Tom on Baseball

looking ahead

2010-03-09T20:14:00.002-05:00

What will the 2011 Yankee rotation look like? CC and AJ are locks, but Pettitte and Vazquez are probably going to be gone. So the Yanks have to look ahead. There are some attractive free agent starters including Cliff Lee, Josh Beckett and Brandon Webb, but at most they would sign one of them since so much money is committed to CC and AJ. That leaves two spots remaining. I think that Cashman has his heart set on Joba and Hughes being those two pitchers.

This leaves the Yanks with a dilemma. With Joba and Hughes battling for the 5th starter role this year, the conventional wisdom is that the loser of that slot will end up being the primary setup man to Mariano. The problem is that whomever winds up in that role will only throw about 75 innings this year, and won't be in line to be a full fledged starter in 2011. With inning limits of 40 more than the year before, the 2011 fifth starter would have "Joba rules" all over again.

It will be interesting to see if the loser of that role gets sent down to AAA to be a starter to avoid that problem in 2011. Is this why the Yanks signed Park?

ARoid farce

2009-02-17T14:29:00.002-05:00

I just finished listening to the ARoid press conference. This was one of the biggest farces that I have ever heard. First of all, not allowing follow up questions was ludicrous. He could partially answer a question, and then just move on because the reporter couldn't follow up, and the next reporter wasn't going to give up their one question to follow up.

He had a chance to stay up there and answer every question and begin the healing, but instead he just made absurd statements and just threw lighter fluid on the fire. Here is what I got out of today's "press conference"

1. It was his cousin's fault. He FORGOT? about the cousin when speaking to Gammons?
2. He blamed the cops for giving him mis-information about the reporter.
3. All of his maturity issues were because he never went to college.

He blew the only chance he had to get over this. He is going to implode under the scrutiny and questions he will face in the next few months. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he is out of baseball within two years. His only shot was to be a man, say he screwed up without excuses, and say that it is now outside of his control how people react to him, but he will now shut up and play hard moving forward. He didn't even come close. Strike three, your OUT ARoid.

Hot Stove Thoughts

2008-11-14T19:42:00.002-05:00

Here are the moves that I would like to see the Yanks make this off season.
1. They have to sign Sabathia. They are in desperate need of an ace and haven't had one in a while. There are no aces on the market this year. If they can’t get him they will have break the bank to get Brandon Webb next year.
2. They have to sign a second starting pitcher. My first choice would be Burnett. I know that he has a history of arm problems, but he is worth a shot in my opinion. If the Yanks can’t get Burnett I would take Lowe, Peavy, or Dempster.
3. Get a third starting pitcher, an end of the rotation type of guy. I would even take Pettitte back, although he is on the back nine for sure.

If they do get these starters, their rotation will be supplemented by Wang and Hughes. Not too shabby. They will have Aceves, Coke or Giese for spot starts if they need them.

I am sure that you notice that Joba isn’t in the rotation in this scenario. He only threw about 100 innings this year and they won’t let him jump past 130-140 innings for this year. If he throws 30 starts that wouldn’t even be an average of 5 innings per start. Plus, he makes that bullpen even stronger, and will be groomed to take over for Mo as the closer when he retires. With Joba setting up Mo, that leaves Bruney, Veras, and Ramirez as righties and Marte and Coke as lefties in the pen. Robertson, Giese and Sanchez could see some innings as well.

On the other side of the ball I like the flexibility that they have right now. Where is Posada going to play? If he can't catch because of his arm, he will have to do some DHing and play some 1B. The Yanks traded for Nick Swisher yesterday. I like the move for its flexibility. If Posada isn’t catching Molina is a strong #2 catcher, and Swisher can relinquish some of the at bats at 1B to Posada. Swisher can also play some corner OF, he is a switch hitter, and they got him pretty cheaply due to a down year last year.

If the Yanks need to go the trade route to get one of those starting pitchers I would use Cano as the trade bait, and then go get Hudson to play 2B. Cano hasn’t endeared himself to me with his lack of hustle. Even though Cano had a bad year, he still has some trade value and an inexpensive salary.

The left side of the infield is locked up with Jeter and ARod. In LF the platoon of Damon and Matsui works for me. The one not playing LF will probably see a lot of DH time depending on how Posada works out behind the plate. I wouldn’t be surprised to see either of the LF solutions being traded, but they aren’t going to get much for either one.

Nady is a great solution in RF, but could also see some time at 1B if they wanted. He played there early in his NL career. That leaves CF. I know that there are lots of people that want to see the Yanks go get a big name CF, but I would rather see what Gardner can do, with Melky getting some time out there as well. If they both fail Damon or Swisher could do the job while they look at the trade market.

I like Cody Ransom as the utility infielder. He has some pop in his bat and can play the corner infield positions quite well. They will need to find someone to back up on the middle infield, and maybe do some pinch running.

If I were in Cashman’s role this is what my plan would be. I can’t wait to see what actually happens. I love the hot stove league!!

Lester's no-no

2008-05-20T08:30:00.002-05:00

A great story happened in baseball last night. A no hitter is an exciting story no matter who throws it, but add the element of a young pitcher coming back from cancer and it becomes historic. Getting away from baseball for a second, it is great for those that are battling cancer to see something like this accomplished. It can only buoy their internal outlook to see that you can come all of the way back from this dreaded disease. It is also a neat side story that Mike Lowell (another cancer survivor) was about 75 feet away from him to share in the accomplishment. Maybe this will erase the picture of Dave Dravecky's arm breaking on the mound during his comeback from cancer.

Kudos to Terry Francona for not being a slave to the pitch count as well. Too often baseball decisions are reduced to formulas. Being a math person myself, I am an advocate of the use of numbers to inform decisions, but I hate when decisions are pre-determined based on pitch count, or innings allowed in a year, etc. Francona understood the moment that was before him.

Things that make you go hmmmm...

2008-05-06T18:55:00.000-05:00

I heard on a sports talk radio show earlier this afternoon that this was the year of the pitcher. They were comparing what is happening this season to 1968 when Bob Gibson and Denny McLain dominated baseball. While there are a lot of big name sluggers that are struggling, the same could be said for some big name pitchers. As of this afternoon, May 6th, you could make up an all-star team with batters hitting at or below the Mendoza line:

C- Ramon Hernandez
DH- Jason Giambi
1B- Ryan Howard
2B- Robinson Cano
SS- Troy Tulowitzki
3B- Richie Weeks (I know he plays mostly 2B now, so you could substitute Casey Blake hitting .202 and make the same point)
LF- Scott Hairston
CF- Andruw Jones
RF- Jose Guillen

Not too shabby right?

Well some big name pitchers are doing poorly too. Let’s take a look at pitchers that have an ERA above 6.00. How about a starting rotation of Justin Verlander, CC Sabathia, Barry Zito, Kenny Rogers and Bronson Arroyo? What about a bullpen of JJ Putz, Jason Isringhausen, and Trevor Hoffman?

You put the salaries of the players listed above and it would total approximately $130 million for 17 players. I even left out the likes of Eric Gagne who nobody thought was going to be successful anyway (except the Brewers) and if I had written this posting a week ago I could have included the likes of Big Papi, David Ortiz.

For some reason there are a large number of big name players having a horrible first month of the season. My guess is that numbers will even out for the most part over the course of the season, but being the season after the Mitchell report, is anyone else wondering???

The Clemens drama continues.....

2008-02-07T11:21:00.001-05:00

Another conspiracy theory. I am not sure if Roger Clemens is smart enough to think this far ahead, but do you think that the reason that he changed his tune from I have never been injected by Brian McNamee to I have never been injected with anything except B12 and lidocaine by Brian McNamee was so that if McNamee produced syringes he could claim that he had no idea that what he was being injected with was steroids? It seems like that might be where this is headed. I am hearing today that McNamee has handed over syringes and bloody gauze with Clemens’ DNA on them. When the lab rats test what is inside of the syringes they will likely find steroids. So how this is likely to play out would be Clemens would then say he thought that it was vitamins and pain killers that were in the shots, and McNamee was injecting him with steroids without his knowledge.

When asked why McNamee would do this, he could then say that he was training Clemens, and if Clemens was getting stronger and performing well he might think that it was due to how good a trainer McNamee was.

I think that this is all a bunch of crap and that Clemens and McNamee were on the same page all along. But I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the way things go in the coming weeks.

Johan Santana

2008-02-04T09:15:00.001-05:00

I am quite relieved that Johan Santana went to the Mets and not the Sox. I would have liked to see him land on the other side of NY, but if that wasn't to be, then at least he isn't in the AL East. I think that he would have put the Sox in dynasty mode if he went there. Especially for what they were offering. In fact, I think that the new Twins GM blew this one bigtime. Both of the Sox offers and the Yankee offer were better than the one that they actually accepted in the end. In fact, I think that the Mets offer was even better earlier in the off season then it was last week. With the fact that Peter Angelos won't allow Bedard to be traded to an AL East team, it looks like the Yanks are probably done with their big moves. I see that they signed Morgan Ensberg to a minor league contract. He might factor in at 1B from time to time, but that isn't a big move.

My next consideration is what to do to improve that bullpen. If they can't make any moves to bolster the pen, I don't see how they get around putting Joba back into that role from last year. Hopefully Ohlendorf can be the 7th inning guy, and then Farnsworth, Hawkins et al can be the middle relief corp. If they don't make that move and those middle relievers have to be setup men, I think that the Yanks are in trouble.

If Joba is in the pen, that leaves a servicable rotation of Wang, Pettitte, Hughes, Kennedy and Mussina. But there still is no ace among them. Pitchers and Cathers don't report for another couple of weeks so I won't go off quite yet, but I will just say that I am concerned.

Clemens and performance enhancing drugs

2008-01-07T13:35:00.001-05:00

I am so sick of talking about (and hearing sports talk radio talk about) performance enhancing drugs. We will never know all of the cheaters. We can talk forever about our speculation about who was juiced. I want to get back to talking about trades, rotations, lineups and expectations. The hot stove league has fizzled because of all of this noise with the Mitchell Report. The fact is that the Mitchell report is the tip of the iceberg. To say that these 75 people are cheating is one thing, but it is far from an exhaustive list. It also is bogus that most of these names have no real proof associated with them at all.

At the risk of being a hypocrite, I do think that a ton of players in this era were juicing. We can all point to the Brady Anderson, Lenny Dykstra, Barry Bonds, and others and look at the size of their head, or the change in their physique and draw our own conclusions. It happens in all sports. I think that this is so much more significant in baseball because of the importance that we place on statistics and records in this sport. Name the top 5 single season HR hitters of all time and most average baseball fans can do so. Ask an average NFL fan to name the top 5 rushing leaders of all time, or an NBA fan the top 5 scoring leaders of all time and they would have a much harder time doing so. The stats mean so much to us as baseball fans. The steroid era has irrevocably harmed us for that reason.

On to Clemens “performance” last night on 60 minutes. I do think that he juiced. I think that he was so pissed off at Dan Duquette for saying that he was washed up that he decided he would risk the side effects to regain his glory. I see his motivation, but that doesn’t mean that it is right. How would Griffey Jr’s numbers look if he had doped up to recover from injuries? What would Mickey Mantle’s career numbers look like? How about Joe DiMaggio or Sandy Koufax? If they went to HGH or steroids to recover from injuries and lengthen their careers their numbers would have been even more amazing then they are.

I cannot stand the argument that Clemens or Bonds should be put into the hall of fame because they were hall of famers before they started cheating. That is such a farce of an argument. If I am honest on 90% of my tax information and then cheat on the last 10% and get a refund is the IRS going to say to me, we won’t prosecute you because we looked back at the accurate information that you provided and you would have gotten a refund anyway? Of course they aren’t. They are going to nail my ass to the wall, and rightfully so.

If your argument is that they should be in the hall of fame because the era was riddled with the use of steroids and nobody did anything about it. I still don’t buy the argument, but at least put them all in (McGwire et al included) a separate wing. Call it the steroid era wing. That way when I bring my kids there some day they will easily be able to tell that this era in baseball had a lot of questionable stuff going on. And when I do get to do this trip, I will be telling my stories about the “real” record holders. Ruth, Maris, and the rest.

A few thoughts

2008-01-01T23:15:00.001-05:00

A bunch of friends have asked me why it has been so long since the last blog posting. With the holidays over it is time to get back to talking baseball.

Here are some things that will be water cooler fodder as the hot stove league continues:

• What will the fallout be over the Mitchell Report? My guess is that the players that decided to come clean have already done so. There is the thought that if you remain silent you are essentially admitting guilt. So I fully expect a lawsuit or two to accompany Clemens hiring of the private investigators to find out what really happened. Is it just me or does this remind anyone of OJ Simpson’s quest for Nicole’s killer? My guess is that most of the information in this report is true, however the evidence that brought this information out isn’t exactly convincing. The skeptics among us are asking why so many former Yankees are on the list. It only makes sense since one of the main sources of information was a former Yankee clubhouse guy.
• Where will Johan Santana land? Frankly I am surprised that the deal hasn’t been done yet. I am guessing that the Twins are less than impressed with the offers that they are getting for him. I think that both the Yankee offer of Melky, Hughes and a couple of decent minor leaguers is a strong one. I also think that the Sox offer that included Ellsbury, Lowrie, and a couple of other minor leaguers is a good one. I have no idea why they are reluctant to include Lester in that deal. I don’t think that he is going to be a top of the rotation starter, and landing Santana would be an almost certain ticket to a couple of more world series in the near future. Not including Lester is especially confusing because if they do the deal their rotation will have Beckett, Santana, Matsuzaka, Schilling, Wakefield and Buchholz to fill the 5 spots.
• On a similar note I have a lot of concern about the current state of the Yankee rotation. They still don’t have an ace. The only guy that might step into that role is Chamberlin, but that is a lot to ask for a guy that has never started a major league game. Wang is a #3 at best, Pettitte is about the same, and the other three spots are likely to be occupied by the aforementioned Chamberlin, Hughes and Kennedy. Mussina is waiting in the wings in case one of the kids doesn’t work out, and he is a shell of what he was just a couple of years ago. I think that this is the biggest hole that the Yanks have. They need an ace. This is why, as much as I like Hughes, I would include him in the deal to get Santana. The other piece to this trade puzzle is that if they include Melky in this deal, that makes Matsui and Damon the every day LF/CF combination. That is not a strong defensive pairing.

I look forward to hearing your comments on these topics and will try to be better about keeping up with posting as the hot stove heats up again.

Youth Movement

2007-08-20T13:00:00.000-05:00

It is hard to believe that the Yanks might be going through a youth movement, but they might be a very young team next year. Arod has the right to opt out of his current contract and with Boras as his agent, it is likely to happen. With Arod on the open market, who knows where he will end up. Abreu is a free agent at the end of the season, as is Posada and Rivera. Pettitte has a player option deciding whether he will play again next year. Clemens is obviously gone at the end of the year, maybe ready to be courted at midseason.

I believe that Arod will be elsewhere, and that the Yanks will spend the money to get Rivera and Posada to return. If I am right about that, here is what the Yanks might look like in 2008:

C- Posada
DH- Giambi
1B- Phillips
2B- Cano
SS- Jeter
3B- Betemit
LF- Matsui
CF- Cabrera
RF- Damon/Duncan
SP- Wang, Pettitte, Hughes, Chamberlin, Mussina (DaSalvo, Clippard, Igawa)
RP- Rivera, Ramirez, Henn, Farnsworth, Bruney, Vizcaino, Karstens, Rasner

a game of numbers

2007-06-27T20:05:00.000-05:00

More than any other sports numbers are intimately linked with the sport of baseball. Very few sports fans know how many points the all time leader in points has in the NBA, how many goals the all time leader has in the NHL, or how many yards the all time passing leader has in the NFL, but ask even a casual fan what the all time record for HR in a year, or a career is, and they can usually spit out that number. When you watch a game you are bombarded with stats. So why can't baseball in general get it right when they are talking about portions of an inning pitched? Look at the back of a baseball card, or the stats that they give you when a relief pitcher comes into a ballgame and you will see numbers like 145.1 innings pitched or 4.2 inning in his last start. It isn't possible to have .1 nor .2 of an inning pitched. You either get no outs (#.0) one out (#.3333) or two outs (#.6666). I would even be able to deal with .3 and .7 respectively if you only want to use one decimal. Heck, I would even bite my tongue if you used .6 instead of .7 and rounded improperly, but this .1 and .2 garbage is stupid.

It is just another example of the acceptance of innumeracy. If you hear that someone is illiterate, you gasp and wonder how the educational system could have allowed this to happen. How could someone get through any reasonable grade level and not know how to read. Yet, when I was a high school math teacher I heard every day comments like, "I can't do math". I heard it from fellow teachers. I heard it from parents on conference nights. I heard it from administrators. It was said without shame, and sometimes even with a hint of pride. How many of these people would blurt out "I can't read" with that same indignity?

We need to start setting an example for our future generations that innumeracy isn't something that is acceptible. A basic understanding of numbers is as important an asset in the world as basic literacy. It should be treated as such. When you hear someone say something along the lines of "I was never good with numbers" call them on it. As children hear adults say stuff like this, they internalize it and place a lesser importance on this. Look at the theories of Vygotsky and the impact the social reactions to math can have on future learning.

looking up

2007-06-16T21:33:00.000-05:00

Things have definitely been looking up for the Yanks over the past two weeks. Not only have they cut the AL East deficit by several games but overall they are playing much better in all facets of the game.

The starting pitching has been much better with the exception of the fifth starter position. Look for the Yanks to send down Tyler Clippard for some more seasoning and bring up Kei Igawa. He has been down on the farm working on a new motion and his command and has been doing well. Hopefully he can be a boost at the #5 spot in the rotation. The better starts that the Yanks have been getting by the rotation has led to less work overall by the bullpen. The bullpen has been much better because of having to get less outs per game. Their flaws (every bullpen has them) have been hidden a bit with the limited action that has been required of them.

The Yankee defense has been improved greatly by the insertion of Cairo to replace Phelps and Melky Cabrera to replace Damon. In a way, the injury to Giambi has been a boost. That left the DH postion available for Damon, allowing the defensive switch in CF.

Yankee fans have to feel a lot better about the team overall as it stands right now. Look for the Yanks to try to get that one arm to help out in the bullpen. It would be nice to get that 8th inning stud. They also will be looking to upgrade at 1B, although I don't know if any of the people available will be worth the pricetag. The obvious choice would be Texiera from Texas, but he is a Scott Boras client, so you only get him for 1.5 years before he hits free agency. Texas is asking for a top of the line prospect like Phil Hughes, and the upgrade there is not worth the cost, especially for a guy that is likely gone after the 2008 season.

No Class

2007-05-31T21:13:00.000-05:00

From the title of this post, it is probably of no surprise to you that I am going to write about ARod. He is such a tool. From the moment he got here people were saying that he wasn't a "real Yankee" and he just continues to perpetuate this belief. He showed no class when he signed the quarter of a Billion dollar contract with Texas by wanting to have his own tent at the Ranger spring training site and stay in his own hotel on road trips. He showed no class in 2004 by slapping at Arroyo. He showed no class by elbowing Pedroia in the crotch rather than just taking a hard slide directly at the 2B trying to break up a double play. He showed no class running around on his family and he showed no class yelling "mine" at the Blue Jay infield. He is everything that is wrong with today's athlete. I know that it is unlikely to happen, but I would love to see them trade him right now. He could be to the Yanks this year, what Nomar was to the 2004 Sox team. Let him admire his HRs and flip his bat and trot around the bases for another team, he is no Yankee.

Dead weight

2007-05-23T07:25:00.000-05:00

If Carl Pavano gets his wish, the Yanks will be approving his surgery to care for his ailing elbow in the near future. This surgery will sideline him for most of the fourth and final year of his current contract. A contract in which he made a total of 19 starts and won 5 games in four years. That is almost $2million per start and $8million per win. This might be the biggest bust contract in baseball history. I actually am not surprised in the least. I knew Pavano as a kid growing up in Southington and he was a punk then. He was a slacker and a tiger doesn't change his stripes. The Yanks should have done their homework and known that he didn't have the character to make it on one of the biggest stages. I question his toughness in playing through these injuries. I question his integrity in hiding the cause of certain injuries (see his car accident that broke ribs that he hid from his team). Lastly, I am glad to see him go. I just wish that they spent the money elsewhere or traded him in one of the short windows that he might have had some trade value. Now they will get more of the same from him, nothing.

I hope that I'm wrong

2007-05-06T16:40:00.000-05:00

I am probably in the minority of Yankee fans, but I am skeptical about what Clemens is going to bring to the team this year. He has only pitched in the NL since 2003, which is at this point a much lighter hitting league. In addition to the lesser competition that he has been facing these last couple of years I am concerned about his average innings pitched per start. He averaged less than 6 innings per start last year. If that is the type of pitcher that we are going to be getting, the bullpen will be taxed to pitch 3 plus innings every time his spot in the rotation rolls around.

The Red Sox reportedly were offering Clemens an arrangement where he would only fly in to Boston (or wherever they are playing) and pitch every Sunday and then fly home. He wouldn't be with the team for the remainder of the week. They would have gone with a 6 man rotation. Boston was hopeful that the 6 man rotation would be beneficial to Matsuzaka, who is used to pitching once a week.

One of Clemens agents explained that both the Red Sox and the Astros wanted Clemens to return in late June or early July (presumably to save some of the money on his pro-rated contract) and the Yanks wanted him ASAP. According to Randy Hendricks (one of Clemens' agents) Roger wanted to pitch sooner.

I hope that I am wrong and that Clemens pitches effectively into the 7th on most of his starts and joins a rotation, when healthy, that will include Wang, Pettitte, Mussina and Hughes.

Bitter Sweet

2007-05-01T21:11:00.000-05:00

What an amazing game by Phil Hughes. Forget for a moment that he is 20 years old and in his second major league appearance. He showed the command of a veteran. Carrying a no hitter through 6 and 1/3 innings he falls prey to the year-long curse of Yankee starting pitchers and has to be removed in the middle of the 7th with a leg injury. The future is bright for Hughes, but we have to wonder how serious the injury is and how long he will be out of action. He walked off under his own power, so I am hopeful that this is a matter of the Yanks being cautious, and not a long term injury. Whenever he gets back to health, it looks like the Yanks have found someone that can have a positive impact on the rotation.

Speaking of injuries, this has been the season from hell. Why are so many people getting injured this year compared to years past? You could make an all star team from the players that are on the DL right now. In fact, I did.

C- Josh Bard, Greg Zaun
SP- Cliff Lee, Kenny Rogers, Jason Schmidt, Jered Weaver, Bartolo Colon, Francisco Liriano, Pedro Martinez, Rich Harden, Felix Hernandez, Chris Carpenter
RP- Bob Wickman, Eddie Guardado, LaTroy Hawkins, Jose Mesa, Brandon Backe, Octavio Dotel, Eric Gagne, BJ Ryan
1B- Mark Sweeney, Frank Catalanotto
2B- Freddy Sanchez, Howie KendrickSS- Rafael Furcal
3B- Andy Marte, Troy Glaus
LF- Scott Posednik, Reed Johnson
CF- Jeff DeVanon, Mark Kotsay
RF- Chone Figgins, Juan Encarnacion
DH- Jim Thome, Rondell White

Just look at those starting pitchers. That is a list of two full 5 man rotations that could start for any team in baseball. There has to be an explanation, but what? I think that one of the issues with baseball players in the past 15 years or so is that they have become too muscular. Baseball is a game that requires flexibility. The more musclebound you are, the less flexible you become, and the more prone to injuries you are.

how do you get that far without knowing the rules?

2007-04-29T18:26:00.000-05:00

It boggles my mind what happened in Saturday's Indians v. Orioles game. For those of you that didn't see it there were men on the corners with one out in a one-run game when Grady Sizemore, the Indian CF, made a diving catch on a line drive off of the bat of Ramon Hernandez for the second out of the inning. After the catch Nick Markakis tagged from third base and scored ahead of a throw that doubled Tejada up as he attempted to return to 1B. Every high school coach and umpire knows that this is a different type of double play ball than the 6-4-3 type that has a force play that is being completed. In this case, even though Tejada was mandated to return to 1B, it isn't by book rule a "force play" and the events described above should have led to a run for the Orioles. The umpires blew it and didn't allow the run, that is disturbing, the manager of the Orioles was shown after the play oblivious to the fact that his team should have gotten a run and didn't say anything until long after the inning was over. The score was changed by the umpires approximately three innings later. I am all for "getting it right", but so many things had transpired at that point that could have been different if the score was changed immediately. You can't go back three innings and change something that you got wrong. It is too late. There are plenty of times that the wrong call is made, in all sports, and if play continues and they don't catch it, then they don't compound the mistake by making another one. That is what you deal with when you have human error involved. It is part of sports. The fact that they made this change so much later in the game is atrocious. The umpires should be suspended and the Oriole manager should be fined by his team for not knowing enough to go out and support his team. Indian manager, Eric Wedge, protested the game and he has every reason to win this protest. It was an embarrassment!!

Joe Torre should stay

2007-04-28T08:36:00.000-05:00

Why in the world would people be calling for Joe Torre's firing? It isn't his fault that the starting pitching was compiled poorly and it isn't his fault that the already questionable rotation has had a rash of injuries. Although I don't always agree with Torre and his decisions, I can't imagine what he could possibly have done about the current Yankee state. I have advocated before on this blog a change in lineup, but that is far from their problem right now. Their problem is all about the pitching. If anyone should be held responsible for the breakdown of the team, it would have to be Cashman. Even that is a bit of a stretch. There isn't much pitching out there, and you can't necessarily just go get it when you want it. He is the one that needs to be on the hot seat. Maybe that motivation will get him to be creative and to go and get some pitching. Perhaps they can package a few of those young arms that they stockpiled to get Willis from the Marlins? Maybe there is even a blockbuster deal out there somewhere. What about talking to the Giants about a Matt Cain and Randy Winn for Bobby Abreu, Rasner and Karsten? This might make you laugh at first, but look at the lack of protection behind Bonds in that lineup. I think that he got intentionally walked three times last night. The 2 pitchers could immediately improve their rotation. The Yanks could have Cabrera be the every day RF and have Winn be the 4th OF. The rotation would be greatly improved with Cain in there.

A telling statistic

2007-04-27T21:42:00.000-05:00

This has been a frustrating season thus far. Here are some quick observations:

The Yankee pitching staff has 109 appearances in 21 games. For those of you that are math impaired, that is an average of over 5 pitchers used per game.
Michael Kay quoted a stat tonight that they Yanks have used 5 or more pitchers in 8 consecutive games, tied for the most in 50 years and one behind the all time MLB record.
You need your starters to go deep into the games on a regular basis. The problem is that they don't have anyone in their rotation that can provide that for them. Their overworked bullpen is suffering because of it. 5 Yankee relievers have pitching in over half of their games. They have used 9 starting pitchers already this year.
The Yanks team ERA going into tonight was 4.83 (and it got worse after tonight's game), that is fourth worst in the AL ahead of only Seattle, Texas and Tampa Bay.

This staff as it is currently constituted is horrible. I just don't see a lot of light at the end of the tunnel. I don't think that Clemens and his 5 innings per start will help the situation. Even when they are all healthy Wang, Pettitte, Mussina, Karstens and Hughes isn't going to strike fear into any lineup. They need a power arm or two in the rotation and they need some starters that can pitch into the 7th. I just have no idea where they are going to find either of these.

Phil Hughes

2007-04-26T19:45:00.000-05:00

The stats don't tell the whole story. If you are just looking at the pitching line for Hughes tonight you aren't going to be all that impressed. However, watching him pitch I saw some promise, especially for a 20 year old pitcher making his debut. His first inning was pretty poor and it looked like he was very nervous, but after that he settled in and looked like a very different pitcher. He had good command of his fastball, his curve and his change up. He threw all three pitches in non-traditional counts and showed some guts. I liked how at one point when he had two strikes on Lind in his third at bat he shook off Posada several times finally going back to the initial sign that was given. You don't see a 20 year old that can think the game like that. To me he was trying to make the batter think that he was going to a pitch that he hasn't thrown much, and then went to the fastball up and away for the K. He didn't really put the Yanks in a position to win tonight, but he surely showed why the Yankees are so high on him. I think that he deserves another start next week in Texas.

the 20 year old savior?

2007-04-24T09:18:00.000-05:00

Obviously I am kidding when I intimate that Phil Hughes (he prefers Phil now rather than Phillip) is the savior of the Yankee pitching staff. I am a bit nervous about how his start on Thursday will go. I would hate to see him have an outing like Chase Wright did this weekend and kill his confidence. You see it happen all the time, Red Sox fans can reference Hansen's last couple of seasons, where the young pitcher is brought up too early and their confidence is shaken beyond repair. On the other hand he could turn out to be Papelbon or Felix Hernandez. I think that it was smart to start him on Thursday against the D-Rays rather than Friday against the Sox. Not that the Rays lineup is anything to sneeze at. They are a good, young, fast offensive team. But there are no Ortiz nor Manny's in their lineup.

I will be watching intently because he just might be able to infuse some needed innings into the starting rotation, but I will be hoping that the "panic move" by the Yanks doesn't have long lasting negative effects if he isn't successful.

This weekend’s series

2007-04-23T14:17:00.000-05:00

My first reaction to this weekend’s series is that the Red Sox looked like a team built for the playoffs and the Yanks did NOT. Let’s look first at the pitching matchups:

Schilling vs Pettitte
Beckett vs. Karsten
Dice-K vs Wright

With the possible exception of game one of the series the Sox had a major advantage in each of these match ups. In all three games the Sox starter didn’t have his usual stuff, but battled deep into the game. The Yanks had one decent start from Pettitte and he got the hook earlier that necessary. You can’t go to battle with guys like Karsten or Wright in the rotation. In fact, Igawa, Pavano, and Rasner don’t exactly inspire confidence either. I know that we have Wang coming back as of Tuesday, and Mussina some time in the coming week or two, but that still leaves a questionable rotation. Wang will be fine, Pettitte has looked good thus far, but neither of them are #1 pitchers. They are each #2s at best. Mussina is a back of the rotation type starter at this point and then choose whomever you want from the list above for the last two spots, but it isn’t pretty. The problem here is that there isn’t much out there to try to improve. Clemens is aging and hasn’t pitched in the AL in a few years. He isn’t that ace anymore. Phil Hughes might be an ace down the road, but he hasn’t done anything at the major league level yet. I think that we have seen with Chase Wright what can happen if we try to rush him to the bigs too soon. So who is out there? You hear rumblings about Sheets in Milwaukee or Willis in Florida, but they both are going to be costly. The Yankee bullpen is a strength, but it is already starting to crack from overuse. The starters need to go deeper into the games, so the bullpen isn’t dead by the all star break.

The baseball fan inside of me is pining for the days of the mid to late 90s with fewer all stars and more “ballplayers”. Give me the O’Neils, Brosius, Tino Martinez of the world in the field, and the Cones, Keys, and David Wells on the hill. Those were winning baseball teams. I question whether this version of the Yanks has that chemistry that is so underrated in baseball.

The bottom line is you can’t go into battle with Ryan Thompson, Wil Nieves, Mankiewictz and Phleps along with the aforementioned starting pitching and expect to be champions. That is the metric, good or bad, against which every Yankee team is measured.

That being said, the Yanks will get healthy, and hopefully find some help for the rotation and then we’ll see. But come October it is going to be difficult to match up with Schilling, Beckett, Matsuzaka and Wakefield with the rotation as it is currently constituted. Big bopping lineups might win a lot of games in the regular season, but rarely do they win world series. That accomplishment is reserved for teams with strong pitching and defense.

A major disappointment

2007-04-20T21:31:00.000-05:00

If there was one game that the Yanks had a good shot at this weekend it was this Friday night game. Pettitte vs Schilling was about an even matchup. Papelbon was unavailable to pitch since he pitched the last two nights. ARod hit two big HRs and the Yanks held a 6-2 lead. All of that makes this loss a major disappointment. I am among the biggest of Joe Torre's fans, but he blew this game big time. Some of his mistakes:

1. Pinch running for Giambi in the 8th inning. In my opinion Torre does this way too often. I can see doing this if the Yanks are down a run and the pinch runner could possibly make a major difference in the game. But what advantage does this give you when you are up 4 runs? It only leads to yet another situation where Giambi's spot in the order comes around and someone like Ryan Thompson is grabbing some lumber rather than Giambi. This doesn't just hinder them in that spot in the order but also by not protecting ARod in the lineup. He didn't see a decent pitch to hit because they knew that they had a much lesser batter on deck. If Giambi is still in the game, ARod might see better pitches. So really by pinch running you are hurting two spots in the lineup.

2. Bringing in Mariano in the 8th. Mariano has been anything but dominant in this young season. Torre needs to have confidence in his bullpen to get him to the 9th, when it is Mo's time. This loss could play head games with Rivera for blowing his second save opportunity tonight, but also it could have ramifications to the confidence levels of people like Brunei, Farnsworth and even Vizcaino who he took out after only three batters.

3. Taking Pettitte out of the game in the 7th inning. Why take him out in this spot? He was around 100 in his pitch count, had just struck out Pena, and about to face Lugo who he retired a couple of times already tonight. You have to show some faith in someone. Either you have faith in Pettitte and let him work to Lugo (and perhaps save some bullpen arms for the two rookie starters that you have in the remainder of the weekend series) or you put faith in the bullpen arms, and don't bring in Mariano to try to get 5 outs. The Mariano thing still irks me when you think that they were going into the bottom part of the lineup, and still had a three run lead.

It is hard to understand what Torre was thinking. It seems like me might have outcoached himself. Now the Yanks have to hope that they can catch lightening in a bottle with either Karstens or Chase Wright or they will find themselves 4 games behind the Sox with another weekend series on the horizon.

update on Wang

2007-04-20T06:49:00.000-05:00

Chien-Ming Wang had his second, and hopefully last minor league rehab start on Thursdsay night. If he responds well today, he will probably be in line to pitch on Tuesday. That would also put him on proper rest to pitch the following Sunday in the second consecutive weekend series agains the Sox. I don't put a lot of stock in the stats from minor league rehab starts. That being said (or typed in this case) he did coax a lot of ground balls in this last outing. That might lead one to believe that he is throwing his usual stuff, a good sign. He would be a welcomed addition to the rotation and likely would bump Chase Wright back to AA. That is unless Wright has another good outing agains the Sox on Sunday, then someone else's spot might be in jeopardy. These next couple of weekends should be interesting.

On another note, I don't like the unbalanced schedule. While it is nice to see the Yanks play the Sox 19 times (or 18 times this year), it takes away some of the spark by playing too often. It also is unfair when the wild card gets determined that some teams have more difficult schedules than others. I still get psyched when there is a rivalry weekend, but when you know there is another one right around the corner, in this case next week, it just isn't as big a deal.

what a finish!!!

2007-04-19T18:47:00.000-05:00

In the interest of full disclosure I must tell you that, even though I am a huge Yankee fan, I went into this season NOT being a fan of Alex Rodriguez. Even before he joined the Yanks I was an ARod hater when he was asking for all of those perks to go with his quarter of a billion dollar contract that he signed with the Rangers. His contract demands, including an air conditioned tent at spring training and a personal staff and office at the stadium really rubbed me the wrong way. After he joined the Yanks, his post season and late game failures just cemented my feelings about him. But so far this year he has gone a long way to winning me over. He has two monster walk off HRs to dead center including the one this afternoon against the Indians. That last inning was vintage Yankees from the mid to late 1990s. They just "kept the train moving" by not trying to do too much. After the first two batters made outs, the Yanks are down to their last out and just start pecking away at that 4 run lead. A Phelps HR, Posada single, Damon walk, and then RBI singles by Jeter and Abreu put ARod in that situation to be a hero, and for the second time in this young season he came through with a big hit in a big spot.

I am not saying that he has won me over 100%, but I have to admit when he comes to the plate in that big situation, I don't have that pit in my stomach that I used to have.

when Matsui comes back

2007-04-19T17:28:00.000-05:00

The Yanks should consider putting Giambi back at 1B when Matsui is healthy again. Their everyday lineup should be:

Damon CF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
ARod 3B
Giambi 1B
Matsui LF
Posada C
Cano 2B
Cabrera DH

That is a nasty lineup. Cabrera can spell each of the OF once a week and have them DH. Once in a while Giambi can DH and have Mientkiewicz play 1B. Mostly he can be Giambi’s caddy and be a defensive replacement late in games where the Yanks have a lead. Along with Mientkiewicz the Yanks would have Cairo on the bench to play any IF positions and OF if they are in a pinch, and Nieves as the backup C. Aside from the 1B caddy, the yanks don’t need a deep bench on an everyday basis. If they sent Phelps down to AAA they would open up a roster spot to carry an extra reliever. I am advocating the 8 man bullpen because of the injuries that the rotation has already endured. Also, the starters that they do have are all 6 inning pitchers, leaving a lot of work for the bullpen.

Mark Buehrle

2007-04-18T21:03:00.000-05:00

The first no hitter in the majors this year was thrown tonight by Mark Buehrle for the White Sox against the Texas Rangers. It is the first no-hitter by a White Sox pitcher since fellow-lefty Wilson Alvarez in 1991, the 16th in team history, and the first by at White Sox pitcher at home in 40 years.

Buehrle faced a tough Ranger lineup tonight that included Michael Young, Mark Teixeira, Sammy Sosa and Hank Blaylock. He faced the minimum 27 batters. The only batter to reach base was Sosa with a 5th inning walk and then promptly picked him off. He struck out 8 and threw the no-no with only 106 pitches, or an average of less than 12 pitches an inning.

Buehrle is looking to rebound to his 2005 form after having an off year last year. In 2005 Buehrle went 16-8 with a 3.12 ERA, but in 2006 he slumped to a 12-13 record with an ERA of 4.99. Buehrle was the starting pitcher for the AL in the 2005 all-star game, when he pitched 2 shutout innings. In two starts this season before tonight's game, he lasted a total of only 8 and 1/3 innings allowing 7 hits and 4 earned runs. He also went 2-0 in the post season that year with an ERA of 3.47.

In his post game interview he was talking about how he bucked baseball tradition and talked openly about the fact that he was throwing a no hitter. Baseball tradition says that in order to avoid "jinxing" the no hitter you aren't supposed to talk about the fact that it is going on, and most people won't even talk to the pitcher in that circumstance. You often see the pitcher going for the no-no sitting alone on the bench, with everyone else smushed onto the other half of the bench. He didn't want that to happen, so he brought it up to avoid that cold shoulder.

As a nice touch, he wore a Virginia Tech hat in the official post game press conference.

The Sox have the right idea

2007-04-18T19:36:00.000-05:00

Much props to Theo Epstein on how he built this pitching staff. Terry Francona deserves a lot of credit about the decisions that he has made as well. The hardest thing to find in baseball right now is power pitching for the rotation. The Sox have three of them at the top of their rotation. Schilling may have lost some mph off of his fastball, but he is still capable of dominating a game. Dice-K has looked like he is going to be the real deal in his three starts, and Beckett has looked like he finally "gets it" after stubbornly relying on his fastball last year. Wakefield is a nice complement to these three power pitchers and can throw a lineup off track with the knuckler. Honestly, it doesn't much matter who the #5 guy is. Tavarez is fine for now. Jon Lester is likely to take over in the spot by the all-star break.

Their bullpen looked to be their achilles heal as the end of spring training neared, but the smartest decision they made was to move Papelbon back to the closer role. That moved everyone else in their flawed bullpen down a spot. This year's version of Donnelly, Pineiro, Timlin and Romero are all shells of what they were a couple of years ago. Despite giving up a HR on his first big league pitch, Okajima has looked like a decent middle man. The Sox are just hoping that Delcarmen and Hansen can find their stuff at AAA and become setup men at some point this summer.

The Yanks Starting Pitching

2007-04-18T19:02:00.000-05:00

All of these injuries are creating havoc on the Yankee rotation. Fortunately most of the injuries won't be long term. The timing just stinks with two series against the Sox in the next two weeks. Wang should be back next week, with Mussina not too far behind. In the mean time we got to take a look at a potential contributor to the 2009 Yankee rotation. Chase Wright had a successful major league debut. Granted, the Yankee offense put him in a situation where 3 runs in 5 innings was good enough for a win. Still, Wright pitched pretty well for a guy that has only 2 weeks of AA experience under his belt. This start was a nice reward for a pitcher that was off to a monster start at Trenton. In his two starts there this year he pitched 14 shutout innings allowing on 4 hits, 1 walk and struck out 19. At this rate, he might even be ready next year.

Finally the future looks bright for the Yankee rotation. Along with Wright we have Phillip Hughes and Ross Ohlendorf getting some seasoning at AAA. Neither one is having a great April, but both showed signs of being contributors down the road during their grapefruit league outings. Humberto Sanchez is another minor league arm to keep an eye out for, although he is on the DL right now.

The big questions now are:
1. Can the Yanks hang in there and not let the Sox or Jays build up a big lead while they heal (although the Jays have injury problems of their own)?
2. What will the rotation look like in a couple of weeks when people are healthy?

I would like to see Wang, Mussina, Pettitte, Igawa and Karstens be their long term rotation once they are healthy. We must know by now that Pavano can't be counted on. As long as the Yanks don't start falling too far behind in the AL East, The Boss should be able to be held off in acquiring Roger Clemens. I don't know if Clemens is an American League quality pitcher any longer. He has had success in the NL, but he is a 5-6 inning pitcher at this point.

Thankfully, the bullpen has been much improved so far this year. I like the way that things have played out in the pen. Regardless of Mariano Rivera's last outing against Oakland, he is still one of the top closers in baseball. Farnsworth has had his issues since becoming a Yankee, but he throws hard and is not the 8th inning type setup guy any more. That role is being earned by Luis Vizcaino. Bruney and Proctor are both worthy of stepping into that role if Vizcaino needs a day off. Myers is certainly a good lefty matchup reliever and Sean Henn has made the transition from starter to the bullpen nicely. This is the best bullpen that the Yanks have had in quite a while.