From Pete Abraham:
He went out firing, saying he would not return to the Yankees even if he cleared waivers and was offered a spot with Triple-A Scranton.
The Producers move The Alamo dvd
“I don’t think I got a fair shot,” he said. “I pitched great in spring training and didn’t make the team. I pitched great in the minors, got called up and didn’t get much of a chance. I understand other guys are pitching great. But it could have been different. I can’t see the point in coming back.”
Brett Tomko has been around a long time, and at no point has he been anything better than middling, while he has often been awful. Yet he has made 20 million dollars in his career, and the Yankees gave him a shot to earn some more money despite his ERA exceeding 5.50 in each of the last two seasons. He pulled down a paycheck to throw 20 below average innings for the Yankees, and is now mouthing off about not getting a chance. Brett, you have had 13 years of chances, and now the Yankees are giving some young guy their first shot at having a MLB career. Simmer down.
According to Peter Abraham, the Yankees have DFA’d Brett Tomko to get starter Sergio Mitre on the roster. This shows some confidence in Mark Melancon, which suggests that the Yankees feel that he will be able to give them some solid innings out of the back of the pen for the next few weeks, as well as some length in blowouts. Being that he was throwing multiple inning outings in the minors, this should not be an issue for him. It also means that Mitre may stick as the long man when Chien-Ming Wang returns, while Damaso Marte would likely take Melancon’s place. This is a smart move from a team that has shown a similar willingness to depend on younger players all year.
Monster-in-Law rip The Forgotten Ones film Wind film Train Master dvd
I’m too amped up to put my thoughts down in a rational manner right now, so I’m going to bullet point it again.
- A.J. was pretty awesome until the 7th, as he shut the Twins out for 6 innings and matched zeroes with Kevin Slowey. In the 7th, he allowed a two out RBI to Matt Tolbert that was made possible by a walk to Nick Punto. He then walked the next two hitters and threw in a wild pitch and a passed ball by Kevin Cash, and suddenly another run was in and the bases were juiced. Albaladejo came in to strike out Kubel to end the threat. All in all it was a very strong performance from Burnett, and the Yankees could really benefit from seeing him settle in and pitch the way his talent suggests he should be able to pitch.
- Can we not find anybody better than Kevin Cash? I know that he is the 4th string catcher, but I have to assume that Chris Stewart is better than what we have seen thus far from Kevin.
- In the bottom of that inning, A-Rod homered, Matsui doubled, moved over on a bunt, and scored on a sac fly from Melky. A-Rod is starting to look a bit more comfortable at the plate, and Matsui and Melky seem to be in the middle of every Yankee rally these days.
- In the next inning, Albie loaded the bases with one out, including a walk to Nick Punto (sensing an annoying theme?). Brett Tomko came in, and with the infield in, Denard Span lined a grounder sharply to first base. Mark Teixeira dove and threw the runner out at home from his knees. it was an exceptional play, and Tomko coaxed a popup from the next hitter to end the threat. I do not have much faith in Tomko, but he did his job today. In regard to Tex, his glove is as good as advertised, and makes him a valuable player even when he is slumping with the bat.
- Mo pitched the top of the 9th and worked around a leadoff single by Joe Mauer to retire the side. In the bottom of the inning, Brett Gardner pinch ran for Swisher and was at second with one out. Cervelli lined a ball of the pitcher, and it bounced back towards home plate. Mauer grabbed it and pumped to first, and Gardner headed home. It was a stupid play with a contact hitter like Cano due up next, and he was nailed at the plate by the alert Mauer.
- There was a lot of bunting by the Yankees in this game. Not so sure I like it.
- Alfredo Aceves pitched the 10th and breezed through a 1-2-3 inning. He needs to be used in high leverage situations ASAP. He pounds the zone and does not seem to be afraid to come inside on hitters. Quite frankly, he looks excellent at this point, and the Yankees should be utilizing him over options like Albie, Tomko, Veras, and Edwar.
- Johnny Damon hit a walk-off home run to end the game in the 10th. This time has a really good vibe about it lately, and the hot bat of Johnny Damon has a lot to do with that. With Manny testing positive, Jason Bay becoming prohibitively expensive, and Matt Holliday struggling mightily away from Coors, Damon may actually be the Yankees best option in LF for 2010.
Peter Abraham has the news. The Yankees continue to puzzle me. After Robertson did such a good job cleaning up for Mark Melancon the other day, they send him down. Meanwhile, Edwar Ramirez, Jose Veras, and Jon Albaladejo are stinking up the middle innings. Robertson is now and in the future the better pitcher.
Albaladejo and Edwar have options. No word on the 40-man change. Its probably not Berroa, unless the Yankees have added another player to the 25-man roster that we don’t know about. I’m guessing that Xavier Nady hits the 60-day.
Throughout the day, I will be looking at the battles for the final spots on the Yankees roster: the last reliever, the battle for CF, and the utility infielder fight. I’ll start with the 7th reliever.
As of now, it seems clear that Mariano Rivera, Brian Bruney, Damaso Marte, Jose Veras, Edwar Ramirez, and Phil Coke will make the opening day roster barring injury. It was assumed for most of spring training that the Yankees would carry a long reliever to fill that final slot, with Dan Giese, Alfredo Aceves, and Brett Tomko being the candidates. However, Joe Girardi suggested this afternoon that the battle for the final relief spot is more complicated than that:
So it looks like Joe Girardi may not take a long reliever after all.
This morning at 8:30 a.m., Girardi talked about the competition between Brett Tomko, Dan Giese and Alfredo Aceves, discussing the importance of today’s game since all three were pitching.
But when someone asked Girardi if the rest of the bullpen was pretty much settled, the manager said something interesting.
“Albaladejo has pitched great,” Girardi said.
At first, I thought maybe Albaladejo was in the mix for a spot we all assumed would go to Jose Veras or Edwar Ramirez, but after the game, it all became a lot clearer. Albaladejo, who can pitch two innings at a time, could combine with Phil Coke to form a long-man committee of sorts. All of a sudden, Tomko, Giese and Aceves weren’t only competing with each other, but with Albaladejo as well.
Let’s look at the spring numbers for the four candidates:
1. A Aceves 4.60ERA, 15.2IP, 14H, 8ER, 4HR, 6BB, 7SO
2. D Giese 6.89ERA 15.2IP, 22H, 12ER, 5HR, 4BB, 17SO
3. B Tomko 1.17ERA, 15.1IP, 12H, 2ER, 1HR, 2BB, 12SO
4. J Albaladejo 0.93ERA, 9.2IP, 8H, 1ER, 0HR, 1BB, 8SO
To me, that looks like a two man race. Giese has shown himself to be an all or nothing type, allowing plenty of hits and home runs while striking out the most batters. Aceves has been decent, but has walked too many batters and has allowed too many home runs. The Yankees may take one of the previous two due to last season’s performance and their potential to be better than a known commodity than Tomko, but I think the wide disparity in performances makes that unlikely.
Looking at Tomko and Albaladejo, both clearly deserve to make the roster. However, the decision between them will come down to a philosophical one: does the team need a long reliever or not? If the Yankees think that the multiple innings that they can get from Bruney, Coke, and Albie make a long man superfluous, then Albie will win the job. Personally, I hated that they went without a long man at the start of last season and jerked Albie and Ross Ohlendorf around as to their roles. With Joba on an innings limit, the Yankees might be better served giving Tomko a shot to start the season. Albaladejo will get his chance eventually.
What do you think?
One decision likely to be finalized after tomorrow’s game is that of the long reliever. Brett Tomko, Alfredo Aceves and Dan Giese are splitting that game, with each of them slated to pitch three innings. The Yankees plan to start the season with 12 pitchers. Girardi doesn’t believe they need three catchers, as he has seen enough out of Jorge Posada to think he can catch regularly.
Newsday reports that in today’s match up against the Braves, Girardi will likely make his final decision for the last spot in the bullpen after the game. Brett Tomko appears to have run away with it, posting a 1.86 ERA with 9 hits and just 2 walks in 12.1 innings. But Alfredo Aceves could still land the job, after a rough start early this spring he has been much stronger in his recent outings. Dan Geise has done nothing to improve his stock this spring, posting an ERA of 7.43 which has gone up in his most recent outings. So if they decide to add Tomko to the 40 man, Geise is the most likely candidate to be DFA’d. I won’t lose any sleep if someone claims him, but I think that’s unlikley.
Also, I’m a bit surprised the Yanks apparently won’t carry 3 Catchers. Doing so would allow them to pinch hit Swisher for Molina late in games while still resting Posada, and protect them afterwards in those same games in case of injury. Of course, having a full time DH in Matsui on the team makes it harder to carry the extra catcher. But given that CC, Wang and Pettitte usually pitch deep into games, I would have figured they’d go with 11 pitchers. Apparently not.
Notable performances from the Yankees 8-3 defeat at the hands of the Phillies earlier today:
1) Brian Bruney continued his putrid spring, allowing 2 runs on 2 hits, on of which was a home run by Mat Stairs, in one inning. He also notched two strikeouts, and thankfully was able to avoid the base on balls. According to Pete Abe, Bruney’s job is not in danger, but Joe Girardi has mentioned that Brian really needs to get it going. Bruney may be assured of a roster spot, but I could see him losing his hold on the 8th inning if he does not string together some decent performances.
2) Nick Swisher was not thrilled with Girardi’s decision to go with Xavier Nady in right field, but he seems to have a good attitude about the whole thing:
“This is a great team and we have an opportunity to do some wonderful things this year. I want to be a part of that; I want to win. Coming over here, that was the biggest thing, I want to win. But I also want to be a part. I’ve played every day pretty much my whole career. I think there’s going to be a lot of at-bats out there for me. I’ve got to be ready when I’m told I’m ready to play.
“I don’t know how to put it. I don’t know how I’m feeling or whatever. I just know I want to be in there everyday. That’s it, that’s what I can say.”
As Nick rightly noted, I am sure that he will get in excess of 400 at bats, as the Yankees will need to use him liberally to account for age and injuries in their outfield.
3) John Rodriguez went 1-1 with an RBI, and is hitting .350/.480/.500 this spring in a pinch hitting role. He is unlikely to break camp with the club, but he may get a shot as a lefty bat off the bench at some point in 2009. He has a 110 OPS+ in 332 career MLB AB’s, making him a decent option to fill in for a few weeks in case of injury at a corner outfield spot.
4) Dan Giese pitched poorly again, allowing three runs, including a HR by immortal Miguel Cairo, in just one inning of work. In contrast, Brett Tomko supplied a shutout inning, dropping his spring ERA to 1.46. If the Yankees decide to take a long man north, it would be hard to justify taking anyone but Tomko, even if it will take some maneuvering of the roster.
The battle for the last spot in the bullpen figures to be between Alfredo Aceves, Dan Giese and Brett Tomko. Here’s their numbers so far:
Aceves WL 1-0 ERA 5.40 IP 10.0 H 10 R 6 ER 6
Geise WL 0-1 ERA 5.84 IP 12.1 H 15 R 8 ER 8
Tomko WL 0-1 ERA 1.59 IP 11.1 H 8 R 2 ER 2
So far, its clearly Tomko in a landslide. However, many MLB players are slowly filtering back from the WBC so the final 2 weeks of spring training could be decisive.
Tomko has always been a league average pitcher at best. His stuff is good, he has a fastball and sinker that both run in the low-90’s and an underrated change-up plus a good curve. But his mental toughness has always been questioned, which is especially troubling coming to New York. He tends to be erratic and can lose the strike zone completely at times. I’m also not sure that he’ll fare any better as a reliever, his 07/08 splits show that he tends to get better as the game goes on, though those numbers could be skewed from nights where he simply didn’t have it. But looking at his Inning, Leverage and Role splits I see nothing to lead me to believe he’ll be any more effective as a reliever than he was as a starter. If he does make the team, I suspect his leash will be short, as will his stay here if he doesn’t perform.
I hope to do this for every spring training game, or at least once every couple of days to track the progress of players through camp.
3 UP
1) Brett Gardner- He showed some power, homering in the first at bat of the spring. If he can reach base at a decent clip and hit a few doubles, he will likely win the CF job. He got off to a nice start.
2) Alex Rodriguez- He has an immense amount of pressure on his shoulders, and hitting a home run in the first game was a nice sign that he is just going to just shut everything out and hit.
3) Brett Tomko- 2 innings, 1 hit is a rousing start for a guy who has a slim chance to win the long reliever slot. Dan Giese and Al Aceves are not locks for the roster, and more performances like this by Tomko will at worst put his name into the conversation.
3 Down
1) Jose Veras- Jose was very wild, allowing the lone run of the day while walking two in the process. Being that the Yankees have plenty of options for the bullpen, Veras needs to show that the second half of last season was a fluke.
2) Shelley Duncan- Shelley entered last spring with a roster spot almost guaranteed. it seems that he is back to being a 4A player, and 0-3 with 2 K’s will not help his case.
3) Kevin Russo- Russo is probably going to be the first infielder called up should Cody Ransom falter. However, he did not help his stock by going 0-2 with a K and an error.
A low-risk signing that provides depth (minor-league deal). He’s nothing more than that (basically, he’s the very definition of a Cashman pickup).
