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Friday, May 25, 2007

Vested Interest

Injuries/News:

Nothing.

AAA:

It is my belief that the Yankees have a vested interest in Steven Jackson doing well. Right now, Luis Vizcaino is pitching terribly at the major league level and Ross Ohlendorf is on the disabled list with a back problem. Alberto Gonzalez is having a mediocre AAA season, but given that he plays SS, nothing he does will really have an impact on the team. That leaves Jackson as the only part of the deal currently available to making an impact. To demote him would be to admit that another piece from that deal isn’t what the Yankees originally thought he was. That’s the only explanation I can see for why a guy who just had a start with a line of 4.2-11-6-6-2-1-1 (IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR) to up his season totals to 45.1-66-38-31-19-30-6 is still in AAA.  I thought Jackson was a pretty solid sleeper pick going into the year, but he’s been a huge letdown.

Speaking of letdowns, the Eric Duncan struggles continued. Duncan was 0 for 3 with 2 walks. He is now down to a .217 AVG in 115 at bats, but a 21:23 BB:K ratio, which is really weird. You would think that a guy who’s displaying such terrific patience and discipline would hit for a higher average, but Duncan still manages to pop the ball up a lot. His average shouldn’t be THIS low, but he hasn’t been as unlucky as his BB:K ratio would leave you to assume. It just hasn’t been a very good year. I expect him to start hitting LHP soon, because he always has, and hopefully that will bring up his overall numbers. He is currently hitting .042/.200/.167 against them in 24 at bats.

AA:

...

A+:

Kei Igawa picked up his first minor league victory with a dominating line of 5-4-2-2-1-4-0...Igawa now has an ERA of 2.00 in 9 Advanced A innings.

The guys with the bats in their hands had some impressive nights. Well, everyone except Reegie Corona who was 0 for 4 with a walk and a steal. Jose Tabata seems to be emerging from his season long power outage because though he was 4 for 5 with all 4 being singles, he was hitting liners all over the field last night. Soon, some of those hard hit singles will begin finding the gaps, I think. Juan Miranda had a huge game, going 3 for 4 with a double and 2 homers, but his season line is still an uninspiring .244/.305/.423 with 14:44 BB:K ratio in 168 at bats. Colin Curtis was 2 for 5 with a homer, a steal, and a strikeout. Curtis was hitting the ball the opposite way in the air, including the homer, which is something he hasn’t done that much this year. Marcos Vechionacci had the quietest positive night by going 1 for 3 with 2 walks. While he hasn’t been hitting the ball with enough authority, Marcos has still managed an 8:10 BB:K ratio in 60 at bats. The key number there is the amount at bats as Vechionacci has tons of time to work on his .217/.309/.283 line. Finally, after a stretch where he was 2 for 12, Francisco Cervelli has heated up in the last 3 games. Francisco was 3 for 4 with 2 doubles, a stolen base, and a strikeout. Cervelli was another guy lacing the ball to the opposite field last night. Over the last 3 games he is 6 for 13 and his season line is incredibly impressive at .347/.439/.466.

A-:

First thing’s first, Mitch Hilligoss is now at 30 games. The 3B was 1 for 3 with a walk and a caught stealing. 30 is kind of a big number, and I would expect Hilligoss to start earning some press clippings now, even though his .324 average and 30-game hit streak have been fairly empty. Austin Jackson was 1 for 4 with a strikeout in his second game in the 3rd slot. Jackson has been hitting the ball up the middle and the opposite way a lot this season, but hasn’t had much to show for it. If he can cut back on his strikeouts and start getting lucky with some of those balls to the opposite field, he should be fine.

20-year-old Ivan Nova was the star of the game from the Riverdogs’ side. Nova’s 3rd start of the season resulted in his 2nd victory and a line of 6-2-0-0-1-4-0. Nova has just 11 strikeouts in 18.1 innings, which is initially surprising given how impressive his repertoire supposedly is, but not as surprising when considering he struck out “just” 36 batters in 43 Gulf Coast League innings last year.

Spotlight On:

Tyler Clippard. He’s facing Jered Weaver and there has to be some poetic justice to this match up. Weaver was pegged as number 3 starter and has thus far performed like an ace. Clippard was pegged as a back of the rotation guy and will be looking to prove his doubters wrong in as fantastic a fashion as Weaver has.