Results tagged ‘ Darrell Rasner ’
Former Yankees Rasner, Albaladejo OK in Japan
Hot Stove: Yankees, Jeter coming closer?
Here are some of the latest Yankees notes and quotes on a chilly Saturday afternoon in New York City, no doorbuster sales required:
Maybe the Yankees and Derek Jeter are coming closer to sorting this all out, but there is still work to be done. The latest New York Daily News report suggests that Jeter has suggested a five-year deal worth between $22 to $24 million per year.
That’s a step down from the six-year, $150 million figure that was reported earlier and shot down by agent Casey Close as inaccurate. (If you want to know more about who Close is, check out this New York Times profile).
The Yankees’ offer is said to be holding steady at three years and $45 million.
It bears repeating just because every other question I seem to be asked – online and offline – is about Jeter. So it goes with the Hot Stove. There are variations of my answer, but it basically boils down to this: the Yankees want him and he wants the Yankees. How can they not eventually figure this out?
Let’s even pretend there are other teams out there that want Jeter as their Opening Day shortstop: he’s not the same presence if he’s not ‘Derek Jeter, Captain of the New York Yankees.’ He knows it, the Yankees know it, we all know it. And the Yankees know their fan base will be irate if Jeter gets hit No. 3,000 elsewhere and Eduardo Nunez is at shortstop when the schedule begins.
Yet are we surprised that the very proud Jeter didn’t jump at the first offer the Yankees presented – especially considering it represents a pay cut from what he made this year? The Yankees have fair points to consider in their concerns about his age (37 in June) and production not only in 2011, but 2012, 2013, and onward. It’s a fascinating drama, but it can’t go on forever. Right?
Jonathan Albaladejo, who was released by the Yankees last week, has cashed in with a $950,000, one-year deal to pitch for the Yomiuri Giants. Also, it flew under the radar, but Darrell Rasner re-upped with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles this month. This all comes while Marcus Thames is reportedly weighing offers to sign for some quick, guaranteed money in Japan instead of waiting out the free agent process in the Majors.
The Yankees have signed right-hander Brian Anderson and left-hander Andy Sisco to Minor League deals with invitations to Spring Training, Ken Rosenthal reports via Twitter.
Posada has a checkup
Darrell Rasner and Kevin Slowey are set to go at it tonight here under the lights from the Bronx.
What did you do today? I’ll bet you had a better day than Jorge Posada, who spent a few hours in an MRI tube over at the Hospital for Special Surgery. Brian Cashman sent word that the results have not yet been shared with the Yankees by Dr. David Altchek, but even though that’s not set to happen until tomorrow, it’s fair to speculate that they didn’t find everything to be ship-shape in Posada’s arm. Once the level of damage is quantified, they’ll know how severe it is and can proceed from there.
Chad Moeller is in the lineup tonight to catch Rasner. Joe Girardi believes they communicate well and Moeller knows how to challenge Rasner — let’s not forget that when Rasner was at Triple-A and lighting the world on fire, Moeller was there too. Nobody has really talked about the clock ticking, but Rasner desperately needs a good start to keep his spot in the rotation with July 31 approaching. A bad start certainly won’t dissuade whatever trade talks may or may not be happening.
It looks like Johnny Damon is a solid ‘maybe’ to play left field at Fenway Park this weekend. Damon tossed again today and is getting closer, though the Yankees certainly don’t want to rush him — “I’m not going to push it, because I can’t have a setback,” Girardi said. Damon doesn’t have the strongest arm anyway, and the Green Monster plays into it a little bit, cutting down the distance needed to hit cutoff men.
Pitching matchups for the Twins series
TONIGHT
Nick Blackburn, RHP (7-5, 3.65) @ Sidney Ponson, RHP (5-1, 3.96)
Scouting Report:
Yankees: Ponson, who signed with New York on June 18, will be making
his fourth start in a Yankees uniform this season. During his last
outing he surrendered one earned run over six innings while recording
two strikeouts against Tampa Bay. Ponson owns a 10-2 record with a 2.42
ERA in 15 career appearances against Minnesota.
Twins: A stellar first half has Blackburn being mentioned as a Rookie of the Year candidate. The sinkerballer has started to become more consistent, delivering quality starts in five of his last six outings. He’s started to eliminate his problems with the big inning and could be a factor for the Twins in the second half. He’ll make his second start against the Yankees. In the first, he left having pitched just 4 1/3 innings after he was struck in the face by a Bobby Abreu line drive.
TUESDAY
Kevin Slowey, RHP (6-6, 4.26) @ Darrell Rasner, RHP (5-7, 4.97)
Scouting Report:
Yankees: Rasner battled through five innings en route to his fifth
victory during his last outing against the Blue Jays. The
27-year-old allowed four runs in the first inning but
settled in and managed to get through five innings on 108 pitches. He
finished his outing with six strikeouts for his first victory since
June 18. After starting the season with three straight victories,
Rasner is now 2-7 with a 6.19 ERA over his past nine outings. He is 1-1
with a 3.97 ERA in two career starts against the Twins.
Twins: An infected fingernail on Slowey’s right middle finger pushed him back in the rotation. After a string of good starts, Slowey has found some trouble recently. He’s given up at least five earned runs in each of his last two starts. The Twins need Slowey to make quicker adjustments on the mound and keep the ball down in the zone. He’ll try when he faces the Yankees for the first time this season.
WEDNESDAY
Glen Perkins, LHP (7-2, 3.84) @ Mike Mussina, RHP (12-6, 3.49)
Scouting Report:
Yankees: Mussina surpassed his win total from the entire 2007 season
when he picked up his 12th win Friday night against the A’s. He threw
six innings of one-run ball and scattered nine hits to quiet the
Oakland offense. Mussina struck out six — four looking — and did not
record a walk for the second straight game. He is now 11-3 with a 3.00
ERA in his last 16 starts.
Twins: The rookie left-hander continues to impress the Twins in a starting role. Perkins held a hot-hitting Rangers lineup scoreless for six innings, allowing three hits and walking three. He’s 3-0 in his last three starts and has not lost since May 30, going 5-0 with a 3.81 ERA over that span. That last loss came against the Yankees. Perkins gave up five earned runs on 10 hits over just four innings in that first outing at the Metrodome.
Halladay shuts the Yanks out
I went to the DHL All-Star FanFest yesterday at the Javits Center in New York, and I have to say, if I could grab my 8-year-old self from the 1980s and bring him to it, he would have loved it. I mean, Cal Ripken is running an infield clinic for kids today. That says it all, doesn’t it?
If you have a baseball-crazy kid and can get to the New York area, he or she needs to spend a few hours at the Javits Center this weekend.
Either way, here in the present-day, I’m proud to say I did better in the video batting cages than the Yankees did last night facing Roy Halladay. Limited to just an Alex Rodriguez single and a Derek Jeter double, the Yankees went extremely quickly and quietly in a 5-0 shutout loss to quite possibly the best pitcher in baseball.
They’ll try again this afternoon as Darrell Rasner tests out some mechanical adjustments while facing the Jays’ Jesse Litsch.
Assorted notes and quotes: Looks like Chad Moeller is in the lineup for the Yankees … Eric Milton signed a Minor League deal with the Yankees but it looks like he may not pitch before the year ends. The Yankees apparently want to supervise his rehab and consider signing him for ’09 … Carl Pavano threw 45 pitches to live hitters and remains, believe it or not, ahead of Phil Hughes …
6/7 – Yankees vs. Royals
Last night was a rough one, as the Yankees failed to capitalize on opportunities and let Darrell Rasner’s gutty effort – a career-high eight innings and 118 pitches, a season-high for any Yankee starter – go by the boards.
Rasner scattered nine hits and used a lot of those pitches early, but he really seemed determined to hang on long enough to get a win. If Jason Giambi doesn’t get rung up on a 3-2 pitch that ended the eighth inning, maybe we’re talking about Rasner’s record at 4-2 rather than 3-3.
Before the game, we were all herded into the public relations office for a conference call with the Yankees’ first-round pick, Gerrit Cole. If there was any doubt about how young Cole really is – he’s 17 – you knew it right away when he started rattling off the names of his favorite Yankees players. Derek Jeter. Bernie Williams. Paul O’Neill. Aaron Boone?
Yankees vice president of scouting Damon Oppenheimer says that he’s pleased with the 51 players the team drafted to replenish the system. The dividends from this draft are a few years down the road, but there’s no better examples than Phil Hughes (2004), Joba Chamberlain (2006) and Ian Kennedy (2006). It’s not as far off as it may seem.
Assorted off day thoughts from across the GWB
Sitting here in the Garden State, it’s strange to look at the schedule and see the Yankees dark for the evening. Don’t get too used to it, but I’m sure the players are enjoying the chance to kick back and relax for a day. It’s Cinco de Mayo, incidentally.
So far today I’ve used the afternoon to go for a four mile run and crack open the new John Feinstein book, ‘Living on the Black.’ I’ll fire this plug in here because many of you might find this entertaining — Feinstein followed Mike Mussina and Tom Glavine around for the entire ’07 season and chronicled their ups and downs, the events and really, what it’s like to be a big league pitcher. I’m only a few dozen pages in but, so far, thumbs up.
Interesting weekend out at the Stadium, wasn’t it? They’ll try to keep that momentum going with the Indians headed in Tuesday night for a three-game series, sending Andy Pettitte out against Fausto Carmona. As our preview notes, maybe it will be the time that Robinson Cano breaks out … you know the Yankees can’t wait for his slumbering bat to wake up.
As some of you may know, every other Monday is Yankees Mailbag day. We’ll have a new one on MLB.com for you shortly but here’s a few points I wanted to get to, but had to leave on the cutting room floor. …
– The Yankees have shown no inclination to move Derek Jeter to a new position and, though it may happen eventually, it won’t be in ’08. Gonzalez has hung around longer than anyone expected — Joe Girardi had said that he’d be sent down as soon as Jeter’s quadriceps injury was better, but then Wilson Betemit came down with a mysterious corneal ulcer and went on rehab with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
– Andrew Brackman is going to miss all of ’08 after Tommy John surgery. Humberto Sanchez is throwing off a mound in Tampa but has not yet pitched in a Minor League game. When he does, you can start the clock, but a good guess would be that he could be considered for an August callup.
– Carl Pavano? Really? I must have had about 25 Pav questions, literally. Lisa Kennelly from the Newark Star-Ledger answered the question, “What is Pavano doing?” better than I can. The answer appears to be very little.
(By the way, for those of you who e-mail vulgar notes because I haven’t answered your questions … there are literally thousands of Mailbag questions and I can’t personally answer each one. If you send a question to bryan.hoch@mlb.com, it has a much better chance of being answered.)
Last thought — check out the Manager’s View with Joe Girardi before every home game.
The Moose is Loose
Jamie Moyer? Mike Mussina thinks not. The Moose was loose for seven sharp innings on Wednesday, limiting the White Sox to just two solo home runs in the Yankees’ 6-4 victory. Mussina showed the ability to make adjustments, abandoning his curveball and throwing more running two-seamers with sink. Hey, forget Moyer – he’s Chien-Ming Wang!
In all seriousness, Mussina should be savoring these as he goes along. He can still pitch when everything’s clicking, like it was in Chicago. He’s going to have days rougher than Wednesday, too, and fans need to be prepared for that. But the Yankees are looking to Mussina to be their third starter, not an ace, and by reshuffling their rotation they’ll be able to avoid mismatches like the Mussina vs. Josh Beckett debacle at Fenway.
In other news…
Phil Hughes says his velocity is just fine - note to fans, stop waiting for the 95 mph-plus heaters to pop in. He’s not Joba Chamberlain. Hughes himself said he only hit 95 mph three times in 2006 at Trenton, when he went over the radar gun readings after every start. … Anyone else see what Darrell Rasner is up to lately? He’s only leading the International League in ERA. Ian Kennedy, be warned. … The buried David Ortiz jersey went for $175,000. Wonder if the construction worker would like to have it back? … If you had Ella Alexander Rodriguez in the ‘Name A-Rod’s Baby’ pool, congratulations — you’ve won.
Bryan Hoch
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