Taking 3 of 4 from Baltimore

Saturday night’s game was not a good one.  I felt like our bats missed a lot of hittable pitches and our pitching was not very good either.  Whitley struggled leaving too many meatballs but overall was not horrible.  His mistakes were taken advantage of though with 3 dingers against.  His stuff is not sharp enough to leave that many fat pitches.

Sunday saw us reverse the 6-2 win in our favor and this was on the strength of an extremely impressive box score by Pineda.  In 7 innings, Pineda struck out 16 batters and didn’t walk anyone.  He allowed a solo HR but came out after throwing 111 pitches in those 7 innings.  Veteran readers of this blog know I have always been a big fan of Pineda; I was one of the few people who liked the controversial trade that sent Montero to Seattle for him.  He is now 5-0 with a 2.72 ERA for us this year.  That being said, he was not as dominant as his stat line showed today.  Being able to mix in a 93-95 MPH fastball with solid breaking stuff and a sinking changeup about 9-10 MPH less than his fastball keeps teams off balance.  Add the fact he doesn’t give away bases by walking batters and he will be effective.  But 16 K’s was slightly more because Baltimore swung the bats terribly tonight.  Again, I don’t want to downplay the effectiveness of his stuff, but there were a lot of mistakes, specifically on his breaking ball tonight that they just missed very hittable pitches..  Even in his last inning (the 7^th) when his velocity had dropped to 91 MPH he hung two breaking balls and both were missed.

Regardless, not walking anyone and getting that many strikeouts is amazing; not sure I have ever seen 16 K’s with 0 walks?

As for the game, Didi and Beltran showed some signs of coming out their season long slumps with a few hits each.  Though Didi was part of one of the two bad base running plays the Yankees had.  On a double Didi tried to stretch it to 3^rd with 2 outs (not a good idea) and Drew was on first.  When Didi got thrown out he was barely tagged before Drew touched home plate.  4 mistakes in this situation.  1) the on deck batters had their hands up for Drew to stand up (which was correct but they should have been pushing him to run hard) 2) Drew needed to run hard the entire time 3) They should have held Didi at 2^nd base with 2 outs 4) Didi should have either held up on his own or at least be aware enough to force a run down to guarantee the run scored (which would have been ok at 7-1 going into the 8^th inning).

The other base running blunder was Gardner in the 1^st inning.  Because we won, nobody will say boo about it, but this was idiotic.  1^st and 2^nd with 2 outs, and McCann is up with a 2-0 count on him.  Gardner gets a decent jump and tries to steal 3^rd.  The pitch is outside which made the throw easier for the catcher (and ball 3 to McCann) and Gardner was just tagged in time for the final out.  Instead of a 3-0 count with 1^st and 2^nd we end up being out of the inning.  Horrible, boneheaded judgment…especially in the first inning where pitchers can have trouble getting into any rhythm.

I know I had some negativity in a 6-2 win, but those base running mistakes can cost us in a game where the other team plays better.

Still it was fun watching Pineda today and if you would have told me we would have tallied our 20^th win after 32 games I would have signed on the dotted line and been very happy!  I also like that Toronto is in 3^rd because I still think they are the team to worry about as our main competition in the division.

The Twin Towers Do It Again!

Another one run game with Betances and Miller closing out the game with 0 runs against their ledger.  The Twin Towers ™ have now pitched 33.1 innings and allowed 11 hits and struck out 54 batters while having a 0.00 ERA (they have allowed others runners to score).  Their combined OPS against is about .345.  For perspective, the MVP and CY Young award winner last year, Kershaw, had an OPS against of .521).  In what I believe was Rivera’s best year OPS against wise (2008) the Genius Maker held his batters to an OPS against of a phenomenal .423.  The Twin Towers ™ are almost half the innings there and while it is extraordinarily unlikely they keep this pace up, it underscores how awesome what they are doing is.  They are the main reason why we are 19-11.

The game itself was a good one.  In the top of the first Gardner showed off his great defense by charging fast on a single and throwing a 2 hop strike to McCann to nail Machado at the plate.  What I loved about the throw was Gardner didn’t take 3 or 4 steps after he touched the ball before he threw it; I hate when OF’s do that as every step is another for the runner. 

I was relieved when I saw Ellsbury being held at 3^rd base with nobody out after a double by Gardner (who is still peppering the ball line to line).  If Thompson were still our 3^rd base coach we would have had a man on 2^nd with one out and ARod would not get the sac fly in his AB.  Of course we would have heard that “if I am not getting guys thrown out, I am not doing my job.”   That was a good off season move.

Still up in the bottom of the first with 2 outs, there was a 3-0 count on McCann and he got the green light and just had enough to reach the stands for a 2 run HR and a 3 run lead.

Yanks added 2 on a rare Beltran hit where he got a fastball on 3-2 and drove it to the RC wall.  In that AB he had a 2-0 count and swung at an outside and low slider to make it 2-1.  That is a classic pressing swing.  However, he did battle back and I think we were fortunate they threw him a fastball because I don’t think he could have held up on another similar slider.  Either way, good job by Beltran.

We then sat on the lead and relied on our pitching (actually, I thought their lefty McFarland, who was just called up, pitched an excellent game.  He hot spots and moved the ball over the place).

Warren got me aggravated as well as Girardi because with a 5-0 lead he walked a guy ion the 4^th but got out of it and then walked two guys to lead off the 5^th.  I was tempted to pull him there just because it showed how poor his command was as he walked the 8^th and 9^th hitters.  After Machado singled, I would have pulled him, but Girardi stuck with him and it paid off as he struck out Paredes.  Jones then singled knocking in a run and then a 2^nd run scored on a FC before Girardi pulled Warren (who getting some outs but missing a lot of spots).  Good job by Girardi to not worry about whether Warren gets the win and focus on the Yankees getting the win (I was getting worried he was managing with getting warren the win until he correctly pulled him for Wilson – which was the no doubt move at that point).  Wilson struck out Davis to end the inning

Martin didn’t pitch well for the 2^nd time in a row he is not hitting his spots like he was early on, but he has a good cutter, breaking ball and plus fastball.  Hopefully he can get his command back.

Betances came in and couldn’t throw his breaking ball for a strike, but was able to get a big K on Snider by getting him to chase a breaking ball in the dirt after a few fastballs.

Only other thought on the game was Pirella will need to make an adjustment on outside breaking pitches; he doesn’t seem to have the plate coverage for them and in the majors the teams will feed him there until he makes an adjustment!

ARod moves into 4th place all time for HR's

Congrats to ARod and also to Yankee fans.  yesterday was very encouraging to me because ARod has the power he used top have back.  While he has hit some shots this year which of course is encouraging, yesterday he hit what could have been 2 HR's on pitches that were on the outside corner of the plate.  When he is going well he has an effortless swing that generates huge power.  Yesterday I saw that.  One time he went the other way and just extended his arms and the ball would have bounced on the wide wall and been a HR but it was taken away by a nice timed leap by Delmon Young.  The tie breaking HR was again on the outside corner and ARod extended fully and pulled the ball to LC for a long HR.  This is really good for our team!

I also saw an interesting stat; while I don't know the statistical correlation, I would think that the faster you hit the ball the more positive the results would be.  ARod is 7th in baseball with a velocity off the bat averaging 94.4 MPH (his HR was 108.2 MPH one of the "fastest" off the bat this year).  Obviously, you can hit a solid popup as well and when you swing and miss (ARod has done a lot) this does not impact this stat, but I thought interesting regardless.

As for the win Eovaldi struggled with his command again, specifically with his breaking ball.  When that happens they need to throw more changes, which they didn't do.  He kept us in the game, but a guy who is at 97 consistently (hit 99 once) should be better.

Girardi went to Wilson at the exact time I would have and Wilson came through.  I also like that Girardi stuck with Wilson against the righties because he can be good if he can throw strikes.  He did get some tough counts but came through when he had to and was able to hand off to Betances and Miller who did their job with a one run lead.   Betances stuff is nasty but Miller can also bring it and his slider comes out of his hand the same as they fastball and the pitch must break 3 feet.  The Twin Towers (TM) are phenomenal.  yes, I would like to trade mark that :-)   Who can make some shirts?

Ellsbury is staying hot and finding the holes

Gardner has done a great job of hitting fastballs but waiting while keeping his hands back on breaking pitches and then unloading; he has been excellent!

I know people are annoyed at Tex and his .223 batting average, but who cares as long as he has an OBP of .345 and a slug of .606 for an OPS of .951!  Ellsbury is batting .363 but his OPS is 854, Headley is batting .238 but his OPS is .673 and McCann is hitting .227 with an OPS of 661 to give you some perspective.  If Tex is above a .900 OPS I would be ecstatic; I would be fine above .850.

Toronto Series

Disappointing coming out of Toronto only winning one game, especially when the first one had us with a one run lead into the 8^th inning.  I don’t fault Girardi for trying to get a few outs with martin before turning it over to Betances, but I am confident we would have won if we went to Betances for a 2 inning save.  The fact the Twin Towers (TM) each were starters before makes it so they can go two innings without much of an issue.  But Martin has been good.  Betances was very unlucky that a bloop double put us in a hole, but Headley made an amazing diving stop with 2 outs and threw to first where Jones could not scoop the throw and two runs scored and we lost.  This was not a real hard scoop and I would want a 1^st baseman to get it 8 out of 10 times, Jones didn’t get it done.  It was the difference between losing and possibly winning and it also was off a tremendous play by Headley, who actually moved to his left as the pitch was delivered before going to his right, diving with the ball slightly behind him. 

It should be noted that Whitley threw a great game.  No walks or runs in 7 innings.  He had only thrown 90 pitches, but he was starting to miss his spots even though he only allowed one base running in the 7^th.  I agreed with Girardi to take him out.

Game 2 saw Pineda looking real sharp.   I really like the movement on his pitches.  He was in complete control of this game walking only one and mixing up his pitches great.  His velocity is ticking back up again as he was consistently at 93-94. 

Game 3

CC looked a little better if you ask me.  His slider was tight, his fastball was consistently 91, but his change was at around 84 (still a little fast for me) and he wasn’t controlling well.  Overall, he needs to hit his spots better and that is the key for him to be successful.  He is making too many mistakes.  CC has lost his last 7 decisions and his ERA has been over 5 in his last 14 starts.  While I was actually a little more encouraged than in the past with this performance from a “stuff” standpoint, he is getting to the point where you have to wonder about trotting him out to the mound if you want to win.  I would NOT pull the plug on him yet though.

The offense was very poor in this game and they allowed Buehrle to control the flow of the game.  The key point was 1^st and 2^nd one out in the 5^th inning and Chris Young was up with a 3-0 count.  This is where we should be looking at a big inning, especially with Buehrle who has been lit up all year with an ERA of 6.75 coming into the game.  But Young swung and missed at a 3-0 pitch and then missed strike 2 before being frozen on an 84 MPH pitch on the inner half of the plate (not the corner).  Poor job there by Young.  Then ARod walks on 4 pitches and with the bases loaded. Tex then swings at the first pitch he sees, a high and away pitch, and tries to pull it and grounds out to end the inning.  I am OPK with Tex swinging at the first pitch in most circumstances, but Buehrle, is such a junk ball pitcher that you better zone it and if it isn’t there you leave it alone.  Poor discipline and that was our best chance.

Important to note that Pirela is now back from being on the DL and started at 2^nd.  I like him much better than what we have been throwing at 2^nd base.  He has some speed, he has a quick bat and he is 25.  That excites me.  Not sure how he will do overall as I have not seen a lot of him, but in the long run he may be a very good utility guy as he can play the OF as well as playing some SS.  The Yankees also have Refsnyder in the minors, but his defense is suspect (good hitter though).  So we have some options.  Like I stated before, I do not see Petit staying with the team and if Drew doesn’t get going he won’t either.  Didi Gregorius has started to flash some serious defensive range and a canon arm, if he can get his glove a little smoother and his hitting a little better, I will be happy with him.

Break out the Brooms!

Ten comments on the Yankee sweep against Boston:

1.   Warren pitched pretty well, but had more trouble locating his changeup on the outside corner against lefties.  He missed way off the plate to the right too often.  His fastball had good control though.

2.   I didn’t like the overturn of the call at 1^st base after a 3 or 4 minutes review.  If you have to look that long then the original call should stand.  It was amazingly close.  But, that delay really could have changed the game a lot as the Yankees and the pitchers mindset was very different after the overturn.   Warren fell behind 3-0 to Sandoval and with the score 5-0 (2 men on and 2 outs) I was kind of shocked they gave him the green light.  Fortunately, he swung and grounded out to end the inning.

3.   Just to show you that I don’t only show you my good calls…I thought it was idiotic to have Gardner swing away in the top of the 6^th inning with men in 1^st and 2^nd with nobody out.  I think that is probably a guaranteed bunt unless you are down by a lot, then when you add the fact a lefty was on the mound it is a no brainer.  After falling behind 1-2 I was really annoyed.  Then Gardner, turned on a mistake and barely cleared the fence for a 3 run HR.  Clearly I was wrong based on the outcome, but I really thought that was a bad move and more times than not, it will be a bad move.

4.   I don’t like the ESPN box over the strike zone; it annoys me.  I also am not a fan of the ESPN announcers; maybe it is just because I dislike Schilling?

5.   Ramirez is a punk thinking that Warren purposely hit him in the leg up 8-0.  He was missing inside to righties all day when he missed and his control was shaky at that point anyway.

6.   Rogers allowed the 3 run HR to Napoli to close the score to 8-5 and his issue was his breaking ball was not sharp at all.  The pitch to Napoli spun on the inner half.  That being said, it was a Green Monster HR and would have been an out in every other stadium.

7.   The Red Sox order is designed well so that the matchups for the opposing managers get you a 2 of 3 good matchups at best because you get Pedroia, a righty who hits lefties better, followed by Ortiz a lefty who hits righties better, followed by Ramirez, a righty who hits lefties better, followed by Sandoval who is a switch hitter who is much better against righties followed by Napoli who is much better against lefties.  This is why you need multiple arms of each side in the pen.  The situation has played itself out in every one of these games against the Red Sox with Ramirez being the beneficiary of getting the favorable matchup (last night Wilson stayed in to face him and let up a single…but he did get Ortiz and Sandoval before and after.)

8.   Ellsbury has his OBP up to .432 by getting on 6 times last night and hitting about .500 over the past bunch of games. 

9.   We probably will be making a move for a 2^nd baseman at some point, but an odd stat with a small sample size has Drew batting .111 with an OPS of .506 against righties and .294 with an OPS of .938 against lefties.  In his career, Drew has always been better against righties.

10.                   Miller, was OK, even though he found himself in a winning run at the plate scenario.  The first walk was bad, but then he k’d the next two guys before Betts earned a walk.  Bad job to walk Betts, but he fouled off 3 pitches and earned a 9 pitch walk.  Then when Headley committed an error, the memories of comebacks in Boston always enter the mind, but Miller was able to get Ortiz out to end the game and give us a sweep in Boston!

First two Boston games

Really Enjoying watching our bullpen and how much we have to work with.  Not only do we have some real fire power, we have matchup ability with numerous lefties.  Some of you may remember how ticked I was when we had only one lefty in the pen as it made the opposing managers job so easy.  Now having 3 is great.

Friday’s game:

CC, needs to throw his changeup slower.  I like 8 – 10 MPH difference I think less than 7 is not enough.  CC’s fastball was at 90 a lot of the day, but he also dropped to 87 and 88 a bunch of times.  When his change is at 83 that is not enough differential, especially when the fastball is under 90.  I think he needs to get his changeup at a speed of 80 or 81 all the time.

Beltran had 2 hard hit balls and I thought maybe he was breaking out and then he made outs with 2 men on and based loaded in his next AB’s.  Still hoping…

We had a huge opportunity to get to Masterson in the first inning as his control was terrible.  Every time he tried to come inside he would leave it over the middle of the plate. Headley had 2^nd and 3^rd with 2 outs and Masterson grooved one but Headley missed it.  That was a huge opportunity to take a commanding early lead.

The ump behind the plate was good, but McCann got a strike called on a check swing and then Ortiz swung more than McCann and it was called a no swing.  I thought the opposite should have happened

Didi, made another error, but he has been better.  My concern is that sometimes he seems to catch a ball and he looks shaky doing it.  That being said, he has some smooth transitions as well.

CC actually covered first on a nice diving play by Tex and beat the (slow) runner to first…but at least he got there.

While it was not funny, it was funny to watch both Tex and the Boston catcher each jumping around and waving their hands on the same HBP.   I have said it dozens of times, but I don’t get why catchers with nobody on have their hands exposed?  McCann is hiding it more often now, but he still leaves it out there a lot.  Even with a guy on base you can hide it behind your leg to start and if there is a ball in the dirt or a runner is going you expose it to make the play.  Now the Boston catcher may be out for the year…kind of like when we lost Cervelli.

I don’t like McCann batting 4^th with 2 lefties at the top of the order as it makes it a lot easier for the opposing manager to bring in a lefty and we probably won’t make a move.  More the reason why Beltran really needs to get going…or make sure we have ARod and Tex starting if not.  That being said, when Boston matched up with the lefty to face 3 out of 4 hitters who were lefty, McCann came through with a big hit the other way to tie the game.

Congratulations to ARod on absolutely smoking a line drive HR to tie Willie Mays.   That ball was just leveling out when it hit the stands above the green monster…and it was the game winner!  The box score had it at 395 feet or so; I have no idea how they compile that number but there is no way that wasn't more than 400 feet.

I was on a different page than McCann on the pitch selection and that has happened a lot this year (not saying I am always right, but I would have approached it a lot differently), but in the bottom of the 8^th inning Betances was pitching to Bogaerts with runners on 1^st and 2^nd in a one run game.  Betances was struggling throwing strikes with his breaking ball all inning, but in this AB the count was 2-2 after throwing 4 straight breaking balls.  Michael Kay basically asked do you throw another breaking or a fastball and I said loudly (I was alone in my house), “THROW THE FASTBALL!”   This time McCann agreed and high heat struck out Bogaerts and I had the same emotion as Betances did when he came off the mound… Hell Yeah!  I might have used a different word, but I was pumped up.  I don’t want to dismiss Miller as he did a great job again in a close game to finish off Boston!

Saturday’s game

First, I didn’t have any issues when Gardner was thrown out at 3^rd.  I probably would have liked to see him run all out the entire way, but when Ramirez really dogged it Gardner took a chance with one out and the (short) throw was perfect to just get him.  The situation was OK to take the chance.  Then again, I just may be thrilled that we haven’t had a guy thrown out at home yet…So glad Robby Thompson is off of 3^rd base.

The Boston rookie catcher (Swihart) had two great AB’s against Eovaldi fouling off a lot of pitches and in the first AB a great changeup got him after he fouled off a bunch of pitches in a 9 pitch AB.  In the second AB, he saw 6 pitches before collecting his first major league hit.  I bring this up because I didn’t like the way Girardi handled the pen in this game.  I was hoping I could say it didn’t matter, but Wilson was up throwing in the 6^th inning so we had a lefty ready.  Eovaldi got through the 6^th and was still throwing hard, but his pitch count had risen above 100 and it is still fairly early in the year.  I was OK letting him start the 7^th and he actually threw two good fastballs that jammed the Red Sox to get the first 2 outs in the inning, but when the lefty Swihart came up, I would have pulled him for Wilson.  Swihart saw another 6 pitches and walked.  Then Girardi went to the pen and brought in Martin who didn’t do his job and allowed a double on a grooved 2-0 pitch (just missed a HR).  He then got Pedroia out.

This then had a domino effect on what Girardi did, Wilson started 8^th against Ortiz.  I was fine with that and in fact I see what Girardi was thinking in that he was hoping to get some outs out of Wilson to not use both of our Twin Towers ™         

Wilson got Ortiz and I would have taken him out here as I hated the Ramirez (who crushes lefties) matchup against Wilson.  Ramirez is their best power source and here we are in a 1 run game with 5 outs to go and we leave our Twin Towers on the bench?  Ramirez ends up walking and then Wilson who was struggling with control was left in because Sandoval is weak against lefties.  I am big into matchups, but if your guy can’t find the strike zone it doesn’t matter.  After being in a 3-1 hole, Wilson got Sandoval to swing through a hittable pitch for strike 2 and then swing at ball 4 LUCKILY.  Now, Joe went to Betances to get the final 4 outs which he did by striking out all 4 guys!  It worked.

One item we may have to look at is matching up the final innings and using Betances and Miller as co closers depending on the situation.  For example, if batters like Sandoval and Ortiz are up in the 8^th inning and guys like Ramirez would be up in the 9^th why wouldn’t you pitch Miller in the 8^th and close with Betances?  I would.

A few other notes:

·      Not sure why McCann started a day game after a night game with a lefty on the mound? 

·      Young has really been great since coming over to us at the end of last year.  I love our defense when he is in there with Gardner and Ellsbury and he has been a hitting machine!

·      Didi made a really smooth play on ball up the middle that he gloved and flipped with the glove to get a DP.  That is a play Jeter would have had to dive for and it was a smooth DP.  That is what Didi can do. 

Let’s get the brooms out tomorrow!

Game 22

 Very tough loss last night.  Another very long game that we couldn’t win in extra innings.  I think we need to mandate SB’s from Gardner and Ellsbury in late innings.  Obviously, you can’t run just to get caught, but you need to at least do a hit and run.  They each were on and neither one ran with a ton of opportunities (sometimes the situation ends up being only a few pitches – but not last night).  Also, in the bottom of the 12^th Beltran singled (about time as he has been killing us) and Gardner correctly pinch ran for him.  Tampa had the shift on for Headley and for the life of me I don’t know why we didn’t either bunt and run or just have Headley bunt down the 3^rd base line as the 3^rd baseman was playing SS?  It was the perfect time.  Further, if done correctly Gardner may be able to get around to 3^rd base.

For the losing play if Drew comes up clean and throws home I think we get the runner.  He didn’t come up clean, double clutched and then “faked” the throw and then eventually threw very late. 

Didi looked good defensively yesterday flashing a serious play in the hole where he slid and backhanded the ball and then got rid of it lightning fast with a very strong arm.  He got the runner by more than a step.  That was very good to see as I can put up with him struggling at the plate if his defense is what it was reported to be.

I was right when I said Petit would be the first to get sent down to the minors and it would happen pretty quickly…of course he was recalled when Tanaka went on the DL.  This is not good, but as long as he comes back healthy in a month we can get through it.

A few other comments:

·      ARod killed us yesterday.  He was up 6 times and made 7 outs!  Even though I mentioned about him guessing less than the announcers were stating he looked like he was guessing yesterday, taking strike 3 down the middle

·      Girardi has done a good job so far this year and I have agreed with his decisions.  One I slightly questioned yesterday (and I have brought this up before) was going into the 8^th of a tie score Carpenter pitched only 7 very effective pitches the inning before and he took him out for Betances.  Veterans of this blog know I think managers should anticipate extra innings more often when the situation dictates it (such as letting a pitcher who looks effective and only threw 7 pitches get a few more outs).  Betances was then awesome for only 11 pitches and then he was taken out.  We then had to use Miller for 2 innings (which was the correct move), but we probably could have gotten at the minimum one more inning and probably two out of Carpenter and Betances (with a day off today). 

·      While on the situation of trying to get the most out pitchers in a tight game if the situation dictates.  Girardi took out Pineda with only 94 or so pitches and then pitches Justin Wilson for 2 pitches to get out of the inning.  Wilson has shown that he is pretty equal against both lefties and righties so why not get a little more out of him than 2 pitches as well?

·      Martin continues to do well; I am very impressed with his control of his fastball.  He really spots it extremely well.

·      I can’t get too annoyed with Shreve, but you can’t walk 3 guys in 2 innings.

·      I can’t remember another time where we had so many hard throwers out of the pen?  Like I said, our pitching should make us very competitive; hopefully Tanaka is healthy after this stint.
·      I think we will need to trade for a 2^nd baseman if nobody in the minors can step up.

The umpires behind home plate have been very good this year in my opinion.  While I have not agreed with every call, I think they have been good, although it is hard to tell with the ESPN strike zone as I don't like that because they don't change the up and down for players and it is annoying.  I would rather it to the right instead of my viewing area of the strike zone.

BTW, I changed the font to make it a little larger by request.  I will do so whenever I can, but sometimes I write from different places.

After Mets Series

Ahhh, what a winning streak will do to the bridge jumpers!  Amazing what an 8-2 run will do.  of course it "looks" much better early in the year.

We are in first place tied with Tampa who is coming in tonight!

As I stated our pitching is too good to be as bad as everyone thought.

As for last night's game against the Mets,  The Mets played terribly.  I believe they had 4 errors and they also had a base running blunder not knowing how many outs there were.  The announcers were driving me crazy harping on Eovaldi and how he can't hit any spots...over and over again.  It then began a justification of that position. When Eovaldi did nail his spots it was never mentioned...That being said, he was missing a lot but I think the real issue is that he is not throwing inside effectively or accurately.  One pitch he got in there produced a weak pop up.  He has to throw inside and I didn't like the pitch selection.  They waited until the 4th or 5th inning to use what looked like a splitter or changeup and it helped him.  So for clarity, I think his main issue is that he is not throwing inside enough and nobody is uncomfortable.  It is also possible he is tipping his pitches at times because I will say that I agree that the swings are too good against the stuff he has.  I am not concerned, I like his stuff and he is young.

While on the announcers, they kept saying how ARod is nothing but a guess hitter now and then after they announced that ARod could not get around on two fastballs he obviously guessed right when he hit the curve ball for a right center HR???  So if he is such a guess hitter now and he was late on two fastballs; why would he be guessing curve ball?   He wasn't.  What happened was he was out in front of the pitching (probably looking more fastball) but kept his hands back and off a bent front leg still had enough power to hit a curve ball (on the outer edge of the plate) for a HR the opposite way.  It was a good pitch and an excellent job of hitting.  now I am not saying he doesn't guess, but every hitter does at times.  He probably guesses more than he used to as well, but he has shown a very good eye at the plate walking 14 times already this season (leading the team).  I don't think he will keep up a .989 OPS, but if he can give us .800 plus and right now that seems reasonable, that would be very good.

Tex is another that is off to a hot start.  1.044 OPS is fantastic, but he will drop as well because most of his OPS is from his 8 HR's and that will cool down some.  Chris Young is doing great as well (made a nice running catch as well) with an OPS of 1.042.  In limited play JR Murphy has a .900 OPS and has looked good and may get more playing time if McCann doesn't get his OPS up from .643 (his OBP of .286 is putrid)

Of course, if ARod and some of the others will cool down, we need some guys to pick it up.  The key guy is Beltran.  Like I stated before, it is very odd for a player to drop off so precipitously without an injury, but when we talk about Gregorius hitting so poorly (OPS .513) and Beltran is below him (.494) that is crazy.  Beltran has a career .845 OPS.  In his last 2 years before coming here he was .840 and .830 playing every day.  A reasonable expectation would have been .800 and maybe .780 this year.  Instead, his .703 from last year would be very helpful right now.  his bat speed does not look lost to me, I just think he is  in a funk and will straighten it out to be at least usable and I hope more.  I mentioned Gregorius and outside of his transition, it is hard to think he would get worse than his .653 OPS last year.  My concern, and I had stated this before, is I think he needs to be platooned.  Maybe he learns to hit against lefties, but before this year his career OPS against lefties was .490 (.743 against righties), this year it is .453 (righties is .531).  Headley at .661 is below where he needs to be and Ellsbury has to do better than .722.  I hated his contract, but he is a good player; he needs to show that at least as he will never make his contract a good one.  When they signed him, I said that he is a slightly better version of Gardner and I wanted Gardner for the price.  Gardner was very close to Ellsbury last year (Jacoby was better though) and this year Gardner is outplaying him.  Jacoby need to give us an OPS before SB's of at least .750 and his SB's should give him at least 35 points of value.  just for some of the newer readers, I take the successful SB's and subtract twice the amount of caught stealing and then divide buy AB's.  So for Jacoby, if he steals 40 and gets caught 9 times he gets and additional 22 bases (turning singles into doubles) and in a season of 600 AB's, that equated to 37 points.  That is how I value the speed of runners stealing bases, although I don't value the speed of taking extra bases (and it does have value), but I don't put it into my OPS number.

We swept Tampa in Tampa; I would be fine with 2 of 3 at home.  With Whitley going game 2, that is good by me.

One other item, the other day I really liked the fire I saw out of Tanaka.  He missed badly on an 0-2 pitch and he was really ticked at himself.  Now look at how poor CC did as he does not have a put away pitch when he gets 2 strikes on a guy and he got creamed in that spot in his last outing.  Eovaldi by the stats is very bad with 2 strikes as well so as a team we may want to look at our pitch selection in that spot.

Enjoy!

Games 7-9

Game 6 was the best game of the year.  Partially because the Yankees won, but mostly because there were so many “this pitch is critical” situations.  Obviously, Drew hitting the Grand Slam was the key offensive moment and it was thrilling.  However, all the Betances AB’s and him finding the right pitches in a game he clearly struggled, to get out of the jam(s) was very exciting.  Then a great job by Miller going 1 2/3 inning to get the hard earned save (can’t ask for a much tougher save than that).  Every pitch was tense.  Miller has stepped in and done great so far.  I could go on about the great batter/pitcher confrontations but this writeup is a little late for that.  I will say that I did not like a lot of the pitch selection calls by Murphy (Even if they worked at times and I may not have been correct), but the one that stood out was throwing a fastball to Adam Jones when he hit is HR off Pineda in the 6^th to give Baltimore a 4-2 lead.  I think the best way to pitch Jones is to throw off speed pitches low and away and the timing (and the location were bad)  That being said, Murphy has it well and he made two terrific throws.   Honestly, Murphy has outplayed McCann so far.  McCann hasn’t even blocked balls well so far and needs to get going (he didn’t turn his body toward home plate on an attempted block and the ball skipped away toward first.  I was looking back on some of my posts (I forgot how much I was against the Ellsbury signing because of the cost) and I was not a fan of the McCann signing, but I did say I expected a slight uptick in his numbers this year.  Time will tell.  BTW, will someone tell McCann to hide his throwing hand when pitches are coming?  I think it should be hidden even when guys are on base and if a pitch is in the dirt or a guy is stealing you expose it, but with nobody on, there is no excuse leaving it in the open.  I said the same thing about Cervelli before he was lost to for an extended period of time on a foul tip.

A couple of other points on the last few games:

Leiter and Singleton had an interesting exchange when on a 2-0 pitch that was on the outer half of the plate was watched for strike one.  Leiter (paraphrased) said,  “I don’t get why a batter would let that go on 2-0, let her fly.”  Singleton correctly responded, “I think he was looking for a specific zone to let her fly and that pitch was more of a pitchers pitch on the outside corner.  However, then Singleton on the next pitch said,” like that pitch” referring to a breaking ball that was hittable and then Leiter correctly said, but that was a different speed pitch and that may not be what he was looking for.  I found it interesting because they were each right and wrong at different times.  (yeah, I know, I am odd, but this is also why I don’t listen to the announcers very much as a fast forward through games).

From what I heard, Gardner asked out of the AB where Drew came up and hot the Grand Slam, supposedly saying that after getting hit twice in the same spot (probably should wear a wrist guard) he was not the guy to be up in that spot.  Glad he did the unselfish thing!

CC is mediocre now and especially with his own defensive shortcomings, I can only hope he gives us 6 innings of 3 run baseball.

The Yankees challenged Gardner’s bunt where he was thrown out at first base.  I don’t think it should have been overturned, but if you ask me whether I thought he was safe I would say yes…but it was incredibly close.  That being said, veterans of this blog know that I have always had an issue with the way 1^st basemen prepare to receive a ball form either a catcher or pitcher on a ball in front of the plate.  They all do what Davis did and that is have their feet on the base path between 1^st and 2^nd and their left foot on the bag so that they are facing the batter.  I have written this many times and even explained it to people, but the fielders don’t stretch toward the throw when it is close and this was a great example.  They lose 2 to 3 feet by not stretching and it can be the difference between out and safe.  If you stand up with your feet in line with each other parallel and then reach out as far as you can you can only stretch your arm length (this is what Davis did and Tex does and most do).  But now keep one foot on the bag and then stretch forward with one foot and you gain probably 2-3 feet.  I know the throw is shorter from home, but Tex does the same thing and it has cost us an out before.  One of the things I can’t explain.

A couple questionable moves, but in game 8 why would Petit lead off the 9^th inning?  I would have put ARod in the leadoff spot rather than the 2 out spot because of the OBP advantage.  Again in the 9^th Petit batted in game 9.  When you are losing and Petit is batting in the 9th; you have some real issues; almost anyone else is a better option.

 

Finally, I don’t agree with the way Girardi rests players.  Sure if you can rest a few innings here and there in blow outs that is fine, but do some of our guys really need a blow this early in the year?  Not only that, if you are going to rest them… then rest them 100%.  What I mean by that is if you are giving ARod a day off, give him a day off where he doesn’t get loose, and will not throw, swing or play.  All he does his rest and get any ultrasound, ice or whatever it is; but he gets a full day off.  If they have to prepare that they may be in the game by stretching throwing running etc… then you are defeating the purpose.  Obviously, PT players will always have to be ready but your FT players should get full rest and that is a ton better than even getting one AB which still takes a toll on your body because of the prep (not the actual AB).  In a pitchers example, it would be the equivalent of a reliever getting up every game to come into the game but never coming in.  He could actually need a day off from 2 or 3 consecutive sessions where he was almost used.  Bottom line, play the guys and giving them a full days rest would be healthier in my opinion.  BTW, I heard the argument that tired guys are more injury prone…and while that is probably true, the Yankees have been pretty darn injured the past years so whatever we are doing is not working.  Give a guy a complete day off and that is MUCH better than 2 or even 3 half days off…and you get more actual playing time out of your player.

3-6 is not a good start, but not too many players are playing at or above where one would expect them to be as well.  No need to panic yet.

Game 6

As I stated in my last blog, winning this game was as important as the 6th game of the year could be.  2 games back seems a heck of a lot better than 4 games back.  Plus, we had Tanaka going and seeing him pitch well would be nice.  Unfortunately, I didn't see him pitch well.  Forget the hours of blathering regarding whether he had the arm strength velocity and where he was pitching from the announcers.  The only part I agreed with them was you need to work all sides (including the top and the bottom) of the strike zone and showing some high heat is needed to make everything else look better.  My issue with Tanaka was more that he walked 3 guys in 5 innings.  he was trying to be too fine and I think needs to throw some more 4 seam fastballs just for another look and also to make everything else look better.  His slider was controlled well and splitter had downward movement but he wasn't able to get a lot of swing and misses because it was thrown too low (and didn't fool them enough.  It is still early in the year so he can be OK, but the walks were not good especially where and to whom they were given to.  BTW, Schilling made a comment about where his elbow was on "off speed pitches compared to his fastball," and I didn't agree at all with what Schilling was saying because I slowed it up and looked for it.  A batter can see a setup very easily and the release point well but anything behind the windup can't be seen and if there was something it was not blatant.  If anyone has any video where they showed this I would like to see it.

The offense woke up and Boston had some of the fielding issues we have had all year, but it was great to see ARod rip a base clearing double as well as show an excellent eye at the plate.  I know he is striking out but he is making pitchers work and I like his approach.  I don't expect his present .967 OPS but if he can give us anything above .800 that would be good.

I still can't believe how poor our defense has been.  Drew threw one wide of 2nd and Gregorius backed up on a grounder and then couldn't get the handle of the ball until it was too late.  It was listed as a FC and thus no error, but that is a terrible scoring decision, that was an error because he bobbled it and was incorrectly scored.

Last blog I meant to say that Gregorio (Petit) would be the guy that I expect to not be with the team too long and I wrote Gregorius incorrectly.  I have corrected it.  The yanks should have never brought Petit to the team...he isn't very good and his name is confusing...

Let's see if we can get in a groove and go on and win 13 of 20 games or something like that.