Extra Base Hits Still A Problem For Nova

Ivan Nova's early-season extra base hit issues took a backseat to a lot of other storylines over the past 2 months, but they've still always been there and are starting to become more problematic again.  Nova gave up 4 doubles and 1 triple last night, and in his 4 July starts he has allowed 14 total XBH in 24.2 IP, accounting for 45.16% of the total hits Nova has given up this month.  Nova's very good at limiting damaged when he puts runners on, but it's hard to overcome that many XBH.

For the season, Nova is still the AL leader in XBH allowed with 64, and he's comfortably ahead of second place man James Shield (52).  Nova has only walked 7 batters this month, so he's clearly made strides in improving his control and has seen some positive results from it.  But his command of his stuff is still not a great strength, and Nova's ability to establish some consistency there and locate pitches better inside the strike zone is what will determine whether he can be more than a #4 starter.

Game 93 Wrap-Up: OAK 3 NYY 2

(Still too many extra base hits, Ivan.  Courtesy of The AP)

I don't know if the Yankees left their bats in New York before making the trip out to Oakland or if Tommy Milone is really that good, but they didn't do a whole lot of damage again last night and lost another close game because of it.  Ivan Nova wasn't particularly sharp, but he did what he usually does and limited the damage to 2 runs to give his team a chance.  The Yankees just never mustered up enough offense to support him and ended up losing on a walk-off single in the 9th after coming back to tie the game at 2.

Game Notes:

- Nova loaded the bases in the bottom of the 1st but managed to escape without allowing a run.  He gave up 1 in the 3rd on a triple and a sac fly and another in the 4th on an RBI double by Brandon Inge.

- The Yankee offense didn't get a runner to second base until the top of the 6th when Derek Jeter and Mark Teixeira singled.  Teix was thrown out trying to go first to third in the 4th inning, and Milone was just dominating the Yankees with his changeup.

- 6.2 innings of 2-run ball isn't terrible, but Nova struggled with his command in the strike zone all day, and the A's pounded him when he did.  5 of the 9 hits he gave up went for extra bases.

- Nick Swisher left the game after running out a ground ball in the 7th inning.  It looked like it was his pesky groin again, but postgame it was revealed to be a left hip flexor.  Doubt we'll see him for the rest of the series.

- Milone exited after 7 innings and 10 strikeouts, and the Yankees were finally able to put some runs on the board.  Russell Martin hit a solo HR to lead off the 8th inning and Robinson Cano hit one to lead off the 9th and it was a 2-2 game.

- With the game tied, Joe decided not to go with Soriano in the 9th and it cost him.  Cody Eppley came in after Clay Rapada got a strikeout and gave up 3 consecutive singles to allow the winning run to score.

- The Yankees' streak of consecutive games with at least 3 runs was broken at 43.

Friday Afternoon Linkapalooza: 7/20

I don't have much to say today, people.  I'm tired, I'm cranky from a long week at work, I haven't slept particularly well all week, and all I want to do right now is get the hell out of my office so I can go watch "The Dark Knight Rises."  I honestly debated whether or not to wear my Batman t-shirt to work today to honor the occasion, and I plan on marking out really hard when I'm in the theater tonight.  I am such a child.  Onto the links!

- On Monday, William Juliano of The Captain's Blog attempted to educate the Yankee masses on the flawed logic in constantly booing A-Rod.  I was going to write something up on this same topic on Monday night.  After reading William's take, I'm glad I didn't; I couldn't have said it any better.

- On Tuesday, Matt Keegan of Pinstripe Alley examined the maturation of Corban Joseph's game that has led to his great MiL season.

- Vizzini of NoMaas offered a reminder of how the last couple Yankee trades worked out to put the upcoming deadline into perspective.

- On Wednesday, Greg Corcoran of Bronx Baseball Daily commented on the starting pitching logjam at the lower levels of the MiL system.  You can never have too much starting pitching, right?

- Matthew B of Yankees Fans Unite looked at Mark Teixeira's recent turnaround and hot July.

- Mike Eder of TYA analyzed CC's first start back from the DL with the PITCHf/x microscope and showed that the results were positive.

- On Thursday, el duque of It Is High... listed the top 10 moments in Darnell McDonald's long and storied Yankee career.

- Steve Goldman of Pinstripe Alley peered into the future to talk about what the Yankees can/will do to replace Nick Swisher.

- Chris Carelli of Yanks Go Yard discussed the solid all-around production coming from the Yankee bench recently, and the benefits of that production.

- On Friday, Mike Axisa of RAB released his much-anticipated post-draft Top 30 Prospects list.  Let the debates begin!

- William Tasker of IIATMS weighed the "Garcia or Phelps" options after Freddy's most recent rough outing in Oakland.

- Chad Jennings of LoHud broke down the current situation in left field with Brett Gardner now looking like he's going to miss the rest of the season.

For the Friday jam, we're going with some Rage Against The Machine.  If there's one band that I want to see officially get back together and record a new album, it's Rage.



Enjoy your weekends, everybody.

Game 92 Wrap-Up: OAK 4 NYY 3

("Try not throwing it over the plate."  Courtesy of The AP)

I hate West Coast trips.  The whole concept of time zones really becomes a bitch when you're going to bed and the Yankee game is still in the top of the 4th inning.  The Yankees certainly seemed to share my sentiments last night in the opening game of their 4-game weekend series in Oakland.  They didn't generate much firepower with their bats and Freddy Garcia got knocked around for the second straight time.  The A's are no joke, and they've been playing some good baseball over the past 2-3 weeks just like the Yankees have.  This is going to be a series.

Game Notes:

- No fast start for the lineup last night.  Instead the tables were turned when it was Oakland who struck in the 1st inning thanks to a Yoenis Cespedes 2-run HR.

- Garcia loaded the bases in the bottom of the 3rd and gave up 2 more runs when Seth Smith lined a 2-run single into center to make it 4-0 A's.

- The offense put runners on base in each of the first 2 innings, then got sat down in order through the 5th.  They were finally able to do something against A's starter A.J. Griffin in the 6th, when they loaded the bases with singles and cut the lead to 4-2 on a Mark Teixeira sac fly and a Nick Swisher single.

- David Phelps relieved Garcia in the 6th and threw 2.1 perfect innings of relief with 4 strikeouts.  Hmmm, maybe they should have started the kid, huh?  Phelps is locked in with his fastball command right now, and should get Garcia's rotation spot.

- Swish made it interesting in the top of the 9th with a solo HR to make it a 4-3 game, but Ryan Cook managed to close things out and put a temporary end to the Yankees' hot streak.

Keep Doing The Damn Thing, Boys

With all the negative storylines that have dominated the Yankee talk this year, it would be easy to think they were having a down season.  They traded away their best prospect and lost the pitcher for whom they traded him for the season due to injury.  They've had major injuries to their most important relief pitchers and their best starters.  They've gotten inconsistent performances and declining production from key spots in the middle of their lineup.  And they are too one-dimensional without their speedy starting left fielder and rely too much on the home run to score runs and win games.

And yet despite all of that negativity, the Yankees find themselves 23 games over .500 with an MLB-best 57-34 record.  They've won 5 of 6 since the All Star break, 10 of 14 since the start of July, 26 of 35 since the start of interleague play, and 34 of 47 since their last West Coast trip.  They've got a +80 run differential, which is 2nd best in baseball by 1 run, they lead everybody in team wOBA (.348) and wRC+ (115), and are top 3 in the AL in team ERA (3.72) and FIP (3.88).  They've built a 10-game division lead in what is widely considered to be the best division in Major League Baseball, and have already started shoveling dirt on their competition for the division title.

Despite all the negative press from the MSM and occasional nitpicking from the blogosphere, it turns out that the Yankees are actually a pretty damn good baseball team.  They're also in the middle of a stretch where they're playing damn good team baseball.  They're hitting for average and power, getting good work from their pitching staff, and playing solid defense.  Everybody on the 25-man roster is getting a chance to contribute and it seems like everybody is contributing something when their name is penciled into the lineup card or their number is called from the bullpen.  It's good times in Yankeeland right now.

Game 91 Wrap-Up: NYY 6 TOR 0 (7 Inn.)

(How the game ended.  Courtesy of The AP)

Does any player better personify the continued irrelevancy of the Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East than Ricky Romero?  Every year we hear about how the Blue Jays are better than they were and ready to take the next step, and every year they underwhelm and finish 4th.  And every year we hear about how Ricky Romero is a future stud young lefty who can be a key to Toronto's rotation improvements, and every year he ends up being the same talented but underwhelming middle-of-the-rotation arm that he is.  He was facing Hiroki Kuroda yesterday in a series finale matinee, and he didn't fare too well at all.

Game Notes:

- The offense came out swinging in the bottom of the 1st.  A Derek Jeter double, Nick Swisher single, and Mark Teixeira 2-run homer and it was 3-0, and a Robinson Cano double and Andruw Jones single made it 4-0 before Romero had even recorded 2 outs.

- Kuroda was back on his game after a couple of subpar outings earlier in the month and it showed from the word "go."  He allowed just 1 hit through 3 innings, and got 8 of the 9 outs via the strikeout or groundout.

- After the top of the order got things started, it was the bottom half's turn to build on the early lead.  They tacked a run on in the 4th after Jayson Nix doubled and scored on a Dewayne Wise RBI single.  That duo teamed up again in the 6th for a pair of singles and the Yankees' 6th run of the day.

- He didn't rack up a high K total, but Kuroda finished just as strongly as he started.  He worked around a leadoff double in the 5th and a 2 on/1 out situation in the 7th, and he was in control all day.  He had the sinker working, the slider working, and the splitter working, and the Blue Jays were helpless against them.

- The only thing that was able to slow the Yankees down yesterday was the weather.  And when the rains came in the bottom of the 7th, the game was called and the Yankees had their sweep.  Perhaps more importantly, the bullpen got some rest.

I Don't Like This David Phelps Move Unless...

... it means he's taking Freddy's spot in the rotation and starting tomorrow night's game.  Any other reason would be completely stupid and unacceptable.  Phelps is finally stretched back out as a starter, struck out 8 in his most recent Major League appearance, and has been lights out in his last 2 MiL starts (0 R, 18 K in 13.1 IP).  To take a young prospect on that kind of a roll, who has already been shuttled back and forth between starter and reliever multiple times already this season, and swap him for the last man in your current Major League bullpen would be beyond idiotic.

I don't care if it's to showcase him to other teams as a possible trade piece or not.  Phelps is a better pitcher than Garcia and it's already a not-so-big secret that his starting schedule is matched up with Freddy's anyway.  And Freddy wasn't exactly sharp in his last outing.  Anything the Yankees get from him is gravy, and he's shown the ability to be effective as a reliever, so better to move him back to a less-important role now and possibly improve your rotation in the process.

Justin Upton: Yay Or Nay?

(Courtesy of The AP)

The Yankees have been and continue to be without one of their starting outfielders.  The Diamondbacks are rumored to be interested in trading a young, talented outfielder.  The trade deadline is less than 2 weeks away.  It doesn't take a Mensa International-qualifying IQ score to connect these dots.  When somebody like Justin Upton is supposedly on the trade block, of course the Yankees are going to be involved in the rumors.  There hasn't been a ton of discussion about just how heavily involved the Yankees are in the Upton market right now, but my expectation is that the discussion will only intensify once the latest diagnosis on Brett Gardner is revealed and the deadline draws closer.

Regardless of what happens with Gardner, I don't think the Yankees are in a situation where they NEED to make a move, especially one that will incur as much lost-prospect cost as Upton.  But it's not every day that a player of Upton's caliber ends up being available, so what I'm struggling to answer for myself is whether or not the Yankees SHOULD go after Upton if Arizona is serious about moving him and he's serious about being willing to accept a trade to New York (one of his no-trade clause teams).  There's a lot of factors in play here, so allow me to work them all for myself to see if I can come to a conclusion.

Game 90 Wrap-Up: NYY 6 TOR 1

(It was all about this guy last night.  Courtesy of The AP)

I said the time off was going to be good for more than just his groin strain, and CC Sabathia proved me right, at least for last night.  He looked about as good as we could have hoped for in his first start back last night; he was sharp with his command, he had good life on his fastball, and he was efficient with his pitches, throwing 87 to get through 6+ scoreless innings.  The offense gave him a little run support early and then shut the door on any comebacks attempts with some insurance late.  Bing, bang, boom, Yankees win again.

Game Notes:

- It wasn't the 1st inning, but I suppose the 2nd was acceptable for the Yankees to score their first runs of the game.  Robinson Cano led off with a single, Nick Swisher walked, and Andruw Jones brought everybody home with his 12th HR of the year.

- Sabathia worked around a couple of Toronto doubles in the 2nd and 3rd innings, and looked just as good out of the stretch as he did out of the full windup.  His slider was really working as a swing-and-miss pitch early.

- Much like they did on Monday against Henderson Alvarez, the Yankee offense went a bit dormant against Brett Cecil in the middle innings.  They left 2 on base in the 4th inning and the last 8 hitters Cecil faced went down in order to keep the game close through 6.

- CC gave up a leadoff single to start the 7th and that was it for him.  After the game, he mentioned 85 pitches being the planned limit, which I can totally get on board with for a first game back.  Cody Eppley and Boone Logan teamed up to finish the inning.

- In the bottom half, the offense finally put the game away.  Heart of the order, Jayson Nix and Chris Stewart, got things started with a single and a double to score 1 run, Derek Jeter followed up with an RBI knock of his own, and A-Rod scored Jeter with a groundout for all the insurance New York would need.

- Chad Qualls gave up a cheapy in the 8th, and for some reason Joe went to Soriano again to clean up the mess in the 9th (5th appearance in the last 6 games), but it was still a no-doubt win for the Yanks.

What To Do About The Brett Gardner Situation

(How do you replace that kind of grit??  Courtesy of The Daily News)

I got an interesting variance in responses after posting the news of Brett Gardner's latest elbow setback on The AB4AR Page last night.  There were calls for the Yankees to get more involved in the trade market (in a big way or small), calls for them to focus on re-signing their own free agents, and my personal thought that they don't really have to do either.  It's not clear what direction they are going to take, but what is clear is that the Yankees are going to react in some way to this latest setback.  They were in "wait and see" mode again, but they've waited and they've seen that Gardner is no longer an option to be counted on.  So what route are Cash and Co. going to take to address this issue?  Let's review the options.

Stabilizing The Pitching Staff With Some CC

All things considered, the Yankees have handled the double-whammy loss of CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte from their rotation about as well as anybody could have hoped.  The team has gone 9-6 since that fateful day of June 27th, hardly world-beating, but taking into consideration the fact that their AL East lead has expanded to 9 games in that time, that's a damn fine way to get through a 3-week stretch without your 2 best starters.

It hasn't exactly been the smoothest of sailing these past 3 weeks, something that should come as no surprise.  Adam Warren blew up spectacularly in his emergency start in Chicago, so much so that the Yankees demoted him and turned to the still-not-fully-stretched-out-as-a-starter David Phelps to take Warren's spot in the rotation on Independence Day.  Freddy Garcia had been more than adequate in his 3 starts this month, allowing only 6 earned runs, but he hasn't provided a lot of length (17 IP total in 3 starts).  Combine that with a couple of clunkers from Hiroki Kuroda and Ivan Nova and the overall team pitching line over the past 15 CC-less games isn't nearly as sparkly as what we saw from the rotation in early June:

Game 89 Wrap-Up: NYY 6 TOR 3

(Everybody happy.  Courtesy of The AP)

With Hiroki Kuroda and Ivan Nova coming up a bit small this last time through the rotation, Phil Hughes is going to continue to be a key piece of this undermanned rotation.  He was hittable in his most recent outing and looking to tighten up the command against a dangerous lineup and Toronto starter Henderson Alvarez.  The Yankees were also playing the first of 15 games they will play against the Blue Jays over the final 74 this season, so start getting familiar.

Game Notes:

- Alvarez wasn't fooling the Yankees at all early.  They loaded the bases on him in the 1st, hit a solo HR in the 2nd (Russell Martin), and hit back-to-back doubles in the 3rd (A-Rod & Cano) to take a 2-0 lead.

- Hughes worked the first 3 frames scoreless, and worked around a 2 on/no out situation in the 2nd to do, but he was a little spotty with his command.  He missed with a in the 4th and Adam Lind hit it for a solo HR to make it 2-1.

- I don't know what happened, but Alvarez made the adjustment and pitched the next 3 innings clean.  He retired 7 in a row to start off the run, then got a key inning-ending DP grounder from Raul Ibanez to escape the 6th.

- Hughes gave up an RBI double to Edwin Encarnacion in the 6th to tie the game at 2, but he didn't pitch horribly on the night.  7 innings of 2-run ball should get it done 10 times out of 10.

- Scary moment in the 8th when Jose Bautista hurt himself on a swing.  He looked like he tweaked something in his left wrist on a follow through, and it turns out it .  Sucks for you, brah.

- The Yankees had to get something out of that bases loaded situation in the bottom of the 8th.  They hadn't fully capitalized on all the opportunities they had earlier in the game, and with 2 outs Raul Ibanez made sure they wouldn't blow this one when he hit a game-winning grand slam to right.

- I was a little surprised to see Joe go to Soriano so quickly.  I think Cody Eppley has at least earned the right to try to work out of trouble with how he's pitched recently, but Joe went to Raffy and it was Untuck Time for the win.

SURPRISE!!!- Brett Gardner Suffered Another Setback With His Elbow

You mean to tell me that the guy who took longer than normal to recover from a simple elbow strain, and had setback after setback in his attempts to come back from said elbow strain, usually right after he tried to resume full baseball activities, has had ANOTHER setback to his strained elbow???  Get the hell outta town!

Believe it or not, that's where we stand on the Brett Gardner Injury Carousel again.  He got 4 at-bats in a simulated game yesterday, felt sore today, and according to Ken Davidoff, Gardner is scheduled for another MRI tomorrow.  Even if this MRI comes up clean, I think it's safe for us to stop expecting anything from Gardner this season.  Clearly there's something more here than just a strain, and to continue to risk further damage to Gardner's elbow by having him continue to ramp his rehab back up would be foolish.   Until Skynet upgrades the world's MRI technology to something advanced enough to show what the real problem is, just shut the BG-1000 down until further notice.

On Ty Hensley's Shoulder "Abnormalities"

(Need to get some navy and white on this kid, stat!)

There was very little real drama to the Ty Hensley signing last Friday.  It was reported early in the week that the sides had wrapped up negotiations, and the signing going down to the final day before being announced as official was more Hensley's agent doing his job than anything.  Hensley made it clear very early that he intended to sign with the Yankees, and there was never anything that came up in the time since then that should have caused anybody to think that wasn't going to be the eventual endgame.  The ink has dried, Hensley is a Yankee, and now we can hopefully see him in action in a SS league and start to get an idea of where he fits in the Yankee prospect hierarchy.

What did cause a little bit of drama to stir up was the report from Jim Callis that Hensley went for a pre-deal MRI that showed some "abnormalities" in his pitching shoulder.  This discovery likely led to Hensley signing for a below-slot $1.2 million, and was quickly dismissed as nothing major.  But should we be concerned about our fresh new 1st-rounder?

Game 88 Wrap-Up: LAA 10 NYY 8

(Wah-wah-waaaaaaahh.  Courtesy of The AP)

Ivan Nova has been pitching pretty well of late. He had gotten his ERA below 4.00 prior to yesterday's game, and was the first Yankee starter to 10 wins.  But he's never been super effective against the Angels, and that was a trend that he couldn't break yesterday.  Nova's command wasn't particularly sharp and he had a short bullpen behind him, which was a shame because the Yankee offense caught Angels' starter Jered Weaver on a day where he wasn't at his best either.  They just couldn't do enough against him to pick up Nova.

Game Notes:

- Nova's stuff looked good in the 1st, but he threw a couple of pitches down the middle and gave up solo homers to Erick Aybar and Albert Pujols for a 2-0 Angels lead.  He was noticeably upset with himself leaving the mound after K'ing Mark Trumbo.

- The Yankee offense wasn't going to wait around to strike back in the bottom half.  Curtis Granderson lined a 1-out single on the first pitch, tried to steal on the next pitch, and then trotted home on the pitch after that when Alex Rodriguez drove it to right for a game-tying 2-run homer.

- One play that helped Nova big time was Curtis' absolutely OUTSTANDING catch for the 2nd out in the top of the 3rd.  Back to the plate, running full speed, and reaching up to make a catch just a step or 2 from the center field wall.  For that one play, the C-Grand defensive critics had to suck it.

- From absolutely outstanding to mind-numbingly stupid, the Yankees made the transition smoothly in the bottom of the 3rd.  After singling back-to-back with 1 out, A-Rod and Robinson Cano somehow both managed to get tagged out after Cano was picked off of first base on the old "fake throw to 3rd" play that's being outlawed after this season.  There's really no way to explain what happened without using the phrase "fucking stupid" in some fashion.

- Nova worked the next 4 innings scoreless after the 1st, but got into some more trouble in the 6th that gave the Angels a 5-3 lead.  I don't care who you are, there's no excuse for giving up home runs to Erick Aybar and Maicer Izturis.

- On TBS, David Wells said Curtis was deserving of something at plate after making another nice catch in the 6th, and sure enough he came up in the bottom half of the inning and hit a bomb to right field for his 25th homer and a 1-run deficit.

- The teams traded runs in the 6th to make it 6-5.  After Nova left with no outs in the 7th, and with a short bullpen after the previous 2 games, it was Chad Qualls' job to keep the game close.  It was a job he would fail be allowing 3 runs in the 8th, and the Yanks would fail to close out the sweep.

Can Kosuke Fukudome Help The Yankees?

(He wears his shin guard well, I'll say that.  Courtesy of Getty Images)

In another under-the-radar free agent signing on Friday, the Yankees added former Chicago Cubs outfielder Kosuke Fukudome on a MiL deal and assigned him to Triple-A Empire State.  The Yankees were loosely connected with Fukudome when he was first in the process of joining Major League Baseball, but he has never lived up to the "Hideki Matsui Lite" comparisons during a career of marginal improvement and very quick regression.

Strictly from a depth standpoint, this is another solid low-risk deal for the Yankees.  By the time they get away from their current 5-man bench setup and have Brett Gardner return from the DL, they are going to have to put Dewayne Wise on waivers and will likely lose him to another team.  To make sure they have enough OF coverage in case Gardner or somebody else gets hurt again, it's only smart to bring in another veteran player who fits their needs.  Fukudome fits this description in theory, but if he is needed at some point, can he actually do anything?

Game 87 Wrap-Up: NYY 5 LAA 3

(Robbie and Curtis practice their "Hey Arnold" handshake.  Courtesy of The AP)

It was a little MVP mano y mano yesterday at The Stadium as Mike Trout and Robinson Cano put on displays showing why they should be considered the top 2 contenders for the award right now.  Trout went 3-5 with a double, a run scored, and 2 stolen bases, and Cano went 2-4 with a home run, a run scored, and 3 RBI.  In the end, Cano's hits ended up being a bit more timely and he carried his team to the win and put them in position for a sweep today.

Game Notes:

- More 1st-inning fun for both teams.  The Angels plated 2 in the top half after stringing some singles together off of Yankees' starter Freddy Garcia, and the Yankees followed up with 2 of their own in the bottom half on Cano's 2-out, 2-run HR.

- The Yankees took a 4-2 lead on their second 2-run homer of the game in the bottom of the 3rd, this one by Curtis Granderson.  Certified rally starter Chris Stewart scored after leading off the inning with a single.

- Garcia settled down a bit after the 1st, but he still had to battle his way through 5 innings.  He put one runner on base in each inning, but managed to work out of trouble most of the time.

- The only other run Garcia allowed came in the 4th inning, and it was more due to the Angels manufacturing it than Garcia giving it up.  His biggest out of the game came at the end of the inning, when he got Albert Pujols to ground out with 2 runners on.

- Alex Rodriguez doubled to lead off the bottom of the 6th, and he was quickly driven in by a Cano single for an insurance run, and that was more than enough for the Yankee bullpen, who pitched 4 scoreless innings in relief of Garcia.

- The Yankees only managed to pitch 2 1-2-3 innings on the day.  Good thing one of them was the 9th, where Rafael Soriano struck out Trout and Pujols swinging for his 22nd save of the season.

Wait, WHO Returned Last Night??

Almost keeled over when I read this on RAB last night:

"Biggest news of the day is the return of Austin Romine, who went 0-for-2 with an RBI ground out while catching the first three innings."



FINALLY!!  I half expected to see the kid walking around in one of those aluminum back braces like Dee from "Always Sunny" for the rest of the season.  Now he's back on the field again.  This season is already going to be a down one for Romine, but it's not completely lost if he can stay healthy from here on out.  And with the way the Yankee catchers have struggled this year, he can still keep some of his prospect shine with a good couple of months.

Game 86 Wrap-Up: NYY 6 LAA 5

(More lefties, please.  Courtesy of The AP)

Mark Trumbo is going to be the next great Yankee killer.  I can feel it in my bones.  Every good team in the AL seems to have one these days, and he just seems like he's the next one in the making for the Angels.  He looked like he was going to be the Angels' hero last night after his big 3-run homer in the 7th, and it took some out-heroing from Mark Teixeira to make sure he wouldn't be, but I'd feel a lot more comfortable pitching around that guy in playoff situations if the Yankees have the opportunity.

Game Notes:

- The Angels got on the board first on an Erick Aybar solo shot in the top of the 3rd.  Hiroki Kuroda left a sinker up, something he did on more than one occasion last night, and Aybar made him pay.

- The Yankees didn't stay behind for long, though, as Mark Teixeira blasted a home run of his own in the bottom half of the inning, this one a 2-run job thanks to Derek Jeter being on base, and the Yankees took a 2-1 lead.

- Curtis Granderson created a primo run-scoring opportunity by leading off the bottom of the 6th with a triple.  But the trio of Teix, A-Rod, and Cano failed to bring him in with a couple of groundouts and a soft lineout.  Props to C.J. Wilson for making his pitches, but goddamn!  Somebody hit the ball in the air.

- Kuroda got through the next 3 innings facing the minimum number of batters thanks to Russell Martin's 2nd caught base stealer of the night in the 5th, and recorded 7 of the 9 outs on the ground, but he was just a little bit off with his stuff all night.

- That offness finally came back to bite him in the 7th when the first 2 batters got aboard on a single and an HBP and Trumbo hit another sinker that stayed up for a 3-run homer and a 4-2 Angels lead.  Those 3 runs, and the bonus one that Albert Pujols drove in the next inning made Kuroda's night look worse than it was.

- Wilson exited after 7 and the Yankees wasted no time going to town on Scott Downs.  Jeter doubled, C-Grand walked, and Teix smoked a hanging 1-2 curve into the left field bleachers to tie the game at 5.

- With nobody out, the rally was far from over, and after Nick Swisher walked and was replaced by Dewayne Wise, the Angels chose to intentionally walk pinch hitter Raul Ibanez to get to Martin.  That plan backfired as Martin hit a single down the right field to score Wise and give the Yankees a 6-5 lead that they wouldn't lose in the 9th.

Friday Afternoon Linkapalooza: 7/13

My parents put our family dog down today, probably just an hour or so ago, which really sucks.  I've known for some time now that his days were numbered and had resigned myself to the fact that I was not going to be around when he finally passed, but that still doesn't make it any less of a bummer.  I grew up with this dog (we got him the summer before I entered middle school), so to think back on his life and reminisce is kind of like looking back at my own life and thinking about the person I've become in that time.  I was a goofy 11-year-old kid when we first got him, with no clue about anything, and now I'm a 26-year-old cubicle monkey of a man who has to pay taxes, schedule my own eye exams, and pretend like I actually give a crap about my job.  Makes me feel fucking old.  He was a good dog and I'm going to miss him, but enough of the pity party.  Let's get back to the baseball talk and onto the links!

- It's from last Sunday, but Mike Ashmore of Thunder Thoughts interviewed Trenton's pitching coach Tommy Phelps and got his take on Dellin Betances, Vidal Nuno, and Brett Marshall.

- On Monday, SJK of NoMaas beat me to the punch and passed out a very deserving round of credit to the Yankee bench.  And he didn't even mention Jayson Nix.

- Steve Goldman of Pinstripe Alley worked the numbers to show how, despite low totals, Andruw Jones is one of the greatest HR hitters in Yankee history.

- On Tuesday, friend of the blog Jamie Insalaco of Bomber Banter weighed in on everything he didn't like about Monday's HR Derby.  Can't argue with anything he said.

- CJ Hangen of Yanks Go Yard looked at what the Yankee lineup is missing with Brett Gardner's continued absence.

- Steve Serby of The NY Post had a Q&A session with Brian Cashman.  Definitely a must-read to get Cash's take on the team's standing at the break, A-Rod's decline, his relationship with Joe, and much more.

- EJ Fagan of TYA discussed the terms used when discussing starting pitchers and pitching prospects, and proposed some new ways of ranking them to come up with more appropriate terms.

- On Wednesday, Greg Corcoran of Bronx Baseball Daily explained why the Trenton Thunder are currently the best team to follow in the MiL system.

- Mike Axisa of RAB reopened the RISP Fail case at the ASB and pointed out how the Yankees have slowly been improving in that department in the past few weeks.

- Also on Wednesday, former TYA colleague Eric Schultz made his RAB debut with a PITCHf/x evaluation of Mark Teixeira's hitting approach.  Congrats to Eric on the new position.

- On Thursday, William Tasker of IIATMS listed the 10 worst offensive seasons in Yankee history.  I love Top 10 lists, and ones related to suckiness are even better.

- Fishjam25 of Yankees Fans Unite made a case for Cash going after Melky Cabrera in free agency this offseason.  With what he's done the past couple seasons, it's not a bad idea.

- Chad Jennings of LoHud had the latest injury updates on all the Yankee DLers.

- On Friday, Alphonso of It Is High... had a welcome message for Ty Hensley in light of the news of his sketchy MRI results coming out last night.

- William Juliano of The Captain's Blog debated the performance-enhancing-ness of Toradol in response to Gordon Edes' piece on the Fraud Sawx clubhouse situation, and whether it should be allowed under MLB's current policy.

I haven't gone old school in a while, so we're traveling back to the 70s for today's Friday Afternoon Jam.  A little Sabbath never hurt anybody, right?



Enjoy your weekends, everybody.

Upcoming Second Half Un-Wrap

Yankee baseball is back tonight, baby!  It's not really "back" back for me until Sunday afternoon when I get to watch them on TBS, but that still beats watching John Kruk stuff KC barbecue down his fat facehole.  The Yankees are comfortably in first place, they're rested, and they're getting healthier by the minute.  A hot start to the second half of the season can help quell any major trade deadline rumors before they even get started and start to put the Yankees in prime position to lock down the AL East quickly.

Game Notes:

- The Yanks open with a series at home against Mike Trout and the Anaheim Angels of California.  This will be the third time these 2 teams have met this year, with each team owning a 3-3 record.  The Yankees took 2 of 3 in a mid-April home series.

- They get to stay at home after this weekend with another 3-game home series against Toronto scheduled.  6 games at home after 4 days to rest; there are worse ways to start after the All Star break.

- There'll be a mini-West Coast swing this time next week, 6 games out against the AL West bottom dwellers.  The last time they had one of these was late May, when they started to turn things around, so hopefully this trip can be equally fruitful.

- After that, the Yankees could have a chance to start putting the AL East race to bed with 6 games against Baltimore and Bahhston.  They're up 7 right now, they've got a relatively friendly schedule out of the gate, and they're getting their ace back.  Time to start stepping on throats.

Missing The Melkman

(Just Melky bein' Melky...)

Melky Cabrera has been a popular topic around the Yankosphere this week after his performance in the All Star game.  I guess getting punked out by a former player that your team gave up on national TV in a game that was over after the top of the 1st inning has a way of making that happen.  Melky's 2006-2009 Yankee career was one defined by "not enough."  He could hit for a little bit of average, but not enough to be a legit top-of-the-lineup threat; he could hit for some power, but not enough to justify a full-time position in the lineup or make up for his lack of average; he could do some things defensively, but not enough to be called a good defensive outfielder.  All of this took place between the ages of 21-24 for Melky, a time where only the most elite players are playing at or close to the full potential.

What made Melky special was his personality and knack for always being in the middle of memorable moments.  He brought a little bit of fun, youthful, unpredictable energy to an otherwise stale clubhouse and the palling around that he and a young Robinson Cano did was always a topic to be touched on when discussing Melky.  He was essentially Nick Swisher before the Yankees signed Nick Swisher, just not with the level of production, and with the Yankees still somewhat married to the idea that an All Star, current or former, at every position was the way to go, he was shipped off to Atlanta before the 2009 season.  It didn't seem like a tremendous loss at the time; the Yankees were giving up a player who had never hit more than 13 HR in a season, never driven in more than 73, and never posted a wOBA higher than .333.

It's Simple Physics, Russ...

Calculate the velocity, V, in relation to the trajectory, T, in which G, gravity, of course, remains a constant.

It's not complicated.

Umm, Is That An Official Diagnosis?

(See ya in 2014, kid.  Courtesy of Brian Bissell/Future Star Photos)

Via Andrew Marchand:

"Yankees GM Brian Cashman said that top prospect Manny Banuelos is on his throwing program, as he continues to recover from what the Yankees have described as a sore elbow. Jose Campos ... hasn't started throwing again yet. He also has a sore elbow.
'They will both pitch this year,' Cashman said.

When asked if there is any long-term concern over their elbows, Cashman said, 'I hope not.'"

I touched on this briefly on the AB4AR Page yesterday, but what kind of an answer is that?  You hope not???  These guys are the organization's top 2 pitching prospects.  They haven't pitched in months after being shut down with elbow injuries, giving them plenty of time to be tested, evaluated, diagnosed, and rested.  And after all that time, as they start to get ready to throw and pitch again, you're basing your long-term prognosis on the condition of their pitching elbows on HOPE???

I hate to be a Debbie Downer here, but the Yankees might as well just pencil ManBan and Campos in for Tommy John Surgery right now.  Maybe they can get a group discount if they book the appointments at the same time.

Things I'm Looking Forward To In The Second Half

We're just one day away from meaningful baseball games starting up again, and that time can't pass quickly enough.  It's been absolutely brutal without them this week because there is NOTHING on TV.  I barely paid attention to the HR Derby on Monday, started tuning out of the All Star Game around the 3rd inning and turned it off completely by the 5th on Tuesday, and don't even get me started on how stupid the ESPYs are.  The Yankees are coming back into my life at the perfect time, and as some people say, the season REALLY starts now.  There are plenty of obvious second half storylines to follow, like the trade deadline, Andy's return, September call-ups, and the always fun start of the magic number countdown, but there are plenty of other things I'll be following as well.  Like what, you might ask?  Well, how about...