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I was doing some research for a post that is coming this weekend (teaser!) and I stumbled upon this quote from Johnny Damon in the May 3, 2005 New York Times:
"There's no way I can go play for the Yankees, but I know they are going to come after me hard. It's definitely not the most important thing to go out there for the top dollar, which the Yankees are going to offer me. It's not what I need."
Scranton started play at 11am today and Chad Moeller was catching with Jesus Montero DH'ing. That tells me the Yankees are not overly concerned about Jorge's leg because they wouldn't use both of their AAA catchers in today's game if they felt one of them might need to get to Baltimore in time for tonight's game.
I wouldn't expect to see Jorge catch tonight, but it seems like he doesn't have a significant injury.
Sooner or later it was going to happen. The Yankees were going to go through a stretch where they didn't play very well and that time has arrived. Losers of 3-of-4, New York is floundering a bit right now and it might be time for Brian Cashman to make a tweak to the roster.
I think we can all agree that the bullpen stands out as the biggest culprit of these loses. Joba gave up the big homer Friday. The intentional walk reversal on Sunday led to a home run off of Marte and Logan and Robertson combined to lose last night's game.
Now Joba and Marte aren't going anywhere. Joba has pitched pretty well and Marte is making $4 million this year. Aceves has pitched decently and Marte is the best of the bunch right now so that leaves Robertson and Logan.
I wouldn't give up on Robertson yet, because the evidence points to him being incredibly unlucky more than anything. He is still striking out a ton of guys and his walks are actually down compared to last year. His fastball is averaging 91.7 mph, the exact number it was last season. He is getting more ground balls than he ever has and he is allowing fewer line drives. So why is he getting killed? Because hitters are hitting .600 against him when they put a ball in play.
That's a function mostly of luck and the Yankees would be wise to let Robertson keep pitching in the bigs for now. With Logan it comes down to what do you think is going to help this team more- a lefty specialist or another arm in the pen? I made the case against Logan and for Melancon in this post and I think it still applies. If Melancon isn't to the Yankees liking, how about another shot for Albie (0.77 ERA in AAA right now) Either way, the Yankees should take advantage of their relievers with options and make an adjustment to the pen.
The one thing we were all sure of was that the Red Sox would have good starting pitching. Maybe not the best, but decent at worst.
Through 21 games, the Red Sox are 10-11. Red Sox starters are 5-6 with a 5.27 ERA. Opposing batters are hitting .291/.363/.449/.812 against them. That's not going to get it done.
In fact, one of the bigger question marks in the rotation, Clay Buchholz, has been by far the best pitcher thus far posting 2-2 record with a 2.19 ERA. Compare that to Josh Beckett: 1-0, 7.22 ERA, Jon Lester: 0-2, 6.23 ERA, John Lackey: 2-1, 5.09 ERA and Tim Wakefield: 0-1, 5.40 ERA.
What's going on here? Each starter has made 4 or 5 starts and at this point, should have mixed in a few good turns in the rotation. I'm not worried long-term, but these games do matter.
Another confounding, yet less surprising issue is the Red Sox inability to stop base stealers. Red Sox catchers have stopped 2 of 38 stolen base attempts which is about 5%. They say a player should only attempt a stolen base if there is a 75% or so chance or better of success. In other words, have at it opposition. In fact, I'm stunned every last team hasn't tried to steal second every chance they've had. Why not?
Obviously opposing catchers and DH's might not be wise to steal, but everyone else should be making the 90 foot dash. Do it until the Red Sox can stop it.
My next post will address that lack of excitement and aura being created by this Red Sox edition. I'm not feeling the excitement with this crew and I'm interested in figuring out why.
If I were going to make a list of things I don't know about, we would be here a long time, but I never thought that something about the Yankees would make that list. While I cannot recite the starting lineups since 1950, I do consider myself to be a pretty knowledgeable fan when it comes to baseball and the Bombers.
So, I was somewhat taken aback when I learned that there were lyrics to the Yankees' theme song. From watching plenty of Yankees' games on Channel 11, I can hum that song in my sleep, but I never knew it had words! And apparently the writer wrote a number of other songs as well.
So Yankees' fans, did you know about the words or did you assume like I did that there weren't any words attached to the tune?
Watching yesterday's game was like watching Game 3 of the ALCS Joe Girardi went to "the book" and it cost the Yankees. Yes, Kendry Morales is a better hitter against RHP than LHP, but all Girardi needed to do was look at what his LHP was doing. He walked Abreu, he hit Hunter, he got a lucky out against Matsui, it certainly seemed like it wasn't going to be Marte's day. That's why it made a lot of sense to intentionally walk Morales. For whatever reason, Morales kills the Yankees and putting him on was a safe move. Having Marte be the one to put him on made even more sense because then Robertson could come in and try and throw strikes to Rivera. But for some unknown reason, Girardi changed his mind after ball 1 and the rest as they say is history.
Now, it's important to note the Yankees were losing the game at the time so who knows if they would have mounted a comeback. You can't say that Girardi's call lost them the game, but you have to hope he learns something from this.
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As Yogi said, "it's getting late early" with Javy Vazquez. What you had to hope for as a Yankees' fan was that Vazquez would go out to Oakland and Anaheim and pitch well. Instead he was mediocre against the A's and terrible against the Angels. Yes, Marcus Thames should have caught that ball, but a good pitcher picks up his fielders and Vazquez is not a good pitcher right now.
The bigger problem is this has a good chance of turning into an Ed Whitson situation. For those of you who don't remember Whitson, he was a Yankee pitcher in the mid 80's who was so viciously booed at home that the Yankees started using him only on the road. Vazquez isn't there yet, but if he gets bombed on Saturday things are going to get ugly. Fans are not going to care that Melky has a .440 OPS (yup .440) or that Vizcaino has a plus-4 ERA right now, they are going to want blood. Saturday's game is going to be a big one.
Brett Gardner is probably not going to his .333 and reach base at a .440 clip this season. He is also most likely going to end up with a slugging percentage below .400. While that won't profile as your typical leftfielder, for this team, Gardner holds tremendous value if he can get on base around .360 and keep up his current level of patience.
What this Yankees' team is all about is wearing down pitchers and Gardner has done an excellent job of doing that, seeing 4.3 pitches per plate appearance. That's good for 10th in the AL and part of an offense that has 5 hitters in the top 18 of the league. (Does it shock anyone that Nick Johnson leads the team at 4.58 with Swisher second at 4.36?) When your number 9 hitter can be that patient, it puts tremendous strain on the pitcher, as he doesn't have the traditional "quick" outs to get at the bottom of the order.
Throw in the fact that Gardner plays plus defense and if you put him on first he is probably getting to second and you have a pretty potent weapon. It wouldn't work on every team, but with all the thunder in the Yankees' lineup, they can use some lightning. Gardner can just focus on getting on base and getting into scoring position for the top of the lineup to drive him in.
I think Joe Girardi is realizing this because today's lineup has Gardner making his second-straight start against a LHP. Girardi doesn't have to start him against every lefty, Marcus Thames has shown that he can still mash lefty pitching, but I hope he runs Gardner out there 140+ times this year.
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On a separate note, Joe Girardi gave David Robertson a big vote of confidence in his interview with Mike Francesca today. Girardi said that since Joba and Mo have pitched two days in a row he won't use Joba and probably won't use Mo. Girardi then said Marte would probably be used against lefties in the ninth and Robertson against any righties. It will be interesting to see if Girardi sticks to that in a one-run game, but at 1:40 EDT today those are his thoughts.
Apparently, Joe Girardi has named Joba as the 8th-inning guy this year. In other news, General Franco is still dead.
Once the Yankees moved Joba out of the rotation, the only logical spot for him was the 8th inning. By leaving the rotation, Joba became the heir to Mo. While there is a chance the Yankees could put him back into the rotation in 2011, I find it unlikely they will do so. Unless Joba bombs in the 8th inning this year, the Yankees would have a hard time explaining a decision to reverse course yet again.
What will be much more interesting is what happens if Joba excels in the setup role this season. Let's say he pitches like he did in 2007 and dominates the league. Mariano is a free agent after the season and while the Yankees will certainly attempt and sign him, I don't know how many years they are going to offer. Even if Mo pitches like he always does this year, he is going to be 41. I am sure the Yankees will offer him the biggest contract on a per-year basis, but will they offer him the most years? Would Mariano take a three-year deal from another team? I don't know the answers to those questions, but Joba in the 8th inning could give the Yankees a hedge if they have to take an unpopular stance against a franchise great come November.
Well Darnell McDonald knows how to please the home crowd. In his Red Sox debut Tuesday night, McDonald hit a game tying 2-run home run in the 8th and then delivered a game winning, walk-off hit in the bottom of the 9th.
McDonald was called up today when the Red Sox put both Jacoby Ellsbury and Mike Cameron on the DL. Arriving from Pawtucket with McDonald was Josh Reddick, who also had a good game driving in 2 runs.
So the new guys got it done offensively and the Red Sox bullpen showed up and shut the door.
A good win and a fun game, especially from the 6th inning on. The Red Sox need to build off this.
In what might be a clear signal on how things might go from here, David Ortiz was pulled for a pinch hitter, a sign that Terry Francona will not let Ortiz scuffle his way out of a slump. Francona must realize that these April games count just as much as the September games.
The Red Sox made a clear shift from bashing to defense this off-season. The players they got to play defense aren't totally inept at offense, but they are best known for their defense. Well, at least Adrian Beltre and Mike Cameron are, Scutaro is known for holding his own defensively.
Thus far, each has cost his team a victory. In the opening season series against the Yankees Scutaro's low thrown allowed the winning run to score.
On this past Friday night's game (continued on Saturday), Adrian Beltre lost an infield flare in the lights allowing the first run of the game. The Red Sox tied it and would have won it in 9 had Beltre made the play, instead the TB Rays won it in extra innings.
Lastly, Mike Cameron made a game changing/losing error in the top of the 1st on Saturday's game (the 2nd one) which led to a 4 run inning instead of a 0 run inning had be made the catch.
It is early, but so far this defense experiment isn't working with the Red Sox 4-8. For those savvy with number crunching, how many times did the Red Sox go 4-8 (or worst) in any 12 game stretch last season?
It's easy to blame the new guys on defense, but we are really looking at a perfect storm of lousiness. The starting pitching, bullpen and offense are all stinking a bit.
Extended spring training is over boys, time to pay attention and win a few games.
The Yankees sent Chan Ho Park to the DL today and recalled Boone Logan from the minors. I don't have anything against Logan and he certainly was pitching well so far this season, but I am curious as to why the Yankees picked him instead of Melancon?
Both of them are pitching very well in the minors, but Logan has pitched 127 innings in the bigs and shown that he should not be trusted with righties. In his career, Logan has allowed righties to hit .337/.408/.528 while "holding" lefties to .266/.333/.398. The righty numbers are atrocious while the lefties aren't superb. While there is always a chance Logan "figures" it out, chances are that he only becomes a lefty specialist and even then a not very good one in his career.
Contrast that with Melancon who scouts have always liked and apart from his brief stint in the bigs has dominated at every level where he has pitched. Throw in the fact that until yesterday David Robertson was struggling and it just makes me wonder why the Yankees chose the guy who can probably only give them a couple of batters over the guy who could give them length like Park has? Perhaps they are just interested in seeing what Logan can do in the relative calm of April. It should be interesting to watch and find out.
Yes, Javier Vazquez has not pitched well this season. But, we are talking about a grand total of two starts. Yet, the Daily News has a story today that is titled, "Vazquez Can't Handle Pinstripes". Other papers have similar stories as well.
The evidence for this conclusion appears to be that Vazquez surrendered a grand slam to Johnny Damon in the 2004 ALCS. It's true that he did do that, but if you want to blame him for losing that series you are crazy. And furthermore, why is anyone worried about 2004 anymore?
It might also be worth remembering that Vazquez pitched well when he first came to New York. He won 10 games and had a 3.56ERA in the first half of '04. A pretty good indication that he could handle the pressure. And don't forget there was a ton of pressure on him in 2004. The Yankees lost the World Series in 2003 and they lost Clemens, Pettitte and Wells in the offseason. They got Vazquez to come in and be an ace and for the first three months he did the job and did it well.
So, let's all back away from the ledge here. The press needs to stop making absurd claims. The fans need to give Vazquez a break and Vazquez needs to tune out the noise. If he is still pitching like this at the end of May then we can worry. But for now, it's probably best if everyone remember that it's only April 15th.
7 games into the 2010 season and already there is talk about what to do about David Ortiz. He has looked very bad with 11 strikeouts in 22 at bats and has us all wondering if this is 2009 all over again.
Given how bad he has looked, we should be so lucky to see the 2009 Ortiz, the same man who hit 27 home runs from June 1st on, but the real fear is that he is done, for good. He lost a bunch of weight in the off-season, but he still looks lost and slow.
Platoon Ortiz with Lowell, just release him or the standard sports talk radio show caller "just trade him and a bunch of prospects for Albert Pujols!" There are many options.
If I'm Terry Francona, I give Papi until May 1st and then go from there. If he is hitting, keep him in the line-up, if he isn't, then I first go to the platoon with Lowell and if he still doesn't hit, send him to the bench or beyond.
The Red Sox cannot afford a total void in the DH spot for 33% of the season like they got last year. Management will need to get creative and get a real number 5 hitter. It is sad in a way to even be talking about this, as I've always enjoyed Ortiz both as a player and a fan friendly person, but the goal is to win games and if you aren't helping win them, you're helping lose them.
What would you do with Ortiz?
Interesting stories in the papers today about CC Sabathia and his bid for a no-hitter. Joe Girardi said that he would have taken Sabathia out after Kelly Shoppach hit, no matter what had happened. So, if Sabathia had retired Shoppach he still would not have had the chance to finish of his no-no.
When I was watching the game and looking at the pitch counts I will admit that I was hoping someone would get a hit. My thinking was that Girardi would never take Sabathia out if he could finish off a no-hitter and I really didn't want Sabathia throwing 130 pitches on April 10th. I give Girardi a ton of credit for having the guts to admit he would have pulled the big guy. I think it sends the perfect message to the club- the team comes first no matter what.
But, I can also see the other side of the coin. How often does a pitcher get the chance to pitch a no-hitter? Sabathia hasn't done it since high school and I bet he would have been pretty upset if he had retired Shoppach and then been lifted from the game. So, what would you have done if you had been in Girardi's shoes?
I am all for speeding up the game, but this crosses the line. To have a veteran umpire refer to the Yankees and Red Sox as "pathetic and embarrassing" is a huge breach of conduct. Umpires are supposed to be neutral arbitrators of the sport, yet Joe West clearly has a bad opinion about two of the teams. MLB needs to step in here and punish West for his comments because they are totally inappropriate. In addition, they need to make sure that his crew doesn't work any Yankees or Red Sox games this season.
The 2010 season is off to a solid start in New York with the Yankees taking 2-of-3 in Fenway. There are plenty of things you can draw from this series, but the one thing that stands out to me is the patience the Yankees' hitters displayed.
Tonight the Red Sox had to throw 165 pitches to record 30 outs. John Lackey went six innings while allowing only five baserunners, but still had to throw 100 pitches. Beckett threw 94 pitches in less than five innings of work Sunday and Lester threw 94 in five full innings last night. Those are three of the best starters in the AL and the Yankees made them earn every out.
It's a long season and we have tons of baseball to go, but if the Yankees keep working starters like this it should be a very successful year in the Bronx.
Sample size is an important thing because relying on too small of a sample can lead you to bad conclusions. For example, the Yankees seem to think that Chan Ho Park's pitching in the World Series last year showed he could be a very good reliever, but I would be willing to bet he won't be on the roster by July 1st.
Along those lines, the argument seems to be that AJ Burnett can't work with Jorge Posada. That conclusion was based on 16 starts last year where Burnett put up a 4.96 ERA with Posada catching. It became such an issue, that the Yankees actually benched Posada for the playoffs last year when Burnett was pitching. Yet AJ racked up a 5.27 ERA in his 5 playoff starts with Molina catching.
So please excuse me if I skip the hype surrounding tonight's start and the decision to have Posada catch AJ. Yes, the results haven't been good in the past, but I don't think that has anything to do with Posada. I think Joel Sherman captured the problem with AJ in this passage today:
Burnett presents so many issues. He essentially does everything possible to downgrade what pitching coach Dave Eiland estimates is top-three stuff among all starters in baseball.
Burnett walks too many. He does not hold runners well. He became more susceptible to the long ball last year. And 244 starts into his career, Burnett still has not mastered the ability to let go of a bad pitch or a bad at-bat, and focus wholly on the next hitter. And so he is not very good at limiting damage.
Now, some catchers might be more helpful in getting AJ to relax and pitch, but ultimately it comes down to him and him alone. That is what I am going to be interested to see tonight. Does the fact that Burnett pitched in the playoffs and won a World Series translate into a better/calmer presence n the mound? Or, will we see the typical AJ start where he is dominant for every inning except one and that one inning badly hurts him?
Tune in tonight as the Yankees try and dig out of last place.
Josh Beckett today signed a 4-year, $68mm extension with the Red Sox. That makes the top 3 starters all in Boston's long-term plans and the future 4th & 5th starter around a while too.
Beckett signed through 2014.
Lackey signed through 2014.
Lester signed through 2014 (2014 is a team option).
Buchholz under team control through 2013 (I think).
Matzusaka signed through 2013.
The Beckett deal is a good one in that they didn't go too many years. I will say my confidence that he'll hold up for 5 more seasons including this one isn't high, but that could be a concern for just about every pitcher in baseball.
The next big contract discussion should be Victor Martinez, but he went on record the other day that he'd prefer not to negotiate during the season. Not sure it'll get done. Martinez is the 2nd best offensive catcher, but he isn't young and going too long on him might be a bad idea, especially if you see him catching full time.
With a 9-7 come from behind win by the Red Sox over the New York Yankees last night, many are saying the early-season 1 game lead is simply too much to overcome in the next 161 games.
Of course a 1-game lead doesn't mean the season's over for New York, but a 2-game lead...
First off, YankeesRedSox.com didn't exactly come roaring out of the gate for this series. Both Peter and I have had various distractions of late, probably not too dissimilar than everyone else. That said, we are committed to providing our usual feedback, fear not.
Given the small sample size, I don't want my comments to be misconstrued, but one thing I noticed last night was that the 8 and 9 spots in the Red Sox line-up weren't automatic outs. The 2009 version featured any combination of Jason Varitek, Nick Green, George Kottaras and Alex Gonzalez. I just hoped their "outs" would be productive, that's how little faith I had.
The upgrade started last year with the acquisition of Victor Martinez. His arrival allowed Varitek to warm the bench and represented a major offensive upgrade. Marco Scutaro, no hitting phenom, is a much improved option over Gonzalez offensively.
There are no guarantees of course, but I like the bottom of the line-up much more this year. That said, the core of the line-up has a lot to prove. Those who suggest David Ortiz is the key to this offense are correct. If he can hit 35 HRs, well there isn't the concern, but if he can't get around on fastballs (like he failed to do a few times last night), we could be in for a long season.
Game 1 in the books, let's hold off on any major analysis until we are at least a month or so into the season. Until then I'll just stick with observations.
As for playoff tracking, take a look at CoolStandings.com and their take on the 2010 season.