The GM 9-14

It is disappointing to see your ace give back leads but it is hard for me to criticize CC when he has been such a horse.  He is not pitching well and for us to get in, he must improve…I think he will be ok. 

We have too many holes and we need Tex back.  We are not good enough to overcome the loss of Rivera, Pineda and Gardner with anyone else out.  The Yanks really botched the Tex injury and let him come back too early and now it has cost us a lot of games.

The other nugget form this game that really dropped my mood was watching Nunez totally misplay a grounder for the insurance run.  It was simply a horrendous play that everything was done poorly.  Nunez didn’t move, which means he didn’t charge to get on an easy hop and also played it off to his side and looked so uneasy letting it go by him.  It was not even close to professional.  It was disheartening because if you remember, the day before they actually sent Nunez down, I was calling for sending him down to do nothing but play SS as he simply could not be used in the field.  He went down and played fairly well and then up here made a bunch of nice backhand plays.  Then this…We may have to roll the dice with him one more time and the next error shut it down.  I don’t have faith Jeter could be much better.

Ibanez has been putrid and today I was hoping we would finally come through, but nope, he is doing exactly what I was afraid of when I wanted Dickerson over him.  Ibanez is in a slump that I am pretty sure is now 3- 38 with only 4 walks.   

Friday night, the yanks and in particular Swisher missed some very hittable pitches.  However, the one pitch that I felt really hurt was after the 2 run ARod homer to close to within one.  Cano worked a walk and the Rays brought in their closer in the 8^th when they were talking about him rarely pitching more than one inning.  One of our goals had to be to make him throw pitches, not only for this game, but the series.  He struck out Martin, but he worked a little.  Then he walked Ibanez on 4 pitches.  The yanks had a chance to make him work and if you didn’t give the take sign (which is probably the smart move), Granderson better be very choosy to swing.  He swung at the first pitch and got out to end the threat and stopped Rodney form having to throw any more pitches.  It was a huge play to swing at the first pitch and unfortunately it was a low pitch and not one he should have gone after. 

Baltimore lost at least

The Genius Maker 9-13

The post below this was added yesterday so please read it as this only is small piece on last nights game.  I thought both offenses did not swing the bats well, but credit Hughes for only walking one batter and hitting spots pretty well.  His stuff wasn’t his best, but he did work in the change a lot more and threw 72% strikes.  Shockingly Hughes ERA is 3.96!  It is hard to trust him, but he threw 7.1 shutout innings and we needed him.  Logan Robertson and Soriano cleaned up the final 5 outs for the shutout.  ARod had 2 hits and a SB, but I am worried about his defense.  He had two balls that he basically fell over and didn’t make the play on.  That is very concerning as his range is gone.  I guess it is not unexpected, but it is a problem for us.  Nunez did a good job all around and he didn’t hurt us defensively.  I am glad the Yankees did what I said I would do (the next day) and have kept him only at SS.  I hope he can become at least average with the glove because he appears to have some offensive game and he is fast.  O’s kept beating up on TB unfortunately…Hopefully TB will continue to lose against us.

The Genius Maker 9-12

I wrote almost all of this last night late and forgot to send it

Quickly back to Sunday...It was great to see what happens when you get to the middle relief quickly in Baltimore.  For those of you who don’t like the patient guys, it is one of the things that can get pitch counts up and then blow games out against weaker middle relievers...

Tuesday against Boston was a close game because the Yanks could not take advantage of SEVEN walks in 5.1 innings by Lester.  The Yanks also got hits, but Granderson got with the bases loaded in the first, Jeter killed the rally in the 2nd with a DP, in the 3rd we had two men on with nobody out and then 2 K's and a Granderson ground out ended that threat.  The Yanks did get two on a bloop double by Jeter (which I believe was their only hit with RISP).

The Yanks had the lead but Kuroda missed badly and Pedroia lined a homer that just cleared the wall.
In the 7^th, they got a check swing hit that Jeter simply didn’t move for until it was too late.  The other day I wrote about the slow motion showing how slow Jeter is to react to balls hit and this is why his range is a lot more limited than people think.  This one I watched in slow motion as well and Cano got 3 steps to Jeter’s first step.  If Cano were at SS he would have made the play.  After an error by Martin they had two guys on and nobody out.  Kuroda struck out Aviles and then Girardi messed up IMO by going to Logan.  Not because Logan is a bad matchup against Ellsbury, actually he is a good matchup, but because Kuroda was fine and could have thrown another 20 pitches if needed.  Logan did his job (getting a grounder to 2^nd base, but Logan forgot to cover first base at the same time Swisher messed up by going too far to field the play.  Michael Kay, who doesn’t know better, blamed Swisher, but if Logan did his job it wouldn’t have mattered.  Now Girardi had to go to Joba…who did a great job getting out of the mess that was created on not a single well struck ball that all stayed in the infield.

Sarcasm alert…

Because Joba looked so strong and threw only 6 pitches, Girardi felt the need to bring in Robertson for some crazy reason, with the score tied at 3?  I would have left Joba in there and let him go until he showed some signs of tiring, but Robertson did the job in the 8^th and on 13 pitches struck out the side.  He was not awesome with his stuff, but he mixed his curve in and that made the 91 MPH fastball look better…With the score still tied, Girardi must have felt he had to stay with Robertson because in that ONE inning the score didn’t change and that must have caught Girardi off guard.  At this point, I would have tried to get another one or 2 outs of Robertson too as he was looking good and at 13 pitches, he could go to 20-22 and I would be OK.  Robertson got the first guy, but threw a fastball at 89 and didn’t look as sharp, although his curve looked good in this AB.  The 2^nd AB he got unlucky as Ciriaco reached out and pulled a low and outside pitch and grounded it threw the hole on the left side, because we were guarding the line.  He had now thrown 6 more pitches so he was at 19, but I was OK leaving him in to face Aviles at this point but I would have been OK going to Soriano as well.  The lefty Ellsbury was on deck so using Robertson for one more batter and then using Rapada before turning to Soriano was the way I would go.  Robertson looked tired as he threw two balls but rebounded to throw 4 straight strikes before Aviles reached on an infield hit to SS on the 5^th strike.  Now with 26 pitches, he was shot so Rapada (or a lefty) needed to come in against Ellsbury as obviously Girardi saw how important it was to use Logan before against him?  This time he sticks with a very tired Robertson inexplicably.  I was beside myself…As you know, I feel a guy like Rapada should pitch almost every game for one batter because that is how he stays sharp and when he was used that way he was great.  Girardi had used for only two batters for the 11 days of September so far…Simply idiotic.  The job of the manager is to put your players in the best position for success and Girardi left a fatigued Robertson in against a lefty (who is worse against lefties but not by much) rather than use Rapada and his .187 BA off of him with an OPS of .536???  Predictably, Ellsbury gets the walk off hit…C’MON JOE, GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER!

Wednesday, Joe used Rapada and he got the job done!  We barely hung on in this game as the bullpen gave up 3 runs in 3.1 innings, but we got out of it.  We better hope our starters can get us 6 and I think we see how important the matchups are with the lefties.  It would appear Joe will go with Robertson and Soriano for the 8^th and 9^th so we need Joba to hold down the 7^th with the help of the other guys. 
 
OK, now please stick with me on this last piece that has been driving me crazy.  On the radio I heard talks about MVP.  Last night, I guess Kay was talking about Jeter being the “undisputed MVP of this Yankee team.”  Let me be the first to stand up and say…

I DISPUTE THAT!  

I am going to try and use something that appears to be missing and that is …logic…
On what planet is Jeter more valuable than Cano?

Before we get into the offense, Cano is a stellar defender, perhaps the best in baseball at 2^nd base. Jeter, at best is average and in my own estimation has poor range and his hands are not quick, but he doesn’t make a lot of errors on the balls hit close to him.  While defensive statistics are not that great, they have Jeter as a negative defender.  This mean he is below average and I would agree with that.  He has nine errors and a .980 FP.  Cano is considered a plus fielder and has made 6 errors for a .991 FP. 
   
Offense:
Jeter .324 .368 .449 (.817)  30 doubles, 0 triple, 15 HR’s     646 PA’s                                                 Cano .300 .368 540 (.908)  38 doubles, 1 triple,  30 HR’s    603 PA’s

The main difference is that Cano has a lot more power as their OBP is the same and this is why Cano has 25 more RBI’s than Jeter.  Cano hits in the middle of the lineup which does give him more RBI chances, but he also has only 3 less runs scored than Jeter and Jeter has more PA’s.  So Cano is the undisputed better offensive player and the undisputed better defensive player according to facts, stats and logic.  But Jeter is the undisputed team MVP if you listen to Kay?  You may want to go www.factcheck.org to find the real truth…although they don’t do baseball stats, they just show us all the “undisputed facts” we all here from both sides.

9-8-12

That was one of the worst calls you will see a first base ump make and it definitely gave us a loss (not sure what the outcome would have been).  We had 1^st and 3^rd with 2 outs the prior inning and Granderson popped out but we came back in the 9^th to load the bases with nobody out and down by 2.  Swisher, who has been awful, almost grounded into a DP, but beat the throw to get us within one run.  With 1^st and 3^rd and 1 out Tex hit a grounder to the right side and hustled the best he could on his sore calf and dove into first base.  He touched first base with the ball more than a foot away from the 1^st baseman’s glove.  A terrible call at a very important time.  Tex probably did the right thing to dive into first because if he had to lunge if his strides were off that pressure might not have been good for his calf.

The umps caught more complaints as Tex was called out on a strike that looked to touching the righty batter box line and Cano actually didn’t swing at a pitch they called a strike…that is hard to imagine when he swung at I believe 7 balls today.

CC was not sharp as his curve did not have good bite and his fastball was usually only 92.  His change was working for him, but I think he needs more than 7 MPH difference, but it still was his best pitch.  The pitch selection was terrible again as Martin’s glove was hit and they pounded the ball…this tells you they are throwing the wrong pitch and to the wrong location.  I don’t why it took Reynolds to hit yet another homer off of us to say that they won’t throw him another fastball unless it is way inside…shouldn’t they have known that BEFORE the game?

They threw a curve to Jones that he ripped foul and then they threw him the same pitch and then he kept it fair this time…???  Mind boggling.

ARod has really helped and having Tex back will also.  The Yanks should have scored a lot more against Saunders, regardless of what Michael Kay said about him mixing speeds etc.  He put a lot of fat pitches over the heart of the plate that we just didn’t hit and we should have.  Too many guys slumping at once.

Ichiro kind of misplayed a double, but none of our other LF’rs would not have made the play (except maybe Dickerson) and I believe the tailing of the hit is not one Ichiro was used to as RF would slice to the right, and in LF the slice goes to the left. That being said, he made a fantastic effort on a HR that he just missed by an inch or 2 that he timed his leap into the wall and then sprung himself up to where just about his entire torso was over the wall and then with his arm extended he was way over the wall.  This also goes to show that if we had Ichiro in LF when Ibanez was he would have caught that 3 run HR from Wieters.  Like I have said, you don’t think about defense on plays like that, the play would just be made.

Very frustrating…

9-7-12

Good to see the bats staying alive after the 8^th inning last game.  ARod was taking a lot of very aggressive swings and missing a lot but he connected on a big shot.  Pearce even got into the action.  Cano did a good job with the glove.  In fact, he made a nice running catch over the shoulder style that the announcer said he was the only one who had a chance on it even though it was hit into short CF toward the SS side.  The reason was a great way of gauging guys range.  I slowed up the point of contact with the bat and watch Jeter and Cano move toward the ball, they each “cross-overed” their feet and Cano put down his 3^rd step before Jeter got his 2^nd step down.  This is why Cano was there.  People don’t see when a guy has bad range very often because he just doesn’t get there…queue OF’rs compared to Gardner.  Today, McClouth robbed Swisher of a HR on a similar play that we could have made on Wieters in the 1^st inning but Ibanez was out there instead of someone better.  While on Ibanez (nice segue eh?) why did Girardi make a defensive substitution by putting Ibanez in LF and moving Swisher to 1^st base?  Is Swisher really a better defensive 1^st baseman than Pearce or Chavez?  And I know without question Dickerson is a better OF than Ibanez, so why not make the move when the score is 7-0?  Ibanez didn’t have any plays luckily but Swisher booted a grounder.  Speaking of booting a grounder (yes, this is a run on paragraph), Jeter hit a grounder that was hit hard, but it was terribly played by Baltimore and they GAVE Jeter a hit.  First, it should have been an error, but 2^nd with a guy on 2^nd and one out you must knock the ball down and make sure the run doesn’t score…really weak play.

The ump was not calling some strikes that I thought were definitely strikes.  One was right before a HR so it did impact the play and one of the others gave them a 3-0 count with 1^st and 2^nd.  Fortunately, on the -30 green light they popped it up (much like Jones did on his 3-0 swing).

Hughes just throws too many fat pitches.  Yanks up 7-0, he just allowed a double with a guy on and I was wondering what type of pitch he would make…he grooved a long HR pitch.

So Robertson comes in and gets his two guys.  Of course, he must have read this blog as he faced Adam Jones and threw him 3 straight curve balls and struck him out…Man, why did it take them losing a game to figure out the obvious?

Games are exciting and important…glad we got this one

9-6-12

Sometimes I forget what I write in the blog and what I say to people I speak to.  The other night while watching the Giants game (I have been down all day about that), I was talking to my brother about Robertson.  I have always been a big fan of his, but my comment was that he doesn’t use his curve enough.  I also said that since he has come back, he has not had near the same velocity.  He used to throw 93-94 with that long stride and movement.  Now, he is throwing 91-92 and not been as sharp.  Queue today where I was very unhappy with the pitch selection most of the night.  Outside of Phelps throwing mostly 90 MPH fastballs because he couldn’t get his breaking ball over; I was really ticked in the bottom of the 8^th.  I should have been happy after the Yanks worked very hard to put up 5 runs in the 8^th to tie the game.  Further, they had hit into another bunch of DP’s and also hot a lot of hard balls at guys.  The 3 run HR that was hit in the first with Wieters at the plate juts barely made it over the wall as well…so a lot was going against us and we still fought back.  Girardi went to Robertson there and that was not a bad move.  Unfortunately the Yanks made a terrible pitch selection.  The count was 0-2 on Adam Jones and Robertson tried a curve (correct call).  Unfortunately it slipped form his hand and ended above at and at Jones for a very high ball.  Instead of going right back with it he decided to throw the fastball.  I said out loud throw the curve again and they threw the fastball and Jones hit a HR and basically just took all the good away from what we had just done.  That was an awful job by Martin…Robertson then threw 3 fastballs (one might have been a change or something as it was only 88 but that would be a very fast change?) and allowed a single to Wieters.  Then with Reynolds coming up – who is hotter than you can be – They threw him 6 straight fastballs until he deposited it over the fence for a HR.  I was screaming for the curve ball…I have NO idea what they were thinking; make the guy move his feet inside or throw a curve, but you can’t give him the same pitch 6 times in a row?  I think they said he has 4 multiple HR games against us in his last 5…Very disappointing because if Robertson can’t get it done for us, and he has not pitched well since coming back; we are in trouble.  Robertson was lights out before his injury, having about 30 scoreless innings with half this year before he hurt himself and allowed 4 runs a few days he went on the disabled list.  Since coming back, he has been effective, but not nearly as dominant.  Tonight, he was awful…but he didn’t use a very good pitch of his and that is his curve.  Also, since coming back he is 1-5.

Head scratcher - Girardi brought in Rapada to face a lefty and got him out wit nobody on and nobody out to start the 5^th inning with the Yanks down 5-1.  He then took him out?  Now, I like mixing and matching, but what is Rapada doing in the game there for ONE batter and nobody on?  He should have just let Thomas come in and go for a little bit if he got the first guy out?   Just very odd for a guy who explained the other day in a key spot how he didn’t want to use a guy for one batter (when he should have)…just shows you how FOS he was in his answer.

I am not in a good mood right now, but it was good to see the offense show some life and make the comeback.

9-5-12

 We found a way to win a ball game that was badly needed.  Kuroda wasn’t sharp with his control but his stuff was solid.  Overall, he didn’t pitch that well, but was the recipient of some run support and did just enough to hold down TB to 4 runs.  The bullpen did a good job going the final 3 innings shutting down TB.

It was good to see ARod and Martin help us offensively (and Jeter collected 3 hits).  We also were fairly timely only leaving 4 guys on base.   Both ARod and Jeter made nice over the shoulder type of catches (Jeter’s a little harder) and compare that to Tampa where they coughed one up.  TB’s defense hurt them on the play at the plate where their 2^nd baseman (Johnson) threw up the line trying to get Ichiro at the plate.  The catcher gave up on that ball, I guess shying away from contact?

We struck out 15 times, but scored 6 runs even if 2 were unearned.  That is better, but not good enough.  I don’t care as much about the K’s, but we are taking an awful a lot of called 3^rd strikes.  Granderson is just swinging through a lot of pitches and Cano has expanded his strike zone too much.  Swisher struck out 7 times this 3 game series…and had no hits.  BTW, Martin is at .202 now.

We need to beat Baltimore now!  Taking 3 of 4 would be great…a split in minimum.

9-4-12

I have a post from the Monday game below that I did not send out via email, so please read that first.

Last night’s game, which now puts us in a tie for first place as well as a very slim lead for the WC, was simply a team that had a fairly weak pitcher on the mound and an offense with too many holes.  The Yankees have only had six hits or less for 5 straight games...this their longest such streak since 1990 when they had six straight games of six hits or less.  The key to the game was on a 3-2 pitch, Garcia threw a breaking ball (might have been his fork ball) that could have been called a strike but just fell below the strike zone and Zobrist did a great job of laying off of it for ball 4 and was on with 2 outs.  Could have been harmless but when Garcia tried to slip a fastball by Longoria away and got it inside, Longoria was able to hit a 2 run 2 out HR making it the key point in the game.

Granderson needs to get his swing healthy quickly and so does ARod.  ARod’s hand positioning looks different to me.  I was not able to compare before and after but something is different?  He is not back yet, that is for sure, as he is 2-8 since coming back and both were very soft liners up the middle that barely made the OF. 

We need to suck it up and find a way to win this game as Baltimore is right around the corner…It was surprising, yet also not so surprising that we are below .500 since the All Star Break.  Tonight we face Moore who is a very good pitcher, but we need to have Kuroda shut them down and find a way to win. 

9-3-12

We have really struggled in close games this year. Many people will point to not hitting with RISP and that is a factor, but I think it is because we have too many guys who make outs. Our OBP as a team is very poor, in fact I checked our OBP as a team and in the previous 10 years it was at least 12 points higher than this year’s .332. We have had OBP's in the .360's some years. Guys like Ichiro and Ibanez and Jones make too many outs. I am not as worried about the HR's, I worry we make too many outs which kills rally's. Last night Ichiro was a classic example of what frustrates me. He was up withy 1st and 3rd 2 outs early in the game and instead of taking ball 4; he swung at it and then struck out. Mid game he was up with 1st and 3rd and 1 out this time and he swung at one pitch way out of the strike zone before striking out on another one that was high. Then in the 7th, he had martin on 1st base with a full count, he swung at a breaking ball that was way outside and fouled it off. He then ended up flying out. TAKE THE DARN WALK!

After my last post Bruce had written in the comments section about Cano not hustling. The line drive in the 8th really showed that as he actually stopped running before starting again. I don’t understand why guys don’t run until they know the outcome. You would think when the Mets guy (was it Tito Perez???can't remember his name) didn't run out the double in the WS and got thrown out at home plate that a huge play that possibly changed the WS would be etched in people's minds? I would have also liked to see Cano dive and do anything possible to keep the weak grounder in the 8th from getting to the OF. He did hustle and stretch far but the ball stayed down; a dive there was the play as you must knock it down.  While on Cano, he also made a bad base running play on a soft grounder by ARod where he went back to the bag at 2^nd base.  He should have advanced right away on it.  As it turned out I don’t think he would have scored anyway and he got to 3^rd, but it was not heads up on his part.

BTW, I know some of you email me and that is fine, but feel free to use the comments section so everyone can read and possibly respond to your thoughts.

9-2-12

I have not been able to write much but I have been watching the games.  Nothing that was so critical to write on, but I did notice Cano in one of his I am going to swing at everything modes for the past games.  I am writing this before the end of the game because I am watching on tape.  It is the 6^th inning and the Yanks have a 3-1 lead.  Hughes was not looking good last inning, but he was throwing a better slider (moving right to left) rather than his curve that is more down.  Looks like he is just changing the break angles because the speed is the same.  It is better though.  Anyway, Hughes started the 6^th with a walk and he was throwing 88-89 and not throwing well.  Then grooving a pitch he allowed a single.  Right there Hughes should have been out of the game.   Girardi sleeping at the wheel allows Hughes to throw another batting practice pitch for another single.  Surely after allowing a HR to Reynolds earlier, now Girardi would have to take out Hughes?  Nope, he grooves a breaking ball and the Orioles take a 5-3 lead…Now Girardi felt it was a good time to take him out????  Absolutely horrible job by Girardi…unacceptable and absurd.  Hughes had almost 100 pitches at this point.  I am so ticked I had to write this before even watching the end of the game. 

UPDATE AFTER GAME:  Well, as expected, Girardi sucked the life out of the team with a mind boggling non move.  His response after the game was, “I thought that was Hughsie’s guy to get out, and he didn’t do it…my other choice is to bring (Cody) Eppley in there, and then to bring in Booney for the left-hander, and then I have to bring in another right-hander. I felt better leaving Hughsie in against Reynolds than what I would have done after Booney. If it’s one out, it’s a different story. But there was nobody out.”

OK, please allow me to respond to these quotes.  First, is it really necessary to address everyone on our team with some sort of a pet nick name by putting a “ey” or an “ie” at the end of everyone’s name?  I don’t think he has every called Robinson Cano…Cano, he is always uses Robbie, yet he uses the last names of Hughsie and Booney…Cody Eppley must be his favorite name as he doesn’t have to think.   

Sorry, to take you down that road, but it is kind of childish all the time…

Now let’s look at what he said…first he throws Hughes under the bus saying it was his job and he didn’t do it.  There are times for that and sometimes a lefty or right specialist or even the guy holding down the 8^th inning or the closer just need to do their job.  However, and I have said this hundreds of times, the managers job is to put the players in the best position where their skills have the best chance to succeed.  They won’t always succeed, but that is your job.  For example, have Jeter face a lefty instead of a righty, have Rapada almost never face a righty (and use him frequently), etc…

So after Hughes looked terrible in his first batter walk of the 6^th inning and you even noticed it enough to get the bullpen up, why in the world didn’t you slow the game down to ensure that someone could come in to face Wieters if the 2^nd guy in the inning got on base and Hughes continued to look bad?  The score is 3-1 and you have a ton of pitchers in the pen because of September call ups.  You don’t need to worry about using 6 guys as you have far more than you need.  Wieters is better against lefties so I would have used a righty like Cory Wade as his changeup is good against lefties and he has done well against lefties even when he was struggling.  I was afraid to leave Hughes in there against Wieters and I would have made a move right there.  But after he grooved another pitch to Wieters and lines a single, there is NO excuse to leave Hughes in there against a guy who already homered off of him.  I would have gone to Eppley or any of the other righties.  Another game on Girardi’s hands.  Keeping Robby Thompson as 3^rd base coach is enough of a reason to question Girardi, but yesterday was a joke.  Then his lame excuse of if there was one out it would be different???  WHAT?  You have 12 outs to go and you only need 6 outs to get to Robertson and Soriano and I am not sure if my math is right, but you have at least 6 pitchers to get those 6 outs. 

Back to reality as I have been watching too much fiction on TV lately.

It was great to see Chris Dickerson get called up and play well.  If you remember back to pre season, I was a big supporter of keeping him over Ibanez because I felt they could similarly, but Dickerson had a little upside to only downside for Ibanez and Dickerson is a far better defender and also could be a decent pinch runner.  Ibanez got off to a much better start than I thought (and I on numerous occasions stated such), but he has been awful lately.  Further, while his glove has not been tested much and has not been the liability I thought it would be in costing us games; his arm is one of the weakest in the league and teams routinely take extra bases on him that they wouldn’t off of 99% of the league.  Our corner OF positions of Ichiro, Jones and Ibanez all have OPS’s in the .700 - .730 range…that is very weak.  Ibanez since August 1 (just over a month) has an OPS of about .600!  Jones is even worse at around .480!!!  Ichiro has been mediocre, but he hasn’t SB’s in a helpful way and his defense has been just OK (I hate how long he takes to get rid of the ball even if he has a strong arm).  The other issue and this is why people who complain about homers don’t understand, is that these guys have a combined OBP of about .300.  This kills innings!

The other part that has me upset (do you see a theme), is when Cano has a batting average of .303.  I know his OPS is good and that is all that really matters, but we are talking about a guy who could go down as the greatest 2^nd baseman of all time.  Seriously, he is that great…and while some of the reason is that his defense is phenomenal, it is also that he is the best hitter on our team.  If he could just slow down that “I am going to swing no matter what” mentality he should have an OPS over 1.000.  He also needs to get his AB’s against lefties better as he has huge splits – a terrible .620 OPS against lefties and a great 1.101 against righties. 

We need ARod to come back and hit well.  Give us a mid .800 OPS or better.  We really need him. 

All this being said, I am not panicked as we are banged up and we should be able to get ourselves straightened out when we get ARod, Tex and Pettitte back.  We are a flawed team, but the competition is at least as equally flawed.

If the season ended today, Oakland and Baltimore would be the wild card teams.