Sunday, May 13, 2012

The Genius Maker through 5-13

I forgot to mention the other day something Cone said.  I like Cone and enjoy that he believes in stats as well as his unusual perspective/sense of humor.  But, he said something the other day that I said to myself, what is he talking about; he is just wrong???  After Martin made a very close attempt of a pickoff on a guy at first he said that is one of the reasons why having a lefty first baseman is better for getting that throw and tagging the guy.  then he continued about how much easier it is etc...of course, that is just wrong as one of the 2 main advantages of having a righty first baseman is being able to naturally take the throw from the catcher on the forehand and tag/catch at the same time.  The other advantage is being able to protect the line on the forehand better.  however, catching the ball on a pickoff attempt from the pitcher is easier with the lefty thrower and turning two is much easier to field and throw.  The funny thing was that tex actually should have caught that throw closer to the runner as he would have been out but he caught it in front of the bag and then had to sweep tag (similar to my comments about how Jeter usually took throws at 2nd base (although he has been better of late)

Onto the Pettitte game.  2 out walk and a 2 run homer got us on the wrong start.  Then we finished with a another 2 run homer.  Overall, Pettitte pitched eh, you can't walk a guy every other inning.  He had good location on his fastball and good break on his curve, but his fastball didn't have much movement and the cutter didn't move well at all.  He was throwing 88 so that was OK for him, but he needs to be able to throw inside better with his cutter to righties and that was non existent.  Remember, Seattle is a weak hitting team.  I did like having him out there and I would expect to see a better cutter moving forward.

The Yankee offense was pretty bad as Kevin Millwood made us look bad and I am not sure how many years it has been since Millwood made anyone look bad, but we accomplished that.  He was 0-4 coming into the game with an ERA of almost 6.   Jeter hit into 2 DP's and ARod 1, but I think there were two main opportunities and they were after Millwood walked two to load the bases, Jeter swung at the first pitch and hit into a DP, then later tex was up with bases loaded, from the right side, and struck out on a ball in the dirt.  Millwood was not bad actually, but we still did a poor job.

While on Tex, with the bases loaded and one out, Pettitte got the batter to hit one right to Tex, who stepped and 1st and then correctly threw home top get the tag out at home.  This is a classic example of understanding what you are going to do if the ball is hit to you.  Most of the time in that situation he would step on first and throw to 2nd base, but because the force was off, the smart play was to come home because the run would have scored most likely even if he got the out at 2nd.

Rapada should not have been left in against the righty...in any important spot he should not be facing a righty...PERIOD

And of course, we had another guy get thrown out with nobody out down 6-2 late in the game...I don't care if it was Swisher's fault or the umps,but if it is that close it is the wrong play!

Every game in this series was 6-2

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