Mo Diagnosed With Torn Right ACL

(Courtesy of The Daily News)

By now, everybody probably knows this, but the diagnosis on Mo's injury from last night is in and it's the worst-case scenario many of us feared when we first saw the video.  Mo has a torn ACL in his right knee, as well as damage to his meniscus, and all signs point to him being out for the rest of the 2012 season.

To be quite honest, I'm still a bit in shock over this and don't really know what to say.  I've watched the video of Mo speaking to the media after last night's game and it still doesn't seem real to me.  As I said to my fellow TYA writers in our email discussion this morning, Mo is one of the few genuinely good people left in sports today, one of the best people.  If there's anybody you could point to and say that he didn't deserve this, it's Mo.

Game 25 Wrap-Up: KC 4 NYY 3

(Good morning, Mr. Phelps.  Courtesy of The AP)

Freddy Garcia's spot in the rotation is dead.  Long live Freddy's rotation spot.  Taking that spot was David Phelps, and last night was Phelps' first career Major League start.  As if making your Major League debut wasn't stressful enough, Phelps had his family in the house and was facing a lineup with plenty of good young hitters in Kansas City.  About the only thing that made it less stressful was the game taking place in KC and not The Stadium.

Game Notes:

- It goes without saying that everything that happened in the game last night took a backseat to the shocking injury that befell Mariano Rivera during BP.  Just an incredible amount of terrible luck to suffer an injury doing something that he's probably done tens, if not hundreds, of times during his career.

- Baseball was still played, and Phelps was game in his first start.  He threw a lot of strikes, attacked hitters, and exhibited solid control of his stuff as he generated 5 strikeouts to 0 walks through 4 innings.  His problem was that he missed his spots in the zone a little too often and it cost him a few runs.

- Phelps was done after 4 because of the 85 pitches he threw, and he left down 2-1, but all things considered I would say it was a pretty good first start.  He kept the Yankees in the game and they had a chance to win when he left.

- The Yankee offense showed more life than it had in the previous 2 games, putting 7 baserunners on in the first 5 innings.  But struggles with RISP (1-6 through 5) kept them a run behind in the game.  The lone early run came on a pair of doubles by Derek Jeter and Mark Teixeira.

- Clay Rapada and D.J. Mitchell had a rough go in the 5th trying to pick up Phelps, and allowed 2 more runs, but the bullpen was generally good again on a night where they were asked to carry more of the load than usual.

- The Yankee offense continued to chip away, led by Jeter's 4 hits.  They scratched a run across in the 6th on a pair of singles and a sac fly from Eduardo Nunez, and then another in the 7th on the same method, with the sac fly coming from Teix.

- It looked like things were set up for a comeback in the 9th after a leadoff single from Jeter and a walk to C-Grand, but Teix grounded a 1-1 fastball into a double play to end the major threat, and A-Rod grounded out with Jeter on third to end it.

BREAKING NEWS: Mo Carted Off Field During BP

The details of this story are still coming in, and there are differing accounts, but multiple sources are reporting that Mariano Rivera was carted off the field during batting practice tonight with what appeared to be a very severe injury to his right knee.

According to Dan Barbarisi, Mo put no weight on his right leg upon entering the team clubhouse.  It's too early to speculate on the exact injury, but early indications are not positive.

More on this to come...

** UPDATE- 6:41PM- Apparently there is video of the injury that people have seen.  Multiple Yankee beat writers tweeting that his right knee buckled while reaching for a flyball. **

** UPDATE- 6:50PM- The YES team all reporting that Mo leaped to make a catch near the warning track, buckled the knee on landing, and went down immediately.  Sounds eerily similar to the Derrick Rose injury. **

** UPDATE- 6:57PM- Injury is officially being called a "twisted right knee" right now.  MRI scheduled for tonight. **

** UPDATE- 8:21PM- Bryan Hoch has the YES footage of the injury.  That did not look good at all. **

** UPDATE- Friday, 6:17AM- It was confirmed late last night that Mo suffered a torn right ACL and meniscus.  It hasn't been officially stated, but it's almost certain that this will end Mo's 2012 season and possibly his career. Sad. **

The Rotation Is Killing Me, Smalls

For once, it looked like the Yankees were in a position to prove the old adage of "you can never have too much pitching" wrong. It was late in Spring Training and they had no less than 10 guys who could make a legitimate claim to being worthy of a spot in their 2012 starting rotation. Some were younger, some were old, some threw harder than others, and some were just plain better than others, but this season certainly appeared as though it was going to be one, the first one in a while, where the struggles and question marks in the rotation were not going to dominate the headlines in the local press. 4 weeks into the season and all of that depth and talent has been wiped away, replaced by the same concerns over guys not pitching up to the level they were expected to and the same questions surrounding the depth of the group moving forward. The Yankee rotation has a 5.89/4.65/3.74 slash line right now, the ERA ranking 2nd to last in Major League Baseball and the FIP ranking 26th, and have only 6 games where they've pitched 7 innings or more combined. It wasn't supposed to be like this.

CC Sabathia, outside of a few misplaced fastballs up in the zone in his first 2 starts, has been the CC Sabathia we've seen over the past 3 seasons, and a look at his peripherals makes one very confident that he could become even better than his usual self as the weather continues to warm up. But beyond him and his spot at the top, the rest of the rotation is once again a sea of unknowns.

Game 24 Wrap-Up: BAL 5 NYY 0

(Courtesy of The AP)

Ivan Nova's inconsistency in the strike zone finally came back to bite him last time out.  His stuff has been good since day 1 this season, but to truly take the next step towards being a legit #2-#3 starter he needs to tighten up his command.  Last night's start against Jake Arrieta could have been the next step towards that, but it ended up just being Nova running in place.

Game Notes:

- If Nova's bases-loaded K to end the top of the 1st was any indication, we were in for another one of his "load 'em up, shut 'em down"-type adventures.

- And great guy that he is, Ivan didn't let us down.  Through 6 innings he had allowed 7 hits and given up 3 walks, but only 2 ER.  He had thrown 99 pitches and missed up in the zone with regularity again, but he had held Baltimore to just 2-11 with RISP.  The only 1-2-3 inning he had was the 3rd, but he had his team in a winning position.  It was vintage Nova.

- The only problem was that the Yankee offense, as they did the night before, just plain forgot to show up.  Through 6 innings they managed only 4 base hits and no walks against Baltimore starter Jake Arrieta, who to his credit worked them brilliantly.  He pounded the strike zone with fastballs to get ahead in the count, and mixed sinkers, sliders, and curveballs down in the zone as out pitches.

- Nova really had to labor through his 6 innings of work.  That, combined with the fact that he had plenty of guys available in the bullpen, made it a bit odd to see Joe let Nova start the 7th inning.  After getting one out, it became very clear that Joe made the wrong call as Nova gave up a homer-HBP-double trio in 11 pitches to turn a 2-0 deficit into a 4-0 deficit.

- The fact that Nova was left in to face Matt Wieters, who had already homered off of him in the game and looked very comfortable against him at the plate night, after just giving up the homer and the HBP in the 7th, and at 107 pitches, is absolutely mind-numbing.

- Arrieta's dominance continued right through the 8th after he retired 6 in a row following a leadoff single in the 7th, 3 of them via strikeout.  He gave up just 5 hits, ZERO walks, and struck out a career-high 9 in what was probably his best career outing to date.

- Freddy Garcia made his first appearance since losing his rotation spot, pitching 2 scoreless innings in the 8th and 9th.  With 3 baserunners allowed, they were hardly clean, but with the game 5-0 Baltimore it hardly mattered.

Breaking Ties With Phil Hughes

(Ahh the good old days. Sigh)

No, this isn't another post about how the Yankees should trade Phil or move him to the bullpen or send him to Triple-A or any of that.  This is on a much deeper and more personal level than simple baseball strategy.  Over a year ago, when I was slightly less mature than I am today, some of you may recall this post introducing my list of official Yankee man crushes.  Since that day, the AB4AR Man Crush Hall of Fame has been a staple of the sidebar of this site, if you scroll down far enough to find it.  Phil Hughes was part of the first class elected into the Man Crush HOF, mainly because he was the first prospect I really followed closely through the system.  Inclusion the AB4AR Man Crush HOF is supposed to be a lifetime award, but after the last 1.5-2 years of subpar performances from Hughes, my feelings have changed.  I've been trying to fight it for a while now, but I just can't lie to myself anymore.  Phil, I think it would be for the best if I officially uncrushed you, removed you from the Man Crush HOF, and we both went our separate ways.

So NOW Is It Time To Call Up An Outfielder?

Via Mark Feinsand:

"We’re going to see where he’s at after today. We’re starting to get to a point where Thursday might be a little doubtful just because he has to go play a game or two.”- Girardi on Brett Gardner

So to review:

• Swish- Out for at least a week
• Gardner- Probably not coming back this week
• Jones- .326 wOBA (.211 vs. LHP); 30.0% K rate
• Ibanez- .313 wOBA (.306 vs. RHP); almost to the point of not being able to catch the proverbial cold in the field
• Nunez- Yeah, about that...

(Courtesy of Getty Images)

Maybe it's time to bite the bullet and call up Dewayne Wise.  The schedule is getting a little easier, so the 13-man bullpen isn't as big a necessity, and this 2-man bench thing with multiple catchers in the lineup and guys with no business playing the outfield out there playing the outfield doesn't seem to be working.

Just a thought...

Game 23 Wrap-Up: BAL 7 NYY 1

(Derpity-derp!  Courtesy of The AP)

Phil Hughes' spot in the rotation seems safe for the time being.  The axe already fell on Freddy after his last poor outing, and with Andy still a week or so away, Phil was likely going to get at least one more start after this one.  But with David Phelps getting the chance to shine in Freddy's spot, Phil really needed a good start last night against Baltimore to attempt to secure his spot long term.

Game Notes:

- I damn near fell down dead in the middle of my apartment when Hughes struck out the first batter of the game swinging on a curveball and thought maybe Phil was going to man up tonight.  Boy, was I wrong.  A couple of poorly-placed fastballs up in the zone to Chris Davis in the 2nd and J.J. Hardy in the 3rd led to an early 3-1 lead for the O's.  No matter what happened from then on, Hughes' spot in the rotation was dead as soon as Hardy's shot landed.

- Outside of the latest C-Grand home run in the bottom of the 1st, the Yankee offense was relatively lifeless against Brian Matusz through 6 innings.  They made life easier for him by swinging early in the count way too often, no instance worse than Robinson Cano's 1st-pitch pop out to end the 3rd with runners on 2nd and 3rd, but Matusz was pretty good.

- Hughes recovered from his early struggles to make it through 5.2 without allowing any more runs, but Joe's lack of faith in him continued to be exhibited when he removed Hughes after a HBP with 2 outs and nobody on.  Hughes had been pitching well, but was given no leash, and his night ended in the 6th.

- It was a big pile of suck after Hughes hit the showers, thanks to a pair of hits off of Boone Logan and the abrupt and ugly end to the honeymoon phase of Eduardo Nunez's outfield career on a brutal error that led to 2 more runs and a 6-1 Baltimore lead.

- In consecutive at-bats in the 6th and 7th innings, Alex Rodriguez had a leadoff bunt single and a 1st-pitch pop out to the catcher with the bases loaded.  I've got nothing for that.

- Things got a bit hazy for me after the A-Rod out to end the 7th, but I distinctly remember D.J. Mitchell coming on in the 9th inning to make his Major League debut.  As a big D.J. Mitchell fan, I'm obligated to mention that and to point out that he worked a scoreless frame with 1 K.

- I certainly wasn't expecting a stinker like this from the Yankees last night.  They had no reason or excuse to lay an egg the way they did, so I really don't know what else to say.  Go get 'em today, I guess.

Why The Eff Is Swish Not On The DL?

I don't get it.  I really don't.  Forget for a second that not putting him on the DL leaves the team with a 24-man roster and a 2-man bench until Gardner comes off the DL, both of which are not exactly winning strategies.  Forget that the 2-man bench will be whoever from the Ibanez-Jones-Nunez isn't scheduled to start and Chris Stewart.  Forget that for the immediate future the Yankees can make things work in the outfield with the bodies they have and will be OK depth-wise when Gardner comes back (assuming he doesn't suffer any last-minute setbacks).  And forget that the MiL call-up options are a bit limited with C-Dick and Zoilo Almonte both on the DL and Dewayne Wise not having any options that would allow the Yankees to stash him back in Triple-A when the time came for him to be sent back down.

Focus solely on Swish and his health, and how well he's played to start this season and how important his offensive contributions have been with the big boppers in front of him in the order scuffling.  Then think about whether or not you would be willing to risk losing that by him coming back too early and re-injuring himself.

Joe has already said that Swish is going to be out for a week.  As early as it still is in the season, what's the harm in putting him on the 15-day, giving him more time to rest the hammy, and increasing the chances that you get a 100% healthy Swish back in the middle of the month?  He's already had some injury scares with his groin issues in Spring Training, and hamstring injuries can be tricky if they aren't allowed to fully heal.  I'd hate to lose Swish long term because a stupid decision was made in the short term.

The Inaugural AB4AR "Best Of The Month" Awards: April 2012

AB4AR takes another step towards blog legitimacy with the first ever handing out of the AB4AR "Best of The Month" awards.  Of course baseball is a team sport, and it's rare that individual plays or players can be pointed to as the sole reason for a victory or a loss, but within that team concept there are always individual performances worth recognizing, and that's what this monthly feature will do.  For as consistently inconsistent as the Yankees were in April, and with as many problem areas as the team seemingly has right now, the best of the month was still very, very good.

And the winners are...

Where For Art Thou, Robinson?

The lack of production from the middle of the Yankee lineup this season is a theme that probably deserves more time and space to discuss than it's gotten so far.  There have been a few big games here and there, but in general the trio of Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, and Robinson Cano has been pretty mediocre, and lucky that the rotation has been even worse.  For guys like A-Rod and Teix, with injury histories, track records of slow starts, and swing/approach adjustments that they're focusing on, the slow start can be understood to a degree.  For Cano, however, his sluggish start comes as a surprise.  This is a guy who hit .320/.340/.639 last April and has a .294/.335/.480 slash in the season's first month in his career, and yet currently sits at .264/.323/.391 (.312 wOBA) 96 plate appearances into the season.  A glance at Cano's peripherals to try to explain this slow start makes the situation all the more confusing.

With Cano, the logical first place to start when investigating problems is his selectivity.  Cano has always been a free swinger with a low BB rate, and those things tend to manifest themselves as bigger problems in his game when he's slumping.  This has not been the case this year, as Cano's current BB rate of 8.3% is consistent with where it was in his banner year of 2010.  He's also sporting a minute 7.3% K rate, indicating that Cano isn't flailing away and missing at a lot of pitches.  His PITCHF/x Swing Rate of 46.0%, O-Swing Rate of 25.6%, and SwStr Rate of 6.2% are also lower than they usually are for Cano, significantly lower in the case of the Swing Rates, and support the theory that Cano has been more selective and less swing-happy at the plate this year.  In theory, a hitter of Cano's caliber should have much better numbers with across-the-board improvements in the swing/take department.  Something's not adding up here.

Game 22 Wrap-Up: NYY 2 BAL 1

(Out!  Courtesy of Getty Images)

The Yankees used the Orioles to end their season-opening losing streak with a 3-game sweep in Baltimore earlier in the month.  They were looking for the same thing this time around coming off a series win against Detroit, and had the type of pitcher in Hiroki Kuroda who could hold the free-swinging Baltimore lineup down if his command was on.

Game Notes:

- I don't know when Eric Chavez's power got moved out of the ICU and off the Witness Protection Program, but it's good to see it back.  Chavez cranked a 2-run HR off Baltimore starter Jason Hammel in the bottom of the 2nd, his 3rd of the season, to give the Yanks a 2-1 lead, and looked damn good doing it.

- Kuroda was nothing if not efficient in his start last night.  His stuff wasn't great, and his command wasn't perfect, but Kuroda still managed to mix pitches well and keep the Orioles off the bases.  A cheap run on a sac fly in the 2nd was all Baltimore had to their names through 5 innings, and Kuroda had thrown only 63 pitches.

- Give Baltimore starter Jason Hammel credit.  After the Chavez HR he managed to make it through 6 innings without allowing another run to score.  It took him 101 pitches to do it, and he did get bailed out by a first-pitch swinging double play to end the 6th, but it was still a solid job.

- Things got a little hairy for Kuroda in the 7th when a single, hit batter, and wild pitch put runners at 2nd and 3rd with 1 out.  But Kuroda got a big strikeout of Chris Davis and made a great play tagging out Nick Markakis trying to score on a wild pitch to keep the O's off the board and keep the lead intact.

- D-Rob was absolutely filthy striking out the side in the 8th.  Just dirty.  Kuroda was only at 87 pitches through 7, but Joe probably wanted to stay on the safe side after the tumble Kuroda took making the play at the plate aN. Robertson was available.  Not a bad call to make.

- The Yankee offense could do no more after Hammel left the game, but it didn't matter.  Mo came in for the 9th, exit light, enter night, 2-1 Yankee win.

** UPDATE- 3:50PM- Tonight's pitching matchup corrected after the jump.  Apparently keeping 5 guys in order is a tall task for me.**

#dumbass

This Probably Isn't Good...

Raul Ibanez.  Eduardo Nunez.  Together.  In the same outfield.

May whatever higher power he believes in have mercy on Curtis' soul tonight in center field tonight.  Because I certainly don't expect Raul or Eduardo's gloves to.

Cash Speaks On The Pineda Situation

I almost missed this late Friday, when ESPN ran a piece with some comments from Cash on the Michael Pineda trade and where everything sits now after the injury diagnosis.  Here are some of the highlights:

"Right now, our hopes and dreams for this player are in jeopardy.  Hopefully, someday, our fans will get to see what we expected to see from him for many years to come."

"This is a massive decision gone wrong right now.  So all scrutiny is fair."

"Our fans are right to be upset about this.  I'm devastated by it. I just hope everyone understands that every move I make is to improve this club, not hurt it."

Those are 3 very open, honest, telling quotes from Cash on how he feels about all of this, and I think they all point to something that's important to remember when discussing Cash's job performance.  He's not just some outside hired gun brought in to run the team, he's a lifer in the Yankee organization.  Cash built his professional career up to where it is within the Yankee family, so he's got a lot more invested in his job than just getting paid.  He cares about this team and its fans, and he WANTS to see the team win, as evidenced by this picture of him taking in yesterday's game with Bald Vinny and the rest of the Bleacher Creatures out in right field.  Can't imagine seeing too many other GMs out there doing that.

Every move Cash makes, whether it works out or not, is made with the goal of winning in mind.  When things go wrong, it probably hurts him personally as a lifetime member of the Yankee family just as much as it does professionally.  These quotes are a testament to that.  Cash is rooting for the team to do well just as hard as we fans are, and he's just as disappointed when things don't work out to that end as we are.  I'm sure this makes me come off as a Cash slurper, which maybe I am, and I'm sure it won't keep all the Cash haters from coming out of the woodwork and crucifying him for this trade.  But don't play this up like some kind of situation where Cash is Evil Vince McMahon intentionally trying to "screw" the Yankees out of their top prospects and into damaged goods.  He's a lifetime Yankee and this Pineda disaster is just as devastating to him as it is to us.

Game 21 Wrap-Up: NYY 6 DET 2

(Not quite parachute-y enough... Courtesy of The AP)

After Saturday's mid-day game after a night game, the Yanks and Tigers closed out the series yesterday with a day game after a mid-day game featuring CC Sabathia and Max Scherzer.  The Yankees had to make a roster move to provide enough bullpen depth for the game after a taxing 2 games covering for Phil Hughes and Freddy Garcia, and they were looking to their ace for length.

Game Notes:

- It seems weird to have the first point be about the offense and not the starting pitching, but the Yankee lineup made the first big plays of the day in the quietest way possible.  After stranding 2 walks in the 1st inning, the Yankees struck for 2 in the bottom of the 2nd after a walk, a GB single through the 1st base hole, an infield single, another walk, and another infield single.

- CC was cruising through 3 innings and continued to look more and more like the CC we're used to seeing.  His fastball was lively, he commanded it to both sides of the plate, and his slider was working as a swing-and-miss pitch.

- Wins and losses aside, the most important moment of the game was Nick Swisher leaving with a hamstring injury after drawing a walk and jogging to first in the bottom of the 3rd inning.  Joe confirmed after the that it was a low-grade strain and the plan is to rest Swish for a few days, but I can't remember the last time I saw somebody hurt themselves on a walk.

- CC's cruise continued into the 4th inning, right up to the point when Prince Fielder CRUSHED a HR into the 2nd deck in right field on a hanging slider to cut the lead to 2-1.  CC hung a slider and Fielder just murdered it.

- Curtis Granderson countered Fielder's shot with one of his own in the bottom half of the inning, though, and the lead stayed at 2 runs.  CC recovered and allowed only 1 more run for the rest of the game while pitching 8 strong innings.

- The offense gave CC some insurance with 2 more scratch runs in the 7th.  Rally starter Chris Stewart scored on an A-Rod FC and Jeter came home on a sac fly off the bat of Robbie Cano.  It was the most successful day of "nothing" offense I've ever seen.  If you called it anything, you would call it "relentlessly patient and locationally lucky" as 9 walks and some well-placed infield hits are really what got the job done.

- Laser HR from Swish's replacement, Andruw Jones, in the 8th and a 1-2-3 inning from D-Rob in the 9th and the 6-2 game win and 2-1 series win was complete.

Monthly Minor League Report: The Upper Levels

(I think he just walked another guy.  Courtesy of Jim McGregor/MiLB.com)

Yesterday we covered A-ball.  Today we focus on what the top 2 levels of the Yankee farm system have been up to this month.  There was a lot of hype surrounding the Triple-A rotation and a few of the players in Trenton, but so far the results have been disappointing for the biggest names at the top, almost completely across the board.

Game 20 Wrap-Up: DET 7 NYY 5

(The face of failure.  Courtesy of The AP)

I dropped the line about the Yankees facing a pitcher they'd never seen before in the previous game recap half-jokingly.  After watching how Drew Smyly handled the Yankee lineup yesterday, I should have been more serious.  He was very, very good in 6+ innings of work, and Freddy?  Well, Freddy was very, very not good.  Again.

Game Notes:

- In the plainest terms, it was same shit, different day from Freddy.  He was up in the zone early and it cost him when he hung a splitter for a 3-run homer off the bat of Andy Dirks in the top of the 1st.  Joe gets a piece of blame pie for intentionally walking an additional run on base with 2 outs.

- As they've been apt to do recently, the Yankee offense responded immediately in the bottom of the 1st.  Nick Swisher got a slider up in the zone from Smyly and parked it into the left field bleachers for his 5th HR of the season.

- Freddy followed up a sloppy 1st with an equally sloppy 2nd that saw him give up 3 consecutive hits for 3 more runs with 2 outs.  The final blow was a 2-run single by Miguel Cabrera that made it 6-1 and Joe was making the pitching change walk way too early again.  It was the third time this year that Freddy failed to make it past the 5th inning, and the second consecutive time he failed to make it out of the 2nd.

- After the Swish HR, Smyly was dominant.  He retired 17 of the next 19 batters he faced through the bottom of the 6th, the only Yankee baserunners coming on a pair of walks.  He threw his fastball for strikes early and used both his cutter and his slider as effective out pitches.  A-Rod got a single off Smyly to lead off the 7th, the first Yankee hit since Swish's HR, and that was it for Smyly.

- Luckily for him, Teix stupidly swung early in the count against Phil Coke and grounded into a double play.  The play was extra lucky considering Curtis cranked a home run in the next at-bat.  This was a great chance to get back into the game for the Yankees, but ended up just a solitary run and a 6-2 deficit.

- Give yet another call to the bullpen for an outstanding performance.  They combined for 7.1 IP of 1-run ball, the 1 run via a HR from Miguel Cabrera, something that no pitcher can be chided for.  Both Clay Rapada and Cody Eppley were effective in multiple-inning performances, as was David Phelps.

- The offense finally started to wake up in the 9th, getting 3 runs off of Jose Valverde to make the game seem closer than it really was.  Swish hit his 2nd HR of the day, and Eric Chavez came to the plate as the tying run, but it was too little too late and the Tigers held on for the win.

Monthly Minor League Report: The Lower Levels

(Mr. Williams hasn't done anything to stop the hype.  Courtesy of Brian Bissell/Future Star Photos)

It's been a hot minute since I've discussed the goings on of the Yankee farm system.  It's understandable, given that the big boys have started their season and they're always the primary focus, but still not acceptable in my book.  So over the next 2 days, I'll take a quick trip through the system to see how everybody's doing.  Today, the lower levels.

Game 19 Wrap-Up: NYY 7 DET 6 (Walk-Off)

As good as he was last season, the Yankees have always held their own against Justin Verlander.  They were looking to do the same last night and to get the focus back on the field and off the latest off-field drama.  Opposing Verlander was Ivan Nova, the man who has been the Yankees' best starting pitcher so far this season, but he would not have a good night.  Fortunately for the Yanks, Nova's struggles were just the opening act to the 9th inning theatrics.

Game Notes:

- Nova became the latest victim of Raul Ibanez's astoundingly bad defense in the 2nd, when Ibanez botched a sinking liner and turned a single into a triple to the wall. Don Kelly, who had walked to lead off the inning, scored from first.  It was definitely as .gif-worthy as Ibanez's flop in right field earlier in the season and I hope to have it soon.

- Even chalking that run up to Ibanez, it wasn't a very good night for Nova.  His command in the zone has been inconsistent and it was a tick worse last night, especially with the fastball.  He caught too much of the plate too many times and the Tigers hitters weren't missing, scoring 3 runs in the first 3 innings.

- Nova was off his game, but the Yankee offense did what they usually do off of Verlander and chipped away to keep the game close.  A-Rod led the way, scoring Curtis with an RBI single in the 1st and then smoking an opposite-field HR in the 3rd to make it 3-2.

- Russell Martin dusted his quiet bat off and cranked a 2-run homer to give the Yankees a 4-3 lead after 5 innings, but Nova promptly gave back 2 runs on 7 pitches and exited with just 1 out and 2 men on in the top of the 6th.

- The bullpen took over from there and held the Tigers scoreless through 3.2 innings, setting up the late-inning drama.  D-Rob and Mo were very strong, striking out 3 in their 2 innings.

- Joe had yet to get tossed this year, but got the gate in the 7th after arguing balls and strikes with Joe West, who may have been a contributing factor to Nova's rough night.  If Joe was looking to spark the Yankee offense, he certainly got the result he was looking for, as a pair of singles from Robinson Cano and Rodriguez and a Mark Teixeira sac fly tied the game at 6 in the 8th.

- Jim Leyland decided to keep Jose Valverde on the bench in the bottom of the 9th and go with Brayan Villarreal and might have cost his team the game with that decision.  Jeter worked a 1-out walk, took 3rd base on a wild pitch, and scored on a heads up baserunning play after a passed ball by Alex Avila to win the game.  Not your usual walk-off win, but a win nonetheless.

Friday Afternoon Linkapalooza: 4/27

Another week has come and gone, Yankee fans, and this one really wasn't much different than the last one.  The rotation is still in a state of inconsistent disarray, the lineup hits like gangbusters when it wants to and then goes to sleep at inopportune moments of close games, and the bullpen is straight shutting shit down.  When all that is happening and the Yanks are still only 1 game back of the division lead, I'm a happy camper.  This team hasn't even begun to hit its stride yet and its still one of the best in baseball.  They get the chance to get a little momentum going this weekend back at home against the Tigers, a team they'll likely see in the postseason if/when they make it.  Onto the links!

- On Monday, Lisa Swan of Subway Squawkers weighed in on the latest Michael Pineda developments and the Yankees' position on handling him since the trade.  I can't imagine she felt any better after the labral tear was announced.

- On Tuesday, Andrew Corselli of Yanks Go Yard got his praise in for Derek Jeter's phenomenal start to the season, and also took the time to point out Jeter's low BB rate, which could be a good or bad thing for him moving forward.

- Travis G of Pinstripe Alley took an interesting approach to analyzing Mark Teixeira when he compared Teix's first 3 seasons as a Yankee to Jason Giambi's, the previous big-money first baseman.

- On Wednesday, Josh Norris of Minor Matters posted the first part of his interview with Rick Down, the Yankees' hitting coordinator.  I particularly enjoyed Down's "hitting is like handwriting" theory.

- Greg Corcoran of Bronx Baseball Daily also hopped on the interview train, sitting down the ambidextrous wonder, Pat Venditte.

- On Thursday, Eric Schultz of TYA put together an excellent piece examining the history of labrum tears in pitchers and how it all adds up to predicting Pineda's recovery path.  Not sure if that post made me feel better or worse about the injury, but it's very informative and worth a read.

- Mike Axisa of RAB shined the spotlight on the 3-4 spots in the Yankee lineup and how weak they've been thus far this season.  While it's certainly worth pointing out how well the offense has done as a whole without production from those spots, it's also fair to say, "hey, Robbie?  Alex?  You guys wanna wake up now?"

- Donnie Collins of the SWB Blog had some details on the sale of the SWB Yankees.

- Fishjam25 of Yankees Fans Unite proposed an interesting scenario when he suggested the Yankees convert Dave Robertson to a starting pitcher.  I understand his logic, but D-Rob never being a starter at any time in his pro career is a big red flag for me.

- Brien Jackson of IIATMS had a much better worded and well thought out reaction than mine as he searched for somebody to hold accountable for the Pineda injury.

- Normally I would never link to him, but Andrew Marchand of ESPN actually did a solid job with this piece, in which Curt Schilling describes his return from a torn labrum and the optimism he has that Pineda can make a full recovery.

- On Friday, el duque of It Is High... spoke on the possibility of John and Suze being gone again after this season if the Yankees get moved to FM radio.

It's been a little rock heavy in the Friday Jam world recently, so I'm changing that up today and going with a little Pusha T/Tyler, the Creator collabo.  I don't care who you are, where you're from, and whether or not you even like rap music.  If this beat doesn't at least make you head bob a little bit, you have problems.  If I was a professional baseball player, this would absolutely be my "walking to the plate before an AB" music.



Enjoy your weekends, everybody.

Andy Pettitte: From Luxury To Necessity

(Courtesy of The AP)

Andy Pettitte wasn't supposed to be icing on the cake for the rotation this season, he was supposed to be the sprinkles on the ice cream that sat on top of the icing on the cake.  For the better part of spring camp after his signing was made official, all the talk was about how the Yankees were 7 deep in the rotation, 10 deep if you counted Phelps-Mitchell-Warren, and a dozen deep if you wanted to throw ManBan and Betances into the mix.  I myself discussed the idea of what should or shouldn't be done with Pettitte if he's ready to pitch and the rotation is solid.

How quickly things can change, huh?  Suddenly the Yankee rotation is looking just as weak and potentially just as thin as it has for the past couple seasons.  Michael Pineda is on the shelf for at least the next calendar year, Hiroki Kuroda has been up and down in his first 4 starts, Phil Hughes has been downright awful, and Freddy Garcia's next start will determine whether he gets labeled "more awful" than Hughes or "not quite as awful" as Hughes.

And still lingering in the background is Andy, fresh off his most recent rehab start on Wednesday, when he allowed 3 ER on 7 hits in 5 innings of work at Double-A.  After that game, he expressed some displeasure with himself and his performance for the first time since coming back, leading to questions about just how many more starts he will need to make before he is declared ready for the rotation.  Whenever that declaration is made, Andy will now not just be expected to waltz in on the pinstriped carpet and provide some innings here or there while people flock to take pictures of him; he's going to have to pitch well.

If Hughes and Garcia continue to struggle, Andy is going to be looked at to provide length and quality innings to solidify the back end of the rotation.  And while that certainly won't fluster a professional of his caliber with his track record, it's probably not what most of us were expecting to say about his return.  Andy was the de facto stopper for the rotation late in the 2009 season and through the World Series run.  He might have to take on a similar role with the 2012 rotation in May.

Thoughts & Afterthoughts On The Pineda Situation

OK, it's not quite that bad, but it still definitely sucks.  The fallout from yesterday's revelation of Michael Pineda's torn labrum is still falling out, and I've got just as many opinions on the situation as everybody else.  Rather than try to compose them in a clearly-worded and orderly post, I'll take my usual easy way out and just stick to the bullet points.

- First off, anybody who wants to play the "Cash fucked up, we got sold a lemon!!!" card can just stop.  For a trade of this magnitude, and surely for every trade, the Yankees always put players through the full gauntlet of physicals and tests to make sure there are no health concerns before pulling the trigger and making the deal go through.  That's standard practice.

- There's no way that Cash, Levine, or anybody else from the organization who was involved in this deal would have gone through with it if anything showed up during the pre-trade physical that would have led them to believe there was a problem with Pineda's pitching shoulder.  If there was, and they still went through with a trade involving their top prospect, they would all deserve to be fired and would never hear the end of it in New York.  They know that, we know that, so just cut the crap with the doomsday theories.

Some Interesting Early Season Trends

The fun part about small sample sizes is the room for interpretation they leave when analyzing a player's numbers and trying to identify what he's doing right or wrong.  It's pretty easy to look at a full season's worth of stats and break down exactly what a guy did to end up with the numbers he had, but a much smaller sample can leave some ambiguity in there.  Here are some examples of early season trends for some Yankees and the varying levels of support that their stat profiles give in explaining those trends.

* Note- Stats referenced below do not include last night's game *

1) Derek Jeter's Resurgence

I went into this one fully expecting to see a huge change in contact percentages for Jeter this year compared to the last few.  When a 37-year-old shortstop who turns 38 in 2 months is sporting a .416/.439/.649 tripleslash and a .460 wOBA, I think that's a fair expectation.  I was thinking something like 25/45/30 LD/FB/GB.  Surprisingly enough, Jeter's contact breakdown so far in 2012 isn't all that different from his splits in 2011 or even 2010.  His current LD rate of 20.0% is only slightly better than the 19.0% he posted last season, although it is still higher and his highest LD rate since his last great year in '09.  His GB rate of 61.4% is only slightly lower than the 62.4% rate he had in 2011, and his FB rate of 18.6% is exactly the same.  While things like a much lower K rate (8.4%), much improved performance against RHP, and more power are obviously big contributing factors to Jeter's hot start, I really expected the contact splits to show a more dramatic increase in line drives and fly balls and they don't.  Jeter appears to still be hitting the same balls, he's just hitting them where they ain't.

2) Russell Martin's Lack Of Pop

Russell Martin has done next to nothing at the plate this season.  The guy has a .195/.400/.293 slash line right now.  Were it not for the 20.0% BB rate he's sporting, his wOBA (.339) and wRC+ (111) would look way worse and you could remove the "next to" from the first sentence of this section.  The biggest thing hurting Martin early on is his glaring lack of power.  A year after the home run was a big part of his offensive contribution, Martin has hit just 1 this year and has only 1 other XBH to speak of out of the 8 total hits he's accumulated, good for a .098 ISO.  His .241 BABIP, a career low, suggests some bad luck in there, but the dramatic increase in GB rate (63.3%, up from 47.3% in 2011) suggests something fundamentally wrong with Martin's swing.  It's worth mentioning that Martin's current K rate of 20.0% would be a career high, but judging from his BB rate he's clearly seeing the ball well, so maybe a session with Dr. Long is in order to bring a little juice back to Russ' bat.

More after the jump.

Game 18 Wrap-Up: TEX 7 NYY 3

(Not a visit you want to have in the 3rd.  Courtesy of The AP)

After getting the bad news on Michael Pineda's condition, the Yankees took the field in Arlington looking to take the series from the Rangers with Phil Hughes on the mound for the 4th time this season.  Hughes got a quick hook from Joe and it got no better from there.

Game Notes:

- Hughes retired the top of the Texas order on just 11 pitches in the bottom of the 1st, even throwing a couple changeups to Josh Hamilton, but then his usual demons reared their ugly heads.  Misplaced offspeed stuff in the zone, piss poor pitch sequencing, and a failure to put guys away with 2 strikes and 2 outs led to 4 runs in the first 3 innings for the Rangers.

- Hughes' fastball command also eluded him in the bottom of the 3rd, when he was either way outside the zone or catching the meaty parts of the plate.  2 hit batters on errant heaters is never a good sign, especially when the 2nd comes after a coaching visit to the mound, and Hughes was sent to the showers after just 2.2 IP.

- After stranding a runner in each of the first 3 innings, the Yankees broke through on a pair of singles by Robinson Cano and Mark Teixeira and a ground-rule double from Raul Ibanez in the 4th and that was it for Texas starter Scott Feldman.  A sac fly by Eric Chavez cut the lead to 4-2.

- New fireman David Phelps was anything but last night, flashing little command and allowing 3 earned runs in what was easily his worst outing to date.  Hey, they can't all be gems.  Too bad this stinker had to come after the Yankees started to get back in the game.

- After the 4th inning, the Yankee offense was mostly silent.  Somebody named Robbie Ross shut them down for 2.2 innings after Feldman left, and they only managed 2 hits after that point in the game, one of them Ibanez's 3rd homer of the season.

- Just an all-around ugly night for the Yankees.  Their starting pitching was bad, their middle relief wasn't much better, and their offense was a non-factor.

BREAKING NEWS: Pineda Has Labral Tear

Via Mark Feinsand and multiple other Yankee reporters, the diagnosis is in for Michael Pineda and it isn't good.

The 2nd MRI today revealed an anterior labral tear to his pitching shoulder.  Surgery has already been scheduled for next Tuesday and it will be performed by the same doctor who Pineda went to see today for the 2nd opinion.

This isn't quite as big of a worst-case scenario as it could be if it was the shoulder capsule, but typical recovery time from this type of injury is estimated in months, which means we aren't going to be seeing anything from Pineda in a Yankee uniform this year.

More on this story as it becomes available.

** UPDATES- 4:47PM **

- Via Feinsand, Cash confirmed that Pineda will be out for the rest of this season and stated the team believes the injury took place on the final pitch of Pineda's rehab outing on Saturday.

- Via Dan Barbarisi, doctors confirmed that there was no damage to the rotator cuff, which makes the injury less severe and gives reason to be optimistic that Pineda can make a full recovery.

** UPDATE- 10:19PM- Via Chad Jennings, doctors are "cautiously optimistic" that Pineda will recover well from the surgery because there is no rotator cuff damage.  Cash stated that Pineda passed all his physicals, no previous MRIs showed any damage, and he responded fine to regular resistance stretching and tests even right up before his start last Saturday. **