Some Random Yankee-Centric Numbers At The Break

- The Opening Day rotation has started 53 of the team's 94 games (56.4%)

- Of the 41 other starts, 40 of them have been made by pitchers with a combined 26 career starts before this season.

- 23 of those 26 career starts belong to David Phelps.

- Yankee second basemen YTD: .251/.322/.395, 43 R, 27 RBI
- Robinson Cano YTD: .334/.393/.462, 49 R, 57 RBI

- Carlos Beltran YTD: .216/.271/.401, -0.8 fWAR in 255 PA
- Curtis Granderson YTD: .237/.346/.422, 1.8 fWAR in 387 PA

- Since the start of May, David Robertson has struck out 49.1% of all batters he's faced (54 of 110).

- Yanks w/ RISP: .251/.321/.363
- Yanks w/ RISP, 2 outs: .213/.295/.308

- Record: 47-47, -37 run differential (4th worst in the AL)

Sigh...

Monday Afternoon Food For Thought: The Quad-A Replacement Brigade

From this morning, we know that the Yankees have a ton of guys hitting at well below-average rates this month.  From watching the season in its entirety, we know they've had plenty of guys struggling to produce since Opening Day.  There's been no indication that any new "shakeup" roster moves are coming as a means to jump start the offense, but there is a bounty of potentially interesting call-up candidates in Triple-A right now:

• Zelous Wheeler: .317/.369/.482 in 236 PA
• Kyle Roller: .280/.366/.476 in 164 PA
• Adonis Garcia: .312/.349/.460 in 232 PA
• Jose Pirela: .319/.358/.447 in 295 PA

And that's not including guys like Zoilo Almonte and Scott Sizemore who've already spent some time on the Major League roster, and Ramon Flores, who's on DL presently but was hitting .261/.352/.447 before getting hurt.  If he were healthy, there's a non-zero chance he'd be on the Yankee bench by now.

Among the 4 guys mentioned above, only 1 of them is young enough to be truly considered a "prospect" and that's Pirela at age 24.  The other 3 are classic Quad-A 'tweener types and none of the 4 are currently on the 40-man roster, which is surely a major determining factor in why the Yankees haven't made a move to call any of them up.  Another is expectations, which are tough to accurately set for players like this.  None of these guys is even close to a sure bet to replicate his current production at the Major League level or even match what underperforming 25-man guys like Alfonso Soriano or Brian Roberts are doing.  I suppose it couldn't hurt to give someone like Roller or Garcia a look, but at the same time they really haven't dominated Triple-A to the point where it's clearly worth it to cut bait on a more established, albeit mostly terrible, option.

I'll say this, I'm glad that's not my decision to make.  Classic "damned if you, damned if you don't" scenario.

First Inning Woes

Yankee Starters in 1st Inning: 3 IP, 6 H, 6 ER

Yankee Starters in All Other Innings: 14.2 IP, 11 H, 4 ER

If you don't have a calculator handy, that's an even and ugly 18.00 ERA in the 1st inning and a much prettier 2.45 ERA in every other inning pitched by the Yankees' starters in the first 3 games.  They haven't done themselves any favors by giving up early runs and putting the offense in early holes and that's a trend that can't continue once the opponents start being better teams than the Astros.  Nothing to really be worried about long-term though.  Pitchers are still working themselves into full game shape and there's always some extra adrenaline flowing in your first start of the season.  Just strange to see the Yanks stumble out of the blocks 3 games in a row.

Saturday Afternoon Food For Thought: ST Starter Results

CC Sabathia- 5 G, 21.0 IP, 13 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 16 K
Hiroki Kuroda- 4 G, 11.1 IP, 15 H, 6 ER, 1 BB, 12 K
Ivan Nova- 5 G, 19.2 IP, 21 H, 8 ER, 2 BB, 21 K
Masahiro Tanaka- 5 G, 21.0 IP, 15 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 26 K
Michael Pineda- 4 G, 15.0 IP, 14 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 16 K

Total- 88.0 IP, 78.0 IP, 24 ER, 10 BB, 91 K

We all know by now that Spring Training stats don't mean anything.  That said, it's hard to look at what the Yankee rotation has done this spring and not be impressed.  They've been great.  All of them.  The only really shaky-looking numbers are Kuroda's and all 6 of his ER came in 1 bad start.  He's been money every other time and very sharp in MiL outings.

The true test starts in a few days, but the Yankee rotation has passed the ST mid-term with almost straight A's.  CC looks healthy, sharp, and much more comfortable than he did last year.  Nova's more calm and confident.  Tanaka and Pineda have each looked overwhelming at times.  Based on what they've done this spring, this is the most excited I've ever been about a Yankee rotation heading into the start of the season.  Ever.

Winter League Wrap-Up

Not sure how much any of it really means in the grand scheme of things, but most of the Winter leagues have wrapped up or are in the process of wrapping up this week and the Yankees had their fair share of notable prospects participating.  Here's a quick look at how some of those notable names performed.

• Zoilo Almonte: .316/.343/.454 w/ 4 HR and 20 RBI in 43 Dominican League games
• Gary Sanchez: .267/.330/.367 w/ 1 2B and 2 RBI in 12 Domincan League games
• Ronnier Mustelier: .270/.386/.360 w/ 2 HR, 27 RBI, and 28 BB in 53 Mexican Pacific League games
• Adonis Garcia: .325/.347/.502 w/ 15 2B, 8 HR, and 39 RBI in 53 Venezuelan League games
• Jose Pirela: .335/.419/.510 w/ 25 XBH, 41 RBI, and 33 BB in 61 Venezuelan League games

I touched on Almonte the other day, but very good performances from Garcia and Pirela as well.  They're fringe prospects at best, but they could find their way onto the 40-man if injuries allow it and could be useful bench pieces down the road.  Disappointing lack of power from Musty.  Sadly it looks like the ship carrying his roster spot chance may have passed.

For a full recap of the Yankee Winter League participants, check out Axisa's post from yesterday afternoon.

2014 Yankee ZiPS Projections Released

(Depth chart graphic courtesy of Eephus League.  Click to enlarge)

If you haven't already checked them out, Dan Szymborski released his 2014 ZiPS projections for the Yankees over at FanGraphs yesterday.  Projections, in any system, always have to be taken with a big grain of salt, but the ZiPS method has been the most accurate the last few years and is at least a decent way to gauge the team's current talent level.

Definitely click the link and peruse through in greater detail when you get the chance.  If you don't have that chance right now, here's what you need to know.  ZiPS isn't a fan of the current infield, projecting just 1.7 WAR from Mark Teixeira (in 356 PA), 0.4 from Derek Jeter (in 325 PA), and 0.2 from the newly acquired Brian Roberts (in 215 PA).  It does project Jacoby Ellsbury and Brian McCann to be the 2 best players on the team in terms of WAR (no surprise there), and also expects somewhat of a bounce back from CC Sabathia and another solid season from Ivan Nova.

There's a lot to sort through there, but it basically tells us what we already know.  The Yankees still need help everywhere.

Who's Going For A New Contract Here?

Brett Gardner's Last 10 Games: 14-34, 5 2B, 1 HR, 5 R, 7 RBI, 3 BB, 4 K

Robinson Cano's Last 10 Games: 4-33, 1 HR, 3 R, 4 RBI, 5 BB, 8 K

Real tough go for Robbie right now.  He's swinging a lot, missing a lot, and his batting average has fallen below Chris Stewart's.  No matter how much weight, if any, you put into batting average, that's not a good comparison.  At least he's matched Gardner in SB over the last 10 games (1 to 1).

Good work, Brett.  Keep it up.  The middle of the order will show up to help you eventually.  Maybe.

(Nice dome too, bro.  Courtesy of the AP)

Brett Gardner Still Doesn't Have A Stolen Base This Year

Really, he doesn't.  And I'm not trying to imply that it's a bad thing.  Gardner has come up with some big hits early on, he's popped 2 HR, and he's starting to boost that tripleslash up to a respectable leadoff man level.  I just find it incredible that the fastest guy on the team and one of the top base stealing threats in all of baseball doesn't have a single one in 13 games.  For all the talk about how the Yankees were going to have to play small ball and run more this season to manufacture runs, they have just 3 SB as a team right now, one of them by Chris Stewart.  That's right, THE Chris Stewart is currently the team leader in SB and Brett Gardner is not.  Inconceivable!

Run, Brett.  Run!

The Secret Of Loone Bogan

It's been another up-and-down year for Boone Logan.  At face value his numbers look pretty good- 3.99/3.72/3.61 slash , 11.05 K/9 in 49.2 IP over a career-high 72 games.  But the reality is that he's regressed from his much better 2011 campaign, suffering from problematic command (4.35 BB/9), general overuse, and possible over-exposure to right-handed hitting.  His groundball rate is down, his HR rate is up, and Logan is far from the dominant bullpen option he was earlier in the season and much closer to the designated LOOGY that he was when the Yankees first traded for him.

The issues that have plagued Logan this year are not physical, they are not mental.  They are the revelation of a long-rumored family secret, something that Yankee fans and bloggers alike have hinted at and joked about through the years but have never been able to positively identify as fact.  Until now.  In an AB4AR exclusive, I present the source of Boone Logan's 2012 struggles.

Saturday Over/Unders

Getting ready to head to my company outing in a little while, probably won't be around until tomorrow afternoon, so here's some over/under lines for the remainder of this series.  If you were a betting man (or woman), what are ya takin' here?

- Yankee Hits w/ RISP Today: 2

- Yankee Runs Scored Rest of Series: 6

- Nova IP Today: 5

- Curtis Granderson HR Rest of Series: 2

- HR Allowed by Yankee Pitching Rest of Series: 4

Some Numbers From Detroit

(Joe wants some more numbers!  Courtesy of The AP)

Why, you ask?  Because that series was just bizarre and it warrants more conversation about it, that's why.

As The Rotation Progresses

I'm a little short on topics this morning, so let's just have some fun with small sample sizes.  Ivan Nova's start last night was by far his best of the early spring and signified the start of the 3rd time through the rotation this spring for the six guys "competing" for a spot.  The first time through, including Hughes' "relief" start behind CC, the combined pitching line looked like this:

11.1 IP, 16 H, 8 ER, 0 BB, 10 K

Not too shabby for the first outings of the spring.  Most everybody was focusing on a particular pitch or two and pitch counts were pretty low.  Here's the line the second time through:

17.1 IP, 16 H, 6 ER, 9 BB, 8 K

Not exactly what I expected to see, although the overall numbers are a bit better; same number of hits and fewer earned runs allowed in more IP, with all 6 of the runs and 10 of the hits coming from Nova's and Pineda's second outings.  What's stands out to me is the walk totals.  For as much as the general theme was guys not having great command the first time through and having improved command the second time, not a single batter was walked in anybody's first outing and every single pitcher walked at least one batter the second time through.  I also would have expected to see a few more strikeouts the second time through, but it's still early.

If Nova's 4 shutout, walkless innings last night are any indication, this third time through could be even better.  Stay tuned.