UN-FUCKING-BELIEVEABLE
For the reasons cited, both in my posts and in your commentaries, this is a huge game, made all the bigger by boston finally getting off the schneid today. So what does this bumbler do but make it clear he has no clue, no clue whatsoever. He not only sits Posada, which one must on occasion, but he sits Jeter as well, much against the latter's inclination. Torre's way of proving that the Yankees are not just a 500 team seems to be creating conditions whereby they will be at best a 500 team but with qualifications. there is the less is more philosophy and then there is deliberately creating conditions for the "excusable" loss. They had better be really hot, because with Moose pitching and a lineup that features not a single 300 hitter, they are already in real trouble.
posted by joe valente | 6:35 PM
4 Comments:
Listening to the White Sox' broadcasters the last three nights, I was impressed by how much praise they lavished on Melky, even before he threw out the runner at home. They seemed to recognize what the Yankees' management seems reluctant to acknowledge. This kid can play, and in a year where the Yankees need to see what they have for the future, he needs to stay in there for the duration.
Joe V., I don't know what the answer is regarding 1B, but I have little confidence that the solution is Damon. I'd like to see the Yankees put Damon at DH full-time, leave Matsui in left, Cabrera in center, and Abreu in right. They have looked great playing together the past few days.
First base has been an issue all year, ranging from adequate to horrible. Phelps looks like he has an iron glove. It has been brought up in the blog, but I'll add it here: where is Andy Phillips? I may be wrong, but wasn't he fairly good defensively last year when he played all those games? He will hit at least as well as Phelps, maybe better. Get him in there!
Long-term I would love to see Teixeira in pinstripes, but I'm afraid the Rangers' price is too high for the Yankees to pay. I heard Philip Hughes mentioned on Baltimore sports radio as a player Texas would accept in such a deal. If the Yankees go for that, I will do what I told a fellow Yankee fan earlier this year and start rooting for the Devil Rays.
--MUNSON
I take your point about Damon not being the abswer at first base. I'm beginning to wonder whether a 257 lead-off hitter that you have to DH is the answer anywhere. My point in the proposal was merely that I'd like to get Matsui off the field. He missed another ball he should have run down last night, he caomes up with the occasional inexplicable error, he doesn't have much speed, his arm is only average, and history shows he hits better when he DH's. But for now you may be right that my idea is unworkable.
I agree with Munson and Joe V.--Phelps looks like a lumbering oaf out there. Torre made the right choice in Spring Training: Phelps was hot then. But he hasn't adjusted to the limited playing time, and he's made some bone head plays; and don't forget that weird crash into the seattle catcher that casued a dust up a few weeks back. we've al advocated the Yanks, as a team, be more aggressive and physical, but that was just random and pointless.
Nice to see the offense pile on some runs late last night to let Mo off the hook; i.e. he didn't have to be perfect in the 9th--baby steps back to his true form.
Oh, and I saw today that lefties are batting .350 off Myers. Look: we all know the man exists on the team for one reason: Ortiz. And considering how Ortiz hits all Yankee pitching, Myers hasn't been so bad against him. But the Yanks now have only 6 games left against the Sox, and not until August. Do they really need Myers on the roster till then? Can't this farce end? There's got to be some team out there that would consider it a bullpen upgrade to get Myers and Farnsworthless in a package deal; NY will have to eat most of their inflated contracts, but the point is just to get rid of them and maybe get a decent arm in return.
This is a rambling tangent, I know: but it seems to me the whole lefty specialist thing, like bullpen specialization more generally, has gotten out of hand. The guys the Yankees get for that job: Randy Choate, Felix Heredia, now Myers--never get it done; and to boot, they feel so much pressure becuase they know they only get once chance a night--everything is riding on getting the one out they're being paid to get--that they become head case choke artists. Ever notice how lefty specialists are always the most fidgety nervous looking guys on the field? Was Mike Stanton a lefty specialist? Of course not. He was just the lefty in the bullpen. As an off speed pitcher, Igawa isn't ever going to more effective aainst lefties than against righties, assuming he ever gets effective against anyone. so he's not the answer. makes you wonder again about Cashman--how did the Red Sox get Matsusaka and the Japanese lefty whose name I can't remember, and we got stuck with Irabu redux?
They got lucky with the lefty you can't remember and I wouldn't be surprised if his stats look alot different by September. And who cares about Matsuska? If the Yanks had paid 100 mill for his 4.5 ERA everyone, myself included, would have said they'd been had. Daryl Rasner was pitching better than Matsuska when he went down.
I agree with you about that lefty specialist thing though. It's really a code for unable to tame big league hitting.
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