Saturday morning notes: “… until about a week ago”
Posted by: Chad Jennings - Posted in Misc on Feb 25, 2012 
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Raul Ibanez remembers standing in left field, watching Johnny Damon break for third. He remembers pointing and screaming and feeling helpless. He remembers losing.
“I was still mad about the 2009 World Series loss,” he said this morning. “Until about a week ago.”
Ibanez came into camp with a good reputation as a good clubhouse guy, and today he made a good first impression. He talked about his struggles last season, his opportunities this winter and the feeling of brand new pinstripes.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “It didn’t really hit me until I pulled up to the stadium and realized I will be working here… It’s an honor and a privilege.”
Seems like a good guy. Now he’s just got to hit…
• The first full-squad workout won’t start until later this morning. The team has some early meetings, including a start-of-spring-training address from Joe Girardi. The theme of Girardi’s message? “What our focus is and the reason we do things in spring training,” he said.
• A lot of batting practice sessions this morning. Ivan Nova, Manny Banuelos and Dellin Betances faced hitters on the main field. David Phelps, D.J. Mitchell and Kevin Whelan threw to hitters on one of the side fields.
• Austin Romine’s name is listed for batting practice. Could be a sign that he’s going to fully participate after skipping a day because of a sore back. I only saw Romine for about four seconds in the clubhouse and didn’t get a chance to ask how he’s feeling. He wasn’t listed for BP yesterday, but he was listed today. That’s probably a good sign.
• Today’s bullpen groups:
Group 1
CC Sabathia (to Gustavo Molina)
Hiroki Kuroda (to Francisco Cervelli)
Michael Pineda (to Jose Gil)
Phil Hughes (to Russell Martin)
Freddy Garcia (to J.R. Murphy)
Group 2
Cory Wade (to Gary Sanchez)
Dave Robertson (to Francisco Cervelli)
Rafael Soriano (to Russell Martin)
Boone Logan (to Kyle Higashioka)
• First full-squad workout means the first full batting practice assignments. They pretty much keep infielders with infielders and outfielders with outfielders. You’ll notice that all of the big league outfielders will be hitting together.
Group 1
Robinson Cano, Derek Jeter, Brandon Laird, Eduardo Nunez
Group 2
Eric Chavez, Ramiro Pena, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira
Group 3 (let’s call it the “waiting and hoping” group)
Russell Branyan, Bill Hall, Jayson Niz, Jorge Vazquez
Group 4
David Adams, Doug Bernier, Corban Joseph, Russell Martin, Gustavo Molina
Group 5
Brett Gardner, Curtis Granderson, Raul Ibanez, Andruw Jones, Nick Swisher
Group 6
Chris Dickerson, Justin Maxwell, Cole Garner, Dewayne Wise
Group 7
Zoilo Almonte, Colin Curtis, Melky Mesa, Francisco Cervelli
Group 8
Jose Gil, Kyle Higashioka, J.R. Murphy, Austin Romine, Gary Sanchez
• You’d expect guys to simply stay with their BP groups for fielding practice, but that’s not exactly the case. For fielding, the Yankees are split into two groups, and the batting practice groups are slightly separated. These are the groups for fielding drills (in the past there have been specific positions listed — Nunez getting grounders at third base instead of shortstop, for example – but there were no position listings this morning):
Group 1
Kyle Higashioka, Russell Martin, Gustavo Molina, J.R. Murphy
Russell Branyan, Robinson Cano, Eric Chavez, Bill Hall, Derek Jeter, Brandon Laird, Eduardo Nunez
Zoilo Almonte, Colin Curtis, Curtis Granderson, Raul Ibanez, Andruw Jones, Justin Maxwell
Group 2
Francisco Cervelli, Jose Gil, Austin Romine, Gary Sanchez
David Adams, Doug Bernier, Corban Joseph, Jayson Nix, Ramiro Pena, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, Jorge Vazquez
Chris Dickerson, Brett Gardner, Cole Garner, Melky Mesa, Nick Swisher, Dewayne Wise
• For those who really, really closely follow the minor league system: Kyle Roller and Nick McCoy came up from the minor league complex to hit off Nova, Betances and Banuelos. Kevin Mahoney and one of the Wilsons — either Wes or Zach, the sheet only said “Wilson” – came up to hit against Phelps, Mitchell and Whelan.
• Ryan Baker was up from the minor league complex to catch some of the BPs this morning. He caught Phelps and Mitchell.
Associated Press photo
Ibanez you still stink, at least that’s what the majority on this blog say.
Last weekend without any Yankee games for a while. Games on MLB.TV next Saturday and Sunday.
Jon Heyman ? @JonHeymanCBS
Lucchino says scutaro trade was “a little bit of both” baseball and financial. said belief is they can get similar production
he’s most likely wrong….I think they traded him thinking they could get Oswalt to take their money and he didn’t…..
they need to update Manny’s profile because there is no way he weighs 155 anymore.
Which he still might do mid-season.
PP has Manny listed at 180 lbs, but he looks to be about 190 lbs to me. The Yankees Media Guide from last year has him at 195 lbs.
“PP has Manny listed at 180 lbs, but he looks to be about 190 lbs to me. The Yankees Media Guide from last year has him at 195 lbs.”
I didn’t know that….that sounds more accurate….he looks solid.
I can’t wait for some real news.
Jon Heyman ? @JonHeymanCBS
John henry says the luxury tax will be a bigger issue going forward and they have to be “more careful” spending money. #redsox
“I can’t wait for some real news.”
Arod is going to speak today so you never know what’s going to come out of his mouth.
It’s stunning that Selig finally imposed his small market bs on the cash cow that baseball is. People like to diss Don Fehr and Gene Orza, and like Selig, their willful blindness to PEDs was pathetic, but their labor positions helped grow the game.
Baseball news, real baseball news.
“Baseball news, real baseball news.”
I know what you meant, I was just playing as the NY media is going to play up whatever he says today.
“but their labor positions helped grow the game.”
True, but in regard to PED, they had to do something as Congress was getting ready to get in their business which isn’t a good thing as they’re worse than Selig.
Thought TEX shedding the LB’s was good news. I look for this to show up defensively. In 2011 more balls were getting by him, just inside the line and down into the corner, than I recalled. Gardner the guy to watch outta the gate this season. Hopefully, he builds off his ALDS series vs Detroit.
My point is that they did nothing, like Selig, as players’ bodies and HR totals inflated, even though they knew or should have known that there was growing problem. The MLBPA publicly fell back on the idea that they were protecting individual rights, but they conveniently overlooked that as a consequence, they were harming the reputation of clean players, because public skepticism exempted very few, and the taint still remains.
when the time comes like it did with wang, you’ll simply say , “he always had injury problems, so it wasn’t the yankees fault.”
————————-
Lol that always seems to be the case. Remember Kennedy was injured and had “attitude problems”
Okay, but I’m not going to talk about PED as I’m sick and tired of that subject matter.
Teix says he’s closed his stance a little bit from the left side. Wants to use the whole field more.
“Teix says he’s closed his stance a little bit from the left side. Wants to use the whole field more.”
good news
Tex doesn’t need to close his stance, he just needs to stop stepping in the bucket and trying to launch moon shots (from the left side). But if it helps stop him from doing that and it works, fine with me.
Tar,
If you have an xbox, ps3, roku, or any other kind of set top box and an internet connection fast enough to handle it, just get the MLB.TV Premium package.
First of all, this year premium comes with free AT-BAT APP for your phone, which lets you watch the game on your phone. Second of all, most of the EI packages (atleast here in florida) do not have HD games as part of the package. This may be a directtv only thing, and even then last I checked it was only a few games a day, not every game.
MLB.TV premium currently streams picture quality that is equivalent to TV High Definition. If you watch the stream on your TV, you will ultimately get better quality than you would get from EI. I suffered through crappy SD picture on EI for a few seasons before giving it up to only use mlb.tv.
Its incredibly easy to setup your xbox , ps3, or roku to stream MLB.TV, its just an app you download and log into with very nice interfaces for picking games. Its no more difficult than using your channel guide button to find the mlb games and you can switch between home and away, radio audio, etc. That owns.
” Ryan Baker was up from the minor league complex to catch some of the BPs this morning. He caught Phelps and Mitchell.”
live bp with catchers in there just beats up the catchers. you don’t want to have martin , cervelli, or romine doing it any more than they have to.
i got into the bullpen catching by doing this. anywhere i didn’t have equipment i was black and blue.
but it’s good practice and you learn a lot about pitchers and hitters.
but veteran catchers all ready know what they need to know. let the kids do it as much as possible.
“Tex doesn’t need to close his stance, he just needs to stop stepping in the bucket and trying to launch moon shots (from the left side).”
he might do better by opening his stance instead because when it’s oped a lot the only direction to go at that point is stepping in with the front foot.
it’s counter intuitive, but it works.
Thanks Jerk!
I have multiple interfaces that would work, as well as high speed internet. So yeah that would not be a problem.
I have had a great experience with Directtv extra innings. I get all the games (except Bal and Was which I get on MASN anyway). I can schedule recordings from my phone and all my games are in HD.
I just really like the portability of the MLB.TV. I also am not cool with Directtv raising the price as much as they do every year, especially when there is a better alternative.
I am definitely signing up for MLB-premium and I’ll decide later on canceling EI or not. Thanks again.
Seems like a good chance to evaluate and work on Sanchez’ defense as well as evaluate Murphy.
Do you get every Yankee game in HD? Or every game? I know the default EI package offers 40 games a week in HD, but that isn’t every game obviously.
I don’t know why subscribing to EI didnt just unlock whatever games were available on your regular channels. I got YES in HD but the games were blacked out even when I had EI. So I’d be watching the YES network’s SD feed… and then after the game I’d switch to YES and get the HD Post game. It made no sense. Especially when my cable provider accidentally forgot to black out the games on YES for a month and I got every game in HD.
And my company refused to carry the HD channels for EI. Not giving the customer what they want is why cable can suck it.
“Sanchez should be on the lips of everyone as an untouchable. That bat is special.”
yankee feminista said this earlier today.
she’s pretty much in the know with all the games she sees . i trust her judgement too , she’s pretty much dead on with her evaluations.
i wonder how much trading montero was because they knew sanchez would be coming along.
if he’s as good as advertised , then the trade makes a little more sense. i still would have kept both.
i don’t believe that pitching is the keys to the baseball kingdom the way the yankees seem to.
pitchers get hurt to often. you can’t count on them the way you can an everyday player.
it’s more often than not that a santana doesn’t last for a long career. i would prefer that the yankees develop quantity from within and sign the occasional sabathia every 4-5 years.
even sabathia only pitches every five days and then usually 6 innings. that’s not a whole lot of baseball compared to a regular player who is out there every day every inning.
when injuries are added in ,individual pitchers are risky bets. i wouldn’t build the team around pitching first. i’d build a really good offensive team with good defense and then have the pitching come next.
no way i’d trade a montero for a young pitcher who may never have a year better than the one he just had.
i don’t believe that pitching is the keys to the baseball kingdom the way the yankees seem to.
pitchers get hurt to often. you can’t count on them the way you can an everyday player.
==========================
which is why you load up on good pitching in the event of injuries
i wonder how much trading montero was because they knew sanchez would be coming along.
============================================
this appears obvious
i’d build a really good offensive team with good defense and then have the pitching come next.
=======================================
HOF IF isn’t enough along with MVP caliber CF?…not to mention Gardy and Swish
he might do better by opening his stance instead
–
If tex was anymore open left handed he’d be standing sideways.
i wonder how much trading montero was because they knew sanchez would be coming along.
–
Hopefully not a lot, because Sanchez is in Low A and Montero was in the big leagues. You don’t trade one guy because you have another in Low A. If that were the case just trade Banuelos and Betances now since we have Campos et al in the low minors.
I could understand picking between 1 of Romine/Montero to trade, because they projected to be up around the same time, but you’re dealing with a 3 year gap between when Montero makes the majors and when Sanchez is supposed to make it.
Speaking of Cano/Montero and OBP and OPSing 1, Montero already has better discipline than Cano did as a youth. Walks more in the minors, showed better patience in the majors (10% BB rate which is better than anything Cano’s done) so I think Montero with more patience and more power has a better chance of putting up a gaudy OPS number than Cano. Just watched the sox vs yankee game from sept, Montero takes Lester to the base of the wall in right field 400 ft for a double. Pull power. Then of course goes opposite way on a ball on the outer half for a HR later
Ran the count up against Lester in the first as well, getting 3-0.
“which is why you load up on good pitching in the event of injuries”
to a point. only so many can pitch.
i think it’s interesting that robertson and nova have been the best pitchers at the moment the yankees have developed .
the yankees seem to do better if they don’t perceive the guy as an elite prospect.
this may simply be that they let the guy stay down longer.
there is something to be said for having 25 year olds instead of 22 year olds.
there is something to be said for having 25 year olds instead of 22 year olds.
–
Yea, 25 year olds are less likely to have stellar careers than 22 year olds.
Robertson and Nova, of course, first broke in when they were 23.
At this time of the year, even a foul ball off of the bat is a welcome sound. Rodriguez’ first swings.
http://www.tout.com/m/95koc3
Eric Chavez with two homers on the first 3 swings.
JF,
True….but Montero will probably have to improve his walk rate and plate disipline even more to be a 1 OPS guy…..but that’s picking nits of course….
With Tex….I think closing his stance may help him shorten and flatten his swing…..which is what he needs…..
“so I think Montero with more patience and more power has a better chance of putting up a gaudy OPS number than Cano. Just watched the sox vs yankee game from sept, Montero takes Lester to the base of the wall in right field 400 ft for a double. Pull power. Then of course goes opposite way on a ball on the outer half for a HR later”
i agree. i think what montero did the short time he was up showed that he was a better all around hitter than cano.
i love cano being on the yankees , but i think there’s a danger of overrating him. he hasnt really had a monster offensive year yet. he has trouble getting to the .900 ops level probably becase he doesn’t walk enough.
i expect montero to be able to cross the .900 threshold fairly regularly. for one thing, pitchers will fear him and nibble. if monetro shows the patience he’s shown so far, he should get walked a lot.
mantle in his prime had a ridiculous amount of walks simply because pitchers were so afraid of throwing strikes to him. montero could easily walk 100 times a year of he wants to.
because he covers the outside part of the plate, how can pitchers pitch to him?
lester is as good as it gets and he couldn’t handle montero.
Jerkface,
Directv made major changes to EI over the last couple of years. You can watch either team’s feed now and if you have Sports Pack, you can watch it on the actual channel rather than the EI channels. So, I record Yes for 6 hours and get the games plus post game. Also, all games that are shot in HD are shown in HD. All Yankees games are in HD obviously. Blackouts are also more restricted now, Fox Saturday games being one of the only exceptions, in my area at least.
Rodriguez in his second round. I see that he’s lowered his leg kick a bit.
http://www.tout.com/m/bl1b1z
“With Tex….I think closing his stance may help him shorten and flatten his swing…..which is what he needs…..”
to me it matters more where he ends up than where he starts.
ironically if he closes his stance , he has more room to step in the bucket.
but i agree he has to flatten his swing. his timing has to be too perfect with the plane he swings on now.
if monetro shows the patience he’s shown so far, he should get walked a lot.
================================
but he might not like walking and expand his zone as cano does.
pitchers will play with his head to see what he’s made of.
A while back, RAB had a piece about Tex and pitch recognition from the left side, in particular, his problem with curves:
http://riveraveblues.com/2012/.....ing-63252/
but he might not like walking and expand his zone as cano does.
–
He might not like walking? He already walks more than Cano.
Montero has already shown aptitude to walk at an above average rate, not elite level like Swisher but better than the norm. He isn’t going to decide to suddenly hate walks, its not what players do.
how can anyone project or predict what montero will do after facing mlb pitching for 2 weeks?
how can anyone project or predict what montero will do after facing mlb pitching for 2 weeks?
–
His 5 year minor league career
Scouting reports. Tools. Ability.
mick February 25th, 2012 at 1:36 pm
how can anyone project or predict what montero will do after facing mlb pitching for 2 weeks?
———————-
When it comes to some players ppl use the stats and what they see to make a judgement.
key word is mlb
Its why Jorge Vazquez is sitting in AAA and not hitting in the middle of some teams lineup.
yanks will deal vazquez eventually
He’s probably not worth much.
“how can anyone project or predict what montero will do after facing mlb pitching for 2 weeks?”
i now its amazing, but keep reading. and you too may learn how to do it
“Do you get every Yankee game in HD? Or every game? ”
Every game that I watched ( Yankees or otherwise ) was in HD. As Sunstealer mentioned, the majority of the time I also had a choice of which feeds to watch.
Blake
i now its amazing, but keep reading. and you too may learn how to do it
========================
not if i read your incessant drivel
a case could be made for a regression by cano last year
his walks,obp,avg and hits went down and k’s went up
his ribbies were up by 9 and hrs remained the same
“i agree. i think what montero did the short time he was up showed that he was a better all around hitter than cano.”
You can’t seriously say that, and not expect people to call BS.
Montero. Sample size. Done. That’s it.
He’s got talent. He’s got minor league experience. He’s shown potential at the major league level, but the sample size is incredibly small. Pitchers haven’t seen much of him yet, and don’t have a game plan for him yet. We’ll see what happens as the sample size increases.
agree on montero
it’s major league brains and arms vs minor league
tar- ky vs syracuse in finals?
@JimBowdenESPNxm
Nats deal with Zimmerman literally blowing up over no-trade clause…they gave one to Jayson Werth…this is face of franchise…baffling
And I’m not arguing that Montero could not be as good or better than Cano in the future. But, it’s just hyperbole to say that in the time he’s spent in the majors he’s all ready a better hit than Cano.
randy l -
I think others have said it, but I think it’s balance that’s the keys to the kingdom, but if you have to err on on side or the other, I’d err on the side of pitching. I don’t want a team that is all pitching or all hitting, but one that tries to have the best of both worlds.
I do think the Yankees have this in general.
What has driven me nuts with their offense is as a whole the lineup can be baffled by mediocre junk ball pitchers. I think the situational hitting is inconsistent, but not non-existent.
I posted earlier today that I think somewhat Montero’s trade was a product of timing and opportunity, and as you said above, I do think that having Sanchez and to some extent Murphy and Romine still in the system, made it a little easier for them to pull the trigger on trading Montero. I still believe that Montero was only available under certain narrow circumstances. I am choosing to find some solace in the idea that Pineda does give the Yankees the ability to really really be sure with Betances/Banuelos before being tempted to bring them up too early.
montero, if he catches, will suffer somewhat at the plate as most C’s have
“not if i read your incessant drivel”
my “incessant drivel” about montero is based on one foul ball swing i saw him take the first time i saw him on tv in spring training.
now you may think that’s impossible to predict anything on seeing one swing, but he hasn’t exactly done poorly since that swing has he ?
i’ve been inches away from swings by hitters like al oliver, cesar cedeno, graig nettles, hal mcrae,jose cruz sr, and others and you can hear swing speed. you hear a different sound with different hitters. i could see it from one swing that montero’s swing was special.
very few hitters ever get to the swing speed he gets to. you can see it’s faster. he gets to the ball so directly there is no way he’s not going to be an elite hitter with that swing speed.
there are maybe ten guys in the major leagues who have the swing speed that montero has.
if you think that’s drivel, you haven’t seen many hitters up close.
“tar- ky vs syracuse in finals?”
Ky vs Heels.
Championship #6 banner hangs in the Dean Dome.
if you think that’s drivel, you haven’t seen many hitters up close.
========================================
i get your point.
you have been there, done that.
just seems you have too much time on your hands , of late.
“He’s got talent. He’s got minor league experience. He’s shown potential at the major league level, but the sample size is incredibly small. Pitchers haven’t seen much of him yet, and don’t have a game plan for him yet. We’ll see what happens as the sample size increases.”
i already know whats going to happen.
.900 ops almost every year.
better than cano.
Ky vs Heels.
========
Why didn’t I see that one coming?
Not too biased are you Len?
i already know whats going to happen.
.900 ops almost every year.
better than cano.
————-
Yeah, ok
would love to see duke-nc finals.
That was meant to be an eyeroll, but you get the point.
coach cal cant win the big one.
The great Montero debate about nothing continues ad nauseam. Simply amazing.
“just seems you have too much time on your hands , of late. ”
well that’s actually true, but this montero /pineda trade is just classic in the debates it creates.
had cashman not made this trade, i probably wouldn’t have much to say.
even with this trade the yankees are so deep and so loaded that they should breeze into the playoffs.
there’s not much to complain about as far as overall team quality is concerned.
but montero for pineda.
that’s huge.
that’s a game changer.
it is by far the biggest story of this off season. it will affect the yankees for years to come.
it also gives a clue about how the yankees are going to operate whether you agree or not.
i’m not down on pineda as much as i’m up on montero.
as i’ve said, i think pineda is the most likely to replace mariano when he retires
it was a classic trade
prospect for a prospect.
you rarely get blockbuster deals anymore
this is pitching vs hitting, future unknown.
They see randy l. trollin’, they hatin’.
as i’ve said, i think pineda is the most likely to replace mariano when he retires
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that appears to be the job of drob.
i’m not down on pineda as much as i’m up on montero.
=================================
or down on cashman
‘but this montero /pineda trade is just classic in the debates it creates.’
==============
Actually it’s not as neither has had the opportunity to produce for for new teams. Nothing like prejudging.
s/b…’for their new teams’
“it was a classic trade”
i agree.
the first big trade i remember is rockey colavito for harvey kuenn.
http://www.cleveland.com/pluto.....trade.html
frank robinson for pappas was huge too.
these kind of trades affect organizations for years and sometimes decades.
montero for pineda is a huge game changer over time.
people who can’t deal with this should just not read posts about it for the next decade or so because that’s how long pineda /montero will be affecting baseball and the yankees.
“that appears to be the job of drob.”
pineda would be a monster out there for one inning.
The Left or West Coast February 25th, 2012 at 2:18 pm
Nothing like prejudging.
———-
Kind of like prejudging Montero’s permanent role as a DH instead of giving him a real opportunity to be a catcher?
The Left or West Coast February 25th, 2012 at 2:11 pm
The great Montero debate about nothing continues ad nauseam. Simply amazing.
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If the line-up wasn’t aging and Sanchez was closer to the majors i doubt the debate would still be going on. Not saying ppl wouldn’t miss Montero but.