Notes from Friday
Posted by: Chad Jennings - Posted in Misc on Mar 12, 2010 
Print This Post
| 
Email This Post
It’s time to split up Phil Hughes and Joba Chamblerlain. Their fifth day should be Monday, but the Yankees are committed to giving everyone that day off — an extra day of rest near the mid-point of spring training — which leaves Tuesday, scheduled to be A.J. Burnett’s next start.
“Only one of them can throw with A.J., unless we were to schedule an 11-inning game,” Joe Girardi said. “And I’m not sure anyone would necessarily want to do that.”
So it is that Hughes will pitch in relief of Burnett on Tuesday and Chamberlain will pitch in relief of Andy Pettitte on Wednesday.
“We’re looking for certain things regardless of what day they pitch, whether they pitch the same day or not,” pitching coach Dave Eiland said. “… It’s not just numbers. It’s the quality of each pitch. Working ahead in the count. First pitch strikes. Stuff. Command. How economical are they? Are there long at-bats? Are the outs hard hit? You could go out and pitch a few innings and give up lasers all across the field and walk away with no hits and no runs, but that doesn’t mean you made good pitches.”
• After today’s rainout, the Yankees split-squad games tomorrow. Javier Vazquez will start the home game against Baltimore. Alfredo Aceves, Dave Robertson and Royce Ring are scheduled to pitch in relief. Chad Gaudin will start on the road against the Pirates. Sergio Mitre and Boone Logan are scheduled pitch in that game, with Grant Duff, Zach Segovia and Amaury Sanit also making the trip.
• Position players going on the road tomorrow: Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, Kevin Russo, Eduardo Nunez, Jorge Vazquez, Nick Swisher, Marcus Thames, Reid Gorecki, Jamie Hoffmann, David Winfree, Francisco Cervelli, Jose Gil, Mike Rivera and Austin Romine.
• Curtis Granderson was scheduled to make his first start in left field this afternoon. Girardi said he couldn’t remember whether Granderson is in left field tomorrow, but he’ll certainly be sharing an outfield with Brett Gardner.
• Cervelli said he felt “nothing” wrong with his head while taking batting practice today. “We’ll see tomorrow,” he said.
• Derek Jeter believes he had food poisoning instead of the flu. He felt better today and is scheduled to play tomorrow.
• CC Sabathia is still scheduled to start Sunday.
• Mariano Rivera and Damaso Marte will make their spring debuts on Tuesday. Chan Ho Park is scheduled to throw batting practice tomorrow and make his spring debut next week.
• Minor league games start on March 18, and Girardi said it’s likely the team will send some of the rotation candidates to minor league camp to get some innings
• Speaking of minor league games, my good friend Donnie Collins has the early minor league group assignments. Remember, these will change drastically before the start of the season.
• Good news for those of you who are statistically inclined, Girardi said he really likes advanced statistics, including some of the newer defensive stats. “I look at it all the time,” he said. “I’m a numbers guy so I look at numbers all the time.”
Let’s hope Joe is wearing #29 next year.
• Cervelli said he felt “nothing” wrong with his head while taking batting practice today. “We’ll see tomorrow,” he said.
************************
That’s great that he’s feeling good. I want to see a picture of him in his Gazoo helmet! lol
Doreen (from prior thread), that’s true!
Hmm, Tuesday is an AJ/Phil day – hope that game’s on tv…
I’m glad Jetes is feeling better; NY shortstops had better start staying away from seafood.
Thanks, Chad!
Saucy -
No need for apology – I should have added my customary smiley face or some other emoticon.
The photo is just … it is fascinating. I don’t wonder that you can’t stop looking at it.
Betsy -
You get a two-for-one!
Betsy -Romine wasn’t built in a day
March 12th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
Doreen (from prior thread), that’s true!
Hmm, Tuesday is an AJ/Phil day – hope that game’s on tv…
I’m glad Jetes is feeling better; NY shortstops had better start staying away from seafood.
____________________________________________________________
LOL Betsy. Good point about the seafood
“Yesterday was the first time I was on the Tappan-Zee Bridge in my entire life.”
Came to visit my neck of the woods?
So i read that a 6th graders teacher puts remarks on her paper next to scores like X% FOR BEING A LOSER. What would you do if your kid was the victum?
a. tell the kid to shape up and it wont happen anymore?
b. wait for the teacher after school and have the kids yell FIGHT! FIGHT!
C. get them fired?
d. ignore it?
SOS, see my post at 4:59 pm on last thread. Using iphone so cannot repost here.
e. None of the above
No fighting but I would want to hear what the teacher had to say about doing it and they would hear what I had to say about them doing it.
“You could go out and pitch a few innings and give up lasers all across the field and walk away with no hits and no runs, but that doesn’t mean you made good pitches.”
That was a very, very disturbing comment from Dave Eiland. Maybe I’m misunderstanding, but it sounds like he’s employing a combination of personal observation and advanced statistical analysis… it’s killing baseball.
But forget about that, I have a more important observation/question. I’m noticing Lace/Stiletto banner ads for the first time in months. I wonder why they took the off-season off from LoHud.
Could it mean that the business gurus there think that winter LoHud readers are more likely to be ladies chatting about TV puppets but that there will be more ‘regular’ (read: men, then read: potential customers) baseball fans reading here now that games are being played?
Anyway, it’s good to see that they’re back.
Thank you Maverick. Much appreciated.
Now if i can only find the time.
Doreen, that’s right! I will either have a terrible day, a very happy day or a mediocre day; AJ and Phil, I’m counting on you, lol.
NYY, we can laugh, but imagine poor Jeter? Ouch. I was once in New Orleans and had wonderful (but rich) dinner. Afterwards, I went to this bar to hang out before the fireworks were to go off. I decided to have a traditional N.O. drink called a Pimm’s Cup…(keep in mind that I don’t drink). I got into a conversation with this guy about baseball and we decided to go out and watch the fireworks. Well, I took one step into the street and lost my dinner on the sidewalk. Yes, you could hear people going “ewwwww”. My stomach was in absolute agony. I had to walk really fast back to my hotel (which was fortunately close by) in order not to do the same thing elsewhere in New Orleans. The pains lasted for hours. Anyway, there’s a graphic description of what Jeter was probably feeling.
pat -
We’re looking into a program for my older daughter that is located in White Plains.
Unfortunately on the way to WP, we followed the mapquest directions that took us on the Deegan. I should have known better (I’ve been on the Saw Mill before to get to this particular destination). On the way home, we figured, TPZ, and let’s see. At the time of day we were traveling it was not a problem. I get the feeling that the Deegan is always backed up.
We actually started the thought process of if our daughter is accepted into this program, and is comfortable there and makes a life for herself there, then we might consider moving either to northern NJ or, gulp, Westchester County, NY, gulp. (Way too early to really consider, but the thought process occurred nonetheless.
)
“But forget about that, I have a more important observation/question. I’m noticing Lace/Stiletto banner ads for the first time in months. I wonder why they took the off-season off from LoHud.”
nick in sf-
no one else gets them .
maybe they loaded some heavy duty cookies on your computer
I don’t think that’s it, randy, because I use a different laptop for — wait, what?
gb7 keeps getting hoveround ads for some reason
Besides, if it was just a matter of cookies, Erica and Erin would be getting more Lace/Stiletto ads than anyone:
http://tinyurl.com/lrhk5f
hey nick in sf-
you know what would be funny.
gb7 going into lace/stiletto on a hoveraround .
i’ve really got to get that image out of my head
Nick,
Cal got i big break yesterday. #2 seed A state got ousted. UCLA today.
I skimmed through some posts last night and saw that there were no longer yankee caps allowed on Japanese flights. Im sure they all turned them in for some Scranton caps. They hand out free shades for the first 50 on the flight daily.
S.o.S.: good one, but it was a flight to Taiwan.
Maybe all our pals in Taiwan shipped their Yankee caps to Korea?
Cal would be playing Arizona today, not Arizona St. If the Sun Devils had won, they’d be playing Washington today, so it doesn’t matter so much. Playing UCLA is a little dicey, it’s basically a home game for them and the Pac-10 tourney just discounted tickets for students.
The real break Cal got (potentially) was Oregon St. getting ousted. For some reason the Beavers have Cal’s number… bad matchups, bad mojo, kryptonite.
What Arizona State’s loss really did was knock them off the NCAA bubble, I think.
Randy, lol…….Um, I do not want to picture even my favorite Yankees in stillettos and heels, nevermind GB or Pat M or YOU. I love the hoveraround commercials – the tune is very catchy and it’s cool seeing old folks going into the woods (with a very conveniently placed sidewalk) for a field trip. Then, they all press their buttons and whoosh – the oldies all go for a ride as their hoveround does the Disney tea-cup ride thing. Classic……
I would have mentioned SJ, but doesn’t he have some kind of souped-up golf cart?
Whew!
It took me about 30 refreshes till I finally got ol’ Lace & Stiletto up there.
For a second I thought the cyberlords might have had me pegged as one of those “proud” Yankee fans.
http://www.stonewallvets.org/i.....ees201.jpg
Doreen
287 to Tappan Zee is usually better than Deegan to the George. Friday afternoons especially in the summer are bad either way.
Westchester is nice (I’ve lived here for 2/3 of my life so I’m biased
) but can be expensive; especially if school district is a concern. When that’s not a concern, there are some really nice towns and neighborhoods in some of the bigger cities that are really nice and affordable.
Bronx Jeers: since I made my comment I’ve mostly been getting Estee Lauder ads. Maybe someone thinks I have a lot to make up for?
Sorry.
S.o.S.: good one, but it was a flight to Taiwan.
========
Air Wang? Still go with Scranton hats.
I think they got rid of the Silletto ads because peoples credit cards were bouncing. I mean it got to a point that to get into lohud you had to click IM NOVER 18 I SWEAR!! If only people would have upped their limit, we would still be enjoying the candy.
Got it. AIR TIAWANG!
According to the Pitch F/x gun, Tim Lincecum went from averaging 94 mph in 2008 to 92.4 in 2009. Yet he struck out hitters at the same clip, gave up fewer hits, and walked fewer batters. In other words, he made the adjustments necessary to compensate for diminished fastball velocity. He continues to work with his new physical realities, and is honing his secondary pitches again this off-season. In particular, it looks like he’s working with his slider, perhaps with a goal of throwing it more than 10 percent of the time.
For Chamberlain, the drop-off seems a bit more precipitous. He went from averaging 95.2 mph in 2008 to 92.5 in 2009. That might appear to mislead, since it counts Joba’s innings as a reliever, where he threw in the upper 90s, along with his starts. But he also threw bullpen innings as a reliever after the injury and averaged just 93.9 mph there. As a starter, from June into August, he averaged 95.1 mph. I don’t think it’s likely that he consistently reaches that level as a starter again.
Even so, his velocity matched Lincecum’s last year. One major difference is that Lincecum adjusted by throwing the fastball less often. When it sat 94 mph in 2008 he threw it 65.5 percent of the time. But with a bit less zip he threw it less, just 55 percent. Joba, on the other hand, continued to throw the fastball frequently, at 63.3 percent. He also focussed on one secondary pitch, his slider, over another, his curve, while keeping the changeup almost completely out of his arsenal. Conversely, Lincecum used his two secondary pitches, change and curve, about equally. He also worked in his slider 7 percent of the time, more than Joba used the change.
Reducing his reliance on the fastball won’t necessarily make Joba a better pitcher. After all, if he doesn’t have confidence in his secondary pitches they won’t be very effective. But I think that continued heavy use of the fastball will present problems for his development. He certainly can succeed with it, but he might not be able to do so consistently. And if he can’t do that, it’s likely to the pen with him.
S.o.S.
I hate to break it to you…but Lace & stiletto never left.
Nick,
Just last week I saw George Costanza in a Jenny Craig ad that apparently no one saw. I thought they were tapping into my propensity for snacking during Seinfeld re-runs.
Then Erica thought they were sending her Bally’s ads because she always goes to Atlantic City.
“I would have mentioned SJ, but doesn’t he have some kind of souped-up golf cart?”
betsy-
sj44 is way too young for a hoveround.
pat m and i have already ordered our golf hoverounds for our gofd get together with sj44 and we’ll be ready to go soon, but gb7 ‘s order for the camouflaged hoveround is going to take much longer.
it seems that the mounted blunderbuss was something they hadn’t run into before.
Randy, you’re never too young for a hoveround. If he’s self-conscious, let him get a Sit N’Spin, the classic children’s toy. He’s not too young for that, lol. GB in a camoflaged hoveround, lol. Make sure he orders the hoveround and not the scooter from the scooter store; they look the same, but they are so different.
Bru – one thing to consider is that it is likely Lincecum changed up his fastball. His fastball from 2008 to 2009 gained an inch of horizontal movement while being reduced in speed. It is likely he moved to a more 2-seam approach.
it makes perfect sense
joba basically threw a fastball & slider so hitters were sitting on them & killing them
he has to master at least 2 other pitches & at least have an ok 4th pitch
throw the fastball under 60 % of the time,down from 63.3 %
so when joba lost some zip on the fastball he continued to throw it at the same rate with for the most part only a slider mixed in occasionally
the hitters have scouting reports that show joba throwing basically 2 pitches
the hitters made adjustments to joba but joba did not make any back
i wonder if joba shaking off catchers has anything to do with this?
Nick in SF
March 12th, 2010 at 5:27 pm
Besides, if it was just a matter of cookies, Erica and Erin would be getting more Lace/Stiletto ads than anyone
***********
I get a ton of Atlantic City ads-
I think they know me
Bronx Jeers
March 12th, 2010 at 6:03 pm
Then Erica thought they were sending her Bally’s ads because she always goes to Atlantic City.
******************
hahaha-
Glad you are on top of this for me Bronx Jeers
quick question when do the yankees get their world series rings?
“I look at it all the time,” he said. “I’m a numbers guy so I look at numbers all the time.”
And that’s why Cashman wanted him.
And that’s why Cashman wanted him.
—————————————
no he wanted him becausehe knew he could be a world series winning manager
Jerkface
March 12th, 2010 at 6:12 pm
Bru – one thing to consider is that it is likely Lincecum changed up his fastball. His fastball from 2008 to 2009 gained an inch of horizontal movement while being reduced in speed. It is likely he moved to a more 2-seam approach.
————————————————————
my point is joba has not made adjustments to hitters that adjusted to him
regardless of lincecum changing his fastball he still threw a curve,slider,change & threw his secondary pitches more while lowering the usage of his fastball or changing the way it looks
that is 4 pitches plus different variations of a fastball
not so with joba
he was fastball,slider & hitters sat on the two
joba has to develope other pitches & throw them for strikes & with confidence or he is done
This is great – Jack Curry’s first piece on YES.com. The Boss/dinner story is a classic:
http://web.yesnetwork.com/news.....038;vkey=4
They get their rings in their home opener I think?
im not sure if its the home opener or at fenway
Joba has other pitches, that are pretty good. He just has to throw them more.
They’re not getting their rings at Fenway….
The ring ceremony is usually somewhere within the first homestand, generally a weekend game. In 2008 the Sox got their rings the first weekend series which was the Yankees.
The Yanks will get their rings in Yankee Stadium.
Opening Night in Fenway is reserved for Buchholz giving his teammates the passwords for their new laptops.
Nick in SF
March 12th, 2010 at 5:27 pm
Besides, if it was just a matter of cookies, Erica and Erin would be getting more Lace/Stiletto ads than anyone:
http://tinyurl.com/lrhk5f
******************************
pat -
I’m a NJ resident. Expensive is our middle name. And our first name. And our last name.
Actually, school district would not be a concern, for once.
bru,
You often post things from other websites/sources without citing where you got it from. It is unfair to the people who actually did the work to write those things and it is misleading to everyone on this board. You did not write that post about Joba’s reduced velocity.
” Make sure he orders the hoveround and not the scooter from the scooter store; they look the same, but they are so different.”
betsy -
funny you mention that, but gb7 said the same thing plus they absolutely refused to mount a blunderbus on a scooter for gb7 . something about liability . i assured them gb7 was a good shot, but that just made it worse.
it turns out they had once mounted a blunderbus for dick cheney on his scooter store scooter and we all heard about that one.
so anyway, thanks.
gb7 is a hoveround guy all the way.
i’m sure he’ll tell you that once he wakes up from his nap and reads this.
LGY, link?
http://riveraveblues.com/2010/...../#comments
“Opening Night in Fenway is reserved for Buchholz giving his teammates the passwords for their new laptops.”
nick in sf-
you know what’s weird.
red sox fans on cape cod don’t know buchholz’s nickname is laptop.
whenever i refer to him that way they just draw a blank.
i’ll say “laptop pitched a good game last night”. and they just look at me like i’m crazy.”
then i have to explain the whole story which is really a shame because i started out just complementing one of their pitchers and then i have to repeat the whole sordid story on how “laptop” got his nickname, and you know how i hate causing trouble
Randy, I understood most of your post except what a blunderbus is, lol.
My father takes naps and he doesn’t need a hoveround….GB is probably just the same way, lol. I wonder if he has one of those life alert buttons (or whatever they’re called) in case he falls and “can’t get up”.
I hear they make pills for that Betsy
Betsy -
thanks for linking to that. It was a joy to read. I agree about the Boss/dinner/boss story.
betsy-
gb7 has a collection of blunderbusses- really.
i don’t really like gb7, but once i figured he had all those blunderbusses, i figured that i should at least act like i do. it was a survival strategy. just seemed like the smart thing to do.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blunderbuss
Betsy – Romine wasn’t built in a day March 12th, 2010 at 6:20 pm
This is great – Jack Curry’s first piece on YES.com. The Boss/dinner story is a classic:
http://web.yesnetwork.com/news…..amp;vkey=4
————–
Always liked Jack Curry. He’s a smart baseball guy and a great reporter and writer unlike some of the dweebs covering the Yanks for other publications.
Glad to see him land with YES and I hope we see/read a lot from him this season.
“But I think that continued heavy use of the fastball will present problems for his development. ” -RAB
let’s go yankees-
the only problem with what the RAB writer said was if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it.
if joba doesn’t throw the fastball a lot he’s not likely to regain his velocity.
as a matter of fact while i’d like for him to work on his change, i’d rather he takes away from another pitch to include the change rather than the his fastball.
i think a major project for joba should be rediscovering his 95 heater.
the only way to do that is to throw hard and throw hard often.
Am I the only one that thought a hoveround was something you get in a strip club?
==================================================
Opening Night in Fenway is reserved for Buchholz giving his teammates the passwords for their new laptops.
Nice one, Nick! Laptop joke time was a fun time around here. Those were the good ol’ days.
Randy – I don’t think Joba’s arm strength is reducing his ability to throw a fastball at his old velocity. I would wager its mostly mechanics.
I also disagree in that Joba should not be pitching in the majors and throwing his fastball MORE. If you want to send him to the minors to work on it, I’d be all for it.
I get the whole ’12 best pitchers’ thing, but our players have options and development needs, use em!
You gotta love Jeter. He prob does have the flu but he insists its just food poisoning. Anything to play. What a guy. As for Joba and Phil. Sad to say but with Joba’s economical innings I think they could both get to their pitches allowed in a nine inning game. Even in relief.
Food poisoning makes sense. I thought it was strange that Jeter was in the lineup and then not. That led me to believe it was a sudden onset of symptoms.
Either way food poisoning or not, they were willing to give him time off and he just refused. If there are games being played he wants in. Too bad none of that rubbed off on Pavano when he was with the them.
m, I’m curious what U$C contest you were trying to lure Pat M into wagering on.
Women’s volleyball?
Baseball?
Other?
“Randy – I don’t think Joba’s arm strength is reducing his ability to throw a fastball at his old velocity. I would wager its mostly mechanics.”
jerkface-
i would never use the term” arm strength” when talking about velocity . it’s a whole body sequential activity that has the arm and hand are at the end of the chain.
what i said was: “if joba doesn’t throw the fastball a lot he’s not likely to regain his velocity.”
i believe that throwing fast or swinging fast is developed from going fast.
everyone starts with a built in hard wiring( natural ability) that limits how fast one can throw, but if you don’t train at maximum velocity, you won’t develop maximum velocity.
i remember reading dana cavalea’s web site about training bat speed and i believe it’s all wrong. you don’t get more bat speed by training your core as he said. you get it by swinging the bat as fast as you can.
and you don’t swing a heavy bat because that teaches you to go slow. you train with a lighter bat because once your brain can feel faster, it will allow you to throw “faster”.
if the yankees are taking a similar approach to their pitchers developing and maintaining velocity as cavalea was using fo bat speed, i’m not surprised yankee pitchers seem to lose velocity when they get to the yankees.
i would simply have joba really air it out often if he’s going to regain his high end velocity.
if a pitcher throws at 90% -95% all the time they’ll never develop anything above that range. their 100% will slowly drop down to the 90%-95% they are throwing. it’s a downward spiral.
now that you mention it, it would be very interesting to hear how the yankees maintain and create velocity with pitchers.
i really don’t know what they do.