Game Thread: Royals @ Yankees 7/8

The Yankees and the Royals face off tonight for their first of four meetings before the All Star break with Phil Hughes and Jeremy Guthrie going head to head on the mound. Hughes is coming off of two consecutive good starts and a couple days extra rest as he looks to put some distance between himself and Ivan Nova and Michael Pineda. Jeremy Guthrie has not won a game since June 10th which is a streak that I hope the Yankees can continue. Buy all your Yankees tickets here for this game and every game this series leading up to the break.

Here is the Yankees lineup

Brett Gardner CF
Zoilo Almonte LF
Robinson Cano 2B
Travis Hafner DH
Vernon Wells RF
Travis Ishikawa 1B
Luis Cruz SS
Alberto Gonzalez 3B
Austin Romine C

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2013 Home Run Derby Participants Announced

The 2013 State Farm Home Run Derby participants for next Monday July 15th have been announced, well most of them anyway. Here is the list.

For the American League with captain Robinson Cano we have

Robinson Cano

Prince Fielder

Chris Davis

TBA

For the National League with captain David Wright we have

David Wright

Carlos Gonzalez

Michael Cuddyer

Bryce Harper

Should be fun to see Chris Davis and Bryce Harper take their turns at the plate. Michael Cuddyer is pretty underrated in my opinion but I cannot see him making a serious run for the victory in a bigger field like Citifield. I wonder who the TBA will be, which will be announced tomorrow, for Robbie Cano. Speculation and predictions from TGP thinks that it will either be Nelson Cruz or Miguel Cabrera so we will see when it is announced tomorrow. 

Yankees Interested In Justin Ruggiano

The New York Yankees have been scouting Marlins hitters and we found out today that they are interested in outfielder Justin Ruggiano. I cannot say that I understand why because we already have a Justin Ruggiano on our roster named Vernon Wells but what do I know. Ruggiano is in his age 31 season and currently batting .225/.290/.414 with 12 home runs in 273 plate appearances this season for the Miami Marlins. I understand that he is an outfielder and is right handed but that is all that he has going for him in my opinion. I am all for upgrades, even marginal upgrades at this point, but I cannot say that this is one of them.

Baseball America Releases Their Mid Season Top 50

Baseball America has released their mid season top 50 prospects list and two New York Yankees farm hands have cracked the list. Gary Sanchez was ranked in the #34 spot and Rafael DePaula made a huge jump to the #45 spot. Gary Sanchez was listed in the #57 spot with concerns that he would not be able to stay behind the plate long term but he has hushed those concerns up to this date, at least temporarily. DePaula has taken the states by storm since finally acquiring his Visa and getting into professional baseball. The only Yankees player that was on the preseason list that is not on the list now is Mason Williams who was ranked #32 before 2013.

Travis Ishikawa Activated & David Adams Sent Down

Travis Ishikawa has been activated after being acquired off waivers over the weekend and is in the starting lineup tonight. Curtis Granderson was added to the 60 day DL to make room for Ishikawa on the 40 man roster and the 25 man roster move has finally been made. David Adams has been sent down to AAA Scranton for the Railriders to make room on the roster. I hate to see David go down but he was STRUGGLING and this can only do him some good at this point.

Yankees Kick Off HOPE Week Today

The Yankees have kicked off Helping Others Preserve & Excel Week, or more commonly known as HOPE Week, today by celebrating with the Rockaway Special Athletes.

Ivan Nova, Zoilo Almonte, Preston Claiborne, Adam Warren, David Adams, and Alberto Gonzalez to name a few surprised the team today at St. Rose of Lima School in Rockaway Beach. The Yankees and the RSA athletes played kickball, wiffle ball, and basketball in the schools gym. If that was not enough all of the members of RSA are invited to Yankees Stadium tonight to watch the Yankees take on the Kansas City Royals. The athletes will watch batting practice and be part of an on the field ceremony before the game.

I'll concede to Chad Jennings of Lohud for the story of the Rockaway Special Athletes by clicking the link provided because he did a great write up, as usual, and I refuse to paraphrase it.

Kansas City Royals @ New York Yankees 7/8

The New York Yankees and the Kansas City Royals will start a four game series today at Yankees Stadium. The Yankees will send Phil Hughes to the mound, for real this time, to face off with Jeremy Guthrie for the Royals. The game will be televised at 7:05 pm ET on YES and MLB TV.

Say it ain't so, Mo.

The Yankees came two outs short of returning the favor to the Baltimore Orioles, a team the Yankees were swept by last weekend. With the great Mariano Rivera on the mound with one on and one out in the 9th, the Stadium turned quiet as the Rivera cutter was sent into the left field seats by all star center fielder Adam Jones. With one swing, the game turned from a 1-0 lead into a 2-1 loss when Orioles closer Jim Johnson pitched a 1-2-3 9th after losing the game on Friday night. The Yankees took 2 out of 3 from Baltimore and are now only a half game behind the second place Orioles and Rays. The next seven games before the all star break are against teams the Yankees have yet to lose to, the Royals and Twins which gives New York high hopes of finishing the first half on a good note.

Game 89 Lineup: Royals vs. Yankees

Here is the starting lineup for Game 1 of this four game set! 

Brett Gardner CF
Zoilo Almonte LF
Robinson Cano 2B
Travis Hafner DH
Vernon Wells RF
Travis Ishikawa 1B
Luis Cruz 3B
Alberto Gonzalez SS
Austin Romine C

Phil Hughes RHP

Some Notes:

-- Travis Ishikawa is here and will play for the Yankees. The corresponding move is David Adams being demoted to Triple-AAA.

Closer Look At Travis Hafner's Performance Bonuses

Travis Hafner signed a one year deal with the Yankees worth $2,000,000 on February first with a ton of incentive kickers that could increase the deal to being worth $6,000,000. Let's take a closer look at Hafner's performance bonuses and how much more we could be paying Pronk this season if he stays healthy.

$100,000 for reaching each plate appearance plateau

150

155

170

185

200

215

230

245

260

275

$125,000 for reaching each plate appearance plateau 

290

305

320

335

350

365

380

395

410

425

$175,000 for reaching each plate appearance plateau

440

455

470

485

500

515

530

545

560

575

Not that we should really be concerned with, and I use the term loosely, chump change but it really helps that Pronk is a part time DH. With him not being on the disabled list as all this season, although he did miss a few games with a sore shoulder earlier in the season, he could trigger quite a few of these this season. 

*bolded denotes a plateau he has already reached.