Friday, June 19, 2015

#AROD3K


Congratulations to Alex Rodriguez tonight as the Yankees designated hitter hit his 3,000th hit of his major league career. In the first inning Rodriguez stepped up to the plate against the Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Justin Verlander and clobbered an opposite field home run to right field for the historic hit. Alex became just the third player in the history of the game to hit a home run for his 3000th hit joining Wade Boggs (Tampa Bay Rays) and Derek Jeter (New York Yankees) all-time. Congratulations once again to A Rod from all Yankees fans and from everyone here at The Greedy Pinstripes.

Game Thread: New York Yankees vs. Detroit Tigers 6/19


Tonight marks the first time the New York Yankees will play host to the Detroit Tigers at home inside Yankee Stadium in this three game weekend series. New York will send Adam Warren to the mound for possibly one last showcase in the rotation before Ivan Nova is activated off the 60 day disabled list. Opposing Warren on the mound will be Alfredo Simon for the Tigers. The game will be played at 7:05 pm ET and can be seen on the YES Network, MLB Network and MLB TV.

The Yankees have six games left in the Bronx including tonight’s contest before setting out back on the road leaving you with six more opportunities to make the trip out to Yankee Stadium. By clicking the Yankees Tickets link at the top of the blog you can take the family out to the Bronx and enjoy a game thanks to our friends over at Ticket Monster. If you can’t make it out to the ballpark then no problem, simply jump on Twitter (@GreedyStripes) and/or the comments section of the blog to interact with us during each and every Yankees game this season.


I am very interested in seeing how Warren pitches tonight with his back against the proverbial wall and his starting spot potentially on the line so I’ll let him do my talking from here. Go Yankees!

Yankees Roster Moves for 6/19


The New York Yankees have announced a series of roster moves today that will give their bullpen a new look and a pair of fresh young arms for the weekend.


  •  Chris Martin was sent down to Triple-A after pitching in the 9th inning last night in the win over the Miami Marlins. 



  • Sergio Santos was added to the 15 day DL with an elbow injury. 



  • Bryan Mitchell and Branden Pinder were called up to the big league club. 

My Plan to Expand MLB to 32 Teams: Part 3


The biggest hurdle would be the obvious realignment in the divisions and who would go to this newly created division, a division I will call the North Division. I use the term "north" as a general term and tried to do the best I could with it, it's not perfect and could definitely use some tuning, but I feel like this may be the best bet right now. Each division technically will "lose" a team and teams don't get much more north than the Expos in Montreal or the Toronto Blue Jays so there's your first two teams. The Minnesota Twins are the northern most team in the central and are who I transferred from that division. The west division would give up the Seattle Mariners who are the northern most team in the AL West.

See below for the complete division breakdown for the American League:

American League East:

New York Yankees
Boston Red Sox
Baltimore Orioles
Tampa Bay Rays

American League Central:

Detroit Tigers
Cleveland Indians
Chicago White Sox
Kansas City Royals

American League West:

Texas Rangers
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Houston Astros
Oakland Athletics

American League North:

Toronto Blue Jays
Seattle Mariners
Montreal Expos
Minnesota Twins


The National League was a little more difficult when trying to move teams to a North Division. The New York Mets are the most northern team in the NL East but the whole rivalry and such with the Yankees I decided to keep them there and move the Philadelphia Phillies. I should have moved the Mets with the logic from the American League, I get that and agree with you, but there is a method to my madness. In the central things got pretty confusing as I transferred the new Cuban team that is yet to be named to the Central and moved the Milwaukee Brewers and Pittsburgh Pirates to the North. I really wanted to move the Cuban team to the National League East but I could not justify moving any of the Braves, Mets, Nationals, and the Marlins from the division so I decided to go as close as I could with the Central Division.  The San Francisco Giants leave the NL West Division and move to the NL North Division since they are the northern most team in the NL West finishing off the realignment.

See below for the complete National League division breakdown:

National League East:

Atlanta Braves
New York Mets
Miami Marlins
Washington Nationals

National League Central:


Cincinnati Reds
Chicago Cubs
St. Louis Cardinals
Cuban Team - Still Unnamed

National League West:

Colorado Rockies
Los Angeles Dodgers
Arizona Diamondbacks
San Diego Padres

National League North:

San Francisco Giants
Milwaukee Brewers
Philadelphia Phillies
Pittsburgh Pirates

It's not perfect, it may not even work, but this is my detailed plan to expand two more teams into Major League Baseball. Love it? Hate it? Let me know in the comments section below: Thanks for reading.

Pitchers Hiding Injuries Falls Back on Joe Girardi


This season already for the New York Yankees we have heard stories of three pitchers, Chase Whitley, Chris Martin and now Jacob Lindgren, who have hidden injuries and tried to pitch through them rather than speaking up and getting the issue fixed right away. The pitchers themselves has used the excuse that they thought they could pitch through it and they were just trying to help the team win but I call bull on that, in my opinion these pitchers hid the injuries because of Joe Girardi, his bullpen management and his lack of trust in the younger players on the team.

Girardi took a terrible Joe Torre led bullpen from 2007 and turned the team’s biggest weakness into their biggest strength with essentially the same cast of characters. Ever since then and ever since a 2009 World Series championship and a deep run into the ALCS in 2012 Girardi has done a complete 180 reverting back to the old days. Girardi no longer wants to or shows trusts in his rookies and his younger pitchers, with obvious exceptions like Dellin Betances, and would rather rely on the likes of Esmil Rogers, Chris Capuano, Matt Thornton and others.

The Yankees once had now closer Mark Melancon in their bullpen and flat out refused to use him more than once a week leaving him rusty and ineffective. Melancon was later traded and thrived with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Houston Astros while the Yankees had Lance Berkman for two months of a disappointing season. The Yankees also once had David Robertson in their bullpen and it took three promotions to the major leagues before he stuck around long enough to work his way into the “Circle of Trust” and eventually into the Yankees closer’s role replacing Mariano Rivera. The list of players the Yankees once had, refused to use and over-groomed is extensive and I could sit here all day listing them off but if you’re a Yankees fan and you watch the games then you know the names and I don’t have to.


Now you have the likes of Whitley, Martin and Lindgren hiding injuries and trying to pitch through them. Every once in a while you have a pitcher that simply wants to help the team and tries to pitch through a little nagging injury but when you have three pitchers in less than three months you have developed a pattern. This pattern was caused, again in my opinion, because they didn’t think or know if they would ever get another shot in pinstripes under the Girardi regime. If this is the case, and that’s a big if, the Yankees management needs to start looking at their own when they find themselves scratching their head this October as they watch the St. Louis Cardinals or the San Francisco Giants in the World Series again while the Yankees have gone playoff-less for three seasons now. 

MLB Cancels 60 Million All Star Votes

First of all, allow me to apologize.

In a recent post I said that fans could vote 45 times, and therefore that meant that the city of Kansas City could have as many as 21 million votes. That means that every single vote for a Royals player could be coming from their home city, which goes against what Hosmer was trying to say when attempting to show that there was nothing nefarious going on.

The problem is that fans can't vote 45 times. No, they can only vote 35 times. So Kansas City alone can not account for 21 million votes. No, they could only account for over 16 million.

Hmm... that's still enough for every vote for a Royals player to be coming from the same city. The Royals home city, that is. So I guess I'm apologizing for the technical error, although my point still rings true.

Anyway...

It turns out that Major League Baseball believes there's a voting problem too, as they have nullified over 60 million votes that they believe to be "improper".

Honestly, all it takes to vote more than 35 times is to create another free email account, or some rudimentary hacking skills. So while this move may help things, it certainly doesn't solve them.

The next update on American League All Star voting will come out on Monday. It will be interesting to see if Omar Infante's lead over Jose Altuve still holds up (he was only up by about 300,000 in the latest update on Monday). Not to mention a few other "iffy" results I pointed out earlier.

Game Preview: New York Yankees vs. Detroit Tigers 6/19


The New York Yankees will stay home tonight for the third game of their eight game home stand to play host to Miguel Cabrera and the Detroit Tigers. New York is fresh off a tough series with the Miami Marlins and look to start a winning streak tonight in the Bronx. On the mound for New York will be Adam Warren who may be making his final start of the season for the Yankees while Detroit sends Alfredo Simon to the mound to oppose him. Simon was the official starter before the Tigers game was rained out and at the time of this writing but Justin Verlander could make the start for Detroit. The game will be played at 7:05 pm ET and can be seen on the YES Network, MLB Network and MLB TV.

  • Warren looks to be headed to the bullpen after this start as the Yankees intend to activate Ivan Nova off the 60 day DL after recovering from Tommy John surgery. The move is not set in stone as the team could keep Warren in the rotation, a spot he earned, and move Nathan Eovaldi or CC Sabathia to the pen but those scenarios seem unlikely with Warren’s experience in the pen.


  • Simon has pitched well this season after coming over from the Cincinnati Reds due in large part to the change in his home park. Comerica Park does not yield a ton of home runs where the Great American Ball Park did. Simon will need his changeup, splitter and fastball to all be working tonight in the Bronx to keep from giving up more long balls inside Yankee Stadium.



The Yankees will push Masahiro Tanaka back a day and he will pitch Sunday instead of his normal day tomorrow in the Bronx. In his place will be Nathan Eovaldi who should be fresh after not getting out of the first inning in his last start against the Marlins. New York has played well against the better teams in the league this season so I fully expect to this to be an extremely competitive and well played series by both teams. Go Yankees!

My Plan to Expand MLB to 32 Teams: Part 2


What lucky cities would be presented with the new franchises you ask? I'm glad you asked! Again, as I said yesterday this is all extremely hypothetical and for fun so bear with me. I was personally upset when the Montreal Expos were owned by Major League Baseball, disbanded and then became the Washington Nationals so for nostalgia reasons mostly, and because I think the economy around Major League Baseball is a whole lot stronger nowadays and I think the city of Montreal could support it, let's bring back the Montreal Expos. Canada needs another team and frankly could support one easily in my opinion.  It was Montreal or another New York team (homer), maybe around the Buffalo or Syracuse area in a dome, so I went with Montreal to keep from flooding the New York market.

When thinking of the second team I had to do a little research, I didn't really have past performances or nostalgia to go on this time around. I considered Oklahoma City, Norfolk, Austin, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas and Orlando and finally decided on the obvious choice these days, Cuba. Cuba’s biggest city and capitol, Havana, is a mere 85 miles from the tip of Miami adding at most an extra hours’ worth of traveling for teams in an airplane. Security would be a nightmare at first but in a totally hypothetical world how awesome would it be to see the likes of Yoenis Cespedes, Yasiel Puig, Rusney Castillo, Yoan Moncada, Jose Abreu and others head back to their mother land and the country of their birth for a three or four game series a few times a season? I’ll answer that for you, the word awesome does not describe how awesome and intriguing that would be.

It's been nearly 20 years since Major League Baseball expanded and the economy around the sport is better than ever, why not now? We're less than two years away from a new collective bargaining agreement and this would give both sides even more incentive then they already have to keep the players on the field at all costs. It technically makes less contending teams admittedly but it makes things more interesting in my opinion. Sure five or six playoff spots might not be up for grabs on the last week of the season but everything else would be far more interesting including the July 31st trading deadline, free agency, roster alignments, Rule 5 Drafts and the MLB First Year Player’s Draft to name a few.

The biggest hurdle would be the obvious realignment in the divisions and who would go to this newly created division, a division I will call the North Division.

To be continued....

TGP Daily Poll: Eovaldi, Not Warren, to the Pen


I’m not saying I necessarily agree that this should happen but I believe as well as Adam Warren has pitched in the rotation and as bad as Nathan Eovaldi has been at times that it will be Eovaldi, not Warren, heading to the pen next week.


Vote in our prediction poll on Knoda.com 

Weekly Check In: Robert Refsnyder


After a couple weeks of Stephen Drew knocking the cover off the ball and knocking that ball over the fence for the big league club he has earned back the “Stephen Drew Sucks” nickname given to him here at The Greedy Pinstripes. While the drum beating for Refsnyder never stopped here on the blog, and it never will until the second baseman is called up to the big league club, it did get a bit quiet there for two or three weeks… That stops today!

Refsnyder would bring an immediate jolt to this inconsistent and struggling offense from the right side of the batter’s box. Refsnyder would not only balance out the lineup but would also add on base percentage and a great batting average to the bottom half of the lineup. This would help with the Yankees inability to string together hits and would help with their reliance on #TooManyDamnHRs while also plugging in some speed at the bottom of the lineup.

Imagine when Jacoby Ellsbury comes back having Didi Gregorius bat 8th, Refsnyder bat 9th, Ellsbury leading off and Gardner in the second slot. That’s a whole lot of speed, a whole lot of contact with Ellsbury and Refsnyder and a whole lot of potential to score and manufacture runs. But no, we still have Drew.

Offense:

YearLevGPARH2BHRRBISBBBSOBAOBPSLGOPS
2015AAA6026831661352962636.278.353.397.750
Defense:

YearLgLevGChPOAEDPFld%RF/G
2015ILAAA2B542981151711236.9605.30

This Day in New York Yankees History 6/19: Joe D Collects 2,000 Hits



On this day in 1950 Joe DiMaggio had a two hit day and collected his 2,000th hit of his career. DiMaggio had an RBI single in the third inning and had another RBI single in the seventh inning to reach the milestone. The Yankees would beat the Indians 8-2 in DiMaggio's 1,537th game of his career.

For all the fans growing up in my generation to have a three strikeout game for a batter is something that happens once or twice a week, but it didn't happen all that much by Joe DiMaggio. On this day in 1942 DiMaggio struck out three times in a game for the first and only time in his 1,787 game career. The Indians Mel Harder is the pitcher that will forever go down in history in a 5-4 victory for Cleveland at Cleveland Stadium.


Also on this day in 1921 Babe Ruth vaulted himself into second place on the career list for home runs. Ruth would hit his 127th home run helping the Yankees beat the Red Sox in Fenway Park 7-6 in 10 innings. Ruth would pass Sam Thompson on the All-Time list and would find himself just 11 home runs away from the All-Time record holder Roger Connor.



Happy Friday everybody!