I did watch the Sunday night snooze fest as the Yankees bats remained silent. If not for one bad changeup that Severino threw, the game may still be scoreless. The 9th inning is a microcosm of understanding the poor approach the Yankees have had at the plate. Down 2-0 and getting almost nothing going offensively, Stanton was up. He has a 2-1 count on him and his approach has to get on base any way he can. The pitch is extremely high for ball 3 but he swings and misses. He then doesn't swing and gets called out on strike 3. That sums it up.
The title of this blog and what I have below was written after Saturday night.
I know everyone is excited that the Yankees winning the series against our crosstown rivals and now we have bragging rights. These games are the most meaningless as far as I am concerned. Just barely worth more than any non-AL game. Also, the Mets are banged up and in a free fall. The Mets simply can't hit at all. To be fair, the Yankees aren't doing much better either as it feels like most of the team is struggling; we didn't score for the 1st 12 innings last game (Friday). deGrom has been dominant this year, but I felt like he left a lot of very hittable pitches for the Yanks and we didn't take advantage of them. We are not good at the plate now. Gardner stayed hot though and came through!
Not a fan of teh pitchers batting either. They don't do it enough in schools anymore and in the minors it isn't as often and honestly the confornattaion between a pitcher and a batter is what interests me. Watyching Severino hack up there and possibly hurt himself is not interesting to me. I woudl like to see more challenging situations. Now Tanaka has tight hammy's?
Other Notes:
Really bad news regarding Montgomery... His 3.62 ERA which might have been a little fortunate, but even so he was doing a nice job and was developing into a solid back of the rotation guy. Hopefully, he can come back strong in a few years.
Surprise stat: Bird has only 1 walk? (Updated: he now has 2 walks as he walked in the 9th Sunday night only to be stupidly doubled off after Sanchez lined to 3rd with 1 out. Where the heck is he going? He wasn't the tying run...just dumb!) But, for Bird to only have walked once in about 45 AB's is very surprising
Another stat...Judge, who owns the 6th most strikeouts in a single year (208) is on pace for 226 which would be the most ever in a single year (record is 223 by Mark Reynolds). Stanton is right there as well with a pace of tying Reynolds at 223. This battle should be epic down the stretch :-)
Andujar hit another HR on a breaking ball; the kid is good!
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I think that a lot of the blame for Tanaka's injury is on the coaching staff, most specifically the 3rd base coach. First, the coaching staff needs to impress upon the pitchers that they should accelerate very slowly out of the box, and top off at a comfortable gait instead of top speed. Unless it's the playoffs, they're not to give extra hustle under any game circumstances.
ReplyDeleteEqually important, the coaches need to make sure they never take chances with advancing the pitchers. Unless it's a sure thing with the pitchers not exerting themselves in any way, you should never send the pitcher. Honestly, when Judge hit the sacrifice fly where Tanaka got hurt, my immediate thought when I saw where the ball would be caught was "that's too close of a play to send a pitcher; you can't risk the injury." That was a terrible send! If the throw was any good, he would have been out.
I like when the pitchers hit--I think baseball is a much more interesting game when there is more variance in the hitting skills of a lineup; I am a Yankee fan, but I don't like the circular lineups of the A.L. that much. I don't like the way pitchers get hurt, but in a lot of ways that can be averted with the proper coaching as I mentioned above--the pitchers need to run like they're fragile old men playing softball. Also, I don't think that pitchers injure their arms very often while hitting. I know that legs are really important in pitching, but the real worry long term with a pitcher is their arm.
Because the Mets broadcast does not superimpose the strike zone over the live action, I watched the game on the Mets channel. With the sound off of course--who wants to listen to Keith Hernandez? One good thing is that on the first time around the lineup, they show both the Slug and OBP for each player, so you can easily figure out the OPS without checking on line.
The Mets broadcast also posted an interesting stat that I'm not sure the Yankee broadcast mentioned. Apparently, Tanaka has the highest percentage in the majors of balls thrown in the bottom 3rd of the strike zone or lower. And his opponent deGrom has the highest percentage of balls thrown in the top 3rd or higher.
That is a cool stat...and I don't like the box either - just put it up for IR. As for the DH, we can disagree; why have a player who you can't or shouldn't play the way the game was designed? Also, some pitchers bat the opposite side so their pitching arm isn't exposed. Further, I like watching an interesting batter pitcher battle; the pitchers are the most boring battle in the game. Finally, I am old and I take the extra base and dive and pay for it by pulling my hamstring and needing surgery on my shoulder...that is what football is all about...uh, I mean baseball :-)
ReplyDeleteThe way the "game was designed" was to be a game where as soon as you are substituted for, you are out of the game. No exceptions. Pitchers are technically no different from any other player--they can play any position and swap out of being a pitcher any time they want, as long as they don't come out of the game.
ReplyDeleteI know just as well as you how difficult it is to play anything other than all out, even when you're older and more prone to injury. However, pitchers who hit are not the only ones who do this in sports. QBs in football are similarly coached not to risk injury when they run. QBs who go all out and play "the way the game was designed" don't last very long; in fact they run a greater risk than pitchers who bat. Any player who is playing with or coming back from an injury also faces this issue of being careful when they play.
Maybe the at bat itself isn't as interesting a confrontation, but the confrontation between managers is far more interesting when the pitchers bat: how many times has Boone pinch hit this year?
One more comment about the DH: I don't like it, but I don't like the fact that the two leagues do it differently even more. It's not really that bad during interleague play, but to have the championship and have it so every game played has one team not playing under the conditions for which they were built is a terrible way to do things. That's not what home field advantage should mean!
ReplyDeleteOf course with my opinion on the DH, I'd rather have it be eliminated from both leagues. However, I would prefer to see the NL adopt the DH over having things continue with both leagues playing differently. I always thought the DH was an experiment that they were trying in the AL to see whether it should be adopted by both leagues, or abandoned.
I agree the leagues should be the same. As for the "as it is designed" comment, I am more speaking to the batters who throw righty but bat righty even if they are a natural lefty so that they protect their arm. As for how it was designed, when you look back on teh original game, the rules were very different so that is not really a good argument to use. Your point about QB's scrambling is a good one.
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