Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
The average age of the four starting pitchers in the first two games of the current series in Seattle is 23 3/4. It's not often that you see a stat like that when the Yankees are involved. Don't worry. Randy Johnson will compensate tomorrow. Today, however, we Yankee fans can continue to freak out about Chien-Ming Wang's climbing innings total.
For those who have missed my previous kvetching, Wang set a career high with 157 innings pitched last year between the minors, majors and postseason. Entering tonight's game, he's thrown 172 1/3 innings and hasn't been sharp in any of his last three starts. His combined line in those outings is: 16 1/3 IP, 27 H, 12 R, 3 HR, 8 BB, 6 K, 2.14 WHIP, 6.61 ERA. Most alarming of all, despite opening the Boston series with a victory in his last start, he recorded just six of his 18 outs in that game via groundballs, the only time in his major league career (43 starts, two relief appearances) that he has recorded fewer groundouts than flyouts.
Opposing Wang will be deflowered phenom Felix Hernandez. The Yankees got a good look at Hernandez last year when he locked horns in a stirring pitchers duel with his predecessor Randy Johnson. Hernandez lost that battle 2-0 on solo home runs by Robinson Cano and Gary Sheffield, but made a strong showing in 12 starts as a 19-year-old rookie for the M's, posting a 1.00 WHIP and a 2.67 ERA while striking out 8.22 per nine innings. This year, King Felix has actually increased his strike-out rate, but has seen more dramatic increases in his walk, hit and homer rates, the end result of which is a decidedly average 4.50 ERA. Of course, 4.50 is plenty respectable from a 20-year-old with ace potential, but it's not going to make anyone forget Doc Gooden. Incidentally, Hernandez, who is at 148 innings pitched thus far this year, threw 149 1/3 innings in 2004 and increased his work load to 172 1/3 last year. That's a normal innings increase for a young pitcher and further evidence that even if Chien-Ming Wang hasn't hit his innings ceiling yet, he's dangerously close.
a) He experiences a few "dead arm starts" in which he gets the crap kicked out of him leading to Joe skipping his turn a time or two. Then comes back in late Sept and returns to his prime form.
b) He suffers an injury that puts him on teh shelf for the post season*.
(*god willing.)
Stop laughing at me.
2 heheheheheheheheheh Pavano. That's a good one! (I know his rehab is going well. But let's not jinx it.)
Or something like that, lol.
So long, 20 games. If it wasn't official already, it's been off the radar screen the last month.
Isn't that how the Angels got K-Rod into the playoffs in 2002?
http://tinyurl.com/pun8t
It's a good move for the Yanks but there goes his shot at 20 wins (which was nearly gone anyway).
I wonder if a similar subpar outing from Tiger tonight will result in him missing few turns in the rotation with the cushion we now have.
(Me, I'd give both Hughes and Clippard a start in place of Wang over the next month or so.)
Columbus Clippers, ring your bell... Bubba just hit a two-run homer. Clippers are likely out of it this year, but they're doing a good job of spoiling their opponents' hopes.
In light of him going to the DL today, Joe's decision to rest the bullpen last night makes a little more sense.
Dotel, Proctor, Farnswacker, and Rivera will be needed even more with Moose down, and Wang suddenly looking like the cat that's climbed too far up the tree. "Oh, sh*t!"
However, you could still argue that Joe should have pushed the pen for the win last night because the 6.5 game advantage doesn't look as big without Mussina around now does it?
It's a lot more fun talking about our hitters.
Johnny Damon CF
Derek Jeter SS
Bobby Abreu RF
Jason Giambi DH
Jorge Posada C
Robinson Cano 2B
Melky Cabrera LF
Craig Wilson 1B
Nick Green 3B
This is a great idea. You could take an ambidextrous minor league right-hander and teach him to be a submarining LOOGY. It's a two-fer.
Am I reading this correctly?
Giambi was pulled last night for a tight hamstring or something like that, so I'm not surprised to see him DHing tonight.
http://tinyurl.com/jjsnq
I suppose it is long past asking why not Bean.
Ichiro Suzuki CF
Chris Snelling RF
Adrian Beltre 3B
Richie Sexson 1B
Raul Ibanez LF
Jose Lopez 2B
Ben Broussard DH
Yuniesky Betancourt SS
Rene Rivera C
No Johjima. Guess they didn't want to mess with success?
Get well soon, Miggy...
On a related note, does anyone else feel that the 40-man roster in September (when penant races heat up) is, well, somehow kinda wrong?
I'm really thirsting for a strong, take no prisoners, pitching performance with a minimum of fuss...Randy and Cory did OK over the weekend (Cory especially), but overall, I haven't been especially impressed with what the starters have delivered in a while.
I'm hopeful that Rasner will be back by September 1. I also wish White would get called up, but I don't think he's on the 40 man. I suppose they could drop DeSalvo or Jones from the 40-man.
BTW, there's no way we see either Hughes or Clippard in September, as neither of them are on the 40-man roster.
Damn.
Robbie, OBP please.
Agreed, the pitch graphics are good — beats the hell out of ESPN's clumsy blue streak effect...
1-1 count, he swings at what looked to me like ball two high, next pitch the ump squeezes Felix for ball two (I agree with Hargrove that it was a strike), next pitch Robbie chops a sinker that looked low and outside up the middle Ichiro style for the ribbies. We'll take it, Robbie, but I hope Donnie watches that at-bat with him.
Snelling in the minors: .216 AVG / .326 OBP / .340 SLG / .666 OPS.
44 51 Like I said last night, I generally like the Seattle announcers. I guess I'm alone on that one.
Bubba Crosby was the winning run, scoring from 2B on a Sardinha single with brute speed.
I was glad Bronson Sardinha had the game-winning RBI. His entire family was there at the Coop...come all the way from Hawai`i. Dane Sardinha is the catcher for Louisville, so it was brother vs. brother. Neither Sardinha did squat tonight...until Bronson got the game-winning hit.
I never understood why Ichiro wasn't move to CF sooner--he's so fast, great arm, and supposedly great defensive player. His offensive numbers are mediocre for a corner, but quite good for a CF.
Ladies and gentleman, your AL wild card team, the Minnesota Twins.
Exactly! We will be screaming for the Seattle broadcasters watching FOX in the post-season.
Wang on the hill, Green at third, Wilson at first. Cano probably looks as familiar as Bernie to him.
I WISH they would make the ALDS 7 games instead of 5. To have a 162 game season boil down to a 5 game series is unfair (just ask the Braves).
Nich Green the Hit Machine!
What has gotten into Nick Green?
That wishful thinking said — a five game ALDS is insane. Period. Go back to 154 and have all PS series scheduled for seven.
I like the idea. Especially after the licking we put on the Sox this weekend.
Sweet game so far, beautiful ballpark, but that train is damn annoying.
Can the architects please design the new Yankee Stadium in such a way that when the Mariners, and only the Mariners, come to town we can have the #4 run through the visiting dugout every 15 minutes?
hell ya~
too funny...I am watching the game and the first time the train came through I thought to myself we have been living in our new house for a year and I have never heard a train...it was driving me crazy until I realised where it was coming from...
DAMN.
The 5 game ALDS is akin to the old NBA 'best of three' in opening rounds. No deep thinking there, either...
I see no problem shortening the season by a couple of games so the LDS can be moved to 7 games. You could have something like 4 x 18 division games (72), 15 interleague games, 7 x 10 league games (70) = 157 game season.
Let Dotel get some work....
Cheaper alternative, which would accomplish my goal, would be for the Yanks to re-sign Denny Neagle only to subject the visiting Mariners to his excruciatingly annoying train whistle impersonation. Remember that? I wanted to punch him in the head the day he became a Yankee.
he does not need to throw a CG, he is in unchartered territory innings wise and was looking tired the last few starts....just get him the win and get Dotel or someone else some work
Neagle did he not wind up in Colorado cruising for crack whores and getting busted or am I confusing him with another Rockie ?
Oh well, Damon's back below .300 again. I can see how the Red Sox mistook Coco for him... NOT!
I love that commerical.
162 Amen.
163 Sweet!
"connection b/n mussina's sore groin and arod's sore throat?"
C'mon Vlad, make these beetches weep.
http://tinyurl.com/628ns
And I believe Arod's wife posted for SI.
A Rod, Junior, RJ, Gonzalez, etc....
F the Sons of Sam, and their opinions which are of no consequence. F their soon to be 3rd place team.
Bwahahahahahahahaha....
Whatever.
Oh, and Manny left the game after 2 AB. I'm not sure why.
With Manny out, the state of the Sawx bullpen, and the strength of the Halo's pen, it'd be a minor miracle if the Sawx held on to win this one.
Its like having cheerleaders at the booth talking about Chone and Maicer like they were Ruth and DiMaggio.
Against stupdity the gods themselves contend in vain.
i like this.
please no villone, proctor, farnsworth or mo.
And Aaron Guiel shakes his head.
Salmon K's looking. 2 outs.
Anaheim?
California?
Los Angeles of...
and probably a few more we don't know about.
The Angels are stranding tons of runners tonight.
Alright, enough Chianti for me. Alarm goes off in 4 hours.
263 I hope we're rooting for Detroit to lose, like you've been for a while.
Did I hear something about the remaining schedule wrong or do we have 6 left with the Tigers? I thought it was only 3 in The Bronx...
270 Only 3 games left with the Tigers, August 29-31 at the Stadium.
157 G .302/.443/.461 101 R, 100 RBI, 35 SB, 6 CS
I know these "on pace" comparisons are bogus but seeing how Abreu is hitting .398/.509/.568 in pinstripes I figured it's worth sharing.
Here we go, Hay-lows, here we go!
* Well, maybe tomorrow night, too ;-)
But weren't they actually in Los Angeles at the time?
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