Yankee fans will their first look at the centerpiece of the Roy Halladay trade Mr Kyle Drabek, son of the ‘one who got away‘ for Yankee fans of a certain age. After being dealt, Kyle was ranked #1 in the Blue Jays system by Baseball America this past off season. He followed his impressive stint in the minors with a fine spring (2.81 ERA) and broke camp with the club. He’s off to a good start this year (2-0 3.30 ERA) for a Blue Jay club that is ranked #5 thus far in the American League in team ERA and Runs Scored. Here’s a quick scouting report of Drabek from BA:
Drabek has the stuff to pitch at the front of a rotation. His curveball is his best pitch, a power offering with 12-to-6 action and low-80s velocity. It comes out of his hand at the same height as his fastball, giving it good depth and deception that produces a lot of swings and misses. He throws two- and four-seam fastballs, ranging from 90-96 mph and sitting comfortably in the low 90s. He has good life to the two-seamer, using it to induce groundouts. Toronto challenged Drabek to get better against lefthanders in 2010—they had a .924 OPS against him the year before—and he did just that. By adding a cutter that he’d throw 10-12 times per game, he held Double-A lefties to a .227/.301/.350 line. His changeup has shown depth and sink, but he’s still refining his arm speed and command with the pitch. Drabek doesn’t have pinpoint command, but he throws enough strikes and locates his pitches well enough.
Looks like the Yanks will have their work cut out for them, we all know how much trouble they having facing rookie pitchers they haven’t seen before. It will also be interesting to see if Cervelli gets the start behind the dish. The Yanks try to give Russell Martin off when there’s a day game after a night game, but Martin and Burnett have worked exceptionally well together this year. Cervelli, however, was AJs personal catcher last year. AJ will need all the help he can get this afternoon, he’s 1-4 with a 6.50 ERA (8 GS) against the Blue Jays since signing with the Yanks after the 08 season.
EDIT-Lineups have been released. Martin is in, A-Rod is out for a scheduled day off.
Yankees 4/30 lineup vs. TOR:Jeter SS, Granderson CF, Teixeira 1B, Cano 2B, Swisher RF, Chavez 3B, Posada DH, Martin C, Gardner LF, Burnett P
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4 Responses to Game Thread-#24 Burnett vs Drabek
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TIQ IQ
Jeter leading off again. I wonder if today is it for him as the leadoff hitter i.e. if today is the last chance for him to do something there, being that it’s the last game / day of April.
One thing he can do the first time he gets on base (if he can get on base), is steal a base, sometime this month/year. It’s embarrassing that his backup and the starting catcher have more stolen bases and attempts as him (Nunez and Martin have 2 SB each to Jeter’s 0 SB.)
If he doesn’t get on base or he gets on base once today, he should be dropped to seventh tomorrow, then eighth if he keeps struggling, then ninth if he struggles after that. That way if he’s dropped to ninth he can begin to think long and hard if he should play after this year. Ideally the demotion lights a fire under his ass and he hits at least .280 BA and .350 OBP good (not great but ten point improvements on his 2010 stats) or if he doesn’t post those numbers, he retires after this season because he thinks he’s not hitting anywhere close to the level he did through 2009.
I think 2010 plus April 2011 / 24 games, 3 games shy of one-sixth of a season, is more than enough time / a chance for Jeter to right his ship in the leadoff spot. Another 0 for 4 or 1 for 5 from him today and he’s officially a liability at the plate.
Ugh, I apologize for the choppy 1st edition. I forgot what happens when I try to make a simple edit on my phone, all the HTML disappears.
Good game today, but is it me or does it seem like the Yankees score more runs before the fifth inning than they do after it? It just seems like they score early and often then peter out as the game goes on. If that’s the case statistically, then I’ve somewhat proven my theory that the hitters let down as the game goes on. It doesn’t make sense that pitchers figure out the Yankee batters and not vice versa as the game goes on cuz when have you ever read articles about team BA as the game goes on? Yeah you’ll see so-so team bats .245 in the ninth inning, but you never see anyone say “The Yankees bat .254 in innings 1-3, .271 in innings 4-6, and .283 in innings 7-9.
I’m still not impressed by Jeter in the leadoff spot. I say drop him to seventh tomorrow. He blows in the leadoff spot. Is this month the first one in his career where he didn’t steal a base?
There was a streak early this year when they didn’t score any runs at all after the 5th inning–against the Twins, and maybe the game after. I don’t know if the numbers are available. The data is on ESPN.com, but it would be a small pain to do the addition and division.
As far as Jeter goes, the difference between hitting him leadoff and hitting him ninth is too small to worry about. It would amount to a couple of runs over the course of the season, a fraction of a win. The real question is whether he plays at all. And the answer is that he will, partly because they’ve got so much money invested in him, and partly because they have no one else who’s much better. After the season, the question becomes, “Should they get another shortstop, for example, Jose Reyes.” They probably still won’t, but at least then we’ll know if at any point this season Jeter can get hot for at least a little while.