Jeter Gave Joba A Lift To Nebraska

... Well sort of.

Tyler Kepner says it was a classy move for Derek Jeter to hook up Joba Chamberlain with the use of the Captain's private jet so the young fireballer could get to his ailing father ASAP.

When Harlan Chamberlain was hospitalized Sunday night in Lincoln, Neb., the Yankees players knew just how deeply Joba Chamberlain must have been affected. Chamberlain, the star rookie reliever, flew here with the Yankees, then flew home on a private plane arranged by Derek Jeter.

Before he left, he prayed with Andy Pettitte, who left the team during the 1998 World Series after his father had triple-bypass surgery.

Pettitte's father, like Joba's, has battled through life while dealing with countless health problems.

Kennedy OK After Scare

Ian Kennedy left the game in the seventh inning after a Jason Bartlett line drive struck him on the hip.

The fact that Kennedy and trainer Gene Monahan were laughing their way off the mound was encouraging. However, nothing was confirmed until nearly midnight Monday night when multiple outlets explained Kennedy was fine and will most likely only come away with a bruise and an anecdote.

In all likelihood, the most painful residue from Monday night's Yankees victory comes when Kennedy reads tomorrow's box score only to find Brian Bruney as the winning pitcher of record.

From The Star Ledger:

Joe Girardi seemed confident that Kennedy wouldn't miss a start.

But Kennedy was a bit more cautious. He said it felt like someone had given him a "dead leg" -- you know, like when your older sibling punches you in the arm or leg joint and your limb goes numb. He lifted up his shirt to show us the red mark from the seam of the baseball where it hit him.

"It kind of sent a little shock toward my calf," Kennedy said. "It's fine. A little sensitive."

He said he'd wait to see how he feels tomorrow.

Included in the same blog post came news of Robinson Cano's new slumpbuster: "napping on the bench." In the innings before being beckoned by manager Joe Girardi to pinch-hit for Alberto Gonzales, Cano was sleeping in the dugout. I know the kid is nonchalant, but this is ridiculous.

Sherman's First Hughes Ripping

Joel Sherman put together his first rip job of Phil Hughes in today's NY Post. Some portions are reasonable while others have the shock journalism vibe the rag is now famous for pushing. Some quotes below.

A little much:

The thought on Hughes was that he was precocious. At 21, the majors' youngest pitcher has a maturity about him to go along with a fine blend of pitches. Nevertheless, maybe he is just a kid who needs more seasoning in the minors.

Makes more sense:

For Hughes, though, the majors are "the best forum" to solve his command issues. He said the minors would just be deceiving at this point, allowing him to thrive without his best stuff. No, Hughes insists, he needs to remedy himself here. He says this is all about him losing fastball control, which is forcing him to work from behind way too much.

Tough but fair:

We keep wondering what would motivate the Yanks to transfer Joba Chamberlain out of the pen, where he is dominating. Now we might see the condition that forces the maneuver: His Generation Trey partners being unable to handle these responsibilities.

What If: The Best Yankees TeamsIn A Battle Royale

From USA Today:

Imagine what it would be like if all the great teams that have played at Yankee Stadium throughout its history could face off against each other …

How would the Murderers' Row squad of 1927 fare against Ron Guidry in his Louisiana Lightnin' prime? Could they scratch out a run against Mariano Rivera in the bottom of the ninth? How would Reggie Jackson do against Whitey Ford?

We posed those questions to the makers of APBA Baseball and asked them to run a simulated 162-game season pitting each of the 26 World Series champion Yankee teams against each other (using their APBA Baseball for Windows software) to find out which was the greatest team in Yankee Stadium history. The result may come as a surprise.

Harlan Chamberlain Collapses

From The Daily News:

More bad news came after the game as Joba Chamberlain learned that his father was in critical condition in a Nebraska hospital after collapsing at home. A team official said Chamberlain would not join the team on the charter flight to Tampa, as he was likely headed home to tend to his father.

Molina Left With Strained Hammy

So much for my beef with Joe Girardi's eighth inning decision to pinchrun for Jose Molina. According to LoHud, Molina strained his hamstring in the fourth inning, but toughed it out until the second to last frame.

Not sure as to the severity, but Molina does not strike you as one of the most physically resilient athlete in the bigs. As a result, Chad Moeller will most likely be called up with a corresponding adjustment to the 40 man roster in order to make room. Looks like the Girardi boot camp did little to correct last April's infusion of muscle injuries as Molina joins Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada as early victims to the injury bug.

The Star Ledger's assessment is a bit more optimisic:

With Derek Jeter close to being able to return to action at shortstop -- "He might be in there (Monday)," manager Joe Girardi said -- Alberto Gonzalez could be optioned back to Triple A. Or Molina could go on the disabled list.

"It's a little bit tight, that's all," said Molina, who hurt himself in Sunday's fourth inning on an awkward slide while scoring on a sacrifice fly. "Hopefully a couple days' rest, it should be all right."

Hughes Finds Velocity, Loses Command

Well, all the Phil Hughes detractors who became obsessed with his velocity must have been happy to see him throwing consistently 93-94 mph fastballs. Unfortunately, Hughes had no idea where they were headed.

Reaching back for 94-95 mph on an 0-2 elevated fastball is great, but his command has been much better at 90-91. His characteristically impressive command suffered, as did his overall performance to the tune of six hits and three walks over two innings.

Realizing the ESPN gun can be a bit juiced up at times, I confirmed Hughes' radar readings on MLB gameday which also had him consistently 93-94 and Daisuke Matsuzaka at 89-91.

Sure, Hughes has yet to pitch in a game with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees, and it was his first foray into the pressure cooker which is Fenway Park. However, if the youngest pitcher in baseball is unable to give a solid outing Friday at Baltimore, the NY media's trumpets will begin blowing Johan Santana tunes as impatient fans eat it up.

Matsuzaka and Hughes were both awful in the command department last night. And where Matsuzaka has been battle-tested [in Japan and at home], Hughes is still finding his way with six less years on his driver's license. Poor clutch hitting for New York and some timely baseknocks for Boston determined the outcome of this particular contest.

My big gripe is pinch-running Wilson Betemit for Jose Molina in the eighth inning. I - like many of you - first guessed this move as wacky and was supported in the bottom half of the inning as Jorge Posada moved behind the plate. Posada's shoulder is obviously still healing as the Red Sox appropriately ran wild on him without even so much as a throw to second base. The result was an insurance run, pushing the lead from 2 runs to 3 and giving inconsistent relievers like Javier Lopez and Manny DelCarmen that much more cushion.

Joe Girardi will out-think the opposing manager with much greater frequency, but this particular move - like the decision to have Mike Mussina pitch to Manny Ramirez on Saturday - can be chocked up as another example of Girardi out-dueling himself. As it stands, neither team left Boston with a sweep, and another Yankees-Red Sox series is wasted in a season's early going.

Dominant

Chien-Ming Wang's complete game two-hitter may have been a Bobby Abreu wallphobia misplay away from history - and the wormkiller's first no-hitter. Regardless, 9 innings, 2 hits, 0 walks, 3 strikeouts and 93 pitches means Wanger is 3-0 to start the season with a 1.23 ERA. The Boston bash brothers - Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz - were a collective 0-for-6 with three strikeouts on the night.

Plain and simple, this season has seen Wang pitch inside like never before. The results are encouraging for the Yankees as well as Dave Eiland's agent.

Horne DLed With Bicep Tear

Alan Horne injury update from SWB Blog:

The MRI showed a slight tear of his right biceps and he's going back to Tampa to rehab the injury. Horne said he wasn't sure how long he would be out, but the damage isn't to a ligament, which seems like good news.

For now, the team has put Horne on the seven-day disabled list and activated Scott Strickland from the Staten Island roster -- or the Gulf Coast roster, whichever one he was on -- but they will likely have to make another move before Horne's scheduled start on Tuesday. Could be Dan McCutchen. Could be Chase Wright. I can't imagine it being anyone but those two.

Personally, I am rooting for Cutch, who is an actual prospect. Chase is more filler than a prospective major leaguer.

UPDATE: Tyler Kepner spoke with farm system director Mark Newman who downgraded the diagnosis to a muscle strain in place of the initial partial tear report:

“It’s not a rotator cuff, not a labrum, not a medial collateral ligament – it’s none of the stuff that concerns you as a long-term issue,” said Mark Newman, the senior vice president for player personnel. “It’s a pulled muscle – not connective tissue, not the stuff that causes problems.”

Rosenthal: Joba's Knee, ShoulderMay Fall Apart

According to Ken Rosenthal and those good ol' anonymous sources, Joba Chamberlain's surgerically repaired knee will soon be "torn to shreds," which is why he dropped to the Yankees in the draft:

Teams passed on Chamberlain in the draft because of health concerns, not because they feared he would be too expensive to sign. Chamberlain underwent surgery on his left knee during his sophomore year at Nebraska and missed time with triceps tendinitis in the spring of his junior year. Some consider his physical demise inevitable.

Chamberlain is a large slab of beef, 6-foot-2 and 230 pounds, and he puts pressure on his left knee pushing off the mound. That knee, one rival scout predicts, will “eventually be torn to shreds.” A rival general manager says, “His shoulder or knee might not hold up in either role.”

Thus, the Yankees should get the most out of Chamberlain while they can. As a dominant setup man, he represents insurance for Rivera, who is 38 and signed through 2010. Few teams, if any, possess such a potent late-inning combination in their bullpen.

Sometimes doing the right thing means doing nothing at all.

It's old news that teams worried about Chamberlain's health and consequently allowed him to drop to the sandwich round. It's no secret that Brian Cashman and Damon Oppenheimer have instituted a draft strategy which covets high-risk high-reward athletes. Enter, Joba Chamberlain, Andrew Brackman, etc. However, teams suddenly proclaiming Chamberlain's knee and shoulder as time bombs seems to be exaggerated wishful thinking and is news to me.

Sour grapes or a tough injury pill to swallow? So far it appears to be the former, though time will always tell.

Debunked: Cone's 'Jerk Off' Statement

I know this is old news, but I have yet to see a correct explanation for Dave Cone's NC-17 description of Ian Kennedy's bullpen practices Wednesday night.

When a relief pitcher warms up and "gets hot" [begins throwing at full effort] in the bullpen, said reliever is under the mindset that he will soon enter the current game. If Dave Eiland drops a line to the bullpen phone and tells that reliever to sit back down, it's commonly referred to as a "dry hump." In more vulgar baseball parlance, the same action is known as "getting jerked off."

In the case of Kennedy, the young starter warmed up in the bullpen before the start of Wednesday's game, believing he would start said contest. When Joe Girardi decided to begin the game with Brian Bruney, Kennedy was told to halt his pregame preparation and was consequently "jerked off" in Cone's mind. I'm not sure what Ike and his new bride do in their own time, but I would venture to think she isn't taking care of her Trojan during bullpen warmups.

Here's the video via NYSI:

Turn Your Sound Up . . .

If you dare:

Alan Horne Update:

This does not sound good, though Horne said it was "not a Tommy John type" injury:

Basically, even he's not sure what's going on but he's getting an MRI tomorrow morning. On the pitch before the injury he threw a slider and felt something in his arm, but didn't think much of it.

"I just thought it was one of those weird quips," he said.

The final pitch was a fastball, and his arm knotted up so badly, "it pulled my whole side down." The tightness ran up and down his arm and even his fingers were tingling. He went to the trainer's room where he said his arm loosened and by the end of the night it was kind of pulsating, getting tight and then getting loose. He said that the trainer and team doctor told him that the tendons seem to be intact, but they won't know much for sure until tomorrow's tests.

I'm no James Andrews, but I'm gonna assume a pulsating arm cannot be good for a pitcher.

Uh Oh Alan

Alan Horne left his start today for AAA Scranton with some sort of bicep injury:

It's not much, but all I know for now is that Alan Horne has a right biceps injury. He's apparently still in the trainer's room.

For a kid who's come all the way back from Tommy John surgery, amongst other maladies, it would be tough for Horne to go down for an extended period of time considering his close proximity to the big leagues. Along with Jeff Marquez and Kei Igawa, Horne is amongst the top candidates who'd be called up from Scranton.

Guess They're Not Trading For

This guy. There were rumors recently that the Yankees may become very interested in acquiring Rich Harden from Oakland once the trading deadline approaches. However, the extremely talented Harden has one major weakness: an inability to stay healthy due to a right shoulder which has become a ticking time bomb:

For the sixth time in less than four seasons Athletics starting pitcher Rich Harden has landed on the disabled list.

Oakland placed the hard-throwing right-hander on the 15-day DL retroactive to April 3 with a mild subscapularis strain in his right shoulder.

The subscapularis muscle is located underneath the shoulder blade and connects to the front of the upper arm. It works in conjunction with a group of muscles that are used to move the rotator cuff and when injured the subscapularis can cause pain while going through a typical throwing motion.

In his two outings thus far this season, Harden is 1-0 with a 0.82 ERA and 15 strikeouts.

In other injury news, Mike Lowell has been placed on the DL due to a sprained thumb. This is certainly nothing major for the Red Sox third baseman and I'm sure he did his best to convince Terry Francona of keeping him off the disabled list. Solid SS prospect [offensively more than defensively] Jed Lowrie has been called up in Lowell's place.

Posada With 'Strained' Shoulder

According to AP, Jorge Posada's MRI revealed a strained shoulder which requires the catcher to take four or five days off. Apparently Posada's impressive streak of keeping his name off the disabled list will continue:

Jorge Posada may avoid a trip to the disabled list after an MRI taken Wednesday revealed a strained right shoulder.

Posada said prior to Wednesday's contest against the Kansas City Royals that he expects to be sidelined for three or four days but does not think he will have to go on the DL.

"The good news is that it's not something worse," he said. "I'm really happy the MRI didn't show more. It's not bad."

The situaton will be re-evaluated following his hiatus.

A-Gone Called Up,Jeter To DL?

Alberto Gonzalez was called up from Scranton Wilkes-Barre which may be an indication that Derek Jeter is headed to the disabled list. More details to come...

Posada May Hit DL Soon

It would appear Jorge Posada has suffered an injury worse than a "stiff shoulder" and may be heading to the disabled list. Posada described his shoulder as "dead" and it seems the Yankees coaches and training staff are mystified as to what it could be. An MRI is in Posada's near future with Chad Moeller probably moving up the depth chart to back up Jose Molina.

Molina is not Yogi Berra, but he is a rock solid backup catcher. Can you imagine if Wil Nieves were the contingency plan? Yikes. Kudos goes to Brian Cashman for securing a solid replacement should Posada ever hit the DL for his first time. With an arduous, travel-happy upcoming schedule on the horizon, the 2008 Yankees face their first difficult test.

Mark Wegner Holds Game Hostage

Possibly the worst homeplate umpiring in the history of organized baseball took place today as Ed Wegner decided on a sub zero day to take the strikezone captive. Much to the chagrin of Phil Hughes and Brian Bannister, Wegner's obtuse and inconsistent K-zone yielded eight walks and skyrocketing pitchcounts.

Ed Price, who is at the game, had this to say about Wegner:

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That's the size of Mark Wegner's strike zone today.

Through three innings, there have been eight walks. Pitch counts: for Brian Bannister, 39 strikes and 32 balls; for Phil Hughes, 43 strikes and 36 balls.

Hughes was far from sharp, but the 3-2 slider to Tony Pena Jr. was a perfect pitch that somehow became ball four and not called strike three. As a result, Hughes threw 20 some-odd pitches more than he should have and it became a turning point as the Yankee starter was gassed afterward. Wilson Betemit dropping a strike that should have ended the inning on a caught stealing did not aid Hughes either.

Regardless of the final score, this is a game to be shrugged off for Hughes and, for Wegner, investigated by Major League Baseball. If not an optometrist.

Could A-Rod Replace DJ At SS?

It's an idea which had always been discarded before even digesting its repercussions. The thought of Derek Jeter being replaced by Alex Rodriguez during an extended absence has always been taboo which Joe Torre refused to dignify.

Names like Wilson Betemit, Miguel Cairo, Felix Escalona, Andy Cannizaro and Alberto Gonzalez have spelled Jeter during A-Rod's Yankees tenure. Soon after A-Rod was acquired, the question was posed whether he would ever move over a few feet should the Captain end up on the disabled list. This potential scenario was quickly defused and every baseball fan knew for a fact Rodriguez would play out his days at the hot corner.

Until now...

Joe Girardi would not reject the possibility of Rodriguez manning shortstop should Jeter be placed on the DL. Expressing his prerogative to sort out all possible solutions, the new skipper reminded fans of how much better talent Rodriguez could show in Jeter's stead. Instead of playing Betemit at shortstop [or Morgan Ensberg at first] and becoming a major question mark, he would be moved to his natural position - third base - as A-Rod returned to his natural spot in the infield.

Should Jeter recover in the next handful of days, such speculation becomes fruitless chatter, but it is an interesting topic and already a signal of the difference between Girardi and Torre. From the Yahoo! article:

Joe Girardi didn’t say no. Joe Torre would have.

Now, this is not to compare Girardi and Torre, not in a mano-a-mano fashion at least, but one that deals with today’s reality in the New York Yankees universe: Suggestions that Alex Rodriguez move to shortstop if the strained left quadriceps that forced Derek Jeter out of a game Monday lingers.

“There’s a lot of different scenarios we’ll talk about as a club and decide what we’re going to do,” Girardi said, and even though there was little substance to his words, it felt frighteningly candid – and, considering the other options, a rather sensible idea. Because under Torre’s watch, no matter how damaging to the Yankees in the short or long term, he wouldn’t dare place someone of consequence at Jeter’s position for fear of upsetting the captain’s chi.

Jeter first felt a twinge in his quad during the Yankees’ Sunday game and iced it before Monday’s game. That didn’t help, and Jeter ended up in an MRI tube to rule out extensive damage. Doctors found a low-level strain, nothing like in 2001, when Jeter missed Opening Day because of his right quad.

“That was worse,” Jeter said. “This is a mild strain, from what I was told. The other one was a lot worse than that. It was something you could feel moving your leg, period. This one is more when I put for a little effort. I really start running before I feel it.”

Aside from Betemit and A-Rod, there’s not another person on the Yankees’ active roster who can play shortstop. They could call up rookie Alberto Gonzalez, who is on the team’s 40-man roster, or Cody Ransom, who would require a roster move but bring more experience. Or, of course, they could put A-Rod at short and use Morgan Ensberg, a natural third baseman, to fill in.

Like Girardi said, plenty of scenarios.

Mark Teixeira missed approximately five weeks of last season with a quad injury, leading one to believe they are an unpredictable health woe to forecast. The two major question marks remain: would Jeter yet feel secure enough for Rodriguez to man his position and is the 2007 MVP still physically capable of playing quarterback of the infield. Updates on Jeter's condition should begin to emerge today.