Too Much Rivera?

The rain out tonightwas welcome as the Yankees have been falling into a familiar, predictable, and insalubrious pattern of requiring Mo every single game. After last week's overuse, he has now pitched 4 innings in the last 3 games. It is always nice to win the close ones, as they did last night, but the way the game became close--not so much. A healthy lead went unsupplemented by any timely hitting after the 4th and the bullpen slowly bled the advantage away until Mo played tourniquet in the 9th. Too much of that and he begins to leak.

My Night Out

Went to the Yanks-Phillies game Wed. night at Citizens Bank. It was pretty awesome; three Yankee fans for every Phillies fan; a well played game by the Yankees in the field--Posada threw out 2 (1 passed ball though) and Melky made a great catch and Cairo of all people delivered offensively, along with Damon (on base all five times) and Jeter (the key RBI single). Wrong Stuff went five innings, 2 hits, no runs, 6 KO's and managed to look just awful doing it. He actually threw more balls than strikes. And boy does he eat the bullpen (Villone, Proctor, Fahrnsworth, Rivera all combined on a 3 hit shutout).

It Could be Worse

I'll give Torre this much. At least he's not the public embarassment that Ozzie Guillen has become. apparently guilen once introduced a friend of his by noting that he was gay and so a child molester. I don't believe in sensitivity training. I believe in fines and suspensions. His latest antics should have cost him 10 games.

Lucky

The Yanks showed alot of fight in their 9-7 win 2 nights ago, but they were awfully lucky as well. first torre all but blew the game by taking a sharp Villone out just to get a right-right match up with Proctor, who combined with Meyers to allow what should have been the winning runs. Then AROd hits atypical double play ball that happens to find a seam for an RBI. Then Charlie Manuel (OK he is worse than Torre) decides to pitch the sad Arthur Rhodes for the third night in a row, and of course he gets shelled. Well, we'll take it.

A New Trend

I've just watched the Phillies, leading 5-3 in the 5th, "intentionally" walk Giambi (with Jeter aboard) to get to AROD, who, with runners on1st and 3rd, immediately accomodated them by bouncing meekly into a double play, killing the rally. He's now tied for the team league in that category. Anything else scores a run, so naturally that's what he had to do. The Nats strategy is spreading and even as the local Phillies announcers continued the journalistic habit of apologizing for AROD, the game strategy of major league managers tells you all you need to know about his real reputation under pressure.

Do the Math

Given the weakness of the pen and the weakness at the back of the rotation (which stresses the pen), the Yanks can only stay in the race if Mussina, Johnson and Wang pitch well. they have collectively provided 5 good outings in their last 6 starts. Are the Yanks 5-1 in those games, no they're 2-4 and those three wasted starts correspond exactly to the three games they've lost in the standings to the sox over that period (from 1 game up to 2 down). It's not just the pitching as the commentators seem to think.

Disgrace

This Yankees team is now displaying as large a gap between talent (not to mention payroll) and performance as any team I have ever seen. They are shaky in so many areas of fundamental baseball that one or the other is bound to cost them the close games, which they have resumed losing with regularity (it may be the only thing they're consistent at). Tonight it was situational hitting and defense.

The Phillies only had about 6 men in scoring position all night but four of them scored, three on two out hits. The Yankees went 1-10 with men in scoring postion, an infield single. They loaded the bases with 2 out in the first, scored none; they had first and second with nobody out in the fourth, scored none; they had first and third with 2 out in the 6th, scored none; they had the bases loaded with two out in the seventh, scored 1 on the infield hit. This truly disgraceful bout of impotence under pressure featured some memorably awful at bats. With Myers laboring to get the ball over in the first, which is why the bases were loaded, Posada jumped at the first pitch (not a strike) and popped out; Cabrera struck out on a ball in the dirt and then later in the game took 2 fastballs down broadway so he could strike out again on a ball in the dirt; AROD struck out looking with runners on first and third on a pitch right near the center of the plate; Cano, with runners on first and second, swung at 6 consecutive balls, 4 near the dirt, two at eye level, and struck out. Myers racked up 11 strike outs because they kept taking his fastball for strikes and swinging at curves out of the zone. Mattingly has proven no more effective in developing a hitting strategy for the younger players than the hitting coaches they fired.

So in the end they only managed to push home one runner in 10 tries. Meanwhile they gave away 2 runs, one on a throwing error by Cano and one on a "wild pitch" that was in fact one of the most inexcusable passed balls imaginable, a Posada gaffe (is he the worst defensive catcher in baseball) that just handed the Phillies an insurance run.

I have long been counseling that there is no reason to think about a championship this year; there is now no reason to think about winning the division. As BGW points out, the Sox will take care of business against these NL EAST teams (a sweep of the Braves followed by a win tonight against the Nats), while the Yankees lose series after series to them. Their chance of winning this series all but vanished tonight (they'll win tomorrow, maybe, but not Wednesday); they've already lost to the Nats; they'll surely lose to the Mets, who are quite simply a better team. By the way, the Phillies, a losing team, kept two of their best players,Ryan Howard and Bobby Abreu on the bench for the entire game. You really have to work at losing to the line-up they fielded.

Torre didn't blow this game with his tactics or absence thereof (although he must take Cabrera out of the 2 hole); the players did. But fundamentals are at least in part a managerial and coaching responsibility. The Yankees still display their considerable talent--AROD made a couple of brilliant play tonight; Giambi hit a majestic bomb--but their complacency about, indifference or inadvertence to, disdain for, the details of grinding it out, both at bat and in the field, leaves those sometimes spectacular displays unavailing so far as the main goal is concerned, just beautiful waste. And they do nothing to inoculate Yankee fans from growing sicker and sicker at the results. It's not that they are losing per se--I watched the Yankees get crushed by the Big Red Machine in the 76 Series and I was perfectly happy; I was perfectly happy when I though they were dead in the 1996 Series against the Braves--no, it's that they are playing like losers, well below their ability and just well enough to give victory away in the end. Oh, and without any of the urgency they showed in the immediate aftermath of the Sheff and Matsui injuries. It's like they found out they could win without them, so now they don't have to do what that took. From the bully ball of Saturday, to the Torre meltdown of Sunday, to the chokeball of tonight, this team has reverted to the wretched form of Aporil, when at least they could claim they were just warming up.
For the first time in quite a while, I will go to the ball park to see them Wednesday night with a sense of shame at what they've become.

Hey George! How many Games

does slow Joe have to cost the Yankees before he loses his job. I'm just a fan, but I knew Wang was through after the eighth and assumed slow Joe would take him out. How did I know? Three indices. One, Wang is always in trouble near the 100 pitch mark. Simple history; look it up. Two, Wang had pitched beautifully, but he'd been in trouble in the 8th and wriggled out on an outfield liner. In other words, he was lucky once already. Three, most importantly, from the 7th inning on he was getting his outs in the air, which means the sinker has lost its verticality. Once that happens (around the 100th pitch), Wang is a very ordinary pitcher. So go to the bullpen. I mean if you have to lose the game, let them do it, don't spoil Wang's individual effort. Torre didn't do so because he'd already overused Mo the last 2 games. Fine, pitch Villone. You haven't used him at all lately despite his effectiveness this year. When Mo was hurt, Joe made the uncharacteristically creative move of having Wang close a game (successfully). Far less creativity was required on this occasion, but the need for some thinking outside Joe's typically narrow box was every bit as necessary. When the Yanks are blowing ballgames like they did yesterday, they can't afford to have Joe throwing any games away, especially one that featured an honest to God, no dispute about it, clutch hit from AROD. The Yankees are simply not good enough to have a manager significantly worse than they are. It's time for George to stop the sentimentalization of Joe Torre while the team is still in the race.

More HeartBern

Another aspect of yesterday's loss was slow Joe's continued overuse of Bernie. The Nats comeback was fuelled by their taking extra base after extra base, despite being the one of the slowest teams in baseball. How could this be? Bernie in rightfield for the 2nd day in a row. He looked like a pensioner tending his garden out there. Aggravating thinkgs, slow Joe bats him second, where he can still the speed of the table-setters, which he did by hitting into a key double play. Crosby would have been perfect in both roles. Had he played, the Yanks might have won.

And the Winner Is...

Prior debates on the ugliest Yanks' loss of the season are for the nonce over. Joe Torre pronounced today as bad as it gets and for once the slow one is right. Gack up a 7 run lead to the lowly Nats and lose by 2 when you score 9, that's ugly. In the understatement of the year Joe said "we didn't pitch very well," but he didn't elaborate on why he still refuses to use Villone, the Bubba of the bullpen, and relies on Proctor, who has now sunk to last year's level, when John Sterling correctly noted he just couldn't get anyone out. Or why Dotel remains on the Carl Pavano plan of permanent rehab while the rest of the bullpen is imploding. Torre has even taken to overusing (and ruining) Mo again.

Everyone has a lousy 5th starter; the Yankees have 2, neither of whom can get to the 6th inning, and they have no bullpen to back them up. Chacon had the gall to complain about not being given the chance to get out of trouble in the fifth. The Yankees should not have even sent him out for the fifth. He'd already thrown alot of pitches, most of them out of the strike zone, and given up runs in succesive innings. In the fourth, he couldn't throw a low strike to save his life and the high ones were clearly hittable. Knowing they were going to send him out in the 5th I hon estly didn't feel the 9-2 lead was all that safe and feared it might be a 9-5 game by the time he left (it was 9-6). The pathetic thing was that the batters hitting him mostly had averages under 250. Guidry wants him to throw more fastballs, but that is because his breaking pitch has lost most of its bite, the bite that made him effective last year.

The Yankees bullpen is now in full reversion mode and even with an effective Dotel, its hard to see how the likes of Proctor, Farnsworth and Meyers can carry the incredibly weak back of the rotation. The recipe for the most brutal dog days in memory is in place. If the Yankees haven't fallen out of it by the deadline, Cashman has to fiind a pitcher, and a good middle reliever might prove easier to obtain than a starter. Small has now been officially cut, as we knew he would be, had too be, but the scary thing is he's been pretty much as good as Chacon lately.

An ancillary point of interest. Experts like Joe Morgan can say what they like, but even after AROD singled and homered in the early innings, no less a baseball man than Frank Robinson, someone who genuinely belongs in the Hall of Fame, intentionally walked Giambi to get to AROD with the game on the line in the 8th. What we know and Robinson verified is that while AROD will not stay in this 275 funk, his inevitable break out, which may have started today, will not make him a clutch performer either. Robinson proved that AROD's choking is not in the eye of overly demanding fans, it is a matter of statistical percentages, the kind you build game strategy around.

Last note: Tim McCarver wondered aloud today why Giambi never bunted to bust the shift like he did last year. When you're noy only slower than slow Joe Morgan but even slower than the village idiot of spots announcing, you, Mr. Joe Torre, are really slow,

Chiasmus

You don't expect to get blown out 8-4 with Moose on the mound. But that is just the kind os loss there's no point grieving over. It'a long season and sometimes you are going to be out of games from the start. I makes tonight's late-inning come from behind win all the more heartening.

I have to admit that even allowing for the ebb and flow of the season to date, Bernie is making a liar out of me. Don't get me wrong, with his spaghetti arm and leaden legs, he should not be allowed anywhere near the outfield, but the Yanks could do worse, at least against lefties. The question at this point is whether defense is more essential at 1B or in RF. If the former, play Phillips; if th a perfect chance to help the team with a ope latter, play Crosby. With Williams hiitting in the 230's against righties and Philllips considerably worse agaisnt lefties a crossposition platoon would seem to be in order with the Giambi the dependent variable (playing eitgher 1B or DH) and Crosby the constant in right.

In an instance of perfect negative symmetry, AROD hit a meaningless HR--oh, I'm sorry, another meaningless HR yesterday and tonightcame up with a productive out or to be a hero with a knock (7th inning, runners on 2nd and 3rd, one out, Yanks down 2) and what did he do, safely ensconced in D.C., away from all those nasty N.Y. fans and their overblown expectations: he struck out looking, a form of choking he's been perfecting of late (see Still Counting). Just another weapon in his arsenal of defeat.

Finally!

In his comment on the June 11 posting, BGW pointed out how Torre's refusal to retaliate had in effect made human pinadas out of his batters. Even Johnson, BGW remarked, who has always relied on intimidation, had fallen under the spell of Torre's exorbitant conscientiousness. Well no more. After a buzzing of Jeter and a plunking of Jorge, Johnson sent one high and hard at Perez and while I would have preferred that the Indians first baseman spent the rest of his evening getting his cracked ribs taped--especially since Johnson got ejected anyway--I think the message was sent. I won't say BGW exerted influence over the Yankees practices, but he was certainly proven right in his assessment. HArold Reynolds had commented how rare it was for the Yankees to retaliate--if he knows it, so do opposing pitchers. The fans in the stands went crazy cheering for Johnson after the chin music, proving that they understand the consequences of failing to honor the code better than Torre himself. Finally thier players expressed appreciation, noting that they were getting beat up out there and an unmeasured respon se was accordingly necessary. They didn't say so, but their message to the staff and the manager was clear--what took you so long? Which goes to show that BGW was also correct in his sense that the Yankees' excessive restraint in this regard had come at the price of team solidarity.

The win puts the Yankees back in first, and various players, along with Torre hinself, were talking afterwards as if some corner had been turned. If this piece of frontier justice proves as decisive for the Yankees fortunes as the buzz would indicate, BGW would have earned a promotion from fan/analyst to prophet.

Sad

2 on and 2 out and I'm actually glad that broken down old Bernie is up instead of AROD. Now that's sad.

And we're off..

AROd begins the game by striking out...again. The 4th time in his last five ab's. I can hear the booing from here and I'm 5 states away.

Split Decision

A win is always heartening especially when you're on a slide, but tonight was made better by the performance of Wang. I don't mean his line so much, though that was impressive, but that he challenged hitters when he got into difficulty, instead of trying to make them bite on bad pitches that result in walks. At 7-2 with a 4.15 ERA, he is developing into a pretty good number 2 starter, despite his sporadic timidity. He's better than most teams have in that slot anyway.

On the other hand, the offense was dreadful, and I don't just mean the line score. As the previous posts indicate they took an opher with runners in scoring position, and won the game courtsy of a solo home run, hardly an auspicious sign for the future.

It has become impossible for this offense to function with either Jeter or Giambi out of the lineup as one or the other has been for the past week. That is not only owing to the absence of you know who, but the complete meltdown of Err-rod. After an 0-4 tonight, with three strikeouts, his average has sunk into to 270's. I think we may be looking at an etremely high-priced position player equivalent of the legendary Yankee feeb Doyle Alexander. You know, Cashman should be able to get alot for this guy if he'd just eat most of the salary the Rangers aren't already digesting. Time to trade? He can go back to playing SS and the Yankees can go back to relying on their stars.

Still counting...

In the fifth Err-rod looks at strike 2 and strike 3 on consecutive pitches. You can't make this stuff up.

Still Counting II

Third inning first and second nobody out and Err-Rod pops out to short left. 0-6 RISP. Now Posada and Cano have flown out. We are only in the third inning and the Yankees are already 0-8 with menin scoring position. This is just the kind of disgraceful ball they were playing earlier in the year. And needless to say, not one bunt in any of these abortive rallies.

Still Counting !!

And now they're 0-5 with RISP!

Still Counting

First inning, first and third, one out and Err-rod strikes out. He's in a position for an Rbi without getting a hit and he can't even make contact against a journeyman softballer like Paul Byrd. Yankees load em up and don't score. Already 0-2 with RISP.

How Bad Is Err-ROD, Let Me Count the Ways

The condescending pundits who have been tsk-tsking Yankess fans for their disgust with the 25 million dollar bust have been hiding behind the ambiguity which attends the word clutch. Recognizing Err-Rod's reputation for failing when it counts, they sometimes interrupt the game with irritating know-it all questions like, well does this count, does this count as clutch, only to fall silent when Err-Rod pops out to the first baseman in foul territory. I propose to demystify things a bit by stting aside the question of clutchness altogether. Let us call every at bat and every play in the field equal just for those smarty pants who are too stupid to grasp things otherwise. Where does the highest paid player in the history of the game, adjusted for inflation mind you, where does he stand among the leaders in the various categories that define excellence in his profession. Batting average, well Jeter is among the leaders but not Err-ROD; hits, well Jeter is among the leaders, but not Err-rod; Homers, well Giambi is among the leaders but not Err-Rod; RBI's, well Giambi's among the leaders, but not Err-rod; slugging %, well there's Giambi again but not Err-rod; stolen bases, well there's Jeter again, but not Err-Rod. Do you mean to tell me that we are almost halfway through June and Err-rod hasn't bobbed into the leaders in any category other than salary, where he reigns supreme. Oh, I'm sorry I forgot to cite the one category where he bestrides the league like a collossus. That would be errors committed, which is why we call him Err-rod.

Don't give me this crap about expectations. AROD has just plain sucked, by any reasonable standard for a player who is supposed to be and paid to be good, let alone great. Stop condescending to us all you would be journalists. I know he doesn't treat you like Albert Belle, Steve Carlton or Barry Bonds did, which is to say as you deserve, but that doesn't mean he's earning his money or our respect.

A Brief Word from the Wankers at ESPN

Even allowing for the Yankees' troubles, the pro-Sox bias over at the world wide leader in puffery has achieved farcical dimensions. First, there is the truly crapulent Karl Ravech (rhymes with Gammons' bitch) who insists that of all the possible pitching match-ups in the histroy of baseball, he'd most like to see Red Sox non-Hall of Famer Luis Tiant vs. former Red Sox future Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez. I mean why bother fantasizing about Lefty Grove and Walter Johnson when you've got Luis Tiant! (Well at least Harold Reynolds reminded the Ra-bitch that there once was a pitcher named Sandy Koufax).

But I digress. The comment worth noting from this insufferable diamond-retard is that while the Tigers could well finish ahead of the Yankees (and they could), Boston's pitching, yes their pitching, would assure them a place in the playoffs. I was left wondering what pitching in Chowderville was worthy of such confidence. Was it Blow-up Josh Beckett (5.26 ERA) or Tim (leading the league in losses) Wakefield, David (too fat for my own knees) Wells, Matt (headcase) Clement, with his 6 plus ERA, or maybe the new guy Jon Lester, whose ERA, just now, is even higher. Rudy Seanez perhaps or Manny DelCarmen or Tavares or Foulke or all those other mediocrities holding Papelbon's coat. The Red Sox may well make the playoffs, thanks to the weakness of their division, but their pitching will not carry them past the Tigers unless Detroit collapses.

Then they interviewed Joe Morgan, who lives to prove that you can play the game of baseball and play it well without knowing a blessed thing about it.

He was queried by the Ra-bitch as to whether the Yankees title hopes were in peril (well duh!). Morgan responded that they were owing to all those injuries (i.e. don't blame AROD) and that the Yankees were going to need a series of stops from Johnson and Mussina if they were going to get back in the race. His insights sent me running to the newspaper for fear that I, in some miniaturized version of Rip Van Winkle, had fallen asleep for some indeterminate period during which the Yankees fell from being just one game out of first place in early June to some much greater distance back at a later and more perilous date. But no such thing, of course, had occured, as the wankers themselves suggested just 2 minutes later when they pronounced the Angels "in the thick of the race" despite being eight games under 500, 6 games out of first and closer to the Mariners than to the Rangers. At that point I could only sit there wondering, do these guys listen to themselves when they speak. I use to marvel in the seventies at the vacuity of Joe Garagiola and Curt Gowdy. But I'll give them this much. Their endless cycle of platitude and cliche did inoculate them against the kind of patently tendentious stupidity that passes for expertise on ESPN.

Upon Further Review

Looking at the tape it's clear that Swisher was dead to rights at the plate on his inside the parker. But of course Jorge doesn't block the plate, on principle, and so that old Yankee softness played a part in the sweep as well.

Aftermath: The Red Sox are just as bad...well almost.

Despite the inspiring 3-run walk-off by Ortiz, waking up the echoes of 2004, when the Sox were just unbeatable in Fenway, Chowder-nation's team went on to lose game 2 in a rout, leaving the Yankees just 1 game back after their worst stretch of the season. If it were not for Ortiz's heroics, the Sox would have been swept at hone by Texas, even as the Yanks suffered the same indignity courtesy of the A's. The way the Sox lost this series evidences weaknesses that rival, though they by no means surpass the Yankees. They lost game 1 because their newest pitching god, John Lester, looks like he might not be up to the role just yet; they lost game 3 of the series because David Pauley blows and a bullpen manned by the likes of Rudy Seanez and another of the great young hopes, DelCarmen, isn't any great shakes either. In short they have no number 5 starter and no bridge to Papelbon. Sound familiar. They almost lost game 2 of the series because Josh Beckett go rocked yet again (4 runs in 5 innings). That makes four bad outings in a row for their number 2 starter, whose ERA is at 5.26. Does any of this sound familiar? Meanwhile their no. starter has an ERA about a run and a half higher than the Yankees no. 1 starter; their number three starter has a record that is three full games (5 in the loss column) behind the Yanks' no. 3 starter; and their number 4 starter (Clement) has been even worse, with a much worse record, than mr. mediocrity, Shawn Chacon. Where they have been superior all season long, even when the Yanks had Sheff and Matsui, was in the consistency of their offense, and nobody would have predicted that at the start of the year. The reason? They try to get hits, with only Ortiz, Ramirez and Varitek looking to drive the ball (and Varitek is proof that approach isn't for everyone). Loretta, Lowell, Youkils, Crisp, Nixon. They all try to put the ball in play. Their as slow on the bases as their fans are in the head, so they can't really play small ball. But since they take the contact approach on every at bat, abnd never give up at bats to inattention or impatience, they are in non-stop practice for those game turning RISP situations and are, as a result, as proficient at converting them as the Yankees are hopeless.

Oh yeah, the Sox don't play like my grade school team in the field either. Toady's game at the stadium was lost on miscues by Damon-Cabrera, AROD, the king of the errant throw, and Proctor, who in addition to pitching like shit can't field little hoppers cleanly. After the game Damon actually said that they had put a good game together but couldn't close the deal. "We'll overcome this," he promised. Well, if he and his teammates continue to regard any game in which they commit 2 errors, one of them crucial, one passed ball, and two other fielding misadventures, both leading to runs, as a "putting together a good game," then I daresay they will never overcome this.


Still, the Sox are just bad enough that if the Yankees could get with the program Torre talks but doesn't pursue, they might be able to stay in the race for awhile. Of course that assumes that AROD actually starts hitting. They can win in this depleted state but only if he starts stepping up like the superstar he's supposed to be and helps to carry the team. The saga of the shrinking AROd continued today witha tidy 0-3.

Quick notes:
Can someone tell me why with Andy Phillips so hot Torre takes him out for 2 games in a row?
The more regularly Bernie plays in the field, the more he breaks down at the plate. Where is Bubba? He was supposed to be back by now, and whether Torre knows it or not, they need him.
For that matter, where is Dotel? How many fucking rehab outings does this guy need? He's a reliever for Chrissake! If he's throwing thirty pitches and he's doing okay, let him throw them at the stadium in place of Proctor or Farnsworth.

Final In Game Comment

Blow Joe doesn't pinch hit for Cairo. Does he even want to win?

Mark it on your calendar folks. Barring some major, and rather desparate, acquisitions, the Yankees season ended today. Over and out.

In Game Comment IV

Top of the ninth. Pinch hit Giambi for Cairo, and when they put on the shift, have Giambi bunt his way on. Pinch run the minor league infielder for Giambi. Have Damon bunt him over. Look to get a game tying single out of Jeter or AROD. By the way, I will sign off by noting that if the Yankees lose this game, the blame falls not only on the shoulders of Farnsworth, but on Err-Rod, who cost them the tying run with his fucking eleventh error of the season.

In Game Comment III

Fly out, fly out, fly out, strike out, fly out. All the late inning outs as we move to the ninth indicate that the Yankees are swinging for the fences determined to tie or win the game on the long ball. This continues the trend that has cost them the last three games and is about to cost them a fourth.

In Game Comment II

I said in yesterday's post that the season might well be in the balance right now. Well Ortiz just hit a game winning walk off 3 run homer in the bottom of the ninth, averting what looked like certain defeat. And the Yankees failed to play small ball in the 7th, refused to bunt Jeter, even though he's not hitting just now, and Farnsworth coughed up the 2nd homer of the day to a 225 hitter on the A's, putting the Yankees behind. If they don't find a way to pull this out they will likely be 2 full games behind the Red Sox by the end of the day, and if that happens, if the Red Sox sweep the doubleheader that was starting so badly for them, while the Yankees get swept at home by the A's, I predict the Yankees will have made their last trip to first place in the East this season and will miss the playoffs for the first time since 1994. When you have both a faulty approach (that damn Torre is still waiting on the long ball) and injuries to players that made that approach seem (and I emphasize seem) viable, you have all the makings of a mediocre baseball team. At this rate, I'd say 90 wins...and that won't get it done.

Remember when Farnsworth blew up during Mo's injury and Torre excused it with comment that he was not expected to close games but to set up effectively. What is there to say now except that he can't seem to do the job with the requisite consistency. A 4.36 ERA for a reliever is just horrendous! Demote Farnsworth to the 6th and 7th and pitch Villone as set up.

In Game Comment

For all those professional commentators who wonder why Yankees fans don't warm up to AROD, consider that he has not only become a low-light reel of throwing errors, but that he can be counted on to commit them when they count most. He just threw the ball away allowing Chavez to go to third, whence he scored on a little ground out. The A's get a gift run, to tie the game mind you, courtesy of Err-Rod.

By the way, the other night when Joe Morgan was doing what has become standard issue AROD apologia, he expressed his incredulity at fan's attitudes toward Arod by citing his current stats, beginning with a 287 batting average. I mean how can they complain, he's hitting 287, that was Morgan's position. How can they complain? For 25,000, 000 per annum, why that's only 40 points below Mike Lowell, 30 points below Kevin Youlkilis, 30 points below Trot Nixon, and 20 points or so below Mark Loretta. I mean who are we to repine with production like that. Didn't this guy used to be a consistent 325 hitter. Didn't he used to be the classic 5 tool player, even if he never worried anyone in the clutch? Now he can't throw and he can't hit for average. The buck went up and the bang went down. That's always cause for complaint.

With Apologies to Paul Simon

Backsliding away, Backsliding away, they no sooner get your hopes up than their...Backsliding away.

The three game slide that the Yankees are on is particularly worrisome because it has resulted from some serious reversion to the bad old ways of April. Once again today, they relied entirely on the home run for offense while exacerbating the abysmal situational failures of the last two games. Jorgr left a runner in scoringf position in the 6th; they put men on second and third with one out in the 7th and came up empty; they loaded the bases in the 8th and put up a goosegg. In so doing they wasted another good performance from Mussina (7 innings, 3 earned). Whesreas Jeter helped to lose last game with an unpardonable baserunning error (making the last out at third base), Cano helped to lose this one by committing an unpardonable fielding error (muffing the most routine of groundballs). This team could not win consistently with Matsui and Sheffield when they neglected the fundamentals; they sure won't be able to do so without them. For his part, Torre contributed to the loss with his usual tactical ineptitude. Instead of using his best power pinchhitter, Phillips, for the untried Kevin Thompson in the 8th, with 2 outs and the bases loaded, he waits till the ninth when they're down three and there's noone on base. Brilliant!

It might seem a little operatic to suggest that the season hangs in the balance right now, but consider: the Yankees are only in the race because they have been able to avoid extended losing streaks all season long. With the line-up this depleted, they need to play with urgency, attention to detail, and a dogged refusal to let their opportunities slip away if they are to continue avoid the big plunge. What they cannot do is lose games at home, with Mussina on the mound, pitching well, against the 5th starter of a mediocre team like the A's. What they really can't afford is to get swept. The concentration, intensity, and care that comes in the wake of daunting adversity has begun to abate. If the prospect of a lost season doesn't bring it back, and quickly, that prospect will become a reality, and quickly.

Somebody Wake Joe Up

and let him know that recent winning trends notwithstanding, his team is not that good right now and he needs to manage accordingly.

1) He's the one who finally said, a couple of weeks ago, that they had to go small ball. Well, the last time I checked that means when you have men on 1st and 2nd nobody out, you bunt. Hd Cano been asked to do that in the second inning Williams' grounder would have brought in a run, one they needed badly. In any event you don't want Williams up there with force possibilities and one out; the chance he'll end the inning with one swing is just too great. Small ball is not always indicated, but if your going to wion by that philosophy, you must always play it when it is indicated, and it clearly was.

2) Your line-up is too weak to carry the ineffectual Miguel Cairo at any time, but when you are down 5 runs in the middle innings and you have the bases loaded and two out, you simply must pinch hit for him. That's why you brought up the minor league reserve infielder, for just those sorts of emergencies. You had Andy Phillips on the bench for the second game in a row. That was the time to use him. Getting nothing in the sixth was a killer; all the more so when you got 4 in the seventh.

3) I wonder if the news about Sheff's surgery hasn't daunted the team a bit. They thought they were grinding on the high wire for a good stretch, but now it looks like the entire season. You have to play Bubba regularly as soon as he returns. He's a high energy player, will save runs in right, and lets you sit Bernie or DH him. Bernie's hitting better than most of us expected so far, but that probably has to do with the various kinds of rest he's been getting throughout the year. If in the absence of Hideki and Sheff, you think you can just slot him in, you will not only be giving runs away left and right (depending on the field you play him in), but you'll have a 240 hitter on your hands in no time.

The good news is the Yanks didn't fade away when Johnson put them deep in the hole; they kept fighting, a habit that, if sustained, could earn nthem a wild card bid even without the corner outfielders. Detroit has started to fade and fade dramatically and noone else, including Toronto, looks all that promising (they just lost Chacin and Oakland lost Harden for months).

The bad news is that Johnson looks to be done, at least as an ace, leaving the Yanks with one fine starter, one decent starter, one bullpen killer (Wright), one model of inconsistency (Chacon) and perhaps the new Kevin Brown. Given the bullpen weakness, getting to the playoffs itself looks pretty moot. At this point, they should part with nothing to make acquisitions, but if this crew manages to stay in the race until the trade deadline, let's say no more than 3 out of a playoff spot, then I think they go looking for a starter.

Let Me Count the Ways

that was the ugliest loss of the year. Well it was Boston for starters.

Then you throw in slow Joe's atrocious handling of his pitchers. In the 6th Wright began by giving Ramirez an absolute meatball to hit and Manny got so excited he overswung and missed it. Wright proceeded to walk him despite having him down 0-2 in the count. Then Nixon singles. At this point a sharp manager begins thinking it might be time for a change. But when Varitek singles, even a mediocre manager recognizes he's got to get Wright out. I'm sure all of us at home were saying take him out; Joe Morgan was saying he was losing it, and when your thought processes aren't keeping up with Joe Morgan, you really are a slow Joe. Then Torre takes him out only to satisfy his Scott Proctor addiction. After a couple of decent outings and with the odd exception, this guy has been growing steadily worse again as attested by his steadily balooning ERA. Proctor of course let's the game go totally out of hand by giving up a dinger to the second worst bat on the team. And Scott Erickson? Can somebody tell me why this mook with a plus 8 era is even in the major leagues?

The offense reverted to its homer or nothing ways, which in a lineup lacking both Matsui and Sheffield can be really deadly. I've said I think the Yankees can win without them by reinventing their approach and I still think that's the case, but over the long term 2 things have to happen. They need to be at as full strength as possible. Torre can't be yanking Phillips on a night he doesn't have Jeter either, and, as BGW has pointed out, AROD and Giambi have to supply real muscle in the middle of the line-up. AROD looked flat out lost at the plate last night. Jeez, he came up in completely meaningless situations twice and still couldn't get the ball out of the infield. If you can't count on Alex when it doesn't count you know he's going bad. And Giambi simply has to bunt that shift out of existence; he lost one hit maybe two to the shift last night and the frustration involved is increasing his self-defeating tendency to just look for the walk. They have to have him bunt and bunt and bunt untill the shift is taken off. With a little swing bunt action, he could be getting doubles down the 3rd base line. That he doesn't is merely evidence that Torre remains even more clueless about offensive strategy than about handling pitchers. And that is saying something. All I can say at this point is Ocatavio Dotel ahd better be good! If not, this bullpen is almost sure to cost them the playoffs, particularly since slow Joe refuses to try Villone as his main middleman, which means he doesn't have one worhty of the name.

666

And if the Yankees winning a game with defense isn't a sign of the apocalypse I don't know what is. Helluva catch Melky.

Blog Proof

Sometimes there's nothing to do but enjoy.

I will say this, though, Josh Beckett's ERA is now virtually identical to Randy Johnson's. So when are the wankers over at Red Sox Network going to start gleefully wringing their hands in phony concern for his future as an ace?

It Is with the Deepest Regret that We Announce the Passing...

of Aaron Small. In 2005, he reminded us all of the good old days when the pinstripes made a major leaguer out of any cast off, wannabe mook who put them on (remember Danny Doyle or Charlie Hayes? How about the never to be forgotten Phil Linz or, more recently, Jim Leyrich?) In any event, Small was a gas, a thirty something career minor leaguer who popped up for a cup of coffee and went 10-0, without any discernible stuff whatsoever. For one brief shining moment, he was like the right-handed Jamie Moyer or a Greg Maddux without the ridiculously oversized strike zone umps awarded him as a handicap.

But now he's given up 9 homers in 22 innings, which means his HRA is nearly 4.00. His ERA of course is considerably higher, pushing double figures. And he doesn't seem to be improving. Nor should we expect him to. He is getting pasted precisely the way a 30-something career minor leaguer with no discernible stuff should get pasted. But now the better (if not especially good) Shawn Chacon is returning and we should and presumably will see no more of Aaron, unless we happen to be passing through Ohio of a summer evening and pause to catch an Int. league game. I can't see the Yankees putting him in the bullpen, where he was really bad. I mean how many guys fit for nothing but mop-up work (Meyer, Proctor, Smith, and sometimes Farnsworth) does one team need. So it is good-bye to Mr. Small, who would have lingered in the collective memory of Yankee fans forever had the Bombers been able to win it all last year. As it stands, he had a brief, funky, altogether lucky, but not undeserving fling with acclaim; he earned his million dollar contract for this year, last year; and now he can resume earning whatever they were paying him last year, in what promises to be the twilight of a career that almost never was.

See you later Aaron. You were among the very few Yankees on this team--Jeter, Bubba, Cano, Rivera, Matsui --whom I never cursed.

The Cat in the Hat

"And look! With my tail
I can hold a red fan!
I can fan with the fan
As I hop on the ball!
But that is not all.
Oh, no.
That is not all..."


And look, I can win without Matsui, his arm in a sling,
and I can win without out Sheff, who can't take a swing.
But that is not all, no that is not all.
I can win without Johnny D., whose little toe hurt,
I can win without Derek, who slammed his hand in the dirt.
But that is not all. Oh, no that is not all.
I can win without baby Carl, whose nowhere in sight,
and still harder to imagine, I can win with Jared Wright.
I can win without AROD, who has some sort of flu,
and I can win without Giambi, whom he gave it to.
I can win without Bubba, and his unappreciated flair,
I can win without Jorge, in need of equipment repair.
I can win without Chacon and say it ain't so,
I have even begun to win without Mo.
And what's beyond belief, it's just so sublime,
I can win without most of them at the same time.
But that is not all, no that is not all.

With all these youngsters and
all these no-names,
I'm actually able
to win the close games.

A Nice Win, But...

Torre really cannot manage a lick. One deficiency we have barely touched on here is his inability to use his bull pen. He is more likely to yank a reliever for no good reason, one that hasn't been touched, than he is to yank one that is in the midst of getting roughed up. I guerss he believes he's really managing when he forces certain match ups, but when you have relievers as precarious as his, you should ride every hot hand you have. On Thursday, he took out Resner, who had retired 5 in a row, to put in Meyers against the lefy, who promptly doubled. Then he put Farnsworth out there in the ninth, even though Proctor was having one of his rare lights-out performances, and he warmed up noone (Villone was available) just in case Farnsworth was off. Well we know what happened, but more important than the result was that one could predict the result from the very first batter, whom F. actually retired. Granderson fouled off pitch after pitch, indicating that F.'s fastball was straightening out as it sometimes does. The parade of hits thatr followed should have come as no surprise to Joe. They didn't to me. If he had Villone ready, he might well have salvaged the game or at least sent it into extras, where the Yanks would have stood a good chance.

Still, you have to enjoy last night's win, without Sheff, Matsui, Posada, AROD, Rivera. It's like the whole damn team was missing. But Phillips is finally showing he can play, Cabrera always gets his hits, ditto Cano, and when Giambi and Jeter are hot that's enough. They just completed thier ninth consecutive game with 10 or more hits--a contact team at last--a feat they haven's accomplished since the 1950's, when Berra and Mantle were carrying the load. By the way at 346 this late in the season, and with 3 hits last night in the 3 hole, should Jeter be left there? How about: Damon, Cabrera, Jeter, Giambi, AROD, Posada, Cano, Phillips, Crosby (when he returns--wrap around, baby).

But Joe--don't push your luck. Rivera said he was fine yesterday; pitch him today if need be. He's not being a "hero" your being the marshmallow you always are. He's the one player they really can't do without. The leads keep disappearing late, and if you lose too many of these games, you risk demoralization.

felix culpas

Gary Sheffield's fall, like Matsui's before him, has apparently cost him the season. If this is devastating at one level, I would like to suggest that at another it is liberating.

After the Yankees expressed more relief than ecstasy after Boone's epic shot to beat the Bosox (again) in 2003, one sportswriter, an unusually acute member of his degraded species, wrote of their "joyless pursuit of perfection." And while the committment to excellence, continuing excellence, is never to be deprecated, it is the case that perfection can be the enemy of excellence much as the best can be the enemy of the good. And the way that hostility is to be measured is precisely in the loss of joie de endeavour. The Yankees and their fans, myself included, have always carried an obsession with winning it all right now, every year. It has on the whole served them well, making them at once the most en-titled and the most deserving sports collectivity in history. But it has also caused them to field consistently veteran, not to say elderly teams, teams built for immediate success, and in so doing it has robbed all of us of one of the more joyful baseball experiences, the sense of futurity and the savoring of a somewhat uncertain expectation, combined with an assured understanding that the present is for competitiveness, not ultimate victory.

Without Sheffield and Matsui, make no mistake, the Yankees will not be winning any world championships this year, not unless they ruin the future by picking up aging ballplayers looking for one last run. Exactly what they shouldn't do, both for the sake of the team and for the sake of their fans. The fast and furious run of injuries (which include Damon, Posada and now Rivera) are an opportunity not just to reinvent the team-- prioritizing youth, speed, glovework and situational hitting--but the fans as well, allowing us to let go of our presentist/triumphalist obsession and enjoy the younger players being competitive, doing well, even if that does not mean finally winning it all. Of course we will need some help from Torre on this one, but who knows maybe he'll do the right thing for once. Surround your veteran core, those you should be playing even if they're nicked--Damon, Jeter, Giambi, Posada--with the Canos, the Phillips, the Cabreras and for god sakes, not the Longs or Williams but the Crosbys, as soon as Bubba is ready. And by all means pitch Resner. Let's get the kids ready for the future and get all of us oriented to a horizon longer than the next game. We should learn to enjoy--if only every once in awhile, and even then out of necessity--the pleasures of player development. Two-thirds of the outfield, one half of the infield will finally be under thirty, and all of them, except maybe Cabrera is a better than average fielder. Something new, in more than one sense. This team is good enough in my view to hang around in the race without really having a serious chance of going to the series, or maybe even the playoffs. Like Cleveland last year. They were exciting, and the Yanks can be too, maybe for the first time since 1998. But they will only be exciting if we are baseball fans enough to be excited at the prospect, at the condition, that is, of prospectiveness.

When Adam and Eve leave Eden at the end of Paradise Lost, they paradoxically had a much larger world for wandering than they had before the fall. I want to suggest that we might have larger horizons as Yankees fans than we did before the respective falls of our outfield superstars.

Torre Blows Another One

Tonight's loss was tough and one is tempted to acknowledge that it is always a challenge beating a good team 4 times in a row at their place, that it is that much more unlikely when your team is so depleted, that you add the loss of Mo to all the others and there is very little a manager like Torre can do. Certainly one can't blame Torr for bringing in Farnsworth. That was clearly the play under the circumstances. One can blame Farnsworth himself of course, and more than that one can blame the pitch selection, which does return us toTorre. With one out and noone on, Marcus Thames was making it crystal clear that he could neither hit nor layoff the high fastball. Farnsworth starts getting it down, and then getting cute, and pretty soon he's walked the guy. He then gets Pudge in a 0-2 hole and instead of changing the velocity and eye angle, he comes back with another breaking pitch down and away, and he loses him too. And that was really the game.

But I would argue that the game shouldn't have and likely wouldn't have been that close in the 9th were it not for Miguel Cairo's absence of any hitting ability whatever. Which begs the question, why was he out there? When Jeter sat the night before, against his will, Torre made it clear it was just for one night; he further made it clear that Jeter was indeed ready to go tonight. When you are already missing two-thirds of your starting outfield and your indispensable closer, why in the world wouldn't you play your best position guy when you have the chance. The answer, pardon my bluntness, is that Torre is a fuckin old woman. He likes to baby his boys, to blow their little boo-boos up out of all proportion, and when he can't do that anymore, he relies on the playing it safe mantra. My God, he's not a baseball manager, he's the world's highest paid nanny. If the Yankees are going to be playing baseball in October, they've got to win the games they have a chance to win. When Cairo came up with the bases loaded and 2 outs, the move was clear, it was unmistakeable, it was mandatory. Pinch hit Jeter. Give yourself a chance to break the game open. On the road you need to put them away, especially when you are lacking the closer who can.


Sidenote: I have written in the past of Yankee softness, which we have thankfully seen less of lately (except for mother Joe of course). But I have to say that Wang is really a squishball. When he's going good he's amazing, but everytime he gets into trouble, he just goes to pieces. The fourth inning tonight was really inexcusable.

Which brings us back to what the Yankees really need, even with the loss of Matsui and now probably Sheffield for the season: a starting pitcher. They might be able to reach the playoffs with what they have--the West stinks and Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago and even Minnesota look like they're going to beat up on one another--but they'll never go past the first round. Instead of "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain," their slogan will be "Moose, and then we lose and lose and lose."

Okay, so this is weird

When Sheffield and Matsui went down, I opined that the Yankees had been given an oppurtunity to remake themselves as a speed and contact team, relying on Jeter, Damon, Crosby, Cabrera to do so. It hasn't exactrly worked out that way, because such a plan requires s degree of managerial execution well beyond slow Joe's ken, as evidenced by the loss ot K.C. last week. Having said that they do look like a better team without Matsui, and Sheffield and for one night, unbelievably, without Damon and Jeter as well ( and all without Crosby to boot). How do we account for the coincidence of their depleted lineup and their winning ways (7 of the last 8, 2 in a row against Boston at Fenway, three in a row against the winningest team in baseball at heir yard). Well to start with, they have become more of a contact hitting team; their lineup involves, perforce, less reliance on the long ball and in so doing automatically distributes responsibilty more evenly through the lineup. Responding to this constraint, they seem to fight for each at bat more, and the stas, like AROD, seem less insouciant. Even so, they can't expect to score as much, so they also seem to concentrate a little bit more in the field on not giving away runs--a mind set which in turn improves the pitching. As a result, even though they still can't bunt a lick, particularly in the absence of Jeter and Crosby, the best on the team (Cabrera's attempt tonight was a disgrace), and even though Torre still won't take any significant chances (a squeeze play was clearly in order with AROD on third in the eighth), they have been a better all around team as a lesser all around line-up. I'm not suggesting that this can continue; they need to get Damon back in center as quickly as possible, Crosby back in right, and Sheffield back at DH, but it does show that a sense of urgency on the field is worth a superstar or three on paper. Torre ought to take this opportunity to insist on their training the bunt, sac and squeeze, and to think about showing the same urgency in his offensive strategy that his team is now showing in their play.