Talk About Blind

Talk about blind homerism....or just stupidity by MLB headline writers. I don't know whose sick mind came up with this optimistic line, but "Mientkiewicz leading Yankee offense vs. Sox" is about as bad as it gets when the bombers have 3 runs and 4 hits over 7 innings, and Boston is killing us again at 7-3. I think it's a warning sign, as much as a headline. Like, "Hey idiots. Wake up. Mientkiewicz is leading your offense."

It's Early...?

I'm trying to be optimistic about this team right now. It would be easy to join the chorus of Yankee fans screaming for Torre's head, and all manner of other drastic changes. In my gut, as a passionate fan, I want Torre gone, Guidry gone, and Mientkiewicz' head on a stick. As a reasonable person, I look at it this way. The Yankees have lost 7 games in a row. Is it the offense?

7 Game Losing Streak Runs Scored: 33 (4.71/game)

It's a bit deceptive with the shutout against the Blue Jays factored in, but it's there. Damon and Abreu are cold as ice and Mientkiewicz is a black hole in the lineup. Add Melky Cabrera in for a peppering of suckitude from the bench and you have a hard situation. The thing is, the team has scored more than 5 runs in half those games, which should buy you at least a win or two. Let's look at the cause of the length of this streak.

7 Game Losing Streak Runs Allowed: 54 (7.71/game)

When you look at those numbers, you see that the Yankees staff is turning every team into....well......the Yankees. The Pythagorean Win Projection in this RS/RA situation gives the Yankees a 1-7 record, so there you have it. You can't win when you give up almost 8 runs a game. What happens now? I can't see Torre being fired. Guidry is another story. I idolized Guidry when I was a boy, and you can't argue with his success as a player and a Yankee legend, but this team is putrid for some reason. These players, including Mariano, just don't turn into mush collectively for no reason. I say Guidry must go. Even if it's not his fault, you can't allow these results to go unpunished.

The other change that must happen from tomorrow is Phelps has to play everyday. If the offense has gone cold over the last few games, you have to remove to black hole. Mientkiewicz is now hitting .140 after his 0 for 4 today. His full line is .140/.218/.220 for an OPS of .438 over 50 at bats. Isn't that enough to tell you he is finished? Didn't we all see this coming into the season. Even a platoon is a ridiculous proposition at this point. Phelps could close his eyes and hold his bat upside down against righties and still hit them better than Mientkiewicz. That's a move that is not only overdue, but MUST come tomorrow without fail. The only reason you might wait another day is to throw Minky as a sacrificial lamb to the knuckleball Gods, before making the move.

6.5 games back in April is not unsurmountable. If we can get good pitching over a two week period we could easily put a huge dent in that number. Good pitching in front of the typical Yankees offense should be good for an 8-2 record, and even a 15-5 mark over the next several weeks. Doing that might buy us 3 of 4 games if the Red Sox slow down a bit. One thing you have to do at this point in the season is take your hat off to Theo Epstein. At least for now, his offseason moves are looking very good. We've yet to see Pineiro lose a game, and J.D. Drew is healthy at the moment. Lugo is fair, and while Pedroia has been largely awful at the plate, it hasn't hurt them. The pitching has been very good, especially the bullpen. I think you'll see a bit of regression among some of the players who have played over their heads, but Manny Ramirez and Ortiz also have some fireworks yet to come from their bats.

If the Yankees don't turn this around over the next 3 weeks, they might find themselves buried 10+ games behind 1st and perhaps in serious danger of missing the playoffs for the first time in more than 10 years. That's one reason for all of us to eat humble pie when we celebrated the Sox 3rd place finish last year. We might be staring that in the face this year.....Keep the faith.

This Sucks

I haven't posted in a few games, because frankly I have nothing positive to say about this frightfully hideous turn of events to start the season. I know there are kernels of positive points to the Bombers' daily proceedings, but they are greatly overshadowed by the garbage that we've witnessed.

The starting pitching is an absolute joke. Okay, Moose is out. Wang has been out and was pretty good today. Pettitte has been great. Pavano is out. We've had to make patchwork of Karstens, Rasner, and Wright with a sprinkle of a largely awful Kei Igawa. The bullpen is overworked. The bright side is that the starters will be lined up and ready soon. Phil Hughes is getting the call and could be here to stay. It still doesn't change the fact that we can't buy a win. Something has to give soon.

This may or may not be a knee-jerk reaction to my frustration as a fan, but I am also a person with experience in the professional world. I've been held responsible for million dollar budgets, and I've had the eyes of an industry turned on projects I've handled. The companies that have employed me over the years have paid for results. I've delivered with bright shining gold stars on almost every occasion, but I would be lying if I said there haven't been times that I've made mistakes or bungled something important. It happens, and we earn our reputations based as much on how we turn lemons into lemonade as we do for the fireworks and champagne that come with a job well done.

That's what I'm looking for with the Yankees. Accountability. The team was great last season, and fell through the floor in the playoffs thanks to a combination of poor hitting and a poorly constructed rotation. This season we are seeing great hitting and simply dismal pitching. Who should be accountable for the mess that is walking around in Yankee uniforms. The offense is amazing again. The bullpen was great until it was overworked. The starters have all been injured at some point. Is it in game management that is killing us? A bit. Some of this lands on Torre's shoulders. Is it poor conditioning? In part. The new trainer has been loudly criticized for his methods. Have we made the wrong roster moves? You could point to the BUC situation and the Mientkiewicz platoon as poor, but neither of those things is an issue with the current woes. What's most to blame for this poor start? I propose the following:

1. Injuries
The starting pitchers have had an inordinate amount of small nagging strains and aches. This is not an isolated issue to be pegged on aging starters. This is clearly a residual effect of the stupid training routine brought to the club by the new workout guru. Fire him. Pavano's problems are beyond help. Cut him. Seriously, just cut him. Even if he comes back I dont' want to see him wearing our uniform again. He's a fraud and a bum. It's time for him to go.

2. The Pen
The starters lack of endurance and effectiveness has had these relievers going virtually everyday. Some of that can't be helped. Torre is a very bad bullpen commander and it needs to be taken out of his hands. I see part of this problem with Ron Guidry. Gator is a legend and a hero, but he has no pitching coach experience whatsoever. How does that happen on the Yankees? Why didn't we get another man with a bit more experience and a stronger reputation for managing a staff? I think the point is not that Guidry is incompetent or unqualified, but rather that a big name guy would be able to take charge in the dugout and relieve Torre of some of the flaws in his own managing style.

We all have weak points that should be complimented by someone better able than ourselves. The pen is Torre's albatross and therefore we need a stronger voice in the dugout. I actually have no knowledge of what's said in there, but I don't believe that a stronger, more experienced pitching coach would allow the pen to be misused as it is. Just an opinion. (Taking Wang out when he did today was an example to me. The guy was at 81 pitches and is known for creating ground balls. Let him get out of his own mess with a double play. It would be much better than watching our pen shit the bed yet again.)

3. The Personnel
Cash Money is alright in my book. I like the direction he's taking our team. I don't like the pussyfooting around that we see with call ups. We have the talent and we need to pull the trigger. Melky is clearly playing poorly, and we've given him a month to show something. He hasn't. Send him down. Thompson? Tabata? I don't care who you give the roster spot to, but it has to be someone who will produce. Tabata seems crazy, but why not? He was nutso in Spring Training, and he might just be able to handle the job. If he can, he stays. Problem solved. If he can't, he's too good to be crushed. These are not all fragile psychological creatures that can't handle a little adversity. They are either mentally tough, competitive, and driven, or we probably would be better off without them on the Yankees. See my point? Hughes is the same thing. Either he can take it, or he can't. Either he's fragile or he's tough. If he's tough, bring him up, plug him in, and let him adjust. If he's fragile, he'll never survive New York.

I have no patience for a team that is struggling and turns to AA Wright, Karstens, and Rasner when Phil Hughes is at SWB. Just call him up. If Melky can't hit and you insist on playing Mientkiewicz every day, give the job to another player. This is the Yankees.

I don't mean to sound impatient, but there is a time to wait and see, and there is a time for action. Fortunately, I think the Yankees have moved quickly to call up Hughes. That's action. Firing the conditioning guy, replacing Guidry, and calling up a different outfielder would be a good series of follow up actions if things don't get handled better soon. Again, just my opinion.

.....

AWFUL. JUST AWFUL.

SWB Blues

I've been having a lot of fun watching the SWB box scores every day, anticipating the performances of our great young pitching staff. There was a mixed bag today, and a little business to talk about.

First, Humberto Sanchez underwent successful ligament replacement surgery. He's out until next year. Cashman knew this was a possibility when he made the Sheffield deal, and it happened. All I can say is, you win some and you lose some. The thing is, I'm not yet willing to concede this as a loss. Sanchez has had problems every year. If this surgery "fixes" him, then it worked out. I actually think it lends a bit of momentum to the plan to convert him to a reliever. If he can harness his excellent stuff and be a reliable 8th inning man or closer for 10 years, then we still win. He may actually make it back as a very good starter, but we'll have to wait and see.

Ross Ohlendorf pitched a very nice game yesterday, going 6 innings on 87 pitches. He gave up 2 hits and 2 walks, while striking out 4. Despite only giving up a single run in the outing and lowering his ERA to a more respectable 3.60, the SWB Yanks couldn't score against Syracuse and eventually lost in the bottom of the 14th inning. The absolute killer in this game was Ron Villone's 3 hits and a walk, giving up 2 runs in the 7th inning. His SWB ERA is now 5.40 with a .333 BAA to his name. By the way, anyone remember that SWB is a AAA club? If he had been in the game against Cleveland instead of Henn, A-Rod would have had to hit an 8 run homer to walk off victorious. Thank goodness he's down there and not with the MLB club.

Last note on SWB. When do we write off Eric Duncan? How many more at bats before his time is up? He is now hitting .211/.326/.395 in 11 games. In 4 minor league seasons he now sports a .253/.343/.438 line, not including 2007, and I don't know why anyone ever thought he was any good based on the numbers I see. His OBP has never been outstanding. He has never slugged over .500 either, and his average is awful. Which part of his batting skill set turns people on? I know he's still a baby. He's still 21, I believe. That said, if he doesn't do something by the end of this year, I don't know why anyone would continue to talk about him in the Top 20 of Yankees prospects. Correct me if I'm wrong please.

Fantastic Ten

Pitching to Alex Rodriguez these days spells Doom. I woke up at around 5am Japan time for a bathroom visit and decided to check the Gameday that I left running on my laptop for just such an occasion. It was 5-2 Indians late in the game, and I stayed to "watch" Sean Henn give up a run on THE THIRD BASEMAN!!!'s error. 6-2 Indians going to the bottom of the ninth. It would be Cano, Phelps, and Posada. I thought to myself, "Well, if they could get a rally going I suppose it could make it back to Damon. Jeter, and Abreu, but it would take a minor miracle to see the Yankees reach A-Rod."

With that silly little mistake, I went back to bed. I just arrived a few hours later, ready to leave for work, and saw what happened. Unreal. That you God for making Alex Rodriguez a Yankee. 10 home runs so far is amazing, but 25 RBIs is one fifth of a season's work for A-Rod in basically 3 weeks. What lies ahead will be interesting to watch. Beware the wrath of Doom.

How Ya Like Me Now?

It's time for "How Ya Like Me Now?", the quiz program that Yankee fans around the world have come to know and love. Tonight we have three mystery guests for your reading pleasure. Mystery guests, please say hello to the COH readers:

"H'lo"

"Hi."

"Konnichiwa."

Stumped are you? Well your not alone. Let's play the game. Our first mystery guest threw 6 shutout innings allowing only 2 hits and no walks against 10 strikeouts against the AAA club from Syracuse on Wednesday. Recently, people have called him "not ready" for the Big Leagues, and the Yankees manager even noted that he will not be joining the Yankees anytime soon, despite some unfortunate injury problems early on. The young man in question is considered the premier pitching prospect in all of baseball. Can you guess who he is? If you said, "Homer Bailey" you'd be.....wrong. The anwser is......Phil "dont call me Philip" Hughes. (Partial credit given for 'Tim Lincecum' considering his inhuman start to the year in the minors.)

Moving along, guest number two has been called a purple-lipped choker by some neolithic types over in Red Sox Nation. He was once caught slapping the ball out of Bronson Arroyo's glove and mocked severely in a series of doctored photographs featuring the player with a purse on his arm. Still having difficulty placing him? This player has been chastised by drunkards and pea brains for his lack of clutchitosity, while winning the 2005 AL MVP and opening this season with 9 home runs and 23 RBIs in only 13 games. What? David Ortiz you say? Uh...no. He was close in 2005, but he doesn't own a glove. We're talking about Alex Emmanuel Rodriguez. Thanks for playing.

Our last guest was brought to the Yankees from a far away place with magical unicorns, beautiful maidens, rotten soy bean breakfasts, and wooden eating utensils. (Except for the unicorns.) He loves to play games of all sorts and often says bizarre tangential things that leave his audience chuckling and confused. This guest just pitched 6 solid innings of 2 run baseball against the Cleveland Indians, and continues to improve on questionable control that saw him give up 7 runs in his first go round the rotation. His oddball behavior is often attributed to his O blood type by his fellow countrymen, although no hard evidence has ever conclusively made a connection between blood type and personality. Any guesses? Ajackassayswhat? Just kidding. It's Kei (pronounced Kay) Igawa of Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan.

There you have this week's "How Ya Like Me Now?" panel of guests. Each will receive a special gift of one way tickets to a division title, and the "How Ya Like Me Now?" home game. (Mike Plugh's wardrobe provided by Modell's Sporting Goods and Victoria's Secret) (Except for Modell's).

Jaret vs. Chris

It appears as though the Bombers have added Wright to the rotation in 2007 after all. Chase, not Jaret. The results weren't all that different actually, which is kind of eerie and interesting. Think about it. Jaret used to go about 5 innings, giving up a few walks and 3-5 runs. We won a bunch of games for him with good run support and he left town looking a tad bit better than he probably was in reality. In exchange we took back Chris Britton, who ended today's game with a perfect inning. Talk about eerie.

The difference in Wright v.2006 and Wright v.2007 is that the price for v.2007 is about 4% of the v.2006 model. Chase Wright had never pitched above A ball until this year, and even now he's only had two AA starts. Jaret Wright is on the Major League DL now with more physical problems.

I'm liking the Cashman plan already. Wang out? Mussina out? Pavano out? Karstens out? Bring up Rasner and Wright to fill in. Bullpen getting overworked? Chris Britton is free on Tuesday. Call him. Rasner was very good. Wright did what he had to do. Britton wasn't scratched. Now, I think this is a seriously bad formula for a division championship, but it works in a pinch, and that's where the Yankees strength lies in 2007, compared to the last couple of years when we tried guys like Ponson, Erickson, Small, Chacon, Leiter, Redding, and May. If we have more trouble you can bet that Ohlendorf, Sanchez, Clippard, and Hughes will come up and make a fair account of themselves. At least they won't be caught by the tabloids eating one of everything on the menu at Katz' like Ponson. (I made that up.)(Maybe.)

How 'bout A-Rod? What's not to like about 8 homers and 21 RBIs in 12 games? Need 284 RBIs this season? Call A-Rod. Need 108 round trippers? A-Rod's got you covered. You know he won't keep it up all year long, but has there ever been a player in the history of God's green earth that needed this kind of start to keep it positive? If 2006 was a nightmare, this is a dream come true. It's almost like he steps to the plate and you say to yourself, "He's gonna do it again, isn't he?" That's a far cry from last year when even his supporters (yours truly included) were often found on their knees looking at the TV with one eye praying, "Just make good contact. Take a walk. Anything but a strikeout. Move the runner over, brother."

Mientkiewicz bought himself another month of plate appearances with that home run. Ugh. You know Joe was sitting there next to Mattingly and turned to him to say, "He's been getting good looks, and the swing was there. It was only a matter of time." As if, he was talking about Albert Pujols in an 6-27 stretch or something. (Mike's imaginary Yankees' dugout brought to you by Bigelow's.)

Iggy up next. Give 'em hell Iggy. See you tomorrow. Go Yankees!

The Dream of the Blue Turtles

That loss is going to sting for a little while. I feel surprisingly calm about it, however. Pettitte was brilliant, the hitting came through when it had to, and Proctor was great. It's days like this that Mariano Rivera reminds us that he's human. I don't recall how many scoreless innings he had been stringing together, including last season, Spring Training, and the 2007 campaign, but it's over.


Most of the team's woes, as a club out to a 5-6 start, can be directly attributed to horrible starting pitching and equally horrible defense. The pitching, at least for one day, took care of itself. Jeter made his 6th(!) error of the season, and while he looks like himself at the plate he is starting to look less lithe and more like a 30-something year old player that is no longer really a great option at short. He won't be moved off that spot until he retires, or volunteers, and I don't think either of those things is going to happen for some time. We should get used to seeing Jeter at shortstop for the next 5 years, booting some balls, failing to reach others, and occasionally doing something spectacular to remind us why we love watching him play.

The bullpen had also been one of the strong points of the team. That bodes well for the long run, as the starting pitching should get itself together eventually, when everyone is healhty and the weather is warmer. If we can put together a combination of offense, starting pitching, and lights out relief (at the same time) there's no reason that we won't be looking back at this sluggish open as a blip on the radar. (It's not all that much fun though, is it?)

Of all the minor complaints I have about the 5-6 start, the two that drive me up a wall are Mientkiewicz (which is going to be an ongoing headache) and Carl Pavano. It may or may not be his fault, but there is nothing about the guy to like. He's always hurt with minor things (never surgery or broken bones), so you can't really give him the benefit of the doubt. If he were a hockey player or a US Marine, he'd be given a Code Red with pillow cases full of Ivory soap like Pyle in Full Metal Jacket. Ow! Ow! Oooooooooow!

The Oakland A's are such a good franchise. It's not news to those people who admire Billy Beane, but he is smart. I put it in those ridiculously simplistic terms because it actually is that simple. He's freakin' smart. People like to rain on his parade and say, "I told you so" when the A's lose in the playoffs, but just consider that a team in Oakland that plays in a football stadium and has a payroll the size of a roll of nickels always has his team there at the end. Again, this is not news, but it's worth looking at for a second after we lost 2 out of 3 to his squad of mediocre, league average players. The team once had Zito, Hudson, Mulder, Damon, Giambi, Tejada, Jermaine Dye and Jason Isringhausen to name a few. Beane refused to sign them to big money, long term deals and instead found gaps in the market to fill his empty positions. Gone are the superstars, but what remains is an intricately designed puzzle of statistical balancing that replaces Giambi's home runs and OBP with a combination of players that produce the same end result. Well, maybe the end result is not quite the same, but it's close enough to keep the team competitive every single night. That's more than you can say for 80% of the league and most of the clubs that spend bigger money on their franchises while missing the post season.

We could easily have taken the series 2-1, if Mo had held up, but the comments would be the same. All three games were low scoring affairs. In fact, they were all decided by one run, either in extra innings or on the latest bottom of the 9th, 2 outs, 2 strikes, walk off. Players like Marco Scutaro, Bobby Kielty, Mark Ellis, and Jason Kendall are combined with up an comers like Nick Swisher and Travis Buck to form a tough franchise of everyday players. They play good defense, and hit just enough to stay in it. The pitching is young and I think the key to Beane's recent "Moneyball" strategy is his acquisition of pitchers that may not necessarily "Wow" the scouts with high ceiling tools, but are good, solid pitchers with control of their offspeed stuff. Watching Blanton and some of the bullpen guys made me realize that the Yankees couldn't connect on fastballs because there weren't many. The A's strategy was to keep the Yankees on their front foot by throwing a variety of offspeed pitches.

The gap in the market that Beane is using now, may just be that model pitcher. Just a theory, but whatever he's doing, it's very smart. See you tomorrow. Go Yankees!

Flaherty and Company

What a game. The Yanks and A's are putting together quite a string of dramatic innings aren't they? Some thoughts on the last game beginning with John Flaherty.

John Flaherty isn't very good in my opinion. I don't know how other people feel about this, but I think he's bad. First, he has absolutely no chemistry with Ken Singleton in the two man booth. The broadcast is quite stiff. Kenny Singleton is a fairly able broadcaster and a very good on air personality. I like him with Kitty or Bobby Murcer, as a duo especially, the last few years. Flaherty is a zero in the booth. No personality. Cliche delivery. Very little thoughtful analysis. I disagree with a lot of the old baseball cliches he keeps in his little novice color commentary kit. We've moved past some of the old myths about the game as fans, but "Flash" hasn't figured that out himself.

One such instance that got my goat, was his statement that the A's had some sort of momentum from their extra inning win the night before. I don't remember the inning, or the exact context, but he mentioned that the A's were looking to capitalize on momentum from their 11th inning walk off victory in Game One. Is this serious? Haven't we all moved beyond the idea that some kind of metaphysical momentum propels a team to a winning streak from a "dramatic win"? The very idea of it annoys me. Nevermind that Scutaro and Stewart played in Game Two instead of Ellis and Kielty. Forget that the starting pitchers were completely different people. Disregard the fact that one game was played on a Friday and the next on a Saturday (two totally different days, if you're not keeping track). Momentum is a factor. Ugh.

The other thing he said that bugged me was something about Tanyon Sturtze giving the Yankees quality middle relief for a good period of time. Huh? John, didn't you catch the guy? Didn't you see the crap he was tossing around up there? Remarkably, Sturtze managed an 11+ year Major League career with a 5.21 ERA and a 1.531 WHIP, primarily out of the bullpen. For the Yankees his ERA was 5.26 and his WHIP was 1.410, so he basically stunk up the joint.

Anyway, Flaherty is neither here nor there. The game was played on the field, and you have to be pleased at the work that Rasner did. He was unlucky to have the garbage defense the Yankees seem intent on putting out there every night, but he picked up the team and shut down the A's after the rocky 1st inning. Flaherty said something about Rasner not being a guy that the scouts like, but his catcher does. Whatever. If the scouts didn't like him, he wouldn't have been competing for a spot in the rotation this season. Flaherty's reasoning was that scouts only like guys who throw hard. Maybe some of the guys stuck in the Stone Age, but the Yankees spend a lot of money on scouts that will tell them who can pitch and who can't. (I seem to be fixated on Flaherty).

Can someone please get Melky out of there. I love the kid, but he looks like he's in awful condition this season (+10 pounds by my eye) and he hasn't hit a lick. Kevin Thompson could hardly do worse, and he's just sitting on the bench. Give him a shot at the job for a few days. Cano is on fire, as is Jorge. The bottom part of the lineup is solid as a rock, as long as those two are hitting down there. Giambi finally contributed with the bat. Remarkable. I was beginning to think his hitting went to the same place as Carl Pavano's balls. Finally, A-Rod is a beast. He looked bad in his at bats late in the game, but 7 home runs at the midway point of April is one of the main reasons we're not in the cellar of the AL East. Give 'em hell A-boogie.

See you tomorrow. Go Yankees.

Torre and Minky Sittin in a Tree

As I was watching the loss to the A's, I turned to my wife when the Yankees had the bases loaded and Alan Embree on the ropes and said, "If Torre doesn't pinch hit Phelps for Mientkiewicz here, we are going to lose this game. Watch." I had visions of the NoMaas "Torre Losses" counter ticking to "1", but I thought we'd probably see Phelps. It made too much sense.

Sure enough, clunky and useless as always, Mientkiewicz strolled to the plate destined to destroy the scoring outburst that could have been with his double play. Why on God's green earth would a manager, still breathing air, allow such a worthless and inept batter a plate appearance in this situation, against a lefty, with a very good right handed option staring him in the face. Is that not the definition of a platoon? That's the way you work a left/right platoon in baseball. Bases loaded, chance to break the game open, left hander on the mound, another lefty warming by himself in the pen...you have your moment to affect the outcome of the game as a manager by putting your powerful right handed pinch hitter in the box.

I must confess that I checked both Peter Abraham's blog and NoMaas before I came here to post. Sure enough, even Peter, who has been fairly supportive of the Mientkiewicz signing is starting to write about Minky's time running out with an 0-20 stretch in the works. NoMaas, right on schedule, chalked up the loss to the Torre counter. Last season, Joe's dangerous toys were Tanyon Sturtze and Bernie Williams. Sturtze's injury saved Yankee fans from Joe's stubborn use of the "just plain awful" reliever, and Brian Cashman's stand in Spring Training saved us from Bernie's dead arm and dying bat in 2007. The new toys that Torre seems destined to kill Yankee fans with are Mientkiewicz and perhaps Farnsworth, he of the bespectacled wildness.

Hideous. Hideous. Hideous. Oh, and by the way, Pavano is hurt. Phil Hughes ain't walkin' through that door anytime soon. Mussina is hurt and shaky. Igawa is improved, but far from trustworthy. Melky Cabrera is ice cold. Aside from that we're great. Frustrating.

Not Ready For Primetime

On the negative side:
2 Games
10 IP
9 hits
4 walks
7 K
7 ER
6.30 ERA
1.300 WHIP
6.30 K/9
1.75 K/BB

On the positive side:
5.25 GO/AO
.257 BAA

Walking Tall

Only Mike Schmidt hit more home runs over the first 7 games of a season (7) than A-Rod has to begin the 2007 campaign (6). All I could think of was Joe Don Baker in Walking Tall, carrying that gigantic club, dispensing justice the country way. I noticed that there's a remake with The Rock, which couldn't possibly be as good as the original, but made for a good poster mock up here at COH. Just imagine A-Rod carrying that club and metaphorically bludgeoning the boo-birds back into their seats. Metaphorically of course.

Andy Pettitte did his thing. It's too bad that his return to the Yankees had to come in -700 degree weather, or we might have had the pleasure of this kind of outing in our home ballpark. It came at a very good time, as we now have a chance to string together a few good games to put us atop the division. Matsuzaka vs. Ichiro will be the big story tomorrow, and I'll probably be spending most of my time and energy on that game, but a Yankee victory and another A-Rod home run would be most welcome and I'll find the time to put some thoughts together one way or the other. See you tomorrow. Go Yankees!!!!

Pons-OWNED

There's no better sight in the entire universe than Sidney Ponson standing on the mound, playing for the opposition. The Aurora Borealis, the Majestic Sombrero Galaxy, Gas Pillars in the Eagle Nebulae, and Sir Sidney Ponson. Of course, the opposite is true if he happens to be wearing your team's colors, as we all know from firsthand experience. That is more like Clockwork Orange aversion therapy.

I didn't write after the finale of the Orioles series. I had it in mind to write something about how Giambi and A-Rod's 8th and 9th inning fireworks were the only thing standing in the way of a 1-4 record, but I didn't really have anything else to add to that sentiment. Darrell Rasner was no better and no worse than what we've seen so far from Mussina, Pettitte, and Igawa. It didn't seem fair to lay it on him, when the entire staff was falling apart at the seams. I left it alone.

You have to know that the Yankees will eventually string together a bunch of strong pitching performances to go with their insane offense. Pavano doesn't strike anyone out, which may be a problem on some days, but he pitched as well as you could ask against the Twins. Seriously, he deserves a ton of credit for that performance. Ponson, on the other hand, not so much. Why do people keep giving him a contract? One day, just for fun, I'd like to see some floundering franchise say, "Screw it." I'd like to see that franchise sign Sidney Ponson, Jose Lima, Scott Erickson, Joel Pineiro, and Jeff Weaver as the starting 5. Why not?

As I look at the boxscore of that game, I notice that the lineup has the following batting averages to this point in 2007:

Damon (.556)
Jeter (.346)
Abreu (.348)
Rodriguez (.360)
Giambi (.174)
Posada (.364)
Cano (.296)
Mientkiewicz (.231)
Cabrera (.095)

Now, you have to factor in Matsui's absence when you talk about the lineup, but he's only at .250 after 4 games. The Bombers offense has scored 44 runs in 6 games, which is a shade over 7 per contest. There is no reason why this team can't score at this pace all season in my opinion, although that would set some kind of record. 7 runs a game over 162 equals 1,134, and the all time mark is 1,221 by the 1894 Boston Beaneaters in 132 games(9.2 runs per game). The AL mark is 1,067 by the 1931 Yankees over 154(6.9 runs per game). It may be super optimistic, early season, Yankee-colored glasses perspective on this roster, but I'll lay it out there in early April on the off chance I'm right and we're closing in on the AL record in September.

Last thing today. A-Rod is laying the foundation for another MVP season. I'm not saying that with any sense of inevitability, as we're only 6 games in and there's a lot of baseball left to be played. It's still snowing in the midwest. If there's anything that baseball teaches you over the years it's the fact that over a long season you might see a lot of things that aren't what they appear. Chris Shelton's start last season is perfect evidence of that. Players regress to the mean, almost without fail. A-Rod's mean is very high. If he ends with the numbers he put up last season, he will have been a major success by any reasonable evaluation of his performance. The thing is, if last year was somehow his current mean, and he's playing that much higher than his 50th percentile output, it stands to reason that one of the best players in the game may be looking at a season in the upper tier of his performance expectations. A hot start for A-Rod would go a long way to laying a solid foundation for an MVP run. If he plays this hot for April and into May, he can regress to the mean and still end up with 50 home runs and a boatload of RBIs.

I'm being optimistic, but a lot of people saw this coming, I think, and it's been a fun start to a season for THE THIRD BASEMAN!!! Albert Pujols started 2006 like this and it was only a series of nagging injuries that robbed him of a historic season. If A-Rod can go another month on fire, we'll be anticipating something similar...

Darvish Watch 2007

Since we're between starts, I thought I'd take a second to plug one of my other projects, Darvish Watch. Some of you may have visited the Darvish Watch blog already, but in case you haven't it's a project exactly the same as Matsuzaka Watch dedicated to the 20-year old ace of the Nippon Ham Fighters, and perhaps the heir apparent to Daisuke as Japan's ace.

He's got a ways to go before he can be discussed in the same breath as Daisuke, but he did lead the Fighters to their first championship last season and subsequently led the same club to the championship at the Asia Games. His manager, Trey Hillman, recently said that he believes Darvish will be a better pitcher than Fenway's new monster. That may or may not be true, but he will be one of the best pitchers in the world sometime down the road. It's not clear whether he'll ever play in the Major Leagues. Part of me believes he won't, as he's quite comfortable in Japan, but he's already on his way to accomplishing everything possible in the NPB while still in his early 20's. All that remains really is a Sawamura Award. If he manages to secure that honor over the next year or two, you may hear rumblings about a posting. Just stay tuned.

Booooooooo-M!!!!

First of all, that game belongs to the bullpen. Our pen has been absolutely lights out since Day One, and by my estimation should shake out as one of the best in the game. Bruney, Myers, Vizcaino, Rivera. 4 IP, 1 hit, 1 walk, 5 Ks, no runs.

My prediction on Igawa was off. The 7 Ks should have been 7 runs. The numbers I guessed at weren't all that off actually. He just couldn't keep all those runners from crossing home. The bloop single that scored 3 was hard luck, but the rest were Igawa sucking lemons.

Giambi and A-Rod led the charge. What can you say? I predicted an 11-5 game and we got 10-7. That's close enough. This offense will not be denied and you have to wonder how anyone is going to win a series from the Yankees if the pitching ever comes around. I'm thrilled to death that I stayed up after we fell behind 7-3. With the Yankees you always have to believe. They're always there in the end. Alex Rodriguez got his big moment, and has been the best player on the team since Opening Day. THE THIRD BASEMAN!!!!



I'm too excited to type anymore. See you tomorrow. Go Yankees!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lemonade

Igawa is Japanese for lemon.

Cold Start

Time to panic. The sky is falling. The seas are boiling and the statue of Babe Ruth in Monument Park is weeping blood.

I just wanted to show you that I'm a "Real Yankee Fan" and that I have as much irrational 162-game mania in my DNA as everyone else. I must admit that there were times during the latest affair that I thought to myself, "This team is bad. This season is starting off on the wrong foot. They can't play defense, the pitching is bad, and the hitting with runners in scoring position is weak or non-existent. It looks like 2006 all over again. Where's Phil Hughes?" Then, I calmed down and remembered that for all the problems we saw in 2006, the Yankees finished the year with the best record in the sport. I also remembered that we've played exactly 3 games. Last, I remembered that the Red Sox are 2-2, losing to the Royals in the opener, and being shut out by the Texas Rangers today. It's early.

Looking at a few small points from the game:

Mike Mussina
He was bad. Just awful actually. The alarming part of his performance was the lack of velocity on his pitches. 85 mph fastballs get you a one way ticket out of the game unless you are a knuckleballer or Greg Maddux. Mussina needs that fastball to clock around 92-93 to be effective with the curve, which was also bad today. His nose was red the whole game, which is either a sign that he was freezing cold out there, sampling a bit of the hooch in the clubhouse, or both. Whatever we saw out there today should go away. I hope it goes away in his next start.

Melky Cabrera
Melky is not playing very well. He was fairly ineffective in the Spring games and he's carried over that poor plate presence to the regular games as well. I think he's now 0-7 or 0-8 on the year, and Johnny Damon can't get back soon enough. I like Melky. I cheer for Melky. Eventually, he'll get it together, but you have to wonder what will happen with an injury to one of the regulars if the Melk Man stays cold. Remember, he is still very raw at his age.

Alex Rodriguez
Talk about having a flair for picking the worst moments to strike out. A-Rod has been very strong so far this year. He's done everything you could ask him to do as a hitter, and he was again in the spotlight with runners in scoring position and nobody out. The crowd rose. They applauded. He struck out on 3 pitches. It was the very tough to pick up Chad Bradford, but y'know Alex, you're making it awfully hard on those of us bent on defending you. Just get that game winning grand slam out of the way early this year and put a few of those boo birds back in their seats. Then you can get back to being mortal again.

Jason Giambi
I can't figure out why Giambi gets such a free pass from fans, as compared to A-Rod. Giambi followed Alex's untimely whiff with one of his own against another tough reliever. Baltimore is collecting those this year. He got a little buzz of boos, but I wanted to see fair and balanced booing. You know like the Fox Network. I think I wonder the same thing at various points of every year, but where did the Jason Giambi of Oakland A's fame go?

His batting averages in Oakland: .291, .293, .295, .315, .333, .342
His batting averages in New York: .314, .250, .208, .271, .253 and counting

How does something like that happen? Despite the poor averages, he's always on the leaderboard for OPS, which is more important. He will probably put up his typical 150ish OPS+ again in 2007, but I wonder how a guy went from putting up .950-1.100 OPS averages WITH a .300+ batting average, to the OPS only player that wears pinstripes. He used to get the walks and hit for power, plus tally 175 hits and 30+ doubles yearly. Now he'll get about 115 hits and 20-25 doubles. In the end, he's still too good to complain much, but it would be nice to see him post an average over .280 to go along with the other numbers. If he'd managed a hit behind A-Rod's strikeout, the game may have played out differently. I'm just sayin'.

Phelps/Mientkiewicz
I think I'm going to like this platoon. Phelps has looked good so far, save the over aggressive strikeout he had late in the ballgame. He has shown good patience and a quick bat. Minky is a good pinch hitter to face right handed relievers, and he ought to be in there for defense as well. He may not have much left as a hitter on an everyday basis, but it looks like he has enough of a clue at the plate that he shouldn't be an automatic out. That said, Phelps needs to be in there 75% of the time.

Sean Henn
The lefty was great. Anyone out there who was longing for Villone's veteranosity rating still on that bandwagon? I know there weren't many of you, but you know who you are. Henn was exactly what the Yankees needed in this game, and the only complaint I had was that he wasn't called on an inning earlier. I could see that Moose didn't have it, and I wish Joe had as well. You can't kill Torre for sticking with a guy with as much history and as many brains as Moose, but in retrospect he had no business on the mound after showing nothing on the fastball. One funny note on Henn. The NHK broadcast puts up MLB player names in Japanese "katakana" characters. That writing system is almost exclusively used as a pronunciation guide for foreign words. The name "Henn" is spelled out in Japanese and is exactly the same characters as the word for "odd". The Yankees have a pitcher in the bullpen who's name is the Japanese word for "odd". Sweet.

I'll be up at 2am to catch the Igawa start. I was spot on with my Matsuzaka prediction, if you go to MW to check that out. I'll take a stab at Kei Igawa for Saturday as well. I'm betting that I'll be wrong 90% of the time on my predictions for the pair of Japanese pitchers, but I'm off to a good start, so what the Hell.

6 IP
8 hits
3 walks
7 strikeouts
4 ER
98 pitches

The Yankees will get him his first big league win by putting up a huge number tomorrow. I'm predicting a 10+ run outburst for New York in the game. Igawa may get rocked, as he doesn't appear as comfortable in day games, but I'll stick with the prediction. Something like an 11-5 final. See you tomorrow. Go Yankees!

Rude Reception

I was up at 3am to watch the debut of Daisuke Matsuzaka on NHK. It was a lot of fun, I must admit. Everything I've been saying about him was in evidence against the lowly Royals, and Red Sox Nation, not to mention Japan, are jubilant at his performance. I intensely dislike the Red Sox, but I've come to accept that my favorite player is now their ace. I'll live with it, and enjoy each of his starts, as long as the Red Sox lose the rest of their games. You can read my recap of that game at it's usual location.

I haven't seen the Yankees game yet, although I was secretly watching it at my desk via Gameday. The new look Gameday this year is very cool, but much harder to hide than it's predecessor. I didn't see the crowd reaction to Pettitte's return yet, and won't for many hours. I have it on my HDD recorder at home, but I doubt that I'll be going back to watch the whole game, knowing the hideous unspeakable outcome. Pettitte was horrible. 84 pitches through 4 innings of work is just bad. Proctor was bad. What do you expect from one guy who is coming back from a truncated Spring and another who should pitch every day?

The Yankees still had a chance in this game despite the poor start, but Luis Vizcaino managed to give the whole thing away. Not an auspicious start to the season, but the aim is always to win each series and we should be able to put the D-Rays away in Mussina's start to shore that up. The offense was good again, and it looks like we are going to be able to score the 1000 runs we've been narrowly missing the last few years. Just give me the pitching fellas. Give me Clemens and give me Phil Hughes by June, and all will be well. I kid when I'm sleepy.

Let's get 'em tomorrow. Go Yankees.

Wall-ASS Matthews

Another hack job has been added to the Alex Rodriguez annals. Wallace Matthews of Newsday decided that Opening Day was the best opportunity to write a piece stirring the A-Rod pot. The title of the piece is "For comedy, drama, go right to Alex". When I read that headline, I expected to hear our third baseman embarrassing himself with some stupid quote to the beat guys. I'm an Alex Rodriguez supporter, but I know he can make himself sound like a fool in the press on occasion by talking too much.

Was there an embarrassing quote driving this piece? No. Here's the best of A-Rod from Newsday:

"That's a good win for us," he said, seemingly oblivious to the role he had played in it. "We all just want to get off to a good start."

He waited, of course, to be asked about his home run, which prompted the curtain call, and about his seventh-inning single, which could have been a groundout had the Devil Rays' young shortstop, Ben Zobrist, handled the in-between hop, and his stolen base, which led to the go-ahead run when Jason Giambi singled him home.

What part of that quote made Matthews want to stir the pot? "He waited, OF COURSE, to be asked about his home run......" Yes, Wallace. He waited to be asked, because he is the interviewee and you are the interviewer. That's how it works. If he'd just started blabbing about how great his home run was, you'd write something about what great drama A-Rod's prima donna act is in the Bronx. There's more:

"You know, I'm so into the game, I'm so focused in, and I'm enjoying the game so much that I don't even notice," he said. But a few moments later, he observed that the crowd response to him "changed so much in five at-bats, like the stock market," and he clearly was not so locked in that he failed to immediately respond to the crowd's demand for a bow after his home run. "I'll tell you what, that curtain call made me feel really good," he said. "It's something positive, you know?"

He may not be everything you want in a cleanup hitter or a third baseman or a teammate, but Alex Rodriguez is everything you could hope for in a lead character. He is aloof but vulnerable, calculated and yet revealing, mostly guarded but often funny, sometimes even intentionally. He doesn't need strangers to love him but cares very much if they do. Best of all, he'll be here all year, 162 games, 162 couch sessions. And even if at the end of his run he comes up as empty as Al Capone's vaults and The A-Rod Show turns out to have been a long road to nowhere, you can bet it still will be worth taking the ride.

So A-Rod talks about being focused and into the game, and he talks about appreciating the curtain call, and that is cause for Wallace Matthews to write a story about his role in some fictitious Yankees soap opera that simultaneously serves as "162 couch sessions" for the "vulnerable" future Hall of Famer. This is a classic example of an article designed to sell papers by turning a sport that we enjoy into a melodrama that we fuel with our most prurient sensibilities. Yesterday Alex Rodriguez went 2-5 with a home run, a stolen base, 2 runs scored, and 2 RBIs. Those 2 RBIs came with 2 outs. Somehow, equally important in this article is his strikeout, dropped foul ball, and emotional tenderness. I encourage anyone who cares about combatting hack journalism to head to this article and post a comment in the comments section. Join me in the Canyon of Heroes Holy War against Tabloid Hacks 2007.

ADDENDUM: I just went back to read this again, and found one more thing that burns me. It's the lead sentence of the last paragraph I quoted from Matthews:

"He may not be everything you want in a cleanup hitter or a third baseman or a teammate..."

What is "everything you want in a cleanup hitter"? A-Rod has produced a batting line of .299/.396/.549 for an OPS of .945 over three years. He is one hit shy of turning that .299 into the magic .300 and a couple of hot weeks away from making that .396 into a .400 OBP. During his Yankee career he has averaged 26 doubles, 1 triple, 39 home runs, 119 RBIs, and 21 stolen bases. His stealing percentage is .781 for the Bombers. I suppose we should be looking for a .325/.425/.600 batting line with 50 homers and 150 RBIs every year. Plus, Alex has only won 1 MVP for the Yankees in that 3 year span, which generally sucks.

"Everything you want in a third baseman" must mean his defense is bad. Yes, he has posted a 4, -5, and -19 FRAA adjusted for all time. His skill set at third is not getting better. The thing is, Alex Rodriguez switched positions to come to the Yankees. He did so in deference to the Almight Derek Jeter, who is an inferior fielder at that spot. Before sacrificing his spot to Jeter, he was one of the finest shortstops in the game. He is still one HR shy of being the all time leader in that category for shortstops.

"Everything you want in a teammate"? He doesn't give enough back rubs? His Christmas gifts are of cheap quality and in bad taste? What doesn't he do? Is this a place that deserves criticism? It's not like the guy is Albert Belle or Carl Everett. He's not belittling anyone in public, or calling people out on the carpet in the clubhouse. I don't think Alex is pulling a Vince Coleman and smashing pitchers in the arm with golf clubs. I just see hack journalism....