Yanks give up on McAllister

The Yankees acquired OF Austin Kearns from the Indians in exchange for a player to be named. That player to be named was minor league RHP Zach McAllister. McAllister, ranked fifth in Baseball America's prospect rankings entering this season, never really fit in with the Yankees organization. McAllister is a sinker-slider pitcher. Most of the starters that the Yankees develop throw four-seam fastballs and hard breaking balls (ex. Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain with Chien-Ming Wang a notable exception). McAllister was leapfrogged by Ivan Nova, who throws a low-90's four-seam fastball and a high-70's power curveball. (Nova was just called up to the majors to make a few starts because Phil Hughes is nearing his innings limit.) McAllister has struggled through a disatrous season in the minors, going 8-10 with a 5.09 ERA for the Triple-A Scranton-Wilkes Barre Yankees, primarily because he has allowed 11.2 hits per 9 innings, a remarkably bad ratio. (Nova has gone 12-6 with a 2.86 ERA.) Bottom line, the Yankees were going to stick with McAllister and his sinker-slider repertoire as long as he was successful in the minors. But, since he started struggling and had been passed by Nova (and possibly David Phelps) in the race for the next available major league rotation spot, he was expendable, and the Yankees gave him a chance with another organization. Good luck to him as a member of the Cleveland Indians.

Brackman finally shows his potential

Andrew Brackman has always had a major league body. The 2007 first rounder (30th overall) by the Yankees is 6"10, 240 pounds. Of course, that great size gives him great stuff. He throws a mid-90's fastball with a curveball that's just as effective. He also mixes in a changeup. So, why is Brackman only showing his potential now? Well, shortly after being drafted, he underwent Tommy John surgery and didn't make his minors debut until '08. '08 was a conplete disaster for Brackman. Altough he only gave up a hit per inning and had an 8.7 K/9, he went 2-12 with a 5.91 ERA for Low-A Charleston. The reason; a terrible 6.4 BB/9. But, pitchers always have problems their first year after Tommy John surgery, so the Yankees remained patient. In '09, their patience finally paid off. To start off '09, Brackman went 5-4 with a 5.10 ERA in 12 starts for High-A Tampa. That doesn't sound so good, but he lowered his BB/9 to 1.4 while keeping his K/9 at 8.4. But, he gave up 7 more hits than innings pitched. The Yankees noticed the improvement in Brackman's BB/9, and promoted him to Double-A Trenton. Brackman has shined in Double-A. He has gone just 3-7, but with a 3.68 ERA, a 8.7 K/9, a still decent 4.0 BB/9, and just 1.1 more hits than innings pitched. He just hasn't gotten very much run support. This is the Brackman that the Yankees drafted and the 1st round. If Brackman continues to improve, look for him to make the big leagues by the end of 2011 and compete for a rotation spot by 2012 or 2013.

Thomson belongs in a unique class of players

Everyone baseball fan knows Bobby Thomson. He hit the 'shot heard round the world' to send the NY Giants to the 1951 World Series. But, he's not a Hall of Famer. He was a career .270 season with 264 homers. 1951 was the only season in which he hit .264 homers. Still, everyone knows him. There aren't too many players like that. Most universally known players are either Hall of Famers (ex. Babe Ruth), future Hall of Famers (ex. Derek Jeter), or would be Hall of Famers whose careers were derailed by injuries (ex. Nomar Garciaparra) or some other problem (ex. Dwight Gooden or Mark McGwire). The universally known players who aren't anywhere near Hall of Famers had one legendary moment or one legendary season. Thomson, Roger Maris, and Kirk Gibson are the only ones I can think of immediately. (If you're thinking of Bill Mazeroski, who hit a walkoff homer to win the 1960 World Series for the Pirates, he was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 2001.) Maris and Gibson only had 275 and 255 homers respectively. Still, we'll always remember them. Some players are legends their whole career, but others are legends just because of one moment or one season that will be remembered forever.

What if Joba did have to come up to bat?

In Monday's 3-1 loss to the Tigers, Derek Jeter grounded into a game-ending double play with Joba Chamberlain on double deck. If you weren't watching the game, Alex Rodriguez left the game with a calf injury and was replaced by Ramiro Pena. Pena was then pinch-hit for by Marcus Thames and Francisco Cervelli moved from catcher to 3rd base to replace Thames and Jorge Posada moved from DH to catcher to replace Cervelli, so the Yankees lost their DH. The Yankees had a empty bench because Lance Berkman was injured and Nick Swisher had also left the game with right forearm tightness and Austin Kearns went to RF to replace him. So, let's say that Jeter beat out the relay throw to 1st (he actually almost did because Brett Gardner took 2B Carlos Guillen out at 2nd base). Then, it would be 1st and 3rd with 2 outs, a 3-2 score, and Mark Teixeira coming to the plate. The Tigers would then obviously intentionally walk Teix to bring up Joba with the bases loaded. What would the Yankees do?

The first thought would be to pinch-hit Berkman even though he was injured, but Girardi wouldn't do that because he wouldn't want to gamble with the rest of Berman's season to win one game. So, the only possible pinch-hitters were all pitchers. If the Yankees did decide to pinch-hit, it would have probably been either CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett, or Mariano Rivera.

Joba is 0 for 5 at the plate in his MLB career with a walk and 2 sac bunts. He never had an AB in the minors.

CC is 25 for 97 (.258) in his career with 3 homers and 14 RBI. He's a decent hitter. But, he was the next day's starter.

AJ is 35 for 267 in his career (.131) with 3 homers and 9 RBI. He's not the worst hitter ever.

Mo is 0 for 3 with a walk and an RBI. You may remember his bases loaded walk against K-rod on the same night that he got his 500th save. Would the Yankees hope for the same magic? If he did walk (or get a base hit), he would stay in the game to pitch the 10th.

I would pinch-hit CC. If Valverde gave him a hittable pitch, CC could have gotten a walk-off hit. He probably would have gotten out, but you never know. If Girardi didn't want to take a chance that CC could get hurt, he would have either stuck with Joba or sent up Mo because there was no point of sending up Burnett. No matter who the Yankees sent up, the Yankees would have probably lost the game anyway, but who knows? Maybe Valverde's wildness could have continued and he walked whoever the Yankees sent up to bat, or, maybe he could have given CC, Joba, or Mo a mistake pitch and most unlikely walkoff ever could have occurred. It sure would have been a sight to see.

Castro putting up numbers similar to a young Jeter

Before I start this post, let me make this clear: Starlin Castro is not Derek Jeter. He certainly can't be compared to Jeter at this point in his career. But, 20 year old Castro's 2010 rookie season has some simularities to Derek Jeter's 22 year old rookie season in 1996. Castro is hitting .316 in '10 with 21 doubles, 3 homers, 37 RBI, 5 triples, 6 SB, and a .362 OBP in 89 games. Jeter hit .314 in '96 with 104 runs, 183 hits, 25 doubles, 10 homers, 78 RBI, 6 triples, 14 SB, and a .370 OBP in 157 games. Obviously Jeter has better non-rate stats (all stats I listed besides BA and OBP) because he played in 68 more games to this point in the season. If you projected Castro's stats over 157 games, he would have 65 runs, 182 hits, 37 doubles, 5 homers, 65 RBI, 9 triples, and 11 SB. Castro doesn't have as much power as Jeter, but he appears to be a better hitter for average than a young Jeter, and a better doubles and triples hitter. (Jeter having more runs scored is basically because the 1996 Yankees scored 5.38 runs per game and the 2010 Cubs have scored 4.27 runs per game.) So, Castro and Jeter and very different hitters, but Castro is posting some stats that are comparable to Jeter's rookie year and that's always a good thing. Will Castro also be a Hall of Famer that gets 3000 hits? Ask me in 2025.