River Avenue Blues

Sunday Night Open Thread

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(Bruce Bennett/Getty)

The Yankees lost another playoff game because, to paraphrase Joe Girardi in his post-game press conference, the hitters aren’t making adjustments. The offense scored a whole zero runs, squandering a brilliant performance from Hiroki Kuroda on short rest. He was awesome I hope that wasn’t the last start of his Yankees career. I would be really bummed if it was.

Anyway, relax and enjoy the night. The Cardinals and Giants kick off the NLCS tonight (8pm ET) plus the late football game is the Packers at the Texans. Talk about those games or anything else (no politics!) here. Enjoy.

Update: Jeter done for year with fractured ankle

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4:33pm: Jeter underwent more tests on the ankle today that confirmed the fracture. He’s in a splint and on crutches and will not travel with the team to Detroit. He’ll instead head to North Carolina to see a specialist and surgery may be necessary.

1:16am: Jeter suffered a left ankle fracture on the play and is obviously done for the season. The recovery time is three months and the injury is not career-threatening. Eduardo Nunez will take the Captain’s place on the roster. Disaster.

12:50am: Derek Jeter left tonight’s game with some kind of left leg injury in the 12th inning. He took an awkward step fielding a ball and immediately went down in pain. The trainer and Joe Girardi had to help him off the field, and he didn’t put any weight on the leg. No idea if this is related to the various bone bruises in his foot, or if it’s something else. A bad night gets worse. Stay tuned for updates.

ALCS Game Two Thread: Tigers @ Yankees

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For the first time since Game Six of the 1981 World Series, the Yankees will play a playoff game today without either Derek Jeter or Mariano Rivera on the active roster. Rivera’s season came to an end due to a knee injury months ago, but Jeter fractured his left ankle just last night and will miss the remainder of the postseason. The Game One loss by itself was demoralizing, but adding the Captain’s injury on top of that pushed yesterday into contention for the worst baseball day ever.

Alas, no one will feel sorry for the Yankees. They lost Game One not because Jeter got hurt, but because the offense again failed to capitalize on numerous opportunities. Jose Valverde’s meltdown spared them the embarrassment of being shutout, though I think getting shut out would have been preferable to everything that happened after the Yankees tied the game. The pitching has been fantastic, the offense not so much. I’ve run out of words to describe them, so I’ll just stick with “maladroit” today. Here are the starting lineups…

Detroit Tigers
CF Austin Jackson
LF Quintin Berry
3B Miguel Cabrera
1B Prince Fielder
DH Delmon Young
LF Andy Dirks
SS Jhonny Peralta
C  Alex Avila
2B Omar Infante

RHP Anibal Sanchez (9-13, 3.86)

New York Yankees
LF Ichiro Suzuki
2B Robinson Cano
1B Mark Teixeira
DH Raul Ibanez
C  Russell Martin
3B Alex Rodriguez
CF Curtis Granderson
RF Nick Swisher
SS Jayson Nix

RHP Hiroki Kuroda (16-11, 3.32)

It’s beautiful and surprisingly warm in New York today, so it’s a good day for baseball. First pitch is scheduled for 4pm ET and the game will be broadcast on TBS. Try to enjoy.

Ticket Update: If you want to catch any game in this series, either in New York or Detroit, make sure you check out RAB Tickets for some sweet last minute deals.

ALCS Pitching Preview: Anibal Sanchez

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While everyone was focused on Ryan Dempster and Zack Greinke at the trade deadline, the Tigers swooped in and acquired Anibal Sanchez (and Omar Infante) from the Marlins for a package of prospects headlined by right-hander Jacob Turner. It’s a pure rental since Sanchez is due to become a free agent after the season, but the still only 28-year-old right-hander is now in position to help Detroit get to the World Series.

A bit of a sabermetric darling for his work last season (3.67 ERA and 3.35 FIP), Sanchez pitched to a 3.74 ERA (3.68 FIP) in a dozen starts for the Tigers following the trade. His strikeout rate predictably dropped (no more whiffing the opposing pitcher twice a game) following the move to the AL, but he finished the season with eight dominant outings (2.15 ERA and ~2.60 FIP) before holding the Athletics to two runs in 6.1 innings in Game Three of the ALDS last week.

2012 Performance vs. Yankees

Date Tm Opp Rslt Dec IP H R ER BB SO HR HBP ERA BF Pit Str
Aug 8 DET NYY L,8-12 L(6-9) 3.0 7 7 7 2 2 1 2 4.37 20 65 40
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 10/13/2012.

I had completely forgotten that the Yankees faced Sanchez this season, but they did see him in his third start following the trade to the Tigers. They obviously hit him pretty hard, including a two-run first inning (run-scoring singles by Eric Chavez and Curtis Granderson) and a three-run homer by Granderson in the third. Nick Swisher ended Sanchez’s night with a single in the fourth. Eleven of he 20 men he faced in the game reached base, which is the exception and not the rule. It’s great they hammered Anibal the only time they faced him this summer, but I wouldn’t assume they have his number, not by any means. Casey McGehee starting that game for cryin’ out loud.

Pitch Selection (via Brooks Baseball)

Sanchez uses five pitches regularly and he’s very offspeed heavy, throwing his low-90s four- and two-seamers less than 50% of the time overall. Most of them come on the first pitch as well. Right-handers will see his mid-80s slider more than any of his other secondary pitches while lefties will get the full complement — mid-80s changeup, upper-70s curveball, and slider. There is a little bit of Hiroki Kuroda in Sanchez, meaning he’ll break out any one of his many pitches at any time.

Performance & Results

TBF wOBA FIP K% BB% GB% FB% LD% HR/FB%
vs. RHB 376 0.341 3.87 19.4% 5.1% 42.2% 35.4% 22.4% 12.2%
vs. LHB 444 0.284 3.26 21.2% 6.5% 50.2% 29.2% 20.7% 9.0%

Given how he uses all of pitches against lefties, it’s not a big surprise that Sanchez has a reverse split. BABIP plays a part in that (.331 vs. .292) but it isn’t everything. The strikeout and walk rates hold steady against batters on both sides of the plate, but right-handers really hammered him whenever they did make contact. Not just homers either, he gave up a lot of doubles as well. That slider is his least effective offspeed pitch, hence all that hard contact by righties. I’m not saying the Yankees should trot out as many right-handed hitters as possible, but Russell Martin and Alex Rodriguez (if he plays) could end up playing a major role in Game Two.

Like Game One starter Doug Fister, Sanchez is pretty efficient with his pitches (3.73 pitches per batter faced), so driving up his pitch count in an effort to get to that shaky bullpen won’t be easy. Given how often he’ll throw a first pitch fastball, it might be worth it to jump on him early in the count if Anibal is consistently in the zone. Five of the seven hits he allowed to the Yankees in that August start came within the first three pitches of the at-bat, which might not be a coincidence.

Thoughts following ALCS Game One

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(Al Bello/Getty)

I don’t really know what the say after last night’s debacle. It was a microcosm of the Yankees’ entire postseason rolled into one game — great starting pitching, blown scoring opportunities, Raul Ibanez putting on a Superman cape, and Joe Girardi making weird moves. And then Derek Jeter suffered a season-ending injury on top of all of it. No, it was not a good night for the Bombers. Not in any way, shape, or form.

1. What in the world are they going to do without Jeter? Okay, either Jayson Nix or Eduardo Nunez plays short (I’d guess Nix since he can actually play defense) while Ichiro Suzuki leads off, but then what? You almost have to bat Nick Swisher second because his at-bats have been slightly less feeble than Curtis Granderson’s. I guess the other candidate to hit second would be Alex Rodriguez, who at this point might as well be swinging a rolled up newspaper. I don’t have much faith in Brett Gardner being productive after missing so much time and having so few at-bats, but at this point I feel like why not start him? Just try it, the guys who are playing now aren’t getting the job done and the Tigers have a brutal infield defense. Maybe he can beat out some grounders.

2. I can’t believe I’m actually typing this, but right now the only member of the Core Four* left standing is Andy Pettitte. How the hell did that happen? He retired like two years ago. Jorge Posada called it a career last winter, and now Jeter and Mariano Rivera are injured. The changing of the guard, so to speak, has not exactly gone as smoothly as expected, I would say. Seeing Jeter’s season end like that is just cruel and heart-breaking. The guy represents everything that is right in baseball.

* I absolutely hate that term but I’m using it because it’s convenient here. For all the crap the media has given A-Rod for the supposed “24+1” mentality through the years, how the hell is singling out four players any different? It’s the same thing just spun as a positive.

(Al Bello/Getty)

3. I assume Jeter will still be around the team and stuff going forward, but you know who has to step up as the on-field leader in his absence? It’s not A-Rod, it’s Robinson Cano. He’s actually been less productive at the plate than Swisher, Granderson, and A-Rod in the playoffs, going hitless in his last 22 at-bats and 2-for-28 overall. The last time he reached base on something other than an intentional walk was his first inning double in Game Two of the ALDS. That’s a full series ago. Robbie is indisputably the team’s best all-around player and they aren’t going anywhere unless he starts producing. Free agency is looming and if he wants that monster nine-figure contract, well now is time is step up dude.

4. The attendance problems at Yankee Stadium are legit embarrassing and a real problem for the team. There were entire sections of empty seats last night during a playoff game. That should never happen. I fully understand Friday’s mess — the game’s start time did not become official until about 7pm ET on Thursday and people were getting out of work just as the first pitch was thrown — but there was really no explanation for last night. When the Yankees are sending out emails for ticket deals about two hours before the scheduled start time, there’s a problem. This goes beyond pricing people out or losing the atmosphere of the Old Stadium, there’s another disconnect here. Maybe a large portion of bandwagon fans from the late-90s just lost interest. Either way, seeing empty seats for Game One of the ALCS on national television is embarrassing. Even the Rays sell out playoff games for chrissakes.

5. I try not to put my opinion in any poll posts because I don’t want to sway the vote, but I’m all in favor of starting Hiroki Kuroda on short rest in Game Two tonight. Apparently more people would rather see David Phelps than agree with me. That’s cool, no biggie. I basically looked at it as five innings of Kuroda vs. five inning of Phelps, and I’m taking the former every day of the week. Tomorrow’s off-day means everyone in the bullpen will be on high-alert and ready to go as many outs/innings as necessary. The Yankees want Kuroda, Andy Pettitte, and CC Sabathia starting six out of seven potential games in any series, and this move makes it possible in the ALCS.

6. Yesterday I said I wanted Sabathia to start Game Three on short rest, but the Yankees will instead start him in Game Four on normal rest. The most important thing is that he’ll be able to start Game Seven, which he can do in either scenario. He was going to start one of the first four games of the series either way, it was just a question of whether he started on three days’ rest in Game Three or Game Seven. Might as well have him do it in Game Seven since that game is unlikely to be played anyway. This works. Whether the rest of the team cooperates remains to be seen.