Thursday Morning Food For Thought: A Simple Lineup Switch

Talking about the need for Joe to make lineup changes is almost a dead horse topic at this point.  He's fiddled where and when he could, but regular injuries and subpar performance have handcuffed any chances for real results.  He's not going to move Derek Jeter out of the 2-spot, he can't count on Carlos Beltran being a reliable run producer in the middle, and if he had somebody better than Ichiro to hit 7th he would be using him now.  The Yankee lineup is what it is.

Except for 1 easy and almost stupidly logical move that Joe can still make.  He could swap Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner in the batting order.  Ellsbury can go back and hit first like he was always supposed to, and Gardner, one of the hottest hitters on the team, can move down to a better run-producing spot in front of Teix.  Ellsbury's a better base stealer, Gardner has hit for more power, what is there to lose?  I doubt it's going to happen, but I'm rooting for it when the lineup card comes out tomorrow afternoon.

P.S.- For more on this topic, check out William Tasker's post from Tuesday at IIATMS/TYA.

Mark Teixeira Scratched From Today's Lineup (UPDATED)

Mark Teixeira was penciled in as the starting first baseman today when the Yankee lineup was first released.  A few minutes ago, he was scratched and replaced by Kelly Johnson.

Multiple beat reporters had the story, but so far there has been no explanation from the team on why Teix was scratched.  Thinking back to the tired legs he talked about having during and after the Milwaukee series, maybe it has something to do with that.  Better to play it safe with him with how shorthanded the middle of the batting order is right now.  More on this story as it becomes available...

** UPDATE 12:55 PM- Via Mark Feinsand, Teix's right wrist was feeling stiff.  Joe decided to give him a day off today to rest it and said he was "hopeful" he could have Teix back in the lineup tomorrow. **

** UPDATE 12:57 PM- A few more details on the wrist, via Dan Barbarisi and Andrew Marchand.  According to Joe, Teix has been dealing with the stiffness for a few days, but it's not considered a big deal and no tests are scheduled.  That's good news. **

Opening Day Starting Lineup

Joe announced this yesterday, but here's the starting lineup that will take the field tonight:

1) Jacoby Ellsbury- CF
2) Derek Jeter- SS
3) Carlos Beltran- RF
4) Brian McCann- C
5) Mark Teixeira- 1B
6) Alfonso Soriano- DH
7) Brett Gardner- LF
8) Brian Roberts- 2B
9) Kelly Johnson- 3B

SP) CC Sabathia

A couple thoughts.  Not sure how I feel about Teix hitting 5th when he's admittedly not swinging normally.  I'd rather see him 6th.  And it's a little surprising to see Gardner 7th and Johnson 9th.  Johnson's lefty power after Soriano's righty power makes more sense in the 7-spot, but Joe must have something in mind so I'm willing to see how this lineup works before questioning the decision.

Spring Training Opener Starting Lineup

1) Brett Gardner- CF
2) Francisco Cervelli- C
3) Kelly Johnson- 3B
4) Russ Canzler- 1B
5) Zoilo Almonte- LF
6) Brendan Ryan- SS
7) Adonis Garcia- RF
8) Yangervis Solarte- 2B
9) John Ryan Murphy- DH

SP) Vidal Nuno

Available to play off the bench: Gary Sanchez, Jose Gil, Corban Joseph, Dean Anna, Jose Pirela, Antoan Richardson, Mason Williams, Ramon Flores, Peter O'Brien, Francisco Arcia, Austin Romine, Zealous Wheeler

Available to pitch out of the bullpen: Brian Gordon, Shane Greene, Bryan Mitchell, Francisco Rondon, Chase Whitley, Fred Lewis, Dan Burawa

There you have it.  A mix of mostly lower-level guys and fringe roster competitors.  Let's play ball!

Thinking About The Potential DH Carousel

(Not pictured: the Yankees DHs.  Courtesy of Richard Walker)

(Originally published at IIATMS/TYA)

We're less than 4 weeks away from pitchers and catchers reporting, so baseball is officially out there on the horizon.  When that Friday comes, baseball will officially be back and a few days later when the rest of the team arrives at the Tampa complex Spring Training 2014 will be fully underway.  As usual, there will be a handful of roster battles that will dominate the ST headlines, highlighted by the annual 5th starter competition.  A bench job or 2 will be up for grabs, as will some bullpen roles, possibly the closer role if the Yanks do end up signing another veteran late-inning reliever, and the third base platoon jobs.

One spot that won't be up for competition this year is designated hitter.  The older and injury risky Yankees have more candidates for the DH spot than ever this season and will most likely be rotating a large cast of veteran characters through it in an attempt to keep everybody as well-rested and healthy as possible.  How that rotation is going to work and what players get the most time in the DH spot remains to be seen, and managing that rotation will be among the most daunting tasks on Joe's plate this season.

Saturday Evening Food For Thought: Current Opening Day Starting Lineup

1) Jacoby Ellsbury- CF
2) Derek Jeter- SS
3) Carlos Beltran- RF
4) Mark Teixeira- 1B
5) Brian McCann- C
6) Alfonso Soriano- DH
7) Kelly Johnson- 3B
8) Brian Roberts- 2B
9) Brett Gardner- LF

If Opening Day was tomorrow, that's the lineup I'd write down if I were Joe.  Is it perfect?  No.  It still needs some right-handed pop, preferably at third base so that Johnson can be moved to the bench, but it's not horrible.  I've seen a lot of talk about Ellsbury and Gardner at the top but I don't see that happening.  In the same way I don't see Jeter getting taking out of the shortstop position, I don't see him getting moved out of the top of the order until he proves he can't hit anymore.  Same concept with Teix.  He may not be capable of being an effective cleanup hitter anymore, but that's where he's hit a lot since joining the Yankees and I think Joe is going to show him some loyalty before bumping him down to 5 or 6 behind McCann.

There is speed, there is balance thanks to the multiple switch hitters, and it is a better Opening Day lineup than 2013's was.  If the Tanaka posting pushes the Yankees over the LT threshold, it should get a little more help before spring camp starts.

C-Grand Brings Respectability Back To The Lineup

(Courtesy of MiLB.com)

(Originally published at IIATMS/TYA)

Barring any really unforeseen setbacks in the next few hours, all expectations are that Curtis Granderson will rejoin the Yankees and return to the lineup this weekend.  He wasn't in the Double-A Trenton lineup yesterday and Josh Norris reported that he was off to rejoin the team in Cali.  There was no formal confirmation or announcement by the team - they were basically on media blackout yesterday with the A-Rod stuff still hanging out there - but I can't imagine they would give up a day of rehab ABs for C-Grand if they and he were confident he was ready.  Personally, and I don't think I'm alone here, I'm hoping to see him back tonight.

Whether it's tonight or tomorrow, the return of Granderson to an already upgraded lineup should bring that lineup up out of the "upgraded" category and back to a level more befitting of a competitive Major League team.  While "good" would still be a bit of a stretch, these boys should now be at least respectable against both righty and lefty pitchers.

Does Travis Hafner's DL Trip Matter?

(Courtesy of the AP)

It got swept under the rug by the related story of Derek Jeter returning, but Travis Hafner hit the DL on Sunday with a right rotator cuff strain.  He had problems with the same shoulder earlier in the year, and it finally got bad enough where the decision was made to DL him, removing a powerful lefty bat from the lineup.  Well, in theory that's what it did.  In actuality, it cleared some dead weight from the middle of the lineup and actually gave Joe a chance to insert a potentially more productive bat.

The Captain Returns To The Lineup Today

1) Brett Gardner- CF
2) Derek Jeter- SS
3) Robinson Cano- 2B
4) Alfonso Soriano- LF
5) Vernon Wells- DH
6) Ichiro Suzuki- RF
7) Brent Lillibridge- 3B
8) David Adams- 1B
9) Chris Stewart- C

SP) Phil Hughes

That's the starting lineup for this afternoon's series finale against Tampa.  And while the bottom half of it is still as ugly and most likely as unproductive as ever, there's a familiar name back at the top.  Derek Jeter came through yesterday's sim game without issues, was cleared to play, and is back at his starting shortstop position today.  It's unknown how much he'll contribute, and I'm on the record as being very pessimistic about how the rest of the season is going to play out for him, but with as bad as this team is playing and as quickly as they seem to be going nowhere it's at least something.  He's still my favorite player of all time and he's always going to be.  I hope he can stay healthy and stay on the field for this whole game and the rest of the season.

The Grandy Man Returneth

(Originally published at IIATMS/TYA)

After the Yankees made a roster move to add a pitcher for yesterday's second doubleheader game, speculation started almost immediately about what it meant.  Brett Marshall was added as extra bullpen insurance, insurance that wasn't needed, but Brennan Boesch getting sent down to clear a spot was the real story because it could mean only one thing.  Curtis Granderson was ready to come back.

Joe hinted at it in his postgame presser, Donnie Collins added fuel to the fire with his report, and Granderson himself all but confirmed it last night on Twitter.  He's on his way to New York to meet up with the team today, and with Corban Joseph having to go back down to Triple-A immediately after yesterday's game the expectation is that C-Grand will be activated off the DL to fill that roster spot and will be in the starting lineup for tonight's game.

Lineup Vs. Lefties Still Needs Work

(Originally published at IIATMS/TYA)

Despite having two consecutive games rained out in the middle of a major offensive outburst, the Yankees didn't miss too many beats this past weekend against Baltimore, winning the series and continuing the positive trends that we started to see last week.  Their top two starting pitchers each threw their best games to date on Friday and Sunday, combining to allow just 1 ER in 17 IP; they continued to get production from their collection of new guys as their injured lineup core mends; Robinson Cano and Kevin Youkilis continued to pace the middle of the lineup with patience and power, and even Brett Gardner started to show some signs of life at the plate.

There is still one key area on this team that needs to be addressed, however, and that's the lineup against lefties.  It hasn't gotten much attention lately as the Yankees have faced a long string of right-handed pitchers, but against Wei-Yin Chen last night Joe made wholesale changes to his lineup card to try and generate some more offense and, save for one inning, his changes didn't lead to much.

This Lineup Tells You Everything You Need To Know

(Here's the lineup post that sparked a lot of discussion over at IIATMS/TYA yesterday)

1) Brett Gardner- CF
2) Eduardo Nunez- SS
3) Robinson Cano- 2B
4) Kevin Youkilis- 3B
5) Vernon Wells- DH
6) Juan Rivera- 1B
7) Brennan Boesch- RF
8) Ichiro Suzuki- LF
9) Francisco Cervelli- C

That, or some similar variation of that, is what the New York Yankee starting lineup is going to look like one week from today. It’s a far cry from what the lineup has been the last few years and a far cry from what the lineup was expected to be this season, but it actually perfectly encapsulates everything the Yankees are right now. It shows how they’re an old, injured team with a lot of payroll tied up in its older, injured players. It shows how the self-imposed payroll crunch has limited the team’s ability to seek out trade and free agent options that best meet its needs. And it shows how little impact MiL depth the team has in its own farm system to help overcome the injuries and lack of big-time trade/FA activity.

We aren’t quite into “darkest timeline” territory yet, but it’s getting close and the Wells trade that’s expected to be finalized today does signal dark times in Yankeeland. This is a team and an organization handcuffed by its own future plans, plans that don’t allow for wiggle room to address problems in the present and result in the front office agreeing to take on $13 million for a player who’s barely worth $1.3 million at this stage in his career. Some of the other guys and gals might come on here later today and try to find some positives in this mess, and more power to them for trying. I just don’t have the energy to try to do that right now, and I definitely don’t have the right shade of lipstick to put on this pig.

Latest ZiPS Projections Not Kind To The Yankee Offense

Not to belabor the point, but the Yankee offense has taken a beating these last 4+ months.  Through players lost, lesser players added, players getting injured, and players recovering from injuries, the starting lineup on Opening Day could look drastically different than in recent years and drastically weaker as well.  Dan Szymborski of ESPN, master of the ZiPS projection system, attempted to project just how much weaker the lineup could be after the Curtis Granderson injury by running the latest projected lineup through a simulator.

It's an Insider Only piece, but there are only a few key things you need to know to get the point of this exercise.  One is that Szymborski left Derek Jeter out of this lineup projection, not an entirely unfair move with Jeter's Opening Day status still in the air.  The other is that the projected lineup looked like this: 1) Gardner, 2) Ichiro, 3) Cano, 4) Teix, 5) Youkilis, 6) Hafner, 7) Rivera, 8) Stewart, 9) Nunez.  You don't have to be a sabermetric genius to figure out that that lineup ain't much.  But just how bad does it project to be?  I'm glad you asked.

First Spring Training Game Today

It's been 127 days since the New York Yankees played a baseball game.  That streak ends today with the start of Grapefruit League season.  It's not a full Major League lineup, the handful of Major League regulars won't play for very long, and you won't see any of the Major League pitchers, but who cares?  Baseball is officially back!

Today's Lineup

1) Eduardo Nunez- SS

2) Robinson Cano- 2B

3) Mark Teixeira- 1B 

4) Juan Rivera- DH 

5) Matt Diaz- LF 

6) Francisco Cervelli- C 

7) Melky Mesa- CF 

8) Zoilo Almonte- RF 

9) Corban Joseph- 3B

SP) David Phelps- RHP

Other players who could see game action today include Tyler Austin, Slade Heathcott, Austin Romine, Ramon Flores, Nik Turley, Brett Marshall, Branden Pinder, and Francisco Rondon.

Go Yankees!

Opening Day Lineup Still Needs Some Work

(Let's see Joe whip up a winning lineup with these ingredients.  Courtesy of Getty Images)

So it's almost 2 weeks before Christmas.  The GM Meetings are over, the Winter Meetings are over, and it's getting close to hibernation time for most teams during the down period of the MLB offseason.  The Yankees have made a few moves, all of them re-signing the key missing parts of their pitching staff, but the position player portion of the roster is still in shambles.  I know this is a theme I've been slowly beating to death since the offseason really kicked into gear, and things have gotten better since the first time I did something like this, but with the events that took place this week it's a theme that is still very prevalent and a situation that's actually gotten worse.

The Yankees will be without Alex Rodriguez until at least mid-summer, they've officially lost Russell Martin as their starting catcher, they still don't have a starting right fielder, and the bench is really nothing more than a collection of backup catchers.  If the regular season started tomorrow, and the Yankees had to field a lineup with what they've got right now, it would be an ugly scene.

Doubleheader Day Over/Under

I kinda liked doing that Over/Under post this past weekend.  It's quick, it's easy, and it doesn't require a whole lot of time surfing the various baseball websites while at work.  Since I don't have a lot of time today, and I'll be missing Andy's comeback start again, today seems like the perfect day to do another set.  First the lineup for today's first game:

1) Ichiro Suzuki- LF
2) Nick Swisher- 1B
3) Robinson Cano- 2B
4) Alex Rodriguez- DH
5) Curtis Granderson- CF
6) Russell Martin- C
7) Eric Chavez- 3B
8) Raul Ibanez- RF
9) Eduardo Nunez- SS

Jeter gets the bench to start to save him for the lefty tonight, which probably sets up a Jeter SS/A-Rod DH lineup for the nightcap.

Now the lines:

- Andy Pettitte IP Today: 5.1

- Ibanez-Jones Combined Hits: 1

- Combined Trips to the Mound for Joe: 7

- Total Hits for Cano: 4

- Total Team SB: 2.5

Optimizing The Platoon-Heavy Lineup

The announcement of the Mark Teixeira injury was the latest blow in the battle between the baseball gods and the health of the Yankee players, one that will leave the lineup even shorter and less flexible than it already was with Teix still active.  The Yankees made a move to add Steve Pearce to the roster yesterday, but that's hardly enough to make up for the loss of Teix in the middle of the order.  A post by Mike Axisa on RAB yesterday on how the Yankees can go about managing the lineup with Teix and A-Rod out caught my attention, in particular Mike's idea of just playing to the platoon splits:

"With Teixeira out of the lineup, the Yankees would have four players for four spots against righties — Dickerson, Ichiro Suzuki, Raul Ibanez, and Eric Chavez. Chavez has to play third and Ichiro an outfield corner; that’s the easy part. Having Dickerson around allows them to keep Ibanez at DH and put Dickerson in the other outfield corner while the switch-hitting Nick Swisher plays first. Against lefties they would have Andruw Jones, Casey McGehee, Jayson Nix, and the recently-acquired Steve Pearce for those same four positions: Jones at DH, McGehee at third, Nix in left, and Pearce at first with Swisher in his usual right field."

It's not ideal in the sense that there will be a lot of guys not getting regular at-bats, but with the collection of slightly-below to slightly-above average platoon hitters the Yankees have at the moment, it's probably the best option to maximize the lineup's output potential.  If you'll allow me a moment to put on my manager pants, here's how I would build off of Mike's suggestion and create the 2 platoon lineups.

Teix's Calf Injury Is A Real Problem

(Everybody remember this?  It could happen again.  Courtesy of the Daily News)

This injury stuff is starting to get downright ridiculous.  It's like the injuries are Pumpkin and Honey Bunny from "Pulp Fiction," sticking their guns in my face, interrupting my attempted calm and rational take on the Yankees' situation, and stealing my Bad Motherfucker wallet.  And I'm Jules Winnfield, just sitting there, staring back at the injuries and telling them that I'm trying, I'm trying real hard to be the Shepard.  I don't want to fly off the handle about this, but holy balls!  It's really becoming an issue.  The offense is already sputtering, the pitching staff as a whole is iffy at best, and the division lead continues to be just close enough for discomfort.  And now Teix is going to be out at least 1-2 weeks with a Grad I calf strain.  Fan-effing-tastic.

Just Say "No" To Raul Ibanez In The Outfield

As important as it is for the Yankees to keep their key veteran players healthy this season, and as much as I want to see guys like Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez get regular rest to avoid wear and tear and trips to the DL, I was a little surprised to see Eduardo Nunez starting at shortstop in the second game of the season while Jeter got a DH day on Saturday.  I was even more surprised to see Raul Ibanez in the lineup in right field Sunday while Nick Swisher got a DH day.  Seeing as how both Jeter and Swish are coming off of Spring Training injuries, it's perfectly understandable that Joe would want to err on the side of caution early in the season and give them a day off from the field.  That being said, I would be lying if I said I wasn't against the idea of Ibanez getting regular time in the field this season at the expense of healthy, better defensive options.  In fact, given the showing he had in the field in his first game, I'd go as far to say that Ibanez should never be playing in the outfield.

With Nunez, there really isn't much the Yankees can do as far as finding a better utility IF/OF option.  As he showed on Saturday, he's more than capable of turning the most routine defensive play into an adventure, but we've already known this about him for some time now and when you factor in all the good things he does bring to the table, it helps a bit to balance out what he takes away defensively.  When you consider that Nunez's issues in the field seem to be rooted more in focus and mechanics rather than physical ability, it does leave room for optimism that he can improve and clean up some of his error issues.  With Ibanez, the situation doesn't look so rosy.

Opening Day Starting Lineup

Nothing fancy, nothing special.  Just the A-team.

1) Derek Jeter- SS
2) Curtis Granderson- CF
3) Robinson Cano- 2B
4) Alex Rodriguez- 3B
5) Mark Teixeira- 1B
6) Nick Swisher- RF
7) Raul Ibanez
8) Russell Martin- C
9) Brett Gardner- LF

SP) CC Sabathia

Game on.