Results tagged ‘ Sergio Mitre ’
Rumor Mill: A Jeter deal for Damon?
Scott Boras made the rounds in Chicago yesterday, giving the writers something to chew on with Johnny Damon. Whether you read it frokm Joel Sherman in the New York Post, Mark Feinsand in the Daily News or David Waldstein in the New York Times, here’s the bottom line — Boras is drawing comparisons between his client, Damon, and what the Yankees have done and will do with Derek Jeter.
Boras’ argument, according to Sherman, is that Damon and Jeter worked so well atop the lineup in 2009, they should be viewed as a tandem. He also notes that that Damon has historic durability and that past three seasons equate well for both Damon and Jeter, and so they should be paid similarly. And Boras, of course, does not want Damon to take a pay cut from his $13 million annual salary (no one pays Boras’ commission to take a pay cut).
Here’s the problem, as I see it. The Yankees are going to overpay Derek Jeter. There’s no question about it, they’re going to give him one of those sweetheart deals where they pay him a lot for the future as a thank you for being the captain and leader of past teams, because they don’t want to see him getting his 3,000th hit in another uniform.
That’s fine, we all accept it, and if there’s one guy you’re going to do that to, it’s Jeter. OK, maybe they did it a little to not see Mariano Rivera — and especially Jorge Posada — in other uniforms too.
Point is, Damon doesn’t have that same cache with the Yankees. He was a very good player, a very productive player, over those four years. But he’s no franchise talent. A one or two-year deal is probably all that the Yankees are going to bring to the table with Damon. If Boras is intent on getting more, Damon is likely to be playing elsewhere in 2010 and beyond.
– Sherman also notes the Yankees intend to either pick up Sergio Mitre’s $1.25 million option by next week’s deadline or offer him arbitration, keeping him around as rotation depth. As expected, the Yankees also plan on non-tendering Chien-Ming Wang and then considering offering him a smaller money deal to return.
– Cashman on Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain, via Feinsand: “I look at them as starters that can relieve. We haven’t had our meetings, but I would anticipate going to spring training with as much starting depth as possible.”
Cashman also told reporters that he’s not actively shopping Ian Kennedy, but teams have called with interest.
Gaudin to start Thursday
RHP Chad Gaudin will start Thursday at Toronto instead of RHP Sergio Mitre, the Yankees have announced. They want to be cautious with Mitre as he comes off Tommy John surgery. They’ll revisit the rotation when that Sept. 7 doubleheader gets a little closer. Mitre tossed on the field today and said he felt OK, but acknowledged he was “questionable” to start vs. the Blue Jays.
“Our biggest concern is, coming off the injury he came off of, we don’t want him favoring that,” Girardi said.
Starting it back up at Fenway Park
Here’s the statue of an 8-foot-tall Ted Williams placing a Red Sox cap on a cancer-stricken boy outside Fenway Park, which coincidentally happened to be where my taxi cab dropped me off this afternoon.
Some 11 hours after leaving, we’re back at here in Boston, where the Yankees and Red Sox will try to find some pitching after last night’s slugfest. I wouldn’t expect Johnny Damon to be in the lineup this afternoon for the Yankees, as he said his right knee was probably going to swell up considerably overnight. We’ll check on that downstairs but I’d expect Eric Hinske would be in.
It got lost in the frantic scoring last night, but Brian Bruney might have evaporated all of the trust he’s built with Joe Girardi over the last few weeks. The fact that Bruney came in and couldn’t throw strikes with an 11-run lead is troubling. When he fell behind 2-0 on Alex Gonzalez, both Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez sprinted to the mound and got in Bruney’s face, as if to say, “It’s Alex Gonzalez – get the ball over the plate!”
Damaso Marte did what the Yankees paid him $12 million over three years to do … get David Ortiz out. Sergio Mitre didn’t look sharp in a ‘just-keep-it-close’ appearance, but you’d figure he stays in the rotation when we get back to New York.
I wasn’t here for the ’99 All-Star Game, wish I had been. But I do have a quick Ted Williams story for you — back in my baseball card collecting days, I pulled what would become the unchallenged prize of my collection one day (for you Rocklanders, a shout-out to T.J.’s in Suffern, N.Y. Anyone know if it still there?). Stowed within a pack of cards was a Ted Williams autograph, serially numbered at No. 6 of 406.
While I very rarely go through those cards anymore, I know that I still have it, sealed in thick plastic. Someday I know I’ll pass it on, and it remains the most valuable card I’ve ever owned …unless someone wants to gift me a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle, which would be just fine. I promise I’d give it a good home.
A rotation change in the works?
There has been no official announcement yet, but there are indications that Joe Girardi is thinking about shuffling the deck in his pitching rotation and having Joba Chamberlain pitch this weekend after all.
CC Sabathia’s eight innings last night helped give the bullpen a night off and decrease the importance of having both Sergio Mitre and Chad Gaudin start games in this series.
Girardi is going to meet with the media at 6:30 p.m. ET and we should have word on a decision – if any – shortly after that.
Girardi: I’m sticking with Sergio
Sergio Mitre is going to make his next turn in the Yankees rotation, Joe Girardi confirmed without hesitation after tonight’s 5-4 loss to the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium.
“He threw the ball well,” Girardi said. “His miscue cost him a really good outing, in a
sense. You’re looking at just a couple of solo home runs and that’s
basically it.”
Mitre was charged with his first loss of the season, allowing five runs (three earned) on six hits in five innings. He struck out a season-high six batters and said he is pleased that Girardi is hanging with him for the next turn, which would be Aug. 15 at Seattle.
“That’s a big boost of confidence for me,” Mitre said. “He’s backing me up all the
way. I’m trying to do the best I can for him, just to stop those
questions for him so everybody can know that I can pitch here and
finally just answer that question once and for all.”
Both Mitre and Girardi said the difference in Monday’s game was three mistakes — homers to Aaron Hill in the third inning and Lyle Overbay in the fifth inning, plus the game-changing error on a tailing throw to second base that set up a three-run fourth inning.
Mitre said he double-pumped the throw and got underneath it, forcing it to elude Robinson Cano on what was originally charged as an error to the second baseman before being changed post-game. If Mitre makes the proper throw to Cano, Girardi guessed he’d have allowed two runs in five innings and be sent out for the sixth.
Mitre said that after being out of the game for a year and a half, he is feeling signs of progress and his elbow isn’t bothering him at all.
“Everything is positive,” Mitre said. “I was able to get five today. It feels like I’m taking little steps forward. Three mistakes cost me the game – two home runs and the big one was the ground ball double play. If I do that, it’s a completely different ballgame.”
8/5 – Yankees at Blue Jays
The roof is open, the weather’s great, and that’s really all you need to know heading into tonight’s series finale between the Yanks and Jays. Well, and this:
The Yankees designated Cody Ransom for assignment prior to the game and promoted Anthony Claggett from Triple-A Scranton, in a move that most anticipated earlier this week. With the more versatile Jerry Hairston, Jr. on the roster now, it just didn’t make a whole lot of sense to keep Ransom around — and the Yankees can certainly use extra pitching heading into what’s sure to be a draining four-game series against the Red Sox. Yes, the Red Sox — pretty much all the pregame talk centered on those guys, despite the fact that there’s still a game to be played here in Canada. Should be an interesting weekend.
Hairston, by the way, is playing third base tonight, with A-Rod taking a DH day.
YANKEES (64-42)
Jeter SS
Damon LF
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez DH
Swisher RF
Cano 2B
Cabrera CF
Hairston, Jr. 3B
Molina C
Pitching: Sergio Mitre (1-0, 7.90)
BLUE JAYS (51-55)
Scutaro SS
Hill 2B
Lind DH
Overbay 1B
Wells CF
Rios RF
Encarnacion 3B
Barajas C
Inglett LF
Pitching: Marc Rzepczynski (1-2, 3.25)
NOTES: A sad moment at the ballpark, when the Yanks learned that George Murray, one of the people the Yankees honored during their recent Hope Week, passed away yesterday at his home in South New Berlin, N.Y. Murray, who was told when he was diagnosed with ALS three years ago that he had three to five years to live, was 38. “I was shocked,” said Yankees manager Joe Girardi, who was among those who surprised Murray in a suite last month at Yankee Stadium.
TWITTER: Once again, you can follow along tonight @anthonydicomo.
–Anthony DiComo
Welcome to Toronto, eh?
Hey folks, Anthony DiComo here filling in for Bryan Hoch on this two-gamer up north. I’ll be blogging here, but if you want live updates on lineups and news from the clubhouse, feel free to follow along on Twitter @anthonydicomo.
Here are your probables at the Rogers Centre:
Tuesday: Andy Pettitte (8-6, 4.51) vs. Roy Halladay (11-4, 2.68)
Wednesday: Sergio Mitre (1-0, 7.90) vs. Mark Rzepczynski (1-2, 3.25)
As you can see, the Yanks have their work cut out for them, in a two-game series that would have been a lot easier had the Blue Jays managed to trade Halladay before the deadline. Didn’t happen, and now the Yanks have to face him.
I’ll have more from the clubhouse in a bit, but until then, let’s all hope Mr. Hoch is shooting low on the golf course.
–Anthony DiComo
Wang sidelined again with tenderness
If the Yankees get anything for the remainder of the season from Chien-Ming Wang, they will have to consider it a bonus.
The right-hander suffered another setback on Monday while playing catch on the field at Yankee Stadium, experiencing tenderness in his right biceps as he tries to get started on his way off the disabled list and to a rehab assignment. Yankees manager Joe Girardi said the session was only “so-so” and that Wang would be shut down until at least Friday.
“I think anytime you’re dealing with cuff issues or shoulder tendinitis
or whatever you want to describe it as, there is concern,” Girardi said. “Whatever he
is able to do, we would love to have. But I think anytime someone is
injured and you’re not sure when the’yre exactly going to be back, you can’t count on them.”
The Yankees are calling up Sergio Mitre to serve as their fifth starter on Tuesday and Girardi said that Mitre is not on a start-to-start basis. As of right now, he is a member of their rotation every fifth day. Meanwhile, Damaso Marte is scheduled to pitch on Tuesday for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Bryan Hoch
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