show signs of brilliance this season, but they have come in between giving up home run after home run. Philthy would probably be a really good pitcher at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Marlins Park in Miami, AT&T Park in San Francisco, or a number of other pitcher-friendly stadiums. But homer friendly Yankee Stadium just does not fit for him. Which could lead to him going elsewhere when he hits free agency after this season.

By the way, Brian Cashman reportedly put Hughes on the trading block, but there wasn't a single team interested. That also tells you something.

And then there's Joba Chamberlain. It's been quite a fall from grace for Joba, who at one time was getting compared to guys like Roger Clemens due to his fastball and strikeout ability. But here we sit at the beginning of August in 2013, and there's talk of the Yankees releasing Chamberlain. 

Joba is walking nearly twice as many batters per 9 innings as he did over the previous three seasons, while his strikeout rate has remained the same. His ERA of 5.13 and WHIP of 1.709 are both career highs. Furthermore, he's giving up more home runs than he ever has. I'm sure some team would give him a shot in their bullpen should he become available through waivers, but I know that the vast majority of Yankee fans would feel good knowing #62 will not be coming out of the bullpen again.

Finally, I didn't mention the fact that Mariano Rivera is going to retire at the end of the year, as could Andy Pettitte. While the actual ace of the pitching staff, Hiroki Kuroda, has said a number of times that he wants to end his playing days in Japan, meaning he could be gone too. 

This season has been a nightmare, and we're still couple of months away from being able to wake up from it.

A-Rod Blasts HR in 6-2 Thunder Win


TRENTON, NJ – With the eyes of the baseball world on ARM & HAMMER Park, rehabbing third-baseman Alex Rodriguez homered in the 3rd inning to announce his arrival to the Thunder roster.

Trenton would ride homers from Rodriguez and Roller- and later a two-run double by Roller- to a 6-2 win over the Reading Fightin Phils in Game 1 of the three-game series.

Rodriguez took Jesse Biddle deep in his second plate appearance of the night against the lefty, to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead. His titanic shot to left field brought a full ovation for Rodriguez from the 8,080 fans at the park Friday night. The attendance was the 15thtime in the 20 seasons  of the ballpark (and the second time this season) that a crowd of over 8,000 has passed through the turnstiles.

Mikey O’Brien made his second start since returning to the rotation and allowed two runs over six innings. He struck out a pair and scattered four hits while needing an economical 84 pitches to secure his sixth win of the season.
Reading tied the game with a run in the top of the 4th inning, but with the game tied 2-2 in the bottom of the 4th, Roller lined a homer to right-center field for his team-leading 14th home run of the season. It also gave the Thunder the lead and Trenton would lead the rest of the way. Roller tacked on a two-run double in the 7thinning and finished 2-for-4 with a double, home run and three RBI.

Rodriguez continues his rehab with the Thunder Saturday night at ARM & HAMMER Park. The ballgame begins at 7:05 p.m. and features RHP Graham Stoneburner (0-1, 3.86) pitching for the Thunder against RHP Brody Colvin (3-2, 6.39). Limited tickets still available at www.trentonthunder.com/tickets or by calling the Thunder Ticket Office at (609)394-3300. Radio coverage on 91.3 FM (WTSR) and streaming online begins at 6:45 p.m.

--THUNDER--

Being posted with permission from the Trenton Thunder organization. The original post can be seen HERE.

GreenJackets Blank Charleston


GreenJackets Blank Charleston
Augusta offense strikes for five runs in the sixth en route to third straight over RiverDogs

AUGUSTA, GA – Chris Stratton threw eight shutout innings as the Augusta GreenJackets shutout the Charleston RiverDogs 6-0 to take game three in their six game series at Lake Olmstead Stadium in Augusta in South Atlantic League action.

With the loss, the RiverDogs drop to 22-18 in the second half and 61-47 overall. Charleston remains 2.5 games behind Lexington for first place in the Southern Division. With the win, Augusta improves to 21-18 in the second half and 59-49 overall.

Augusta got on the board for the first time Friday with a run in the fourth inning. With two quick outs to start the inning, Shawn Payne double to center to put a man in scoring position for Joseph Rapp. Rapp then singled up the middle to score Payne for the first run of the game.

The GreenJackets were back at it to start the sixth inning. Charleston elected to pull starter Dan Camarena in favor of left James Pazos. Pazos struggled as he allowed four singles and a two-run homer. In the end Augusta scored five more runs to take a commanding 6-0 lead.

GreenJackets starter Chris Stratton (8-3) picked up the win going eight strong innings that saw him scatter just four hits while striking out seven and walking three. Ian Gardeck pitched a perfect ninth for Augusta to close out the game.

RiverDogs starter Daniel Camarena (3-6) took the loss going five solid innings and allowed just one run on three hits with six strikeouts. Reliever James Pazos final line was an inning that saw him allow five runs on as many hits with two strikeouts. Adam Smith tossed two scoreless frames with two strikeouts in relief of Pazos.
Offensively for Charleston, they could just muster four hits all night; three of which came from their first three batters in the order. Greg Bird singled and walked finishing 1-for-3 at the plate. Francisco Rosario finished 0-1 with two walks from the ninth spot in the order.

Games four and five of this six game set will be Saturday evening back at Lake Olmstead Stadium with game one of the doubleheader getting underway at 5:35pm. Charleston will send RHP Luis Severino (0-0, 0.00 ERA) to the mound as Augusta counters with RHP Justin Schumer (3-7, 5.01 ERA) in game one. Game two starters have yet to be announced for either team. You can listen to each and every game live locally on ESPN 910 AM or online at www.riverdogs.com.

Box Score:   http://atmilb.com/17YJS4E
--RIVERDOGS--

Being posted with permission from the Charleston Riverdogs organization. The original post can be seen HERE.

CC continues to struggle as Yanks get blown out by Padres

After giving up 5 earned runs in just 5.2 innings of work tonight, CC Sabathia saw his personal record fall to 9-10, his ERA go up to 4.78, and the team's record again itch closer to the .500 mark (56-52) as the Yankees lost tonight's series opener in San Diego to the Padres without much of a fight, 7-2. Now maybe it's just me, but right now CC seems to be this team's worst starting pitcher. Recently, pitching has not been their problem, but tonight things were very, very different. 

The Bombers only two runs in this one each came in the second, when Eduardo Nunez drove in a run with a double and then Sabathia tied the game with an RBI Groundout. Besides that, this one sucked. 

This Day In New York Yankees History 8/3


On this day in 1979 51,000 fans joined the New York Yankees at Yankees Stadium to remember Thurman Munson. This just a day after the Yankees captain was killed in a plane crash that he was piloting.