Let's get one thing out of the way immediately. The GIF of yesterday's game between the New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays was unquestionably the unfortunate Curtis Granderson hit-by-pitch. Such injuries tend to define games, and this is never more evident than in the Spring, when the games don't count anyway. On just the fifth pitch Graderson saw from starter J.A. Happ, he came up and in, drilling Grandy in the right arm and putting him out of commission for approximately 10 weeks with a fracture. I posted the GIFs of the injury in a short piece that was made immediately after the injury, so I won't overload this page with GIFs. Instead, here are the three other GIFs of the game for the Yankees in a day that did not feature many highlights:
The 25-year-old UNC alum is not likely to break camp with the Yankees unless another injury happens, but Warren had a nice outing yesterday. He tossed the first two innings of the game, allowing just one baserunner when a pitch to Brett Lawrie came too far inside and hit him (while this occurred shortly after the Grandy injury, YES announcer Ken Singleton did not think it was a retaliation. Since Singleton's a former player who has been involved in such beanball wars before, I trust him.) The two at-bats in the GIF above were Warren's two strikeouts yesterday, both of which came on good breaking pitches. That's leadoff hitter Anthony Gose and former Yank Melky Cabrera taking called strike threes. MLB.com Video has you covered if you want to see all six outs.
Pronk is the new lefty DH threat, now with 100% less unnecessary fielding! Hitting baseballs as hard as he hit the one above will be his only mission. The fact that the double came against lefty Brett Cecil is even more promising. Raul Ibanez was fantastically horrible against lefties last year outside of one shining moment against Brian Matusz in the ALDS, but Hafner's platoon splits have never been that bad. He can be used with a lefty on the mound and it won't be the end of ze world. While the Yankees will miss Nick Swisher, it is pretty amusing seeing a huge #33 trucking into second base. It reminds me of the one time when David Wells somehow hit a double at Wrigley Field.
The mashing Cuban came in for Grandy when he was forced from the game, and in his first at-bat, he rifled an opposite-field single through the right side on one of the hardest hits of the day (also against Cecil). Michael Kay and Ken Singleton were discussing how former Yankee superscout Gene Michael raves about Ronnie's hitting ability, and I wish this clip was on MLB.com Video if not only so that you could hear the sound of the ball off the bat. With Grandy in position to miss April, a spot just opened up on the roster for another player. If the Yankees don't give Ronnie a serious look now, when will they? As I mentioned in my review of the non-roster invitees, he dominated Double-A last year before going on to a fine season with the Triple-A Traveling Roadshow (.303/.359/.455, 21 2B, 10 HR, .367 wOBA, 128 wRC+, and a minimal 13.6 K% on the season). The Yankees looked for a righthanded bat throughout the offseason, but perhaps that bat is right under their noses. I'm with cookiedabookie on this on--Free Ronnier.