I am sorry I have not written a little more in the off-season; but I do appreciate the many of you asking when the next one will be. I have compiled notes, but I just have struggled getting the time to fire one off. I won’t let this be too long and I will fire off a few in the next few days…Let’s get started.
First, the Yankees did sign Russell Martin and while I said in the off season #3 blog that I was not in favor of it, I said because there was talk of 10 mil a year; the Red Sox and others wanted him. I said at that level it was a bad signing especially with the poor last two years offensively. While I still have not seen him in any action (in fact I have not watched any of the few spring training games yet) signing him at 4 mil with incentives that could get him as high as 5.3 mil or so is good. This is good insurance/depth in case Montero and Romine (Montero being the main guy) are not ready. I know that Cervelli worked his tail off in the offseason, but I think he is just a mediocre backup. Martin has struggled with a bad knee but had surgery and 3 years ago was a very good player. If Martin’s defense is good, he will be helpful and possibly be a guy who we could trade if Montero is ready.
As I also stated in that blog, I am not as down on the Yanks as others. Lee going to Philly hurt and obviously now Pettitte has retired (although I wouldn’t be shocked if we needed him he would come out after the All Star break) but this team still has the best offense in baseball and one of the best defenses to go along with the best bullpen. When you add CC and Hughes, we will win a lot of games. Burnett can’t be any worse and I feel very good about Nova. The Yanks also made a lot of upside moves in signing Prior, Colon and Garcia. Garcia pitched well last year but had about 4 games where he got lit up. The same year would net about 14 wins for Garcia with the Yanks. I also like giving our young guys a chance. We have some lively arms with Betances and Brackman especially for now and perhaps the best in Banuelos for the future. The one thing I didn’t want (and this is one item that almost got me to fire out some emails) is signing Millwood. I have heard this a bunch of times and it would be a very bad move. Our young guys can do better, not just the same as Millwood. I don’t want ANY mediocre retread that is out there. Save the money and retool for when a great guy comes available. On that note and this is really premature, but if Pujols were a free agent, I would make some moves and free up a spot for him.
Back to Nova (these were some of the notes I wrote down weeks ago).
Nova had an OPS against of .729 in about a quarter of a year. I really think Nova will be solid for us this year. What does that mean? Haven’t dug into this, but a quick swag I would say an ERA of 4.50, 150 IP (not sure of any limits) and around 12-14 wins. I have a good feeling about him. He is the type of guy that the Yankees offense can support. He seems like the kind of guy who could go 6 IP with 3 runs or 5 IP with 2-3 runs often. With our bullpen this should translate really well. Nova will be as good or better than any of the retreads out there. At least we are getting the value of grooming our kids if we use the Nova’s of the world, if we use the retreads out there we gain no value and no upside.
Our bullpen is excellent. Girardi’s strength is handling the pen and to think how good this pen is, think about whom the weakest guy in the pen is? Maybe it is Mitre who actually was very good out of the pen last year…could it be Robertson or Joba? Seriously deep and strong and with TWO lefties! Getting Feliciano will really help us.
More coming soon...
I hope everyone is well!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
The Genius Maker 2010/2011 off season 4
I don't normally just grab an article and copy it because I usually try and give you my thoughts and perspective, but because this was a press release about Rivera and it had some great stats, I made an exception.
The Yankees just made the Mariano Rivera signing official. Here’s the press release.
The New York Yankees today announced they have signed right-handed closer Mariano Rivera, the American Leagues all-time saves leader, to a two-year contract.
Rivera, 41, owns 559 career saves, the most in franchise history and the second-most all-time behind Trevor Hoffman (601). His 394 saves over the last 10 seasons are the most in the Majors, while his 978 career appearances are the most-ever by a Yankees pitcher and place him in 17th place on Baseball's all-time list. Among pitchers with at least 250 save opportunities, Rivera's 89.3 percent career conversion rate (559-for-626) is second-best all time, behind only Minnesota's Joe Nathan (89.5, 247-for-276).
Since earned runs became an official statistic in the National League in 1912 and the American League in 1913, Rivera's 2.23 career ERA is the second-lowest all time among pitchers with at least 1,000.0 innings pitched, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, trailing only Eddie Cicotte's 2.20 career ERA over the span.
In 2010, Rivera was 3-3 with 33 saves (in 38 opportunities) and a 1.80 ERA in 61 relief appearances for the Yankees. It marked the eighth consecutive season he reached the 30-save plateau (since 2003) and the 13th time in his last 14 seasons (1997-2001, 2002-10), surpassing Trevor Hoffman (12) as the only pitcher in Major League history to record at least 30 saves in 13 different seasons.
An 11-time American League All-Star, Rivera has posted a sub-2.00 ERA in seven of the last eight seasons since 2003. From 2008-10, Rivera became the only pitcher in Baseball history to record at least 60 appearances and a sub-2.00 ERA in each of three consecutive years after the age of 35. He has pitched in at least 60 games in 13 different campaigns, tying Mike Stanton for the most such seasons all time.
Rivera's 42 postseason saves, 18 in the ALDS, 13 in the ALCS and 11 in the World Series and his 94 postseason appearances, are all Major League records, while his 0.71 ERA (139.2IP, 11ER) in postseason play is the lowest all time (minimum 30.0IP). He was part of his fifth World Championship team in 2009, recording the final out in each of the Yankees three clinching wins en route to the clubs 27th World Championship. Rivera has allowed just 1ER over his last 23 playoff appearances (30.0IP, 0.30 ERA) since the 2005 ALDS vs. the Angels.
The Panama native was originally signed by the Yankees as a non-drafted free agent on February 17, 1990, and is currently the longest-tenured Yankee (15 yrs, 105 days)."
The one and only Genius Maker!
The Yankees just made the Mariano Rivera signing official. Here’s the press release.
The New York Yankees today announced they have signed right-handed closer Mariano Rivera, the American Leagues all-time saves leader, to a two-year contract.
Rivera, 41, owns 559 career saves, the most in franchise history and the second-most all-time behind Trevor Hoffman (601). His 394 saves over the last 10 seasons are the most in the Majors, while his 978 career appearances are the most-ever by a Yankees pitcher and place him in 17th place on Baseball's all-time list. Among pitchers with at least 250 save opportunities, Rivera's 89.3 percent career conversion rate (559-for-626) is second-best all time, behind only Minnesota's Joe Nathan (89.5, 247-for-276).
Since earned runs became an official statistic in the National League in 1912 and the American League in 1913, Rivera's 2.23 career ERA is the second-lowest all time among pitchers with at least 1,000.0 innings pitched, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, trailing only Eddie Cicotte's 2.20 career ERA over the span.
In 2010, Rivera was 3-3 with 33 saves (in 38 opportunities) and a 1.80 ERA in 61 relief appearances for the Yankees. It marked the eighth consecutive season he reached the 30-save plateau (since 2003) and the 13th time in his last 14 seasons (1997-2001, 2002-10), surpassing Trevor Hoffman (12) as the only pitcher in Major League history to record at least 30 saves in 13 different seasons.
An 11-time American League All-Star, Rivera has posted a sub-2.00 ERA in seven of the last eight seasons since 2003. From 2008-10, Rivera became the only pitcher in Baseball history to record at least 60 appearances and a sub-2.00 ERA in each of three consecutive years after the age of 35. He has pitched in at least 60 games in 13 different campaigns, tying Mike Stanton for the most such seasons all time.
Rivera's 42 postseason saves, 18 in the ALDS, 13 in the ALCS and 11 in the World Series and his 94 postseason appearances, are all Major League records, while his 0.71 ERA (139.2IP, 11ER) in postseason play is the lowest all time (minimum 30.0IP). He was part of his fifth World Championship team in 2009, recording the final out in each of the Yankees three clinching wins en route to the clubs 27th World Championship. Rivera has allowed just 1ER over his last 23 playoff appearances (30.0IP, 0.30 ERA) since the 2005 ALDS vs. the Angels.
The Panama native was originally signed by the Yankees as a non-drafted free agent on February 17, 1990, and is currently the longest-tenured Yankee (15 yrs, 105 days)."
The one and only Genius Maker!
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
The Genius Maker 2010/2011 off season 3
Well, I am sure by now all of you are aware that Cliff Lee has chosen to go back to the team that dumped him for prospects in the middle of negotiating a long term deal. Of course, some people had made the comments at the time that they can get him back and keep all the prospects and lo and behold this is what happened. Now even though I said that at the time, I did not think the Phillies were part of the discussions for Lee, but it makes perfect sense. It is also in line with why I thought it was silly for them not to keep Lee when they got Halladay. The Phillies are without question the team to beat; they are the best team in the majors right now.
Boston is also much better than last year and should be very tough this year with a healthier lineup.
That being said, I am not down on the Yankees or Cashman. There was something about Lee that didn’t seem to be “Yankee” to me. I also was not fully comfortable with signing a guy at 32 for 7 years, especially a pitcher who was in the minors just a few years ago and had some straining issues in his back. I am not saying Lee doesn’t make a team much better, he does, but I am saying that I am much more comfortable opening up the checkbook to get a guy in a 5-7 year deal when he is 27 instead of 32. I want him for his prime years, not the diminishing ones. It also looks like Philly actually spent more for Lee than the Yanks offered and they have a lot of money committed. It is smart though as they have built a dynasty over the last few years that will continue at least 2 more.
If the Yankees continue to make the Tex and CC signings the Yanks will be better in the long run and while this is a setback for this upcoming year, I think it is actually better for the Yanks in the future years.
Now what do we do? First, I would let Andy know we really want/need him back. Second, I would explore trades with teams with quality arms. But, our team is still good. While Swisher played above expectations, I am not sure anyone else did on the offense. Gardner overall will not play worse and in fact before he hurt his wrist, Gardner was a star so maybe he is that guy? ARod and Jeter should both be better and Granderson and his new hitting style should be a little better. Posada should not be better, but as a DH he should be better than what we had this year (Thames was good though). Burnett can’t be worse and Nova should be able to step into the starting rotation and not be worse than Vazquez. Pettitte, even if he comes back won’t be as good and this is a concern, but Hughes should be better. Mitre right now would be the 5th guy. Obviously, Burnett needs to get back to a low 4 ERA guy or the rotation has holes.
Overall, my point is that this team should be better than last year IF Pettitte comes back and we spend the rest of our money wisely. One area that I am not thrilled we are looking is Russell Martin. I have to admit I have not watched him play, but his bat for the last 2 years has been weak and while his defense is reportedly good, I have no scouting on him to confirm. The point is that I had heard that some large dollars were being thrown around and this only works if the Yanks are trading Montero for a top pitcher. Maybe this is in the works, but if Montero is as good as advertised we could use him in the lineup and I don’t see why the money for Martin?
We will be fine, we just need to look at every solid player and target a few than fit our needs. We don’t want to spend all our money just because we have it, wait and spend at the right time!
At least we only have to worry about Lee in the World Series!
Boston is also much better than last year and should be very tough this year with a healthier lineup.
That being said, I am not down on the Yankees or Cashman. There was something about Lee that didn’t seem to be “Yankee” to me. I also was not fully comfortable with signing a guy at 32 for 7 years, especially a pitcher who was in the minors just a few years ago and had some straining issues in his back. I am not saying Lee doesn’t make a team much better, he does, but I am saying that I am much more comfortable opening up the checkbook to get a guy in a 5-7 year deal when he is 27 instead of 32. I want him for his prime years, not the diminishing ones. It also looks like Philly actually spent more for Lee than the Yanks offered and they have a lot of money committed. It is smart though as they have built a dynasty over the last few years that will continue at least 2 more.
If the Yankees continue to make the Tex and CC signings the Yanks will be better in the long run and while this is a setback for this upcoming year, I think it is actually better for the Yanks in the future years.
Now what do we do? First, I would let Andy know we really want/need him back. Second, I would explore trades with teams with quality arms. But, our team is still good. While Swisher played above expectations, I am not sure anyone else did on the offense. Gardner overall will not play worse and in fact before he hurt his wrist, Gardner was a star so maybe he is that guy? ARod and Jeter should both be better and Granderson and his new hitting style should be a little better. Posada should not be better, but as a DH he should be better than what we had this year (Thames was good though). Burnett can’t be worse and Nova should be able to step into the starting rotation and not be worse than Vazquez. Pettitte, even if he comes back won’t be as good and this is a concern, but Hughes should be better. Mitre right now would be the 5th guy. Obviously, Burnett needs to get back to a low 4 ERA guy or the rotation has holes.
Overall, my point is that this team should be better than last year IF Pettitte comes back and we spend the rest of our money wisely. One area that I am not thrilled we are looking is Russell Martin. I have to admit I have not watched him play, but his bat for the last 2 years has been weak and while his defense is reportedly good, I have no scouting on him to confirm. The point is that I had heard that some large dollars were being thrown around and this only works if the Yanks are trading Montero for a top pitcher. Maybe this is in the works, but if Montero is as good as advertised we could use him in the lineup and I don’t see why the money for Martin?
We will be fine, we just need to look at every solid player and target a few than fit our needs. We don’t want to spend all our money just because we have it, wait and spend at the right time!
At least we only have to worry about Lee in the World Series!
Friday, December 3, 2010
The Genius Maker 2010/2011 off season 2
Rivera shows great class and things work out well.
"A deal came together, perhaps expedited because Rivera had recently received a three-year deal and more money (believed to be in the neighborhood of $17 million per year) from another team, according to the source. The source added that Rivera wanted to maintain his ties to the only team he has ever played for, and went with less money and fewer years to continue wearing pinstripes.
"'He wanted to stay loyal to the Yankees,' the source said.""
Hmmm, he took a 2 year 30 mil deal while Jeter is thumbing his nose at a deal that is way over market value. I don't have a problem with trying to get a good deal, but the Yankees did not come in at a low number, they paid him far above market value.
Now, who is more important to the Yankees winning next year? Jeter just had a bad year and we made the playoffs and won one series; if Rivera had a "Jeter" year, we wouldn't have made the playoffs.
Mo, you are The Genius Maker and make me proud to be a Yankee fan.
Now Derek it is time for you step up and be the boy scout you have been your entire career and take an over market deal to keep your image as one of the great all time Yankees!
"A deal came together, perhaps expedited because Rivera had recently received a three-year deal and more money (believed to be in the neighborhood of $17 million per year) from another team, according to the source. The source added that Rivera wanted to maintain his ties to the only team he has ever played for, and went with less money and fewer years to continue wearing pinstripes.
"'He wanted to stay loyal to the Yankees,' the source said.""
Hmmm, he took a 2 year 30 mil deal while Jeter is thumbing his nose at a deal that is way over market value. I don't have a problem with trying to get a good deal, but the Yankees did not come in at a low number, they paid him far above market value.
Now, who is more important to the Yankees winning next year? Jeter just had a bad year and we made the playoffs and won one series; if Rivera had a "Jeter" year, we wouldn't have made the playoffs.
Mo, you are The Genius Maker and make me proud to be a Yankee fan.
Now Derek it is time for you step up and be the boy scout you have been your entire career and take an over market deal to keep your image as one of the great all time Yankees!
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
The Genius Maker 2010/2011 Off Season #1
I just wanted to get out my opinion on the Jeter situation as a few of you have asked. I think the Yankees offer is a very good one and Jeter should sign on the dotted line immediately. Maybe he wants another year and at that point I would say that if he plays in 300 games in the 1st 3 years of the contract he gets the 4th year guarantee. I think Jeter would hang it up if he were playing so terribly anyway. Jeter at 15 mil a year would be the highest paid SS in the game and at 36/37 coming off of his worst year that is an offer that is at least 50% higher than he would get anywhere else IMO. How is that not incredibly fair? The Yanks have said if you don’t think that is more than fair, see what is out there. Skip Bayless (I think he is on one of the ESPN shows) said the Red Sox would give him more than that. After thinking about that and throwing up, I would say that would be the best thing for the Yanks because I believe that would hamstring Boston a lot more than it would hamstring us. I don’t think he would get more than 35 Mil for 3 years and honestly I think it would be a 30 mil deal for 3 years at most. That being said, I do expect him to be better offensively this next year, while continuing to slip defensively. I know he won a GG, but either nobody has a clue how to really judge defense or there must be some awful defensive SS’s everywhere in baseball. My opinion is Jeter won the GG in the same way Palmiero won the GG a few years ago when he DH’d 75% of the games.
Happy Thanksgiving all!
Happy Thanksgiving all!
Saturday, October 23, 2010
The Genius Maker - End of year
The ride is over! I do think though, it ended prematurely due to a lack of preventative maintenance and some poor short term decisions.
That being said, Texas deservedly moves forward while we go home. I thought Texas’ offense was very good all series. They fouled off pitchers pitches and waited for mistakes and took advantage of them. Somebody asked me about what I thought would happen before last game and I said Texas is getting great AB’s from almost everyone; they contributed GREATLY to our pitching looking bad. That being said, Hughes AND Colby Lewis were both pitching awful through 4 innings; so bad in fact, I sent out a text after 4 innings stating, “It is shocking the score is 1-0 with such horrible pitching…so many hittable pitches.” At that point, we had 3 hard hit balls and unfortunately we hit them right at people, but it was crazy we didn’t knock Colby out of the game…our bats were simply worse. It was one of the worst hitting performances we have had. Many people will say good pitching beats good hitting and throw that out without any context…the same people will incorrectly talk about the "gem" Colby Lewis threw against us as his line 6 IP, 3 hits, 1 ER, 3 Walks and 7 k’s, looks great…they would be so off base it is comical though. The guy was throwing meatballs all night and we just stunk the joint up. He couldn’t even get his soft stuff over for strikes, so he resorted to throwing his straight 89 MPH fastball over the plate and I mean over the plate. The only time all game he threw some off speed stuff for consistent strikes was against ARod as he threw a not-great-moving slider that ARod eventually doubled off. BTW, ARod hit the ball on the screws all night.
I think the story of the game was how bad the Yankee bats were…
It is a shame Hughes came up so short too. No command at all and he didn’t even cover 1st twice. The 1st time, Berkman got back, but the 2nd one was the one Cano ranged to his left and threw wildly to 1st. I am not sure whether Hughes would have caught it if he were on the base like he should have been, but he might have and he was clearly late (the angle was not good).
As for the rest of this game, I didn’t think Girardi did much wrong, I think he pulled Hughes at the right time, although I would have had more faith in Joba than Robertson after Robertson was lit up so bad in the series. We caught a terrible break when the 1st pitch to Vlad was called a ball after we correctly intentionally walked Hamilton (yes I agreed with his intentional walks because he averages more than a base every time up against a righty). That put Hughes in a 1-0 hole in a tie game (1-1), with 1st and 3rd and instead of throwing a fastball for a strike, Posada and Hughes decided to go with a breaking ball strike (not really a wrong choice). Unfortunately, Hughes hung it and Texas took advantage of a bad pitch for a double that opened up the game. One call can make a huge swing in a game, but the main difference was that Texas took advantage of that mistake and the incredibly horrible pitch Robertson threw to Cruz in the next AB (why not put it on a tee for him Robertson?) while the Yankees bats missed similar pitches all night long from Lewis. I will say that Feliz made some great pitches in the 9th against us though.
SO NOW WHAT?
First, let’s step back and say that making the final 4 is not too bad. I have said many times that advancing in the playoffs is a crap shoot; many times the hot team can ride you to victory…Texas batters really hit well all series and the Lee outing was special as he did not leave hittable pitches over the plate almost at all.
We will be making a lot of changes because I expect (and hope) Montero will be up at the major league level splitting time with Jorge. I think we will probably drop Berkman, Nick Johnson, Kearns and make some moves with guys like Cervelli and Mitre/Moseley and possibly even Robertson or Joba.
I think I would hold onto Joba unless I got some good value for him. I think he will be a solid arm.
I would keep Thames as he does what we need and that is a good bat against lefties. While he did a good job against righties this year too, that was just a good groove and in general he is too susceptible against the slow stuff from righties.
SHOULD GIRARDI BE BACK?
If we step back and look at his track record, he has won a WS in 3 years and not made the playoffs in the one of the years and then this year. That is not bad. I don’t think Girardi is a terrible manager, however, I think he was terrible the final 1/3 of the year and in the playoffs…simply awful. He was inconsistent in every one of his approaches and he had no clear direction. I also don’t like his disingenuous way of acting and he rubs me the wrong way and honestly I don’t want to root for the guy very much. You have recently read some of my views and there are many examples I have, but one that stands out was the time where ARod was coming back from his injury and he was babying ARod to the point where he might have cost us some important games and then when ARod got on base where it was clear he should have been pinch run for, he left him out there to risk injury (if he was as bad as Girardi had been saying). He then answered the questions as to why he left ARod in to run, only to take him out the next inning for Nunez or Pena (I forget) to play the field, when they could have just pinch run and stayed in the game, by saying, “I thought if we batted around ARod could have gotten up again.” What? Talk about being FOS! That was the start of Girardi losing his mind the final part of the season.
One other point is that if you look back on the moves made down the stretch and in the postseason with 20/20 knowledge, Girardi pushed every wrong button and was behind Washington at almost every turn in this last series. The moves he made never worked and the non moves didn’t work either, therefore he could have only hurt us.
So my answer is that while I think many times the grass is not greener and a change just to change is actually a bad thing usually with managers, I would be OK with replacing Girardi because he rubs me the wrong way and he was awful down the stretch. That being said, while Joe may still always rub me the wrong way, he has some good qualities and could improve as he is still relatively young in his coaching career. I do not know of any good options out there (although I am sure there are) and more important I would be extremely surprised if Cashman would replace him just because of the way he talks about him.
WHAT ABOUT CASHMAN?
The hardest part in sitting in my chair is I don’t how much Cashman gets involved with Girardi’s decisions and how much is made by Cashman. In other words, who made the decision to leave a 2nd lefty off the post season roster? I get the feeling it was Girardi because Cashman said that Ring pitched extremely well all year in the minors to get lefties out. As for his other moves, I have agreed with most of them so I can’t criticize them in hindsight. Vazquez didn’t work out, but I thought it was worth the move as we didn’t give up much…we also got Logan in the deal and while he failed to get Hamilton out twice he did pitch 1.2 innings allowing a hit and a walk in his other postseason work and was extremely valuable all year. Obviously, I didn’t like the Kearns trade right away and was vocal about it and that was not a smart deal, but I liked getting Wood and Berkman and they both were valuable. I would expect Wood to be retained, but I doubt Berkman unless he is willing to take a little less to be part of the team.
I liked the Granderson deal, but I still don’t think the team recognized his weakness against lefties and I am still not sure whether they do. He was better against lefties down the stretch, but he still wasn’t good; overall his OPS was .240 points lower against lefties…a huge difference.
Overall, Cashman knows what he is doing and I like his work with our minor leagues as well; he is a keeper, even if he failed to get a lefty killer or a lefty pitching specialist.
WHAT ABOUT THE TEAM?
It is early so a lot can happen, but I hope Andy wants to come back and I hope lee is open to pitching here…I would go get him.
Mariano should be given whatever he wants; he is the Genius Maker and once again did his job brilliantly.
Jeter; the toughest answer. I tend to think he is better than he played this year (which was not good). Even when I was hoping to see something new out of Jeter ion the postseason he didn’t deliver again posting a weak OPS of .709. I think you go to Jeter’s agent and some arbitrator and get a number that they feel is what Jeter would get on the open market if he were a free agent. I would then say we will give you a 50% premium on that and sign him for that deal. So if he could get 3 years at 20 mil then you give him 3 years at $30 mil and be done with it.
Swisher – I am only bringing him up because he struggled mightily in the Texas series with an OPS of .473 (ouch). He was putrid. He did well in the Minnesota series, but overall his postseason numbers are .162/.302/.314 OPS=.616. That is not good and while it is not anything about clutch, he is a guy who hits mistakes (and fastballs) and in the postseason you will have less mistakes and more breaking ball pitches. In fact, when I did my review about how well Nick did in the regular season I made a comment, “I hope he keeps this up.”
A lot of guys struggled in the postseason and while Lee pitched, I think the Yankees offense was just bad. No, I don’t want to fire Kevin Long, sometimes these things just happen.
Tip your hat to the Texas hitters and Lee and they deserve to be going to the WS.
I will get out an update on some of my thoughts throughout the year to see how I did...
One last thought though…what would have happened if Seattle didn’t screw us out of Lee at the last second?
I hope you have enjoyed my rantings and I will update the site and via email as I get some thoughts.
Peace,
Steve
That being said, Texas deservedly moves forward while we go home. I thought Texas’ offense was very good all series. They fouled off pitchers pitches and waited for mistakes and took advantage of them. Somebody asked me about what I thought would happen before last game and I said Texas is getting great AB’s from almost everyone; they contributed GREATLY to our pitching looking bad. That being said, Hughes AND Colby Lewis were both pitching awful through 4 innings; so bad in fact, I sent out a text after 4 innings stating, “It is shocking the score is 1-0 with such horrible pitching…so many hittable pitches.” At that point, we had 3 hard hit balls and unfortunately we hit them right at people, but it was crazy we didn’t knock Colby out of the game…our bats were simply worse. It was one of the worst hitting performances we have had. Many people will say good pitching beats good hitting and throw that out without any context…the same people will incorrectly talk about the "gem" Colby Lewis threw against us as his line 6 IP, 3 hits, 1 ER, 3 Walks and 7 k’s, looks great…they would be so off base it is comical though. The guy was throwing meatballs all night and we just stunk the joint up. He couldn’t even get his soft stuff over for strikes, so he resorted to throwing his straight 89 MPH fastball over the plate and I mean over the plate. The only time all game he threw some off speed stuff for consistent strikes was against ARod as he threw a not-great-moving slider that ARod eventually doubled off. BTW, ARod hit the ball on the screws all night.
I think the story of the game was how bad the Yankee bats were…
It is a shame Hughes came up so short too. No command at all and he didn’t even cover 1st twice. The 1st time, Berkman got back, but the 2nd one was the one Cano ranged to his left and threw wildly to 1st. I am not sure whether Hughes would have caught it if he were on the base like he should have been, but he might have and he was clearly late (the angle was not good).
As for the rest of this game, I didn’t think Girardi did much wrong, I think he pulled Hughes at the right time, although I would have had more faith in Joba than Robertson after Robertson was lit up so bad in the series. We caught a terrible break when the 1st pitch to Vlad was called a ball after we correctly intentionally walked Hamilton (yes I agreed with his intentional walks because he averages more than a base every time up against a righty). That put Hughes in a 1-0 hole in a tie game (1-1), with 1st and 3rd and instead of throwing a fastball for a strike, Posada and Hughes decided to go with a breaking ball strike (not really a wrong choice). Unfortunately, Hughes hung it and Texas took advantage of a bad pitch for a double that opened up the game. One call can make a huge swing in a game, but the main difference was that Texas took advantage of that mistake and the incredibly horrible pitch Robertson threw to Cruz in the next AB (why not put it on a tee for him Robertson?) while the Yankees bats missed similar pitches all night long from Lewis. I will say that Feliz made some great pitches in the 9th against us though.
SO NOW WHAT?
First, let’s step back and say that making the final 4 is not too bad. I have said many times that advancing in the playoffs is a crap shoot; many times the hot team can ride you to victory…Texas batters really hit well all series and the Lee outing was special as he did not leave hittable pitches over the plate almost at all.
We will be making a lot of changes because I expect (and hope) Montero will be up at the major league level splitting time with Jorge. I think we will probably drop Berkman, Nick Johnson, Kearns and make some moves with guys like Cervelli and Mitre/Moseley and possibly even Robertson or Joba.
I think I would hold onto Joba unless I got some good value for him. I think he will be a solid arm.
I would keep Thames as he does what we need and that is a good bat against lefties. While he did a good job against righties this year too, that was just a good groove and in general he is too susceptible against the slow stuff from righties.
SHOULD GIRARDI BE BACK?
If we step back and look at his track record, he has won a WS in 3 years and not made the playoffs in the one of the years and then this year. That is not bad. I don’t think Girardi is a terrible manager, however, I think he was terrible the final 1/3 of the year and in the playoffs…simply awful. He was inconsistent in every one of his approaches and he had no clear direction. I also don’t like his disingenuous way of acting and he rubs me the wrong way and honestly I don’t want to root for the guy very much. You have recently read some of my views and there are many examples I have, but one that stands out was the time where ARod was coming back from his injury and he was babying ARod to the point where he might have cost us some important games and then when ARod got on base where it was clear he should have been pinch run for, he left him out there to risk injury (if he was as bad as Girardi had been saying). He then answered the questions as to why he left ARod in to run, only to take him out the next inning for Nunez or Pena (I forget) to play the field, when they could have just pinch run and stayed in the game, by saying, “I thought if we batted around ARod could have gotten up again.” What? Talk about being FOS! That was the start of Girardi losing his mind the final part of the season.
One other point is that if you look back on the moves made down the stretch and in the postseason with 20/20 knowledge, Girardi pushed every wrong button and was behind Washington at almost every turn in this last series. The moves he made never worked and the non moves didn’t work either, therefore he could have only hurt us.
So my answer is that while I think many times the grass is not greener and a change just to change is actually a bad thing usually with managers, I would be OK with replacing Girardi because he rubs me the wrong way and he was awful down the stretch. That being said, while Joe may still always rub me the wrong way, he has some good qualities and could improve as he is still relatively young in his coaching career. I do not know of any good options out there (although I am sure there are) and more important I would be extremely surprised if Cashman would replace him just because of the way he talks about him.
WHAT ABOUT CASHMAN?
The hardest part in sitting in my chair is I don’t how much Cashman gets involved with Girardi’s decisions and how much is made by Cashman. In other words, who made the decision to leave a 2nd lefty off the post season roster? I get the feeling it was Girardi because Cashman said that Ring pitched extremely well all year in the minors to get lefties out. As for his other moves, I have agreed with most of them so I can’t criticize them in hindsight. Vazquez didn’t work out, but I thought it was worth the move as we didn’t give up much…we also got Logan in the deal and while he failed to get Hamilton out twice he did pitch 1.2 innings allowing a hit and a walk in his other postseason work and was extremely valuable all year. Obviously, I didn’t like the Kearns trade right away and was vocal about it and that was not a smart deal, but I liked getting Wood and Berkman and they both were valuable. I would expect Wood to be retained, but I doubt Berkman unless he is willing to take a little less to be part of the team.
I liked the Granderson deal, but I still don’t think the team recognized his weakness against lefties and I am still not sure whether they do. He was better against lefties down the stretch, but he still wasn’t good; overall his OPS was .240 points lower against lefties…a huge difference.
Overall, Cashman knows what he is doing and I like his work with our minor leagues as well; he is a keeper, even if he failed to get a lefty killer or a lefty pitching specialist.
WHAT ABOUT THE TEAM?
It is early so a lot can happen, but I hope Andy wants to come back and I hope lee is open to pitching here…I would go get him.
Mariano should be given whatever he wants; he is the Genius Maker and once again did his job brilliantly.
Jeter; the toughest answer. I tend to think he is better than he played this year (which was not good). Even when I was hoping to see something new out of Jeter ion the postseason he didn’t deliver again posting a weak OPS of .709. I think you go to Jeter’s agent and some arbitrator and get a number that they feel is what Jeter would get on the open market if he were a free agent. I would then say we will give you a 50% premium on that and sign him for that deal. So if he could get 3 years at 20 mil then you give him 3 years at $30 mil and be done with it.
Swisher – I am only bringing him up because he struggled mightily in the Texas series with an OPS of .473 (ouch). He was putrid. He did well in the Minnesota series, but overall his postseason numbers are .162/.302/.314 OPS=.616. That is not good and while it is not anything about clutch, he is a guy who hits mistakes (and fastballs) and in the postseason you will have less mistakes and more breaking ball pitches. In fact, when I did my review about how well Nick did in the regular season I made a comment, “I hope he keeps this up.”
A lot of guys struggled in the postseason and while Lee pitched, I think the Yankees offense was just bad. No, I don’t want to fire Kevin Long, sometimes these things just happen.
Tip your hat to the Texas hitters and Lee and they deserve to be going to the WS.
I will get out an update on some of my thoughts throughout the year to see how I did...
One last thought though…what would have happened if Seattle didn’t screw us out of Lee at the last second?
I hope you have enjoyed my rantings and I will update the site and via email as I get some thoughts.
Peace,
Steve
Friday, October 22, 2010
The Genius Maker Pre ALCS #6
I want to go through something about game 4 before we go onto game 5.
I think it is abundantly clear that Girardi stuck with AJ entirely too long. It was one of the most illogical decisions in post season history (I am sure top 10, with Mussina being pushed back in game 4 against the Red Sox atop the list). But, the part I want to discuss was the decision to bring in Thames for Teixeira. I didn’t thoroughly expand on my reasons but I did list a few, however, the main point was this was another decision that was made by Girardi that just showed a lack of understanding of the moment.
I don’t usually post other people’s articles and I honestly don’t read too many…maybe Joel Sherman read my blog before he wrote his, but this is what he wrote after I wrote my blog (I pulled out some superfluous stuff):
“I wrote in this column about Joe Girardi’s faulty decision making in sticking with A.J. Burnett at the critical moment of Game 4. Buck Showalter always used to tell me that one of the key elements of managing is having your head comfortably hit the pillow at night. Translation: How do you sleep if you let someone you don't trust get into a situation in which trust is everything? If a player you trust fails, so be it. It is a game of human beings and failure is inevitable. But at least under that scenario you can sleep.
How does Girardi sleep? Burnett has established himself as the least trustworthy Yankee. You cannot let him decide your season. CANNOT. This was as close to an elimination game as the Yankees could play short of an elimination game. I had asked Girardi before the game about this and he said he would manage aggressively, with the sense that the game could not get away. Thus, if Burnett were in trouble in the first inning then he needed to be lifted. This had to be Girardi’s thought process. Yet, with the tying and go-ahead runs on base in the sixth inning, Girardi stuck with Burnett. Would Joba Chamberlain have retired Bengie Molina? Who knows?"
Steve comment: One could argue sticking with Burnett in the 5th was a bad move, but just because it worked does not excuse it...what it actually shows is that Girardi gambled and stuck with Burnett more than once
But the worst decision, the absolute you can’t do it decision, was leaving Burnett in. Girardi said he liked how Burnett was throwing. (Steve’s comment, he almost threw a wild pitch during the intentional walk for crying out loud) But what does that matter. Burnett does not think well under duress. So how he is pitching at this second has nothing to do with the next second…
He tried to throw a fastball away off the plate and missed inside off the plate. That is essentially a two-foot mistake at the pivotal moment of this game. Molina hit a three-run homer. Burnett, though, was just being Burnett, embracing his loser gene.
This falls on Girardi for letting him be out there to have that gene infect a whole team. It seems to me that under pressure that Girardi does not think clearly. “
NOW SHERMAN MAKES MY POINT ABOUT BRINGING GOLSON INSTEAD OF THAMES…AND WHILE HE MIGHT HAVE READ MY BLOG OR IN HINDSITE THOUGHT OR IT; I STATED IT RIGHT AT THE MOMENT VIA TEXTS AND THE PEOPLE I WAS WATCHING THE GAME WITH…GIRARDI NEEDED TO SEE THAT ALSO!
“Consider the situation that occurred the previous inning: Mark Teixeira went down with a hamstring injury. Girardi had to get a pinch-runner in and have a new first baseman in the next half inning. At that moment, the Yanks led 3-2, first and second, one out. Girardi picked Marcus Thames to run at first in place of Teixeira, which I think was the wrong move on three levels: 1) Greg Golson is faster than Thames and gives the Yanks a greater chance to score a valuable run. 2) He is a far better right fielder than Thames, who went into the game in right with Nick Swisher moving to first in place of Teixeira. Remember the Yanks led at that moment, so having the better defender in place was of great value. 3) By installing Thames in that spot, Girardi lost the ability to use his best righty bat off the bench when he wanted against a team that has four lefty relievers. So, for example, when Berkman came up as the tying run in the bottom of the eighth and had to bat from his far weaker right side because the Thames option was gone.”
I also want to quote something from Girardi that is really crazy. This is why I think the guy is out of his mind of late…This was before the CC game…
Facing elimination, Joe Girardi said he’s prepared to manage today’s game much differently than any game we’ve seen this season. He might have a quick hook if he sees CC Sabathia heading toward a repeat of Game 1, and he’s willing to go with Mariano Rivera and Kerry Wood in earlier innings — and for more innings — than usual.
“I don’t think you can hesitate to make a move,” Girardi said. “If you have to use Woody and Mo somewhat unconventionally today, you got to do it.”
Girardi went so far as to say Phil Hughes is available out of the bullpen today. “
Ok, so you stick with the guy who has been atrocious all year long and give him leeway one day earlier, yet with our best pitcher on the mound you are willing to pull him quickly to ensure we win the game???…OK Joe…yeah, that makes sense…you think you might have wanted to use the "I don't think you can hesitate to make a move" during the Burnett game???Seriously, am I the only person who is having trouble rooting for the guy?
Girardi should have managed the way he says he will for the CC game in the Burnett game.
As for our chances of winning the series, probably only about 20%, but all we need to do is win 2 games in a row and this can happen. Our offense needs to be better and be able to hit with RISP. Even for the CC game, we were I believe 2-11 and we scored mostly from the HR and a couple of bad fielding plays by Texas. Unfortunately for us Texas is swinging the bats well, they are fouling off a lot of good pitches and seem fairly locked in. A very important pitch for us will be the changeup. I was asking for more from Burnett, but when he threw it, it was extremely effective (he threw it to Hamilton on the key fly out in the 5th). Hughes will need to use it against this team.
One other note, while it is not a good thing, losing Tex might not be horrible in that he was really struggling at the plate and against a righty Berkman at 1st with Thames DH’ng might actually get us more offense. Obviously, we lose Tex’s glove, but hopefully we can dodge that bullet. Against Lee it is more of a problem because Swisher will most likely move to 1st base.
We have the players, it is time to execute…(and hopefully not our manager.)
I think it is abundantly clear that Girardi stuck with AJ entirely too long. It was one of the most illogical decisions in post season history (I am sure top 10, with Mussina being pushed back in game 4 against the Red Sox atop the list). But, the part I want to discuss was the decision to bring in Thames for Teixeira. I didn’t thoroughly expand on my reasons but I did list a few, however, the main point was this was another decision that was made by Girardi that just showed a lack of understanding of the moment.
I don’t usually post other people’s articles and I honestly don’t read too many…maybe Joel Sherman read my blog before he wrote his, but this is what he wrote after I wrote my blog (I pulled out some superfluous stuff):
“I wrote in this column about Joe Girardi’s faulty decision making in sticking with A.J. Burnett at the critical moment of Game 4. Buck Showalter always used to tell me that one of the key elements of managing is having your head comfortably hit the pillow at night. Translation: How do you sleep if you let someone you don't trust get into a situation in which trust is everything? If a player you trust fails, so be it. It is a game of human beings and failure is inevitable. But at least under that scenario you can sleep.
How does Girardi sleep? Burnett has established himself as the least trustworthy Yankee. You cannot let him decide your season. CANNOT. This was as close to an elimination game as the Yankees could play short of an elimination game. I had asked Girardi before the game about this and he said he would manage aggressively, with the sense that the game could not get away. Thus, if Burnett were in trouble in the first inning then he needed to be lifted. This had to be Girardi’s thought process. Yet, with the tying and go-ahead runs on base in the sixth inning, Girardi stuck with Burnett. Would Joba Chamberlain have retired Bengie Molina? Who knows?"
Steve comment: One could argue sticking with Burnett in the 5th was a bad move, but just because it worked does not excuse it...what it actually shows is that Girardi gambled and stuck with Burnett more than once
But the worst decision, the absolute you can’t do it decision, was leaving Burnett in. Girardi said he liked how Burnett was throwing. (Steve’s comment, he almost threw a wild pitch during the intentional walk for crying out loud) But what does that matter. Burnett does not think well under duress. So how he is pitching at this second has nothing to do with the next second…
He tried to throw a fastball away off the plate and missed inside off the plate. That is essentially a two-foot mistake at the pivotal moment of this game. Molina hit a three-run homer. Burnett, though, was just being Burnett, embracing his loser gene.
This falls on Girardi for letting him be out there to have that gene infect a whole team. It seems to me that under pressure that Girardi does not think clearly. “
NOW SHERMAN MAKES MY POINT ABOUT BRINGING GOLSON INSTEAD OF THAMES…AND WHILE HE MIGHT HAVE READ MY BLOG OR IN HINDSITE THOUGHT OR IT; I STATED IT RIGHT AT THE MOMENT VIA TEXTS AND THE PEOPLE I WAS WATCHING THE GAME WITH…GIRARDI NEEDED TO SEE THAT ALSO!
“Consider the situation that occurred the previous inning: Mark Teixeira went down with a hamstring injury. Girardi had to get a pinch-runner in and have a new first baseman in the next half inning. At that moment, the Yanks led 3-2, first and second, one out. Girardi picked Marcus Thames to run at first in place of Teixeira, which I think was the wrong move on three levels: 1) Greg Golson is faster than Thames and gives the Yanks a greater chance to score a valuable run. 2) He is a far better right fielder than Thames, who went into the game in right with Nick Swisher moving to first in place of Teixeira. Remember the Yanks led at that moment, so having the better defender in place was of great value. 3) By installing Thames in that spot, Girardi lost the ability to use his best righty bat off the bench when he wanted against a team that has four lefty relievers. So, for example, when Berkman came up as the tying run in the bottom of the eighth and had to bat from his far weaker right side because the Thames option was gone.”
I also want to quote something from Girardi that is really crazy. This is why I think the guy is out of his mind of late…This was before the CC game…
Facing elimination, Joe Girardi said he’s prepared to manage today’s game much differently than any game we’ve seen this season. He might have a quick hook if he sees CC Sabathia heading toward a repeat of Game 1, and he’s willing to go with Mariano Rivera and Kerry Wood in earlier innings — and for more innings — than usual.
“I don’t think you can hesitate to make a move,” Girardi said. “If you have to use Woody and Mo somewhat unconventionally today, you got to do it.”
Girardi went so far as to say Phil Hughes is available out of the bullpen today. “
Ok, so you stick with the guy who has been atrocious all year long and give him leeway one day earlier, yet with our best pitcher on the mound you are willing to pull him quickly to ensure we win the game???…OK Joe…yeah, that makes sense…you think you might have wanted to use the "I don't think you can hesitate to make a move" during the Burnett game???Seriously, am I the only person who is having trouble rooting for the guy?
Girardi should have managed the way he says he will for the CC game in the Burnett game.
As for our chances of winning the series, probably only about 20%, but all we need to do is win 2 games in a row and this can happen. Our offense needs to be better and be able to hit with RISP. Even for the CC game, we were I believe 2-11 and we scored mostly from the HR and a couple of bad fielding plays by Texas. Unfortunately for us Texas is swinging the bats well, they are fouling off a lot of good pitches and seem fairly locked in. A very important pitch for us will be the changeup. I was asking for more from Burnett, but when he threw it, it was extremely effective (he threw it to Hamilton on the key fly out in the 5th). Hughes will need to use it against this team.
One other note, while it is not a good thing, losing Tex might not be horrible in that he was really struggling at the plate and against a righty Berkman at 1st with Thames DH’ng might actually get us more offense. Obviously, we lose Tex’s glove, but hopefully we can dodge that bullet. Against Lee it is more of a problem because Swisher will most likely move to 1st base.
We have the players, it is time to execute…(and hopefully not our manager.)
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
The Genius Maker post game 4 ALCS
I will apologize in advance for any expletives on this blog, but I have not been this upset with a manager since Torre decided not to start Mussina in game 4 against Boston up 3-0 in 04’.
I also want to point out the series is not over, but the odds are clearly against the Yanks winning.
I think I threw out about as many expletives, at my friends house no less, as I have in, well, I am not sure if I have ever thrown out more. Every time they showed Girardi I said one…
Let me go through the progression here because Girardi went from being a manager I thought did a good job with the pen, a decent job overall but someone who I just didn’t like his smugness, to a guy I would like off the team as skipper right now. In all my years of not liking the X and O style of Torre, I never made a statement like this. I did think it was time for Torre to leave at the end and “let someone else drive the Lamborghini,” and I also thought Girardi was the better choice between he and Mattingly (only because Mattingly didn’t have experience). But I am done with Girardi and have trouble rooting for him, which will be my own issue.
Going back, the way the team handled Joba was almost criminal, moving him all over the place. They changed their mind continuously and did a horrible job with Joba. This year, down the stretch, Girardi did an even worse job never sticking to any plan and constantly changing his mind time and time again and accomplished nothing. AWFUL job by Girardi down the stretch.
Cashman deserves some blame here as well because we needed a lefty killer and we needed another lefty (how many times did I say this?). When he got Kearns, I hated the move and stated as such…he didn’t do what we needed and he never got us another lefty, until Ring. But, while every team in baseball understands how significant it is to match up and allow flexibility in doing so (Texas added 2 lefties to make FOUR out of their pen), we decided we needed Moseley and Mitre on the team instead of a 2nd lefty that could give us flexibility and also make it harder for the opposing manager.
ON TO THE GAME…As you know, I have stated I wanted to pitch all of our guys on 3 days rest and I was very much against starting Burnett in game 4. I also wanted CC to pitch in game 4 no matter what so that he was available for game 7. When I heard they were starting Cervelli, the expletives started pre game in numerous texts. Against a righty Cervelli is a bad hitter. Not only that, how good of a “personal” catcher is Cervelli when he “managed” AJ to the worst ERA in the league? How much did his awful throwing to 2nd help the situation? How about his poor pitch calling ability? Why in the world would you want Cervelli in the game when we are struggling to get the offense going? This decision exacerbates an already horrible decision by Girardi and was pure idiocy.
Pre game, we had a discussion about the tough decision Girardi had to make going into game 4… I don’t disagree that this wasn’t an easy decision, but that is your fn’ job. IF, and again I don’t agree, you felt you had to start someone game 4, it would have been Moseley and not AJ…but again, it would have been CC if it were me. AJ could have been really good, but the odds of this were slim…but with his stuff you could never know. Either way, I made it clear in my blog that AJ needed to have a short leash and my brother put it well when he said “if AJ has a chance to allow 5 runs in the game Girardi is a jack hammer” (I might have cleaned that up).
So with that in mind, the thought was don’t allow him to get us too far behind and have an incredibly quick hook. Burnett did OK actually, and in the top of the 5th inning, my brother sticking to his guns (and I agreed) I would have taken out AJ when the score was 3-2 Yankees and there were 2 outs, 1st and 2nd and Hamilton up. Of course I would have brought in Ring here, but he was not on the roster. Girardi stayed with Burnett and he did get Hamilton out…whew! Big out. Now the Yanks get a nice rally going in the bottom of the 5th but in the long inning Tex goes out with a hammy and ARod hits into a DP and we get no runs in a long ½ inning.
I will now switch to my texting messages that were sent in the game and prior to anything happening…I wanted Moseley to start the 6th and 2 of my friends agreed, when Burnett came back out Girardi was REALLY pushing the limit. Remember last inning, he allowed 2 singles and a walk. 2 runs in 5 innings with AJ and I am thrilled. In fact, one would have to say that given what happened starting AJ was the right move…but take him out and say good job, let’s not push it.
BUT NO, Girardi decided to leave Burnett in. My comment was that if one guy gets on he is out of the game.
Oh, I need to go back and state that when Tex went out, I wanted Golson to go into the game because Golson could pinch run for Tex at 1st base and stay in for good defense. With a lead and he wouldn’t get up for 2-3 more innings it made sense and hopefully we had extended the lead by then (we had 2 men on and Golson could help get a run that inning. Girardi put in Thames instead. My feeling was if we gave back the lead and had a really big spot Thames could pinch hit with all the lefties they had.
So Burnett allows a lead off soft liner to RF that Thames didn’t move on and while he didn’t come close to the ball, Golson would have been playing a little more shallow and it was possible he would have caught the ball…maybe not, but possible. BTW, maybe Golson’s speed would have forced ARod’s DP to be mishandled too??? I may be grasping here, but clearly the moves Girardi made or didn’t make have long term impact. So while I want Burnett out of the game, he does get the next guy out on a fielder’s choice and then Kinsler flies out to CF and Cruz makes an excellent play to tag up and get to 2nd. I would have liked to see Granderson get behind that ball and make it tougher, but this was the play that turned Girardi into an absolute #%@$!!!! Murphy is up and he is a lefty platoon guy. I would bring in Ring if he were on the team to face Murphy, but we know this can’t happen. So I would bring in Logan (and said/texted as such) Logan was the move here and the only thing I can think of is that Girardi didn’t want to waste his one bullet of Logan in this spot…again, previous decisions rearing their UGLY head. So instead of pitching to Murphy, he decides to walk him??? I was livid over this and let everyone know. There are a few times putting the tying run on base makes sense…there is not a chance in heck this was one of them. For one, Burnett walks a lot of guys and hits them…that is one of his downfalls, but his stuff is good so why intentionally walk the guy? I know Molina is a not a good hitter, but he got a hit off of AJ already and has been swinging well. Burnett should never intentionally walk a guy IMO. So after the dumb move to walk him, every one knew Joba was coming in…right? For some asinine reason he sits Joba back down (I think he had been up twice already) and leaves Burnett in. We were all saying NO WAY, THIS IS STUPID. First pitch is a fastball away, but Burnett who has now thrown about 95 pitches misses and the fastball comes inside and Molina perhaps ends the Yankees season with a 3 run homer. That was it folks…Girardi for some reason stuck with AJ??? The guy with the highest ERA!!! I have no idea why and I am sure his comment will be “we” thought the matchup was blah blah blah…you know what Joe, you are an idiot! You took a top team and screwed it all up. You should lose your job because your job is to put your players in the best position so that they can be successful and you have failed miserably at it!
The offense deserves some blame here as well as they scored about the least possible runs you can score when you have 7 hits and 4 walks with a HR, a triple and a double mixed in…3 runs.
…the 8th inning said it all when the Yanks had bases loaded one out and Swisher got hit by the pitch, but they didn’t call it…this was huge non call as Swisher popped out only to have Berkman come up against the lefty. Here is the perfect time to bring in our lefty killer, but instead we have Kearns…Berkman who is simply awful against lefties stayed in the game because Kearns wasn’t even worthy of pinch hitting for a guy with an OPS of .517 against lefties (batting .171). Great pickup that Kearns (again decisions made previously)…Berkman did a nice job and hit the ball hard but a nice play by Young (give Texas credit, they have played very well in the field) ended any hopes.
We have our best 3 going and all we need to do is have each of them win, not out of the realm of possibilities, but the odds are slim folks and Girardi sucked the life out of me. It is inexcusable to for Girardi to allow Burnett to allow 5 runs in this game…absolutely inexcusable! Of course, he shouldn’t have been starting anyway.
I also want to point out the series is not over, but the odds are clearly against the Yanks winning.
I think I threw out about as many expletives, at my friends house no less, as I have in, well, I am not sure if I have ever thrown out more. Every time they showed Girardi I said one…
Let me go through the progression here because Girardi went from being a manager I thought did a good job with the pen, a decent job overall but someone who I just didn’t like his smugness, to a guy I would like off the team as skipper right now. In all my years of not liking the X and O style of Torre, I never made a statement like this. I did think it was time for Torre to leave at the end and “let someone else drive the Lamborghini,” and I also thought Girardi was the better choice between he and Mattingly (only because Mattingly didn’t have experience). But I am done with Girardi and have trouble rooting for him, which will be my own issue.
Going back, the way the team handled Joba was almost criminal, moving him all over the place. They changed their mind continuously and did a horrible job with Joba. This year, down the stretch, Girardi did an even worse job never sticking to any plan and constantly changing his mind time and time again and accomplished nothing. AWFUL job by Girardi down the stretch.
Cashman deserves some blame here as well because we needed a lefty killer and we needed another lefty (how many times did I say this?). When he got Kearns, I hated the move and stated as such…he didn’t do what we needed and he never got us another lefty, until Ring. But, while every team in baseball understands how significant it is to match up and allow flexibility in doing so (Texas added 2 lefties to make FOUR out of their pen), we decided we needed Moseley and Mitre on the team instead of a 2nd lefty that could give us flexibility and also make it harder for the opposing manager.
ON TO THE GAME…As you know, I have stated I wanted to pitch all of our guys on 3 days rest and I was very much against starting Burnett in game 4. I also wanted CC to pitch in game 4 no matter what so that he was available for game 7. When I heard they were starting Cervelli, the expletives started pre game in numerous texts. Against a righty Cervelli is a bad hitter. Not only that, how good of a “personal” catcher is Cervelli when he “managed” AJ to the worst ERA in the league? How much did his awful throwing to 2nd help the situation? How about his poor pitch calling ability? Why in the world would you want Cervelli in the game when we are struggling to get the offense going? This decision exacerbates an already horrible decision by Girardi and was pure idiocy.
Pre game, we had a discussion about the tough decision Girardi had to make going into game 4… I don’t disagree that this wasn’t an easy decision, but that is your fn’ job. IF, and again I don’t agree, you felt you had to start someone game 4, it would have been Moseley and not AJ…but again, it would have been CC if it were me. AJ could have been really good, but the odds of this were slim…but with his stuff you could never know. Either way, I made it clear in my blog that AJ needed to have a short leash and my brother put it well when he said “if AJ has a chance to allow 5 runs in the game Girardi is a jack hammer” (I might have cleaned that up).
So with that in mind, the thought was don’t allow him to get us too far behind and have an incredibly quick hook. Burnett did OK actually, and in the top of the 5th inning, my brother sticking to his guns (and I agreed) I would have taken out AJ when the score was 3-2 Yankees and there were 2 outs, 1st and 2nd and Hamilton up. Of course I would have brought in Ring here, but he was not on the roster. Girardi stayed with Burnett and he did get Hamilton out…whew! Big out. Now the Yanks get a nice rally going in the bottom of the 5th but in the long inning Tex goes out with a hammy and ARod hits into a DP and we get no runs in a long ½ inning.
I will now switch to my texting messages that were sent in the game and prior to anything happening…I wanted Moseley to start the 6th and 2 of my friends agreed, when Burnett came back out Girardi was REALLY pushing the limit. Remember last inning, he allowed 2 singles and a walk. 2 runs in 5 innings with AJ and I am thrilled. In fact, one would have to say that given what happened starting AJ was the right move…but take him out and say good job, let’s not push it.
BUT NO, Girardi decided to leave Burnett in. My comment was that if one guy gets on he is out of the game.
Oh, I need to go back and state that when Tex went out, I wanted Golson to go into the game because Golson could pinch run for Tex at 1st base and stay in for good defense. With a lead and he wouldn’t get up for 2-3 more innings it made sense and hopefully we had extended the lead by then (we had 2 men on and Golson could help get a run that inning. Girardi put in Thames instead. My feeling was if we gave back the lead and had a really big spot Thames could pinch hit with all the lefties they had.
So Burnett allows a lead off soft liner to RF that Thames didn’t move on and while he didn’t come close to the ball, Golson would have been playing a little more shallow and it was possible he would have caught the ball…maybe not, but possible. BTW, maybe Golson’s speed would have forced ARod’s DP to be mishandled too??? I may be grasping here, but clearly the moves Girardi made or didn’t make have long term impact. So while I want Burnett out of the game, he does get the next guy out on a fielder’s choice and then Kinsler flies out to CF and Cruz makes an excellent play to tag up and get to 2nd. I would have liked to see Granderson get behind that ball and make it tougher, but this was the play that turned Girardi into an absolute #%@$!!!! Murphy is up and he is a lefty platoon guy. I would bring in Ring if he were on the team to face Murphy, but we know this can’t happen. So I would bring in Logan (and said/texted as such) Logan was the move here and the only thing I can think of is that Girardi didn’t want to waste his one bullet of Logan in this spot…again, previous decisions rearing their UGLY head. So instead of pitching to Murphy, he decides to walk him??? I was livid over this and let everyone know. There are a few times putting the tying run on base makes sense…there is not a chance in heck this was one of them. For one, Burnett walks a lot of guys and hits them…that is one of his downfalls, but his stuff is good so why intentionally walk the guy? I know Molina is a not a good hitter, but he got a hit off of AJ already and has been swinging well. Burnett should never intentionally walk a guy IMO. So after the dumb move to walk him, every one knew Joba was coming in…right? For some asinine reason he sits Joba back down (I think he had been up twice already) and leaves Burnett in. We were all saying NO WAY, THIS IS STUPID. First pitch is a fastball away, but Burnett who has now thrown about 95 pitches misses and the fastball comes inside and Molina perhaps ends the Yankees season with a 3 run homer. That was it folks…Girardi for some reason stuck with AJ??? The guy with the highest ERA!!! I have no idea why and I am sure his comment will be “we” thought the matchup was blah blah blah…you know what Joe, you are an idiot! You took a top team and screwed it all up. You should lose your job because your job is to put your players in the best position so that they can be successful and you have failed miserably at it!
The offense deserves some blame here as well as they scored about the least possible runs you can score when you have 7 hits and 4 walks with a HR, a triple and a double mixed in…3 runs.
…the 8th inning said it all when the Yanks had bases loaded one out and Swisher got hit by the pitch, but they didn’t call it…this was huge non call as Swisher popped out only to have Berkman come up against the lefty. Here is the perfect time to bring in our lefty killer, but instead we have Kearns…Berkman who is simply awful against lefties stayed in the game because Kearns wasn’t even worthy of pinch hitting for a guy with an OPS of .517 against lefties (batting .171). Great pickup that Kearns (again decisions made previously)…Berkman did a nice job and hit the ball hard but a nice play by Young (give Texas credit, they have played very well in the field) ended any hopes.
We have our best 3 going and all we need to do is have each of them win, not out of the realm of possibilities, but the odds are slim folks and Girardi sucked the life out of me. It is inexcusable to for Girardi to allow Burnett to allow 5 runs in this game…absolutely inexcusable! Of course, he shouldn’t have been starting anyway.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Ugh! I have been saying that the offense needs to do a good job and they were awful. I was at the game and therefore have a much worse perspective on how Lee pitched than if I watched on TV, but is looked like the Yankees simply took too many fastball strikes. I will go back and look, but swing the bats boys. They were not called out on too many off speed pitches, although I thought I saw a called 3rd strike on a cutter or 2. Obviously, he was keeping them off balance and had movement on his pitches because they only squared up a few all night. That being said, if you are swinging the bat well, you don't take called 3rd strike fastballs from Cliff Lee, in fact, you shouldn't be watching too many called strikes on fastballs. You also don't swing at balls out of the strike zone (I am talking to you Jeter)...the no out and Gardner on 2nd AB was a critical one in the game in my opinion and Jeter took the wind out of us.
I also want to point that Texas has fielded very well this series. They have made all the plays. the catch on ARod was a good example, but they have flashed some leather as well on 2 other infield plays.
We have been outplayed this entire series and unfortunately, our hopes to not have to win 3 straight are riding on the worst pitcher in the AL this year. I would have thrown all my guys on 3 days rest as none threw a lot of pitches (Andy was the highest). But that is not going to happen...all I can say is that if Burnett allows more than 3 runs in the first 4 innings, Girardi did an awful job. You have an incredibly short leash on him. 3 guys in a row get on and I am probably taking him out, but 4 is a guarantee.
Tommy Hunter is pitching against us and it is time for our offense to do their job!
I also want to point that Texas has fielded very well this series. They have made all the plays. the catch on ARod was a good example, but they have flashed some leather as well on 2 other infield plays.
We have been outplayed this entire series and unfortunately, our hopes to not have to win 3 straight are riding on the worst pitcher in the AL this year. I would have thrown all my guys on 3 days rest as none threw a lot of pitches (Andy was the highest). But that is not going to happen...all I can say is that if Burnett allows more than 3 runs in the first 4 innings, Girardi did an awful job. You have an incredibly short leash on him. 3 guys in a row get on and I am probably taking him out, but 4 is a guarantee.
Tommy Hunter is pitching against us and it is time for our offense to do their job!
Monday, October 18, 2010
Monday morning
We are down to a best of 5 series where we play the 1st 3 games at home. This is a pretty good setup when you think of it that way. Of course we are starting our#3 pitcher and they get to start their #1, but let's see what Andy has in store for us. A perfect scenario is we beat Lee 2-1 so that he (and we) know Lee can pitch in Yankee stadium well (for our signing) yet we still win.
I also wanted to point out the Freddy "Sez" passed away this weekend. I have a picture to the right if you are not sure who he is. Freddy is the guy who walked around with a pan and a spoon and let all the kids take turns hitting it...kind of cool to watch. Not sure Freddie ranks up there with George or even Bob S, but he was an icon at the stadium for a very long time.
I assume if we win it all it will be for George and the rest, but if we lose, it will be forgotten.
I also wanted to point out the Freddy "Sez" passed away this weekend. I have a picture to the right if you are not sure who he is. Freddy is the guy who walked around with a pan and a spoon and let all the kids take turns hitting it...kind of cool to watch. Not sure Freddie ranks up there with George or even Bob S, but he was an icon at the stadium for a very long time.
I assume if we win it all it will be for George and the rest, but if we lose, it will be forgotten.
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