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Post by kaybli on Aug 26, 2024 16:13:46 GMT -5
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Post by chiyankee on Aug 26, 2024 16:39:27 GMT -5
Nice to see Wells back in the lineup.
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Post by kaybli on Aug 26, 2024 16:44:23 GMT -5
Nice to see Wells back in the lineup. Against a lefty. 
Is that allowed?
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Post by fwclipper51 on Aug 26, 2024 16:55:50 GMT -5
From MLB Rumors 08/24/24
Yankees Claim Duke Ellis
By Darragh McDonald | August 26, 2024 at 4:35pm CDT
The Yankees announced that they have claimed outfielder Duke Ellis off waivers from the Mariners. The latter club designated him for assignment in recent days. To open a 40-man spot, right-hander Ian Hamilton was transferred to the 60-day injured list.
Ellis, 36, is known for his standout speed. The White Sox briefly called him up earlier this year and he stole 4 bases in 4 tries. In 273 minor league games, he has stolen 134 bases, while only being caught 18 times.
His work at the plate hasn’t as impressive. He has hit .238/.325/.339 in his minor league career, production which translates to an 85 wRC+, indicating he’s been 15% below league average. Still, the idea of having a speedy outfielder on the bench has been enough for Ellis to garner plenty of interest. After his brief look with the White Sox earlier this year, he has gone to the Mets, the Mariners and now the Yankees via waiver claims.
Finding a roster spot for such a specific skill set can be tricky but it’s possible that the Yankees will find room for Ellis as rosters expand next week, or perhaps in the playoffs where extra off-days lead to a club requiring fewer pitchers. A speedster such as Ellis could be a difference maker in a close game, particularly in the era of the free runner in extra innings. Ellis has a full slate of options and just a few days of service time.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Aug 26, 2024 16:57:03 GMT -5
The Yankees get yet another "easy" series, flying down to Washington to take on a Nationals team that was with 1 game of .500 and just 1/2 game behind the final Wild Card in late June, but has since played as badly as the two dregs of the NL, the Rockies and Marlins, falling out of sight in the Wild Card chase. Since June 23rd, Colorado is 21-31, the Nationals are 20-33 and the Marlins are 19-33. The Nationals come into this series solidly in 4th place in the East at 58-73, 10 games or more between them and the Mets in 3rd and the Marlins in 5th.
This is a transition year for the Nationals: they're suddenly a very young team almost everywhere, as they've moved to establish a number of prospects of various pedigree but include:
1) C.J. Abrams, one of the young players acquired in the first Juan Soto trade (to the Padres), who became a solid regular last year but has improved on that performance.
2) James Woods, the top prospect traded in the Soto deal, who's been a top 20 prospect everywhere for two years running. He's been called up and after a few games of struggle, was good enough in left that the team felt they could trade away their two most productive outfielders at the trade deadline, Jesse Winker and Lane Thomas.
3) Dylan Crews, selected with 2nd pick of the 2023 draft, another reason the Nats felt they could trade multiple outfielders as they had fallen out of the playoff hunt by the deadline. He struggled some on arriving in AAA, but has hit much better in August, so they're calling him up just in time to play the Yankees today.
They also have a still-young Keibert Ruiz at catcher, and a still-young Luis Garcia at 2nd, Mackenzine Gore, Mitchell Parker, and D.J. Herz, all 25 and under and in the rotation, all left-handed and all pitching just below average baseball. You won't be surprised to learn that Parker, Gore and veteran lefty Patrick Corbin are all lined up to face the Yankees this series. The Nats have also recently called up 3B prospect 23-year-old Jose Tena, and ex-Yankee farmhand 25-year-old 1B prospect Andres Chapparro, who had a tremendous AAA season this year with both Arizona and Washington after the Yanke let him go after a medicore AAA season last year. If this move to youth works as they hope, the Nationals will be serious contenders in the NL East as soon at 2026, even with the continued presence of the two beasts of the division, the Phillies and the Braves.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Aug 26, 2024 16:58:54 GMT -5
In the series opener, the Nationals will start one of those young lefties, Mitchell Parker. Parker was selected by Washington in the 5th round of the 2020 June Amateur Draft, but didn't pitch in the organization that year. Nobody did; it was the COVID season, and every prospect who was signed was in devlopmental camp. He spent April of 2021 in instructional camp, then the Nats assigned him to low-A. After making 12 so-so starts there, the moved him to high-A where he struggled in 11 starts to end the season. They sent him back there for the whole 2022 season and he pitched well in 24 starts, 6-4 with a 3.33 ERA. He did pretty well in AA in 2023, 9-6 with a 4.24 ERA, but with 132 K's in 113 2/3 innings. They brought him to AAA for the playoffs to end the season, and he made three short starts, totalling 10 1/3 innings, two terrible; and one game of 4 shutout innings. The Nats sent him to AAA to start this season, but after 1 solid game there, they brough him to the majors to be their 5th starter.
He pitched well through June, going 5-4 with a 3.32 ERA in his first 14 starts. He had a terrible July going 0-2 in 5 starts with a 7.89 ERA, but rebounded for the most part this month; the Phillies nuked him for 9 runs in 3 innings two starts ago, but he allowed just 1 earned run in 19 1/3 innings in the other 3, winning two of them. On the season, Parker is 7-7 with a 4.26 ERA. In 23 starts, he's pitched 122 1/3 innings, allowing 121 hits, 65 runs, 58 earned runs, 16 HR, 32 BB, striking out 104. His WHIP for the season is a bit better than MLB average: 1.247. As you might expect, tonight is his first game against the Yanks.
Repertoire: As with Gomber yesterday, Parker is a 4-pitch lefty who doesn't throw very hard. His 4-seamer has slightly above average rise and below average run in on lefties. The curve has below average drop and very little break in on righties; it's almost, but not quite, a 12-to-6 curve. The splitter has below average drop and well below average tail away from righties. The slider has slighty below average movement in both directions; down and in on righties. In run values, the FB is a minus, the splitter is a small minus, the slider is basically zero run value, and the curve is a plus. The FB velocity is well below average, so is the spin. The curve spin rate is bottom 20% in MLB, but his extension is top 20%, helping his stuff play up a bit. His barrel and hard hit rates are near average, the groundball and popup rates are below average the flyball and line drive rates are above average. The called strike rate is average, but the swinging strike rate is below average and so is the CSW. His BABIP is slightly above average, the HR/FB rate is below average, and the Strand Rate is also below average. The luck factors more or less cancel each other out, so his ERA estimators are slightly below his current ERA of 4.26 at 4.19. The pitch mix so far: FB averaging 92-3 about 50% of the time; curve 80-1 about 23%, splitter 85-6 about 18%, and slider 84-5 about 9%.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Aug 26, 2024 17:00:56 GMT -5
Playing the Name Game:
16 MLB players with 1st name Mitchell; 26 with last name Mitchell. The best hitters with 1st name Mitchell are current Seattle outfielder/DH Mitch Haniger and past gloveman/speedster OF Mitch Webster, both with close to 15 bWAR. Haniger is the better hitter, Webster the better defender, and as Haniger is still active and might pass Webster for good, I'll chose him. It would seem that the best pitching Mitchell would appear to be closer Mitch Williams, as he save 30+ games 3 times, got downballot Cy Young votes in two seasons, and even got a couple of downballot MVP votes in one of those two. But Williams was so bad in his bad seasons that he wound up with a negative career bWAR, and as far as I can tell, the best pitching Mitchell is Parker and his 0.8 bWAR this year. The best hitter with last name Mitchell was Kevin Mitchell, the platoon OF/INF for the champion 1986 Mets who won the NL MVP Award for the Giants 3 years later, leading the league in HR, RBI and OPS. The best pitcher with last name Mitchell was Clarence Mitchell, who pitched from 1911 through 1928 for six diffent teams with a record of 125-139, and who pitched as a swingman for two NL pennant-winning teams, the 1920 Dodgers and the 1928 Giants. There are four post-2000 players with first name Parker, the best of them is Tigers outfielder Parker Meadows. As for last name Parker, there aren't as many as you'd think for just for such a common name, just 18 if I counted right. Of these, the best pitcher is Blake Parker, who accumulated just over 5 bWAR mostly as a reliever for 7 teams over 9 seasons from 2012 through 2021 (he didn't pitch in the majors in 2015), including 16 mostly forgettable games for the Yankees in 2016, except perhaps this game in which he came in to relieve Dellin Betances before his could blow the lead in the 9th, and got his only save for the Yanks: Blake Parker's greatest Yankee moment
The greatest Parker ever, pitcher and hitter, ever, and by a lot, is the great Dave Parker, who compiled 2712 hits, 339 HR and nearly 1500 RBi in his 18 year career. He was top 3 in the MVP voting in 5 different seasons, winning in 1977 with Pittsburgh and is 37th all-time in MVP Shares. Parker was one of the leaders of the 1979 "We Are Family" Champion Pirates, got a 2nd ring as the DH on the 1989 A's that swept the Giants in the Bay Arez "Earthquake" World Series. He never got more than 24.5% of the BBWAA vote for the Hall of Fame in any of the 15 seasons he was on the ballot, but got 7 of the 16 votes from the 2020 ballot of the "Contemporary Era Committee".
Should Dave Parker be in the Hall? A quick review...
Of the 4 Bill James Measures, he fails the Black Ink test and Standards but passes (barely) both the Monitor and the Grey Ink test. Of his 10 closest statistical comps at Baseball Reference, four are in the Hall, already, but two are somewhat weak selections: Harold Baines, and Tony Perez. Of the other 6, I think only Rusty Staub has any sort of chance to eventually get in. His worst credential is his standing on the JAWS Jaffe Systerm, which has Parker as the 42nd best right fielder in MLB history. Of the 10 right fielders right above him, 5 are in the Hall: Tony Oliva a brilliant hitter of the 1960s and 1970s whose productive career was cut short by knee injuries, and four players from the first 30 years of the 20th century when batting averages were sky-high and a .300 career average was enough to make a player a serious candidate. Of the next 50 right fielders below Parker, only two are in the Hall, and they're two of the most dubious selections in history: Baines, and Ross Youngs, a Frankie Frisch crony pick from his time of undue influence on the Veterans Committee. Young had a career .322 BAVG, but barely got to 10 years, and had less than 1500 hits, and less than 600 career RBI, just over 800 runs scored. He led the NL in runs. Once. He finished 5th in the MVP voting. Once, the next season.
What do I think? As I've mentioned, I'm a tough Hall grader, and I don't think Parker, despite his various good credentials, deserves to be in. 2 below Parker on the Jaws list is Darryl Strawberry and 4 below him is Ken Singleton, both worthy players but not true Hall of Famers. right in between those two is Felipe Alou, a good player for a long time, but not a Hall of Famer. 3 above Parker is Staub. and 3 above Staub is Giancarlo Stanton. Are they Hall of Famers? My attitude has always been, if you have to ask and debate, probably not. So it is with Parker. He has a decent case, but my vote is nay.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Aug 26, 2024 17:04:04 GMT -5
The Yanks send Nelson Cortes out to oppose Parker in the first game in Washington. Nestor pitched very well in April and May, and very poorly in his next 12 starts with an ERA of 5.68. He's been brilliant in his last 2 starts, 7 innings of shutout ball in each, first against a terrible White Sox team in Chicago, then against a good Guardians team at the Stadium. On the season, Cortes is 7-10 with a 4.00 ERA. In 26 starts, he's thrown 148 1/3 innings, allowing 142 hits, 67 runs, 66 earned, 21 HR and 29 BB, while striking out 137. His WHIP for the season is a solid 1.153. Cortes is hanging tough in the top 10 in BB per 9 innings (5th in the AL) and in K/BB ratio (7th). Tonight is his first ever game against the Nationals. After it's over, there'll be just 3 teams he's never pitched against: the Cubs, the Rockies and the Brewers.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Aug 26, 2024 17:06:22 GMT -5
Yankees' lineup vs. Parker...once again, the Yanks face a lefty; once again he's a rookie. Once again, he's a lefty rookie they haven't faced before. But this time, one Yankee on the roster HAS faced him before, and I'll list him in the lineup:
1. Torres (2B)
2. Soto (RF)
3. Judge (CF)
4. Stanton (DH)
5. Wells (C)
6. Volpe (SS)
7. Chisholm (3B) is 3-4 with 1 RBI, 1 BB and 1 K
8. LeMahieu (1B)
9. Verdugo (LF)
On the bench: None
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Nationals' lineup vs. Cortes: Cortes has never faced them, but unlike Parker, no one on the Nationals has ever faced Cortes. Here's their lineup:
1. Abrams (SS)
2. Crews (RF)
3. Wood (LF)
4. Chaparro (DH)
5. Ruiz (C)
6. Yepez (1B)
7. Tena (3B)
8. Vargas (2B)
9. Young (CF)
On the bench:
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Post by qwik3457bb on Aug 26, 2024 17:07:06 GMT -5
Yesterday, the Yanks jumped to a 4-1 lead after two on a 2-run HR for Judge's 50th, and RBI singles by Torres and Soto. The Rockies closed in on a RBI single by Romo in the 4th, and a RBI double by McMahon in the 5th. But the Yanks broke it open on the 1st ever back-to-back-to-back HRs by Soto, Judge and Stanton, and Gleyber Torres's 3rd-run line HR in the 8th was icing on the cake in the Yanks 10-3 blowout win. Marcus Stroman battled through 97 pitches in 5 innings for the W to get to 9-6 on the season, Austin Gomber gave up the 4 runs over 6 innings for the loss, dropping to 4-9. The Win was the Yanks' 4th in 5th games, and moved them back to 23 games over .500, 77-54, with 31 left to play.
In other AL East games, the Diamondbacks completed the 3-game sweep in Fenway, rallying from 4-0 down after 3 innings with 3 in the 4th and taking the lead with 3 in the 6th on Eugenio Suarez' 20th HR. They extended the lead to 7-4 in the 9th on a leadoff HR by Perdomo, and gave that run back in the bottom on a leadoff HR by O'Neill, but Justin Martinez got the last three on two lineouts and a K of Romy Gonzalez. Merrill Kelly gave up the first 4 Sox runs, but lasted 6 innings, and was in the game when Arizona took the lead, moving his record to 4-0 on the year. Tanner Houck gave up the first 6 runs to the D'backs in his 6 innings and took the loss, dropping to 8-9. Arizona has now won 6 in a row, 12 of 15 and 24 of 30.
In Toronto, the Jays completed a 4-game sweep of the Angels with an 8-2 thumping. Vlad Guerrero broke a 1-1 tie with a RBI double in the 5th, and Jays added a 2-run HR from Addison Barger in the 6th and another from Alejandro Kirk in the 7th, gradually pulling away. The Angels got a solo HR from ex-Yankee Brandon Drury in the 8th, but the Jays answered with two of their own for the final margin. Kevin Gausman struck out 10 in 7 innings of 2-hit, 1-run ball, improving his record to 12-9. Angels' ace Tyler Anderson gave up the Guerrero double in the 5th and took the loss, dropping to 10-12.
In LA, the Dodgers got 7 strong innings from Gavin Stone, striking out 7 in 7 innings of 3-hit, 1-run ball, and Mookie Betts hit a 2-run HR in the 8th to break a 1-1 tie and send them on to a 3-1 victory. Enrique Hernandez hit a solo HR in the 5th to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead, but Johnny DeLuca tied it in the 7th with a leadoff HR. Jacob Lopez made his first start of the season in place of Shane Baz who came down with the flu, and gave up just the HR in 5 innings. Blake Treinen pitched a scoreless 8th to get the W, raising his record to 6-3 on the season. Anthony Banda gave up a hit with one-out in the 9th, but got the next two for his 2nd save of the season. Richard Lovelady gave up the Betts HR for the loss, dropping to 3-5. The Dodgers have now won 7 of 8 and 13 of 17; the
Rays have dropped 4 of their last 5.
Last night in Baltimore, the Astros got 3 in the 4th off of Dean Kremer on a single by Vic Caratini and a two-run double by rookie Zach Dezenzo to take the lead, but the O's tied it up in the 5th on a 3-run HR by Ramon Urias (his 9th). The Astros got the lead back in the 7th on back-to-back HRs by Alex Bregman and Yanier Diaz, taking a 5-3 lead and added a run in the 8th on a sac fly by Meyers, getting the split of the 4-game series, 6-3. Hector Neris, in his 1st game back with the Astros after the Cubs DFAed him, got 4 outs in the 6th and 7th for the win, getting to 9-4 on the season. Josh Hader gave up a walk in the 9th but got Eloy Jimenez to ground into a double play to end it, earning his 28th save. Burch Smith gave up the back-to-back HRs, taking the loss and dropping to 4-1 on the season.
Coming into today's action, the Yanks lead over Baltimore is back up to 1 1/2 games, the Sox and Rays drop to 9 back and 11 1/2 back, respective and the Jays stay 14 games behind.
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Post by anthonyd46 on Aug 26, 2024 17:08:24 GMT -5
This is one of 4 MLB parks Judge has not homered in with the other 3 being Wrigley, Busch Stadium, and Truist Park.
Judge has also homered in every MLB stadium he has played in this year other than Houston and the gimmick Williamsport game.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Aug 26, 2024 17:10:06 GMT -5
In other East games today/tonight: The Jays travel to Fenway to start what is, in effect, a 5-game series against the Red Sox at 7:10 pm, starting with, in effect, a split double header. the first game was actually the resumption of the game that was suspended on June 26 in the top of 2nd at 0-0. The teams are headed in opposite directions lately; the Red Sox just got swept by the D'backs and have lost 11 of 17, the Jays have just swept the Angels and have won 9 of 13. Kutter Crawford had started that game, but pitched Saturday, so Nick Pivetta (5-8, 4.70 ERA), who was supposed to start the main game in the evening, picked up for Crawford in the 2nd inning of the suspended game; he's been hit pretty hard lately, just one quality start in his last 5 tries. By taking over for the DFAed Reese McGuire at catcher, Danny Jansen becomes the first major league player to play for both teams in the same game; he was the starting catcher for the Jays on June 26th. Yariel Rodriguez was pitching for the Jays when it was suspended but is scheduled for tomorrow evening's game, so reliever Ryan Burr was on the mound for the Jays when it resumed.
The Jays made several pitching changes, with Ryan Yarbrough in his familiar role as "bulk reliever", and Pivetta kept the Jays off the board into the 7th, when Springer hit a solo HR to make it 1-0. In the 8th Vlad Guerrero hit a 2-run double off of Luis Garcia, who'd come in to relieve Pivetta and Addision Barger followed with a ground-rule double to score Gurrero to make it 4-0. Jarren Duran hit a disputed solo HR in the 8th to make it 4-1, and Chad Green struck out the side in the 9th around a double by Yoshida for his (3rd at the time) but really, his 15th save, and the Jays closed out the Sox, 4-1. Zach Pop got just one out, but it was the last out in the Boston 6th preceding the Springer HR, so he gets the W, going to (1-2 in June) 1-3 now on the season. Pivetta took the loss, dropping to (4-5 in June) 5-9 on the year, now.
The Jays gain a 1/2 game on the rest of the East and are now 13 1/2 behind the Yanks, the Sox lose 1/2 game and are now 9 1/2 back of the Yanks.
In the nightcap at 7:10, Jose Berrios (12-9, 3.79 ERA) starts for Toronio, he's looking for his 4th straight excellent start and 4th straight win. For Boston, Pivetta's replacement will be relieve Zach Kelly (5-2, 2.74 ERA) serving as the "opener" in the nightcap. It'll be the 3rd time this season that Kelly has pitched in that role for the Sox. The Rays wrap up their long West Coast trip with a 3-game set in Seattle. In the first game tonight at 9:40, Ryan Pepiot (7-5, 3.65 ERA) starts for Tampa; since coming off the IL, he's pitched good games against Arizona and Oakland. Bryce Miller (9-7, 3.32 ERA) throws for Seattle; his string of 16 scoreless innings was broken up by Gavin Lux' solo HR leading off the 4th in his last start against the Dodgers in LA. The Orioles have the day off before starting their own West Coast trip with three at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday. After the Dodgers, the O's get their turn to beat up on some bad teams when they play 3 in Coors Field against the Rockies, then come home for 3 against the horrible White Sox, who lost again yesterday, dropping to 31-100.
And at 6:45 pm in Washington, it's Cortes vs. Parker.
Pre-game stuff over with, I'm be making myself a fast dinner. See you in a little less than 1/2 hour from now.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Aug 26, 2024 17:44:51 GMT -5
Nats take the field. Parker throwing his final warmups.
Torres about ready to step in.
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Post by JEGnj on Aug 26, 2024 17:46:24 GMT -5
Is it crazy to believe I'm actually thinking Big G is an important piece of this resurgence and rooting for him to be healthy and in the lineup at DH.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Aug 26, 2024 17:46:25 GMT -5
Torres steps in. Game underway.
FB at the very top of the zone, taken, 0-1.
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