Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
First, the good news. The Yankees beat the Orioles, 8-5 last night at The Stadium while the Tigers and Red Sox both lost. The Bombers are three-and-a-half games ahead of the Tigers in the wildcard standings (four in the loss column), and just three-and-a-half behind the Sox in the AL East. All the makings of a good night.
We shouldn't complain. It's just that sitting through another interminable Yankees-Orioles game almost takes the fun out of baseball. Last night's game lasted 3 hours and 54 minutes. Oy and veh.
Daniel Cabrera was inconsistent. Fortunately, the Yankees got the lousy version last night. After the game, Baltimore manager, Dave Trembley told The Baltimore Sun:
"There are times when he pitches and he looks unhittable, and then there are other times where his ability to command the strike zone just isn't there and it usually costs him, or it has in recent outings."What he's got to do is ... repeat his delivery. You just see his delivery at times, he falls off to the side, the ability to command his pitches comes and goes. He certainly has the stuff, but you saw tonight a couple of key instances in the ballgame where he had to pitch behind and then he had to come in there with fastballs and they made him pay for it."
Phillip Hughes coughed up a couple of runs in the first innning but then settled down. However, with two out in the sixth, he quickly ran out of gas. Hughes walked Miguel Tejada on four pitches, gave up a double to Kevin Millar, and then walked Aubrey Huff on four consecutive pitches. The phone line between the Yankee dugout and the bullpen was out, and so the bullpen coach was reduced to making hand gestures. After Hughes threw ball one to Melvin Mora, Torre replaced him with Edwar Ramirez.
The first pitch Mora saw from Ramirez was a fastball, outside for ball two. Then, he looked a fastball strike before swinging through two change ups. The Yankees were out of the jam. But Ramirez gave up three hits and hit a batter in the seventh and he was removed with two out and the bases loaded again. Enter Jose Vizcaino, the pitching equal of the human rain-delay. Viz fell behind Millar 3-0 but came back to strike him out swinging.
The Yankees had a healthy 8-3 lead in the ninth inning. Jorge Posada (3-5), Robinson Cano (2-4) and Bobby Abreu (2-5, 2 RBI) lead the Yankee offense. Alex Rodriguez didn't look especially good at the plate but did have a hit and an RBI, which ties his career mark of 142.
Enter Kyle Farnsworth. Enter agitah. Farnsworth walked the lead-off man, threw a wild pitch, and gave up two hits, and before you knew it, Mariano Rivera, who was inadvertently struck by a ball on Sunday night in the Boston bullpen, was in the game to record the final out. He left a cutter in the middle of the plate to Huff, who singled to right, then struck out Mora swinging to earn his 29th save of the season, lowering his ERA to 2.98 in the process. It was a shame that Rivera had to be used at all, but the Yankees need every win they can get.
Mussina is on the hill tonight so anything goes. Unfortunately, Joba will not be available to pitch, as he went two innings on Sunday night.
But hey, Sean Henn's available.
That formula might very well me necessary in the post-season. Anyone know whether there is a difference in the effectiveness of his change up when facing righties or lefties?
I might have to try that ginkgo biloba stuff today.
Some very fine swings by Hideki, Cano, and Bobby. I love when the lefties do their thing.
Good job by Viz wiffing pigpen there.
Let's not get too carried away with the Minky-love. Go with the hot hand for now, but remember: Betemit is still probably the better bet.
Anyway, I was at the game last night, but that was, in contrast, not a life-changer. In the ninth as Mo was jogging in, I kept staring at the like NINE guys sitting in the bullpen and thinking, "What, not ONE of these people can get Aubrey Huff or Jay Payton out without giving up three runs?" Then I realized... no, actually, probably not. God help this team in the playoffs.
Much better than lifting a gift-laiden Christmas sleigh off the edge of a tall, pointy mountain top; but the ride home is a toss-up, I imagine...
I'd like to send Farnsworth on a one way sleigh ride to Who-vile, but the Whos definitely don't deserve that...
Hate to break your treble sized heart, but
friend of mine tells me your heart might shrink a few sizes if you saw Bruce throw a baseball (which he did at a neighbor's barbeque). Based on his reenactment of Bruce's action from the windup, I surmise that Jon Bon Jovi, or Sally Field has a better arm.
14 Didn't Bruce toss a few baseballs at the beginning of his Glory Days video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3j9drdqfh8
I don't think he could "throw that speedball" by anyone...
But we also know Slim is prone to the HR. My guess is that a batter will sit on the fastball, and if he guesses right, it flies.
Maybe at times, he will sit on the Change.
Does Edwar has another effective pitch? I know there are other 'changeup' pitchers who don't give up as many HRs, but Edwar does.
Cutter, Curve, Slider, Sinker, Splitter....
Is there another pitch, slower than a FB and faster then the change, with some movement, he can throw?
Even if you K 9 of 10, if the 10th guy hits a HR, you ain't gonna last long in MLB. It seems to me a 3rd decent pitch woud do Edwar well. It doesn't even need to be a plus pitch... he might not even need to always throw it for a strike. But it seems to me he needs to give the batter something else to think about.
Do I make any sense?
ok, that's Boomer Wells, but you get the point.
: )
Also, young Little Stevie and Max Weinberg are hilarious. Thanks a lot Bama, now I have to spend the next hour looking up old Springsteen videos on YouTube.
I didn't even have to think about sneaking off for updates as they announced them during the reception. Too bad it was the "bad" day. Friday night we land at Logan at 10:30, get in the car, and the game is still freaking on, and its only like the top of the 7th. Good Lord was that a long, yet great game. Watching the driver go from totally cocky to panic to resignation was great...
Its really too bad New England is filled with Sox and Pats fans, because I sure do love it there...
;-)
There are lots of Yankee fans, especially here in southern NE. (Quite a few NE B-Banterers, for that matter.)
But, Pats fans, yeah.
But it's pretty clear that the bullpen just isn't very good outside of Mo and Joba. Viz, if healthy, is decent. That's it for reliable relievers. The lefties are bad (and that's being kind). Edwar is a k machine, but is also pretty flammable. Farnsworthless is Dr. Jekyl & Mr. Hyde (and far too often, he's Mr. Hyde).
You can't seem to watch anything anymore without there being some nasty, soul-sucking controversy involved, and the only ones getting joy from that it seems are the regular sportswriters and broadcasters.
I don't feel like watching football this year, and screw the Knicks, and the Nets (meh)... I wish there was a hardball league I could join this fall or winter; because without baseball (which has looked rather mature in comparison), there's just a lot of weariness on the plate (to me, anyway...) Sorry about that, but it's been weighing on my mind for sometime now...
Maybe if he gets some more consistent work he will be more effective. I can hope...
As for pro-ball, like I mentioned over @ waswatching, the Asian and Caribbean leagues are going after the MLB season ends.
There is plenty of baseball to be found you just have to know where to look.
After the intensity of this year's season (so many ups and downs, too), it will be hard to go 'cold turkey' and not be able to watch or listen to games for six months.
That the kid's been impressive makes it kinda hard, but he's also coming close to his yearly innings quota, so if anything you might want to save him for a tricky spot(i.e. crucial or if one of the others spits the bit early) in the schedule down the stretch. I wouldn't mind seeing him on the PS roster though...
30 Hitting the gym (not in game shape yet) but I am curious... I played one softball game against Terror Squad 1½ years ago; so I need to train, but I know there's something to do >;)
36 Here's the link to our league; http://tinyurl.com/yppg8j
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