he'd be the next Billy Martin, and tonight Joe looked the part, kicking dirt, his hat, and anything else in sight. And while he said he did not have firing up his listless troops, whose offensive had once again gone completely in the tank, the results say otherwise.
By the way, a classic AROD at bat in the ninth inning. Man on first, noone out, and a run wins the game. So many ways to help the team out in that situation, but all AROD can think is home run, so of course he strikes out. There out to be a statistic: in clutch situations what is your ratio of hits, walks, sacrifices, sac flies, or productive outs to your total at bats under those circumstances. Scary to think what a low average the half-billion dollar man puts up.
Well, at least Kennedy looked like last year for once. I wonder if knowing Joba was coming on board so he doesn't have to carry the youth corps burden alone helped take the pressure off.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
HANK SAYS
THERE IS NO USE KEEPING JOBA FOR THE 8TH IF YOU CAN NEVER USE HIM. WOULD THE RED SOX SAVE BECKETT FOR THE 8TH INNING?
For all the shit Hank takes, he actually knows something about baseball.
For all the shit Hank takes, he actually knows something about baseball.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
ONE STEP FORWARD AND
ONE STEP BACK.
Back on April 30, I suggested the Yanks might as well move Joba to the rotation since they didn't have enough chances to win by the eigth inning to make his presence there worthwhile. So I'm glad they've started the process. as a true power pitcher, he will be less dependent on their pathetic excuse for a defense than the other starters. He also might, if successful, take some of the pressure off hughes and Kennedy. Still, this will make things harder on the veterans. If the big F moves to the eighth, more games will undoubtedly be blown there, and what's more, Hawkins suddenly becomes the main man in middle relief, and I'm not certain he is good enough to be a mop up guy anymore. The problem I outlinewd in the last post will only be exacerbated. That is particularly true when you consider that pitch to contact guys like Pettite and particularly Mussina are very easy to foul off. Every defensive mistake forcing them to face an extra batter means 5-7 added pitches, driving up their counts, shortening their outings, making them more liable to error and even more dependent upon a non-existent middle relief corps. Maybe they should try bringing someone up from the minors and hoping he works out. How about that Patterson who pitched 23 scoreless innings in the spring. Desparate times.
Well, AROD has his last place swagger going doesn't he?
Last night I bemoaned the Yankees lack of an offensive philosophy. After further thought, I realized this is even more a product of bad team composition than I originally imagined. Last year, the Yanks had a clear identity: run up pitch counts, exhaust starters, score off of middle relievers; hold on with Mo. But last year they had a stronger veteran comoponent to the rotation. Baseball as we all know is not just an athletic competition, it is a strategic battle. But that strategic battle is not just cognitive: it is psychological warfare. When you have young pitchers, you need to get them run support early in the game. When Hughes and Kennedy have been left without runs into the fourth they press and then they collapse. But it is not just them. Look at the Red Sox. When the youngsters Lester and Bucholz get early run support, they pitch well; when they don't, they typically lose their composure and the game between the third and fifth inning. The patience of last year will not work as a strategy of support for these young pitchers. The Yankees need quick runs, which means they need not just to be more aggressive at the plate, but on the bases as well.
To this end, I think Jeter ought to be hitting lead-off, Abreu second, and Cano third, a position which will force him to stay back on the ball and go middle-left. Matsui could bat fourth since he's still your most reliable RBI guy, AROD can bat fifth, where he can swing for the fences all he wants, Posada can bat sixth when he returns (and they should bring him back as a DH as soon as his time on the DL is up), Cabera could bat seventh, and after that I really don't care. If there is someone in the minors who can actually play first base well, maybe they could bring him up. I'm certain he could hit the 180 or so that Giambi is hitting. Lastly, now that I have established in a perfectly respectable sabremetric way that Molina is even more hapless than previously believe, I notice that Moeller is hitting 262 or 80 points better than Giambi, 70 points better than Duncan, 62 points better than Molina and 50 or so points better than Cano. So let him play awhile. You can't do worse than the alternative.
Baseball is such a team game, all appearance to the contrary, that htere is even a hidden interactivity between offensive philosophy and pitching success. The Yankees have to start thinking the gestalt of baseball if they are to avoid disgacing themselves this year.
Back on April 30, I suggested the Yanks might as well move Joba to the rotation since they didn't have enough chances to win by the eigth inning to make his presence there worthwhile. So I'm glad they've started the process. as a true power pitcher, he will be less dependent on their pathetic excuse for a defense than the other starters. He also might, if successful, take some of the pressure off hughes and Kennedy. Still, this will make things harder on the veterans. If the big F moves to the eighth, more games will undoubtedly be blown there, and what's more, Hawkins suddenly becomes the main man in middle relief, and I'm not certain he is good enough to be a mop up guy anymore. The problem I outlinewd in the last post will only be exacerbated. That is particularly true when you consider that pitch to contact guys like Pettite and particularly Mussina are very easy to foul off. Every defensive mistake forcing them to face an extra batter means 5-7 added pitches, driving up their counts, shortening their outings, making them more liable to error and even more dependent upon a non-existent middle relief corps. Maybe they should try bringing someone up from the minors and hoping he works out. How about that Patterson who pitched 23 scoreless innings in the spring. Desparate times.
Well, AROD has his last place swagger going doesn't he?
Last night I bemoaned the Yankees lack of an offensive philosophy. After further thought, I realized this is even more a product of bad team composition than I originally imagined. Last year, the Yanks had a clear identity: run up pitch counts, exhaust starters, score off of middle relievers; hold on with Mo. But last year they had a stronger veteran comoponent to the rotation. Baseball as we all know is not just an athletic competition, it is a strategic battle. But that strategic battle is not just cognitive: it is psychological warfare. When you have young pitchers, you need to get them run support early in the game. When Hughes and Kennedy have been left without runs into the fourth they press and then they collapse. But it is not just them. Look at the Red Sox. When the youngsters Lester and Bucholz get early run support, they pitch well; when they don't, they typically lose their composure and the game between the third and fifth inning. The patience of last year will not work as a strategy of support for these young pitchers. The Yankees need quick runs, which means they need not just to be more aggressive at the plate, but on the bases as well.
To this end, I think Jeter ought to be hitting lead-off, Abreu second, and Cano third, a position which will force him to stay back on the ball and go middle-left. Matsui could bat fourth since he's still your most reliable RBI guy, AROD can bat fifth, where he can swing for the fences all he wants, Posada can bat sixth when he returns (and they should bring him back as a DH as soon as his time on the DL is up), Cabera could bat seventh, and after that I really don't care. If there is someone in the minors who can actually play first base well, maybe they could bring him up. I'm certain he could hit the 180 or so that Giambi is hitting. Lastly, now that I have established in a perfectly respectable sabremetric way that Molina is even more hapless than previously believe, I notice that Moeller is hitting 262 or 80 points better than Giambi, 70 points better than Duncan, 62 points better than Molina and 50 or so points better than Cano. So let him play awhile. You can't do worse than the alternative.
Baseball is such a team game, all appearance to the contrary, that htere is even a hidden interactivity between offensive philosophy and pitching success. The Yankees have to start thinking the gestalt of baseball if they are to avoid disgacing themselves this year.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
WELL, AROD REALLY IS BACK,
LAUNCHING THE MEANINGLESS 2 RUN HOMER WITH THE TEAM DOWN 10-0 IN THE SIXTH.
I hit the pause on blogging for the past week or so since the Yankees were so completely vindicating The Yankees Suck post as to make further comment redundant. But now they've sunk a couple of more layers into the quagmire of complacency and defeatism, and Michael seems to think things are not as bad as they seem, that AROD will actually make a difference, and that Cashman is not a candidate for feckless and incompetent baseball executive of the decade (see comments on last post). So I have decided to declare war on whatever continuing state of denial might exist among the Yankees faithful (lest they begin to appear Yankees cultists or, worse, Yankees dupes).
My contention is that the Yankees of 2008, unlike the Yankees of 2007, are not underperforming. They're just horrible. That is why a) there will be no comeback this year, at least none that will get them into the playoffs, b) they stand a very good chance of finishing behind the Rays (who have better starting pitching, better middle relief, better team speed, better fielding, better situational hitting--hey, I guess they're just plain better!) and c) Hank is right, the blame lies not with the manager but the GM.
Let us clear out the first line of excuse the Yankees have essayed: the injuries. Well, first of all the injuries are merely a symptom of why this team is so bad. When my 90 year old Grandmom in law was lying fatally ill in the hospital, my father-in law--a great guy by the way--listened to her bemoan her fate for about twenty minutes before bursting out, "Well your old, that's what happens when you get old, you die." So true. And that's what happens when you get baseball old, you get hurt. The Yankees rely on a team that is filled with people over 30, over 35, and they will come down with injuries. The Yankees are not bad because they are hurt; they are hurt because, as team composition goes, they are bad. I mean if you think losing a 36 year old catcher to injury is a rough break, then I guess you think losing a 12 year old car to transmission problems is terrible luck.
Will the yankees dramatically improve with the return of AROD and Posada? No, they won't. Tonight told us all we need to know about AROD. He'll put up spectacular numbers while they're in last place--look at all he did for the Rangers in this regard--but the hits, homers and RBI's will be insufficiently meaningful (he's the master, after all, of the insufficiently meaningful) to transform their destiny. As for Posada, he was hitting a solid 270 with pop when he went down, and that's probably what he'll do when he returns. That is the offensive player Posada has, with the exception of last year, always been. Anyone who doesn't understand that last year was an outlier would be really stupid, and might do something really stupid, like I don't know, giving him a huge 3 year contract that begins at the very age when Mike Piazza, the greatest offensive catcher in MLB history was hanging them up. Posada will be fine, but he won't be transcendent and so he won't be able to bring this crew back to the top. Let's face it, when they were both in the lineup, the Yankees were a 500 team, with just AROD they're a game under 500, and without both of them, they were 4 games under 500. Not a game changer as Hillary would say. Yes, the Yankees looked significantly worse without these two, but that's only because Brian Cashman has used his record breaking payroll to assemble perhaps the worst bench in the history of supposedly elite teams. As the comments section below proves, Molina is one of the worst, if not the worst offensive back-up catchers in the game today. Letting the Sox get O'Casey for nothing, when we needed a first baseman and settled for the pathetic third sackers Betemit and Ensburg, is in itself a firing offense. When healthy, the Yankees have no pinch hitters worthy of the name; when injured they have no replacements that should even be in the major leagues. Evaluating talent, especially second line talent, and then acquiring it, this is what you pay a GM to do. That Cashman has so utterly failed, despite having the resources other teams can only envy, means that he should no longer be drawing a paycheck.
What is wrong with the Yankees is not just who is missing from the order, but who is out there in the field. And not just individually, as an interactive unit. The Yankees have few contact hitters, which is why they are so bad with men on base. AROD strikes out too much and pops up too much. He doesn't make quality outs and he doesn't deliver key singles and doubles. Giambi cannot hit at all with two outs. Over last year and this year Damon has ceased to be a lead off man of any credibilty: his on base percentage is dismal for that spot in the line-up. But beyond the individual deficiencies, this is not a batting line-up with a plan or strategy. Are they patient, are they aggressive? Whatever they are they should be so as a team. Abreu never puts the ball in play until he has a full count; Cano swings at the first pitch every time. Are they a team that will pressure you with speed: Damon seems to want to, Jeter maybe a little bit as well but after that nothing.
But of course they don't have a plan because the line-up hasn't been assembled to produce a coordinated effort, that blend of contact hitters, walk-takers, power properly placed, that gives you an offensive machine. Right now the Yankees are the Denver Nuggets of baseball: a collection of big names that don't have a clue how to work together, how to do the little things, how to become more than the sum of their parts. To the contrary, I don't know if I have ever seen a team so much less than the sum of its parts. And here again, it is the role of the GM, to evalute talent with an eye to its interrelation, its mutually reinforcing properties. Mike Lowell is not really a great hitter, but he is a dogged one, and after a pitcher has gotten through the meat grinder of Ortiz and Ramirez, whether scathed or unscathed, Lowell's doggedness is a much more dangerous proposition than the greater talents of another hitter (say a Soriano or Ryan Howard) would be. That is what constructing a line-up is about. Epstein has done it, Gene Michaels did it, and Cashman has decidedly not.
Nowhere is the failure of compostion more striking than in the field. Listen, the Yankees planned a rotation with 4 pitchers who pitch to contact (Pettite, Wang, Kennedy, and Mussina--who pitches to really good contact) yet they have assembled perhaps the most porous infield in the league, virtually guaranteeing that this type of pitcher will have limited success. Not one of their infielders is above average: Giambi is a disaster, he can't go right, can't charge the bunt, can't throw to any base accurately, and rarely saves the errant throw; Cano spaces out regularly, fails to cover bases, blows routine plays even while making spectacular ones; Jeter has no range at all anymore, his arm has become increasingly erratic, he makes more than his share of errors, and he has even started blowing the routine plays. AROD doesn't have an accurate enough arm to play third and is an error machine as a result. Bottom line, when these pitchers induce the grounders you are asking them to induce, the chances of the ball getting through or being bobbled, or throws going awry are far too high. Rallies start; the unfortunate pitcher is asked to throw more pitches, to keep hitting his spots, increasing the statistical probability of a mistake, a long ball, a gapper, a big inning. And no middle relief in sight. It is the business of the GM to assemble the team so that the tendencies of its pitchers coincide with its defensive strengths. Cashman has not done this; I'm not even sure Cashman knows he is supposed to do this.
These are just some of the nuts and bolts of the Frankenstein machine that Dr. Cashman has perpetrated upon an increasingly desperate fan base. Just think, the first 207 million dollar payroll in the history of baseball, exceeding the nearest payroll by more money than the entire payroll of several teams, and the team is not only in last place but deserves to be there, really is ineffective and ill-assorted enough to be there. This is a team that awards one player, one world class choke artist more money than the entire Marlins franchise, which by the way is in first place in a division that includes the Mets, Phillies and Braves, all with winning records. What can one say of the stewardship that would pay 200 plus million to construct a team this bad, a team without one power starting pitcher, a team with one starter clearly over the hill, a team without a middle relief corps, a team whose fifth place hitter, sixth place hitter, and ninth place hitter are all at or below the mendoza line, a team without any real speed, without any superior infielders, with only one player hitting over 300, and a lead off man below 250? Ladies and gentlemen, I implore you, isn't this simply the worst management dollar for dollar in the history of the game? It has to be.
To leave the cathedral of baseball, home to the most successful franchise in the recorded histroy of sport, on such an extravagantly dismal note can only be expiated with blood. And since we are not allowed to fire at Brian Cashman, though his crimes against baseball and Yankeedom are clearly capital, then we must at least demand that he be fired. Soemthing tells me Hankus will be happy to oblige.
I hit the pause on blogging for the past week or so since the Yankees were so completely vindicating The Yankees Suck post as to make further comment redundant. But now they've sunk a couple of more layers into the quagmire of complacency and defeatism, and Michael seems to think things are not as bad as they seem, that AROD will actually make a difference, and that Cashman is not a candidate for feckless and incompetent baseball executive of the decade (see comments on last post). So I have decided to declare war on whatever continuing state of denial might exist among the Yankees faithful (lest they begin to appear Yankees cultists or, worse, Yankees dupes).
My contention is that the Yankees of 2008, unlike the Yankees of 2007, are not underperforming. They're just horrible. That is why a) there will be no comeback this year, at least none that will get them into the playoffs, b) they stand a very good chance of finishing behind the Rays (who have better starting pitching, better middle relief, better team speed, better fielding, better situational hitting--hey, I guess they're just plain better!) and c) Hank is right, the blame lies not with the manager but the GM.
Let us clear out the first line of excuse the Yankees have essayed: the injuries. Well, first of all the injuries are merely a symptom of why this team is so bad. When my 90 year old Grandmom in law was lying fatally ill in the hospital, my father-in law--a great guy by the way--listened to her bemoan her fate for about twenty minutes before bursting out, "Well your old, that's what happens when you get old, you die." So true. And that's what happens when you get baseball old, you get hurt. The Yankees rely on a team that is filled with people over 30, over 35, and they will come down with injuries. The Yankees are not bad because they are hurt; they are hurt because, as team composition goes, they are bad. I mean if you think losing a 36 year old catcher to injury is a rough break, then I guess you think losing a 12 year old car to transmission problems is terrible luck.
Will the yankees dramatically improve with the return of AROD and Posada? No, they won't. Tonight told us all we need to know about AROD. He'll put up spectacular numbers while they're in last place--look at all he did for the Rangers in this regard--but the hits, homers and RBI's will be insufficiently meaningful (he's the master, after all, of the insufficiently meaningful) to transform their destiny. As for Posada, he was hitting a solid 270 with pop when he went down, and that's probably what he'll do when he returns. That is the offensive player Posada has, with the exception of last year, always been. Anyone who doesn't understand that last year was an outlier would be really stupid, and might do something really stupid, like I don't know, giving him a huge 3 year contract that begins at the very age when Mike Piazza, the greatest offensive catcher in MLB history was hanging them up. Posada will be fine, but he won't be transcendent and so he won't be able to bring this crew back to the top. Let's face it, when they were both in the lineup, the Yankees were a 500 team, with just AROD they're a game under 500, and without both of them, they were 4 games under 500. Not a game changer as Hillary would say. Yes, the Yankees looked significantly worse without these two, but that's only because Brian Cashman has used his record breaking payroll to assemble perhaps the worst bench in the history of supposedly elite teams. As the comments section below proves, Molina is one of the worst, if not the worst offensive back-up catchers in the game today. Letting the Sox get O'Casey for nothing, when we needed a first baseman and settled for the pathetic third sackers Betemit and Ensburg, is in itself a firing offense. When healthy, the Yankees have no pinch hitters worthy of the name; when injured they have no replacements that should even be in the major leagues. Evaluating talent, especially second line talent, and then acquiring it, this is what you pay a GM to do. That Cashman has so utterly failed, despite having the resources other teams can only envy, means that he should no longer be drawing a paycheck.
What is wrong with the Yankees is not just who is missing from the order, but who is out there in the field. And not just individually, as an interactive unit. The Yankees have few contact hitters, which is why they are so bad with men on base. AROD strikes out too much and pops up too much. He doesn't make quality outs and he doesn't deliver key singles and doubles. Giambi cannot hit at all with two outs. Over last year and this year Damon has ceased to be a lead off man of any credibilty: his on base percentage is dismal for that spot in the line-up. But beyond the individual deficiencies, this is not a batting line-up with a plan or strategy. Are they patient, are they aggressive? Whatever they are they should be so as a team. Abreu never puts the ball in play until he has a full count; Cano swings at the first pitch every time. Are they a team that will pressure you with speed: Damon seems to want to, Jeter maybe a little bit as well but after that nothing.
But of course they don't have a plan because the line-up hasn't been assembled to produce a coordinated effort, that blend of contact hitters, walk-takers, power properly placed, that gives you an offensive machine. Right now the Yankees are the Denver Nuggets of baseball: a collection of big names that don't have a clue how to work together, how to do the little things, how to become more than the sum of their parts. To the contrary, I don't know if I have ever seen a team so much less than the sum of its parts. And here again, it is the role of the GM, to evalute talent with an eye to its interrelation, its mutually reinforcing properties. Mike Lowell is not really a great hitter, but he is a dogged one, and after a pitcher has gotten through the meat grinder of Ortiz and Ramirez, whether scathed or unscathed, Lowell's doggedness is a much more dangerous proposition than the greater talents of another hitter (say a Soriano or Ryan Howard) would be. That is what constructing a line-up is about. Epstein has done it, Gene Michaels did it, and Cashman has decidedly not.
Nowhere is the failure of compostion more striking than in the field. Listen, the Yankees planned a rotation with 4 pitchers who pitch to contact (Pettite, Wang, Kennedy, and Mussina--who pitches to really good contact) yet they have assembled perhaps the most porous infield in the league, virtually guaranteeing that this type of pitcher will have limited success. Not one of their infielders is above average: Giambi is a disaster, he can't go right, can't charge the bunt, can't throw to any base accurately, and rarely saves the errant throw; Cano spaces out regularly, fails to cover bases, blows routine plays even while making spectacular ones; Jeter has no range at all anymore, his arm has become increasingly erratic, he makes more than his share of errors, and he has even started blowing the routine plays. AROD doesn't have an accurate enough arm to play third and is an error machine as a result. Bottom line, when these pitchers induce the grounders you are asking them to induce, the chances of the ball getting through or being bobbled, or throws going awry are far too high. Rallies start; the unfortunate pitcher is asked to throw more pitches, to keep hitting his spots, increasing the statistical probability of a mistake, a long ball, a gapper, a big inning. And no middle relief in sight. It is the business of the GM to assemble the team so that the tendencies of its pitchers coincide with its defensive strengths. Cashman has not done this; I'm not even sure Cashman knows he is supposed to do this.
These are just some of the nuts and bolts of the Frankenstein machine that Dr. Cashman has perpetrated upon an increasingly desperate fan base. Just think, the first 207 million dollar payroll in the history of baseball, exceeding the nearest payroll by more money than the entire payroll of several teams, and the team is not only in last place but deserves to be there, really is ineffective and ill-assorted enough to be there. This is a team that awards one player, one world class choke artist more money than the entire Marlins franchise, which by the way is in first place in a division that includes the Mets, Phillies and Braves, all with winning records. What can one say of the stewardship that would pay 200 plus million to construct a team this bad, a team without one power starting pitcher, a team with one starter clearly over the hill, a team without a middle relief corps, a team whose fifth place hitter, sixth place hitter, and ninth place hitter are all at or below the mendoza line, a team without any real speed, without any superior infielders, with only one player hitting over 300, and a lead off man below 250? Ladies and gentlemen, I implore you, isn't this simply the worst management dollar for dollar in the history of the game? It has to be.
To leave the cathedral of baseball, home to the most successful franchise in the recorded histroy of sport, on such an extravagantly dismal note can only be expiated with blood. And since we are not allowed to fire at Brian Cashman, though his crimes against baseball and Yankeedom are clearly capital, then we must at least demand that he be fired. Soemthing tells me Hankus will be happy to oblige.
Friday, May 9, 2008
THE YANKEES SUCK! THEEEE
YANKEES SUCK! Red Sox fans always said this and I never understood why. They would say it when the Yanks were champions, when they won the division year after year, when they were in the post-season. I mean it was stupid. They not only didn't suck, Chowderheads hated them because they didn't suck. But now the cry rings all too true.
This is a bad team folks, I mean a really bad team. The Sox provide an easy measure. They are not as good as they were last year: Beckett's no ace so far, Lester and Bucholz are not very good, Matsuzaka never gets out of the sixth inning (he's a rich man's Jared White), their bullpen is increasingly stressed, Okee-Dokee is nowhere near as dominant, Papelbon's going through a bad patch, Papi misses the roids, Drew is still nothing special, Varitek's another year older and that much easier to run on, Lugo looks like Renteria in the field (but not at bat), and for all that the distance between them and the Yankees is much greater than it was last year. The Sox can still hit their way through a bad pitching performance and pitch their way around anemic offense. But the Yankees have to have both working well to be competitive. Outside of Wang, the pitchers need significant run support and this offense can never get more than 6 runs and usually scores less than 4. What is more, and perhaps more important, the pitchers get no help in the field (3 errors tonight alone) and the hitters get no help on the bases (still as timid as they are slow). They can't lock down in the field and they can't play small ball. They can only seem to win when they homer multiple times, which makes for generally passive, tedious and above all losing baseball. It also leads to damaging habits when it comes to getting men home. The Yankees remain one of the worst teams with RISP and they left another 17 on the pond tonight.
I'm sorry to have to say this but Giardi has thus far changed nothing in the culture of this team.
But with all of this, there is a still bigger problem, and that problem is not Giardi's fault. This is a bad team, a bad collection of 25 guys, with too many players who do the same thing (poorly) and the worst, I mean the worst, reserves in all of baseball. And that my friends is the fault of Brian Cashman, who manages to spend over 200 million a year on a team that, in May, still has three regulars below 200 and another three at 200. When the Red sox lost Lowell and Ortiz at the same time, I didn't hear them whining about injuries; when they lost Drew, they remained quiet. But when the Yankees lost Jorge and AROD oh the wailing and gnashing of teeth. And for good reason. While Epstein was picking up the always solid O'Casey for peanuts this off-season, Cashman was sticking with Betemit, auditioning Ensburg, relying on Duncan etc. Boston has a bench: Crisp, Cora, Moss, Cash, O'Casey. The Yankees do not. The same lack of depth afflicts the pitching staff, which is why we were treated tonight to the return of Kei Igawa (3IP, 6 runs, 0 KO's), despite the knowledge everywhere in baseball that thos guy is not a major league pitcher. When this is your reserve of choice, you are committing yourslef to surrendering games before they begin. Now that the team Stick Michael put together and molded into a dynasty is all but gone, we can see just how lousy a GM Brian Cashman is. Torre was a good manager who went to seed. Cashman was a seedy GM basking in the sunshine of another man's work. I would fire him yesterday.
These then are the general problems the Yankees face, problems which may leave them not only out of the playoffs but below 500. Let's look at some specific areas of concern.
WHAT'S WRONG WITH ROBBY?
Cano has had a couple of decent games, but his habits uncorrected spell trouble. I have said before there has to be a technical solution and forwarded Vina's analysis of Cano's footwork. I think there is a psychological underpinning to the slump that will help explain this and other symptoms. Late last year, when Cano started to show some serious pop, the Yankees organization let it be known that they felt they could expect 25-30 homers a year out of him. Why does everyone on this fucking team have to hit home runs? Everybody celebrated Damon's 20+ in 2006 and look how bad he stunk last year. In any event, Robby was listening because this year he has been trying to pull almost everything, presumably in an effort to reach the fences as they expect. I myself have been marvelling at how poorly he has been going while displaying the kind of patience I always wished for him in the past. Since coming up, he has been prone to chase high-outside fastballs and low and away sliders. This year I have applauded his willingness to take those pitches. Yet for some reason he has been seeing fewer pitches than ever. Then I realized he was laying off the outside stuff because he couldn't imagine pulling it. But other teams quickly adjusted and fed him alot of hard stuff off the inside corner. He has been jumping at these apparently pullable pitches to no effect. Last year his characteristic outs were KO's and pop flies to left, this year it's the slow roller to second. He is just rolling over on pitches. If they get him back into the Rod Carew slap hit mode, he'll be fine.
WHAT'S WRONG WITH GIAMBI?
Whether he homers or not, he's an idiot (and not in the honorific sense).
WHAT IF WE HAD SANTANA?
The Yanks would be no better off and maybe worse. When pundits and people reflect on that non-deal, they tend to wonder, Should the Yankees have traded Hughes for Santana? I don't pretend to know the answer to that question and I don't give it any thought--mainly because the Twins were not willing to trade Santan for Hughes. That wasn't the option. They turned down Hughes and Cabrera for Santana and in Cabrera you have the Yankees single best fielder and single best arm playing a key position and hitting the ball pretty well. But what the Twins wanted, and there was no indication they would accept less, was Hughes and Kennedy and Cabrera for Santana. So right away, because of all the Yankees depth issues, major difficulties emerge. You have to put Damon back in center where he's not catching up to balls in the gap, where runners are scoring from first on a deep single, where he's getting minor injuries (and then who do you run out there) and where the stress is taking a toll on his offensive production. Not only that, you are down to a four man rotation plus Rasner and you are probably seeing alot more of Mr. Igawa. Plus, Mussina and Pettite will be gone next year, which leaves you with Wang, Santana and a list of question marks and ciphers. But the main reasons for not giving up the store for Santana: 1, he'd be wasted here; this team isn't good enough to go anywhere even if they had him. He's not good enough to take them there anyway; he's not the ace he used to be. Santana is currently 3-2 in New York, with a nice ERA (2.91) which would certainly be significantly higher in the AL East. He's averaging 6.5 innings perstart, which makes him dependent on the middle as well as the late relievers. I don't see that he would be as good as Wang at this point and maybe not that much better that Pettite. Remember on the Mets he has some decent gloves behind him (Wright, Beltran Reyes) on the Yankees he'd have Jeter, who really can't play SS anymore, Cano, who is still just adequate, and at first base Giambi, need I say more. Finally, at no point in his fine career has Santana ever been a stone cold postseason killer. That's why he's never won a ring, even when he had Radke, the brilliant Loriano and Joe Nathan on the staff with him. One thing I'll say for Hughes, his performance against Cleveland last year suggests that if he does pan out he'll be at his best when it counts.
WHAT'S WRONG WITH JETER?
We have crossed an age boundary with both his legs--he now gets to nothing not hit right at him--and his arm, which is increasingly responsible for unforced errors. This has to be his last year at that position. Damon will probably retire after this season and I'd put Jeter in left.
WHAT'S WRONG WITH AROD?
His quad supposedly, but I think the delivery room story is far more telling, as is his wife's eagerness to tell it.
LASTLY (FOR NOW) WHAT'S WRONG WITH GIARDI?
In addition to managing almost as cautiously as slow Joe, he leaves his pitchers in too long. When does Joba ever walk the first 2 batters? Never! Joe should have known something was wrong. If he takes Igawa out tonight as soon as he began collapsing, they could have won the game. Certainly he should have been yanked when the score went 4-1 in the third.
Every time Damon gets hot and puts together three nice games in a row, Giardi sits him, and so far he has always come back cold.
He keeps trotting Duncan out there and batting him cleanup even though there are still no signs of productivity to be found. If he must be played he should bat eighth.
He won't give Gonzalez a decent chance despite the solid play he has delivered so far.
This is a bad team folks, I mean a really bad team. The Sox provide an easy measure. They are not as good as they were last year: Beckett's no ace so far, Lester and Bucholz are not very good, Matsuzaka never gets out of the sixth inning (he's a rich man's Jared White), their bullpen is increasingly stressed, Okee-Dokee is nowhere near as dominant, Papelbon's going through a bad patch, Papi misses the roids, Drew is still nothing special, Varitek's another year older and that much easier to run on, Lugo looks like Renteria in the field (but not at bat), and for all that the distance between them and the Yankees is much greater than it was last year. The Sox can still hit their way through a bad pitching performance and pitch their way around anemic offense. But the Yankees have to have both working well to be competitive. Outside of Wang, the pitchers need significant run support and this offense can never get more than 6 runs and usually scores less than 4. What is more, and perhaps more important, the pitchers get no help in the field (3 errors tonight alone) and the hitters get no help on the bases (still as timid as they are slow). They can't lock down in the field and they can't play small ball. They can only seem to win when they homer multiple times, which makes for generally passive, tedious and above all losing baseball. It also leads to damaging habits when it comes to getting men home. The Yankees remain one of the worst teams with RISP and they left another 17 on the pond tonight.
I'm sorry to have to say this but Giardi has thus far changed nothing in the culture of this team.
But with all of this, there is a still bigger problem, and that problem is not Giardi's fault. This is a bad team, a bad collection of 25 guys, with too many players who do the same thing (poorly) and the worst, I mean the worst, reserves in all of baseball. And that my friends is the fault of Brian Cashman, who manages to spend over 200 million a year on a team that, in May, still has three regulars below 200 and another three at 200. When the Red sox lost Lowell and Ortiz at the same time, I didn't hear them whining about injuries; when they lost Drew, they remained quiet. But when the Yankees lost Jorge and AROD oh the wailing and gnashing of teeth. And for good reason. While Epstein was picking up the always solid O'Casey for peanuts this off-season, Cashman was sticking with Betemit, auditioning Ensburg, relying on Duncan etc. Boston has a bench: Crisp, Cora, Moss, Cash, O'Casey. The Yankees do not. The same lack of depth afflicts the pitching staff, which is why we were treated tonight to the return of Kei Igawa (3IP, 6 runs, 0 KO's), despite the knowledge everywhere in baseball that thos guy is not a major league pitcher. When this is your reserve of choice, you are committing yourslef to surrendering games before they begin. Now that the team Stick Michael put together and molded into a dynasty is all but gone, we can see just how lousy a GM Brian Cashman is. Torre was a good manager who went to seed. Cashman was a seedy GM basking in the sunshine of another man's work. I would fire him yesterday.
These then are the general problems the Yankees face, problems which may leave them not only out of the playoffs but below 500. Let's look at some specific areas of concern.
WHAT'S WRONG WITH ROBBY?
Cano has had a couple of decent games, but his habits uncorrected spell trouble. I have said before there has to be a technical solution and forwarded Vina's analysis of Cano's footwork. I think there is a psychological underpinning to the slump that will help explain this and other symptoms. Late last year, when Cano started to show some serious pop, the Yankees organization let it be known that they felt they could expect 25-30 homers a year out of him. Why does everyone on this fucking team have to hit home runs? Everybody celebrated Damon's 20+ in 2006 and look how bad he stunk last year. In any event, Robby was listening because this year he has been trying to pull almost everything, presumably in an effort to reach the fences as they expect. I myself have been marvelling at how poorly he has been going while displaying the kind of patience I always wished for him in the past. Since coming up, he has been prone to chase high-outside fastballs and low and away sliders. This year I have applauded his willingness to take those pitches. Yet for some reason he has been seeing fewer pitches than ever. Then I realized he was laying off the outside stuff because he couldn't imagine pulling it. But other teams quickly adjusted and fed him alot of hard stuff off the inside corner. He has been jumping at these apparently pullable pitches to no effect. Last year his characteristic outs were KO's and pop flies to left, this year it's the slow roller to second. He is just rolling over on pitches. If they get him back into the Rod Carew slap hit mode, he'll be fine.
WHAT'S WRONG WITH GIAMBI?
Whether he homers or not, he's an idiot (and not in the honorific sense).
WHAT IF WE HAD SANTANA?
The Yanks would be no better off and maybe worse. When pundits and people reflect on that non-deal, they tend to wonder, Should the Yankees have traded Hughes for Santana? I don't pretend to know the answer to that question and I don't give it any thought--mainly because the Twins were not willing to trade Santan for Hughes. That wasn't the option. They turned down Hughes and Cabrera for Santana and in Cabrera you have the Yankees single best fielder and single best arm playing a key position and hitting the ball pretty well. But what the Twins wanted, and there was no indication they would accept less, was Hughes and Kennedy and Cabrera for Santana. So right away, because of all the Yankees depth issues, major difficulties emerge. You have to put Damon back in center where he's not catching up to balls in the gap, where runners are scoring from first on a deep single, where he's getting minor injuries (and then who do you run out there) and where the stress is taking a toll on his offensive production. Not only that, you are down to a four man rotation plus Rasner and you are probably seeing alot more of Mr. Igawa. Plus, Mussina and Pettite will be gone next year, which leaves you with Wang, Santana and a list of question marks and ciphers. But the main reasons for not giving up the store for Santana: 1, he'd be wasted here; this team isn't good enough to go anywhere even if they had him. He's not good enough to take them there anyway; he's not the ace he used to be. Santana is currently 3-2 in New York, with a nice ERA (2.91) which would certainly be significantly higher in the AL East. He's averaging 6.5 innings perstart, which makes him dependent on the middle as well as the late relievers. I don't see that he would be as good as Wang at this point and maybe not that much better that Pettite. Remember on the Mets he has some decent gloves behind him (Wright, Beltran Reyes) on the Yankees he'd have Jeter, who really can't play SS anymore, Cano, who is still just adequate, and at first base Giambi, need I say more. Finally, at no point in his fine career has Santana ever been a stone cold postseason killer. That's why he's never won a ring, even when he had Radke, the brilliant Loriano and Joe Nathan on the staff with him. One thing I'll say for Hughes, his performance against Cleveland last year suggests that if he does pan out he'll be at his best when it counts.
WHAT'S WRONG WITH JETER?
We have crossed an age boundary with both his legs--he now gets to nothing not hit right at him--and his arm, which is increasingly responsible for unforced errors. This has to be his last year at that position. Damon will probably retire after this season and I'd put Jeter in left.
WHAT'S WRONG WITH AROD?
His quad supposedly, but I think the delivery room story is far more telling, as is his wife's eagerness to tell it.
LASTLY (FOR NOW) WHAT'S WRONG WITH GIARDI?
In addition to managing almost as cautiously as slow Joe, he leaves his pitchers in too long. When does Joba ever walk the first 2 batters? Never! Joe should have known something was wrong. If he takes Igawa out tonight as soon as he began collapsing, they could have won the game. Certainly he should have been yanked when the score went 4-1 in the third.
Every time Damon gets hot and puts together three nice games in a row, Giardi sits him, and so far he has always come back cold.
He keeps trotting Duncan out there and batting him cleanup even though there are still no signs of productivity to be found. If he must be played he should bat eighth.
He won't give Gonzalez a decent chance despite the solid play he has delivered so far.
Monday, May 5, 2008
NO CRYING IN BASEBALL II
A Yankees fan walks into a bar in Nashua. Gets into a beef with a chowderhead over their respective teams. The chowderhead appeals to his fellow New England lowlifes to join in and abuse the Yankeegirl verbally. When they leave the bar she runs over him with her car, killing him. I don't want to say serves him right....
but I still feel a helluva lot worse for the horse.
but I still feel a helluva lot worse for the horse.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
LAGGING INDICATORS,
UNDESERVED FATE
Third straight win, a nice offensive performance, and once again Giambi goes hitless, leaves 4 on, and Cano, while homering, goes one for four. On the Cano front, Giardi sounds like old Joe, which can't be good. He says his work habits are good, he just needs to get going, he just needs to hit them where they ain't, there's no need to bench him. Hey, I don't want to see him benched either, but let's ackowledge there is a technical problem, let's set him to work fixing it, and let's admit that he's not going to "get going" until the problem has been addressed.
As for Giambi, when Jorge began to hurt, he said he wan't going to play first because "we already have 7 first basemen." Well, at the moment they have none who can hit, some who can't field, none who suffice as an everyday player. So my question is this, since it will be 5-6 weeks before Jorge can catch again, is there a time prior to that--after the 15 day list for example--when he could hit effectively without risk and play a position where one only makes a throw or two a game? And can Jorge, who played first one game already, field well enough to do so regularly? If so, my feeling is they should give Giambi whatever time there is before Jorge can do these things to start hitting the ball the other way and putting up some productivity, and if he doesn't send him down to AAA, like they threatened to do last time and make Jorge the first baseman. Right now Giambi is a huge void in the middle of the lineup. The Yanks would be so much better with Posada following AROD (yes he should hit fifth so Matsui could bring in Damon, Jeter and Abreu and AROD can do what he does best--crush the ball with the bases empty) and Moeller or Molina bringing up the rear.
Great outing from Rasner today. He always did pretty well until he got hurt last year. He might help shore things up. But I think the Yankees are pressing their luck bringing up Igawa to replace Kennedy. I think the odds of Ian returning to form are better than Kei finding the form he never had.
Proverb of the day: There's no crying in baseball--and I never do. Strangely however I can be brought to tears by horseracing. I admit to crying when I saw Secretariat run the Belmont--the only time in my life I have ever witnessed complete, indisputable perfection--and I cried when Eight Belles went down on Saturday. For a filly to turn in that kind of performance against the best 3 yr. old colts in the world under the kind of structural distress she must have been in--well it merited something better than death. Far more tragic, to my mind, than Barbero, and I couldn't tell my wife what had just transpired without weeping.
Third straight win, a nice offensive performance, and once again Giambi goes hitless, leaves 4 on, and Cano, while homering, goes one for four. On the Cano front, Giardi sounds like old Joe, which can't be good. He says his work habits are good, he just needs to get going, he just needs to hit them where they ain't, there's no need to bench him. Hey, I don't want to see him benched either, but let's ackowledge there is a technical problem, let's set him to work fixing it, and let's admit that he's not going to "get going" until the problem has been addressed.
As for Giambi, when Jorge began to hurt, he said he wan't going to play first because "we already have 7 first basemen." Well, at the moment they have none who can hit, some who can't field, none who suffice as an everyday player. So my question is this, since it will be 5-6 weeks before Jorge can catch again, is there a time prior to that--after the 15 day list for example--when he could hit effectively without risk and play a position where one only makes a throw or two a game? And can Jorge, who played first one game already, field well enough to do so regularly? If so, my feeling is they should give Giambi whatever time there is before Jorge can do these things to start hitting the ball the other way and putting up some productivity, and if he doesn't send him down to AAA, like they threatened to do last time and make Jorge the first baseman. Right now Giambi is a huge void in the middle of the lineup. The Yanks would be so much better with Posada following AROD (yes he should hit fifth so Matsui could bring in Damon, Jeter and Abreu and AROD can do what he does best--crush the ball with the bases empty) and Moeller or Molina bringing up the rear.
Great outing from Rasner today. He always did pretty well until he got hurt last year. He might help shore things up. But I think the Yankees are pressing their luck bringing up Igawa to replace Kennedy. I think the odds of Ian returning to form are better than Kei finding the form he never had.
Proverb of the day: There's no crying in baseball--and I never do. Strangely however I can be brought to tears by horseracing. I admit to crying when I saw Secretariat run the Belmont--the only time in my life I have ever witnessed complete, indisputable perfection--and I cried when Eight Belles went down on Saturday. For a filly to turn in that kind of performance against the best 3 yr. old colts in the world under the kind of structural distress she must have been in--well it merited something better than death. Far more tragic, to my mind, than Barbero, and I couldn't tell my wife what had just transpired without weeping.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
THE RIGHT AND THE WRONG
Everybody contributed to today's solid win against the Mariners except Cano and Giambi, who remained in their respective death spirals. Baseball Tonight addressed thier problems and provided confirmation, positive and negative, of what I said in the next to last post. Little Buster Brown asked Fernanado Vina if could explain what is going wrong with Robby, and he provided a quite compelling analysis that made one wonder what the Yankees hitting instructor is doing. According to Vina, Cano is not getting his front foot down quickly enough so that he has a split second moment of equipoise during which he can read the spin on the pitch. He is trying to step and read the pitch in the same motion, which Vina said is impossible. A very small adjustment will fix matters spake the Vina and I must say I believed him. If I were the Yankees, the week probation for the hitting coach just became 5 days. If Cano is not hitting by the end of the Cleveland series...
Giambi was more interesting, at least as a testament to the blind spot people have concerning the shift.. Olney showed a lot of Yankee hits, all of which, he noted, went the other way or up the middle. Vina supplied the technical commentary on what a batter does with his body to keep inside of the ball. All very edifying. But then Olney took over the analysis of Giambi, claiming the Yankees are actually happy with the way he is swinging the bat, though they might lose all patience with him should the results not improve, particularly as he is a contractual lame duck anyway. He then showed Giambi rolling over on one pitch and hitting the ball smartly to second on another. He is just being defeated by the shift Olney proclaims. But that begs the question is the key to hitting a hard thrower like King Hernandez is to go the other way, and if that rule holds for the Jeter, Abreu, Damon, Cabrera and Matsui, why doesn't it hold for the one man whom the defense is daring to hit the other way? Olney made no mention of the obvious fact that if Giambi did what the other hitters did, he would have collected knocks without even hitting the ball well. With Cano, you have three consecutive years telling you he will surely hit eventually, but I just don't see how they can accomodate in Giambi a stubborness that might keep him at or below the Mendoza line for the entire series, especially not with his inability to field, throw or run the bases.
Observation of the Day: Have you noticed the ESPN visual advertising Sunday Night baseball? It is a portion of the left field wall at Fenway, a strange unconscious concession that they are indeed Red Sox Network. The same sort of brazen obtuseness characterized their pre-season reaction to Hank Steinbrenner's claim of bias on their part. They trotted out Peter Gammons, aka Theo Epstein's bathroom attendant, to mock Steinbrenner by likening him to Joseph McCarthy. Yeah, like anyone would need a "secret list" to establish that Gammon of all people is the biggest Chowderville homer since Johnny Most (who once claimed Wilt Chamberlain had bludgeoned Bill Russell in the elbow with his eye). The salient difference being of course that Most was in fact a home town announcer, while the Dali Lama as they call him (why exactly, do they mistake his triteness for profundity, his vacuousness for wisdom--a gross insult to Tibetan Buddhism in any case) purports to be a national commentator.
Giambi was more interesting, at least as a testament to the blind spot people have concerning the shift.. Olney showed a lot of Yankee hits, all of which, he noted, went the other way or up the middle. Vina supplied the technical commentary on what a batter does with his body to keep inside of the ball. All very edifying. But then Olney took over the analysis of Giambi, claiming the Yankees are actually happy with the way he is swinging the bat, though they might lose all patience with him should the results not improve, particularly as he is a contractual lame duck anyway. He then showed Giambi rolling over on one pitch and hitting the ball smartly to second on another. He is just being defeated by the shift Olney proclaims. But that begs the question is the key to hitting a hard thrower like King Hernandez is to go the other way, and if that rule holds for the Jeter, Abreu, Damon, Cabrera and Matsui, why doesn't it hold for the one man whom the defense is daring to hit the other way? Olney made no mention of the obvious fact that if Giambi did what the other hitters did, he would have collected knocks without even hitting the ball well. With Cano, you have three consecutive years telling you he will surely hit eventually, but I just don't see how they can accomodate in Giambi a stubborness that might keep him at or below the Mendoza line for the entire series, especially not with his inability to field, throw or run the bases.
Observation of the Day: Have you noticed the ESPN visual advertising Sunday Night baseball? It is a portion of the left field wall at Fenway, a strange unconscious concession that they are indeed Red Sox Network. The same sort of brazen obtuseness characterized their pre-season reaction to Hank Steinbrenner's claim of bias on their part. They trotted out Peter Gammons, aka Theo Epstein's bathroom attendant, to mock Steinbrenner by likening him to Joseph McCarthy. Yeah, like anyone would need a "secret list" to establish that Gammon of all people is the biggest Chowderville homer since Johnny Most (who once claimed Wilt Chamberlain had bludgeoned Bill Russell in the elbow with his eye). The salient difference being of course that Most was in fact a home town announcer, while the Dali Lama as they call him (why exactly, do they mistake his triteness for profundity, his vacuousness for wisdom--a gross insult to Tibetan Buddhism in any case) purports to be a national commentator.
RISP WATCH
About 4 games ago, I remarked that the Yankees had left 18 men on base, a ridiculous number by any standard. Well after not even getting on base the following game, they came back with a 20 LOB game to finish the Tigers series and then a 16 LOB game in the Wang-win last night, for an average of 18 per game. This simply cannot continue. One remedy might be to sit Giambi, who seems unable to lift that 160 batting average. The other might be to play Chad Moeller for awhile, if his defense suffices. He seems a much better hitter than Molina. Finally, I'll repeat, play Gonzalez at third for now (Ensberg can play first with Duncan). I will keep a running account of the RISP situation.
PARADOXES, PARADOXES
Going into the season, many people, myself included, felt that the Yankees' major problem might be that they had no true ace at the start of their rotation. Well, it looks like they have one alwright. Too bad they have little else.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
CAN'T BUY ME FUNDAMENTALS; OR UNSOUND
AT ANY PRICE.
With the Yankees payroll, one would expect that the rudiments of the game at least would be well attended to: you know bunting, the hit and run, putting the ball in play, hitting the other way, taking the extra base and, oh yes, lest we forget, FIELDING YOUR FUCKING POSITION.
The state of the Yankee starting rotation and their anemic offense has so far occupied us that we have forgotten a major bugaboo of Torre: The Late Years. I refer of course to their awful glovework. Putting Melky in center on a regular basis had amended matters some, but tonight was proof that they are still able to lose games entirely on their ineptitude in the field. The box score will say that Ian Kennedy failed to hold up again, but if Damon doesn't misplay a flyball in the most amatuerish manner possible and if Abreu doesn't allow his wall-phobia to prevent from tracking down an eminently catchable ball in right, Kennedy takes his lead lead into the 6th and maybe beyond, the Yankees don't have to rely on their pathetic middle relief--send Albajendo back down, please--but can go directly to the back end, and they probably win the game. Instead they get Tiger-swept in the Stadium for the first time since 1966, which may well be an index of exactly how crapulent this team can be if they really apply themselves.
Bad fielding is always a demoralizing proposition, but when you have young inexperienced hurlers (Kennedy, Hughes, Chamberlain, Ohlendorf), supersensitve pitchers (Mussina, Fahrnsorth), control-put the ball in play pitchers (Pettite, Wang, Mussina)--well that's everyone but Mo--then poor fielding is fatal, even when the offense is as good as the Yankees' reputation (as opposed to their performance).
People are stupid moment of the day: Many Yankee haters are already crowing in the wake of theHughes injury, that they should have shipped him off for Santana. This piece of obtuseness overlooks 2 salient points. First, the Twins were unwilling to trade him for Hughes even up, or even for Hughes and Cabrera. They wanted Hughes, Kennedy and Cabrera, which would have left the Yankees with a huge hole in center and in their rotation. Second, this team isn't good enough for Santana to help, particularly if the woeful Damon were in center. Santana is only 3-2 with the Mets, a much better team than the Yankees, particularly relative to their competition. His ERA is over 3, which is over 4 translated into AL stats, andn the Yankees are typically not getting 4 runs a game anyway. Santana would have been wasted on this team; better he should be where he can do some good, and the Yankees keep a purchase on the future. They have none on the present regardless.
With the Yankees payroll, one would expect that the rudiments of the game at least would be well attended to: you know bunting, the hit and run, putting the ball in play, hitting the other way, taking the extra base and, oh yes, lest we forget, FIELDING YOUR FUCKING POSITION.
The state of the Yankee starting rotation and their anemic offense has so far occupied us that we have forgotten a major bugaboo of Torre: The Late Years. I refer of course to their awful glovework. Putting Melky in center on a regular basis had amended matters some, but tonight was proof that they are still able to lose games entirely on their ineptitude in the field. The box score will say that Ian Kennedy failed to hold up again, but if Damon doesn't misplay a flyball in the most amatuerish manner possible and if Abreu doesn't allow his wall-phobia to prevent from tracking down an eminently catchable ball in right, Kennedy takes his lead lead into the 6th and maybe beyond, the Yankees don't have to rely on their pathetic middle relief--send Albajendo back down, please--but can go directly to the back end, and they probably win the game. Instead they get Tiger-swept in the Stadium for the first time since 1966, which may well be an index of exactly how crapulent this team can be if they really apply themselves.
Bad fielding is always a demoralizing proposition, but when you have young inexperienced hurlers (Kennedy, Hughes, Chamberlain, Ohlendorf), supersensitve pitchers (Mussina, Fahrnsorth), control-put the ball in play pitchers (Pettite, Wang, Mussina)--well that's everyone but Mo--then poor fielding is fatal, even when the offense is as good as the Yankees' reputation (as opposed to their performance).
People are stupid moment of the day: Many Yankee haters are already crowing in the wake of theHughes injury, that they should have shipped him off for Santana. This piece of obtuseness overlooks 2 salient points. First, the Twins were unwilling to trade him for Hughes even up, or even for Hughes and Cabrera. They wanted Hughes, Kennedy and Cabrera, which would have left the Yankees with a huge hole in center and in their rotation. Second, this team isn't good enough for Santana to help, particularly if the woeful Damon were in center. Santana is only 3-2 with the Mets, a much better team than the Yankees, particularly relative to their competition. His ERA is over 3, which is over 4 translated into AL stats, andn the Yankees are typically not getting 4 runs a game anyway. Santana would have been wasted on this team; better he should be where he can do some good, and the Yankees keep a purchase on the future. They have none on the present regardless.
WHY NOT
Joba? With Hughes out until July with a fractured rib, you have to slot somebody as the number 3, and I'm thinking it might as well be Chamberlain. The sad fact is the yankees don't need an eigth inning set up man because they aren't going to have the lead often enough to support his activity. Might as well promote Farnsworth and see if Joba can be the starter they hope. This is not a team with a back end of the rotation, a consistent offense or any real character. Giardi would have to blow them up and do a miraculous reconstruction job just to get them to the playoffs. Forced to rebuild, they might as well do what rebuilding teams do: take inventory. This is Mussina's last year (one hopes) , Pettite's last year (almost certainly), and it is now unclear when and whether Kennedy and Hughes will be reliable starters. you might as well begin refashioning the rotation for next year right now. Let's take a look at Joba.
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