Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
Last night the Yankees returned home from the road, dropped a nine-spot on the D-Rays in the bottom of the first that featured 6 RBIs from deadline pick-up and emerging fan favorite Bobby Abreu, got 6 1/3 scoreless innings from recently activated rotation vet Mike Mussina, and saw Hideki Matsui return from four months on the DL to a tremendous ovation followed by a four-for-four performance in which he reached base in all five trips to the plate. That's a tough act to follow, especially with Cory Lidle, who has been exactly what the Yankees needed in the fifth spot in the rotation, even if that does mean he's been pitching like a fifth starter.
Lidle's last four starts have alternated twelve scoreless innings with a pair of disaster outings in which he gave up a combined 11 runs in 5 1/3 innings, inflating his Yankee ERA to 4.81. His opponent tonight will be 24-year-old rookie Jason Hammel. Hammel, a tall slender righty, has made five career big league starts, two back in April and three in a row leading up to tonight. His last, which came at home against the Twins, was the best: 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 4 K. Hammel has progressed steadily through the Devil Rays organization and has solid hit, walk and strikeout rates in the minors, so there's reason to believe tonight will be the first of many times the Yankees face him over the next several years as he projects as a mid-rotation mainstay for the Rays.
If the Yankees can take care of multiple Hamels (Cole, 7 IP, 2 R on 6/21/06), can they take care of just one Hammel?
Or perhaps Jason will bring balance to The Force, like Mark Hamill?
Johnny Damon CF
Derek Jeter SS
Bobby Abreu RF
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Jason Giambi 1B
Jorge Posada C
Robinson Cano 2B
Hideki Matsui DH
Melky Cabrera LF
Jeter
Abreu
Rodriguez
Giambi
Cano
Matsui DH
Cabrera
Fasano
(Sorry, major pet peeve of mine. Carry on.)
Johnny Damon CF
Derek Jeter SS
Bobby Abreu RF
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Jason Giambi 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Hideki Matsui DH
Melky Cabrera LF
Sal Fasano C
Kind of a shame for Jeter that Mauer didn't get more AB today, since Haren was pitching great.
Torre also says he might bench Melky and give Matsui his job back. Not today, but before the end of the season.
I had a feeling he would. Just can't resist the lure of veteran-ness, at least when it's sitting there on the bench next to him.
20 Probably helped the decision, which I think is correct. Torre should be looking to rest the starters as much as possible, particularly Jorge.
Resting Jorge for the doubleheader: huh? He's not going to play both games that day, is he?
Jorge Posada is out and Sal Fasano in (hitting ninth).
The Yankees want Posada to catch Randy Johnson on Saturday night, so he needed to get a day off at some point. Otherwise he would catch seven days in a row. No point in that.
I dont' like Sheffield, and I do prefer Melky (and I absolutely prefer Melky the left fielder over Matsui the left fielder) but if Sheffield returns and is "normal Sheff" then you can't blame Torre for wanting his and Cabrera's bat in the lineup.
it isn't a "veteran-ness" thing, it is a "Sheffield is a clearly better hitter than Melky when he is healthy and right" thing. Which is sound logic.
Seems like all that is contingent on Sheff coming back and being effective. And I almost wish he doesn't/isn't.
I was using the word in the generic, non-baseball sense. Which probably wasn't a smart thing to do. :-P
Anyway, I get the idea. And I'd love to see Sal play a lot this month, frankly.
If not when we're up 12-0, then when?
I wonder if maybe Joe is thinking about the pitchers, not wanting to entrust them to Wil.
By the way, do you think Wil Nieves and Cla Meredith ever get together and commiserate?
I don't suppose Joe would consider leaving Lidle off the postseason roster, and using Karstens instead?
We may need a bunch again today.
53 Oh, shoot, we were supposed to save some of those runs?
ARod predictions..
Also, Abreu reminding us that the Phils trade was definitely worth while.
Nice catch by Crawford.
Goddam Crawford. Good try Robbie.
We're scoring a lot of runs with no hits, huh?
It was A-Rod's slide.
Here we go, time to devastate!
Hitting the ball pretty well, though.
Not that I dislike the current one.
And, I know, he's injury-prone.
Now go back to batting practice, hitters.
Nice play on both ends there.
He actually got it right.
Let's see Crawford catch that one, eh!
I'm not too thrilled at the idea of either Lidle or Wright starting in the post-season. :-/
Is the defensive discrepancy between Giambi and Wilson/Guiel/Phillips that much greater than that between Matsui and Melky?
What I'm getting at, essentially, is this:
How much worse would it be to put Giambi at 1B and Matsui in the DH spot for the playoffs, freeing up LF for Melky? I'm currently under the impression that Torre is leaning towards Matsui in LF and Giambi at DH. . .but then who's at first? Sheffield? Or is Giambi at first with Sheffield at DH?
Too many questions. BTW, did you guys catch that dig Giambi made on the Jeter throw-and-gun last night? I thought that was pretty decent for our boy Jason.
How about Karstens for #4 starter. Only negative for him is that he's not a veteran, so Torre won't go for it.
And he cashes it in...
Night, Lidle.
Bruney is securing his spot on the team fast.
Also, Villone has been basically awful the last month or two. Is he shot? If so, you will probably have a space for Lidle or whomever.
Torre said the reason Abreu shies away from the wall is that in Philly, there's a wire along the wall that tangles fielders' hands and can injure them. He thinks Abreu will get over it eventually.
pitch
after pitch
after pitch
after pitch.
How good is Bruney? I like him more every outing.
My fantasy team finished ahead of 2nd place by 35 games, but I'm in a heated battle this week after my 1st round bye. I'm enjoying the Yankees recent success, but my mixed feelings about possibly being booted from the playoffs early after a dominant season have me edgy.
So Cory came out after four, right?
Hm, which Philadelphian has the best arm: Sal, Bobby, Cory?
Wow, Crawford with a GIDP! 2 outs with one pitch...Myers rocks!
Hey! Myers is still pitching for this team.
7-5, 5-7, 11-9, 29-31, 115-113
He helped the Amish raise a barn shortly thereafter. He's the man!!!
Also, I can't believe we're getting out-hit 10-5. Amazing. I love baseball.
;)
And you're right RIYanks, I have no problem with him being used here.
This coming series isn't going to be a very good series. It will still be fun for me, but not as much fun as I was expecting.
So Jeter actually loses ground to Mauer today, damitol.
Olsen went 8 strong, 3ER, 2BB and 3K's. Borowski blew it last night as well - Girardi obviously wants that Cub job.
;-)
http://tinyurl.com/g3wb9
Man oh man. I'm feeling so good about the Yankees' future. I don't remember when I've felt so optimistic.
Robbie rocks!
We need 9.5 runs/game for 1000
I know this is "old" news on this threat and that everyone knows this, but I just really, really, really fucking enjoy typing it :)
THE DOCTOR IS IN.
That's the best I can do, I bow to the genius of mike.
Seconds later I reconsidered, number one, you don't like to win that way. Number two, he's a stud and it's good to have those kinds of guys playing the game. Number three, I'd like the Yanks to beat the Twins at their best if they do match-up. As much as losing sucks, that's the way it should be, you beat their best. But you can't really hang your head if they do match-up and feel bad if the Yanks win without facing him either.
282 Are you making subtle hints to Alex?
bballman, welcome, you will enjoy it here. There are many reasons why we are all here everyday and that we feel a little lost if there was no new game threads on a game day.
Ahh, good to see EDSP is "resting" his arm for the playoffs!
I'm just thinking about Bruney, Farnsworth, Mo finishing games for us in the playoffs. Nice.
(I'd be thinking about adding a rested Scott Proctor, but my imagination isn't that good.)
284 If you were asking for the number link, put the number inside brackets [].
That said, I miss Mo big time.
When he was pitching yesterday everyone was feeling kind of depressed about it, but Jim Kaat's point about this being in effect Dotel's "spring training dead arm" period, mentioned by Cliff in the entry before this one, seems pretty plausible. So maybe he'll be good in a couple of weeks. Which would be very, very good, of course.
Liriano: I can't help it, I just do feel relieved. But I feel terrible for him, too, and for the Twinks and their fans.
I think it's discretion of the official scorer, but that was pretty clear.
Bruney for Secretary of Defense! This guy has to make the PS roster — at the expense of, maybe, Villone, at least right now.
http://tinyurl.com/eujrd
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