Thursday, July 10, 2008
THAT'S THIRTY GAMES
scoring 2 runs or less, while the pitching keeps getting better. The improvement points to the importance of Dave Eyland. We who complained about the incompetence of Mel Stottlemeyer may have been slow to recognize how much better the pitching coach is because Kennedy and Hughes started so slow and then injured themselves. But I think the manifest improvement in middle and set up relief, the salvaging of Moose and Sidney Ponson, the continued development of Joba all indicate that Eyland's promotion to the major league club is paying dividends. The hitting coach...not so much.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
A PAIR OF SURPRISING STATS
While the pudits continue to wring their hands over the Yankees pitching, the staff has quietly compiled nine shutouts already this season, as compared with five all of last year. They are not as bad as people think, and the new Joe is clearly superior to the old in one respect, his handling of the bullpen. He even has the big F looking decent. On the other hand the Yankees have already gone 29 games scoring 2 or fewer, as compared with 33 all of last year, testimony to the weak-mindedness of the lineup with men on base. As the trade deadline approaches, maybe the Yankees could use a big righthanded bat==see Matt Holiday--even more than a starting pitcher.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
THAT'S TWO
late inning, game-winning RBI's for Gardner on successive days. Does anyone on the team have that many for the entire season. Maybe Giambi. Certainly not AROD.
LOL
A nice win yesterday, almost undone by Mike Lowell. His RBI liner against Mo in the ninth was an utterly representative at bat for him. He is at this moment one of the five most important bats, as far as winning games is concerned, in the entire American League. And we could have had him. Well at least we have Brett Gardner to produce the game winning Ribbies.
Friday, July 4, 2008
UNHEIMLICH
It was uncanny that the day after I called for Hank to fire somebody or send people down, he gave the team a tonguelashing and a warning that players would be sent down soon. It worked for exactly one game, before the Yankees turned in perhaps their worst performance all year on Thursday night. Once again the failure to field (big error by Jeter) and the failure to hit in big spots did them in. Thew same thing today. And as always the poster child for the category of superstar loser is AROD. With the Yankees up 12-7 Wednesday night, AROD launches one of his typically pointless 3 run homers to pull him within one of Mickey Mantle, one fo the greatest clutch players in the history of the game. Last night, with the Yanks having given up 2 in the first on the Jeter error, AROD comes up with runners on first and third, one out. It is the type of situation in which you have to produce a run--to close the gap, to put pressure on Lester, to make him throw more pitches. Instead, Mr. Overrated gets impatient and swings at a ball eight inches wide of the strike zone for a K. It sets off a contagion of impatience on the Yankees part--they start swinging at every first pitch. Today, AROD comes up with the bases loaded, 2 outs, bottom of the seventh. The Yankees have chased Beckett, but thanks to a mike Lowell home run they trail 6-3. AROD proceeds to bounce out, killing the rally and consolidating the Yankees spot as the worst hitting team with the bases loaded in all of baseball.
This is no coincedence. With AROD's lifetime contract in place, the Yankees are his team and they have increasingly taken on his personality, or I should say gag reflex. No sooner is he installed as the permanent "man" on the team than their RISP numbers, never great, go through the floor. He is Mr. Unheimlich--in the sense of Mr. Uncanny, a superstar who not only doesn't make the players around him better but actually makes them worse--and in the sense of Mr. Unheimlich Maneuver, the man who just can't stop choking.
When AROD tried to do the Yankees the same favor slow Joe did by opting out of his contract, I said right off let him go and then overpay significantly to get Mike Lowell--knowing of course that even an obscene overpayment would still be dwarfed by the AROD contract. Well, I was right. Not only is Lowell much cheaper, not only is he one of the great clubhouse presences in all of baseball, not only is he a proven winner to AROD's proven loser, he is a better all-around baseball player than AROD: a better glove at third, a better arm at third, a much better hitter in big situations with men on base.
For whatever reason, the fans at the stadium have stopped making AROD's life miserable. Have they bought into the pundit's excoriation of their lack of taste or baseball knowledge, have they just gotten tired, have they been discouraged by the 10 year contract? I wish they would start again, because it is only by tormenting him that we can ever get rid of him. I've given up on the idea that he will ever be a winner as well as a superstar.
And frankly I don't see how his recent move from common whores to celebrity skanks can help.
This is no coincedence. With AROD's lifetime contract in place, the Yankees are his team and they have increasingly taken on his personality, or I should say gag reflex. No sooner is he installed as the permanent "man" on the team than their RISP numbers, never great, go through the floor. He is Mr. Unheimlich--in the sense of Mr. Uncanny, a superstar who not only doesn't make the players around him better but actually makes them worse--and in the sense of Mr. Unheimlich Maneuver, the man who just can't stop choking.
When AROD tried to do the Yankees the same favor slow Joe did by opting out of his contract, I said right off let him go and then overpay significantly to get Mike Lowell--knowing of course that even an obscene overpayment would still be dwarfed by the AROD contract. Well, I was right. Not only is Lowell much cheaper, not only is he one of the great clubhouse presences in all of baseball, not only is he a proven winner to AROD's proven loser, he is a better all-around baseball player than AROD: a better glove at third, a better arm at third, a much better hitter in big situations with men on base.
For whatever reason, the fans at the stadium have stopped making AROD's life miserable. Have they bought into the pundit's excoriation of their lack of taste or baseball knowledge, have they just gotten tired, have they been discouraged by the 10 year contract? I wish they would start again, because it is only by tormenting him that we can ever get rid of him. I've given up on the idea that he will ever be a winner as well as a superstar.
And frankly I don't see how his recent move from common whores to celebrity skanks can help.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
IT'S TIME FOR HANK
rto fire somebody. Frankly, I don't care who it is. But somebody needs to go to show this team theis bair current level of play is not acceptable. And if the firing doesn't work, it's time to send some superstars down to double A and make them ride buses for awhile.
This is a team that supposedly has pitching problems holding down the best offense in baseball. And for the third consecutive game and the sixth time in recent memory, the Yanks offense wastes good to great pitching and loses a game that was there for the taking. Probably they'll wind up getting swept at home by a mediocre team, the second time that has happened this year. Why? Start with the familiar. They cannot hit with men on base. They left 15 this game. If you took the Yankees WHGP (walks and hits per game) and divided it by their RPG, I'm sure the number, the WQ or Wastage Quotient, would be higher than any team in the league. If you did the same division for just the 7th through 9th innings, it would be astronomically higher than any other team. Is this Giardi's fault? Not Really. But he can't be sitting important components--in this game Jeter and Matsui--when the team is misfiring this badly. Stop babying these guys. Let them play hurt once in a while, and let it be known, the more the team loses the less you give a damn about individual aches and pains.
I had really hoped that the hiring of Giardi would mean an end to the mollycoddling of Mama Joe. But in this, as in other areas discussed here, Giardi has been much less of a change agent than advertised. This team should be ashamed of itself, and the manager and owner, as well as the fans, should let them know it.
One more thing. Why doesn't Giardi understand at this point that you simply do not pitch Rivera in a tie game. Look at the stats: without a lead to protect, Rivera is not great, not good, not even average; he stinks, as his ERA, 4.oo, proves beyond doubt. In a tie game you are actually better off with Farnsworth.
This is a team that supposedly has pitching problems holding down the best offense in baseball. And for the third consecutive game and the sixth time in recent memory, the Yanks offense wastes good to great pitching and loses a game that was there for the taking. Probably they'll wind up getting swept at home by a mediocre team, the second time that has happened this year. Why? Start with the familiar. They cannot hit with men on base. They left 15 this game. If you took the Yankees WHGP (walks and hits per game) and divided it by their RPG, I'm sure the number, the WQ or Wastage Quotient, would be higher than any team in the league. If you did the same division for just the 7th through 9th innings, it would be astronomically higher than any other team. Is this Giardi's fault? Not Really. But he can't be sitting important components--in this game Jeter and Matsui--when the team is misfiring this badly. Stop babying these guys. Let them play hurt once in a while, and let it be known, the more the team loses the less you give a damn about individual aches and pains.
I had really hoped that the hiring of Giardi would mean an end to the mollycoddling of Mama Joe. But in this, as in other areas discussed here, Giardi has been much less of a change agent than advertised. This team should be ashamed of itself, and the manager and owner, as well as the fans, should let them know it.
One more thing. Why doesn't Giardi understand at this point that you simply do not pitch Rivera in a tie game. Look at the stats: without a lead to protect, Rivera is not great, not good, not even average; he stinks, as his ERA, 4.oo, proves beyond doubt. In a tie game you are actually better off with Farnsworth.
Monday, June 30, 2008
THE CURSE REVERSED
I don't believe in curses, Bamino or otherwise, but that doesn't stop me from thinking that those who do ought to at least respect the logic of the curse when speculating as to its origins.
There seems to be a view in Chowderville and its propaganda machine (ESPN) that the Red Sox reversed the curse of the Bambino in 2004, when they won 4 straight to take the ALCS. But if the curse were still in effect to that point, it stands to reason, then the feast itself would mhave been rendered impossible from the start. To suggest otherwise is to confuse cause and effect, the lifting of the curse with the proof of its having been lifted.
Others have pointed to the acquisition of AROD as the point of reversal and I think this is closer to the truth. AROD is after all as giant a disappointment ans the Babe was an unqualified boon. The Babe held the record for World series homers for 35 years until the Mick broke it in 1964 (interestingly, a Series that spelled the true end of the Yankees dynasty circa 1924-1964 (or Babe to Gehrig to Dimaggio to Berra to Mantle to Maris). AROD of course is the very reversal of that clutch proficiency--the incredible shrinking postseason performer. But still the logic isn't quite right. After all the curse started with the Yankees taking a star from the Sox; it should be reversed with the Sox taking one form the Yanks, or the Yanks not taking one from the Sox, i. e. failing to capitalize on the kind of opportunity that got the curse rolling.
And now we can see exactly where the curse got reversed. In 2002, the Red Sox grew fed up with the one modern day ballplayer who rivals Babe Ruth in hitting for average, hitting with power, hitting in the clutch combined with being a clown, being colorful, and being beloved for both. I refer of course to Manny Ramirez, whose signature epithet, it's Manny being Manny, could just as easily read it's Manny channeling the Babe. Now the Red Sox did something arguably as stupid as selling the Babe to finance No No Nanette. They put Manny on waivers with absolutely no intention of pulling him off if they could get someone to pick up his 18mil per year salary. It was widely understood at that point that only the Yankees would be willing to throw that kind of money around and Manny made his willingness to go to the Yankees no secret. For mere money, albeit a lot of money, the Yankees secured the Babe and became the most successful franchise in sports history. Fro mere money, albeit a lot of money, they could have secured Manny Ramirez and extended that 29th century success story into the new millenium. But they failed to secure the man who, more than Mantle or Dimaggio or Gehrig or Jackson is the heir to Babe Ruth as the premiere idiot savant hitter of his time, a man who doesn't know enough or care enough to feel pressure and so doesn't know enough or care enough to let his prodigious talents down. The Yankees let the Red Sox, no made the Red Sox keep the new Babe and made possible the reverse of the curse. As invincibly stupid as they had become, the Red Sox still looked to dump Manny for AROD and insead of letting them do it, the Yankees redoubled their error by swooping in and snatching up a man whose all around abilities as a ballplayers are exceeded only by his all around debilities as a loser. Of course had the Yankees taken the original gift, or rather the Ruthian sequel, the Red Sox would have had nothing to barter for AROD, the Yankees would have felt no need to pursue him, and he would still be putting up outrageous numbers in Arlington or some other backwater where nobody expects you to win or blames you for losing.
The Yankees reversed the curse themselves by failing to recognize in the Ranirez salary/attitude dump the second coming of the Ruth sale and all that went with it. Since then, it has been the Red Sox who get the decent players that just seem to fit in so well, the Orlando Cabreras, the Mike Lowells, the Bill Muellers. These are the modern day equivalents of a
Scott Brosius, Oscar Gamble, Bucky Dent, Mariano Duncan, the effects of a charmed baseball life.
Or they would be if curses really existed.
There seems to be a view in Chowderville and its propaganda machine (ESPN) that the Red Sox reversed the curse of the Bambino in 2004, when they won 4 straight to take the ALCS. But if the curse were still in effect to that point, it stands to reason, then the feast itself would mhave been rendered impossible from the start. To suggest otherwise is to confuse cause and effect, the lifting of the curse with the proof of its having been lifted.
Others have pointed to the acquisition of AROD as the point of reversal and I think this is closer to the truth. AROD is after all as giant a disappointment ans the Babe was an unqualified boon. The Babe held the record for World series homers for 35 years until the Mick broke it in 1964 (interestingly, a Series that spelled the true end of the Yankees dynasty circa 1924-1964 (or Babe to Gehrig to Dimaggio to Berra to Mantle to Maris). AROD of course is the very reversal of that clutch proficiency--the incredible shrinking postseason performer. But still the logic isn't quite right. After all the curse started with the Yankees taking a star from the Sox; it should be reversed with the Sox taking one form the Yanks, or the Yanks not taking one from the Sox, i. e. failing to capitalize on the kind of opportunity that got the curse rolling.
And now we can see exactly where the curse got reversed. In 2002, the Red Sox grew fed up with the one modern day ballplayer who rivals Babe Ruth in hitting for average, hitting with power, hitting in the clutch combined with being a clown, being colorful, and being beloved for both. I refer of course to Manny Ramirez, whose signature epithet, it's Manny being Manny, could just as easily read it's Manny channeling the Babe. Now the Red Sox did something arguably as stupid as selling the Babe to finance No No Nanette. They put Manny on waivers with absolutely no intention of pulling him off if they could get someone to pick up his 18mil per year salary. It was widely understood at that point that only the Yankees would be willing to throw that kind of money around and Manny made his willingness to go to the Yankees no secret. For mere money, albeit a lot of money, the Yankees secured the Babe and became the most successful franchise in sports history. Fro mere money, albeit a lot of money, they could have secured Manny Ramirez and extended that 29th century success story into the new millenium. But they failed to secure the man who, more than Mantle or Dimaggio or Gehrig or Jackson is the heir to Babe Ruth as the premiere idiot savant hitter of his time, a man who doesn't know enough or care enough to feel pressure and so doesn't know enough or care enough to let his prodigious talents down. The Yankees let the Red Sox, no made the Red Sox keep the new Babe and made possible the reverse of the curse. As invincibly stupid as they had become, the Red Sox still looked to dump Manny for AROD and insead of letting them do it, the Yankees redoubled their error by swooping in and snatching up a man whose all around abilities as a ballplayers are exceeded only by his all around debilities as a loser. Of course had the Yankees taken the original gift, or rather the Ruthian sequel, the Red Sox would have had nothing to barter for AROD, the Yankees would have felt no need to pursue him, and he would still be putting up outrageous numbers in Arlington or some other backwater where nobody expects you to win or blames you for losing.
The Yankees reversed the curse themselves by failing to recognize in the Ranirez salary/attitude dump the second coming of the Ruth sale and all that went with it. Since then, it has been the Red Sox who get the decent players that just seem to fit in so well, the Orlando Cabreras, the Mike Lowells, the Bill Muellers. These are the modern day equivalents of a
Scott Brosius, Oscar Gamble, Bucky Dent, Mariano Duncan, the effects of a charmed baseball life.
Or they would be if curses really existed.
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