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Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Another Hammy Ruins The Day

Injuries/News:

Let’s get the big one out of the way; Phil Hughes hurt his hamstring attempting to strike out Mark Teixeira of the Texas Rangers during the 7th inning of his potential no-hitter. It sucks that this happened and I was devastated at the time, but I take exception to Pete Abraham’s evaluation of the situation. He essentially said that this is the type of thing that would not have happened had Hughes been in the minors like the Yankees said he would. I understand what he’s saying, and it makes some sense, but pitchers are so fragile that some other random injury could have occurred while he was in AAA and how would that have looked? Rather than focus on the injury, I’d like to focus on the fact that Hughes displayed the fact that he is/was ready. He got tons of groundballs, a good strikeout rate, and had the home plate umpire not squeezed him a bit, not many walks. He was placing his fastball with precision to the outside corner, keeping his pitches down, the curve was making batters look silly, and that change-up the Yankees wanted him to work on…well, just ask Mark Teixeira about it…Moving on to the minors, Marcos Vechionacci is still out.

AAA:

Matt DeSalvo had a good outing for AAA Scranton and could get the call for Phil Hughes’ next start. The Yankees had DeSalvo slotted in as their first starter to get called up from the minor leagues following last year’s Spring Training and he’s gotten off to a hot start this year. 25.2 innings into the season, DeSalvo has an ERA of 1.05. Yes, he’s walked a lot of guys, but last night’s start was exemplary of why. DeSalvo’s final line was 5.2-2-0-0-5-5-0 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR) and he only threw 49 of his 97 pitches for strikes. DeSalvo probably has better stuff than Darrell Rasner, which is not saying much, but it is better. That said, unlike Rasner who would rather focus on throwing strikes and potentially give up a big hit, DeSalvo likes to avoid the big hit at all costs. As a result, on 3-2 pitches, he will throw something off-speed or go for a fastball on the outside corner while Rasner would throw a fastball over the plate. The result is that DeSalvo walks more guys and gives up fewer hits. Once again, I don’t think he is or will be any great shakes, but hopefully he or Rasner can hold the fort until The Franchise™ returns. By the way, for those who haven’t seen DeSalvo pitch, imagine Kevin Brown’s motion combined with Mike Mussina’s physical stature as well as Moose’s nibbling. The results won’t be as good as either guy, obviously.

Eric Duncan and Alberto Gonzalez both had quiet nights. Gonzalez was 0 for 4 and is down to .262 while Duncan’s battle to ever hit higher than .250 continues. The NJ bred slugger was 0 for 3 with a walk and a strikeout.

AA:

Brett Smith had a very nice outing for Trenton last night as everyone who touches the ball in that rotation continues to deal. Smith’s line was 6-4-0-0-1-5-0 and he now has a 1.16 ERA in 23.1 innings to go with excellent peripherals. Smith was a part of the 2004 draft class with Phil Hughes, Chris Garcia, and Jeff Marquez and was supposed to be mentioned in the same breath as those guys, but has been disappointing to this point in his career. It’s too late for a complete turnaround, but the way things are going this year, he might find himself in the majors after a few more hamstring injuries.

Brett Gardner had a tough game as he would go 0 for 5 with a strikeout. Gardner seemed to be heating up, so hopefully this is just a blip on the radar. Cody Ehlers was 1 for 1 with a single and 3 walks. He’s got the strike zone under control and the AVG is making steady progress, but the power needs to show up.

A+:

Juan Miranda showed a sign of life in yesterday morning’s Tampa game. The Cuban slugger was 1 for 4 with a bottom of the 9th 3-run homer to send the game to extra innings. He also struck out once. Colin Curtis, hitting in Jose Tabata’s vacated 3-slot, was 0 for 3 with a walk and a strikeout.

A-:

Austin Jackson had a breakout game for Charleston yesterday despite the team as a whole only managing 4 hits. Jackson was 2 for 3 with a single, a home run, 2 walks, and no strikeouts. Jackson’s ISOs are solid, but he really needs to work on his AVG as well as his BB:K ratio. Wilmer Pino was 1 for 4 with a double and a walk. After back-to-back hitless games, Pino has had back-to-back games with 1 hit; hopefully this starts something for him. The BB:K ratio is solid, but it appears he may simply be getting the bat knocked out of his hands. Seth Fortenberry, Jose Gil, and Eduardo Nunez were a combined 1 for 13. On the bright side, they only struck out once.

Spotlight On:

Tyler Clippard and the Scranton club. With Hughes out 4-6 weeks and the big league rotation consisting of Moose, Wang, Pettitte, Igawa, and Pitcher X, this is Clippard’s time to make a move. A few strong outings and he might be in the majors.