The LoHud Yankees Blog

11 Responses to “Spring training Game 7: Rays at Yankees”

1. whozat March 8th, 2008 at 8:59 am

   Veras and Bruney are opening the door for Alba, Britton, Patterson and the rest of the righties in camp. I’d love to see one of them really step up. Patterson’s got nice numbers thus far, but I worry because his repertoire is very limited. And, Britton and Alba both have something of an MLB track record so I’d feel a bit better if one of them wound up seizing this chance.

2. Y's Guy March 8th, 2008 at 9:24 am

   chad jennings has been doing a nice list of who’s where in terms of making the team.
   his biggest movers this week:

   http://emedia.thetimes-tribune.....x#Comments

   up
   igawa, patterson, phillips

   down
   henn, veras, rasner

   he’s got karstens olendorf and traber in the lead for the last 3 spots. its only one guy’s opinion but i like the way he lays it out.

3. Bill Porter March 8th, 2008 at 9:24 am

   I think they’re opening the dorrfor Ohlendorf, he’s been pretty impresive so far.

4. Joe from Long Island March 8th, 2008 at 9:25 am

   Agreed, Whozat. Despite the reports that Veras has great stuff, he has not really performed as well as all of us would have hoped. Yesterday was an example. Bruney, also, has not seized the opportunities presented to him. In contrast, someone like Scott Patterson has taken advantage of his chances. I can’t say who’s got what kind of stuff, but he is succeeding.

   I’m eager to see Ross Ohlendorf pitch today, after all I’ve read about him. Ditto for Karstens and Albie.

5. whozat March 8th, 2008 at 9:29 am

   “I think they’re opening the dorrfor Ohlendorf, he’s been pretty impresive so far.”

   I still think they’re going to send him to AAA to continue work on his splitter. I think Ross could really be a great setup guy, but he’s going to need that other plus pitch. Right now, he only has one, and he can’t really work on the splitter if he’s trying to get high-leverage outs in the majors.

   But yes, he has been impressive this spring.

6. whozat March 8th, 2008 at 9:31 am

   “Despite the reports that Veras has great stuff, he has not really performed as well as all of us would have hoped.”

   Story with Veras is the same as it’s always been, and the same as it is for many relievers in baseball with Great Stuff. They DO have nasty pitches, but they can’t throw strikes at will. Whether it’s a maturity thing (becoming willing to trade off some speed for control) or a mechanics thing with Veras (and Bruney), I dunno.

7. Joe from Long Island March 8th, 2008 at 9:35 am

   Whozat – People always talk about the importance of muscle memory for athletes, especially pitchers. Maybe this is what we’re seeing with these guys, an inability to replicate things when they’re “hot”. Look at Brian Bruney at the tail end of 2006. Whatever he was doing then, he’s not been able to do since. If it’s frustrating for us, I can’t imagine what it must be like for them, knowing what it means for their careers.

8. Y's Guy March 8th, 2008 at 9:46 am

   moose’s importance to the yankees:
   suppose wang and pettitte are healthy all season, and suppose that hughes and kennedy are healthy and effective and pitch all of thier alloted innings (leave some for PS).
   that’s 34 starts for wang, 33 for pettitte, 24 for kennedy and 23 for phil, that totals 110 starts, leaving 52 starts. and this is the Best Case Scenario.
   at least 52 starts need to be made by a combination of moose, karstens, igawa, horne, white, marquez, kyle loshe, joe blanton or somebody else. if moose can stay in the rotation, he will take off another 33 and the 19 left will be manageable from the others. if moose cant hack it, we could be in for another al leiter type situation.
   im skeptical, but im really pulling for moose.

9. Y's Guy March 8th, 2008 at 9:49 am

   i left out joba, his max is 20 but if he starts in the bp he can probably only start 12. still leaves at least 32 for moose or the others.

10. CB March 8th, 2008 at 9:53 am

    “They DO have nasty pitches, but they can’t throw strikes at will.”

    I’m still not writing Veras off. I think there are two questions with him:

    1. Was 2006 a true break out year for him? That year in AAA he had outstanding control and he got a call up to the majors. The yankees were very excited about his stuff and thought he was going to be a part of the pen in 2007 – and then he had elbow surgery.

    In 2006 as a 25 year old at AAA he threw 60 innings out of the pen and had good control – his walks/9 was 2.8. His WHIP fell to 1.17. His K/9 was over 10 as you might guess.

    Those were all substantial improvements. But with the surgery he wound up having its still difficult to discern whether it was a true step up or something he’s not likely to repeat.

    2. Where is he in recovery from his elbow surgery? He had bone chips removed – so its not TJ. But with elbow surgery velocity often comes back before command. He was throwing very hard when he came up at the end of 2007 but his control wasn’t so good. Even the rehab stints he did in the minors his control was much worse than it was in 2006.

    I’d have to think coming back from the surgery he was still off last year.

    So I think the question with him is how much can we expect his command to improve as he continues to throw more innings since the surgery vs. how much of this is just Veras not having the skill to throw consistent strikes.

    I was hoping he’s have a good spring. With him I think only time is going to tell. He may need more work in AAA to get back to the form he was in 2006. Or the form he showed in 2006 may have just been an outlier in performance.

11. Bronxbyte March 8th, 2008 at 10:30 am

    It’s all comimg down to what Joe Girardi has said all along, pitchers need to throw strikes.
    Any pitchers that consistenly throw strikes will find themselves on the 25-man roster when spring training ends.