jacksonianmarch

but you dont, as evidenced by his 6+ ERA

Seems like some think this is just a slump. Others think this is the end. When does he get benched/out of this funk? I say July 30th, after they acquire another bat capable of DHing

you do know that kids eventually develop, right?

Lets play the game, can the Angels pen hold a 4 run lead!!

that fastball is unhittable if he keeps it above the letters

Since this post, Montero is 6 for 9 with 3 RBI. DJ Mitchell was promoted and made his debut tonight. The good news? 8K in 4.2IP. The bad news? 6H and 6ER. He'll likely improve his next time out.

the dynasty is over. But this season is nowhere near over. We have a chance to win our second road AL East series in a row tomorrow with CC on the hill.

this team is so frustrating at times. They put it all together to this point. Good at bats, hard line drives, good pitching, etc. Why can't this team do this every time out?

Matt Holliday

Seriously, how bout we f***ing update the list on the first page. Once we update it, I will make a pick. s***. Goodnight.

Adam Jones then.

Rick Porcello RHP Detroit Tigers Tommy Hanson RHP Atlanta Braves

As we have learned with obliques, they are a bitch, they take awhile to heal and they creep up if not given enough time to heal. Jeter just missed a game with it too. And I have a feeling it will end up the same way

we didnt have a chance. Halladay was lights out. Burnett wasnt too bad. He gave us innings, which is what we needed. But he was done in by one inning.

Wang has thrown 3 perfect innings with 3K thus far. Cashman said he'll need more than one start. I think that'll depend on how Hughes does.

Kevin Russo, the 24 yr old infielder, returned after missing 3 weeks due to injury and he continues to hit well. .449 with a 1.010 OPS through 11 games aint too shabby. He wont keep it up, but he's been nothing short of solid at 2b. He also fits the supersub role. It will be interesting to see how the yankees want to work it when ARod shows he can stay in on a regular basis. We know Berroa is history. The yankees will want to add some pop, and that could be John Rodriguez or Miranda. But if they decide to give Pena some time to hone his craft in AAA, then Russo could very well become the yankees supersub. Austin Jackson continues to rake. .365/.432/.452. His power hasnt come around at all. But his eye (11BB) and his speed (7 steals) make him a solid offensive contributor. With Melky grabbing hold of CF, Jackson can comfortably spend the rest of the yr in AAA working on improving before coming to the bigs. He is nearly ready as a prospect. Shelley Duncan has gone crazy again, but alas is on the DL. His line is ridiculous. .333/.405/.687 with 10 homers. He might be added to the 40 man if he is back from the DL once Berroa is DFAd. John Rodriguez, another 40 man candidate is hitting the piss out of the ball as well. .299/.387/.523 thus far. Chris Malec took his promotion well, hitting .299 with a .347OBP. Juan Miranda has cooled off considerably since starting off so hot. His line is still respectable, but his recent cold spell likely will cost him a promotion. .284/.378/.495 The pitching has been hit very, very hard by the bigs lack of success and by injury. Hughes and Aceves, two players who started the yr in the rotation, are with the big club. Eric Hacker was DFAd so Tomko could be brought up. Ian Kennedy was dynamite until being diagnosed with an aneurysm in his axilla and will miss a good amount of time. Kei Igawa has been solid, but then again, he is Kei Igawa. George Kontos was brought up prematurely and has had one solid start and one pisspoor start. Right now, the rotation has Josh Towers, Casey Fossum and Jason Johnson in it. Yikes. Quite a dropoff from Hughes, Kennedy, Aceves, Hacker, and Johnson.

5/11 update Chris Malec was promoted to AAA after putting up a .375/.479/.425 line in AA. He reminds me a lot of a Frank Catallanotto type player. Essentially acts as a supersub, gets on base, and can slap the ball. Not much power to speak of. Good guy to have waiting in the wings. Jorge Vazquez is the power hitter the yankees signed out of the Mexican league. At 27, he is significantly older than the league, but the yankees are hoping his success in Mexico can translate into success in the minors. He played in Mexico for 10 yrs and hit over .300 with 15 or more homers in the last 5 yrs. He has started off well with a line of .286/.317/.554 with 5 homers in 19 games. Eduardo Nunez has had a deceiving start to the yr. His average of .297 would certainly be useful. But its an empty average. OBP of .319 and SLG of .315 has his OPS in the low .600 range. Couple that with 8 errors and Nunez has been a bit disappointing. Still, he is very young (21) and has power projection. We'll just have to wait for it to come. If he remains a no power, no eye singles hitter with a shaky glove, then he wont make the bigs. Colin Curtis has tailed off a bit, but still has a respectable line. .305/.360/.457 to go along with 4 stolen bases. He has been quite a surprise this yr after having 2 subpar yrs. The rumors of him having his swing tinkered with might have been true after all. Reegie Corona, the player selected by Seattle in the Rule V draft, has been solid as well. He's only hitting .276, but the OBP of .408 is a nice addition to his game. We'll see if he can keep it up. Ivan Nova, the player selected by SDF in the Rule V draft, has had an up and down yr as well. He was converted to the pen for the Padres, and has since been stretched out to a started with inconsistent results. He has really struggled the last 2 games after starting off with 3 solid ones. And he has inexplicably had trouble with righties. Lefties are hitting only .171 off him, but righties are lighting him up to a tune of .348. His BB totals over the last 2 games (11) have been uncharacteristic as well, since Nova is known more for his control than anything else. Zach McCallister continues to plug along. As a 21 yr old in AA, he is younger than most. But his results continue to be solid. .214BAA and a 1.7GO/AO ratio is nice. As is the sub 3 ERA. The strange thing is his rise in walks. He has walked 11 batter this yr, which is more than half of his 2008 total (21). Regardless, with the injuries and ineffectiveness of the AAA guys, McCallister stands to be the next in line for a promotion. Alan Horne has returned with no success in 2 abbreviated outings. Rumor has it, he was topping out at 91mph. He'll get a long leash due to his prior success, but if he cannot regain that 96mph fastball as a starter, then he might be pen bound. Michael Dunn went from being completely untouchable to being completely embarassed. The hard throwing lefty has given up 9ER, 7BB, and 10 hits over his last 4.2IP. Maybe it's just a rough patch, maybe it isnt. But the one thing it guarantees is that this OFer turned pitcher is not in line for a promotion at all. He is going to remain a one level at a time pitcher until he can consistently locate. Wilkin de la Rosa has been promoted to Trenton and wasted no time fitting in with 6 innings of 9K shutout ball. George Kontos got the call to SWB after being mediocre in 3 starts. Ryan Pope has been more unlucky than anything. He has a 1.29WHIP and has regained control after falling apart last season (6BB in 21IP). But his ERA in the mid 5's is more a factor of luck than anything else. Pope is a fringe prospect anyway as his FB barely touches 90. But he bears watching. Kevin Whelan continues to be an enigma, although his control is improving. Only 7 walks in 14IP after being in the 6BB/9IP range through his minor league career. He is getting hit more (14H in 14IP as well). We'll see which way he declares himself. He is eligible for the Rule V once again, so a good showing could force himself onto the 40 man or into another team's MLB bullpen Overall, Trenton really only has a couple of notable offensive players. Curtis and Nunez are the most promising IMO. On the pitching side, De la Rosa and McCallister will be fun to watch this summer. Nova has shown flashes of being brilliant as well as being terrible. And Whelan and Dunn provide at least a spark of hope for the future in the bullpen, mixed in with some terrible pitching. This is an interesting level for prospect watchers. A lot of guys who could make it in the relief/backup roles with only a couple high ceiling players.

5/11 update Montero has cooled off a bit. After today's game, he's hitting .309/.372/.554 with 21RBI in 29 games. He now has 5 homers as well. Romine continues to rebound from his slow start. He has the average up to .287 and has seen his OPS rise to over .700 for the first time this yr. His power, as was the case last yr, is late to the party, but he has shown some signs. Laird continues to struggle in A+ ball, now with the line of .216/.273/.314. Like Romine, Laird has a monster second half, so we will see which way he goes. Damon Sublett has been pretty bad to start the yr, now hitting .206. The only good that one could take from his early season start is his eye, as his IsoPatience is over .100. Jeremy Bleich continues to impress. His numbers are as follows. 33.1IP 30H 10ER 22K 11BB after skipping a level. His last 2 starts have been unimpressive, though, so that bears watching. Dellin Betances continues his Jekyll and Hyde routine. Tonight was no different. He left the game in the first due to a rain delay, but was tagged for 4ER in 0.1IP. His 6 starts this yr have been solid, ok, terrible, solid, poor, solid, rain shortened. Working on his consistency will be the key here. He's 21 now and is going to need to put it together soon. When he's on, nobody is better. Wilkins de la Rosa was promoted after 3 dazzling starts. 14IP 9H 2ER 4BB 17K. And he promptly threw 6 shutout innings with 9Ks in his first start at Trenton. Overall, Tampa has had a power outage. One of our biggest offensive players scheduled to be on this team is out s/p labrum surgery, in Suttle. Laird and Sublett have been awful. Romine and Montero have been the only consistent offensive forces, and right now, Romine is nothing but a singles hitter (exactly how he started last yr before cracking 10 homers in the second half). The pitching has been up and down. Bleich has been solid and then inconsistent. Betances has been dominant and then terrible. And the best, most consistent pitcher of the bunch was just promoted. It might be a long season in Tampa.

Update 5/11/09 Garrison Lassiter got really hot for about 10 games. But an injury caused him to have a rough last 10 games and subsequently landed him on the DL. He's hitting .271 with a .342OBP in early action. His return date is questionable as some think that he will be kept out until early June when the short season teams start. Corban Joseph was activated in his spot and should see regular playing time until short season opens, then he might be demoted to SI. Daniel Brewer, the Yankees 8th round pick from a yr ago is just lighting up A ball. .357/.458/.475 David Adams, the yankees 3rd rounder from a yr ago and a player the yankees hope can rise the ranks like Pedroia, has started out hot. .302/.388/.457 with 14 doubles early on. Mitch Abeita, mid round catcher from a yr ago, is reaching base at quite a clip. .439OBP and .880OPS early on. If we didnt have a glut of catching talent in the system, Abeita likely would have started in Tampa. The early season isnt without its disappointments. Carmen Angelini has been about as bad as a player could be. The 10th rounder from 2007 who signed for 7 figures, is hitting under .200 with an OPS under .500 and nearly 20 errors in 30 games. Abraham Almonte, the switch hitter who drew comparisons to Jose Reyes coming out of the DSL, is hitting .234 with a sub .600OPS. The pitching has been up and down. Andrew Brackman has been inconsistent as one could expect s/p TJ. He had his best effort of the season tonight, going 8IP 7H 2ER 1BB 9K. His ERA is down to 4.06 with 37.2IP 37H 17ER 15BB 38K. Since his opening start, his ERA is 3.02. DJ Mitchell has been nothing short of stellar. He's the sleeper of the bunch, throwing the best sinker in the incoming draft class. He's gone 37IP 31H 8ER 42K 6BB for an ERA of 1.95 and a WHIP of 1.00. He has just been demoted to ExST to limit his innings. He'll be back in Charleston by the end of the month. And if he comes back the same way he started, he'll finish in Tampa. Manuel Banuelos has been up and down also and is just s/p a short stint in ExST to limit his innings as well. The 18 yr old lefty has put up the line of 22.2IP 21H 8ER 8BB 25K. He just put up his best outing when he went 5IP 1H 0ER 8K 1BB. He will not be moving up levels most likely. He has no significant mileage on his arm and at his age, they will build arm strength over working on his stuff. He'll be a one level at a time kind of player for now. Brett Marshall has been absolutely atrocious in the early going. The fireballing 19 yr old came into the yankee system a 2 pitch pitcher with a hard 96mph fastball and a plus slider. As the yankees have done with most all HS pitchers, they took away his slider and are teaching him the curve and change. Sufficed to say, it isnt working. 24.1IP 28H 18ER 12BB 11K. If he doesnt get the hang of the curve and changeup within the next yr and a half, the yankees will likely allow him to throw his slider again and convert him to the pen. Which is a place I think he ultimately ends up. Pat Venditte has been nearly unhittable as the Riverdog closer. 14.2IP 11H 1ER 0BB 23K. He continues to use the switch pitcher role and continues to throw strikes from both sides of the rubber. He will likely end up in Tampa if he keeps this up. Thats about it for big ceiling prospects in the yankees system, and I am stretching it with the addition of Venditte as a big ceiling player. The best of the rest include Melky Mesa, a former INTL signee who prospect people thought would be a big time prospect yrs ago, is now hitting well with 8 homers. David Phelps, the college pitcher selected in the 12th (I think) round from last yr also is off to a good start. But as a contact pitcher in a system full of power pitching, I dont think he stands much of a chance. And thats about it.

Your third sentence is EXACTLY why he's struggling. But there is a root cause to it all. His wrist/knee combo have sapped him of all bat speed. So he has to cheat to catch up to the fastball. And even though he's cheating, he still cannot catch up. BUT, that leaves him extremely vulnerable to breaking balls. Right now, he is not a major league hitter. Some players find some more bat speed by augmenting their swings or by healing, like Matsui and Posada have. Papi needs to adjust or he's done

Let the sox fans whine about Joba yet pass Papelbon through. Its a common double standard that we'll see on this site in favor of the sox and on yankee sites in favor of the yankees. I dont care if he did a somersault and pissed on a 2 yr old in the front row. If he gets the out, then great. I just wish he'd be that pumped in the first inning.

Lars has hit a real rough patch in AA right now, hitting .236/.293/.368 with 2 dingers. The sox were smart not to rush him. He clearly wasnt ready.

there is no way in holy hell that Beane deals Holliday for a washed up Ortiz. No way in holy hell. Beane got Holliday, Cabrera and Giambi in a hope that the offense and pitching talent could put them into the playoffs. If it doesnt work, there will be a firesale and a TON of teams will be in on Holliday. Figure Holliday started out really slowly, but has 4 homes in his last 11 games and we should start to see the average come up. If Beane decides to move him, he will get a king's ransom at the deadline. If he doesnt, he is guaranteed to get 2 picks in the top 40 of next yrs draft.

Joe Maddon should be hung by his nutsack in downtown TB.