Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
Just when you think you know something, you get knocked on your ass and realize that you don't no jack. So much for being the favorites. So much for the odds. The Yanks, coming off three big wins against the Red Sox, were served by the lowly Devil Rays on Friday night in the Bronx by the score of 9-1. Fortunately for New York, the Blue Jays also narrowly edged the Mariners, so the Yanks are still leading the wildcard. And up in Boston, the Orioles lousy bullpen somehow prevailed against a hard-charging Red Sox offense. Both the Red Sox and Mariners had the winning runs on base in the ninth, both hit into game-ending double plays.
Our beloved Bronx Bombers mustered just two hits (a double by Derek Jeter, an RBI single by Alex Rodriguez in the fourth inning) as Phillip Hughes delivered another disappointing performance. After the game, Hughes told The New York Times:
"It was a little bit of everything tonight," Hughes said. "I had a lot of bad counts, some bad breaks and gave up some home runs. It's something that I need to fight through. Even when you have a bad start you hope to keep your team in the game. Tonight, I couldn't do that."
Joe Torre told the Daily News:
"He shouldn't be missing the zone like he's been missing, so I think he was either trying to make too good a pitch or he needs to command his fastball a little bit better," Joe Torre said. "It got to the point where he was getting behind in the count and he had to throw predictable pitches in predictable counts. That's the pitcher's dread, when you're out there and you really lose the ability to do what you want."
After the game, Rays stater, Andy Sonnanstine--who pitched a wonderful game--told the Tampa Bay Trib:
Honestly, that's probably the best start of my life," said Sonnanstine, whose parents were in town from Ohio to watch him pitch. "It's something I'll never forget."
The other story for the Yanks last night was that MLB has suspended Joba Chamberlain for two games. The suspension began last night, so Joba should be back for Sunday, if needed.
Okay, erase this one from the memory bank. Today is a new day, with new things to be excited about, like the major league debut of Ian Kennedy.
According to Cliff:
Ian Kennedy's been called "Mini Moose" due to his similarity in build and pitching style to Mike Mussina. Turns out, it's more than that. Kennedy was drafted #21 overall last year out of USC and is making his debut today at the age of 22. Mike Mussina was drafted #20 overall in 1990 out of Stanford and made hid major league debut on August 4 of 1991 at the age of 22.Moose held the White Sox to one run on a Frank Thomas solo home run in 7 1/3 innings, scattering three other hits and four walks and striking out one. He then got beat up by the White Sox five days later. He alternated good and bad starts for four more turns, then aced the stretch posting a 1.66 ERA over his last six starts (including a win against the Yankees). The next year, Mussina made the All-Star team, won 18 games, finished third in the league in ERA and fourth in the Cy Young voting. The rest is history. We can't reasonably expect Kennedy to be that good that quickly (besides which, he won't have that month to adjust that Mussina had in August 1991), but if the comparisons to Mussina work, this was in many ways the right decision.
As for Old Moose (Big Moose? Mussina is a few inches taller), Peter Abraham has some remarkable audio from him Thursday. It's 16 minutes of Mussina discussing calmly, honestly, openly, and introspectively his reactions to the events of this week. Mussina may have a reputation as a crank, but this session with the media is spectacular and an excellent example of why I've always been fond of the guy, even at his crankiest. (Incidentally, toward the end one of the reporters mentions Rick Sutcliffe and Orel Hershiser. Moose says "those guys pitched a long time." Both pitched 18 years. Moose is in his 17th. Sutcliffe retired at age 38, Mussina's age now.)
We watch today, we cheer today, maybe we even kvetch, and throw things today. But we all root-root-root for the Bomb Squad and the Kid.
Let's Go Yan-Kees!
Ah, moving on, here's to a bright beginning for the Kennedy administration.
So what's happened over the last week or so?
Boston loses 4 in a row.
Cleveland wins 7 in a row.
The Angles win 5 in a row.
Seattle (hot hot hot) loses 7 in a row.... falling 6 more games behind in the division just when it was in their grasp.
And the Yankees lead the WC.
Remember Minn. last year?
Ya just gotta keep rooting and save your predictions for Oct 1.
(however... I predict Autumn baseball for us!)
On Monday, we have 3 against Seattle. Obviously, 3 very big games. Then on Friday when we face KC, Seattle and Detroit go head to head for 3.
So in 8 days, we will really see what's going on!
Was Hughes ever in last night's game?? What was with all the mis communication between Hughes and Posada???? Hughes looked like a deer caught in the head lights.....here he comes to save the day...... Mini Moose!!!!
Cash mentioned two guys who I've forgotten about: Sanchez and Cox. He says they're both throwing, and are recovering on or ahead of schedule. Cash always holds his cards close to his vest, but he sounded pretty optimistic about them.
I'll be up in LA visiting my dad and little bro and sis, so alas, no game for me, but I leave it all in youse guys more than capable hands!
And on a final note, Yesterday really convinced me that Hughes' mechanics are a bit off. Bad control and bad curve break are just not things you would associate with Hughes. So either that Hammy still ain't right, or his mechanics are out of whack. Either one, it might not get done until the offseason...
Seriously, the addition of DM gives Torre two solid defensive 1B, which should allow him to pinch hit more. Basically, he go offense/defense/offense/defense at the position. As long as Torre doesn't get the crazy notion that DM should actually start any games, his addition could be a positive.
wizofoz01 -at- comcast -dot- net
I'm sure they'll give it to Justin Morneau, however.
Kid doesn't have to try to be too perfect.
bama_yankee2 AT yahoo DOT com
My email is brstormer@roadrunner dot com
Did I just see Kennedy do that bizarre thing that Mike does?--where he bends down working from the stretch?
Weird.
Mike hates this kid to begin with and now he's aping his delivery as well.
Mike's gonna kick his ass if he's not careful.
I don't think he's intentionally imitating him. That's just what he does.
Reporter: "You have 247 career victories, how do you feel about being replaced by a guy who has..."
Mike, sharply: "Zero?--Yeah, I know..."
Something like that.
He took what seemed to be a gratuitous dig at the kid's, well, kidness rather than answering graciously.
Remember Craig Council and that crazy way he'd lift the bat ten feet over his head, as if trying to trick a bear into thinking he was bigger than he actually was?
Well watching Mike do the down-low bend thing while Council did the bat in the sky thing was one of the most comical match-ups I've ever seen.
First of all, it was not teh composition of the bat that was illegal, it was the substance on the bat. Second, it was not supposedly illegal, it WAS illegal. Clearly. In fact, the league agreed that it was illegal, it's just that the commissioner overruled the the out call based on the "spirit" of the rules.
Lastly, my older brother was at that game with his then fiancée, who had never been to a big league game before. What an introduction...
It cracks me up every time, just waiting for him to rage out of the dugout, head ready to explode.
It's so funny.
BURY THE STINK
He was pretty comical too. A kind of poor-man's Jason, actually.
Second inning: Much more than 8 pitches, two unearned runs thanks to A-Rod's pop-up blocker, lost most semblance of control until the umps took that bat and then struck out Amiouri (is that his name?)
All-in-all, it's a toss-up so far, but doubt he goes into seventh.
He is a bit of a runt, though.
Now what? Is he complaining that Melky was allowed to come home on the interference?
Is this more "gamesmanship"?
Have we gone down the rabbit hole or what?
Nice hit, Alex.
This is every bit as frustrating for those teams as it for their opponents. It gives their fans and management the illusion that they're close. They start thinking maybe we should buy, or at least not sell, at the trade deadline. Or the problem was a bad manager, and now that we've fired him, we're winning.
Next year comes, and the team's still crappy. Until they have nothing left to lose again, and go on a tear.
Hideki gets the runner home from third with fewer than two outs 85% of the time!
That's prodigious.
Good baserunning, Alex!
Please stay.
131 Good call.
Come on, Jason!
He'll be fine.
It's really amazing.
Ok, Hector, then.
UPDATE, 2;24 p.m.: OK, here is the deal with Iwamura's bat …
It seems he used a bat with a flat top. Mosty bats are rounded off or cupped. The bat was questioned by Arizona back in June and was approved by Major League Baseball. But the umpires today decided to take that particular bat and have it sent to the Commissioner's Office to be checked out.
I guess he's a righty and Pena's a lefty...but Andy's splits are reversed, so his being right-handed wasn't really an advantage.
What a laser beam!
Please stay, Alex.
Also, look more closely at the numbers. Melky has 10 SH in 445 ABs. Phillips has 6 SH in 182 ABs. Anecdoatllyt, I remember Andy laying down a few really nice sacrifices earlier this summer. I would argue that Andy's the team's best bunter.
Poor guy, he does his best.
Fucking A!
Again, Abreu won't call Robby off!
Why doesn't Abreu make that play??
But I'll take him over Cooter
Kay drags the whole operation down with his hijinks.
It's easier to catch the ball coming in than it is going back.
Didn't these guys play little league?
Hijinks is a funny word.
Afraid of barreling the wall, not afraid of barreling into Melky, defers needlessly to Robby.
If anyone can see some rhyme or reason to Abreu's defense I'd love to know what it is.
Especially the contrast between "operation" and "hijinks."
Nicely turned, Mattpat.
But at the same time, I'm not going to do the same handwringing and hair pulling that others here do when Torre doesn't bring Edwar Ramirez into a big spot. Because he really hasn't done a good job.
I like that.
I just googled "Oh, Hey, and Another Thing, Meat" (without the quotes), and Bronx Banter or links to it were the top four hits. You have to get down to the fifth link to get Wikiquote's Bull Durham page.
Now back to your regularly scheduled game chatter.
Andy Phillips....even the umps can't contain him.
Damn, nicely hit Melk.
If not for three gems, this could be a blowout. Of course, if not for three errors, the game could be much closer.
I was just referring to a discussion we were having the other night about PR him for Giambi.
Andy isn't a very good baserunner. I remember one game last year when he tried to steal 2B and missed the base by about two feet.
Let him start the 7th or don't risk it?
What were his pitch totals in MiL? If he was going 100+, then you could try to squeeze another inning. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother.
I gotta say, I prefer Kay over many of the home announcers for opponents' teams that I'm forced to hear via mlb.com when the Yanks are on the road. "He gone". Ugh.
And I really prefer him over Sterling and Waldman. They drive me nuts. N-V-T-S, nuts. The desk mounted mics drive me crazy, cause Sterling refuses to keep his face in front of it, so you're constantly changing the volume. Then there's Suzyn with her beantown accent all "in the baw-tom of the faw-th", etc. Oh yeah--how about any fly ball getting a "IT IS HIGH.. IT IS FAR.. IT IS..." fuckin Sterling "...caught".
Just my $0.02, kids.
Eject this pigpucker.
I've had enough.
Farmaduke for two batters, stat!
I actually enjoy him more these days; I think working with Leiter and O'Neill has given him some humility. He seems more open to actually learning than he used to.
Also, I like the tension between him and those two, especially. Generally good-natured, but at times they can be a little cruel towards him, like the younger kid you sort of tolerate hanging around but you're sure to remind him of his place just when he starts to feel like one of the guys.
Whereas he used to annoy me, now I often find him a figure of pathos, the poor guy.
Sterling just fucking kills me. There ought to be a rule about reporting the score and situation of the baseball game at least once per ab.
I tune in mid-inning and he'll tell me the outs, the runners on base, he'll say, "This is a BIG batter" but won't fucking report the score or even which team is, you know, winning.
Arrghh.
Then there's Arizona. You have to put up with stuff like "Go, go, go!" (to the ball, or to the runner). And they never friggin' shut up about the 2001 World Series.
HE GONE!
HE'LL GRAB SOME BENCH.
YOU CAN PUT IT ON THE BOAAARRRD, YES!
Makes the skin crawl, n'est-ce pas?
Mike must be eaten up inside over this.
Holy cow, quick inning. Well, if you send him out with 90 pitches, do you send him out again with 97 (or whatever) pitches?
As an added bonus, letting him start prevents Farnsworth from coming into the game
Not that there's anything wrong with gamesmanship. If giving Kennedy a breather was Torre's intent, it worked beautifully.
Now, the TB response was clearly gamesmanship.
Jesus, Mike, would it kill you to show a little support for your teammate and by extension, your team?
Good old Angels-style ball.
So what's wrong with Phil?
.
.
.
He is pretty slow.
I'm not saying he should have been all sweetness and light, but the bottom line is his team's fighting for the playoffs, a goal his performances have been undermining and yet he acts like some grave injustice has been done to him.
Maybe I'm being unfair, but I just didn't get a sense that he's as concerned about his team's performance as he as about his own fortunes.
Damon, too, has said glowing things about Melky, even saying "He can do things that I can't" or some such.
That's pretty stand-up, imo.
Same thing those few years ago when he rebuked his teammates for not scoring enough runs behind him.
And frankly, the fact that he wasn't the first person out to congratulate Kennedy is pretty symbolic, don't you think?
in other words, maybe Kennedy is trying to be the next Mike Mussina?
Joe's waiting to get Mo the save?
S-p-o-o-k-y.
Okay, we need to pick up the intensity here and put this game away, okay?
Sure wish all those substitutes weren't already made, at the moment. Of course, with a 6 run lead and one of your best relievers on the mound, I can't really fault the substitutions.
Well done, Mo.
They got great swings off him, which suggests he doesn't quite have it. So you cut your losses, go to Edwar, and have Mo ready to bail him out.
But at least see what Edwar can do after it's clear Viz is getting knocked around.
Or, if you prefer, just go right to Mo.
But leaving him in to get hit around just makes no sense to me.
I clearly see that it must be frustrating as all hell for Moose and maybe I'm wrong for expecting him to be all gung-ho for Kennedy, but for some reason it would be nice to see. At least in my eyes. I guess I'm a weird one. But point taken.
Ravenscar makes the better point, that six runs in the eighth may not be considered a large lead any more.
Viz: An orb?
Mo: (smacks Viz on forehead) No! This is a baseball. Do you know what a baseball is?
Viz: Yes, Sensei!
Mo: Very good. Now what do you do know what to do with a baseball?
Viz: You throw it, Sensei!
Mo: (smacks Viz on forehead hard) No! You throw it for strikes!
For those who frequent the site, contemplate and enjoy the humor.
Of course, they let him bat with another bat that looked exactly the same.
Strike one is yer friend, kid. Keep up the good work.
I was impressed by his velocity, was expecting less. I have no idea if the radar guns are correct, (the YES one is generally generous) but the consistent 91s he was putting up seemed about right.
Kid worked it out. Did his thing. Good times.
Kennedy pitched reasonably well, but goddam, if he's going to pitch that...incredibly...slowly, I am not going to love watching him for the next however many years. Those first few innings were torture. In between pitches, you could actually see the grass growing.
Best thing about the game was Andy Phillips's slide. That was a thing of beauty.
As Murcer called it: "Nifty slide by Phillips!" Who uses nifty anymore? But great call on a great slide there.
If Jeter had gotten hurt in the 8th, the Torre-killers would have pinned it on him: "Why was Jeter in the game?! We had a 6 run lead! We have a bench!"
Joe just can't win with some folks.
BTW, Miguel Cairo is starting at 2B tonight for the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals.
And Ortiz hits a bases clearing double. 4-0 Sawx.
Cairo just advanced a runner to second on a groundout for the second out. Smart baseball, good situational hitting, now the runner is in scoring position for said 8th-hitting pitcher.
(sarcasm mode off)
Unfortunately for him, the bullpen gave up eight runs after he left, so he didn't get a win out of it.
Is Buchholz a pretty highly touted prospect? I'll be honest, I block out everything I hear about their prospects because it seems like there is a ton of undue hype out there for their guys--Fossum is the main name that comes to mind, who they were able to barter, in part, for Schilling.
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