Nova steps back into the fire
Posted by: Chad Jennings - Posted in Misc on Apr 09, 2011 
Print This Post
| 
Email This Post
Ivan Nova has pitched at Fenway Park before. It was late last season — the second game of a double header on the next-to-last day — and Nova came out of the bullpen to handle the late innings.
He wasn’t especially good. A blown save, a loss, three walks and four hits all in 2.1 innings.
“Last year a little bit (nervous), but not too much,” he said. “This year I’m not nervous at all. I’m on the team right now, in the rotation. That’s something special for me. I just have to be focused and show what I’ve got.”
This afternoon the Yankees will turn to their 24-year-old rookie to even this series. Nova wasn’t perfect in his first start of the year, but he showed the Yankees something in his six innings against the Twins on Monday.
Nova gave the Yankees a pretty good start that day, in a game that very nearly became a bad start several times. He showed the Yankees that he can pitch under pressure and keep things from unraveling all around him.
“I would think the games that he pitched (last year) — he pitched in Tampa and he pitched a lot of important games for us — that would really help him out,” Joe Girardi said. “What he did just he other day at home against a very good Minnesota Twins team, I would think that would help him as well and help in his growth.”
Associated Press photo
Good luck SuperNova.
Looks like you might have to step it up for a while.
MTU,
I think 1 more game is fair for both sides. With the way Colon looks he’s a great option to have. Phil’s no dummy, he said it last night that he’s not helping the team. Give him a chance to work with LR and not have to face the sox in their opener, that’s a lot of pressure coming off his last ugly start, plus the way the other guys have been pitching.
I feel really good about the rest of the rotation (bummed I’m missing Nova’s start today)…Feliciano can’t get back fast enough. I’d DFA Logan ASAP. Would rather have no lefty in pen than him.
Mike-
I hope your optimism is justified. We’ll hope for some improvement.
I’m not quite as confident but I hope you’re right.
If Phil was locating even with diminished velocity that would help.
He usually has pinpoint control of his FB.
And speaking of time. I’d give Logan some more.
If Nova has that good sinker/slider combo working today then he has a good chance at success…..he just has to throw strikes is pitch inside to the lefties. His stuff has looked very good this spring to if he locates he will be fine.
Steal one today and you have CC on the hill tomorrow in the finale and a chance to put Boston right back in a hole.
Blake-
The pressure is still on Boston.
1 win doesn’t change that.
Look for the bats to take it to Buch today, he’s been getting pounded himself going back to ST and in Texas. Enjoy the game everyone…I’m off for what looks to be the day of the year in Spring Skiing!!
It would be a hoot to see Nova outpitch the laptop.
Not sayin’ it’s gonna happen but it would be too funny.
MTU,
No they are still 1-6….I have confidence Nova will keep them in the game.
All we need is phil to be respectable from may through the trade deadline. His first half last year seemed like more of a mirage to me anyway, so I never viewed him as a bonafide #2 starter coming into this season. For the Yankees to be well positioned as the summer comes to an end, Hughes is ideally the 4 or 5 starter. Cashman cannot go to the deadline and make some deal for a marginal veteran, he needs a clear upgrade to Hughes and Nova.
Hard to say there is actually pressure on any team since at the end of the year most folks won’t remember who won this series or that Boston started the year 0-6.
If Hughes doesn’t come around then I think the “might” comes off the question of whether the Yanks deal for a starter…
I am beginning to think that Hughes has shoulder issues that are robbing him of arm strength and velocity. Could be rotator cuff issue. Hope not but that is probably a more likely scenario than he just needs to build arm strength and that once that happens he will see a bump in velocity.
We need Nova to be big today. I want to win this series!
We have to hope Seattle does poorly
Blake-
Yes that would be a near certainty under those condtions.
It amazing that there are already some surprises this early.
Blake and MTU
I met your boy Manny Banuelos last night. I talked with him for a while and even got a picture with him.
blake
I think people are overreacting.
That was only game #7 of a long season.
Are there concerns? Yes.
Do they need to be adressed? Yes.
Does it need to be a big move made? Not yet.
If they made the moves suggested here after small samples the team would be in last place in a NY minute.
Look at the success they have had and realize that they do have some idea what their doing.
They aren’t perfect but who is.
It’s to easy for us to sit at home and decide what they need to do but being in the drivers seat is much different than being a passenger.
We also can’t make an accurate assesment based only on the info we have just looking in from the outside.
In 1978 the Yankees were 14 out and I thought there was no way they would come back. Wrong.
In 1996 I thought after losing the first 2 in the WS that it was over. Wrong again.
All I’m saying is sit back be patient and enjoy the season.
Don’t you know you can’t predict baseball.
TY-
That’s great. What was he like ? Did he pitch that day ?
Can you post the photo ?
Thanks.
Colon pitched great yesterday. But the Yanks don’t really have anyone to be the long man out of the pen today. Today’s game will go a long way to telling what we have in Nova. The team really needs him to go 6 innings today like he did his last start.
Drive-
Garcia would be available for a few I would think.
Tyyanks,
That’s awesome
Maine,
I said if he doesn’t come around ..I agree its way too early to make rash moves but the way he’s looked thus far cant be ignored. This is a very competitive division and at some Im not sure they can wait around and keep hoping that the velocity and life just appear…..its already cost them 2 of their 3 losses. The Yanks are on the road the majority of the second half…..it is a long season but these early games are perhaps a bit more.important this year than in other seasons with the quality of the teams in the division and with how the schedule lays out…..
I have faith that Hughes will be ok and his stuff will.come around…..all Im.saying is that Im not sure its wise to keep hoping it does in Major league games and then finding out in the 1st inning that it hasn’t……
Garcia is available.
Blake-
Let’s hope we don’t need him.
MTU,
I forgot about Garcia. You’re right.
A fastball with good location will always be a pitcher’s primary asset. Add a breaking pitch against a hitter’s weakness and an occasional changeup at the right time and you have the complete pitcher.
blake
I wasn’t just refering to your posts.
I read all the panic on here after the game and through the night.
I agree they need to get him right.
I just think we need to be carefull to not look in the thimble instead of the ocean.
Drive-
Hopefully Freddy hasn’t forgotten how to pitch. It’s been a while.
Actually, I hope we don’t need him today because that means Nova did well.
Maine-
No offense meant at all but I sometimes think you confuse concern for panic.
I was feeling worried enough about Phil Hughes before reading this from Joel Sherman:
“Hughes has faced 33 batters and thrown 137 pitches this year and has just three swings-and-misses, none of them on the 50 four-seam fastballs he has thrown. ”
If you’re a 24 year old kid that’s enough to make you wake up in a cold sweat.
Maine,
Yea I agree. I think his stuff will come around unless he’s injured, I just think they need to see some improvement before sending him back out there. If they didn’t have other options then maybe they’d have no choice, but they have the luxury of an extra starter in the bullpen that’s throwing the ball well right now.
” Nothing cures an ailing offense like Yankee pitching . ”
R*d S*x — 15
Yankees — 0
” If they didn’t have other options then maybe they’d have no choice, but they have the luxury of an extra starter in the bullpen that’s throwing the ball well right now.”
1 more start max. Blake because of the above.
Good morning all.
You can’t expect your SP to do well, if they’ve not pitched since ST. They need to get Freddy into a game soon, even if its in relief.
Throwing sim games don’t do much, you need to face live batters, in game situations.
Loved how Colon pitched yesterday, but I’m sure Girardi will not skip Hughes, although that would be the correct thing to do.
Send Hughes to Tampa to pitch in extended ST for 2-3 weeks, and if he comes back strong, OK, if not, you know you have a potential season long problem.
Going into yesterdays game with little confidence is understandable.
Doing the same for today isn’t.
We could clearly see Phil having trouble.
Nova showed enough to be encouraged that he is growing from last year.
Nova is on the doorstep to making the step from prospect to ML starter.
blake -
Hughes can’t build up his arm throwing 2-4 innings per game, he needs an extended ST, like he got last season, when he stayed in Tampa an extra 2 weeks, because he was the #5 ST last year, that might make a huge difference.
MTU
I wasn’t refering to you when I talked about panic.
It was from reading this place last night that I was refering to.
Sorry if I made you think otherwise.
Joelsherman1 For 3d straight yr #Yankees have starter missing fastball after 2 starts: ‘09: Wang 28.93 ERA. ‘10 Vazquez 9.82. ’11: Hughes 16.50 #badomen
Considering they won the WS in 2009 and went to the ALCS in 2010….is it really a bad omen? I see Heyman has started a snarky hash tag trend.
Maine-
My concern was only in regards to Phil.
We’ll see what Nova has today. He has been throwing the ball extremely well. I’m hoping he takes it to another level today.
I’m pulling for him.
maine-
missed your post before I posted. sorry.
I’m really looking forward to Nova’s start today.The kid had major league stuff. If he can show himself that he can keep his composure in Fenway it will go a long way in his maturity as a pitcher.
AL,
I agree…..he’s not even getting his pitch counts up because he.can’t stay in the game long enough…..he’s not right and continuing to send him out there hoping it will just magically appear is unwise IMO.
Maine-
maybe we need to dig that grave a bit deeper ?
looks like the Sux escaped from the shallow grave.
No markings, right ?
blake April 9th, 2011 at 9:23 am
Joelsherman1 For 3d straight yr #Yankees have starter missing fastball after 2 starts: ‘09: Wang 28.93 ERA. ‘10 Vazquez 9.82. ’11: Hughes 16.50 #badomen
——————————————————————————————–
If they weren’t all different cases he might have a point.
Hard to lump all into the same group when each had different issues.
I have Faith in Nova today. He does not seem like the kind of guy who gets rattled easily. The test for Nova will be that one tough inning that he usually has around the 4th or 5th. If he can get through that he should give the Yankees a chance to win.
I disagree about giving Logan another chance. We have seen his best. He has come back to earth. Having a lefty in the pen who can’t get lefties out is a waste. The Yankees have too many good young pitchers who could help the pen to be wasting a spot on Logan.
Not quite sure what to make of the statements made yesterday by Girardi and Rothschild, they need Phil to throw more innings to build up his arm, yet they limited his ST innings, makes no sense if he was not experiencing an arm problem.
Which is it, he has no arm problems, or his arm is tired or sore.
MTU April 9th, 2011 at 9:28 am
Maine-
maybe we need to dig that grave a bit deeper ?
looks like the Sux escaped from the shallow grave.
No markings, right ?
————————————————————————–
Just gettig a rest before they dig it deep enough to get the job done.
It gets tiring if you dig to long without a rest.
Back to digging this afternoon.
Chambliss April 9th, 2011 at 9:29 am
*********************************************
I agree, and IMO, a good pitcher gets out both lefties and righties. If Logan can’t cut it, wait for PF to be ready, and bring up Brackman or Prior.
I agree. Logan should be on a very short leash. His stuff isn’t overwhelmong at his best. Righties hit .326 against him careerwise. If he can’t consistently get lefties out, he has to go.
PeteAbe : ” All that hype about the Yankee farm system . First falls Hughes . Next , Nova ? ”
MTU -
Be careful digging all those holes, you may slip and fall into one, or be pushed by some guy on a John Deere, lol.
Troll – Pete Abe is a big fat slob that has little real baseball knowledge, after all he stated the 2011 RS would be better than the 1927 Yankees, perhaps the best team in the history of the game, and stated the RS have 5 AS pitchers.
Fat Pete is good for a laugh, nothing more!
MTU
No he didn’t pitch, he had flown into Tampa from Mexico and was staying here until his flight goes out later in the weekend. He was really nice and was talking about how great it was to play in spring training. Ill post the picture to my blog later.
Logan has never been very good….he’s always struggled to throw strikes and did so last early last year as well…..they sent him down and when he came back up he was able to do that for most of the rest of the season. You can’t allow erratic short relievers to cost you games….if he’s not getting the job done, get someone else in there, if they don’t get the job done then get someone else in there until somebody does the job.
Al-
Like I need more trouble with the places I go ?
tyanksfan36 -
Hope you got someone to take your picture with Manny.
I just don’t feel like putting up the first post on ” Chavez starts at DH “
MTU -
Stay out of the pasture, there’s always a bull lurking, or a lot of bull s**t.
Pete Abe is a shill. If he doesnt pander to his audience, they kill him. Going back to his hometown after covering the Yankees, it took Pete a long time to get accepted over there. So he gave up his bonfides to seek the lowest common denominator. He learn to either feed the frenzy or be fed to it himself. Little of what Pete writes now can be taken seriously. It’s sad.
MTU -
Girardi got the message, Posada sits in favor of Chavez, thank you Lord. Let’s hope Eric sets the world on fire, and Posada announces his retirement!
TY-
Thanks. What is your website ?
Al-
For sure.
Al-
I meant about the pasture, that is. Not necessarily jorge.
He has 2 or 3 dingers this season.
I would like to see what Chavez can bring.
Big Al
I did and it came out great.
tyanksfan36 -
Hope you post the pictures on your blog, which is very nice by the way, so we can all enjoy.
MTU -
Click on tyanksfan36 and it’ll take you to her blog web site.
Big Al
Where was this sentiment when Posada was hitting?
I like how this place is like a bunch of vultures looking for the latest road kill.
If a player isn’t doing well it’s get rid of the bum. ____ is better.
If on the other hand that player does well nothing is said.
Gardner and Posada are two that seem to be targets.
If people want to point out when one isn’t doing well shouldn’t they get props when they do?