---

Sunday, April 22, 2007

And Now, Jackson is Rocked

Injuries/News:

Matsui and Wang appear ready to return to the majors...Eric Duncan and Marcos Vechionacci are still out with their injuries...Austin Jackson has a “lower body” injury, I don’t know either.

AAA:

Alberto Gonzalez had the best day of the AAA prospects. The SS was 1 for 5 with a single and 2 strikeouts. He doesn’t strike out much, so it’s always surprising when he does multiple times in one game.

Steven Jackson pitched and pitched poorly. He’s taken over Tyler Clippard’s last place spot on The Carl Pavano DL Watch after going 3.2 innings and giving up 8 runs, 4 earned, on 3 walks, 8 hits, and 1 strikeout. Just like Clippard’s poor outing, Jackson struggled to throw strikes when it mattered, despite a less than awful ball to strike ratio. Complicating matters was poor defense as Andy Phillips, for example, had two errors in the first inning. If all the older guys at AAA keep floundering, the Yankees might have to go Hughes sooner than they want to.

AA:

Brett Smith had arguably the best outing of his career last night. Smith went 7 no-hit innings while walking 4, hitting 1, and striking out 7. Once again, it’s nice to see Smith off to this hot start, but I’m still not convinced.

On offense, Brett Gardner seems to be sacrificing his ability to hit for average to hit for power. He picked up his 4th double and 6th extra base hit of the season, but was only 1 for 5 with a strikeout and his batting average dropped to .216. Gardner’s power is up and his strikeouts are down, as are his walks, so I’m hopeful that the low average is just a fluke.

Cody Ehlers was 1 for 5 with a double and a strikeout. Ehlers continues to struggle, but is hopeful that better weather will aid in producing better results.

A+:

Ian Kennedy took the mound for Tampa and performed well. In 5 innings he gave up 6 hits, 1 run, 1 earned, 0 walks, and 5 strikeouts. It’s going to be interesting if the guys at A+ and AA keep pitching well while the AAA guys struggle.

Jose Tabata, who is slumping a bit, went 0 for 4. Tabata’s OPS is now down to .792, but I’m not worried about him at all. Tabata is 2 for his last 20 with 4 strikeouts in that span, so it looks like it can be written off as a bit of a BABIP correction.

A-:

Mitch Hilligoss, responding to my concerns about his game to this point, went 2 for 4 with a double and a strikeout. That’s two two-hit games in a row, both with doubles. Eduardo Nunez, who is in a critical development year, collected 2 singles in 3 at bats; he also picked up a walk. It would be nice if Nunez could get hot and relive his Summer 2005 glory. Finally, Jose Gil was 1 for 2 with a double and a walk.

Spotlight On:

The Yankees. Chase Wright makes his second start in the majors, this one against some team from New England. The realistic part of me says that he’s going to get rocked. The dreamer says that the Red Sox seem to have trouble with young lefties and maybe something good will happen.