It's getting bad. You know it's getting bad when there are no texts, no phone calls, no buzz. And a distinct lack of comments on the BPS, I would add. Today was a damp, dark, cold day in
I'm not so worried about Pettitte. He did this last year, too. He got rolling eventually. My concern is that the Moose won't be able to keep up the pace when Pettitte gets right. I'm hoping Darrell Rasner will give us the Aaron Small formula. Throw strikes, let them hit it into play, go deep into games, and give the bats a chance to get you a win.
So Kei Igawa got clobbered. Shocking. Sorry. Kei Igawa is not a major league pitcher. Period. You want to put him in the bullpen? Fine. He's not going to work there, either. Guys, here is how this works. There is an economic phenomenon called the sunk cost. It means money spent that isn't coming back no matter what. Call it the cost of doing business. So you dropped 40 million on Kei Igawa. It's gone. That's that. Don't compound the problem by throwing him in there regardless of the fact that he can't pitch in the major leagues. It's gone. Let it go. JD is right. They should have let the poor guy go pitch in the National League. Maybe that would have worked out. It's not really the major leagues anyway. He's not a good fit here in
A few weeks ago I said the Tigers look like the class of the American League. Most say they look like a bunch of high-priced, overpaid parts that don't fit together very well. Maybe I should reconsider...
Remember when the talk was of the Yankees getting Miguel Cabrera to replace Allie Rodriguez? Or when the Yankees signed Wilson Betemit as insurance if Allie left? Hey, it's not going to matter, right? We're going to have all this pitching to blow people away. We're not going to need Allie. Well, we're getting to see what life would have been like. Anybody still think that would have been a good idea?
Reid! Love to see you back. And JD and Mike F. Keep the comments coming guys. Gives us all something to look forward to.
Wang wins tomorrow.....
]]> Mike Mussina, Seannie's boy, continues to give the Yankees a chance to win. But today I was struck by what I perceived to be a distinct difference between Joe Girardi's game management in the fifth inning and what Joe Torre would have done. Mike Mussina had given the Yankees four brilliant innings. One-hit ball through four is always a good way to get things started for your team. He sputtered in the fifth. We have seen this from Mussina over the last few years. He starts out well, rolling, even. He hits a bump in the fifth. Joe Torre, almost always, would yank him out. Joe Torre always had a notoriously quick hook, and the bigger the game, the quicker the hook. Many times Torre would pull a guy off the mound with one or two outs in the fifth and a lead, with little or no consideration for that pitcher losing an opportunity to record a win. Joe Girardi today left Mike Mussina in the game. Now, you can certainly argue that it backfired. He coughed up the lead and the inning ended with the game tied at three. But he let Moose finish the inning, even after giving up the base hit that tied the game. If Joe Torre hadn't pulled Moose out at the first sign of trouble, he certainly would have after that last single. If he had done that, even if the Yankees won, the story would have been much different. Take a look at these few quotes from MLB.com: "Mike Mussina had to work hard, but managed to pitch five innings to win his fourth straight start and improve to 5-3 with the 255th victory of his career," and ESPN.com: "Mike Mussina (5-3) won his fourth straight start and earned his 255th career victory, holding on for five innings." If he had been pulled, it would have been something like, "Yanks win despite Mussina's rocky outing." It's a tactic, as the BPS pointed out earlier this year, that Terry Francona employs frequently, and successfully, most notably with Dice K. Francona is extremely conscious of the way the story will be told. On the ESPN telecast last Monday night, the ESPN broadcasters repeatedly pointed out that Dice K drives Francona crazy with his early high pitch counts and inability to consistently throw strikes, wondering aloud whether he would take the chance of letting him finish the fifth inning just to get him a win, and even at one point wondered if he shouldn't pull him with two outs in the fifth, just to send a message that he needed to stop fooling around nibbling and start throwing strikes if he wanted a win. Francona left him in to get him the win, as he usually does. No question about it, Francona gambles when he does that. As it turned out, Dice K's last pitch was an at'em ball to center field. A foot to the right or left and he probably loses that lead. Just like Girardi gambled today. But the payoff is significant if it works. Even today, baseball analysts talking about Dice K's 2007 season acknowledge that his ERA was very high, and he had far too many losses for a guy pitching for the eventual champs, but they usually close with, "But he did have 15 wins...." Funny how easy is to forget how he got those wins. But it doesn't really matter. Francona kept the heat off of him, and there's no telling what kind of negative publicity Dice K would have generated if he had been pulled off the mound three or four times last year when he probably should have been and ended up 11-11. Joe Torre simply never played that card. He yanked guys early and often, and there were plenty of bruised psyches to go around. It's a sure confidence killer. So today, after letting Moose finish the fifth, the Yankees put a run across in the bottom half and Moose got the win. And as it stands now on May 8th, the Moose only needs six wins for the rest of the year to equal his 2007 total. I think Girardi made the right call.
So the Tigers just dropped three of four to the Red Sox, and needed a miracle to get even the one. And now they've got Kei Igawa coming in tomorrow. What I'm saying is, now might be a good time to pull out whatever high-octane good luck charms you might have. We're going to need them.
Mike F, thanks for the comment, my friend. The only one... C'mon guys... One?
As I said yesterday, asking Wang to pick up the pieces every single time he goes out there is not going to work. He's largely gotten it done, but the problem is when he runs into the wrong matchup. A game like this is much more damaging to the Yankees than the win is beneficial to the Indians. A win is a win, and you need to close the deal with your stud on the mound. It would have been nice for the Yankees not to have wasted Wang against Cliff Lee, because we're not going to see Wang again until Sunday. I would much rather have seen him face Carmona, who didn't make it past the fifth yesterday, or Paul Byrd tomorrow. But this is what we were stuck with.
This loss, unfortunately, should come as no surprise. The Yankees can't hit. They can't hit anytime, anywhere. Allie Rodriguez is out and Posada is out, but that's not even half the story. The story is that on a night like tonight, the Yankees trot four starters out there who have batting averages under .220. You just can't do that. It's not just that the Yankees are missing Allie and Posada. It's that while those guys are out, Cano and Giambi are hitting in the .150 range, which is almost hard to do. The replacement guys have been almost as miserable at the plate. Allie's replacement, Morgan Ensberg, is at .226, and Posada's replacement, Molina, is at .219. And if you're looking for another alternative, Shelley Duncan is at .192. How are all of these guys hitting in the one-hundreds? In May? I don't know that I've ever seen this before. This lineup is nothing but holes. It's Mother Theresa. Holy. No end in sight, either. Allie and Posada are a long way off, and the Yankees can't hit a lick.
In fairness, you can argue that all they need to do is stay afloat. Maybe. Last year, obviously, the lost the AL East in May, when Boston charged out to a double-digit lead as the Yankees tanked to 21-29 on May 30th. Not sure why, but the Yankees always collapse in May. Awful month for them the last few years. If they can stay afloat for a while, they can certainly make a run when everyone is healthy. But again. That's a long way off.
I was following a bit of the Red Sox game on the MLB.com gamecast as I tapped the keys. Papelbon blew the save and the game in the bottom of the ninth as the Red Sox discovered what goes around comes around. They've been coming from behind, winning with walk-offs and circus-finishes. Tonight they were on the wrong end. It happens. Truthfully, though, this is why guys like Papelbon and Joba will never be Mariano Rivera. Those guys are conventional pitchers. They throw heat and benders. They are usually good at finding the plate. Great. But neither one of those guys has what Mo has. He throws a unique, one-of-a-kind, devastating pitch; one that you simply cannot hit no matter that you know it's coming every single time. I don't know that we will ever see another like him.
Brnxbomb 2, I don't think Joba was testing out his starter-type stuff. I think he couldn't get the fastball over. He had that problem with his other loss as well. He was throwing bender, bender, bender, because he couldn't throw the fastball for strikes. One man's opinion.
A 1pm start tomorrow. At least they get a break for getaway day. Then to Detroit, where the smart money all over the league is on the Tigers to knock Kei Igawa right back to Scranton. There hasn't been a more frightening match-up since Toronto would send an entire lineup of lefties against the 40-year old version of El Duque.
Seannie! Your boy's up!
Fun night in section 24. Fun stuff. Acc, Vino, me, and Tony Sherry. When we got back to my house, Tony came in to help select where we would put the "Be Alert Foul Balls" sign that accidentally came off of the inside part of the left field wall during the game. Big Joe (father-in-law) and my mother-in-law were assisting the missus in babysitting. Big Joe was in the basement watching the Mets. "Did you watch that game Big Joe," I asked. "Yeah, I saw it. Unbelievable....," he replied. Tony and I immediately looked for clarification on one question, as we certainly didn't feel like listening to the post-game. "In the eighth inning, Joba had two strikes on Grady Sizemore, and he threw a pitch that looked dead on from where we were, and the crowd went nuts looking for the call." He knew what I was asking. "It was a little outside," he said. "Close, but a little outside." Believe it or not, it made me feel a little better. If we had gone down because of a failed "ball" call, I would have been even more frustrated. Unfortunately, I did not need to see a replay or hear a recap from Big Joe to know that third base umpire Sam Holbrook blew a major call in the bottom of the fifth with Bobby Abreu taking third on the Ferocious Lion's single to right. Even from section 24, without my glasses, I could clearly see that Abreu was safe. What a huge break for Cleveland. The Yankees had first and third with one out turn to two outs and threat over. Wow. Close plays are close plays, and it's tough to fault an ump for making split-second decisions, but when I can see from about 175 feet away that a guy was clearly safe, that's a bad job by the ump. Side note on that - I always journey to the fringes when I say that everyone loves to believe that the games are won and lost on the field. It's distasteful to admit that hundreds of games a year throughout the major leagues are decided by ball/strike calls and close plays going one way or another. And there is no institution that has done as much trafficking in that on-the-field myth than Major League Baseball. I couldn't help but notice that none of the highlight packages from the game on mlb.com, or the official sites of the Indians and Yankees, included a highlight of that play at third. Interesting. Do you mean to tell me that Franklin Gutierrez guns down Bobby Abreu going from first to third on a base hit, cutting down a huge scoring threat, and MLB doesn't deem it worthy of a highlight? Hmmm..... There is a highlight from that inning on mlb.com's gameday, however. The highlight is titled "Melky Cabrera strikes out." Ah yes, MLB. The game is not so pure as your manipulative, we'll-tell-you-what-to-think-the-story-of-this-game-was site and recap would have us believe. But, as Hemingway once said, isn't it pretty to think so?
So what was the story? It was painful. No doubt about it. But it was what it was. What can you say? Joba had trouble getting the fastball over, and David Dellucci hit a pop-fly, Yankee Stadium Right Field cheapie. The Yankees have certainly hit them, and certainly won some games with them, so you can't be totally freaked out or betrayed by it. It's going to happen every so often. And it's going to feel like getting punched in the stomach. No two ways about it. Shame to waste a great performance by Pettitte. Shame that it had to come with two outs from a guy who isn't really a home run threat. Shame that the ump made a terrible call and shame that the Yankee bats again couldn't overcome it. Even so, it hurts to lose when you outhit the other team in your own house. Bad game, bad night.
Is it fair to ask Wang, again, to pick this team up off the mat? Fair or not, that's the way it's going down.
So I guess it makes sense to put things in perspective. The Yankees are not as bad as they were against the Tigers. The Tigers pitched well enough, and Pettitte ran out of gas in the second game. Other than that, you had two kids getting bombasticlated, one of whom was pitching with a cracked rib, apparently. On the flip side, the Yankees also aren't currently on some sort of a tear, or hot streak, or any such madness. They played a sputtering, not-particularly-good team in the Mariners. So I draw two things from the sweep of the Mariners. First, they did what they had to do. You need to feed on the weak in the American League, because there aren't too many weak to go around. The second thing, even more encouraging, is that they beat three pretty good pitchers. Bedard has given them fits the last few years, and at times has just outright dominated them. "King Felix" Hernandez pitched a few top-notch games against them last year as well, and came into Saturday's game with killer numbers. And Carlos Silva came into the game undefeated with an ERA in the two's. And the Yankees got to all three of them. That was pretty encouraging. Also pretty encouraging to see Jeter hitting, Abreu hitting, and the Ferocious Lion hitting. And apparently the Melk Man is not only leading the team in home runs, he's leading New York in home runs, along with David Wright. But that said, the Yankees, in my opinion, have learned nothing about themselves over the past week.
While we're tempering things, let's be fair. Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy were being trotted out on the field against Boston, Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland, in forty-degree weather, with most of the team swinging splinters behind them. If I'm Ian Kennedy, I'm thinking, 'Hey - let me go out there against a team like the Mariners with eight runs of support. I can do what Darrel Rasner did.' And he would have a point. But what then? The Yanks are back in front of Cleveland and Detroit this week. It's not going to get easier. Darrel Rasner threw strikes. You can't walk people around. You just can't. You need to give your team a chance to win. Let them put the ball in play. Rasner did that, and was able to accomplish in one start what Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy couldn't accomplish in eight. Kennedy, in particular, just doesn't look ready for the major leagues.
As I was watching the end of the Mets game with Big Joe (father-in-law) last night, I told him that it truly is too early to see how things are going to shake out with the AL East this year. As I opined last week, once the Rays went on the road, the bloom was off of their rose rather quickly. The Orioles aren't strong enough either. Unless they make a few clever additions. And the more I look at the Red Sox, the more clear it is to me that they are not nearly as good as they think they are. First of all, they just finished that stretch of 19 of 26 at home, so whatever lead they have must be looked at accordingly. They do belong in first right now, however, because their bats are the most consistent. Interestingly, the Yankees are still the only AL East team that does not have a losing record on the road this year thus far.
Speaking of the Sox, I caught a little of the game on ESPN tonight, and you have to laugh at Dice K. What a disaster this guy is. Yup, he's 5-0. Like last year, with his ERA over 5 and his wild pitch count, he has managed to get some wins courtesy of one of the best offenses in the game. I hope one of these days he bends over and kisses Terry Francona's butt. Again, with Dice K at 105 pitches (with 8 walks!) and on the brink in the fifth inning, he let Dice K try and squirm out of it just to get him a win. I only know what I know, and I know I've seen Francona do that for him at least three times. Not sure if he's ever been burned by it, but he got lucky tonight when Matt Joyce unleashed a bullet that happened to be directly at JD Drew to end the fifth inning with two on. One of these days Francona's going to get burned cleaning up after that guy.
We've got a monster crew in section 24 tomorrow night (Tuesday). Me, Vino, Seannie, Tony Sherry and the Big Boy are looking to take our record up over .500. Look for us hanging over the wall down the left field line. I'll be wearing my white sweatshirt.
I have nothing to say about the breaks, the umpires, the law of averages, the lineup, or any of that stuff. Dude, this lineup and these pitchers the Yankees are trotting out there are just not going to be able to compete with teams like the Tigers. In fairness, I watched with baited breath as the Tigers went 0-7 to start the season, and dropped to 2-10. I loved it. Because as I looked at that lineup, I couldn't help but be impressed. That team was the team to beat, in my mind. And when they turned it around, I just sat back and nodded my head. The Yankees have played Cleveland and they've played the White Sox. And the Red Sox, for that matter. We haven't seen the Angels, yet, but the Tigers look like the class of the American League. Now, it's not a great gauge to measure them against this all-but-unrecognizable Yankee team. Just one month and change ago, as the Yankees were breaking camp, I don't think anyone expected that we would see a lineup against a marquee team like the Tigers that featured Morgan Ensberg, Chad Moeller, and Shelley Duncan hitting cleanup. And, of course, Cano hitting .146. And don't get me wrong. I couldn't be more psyched they got Chad Moeller back. What a difference. Veteran guy. Morgan Ensberg is hitting .234. That's purely, positively awful. That's the type of thing that frustrates you, because a major leaguer like that shouldn't be in that territory. But then you keep going and see that he is hitting 67 points higher than Shelley Duncan, 70 points higher than Giambi, and 80 points better than Cano.
The fourth inning made me want to kick a hole in the wall. The Yanks were down a run, and the rain was coming down pretty hard. The Ferocious Lion on first, Morgan Ensberg singles, and the Lion holds at second. Somebody explain that to me. The single was to right field, where Magglio Ordonez had to field it running towards the foul line. The grass was soaking wet, as was the baseball, obviously. Michael Kay noted that the Lion went into second gingerly, like he was afraid of slipping. There was one out. What an awful, awful, play. First of all, any play in which a guy gets thrown out at third base from right field is worthy of a highlight film. And with a soaking wet ball and a slippery outfield, there was no way Magglio Ordonez would have even attempted a throw to third. Think of a Gaylord Perry spitball; with a wet ball there is no way Ordonez throws a laser-beam strike to third base. Not happening. Besides, it would have been an awful play. You can't risk Ensberg moving into scoring position on the throw. Even if the Lion did slip, it would have happened around second, where he would have had plenty of time to get back to the base. Awful. He needed to be on third. So who's up next? Cano. He swung at the first pitch, popped it up, and was dropping his shoulders in a "Poor me, I can't believe it happened again" pose before he was even out of the batter's box. But it would have been deep enough to score the Lion and tie the game. Dude, Cano needs to sit down. As I said yesterday, he needs a game with the pressure completely off; like his base hit in the ninth inning tonight. Down four, nobody on, nobody left in the stands on a miserable night. Once things are moving, he crushes us.
This is annoying. I've been doing BPS for four years now, and in three of those years we've tanked in the early part of the season; 11-19, 21-29, and let's see where this one ends up. We're now into another one of these "they've lost six out of eight" modes. That's a lot. The problem is that the other years I would pour out a bunch of facts and figured that pointed to an eventual turnaround. They've got a few this year, but frankly, this year the facts and figures tell me their record should be a lot worse than it is. The Yankees have nothing right now.
Jason from the Heartland - dead on analysis. Maybe the best I've read regarding this season. Mike Sherry, as always, love to see the comment. Nicely done. Speaking of which, is Kelly Leek available?
Okay. So a few observations on that dialogue in the booth. First of all, Al Leiter came off a lot more annoying than that reads. I don't necessarily disagree with him as I reflect on his comments, but I think the thing that bugged me was his reference point. He was talking about the team, which is appropriate. But when broadcasters, particularly broadcasters who are former players, talk about the mindset of the team and staying positive, they sometimes have a tendency to project that onto the fans, analysts, and casual observers as well. It's as if he's saying "Let's all not talk about that Michael, because we don't want to get in a losing mindset." Dude, we're not playing the games. We're sitting our fat *sses on the couch watching. Our mindset isn't going to affect the game. The fact is they are losing, so you have to look at why from a practical standpoint. And the significant time that Jeter, Posada, and Allie have missed is a key reason. It just is.
So why else? Well, you've got the reigning MVP on the DL, and when he wasn't on the DL he was hurting for about two weeks. You've got the all-star starting catcher on the DL, and he's been hurting all year. You've got Jeter hitting 40 points below his career average and in the middle of the second-longest homerless streak to open the season in his career. And then, probably most striking, you've got two of the six lowest batting averages (with enough qualifying at-bats) in the entire major leagues in the starting lineup and playing every day. That would be, of course, Messrs. Giambi and Cano. Yeah, of the 195 major leaguers who qualify, Giambi is 190th and Cano is 194th (second to last). Thankfully, as of today at some point, Troy Tulowitzki had two more at-bats against his 16 hits. The Yankee futility with runners in scoring position has been so well documented that I won't even go into it. So what's real and what's imagined? Jeter will bring his average up. Cano and Giambi won't stay below .200 for long. Especially Cano. He'll rip off 4 hits one night and will be on his way. The problem is that he'll probably need a garbage game against a bad team to do it. These guys aren't going to take enough pressure off of themselves to bust out of it in a close game against a tough team. And that's what we've got for a while. Giambi won't stay below .200 just because it's hard to do. But he's got one major roadblock that isn't going to go away. In my mind, the biggest innovation in baseball of the last ten years, besides HGH, is the shift. It's effective, it's deadly, and it just flat-out works. Not that it was invented in the last ten years, but the proliferation of it is relatively recent. Does anybody think that it's a coincidence that Jason Giambi, David Ortiz, Carlos Delgado, and Ryan Howard are all in the bottom ten in baseball in batting average? The shift works. And it doesn't just work. It crushes a guy. Take a look at any one of those guys' faces after they hit what would have been a clean base hit directly into the shift in short right field. It's devastating. All you need to do is watch the games to figure that out. How many times does Giambi hit into that shift? Constantly. Dude, he needs to start bunting a bit. Something to make the defense think. They may get him out, but so what? They'll get him out anyway if he hits into the shift, so what's the difference? The guy has been hitting between .050 and .175 all year long. What does he have to lose? Will a defense continue to shift if he literally bunts four times in a row? I don't know. Let's find out. Go practice, dude. If teams don't start playing you more straight up, you are dead out there. Dead.
So essentially, you've got two of your best out, and then you've got two other guys who might as well be out. Hence, the lineup doesn't score any runs, and there is no confidence in the stands. In fairness to the fans, four runs is a lot. And when you haven't had anything to cheer for offensively in a long time, you can't blame the fans for taking a defensive, I'll-believe-it-when-I-see-it stance.
This is a unique position. The Yankees, amazingly, have a better record that the Tigers. But the Tigers, right now, are a vastly superior team. The Yankees have lost the first two and will desperately try to avoid the sweep tomorrow. And it will be desperate, because you-know-who is pitching. And you know what? Honestly, when I look at the two teams, I have to admit, that scenario looks about right to me. The Tigers are simply the better team out there. For now.
Time2goJoe - great point. I hadn't thought of that. Hughes also said today that he can't see at night? I really don't know which way is up anymore. Jason from the Heartland, I saw you and J-Boogie moved. I'll update my links shortly. Good luck with the new sights.
So.....one of these two kids has to win a game sometime.....don't they?
First of all, has there ever been a worse debut for anybody in a Yankee uniform than Chris Stewart tonight? I can't say I know what it was that kept crossing him up with Phil Hughes, but whatever it was it was awful. Michael Kay, Al Leiter, and Flash Flaherty all seemed to think it was Hughes's fault. Okay. It's just that I've never seen that kind of a mess before, regardless of who was pitching or catching. The most infuriating thing was when it cost them a strike, an out, two runs, and possibly the game. Two strikes on Sheffield in the third inning. Hughes dropped a beautiful knee-buckling bender right into the zone. Strike three, sit down Sheffield. Except that Hughes and Stewart were crossed up again. So Stewart stands up, not thinking it was going to break, and the thing breaks right down and almost hits him in the jock as it bounced away. Home plate umpire Mark Wegner, just as out-of-sorts as Stewart, just stood there. Everybody in the booth waited for the out call until Michael Kay said, "I guess that was a ball? I know the ball got away, but that looked like it was right over the plate." Leiter and Flash agreed. No call. A ball it was. Next pitch: kaboom. Two-run homer. And then we eventually ended up losing by.......right...
Look, I know Hughes has been miserable. But I do have some thoughts. Two things have stuck out for me. First, I remember very vividly having the same thought last year - he can't put people away. He jumps out to two-strike counts on everybody, and then they proceed to get a piece of everything he throws. Foul, foul, foul, then he throws a few balls, then he either walks them or he has to groove one. He clearly has electric stuff, but the heater in particular isn't quick enough to put anybody away. Everybody hangs around. Gets his pitch count way up. The other thing is just one man's observation. The guy just doesn't get a single call out there. I get it. He's a rookie, and he doesn't pound the zone enough so that any umpire will give him the benefit of the doubt. But dude, they just will not call his bender a strike. It's a beautiful pitch. He throws it just the way Boomer did. Twelve to six. But they just will not give it to him. In the minors he had 66 walks in well over 100 games. Here in the majors he's got 42 walks in 19 games. He's not really throwing the ball a whole lot differently, boys. Put these two things together and you've got high pitch counts, hitters waiting him out, and finally, pitches grooved right down the plate. Not good.
While we're on the subject, my thought is that Ian Kennedy is wearing a different uniform by the all-star break; chum for a veteran arm. I'm not saying I'm in favor of it, I'm just saying I think it will happen. I'm also not saying I'm not in favor of it, by the way.
Also while we're at it, if The Boss were still in charge, the first call after Allie and Posada hit the DL would have been to Barry Bonds. Believe it. And admittedly, it would probably have taken about thirty seconds after his theme music started as he strode up to the plate for me to get the puke taste out of my mouth and start cheering for him. I would still think he was a cheater, a jack*ss, an illegitimate record-thief, and an all-around scoundrel. But what can I say. I root for the uniform.
The Yankees futility with runners in scoring position has been so striking that it actually exposes a hole in the whole batting-average-with-runners-in-scoring-position stat. I think the Yankees were something like 4-for-their-last-32 with runners in scoring position at some point tonight. I kind of lost track, so that might not be right, but I think it's close. And that's a .125 batting average. But the story is actually worse. First of all, two of the hits didn't score anybody. One, an infield hit in the hole at short with Damon on second, didn't even move the runner to third. And further, two (at least) of the outs were actually double plays; one with bases loaded and one with runners at first and third. So when you're looking at it from a team perspective, it would probably make more sense to calculate run-scoring hits with runners in scoring position against outs. In that case, the two hits that didn't score runs would be treated as a non-at-bat, and the double plays would correctly be counted as two outs. So you see my point here. For practical purposes, the Yankees were actually closer to 2-for-32 (take away the two at-bats for the non-run-scoring hits and add back two for the extra outs in the two double plays). And that's a .063 batting average. That's .063.... The good news is you know where I stand on this. I'm a law of averages kind of guy. Generally the team runners-in-scoring-position batting average is similar to the overall team batting average. That means they have their hits coming to them. They're due. So due.
So the jubilation and expected success of coming home has been offset by losing both Allie and Posada. This is going to be a major struggle. From a quality-opponent standpoint, they are in the teeth of their schedule. They just need to keep hanging on. Hughes and Kennedy will just have to keep piling on those wins. Or, you know, get one.... Either way....
Triple J, I did get my split. But I actually blew it, as I didn't realize that the series in Cleveland was actually four games. I thought I was looking for a split in the final game in Chicago plus the three in Cleveland. So we actually went 2-3 in that stretch. But you know what? I have to tell you - I'm pretty psyched. This is that time of the year, and it happens every single year, when some crazy teams start out hot because their schedule is pretty stress-free for the first month or so. Another one of those things that often goes unspoken is the role that the schedule plays in organizing which teams are in what place at what point. All year long you hear the talking heads waxing on and off about which team is "playing great baseball" and which team is "struggling..." Then they generally go into a bunch of on-the-field reasons why the team has or hasn't been winning. The truth is that often you can tell in a second by the look of the schedule. The Yankees just finished up a stretch in which they have played 18 of 20 games on the road. A brutal stretch made worse because they had to move last week's games to Baltimore because of the Pope's visit. And that's not even the whole story. Except for one day off in Chicago last week, the Yankees have played a game every single day this season. And except for that same day off in Chicago, every single one of their getaway days has been a night game. Every single one. And in one of those games they flew from New York to Kansas City after a night game to play a day game for the Royals home opener. So what does this mean? It means they were consistently arriving in places at 5 or later in the morning needing to get up, be at the ballpark, and play a ballgame. And in this 18 of 20-on-the-road-stretch, they have played 12 games against the Boston, the White Sox, and Cleveland.
I point all of these things out for a reason. I'm not sure what the immediate future holds for the Yankees, but I can say this. They are in a pretty good position right now. After this crazy stretch, they are exactly one game out of first place in the AL East. And they have played more road games than anyone in baseball, by at least three. Tampa Bay, by contrast, is one of those teams that the talking heads are falling in love with. Baseball Tonight had James Shields on the phone last night asking him "what's different" about these Rays, while the whole ESPN crew all gushed about all of the reasons that the Rays are for real. Now look, I don't know anything. They've got a few nice young players. And maybe they are for real. But did anyone think to mention that as of right now the Rays have played 17 games at home and exactly 8 on the road? Might have been a relevant point in that conversation, no? And we've talked about the Red Sox. As the BPS has pointed out, so many people were willing (hoping?) to anoint them early, but they're not as good as they think they are. They have been stuck with some injuries, but they are also, as the BPS pointed out, on the back end of 19-of-26 at home. And they should be a lot better off than they are. In fact, the Yankees, for all of that tough stretch and all of the time that Jeter, Allie, Jorge, etc haven't been on the field, are the only one of those teams in the AL East that doesn't have a losing record on the road. They lost two walk-off games in this stretch, which will happen. It's inevitable. But generally the walk-offs will even themselves out at home. One game out after all of that. Not bad. Not bad at all. Now they need to make hay at home. Although, in fairness, it's not like they're going to get handed a bunch of wins. As they finished up this stretch tonight, they are, yet again, headed out of town to play another game tomorrow. This one, at least, is at the Stadium. Against Detroit though, a team that has come roaring back after a puzzling start. And then they've got their annual "glaring disadvantage" games against the Mets. Six brutal games a year against a usually-good opponent that will pull out all of the stops to beat them. But as annoying as that is, it's worse for the Mets. Look at their collapse last year. Do the Mets lose the division if Philly has to play six games against the Yankees and the Mets get to play six against Baltimore? Let me help you out. No. Do the Yankees lose the division if the Red Sox have to play the Mets for six instead of the cupcake Braves, who didn't even make the playoffs last year? Not as clear cut, but you see what I mean. The fans love the excitement, MLB loves the hype, but you really couldn't ask for a worse situation for the Yankees and the Mets. In any case, this is it. The Yanks need to stretch things out. Plain and simple. But as of right now the Yanks have held up extremely well for where they are.
I loved the Molina trade last year. Loved it. Obviously, it is proving crucial right now. Molina is an excellent defensive catcher. He just can't really hit. I'm hoping for .250. Hopefully everybody else can pick it up. But given that Posada's out for a while, you couldn't have asked for a better back-up. I only hope Chad Moeller clears waivers.
I couldn't disagree with Girardi more on this business of sitting the Ferocious Lion against lefties. Two games in a row. It's madness. The guy is a hitter. An rbi machine over the last few years. Get him in there.
Speaking of sitting, Girardi doesn't seem enamored with Wilson Betemit or Shelley Duncan. Those guys seem to be in the doghouse. I guess we'll have to see how that plays out.
Home again home again. Let' hope we make it count.
- Marlon Brando as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront
When I finally flipped the game on I figured it would be in the sixth or so. It was well after
So they were right. This was a bad break for the Yanks. But it was evident right from the start that this was not their night. First of all, it's not realistic to expect that you're going to go into
But amazingly, it wasn't. The Yankees continued to pluck away with the two-out clutch base hits. Finally Morgan Ensberg tied it up with a phenomenal at-bat, battling with two strikes to poke one through the middle to score Abreu.
So there are the Yankees in the top of the ninth trying to scratch a run across. Jenks goes 2-0 to Posada. And the third pitch was way off the plate for ball three. Whoops. Strike. How many times are we going to see this? A cowardly ump running away from what he's supposed to be doing, calling balls and strikes, and instead continually evens the counts out so that there are more opportunities for a ball to be hit into play. I'm not him, of course, but it again looks like a guy who is afraid of being blamed for calling a walk and loading the bases with one out. Which is basically where Posada should have been. That third pitch was quite clearly a ball, and the count should have been 3-0, with Jenks one pitch away from loading the bases with one out. But instead, not only does the ump level the count a bit, but now he's set a strike zone for balls out of the hitting zone. So what did Jenks do? He threw the exact same pitch to the exact same location. And why not? He had Paul Emmel trapped. So what did Posada do? He swung, predictably, as he knew a strike call was coming, and hit into a double play. End of inning. Thanks Paul.
Enter Joba. Two things about his outing. First, he couldn't get his fastball over, so he threw breaking ball after breaking ball. With two strikes, both Quentin and Crede were waiting for the breaking ball and they both got it. Interestingly, both pitches were great pitches, and the two of those guys probably both got lucky, as they both just stuck their bats out and happened to poke those balls to where the fielders weren't.
So that's the breaks. Just wasn't our night. I hate to leave on a sour note, but I would hate even more to end this brutal road stretch on a sour note. So here's hoping we can take game one in
There was some great dialogue in the booth tonight on the YES broadcast. I yawned my way through David Cone's first few broadcasts, as he seemed to me to be reticent to go outside the box even a little bit. Nothing was a bad play, nothing was a bad call, nothing was anybody's fault. Strange, because he was always known to be a cerebral guy as a player. Very tuned in to the game, wasn't just going to give you the standard sound bite, could speak on any topic; by all accounts he was a guy who could have a good baseball conversation. Tonight he was leaps and bounds better. Tonight the YES viewers, specifically this YES viewer, learned something new. First, David Cone taught us how "scuffing the baseballs" works. We've all heard the term and are familiar with the concept, but he gave some good insight as to what the ball does when it is scuffed in which areas. I, for one, found it an insightful lesson, and well demonstrated by Cone in the booth with a baseball. He also went into another topic, one that I found particularly fascinating. We here at the BPS are always talking how the umpires affect the game. Cone mentioned that most teams will keep a stat called "Umpire ERA." Along with this, there are tear sheets on each umpire in the league - who is a homer, who favors the pitcher, who favors the hitter, etc. Now that's the kind of info that broadcasters apparently all know but are usually loathe to give you. I always have to wonder why. I always come back to the idea that they all feel like they have to maintain this charade that every game is won and lost on the field. Umpire ERA. Of course. It tells you plenty, especially when you start to see trends show themselves over the course of a few years. You could also trend some of the things that we have talked about on the BPS, like the ump who is afraid to "affect the game." Great work by David Cone in the booth tonight with Paul O'Neill and Michael Kay.
The Chicago White Sox are a pretty good team. The middle of their lineup is scary. Thome's been a thorn in the side of the Yanks for years; Konerko went from Dave Kingman (lots of bombs and ribbies with a .235 BA) to a serviceable power hitter in a few years time. Jermaine Dye is a patient hitter with lots of power. And I have to say - I don't know that there is a guy in the league other than Manny and Ortiz who makes me more uncomfortable in a big spot than Orlando Cabrera. I really have to scratch my head and wonder how he doesn't hit .375 ever year, because he always seems to hit .475 against the Yanks. So put them all together and the White Sox can play. They can get you. You saw it in the eighth inning tonight. Before you knew it, they were right on top of the Yanks, closing the gap on what had been a 6-1 lead. You really do see the value of having Joba and Mo. If you don't have one or both of those guys available, you might blow those games and you might not. But you will almost certainly shred your bullpen in the process. So then you head into tomorrow night's game, and then Cleveland, with a skeleton crew. And that creates a cycle that's tough to break. All of that said, this is a good series win for the Yanks. The White Sox are a first place team. And all of this without Allie Rodriguez.
If the Yankees can manage to split the next four games, they will have had, in my opinion, a successful 18-of-20-on-the-road stretch. Playing division rivals, legitimate contenders, et al without a break and on the road is a difficult proposition. If they could walk out of that with their record north of .500, they will be in good shape. But they need to split the next four....
So back to what I started in the opening paragraph. What hit me as I was walking into the living room to un-pause the DVR and resume watching the game after dinner (chicken cutlets, rice, salad) was that I failed to factor in one key point. Moose, as anyone who reads the BPS knows and as Vino pointed out in his comment today, is Sean's boy. Usually I call it out before the Moose starts, and not only did I fail to do that this time, but I failed to realize that the Moose wasn't going to let the BPS's own Sean down today. Not today. Because today at 2pm, Sean's wife gave birth to a baby girl. And tonight at 11:17pm eastern daylight time, the Moose presented her with the gift of a win on her very first day as a Yankee fan. Silly me. There was no reason to worry about the Moose tonight. Tonight, the Moose went out there on a mission. And he was brilliant....