Cashman's Thought Process For September Explained

The leg bone's connected to the, brain bone. The brain bone's connected to the... well you get the idea. Brian Cashman must be holding in his farts and they must be traveling up his spine because he is coming up with some shitty ideas this month.

Martin Prado Out w/ "Mild,Mild" Hamstring Strain

This has become comical at this point for the Yankees, I am on the verge of literally laughing here. Martin Prado is out today and Joe Girardi has all but deemed him out for tomorrow as well with a "mild, mild hamstring strain." Let the pampering begin.

9/3 Yankees Game Preview vs. Boston Red Sox

The New York Yankees continue their playoff push towards October in Derek Jeter’s final season tonight against the Boston Red Sox. The Yankees will send Hiroki Kuroda to the mound to face off with the Red Sox rookie starter Anthony Ranuado. The game will be played at 7:05 pm ET and can be seen on the YES Network, ESPN's Wednesday Night Baseball, MLB TV, and can be heard on the radio with John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman on WFAN.

Kuroda has been pitching well putting to bed the talks of a late season fade for a third consecutive season. Kuroda is coming off a start against the Detroit Tigers in which he allowed just two runs in another quality start. Kuroda has thrown three consecutive quality starts and has allowed more than three runs in just one of his last nine starts this season. Kuroda may actually be getting stronger as the season goes on this time around. 

Ranuado is making his second career start against the New York Yankees this season and looks for his fourth win of the season tonight in the Bronx. Ranuado beat the Yankees in his major league debut holding New York to just two runs over six innings on August 1. 

Get your Yankees tickets right here on the blog fortonight’s game or any of the Yankees remaining 25 regular season games aftertonight. Time is running out to see Derek Jeter live and in person in a Yankeesuniform so act now and buy.

Go Yankees!!

Why Is Derek Jeter So Untouchable?

The Yankees manager Joe Girardi stated yesterday that he was unwilling to move Derek Jeter down in the order and out of the second hole in the lineup. Girardi said, to paraphrase a bit, that the entire lineup was struggling and it was unfair to single out Jeter specifically in the lineup and for the struggles, something I read first when I wrote it hours before Girardi basically said the same exact thing. Why is Jeter so untouchable?

Joe Girardi is the same manager that wasn't afraid to move Jorge Posada down in the lineup during the 2011 season. Girardi even ruffled Posada's feathers enough by benching and DH'ing him that Posada was ready to call it a career and walk away from the team, reportedly anyway. Girardi was also the man that moved Alex Rodriguez down in the order the very next season and even pinch hit for him with Raul Ibanez in the 2012 postseason. Girardi benched A Rod for a lot of the stretch run during that 2012 season as well. Why is Jeter untouchable and Posada and Rodriguez not?

Jeter's August numbers were brutal, not that he was alone, after slashing .207/.226/.261. He's not the only one to blame but the idea of moving the lineup around should not be completely out of the discussion either. Shame on Girardi. 

Masahiro Tanaka & David Phelps Still On Track To Be Saviors

The New York Yankees got a couple of updates on starting pitchers Masahiro Tanaka and David Phelps and both got encouraging news for this season. Tanaka and Phelps are still on track to return to the Yankees in 2014 and may be the saviors and the lift that New York needs for their postseason push.

Tanaka was diagnosed with a "tired arm" by team doctor Chris Ahmad yesterday and is scheduled to throw a bullpen session sometime this week. Every test that came back was negative meaning there is no structural damage to the arm or the elbow, both great signs. While Tanaka will end up being shut down nearly a week making this a setback this is a much better scenario than having the team learning their decision to try and avoid surgery and being wrong. Great news.

Phelps threw a 25 pitch bullpen session yesterday throwing fastballs and changeups and is scheduled to ramp up his production to 35 pitches on Friday. I'm not entirely sure why the Yankees are being so cautious with Phelps when they weren't with Tanaka but they know more about the injuries and the risk than I do, and I am willing to admit that. Phelps will have his entire arsenal at his disposal on Friday and if all goes well he will also have all his pitched available on Sunday when he throws a simulated game on Derek Jeter Day.

Phelps may come off the disabled list after the simulated game before Tuesday night's game with the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium (New York is off on Monday). Tanaka is looking more and more like a mid September addition to the rotation, the date of September 12th keeps being thrown around Twitter and the Yankees blogosphere.

The Argument Against Jacob Lindgren Stinks

The argument against calling up Jacob Lindgren in a word, stinks. All I have heard is how Lindgren has thrown too many innings this season between his time at Mississippi State and the Yankees minor league affiliates. Yankees fans are quick to point out that the one troubling inning that Lindgren had at the end of the season was a telltale sign enough to keep him in the minor leagues until Spring Training, what kind of logic is that? When did the team start making excuses to keep guys like Josh Outman on the team and not call up flame throwers and exciting young arms like Lindgren? When did we start to ignore 79 innings of sample size and blame one bad inning or outing for a relief pitcher for why we cannot call up a player?

One has to keep in mind that the Yankees manager is still Joe Girardi and Girardi has shown an unwillingness to use rookies in any capacity lately, especially in the pitching staff. Bryan Mitchell was called up three different times this season before he was used (and he pitched well by the way before being sent right back down for a veteran struggling arm in Matt Daley) and we all by now know the story of Shane Greene and how he burst onto the scene out of necessity in the starting rotation out of necessity. If the innings are really a concern, which they aren’t because Lindgren was a starting pitcher not too awful long ago, then how many innings will Girardi realistically give to Lindgren? Is thinking that Girardi would give Lindgren five innings be being too generous to Joe?

Also when did one bad outing damn a relief pitcher? What if the Yankees had used that same approach with David Robertson? Robertson was sent down to the minors multiple times before sticking as the Yankees set up man and now is the closer that replaced the great Mariano Rivera. Speaking of Rivera he was also demoted in his time as a Yankees reliever and was a failed starter as well, good thing we called him up anyway. Dellin Betances struggled in 2013 when he was called up but was used this season out of necessity, look how well that turned out. Don’t base your decision off one bad outing down in Double-A is all I am saying.

If you want to keep Lindgren down because of the 40 man roster crunch I can get behind that and understand that, I don’t necessarily agree with it but still. Call a spade a spade, don’t piss on me and tell me it’s raining. Don’t tell me you’re going to let Matt Thornton go so you can call up guys like Jacob Lindgren and Tyler Webb only to shove more journeyman LOOGY’s down my throat. I’m tired of being lied to and I’m tired of losing with mediocre talent while good talent rots in the minor leagues praying to be traded so they can play. That is all. 

Quick Hit: I'm Finally Convinced, Fire Brian Cashman

Brian Cashman 20 minutes before making his September call up decisions........

I have been one of the biggest supporters and apologists for Brian Cashman during his tenure as the New York Yankees general manager but after yesterday's round of roster moves and September call ups I'm done defending him. Fire Brian Cashman, sooner rather than later. If you want to save face let him continue to ruin the team and the organization for the remainder of the season and give him the boot after the season. This is ridiculous and I'm tired of it.

So you let Matt Thornton go and build up Tyler Webb and Jacob Lindgren to call up Rich Hill and trade for Josh Outman. What do we do in September? We bring Hill back and totally ignore Lindgren (more on him later specifically) and Webb.

We start the clock on Slade Heathcott and designate switch hitter Zoilo Almonte for a month's worth of Chris Young and some guy named Antoan Richardson. To be completely honest I am pretty familiar with Richardson but I was trying to drive home my point with the decisions going on right here.

You call up John Ryan Murphy and once again slap Austin Romine in the face. You make a roster move for Preston Claiborne but you leave Manny Banuelos in the minor leagues, oh yeah we have Rich Hill. Is this guy doing it on purpose or do the personnel people really know something I don't?

I'm utterly wordless right now.

Charleston’s Luis Niebla Named Season’s Final SAL Pitcher of the Week

Becomes Third RiverDog in 2014 to Take Home League’s Pitcher of the Week Award

CHARLESTON, SC - Charleston RiverDogs pitcher Luis Niebla received the South Atlantic League Pitcher of the Week Award on Monday for games played August 25-September 1. Niebla spun a career-high seven scoreless innings and earned a win in his only outing of the season’s final week on Thursday, August 28 against the Greenville Drive.

A right-handed pitcher from Obregon, Mexico, Niebla started the RiverDogs home finale and fanned seven batters in a 10-0 Charleston victory over the Drive last Thursday. He allowed only three hits and did not walk anyone.

Niebla joins fellow pitchers Caleb Smith (April 21-27) and Jaron Long (May 26-June 1), as well as outfielder Dustin Fowler (June 9-15), as RiverDogs honored as either SAL Pitcher or Player of the Week this season.

This Day In New York Yankees History 9/3: Instant Replay In MLB Is Born

It took until the 2008 season for Major League Baseball to listen to the screams and get instant replay and wouldn't you know it, Alex Rodriguez was in the middle of the first controversy with replay. A Rod hit a towering fly ball that bounced off the Tropicana Field catwalk behind the foul pole in left field that was immediately called a home run. The Rays catcher Dioner Navarro disputed the call and two minutes and fifteen seconds later the umpires upheld the call on the field.

Also on this day in 1961 Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle become the first pair of teammates to each hit 50 home runs in a single season. Mantle hit his 50th against the Detroit Tigers in the bottom of the ninth inning to tie the game at 5-5. Mantle finished the 1956 season with 52 home runs as well so this was his second 50 home run season.

Finally on this day in 1947 the Yankees beat the Red Sox 11-2 by hitting 18 hits in the game, all singles. Joe DiMaggio and Tommy Henrich led the barrage at Fenway Park with four hits each in the Yankees victory.

Greene Struggles Mightily as Yankees Drop Third Straight to Red Sox

Shane Greene gave up 6 earned runs in 2 2/3 innings and Brett Gardner got ejected in the fifth for arguing the strikezone tonight as the Yankees continue to labor with a 9-4 loss to the Red Sox.

For the Yanks, dissapointingly, the defeat was their third consecutive, dropping them to just 70-66 on the season despite the fact they won seven of their previous nine before Saturday.

And yes, this evening's contest was as bad as its score suggests. 

After the Yoenis Cespedes-led Sox put up a pair in their half of the first, Daniel Nava drove a three-run shot into the right-field seats in the third, making it 5-0 before Xander Boegarts tacked on another blast of his own.

At that point, down 6-0 early, it was clear things weren't going New York's way, a fact that seemed to force Joe Girardi to take Greene out.

No, the excitement didn't necessarily end there, but since a duo of homers by Martin Prado and Brian McCann as well as a walk by Francisco Cervelli and a single by Derek Jeter were all New York's offense could muster against Joe Kelly (6 2/3 IP, 3 ER) on the night the Yankees did obviously fall in the end, an annoyance that has unfortunately become common lately.