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Good morning, Pinstripe Alley readers. The Yankees suffered a tough loss yesterday afternoon, but A.J. Burnett will take the hill for the Yanks in just a few hours, hoping to tie this series up. Now, on to your usual morning news.
Derek Jeter is not traveling with the Yankees in Chicago, and will not be with the team in Cincinnati. Instead, he will be in Tampa to rehab his injured calf. This is common practice, as traveling to Tampa allows Jeter to be treated by team doctors and rehab his injury in team facilities. With regards to Jeter's rehab program, manager Joe Girardi declined to provide details.
Alex Rodriguez Backs LeBron James.
With all the criticism surrounding LeBron James, Alex Rodriguez decided to say something. Lots of reporters, including Andrew Marchand of ESPN, were making Lebron to pre-2009 A-Rod comparisons. Both put up gaudy numbers, but never won a championship. Because of all the talk, A-Rod finally put his two cents in.
Mark Teixeira is Making History.
This is a little old now, but when Mark Teixeira hit homers from both sides of the plate on Wednesday against the Rangers, he tied the Major League record for most games with a homer from both sides of the plate in the same game. This was the eleventh time Tex did so, joining Eddie Murray and ex-Yankee Chili Davis atop the Major League list.
Pinstriped Bible Took a Look at Robinson Cano's Season.
It's a good read, but they sum it up nicely:
In short, Cano has been hacktastic, though to be fair, his .214 isolated power is 15 points ahead of his career high, and 34 points ahead of his 2005-2010 mark. He is a notoriously streaky hitter, and with another three weeks like his past three (.324/.370/.618 since May 28), his numbers might look more "traditionally" Cano-like. He hit a sizzling .320/.340/.639 in March and April, but sank to .222/.283/.311 from May 1-27 before a late hot streak tarted up his monthly line.
Mike Ashmore discussed Dellin Betances' most recent start, and came to the easy conclusion that despite Betances has great stuff, he needs to throw more strikes and get deeper into games. Betances had this to say about his start:
Hopefully next time, I’m able to go more than five. I can’t throw five innings. I have to be able to pitch longer in the games. I’ve just got to throw more strikes early and stop falling behind and just try to put guys away when I’m ahead 0-2 or 1-2 instead of taking them 3-2 and end up striking them out or walking them.
Links:
- "This Week in Yankeematrics," by Katie Sharp of ESPN, takes a look at some interesting tidbits in Yankeeland.
- Nick Swisher was open to batting leadoff.
- Bleacher Report says Curtis Granderson is the MVP so far.
- Brett Gardner was OK with sitting against lefties. But honestly, what else could he have said?