Day 3 Photos

Gotta go to Mo!

Jose Molina

K-Ram, Russ Ohlendorf, Mark Melancon

IPK and Joba

Igawa must be pitching

Pitching imposter

Godzilla working that knee

The skipper

Mo leads the "Yankettes"

'80 Nightmare and new coach, Bobby Meacham

Jorge shows P.J. Pillitere how to stretch

Someone's had a long day

It's called a "baseball". Maybe that's the problem!

Nardi Contreras and GI Joe

Cash trying to explain why no Santana

We are soooooo jealous

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Caribbean Baseball

We've already told you the finalized stats for the Yankees' prospects in Arizona and Hawaii, but there are a number of players still going at in the Caribbean and Latin American countries.

Wilson Betemit is playing for the Leones Lions) del Escogido. He's hitting .313-2-7 in 16 at-bats. The biggest concern surrounding Betemit continues in the Dominican- 13 strikeouts. His up side continues to be his OPS - .936.

Jose Veras is also a member of the Leones and has appeared in 5 games. Veras has not allowed a run in 4.2 innings, with 3 hits, 2 walks, and 8 strikeouts. He's also notched a save and a hold.

Edwar Ramirez is working out the pen for the Tigres (Tigers) del Licey. K-Ram has allowed 1 run in 2 innings pitched, with 3 walks and 2 strikeouts.

Minor league pitcher Tim Lavigne, who spent most of the season at Trenton has a 0.81 ERA for the Algodoneros de Guasave team in the Mexican Pacific League. Lavigne has 7 saves in 18 appearance, with 11 BB/13K in 22.1 innings.

Top prospect Jose Tabata is on his hometown team, Caribes (Caribbeans) de Anzoategui of the Venezuelan League, but is yet to play due to injury.

Justin Pope, who split time between Trenton and Scranton in '07, is throwing for the Bravos (Braves) de Margarita. He's 2-0 and has a 0.83 ERA in 21.1 innings. He's walked just 4 and held opponents to a .234 average.

Alberto Gonzalez, who got a cup of coffee with the big club in September, is also on the Margarita squad. In 12 games, Gonzalez is hitting .312 with a home run and 7 RBI.

Catcher Francisco Cervelli, who was recently added to the Yankees 40-man roster, is spending his winter for the Cardenales (Cardinals) de Lara. He's 4-17 (.235) with 8 walks.

Outfielder Edwar Gonzalez, a Tampa outfielder, is also on the Lara squad. He's hitting .278-1-7 in 54 ABs.

Marcos Vechionacci is enjoying a good winter season for the Navegantes (Seafarers) del Magallanes. The 21-yr old is hitting .307-3-12 in 88 ABs, with 5 doubles and 2 triples.

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K-Ram Named Minor League's Best

Edwar Ramirez, dubbed K-Ram (and, unfortunately, BB-Ram as well) by us here at My Pinstripes, has been named the Minor League Pitcher of the Year. Pitching for Double-A Trenton and Triple-A Scranton, K-Ram allowed just 26 hits in 56.2 innings, and struck out a whopping 102 hitters. He also posted a ridiculously low 0.79 ERA while batters hit just .135 against him.

Ramirez had his bright moments with the big club, and some very poor ones too. But he could be an ideal long man out of the pen next season. Especially if he can add another pitch to his devastating change up and MLB average fastball.

Source

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The Return of K-Ram

Good news from Peter Abraham of the Journal News. Edwar "K-Ram" Ramirez and Sean Henn have been recalled from Scranton for today's ball game. Jeff Karstens has been optioned to Scranton and Jim Brower has been DFA'ed.

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The Return of K-Ram?

According to the NY Daily News, Edwar Ramirez is expected to be recalled from Scranton some time this week as the Yankees continue to shakeup their bullpen.

Still no word on who will be sent down today for the debut of Joba Chamberlain, but from Joe Torre's words about Jim Brower, it sounds like it will be Jeff Karstens or Brian Bruney.

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The House that Smelled Like Garbage

This is why it is impossible to completely buy into the Yankees making any kind of a run at the AL East or wild card leads. We saw this in June too. Get a great run going, then fall apart. The Yankees won 11 of their past 14 games entering last night. But after being humiliated by the Devil Rays last night, 14-4, the Yankees suddenly find themselves with a 2 game losing streak. To compound matters, the Yankees and Devil Rays play two today, with the Yanks sending out the shaky duo of Kei Igawa and Matt DeSalvo.

That's what made last night's game so crucial. The Rays sent out Edwin Jackson to the mound, he of the 1-9 record and 7-plus ERA. But as we've seen so many times in the last few years, when Mike Mussina needed to come up big, he came up small.

It didn't appear that way at first. Mussina breezed through the 1st two innings, barely breaking a sweat. But the 3rd inning lasted a lifetime and with no punch from the Yankees' offense, the game was all but over. After Greg Norton's lead off single, Dionner Navarro, the former Yankees prospect, hit a drive to deep right. In a scene replayed many times over, Bobby Abreu hesitated as he neared the wall and the ball hit at the base, resulting in a double. Instead of a man on 1st with one out, the Rays were suddenly cooking with 2nd and 3rd, and no one out.

Akinori Iwamura's sac fly brought home the 1st run, and Carl Crawford followed with an RBI single to right. B.J. Upton then put an exclamation point on the inning with a home run into the 1st row of the upper deck in left. It was Upton's 10th HR of the year, and one of two he hit on the night, and gave the Rays a 4-0 lead. The inning would go on even longer though, as Mussina uncharacteristically walked the bases loaded before getting Norton on an inning ending ground out.

The Yankees put two men on in each of the first 2 innings, but came up empty in each case. Hideki Matsui flied out to end the 1st inning, and Shelley Duncan, making his major league debut, K'ed and Johnny Damon lined out to end the 2nd inning threat. Duncan failed again in the 4th, again striking out on a pitch out of the zone, to strand 2 runners.

A game that was still in reach became a blowout in the 5th. Upton lead off with a double before Mussina (4-7) retired the next 2 batters. But Brendan Harris stroked an RBI double to the gap in right-center to give the Rays a 5-0 lead, and Joe Torre decided it was time to call it a night for Moose. But things would only get worse.

Torre called on rookie Edwar Ramirez who hadn't pitched in 2 weeks. The layoff showed. K-Ram became W-Ram, walking Ty Wiggington and Norton. Then Navarro hit the crusher. A grand slam into the right field seats for an insurmountable 9-0 lead. It was Navarro's 2nd HR of the season, and 1st career grand slam. Ramirez then walked Iwamura and Crawford before Torre mercifully came out to get him.

Jackson (2-9) left after 6 scoreless innings and the Yankees finally got on the board when Andy Phillips (2nd) homered in the 7th to make it a 10-1 game. Duncan would later pick up his 1st major league hit and RBI, but this game was all about the Devil Rays.

...

Ramirez is expected to be sent down before the 2nd game in order to call up DeSalvo. The Yankees might be better off sending Brian Bruney down at this point. Bruney continued his awful pitching last night, retiring only 1 of the 5 hitters he faced. He was charged with 3 runs on 2 hits, 2 walks, and a wild pitch.

Hideki Matsui went 0-5 to end his hitting streak at 14 games.

Ron Villone threw only 11 pitches in 2/3 of an inning, but Torre felt compelled to use Scott Proctor...again. Proctor served up Upton's 11 HR and 2nd of the night.

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Yankees Outslug Angels 14-9

A Yankees lineup with A-Rod is a lot better than a lineup without him, especially when the Yankees starter and bullpen allow 9 runs. Alex's 29th HR helped push the Yankees past their nemesis, the LA Angels, 14-9 in front of a raucous Yankee Stadium crowd.

The Yankees seemed to have the game in hand early, battering Angels' starter Bartolo Colon for 7 runs in 2 plus innings, and Andy Pettitte pitching for the Bombers. But Pettitte, who was absolutely thrashed against the Oakland A's last Sunday, wasn't much better last night. He allowed 5 runs through the first 5 innings, but with a 9-5 lead, Joe Torre stuck with him in the 6th.

But Robb Quinlan lead off with a single and scored on Gary Matthew's double. Garret Anderson's infield single was misplayed by Miguel Cairo allowing Matthews score, and ended Pettitte's night. Torre decided to throw Edwar Ramirez into the mix, because Luis Vizcaino was unavailable due to a bruised knuckle on his pitching hand. But K-Ram was not nearly as effective as he was in major league debut.

After Macir Itzuris drew a walk, Jose Molina bunted the runners over. K-Ram k'ed the slumping Reggie Willits, but left a fastball up in the zone and Chone Figgins singled up the middle to tie the game at 9-9.

Chris Bootcheck came on for the Angels in the home half of the 6th and walked Johnny Damon. Damon stole 2nd and advanced to 3rd on Melky Cabrera's single to center. When Matthews bobbled the ball, Damon quickly raced home with the go ahead run. Two batters later, A-Rod hit a frozen rope that landed in the left field seats about 2 seconds after he hit it for a 12-9 lead. The home run was career number 493, tying him with Lou Gehrig and Fred McGriff on the all time list.

Scott Proctor saved the game and K-Ram when the rookie allowed a lead off double to Orlando Cabrera in the 7th and later hit Quinlan. After throwing a wild pitch, Proctor struck out Matthews and Anderson to finish the Angels off. K-Ram was awarded the victory, his first major league win. Not a bad week for the rookie.

Mariano Rivera started warming up in the bottom of the 8th but sat back down after Cabrera and Derek Jeter delivered RBI singles to increase the lead to 14-9. Ron Villone pitched a 1-2-3 9th to give the Yankees their 4th win in the last 5 games.

~~~

The Yankees had a season high 19 hits with Cabrera, Cano, Posada, and A-Rod getting 3 each.

The Yankees had a run wiped off the scoreboard when 3rd Base ump Doug Eddings ruled Cano missed 3rd base.

Andy Phillips was in the original lineup but wrenched his neck fielding a ball during batting practice, and was a late scratch.

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Happy Happy Joy Joy

Yankees pound Twins 8-0

It was a rare fun night at the ball park in the Bronx last night, as the Yankees rolled over the Twins 8-0. Chien-Ming Wang was far from his best, but still blanked the Twins for 7 innings. Bobby Abreu had 3 hits for the 2nd straight night and Robinson Cano hit his 1st home run since June 1st.

Wang struggled with his control, remarkably walking 3 straight hitters as the Twins mounted a threat in the 4th. But Jorge Posada erased the first walk, throwing out Jason Bartlett attempting to steal 2nd. Justin Morneau's one-out single loaded the bases for Torii Hunter. But Wang induced Hunter into hitting into a 5-4-3 double play to end the inning. Twins' first base coach Jerry White argued that Andy Phillips was pulled off the bag and it was indeed questionable.

The Yankees jumped on the board in the first when Derek Jeter followed singles by Johnny Damon and Melky Cabrera with an RBI ground out. In the 4th, Abreu reached on an infield single and Cano ended his HR drought with his 4th of the season off of starter and loser Carlos Silva.

A 5-run 6th busted the game wide open. Jorge Posada's line drive to center eluded Hunter for a lead off triple, and Silva's wild pitch brought Posada home with the 4th run. Hideki Matsui doubled to right and came home on Abreu's single. After Andy Phillips nearly hit one out of the park, Ron Gardenhire sent for Juan Rincon from the pen. Rincon would fare no better. After Abreu stole 2nd, Rincon hit Cano on the foot on a 3-2 pitch. Damon's ground out moved the runners up and Cabrera brought them home with a single to right. Jeter's single brought home the night's final run.

Then it was fun time- but first Joe Torre couldn't let Scott Proctor go 2 days without pitching- Edwar Ramirez made his MLB debut and lived up to his new nickname, K-Ram- striking out Michael Cuddyer, Justin Morneau, and Lew Ford with a lively fastball and wicked changeup.

K-Ram's post-game interview.

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Introducing K-Ram

Edwar Ramirez made his major league debut tonight in grand fashion. He went from Edwar to K-Ram. The 6'3", 155 pound 26-year old (he looks more a 16-year old high school student) struck out the side in the 9th.

K-Ram mixed fastballs and off-speed pitches to strike out Michael Cuddyer, Justin Morneau and Lew Ford. All three went down swinging.


Welcome to the bigs K-Ram!

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