8-2-13

A few notes from the last few games.

A few nights ago Ichiro threw out a player at home and the announcers were gushing about the great throw from a 39 year old and also speaking highly about the tag.  The throw did make it on a fly, but Ichiro took forever to get rid of the ball and line up his throw and then threw a little up the line.  Ichiro literally hopped twice before releasing the ball.  Ichiro got to the ball before the runner crossed 3^rd base, this is how long it took him to throw the ball.  Stewart did a nice job of reaching back to home plate but actually didn’t put the glove in front of the plate like you are supposed to and reached for the sliding runner and tagged him on the calf which could have allowed the runner to be safe.  Only Flaherty made the comment about reaching the other side of the plate and it was a very subtle way of saying he disagreed with Kay’s good tag comment.  It was not a bad tag as sometimes you don’t know how far you have to reach, but Flaherty knew it and the others didn’t.  The final point was Ichiro many times takes far too long to get rid of the ball and he has the anti Mickey Rivers throw (who didn’t have a good arm, but got rid of the ball like a 2^nd baseman on a turn and his overall time of getting the ball to 2^nd base was as good if not better than guys with much better arms.)  Think about it, if a 2^nd baseman, came across the bag and then stepped toward first base just so that he could get more on the throw how many double plays would he turn?  Very few, yet some OF’rs take a very long time to get rid of the ball…it matters a lot!

Gardner threw out a runner at home last night and did a nice job of charging the ball and getting rid of the ball fast.  The throw was decent but gave Stewart enough time to make the play.

While on Stewart, he made a fantastic throw getting a runner at 3^rd base last night; clearing the batter and throwing a ball that was an automatic tag as long as you caught the ball.

However, Stewart also failed to throw out Ethier two nights ago on a low pitch that he rushed too much and made a low throw Cano couldn’t handle.  A decent throw and he is out and the game is still going.

Last night had the worst umpiring the Yanks faced all year.  I think this one game evened out the favored calls we have gotten all year.  There were 4 close plays/calls that all went against us, yet, a play at 1^st base Nunez was so clearly safe, I have no idea what the ump was thinking?  Then in the 1^st inning, CC should have had strike 3, but instead got ball 3 called and then he walked a guy and allowed a few hits for 2 runs.  CC has been very poor lately and that surely didn’t help.  If CC were a rookie he would have been pulled from this rotation as he is not getting the job done and his stuff has been pedestrian.  Further, and I have written this before, he failed to cover 1^st base again on ball in between 1^st and 2^nd.  This has to be the 4^th time I know he has not covered and they stated a stat that he has not had a put out in 2 years…That is nuts…and lazy as hell.

We also got burned on a play at 2^nd base where they said their player was taking the ball out of his glove on the turn when he never had control of it (Girardi didn’t even argue).  It seemed clear live and it was confirmed on replay.

I was disappointed a bad team kicked our butts the umpiring was really bad and we didn’t do our job.  That being said, we have added a lot of “new” players with Grandy, Jeter, Soriano and even Nunez back in the lineup.  It is at least a little more exciting that we may have a chance with these guys.  Of course, I really wish the Yanks would stick with what they wanted to do with Nunez and that is give him a legitimate shot at SS and not move him around.  Instead, they put a still banged up and obviously older Jeter, who never had great range at SS and then Nunez at 3^rd???  It was the perfect excuse to keep Nunez at SS and put Jeter at 3^rd until he can run better, because yesterday the left side of infield made 3 bad plays (2 ended up being errors – both Jeter) and we failed to turn 3 DP’s because we just weren’t crisp enough.  Jeter should move to 3^rd and should have done that already; the Yanks are making a mistake.  Nunez is not good defensively, but SS is the spot where he has the best chance; if you don’t want him there then he should not be on the team IMO unless as a pinch runner.

Kuroda was outstanding the other night and The Genius Maker looked very good last night as well.

Hopefully Nova can keep pitching well!