Comments on: Yanks fall to first-place Rays in extras

By: nick blasioli

nick blasioli — Wed, 14 May 2008 19:52:14 +0000

sure grady sizemore is a better leadoff hitter than jeter..but he plays for cleveland….

By: steve (different one)

steve (different one) — Wed, 14 May 2008 19:21:30 +0000

Grady Sizemore is better than Jeter.

By: Haggs

Haggs — Wed, 14 May 2008 18:18:12 +0000

Nah, they’re both below average, and Giambi is fairly adept at digging throws out of the dirt. The Big G also made a shockingly accurate throw to second base last night.

Whatever slight edge Duncan may have on defense is offset by Giambi’s bat, which has begun to acquire a pulse.

Anyway, if its last night we’re talking about the point is moot. There were no defensive replacements available.

By: pete

pete — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:44:11 +0000

duncan is much better defensively than giambi - first off he’s about 2 inches taller so he has a better stretch, second he’s younger and more athletic with better reactions, and third he’s got a much much better arm. I’ve seen every mlb game duncan has played, and i don’t see where this perception of him being a bad defensive 1B comes from. I don’t think he’s on the mientkeiwicz or even phillips level, but he’s league average certainly. I’ve seen him make a lot of great plays and few if any (i certainly don’t remember any) errors.

By: mike

mike — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:38:25 +0000

Everyone above has made valid points, but it really snds up with the offense not having enough pop without Arod. Unfortunately, there is no power in the lineup without him, and thus the offense is stuck having to string 4-5 great at-bats together to put up a crooked number.
With anemic production from 3b, C and 2b, and not good production from 1b and CF, its hard to get those at-bats together.
I think the “brain trust” realizes this, and is the biggest reason Giambi is playing in the hopes he could get hot for a month and bring some punch to the lineup.

By: ceciguante

ceciguante — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:25:14 +0000

right now they’re about 8th in the AL in runs surrendered per game, 10th in ERA. not awful, but below average in keeping runs off the board. while it’s nice to see the team ERA falling from recent seasons, i wouldn’t use those teams as the litmus test b/c they obviously didn’t have enough pitching when push came to shove. (also, i don’t know if this is true, but it seems like scoring is down so far this year.) if your point is that these yanks could pitch like this and win 95+ games as long as they hit, that’s understood. my response would be: without good pitching, it won’t matter anyway in october.

i agree that right now, offense is the bigger problem, ranking 10th in runs per game, and looking awful with RISP and generally lifeless — but the pitching isn’t what i would call good so far. they really need improvement on both sides. at least the offense has serious reinforcements coming.

By: Troy142

Troy142 — Wed, 14 May 2008 14:42:59 +0000

Was it me or did anyone else notice that Mariano’s cutter wasn’t cutting last night? Even in the 1oth i noticed it and the pitch that Gross hit should have sawed him off. Instead it stayed mostly over the plate and ended up with more pace on it. Seems to happen every now and then.

By: nick blasioli

nick blasioli — Wed, 14 May 2008 14:26:48 +0000

jeter is the best leadoff man in baseball….will someone please tell abreu to start swinging the fricken bat….he takes to many pitches…hits score runs ,,not walks and strikeouts…we keep bringing up pitchers..arent there any descent hitters in the minors that can be brought up;…i dont know how ensberg hit more than 30 homers in a season…his swing in awful…garadi has to start runners..hit and run,,sac. bunts..nothing like that happens…

By: r.w.g.

r.w.g. — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:49:24 +0000

I like the Tampa pitching staff. Edwin Jackson was a straight up stud in the Dodger’s system.. he just walked a lot of guys. And you know what? He might always walk a lot of guys. But I believe he can cut down his walks enough to consistently be a winning pitcher. Look at Daniel Cabrera.. the Yanks have lit him up at times, and other times he has made us look overmatched. Edwin is what? 25? Randy Johnson was like 26 or 27 before he started having take-notice seasons.

I agree with the sentiment that it’s not fair to count on Alberto to generate offense, but he deserves to get taken to task for that AB. Got a scoring chance, you can’t be up there hacking against a guy who is tough to hit but prone to getting himself into jams. It’s the same crap Cano has been doing (although he’s getting some knocks the last week or so).. just hacking. It’s a surefire recipe to hit into a lot of DPs.

You’ve just got to be honest and kind of go position by position when comparing the teams and ask yourself which guy from each team at each position you’d rather have on your team. LF, CF, 1B, the 3-4 spots in the rotation.. I’d take Tampa without a doubt. And their 3B and 2B aren’t bums either. The two teams are a lot more even in talent now, they really are. And once that happens, it’s just about doing the little things to win games.

By: steve (different one)

steve (different one) — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:45:04 +0000

their team ERA is 4.31, Boston is 4.19.

they are 10th, but within spitting distance of Boston, who are 7th.

a team ERA of 4.31 with the offense they were SUPPOSED to have would be more than adequate.

here are their team ERA’s in the last 4 seasons when they averaged close to 97 wins:

2007 - 4.49, 94 wins
2006 - 4.41, 97 wins
2005 - 4.52, 95 wins
2004 - 4.69, 101 wins

so they are pitching better than they have since 2003, and still playing poorly.

it’s really the offense right now.