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Thursday, May 3, 2007

Clippard Smells Blood…or Hears Popped Hammy Followed by Seeing Rainout

Injuries/News:

No sign of Vechionacci, Norton, or Kontos...According to Pinstripes Plus, Joba Chamberlain should be back within the next week.

AAA:

Tyler Clippard could not have picked a better time to have his best start of the season. Facing a Toledo lineup that Matt DeSalvo had shut down about 15 hours earlier, Clippard posted an impressive line of 7-5-0-0-1-11-0 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR). With last night’s game being rained out and a doubleheader on the schedule for today, it appears Clippard is perfectly lined up to start for the Yankees during their next turn through the rotation. Clippard was able to get the job done against Toledo by using all of his pitches. He was getting a good amount of running movement on his fastball and of course the change and the curve were there. Clippard was also no doubt thinking about Kevin Goldstein’s article today in which he mused that “[Tyler] can’t get lefties out” and cited their OBP against him this year. Never mind that the sample size for this year is small, the one thing Clippard has proven capable of throughout his career is getting LHB out. At every level he has dominated them. He’s been noted as a guy that pitches backwards, and that’s what guys who pitch backwards tend to do. Why Goldstein would make the remark, even if it was off-hand, is beyond me.

Eric Duncan was 0 for 3 with a walk and a strikeout. Duncan seems to consistently just miss as he is driving the ball, but for fly ball outs. Alberto Gonzalez was 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts and looks incredibly lost at the plate right now. He’s hacking at everything and not doing a great job covering the plate, resulting in an increased K rate.

AA:

Alan Horne took the mound for Trenton and continued the trend of pitching well at the AA level. Horne’s final line of 5-3-2-2-3-6-1 was actually one of Horne’s less impressive outings this year. Still, through 27.2 innings, he has been very impressive and while I’m not quite ready to buy into his performance yet, I’m beginning to consider it. School is out soon and hopefully I can go watch Horne in person to make a better evaluation.

Brett Gardner was 0 for 1 with 3 walks. Strangely, he did not pick up a stolen base, but he did manage to get caught stealing. You can’t be safe every time.

On a side note, Goldstein’s aforementioned article describes Jeff Marquez as a sinker/slider guy and I hate that. That implies that he doesn’t have much of a fastball and is a relatively low ceiling prospect. That is not the case. Marquez has a low 90s power sinker, a terrific change, and a solid curveball, amongst other pitches. He is a nice sleeper prospect. Generally speaking, I think my prospect views align pretty closely with Goldstein’s, but sometimes I feel he has a gap in information caused by the fact that he is 1 person apparently attempting to cover the entire minor leagues for a publication.

A+:

Ian Kennedy picked up his second win of the year with his longest professional outing, 8-3-0-0-1-4-0. Kennedy has struggled a bit with the walks in the early going, so it was nice to see him limit it to just 1 in 8 innings. He also managed 9 groundouts to 9 flyouts, which is nice considering his typical rates. Kennedy’s ERA now stands at 1.67 and he should be in Trenton by the beginning of June if he keeps it up.

Reegie Corona had a terrific day at the plate. The SS was 3 for 3 with 3 singles and 2 walks. Corona also stole a base, his seventh of the season, while being caught stealing for the first time. I doubted Corona entering the year because I looked at him as all AVG and nothing else, but he seems to be bringing walks back as part of his game. If he can do that, it makes him far more interesting. Colin Curtis was 1 for 5 with a double and a strikeout. Francisco Cervelli was 1 for 4 with a single and Juan Miranda was 1 for 4 with a double, a walk, and a strikeout.

A-:

Angel Reyes kept the walks under control for Charleston today, but once again this made him far more hittable. The hard throwing lefty posted a line of 5.1-7-4-4-1-4-1. His ERA is now up to 3.42 and he was pinned with his second loss of the season. Thus far, Reyes seems to be getting the ball up more than he did last year, but the sample size is small.

While Reyes did not do a great job of limiting the opposition’s offense, the Charleston offense did not do much either. Hilligoss, Jackson, and Fortenberry were all 1 for 5 with a single and a strikeout. Wilmer Pino was also 1 for 5, but he did not strike out and his hit was a home run rather than a single. Pino has now hit in 3 consecutive games, though it was only 1 hit in each game. Eduardo Nunez was 0 for 5 with a strikeout.

Spotlight On:

Steven Jackson, who will be looking to hang on to a spot in the AAA rotation by continuing what DeSalvo and Clippard started.