Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

Calculation error costs Yanks $10K each from playoff shares

This time around, we’ll look at big hits in terms of WPA. For the uninitiated, that’s win probability added, a stat that shows us a team’s chance of winning a game at any given moment. Our list consists of the 10 biggest swings in WPA. What hits gave the Yankees the best chance to win the game? These are the top 10 such hits.

10. ALCS Game 5: Teixeira doubles, .192 (video)

After a 10-1 drubbing of the Angels in Game 4, the Yankees had to wait a day to finish off the Angels. On the mound was A.J. Burnett, who pitched well in Game 2. He had, in fact, pitched will in both of his playoff starts, instilling us with a sense of confidence. After a season of watching Bad A.J. show up after a few Good A.J. starts, it seemed like he put all that behind him. He seemed to be, dare I say it, stepping up in the playoffs.

The feeling wouldn’t last too much longer. It was as if Bad A.J. shoved Good A.J. aside, beat his chest, and said, “My turn!” After walking Chone Figgins to start the game, Burnett surrendered hits to the next four batters, alternating doubles and singles. Before he had recorded even one out, Burnett put the Yankees in a 4-0 hole. John Lackey then went to work, holding down the Yankees over the next five innings, after getting out of a first and second, none out jam in the first.

Finally, in the top of the seventh, the Yankees started a rally. Melky Cabrera started with a ground ball double to right, which Jorge Posada and Derek Jeter followed with walks to load the bases. Johnny Damon couldn’t get in the run, leaving Lackey with a bases loaded, two outs situation. Except Mike Scioscia didn’t want to leave it in Lackey’s hands, opting to substitute lefty Darren Oliver. It seemed an odd decision. Lackey had pitched pretty well all game and was just one out away from ending the frame. With the switch hitting Teixeira coming to the plate, the substitution didn’t make much sense.

Teixeira wasted no time in making Scioscia regret it, as he slammed a ball in the left-center gap, bringing around all three base runners and putting the Yankees within one. Hideki Matsui tied the game two batters later, and Robinson Cano put the Yankees ahead after him, smoking a triple into the right-center gap. The Yankees would blow the game the very next inning, making it all the more frustrating. But that doesn’t render Teixeira’s hit any less important. That was a huge turning point in the game, and almost won the series.

Credit: AP Photo/Chris Carlson

9. ALDS Game 3: Posada pops one, .204 (video)

After taking down the Twins in the first two games of the ALDS, the Yankees seemed poised to break their streak of first-round exits. After beating up the Twins pretty well in Game 1 they mounted a huge comeback off Joe Nathan in Game 2, and all the momentum seemed on their side. Yet, as in Game 2, the offense couldn’t get going in Game 3. The crew didn’t score a run through the first six innings. In the bottom of the inning the Twins, until then scoreless, manufactured a run, putting the Yanks behind.

Carl Pavano had pitched very well to that point, as it seemed he did every time out against the Yankees in 2009. He allowed just three hits through six innings, one of those erased by a double play. Still under 100 pitches, Pavano came back out for the seventh and got Mark Teixeira to weakly ground out. His run would end right there, though, as Alex Rodriguez, for the second straight game, tied it up with a home run. Two batters later, Pavano faced Jorge Posada.

Posada, batting lefty against the righty Pavano, popped one the opposite way, over the left field wall and into the seats for the go-ahead run. In terms of emotional reaction, the A-Rod homer was bigger. For the most part, at least for me, the tying run comes as a bigger relief than the go-ahead one. But in terms of the Yankees chances to win the game, Posada’s homer was the one. They’d tack on a pair in the ninth, but it wasn’t necessary. The Yankees had locked down the series.

Credit: AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

8. World Series Game 3: Damon doubles, .212 (video)

After a big win in Game 2 of the World Series, the Yankees got off to a rough start in their first trip to Philadelphia. Pettitte did shake off a leadoff single to Jimmy Rollins, but he wouldn’t be so lucky in the second. Jason Werth hit a no-doubt home run, and then Pettitte loaded up the bases — double, walk, single — with just one out. He then walked in a run, very un-Andy-like, and then allowed another to score on a sac fly. The feeling of being down three runs in Philly was not an inviting one.

Cole Hamels, shaky at best to that point in the playoffs, appeared to be on his game. His changeup worked through the first three innings, keeping the Yankees off-balance. Alex Rodriguez brought the Yanks to within one, homering off a right field camera in the fourth. With the bottom of the order, including the pitcher, due up in the fifth, it looked like the Yanks might have to wait an inning to mount their comeback.

Championship teams, though, get those big moments from the bottoms of their lineups. Nick Swisher, benched just a game before, started the rally with a double. Andy Pettitte helped his own cause two batter later, taking advantage of a curveball right over the plate, slapping it up the middle to tie the game. Two batters after that, Johnny Damon doubled into the gap, putting the Yankees up two. It was a huge swing, and the yankees found themselves with a 21 percent better chance of winning the game.

As in the case of ALDS Game 3, the tying run brought a greater sense of relief here. But the go-ahead double, plating two runs, proved the decisive moment in this game. The Yankees would continue to tack on en route to a 2-1 series lead.

Credit: AP Photo/Eric Gay

7. ALCS Game 3: Jorge juices another one, .236 (video)

Early in Game 3, it seemed like the Yankees would take a 3-0 lead for their second consecutive ALCS. Derek Jeter led off the game with a home run, and Alex Rodriguez followed that in the fourth with a leadoff home run of his own. After Johnny Damon added one of his own, and with Andy Pettitte pitching so well, it seemed like the Yankees were unbeatable.

A Howie Kendrick home run brought the Angels a bit closer, but they found themselves in a tough spot in the sixth, with a runner on first and two outs with Vlad Guerrero up. Vlad hadn’t hit too well in the series, and other than a game-winning flair in the LDS, he hadn’t done much in the playoffs. That was about to change.

After Pettitte retired Torii Hunter for the second out, Joe Girardi visited the mound, presumably to go over strategy for Guerrero. Either it didn’t work, or Pettitte didn’t execute, because Vlad sent a moon shot over the left field wall, tying the game. An inning later Joba Chamberlain would allow a triple and a sac fly, putting the Angels in a position to win.

An inning after that, however, Jorge Posada made his statement. He originally had a man on, but Brett Gardner, pinch running for Hideki Matsui, got caught stealing on a pitch-out. One has to wonder whether Jorge would have still homered had Gardner reached safely. If he had, the course of the playoffs would have changed. But the blast to center was a solo shot, tying the game. The team would eventually lose, heartbreakingly, in extra innings. But they wouldn’t have even had a shot if not for Posada’s homer.

Credit: AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

6. ALCS Game 2: Capitalizing on a mistake, .283 (video)

Extra innings playoff games are the height of baseball tension, and Game 2 of the ALCS was the Yankees second foray into free baseball. They almost lost it in the 11th, a hit we’ll visit in a few moments, but they held the Angels in check over the next two innings, once again giving themselves a chance to walk off with a win. They’d have to do it with a middle of the order weakened by substitutions.

Jerry Hairston started the inning, pinch-hitting for pinch runner Freddy Guzman, by singling. Gardner sacrificed him over, but the Angels put the double play back on by walking Robinson Cano. That left the team’s fate in the hands of Melky Cabrera. Average as he was in 2009, he rose to the occasion a number of times, delivering clutch hits.

Off the bat, it seemed like he had delivered, hitting the ball in the hole between first and second. Maicer Izturis has some range, though, and he got to the ball while running to his left. But instead of throwing to first for the second out, he turned around and tried for the double play. Why he did this I do not know. Even if he got Cano going to second, there was no possible way the Angels could have turned two.

The throw went past Erick Aybar and into left field, allowing Hairston to take the extra base. He got all the credit, and the pie, probably because when a game ends on an error it’s tough to figure out who to congratulate (as the Yankees showed after the Luis Castillo dropped pop up). I still credit Melky here. That ball was damn nearly the game-winning hit. Perhaps if Kendrick were in the game at the time it would have been a clean hit.

Credit: AP Photo/Julie Jacobson

5. ALCS Game 5: Cano triples, .306 (video)

Once again, we see a situation where the go-ahead run is worth the most. As described above, Mark Teixeira smashed a bases loaded double to bring the Yankees within one, after spending most of the game down 4-0. That was a nearly 20 percent swing in win probability. But the Yankees were still down. That is, until Hideki Matsui singled i the tying run, an 18 point swing. That wasn’t the biggest of them, though.

A batter after Matsui tied the game, Robinson Cano, facing Kevin Jepsen, brought home Matsui and A-Rod with a triple. In the span of just one inning, all the run-scoring hits coming with two outs, the Yankees went from down 4-0 to up 6-4. Mystique and aura, it appeared, were vacationing in Orange County.

This was an even bigger hit for Cano because of his poor performance with runners in scoring position. This wasn’t the biggest spot — the Yankees had already tied the game and had to be feeling good after overcoming a big, early deficit — but the swing in the probability of the Yankees winning the game was huge. In that sense, it’s understandable why go-ahead runs do more for WPA than tying ones. You can’t win the game if it’s just tied.

Credit: AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

4. World Series Game 4: A-Rod puts them ahead, .336 (video)

After the Yankees won Game 4, Alex Rodriguez called his ninth inning double the biggest hit of his career. True, it put the Yankees back on top an inning after Joba Chamberlain blew the lead. It gave them a 3-1 series lead instead of a 2-2 tie. In every imaginable way it was a huge hit. Yet it wasn’t the biggest of A-Rod’s postseason, at least in terms of win probability swing.

During the regular season the Yankees came from behind against Brad Lidge. That contributed to Lidge’s poor and injury shortened season, but in the playoffs he more resembled his old self, the one that helped the Phillies win a World Series the year before. True to that form, Lidge retired the first two batters he faced, inducing a weak pop from pinch hitter Matsui and striking out Derek Jeter.

Johnny Damon then executed a signature at-bat, fouling off everything he couldn’t hit. The sequence went on for nine pitches, the last of which Johnny slapped to left for a single. Then came the most famous moment of the 2009 playoffs, Johnny’s first-pitch steal of second and subsequent dash to third base where no one covered the bag. The commentators pointed out that Lidge might lose his slider, for fear that he’d throw one in the dirt and hand the Yankees the go-ahead run.

Lidge played right into that, delivering Alex Rodriguez two fastballs. The second one went out to deep left, allowing Johnny to walk home. Mo would clean up, and the Yankees would take the 3-1 series lead. Huge hit for sure. But not the hugest.

Credit: AP Photo/Eric Gay

3. ALDS Game 2: Tex walks off, .350 (video)

The big hit had come two innings earlier. I’ll spare the description, because it’s the No. 1 WPA swing of the postseason. The Yankees appeared out, but found themselves tied heading to the bottom of the 11th, with the heart of the order due up. The Twins’ closer, Joe Nathan, was already out of the game, as was their setup man, so the Yankees would face the back end of the bullpen. But, since they also had the back end of their own bullpen up next, the 11th would be a critical inning.

Leading off and batting righty against lefty Jose Mijares, Mark Teixeira worked the count to 2-1. Mijares delivered and Teixeira jumped on the pitch, hitting it as hard as I’d seen him hit one all year. It traveled in a seemingly straight line, from bat to left field wall in what felt like under a second. I remember jumping out of my seat, not knowing how to react. That is, until the ball bounced a row back in the seats.

The home run capped a crazy game, marked by offensive futility and an improbable hit off an improbable closer. In many ways, it set the tone for the postseason. The Yankees would find themselves down, but even late in games they presented the comeback threat, as they had all season. Teixeira got the ball rolling in just the second game of the postseason.

Credit: AP Photo/Julie Jacobson

2. ALCS Game 2: A-Rod keeps them alive, .429 (video)

Over the weekend the New York BBWAA named Alex Rodriguez the postseason MVP. As you can see by the top two WPA swings, he earned it. Alex had a number of huge postseason hits, including some that didn’t come in clutch situations, but he did have three particularly notable ones: the World Series double discussed above, the ALDS homer discussed below, and the ALCS homer that kept them alive in Game 2.

After a convincing Game 1 win, the Yankees jumped out to an early Game 2 lead. The Angels tied the game at two in the fifth, but from there on out both teams struggled to generate offense. Through nine they remained tied at two, and finished their first extra frame without changing the score. It seemed we were in for a long night.

In the 11th, however, the Angels mustered a run off Al Aceves. He walked Gary Matthews Jr. to start the inning, a mortal sin for the light-hitting, overpaid fourth outfielder. Erick Aybar sacrificed him, and then Chone Figgins delivered his first hit of the series, a single to left that scored Matthews. Aceves induced a double play two batters later to cut the inning short, but the damage had been done. With a lack of offense hindering the Yankees all game, and with Freddy Guzman due up second the next inning, it looked like the Angels would head home with the series tied.

Things looked worse when Brian Fuentes got ahead of A-Rod 0-2. With Guzman — or at best Jerry Hairston — due up next, Fuentes had plenty of wiggle room with Rodriguez. He could afford to throw a couple of breaking pitches in the dirt. But he didn’t. Instead he threw a waist-high fastball a little off the plate outside. Angels fans will probably continue asking why for years to come. I don’t blame them. There’s no excuse for throwing the best hitter remaining in the playoffs a high outside fastball in an 0-2 count with a AAA hitter on deck. It’s even more egregious when said best remaining hitter demolishes that exact pitch type.

Credit: AP Photo/Elise Amendola

1. ALDS Game 2: To be the best, you have to beat the best, .448 (video)

As Joe Nathan warmed up in the top of the eighth, TV cameras moved from the field to the bullpen. Over the image of Nathan throwing to the bullpen catcher, TBS overlaid an interesting statistic. While Joe Nathan is one of the best closers in the game, perhaps second to Mariano over the past five years, the three hitters due up for the Yankees had some success against him. I moaned when they showed the stats for Teixeira, Rodriguez, and Matsui, figuring it was a jinx.

Teixeira fulfilled his prophecy, though, leading off with a single to right. It wasn’t hit particularly hard, but it got the job done. The tying run then came to the plate. Unfortunately, thought many Yankees fans, that tying run had a penchant for choking in big spots. A-Rod did get a hit with a runner in scoring position the game prior, but I’m sure that didn’t calm any unrealistically pessimistic fans. To them, he was still a choker.

Only, A-Rod did the opposite of choke. Looking for his pitch with a 3-1 count, he got it. Why Nathan threw that fastball I’m not sure. It sped right into A-Rod’s wheelhouse, and he crushed it to right-center to tie the game. In the capsule two above, I said that Teixeira got the ball rolling with the late-inning postseason comebacks. I guess that’s not entirely true. A-Rod, it appears, got it rolling two innings earlier.

Given his failures in postseasons 2005 through 2007, and given the harsh fan reaction, I think this represents the biggest hit of A-Rod’s career. It didn’t come in the World Series, but it certainly helped the Yankees get there. It also shut up many of his detractors. How can you boo a guy who hit a game-tying home run in the bottom of the ninth against perhaps the best non-Mo closer in the game?

On second thought, don’t answer that.

Credit: AP Photo/Julie Jacobson

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

The biggest WPA swings of the 2009 postseason

Despite the silence from involved parties, we can be pretty sure of one discussion topic: postseason off-days. Selig had already said he’ll do something about it before this October, and surely he’ll involve the owners in the process. This might not be the change they implement before the season, since they have some time to work out the details, but it’s certainly one of the aspects I want to see changed in 2010. Players and fans alike want to see fewer off-days, and I see little reason to not make this a high priority.

How can MLB cut the off-days and maintain a sane postseason schedule? While there are a few options, I agree with Hal Bodley of MLB.com: lengthen the division series. All parties win that way. The players play more often. The fans watch more baseball. The owners make more money. There are a few kinks to work out, of course, but the owners can make this work.

The biggest snag in this plan, as is always the case with the playoffs, is the necessity to schedule each series for the maximum games. There doesn’t appear to be an easy solution for teams who sweep; they’ll have to wait out the schedule in any case. What MLB can eliminate, however, are the days off during series, and perhaps those between the three playoff rounds. Here’s how such a schedule would break down.

A seven-game series, on a 2-3-2 format, takes ten days. That includes two off-days for travel, plus a day off between rounds. It sounds reasonable, a 30-day playoff schedule that includes three seven-game series. If MLB can start the playoffs on October 5 this year, which I presume they will, that means the World Series ends, at the latest, on November 5, which it did this year. At least in the first year of implementation, that sounds reasonable enough.

In future years, in order to avoid November baseball, the schedule will need altering. MLB might have to start the season on April 1 instead of April 4 in order to finish the regular season by the end of September — something they used to always do, it seemed. If the playoffs start by October 2, that means a 30-day playoff schedule keeps it completely within the month. Just one issues here goes unaddressed.

Because of the TV revenue it generates in the postseason, MLB likes to stagger the schedule, ensuring at least one game per day. If one series starts later than the others, that messes up the compact 30-day playoff schedule. It will mean at least two days between the end of one series and the beginning of the next, since one series will finish before the other. All of the sudden, we’re back to November baseball. This is probably the No. 1 reason why MLB will not expand the LDS right now.

Yet there’s a solution to this as well. Again, the players have expressed their desire to play more often in the playoffs. Would they be amenable to eliminating one of the travel days? That would reduce a seven-game series to nine days maximum. This would allow MLB to stagger the schedule, still staying within the 10-day guideline that would ensure no November baseball. Even after eliminating one travel day, the players would still see more off-days than in the regular season, so perhaps they’d agree.

This is clearly a complex issue, so perhaps it will take more time to work out. It should be a goal of both players and owners. Michael Weiner, executive director of MLBPA, doesn’t see it happening this year. “I expect it’ll have to be dealt with in collective bargaining, so we would have to wait until after the 2011 season,” he said.

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

Will the owners decide to lengthen LDS?

The flow of the playoffs for anyone trying to watch or anyone trying to play just seemed wrong. The Yanks and Twins played a three-game set over five days and never faced off on back-to-back days. Then, although both the Angels and Yankees had wrapped up their respective Division Series, the two teams sat through four off days just to accommodate television schedules. The ALCS was a six-game set that spanned ten days.

By the end of the playoffs, the Yankees had played on back-to-back nights just five times and played three games in a row just once. It resembled a regular season basketball schedule more than a baseball schedule, and it allowed the Yanks to use just three starters the whole way through. Baseball had managed to turn the playoffs into something nearly unrecognizable. It did not resemble the day-in, day-out pace of a 162-game regular season played over approximately 185 days.

The obvious culprit is television. In 2007, at the request of TBS and FOX, Bud Selig added an extra day off to the LCS rounds and stretched out the Division Series as well. Instead of the 2-2-1 five-game sets and the 2-3-2 seven-game sets, the Division Series were a mess, and the LCS round would be played as a 2-2-1-2 set barring rain outs. Baseball would stretch endlessly into November.

With his confirmation as the new head of the Players Association yesterday, Michael Weiner said that the playoff format needs to change. “Everybody’s in agreement that the postseason schedule needs some adjustment,” Weiner said. “I’m a hockey fan as well as a baseball fan, and the pace of play this postseason was more of the way you expect a hockey season to go than a baseball season to go.”

His proposal — and one that should be endorsed by both Selig and the TV executives — involves lengthening the division series to seven games and shortening the overall time it takes to conclude the playoffs. It should include variable start dates for the LCS and World Series rounds based upon the conclusions of the prior rounds and will feature fewer off-days. “There is a lot of sentiment for a seven-game division series,” Weiner said. “I think a properly constructed postseason schedule could accommodate three seven-game series but still have it extend over a shorter period of time than what happened this year.”

The seven-game series would even the playing field and allow for a better representation of a team’s true ability while providing higher gate totals and seemingly better ratings. It just makes sense.

For now, though, this plan will remain one on paper. The PA and owners won’t adjust the format until the Collective Bargaining Agreement expires after the 2011 season, and then, we should expect to see some playoff changes. Both sides should agree that it would be for the good of the game to streamline October and improve the playoff flow.

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

A shorter postseason but with more games

There are a few obstacles in the way of such a playoff layout. Travel days is an obvious one. It’s unfair to make a team, or both teams, travel from the West Coast after a game and play the next day. In fact, during the regular season a team cannot travel from the West Coast to the East Coast without a day off. So preserving some level of off-days when changing venues makes sense, because you never know where the travel will take you.

Another obstacle is the uncertainty of how long a series lasts. Three of four teams swept their opponents in the first round this year, and the other series went only four games. This meant many extra days off for these teams. First because of the unplayed games, but also because of the travel days between them — and in a 2-2-1 system, that’s two game days and a travel day for the sweeping teams, and one game day and a travel day for the four-game team.

Yet the biggest obstacle of all could be the television networks. They pay a lot of money to acquire broadcast rights for the playoffs, and they therefore want to maximize their advertising revenues. This necessarily means more days off. TBS and FOX benefit when they’re the only station with a game. This is why one LCS starts a day before the other, and also why there’s a random day off between Games 4 and 5. It puts each station in an exclusive position, meaning they’ll be able to grab a greater portion of the total audience attention.

On top of the want for extra days off, the networks also request to start the playoffs on a Wednesday. It helps them to get more games in during peak viewership hours. If the playoffs started on a Saturday, the lowest-rated night of the week, they would probably have fewer people watching, and therefore lower advertising revenue.

Commissioner Bud Selig recently addressed this issue, saying that he favors a shorter playoff schedule. In fact, citing an argument from Angels manager Mike Scioscia, Selig pretty firmly says that we can expect a tightened playoff layout.

“We’re going to change it,” Selig said. “I don’t disagree with Mike Scioscia. I think he was right, so we’re going to try and tighten that up.”

He goes on to cite some of the complications listed above, but concedes that some of the off-days — I’m assuming those requested by the networks — are unnecessary. That sounds like a definitive statement from Selig, though I’m not quite as optimistic that much will change next postseason.

I’d like to see some more flexibility in the scheduling, if possible. As we saw with the one-game playoff this season, sometimes there are issues of venue availability. The Twins and Tigers were supposed to face off the Monday after the season ended, but weren’t able to because the Vikings had a Monday night game scheduled for then. Baseball had to wait another day. There won’t be a football-baseball overlap for them this season, but there are still a few teams that play in dual-purpose arenas. And in those cases, flexible scheduling can be an issue.

Will Bud stand by his word on this one? I hope so. The long playoff layout afforded the Yankees an advantage this postseason, but I’d make the trade-off. Players go through a long, grueling regular season with just 18 off-days in six months. I’d like to see a more accurate emulation of that for the playoffs.

Addendum by Ben: Just to hit on a point, the lengthened playoff schedule, as Shysterball so aptly reminds us, was Selig’s doing in the first place. He’s simply trying to undo another bad decision he made when he kowtowed the interests of TV over the flow of the playoffs. Other than for the sake of TV, there’s no reason the ALCS can’t start two days after the last ALDS wraps up, and there’s no reason why the World Series can’t just start two days after the last LCS game is played. If Selig had the best interests of baseball in mind, he would fix this problem.

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

Selig talks about a shortened playoff schedule

A World Series moment with the Chamberlains

It’s sometimes easy to forget that Major League Baseball players are young kids who are struggling to adjust to a world very unfamiliar to them. Subject to more debates over the last 2.5 seasons than any 24-year-old should, Joba Chamberlain has been growing up in the New York spotlight. Starter, reliever, overhyped or not, Joba has heard it all. When the Yankees won the World Series on Wednesday, Joba and his dad shared a moment captured by photographers and Yahoo! Sports’ Big League Stew author Kevin Kaduk.

The story is a great reminder about how baseball is about families. It’s about how baseball is about the people and how the players we analyze, the players we admire and the players some people criticize are, at heart, just people similar to you and me. At ‘Duk writes, baseball is always about a father having a catch with his son, and Joba and Harlan had the joy of sharing a baseball moment this week that doesn’t come around too often.

Yanks’ son leaves in a huff

While Joba and Harlan had their hug, Pedro Martinez was feeling less than happy about the game. After his Game 6 defeat at the hands of the Yankees, Pedro tried to duck out on reporters. The media throng cornered him in the hallway, but he would speak only in Spanish to them. One fan taunted him with a chant of “Who’s your daddy?” but Pedro was clearly upset about losing the game. Beating Pedro made this World Series victory even sweeter.

A calm in New York

For Tyler Kepner, 2009 marked his eighth season covering the Yanks and their first World Series under his watch. From World Series losses to 0-3 ALCS comebacks, it has been a tumultuous few years in Yankeeland, but as Kepner wrote on Wednesday night, this World Series restored a “peaceful, easy feeling” to the Bronx. No team has won more games in the 21st Century than the Yankees have and now they have their title to go with it. It has indeed been a peaceful time for Yankee fans.

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

World Series hangover: Joba, Pedro and feelin’ good

However, with the onset of the MLB Network’s wall-to-wall coverage of the sport and, more importantly, the return of the Yankees, the villain of October, to the World Series, ratings for the Series were up a record 42 percent over last year. Although this year’s wasn’t the most watched World Series of recent times, it was the fourth-highest viewed of the last decade and has restored baseball’s October dominance and popularity. Over 19 million fans tuned in each night to watch the Yankees battle the Phillies, and the numbers suggest that the Yankees, as I’ve said before, are good for baseball.

Maury Brown at the Biz of Baseball has more on the ratings:

Fueled by outstanding individual and team performances, dramatic come-from-behind wins and the most one-run games in a single postseason, each round of the 2009 MLB Postseason generated double-digit percentage year-to-year increases in average viewership as compared to 2008, capped by the 2009 World Series averaging 19.4 million viewers, a +42% increase over last year and the largest-ever year-to-year gain in viewership (previous high was 36% from 2000-2001, which followed a low viewership showing for the Subway Series).

Complete 2009 MLB Postseason coverage on FOX and TBS averaged 9.0 million viewers, up +30% over last year and the most-watched since 2005. In addition to the +42% viewership gain for the World Series on FOX, viewership for the Division Series on TBS was up +11% over last year and viewership for the League Championship Series on FOX and TBS increased +14% over 2008.

The 2009 MLB Postseason delivered extraordinary results for FOX and TBS, including leading TBS to the most-watched week in its 33-year history, and catapulting FOX to a commanding +22% lead in the key Adult 18-49 demographic against its network competition. The huge Adult 18-49 season-to-date advantage for FOX is the largest in the network’s history in the fourth quarter and the largest fourth-quarter lead for any network since 2003.

In addition to these hearty aggregate numbers, the World Series was the highest-rated network primetime show during the six nights of games, reports Brown. All over the country, people wanted to watch the Yankees.

And so fans may hate the Yanks. They may root against the team and its payroll. They may say the Steinbrenners bought another title. But the reality of it is simple: Baseball fans tune into watch Goliath because they hope David can win. When David happens to be another team with a payroll in excess of $100 million from a major media market, baseball executives can go home happy. This year, the World Series was very, very good for baseball.

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

Yanks-Phils Classic sees 42% ratings jump over ‘08

For seven seasons, Hideki Matsui has just always been there. He arrived in New York in 2003 at the age of 29 and was set to be a solution to the Yanks’ inability to find a steady left fielder, and now with a World Series MVP unders his belt, Matsui has been every bit as good a hitter as advertised.

In ten seasons in Japan, Matsui was a beast. He made his NPB debut at age 19 and amassed a career line of .304/.413/.582 with 245 home runs in 1268 games. In the states, he has played in 916 games and has hit .292/.370/.482 with 140 home runs. As age sapped him of the strength in his knees, his power has declined a bit, but by the end of a healthy 2009, Matsui had reemerged as one of the go-to clutch hitters in the Yankees’ lineup.

This week, Matsui has been the man about town. He appeared on David Letterman last night, carrying in the World Series trophy, and Japanese restaurant import Go! Go! Curry on West 38th St. has been celebrating their fellow countryman this week as well.

My two favorite stories about Matsui this week came from The Times. Jack Curry talked about Hideki’s World Series legacy. Matsui came to the Bronx to win a World Series, reached the Classic in his first year in pinstripes and did not make it back until potentially his last season with the Yanks. Curry notes the symmetry:

For Matsui, the game bookended his performance against Martinez in his first season in the 2003 American League Championship Series. Matsui belted a run-scoring double off Martinez as the Yankees rallied to beat the Red Sox, 6-5, on Aaron Boone’s homer.

After Martinez walked Alex Rodriguez on four pitches to begin the second, his pace slowed against Matsui. After Matsui fouled off a 3-2 changeup, Martinez tossed a fastball. It was an 89-mile-per-hour pitch, which is about as robust a fastball as Martinez can muster these days, and Matsui drilled into the second deck in right field for a two-run homer.

Matsui said he loved New York and hoped that he gets to stay. In Matsui’s first season, he proved that he was comfortable on baseball’s biggest stage. In what might have been Matsui’s final game with the Yankees, he showed that he can still perform professionally and exceptionally.

And then there is Hiroko Tabuchi’s report from Japan where the country has been celebrating Godzilla all week. Newspapers throughout the island nation proclaimed it the year of Matsui, and Japanese baseball fans understand the impact of Hideki’s heroics.

“For this baseball-loving nation,” wrote Tabuchi, “Matsui’s performance at the World Series on Wednesday — hitting a home run, tying a World Series record with six runs batted in and being named the most valuable player — sent a clear message. It put a Japanese player and the Japanese game on the American baseball map more firmly than any compatriot’s performance did.”

Today, Patrick Newman reported that Matsui will not be returning to Japan as had been previously rumored. Instead, the left-handed slugger will look to stay in the states, and if the Yankees want him for another year, I will welcome Number 55 back with open arms.

(image via tsjc)

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

On the eve of free agency, Godzilla makes his mark

We already took a poll for the first half and second half, so surely you know how this works. Here’s some notable postseason moments:

ALDS Game Two: A-Rod’s game tying two run homer off Joe Nathan (video)
Twins starter Nick Blackburn kept the Yankees off balance all night, long enough for his teammates to push two runs across against Phil Hughes in the 8th. With a two run lead in the 9th, Rod Gardenhire turned to All Star closer Joe Nathan, who promptly gave up a single to lead off the inning. Alex Rodriguez, still dogged by his playoff choker reputation, took three straight pitches out of the zone before Nathan came in for strike one. A-Rod teed off on his next fastball, sending it deep into the Yankees’ bullpen to tie the game. The Yanks rallied to win the game in extras, but none of that would have been possible if not for A-Rod’s heroics against Nathan.

ALCS Game Two: A-Rod’s game tying homer off Brian Fuentes (video)
Nine innings wasn’t enough, as the the Yanks and Angels went into extras tied at two. The Halos pushed a run across off Al Aceves in the 11th, and turned to Brian Fuentes, another All Star closer. Alex Rodriguez, the first batter in the bottom of the 11th, took two straight fastballs over the plate for a quick 0-2 count, but turned Fuentes’ third heater around and parked it in the right field seats to tie the game. Much like Game Two of the ALDS, the Yanks went on to win, but it wouldn’t have been possible without A-Rod’s shot off Fuentes.

World Series Game Two: AJ Burnett dominates Phillies to tie series at one (video)
In their most important game of the year, enigmatic AJ Burnett went out and shut the Phillies down to tie the World Series at one game apiece. He pounded the zone and was dropping curves in at the knees for strikes when he wasn’t blowing his heat by batters. The uncertainty of middle relief was never a factor in the game, as Burnett handed the ball right off to Mariano Rivera. The Yanks carried the momentum into Philadelphia, where they won the next two games.

World Series Game Five: Johnny Damon singles and steals two bases on one pitch to ignite game winning rally (video)
After pulling ahead in the 5th inning before losing the lead thanks to a Pedro Feliz homer in the bottom of the 8th, Hideki Matsui and Derek Jeter went down with ease against Phillies’ closer Brad Lidge in the 9th. Damon fouled off five pitches as part of a nine pitch at-bat, eventually dunking a single into shallow left. On the very next pitch, Damon took off for second, and not only did he make it safely, he headed down to third because no one bothered to cover the bag. The go-ahead run was on third, and before you knew it the Yanks pushed some runs across to win the game.

Those are just some of the highlights in the playoffs. Vote on your favorite below, but if you think another moment was the best of the playoffs – maybe Mariano Rivera getting out of a bases loaded, none out jam in Anaheim, or Hideki Matsui’s homer in Game Six of the World Series, or CC Sabathia’s start on short rest against the Angels – use the “Add an Answer” button to write in your own favorite moment. Don’t add any bad words like the jerk who did during our first favorite moment poll, we’ll just delete it and ban you from ever even accessing the site, let alone commenting. Yes, we can do that.

Everyone knows that everyone’s favorite moment this postseason was winning the World Series, so keep it out of the poll so we can have a little diversity. Consider this a “what’s your second favorite moment” poll. Thanks.

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

Poll: What was your favorite moment of the playoffs?

Most of the time for a playoff club, the most important game of the season is a Game Seven, or an elimination game where the season was on the line. Those are the true “must-wins,” not those dumb games in June that seem important just because the offense is in a little bit of a funk.

For the 2009 Yankees, the most important game of the year seems pretty clear to me: Game Two of the World Series.

Think about the circumstances coming into the game. Cliff Lee had just manhandled the Yankees the night before. He crushed them, grabbing liners behind his back and shagging pop-ups nonchalantly when he wasn’t striking guys out. For a team that had dominated the competition during the regular season and made good clubs like the Twins and Angels look like Little League teams with all the mistakes they forced, Game One of the World Series was a humbling experience.

Not only did the Yankees come into Game Two already down one-love in the series, they were going on the road to Philadelphia for the next three games. Heading down the turnpike down two games to none was something the Bombers wanted to avoid at all costs. So they gave the ball to AJ Burnett, the most unpredictable starter in their playoff rotation.

And AJ delivered.

He pounded the zone early all night, throwing first pitch strikes to 22 of the 26 batters he faced. He threw his fastball and curve at almost a 1:1 ratio (53 fastballs, 45 curves), and allowed the first four batters in Philly’s’ lineup to reach base just twice, and one of those instances was an intentional walk to Chase Utley. Burnett sat down the last eight batters he faced, and the only run he gave up came on a ball that ricocheted off Alex Rodriguez’s glove.

It was a masterful performance, and the game was more important to the outcome of the Yankees’ season than either of his Game Five starts (ALCS or World Series). Opposing starter Pedro Martinez held the Yankees’ offense down, meaning there was little margin for error. Anytime a starter can hand the ball off to Mariano Rivera in a playoff game, then you know he’s done his job and then some.

Let’s give AJ some props. He’s frustrating as hell, but the dude was money in the team’s most important game of their championship  season.

Photo Credit: David J. Phillip, AP

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

The most important game of the year