:)

I was going to comment on Matsui sitting, but his splits this year vs LHP are horrible; he's hitting a few singles, nothing more (OPS < .600). So I guess I can't quibble too much.

3rd pitch to Upton, fastball over the LHB box - "strike!"

4th pitch to Upton, slider over the plate, above the knees - "ball!"

I want to know when there will be a commission investigating this crap.

Still, I'm pleased so far. Wish I could see it instead of Gamedaying it.

Does anyone this this team needs Ensberg?

I wish Gameday showed the hitter to scale. Its impossible to tell whether a pitch is really at the knees or not, and if the ump is calling the high strike (as he should) or not.

.279/.295/.279

You sure you want that in there?

BTW, nice job ump, calling Cano out on a pitch almost in the RHB box. Cripes.

And speaking of first, the Mudhens have a nice young 1Ber, Jeff Larish, who is mashing the ball this year. He's a lefty (25 y.o.) who's taking advantage of the short RF porch in Toledo. I don't have access to Baseball Prospectus, anyone who does, what does it say about the guy, and how could Cashman finagle him from Detroit?

Kevin Goldstein ranked him as the 5th best prospects in the Tigers' system, after the Cabrera/Willis deal. PECOTA's weighted mean projection for him, going into '08, was .239/.334/.396. Of course, at that point, he had no time in AAA, so I wonder how different it would be now? Too small a sample to work off of?

Where's Questec? Is no one in the Commish's Office watching these guys?

The pitch Molina was called out on was so far inside, on Gameday, it was over the RHB box.

This is really getting old. Maybe the reason offense is down in the AL is because the umps are calling the old late 90s Maddux/Glavine strike zone, 3 inches tall and 3 miles wide.

Yanks are still making Kazmir work - 46 pitches through 3, even if they have no base runners to show for it.

Of course, lack of control has contributed to things in the third too with the HBP and the walk. IPK must have control and must pitch to contact EARLY in the count.

Even Farnsworth -- who throws really hard -- doesn't pitch well when behind in the count. That wasn't really my point. Just that the slower you throw the worse it gets.

I believe in the importance of throwing strike one too (which he did to Iwamura), but I think he's doing fine today.

/gritting teeth after that 4th pitch to Giambi

He has to get ahead of 9 out of every 10 hitters. When you don't throw hard, the margin for error is narrower.

Duncan's .182 has come in another small sample size (34 ABs, only 23 of those vs LHPs - we know he can't hit right RHP, so I'm inclined to ignore his appearances vs RHP). I'm not ready to say give up on him yet. Lots can happen in 23 ABs. Just ask Cano.

wildly missing the strike zone instead of just missing on arguable pitches?

The walk? Again, tough to draw conclusions from just a few pitches.

Overall, IPK is at 59 pitches now, 37 strikes, 22 balls; 63% of the pitches for strikes. Given what he was doing before, I'll take it!

Nice 4th inning by IPK.

It's hard to believe they can't sell 20k seats a game. If you live on Florida's west coast, there isn't that much to do. What do they need, a stadium with A/C... or at least all the seats in the shade?

i say they come back in this game, kazmir is gone.

*Ok, he gave up 5 runs. On the one hand, two of those runs were off a HR to Shawn Riggans. Dude has 3 career homers; every dog has its day. OTOH, dude has 3 career homers!!!

I keep telling myself, the Yanks were in worse shape at this point last year. Its doesn't really help.

Also, I am sorry, but 5 runs in 5 innings is exactly that. Also, I am not sure how giving up 2 HRs to light hitters makes things better...to me, it makes things worse.

I was grappling with that vs. cautious optimism on IPK myself, hence my "on the one hand, on the other hand" line.

Its not "early" any more, but, IPK has thrown all of 28.7 innings in the big leagues this year. He's "looked" bad (I guess, I don't think I've seen him pitch on TV yet), the results aren't there - but that's too few innings to make a solid judgment on.

Every piece of info we had on this guy coming into this year - stats, scouting reports, etc - said he was going to be good. I'm not ready to disregard all that on the basis of 28.7 innings.

In any case, as long as Rasner keeps pitching OK, IPK is the 5th starter, and that's fine. rbj is right 103 .

Also, if the Yankees are hoping to contend, it isn't fine to have IPK as a fifth starter. The Yankees are 1-6 behind IPK this year. Even if they were hitting, it is very hard to overcome a 9 ERA from your pitcher.

I am becoming increasingly concerned about this season, but what worries me more about Kennedy is that he simply doesn't look like a prospect. If he wasn't wearing pinstripes, I'd scoff at the thought that he was a blue chip.

Re: contending - I don't know, the Yanks have managed to contend with some pretty awful 5th starter performances over the years. Last year's motley crew, Wright in 2006*, Brown and Wright in 2005**, Contreras and Loaiza in 2004, Weaver's 160 IP of 5.99 ERA in 2003 . . .

You have to go back to 2002 to find a rotation that was rock solid, top to bottom. (Damn Angels.) The Yanks can contend, even if IPK stinks up the joint for another few starts. I doubt he's so bad that his ERA is going to be 8+ all year.

If I wasn't on my way to bed, I'd say between the two of us, william, we could get this thread to 110 comments. Maybe someone will pinch hit for me. Things will get better, have faith!

*From looking it up, the back end of the rotation (4 and 5 slots) were some combo of Wright, Chacon, and Lidle. None pitched well; they had almost 250 IP combined. Unit had over 200 IP and an ERA of 5; the Yanks still contended.

**Brown, Leiter, and Wright in 2005 threw over 200 innings; the best ERA of them? Leiter's 5.49. Add in Pavano's 100 IP and his 4.77 ERA, and that's damn ugly too.

Your point about the Yankees bad #5 starters is spot on, but there are two key differences: the Yankees could hit then (it remains to be seen if they will again) and as bad as they were, they were significantly better than IPK has been. Sadly, I might sign up for IPK throwing to a 5 ERA.

I might as well get to bed too...definitely don't have the spirit for 110 comments.

I still think we're asking too much from the kids, and given that they have to pitch to no run support AND learn to pitch in the bigs at the same time, it's really unfair to dump on them. I'm not looking for contention until the lineup proves it can hit big league pitching consistently without injuring themselves or their feelings, whatever...

Sue Simmons is right: course correction is bad baseball, period >:(