Posada works it out
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Apr 22, 2008 
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Good news if Jorge is really ready to catch again.
Any word on A-Rod?
That is really good news
Pete why are Damon and Giambi not at early BP
Pete – have Shelley and Brett arrived yet?
Good for Jorge, meanwhile over at ESPN, Rob Neyer has an interesting post on his blog about how we should just release Giambi…I can’t say that I disagree one single bit. Giambi looks lost and forget about top-flight starters, he looks over-matched by average major league pitching and he isn’t even taking walks. Hang em’ up Giambino, you aren’t gonna recover from this one.
Very happy to hear about Posada. Now bring up Shelley!
Here are some thoughts on Mussina and Darrell Rasner:
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.....pid=434480
This guy has been dominant in AAA. Yes, I know it’s AAA. But when you look at his numbers from when he’s been up with the Yankees, they’re honestly not bad. He came up for the Yankees last year and started six games and had a 4.01 ERA. Granted, I can remember from memory that around 2 of the 3 games he lost, he gave up a bunch of runs early. However, what he did was really no worse than Mussina last year, who sported a 5.15 ERA and through 4 starts this year is sitting at 5.75. In fact it was better.
I’m just so sick of this sense of entitlement that guys like Mussina seem to have and WORSE that management and managers seem to go along with it. Listen, this guy was a great pitcher for a long time. Was, being the key word. He’s not anymore. He’s bad. He’ll give you a solid 6 2/3 inning start at home against the Oakland A’s but he doesn’t stand a chance against anything resembling an above-average offense. I’m cringing for this Wednesday night… The time is now to give Rasner a chance. Tell him he’s going to be allowed to pitch for awhile and that he is not going to live under the fear of making one or two spot-starts, then getting immediately demoted to AAA. Decisions should be made in the present, on recent performance, not in the past. It seems to happen in every single other business and medium, why not sports?
Good news about Jorge. Hopefully we can get Shelley back now. Here’s an update on Rasner and some comments on Mussina:
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.....pid=434480
This guy has been dominant in AAA. Yes, I know it’s AAA. But when you look at his numbers from when he’s been up with the Yankees, they’re honestly not bad. He came up for the Yankees last year and started six games and had a 4.01 ERA. Granted, I can remember from memory that around 2 of the 3 games he lost, he gave up a bunch of runs early. However, what he did was really no worse than Mussina last year, who sported a 5.15 ERA and through 4 starts this year is sitting at 5.75. In fact it was better.
I’m just so sick of this sense of entitlement that guys like Mussina seem to have and WORSE that management and managers seem to go along with it. Listen, this guy was a great pitcher for a long time. He’s not anymore. He’s bad. He’ll give you a solid 6 2/3 inning start at home against the Oakland A’s but he doesn’t stand a chance against anything resembling an above-average offense. I’m cringing for this Wednesday night… The time is now to give Rasner a chance. Tell him he’s going to be allowed to pitch for awhile and that he is not going to live under the fear of making one or two spot-starts, then getting immediately demoted to AAA. Decisions should be made in the present, on recent performance, not in the past. It seems to happen in every single other business and medium, why not sports?
Tell him that while he’s throwing, we’re reading.
Great news about Jorge. Hopefully Shelley will be back soon…. Check out Darrell Rasner’s stats in Scranton when you can. Here are some thoughts on him and Mussina:
Rasner has been dominant in AAA. Yes, I know it’s AAA. But when you look at his numbers from when he’s been up with the Yankees, they’re honestly not bad. He came up for the Yankees last year and started six games and had a 4.01 ERA. Granted, I can remember from memory that around 2 of the 3 games he lost, he gave up a bunch of runs early. However, what he did was really no worse than Mussina last year, who sported a 5.15 ERA and through 4 starts this year is sitting at 5.75. In fact it was better.
I’m just so sick of this sense of entitlement that guys like Mussina seem to have and WORSE that management and managers seem to go along with it. Listen, this guy was a great pitcher for a long time. He’s not anymore. He’s bad. He’ll give you a solid 6 2/3 inning start at home against the Oakland A’s but he doesn’t stand a chance against anything resembling an above-average offense. I’m cringing for this Wednesday night… The time is now to give Rasner a chance. Tell him he’s going to be allowed to pitch for awhile and that he is not going to live under the fear of making one or two spot-starts, then getting immediately demoted to AAA. Decisions should be made in the present, on recent performance, not in the past. It seems to happen in every single other business and medium, why not sports?
a slight variation on Brandon’s comment:
Pete, why are Damon and Giambi still playing?
Pete….thanks again for your updates !
3 stolen bases by the Pale Hose this year – Get Jorge behind the plate!
Pete,
Thanks for the update.
BomberC,
If Damon, Giambi, and Kennedy don’t snap out of their troubles. There will be action. Maybe nothing as drastic as dumping Giambi, but something will be done. We’ve seen Cashman make roster moves over the last 3 years in-season. They won’t let anything fester.
Good. The Yanks need to get Jorge behind the plate ASAP to free up the DH spot for Matsui/Damon in order to be able to use their best offensive lineup.
P.S. Why does anyone want Shelley Duncan back on the team? He’s a zero-tool 28-year-old career minor leaguer. No thanks.
Its not a sense of entitlement when it comes to whether or not you release a guy like Giambi, or any other player who isn’t performing but is owed a lot of money.
Releasing a player with that much money left on his deal is not the GM’s call. That’s an ownership decision.
A GM may want to do it but, there isn’t a GM in baseball who has the power to make a decision like that unless ownership signs off on it.
I have no idea what the Yankees think about releasing Giambi. I do know if that talk takes place, Hank and Hal Steinbrenner, not Brian Cashman, will make that call.
That’s how business is done in MLB.
In a pretty good daydream I had:
Giambi DFA
Posada to 1st
Duncan to bench
Molina behind the mask
Moeller behind Molina
Not sure I agree with the premise that Giambi is “just like” Frank Thomas… or “just like” Delgado for that matter
Delgado is the guy that’s been described as ‘swinging under water’. It sure looks like his swing has slowed down lots, and that he may be done
Giambi looked great in spring training – getting around on good fastballs, and hitting the ball with authority to all fields. He also looked great in 2007 before coming down with plantar faciitis.
I think you give him more time before you release him. I wonder if he’s hurt his feet again, or if this is 100% mental. The other unknown – is it better to let him play through it? Or does he snap out of it by taking a seat for a while in favor of Ensburg or Duncan (when he’s recalled)?
I don’t see how the Yankees can call up Brett Gardner unless he’s playing a lot – and I can’t see that unless there’s a deal or injury involving Damon or Matsui, or both
Does Rob Neyer have interest in digging in his wallet to pay the remaining $21M of Giambi’s 2008 contract plus a $5M buyout for 2009 ? Kinda doubtful.
I agree that Giambi is a lost cause. (Actually a sunk cost) It’s time to give his at-bats to someone worthy of the opportunity. When I saw that Frank Thomas was released I immediately thought that is what the Yanks ought to do with Giambi. On top of that, I can’t imagine why he bats where he does in the line-up. I’d bat him 8th (if he was in the line-up at all).
Rasner will be brought up this season if he continues to pitch well over the next two weeks. Unfortunately I believe that Ian Kennedy will be the one to take the hit if he continues to struggle, not Mike Mussina.
Let’s be honest, though. Kennedy has not shown anything this season while Mussina has shown he can pitch on a number of occaisons, while being hit around on others.
If Kennedy cannot get it together, he will probably be taken out of the rotation or sent back down to figure it out. Rasner has been at the least average at the MLB level.
Let’s give him his chance. It can’t be worse than what we’re seeing now.
Giambi does not look dead at the plate. His results stink, but his approach seems ok. I have to wonder what happened to his hitting to the left side in Spring training. 5 left field line drives is all it takes to beat the shift.
FYI:
Releasing Giambi would cost the Yankees roughly $23 million (roughly $19M for the balance of ’08 and a $5M buyout for ’09). Nowhere near the same boat as Frank Thomas. Releasing him costs the Jays about $11.5M for the balance of this year and they save another $12M or so by not seeing him reach a plate appearance threshold that would have kicked another year.
“Posada to 1st”
You’d pull your hair out if he played there on a regular basis.
“Does Rob Neyer have interest in digging in his wallet to pay the remaining $21M of Giambi’s 2008 contract plus a $5M buyout for 2009 ? Kinda doubtful.”
The remainder of the $26M owed is a total sunk cost. He is not worth $21M this year.
I heard on the Michael Kay show’s sports update that Alex is not in the line-up tonight. But that was all they said. They did not give a line-up.
I asked this on another thread awhile ago, and I’m still curious. Are there any theories from the sharp baseball minds about how Giambi could rake in ST and then look like trash in the start of the regular season?
Weather?
The inverse of talented starting pitchers looking bad in ST but turning in on in the regular season?
Proximity to the Fountain of Youth in Florida?
Has anyone ever been to a game in cleveland? ill be making a trip there saturday from buffalo for the game.
Beckett scratched from his start tonight
beckett scratched from his start tonight !
the flu
sissy
stiff neck according to the Boston Herald.
………….y
Too much is made of ST results.
Robbie Cano hit .450 in ST and he is scuffling this year.
There are a lot of reasons why guys hit in ST.
Pitchers aren’t ready yet. Many are throwing 70-80% and for a guy with declining skills, you can hit guys who aren’t going full throttle.
I would have to see a spray chart to see where Giambi hit balls in the spring. I’d also have to see who he hit against.
If it was mostly against fringe guys, that goes into equation in determining when whether or not he is done or just in a deep slump.
Spring Training is not the be all, end all when evaluating players. Its part of the equation. However, I think some take too much from ST and that’s when you miss in evaluations.
I’m not just talking about fans. Teams do it all the time and they end up using May to fix their misreads on players.
Wow, I remember Jeter started 2004 bad, but wow – .189 as late as May 25th.
hey pete ask phil why he hasnt been updating his blog, we miss him. Eh i guess he should be worried about pitching a little more.
http://www.recordonline.com/ap...../-1/COMM05
ah the Times herald record my hometown paper haha
last year was beckett’s only year not on the dl. he’s due.
a lot of people wondered if he’d ever get that blister situation resolved
as far as releasing giambi, that not only would eat a lot of money, but might make it tougher to sign free agents. as much as we all love the farm, these are the yankees and we will always think about the best free agents on the market. let’s not go overboard, give him some time and see where he is at memorial day
Giambi is hitting the ball and making good contact. I know because I’ve seen it.
He just has lost all his power and only knows how to swing for the fences. He’s not trying to drop a ball in front of the right fielder or the center fielder.
Sure, it clogs the basepaths when he’s not cranking one over the wall, but it’s better than a flyout or groundout.
I’m not opposed to Giambi platooning at 1st w/ Ensberg. That is for sure. But I am absolutely opposed to Giambi as the starter for 140 or more games this season.
Tell me all you want about how Giambi hits better when he’s in the field and I’ll tell you that the man was younger and full of steroids when most of those numbers were accumulated.
Look at the last few seasons and those statements look foolish,
Tonight’s lineup according to Ed Price of the Star Ledger…
Damon lf
Jeter ss
Abreu rf
Matsuoi dh
Posada c
Cano 2b
Giambi 1b
Ensberg 3b
Cabrera cf
Lineup
Damon
Jeter
Abreu
Matsui DH
Posada C
Cano
Giambi
Ensberg
Cabrera cf
Any idea if he will start tonight? I know that he said that he was in line to start on Tuesday…
Becektt was on the DL last year. Early on, May or somewhere thereabouts.
Obviously that should be Matsui not Matsuoi.
Well, nevermind then! Thanks for the info, Joe and Pat.
“In a pretty good daydream I had:
Giambi DFA
Posada to 1st
Duncan to bench
Molina behind the mask
Moeller behind Molina”
Wouldnt change a thing. But add Gardner in left.
Now that Posada is throwing. I guess i wont tell cash to put Duncan behing the plate.Can we please get Duncan back up now!
Not a bad lineup considering that Alex is out of it.
jennifer, it’s an even better lineup if Damon, Giambi and Cano actually hit.
S.o.S.27
They will probably wait at least 3-4 days of Jorge catching to make sure he is okay before sending Chad down. or attempting to send Chad down.
Has anyone ever been to a game in cleveland? Iam going this saturday. What should i expect?
DFA GIAMBI as soon as possible. He’s slow (won’t bunt when they pull the shift on him, Griffey did it and made them pay), no power anymore, defensive liability. Even if he gets the average up, I don’t like him in the lineup. Time to get rid of him (it’s going to happen in the off-season anyway) and put Ensberg or some other live body at 1B.
“jennifer, it’s an even better lineup if Damon, Giambi and Cano actually hit.”
Or if Melky and Damon flip flopped in the batting order.
They’ll test Jorge early. I miss Molina and his extra-base hits.
I agree that it probably would be better to switch Melky and Damon right now. Melky has been putting up some fantastic ABs and has worked the count a lot more than Damon has lately.
Some roster moves afoot???? Moeller is presumedly back to where he came from. Is Gonzalez still with the big club? If so, why?
SoS,
You make a great point. How do you gracefully move a career leadoff hitter to the bottom of the order? I’m not saying it needs to be done now, but it’ll happen eventually.
A few thoughts:
Giambi CURRENTLY has a higher OPS then Cano. This is Giambi’s last year. If you want to DFA him because he’s done (based on 50 ABs), I guess you want to DFA Cano also.
Posada’s OPS is UNDER .700. Should probably dimp him too.
Giambi’s replacement would be Shelly, who is a RH batter. 80% of the pitching we see is RH. I simply can’t imagine Shelly (RH) being more productive then Giambi (LH)… and he is NOT an upgrade defensively.
Which of the following would you also DFA?
Paul Konerko __ .172 .319 .362 .682
Gary Sheffield_ .192 .364 .308 .671
Rickie Weeks___ .178 .302 .329 .631
Jack Cust______ .157 .368 .255 .623
Marco Scutaro__ .189 .358 .245 .603
David Ortiz____ .177 .286 .278 .564
Andruw Jones___ .159 .274 .286 .560
Casey Blake____ .179 .270 .286 .556
Alfonso Soriano .175 .230 .298 .528
Jose Guillen___ .173 .205 .307 .512
Troy Tulowitzki .165 .241 .241 .482
Travis Buck____ .154 .197 .277 .474
Placido Polanco .148 .292 .167 .459
Robinson Cano _ .169 .200 .234 .434
Adam LaRoche___ .123 .206 .193 .399
myrtlebeachfan-
Giambi does make contact, mostly soft fly balls, with his uppercut swing, or double plays to the shift on the right side. Releasing him would be very costly, but so would benching him, with only occasional pinch hit duties, as he would be occupying a roster spot. Maybe, and this is wishful thinking, he could be traded for another onerous contract!!!
Johnny had a good game Sunday. Think positive for a litle carry over to today.
Like iv said last week. Tell Giambi to go to aaa and work on his swing. If he declines as he did a couple years ago. Make him be the sun flower seed fetcher/cleaner upper(if that work exists). Do a knicks philosophy and have him their without a title/position. With an offer he cant refuse. I believe he’ll take the demotion.
AG is still up because if he’s gone, the Yanks have absolutely no back-up infielders with A-Rod out. Betemit’s on the DL, so they need someone to handle second and short if Jeter or Cano get hurt. Moeller would have to be DFA’d because he’s out of options…and I think the Yanks said that they’re going to keep him for a bit after Posada gets back behind the plate in case he’s needed and they don’t want to run the risk of losing him in the waiver wire.
We need Shelly at first base every day…. he’ll light a fire under everyones rear end…. and if not, he’ll kill you with a forearm bash!!
I wouldn’t put Posada behind the plate unless his arm is 100% without question. Teams absolutely WILL test him and he must gun guys down at his normal rate to show the arm’s back to normal. He could also throw a few 1B pickoffs in the first week to send the message.
Giambi is 37 years old and no longer on the juice to help his career. We have can not have two DH’s on the roster in Matsui and Giambi (potentially a 3rd w/ Damon due to his lack of arm strength to be an OF). You have to emphasize the importance of defense in baseball and this would help the Yankees by getting rid of Giambi now rather than later. Addition by subtraction.
“Sure, it clogs the basepaths when he’s not cranking one over the wall, but it’s better than a flyout or groundout.”
Believe me when I say this.
Clogging the bases = Good.
Not clogging the bases = Bad.
Manny Ramirez has scored 15 runs in 20 games this year. Manny Ramirez has been clogging the bases 41% of the time this year. Coincedence? I think not.
“How do you gracefully move a career leadoff hitter to the bottom of the order? ”
Thats easy. “Damon we need you to bat 9th or you can join Giambi in sun flower seed fetcher/cleaner upper”. “Whatya say?”
Mel:
Gracefully??? If the players require grace, they should go to church. If Girardi wants to drop Damon in the order, Damon should do nothing but whistle a happy tune and thank his maker that he continues to collect a twice a month check in excess of a million.
hey, i know this is off topic but what ever happened to David Justice? Did he get kicked out of the YES family because his name was in the Mitchell report?
I apologize If this was covered already and i missed it
thanks
Cold, Fredo, frigid. Should they just whack him?
Nah, Justice said that he was going to take time off this year to sort things out. He wasn’t kicked off the network. The Mitchell Report certainly helped him with the decision, though. He was originally slated, prior to its release, to come back and do the analysis in the studio.
“won’t bunt when they pull the shift on him, Griffey did it and made them pay”
Ken Griffey can also jog faster than Giambi can run.
Also, if I’m an opposing team and guys like Griffey Jr. are bunting for basehits and not swinging away I think I’m quite pleased. Considering Griffey has over 1000 XBH’s in his career.
“Is Gonzalez still with the big club? If so, why?”
They need him to back up SS and 2B – Betemit is on the DL.
Ansky:
White Sox are perhaps the slowest team in the AL. Posada should be OK against them. Everyone else will run on him, just like they did early in the year and all of last year. He’s just not that great back there anymore. You live with him at C, because he not absolutely awful (he’s really more like slightly below average) and he provides tremendous offense for that position.
If there is any team to test Posada out it is against the White Sox. Cabrera has 3 SB and there were only 2 other attempts. We need him back there to free up the DH spot and this series would be the most suitable situation to ‘test’ him. Let’s all hope for the best.
I feel good about this road trip and hopefully the young guys (and the old one for that matter) will what we’re all longing for by the time we get back to the stadium.
ray if that were true why don’t teams just walk griffey every time he’s at bat?
Cano is 24. Giambi is 37. Cano can also play defense. Giambi cannot.
You contemplate DFA’ing him because he is 37, hitting .109 and is a disaster defensively.
Both Cano and Posada can play defense and have shown (unlike Giambi) they still have something left in the tank.
Thus far, Giambi has not shown that, regardless of his OPS.
Really, do they have to keep him around this season because he draws walks?
Clearly, he’s not being DFA’ed today. The question is, what do you do in 2 or 3 weeks if he isn’t any better?
Roster spots are like gold in the AL this year.
Do you really think the Yankees can afford to carry him all season if he can’t hit?
Patrick
April 22nd, 2008 at 5:02 pm
ray if that were true why don’t teams just walk griffey every time he’s at bat?
Because he isn’t Barry Bonds.
“Is Gonzalez still with the big club? If so, why?â€
They need him to back up SS and 2B – Betemit is on the DL.
Thanks Bomber. Not sure I agree he should be the guy for that role.. He hasn’t seen the field in nearly a week. I’d think some all glove, no hit guy could be employed to fill that role while AG continues his development in AAA rather than languishing on an MLB bench.
I’d give Giambi thru the end of May (platooning him with Duncan once you send Moeller down and bring up Shelley)…. if no improvement by then, you absolutely have to DFA him.
Justice’s home in San Diego burned to the ground during the fires this winter.
He’s taking the year off to spend time with his family while they rebuild.
“Do you really think the Yankees can afford to carry him all season if he can’t hit?”
Only possible hangup I could see is him reappearing down the road, say in an Angels uniform, and coming back to haunt them while they are paying him $23 million to do it.
Further complicating things is that this is Giambi’s “contract” year. He really is not doing himself any favors. If you compare him and Bonds at the plate, you’d have to say Bonds can still hit. Right now there’s a lot of unemployed older bats. Teams will not be clamoring for Giambi.
Fredo – I agree that AG needs to go back down to continue his development – was just answering your question.
—-BREAKING NEWS—–
A-Rod’s wife gave birth a baby girl.
(Star Ledger).
“ray if that were true why don’t teams just walk griffey every time he’s at bat?”
Because they know he’s not going to be up at the plate bunting for basehits because of the shift. He’s up there to swing away.
A.B.K.
Thanks! Congratulations to the Rodriguez family. Alexandria’s my pick.
Giambi is walking a lot, meaning he’s seeing the ball well. He’s also not striking out a lot, so he seems to be making contact. Maybe this “slump” is actually a combination of his normally low average (his obp looks great considering his average) and some bad luck with ball placement?
Perfect timing Cynthia – looks like it happened last night.
Congrats to Mr. and Mrs. Rodgriguez! Mrs. Rodriguez-thank you so much for the excellent timing. We appreciate it.
Mussina and Giambi are similar in their stubborn ways. Mussina won’t go inside to hitters to help the final year of his career and Giambi won’t punch the ball to the left side of the field to help his cause against the shift.
http://www.nj.com/yankees/inde....._baby.html
OK..so he is NOT in Chicago….who is leaking bad info?
Notice how Arod padded his stats by having his daughter born right before a crucial road game. According to Bill James, Bobby Abreu’s daughter will be born in a much more efficient and team-friendly manner (just as soon as he gets married and has kids).
JGNYC,
Good point, Giambi does have 11 walks this year, so he still has a good eye…maybe it’s a mechanical thing…but really it does continue to be frustrating…
Wasn’t it 2006 when Giambi started off really slow and hit a ton the rest of the way?
Alexis would be mine. She is a true Yankee being born when her dad is off. Way to hang in there and take it for the team.
one way to look at the difference between the yankees and the red sox is by looking at tim wakefield their present #3 starter.
the red sox have won three of four with him pitching.
the yankees do not have a #3 who can keep up with wakefield .
wakefield can pitch all year. as many pitches as the red sox want.
he doesn’t have a limit of 140 innings and he usually throws 100 pitches and has a quality start.
it’s amazing that tim wakefield at four million a year is the difference between the yankees and the red sox.
Matt K, Cleveland is great for games. The Jake (I think it’s still Jacobs field) is a great stadium. It was one of the first “new but old” stadiums. That and Camden Yards. Hopefully the weather is OK. Hit the flats after the game.
I think Yankees fans need to calm down a little bit here.
Phil Hughes showed us last year that he can pitch. Sure, he’s having difficulties, but these are his first few starts in quite some time.
Hughes is going to emerge as the #3 starter. With his stuff he’s going to recover. Kennedy is questionable for a recovery, but not Hughes.
I know with his last few performances that the skies are quite cloudy, but light will shine through against the White Sox this week. I promise.
myrtlebeachfan,
Couldn’t agree with you more…I believe the Yankees won every game Hughes appeared in last Sept/Oct…that’s down the stretch…he’ll turn it around.
Posada is not working it out for the Yankees trainers and coaches. He’s working it out for the White Sox, so they don’t try any mess.