Jun
08
Game 62: Bats
By
(Getty)
The Yankees’ offense has disappeared since hanging six runs on Aaron Harang some 15 innings ago, scoring just one run off the combination of Blake Beavan, Jeremy Bonderman, and various relievers. That’s kind of annoying. Knock it off. Here’s the lineup that will face southpaw Joe Saunders…
- CF Brett Gardner
- SS Jayson Nix
- DH Mark Teixeira
- 2B Robinson Cano
- LF Vernon Wells
- 1B Kevin Youkilis
- RF Ichiro Suzuki
- 3B David Adams
- C Chris Stewart
And on the mound is the 594th overall pick in the 1990 draft, left-hander Andy Pettitte. This afternoon’s game is scheduled to begin a little after 4pm ET and can be seen on YES. Enjoy.
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Out of morbid curiosity, I looked up Robbie’s BA against lefties this season. He’s batting .198, and I believe he’s got 1 hit in his last 23 ABs against portsiders. He’s got a .599 OPS against lefties. This is a trend that has to reverse itself soon, or he’s essentially a platoon player. Fingers crossed for him to rediscover, well, everything.
Or, as John Sterling would say, “Cano hits GREAT against lefties.”
That’s an eye-opener Walt. The offensive inconsistencies of this team are well documented, but we need a productive Cano more than
anything else
The Reverse Lock works!
“the 594th overall pick in the 1990 draft, left-hander Andy Pettitte.”
That right there is why I will never pay attention to the draft.
But he was probably the only one in his round to make it as an all star, meanwhile same year 8 of the first 24 picks made it to the all star game.
Posada was the 629th pick!
That doesn’t invalidate anything Laz said. You’ll find success stories in the lower draft rounds but more success stories in the higher draft rounds.
I wasn’t trying to invalidate anything. It was just an amusing observation.
I figured, going by your original comment, that you were trying to make a point.
If not? Well, cool.
the mlb draft maneuvering is pretty fascinating, actually.
i do think it’s hilarious when fans use andy as an example when demanding that yankee scouts do a better job of finding gems in late rounds.
That’s silly. Outliers are outliers for a reason.
Wells is actually doing ok vs lhp, and Ichiro is doing even better.
To the tune of .381 avg, Which just makes his sub .600 ops vs rhp that much worse.
Can’t wait for the day the yanks make Wells a platoon player and not an everyday player
Via Lohud today:
“I still consider Vernon an everyday player,” Girardi said. “Might I spell him with a day off with Overbay? Yeah. But I still consider Vernon an everyday player.”
Meanwhile, Wells 2011-2013 vs. RHP: 684 PA, 204/237/379, 66 wRC+
That screams platoon player to me, but this is the same team that though Ben Francisco would make a good DH vs. LHP, so I’m not holding my breath for a change anytime soon.
Who would you platoon him with though?
Could give Overbay a shot now. If they don’t think he could handle OF well enough, maybe Musty makes more sense.
Aaron Judge right now probably wouldn’t be as bad as Vernon is right now lol
Praying for a strong Andy start. Let’s get win #250!
Joe Saunders might be fatter than Joba!
Las night certainly didn’t go according to plan. let’s bounce back and win this one!
There ya go, Robbie.
Way to go Robbie
Nice piece of hitting by both Teix and Robbie.
The best part about no Michael Kay in the booth? I don’t have to hear “Andrew Eugene Pettitte.”
Ok, Wells is awful.
He is. The problem is can’t risk Overbay in this expansive outfield.
True. We’re stuck with him.
A possible answer would be to call up Thomas Neal and just put Wells on the bench. But the roster is so jumbled that it probably wouldn’t work.
Theoretically, they could replace Adams with Musty, and have Musty play 3B or DH vs. LHP and OF vs. RHP (making Wells a platoon player).
Also with a lefty pitching today.
But at this point, I would rather see Overbay against a lefty than Vernon Wells.
I wouldn’t. And I hate Wells.
Right, the only value wells brings is he hits lhp.
Overbay is a disaster against LHP, besides.
He’s supposed to at least hit lefties.
I could care less about Vernon Wells and more about the fact that Cano stole a bag?
WTF are you swinging at, Wellsie?
Talk about a guy whose slump is not baffling me at all.
Not a slump if you’ve sucked for the last 3 years with the sole exception of a month long splurge at the beginning of the season.
Actually he had a very god 2010 and then started to drop so it was a bad two years. But your point still stands.
Good to see Girardi is clueless as ever…
Speaking of struggling outfielders, Vernon Wells has been pretty bad lately, but Girardi said he has no plans of making Wells a platoon player at this point. “I still consider Vernon an everyday player,” Girardi said. “Might I spell him with a day off with Overbay? Yeah. But I still consider Vernon an everyday player.”
• Girardi on Wells’ struggles: “I think his timing’s a little off. It seems when he does hit a ball hard, they catch it. He’s struggling right now. We believe he’s going to come out of it. There’s no doubt he’s going to come out of it, but I just think he’s out in front of balls a little bit and it’s causing some issues.”
Yipee!
If you believe him. The truth is that he has very few other options to go to and he has to give the public appearance of not backing out on a player.
Who would they platoon him with? The only option is Overbay, and I don’t think anyone wants to see him playing OF in Safeco.
Both Mustelier and Neal would be better options at this point.
And frankly, it’s not like Wells’ defense is anything special that you would lose with Overbay out there. I’m not a fan of the experiment, but at this point, it might be worth the risk.
If I was Joe I’d just start answering “no comment” to these questions. Anything else is a flat-out lie.
Wells is not struggling. He’s just being himself
This year .236/.281/.407/.689
Last year .230/.279/.403/.682
How much longer before Granderson comes back?
This is awesome.
https://twitter.com/keithlaw/status/343462397446615040/photo/1
For any CB Bucknor “fans”.
That’s brilliant.
Him being blind is on Wikipedia, so it has to be true.
Dammit. It’s been edited out now.
What comes first: a David Adams walk or a David Adams demotion?
(same applies to Austin Romine)
I remember when people were screaming out for Romine to get starts in place of Stewart. Where are those people now?
Probably hanging out with everyone who thought David Adams was going to be an all-star.
What do you expect Girardi to say about Wells? Any respectable manager will backup his subordinates. If you want a manager who calls out his players hire Bobby V or Ozzie and see how well that works out.
Yeah, I don’t think we want that.
If you’re a manager, you back up your subordinates, but you don’t flat-out lie with what you’re saying. You also don’t hurt the team you’re the supervisor of, or the organization you’re representing, by ignoring things that are hurting your team and the rest of your subordinates. The subordinates need to earn the faith from their supervisor too, it’s not just blind faith.
The problem is that there is no evidence of his ignorance. I don’t think he controls who gets called up and who gets sent down.
He doesn’t control it by himself, but he does have input into it. He also does have control over his lineup and can sit Wells as he feels.
Calling out a player publicly would hurt the team much more than backing him up. Privately maybe it’s a different story. If Girardi had a better option than Wells he probably platoons Vernon with Ichiro. He doesn’t have that luxury right now on the WC in these big ballparks where Overbay’s defense would be more of a liability.
Ichiro is a far better hitter than Wells at this point and should not be platooned with him (especially since he’s got a reverse split going on). Beyond that, he doesn’t need to call him out, he can sugarcoat him sitting for a few games, or longer, and play it off as him stuggling and just giving him some time to work on his swing (and maybe even send him for an eye exam…) and get some rest since he’s had to play almost everyday this season…
Joe has this weird thing where he shows undeserved faith in guys. A good three weeks will earn you almost limitless patience from him.
Kind of. This year though is more about necessity than faith.
Absolutely, but even with this depleted roster there are better moves than the ones he makes.
Sadly, he only had one good week at the start of the season. Since then he’s been worse than he’s even been the last two years.
It must have been a heck of a week because his stats should be worse if it was an average week.
It was.
First 6 games: .381/.500/.762
Last 52 games: .221/.254/.369
Two years in LA: .222/.258/.409
And let’s not even mention that those worse numbers with the Yankees are coming in a better hitter’s park.
Those last 52 games paint a picture of a guy who doesn’t belong in the league, quite frankly. It’s not like he’s an elite defender.
Those last 266 games paint a picture of a guy who doesn’t belong in the league, quite frankly. It’s not like he’s an elite defender.
He’s not even old! A 34 year old should have something left in the tank.
The Lord Humongous is very displeased.
re better hitter’s park: for a right-handed pull-hitter, not so much.
He was actually using right field earlier in the year when he had success. Now? Not really.
It’s amazing that, right now, Chris freakin’ Stewart may be the 5th best hitter in today’s lineup…
Gardy is playing well.
He has the hot bat right now.
Damn when did Joe Saunders start throwing 93 MPH?
Hot gun more like.
At some point the Yankees have to win a 1-0 game.
Groundball to second base. The Robbie Cano special.
Youkilis outdid himself there. Terrible ab
It was like a carbon copy of his first AB.
Didn’t see the first one, lucky me.
more than two months until we go back to rogers center. 60-day DL vern, activate neal or musty. easy.
And here come the runs
Vern continues to make April look like a huge fluke. Wow.
In other news, a recent Yankees draftee has a mutual friend with me. Dillon McNamara. Pretty crazy.
nick ciuffo went to my high school. go wildcats.
Professional Baseball Player.
Cost the team at least a run.
And before Greg chimes in – FALLACY.
See, at this point you all can just FALLACY yourselves.
if only.
Does something every game to help the (other) team win.
gotta play infield in
Professional Ballplayer. Oh my.
HE’S A BASEBALL PLAYER
Man, that could have been the inning if Nix didn’t eff up.
What happened?
Should be an unearned run
Can’t be. Can’t assume the double play. Been in baseball for years.
Hence why I said should be
That’s one of those rules that should probably be amended, at least for such easy calls. I’d also like to allow some runs to score on ground rule doubles, like if there’s two outs and the runners were on the move anyway.
Granted, it’s very subjective, but there must be a way.
Charge that run to Jayson Nix.
Shortstop ERA?
Sorry, guys. We’ve already scored our run for the day.
Saunders is like .375 second and third time around, we might get one more.
So, hopefully Jeter’s MRI this week shows that everything is progressing nicely.
Excuse me, a CT scan.
If Ichiro doesn’t make something happen here somebody should be fired.
/hyperbole
/not really
What say mr forensic and mr Whitaker tojason bay getting another big hit. Another great game by nix. First He leaves the runner stranded at 2nd by swinging at a pitch which bounced 2 feet in front of home plate. Then he makes an error a little leaguer would make. Put overbay at short
Does someone want to translate this from Genuine Frontier Gibberish?
Wow, lead-off single. I’m impressed. Wish we had him instead of Wells.
No seriously, I do…
Almost…
Argh, I’m so confused now.
and adams still hasn’t drawing a walk, sent him down
Redeemed himself.
Way to redeem yourself Nix
There’s the professional
You owed us that one, Nixie.
Nix gets the run back that he lost.
your guy sterling: “he gets the clutch hits.” good stuff.
“he gets
the clutchan occasional hits, which is all I will pay attention to”Why does Mark Feinsand think Pettitte has more wins than Mussina? Am I missing something?
what was the context? could he have meant as a yankee?
That’s what I thought, too, but no. Feinsand actually said that Pettitte just passed Mike Mussina for wins, which makes no sense. Moose has more career wins, and Pettitte has many more Yankee wins.
Mussina won 123 as a Yankee.
Pettitte has won 203 as a Yankee.
If there’s an actual explanation for this I don’t know what it is.
Oh my gosh, I just realized that John and Suzyn must have started listing the reasons for Nix’s canonization after that last hit.
Yup. They also thought it was a great idea for Brignac to bunt last night, it was just the execution that failed.
Well considering what the offense did after that, it might have been the right idea.
Yes, if you assume they could know the outcome of the game beforehand, that might have been the right call. But logic does not work that way, the bunt was a blunder.
It’s in hindsight. And to be fair I was not crazy about the bunt when it happened either.
No, in hindsight it was a failed bunt. At the time it was a shitty idea to give away an out with the offense struggling.
With no one out in the 2nd inning, no less.
You do know that I mostly agreed with you, right?
And yet, it’s still not wrong in “hindsight”. It was just wrong.
Ha, the beatification of Jayson Nix.
Sterling Tease. Fuck him.
Wait, Wells is staying on the field after an at bat. Shouldn’t some one tell him he’s supposed to go back to the dugout? I don’t understand.
Weak sauce, Ichiro
Wells and Youkilis reaching base safely in the same inning???
It’s the end of the world as we know it…
How did we ever score two runs?
Cano and Nix had 2 out RBI singles.
I don’t think he was asking literally.
I was not.
See Saunders got it up to 92 there again.
cashman needs to get 2 bats or this team going nowhere
Called the trading deadline buddy.
nobody out-gregs greg, buddy.
The same team whose offense we bitch about daily that sits 2 games out of 1st place?
Surely THAT team is going nowhere.
Hyperbole much?
You can’t honestly believe they’re doing it with offense?
No, but I also don’t believe they’re going “nowhere”.
I don’t think they can consistently win with an offense this bad. An upgrade will be needed.
yanks don’t pitched good enough and play great defense to win enough games to make the playoffs with this dreadful lineup.
Andy might be able to throw a CG at this rate. Not sure how many pitches he can throw. As long as he gets through 7 with the lead it’s secure.
Meanwhile Pettite has thrown just 64 pitches through 6 innings.
Thought I would alert everyone Andy(1,939) is now 17 ks from tying Whitey(1,956) for #1 on Yankees all time strike out list!
Here comes the Branch Line Station.
If you know the Rev. W. Awdry, you will get this reference.
yanks should sent up hafner here
They should at least consider it.
why am i not suprise. Giradri is a dreadful manager
And yet…
They already have the lead. Why take out the better SS (however sad that statement makes us) when you are leading?
I think Brigniac is the better defensive SS.
ok i was wrong
I would have pinch hit Hafner here, Joe
However, now that I think about it, Wedge would have just brought in Perez to counter the move.
still rather have hafner up, but nix did the job
Only if they re-wrote the rules of baseball before he did it.
Once he brought the righty in, he has to face at least one batter (barring an injury).
That rule really doesn’t make sense because you can pinch hit for a pinch hitter so it should work the other way around.
Sense or not… you’d think Girardi might know one of the more basic rules in baseball.
So it’s not an excuse for Girardi not making the move.
I’m only following on play-by-play right now, but Farquhar would’ve had to face Hafner since he just came in. You sound like those terrible umps in the Houston game earlier this year.
Why do I think that I have seen managers make that move in the past?
And John and Suzyn simultaneously orgasm.
“Nix is a VERY IMPORTANT part of this team.”
Yeah, I’d say that’s an O.
That’s now +1 for Jayson Nix.
And in the end…. it works out.
Baseball Player!!!!
OK Nix. I forgive your defensive lapse. For now.
Ma and Pa are going to be insufferable after this one.
Close the door on this game Tex
See that’s why I have said that it very hard to criticize managers. Sometimes they make the wrong move and it works. Sometimes they make what they think is the right move and it doesn’t work.
True that. I didn’t think it was wrong to leave Nix in there. The runner’s already on second, and a single will score him. Nix can get a single.
If it was a big spot and Wells came up, or you need a home run, then I’d PH.
Logically, though, one would still criticize the manager for making the wrong move even if worked. Being the wrong move and all.
You would think so. But it really doesn’t happen that much.
i should hope so. the old blind squirrel. when some guy sucks out on the river you re-buy and wait for pot-odds to catch up with him.
WTF? Oli Perez?
And he gets Cano.
Yeah, he’s been with the Mariners the last two years.
Ironically last year, he wasn’t as effective against lefties as he is this year.
Robbie looked a little like Swisher there.
Looks like the Orioles are coming strong for our title of best at over-hyping pitching prospects and getting little to nothing out of them in the majors
You got that right. People keep talking up the O’s FO etc. Nice to see they’re getting clobbered today,
By the way Rangers and Blue Jays are in the top of the 17th inning.
And the Marlins and the Mets are in the top of the 15th inning.
Way to go Andy.
WTF? 83 pitches and he’s done.
Hey, I saw Buck Showalter take out Freddy Garcia to start the seventh with 66 pitches.
Buck is kind of a psycho, though.
Girardi’d.
Had he been at 83 pitches and it was the 6th inning there is close to zero chance he’s pulled.
Either than or Ryan’s .550 OPS means you have to play the platoon advantage.
Now in his last start, if I recall, Andy started to tire around the 70th pitch. So that has to play into this decision a bit.
Which is meaningless because it was a completely different opponent with a different amount of pitching under pressure.
Pettitte barely had to sweat today. He worked with nobody on for most of the game. He didn’t look like he was tiring one bit, and in fact it looked like he was quite sharp still but getting squeezed a bit.
Unless the goal is to get Robertson and Rivera some work (haven’t pitched since Wednesday), the move was another pointless overmanage by Girardi.
That was the other reason that I was considering. Actually they haven’t pitched since Tuesday. CC threw the CG on Wednesday.
Sorry, Tuesday. But this game is still too close to mess around like that. If your starter is cruising and is not tiring, then by bringing in relief pitchers you can only make things worse.
Pettitte was the better choice than a rusty Robertson right now. It’s not like it’s one of your lesser pitchers like Hughes who might blow up at any moment.
I was kind of surprised that he did it too. But once again, the decision goes the Yankees way, for the moment.
Exactly. A starter that is not tiring or showing any signs of strain with a low pitch count is a better bet than a rusty reliever. And why not get Andy the complete game if possible?
It was probably one of those “if anybody gets on I’m coming to get you” things, except he stayed in to retire the lefty.
Da fuck, DRob?
Please go after Brendan Ryan.
So Girardi took Andy out after only 82 pitches. It’s the 8th inning, I have absolutely zero problem with Girardi opting to go with Robertson and Mo in a two run game.
It didn’t seem like a bad idea at the time.
The starter is shutting them down. Why would you mess with that and bring in a guy who hasn’t pitched since Tuesday and is notorious for having bad control when he hasn’t pitched in a while?
The move worked, but it was not the right one. It wasn’t necessarily a bad decision, but it wasn’t the best that could have been made.
Andy is pretty old, though.
old for baseball. young for a senator.
He’s still quite a bit younger than me.
And again, the decision on the edge works in the Yankees favor.
Doesn’t make it the right one. Getting lucky is not the same as being smart. In a small sample like in the playoffs you can throw that out the window, but in the regular season you can’t have that sort of mindset because over a lot of games it will burn you (it already has many times).
But as I said earlier, nobody seems to care about that. They care more about the result than the decision, if the result goes their way.
Logically they should, but it really doesn’t work that way.
That doesn’t matter. It doesn’t change a thing. If they don’t know any better, then they are not fit for the job. Your job is to give your team the best chance to win. If you can’t do that, then it doesn’t matter what excuses you make.
You are in rare form today.
It doesn’t.
How many post game write ups on sports sites have you seen that have said “Technically this was a bad decision but luckily it worked”
When people are asking BEFORE the result is known, they are not using the outcome to determine the “rightness” of the decision.
I meant in reaction. You can question anything prior to an event happening.
Ahh…. got you.
I think Mike A and other knowledgable writers will criticize a move even if it works out. Most of the mainstream sites have idiots pumping out recaps so it’s hard to expect them to analyze anything but the result.
True. But even then, they mention it in passing with a “I didn’t think this was the right move, but whatever” type of phrase (I’m just paraphrasing) They don’t belabor the point.
Drob for two outs and give it to Mo seems about right. Andy’s pitch count notwithstanding.
Now you could pinch hit Hafner here too.
And it ends in the Yankees favor again.
Tex with his signature pop-up.
I was just thinking that. That looks like last year.
Josh pettitte just drafted by yanks
Probably wont sign, but if he does and Mo gets three outs. A banner day for the Pettitte family.
Still a banner day sign or not
I always get nervous when Ma and Pa start building up Mariano too much before an appearance.
That is a great walk up song for Raul. Perfect, really.
That was an unintentional intentional walk. Rather go after Franklin
Andy’s got his 250th win and he’s headed straight to Cooperstown alongside Mo.
Man for any other pitcher that 2-2 pitch up to Morse would have been extremely dangerous (miss a bit down and he hits it 450ft); but for Rivera… no worries.
Like the unintentional/intentional walk to Ibanez (even if it puts the tying run on base). They could have given Franklin 6 strikes and I don’t think it would have mattered.
Was watching the M’s TV feed and even they said “good luck kid” when Franklin came up and were laughing on the pitch that Rivera put on Franklin’s hands.