9-21-12

I have had items to write over all the past games, but will try and briefly go through some thoughts.

Phelps has done a nice job; he will be in the pen, but I feel good with him coming in and his future as a solid #3 guy seems bright.

Toronto lineup toothless without Batista

We got thrown out at home with less than 2 outs in the Toronto series, but I was mad our awful 3^rd base coach, I was mad because we got thrown because we did that slide I hate.  Nix’s legs were fully across the plate, but his hand had not touched the plate and was tagged out.  GO IN STRAIGHT AND HARD ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE PLATE WHEN THEY GIVE IT TO YOU AND YOU BEAT THE THROW.  He would have easily been safe…the Yanks must teach that and they are wrong to do so.

Obviously, Ichiro has been torrid, but he needs to be careful stealing 3^rd; he was out on one of them.  It would be great if he could give us an OPS of .750.  Also, even though he is hot, does he really need to swing at a 3-0 pitch that was a ball?

Gardner – I want him on the roster for defense and base running and I would bunt him and probably let him swing if needed. 

Dickerson should be playing every minute over Ibanez and should have been all year so that we at least see if there is upside.  I was adamant about it during the signing of Ibanez and Dickerson did real well in the minors and has done well in his minimal AB’s in the bigs. 

Soriano has done a great job, even if he blew the save Friday; not sure how he has done it as his stuff isn’t great, but I would love him to great for us and then opt out of his deal as I don’t want to pay him 13 mil

McGehee and Pearce have been putrid for us

Nunez had another play today where he waited slightly for the ball to get to him and the guy beat the throw.  he has bad mechanics and feel for defense, but if he can use his athleticism and decent stick, he could be good.  (a lot of fluff in that comment by me...so let me say that I don't think he will ever be a solid defensive SS)

Both Martin and Stewart have made excellent throws in the past few games; they both throw great.  Nice walk off by Martin as well, who has been swinging well!

Cano better get his head straightened out as he is not swinging well. 

Hughes was awful on Thursday.  I am not sure if I have ever seen a pitcher miss his spots by as much as he did and as consistently.   

One game up on Baltimore and 2 back from Texas for best record and then getting to play the WC winner (which I would very much like to do)

The Genius Maker 9-15-12

I try to not be too negative and call things as I see them, but perhaps that leads me to talk about the negatives due to the fact the good moves seem to me to be the ones that are no brainers a lot.  Honestly that is very simplistic, but I do make my comments without the knowledge of what happened.  I hope over the years people see the credibility in this and not that it is second guessing…now that I have gotten that out of the way…

I do not understand starting Ichiro in the leadoff spot?  Why would you ever want a guy with a sub .300 OBP to be at the top of your order?  Just because he is fast?  That is an awful reason.  I say you just bat him 9^th at that point.  However, Ichiro did get a single steal a base and then come around to score with 2 outs…so it worked.  That being said, I want to go on record saying it is not a good plan.

I also have no idea why Girardi would start the weak fielding Ibanez over the slick fielding Dickerson when Dickerson can probably hit at least as well as Ibanez and probably better if he got some playing time.

Onto the game.  It was fantastic to see the great stuff Nova had and this is why I have said I like the guy.  He does seem to struggle a little from the stretch, but that may be because he takes a long time and loses his rhythm.  He was very sharp though and pitched 5 great innings and then in the 6^th he allowed a HR to Longoria, which is acceptable as he is a good player.  Nova had a good breaking ball and a moving 94-96 MPH fastball and I liked the calls Stewart made, even on the ones where he allowed hits.  4-1 and all was good.

Until the 7^th…What I don’t understand is Girardi’s decision to start Nova in the 7^th inning.  First, the thought was the pitch count limit would probably be around 75-80 depending on the game situation.  At the end of the 6^th inning, Nova was at 84.  That was perfect…but Girardi, inexplicably send Nova out to throw his warm up pitches and then to face another batter.  Sitting around and then throwing warm up pitches (which are thrown hard) takes a toll and there was no reason for it because at most Nova would face only one more batter.  With so many guys in the bullpen you go to the pen and don’t even think of messing around.  But Girardi, screwed up…not because the first guy got a hit off of Nova, it was because he sent him out there for no reason at all and more importantly, put the team in a lesser position to win the game.

Then after this terrible decision, Girardi compounded it by leaving Logan in to face the righty.  Why not go to Joba right there?  First, I would have started Joba in the 7^th to begin with, but then he let’s Logan face the righty who doubles off of him.  Then, Joba got his first guy to ground back to him and that left 2^nd and 3^rd with 2 outs and lefty Luke Scott pinch hitting.  Scott is a platoon player so I would have gone right to Rapada in this spot because if they pinch hit you could put him on base with 2 outs.  Then you have Wade and others.  Meanwhile if they did pinch hit they would have used up everyone.  Joba did allow the single scoring two and Girardi let TB back in the game with stupid managing.  Of course, he wasn’t bailed out by the pen either, but if he would have done the right thing from the beginning or after screwing that up did one of the other better moves, we probably would have been OK.  Every move Girardi made that was wrong backfired…

Robertson and Soriano did their jobs in the 8^th and 9^th even if Soriano was VERY shaky.  At least Girardi doesn’t have to think about the 8^th and 9^th…they just need to do their jobs.

It was nice to see Nunez hit a HR after the bad error.  He did make an unwise throw to barely get the force at 2^nd in the 5^th inning, but he did get his guy.

We got some help by Madden pitching to ARod with a base open and Swisher on deck and already down 1 run and ARod delivered with a big insurance run.  I would be critical of their manager for that move.

Baltimore lost!!!

The GM 9-14

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

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

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

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

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

Baltimore lost at least

The Genius Maker 9-13

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

The Genius Maker 9-12

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

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

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

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

Sarcasm alert…

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

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

I DISPUTE THAT!  

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

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

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

9-8-12

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

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

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

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

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

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

Very frustrating…

9-7-12

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

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

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

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

Games are exciting and important…glad we got this one

9-6-12

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

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

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

9-5-12

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

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

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

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

9-4-12

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

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

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

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