Mike Silva's New York Baseball Digest » George Kontos

Molina Taking Double-A Demotion in Stride

Friday, April 6th, 2012

TRENTON, N.J. – At age 30, the last place catcher Gustavo Molina figured he would be arranging his locker is in the clubhouse of the Trenton Thunder, the Yankees’ Double-A affiliate. A veteran of 26 major-league games over five seasons with the Chicago White Sox, Mets, Boston, Baltimore and the Yankees – just 6-for-47 (.128) […]

Thoughts on Chris Stewart Deal

Thursday, April 5th, 2012

I reached out to a good friend in the Giants organization who had this to say about new Yankees backup catcher Chris Stewart: Chris Stewart is not only a fine guy, he does crossword puzzles. He can catch and throw but there is no bat. He will be a nice addition to the Yankee Clubhouse and […]

Yankees Depth Means Robertson’s Injury Is Not a Concern

Saturday, March 10th, 2012

After a great start to the 2012 Spring Training season, the Yankees have run into some hard times. Starting pitchers Ivan Nova, Hiroki Kuroda and Phil Hughes were belted around and, if you believe all the scribes, Michael Pineda “needs to” improve pretty much everything, except his results. We initially heard David Robertson’s foot injury […]

Is Rivera Retiring? Who Will Replace Him?

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

“Doesn’t depend on how I pitch. Always I want to do my job, but I’ve made my decision already,” Mariano Rivera told reporters the other day. He added that his decision has been made, “even if I save 90 games, even if they want to pay as much money as they want to.” It sounds like we saw […]

Book Dishes Dirt on MLB, Seagulls, Per Diem, Mark Newman

Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

Fans of gossip are probably familiar with Perez Hilton, which delves into the lives of celebrities, but there is a site called TerezOwens.com which appears to be doing the same for athletes. I know some like this sort of thing, and others don’t; regardless, it’s become part of the landscape so we have to talk […]

Rule 5 Draft Show Tonight @ 7pm

Thursday, December 9th, 2010

Instead of a chat I figured we do a brief show on the Rule 5 draft. Earlier today the Mets selected Brad Emaus, Pedro Beato, Ronny Morla, Ricky Brooks, and Quintin Berry. They also lost Elvin Ramirez to Washington. The Yankees drafted Robert Fish and Daniel Turpen, while losing George Kontos and Lance Pendleton. Jed […]

The 2006 Yankees Draft All Over Current Roster

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

I was talking with baseball writer Joe Delgrippo yesterday about the Yankees. A point he has made on the show in the past was how solid the Yankees 2006 amateur draft was. This was early on when Brian Cashman wrestled control of the team. The organization decided to not only spend on free agents, but […]

Bleich Injury No Reason for Yankees System to Panic

Monday, May 31st, 2010

Having gotten to know many of the Yankees pitching prospects personally, I certainly have sympathy for any who are bitten by the injury bug. I’ve seen both Chris Garcia and Jeremy Bleich go down this year.  The Yankees released Garcia May 14 to open up a roster spot. He underwent elbow surgery. Bleich, who in […]

Another Young Yankees Arm Goes Down

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

The Yankees have pretty strict organizational rules about how much and when their young pitchers throw. The handling of Joba Chamberlain might go down as the most absurd development plan in the history of baseball. Along the way there have been a number of injuries in the organization: George Kontos, Christian Garcia, Alan Horne, Andrew […]

Catching up With the Scranton Yankees Tonight @6pm

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

Chad Jennings, the Scranton Wilkes Barre Yankees beat reports for the Times Tribune, will join me tonight at 6pm. Some of the things we will talk about tonight The progress of Ian Kennedy as he recovers from the aneurysm and Damaso Marte’s rehab stint. Hear his take on some of the veterans ( Kei Igawa, […]

The Gap Closes On and Off the Field

Saturday, August 1st, 2009

Now that the dust has settled on the trade deadline frenzy we can look at where the Yankees stand. It was a great day for those in the organization that have pushed Brian Cashman to be conservative with all his top prospects. Meanwhile, those that were concerned about the pitching and the Red Sox making […]

Yanks Could Use at least One Old Timer

Monday, July 20th, 2009

Earlier today I wrote about a criticism levied by a CNBC blogger regarding the Yankees Old Timers Day. Admittedly, there seemed to be a lack of juice in the stands for the event, but that could be more about the lazy Sunday afternoon start time than anything. As fun as it was to see Lee […]

NYBD MILB Roundup - 7/5/09

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

- We talked about Austin Jackson (named to IL All Star team this week) on a recent show. I mentioned the lack of power he has displayed at AAA, but over the last 10 games he has hit 2 homers. - Shelley Duncan expressed frustration with this article. I think Shelley has done enough that […]

Kontos to Have TJ Surgery

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

Bad news from Scranton George Kontos is going for a second opinion on Wednesday, but an MRI on Monday revealed a torn ulnar collateral ligament and it’s likely that Kontos will undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery. Kontos was stuggling this month and his strikeout rate decreased after his promotion to AAA. The lesson from all […]

NYBD MILB Roundup: Draft and Debuts

Sunday, June 7th, 2009

- Tuesday is the 2009 amateur draft. Not all fans are engaged in the process like many of the hard core listeners of the show. Tim Bontemps does a nice job bringing up some points in his Sunday NY Post “Beating the Bushes“ column. He explains slot, where each team picks, and possibilities for both […]