2 more Notes- the Yanks designated Andy Phillips for assignment (they needed space on their 40 man roster). But I think he could be back for spring training. Also they traded Tyler Clippard for reliever Jonothan Albalajedo from the Nats. He split time between AAA and the majors last year but had very good numbers. I guess they are looking to build bullpen depth, and Clip sort of fell down the ladder of prospects.
Posted by VDesai:
PASS on the Viz:
Mattingly, Vizcaino talk
Still no definitive news on Johan Santana, though various reports are that the Red Sox are close to getting him. We'll update as solid news comes in.
Don Mattingly is here in one of his first official capacities as Dodgers bench coach. Friendly as always, and happy to say hello to all his Yankees associates. Probably a bit of an adjustment for him coming to one of these things as a Dodger after a life in pinstripes.
I talked to Luis Vizcaino's agent, Bean Stringfellow, a little while ago. He said of Vizcaino: "He made a point to me that he does like New York." However, he said nothing is imminent and that he is also talking to the Mets, White Sox, Royals and Dodgers, along with the Yankees. Stringfellow also believes that Vizcaino can get a 3-4 year contract along the lines of Scott Linebrink, who inked a four-year, $19-million pact with the White Sox. At those dollars, the Yankees are likely to be out.
A source indicated that Chien-Ming Wang's agent, Alan Nero, was interested in talking to the Yankees about a long-term contract. However, the Yankees told Nero to make them an opening offer. That was the end of any discussions.
since we're in need of a reliable setup man now that Viz is on his way out & Joba will be in the starting rotation next season, would you now be amenable to offering Hughes, Kennedy, Melky & 1 of our 2nd tier prospects for Johan & Joe Nathan?
No not with Kennedy. We absolutely need Kennedy for the rotation if we deal Hughes. Maybe Alan Horne. Problem with acquiring Nathan is that he's actually better right now than Rivera and he will bolt for elsewhere at first opportunity (as Rivera is under contract and he should be a closer). Or maybe you add Horne to the current package and get Pat Neshek or Matt Guerrier who are good setup men. Or if you can, combine an Alberto Gonzalez (who they want) with a Marquez instead of Horne as the third player.
I'd wait and see what happens....the Yanks have some interesting relievers in the pipeline. Mark Melancon is coming off an injury but he's a big time relief prospect. Kevin Whelan who they got for Sheff has nice stuff. Jeff Marquez, Steven White etc. They have a ton of very good starting pitching prospects who are very advanced now and may need to convert to relief to get a roster spot. They may also still be thinking about dealing Damon, Farns, Igawa and might get some veteran relievers out of htat.
There was also some talk of them signing LaTroy Hawkins. I know Riske is off the table.
[Edited by - vdesai on 12-04-2007 5:21 PM]
ugh, please no LaTroy Hawkins... i agree w/u about Kennedy, but Joe Nathan's a grade A stud... we'd be looking at 6 inning games all year long w/him & Mo anchoring our bullpen... if both he & Johan came w/contract extensions, i'd have to seriously consider it... we'd have Johan, Wang, Pettitte, Joba & either Horne or Moose as our starting 5 next season w/the best setup & closer combo in the game.
in '09 we can target a bigname like CC Sabathia to take over Andy's spot in the rotation & have Umberto Sanchez & Andy Brackman who we can look to fill slots in the rotation as well... plus we'd have some nice young relief talent in Cox, Marquez, Melancon, Whelan, White, etc. who can be called up to join the bullpen for middle relief... maybe Dellin Betances can be ready for a late '09 callup as well?
I think Betances is a little further off from that that. The Yanks have a lot of chips and a lot of flexibility right now- no need to be too hasty.
On Nathan, he will be an FA after this season and is arguably the best closer in the game right now. This would be a rental b/c he would want Rivera dollars and the ability to close- b/c that is likely what he would get on the open market. For that reason we'd be crazy to give up a big prospect for him for what amounts to a rental at this moment.
I think if the Twins are out of contention, Nathan will be the prize of the trade deadline- if the Yanks desperately need him, they will have better evals of the big 3 by then and will know better what they have the flexibility to give up.
if money is the issue then like i say, if he comes w/a contract extension i think the Yankees would be willing to pay the fare... if closing games is the issue, then you're right, no way do you give up Kennedy for just a 1 year rental... either way, if he only wants to close then the Yankees won't be in the bidding for his services once he turns free agent, which means he loses the big fish to drive up his market price.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/sports/baseball/04yankees.html?_r=2&ref=baseball&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
The Yankees acquired Jonathan Albaladejo, a right-handed reliever, from the Nationals late Monday night for Tyler Clippard. Albaladejo, 25, worked in 14 games last September with a 1.88 earned run average. Clippard was 3-1 with a 6.33 E.R.A. in six starts for the Yankees. The deal is contingent on the players passing physicals.
sounds like the Yankees got good value for a prospect that likely would never again see playing time at the ML level for this team... at least we have something to be somewhat happy about this week.
Why would the Nationals do that? It seems like we got the better end of the deal.
They got a starter for a reliever
Clip I think is 3 years younger as well. The guy we got flopped as a starter and got released by the Pirates. He seemed to "get it" out of hte bullpen last year for the Nats in AAA. He was a September call up and the numbers you see are all based on his work after the rosters expanded.
a little more info on our new acquisition:
http://www.amny.com/sports/baseball/yankees/ny-spynotes045487283dec04,0,3344793.story
Albaladejo, 25, who is listed at 6-5 and 250 pounds, made his major-league debut this season, and was 1-1 with a 1.88 ERA in 14 games and 14 1/3 innings. In the minor leagues this season, he was a combined 7-3 with a 2.97 ERA at Double-A Harrisburg and Triple-A Columbus with 56 strikeouts and just 22 walks in 60 2/3 innings. Albaladejo is currently pitching in the Venezuelan Winter League, with a 2.53 ERA in 21 1/3 innings.
Clippard, 22, was 3-1 with a 6.33 ERA in six games for the Yankees after making his major-league debut. At Double-A Trenton and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, he was a combined 6-5 with a 4.50 ERA in 20 games and 96 innings.
One telling statistic comparing the two is that minor-league hitters batted .280 off Clippard and major-league hitters hit .271 against him. Albaladejo held major-league hitters to a .149 batting average and minor league hitters to a .200 average.
also, we might see our old friend Nick Greene back in pinstripes next season, & looks like Andy Phillips has been DFA'd:
A source indicated the Yankees are looking at signing infielder Nick Green, who spent most of this season in the minors. Green, 29, who played for the Yankees for part of 2006, can play all the infield positions and would spell the regulars .
The Yankees designated first baseman Andy Phillips for assignment to make roster space for Molina. General manager Brian Cashman said he does not expect to be able to keep Phillips by re-signing him to a minor-league deal, that he expects to work out a trade with another club or for Phillips to opt for free agency. Cashman said they have Shelley Duncan, Wilson Betemit and Jason Giambi as first base options.
Yeah, I mentioned the Phillips thing on the page before. Not that big a deal. If he doesn't sign with another team I'm sure he'll get a non-roster invite to spring training or a minor league contract here.
Juan Miranda will likely be ready mid-season. He did very well in the fall leagues.
Word from some Pittsburgh papers is that the Yanks are in talks to acquire relievers Damaso Marte or John Grabow from the Pirates.
Marte is very good and was the best pitcher in the league vs. lefties last year in terms of BAA.
i wanted Marte last year... he's nasty against lefty batters & throws hard... funny thing is we had him in our farm system in the past & traded him for friggin' Enrique Wilson... that wasn't 1 of Cashman's brighter moments.
Posted by TMS:
i wanted Marte last year... he's nasty against lefty batters & throws hard... funny thing is we had him in our farm system in the past & traded him for friggin' Enrique Wilson... that wasn't 1 of Cashman's brighter moments.
Yeah- but at the time we traded him he was a 26 yr old reliever in AA ball with a 4 ERA and had been released by at least one other organization. So I can't kill Cash too much on that one. Who knew?
i guess... i seriously can't understand how Enrique Wilson went from being a .325 hitter off the bench in Cleveland to a scrub who could barely even hit .200 when he got here... maybe he got caught up too much in the nightlife in NY & forgot about working on his game... who knows... wouldn't be the first time it's happened to a player coming to NY.
here's a sneak peek at what we may be able to expect out of Joba in terms of pitch selection as a starter... he uses a lot more offspeed stuff on the outside corner, not just that devastating fastball/slider down & in combo that was so effective for him as a setup man last year.
check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq6Wz25V3...
Joba featured on ESPN Next:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story...
IT'S 9:31 A.M. in the off-season, a time when most ballplayers are still deep in REM sleep, but I'm curious to see if Joba Chamberlain lives up to his rep as the King of Text Messaging. So I fire off a quick one to the Yankees' prize righthander.
Four minutes later, the light on my cell phone flickers. It's Joba, awake and typing, an indefatigable force of thumbs.
I text A LOT. About 100-200 a day!
Add it to the legend: Chamberlain broke into the big leagues on Aug. 7, faced 67 hitters and sent approximately 7,000 messages before allowing his first earned run. No wonder he's NEXT.
Impressed, I ask him how fast he text messages.
Probably faster than I pitch.
Is it true, I wonder, that he texted Clay Buchholz the night the Red Sox righty tossed a no-hitter? The two pitchers became fast friends at the 2007 All-Star Futures Game in San Francisco. And on Sept. 1, while Buchholz was shutting down the Orioles, Chamberlain was serving a suspension for throwing two fastballs over the head of Boston's Kevin Youkilis a few nights earlier. He was free to go home after pregame practice; instead, the 6'2", 230-pound fireballer elected to stay and watch his teammates play the Devil Rays from GM Brian Cashman's box, chatting merrily while simultaneously working his Treo.
I texted Clay that day! Before the game, actually. I just wished him good luck. Then after the game I wrote, "glad u got that out of your system."
My turn. I ask Joba which big league hitter had the best swings against him last season. It's kind of a trick question, because there were probably fewer good swings against Chamberlain than against any other pitcher in the majors in 2007. Opponents hit only .145; he struck out 34 of the 91 batters he faced.
Mike Lowell was the toughest hitter for me. Sliders and fastballs. I couldn't get him out!
In keeping with his buoyant personality, Joba loves exclamation points. They're his favorite form of punctuation, popping up in the flurry of texts he has sent to teammates such as Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and Roger Clemens this off-season. He's bold like that. In mid-November, the 22-year-old punched out a text to Mike Mussina to let Moose know he'd just jogged five miles. The kid challenged the vet: One day next spring, they'll run against each other until one of them cries uncle.
All those exclamation points are fitting for a player who has already gained mythic status in the Bronx: Fans latched onto his name and potential even before he threw a pitch. Chants of "Joba" rattled through Yankee Stadium this season the way "Maximus" flew around the ring in Gladiator. Chamberlain relishes the spotlight (as long as it doesn't attract a swarm of bugs). And he has become an integral part of the Yankees clubhouse, thanks to a demeanor that's equal parts Jeter, with his transcendent confidence; Clemens, with his ability to energize everyone on the field; and Mariano Rivera, with his stoicism on the mound. Talent evaluators seem certain that, whether he's taking the ball every fifth day or coming out of the bullpen in tight situations, Chamberlain has the goods. And even though he was a starter in the minors, he's willing to accept any role -- which is good, since the Yankees haven't decided how to use him next year. "I'm just a kid from Nebraska," he often says, with no apparent ego.
Credit for that humility goes to his father, Harlan, a man who has suffered the crippling effects of polio since childhood and who raised Joba on his own after he and the boy's mother divorced. Quick story: Joba had left-knee surgery as a sophomore at Nebraska, and he spent his first hours of recovery sprawled out on the couch at their Omaha home. At 5:30 in the morning, Harlan hobbled into the living room on crutches and saw the bag of melting ice on his son's swollen knee. "We need to change that," he said. Then, taking the bag between his teeth, he labored slowly to the kitchen for a refill. At that moment, Joba understood the depth of his father's love. This season, he flew Harlan east of Chicago for the first time in the man's life, to shake hands with Clemens and Reggie Jackson, to meet "Mr. Torre" and to watch Joba pump 100 mph gas.
Father and son text "every once in a while," Joba says via text. Which reminds me: It's time for one final topic before carpal tunnel sets in. A colleague of mine claims to have seen Joba at a UFC bout the other night, so I ask the pitcher if he's a big fan. Immediately, the exclamation points start flying.
It was awesome! It def is getting bigger than boxing! Even had a couple guys from Nebraska fighting! There is so much more that goes into it than boxing. You got the martial arts aspect, ground and pound. It's just so complex in all areas of training!
It figures the training interests him. Around the Yankees clubhouse, Joba's workout ethic is known as "Roger-like." In fact, he plans to visit Clemens this winter and maintains, confidently, that he can go toe-to-toe with The Rocket in the gym. "If he can get me to throw up, it would be the first time," Joba said in September. My thumbs are tired, but I'm curious if he incorporates UFC training (minus the punching) into his regimen.
I've thought about it! You def have to mix it up.
Seven texts in a half hour, and I'm not fooling myself; like a chess master who plays multiple opponents, Joba was probably texting five other people besides me. I need a break, so I tell him I'll send more later.
Sounds good. I will be ready!
i love reading the part about his Roger-like workout ethic... this kid is gonna be AWESOME! definitely as untouchable as untouchable gets in baseball.
[Edited by - TMS on 12-05-2007 6:40 PM]
Here's an article about the Yankees new reliever:
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Former pitching coordinator a believer in Albaladejo
By cjennings : posted @ 6:40 PM :
I've been lucky in this business to get to know pitching guru Gary Ruby, who has a ton of knowledge and an equal amount of patience when it comes to explaining pitching to someone like me. As luck would have it, Ruby was the minor league pitching coordinator with the Pirates until last season, which makes him an expert on new Yankees reliever Jonathan Albaladejo.
"I always loved the guy, but some other people didn’t," Ruby said. "He can pitch for me anytime."
When the Yankees traded Tyler Clippard for Albaladejo (left), my first impression was to not like the trade. Albaladejo had never pitched above Double-A until last season, and I couldn't help but wonder if last year's sudden climb to the big leagues was nothing more than a hot streak at the right time. Plus, the guy had been released by the Pirates, and that's not exactly a good sign.
Ruby sees things differently, and I tend to trust his expert opinion over my first impression.
Albaladejo was with the Pirates for six years before being released early last season. Why the release from a team that had a 4.93 major league ERA last year?
"There was one guy in our system, up top, who didn't like him," Ruby said.
Why the sudden climb from a solid minor leaguer -- one with a terrific strikeout-to-walk ratio, but only 18 games above A ball -- to a legitimate major leaguer with a 1.88 ERA in 14 games with the Nationals?
"I think Jonathan just needed a chance," was Ruby's take.
As you would expect from the stats, command is Albaladejo's strength. According to Ruby, his main pitches are a fastball (89-91 mph, Ruby said) and a tight slider. He also throws a changeup and a curveball.
"The big thing is command of his offspeed, he throws offspeed behind in the count no problem," Ruby said. ""Slider is his out pitch. Really good command of it, he can throw it in any count."
Ruby also liked Albaladejo's maturity and refered to him constantly as a "good kid."
"He’s big and strong," Ruby said. "He'll have to watch his weight and have to stay on his conditioning, but he’s a big horse and he’s durable."
Albaladejo was a starter through his first four years with the Pirates, and Ruby said he found an extra five mph on his fastball after he was moved to the pen. Ruby said he would project Albaladejo as a middle reliever or set-up man, but not a closer. He also said Albaladejo could go two or three innings if needed, something he did quite a bit in Triple-A last year but never in the big leagues.
"In the pen I think he's got a chance to be a really good big leaguer," Ruby said. "He's not affraid of anybody... One time through the lineup, he'd be excellent."
Those are encouraging words from a man I trust.
One last answer I got from Ruby...
It's pronounced more or less the way it looks: Al-bal-a-day-ho. Or, as Ruby said, Alby.
Alby sounds good to me.
looks like he's replacing Luis Vizcaino in our bullpen.
Posted by TMS:
Alby sounds good to me.
looks like he's replacing Luis Vizcaino in our bullpen.
He still has a ways to go to do that- he only has about 18 ML innings. But he sounds like could definitely contribute.
Watch out for this kid Melancon...he might be our lights out setup man a little later this year. And maybe they will use Horne like they used Joba. Horne can bring some heat.
