CTR Week in Review: Week Two

Record: 4-2 (6-6)

Runs Scored/Allowed (Ranks): 80/52 (2/3 - first in both in the AL)

Projected Pythagorean Record: 109-53 (Hat tip to SG over at RLYW)

Key Win: April 16 9-3 at Minnesota

Bad Losses: April 14 5-1 at Minnesota, April 15 6-5 at Minnesota.

You’ll notice the sweep of the Royals is absent from the “Key Wins” column. That’s because the Yankees should pulverize them. And they did just that to open the home schedule, outscoring them 30-15, including a nice comeback win on Opening Day and a couple of blowouts.

The schedule has been a bit unkind to the Bombers so far - nine road games, all against playoff hopefuls and two more this week with the revamped Blue Jays. However, they do get nine home dates mostly against the bottom tier of the division (Baltimore and Tampa Bay) to close April. Sure beats 11-19, right?

As Cliff Corcoran over at Bronx Banter said, the Yankees H.R. department had a busy week.

Claim Koyie Hill. Sign Carlos Pena and Jesus Colome. Designate Hill for assignment to call up lefty Matt Smith.

Busy, busy, busy.

The Smith-Hill gymnastics solves the three catchers problem, but creates the problem of 12 pitchers, which in light of the fact the team won’t need a fifth starter again until the end of the month, is wholly unnecessary, but generally benign because even if he had decent bench options, Joe Torre wouldn’t use them.

Just for those keeping track, Andy Phillips has logged seven plate appearances so far and his inability to go 6-6 with a walk will continue to depress that figure. The Legend that is Bernie Williams has posted a Womackian line of .263/.300/.289 with all of one lone XBH (a double) in 40 PAs. Also, noted first baseman Miguel Cairo has strode to the plate 13 times to date, putting up a line of .250/.308/.333, again with just one double (On a side note, Suzyn Waldman, a woman whose voice is so terrifying that harpies cover their ears, said its nice to have Miguel back because of “all those clutch hits” he had in 2004. Really? I guess we should expect such insight from the mouth of a woman my father refers to as The Fluffer).

No one was expecting Phillips to be the second coming of Duke Snider, but c’mon, he’s certainly more worthy of a look then Cairo, and some DH at bats if the Yanks want, you know, some SLG from the position. Andy hasn’t helped his cause by striking out in three of his official at bats. However, those punchouts were against Johan Santana and Francisco Lirano, so maybe that’s defensible.

Pena’s been sent to Columbus to work out some ring rust, but odds are he’ll wind up as Phillips replacement rather than platoon partner, what with Bernie sucking DH at bats up. However, a Phillips-Pena platoon opposite Giambi on the 1B/DH position would be a nifty thing to have.

Speaking of the Giambino, he was just named American League Player of the Week after throwing up four homers and 10 RBIs with a .571 average. On the season, he’s hitting .344/.543/.781. Yes, his OBP is within 40 or so points of Bernie’s OPS, so what? That’s not bad, is it?

On the topic of big performances, Randy Johnson had a good, but brief start vs. the Royals last week, but Chien-Ming Wang broke out after a two-start hiccup to strike out eight over seven innings - allowing just one earned run and dropping his ERA nearly two full runs. The news here, for obvious reasons is the strikeouts. Last year Wang was an enigma, a guy with mid-90s heat who couldn’t strike anyone out. So far this year, he’s whiffing six per nine innings, up from just about 3.5 last year. Is the performance a fluke? Based on observation, I’d say no. If Wang can keep up the extra strikeouts, and keep up his nearly 4-to-1 ground ball to flyball ratio, he could really do somethings.

So far the pitching has been good enough to win, particularly Johnson and Mussina, but Wang and Chacon both showed signs of turning it around after their poor early outings. If they stay healthy, maybe the rotation won’t be the sore spot we all figured it would be to open the season.

However, an area of continuing concern is Joe Torre’s insistance that the mediocre Tanyon Sturtze and the expensive and potentially good Kyle Farnsworth are interchangeable. That’s like saying spam is interchangeable with a New York Strip. With the exception of a few weeks in 2004 and the first half of 2005, Sturtze is the definition of mediocre middle relief, while Farnsworth was a closer on a contending team and has been a solid, if not always spectacular reliever. Yet, Joe continues to alternate them as if they were the same guy.

This is learning a lesson, but misapplying the knowledge. Torre saw the Sturtze/Gordon fade in last year, and the Quantrill/Gordon fade the year before and appears determined to prevent it from happening again. However, the way to do that is to keep Farnsworth out of blowouts, not to flip flop him with a middling mediocrity all willy-nilly like.

If it continues, Brian Cashman is going to have to take Joe’s toy away, heck with some of the progress reports out of the minor league M*A*S*H unit of pitchers, he may be forced to do that anyway.

Aaron Small threw four scoreless innings in an extended spring game yesterday, walking none, allowing just one hit and striking out four.

In that same article, it is reported that the formerly durable, but now oft-injured Carl Pavano threw off a mound for the first time since getting hurt in the buttocks since March 30.

However, the best news is the return of Octavio Dotel to throwing in anger. He’s scheduled to throw one inning today.

If Pavano and Small come back healthy in the next month as they are expected to do, and Dotel stays on pace for what looks like a late May, early June return to the majors, Cashman and the Yankees are going to need to address some of the overflow of middling guys going nowhere on the staff.

A lot’s been made of Jaret Wright continuing to get starts, my pet theory is its a trade showcase. Wright, by virtue of being hurt all last year pretty much, has a team option for 2007, meaning unless someone gets stupid, this is the final year of his contract. There are plenty of teams short on pitching that could pry Wright from the Bronx for a “Toby” (named later) or a random low minors arm. That still would leave Pavano and Small battling for innings and Sturtze, Villone, Smith and eventually Dotel battling for time.

The simple solution is to cut bait on Sturtze and Villone. Both have middling career track records, but could be attractive to someone out there, plus it’s worth the expense to see if Small saved some pixie dust from 2005.

That would set the pen from front-to-back as Small, Smith, Myers, Dotel, Farnsworth and Mariano. Tell me that’s not tasty looking.

Any injury to a starter, you have Matt DeSalvo and Darrell Rasner at columbus to provide some insurance. Speaking of, Colter Bean is 2-0 with an 0.93 ERA and a 13-to-5 strikeout to walk ratio in 9.2 innings.

Also down on the farm, the Kevins (Thompson - .300/.368/.400 and Reese .273/.350/.394) are performing okay, but old friend Melky Cabrera is just tearing up the IL - .383/.444/.553. So much for last year’s rush promotion screwing with the kid’s game.

Uber-prospect Phil Hughes is just toying with the Florida State League, posting a 1-1 record, with an ERA of 0.00 (not a typo) and a 10-to-1 K/BB ratio in 10 innings over two starts. If he keeps this up, he’ll be apartment hunting in New Jersey by June.