Pregame notes: One more day at Yankee Stadium
Posted by: Chad Jennings - Posted in Notes on Sep 06, 2010 
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No one at the ballpark is used to this. The Yankees are about to play their fifth day game in a row, and every morning has felt just a little bit odd. I’ve seriously had three conversations about what day it is. When the writers walked into the press conference room to meet with Joe Girardi, someone joked about the whole room needing coffee and Girardi suddenly walked out of the room.
He returned with a coffee maker. Seriously. The Yankees manager brought coffee to the writers this morning. We’ve reached that point.
There really wasn’t much to discuss when the actual press conference started. At the time, Girardi was waiting to talk to Nick Swisher and Alex Rodriguez before posting his lineup. At this point, though, it seems both Swisher and Rodriguez came through their pregame workouts without any problems.
So far, they’re both still in the lineup.
Rodriguez said he felt good as he walked out of the clubhouse to the field earlier this morning, and Swisher said the same when he came back into the clubhouse after running. Something could change between now and first pitch, but right now there’s no indication that a lineup change is coming.
• Andy Pettitte threw only a very light bullpen this morning. Roughly 20 pitches, not at 100 percent intensity, with the catcher setup in front of home plate. Pretty standard stuff for a light bullpen day. He felt fine afterward.
• The plan is 65 pitches or four innings for Pettitte on Wednesday. “We’ll see how it goes,” Girardi said. “I kind of anticipate that it would probably be two rehab starts, but if it’s one, it’s one.”
• Why would Pettitte need two rehab appearances when Girardi previously said he would be OK with Pettitte throwing only 75 pitches in his first game back? “If he gets to 65 (in the rehab start), then the area of concern the next time is 65 to 80,” Girardi said. “So if he’s at 75, then you know he should be fine all the way up to 75, and then you start to get a little bit worried if he gets fatigued (beyond 75 pitches).”
• Girardi on Colin Curtis: “With some of the injuries we have, we just thought we could use another outfielder. It just gives us flexibility.”
• Swisher said the knee injury feels like tightness, like his knee doesn’t want to go when he tells it to go. That’s why he was worried and didn’t want to push it, but now that he knows there’s no structural damage, he feels ready to play. “If we can deal with the pain, we can deal with playing,” he said.
• Rotation questions have become pretty standard recently: “Right now we’re on turn,” Girardi said. “Everyone is going to get an extra day here because of the off day on Thursday.”
• Austin Kearns said his injury is really just wear and tear. There wasn’t one incident that caused it, and he seems to think it’s not a big deal. He has it pretty lightly wrapped.
• With Curtis called up, Justin Christian has been promoted to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and Taylor Grote has been promoted to Trenton.
Associated Press picture from yesterday of Derek Jeter with Reggie Jackson
That must have been some fine, fine coffee that Girardi was peddling.
“that is a damn fine cup of coffee!”
Hey GB7 -
Justian Christian to SWB! Good time to have a good week for him, no?
On a side note, though, it is interesting – all the movement of players this time of year, and really, the Yankees have made a minimal amount of moves – and their minor league teams in championship games.
It’s got to be a little strange for say, Trenton, to out Wednesday night with Andy Pettitte on the mound, ML pitcher or not. Andy has said it’s a little strange for him, too.
Don’t get me wrong – I totally understand the dynamic – ML parent club and it’s parts first and then on down the line. Just idle commentary on my part.
Reggie looks great for 64.
Think it was W. B. Mason coffee? lol
** its parts.
“black as midnight on a moonless night.”
I want my double-u bee!!
Veritek has no plans to retire? At least according to a headline on ESPN’s site. So, does that mean he’s going to coach or manage?
“Lotsa cream, Lotsa sugah..”
They need to send Andy down to Tampa to help them with their playoff run. Both their best pitchers B+B got promoted and Stoneburner and Mesa are on the DL.
Speaking of Stoneburner on the DL, does anyone know what happened to land him there?
Wow – hadn’t heard Stoneburner was on the DL. Hope it’s nothing serious. He was very impressive.
From the other thread……
Rich,
Hagadone was the prosect they liked in the deal. Masterson was just a throw in.
When your owner tells you to trade a guy immediately, which Larry Dolan told Mark Shapiro to do, your return is going to be light.
There are few secrets in the game these days. Everybody knew Martinez was going to be a salary dump. That pretty much guaranteed the return to Cleveland was going to be light.
It would be funny though if Hagadone regains his form Post-TJ surgery and Martinez is playing elsewhere next year.
If that happens, the Sox front office will come under some heat for that deal.
Another difference between Torre and Girardi: Torre believed guys should get their own coffee.
I heard during one of the one million WB Mason commercials that they us Green Mountain coffee which used to be superb before it got so commercial. I am sure it is still better than most coffee. Now that was a very important piece of trivia.
“They know the Red Sox system is overhyped. Which is why you don’t see them make deals for their prospects.”
But they stole Victor Martinez with the overhyped Justin Masterson.
===========================================
They didn’t steal Victor Martinez any more than the Yankees stole Kerry Wood. The Red Sox will have to pay to keep Martinez beyond this year and the Yankees (if they don’t exercise the option on Wood’s contract) will have to pay to keep Wood.
…and one more thing, the Indians have been trading off their talent to everyone (Sabathia to Milwaukee, Lee to Philadelphia, Wood to the Yankees and Martinez to the Red Sox).
Enjoy the game everyone. Go AJ. Go Yankee bats.
I’ve got a group coming for a BBQ this afternoon so I’ll have to catch the game in bits and pieces.
Torre is in the back pocket of the Bigelow Tea empire. Don’t be naive.
Enjoy your day, pat.
Doreen, it’s not likely to happen, but, I’d like to see Christian stay in the system and make the big club as a 4th outfielder next season. He could provide NYYs some good insurance at 3 outfield spots.
Still wondering why Torre didn’t call a bunt on Schilling’s leaky ankle?
Torre and Wally The Green Monster were in bed together. It’s all coming together now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related
GB7 -
We’ll see. What happens to Colin Curtis? They like him, but i know he doesn’t have Christian’s speed.
For certain it will be an interesting off-season/spring training.
Doreen
I didn’t know he was on the DL either but he hadn’t pitched recently and when I got the lineup card and stat pack at the game yesterday it showed him on the DL on the roster page. There’s a group that goes to every game so ill ask them tomorrow if they know what is up with him.
LOL – I just wanted to say a few things about people who do not think hyping prospects/BA is not a big deal when it comes to baseball. I live in the D.C. area – Stephen Strasburg was not seen by anyone I know who bought tickets and jersey’s – they only knew him through the hype of Strasburg from cites such as BA, ESPN, and so on. The same with Mark Prior earlier this decade with Chicago fans. The same in the early 70s with David Clyde. The hype of Strasburg which began its movement with BA (remember this was a kid who went undrafted out of HS) – helped generate millions of dollars for the Nationals – granted it helped that he delivered in his first outing – but the BUZZ on this kid in this town of D.C. before he was EVEN DRAFTED – was enormous. Hyping your prospects gives the paying customer fan base something to get excited about, tune into the team, buy tickets, increase gate sales, watch the local TV network (MASN here in D.C.), hyped prospects can become the face of the franchise before they even come up. So it is important from a financial standpoint for teams (forget about whether other teams’ scouts and GMs actually buy into it) to have a much hyped prospect fan base – it generates big business and hope for the future in pre-season ticket sales. If the Mets could convince their fan base a new Generation Trey was coming next year (think a Pulispher, a Wilson, an Izzy – Mets’ fans were all pumped up and bought tickets to old Shea just at the thought of a big three) that would increase their gate sales – a new big three, a Mike Stanton, a Bryce Harper making his mlb debut – these things get customers in the seats – which is really what matters – the fans – or at least for most teams the fans matter the most (unlike a KC Royals management that cares more about pocketing the money than their fans).
Doreen, Curtis really seems to be not much more than a #4 outfielder in NY. If St. Louis ever got serious about moving Rasmus, I’d offer up one of Noesi, Warren or Nova, plus Gardner or Swisher (half of his contract paid) and either Corbin Joseph (to help fill their 2nd base needs) or Luis Nunez or Cervelli. They need a young, cheap #4 or #5 starter, middle infield help and an outfield replacement. They’re killing Rasmus’ trade value a bit by publicly trashing him as a bad boy.
Remind me the next time the Yankees get the next #1 overall pick in a draft, then you can LOL to your heart’s content.