Game 79 (again): Beat the Mets. Beat the Mets. Step right up and beat the Mets
ByRight now, it’s not a stretch to say that we should be rooting for the rains that are blanket the New York arrive shortly after, oh, 5 p.m. today. If the Sidney Ponson nightcap were to be rained out, would anyone really mind? I’m sure watching Ponson, a career .143 hitter, bat would be entertaining, but still.
Anyway, for now, we’re concerned with the afternoon affair, a make-up of a game rained in May, and baring some sort of miraculous World Series, the last Yankee-Met game ever in Yankee Stadium. The Yanks are going with Melky Cabrera yet again in the lead-off spot. Melky this year has 35 lead-off plate appearances and has hit .250/.353/.321. Is this .674 OPS (albeit in a limited sample size) really the best Joe Girardi can do? I thought this guy was supposed to read Baseball Prospectus.
Johnny Damon is off this afternoon to rest his foot. He’ll play left field in Shea Stadium, and it is expected that Hideki Matsui will hit the DL after the first game. The Bonds talk swirling in this thread is growing louder.
Dan Giese is on the mound. He’s 1-2, but in 14 innings this year, the 31-year-old has allowed just one earned run. Can he keep this up? Tune in at 2:05 p.m. to find out.
Melky Cabrera CF
Derek Jeter SS
Bob Abreu RF
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Jason Giambi DH
Jorge Posada C
Robinson Cano 2B
Wilson Betemit 1B
Justin Christian LF
Dan Giese P
Melky this year has 35 lead-off plate appearances and has hit .250/.353/.321. Is this .674 OPS (albeit in a limited sample size) really the best Joe Girardi can do?
wait, so you are saying his OBP is almost 40 points higher while leading off?
isn’t that worth exploring?
i know, i know, we hate Melky and he can’t do anything right.
i would accept a lower OPS if it was heavily OBP weighted at the top of the order from time to time (Melky only leads off when Damon is sitting).
I’m glad someone called me out on that because I meant to go back and fix it but forgot.
It’s good that Melky seems to get on base at a higher rate leading off than otherwise, but I don’t think he’s the best choice for the one slot with Damon out. Despite his struggles this year, I’d rather see Jeter lead off.
And, yes, the lower OPS is weighted toward OBP, but it’s still less than ideal. Really, I may be nitpicking too because the lineup construction doesn’t matter all that much.
yup, i’d rather see Jeter lead off too. i think Melky belongs at the bottom of the order. completely with you.
my point was really that putting someone with a decent OBP at the top of the order IS something Girardi might get from B-Pro.
i don’t really think the 35 ABs Melky has had leading off mean much at all, but he has shown more patience the last few days while leading off.
might be something to play around with.
In his career he’s walked twice as much per game leading off vs batting 9th
What if we signed Bonds and hit him 9th, right behind Melky? Wouldn’t that raise Melkman’s OPS by about 150 all by itself?
Bob Abreu? Don’t you mean Robert Abreu?
Actually, nope. His given birth name is Bob Abreu. Crazy Venezuelans!
Just like Carlos Carranza Sabathia…
in order to keep Posada’s bat in the lineup for both games, i wonder if Girardi thought about Dh’ing him the first game, and catching the second.
it would have made sense to me, unless Girardi is worred about Giambi playing back to back games in one day.
i think it is more about Giambi and keeping him healthy over the long run.
If we had another big bat on the bench, say one with a few hundred career homeruns, we wouldn’t have to worry about Giambi in both games
Griffey?
Barry Lamar
Piazza?
Is there anything more frustrating than playing Call of Duty 4 online after not playing it for a couple months?
Did anyone watch a pregame show, and if so, was there any mention of Moose being available to throw a couple innings if Giese or Ponson gets in trouble?
Girardi was on FAN today, and said Moose would not be available this weekend.
they may discuss moving up his next start to Monday, but that talk wouldnt be until after the games today.
all 4 balls to castillo were strikes
How in the world did Castillo score from first on a single to LF?
you think Willy is going to make an appearance with his ” Meet the Mess” shirt on?
I was hoping they’d get Randolph to throw out the first pitch. Alas…
christian has an arm
he stole second, then scored on the single.
Ah okay. Gamecast says he scored from first on the single.
Theres our leadoff hitter doing his thing! cough:brett gardner
who is this “Brett Gardner”? i haven’t heard anything about him recently.
Nothing special. Really slow, can’t get on a base, doesn’t make plays defensively nor offesively, horrible athlete. Nothing i would want on my team.
haha …
seriously, Christian looked over-matched at the plate today .. and Pelfry didn’t have his best stuff …. with Matsui going DL, i think its time to DH Damon and finally give Gardner his shot
pelfrey for CY!!
they should be lighting this schlub up, early as it is.
Schlub? Mid-90s heat with plus movement and good command of all three of his pitches (Curveball and Changeup). He was also the 9th overall pick in 2005.
i wouldnt say plus movement or great command .. maybe decent … his era is not indicivative of that type of pitcher …. he also got lucky today and escaped a few jams .. a line-up like the yanks should haved scored 10 runs easy on him today .. he got lucky
wow, a hit with RSIP. atta boy, Giambino!
i hate following these games with nothing more than GameDay… like how did Marlon Anderson got to 3rd on an IF single to Jeter?
A-Rod made a dive for the ball, got it and fumbled the transition from glove to hand and threw to first base and Marlon Anderson alertly kept on running from second base to third base.
Nice job by Mr. Giese to pick up A-Rod there.
i like dan giese. doesn’t look scared out there
that’s a 2006 type swing by cano
Nice plays by both Carlos Beltran and Robinson Cano. Beltran cutoff the ball in the gap and Cano hustling was able to make it to second base.
betemit’s obp is .271? whats his OPS .400?
pelfrey really misses the guidance of rick peterson
Well, at least he didn’t strike out on a pitch over his head.
thats real player development right there in front of our eyes. he’s learning from AB to AB.
…and Melky flies out after two pitches. cano doesn’t score.
Wow, both Chris Davis and Max Ramirez got called up to Texas? Nice.
And deservedly so. Texas has some scary good young players.
Fearless prediction: Cano ends the weekend with a higher BA than Melky.
You’re too generous. I was thinking by the 7th inning of the night cap…
pitch around beltran with 1st base open
No no, they only walk guys hitting under .200, like Asdrubal Cabrera and Ramon Hernandez with first base open.
For all the shit the Yankees get for their starting staff SNY just showed a graphic on how the Yanks rank in ERA, K/9, BB/9, and HR allowed and the Yanks rank basically middle-of-the-pack in all those categories. Pretty nice seeing as how we’ve been ravaged by injuries.
Be quiet Jamal. Don’t you know that the Yanks have a terrible starting rotation, a terrible bullpen (outside of Mo, who’s slipping), and no depth? At least that’s what the MSM tells me…
There’s a reason why Dan Giese is 31 with no Major League experience. I really miss Chien-Ming Wang right now. Ain’t nothing like more than 60 pitches and three runs with two outs in the third.
They should get Bronson Arroyo.
Derek says “Gimmie that 400th double back bitch”.
he’s 31 and no wang (insert joke) but is that gyro ball pitch something he just learned? for some reason i feel more comfortable with him on the mound than rasner
why is michael kay discussing whether the players will shower between games? i mean besides the obvious
because he’s awful as what he does.
at** what he does.
apparently like i am at typing.
No, no. He said besides the obvious.
SNY for the win!
Well this sure is going to be a long one.
no time to shower
They could wipe themselves down with baby wipes, lol.
David Wright does that shit too much, he needs to learn when to eat a ball. For those on Gameday he barehanded the grounder and threw it to first base like Eli Manning threw that game-winning TD pass to Plaxico Burress.
18-1 bitches!
Tom Brady: Oh, so he [Plaxico Burress] said we are only going to score 17-points huh?
Yeah, he did say that you little bitch and you still couldn’t even score that many.
A-Rod makes that play
Man, Gamecast shows Christian striking out on 4 balls.
The first one might have been outside but the others look right on the corner to me
Wow, I’m not even upset Christian just struck out. Pelfrey just put 3 pitches right on the corner
yeah, according to the ESPN GameDay, he painted those as far on the outside corner at the knees as you can get and still be a strike.
Pelfrey’s got the stuff if he can just throw a little more consistently.
Remember when people said that Jose Reyes is better than Derek Jeter. Ha, i do. He He
I do and why I agree DJ is the better hitter I would still rather have Jose Reyes but that’s obviously due to age and projection.
Question, who would you want right on the cusp of their Major League callups if you had the choice between Reyes and Jeter? Obviously not knowing what each would become I would choose Reyes because his tools are better, there is no debate there.
although Jeter projected for more power than Reyes did, yes, I would agree that strictly on a prospect status comp, you’d pick Reyes over Jeter at the same age.
peterson made things way too complicated for pelfrey, but the new guy fixed the problem in 10 minutes
melky is so good… ummm
did jeter really sac bunt there?
Mike Pelfrey just wiped sweat off his forehead and licked that same hand, baseball players are fucking gross (I’m looking at you as well Mr. Pee-hand Posada).
urine is actually sterile, and by its own nature, very clean. if its dirty, you have an infection, and you need antibiotics.
Would you pee on your hands?
well, i would choose batting gloves over that, myself.
I don’t see nothing wrong with a little urine…
good job getting the runner over alex
That was just crap luck. He’s come through twice already today, no?
Pick him up, Jason.
i love alex. just funnin’
if barry bonds (circa 2001) peed on jorge’s hands, would they grow to superhuman size?
Hip hip…
Hip hip…
Was it here that we were talking about Jason’s high OBP but low AVG with RISP?
What’s he to do when guys pitch him like that?
His AVG w/ RISP doesn’t go down when he walks…
If guys pitch him like that, god bless
I don’t pitch to him there no matter what his RISP is, the guy is killing the ball lately. Too bad Jorge couldn’t come through
damn. i hope that doesnt come back to bite us in the arse…
Where are you from Turn Two?
Why can’t a few guys get hot with the bat here?
And I HATE seeing Jeter bunt. If he can’t get a single I dont know who can.
Why are we playing for 1 run!!!
they’ve scored 4 runs in 4 innings.
i’m not math teacher, but that works out to roughly 9 runs per game.
the offense is doing their job.
Hurts a little less after the three-run third. Least we’re making Pelfrey work. Do the Mets have a worse bullpen than us? School and work are keeping me from paying much attention to any other teams…
The squirrel is back!
squirrel!!!!
Is there anything worse right now than walking Reyes?
how about striking him out but the ump misses the call?
How about a mirror image to Castillo? 1st & 2nd….
giese should never pitch when mclellan is behind the plate
Pitch Out, Pitch Out….Steal….who knew?
Posada couldnt throw Reyes out stealing 2nd base if he stood by the pitcher’s mound.
They might have to fix the pitching mound to get rid of the shit that Giese left there after he shitted in his pants today….
i didn’t think he was that bad
I was referring to the way he pitched the Mets. Scared to throw strikes. I know he doesnt have great stuff but against the Reds he was a strike-throwing machine going right after hitters. Today he didnt even have the guts to challenge freaking Louis Castillo.
Wow…can’t believe they held him up….
D Wright did slap that one with authority though.
And here comes Edwar….bases loaded, nobody out….
Any predictions?
LoL at Ron Darling saying Edwar Ramirez throws “95-MPH”.
Doesn’t he sound like James Woods to you?
Have no idea who that is, sorry.
He’s Peter Griffin’s arch enemy.
The chicken?
LoL, the mayor is his arch enemy?
You know those “real men of genius” Budweiser commercials on the radio? Apparently now there’s one for “Mr. Announcer Guy that never played sports and speaks 80% of the time he is not supposed to.”
I was laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe. Who does that sound like?
They have one for Michael Kay’s radio show and they make fun of the guy who writes the into song saying “[whatever guy's name is] has reached the pinnacle of his song writing career by writing an intro song to a regional sports talk radio show” (then the fast voice comes and says) “Some day I’ll win a Grammy!” Lmao.
You know, for a long time I wondered why they’d allow him to announce, and really be THE YES announcer, for all the obvious reasons. But isn’t it fun to make fun of him & point out his idiocy?
Plus, with MLB.TV, I’m forced to listen to other teams’ announcers quite often, and theres nothing more boring than listening to a couple of overgrown fans do nothing for expounding the analysis of the game and simply blindly root for their team. Nothing wrong with that, just keep it out of the booth. I remember Giambi hit a Salami in Chicago and the announcer felt like he just opened up the cookie jar @ age 5, only to find it empty.
“grand slam home run” He mumbles under his breath. But when Paul Konerko looks at a pitch a foot outside, its “Oh, great eye Paulie, here we go, lets do it for the good guys”
At least Michael Kay keeps the excitement up when any action is happening on the field.
I may get slammed for saying this, but I dislike him and am annoyed by him as much as anyone, but I think we’re lucky to have him.
Couldnt agree with you more. To me (I have the Extra Innings package) the 3 best broadcasting teams are SNY, YES and sorry to say NESN. Believe it or not, NESN might have the best broadcast team (I cant believe Im a Rem-dog fan I gues!!).
You don’t watch many Giants’ games I see. Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow are the best in the business.
Oh thats right. Vin Scully is also great and he does the games by himself. But since they are on the west-coast dont watch them as often as the rest.
Actually I lived w/ a Giants fan as a roommate for a couple of years, watched a lot of Giants games. Those guys strike me as cheesy a lot of times. “Grab some pine, meat” is great for fifteen year olds, but I’m not into it.
Although Im not a Natioal League guy, so there you go.
To me they will always be remembered as being the broadcast team for MVP 2005.
Im with you brother. Its kind of a similar feeling to the one I experience when I meet a true blue *or in this case red* Sox fan. Theres no substitute for the passion that we both camps of fans share over baseball. I live in Los Angeles. Trying to talk real baseball with an Angels fan is like trying to make a phone call underwater. They’re just not that connected.
So therefore, the broadcast teams of the two most impassioned teams in baseball are, surprise surprise, the best.
I hate the Red Sox.
I hate Michael Kay.
My life would be less rich if either were to leave it.
went to a game in anaheim last year, couldn’t believe how scary the fan were. i thought orange county was supposed to be filled with good looking people like mischa barton, not guys from american chopper?
I’m not sure “lucky” is the word but I don’t dislike him. He seems like an affable guy who works hard. I don’t know what kind of crap I’d be pulling out of my behind if I had to natter on day after day.
But he still annoys me.
But doesn’t he make you feel like a baseball genius?
Oh good…he only let all three inherited runners score, plus one of his own for luck….
On what I think was Delgado’s first 2008 hit
Just think, Ponson’s pitching tonight.
and don’t forget hitting
Helluva bunt.
What a nice boot that was.
4 for 15 with runners in scoring position so far. 2 of those hits being infield hits. The pathetic hitting with RISP continues……
You whine A LOT.
Actually just today, had a rough morning…
that was a great pitch to jeter
At least Reyes won’t be stealing second here, eh?
Always look on the bright side…
Its times like this when I wish Joba was still in the pen!
Kidding, kidding, only kidding….could do with a look at Robertson soon though
these guys need time to develop in the minors! i agree with the RAB writers, rushing them is going to hurt them in the long run
He smacked the living shit out of that one, didn’t think he had that type of power left in his bat. Ouch babe.
ouch ohlendorf really sucks can we get the unit back?
Carsten Charles Sabathia.
can we end the ohlendorf and edwar experiment please!
No.
why not?
Edwar can be an excellent reliever this year. He’s been in a bit of a slump, but he hasn’t pitched that badly except for that one game against Toronto. You can’t be so quick to dismiss a pitcher on a bad stretch.
Not crazy about Ohlendorf. Send him down to work on his secondary pitches.
Please
This guy is the definition of a AAAA player. He’s not fooling anyone. His hr rate ensures yo uwill NEVER be able to trust him in a close game. Why have someone like htis on the roster?
The guy has 50 major league innings and he’s a textbook example of a AAAA player?
That’s up there on the list of dumb things I’ve heard today.
I thought the Mets were playing bad this season?? I only ask because so far this season the Mets have fucking spanked the living shit out of the Yankees.
This matters because? We lost a season series to Tampa Bay in 2005 (or if we didn’t lose it then it was like 10-8) when they were bad. You lose games to bad teams, shit happens.
yea but they cant continue to lose games to bad teams this year or they will find themselves winning 85-89 games this year….as arod continues to fuel the fire for ppl that say he hits wen it doesnt matter lol im not one of them by the way
You’re not one of them because you’re not a fucking moron who thinks a hitter can somehow dictate when he hits a HR or not.
i think thats a compliment …thanks lol
You have to be the most calm, patient, level-headed person I know!! For being so young you are way too rational….
I meant you Jamal
Oh I’ve heard this for years, almost to a fault some people think I’m too level-headed, LoL.
don’t forget the running joke about the yankees playing against newbies and crappy major leaguers and making them look amazing
12 outs left. lets send a message about not rolling over
Lets just not let ARod do it by himself.
Pitching performances like this afternoon and presumably tonight may lead the Yanks to CC or Sheets in the offseason
i think that’s a given. what it might do is lead the Yanks to those guys THIS season.
Well Sheets isn’t available…and unless the Indians get desparate i dont see them matching up with us for a trade
Sheets will be available via Free Agency after the season
Well, they are the third worst team in the AL, 7 out in the central and 11 in the wild card, and their second best hitter is Casey Friggin’ Blake, so I can’t say they’re too confident in their ability to contend this year. And the odds on Sabathia giving them a hometown discount look to be about 0%.
Neither Sheets nor Sabathia are likely to resign, and neither the Brewers nor the Indians are likely to keep them in free agency. But since Milwaukee is in the race and Cleveland isn’t, my guess is Sheets stays put and then walks, and Sabathia gets dealt in a month.
i blame the schedule makers and the pirates. the only question is will ponson give up more than 11 runs by himself.
Not that I’m a fan of Sir Sidney, but he was doing OK before his douchebaggery got him booted from the Rangers.
9 Starts, sub-4 ERA. 4-1 record
Way too many hits, walks, etc, I know….but my vote is for lending the fat toad all the positive energy we can tonight. After all, would you rather see Igawa?
Melky has 2 hits today baby!!
ehhh i suppose he does…
YOU THINK HE MIGHT HAVE FOUND SOME OF GIAMBIS HGH LAYING AROUND THE STADIUM LOL
Yeah….sure looks like Delgado’s done to me
The pen is beyond awful.
If Bonds was on this team, the Yanks would have more than 5 runs. Kiddin’, sorta.
If this game doesn’t get CashMoney’s attention, I don’t know what will.
Oh well, games like this happen, no point in dwelling on it. Just roll with the punches and pound the living shit out of Pedro tonight.
We are his daddy.
Yeah I’m not concerned, just pull the split on the doubleheader today and I’m a happy guy. At least Hawkins is wearing out their hitters
well if i cant get eddie or ohlendorf out which by the way i like both … can i get latroy cut soon pleasee!
That was THE worst game I’ve ever been to. Delgado’s Granny was hit about 5-10 feet from me. I almost threw-up. You can probably see me on sports center leaning against the wall, giving the ball the finger. 31 U 11. On a good note, someone noticed my “Save the Big Three” t-shirt.
Time for a bullpen reshuffling
Latroy needs to be replaced by Robertson – there’s no way if we have somebody throwing as good at AAA as Robertson that we should have some of these other guys on the team puking it up way too often – Edwar and Ohlendorf have work to do still.
I think Ohlehdorf will benefit from some time at AAA – his stuff is great, but his head doesn’t seem solid enough to keep it consistent.
Cox for Edwar – I’d love to see that too! I know Cox is on the rebound, but the guy’s got a friggin 0.69 ERA at AAA…
Jon G! Someone find Lenny!
I for one am happy to see Ohlendorf shipped to AAA. He will have a tough time making it back to the Bronx with the competition in the minors. A 7 ERA in MLB doesn’t translate to a sub 2 ERA in AAA. The yankees have better options. This move was a long time coming.