Betances shines in a loss
By · CommentsTriple-A Scranton had a scheduled off day, but tragedy has struck the team. I’m sure they’d much rather be playing today.
Double-A Trenton had a scheduled off day, as did the rest of the Eastern League.
High-A Tampa (3-1 loss to Sarasota)
Luis Nunez: 0 for 4, 1 BB
Eduardo Nunez & Seth Fortenberry: 1 for 4 – Nunez doubled & K’ed … Fortenberry scored a run & K’ed twice
Kevin Smith: 2 for 3, 1 2B, 1 BB
Josh Kreuzer: 0 for 2, 1 BB, 1 HBP
Jose Gil, Tommy Baldridge (33) & Chris Kunda: all 0 for 3 – Gil K’ed … Baldridge drew a walk & K’ed … Kunda K’ed twice
Tim Battle: 1 for 4, 1 K – for all intents and purposes, he’s been their best hitter this year … seriously
Ivan Nova: 6 IP, 10 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 1 WP, 8-4 GB/FB – giving up too many hits … 152 in 139.2 IP this year
Mike Dunn: 2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K
ByCody Miley, the soon-to-be-18 yr old son of Triple-A Scranton manager Dave Miley, was killed Monday morning in a Tampa-area car wreck. Dave will obviously be away from the team for the foreseeable future. Our deepest condolences go out to the Miley family. · (6) ·
Game 119: Holy crap you guys …
By · CommentsJason Giambi is sitting against a lefty again. Oh, and so is Johnny Damon. Sure Giambi’s OPSing 1.375 on the road trip, Damon’s hitting .406 in the last 7 games, and lefties are hitting .338 off Glen Perkins, but hey, let’s sit them anyway. Not like the team is in a Wildcard chase or anything.
Damaso Marte is likely to be unavailable tonight after throwing 29 pitches yesterday thanks to that inexplicable second inning of work. Unfortunately Minnesota’s 3-4-5 hitters tonight happen to be Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and Jason Kubel (the same combo manager Ron Gardenhire has been using for about a month-and-a-half), all lefthanded batters. So when push comes to shove in the late innings tonight, get ready for some Edwar Ramirez change-up action, or even … gasp … Billy Traber. Heck, even if Marte is available, he’s going to be gassed.
So remind me again, what was so bad about Joe Torre running mediocre middle relievers like Scott Proctor and Tanyon Sturtze into the ground? Hey, I wonder if that whole fiasco about IPK’s comments would have been so ridiculously blown out of proportion if Torre was around to work his media magic …
1. Christian, LF
2. Jeter, SS
3. Abreu, RF
4. A-Rod, 3B
5. Nady, DH
6. Cano, 2B
7. Sexson, 1B
8. Pudge, C
9. Melky, CF
And on the mound, Sidney “will pitch for food” Ponson.
Notes: Pudge has actually turned Sid Ponson into a pretty decent starter, squeezing a 2.03 ERA & .519 OPS against out of him in their two starts together (SSS, yes I know) … Joba’s going to start his throwing program on Wednesday … Hideki Matsui is close to beginning a rehab assignment …
(forgive me, I’m just frustrated that the manager continues to not put the team in the best position to win during one of the more critical stretches of the season)
BySo Ian Kennedy has been sent back to AAA, and all of a sudden, the Yanks have a giant rotation hole. Phil Hughes throws on Tuesday for Scranton and won’t be back in the Majors until at least next weekend. Carl Pavano is still a start or two away from rejoining the Yanks provided he doesn’t chip a nail or stub his toe. So where does that leave the Yanks? Chase Wright threw an uninspiring game on Saturday; Kei Igawa could make his less-than-triumphant return to the Majors; Darrell Rasner, barely serviceable in relief on Friday, could make a Wednesday start. No matter how you slice or dice it, whichever pitcher is facing the Twins on Wednesday will be far, far from our first choice of Yankee hurlers in the midst of a do-or-die stretch of baseball. · (48) ·
Moose and the Hall
By · CommentsNever one to shy away from controversy, Mike Mussina, by pitching above and beyond expectations, may be courting the biggest debate of his career this season.
On one side are those who love Moose. They want him to land in the Hall of Fame when all is said and done. On the other hand are those people so hung up on the Big Nmbers that they can’t adequately judge a player’s Hall of Fame credentials.
Foremost among those detractors is Murray Chass. The one-time Times scribe who now keeps a Website he refuses to call a blog wrote about Mussina and the Hall this weekend. Says Chass:
Mussina, with a 15-7 record and 3.27 earned run average, is only five wins from the 20-win plateau that has eluded him in his 18-year career. Twice he won 19, three times 18, but never 20. No starting pitcher is in the Hall of Fame without a 20-win season on his resume. Even Dennis Eckersley, who became a relief pitcher halfway through his career, had a 20-win season.
Only four Hall of Fame pitchers reached that status without a 20-win season, and they were all relief pitchers – Hoyt Wilhelm, Rollie Fingers, Bruce Sutter, Rich (Goose) Gossage.
Mussina hasn’t won the Cy Young award either. No pitcher who has been virtually invisible in Cy Young award voting is in the Hall of Fame…
Mussina has an impressive career won-lost record (265-151) but not much else. He has never been a dominant pitcher, has never pitched his team to a World Series championship. He, in fact, is the darkest symbol of the Yankees’ failed post-season teams of recent seasons.
Chass concludes by noting that even a 20-win season by Mussina this year wouldn’t be enough to resurrect Moose’s Hall of Fame chances. That’s stellar logic.
The problem I have with Chass’ argument is that it ignores anything that makes sense. Are we to judge Hall of Famers solely by their awards and postseason success? Should Ted Williams — zero World Series rings — keep his plaque in Cooperstown? Should Ty Cobb, one of the game’s great racists, be lauded?
What I do know abut Mike Mussina is that his 3.42 ERA in the postseason is better than his career regular season ERA. What I know about Moose’s postseason pitching performance is that his teams lost despite his efforts. Just because a select few writers who have repeatedly shown their ignorance of baseball failed to vote Mussina a largely meaningless Cy Young award does not mean he doesn’t deserve Hall of Fame consideration.
Rather, for 18 years, Mike Mussina has been among the best in baseball. His career ERA is significantly better than average over that time period. He has 265 wins to his name and 2759 strike outs.
In the end, it all boils down to that hot-button question: Does Mike Mussina deserve a spot in the Hall? Right now, he’s on the fence, but it’s not for lack of postseason success or Cy Young Awards or 20-win seasons. Anyone who judges a pitcher solely on those metrics is missing the bigger pitcher. If Mike Mussina has been one of the best pitchers of his generation, then he deserves that spot in Cooperstown. There’s more to that evaluation than those three considerations. Someone tell that to Murray Chass.
Will the Yankees make the 2008 playoffs?
By · CommentsIt seems to be the hot question to ask this morning. Just for a quick rundown of all who are asking:
SBR Forum
The Star Ledger
Bleacher Report
Newsday
There’s plenty more, of course. And it’s a legitimate question to ask at this point, with just 27 percent of the season left and the Yankees four games out of the Wild Card. Add in the injuries and the uninspiring play of late, and you have a recipe for collapse.
Thankfully, the Yankees have a chance to right the ship. They’ve played Minnesota well over the past few years, going 13-7 against them since the beginning of the 2006 season, including a 5-2 mark this year. They follow that up with a series against the last place Royals, another day off, and then a road trip to Toronto and Baltimore. If there was ever a chance to run off a 10-2 rally, this is it. Because behind the door of Baltimore lie the Red Sox.
If they play well enough over the next 12 games, they’ll have a chance to close the gap during that series. If they sputter as they have lately, well, then the series could be the Yanks last chance to make a playoff stand. Clearly, the next 15 games are going to play a large role in determining this season. It might seem bleak now, but we know the Yanks have the capacity to sock a few dingers and go on a run.
Plus, if they’re able to go on a tear now, by the time they reach Boston we might be seeing the returns of Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain. Clearly, as we learned earlier this year, the Yanks cannot rely on these youngsters to carry them to the playoffs. However, they do represent clear upgrades over our rotation options right now. While it appears we won’t be seeing much of Chien Ming Wang for the rest of the year, a rotation of Mussina, Pettitte, Joba, Hughes, and Ponson/Giese (I’d choose the latter based on my bias against Ponson) might be able to get it done in the final month and change.
It’s easy to count the Yanks out right now, at the gloomiest part of the season. But there’s still enough baseball ahead to keep me interested.
ByFollowing Sunday’s diasppointing loss to the Angels, the Yanks have just 44 games left this season. That amounts to just 27 percent of the season, and things are starting to look a bit dire for the Yanks. As ESPN.com’s Coolstandings-pimped standings tell us, the Yanks’ playoff hopes are decreasing by the day.
With the Rays 8.5 games ahead of them in the East and the Red Sox four up in the Wild Card, the Yanks make the playoffs just 13.1 percent of the time when the rest of the season is simulated one million times. They win the division just 3.5 percent of the time and capture the Wild Card 9.5 percent of the time. While it’s a good thing that the games are played on the field instead of by computers, the Yanks better start winning sooner rather than later if they hope to play in October this year. · (18) ·
Trenton walks-off with a win
By · CommentsUsually I like to update the standings for each affiliate once a month or so, but I haven’t done it all this year. Today’s as good a day to start as any; standings are coming into today and do not reflect today’s results.
Oh, and make sure you check out Chad Jennings’ great write-up on Matt Carson. Awesome stuff.
Triple-A Scranton was rained out. Syracuse doesn’t come back to town all season, so I’m guessing they’ll make this one up during the mutual off-day tomorrow. SWB has the best record in all of AAA at 75-48. They lead the IL North Division by 1 game over the PawSox with 21 games remaining.
Double-A Trenton (3-2 win over Akron, walk-off style) 72-47 with a commanding 9.5 game lead in the EL North division … they’ve got 20 games left after today
Reegie Corona & Austin Jackson: both 0 for 4 – Corona K’ed all four at-bats & committed not one, not two, but three throwing errors … talk about having a bad game … Ajax K’ed
Kevin Russo & Colin Curtis: both 1 for 4 – Russo K’ed twice, Curtis once
Chris Malec: 3 for 4, 1 R, 1 2B – had been 5 for his previous 33 (.152)
PJ Pilittere: 0 for 3, 1 R, 1 BB
Cody Ehlers: 0 for 3, 2 K – now hitting .199 in 341 at-bats this year … yikes
Edwar Gonzalez: 1 for 1, 1 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI – pinch-hit walk-off homer with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th
Frankie Cervelli & James Cooper: both 0 for 2, 1 BB - Cervelli K’ed
Steven White: 3.2 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 2 K, , 1 WP, 2-7 GB/FB – what a miserable season he’s having
Kevin Whelan: 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 1-1 GB/FB- that’s some quality relief right there
Zack Kroenke: 3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 3-2 GB/FB – picked two runners off first
