Saturday, May 29, 2010

The Genius Maker #38

The Yankees have a stretch of games against weaker opponents over the next 15 games (16 including last night). I had a number of 11-5 as the record I would like to see for these games. Let’s view it as the quest for 11 (kind of like what we did during the playoffs as a quest for 11 wins and the Championship)

Well, 1 down and 10 to go. With Granderson back it really helps our lineup against righties and our defense. Of course when you have Moeller and Pena in the lineup it still doesn’t turn over like one would want.

First the rants…I really don’t have anything of note from last night. Red Sox lost (to KC), TB lost, our young starter was dominant, Cano hit a grand slam and we won without burning out the bullpen! What could be wrong? ...at least for a day.

People have talked about Hughes throwing the cutter too much. I don’t agree with that, what I think is that when the cutter isn’t good then he shouldn’t throw it as often. Last night he had excellent movement on it and not coincidentally, he was dominant.

My prediction at the start of the year that Winn was a bad signing and would be released happened already…and it was the right move. At least the Yanks will admit their mistakes. I expect we will see Miranda and Thames platoon at DH with Russo playing against lefties in the OF spots and resting infielders the same way; Pena will rest infielders against righties as he did yesterday. Of course, if Pena doesn’t start to hit better he may find himself down in the minors, but Pena is usually decent from the left side.

It seems like Cano is the only guy who can hit with runners in scoring position, but that will change. Remember when everyone said ARod was a great player, but was a choker and then everyone was saying we have to worry about Cano in the 5 hole because he can’t hit with runners in scoring position? Can we please put that entire BS to rest? Isn’t it pretty clear that guys are streaky and go through bad stretches and good stretches? I remember countless long arguments with people where I was defending ARod and stating that one good postseason would get him on target with his regular season and it was a not a long enough stretch to make any meaningful conclusions…I also remember people with the same “I don’t care what you tell me, he is a choker” response time and time again. After Cano dispelled this “mistruth” again this year, we should be able to roll our eyes the next time we hear so and so isn’t clutch.

We have a mismatch in our favor today with CC going against a weak pitcher…time for number 2 (BTW, I would be happy to win more than 11).

Finally, some people have been posting some comments at the end of posts (just a few), but please take the time to respond to them or ask me questions or leave your own comments...it would be nice to get a little back and forth dialogue.

4 comments:

  1. Ok, question time. How do you feel about Cano's continued childlike grandstanding when he smacks a good one like last night? And then to do a curtain call while the pitch is on it's way? That's not only rude and distracting to the pitcher but to his own team mate. What say you?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't have any issues with the curtain call whether it was for my team or the other team. The fans are the ones asking for it and he did just hit a grand slam. If the fans start asking for a curtain call for something that was not that big a deal then maybe I would have more of an issue with it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It wasn't the curtain call it was the timing. And, mostly the self-admiration of the home run.

    ReplyDelete