Yankees pregame: The injured come into focus
Posted by: Brian Heyman - Posted in Misc on Aug 05, 2012 
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The injured Yankees were dressed in their pinstripes again this morning to say hello, pose for pictures and bump fists with season-ticket holders filling the warning track. Those players included Alex Rodriguez, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte and Brett Gardner.
Joe Girardi said Andy Pettitte has been frustrated with the healing rate of his fractured fibula. There was talk of a setback recently. The Yankees are still thinking September for him.
“That’s our hope,” Girardi said. “I think Andy thought with his broken leg that he was going to be on the mound in two weeks. That’s just Andy. I think you have to hold players back and they have to understand that it’s a process. But as players, we get anxious to come back. That’s the bottom line. I think that’s what happened with Andy.
“It takes time. When you miss as much time as he has, you have to build a guy up. You can’t rush him and make him come back too soon when he’s not ready. We’ll just take it day by day.”
As for Rivera and his mending ACL, is it 100 percent that he isn’t coming back this season as Brian Cashman has said?
“Nothing is ever 100 percent, but I would say it’s 99 percent, 99.9,” Girardi said. “But nothing is ever 100 percent in life. There have been a lot of people that have said that they’re done playing and they find a way back. We will die, though. I can tell you that for sure.”
As for Gardner possibly returning in September from his elbow surgery, Girardi said, “If there’s a way he can help us, we’ll definitely use him, especially in the month of September when you can expand rosters. If there’s certain things that he can’t do and it’s during the month of August, then you’re kind of limited and you limit your roster. But with an expanded roster, if he can help us, we’ll definitely use him, if it doesn’t jeopardize him getting back next year.”
So it’s the homestand finale and Curtis Granderson is leading off again, breaking up two righty batters, Chris Stewart in the nine hole and Derek Jeter in the two hole.
“Grandy falls in the category of he’s one of our higher (on-base) guys, so that’s why he goes there,” Girardi said. “Well, you could say, ‘Grandy is a power hitter.’ Well, so is Cano. So is Tex. So is Swish. So is Ibanez. So you say, ‘Why don’t you move him back?’ Well, then who do I move up to the front with speed? You might say, ‘OK, why don’t you move Ichiro up?’ Well, his on-base is not as high as it’s been in the past. So then you try to break up your left-handers with your switch-hitters and your right-handers, so it’s not easy for them to get through the lineup.
“If we had all of our hitters present, Granderson wouldn’t lead off. But with the injury to Alex, you have to make some adjustments.”
Derek Jeter comes in leading the AL in hits with 138.
luis August 5th, 2012 at 12:22 pm
4 NYY,
Yes it works in to moving the runner to scoring position about 50% of the time ( to be honest, I am not sure of the accurate stat )…But most times doesn’t work in to bringing the man home, which is the objective of the game…
Repost
Mick,
No…I am somewhere in the middle…I like stats as a tool to identify trends, but I recognize that there are things that can’t be measure…I like good OBP, but love contact and avg guys…I like power, but smart power…What most free swingers fail to understand is that homers come all by themselves, the moment you start swinging for the fences, you screw things up…
I don’t know who Andy Reid is…But losing a son is not natural…My best wishes and prayers go to him and his family.
I’m sure there are stats re: the value of the bunt..
But a lot of coaches don’t know how to employ it effectively and a lot of players don’t know how to lay one down effectively (even though they should)…The latter being something we should all keep in mind. You’d like to hit and run more if you’re Girardi I’m sure.. but we don’t have a lot of contact guys on our team.
“We will die, though. I can tell you that for sure.” -Girardi
Thanks for the pre-game pump up, Eeyore.
Bret,
The Yankees can and will swing for the fences against any and every pitcher. It is who they are just ask Girardi and Cashman. However, I agree with your premise, they must go the other way, move runners etc. to win the close games.
I also agree with Luis that Cano’s average with RISP is likely some bad luck, but without a big threat behind him their is no reason to throw him strikes. He will very often chase pitches as he wants to swing the bat and not walk. If he does walk, however, the opposing team accepts that as well.
The overriding one run loss and no comeback wins cause is most everyone, when down by a run is trying to tie it with one swing. When a pitcher knows this, the batter is far easier to get out. Off speed and down and away.
The Angels are so well built, a team is going to have to get hot to beat them and have everything go their way. I can’t envision an inconsistent HR-dependent team like the Yankees getting “hot” against their pitching while holding off Pujols, Trout and Trumbo.
I’ll say it again – Angels, SF in the World Series with SF winning on the backs of Cain and Melky magic.
Shame,
I do agree that the bunt has it’s uses…As I lay them out on the previous thread…I would add that in the NL it has more uses than in the AL ( Pitcher batting)…But I agree that it is often misused…But in most instances that the bunt is used, is not used effectively.
Trisha,
I forgot to mention…I agreed on Jeter’s bunt in the first game of this series…He had a tough match up, the heart of the order came after him and he move the runners to second and first, eliminatind the DP of the equation and allowed the runner from third to core on a sac fly…perfect situational tool for that precise moment.
Game time!
A quality start from Freddie, strong work from the bull pen and just enough runs to win.
Go Yanks!
To second and third it should say
The Angels have to get there first.
Mac,
excellent post…
It’s a simple game luis. All plays are part of it. It’s not like you can dial up a a new play from somewhere to score runs. LOL
After I posted the last comment, I see Mick mentioned that bunting works more often than hit and run plays & stealing. I really don’t doubt that at all.
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LOL! The bunt does have it uses…I just think that they don’t use it in the right moements most of the times…I lay out a perfect situation with jeter’s bunt.
luis August 5th, 2012 at 12:39 pm
It’s a simple game luis. All plays are part of it. It’s not like you can dial up a a new play from somewhere to score runs. LOL
After I posted the last comment, I see Mick mentioned that bunting works more often than hit and run plays & stealing. I really don’t doubt that at all.
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LOL! The bunt does have it uses…I just think that they don’t use it in the right moements most of the times…I lay out a perfect situation with jeter’s bunt.
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And again, they don’t have many players with the skill set to lay down good bunts consistently. Personally, I think this should be baseball 101 but normally it’s considered an affront to ask a HR hitter to lay down a bunt even if it would be the most effective situation to use it. Half of it is politics. It’s silly.
I’d always prefer the hit and run to the bunt… but you need to have guys that actually make contact to do that. It becomes a lot harder when most of your regulars sport between a .200-.250 BA.
Shame,
Very good posts…I tend to agree with you that I like the Hit and Run better…Also agree that you need high contact/avg guys to accomplish the play…I would have tried to steal with Ichiro instead of bunting, if he makes it to second then it makes sense to bunt with Martin…
Ichiro, 44 plate appearances (with Yankees), 0 strikeouts. That’s a hit and run guy.
Pouring with rain here in CT right now. Could be in for a shower or two this afternoon.
I wonder how people like CompassRosy are able to live with such bitterness and anger that they would dislike a player because he asked to be and was traded to the Yankees. Ultimately, these are just sports.
After Shame, Luis and Austin mac!
We need a win today. Good fortune all.