Josh Norris covers the Yankees’ AA affiliate, the Trenton Thunder for the Trentonian. He was kind enough to agree to an interview here; you can read his “Minors Matters” blog here.

Which position player impressed you the most and why?

This is easy. It has to be Brandon Laird. Based on his impressive work in the Arizona Fall League, I figured Laird would be a solid little ballplayer, but I never expected this.

I can’t really stress enough how difficult it is to hit a home run at Waterfront Park. He not only managed to do that consistently, but nearly all of his homers were soaring, majestic bombs that made me fear for my windshield.

He was one of the three players I’ve seen with the ability to make the stadium look small. The others were Jesus Montero (perhaps you’ve heard of him) and Jorge Vazquez.

He played a nice third base with a solid arm, but, as most of you know, will be transitioning to the outfield to maximize his potential.

I’m not sure if he has a place with the Yankees, simply because of their current outfield situation. Gardner and Swisher probably aren’t going anywhere for a while, so the only way I see him getting to New York is if Granderson leaves and Gardner moves to center (where he belongs). Other than that, he could be trade bait this offseason.

Which pitcher impressed you the most?

 I think the most impressive pitcher was Brackman, based on the absolutely rock-bottom expectations he had coming into the season. It would have been perfectly reasonable to see him spend all of 2010 Tampa, but he didn’t. He moved to Trenton and, after a brief adjustment period, dominated.

He topped at 98 with the heater and flashed a hook that, even from the elevated press box, looked really, really dirty. In his final game, in relief of Andy Pettitte, he held the Altoona Curve (the eventual league champions) to just a hit and a walk over five shutout frames.

The coup de grace came in the eighth, when an error put the winning run at second base with nobody out. With help from a one-out intentional walk, Brackman loaded the bags with just one down.

Earlier in the season, this would surely have led to a crooked number. This time, however, Brackman buckled down and coaxed an inning-ending double to keep alive his team’s chances in what wound up being the team’s final win.

The stuff was clearly there from day one, but his mental toughness grew by leaps and bounds as his Thunder tenure grew. That showed me a lot. He’s still got a bit to work on, but I think the Yankees may have scratched off the right lottery ticket with Andrew Brackman.

Of the Killer B’s (Brackman-Betances-Banuelos), which looks most polished/advanced?

I’m going to go with Banuelos, because of the extreme poise he showed as a 19-year-old in the playoffs. The game against New Hampshire really sealed it for me. Here he was, in a game with the potential for a clinch, against the best hitting team in the league, and he comes up nails.

He coupled high-90s heat with low-80s change-ups in his first start with the 80-pitch count removed, and in the process more than lived up to all the praise that was lavished on him during the offseason.
Moreover, his command of the English language was impressive, and his maturity with the media was very, very good. You don’t always see that out of prospects, particularly ones facing a real media contingent for the first time.

Romine started hot and then kind of fizzled. Still an elite prospect? What impact does Montero/Sanchez have on the way we percieve Romine?

At this point, I think Romine is a B+ prospect rather than an A. I wouldn’t be at all shocked to see him return to Trenton to begin the season. He has too much work to do as a hitter and a receiver, plus I think Montero will probably begin 2011 at Scranton for more work with the glove.

Romine did make excellent strides as a game-caller this year, and I still believe he will eventually take over for Posada down the road. That said, he will be 22 once next year opens, and that means there is PLENTY of time for him to develop. If that means Cervelli or Montero has to serve as a buffer for a year.

Ever thought Cervelli would stick in the majors as long as he has?

5. Absolutely not. He really hasn’t lit the world on fire with his bat, and I didn’t even give him that much credit when he left. He hit a blistering .190 during his brief time with Trenton, and seemingly got the promotion solely because of his spot on the 40-man. That he could have two World Series rings by the end of the year is an absolute shocker.

Which prospects heading to winter ball intrigue you the most? What about those listed with an unusual position, like Laird as an outfielder?

Because I really don’t know all of the names heading to the various winter leagues, I’ll stick to the AFL. The most intriguing, I think, is Craig Heyer. At 24, he was far too old for High-A. Still, he put up some pretty damn good numbers. In 92 innings, Heyer walked an astonishing six hitters and allowed one home run.

He doesn’t have overpowering stuff, but it will pretty interesting to see how his arsenal plays against some of baseball’s top talent. He could be a nice addition to the Trenton bullpen next year.

Which players are you most looking forward to seeing play next season? Which departed ones do you imagine you will miss most?

 Of the guys I didn’t see in Double-A last year, I am really looking forward to watching Graham Stoneburner. He is one of my absolute favorite players in the system, and really knocked my socks off when I saw him against Lakewood in early May.

That day, albeit against a very young, swing-happy BlueClaws team, he struck out 11 over seven two-hit innings. He allowed just two outs in the air all day long, and hit 95 miles per hour on his 95th and final pitch of the afternoon. He also displayed a tight slider that he could either bury or drop in for a strike.
He also flat-out dominated in Tampa throughout the rest of the season, and compiled a WHIP under 1.00, as well as a batting average against of just .209. He’s just another of the Yankees power arms, and Brett Marshall’s probably due for a taste of the upper levels toward the end of 2011 as well.

As far as hitters go, Melky Mesa and Brad Suttle are the obvious choices. Mesa, the T-Yanks’ center fielder and the Florida State League Player of the Year, displayed dynamic talent all year long. He placed in the top five in the organization in home runs (19), RBIs (74) and stolen bases (31). He does strike out a bit (129 in 121 games), which could hurt him when the pitching gets better.

As for Suttle, he appears to be fully back from shoulder surgery, and he showed it in the second half. After the All-Star break, Tampa’s third baseman hit a stellar .293/.369/.839 with nine of his 10 bombs. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him break out.

Of the ones who depart, obviously Brackman, because of his skill and because he is a genuinely nice guy. Aside from the obvious, I hope I’ll miss Josh Schmidt. He’s a great kid who has no business pitching another inning in Double-A.

Any plans to go to spring training and scout out the players at the minor league complex?

I sure hope so. I had a great time at spring training this year, but I really didn’t know what I was doing. I had never been there as a journalist or as a fan, and it certainly was an eye-opening experience. Pretty much every minor leaguer from Charleston to Scranton are scattered across four fields, with games and drills going on constantly.

I remember one of your colleagues once telling me that sabermetrics aren’t their choice when it comes to evaluating prospects. Where do you fall on the scout vs sabr spectrum?

When it comes to scouts vs. sabermetrics, I really don’t think you can go with one or the other. Scouts and stats are like peanut butter and jelly: Taken individually, both are good. Together however, they are so much better.

Let’s use Stoneburner as an example: Without seeing him, I could have told you he struck out 137 hitters last season and put up stellar statistics. When you sit behind the plate and really watch, however, you can see the way he places his fastball and the way his slider breaks. Numbers alone simply won’t tell you that.

That said, it’s always better to have more information at your disposal. Give me WHIP, give me FIP, give me WAR, give me WARP, give me VORP, I’ll take it all and use whichever metric I feel is most valid.

As for traditional metrics, let me just say this: Manny Banuelos fanned 85 men in 64 2/3 innings that spanned 15 regular-season starts. His record? 0-4.

Of course, they really don’t keep the really sabermetric stats for the minor leagues, so it’s kind of a moot point.

Biggest thing you learned this season?

I didn’t really learn it this year, but the Thunder’s season really reinforced just how important it is for a team to spend on player development. From David Phelps and D.J. Mitchell and Hector Noesi to Manny Banuelos, Dellin Betances, Andrew Brackman and Adam Warren, the Trenton rotation was a testament to the smart people the Yankees have spanning the globe for top-notch talent

Yes, the unlimited payroll is a pretty big advantage, but without spending some of it on the draft and international free agency, there’s no question the return on the investment would be significantly smaller.

Lastly, any parting words of wisdom for our readers?

Remember, it’s only a game.

******

Many thanks to Josh for taking the time to do this; come back for a playoff preview live chat, eight PM eastern time this evening.

Share on Facebook

Miss me? No? Ah, well, too bad.

Anyway, some hopefully coherent thoughts about the postseason:

1) Since May 1st, Derek Jeter has 148 hits, of which just thirty-four have gone for extra bases, and only one out-of-the-park home run since June 12th. His slugging (.344) is only six hundredths of a point higher than his not-quite-as-awful on base percentage of (.338) in that same time span.

Since May 1st, Brett Gardner has a .380 OBP and .378 slugging. Sure, his OBP being higher than slugging doesn’t suggest he’s a great power hitter, but the argument can and should be made that Brett Gardner should hit lead off for the Yankees in the post season, as their highest OBP guy, and, at this rate, his 29 extra-base hits in the same time span is not sufficiently less than Jeter’s 34 for his lack of power to be such a liability to keep him out of the top spot.

2) A discussion on Twitter emerged tonight over who the Yankees should start game two, Andy Pettitte or Phil Hughes.

I’m falling into the Hughes camp for these reasons:

a) his home/road splits go beyond just the home run: a higher SO/9 and SO/BB rate indicate pitching better on the road, even accounting for the difference in innings pitched.

b) Target Field is a pretty massive ball park, which should theoretically help with the whole home run issue.

c) While you can argue that you’d rather have Pettitte pitching in game five, I think that it’s not the wisest move to plan for game five before you’ve finished games one, two and three. The Yankees’ best bet is, of course, to win the LDS in as few games as possible.

d) If the Yankees do lose game one, they can adjust the rotation if they see fit, although I imagine this is quite unlikely.

That said, the big difference between this year’s Yankees and last year’s has got to be the current confidence in the rotation: last season, besides CC, Pettitte was still healthy and although AJ Burnett was a wild card, he was not downright bad as he’s been for much of this season. This year, there’s CC, sometimes Hughes, pray Pettitte stays healthy…

3) It’s not that this year’s Yankees team is bad or undeserving; but that last season’s, especially after mid-June, was that good, getting better as the year went on. This year’s team started strongly enough, and then stumbled once Pettitte got hurt, Vazquez came up lame and Burnett was, well, AJ Burnett.

That said, this year’s squad has much to commend to it: Nick Swisher’s had a brilliant, consistent year, Brett Gardner has emerged as a legitimate mlb-caliber outfielder, Curtis Granderson’s remembered how to hit of late, and even with Jeter’s struggles you can still argue the Yankee infield is one of the best in the league. Kerry Wood has been simply fantastic in pinstripes, and Boone Logan’s turn around means the loss of Damaso Marte is a little less gaping.

4) So what happens if Girardi fails to win the World Series?

It seems almost unfair that he could make it to the World Series, or even game seven of the ALCS, lose and then not be invited back even when he won a World Series just last year, but, of course, the world of Yankee baseball is not a forgiving place.

I think, in the end, if the Yankees don’t win it all (and even perhaps if they do), it will depend as much on how the events occur as the events themselves; managing a team out of an ALDS win because Francisco Cervelli is hitting instead of Jorge Posada is a little bit different than losing in a game seven bottom-of-the-ninth hit with Mariano Rivera on the mound.

Of course, everything could go right and then Girardi choose not to return, but that’s probably a bridge to cross when it’s reached, to use a cliché.

5) Lastly, on the question of Minnesota or Texas as a playoff opponent, I’ll simply say that either team would offer its benefits and drawbacks, and it’s still up to the Yankees to win the games they need to win–and that, even if they do so, the much-imagined ALCS versus the Rays is not a guarantee, as the Rays would need to take care of business on their end and well.

Neither Minnesota nor Texas is a walkover…

Share on Facebook

The Yankees clinched a postseason spot tonight (whether the division or the wild card is yet to be determined), and I have to say the following, with a big Spoiler alert! caveat if you haven’t seen The Town:

It is beyond satisfying to see the Red Sox robbed and eliminated on the same day.

******

More serious discussion to follow, but for now, go and enjoy it.

Share on Facebook

The standings don’t care.

The standings don’t care if a game is won in April or August, by one or by twenty, in sunshine or in rain. All that matters is that a win is a win, and the team with the most in the W column keeps on playing, long after the nights have become longer than the days.

For the fans, however, when narrative is everything, some wins just matter more than others.

Take tonight, for example.

With the Yankees’ having split with the Rays and in danger of being swept in the final home series of the season, they discarded their previous plan to try to conserve innings for their young fifth starter, Phil Hughes, and instead bade him the task of pitching tonight’s game. Not clinching a Wild Card spot is one thing; not even reducing the magic number would have been quite another.

So it was that tonight almost felt, to some, like a need for validation–that the Yankees are not the 2007 Mets, that they will still be playing baseball on Halloween. Losses build upon one another, and losing tonight’s game–where both starters were excellent and Alex Rodriguez worked some familiar late-inning magic–would have been that type of demoralizing loss that can take the color out of autumn leaves.

The win was far from perfect, and there is an emerging worry about Mariano Rivera, who has now blown three saves in one month. Is it his annual dead arm period, or something more serious? It’s not the first time Rivera has blown a save and it won’t be the last, but no one wearing pinstripes, on their uniform or, trite as it sounds, in their hearts, has had to watch a closer who was mere human for at least the past sixteen years. We simply don’t know what humanity on the mound in the ninth inning looks like, and any time previous we may have seen it, we pretend we haven’t.

On the other hand, in some respects the game illustrated the best about the Yankees: a young starter who looks poised to take the mound in the playoffs, the once almost-anathema Rodriguez hitting a late game home run and then fake-bunting to allow a steal of third base, a clutch single from Robbie Canó, dramatically cementing his MVP candidacy if he had not already done so, two and two-thirds innings of absolutely stunning bullpen work from David Robertson, Kerry Wood, Joba Chamberlain and Boone Logan, and a walk-off walk from Juan Miranda–far from the biggest bat on the roster.

All it takes is one win, strategically placed at the right time, to change the outlook from fans and writers: an elimination number of three with a week of baseball left still allows for hope; an elimination number of one would require a six or seven game losing streak.

Of course, the standings don’t care about what the fans think; they’re there, printed in greyscale in the Times and the Record and the News and the Post, and fifty years from now you probably won’t remember how the Yankees got that 93rd win of theirs, but in the end, all that the standings care about is that they did.

Share on Facebook

Photo via friend of the blog Amanda Rykoff

How would you remember George Steinbrenner?

The question has been asked and answered, and for many, the monument that now graces Monument Park behind center field in Yankee Stadium, would seem fitting and appropriate as a tribute to a man who was, in many ways, larger than life.

Ask a similar, but very different question:

How would George remember George Steinbrenner?

The answer becomes not quite so clear.

Steinbrenner, we know, was a man who spared no expense when it came to the Yankees, willing to do anything to bring a winning baseball team to New York City–and seven Word Series titles later, he most certainly did– seemingly regardless of the consequences it may have wrought.

Yet Steinbrenner was also a man whose community involvement is something we can only wish to emulate, and this Hal Steinbrenner quote about his father, from the article linked above, says volumes:

“He always told us that America is supposed to be the land of milk and honey, and there are too many people left behind,” Hal Steinbrenner says. “And he taught us if two or more people know you are doing it, you’re doing it for the wrong reasons.”

Does that come across as a man who’d want a giant, bombastic monument that overshadows those of Ruth, Huggins, Gehrig, Mantle, DiMaggio and the victims of 9/11 (among others)?

Of course, only George himself knew what he would have wanted, so perhaps it’s wrong to say that the monument is too big or a noble effort but misguided.

@emmaspan tweeted that “it would be kind of inappropriate if Steinbrenner had a tasteful, understated, modest remembrance,” and my co-writer at You Can’t Predict Baseball @jordan_smed told me, “I think George wouldn’t have wanted a giant monument, but it was still the right thing to do…because the guy he was demanded it.”

There is certainly some truth to these notions, but I’m still left wondering if Steinbrenner was about the monuments and the tributes so much as he was the cause, be it the Yankees or helping out the underprivileged wherever he could.

Don’t mistake this for hagiography–Steinbrenner wasn’t a saint, and I doubt he’d enjoy classification as such, but that’s kind of the point.

Our society still bears traces of those that came before, of the idea that bigger is better (a sociologist or anthropologist would probably love to examine the root causes of this notion), that the more gold, the heavier trophy, the bigger monument you get, the more important you were.

In the postgame, Derek Jeter was asked about it and commented, ““It was big,” Jeter said. “Probably just how The Boss wanted it. The biggest one out there.”

Jeter, unlike me, would be in a position to know, and yet it’s hard to reconcile his comment with the notion of the man who thought the highest form of charity was that done anonymously.

It’s hard to argue that any one person was more important to the Yankees than the Boss in his prime, since he held the purse strings and thus the keys, but does that make Steinbrenner more important than the Yankee name, brand, legacy or ethos?

More importantly, did Steinbrenner see himself as such?

The monument is there, and by all rights and purposes one should be there, but when it was unveiled the great reaction–via IM, Twitter, correspondence from those at the game–was one agog at how big the monument was, more than anything else.

I never knew Mr. Steinbrenner, so I can’t answer the question with any certainty, but I wonder…

Share on Facebook

Right now, my Facebook page is dotted with references to the Hartford Whalers, Winnipeg Jets and Montreal Expos.

It’s 1.30 in the morning, and I’m drawn in by the power of teams no longer there, contracted or moved elsewhere, their original incarnations working their way until they become favorites of ours.

I’ve been to Montreal, and I’ve seen the Expos play (in 2002, versus the Houston Astros), and I remember falling in love with a young Vladimir Guerrero, and despite the last place team, despite the empty stadium, despite my most prevalent Expo memory having been David Cone’s perfect game, I still found myself liking the team. I liked it then, and I love it more now.

The Expos are only one of many teams where the nostalgia permeates, in baseball and in other sports, but they might be the most obvious example of this feeling because they were torn from us, undone by the strike, just when they were the best team in all of baseball. That’ll create nostalgia, just like the Dodgers skipping town only a couple years after winning their one and only World Series.

Sometimes I wonder if what I love is the team…or the idea of the team.

What I love isn’t so much Tim Raines or Andre Dawson or Dennis Martinez; what I love is the idea of a team, playing in a city that loves their team, like Seattle loved their Sonics, like Cleveland loved their original Browns.

I wonder, if/when the Nets move to Brooklyn, will their New Jersey tenure be looked back upon with a sense of fondness? The idea of a basketball team in Brooklyn has a ton of pull, and even I, a native Jerseyan, don’t absolutely hate the idea, but what my reaction will be when the move is finally done…I have no idea.

On the surface, it’s crazy to compare the move or contraction of a team to the death of someone you know and love, but when you get to the fanatical level that you’re probably at if you’re reading this post, the relationship becomes complicated. You know the team, everything you possibly can know about them, celebrate their successes and mourn their failures even if you know the reciprocation is never coming.

Maybe it’s the notion that they’re there, like that Nike Ad from last Christmas said, when everything else fails, when rent is too high, the weather too 33-and-raining, the wrong candidate wins the election…the team is still there, still showing up, still playing, for good or ill. So, then, when the team is taken from you, be it after a long, drawn out process or something sudden and nearly overnight, that certainty, that fallback, that pride, is gone.

What would happen if the departed team came back? If the Nationals went back to Montreal or the Carolina Hurricanes back to Hartford?

Would they be welcomed back with open arms and live happily ever after as we hope? Or are we more in love with the nostalgia than we are the team itself?

As geography constantly changes, so too will teams in their locations, choosing to migrate to more populous or lucrative areas, and fans somewhere will be left in the cold. The Expos and the Whalers and the Jets and the Sonics will go from living experiences to the memories of a Wikipedia generation, and the nostalgia will continue to grow.

Share on Facebook

So, Andy Pettitte was reportedly brilliant and Mariano had his 4th blown save (what the…); I was playing softball so I missed the game, but that’s not what I want to talk about.

First, check out this screen grab

Now, this:

Colvin was scoring from third on Welington Castillo’s RBI double when a piece of bat hit him in his chest. He was transported to the Ryder Trauma Unit of Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, where X-rays were taken and the wound was being sutured.

He’s being treated for pneumothorax, a puncture of the chest cavity, which allowed air into the chest wall and the potential of a collapsed lung. A tube was inserted into the wound, and Colvin is resting comfortably, but will remain hospitalized for 2-3 days for further examination , and manager Mike Quade said he will not play again this season.

Colvin was not in labored breathing, and there was very little blood. There was no immediate word on the depth of the wound, though it was only a few inches from his heart, and his neck, and could’ve been much more serious. The sharp end of the larger piece of Castillo’s broken bat is what went into Colvin’s chest, but it did not stick into the chest.

That’s from Here

Baseball is a sport, and while it might not be football or hockey or another full-pads, full-contact sport, it’s still a sport and people will get hurt. It’s part of the game, and something you’re supposed to understand when you sign up for it.

That said, there’s a difference between, say, a pulled quad or hammy, or even a torn ligament in the elbow–all of these things suck, and life would be better if they didn’t happen at all, but had that bat shard been just a few inches in another area, as the above says, it could have been much, much worse.

If you don’t want to all-out ban maple bats –which Castillo, the batter, had been using, via Deadspin et al sources– because of whatever reason you have, then why not a batglove, as our friends at IIATMS have so often been promoting, or some similar device?

Do we really want to hope that our luck holds out forever and no player…or fan…is critically injured?

Do you want to risk it happening to Jeter or A-Rod or (next year) Jesus Montero?

Do you want to risk it happening to a fan? Forget yourself; would you want it to happen to your mother or father, sister or brother, son or daughter?

Because sooner or later, it will happen. We got lucky today it wasn’t worse. We won’t be lucky forever.

Share on Facebook

This can kill you:

This was the Yankee game:

Images from EKG Fileroom and Fangraphs

Share on Facebook

The schedule can be viewed by going to Yankees.com, clicking on the calender and then selecting 2011 as the year from the pull-down menu.

+ Interleague involves going to Milwaukee and Cincinnati while getting the Brewers and Rockies at home, and, of course, the Mets (first series home, second away).

+ A home-dominant schedule in April, May and June kicks the Yanks’ behinds in August in September. In the middle of September–more or less the same trip as this, they go out to Los Angeles AND Seattle.

+Open at home, on March 31. Because, of course, March 31st is perfect baseball weather in New York.

+Once again, close with Boston and Tampa–home vs Boston, away at Tampa.

+From Aug 8th to 25th, the Yankees do not play an AL East opponent.

+Tampa doesn’t visit Yankee Stadium until July 7th

Share on Facebook

…So I kind of don’t know what to say after a game like that. Friday’s loss was painful, and tonight’s may have even been worse.

Yes, Mariano will occasionally blow a save, but it shouldn’t have even come down to that–why on earth was Cervelli bunting on a 3-0 count? There were a myriad of other managing moves that made you go….huh?, and it’s pretty easy to forget that AJ Burnett ever pitched in this game.

What’s more is that a Nick Swisher home run is the only thing separating the Yankees from a six game losing streak, and they have Cliff Lee on tap before a set at Tampa.

There are a host of reasons for everything, but most of them probably revolve around luck and guys playing who may not be entirely healthy, as it is the home stretch of a six month season. It happens.

Tomorrow’s another day…

Share on Facebook