The Official 2014 AL East Thread

Pineda left his sim game after 1 inning because of a tight lat. Going for tests. Girardi says it's doubtful Pineda will make his start after the suspension. Phelps will stay in his spot.

 

Ellsbury should be fine according to the MRI results. I'd be really worried about Pineda though especially with his injury history.

 

He got hurt in Tampa.

 

Pineda has an injury, a grade 1 strain of teres major muscle, similar to Kershaw's. He will be shut down for at least 10 days and then start throwing again. Yankees expect him out for at least 3 to 4 weeks.

 

And it all comes back around to our depth talk in this thread last week or so. Just look at TB right now having to start Bedard and Jake Odorizzi every 5th game, and how they are struggling, with Moore and Cobb out. The AL East is wide open right now, should make for a fun summer.

Again I never put much stock in what the Yankee starters were doing at the beginning of the year but how they were doing in the 2nd half, especially in August and September because of the unknown of some of their guys like Pineda and Tanaka and Kuroda's 2nd half declines the past few years.

 

Not AL East related but how good is Rendon? Im going out on a limb here and saying that I think he ends up to be a better hitter then Harper. Rendon has THE swing that everyone else strives for. Its so good. Hes a stud.

 

I don't think he'll be better than Harper but Rendon is pretty good. His only knock is he hasn't been able to stay healthy, which is probably the only thing holding him back.

 

Most likely because the Yankees don't have enough starting pitchers and would have to make a roster move either today or in 5 days so they wanted to push things back a bit to try so their rotation wouldn't be a mess.

 

Why wouldn't they just bring in a AAA starter to start one of the games, like the rest of the teams do in baseball?

 

I don't really know the Yankees specific situation so I'm just thinking out loud here but they might not have a Triple A SPer on the 40 man roster (so it would force them to make a roster move that way) or if they do maybe that pitcher pitched already this week and thus wouldn't be available.

 

He'ssssssssssssssssssssssssssss back. Alfredo Aceves has been called up by the Yankees. All is right with the world (for now).

 

You have to wonder if Rivera would have made these comments if Cano re-signed with the Yankees, but either way wow:

http://espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/sto...-pedroia-preferable-second-base-robinson-cano

 

I mean really how could an ump get away with doing this to a player? Diaz should be suspended for this and possibly fired because he's an awful ump too:

[video]http://m.mlb.com/video/v32642453/nyylaa-kelley-gets-ejected-by-laz-diaz-for-arguing/?c_id=mlb[/video]

 

Aceves!

The AL East is absolutely going to come down to the last day of the season. I don't think any of the teams are going to run away with it. Although I am surprised at just how poorly TB has been playing. I thought for sure once they beat the Sox in the double header they were going to go on a run then went 1-5 on the home stand. I still wouldn't count them out especially with Cobb returning soon.

 

I blame the lack of PEDs.

 

Well a mix of no PEDs/greenies and pitchers being better and throwing harder than they were in the late 90s/2000s. Strike outs are way up, HRs are way down. It's a pitching and defense era right now.

 

Rays suck...

 

I hope they continue to as well. I wouldn't count them out completely but it does seem like their "magic" just isn't there this year (yet). I do think their issues moving forward are getting more offense.

 

Jose Lobaton deal

 

On top of that people still love watching pitchers bat 2 or 3 times a game too.

 

http://www.chrisoleary.com/projects/PitchingMechanics101/Essays/PitcherElbowInjuryEpidemic.html

Great article about mechanical issues and he points to Jose Fernandez as a possible problem in the future. Shame.

 

Interesting article but I could have sworn I read an article a few years ago that debunked the inverted W theory. Either way pitching injuries I think are really just random (aside from the obvious not to over work them etc). Guys with "clean" deliveries get hurt and need the surgery and then there are guys with terrible deliveries like Chris Sale or Linecum that have been fine.

Bottom line is if you're a young pitcher and a team offers you a contract extension I'd recommend you sign that sucker even if you're leaving some money on the table.

 

So is there a healthy Yankee playing on the team right now? Beltran hurts himself in the batting cage between innings, Ichiro hurt his back yesterday, Teixeira could barely run to 1st base in the 9th, Kelley couldn't pitch because of a bad back.

 

There's always going to be flukes that happen where guys that are clean mechanically get hurt. Regardless of whether their mechanics are great or not, they are still putting a ton of stress on the elbow.

The issue with those with bad mechanics like Lincecum isn't just TJ surgeries. But the wear that they put on their bodies. Let's not forgot. Lincecum threw 97. How often do we see it. Guys come in the league throwing hard as hell, and then a few years later it's gone. While other guys like Verlander can throw 95+ consistently through out their career. Why is that?

I'm completely on board with this theory personally. There is always going to exceptions to every rule, regardless if their getting hurt with clean mechanics or not getting hurt with bad mechanics. But that doesn't mean it's not true.