Gardner & Robertson Injury Update

The Yankees have announced today, after Brett Gardner went for a cortisone shot, that Brett Gardner does not have ligament damage in his elbow and will only miss another 3-4 weeks. That puts him coming back at a mid to late July time frame. Just in time for us to hopefully NOT overreact and trade a vital piece for a stop gap outfielder for the stretch run, see Xavier Nady. 

David Robertson will be activated tomorrow for the game in Washington against the Nationals. David Phelps was optioned to AAA Empire State to make room on the 25 man roster. I agree with this move because Phelps has not been used in nearly two weeks and there is no sense in him being up without being used, especially when we have Freddy Garcia. 

We're Not Done In Atlanta...

I have so many pictures to upload, I got a Yankees Press Release I thought about scanning and uploading, and so much more on this off day. We're not done with the Atlanta Braves and the sweep down in Turner Field. Stay tuned to this post and I will be updating it as the day goes on. 

Here is a quick preview because I am struggling to get this adobe file onto the blog for whatever reason. 

Yankees @ Braves 6/13/12

Update Alex Rodriguez with an RBI single in the 1st to make it 1-0

Yankees win 3-2 to sweep!

I will be at the game tonight so the updates will be sporadic, or non existent, but tonight the Yankees will go for the sweep against the Atlanta Braves down in Turner Field in Atlanta. Hiroki Kuroda will be going for the Yankees tonight against Braves right hander Tim Hudson.

Lineups

The Yankees are in first place in the AL East ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays and Baltimore Orioles.


Go Yankees!!

He's Back... almost

According to Joe Girardi, David Robertson will return to the team tomorrow and be activated from the Disabled List on Friday. Initially I was thrilled by this news, but I started to think... do the Yankees really need him back?

David has not pitched for the Yanks since May 11th, and since then the Yankees are 18-11 (.620 winning percentage). So on the surface it looks like the team has been fine without D-Rob, but the stats tell a different story.

"You miss me because I can do this."

Now sure, in the previous 30 days,Yankee relievers have put up a 3.9 WAR, which is 4th in the American League (5th in MLB). But after that things go downhill. Their ERA was 3.84, which is 7th in the AL. The bullpen's FIP has been 3.49 , which is 9th in the younger league. Yankee Relievers WHIP...1.25, 12th in AL. And finally the reliever's batting average against over the past 30 days was .234, which is 10th in AL.

So I'm going to go out on a limb and say that getting back David Robertson, and his career ERA of 3.00, FIP of 2.82, WHIP of 1.33, and BAA of .216, is a really good thing. Okay, so his WHIP isn't that good, but we all know about Robertson's magic act, where he'll let runners get on but never allow them to cross the plate.

So the only question that remains is "who loses their roster spot?" River Avenue Blues has a good post (surprise!) that goes over the options for making room, so no reason for me to write 'em out for you. So I'll just tell you my response to this question...

David Phelps

"Hmm... not work but a few times a month, or the minors?"

Besides the fact that he hasn't done anything over the past 11 days (9 games), David's days as a starter are not over with. So why not send him back down to AAA, that way he can start games again regularly and the Yankees have an option for the rotation next season and the future? The bullpen doesn't need him, as Freddy Garcia is already in the bullpen, meaning the team right now has two long men. Back when the Yankee starters were throwing to a FIP of 4.91 (their May number, which was 11th in the AL) it made sense, since they needed a long man like every other day. But now that the starters are going much deeper into games, and throwing to a FIP of 3.96 (their number over the past 30 days, which is 3rd in the AL), it makes zero sense to keep a second long man on the roster.

Now some people may say at this point "then ship out Freddy Garcia". Well, like Mike at RAB pointed out in that post, you never know when things are going to go downhill again, and Freddy may be needed to make a start or two or three. Starting depth has a tendency to go away really quickly. And that doesn't get into the fact that the Yankees could end up paying Garcia to pitch someplace else, as a team that claims him off of waivers would only be on the hook for the remaining portion of a minimum salary. So let's try and get as much value out of Sweaty Freddy as we can.

"What do I want? LOL, as if anybody cares what I want."

Yankees @ Braves 6/12/12

UPDATE:

Just like that , in the first inning, it is 3-0 Braves

Make that 4-0 Braves

Minor is out of the game after pitching 7+ shut out innings.

The Yankees mount a comeback in the 8th with Johnny Venters on the mound. Alex Rodriguez hits a grand slam, his 23rd of his career, to tie the game. 4-4!!

Alex Rodriguez's 23rd career grand slam ties Lou Gehrig for the most all time in major league baseball history! 

Nick Swisher with a two run home run to put the Yankees up 6-4!! What an 8th inning.

Yankees Win 6-4

Tonight the Yankees will face off against the Atlanta Braves in game 2 of a three game set at Turner Field in Atlanta. CC Sabathia will be on the mound for the Yanks as they try to keep playing hot baseball and will be facing the Braves Mike Minor. The game will be televised at 7:05 pm ET on MY9 and MLB Network. 

Lineups

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

The Yankees are currently tied for first place with the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East

Go Yankees!

Jorge Soler Is NOT A Yankee

Yesterday I had a little fun with those Yankees fans that want the team to trade for an outfielder, but in Jorge Soler's case I was hoping the Yankees would sign the Cuban defector. When I read Mike Axisa, from River Ave Blues, say that Soler was looking at a 4 year deal worth around $20 million, I was all in. Not that $5 million a season wouldn't be a lot for a 20 year-old, but I'm not sure the team has anybody from within that could take over for either Nick Swisher or Curtis Granderson (at least when either man's current contract is over with).

I figured the team may need to bring back Nick Swisher, who could probably be re-signed for a 3 year deal worth like $12 million a season (Josh Willingham, who is fairly similar to Swish offensively, signed a 3 year deal worth $21 million this last offseason), since Soler wouldn't be ready to go in 2013. I could have seen Jorge taking over for Granderson after the 2013 season (Soler would be 22 at that point), but now the Yankees have to think again.

Earlier today Jon Heyman tweeted that Jorge Soler had agreed to a deal with the Chicago Cubs, for 9 years and $30 million. Yep, you read that right... 9 years. That's a long time for Prince Fielder, let alone a 20 year-old that's never played pro ball outside of Cuba. So although I would have liked the Yankees to acquire Soler, I'm just fine with backing off that many years.

Some time in the future I'm going to look at the future Yankees, and try and see what they'd have to do to get to a payroll of $189 million in 2014.

Yankees @ Braves 6/11/12

A good night for Ivan Nova who collects his first major league hit and, with some help from a slew of Yankees relievers, threw a shut out en route to a 3-0 Yankees victory.

We now have a share of first place in the AL East with CC Sabathia on the mound tonight in Hotlanta.

Welcome to Atlanta where the players play! The Yankees start a three game series tonight against the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field in Atlanta. Ivan Nova will be on the mound for the Yankees and will be facing  Randall Delgado for the Braves. The game will be televised on YES at 7:05 pm but I will be watching it on the local channels. 

Lineups...

The Yankees, even after a sweep of the Mets, are still .5 games behind the Rays for the top spot in the AL East after they swept the Miami Marlins down in Miami over the weekend. 

Go Yankees!

Welcome To Atlanta..

Where the players play?

It is tough being a Yankees fan and being misplaced in another state. As a lot of you may not know I was born in the Bronx New York in a hospital overlooking Yankees Stadium. When I was 14 years old I moved down to metro Atlanta Georgia with my mother due to personal reasons. The last time I got to see a Yankees game live and in person before the 2009 trip down here (and eventual World Series title) was in 1998 (another World Series title) so it was a long drought. This week, starting tonight, the Yankees will once again come down to Atlanta looking to go into first place. For me though it is much more then that because I get to see my Yankees live. A luxury that I definitely took for granted when I lived in New York and a luxury that I definitely did not take enough advantage of when I lived there. I will be seeing Hiroki Kuroda pitch on Wednesday so I am excited and scared at the same time. Excited because Kuroda eats up NL bats but scared because you never know what you are going to get from him. I am just happy to being able to see my team live, win or lose, and root root root for the home team.

I am not sure why I wanted to share this with you but I did. Go Yankees! 

Mets @ Yankees 6/10/12

Eyeing A Sweep

The Yankees finished off the sweep today as they won in walk off fashion , 5-4, to the New York Mets. Russell Martin hit two home runs, including the walk off, to give the Yankees a much needed boost in the arm. The Rays won and the Orioles won so the Yankees stay .5 games back from first place in the AL East. The next opponent for the Yankees is the Atlanta Braves starting tomorrow with Ivan Nova. Yankees went 5-1 on their homestand .

Yankees To Acquire Outfielder

Sometime around the All Star break the Yankees will acquire an outfielder. This outfielder isn't known for hitting for a high batting average, or high slugging percentage, but he does have a career on-base percentage of .355. And best of all he's stolen 96 bases over the previous two seasons. Having that type of baserunning presence in front of Derek Jeter and Curtis Granderson should lead to many scoring opportunities.

Things look even better on the defensive side of things. This outfielder not only has a UZR/150 of 36 for his career, but he's also won the Fielding Bible award for left field in each of the last two years, beating out Carl Crawford... who won the award in three of the previous four seasons.

"What's a 'Fielding Bible'"?

The catch is the team has to wait for this guy for a month or so. But I don't think that's going to be a problem. The team is currently 5th in runs in the American League, 3rd in team batting average, 2nd in on-base percentage, and 2nd in slugging percentage. The current Yankees also have drawn the 3rd most walks in the AL, and 11th in strikeouts. In fact, outside of hitting with runners in scoring position, which is pretty hard to predict out of a player or team, the one spot the Yankees offense could use a boost in is stolen bases (they've only stolen 32 bases, which ranked 11th in the AL).

As for the Yankees' opponents this month, they have 10 total games against the Braves (6) and White Sox (4), which should be fairly difficult as both teams have scored more and given up less that their respective league's averages. But the rest of the schedule doesn't look all that tough. The Bombers will face the Mets four more times, and the bastard son of New York has a -18 run differential. The Yanks will face off with the Nationals three times, and although Washington has been pitching great, they simply can't hit (220 runs scored, in a league where teams average 247 runs scored). NY will also face off against the Indians 3 times, and although the Tribe is 31-27, they still score less runs and give up more runs than the league average.

He's not the Gold Glover he was in Atlanta, but Jones isn't bad in LF.

Before the All Star break the Yanks will also have to play Tampa Bay and Boston, so yeah... it would be nice to have this outfielder before then. But seeing as how the team is a combined 6-5 against those division teams, I'm not all that worried.

I haven't gotten to my favorite part of this acquisition yet... the Yankees do not have to give up anything for this guy. Cashman doesn't have to deal away prospects such as Manny Banuelos, Mason Williams, or Gary Sanchez. And when I said "anything", that includes money. This guy is not going to cost the team a dime to get. See, this outfielder is already on the team.

"I can see the light at the end of the tunnel"

I know, seeing that Gardy has only played in 9 of the team's 58 games, it's really hard to look forward to them getting him back. Brett's suffered a couple of setbacks on the DL. But I am optimistic that he'll be back with the team around the All Star break, since he was able to play the other day, and went 1-for-3 with a stolen base. If there was a serious issue with his elbow I don't think he would have made it much further than just swinging a bat in BP, let alone swinging a bat in an actual game.

Sure, now the team will get back the test results from Dr. James Andrews tomorrow, and Gardner's elbow will be all screwed up, and Brett will be lost for the rest of the season. And this entire post will look more ridiculous than some fans already think it is.