Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
The Yankees put an unlucky thirteen runners on base last night, but couldn't get a single one of them home. Against Kansas City starter Jorge de la Rosa, they stranded men in the second through fifth innings, including runners at first and second with one out in the second and third and a lead-off double by Melky Cabrera in the fifth. In the sixth, with a blister forming on the middle finger of his pitching hand, de la Rosa surrendered a one-out single to Alex Rodriguez, got Posada to ground out for the second out, then walked Robinson Cano on four pitches (amazingly Cano's second walk of the game; even more amazingly those two walks to Cano were the only free passes de la Rosa issued last night).
With Tuesday night's implosion still fresh in his mind, Royals manager Buddy Bell was forced to go to his bullpen. Smelling blood, Joe Torre went to his bench and sent up Jason Giambi to hit for Craig Wilson. Bell brought in hard-throwing righty Todd Wellemeyer, who got ahead of Giambi 1-2, then bounced a pitch past catcher John Buck. Rodriguez took off for third, but the ball ricocheted right back to Buck, who threw to third where Mark Teahen dropped the tag on Rodriguez's back foot for what should have been the third out as his front foot had sailed high and clear of the bag. However, third base umpire Greg Gibson, who erroneously called David DeJesus safe at home on Tuesday night despite the fact that DeJesus appeared to miss the plate entirely on his slide, called Rodriguez safe. Giambi then creamed Wellemeyer's next pitch, but hooked it foul, doing the same two pitches later, this time sending the ball into the upper deck far down the right field foul line. Having twice been too quick on his pitch, Giambi then failed to catch up to a Wellemeyer heater, striking out to end the Yankee threat.
Having found a good thing, Bell stuck with it. Wellemeyer stranded Aaron Guiel, who doubled for Nick Green, at third in the seventh by striking out Derek Jeter. He then stranded a four-pitch lead-off walk to Bobby Abreu in the eighth by striking out Alex Rodriguez on three pitches, then getting Posada to hit into a double play. In the ninth the Yankees mounted their biggest threat of the night, loading the bases on a four-pitch walk to Giambi, a Melky Cabrera single and, after pinch hitter Bernie Williams struck out, an infield single by Johnny Damon, but Wellemeyer once again struck out the Yankee Captain, this time on three pitches, to end the game.
Give the offense's futility, it was largely insignificant that Mike Mussina showed some rust by giving up four runs on eight hits in five innings despite excellent control (67 percent of 86 pitches for strikes and four Ks against just one walk in five innings). Moose was driven from the game in the sixth by a lead-off homer by Emil Brown. Brian Bruney finished the inning on eight pitches.
In the seventh, Joe Torre brought in the latest September call-ups. Andy Cannizaro made his major league debut as a defensive replacement for Aaron Guiel/Nick Green, but was later robbed of a chance at his first plate appearance when Torre turned to Bernie during the Yankees' ninth-inning rally. Sean Henn, who made three ugly starts for the Yanks last year and has since been converted to relief after an injury plagued season with the Clippers, pitched the seventh, giving up a lead-off double to Andres Blanco then two booming flies that drove Blanco home.
Finally, Octavio Dotel, who apparently does still work here despite pitching just one inning in the past week and a half, worked the eighth. Dotel started his inning by striking out Mike Sweeney on three pitches, but the last skipped by Posada allowing Sweeney to reach base. Dotel then walked Emil Brown to put two on base with none out, but recovered to retire the next three men on eight pitches.
In other news, Hideki Matsui will be in the line-up as the Trenton Thunder begin the Eastern League playoffs tonight at home at 7:05. Gary Sheffield is expected to join the Yankees in Baltimore and may begin to take batting practice if he's cleared to do so by his doctors (I still don't expect him to make the postseason roster, much like Jason Giambi missed the postseason in 2004). Jaret Wright is being skipped this time through the rotation due to Thursday's off day, while Darrell Rasner and Jeffrey Karstens have been sent out to the bullpen (foolish moves if you ask me as Moose, Johnson and Wang could all use a few extra days of rest this month). And finally, Miguel Cairo and Kevin Thompson, the latter of whom is recovering from a staph infection, are both expected to be added to the active roster over the weekend, giving the Yankees 18 position players to go with their 17 pitchers, with Matsui and Sheffield still to come.
This Just In: Royals thirdbaseman Mark Teahen, who went 0 for 4 last night, will miss the rest of the season due to a torn labrum, which the team has decided he should have operated on now in order to be fully healthy for the 2007 season.
I guess Red Bull isn't enough for the dog days of August & September. Man....those greenies would be good right now.
Sloppy game. Errors for Nick Green and Bobby Abreu. Moose missing that bunt. Dunno if it's the greenies or just being up eight games, but they don't seem to be playing with a lot of intensity.
This year sure is a far cry from last year at this time, when we had what amounted to a month-long playoff.
Tony Pena, Kiss of Death.
Couldn't Teahan gut it out 4 more days and have surgery after their series in Boston? Thanks a lot, man.
It's great that Mussina came through his first game back with no pain. Couple errors behind him, and zero runs in support. Sounds about normal for poor Moose.
Do I have this right? Wang, Moose, and Unit project to start 3 of the 4 Red Sox games? That would be a good playoff tune up round for the big guns.
In IL news, despite losing to the Clippers on Monday the Mudhens won a one game playoff against Indiannapolis last night. Both teams finished with 76-65 records and unlike the majors (think 1978) the tie breaker in the IL is considered a playoff game. Plus, there are the three division winners and one wildcard. Only here, the team with the best record plays the WC, regardless of which division they're in. Thus the Scranton/WB team with 84 wins, plays its division rival Rochester with 79 wins. Mudhens with 76 wins plays Charlotte with 79 wins. Kinda odd that the IL can have the division winner play the WC, but ML don't want that.
The question is - which clipart to use?
I believe that we are seeing the first amphetamine-less baseball season of the modern era and it isn't pretty. None of the teams in tight division and Wild Card races are making a run. The players just don't have the energy to play consistently solid baseball at this point of the season. Only the teams that have wins in the bank and play a weak schedule will be able to make up ground from now on. It will be interesting.
Not sure which clip-art to suggest though. Live worms could get you in trouble with the PETA types, so probably best to go with art. Good luck, that's awesome!
re: greenies. Perhaps I'm naive on this subject, but is there actually evidence that the players overall are more lackluster than they've been at this point in previous seasons? Are the runs significantly lower, errors significantly higher? etc?
The leader boards appear to be normal for this point in the season. The Yanks bashed 10 runs in one inning the other night, albeit against a terrible bullpen, but I haven't noticed any lack of intensity or energy among the Yanks.
No worries, I don't think anyone will come after him. ;-)
http://www.sm5sxl.net/~mats/clipart/comical/worm.png
http://www.bradfitzpatrick.com/stock_illustration/images/cartoon_worm_01.jpg
I added a circle & slash - if anyone thinks it could be improved further, let me know - it didn't take me that long:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v392/petem/pics/wormkill.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/jhn2u
I seem to recall that Damon was one of the more candid players regarding the "benefits" of greenies (while he was still with the Red Sox)...said it's a very long season, and it's hard to get going without some form of pick-me-up. Not sure they've actually documented any sort of change statistically in players' performance as a result of the new restrictions, though.
16 I'm liking that too. Watermarks are a pain to try and remove.
Anyone else have nominations? I figure this is a "BronxBanter" project!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v392/petem/pics/wormkill2.jpg
See, I think the Yanks are being very foolish in not giving Wang, Johnson, and Moose extra days, and its the kind of foresight I wish we had sometimes. Wang could clearly use it, and I'm sure it wouldn't hurt Randy or Mike, and at the same time, we'd be giving 2 potential starters more chances to prove themselves before spring training. But its the same thing as giving Proctor "rest." Nothing against Joe, but he is a push-button manager, we've always known this, and he can't get out of his way of doing things. The starts need to pitch when they are suppsoed to, and if it is a close game, or even a game at all, EDSP needs to pitch. And Dotel isn't a 'warrior' as of yet, so he doesn't get the chance, even in blowouts like Monday.
I think its far more important to have our "big 3' fully rested going into late Sept. than to have ideal matchups against Boston...
What about some way of having the gorund be on fire?
I'm thinking it would be great if some production assistant saw it when the cameras were scrolling the crowd and it yelled to them:
Worm Burner!
Not sure how to get the picture bigger, and change the golfball to a baseball. Maybe.
26 I love that this silly idea is already being tested by "focus groups" in Alabama!
I think "worm burner' is the idea so flames and smoke would help get that across.
If the worms appeared charred they could be mistaken for turds (Mr. Hanky) and that's definitely not the message.
This is a typicao post hoc ergo propter hoc reaction.
On another subject, I would love to know if there is some data analysis in existence of how many runs the Yankees score off of starters v. how many runs the score off of bullpens (adjusted of course for innings against) and the compared to league averages.
My observation (absolutely colored by the other nights outburst against the Royals pen) is that the Yankees murder bullpens, and are marginal against starters. I'd love to know if someone could actually look at the numbers and draw an intelligent conclusion.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v392/petem/pics/worm_burner_flat.jpg
The words are probably necessary for the first few times, as people won't know what it's about. About the 4th-5th Wang start, everyone will be bringing in flattened earthworm signs.
2006, innings 1-6:
Yankees: .293/.370/.472
Opponents: .269/.328/.423
Innings 7+
Yankees: .267/.352/.421
Opponents: .242/.318/.372
So it does not appear that the Yanks have been crushing late inning pitching, relative to starters. What it does show is that despite all the critical knocks on Yankees pitching, its getting the job done. .690 OPSA in the 7th, 8th, and 9th? Incredible. Thank you ProcFarnsVillMo.
34 I'm really digging it. The writing may be superfluous though? I love simplicity - and just Mr. Worm and the fire really conveys the point. Unless Alabama 26 focus groups say otherwise?
I think Lo-res and maybe even black and white would work.
29 The original idea from Sliced is ground outs only. And I concur. That's the fun.
31 Mr. Hanky - LOL!
2 - Not that it's ever a pleasant subject, but does anyone have any thoughts on the state of the Red Sox now that Tek & Nixon are back in the lineup? Does anyone think that their returns will give any kind of boost to the team or will the fact that Papelbon & Schilling are out still be a deterrent to them clawing back into the race?
I ask because even though we still have an 8 game lead, my nerves will not be rested until we end the season on top of the standings.
Thoughts? Opinions?
Maybe an alternate solution is to have one sign to post at the far left: "WORM BURNERS", then just have all the rest of the signs be the flames with the worm inside?
Let's get this done by Saturday! :)
A lot can happen in the next few weeks, especially with Boston's big hitters back in the lineup.
The Red Sox are 6 game out in the wild card race and the White Sox and Twins aren't playing their best ball. Detroit and Minnesota begin a series tomorrow which could make things even more interesting in the AL Central.
No question the revitalized Red Sox will be looking for revenge, or at least to save face in the Bronx the weekend after next.
Hopefully, the Yanks will take care of business tonight, and against the O's and Rays next week, and the Boston series won't mean much, if anything by then.
Only thing that remains - black and white or color?
43 who's the fellow that was posting postseason odds? When the Sox top 30% in any category I'll start to worry about them.
BP Postseason Odds
Generated Wed Sep 6 09:05:20 EDT 2006
Yanks Chances of:
Winning AL East - 99.78728
Winning Wildcard - .04527
Going to Playoffs - 99.83256
Sox Chances of:
Winning AL East - .19083
Winning Wildcard - 1.41335
Going to Playoffs - 1.60418
Another way of looking at things:
With 25 games left to play, if the Yanks go 13-12, the Sox have to go 21-2 to take the division (Sox only have 23 games left).
Short story - I think your nerves can take a rest, Abby, while New England casts its lonely eyes towards Mssrs. Brady and Belichick.
Color seems like a better way to go, because it'll stand out more. But it's your dollar - I can do a color version, and it'll be up to you if you want to make b&w or color copies at Kinko's (or wherever)...
Sound good?
Don't Boston's odds of playing in October seem better than that?
If the Yanks were 6 out with 23 to play would anybody count them out? I wouldn't.
49 Thanks for the comforting words. Hopefully you're on the money and I can lower my intake of Pepto Bismol come the end of September!
BTW, great job on the graphic pete.
Yankee opposing starters: 39-63, 6.07 RA/9, 10.66 H/9, 6.39 K/9, 3.83 BB/9, 1.40 HR/9
Yankee opposing relievers: 16-19, 5.28 RA/9, 9.34 H/9, 7.21 K/9, 4.75 BB/9, 1.09 HR/9
AL starters (team average): 52-49, 5.09 RA/9
AL relievers (team average): 19-17, 4.56 RA/9
Full breakdown (Yankee opponents only):
Starters: 762.1 IP, 903 H, 514 R, 472 ER, 324 BB, 541 K, 119 HR
Relievers: 447 IP (est.), 464 H, 262 R, ?? ER, 236 BB, 358 K, 54 HR
More:
Rookie starters (Koronka, Verlander, Loewen, Pauley, Hill, O'Connor, Hamels, Sanchez, Soler, Sowers, Marcum, Rheinecker, Corcoran, J. Shields, Saunders, Jered Weaver, Lester, Baek, Garza): 23 starts, 6-8, 5.69 ERA
(118.2 IP, 141 H, 79 R, 75 ER, 60 BB, 87 K, 16 HR)
Former Cy Young winners (Zito, Colon, Santana, Halladay, Martinez, Glavine, Smoltz): 10 starts, 3-3, 4.85 ERA
(55.2 IP, 60 H, 31 R, 30 ER, 27 BB, 39 K)
My heart wouldn't count out the Yanks making the playoffs if they were 6 out of the WC with 23 to play, but my head might.
I think what dooms Boston is their schedule down the stretch. The only "easy" games they have are 6 vs the Orioles. The others are against potential playoff teams and Toronto and TB, who play the Sox tough. The White Sox have a ridiculous schedule, with the only easy games being 4 vs Seatte. Meanwhile, the Twins see KC 4 more times and Baltimore 3 times.
From a more statistical-driven standpoint, the Sox in terms of RS/RA are almost a .500 team, which further decreases their chances.
http://tinyurl.com/etcy3
PS - While the Sox are overperforming based on runs scored/runs allowed, the way the Indians are underperforming is ridiculous; check the link above.
54 That seals it! Color it is. Words on the side.
So, Pete, one printout for the words and one for the pic?
Good times! Nice collaboration. Hopefully y'all will see it.
Hey pete, one thing was brought to my attention by the focus group: Should the worm have those antennae? Someone thought it looked more like a snail without a shell.
http://bryantmuseum.ua.edu/direction.cfm?dir=traditions2
Much cooler than trying to graphically depict a tide for sure.
How's this?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v392/petem/pics/worm_burner3.jpg
Still, 49, I'm not quite ready to say the Red Sox are completely dead. Odds aren't certainties, and a 1.6% chance will happen 16 times out of a thousand. Like, for instance, coming back from 0-3 to win a best-of-7 series.
http://tinyurl.com/r2wl9
I think it would make a very cute mascot, actually.
Worms, on the other hand, are not really a defined group of animals; its more of a body type. Jim Dean 63 is thinking of Earthworms, which are true "worms" with segmentation, hermaphroditism, all that good stuff. Pistolpete's graphic, on the other hand, looks more like an "inchworm" (http://tinyurl.com/sytq7) which is actually the catepiller of the common Geometer Moth. This is the one that's green and has antennae. So there you go.
/biology lesson
I went to a school where the football tradition was visiting other colleges and observing their football traditions. Roll Tide!
http://tinyurl.com/jc4g8
The elephant that Bama uses is much better. Although pistolpete could probably come up with a pretty good Tide logo if we asked him too ;-)
71 Too true, but I like those odds.
DATE OPP. RESULT/TIME Opp Pitch IP H R R BB K HR Dec
16-May Tex Won 14-13 John Koronka 4 2/3 8 5 5 2 2 0 ND
1-Jun @Det Lost 6-7 Justin Verlander 5 7 6 6 4 4 1 ND
3-Jun @Balt Won 6-5 Adam Loewen 5 6 4 3 4 4 0 ND
6-Jun Bos Won 2-1 David Pauley 6 2/3 8 2 2 2 2 1 L
16-Jun @Wash Won 7-5 Shawn Hill 6 8 3 3 2 3 0 ND
18-Jun @Wash Lost 2-3 Michael O'Connor 7 4 1 1 3 5 0 ND
21-Jun @Phi Won 5-0 Cole Hamels 7 6 2 2 3 7 0 L
25-Jun Fla Lost 0-5 Anibal Sanchez 5 2/3 7 0 0 0 2 0 W
2-Jul NYM Won 16-7 Alay Soler 2 2/3 7 8 8 3 0 2 L
3-Jul @Cle Lost 2-5 Jeremy Sowers 7 6 2 2 1 4 1 W
23-Jul @Tor Lost 5-13 Shaun Marcum 5 7 3 3 1 4 1 W
26-Jul @Tex Won 8-7 John Rheinecker 4 1/3 9 2 2 1 1 0 ND
28-Jul TB Won 6-0 Tim Corcoran 3 1/3 7 5 3 6 1 0 L
30-Jul TB Won 4-2 James Shields 7 8 4 4 1 6 2 L
3-Aug Tor Won 8-1 Shaun Marcum 2 2/3 4 3 3 1 2 1 L
5-Aug @Balt Lost 0-5 Adam Loewen 6 1/3 1 0 0 5 8 0 W
11-Aug LAA Lost 4-7 Joe Saunders 6 6 3 2 2 4 0 W
13-Aug LAA Lost 3-5 Jered Weaver 6 3 1 1 3 8 1 W
16-Aug Balt Lost 2-3 Adam Loewen 5 2/3 4 2 2 3 5 0 W
18-Aug @Bos Won 14-11 Jon Lester 3 2/3 8 7 7 3 4 1 ND
22-Aug @Sea Lost 5-6 Cha Seung Baek 5 3 3 3 3 6 1 ND
27-Aug @LAA Won 11-8 Joe Saunders 2 1/3 7 8 8 3 3 3 L
3-Sep Min Won 10-1 Matt Garza 4 2/3 7 5 5 4 2 1 L
Given the biology lesson in 73, I'd say green and antennae or pinkish and a few segmentation lines.
When I imagined it initally I thought pinkish and segmentation lines. For that to work, you could put one line near his neck and one below his fists, and a few on the 'tail'. Earthworms do have that segment that doesn't have lines - that could be the bit between his neck and fists.
However, you're the artist. If you want to go with a green inchworm with the antennae (thanks again for the lession 73), that's cool with me too!
Words will be on different printout though, yes?
Here's the two files for Jim Dean (lo-res) - if we're all in reasonable agreement on these, then I can post the hi-res versions..
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v392/petem/pics/wormburner_sign-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v392/petem/pics/wormburner_sign-2.jpg
The black lines are simply the outline of the page, in case you were wondering...
Oh, and Jim - these are on 'tabloid' size paper - 11"x17" - you should find that size at Kinko's without a problem. although it might be around $1 each for your copies.
Thoughts?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v392/petem/pics/wormburner_alt1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v392/petem/pics/wormburner_alt2.jpg
Should the sing read:
WANG
WORM
BURNERS
or
WANG'S
WORM
BURNERS
Just a thought...
Again, pistolpete you are the man...
But if we could get a Kate Smith version of "Wang's Worm Burners" they might play it instead of the Cotton Eyed Joe...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v392/petem/pics/wangswormburners1.jpg
Oh, and I thought I should throw in some "Yankee blue" behind the titles.
I'll be in 344:
http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/bal/ballpark/seating_pricing.jsp
It will be fun if YES finds it. Even better if Kay lectures us about what a 'worm' really is.
www.workwithpete.com/files/worm_burner_final.pdf
www.workwithpete.com/files/worm_burner_text.pdf
Burn them to CD, or you might even be able to email them to Kinkos if you don't have a burner. Go as soon as you can, so I can fix any problems or give you a different file format if they can't open them (for whatever reason).
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