Sunday, May 2, 2010

The Genius Maker #20

Saturday’s game was frustrating because the Yankees fought back from another awful performance from Vazquez only to see Robertson and Marte give it back and lose a tough 7-6 game.

Vazquez simply has no command of his pitches right now and better get it going soon. He will only get a few more shots if he continues this bad. If he has 2 more outings like this, I am in favor of getting him straightened out before sending him back out there. I do think he will right the ship as his track record and stuff show a guy who should put up a 4.5 ERA and be a solid #4 starter. However, he simply is missing all his spots and walking guys at an alarming rate. Let’s see our coaches right the ship.

Sunday’s game was a lot more fun as the Yanks just mauled the WS pitchers and Hughes was in complete command. For some reason Al Leiter kept saying that Hughes was using his slider, but it was his cutter. The cutter was effective again, although he didn’t control it that well at first. In general Hughes had excellent command of his fastball and the other pitches were just good enough to keep the Sox hitters off balance.

The Yanks offense was hitting on all cylinders as hitting sensation (kind of funny to say this) Brett Gardner even went yard. Even Texiera grabbed 4 hits to up his batting average to .189 (wow was he bad). Cano hit his 9th homer!

While Gardner, Thames and Cano are playing above their heads (not that Cano isn’t great as you know I have been touting him, but a 1.200 OPS and on a pace for 60 homers is a bit extreme), Nick Johnson, Texiera and ARod are struggling. Granderson has been bad as well and now he is on the DL for what may be a month. This is a big blow because it was expected he would be doing a better job. I would expect the Yanks to call up Golson to help out, but this is a time for Winn and Thames to platoon in LF and see if Winn can do anything; if not just release him and use Golson as the defense is probably at least as good and maybe he can hit better than Winn.

Back to the way the Yanks are playing many people are saying just wait for Tex, NJ and ARod to start hitting, but overall the offense is doing about what you would expect overall. The Yankee bullpen is not doing a good job so far, except Mariano. Joba has been OK, but nobody else has been good thus far.

Melancon was brought up and he pitches in Sunday’s game. He is highly touted, but I have yet to see stuff that looks dominant? I have not seen that much of him, but so far he surely doesn’t have Joba type of excitement surrounding him. I only wish Joba were throwing 97-98 again.

Speaking of throwing hard, I was very impressed with the velocity of Boone Logan the other night. In his prior outing he consistently hit 94-95 and this last one he did again and even dialed one pitch that was clocked at 97! He does not have a sharp breaking ball, but when you can dial up to 95+ and spot it, you can do well. That is a pleasant surprise.

Oh, BTW, Hughes' ERA is now 1.44 and he is 3-0! Not bad for a #5.

I want all 3 games against Baltimore and then let’s see what happens in Boston. Game 1 is Vazquez against Beckett

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