Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
Yesterday's off day signaled the approaching end of the toughest stretch of the Yankees' 2006 schedule. Their marathon of 18 games in 17 days is now history and just six home games against a pair of potential playoff opponents from the AL Central remain of a brutal 27-game stretch that began three weeks ago in Chicago.
That 18-game stretch was a success, but only because of the Yankees' five-game sweep of the Red Sox which inflated their lead in the AL East to the current 6.5 games. While that sweep was a singular accomplishment that can and should not be diminished, it was also the only of the five series over that stretch that the Yankees won, as they went 5-8 against the Angels, Orioles, and Mariners. Prior to that, they had dropped two out of three to the White Sox and even with the Boston series included, they're just one game over .500 since the White Sox series. In fact, one could argue that the Yankees' 6.5 game lead in the east has far more to do with the Red Sox collapse (Boston is 8-18 in August) than anything the Yankees have done, other than take advantage of that collapse head-to-head.
Now they have six games against the Tigers and Twins. The good news is that the Twins have a losing record on the road and, while the Tigers still have the best record in the major leagues, their star has faded to the point that the Yankees could tie them with a three-game sweep. The Tigers are currently suffering through a losing August, having gone 12-14 thus far this month including a 3-7 performance against Wild Card hopefuls Minnesota and Chicago. This past weekend they dropped two of three to a revitalized Indians club.
Replacing the injured Placido Polanco, out for the remainder of the season with a separated shoulder, with a platoon of Omar Infante and Neifi! Perez hasn't helped, but there are other problems. Magglio Ordoñez and Ivan Rodriguez haven't hit since the All-Star break (.242/.285/.335 and .285/.310/.387 respectively), with Rodriguez falling several spots in the batting order. Chris Shelton (.245/.310/.302 since the break) slumped his way off to the minors and was replaced by the perpetually overrated Sean Casey (.289/.314/.422 as a Tiger), and while getting Dmitri Young back has been a boon, it's come at the expense of playing time for Marcus Thames, though Thames has struggled himself in the second half.
On the other side of the ball, the bullpen has been better than ever in the second half, but the rotation has stumbled. Twenty-three-year-old rookie Justin Verlander has blown by his previous career high of 130 innings pitched despite skipping a turn early in the month. He's now at 158 innings and has a 6.83 ERA in August. Fellow 23-year-old Jeremy Bonderman, though safely within his innings pitched limits, is suffering through his worst month. Kenny Rogers had an ERA over nine in July, though he's rebounded with an outstanding August.
Then there's tonight's starter Nate Robertson. Robertson, like the Tigers themselves, was an early season surprise, going 8-3 with a 3.14 ERA in his first 16 starts. He then posted an ERA near six in July and, though he appeared to right his ship in August, was abused by the White Sox in his last start, allowing ten runs on nine hits, three of them homers, in 6 2/3 innings.
Opposing Robertson tonight will be Chien-Ming Wang, who, after three ugly outings, was dominant for the first three innings of his start last week in Seattle, before tiring quickly in the seventh.
Incidentally, the Tigers called up lefty Andrew Miller over the weekend. Miller will be the second lefty out of the Tiger pen, but what makes his promotion so compelling is that Miller was the sixth overall draft pick in June, this June. Miller has just five professional innings under his belt, all of them coming in the single-A Florida State League.
In other call-up news, the Red Sox have called up Carlos Peña. A year ago it was the Yankees adding Red Sox castoffs Mark Bellhorn and Alan Embree. Here's hoping this is a sign of order being restored to the rivalry.
Detroit Tigers
2006 Record: 82-49 (.626)
2006 Pythagorean Record: 80-51 (.614)
Manager: Jim Leyland
General Manager: Dave Dombrowski
Home Ballpark (2005 Park Factors): Comerica Park (98/98)
Who's Replacing Whom?
Current Roster
1B – Sean Casey (L)
2B – Neifi Perez (S)
SS – Carlos Guillen (S)
3B – Brandon Inge (R)
C – Ivan Rodriguez (R)
RF – Maglio Ordoñez (R)
CF – Curtis Granderson (L)
LF – Craig Monroe (R)
DH – Dmitri Young (S)
Bench:
R – Marcus Thames (OF)
R – Omar Infante (IF)
L – Alexis Gomez (OF)
R – Vance Wilson (C)
Rotation:
R – Justin Verlander
L – Kenny Rodgers
R – Jeremy Bonderman
L – Nate Robertson
L – Wilfredo Ledezma
Bullpen:
R – Todd Jones
R – Fernando Rodney
R – Joel Zumaya
L – Jamie Walker
R – Jason Grilli
R – Zach Miner
L – Andrew Miller
15-day DL: R – Placido Polanco (2B), R – Roman Colon
60-day DL: L – Mike Maroth, R – Troy Percival, R – Craig Dingman
Typical Lineup
L – Curtis Granderson (CF)
R – Craig Monroe (LF)
S – Dmitri Young (DH)
R – Magglio Ordoñez (RF)
S – Carlos Guillen (SS)
R – Ivan Rodriguez (C)
L – Sean Casey (1B)
S – Neifi Perez (2B)
R – Brandon Inge (3B)
I find the Andrew Miller call up intriguing. Can anyone remember this happening before with a draft pick? In an age where phenoms like Phil Hughes are on strict pitch counts, isn't anyone worried about the mileage on his arm from all those CWS innings? Even considering his college success, even if he's only used as a LOOGY, it seems excessive.
Of course, I just want him to fall on his face because he's a Tar Hole. ;-)
BTW, Miller is up because he has a stipulation in a contract that he appear in the majors this year. IIRC, Xavier Nady (among many others) has had similar contract terms:
http://tinyurl.com/e9q4m
I am very interested in seeing Miller.
5 I decided to look up the weather on weather.com. Looks pretty ugly indeed. Ever notice that when searching for a city there, it comes back with questions relating to that city? For some reason, a search for "bronx, ny" returns "Getting married in Bronx?" That made me laugh, for some reason.
My wife suggested we get married there. Really, she did.
Derek Jeter SS
Bobby Abreu RF
Jason Giambi 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Jorge Posada C
Robinson Cano 2B
Bernie Williams DH
Melky Cabrera LF
Chien-Ming Wang RHP
8 I'm hoping it was the price that led you elsewhere, why else would you say no?
Hopefully we can run up a nice, fat lead, call up some kids from Columbus, and give all the starters a nice rest in September. :-)
8 That's one heck of a wife!
Melky's hitting had deteroriated some on this road trip. Hope the tooth problem was the cause and his hitting picks back up now.
Root canal, shmoot canal; who cares once the gas is on?
Seems like it's going to be sloppy if there is one.
I'm kind of surprised Giambi's at 1B with Wanger on the mound. With his bad knee or hammy or whatever it is, I'm not sure playing him at 1B on a rainy night is a good idea.
I had a dentist drill the wrong tooth once as a kid. It was a real Marathon Man experience. The only thing the idiot failed to do was ask me "is it safe?" Now he was a Mean Green Mother From Outer Space.
Lookin out the window, I'm hoping for a game tonight!
Johnny Jeter
Derek Damon
Bobby Giambi
Jason Abreu
Alex Posada
Jorge Rodriguez
Robinson Cabrera
Melky Cano
And I'll leave Bernie Williams
A couple more:
Mike Wang
Ching Ming Musina
Randy Wright
Jeret Johnson
25 No. I wouldn't trust ol' Boomer with a postseason start.
However, I could see a team desparate for pitching taking a chance on him. Like the Reds or the Cards. Or the Mets. They certainly have experience with old/injury-prone pitchers. Why not add another one to the collection?
47 I'm not sure there will be a game tomorrow night. The Clippers are in NC, which is right in the path of Hurricane Ernesto.
Can't wait to see the Bombers take him down a notch.
Especially with a day game on Thursday, I'd like to see a 'house money' type lineup for one of the games tomorrow. Let Wilson play 1B, let Green play second/SS/third, Fasano catch. I'd even say let Guiel play, though both Ledezma and Robertson are lefties.
Or perhaps Thursday's game will be moved to the evening?
http://tinyurl.com/myacu
http://tinyurl.com/zrv3s
He did $30,000 worth of damage to his new Porsche, and $20,000 worth of damage to the garbage truck he hit.
And the driver of the garbage truck is claiming he's injured and has gotten a lawyer.
===
Tuesday's scheduled Yankees starter Chien-Ming Wang will pitch in the first game, and Jaret Wright has been moved up from Thursday to start the second game. Randy Johnson was originally penciled into Wednesday's spot.
Manager Joe Torre made the switch, because he wants Wang and Johnson on different days to maintain as normal of a flow as possible in the rotation. He also wants Jorge Posada to catch both Wang and Johnson and doesn't want to use him in both games of a doubleheader.
===
gross
The thing about Kenny Rogers: he might be the worst postseason pitcher in history. I'm not big on either "clutch" or "choke," but Kenny Rogers is probably the only player who I felt couldn't perform in the clutch. In 1996 he had a deer-in-headlights look that made ARod's last weekend look confident. And, of course, his performance with the Mets in 1999 was an all-time classic.
Postseason totals for Rogers: 9 appearances (for three teams in six series), 0-3, 8.85; 20.3 IP, 32 H, 16 BB.
He, not Neifi, is the kiss of death for the Tigers.
Its amazing how Cora looks like Posada's little brother, just thinner and bald.
Darrell Rasner is more likely. He came off the DL Aug. 25, and pitched for Columbus last night. Steven White would be another possibility, but Rasner's already on the 40-man.
66 Even better.
NL teams, of course.
http://tinyurl.com/o5vey
I had no idea the guy was as intensely disliked as he was.
"When Pavano has been around the team, some players have been exasperated by what they say among themselves is his apparent indifference, citing that he has been a regular on the massage table and is often seen munching candy bars."
Is there really something wrong with eating candy bars in the clubhouse? Are the rest of the Yankees on diets and jealous of him? Is he eating them by the fistful or something? Why is that even worth mentioning? What a strange subplot to the season...
Has anyone heard differently?
There's only so much a person can stand.
After his first start, some prankster put six ice cream bars at his locker. He took one bite, then threw all the ice cream away.
http://villagevoice.com/nyclife/0635,barra,74310,15.html
Something I had never heard, which puts Tom Hicks in perspective, and helps qualify a 'truth' few of us consider:
"What wasn't mentioned was that the Texas Rangers had, shortly before signing Rodriguez, negotiated a 10-year, $250 million cable agreement that was widely reported at the time as contingent on the team's signing a major Hispanic star. In all likelihood, the Rangers probably couldn't have made the deal without Rodriguez looming on the horizon. No one would say it, but Texas gave Rodriguez the money from the cable contract in expectation of profits on increased ticket and concession sales."
So there. Texas signed ARod as a BUSINESS DEAL, that had less to do with ARod's talent as a player. This explains a lot. We know Matsui represents business interests to the Yankees, outside of his onfield contributions. I wonder if ARod knows that it was his face as a Latino posterboy, more then his bat, that has caused this whole overpaid salary thing, that has ultimately been a dagger in the back for ARod.
My oh my, that loss column is looking better and better every day.
(ahem!) Early morning rant; you may continue with the regularly scheduled relevancy...
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