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So here it is. The moment we’ve all been waiting for since the Yankees bottomed out at 21-29. It’s time for Game 1 of the ALDS and time to take another stab at securing that elusive 27th World Championship.
So far, in preparation for the playoffs, we’ve looked at why the Yankees won’t beat the Indians and why they will win. We worried a bit about Bob Sheppard and watched three other games yesterday as well as a riveting and controversial Wild Card playoff on Monday. What’s left to do?
Oh, that’s right. We have to debate the Yankees’ choice of Game 1 pitchers. The comments from here on down in the post on the Yankees’ playoff roster began a discussion I was planning on having, and Jay Jaffe over at Baseball Prospectus elaborated in his massive playoff preview piece. Let me quote the relevant passage from Jay:
Make no mistake: this Yankee rotation and its deployment may be the team’s downfall in this series. As good as Wang is, he’s shown a decisive enough home-road split (2.75 home/4.91 away this year; 3.04/4.62 career) to prefer that he not start in Cleveland once, let alone twice if the series goes five games. Pettitte has enough postseason experience (34 starts, 212 innings, 4.08 ERA, 14-9) to add a line to his resume virtually identical to his 2007 stats.
Therein lies the rub. While Chien-Ming Wang may be the ace of this staff for now, does it make sense to expose one of your weaknesses in starting your ace on the road? Andy Pettitte could easily be your games 1 and 5 starter based on his season success, and going with Pettitte, Hughes, Wang, Mussina/Clemens isn’t exactly terrible.
Hopefully, Jaffe is wrong. Joe looked through some of the game logs, and Wang’s bad starts on the road are few and far between. While the Taiwanese sinkerballer has a higher number of better starts on the road, which pitcher doesn’t? Last night, the numbers weren’t in John Lackey’s favor in Boston and he had another rough Fenway outing. But Wang’s numbers on the road are much better than Lackey’s were at Fenway.
But, hey, what fun is a playoff game without a little pitching controversy beforehand? Meanwhile, I’m standing by my prediction: Yanks in 4 after a game 1 loss. Maybe I’ll be wrong there too.
The lineups:
Johnny Damon LF
Derek Jeter SS
Bobby Abreu RF
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Jorge Posada C
Hideki Matsui DH
Robinson Cano 2B
Melky Cabrera CF
Doug Mientkiewicz 1B
Chien-Ming Wang P
Play nice in the comments. Big game today.
Update 4:21 p.m.: There were rumors of an accident involving Doug Mientkiewicz this morning, and we can confirm the info right now. Mark Feinsand at Blogging the Bombers has the story. Mientkiewicz, leaving the team bus, was run over by a Cleveland photographer. His ankle is taped, but he should be good to go at first tonight. Not only has Doug been stellar in the field, but he’s hitting .424 over his last 10 games. We’ll update this if something changes.
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Sorry, but I just don’t buy this theory no matter how many times I hear it. If your ace can’t be counted on to pitch well on the road, then he isn’t your ace is he?
Wang’s home/road split is tremendously skewed by his one bad game in Toronto (2.2, 8ER) and one bad game in Baltimore (6.0, 5ER). All other road games? 87.2, 35ER, 3.59 ERA). This guy has pitched well in big games since the day they first called him up. He has nerves of steel.
I can’t believe anyone thinks using the rookie Hughes in game 2 on the road against Carmona is a good idea.
From the Phillies Rockies game today, the two announcers (don’t know who they are) were talking about Chien Ming Wang. One guy asked the other, “What makes Chien Ming Wang so good?” His partner responded:
“Thats a good question. I think he’s a guy that, when he looks at you, he’s not afraid. He’s nasty at times”
You’d think that the guys calling the playoff games would at least know that Wang throws a sinker, and doesn’t get by on guile and manliness.
Chien-Ming Wang is good because he eats small children and kills dolphins with his bare hands. Sinker? Pshaw.
In a way, he’s the polar opposite of Jeter, who is successful at baseball because his eyes are calm like the morning dew.
Buster Olney reports that TBS is not a good fit for the playoffs.
Horrible fit.
FWIW, Pete Abe reports that it was a YES camera guy, not a Cleveland one. Conspiracy theories be damned!
If I was running this team I would line the rotation up Wang, Pettite, Hughes Wang Pettite…thats just me. I think Wang would actually be better on short rest, and right now out of the bottom 3 starters I trust Hughes the most.
That being said that rotation would never happen
Totally on board with that. Just because Wang had a few poor starts on the road this year — none of which were in Cleveland — doesn’t mean he’s going to shit the bed tonight.
Or maybe not
looks like this game is gonna go long, ie past 6:30. Whats gonna happen with the coverage? tbs has managed to screw everything else up so far so my bet is they will stay with the phillies game till its over.
LETS GO YANKEES. YEAH MAN.
a question/suggestion for the hosts: Is it possible to have a “new comment” feature? For example, the little link to comment would have a little symbol or something show when theres a new comment (posted last 20 mins or something like that)…. and maybe once you get to the comments section, you can see which posts are new (with the same little symbol), because it’s sometimes hard to find newly threaded posts in long threads. The first suggestion seems more important than the second.
now were talking. screw all the “experts” picking yanks to lose
Hideki is 0 for 9 in his career against Sabathia. That’s a good day to start Shelley. Alas.
Wang is all over the place so far. Gotta calm down here.
Damn, easy does it Wanger - you got ‘em; you got ‘em. You can do it - we all have faith!
fucking terrible just absolutly terrible way to show up Wang
Wang Doesn’t look like he has any good movement. So much for my theory…
Stellar way to begin.
and thats why he’s not a “ace” he’s a very good pitcher but an “ace” doesn’t have an era of almost 5 on the road
looks like a 7-5 game may breakout here
Melky has to stop trying to hit a five-run HOUR every time up.
And by hour I mean home run. Stupid auto-correct on Blackberry.
all we need is a nice big error and the embarassment would be complete
Good lord, it’s the second inning of the first game. Back away from the ledge.
49 pitches for CC through 2
Much better inning for CMW.
oh goodie sabathia has found his groove
Cleveland sure has a lot of fans who never showed up during the regular season.
Watch A-Rod tie the game right here.
Or…not.
it’s only bottom of third inning. Sure we are not leading but there is alot of baseball left. ALOT.
A-rod just missed that one. He was on the pitch but got under it.
Wang meanwhile is making Jay Jaffe look smart today.
boy this is ugly
very nice keep mking him work
Go Robbie!
Sabathia at 78 pitches.
Robbie with a big hit…little wake up call.
I better not see Matsui come up with men on base against CC again in this game.
C’mon CMW — keep us in the game buddy.
I hope CC passes 100 this inning. Not that the bullpen is going to be easier to hit.
wow tight zone tonight good for us
well thats 99 for cc
A-Rod time. Just Do It.
Err, Posada time. You Can Do It!
just need a sac fly here
or not have some balls wedge
terrible
Shit. Shit.
What did I say - why is Matsui hitting there? He doesn’t have a clue against CC…
thank goodness torre made the right decision w/ matsui
he hasnt had a clue for the past month….but dont worry, he’s a vet, and he’s been here before……..0 for 12!!!
lets not forget the 2 awful ab’s for Jorge and Wang’s disgraceful control
don’t worry, Matsui will erupt soon. And when he doesn it will spell trouble for every team in baseball that’s in the postseason.
ivan, that may or may not be true….but i can tell you one thing….it wasnt happening against CC
You’re right Ben — Jay looking genius.
given this team no chnace this is as bad a performance as you can have a total blow up from the”ace”
I’ve always been a huge supporter of Wang, but giving up 2 homers in the 1st game of the postseason from our supposed “ace” is inexcusable.
The ball is moving all over the place, and he can’t seem to throw strikes to save his life. When he DOES throw a strike, the Indians are lifting it into the stratosphere.
This is incredibly frustrating to watch, especially because we’ve taken Sabathia out of the game.
This is DEFINITELY not the “ace” of our staff. He is a good pitcher, but if his sinker isn’t working, he’s got nothing else to work with. A good #2 or #3 pitcher for us.
Another example of Torre’s in game management. Jorge should have not had the green light. Wang should have been pulled after the leadoff walk. He has shown nothing today.
Great job Torre, keep in Wang longer. Fucking idiot.
P.S.
FUCK TBS. This is the most amateur display of “broadcasting” I have ever seen. It looks like they spent all of their money outbidding FOX, and didn’t have any money left to hire a decent staff.
FUCK. Everything is pissing me off right now.
No doubt — this TBS thing is making me long for McCarver on Fox. How sad is that?
Why are they calling him “Ohlendorfer”?
Team pathetic. Both teams have had the same situations (starters not on their game). Same situations at the plate. Indians have gotten hits while Posada and Matsui have shit in their pants. Keep up the great work guys when you had CC on the ropes. Pathetic
Man. I hope that doesn’t land Ohlendorf of Torre’s shit list for all time.
The good thing here that Jay ignored is that Wang doesn’t have to pitch a game 5 — Pettitte could pitch game 5 on normal rest if he starts game 2 as planned.
Is it me or people forgot this is just game 1.