Wednesday,
October 6, 2010
Talkin’
Yankees with Rob Abruzzese
Bronx Baseball Daily
Quick notes before starting:
·
By the way, be sure to go to the left side of this
screen and check out all the Twins blogs today. A lot of passionate Twins fans/bloggers
have put in a ton of work in anticipation of this series, so check out some
other twins blogs today.
·
Be sure to check out last
night’s SethSpeaks.net Weekly Minnesota Twins podcast. The first guest
was Twins minor league pitcher Kane Holbrooks,
who had a tremendous season between Beloit, Ft. Myers and even made a start for
the New Britain Rockcats. We were then joined by Robby
Incmikoski from Fox Sports North. He
talked a little about his job, some of the Twins players, the manager and the
state of the Twins going into the playoffs. He did a great job and hopefully
we’ll be able to have him on the show more in the offseason.
·
The Twins will take the 30th overall
draft pick in next year’s MLB Draft thanks to having the fourth best
record in baseball this year.
·
MLB
Trade Rumors posted the final update of Eddie Bajek’s reverse-engineered Elias rankings, and it
showed that the Twins
have three Type A Free Agents and four Type B free
agents. Carl Pavano and Matt Guerrier are Type A’s, and so is Jason Kubel, although the Twins have an
easy-decision-to-pick-up-$5.25 million option for next year. The four Type B
free agents are Brian Fuentes, Orlando Hudson, Jon Rauch and
Jesse Crain. I’m sure once we get to the offseason,
we’ll have plenty more to say about that.
·
Saturday
night, the TwinsCentric guys will be at Park Tavern
in St. Louis Park, watching the Twins game which starts at 7:30 central time.
Stop by! More information to come.
Today is the day that Twins fans have been waiting for much longer than
just the three days since the season came to an end. The playoffs are upon us
and with it another opportunity to face the Yankees. Today I have for you an
interview with Yankees blogger and fellow Baseball Bloggers Alliance
member, Rob Abruzzese, from Bronx Baseball Daily. It is a
tremendous blog on the Yankees. So if you want the other perspective throughout
this series, be sure to check out his site for great analysis and frequent
updates.
Rob was kind enough to ask me to answer several Twins questions for him
and his site (which you can
find here), and today he was kind enough to answer questions for us
about the Yankees and this series. Thank you to Rob, and Enjoy! Please
feel free to comment below.
SethSpeaks: I think a lot of Twins fans were
hoping to get to face the Rays in the first round of the playoffs, hope that
Cliff Lee could beat the Yankees and help the Twins toward the World Series.
Meanwhile, I think it's fair to say that the Yankees and their fans preferred
to play the Twins. What are your thoughts on the way the season ended for the
Yankees and what it means going into the playoffs?
Rob Abruzzese: There is no denying the end of the season was ugly for
the Yankees. That said, this is a veteran team that
obviously has a good amount of playoff experience. They ran into a tough
schedule at the end and didn't come out looking pretty, but they have been
dealing with a fair amount of injuries and manager Joe Girardi
refused to over-tax his bullpen. In the last couple of weeks though Brett
Gardner, wrist, Nick Swisher, knee, and Mark Teixeira, thumb, have gotten a
good amount of rest and should be closer to 100 percent.
It's hard to argue that Girardi wasn't managing to
win every game, but now it's the playoffs and this is what the team has been
focused on since spring training. They're here, they're healthy, and I think
they're ready to play. The Twins are a very good team that should be respected
so I can't guarantee the Yankees will win, but it won't be because they are not
ready.
SethSpeaks: How can you explain the Yankees dominance of the Twins in the
last several years?
Rob Abruzzese: I
think it's been pitching more than anything else. In 2003 the Yankees beat the
Twins biggest threat in Johan Santana and in 2004 they stole took advantage of
a weak staff around him and got lucky in game no. 4. Last
season they just didn't have the the horses to match
up against the Yankees staff who was red hot last October.
This time around I think the Twins have one of their better chances to win. To
me the key is Brian Duensing is the key to this
series. Francisco Liriano obviously has top of the
line stuff and can even beat CC Sabathia if he's on.
Carl Pavano can go either way and a lot of that rests
on how good Andy Pettitte can be. The big game will
be game no. 3. If Duensing can pitch as well as he
did down the stretch and beat Phil Hughes then the Twins have a big advantage
in taking this series. Duensing was very impressive
down the line, but in my mind he's a big question mark. He's young and inexperienced, can he backup his strong season in October?
SethSpeaks: What is different about the Yankees since last year's ALDS?
Rob Abruzzese: The
biggest and most obvious difference is A.J. Burnett. He was instrumental in
helping the Yankees to win the 2009 World Series and he's basically been crap
this season. The Yankees are lucky because Phil Hughes has been so big for them
this season. Hughes had trouble in October last season though so there
certainly are question marks surrounding him, but then again even when Burnett
was pitching well there were always question marks surrounding him.
The Yankees are also a bit older. Derek Jeter had one of his best years in 2009
and has followed that up with his worst in 2010. He finished up the last couple
of weeks strong, but at age 36 he cannot be counted on as he has in the past.
Alex Rodriguez is another guy that because of his age you can't be sure of what
you are going to get out of him. The key for the Yankees this year is what they
get out of guys like Robinson Cano, Nick Swisher, and Curtis Granderson. If those guys can step up and just let some of
the older guys play bit rolls, the Yankees should have a strong offense
SethSpeaks: What is the current state of the rotation?
Rob Abruzzese: Let's
face it, the Yankees right now have CC Sabathia and everybody else. Yankee fans should be prying for rain so they can send the big man out there as
often as possible. Andy Pettitte is obviously a big
time veteran, but he had groin issues that kept him out for a long stretch of
time and he hasn't been the same since coming back. Phil Hughes has never started
a playoff game and struggled in October last season after dominating all year.
A.J. Burnett and Javier Vazquez have been so bad that A.J. won't start unless
there is an emergency and Vazquez isn't even on the ALDS roster. If either of
those guys have to start for the Yankees they are in a
lot of trouble.
SethSpeaks: How will the Yankees get from the starter to Mariano Rivera?
Rob Abruzzese: That
actually has been a great strength of the Yankees lately. Kerry Wood was a huge
pickup for them and has pitched as well as any reliever they've had since the
dynasty of the 90's. He's the key. Before him Joba
Chamberlain and David Robertson will be counted on to get big outs. They've
both been up and down this season, but lately there have been a lot more ups
than downs. If they pitch well the Yankees will have no problem getting to
Rivera. Boone Logan, their lone lefty in the pen, has had a great season as
well and against a team like the Twins he's going to get plenty of
opportunities to pitch. Hopefully for the Yankees sake he continues his good
season.
SethSpeaks: What is the current state of the offense? Who is Hot? Who is
not?
Rob Abruzzese: The
Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long has really done wonders with this lineup.
Really the only players that have struggled lately are guys that have been
dealing with injuries like Nick Swisher, Brett Gardner, Mark Teixeira, and
Jorge Posada. That said, they have been given a lot of time off lately and
should be ready to go in October.
The reason why I give Kevin Long a lot of credit though is because he has
turned guys around who struggled for large stretches of this season. Curtis Granderson has probably experienced the biggest difference.
He has been a big help to Derek Jeter and Lance Berkman
as well. Nick Swisher has hit 40 points better on his batting average than he
did last season and he has given all the credit to Long for helping him quite
down his swing.
SethSpeaks: Do you think the Yankees would do better against the Twins in a short
series or a longer one?
Rob Abruzzese: Definitely
a short series because it means they can avoid using four starters. Their
bullpen will also benefit because there is a pretty big drop off at the end of
that pen and if they don't have to pitch more than back-to-back days they
should be able to avoid their B-squad relievers.
SethSpeaks: Are the Yankees and their fans overlooking the Twins?
Rob Abruzzese: Some
of the fans might be, but I don't think the Yankees are. They know that the
Twins are a good team and probably better than they were last season. The
Yankees might not have played with the pedal to the metal down the stretch, but
that was more about keeping everyone healthy than looking forward to the
match-ups and thinking the Twins would be easier than the Rangers.
So there you have it, a little background on the Twins opponents, the New
York Yankees. Thank you very much to Rob for taking the time to write such
great responses.
I think it’s going to be a terrific series. I think most of the games
should be tightly contested. I mean, we are talking about two teams that were
separated by just one game in the overall standings over the course of a 162
game season. Both are terrific teams. Both have good pitching, really good
offenses and strong bullpens.
So before the series gets started, get your predictions in? Who will win
the series? In how many games? Who will star? Leave
your comments here.
Tuesday,
October 5, 2010
Tuesday Morning Links
Here are some links and articles to check out today:
·
Please be sure to read my TwinsCentric
blog at StarTribune.com. It is called Matching up with the
Yankees. I went through all the potential pitcher/hitter matchups in
the Twins/Yankees series. Matt Guerrier versus Alex
Rodriguez is not the only lopsided matchup we could see. Who should pitch
to A-Rod in the late innings? Who is Matt Capps’ nemesis? Who do
we want on the mound with Joe Mauer batting
late in the game? And much more.
·
I will be talking Twins/Yankees on am790 KFGO in Fargo
with Scott Miller for a segment or two starting at about 6:30.
·
There will be a new
SethSpeaks.net Weekly Minnesota Twins Podcast tonight at 10:00. I have
one confirmed guest and a couple of who hopefully will be able to join. I’ll
update this as I confirm more guests. There will be plenty of Twins/Yankees
talk though, to be sure. The second guest was Robby Imcmikoski
joined the show which was
very cool!
·
If you’re looking for a really good Yankees blog to
follow throughout this series, and beyond, go to Bronx Baseball Daily. Yesterday,
they sent me several questions about the series from the Twins perspective, and
my responses should be posted sometime today.
·
As always, feel free to ‘friend’ me on Facebook if you would like. You are also welcome to follow me on Twitter.