Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
The Yanks played well enough to lose on the 4th of July. When Johan Santana is the opposing pitcher, you know it is going to be a tough day, regardless. But the Yanks let the game get away from them late and fell to the Twins, 6-2. Still, the Bombers have a chance to win the series with a victory this afternoon and I've got a hunch that Kei Igawa will pitch well. Alex Rodriguez, who is 0-for-his-last-19, is not in the starting line-up.
Let's Go Yan-Kees!
If we score ten runs, Igawa gets a VW!
Our 45 million dollar long reliever.
7 Surely it ought to be a Nissan.
http://tinyurl.com/2drbxl
I'll start
1. A Backup catcher.
20 2. Fitted Hat Day?
b) I save my Farnsworth material for the late innings.
21 Good call.
29 Awww, c'mon. I can find you about 10,000,000 Red Sox fans who will swear up and down that posting fees shouldn't count towards anything.
We scrimped on first, we scrimped on the bench, we picked the worst professional baseball player I've ever witnessed to back up Posada.
Which is fine, if the plan is to save money and look to next year. But if Brian Cashman had 45 million dollars that was burning a hole in his pocket, perhaps he could have spent it on something that had the potential to be useful
51 Gotta get Jorge a little rest sometimes, right?
C'mon, Torre does everything formulalicly (is that a word)?
7th inning = bring in Proctor. 8th inning = bring in Farnsworth. Save situation in 9th = Mo. Moose starts = Nieves catches. Tough lefty starting pitcher = bench every slumping lefty hitter you can. Starter has 80 pitches and is a rookie = take him out. Tie game on the road in the 9th or later = don't use Mariano. 'Kid' just called up from AAA and isn't projected to be a star = let him waste on the bench for days, put him in at the worst time, watch him fail, bury him, demote him when needed. Last two guys in bullpen = don't use, unless desperate.
And so on.
ROBBIE!
See, I would have given Miggy the green light there at 3-0.
i love jorge and think he's one of the best catchers of this generation, but if bernie williams isn't a hall of famer jorge definitely isn't.
A-Rod would have been IBB
I can't wait till A-Rod opts out and Cashman starts next year saying he's perfectly happy with Miguel Cairo starting at third ;)
But, I don't want to see kids up who aren't ready, as that can seriously damage them, and I think Igawa can be a league average starter/better than most of the guys in our BP right now reliever...
You can bitch and grumble and pretend you know better than Cashman, or you can just accept it and watch him try and improve, your choice...
A pitcher named SLOWey, sorta funny. It'd be really ironic if he was a base-stealing lead-off hitter.
Cano homered? What else???
Does anyone know what Cairo's wife looks like (is he married)? Maybe they could do a swimsuit shot in front of a fountain.
AND MELKY HOMERED!!!!
Robbie's homers, Phillips doubled, Cairo has a 9 pitch AB then he doubles, tie game, Damon walks, MELKY HOMERS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cano, Andy, Melky, plus their mentor Miggy Mantle, all with extra-base hits around a Damon walk with two outs.
I bet John Sterling just said that you can't predict baseball.
Bam! And all with two outs.
2 ooh, i can't wait to have carvel next week when i'm up in NY! : )
sooo, from the bruce's card post -- anyone ever get an answer to why sparky lyle feigned an injury and what 'injury' he had?
hopefully kei settles in and has a quick inning in the 3rd...
86 You almost made my PB&J come out my nose.
The humor is strong in this thread.
110 I hear the Dodgers need a 3B, and Colletti loves him some veteran BFOGiness. I bet the Yanks could trade them Miggy Mantle and get something really good in return.
Good trend.
Lets see if you thought the same. ;)
Where is Michael now?
Does he still work for the Yankees?
If he did such a great job, how come he's not in a decision making position?
Am i the only one who think O'Neil is startin to turn into Joe Morgan? that talk about Bobby Abreu made me puke " is it because he's hitting bad that they are losing or vice versa? it's a chicken and egg thing! " ummm no it's not chicken and egg... you don't hit well you lose... and that crap about how you can't throw up 0s and give up runs... NO SHITTTTTTTTTTTTTTt
Is anyone trying to get him back?
It's hard to believe the Yankees would not try and get a guy of proven quality.
144 Thanks. Well, I guess that's promising, sort of.
144 i think michael kay started those conversations. why would the yankees losing be a valid reason for abreu to not be hitting well?
133 it's hard to tell what his pitches are because his "changeup" is almost exactly the same as his "slider"
No excuse. He should've been pulled and sent to run laps around the Stadium.
although in Icky Irabu's defense, he actually had a decent beginning to his US career ... Igawa is just fucking useless ...
wait ... NOW? there's a coaching visit to the mound ... why not before he gave up the 3 runs, aaarrgh!
Might be worth at least a BUC, right?
162 tuesday will be the 10 year anniversary of fat pussy toad's debut.
In Japan, he was not that far behind Dice-K in talent.
Beat him 3 times in K's.
Won the Japanese version of the MVP.
I never expected him to be great, but this is silly.
Is this a problem with his head?
i can't see how he was ever as successfull as he was in japan with his inconsistency and lack of command (which means we're probably dealing with additional non-baseball culture shock, level of comfort and mental toughness issues here as well)
We Yankee fans just want Quest to be a decent 5th starter.
Remember Matsui was the home run king over there, here he's a guy with decent HR numbers and gap power. A-Rod or Manny would probably hit 100 or so a year there.
infruiating too, because you can see the guy have the stuff to get it done, but the consistency he had in Japan have gone out the window
but as someone said earlier, he never seems to have all of his pitches working at any time and he never has consistent command of them as well ... and he doesn't have good enough stuff to get away with mistakes
maybe it's the culture shock, maybe it's the different seams on the ball, who knows, but we can't afford to keep running him out there for OJT ...
stupid damn hughes hammy injury
202 Baseball is a religious experience with him.
(ba-da-bum-CHING!)
Nightmares induced, free of charge ;-)
of the 20 hitters who have career OPS+ in negative numbers, Wil Nieves (OPS+ of -1) has the most career at-bats (139).
200 I think the point is that Igawa's pattern suggests that his problems are psychological, and it's possible he could overcome that. Just saying.
200 There's a correlation, more often than not, between striking guys out and preventing runs.
No matter how clever and witty it makes your posting bid look.
Igawa's last 6 seasons in Japan
IP K ERA
192 171 2.67
209 206 2.49
206 179 2.80
200 228 3.73
172 145 3.86
180 194 2.97
yup, that's a guy with a problem giving up LOTS of runs
If I told you a guy had about a 3.5 ERA in the Majors, he's pretty good. In AA? not so much.
Cairo struck out with men on base!?!? and he didn't even make the pitcher (who's coming out after this inning anyway, but shhh) work by fouling off pitches!?!? Trade Cairo! Get a bag of Balls for him! Where's Steve Phillips on this? Or weeping for brunhilde for that matter...
It's the Vizcount, the Grand Vizier, viz., Viz!
Its tought to really hate a backup IF. I mean talk about low expectations, you don't even hit well enough to start at 2B.
I rarely if ever blame bad players for failing...I prefer to save my scorn for the men who acquire and play them.
I rarely if ever blame bad players for failing...I prefer to save my scorn for the men who acquire and play them.
Igawa wears sunglasses when he pitches in daygames because he is not good at day games. His record at day games in Japan is 4-5, 7.09 ERA. However, he has been usually good at rain games. He said "Rain is the weather for me."
You geek.
Better leave her behind...
I prefer to say he's bad at games.
So who throws the eighth???
No-D with a two-run lead would be very, very cool.
c'mon boBBy!!!
The hell?
There's always a bullet in the Farnsworth chamber. The others are a crapshoot.
Well, I liked that. But I'm not going to enjoy the rest.
Torre is illogical with use of Rivera in tie games. But he is not uniquely illogical.
It's like wanting to get rid of your relief pitchers without thinking about who would replace them.
Kyle for Britton
Myers for Henn
Villone for Edwar
As for Girardi, I wouldn't exactly compare how one handles Joe Borowski to how you'd expect Mariano to be used. Heck, if Borowski was my close, I would never want him in the game.
You don't believe it and I'm not sure I do, but I'm OK if Torre believes it.
It is a flaw to a degree, but I just can never justify giving 300 AB or 60 IP to a guy with no future.
I mean playing people like Cairo when Shelly Duncan is in the minors. Or pitching Myers when Britton is around.
BTW, notice that the Twinkies only have 1 lefty in their pen and he's not really a 1 batter guy? Yet they have a good BP? How can that be possible?
Now I like Japan again.
HONOR!!!
Guess we know who's got the top of the 9th today!
matsui-san!!!
350 I hope he gets to go to the ASG anyway.
i'm on my way to teach and my students will like me much better now. thanks upper-deki!
He's one of my favorite non-Yankees.
Give Godzilla another 757 Jumbo Jet!
Thank our our other Japanese player don't suck. god
So, ahem, Farnsworth is in line for the win.
Trade him.
I hope that he nails this one shut.
363 366 367 I voted for him.
Let's go Mo!
The thing that bothers me most about Duncan, is I think his mediocre minor league career indicates that this is not the guy we'd be getting.
I do however have issues with JUST GIVING HIM A CHANCE for the balance of the season.
Mauer out at 1B. Runner scores. 7-6 Yankees. Runner on 2B, 2 outs.
2 outs, 7-6, Cuddyer up.
No problem. Wasn't worried. Way to go.
Wish I had a bottle of bourbon in the office drawer, but maybe it's better this way.
Took the ump forever to make the call...
jack cust was everybody's favorite AAAA slugger til beane gave him a chance (out of desperation and the fact he had nothing better in front of him) ... now? he might be a useful DH ... but whatever he becomes (or doesn't) in the future, he's given the A's a spark and 2 months of badly needed production ... and at the end of the year beane will have a lot more information about what he has in cust than he would if cust had spent another year down in AAA ...
in another news ... MOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
I wouldn't say he deserves it, because like I said, I don't think he's very good. But circumstances are such that its worth a shot.
Torre's original plan to 'only use Mo for one inning' was probably because he thought that they'd be winning more games. Time to rethink the plan!
But here's something else in favor of your plan: with a couple of DL weeks, Damon might well stop sucking. Maybe you mentioned that.
Doctor: Mr. A-Rod, your test came back negative for a hamstring.
A-Rod: You mean....I have no hamstring!?!
(Jumps out window)
No you don't.
Still like the suggestion, though.
His stats this year are almost identical with Kevin Maas's first year in the bigs.
Sure, give the kid a try (not such a kid, really). I just wouldn't expect too much.
it's really disconcerting that we can't find a way to consistently beat the halos, esp. at the stadium. 2 of 3, minimum, would be really nice leading up to the break...
even if a-rod is okay to play this weekend, i hope he sits out the ASG. here's a thought: have abreu take part in the HR derby. maybe it'll be like the ol' hit in the head trick from old TV and he'll get his homerun swing back! : )
i'm very much looking forward to being back home in NY next week. it's too bad it's during the break. i haven't caught a game at the stadium w/ my brother in ages. at least there's carvel...
chipper jones just hit his 371st homerun. he has a great swing. tied dale murphy for most in "atlanta" history. andruw is 15 away, aaron is 4th on the list, since he was in milwaukee for a good bit...
(Yeah, I'm still up...)
when i first moved to the Atl, i was not a big fan of chipper. he was young, crass and a total jock. he was like the anti-jeter. he really has turned the corner and become a class player/person. he's a special switch-hitting player that has a chance to possibly reach the lofty #'s mantle & murray achieved.
of course, as i'm typing this, larry jones, just cracked his 2nd homer of the game and is now the atlanta franchise leader at 372, all of those longballs, of course, coming with bobby cox (former yankee 3rd baseman!) at the helm...
btw, the back-to-back jacks tonight, came from each side of the plate. i love that. i loved it even more when bernie and jorgie both did that in the same game. that's the kinda factoids for mr. timmermann at the griddle!
strange things are afoot at the Circle K...
You know what's sweet? Chipper and Smoltz are the longest current teammates. Second? Jeter, Posada, and Mo.
Also, 441 = 7^2 x 3^2...which I'm sure is significant in some way!
smoltz is gonna miss his next start and the ASG, but i still think he'll need next year to reach 3,000 k's. 200 wins, 150 saves, 3,000 strikeouts, a cy young, all the post season victories = i'm gueesing means HoF for the athletic competitor.
yeah, when chipper came up he was a jerk on and off the field. the knocking up the hooters girl whilst married was BIG news here in atlanta for awhile. his move to LF was selfless and he made great plays at 3B when he returned to the infield. i didn't care for smoltz calling chipper out the other week thru the media. perhaps his much publicized divorce got to him...
2nd best SH ever? wow, he needs to stay healthy and put up another few solid years. well, that's certainly a possibility. but i guess Mantle and Murray have 1 & 2 locked down. i wonder where beltran and berkman will end up. i've always been a fan of the switch hitter.
ooh, i'm missing bernabe now...
rock on and go yanks!
I agree he shouldn't have called him out. They're both classy vets, he should know better.
And I'm pretty sure Chipper is 3rd in SH OPS+ (Berkman is second), but I'm far too tired and lazy to look it up now.
Eh, probably not.
wow, i need to check the career OPS+ for switch hitters to get a better bearing on the situation. it really is amazing how chipper pretty much went from bad guy to good guy in the perceptions' eye. murray seemed to be a good guy on/off the field but not with the media. his latest offerings as dodgers hitting coach certainly can't help his cause. his numbers speak loudly though. hopefully chipper has a few good years left and his numbers speak loudly, too. (esp. 'coz it'll piss off muts fans!!!)
Anyone think the Yanks can wild card with less than 95 wins?
Just getting to that point means 55-25 (.687 - 111 win pace) from today forward. Without having made any significant changes to roster, I just don't see how it's even remotely possible.
Meh.
Does anyone know what the record is (or how to find it) for the fewest balls thrown in one game?
Red Barrett of the Braves threw only 58 pitches in a complete game in 1944. But maybe they don't keep balls/strikes records from that long ago?
I'll probably ask this question again in the next thread.
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