Yankees Throw a Clunker (Postgame Notes 28 July 2009)

For only the second time since the All Star Break, the Yankees lost a game, and this one was a clunker in every sense of the word.

CC Sabathia wasn't sharp, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez air-mailed throws to first base, the bats were largely flat or else erasing rallies with double plays and poor baserunning, questionable calls, and as a whole the team reminded much too much of 2008.

Given the Yankees' recent play, however, this game seems much more like an aberration than anything else, though there is a legitimate concern to be had in Sabathia's ineffectiveness.

It's not that Sabathia was ineffective tonight, but that he has been inconsistent of late, and there is growing speculation that Sabathia's running into a tired arm because of the overwork in the last couple of years.

If the Yankees were in first by a comfortable margin, I wouldn't be shocked to see them contemplating giving Sabathia a start off now and then, but with the race as close as it is, the Yankees do need Sabathia to at the very least give them a chance to win.

There's not much to say otherwise. Offenses go through rough patches, but given the eleven runs scored yesterday with the same line up, I don't think anyone is (while in their right mind) panicking. One just hopes the Yankees brush it off and put together a better effort tomorrow.

If there is a bright spot, Mark Melancon pitched in his first stint since July 10th and did not allow a run.


Chien Ming Wang News Chien Ming Wang met with Dr. James Andrews. The verdict is surgery--same as Posada had last season, and he is out for the year. (Via Mark Carig, Star Ledger)

We already suspected Wang was done for the year, but having shoulder surgery for a pitcher may very well be the kiss of death. I feel for Wang. It's tempting to assign blame, but in this case I don't think you can.


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Breaking Down the Yankees for the Second Half--The Rotation

So the All Star Game is officially over--and we can thus consider ourselves in the second half.

This is where it gets fun.

All of those days players got rested in the first half? Well, now they have to play. Now the pennant races start to heat up, and every move a team makes, be it a trade, a free agent signing or simply bringing someone up from AAA has even more added meaning.

What do we expect from the Yankees?

I'm going to do a series of posts addressing this, because there's so much to say that having it all in one post would a) kill your eyes and mine, and b) give me carpal tunnel at the age of 23.

So for now, I'm going to start with the starting rotation, because everything depends on the success and/or failure of these guys.

The Rotation

This is the biggest problem area for the Yankees, which is strange to say given how much was spent in the off-season to improve it.

The truth is, however, that outside of AJ Burnett's most recent string of domination, no one has emerged as an ace in the way that Mike Mussina did last year.

CC Sabathia and Burnett have been fairly reliable--although Sabathia's peripherals, the worst they've been since 2005 are a source of concern--but Andy Pettitte and Joba Chamberlain have been inefficient at best and the fifth starter is, right now, non-existent.


CC Sabathia

Last time out, in Anaheim, Sabathia's ridiculously low road BABIP (batting average on balls in play) caught up to him. If you look here, you'll see that his strikeouts are down, walks are up and K/BB ratio is the worst it's been since 2005.

In the second half the Yankees, theoretically, should have enough starting pitching depth that Sabathia doesn't have to pull a stunt like he did with Milwaukee at the end of 2008, but he will have to be better. The peripheral stats are something that more and more seem to be noticing, and the Yankees will need to decide how much of it has to do with moving to the AL East and how much has some other, undiagnosed cause, and thus, how concerned they need to be.

Sabathia is the biggest pitching investment the Yankees have made since, well, Pavano and Igawa, so expect that the Yankees will do everything possible to make sure he is right.


AJ Burnett

Burnett got off to a very rocky start, and found no love from the fans after, well, you-know-what-ing the bed in two starts in Boston. He was in desperate need of a decent start against Johan Santana of the Mets, and it is entirely possible that his ultimate turning point in the season came when he had the bases loaded, none out, and got out of the inning without giving up a run.

Since then, AJ has really been the Yankee ace. He has faced the Mets, Marlins, Mets, Jays and Twins in that time span and has not given up more than 2 ER in any of those starts.

His last pre-break start, however, was not so much dominant as it was getting lucky and delivering the right pitch to escape jam after jam. In the words of, I think, the Associated Press, he had nothing, but still found a way to win.

If there's one thing the Yankees would probably ask a genie to do, if such genies existed, it would be to reduce Burnett's walk total--which leads the league.

Against teams with weak offenses, like the Mets, the walks don't hurt as much because no one ever makes you pay, but against stronger offenses, like Boston, the walks are killer. Burnett's always had control issues--he walked nine when he pitched a no-hitter for the Florida Marlins--but the Yankees aren't paying him $88 million over five years so that he can dazzle you with spectacularly wild pitches.


Andy Pettitte

Here's where things begin to get dicey. While Sabathia and Burnett have some issues, they are, for the most part, giving the Yankees enough length to keep the team in the game and not overexpose the bullpen.

Pettitte and Chamberlain? It's a little different.


Pettitte actually started the season strong, pitching into the sixth inning (and often beyond) in each of his first nine starts. That efficiency hasn't lasted, and his ERA has jumped from under 3.00 at the end of April to nearly 5.00 now.

The easiest way to explain it is that it looks as though Pettitte's body is having trouble keeping up with the grind of pitching every five days--as is what happens when most pitchers not named Moyer or Paige reach their later 30s.

Pettitte's first start after the break will be very telling--if the extra rest seems to have helped him, the Yankees could possibly consider skipping a start or two of his down the stretch to give him some extra breathing room (but somehow I doubt they will). If, however, he still continues to struggle in his next two or three starts, the Yankees will need to address whether or not it really is beneficial to the team to have him pitching in the rotation. If the Yankees, by some miracle, acquire someone like Halladay (see my previous post), or if Chien Ming Wang miraculously regains his form (also unlikely), then Pettitte's trending ineffectiveness is easier to bear.


Joba Chamberlain

Ah. Well. Here we go. The Wunderkind of 2007 and pre-injury 2008 has struggled in 2009.

Everyone's trying to figure out the root cause of the struggle, if it's psychological or physical or mechanical, and watching everyone go at it like a rat race would be incredibly amusing if the consequences weren't so large.

Each cause of his struggle has different results: if it's mechanical, this would be the easiest to fix--the Yankees could try to fix him up here or send him to AAA to sort it out, and if Joba's as good a pitcher as he's supposed to be, he'll be a quick study. If, however, it was as simple as this one would have seen improvement already.

The real answer is that the root cause is probably more complex, a combination of perhaps a nagging shoulder, an inexplicable fear of strike three, and maybe, since we're making this like a soup here, you can throw in some could-be-conditioned-better for extra spice. Like paprika.

Anyway, what the Yankees need, and need almost immediately, is to see if there's any indication that they can get Joba right, or at least that they can get Joba to pitch past the fifth inning. If they can, great. If they can't, the argument to turn him into a Canadian becomes all that stronger.

I think--and this is just opinion here--that the Yankees still see quite a bit of potential in Chamberlain. He is, after all, only 23, and he has shown that, when right, he can touch triple digits in the seventh inning.

The talent's there. The Yankees have to figure out how to access it.


The Fifth Starter

At this point, you just feel bad for Chien Ming Wang. He wasn't quite right in Spring Training, but it went ignored (because hey, it's Spring Training), and he imploded in the beginning of the year. He had a long and largely inefficient road back, but finally, finally looked something like the Chien Ming Wang of old while dueling Roy Halladay on July 4th--before he promptly strained his shoulder.

I don't believe in coincidences, so the fact that Wang got hurt while Halladay was starting for the Jays has to be considered some sort of divine sign, no?

Anyway.

There are those that would prefer to see Hughes or Aceves take the fifth spot, instead of Sergio Mitre and whomever the Yankees end up trading for (and they probably will), but there are problems with each.

Hughes, first of all, is not stretched out, and as I detailed in a recent post, the process of stretching him out, at this point in the season, might simply just take too long and create more problems for the Yankees and their bullpen than the ones it solves.

Aceves could be a perfectly competent starter, but when he's removed from the bullpen, the bullpen seems to fall apart. I'm not sure it's him, personally--although you have to consider the eerie similarity between his numbers and Mariano's of 1996 (his ERA has risen from 2.49 from 2.02 after his spot start, but if he stays in the bullpen it will likely come down again)--but I think there's a case to be made that his value lies in since he can pitch so many innings, the short relievers pitch less. The less the non-Mo short relievers pitch, the more they remain hidden, and the more they become a strength.

All we really know about this spot is that the next time it comes round it's probably Sergio Mitre's shot--but after that, who knows?

Obviously, the sooner the Yankees figure something out for the long term, the better, but don't be surprised if one good Mitre start spells another, and the Yankees try to recapture the ghost of Aaron Small circa late summer 2005.

How Reactivating Chien Ming Wang Messed With Phil Hughes

Recently, I've been seeing a lot of posts suggesting that to solve the rotation problems, the Yankees should move Phil Hughes back from the bullpen to the rotation.

On the surface, it's hard to disagree with this.

As a starter, Hughes this season was showing improvement outside of one disastrous Baltimore start. He was gradually becoming more efficient, less tentative and better at keeping a bad inning from imploding.

Things, in short, were going well.

Then the Yankees panicked in re-activating Chien Ming Wang from the DL, and things got hairy.

After a time it became clear that the Yankees couldn't keep Wang in the bullpen, or else risk losing all the arm strength that he had built up. Long story short, Hughes got sent to the bullpen.


And here the problem begins.


Hughes, out of the bullpen, has primarily been a one inning, and rarely a two inning pitcher. Since he's been so efficient out of the bullpen--he's had more than one nine pitch inning--at most, right now, I'd say he could throw about thirty pitches.

What does this mean?

If you were to tell Hughes tomorrow that he was starting again, he could probably pitch about two innings before tiring.

Now, some have suggested that the Yankees use the All Star break to stretch Hughes out, but here they are missing something: it takes longer than just a week to stretch a pitcher from a reliever to a starter.

There are two players to look at as models: Alfredo Aceves and Joba Chamberlain.

Aceves made a spot start last Thursday, which on the surface would seem to be a reliever-to-starter transition without a period of stretching. There are, however, two caveats: 1) Aceves was already a long reliever. Him pitching four innings the Sunday previous was not a terrible strain because he has already spent much of this season giving the Yankees two or three innings at a time, and 2) he only did pitch into the fourth inning--65 pitches on the nose--which ended up taxing the bullpen that day and bleeding into the next three.

The better example to look at is Joba Chamberlain.

Chamberlain had, in '07 and the first two months of'08, been an eighth-inning short reliever, but the Yankee plan was always for him to be a starter, so, towards, but not at, the end of May 2008, they announced plans to turn Chamberlain into a starter.

They had him first pitch longer stints out of the bullpen, and then, in the beginning of June, he made his first start--limited in pitch count, he did not get out of the third inning.

By the time Chien Ming Wang had gotten hurt, Chamberlain had stretched out not quite enough to pitch a complete game, but enough to pitch himself into the sixth-or-so inning, so that instead of the Yankees looking for another one starter, they looked instead for a five starter and found Sidney Ponson. You can debate the merits of this idea at your leisure, but that's not our concern here.

It took nearly a month for Chamberlain to go from set-up man, a role similar to what Hughes is doing now, to a full fledged starter--and it was not long afterward that Chamberlain hurt his shoulder. While the back-breaker was likely a fall Chamberlain took in Texas, the injury was likely building for some time--whether or not it had to do with the pitching transition, we can only guess, but it's highly doubtful that the Yankees would overlook it.


If Hughes took the same trajectory, in that the Yankees started to stretch him out now, we would be looking at the middle of August before he would really be a full-fledged starter. One needs to forget that Hughes started the season as a starter; after so long in the bullpen the arm strength and endurance that was there has likely gone.

Waiting until mid-August in the thick of a division race that will likely be decided by one or two games at most is not in the Yankees' best interests, especially when one considers how burnt out the bullpen would get covering for Hughes in the first few innings when a pitch count would prevent him from going more than four or five innings.

Should Hughes be in the bullpen long term? Absolutely not. Next season, he should come to Spring Training a starter and then remain a starter all through the season.

If the goal, however, is winning the World Series in 2009, the Yankees can't afford to muddle with Hughes for a month and risk exposing the bullpen even more. We saw the trouble that comes when Aceves is removed from the bullpen this week; any time the bullpen has to pitch more than two or three innings, especially in a row, it resists over-exposure--and then it gets hit. With Chamberlain and Andy Pettitte already so inefficient, Hughes on a limited pitch count is exactly the thing the Yankees don't need.


There's no one to blame on this one but the Yankees themselves.

The Yankees, for whatever reason, appeared to have not thought it through entirely in bringing Wang back before coming up with a plan for Hughes.

In an over-used cliché, "it is what it is", and the Yankees will have to make their peace with it.

Baseball on the Fourth of July

The spot is perfect.

Dangerous, sure, but we're humans. We sacrifice safety and comfort for bright lights and big noises, all in the name of celebration.

We are Americans, after all. We always find a way.


****

On the mound, starting for the Yankees today, is not an American but a Taiwanese. Chien Ming Wang.

It's no secret how he's struggled all season.

His first three starts were so horrendous the Yankees placed him on the disabled list, even though there were questions about whether or not he was really hurt.

He came off the disabled list again, but slowly, he has begun to look more and more respectable.

The last time he pitched, last Sunday, nearly halfway into the season and against a depleted Mets line up, Wang finally picked up a win.

It wasn't pretty, but the five-and-a-third innings and only two runs given up were a season best.

We're Americans. We like our progress.


****

It's the top of a hill made up of construction rubble; a block east of the West Side Highway it affords us a perfect view of the Hudson River and the sunset over New Jersey.

It's not safe.

Not even a little.

There is a steep climb, full of loosed rocks and sharp weeds, to get to the top, and then, once there, there is a steep drop off into a construction pit. Put simply: take too big a step forward, and you're dead.

Still, this is the best spot we can find, an hour before it's supposed to start.

The West Side Highway is completely blocked off and everything else is too low.

We marvel at our ingenuity in finding the spots.

We're not all Americans; we speak to each other not just in English but in Spanish and Polish and Hebrew; but we are all in America, and on today, that is all that matters.


****

Wang is not an American, but he plays for an American team.

Today, the Fourth of July, an American team is facing a Toronto team.

The Yankees have to win today, it's tempting to think, because there would be something inherently wrong about a Canadian team beating an American team on Independence Day.

Nothing personal against Canada, but today is America's day. It's not that I'm uppity or anything, but Canada had their celebration three days ago.

Today, it's our turn.


****

There are only a few of us on the hill at first, but then people see us, and they follow.

More and more people climb the hill.

Some climb it too fast; some sit all the way over the edge; one has sushi and a Blue Moon.


****

Before the game starts I tell Brent that I don't expect the Yankees to win, so I'll enjoy the game for the sake of enjoying the game.

Brent nods.

Again, it's nothing personal.

Roy Halladay is that good of a starter.

Chien Ming Wang has, this season, been that bad.

I never stop to consider how the two are on divergent paths.

Wang has been getting better. Stronger. More efficient. Halladay has only just come off the DL and struggled in his first game back.

As John Sterling would say, "You can't predict baseball."

****

While we wait we make friends with the others that have gathered on the hill.

We laugh about the danger, about the illegality of what we are doing.

We act like idiots and then proceed to admit that no, we have not actually been drinking.

Neither, we are somewhat shocked to hear, has anyone else.

It's like my brother told me via AIM two nights ago: Fireworks, then alcohol.


****

It's easy enough to tell it's the Fourth at the Stadium: an actual band performing the National Anthem; a reading of Lou Gehrig's farewell address that has lost none of its potency; Ronan Tynan singing "God Bless America"...

...You don't see these things every day.

Another thing you don't see every day: Alex Rodriguez knocking in a two-out base hit with a runner in scoring position to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first. It's not a knock on Alex Rodriguez. The entire team has struggled here this year.

The lead is short lived, but that doesn't matter so much.

The Yankees drew first blood.

The Yankees showed, in the very first inning, that they could hit and score off of Roy Halladay.

He would have to be that much better, if he wanted to win.

****

Five minutes before the fireworks are supposed to start, an undercover cop makes himself known.

"This is a Construction Site. Private property. If you don't want to be arrested, get off the hill now."

He is alone.

We move slowly. We drag it out like a 12-pitch at bat or a 22-inning baseball game.

We do not go quietly into that good night.


****

Somehow, some way, the Yankees get to the sixth inning with a 3-2 lead.

Wang is not just pitching well; he's pitching the best we've seen him this season.

It's the sixth inning and he's only thrown 58 pitches. Both Brent and I want to talk about it, but we won't. We're baseball fans, and superstition runs deep in our blood.

On this day, however, even thinking about it seems to be bad luck.

A single. Then a home run. A 3-2 lead is now a 4-3 deficit and it gets worse when Jorge Posada motions to the dugout, sending Dave Eiland back and bringing out Joe Girardi and the trainer.

It doesn't matter how badly Wang is hurt; that he's hurt is bad enough. It disrupts the flow of the team. Already the speculation begins: what about Wang's next start? Do you take Hughes out of the bullpen? Do you dare to disrupt a bullpen that since the 1st of June has a 2.35 ERA and a .179 BAA? You can't.


****

The undercover cop is soon backed up by a squad of uniformed cops.

I feel like I am in a Law and Order episode, in the very beginning, just minding my own business before all hell breaks loose.

It doesn't.

Not tonight.

We walk slowly downhill. Biding our time.

Then the fireworks start.

We stop. We stop, we turn, and we watch.

The police don't bother us any more.


****

The atmosphere that escapes the Stadium once Wang leaves with the injury is slow to build up again.

It will reach a certain point, and then, like clockwork, Robinson Cano comes up to bat and does something to record the final out of the inning.

This is how the game gets to extra innings.

Sure, scoreless innings from Brian Bruney, Mariano Rivera, Phil Coke and Brett Tomko all help, but it's the failure of Cano's bat that keeps the game going, even as the July sun beats down on us, as some decide they've had enough and leave, even as it comes down to one more pitcher left in the bullpen.


****

The fireworks dazzle.

It's a feast of light, of color and of sound.

"You know," Brent says, "This is what we should do with our firepower. Not blow up other people, but put on displays like this."

I wonder if, when the Ancient Chinese developed fireworks, if they had the same effect on those that saw them.

We are humans. We like bright sights and booming sounds.


****

It ends with Jorge Posada.

Jorge Posada, in the 12th inning, when it's gone from being high drama to please-for-the-love-of-America-end-this-game-because-I'm-hungry.

Is it fitting that Posada ends the game?

He doesn't have the mythical status of Derek Jeter, who doesn't come to bat in the evening; nor does it have the clutchy-mc-clutchness that Melky Cabrera's crafted for himself; nor the redemption that a Robinson Cano hit would bring; nor the long-overdue-ness that a walk-off Mark Teixeira blast would have; nor the grittyguttyness of Brett Gardner.

It is, instead, one of the guys just doing his thing.

Doing his job and doing it well.

That's American.

So's the pie that comes afterward--a fake-out from Joba Chamberlain and then BOOM! from AJ Burnett.

Triumph on the Fourth--that's America, too.*

****

"You know," Brent says, as we make our way east from the Hudson, "baseball, fireworks...we really are the luckiest people on the face of the earth."

"Yeah," I say, "We are."



*The Declaration wasn't actually signed on the fourth. It was made on the 2nd and most didn't sign it until the 19th. But, as in most all of history, such trivialities are minor details.

A Couple of Firsts and a 500th (Postgame Notes 28 June 2009)

First:

Chien Ming Wang notched his first win of the 2009 season, facing a depleted Mets line up at Citifield.

The win should not be confused with a good pitching performance--Wang only surrendered two runs, true, but he had very poor command and against pretty much any other legitimate line up, would have likely got roughed around.

Still, for the first time all season he did not just make it into the sixth inning, but made it into the sixth inning with a 3-2 lead. Had he been able to get two more outs it would have officially been a 'quality start', but with just a one run lead, Girardi, perhaps rightly, wasn't going to take any chances.

Phil Coke got the one out he needed and Phil Hughes was again excellent.

Hughes' dominance in the bullpen is captivating and eye-opening. To be quite honest, between Joba and Hughes, if you're going to have one of them in the bullpen, I think Hughes has shown better bullpen stuff.

Brian Bruney, however, struggled and could not get through the 8th inning. It's a risk you run with Bruney, who can struggle with his command; with more than a one-run lead it might not matter so much, but the one-run, high leverage situations are when set-up men need to be at their very best.


Still, the focus here should be Wang, who, for the third time in a row was not great or necessarily even good, but still not bad enough to forgo his next scheduled start (in this case, TOR). It's his first win of the season--the others should be easier.



First:


Mariano Rivera had his first career RBI, walking with the bases loaded while facing a very wild Francisco Rodriguez tonight.

(Don't believe me? Look here

The entire situation was as amusing as it was nerve-wracking as the Yankees only had a one run lead at the time, but from Girardi trying to play mind games with the Mets and get them to pitch to Jeter (they did, until they got to a two-ball count), to the reaction from the Yankee bench--who looked as though someone had just hit a World Series game-winning grand slam.

The most surprising thing, perhaps, here is how important the run actually was.

Despite walking eleven times, the Yankees only managed four hits--and only two after the first inning.

Part of this is due to hitting balls at Mets' fielders, but some attention has to be paid to the four DP balls that Robinson Canó hit--only two were actually double plays because the first was dropped by Daniel Murphy and the fourth was hit with two already out.


Five Hundredth:

Tonight, Mariano Rivera notched his 500th career save, becoming only the second pitcher in all of Major League history to accomplish this after Trevor Hoffman, and it was a four-out save to boot.

Yankees fans know how valuable Mo has been to their team, and tonight gave them a reason to celebrate it.

In his career, Mo has converted 500 of 581 save opportunities and if conversion percentages are how you measure a closer, Mo clearly exists on a different plane altogether.


Here's to Mo!





[oh, and a minor note, I know the Braves can be inept and the Mets are hapless, but games are games and the Yankees have won five straight. And Boston and Toronto both lost today, too.]

Hughes in Pen a Bullish Problem (Score One for Bad Puns!)

Let me make something clear, before I get into the meat of this post:

Long term, Phil Hughes is a starter. That's why the Yankees drafted him, and that's where he will end up long term. As it should be.

In fact, right now, as Joe P. of River Ave Blues told me, Hughes is the Yanks' fourth-best starter.


The thing is, Phil Hughes' pitching well in the bullpen, and Chien Ming Wang not pitching poorly enough to show that he should be removed from the rotation means that right now, there's probably not a very big push from Yankees' brass to get Hughes back in the rotation.

If Wang keeps pitching at a not-quite-catastrophic level, there's less time (this season) for Hughes to stretch out as a starter. Keeping him as a long reliever was a good idea, but Hughes is also being used in short relief stints, and he is not starting every five days, as would be more beneficial to his development.

The issue here is that the Yankees are hamstrung by Wang's situation, and, as has been previously discussed, they can't just simply take him out of the rotation without there being consequences, that include risking losing a former 19-game-winner to another team.

It would be easier to say that the Yankees should drop Wang if his last starts had been catastrophic like his first ones, but, while they haven't been spectacular (or necessarily that good), they haven't been horrendous. Giving up three runs each in two starts is not horrendous, and had the Yankees' offense not decided to take that week in June off, the Yankees could have won those games. (It's also worth noting that the Washington start included one horrendous call, that if it had gone Wang's way, would have likely gotten him out of the inning without the runs scoring. Or at least gotten him closer to it. Fallacy of the predetermined outcome, and all. Michael Kay would be proud).


The one possibility that keeps getting mentioned is that when Joba reaches his innings limit, he and Hughes will simply switch places.

This is deceptively simple, as it would mean Hughes would have to stretch out again, and if Joba doesn't hit his cap until, say, the end of August, there simply may not be enough time for this to have any realistic success.


It's quite a pickle the Yankees have gotten themselves into.


At least, to be optimistic, the Yankees have the luxury of having too many starters. Most teams would kill for that.

Figure Something Out

A month ago, everything was going so well. The Yankees weren't losing, and if they did, they rallied after that with another two or three wins in a row. They played eighteen straight games in a row and in a period of twenty or so games, the starting pitching had only lost two or three of those games.

Then the team ran into a Boston Red Sox team that it still can't beat, and everything fell apart.

The team isn't playing good defense, and, more importantly, it's not hitting. Not even a little. Certainly, not when it matters, or the players that the Yankees need to produce.

Instead, as we saw last year, double plays and first-pitch swinging is again rampant, as I sit here and watch the Yankees lose their third game in a row.

What is going on?

Out of nowhere, it seems, the entire team has gone into a slump.

I know teams slump, players slump, etc., but this is beyond ridiculous. Earlier in the season, when the Yankees lost it wasn't so bad because the team fought, game after game after game. Where has that fight gone? It certainly hasn't come to south Florida or Atlanta.

I know Tommy Hanson is supposed to be the next big thing for the Braves--and therein is the Yanks' critical problem: An inability to hit (good) young pitchers whom they've never seen.

I don't know why that is, but I do know that any team that aspires to the World Series can't shrug their shoulders and give up when a young pitcher takes the mound. Is it an issue with scouting? With the Yankees' batters? With someone else?

It's become such a big deal now because it's only gotten more pronounced over time.

These guys can't face Livan Hernandez every night.

They have to figure something out.

The Problem with Chien Ming Wang

Let me explain the problem the Yankees' have with Chien Ming Wang in as simple terms as I can:

1). Chien Ming Wang is not pitching well after coming off the DL, which he went on ostensibly for a hip/foot thing, but more likely that he had an ERA of nearly 35. He has not made it out of the fifth inning yet this season and tonight couldn't make it out of the third. Although the Yankees have quite the offense, the short starts burn the bullpen--the Yankees used three relievers tonight, including both the long man and the displaced starter--and against good teams, the Yankees don't have a chance with Wang on the mound right now.

2) Chien Ming Wang is out of options, which means the Yankees cannot send him down to AAA without him being on waivers, where any other team would be likely to claim him. The only options the Yankees have, if Wang is not starting, is to either a) place him in the bullpen, where there's no guarantee he'd be effective there, or b) DL him again, even though teams are coming under increased scrutiny for DLing players who may not be so much hurt as that they simply aren't playing well, especially pitchers

3) Phil Hughes is throwing well out of the bullpen, but long term he projects as a starter, and while he's had a couple shaky outings this season, he's also had a couple good ones, and a few Andy Pettitte like bend-but-never-completely-break-and-keep-the-team-in-the-game outings. Right now, there is no question that he is a more effective starter than Chien Ming Wang.

If Hughes languishes in the bullpen for long, even in long relief, he'll lose the arm strength he spent building up in spring training.

The best solution for the Yankees at the moment is clear: Hughes needs to (again) replace Wang in the rotation. It gives the team a better chance to win.

The problem then becomes, what to do with Wang?

There is another possibility--the Yankees could trade Wang, or attempt to--but this option is also fraught with difficulties. One of two things is likely to happen. Either 1) a team buys low, Wang figures it out, becomes effective for another team and the Yanks receive little in compensation, or 2) teams don't think Wang can figure it out, and there are no takers.

It's much easier for a team to claim someone off of waivers, as Wang would be if the Yankees try to send him down to AAA, as they do not have to give up to get and the move becomes much more low risk.

It's easy to see why the Yankees don't want to give up on Wang: he did win 19 games two years in a row, but he also had a spate where, in four of his last six starts, he allowed five earned runs or more. It looks like a blip on the radar, and it probably is, but because of the foot injury, we will never know for sure. Definitely, the foot injury is the more important culprit here, but all things should be considered.


So if I'm the Yankees, what do I do? What can I do?

Wang's next scheduled start is against the Washington Nationals. I would not be surprised to see Wang make this start if only because it would give the Yankees some more time to figure out what to do, but while he remains in the rotation Phil Hughes does not, and the Yankees have to consider if the short term benefit is worth the long term setback in that Hughes would lose the starter's arm strength. It's much easier to make a starter a reliever than vice versa.

If the Yankees are going to risk going with Wang over the long term, then they have to seriously consider sending Hughes down to AAA, but if the Yankees' ultimate goal is to win the World Series, then they need to find a way to put Hughes back in the rotation.


I know it seems harsh and judgmental on my part, but having Hughes in the rotation right now would 1) give the Yankees a better chance to win this year, and 2) be better for Hughes' development as a starter.


Whatever the Yankees decide, there will be a lot of scrutiny from every side. At the very least, they should have learned the lesson: panic moves don't work.

Yankees Make a Game Over It but Still Can't Beat the Sox (Postgame Notes 10 June 2009)

Officially, today's game was the first game in a week where the Yankees did not officially commit a fielding error.

Unfortunately, an error on the basepath way back when in the second inning may have cost the Yankees the game.

It's kind of funny--Nick Swisher's all out diving catch in the later innings is likely to make ESPN's highlight reels (okay, maybe not ESPN's...), but the awful baserunning move, where he strayed too far off first base and was doubled off in the second inning is what looms large.

With Chien Ming Wang starting, it was not really much of a secret that the Yankees would need to score a lot of runs to win, and when Wang somehow escaped the first inning only giving up one run, it seems the Yankees were poised to make good on the opportunity.

After Jorge Posada homered, the Yankees had two runners on first and third when Melky Cabrera came to bat, and one double play later, the entire complexion of the game changed.

The Yankees did have some good performances--Mark Teixeira was 4-5 and Phil Hughes, Phil Coke and Alfredo Aceves pitched relatively well in relief, though the two run HR was ultimately the difference maker--but they were overshadowed by two poor performances in particular:

Wang's yet-again poor outing and Derek Jeter and Robinson Canó combining to go 0-10.

The bigger issue, of course, is Wang--it's highly unlikely Jeter and Canó will go 0-for-the-rest-of-the-season.

The problem with Wang will be discussed in a post following this, but the fact remains that right now the Yankees are 0-7 against the Sox, and no matter what else they might do in the meantime, until they can beat the Sox, no one will count them a legitimate contender to win the AL East or win in the postseason.

Yankees at Red Sox, 10 June 2009

5.53 PM: Today's line up, which will likely need to score ten or so runs in the first inning:

Jeter
Damon
Teixeira
Rodriguez
Canó
Posada
Matsui
Swisher
Cabrera


Interesting to note: both Swisher and Teixeira, both switch hitters, have indicated they may try to hit righty against the RHP knuckleballer Tim Wakefield.

There's a lot of pressure on Chien Ming Wang tonight...and the general consensus is that this might be a long night.


5.59 PM: Wang's wife is due any day. Besides numerous wishes for good luck, the jokes are flying way too easy tonight.

7.14 PM: Teixeira batting righty. 2-0 count right now.

7.15 PM: One dent-in-the-Green-Monster later, the strategy worked.

7.20 PM: And after A-Rod walks, Canó pops one up. And here our troubles begin.

7.24 PM: One out, one on for Kevin Youkilis. Uh oh.

7.24 PM: And a four pitch walk to Youkilis. Two on, one out for the Yankee killer Jason Bay.

7.29 PM: How the heck did that ball get through?

7.37 PM: Got lucky there with only one run as Wang simply doesn't have the zone. Glad to see Girardi wasn't going to waste any time if need be. Hopefully the offense can score a few runs here. I'm not used to being shut out in 2009.

7.40 PM: Hip hip Jorge!

7.41 PM: Matsui refuses to go 0-17 at any point. And Swisher is up batting right handed.

7.44 PM: Melky was unlucky there, but the real error was an awful baserunning move by Swisher. Too bad you don't get E's for offensive blunders.

Wait. Actually, that might end up being a good thing...

7.47 PM: Bad baserunning cost them that inning there.

7.54 PM: I'll be shocked if Wang makes it out of this inning.

8.07 PM: Teixeira's onto something.

8.16 PM: The Yankees, it would seem, have a real issue on their hands. They can't afford to let Wang pitch like this over the long term when Phil Hughes clearly seems to be the better option right now.

Glad I'm not the GM's office right now...

8.36 PM: Line drive single for Melky Cabrera and it's now 4-2 Sox. Men on first and second for Derek Jeter with one out.

8.48 PM: Trouble for Hughes. Man on third with one out and he's begun to nibble.

And Youkilis just hit a two run shot.

You know, I get that there's always a team we can't beat, but why, for the love of Mo, does it have to be the Sox this year?

8.58 PM: Yanks got one run back there, but with the exception of Teixeira, no one really seems to be playing with much energy. The potential is there, but they can't capitalize.

9.32 PM: Holy Mark Teixeira is 4-4.

9.44 PM: With six outs to go, the Yankees have made a game of it and it's now only 6-5. If the Yankees bullpen can hold it here--certainly not a given--they have as good a shot as anyone.

9.47 PM: Even if Swisher occasionally makes bone-headed moves, you can never accuse him of not giving it his all.

Injury Bug Bites Again

A glut of injuries hit the Yankees last night. Some-such as Wang-were expected, others, such as Bruney were blindsides, though results of Bruney's MRI have not yet been announced (probably because it's not even 11 AM and he probably hasn't had it yet) and he might be okay.

The thing to focus here is on Wang.

Through the first couple of weeks there have been numerous suggestions as to why he was having so much trouble; now the obvious answer seems to be that he never completely recovered from his lis franc injury last year.

Last year, when Wang went down, someone I was talking to mentioned that the injury could be career-altering because it was Wang's push off foot. I ignored him, mostly because he always seemed to see the pessimistic side of things, but now I can see that he may be right.

For a pitcher to be effective, every little thing has to be just right. We saw it a bit with Joba last night-his velocity was down and his command way off. Whether it's early season rust or something more sinister, only time will tell.

If Wang did, in fact, alter his delivery because he wasn't putting the same pressure on his foot or using his foot in a different way, even if only slightly, that is already a big problem.

It becomes further compounded when one takes into consideration that Wang seems to have lost all confidence on the mound.

One can fix a mechanical flaw. A confidence flaw can be a career-ender if one can't find a way around it.

It's hard to say that Wang was rushed too soon. He was hurt in June and didn't pitch in a game again until March. If anything-and understand, I'm not a doctor and may be totally off the mark here-I would argue that the offseason probably did more to hurt Wang than to help him.

What strikes me is how Bruney was able to come back in-season, ostensibly with the same injury, and remain just as effective. Maybe it's as simple as Bruney didn't injure his push off foot-I'm not sure.

At any rate, the important thing here is that the Yankees are down a starter.

While Phil Hughes is the most likely candidate to replace him, and perhaps inspires more confidence than Sidney Ponson or Darrell Rasner, it seems like every time the Yankees are serious about keeping him in AAA the plan is thwarted. There really isn't a better option, however-Ian Kennedy and Kei Igawa would have to be considered next on the list.

There's more depth than there was last year, for sure, but depth is always at its best when you don't need it.

Yankees Look to Even Record with First Win

[Due to the holiday, I will be unable to cover this evening's game]

The Yankees will try for their first win of the season today, sending their is-he-or-isn't-he-an-ace pitcher, Chien Ming Wang, to the mound in Baltimore.

Wang lead the Yankees' rotation in wins in 2006 and 2007, winning 19 games each of those years, and was on pace to do so again in 2008 before a foot injury cut his season short. He has not appeared in a regular season game since last June, when he was injured rounding the bases in an interleague game in Houston.

The other thing fans will likely be watching is how Mark Teixeira responds (again) to the boos, which were probably much greater than he imagined they would be on Monday. While Teixeira is an admitted slow-starter, his 0-4 on Monday, including an AB with the tying run on third, did not exactly make the greatest first impression. Even so, it's a very long season, and Teixeira will more than likely prove his worth.

The Yankees should, perhaps, be thankful that hey are starting the season in Baltimore--this morning, in New York, there were snow flakes.

Welcome spring, indeed.

Happy Passover to those who observe it; I'll try to post something after the game, but, alas, cannot make any promises.

Analyzing the 2009 Yankee Rotation

Now that Andy Pettitte has officially returned to the Yankees, we can construct a basic rotation and do some basic, non-statistical analysis (that will come later, hopefully).

Right now the five starting pitchers likely to be on the Opening Day Roster are CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett, CM Wang, Andy Pettitte and Joba Chamberlain.

The most common rotation construction is:

Sabathia
Burnett
Wang
Pettitte
Joba


However, I have come across arguments for this construction as well:

Sabathia
Wang
Burnett
Pettitte
Joba

There are also arguments out there to switch Joba and Pettitte, but I don't see that happening and I'll explain why.

There seems to be one set-in-stone rule about rotation construction: Sabathia is the number one guy.

Amongst the others, there are a few common themes. One of the main arguments for pitching Wang second, instead of third, is to break up the power pitching combination of Sabathia and Burnett. Another argument is that there are quite a few that believe Burnett will get hurt before it's all said and done, but the counter-argument is that when Burnett is healthy, his stuff can rival the best in the game. In some rotations, Burnett would be a number one-type starter; that the Yankees could pitch him third if they chose to shows a lot about the depth of the rotation.

At the bottom end of the rotation, there are two basic arguments for keeping Joba as the number five starter: 1) He will be on an innings limit and occasionally you do skip a five starter to keep the top guys on a regular schedule, and 2) if Pettitte was to start fifth, then you would have back-to-back lefties in the rotation.

Whatever rotation one does construct, however, there is one basic rule about the rotation's expected performance: If healthy, the 2009 rotation projects to be one of, if not the, best in baseball.

It's a big if--most of us don't need any subtle reminders of last season.

However, unlike last season, the Yankees should be able to avoid a Ponsonarian scheme: if pitcher A gets hurt, pitcher R Replacement could be Hughes, Kennedy, Aceves or Coke all before you have to start worrying about taking a flier on someone.

To put this in perspective, last year, if memory serves, the first pitcher the Yankees called up to fill a void was Rasner. Granted, Rasner performed admirably for a while, but it simply wasn't good enough in the long run.


If we are going to mention weaknesses of this rotation, we would have to say the following:

1) Sabathia was overworked at the end of last season. While it probably won't affect him, as his 2007 didn't seem to hurt his 2008, it's still something to watch.

2) Burnett's notoriously shaky injury history. Hopefully the toils and travails of Carl Pavano mean he'll do everything he can to stay healthy.

3) How CM Wang rebounds from his foot injury. He did injure his push-off foot, so there is plenty of room for concern. Strangely, or perhaps not so strangely, he seems to be attracting the least attention of anyone.

4) Whether Pettitte's year last year was a bloop or if he really has fallen off that much. Either way, though, Pettitte is a pretty solid guarantee to go out and pitch innings, which is ultimately what you need from a four starter.

5) Joba's shoulder. They say shoulders are the things you don't want, and Joba's injury history is one of the reasons he went as low in the draft as he did. Hopefully, by not going starter-reliever-starter with Joba, the Yankees can avoid putting undue stress on his shoulder.


Except for Pettitte, all of the other major concerns with the Yankee rotation amount to concerns over health. So, as stated before, the simple maxim for the rotation is: Stay healthy!

The Yankee pitchers are on the whole, young, and just about to hit or in their prime. It's hard to imagine any team wanting to face this rotation day in and day out. Sabathia, Burnett and Joba are all power pitchers; Wang and Pettitte are by tradition the ground-ball-pitchers-of-doom.

There's a lot to be optimistic about with this rotation--just as long as they stay healthy.

Learning to Live With the Designated Hitter

In a poll on ESPN.com today, the question posed is about which change you would most like to see in sports.

The four options are:

BCS
Designated Hitter
NBA travel enforcement
NFL Overtime.

It's perhaps not surprising that the BCS is running away with the lead, with 79% of the very un-scientific vote, but the poll does bring up an interesting point--reminding us that the designated hitter was never embraced by everyone and still has its detractors.

I admit that until last season, I had never really given much thought to the rule.

The idea that one league had it and one league did not made enough sense to me--if I really cared that much, I could go and become a fan of the National League.

Then, on a hot day last June, I saw why the designated hitter could be a good thing. Had the Yankees been playing in an American League ballpark, Chien Ming Wang would have never had to run the bases and while no one can say for sure, it is certainly possible that Wang would have never injured his foot.

In the American League, I thought, this would never happen.

Never mind that my support for the DH rule, no matter how momentary, could cause me to lose all credibility as a baseball purist; a Yankee was hurt because there was no DH and this was a horror of horrors.

It even prompted this quote from Hank Steinbrenner:

"I've got my pitchers running the bases, and one of them gets hurt. He's going to be out. I don't like that, and it's about time they address it. That was a rule from the 1800s."

More than a few months removed from that event, however, it's easier to provide a clearer picture.

The designated hitter was introduced to the MLB in 1973, and it's now used in the majority of the world's professional leagues.

Surely, then, something so widespread couldn't be bad for the game, right?

I asked my friend, Steven Lord, a Mets fan, what he thought, and he offered this take:

I don't like it. I'm an NL person. I feel that if you play the field, you should have to hit. I feel that in the NL, pitchers have to think twice about going after a person because they know that they will have to stand in the box. I like the strategy involved with it: bunting, double switches...hell, even Tony LaRussa has added a new element to it with batting his pitcher 8th....it adds an extra element to the game.

From a sentimental point of view, that argument would hold a lot of weight.

It does make a manager have to think, it does mean that pitchers have to think before (intentionally) beaning someone, and it does mean that hitters need to be able to field, and fielders hit.

However, if you consider the years since the strike, you discover the following: Since 1994, NL teams have won the World Series in 95, 97, 01, 03, 06 and 08...six years out of fourteen, and in those years, they managed to win the World Series in less than six games just twice, in 06 and 08.

Meanwhile, the American League has won World Series in 96, 98, 99, 00, 02, 04, 05 and 07, and failed to do so in a sweep or five games only twice (96 and 02).

If we also consider the results of the All Star games since the strike and the composite results of interleague play (all time results are: 1387–1317, AL), it becomes fairly clear that the American League is the better league.

While the Designated Hitter itself can not be solely responsible for this, some of the consequences of its implementation are.

The most simple way of putting it is that theoretically the DH improves a team's offense, which means the team's opponent needs to adjust and improve its pitching, a backlash response, if you will.

Whether or not that is actually what happened is up for debate, but what is not is that the DH, when used, can alter the way a game is played. As the traditional narrative goes, if you like bunts, stolen bases and the running game, the National League (or the Anaheim Angels) are for you; if you like big home runs and lots of scoring, the American League is what you want to follow.

So is the DH a good thing?

It remains a question with no clear answer. From the perspective of safety for a pitcher, and for the caliber of hitting, it seems to be yes, but from the perspective of tradition and sentimentality-which, when referring to baseball cannot be understated-the answer is still no.


****

The Yankees have signed Nady to a one year deal which basically doubles his salary from last year.

Wang Out Ten Weeks with Lis Franc Injury

From Pete Abraham:

"RHP Chien-Ming Wang was examined today at New York Presbyterian Hospital Columbia Medical Center by Yankees Team Physician, Dr. Stuart Hershon and Dr. Jason Greisberg, Foot and Ankle Specialist.

Imaging studies revealed a mid-foot sprain of the Lisfranc ligament of the right foot and a partial tear of the peroneal longus tendon of the right foot.

Wang will be on crutches and wear a protective boot for a minimum of six weeks."

*****

The earliest Wang could return is August, which means the Yankees have a serious issue to figure out.

They have two options--trade for a number 1 type pitcher, or bump everyone else in the rotation up a spot and look for a four or a five. My guess--and it's just that, a guess--is that they'll chose the latter, as the cost for someone like CC Sabathia right now would likely be the entirety of the Yankees' farm system.

If they choose to bump everyone else up a spot, they might be looking at Dan Giese as a spot starter or perhaps promoting Alan Horne or Dan McCutcheon, though that would involve tooling with the 40 man roster.

The silver lining, however, is that Ian Kennedy is throwing off of a mound, and, more important, that the Yankees converted Joba when they did--and won't (well, hopefully) need Giese to piggy back Joba's starts.

It's not much of a silver lining, but it's something.

A Healthy Dose of Optimism

Don't look now, but there's a team that's just won nine of twelve games to move to four games over .500. In the past three games, they gave up a grand total of five runs while scoring 23 themselves. In the past six, they've given up 15 runs while scoring 34.

With the exception of one bad start in Oakland, the starting pitching has been exquisite--even going back to the last game of the Kansas City series, despite the Yankee loss.

Mike Mussina deserves a spot on the All Star team. Whether or not he gets it is, of course, up in the air, but if there's any Yankees' pitcher not named Mariano Rivera that deserves a spot this year, it's Mussina. He has been the Yankee stopper, on pace for twenty wins this season, which is all the more amazing when one considers that at the beginning of the season, most of the fan base (and even the experts) figured he'd be lucky to win ten games all year.

Joba Chamberlain's transition to starter has not been flawless, but he's improved significantly in each start, and in his next one, he will not have a pitch count limit. In his last start he allowed just one run over six innings while throwing 88 pitches--and hitting 97 MPH on his last pitch.

Andy Pettitte looked more like his old self in his most recent start, getting both the ground balls and the double plays, and Chien Ming Wang looks as though he has emerged from his pitcher's slump, though it may be a while before he makes his next start.

While Darrel Rasner faltered in his last start, it was most likely fatigue after having thrown 110+ pitches in his previous outing. With the exception of that start--one clunker in seven starts--he has given the Yankees a chance to win every time he steps on the mound.

The bullpen, too, has stepped it up a notch. Kyle Farnsworth recorded a save in the Yankees' 2-1 victory on Friday, and then pitched the eighth in Saturday's game, which, at the time the Yankees lead by only two runs. Jose Veras and Edwar Ramirez have been excellent; after pitching in five games out of six, Mariano Rivera has not pitched now in four games, so he should be available in the upcoming Padres and Reds series. Though he has given up a couple ninth inning home runs, he has not blown a save opportunity.


The offense, it seems, has finally figured out a way to score runs. Johnny Damon has been utterly on fire--currently hitting over .330, he is perhaps the Yankees' most valuable offensive player of the moment.

Derek Jeter's average isn't quite as high as he'd like, but his eighth inning home run on Friday illustrated why he has been dubbed Captain Clutch.

Alex Rodriguez has also been on fire since coming off of the disabled list; he's had two home runs in the past two games--a sign that he is utterly locked in--and, in other just-off-the-dl-news, Jorge Posada gives an added punch to the Yankee line up.

The rejuvination of Jason Giambi also continues--whether because of the 'stache or thong, though, is a question best left unanswered, and Hideki Matsui is still among the league leaders for batting average.

What does this all mean?

The Yankees have climbed to four games over .500, and while there's no guarantee, it feels like the Yankees have finally broken through the .500 barrier. There's still a while to go before they can catch Boston, but it's not quite time to worry about that just yet.

Currently, the Yankees are only 3.5 games back in the Wild Card--trailing only Oakland (from whom they just took two out of three) and Tampa Bay.

So while you're sitting there waiting for news on Wang, perhaps it will cheer you up to remember that these are the Yankees, and no season is ever over before July 4.

Pyrrhic Victory (Postgame Notes 15 June 2008)

Everything good you can say about the Yankees after today's game--and, in a 13-0 blowout win to complete a sweep of Houston and climb to four games over .500, there's quite a bit of good--has to be tempered with what looks like a serious injury to Yankees' pitcher Chien Ming Wang.

In the sixth inning, Wang, an AL pitcher who was 0-8 with 6 strikeouts in his career before today, attempted to bunt over runners on first and second with one out. The bunt--which looked like it came off the bat of someone who had never been taught how to bunt--was such that the Astros could make a play to nab the lead runner at third base, but not in time to get Wang at first.

Thus, after Johnny Damon reached, Wang was at second with Derek Jeter at bat and two out. At the time, the score of the game was 3-0 Yankees, a lead that would be hardly be insurmountable, so when Jeter laced a single to right field, there was little doubt Wang would try to score from second. As he hit the midway point between third and home, however, he pulled up lame, and while he was able to score, he had to be helped off the field and could not make it down the dugout stairs on his own.

Even though the Yankees would go on to score eight runs that inning and send eleven men to the plate (all with two outs), it was hard to be able to truly enjoy that inning because of how important Wang is for the Yankees. What's worse, is that the injured foot is the push off foot, which likely means more recovery time.

That said, despite the injury the Yankees did have an excellent game, as a 13-0 blowout would suggest. The offense was clicking on all cylinders--even the struggling Robinson Canò had a bloop double, and the team combined for seven walks and 16 hits. Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada had long home runs, and the Yankees' bullpen--Ross Ohlendorf, Edwar Ramirez, LaTroy Hawkins and Dan Giese all combined to complete the shut out.

UPDATE: On the postgame, Joe Girardi has stated that Wang sprained the top of the foot and will need more tests. He said he did not know about the DL, though it seems highly unlikely Wang will avoid it.

Chien Up (Postgame Notes 10 June 2008)

What struggles for Chien Ming Wang?

Tonight, Wang looked every bit the ace that he is supposed to be for the Yankees. It was a vintage Wang performance, with a working sinker and four double plays in 7.1 innings, the last one coming while Oakland had the bases loaded with only one out.

Wang tonight looked as though he had never had a bad stretch or even a bad game; the Yankees staked him to a 2-0 lead in the first, and he never relinquished it. Even though the first seven lead-off men were able to reach base, Wang did not run into an inning with more than one man on base at a time until the seventh inning. In some sense, it seems fitting that Joe Girardi pulled him after retiring the lead off man in the eighth.

Wang threw only 83 pitches all game, which makes Girardi's move to Veras in the 8th inning questionable, though one can argue either side of the issue.

Mariano Rivera found himself pitching for the fourth game in a row, and outside of a hit to Carlos Gonzalez, he looked as though he was pitching on five days' rest.

The Yankee offense showed some vestiges of the offense that lead the league last year with a plethora of walks, but outside of the first inning, they were unable to drive in any of the runs--Melky's home run in the top of the ninth came with no one on base.

Still, the Yankees were able to score enough to win the game plus one, which was more than enough for Wang.

One pressing issue, though, has to be the bottom of the Yankees' line up--after Jason Giambi, the Yankees had Wilson Betemit, Robinson Canò and Melky Cabrera--the first two of whom played (offensively, at least) as though they were automatic outs. While Betemit is not expected to be a great offensive star, Canò is, and the longer Canò's struggles continue, the more worried the Yankees have to be. When Canò is hitting, the entire complexion of the line up changes.

Still, the Yankees are back to over .500 and in a three-way tie for third in the division (okay, so technically they're tied for last, but that's not the point).

****
I understand that West Coasters need their evening games as much as us East Coasters, but that doesn't mean I have to enjoy the ten pm start time. At least it happens a maximum of what, nine times a season?

The Process Has Begun

This is Brent from The Bronx Block. For the next week, until Rebecca returns from her Italian vacation, Elizabeth from Blogging the Mystique and I will be reporting for Rebecca's blog.

Yes, the Yankees won 8-0. Yes, Darrell Rasner was great. And yes, Alex Rodriguez had a big night and had a home run taken from him, but that's not the biggest news.

Joe Girardi admitting that Joba Chamberlain has started the process to become a starter is the big news.

What can I say on it?

You can't waste Joba's arm in the eighth inning. The simple fact that he was put up with four plus pitches says something: Joba has the stuff of an ace. A potential future ace for the New York Yankees. Think about that: with the ceiling of Phil Hughes and with Chien-Ming Wang pitching the way he has, the Yankees could have a strong 1-2-3 combo in their rotation.

You also don't know if Joba would be a great starter unless you give him that opportunity to start. I just hope Yankee fans don't freak out if Joba doesn't start out extremely great when he starts his first game in the majors, but considering all I've heard about Hughes and Kennedy so far, I'm not overly optimistic about that happening.

Honestly, I would have hoped Joba would stay as the 8th inning guy for the year and stretch him out during Spring Training next year to start next year, but the Yankees feel Joba is most needed as a starter, giving him the ability to affect 6 or more innings once every 5 games. To the Yankees (and to me), the amount of innings a starting pitcher can affect is more valuable than the 50+ innings a reliever can affect.

Let's hope that the Yankees are right in their decision.

In fact, let's be optimistic.

Mo innings Mo Porblems (Postgame Notes 13 May 2008)

Winning extra innings games on the road is one of the hardest things to do in baseball.

However, there is no statistic for games lost in extra innings, as there is in hockey, and thus when you have a game like the Yankees had tonight, the loss stings even more.

This game was, for the most part, an old-fashioned pitcher's duel, though, at times, it felt more like the product of good pitching and an anemic offense on the part of the Yankees. Chien Ming Wang did everything he was supposed to do and like his last start, it wasn't enough. In fact, in Wang's past two starts, the Yankees have given him literally no run support.

Hideki Matsui's home run in the ninth was a jolt of life, and it certainly gave the Yankees a chance, but when the Yankees failed to score another run in that inning, it greatly lessened their chances of winning because they were on the road.

Mariano Rivera's ERA was not going to remain at 0.00 for the course of the entire season, but the loss always hurts.


OPTIMIST TAKE: Alex Rodriguez may be back next Tuesday. Kyle Farnsworth had another strong outing and Jason Giambi is beginning to look like he belongs in the line up (if not on the field)