To Paraphrase the ol' Perfessor,
Can't anybody here play the field. In a game where the Yankees got another heartening performance out of a starter, Rasner, a brilliant game out of the entire bullpen, and manged to scratch out an extra-inning win, the inability of this team to catch and throw remains a big and troubling story. Jeter committed two more errors, for 5 on the season, and he's supposed to be the most dependable infielder we have. I have defended his gold gloves in the past, citing his brilliance on balls to his right, balls anywhere in the air, and his non pareil work as a cut off man. Plus he was so solid on the routine plays. Not anymore. All of his botches have been really inexcusable--I hate to say this, but he looks more like AROD out there than AROD. Another error from Abreu tonight as well, and he's supposed to be our most reliable outfielder. Four errors in all, another insupportably ugly night in the field.
I'm waiting for the frauds over at Red Sox Network to issue some sort of retraction on how dreadful the Yankees starting pitching is this year. All three of the starts against the Twins were excellent, as was Rasner's tonight. Igawa's last night was certainly good, even very good. Every single starter that looked bad the first time around has come back with a strong performance this go round, and Wang will be back in 10 days. I'm not ready to pronounce this rotation sound, and I cwertainly think they could use help from a Hughes, but reports of their demise were certainly premature. The patient looks like he might be recovering and is clearly out of immediate danger.
Final note: having hit his 7th homer this season tonight, AROD popped out in a key situation, 8th inning , 2 down, bases loaded. The announcers were quick to point out that he can't come through all the time, which would be fair enough if he hasn't failed far more than he has succeeded in the late innings, even during this hot stretch. Having said that, I wouldn't be upset with this out if it weren't so obvious that it occured becasue AROD was swinging for the fences. I don't think he choked, at least not in the classic AROD style, he rather got overconfident with his swing, as Gary Sheffield was so prone to do in his last years with the Yankees. And like Sheffield, the result is a skyball. A single scores 2, and at that point in the game 2 should be all you need. There's no percentage in overswinging.
I'm waiting for the frauds over at Red Sox Network to issue some sort of retraction on how dreadful the Yankees starting pitching is this year. All three of the starts against the Twins were excellent, as was Rasner's tonight. Igawa's last night was certainly good, even very good. Every single starter that looked bad the first time around has come back with a strong performance this go round, and Wang will be back in 10 days. I'm not ready to pronounce this rotation sound, and I cwertainly think they could use help from a Hughes, but reports of their demise were certainly premature. The patient looks like he might be recovering and is clearly out of immediate danger.
Final note: having hit his 7th homer this season tonight, AROD popped out in a key situation, 8th inning , 2 down, bases loaded. The announcers were quick to point out that he can't come through all the time, which would be fair enough if he hasn't failed far more than he has succeeded in the late innings, even during this hot stretch. Having said that, I wouldn't be upset with this out if it weren't so obvious that it occured becasue AROD was swinging for the fences. I don't think he choked, at least not in the classic AROD style, he rather got overconfident with his swing, as Gary Sheffield was so prone to do in his last years with the Yankees. And like Sheffield, the result is a skyball. A single scores 2, and at that point in the game 2 should be all you need. There's no percentage in overswinging.
posted by joe valente | 2:51 AM
2 Comments:
Great post about the bullpen, "roles," etc. Farnsworth is a head case who is obviously pitching scared right now. In ways that normally make me puke, John Sterling often praises Slow Joe for how he helps his ballplayers "feel good about themselves." Well, he could make F feel good about himself by doing as Joe V. suggests--keep him out of big spots and set him up against the weakest opposing batters until further notice.
As for the Igawa start, I got to watch the game and I was heartened by it. He threw 3 or 4 really nasty curves for strikes, and had a few batters really off balance. The gopher ball to a lefty, I think Chavez, is obviously a concern, but I'm more optimistic about him than I have been. One thing he needs to work on is body language: maybe it's just his way, but he seems physically deflated each time he doesn't get a close pitch called a strike; and we've seena lot of that in the past, from Contreras, Weaver, Mussina, etc. It sets a bad tone for the team and allows the opposing team to smell blood.
I've been championing Brunney on these pages since his first appearanc elast year, and am glad to see him proving himself--even the loss in Friday's game was obviously not his fault. I like his stuff and I really like his persona. It's been a while (has it even been since Clemens?) since we've had a truly tough gamer on the mound, as a starter or reliever.
Finally, being in Boston this weekend, it's really frustrating to watch the Red Sox utterly manhandle the Angels. Anaheim could send out their bat boys on the field and they'd thoroughly kick Yankee ass. --BGW
Yeah, that's one of those really weird things. The Angels don't play like the angels against the Sox--in particular they don't hit in risp situations and they don't run as aggressively--and they always play solidly against the Yankees. I watched the game on Fox yesterday and was amazed to see them so buffaloed by Schilling whose fastball was topping out at 90-91. He's usually ripe for a beating under such situations.
Also amazing was the fact that the Sox got 8 runs with nobody but Ortiz and Hinske (of all people) hitting. Drew took the collar as did Crisp, Pedroia, Varitek. Lowell did nothing much and neither did Manny. Looking at this team right now, it looks like offensively they are even weaker than last season's off year. They will be as good, I suspect, as Schilling is. Dice-K and Beckett will be very good, I think, Wakefield will collapse in the warmer weathe and Taveras is a nightmare. If Schilling, fat as he's let himself get, is an 18 win guy, they'll be competitive to win the division and a likely playoff team. If he continues the slide he's been on the last 2 years, they'll wind up out of it again. All of this of course depending on what Clemens decides to do, if anything.
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