What Have we learned
from the past two games. While the Yankees are bad, the Red Sox are overrated. They have 3 holes in their lineup every night; they're the slowest team in baseball; and even with the best fielding infield in the American League, their pitcher, save for Beckett and Papelbon, mostly stink.
We also learned sports journalists are the biggest doglickers in the world. They just don't want to cop to AROD's profile as a loser. When he hit a home run with the Yanks up 4-1 late, they felt compelled to insist that it mattered, thereby redefining the category of "clutch performer" so broadly that even AROd would fit it. Last night Anal Hersheyhiser kept laughing over the fans' insistence that AROD wasn't living up to expectations, citing HR and RBI totals without ever mentioning his dismal late game and RISP stats. Finally, with the Yankees up 8-6 in the 8th and following a Manny-blast, Anal chuckled, "well would a home run from AROD now be consequential; would this count, as if to say, what do these people want. Well of course it would have been at least somewhat consequential as I said to the television, but of course AROd hit a lazy fly out for precisely that reason and of course no further shit from Mr. Asshole was forthcoming.
We learned that Scott Procter's brief flirtation with competence is over, as he gave Manny a second gopher ball in as many nights to raise his ERA to 3.16, not good for a reliever. but on the postive side we learned that Ortiz may not like the amount of heat Farnsworth brongs to the party. Torre has got to learn to trust him more, despite his unevenness so far. He's definitely got the talent.
Speaking of which, we learned yet again, and even in victory, that Torre is, as Keith O. might say, "TODAY'S WORST MANAGER IN THE WOORRLLDD." Allow me to cite two instances of pure boneheadedness on Torre's part.
First inning, Johnson is, as usual, getting ripped. Two hard hit balls and only due to Lorreta's failure to "GET BACK" to first base is Johnson not already a dead man pitching. Ortiz comes up and lefty to lefty, Johnson whiffs him. So there's 2 out and a man on third with no runs in despite Johnson looking postively horrible against righties. Now Ramirez, only the best right-handed hitter in the American league comes up, so of course you walk him, especially since a) Manny is on one those streaks where nobody can get him out, least of all a 42 year old near retiree with location disorder, and b) Francona, an idiot of Torre-like dimensions, has chosen to protect Manny with Varitek, the one "star" struggling as badly to hit as Johnson is to pitch. But no, Torre does not call for an intentional walk or even an "unintentional" walk. He allows Johnson to challenge Manny with a fastball inside. The resulting blast cleared the fence, the stadium wall, the street behind the stadium wall and quite possibly the houses on the other side of that street. Two absolute gift runs courtesy of management. The last thing you want to do, with Johnson pitching so badly early in contests, is to further erode his confidence. With the strikeout of Ortiz, he had something to build on. Let him do it by getting out of the first unscathed, instead of condemning him to another one of those here we go again moments.
Second, eighth inning Sheffield leads off with a shot against the left wall for a single. Giambi is up and the Red Sox go into that ridiculous shift. Now two things should be kept in mind. First Giambi only hits singles and home runs to go with his walks. So unless this is the one out of 14 plate appearances that he typically homers, one base is the best you can hope for. Second, the Yankees have announced their puzzlement that Giambi's batting average has dropped from 300 to 250 despite the fact that he's hitting the ball well. Hmmm. You think it might be that there is no room in right where he hits everything and won't be until the Yankees force someone's hand? Well this is the perfect oppurtunity to do so. Lowell is actually closer to second than to third and, as we know, Giambi is a pretty fair bunter. He lays one down toward third, its a virtually certain hit and will put men on first and second nobody out. (Then you could bunt Rodriguez and hav erunners on second and third one out for someone who can hit in late innings, Robbie.) But Torre can't take the gift he is being offered. He has become so pathetic at thinking small ball, he cannot even do it when it's the only rational play. So Giambi hits the ball into the shift and presto, double play. Our second gift to the Sox courtesy of the mangement.
So that's what we've learned: the Sox, contrary to reports, suck; they may even suck as bad as the Yankees. Scott Procter sucks; he may even suck as bad as we once surmised. And of course Torre sucks; he may even suck worse every day. Oh, and Melky Cabrera is only 21 years old. I had no idea. He really could wind up being a player, like Cano. Which would mean sports journalists, you know the ones that said the Yankees had no farm system, they suck too, like Alex in the clutch.
Quote from NEWSDAY: "When it doesn't count, count on Alex"
We also learned sports journalists are the biggest doglickers in the world. They just don't want to cop to AROD's profile as a loser. When he hit a home run with the Yanks up 4-1 late, they felt compelled to insist that it mattered, thereby redefining the category of "clutch performer" so broadly that even AROd would fit it. Last night Anal Hersheyhiser kept laughing over the fans' insistence that AROD wasn't living up to expectations, citing HR and RBI totals without ever mentioning his dismal late game and RISP stats. Finally, with the Yankees up 8-6 in the 8th and following a Manny-blast, Anal chuckled, "well would a home run from AROD now be consequential; would this count, as if to say, what do these people want. Well of course it would have been at least somewhat consequential as I said to the television, but of course AROd hit a lazy fly out for precisely that reason and of course no further shit from Mr. Asshole was forthcoming.
We learned that Scott Procter's brief flirtation with competence is over, as he gave Manny a second gopher ball in as many nights to raise his ERA to 3.16, not good for a reliever. but on the postive side we learned that Ortiz may not like the amount of heat Farnsworth brongs to the party. Torre has got to learn to trust him more, despite his unevenness so far. He's definitely got the talent.
Speaking of which, we learned yet again, and even in victory, that Torre is, as Keith O. might say, "TODAY'S WORST MANAGER IN THE WOORRLLDD." Allow me to cite two instances of pure boneheadedness on Torre's part.
First inning, Johnson is, as usual, getting ripped. Two hard hit balls and only due to Lorreta's failure to "GET BACK" to first base is Johnson not already a dead man pitching. Ortiz comes up and lefty to lefty, Johnson whiffs him. So there's 2 out and a man on third with no runs in despite Johnson looking postively horrible against righties. Now Ramirez, only the best right-handed hitter in the American league comes up, so of course you walk him, especially since a) Manny is on one those streaks where nobody can get him out, least of all a 42 year old near retiree with location disorder, and b) Francona, an idiot of Torre-like dimensions, has chosen to protect Manny with Varitek, the one "star" struggling as badly to hit as Johnson is to pitch. But no, Torre does not call for an intentional walk or even an "unintentional" walk. He allows Johnson to challenge Manny with a fastball inside. The resulting blast cleared the fence, the stadium wall, the street behind the stadium wall and quite possibly the houses on the other side of that street. Two absolute gift runs courtesy of management. The last thing you want to do, with Johnson pitching so badly early in contests, is to further erode his confidence. With the strikeout of Ortiz, he had something to build on. Let him do it by getting out of the first unscathed, instead of condemning him to another one of those here we go again moments.
Second, eighth inning Sheffield leads off with a shot against the left wall for a single. Giambi is up and the Red Sox go into that ridiculous shift. Now two things should be kept in mind. First Giambi only hits singles and home runs to go with his walks. So unless this is the one out of 14 plate appearances that he typically homers, one base is the best you can hope for. Second, the Yankees have announced their puzzlement that Giambi's batting average has dropped from 300 to 250 despite the fact that he's hitting the ball well. Hmmm. You think it might be that there is no room in right where he hits everything and won't be until the Yankees force someone's hand? Well this is the perfect oppurtunity to do so. Lowell is actually closer to second than to third and, as we know, Giambi is a pretty fair bunter. He lays one down toward third, its a virtually certain hit and will put men on first and second nobody out. (Then you could bunt Rodriguez and hav erunners on second and third one out for someone who can hit in late innings, Robbie.) But Torre can't take the gift he is being offered. He has become so pathetic at thinking small ball, he cannot even do it when it's the only rational play. So Giambi hits the ball into the shift and presto, double play. Our second gift to the Sox courtesy of the mangement.
So that's what we've learned: the Sox, contrary to reports, suck; they may even suck as bad as the Yankees. Scott Procter sucks; he may even suck as bad as we once surmised. And of course Torre sucks; he may even suck worse every day. Oh, and Melky Cabrera is only 21 years old. I had no idea. He really could wind up being a player, like Cano. Which would mean sports journalists, you know the ones that said the Yankees had no farm system, they suck too, like Alex in the clutch.
Quote from NEWSDAY: "When it doesn't count, count on Alex"
posted by joe valente | 3:08 PM
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