Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
Jaret Wright and Horacio Ramirez are pretty evenly matched, but go figure that their pairing would result in a pitchers duel. That's exactly what happened last night, with the Braves clinging to a 1-0 lead after six frames, that run scoring in the second when Jeff Francoeur singled home Andrew Jones' lead-off double.
Jaret Wright completed the sixth inning for the first time since June 2, equalling his longest outing of the year, allowing just three other hits, all singles, and two walks while striking out four. Ramirez, meanwhile, had held the Yankees scoreless on four hits and a walk through the end of the sixth despite striking out just one.
With Wright at 90 pitches and three lefties due up in the seventh, Joe Torre brought in Ron Villone, who promptly doubled the Braves lead by surrendering a lead-off home run to Adam LaRoche on his first pitch of the night. Villone then got the next three men to ground out and the Yankees finally broke through against Ramirez, getting LaRoche's run back in bottom of the seventh on singles by Jorge Posada and Melky Cabrera.
Cabrera's RBI single was proceeded by groundouts by Bernie Williams and Andy Phillips, which pushed Posada to second and third respectively. The contrast between Phillips' and Cabrera's at-bats was a telling look at the frustrating nature of baseball that so tortured Paul O'Neill during his 17 year career. The first pitch to Phillips was a fastball inside that Andy laced past Chipper Jones at third, but just foul. Phillips then swung through a slider inside to fall behind 0-2. He then fouled a fastball straight back to stay alive. Ramirez then tried to get him to chase a breaking pitch low and away, but Andy laid of that one and two more up and away out of the zone to run the count full. Ramirez finally came back inside where Phillips could really rip one and after fouling off Ramirez's seventh pitch, Phillips laced another shot between Jones and the third base bag only to have Jones backhand the ball and fire to first for the out. Phillips' at-bat was the hardest any Yankee had made Ramirez work all night, but despite getting the pitch he wanted and hitting it well, Phillips had nothing to show for it. Cabrera then came up and hacked at the first pitch he saw, a slider that looked headed for his front shin, producing a weak looping grounder that headed straight for Jones, only the ball took an odd last hop and Chipper booted it, conspiring with favorable official scoring to give Cabrera an RBI base hit. Such is baseball.
Villone came back out to start the eighth, but was again greeted by a hit, this time an Edgar Renteria single. After Chipper Jones lined out to left, Joe Torre brought in rookie T.J. Beam to face Andruw Jones. It was an impressive move on Torre's part, trusting a rookie to face one of the league's top hitters late in a one-run game (though I wonder if he would have done it up by one run rather than down by one run). The tall, lanky Beam rewarded Torre's faith by striking out Jones on a sequence of hard, mid-90s heaters for the second out. Unfortunately, Beam forgot about Renteria on first and while Beam worked to the next batter, Brian McCann, Renteria practically waltzed over to second. Behind McCann 2-1, Beam intentionally walked the lefty to face righty Jeff Francoeur. Beam got ahead of the free-swinging Francoeur 1-2 only to have Francoeur pick the 1-2 pitch practically out of the dirt and loop it into shallow center for another RBI single. Mike Myers came in to get the lefty LaRoche for the final out.
Again down two runs, the Yankees failed to do anything with a lead-off single by Derek Jeter in the bottom of the eighth when Jason Giambi was unable to beat out a squibber down the third base line, Alex Rodriguez struck out swinging on a slider down and in from Ramirez and Jorge Posada launched a pitch to deep left that settled into the glove of Ryan Langerhans for the third out.
Still, Joe Torre didn't back off, going to Kyle Farnsworth in the ninth. Unfortunately, Farnsworth's recent struggles continued. Pinch-hitter Marcus Giles lead off with a single and moved to second on a wild pitch. With one out, Wilson Betemit singled to left and third base coach Fredi Gonzalez sent Giles home. From deep in left field, Melky Cabrera fired a strike to Jorge Posada that had Giles beat easily, but Posada, likely anticipating Giles' arrival, flinched, booting the ball and allowing Giles to score. Betemit moved to second on the play. Farnsworth then struck out Renteria on a full count, but his second pitch to Chipper Jones skipped past Posada for a passed ball that moved Betemit to third. That prompted a mound visit from Ron Guidry. As Farnsworth and Posada waited for Gator to arrive, Farnsworth turned his back on Posada and walked off the back of the mound. When Guidry arrived, Farnsworth returned to the mound and Posada stormed off toward home plate. After Guidry returned to the dugout, Jones doubled Betemit home and Joe Torre replaced Farnsworth with Matt Smith. Smith intentionally walked Andruw Jones, unintentionally walked Brian McCann, and struck out Francoeur to end the inning.
Down 5-1 in the bottom of the ninth, Melky Cabrera hit his second career home run with two outs, but that was all the Yankees could muster against newly appointed closer Jorge Sosa to fall 5-2 after beating the Braves by the same score the night before.
For what it's worth, Cabrera's homer was his first from the left side of the plate and was a convincing short-porch shot on a pitch down and in. Cabrera finished the night having gone three for four, driving in both of the Yankees' runs and scoring one of them. Cabrera and Jorge Posada combined for five of the Yankees' nine hits. On Monday night, Jason Giambi drove in all five of the Yankees' runs, scoring two of them and he and Andy Phillips combined for five of the Yankees' nine hits. For those inclined to read something into that, those similarities are fun, but meaningless.
This afternoon, the Yankees get their third exciting pitching match-up in four days with a hot Chien-Ming Wang taking on John Smoltz in the series' rubber game. Weather permitting, of course.
One of the main difference between now and when we were hot in May is simply that the RISP is horrible. it's not that we aren't hitting against these guys, it's that we simply not bring the guys on back or hitting our homeruns when guys are on . (yesterday was the exception
I freakin took the day off of work today to go to the game. It's mad early in the a.m. and man, it looks like it's going to be warshed out.
Grumble, grumble, grumble.
The forecast shows the rain clearing up in the afternoon. I think they'll get the game in. Though it might be delayed.
Is it just me, or does Kay seem feisty lately. I wasn't online last night, but did anyone else pick up on Kay basically calling out Torre for removing Wright after 6, when he had only thrown 90 pitches?
So the title reads "Snake Eyes". Every time I think I read that title I think of my favorite G.I. Joe character. I'm feeling a little dense, what's that ('Snake Eyes') suppose to really mean in relation to last night's game?
http://tinyurl.com/rlee5
As for the current state of affairs with the team, I will argue this until I turn blue: Cashman needs to make a move for a run-producing corner-OF now, not tomorrow or July 31st. Pitching will be available in the next month and, contrary to the opinions of some here at BB, is not the Yankee's pressing need -- offense is.
In the month of June (25 games), the Yankee pitching has given up more than 5 runs per game a total of 8 times. Over that same period, the Yankee offense has scored less than 5 runs a game a total of 11 times. Of those 8 games that they've given up over 5 runs, the Yanks are 1-7. Of the 11 games that they scored less than 5 runs, the Yanks are 3-8.
In the last 10 games, the Yankee offense has score less than 3 runs a total of 5 times and have score more than 5 runs a total of TWO times.
Pitching has NOT been the problem thus far, it has been the ability to consistantly score runs.
Last night Justice (or was it Leiter?) pointed out that Arod won the MVP with 48 HR's. That caught my attention because I forgot how many he actually hit. It is now the end of June and Arod has a total of 15 HR's and is in a homer drought. At this pace, he will be lucky if he hits more than 30 HRs on the season.
Look, the team NEEDS his offense right now and he is failing them. If there was EVER a time to step up and carry the O, it's when your #1 competitor in the division is reeling off 10 wins in a row. NOW, not 2 weeks from now, is when Arod MUST step up and deliver. I fear that he won't and the team will suffer because of it.
As I've said repeatedly on this board, with the loss of Matsui and Shef, an extended slump by either Giambi, Arod or Posada will doom this team. Well, Arod is officially in a very extended slump and as the numbers point out, our offense is indeed anemic. if it wasn't for Giambi's heroics in Monday night's game, we might be looking at a Braves sweep in the Bronx today. If Giambi should hit a dry spell, god help this team.
Cashman, go out and make a move today...before it's too late!
The Sawx aren't going to win every game and the Yanks ARE going to play better. I don't know, I guess after last year....things just look so much better this year.
The thing is...we've "made a move" before. We've been going with the "buy an aging veteran" plan for five years. It hasn't worked. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. We have to do something different.
But a move is necessary. When there's a whole, fill it, pronto. Last year the team's pressing need was starting pitching so cashman went out and traded for Chacon and grabbed Small. Right now (and for the forseeable future) the need is offense. So, Cashman, go out and get help.
Acquiring aging veterans has worked in the past (see Justice in 2000) but I am not lobbying for a mega-deal (e.g. Soriano) because it'll cost Hughes. But any upgrade over Bubba/Melky/Reese/Thompson/etc. is a huge upgrade to the team.
I'm still in the "Get Reggie Sanders" camp. He looks like a pr!ck and he might be a K machine, but he hits for power and can drive in runs. Based on this season, he obviously likes hitting in Yankee Stadium and he would elongate the lineup by hitting behind Posada in the #6 or #7 hole. And, I'm pretty sure we can get him for a few mid-level AA players.
Plus, when Shef and/or Matsui return, Sanders would be a legit bat off the bench.
Can someone please tell me what corner outfield would make everyone happy? Not only that, what would you give up for that corner outfield? You know everyone wants a pitcher by the name of Phillip Hughes. We have a need, everyone knows we have a need, they know it is in George's nature to give up whatever is in his farm to make his team better NOW. Simply put, we are damned if we do…damned if we don't.
You do realize that the Royals offered Sanders to the Yanks for Phillip Hughes?
However, I do think what's contributing to the anxiety is the reality that the Tigers are 28 games over .500 and the White Sox 24 games over, and neither team shows any signs of slowing down.
With that said, funny things always happen..last year the Indians were one game over .500 shortly after the All-Star Break, and got as high as 29 games over, before memorably losing six of their last seven to blow the wild card. We were 51-45 on July 23rd last year after losing our 3rd straight to the Angels (Kevin Brown's last game), and ended up clinching the division on October 1st being 29 games over at 95-66.
So there's a lot of baseball left to be played. I'd sure feel better if we had a little more firepower in our lineup though, that's for sure.
I dunno...I think we need to get it done with pitching and defense. We aren't going to replace Matsui and Sheff's production. And even if we did...it hasn't won us a World Series.
So in this instance, your intuition is backed up by statistics. The Red Sox should revert to their record suggested by the numbers of runs they score. Indeed, another way to look at Ortiz's "clutch" performances is that they wouldn't be needed if the Red Sox didn't, for example, blow 6 run leads in the 8th inning.
On a scarier note, the Tigers' Pythag Win Pct is .652, only slightly below their actual record.
Again with the luck. Guys, do you really want to hang your head on that? If either guys who run this site wrote crap like that they wouldn't be on baseball toaster.
Almost half way into the season, and the difference has been luck. If you really believe that, you know nothing about baseball.
I agree the team could use a corner OF, but as others have said, I just don't see anyone useful available (though I would also be interested in a trade for Wilson, he seems good all around). Reggie Sanders for Hughes is a joke and until it gets closer to the trade deadline, that's what teams are going to demand. Maybe as we get closer to July 31st and the Royals (or others) want to salary dump the asking price will go way down, but at the moment, there isn't a deal to be made.
One area I think we're actually ok, might be the BP. If Beam and Villone continue to pitch well, then a BP of a Dotel, Beam, Villone, Myers, Mo, Smith, and Farnsworth/Proctor (I know that one of the kids is likely to go for Dotel, but I can dream) is actually pretty strong compared to other AL teams.
Starting pitching has been decent to good as of late as well, though its hard to say if it'll continue. If the Yankees can stay close for now, pick up a decent bat around the trade deadline, get Matsui back in August/September, I think they can be ok. The Sox are on a tear right now, they will drop off and we'll make up some games.
Which, since ortiz didn't blow the 6 run lead, your stat has nothing to do if ortiz is clutch or not.
If ortiz was playing in new york he'd be huge, and you guys would be loving him. You need to take off your homer goggles for once.
If I flip a coin and it comes up heads 20 times in a row, you'd still expect that if I flipped it 1000 times, it'd be about half and half. That's not "luck."
They're peaking too soon, mark my words...
The Royals may ask for Hughes, but if the Yanks take the approximate $6mm left on his salary plus give a few AA players, the "small-market/out of 1st place by 26.5 games Kansas City Royals" might just do it.
20 The aging veterans of which you speak include Shawn Chacon (27 in 2005) and Jeff Weaver (25 in 2002). In fact, so we can all be clear about this, here are the Yankees big deadline acquisitions thus far this decade:
2005: Shawn Chacon (27)
2004: Esteban Loaiza (32)
2003: Aaron Boone (30)
2002: Jeff Weaver (25)
2001: Sterling Hitchcock (30)
2000: David Justice (34)
Only the Justice and Chacon moves made a difference. The Loaiza trade was more about dumping Contreras than getting Loaiza. In 1999 all they did was pick up a 35-year-old Jim Leyritz and in 1998 they did nothing, because they didn't need anything.
Everyone says "every year the Yankees go out and get what they need," but it's simply not true. Randym has it right, they'll "make a move," but there's rarely a payoff in fact, most of those guys turn out to be liabilities (I left off the fact that after they got Justice in 2000 they also got Denny Neagle closer to the deadline). Even Justice ran out of gas quickly after 2000 and the jury's still out on whether or not Chacon will wind up making a positive contribution this year.
All of that said, with Cano out nursing his hammy, Soriano becomes even more attractive, does he not? Play him at second until Cano returns then put Sori in the outfield when Robbie returns. Of course the Nats know this and it'll be Hughes or no deal, so it won't happen, but funny how that worked out, aye?
Meanwhile, on the subject of David Justice, other than repeating his point nine zillion times last night (Justice has Joe Morgan/Tim McCarver disease in which he says the same thing twice, paraphrasing and shifting his emphasis the second time, fooling himself into thinking he's elaborated on his point rather than simply repeated it), he failed to recognize that the baseball season is a marathon, not a sprint. So the other teams are hot right now and the Yanks are cold, that doesn't mean the opposite won't be true in August. You can't scoreboard watch in June or even July. Cripes, Rodriguez is pressing enough already, like trying to singlehandedly keep up with both Sox and the Tigers won't put him further in a funk?
Speaking of which, I've put a link to my pre-2005 piece on Alex Rodriguez's career trends under Suggested Reading. It's a reality check for those clamoring for a repeat of last year. My conclusion is essentially that you'll never see another season like that out of Rodriguez, but that's okay.
DON'T PANIC!
Warm regards from the grave,
Douglas Adams
PS - Remember, the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything is 42.
And, how much of that had to do with Small's success last year, versus his failure this year?
We finally know the question. And we didn't have to build another Earth to find out.
So Cone '95, Fielder '96, Curtis '97 . . . Justic '00, that's where the reputation came from, but it's been five lean years since then
This is how we end up with slag like Cairo (we need a "back-up IF--even though we are going carry two SS and Phillips, who has played 2B and 3B"), and the when Cairo goes down, we bring Nick Green (we need a back-up IF in case our ex-back-up IF Cairo goes down...).
Right now corner OF is the biggest need, but frankly ANY additional bat in lineup would be huge. There must be room on the roster for plyers not named Bubba, Green, Cairo, Stinnett, Reese, or even Melky/Thompson/(aging) Bernie.
I cannot believe that a league average replacement player cannot be found for either LF, RF, DH, or 2B, who 1] fits with the Yankees 'budget' and 2] does not cost Hughes in return.
Can we find a solution within the organization? What about trying Pena or Durazo? Then move Andy to 2B or even throw him in the OF. I mean, is he going to worse than Bernie? Or how about the 'captain" being asked to move to 2B for a couple of weeks, move A-Rod to SS, and put Andy at 3B. This is an extreme suggestion, of course, but does anyone in the FO or on the coaching staffthink outside the box in these extreme injury circustances?
Sorry, I know that you don't like Brendan Fraser but I couldn't resist....
And as for announcing, did anyone want to kill Kay last night? Not for doing any Kay like things, but for encouraging Kaat to continue talking about pitch counts...AGAIN...for like the bajillionth time in 3 days?
Sometimes I wonder if Al Leiter is physically restrained on Kaat rants.
Ok, ok, I admit it, I despise Kaat as an announcer.
Of course, Cone blew Game 5 in Seattle by walking in the tying run, but I blame Showalter for that. Buck practically pitched Cone's arm off that year and pushed him deep in that Game 5 despite the fact that he was clearly finished. In fact, I don't think it's unreasonable to blame Cone's high pitch counts down the stretch with the Yankees for the aneurysm that threatened his career and his life the following season.
Man, Cone's Yankee career really was thrilling no? The late '95 surge and Game 5 walk, the aneurysm in '96 and the near-no hitter in his first game back, then the must-win Game 3 in the World Series. A 20-win season in 1998 ten years after his first. The perfect game in '99 and the fact that he was never the same after that game, leading to his attrocious 2000 season, including that game in KC in which he lept off the mound to catch a pop up and separated his shoulder. Throw in the fact that he finished his career with the Red Sox and Mets and was the opposing pitcher in Mussina's near-perfect game in Fenway and held that game scoreless until the eighth inning. Just fascinating stuff all around.
Damon
Cabrera
Jeter
Giambi (DH)
A-Rod
Bernie
Andy
Cairo
Stinnett
Comment status: comments have been closed. Baseball Toaster is now out of business.