Yanks 6, Rangers 2

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Down on the Farm
Is Bobby Abreu really this bad?

Jeter .184 Mussina .130
Abreu .078 Myers .036
Damon .046 Proctor .028
Alex .045 Farnsworth .027
Matsui .039 Rivera .017
Minky .021 Bruney -.031
Nieves -.023
Cano -.033
Melky -.062

How you know you pwn a team: it becomes old and hacky to say, “I wish we played them all 162 games.”

I only caught certain bits of the game so I think we’ll have to do this in bullet form. If anyone has anything else to add, please do so.

  • Robinson Tejeda’s ERA climbed nearly a point (0.98 to be exact) last night. I was telling a buddy that Tejeda was experiencing a market correction, but after looking at the numbers, I’m not so sure about that. He’s walking a ton less this year, and is keeping his strikeouts at a 2:1 ratio (though that kind of ratio works better if you’re striking out closer to one per inning). Plus, he’s only 25, so it’s tough to gauge how he’ll develop. His stuff is pretty good, so maybe he can be a 3.80 to 4.30 pitcher.
  • Wil Nieves got a hit! And I missed it. By far the most disappointing part of the season so far for me. I may never get to see one…
  • Will there ever be a recap without something about the bullpen? I turned on the TV again in the seventh, just in time to see Proctor fan Nelson Cruz. Of course, I thought Proctor had pitched the entire seventh, with the logic being that he’ll serve his suspension soon and he’s decently rested, so let’s give him some innings. However, when I checked the box score, I was dismayed to see that he was the third pitcher of the inning. Looks like Joe’s quick hook got Bruney out of a four-run game in a hurry. It’s tough to disagree, because I didn’t see what was going on at the time. However, Wilkerson has been putting the ball on the ground at a tremendous rate this season (44.9%, though we have the small sample size caveat). Seriously, Mike Myers needs to come in to face this guy? You’d think Bruney had/has a longer leash than that.
  • I’m totally on board with pitching Mo with a four-run lead tonight. Yeah, you might need him this afternoon, but the opposing pitcher (Brandon McCarthy), has an ERA near 8.00. One would hope the Yanks could tee off on his for a few runs. And then you get into the weekend, where the Yanks face just one guy with an ERA below 5.50 (Jarrod Washburn, whom we beat on Sunday). Gotta keep Mo sharp.
  • We’re back at .500! Too bad the Red Sox are just as hot.

Wang vs. Brandon McCarthy today at 1:05. Please, I don’t want to be under .500 again.

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Down on the Farm
Is Bobby Abreu really this bad?
  • http://www.robjules.com Rob

    I don’t mind having pitched Mo last night. They need to get him pitching on a more consistent basis as ooposed to using him once everey 5 days. Get his arm-strength up and let him regain command of his pitches. If he was still struggling when used on a regular basis, then i might be worried, but until then…..

  • Mike K

    For what its worth, I heard Bob Ryan on the Tony Kornheiser Show taking part in the annual tradition of sportswriters predicting the ‘Rivera Meltdown’. Dismayed by his generalizations, I sent him an email and got a response. Here is the correspondance:

    Me:

    I just heard your appearance on the Tony Kornheiser Show and I took some exception to the comments you made about Mariano Rivera. Maybe it is because I have Extra Innings now but I find it interesting and at times, humorous, to listen to guys talk about the Yankees who don’t actually watch the Yankee games. As every sportswriter seemingly clamors to be the first to write the “Demise of Rivera” story, they should keep in mind that the homerun pitch he threw to Adrian Beltre on Monday was the only bad pitch he threw in an otherwise superb outing. His previous three appearances were also basically lights out coming off his annual “Meltdown Week” that always causes those aforementioned sportswriters to proclaim that this is his swan song.

    But I guess that is the nature of sports writing, you see many more games than the average fan, but are restricted to making generalizations about the games you do not see.

    Bob Ryan:

    As far as Rivera is concerned, I said “If.” And I said I’d never seen anyone get on top of any Rivera pitch as Beltre did. So how could you possibly take offense? I could not have been more rational, or more fair.

    Me:

    I didn’t mean to sound as if I thought you were being unfair or irrational but perhaps simply mistaken. Over the last ten years, Rivera’s achilles’ heel has been leaving the ball up against right-handed batters, be it Sandy Alomar Jr. (in ’97), Jay Payton (Game 2 of the 2000 World Series), Manny Ramirez (who seems to always have had his number), and most recently, Adrian Beltre. Those mistakes are simply something that he does and are not indicative of a breakdown, at least in my opinion. When the day comes that Rivera gets low pitches hammered by the likes of Craig Counsell, then he should consider getting that white pair of shoes and moving to Fort Lauderdale.

    -No response to that. I can imagine him saying exactly what he wrote, with him sticking his index finger up right as he says “If,” followed by a dramatic pause.

  • http://www.riveraveblues.com Ben

    The best part of being at last night’s game was giving Wil Nieves a standing ovation as he was in the process of getting thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double. I don’t think Jose Reyes would have had a double on that hit, but Wil really wanted it.

  • http://depressedfan.com Depressed Fan

    I’m not sure why Joe has such a short leash with Bruney. To be honest with you, he’s the righty out of the pen I have the most confidence in. It’s only a matter of time before he’s the eighth inning guy, Farnsworth has been horrible.

  • ShawnT

    I personally love seeing Jeter batting third, i know it probably aint going to last long, but he was .350 when abreau was behind him, imagine how many good pitches he gets with Alex behind him. Sure he wont hit 30 homeruns, but bobby isn’t hitting any HR in the 3 hole either, and Derek is one of the best hitters with RISP

  • rbizzler

    Howdy Fellas,
    I cherry-picked this little anecdote about Hughes from Buster Olney’s latest .com article. Yes Buster is still harping on the end of a dynasty he already proclaimed ‘over’ six years ago, but that isn’t relevant to the Hughes story. Enjoy.

    On May 1, in his second big league appearance, Hughes walked Rangers leadoff man Kenny Lofton after starting him off with a couple of strikes. The kid called Posada out to the mound. “If I walk another hitter after starting out 0-2, punch me in the mouth,” Hughes told the veteran catcher. The Rangers did not get a hit off him for the next 6-plus innings.

    Gotta love it.

  • http://www.riveraveblues.com Ben

    Farnsworth has been horrible.

    Farnsworth in his last 11 appearances has a 3.27 ERA. He’s struck out 8 while giving up 3 walks and 10 hits. How exactly is that horrible?

  • http://depressedfan.com Depressed Fan

    Within that sample size, in his past 6 appearances he’s allowed a run on three separate occasions. Can you honestly say that when Farnsworth comes in you think he’s going to throw a clean inning and get the ball to Mo for the save?

    Bruney, on the other hand, has allowed a run in only 2 of his 18 appearances.

  • LovetheSocksNottheSox

    “Farnsworth has been horrible.”

    “Farnsworth in his last 11 appearances has a 3.27 ERA. He’s struck out 8 while giving up 3 walks and 10 hits. How exactly is that horrible?”

    Okay. So I am new to the online sports commentary, so please forgive or at least let me know of any blunders I may be making. But! Farnsworth is terrible. He doesn’t do anything for the team as far as I can see. His ERA for March and April was at 5.79 and for May so far it is at 3.60, a number that I would bet money on goes up at least a full point and a half by the end of the month.
    He has a bad habit of blowing leads, something that does nothing for our already tapped out offense. I just don’t get how he is our go-to-guy for the later portion of the game over someone like Bruney, who can actually last more then one inning without losing it.

  • Johh

    Do you think Yankees will released Wang’s or demote him in the minors if He has bad year this year and record of 3-13?