Yankee spring training news

Al Zarilla · Mar 6, 2014

jon abbey said:
And you should consider being a Mets fan, Terry. They look crazy loaded with young pitching once Harvey is back, Wheeler and Syndergaard not far behind him in terms of dominant stuff and more guys in the pipeline.

Can you turn yourself into a fan of another team? I live in the SF Bay Area and sometimes I find myself rooting for the Giants and/or the 49ers, but some years, or mid-year, or even in the middle of a game, all of a sudden I'm hoping they lose. Can't explain it.

terrynever · Mar 6, 2014

Al Zarilla said:
Can you turn yourself into a fan of another team? I live in the SF Bay Area and sometimes I find myself rooting for the Giants and/or the 49ers, but some years, or mid-year, or even in the middle of a game, all of a sudden I'm hoping they lose. Can't explain it.

I don't think it's possible to root for another team. It's kind of like the old Seinfeld skit about trying to date your girl friend's roommate. Never been done with any success.

EvilEmpire · Mar 6, 2014

No offense JA, but as an older brother, you suck.

Little brothers are supposed to worship and emulate their big bros. Clearly, you failed.

terrynever · Mar 6, 2014

Tanaka with 10 pitches in 1-2-3 first, gets Utley waving at a 58-foot splitter for strike 3.

Hoplite · Mar 7, 2014

Sabathia must have read my mind.

[SIZE=.8em](8:54 am ET)[/SIZE] Yankees starter CC Sabathia is working on a cutter during his spring bullpen sessions, according to Newsday.
Sabathia is learning the pitch from former Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte. Sabathia said he had success throwing the cutter Thursday, and added that he's anxious to use it in a game. Sabathia believes adding a cutter will help him succeed despite his diminishing velocity.

luckiestman · Mar 7, 2014

EvilEmpire said:
No offense JA, but as an older brother, you suck.

Little brothers are supposed to worship and emulate their big bros. Clearly, you failed.

Evil Empire knows what the score is. My grandmother (rip) once told me that my brother would "root for shit if you told him too"

Montana Fan · Mar 8, 2014

Not too much Yankee talk going on. Am I wrong in thinking they're going to be pretty tough. I think they're going to love having McCann and see him as their best offseason signing. He's going to run that team. And we're all going to despise him.

Brian McCann's assessment of Michael Pineda's showcase pitch? "His slider was unhittable," the catcher said. Pineda threw two scoreless innings in his first action against major league hitters since 2011 at George M. Steinbrenner Field Friday. The righty struck out four Tigers — including AL MVP Miguel Cabrera — while giving up one hit and no walks. Pineda also fanned former Yankee Austin Jackson, Danny Worth and Rajai Davis.

http://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2014/03/yankees_brian_mccann_on_michael_pineda_slider_was_unhittable.html

Nova threw 10 extra pitches in the bullpen after blowing through Nationals hitters in the Yankees' 4-0 win at George M. Steinbrenner Field. In three scoreless innings, Nova struck out four and didn't allow any hits or walks. "Today's outing was beyond impressive," catcher Brian McCann said. Nova threw 36 pitches, 31 for strikes, in his second appearance of the spring.

http://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2014/03/yankees_spring_training_ivan_nova_has_no_ceiling_brian_mccann_says.html

Re: Tanaka - "Before you saw him pitch, you heard what he has and what people say about him," McCann said. "Then you get to catch him and it is as good as advertised. His stuff really is electric. He can command both sides of the plate to both righties and lefties. He can change speeds. He has five or six different pitches. Everything that you read about, the highlights that we saw before he came over here, they are all accurate." - See more at: http://www.kffl.com/gnews.php?id=894737-yankees-brian-mccann-impressed-with-masahiro-tanaka#sthash.3312mOAj.dpuf

Hoplite · Mar 8, 2014

Montana Fan said:
Not too much Yankee talk going on. Am I wrong in thinking they're going to be pretty tough. I think they're going to love having McCann and see him as their best offseason signing. He's going to run that team. And we're all going to despise him.

http://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2014/03/yankees_brian_mccann_on_michael_pineda_slider_was_unhittable.html

http://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2014/03/yankees_spring_training_ivan_nova_has_no_ceiling_brian_mccann_says.html

Most projections systems that I've seen have them pegged roughly a .500 record and third place in the division. Projections should not be taken as the gospel, as we saw with our team last year. But I think a .500 record realistically takes in to account not only everything that can go right for them (Ellsbury, McCann, Nova, Pineda, maybe Sabathia and/or Tanaka) but also the players who are uncertainties (Sabathia, Tanaka, Jeter, Teixeira, Beltran, Soriano, Kelly Johnson, Brian Roberts, the bullpen outside of David Robertston).

Sampo Gida · Mar 8, 2014

Hoplite said:
Most projections systems that I've seen have them pegged roughly a .500 record and third place in the division. Projections should not be taken as the gospel, as we saw with our team last year. But I think a .500 record realistically takes in to account not only everything that can go right for them (Ellsbury, McCann, Nova, Pineda, maybe Sabathia and/or Tanaka) but also the players who are uncertainties (Sabathia, Tanaka, Jeter, Teixeira, Beltran, Soriano, Kelly Johnson, Brian Roberts, the bullpen outside of David Robertston).

The projections are just regressions that weight the most recent seasons heavily. As such they tend to be rather conservative for teams with a lot of players coming off bad years or injuries. From a talent level respective they could do much better than their projections if things go right healthwise and players bounce back, much like happened with the Red Sox last year.

This optimistic scenario is rather low probability. That said, the Yankees have a lot of players with something to prove, much like the Red Sox last year. Players with a new team (notably the Big 4- EBMT), coming off off years or injuries (Jeter, Tex, Roberts, CC), given more challenging positions (Robertson, Johnson), rookies (Betances, Anna?) , facing free agency next year (Soriano, Robertson), or wanting to live up to new contracts (Gardner. etc).

The Yankees have to hope the Red Sox regress. This is not all that unlikely given the apparent downgrade at the 3 most important defensive positions (C, SS, CF) and an aging Papi who may start to show his age. Pedroia is now on the wrong side of 30 and Victorino will take a beating being HBP from the right side of the plate and their 2 Catchers have a combined age of 74. Red Sox might not be as hungry as they were last year either. Last year the depleted Yankees went 6-13 against the Red Sox. If they can turn the tables on that it could be an interesting season.

derekson · Mar 9, 2014

Nova threw 10 extra pitches in the bullpen after blowing through Nationals hitters in the Yankees' 4-0 win at George M. Steinbrenner Field. In three scoreless innings, Nova struck out four and didn't allow any hits or walks. "Today's outing was beyond impressive," catcher Brian McCann said. Nova threw 36 pitches, 31 for strikes, in his second appearance of the spring.

This characterization of Nova's outing is interesting considering that he gave up 8 hits and 3 runs in 4 innings. I wasn't watching closely since I had this game on my 2nd screen and muted while really watching the Red Sox game so maybe many of those hits were just dribblers or bloops that found holes but I'd guess he gave up some pretty solid contact with that line unless he was just terribly unlucky.

Pineda will be interesting to watch. The rave reviews of his slider are certainly encouraging, but reportedly he's only working at 90-92 MPH on his fastball. It's early in spring so maybe he'll still add another MPH or two as we get into the regular season but this is a guy who was averaging 94.56 MPH with his fastball as a rookie in 2011 (and if you look at the charts he was working closer to 95 before wearing down at the end of the season). He routinely touched 98-99 MPH. It's certainly possible that his breaking stuff and improved control will allow him to find success in his current form, but there is no denying that he's very diminished from what he was pre-injury. Pineda is going to have to change his approach and his mind set to pitch with his current diminished stuff; he was a pitcher who got out of jams and went for strikeouts by reaching back and throwing the ball past hitters.

My personal guess is that he will end up as a reliever for two reasons: after the injury he may need the velocity and stuff boost most pitchers get as a short reliever to be effective, and even in 2011 he was mostly a 2 pitch pitcher. His change up was never more than an occasional show me pitch, and most pitchers who exclusively rely on a fastball-slider combo end up as short relievers.

derekson · Mar 9, 2014

jon abbey said:
The quotes are from his previous start.

Ah okay then, that makes them a lot more reasonable

Rough Carrigan · Mar 11, 2014

This isn't exactly news but I'm watching Sabbathia pitch against the Nationals on MLB network (taped earlier today) and I don't think he's thrown a single pitch over 88 mph in the two innings I've been watching. Maybe this is just a spring training thing. But he's got a lot of miles on that arm. Is he ready to be an ace crafty lefty?

Sampo Gida · Mar 12, 2014

With Erwin Santana still available one would hope if CC is injured it is diagnosed sooner and not later

Clears Cleaver · Mar 12, 2014

jon abbey said:
If by "ace crafty lefty", you mean "albatross signed through at least 2016", then yes.

CC had nothing. Fastball topped 88 and was 86-88. Change was 80 and his cutter was 84-86 with no downward movement. He didn't throw many true breaking pitches. If his name wasn't Sabathia he'd be filler based on what I saw. But I cannot imagine his stuff has regressed that much.

snowmanny · Mar 12, 2014

Sampo Gida said:
With Erwin Santana still available one would hope if CC is injured it is diagnosed sooner and not later

Probably best to sign everyone just in case.

Hoplite · Mar 12, 2014

It sounds like he was struggling with his delivery, which should be expected from someone who goes through such a dramatic change in their body. I think he's got the right idea as far as wanting to pitch like Pettitte and working on a cutter to try to neutralize righties (they killed him last year). But I think it will be a painful learning curve for him. He's never had to be a finesse pitcher before, until recently he was the hardest throwing lefty starter in the majors.

InsideTheParker · Mar 12, 2014

Sampo Gida said:
With Erwin Santana still available one would hope if CC is injured it is diagnosed sooner and not later

Just signed with the Braves: http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/10593569/ervin-santana-atlanta-braves-agree-deal

Wingack · Mar 13, 2014

Is it time to get excited about Pineda yet? I am honestly liking the way this rotation (aside from CC) is shaping up. CC, Kuroda, Tanaka, Nova and Pineda, I think you can go to war with that.

derekson · Mar 13, 2014

The lineup Pineda faced today would be a sub-.500 team in the International League.

terrynever · Mar 13, 2014

derekson said:
The lineup Pineda faced today would be a sub-.500 team in the International League.

He's better than last year, not yet what he's going to be in post-surgery world. Big guys usually have mechanical issues and he had some today, similar to what CC had yesterday. Going too fast, cutting off his pitches instead of throwing through the ball to the catcher. I'm quoting David Cone here. The slider is a killer pitch that he apparently has less problems throwing than his fastball.

Girardi said this morning that there will be an innings limit on Pineda, too. I'm guessing 150 innings. If he wins the 5 job out of camp, and pitches well, then he might not be pitching in September. But there are a lot of moving parts here. Phelps could share the 5 job with Pineda. Banuelos might be ready to chip in by June or July.

Still, I agree with what Wingack said. That's the ceiling. It will take time to get there and often a whole rotation never does.

Doctor G · Mar 13, 2014

Wingack said:
Is it time to get excited about Pineda yet? I am honestly liking the way this rotation (aside from CC) is shaping up. CC, Kuroda, Tanaka, Nova and Pineda, I think you can go to war with that.

His velocity dropped 1- 2 Mph from his first start. Rothschild might start pumping the brakes if velocity trends downward.

derekson · Mar 14, 2014

terrynever said:
He's better than last year, not yet what he's going to be in post-surgery world. Big guys usually have mechanical issues and he had some today, similar to what CC had yesterday. Going too fast, cutting off his pitches instead of throwing through the ball to the catcher. I'm quoting David Cone here. The slider is a killer pitch that he apparently has less problems throwing than his fastball.

Girardi said this morning that there will be an innings limit on Pineda, too. I'm guessing 150 innings. If he wins the 5 job out of camp, and pitches well, then he might not be pitching in September. But there are a lot of moving parts here. Phelps could share the 5 job with Pineda. Banuelos might be ready to chip in by June or July.

Still, I agree with what Wingack said. That's the ceiling. It will take time to get there and often a whole rotation never does.

I'm sticking with what I said in post #65 on this page. Pineda is sitting 5+ MPH below where he was as a successful rookie and never had a third pitch to speak of. He has a nice slider that a bunch of AAAA scrubs chased for strikeouts yesterday. Other than that he doesn't have much going for him right now. I think his future is in setup relief where he can throw a bit harder and he can maximize the effectiveness of his FB-SL combo without needing to worry about a third pitch.

Hoplite · Mar 14, 2014

derekson said:
I'm sticking with what I said in post #65 on this page. Pineda is sitting 5+ MPH below where he was as a successful rookie and never had a third pitch to speak of. He has a nice slider that a bunch of AAAA scrubs chased for strikeouts yesterday. Other than that he doesn't have much going for him right now. I think his future is in setup relief where he can throw a bit harder and he can maximize the effectiveness of his FB-SL combo without needing to worry about a third pitch.

Pineda's a lot less interesting than he was at age 22. He was averaging 94 mph on his fastball, he had a great slider and he had time to grow in to more velocity and refine his changeup. Now he's post TJS and statistically pitchers perform worse after the surgery. He's averaging low 90's on his fastball, and he still doesn't have a decent third pitch entering his age 25 season.

Wingack · Mar 14, 2014

Hoplite said:
Pineda's a lot less interesting than he was at age 22. He was averaging 94 mph on his fastball, he had a great slider and he had time to grow in to more velocity and refine his changeup. Now he's post TJS and statistically pitchers perform worse after the surgery. He's averaging low 90's on his fastball, and he still doesn't have a decent third pitch entering his age 25 season.

He didn't have TJS.

Hoplite · Mar 14, 2014

Wingack said:
He didn't have TJS.

My bad, shoulder surgery.

NYCSox · Mar 14, 2014

Which is worse than TJS.

Sampo Gida · Mar 14, 2014

jon abbey said:
Banuelos shelled again today in relief, rocking a 63.00 ERA this spring.

IF hit and a bloop and a couple of walks did him in, but his command is awful. Don't expect him to help much before the 2nd half if at all, at least not as a starter.

Wingack · Mar 15, 2014

NYCSox said:
Which is worse than TJS.

No doubt. Just want to get our facts straight.

Clears Cleaver · Mar 16, 2014

Ellsbury strained calf and out for a few days

Sampo Gida · Mar 16, 2014

jon abbey said:
CC with a nice bounce back day so far, 4 perfect innings with 5 Ks.

Yeah, but look at the lineup.

Sampo Gida · Mar 16, 2014

jon abbey said:
Stanton was in there and a few others. 5 perfect innings is better than the alternative and you only have to look up a few posts to see my expectation level for him coming into that start.

I watched a few innings of Tanaka today and the Braves did play all of their guys. He looks like he can dial it up a few MPH when he gets in a bind, a la El Duque, but when he's not doing that, his fastball has been a little too hittable so far.

When he leaves the fastball up in the zone it gets hit. He needs to have it up enough and out so they can't hit it, or keep it down which he does with the 2 seamer. The 2 seamer has some movement unlike the 4 seamer

In Japan he only threw 35-40% FB. Be interesting if he increases the use of the splitter like he did today. In Japan he only needed to throw it 15% of the time. Uehara throws his about 45% of the time. I remember Schilling saying there was a problem with throwing it too much as your fingers stretch out and you can't grip it properly after awhile. Does not bother Koji though

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