Yankees News & Notes: Thursday 6/28/2012

The Yankees pulled off a very quiet sweep of the Indians yesterday, as they finished up the three-game series with a 5-4 win. Although they now hold the best record in baseball, they incurred significant damage to their starting rotation when CC Sabathia hit the DL in the morning with a strained groin and Andy Pettitte joined him there after fracturing his ankle on a line drive during the victory. The world is now so strange that the Yankees' rotation features Freddy Garcia and Adam Warren. Fortunately, they should be getting CC back by the end of his 15-day stint, so after they get through that stretch (only about two of CC's starts), there will theoretically be just one weak spot in the rotation until Pettitte's hopeful August return. Have faith in HirokVaHughes. There's no need to give up the farm for Matt Garza, Ryan Dempster, or anyone really.

• If you missed yesterday's news entirely, here's what reading this is like. Totally understandable.
• Hey, why not read more about the injuries to CC and Andy? Sports Illustrated's Jay Jaffe has got it covered, with further details on the injuries as well as what fans might expect from Garcia and Warren. There's also mention of David Phelps perhaps returning once stretched out to take a spot in the rotation as well! Considering how much Phelps has impressed fans thus far, it's unlikely anyone would complain about his presence in the rotation.
• The Star-Ledger's writers caught up with Garcia and the veteran assured them of his confidence. Joe Girardi and Russell Martin have seem improvements in his mechanics since his early-season struggles, so there might still be some tricks left in Garcia's "Smoke and Mirrors" magic show. Fans can only hope so. The article also mentions that Martin is fine after taking a few games off and playing yesterday, and that closer Rafael Soriano will likely have today's game off after heavy work lately.
• PSA's own William Juliano wrote about the Yankee offense for The Yankee Analysts. There are pretty graphs and tables! Bottom line: home runs score runs. Runs tend to win games, and yes, homers are hit in the postseason too:

Furthermore, looking only at the Yankees’ postseason performance from 1996 to 2011, we find that the decline in the team’s runs scored via the home run is almost equal to the drop off in all other runs. What about just those years when the Yankees won the World Series? Well, during the five most recent championship seasons, the number of runs the Yankees scored via the home run declined by 13.6% in October, compared to an 18.5% dip for all other types of runs.

• Dellin Betances has been sent back to AA Trenton after some rough times with the AAA Traveling Circus. It has not been at all pretty for him this year, and he almost certainly needs his mechanics tweaked if he ever wants success in the big leagues.