Nova solidifying spot in Yankees rotation
Posted by: Chad Jennings - Posted in Misc on Sep 15, 2011 
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Two and a half months ago, the Yankees sent Ivan Nova to Triple-A. One month ago, his spot in the rotation seemed uncertain. Today, he’s arguably their second-most reliable starter.
After last night’s no decision in Seattle, the Yankees rookie is 11-0 with a 3.35 ERA in his past 14 starts.
“I keep fighting,” Nova said. “When the playoff comes, I don’t want to be out of the playoff rotation, so you have to keep showing. You have to keep proving that you can win the game.”
Nova could have won that game last night. Sure, Dave Robertson bailed him out of trouble in the eighth, but Nova pitched 7.1 innings of one-run ball and needed just 87 pitches to do it. He hasn’t lost a game since June 3, and if his offense had given him any support, he would have picked up his 16th win in Seattle.
“It’s unfortunate we weren’t able to get him a win,” Joe Girardi said. “But he was excellent.”
There’s a calm confidence around Nova these days. He’s a different pitcher than he was in April, and he’s a different pitcher than he was in July when he was the odd-man out of a rotation still needs to be trimmed before the playoffs. Nova had a good curveball last night, and he could have won another game. Instead he’ll wait for a next chance that he can be sure is coming.
“We’re not perfect,” Nova said. “And I know at some point, like (last night), there’s going to be a game like that… I think I have to wait and take it next time.”
Here’s Nova.
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Associated Press photo
Nova is gonna be there….only question is whether its game 2 or game 3
SuperNova
Didn’t some lunkhead poster just assure us that Nov wasn’t making the rotation?
And the world keeps spining on its axis.
GO RAYS!!!
I have no preference about who the Yankees meet in the playoffs. Nobody’s going to beat them. But I still want the Sux to go down in flames, whether it’s because they’re beat up from trying to make the wild card of whether it’s because they don’t make the wild card. Love watching them limp.
REPOST
bruceb September 15th, 2011 at 11:19 am
I’m actually happy with our pen. It’s probably a misplaced believe but I can see Soriano doing a Marte a la 2009 – sucking during the regular season but proving lights out in the play-offs. By and large, I think Wade and Ayala have been great pickups, and even Logan has improved greatly in the second half of the season. My main frustration is with how our offense has been unable to sustain a hot spell for any length of time. We need A-Rod to get hot for the play-offs, but I’d rate the chances of that happening given his nagging thumb injury and the number of games left in the regular season at about 10 to 20%.
re-post
Burnett should never be considered as a bullpen piece especially if he comes in with runners on base and holding the record for wild pitches. Much too risky. He won’t be needed at all for the ALDS. If Colon, Garcia, and Hughes show well, take Burnett off the postseason roster altogether.
blake, don’t be so sure Nova will be there. I think we had a public service announcement telling us it wasn’t going to happen.
Yankees are probably in the best shape of all when you look at their starters because there are so many considerations that the ones who end up in the pen just strengthen the crap out of the pen.
This is the pitching staff that caused the faint of heart to throw up their hands in despair at the beginning of the season.
Big shout out to Bartolo and Freddy!!!
Good post Chad. I shudder to think where we would be heading into the post season without Nova who has in essence become our number two starter.
“Two and a half months ago, the Yankees sent Ivan Nova to Triple-A. One month ago, his spot in the rotation seemed uncertain.”
“He’s a different pitcher than he was in April, and he’s a different pitcher than he was in July when he was the odd-man out of a rotation still needs to be trimmed before the playoffs.”
IMO, Nova’s situation reinforces how quickly things change in this game, how unpredictable most things are, and how “what have you done for me lately” is really all that matters.
108,
I agree…..but I wont be shocked if AJ makes a playoff start.
The curve was good but that newly minted slider is a deadly weapon.
Nova seems to be having fun out there.
He was a bit shakey with his stuff and command early.
Like so many other times he adjusts, competes, and finds a way to keep his team in the game.
I’m still hoping he pulls out the ROY over Hellickson.
And Nova’s clone Noesi might turn out to be equally good.
JonLaneNYC Gotta go with Verlander RT @VzSports Curtis Granderson falling out of MVP contention; look for like Bautista, Ellsbury or A-gone to win
FakePeteGammons #Redsox should be confident about 4 game series w/Tampa. I will slowly poison the Rays Gatorade all weekend. This is Peter Gammons.
MTU September 15th, 2011 at 11:26 am
I’m still hoping he pulls out the ROY over Hellickson.
*****************
I think Hosmer and Trumbo are legit candidates as well.
I was talkin’ with the pupperoni while out for their walk.
This is what they said:
1) The bias in the playoffs is toward power pitching and swing and miss stuff. This favors AJ over some others.
2) Girardi and his staff will look at the stats, and recent performance and make an informed decision.
3) Hughes would make an excellent addition to the pen.
4) They told me who’s boss around here and to just shut up and keep walking.
MTU and Ichirio have something in common…they both let their dogs make important decisions
And then there are others of us who don’t knee jerk our way through the season but have a pretty good sense of what someone can do and so don’t fly into panic mode when there’s any kind of departure from the norm.
Kate-
They sometimes offer sage advice. It pays to listen.
Ichirio lets his dog makes decisions?
So, let me understand this. You can have a slump in June or May, or April or July or even August and still be in line for MVP, but if you slump in September, or slow down in the second half, you cannot be MVP?
Because it seems to me that players who have a lousy first half or slow first half, but picked it up in the second half, have won MVPs. But players who got off to good starts, who were mainly consistently excellent for the large majority of the season, but fall off a little toward the end, have “fallen out of contention for,” or not won the MVP. The fact that you carry your offense through the season, get them to the point where they’re in good shape, is of no import. Only what you do in the last 2 months of the season.
Better Grandy should have the same numbers but had the slow start as far as the MVP award is concerned.
Can I assume if he has a monster last 2 weeks, he’ll be back in? If AGon is injured and doesn’t play, is he safe? Bautista’s team isn’t even in contention, so I don’t understand why he’s back in – except – EXCEPT – he had his slump a month ago (remember when his HR total was sorta stagnant for awhile). Funny thing, if Grandy had his slump a month ago, the Yankees are probably in 2nd place.
Verlander will get the CY. I don’t believe he should get the MVP too. And now that his team is on a tear, that is especially true for me.
Have a good day all! I know I will. In fact I haven’t had a bad day since the Yankees took the field this season. Any day they’re out there trying their best is a sunny day in my book.
Ta.
The ROY field is pretty crowded with legit candidates this year. It will be nice if Nova wins, but it would be no shame if he doesn’t. Now, I’d be highly insulted if he doesn’t get a representative number of votes, though. He needs to win his next two starts.
blake September 15th, 2011 at 11:23 am
108,
I agree…..but I wont be shocked if AJ makes a playoff start.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If he does then there’s a money consideration attached to it. As far as his so-called fithy stuff, he can’t control what talent he supposedly has.
blake-
if the playoffs start today, you have to figure that girardi picks romine to be the back up catcher.
as chad said yesterday in the chat, he thinks the yankees will simply roll the dice and hope martin catches every inning in the post season.
if that’s the gamble, why not have posada be the back up catcher that they would go to in an emergency since they are planning on not going there anyway.
this way they get to have posada and his postseason experience and montero both on the post season roster.
if girardi makes romine the back up when he’s gambling on not using him, it’s likely montero will be on the post season roster, but not posada.
the fact that romine will have never caught aj burnet ever might be a problem in the post season. girardi as chad says isn’t likely to have romine catch burnett because aj is so fickle start to start and is trying to build on a few good starts.
at some point girardi can’t have it both ways. if he’s going to gamble on martin not getting hurt, why not double up and gamble in a way that has posada and montero on the post season roster.
that bet might get ridden right into another world series championship.
it would be a low probability that they are going to win a championship if martin gets hurt and a rookie catcher who hasn’t caught every starter is going to replace martin.
i think if martin went down they’d have a much better chance having posada catch pitchers he knows.
now i of course want martin to catch every inning of the post season and that’s the optimal situation for winning it all. i think having posada as the back up is the second best cahnce to win it all.
i think having romine as the post season back up when he hasn’t caught everyone is the worst chance of winning it all.
“And then there are others of us who don’t knee jerk our way through the season but have a pretty good sense of what someone can do and so don’t fly into panic mode when there’s any kind of departure from the norm.”
******************
And then there are those who are mindless, unaware, sycophantic, gratuitous cheerleaders who are so completely clueless that they can only mouth the same inane, wanton, superfluous clichés and platitudes over and over again.
Erin
Ichiro let his dog decide where he was going to play when he signed his last contract. His dog said woof woof woof (loosely translated from dog) and that meant stay, apparently.
NotHankStein Really gonna push to sign Prince in the off season. Little Red Corvette is my jam!
sycophantic
——–
Drink!!
Kate- oh. OK.
I didn’t know Ichiro spoke fluent dog.
Kate
I posted a link in the game thread last night that said when Ichiro first got to the states he wouldn’t tell reporters his dog’s name because the dog didn’t give him permission to.
After AJ’s career season with the Jays he seemed like the best alternative to fill out our rotation.
In 09 he had a decent season.
Since that time he has put together 2 of the ugliest seasons you could ever imagine for a supposed #2 starter.
Repeated attempts to fix him have resulted in failure. And he has proved to be a good teammate but extremely high maintenance is part of his pitching.
His velocity is down and he is in his mid thirties.
We have young guys waiting in the wings who can offer as much if not more than AJ can at a fraction of the cost IMO.
I’ll drink a beer with AJ anytime but I hope he isn’t around next season.
Prove me wrong AJ. I dare ya’.
LGY September 15th, 2011 at 11:52 am
Kate
I posted a link in the game thread last night that said when Ichiro first got to the states he wouldn?t tell reporters his dog?s name because the dog didn?t give him permission to.
*********************
OK, now this is getting weird.
Randy,
I would leave Romine off and take Posada and Montero…..I don’t know what they’ll ultimately do….but I value having Posada’s bat on the bench more than carrying a catcher just in case Martin gets hurt……as you said, if Martin gets hurt badly enough to be knocked out of the series then they are screwed anyway.
Sad to think that the Yanks could’ve been 6 up on the sox right now if they had only won those 1 run games…
I think the first 3 are pretty clearly CC – Colon – Nova. The game 1 ALDS starter would be on three days rest in game 4. I would only do that if down 2-1.
I guess we have not fully appreciated Ichirio’s unique character
Yanks need to go 10-4 the rest of the season to win 100 games.
If the Yanks are up 2-1 against Texas Id throw CC on short rest against their #4……because even if it went 5 games then Nova/Colon vs Wilson in a game 5 would still be winnable……..
JackCurryYES Austin Romine’s major league debut with the Yankees was all about family, in joyous and somber ways. http://bit.ly/qps94g
blake September 15th, 2011 at 12:04 pm
If the Yanks are up 2-1 against Texas Id throw CC on short rest against their #4……because even if it went 5 games then Nova/Colon vs Wilson in a game 5 would still be winnable……..
—
I can follow that thought, but then if CC wins that game, he would be on 3 days rest *again* for game 1 of the ALCS, assuming you want him to go game 1.
Jacsquat,
If CC pitches game 5 though in the ALDS then he wouldn’t be available until game 3 of the ALCS…….he pitches game 4 then you have the option of throwing him in game 1 of the ALCS on 3 days rest or in game 2 on full rest…..
Now the best case would be to win game 4 without pitching CC and then start him game 1 of the ALCS……but it just depends on who they are playing and how the matchups look. You wanna finish it out before game 5 if possible so that you are guaranteed to have CC in one of the first two games in the next series.
‘We have young guys waiting in the wings who can offer as much if not more than AJ can at a fraction of the cost IMO’.
===============
MTU:
Exactly correct. It seems like there are many people who don’t understand this and that those young guys we have taken time to develop need their shot very, very soon. A ton more upside.
FakePeteGammons 51 mins I’ve been breeding an actual Green Monster who will viciously attack opposing players when they visit Fenway. This is Peter Gammons.
Their names are Noesi, Phelps, Warren, and Mitchell.
Just a reminder, not that the past matters that much, but CC has never been a sure thing post-season pitcher. In his career he has allowed more hits than innings pitched and has an ERA of 4.66. In 2010 his ERA was 5.63.
And Joba.
blake September 15th, 2011 at 12:14 pm
Now the best case would be to win game 4 without pitching CC and then start him game 1 of the ALCS……but it just depends on who they are playing and how the matchups look. You wanna finish it out before game 5 if possible so that you are guaranteed to have CC in one of the first two games in the next series.
—
Best case is a sweep.
I’m just not a big fan of pitching on 3 days rest, even CC who seems to be as good as anyone at doing so. So other than down 2-1 I’m wary of that…
Bobby V answer your phone.
blake-
i have this funny feeling girardi is going to go with romine as the back up though for the post season.
i think he’s going to hedge in a way that romine will just be taking up space at best and won’t be prepared if something does happen to posada.
so i think girardi is going to make a bad decision at the post season back up catcher position because he’s kind of getting caught in the middle in his thinking.
once the post season starts, as i said before martin would be the hardest yankee to replace except maybe CC. either one of them goes down and that’d pretty much be it for this year.
I can’t open the drawer ! !
Randy,
If they choose to carry Romine then they either have to leave Posada, Montero, Dickerson, or a pitcher off……all of which would likely have a greater impact than Romine barring a significant injury to Martin…..
Push harder!
are you thinking Cervelli is totally out of the picture?
Yea im assuming Cervy is out for the season
blake,
I, too, am assuming Cervelli’s out for the season. They’ve just learned too much about concussions, and they won’t let him go to winter ball, either.
Just a reminder, not that the past matters that much, but CC has never been a sure thing post-season pitcher. In his career he has allowed more hits than innings pitched and has an ERA of 4.66. In 2010 his ERA was 5.63.
——
No pitcher is a sure thing in the postseason. He was pitching with a torn meniscus last year.
i’m assuming too that cervelli is done for this year. this is actually a career threatening injury for him.
he needs to let his brain heal up before getting it banged again. the way i understand it a concussion can heal, but it takes time.
if there is another concussion on top of this one because they tried to play him, his career would likely be over.
i think it’s too big of a risk to play cervelli again this year. as it is, his career is in serious jeopardy because of four concussions in the past 4-5 years.
once the post season starts, as i said before martin would be the hardest yankee to replace except maybe CC. either one of them goes down and that’d pretty much be it for this year.
——
Randy
You think Martin is more important than Grandy and Cano?
CC has only lost one post season game in 2 years w/ the Yankees. I have no worries about him at all.
Since it is unlikely, altho possible, that a BUC is used, wouldn’t you go w/ Montero/Po rather than Romine?
As long as they don’t lose Proctor they’ll be fine.
“Nova solidifying spot in Yankees rotation”
By the way, it’s “owns a spot” Chad.
No need to thank me for fixin’ that for ya’. I know you’re tired.
“Jamey Wright is a RHP who’s bounced around MLB for 16 seasons. He’s been about average for a reliever over the last three years (ERA+ of 104). He has the type of platoon split you’d expect from a RHP in his career, although it’s worth noting he’s been better vs. LHB over the last three season.
Still, there was no reason to let Eduardo Nunez hit after the Martin bunt. You have a fully stocked bench to avoid that from happening. When I saw Nunez coming up my first thought was “WTF?” Then I thought, “well maybe Girardi wants to be cautious with Eric Chavez and rest him.” That thought then melded into, “WTF?” He could pinch-hit for Nunez with Jorge Posada or Chris Dickerson and then use Ramiro Pena for defense if he didn’t want to use Chavez.” The defensive upgrade alone by replacing Nunez with a warm body makes it the smart move. Instead, Nunez, who’s hit .236/.288/.312 since the All Star Break over 172 PA, grounded out on the second pitch of his PA, shocking probably one person on the planet. Maybe two if you count Binder™ as a sentient being, and the Yankees didn’t score.
It gets better though. In Nunez’s very next PA, Girardi PINCH HIT FOR HIM WITH ERIC CHAVEZ. If you were willing to do it in the 10th inning with two outs and the bases empty, why wouldn’t you have done it in the eighth inning with the go-ahead run on 2B and one out?”
-rlyw
upstate kate September 15th, 2011 at 12:47 pm
CC has only lost one post season game in 2 years w/ the Yankees. I have no worries about him at all.
************
Wins are a relatively meaningless stat as we all know. Look at two of the greatest post-season pitchers of all time – Whitey Ford was 10-8 and Sandy Koufax was 4-3.
LGY,
Very good question.
All this talk about three or four days rest in the postseason.
In the 1965 World Series, Game 7, Sandy Koufax started on two days rest and pitched a three-hit, 2-0 shutout with 10 strikeouts.
“You think Martin is more important than Grandy and Cano?”
lgy-
i’l give you a scenario where i do think martin is more important for than grandy or cano.
burnett is in his first inning of an early post season game and bounce a ball in the dirt and martin injure and can’t continue. kevin romine ,who has never caught burnett is the back up catcher, goes in to replace martin.
that’s not going to work at all.
if grandy goes down in that same inning, gardner switches over to center dickerson or jones replaces gardner. not that bad compared t having romine catching burnett for the first time ever.
same with cano. nunez replaces him at second. he’d be doing something he’s done before. it’s not like what would happen if martin goes down. that would not be pretty.
it simply has to not happen. by having no back up prepared to catch burnett, girardi is rolling the dice that martin will stay healthy.
one reason for the yankees to clinch early would be to have romine catch everyone or montero . but at least one of them should cacth all the pitchers before the pos season.
will it happen. probably not.
CC’s ERA in 2010 w/ a torn meniscus 5.78
CC’s ERA in 2009 1.46
West Coast Yankee Fan September 15th, 2011 at 12:55 pm
All this talk about three or four days rest in the postseason.
In the 1965 World Series, Game 7, Sandy Koufax started on two days rest and pitched a three-hit, 2-0 shutout with 10 strikeouts.
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Small samples especially single games are fairly meaningless as we all know.
The overall numbers for pitchers on 3 days rest are pretty bad compared to 4. And no I don’t have a link on hand.
Randy-
Your making a big assumption there. That AJ will even be a part of the PS. One that I hope is wrong.
Randy
The fact that AJ Burnett is starting a playoff game in your scenario is a much bigger concern than losing Martin.
edit: you’re. sorry. please don’t call the grammar police.
“burnett is in his first inning of an early post season game and bounce a ball in the dirt and martin injure and can’t continue”
let’s try that again: “burnett is in his first inning of an early post season game , bounces a ball in the dirt and martin is injured and can’t continue.”
Not sure the phrase ‘Wins are a relatively meaningless stat as we all know’ can be reconciled with attacking Betsy about Hughes being an 18 game winner or constantly referencing Burnett being a .500 pitcher.
I’m pretty confident in CC in the postseason, despite any previous bumps in the road.
then why are they pitching burnett now trying to get him going if they aren’t planning on using him?
Randy-
Because some ideas just die hard.
And hope springs eternal.
then why are they pitching burnett now trying to get him going if they aren’t planning on using him?
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Last I checked its still a 6 man rotation, so its not like anything has been decided. Based on the Yankees love of contracts I think they end up pitching Burnett at some point in the postseason, though.
plus burnett beats the crap out of martin who i think is the offensive player i think the yankees can least afford to lose given that romine would replace him.
why are they risking martin catching aj burnett if they aren’t going to use burnett but they need russel martin?
if they really don’t need burnett why not let romine catch him now?
And because GM’s sometimes don’t like to acknowledge they made a mistake.
why are they risking martin catching aj burnett if they aren’t going to use burnett but they need russel martin?
if they really don’t need burnett why not let romine catch him now?
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The Yankees have shown little regard for Martin’s physical safety, which might have to do with Martin’s own toughness getting in the way of asking for rest or going to the staff with niggling injuries. Can’t see them protecting him now! They had all summer to provide a more equitable backup catcher that could justify taking time away from the clearly beat down Martin.
And owners don’t like wasted money.
“They had all summer to provide a more equitable backup catcher that could justify taking time away from the clearly beat down Martin.”
i agree totally, but they do have 14 games left to try to get romine or montero or posada in sync with the present staff and ready to be the back up.
i think girardi isn’t playing the potential back ups enough if he indeed plans on one of them being used as a back up in the post season.
maybe the plan is just to have martin catch every inning of every post season game and go home if he gets injured.
then why are they pitching burnett now trying to get him going if they aren’t planning on using him?
——
Injury insurance, not messing with AJ’s pysche going into next season, in case Colon/Garcia/Nova implode down the stretch, giving CC an extra day in between starts, keeping alive the slim glimmer of hope that AJ puts it all together, so they are not paying him to do nothing, and of course the upcoming double header.
At this point of the season there’s not much reason to rock the boat. AJ and Hughes are insurance buffers right now against the top 4 and they need a 6th starter for the double header anyway.
“maybe the plan is just to have martin catch every inning of every post season game and go home if he gets injured”
Maybe but if that’s the plan it’s a bad one.
“not messing with AJ’s pysche going into next season”
Who says there’s gonna be one for him ?
“then why are they pitching burnett now trying to get him going if they aren’t planning on using him?”
Outside possibility – Trying to improve his trade value?
mtu-
if girardi were a hiker, he’s be the guy who had to chew his arm off because he went into the back country unprepared .
for such a control freak , h doesn’t seem to back up his back ups.
The only way the Yankees could move Burnett is to eat at least 20 mill of his remaining contract.
Even then it’s a longshot.
One can only hope.
AJ Pierzyski is the meanest MLB player according to other players?
I never thought of most of the guys on the list as mean. Annoying maybe but not so much mean.
mtu-
i’m just not following girardi’s logic.
he appears to be going game to game and figuring it out as he goes, but is kind of painting himself into a corner if he doesn’t catch the kids more.
i realize that the yankees still haven’t clinched anything yet, but still they have to try to get the rookie catchers catching more if for no other reason than to rest martin and to decrease his chance of getting injured.
Randy-
I understand what you’re saying. I’m a big believer in planning ahead and preparing for various contingencies.
Not to do so is to be remiss in your duties.
Girardi wouldn’t be able to do what Aaron Ralston was forced to do.He’d die out there. So would 99.9% of the population. So that part isn’t really all that big a criticism.
New one ==>
Exactly who is this fictitious back-up catcher that the Yankees should have gone after this summer?
Jesus Montero, you might have heard of him.
The Yankees don’t seem to allow contingencies to even enter their minds.
It’s a little annoying hearing Girardi saying things like Montero “doesn’t know the staff” when it was Girardi’s decision, at least in part, to ensure that he wouldn’t “know the staff.”
I really wish Tony Pena was the manager. Girardi is alright and all, but he just doesn’t flow. He gets in his own way. He said the other night he “thought about” putting in one of the Bs in that laugher, but his decision was to go with Proctor/Ayala. What a creative guy he is…
And does Jorge Posada even remember how to hit? Girardi will make sure that he doesn’t…so if we ever need a pinch hit, he’ll be flailing away and the cry will be that he’s “toast”, etc and they can’t afford to give him any ABs…
According to most on here, Montero isn’t a catcher. That truth is, Montero was better off getting work as a catcher in Scranton than sitting on the bench in NY.
Who cares what any of us say here, it’s the Yankees who apparently don’t think the kid is a catcher. That’s their mistake. He could have been catching up here instead of Cervelli and coping and adjusting a lot earlier with getting junkballed.
According to most on here, Montero isn’t a catcher. That truth is, Montero was better off getting work as a catcher in Scranton than sitting on the bench in NY.
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The Yankees would have been better off giving Montero work at the big leagues, thus resting Martin and acclimating their best hitting prospect of the past 10 years. Which is the premise. I see you’ve decided to rage against something else entirely.