REFSNYDER SENT DOWN & WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

Look, Rob Refsnyder had a few bad days.  Doesn't matter.  He will improve. He's still a youth member trying to get up to the Majors and when the Yankees decided that Starlin Castro was the  2nd baseman,  it was pretty clear that they had no future plans for Ref at 2nd, and so, they tried him as a backup third baseman.

Nothing wrong with that. Refsnyder's such a gamer, he would have washed jock straps if it meant he could be on the big team.  And so, he took grounders at 3rd and made it his priority.  When you're a kid, you do whatever the team wants of you.  But you know what? It didn't work out... not now at least.  Rob Refsnyder was sent to Triple A.  He'll keep working, he'll keep pushing himself and I will bet we see him sometime this year.  Nothing wrong with this... he wasn't ready.

According to several sources, but we'll go with the New York Post with this:

"The Yankees took a look at Refsnyder, a second baseman, at third when camp opened because Dustin Ackley, the other backup infielder, plays only first and second.

Jace Peterson, Gordon Beckham and Andres Blanco are infielders with short and third experience who could be had if the Yankees don’t believe Pete Kozma or Ronald Torreyes, who are in camp, can handle the job.

'The utility guys we have in camp, it will come down to one of those guys,' Joe Girardi said.

But there is a chance the player will arrive by trade.

'That’s always a possibility,' Girardi said. 'My thought is that it will come out of this camp, but it’s a possibility. You never know what is going to happen at the end of camp.'”

Now I'm a big Beckham fan, but I just don't see them going outside of the team to snag a 3rd baseman.  Who knows, maybe they will, but much like when Dean Anna and Yangervis Solarte were with the team a few years ago... sometimes the Yanks just stick with what they have, and guys like Torreyes and Kozma will most likely be those guys.

Whatever the case, Ref is down now.  And we need to move on.  Opening Day is almost here folks... I can't wait.

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IF THE YANKS CAN GET GORDON BECKHAM, THEY SHOULD

You wanna piss off Chicago? Trade for Gordon Beckham, a scrappy, talented second baseman that we could definitely use on the New York Yankees. Will it happen? It's tough to say... I also wasn't the one planting this rumor out there. 

The New York Post and others had this nugget a few weeks ago and many may have just glossed over it. Me included. At the time, it was a piece that merely stated the fact that the Yankees had a lot of catchers. Around that time, the name JR Murphy was someone being floated as a guy the Yanks "might" be willing the part with because teams were "looking" at him.  I found it ridiculous merely because I'm sick and tired of hearing about how the Yankees have "studs on the farm", only to flip them later.

But what the Post article said was this: "Second baseman Gordon Beckham, 27, could be made available by the White Sox, but would likely command more than Cervelli or one of the other catchers."

Now, weeks after that George King III article was posted, and the Chicago White Sox now scouting Francisco Cervelli again and again. Now, my friends, it makes perfect sense... more sense than then at least.  Remember, this is what MLB's Daily Dish tweeted about Cervelli just last night:

Source: Lots of trade interest in #Yankees Francisco Cervelli. #WhiteSox among many teams monitoring him during spring training.
— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) March 10, 2014

Sure, it wouldn't be a clean trade if there was a trade at all. It wouldn't be player for player, Beckham for Cervelli. But it should be considered if the Yankees were smart about it. We could use a stud like Beckham in the lineup. Plus, and this is nothing critical of Brian Roberts, but Beckham is younger, and most likely a smarter choice.  Roberts has been great this spring, and has opened eyes, but you need to think about the brilliance of a Beckham in Yankee pinstripes.  If Cashman can pull this off, he should.

 Plus, Cervelli should be thrilled... he'd probably get a helluva lot more playing time in Chi-town.

Now, I strongly believe that the Sox will not part with Beckham. He's a valuable player to the White Sox as well as a fan favorite... but we should try, especially now that the Sox are sniffing around Cervelli's hydrant.

Trust me, it all goes back to what Chicago Sox GM Rick Hahn said about what they are doing to try and bolster their catching: "We have a number of scouts out right now, not only at the amateur level, and that was an amateur game, but also throughout the Cactus League and Grapefruit League... You won’t be able to throw a stick at some of these games without hitting a White Sox scout. That doesn’t mean there’s anything imminent; it just means we’re doing our due diligence.’’  That comes from the Chicago Sun Times.

Hmm... if Cash can figure out the right combination of players... I'd gladly welcome Gordon Beckham to the Bronx. Then we'll figure out the rest later.

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IT'S ALL WHITE SOX IS CHI-TOWN. YANKEES LOOK FLAT

The New York Yankees entered the Tuesday night match-up against the Chicago White Sox with a multitude of concerns.  The Yankees' division lead, that was once 10 games, had shrunk to 4 games as the Tampa Bay Rays surged into contention.  Furthermore the Yankee bullpen entered Tuesday's game with an 0-2 record and an 8.03 ERA over the last five games.  If that was not enough, Yankee starter Ivan Nova had pitched poorly of late, and he entered the game leading the league in extra-base hits allowed.

Yankee fans were momentarily comforted by a Derek Jeter HR to lead off the game.  Nick Swisher followed with a single to center and later scored courtesy of a Curtis Granderson RBI fielder's choice.  The Yankees led 2-0 after a half inning.  Nova yielded a hit and a walk in the bottom of the first, but escaped otherwise unscathed to preserve the 2-0 lead.

 

After the first two Yankee batters scored, the New York offense disappeared.  Over the next five innings, the Yankees managed four singles, a walk, and zero runs.  Meanwhile, one of the Yankees' worst fears materialized.  Starting pitcher Ivan Nova was putrid.  The first four White Sox hits that he allowed completed the cycle.  Dewayne Wise singled in the first, Alex Rios tripled in the second, Paul Konerko hit a HR in the fourth, and Alexi Ramirez doubled in the fifth.  In that fifth inning Nova got even worse.  He allowed four runs on the Ramirez double, a walk, another Wise single, and a Kevin Youkilis grand slam HR!  The White Sox led 6-2.

The game was effectively over at that point.  Russell Martin did manage to hit his 14th HR in the seventh to cut the Chicago lead to 6-3.  Derek Lowe relieved Nova in the bottom of the seventh inning, but he immediately allowed two hits, including the third DeWayne Wise hit of the game.  Following a walk to Adam Dunn, the bases were full of Sox.  Lowe managed to retire Konerko via strike-out and Alex Rios via ground ball to Cano, and the Yankees "escaped" with the Chicago lead holding at 6-3 through seven.

 

The Yankees did nothing in the eighth inning.  Chicago managed to score a run in their half of the eighth on an AJ Pierzynski triple and a Gordon Beckham RBI single to right that gave the Sox a 7-3 lead.  Facing a four run deficit in the ninth, Yankee prospects were bleak at best.  New York had not won a game all year when trailing after eight innings.  The Yanks were true to form.  The game that Jeter began with a bang, ended on a whimper, a weak fly out by Jeter to right field.   

 

In 1921, a former major league player characterized the New York Yankees of that season as the "best worst team in either league."  With a minor modification and a literary license, that phrase could be adjusted slightly to describe the 2012 Yankees.  I would say the current squad is the "worst of the best teams in either league."  The 1921 Yankees did not win the World Championship.

The 2012 verdict remains in doubt, but the unhappy final tonight was Chicago 7 - New York 3, as the Yankees continued in the wrong direction.

--Frank Gentry, BYB Writer

Twitter: @yankeefrank23



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WISE BITES YANKS BACK. YANKEES LOSE 9-6

It was an emotional roller coaster of a game, with the lead going back and forth between the Yankees and the White Sox in the middle innings. However, the Yankee bullpen just could not keep the White Sox from scoring.

(In Photo: Dewayne Wise, right)
The game started out promising. Gavin Floyd had a rough outing, as the Yankee hitters got to him early. He allowed three runs in the first two innings as the Yankees were patient at the plate and played small ball. In the first, Derek Jeter singled, Nick Swisher singled, and Mark Teixeira singled in Jeter for the first run. After a Curtis Granderson walk, Eric Chavez hit into a fielder's choice to score the second run. They picked it up again in the second, with a Swisher single, a Robinson Cano single, a Teixeira walk, and a Granderson single brought Swisher. By the time he got pulled in the third, the Yankees had a 3-0 lead and Floyd faced 16 batters, retiring only six of them. Of the other 10 hitters, five got a single, 4 walked, and one was hit by a pitch.

The White Sox were not to be outdone, however. Starter Freddy Garcia looked brilliant for the first four innings. He struck out seven by that point, giving up only two hits and two walks while holding the Sox scoreless. But the wheels came off in the fifth, as Garcia just lost it.  He struck out Alexei Ramirez to lead off the inning, but that was the last batter he would retire.

After giving up a 2-run home run to former Yankee Dewayne Wise, Garcia gave up a single to Kevin Youkilis and walks to Adam Dunn and  Paul Konerko before finally being pulled for Cody Eppley. Eppley retired the only batter he faced - Alex Rios - but Youkilis scored on the play. Clay Rapada came in for one batter - A.J. Pierzynski - who singled in Dunn. Joba Chamberlain came in and gave up a single to Dayan Viciedo that scored Rios, and finally retired Alexei Ramirez to end the inning. The White Sox took a 5-3 lead, with all five runs charged to Garcia.

The Yankees came right back in the 6th, as Derek Jeter hit his 11th home run of the season over the left field wall, and the Yankees were within one. After a Nick Swisher walk and a pair of wild pitches from pitcher Hector Santiago, Mark Teixeira hit a bloop single to tie the game at 5. Then, with two outs and men on first and second, Casey McGehee put them ahead 6-5 with an RBI single that scored Robinson Cano.

Joba Chamberlain's struggles continued in the bottom of the sixth, as Gordon Beckham led off with a game-tying home run to make it 6-6. After striking out Dewayne Wise, he hit Youkilis in the back. I will let you decide if that was a good thing or not. Nevertheless, he was promptly pulled for Boone Logan, who struck out Adam Dunn and got Paul Konerko to ground out to end a potential rally.

Logan stuck around for the 7th inning, and gave up a go-ahead 2-run home run to Alexei Ramirez. The White Sox kept pouring it on, as Adam Dunn extended the lead to 9-6 with a homer in the eighth.

 Honorable mentions:

• The Captain, Derek Jeter, had a 4-hit night. This takes his season total to 167, which leads the majors. He also tied Eddie Murray on the all-time hit list with 3255. Wasn't his career in decline??? Ha!!
• Nick Swisher reached base four times, scoring twice.

• Mark Teixeira also had two hits and a walk, driving in 2 runs.
• Ichiro Suzuki got a base hit for the 22nd time in his 24 starts since joining the Yankees. Clearly, this trade is paying dividends.

Playing another division leader is always a good test to see how we might fare in October. This game was no exception. Where we gave up runs we also scored right back, showing that fighting spirit. However, the pitching really failed us tonight. Starters will occasionally have a bad night, and Freddy certainly had one, but more troubling is that every single pitcher out of the bullpen surrendered runs tonight. If I were tuning up for the playoffs, this would be my biggest area of concern. Nevertheless, tomorrow is another day and another game.

Final Score: White Sox 9, Yankees 6

--Ike Dimitriadis, BYB Writer
Twitter: @KingAgamemnon



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