For various reasons (WBC, faulty hips) a lot of the starting lineup is missing, but there’s still pitchers to watch. Hideki Matsui is starting to get his time in, and will probably play again tomorrow for his first back-to-back games this year.
Chien-Ming Wang – 3IP, 3H, 1R, 1HR, 0BB, 2K, 5GO, 2AO
Today marked Chien-Ming Wang’s second start of the Spring. He was slated to throw 40 pitches, and threw just under that. There were a few bumps along the way but he looked like he was getting into thigns overall. While Dave Eiland said he would be mostly working on the sinker today, he threw a bunch of sliders and a splitter.
The sinker is starting to sink (check out the GO: AO ratio there) and his breaking pitches are getting there. He threw a very nice slider to K Kelly Johnson but then the next at-bat he a bad changeup that just hung there and Casey Kotchman hammered it out for a homerun. The lone splitter he threw was a killer that Josh Anderson was completely fooled by. That came in the third inning.
Interesting note: if you check out pitch F/X, you’ll see that the overwhelming majority of homeruns Wang has given up over the last few years are on changeups he leaves up in the zone.
Brett Tomko – 3IP, 1H, 1R, 1HR, 0BB, 3K, 3GO, 3AO
A man of little significance. Unless horrible disasters happen, he is not making the team.
Phil Coke – 1IP, 2H, 1R, 0BB, 0K, 1GO, 2AO
Kept up the pattern of Yankees pitchers giving up solo homeruns today. Other than that, uneventful. I know some people see him as a favorite to make the bullpen, but I think the Yankees want to give him one last shot as a starter. Remember that average starters are infinitely more important than relievers, and lefty starters that can be even league average are more important than righties.
Kanekoa Texeira – .1IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 0K, 1GO, 1AO
Only faced two batters. Almost followed the solo-homerun pattern of the day but it wound up falling in for a double. Yanked after a groundout put the runner on third with one out.
Wilkin De La Rosa – .2IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 0K, 1GO, 1AO
De La Rosa is young and left-handed. The Yankees don’t really have many pitchers that throw with their left arm, though they do have a number of young pitchers. He was converted from outfield to pitcher in 2007, and like a lot of conversions he has some command problems. He did post good numbers for the Yankees in the minors last year, so he’s someone to keep an eye on in 2009 as he has a good ceiling. Unlikely to reach it, but it’s there.
He came out, got an infield chopper that stranded the runner at third. Followed that up by walking a batter and then got a somewhat nerve-wracking long fly out to left to wrap up his outing.
Michael Dunn – 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K, 0GO, 2AO
Another one of these elusive young lefties, Dunn spent last year at Tampa where he put up good K/9 numbers. He’s got a decent 4-seam fastball.
Other Notes
Xavier Nady is continuing to hand the Right Field job over to Nick Swisher, which is okay with me. He’s been looking somewhat bewildered at the plate, it’s almost like his season last year was an aberration.
