Melky Mesa Promoted, Ramiro Pena DFA'd

Melky Mesa has been promoted to AAA Empire State Yankees today. The Yankees released Jack Cust, Colin Curtis, and Ray Kruml so they had an opening in their outfield and Mesa is their guy. He is an all or nothing kind of hitter with excellent power but does is not expected to be much in the majors. Let the speculation begin though about this move having ANYTHING to do with the impending free agency of Yankees RF Nick Swisher.

Recent International Free Agent Adonis Garcia , already 27 years old , has been promoted from Tampa to Trenton to take Mesa's spot. Mesa will have to share the outfield in "Scranton" with Darnell McDonald, Kosuke Fukodome, Ronnier Mustilier, and Chris Dickerson.

In a shocker and a head scratcher the Yankees designated Ramiro Pena for assignment yesterday. I cannot for the life of me understand why this happened, especially less then a month away from expanded rosters and with two of our infielders hurt. This one I do not get.

Trade Reactions - Hunter Pence & Ryan Dempster

"I'm going to make Giants fans forget about Barry Bonds. Stop laughing!"

Should I change my stance on the Dodgers winning the NL West?

No.

With the trades for Ramirez and Victorino, the Dodgers have done enough to win the division regardless of this move by their in-division rivals. I've already run the numbers in the post regarding Hanley on Monday, so there's no reason to go through it all again.

"Seriously?"

So this move means nothing to the Yankees?


Nope.

-----------

Well, since that was a short discussion, I decided to move up my stance on the Ryan Dempster to Texas deal that went down at the last minute on Tuesday. I was originally going to write the Dempster thing for Saturday, but no point in holding that back now.

Are the Rangers still headed for the Wild Card?

In my trade reaction to Zack Greinke going to the LA of A Angels I said the Rangers were looking at the Wild Card. It came down to the Angels having a killer rotation after adding Zack, to go along with an offense that has been hitting pretty well over the last month.

Is it illegal to kidnap baseball players?

The thing I didn't really get into was the Ranger rotation, as I felt it wasn't worth getting into as the Angels now have one of the best rotations in baseball. The Rangers best starter has been Matt Harrison, who sports an ERA of 3.19 and WAR of 3.8. Don't get me wrong... Matt's a really good pitcher. He put up an ERA+ of 129 last season. But a strikeout rate of 5.4 per 9 innings is not the making of a #1 starter to me.

Then there's Yu Darvish, who is a fine pitcher that has an ERA of 4.05 so far in 2012. But seeing that he's had issues with Seattle, who's hit .294/.424/.426 against him in three games this season, it's hard to take him that seriously. I mean, the Mariners have the worst wOBA in the American League (.288). Futher more, the Blue Jays, who are ranked 5th in the AL in team wOBA, were only able to plate 1 run off of 4 hits in 7 innings against Yu back in April. But when they faced Darvish again about a month later, they were able to score 3 runs off of 7 hits in only 5 innings. I'm sure Yu is looking forward to getting out of July too, as he had an ERA of 5.74 and WHIP of 1.425 in it.

The Rangers' probable #4 in the postseason is Derek Holland. Now Derek is a good pitcher, and at 25 years old he will probably get better, but when I see an ERA of 4.74 I can't help but to think "we can hit him". I'm sure I'm not alone in that thought either. Perhaps it's the Bandbox in Arlington that's the issue, where his ERA jumps from 3.40 on the road to 5.94 there. Of course, he won't find Yankee Stadium much more accomodating anyway.

"Derp!"

Which finally brings us to Ryan Dempster. I really don't feel the need to get too deep with him. Sure, he currently has a very nice 2.25 ERA and 1.038 WHIP. But in looking closer at this stats when the Yankees were in talks regarding him, I saw that he also has a BABIP against of .244, which is 61 points lower than his career average of .305. There's just no way he maintains that number. Add to that a Line Drive percentage of 22%, which is in line with his career mark of 21%, and I think he and the Rangers are in for a disappointing rest of the season.

So the Angels are still going to win the AL West?

Yep.

How does this affect the Yankees?

I believe the Yankees will have the best record in the American League, meaning they will face the winner of the Wild Card game. That Wild Card game will be played by the Texas Rangers and the Chicago White Sox, as I see the Tigers winning the AL Central (more on that tomorrow). Now I'd say that the Rangers are better than the White Sox, but in what will be 1 game to decide who goes to the 2nd round, I'm giving the nod to Chicago. Jake Peavy will be the starter for the White Sox in that game, and I think he has what it takes to shut down the potent Texas lineup. He has an ERA of 3.15 so far this year, thanks to a WHIP of 1.06 and batting average against of .229. Even if Jake isn't able to make the start due to injury, or whatever, Chris Sale and his 2.61 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, and .214 BAA is right there.

So with the White Sox moving on, I think it ends up that this trade does nothing to affect our beloved Yankees.

Wise Released, Pena Sent Down

DeWayne Wise refused his AAA assignment and the Yankees had until today to either release him or trade him... so they released him. His bunt and his "catch" will be two of the things we will remember in his short, but very solid, career with the Yankees

Ramiro Pena has been sent back down to AAA Empire State Yankees to make room for newly acquired Casey McGehee. Good Luck Ramiro, see you in September.

Orioles @ Yankees 8/1/12

Yankees win 12-3!

We did not nearly have the same kind of July that we had in June, ending July on a 4 game losing streak that included two loses to the Orioles and Red Sox. The Yankees look to start fresh in August against the Orioles this afternoon at the Stadium. On the mound for the Yankees will be Phil Hughes and he will be opposed against Zach Britton. The game will be on MLB Network's Wednesday Matinee and broadcasted on the YES Network at 1:05 pm ET.

Lineups

Go Yanks!!

Trade Reactions - Zack Greinke

"Thank God we're actually in Anaheim, as LA would probably give me too much anxiety."

Does this give the Angels the best rotation in MLB?

Two words... who cares? Teams do not win or lose games because they have "the best rotation in baseball", or they have "the best lineup in baseball". It certainly helps to have a rotation like the Angels now do, especially in a 5 or 7-game series, but the real questions is this...

Can the Angels win the American League West?

To start off I just want to say that the Oakland Athletics will not finish 2nd in that division. They've scored 414 runs this season, which is the lowest in not just their division but the entire American League. Over the last 30 days they have a .330 wOBA, which is about average in the league. Their best hitter this season has been rookie Yoenis Cespedes, who's sporting a BABIP that's very hard to sustain (.352), which tells me the rest of the season may not go so well for him. Chris Carter has looked good in his 20 games this year, but we're talking about a guy with a .203 batting average and .294 OBP in 552 MLB plate appearances. Brandon Moss has hit well for Oakland, but this guy has a career batting average of .238 and OBP of .305.

The Angels will get ahead of the As sooner rather than later.

Cheer up, you guys may at least get a new stadium soon.

The story wasn't so much about the Angels' ability to prevent runs, as they've given up only 414 of them, which is the 3rd least in the AL. The question is "can their bats score more often", as the Rangers have one of the best offenses in baseball. Looking at the past 30 days though, I think LAA can win their division.

Don't expect the Rangers to continue with a team wOBA of .302, their mark in the past 30 days, but seeing that the Angels have a team wOBA of .345 over that same time span tells me their bats are indeed good enough.

So along with a much stronger rotation, and guys like Albert Pujols performing to expectations, I think the Rangers will have to settle for a Wild Card bid into the postseason.

"In the immortal words of Ivan Drago, 'I must break you'."

What does this mean for the Yankees?

I believe, in my heart of hearts, that the Yankees will end the 2012 season with the best record in the American League. Which means they'd face the winner of the Wild Card game, and as I said earlier, the Angels will not be that opponent. The Angels, I predict, will play the American League Central champion (more on that before the end of the week). The pitching match-ups in a possible Angels-Tigers series is very intriguing... Weaver vs. Verlander, Wilson vs Scherzer, Greinke vs. Sanchez, Haren vs. Fister, but I can see the Angels coming out on top.

Meaning the ALCS would be between the Yankees and Angels (yes, I'm assuming the Yankees beat the winner of the Wild Card game). Sabathia vs. Weaver, Kuroda vs. Wilson, Pettitte vs. Greinke, and Nova vs. Fister will be awfully good. Maybe my pinstriped glasses are too much, but I'd call that a wash. On the offensive side of things I also see a wash. The "runs scored" category may be in the Yanks favor now (492 to 469), but over the last 30 days the teams are seperated by only .002 points in terms of team wOBA (.347 to .345 for the Bombers). Mind you that does include a poor stretch for the Yankee offense, along with being without Swisher and ARod, but in the end I think this has the makings of an intense ALCS.

"I make these look good"

Congratulations To Our Keychain Winner

We have been running a "Caption This" giveaway for a free Yankees keychain and we thank everyone who left a comment. I went over all the comments, all the emails, and all the tweets and we have decided to use THIS comment, left by user dm23HOF 

"When you look at the dark side, careful you must be. For the dark side looks back." 
What Girardi is thinking: "Welcome to the dark side, young Ichiro, welcome..."

 Congratulations to him. I hope we are able to give away more of these and more Yankees stuff to our fans.

Orioles @ Yankees 7/31/12

Yankees lose their 4th straight 11-5

The trading deadline and all that hysteria is finally over, although we have the waiver period through August 31st which always gets interesting, and the Yankees look reloaded and ready to go. Tonight they will try and stop a three game losing streak and put some more distance between them and the second place Orioles, who they play tonight. On the mound for the Yankees will be Ivan Nova and will be facing off against Chris Tillman. The game will be televised at 7:05 pm ET on the YES Network and on MLB Network.

Lineups

Derek Jeter DH
Curtis Granderson CF
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher 1B
Raul Ibanez LF
Eric Chavez 3B
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Russell Martin C
Ramiro Pena SS

Go Yankees!!

The Trade Deadline Comes & Goes

And a few notable deals got done and some of them could impact the Yankees.

The Rangers acquire Ryan Dempster for Christian Villanueva and Kyle Hendricks. Personally this does not scare me because I do not think Dempster's stuff translates well into the American League but hey what do I know.

The Reds acquired Kansas City closer Jonathan Broxton for Donnie Joseph and JC Sulbaran. Who? Yeah I know right...

The Marlins fire sale was over stated but they did trade Gaby Sanchez and Kyle Kaminska to the Pirates for Gorkys Hernandez and a competitive balance pick.

The Cardinals also acquired Marlins set up man Edward Mujica for Zack Cox.

The Red Sox acquired Diamonbacks reliever Craig Breslow which I find odd. The Red Sox sent Matt Albers and Scott Podsednick in the deal. I get that they needed a left handed reliever but Albers has been pretty solid for them.

The Giants may have got the best player at the deadline this year when they traded for 2013 arbitration eligible Hunter Pence. The Giants gave up Nate Schierholtz, Seth Rosin, and Tommy Joseph.

The Dodgers acquired Shane Victorino for Ethan Martin and Josh Linblom.

Victorino The Newest Dodger

With the Dodgers trading for Shane Victorino today, after adding Hanley Ramirez last week, I thought I'd add a bit to the Trade Reaction that was posted yesterday.

I had the Dodgers winning the NL West already. Although the pitching for the Dodgers and Giants is close, I  though LA had the better offense. Shane's line of .261/.324/.401 so far this season isn't going to give the Dodger lineup that big a boost, but it does improve their situation. After all, Victorino does have 24 stolen bases, so when he does get on base he's a pest. And seeing as how the Dodgers have gotten -0.9 WAR out of their left-fielders (I'm assuming Kemp stays in CF), it can only make them better.

However, it still doesn't mean anything to the Yankees, as I expect the National League Pennant winner to be one of Washington or St. Louis.

Joba Headed to New York

Joba Chamberlain was headed for Trenton, but had to make a u-turn and get to Yankee Stadium, as he's been activated.

credit: Andrew Marchand