The Yankees dominated the Pirates in Spring ball tonight, winning 9-2 behind 4 innings of 1 run, 1 hit, 7K ball from their big lefty and stellar performances from the hospital brigade of Posada, Rivera, and Matsui.
In the Mariano the Great’s first Spring inning since rehabbing, he pitched all zeroes and notched 3 Ks. Posada, meanwhile went a mere 1-3 with 2 RBI, and Godzilla only managed to go 2-2 with a homer, a double and 4 RBI. Welcome back fellas. You were sorely missed. Stay healthy, will ya?
Ex-Yankee prospect, Jose Tabata, meanwhile, continued his excellent Grapefruit League, going 2-4, stealing third and scoring a run. Tabata is hitting .407 this Spring. It is looking more and more like the trade from the Yankees was just the wake up call the kid needed. Who knows whether he would have straightened himself out within the organization, but he has the potential to make this look like a very, very bad trade one day.
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4 Responses to CC Dominates, Old, Injured Guys Rule!
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TIQ IQ
Kid was in a downward spiral before being traded. He was getting into fights with his own teammates and on more than one occasion had to be removed from a game for not playing 100%. People are probably gonna say it was a bad trade but he was really looking like he had bust written all over him.
Yeah, with the way he turned his season around on a dime the minute he was dealt after seeming to be unable to do so all year with Trenton, I just don’t see how this would have happened with the Yanks.
I wish him well, we got two good players back in that deal and until he develops some power it won’t be a huge loss.
If he does reach his ceiling that could be interpreted as the Yankees minor league coaching staff falling short for not connecting with the kid, or you can read it as Tabata being a headcase who clearly didn’t give a damn in Trenton.
Steve is right, he did seem to turn around his season on a dime, and while sometimes a change of scenary can really make a difference, its a little odd how he went from bust to prospecet again basically overnight. I recall reading Keith Law articles about how Tabata’s bat speed had slowed, he looked slow in the field and that he just didn’t seem to care anymore. Yet now he’s motivated and playing hard, hmm….
It’s kind of funny (funny ironic, not funny ha-ha) that Tabata was always labeled as a kind of Mini-Manny and his actions last year mirrored Manny’s exactly to the point where they both completely changed their acts the moment they were traded. The kid is so young that I can’t rule out the possibility that he could have simply matured on his own without a trade, but you do see a lot of these types of toolsy guys with attitudes (Ruben Rivera, Delmon Young, Lasting Milledge,etc.), blow up, get traded or fail to reach their potential, so it’s hard to fault the Yanks for unloading him while he still had some value. What do you think, EJ? Was it a bad move to give up on him?