Results tagged ‘ Brian Bruney ’
Yankees sign Nady, Cabrera
Talking dollars and cents: the Yankees avoided salary arbitration with Xavier Nady and Melky Cabrera on Tuesday, coming to terms on new one-year contracts for both.
Nady signed for $6.65 million after earning $3.59 million last season. Cabrera inked a $1.4 million pact after requesting $1.7 million; the Yankees had offered $1.2 million.
Brian Bruney remains out there in the arbitration process. Bruney earned $725,000 last year and has asked for $1.55 million; the Yankees countered with $1.1 million.
This raises the Yankees’ projected Opening Day payroll to the area of $191 million for 16 players.
Medic alert
Something’s up with Jorge Posada, but the Yankees haven’t let us know what it is just yet. All I can tell you is that the Indians announced the lineup change about five minutes before first pitch, with no reason given. Jose Molina is behind the plate instead and Posada was yanked out of the five hole. Yankees PR director Jason Zillo said that they’ll have more information after the game.
It’s a new era here with the Yankees. I think you’ve already seen that Joe Girardi doesn’t like to give out any information that might somehow affect the opposition’s in-game decisions — Girardi has said numerous times that he won’t speak about relievers’ availability, believing that could be an advantage for the other side. The one exception was Brian Bruney, who was in a walking boot and obviously was not going to pitch on Thursday in Chicago.
That brings us to Joba Chamberlain, who sat for two consecutive games after throwing 33 pitches in that Chicago loss. Chamberlain hit a soft spot on the mound and felt a tweak in the back of his left hamstring, but the Yankees don’t seem to believe it’s anything all that serious. You can understand the cautiousness, though, when you realize that Chamberlain didn’t pitch until May last year with a strained hamstring.
Those hamstrings are tricky things – once you feel them start to tighten up on you, you’d better back off a little before blowing it out. I should know – it happened yesterday in the gym (yes, we writers do get to go to the gym once in a while). My left hamstring will be ready to go tomorrow and the Yankees expect Joba’s to be ready for today.
A Wahoo welcome from Harry Doyle
“Good evening and welcome to Teepee Talk! Hey, in case you haven’t
noticed, and judging by the attendance you haven’t … the Indians have
managed to scrape together a few wins and are threatening to climb out
of the cellar!”
I can never pass up an opportunity to quote Bob Uecker or Major League. Here in Cleveland, the Yankees are a little bit reconfigured, having placed Brian Bruney on the 15-day disabled list with a potentially season-ending Lisfranc injury and adding pitchers Jonathan Albaladejo and Chris Britton. Catcher Chad Moeller has been sent out into baseball limbo, where he’ll reside for the next 72 hours to see if a team claims him. If not, he’ll report to Triple-A. In the meantime, Moeller gets to fly home to Arizona and see his 2-year-old and 4-year-old children for the first time in a month.
The Progressive Field (still getting used to that name) visiting clubhouse has to be one of the coolest in baseball. I walked in today around 3:30 p.m. ET and saw Kyle Farnsworth sitting in a chair, cocking a shotgun and blasting various woodland animals on the arcade version of Big Buck Hunter Pro. We all crowded around and watched Farnsworth really give it to all of these poor virtual animals. Joe Girardi checked in and said, “A four pointer? That’s not even worth it. That’s like shooting Bambi!”
For those not inclined to violent guns and ammo games, the Indians also provided an arcade standup of Golden Tee, the golf game. The high score belongs to “VER.” Could that be the Tigers’ Justin Verlander?
For me, though, the kicker was seeing the original Nintendo Entertainment System sitting on the floor below a flat-screen HDTV. The 8-bit Bases Loaded cartridge was there, begging to be played, but I guess the guys just aren’t that old school anymore.
Bad news all around
Certainly not the way the Yankees wanted to finish up in Chicago. Joba Chamberlain took his first big league loss on a day that a promising start from Phil Hughes had to be wasted due to the rain, while Brian Bruney spent the day in a walking boot and Kyle Farnsworth slipped on the mound, tweaking his pitching elbow.
Bruney gets the award for worst day of all. Not only does it look like he’s headed to the disabled list, but his uncle was found not breathing after suffering a heart attack in Oregon and has been hospitalized with a coma. Bruney also got word that the tractor trailer hauling his truck to New York was in an accident, doing significant damage to his personal vehicle.
The Yankees are going to have to make some roster moves to get pitchers up on the big league squad for the weekend at Cleveland. Farnsworth appears to be sidelined and Bruney certainly is. Meanwhile, the Yankees used Ross Ohlendorf for 49 pitches over two innings Thursday, ruling him out from duty for a while.
We’ve got your offense right here
You knew it was too good to last. The Yankees played their first four hour-plus game of the season on Wednesday at the Stadium, a 15-9 slugfest with the Red Sox that played – for the first five innings, especially – like the co-ed softball games I used to umpire in Rockland County. (That was a lot of fun. Hopefully someone remembers all the times I beat the runner down the first base line as a single-man umpiring crew. I’m a hustler.)
20 runs crossed the plate in the first five frames alone, but LaTroy Hawkins and Brian Bruney especially stopped the bleeding and deserve a lot of credit for this one. Chien-Ming Wang had little but neither did Clay Buchholz, and for as sharp as they both looked last Friday in Boston, this was a definite pounding for each guy.
This evening brings us Mike Mussina and Josh Beckett in what, on paper, reads like a mismatch. You never know when Moose is going to be able to spot his command, though, and you can’t write him off for this one. If he’s able to hit his spots and stay below 100 pitches in five innings, the Yankees have a chance.
Why not? The bats are warming up and this looks more like the offense that we’ve been saying can pound bad pitchers into submission. Beckett, however, is not one of those guys. He’s a bonafide ace and they’ll have their work cut out for them.
Last day in K.C.
One more day remaining in Kansas City and the Yankees are still looking for a masterpiece. Then again, the way things are going, they’d settle for an ugly victory. The Yankees will be back at it again tonight at Kauffman Stadium, sending Andy Pettitte to the mound in search of the sharpness that eluded him last time out. And wouldn’t you know it? It’s raining in Kansas City again.
It seems a pretty safe bet that Joe Girardi won’t try using his bullpen to start this game. You think he might have wanted a do-over on that idea? Actually, the plan worked pretty well through the first four innings with Brian Bruney and Billy Traber, and then they did get a scoreless frame from Kyle Farnsworth.
But John Buck’s home run leading off the fifth changed all that, and as Girardi would later say, it’s impossible to win when you don’t score. That’s another problem they need to rectify immediately if they want to avoid months like they had early last year.
And starting for the Yankees, No. 33, Brian Bruney
Now here’s the story with this one. Brian Bruney is starting for the Yankees instead of Ian Kennedy due to weather concerns. A Yankees spokesman said that Joe Girardi was
concerned about a looming rain storm that was projected to hit the Kauffman
Stadium area shortly after the scheduled 7:10 p.m. start time.
If the rain passed and play resumed, the Yankees said, Kennedy would then
pitch. Interesting move by Girardi, but what kind of message do you take from this if you’re Bruney?
UPDATE: And the parade of relievers continues on, as here’s Billy Traber. I guess Girardi figures if he can get four innings from his bullpen and then use Kennedy for four or five, that’d be good enough. But there’s a giant green blob on the radar and that might be a bit optimistic.
It’s a whole new world
Mike Mussina was grumbling sarcastically as he walked through the Yankees’ clubhouse this afternoon, munching on a can of peanuts.
“There’s nothing to eat in this place,” Mussina said.
Joe Girardi’s new movement to banish sweets from the players lounge may hit Mussina, a self-professed sugar junkie, the hardest. You’re talking about a guy whose blood type is practically Mountain Dew. Mussina is making more than $11 million this year, so you’d think he could supply his own ice cream and M&Ms, but it’s the principle of the matter.
Meanwhile, here’s something Joe Torre wouldn’t have approved of. Johnny Damon lugs a portable white karaoke machine everywhere the Yankees go now, and it has a jack to put anybody’s iPod in and crank up some tunes.
Brian Bruney was the guest DJ this afternoon and, in a completely random succession, we were all treated to Young Jeezy’s ‘Go Getter,’ the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ ‘Under the Bridge,’ Kid Rock’s ‘Devil Without a Cause,’ and Seven Mary Three’s ‘Water’s Edge.’
Chien-Ming Wang is still the coolest kid in school. None of this bothered him as he sat at his locker, silently (what else?), flipping through an exotic car magazine.
Bryan Hoch
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