April flowers bring May showers, or something like that…
1. Yankees Feeling the Burn
Is this the summer the New York Yankees devolve into also-rans?
Everyone knew their current nine-game trip to Texas, Boston and Baltimore would be a Rawlings buster, but it’s turned coyote ugly quick. They’re like the varmint in that Whac-A-Mole game. Every time they pop their heads up, Travis Shaw or David Ortiz or Rougned Odor bludgeons their little pinstriped heads back into the ground.
Elvis (Andrus) has left the building, but after the Yanks dropped two of three in Texas, Boston swept them. Now come three games in Baltimore, beginning Tuesday. Only Minnesota (8-18, .308) and Houston (8-18, .308) own worse records in the American League than the Yanks (8-15, .348).
The Yankees have lost five in a row and nine of their past 12.
The problems are widespread. At April’s end, the Yankees couldn’t score and couldn’t pitch. Bad combo. They ranked dead last in the majors with 74 runs scored.
Into Tuesday’s series opener at Baltimore, the Yankees rotation ranked last in the AL and 27th in the majors with a 5.16 ERA.
They are seven games below .500 for the first time in the nine seasons Joe Girardi has managed. Fact is they haven’t been seven games under .500 since they were 24-31 on June 4, 2007, back when Joe Torre was managing. Whoever the Joe, this isn’t good.
Of course, writing off any Yankees team this early in the season, ever, can be a fool’s errand. In 2007, they wound up going 94-68, good for second in the AL East.
While it is easy to see this team’s not being as bad as its start, given the AARP status of many of the key players (Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, Carlos Beltran and CC Sabathia) and the mid-to-low ceilings of others (Chase Headley, Didi Gregorius, Brett Gardner), it is difficult to see how Girardi milks 90 wins out of this bunch either.
Also, consider this: The Yankees have suffered zero key injuries so far. They’re healthy (at least in body, if not in record).
Headley in particular is off to a wretched start at third, ranking 197th in the majors out of 198 qualifiers in both batting average (.156) and OPS (.423). Currently, he has more steals (three) than RBI (two).
Brian McCann is in a 3-for-19 slide, amid concerns he is being affected by a sore big toe he fouled a pitch off of April 12 in Toronto. And Jacoby Ellsbury is proving he is a complementary player—as he was in Boston—not a breakout star.
Rodriguez, while hitting just .203, does at least have three homers on the current road trip.
On the mound, Michael Pineda (6.33 ERA, 1.59 WHIP in five starts) has been awful, and rookie Luis Severino (0-3, 6.86 ERA, 1.78 WHIP), who next starts Tuesday night in Baltimore, may be pitching himself back to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Tough to shame Severino too much because, at 22, he’s the second-youngest pitcher to start in the majors this season. Only Minnesota’s Jose Berrios (21) is younger.
Pineda currently ranks 95th in the majors in ERA of 100 qualifiers and 91st in WHIP. Nathan Eovaldi ranks 71st (1.38) in WHIP.
If things don’t improve, the intriguing thing, of course, will be whether the Yankees become sellers at the July trade deadline. Can you imagine a season in which the haughty Yankees would actually wave the white flag halfway through?
Teixeira and Beltran, in the right circumstances, would be attractive to contenders. So, too, would the most valuable part of this club: the bullpen pieces of Andrew Miller, Dellin Betances and Aroldis Chapman.
After Baltimore, the Yankees have a nice, lengthy, 10-game homestand—a perfect time to turn things around and get well.
Problem is Boston, defending world champion Kansas City and the red-hot White Sox come in. The heavy lifting continues in the Bronx.
2. P-E-DEE
Two weeks ago, because he specializes in overblown reactions with a flair, Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria gifted Dee Gordon with a blinged-out piece of jewelry more befitting of a rapper than a second baseman.
Days later, Gordon was iced for 80 games by MLB for failing a test for performance-enhancing drugs.
Just like that, the one-time inspirational story of Gordon went splat. He tested positive for two things: exogenous Testosterone and Clostebol.
A couple of thoughts here: Yes, it is disheartening that players continue to cheat. But with the financial incentives being what they are, this always is going to be the case. Gordon parlayed National League batting and stolen base titles last season into a five-year, $50 million deal over the winter. While out on suspension, he will be docked roughly $1.6 million in pay.
The rest of the dough is guaranteed, whether Gordon tested positive for exogenous Testosterone or peanut M&Ms.
That said, those knee-jerk reactions that the game is still dirty are just lazy and uninformed. The fact that MLB busted Gordon (and Toronto’s Chris Colabello a week earlier), as well as players like Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun a few years ago, is hard proof that the sport is vigilantly policing itself and working hard to keep the game as clean as possible.
No way MLB is happy about suspending Gordon, or anybody else. But the system is no longer looking the other way, or attempting to hide things in the closet.
What I continue to find most heartening is the negative reaction of Gordon’s peers, such as this from Tigers ace Justin Verlander (warning: contains profanity):
When the steroids problem mushroomed out of control in the 1990s, the players’ union was stonewalling any form of testing under then-boss Donald Fehr. I thought then that the clean players were complicit in their silence, that they should have demanded change because the cheaters were taking jobs from the clean players.
Today, by backing recent boss Michael Weiner and now Tony Clark, the players are doing an admirable job of taking control of their own game. And good for them.
Verlander’s response was emotional and isn’t entirely on the mark. You can’t sideline players during their appeal because what if a test is mistakenly read and the player is innocent? By the time that is made public, his reputation already will have been tarnished by a premature suspension.
But the fact that Verlander and many others are willing to speak out today only helps keep their peers in line.
As for Gordon, it’s a shame because he played bigger than his size (5’11”, 170 lbs). One of my all-time favorite descriptions of him came from then-Detroit manager Jim Leyland, who raved about Gordon after seeing him play for the first time, saying, “He’s no bigger than half a minute.”
Sadly, that also describes his reputation and integrity today.
No word on whether Loria has demanded the return of the hideously large necklace.
3. The Vin Scully All-Star Campaign
The voice of baseball is retiring after this season, his 67th summer of broadcasting Dodgers games, and there is growing chatter about what would be a very cool idea.
How about involving Scully in this year’s All-Star Game national television broadcast?
He no longer travels outside of California to work during the season, but the All-Star Game would be a very easy trip down the freeway from his home to San Diego.
Even if he only did an inning or two, how spine-tingling would that be for baseball fans across the country?
As baseball columnist Bill Shaikin pointed out recently in the Los Angeles Times, in recent years the game has served as a sentimental showcase in many instances. Remember Cal Ripken’s final All-Star start in Seattle, when he lined up at third base and shortstop Alex Rodriguez literally nudged him over to shortstop in the first inning? And what about Derek Jeter’s final start at shortstop in the game a couple of summers ago in Minnesota?
Fox broadcaster Joe Buck told Shaikin that he would “send a plane” to get Scully, who now is 88. The point: Buck, whose father Jack was the longtime Hall of Fame voice of the St. Louis Cardinals, knows and appreciates legends and moments when he sees them.
“I don’t want to be part of it,” Scully told Shaikin. “Joe is wonderful. He’s a good guy and a friend. But I’ve done my networks, my games of the week.”
OK, we get it. But there certainly is nothing wrong with applying a little public pressure, and if the fans demand Scully, well, then…
4. Pickles…Kosher Pickles
Several years ago, when he was doing radio in addition to working in the San Diego Padres front office, Andy Strasberg hatched a wacky idea for his show.
It was beautiful in its simplicity: Ask the mellifluous Scully to read a grocery list. Well, to our great fortune, audio still exists. And in this, Scully’s last season, it’s been making the rounds early this season.
I’ll have what Scully’s having:
5. Philly Cream Cheese? Not Quite
Did somebody say the Philadelphia Phillies are rebuilding?
You can’t tell so far.
Just off a weekend sweep over Cleveland, the Phillies entered this week scorching hot, riding a six-game winning streak and bursting with confidence.
“For us to do what we’re doing right now, we’re surprising a lot of people, and I think that’s what we expected coming in from spring training from Day 1,” Phillies catcher Cameron Rupp told reporters, via MLB.com.
Uh, yes, speaking like an old salt, that’s Cameron R-u-p-p. As opposed to first baseman Darin Ruf.
Rupp was the Phillies’ third-round pick in the June 2010 draft. His batterymate on Sunday, Vincent Velasquez, was obtained from Houston along with pitchers Mark Appel, Brett Oberholtzer, Thomas Eshelman and Harold Arauz for closer Ken Giles and Jonathan Arauz in December 2015.
Velasquez, the key piece in the aforementioned trade, is becoming one of the breakout stars of the season. His ERA is 1.44 in five starts, and he has not surrendered a run in three of those starts. Velasquez is 4-1 with 39 strikeouts in 31.1 innings pitched so far this season.
Since April 9, the Phillies are tied with the Washington Nationals for the majors’ second-best winning percentage (.714, 15-6), trailing only the Chicago Cubs (.736, 14-5).
During the stretch from April 9-May 1, Phillies pitchers ranked first in the majors in strikeouts (215) and ranked fourth in WHIP (1.11), opponents’ batting average (.220) and on-base percentage (.279).
The Phillies were five games over .500 (15-10) heading into Monday night’s series opener in St. Louis for the first time since the end of the 2011 season, when they finished 102-60.
It is difficult to believe this will continue for two reasons: A young rotation that includes Velasquez, Jerad Eickhoff, Aaron Nola, Adam Morgan and veteran Jeremy Hellickson eventually will run into innings limits and bumps in the road. Second, entering this week, the Phillies were at a minus-16 in run differential. That figure alone suggests regression.
Still, for a team in dire need of rebuilding over the past couple of years, there suddenly is hope for the future. And good for manager Pete Mackanin, a terrific baseball man who deserved a shot to manage well before this. Instead, all he got were interim gigs in Cincinnati (2007) and Pittsburgh (2005).
In ’07, after then-manager Jerry Narron started the season 31-51 in Cincinnati, Mackanin took over the same group and went 41-39 the rest of the way.
6. Weekly Rankings
1. Chicago baseball: Last time the Cubs and White Sox both participated in the same postseason? In 2008. Before that? The 1906 World Series. Deep dish pizza for everyone!
2. Jake Arrieta: Denies taking steroids but has no problem eating the lunches of his critics. Attaboy.
3. Aledmys Diaz: Joins Albert Pujols as the only rookies to get 30 or more hits in the month of April for the St. Louis Cardinals. Alas, his .423 batting average falls short of the club rookie record for the month, still held by the fabulously named Showboat Fisher (.462, 1930).
4. Yankees offense: Milk industry about to get a boost with pictures of missing Yankees hitters printed on cartons.
5. Pablo Sandoval to undergo left shoulder surgery: No word on whether they’re serving cheeseburgers in the operating room.
7. Noah Syndergaard and Two-Strike Counts
San Francisco got the Mets hurler Sunday, a day in which Syndergaard didn’t have his usual put-away stuff. Of 16 two-strike counts against Syndergaard, the Giants put five balls in play (a rate of 31 percent). As opposed to:
8. Chatter
• Washington’s 18-7 start is the best in franchise history.
• The Nationals swept the Cardinals in St. Louis over the weekend, the franchise’s first three-game sweep there since June 9-11, 1986.
• Big blow to Baltimore in losing shortstop J.J. Hardy for what could be two months with a fracture in his left foot. Manny Machado likely will move over to shortstop with Ryan Flaherty subbing in at third base.
• Interesting start to the NL West, where it looks as crowded as the starting line at the beginning of a marathon. One scout I talked to the other day still likes the Giants. “I love the way they’re put together,” he said. “They all know their roles. Joe Panik is there to get on base. Matt Duffy hits the gaps for doubles. Brandon Belt, Buster Posey in the middle…that is such a well-put-together club.”
• Good free-agent signing (so far): Detroit’s Jordan Zimmermann is the first Tiger to win five starts in April since Frank Tanana in 1988, according to STATS.com.
• The Diamondbacks are ducking (and that’s hard to do so low to the ground): Colorado rookie shortstop Trevor Story has 12 RBI against Arizona so far this year.
• Astros starters, the toast of the AL last year, rank 13th in the league so far this year with a 4.92 ERA and 10th in the AL with 137.1 innings pitched. Houston’s bullpen has been so taxed because the starters haven’t gone deep into games that the Astros last week went to a roster with 13 pitchers. Yikes.
• The struggling Atlanta Braves are 0-13 when scoring three or fewer runs.
• Mr. Cy Young? Though Chris Sale’s streak of working seven or more innings over eight consecutive games went by the wayside Sunday when he lasted just 5.1 innings, he still became the majors’ first six-game winner this year.
• So far, Arizona’s pitching has been disappointing, the D-backs have been disappointing and Shelby Miller (8.49 ERA) has been a bust. “I think it’s more, really, he’s just feeling some pressure: of the trade, of the players that we traded for him, trying to fit in,” Arizona general manager Dave Stewart told MLB Network Radio. “I think the whole ordeal has just been different for him than it was leaving St. Louis going to Atlanta.”
• Highly recommend Jeff Passan’s new book, The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports. Terrific look at various issues involving the pitching arm, and the way he takes readers through the post-Tommy John comebacks of Todd Coffey and Daniel Hudson reads at times like a mystery novel/thriller. Well reported, well done, and especially if you’ve got a son pitching anywhere from Little League on up, you will find it educational.
9. What People Don’t Realize About Miguel Cabrera
His sense of humor is terrific. Like here, Sunday afternoon, while reporters interview Victor Martinez…
9a. Rock ‘n’ Roll Lyric of the Week
Let’s send this one out to the Yankees, Astros, Twins, Braves, Reds and Padres, the six last-place teams doing what they can to survive as baseball rolls into May…
“I got a brand-new car that drinks a bunch of gas
“I got a house in a neighborhood that’s fading fast
“I got a dog and a cat that don’t fight too much
“I got a few hundred channels to keep me in touch
“I got a beautiful wife and three tow-headed kids
“I got a couple of big secrets I’d kill to keep hid
“I don’t know God but I fear his wrath
“I’m trying to keep focused on the righteous path
“I got a couple of opinions that I hold dear
“A whole lot of debt and a whole lot of fear
“I got an itch that needs scratching but it feels all right
“I got the need to blow it out on Saturday night
“I got a grill in the backyard and a case of beers
“I got a boat that ain’t seen the water in years
“More bills than money, I can do the math
“I’m trying to keep focused on the righteous path”
— Drive-By Truckers, “The Righteous Path”
Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.
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