Catching Up With The 2014 AB4AR Top 30

(Do it, Luis.  Do the damn thing.  Courtesy of MiLB.com)

The completion of the draft marks an unofficial checkpoint of sorts for the Minor League season.  With a fresh crop of players ready to join the organizational ranks, start their pro careers, and insert themselves into the prospect conversation, the timing is perfect to look back at the crop of pre-existing prospects and gauge how they've performed over the first few months.

The 2013-2014 edition of the AB4AR Top 30 was released on the final week of January.  A lot has happened to those 30 players since then, some good, like Rob Refsnyder's Double-A breakout, and some bad, like Jose Campos' Tommy John Surgery.  Here's a quick check-in on all 30 prospects to see where they sit and how they're trending towards the second half of this season.

Monday Late Morning Food For Thought: Enough Is Enough, And It's Time For A Change*

Yesterday's game was the culmination of 2 weeks of horrifically bad offensive production.  There were some legitimate excuses for that while guys like Teix and Beltran were out of the lineup, but they both returned last week and those returns did nothing to change the piss poor performance.  1-17 with runners in scoring position is almost unfathomable, even more so when you consider the fact that the 1 hit they did get with RISP yesterday didn't even score a run.  Heading into tonight's game, here's where the Yankees find themselves offensively:

• 13th in the American League (out of 15 teams) in Runs Scored with 249
• 12th in OBP (.315)
• 10th in SLG (.382)
• 12th in wOBA (.309)
• 13th in wRC+ (91)
• 14th in total position player fWAR (4.4)

The Yanks left themselves vulnerable to this when they tried to fill out their roster on the cheap, they took a passive wait-and-see approach with the injuries and lost out on a player who could have helped the offense, and now they're reaping what they've sewn.  The time for excuses is gone now and all that matters is fixing this.  I'm not sure what can or will be done but it better be something.  Despite their poor offensive output, the Yanks are only 5 games out in the loss column in the AL east and 2 out in the Wild Card.  If they're going to stay committed to contending, which is what they said they were doing when they had the big offseason spending spree, maintaining this status quo ain't going to cut it.

* P.S.- If you got that Owen Hart reference in the post title, I want to be friends with you.

2014 MLB Draft Thoughts And Afterthoughts

(The right-handed Ian Clarkin?  Used courtesy of The Foxboro Reporter)

The Yankees wrapped up their 2014 draft on Saturday by following the formula they had set in the first 2 days.  They were focused primarily on college players and pitchers, with over 80% of their 39 picks making up that first category and over 60% the second.  It was hardly a gambling man's draft by the Yankees, with signability reigning supreme over upside.  That said, I think the Yankees did a pretty good job selecting players in the first 10-20 rounds who have good chances of helping the team in some capacity in the very near and very distant futures.  I feel better about that possibility than I did after the 2012 or 2013 drafts, so in that respect I guess I have to call the Yankees' draft a success at this point in time.  After the jump, some more thoughts on the players, the possibilities, and the plan from here as a final wrap-up of this year's draft.

Report: Kelley To Return This Week

Shawn Kelley began his MiL rehab assignment over the weekend after making it through another throwing program without further injury to his back.  He pitched 0.2 innings for the Trenton Thunder on Saturday, recording both his outs via the strikeout and walking a batter in 19 pitches.  His back came through that perfectly fine and so the team has decided he can return this week after 1 more rehab appearance.

Joe told reporters before yesterday's game that Kelley would make that final rehab appearance tonight, possibly for Triple-A SWB, and then travel to Seattle to rejoin the team on Wednesday against the Mariners.  I'm a little wary of Kelley pitching and then having to sit down on a cross-country flight with a recovering back, but the Yankees need all the help they can get right now and Kelley will provide a lot for the bullpen.  His return means fewer innings for the mediocre middle relievers and a much-needed break in workload for Betances and Warren.

Game 62 Wrap-Up: KC 2 NYY 1

(Courtesy of the AP)

I'm running out of things to say about this offense or ways to try to look at it from a positive perspective.  The Yankees flat out don't hit.  They don't hit for average, they don't hit for power, they don't get on base, they can't lay down a sac bunt when they need to, and they very rarely string hits together at opportune times.  They haven't hit well when they've been healthy, they haven't hit well when they've been beat up.  They had opportunity after opportunity to score runs and easily win by a comfortable margin today against James Shields and the Royals and they didn't.  They suck.

Game Notes:

- The Yanks blew their most golden opportunity in the top of the 2nd when they loaded the bases with nobody out only for Kelly Johnson to strike out, Brett Gardner to ground into a force play at home, and Derek Jeter to whiff to strand all 3 runners.

- The Royal lineup capitalized on that free pass by stringing some hits together against Hiroki Kuroda in the bottom of the inning.  4 straight hits, a Lorenzo Cain double and Mike Moustakas single the run-scoring ones, led to 2 KC runs and a 2-0 lead.  All of them came with 2 outs.

- The blown chances by the Yankee lineup didn't end in the 2nd.  They wasted a leadoff double in the 3rd, a 1-out double in the 4th, and a 1-out triple by Brett Gardner in the 7th.

- The one time they did manage to not fuck up with a runner in scoring position was the 6th, when Yangervis Solarte hit a 1-out double down the right field line.  He moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on Ichiro's RBI groundout.

- Hirok was pretty good after the 2nd.  He held them to just 1 more hit and 1 more walk in his final 5 innings of work and kept the team in the game.  He still doesn't have the killer slider/splitter combo of the last 2 years, but he pitched good enough to win.

- Of course, the Yankees had to tease one more time in the 9th.  Ichiro singled, moved to second on a wild pitch, and stood there while the next 3 hitters failed to even move him over.  Like I said, they suck.

BOOOOOO...

32 runs scored in the last 12 games.

Boo!

3 runs scored or fewer in 15 games since the start of May.  3-12 record in those games.

BOO!!

1-17 with RISP today.

BOOOOO!!!!

BOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Still batting 2nd:

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

Draft Day 3 News And Notes

The Yankees' strategy was clear on the first 2 days of the 2014 MLB Draft.  Easy-to-sign college players and pitchers with big frames.  The implication was that they were going to take a few chances and make a few reaches to try to find some young, high-ceiling HS talent on day 3, but instead they stuck to the script from the first 2 days and kept loading up on college players and big-bodied hurlers.  The highlights from the third and final day of the draft are after the jump.

Game 61 Wrap-Up: KC 8 NYY 4

(Courtesy of the AP)

There was a lot of good in the Yankees' series-opening win in Kansas City on Friday night.  They got a stellar 7-inning start from the consistently overachieving Chase Whitley, they didn't have to burn through their best bullpen guys for multiple innings as a result of that start, and they got a big hit from Brian McCann as he continues to put things together at the plate.  They were going to need more from McCann and the 'pen last night to support the consistently inconsistent David Phelps on the mound.  They were also going to need more than the 1 XBH they had on Friday night (McCann's).  Phelps had one of his bad nights, McCann got the night off, and there wasn't enough help from anywhere to make up for it.

Game Notes:

- It didn't take long for Phelps to get into trouble.  Back-to-back doubles to lead off the 2nd put 1 Royal run on the board.  3 more singles sandwiched around a failed sac bunt made it 3-0.

- The Yanks had nothing to show for a pair of singles and a pair of walks through 5 innings against Danny Duffy.  A Derek Jeter single got things started in the 6th, with Carlos Beltran doubling him home for the team's first run and a Yangervis Solarte single plating 2 more to tie the game.

- Given new life, Phelps promptly went out in the bottom of the 6th and gave the game back to KC.  Walk, walk, 3-run home run was how the first 3 batters of the inning went and Phelps exited after allowing another run to score for a 7-3 KC lead.

- Solarte doubled to start the 9th and eventually came around to score, but there was no real rally by the Yankees after the 6th.  They shot their wad tying the game at 3 and Phelps' meltdown the next half-inning was a deathblow.

- Jose Ramirez made his second Major League appearance, finishing up the 7th and handling the 8th.  He struck out 1, walked 1, and did not give up a hit.

Don't Sleep On Chase Whitley

(Courtesy of the AP)

The Yankees have battled rotation inconsistencies since Opening Day.  Be it the underperformance of CC Sabathia and Hiroki Kuroda, the injuries to Sabathia, Ivan Nova, and Michael Pineda, or the uneven, all-or-nothing nature of their injury replacements, the only thing constant about the group has been the non-constantness with which it has operated.  Except for Tanaka of course.

Well, him and the newest member of the injury-replacement brigade.  Chase Whitley took a spot in the rotation on May 15th, replacing Sabathia and becoming the "new" 5th starter.  He's made 5 starts in that spot and pitched to a 2.42/2.26/3.74 triple slash in 26.0 innings pitched.  He's been worth 0.9 fWAR in those 5 starts, tied for 2nd best among all team starters with Kuroda, and has helped to somewhat stabilize the back end of the rotation.  Last night he had his best start to date, pitching 7 innings of 2-run and not walking a batter while striking out 3.  Is this for real?  How is he doing this?

Quick Hit: Big Mac And Little Jake Starting To Wake Up

Brian McCann Last 10 Games: 10-33, 4 2B, 5 RBI, 4 BB, 3 K

Jacoby Ellsbury Last 10 Games: 16-40, 2 2B, 1 HR, 5 R, 7 RBI, 4 BB, 5 K, 6 SB

It hasn't been a great 10-game stretch for the Yankees in terms of team-wide production or W-L record, but their top 2 free agent position players are starting to come around after rough Mays.  McCann has slowly boosted his batting average above .230 for the season, although the consistent HR power stroke has yet to materialize, and Ellsbury has raised his back over .280 after dipping below .260 at the end of last month.  He has an 11-game hitting streak and was finally starting to be productive from the 3-spot before Joe moved back to leadoff for last night's game.

I need more than a good 10-game stretch to convince me that these 2 are getting back to offensive homeostasis, but there are good signs in what each has been doing at the plate.  Normal productive months from them paired with the returns of Teix and Beltran should bring some respectability back to the lineup.

Game 60 Wrap-Up (Abridged Version): NYY 4 KC 2

Didn't pay one ounce of attention to this game.  I was out doing Friday night stuff.  Maybe I should take that approach more often.  The Yankees usually seem to win when I have zero involvement.

Game Notes:

- Chase Whitley had the best start of his career, throwing 7 innings of 2-run ball and giving Joe an easy bridge to his best bullpen guys.

- Brian Roberts singled in the first Yankee run in the 2nd.  Brian McCann had the big hit with a base-clearing 3-run double in the 3rd.

- Dellin Betances struck out 2 in a scoreless 8th inning, D-Rob worked around a couple baserunners with 2 strikeouts of his own in the 9th.  They should all be this easy from a pitching perspective.

Friday Afternoon Linkapalooza: 6/6/14

Going up late today because of the draft coverage.  Rangers need a win big time in Game 2 tomorrow.  More of the first 10 minutes and less of the last 2 periods, please.  A full game of that first 10 minutes in Game 1 and they would have blown the Kings out of their own building.  Now onto the links!

- On Monday, SJK of NoMaas called for Alfonso Soriano to be straight up released.  I wouldn't make that move just yet, but I wouldn't hate it if the Yankees did.

- On Tuesday, Mike Axisa looked back at the 2009 draft class to see how the Yankees did with their 5-year evaluation period.  A couple of good roster pieces and a few remaining possibilities isn't awful, right?

- Delia Enriquez of Bronx Baseball Daily pointed out all the holes in the Yankees' organizational depth that have been exposed by their injury problems.

- On Wednesday, Chris Mitchell of Pinstripe Pundits finished re-ranking and analyzing his top 30 prospects after the first 2 months of the MiL season.

- Chad Jennings of LoHud had Alfonso Soriano's thoughts on his season-long struggles.

- On Thursday, Michael Eder of IIATMS/TYA explained, in a much more rational and fair way than I would have, how Derek Jeter was hurting the team right now and why something had to change.

- Matt Provenzano of Pinstripe Alley examined Chase Whitley's first handful of starts to find some trends that project him positively going forward.

- Michael Pawluk of The Greedy Pinstripes shared a personal story about meeting and spending time with the late Don Zimmer.

- On Friday, el duque of It Is High... imagined how the call between the Yanks and Scott Boras about Morales waiting to sign would have gone.

More new Mastodon this week, a song called "Chimes At Midnight".  Definitely a better song than "High Road".  My expectations for this new album are starting to go up.



Enjoy your weekends, everybody.

Draft Day 2 News And Notes (UPDATED)

Here's my version of the live draft tracker.  Post will be updated as the Yankees make their picks.

- The first pick of the day is in.  3rd round, 91st overall, and it's right-handed HS pitcher Austin DeCarr from Connecticut.  Kid is committed to Clemson.

** UPDATE 12:36 PM- According to the MLB.com scouting report, he's 6'3"/220, throws a fastball in the low-to-mids 90s, a curveball and changeup that both show promise, and he throws all 3 for strikes.  Only been pitching 2 years too, so there could be some ceiling there. **

** UPDATE 1:18 PM- 4th round, 122nd overall, Yanks take Jordan Montgomery, 21-year-old left-handed starting pitcher from the University of South Carolina.  Listed at 6'4"/225, throws a moving high 80s-low 90s fastball that he commands well, a good changeup, and a curveball.**

Matt Thornton Getting Put On Notice

(Courtesy of Getty Images)

(Originally published at IIATMS/TYA)

Hey, Matt.  You got a minute, bud?  I wanted to talk to you about something.  I know you're still the #1 lefty in the bullpen right now and the only one Joe would consider going to in a key lefty-lefty matchup situation.  And I know it may look like you're maintaining that "kinda-sorta pretty good/mostly unlucky" level you were at last month to the untrained eye, so you think you shouldn't have anything to worry about.  But here's a word to the wise.  Don't get too comfortable, brother.  Because the Yanks are making moves to find a replacement for you, whether you realize it or not.

Draft Day 1 Recap: Yankees Select Jacob Lindgren

(Courtesy of hailstate.com)

It was a long wait for the Yankees to make their first pick in last night's opening night of the 2014 MLB Draft.  Thanks to their offseason FA spending spree, they did not have a selection until the 2nd round, the 55th overall selection to be exact.  The rumors coming into the draft were that the Yankees were targeting a lot of prep catchers, some young HS arms, players with California ties (no surprise there), and most recently Indiana first baseman Sam Travis.  When the time came to make their pick, the Yankees went against all the rumors and selected Jacob Lindgren, left-handed pitcher from Mississippi St.

Game 59 Wrap-Up: NYY 2 OAK 1

(Lotta these talks today in the 4th and 5th.  Courtesy of Getty Images)

Masahiro Tanaka was on the mound for this afternoon's series finale against AL kings of the mountain Oakland and he was the team's best chance to win.  Actually, he may have been their only chance to win with the way they've been playing.  The A's had yet to experience Tanaka and all that comes with him, and even though they made him work for it they were unable to solve the riddle and get enough against him to get the sweep.

Game Notes:

- The Oakland hitters knew how to approach Tanaka even without any experience against him.  John Jaso got a first-pitch sinker that stayed up on the second AB of the game and hit it out for a solo home run and a quick 1-0 lead.

- The Yanks created plenty of early chances against Oakland starter Drew Pomeranz.  They blew one stranding runners on second and third with 1 out in the bottom of the 1st, but made up for it with an Alfonso Soriano (!!!) RBI single in the 2nd and Brett Gardner solo HR in the 3rd.

- Tanaka and Pomeranz each traded zeros after the 3rd, with Tanaka's coming much more difficultly.  He lasted 6 innings and needed 104 pitches to get through them, with only 4 strikeouts.  Pomeranz pitched 7 on 101 pitches and struck out 7.

This early scoring chances disappeared in the later innings.  The Yankees only managed to get 1 baserunner to second after the 3rd inning and failed to put more than 1 runner on in any inning.

- Joe went back to his bullpen horses to maintain the lead this time and they were back to normal.  Dellin Betances struck out 2 in a perfect 7th, Adam Warren pitched around 2 RISP with 2 BIG strikeouts in the 8th, and David Robertson locked down the 9th with 2 whiffs of his own.

AB4AR 2014 MLB Draft Preview

Everybody knows I'm not a big draft guy.  I don't follow the pre-draft rankings that much and I don't read too many scouting reports on players.  But I can say I did make an honest effort to follow some of the players and storylines involving the Yankees for this draft and I do have a few SCORCHING HOT TAKES on tonight's proceedings.

• Love Grant Hockin as a potential top pick for the Yankees at 55.  Love him.  Righty HS pitcher out of Los Angeles.  Good frame (6'3"/195), throws 4 pitches, 2 of them already decent-to-good offspeed pitches, smooth delivery, easy mechanics, very good makeup.

• Hockin could be a bit of a reach at 55, but I think that's a risk worth taking with the 55th pick being the Yankees' first pick.  After that, I expect them to go with mostly cheaper college players for the next few rounds and save their amateur money for the big international spending spree.

• Case in point, Pat Connaughton, righty pitcher out of Notre Dame.  The Yanks have been reportedly linked to him, prep catchers Chase Vallot, K.J. Harrison, and Jakson Reetz, and Indian first baseman Sam Travis by name as early round targets.

• Travis is a very polished college bat with power potential, similar to Jagielo last year.  If they could somehow manage to get him in the 2nd and Hockin in the 3rd, I'd be ecstatic.

The draft starts at 6 PM Eastern tonight and it'll be a few minutes before the Yankees' turn comes around.  Most of my draft recap and analysis will be coming tomorrow, but if I can hop online later tonight and touch on the Yankees' picks I will.

More On Soriano's Slump

On Tuesday, I took a painful look at Alfonso Soriano and his middling production this season.  He's been a major drain on the middle of the order and even more un-productive than Brian McCann, and it looked like it was attributable to nothing more than him being old and losing bat speed.  On that same day, Matt Bove of IIATMS/TYA also pointed out Soriano's drastic decline in power and spike in strikeouts, which inspired me to dig a little deeper.  Turns out Soriano has a major platoon split this season.  He's got an .805 OPS against right-handed pitching and a .563 against lefties, with more walks and strikeouts against southpaws.

Knowing that Soriano has been getting beaten badly by the fastball this season, is it possible that Soriano is getting a little of the Derek Jeter treatment and being pitched to in a way by righties that exploits his apparent loss of bat speed?

Joe Searching For Some Life On A Lifeless Ballclub

(Originally published at IIATMS/TYA)

I didn't watch much of last night's game even though I had it on ESPN because the Rangers were obviously the priority, but I did have the Gameday feed up so I followed along enough to know that last night was another in what's become a common theme of Yankee losses.  It was their 4th in a row, 6th in their last 8 games, and the 6th straight game in which they failed to score more than 4 runs.  They scored early, with 4 runs in the 3rd inning, then never scored again as their below replacement-level 5th (4th??) starter and Quad-A middle relief corps slowly and methodically killed the 4-run lead they were given.

In boxing terms, last night's game was like a Floyd Mayweather fight.  The A's were the better team, the Mayweather in the matchup, and they knew it.  Instead of changing their approach, they stuck with what they do best, played their game, and slowly picked the Yankees apart by outclassing them as a baseball team and winning an easy decision.  Outclassed is a perfectly appropriate term here too, because last night the Yankees were outclassed by the A's.  The A's did everything better than the Yankees last night.  There was never any doubt, in my mind, that they were going to come back and win that game the minute Yoenis Cespedes hit his first home run to get them on the board.

Beltran To Return Today? (UPDATED)

Nothing's official yet, and won't be until later this afternoon, but all signs point to Carlos Beltran returning to the Yankee lineup tonight today.  He came through his ExST games without any problems in his elbow, he was on his way back to New York to rejoin the team yesterday, and when asked about his status before last night's game, Joe had this to say:

“He could possibly be in the lineup tomorrow. We’ll make a decision tomorrow, see how he feels, and he could be in the lineup tomorrow.  I just didn't reveal it because sometimes if a guy has a day setback, it becomes a huge story. And I don’t want it to become a huge story.”

So as long as Beltran doesn't wake up with pain in his elbow today or hit his funny bone really hard on anything in the clubhouse, he should be good to go.  The Yankees have been on a bad streak when it comes to setbacks, so smart move by Joe not saying anything until he knows Beltran is good to go.

Beltran returning could be huge if he truly is over the pain in his elbow.  There's no way of knowing how long that will last, but with Joe planning to use him as the primary DH he should be able to limit the wear and tear on that elbow.  The more Beltran can give them, the better.

** UPDATE 10:37 AM- Beltran has indeed been activated, with Scott Sizemore getting sent down, and is batting 5th in today's lineup as the DH. **

Game 58 Wrap-Up: OAK 7 NYY 4

(Courtesy of Getty Images)

Lineup shakeup on Tuesday night, bullpen shakeup on Wednesday afternoon.  If anybody thought Joe and Cash hadn't noticed how horrible the Yankees have been playing, there were your answers.  Joe stuck with Murphy behind the plate again last night while McCann DH'd and Ichiro got the start in right field against the righty Jesse Chavez.  In the 'pen, he wasn't sure if he was going to have Betances and Warren available after Tuesday night, so newbies Jose Ramirez and Wade LeBlanc were both good bets to get called upon if Vidal Nuno had another rough start in The Stadium.  It wasn't rough, but the collective pitching effort wasn't enough to hold onto a lead provided by another "one and done" offensive output.

Game Notes:

- Nuno's first 3 innings were typical Nuno.  Lot of deep counts, lot of pitches fouled off, and the inability on his part to puts guys away with 2 strikes.  They were also scoreless and sometimes that's all that matters.

- He got a bigger margin for error in the bottom of the 3rd thanks a nice little 4-run inning.  Ichiro started it off with a leadoff walk, Derek Jeter singled him in with an infield hit (as only Jeter can), and Jacoby Ellsbury cranked a 3-run home run to right-center for the big blow.

- Good thing Nuno had the margin too, because Yoenis Cespedes hit a home run off him on the second pitch he saw to start the top of the 4th.  Nuno escaped further damage with a double play ball and then limited the damage to 1 run when he worked into trouble again in the 5th before exiting with 2 outs.

- Matt Daley took the first crack at bridging the middle inning gap and got burned on a classic Yankee Stadium cheapie home run by Cespedes in the 6th.  A Jeter error extended the inning and came around to score on a sac fly to tie the game at 4.

- As they always seem to do, the Yankee bats went stone cold after the 3rd inning.  They stranded 2 in the 4th and 7th innings and the A's kept hammering away at the Yankee 'pen.  Ramirez gave up a solo HR in the 2 innings of work and LeBlanc got tagged for 2 in the 9th to put the game out of reach.

Let The Roster Shakeup Commence! Yanks Make 2 Bullpen Moves

Well that's one way to make a statement about the recent poor play from the front office.  The Yankees announced 2 25-man roster moves in preparation for tonight's game.  Alfredo Aceves has been designated for assignment and replaced by lefty Wade LeBlanc, who was claimed off waivers yesterday.  Also removed from the Major League bullpen was Preston Claiborne, who was optioned down to Triple-A SWB while Jose Ramirez was called up.

The writing was on the wall for Aceves after the LeBlanc claim went through.  He had pitched terribly ever since his scoreless 5-inning first appearance and there was really no use for him anymore.  The Claiborne move comes as a bit more of a surprise.  It's not undeserved on his part.  He had given up 4 ER and 4 BB in his last 5 appearances.  But Ramirez has only recently come off the MiL DL and only has 7 relief appearances under his belt for the RailRiders.

Both good moves for the Yankees.  They remove 2 guys who had given up 21 ER in 37 IP and replace them with a versatile left-hander who can be LOOGY insurance for Thornton and a high-ceiling power arm who's been striking out over a batter per inning in Triple-A.  The fun part will be seeing if these are the only roster shakeup moves made.

The Looming Albatrossity Of CC's Contract

(Courtesy of Getty Images)

(Originally published at IIATMS/TYA)

After a rough patch there for the better part of the last 2 weeks, it looks like the Yankees' injury fortune may be changing for the better.  They could get Carlos Beltran back by the end of this week, maybe Shawn Kelley next week, and Francisco Cervelli has been playing in ExST games.  Michael Pineda's latest setback wasn't the worst case scenario, so there's still hope that he can come back and help at some point, and Mark Teixeira returned from his latest bout of wrist inflammation to go 2-5 with a HR and be the only player in the lineup responsible for driving in runs last night.  Everybody (knock on wood) seems to be coming around nicely.

Except for CC Sabathia.

Wednesday Morning Food For Thought: How Bad Have The Yankees Been Against Left-Handed Pitching?

Joe took a big swing at his lineup last night to try to get some offense going.  He loaded up on right-handed bats against southpaw starter Scott Kazmir, inserting John Ryan Murphy and Scott Sizemore into the lineup for Kelly Johnson and Brian McCann, and giving Brendan Ryan a night at shorstop while The Captain DH'd.  The results weren't there again (2 runs and only 1 XBH against Kazmir), and it made me wonder if the Yankees just stink against lefties this year.  Have they been so bad that it necessitated all the moves Joe made?

Not really.  As a team, the Yankees have a .716 OPS against LHP this season.  It's not great by any means, but at 17th in MLB it's hardly the worst in the world.  The Yanks have actually been worse against right-handed starters with a .697 team OPS and an 18-19 records against them compared to 11-9 in 20 games against lefties.

There's certainly no harm in changing things up when your team isn't hitting, and with somebody like McCann I have no problem with Joe using the L/R matchup game to give him a day of rest.  Production against southpaws has not been the Yankees' biggest problem this year, however, and Joe might be better served tweaking his batting order against righties (coughcough, move Jeter down, cough cough!!) to help pull his club out of this offensive funk.

Game 57 Wrap-Up: OAK 5 NYY 2

(Courtesy of Getty Images)

It's been a rough handful of games recently, so Joe decided to shake things up for last night's series opener against the Oakland A's, arguably the best team in all of baseball.  He had Scott Sizemore in the lineup at third base against the lefty Scott Kazmir, John Ryan Murphy too behind the plate, and for once he had Brendan Ryan starting at shortstop to help GB-heavy starter Hiroki Kuroda.  He also had Mark Teixeira back in the lineup after a few more days off to rest his ailing wrist.  None of it helped, as the Yankees failed to crack the 3-run barrier for the 5th time in 7 games.

Game Notes:

- Naturally it was the untweaked guys who gave the Yankees their first run.  Brett Gardner, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Teix all singled to maufacture a run against Kazmir in the bottom of the 1st to grab the early 1-0 lead.

- Hirok breezed through the first 3 innings by mixing his pitches well.  He was getting called strikes on early offspeed pitches, locating his sinker down in the zone, and got help from Ryan turning a double play to eliminate the 1 hit he gave up.

- Kuroda's sinker started to drive up in the middle innings, however, and the A's cashed in on that in the 5th when Brandon Moss hit a game-tying home run on a 3-2 sinker that was up and over the plate.

- That 1st inning run loomed large for the Yanks because it was all they sniffed of scoring into the 6th.  Kazmir struck out the side in the 2nd, dominated Alfonso Soriano, and didn't give up another hit through the 5th.

- When he did flinch again, it was against Teix in the bottom of the 6th.  Kazmir missed with a 2-seamer for ball 1, tried to throw another one by Teix, and watched as Teix smashed it to left-center for the go-ahead HR.

- Kuroda handed the game over to Dellin Betances with 2 outs in the 7th.  Betances promptly struck out Moss but had an uncharacteristic hiccup in the 8th with a walk and a 2-out double to tie the game.  The offense couldn't generate another run late and the game went into extras.

- Moss didn't need long to get over the 7th inning K.  He came up to face Adam Warren to lead off the 10th and crushed his second dinger of the night into the right field seats.  Warren fell apart from there and the lineup couldn't muster up a rally in the bottom half.