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The Yankees head to Cleveland and hope to win a few more games as we near the end of the first half of the season.
#Yankees lineup vs. CLE: Gardner LF, Jeter SS, Ellsbury CF, Teixeira 1B, McCann DH, Roberts 2B, Ichiro RF, Johnson 3B, Cervelli C, Greene P
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) July 7, 2014
The lineup is led by Brett Gardner, Derek Jeter, and Jacoby Ellsbury, as usual. Mark Teixeira bats cleanup while Brian McCann is the designated hitter today and Brian Roberts bats sixth. Ichiro Suzuki, Kelly Johnson, and Francisco Cervelli round out the order. Shane Greene will make the first start of his major league career today as he replaces Chase Whitley in the rotation. You probably don't remember Greene from his April 24th three-walk, three-unearned runs appearance where he could only record one out before he got yanked, he probably wants to forget that one too. While he's been wildly inconsistent in Triple-A this year, he's maintained a 1.88 ERA while keeping hitters to a .161/.247/.253 batting line over his last four starts. Hopefully he can take that momentum with him when he takes the mound today.
The Trenton Thunder will send a total of four players to the Eastern League All-Star Game this year. Gary Sanchez, Peter O`Brien, Ben Gamel, and Matt Tracy have all been named to the Eastern Division team along with their manager Tony Franklin after the team won the league championship last year. Sanchez, the organization's top catching prospect, has hit .275/.346/.439 with nine home runs this year, while O`Brien, now a first baseman, has launched 15 home runs after joining the team back in May. Outfielder Ben Gamel is somewhat under the radar while hitting .284/.326/.382 with 23 doubles and 102 hits, just shy of the league lead. Matt Tracy has spend time in Triple-A as a 25-year-old left-handed starter and has pitched to a 3.28 ERA in 82.1 innings.
The Yankees have signed international prospect Raymundo Moreno out of Venezuela. The 16-year-old six-foot, 170-pound outfielder signed for a $600,000 bonus and was described by Baseball America as having "above-average speed, an average arm and gets good reads off the bat in the outfield. He has good bat speed and gap power from the right side."
Ex-Yankees prospect Ravel Santana has been released by the Astros after appearing in only 13 games this year. He was taken in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 Draft by Houston this winter, but it never worked out. Once a promising young hitter in the organization, Santana's career was derailed by a devastating broken ankle in 2011 and he never really recovered. Now at 22, he has never spent time above Short Season and maybe he never will.