The Bronx View

Peter Abraham from The Journal News checks in on Chien-Ming Wang:

Chien-Ming Wang, who had shoulder surgery in July, hopes to travel with the Yankees during the postseason even through he cannot play.

“This is a great team. We can win the World Series,” he said. “I want to see that.”

In his first public comments since the surgery, Wang said he hopes to start playing catch again in January and believes he will pitch in the major leagues at some point in 2010. But he realizes that may not be with the Yankees.

Wang had a $5 million contract this season and is eligible for arbitration. There is virtually no chance the Yankees will offer him arbitration before the December deadline. That would leave Wang a free agent.

“I would like to stay in New York,” he said. “But I don’t know what will happen.”

One possibility is that the Yankees could offer Wang a minor-league contract. Or another team could sign him to a major-league deal and hope that he returns to form.

“That’s something we won’t even think about until November,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said. “Those are issues for another day.”

Wang has twice had surgery on his shoulder, the first time coming in 2001. There is far less certainty that a pitcher can return to the same level of performance after shoulder surgery than there is after elbow surgery.

…

Wang believes the foot injury led to his poor performance this season and subsequently the shoulder injury as his mechanics were thrown off.

“Everything has been bad since I hurt my foot,” he said.

Wang believes the time off this summer has helped his foot fully heal. Only 30, he is not ready to give up on his career.

Wang shouldn’t give up on his career.  Up until this year, he’s been a very good pitcher for the Yankees and, with a little luck and a lot of work, he could be a very good pitcher again.

The bigger question is whether that will happen with the Yankees.

The economics of baseball make situations like this difficult for both the player and the team.  As Abraham said, the Yankees definitely won’t offer arbitration because Wang would likely accept and earn at least the $5 million he earned in 2009 to pitch horribly while injured.

$5 million shouldn’t be that much for the Yankees, but even Brian Cashman doesn’t want to spend that much on a pitcher who may barely touch the major leagues next year.  And if he does, there is no telling how well he would pitch.

Ideally, the Yankees would want Wang on a minor league deal with some performance incentives if he makes it back.  The problem is, someone will give Wang a contract that will pay him a bit more than the Yankees will because they need pitching.  He probably wouldn’t get another $5 million, but he’ll get paid if he wants to.

And why shouldn’t he?  Chien-Ming Wang has no idea what is left of his career.  To date, he’s earned just under $10 million dollars.  Certainly not chump change.

But Wang is thirty years old.  He could probably turn his celebrity status into something profitable in his native Taiwan, but how long will that carry him?

Wang would be foolish to take a minor league deal with the Yankees that paid him minor league wages if there are better offers out there.

I’m sure all of us, even Brian Cashman, would love to see Wang back in pinstripes and pitching well for the next couple of years.  Sometimes, fate has other plans.

Scott Ham blogs about the Yankees here and at TheBronxView.com. He also hosts The Bronx View Yankee Podcast.  He can be reached at feedback@thebronxview.com.

I’ve been hesitant to write something about Derek Jeter’s “pursuing” Lou Gehrig’s all time Yankees hit record.  The hype machine has saturated the media so much with this story that I simply haven’t wanted to contribute to it.

As I write this, my feelings haven’t changed.

So, you ask, what am I doing writing an article with this title?

I’m not really interested in Derek Jeter breaking the record.  It’s nice.  I’m happy for him.  But really, what does it mean?

Lou Gehrig, before Wednesday night’s game, sat alone at 53rd on the career hits list for all of major league baseball.  53rd. Granted, with the amount of people who have played baseball over the years, that is still quite an accomplishment.

But 53rd?  It seems a little arbitrary that the Yankees haven’t had someone in their history that had more career hits than Gehrig’s 2721.

I’ve spent the last few weeks wondering what it actually means.  What does it mean that Derek Jeter has reached this number of hits established 73 years ago by one of the all time great players?

Does it mean Derek is as great as Gehrig?  Probably not.

Does it mean that Jeter is more important now in Yankee history than Gehrig?  Doubtful.

Jeter reaching this mark and the adulation that has accompanied it really has nothing to do with Lou Gehrig.  And as Derek Jeter himself would probably tell you, he neither wants nor controls the hype and circumstance that has surrounded him over the last few days.

No, this record is about us, the fans.  This record is about confirming what we believed baseball to be before free agency and bloated salaries, before Sportscenter and the advent of the highlight.

This is about watching a 22 year old shortstop fulfill all of the promise, all of the expectations, all of the hope that you placed in him fourteen years ago.  This is about brushing away all of the doubt that has clouded the hallowed records in this grand old game since the late nineties and celebrating a player who has worn integrity like a uniform.

We’re happy for Derek Jeter because he made us look good.  We defended him to the Nomar and ARod fans.  His numbers were always a hair below, but the success on the field was obvious.

Now, Derek Jeter is the last one standing, wearing the same uniform he did in 1995 when he first set foot in the majors.  He’s a throwback, a reminder of what was great about the game before Congress was required to clean it up.

He would never say it, but Jeter is proud of this record.  He wants this record because he’s always wanted to be a Yankee.  You can’t love something and not want to be a part of it.  That’s why we want him to have this record, too.  We know he will appreciate it as much as we do.

A few weeks from now, all the hub bub about this week will be forgotten.  What’s so important to us right now will soon trail off into our memories, rarely to be thought of again.  The record, after all, is just a number.  Nothing more.  We won’t be any different because of it.

Thankfully, neither will Derek.

Scott Ham blogs about the Yankees here and at TheBronxView.com. He also hosts The Bronx View Yankee Podcast.  He can be reached at feedback@thebronxview.com.

News about an ailing Yankee reliever:

Reliever David Robertson was shut down because of stiffness in his right elbow, and will not pitch again until he’s examined by noted orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews.Robertson has been a key member of the bullpen, going 2-1 with one save and a 3.29 ERA in 42 games. He said he’s felt the problem for two weeks, and had an MRI exam Monday.

“I don’t feel like there’s anything seriously wrong,” he said after coming off the field before the game against Tampa Bay. “I feel confident it’s not going to be anything.”

Robertson is throwing pain-free and there hadn’t been a drop in his velocity. He said his elbow tended to stiffen up the day after he pitched, and the Yankees haven’t been using him on consecutive days.

…

“We’re not sure we’re losing David,” manager Joe Girardi said. “The unusual thing is how well he’s pitched” despite the trouble, he said.

“We’ve all seen how he’s pitched. He’s been unbelievable. He’s been lights out.”

Some of you might be asking, “who the heck is David Robertson?”

Robertson was drafted by the Yankees in the 17th round of the 2006 amateur draft.  He’s only 24 years old and has posted sterling strikeout numbers at every level he’s pitched.

This season with the Yankees has been no different.  In 41 innings, Robertson has struck out a lofty 61 batters, for a strike out per nine innings ratio (or SO/9) of 13.4.  For comparison, Mariano Rivera has a SO/9 of 10 this season with a career average of 8.3.

I’m not anointing Robertson the next Rivera.  Rivera has only walked 2.1 batters per nine innings (BB/9) over his career while Robertson has averaged 4.7 during his brief time in the majors.  Robertson does have some control issues, but he has a live fastball and would be a great option for the Yankees come playoff time.

The word has been that Robertson is not feeling any pain, which hopefully is a good sign.  Anytime a pitcher needs to see Dr. James Andrews, however, antennae go up and people get worried.  Let’s hope Robertson just has a little stiffness and can carry his fastball into the postseason.

Scott Ham blogs about the Yankees here and at TheBronxView.com. He also hosts The Bronx View Yankee Podcast.  He can be reached at feedback@thebronxview.com.

MLB.com has released their postseason schedule with an interesting wrinkle.

The teams that finish the regular season with the best records in their respective leagues will gain two advantages come playoff time:

1. They will have home field advantage in the Division and Championship Series
2. They can pick which Division Series schedule they want to play

In the National League, this has little significance as the schedules for the two Division Series are identical.

In the American League, however, there is an off day between games 1 and 2 in “American League Division Series A.”  That extra day means that both teams can get through the series with three starters rather than four.

That can be a blessing and a curse for the Yankees.  On one hand, it allows them to hold back Joba Chamberlain from starting in the first round of the playoffs, allowing him to pitch out of the bullpen.  Joba has been struggling lately, going 1-3 with a 7.96 ERA in his last six starts.  There is no guarantee Joba will suddenly find some effectiveness going back to the bullpen, but it does allow the Yankees to pitch CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett or Andy Pettitte twice in the series on regular rest, if needed.

The problems are twofold.  For one, Joba would be taken out of the rotation and regular usage for over a week after the Yankees have spent the better part of 30 games controlling his innings and prepping him for the playoffs.  Joba didn’t respond well to the extended rest they tried giving him between starts until finally pitching him on regular rest the last three outings.

Secondly, the Yankees will have to face their opponents two best pitchers possibly twice in the series on normal rest.  In a short best of five series, one bad start by your ace can put your team in a bad position.

Regardless, the best move for the Yankees is to keep Joba out of the rotation the first round.  It’s possible he could bounce back these finals weeks, a process that starts Wednesday in the series finale against the Tampa Rays.  It’s also possible that the kid is tired, having already pitched more this season than he ever has in a single year.

Either way, the Joba drama will continue on for some time.

Scott Ham blogs about the Yankees here and at TheBronxView.com, as well as hosting The Bronx View Yankee Podcast.  He can be reached at feedback@thebronxview.com.

While most of us were grillin’ and chillin’ on Labor Day, Rob Neyer was laboring away:

It might be too late. But I wonder if the Yankees should send Phil Hughes to their secret compound in Tampa and retrain him to throw six innings at a pop. Because lately the Yankees seem to have only three starters, and these days you need four in October.

… In three late-July starts, Chamberlain went 3-0 with a 0.83 ERA and pitched into the seventh inning in each start. The highlight came on the 29th in St. Petersburg, when he needed only 101 pitches to blank the Rays for eight innings. Vindication! For Brian Cashman, for me, for others of my ilk, and (most of all) for Chamberlain.

Since that game in St. Petersburg, Chamberlain has started six games. He’s not pitched more than six innings in any of them. He’s won just one of them and lost three. He’s struck out 20 hitters and walked 17. His ERA has jumped from 3.58 to 4.41. He’s looked nothing like a pitcher you might trust in a big game. And he’s pitched 137 innings, which doesn’t seem like a lot but is 36 more than he’s ever pitched before. If he’s struggling now because he’s tired, what’s going to happen in October after another 25 or 30 innings?

Which is where Hughes comes in. Chamberlain is the Yankees’ No. 4 starter. Sergio Mitre is the Yankees’ No. 5 starter. Which means the Yankees, as things stand now, have only three reliable starters. And again, you need four of them when the leaves are turning in New England.

I know, I know … Phil Hughes has been so good in the bullpen: 1.11 ERA with an overpowering strikeout-to-walk ratio. Make him a starter again and he’s not going to post numbers anything like those. But to help the Yankees, he doesn’t have to be anywhere near that good; he just has to be measurably better than Chamberlain and Mitre. Particularly if — and I know this is highly speculative — Chamberlain regains his dominant stuff upon returning to a relief role.

I was banging this drum on the podcast back in April when the Yankees were first setting up their rotation and Phil Hughes was toiling in AAA.  I thought Hughes could start out in the pen while Joba started, then have to two pitchers switch roles around August.

Since then, a few things have changed:

1. Phil Hughes has been converted to a one inning pitcher
2. Joba has exceeded 2008’s innings.

I understand where Rob is coming from because a lot of people have wondered whether this was the proper fix for the Yankees rotation come August.  Given the players and factors involved, I don’t think it would be a smart move.

I don’t care so much about taking Hughes out of the pen; I think there’s enough there at this stage to sustain the playoffs.  My bigger concern is with the workload on the Joba and Hughes.

Obviously, Cashman and Girardi have been aware this problem was going to come for awhile.  Sergio Mitre has been in the rotation since July 21st and it didn’t take a mathematician to realize that Joba was eventually going to run out of innings.

The problem is that Hughes wasn’t put in a bullpen role that allowed him to keep his inning per appearance flexible.  Since first coming out of the bullpen June 8th, Hughes has made 33 appearances, averaging just under 1.1 innings per appearance.

I was concerned about this back in July:

The decision to use Hughes in such short relief is hard to fathom.  Wang returned to the rotation June 4th, throwing 4.2 innings and allowing five runs.  It was an improvement over previous starts but hardly a confidence boost for Wang or the Yankees.  Hughes didn’t debut as a reliever until June 8th (four days after Wang’s blown start) and pitched only one inning.  Two days later, Hughes pitched 3.2 innings… in relief of an ineffective Wang, who gave up three runs in 2.2 innings against the Red Sox.  Hughes hasn’t thrown over two innings in an appearance since.

It’s difficult to imagine Brian Cashman or Joe Girardi drawing up their 2009 plans this way.  While they may have had Joba’s season planned out from the beginning, the crumbling of Chien-Ming Wang threw a major wrench into Cashman’s plans for both the rotation and for Phil Hughes.

It would have made sense upon moving Hughes to the bullpen to utilize him in a long reliever role as much as possible.  Backing up Joba alone would have given Hughes a decent amount of innings every fifth day.  In that role, Hughes could have made the transition back to the rotation a bit easier than he can right now.

…

The bullpen is definitely stronger with Hughes aboard but probably could have survived without him.  Wang’s return to the rotation after being rushed back from rehab left the Yankees with two options: waste Hughes talent in the minors or get the most out of his work for the season and stick him in the bullpen.

It was the right decision at the time.  It’s the handling of Hughes in the bullpen that is going to burn the Yankees, possibly necessitating a deadline trade for a starter.  The Yankees have been resistant to carrying a long reliever the last two years, despite having young, old, and injury prone pitchers in their rotation.  It would have been a fitting role for Hughes these last few months and would give the Yankees a little more security come September.

Well, that security has probably passed them by.

If the Yankees thought it were safe and reasonable to convert Hughes back into a starter, the process probably would have begun already.  I doubt Cashman is worried about the media backlash, which would certainly draw comparisons to the Yankees converting Joba from starter to reliever in 2008.

As you might remember, Joba came down with shoulder tendinitis in August and missed almost a month.  The Joba For Reliever gang blamed his starting innings.  The Joba For Starter group blamed his relief innings.  It could be somewhere in the middle, possibly explaining the hesitancy to convert Hughes so late in the season and risk losing him for part or all of the playoffs.

Neyer poses the question: “If he’s struggling now because he’s tired, what’s going to happen in October after another 25 or 30 innings?”  If Joba is tired from his workload (having already surpassed his 2008 innings), is putting him in the rigorous role of fireballing setup man the best thing for his arm?  That doesn’t sound like a pitcher you want suddenly adopting a relief pitchers schedule, which historically has not proven to be the healthiest of occupations.  The Yankees haven’t babied Joba to this point to suddenly let him overwork his arm while past his +30 innings for the season.

It doesn’t make sense for either pitcher to change their roles and, frankly, I think Joba should be shutdown for the season, if not now then if he continues to struggle in September.

The best solution in terms of protecting the valued arms in the system and possibly tightening the fourth starter role for the playoffs may be converting Alfredo Aceves.  Aceves has shown good ability as a starter in the past and has become less of a one inning pitcher in Girardi’s bullpen.  The Yankees don’t have nearly as much invested in Aceves from an organizational point of view and it would probably take another season of injuries for Aceves to gain a permanent spot in the Yankees rotation next year.

The bigger question: would Aceves be an upgrade over Mitre?  At this point, I think most anything would be an upgrade over Mitre, but there’s no reason the Yankees can’t carry both the first two rounds of the playoffs.  Not having to deal with the pitcher in the batting order means the Yankee bench can be role players like Gardner and Hairston, giving the Yankees a little bit of flexibility in the pen.  Carrying both pitchers in a long role capacity may enable the Yankees to stop the bleeding quickly if a critical game four seems to be getting out of hand.

Scott Ham blogs about the Yankees here and at TheBronxView.com, as well as hosting The Bronx View Yankee Podcast.  He can be reached at feedback@thebronxview.com.

Joba Chamberlain had another bad outing this evening, going three innings while allowing six hits and two walks.  It’s his sixth bad outing in a row after rattling off three great starts after the All Star break.

Joba has now reached 136.2 innings for the season, 36.1 above last season’s injury shortened total.  He is not showing any improvement and continues to struggle.

The whole purpose of the current iteration of the Joba rules is to control Joba’s innings for the year.  I buy into that philosophy.

It is also to lighten his workload before entering the postseason, where Joba as a starter will pitch as needed, without over-extending him past the point of reason, a la David Cone in the 1995 ALDS.

But the bigger question looms: do you want Joba as he’s presently pitching to be in the postseason rotation?

You can’t assume that Joba will somehow turn it on and be masterful once October hits.  He hasn’t shown enough as a starter to earn that kind of confidence.

In truth, Joba is still a kid learning how to pitch.  Normally, I don’t buy into the idea that only veterans can handle pressure.  In this case, I don’t know that Joba is ready, physically or mentally, to be effective for the Yankees come October baseball.

If that’s the case, the Yankees should shut Joba down now.  He’s within range of the Verducci Effect and he’s showing less and less command.  He is not getting any stronger and probably shouldn’t be put in the situation where he comes out of the postseason bullpen overthrowing on his arm.

Girardi has said in the past that you have to watch the pitcher to determine whether they’ve thrown too much or if they are in danger of hurting themselves.  Watching Joba over his last six starts, one has to believe he is at the end of his rope.

For all the precautions this organization has taken with Joba and their young pitchers, they should do the best thing for Joba’s mind and body and end his season.  He’s stacking failure upon failure, which can’t be helping his confidence as a pitcher or as a member of the playoff roster.  If his problems over the last month have been due to fatigue or injury, he most certainly should be shut down before he hurts himself more.

Andy Pettitte can go into the third starter’s spot for the ALDS.  Sabathia and Burnett can go on short rest.  Deal with ALCS when you get there.

Scott Ham blogs about the Yankees here and at TheBronxView.com, as well as hosting The Bronx View Yankee Podcast.  He can be reached at feedback@thebronxview.com.

Ken Singleton told me tonight (through the television) that there were two key things that helped shape the Yankees this season:

1. Phil Hughes moved to the bullpen and has been dominating.
2. Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon flipped places in the order, with Jeter batting leadoff.

Hughes going to the bullpen has obviously helped.  Of his 30 appearances, 15 have occurred when the game was either tied or the Yankees were ahead by one run.  Hughes has only give up five runs in 38 innings of relief, striking out 48 and walking 10.

He’s been great, no doubt.  But… it’s 38 innings.  In those 15 games, the Yankees average margin of victory was 1.87 runs, and that’s with only six ties and one loss.  The Yankee offense has certainly carried it’s weigh and, even if Hughes had put up an ERA of 3.00 or slightly higher, they would still be in pretty good shape.

Flipping Damon and Jeter probably has had even less impact on the team than Hughes in the pen.

Jim Baumbach from Newsday reported at the time:

Manager Joe Girardi said the reason for the switch is because the team likes how Damon has looked batting second in spring training games. As long as the Yankees like what they see over the final week of spring training games, the team will bring this lineup into the regular season.

The new look at the top of the batting order also is an indication that the Yankees will use Brett Gardner as their everyday centerfielder. Gardner figures to be the ninth hitter, and if Damon was batting leadoff opponents would likely bring a lefthanded specialist to face both hitters. Putting Jeter first splits the two lefthanded hitters.

Of course the team liked how Damon looked.  A good hitter looks like a good hitter and Damon is having his best season ever (with a tip of the ol’ cap to the new Yankee Stadium).

That doesn’t mean that batting him second somehow changed his approach.  Damon’s slugging percentage has certainly improved this year (.519), but his road slugging percentage is .438 and right in line with his career mark of .440.

Jeter has been putting up great OBP numbers and there’s little reason to believe he wouldn’t be doing the same batting second.  The only difference there may be with Jeter is his tendency to think small ball is a good idea.  The man has been on fire lately, yet he still felt the need to bunt runners over last week when he should have been swinging away.  Derek may take his role as leadoff hitter as a slight change in philosophy if he is indeed hungup on the so-called tenets of the game.

But realistically, the only benefit I can see from the numbers is that Jeter’s double plays are down.  At the same time, Johnny Damon’s are up.  The Brett Gardner experiment didn’t last too long and there was no hurry to switch them back despite a slow start.

This decision may have had as much to do with trying to ease the burden of stealing bases off of Johnny Damon’s legs as anything else.  Damon stole 29 bases in 37 attempts last season.  This year he’s stolen 10 out of 10.  Jeter last season stole 11 out of 16.  This year?  23 out of 28.

Those are the only areas where you can find any level of improvement based on the switch: a few less double plays and a few more stolen bases, averaging out to maybe a few more runs and possibly a win.

The Yankees are currently 7.5 games ahead of the Red Sox in the East.  I’m not going to go out on a limb and say that Jeter and Damon switching has been a key.  It hasn’t hurt, but it hasn’t changed the world, either.

Scott Ham blogs about the Yankees here and at TheBronxView.com, as well as hosting The Bronx View Yankee Podcast.  He can be reached at feedback@thebronxview.com.

From Tyler Kepner:

Alex Rodriguez did something very cool Tuesday. He spoke out against steroid use to local student-athletes.Rodriguez did it under the condition that his talk be closed to the news media, further proof that he is truly committed to a less-is-more strategy this season. More important, Rodriguez delivered on the vow he made in spring training to turn his admission of steroid use into a weapon against it.

–

This is not the first time he has spoken to kids, either. He has made several speeches over the last few months, but this was the first that was made public, and only because the organization that hosted the event (not Rodriguez) acknowledged it after the fact.

Good.

I don’t know if ARod will ever be fully forgiven for his admitted steroid usage.  The damage that has been done to his legacy as a ballplayer is irrevocable.

ARod the human being, however, can still be saved.  Maybe it’s cynical of me to think that ARod is doing this simply to improve his reputation.  I hope there’s some part of him that believes that these types of talks to kids are indeed valuable and that he continues to do them because he understands and believes in that value.

In the long term though, it doesn’t matter what ARod thinks or why as long as he keeps doing it.  Rodriguez has been doing a lot of events like this, speaking to kids, playing stickball, getting himself out into the community without the media spotlight on him.

Its a good thing ARod is doing, regardless of motivations, and I hope it continues.  Maybe he’ll discover after getting out and doing these types of things that it’s not so hard to be ARod afterall.

Scott Ham blogs about the Yankees here and at TheBronxView.com, as well as hosting The Bronx View Yankee Podcast.  He can be reached at feedback@thebronxview.com.