Welcome Back, Refsnyder & Shreve!...

The Yankees have announced two players have been recalled from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.  

Rob Refsnyder was called up to replace Greg Bird, who has been placed on the 10-Day Disabled List with a bruised right ankle.  All things considered for Bird, this is best-case scenario.  His hitless act was getting stale in the Bronx and he needs the time to recover from the ankle injury he suffered at the end of training camp (assuming that's been an on-going cause for his difficulties at the plate).  Chris Carter becomes the starting first baseman, with an assist from Ref.  

Lefty reliever Chasen Shreve was also recalled to replace Luis Cessa.  Cessa provided long relief for Luis Severino in yesterday's loss to the Toronto Blue Jays during his one day stay in the Bronx.  He did his job (kept the rest of the bullpen on rest for the night).  

Maybe I should consider taking a job as an Uber driver for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to New York City route.  It's starting to get some activity!

Here's hoping that the latest Bronx stay is excessively successful for both Refsnyder and Shreve!  Welcome back, Guys!  For Bird, I hope that time off allows you to return to 100% good health and positions you to rehabilitate your batting average upon your return.  For Cessa, get used to it. I think you'll be making this trip frequently this year.

Let's Go, Yankees!

Donovan Solano is Back, Now What?

The New York Yankees outrighted infielder Donovan Solano off their 40-man roster following the 2016 regular season but the team has now brought the former Miami Marlins product back to the organization with a new minor league deal. The Solano signing, along with the minor league deal for Ruben Tejada, should give the Yankees plenty of minor league depth and insurance for their middle infielders but much like yesterday I am left feeling “now what?” when it comes to the rest of the middle infielders in the organization, specifically Rob Refsnyder and Ronald Torreyes.

Solano is still somehow just 28-years old so he has his youth on his side and his prime in front of him after leading the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre RailRiders to a Triple-A Championship in 2016 batting .319/.349/.436 in 546 at-bats. New York is obviously high on him, it was Solano who was called up last season during the stretch run to replace an injured Starlin Castro at second base, and will give him a shot to fight for a job once again this spring down in Tampa.

Solano will join Torreyes, Refsnyder and Tejada this spring as the four men competing for no more than two roster spots this spring. Unless of course a trade comes up and Refsnyder or Torreyes, or conceivably although less likely Solano or Tejada as well, come up in trade discussions. I guess you’ll have to stay tuned to find out.

Meet a Prospect: James Pazos

One of the latest September call ups to come out of the Yankees farm system was left-handed relief pitcher James Pazos. We started really hearing about Pazos last August when the Yankees let Matt Thornton go to the Washington Nationals on a waiver claim when Brian Cashman touted Pazos, among others, as potential replacements for Thornton. We all know how that worked out, the Yankees instead threw a combination of Josh Outman and Rich Hill out there instead of Pazos, Tyler Webb or Jacob Lindgren, but Pazos is finally going to get his time to shine this month. Pazos was added to the 40 man roster before the Rule 5 Draft and is ready to open some eyes as a September call up this season, no better time to Meet a Prospect: James Pazos.

James Manuel Pazos was born on May 5, 1991 in Gilbert Arizona where he attended and played high school baseball for Gilbert High School. Pazos had an impressive arm in high school and was even drafted in the 40^th round of the 2009 Major League Baseball First year Players Draft by the Tampa Bay Rays before declining to sign. Instead Pazos headed to Chandler-Hilbert Community College to continue his amateur baseball playing career and after just one year he transferred to the University of San Diego.

It was when Pazos was a member of the Toreros that he caught the eye of a scout inside the New York Yankees organization and was drafted in the 13^th round of the 2012 MLB Draft. Pazos was immediately assigned to the Staten Island Yankees in 2012 and began the 2013 season there as well before earning a promotion to the Low-A Charleston Riverdogs. Pazos was a Yankees representative in the Arizona Fall League after the 2013 season and rode the momentum all the way through High-A Tampa with the Tampa Yankees to Double-A where he finished his 2014 season with the Trenton Thunder.

Pazos began the 2015 season with the Thunder before earning a promotion to the highest level of the minor league system, Triple-A. Pazos has pitched well as a member of the Scranton/Wilkes Barre RailRiders and has earned a 40 man roster spot before having to be protected this winter by the Rule 5 Draft. Pazos is now ready to make an impact and make the Yankees feel good about their decision to protect the lefty, and I think that he will. Welcome to the family James, it’s finally your time to shine. 

The Story of How Chad Jennings of Lohud Made Me Shut Up

The savior of second base, AKA Refsnyder, is where tonight? That's right, the bench.

— Drew's Avg. (.203) (@StephenDrewsAvg) September 1, 2015

Anyone who is reading this knows me by now, I’m very opinionated and I’m not afraid to voice my opinion even if it goes against the grain. I admit that sometimes I get a little too out of hand or a little too worked up over certain things, one of those certain things being the fact that Robert Refsnyder has basically been kept down in Scranton all season long, which causes me to get discouraged. I got so disgusted and discouraged by the Refsnyder situation this season that I simply stopped beating the drum for Ref and I stopped really checking the stats of either him or Stephen Drew because I realized I was fighting a losing battle.

With September call ups now in full effect and Refsnyder in the Major Leagues once again I fired up the Greedy Pinstripes site ready to post something along the lines of “it’s about time Refsnyder was up” and “he should start against every lefty for the remainder of the season” until I checked out the amazing blog run by Chad Jennings and company over at the Yankees Lohud. Chad had me beat on the whole Refsnyder vs. Drew post but he took a very different side of things, a side that really made me eat my crow very, very quietly.

First and foremost Chad posted Drew’s stats since June seen below:

June: .230/.310/.514
July: .245/.315/.408
August: .236/.313/.417

I quickly dismissed those stats until he had a side-by-side comparison of Drew’s stats to Refsnyder’s stats since the MLB All-Star break:

Drew: .248/.315/.416 in New York
Refsndyer: .222/.292/.363 in AAA

Is it over-grooming? Is Refsnyder simply discouraged or did Drew maybe, sort of, kind of figure it out in New York after essentially a season and a half of mediocrity? All of the above? Maybe. 

Weekly Check In: Aaron Judge

Aaron Judge learned the disappointing news probably at the same time that we all did, the New York Yankees are not planning on calling up their top positional prospect during September call ups this season. The Yankees are faced with a bit of a 40 man roster crunch and have a handful of prospects, Ben Gamel and Jake Cave who are specifically outfielders, which they have to protect from the Rule 5 Draft this winter. Judge hasn’t exactly tore up Triple-A since his promotion either so it may be in his best interest to take the time off and mentally and physically prepare for the 2016 season.

Judge has an outside shot of starting the 2016 season in the Bronx in a similar role to what Greg Bird is in when both Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez are healthy, although admittedly a lot can happen between now and then. New York could opt to rotate Judge in and out of right and left field to give others a day off or half of a day off as a DH while slowing transitioning him into the Major Leagues or they could always opt for another half season in Triple-A with Scranton. Either way Judge is knocking at the door and the Bronx may not be big enough to hold him, Carlos Beltran and the rest of the Yankees outfield options in 2016. 

Year	Lev	G	PA	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
2015	AA-AAA	117	506	60	115	24	20	71	7	51	135	.258	.334	.460	.794
2015	AA	63	280	36	71	16	12	44	1	24	70	.284	.350	.516	.866
2015	AAA	54	226	24	44	8	8	27	6	27	65	.224	.314	.388	.702

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Meet a Prospect: Greg Bird

The New York Yankees designated their only true backup first base option this week when they gave Garrett Jones his walking papers thus leaving Mark Teixeira without a backup. The Yankees have used Brian McCann, Brendan Ryan, Chase Headley and Alex Rodriguez at the position over the past two seasons but New York and their GM Brian Cashman decided to bring in a true backup first baseman for this 16 games in 16 days swing the Yankees are currently in the middle of, enter Greg Bird.

Gregory Paul Bird was born on November 9, 1992 and attended High School at Grandview High School in Aurora, Colorado where he was named the Gatorade Baseball Player of the Year as a senior. Bird’s time as a High School player garnered the attention of the New York Yankees who came calling in the 2011 Major League Baseball Draft with their fifth round pick. Bird was committed to the University of Arkansas as a catcher but the Yankees were able to talk him into foregoing his commitment with a hefty signing bonus.

Bird only got into four games in 2011 before suffering from an injury riddled season in 2012 where he was limited to just 28 games. Bird did finish slashing .337/.450/.494 with two home runs which was enough to garner a promotion to the Tampa Yankees in 2013 but the back injury that cost him much of his season is still a concern to this day. Bird looked healthy in 2013 though as he went on to hit .288/.428/.511 with 20 home runs while also leading minor league baseball with 107 walks. Bird won the Kevin Lawn Award as the Yankees Minor League Player of the Year with his impressive season, a season to build on for 2014.

Bird repeated the 2014 season with the Tampa Yankees before earning a promotion to the Trenton Thunder. Bird hit a combined 14 home runs in 2014 before the Yankees sent him to the Arizona Fall League where he hit a 450-foot home run in the AFL Fall Stars Game. Bird led the AFL with six home runs and was named the AFL Most Valuable Player before earning a promotion to the Scranton/Wilkes Barre RailRiders in 2015. Bird has continued to hit and is now officially a member of the New York Yankees, welcome to the family Bird. Bird is the word!

Weekly Check In: Robert Refsnyder

The New York offense is struggling to score runs with any sort of consistency and the Yankees are struggling to win any games, period. This is not a good combination for a team in the midst of a playoff race with the Toronto Blue Jays. New York has gone back to getting little to no production out of Brendan Ryan and Stephen Drew meaning that while the drum beating has been quiet over the past few weeks that stops today. My name is Daniel Burch and here I am standing before you today with the biggest drum I could find and I’m beating it as loud as I can while I stand outside Brian Cashman’s door screaming at the top of my lungs “Robert Refsnyder!”

Refsnyder has made his fair share of errors but honestly I think it’s more due to him being discouraged than anything. Refsnyder was golden with the glove in the weeks leading up to his promotion and made three errors in less than a week after his demotion. Some call it bad luck, some call it as just the way the chips fell and the cards were dealt but I call it a lack of confidence. Joe Girardi gave Refsnyder the backing he needed while he was up in the Major Leagues letting him start every day, stay in games late rather than pinch hit or substitute him for defense, etc. and Brian Cashman crushed those dreams, and has continued to crush those dreams.

Stop over-grooming Refsnyder, stop wasting his at bats and his bullets in Triple-A and stop slapping the young man in the face. Call him up, keep him up. 

Offense:

Year	Lev	G	PA	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
2015	AAA	102	457	59	108	24	8	48	10	53	63	.278	.371	.412	.783

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Defense:

Year	Lev	Aff		G	Ch	PO	A	E	DP	Fld%	RF/G
2015	AAA	NYY	2B	94	475	173	284	18	59	.962	4.86

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Weekly Check In: Jose Pirela

As you all probably know by now we like to leave the Thursday Weekly Check In post wide open rather than tying ourselves down to one particular player. We may check in on new prospects who are emerging in the system, prospects you may never heard of before or prospects that are knocking on the door to Yankee Stadium with ferocity. Today we look at Pirela who is knocking on the Yankees door and on the borderline of beating it down right now, he’s hitting that well and he’s that hot ever since his demotion back to Scranton/Wilkes Barre.

What has been keeping the drum banging down for both Pirela and tomorrow’s check in, Robert Refsnyder, was the fact that both Stephen Drew and Brendan Ryan came out of the gates after the July 31^st trading deadline firing on all cylinders. They were both hitting the ball, defending well and helping the team have a potent bottom of the batting order. That was then, this is now. The time is drawing ever closer to make the move for either Refsnyder or Pirela with Pirela likely ahead of the RailRiders second baseman on the depth chart.

Will Pirela make it back to the Bronx before September? If he keeps hitting like this the Yankees may not be able to ignore him for much longer…

Year	Lev	G	PA	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
2015	AAA-AA-A+	46	198	37	57	14	3	21	5	18	21	.322	.384	.452	.836
2015	A+	1	4	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000
2015	AA	3	11	1	1	1	0	0	0	1	3	.100	.182	.200	.382
2015	AAA	42	183	35	56	13	3	21	5	17	18	.344	.404	.479	.883

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table