- 29,272
- 11,421
this ump is the WORST , but he's calling his crap both ways ....
i'm talkin to myself in here
i'm talkin to myself in here
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Although his numbers were bad, Ivan Nova said he felt any pain or discomfort until that final pitch last night. On that pitch, he felt “kind of a little pop” and began to shake his arm. He asked to stay in the game because he still believed he was perfectly fine.
Ultimately pulled from the game and sent for an MRI, the Yankees have now announced that Nova has a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament. Nova will be evaluated further in New York on Monday, but obviously the initial thought is that Nova could be headed toward Tommy John surgery. No operation is set, though.
“I don’t even know what to tell you guys,” Nova said. “I’m so sad right now that I’m not going to be pitching. It hurts, but God is real big, and I know that he’s not going to forget me. I have to keep working hard and try to get back as soon as possible.”
Although the Yankees had already announced the nature of the injury, Nova said this morning that he had not yet talked to the Yankees coaching staff or medical staff about the MRI results, so he wasn’t sure about the severity. In fact, when told the Yankees announced a partial tear — Nova said he had not been told even that much — Nova seemed oddly encouraged.
“It’s not (torn) all the way?” Nova said. “So that’s not too bad, I guess. I know it’s not good, but if it’s not all the way, it’s not too bad. That’s what I think.”
That might be the optimistic way of looking at it, but a partially torn UCL actually is pretty bad news. There would seem to be some chance that Nova could rehab his way back from the injury, but after a series of Tommy John surgeries throughout baseball already this season, the immediate thought seems to be that Nova could be heading for the same fate.
“I don’t know how bad the strain is, the strain of the ligament is,” Joe Girardi said. “But usually, when you have that, eventually it leads to (surgery).”
Fire that third base coach man Gardner was good money there.
Plan to travel a little this year. Farewell Captain.
Anaheim - May
Oakland - June
Boston - August
New York - August
The latest significant casualty is Ivan Nova. The Yankees’ no. 4 starter got hammered for eight runs in four innings against the Rays on Saturday, with four blasts leaving the yard. The snarkfest over Nova’s outing (which upped his season ERA to 8.27) lasted a few hours, until we learned he has a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament. Recent history tells us that partial UCL tears don’t tend to heal quickly, or without surgery, so Nova’s season might be over.
The good news is that the Yankees have built one of the best pitching staffs in baseball, with or without Nova. For starters, Masahiro Tanaka has been even better than advertised, which is saying a lot. ESPN contributor Jason Collette passed along this wild Tanaka nugget: This year, Tanaka has thrown 130 fewer pitches than Justin Verlander and 125 fewer pitches than James Shields … yet the Yankees’ new ace has induced more swings and misses than either (51 for Tanaka, 50 for Verlander, 47 for Shields). Tanaka’s splitter might be the best pitch in baseball at the moment; per Brooks Baseball, batters have whiffed 60 percent of the time on that pitch.
There’s more goodness throughout the staff. Michael Pineda has looked terrific through his first three starts, throwing tons of strikes; and no, I’m not buying GooGate as the secret to his success, though the hysteria around it was pretty funny. Hiroki Kuroda is keeping his team in games as usual, while CC Sabathia is pitching better than his surface stats would indicate, striking out more than a batter an inning (despite a big drop in fastball velocity) but getting victimized by a 31.6 percent home run–per–fly ball rate that’s simply not going to last.
Don’t sleep on the Yankees’ bullpen, either. While the surface stats look lousy due in large part to a couple of random blowups by Cesar Cabral and other secondary guys, Shawn Kelley is mowing down hitters (he generated eight whiffs on 27 pitches against the Rays on Sunday), Dellin Betances is gunning 96 mph fastballs by everyone, and Adam Warren is looking sharp in high-leverage work. This Sandman-less pen might not be so bad, especially when closer David Robertson returns from the DL.
The bad news is that the Yanks probably need their pitching to excel all year long, given the roster weaknesses on which we’ve already harped many times. Derek Jeter looks ancient diving in vain at grounders to either side; Brian Roberts is no longer anything close to a playoff-caliber second baseman; Mark Teixeira’s return from the disabled list only reminds us he’s not Mark Teixeira anymore; and we can count on one hand the number of non-prospects who suddenly become impact players at age 26, which bodes ill for Yangervis Solarte’s staying power.
None of which is a death sentence. Per ESPN Stats & Info, the Yankees have used more defensive shifts than any team except the Astros this year, as they try to compensate for Jeter’s and Roberts’s diminished range and also respond to baseball’s fastest-moving trend. They added multiple boppers over the winter, and their offense could get a boost once Brian McCann and Brett Gardner start hitting. The Yankees are banking wins early in a suddenly winnable AL East, and they won’t be shy about making deals if they’re in the race come July.
Running out a stars-and-scrubs lineup isn’t always pretty. That doesn’t mean it can’t work, though. Especially this year, and especially in this division.
tommy john for nova
out till middle of next year ...