He's a 24-year-old, RH Venezuelan catcher who has bounced around the Yankee farm system for seven years, and last season batted .194 with 11 HRs at High Single A Hudson Valley. He wears No. 94 and, last year, fanned once in every three ABs.
Yesterday, Narvelous Narv spared the Yankees and Nats an unwanted extra innings game - (assuming they would have played) - by belting a walk-off HR with two outs in the ninth. He now leads the Yankees in HRs with 2.
Clearly, March 1 is too early to get excited or depressed about anyone. Let's mix hope and despair into one frosty cocktail and sip slowly, so the sweets and bitters merge on the pallet. It will be a long season, filled with victory and dread. There will be plenty of time to assign meaning to that which has none.
So, observations from yesterday:
That's not necessarily so for Estevan Florial, who did himself no favors yesterday. Two ABs, two strikeouts - which is his bugaboo. He really needs to make contact. We have no options left on Florial, who was once a great prospect. If he doesn't hit soon, we'll trade him for Raleigh coupons.
Domingo German looked so-so in his start yesterday. So-so might work. I believe every Yank fan in captivity wants Clarke Schmidt to win the No. 5 starter role. But the Yankees will want to ring out every pitch they can summon from German, and that probably means he starts in April at the end of the rotation.
I'm not saying these spring "contests" are fixed - no, wait! that's exactly what I'm saying. If LF was an election, Donald Trump would be calling it rigged. Same with the chase for No. 5 starter and maybe even SS, where the Yankees want Oswald Peraza to play.
The only true competition this spring is at farthest back end of the bullpen. Whomever throws well there - maybe 32-year-old Brian Weber? - can come north with the team. And wherever he is, Carlos Narvaez will still have his walk-off.
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16 comments:
I think Florial is gone, man, gone. Daddy-o.
I'm kind of surprised, but I'm almost as bored by Spring Training games as I was over the winter when there was no baseball at all. Good thing I ran into some pro bowling matches now and then when I was flipping channels.
On a personal note, has anyone here had a hip replacement? I'm going in for one in about a week and a half, and I've heard and read some wildly different stuff about recovery time. I guess it might vary for different people, but I'd still welcome any comments from personal experience. Thanks in advance.
JM - Good luck with your operation. The closest I ever came to a hip replacement is when I stopped reading Allen Ginsburg and started reading Kurt Vonnegut.
Here's a video that might help.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84-Fd0jAtyc
A boyhood friend had it and the technique his doctors used resulted in substantially reduced recovery time (e.g., 6 days instead of 6 weeks). I will email him now for more details. I don't want to describe it incorrectly and send you on a wild goose chase. Hang tight.
^Sorry, "had it" = "had hip replacement surgery"
Best to you, JM!
In other medical news Austin Wells’ rib injury was shown to be a fractured rib and he will be shut down for 2 months. He broke while “warming up”, which I guess is analogous to the Benintendi wrist injury.
Narvaez rising? Somebody better step up. No worries, Cashman has already booked a week at the Scrap Heap Inn 🏨
The Martian's 2 out walk ahead of the walk off HR was very encouraging. Good AB. Dare I say it was meaningful?
Good luck to you JM!
Joint replacement surgery has come a long way since the bad old days. Better cement, better prosthetics. Recovery will depend a lot on you - do your physical therapy.
Used to live across the street from a guy, nice guy, big mouth, bad hips. I'd walk him back from the neighborhood bar sometimes, all uphill and he'd get hella drunk some nights. Anyway he had one of his hips replaced and about a month later he was back on his regular stool, talking loud so you could hear him a couple blocks away, but I still walked him home because his other hip was bad. He said he felt like a new man with his new hip and he had the opposite hip scheduled for replacement. He would've gone in for the surgery too if his wife hadn't murdered him. Not to say that will happen to you though. Stick to the exercises, go easy on the oxy and you'll be good.
(Also, ex-mother-in-law had it done. The old goat was back up to her nasty self within a month or so, back to riding her horse a few months later. Old crow.)
Thank you, one and all.
LBJ, I know what you mean, I think. I'm having it done the "new" way, where they enter through the front of pelvis instead of the old way, through the backside. My sister had it done the new way, performed by a surgeon who actually pioneered that method. She did very well.
I still have more than a week to go, so no excuses for not trying out our new stationary bike...not a bad exercise choice during recuperation, too, from what I've read.
I just sent an email offline. You've got it right ... entering through the front was his method of choice. Keep an eye out for the email.
JM,
When it comes time to do the physical therapy set up your laptop in front of your stationary bike so members of the commentariat can Skype or Facetime and abuse you.
It will be just like Peloton but free and with a Yankee Theme.
"C'mon hustle! You pedal like Gleyber running to first!"
"Looks like someone wants to join Jesus Montero over at the ice cream stand!"
"Pedal harder! Your effort is as pathetic as an Aaron Boone press conference."
"Pedal harder! Your effort is as pathetic as a Josh Donaldson at bat."
"Pedal harder! Your effort is as pathetic as an Aaron Hicks at bat."
"Pedal harder! Pretend you just pissed off Aroldis Chapman and he went into the garage "to get something".
and in the Non-Yankee category...
"Work that hip! You don't know how to work hip? Listen to a Lenny Bruce album you slacking mother fu...."
JM
Front way is indeed the best way to go - plus with current techniques and technologies they'll have you up and out of bed usually within 12 - 24 hours after the procedure.
That is of course if nothing happens to fall on to the floor during the surgery.
Things have a nasty habit of rolling into hard to reach places under heavy OR equipment that hasn't been moved and cleaned under for months if not years.
However any dust bunnies are likely to be 98% sterile given the environment and all, so just be sure to stay on those antibiotics as well as your PT and you should be right as rain in no time.
Doug K.: That was inspired. I'm tempted to add to your list -- you missed something involving Hal -- but yours is too good. Bravo.
Add away!
We're missing the big story.
This article from MLB trade baloney -dot-crap runs down the NYYs' catcher sitch.
It mentions the following name as one of the possible depth additions: Deivy Grullon. There's an accent over the O.
See the story here:
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/03/yankees-interested-in-adding-catching-depth.html
See more on Deivy here:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/grullde01.shtml
Get the Garcia kid on the mound, and you'll have a Deivy-to-Deivy connection.
Sounds like something to dream on....
And these guys who come up with a big hit......we always have to pay attention to " down and distance." Who was pitching, when in the game did it happen? And does he repeat the big hit the next day, or fade away like the dust?
Yes, best of luck, JM! And that was awesome, Doug!
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