Game Seven: Home Opener

April 13, 2012 by Mike Axisa 113 Comments

ALDS Tigers Yankees Baseball — (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)

After six relatively forgettable games on the road, the Yankees are finally back home in the Bronx. The Yankees have the best record in home openers this century, winning 11 of 12 games. Here’s the rejiggered lineup…

SS Derek Jeter
CF Curtis Granderson
3B Alex Rodriguez
2B Robinson Cano
1B Mark Teixeira
RF Nick Swisher
DH Raul Ibanez
C Russell Martin
LF Brett Gardner

RHP Hiroki Kuroda

The game starts a little after 1pm ET and can be seen on YES. We’re going to chat during the game, so join in the fun after the jump.

<a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=56a6b6b265" >Home Opener Chat</a>

Havok9120

I swear to God, if I can’t watch the game today…..

There Will Be Blood.
- forensic
  
  I’ll have to watch on the angels broadcast. That’s nearly as bad as not watching at all.
  - Madefelice
    
    i’m with forensic…Angel announcers are awful..luckily MLB.TV let me grab the YES feed.
- jjyank
  
  Why wouldn’t you? Out of state, work?
  - Havok9120
    
    I no longer live in-market, haven’t for years, and I, a destitute college student, don’t have the money for MLB Network. I’m at the mercy of Those Which Shall Not Be Named.
    
    Luckily, all is well. I don’t even have to watch the Angels feed.
- Erica
  
  MLB At-Bat on your phone! Go have a listen!
Chen Meng Wang

Guys I’ve been thinking about something regarding developing pitchers for a very long time. I posted this in the open thread early this morning, but I don’t think anybody saw it. During a game young pitchers are generally kept on a pitch count, and over a season they’re kept on an innings limit to make sure they don’t over extend themselves in the game and season, respectively. However, what doesn’t seem to be taken into account with a season’s innings limit is the quality/pressure of an inning. As we saw with CC Sabathia’s start on Wednesday, not all innings are created equal. In the second inning of that game he threw roughly 35 pitches, but in the fourth he threw 8. I understand CC isn’t young, but when it comes to developing a young arm how can innings such as those two be judged as equal? There should be another way to judge a young pitcher’s durability over the course of the season, which leads me to my idea, a new stat, called True Innings Pitched. Over a game you take a starter’s pitch count and divide it by the average number of pitches thrown per inning in baseball…for the sake of argument lets call it 15. That number would then be the number of True Innings Pitched, so instead of the pitcher getting rocked and it only counting for 3 innings it counts for more and if he cruises through 7 with a low pitch count it might not count for 7. Just an idea I’ve been spitballing for a while, let me know what you think.
- jjyank
  
  I like the idea. Obviously all innings are not created equal, but the variation between 5 pitch innings and 40 pitch innings probably even out over the course of the season. We could always just look at total pitches thrown on a given season, but your idea allows for a less-obscenely large number.
- V
  
  I have to ask – how do you know teams have strict innings counts? Because that’s what the media says they have?
  
  I was reading an interview with the GM of the Nationals about the ‘160 inning cap’ on Strasburg, and he basically said that the ‘160 inning cap’ was a fictitious number the media made up. They’re going to monitor his workload by game, between game work, heavy innings, how he looks (if his fastball dips during the summer, they might shut him down for a few weeks), etc.
  
  As for your rubric of coming up with ‘True Innings Pitched’, don’t forget to consider warm-up pitches and a long time sitting during high scoring innings – that’s a reason why, even if a guy is very effective, he might still be pulled early in a game (particularly re: minor leagues, like Campos being pulled after 5 great innings).
  - Chen Meng Wang
    
    I have to believe at least the Yankees keep a strict innings limit on their young pitchers, see the failed Joba Rules and Hughes Rules, the small increases in Nova’s innings over the years, the monitoring of Banuelos, and Campos being pulled in the game.
http://www.yankeeanalysts.com Mike E

Shameless plug- I did a pitchf/x preview of Ervin Santana over at Yankee Analysts. Some really interesting stuff in there about hit four seam fastball, his lack of a change up to righties, where he throws in the zone/count, matchups against players, etc.
Havok9120

Where’s Congressman Mondesi? Your namesake got a shoutout on YES.
V

Ervin’s having issues from the stretch…
sabathiasgut

how is the strikezone today? on gamecast they keep showing pitches right over the plate being called balls
- RetroRob
  
  Haven’t seen that. If they’re over the plate, they were too high or low.
- Havok9120
  
  Its the same for both pitchers so far. It doesn’t look too bad.
Yank The Frank

Swishalicious
RetroRob

Two straight garbage-time hits from Swish. Oh, wait…
Ro

Finally Arod is batting 3rd. Jesus, I’ve been saying this for a week.
- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q8RFNa3jDuU1oiw_aTiNs7N9SjwYgFJ-U_UPaUrlpA8/edit Johnny
  
  Yes, totally.
  - Ro
    
    ..and to substantiate my comment, even prior to seeing Arod struggle a bit, I thought that it would benefit the team most with Cano bating clean-up and forcing pitchers to make that pitch to Granderson at #2 and Arod at #3. While Arod is still a significant threat, he’s lost some of that luster in recent years and I just felt that once pitchers got past Cano, they’ve had an easier time rolling over Arod and Tex. I LOVE TODAYS line-up!!
    - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q8RFNa3jDuU1oiw_aTiNs7N9SjwYgFJ-U_UPaUrlpA8/edit Johnny
      
      Yes, and all the statistical analyses done show that your best hitters should always bat 2nd and 4th in the lineup. Cano is a more consistent hitter than Alex at this point, which is what you’re saying.
      - Ro
        
        Yep, but I suck at baseball statistics. I take the long way around explaining things..
- Havok9120
  
  Lo Hud’s reaction was funny. Their commenters have been calling for it too, but now its an example of Girardi micromanaging. We’ll see some of the same here.
  
  Sigh.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q8RFNa3jDuU1oiw_aTiNs7N9SjwYgFJ-U_UPaUrlpA8/edit Johnny

How’s that for hits with runners in scoring positions? :D
Preston

Garbage Time Swisher!
Havok9120

Garbage Time?

Garbage Time.
pat

GAR-BAGE TIME
GAR-BAGE TIME
GAR-BAGE TIME
Rey22

That was a really fun half in the booth with Jorge.
- Havok9120
  
  Yeah, it was. He was fun to listen to, especially with those three in there with him.
  
  I’m glad he wants to hang around the periphery of the organization. It’ll be nice to see him sometimes.
  - Ro
    
    Paul makes this all happen..”the warrior”
    - Havok9120
      
      Him and Kay in the booth is always funny.
      
      I remember a night where it was Kay, Paulie, and Tino. That was a ton of fun.
Wil Nieves Number 1 Fan

Russell you are so sexy.
sabathiasgut

cmon Gardner
Wil Nieves Number 1 Fan

Yo are you fucking kidding me?
Wil Nieves Number 1 Fan

That was pathetic.
sabathiasgut

nice, guy on 3rd, no outs. zero runs. Yankee baseball
Will

Way to bail Santana out Yankees.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q8RFNa3jDuU1oiw_aTiNs7N9SjwYgFJ-U_UPaUrlpA8/edit Johnny

Beckett is pitching the home opener at Fenway against Tampa. This should be fun!
Ro

CHALLENGE!!! Get the red flag!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q8RFNa3jDuU1oiw_aTiNs7N9SjwYgFJ-U_UPaUrlpA8/edit Johnny

AN A-BOMB FROM A-ROD
Yank The Frank

#1 for AROD
- gc
  
  Damn Girardi, overmanaging and putting Alex in the #3 spot today.
sabathiasgut

Girardi puts him in the 3 hole! what a genius
- gc
  
  Yankee baseball.
Jimmy McNulty

KURODA COULDN’T PUT AWAY PUJOLS THAT FUCKING LOSER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Srsly, there was a scout piece whining about how Kuroda couldn’t put away Gigante on at bat. He’s Albert Fucking Pujols…he’s not supposed to be put away.
sabathiasgut

Cano is so smooth
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q8RFNa3jDuU1oiw_aTiNs7N9SjwYgFJ-U_UPaUrlpA8/edit Johnny

I’m excited for Alex. He’s got 2,775 hits and 629 home runs. Hopefully he can make it to 3,000 next season, and he’s the only legitimate candidate right now to unseat that guy from the top of the all-time home run leaderboard.
- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q8RFNa3jDuU1oiw_aTiNs7N9SjwYgFJ-U_UPaUrlpA8/edit Johnny
  
  As a hypothetical, if he was to hit 30 homers a year forever he’d be 41 when overtaking the 762 mark. But he’s obviously declining; he hit thirty in 2009 and thirty in 2010. Not sure he can keep that rate going.
  - Jimmy McNulty
    
    He’ll stick around as long as it takes I have that feeling.
    - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q8RFNa3jDuU1oiw_aTiNs7N9SjwYgFJ-U_UPaUrlpA8/edit Johnny
      
      We have him locked up through to 2017. If he can hit home runs consistently, you have to assume he’d make it by around 2015.
  - Havok9120
    
    Even if he drops off to average 25 a year, he still makes it during the contract.
    - Jimmy McNulty
      
      At the end of…
      
      2012: 654
      2013: 679
      2014: 714 (hey hey)
      2015: 739
      2016: 764 (record)
      2017: 789
      
      May as well bring him back see if he can get 800.
      - Havok9120
        
        It will be interesting to see where he is as a player in, say, 2015. Much as this contract has been/will be an albatross, if there’s any player, ever who I trust to make it work its ARod. He’s got every tool a baseball player could have in terms of drive, physical tools, and knowledge about the game.
        
        Its one reason I’m so interested in how his body holds up this season.
thekid

Can someone fill me in on the action up to this point? I see a garbage time homer by swisher and a homer by arod- anything else?
- Jimmy McNulty
  
  Swisher’s was a garbage time double
  - http://www.twitter.com/brandonholley B-Rando
    
    Did I miss a joke at some point? How is the 1st considered garbage time?
    - Jimmy McNulty
      
      Yes.
    - Havok9120
      
      A guy named Cuso got in an argument with Mike in a game thread, and maintains that Swish is a stat padder who hits almost purely in “garbage time” ™ . Now its become a meme.
    - Rainbow connection
      
      It’s RAB, so they take something someone said and beat it into the ground because they are insecure people.
      - Robinson Tilapia
        
        Your “insecure people” = my “just having fun with it.”
      - Havok9120
        
        You mean we take ridiculous points people hammer home (very rudely, I might add) and then have fun with it?
        
        Yes, yes we do. We’re just terrible people that way.
- Havok9120
  
  Kuroda looks good. That’s about it. Jorge was fun in the booth.
  
  Oh. ARod got a stolen base too. He looked better running than I’ve seen outta him in awhile. So that’s nice.
Jimmy McNulty

Three border line calls…
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q8RFNa3jDuU1oiw_aTiNs7N9SjwYgFJ-U_UPaUrlpA8/edit Johnny

Jeter only hits on the road and A-Rod only hits at home.
- Wil Nieves Number 1 Fan
  
  At least they don’t hit during garbage time.
  - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q8RFNa3jDuU1oiw_aTiNs7N9SjwYgFJ-U_UPaUrlpA8/edit Johnny
    
    +1
Jimmy McNulty

Boom shaka laka
Alkaline

Grandyman special!
Alkaline

And A-rod is 3-3. Clearly he should be batting cleanup. Silly Joe is over-managing.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q8RFNa3jDuU1oiw_aTiNs7N9SjwYgFJ-U_UPaUrlpA8/edit Johnny

Where was this performance in Tampa, or even in Bal’more? Sweet Fancy Moses. This looks like a team that you can’t get out. This is what the Yankees should look like!
- Havok9120
  
  Its almost like there was a cold streak going in a small sample size….How odd.
Jimmy McNulty

So is Teixeira going to have another shitty April? I sure hope that fucking asshole goes back to his 2009 form, they’ll need an MVP caliber first basemen to make up for Granderson’s regression to merely being all star instead of MVP.
- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q8RFNa3jDuU1oiw_aTiNs7N9SjwYgFJ-U_UPaUrlpA8/edit Johnny
  
  Kuroda set down Pujols there for you, BTW
  - Jimmy McNulty
    
    Saw…to be honest I’m not mad if Kuroda gets beat by Pujols…he’s Pujols that’s what he does, he beats you. Macier Izturis? Different scenario.
- Havok9120
  
  Slow your roll. I know his batting average has been disappointing, but the guy produces a ton with the bat. He’s not as advertised, but he’s had more power to make up for it.
  
  The glovework speaks for itself. He (with Cano, of course, but more him) allow Jeter to do his thing at SS far passed the point where it should be possible.
- Robinson Tilapia
  
  Way to call the starting first baseman on the team you’re supposedly such a fan of that you spend time on a fan blog a fucking asshole…
  
  …do people actually think this makes them sound like a more discerning fan or something? I don’t get it.
  - Rainbow connection
    
    Ask everyone that always sits near me at YS. All I hear is Teix Sucks!!!
    - Robinson Tilapia
      
      I don’t get that either.
      
      The closest I ever came to any of this was with Pavano, and it was still half in jest.
      
      Maybe LaTroy Hawkins got some of it, but there wasn’t really a whole lot of emotional bonding time there.
    - Robinson Tilapia
      
      BTW, did you give up on alternate names, or has “Rainbow Connection” moved on to someone else?
  - KL
    
    Sadly, some Yankee fans are complete jerks.
https://twitter.com/#!/YankeesGalaxy YankeesGalaxy

Hiroki-san pitching a sugoi game..
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q8RFNa3jDuU1oiw_aTiNs7N9SjwYgFJ-U_UPaUrlpA8/edit Johnny

Wow, Kuroda has been great today. That’s his sixth strikeout.
https://twitter.com/#!/YankeesGalaxy YankeesGalaxy

7th inning stretch. GOD BLESS AMERICA AND THE NEW YORK YANKEES!
Naved

7 innings of shutout ball
https://twitter.com/#!/YankeesGalaxy YankeesGalaxy

double for the captain
- Havok9120
  
  Guy is on fire early. Even if it turns out to just be a second dead-cat bounce, its a ton of fun to watch.
https://twitter.com/#!/YankeesGalaxy YankeesGalaxy

8 Strong innings
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q8RFNa3jDuU1oiw_aTiNs7N9SjwYgFJ-U_UPaUrlpA8/edit Johnny

Hirok’ going for the shutout
https://twitter.com/#!/YankeesGalaxy YankeesGalaxy

this game is short.. somewhere Joe West is smiling LOL
- Havok9120
  
  So am I, its not even 3 my time. Afternoon is open.
http://www.workwithpete.com Pete

What’s Japanese for “Now get off my jock everyone…” ?
- gageagainstthemachine
  
  fun with Google Translate time!!!
  
  “???????????????…”
  - gageagainstthemachine
    
    well…that didn’t display correctly….too bad :(
  - gageagainstthemachine
    
    that didn’t display correctly
https://twitter.com/#!/YankeesGalaxy YankeesGalaxy

base hit swish
JobaWockeeZ

At least it isn’t Clay fucking Rapada going in.
- TomH
  
  “While we try to limit profanity on site, we have not censored comments for profanity. We ask that you be judicious in your use of profanity and keep in mind that fans from all walks of life read and contribute to River Ave. Blues.”
  - Havok9120
    
    This. Its a very, very good day in Yankee baseball. No need for angst. =)
  - Robinson Tilapia
    
    So using profanity in referring to a middle reliver who’s been on the team for about a week isn’t judicious?
    
    *writes that down*
  - pat
    
    we have not censored comments for profanity.
    
    Quit being a whiny b*tch.
    - TomH
      
      4/5’s of the way to civilization. Good work.
sabathiasgut

lame, his bid for a complete game gets broke up by a swinging bunt by Abreu
- Havok9120
  
  Such is life. Gotta get him the win after such a strong outing. Plus, DRob is still getting his Spring Training work in.
Robinson Tilapia

Got pulled out of the office for most of the game. I missed a friggin gem. What can I say?

Remember 0-3?
- Havok9120
  
  Its a shame you missed it. Its worth a look at Yankees Encore if you’re in market. Kuroda looked darn good, even better than his line. Plus, ARod did his thing, and that’s always fun to watch.
  - Robinson Tilapia
    
    Good thing my plans tonight involve takeout and a sleeping baby….
Len S.

What happened to everybody? I haven’t been on this board for a while and an opening day would have 3x as many comments as this. Mass bannings or a mass exodus for some reason or another?
- Len S.
  
  Didn’t notice the chat, so maybe that has something to do with it.
  - pat
    
    The chat and it being a day game detract from the # of comments Plus it is pretty much a fact by now that losses draw out the trolls.
  - Havok9120
    
    Yeah, it was the chat. Same thing happened in the ST Game Threads with chats, and on Opening Day. All the intervening Game Threads had 5-900 (!!!) comments.
- Steve (different one)
  
  There was a chat….
pai pai

HIROK > DARVISH!!!!