The Genius Maker™ Yankee Blog: 10-1-12

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

10-1-12

Please read the post I made Monday below (9-30) about the playoff tie breakers.

The good part Monday was that the Yankees won and Baltimore lost. Further, with Texas losing, the Yanks are in position to win the best record. However, Oakland winning eliminated Tampa from the playoffs and they no longer have anything to play for. We now control our own destiny and that is always good!

Boston played a AAA lineup, CC threw strikes and the results were very good…as should be expected. His breaking ball had good downward movement and he threw a lot of changes in big spots. Fastball was still not good, but he threw strikes with it.

It was good to see the offense erupt with 9 runs and obviously that is enough to win most games. However, I would have liked to see some more scoring in other innings (only 1 additional run). Cano is locked in right now and that is exciting as our best hitter (player) needs to be very good for us to win. Seeing Tex in the lineup makes a big difference and I was thrilled to see Gardner in the lineup and swinging the bat. I would imagine they will be careful with him, but he will have a lot of time in the off season to take care of anything he needs to. I love the defense he brings us and if he can get into a little groove should start IMO over Ibanez or Ichiro. Right now Ichiro plays and Swisher DH’s if Gardner plays. Ibanez is a PH as needed. I get the feeling Gardner won’t show enough the next 2 games though and Ibanez will be the DH and Gardner used as a PH and defensive replacement. Granderson is probably safe because of his HR, but it would be nice if he could get going a little…he is a wild card that could be big.

The other interesting side of this is Swisher over ARod at DH against a righty who is tough on righties. Chavez has been swinging a good bat and it is not absurd to start Chavez and even Swish while sitting ARod. We have some flexibility and that is a good thing. The matchups (splits) and who is swinging well are very important.

Depending on who we are playing I will give you what I would do. On that note, a questions was posed as to whether I start Nova again and my answer is no, I go with Phelps. I think Nova has great stuff, but he can’t pitch as a starter right now as he is getting hammered. I would not have an issue with him being moved to the pen, but he might not make the PS roster

This is a fun time of year…enjoy these playoff like games

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A little bit about this blog!

While much thought goes into what I put down on paper, I write this blog in a free form “stream of consciousness” way to get my thoughts down very quickly. This is not meant to be a literary masterpiece but is meant to be hardcore Yankee information that is in-depth with predictions, thoughts and insight (you can judge whether I accomplish any of this). Because of my busy schedule, it is more important I get the information down rather than spend the time re-reading, re-writing and modifying. I will apologize in advance for any typo, homophone and spelling type of errors.

That being said, as always, I will give you my breakdown for each Yankee player and what I expect from them. I will also make predictions and then critique my thoughts/opinions/predictions after the season (or during). I will also offer very detailed analysis of in-game situations. This blog will not be a fluff piece. As I have done over the years, I will lay my thoughts out for all to see and I will let my track record speak for itself.

Finally, I will use OPS extremely often because I believe it is a great indication of the value of an offensive player. OPS is the slugging percentage (covers the power) and the on base percentage (covers the batting average and walks) added together. There are a lot of advanced stats out there, but for consistency, I will use OPS because outside of not taking ball park/league differences into account, the stat works great. Further, OPS against works well to gauge the success of pitchers (and is not used very often in that context)

I am an ex-catcher who played Division I baseball at Valparaiso University.

My baseball career ended with a broken disc in my back that I injured between my Jr. and Sr. years. I did play my entire Sr. year with the injury, however, I barely hit above .300 and the injury eventually required the fusion of L5 and S1.

At Valpo, we played teams such as Notre Dame, IU, Purdue and Northwestern. I was a Wade Boggs type of hitter (not as good obviously) with a .355 batting average, not much power and a .500+ OBP in college. I had the school record for walks (which has since been broken). Defensively, I was very solid throwing runners out (with a slightly below average major league arm, but a better than average release with excellent accuracy). I was good at blocking balls in the dirt, but below major league in receiving skills (the ability to actually catch the received pitch with very soft hands). I could call a game with anyone and I do hold a Division I record that will never be broken; I went my entire Junior year without committing an error (1.000 fielding %).

At the end of the day, I was not physically good enough to get to the majors, but I do have a gift with a great understanding of the game from a General Manager standpoint. My strength is on the value of players from a trade, dollar and team perspective, with a thorough understanding of the "X's and O's" of game management (honed from a SABR understanding and ex-player combination combined with my business acumen). I watch the game from a catchers perspective while calling every pitch.

I hope you enjoy my Yankee ramblings and feel free to follow me on Twitter @swigdor22

The Genius Maker™ Yankee Blog

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

10-1-12

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