Rained out
Posted by: Chad Jennings - Posted in Misc on Mar 12, 2010 
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Just heard from a couple of Yankees who were making the trip to Viera. The bus has turned around and the team is heading back to Tampa.
No word on a plan for the afternoon, but the Nationals won’t be involved.
It stinks, but it’s the only thing to do (which players were texting, lol) as you can’t take any chances. The players must be going stir crazy – if it’s not raining in Tampa, maybe they can divide into teams and play each other. I’m glad they cancelled, but it’s still frustrating, lol.
Probably for the best that it got cancelled. The rain sounds nasty! lol
BryanHoch Meanwhile, Derek Jeter (flu) has shown up at Steinbrenner Field 5 minutes ago
RT @hsilverm11375: @Ledger_Yankees Intrasquad? // weather permitting
**That’s the term I was looking for, intrasquad.
Um, Jeter – go home. What do you want to, infect everyone? I guess he figured no one would be at the park… As a matter of fact, go home because you’ll never get better trying to play through the flu.
Jeez just a little rain, lets play some ball already.
Now the hitters fall even more behind after 2 straight rain outs, they won’t get their timing back until next week.. Our pitchers aren’t getting the in-game work they need and it’s just been a bad spring so far.
It’s 9:30 AM in Florida, where it rains every day, they couldn’t just start the game later? What if it stops raining by 1PM.. Would a 2PM start be so bad?
For those who says it doesn’t count and who care it’s just spring training.. Umm OK.. By that logic, let’s just cancel the rest of spring training and have them rest for the next 3 weeks.. It doesn’t matter anyway right? It’s not like the hitters need a good 3 weeks to get their timing right and the pitchers don’t need to get their innings in.
This terrible weather is all Pena’s fault.
BryanHoch Derek Jeter says he actually thought he had food poisoning. Expects to play Saturday @ Tigers about 1 minute ago
Exhale Ben. It’s ST. It means nothing.
Somehow, someway, the Yankees will figure out a way to get ready for the season.
After all, it’s not their first rodeo in preparing for a season.
In the meantime, watch World Series DVD’s.
It will keep you from posting nonsense.
My last two days in Florida end in rainouts.
frank-
sounds good to me.
so what’s up with mauer ?
i thought he was going to sign with the twins.
Randy:
Nothing but a little speculation from Olney. Apparently thinking he’d land in Boston if he doesn’t sign with Twins.
Much ado about nada, IMO. I think he signs before Opening Day.
I assumed Ben was kidding? I hope so…….The other teams are in the same boat, by the way. Let the Yankees play Twister today or go see a few movies (if they can’t play an intrasquad game today).
How far’d you get before you had to turn around, Chad?
Yes guys, I was joking.
Nick Johnson would be out for half the season if they played Twister.
i remember when my two nephews were 8-10 years old and a yankee game in sarasota was cancelled after we were already at the park.
the yankee bus had pulled in but the players hadn’t gotten off.
when it was cancelled they just turned around and went home.
seeing the yankees was a very big deal to my nephews that day and they were extremely disappointed when they left.
once a team is there they should spend at least an hour signing autographs and interacting with fans. it’s not just about getting ready for the season, it’s also about growing fans.
the yankees weren’t in that situation today because they didn’t even get there, but what would be wrong with the nats still making it a partial good day for the fans by spending an hour interacting and signing autographs on a rained out game ?
i think it’d be smart business.
Keep it
March 12th, 2010 at 9:47 am
Nick Johnson would be out for half the season if they played Twister.
************************
Does anyone have any info on Wilkin DeLaRosa? He is on the 40 man roster, but has trown no innings this spring. Is he hurt?
I grew up with one of the Nationals players. Go me.
Randy, buster just said something like if the Twins didn’t get a deal done with Mauer then imagine him hitting in the middle of Boston’s lineup and playing pepper with the monster. I’d be shocked if the Twins don’t sign him to an extension.
“Nick Johnson would be out for half the season if they played Twister.”
everyone thinks he’s patient and has a good eye.
he’s always just too sore to swing unless it’s a really good pitch.
That’s what I figured, Ben.
Randy or SJ, not to be neurotic about this, but is it a disadvantage for a pitcher in terms of his preparation to have to throw a simulated game…..especially when hitters aren’t involved? Thanks!
Randy, that’s a good idea……maybe the Nats did do that?
Poor Nick – he’s fodder for comedians.
I feel bad for those fans that got rained out of games.
As a resident of Florida, the state desperately needs the rain to bring the water table up after the drought of lasy year.
The Yankees will manage to get some work indoors in the batting cages and mounds plus some strategy sessions.
Joe Girardi and coaches can make decisions for what players will be in the first wave of cuts.
Betsy,
Not really. At this stage, it’s about building up arm strength and pitch counts.
Veteran pitchers know what they need to do to get ready for the season.
Simulated games don’t affect that in any negative way.
SJ, thanks – that’s good to know.
I think Yankee fans should just be grateful that we don’t root for the Mets. They’ve not had a bad camp overall because they’ve got some talented kids, but boy oh boy – from Omar, to Jeff Wilpon (just like Hank, blessed with the right genetics; has nothing else going for him) to Jerry Manuel (comparing Mejia to Mo), this organization is seriously discombobulated. In the meantimes, Cash, Hal and Joe all like each other and are all on the same page.
The Mets (according to Verducci) say their theory on Reyes is that his increased thyroid hormone levels are due to his eating a lot of shellfish (high iodine) this offseason. Talk about bad luck.
Betsy
on top of all that, the Mets really were decimated by injuries last year, and this year doesn’t look like it is starting out so great either
Early last season, Brad Lidge would bend his knee as he prepared to throw the ball, and the stabbing pain would shoot up his leg. It got so bad that there was a day when he walked off the mound after pitching against the Marlins, thinking there was something really wrong with his knee and that he might need surgery.
Lidge worked his way through the season, with some alterations to his pitching mechanics, but he paid a price. He lost his command. He lost his ability to consistently finish off his trademark slider. His right elbow was impacted by his altered throwing motion.
Getty Images
Brad Lidge is healthy this year, and the difference is clear.
Now his knee is fixed, and his elbow, and Thursday morning Lidge played catch with Chad Durbin and was able to bend his right knee in a way he couldn’t last year, was able to drive the ball toward his target in a way that he couldn’t last year, and was able to control the ball in a way he couldn’t last year.
Lidge feels great, in a way he didn’t last year.
“Unfortunately, the knee affected the elbow,” he said. “It kind of snowballed. Fortunately, I don’t have to deal with any of that this year, and that’s why I’m pretty optimistic about this year. I have to be able to locate my fastball or my slider to be effective, and that’s something I can do now because I can drive off my back leg.”
The way Lidge has pitched for most of his career is by bending his right knee as he loads up to throw the ball, dropping relatively low before driving forward off his right leg. But early last year, Lidge felt sharp pain every time he would go through his usual mechanics.
Pitching coach Rich Dubee and Lidge came up with a way for him to throw the ball without needing to bend his right knee at such an acute angle: Lidge kept his body more upright, and merely swung his left leg back before pushing off toward home plate. It diminished the pain he was feeling, but these awkward mechanics impacted the way Lidge could control the ball.
“If you haven’t thrown a ball that way your whole life, when you threw a fastball down and away, it would wind up up and in,” Lidge said. “There would be games where my stuff would be there, and then the next game it would be way down. It would be back again, and then way down.
“It was like trying to learn a new way of pitching. I didn’t have any muscle memory that way. The ability to continue to locate over and over wasn’t there.”
Lidge felt that the change in the way he threw the ball ultimately affected his elbow, and because of the discomfort he felt, he was unable to do his usual array of conditioning exercises. By season’s end, he could not get over the top of his slider the way he always has, to make it a pitch that dives. “If I can’t do those [strengthening] exercises,” he said, “then maybe a little bit of bite comes off the slider.”
Scouts who watched Lidge last year reported that his pure stuff was, in spots, as good as it ever was, but that he just didn’t have the consistent command he had in the past. Lidge’s walk-per-nine innings ratio climbed to a career-high 5.2, and because he struggled to finish off hitters, he often pitched deep into counts and averaged a whopping 19.5 pitches per inning.
But Lidge, as the team’s closer, worked to do everything he could to pitch within the circumstances. Sometimes he got through, and sometimes it was really ugly. He didn’t talk about the physical problems he was having because he didn’t want to make excuses.
All along, he appreciated the support of Charlie Manuel, who understood that Lidge was trying to do what he could to help the team. “He knew I was battling, that I was trying to get out there, and it was a grind,” Lidge said. “He felt that one thing that I shouldn’t have to deal with is a manager who didn’t have my back. I understand that is something that doesn’t always happen. That’s why I appreciate Charlie so much. He could have been justified in saying, ‘It’s just not going well, he’s not going to be closing anymore.’ I had a worse scenario in Houston — I blew one save in ‘06 and I was out of a job. For Charlie to stick with me like that, it was really awesome, something he didn’t have to do.”
In the offseason, doctors repaired a torn meniscus in Lidge’s knee, removed bone fragments and fixed cartilage. Later, in a separate surgery, they removed bone chips and fixed a tear in the underside of his elbow. When Lidge started throwing this spring, he was pleased that he was able to revert right away to his old mechanics, and he could hit his target the way he had in the past. The first time he threw in a bullpen session, he did not have his full arm strength — that will come in time — but he was able to throw the ball low and outside “time after time after time,” Lidge said. “I was thinking, ‘Holy cow, that was missing last year.’
“It’s like that muscle memory never left. If I’m throwing the ball to the inside part of the plate to a righty, I can drive the ball. I don’t have to guess whether it’s going to get in there.”
Durbin, in playing catch with Lidge, said he can see the right-hander throwing his fastball with more precision and throwing his slider with better finish.
“Looking back on it, it almost feels like more of a relief that I got through last year, even though it wasn’t a great season,” Lidge said. “They gave me two surgeries that are really going to help out.”
Around the league
• There are a lot of reasons for concern about the Giants these days — especially their defense — but now Madison Bumgarner isn’t getting his fastball up to 90 mph, writes Andrew Baggarly. Remember, last season, Bumgarner’s velocity plummeted by year’s end.
• Heard this: Tigers phenom Jacob Turner opened some eyes the other day in his relief outing against the Yankees, with his outstanding power stuff, his command, his poise. “It’s hard to believe he’s only 18 years old,” said one talent evaluator. Said another: “He might be the best young pitcher in Florida other than Stephen Strasburg.”
Strasburg, of course, is seen at the gold standard of pitching prospects these days. One evaluator watched Aroldis Chapman the other day and reported to his team that Chapman looked like a left-handed Strasburg.
• Joba Chamberlain’s crooked linescore the other day earned him notoriety in some corners of the New York press. But the team’s staff actually took away great signs of encouragement, because in Chamberlain’s first inning of work his fastball was clocked at 93-94 mph, a velocity the team has not seen out of him this early in spring training. As Chamberlain’s outing progressed, he seemed to run out of gas and he got hit around, but the Yankees feel as if he has a nice base of velocity to build on early in camp.
http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb.....id=4988542
AHH – PLEASE DELETE THAT – for some reason it’s not letting me copy 1 sentence – I won’ do that again!!
Reyes must have swallowed the Atlantic Ocean, lol. I don’t feel badly for the Mets, but I do feel badly for Reyes. I assume, however, that he’ll eventually be cleared to play and he’ll be fine.
I wonder if Lidge had any pain when he gave up that 3 run blast to Pujols that hit the windows of Minutemaid Park. One of my favorite non-Yankee home runs of all time.
So by that note, then the Yankees must be concerned about Phil’s velocity, which is not that great (90, 91 MPH). If not, then why do they care about Joba’s? If velocity doesn’t matter this early in ST, then why do the Yankees care, period?
http://bombersbeat.mlblogs.com.....um=twitter
The Yankees could’t tell the difference between the flu and food poisoning?
One outing and that kid is the best young pitcher in Florida; these talent evaluators are something else.
Ludicrous ………..
http://www.nydailynews.com/new....._fans.html
Haha I like how that article was written with a nice Yankee-supporting twist.
“…and comes with a free beer, something for Sox fans to cry in after another beatdown by the Bombers.”
Swimming tryouts will be held in the Stainbrenner Field outfield at noon. Field should be dried out for baseball by Monday.
Ledger_Yankees Know your Yankee beat reporters: one guess, which of the nine of us has logged the most time behind the wheel of a tractor?
about 2 hours ago
The answer is our blogmaster Chad which is an interesting factoid but the more interesting thing to me was realizing the Yankees have NINE beat reporters-
Lohud, Times, News, Post, Newsday, Ledger, Record, WFAN, MLB I presume. Toss in YES coverage and the occasional guest visit from ESPN, SI, MLB Network and national baseball writers and that’s a lot of coverage and people asking players questions.
I would think no other market comes close to that.
Is that a joke or is there definitely no intrasquad game today? The field won’t be ready until Monday?
Joelsherman1 Ryan Pope, a 3d-rd ‘07 pick, has #Yankees excited with uptick in velocity this spring to 91-94mph. Ticketed for AA Trenton rotation
23 minutes ago
I once paid for tickets to the Pinstripe Pub.
Then it occurred to me why am I paying to travel to the the Bronx to sit in a bar? Very dumb idea.
I will say though that the bar at Fenway with the window in the CF wall is very cool.
just watched the red sox 30/30 thing on mlb network.
i hate to say it but clay buchholz at this point in time appears to be is a better starter than joba chamberlain.
i never thought much of his fastball, but fangraphs has him a mile an hour faster than joba, and we know the change up is his money pitch.
buchholz gave up 13 runs in his last two starts that took his era from mid threes to 4.21 which was still much better than joba’s 4.75 era.
at this point in time , i’m not so sure i wouldn’t trade joba for buchholz.
Just so you guys know it is raining like crazy on this side of the state (Gulf Coast). Don’t see how they could do anything on the field. It is not just morning Florida rain, we have had big winds as well and it rained through the night and is still going on. Doesn’t appear to be letting up till tomorrow.
Bronx Born, ick – well, I don’t want the players getting hurt. I guess they’ll have to do what they can indoors – other teams are going through this, too. I could never live in Florida for many different reasons – topping the list is rain, rain rain.
Randy,
I’d trade joba for bucholtz. Yankee fans don’t give him much love but I think he’s got a chance to be a pretty good starter and if the Sox are smart they will put him in the 5 spot and let him go this year.
there’s an article on joba’s velocity over at RAB today.
Vegas projects Yanks at 94.5 wins
Red Sox 94 wins
Rays 89 wins
I’ll take that over PECOTA
if Dice K gets it back together, the Red Sox could have a scary rotation
Betsy, But we have no snow.. and quite often more sunshine than rain.
Always take Vegas over any other projection. They make their living off knowing these things.
New Post: Pettitte back in the pen
Wow the Yanks o/u is only 94.5? Over over over! I take the over on the Rays too, they are crazy good this year
tampayank do you have a link to the o/u for every team?
blake-
on the other hand joba is a year younger, so that’s a factor in joba’s favor.
i think the red sox sending back buchholz to the minors to work on , i think. command of his fastball, helped him as a big league starter. he used to pitch backwards and hitters caught on to it.
i think that the red sox decisiveness that buccholz’s is a starter has helped buchholz too.
the yankees really need to pick a lane with joba. hopefully in the next few weeks joba will have a role he can commit too.
on another red sox note , much of red sox nation is not happy with papelbon. i heard the grumbling mid summer last year on the cape.
i wonder if his time in boston is limited.
“there’s an article on joba’s velocity over at RAB today.”
blake -
you trying to get me in trouble. me and RAB are like oil and water.
we don’t mix well, but i’ll check it out
I will hold off on Buchholz until I see him do what he did against Baltimore and Toronto last year.
Folks forget he has had his ups and downs and is actually older than both Chamberlain and Hughes.
Not easy to develop young arms in the AL East. Ask Tampa.
It will be interesting to see if the Red Sox just give Buchholz the ball and not bounce him in and out of the rotation.
That will tell us what they really think of him because if he can’t beat out Tim Wakefield for the 5th starters spot, they know something about him we don’t.
“Wow the Yanks o/u is only 94.5? ”
patrick-
the only thing i can think of is they are factoring in age and not expecting jeter, rivera, arod,and posada to keep ahead of projections for their decline.
i think they are a 97 +/- team.
Joe and Evan are a pip – and that’s not a compliment. Joe insists that the Yankees are trying to make Joba a starter just to prove it to everyone in the media. They both then act like dummies by actually asking what the Yankees should do about the 5th starter (Mitre/Aceves/Gaudin as the 5th, putting Joba and Phil in the pen). Are they nuts or just plain dumb? Both?
“blake -
you trying to get me in trouble. me and RAB are like oil and water.
we don’t mix well, but i’ll check it out ”
haha, i forgot.
“That will tell us what they really think of him because if he can’t beat out Tim Wakefield for the 5th starters spot, they know something about him we don’t.”
agreed.
“It will be interesting to see if the Red Sox just give Buchholz the ball and not bounce him in and out of the rotation.”
sj44-
i agree.
wakefield may be a victim of his versatility. he can start and relieve either short or long.
his only question at this point is his health which has to be a big concern.
i’m guessing they’ll go with buchholz as the fifth starter and move wakefield to wherever they need .
Randy,
Only problem with that is, Wakefield has let it be known that he wants (and deserves, according to him) to start.
In addition, his back issues make it virtually impossible for him to hold up as a relief/starting pitcher.
As it is now, he usually only lasts about half a season as a starter before breaking down.
I like the fastball/changeup combination Buchholz possesses.
However, I want to see him do more than just dominate Toronto and Baltimore. Anybody can beat those teams in August and September when they have mailed in their seasons.
If he can do more than that, the Sox have a keeper.
If not, he’s just another overhyped Sox prospect whom ESPN will build up for trade value at the deadline.
“I like the fastball/changeup combination Buchholz possesses.”
sj44-
a good change up for any pitcher is such a weapon.
i’m hoping hughes can develop his sooner than later.
i agree buchholz still has to prove himself over a full year against all kinds of competition as you say.
the time it’s taking for buchholz , hughes , and joba shows it’s not easy to develop starting pitching when you are always a contender for a playoff spot even when teams have all the financial resources that the red sox and yankees have.
there is no luxury like the royals or marlins have to just throw a guy in the fifth spot and let him learn on the job.