Chris Stewart Is The New Hotness

I think my exact words when the Yankees made the Kontos-Stewart trade and sent Frankie down to the Minors were:

"If there's one thing that Chris Stewart brings to the table, it's an elite-level bat.  You might get lucky on some offspeed stuff away every now and then, but you flat out aren't sneaking an inside fastball past this guy.  Make even the smallest mistake and he's going to make you pay."

And sure enough, guy is out there raking tonight.  Making Bill Dickey in his prime look like Rube from "Major League 2."

So to review:

- Francisco Cervelli = Old and Busted

- Chris Stewart = New Hotness

Pineda Throwing Bullpens Again

As if the Andy Pettitte 2012 Comeback Party and the Phil Hughes Early-Season Struggle Extravaganza weren't enough to stoke the rotation fire, the party could be getting crowded again in the next month or so with yesterday's news that Michael Pineda threw a 25-pitch bullpen session yesterday and reported no pain or problems with his right shoulder.

The word, according to Mark Carig, is that Pineda will throw another 'pen session sometime later this week and then who knows from there.  If he comes through without any further problems, the next logical step would be a MiL rehab assignment.  But with recent memories of Hughes' shoulder problems last year still fresh in everybody's mind, it wouldn't surprise me if the Yankees played it extra careful with Pineda.  If I were a betting man, I'd say we see Andy back in the rotation before Big Mike.

Attempting To Predict Andy's Return Date

Andy Pettitte is coming. While the 5 guys currently in the rotation work to find their games and get where they need to be, the fact remains that Pettitte, barring injury, is going to be ready to join the rotation at some point in the near future. With the way his first 2 comeback/rehab starts have gone, and yes I say this knowing full well they were against High-A hitters, it looks like that date is going to come sooner rather than later. Pettitte has been effective and efficient in both of his first 2 starts, throwing 79 pitches in 7 total innings of work, and according to scouts who were on-hand to watch him Sunday, his stuff progressed very nicely from the 1st start to the 2nd. With all of that in mind, let's have a little fun and try to figure out exactly when Andy might make his return.

Joe has said already that he envisions Andy making 5 or 6 starts as part of his extended ST to build his arm and leg strength up to game shape, and he said last Sunday that he considered Andy's Sunday outing to be number 2 in that series. Andy's pitch count was 25 in his first outing and he threw 32, and it was reportedly somewhere around 45 Sunday and he threw 47. That number is still nowhere near the level he will need to be stretched out to in order to be an effective starter at the Major League level, so I think it's a safe bet to assume he will make the additional 4 starts that were a part of the plan before the Yankees even consider bringing him back. Joe also said yesterday that the plan was for Andy's pitch count to increase by about 15 in his next outing.

Considering those bits of info, and the fact that Andy received an extra day of rest between start 1 and start 2, it will be important to balance out the expected increases in pitch count over these next 4 starts while getting him back onto a regular rest cycle, which appears to be the plan heading into his next scheduled start on Friday. Combining all these factors together into a pitching plan for the remainder of his starts, I anticipate we will see something like this:

• 3rd Start: April 20th- Regular Rest- Pitch Count of 60-70 Pitches
• 4th Start: April 25th- Regular Rest- Pitch Count of 75-80 Pitches
• 5th Start: April 30th- Regular Rest- Pitch Count of 85-90 Pitches
• 6th Start: May 5th- Regular Rest- Pitch Count of 95-100 Pitches

Game 10 Wrap-Up: MIN 7 NYY 3

(Web Gem?  Courtesy of Getty Images)

The only way I could think of to ruin a "Carl Pavano in Yankee Stadium" outing would be to lose to him, and unfortunately for the Yankees that's exactly what happened last night.  Freddy Garcia wasn't very good, Pavano surprisingly was, and the Bombers find themselves back at .500 for the moment.

Game Notes:

- Freddy Garcia had problems finding and keeping the ball anywhere near the strike zone in his first start in Baltimore.  Tonight, it was the exact opposite.  Too often, Freddy was leaving pitches right in the center of the zone last night and the Twins hitters capitalized on it, especially with 2 outs.

- Freddy's outing was a reverse poop sandwich, with the poop as the bread in the 1st inning and late 5th-early 6th innings when he gave up 5 earned runs on 9 hits and the meat in the middle being the 2nd-4th innings when he retired 9 in a row, 6 on groundballs.  His control was better tonight than in his first start, but he wasn't commanding anything where he wanted to in the zone.

- Carl Pavano certainly looked up the challenge of matching Freddy hit for hit when he opened the bottom of the 1st by giving up back-to-back HRs to Derek Jeter and Curtis Granderson on 4 pitches, but he managed to settle down after that and efficiently worked his way through 7 innings, only allowing 5 more baserunners in the process and striking out 6.

- Pavano's curveball was working, but I still have to call out the Yankee offense for making it easy for him after the 1st.  They only got 1 ball out of the infield after the 3rd inning, and Pavano is not an overpowering pitcher by any stretch of the imagination.  You have to put some good swings on pitches.

- Little surprised to see Joe go to Rapada and not Soriano in the 9th, just to get Soriano some more work, but after Cory Wade gave up the 2 runs in the 8th, I guess Joe decided to keep that card in the deck for a game he felt better about winning.

A Brief Message To Carl Pavano

(The question was, "What was your favorite part about making $40 million to do next to nothing?" Courtesy of The AP)

Hey Carl,

How's it going, man?  Good?  Great.  That's great.  Glad to hear it.  I heard you were coming back into town tonight and I just wanted to remind you that I haven't forgotten about your time in New York.  I'm sure a lot of other people have moved on, have let bygones be bygones, and are happy for you for picking your career up off the scrap heap and putting it back together, but not me.  I still think you're a dirty liar and a piece of crap for flat out stealing $40 million during your time here.  I certainly hope you've spent that money well and have some nice knick-knacks in your place to remind you of how badly you snowed the Yankees and Yankee fans everywhere.

And when you come back to The Stadium tonight, don't expect a warm welcome.  I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who feels this way and you're going to be booed.  You should be booed.  Part of me wishes that tonight just turns into an endless barrage by the Yankee bats upon you and your pedestrian offerings.  I want every pitch to either be a home run or a comebacker off the very same buttcheek and rib that you injured while you were here.  I know that won't happen, so I'll settle for a repeat of last night's beatdown of the Angels' staff, but know that you're still the enemy, you're always going to be the enemy (at least in my eyes) and I wish you no success in tonight's outing or any of your future outings hereafter.

If that makes me a crummy person, so be it.  I don't pretend to be a great one and I certainly don't pretend like I don't still have bad memories about your time as a Yankee.  If other people have moved on and are happy for you now, more power to them.  I'm not, and I hope the Yankee offense beats you the F down tonight.  Best of luck to you tonight, guy.

Love,

Brad

** UPDATE 6:33PM- The first 2 at-bats in the bottom of the 1st LITERALLY could not have gone any better than they did. **

P.S.- When are pitchers going to learn that you can't miss inside against C-Grand with his new swing?  He's going to park it in the seats.

Bobby V Making Himself Right At Home In Bahhston

(You should probably be sitting here if you're going to mouth off, dude)

All this "consistently covering the Yankees" stuff has got me slipping on one of my true passions in life, that of course being bagging on the Fraud Sawx and their crumbling mess of an organization.  And DAMN, am I missing some good stuff.  We're barely over a week into the season and shit's already starting to play out like a season of "The Real World."  Let's go to the quote book!

Game 9 Wrap-Up: NYY 11 LAA 5 (With Bonus Thoughts & Afterthoughts)

(Ahoy, Captain.  Courtesy of The AP)

One of the few times I can stomach ESPN is when they have the Yankees on Sunday Night Baseball.  Last night was one of those nights, so everybody gets a bonus batch of my brand of analysis.  You're welcome.

Game Notes:

- Jerome Williams experienced the same fate as Phil Hughes the day before, failing to consistently throw his fastball for strikes and leaving the ball up in the zone, and as a result he wasn't around long.  The Yankees punished him for 5 ER on 5 H and 3 BB in just 2.2 IP.

- Ivan Nova pitched very similar to how he did in his first start last night, flashing a mid-90s fastball that he generally commanded to both sides of the plate and a killer curve that he got plenty of swings and misses on.  He did miss spots here and there and give up some hits, but once again there was never the sense that he was in real danger in his 6 innings of work.

- After the Yankee offense knocked Williams out in the 3rd, the big hit was Jeter's 3-run HR to right in the 4th inning to make it an 8-1 game.  Classic Jeter power swing, and one that's been MIA for the last few seasons.

- In the late innings, with the Angels threatening to climb back into it, the Yankees shut the door with D-Rob and Logan in the 8th-9th innings and a monster 2-R HR from Raul Ibanez for some insurance.  Game, set, match, start spreadin' the news.

Some Pre-Game Food For Thought For The Yankee Hitters

It's been a bit of an up-and-down start for the Yankee offense so far.  They've worked counts, drawn a lot of walks, and have done damage in short bursts in their first 8 games.  They've also had the same RISP struggles that plagued them at times last season and during last year's ALDS loss to Detroit.  They're 3-4-5 hitters, while still being pitched to with the respect that elite hitters of their caliber deserve, have combined for just 1 HR and 3 RBI, the sole dinger coming from A-Rod on Friday.  Suffice it to say that the offense is nowhere near clicking on all cylinders right now.

Well, if anything can help start to change that it's tonight's starting pitcher for the Angels, Jerome Williams.   He's not a bad pitcher by any stretch of the imagination, but something tells me that he could be walking into the lion's den tonight.  A righty pitching in Yankee Stadium with a severe home/road split, who struggles to keep the ball in the park on the road and likes to throw a lot of 2-strike fastballs is the type of pitcher this lineup can feed on at home and could be just the medicine the Yankee offense needs to start feeling better.  With the positive things they have been doing at the plate, they should put themselves into a lot of situations where they can tee off tonight.

So screw the history against pitchers you've never faced before, boys.  You're good hitters and you're getting a guy tonight whose history suggests he's going to give you good stuff to hit.  Don't waste it.

P.S.- Props to TYA colleague Mike Eder for the dynamite PITCHF/x scouting work on the Angels' staff this weekend.

Game 8 Wrap-Up: LAA 7 NYY 1

(Sad Phil is sad.  Courtesy of Getty Images)

Phil Hughes has made 2 starts in this young season, and he's totaled just 8 IP in those 2 starts.  As I touched on yesterday, he's taken a step back from the progress he made in ST putting his game together and it's going to cause the rotation talk to heat up quickly, even with Andy still rehabbing in High-A and Michael Pineda just throwing on flat ground.

Game Notes:

- A day after a solid all around "yin" game from the Yankees in their home opener (great starting pitching, timely hitting), yesterday was the ugly "yang" to that game. The starting pitching was bad and the offense was generally lifeless against Angels' starter C.J. Wilson.

- The hitting with RISP struggles continued, as the Yankee batters managed to hit just 1-11 in that category.  Their 4 biggest bats (Cano, A-Rod, Teix, C-Grand) are all hitting below .230 on the young season, with Teix and C-Grand both hitting just .188.

- As is usually the case with Hughes when he struggles, he just wasn't able to hit his spots consistently.  He missed on the corners with his fastball a lot when he was ahead in the count, and couldn't keep his slider or curveball down in the zone.  The big blow that ended his day was a 3-R homer by Howie Kendrick on a flat slider that slid right down the middle of the plate.

- Wilson was good, but not great, and the Yankees could have done much damage against him to keep themselves in the game.  They had runners on the corners in the 1st inning and runners on 2nd and 3rd multiple times and only managed the lone run on Cano's RBI single.

F*ck Yeahs:

David Phelps: Phelps was once again money out of the bullpen, relieving Hughes in the 4th inning and giving the Yankees 5.1 IP of 1-run ball to preserve the rest of the bullpen for tonight.  He's made the Yankees look very smart (and me very dumb) for choosing him over D.J. Mitchell for the long man role.

Oh Nos:

- Hughes: 3.1 IP, 8 H, 6 ER, 2 BB, 6 K.  The strikeouts were the only positive.

- #3-6 in the lineup: Cano, A-Rod, Teix, and Curtis all combined to go 2-15 yesterday with 1 RBI and 10 LOB.

Next Up:

The rubber game of the series is tonight, on national TV, with Ivan Nova squaring off against Jerome Williams to try and get his team the series win and get them back over .500.

Phrustrated With Phil

(Courtesy of The AP)

Whether you put any weight into the numbers or not, Phil Hughes certainly looked like a good pitcher in Spring Training, the type of pitcher Yankee fans have been waiting to see for years now.  All the pieces of his game that have been missing at times and present at others- the velocity, the control, the command, the health, the changeup- were all starting to come together at the same time and it appeared that Hughes was poised to get back on the track he was on in the first half of 2010.  Since the games have started to count, however, it's been back to business as usual with Hughes, and that's not a good thing.

Game 7 Wrap-Up: Abridged Version

Little late for this considering Game 8 is going on right now (and it's on FOX so I actually get to watch it while STL-CHI is in rain delay), but last night turned into a bit of a shitshow for me, as in attempting to drunkenly deep fry a frozen pizza with a couple buddies at 5AM using batter that had WAY too much Sailor Jerry rum in it, and I still owe you and Hiroki Kuroda some ink for yesterday's victory.  It ain't much, but here it is.

Game Notes:

- Hiroki Kuroda was the man.  Nothing more that needs to be said.  He said he was worried about how he was going to perform in his Yankee Stadium debut and he handled himself brilliantly.  8 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K is a helluva way to get the Yankee crowd on your side.

- Ervin Santana didn't have his best stuff or command, and the Yankees made him pay for it each time he missed.  Vintage Yankee offense.

F*ck Yeahs:

- Kuroda: Duh.

- The Horse: 3-4, HR, 2 R, 1 RBI, 1 SB.

- Swish: 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI.

Oh Nos:

Ibanez: 0-4, 1 K, 2 LOB.  Picking nits, but somebody had to make this section.

The First A-Bomb Of The Year

(See ya!  Screen cap courtesy of MLB.com)

I've been waiting 6 game for this, and The Horse finally comes through today with his first HR canter of the season.  He must have just been waiting until the Yanks came home.  What a guy.

Friday Afternoon "2012 Home Opener" Linkapalooza: 4/13

It's the home opener today, and I'm sure everybody will be glued to that once it gets going, so here's the Linkapalooza a little early today.  To the links.

- On Monday, Scott Ham of The Bronx View unveiled the Girardi Tracker to follow Joe's usage of his pitching staff.  I've already reminded myself never to check this after a Yankee loss when I'm drunk.

- On Tuesday, Jay Jaffe of Pinstriped Bible stirred the pot a bit on the Yankees' 0-3 start by bringing up past instances of even worse starts in franchise history.  Luckily, the team has rebounded since then.

- Joe Pawlikowski of RAB commented on Derek Jeter's hot start and what could be the major contributing factor.

- On Wednesday, Frank Campagnola of Pinstripe Alley voiced his opinion on Freddy Garcia, and it wasn't a positive one.  This could have been a knee-jerk reaction to Freddy's poor first start, but Frank does make some valid points.

- Greg Corcoran of Bronx Baseball Daily became the latest to point out the fact that despite perception to the contrary, the Yankees are actually good at developing pitchers.

- Dan Barbarisi of The Wall Street Journal had an interesting piece on Eduardo Nunez and his desire to be Jeter's successor as the everyday shortstop.  I admire his commitment and work ethic, but dude really needs to clean his game up to be a viable option.

- Mike Eder of TYA broke down Ivan Nova's first start of the season with PITCHF/x, and made some predictions on what we could see moving forward.

- On Thursday, Jamie Insalaco of Bomber Banter reviewed the trends from the first 6 games in preparation for today's home opener.

- William Juliano of The Captain's Blog crunched the numbers on early-season blown saves to disprove the theory that there have been more of them early in the season than usual.

- William Tasker of IIATMS commented on the small sample size-influenced last place ranking for the Yankees in defensive efficiency, and included a stellar Photoshop as well.

- Delia E. of Yankees Fans Unite used David Phelps' early-season success to form some comparisons between him and D-Rob.  Phelps' MiL history doesn't project K dominance like D-Rob has had at the Major League, but I think we'd all be ecstatic if he developed into something close.

- On Friday, Kate Conroy of Lady Loves Pinstripes unveiled his first weekly MLB power poll of the 2012 season.

- George King of The Post had some quotes from scouts saying that Jeter looks quicker out of the box this season than he has in the past.  No word on whether or not he's importing water from the fountain of youth.

I should be going with "Here Come The Yankees" for the Friday Jam again today for the home opener, but I don't want to use it 2 weeks in a row.  Instead, I'm going with "Bulls On Parade" by Rage Against The Machine, one because I'd like to see the offense perform like a bunch of bulls on parade today, and two because Rage is the shit.



Enjoy your weekends, everybody.

Early Trade Returns

The season is still very, very young, but just for S's and G's here's where the pieces of the Montero-Pineda trade are at through the first week:

- Jesus Montero: 7-25 w/ 0 XBH, 2 RBI, 0 BB

- Hector Noesi: 1 GS, 3 IP, 7 H, 6 ER, 3 BB, 3 K

- Michael Pineda: On the DL, throwing light workout sessions

- Jose Campos: 2 GS, 11 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 10 K

And there's your Friday the 13th weirdness for the day.  The least-heralded part of the trade, at least initially, blowing people's doors off in his first experience in a full-season league while the other 3 guys spin their tires a bit at the wave of the green flag.  If this trade wase a tennis match, the Yankees would be up 15-love in the first game of the first set.

P.S.- Did I get enough completely unrelated sports comparisons in there?

Jorge Throwing Out The First Pitch Tomorrow

(Courtesy of Debby Wong/US Presswire)

Everybody probably already knows this by now, but if not, BREAKING NEWZ!!!!

Tomorrow is the home opener and the recently-retired Jorge Posada is scheduled to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.  As someone (probably one of the few) who was always on the fence when it came to Jorge and not head-over-heels in fanlove with him like most Yankee fans, I will say that I am pleasantly surprised that this is happening.

Truth be told, I thought there would be a little more time between his retirement and return to Yankee Stadium because of how things ended between Jorge and the Yankees.  There was the whole "taking himself out of the lineup" fiasco last the season, the outright declaration by the Yankees that they weren't going to offer him a new deal, and Jorge basically being forced to retire because no other teams were interested in him.  I got the sense from watching the clips of his retirement press conference and reading some of the quotes that he really didn't WANT to have to hang them up, and I'm glad that there doesn't appear to be any ill will between him and the one organization he called home for so long.

Tomorrow afternoon's game will definitely be in the top 5 for games I wish I could have attended since I moved out to Wisconsin and it's simply because Jorge is going to be there to throw out the first pitch.  The atmosphere is going to be INSANE!  I'm literally getting goosebumps right now at my desk thinking about how loud that ovation is going to be.  After the rough way Jorge went out as a player, it's only right to bring him right back to the place where he is universally loved so he can be reminded of just how important and beloved a member of the Yankee family he is.

** If any AB4AR readers are going to the game tomorrow, take some pictures or video of the days' events and send them to me.  I'd love to get a sense of what the atmosphere was like and I'd love to throw some stuff up in a post. **

The Benefit Of 20/20 Foresight (And Failing To Use It)

I'm always the first to pipe up about Joe's on-field decisions when it comes to managing his bullpen, be they good calls or bad calls (usually bad).  But for the Yankees to extend that questionable bullpen decision-making to the pre-game, well that's something I'm not familiar with and something I was very surprised to see play out yesterday.  If you were not aware, the Yankees entered last night's game quite understaffed in their relief corps after the previous 2 games.  Let's review:

• David Phelps- Unavailable after pitching 2.1 innings in relief of Freddy Garcia on Tuesday night
• Cory Wade- Ditto
• D-Rob- Unavailable after pitching 1 inning in consecutive nights on Monday and Tuesday
• Mo- Ditto*

* (Mo shouldn't have been available, but when your team gets the lead in extra innings on the road, you can't leave that lead in the hands of Clay Rapada)

That left the Yankees with just 2 guaranteed available arms out of the 'pen last night in Boone Logan and Clay Rapada, both guys who are best utilized as short-relief lefty specialists.  Rafael Soriano was a game-time decision after ripping the nail off the middle finger of his pitching hand while warming up on Tuesday night, and I don't remember reading anywhere prior to the game that his availability had been confirmed.  The Yankees knew all of this after last night's game ended.  None of this was a surprise or something that caught them off guard, and they had plenty of time to make a roster move to add some depth, and yet they chose not to.

Game 6 Wrap-Up

(Swishalicious!  Courtesy of The AP)

I'm going to save my rant on the Yankees' decision to not add bullpen reinforcements for another post in a few hours.  The important thing is they got the job done last night with the players they had and completed the series sweep in Baltimore.

Game Notes:

- After a so-so Opening Day outing where his fastball command was spotty and he had to battle through 6 innings, it was more of the same for CC last night.  He struggled with his fastball again, missing up with it a lot and practically eliminating it from his arsenal after 3-4 innings.  His slider was money as an out pitch and he used that to battle his way through a 6 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 8 K line.

- Orioles' starter Jake Arrieta did his best Wei-Yin Chen impression, giving up a leadoff double to Derek Jeter and a follow-up HR to Curtis Granderson in the top of the 1st, but then settled down after that to mostly keep the Yankee offense at bay.  He made it through 6.2 innings before succumbing to the vintage Yankee patience and giving up the game-tying 4th run in the 7th.

- After the last 2 games, the Yankees entered the game with only Boone Logan and Clay Rapada definitely available out of the 'pen, and Rafael Soriano a game-time decision after his fingernail tearing incident on Tuesday night.  Logan and Soriano both came up big picking up CC in the later innings, combing for 0 R allowed on 1 hit in 3 innings.

- Despite using him in each of the previous 2 games, Joe channeled his inner Herm Edwards and played to win the game by going to Mo after Swish cracked a 2-run HR in the top of the 10th to give the Yankees the lead.  Mo did what he does, and the Yankees left Baltimore with a sweep and a record back at .500.

F*ck Yeahs:

- C-Grand: 2-5, HR, 1 R, 3 RBI.  Outside of him and Jeter, the Yankee offense was near non-existent last night for most of the game.

- Swish: Game-winning 2-run homers in extra innings will tend to get you in this section of the AB4AR recap.

Oh Nos:

- Robinson Cano: 0-5 with 4 LOB, and 2 pop-ups with RISP.  Still needs to find his groove.

Next Up:

Thankfully, the Yankees get an off day to rest up the majority of their bullpen that wasn't available tonight before heading back to The Stadium for their season-opening home series against the Angels.

Thoughts On The Cano Contract Situation

(Swag.  Courtesy of MLB.com)

The future of Robinson Cano in pinstripes has become an increasingly popular and important topic of discussion over the past few months, both in terms of what kind of deal he could get and how the Yankees' efforts to re-sign him will impact their goals of getting below the $189 million payroll limit for 2014.  That discussion has become even louder in the last day or so as the Rangers' recent re-signing of Ian Kinsler, combined with similar re-up deals for Brandon Phillips and Dan Uggla, has established a baseline for the numbers.  2 posts yesterday, one from Mike Axisa of RAB and another from Eric Schultz of TYA covered the current situation about as well as I could ever hope to, so rather than try to craft something as well put together as they did, I'll just put my Peter King hat on and offer up some of my own thought on the matter and what I think can, should, and will happen.

Game 5 Wrap-Up

(Love seeing the postgame handshake line.  Courtesy of The AP)

Things didn't look great early, as the Yankee offense looked to once again be overmatched by a pitcher they had never faced before.  But some timely late-inning hitting and a lockdown bullpen performance to pick up Freddy Garcia ended up being enough to get them their 2nd straight win.

Game Notes:

- A night after Ivan Nova turned in a sterling starting pitching performance, Freddy was off from the word go in his first start of the season.  Maybe it was the cold weather affecting him, but he had little to no command of his offspeed stuff and became the first pitcher since 1989 to throw 5 wild pitches in a game.  Like Phil Hughes a few days ago, Freddy failed to make it out of the 5th inning.

- Orioles' starter Wei-Yin Chen was solid through 5 innings, holding the Yankees to just 1 run on Derek Jeter's leadoff home run.  But he tired in the 6th inning and the Yankees took advantage, aided by Buck Showalter sticking with Chen a little too long, scoring 3 runs to tie the game.

- As bad as Garcia was, the bullpen was that good and then some.  Phelps, D-Rob, Logan, Wade, Rapada, and Mo combined to throw 7.1 inning of scoreless ball, allowing only baserunners and K'ing 12.  Rapada even got a right-handed hitter out.

- The Yanks had a good chance to get a run in the top of the 11th after a leadoff walk to Russell Martin.  Joe's decision to pinch run for Martin was questionable, as was his decision to have Brett Gardner lay down a sac bunt, but considering the hot-hitting Jeter was on deck and a failed SB attempt by Eduardo would have resulted in bases empty/1 out rather than runner on 2nd/1 out, I can't get too upset at the move.

- After pinch hitting for Andruw Jones in the 8th inning, Raul Ibanez picked up the game-winning hit with a 2-out double in the top of the 12th, his team-leading 6th RBI of the season.

F*ck Yeahs:

- Jeter: Continued to look great at the plate, going 2-6 with a HR, 1 R, 1 RBI.  The homer to lead off the game was the 25th of his career, which set a new Yankee record.

- Gardner: 2-4 with 1 RBI, which came on a smart piece of hitting on Gardner's part to tie the game in the 6th.  Facing a tiring pitcher who was losing his command and just failed to get out of the inning thanks to an error, Gardner was looking first-pitch fastball, got a good one to hit, and didn't waste it.

- David Phelps/Cory Wade: Put up matching 2.1 IP, 0 R, 4 K lines to keep the Yankees in the game and give the offense more chances to score the eventual winning run.

Oh Nos:

- Freddy: 4.2 IP, 4 H, 4 R (3 ER), 3 BB, 3 K.  Just never looked comfortable out there.

- A-Rod: It pains me to say it, but an 0-5 with 2 Ks from the cleanup spot is not a good look.

Next Up:

The Yanks will look to get back to .500 and close out this series with a sweep as the 2 aces, CC for New York and Jake Arrieta for Baltimore, square off tonight.

On Andy's First Comeback Outing

The plan was to take things slow, but Andy Pettitte has been on what seems to me like a pretty aggressive schedule since the announcement of his unretirement.  He started throwing bullpens and BP very early in his short ST stint, got into a ST game earlier than expected at the end of camp, and last night made his first official appearance of the season for High-A Tampa.  The plan was for Pettitte to throw just 2 innings but thanks to a low pitch count he ended up throwing another, once again an aggressive decision.

All reports on Pettitte's outing last night have been incredibly positive, and with good reason.  He threw 32 pitches last night, 26 of them for strikes, and sat 85-86 with his fastball, which is not too far off from the 88-89 he was averaging when he last pitched in 2010.  Granted, it was against much lesser competition than he'll face at the upper levels, but in what was essentially a ST start the results were everything you would want to see.

Andy mentioned at his comeback presser that his legs were much further behind his arm at that point, and given the injury problems he had with his legs at the end of 2010 I thought that was going to be the main reason to take things very slowly with him and for the Yankees to not even consider calling him up until he was absolutely 100% ready, even if it took until June.  But Andy said his legs felt good after last night, and he's scheduled to make his next appearance on Sunday.  He'll get an extra day of rest before that start because of the 3rd inning he threw last night, which is a wise decision, but early on it appears to be full steam ahead for the old pitching Jedi.

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.

Game 4 Wrap-Up: Super Nova

(Goodbye.  Screen cap courtesy of MLB.com)

The losing streak is over!  The Yanks were able to put good hitting and good pitching together last night for the first time this season, and the result was exactly what you would expect.

Game Notes:

- Ivan Nova was on last night, no other way to say it.  His fastball velocity was up, and he located it well to both sides of the plate.  He threw a ton of strikes to keep himself in control of the at-bats and worked his offspeed stuff in brilliantly.  There was no talk of missing command last night.  Nova was damn good.

- It's a little weird to use the word "scattered" when describing an outing in which the pitcher allowed 10 hits, but that's really what Nova did last night.  The only really bad pitch he made was the changeup he left up on the Matt Wieters HR.  There were a couple instances of balls just finding spots in the field where the defenders weren't, but there was never a sense that Nova was losing control of the game.

- Derek Jeter was the big offensive star of the night, going 4-4 with a double and 1 R and RBI apiece.  It marked the 37th time in The Captain's career that he had 4+ hits in a game and continued the positive trends we've seen from him at the plate since he returned from his ST calf injury.

- Joe wasn't playing around in the 8th and 9th innings, going right to D-Rob and Mo to close it out.  It's nice when he doesn't have to make any real decisions with the bullpen.  D-Rob decided to change things up for his escape act last night, striking out the first 2 batters of the inning, then giving up consecutive hits before finishing things off.

F*ck Yeahs:

- Nova: 7 IP, 10 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K.  Command problems?  What command problems?

- Jeter: Doing what you want your leadoff man to do.

- Andruw Jones: 1-2 with a HR, BB, 1 RBI, 2 R scored.  He looks lean and mean this season and absolutely smoked that homer off of Darren O'Day in the 6th.

Oh Nos:

- The "Heart of the order: Cano, A-Rod, and Teix combined to go 2-13 with just 1 RBI and 11 LOB, although they did draw 2 walks.

Next Up:

The Yanks look to turn this one win into a mini-streak with a follow-up W in the second game of this series tonight.  Freddy Garcia takes the hill for the Bombers against Wei-Yin Chen.  Yeah, I don't know who the hell he is either.

There's One...

And hopefully the first of many more.  After stumbling and bumbling through the series in Tampa, the Yankees were on their game tonight and got off their season-opening schneid with a 6-2 win over the Baltimore Showalters.  Ivan The Terrible Great led the way in his season debut and was downright FILTHY.  His fastball was mid-90s all night, his curveball was nasty, his slider was nasty, and he was aggressive with all of them.  Dude didn't look very good at all in Spring Training but he turned in the best outing by a Yankee starter so far in this young season, which means only one thing.

YA JUST CAN'T PREDICT BASEBALL, SUZYN!!!

More on the game tomorrow morning.  Frankie, tune up the band...

A Shift In Defending The Yankees?

One of the more interesting subplots to this past weekend's season-opening series was the generous use of the defensive shift by the Rays against the big boppers in the Yankee lineup.  The shift is nothing new for them, as they employ it more than any other team in baseball, and nothing new for hitters like Mark Teixeira.  But to see it used against hitters like A-Rod and C-Grand was a new wrinkle, at least for me, and raises a question on whether or not the Rays uncovered a new way to defend against the powerful Yankee lineup.

Employing the shift against Teix is almost commonplace nowadays when he's hitting from the left side.  With the way he's become a pull-happy, all-or-nothing hitter from the left side over the past few seasons, it's something that any smart team would do.  Teix still hasn't shown enough in terms of his ability to consistently hit the other way from the left side to dissuade teams from using the shift and it worked to the Rays' advantage this weekend.  The Horse and Curtis don't have reputations as being prime candidates for the shift, at least not to the degree that Teix does, but in looking at their career pull/opposite way splits, it's not all that surprising that the Rays utilized the shift against them as well.  For the sake of comparison...

Mark Teixeira (left-handed):

- OPS Pull Side- 1.200 career/ 1.000 in 2011
- OPS Opp. Way- .632 career/ .187 in 2011

- wOBA Pull Side- .502 career/ .492 in 2011
- wOBA Opp. Way- .265 career/ .080 in 2011

Alex Rodriguez:

- OPS Pull- 1.164 career/ .916 in 2011
- OPS Opp.- .872 career/ .664 in 2011

- wOBA Pull- .490 career/ .393 in 2011
- wOBA Opp.- .358 career/ .280 in 2011

Curtis Granderson:

- OPS Pull- 1.219 career/ 1.494 in 2011
- OPS Opp.- .720 career/ .517 in 2011

- wOBA Pull- .512 career/ .625 in 2011
- wOBA Opp.- .303 career/ .218 in 2011

Game 3 Wrap-Up

(The look of winlessness.  Courtesy of The AP)

Another frustrating loss yesterday.  But at least we can all take solace in the fact that the last time the Yankees started the season 0-3 was 1998, and they ended up winning 114 in that regular season on their way to a World Series title.

Game Notes:

- I know he was too rich for their blood, but the Yankees probably should have signed Carlos Pena this offseason just so they wouldn't have to face him.  He cracked another HR off of Phil Hughes yesterday and went 6-12 w/ 2 HR, 3 R scored, and 7 RBI in the series.  Dude is the definition of a Yankee killer.

- Hughes pitched the best out of the 3 Yankee starters this weekend, although I don't know how much that matters when he only made it through 4.2.  His fastball velocity was up and he mixed his change in well, both of which are encouraging signs.  He just needs to be more efficient and finish guys off with 2 strikes.

- Rough day for Swish at the plate.  He came up twice with A-Rod and Teix on base, 2nd and 3rd and 1 out in the 4th inning and at the corners with 2 outs in the 6th, and couldn't bring them in.

- It wasn't an ideal situation, but David Phelps made his Yankee debut in the bottom of the 8th with his family in attendance, so tip of the cap to him.

F*ck Yeahs:

- Phelps: That less-than-ideal situation was 2 on and 1 out and Phelps handled himself very well in his Major League debut, getting a strikeout and a groundout to end the inning and the threat.

- A Rod: 1-3 with a 2B, BB, and a SB.  He was the most consistent hitter in the whole series and looked very smooth at the plate, in the field, and on the basepaths.

Oh Nos:

- Jeremy Hellickson: I didn't really give him his due in my post-game rant, but he was very good yesterday.  He mixed his fastball and change incredibly well and kept the Yankee hitters off balance all day, and was very efficient with his pitch count.  Just a shutdown performance.

- Raul Ibanez: Went 0-4 at the plate with 4 LOB and had that ridiculous misplay on Matt Joyce's "triple" in the first inning that cost Hughes a run.

Next Up:

The cellar-dwelling, winless Yankees head to Baltimore to take on the undefeated, division-leading Orioles.  Yep, you read that correctly.  Ivan Nova takes on Brian Matusz, first pitch at 7:05PM EST.