Game 26: The quest for .500
ByWe can bemoan the Yankee pitching as much as we want. We can blame bullpen management or poor starting pitching. We can blame bad weather and freak injuries. But all of that pales in comparison to the real problem.
The Yankees, folks, are just not scoring any runs. They are ninth in the American League — and 16th overall in baseball — with 113 runs scored. That figure puts them behind such power-packed offenses as the Seattle Mariners, Los Angeles Dodgers and Oakland A’s. What is more mysterious, however, is that the Yankees are fourth in the AL with a .772 OPS. They’re just not getting their hits when it counts as we saw yesterday. That will change, but for now, we just have to grin and bear it.
Today, the Yanks face a familiar foe, one they saw last in the ALDS and one many think could be in pinstripes next year. C.C. Sabathia, who pitched a fairly pedestrian game 1 in the ALDS against the Yanks last year, will take the mound for the Indians. He’s 1-3 with a 10.13 ERA, but the numbers don’t tell the whole story. In his last start, he threw six shutout innings against the Royals, walking two and striking out 11.
The Yanks counter with their ace. Chien-Ming Wang is 4-0 with a 3.94 ERA. But his last two starts have been a bit rocky. Against the Red and White Sox, Wang threw 10 innings, giving up 11 earned runs on 19 hits. Over that stretch, he’s walked five and struck out seven as his ERA climbed from 1.23 to its current 3.94. A solid start from Wang against a team that seemingly took batting practice off him in October would do wonders for the Yanks.
Hideki Matsui sits for the second straight day. He’s 0 for 9 in his career against Sabathia. No word on any potential call-up for Darrel Rasner. He’s set to start today for Scranton in Syracuse, and if he goes today, he won’t be ready to pitch again for another four days.
Damon LF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Rodriguez 3B
Posada C
Duncan 1B
Ensberg DH
Cano 2B
Cabrera CF
Molina C
Wang P
Update 1:03 p.m.: As per Suzyn Waldman — what a lovely soundtrack to my shower, by the way — Jorge Posada is a scratch from the lineup today. After he gunned out Grady Sizemore yesterday, he seemed to be wincing a bit. I hope this isn’t a setback from his shoulder problems. Everyone moves up, and Molina’s hitting 9th.
what i don’t understand is why, when they really couldn’t possibly stink it up more than farnsy and latroy and ohlendorf (though i have some faith in him – his problem, at least, is walks, not hits/hrs), don’t the yankees bring up the guys who have been dominant at double and triple A, and send kyle and latroy and ohlie to AAA to get into a rhythm and work on command?
You can’t send guys with service time like Hawkins and Farnsworth to AAA. That just doesn’t happen.
I figured after yesterday they’d swap Ohlendorf for Rasner, but that doesn’t seem to be happening.
or ohlendorf for patterson
Patterson doesn’t sole the long man problem the Yanks seem to have and his numbers aren’t particularly impressive in the short going this season. I think we’ll see Rasner before we see Patterson.
To explain a little further, they don’t have options; they would never voluntarily accept a Minor League assignment; and it would be deemed pretty insulting to send down two guys with a combined 24 years of MLB service time.
Once a guy has 5 years of service time, he can’t be sent down without his consent, regardless of how many options he has left. That’s how Giambi was able to refuse a minor league assignment a few years back, even though he technically has two options remaining.
Jorge’s a game-time scratch. I’m thinking he tweaked his shoulder during those two throw-downs yesterday.
girardi has lost his mind…..to have ensburg over matsui as the DH is absolutely nuts.
he put out a freaking crappy line up yesterday, and he’s done it again today.
Matsui is 0 for 9 against Sabathia in his career. It makes 100 percent sense to start someone else over Matsui today.
Just to put the ‘pitching problems’ in perspective: the Yankees are on pace to allow 771 runs this year and score 732. Last year, the Yankees allowed 777 and scored 968.
There is nothing wrong with the pitching so far. If we assume that Hughes and Kennedy improve (even slightly) and the team starts to score like they should, then they’re going to win a ton of games this year.
except the Yankees had a pitching problem last year too. So this year’s complaints are justified
They were pitching scrubs last year. This year’s problems are luxury problems compared to last year.
They pitched scrubs last year and won 94 games… the upside for this team is very high this year.
LOL, the sky is falling. I hope Posada is ok.
When did the Yankees bring back Hideki Irabu as a bat boy?
878 Career RBIs for Lance Berkman and no walk-off runs driven in? He is so not a gamer.
Lance Berkman hit .431 with 41 HR and 134 RBI in 68 games his last year at Rice, and wasn’t selected until the 16th overall pick that year. He wasn’t even the first player taken out of Rice in that draft. Crazy, huh?
41HRs in 68 games? How is that humanly possible? Seriously, WTF!?!?
Who was the first Rice player?
Matt Anderson, Rice’s closer, was taken first overall by the Tigers. He had a few productive years out of the Tigers’ pen (22 saves in 2001), but he destroyed his shoulder throwing an octopus at a Red Wings game. He retired in 2006 after an unsuccessful comeback attempt.
41HRs in 68 games? How is that humanly possible?
Metal bats and a ton of talent my friend.
Nice strikeout by Wang. Ensberg just missed that pitch.
The Pirates ate $10M and cut Matt Morris. Do trades get any worse?
MLBTR proposed that as one of the three options that would be taken as Pirates management met with Morris after his last start, which was again horrid.
Cavaliers and the 2008 NBA MVP LeBron James.
Again, if you want to argue name me a player on the Cavs roster you would want on your squad.
West and Joe Smith.
Who averaged a combined 16.4 PPG between them. While the Hornets’ Peja Stojakovic averaged that by himself and David West averaged 20.6 PPG along with Tyson Chandler’s 11.8. The Lakers had Derek Fisher, Andrew Bynum, Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol average from 11.7PPG to 18.9PPG.
Like I said, Kobe is not in the discussion. It’s James and Paul, and James wins.
LOL, ok. Lebron James is barely in the discussion because his team struggled in the Leastern Conference.
Ben Wallace!
(that’s the only other Cav’s player I know, other than Big-Z, I just couldn’t spell that guy’s name if my life depending it)
That slider looks just nasty thus far.
They’re making Wang work. Maybe Britton will actually get in this game.
I have seriously come to hate the Indians this series. They are so damn annoying.
Shelley!!!
Heartattack Jeter!
Jeter isn’t having the best of luck today. Good play Garko
How many times is Derek Jeter going to rake one into an out? Got to feel bad for him.
The Indians are all assholes, how many times are they going to continue with this bitchassness?
It ends today.
Good job, Wang.
How is everybody’s NFL teams doing in the draft?
Giants picked up Mario Manningham (WR-MICH) in the 3rd Round to my delight. Guess the writing is on the wall for Sinorice Moss who the Giants liked over the Steelers’ Santonio Holmes (WR) mainly due to his speed. I did not agree with the decision at the time but hey, they couldn’t have predicted the immense struggles he’s had learning NFL routes.
Chiefs entire draft thus far and the Jets 1st RD, FTW.
I like the Bryan Kehl pick for the G-Men. Dude can play.
For a guy who has struggled with his control minus one start, the Yankees are being very aggressive at the plate.
ATL @ NYM, John Smoltz vs. Nelson Figueroa, the score is 4-0…New York.
Oh, and Raul Casanova (TB backup C last season) jacked a two run shot off of Smoltz. Got to love baseball.
Rasner is on the mound for Scranton right now, so he won’t be called up anytime soon.
According to Gameday, Wang’s Sinker has been breaking double-digits in inches all day, nasty.
Only a jerk can say CMW is not an ace, or does not have ace stuff.
I believe it was BP who noted that CMW’s K/9 has risen from 4.7 all of last season to 5.1 so far this season, if the rise continues we basically acquired a top ace at no cost of money or prospects. Owned.
the strike zone seems huge today…and both pitchers seem to be taking advantage…
Robbie needed that hit worse than a crackhead need a hit.
And then he fucks it up. Erg.
I wouldn’t say he fucked it up, it was probably a called steal and he just was probably a bit too aggressive going on the first pitch. Or maybe it was a hit and run and he was a bit too agressive on C.C.’s delivery.
Or maybe he just fucked it up.
Yeah it could be that. He’s my favorite player, give him a break, LoL.
Who is that guy and what has he done with Melky Cabrera?
Hopefully, he has his sights set on kidnapping Cano and Hughes, too.
Life is so not fair.
Melky continuing his hot start though.
Heh, Melk stood and there and watched it go out. Awesome.
Way to go melky. Show those RAB writers what your made of.
Looks like Melky Cabrera has stolen a bit of thunder (no pun intended at first, but then realized it fit so yes, pun intended) from Jose Tabata to start the 2008 season.
Yeah seriously. Tabata got suspended after he slammed his bat at home plate (and left it there as he walked off the field) following a strikeout yesterday.
Well I guess that changes the perception. Wouldn’t say he doesn’t care, just really frustrated. Mike from the Thunder blog made a great point in yesterday’s DotF thread, no one is making any deal of the fact that Tabata said his wrist is still bothering him.
posada shoulder tear going to dl
Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck. If he needs surgery, he’ll probably be done for the year. Here’s the link.
Gotta love Molina.
Franklin Gutierrez fucked that slide up, he would’ve been safe easy had he hit the bag with his lead foot.
Wang’s got the slider workin’ today.
Four of CMW’s past five outs have been Ks. Nasty.
Wang’s slider is utterly ridiculous.
Cleveland is still a damn ghost town. I was there last year for this acting studio thing and we were out in the middle of downtown at about 9 PM and it was absolutely empty. No one was outside, no cars no nothing. Maybe I’m spoiled living in NYC and unless you’re out there at about 3 AM you’re going to be walking on crowded sidewalks. Even at 3 Am there’s still more than a few people walking the streets.
I live in NYC too and find a lot of other cities are ghost towns in the middle of the night but several notable “cities” have NO downtown or no life downtown or something. Cleveland, Hartford and Dallas come to mind quickly.
I think Gameday is reading CMW’s Splitter as a Changeup, it would explain the amazing 10″ break on the pitch.
so what has to happen with Moeller for him to be back with the Yanks as a backup? Or should we be looking at the Rangers (I think) for some trade help?
I’m not sure, I think he has to clear waivers before they can add him to the 40-man again. Laird’s the only obvious guy available right now.
Good job Wang.
By the way, what type of pitch is Wang throwing for the strikeouts to lefties. Kay keeps saying its a splitter and Gameday is saying its a slider. That last pitch didnt look like it had the break of a slider to me. Can anyone describe the movement of a splitter?
Straight down. It looks like a fastball, then it just drops straight down about 10 feet in front of the plate. There’s no lateral movement to a splitter. It looks like he’s using a 2-seamer against the lefties, but don’t take my word for it.
CG for Wanger?
He’s got way too high of a pitch count right now.
I don’t think enough people are paying attention to the fact that JORGE IS OUT FOR THE YEAR. This game is meaningless in the grand scheme of things, Posada is an irreplacable, tremendous loss.
Did they say he was out for the year? I thought he was just headed for the DL.
Is this confirmed or are you speculating? We don’t know how bad the problem is but we do know that Girardi has a nack for stretching the truth regarding player status.
Word from both the radio idiots (I know not the most reliable of sources), and the NY Times is that he has a tear in his shoulder that surgery will be required to fix, and has another visit scheduled with Mr. Andrews
He’s not officially out for the year yet. We won’t know for sure until he visits Dr. Andrews. I think we’re all sitting down with our collective fingers crossed.
That was my understanding. They don’t know if he needs surgery yet.
Relax man, we do not know for sure. According to the NYT article and Tyler Kepner, surgery is still not guaranteed.
FINALLY, luck is on Jeter’s side with a double.
Anybody noticing that Michael Kay has been acting a little Sterling-esque this season with these deep fly balls?
I’m so pissed right now about Jorge Posada. Also, Fuck You Elliot Johnson.
Thank you Jamal, someone at least is acknowledging the magnitude of this injury
We know not yet the magnitude of the injury, just keep your fingers crossed and hope no surgery is needed.
What’s the actual injury to the shoulder of the Posada?
I think it’s a tear.
The new york times has an article stating a muscle tear. This is terrible news!!!!!!!!!!!!!
they’re saying there’s a tear somewhere
yes, I’m panicking over Posada here too. Looking at Lairds stats and age and shit, didn’t realize he was that old (28). Not that thats old, but we can’t give up our young guys for a season replacement and then next few years backup (especially when we have Molina who’s been nothing but great)
The problem with Molina is that he be an everyday catcher. If we play him too much, his weakness’ will be exposed, much like cairo last year. Shoot, he hit the dl almost immediately after becoming our everyday starter when Posada was originally hurt. We have no everyday catcher when posada hits the dl
I’d aim for a split between Molina and Moeller. The Reds found some success doing this with Dave LaRue and Javier Valentin. If it can work with those two guys, it can work with our two (though that’s certainly not to say that it will work).
Duncan went up there hacking. I wonder if he had a plan in mind.
A-Rod swung too hard in his AB.
Against 94-96MPH heaters, what you expect him to do?
It wasn’t a natural swing though.
Ok, I see what you mean. Sorry, I misunderstood what you said at first.
Die Shelley, die
wow, that doesn’t seem necessary (unless I missed some inside joke earlier when I wasn’t here)
I just wish somebody would get a hit with men on
don’t we all, but it’s not like A-Rod came through either
Keep in mind too that this is the Cy Young Award winner here. It’s not Jeremy Sowers.
Was it just me or did CC just go crazy there. It’s funny how people make such a big deal when a yankee player shows excitement, or let alone do anything, but nothing if any other player does it.
How do you know that it’s not made a big deal of? We live in NY so we experience it personally and hey, its NYC, we have a microscope and every little stupid thing.
I would think NY media is a little more ruthless than most places other cities. Plus it’s cool to hate the Yankees, especially from NY media where there are two baseball teams. In cleveland, i’m sure most who watches baseball are Indians fan. That’s not the case in NY. Here our media “pride” themselves in being “subjective”. In actuality they are met fans (or yankee haters) that are quick to jump on everything that the Yankees do.
Plus.. its not just the NY media but national sport networks (ESPN) that seem to key in on Yankee issues.
So Tom Glavine and Jorge Posada both never been to the DL in their respective careers but within a week in the inaugural month to the 2008 season, Posada likely will join Glavine on the DL.
Bottom three of the order coming up for the Tribe in the 7th so hopefully Girardi gives Wang one last inning.
Yeah he’s only at 102, maybe we can give him a few more runs to work with here
Just to get this out there, whenever you hear someone has a muscle strain, it means there’s a small tear there. So keep that in mind in the Posada Panic. This “tear” could be a heavy strain. Or a mild strain. Or a full-blown, needs surgery tear. We can’t be sure.
Wow it looks like Robbie’s bat weighs 100 lbs
Somewhere Francisco Cervelli is jabbing needles into an Elliot Johnson effigy
Michael Kay should really take the half second it requires to fact check before speaking. He had to correct himself four times with that “CC finished first, Wang finished second in the Cy voting last year” statement, and he still hasn’t corrected himself for saying no one won more games than Wang last year.
Michale Kay does not feel the need to correct himself because being the master of the pre-determined outcome he figures that CMW would have garnered at least two victories in the three weeks he missed in April of 2007.
“The New York Times reported on its Web site Sunday that Posada has a tear in his subscapularis muscle and is expected to visit Dr. James Andrews, the noted Birmingham, Ala.-based orthopaedic surgeon. The Yankees said there would be no announcement on the injury until after the game at Progressive Field.
The Times reported that Posada has already shared his MRI results with Dr. Andrews, and though a preliminary diagnosis did not show surgery to be necessary, Posada’s continued troubles may have raised the issue again. ”
http://yankees.mlb.com/news/ar.....p;c_id=nyy
We’ve already posted about the Jorge story, and this entire thread is about it practically. We know.
my apologies.
If Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera pitch a clean 8th and 9th inning, I ask you Job-in-the-pen supporters, which is more valuable to the Yankees, seven innings of shutout baseball by your starter or a shutout inning by your back end reliever?
A front line starter is like having a LeBron James/Kobe on ya team. He makes everybody around him better. Wang, takes pressure off the pen, and helps the offense at times.
LeBron should come off the bench. He’d be of more use to the team doing that.
I always LMAO when people say things like this in response to the Joba crap. It’s so ridiculous but when you really think about it, that’s how ridiculous they sound when they want Joba Chamberlain to stay in the bullpen.
Wang is just nasty today.
I really hate Jon Heyman. After three starts he says that C.C. Sabathia was choking under the pressure of a walk year and just was not the same pitcher. Three fucking starts, wonder what the tool has to say now?
I think he called Griffey JR. not a winning player.
Oh you heard that too? Fucking idiot, he also said Adam Dunn wasn’t a winning player. Yeah, astronomical OBP skills and HRs are not part of the recipe for a win.
Hey I am not a Adam Dunn fan, but to call somebody not a winning player is just an insult in someways and just a flat out stupid comment.
Heh, did you guys see the clip of Jeff Brantley saying Edwin Encarnacion wasn’t a clutch player, then the next pitch he hit a walk-off 3-run homer? Classic.
Yeah, FJM called it announcing porn I believe, Lmao.
LOL, I like how Joba just walks off the mound like nothing happened after the strikeout.
what do you think is the reason for the increase in strikeouts not only today but all season?
9 is a ton for wanger
I assume he just has developed that Slider more and is mixing in his Splitter and Changeup more this year.
#1 his slider is dirty
#2 he’s mixing more pitches in (splitter and change as well as the 4-seamer/slider/sinker)
#3 different approaches every time (I think Youk mentioned this after the Sox game)
so this could be a continued thing and start to be more of a strikeout pitcher?
9 k’s in 7 innings is pretty dominant
Evan Longoria raked his third career HR off of Josh Beckett in the 7th for the Rays 2-0 lead.
I just saw him Thursday, he is going to be (if not already) a beast
For as dominant as Mariano Rivera has been, Billy Wagner has been unbelievable for the New York Mets. Through his just completed 10th inning of the season, he has allowed 1H, 2BBs and 10Ks. Nasty.
apples and oranges.
A good ol fashion 1-0 win.
When is the last time the Ys won 1-0? It’s been a while, no?
IDK about 1-0 but they damn sure have won a lot of these close, pitching rich games. Hell, this is the third time that the Yankees have pitched a shutout in CMW’s starts.
LoL, Melky Cabrera looks like he want to kick Shelley Duncan right in the face after he gives him that hard belly slap.
You know what’s funny, people who want Joba in the pen will use this game as a point in their argument by saying the Yankees won another game with Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera pitching with a lead.
and people who want him in the rotation will say that if we can have a dominant starter through 7 we can cobble the 8th together.
No, we are saying that we have potential late inning relief candidates who can be very successful in the Major Leagues in Mark Melancon, Humberto Sanchez, JB Cox, David Robertson and Kevin Whelan. Also don’t forget Kevin Whelan and a long shot in Wilkins De La Rosa who can be our version of Rafael Perez with more of a power arm.
Only TJS patient Andrew Brackman, oft-injured Christian Garcia and young, wild Dellin Bentances have the ceilings of Joba Chamberlain as a starting pitcher down on our farm. Makes ZERO sense to deny the potential of a #1 starter so you can feel comfortable in knowing what you have in the bullpen.
yep… add the tbs announcer to the long list of retards that call for joba in the pen.
Wang has been getting alot of RHP with that slider down and away. He had so many swinging strikes today it was ridiculous.
Do you think players are going to learn to lay off that pitch soon? or do you think that it just looks too good of a strike, just before the bottom falls out?
The reason they are swinging so much at the Slider is because of the amount of times he has thrown the Four Seamer. Sliders look like heaters until they start that late break, so if he keeps painting that Four Seamer on the outside half to RH he will set them up when he delivers the Slider diving down and away, they will think heater and they will swing and miss.
If they were going to learn to lay off of it, they’d have done it by now