Yanks just beat the Orioles 6-5 on a pinch hit Grand Slam, by Stephen Drew who I still won't get a picture of... So here's Andrew Miller in enemy garb who got the 5 out save - on April 13! Betances was shaky again and Pineda was mixed as he got 8 swinging K's and one called, but gave up some hits to chumps and a homer on a bad pitch. Still, Girardi rode him for 98 pitches - on April 13! And hopefully he'll survive and improve. Betances still isn't Betances, but he did get a huge bases loaded K. The offense is still ponderous, and also seems to be hitting into some bad luck.
Trenton was rained out, so no Severino yet. The rest of the farm was undistinguished.
31 Comments:
If Drew hits, can they move him to SS and hit "undo" on the Gregorious trade?
Speaking of Gregorious, did you notice Drew on the final out hesitate to throw to him at second before hitting Teixeira at first? No confidence Gregorious wouldn't have bungled the play somehow — been a rough start for the kid.
Drew always made sense as a placeholder at SS. I cannot believe that Hal would have opposed it.
Clutch hit for Drew coming off the bench and even better call for Girardi.
Yanks tied with the Orioles with the most HR's in the league.
One thing that drives me mad is when a player is covering second base(or any base) with a player coming in, you catch the ball and immediately put the glove in front of the base. The incoming player has to reach the base so you put the "tag" in his path to the base. I was taught this in little league, I see so many MLB players try to tag the player. The player decks and sneaks a leg onto the base.
Hardly a great call. Gardner was hurt. So easy for Joey.
How did no one in the AL not figure out that Lester can't throw to 1B for a pick-off?
Yeah, credit to Drew for the big hit, but it wasn't really some genius move by Girardi.
Anon, as to your point about home runs, a sample size of seven games is hardly anything to hang your hat upon. If the point you're trying to make is that the offense is somehow good because of this, I would also point out that in more recent seasons Yankee hitters hit a lot of home runs but still had sub-par offenses, because it was often the only way in which they could drive in runs.
Tyler Austin is off to a hot start if Beltran turns out to be toast.
So that could be the first barometer of the season: How long do they stick with Beltran, and does a kid, and not Chris Young, get the chance to replace him.
Gregorious looks shaky too, but I can live with that this year unless it is blocking Refs.
Didi is struggling, no doubt about that. I still give him 2 full months, and maybe more. He has to be feeling some pressure because it's NY, and also because he is replacing DJ, even if he says that does not bother him, yada yada yada.
Drew is blocking Refsnyder, not Didi. The Yankees are committed to Didi for the future. Drew is gone after this season, especially if he has a typical season based on the back of his baseball card. Someone will overpay him at that point, with a 3 or 4 year deal in the $12 million per range.
Severino is cruising so far.
Severino gives up his first hit with 1 out in the third.
Got the next two guys one on a swing and miss K. Feels like he's being squeezed.
8K's and 1 hit through 5 for Luis Severino.
Greg Bird finally homered.
Severino was held to 5 innings. Vargas the reliever has given back all of the runs in the 6th.
Refs' defense kind of blows. Oh wait that's Didi.,.
Drew is blocking Refsnyder, not Didi.
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They can make Drew the SS.
No no. Didi is younger than Drew so he should start over him.
Sounds silly right?
Didi has close to zero offensive upside, which is why it does indeed sound silly. Refsnyder has shown an ability to hit at every level, which is why he should be up no later than the end of the season.
I doubt you'd find many Yankee fans who would have a problem with Drew as a stopgap at short, save those obsessed with the team trading for Tulo. Him playing out of position to block a prospect is madness.
If they want to show patience, start with their own homegrown players.
They don't.
The GM has been here way too long and he has lost his edge.
That is a primary why this team is a mediocre snoozefest.
Refs has shown an ability to hit in the minor leagues.
Didi did the same -- he's only struggled in the majors.
I don't see how you can say he has zero offensive upside.
And no, I am not anonymous but I do agree that Refs is given a lot more slack then Didi for no reason.
1) Didi wasn't already in the system; they gave up a valuable asset for him to a very smart GM. I hated the trade on the day it was made and said so here.
Jeez, they may have finnnnaaaallly developed a stahting pitcha and poof, gone in a flash despite the rotation's fragility. Hey, no problem, they can just piss away $5m on Capuano.
2) He is an offensively challenged player on a team that needs offense. Given their pre-existing commitments there wasn't many places to add offense. If you want to argue that their were none available, fine, Drew would be a placeholder as I said all offseason.
3) He is replacing Jeter, all offense bad defense. A vet could have handled that better.
Despite all this, he will obviously get more time. So he has every opportunity to prove anyone who thought this trade was yet another Cashman fuckup wrong.
4) Didi has a body of unimpressive ML work. Refs...no.
Again, it's. ALL in front of him. He has the power to shut people up.
Billy,
Refsnyder's minor league career numbers: .296/.387/.442/.829
Gregorius's minor league career numbers: .277/.332/.389/.721
That's a difference in OPS of 100. His early season hiccups aside, I don't think anyone would argue that Didi's defense at his position is inferior to Refsnyder's at second, given the sample sizes we have available when it comes to analyzing both. While I won't presume to speak for our resident lawyer, I will say personally, when you bring someone in that's supposed to be a defensive plus — whom you gave up a valuable asset to acquire — and he's not only failing to do much with the bat, but also seems to have little offensive upside no matter how much hypothetical patience you're going to show... he'd better clean up his act in the field, to say the least. I imagine Lawyer's comment was made with such a mindset, though again, I won't presume to speak for him.
That said, if we show patience, we should expect Gregorius's defense to improve. And make no mistake, he will be shown plenty of patience because he A.) Didn't come up through the Yankees' system but was acquired from elsewhere, B.) Isn't a Yankee farmhand with no options left, C.) Isn't only here because someone got hurt and D.) When his plus attribute, defense, begins to manifest itself, it will aid the Keys To The Kingdom, I.E. the pitching staff.
Only Refsnyder's glove is blocking Refsnyder....Not Drew
I don't agree that homegrown players are put on shorter leashes then players acquired via trade. When talent has manifested itself in our minor leagues, they have been given ample opportunities to succeed.
Mike, I understand your points but in this same thread you bring up small sample size in terms of the teams HR rate. What we've seen from DiDi fits that same criteria and were already throwing the kid off the bridge.
All I'm asking for is a little restraint in terms of writing a young player off. You can compare Refs vs Didi minor league numbers in the aggregate but failure to take into account park factors, age versus level, etc. does the comparison any justice.
I'm not saying DiDi will be an amazing hitter but kids from Curacao have usually had adjustment periods for each level they go to. Jeter was statistically the worst hitter in the MLB last season, he only needs to be better than that and he's already an upgrade.
While Greene has had 2 great starts, lets see how he holds up for an entire season considering he's never thrown over 120 ip before we go bananas over the trade.
What?
What talent got ample opportunity?
There is just no evidence to support that.
In fact, they get blocked before they get an opportunity.
Look at Murphy. He should be the starting C.
But we have to watch McCann, who couldn't walk less if he tried.
What's holding back opportunity is the worst development in the league.
As for Greene, despite his success here last year, we were told that he wasn't even guaranteed a spot in the rotation.
They have a trainwreck of an expensive roster and they can't even guarantee a rotation spot to what may have been the first mid- to top- of the rotation starter they developed in years.
This GM just blows.
Billy, I responded to your post in the new thread.
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