Monday, May 7, 2012

The Genius Maker 5-6

Two points I wanted to make will be made after a brief update on last night's game: 

Cano finally got a big hit (Grand Slam) and Hughes looked decent all the way into the 7th inning.  I think the KC radar gun may be a MPH or 2 fast, but Hughes maintained a good velocity into the 7th and that is encouraging.  He also threw a decent change and curve.  But this was the Royals and Hughes still lets far too many left side of the plate balls leak over the plate.  It seems he has trouble throwing outside to righties/inside to lefties.  This will be a critical piece for him to fix.

1) On Saturday night the Yankees were losing 3-0 when a medium fly ball went to RF and Granderson was on 2nd with nobody out.  Francouer plays RF for KC and the one thing he does have is an excellent arm.  Granderson tagged and was thrown out on a close play.  Those of you veteran blog readers know I think Robby Thompson takes far too many chances and I have an issue with him because after getting his (appx) 5th guy thrown out with less than 2 outs at home he said "if I am not getting guys thrown out than I am not being aggressive enough."  My issue is not that guys get thrown out, my issue is that Robby Thompson probably doesn't understand that getting guys thrown out isn't the problem; it is WHEN.  When you are down by 3 runs you simply can't make outs on the base paths PERIOD.  A 90% chance is NOT worth taking that chance.  Getting thrown out at home with nobody out is almost never a good idea, yet that was his response.  Anyway, when Granderson got thrown out it reminded me why I was ticked at Girardi for not retaining Larry Bowa as our 3rd base coach (he was excellent there) and it also showed that after Thompson has screwed up more times than he should, Girardi was too lame to switch him out and I believe even defended the stupid answer with his own insulting rhetoric.

2) I think the Yankee owners are focusing too much on making money rather than doing what George used to do and that is focus on winning.  George knew that if the team was winning he would make more money; now compare it to the comments about not going over the revenue sharing limit.  I was watching the Orioles series and it is shocking how quite and empty the stadium is.  If the Yanks win people will come, but they also need to lower the pricing enough to make it so real fans can go.  They are marketing this all wrong, because if they lowered the pricing, they would sell more tickets and get more people in the stands and the overall take would be higher, especially when you consider all the extra concession business they would garner.  Finally, a healthy and loud crowd would aid the home field advantage which in turn could lead to a few more wins and the cycle continues.

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