A few quick notes on the game:
Paxton looked excellent! While his control was a little off, he did keep his fastball upstairs and he had very good life on his fastball and released his change and curveball with a very similar arm speed and slot. This is what makes him tough to hit as everything is disguised well along with good stuff as well. He threw 66 pitches with 40 of them for strikes, although the strikes include balls that were swung at. Here is the very positive stat; he had 17 swing and misses on only 66 pitches (40 strikes). He also didn't allow a hit in 4 scoreless innings; That says a lot!
The game got off to a great start against Paddock and his 1.93 ERA entering the game. Paddock was ahead of DJ 0-2 and he threw a changeup that was up and DJ crushed it for a leadoff HR. The next pitch was a fastball to Luke that was right down the middle of the plate and Luke crushed it; 2-0! Paddock has very good stuff as well, but he left many pitches in hittable spots. Some were missed, but Urshela got a hanging change as well over the fence.
We added a run on a sac fly by Gardner and then Maybin created a run by stealing 2nd and 3rd base and scored when the throw to 3rd base went into LF. Torres finished off the scoring with a 2 run HR in the 7th inning.
Coaching:
I have written about a bunch of head-scratching moves this year by Boone and I do think he has made mistakes, but I have not written enough about the good things he has done. Obviously, part of the reason the team is doing well has been the way he has rotated players and kept them fresh and also motivated (in some way). He has matched the players up well and there are a ton of subtle things that are done where Boone has put players in the best position for success. The obvious ones are the lineups and the matchups that are set up by going through the mounds of data. This combined with the rest needs and the somewhat frequent starting needs players need to stay sharp but also rested. Yesterday showed one example of the subtle correct moves that were made (BTW, they may be correct and they might not work out). Ottavino started the 6th inning, with the score 4-0. Usually, he is later in the game, but with the top of the lineup coming up for SD and 3 righties, he went with Ottavino as it was an important stopping inning and could have been set up well for SD. Boone followed with weaker pitchers but correctly knew that this was an important inning to shut them down.
Will the players coming back throw off our mojo?
I have been asked this many times and my answer is NO. Just like we saw some of the younger guys like Tauchman and Ford come up but show that they are not major leaguers, replacing them with Frazier and even Maybin are upgrades. Having Judge in the lineup and in RF will be a large upgrade. Having another lefty in Didi will also help both offensively and defensively. Cone mentioned the metrics showing Torres has been good defensively; I haven't looked at them, but I don't agree that he has been good, I do think he has been acceptable, but he has not played as well as Didi normally does. He has 7 errors which is mediocre. This is not a knock on Torres, who is 22 years old and been asked to start at 2nd base and now all of a sudden is starting at SS, but it is what I see. BTW, Torres has an OPS of .881, which is great for a SS. Didi had an OPS of .829 last year for comparison. Adding Stanton as a DH and LF'r will only help as it would be a large upgrade over Morales. Adding Severino will also be a huge benefit for us.
We will have some tough decisions when we get everyone back, for example, what do we do with Tulo? I don't see him getting much playing time and Estrada has played great. I would expect trades to be explored, but keep in mind that we could still have more injuries.
Onto the Red Sox Series!
Thursday, May 30, 2019
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
SD - Game 2
They played through a lot of rain and I am convinced the SD manager made so many pitching moves in hopes of getting the game called for rain while they had the lead.
But, they played the entire game and the umpire behind the plate had a lot to do with the outcome. He had a large strike zone that was very inconsistent. He called an absurdly low pitch to Sanchez a strike in a key spot that changed the entire AB. Unfortunately, Sanchez couldn't finish the AB while he still had a strike as he feebly and defensively swung at a slider that was a strike. It was 1st and 2nd with 1 out and the 2-1 pitch was called a strike; instead of 3-1 it was 2-2. Sanchez needed to get his head back in the game and clearly, he didn't as I have no idea what he was expecting when he got what I would have expected and had no clue what to do. That being said, the umpire was bad and worse for us than SD. SD had their own gripes, we just had 3 more legitimate ones.
Sanchez was up later with 1st and 3rd and 2 outs after we cut the lead to 5-4 but grounded out. He did hit a HR (17) so it is hard to get too mad at Sanchez, but I think about how great a hitter he can be if he can manage his AB's better. He has that "I am going to swing no matter where the pitch is" mentality at times. The result is swinging at pitches that are far out of the strike zone.
Kirby Yates, the SD closer, has had a great year this year (and last year) that started at the age of 30. We had him in 2016 and designated him for assignment. Honestly, he didn't look all that great last night, but his splitter has good movement and he has a plus fastball that moves. Regardless, his numbers are outstanding and it is one of those odd things about baseball where a guy puts it together at the age of 30.
This game was really lost by Tanaka though. While DJ had an error at 3rd base (It is hard to bounce between 2nd, 3rd and some first), Tanaka made very bad pitches in the 1st inning and SD picked up 4 runs to start the game and we were fighting out of that hole the entire game. The big blow was a slider that was centered to the plate that Hosmer jumped all over.
TB won and Boston lost.
One other note, I get more comments to my email (which is fine), but you can leave some comments in the comments section and perhaps some of you can debate a topic or give a thought. My brother made a comment about the GW RBI after I mentioned it in the last post and it might be an interesting topic.
But, they played the entire game and the umpire behind the plate had a lot to do with the outcome. He had a large strike zone that was very inconsistent. He called an absurdly low pitch to Sanchez a strike in a key spot that changed the entire AB. Unfortunately, Sanchez couldn't finish the AB while he still had a strike as he feebly and defensively swung at a slider that was a strike. It was 1st and 2nd with 1 out and the 2-1 pitch was called a strike; instead of 3-1 it was 2-2. Sanchez needed to get his head back in the game and clearly, he didn't as I have no idea what he was expecting when he got what I would have expected and had no clue what to do. That being said, the umpire was bad and worse for us than SD. SD had their own gripes, we just had 3 more legitimate ones.
Sanchez was up later with 1st and 3rd and 2 outs after we cut the lead to 5-4 but grounded out. He did hit a HR (17) so it is hard to get too mad at Sanchez, but I think about how great a hitter he can be if he can manage his AB's better. He has that "I am going to swing no matter where the pitch is" mentality at times. The result is swinging at pitches that are far out of the strike zone.
Kirby Yates, the SD closer, has had a great year this year (and last year) that started at the age of 30. We had him in 2016 and designated him for assignment. Honestly, he didn't look all that great last night, but his splitter has good movement and he has a plus fastball that moves. Regardless, his numbers are outstanding and it is one of those odd things about baseball where a guy puts it together at the age of 30.
This game was really lost by Tanaka though. While DJ had an error at 3rd base (It is hard to bounce between 2nd, 3rd and some first), Tanaka made very bad pitches in the 1st inning and SD picked up 4 runs to start the game and we were fighting out of that hole the entire game. The big blow was a slider that was centered to the plate that Hosmer jumped all over.
TB won and Boston lost.
One other note, I get more comments to my email (which is fine), but you can leave some comments in the comments section and perhaps some of you can debate a topic or give a thought. My brother made a comment about the GW RBI after I mentioned it in the last post and it might be an interesting topic.
Tuesday, May 28, 2019
Game 1 of 3 Against SD
The Yankees took a page out of Tampa Bay's book as Green started and did well (the part that had been missing) and journeyman, Hale pitched 4 innings allowing 2 runs before our 4 best in the pen shut out SD for the final 4 innings.
Gardner, who isn't as good against lefties (.531 OPS against .848 against righties) got the start against lefty Matt Strahm, who lefties have hit well. Gardner came through with a 2 run HR that gave us the lead we never lost.
Tangent Warning: The Game Winning RBI stat has gone away and I don't think it should have. We have stats for everything and as we know the stats many times don't mean as much because the timing can matter more. The one thing about the game-winning RBI stat was that no matter when it happened, it was an important hit/play at the time and not many stats can say that.
Frazier jumped on a hanging slider for his 10th HR and Sanchez now has 16 with a short porch RF fly ball.
Frazier's defense has been very shaky of late and he will need to improve or Stanton would play over him and Frazier would DH (assuming Stanton is healthy).
OPS (at least 35 plate appearances):
Sanchez: .985
Estrada: .939 (47 PA)
Judge: .925 (89 PA)
Torres: .881
Frazier: .876
Voit: .867
Urshela: .834
LeMahieu: .797
Gardner: .786
Maybin: .753 (79 PA)
Morales: .591 (37 PA)
Hicks: .554 (47 PA)
Romine: .503 (81 PA)
Estrada (23) has played great in his time up here, but his minor league numbers don't suggest a 900 OPS guy. Then again, Urshela, who is 27, didn't show this type of offense either. Ride it while you can!
This brings me to the question of what do we do as players come back? I could see a lot of people rotating the DH spot and playing the field. Stanton could mix in the OF and DH and I think Voit would be the same way with DJ playing some 1B, 3B, and 2B. If Didi is healthy and playing well, he will play most of the time at SS, but we should ease him into the role. I don't see a guy like Morales sticking with us once everyone is healthy. Maybin is a possibility because he is a better option than Tauchman and I am not aware of a better option in the minors right now. Estrada has options so I could see him going down.
As poor as the bullpen had done for a while, the four of Ottavino, Kahnle, Britton, and Chapman have a solid ERA between them:
Combined they have 93 IP, 57 hits, 39 walks, 7 HR's and 120 K's and an ERA of 1.74. This is pretty solid and while the walks are high, that is mostly from Ottavino and his 18 walks in 25.1 innings.
Kahnle let up that 3 run HR the other night but has been throwing really well. Yesterday, he was dominant! He was throwing 97/98 and threw his changeup anywhere from 90 - 93 and it had a lot of movement. It was most effective in the 90-91 range, but it reminded me of Greg Maddux's fastball (without the pinpoint control). Regardless, even though Kahnle has allowed 3 HR's in 22 IP, he has allowed only 1 double and 7 singles for an OPS against of .469.
Gardner, who isn't as good against lefties (.531 OPS against .848 against righties) got the start against lefty Matt Strahm, who lefties have hit well. Gardner came through with a 2 run HR that gave us the lead we never lost.
Tangent Warning: The Game Winning RBI stat has gone away and I don't think it should have. We have stats for everything and as we know the stats many times don't mean as much because the timing can matter more. The one thing about the game-winning RBI stat was that no matter when it happened, it was an important hit/play at the time and not many stats can say that.
Frazier jumped on a hanging slider for his 10th HR and Sanchez now has 16 with a short porch RF fly ball.
Frazier's defense has been very shaky of late and he will need to improve or Stanton would play over him and Frazier would DH (assuming Stanton is healthy).
OPS (at least 35 plate appearances):
Sanchez: .985
Estrada: .939 (47 PA)
Judge: .925 (89 PA)
Torres: .881
Frazier: .876
Voit: .867
Urshela: .834
LeMahieu: .797
Gardner: .786
Maybin: .753 (79 PA)
Morales: .591 (37 PA)
Hicks: .554 (47 PA)
Romine: .503 (81 PA)
Estrada (23) has played great in his time up here, but his minor league numbers don't suggest a 900 OPS guy. Then again, Urshela, who is 27, didn't show this type of offense either. Ride it while you can!
This brings me to the question of what do we do as players come back? I could see a lot of people rotating the DH spot and playing the field. Stanton could mix in the OF and DH and I think Voit would be the same way with DJ playing some 1B, 3B, and 2B. If Didi is healthy and playing well, he will play most of the time at SS, but we should ease him into the role. I don't see a guy like Morales sticking with us once everyone is healthy. Maybin is a possibility because he is a better option than Tauchman and I am not aware of a better option in the minors right now. Estrada has options so I could see him going down.
As poor as the bullpen had done for a while, the four of Ottavino, Kahnle, Britton, and Chapman have a solid ERA between them:
Combined they have 93 IP, 57 hits, 39 walks, 7 HR's and 120 K's and an ERA of 1.74. This is pretty solid and while the walks are high, that is mostly from Ottavino and his 18 walks in 25.1 innings.
Kahnle let up that 3 run HR the other night but has been throwing really well. Yesterday, he was dominant! He was throwing 97/98 and threw his changeup anywhere from 90 - 93 and it had a lot of movement. It was most effective in the 90-91 range, but it reminded me of Greg Maddux's fastball (without the pinpoint control). Regardless, even though Kahnle has allowed 3 HR's in 22 IP, he has allowed only 1 double and 7 singles for an OPS against of .469.
Monday, May 27, 2019
In Honor of Memorial Day
I almost always stick to baseball, but as someone who has not served in the military, I have tremendous respect for those who have. Today serves as a day to remember the brave Americans who have lost their lives for the freedom we cherish. The freedom to write this blog, the freedom for you to read it and your freedom to critique it!
I know the difference between Veteran's Day and Memorial Day, but I still want to thank everyone who has served and especially the people who have given the ultimate sacrifice!
Memorial day makes losing to the lowly Royals not important, but we are here to read about our beloved Yankees. Taking 3 of 4 should be a good thing, but when you have won the first 3 games and are playing a weak team with your most successful pitcher on the mound; you get greedy.
German did not look good from the beginning. His fastball was more like 92-93 than 95 and his sharp break in his pitches was not there. The positive was that he didn't walk anyone, but the negative to that was too many pitches that were very hittable. He allowed a 3 run HR with 2 outs in the 2nd inning, he allowed a solo HR with 2 outs in teh 4th inning and then the crushing blow of a 3 run HR with 2 outs in the 5th inning. All with 2 outs and we were down 7-1 going into the 6th inning. Torres got back one of the HR's with a 3 run HR with 2 outs himself. It stayed that way until the 9th inning where we were down 7-4 because Cortes Jr held the Royals in check for 3 innings.
In the 9th, Morales weakly grounded out, Frazier singled and Urshela singled. Brett Gardner pinch hit for Maybin and struck out in a foul tip where the ball deflected off the catcher's glove (popped up) and the catcher went and caught it. I have seen a catcher double clutch, but it is rare to see what I just described. Anyway, down to our last out (2 out theme), DJ singled to knock in Frazier and we were down 2 with 1st and 2nd. Ian Kennedy appeared to want no part of Voit and walked him to load the bases for the struggling Hicks. Hicks took 4 pitches and had a 3-1 count in his favor before hitting a hard ground ball to RF tying the game. Sanchez had a chance to get us the lead, but flew out to RF.
Here is where I was surprised at Boone. Tie game and he left our last pitcher out there? Cortes Jr had pitched well putting up zeroes, but there is no chance I would have left him out there. It worked because Cortes got through the bottom of the 9th, but the bases were loaded when we got out of the inning.
We went down in the top of the 10th and I expected Ottavino to come in as he was warming up, but Boone went with Holder. I don't get going with our weaker relievers in a time like this and perhaps Ottavino didn't feel well when he got up, but I would have had Britton up before I went to Holder. Holder got the 1st out and then committed the costly mistake of walking speedster Billy Hamilton on 5 pitches (after going 3-0).
Then the most important play of the game happened when Hamilton stole 2nd base and Sanchez got rid of it quickly and the ball beat Hamilton but Torres was not able to catch the throw that did tail away from him a little. Torres was a little late but got there and because the throw was slightly on the 2nd base side, the ball tipped off the end of his glove. His arm was not fully extended and it was in the middle of the chest of the incoming Hamilton, but Torres could have taken the throw just to the catcher's side of the runner and he didn't. The throw had Hamilton easily out, but Gleyber couldn't make the play. The next ball was hit down the line where Urshela made a game-saving backhand and somehow still looked the runner back and made the throw to first base. The throw was straight but bounced before Morales who made a nice scoop. Now with 2 outs things were more promising, but once again with 2 outs the run scored on a ground ball that was an in-between hop for Urshela and the ball took a crazy hop over his head for the winning run. Urshela could have tried to charge and smother the ball just to keep it in the infield, but as great as he was playing, I think he expected to make the play and unfortunately, it took a bad hop.
Not sure why Boone allowed our two weakest pitchers to go in those final two innings, but I didn't like those moves, especially after the 6 run come back.
SD at home today at 1:05
Enjoy our freedom today!
I know the difference between Veteran's Day and Memorial Day, but I still want to thank everyone who has served and especially the people who have given the ultimate sacrifice!
Memorial day makes losing to the lowly Royals not important, but we are here to read about our beloved Yankees. Taking 3 of 4 should be a good thing, but when you have won the first 3 games and are playing a weak team with your most successful pitcher on the mound; you get greedy.
German did not look good from the beginning. His fastball was more like 92-93 than 95 and his sharp break in his pitches was not there. The positive was that he didn't walk anyone, but the negative to that was too many pitches that were very hittable. He allowed a 3 run HR with 2 outs in the 2nd inning, he allowed a solo HR with 2 outs in teh 4th inning and then the crushing blow of a 3 run HR with 2 outs in the 5th inning. All with 2 outs and we were down 7-1 going into the 6th inning. Torres got back one of the HR's with a 3 run HR with 2 outs himself. It stayed that way until the 9th inning where we were down 7-4 because Cortes Jr held the Royals in check for 3 innings.
In the 9th, Morales weakly grounded out, Frazier singled and Urshela singled. Brett Gardner pinch hit for Maybin and struck out in a foul tip where the ball deflected off the catcher's glove (popped up) and the catcher went and caught it. I have seen a catcher double clutch, but it is rare to see what I just described. Anyway, down to our last out (2 out theme), DJ singled to knock in Frazier and we were down 2 with 1st and 2nd. Ian Kennedy appeared to want no part of Voit and walked him to load the bases for the struggling Hicks. Hicks took 4 pitches and had a 3-1 count in his favor before hitting a hard ground ball to RF tying the game. Sanchez had a chance to get us the lead, but flew out to RF.
Here is where I was surprised at Boone. Tie game and he left our last pitcher out there? Cortes Jr had pitched well putting up zeroes, but there is no chance I would have left him out there. It worked because Cortes got through the bottom of the 9th, but the bases were loaded when we got out of the inning.
We went down in the top of the 10th and I expected Ottavino to come in as he was warming up, but Boone went with Holder. I don't get going with our weaker relievers in a time like this and perhaps Ottavino didn't feel well when he got up, but I would have had Britton up before I went to Holder. Holder got the 1st out and then committed the costly mistake of walking speedster Billy Hamilton on 5 pitches (after going 3-0).
Then the most important play of the game happened when Hamilton stole 2nd base and Sanchez got rid of it quickly and the ball beat Hamilton but Torres was not able to catch the throw that did tail away from him a little. Torres was a little late but got there and because the throw was slightly on the 2nd base side, the ball tipped off the end of his glove. His arm was not fully extended and it was in the middle of the chest of the incoming Hamilton, but Torres could have taken the throw just to the catcher's side of the runner and he didn't. The throw had Hamilton easily out, but Gleyber couldn't make the play. The next ball was hit down the line where Urshela made a game-saving backhand and somehow still looked the runner back and made the throw to first base. The throw was straight but bounced before Morales who made a nice scoop. Now with 2 outs things were more promising, but once again with 2 outs the run scored on a ground ball that was an in-between hop for Urshela and the ball took a crazy hop over his head for the winning run. Urshela could have tried to charge and smother the ball just to keep it in the infield, but as great as he was playing, I think he expected to make the play and unfortunately, it took a bad hop.
Not sure why Boone allowed our two weakest pitchers to go in those final two innings, but I didn't like those moves, especially after the 6 run come back.
SD at home today at 1:05
Enjoy our freedom today!
Friday, May 24, 2019
The Game Could Have Been Excellent
Boone really screwed up this game. He decided to rest Sanchez and Gleyber even though they have been hot against Baltimore. I don't really have any issue with that as you do want to give guys some rest and I think it is important they get a full days rest when you keep them out of the lineup. In fact, while I might not rest both, I like the idea of sometimes not letting them even get loose so they can truly get full days rest because preparing in case you play does not allow your body to fully rest. Just think of a bullpen guy who gets up like he is going in and never gets into the game; he didn't get much rest.
Anyway, in the top of the 6th inning, Urshela came up in a huge spot. With the score 1-1, we worked to load the bases with 2 outs, Urshela (who had two weak AB's earlier) was down 1-2 after swinging after a fastball just on top of the strike. It was a very good swing and he was on it but didn't get it. After taking a slider in the dirt he hit the next slider into LF for a huge 2 run single finally getting a few runs across. Gardner struck out as a lefty was brought in to end the top of the 6th.
Tanaka breezed through bottom of the 6th and had gone 6 innings and allowed 5 hits, only 1 walk and allowed one run. He had retired the last 7 batters and had thrown 95 pitches. That is approaching 100, but remember this was a guy who used to complete most games before he came to the states. For whatever reason we won't allow him to throw 110 pitches, even once in awhile?
After a solo HR by Voit (where he jumped on a slider) , we took Tanaka out leading 4-1 and Boone went with Holder. Holder pitched a good 7th not allowing a hit or a walk. I would have left Tanaka in, but Holder did the job so Boone made a good choice.
We then tacked on another run as Romine knocked in Estrada who walked and stole 2nd.
With a 5-1 lead Boone made a poor decision; he sent Holder back out there. The guy who is so set on one inning guys, decides to roll the dice with one of our weaker guys? After Holder walked the leadoff guy, I assumed that Kahnle, who was ready to start the 8th would be brought in. For some reason, Boone decided to stay with Holder who proceeded to walk the next batter on 5 pitches. OK, that is enough and the poor idea to start him in the 8th has now gone at least one batter too much! Nope, Boone made the moronic decision to leave Holder out there for yet another batter and he allowed a line drive single on his first pitch and now the tying run was at the plate (5-2, nobody out and 1st and 2nd). Finally, Boone takes Holder out. Kahnle got a pop up and now I felt a lot better. However, it didn't last long; on a 2-2 Kahnle left a changeup up and Renato Nunez hit a game tying 3 run HR! Kahnle struck the next two guys out, but the damage was done.
I get that Kahnle didn't do his job, but he has been pitching well and he would not have allowed so many guys on (most likely); he should have started the 8th!
Now, we have a tie game going into the 9th. Gardner and Maybin (who was brought in for defense in place of Frazier) struck out to start the 9th. Now instead of Gleyber getting a full days rest, he comes in to pinch hit and worked a walk. Sanchez is then brought in to hit for Romine (same non rest for him) and dropped a single into RF. I was surprised Gleyber didn't get to 3rd base. DJ then walked to load the bases for Hicks.Givens almost hit Hicks 3 times but the count went to 3-2 before missing wildly on a changeup forcing in the go ahead run. Voit almost got hit and then had a bad swing to end the inning.
Britton came on to save the one run lead and got an out and a single before inducing a DP with his great sinker and we won the game.
I know we won, but we wasted a good opportunity to rest our guys because of stupidity.
Tampa and Boston won.
Some other notes:
Top 10 Injury Update:
Anyway, in the top of the 6th inning, Urshela came up in a huge spot. With the score 1-1, we worked to load the bases with 2 outs, Urshela (who had two weak AB's earlier) was down 1-2 after swinging after a fastball just on top of the strike. It was a very good swing and he was on it but didn't get it. After taking a slider in the dirt he hit the next slider into LF for a huge 2 run single finally getting a few runs across. Gardner struck out as a lefty was brought in to end the top of the 6th.
Tanaka breezed through bottom of the 6th and had gone 6 innings and allowed 5 hits, only 1 walk and allowed one run. He had retired the last 7 batters and had thrown 95 pitches. That is approaching 100, but remember this was a guy who used to complete most games before he came to the states. For whatever reason we won't allow him to throw 110 pitches, even once in awhile?
After a solo HR by Voit (where he jumped on a slider) , we took Tanaka out leading 4-1 and Boone went with Holder. Holder pitched a good 7th not allowing a hit or a walk. I would have left Tanaka in, but Holder did the job so Boone made a good choice.
We then tacked on another run as Romine knocked in Estrada who walked and stole 2nd.
With a 5-1 lead Boone made a poor decision; he sent Holder back out there. The guy who is so set on one inning guys, decides to roll the dice with one of our weaker guys? After Holder walked the leadoff guy, I assumed that Kahnle, who was ready to start the 8th would be brought in. For some reason, Boone decided to stay with Holder who proceeded to walk the next batter on 5 pitches. OK, that is enough and the poor idea to start him in the 8th has now gone at least one batter too much! Nope, Boone made the moronic decision to leave Holder out there for yet another batter and he allowed a line drive single on his first pitch and now the tying run was at the plate (5-2, nobody out and 1st and 2nd). Finally, Boone takes Holder out. Kahnle got a pop up and now I felt a lot better. However, it didn't last long; on a 2-2 Kahnle left a changeup up and Renato Nunez hit a game tying 3 run HR! Kahnle struck the next two guys out, but the damage was done.
I get that Kahnle didn't do his job, but he has been pitching well and he would not have allowed so many guys on (most likely); he should have started the 8th!
Now, we have a tie game going into the 9th. Gardner and Maybin (who was brought in for defense in place of Frazier) struck out to start the 9th. Now instead of Gleyber getting a full days rest, he comes in to pinch hit and worked a walk. Sanchez is then brought in to hit for Romine (same non rest for him) and dropped a single into RF. I was surprised Gleyber didn't get to 3rd base. DJ then walked to load the bases for Hicks.Givens almost hit Hicks 3 times but the count went to 3-2 before missing wildly on a changeup forcing in the go ahead run. Voit almost got hit and then had a bad swing to end the inning.
Britton came on to save the one run lead and got an out and a single before inducing a DP with his great sinker and we won the game.
I know we won, but we wasted a good opportunity to rest our guys because of stupidity.
Tampa and Boston won.
Some other notes:
- Estrada has been really good both offensively (.908 OPS) and defensively, but he did mess a DP that cost us Tanaka a run. He was playing SS with one out and he came across the bag and took an extra step and it cost us a DP on a close play because Wilkerson got down the line fast. The ball was a bullet to DJ's backhand at 2nd base and Estrada was a little late and maybe that through him off?
- Many of our replacement starters are doing very well, but Romine (.476 OPS) and Hicks (.641) have not done too much yet. Hicks is obviously much more important, but he has not been comfortable yet. The good thing is his patience has been good. Hicks did misjudge a fly ball coming in on a ball that went over his head and turned it into a triple.
- Maybin has been mediocre overall (.712 OPS and played decent defense)
- Morales hasn't given us much yet either (.601 OPS), but he has less than 30 AB's with us.
Top 10 Injury Update:
- CC is now on the 10 day list with knee inflammation.
- Judge is catching fly balls, but has not swung yet (from what I can tell)
- Stanton was hit by a pitch and this has hurt his knee otherwise he would have been up next week. I am hopeful he is two weeks away, but that is not scientific.
- Paxton - will throw Friday and then could go down for a start or if we are lucky start next week. With CC out getting Paxton back would be huge (remember Loaiza is out for at least a month)
- Didi is scheduled to play SS on Thursday in an extended Spring Training Game
- Tulo could be cleared to begin a Minor League Rehab assignment this weekend
- Betances is playing long toss from a distance of 120 feet. No date yet to get on the mound
- Bird - Might not matter unless he plays well in the minors, but he is trying to come back from a left Plantar Facia tear - he is on the treadmill and has not done any baseball work yet
- Andujar - He is probably out for the year (I haven't see that he is definitely having surgery.)
- Severino - Still a long way away (mid August?)
- OK I added an 11th as Montgomery could be back in August as well
I think we should try and battle with what we have. Our bullpen has not been as good as it can be and getting Betances back could be huge. As long as we are hanging in the race, I would not make any crazy moves. As it is, we have a lot of decisions to make when Didi, Stanton and Judge come back.
Thursday, May 23, 2019
Going Yard at Camden Yards
The slugging % keeps going up!
Baltimore pitching has really helped the slugging % go up for the Yankees. Last night had a lot of poor pitches that were taken advantage of.
Some notes about the 7-5 victory!
Baltimore pitching has really helped the slugging % go up for the Yankees. Last night had a lot of poor pitches that were taken advantage of.
Some notes about the 7-5 victory!
- The Yankees have hit 25 HR's in the 6 games at Camden Yards this year. Think about that.
- The Yankees have hit at least 3 HR's in 6 consecutive games at Camden Yards; that is a record by any team at any ball park in history
- Torres has 10 HR's and Sanchez has 9 against the O's, only once have teammates had 10 HR's each off of a common opponent in the same year. The only ones to do it are some guys you may have heard of; Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.
- While on Torres, the cool thing was that he hit a fastball away, he hit breaking balls out to CF and pulled homers as well. Now he needs to tighten up his defense a little bit as he has been a little shaky.
- The Yankees were winning 6-1 when an overthrow went into RF. Frazier picked up the ball in shallow RF down the line and with just a decent throw the Baltimore runner would have been thrown out at home. Two things: 1) What was Baltimore doing sending that guy down 6-1? 2) Frazier made a poor throw, way off line. His accuracy of throwing has not been good.
- DJ Lemahieu played 3rd base and continued his excellent defense there. He made a nice play on a ball down the line where he snagged a ball almost behind him and then got the force at 2nd. Later he dived to his left to make another play. Combined with his .833 OPS and all of our injuries, he has been a great pickup. I am nit picking here, but his .833 OPS is a little low for a guy with a .329 batting avg; he hasn't hit for much power (10 doubles and 4 HR's) and has only walked 12 times. Contrasting, Luke Voit has an OPS of .858 with a batting avg of .259 because he has walked 28 times and has only 6 doubles, but 11 HR's in similar AB's. This is why I use OPS as it gives a very good indication of total offensive value. There are areas that it doesn't take into account such as SB's/CS, speed in taking the extra base and even total pitches taken which can wear out an opposing pitcher, but it is far better than batting avg or even OBP by itself.
- CC didn't pitch as bad as his stat line showed. His change was excellent early on and then he lost the touch of the pitch and started to get hit. One of the big hits off of him was a slider very low in the strike zone that the hitter deposited on a nice swing...hard to get too mad when a pitch is clearly a ball and a guy hits a HR on it.
- Speaking of balls, the ump was awful yesterday. Very inconsistent and made some terrible calls that impacted AB's on both sides a lot. In general, I thought we got the short end of the stick more than the O's did.
- Gardner played CF and charged hard on a single up the middle and made an excellent throw home to nail a runner. Live, well my live, DVR'd, I thought Sanchez might have blocked the plate and the Orioles challenged but the call was upheld. It was close, but the ball beat him so I think they correctly upheld the call.
- Chapman did not look good in getting the save. His control of his fastball was very poor and his velocity started out at 96, 95 and even 93. Then he was about 96 and 97 but with a lot of balls. Sanchez finally started to call for a few sliders and that was good because Chapman threw 21 pitches, 17 fastballs and 4 slider. The 4 sliders were all strikes and he threw 8 fastballs for strikes and 9 for balls. He did finish throwing 100 MPH so maybe he just needs to warm up more. He has the stuff to struggle and still get the job done, but he can be shaky. He is 13 of 14 in save situations.
Let's hope we can sweep this afternoon!
Wednesday, May 22, 2019
Padding the Stats
Baltimore is a bad baseball team.
Down 6-1 and then 7-3, the Yankees came back with the help of 3 throws from the OF that were 3 of the worst throws you will see from a professional OF'r.
It was 7-3 in the 7th inning when the Yankees had 1st and 3rd with one out. After a single made it 7-4 Baltimore brought in Armstrong to pitch to Hicks. Hicks lofted a shallow fly ball to right field , so shallow that Maybin couldn't try to score. However, Dwight Smith Jr. "threw" home like he was trying to hit a bird. Not only was the throw embarrassingly high, it was way off target (in between catcher and 1B (remember he was close). This allowed Maybin to score and LeMahieu to go all the way to 3rd from 1B.
The score is now 7-6 entering the 9th and Gardner leads off with a line drive single to LF after a really good AB fouling off pitches. Maybin then hits a line drive to RF where Rickard makes a very soft and off target throw to 3rd base with no chance to get Gardner and also no chance to cut the ball and get Maybin going to 2nd...It was one of the softest and ill advised throw from a RF. With 2nd and 3rd. Down 1 with 2nd and 3rd LeMahieu grounded out on the 1st pitch and the runners had to hold (weak swing on a first pitch where he pulled an outside pitch). Then Hicks lofted a fly ball to normal depth LF, definitely deep enough to score Gardner, but Dwight Smith Jr decided to airmail another throw way over the cut to allow Maybin to move to 3rd (and possibly score on a wild pitch). With 2 outs and the game tied at 7 Voit popped out to the catcher, except the catcher misjudged the ball so badly he never got near it and by the dumber laws of baseball did not get an error for it. (I don't want to get too far off base here, but that IS what an error is in my book. Misjudging a ball is an error and after then allowing Luke to walk, Sanchez hit a 3 run HR that shoudl never have happened.
Nice comeback scoring the last 7 runs, but Baltimore is bad.
Last night the Yanks continued their HR parade and German kept Baltimore in check before allowing a 3 run HR after being up 9-0.
Some overall notes:
Sanchez homered in each game with Torres hitting 2 HR's in the first game and Frazier hitting 2 HR's in the second game. Both Frazier homers were fastball on the outside corner that he drove to dead center field that were a few feet beyond the fence. It was good to see as the shots to CF are legit, the power alleys in Baltimore are too short, kind of like ours is short in RF.
Happ was very weak in his game. He was throwing about 91-92 MPH and his change was coming in at 88 usually. He got it to 85 a few times and that was more effective, but he didn't control it well. His ERA is now 5.16; not good!
Gardner is slowing down. He had two plays in LF that in his prime he would have made both and he missed both. One he turned into a triple as he couldn't beat the ball to the spot (not an error) where in his prime he would have. the other was a bad route to the ball and he didn't make a play on it. BTW, I wouldn't consider either of those an error because taking a slightly bad route because you misjudged the ball off the bat is not the same in my book as running in and then the ball goes over your head as you leap up and just miss it...or the catcher pop up example.
Speaking of dropped popups, Voit, Alberto and Severino (their catcher) all dropped routine popups.
I want a sweep of Baltimore. Tonight CC goes against a guy with an 8 ERA and this is a game we should win. Thursday, Tanaka goes against Bundy who has had a good month, but as long as Tanaka is healthy, we should win.
Down 6-1 and then 7-3, the Yankees came back with the help of 3 throws from the OF that were 3 of the worst throws you will see from a professional OF'r.
It was 7-3 in the 7th inning when the Yankees had 1st and 3rd with one out. After a single made it 7-4 Baltimore brought in Armstrong to pitch to Hicks. Hicks lofted a shallow fly ball to right field , so shallow that Maybin couldn't try to score. However, Dwight Smith Jr. "threw" home like he was trying to hit a bird. Not only was the throw embarrassingly high, it was way off target (in between catcher and 1B (remember he was close). This allowed Maybin to score and LeMahieu to go all the way to 3rd from 1B.
The score is now 7-6 entering the 9th and Gardner leads off with a line drive single to LF after a really good AB fouling off pitches. Maybin then hits a line drive to RF where Rickard makes a very soft and off target throw to 3rd base with no chance to get Gardner and also no chance to cut the ball and get Maybin going to 2nd...It was one of the softest and ill advised throw from a RF. With 2nd and 3rd. Down 1 with 2nd and 3rd LeMahieu grounded out on the 1st pitch and the runners had to hold (weak swing on a first pitch where he pulled an outside pitch). Then Hicks lofted a fly ball to normal depth LF, definitely deep enough to score Gardner, but Dwight Smith Jr decided to airmail another throw way over the cut to allow Maybin to move to 3rd (and possibly score on a wild pitch). With 2 outs and the game tied at 7 Voit popped out to the catcher, except the catcher misjudged the ball so badly he never got near it and by the dumber laws of baseball did not get an error for it. (I don't want to get too far off base here, but that IS what an error is in my book. Misjudging a ball is an error and after then allowing Luke to walk, Sanchez hit a 3 run HR that shoudl never have happened.
Nice comeback scoring the last 7 runs, but Baltimore is bad.
Last night the Yanks continued their HR parade and German kept Baltimore in check before allowing a 3 run HR after being up 9-0.
Some overall notes:
Sanchez homered in each game with Torres hitting 2 HR's in the first game and Frazier hitting 2 HR's in the second game. Both Frazier homers were fastball on the outside corner that he drove to dead center field that were a few feet beyond the fence. It was good to see as the shots to CF are legit, the power alleys in Baltimore are too short, kind of like ours is short in RF.
Happ was very weak in his game. He was throwing about 91-92 MPH and his change was coming in at 88 usually. He got it to 85 a few times and that was more effective, but he didn't control it well. His ERA is now 5.16; not good!
Gardner is slowing down. He had two plays in LF that in his prime he would have made both and he missed both. One he turned into a triple as he couldn't beat the ball to the spot (not an error) where in his prime he would have. the other was a bad route to the ball and he didn't make a play on it. BTW, I wouldn't consider either of those an error because taking a slightly bad route because you misjudged the ball off the bat is not the same in my book as running in and then the ball goes over your head as you leap up and just miss it...or the catcher pop up example.
Speaking of dropped popups, Voit, Alberto and Severino (their catcher) all dropped routine popups.
I want a sweep of Baltimore. Tonight CC goes against a guy with an 8 ERA and this is a game we should win. Thursday, Tanaka goes against Bundy who has had a good month, but as long as Tanaka is healthy, we should win.
Monday, May 20, 2019
First Place Battle
The first two games of the Tampa series were very good pitching duels. You can see why Tampa is a legit team with their very good pitching and modern day understanding of using statistics to give you an edge.
I wrote my update on the first two games of the series before I watched the Sunday game
The Friday night game saw CC pitch a solid 6 innings where he had pretty solid command and held TB to one run in 6 innings. The outcome was good, only allowing a solo HR, but I thought he could have used his change a little more as he was getting a lot of swinging strikes on it (something he hasn't been getting a lot of). After the 6th inning, I didn't understand the flow of pitchers? I have a philosophy of getting as much as you can from your pitchers when the game is close, because you never know when you will go into extra innings. Also, I like to leave an effective pitcher in the game because you never know when the "other" guy just doesn't have it. That being said, there are matchups that you have to take into account and when your righty stud gets 3 righties out and looks great, it does make sense to bring in your lefty stud to get the next 3 lefties coming up (as an example)...
In this case, Ottavino was chosen to start the 7th inning, after 2 outs and a walk he was replaced by Kahnle. 10 pitches and Ottavino was pulled in a 1-1 game? Kahnle allowed a single and then K'd the guy for the 3rd out and then after 9 pitches he was replaced with Chad Green for the 8th inning. This entire sequence made little sense to me. For one, you are playing against the first place team, therefore, you are playing a little more for the win, but how do you only get 1 inning out of Kahnle and Ottavino combined??? This game could go to extra innings! Further, Green had been awful all year before being sent down and then coming back up he had ONE good outing. I don't have faith in Green yet. Green, of course, allowed 3 hits in 1 inning as 2 runs scored. Honestly, Green didn't pitch that poorly, but he allowed a double on an 0-2 pitch that was on the corner (not a bad pitch) and Torres made an error (he has been mediocre defensively at SS). But now we were down 3-1 because of poor use of the pitchers. In the bottom of the 9th, we got to Alvarado with a HR from Voit and then ripped single by Sanchez. After a strikeout to the newly acquired Morales (who homered for our 1st run), Torres just missed a HR, but got a double putting us at 2nd and 3rd with one out. After Frazier was intentionally walked, Maybin pinch hit for Gardner and Alvarado threw a wild pitch that allowed us to tie the game. Maybin grounded into a FC where they threw home to get Torres. Urshela then delivered the game winning 3 run comeback with a bullet to CF that beat Kiermaier over his head for a hit. Really exciting and rewarding comeback! First place!
Saturday saw another pitchers duel with Tanaka shutting out Tampa for 6 innings while we salvaged one run off of the excellent stuff delivered from Snell. Tanaka came out a little early in the game because he took one off his shin to end the 6th inning (the ball luckily ricocheted off of Tanaka directly toward first base).
Neither team got much going, but once again, if a reliever has a good 10 pitch inning, I am OK extending them for another batter or 2 to get more of our better pitching, especially in a close game against one of the 2 teams you are battling the division for. Kahnle threw 11 and Britton threw 10 pitches. I understand that pitches aren't the only factor, in fact, the rest between innings is worse than an additional 5 pitches or so, but 10 pitches is not a lot. It ended up where Holder and Cessa pitched the 10th and 11th innings and Meadows got to Cessa in the 11th.
The Yankees rallied in the 11th. Alavarado came in again for Tampa (he threw 26 pitches in allowing 3 runs the night before) and he was met with a bullet single by Voit. Estrada pinch ran for Luke. Here is where I was annoyed. It was a 3-2 count on Hicks and Hicks was on Alavarado's fastball and because of this, I wanted to send Estrada. If Alvarado threw a breaking ball it would make it easier to steal the base and hopefully stay out of the DP. Tampa felt Hicks was on the fastball as well and threw a slider and Hicks swung and missed it while Estrada stayed at first base. Poor coaching there! Unfortunately, it hurt us as Sanchez then hit into a DP to end the game. I was very annoyed at this, especially when you scored so few runs, you need to take advantage of the situations and try to create something (or avoid the DP)
Back in second place
The Sunday game:
The Yankees took a page from the Tampa and started Green. I think the part that Tampa does differently is that they usually take one of their top guys in the pen to start, not their 5th best (or so) guy.
Predictably, Green allowed 2 HR's in 1.2 innings.
Cortes Jr. came in and pitched 4 innings and allowed 3 runs. He showed very good control of his fastball, hitting spots very consistently but his stuff isn't outstanding. He does have a sneaky fastball and has movement on his other pitches, but e needs his control. He hung a slider and that allowed all 3 of his runs. However, it was pitch selection that had me ticked. Cortes is a lefty and he was facing a righty. on a 2-1 pitch Sanchez asked for a fastball inside and his target was way inside for a ball and Cortes hit the target, but it was a ball. Now at 3-1 he went away with a change and the batter swung threw/over it. Now at 3-2 what do you throw? Your fastball is 90/91. My son was in the room with me (notice I didn't say watching with me) and when Sanchez lined up inside again I said,
"this is a bad idea." Sanchez called for the fastball on the inside corner and Cortes would have hit the glove perfectly, unfortunately the bat crushed the ball for a double down the line. Very poor choice of location and I also thought the pitch. I thought a change away was the pitch, even a change for a strike was ok, but not the fastball inside as the pitched didn't want to walk him and there was a good chance the fastball would leak out over the plate. As it turned out he delivered the pitch exactly as the catcher wanted it and it was still drilled.
Down, 5-3 going into the bottom of the 4th Morton had great stuff against us, but outside of Sanchez swinging at the first pitch twice (and making an out), the rest of the lineup was really working him. he had about 70-75 pitches going into the 4th inning. Hicks tied the game on a hanging changeup that he jumped all over. and we got Morton out of the game after 4 innings and 88 pitches.
Working the count against the good pitchers is so important. Morton has a fantastic curve ball and a 95 MPH fastball that has great movement. Fortunately, he didn't control it well against us. He also throws a slider and a change, but neither is as good as his curve or FB.
Their pen didn't throw strikes either and we walked and had some help from their poor defense as we put up a 7 spot in the 6th inning (they walked us 5 times in that inning).
Back in 1st Place!
A few notes:
The Kendry Morales signing - I don't have all the financial details, but it appears we don't have to pay much at all of the 9 mil he is owed and the player to be named later leaves it open ended. That being said, I think he gives us a professional batter to use until we get some more players back. I would rather someone who was a stronger platoon type of player (very strong against righties) as Morales is pretty equal for his career and actually has been a little better from the right side of the plate the past 2 years (which surprised me). I say this was a good low risk signing though as he works the count.
Hicks has been taking a lot of pitches and you can see hitting a fastball (or something straight) has been easier than the breaking balls. Having him play CF and work the count and be productive is a huge plus for us. Gardner being able to rest will make him better as well.
Frazier has been more off balance of late and defensively he is more of a LF'r as his arm isn't RF quality. He had a good chance to throw a batter out and his throw was not even close...Then again, we are spoiled with Judge out there. I am not down on Frazier as a player, he has tools and his overall OPS of .756 is acceptable right now.
Urshela has been a great pickup and while his offense was a huge surprise, his defense has been steady and very solid. Last night he was way out in front of a pitch and just got a piece of it and the ball fouled down and toward the backstop and when it came up it hit him right in the groin. Urshela went down in pain and it took awhile for him to be able to continue the AB. I am not sure it was intentional or not but Michael Kay then said, "Urshela will resume the AB with NO balls and two strikes." OK, maybe that is just my stupid humor, but I thought enough of it to write it here.
Sanchez hit his first career triple with nobody out and we left him there. It was not because of poor hitting either, we drilled two balls with the infield in and both were excellent plays by the Rays infielders. Even with the infield back our last grounder was struck well...that was some good defense.
Enjoy your week!
I wrote my update on the first two games of the series before I watched the Sunday game
The Friday night game saw CC pitch a solid 6 innings where he had pretty solid command and held TB to one run in 6 innings. The outcome was good, only allowing a solo HR, but I thought he could have used his change a little more as he was getting a lot of swinging strikes on it (something he hasn't been getting a lot of). After the 6th inning, I didn't understand the flow of pitchers? I have a philosophy of getting as much as you can from your pitchers when the game is close, because you never know when you will go into extra innings. Also, I like to leave an effective pitcher in the game because you never know when the "other" guy just doesn't have it. That being said, there are matchups that you have to take into account and when your righty stud gets 3 righties out and looks great, it does make sense to bring in your lefty stud to get the next 3 lefties coming up (as an example)...
In this case, Ottavino was chosen to start the 7th inning, after 2 outs and a walk he was replaced by Kahnle. 10 pitches and Ottavino was pulled in a 1-1 game? Kahnle allowed a single and then K'd the guy for the 3rd out and then after 9 pitches he was replaced with Chad Green for the 8th inning. This entire sequence made little sense to me. For one, you are playing against the first place team, therefore, you are playing a little more for the win, but how do you only get 1 inning out of Kahnle and Ottavino combined??? This game could go to extra innings! Further, Green had been awful all year before being sent down and then coming back up he had ONE good outing. I don't have faith in Green yet. Green, of course, allowed 3 hits in 1 inning as 2 runs scored. Honestly, Green didn't pitch that poorly, but he allowed a double on an 0-2 pitch that was on the corner (not a bad pitch) and Torres made an error (he has been mediocre defensively at SS). But now we were down 3-1 because of poor use of the pitchers. In the bottom of the 9th, we got to Alvarado with a HR from Voit and then ripped single by Sanchez. After a strikeout to the newly acquired Morales (who homered for our 1st run), Torres just missed a HR, but got a double putting us at 2nd and 3rd with one out. After Frazier was intentionally walked, Maybin pinch hit for Gardner and Alvarado threw a wild pitch that allowed us to tie the game. Maybin grounded into a FC where they threw home to get Torres. Urshela then delivered the game winning 3 run comeback with a bullet to CF that beat Kiermaier over his head for a hit. Really exciting and rewarding comeback! First place!
Saturday saw another pitchers duel with Tanaka shutting out Tampa for 6 innings while we salvaged one run off of the excellent stuff delivered from Snell. Tanaka came out a little early in the game because he took one off his shin to end the 6th inning (the ball luckily ricocheted off of Tanaka directly toward first base).
Neither team got much going, but once again, if a reliever has a good 10 pitch inning, I am OK extending them for another batter or 2 to get more of our better pitching, especially in a close game against one of the 2 teams you are battling the division for. Kahnle threw 11 and Britton threw 10 pitches. I understand that pitches aren't the only factor, in fact, the rest between innings is worse than an additional 5 pitches or so, but 10 pitches is not a lot. It ended up where Holder and Cessa pitched the 10th and 11th innings and Meadows got to Cessa in the 11th.
The Yankees rallied in the 11th. Alavarado came in again for Tampa (he threw 26 pitches in allowing 3 runs the night before) and he was met with a bullet single by Voit. Estrada pinch ran for Luke. Here is where I was annoyed. It was a 3-2 count on Hicks and Hicks was on Alavarado's fastball and because of this, I wanted to send Estrada. If Alvarado threw a breaking ball it would make it easier to steal the base and hopefully stay out of the DP. Tampa felt Hicks was on the fastball as well and threw a slider and Hicks swung and missed it while Estrada stayed at first base. Poor coaching there! Unfortunately, it hurt us as Sanchez then hit into a DP to end the game. I was very annoyed at this, especially when you scored so few runs, you need to take advantage of the situations and try to create something (or avoid the DP)
Back in second place
The Sunday game:
The Yankees took a page from the Tampa and started Green. I think the part that Tampa does differently is that they usually take one of their top guys in the pen to start, not their 5th best (or so) guy.
Predictably, Green allowed 2 HR's in 1.2 innings.
Cortes Jr. came in and pitched 4 innings and allowed 3 runs. He showed very good control of his fastball, hitting spots very consistently but his stuff isn't outstanding. He does have a sneaky fastball and has movement on his other pitches, but e needs his control. He hung a slider and that allowed all 3 of his runs. However, it was pitch selection that had me ticked. Cortes is a lefty and he was facing a righty. on a 2-1 pitch Sanchez asked for a fastball inside and his target was way inside for a ball and Cortes hit the target, but it was a ball. Now at 3-1 he went away with a change and the batter swung threw/over it. Now at 3-2 what do you throw? Your fastball is 90/91. My son was in the room with me (notice I didn't say watching with me) and when Sanchez lined up inside again I said,
"this is a bad idea." Sanchez called for the fastball on the inside corner and Cortes would have hit the glove perfectly, unfortunately the bat crushed the ball for a double down the line. Very poor choice of location and I also thought the pitch. I thought a change away was the pitch, even a change for a strike was ok, but not the fastball inside as the pitched didn't want to walk him and there was a good chance the fastball would leak out over the plate. As it turned out he delivered the pitch exactly as the catcher wanted it and it was still drilled.
Down, 5-3 going into the bottom of the 4th Morton had great stuff against us, but outside of Sanchez swinging at the first pitch twice (and making an out), the rest of the lineup was really working him. he had about 70-75 pitches going into the 4th inning. Hicks tied the game on a hanging changeup that he jumped all over. and we got Morton out of the game after 4 innings and 88 pitches.
Working the count against the good pitchers is so important. Morton has a fantastic curve ball and a 95 MPH fastball that has great movement. Fortunately, he didn't control it well against us. He also throws a slider and a change, but neither is as good as his curve or FB.
Their pen didn't throw strikes either and we walked and had some help from their poor defense as we put up a 7 spot in the 6th inning (they walked us 5 times in that inning).
Back in 1st Place!
A few notes:
The Kendry Morales signing - I don't have all the financial details, but it appears we don't have to pay much at all of the 9 mil he is owed and the player to be named later leaves it open ended. That being said, I think he gives us a professional batter to use until we get some more players back. I would rather someone who was a stronger platoon type of player (very strong against righties) as Morales is pretty equal for his career and actually has been a little better from the right side of the plate the past 2 years (which surprised me). I say this was a good low risk signing though as he works the count.
Hicks has been taking a lot of pitches and you can see hitting a fastball (or something straight) has been easier than the breaking balls. Having him play CF and work the count and be productive is a huge plus for us. Gardner being able to rest will make him better as well.
Frazier has been more off balance of late and defensively he is more of a LF'r as his arm isn't RF quality. He had a good chance to throw a batter out and his throw was not even close...Then again, we are spoiled with Judge out there. I am not down on Frazier as a player, he has tools and his overall OPS of .756 is acceptable right now.
Urshela has been a great pickup and while his offense was a huge surprise, his defense has been steady and very solid. Last night he was way out in front of a pitch and just got a piece of it and the ball fouled down and toward the backstop and when it came up it hit him right in the groin. Urshela went down in pain and it took awhile for him to be able to continue the AB. I am not sure it was intentional or not but Michael Kay then said, "Urshela will resume the AB with NO balls and two strikes." OK, maybe that is just my stupid humor, but I thought enough of it to write it here.
Sanchez hit his first career triple with nobody out and we left him there. It was not because of poor hitting either, we drilled two balls with the infield in and both were excellent plays by the Rays infielders. Even with the infield back our last grounder was struck well...that was some good defense.
Enjoy your week!
Monday, May 13, 2019
Post Mothers Day Post!
Been a little bit since I posted, but I have watched almost every game.
Without getting into each game, I want to make a few comments about the Tampa series and then some stats.
German allowed 2 HR's but held it together long enough to get the win (now 7-1) with one scoreless inning each from 4 different relievers. Kahnle, continued looking excellent and only Ottavino struggled but pitched his way out of 2 walks and a hit to not allow a run. The Yanks held onto a 4-3 win.
The second game is what happens a lot in baseball. A 2-2 game going into the bottom of the 6th, turned a close game into a blowout as we used our "lesser" pitchers. Holder, did not live up to his name as he allowed 2 runs in his inning and Nestor Cortes Jr, allowed 3 runs in 2 innings as we let the game get away from us. While this is still early in the season, Tampa is a team to take serious and with a tie game, I would have either stuck with CC (he had only 76 pitches and had gotten out of the previous 2 innings without a run even if his control was awful all game) or I would have used my better pitchers. Getting into a teams weaker bullpen pitchers is very key these days and thus why I like to work pitchers and get their pitch count high.
Game 3 saw a good pitchers dual between Snell and Tanaka. Each of them was dominant. Snell struck out 12 in 5.2 innings and showed a very live 96 MPH fastball that he spotted well to go along with a moving changeup. Tanaka matched him by throwing really good strikes and having better movement on his splitter (which has floated a lot this year). Tanaka went 7 innings allowing only a HR on a low pitch (probably a ball) that was over the heart of the plate. He threw only 73 pitches and I thought he would come out for the 8th inning, especially after we scored another run to go up 3-1, but Boone went with Britton. Brittion had good stuff but allowed a single in a good AB and then an inside out single to make it 1st and 3rd with 1 out. After a pitch got far enough away from Romine they had 2nd and 3rd with 1 out, but Britton struck out Choi and Diaz to get out of the inning. The Yankees then returned the favor beating up on weaker pitching by adding 4 more runs in the 9th including putting the game out of reach with a 2 run double from Urhsela, who had struck out in his previous 4 AB's.
Some observations/stats:
In game 2 Voit got hit after a HR and then Sanchez was hit a few batters later on a breaking ball. While the Voit's HBP was eye raising right after the HR and it was a fastball, their pitcher was wild and the game was too close to be throwing at someone there. I didn't think it was intentional
In Game 3, the Yankees were up 3-1 in the 9th when Estrada led off with his 2nd HR of his career. Then, after 2 singles, Boone had LeMahieu sacrifice to move 2 runners up. Noting was said by the announcers, but then after they intentionally walked Voit, Michael Kay said that this was not a good move as you lose Voits bat and the sac is not used much. While in some cases that is correct, Michael wasn't taking the situation into account. Up 4-1, you want to give yourself the best chance to score 1 more run as that should be enough. Further, bases loaded with 1 out has a higher run expectancy than 1st and 2nd with nobody out. Therefore, it is a better move normally to do that and with the goal to just get one more across, I thought it was a good move. I do agree that if we were down by 2 or so I probably would not do that as I would want Voit's stick to get an AB there. All that being said, when you can move 2 runners up on a sac it is twice as worthwhile as one runner.
Also, in game, 2, LeMahieu had his worst game defensively. He didn't get any errors, but he got one for Sanchez when he didn't field a low throw form Sanchez that was really right where he could have caught it and tagged at the same time, but he was late to cover. He also missed a play that the scorer gave a hit to. DJ has been great two way player so far so no complaints at all, but he did not have a good game there.
Gardner has a .694 OPS as he is in a slump
Andujar has been awful so far. His OPS is under .300...that is his OPS! 47 AB's is not just a few either. They need to give him more time as he will hit, but the shoulder is probably bothering him and I would find some days off for him.
Torres has his OPS up to .779!
Sanchez is leading us with a .960 OPS thanks to his HR's, Urshela is next at .918 and then DJ and Voit at .831 and .830 respectively
We have won 7 out of last 8 Series'
The Red Sox have started their winning ways (on a 8-1 run). I think we all expected that as they do have a solid team. Tampa is competitive as well, but I don't see as good of a team as The Red Sox and of course the Yankees. Tampa did win 90 games last year and many people forget that.
Without getting into each game, I want to make a few comments about the Tampa series and then some stats.
German allowed 2 HR's but held it together long enough to get the win (now 7-1) with one scoreless inning each from 4 different relievers. Kahnle, continued looking excellent and only Ottavino struggled but pitched his way out of 2 walks and a hit to not allow a run. The Yanks held onto a 4-3 win.
The second game is what happens a lot in baseball. A 2-2 game going into the bottom of the 6th, turned a close game into a blowout as we used our "lesser" pitchers. Holder, did not live up to his name as he allowed 2 runs in his inning and Nestor Cortes Jr, allowed 3 runs in 2 innings as we let the game get away from us. While this is still early in the season, Tampa is a team to take serious and with a tie game, I would have either stuck with CC (he had only 76 pitches and had gotten out of the previous 2 innings without a run even if his control was awful all game) or I would have used my better pitchers. Getting into a teams weaker bullpen pitchers is very key these days and thus why I like to work pitchers and get their pitch count high.
Game 3 saw a good pitchers dual between Snell and Tanaka. Each of them was dominant. Snell struck out 12 in 5.2 innings and showed a very live 96 MPH fastball that he spotted well to go along with a moving changeup. Tanaka matched him by throwing really good strikes and having better movement on his splitter (which has floated a lot this year). Tanaka went 7 innings allowing only a HR on a low pitch (probably a ball) that was over the heart of the plate. He threw only 73 pitches and I thought he would come out for the 8th inning, especially after we scored another run to go up 3-1, but Boone went with Britton. Brittion had good stuff but allowed a single in a good AB and then an inside out single to make it 1st and 3rd with 1 out. After a pitch got far enough away from Romine they had 2nd and 3rd with 1 out, but Britton struck out Choi and Diaz to get out of the inning. The Yankees then returned the favor beating up on weaker pitching by adding 4 more runs in the 9th including putting the game out of reach with a 2 run double from Urhsela, who had struck out in his previous 4 AB's.
Some observations/stats:
In game 2 Voit got hit after a HR and then Sanchez was hit a few batters later on a breaking ball. While the Voit's HBP was eye raising right after the HR and it was a fastball, their pitcher was wild and the game was too close to be throwing at someone there. I didn't think it was intentional
In Game 3, the Yankees were up 3-1 in the 9th when Estrada led off with his 2nd HR of his career. Then, after 2 singles, Boone had LeMahieu sacrifice to move 2 runners up. Noting was said by the announcers, but then after they intentionally walked Voit, Michael Kay said that this was not a good move as you lose Voits bat and the sac is not used much. While in some cases that is correct, Michael wasn't taking the situation into account. Up 4-1, you want to give yourself the best chance to score 1 more run as that should be enough. Further, bases loaded with 1 out has a higher run expectancy than 1st and 2nd with nobody out. Therefore, it is a better move normally to do that and with the goal to just get one more across, I thought it was a good move. I do agree that if we were down by 2 or so I probably would not do that as I would want Voit's stick to get an AB there. All that being said, when you can move 2 runners up on a sac it is twice as worthwhile as one runner.
Also, in game, 2, LeMahieu had his worst game defensively. He didn't get any errors, but he got one for Sanchez when he didn't field a low throw form Sanchez that was really right where he could have caught it and tagged at the same time, but he was late to cover. He also missed a play that the scorer gave a hit to. DJ has been great two way player so far so no complaints at all, but he did not have a good game there.
Gardner has a .694 OPS as he is in a slump
Andujar has been awful so far. His OPS is under .300...that is his OPS! 47 AB's is not just a few either. They need to give him more time as he will hit, but the shoulder is probably bothering him and I would find some days off for him.
Torres has his OPS up to .779!
Sanchez is leading us with a .960 OPS thanks to his HR's, Urshela is next at .918 and then DJ and Voit at .831 and .830 respectively
We have won 7 out of last 8 Series'
The Red Sox have started their winning ways (on a 8-1 run). I think we all expected that as they do have a solid team. Tampa is competitive as well, but I don't see as good of a team as The Red Sox and of course the Yankees. Tampa did win 90 games last year and many people forget that.
Friday, May 3, 2019
Arizona Games
Just a quick read on the two games in Arizona:
1st Game:
Greinke shut down our mostly minor league lineup with Greg Maddux type of control. His slider was just off the plate and his 89 MPH fastball was placed in great spots and then he ran his change-up in to righties and away from lefties. He then had a really slow curveball that was a true 12-6 one that dropped like crazy. He was making really good pitches. Lost 3-1
2nd Game:
I was ornery from the start as Gardner led off with a single (not ornery yet)...Voit works a 3-2 count and Gardner is not running and what do you think happens? DP by Voit. How is Gardner not running there? It didn't get better for me (or the Yankees) as Tanaka really struggled with his control for his 4 innings and I agreed to pull him when he did as he just didn't have it. Cessa, Kahnle and Ottavino went 4 scoreless innings but the Yankees couldn't score the 3 runs Tanaka allowed.
Other notes on game 2: Tauchman overthrew the cutoff on a possible play at the plate allowing the batter to get to 2nd base. I expect more from major leaguers! The announcer, who was not Singleton, (not sure who he was but he was not good), made a lot of comments I didn't agree with and was just wrong at times. One time, he was talking about a wild pitch that was a tough block, and the announcer went out of his way to say how that was "not Sanchez' fault as he did everything he could to stop the ball from getting away." While that can be true and Sanchez has been much more active this year at blocking balls, this was not "doing everything he could." First, the way Sanchez setup made it harder for him to move quickly (to his right) and 2nd he didn't move quickly and 3rd, because he wasn't able to get outside the ball he wasn't able to turn (block) the ball back toward home plate and the pitch got outside of him and away from him for a wild pitch. It was one of those plays that pros fairly routinely block and you say, that was a nice block...and it saves two baserunners from moving up; a pretty substantial difference when one scores.
There was a bunt play with a man on 3rd for Arizona where the bunt went straight up off the plate and Sanchez hopped out grabbed it and threw him out. The ump behind home plate immediately called it fair but after Arizona asked the ump at 3rd (not a challenge) as an appeal they overturned it. I think the ball was still over the plate and fair and should not have been overturned. Boone had challenged a play at 2nd base where Arizona in the act of turning a DP (we hit into 2 tough ones) the fielder might have come off the bag early, but while Boone felt this was a "head scratcher" it is one of those plays I would rather them not overturn (very close). Later, Wade had a pitch graze him and without a challenge, Boone asked to appeal it. Boone seemed very calm and even covered his mouth his hand as he requested help and the ump tossed him very quickly if you ask me. I thought the ump did a poor job there as Boone did not show him up and later Boone said it was "pretty harmless
comment."
Maybin had a really good feel for the strike zone for us as he walked twice with one of those AB's showing great control of some tempting 2 strike pitches. He has been a very good pickup for us and is performing better than we could have hoped. My hope is we won't need him later in the year, but we need to win some ball games in the meantime.
Lost 3-2
Congratulations to CC! 3000 k's is a really remarkable achievement because it shows you have enough quality stuff and longevity to reach that goal. When only 17 players have done it, it says a lot.
Back home with 3 against Minnesota starting Friday as we should be seeing Frazier, LeMahieu, and Andujar pretty soon. Then, we will only be without Judge, Stanton, Hicks, Didi, Severino, and Betances :-)
1st Game:
Greinke shut down our mostly minor league lineup with Greg Maddux type of control. His slider was just off the plate and his 89 MPH fastball was placed in great spots and then he ran his change-up in to righties and away from lefties. He then had a really slow curveball that was a true 12-6 one that dropped like crazy. He was making really good pitches. Lost 3-1
2nd Game:
I was ornery from the start as Gardner led off with a single (not ornery yet)...Voit works a 3-2 count and Gardner is not running and what do you think happens? DP by Voit. How is Gardner not running there? It didn't get better for me (or the Yankees) as Tanaka really struggled with his control for his 4 innings and I agreed to pull him when he did as he just didn't have it. Cessa, Kahnle and Ottavino went 4 scoreless innings but the Yankees couldn't score the 3 runs Tanaka allowed.
Other notes on game 2: Tauchman overthrew the cutoff on a possible play at the plate allowing the batter to get to 2nd base. I expect more from major leaguers! The announcer, who was not Singleton, (not sure who he was but he was not good), made a lot of comments I didn't agree with and was just wrong at times. One time, he was talking about a wild pitch that was a tough block, and the announcer went out of his way to say how that was "not Sanchez' fault as he did everything he could to stop the ball from getting away." While that can be true and Sanchez has been much more active this year at blocking balls, this was not "doing everything he could." First, the way Sanchez setup made it harder for him to move quickly (to his right) and 2nd he didn't move quickly and 3rd, because he wasn't able to get outside the ball he wasn't able to turn (block) the ball back toward home plate and the pitch got outside of him and away from him for a wild pitch. It was one of those plays that pros fairly routinely block and you say, that was a nice block...and it saves two baserunners from moving up; a pretty substantial difference when one scores.
There was a bunt play with a man on 3rd for Arizona where the bunt went straight up off the plate and Sanchez hopped out grabbed it and threw him out. The ump behind home plate immediately called it fair but after Arizona asked the ump at 3rd (not a challenge) as an appeal they overturned it. I think the ball was still over the plate and fair and should not have been overturned. Boone had challenged a play at 2nd base where Arizona in the act of turning a DP (we hit into 2 tough ones) the fielder might have come off the bag early, but while Boone felt this was a "head scratcher" it is one of those plays I would rather them not overturn (very close). Later, Wade had a pitch graze him and without a challenge, Boone asked to appeal it. Boone seemed very calm and even covered his mouth his hand as he requested help and the ump tossed him very quickly if you ask me. I thought the ump did a poor job there as Boone did not show him up and later Boone said it was "pretty harmless
comment."
Maybin had a really good feel for the strike zone for us as he walked twice with one of those AB's showing great control of some tempting 2 strike pitches. He has been a very good pickup for us and is performing better than we could have hoped. My hope is we won't need him later in the year, but we need to win some ball games in the meantime.
Lost 3-2
Congratulations to CC! 3000 k's is a really remarkable achievement because it shows you have enough quality stuff and longevity to reach that goal. When only 17 players have done it, it says a lot.
Back home with 3 against Minnesota starting Friday as we should be seeing Frazier, LeMahieu, and Andujar pretty soon. Then, we will only be without Judge, Stanton, Hicks, Didi, Severino, and Betances :-)
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