Yanks Eek Out Win

The Yankees managed to maintain their composure and put together some late inning heroics to get a win against Baltimore last night, thanks to some awesome hitting by Bobby Abreu who went 5 for 5.

Mussina was not on target, giving up 4 runs over 6 innings, but in the end it was enough. Damaso Marte actually managed to get two batters out without giving up a hit or a run. Rivera was sharp at the end, getting the final 4 outs with relative ease.

It's been pointed out that Pavano is starting today, and several bloggers have asked "why?' The only one benefitting from this is Carl Pavano, who gets a chance to showcase his talents for any team that might be interested in signing him via free agency next year. The Yankees would be better served by giving Phil Hughes some more experience on the mound in the majors.

It's an interesting perspective and one with a lot of merit. The reason I see for putting Pavano out there instead of Hughes, is to get Phil more time in the minors to really work through his injuries and work on his delivery a bit, taking time to make sure when you do come back, you're throwing the best pitches of your life. An early comeback with another rocky outing could shake a young pitcher's confidence.

Over on the LoHud blog, Pete Abraham had some scathing criticism of Robinson Cano, which I largely agree with. What really bothered me was the implied fact that several of Cano's teammates think he's dogging it at times and not putting forth a good effort. That's a recipe for disaster. Once your teammates lose faith in you, it's over. Unfortunately, Joe Girardi has shown zero capability of getting people motivated and it wouldn't surprise me to see this type of behavior continue.

Back Above .500

It took extra innings, but the Yankees toughed out an exciting win last night. The winning pitcher? Ross Ohlendorf. Joe Girardi brought Ross to pitch the 10th and 11th innings and the struggling reliever walked 2, gave up 2 hits, and struck out 4 all the while allowing no runs. Granted Joe didn't have a lot of other options, but it looks like he's still got faith in the young pitcher.

Notably absent in both Friday and Saturday's games was LaTroy Hawkins, who looks to be in the doghouse and won't be called on in close spots. Kyle Farnsworth, on the other hand, has been brought in two nights in a row. The YES announcers commented on how Torre never used to use Kyle two days in a row and were hesitant as to how he'd perform. On Friday he gave up a quick run to close a 2-run lead to a 1-run lead. Last night he quickly got all three batters out.

Veras and Ramirez both continue to look good and are the heart of the Yankees middle relief right now. I'd take either of them over Farnsworth in the set-up role, but Girardi has been a longtime Farnsworth fan and that doesn't look like it's going to change any time soon.

Neither of the starters looked particularly sharp, but both Wang and Mussina managed to get through the bulk of the innings with the score close, and sometimes, that's all you can ask.

Bobby Abreu has been the offensive star the last two games, going 2 for 5 and then 3 for 4.

There has been a bit of sloppy play lately, and errors and bad plays that could be scored as errors are starting to creep into the mix more and more. Alex Rodriguez got picked off of second base after stealing it, and a similar thing happened to Derek Jeter a few days back. Last night's game had an errant throw by Jeter that cost the team a run and the night before Shelley Duncan had an error.

Shelley Duncan is a fun guy to watch. He brings a great deal of enthusiasm to the game and is good for bench morale. Unfortunately, he really hasn't improved his game much over the last year. He's hitting .161 and is playing average defense at best. He really hasn't turned out to be much of an improvement defensively over the lumbering Giambi and hasn't come close to the offensive production, despite the fact that Giambi was in a huge slump.

I like Shelly and would like to see him stick around, but he's got work to do. He might last a bit longer than Ensberg, but he's going to have to start bringing something more to the table if he wants to be successful in the big leagues.

2009 Free Agents

Just for kicks I thought I'd take a look at who will become a free agent at the end of the season. I'm listing all the important Yankees, and a few non-Yankees of interest.

First Base:

Jason Giambi*

Third Base:

Morgan Ensberg

Outfielders:

Bobby Abreu

Starting Pitchers:

Mike Mussina

Andy Pettitte

Relief Pitchers:

Kyle Farnsworth

LaTroy Hawkins

 

At first base, Mark Texiera will become available, and at 28 still has quite a few good years left in him. Several of the Yankees are getting a bit old at their position and might want to consider sliding over to first (Jeter, Posada). I don't see any way Giambi gets re-signed and wouldn't be surprised to see him get traded or cut if he continues to struggle. Also in the wings is Shelley Duncan, the utility OF/1B who has shown promise in the minor leagues but hasn't hit well in the majors this year.

Morgan Ensberg is more of a utility guy for the Yankees right now, and could get a better offer from someone else who wants to make him a starter. He is nice to have around, and currently adds more value to the team than Giambi. There are always youngsters like Eric Duncan and veterans like Cody Ransom ready to step in.

Bobby Abreu is an afterthought at this point. The Yanks already have too many outfielders and unless they trade someone, there's no need to keep Abreu around. Damon, Cabrera and Matsui can handle the job and guys like Duncan and Brett Gardner can fill in and you still have Tabata in the wings.

Mussina will likely be gone, Pettitte might sign on for another year if he holds up but the Yankees are going to need someone to fill in at least one spot. Assuming everything works out and Joba, Ian and Phil all come around as productive starters, Wang will still be an ace and then you've got one spot to fill. If Pettitte comes back you've got 5 but that's a lot of if's. Especially the way the staff is struggling right now, it wouldn't surprise me to see the Yanks pick someone up this year and then only re-signing Pettite if someone else doesn't work out.

I can't see the Yankees keeping Farnsworth around, despite Girardi's fascination with the hittable reliever. Hawkins is definitely gone. By next season Bruney should be healthy again and you've got Albaladejo,  Ohlendorf, Betances, Melancon and Patterson ready to take over.

There's a chance another minor league guy could be ready to try starting in the bigs. Darrel Rasner has been pitching well in the minors, but I see him as more of a long reliever. Jeff Marquez and Daniel McCutchen will get their shots eventually.

The Yankees have a lot of prospects that could play a role on next year's team. It would be hard to justify signing an overpriced veteran on the decline to a big contract when you've invested so much into bringing the young talent along. Then again, we're talking about the Yankees here, who am I kidding.

Abreu Grand Slam Propels Yanks to Win

Chien-Ming Wang was getting hit frequently Tuesday night in Chicago, but Bobby Abreu came through with a 2 out grand slam home run.

Wang gave up 10 hits in 6 innings and allowed 3 runs. Many of Wang's pitches that were put into play went deep and were caught on the warning track. In a different ballpark the results could have been much uglier for the Yankees. Chien-Ming's win was the 50th of his career, reached in only 85 games. Dwight Gooden and Ron Guidry reached the 50 mark after 82 games.

The Bullpen was less than stellar today. Billy Traber was only allowed to face one batter, which he walked. Brian Bruney came on and proceeded to load the bases while only getting one out. Finally the Yanks called in Joba Chamberlain to get out of the bases loaded, one out jam. Struck out one batter, walked in a run, and then got the final out on a pop fly fielded by Posada.

To keep things interesting, New York manager Joe Girardi gave every fan watching a scare by brining in Kyle Farnsworth to close out the game. With the Yankees up 5 in the the bottom of the ninth, Farney walked one, gave up a hit, and allowed a run to score before getting the third out of the inning and ending the game.

Bobby Abreu had the biggest clutch hit of the night and put the Yankees on top in the seventh inning. Johnny Damon went 3 for 5 with a home run of his own. Jason Giambi was removed from the game with a swollen thumb after a horrible defensive play at first that should have been scored an error. While Giambi did hit a solo home run, his offensive production is still poor and he remains a huge defensive liability.

Surprisingly there were no stolen bases with Posada behind the plate, and no runners were caught stealing. Yankee pitchers did a good job of keeping runners close to first, but the one or two times runners went early, balls were put into play. I'm surprised that there weren't more attempts to steal, given the vulnerable arm that Jorge has.

The team LOB tonight was 6, a respectable number. If the Yankee bats can get on base and drive runners home like they did tonight, they'll be able to overcome their problems with pitching. Up until now it's mostly been starting pitching, but tonight the bullpen looked particularly vulnerable.

Congratulations to Alex Rodriguez and his wife on the birth of their second daughter.

Competition Notes: The Boston Red Sox beat the Los Angeles Angels 7-6, and are showing no signs of letting up. This is troubling to Yankee fans because the Sox ace Josh Beckett was scratched from the game. Instead, David Pauley was called up from the minors for the start. Pauley was shelled, giving up 7 hits and 5 runs in 4.1 innings of work. The Boston bullpen held strong, and even Mike Timlin got a batter out as they waited for the offense to come alive in later innings and secure the win. Even with their best starter out, this team finds a way to win. The Yanks will have to wait another day to try and close the gap.

Terrific Game for Mussina

Mike Mussina brought his "A" game today, pitching a very solid 6 innings giving up 1 run on 2 hits, struck out 3 and walked 1. Mussina looked in command right from the start. We all know he can pitch extremely well, but you don't always know which Moose is going to show up for a game. Let's hope for more outings like tonight.

Brian Bruney delivered the goods giving up no hits but hitting one batter.

I've done a lot of Farnsworth bashing up to this point and so I'd like to give him the credit he's due. Farnsworth's stuff was working tonight. Kyle retired the side in order, striking out one. He had his fastball coming in at 93 mph, but he pitched a smart game mixing up the sinker, slider, 2-seamer and 4-seamer nicely. Nice job Kyle.

Hawkins was his usual scary self. Fortunately he didn't give up any runs but he put batters on 2nd and 3rd. The fans were quick to boo him when he got in trouble which didn't do anything for his confidence.

This was the type of offensive game you've come to expect from the Yankees. Bobby Abreu had the hot bat, going 3 for 3 with 3 runs and 2 RBIs. He showed some speed churning out a stand up triple. A-Rod, Matsui and Cano all had timely hits to drive in runs.

Derek Jeter strained a quadriceps muscle hustling down the first base line and left the game before the 3rd inning. Wilson Betemit is not the kind of guy you want playing on a long term basis because of his lackluster offense. Hopefully Jeter will be back soon.

Morgan Ensberg got his first hit as a Yankee tonight.

Pettitte Unsuccessful In First Outing

Andy Pettitte couldn't quite deliver the goods in his first appearance of the 2008 regular season. The day started well with a warm reception from the fans despite the offseason HGH/steroid controversy.

The box score tells the tale pretty well. 8 hits and 3 walks in 5 innings is not going to get the job done. 5 runs scored but only 3 were earned to deep ball that was dropped by Matsui. Pettitte's control seemed decent (despite hitting Pena twice), but he didn't have enough "stuff" to get the batters out and gave up too many hits. Hopefully he'll revert back to his old self sooner rather than later.

Ohlendorf and Bruney eached pitched two good innings although Ross did give up a single home run. I'm liking these two guys so far this season.

A-Rod had a nice clutch 2 out RBI double to score Damon in the first. Nice to see Rodriguez get a hit when it matters.

The play of the day occurred early on when Jonny Gomes hit what looked like a home run that bounced off the top of the outfield wall and fell into play. Bobby Abreu made a nice play to throw the ball to Jeter who was able to tag Gomes, who had assumed the ball was a homer and was doing a lazy, head down trot. Gomes made up for it later by hitting a 3 run homer.