 |
| Stephen Drew Photo credit: Keith Allison via Flickr |
Two innings later, Garrett Jones, who entered the game in the eighth inning as a pinch-hitter for the slumping Chris Young, roped a three-run homer to center field with two outs giving the Bombers a 5-2 lead. Andrew Miller allowed a run in the ninth but the Yankees came away with the victory.
Drew’s double was another big hit for the second baseman, who otherwise cannot find a rhythm at the plate. Drew's timely hits are one thing that keeps Yankees manager Joe Girardi from completely removing him from the lineup. The others; Jose Pirela cannot hit a lick either and apparently no one trusts Rob Refsnyder.
As for Jones, the man has also had a couple clutch hits of late and could get more playing time if it continues. Jones has received minimal starts because Mark Teixeira has been healthy {knocking on wood} and Young at one time was hitting the cover off the ball. Young is in a freefall so Jones might get some more plate appearances until Jacoby Ellsbury is back with the club. Maybe he gets a "thank you" start today against right-hander Taijuan Walker?
Of note:
Maybe David Carpenter, who allowed ANOTHER inherited runner to score (now has allowed four of nine inherited runners to score), is never going to figure things out and he’ll get the boot soon. I’ve stuck up for Carpenter but it gets harder and harder to do so. The Yankees have a decision to make today before Masahiro Tanaka is activated later today. While I went another way in speculating what the Yankees will do, Carpenter could be in trouble now. If not now, he might be when the Yankees need another pitching spot when Ivan Nova returns and potentially pushes Adam Warren to the bullpen.
CC Sabathia was decent – 5.2 IP, 9 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K. This is about the best we can expect from Sabathia and at this point the Yankees will be happy if that's what he provides.
The Yankees used five lefties in the game marking the first time that's happened in club history.
Christopher Carelli is a freelance baseball writer. Besides his work here, Christopher is a featured Yankees writer for SNY.tv. His baseball commentary has also been published on Yahoo Sports and linked multiple times on MLB Trade Rumors’ Baseball Blogs Weigh In. He is a member of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, the Baseball Bloggers Alliance and the BYB Hub.
To me the most useless reliever is David Carpenter. It seems he is guaranteed to allow any inherited runners to score by giving up rockets. He has no confidence in his slider and can't locate his fastball.
ReplyDeleteThe second most useless is Esmil Rogers who is almost a copy of Carpenter. I trust neither one in any leveraged situation.
Chris Capuano is not far behind although since he has been efective the first time thru a lineup he would be the best option as long man.
Many teams have operated with no lefties for so long that an all-lefty bullpen could be an option since the ones they have are all capable of getting righties out.
I don't know enough about the various contractual factors to weigh them in-I'm assuming whooever among these three are dropped are DFA'd.
So dfa Carpenter. When Chris Martin is ready DFA Rogers. When Nova returns DDFA Capuano and move CC to the pen .
Again all my moves are all in a contractual vacuum-merit over salary being my criteriia.
They have no need for either Rogers or Carpenter at this point. So what if there are too many lefties. Too much is made of this lefty righty thing. If the guy is not a loogy.....who cares if he pitches to batters that bat from the right side. I see Shreve and Lindgren strike out righties with regularity
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading and the comment. Looks like the Yanks agreed with you!
ReplyDeleteAgreed, I just didn't think they would go that direction. I'll be much happier when Rogers is gone.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see Carpenter get DFAd today. He certainly earned it. Rogers will be next and then finally Capuano. I am not at all impressed by Wilson either. I thought Pinder was respectable when he got called up. Lindgren has good stuff but I worry about his control. I hope that Cashman can get something from Carpenter.
ReplyDeleteHe did earn it, I cannot argue with that. And Rogers and Capuano will follow in due time. I bet there will be a National League team (or two) interested in Carpenter and the Yanks might get a small amount of value from him.
ReplyDeleteI am thinking the same thing as they will remember the Carpenter from years prior and not everyone can succeed in the Bronx. A decent prospect in return would be nice.
ReplyDelete