Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
Mike Mussina avoided his fifth inning struggles last night by getting himself pulled from the game in the fourth, but Aaron Small pitched four innings of one-hit ball in relief and Jason Giambi hit another pair of homers to give the Yankees a lead and, eventually, a win to open their series against the Mariners.
After the game, Mussina said that in the fifth inning of his last start and throughout this game he was having trouble throwing strikes and hinted that he's going through a dead-arm period. Indeed, Mussina had nothing last night, as was clear from his first two pitches to Ichiro Suzuki. The first was a ball. The second landed in the right-field seats for a lead-off home run. Moose then went full on Willie Bloomquist before getting him to ground out. Raul Ibanez followed by creaming a pitch to deep right center, but got himself thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple (Bernie to Cano to Rodriguez). Richie Sexson followed by scorching a ball into Cano's glove for the third out.
All Moose yielded in the second was a one-out Greg Dobbs double, making it his best inning of the night. In the third, a pair of singles by Miguel Ojeda and Ichiro! were followed by a Bloomquist sac bunt and four-pitch walks to Ibanez and Sexson, the latter forcing in the Mariners' second run. Moose then threw ball one to both of the next two batters but got Adrian Beltre to pop out on a fastball down the middle and Dobbs to fly out to deep left.
Then came the fourth, which Moose started with a five-pitch walk to Yuniesky Betancourt. Mussina then fell behind 3-0 on Jeremy Reed, who, after a called strike, caught Alex Rodriguez off guard with a bunt to third that Rodriguez was unable to pick out of the grass. Moose then walked Ojeda after getting ahead of him 1-2, the final pitch being a breaking ball that was nowhere near the strike zone. That was all Joe Torre had to see, as he wisely pulled Mussina before he could do any further damage.
Brought into an ugly bases-loaded, no-outs situation, Aaron Small induced a pair of double play balls to second from Suzuki and Bloomquist, but Ichiro was able to beat out the first and first base ump Tim Tschida blew the call on Bloomquist, so Small only got two outs to show for it as the Mariners increased their lead to 4-0. Small then walked Ibanez, but got Sexson to fly out for the final out of the inning.
As all of this was going on, the Yankees were scuffling against Ryan Franklin. The second was the only inning among the first four in which the Yankees got a runner on base, as Alex Rodriguez lead off with an infield single and was followed by a Giambi walk. They then promptly ran themselves into a strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play with Bernie Williams swinging through a pitch and Alex Rodriguez getting thrown out by several feet at third on a failed hit and run.
After Small came in to clean-up Mussina's mess, however, things turned around. Jason Giambi led off the fifth with a mammoth homer off the restaurant in right field (just below the neon "Hit It Here" target). Then, after the Yankees ran into another double play via the hit and run (this time with Bernie on the bases and Lawton at the plate), Posada doubled, moved to third on a wild pitch, and was singled home by Cano to cut the Mariner lead in half.
In the sixth, after a first-pitch Matsui groundout, Sheffield and Rodriguez walked (the former on four pitches), driving Franklin from the game at 93 pitches. Mike Hargrove then called on lefty Matt Thornton, who went to 1-1 on Giambi before Jason crushed yet another home run, his fourth in the last two games, this one a three-run job that gave the Yankees a lead they would not relinquish.
Small cruised through the fifth, sixth and seventh, scattering a Greg Dobbs double and two more walks, and in the top of the eighth Alex Rodriguez and Matt Lawton added solo homers to cushion the Yankee lead. Tom Gordon and Mariano Rivera finished it off with perfect eighth and ninth innings.
In my opinion, the story of the game was Aaron Small, who picked up the win and is now 5-0 with a 3.03 ERA as a Yankee, but the story of the past two games has clearly been Jason Giambi. Giambi now has four homers and eleven RBIs over his last two games after hitting just two taters and driving in just seven runs in the previous twenty-five games in August.
According to Giambi, the difference in the past two games has been a cortisone injection he got last week to relieve the pain from tendonitis in his left elbow, which makes more sense than pointing to the fact that the acquisition of Matt Lawton has pushed him back into the field (though I suspect the latter hasn't hurt his focus at the plate as the association between Giambi's success at the plate and playing time at first base is downright eerie).
Giambi's comeback this season continues to astound as he has set personal bests for homers in a single month (14 in July) and multi-homer games (now seven). The latter total accounts for more than 23 percent of his career multi-homer games (now 30), which is stunning considering the fact that Giambi had 281 career homers entering this season and was the best hitter in the American League, if not the majors, for several seasons around the turn of the millennium.
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Mark Bellhorn, the high-walk, high-whiff specialist, who became the whipping boy for the Boston fans this year, will sign with the Yankees today. http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20050829&content_id=1188893&vkey=news_nyy&fext=.jsp&c_id=nyy
Finally, according to the Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/30/sports/baseball/30pins.html):
"The right-hander Chien-Ming Wang is also in Columbus, working his way back from a right shoulder injury. He started Monday night, going three innings and allowing two hits and one run. Joe Torre said he would need at least one more outing before he returned."
Hopefully Bellhorn will be used solely to give A-Rod and Cano some rest down the stretch, and then cut loose should the Yanks play in October.
1. He was born in 1974 in BOSTON.
2. He played on the 2004 WS Champ RED SOX.
3. He has a shabby beard and shaggy hair.
4. He strikes out 1 out of every 3 ABs.
5. He has a career .242 average.
6. He's a shaky fielder.
7. He was born in 1974 in BOSTON.
8. He played on the 2004 WS Champ RED SOX.
Had to repeat the 1st two at the end to highlight the importance of those points.
On the plus side he has a great OBP which should help the guys at the top of the lineup knock in a few extra runs. Uh....and that's about the only nice thing I have to say about him. He may contribute, but I won't enjoy it.
Good Lord. Who's next? Millar? Damon? Geez. If these Yankees get much more red, it's - well - it's not good.
BP
Nice to see Giambi back in form.
As I said before though....I won't enjoy it....both because I can't enjoy it, and because I refuse to enjoy it. It's just the principle of the thing. ;)
I was wrong about Embree having zero or negative value...he has actually contributed positively in a few games, though if the Yanks make the playoffs, I fear the spirit of Felix Heredia returning.
With Bellhorn though, I just don't get it. He's like a parody of sabermetrics...a high OBP machine who's useless in real life. Very nice guy, though, who was discarded pretty unceremoniously by the Sox...maybe there's some anger that can be channeled in September for a few key games.
Call me crazy, but I still believe that Woe-mack's speed will play a huuuuuuuge role in the post season, like what Roberts did for the Sox in '04.
But I NEVER want to see Womack up at the plate EVER again!
Additionally, if this means Womack's further marginalization, that's even better. Compare Womack all you like to Roberts from last ALCS. I'll compare Bellhorn to himself from that series. Maybe it's just me but I thought he had a far bigger influence on the results.
http://www.blairwasdin.com/deweyshouse/wordpress/archives/2005/08/30/red-sox-10-devil-rays-6/#comments
Why assume Womack is odd man out? Why not Escalona? Rosters are expanding anyway, no?
http://www.markbellhorn.net/
http://www.stlukes-oviedo.org/school/markbellhorn.html
Don't underestimate the role of a speedy bench player. No Roberts for the Sox last year and Bellhorn never gets a chance to finally get a meaningfull hit in game 6. He was invisible up to that point and his HR in gm 7 was meaningless.
Don't get me wrong, I hope the guy performs but I'll be skeptical til then.
"I always liked Bellhorn, and he was terribly under-appreciated here. That fans chose to kick and scream and throw bitch-fits over the strikeouts while Bellhorn was a well above average 2nd Baseman was always a black mark on the "smartest fans in baseball" rep that sometimes Sox fans merit and quite often other times, they don't. Explaining to a Bellhorn dissenter that he was a better player than Alfonso Soriano in 2004 is always a good time. Speaking of 2004, he was absolutely integral - essential even - to last season's championship effort and Bellhorn fans will always have the three-run, opposite field home run in Game 6, the pole rattling nail in the coffin in Game 7, a second pole rattler to win Game 1 and the double off of Matt Morris in the 1st inning of Game 2. Mark Bellhorn is a guy that goes about his business in a stout, resolute manner and Sox fans worth a salt in my book ought to appreciate what he accomplished for the Red Sox and lament that the Yankees have acquired him."
It is!
15 wins, 3 losses when Jason goes deep
59 wins, 53 losses when Jason gets no HRs
And, FWIW:
6 wins, 1 loss when Jason hits 2 bombs
I don't think there's any statistical correlation there, but those numbers sure look nice.
And:
Giambi as 1B: 50G, 154 AB, 1.218 OPS
Giambi as DH: 54G, 167 AB, .798 OPS
Thank you Matt Lawton!
BP"
Hey, I'd take Damon any day though he'd look quite different with a crewcut! As far as Bellhorn, I always loved seeing him come to the plate because another strikeout was almost inevitable (the Womack-type feeling), but I don't think I'll enjoy it too much anymore! Of course, he would be the greatest if he does hit that clutch home run in the final game to take the East Division, as Mike Plugh suggests!
Bellhorn platooning with Cano makes far too much sense for Joe to employ it. I think he finds platooning to be demeaning or something.
As to keeping Womack, to compare the two, here are their respective #'s. I am including a lot of stats to make my point:
Bellhorn:
AB R H 2B HR RBI BB K SB AVG OBP OPS
283 41 61 20 7 28 49 109 3 .216 .328 .688
Womack:
AB R H 2B HR RBI BB K SB AVG OBP OPS
324 46 79 8 0 15 12 49 26 .244 .271 .546
Womack tops Bellohrn in ABs, runs, hits, k's, and SB. Bellhorn has 12 more doubles, 7 more HR's (which, considering Womack has 0, is literally an infinite percentage improvement), 12 more RBI, a 50 point higher OBP and a 140 point higher OBP.
What is interesting, is that although Womack has so many more SB's, the run differential is almost negligable (5 runs). I suppose that is the difference between hitting a double or HR, and hitting a single and trying to steal second.
So, considering the #'s, I would say that I would much rather have a guy that has the potential to hit for some power or take a walk vs. a guy who may get you a hit or two more and steal a few bases, but mostly just makes contact and gets out.
Having a "speedy guy of the bench" is overrated, most anyone fast can fill that role. The chances are far greater that you will need a double, a walk, or a HR in a game than someone to steal second for you.
I am not saying I want him as my starting 2B, but as a guy of the bench, hes an upgrade...
Some mediocre players come up big against the Yankees because their whole career has come down to this. I'm hoping these acquisitions are just a coincidence lest we sign Eddie Perez to a 4yr 40 mil. contract this offseason.
Maybe the FO is just waiting for Julio Franco to mature a bit, then they'll offer him a 5 year deal.
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