Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
Offense: The Yanks got to one of the league's best pitchers (this year at least) in the opener, then dropped 11 runs on the Tribe in the second game. Another very strong offensive performance.
Studs:
Robinson Cano 6 for 12, 2B, RBI, R, BB
Alex Rodriguez 4 for 10, 3 HR, 5 RBI, 3 R, 2 BB, HBP
Derek Jeter 7 for 15, 2B, 2 RBI, 2 R
Hideki Matsui 5 for 12, RBI, 5 R, BB
Jose Molina 5 for 13, 2 2B, RBI, R
Jason Giambi 3 for 5, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 2 R
Duds:
Andy Phillips 1 for 7, RBI, R, BB, CS
Wilson Betemit went 0 for 2 with a sac bunt in the opener. Shelley Duncan did not come to bat in the series. Don't look now, but Andy Phillips has become Doug Mientkiewicz.
Rotation: The Yankee pitching was outstanding over the weekend. The only concern is that the scuffling Cleveland offense might have been part of the reason. Phil Hughes dominated for six innings in the opener. Mike Mussina turned in his best start of the season on Saturday night, and Andy Pettitte cruised through the first six innings of the finale allowing just one run before being removed with one out in the eighth.
Bullpen: The pen only had to pitch six innings and go figure that Mariano Rivera would give up the only run (though Luis Vizcaino did allow an inherited runner to score in the finale).
The Good:
Joba Chamberlain was incredible in the opener, pitching two perfect innings and striking out four.
Mo, Vizcaino, and Ron Villone were the only other relievers who appeared in the series. Mo dominated in his first outing, but was shaky in his second. Neither Vizcaino, nor Villone was especially impressive, but neither did much damage either.
Conclusion: The Yankees have been catching a lot of teams at the right time, missing their ace starters, catching them during slides, etc. The good news is that they've taken advantage of every single one of them. Sweeping the season series against Cleveland is huge. Everyone had this series circled on their calendars at the All-Star break, and the Yankees made it look like they were playing another cupcake. In doing so, they knocked Cleveland back out of the AL Central lead and now hold a 1.5-game lead over them in the Wild Card race (though they're still trailing Seattle by that pesky game in the loss column, but they play the M's at home in three weeks--circle that one too). Perhaps best of all, they seem to have taken the sweep in stride, like it's no big deal. This team is dangerous.
I also think Arod is a pretty cool nickname, not to mention El Comedulce, the Rocket and Godzilla.
Without looking up the numbers I'd say Phillips's slide has only been a week or so (past two series?) . Doug Out has been known to sustain similar droughts for weeks, even months at a time.
;)
And once upon a time, there was this man named Scott, who threw every day . . . ask Zach about him.
14 None of those names are anywhere near in the same class. Hideki Matsui and Chien-Ming Wang are perfectly ordinary names that happen to be in a different language, the equivalent of Jose Garcia. I like Comedulce, but it's a special occasion sort of nickname, where Pronk is a terrific everyday workhorse of a nickname, the kind of thing people actually call him regularly.
Perhaps ARod was interesting once upon a time, though it's hard to remember when. It was always more of a trademark than a real nickname (Rocket and Godzilla are much the same). In any case, ARod has long since been trivialized by K-Rod, F-Rod, I-Rod, T-Clip, Dice-K and so on. I make a conscious effort to refer to him as Rodriguez.
Melky, Joba and Robinson are mildly interesting, but put them all together and they're still not worth one Asdrubal. At best, they're the equivalent of Trot Nixon or Grady Sizemore, nowhere near Rafael Betancourt or the mighty Fausto Carmona.
[ drumroll and cymbals ]
Thank you. Thank you. I'm here every Monday night. Tip the waiters and try the veal...
18 CDLV - Cáda Día Luis Vizcaino.
(in Anthony Quinn sotto voce) "I can't even bring myself to say it..."
YANKEES
Damon DH
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Rodriguez 3B
Matsui LF
Posasda C
Cano 2B
Betemit 1B
Cabrera CF
even with giambi available, that might be our best lineup
looking at the numbers, it melky has been noticeably more patient when batting leadoff rather than 9th (.283 BA, but .368 obp leadoff vs .336 BA and only .358 obp batting 9th) but has much more power (.549 9th vs .424 leadoff) when he's not concentrating on getting on base
i wonder what his P/PA are like between the two spots ...
he is our best option (offense and defense combined) at 1st and he ought to be getting almost all the starts at 1st against RHP ... not sure about his defense there, though obviously the fact he can still play up the middle means he can probably do a pretty good job, especially with regular work there ...
who wasn't having a great year for LA, but had been pretty good for tampa bay for the previous couple of years
not one of JS's better trades ...
It seems to suggest Melky actually has various "gameplans" or "approaches" according to what he believes his role to be.
He doesn't just go up there hacking, but is mindful of attempting to execute a specific task.
That's golden.
Also, there were quite a few "Cairo to bullpen" jokes a few months ago.
Which pitcher would make the best hitter? I'm going with Mo.
It would have to be Farnsworth, just ask Paul Wilson and Jeremy Affeldt.
http://mlbfights.blogspot.com/
Those clips never get old...
Wait, you meant batting... Nevermind.
;-)
And when it's put together with Rafael, it's just got a pretentious rhythm that elevates it. Rafael Betancourt sounds like the name of a dastardly nobleman in some old Tyrone Power costume drama.
Rafael Betancourt.
Nice.
I would say the longer you go without facing ML pitching the worse you will be at it. So the younger guys would have the advantage. Also, everytime I've seen Mo "hit" in interleague games, he look prettttty bad.
I've never known a Betancourt, despite working with Latino families and having been married into one. But that's not even the issue; it's that, to my ear, Rafael and Betancourt go together in a particularly pleasing way. Fausto Cabrera would be okay, but Fausto Carmona is awesome.
Commonality need not be the issue. Neither Elijah nor Dukes is all that uncommon, but Elijah Dukes is a superb name (if not so superb a human being). The best sports name ever, in my opinion, was Joe Montana.
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