Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
The Yankee bats were shut out on Friday night but came back well enough on Saturday. D. Rasner and M. DeSalvo both pitched very well. Hey, the Yankees need to find the 2007 versions of Aaron Small and Shawn Chacon. For the time being, Rasner and DeSalvo are pitching well (though I have to admit, without knowing much about DeSalvo he doesn't look like he's got much stuff).
The Old Guard, Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada are carrying the load offensively, as Alex Rodriguez has tapered off and Bobby Abreu and Robinson Cano continued to struggle and Johnny Damon and Jason Giambi battle to stay healthy.
Yanks look to take the weekend series this afternoon.
Gotta disagree on DeSalvo - if anything all he's got is stuff. His balls just move and he knows how to string a pitch sequence together. I think that's what the Yanks like about him. If anything, it seems Rasner has more straight stuff.
Here's some of what Kevin Goldstein had to say about him (and his debut) over at Baseball Prospectus:
Over the next six innings, DeSalvo would give up just one more hit, finishing the night with seven innings and just the one run. DeSalvo would walk three, including the first two batters of the third inning when his command troubles briefly appeared, and not strike out a single Mariner. It was one of the most dominating-yet-not-dominating performances you'll see, and awfully fun to watch. In the postgame press conference, DeSalvo mentioned how a pre-game meeting with catcher Jorge Posada limited his arsenal to just three pitches-–fastball, slider, changeup--in order to keep things simple. But that was a simplification in itself, as DeSalvo mixed in six pitches once you break down all the variants. He threw both a two- and four-seam fastball, with the latter sitting at 88-91, and the former featuring better movement. He also occasionally mixed in what looked like a cutter, which featured late horizontal break. His slider is more of a slurvy, show-me offering, but the changeups were special. DeSalvo's natural mechanics have both a body turn and a hiccup, both which add to the deception of his pitches, especially on his off-speed offerings. His arm action is fantastic on his straight change, and then he also throws what scouts often refer to as a "changeup off a changeup", as the pitch is another 3-6 mph less than normal change, while featuring more fade. Posada called a wonderful game, stirring up DeSalvo's arsenal, and DeSalvo himself--a player with a long record of praise for his makeup and mound demeanor--looked like a 15-year-veteran on the mound, working quickly, showing no signs of emotion either good or bad, and showing no fear by challenging hitters at every opportunity.
AND
Despite Monday's outstanding effort, DeSalvo remains an "is what he is" guy. The kind of player who mixes pitches, changes speeds, hits his spots, and keeps hitters off balance. On another team, he'd be a solid fourth or fifth starter. With the Yankees, a team with little patience for young players that don't scream "future all-star," it's harder to say where he'll end up
But, its still only the 7th there
Unfortunately, right now only about three batters are producing, and the top and bottom of the lineup is hitting like crap. The only real (and it's really minor) complaint I have is Jorge batting so low in the order when he is so hot right now. He should be hitting somewhere 3-5 (maybe Damon-Jeter-Jorge-A-Rod at 1-4?).
"When the body is deficient of calcium it begins to leach calcium from the bones. In many people this happens to be in the heel of the foot or some other weak area of the body. As the calcium is being leached, it forms an eruption. This eruption is the bone spur."
Jason. Got milk?
starting to look precarious in boston... : /
i hate boston
The O's choke big time.
Milar, or all people, is the goat.
A simply play and the O's could have won.
Beware of poor fielding 1st basemen.
JD needs to feel better. He looks tired. Why not sit him for 2 or 3 straight games?
That's not luck. A broken bat bloop hit is luck. Not hitting the ball far enough is just that, not hitting the ball far enough.
Not everthing that doesn't go your way is bad luck. The word luck doesn't mean what you think it means.
Er, sorry about that, it appears Steve Philips was channeling through me some how. Now I need a shower.
Luck, as defined by the OED, is "Fortune good or ill; the fortuitous happening of events favourable or unfavourable to the interests of a person;lso, the imagined tendency of chance (esp. in matters of gambling) to produce events continuously favourable or continuously unfavourable; the friendly or hostile disposition ascribed to chance at a particular time. In generalized sense: Chance regarded as a cause or bestower of success and failure."
I would say that luck has a lot to do with wheather A-Rod flys out to deep center or whether the ball carries just a bit further, whether balls happen to bounce certain ways so that a fielder can make a play or not, whether a catcher happens to get the right grip or not to throw the ball. Yeah, skill plays a lot to do with it, but luck does too. The number of factors that go into determining whether a ball goes out of the park or not are the same as whether a broken bat looper falls in or not, hard hit or not. So maybe you don't think what you think it means (inconceivable!)
And yes, 116, if we lose, its not the fault of luck, but luck plays its part. Our crappy team has more to do with it though
Ok, maybe they need Giambi.
123 I want to believe.
There was no doubt in my mind Minky would hit into that DP.
Instead of walking to lead-off the inning, he makes another futile out. Cano's horrible start has me especially worried because it not only impacts this season, but makes me a little nervous about the long-term.
Having said that, my main point is we only have one more loss in the 2005 savings account.
Its May 13. The Yankees still suck. Is it time to worry?
3.05 in 2005, 3.22 last season, 3.53 this season.
It's not a problem of selectivity. I'd guess that maybe he';s trying to be too selective, and is letting pitches go that he would've hit before. Of course he's also missing much more, it seems, when he does swing.
What are we going to be, 8 games back? That is pretty damn hard to make up. They win the games we aren't..
I swear I'll punch the first one to bring up 78.
And Boston came back from 5-0 to win in the 9th.
Will SOMEONE light a fucking fire under this team? They play like they're under water.
This is an awful loss in what to this point has been awful season. Sure it could get better, but all signs point to it getting much worse.
In his defense strike 1 was not close to being a strike.
I guess you could say it worked for the Astros, but the AL East >> NL Central.
As Jetes says, you gotta play the games. On paper, we have an awesome team. However, on the field, they look crappy.
We just had another better-then-quality start. Our pitching is coming around, and Roger and Phil are coming soon.
The team is not hitting. We have high scoring blowouts, which keeps our RS high, but we lose the close ones.
Oh. And ARod is mini-slumping and OPS slumping. He's hitting singles, but few XB hits. His BA has dropped 60 pts in 2 weeks.
Giambi may be hurt. Posada will ge hitting 70-100 pts less by end-of-season.
We are in deep shit. Time to root against Detroit, Cleveland and Minn.
1) Mariano has struggled early.
2) The bullpen has been generally bad.
3) Giambi has a nagging injury that has prompted an 0-18 stretch. Foot problems seldom go away without significant rest/treatment.
4) Cano has regressed significantly.
5) Abreu is having a historic slump and seemingly lost 100% of his power.
6) Even BAD lefties have had success against the team.
7) There are still at least 3 weeks of rookies in the staff.
8) Damon has also had nagging injuries that might linger all season.
9) The team just went through a stretch againt bad teams and didn't get over .500. They now have a very difficult stretch approaching.
How many more do you need?
Better to score four runs a game than 8 one day and zero the next.
That was a very bad sign; they just shut down after the fourth or whenever it was that Battista came out.
Not acceptable.
Mo hasn't gotten consistent work and says he'll be fine. The bullpen has been exhausted by bad SP early, and the SP has done well recently, which has rested the pen. Cano always starts terribly; the kid was probably the best hitter in the game after returning from the injury last year, and is more patient this year, so I think it'll turn around. How many bad lefties have done well? Every team has bad offensive days (like the Yanks today). The rookies have, lately, pitched better than the vets. Number 9 is addressed by your previous 8.
Jorgie had a great at-bat; he gave himself a chance to get a hit but struck out on a nasty and unhittable splitter.
Alex striking out when he did was exasperating because he just got blown away on straight fastballs with the tying run on second base.
You have to put the ball in play in that situation, I don't care how fast the guy throws.
Choke up if you have to, only don't strike out.
Also, Cano is not more patient this year...instead of lining singles and doubles on the first pitch, he is now striking out on pitches all over the place. If you watch a Cano AB, he rarely sees strikes. He takes some balls, but mostly swings at bad pitches.
If the theme for April was Torre's poor bullpen management, then May could be about Cashman's poor bench management.
How the mighty have fallen.
Abreu is playing scared. He needs to sit and watch. Sit and watch until he WANTS to be at bat in a crucial situation. He's batting .235 will no signs of improvement. The fire under his ass is sitting on the bench. Play Melky.
I would sit Cano and let him watch Cairo. Cairo has little talent but is smart and plays the game well. Cano is full of talent but does not play the game well. Let him watch Cairo for 3 days in a row and then promise Joe he will walk once a game.
I'd rather see Cairo, Melky and KT play hard and lose, then Cano and Abreu play stupid and JD playing at 60%, and lose.
I don't want to lose, but I can deal with it. I can't deal with playing an injured JD, an Abreu shitting in his shorts and a Cano swinging at balls over his head and in the dirt.
Joe is good at NOT pissing off his players.
At this point, he needs them pissed off.
2006
Yankees +10.5 games on Boston
Minnesota +12.5 games on Chicago
Oakland +15 on Texas
me thinks we complain too much.
To quote Charlie Brown, "Argghhh..."
I am, however, exasperated by a team that scores 8 runs one day and zero the next, but that seems to be the Yanks' MO for the last five seasons so I'm used to it, I suppose.
"hitting a major league pitcher is very hard to do, which is why even the very best hitters of all time get on base less than half the time over the course of their career."
I'm annoying.
That said, if I admit I was being a bit hyperbolic when I said no excuse can you perhaps see your way to taking my point?
Some situations call for shortening one's swing and hence reducing the likelihood of a K and increasing the likelihood of putting the bat on the ball.
Such an approach likewise reduces the chance of hitting the ball over the fence, but when the tying run may be procured by means of a bloop single, perhaps that's a worthwhile forfeiture.
Please let me know why this observation/grievance is as preposterous as you seem to believe it is.
Thanking you in advance and apologizing preemptively for any annoyance my grievance might cause.
Why do you suppose that is?
How would you compare the two at-bats if called upon to do so?
I would submit that although both at-bats resulted in a K, they were by no means of equal quality.
One was exasperating, the other was a laudable effort.
Do you have eyes to see?
I've got no problem with that. I know that not everyone can be David Eckstein and squeeze every ounce of ability out of themselves for each AB. And Eckstein uses his game that way because he would be in MLB if he didn't. And if anyone works harder than A-Rod (except maybe Clemens) to reach their potential, point him out to me.
240 Damn, I agree with the Sox fan, and even Jim Dean :P
Chizill ma homeslizzies, baseball is all about the WAIT. You feel me?
My purpose wasn't to pick on Alex, but rather to express my opinion of a particularly critical at-bat of his.
I'm not expecting him to hit a home run every time, or never to strike out--far from it.
I'm just suggesting that he had a poor at bat when his team needed him to have a quality at bat.
As I say, Jorgie still got beat, but he gave it his best shot. Alex didn't seem to me to have given it his best shot. He tried, sure, but I'm merely pointing out an area for improvement, which is to say choke up in such situations.
241 I understand what you're saying and if you're saying he's incapable of changing his approach in accordance with the situation without damaging his swing, I can buy that, but then I'd suggest that a truly great hitter should be able to do that.
And I'm glad you brought up Beltran, because that was another example of a really poor at bat in a really critical spot.
He let that fastball go by him and then couldn't pull the trigger on the hook, even though we all knew it was coming.
I'm not saying he's a bad person, or that Alex is a bad person, merely that the at-bats were poor.
And I can understand striking out looking for the sake of the long run, but I also think that a really good player should be able to adjust, to bear down with two strikes and just concentrate on making contact.
I hate seeing people strike out in critical situations by taking mighty swings.
To me, the ability to reduce one's chances of striking out as the situation dictates is nothing more than a fundamental skill of baseball and I don't think it's too demanding to ask that all players at least work on this part of their game.
Wasn't that the point of pepper, which they evidently don't play anymore?
Are we seriosly having these discussions? Look, we'll get hot. And if we don't, then we lose. It sucks but it doesn't really help anything to overreact and become super negative. Just take a deep breath and read my posts at 230 and 231. If, on AVERAGE, we are +7 games between May 13 and year end over the last five years, all we need to do to compete for the AL East is to do what we usually do (assuming history holds up). Heck win 95 games and we'll be in the playoffs one way or another.
I am not saying Alex doesn't know how to hit.
Nor am I becoming super negative.
I'm saying nothing about the team's long-term welfare, merely that Alex had a bad at-bat at a time when the team and its fans really needed him to have a good at-bat.
I'm not faulting the result of the at-bat, which was a strikeout, but rather his approach, which to my eyes made a strikeout inevitable.
I lament the fact that players don't shorten up with two strikes, especially when a single would plate the tying run.
Please let me know why my premise (that players should shorten up with two strikes) is so beyond the pale.
Really, I'd like to know what I'm missing and why this kind of observation elicits such irritation.
I'm not trying to be antagonistic, I'm just watching the baseball game and offering my opinion on what I see.
"I just don't see how ARod isn't aware of the technique of shortening the swing and I'm sure he decided not to for some reason or other. "
Ok, fair enough, but isn't this curious?
I can accept that perhaps there's a reason, but I'd love to know what that reason is!
It's just that I learned all of these fundamentals growing up (both in little league and from that weekly show with Tommy Lasorta as the Baseball Wizard) and really took those lessons to heart.
So whenever I see what appears to me to be poor fundamental baseball, I get alarmed because if I could learn these things, why don't the pros seem to have mastered them?
I wish someone in the press would ask Alex the simple question, "I've noticed you're not very good at shortening your swing with two strikes and can't believe a guy of your talent doesn't have the bat control to do it, so what gives?"
That's all, I'd just sincerely love to know what gives.
The first thing out of the man's mouth was about how he just didn't want to strike out. Above all else, don't strike out.
And to facilitate that plan, he further reported that he choked up for the first time in as long as he could remember.
If he could do it, why can't Alex?
I've also heard some of the oldtime players report that it used to be embarrassing to strike out, that there was a stigma attached to it, and that these days the attitude is much more cavalier.
I remember a player reporting that he and his brother used to play a game where they'd pitch to each other and if you swung and missed just once, you had to change sides.
The point, of course, was to place a premium on making contact.
I'm just lamenting the general state of affairs where we don't even have expectations that players can do this anymore so we let them slide.
We shouldn't let them slide, they're major league baseball players.
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