The Genius Maker 6-20

Two more games under our belt; unfortunately the last two were losses!

Tuesday night:

Heyward made a blunder by getting thrown out at 3^rd base with 2 outs disallowing a run, but we got thrown out at home twice.  Sending Granderson was the right thing to do, but he should have run on the fair portion of the 3^rd base line to make the throw a lot harder from Chipper at 3rd.  Tex probably should have been held up as Heyward has a good arm and he was very shallow.  However, while I am not fan of Robbie Thompson, if you must get thrown out those are the types of plays that at least make sense because they could make an awful throw.  My issue is the same thing I have spoken about over the past years and that is the Yanks all take that feet first but use their hand slide on EVERY play at home.  There are a few times where it makes sense to do that, but it takes the runner a lot longer to touch the base and a straight hard slide is the fastest route.  Tex’s only hope was to run the catcher over.

Kuroda did not have good control of his off-speed stuff and got hit a little; it happens.  The ump was also very poor/inconsistent (both ways).

I would have pinch hit for Ibanez, but Joe stuck with him and he failed.

I wanted to make a comment about Martin.  He has backed off the plate and been swinging a little better, however, he is not reaching the outside corner well enough and he needs to take the ball the other way or we will see him swing at a strike that is on the outer half and break his bat (just as he did).  His hits have been mistakes inside usually.  I think he should move slightly closer

Just a quick note about Tex.  I have said before that he is a really good defender, with a great throwing arm for a 1^st baseman.  But I have also said that scooping he is only decent and he seems to make the dramatic lifting of the glove to make the plays seem better than they are.  Many times it is necessary because the ball takes a hop and you need to move the glove fast, but the shot hit Tuesday at him he threw his glove up in the air in dramatic fashion while the ball stayed down and hit his ankle/foot.  I am not trying to be critical of his defense, but I am saying that he makes plays sometimes look harder than they are and this was an example because there was no reason for his glove hand to end up over his head.

Kimbrel, the Atlanta closer, was extremely impressive; he blew us away.

Wednesday night:

I got a lot of flack from some of you when I said Phil has been a little lucky of late…well tonight he got hit hard and often.  I know his numbers have been good of late and this is just one game, but he needs a 3^rd pitch to be decent to solid; he also needs to command his pitches better.  He misses his spots too often.

The Yanks were coming back and I think the huge AB that took the wind out of their sales was when ARod was up with 1^st and 3^rd one out, down 6-5 and he hit into a DP.  The Yanks bullpen had done an excellent job with Eppley and Rapada getting 7 straight outs (Rapada actually struck out all 4 batters and some righties), but after ARod hit into the DP, Wade, Logan and Garcia allowed 5 runs over the final 2.1 innings to seal our fate.

Cano got called out on a check swing where he didn’t even come close to swinging.  My main issue with that was the home plate umpire called the swing and he should not be calling it unless it is absolutely clear.  It wasn’t even remotely close to a swing and there is NO chance the 3^rd base ump would have said he swung.