Reinforcements Coming

Chad Jennings is bringing us some more news today, this one is rather important considering the Yankees upcoming schedule. He lets us know that Dan Giese will be activated from the DL on Tuesday and will join the Yankees for their series against Tampa Bay (he won’t be around for the game against Detroit). Also, with the rosters expanding tomorrow, we’ve learned that Phil Coke and Chad Moeller will join the team for their game against Detroit (making up a rainout), while Joba will also return to the team on Tuesday (as a reliever). In addition, Bryan Hoch reminds us that Melky, Dave Robertson, Hughes, IPK and Justin Christian may also get a call up in light of the expanding rosters (it could help Hughes and IPK log more innings, if nothing else).

Hughes To Log Innings In Fall League

Chad Jennings informs us that Phil Hughes, along with “where the hell have you been” Humberto (Sanchez), will be headed to the Arizona Fall League to log innings this year. We all know that Hughes’ season was cut short due to injuries and ineffectiveness, so, in order to get Hughes ready for next year, he’ll pitch in the fall league in order to build up his innings total.

(Props to RAB).

The Unexpected

Andy Pettitte’s 2008 home/road splits are as follows:

HOME — 5.09 ERA & 1.41 WHIP
ROAD — 3.67 ERA & 1.36 WHIP

Strange, huh? I didn’t even throw in Pettitte’s game from today, where he allowed 6 ER against the Jays. His season ERA sits at 4.52 (with today’s game included), though, and that’s pretty terrible considering he’s our number 2 starter. With 2 other starters name Sidney Ponson and Darrell Rasner, it’s been very hard for the Yankees to really mount much against their opposition. Pettitte won 11 games for the Yankees in the 2nd half of 2007 (yup, 11 games) and now, in the 2nd half of 2008, he’s got a 3-4 record with an ERA well over 5. His first half was very good (4.03 ERA and 10 wins), so maybe this year he’s experiencing an aberration in his numbers (the splits are reversed, since Andy is typically a better 2nd half pitcher). There’s still September, of course, but he’ll have his work cut out for him.

The Yankees are going to need more from Andy Pettitte if they’re looking to extend their season. In defense of Andy, he’s had 3 very solid starts (3 GS of 7 IP, 3 runs or less) this month (against LA, KC, and TOR) and the Yankees only won 1 of those games, due to their lack of run support. However, it’s definitely crunch time, and he’s going to have to keep the Yankees in all of their games, something he really hasn’t done in his past 2 outings (both of which were home games).

Joe Ain’t No Bowa Cano Nonchalant?

Here’s an interesting bit of text from PA (LoHud):

It would be evident to the most novice of baseball fans that Robinson Cano made a bad play in the seventh inning. He was too far away from Derek Jeter to try that flip. The error opened the door to an awful 7-6 loss.

Joe Girardi knows this, he has to. He’s been in baseball all his life.

But in another moment that strained his credibility as manager, Girardi refused to criticize Cano. In fact, he compared him to future Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar, saying Cano has a “smoothness” to his game.

Kim Jones of the YES Network, much to her credit, did not let the comment skate by and asked a series of questions about the play. Girardi repeated the same theme.

I get that a manager doesn’t want to be truthful about injuries, most of them are that way. You want to be positive after a loss, that’s also understandable.

But when a player botches a game in front of 53,273 fans and hundreds of thousands of others on television, you can’t pretend it’s OK and then compare him to one of the best second basemen ever to put on spikes.

In any sport, the manager or coach has to be credible. He’s the face of the organization. Yankees fans are not stupid.

To be honest, upon reading this, I was about to write a brief post about Larry Bowa’s absence and how Joe Girardi’s excessively “positive” approach, as seen in this situation, may not be helping Robbie. Bowa was, after all a fiery guy who would dig into Cano for his careless mistakes and we’ve heard time and time again that Cano likely benefited from this form of critique. However, I just listened to the Kim Jones audio that PA posted (click the link) and I have to disagree with his conclusion here.

Here’s a rough transcript of the Cano-related material:

JG: It happened, physical errors are going to happen
KJ: Do you want to see a flip throw or shovel pass there?
JG: You just want to see a good throw, however he can get it to him, and, you know… I’d have to watch it closely, but you have to make sure one in that situation
KJ: But Robbie looked, he looked nonchalant, making a play like that, is that how you would read it?
JG: Well, Robbie has that smoothness to him that people are going to assume that it’s nonchalantness, but it’s, you know, Robbie Alomar was the same way, he had that smoothness to him when he played the game. They’re not being nonchalant
KJ: Well if the smoothness costs you like it did today don’t you say get rid of it and next time make the sure throw?
JG: Well, you know, obviously if he could go back and do it again maybe he’d make sure but I mean he’s made that same play so many times and that’s how he does it. That’s what he’s used to doing.

While Cano should have made that play today, what’s going on here is something Joe Girardi was good to pick up on. Girardi has basically stated from the get go that the play should have been made, but it just didn’t happen. I mean, that’s fine and I’m sure he spoke to Cano following the miscue. However, Kim Jones moves away from this single moment (this single error in this specific game) and begins to criticize Cano’s overall style of play. Notice what she says. She insinuates that Robinson Cano is playing with a “nonchalant” or careless sort of attitude, something that many fans are quick to say when the team is struggling (I wrote about this a few weeks ago). Girardi didn’t let this fly though and I commend him for what he did next, which was defend his misunderstood second baseman.

I’ve been searching for a way to describe Cano’s style on the field and Joe goes to the “smooth” adjective, which seems to fit perfectly. Girardi tells Jones that Robbie plays with a “smooth” style and that’s how he’s always done it. That’s not necessarily him being nonchalant, that’s just how he looks when he plays. He’s not a max effort infielder like a Dustin Pedroia and often times, this style of play can be misconstrued for carelessness or being “nonchalant” (especially when compared to Pedroia). Cano’s smooth style explains a lot. It’s part of why the Yankees even signed him to a longterm deal. Last year, while Cano was having an excellent year with the bat, whenever he made defensive plays people would say, “he makes it look so easy!” That’s because, as Joe stated, he plays with a specific style that’s unique to him and it’s very smooth and soft. However, when it’s going bad or when he makes errors, people can then look at that smooth style of play and say, “hey, he’s not even trying!” The way he plays the game isn’t new folks. That’s how Cano plays and that’s how he has always played. When it’s good it looks great and when it’s bad it looks terrible, but I guess you take the good with the bad.

Obviously, Cano should have made that play in yesterday’s game. Joe knows it, Jeter knows it, Cano knows it, Kim Jones knows it, the Blue Jays know it, everyone knows it. But, in regards to Jones’ comment (it wasn’t really a question at that point), when you move away from questioning a single error and move towards questioning a player’s commitment and attitude (publicly), that’s sort of crossing the line, especially when you’re speaking to the manager of the club. Girardi saw that and went to the smoothness statement to defend Robbie. Jones then goes on to say, “well if that smoothness costs you like it did today, don’t you get rid of it…” Huh? Cano plays the game that way and always has. How do you scrap “smoothness” when that’s the approach you’ve always had on the field. Granted, Cano has had some mental lapses on the field this year, but this is nonsense.

Maybe Cano should start throwing fits on the field whenever he messes up a play, or maybe he should try making it look gritty since people love that which is “gritty”. Cano also hit a homer in yesterday’s game to back Rasner and he made that look pretty easy as well (maybe he should have screamed as he hit the ball?). Of course, this is how I saw the exchange and others (like PA) are certainly entitled to their interpretation of the conversation in question.