Pineda's MRI Rescheduled

According to numerous reports, the first I saw coming from the Twitter account of Meredith Marakovits, the dye-contrast MRI that Michael Pineda will get has been pushed back until tomorrow. Apparently there were scheduling conflicts.

Not only is this not cool because we have to wait another day to find out if we should write off Pineda for 2012, but this also makes me think he's fine. I mean, there's no way the New York Yankees can't get a test done as soon as they want. We're not talking about some pitcher in Little League here, who has to wait til the doctor can fit him in.

Maybe I'm wrong, and the MRI will reveal structural damage that takes him out of things this season. But I'm starting to believe that's not the case, and a little more rest is all that's necessary.

Yankees @ Rangers 4/23

UPDATES: Yankees Win 7-4


T1:
Jeter sets the tone with an infield single. Extends his hit streak to 13 games and steps one step closer to Pete Rose. Yankees load the bases with 1 out, Texeira strikes out, Granderson has a 2 RBI single. Yankees lead 2-0.
B1:
Rangers start the game with 1st and 3rd and nobody out but CC induces a ground ball double play but the run scores. 2-1 Yanks.
T2:
Jeter singles to center field to get one step closer to Pete Rose. Yankees lead 2-1.
B2:
Error on Derek Jeter. End of 2. Yanks lead 2-1
T3:
Basically a 1-2-3 inning
B3:



Game is on ESPN


Lineup

Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher RF
Robinson Cano 2B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Curtis Granderson CF
Andruw Jones LF
Eduardo Nunez DH
Chris Stewart C

CC Sabathia will take the hill, and hopefully we see the pitcher we know CC can and will be, as so far he hasn't been ace-like at all. The big guy has the 3rd worst ERA out of the 5 Yankee starters, which doesn't sound bad until you realize the worst two are Freddy Garcia and Phil Hughes.

Eduardo Nunez doesn't sound right as the team's DH. But it really came down to either him or Raul Ibanez, and Raul's far from a sure-thing against left-handed pitchers (they are facing Derek Holland). And since Nunez isn't know for his strong defense, DHing is probably the best way to go.

Just goes to show you the importance of Brett Gardner to this team.

Our Twitter account can be found here, where we'll be giving our thoughts during the game. We'd love to hear your thoughts too.

Meet A Prospect : Brett Gardner Edition

Here we meet again. We had way more support then I would have ever imagined on the current Yankee special edition's of our popular Meet A Prospect series so I decided to do another week of them, starting with Yankees Left Fielder Brett Gardner. What Brett lacks in height, weight, and muscle, he more then makes up with speed, grittiness, and heart. That, in my opinion, makes him the perfect place to start this week's special edition of Meet A Prospect. Let's meet Brett Gardner all over again.

Brett Gardner was born on August 24th, 1983 in Holly Hill, South Carolina. He is now the starting left fielder for the New York Yankees but it always has not been this great. in 2001 Gardner attended walk on try out for the baseball team at his college, the College of Charleston. After the try outs the coach told his players that if they made the team then the coach would contact them to tell them so. Well Brett did not hear anything from the coach but attended the practice the next day anyway wearing his school uniform and when he was asked what he was going there he told the coach he knew that he was capable of playing Division I baseball. The coach must have been impressed because he allowed him to practice with the team with the promise that if he showed signs of not being able to cut it then his time with the team would end right then and there.

Gardner, in typical Gardner fashion, ended up being a three year starter at the College of Charleston and was chosen to the All Southern Conference team in 2004. In 2005 he had the third highest batting average in the country with a .447 average and 122 hits, tying for the most in the country. He also scored 85 runs, an all time record at the College of Charleston, and had 38 stolen bases to lead the Southern Conference. He also added a third team All American and a second time All Southern Conference player as a Senior.

After his junior year in college he was drafted by the New York Yankees in the third round of the 2005 First Year Player Draft and received a $210,000 signing bonus. After signing he was immediately sent to the Yankees short season league, the New York Penn League. While there he ranked 5th in at bats, 2nd in runs, and 5th in stolen bases. He followed that up in 2006 with a Florida State League all start appearance while with the Yankees A affiliate the Tampa Yankees. He was 3rd in the Florida State League in batting average and led the league in stolen bases with 30 swipes. Gardner was also second in walks with 47 that season. Gardner had similar success when called up to AA Trenton before he suffered a broken bone in his hand and continued the success when promoted to AAA Scranton Wilkes Barre.

I would call 2007 his break out season and coming out party as a Yankees prospect though because, while in the Arizona Fall League, he played 26 games and led the entire league in runs and stolen bases while bolstering a .343 batting average and a .433 on base percentage. He also was 3rd in the league in walks with 17.  During the 2007 season he was named the Yankees 12th best prospect and was named the Yankees fastest minor league runner and one with the best plate discipline. 2008 would be his final season in the Yankees minor league season, playing in 94 games for Scranton, while compiling the 2nd best OBP, walk total, triples and a 6th place finish in stolen bases in the International League. Gardner was called up on June 30th of the 2008 season but sent down the very next month in July to make room for the newly acquired Xavier Nady. No worries though because in August of 2008 he was called back up to the Yankees where he has remained ever since.

Gardner was actually the one, Trivia Alert!!, to score the final run in Yankee Stadium of ANY player when he pinch ran for Jason Giambi and scored on a sacrifice fly by Robinson Cano. Gardner has been a Yankees full time starter since beating out Melky Cabrera for the starting Center Field spot in the Spring of the 2009 season. The acquisition of Curtis Granderson has since moved Gardner to LF where he has won the Fielding Bible Award for the best defensive Left Fielder in the 2010 season. Gardner finished the 2011 season tied for first place in stolen bases and that was without Joe Girardi giving him the green light to steal whenever he wanted to. Gardner also won his second consecutive Fielding Bible Award in 2011 and is looking for the three peat in 2012.

Off the field Brett is married to his wife, Jessica, and have a son named Hunter. Hunter was born on November 19th, 2008. Brett Gardner's father, Jerry Gardner, played in the minor leagues for the Phillies and Brett also has an older brother who to the best of my knowledge is not pursuing any baseball activities. Gardner lives in, as recent as 2011, Westchester New York and is neighbors with New York Mets starting pitcher Mike Pelfrey.

Make sure to tune into the blog tomorrow when we continue our Meet A Prospect special edition series and we meet Yankees back stop Russell Martin.

Series Wrap (sort of): Yankees @ Red Sox

Game One
With the right-handed Clay Buchholz on the mound for the Sox, Raul Ibanez was getting the start in left-field. A poster at Yankees Fans Unite pointed out that the smaller left-field at Fenway Park was going to help the loss of range the Yankees have now that Gardner is on the DL. Great point, and it makes me feel better for at least the next three days. ARod got the start at DH, with Eric Chavez starting at 3B.

Dustin Pedroia started things off by doing his impression of Luis Castillo, dropping Jeter's pop-up to shallow RF. Jeter moved to 2B on a wild pitch by Buchholz, then was driven in on a base hit by ARod. Cano hit a ball to deep CF, but it was tracked down and caught, followed by a ground-out by Teixeira, ending the early threat. From that point on the game was decided on solo home runs. Nick Swisher and Eric Chavez hit solo shots in the 2nd inning, giving the Yankees a 3-1 lead. Nothing really happened in the 3rd, but Chavez came up again in the 4th and put another ball into the seats. After the Chavez homer it looked like Russell Martin was going to break out of his slump, but Jason Repko made a spectacular catch to rob him. Goes to show you that when a player is slumping, nothing goes his way. The next inning ARod got into the HR act, hitting a ball that the guys from Deadliest Catch couldn't lure in. Martin came up again in the 6th inning and made sure nobody was going to stop him this time, giving the Yankees yet another solo-HR in the game.

Pedroia's name, not his number since they weren't wearing numbers on Friday, came up again in the bottom of the 1st as he hit a single just out of reach of Cano. But Nova was able to get out of the inning without anything else good happening for the Red Sox. The 2nd inning didn't start off so well as Ortiz hit a HR just over the Green Monster in left-center, and Youkilis follwed that up with a double down the right field line. The inning could have gotten Boston back into things, but a ground out by Saltalamacchia, strikeout by Cody Ross, and groundout by Jason Repko ended things. Yanks fans know how frustrating it could be to have a RISP with 0 outs, and come away with nothing, but I still have a hard time feeling bad for Sox fans. The Sox should have come away with nothing in the 5th inning, but the sun was to Swisher what kryptonite was to Superman, allowing Avile's fly ball to drop for a run-scoring double. The only other trouble Nova got into came in the 6th inning, when Ortiz singled and Ivan hit Youkilis in the next AB. Saltalamacchia came up with 2 men on with only 1 out, but he did a great impression of a Yankee batter by hitting into a DP with RISP. Cory Wade took over in the 7th inning, and was a bit wild, but he was able to relax and only gave up a weak single up the middle. David Robertson did his usual "I'll let one man on, but nothing else will happen" act, striking out two in the 8th. Cody Eppley made his Yankee debut in the 9th, but he gave up a single to Saltalamacchia and was pulled. Girardi wasted no time going to Rivera, who closed out the game on two straight Ks and a ground out.

I don't understand bringing in Rivera then. The Yankees still had a 4-run lead, and if Joe was willing to use Rivera with a 4-run lead anyway why wait?

Game Two
10.1 IP, 13 H, 9 R, 8 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, 1 HBP, 5 WP

That was Freddy Garcia's line after two starts heading into Saturday, which works out to a 6.97 ERA and 1.548 WHIP. Which is a far cry from the 0.00 ERA and 0.583 WHIP he put up in his first two starts, covering 12 innings (both were 6 inning starts), of the 2011 season for the Yankees. So would the Freddy we saw today be more like the 2011 version? In a word... no. Let's make that two words... hell's no! I would have rather taken Garcia's first start of the season, in which he threw 4.2 innings, giving up 4 hits, 3 earned runs, walking 3, striking out 3, hitting 1 batter, while throwing 5 WP.  Because on Saturday Freddy wasn't even in the game long enough to break a sweat (which for him is something), as his line was 1.2 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 0 BB, 0 K. He was all over the place right from the start, making it look as though Russell Martin's glove had some type of baseball repellent on it. Freddy gave up three doubles in the 1st inning, and another double along with three singles in the 2nd, before being replaced by Clay Rapada. We saw David Phelps again in this game, but he wasn't as good as we've seen so far this season, as the kid gave up 3 ER and 6 H over 4 innings. But it's not often a team needs their bullpen to throw 7.1 innings in a game, and even less often a team wins that game.

A lot of Yankee fans had tuned out of this one, as the Yankees were down 9-0 after 5 innings, and the offense could only muster 3 hits and draw 3 walks against Felix Doubront. The way the Yankee hitters were failing against the guy, you would think it was that other "Felix" that pitches out west. But that wasn't the case, as this "Felix" had only thrown 45.1 innings in MLB. Which wasn't helping Yankee fans feel better about watching their offense sputter time and time again for the first 5 innings. Mark Teixeira was able to homer in the 6th inning against Doubront, but strikeouts to Cano and ARod, and Granderson popping out to Mike Aviles at SS didn't help. But after the 6th inning this game took a huge 180 degree turn. The Yankees hit three singles, hit one double, drew one walk, ARod reached on an error, and Swish and Tex both hit home runs in a 7-run inning, cutting the Red Sox lead to one. After the Sox hitters weren't able to do any damage, the Yankee bats came to life again in the 8th. This time the team hit three singles, hit three doubles, walked three times (one was an intentional pass), and even hit into a double play, for 7 more runs.

This was looking like a laugher after six innings, with the Sox fans laughing at Yankee fans. And while it ended as a laugher still, it was Yankee fans laughing at Sox fans.

Game Three
Postponed :(

Series Awards

Jake Taylor Award*

Nick Swisher - 5/9, 3 R, 7 RBI, 1 BB, 2 HR, 1 2B

Gentry Award*

Curtis Granderson - 2/8, 3 K

Rick Vaughn Award*

Ivan Nova - Game 1: 6 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K

Kelner Award*

Freddy Garcia - Game 2: 1.2 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 0 BB, 0 K (yes, this was a start)

Next Series

@ Rangers 4/23 - 4/25

Click here to talk about the series at the Daily Sports Pages Yankees forum.

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*The awards are named after one of the best baseball movies of all time... Major League.

Jake Taylor Award - Awarded to the most valuable position player. Named after the hard-nose veteran catcher that, despite making the league minimum, was the heart and soul of the 1989 American League East winning Cleveland Indians.


Gentry Award - Awarded to the least valuable position player. Named after the very first man cut from the 1989 Cleveland Indians, #47 Gentry. A man so insignificant he wasn't even given a first name.


Rick Vaughn - Awarded to the best pitcher in the series. This one is, of course, named after the "Wild Thing". The man that made Clu Haywood look silly in the division deciding game.


Kelner Award - Awarded to the worst pitcher in the series. Named after the Opening Day starter for the '89 Indians. Not a good game for Mr. Kelner, as Indians' announcer Harry Doyle famously quipped "thank God" after Kelner left the game. And yet another bad player without a first name.

Yankees @ Red Sox 4/22/12 Postponed Due To Rain

Tonight's game has been postponed due to the rain and no makeup date has been announced. This is a shame because we really had Boston on their heels and not feeling good about themselves but you cannot mess with mother nature. 

The Yankees have announced that they are just going to push their starters back a day so CC will pitch tomorrow in Texas followed by Kuroda and Hughes. Unless something changes we will see a Kuroda vs. Yu Darvish game on Tuesday on MLB Network. Also, with an off day on Thursday, the Yankees have the opportunity to skip Freddy Garcia and instead pitch CC on Saturday on regular rest. 

Yankees Mount A Historic Comeback

The Yankees found themselves down by 9 runs in the 6th inning, all hope was lost, until the Yankees bats finally woke up in Fenway. The Yankees put up 15 unanswered runs in route to a historic comeback and a 15-9 victory, their 9th of the season and second this series. The Yankees will be looking for the sweep today in Fenway. 

Nick Swisher, pictured above, hit a grand slam to get the party started for the Yankees as well as having a go ahead two run double. Mark Texeira homered twice in the campaign thus putting to bed another slow April. Both Swisher and Texeira had six RBIs each, tying a franchise record for a single game. The Yankees obliterated the Boston bullpen putting up a seven spot in each of the 7th and 8th innings, sending up a total of 23 batters to the plate combined. Russell Martin added a two run double to help the Yankees en route to the victory. 

In an already forgotten side note Freddy Garcia threw a total of 48 pitches, accounting for 5 of the 27 outs the Yankees needed to win. With a Michael Pineda set back Andy Pettitte cannot come back soon enough.  

Vote Yankees Into The All Star Game

Online balloting has started for the 2012 All Star Game in Kansas City and we want as much Yankees representation and we can get! You can vote up to 25 times online per account so I do not see why, with the great fan base that we have, we cannot get as many Yanks into the game as possible.

Voting ends June 28th so cast your vote now while you are reading this so you do not forget. Cast your vote HERE and thank you!

The Sky is NOT Falling

EDIT: After an examination in Tampa, Pineda will be sent to New York to have a dye-contrast MRI on Monday, to see if the initial examination missed something. For some this sets off alarms, as travelling to NY for this test could mean the team believes something is really wrong with Michael. I understand why some would feel that way. But it also sets off alarms to me, but in the form of... if the team really believed Pineda had structural damage, wouldn't they get this test done sooner? Maybe they can't get it sooner, as tomorrow is Sunday, but it seems as though if the Yankees or any other professional sports team wants a test done, they can get it whenever they want it. *shrugs*

"Lord, help us! Michael Pineda suffered a setback, and he's sure to be lost for the rest of his career!"

Okay, let's all take a deep breath. Shoulder weakness is not a big surprise, seeing as how the guy hasn't pitched in 3 weeks. If the doctor finds structural damage, then fans can start to worry about him being lost for the 2012 season.

But keep a couple of things in mind...

1. The trade of Montero and Noesi for Pineda and Campos was not done just for 2012. I know haters of the swap don't want to hear that, as they... along with so many impatient Yankee fans (and they are hardly a small group)... demand instant gratification. When the Yankees acquired Michael Pineda he was under team control for four more years, and I'm not sure this year will count towards that unless he actually pitches. So even if 2012 is lost, it's not as if he's lost. A rotation of Sabathia-Kuroda-Nova-Pettitte-Garcia/Hughes should be good enough to make a run at title #28.

2. Pineda > Montero... at least financially. If the Yankees had kept Montero they would have still needed to acquire a pitcher, whether that was for 2012 or at the end of the season. Cole Hamels, assuming he reaches free agency in the first place, is going to cost $20+ million a season. If the Yankees had signed Darvish or Wilson, not only could the team have pitchers that slot in at #3 or lower, but either man would have cost more for one season than they'll pay Pineda over the next four. And whereas the Yanks offense could get by without Montero's bat, they would have a really difficult time getting at or under a $189 million payroll in 2014 and 2015 with Hamels or somebody else. Not to mention what that type of deal could do to the team's chances of re-signing Cano or Granderson.

So until we hear about real damage to Pineda's shoulder, let's relax and concentrate on Game 2 in the Sox series tonight.

Yankees @ Red Sox 4/21/12

The Yankees will take on the Red Sox again today at Fenway at 4:05 pm ET on FOX. Felix Doubront will pitch for the Sox against Yankees Freddy Garcia. All I have to say is that Michael Pineda can not come back soon enough. Anyways here is the lineup.

Derek Jeter DH
Nick Swisher RF
Robinson Cano 2B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Curtis Granderson CF
Andruw Jones LF
Russell Martin C
Eduardo Nunez SS 


We will not see many updates from me as I will be down in Atlanta attending UFC 145 but I will do what I can to keep the fans up to date. Go Yankees.

Does Nunez Fit In The Future?

A lot of fans are not applauding Eduardo.

There's somewhat of a battle going on over Eduardo Nunez. The one side of the battle believes that Nunez could be valuable as a regular, while the other side thinks Eduardo is a complete waste of roster space. I haven't declared myself to be a member of either side, just like I am when it comes to politics.

On the one hand we've seen glimpses of what Nunez could do with regular at bats. In his first start of the 2011 season Nuney went 2 for 4 with 3 runs, including a double, a walk, and a stolen base. Combining his next two starts Eduardo was 3 for 8 with a RBI, a double, and another stolen base. Later during the season, in back-to-back starts against the Mets on July 1st and 2nd, Nunez was 7 for 8 with 3 doubles, a home run, 2 RBI, and a run scored. Best of all, and this especially goes out to those that like to use the #RISPFAIL hashtag on Twitter, is that with men in scoring position last season Nunez hit .324/.393/.378, which came in 86 plate appearances. Not a huge sample size, but not tiny either. Hell, imagine if the 2012 Yankees were hitting .324 with RISP, instead of the .248 they currently are.

The batting stats that Nunez put up last year were hardly worth firing guns, setting fires, or getting arrested for. Right Kentucky fans *wink*? But how would the team fare if he were to have say... 526 at bats? Well, after expanding on a bunch of things like singles, doubles, triples, home runs, walks, etc I came to the conclusion that the team would have had a batting average of .264 (good for 6th in MLB, while they were 7th), an on-base percentage of .337 (good for 6th, while it was actually 2nd), and a slugging percentage of .438 (good for 4th, while the team was actually 3rd). The team's runs scored doesn't figure out as easily, but I did it anyway since I'm a jerk like that. It turns out that the team would have scored 851 runs, good for 4th in MLB in 2011. So the offense looks as though it would be okay with Eduardo's bat in the lineup regularly.

I'm not so sure the defense could get by though, as people don't call him "NunEEEEEE" for nothing. He's already got 2 errors, spanning 40 innings, between 2B, SS, and 3B this season. In his MLB career, his UZR/150 at each position looks like the average temperature of Antarctica in August. But maybe he'd do better, or at least be an average defender, in the outfield. Say, maybe, in right field, which in Yankee Stadium is not nearly as cavernous as in other stadiums. Unfortunately Eduardo has only played 18.1 innings in the outfield in MLB, and 0 innings in the OF in the minors, so it's impossible to make a strong prediction on this. But based on the fact that Nunez is an athletic guy, with really good speed (I figured that in 526 at bats last season, he would have stolen 37 bases, which would have been enough to tie Elvis Andrus for 5th in the AL), he should work out to be better than average out there.

Speaking of those 37 stolen bases... I have to believe Nunez could score more than the 65 runs I had him pegged for in 526 at bats, using his numbers from 2011. But I digress.

For those of you that didn't run to Baseball Reference or Fangraphs to see where I'm getting 526 at bats from, or didn't catch the fact I said "right field" a couple paragraphs ago, let me reveal where I'm going with all of this. I think Joe Girardi and Brian Cashman may want to start thinking about letting Eduardo Nunez take over in RF for Nick Swisher next season. Not only could Nunez not destroy the Yankee offense, but he could play as well as Nick has in right field the past 2+ years. And on top of that he'll be under team control for another four years, which means he'd be a far cheaper than re-signing Swisher would be. Which would allow the team to bring back Robinson Cano (although I believe that'll happen no matter what), and possibly Curtis Granderson after next season.