Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
With a fake nail on the index finger of his pitching hand, A.J. Burnett was able to throw his knuckle-curve for strikes and dominated the Yankees for six innings last night. Mike Mussina had a decent curve himself, but not the yakker he displayed in some of his spring training outings. The result was a typical post-2003 Mike Mussina start: 5 2/3 IP, 4 R, 2 K. Though Mussina kept it close, it was obvious from the very start which way the game was going to go.
Moose gave up a hard-luck unearned run in the first. Scrappy David Eckstein led off the game with a sinking liner to the right side that Giambi knocked down, but didn't glove cleanly. When Giambi came up with the ball, he looked to flip to Mussina for the out, but Mussina, who had broken for the bag on contact, eased up when Giambi came to his feet expecting the big lug to take it himself. With no other option, Giambi did just that and his foot hit the bag at the exact instant that Eckstein's foot did. There is no official rule that the tie goes to the runner, but that's what happened. Giambi was charged with an error on the play, I assume for either his brief bobble or his apparent hesitation over what to do with the ball once he had it, but if Mussina covers, Eckstein's out. Giambi made another nice play later in the game, diving up the line with his foot on the bag to snag a Derek Jeter throw in the dirt for an out, and made a valiant but fruitless (and thankfully harmless) dive into the camera pit in pursuit of a foul pop. Back in the first inning, Eckstein was move to second by a well-placed ground-ball single by Shannon Stewart and plated by a flare over Robinson Cano's head by Alex Rios, though he would have been out had Jose Molina fielded Bobby Abreu's throw cleanly. In Molina's defense, he threw out both attempting Toronto base steelers in the game.
The Jays made it 3-0 in the third on a two-out walk to Rios and a two-run Vernon Wells homer to left on a hanging slider that Mussina said was his worst slider of the game. They then added on in the sixth, despite Johnny Damon snagging a would-be wall-scraping homer by Rios to start the inning. Wells followed that out with a single and was pushed to second when a Mussina changeup (Mussina called it a "lazy curve") appeared to nick the bill of Frank Thomas's helmet. Mussina then got Lyle Overbay to fly out for the second out and got ahead of Aaron Hill 0-2, but Hill singled Wells home on a fat 84-mile-per-hour fastball up in the zone, bringing Joe Girardi out of the dugout to make the first mid-inning pitching change of his Yankee career. LaTroy Hawkins got the third on out a fly ball with a single pitch to Marco Scutaro, proving that Girardi is a managerial genius. Unfortunately, the Jays added another run against Hawkins in the seventh when Rod Barajas hit a ground-ball double down the right field line, moved to third on an Eckstein grounder, and scored on a single by Rios.
Burnett, meanwhile, allowed just four singles through six innings and didn't walk a man nor allow a Yankee past first base until the seventh, when Bobby Abreu led off with a walk and Alex Rodriguez followed with a two-run bomb to dead center. That shot drove Burnett from the game, but Toronto relievers Brian Tallet (two perfect innings, 4 Ks) and Jeremy Accardo were no more generous. The Yanks made thingS interesting against Accardo in the bottom of the ninth when Derek Jeter and Bobby Abreu led off with singles to put men on first and second and bring the tying run to the plate, but Alex Rodriguez struck out at the end of a tense six-pitch at-bat, Jason Giambi hit a 390-foot fly out to the 399-foot sign in center, and Robinson Cano flied out to left on the first pitch he saw to give the Jays a 5-2 win.
You nailed it though Cliff- you could tell early on how the game was going to play out. A K and two flyouts in the 9th didn't make me too happy. I know you're down 3 and all, but some line drives would be nice. Robbie especially looked anxious to hit a 5 run homer.
That was a shot by Arod. I was none too pleased in an earlier at-bat to see him pulling off an outside fastball, but I guess when you hit .300 with 40 HR's every year, you're allowed to sit dead red and guess wrong every once in a while.
Back at 'em tonight- Phil time.
To me, the main question is Damon. Leading off, he makes a big difference when he hits. I hope he 'has something to prove', but he has to have a better OBP then Cano and Melky to stay in the leadoff spot.
If he's cold for a while, will Joe. G has the nerve to move him down inthe lineup?
Moose's outing was definitely not discouraging, which is good, I guess.
Was it Michael Kay who mentioned that Burnett has an opt-out clause after this season? If he does, should the Yankees pursue him and C.C. in the offseason: CC, AJ, Wang, Hughes, Joba, IPK?
It is WAY too early for major queries, but this is a microscope wielding Yankee site, so here's my question: is it me, or does the slimmed down, more limber Giambi get balanced by a bulkier and sluggish-looking (and thinking) Jeter? I am NOT harking back to his sleek youth (remember when DJ and Bernie looked like that?) but even to last year or two years ago. The odd thing is, bigger SHOULD mean more power, but ...
The cold, to my mind, WILL impact older guys more. Take it from an older guy.
8 Mussina doesn't exactly walk people like mad either.
11 Bruce does have a point about location, though. Moose isn't wild, but he doesn't hit the glove the way he did when he first came to the Yankees. All of those pitches he griped about last night were really balls and the fact that he couldn't catch the corner forced him to throw more hittable pitches. When Rivera's had his struggles in the last couple of years it's been a similar issue. Neither is wild, but neither has the pinpoint control of their youth anymore either. At least Mo still has his velocity, though.
Pitchers are risky enough as is. The Yanks should only sign free agent starters who have been healthy, and will likely stay that way. They should avoid the walking wounded, unless its a low-risk incentive-based deal, like the Sox did with Colon. Those kinds of deals should only be for depth, not for guys you're depending on to start 30 times.
Maybe Girardi will give you a usable quote for the back cover of BP09?
maybe if damon stays cold, we can just spin his growing mediocrity as "Scrappy" in an effort to placate ignorant fans. or does that term only apply to middle infielders?
I really think the play in which he was thrown out at 2B is misleading. The replay shows Jeter look back and see the ball bounce away. What it doesn't show (and Jeter likely didn't see) was the amazing hustle of Rios. Most RF'ers wouldn't have been close on that play. Add in Rios' excellent arm, and Jeter had no chance.
I don't think that was so much abad play by Jeter as a great play by Rios.
b-r.com also says Damon barely outweighs Eckstein (175 lbs vs 170 lbs). That seems insane. I wonder how accurate their data on height and weight is? Do they update it?
A-Rod with a meaningless HR for good measure too.
Only thing that seemed to be different was our bullpen performance, although starring in the role of Ron Villone this season is Latroy Hawkins.
22 OK, so I never saw the adidas pennant before. But I go there a lot, and there was definitely a lot more ads there: more on the facing of the decks, around the dugout, a big new billboard in right field, rotating ads in at least two new places so they could get several for the price of one, and so on.
DJ has been my fav player for a long time, and this is two games. I know it.
28 Oh, please, not that again! I was hardly meaningless. You think we should basically QUIT when down 5-0 in the 7th?
32 he was out by a mile and he probably could have run a little harder, but in addition to rios being in the perfect place and having a great arm, the ball landed in the perfect spot for him to make that throw.
i agree with some of the early commenters that he was moving pretty good in the field - his throws could certainly be a bit better.
It's hindsight to be sure, but it's a general feeling of malaise from the past few seasons that all came rushing back somewhere around the 6th inning.
Yes, and sign the top 3 free agent sluggers while they're at it.
Come on. This isn't fantasy baseball.
Anyway, shit happens. Go Phil!
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The HR became 'meaningless' when his teammates failed to back him up.
Michael Kay was waxing rapturous yesterday when Barajas led off the seventh with a double and Eckstein advanced him with a grounder to second. That's why you want Eckstein on your team! He's the guy you want up in that situation! That's how he helps teams win!
Up to a point, I actually agree with Kay. If you've got a man on second with none out and one run will win you the game, Eckstein's probably the best guy to have up there. Of course, there are 600 other PA when he's, um, not the best.
Besides, with a four-run lead and the top of the order coming up, why would you want to play for one run?
Weaver's Sixth Law: Don't play for one run unless you know that run will win a ballgame
The percentages are higher that you will score 'at least one run' with a man on second no outs if you move that man to third with one out. There's a pretty effective Markhov Chain analysis that runs through this. I've lost the link and don't have the time to find it. It's right there with the bunting stuff we posted here lasted year or the year before.
I think he's a useful guy and I do believe that those or similar situations occur a bit more often than every 600 ab's.
If it's the bottom of the order coming up, I might feel differently.
But honestly, on your use of the term, Jeter's nailing Jeremy Giambi at the plate in Oakland (best play I ever saw, nothing close) was 'meaningless' because Mariano threw wildly to second base in Game 7 of the Arizona series, later.
We didn't win it all, so the play meant nothing? I'm stretching a point, but there was so much stupid dumping on Alex Rodriguez for 'meaningless' homers a while ago, I really, really didn't want to see it come back. 7th inning matters. Getting within two baserunners matters.
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