Conor Mullee Archives - Page 2 of 3

DotF: A loss at every level on a rainy night in the minors

July 25, 2016 by Mike Leave a Comment

Here are the day’s notes:

Baseball America provided free scouting reports for all players involved in today’s Aroldis Chapman trade, so don’t miss that. It’s not behind the paywall.
RHP Vicente Campos has been promoted to Triple-A Scranton, reports Shane Hennigan. He’s replacing RHP Luis Severino, who was called up to take Chapman’s spot on the roster.
Also, RHP Conor Mullee was in the Scranton clubhouse today, according to Hennigan. Mullee is on the MLB DL with a hand injury and this might indicate he’s close to starting a rehab assignment.
RHP Will Carter has been bumped up to Double-A Trenton, according to Nick Flammia. Carter’s promotion is part of the Chapman-Severino-Campos chain reaction.
LHP James Reeves and RHP Chad Martin were named the Pitchers of the Week in the High-A Florida State League and Rookie Appalachian League, so congrats to them.

Triple-A Scranton was rained out. They’re going to play a doubleheader tomorrow.

Double-A Trenton (5-2 loss to Portland in seven innings) completed early due to rain

SS Tyler Wade & 3B Miguel Andujar: both 0-2 — Wade drew a walk and committed a fielding error
CF Dustin Fowler: 0-3, 1 RBI
C Kyle Higashioka: 0-3, 2 K — in an 8-for-40 (.200) rut
RHP Will Carter: 5 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 1 HB, 8/3 GB/FB — 55 of 85 pitches were strikes (65%) … Double-A debut for last year’s 14th rounder … he is the team’s second 2015 draftee to reach Double-A behind RHP Chance Adams

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Game 92: Rain, rain, go away

July 18, 2016 by Mike Leave a Comment

The Yankees and Orioles are supposed to begin their four-game series in Yankee Stadium tonight, but I gotta tell ya, the forecast doesn’t look too promising and the sky is scary. It’s been dark and cloudy most of the afternoon. There’s rain in the forecast and I received a severe thunderstorm warning notification on my phone, so yeah.

Believe it or not, this is the O’s first visit to Yankee Stadium this season, so the two teams will have plenty of time to play a makeup game if it does get rained out. In fact, the Yankees and Orioles wrap up the season with three games in the Bronx. Maybe they’d push the makeup game back until then and only play it if it’ll impact the postseason race. I’m getting ahead of myself. Here is the Orioles’ lineup and here is the Yankees’ lineup:

LF Brett Gardner
CF Jacoby Ellsbury
RF Carlos Beltran
C Brian McCann
DH Alex Rodriguez
SS Didi Gregorius
2B Starlin Castro
3B Chase Headley
1B Rob Refsnyder
RHP Ivan Nova

Like I said, the forecast is not good tonight. The game is scheduled to begin at 7:05pm ET and you can watch on YES, though who knows if there will be a delay or anything. We’ll see. Enjoy the game.

Injury Update: Mark Teixeira (foot) remains day-to-day and is receiving treatment. He fouled a pitch off his foot over the weekend … Conor Mullee (hand) played catch today and could throw a bullpen Wednesdays. He’s out with nerve irritation.

Roster Move: The Yankees activated Mason Williams (shoulder) off the 60-day DL and optioned him to Triple-A Scranton, the team announced. They had an open 40-man roster spot after cutting Ike Davis loose, so no other moves were required.

2016 Midseason Review: The Role Players

July 14, 2016 by Mike Leave a Comment

Now that the All-Star break has arrived, it’s time to review the first half of the season. We’ve already looked at the catchers, infielders, outfielders, bench, rotation, and bullpen. Now let’s tackle the role players.

As always, the Yankees have had to dip into their farm system for help at times this season. That’s mostly the result of injuries. Sometimes they called up a legitimate prospect and gave him a chance, like Rob Refsnyder, and other times they brought in a journeyman veteran to plug a short-term hole. Either way, they were all Yankees. Let’s review the spare parts.

Chad Green: The Sudden Sixth Starter

Over the winter the Yankees looked at their rotation and bullpen depth, and decided to rob Peter to pay Paul. They traded reliable setup man Justin Wilson to the Tigers for two Triple-A starters because they figured they had enough bullpen arms, but not nearly enough starters. Starters under control beyond 2017, especially.

One of those two Triple-A starters is Green, who has spent the majority of the season with Triple-A Scranton, where he’s been dominant. Detroit’s 11th round pick in 2013 currently leads the International League in ERA (1.54 ERA) and FIP (2.18), and that performance has earned him three big league starts. One went well. Two didn’t.

May 15th @ D’Backs: 4 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 2 HR (MLB debut)
July 3rd @ Padres: 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, 1 HR
July 8th @ Indians: 4.1 IP, 5 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 4 HR

Seven homers in 14.1 innings is really bad! Left-handed hitters have hit five of the seven homers, which makes sense because Green hasn’t really shown a reliable changeup yet. He did add a cutter while in Triple-A between his first and second starts, which is promising, though clearly the Indians had no trouble with it last week.

Green did throw one perfect relief inning with the Yankees in mid-June, so right now he has a career 7.04 ERA (7.09 FIP) in 15.1 innings. Surely he’s looking to improve those numbers, and my guess is he’ll get multiple chances to do so in the second half. Green seems to have climbed to sixth in the rotation depth chart, ahead of Nathan Eovaldi and Luis Severino. How about that?

Second Half Outlook: If the Yankees do sell at the deadline, I could see them giving Green an extended look as a starter in the second half. There’s really no reason to keep running impending free agent Ivan Nova out there in the second half if they’re out of the race. More than likely Green will go up and down a few more times and be the team’s sixth starter, giving the regular rotation members extra rest.

Nick Goody: The Last Shuttle Reliever Standing

The Yankees opened Spring Training with a small army of Triple-A relievers ready to go up and down as needed. We saw it last year. It seemed like one or two of them would be given an extended look at some point this season, but that hasn’t been able to happen. They’ve almost all gotten hurt. The list:

Jacob Lindgren: Stopped throwing strikes, then went down with an elbow injury.
Bryan Mitchell: Managed to break his toe covering first base in Spring Training.
Branden Pinder: Needed Tommy John surgery in April.
Nick Rumbelow: Needed Tommy John surgery in April.

The hope was one or two of those guys would step up and become a permanent piece of the bullpen. Instead, they’ve combined for one big league inning (by Pinder) this season. Baseball, man.

Goody is the last young shuttle reliever standing. He started the season in Triple-A but has had a few stints with the big league team, throwing a total of 22 innings across 19 games. Goody has a 4.91 ERA (4.59 FIP) in those 22 innings, and he’s been alarmingly home run prone (2.05 HR/9). His strikeout (27.4%) and walk (5.3%) numbers are great! But there’s more to life than that. Not a good year to be a young reliever with the Yankees.

Second Half Outlook: Goody is actually on the big league roster right now. He was called up when Green was sent down following his start in Cleveland. Something tells me Goody is going to end up back in Scranton at some point. Then back in New York. Then Scranton. Then New York. You get the point. He’s the very definition of a spare up-and-down arm.

Plans E & F at First Base

At one point in the first half the Yankees had their Plan A (Mark Teixeira), Plan B (Greg Bird), and Plan C (Dustin Ackley) first basemen on the DL. Plan D turned out to be Refsnyder, who basically had an afternoon of prep work at the position before being thrown into game action. The Yankees didn’t want to overwhelm Refsnyder, so a few days after Teixeira’s injury, they called up Plan E: Chris Parmelee.

The Yankees signed Parmelee over the winter after Bird got hurt. He hit .252/.343/.444 (128 wRC+) with seven homers in 43 games with Triple-A Scranton — Parmelee thoroughly outhit Nick Swisher with the RailRiders — before being called up. In his first game in pinstripes, Parmelee went 3-for-4 with a double and two homers. For real! Check it out:

The very next night Parmelee singled in a run in the fifth inning to tie the game against the Angels. No one expected Parmelee to keep hitting like that, but hey, he gave the team a nice little shot in the arm. You need those out-of-nowhere contributions to contend.

The Yankees are not allowed to have nice things though. A few innings after that game-tying single, Parmelee popped his hamstring while stretching for a throw at first base. He suffered a Grade II strain and will be out two months or so. Just like that, Refsnyder was the first baseman again. Plans A, B, C, and E at first base were hurt.

To replace Parmelee, the Yankees signed Ike Davis (Plan F) after he opted out of his minor league deal with the Rangers, and he didn’t even go to Scranton. The Yankees added him to the MLB roster right away. Davis appeared in eight games with the Yankees, went 3-for-14 (.214), then was designated for assignment when Teixeira came off the DL. Davis is currently with Scranton waiting for Teixeira’s next injury.

Second Half Outlook: Parmelee was slated to begin baseball activities a week or two ago and is still a few weeks from returning. The Yankees don’t really have anywhere to play him right now, not unless they trade Teixeira or Carlos Beltran at the deadline. Neither Parmelee nor Davis have much of a role with the Yankees going forward. They’re just injury fill-ins. Parmelee had a memorable moment in pinstripes. Davis … not so much.

The Up & (Mostly) Downers

Johnny B. (Elsa/Getty) — Johnny B. (Presswire)

There are still nine players who played for the Yankees this season that we have not yet covered as part of this crash course midseason review. Let’s wrap up the big league portion of the midseason review with one sentence on each of those nine players. Sound good? Good.

RHP Johnny Barbato: For a while it looked like Barbato would stick as a middle reliever, but the bloom came off the rose and he’s now in Scranton.
LHP Richard Bleier: The 29-year-old rookie has not only appeared in ten games with the Yankees, he’s still on the roster!
LHP Phil Coke: Sure, why the hell not?
RHP Luis Cessa: Cessa made the Opening Day roster and keeps going back and forth between big league reliever and Triple-A starter.
OF Ben Gamel: His hair is pretty great and pushes the limits of team regulations.
RHP Conor Mullee: The three-time major elbow surgery guy got affordable health care for life this year, so that’s cool.
LHP Tyler Olson: Olson appeared in one game with the Yankees, then was lost on waivers.
C Gary Sanchez: “Hey, Gary, we’re going to call you up for a game and make you face Chris Sale, sound good?”
RHP Anthony Swarzak: It’s literally Anthony Swarzak.

Second Half Outlook: Sanchez definitely has a future with the Yankees. He’s the long-term plan behind the plate. Barbato, Cessa, Gamel, and Mullee might have roles with the team going forward too. We’ll see them again in September, if not earlier. Everyone else? They’ll be gone soon enough.

Game 80: What’s better than a ninth inning comeback?

July 2, 2016 by Mike Leave a Comment

Last night the Yankees made a spirited ninth inning comeback attempt, scoring four runs in the final inning to turn a 7-2 deficit into a 7-6 loss. A loss is a loss, but at least they showed some fight, you know? Three days ago the Yankees had that massive ninth inning comeback against the Rangers too. If nothing else, this team is going down swinging. They still have that Fighting Spirit.

But you know what’s better than a ninth inning comeback? Not trailing in the ninth inning! Good teams don’t come from behind to win all the time. Good teams are ahead all the time. The Yankees play from behind an awful lot these days, which makes getting back into the postseason race that much more difficult. Scoring first, which the Yankees have not done in their last eight (!) games, would be cool tonight. Here’s the Padres’ lineup and here’s the Yankees’ lineup:

CF Jacoby Ellsbury
LF Brett Gardner
2B Starlin Castro
1B Mark Teixeira
3B Chase Headley
SS Didi Gregorius
RF Rob Refsnyder
C Austin Romine
RHP Ivan Nova

The weather is surely lovely in San Diego tonight. The weather is never not nice in San Diego. Tonight’s game will begin a little after 10pm ET and you can watch on FOX Sports 1 only. Not YES, not MLB Network, not even regular old FOX. FOX Sports 1 only. Enjoy the game, nerds.

Injury Update: Conor Mullee has been placed on the 15-day DL with a hand injury, the Yankees announced. He left last night’s game with of a weird feeling in his fingers. Mullee went for tests for Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, which thankfully came back negative. That’s serious stuff. Chad Green took his spot on the roster. Green is making the spot start tomorrow.

Game 76: If you’re going to lose, at least have the decency to lose before 2am

June 28, 2016 by Mike Leave a Comment

Man did last night’s game suck. The worst part about it was that you could see the loss coming a mile away too, yet we had to sit through that awful rain delay anyway. Not the best baseball watching experience I’ve had.

Anyway, tonight is a new night. That’s the good thing about baseball. It gives you a chance to forget about those ugly losses pretty quickly because they play every damn day. The Yankees are trying to get back to .500 again (lol) so I guess a lot is on the line tonight? I dunno. I’m out of game thread ideas. Here’s the Rangers’ lineup and here is the Yankees’ lineup:

CF Jacoby Ellsbury
RF Carlos Beltran
DH Alex Rodriguez
1B Mark Teixeira
2B Starlin Castro
SS Didi Gregorius
3B Chase Headley
LF Aaron Hicks
C Austin Romine
LHP CC Sabathia

Bad news: there’s more rain in the forecast tonight. It doesn’t look like it’ll be anything heavy, but that’s what the internet told be last night, and it lied like hell. I guess we’ll just have to see. Tonight’s game is scheduled to begin at 7:05pm ET. You can watch on YES. Try to enjoy.

Roster Move: The Yankees called up Conor Mullee and optioned Kirby Yates to Triple-A Scranton, the team announced. No surprise there. I didn’t realize Yates had an option left. How about that.

Yankeemetrics: Near-disaster in the desert [May 16-18]

May 19, 2016 by Katie Sharp Leave a Comment

Not in Scranton anymore
Heading out on their first West Coast trip of the season, the timing was ripe for an extended hot streak: Not only were the Yankees coming off a solid homestand where they won seven of 10 games, but they were set to play the Diamondbacks, a team that they had an 11-4 record against in the regular season, their second-best win percentage versus any franchise.

All that momentum and optimism came to a screeching halt on Monday night as they were creamed by the D-backs, 12-2. The Yankees basically sent out their junior varsity pitching squad – none of the four arms that got into the game were on the 25-man roster at the beginning of the season – and paid the price.

Arizona put a small army on the basepaths – 24 guys, to be exact – and pounded the Yankee pitchers to the tune of six singles, six doubles, one triple and two homers. That’s the second-most baserunners the Yankees have ever surrendered in an Interleague game, and the nine extra-base hits allowed tied the team record for an Interleague game.

Chad Green had a forgettable “Welcome to the Show” moment, allowing six runs on eight hits in four-plus innings. He’s just the second Yankee in the last 50 seasons to lose his major-league debut while giving up at least six runs and eight hits. The other was Christian Parker on April 6, 2001; that was the only major-league appearance of Parker’s career.

Green wasn’t the only Yankee to get his first taste of big-league hitters on Monday night. Conor Mullee also pitched in his first MLB game and looked very much like a rookie. He walked three guys and hit another, allowing one run in an innings’ work without giving up a hit.

There is a silver lining to his wildness, though: the last Yankee pitcher with at least three walks and a hit by pitch in his major-league debut was Dellin Betances on September 20, 2011 against the Rays.

Tiny Mike
In what has become a recurring nightmare for the Yankees, Michael Pineda delivered yet another maddening – and wholly disappointing – performance on Tuesday. Sure, the 27-year-old flashed some great stuff (nine strikeouts in five innings), but he was also awful at times (nine hits and five runs allowed) and threw far too many hittable pitches in the strike zone.

This is the third time in the last two seasons that Pineda has put up such a confusing line of at least nine strikeouts, nine hits and five runs allowed. Since 2015, no other major-league pitcher has done it more than once.

And looking at the sample of all Yankee pitchers in the last 100 seasons, only two others had three such games in their entire careers (Ron Guidry, Lefty Gomez). Somehow Pineda has done this in a span of roughly one calendar year.

Pineda’s ERA rose to an unsightly 6.60 after this latest dud, and coupled with Severino’s 7.46 mark, the Yankees are now the only team in MLB this season with two pitchers that have thrown at least 30 innings and own an ERA over 6.50.

Finally, with two losses in the first two games of this three-game set in Arizona, the Yankees fell to 0-5-1 in series away from the Bronx. The last time they went winless in their first six road series of the season was 1991.

Nasty, Nasty, Nasty Nate
Deep breath in, exhale out. Repeat.

The Yankees avoided the dreaded sweep in Arizona with a bounceback 4-2 win on Wednesday night. They still haven’t been swept in a road Interleague series of three or more games since June 2007 at Colorado.

Nathan Eovaldi pitched an absolute gem, giving up a lead-off double to Jean Segura and then retiring the next 18 batters before being removed after six fantastic innings of work. It was statistically reminiscent of some of the best games ever pitched in franchise history.

The last Yankee to throw at least six innings and allow no more than one baserunner was Mike Mussina against the Red Sox on Sept. 2, 2001. Yes, that was Moose’s epic 13-strikeout, no-walk one-hitter, a.k.a The Carl Bleeping Everett Game.

And the only other Yankee to allow one or fewer baserunners in six innings pitched in Interleague play was David Cone against the Expos on July 18, 1999. Yup, his perfect game.

Brett Gardner gave the Yankees an early 2-0 lead with a first-inning homer to right field, his 20th go-ahead home run since the start of the 2014 season. That’s the second-most go-ahead homers by any Yankee in that span, behind only Brian McCann (22).

Game 38: Which Pineda Shows Up?

May 17, 2016 by Mike Leave a Comment

Last night’s series opening loss to the Diamondbacks was ugly but not necessarily unexpected. The Yankees started a kid making his big league debut, and that’s always unpredictable, plus their best relievers were all unavailable due to their recent workloads. You’d still like to be able to steal a game under those circumstances, though more often than not you’re on the wrong end of the final score.

Tonight the Yankees are at full strength — or at least something approximating full strength — with Michael Pineda on the mound. Which Pineda will show up, the guy who gets hammered in the first inning or the guy with a knack for settling down and chucking scoreless innings? It would be nice to see the second guy without the first guy for once, you know? Here is the D’Backs’ lineup and here is the Yanks’ lineup:

CF Jacoby Ellsbury
LF Brett Gardner
1B Mark Teixeira
C Brian McCann
2B Starlin Castro
3B Chase Headley
SS Didi Gregorius
RF Aaron Hicks
RHP Michael Pineda

It’s a bit cooler in Phoenix today than it was yesterday, meaning the temperature is in the mid-80s rather than the low-90s. The Chase Field roof will be open. Tonight’s game is going to start at 9:40pm ET and you can watch on YES. Enjoy.

Injury Update: Alex Rodriguez (hamstring) has yet to run the bases at full speed, so it’s possible he won’t be ready to come off the DL when eligible Thursday.

Roster Moves: The Yankees called up three players from Triple-A, they announced: Luis Cessa, James Pazos, and Rob Refsnyder. Chad Green and Conor Mullee were optioned down while Phil Coke was designated for assignment. The Yankees are back to a seven-man bullpen and a four-man bench, and they have an open 40-man roster spot now.