Making his live chat debut, NoMaas’ Gary Wallace will be taking your questions, comments, and romantic advances on Thursday night starting at 7pm ET. Gary is the author of our new Minor League Player of the Week series, so feel free to ask questions about the farm, as well as the big club.
7.1 IP, 0 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 8 K
Javy Vazquez will be skipped on his scheduled Friday start at Fenway:
“We’re just going to move him back a few days, give him a couple bullpen sessions and see where we’re at,” Joe Girardi said. “He wants to get back out there and pitch – and that’s how I expect him to be. I just thought he could use a little time to catch his breath.”
“I know it’s the Red Sox and everybody will think it’s because of the Red Sox, but at some point, you have to do something a little different,” Girardi said. “He’s had five starts and he’s struggled. The off-day allowed us to do this.”
The Yankees’ manager claims it’s not the issue of playing the Red Sox that forced Javy to be skipped. After all, it’s not like Boston has been any good this season (it’s probably the infield dirt again). Or maybe despite the struggles of America’s Team, Girardi doesn’t want to subject Vazquez to the hostile environment of Fenway while he tries to work out his problems.
Whatever the reason for Friday’s rotation bump, let’s hope the fans drink plenty of water in preparation for the series.
Javy’s been pitching like Vanna White.
*Props to Wade Garrett for also contributing to this post
In the third edition of our Minor League Players of the Week, we also present awards to the best performers of April.
Minor League Players of the Week:
Pitcher:
Jose Ramirez, 20, RHP, A
12 IP, 12 K, 5 BB, 5 H, 1 ER
The Charleston RiverDogs have a pretty talented duo at the top of their rotation between last installment’s Pitcher of the Week winner, Graham Stoneburner, and this week’s recipient, Jose Ramirez. Only twenty-years old, Ramirez gained some steam this off-season as a sleeper prospect due to a strong year in the Gulf Coast League and a significant uptick in velocity. Jose now sports a fastball that can sit in the mid 90s versus the high 80s heater he was dealing when he first came to the Yankees. If you want to see just how much attention Jose is garnering around the league, look no further than Baseball America’s recent Prospect Hot Sheet (he’s at the bottom). Ramirez complements his fastball with a very good changeup and an in-the-works slurvy breaking ball. With every start Jose Ramirez looks more and more like a top starting prospect due to his combination of raw stuff and control at a relatively early stage in his development.
Position Player:
Kevin Russo, 25, RHB 3B, AAA
.375/.400/.625 in 25 PAs
Kevin had an impressive week at Scranton with three extra base hits, one being a home run off of the lefty wunderkind Aroldis Chapman. Russo isn’t the most exciting prospect the Yankees have; he profiles best as a utility bench player, but he isn’t an excellent defender at any position like Ramiro Pena or Alberto Gonzalez were before him. What he does have, however, is a much better bat and plate approach than the aforementioned players. Last season at AAA, he had a .828 OPS, backed up by a 10.5 BB% while playing all over the infield, excluding first base. This year the majority of his playing time has come at the hot corner in an effort to make him more comfortable there defensively, as his bat does not fit the bill of a typical third baseman (.105 career isoP).
Minor League Players of the Month (April)
Pitcher:
Jose Ramirez, 20, RHP, A
29.1 IP, 9.82 K/9, 2.45 BB/9, 0.99 WHIP, 1.84 ERA
That’s how you want a young prospect to start his first full season as a professional. Since Jose was already talked about earlier, I’ll just point out that his April 26th start was against former Yankee farmhand Arodys Vizcaino. You might remember him as the prospect who was shipped to Atlanta in the Javy Vasquez trade (and somehow went from a four-star prospect to five-star prospect in that process). In any case, Jose Ramirez outdueled Baseball America’s number 69 prospect (Vizcaino), going six innings while striking out nine in route to the win. If Ramirez keeps pitching like he has, a mid-season promotion could be in the cards for him.
Position Player:
Austin Romine, 21, RHB C, AA
.354/.425/.492 in 78 PAs
There was some stiff competition here, as there were everyday players in the system that had identical or higher OPS values than Romine over the month of April, like David Adams (.917) and Eduardo Nunez (.935). However, this isn’t just a straight numbers game. Both those players have questions surrounding their defense, while Romine’s work behind the plate is one of his strongest traits. While he is by no means a finished product with his game calling and management of pitchers needing improvement, he is a far superior defender at his position than Nunez or Adams. Austin’s caught stealing percent isn’t sparkling at 22%, but a lot of that has to do with pitchers not holding runners on properly. We said in the Prospect of Replacing Jorge Posada that he needed to improve upon his plate approach and he has certainly done that thus far (12.2 BB%). Austin Romine (the third youngest everyday player in the Eastern League and more than three years younger than the average positional player) is destroying AA pitching at a higher level, so far at least, than that other Yankee catcher, Jesus Montero did last year. That’s what you call depth.
Led by a stellar Phil Hughes start and a sixteen-hit/four-walk offensive explosion, the Yankees trounced the White Sox 12-3 on Sunday. With the win, the Bombers have won 7 of their first 8 series in 2010.
Highlight of the game had to be Brett Gardner’s no-doubt HR into the right field stands.
Brett’s season line currently stands at .342/.415/.438 with 11 SB in 12 attempts. He’s making contact on 93% of his swings and K’ing in only 12.3% of his ABs (23.6% in 2008, 16.1% in 2009).
Kid is playing ball.
These growths on your forearms, they’re giant tumors.
Heading into Sunday’s game, 26.7% of Robinson Cano’s flyballs were leaving the park. That ranked 4th in the AL.
On Sunday, Cano hit two more balls in the air and one of them went out.
For reference, his career home run-to-flyball ratio is 11.6%. That would make you think he’s due to come back down to earth, at least on the home runs. At the same time, 37.5% of his batted balls have been of the flyball variety, a sizable jump from his 31.4% career rate. Maybe he’s changed his approach. Time will tell.
For now, Robinson is putting his balls in the air and waving ‘em like he just don’t care.
With Thames likely to see more time in LF, Curtis will be missed more than a lil’ bit.
Granderson to the DL with a groin strain, could be out for a month
Gardner moves to CF, which he told us is his preference anyway.
But with Thames likely to get more time in LF, fasten your seatbelts.
One stat and one stat only from each hitter that is noticeably different from last season…you can analyze them or not, argue their relevance or not, completely disregard them or not — we’re just the messengers.
Derek Jeter
BB%
2010: 3.0%
2009: 10.1.%
Nick Johnson
Swing %
2010: 28.6%
2009: 34.7%
Mark Teixeira
BABIP
2010: .148
2009: .302
Alex Rodriguez
HR/FB
2010: 6.7%
2009: 22.7%
Robinson Cano
HR/FB
2010: 28.6%
2009: 13.0%
Jorge Posada
Isolated Power
2010: .328
2009: .238
Curtis Granderson
BABIP
2010: .259
2009: .275
Nick Swisher
BB%
2010: 10.2%
2009: 16.0%
Brett Gardner
K%
2010: 12.3%
2009: 16.1%
Marcus Thames
BABIP
2010: .750
2009: .291
Francisco Cervelli
Contact %
2010: 94.3%
2009: 86.3%
Randy Winn
Contact %
2010: 64.3%
2009: 81.2%
Ramiro Pena
Plate Appearances
2010: 9
2009: 121
Source: The virgins at Fangraphs
Cano: 3-4, 2 HR, 2B, and a Rucker Park play in the field
Ben Franklin: 8 IP, 0 R, 3 H, 4 K, 1 BB
A few announcements straight from NoMaas Headquarters…
First, we revamped and relaunched our community forum. So, if you’re looking for expanded baseball discussion or want to meet that special someone, have a look. Some of the new additions include:
- More posting and direct interaction from NoMaas staffers
- New moderators
- Front page posts will automatically create new threads on the forum
- Better thread and sub-forum organization
- Random pictures of vegetables
Big ups to Vizzini for taking the lead on this.
Second, our live game chat has been an initial success. We’ve had over 30,000 fan posts in April alone. So if you’d enjoy a place to talk baseball in real-time during Yankees games, try it out.
Third, can someone get Lady Gaga to follow us on Twitter?
Fourth, we’re on that Facebook thing.
Fifth, due to depressed commercial real estate prices, we leased an additional 5,000 square feet of office space at a reduced rate.
Sixth, we fortunately do not own any Greek bonds in our portfolio.
