The Genius Maker #90

Had a lot of issues with the game Wednesday night that we lost 2-1. So many questionable moves once again by Girardi, but the worst decision was made by someone who I really felt was a huge liability but surprisingly has been doing a very good job for a good stretch of time…up until blowing the game Wednesday night. I am talking about Robby Thompson. With the score 0-0 Andrew Jones led off with a walk and after Martin struck out looking, Nunez ripped a ball to LF and for some reason Thompson tried to score the fairly slow Jones all the way from 1st and he was thrown out by a lot. In fact, the usually clueless Kay even stated that he would be held up at 3rd before saying they sent him home, that is how obvious it was. Instead of 2nd and 3rd and 1 out with Jeter against a lefty coming up, we had a man on 3rd and 2 outs and Jeter grounded out to end the inning. This was an enormous play in the game.

The only run Nova allowed was self inflicted as he had multiple walks and a wild pitch, although I have to say Martin should have caught the ball as it was a curve ball that he over reached for and it bounced off the heel of his glove. He will be the first to tell you that he should get that most every time.

Girardi made some bad decisions as he needs to control what is going on with Gardner. With the score at 1-1, the leading base stealer in the AL is on first base and instead of letting Gardner steal and then bunting, he just wasted the out by bunting Jeter. I don’t like the move at all, a run and hit would have even been better.

Then with Gardner on 2nd and one out Nunez is up and Girardi does not pinch hit for him??? This is really silly and gets worse as he ends up pinch hitting for Nunez later on in the game with 2 outs and nobody on???…I guess Joe wanted his defense in there??? We end up losing 2-1 as the offense once again is weak.

Switching gears to last night. CC had issues with his command walking 4 batters. He was high with his fastball most of the night as his arm was dragging a little. Usually that is from over striding although I couldn’t see that from the angle we had. He also struggled with his change again and this is a critical pitch for him. He only threw one or 2 effective changes all game; he must get the feel for that back. It was a shame because his breaking ball was VERY sharp. Too many pitches though as he is not pumping strikes on the corners.

Once again the offense did a poor job; too many guys struggling at once. All of our hits came from Cano, Swisher and Chavez and the team is swinging at so many balls. The other day I complained about the Yankees not running hard down to first…Posada decided to take care of that as he decided to not even take a step down to first on a grounder down the line…While I actually think Posada can still swing the bat better than he has; he deserves to be benched for that. I would however, give him a few more games to see if he can turn it on and otherwise he is done and should not make the postseason roster. My opinion is that ARod should DH against righties and Chavez should start against righties with Montero DHing against lefties…but let me get back to the game…
Cano was thrown out trying to stretch a ball down the line to a double. While it was an excellent tag, it was an atrocious slide that almost stopped Cano before he got to the bag…one can’t dig their lead foot into the ground as it slows you up a lot. An average slide and Cano is easily safe, but he slid too early and slowed himself up a lot.

We lost this game 5-4, but there were a lot of small things that could have changed the outcome. Jeter had an interesting AB that I wish could have turned out better. Gardner was on 1st and one thing I hate is when the batter swings at the first pitch when Gardner is on base, especially with 2 outs. Unless you are a power hitter and you zone out a spot, you must give Gardner a chance to take an extra base. What made it worse was Jeter waved at a high pitch and didn’t even swing hard. That is the type of action one would expect from a rookie, not a team player. Then as Gardner attempted to steal 3rd (had already taken 2nd) Jeter watched a fastball right down the middle…you couldn’t ask for a better pitch. I was really annoyed, but felt better when Jeter held off on swinging at a slider just off the plate. I was hopeful I could talk about how this excellent “take” was important to the win…unfortunately, Jeter swung at a slider that was much more of a ball and struck out.

Another little thing that has happened many times is CC not covering first base on a ball to the right side. I think this is the 4th time it has happened and it cost us…

Also, in the game both Cano and Jeter failed to turn two on easy DP balls. Jeter threw high and Cano had trouble getting it out of his glove.

Back to CC, I am not concerned about CC, but he does need to get the feel of his curve back. Maybe it is the 6 man rotation? Hard to say, but I know I would not let Burnett back in and Hughes is my 5th guy.