Yankees Spring Training News & Notes

ThePrideofShiner

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Well, he's already a Major Leaguer in terms of cliches spouted in a single interview.

What is his ceiling as a starter? The article didn't say whether the team believes he can be a No. 1 or not.
 

Wingack

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Well, he's already a Major Leaguer in terms of cliches spouted in a single interview.

What is his ceiling as a starter? The article didn't say whether the team believes he can be a No. 1 or not.
Watch the little prospect video at that top. Something like "safe bet to be a No. 3" could wind up higher if he maintains or improves fastball velocity.
 

jon abbey

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He's a work in progress, just drafted last summer and a nice velocity jump after that. I think he'll only be up this year if they're somewhat desperate and he's dominating in the minors, like Severino last year. My impression is that Severino has a higher ceiling, Kaprielian is probably more of a 2 or 3 at best, but who knows with that stuff really.
 

jon abbey

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NY signs Chris Parmelee to be their AAA 1B, Greg Bird's replacement. Parmelee is a 28 year old who has spent parts of the last 5 seasons in the bigs, 4 with MIN and last year with BAL, a LHH who hits LHP and RHP equally mediocrely (.707 career OPS over 1003 PAs).
 

TheYaz67

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We really need an updated 2016 Spring Training picture of CC and his gut, to make us all feel a bit better about Kung Pao Panda....
 

jon abbey

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Here's a video, he's the second one throwing. He doesn't look so bad, but some of that is he is just better at hiding it than the Panda:

 

Jed Zeppelin

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Yeah, CC has always had the advantage of carrying that weight on a 6'7" frame. He's filling out that jersey plenty but he'll never have Pablo's "wide as he is long" problem.
 

nvalvo

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Yeah, CC has always had the advantage of carrying that weight on a 6'7" frame. He's filling out that jersey plenty but he'll never have Pablo's "wide as he is long" problem.
Also, he's a pitcher. There have always been huge pitchers, from David Wells to Jonathan Broxton, he of the famous pants.

 

jon abbey

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NY is very thin at 1B and 3B, I would still really like to see them sign Pedro Alvarez to a semi-big one year deal. He is bad at both positions defensively but can at least play them (150 games at 3B in 2013) and would allow Castro to focus on 2B and Refsnyder to keep getting every-day ABs at whatever position/s in AAA.
 

ThePrideofShiner

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NY is very thin at 1B and 3B, I would still really like to see them sign Pedro Alvarez to a semi-big one year deal. He is bad at both positions defensively but can at least play them (150 games at 3B in 2013) and would allow Castro to focus on 2B and Refsnyder to keep getting every-day ABs at whatever position/s in AAA.
Yeah, Sherman mentioned the other day that having Castro try to learn third seems like a poor idea since he is still trying to figure out second. There has to be a better solution.
 

jon abbey

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They're trying Refsnyder there too, but that seems like total wishful thinking to try to get him on the roster since Castro has blocked him at 2B now.
 

jon abbey

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Also he can only play 2B and RF currently, and they don't need backups at either of those (Ackley behind Castro at 2B, Hicks behind Beltran in RF).
 

derekson

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Castro looked great at second last year. Better than he's ever looked at SS. I wouldn't be worried about extra practice there being a concern in teaching him 3rd base.
 

jon abbey

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A-Rod with a 2 run HR on the second pitch in his first AB, it's got to help him a bit that they've said from day 1 this year that they don't want him in the field at all. Last year at this time he was coming back after the year off, taking reps at 3B as well as 1B, now he can just focus on hitting.
 

jon abbey

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Awful pitching from NY all around in the first two games, 22 runs allowed. Seven different pitchers gave up earned runs today, that is not easy to do.
 

jon abbey

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As a reminder, here's where NY's 25 man roster stands currently, a bunch of openings in the bullpen (and an extra one for the first 30 games because of the Chapman suspension) as well as the final bench spot, and backup catcher with the possibility of Sanchez being kept down for a month or so to give NY the extra season of team control:

C: McCann
1B: Teixeira
2B: Castro
SS: Gregorius
3B: Headley
LF: Gardner
CF: Ellsbury
RF: Beltran
DH: A-Rod

bench: Sanchez/Romine/Corporan, Ackley, Hicks, ??? (ideally someone who can backup Headley at 3B)

rotation: Tanaka, Eovaldi, Severino, Pineda, Sabathia (Nova in AAA?)
bullpen: ???, ???, ???, Shreve, Miller, Betances, Chapman
 

Wingack

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Mateo and Judge both with HRs yesterday against the Red Sox. I hadn't really ever seen Mateo in action, he seems to have very long limbs and with his speed reminds me of Soriano.
 

jon abbey

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I've seen the Soriano comp from professionals, but hard to believe he has anywhere near that kind of power potential.
 

rembrat

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Wait. Wait. Wait. Where the fuck did this guy come from? What the fuck.
 

BigMike

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Grabbed Mateo in my keeper leagues before last season. His tools are pretty exceptional, in particular the world class run tool
 

jon abbey

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Yeah, he led all of baseball in SBs last year with 82 (17 CS).
 

hbk72777

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Read that Shreve threw a great inning in his first try. Here's hoping it was just fatigue last year.
 

jon abbey

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I called this one, I guess looking good for Refsnyder to make the team?


I also question Ackley's role on the roster a bit, especially if Refsnyder makes the team. He is the primary 1B backup currently, but that wouldn't be hard to replace.
 

Wingack

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From the Times

The Yankees reassigned 17 players to their minor league camp, including outfielder Aaron Judge, reliever Jacob Lindgren and pitcher James Kaprielian. Also reassigned was shortstop Jorge Mateo, who was rated by Baseball America as the Yankees’ top prospect.
 

jon abbey

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Lindgren is the semi-surprising one, good news for guys like Rumbelow and Goody and Pazos, I guess.
 

jon abbey

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Roster update:

C: McCann
1B: Teixeira
2B: Castro
SS: Gregorius
3B: Headley
LF: Gardner
CF: Ellsbury
RF: Beltran
DH: A-Rod

bench: Romine/Sanchez, Ackley, Hicks, Refsnyder

rotation: Tanaka, Eovaldi, Severino, Pineda, Sabathia (Nova in AAA?)
bullpen: ???, ???, ???, ???, Shreve, Betances, Miller (Chapman suspended the first 30 games)

=======================================

Barring injuries, NY seems set on their position players, Romine is hitting (.929 OPS) and Sanchez isn't (0-10 with a few walks) and since Romine can't be optioned and a month in AAA gives NY an extra year of control over Sanchez, Romine is looking like the strong favorite to start the year as the backup catcher. Refsnyder also seems to be the strong frontrunner for the final bench spot unless they pull in someone from outside, he has looked solid defensively at 3B and another option at 2B and RF.

The bullpen is still pretty unclear, Shreve seems back to the dominant guy he was for the first five months last year and Lindgren has already been optioned. Four spots still open (three once Chapman is back), Nova, Mitchell, and then two of Rumbelow, Pinder, Goody, Pazos, Barbato and Pestano, maybe I'm even leaving out others (Swarzak looks like he will go to the AAA rotation).
 

jon abbey

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jon abbey

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10 minute Cashman interview during today's rain delay, pretty fascinating listen for those interested in the fringes of the Yankee roster:

http://web.yesnetwork.com/media/video.jsp?content_id=558211283

What I learned that I didn't already know:

He repeatedly said that the CC/Nova competition for the 5th starter spot is genuine, and that they are expecting the other to be in the bullpen.

He said that Mitchell is being considered as a reliever currently (not too surprising) but also that Cessa is being considered for a reliever spot (much more surprising, I figured they really needed him as a AAA starter).

He also talks about Refsnyder and Romine/Sanchez, definitely worth a listen.
 

mauidano

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Wow, the wheels came off Tanaka today. Seven earned in four innings. Four errors in the 8th doesn't help any of the scrubs chances. I know it's Spring Training but it's getting closer to Opening Day and guys need to polishing up their stuff.
 

jon abbey

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Tanaka seems to treat spring training a little differently than most, aiming to be ready for the long season which for him doesn't mean a hundred percent by Opening Day. Last year he looked so bad right through the opener, including very low velocity, that everyone thought he was hurt, but in the end his velocity ended up higher than 2014 on average. Not an excuse, just an observation.

Of course, the obvious question is "then why go with him on Opening Day?", and that I don't have an especially good answer for, except that they're lined up that way and rotation order for the top four guys doesn't matter that much.
 

jon abbey

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Gary Sanchez sent down, so welcome back yet again, Austin Romine!
 

terrynever

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Gary Sanchez sent down, so welcome back yet again, Austin Romine!
Sanchez actually choked in spring training. But this is a good thing in terms of starting his contract clock.

Weird game for CC tonight. 5 innings so far, 6 hits and 2 runs. Longoria took him deep in first innng. He got hit hard in second innng but allowed just one run. Then he puts up three zeros. In the fifth innng, he got Forsythe on three pitches, all called strikes. Same thing with Longoria.
 
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Murderer's Crow

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Made sense since Sanchez has some options. Don't have that luxury with Romine who will probably wind up getting traded or DFAd this year.
 

terrynever

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Made sense since Sanchez has some options. Don't have that luxury with Romine who will probably wind up getting traded or DFAd this year.
It is a good outcome, for sure. Sanchez needs to play every day and he can do that in Scranton. Romine is just a placeholder on the bench. I doubt Yanks could trade him for a bag of baseballs at this point.
 

jon abbey

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"Choked" is pretty strong, he was 1 for 21 spread out over a few weeks. I would definitely say he pressed, but that is a miniscule sample size.

I was seriously ready to post that NY should buy CC out in the second inning tonight, nice to see him settle down a bit.
 

terrynever

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Choked is the wrong word for this time of the year. Sanchez obviously started pressing, for whatever reason. There is a lot of pressure on minor league prospects when the door to the big leagues opens. I get a sense that Sanchez, at 22, is still a kid, somewhat in awe of the big league scene, the facilities and all the veterans. There was a good story the other day about Beltran mentoring Severino. I guess he did the same for Sanchez. Bottom line: Sanchez isn't ready yet.