The Genius Maker #72

My random ramblings for the Monday night game

Chavez really struggled at the plate in this game. His OPS is down to .730 now; at least he gives us good defense, which is more than we can say about Nunez. They should be platooning right now.

Posada earned another start and went 1-2 with a walk so that is positive. Girardi pinch hit for Posada against a lefty later in the game and it brings up that Posada was never better against righties or lefties; he was always very even in his splits; in fact, last year he was better against lefties (but normally pretty even). My point is that I think Girardi pulled the plug on Posada too early against lefties. I know he has been horrific against them this year, but I think if he were allowed to face them more he would have worked through it. I will say that Jones has come on of late and has an OPS of .881 against lefties (.515 against righties)

Granderson has been struggling against lefties of late; I can’t find numbers that show specifically against lefties how he has done, but I know it has not been very good. His OPS for the year is now 40 below righties, but overall is still great at .923 against lefties. As long as he is above .800 against lefties that is fantastic for him.

Jeter and Gardner had the big hits in the game

The Genius Maker closed it out and looked normal to me. Then again, I don’t think he looked that bad in his slump either; he just got hit. I don’t expect him to be overpowering guys and he will get hit some, but I expect him to be solid for at least this year.

Swisher made a nice play to cut a ball off in the 5th inning and kept the runner on 1st this was critical because the next guy hit into a DP started brilliantly by Cano

KC made 4 outs on the bases to really help us. Martin made two excellent throws, and on another accurate but bounced throw Cano made a great tag and finally Logan came on and picked a guy off. They ran themselves out of possibly the game as they had 10 hits on the night.

AJ had a good change working, but he is not reach 95 on the radar gun anymore and his movement has been that great. His ERA of 4.76 for this game is pretty much about where he is. I am OK with them taking it easy with Colon and Garcia for a month and then letting them get into a groove for September on, but then AJ doesn’t sniff the postseason roster, unless as a reliever which I would attempt.

Gardner made a play on a ball slicing away form him that looked routine, but most LF’rs would not have made the play. His defense is worth so much more than people understand.

Melky is playing CF for KC and as you know I was not a huge fan of Melky other than as a decent 4th OF. I also don’t think he has the speed to play CF and we saw a few balls he should have tracked down. My concern was that he didn’t hit well enough to play the corner spots; however, he has been hot of late and has an OPS of .824. That is better than I saw him getting so it will be interesting to see where he ends up. He is still only 27 so he could have learned a lot, but I didn’t see him being an .800+ OPS guy. Time will tell.

The Yanks are now tied for 1st place!