1. Austin Romine caught. Good news! It means the Yankees are not lying about Brian McCann's foot injury. (They say, "day to day," but he'll probably miss a week. They never tell the truth about injuries, and we don't even complain.) If McCann was crippled, Romine - next in line - would not have caught the game. (He went 0-4 with a walk, batting .236, but let's face it: He's the Second Coming of Chris Stewart, so nobody expects him to hit.)
2. Mason Williams wandered CF. He came into the game hitting .308, he left at .288. That says everything about what an 0-for-5 means to the Small Sample Size. Mace put the bat on the ball each time, and it was hard to gauge if there's anything there. (Frankly, I'm no scout, so I wouldn't see it anyway.) He remains a Yankee prospect who is still salvageable. It was nice to see him above .300. Let's see how far the bus plummets.
3. Kyle Roller whacked one. It was an epic drive to right-center, his eighth. Dinner Rolls doesn't look as Pillsbury pudgy as he did last year, through his scoreboard portrait makes him out as a dullard. Now that Teixeira is hitting, the Roller romance looks more like a Adam Sandler movie. I had hoped if Tex went down, or continued to deteriorate, Roller might give us a Kevin Maas month. It still could happen. Eight homers projects to about 25 on the year. He's not on the hot prospect lists, but dammit, he doesn't look bad (aside from the scoreboard.)
4. Refsnyder, Refsnyder, REFSNYDER! He didn't blow any plays at 2B, but he wasn't really tested either. There was a hot smash up the middle, and he flung himself at it, and somehow the ball slithered below his glove. It certainly was NOT an error, but something seemed amiss. I had the distinct sense that Stephen Drew would have gotten it. No big deal. I'm probably projecting my fear anxieties. Also, Ref went 2-for-5 with two singles. The guy hits line drives. He lifted his average to .280 (been in a slump.) Clearly, he remains the great 2B hope. Let's hope he doesn't burn out down in coal country.
5. Jaron Long could be an MLB option sooner than you think. He had the Syracuse batters off-balance all night. Six strikeouts, six innings, two runs. One guy clobbered a HR, but Long was always in command. Keep in mind that the Chiefs are terrible this year: Washington stopped coming in last place a few seasons ago, so the endless stream of top draft picks has stopped. Three RH relievers - Chris Martin, Nick Rumbelow and Brandon Pinder threw scoreless innings. They looked like the shutdown bullpen Cashman once envisioned for NYC. At least one of them will soon be up.
6. Tyler Austin. Jeez, I dunno. He's hitting just .214, batting seventh, in front of Noonan and Jonathan Galvez (the DH, who batted ninth.) Austin looks good coming off the bus. But dear God: .214 and spotty power? He struck out twice last night. What's there to see? If Heathcott and Flores come back down, not sure this guy has a spot here anymore. Dude better start hitting.
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3 comments:
Yeah, but not as exciting as a reunion of the 1969 Seattle Pilots..
At one time, Tyler Austin was as hyped as Aaron Judge. Sorry to see that he's struggling.
There is a lot of unpredictabiity and plain luck-of-the-draw as to who develops into an MLB player and who does not. My criticism of the Yanks is that they are too reluctant to promote people and give them a fair chance to either succeed or fail. That's the only way you can rebuild the team. My hope is that Judge, Bird, Refsnyder, and Severino develop into good MLB players -- and that maybe they can get lucky with one or two others.
Promote 'em; if the succeed, then add players around them via trades/free agency; if the fail, then demote 'em or cut 'em.
I still have a bat from Bat Day at the Stadium in 1969, versus the Seattle Pilots. We won 5-0 in five rain-shortened innings. Just can't bring myself to toss it...
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