Picture Post

I have been so busy the past couple weeks of the season that I haven't been able to keep my blog very up to date. When summer rolls along and I don't have anything to do, I am sure that I will update more often. Since I've been so busy, I decided to do a picture post.

Brody Colvin, the Phillies 8th best prospect according to Baseball America, Pitching against the TY in Tampa

Tampa Yankees Win!!! Love being able to see this more often than last year

Five Man Infield put on by the Brevard County Manatees in the bottom of the 10th of a game that the Tampa Yankees would eventually.......

....win in a walk off!!

JR Murphy on Deck, Kyle Roller at bat

All the players and coaches in the dugout watching Hector Rabago pitch

Last but not least. Joe Mauer and Raymond at the Rays game in April

Autographs

I was going to include this in the last post but I figured it had way too many pictures already. This is the lineup card I got signed during today's meet and greet.

At the very top of the paper is Nik Turley, he wasn't listed because he is a starting pitcher and he did not pitch this game. I told him he could sign anywhere. At the bottom is Shane Greene who is also a starting pitcher. Mixed in are autographs from JR Murphy, Ramon Flores, Eduardo Sosa and obviously many more.

What a Week

Unless you live under a rock, you know that Andy Pettitte was assigned to the Tampa Yankees to pitch in his first minor league games on his way to making his comeback after retiring after the 2010 season. I went to Clearwater to watch him pitch on Monday even though I spent the 2 hours previous, in the walk in clinic with an ear infection. I sped to the field and got there in time to see his 3 innings. In the first inning, Andy only needed 8 pitches, all strikes, to retire the first 3 Thresher batters. He allowed a double and then a wild pitch and a sac fly later his first and only run scored. I tried to get some pictures of him but the light was terrible and they didn't turn out as well as I wanted. At the time I didn't think that I would get another chance to see him pitch but thankfully, he pitched again on Sunday afternoon at GMS field which I will get to in just a bit.

Andy signing autographs after his outing in Clearwater

I have so far, gone to 8 TY games. I went to the first 2 home games and then to Lakeland. They had an off day that Sunday and then went to Clearwater on Monday. For a while, I was thinking that I was cursing them because they lost the first 3 games I went to and then won 2 in a row in Clearwater that I did not go to. When they got back to Tampa on Thursday they won 5-4. They spent most of the game behind but luckily JR Murphy was on that night. JR hit a huge home run to left field to bring the TY within one and lead off the 8th inning with a triple off the right center field wall. He scored on a sac fly by Neil Medchill. The end of the game got a bit shaky after Regoberto Arrebato walked 2 but he struck out the final batter to seal the win. 

Today was the team meet and greet that they have at the beginning of each season for the season ticket holders. Last season they held the meet and greet before the season started which was kind of awkward because we hadn't seen any games and hadn't seen an official roster. This time we had 10 games to see who our new team was before the meet and greet. We were all hoping that Andy would come, they told him about our meet and greet but he didn't show. I don't really blame him because I doubt I would want to deal with 80+ season ticket holders. I was about 10 people away from getting his autograph after he pitched too but I thought it was just a big mob of people and there was no way I stood a chance in a mob of autograph hawkers, I walked over eventually and saw that it was a line which I promptly jumped into, he left about 10 people away. Darn. 

The game itself today was really good. Andy pitched 4 innings and gave up 2 hits while walking none and he turned a pretty nice 1-4-3 double play. I would say that he has conquered high A and is ready to move on. Sadly. Mikey O'Brien pitched the final 5 innings and allowed just 1 run. Neil Medchill had a heck of a game scoring the first run and then hit a home run that could have been foul but we will never know. He singled 2 home later in the game as well.

Here is the fake Jeter(Eduardo Sosa) and better than Arod(Kelvin Castro) standing on deck during a Daytona pitching change. They are the in the 1-2 spots in the lineup.

After the game was over(which we won 6-1) We headed over to the new Yankees Pavilion for our meet and greet. The pavilion is very big and very nice and overlooks the field that the pitchers use in spring training. We sat at a table which we promptly filled up with TY Boosters. As the players trickled in, we realized that some may not have a seat. One of our boosters stood up and offered his seat to a TY player who turned out to be Kelvin Castro. We let him enjoy his pizza and made small talk with him and informed him of how much we prefer him as the number 13 over the "real" number 13. His English was pretty good and we commended him for his bravery after sitting down at a table full of boosters alone. He told us that he didn't mind and liked to be social, I said sometime to the effect of "oh, so then you wont mind walking us around to tell us who is who so we can get autographs". He said, no that he didn't mind and as a soon as he finished his pizza, he stood up and said "Let's go" so we followed him around the room while he told us who was who and we collected autographs. I was able to get a lineup signed and some of the cards I got from my trip to Charleston. Eventually Kelvin had to leave as he was the ride for some of the other guys and they were obviously ready to go.

It was a pretty good day. I am looking forward to our first TY Booster Club lunch where we will get to be closer with all the players as there will just be booster members. 

Ill end this post with a few pictures of Andy.

Andy walking back to the dugout after his outing in Clearwater

And I end the post on a signature Andy pose. One we will hopefully be seeing in NY very soon.

Minor League Spring Training Day One

So today was the first day of Minor League Spring Training(not sure why I capitalized that but it just seems really important) Got there in time to get a roster and see the first pitch. I sat and faced the Tampa team this time and hope to be able to see the Charleston team at least once before the end of spring training. The starter for Tampa was Nik Turley who I was happy to see since the last time I saw him, his pitching hand was in a cast after being hit by a comebacker. Around the diamond was Kyle Roller, Kelvin Castro, Carmen Angelini(ss) and Zach Wilson. Playing the outfield from right to left was Rob Segedin, Mason Williams and Ramon Flores. Catching was Gary Sanchez and Yeicok Calderon was the DH. Halfway through the games, the second string came out and I did not have the energy to write them all down. They looked pretty solid but since there isn't a working scoreboard and because I got up to see what was going on with the Charleston field behind me, I can't really tell you what the score was or how each individual player did.
Tomorrow I am hoping to go see Scranton and Trenton, if I don't make it out there tomorrow, I am planning on going next Saturday which I will be able to see Scranton and Trenton so I'm not worried.
Here is a picture from the game today and the roster from the day.

This is of course all very preliminary but its exciting that the minor league season is starting to come together.

2011 Season in Review

Since the new season is starting in just over a month, I have decided to do a by the numbers review of the 2011 season. Hopefully I will remember to start compiling my lists before the end of the season because it takes a ton of time to organize everything. I won't waste time getting into it so here is my 2011 season in review.

Total Baseball Games seen in 2011 - 86

Spring Training - 4
(Pirates, Orioles, Twins, Nationals)


MLB - 5
(Yankees @ Rays(2), Rays vs. Orioles, Rays vs. Reds, Rays vs. Marlins)


Non-Florida State League  - 5
(Jacksonville vs. Chattanooga, Charleston vs. Savannah(2) Savannah vs. Greenville(2)


Non-Tampa Yankees - 3
(Lakeland vs. Dunedin, Charlotte vs. Ft. Myers, Clearwater vs. Jupiter)


Tampa Yankee Games - 69
Tampa Yankees Home Games - 58
Tampa Yankees Away Games - 11
TY Wins - 32
TY Losses - 36
TY Ties - 1(vs. Clearwater)
Double Headers - 2
TY Walk-offs - 3
TY Starter win/lose - 38
TY Reliever win/lose - 30

TY Pitcher total starts(at games I attended)
Brett Marshall - 17
Sean Black - 9
Josh Romanski - 8
Jairo Heredia - 7
Jose Ramirez - 4
Jose Quintana - 4
Michael Solbach - 3
Mikey O'Brien - 3
Francisco Gil - 3
Scottie Allen - 3
Graham Stoneburner - 2
Kramer Sneed - 2
Jeff Marquez - 2
Nik Turley - 1
Rafael Soriano - 1

Prospects(according to the 2011 Baseball America Prospect Handbook)

Yankees - 8
 Brett Marshall
 Jose Ramirez
 Chase Whitley
 Slade Heathcott
 JR Murphy
 Graham Stoneburner
Melky Mesa
David Adams

Phillies - 9
Trevor May
Jiwan James
Jonathan Singleton
Tyson Gillies
Sebastian Valle
Brody Colvin
Jared Cosart
Jon Pettibone
Julio Rodruguez

Cubs - 4
Logan Watkins
Junior Lake
Jae-Hoon Ha
Dae Eun Rhee

Tigers - 5
Daniel Fields
Avisail Garcia
Gustavo Nunez
Wade Gaynor
Drew Smyly

Marlins - 2
Edgar Olmos
Kyle Skipworth

Brewers -4
Scooter Gennett
Kentrail Davis
Kyle Heckathorn
Hunter Morris

Twins - 4
Aaron Hicks
Alex Wimmers
Brian Dozier
Bruce Pugh

Mets - 6
Wilmer Flores
Matt Den Dekker
Jefry Marte
Aderlin Rodriquez
Darrell Cecillani
Blake Forsythe

Pittsburgh Pirates - 2
Robbie Grossman
Diego Moreno

St. Louis Cardinals - 1
Jordan Swegarty

TB Rays - 
Hak - Ju Lee
Ty Morrison
Alex Colome
Jake Thompson

Toronto - 4
Asher Wojciechowski
Drew Hutchison
Deck Mcguire
Henderson Alvarez


Well that's a pretty good by-the-numbers review of my 2011 season. It was a pretty exciting season and I am really hoping to see a few more wins in 2012. Not sure if I will make it to as many non-TY games as last year but only time will tell.

Major League Rehab

Every year it is inevitable that someone in the major leagues will get injured and that means they have to rehab somewhere. For the minor league fan in the Florida State League, 2011 was a great year when it came to rehabbing major leaguers. Joe Mauer, Roy Oswalt, Chase Utley, Carlos Ruiz, Logan Morrison and Zack Greinke were just a few that had a rehab stint in the FSL.
The Tampa Yankees had quite a fair share of major leaguers spend time on their roster. The rest of this post is going to be a picture post of all the major league New York Yankees and various other major leaguers that I got to see over the 2011 season. Most of these pictures appeared on the blog throughout the season, I just figured I would put them all in one post.

One of the first major leaguers I saw was Brandon Morrow of the Toronto Blue Jays. He rehabbed in Dunedin and I traveled to see the D-Jays take on the Lakeland Flying Tigers in one of the 3 non Tampa Yankees games that I went to this season.

Along with Brandon Morrow, I also got to see Frank Francisco of Toronto in the same game.

Yankee fans may recognize Latroy Hawkins who did a rehab with the Brevard County Manatees(Milwaukee Brewers)

The first Yankee in my major league rehabber list is Francisco Cervelli who played a few games with the TY(they didnt win a single game while he was here)

Carlos Silva, while technically not on a major league deal, also did a rehab assignment with the Tampa Yankees

Angel Pagan of the New York Mets played a few games for St. Lucie.

Rafael Soriano pitched in a few games for the Tampa Yankees(when he wasn't being driven to the dugout in a golf cart)

Eric Chavez spent considerable time with the Tampa Yankees, going on a few road trips and playing a good 3rd base.

Ryan Doumit of the Pittsburgh Pirates also made an appearance on a trip I took down to Bradenton.

Last but not least, was Alex Rodriguez who rehabbed in front of a very empty Florida Auto Exchange Stadium in Dunedin.

I am hoping that I did not miss any major leaguers who I was able to see during their rehab stints last season. I obviously got to see quite a few of them so I'm sure that I left at least one person out. I saw Dewayne Wise and Scott Podsednik who were on Minor League contracts, I didn't get pictures of them but didn't want to leave them out.
Scranton will probably not be a popular place to send major leaguers this coming season so Tampa could quite possibly see a few more in 2012.

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.

Every year a new batch of minor leaguers comes through the Florida State League. It always takes about 2 weeks worth of games to learn all the new Tampa Yankees players by their numbers, body types, positions etc. Learning pitchers also takes extra time because there are always so many of them and even after following the minor leaguers all spring and the season before, there are always a few that take some time to recognize.
What takes even longer is learning the players and pitchers on opposing teams. I buy the Baseball America Prospect handbook and study it before the season starts which gives me kind of a cheat sheet for who other teams might value. The handbook also gives a clue as to where some players might end up so I'll know who I might get a chance to see over the long season. I figure the longer I follow the teams in the FSL, the easier it will be to know who is who in other organizations.
First and foremost, I am a Yankee fan but I am also a big baseball fan, I love following the players on other teams and wish them all success whether they are in the Yankees organization or any other organization. Some of them just stick with you because of a unique name, how they do in a series or a dominant pitching performance. Some are prospects and immediately become someone that I pay attention to.
The point of this post is to focus on the players that had some sort of impact on me for some random reason. I'll break it down by team to keep myself organized. These are players that I would love if they could stay in the FSL but whom I like enough that I don't ever want to see them again unless it's on mlb.tv.

 I'll stick with the FSL North since these are the teams I saw the most.

Clearwater Threshers(Phillies)


Trevor May - I can't tell you how many times I saw May pitch against the Tampa Yankees but I will never forget the game he pitched at the end of the first half when he struck out 14 TY batters in 7+ innings. It was definitely a painful game to sit through because it seemed we could never get anything going because he was just so dominant.
Troy Hanzawa - The only thing about Hanzawa that I will remember is how little he is. 5'9  short stop. According to Baseball Reference, he only batted .223 in 2011.
Brian Gump - This last name, I mean...run Forest run...need I say more?
Jared Cosart and Jonathan Singleton - These two got traded to the Astros for Hunter Pence and though I didnt get to see Cosart pitch, Singleton is a 1st basemen that I saw many times in 2011 and was truly happy to see that he got traded away because he is good. He batted .284 before the trade and then .333 after the trade. In four minor league seasons, his OBP sits at .393. I can't see him not making the Astros unless he gets injured.
Jiwan James - He is a quick outfielder with skinny legs. Thats about all I can say about him.

Dunedin Blue Jays(Toronto Blue Jays)


Honestly, the only Blue Jay that I really cheered for was AJ Jimenez. I like catchers and he fits the bill. He also scored that really cool triple/1 base error in the FSL All-Star game and slid under the tag. He batted .303 for the Blue Jays in 2011.

Lakeland Flying Tigers(Detroit Tigers)

I went to more Lakeland away games than any other away games this season so I feel like I connected with more of these guys than on any other team besides the Yankees.

Tony Plagman - Plagman was the DH for the Tigers in 2011 and by the end of the season, we didn't even need to look at the scoreboard to know that Tony was up to bat. We called him Tony the Tiger which definitely fit him because he played for the Tigers. Plagman batted .257 with 18 home runs and a team high 97 RBI.
Brent Wyatt - I knew I liked Wyatt the second I heard his walk up music. The theme song for The Boondock Saints. Youtube it and you'll figure it out. I downloaded it to my phone and would play it for him when he came to bat at TY home games.
Jordan Lennerton - Lennerton played first base for the Tigers and the only thing that stood out to me was the way the announcer said his name at home games. It truly is the little things.

Brevard County Manatees(Milwaukee Brewers)

Scooter Gennett - You can't go wrong with a name like Scooter. I found myself, along with other boosters, cheering for scooter as if he were on our team. I heard that they came out with a Scooter vs. the snowman bobblehead for the team he played for in 2010 and I would love to get my hands on one of them. He batted .300 played 2nd base for the Manatees.

Daytona Cubs(Chicago Cubs)

The Daytona Cubs won the FSL Championships in 2011. I am hoping to make it to Daytona to see them something in 2012.
Matt Cerda - Cerda made a really great play in the FSL All-Star game, flying to his left to snag a ball and firing to first for the out that had the potential to cause some serious problems for the North had the ball made it past him.
Justin Bour- Bour won the Home Run Derby at the All-Star game and he was always a threat to do something dangerous in the regular season as well. He batted .277 with 23 home runs.
Michael Brenly obviously caught our attention as the son of big league manager Bob Brenly.