After taking a foul tip to the bare hand, the Yankees took a good look at Francisco Cervelli‘s hand and pulled him from the game in the 1st inning. Chris Stewart came into to replace the catcher, who’s been one of the Yankees hottest bats of late. Injuries have already wreaked havoc on the club, and Cervelli has been one of the few bright spots, so this could be rather awful news.
Not sure what it means yet, but only minutes after Cervelli was pulled, Austin Romine was pulled from the RailRider’s game. Romine has seen his own share of injuries of late, but he’s been red hot with the bat, hitting .341/.400/.415 in 45 plate appearances this year. Romine was originally projected by some to win the Yankees’ starting job, and would be called up to the majors if Cervelli misses significant time.
I’ll update this post when we get more definitive news.
UPDATE (7:59 PM)- Sounds like Cervelli has a fracture in his hand. That sucks. Hopefully Romine is an adequate replacement.
As for Ivan Nova, I have no idea. He was just pulled in the middle of the game after giving up two singles.
UPDATE (8:01 PM)- Looks like Nova pulled up funny after his delivery. Likely a hamstring issue.
When it rains, it pours.
UPDATE (8:23 PM)- Jon Heyman is reporting Cervelli’s hand is broken.
Oy vey.
UPDATE (8:33 PM) Cervelli was diagnosed with a fracture, needs surgery and will miss a minimum of six weeks per Bryan Hoch and basically every person in the Yankees Stadium pressbox tonight.
UPDATE (8:35 PM) Nova had elbow pain and will have an MRI tonight.
And the hits just keep on coming…
So the Yankees are looking to repeat last night’s result with another win over Toronto in the Bronx.
I already posted the lineups earlier this afternoon.
Here’s what you should know:
- Kevin Youkilis isn’t playing for the sixth day. It looks like a DL trip is likely.
- Aaron Laffey is pitching in Josh Johnson‘s place.
- Ben Francisco isn’t batting second but he’s still in the lineup in the number nine slot.
- Jayson Nix is in the two slot. Oy.
An Aaron Laffey-Ivan Nova matchup can potentially be one of the worst things we’ve ever seen and since it’s a Friday night, I suggest you stock up on some alcoholic refreshments.
Lots of them.
Go Yankees.
YANKEES
Gardner CF
Nix 3B
Cano 2B
Wells LF
Cervelli C
Ichiro RF
Nunez SS
Overbay 1B
Francisco DH
Nova P
BLUE JAYS
Davis DH
Rasmus CF
Bautista RF
Encarnacion 1B
Cabrera LF
Arencibia C
Lawrie 3B
Izturis 2B
Kawasaki SS
Laffey P
A couple of things.
Jayson Nix is batting second for the Yankees. Yes, second. I guess that’s better than Ben Francisco batting there. Tonight, Francisco is batting ninth.
You’ll also notice Kevin Youkilis is missing again. The Yankees are waiting one more day to see if a DL trip is necessary.
And, on the other side of things, Aaron Laffey is pitching for the Blue Jays.
This game has “worst game ever” potential. Of course, it also has the potential to be the kind of game that is a total head scratcher. You never know, Ivan Nova may pitch a complete game shutout.
Just kidding.
Over at FanGraphs yesterday, the guys picked up on a GIF made by Drew Sheppard. He combined a number of Yu Darvish‘s pitches into one video, and the results are amazing.
He did a fantastic job with it, and I tried my best at making one for CC Sabathia.
Remember this? (Click on the black box or this link to watch the video because MLB.com doesn’t like me today, apparently…)
It happened eight years ago tonight.
Alex Rodriguez hit a two-run home run, a three-run home run and a grand slam in one game against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. As Michael Kay said in his last home run call, “What a week for Rodriguez on a Tuesday night in the Bronx.”
Rodriguez would go on to win the first of his two MVP trophies in Pinstripes that season. He won his second in 2007.
Only two games for the Yankees minor league system yesterday, as Trenton and Tampa both had off days. Unfortunately, it seemed like Scranton and Charleston were having off-days as well, each taking a loss as they failed to put up much in the way of offense.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre lost to Columbus 4-1:
Columbus drew first blood, as Mike McDade started the third with a double. Chien-Ming Wang got the next two batters out, but an error by Gil Velazquez let Tim Fedroff score and a single brought McDade home. Wang walked Jeremy Hermida, loading the bases and a wild pitch scored Fedroff, giving the Clippers a 2-0 lead. Velazquez and Corban Joseph had back-to-back singles in the fifth, but the RailRiders couldn’t bring either of them home. Fedroff had a RBI single in the seventh and Columbus got another run in the eighth for an 4-0 lead. Scranton finally got on the board in the bottom of the ninth when Austin Romine hit a solo homer to start the inning. Scranton made two quick outs, but Addison Maruszak drew a walk and Velazquez singled, giving them some life. Unfortuantely, Joseph flew out to end the game, with the RailRiders coming up short 4-1.
David Adams went 2-3 with a walk. Velazquez went 2-4 with an error. Joseph went 1-5 and Romine went 1-4 with the RailRiders’ lone extra base hit of the day. Wang gave up three runs (one earned) over 6.2 innings, on four hits and two walks. He struck out two. Juan Cedeno gave up one unearned run in 2.1 innings on two hits, three walks and one K.
Charleston lost to West Virginia 7-0:
It was a tough day for Daniel Camarena, who escaped the first inning with just a single by Josh Bell, but got pummeled in the second. Eric Wood and Wyatt Mathisen started off with back-to-back singles. With the bases loaded, an error by Francisco Rosario scored two runs, giving West Virginia the lead. A balk by Camarena plated another run and Dilson Herrera knocked a two-run triple to center, scoring on a sac fly. The Power had a 6-0 lead by the end of the inning and the RiverDogs found themselves with a lot of work to do. Max Moroff hit a solo shot in the third, putting West Virginia up 7-0. Charleston had a couple chances to make a run at the Power. In the fifth, Yeicok Calderon drew a walk and Reymond Nunez singled, putting two on with one out. Jake Cave started the sixth with a single and Gregory Bird was hit by a pitch, but Dante Bichette and Kelvin De Leon both struck out, ending the threat. A couple hit by pitches and a walk loaded the bases in the seventh, but this time Cito Culver struck out to end the inning. In the end, the RiverDogs couldn’t get anyone home, and West Virginia won 7-0.
Culver was the only Charleston player to get multiple hits, going 2-4. Nunez went 1-2 with a walk, while Bird went 1-3 and Cave went 1-4. Camarena gave up seven runs (five earned) over five innings. He gave up six hits, but didn’t walk anyone and struck out seven. Alex Smith and Ben Paullus both pitched a pair of scoreless innings. Smith gave up one hit, while Paullus allowed three and walked one.
Here are Derek Jeter and Joe Girardi before last night’s game:
And Vernon Wells and Girardi after the game:
(Originally published at An A-Blog for A-Rod. Stats have been updated to accurately reflect Ben Francisco’s uselessness)
The Yankee offense’s struggles against left-handed pitching are long and well-documented. It’s not like this is the first season they’ve failed to produce against southpaws, it’s just that the lack of production this season stands out even more due to the large absence of good right-handed regulars. There are a litany of reasons one can give as to why the production has been so putrid, all of them perfectly legitimate and easy to understand. But there’s one particular reason that continues to eat away at me. Basically what it boils down to is the simple fact that Ben Francisco sucks at baseball.
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Before we all get too excited with the headline, this all seems a little too much like speculation to me. Jeff Passan over at Yahoo Sports has some quotes from Yankees sources and people close to the club, and it seems that those anonymous voices are all in agreement that the team will not reach their planned $189 million budget for the 2014 season.
“They’re going to be over 189,” one source said. “They know it. Everyone knows it. You can’t run a $3 billion team with the intentions of saving a few million dollars.”
This matches another report by ESPN New York from late-February, which stated that Hal Steinbrenner had grown tired of the public scrutiny, and that the Yankees were willing to abandon the budget and re-sign Robinson Cano to prove their dedication to the fans. Of course this never happened, and we’ve actually heard more rumors since, from both ownership and the General Manager, about how they plan to stick to the $189 million outline.
The premise behind much of Passan’s piece comes from the premise that the overall expected savings amount will be minuscule in comparison to the Yankees’ net profits, and the amount they believed to be saving has also dropped from what was previously estimated.
“The assumptions on the market-disqualification rebate haven’t held,” one American League executive said. “The pool is going to be much less than everyone anticipated.”
Maybe the Yankees have gotten close to a deal with Cano, and they want to announce their breaking budget with big fanfare. Maybe the empty seats this season have convinced the organization that it’s not just Stub Hub causing New Yorkers to pass on the high-priced seats this year. Maybe they realized that the team they put on the field is not championship caliber.
There are a ton of reasons for the Yankees to scrap their budget plans, but that doesn’t mean we should believe it. Passan’s piece consists of three quotes from anonymous sources, and although he’s a respectable national baseball writer, I’ve learned that you have to stay mindful when sports writers use this type of speculative reporting.
With that said, his final quote probably holds the most truth to it, since I think we can all agree that the budget hardly looked realistic from the start.
“It was a good idea to try,” one Yankees official said. “But deep down, we all pretty much knew it wasn’t going to happen.”
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