Refsnyder Homers As Yanks Win
posted by Kalel9 @ 2:21 PM
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Sunday, July 12, 2015
A Month of Fundays
A New York Yankees, Giants, Knicks, Rangers and other stuff blog.
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A New York Yankees, Giants, Knicks, Rangers and other stuff blog.
posted by Kalel9 @ 2:21 PM
26 Comments:
Two errors doesn't help in the case of Miller.
Anyone want to kidnap Betances so he doesn't pitch in the All-Star game?
Not really Refs' error. But yay!
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Anon, serious question — why won't you register? Phil has repeatedly told you he's going to delete your posts if you don't, which he always does.
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The same way you set up the current one.
You can actually post as a name/URL, which I believe is what Bob is doing, without actually registering.
First half thoughts...
Of the big-contract guys, McCann, Teixeira, A-Rod and Ellsbury are performing. Would like to see a little more power from Ellsbury, but the OBP, base-stealing prowess and solid defense in center are all positives.
Beltran is a mixed bag for me. He was hitting better of late, but it wasn't enough to justify his downright atrocious defense in right field. He's a DH at this point, and they should look to move him at the deadline. If he won't waive his NTC, bench him in favor of Mason Williams if and when he gets back.
Speaking of Williams, awful, awful news on his move to the 60-day DL. I knew it was only a matter of time before Heathcott ended up there, but Williams was really starting to come on to his own this season. A darn shame.
Chase Headley, what can you say? He's a black hole offensively and defensively. I hated the contract when it happened, and it's looking even worse now than I anticipated. If there is ANY position they should be trying to find a bat for at the deadline, this is it.
Then there's the middle infield. Didi required an asset to acquire, so the Yankees were correct in showing patience. He seems to have cut down on the early season mental errors at short, and his hitting is better of late. Drew, OTOH, is what he is: a utility infielder at this point. Credit to him for learning second, and thus making him a valuable backup if and when he hits the market again, but if the Yankees are committed to Brendan Ryan being the utility man, then Drew needs to be cut the second Ryan is ready.
Refsnyder is intriguing. No one has really questioned the bat, but being relatively new to second, the defense apparently needed time to catch up. One thing in his favor is that he doesn't lack the athleticism for the position, he simply needs to keep getting reps there. And the Yankees absolutely should give him as many at-bats as possible. He should play the position from here on out, because they HAVE to see what he is.
For the bench, Murphy is fine, though Romine's season has me intrigued to see what he could be at the big-league level. Jones is a whole lot of meh outside of the occasional home run, and unlike Drew, he lacks defensive prowess. Young also subpar in the field, but he's not a total disaster out there, and at least he can hit lefties.
The rotation should be as follows: Tanaka, Pineda, Warren, Nova, Eovaldi, with Sabathia as the longman. That they removed Warren from the rotation shows how backwards-thinking they are. Betances and the lefties in the pen have all been good, but they really need a right-handed arm to secure himself. (Warren hasn't impressed so far, and I haven't seen enough of Mitchell — it should be a moot point, though, as both of those guys really should be starting.)
Sheesh, how could I forget Gardner? I seem to remember scouts saying he wouldn't amount to much in the bigs. Shows you how Sterlings "you can't predict baseball" truism is, well, a truism. As much as I criticize the Yankees' front office, they seem to have gotten a steal in that contract they gave him. (And thank goodness they relented on their stupid no extension policy to get that done.)
Here's the Yankee problem: They say they do whatever it takes to win every game. But sometimes, a couple of young players who may cause underperformance for 10 games will contribute to over performance for 75 or more games.
I would really like to know the backstory on the Williams thing. When he was put on the DL, they said he didn't really need the DO, but that they were only protecting him from himself. So what changed?
I just don't want players like CC and Beltran on the team. They take away more than add.
And as for Refs'error, the ball was sailing in the other direction. He is not a first baseman. So sure, he could've moved off the bag but that's a tall order for any middle infielder in that situation. And to add to the confusion Grego was moving towards the bag for some reason. The error was on Miller.
As for Gardner, Mike, what was there to see?
In the mL and his early ML career, his contact rates were bad, his swing was to basically chop down on every pitch, and he had no power.
He completely remade himself. That's why Is said a few months ago that if Long contributed to any hitter, it was him.
As for predictions, over small sample sizes (one game, one AB, even one season), it's tough. Over many observations, it becomes much more viable.
As I understand it, Gregorius was moving toward the bag because that was actually his base to cover in that situation. I place the primary blame for that play on Miller, whose throw was so wide Refsnyder would have had to move off the bag to catch it. Still, better to do so than allow it to go into the outfield. Just some all-around awful fielding that inning.
Gardner certainly didn't project to do what he's doing now, but he did show an ability to hit at every level once he had been there a year or so. That spoke to his ability to adjust.
Gardner has proven to be a real Yankee.
Sure, adjust to a degree, but to SLG .484? I don't see how with the swing he once had. And let's not forget, a lot of this adjustment came after 27, and that is the peak season for many players.
DiDi is batting over .290 since end of May -- and he's been playing some great shortstop. He made a great turn for Pineda the other day and he seems to be getting more and more comfortable each passing day.
Shane Greene has gone backwards after a few early season starts where he was unhittable but his peripherals painted a completely different picture. People were saying we got fleeced in this trade and with just a little patience, it goes to show that moving Greene was the right call.
Yanks have scored the second most runs in baseball going into the break, who would have thunk that? Eovaldi splitter seems to be getting better, it's coming in around 89-91, which is up form the 84-86 early in the season. His progression has been great to watch and hopefully he keeps learning to put hitters away.
Sure, I would be wrong to this point, although I never said he should sit no matter what, but:
1) Trades can't be fully evaluated for years;
2) Just show similar patience to players they drafted. They really haven't.
Another point: One aspect of Grego's transition that always bothered me as he struggled was the Jeter stuff.
Jeter was beyond awful last season; he hurt the team. If he had been permitted to do that if they were actual contenders, it would have been a travesty.
So even really sucky Grego was not really worse than Jeter.
Didi is exactly the approach the team needs to take with Refnsyder. As much as I think Drew is more valuable to the team as a backup infielder than Ryan, do we really want to risk keeping him on the roster, given Girardi's obsession with journeymen? He'd likely platoon them, which would be a mistake.
I can't express how bad a manager I think Girardi is.
Also, on another point, if there is real data that Warren is a better reliever than a starter, other than his first month of relief appearances last season, I would like to see it.
From what I have seen, he is a much better starter despite the din of spin to the contrary.
Optioning Refsnyder would be the wrong move, but it would also be totally consistent with their backwards way of running the team:
http://yankees.lhblogs.com/2015/07/13/rob-refsnyder-gone-end-star-break/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
That is Jennings at his worst. WTF is it even being discussed?
Supposedly he's staying:
http://m.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/refsnyder-stay-yanks-all-star-break-source-article-1.2290927?cid=bitly
Yeah, when Homer Curry of Yankee Pravda Network says there he is no way he will be sent down, it's reasonable to think he won't.
I agree and maybe the callups of Petit ahead of him were because they were willing to yo-yo Petit between AAA and the majors but wanted Refs to play steadily and just get in the saddle. At least I'm hoping so.
Cashman would show me something if he dumped Beltran or Headley, or even Drew.
Kaprelian signs for 2.65
Looks like Yanks spent every single penny available to them without being penalized.
I really liked the signing of Josh Rogers in the 11th rounder too.
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