Where* art thou Robertson?

In his book Birth of a Dynasty, Joel Sherman opens with the 1995 postseason.

He makes mention that Buck Showalter had a young Mariano Rivera in the bullpen--ostensibly along for the ride--but did not use him correctly, to close out, in that fatal game five when it would have mattered most.

I won't bore you with the details of that game, we remember well enough what happened.


Now think about this:

As I have stated previously, the best reliever not named Mariano Rivera on the Yankee staff right now is David Robertson.

More than once this postseason, Robertson, who debuted last season, has been single-handedly responsible for keeping the Yankees' game hopes alive.

It's easiest for me to remember his game 2 ALDS performance since I saw it in person, and to be honest, the performance was nearly Mariano-like.

This really shouldn't surprise any of us.

Robertson's strikeout per nine this season is twelve. That's an astounding rate--Mariano, in his historical campaign last season was at nearly thirteen (for contrast, this year he's at a pedestrian six).

Yet, despite Roberson's success, Girardi seems, at times, to be reluctant to use him.

Sure, Robertson had a masterful performance in the ALDS, but at the time the only pitchers Girardi had to use were Robertson and Gaudin--so the choice was more or less made for him.

As far as Game 3 is concerned, most, if not all of us agree that Girardi should have left Robertson in to pitch to Kendrick in the 11th inning, and I needn't go into Girardi's explanation for removing the young right hander.

So, what gives? Why does Girardi seem so reluctant to use the one non-Mariano pitcher that has consitently come up big this postseason?

I can think of two possible explanations, neither one of which I particularly enjoy:

1) Girardi is attempting to mask some sort of injury. This sounds far fetched--and it's nothing more than a hunch on my part--but given Robertson's Andrews visit in September, I can't brush it off entirely.

2) Like Showalter and Rivera, Girardi doesn't know what he has in Robertson. While on the surface this seems to be the much more plausible explanation of the two, it actually makes less sense to me.

Robertson has been up with the Yankees for the majority of the season, and has progressed from low leverage situations to playoff situations where one bad pitch ends the game--and you don't get much more high leverage like that.

There is an argument to be made for experience, but the only other reliever with any significant postseason experience is Mariano himself.

I can understand not using Robertson in favor of the lefties when the situation warrants (although you can debate which lefty should be used), but I'm not so sure, at this point, that Chamberlain or Aceves should be used ahead of our very own D-Rob.


Bullpens are notoriously fickle things--at the start of 2009, let's not forget, it was Mariano Rivera and the Arson Squad of Doom.

That said, that's all the more reason that when one reliever is proving himself to be a hot hand, he should be the manager's first choice, not his last.

The Yankees have a bullpen advantage over Anaheim; Girardi has to make it work.




*wherefore, the common Shakespearean term, means not where, but why. Thus, 'wherefore' is not the appropriate title for the blog post. Head explode yet?

When you assume...

We assumed.

We assumed and we started to plan, as though all that was left was tying up some gift ribbons and signing the greeting card.

We forgot, in the process, that the Yankees still had to win the game.

They had to win the game, in Anaheim, against the best Angels pitcher. Even on paper it was no easy thing.

We assumed, and we were wrong.


You can attach blame wherever you'd like, though only assigning blame does not do much. As my father has told me, some are in love with assigning blame and others prefer to fix problems.

So, here we go:

Some will blame AJ Burnett, some Joe Girardi, and some Phil Hughes.

I am no baseball manager and I've never played in an organized baseball game, but this is what I would have done:

In the seventh inning, I let Burnett come out to start the inning. He's at 80 pitches and has more or less been doing all right since that let's-not-talk-about-it first inning.

Once Mathis reaches, that's when I replace Burnett, instead of giving him the chance to put the tying run on base.

The reliever I bring in is not Phil Hughes or Joba Chamberlain, but David Robertson. I know, it doesn't make a lot of sense, but both Hughes and Chamberlain have been hit this postseason and Robertson has more or less worked some miracles.

At this rate, Robertson right now is the most valuable reliever not named Mariano Rivera.

This isn't to detract from what Hughes or Chamberlain have done this season--and without Hughes, especially, the Yankees aren't even playing tonight--but both have had issues this postseason.


If I leave AJ in to face the first two batters and they both reach, I consider bringing in Mariano Rivera. It's undoubtedly the highest leverage situation at that point, but my issue arises if the Yankees don't add any more insurance runs and the game goes to the ninth still a two run game and your team on the road.

***

Unlike most of you, I suspect, I'm not all that bothered by Girardi's decision to pinch run for Alex Rodriguez in the ninth.

With two outs, and down by one, you do anything you can to tie the score, and while Rodriguez isn't a Molina, Guzman is much more likely to score from first. Again, your team is down two outs, so you don't have any more outs with which to work.

Nick Swisher, of course, killed us all with the 3-2 pop up. I don't know if he was swinging at ball four or not, but the Yankees lost the game in the seventh, after coming so close to winning.

***

So we go back to New York.

The forecast on Saturday calls for rain and thunder.

After everything that's happened this season, the possibility of being able to clinch at home, in the rain--possibly even, well, you know how--has a certain romanticism to it.

October baseball lives on.

A Taste of Their Own as Angels Walk Off on Yanks

Generalizations never achieve much, but in this occasion, one generalization can explain a lot.

The Yankees lost game three of the 2009 ALCS because Joe Girardi managed a road game as if he were still home.

You can call it over-managing if you'd like--and indeed, it probably was--but managing the game the way Girardi does at home is not nearly as much of an issue as it is on the road, especially in extra innings.

1) At home, one run by your team in extras and the game is over. You don't have to worry about scoring, and then pitching again in the bottom of the inning as you do on the road.

2) On the road, one run from the other team and the game is over. Your offense doesn't get another shot.


So here's the breakdown.

1) The Yankees' biggest issue in this game--and, it's looking like their biggest issue this series--is a lack of hitting with runners on base. Every Yankee run today was via a solo home run, and while the Yankees have had decent enough pitching to win when they score four runs much of the time, much is not all. The Yankees had golden opportunities to add to their lead, and they did not. Andy Pettitte made one bad pitch, and well, boom. A 3-1 cushion is not a big cushion, at all.

2) I don't have an issue with leaving Pettitte in to face Guerrerro although I admit that, since I did not have a computer handy, I don't know what his pitch count was at the time. My issue is with the pitch Pettitte threw: there was no reason, in that situation, to give Guerrerro anything to hit. Guerrerro swings at, well, everything. Sabathia and Burnett can blow it by the former Expo; Pettitte cannot.

3) Chamberlain looked awful. Girardi was quick with his hook, but, alas, not quick enough. Someone--and I can't remember where I read this, so apologies to whomever I should be citing--said that this postseason, Joba's fastball has been there but his slider has not, which may explain why he's been hooked quickly.

The great thing about going to games with well-informed fans is that you get excellent analysis as well, and I thus agree with the commenter known as TSJC: Joba tends to overthrow, as though he is too amped and trying to do too much. It's been an issue with him as long as he's been with the Yankees.

4) I did not agree with Girardi's decision to leave Hughes in to start a third inning. Hughes hasn't pitched more than two since what, June? May? And against the heart of the Angels' order, as well, it just didn't make sense to me. Girardi thus made the right call to bring in Rivera, and, well, Mo is simply not mortal.

First and third, no one out, and Rivera got out of the jam. At the time, the Stadium exploded and we thought it was perhaps destiny that we'd win.

5) The biggest issue I had with Girardi's overmanaging was bringing in Aceves to face Kendrick. Robertson had already had two outs, had little history vs Kendrick (if any at all) and is a strike out pitcher. Aceves, on the other hand, has a propensity for giving up fly balls, and as we all saw, the ball certainly carried today. At home, if the other team hits a home run, you still get a chance to get the run back the next day, but on the road, you do not.

As it were, Kendrick singled and Mathis drove him in with a long fly off the wall, but it is my belief that Robertson could have gotten the third out.

6) TSJC had an issue with Girardi replacing Damon with Hairston, not that he did it but when he did it. With the bases loaded and less than two outs, anything hit to left field is likely going to score the winning run, anyway. It makes little sense.

7) If Gardner is inserted into the game to pinch run, he has to run. He has to go on the first pitch--where there's pretty much no chance of a pitch out. Gardner's not in there to hit home runs, and the only reason to remove Matsui's bat is because you are going for the win right then, and need the RISP. If Gardner steals successfully, Posada's home run is a game winning, and not game tying (fallacy of the predetermined and all).

8) GOOD: Jeter's third pitch home run, holy crap what is A-Rod smoking and where can I get some, that Melky-Jeter-Teixeira play in the 8th to nab Abreu (where the heck was Canó on that? We were trying to figure it out!) Mariano is not mortal, and Teixeira is (again) worth it for his defense alone.


Okay. I think I touched on most of the important things. You can argue whether or not Sabathia should have pinch hit for Rivera instead of Cervelli, but there is no way Rivera was going to go out and pitch a second inning.

If Andy Pettitte pitches to Guerrerro a little differently, the Yankees are probably looking at clinching the American League pennant tomorrow and Girardi's overmanaging is a non-issue.

Such as it is, the Yankees will send CC Sabathia out on three days' rest, and a stop-loss here would be crucial.

We said going in that this series would be a dogfight, and with two extra inning games already in the books, it has thus far lived up to its billing.

On Bullpens and Nostalgia

Although the Yankees have played just three games in the postseason thus far, a clear pattern seems to be emerging in Joe Girardi's managerial style.

Girardi, as many Yankee fans will remember, was a member of the 1996 Yankee team and had, perhaps, one of the biggest hits in the series--a triple, hit by the most unlikely guy on the team to hit it.

So perhaps it's not much of a surprise, then, that Girardi is managing the Yankees as though the year still was 1996, some 13 (!) years ago. In all three games, Girardi went to the bullpen no later than the seventh inning, and while CC Sabathia's pitch count may have warranted the move, Andy Pettitte's, at a meager 81, did not.

In 1996, the starters left after six for the shut-down duo of Mariano Rivera and John Wetteland.

In 2009, the starters are being removed for the trio of Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes and Mariano Rivera. At least, theoretically, this is what's supposed to be happening.

More than once, however, Chamberlain was pulled before getting the final out of the inning. The example I am thinking of here is Friday night's game, where Chamberlain was pulled for Phil Coke. At the time the move worked, Coke got the strikeout that the Yankees needed, but it hurt the team later on when Damaso Marte was the only, and not very good, lefty in the bullpen in the eleventh inning.

The idea to use a shutdown bullpen a la 1996 is one I understand in theory, but not necessary execution.

It's one thing when you have a game where the starter is clearly gassed by the seventh inning, and thus there is no dilemma, but quite another where your playoff-experienced starter is pitching extremely well and you remove him for a relatively inexperienced (postseason, here) set-up crew.

What happens, then, is that when a game goes into extra innings, Girardi is soon left with a depleted bullpen that may have been avoided.

Again, the idea to shorten the game and get to Mariano as quickly as possible has a lot of merit, both historical and theoretical, but sometimes you will have a situation such as last night, where letting the starter go one more inning or even just one more out is just as prudent as going to the bullpen.

The Twins are easily a weaker opponent than the Angels, and any questionable bullpen decision could be obscured by the Yankees' brute strength that allowed them to overcome deficits in every game. With the Angels, the Yankees are unlikely to have this luxury, so Girardi's use of the bullpen has the potential to become true tabloid fodder.


The major difference I see between the 2009 and 1996 Yankees is that in 1996 the Yankees went to Rivera so quickly not just because Rivera was that good (and he was), but also because the caliber of the starters were not what they are in 2009.

The Yankees shortened the game in 1996 because they had to in order to succeed. The 2009 Yankees are lucky enough that this is not necessarily the case.

*****

So I realize this is kinda a downer post from me, so to cheer you up, have a look at the TV and radio calls of the final 2009 ALDS out

Bunting is bad

Last night, in the fifth inning of a tie game, Derek Jeter bunted runners on first and second over to second and third.

When you play small ball, it's expected that you can master the art of the bunt.

When you have hitters that struggle to hit for power or are otherwise weak--like pitchers and nine hitters--bunting can make some sense.

When you have a hitter that's headed to Cooperstown on the first ballot--like Derek Jeter--bunting makes almost no sense, at all. Sure, there's a risk that Jeter would hit into a double play, but the price of giving away an out in a close game is too much for a hitter of Jeter's caliber.

Bunting is what you do with your American League pitcher in interleague play or when Brett Gardner is batting and the infield is back looking for a double play.

It's not what you do with Derek Jeter. Or Nick Swisher (you remember that...).

I have very few complaints about the way that Joe Girardi has run the Yankees this year. Best record and all that. Still, if bunting costs the Yankees a postseason win against a team like those Angels (or Red Sox or whomever), it won't be pretty.

How Joe Girardi outmanaged Terry Francona

Managers, believe it or not, have less influence on a game's outcome than you'd think. Even so, it's still possible for managers to lose jobs based on one bad decision--Grady Little in 2003 may be the most notorious modern example.

This weekend, the Yankees sweeping the Red Sox had, for the most part, less to do with the managers than it does the Yankee offense in game one and starting pitching the rest of the time.

However, there were two clear instances in which Girardi managed (in my mind, anyway) better than Francona--and it may have cost Terry Francona both games.

1) Friday

Scoreless ties are both easy and hard to manage.

The easy part is that you can just let your starter pitch, at least into the seventh inning.

The hard part comes when the scoreless tie goes into extra innings. Which relievers do you use? Do you go by conventional baseball wisdom, in which you pitch your closer at home but not on the road? How much faith do you have in your offense?

Once the game reached the bottom of the ninth inning, Francona and Girardi employed two distinct strategies:

Joe Girardi used his relievers as long as it was reasonable to do so. Mariano Rivera pitched the ninth--conventional wisdom at work here--, but Girardi didn't push him for the 10th. Instead, Girardi called on long man Alfredo Aceves who was spectacular for three innings. Given that Aceves has been sore of late, even three innings may have been pushing it a tad, and there was no question of a fourth, so Girardi went next to Brian Bruney. Bruney has struggled of late, but on Friday night he was stellar in the first inning so Girardi brought him out for a nail-biting second. Coke was used in the top of the fifteenth, and all told the Yankees managed to stay away from David Robertson, Mark Melancon and did not overuse Phil Hughes.

Terry Francona decided, instead of using his relievers for multiple innings, used more for shorter stints. For the relievers like Hideki Okajima and Daniel Bard, this might not have been a bad thing--they are, after all, short relievers, but it did mean that more relievers had to be used--and the Red Sox, apparently, don't have a true long man in their bullpen. It meant that in the fifteenth inning Junichi Tazawa was making his Major League debut in a spot where he was probably destined to fail. A starter, in the fifteenth inning, at Yankee Stadium...ycch.

Does this have more to do with bullpen construction--Girardi had Aceves, Francona didn't--or how the two managed? In this case, the most likely explanation is that the former led to the latter. The game was, after all, important enough for Francona to use Papelbon while the game was still tied, which goes against the grain of conventional wisdom.

Still, one has to wonder if it would have been possible for any of Boston's other relievers to pitch even just an extra out or two--and thus not have to resort to the last man in the bullpen.


2) The second instance came in last night's game. Twofold.

A: Joe Girardi used Phil Coke for two reasons:

1) Phil Hughes had pitched four games out of five. This has less to do with total innings pitched or pitches thrown than it does the process of getting into a game--getting hot, as it's called--is exertion itself. Even the great Mariano doesn't pitch five games out of six, except in the postseason.

2) If the game--a one run game at the time went into extra innings, the Yankees needed to save the pitchers, like Chad Gaudin, that could pitch multiple innings, and as long as the game was close, Mariano Rivera was probably going to pitch the ninth.


The two-run home run to Victor Martinez stung for a number of reasons, but Coke, the lefty, would be who you want pitching to Martinez, who has far better numbers against righties.

After the home run, it should be remembered, Coke did induce a double play to end the inning.


B: In the bottom of the inning, Daniel Bard got two quick outs for Boston, and then gave up the solo home run to Johnny Damon. After Damon's home run, then, one has to consider why Francona did not bring in Okajima to pitch to Mark Teixeira. Okajima--along with Papelbon--had been warming in the bullpen, and it may have made some sense to have Teixeira batting from the other side.

It could, of course, simply be that the events unfolded too fast for Francona to think about it much, but then Francona still left Bard in to face Rodriguez and Posada--who both reached base. At that point Francona went to Okajima, but it could be argued that by then the damage had done.

Of course, some of the blame here should be on the relievers themselves. Bard and Okajima didn't get the job done and spotted the Yankees four runs and a bat-around inning all after two outs.



This is not to say that Girardi has not made bad decisions, or that it's not a heck of a lot easier to manage when your team is winning, but these moments stand out.

There's a much different feeling in NY this morning if it's a 2-2 split and not a 4-0 sweep.

Yanks Start Road Trip With Tampa Win (Postgame Notes 27 July 2009)

The most telling signs from tonight's Yankees' win have less to do with the stellar play by all (except, perhaps, Jonathan Albaladejo) on the field and more to do with the comments made off of it:

• When asked if this (a 6-1, 1.78 ERA in his last seven starts) is what AJ Burnett signed up for, he responded that it wasn't, and that the press should ask again in October.

• In his postgame interview, Nick Swisher mentioned that he had approached hitting coach Kevin Long on Monday morning asking him for some extra BP because something wasn't right. Whatever Long did, it worked: Swisher had two home runs--one that nearly reached the back row of the bleachers--in Monday's game.

The Yankees, going into this series with Tampa, really only had one absolute, must: don't get swept. A sweep would have Tampa only 3.5 games back of the...well, probably the Red Sox. The Yankees took care of that via their win tonight.

Now, Tampa Bay sits 7.5 games out of the division lead, certainly not insurmountable, but still a sizable buffer. Even if the Yankees lose the next two (and us Yankee fans hope that doesn't happen), they'd still have 5.5 games on the Rays, and be at least a half game up on the Red Sox.

This is a Yankee team that, despite the odd injury or ineffective inning, seems to be getting better as the season progresses.

In his second year as Yankees' manager, and only third year managing over all, Joe Girardi has his team only one game behind the Dodgers for the best record in all of baseball.

It is one thing to be able to make that statement on April 12th.

It is quite another to make it on July 28, after the All Star break and rapidly approaching the trading deadline.

The Woes of Brian Bruney

"Bruney's our 8th-inning guy" --Joe Girardi, 1 July 2009

Brian Bruney did not pitch the 8th inning of that game, a Yankee win; nor did he pitch the eighth inning today, also a Yankee win.

Instead, those innings were given to a combination of Phil Coke and Phil Hughes, who, to their credit, have been nearly unhittable of late.

As you might imagine, the media harped on it.

Now, as a fan, the only thing you really care about is your team winning--usually, anyway.

It really shouldn't matter who pitches the 8th inning, as long as the job gets done to a reasonable degree of competency.

So the issue that I'm about to bring up now, is not so much who should be pitching the 8th--heck, if Nick Swisher can pitch a competent 8th I'd be okay with that, too--but how the manager, Joe Girardi, answered questions regarding Bruney.

The way Girardi phrased it tonight was, "Bruney is our 8th inning guy, but we have to get him right."

It sounds like a much, much too PC term for: Bruney's been throwing like crap and I don't trust him to keep a lead right now.

Girardi wouldn't be wrong in thinking this--Bruney has struggled since coming off of the disabled list--but what interested me was when Girardi said "we've had some conversations with Bruney" and then left it at that.

What sort of conversations?

I don't want to read into this too much. It's hard to read into what Girardi says a lot of times, since, like many Yankees, he can say a lot and only say a little. (Mark Teixeira might be the polar opposite of this).

What I do get, however, is a bit of an undercurrent that Girardi does not currently have faith in Bruney to hold a close lead.

It happens.

Pitchers struggle, just as hitters slump.

What we appear to be left with, however, is for the foreseeable future is a bullpen, which, in front of Mo, ranks:

P Hughes
P Coke
A Aceves
D Robertson
B Bruney
B Tomko

That's quite a shaft for your 8th-inning guy, no?

Still, though, the Yankees do need Bruney. The bullpen is that much better when every reliever, and not just two or three, can perform well in any situation, and not just low-leverage ones.

If Bruney's struggles have to do with having lost arm strength while being on the DL--which seems possible--then only time can build it back up. As Girardi said, Bruney has missed, more or less, two months and is basically at a Spring Training level all over again.

This would seem to mean that the Yankees have to be extremely cautious about him--and perhaps, then, credit is due to Girardi for going to the Phils and not putting more stress on Bruney's arm.

Then again, if, for whatever reason, Bruney can't pitch, the Yankees have a real problem on their hands.

Does Mark Teixeira Know What He's Saying?

Lifted from LoHud:

“He was a little fired up,” Mark Teixeira said. “There was no yelling, Cash isn’t that kind of guy. But he was here; he wanted to make himself known. … Sometimes the principal needs to show up in the classroom if the teacher’s having trouble with the students.”

You know, Teixeira's only been a Yank for half a year, but already he has a way of saying a lot, even without really saying so much...


***

After the game, Mariano Rivera told reporters that he had been told not to swing in his at bat. He swung anyway. "It's unacceptable," he said...

...with a grin so big you would have thought he had won the World Series.

And Now Things Get Interesting

Next week in baseball is one of the most controversial weeks all year: interleague play

Baseball purists argue that interleague play should be reserved solely for the postseason, while others think it adds something to be able to see teams you would not otherwise see throughout the course of the year.

There is, however, one issue that even interleague's staunchest defenders have to reconcile with: AL pitchers hitting in NL parks.

The issue here isn't the embarrassment that might be caused by, say, Mariano Rivera swinging a bat (it's happened); it's the injury risk that comes with running the basepath for pitchers that have not trained to do so.

Think it's a stretch?

That's how Chien Ming Wang lost half a season last season, and he wasn't the only one. Felix Hernandez, who admittedly did hit a grand slam off of Johan Santana, also hurt his ankle in the same game.

The simple solution to this, of course, would be to tell your pitcher to, at all costs, avoid swinging the bat, but the last thing you want is to make an automatic out that much more automatic

For the Yankees, the issue this year is magnified as they play nine straight games in NL parks. Nine.

Not only is that nine straight games of watching a pitcher bat (though CC isn't an automatic out, based on what he did last year), it's nine straight games without either the bat of Hideki Matsui or Johnny Damon. While Matsui would seem the more likely bat to sit, it's hard to justify the idea that he will sit for nine games in a row, especially if he hits well over the weekend.

This could end up being the kicker for Joe Girardi. If he manages to figure out a lineup each day that does a decent job and the Yankees go, say, 6-3 over the stretch (okay, with the Nats in there, let's make it 7-2), some of his critics will find it harder to complain. If, however, the Yankees falter (and dude, they're playing the Nats), all bets may be off.

Four Game Losing Streaks Bring Out the Crazy

Last night, I came across some things that made me bury my face firmly in the palm of my hands.

First, there was the idea one blogger had that the Yankees should fire Kevin Long.

...

Right.

Of all the problems this team has had this year, the offense is probably the last one on my list.

Has run production been down the past couple of days? Sure. That happens when you're missing both Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada from your line up, no matter who the hitting coach is.

Despite this, the offense still has yet to be shut out of any game. Robbie Canó and Melky Cabrera seem to have done 180s from last year. Even José Molina, normally a black hole of doom at the bottom of the line up, has a grand slam.



The other call is to fire Dave Eiland.

I'm not sure Joba Chamberlain or a healthy Phil Hughes would appreciate that. Veterans like CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett and Andy Pettitte are only going to be helped so much by a pitching coach, while Joba and Hughes--those most impressionable--both would have likely not made it this far without Eiland's help.

It's hard to make the same arguments for the starting staff since it's statistically pretty bad, but that number takes into account Wang's horrendous starts. Technically, the Yankees got a quality start from AJ last night--six innings, three runs--but you won't hear anyone talking about it because the Yankees lost the game.



Then, of course, there are the calls to fire Girardi.


The team has played 27 games. 27. And you know what? With the exception of Wang's starts, the Yankees have had a chance to win every single one of their losses.

Girardi is not responsible for the injuries, or for the lack of hitting with RISP.

If there's one complaint to be made it's that Girardi is over-managing the bullpen, but this is the same guy that managed the bullpen so well last year. He didn't all of a sudden forget how to manage a bullpen, did he?



Judging by the calls from some fans, you would think this team is 9-15--which is coincidentally the record the team played to without A-Rod last year.

They recovered from that enough to win 89 games last season, and that was without Matsui, CC, AJ, and for all intents and purposes Canó and Cabrera, all of whom we have this season.

I'm not saying this team doesn't have problems. It does, and it looks like the AL East could very well be a four team race if Toronto keeps it up.


Still, to call the season over, to call for the heads of guys other than perhaps the training staff that hasn't been able to prevent some of these injuries, is sheer fallacy.

Questions to Ask During Spring Training

Now that Spring Training is around the corner, I thought I'd go and list some of the more pressing questions that the Yankees have to address.

Throughout the month of February I'll periodically attempt an answer at some of these questions, and in March, as with last year, I will do a team preview a day which should take us right to the start of baseball season.

So, the questions:

1) What happens if Jorge Posada can't catch?
2) Who will come out of Spring Training as the fifth starter?
3) Will Derek Jeter have a better offensive year or will his decline become more progressed?
4) Who starts in center--Melky or Gardner?
5) Will Andy Pettitte pull an '08 Mussina?
6) How long does General Joe Girardi have before that hot seat starts really heatin' up?
7) What's this year's fist pump/HA/otherwise inane controversy?
8) How much *more* controversy can the New Stadium create?
9) How will the economic collapse of doom affect attendance?
10) Nady or Swisher?

These are just some of the questions the Yankees have; if you've got one you'd like to see me attempt to address, please feel free to leave it in a comment!

Bobby Meacham Fired

Bobby Meacham has been fired.

This move was not unexpected, though what is perhaps most interesting is to see how Girardi deals with the loss of one of his hand-picked coaches, the other being bullpen coach Mike Harkey.

Much of the in-house criticism leveled against Joe Girardi had to do with his over reliance on Meacham and Harkey to the exclusion of his other coaches; perhaps part of the thinking is that removing Meacham from the fray will force Girardi to better utilize his other coaches.

That, or Meacham simply was that bad as a third base coach.


No replacement has been announced of yet.

Oh no, Mo!

From LoHud Yankees:

But Mariano Rivera is getting a second opinion on his shoulder today and every indication is that he will need surgery to repair bone spurs. It’s minor surgery, a scope. But no surgery is minor when you’re talking about a 38-year-old pitcher and shoulder issues are almost always more complicated than elbow injuries.

This is, of course, disheartening, even after the disappointment of this season.

Mariano Rivera is arguably the only Yankee that lived up to his contract signing of last off-season, not only equaling his career marks, but in some situations, exceeding them.

In some sense it's good this happened now, as opposed to in the middle of the season or in a year the Yankees needed him for October, but it doesn't change that well, because it's Mo, there's no spin you can put on it to make it seem routine, even if it is a fairly 'routine' procedure.

So here's hoping that if it does come to surgery that it goes well and he'll be ready come February/March 2009.



As to Joe Girardi vs. the Media, I have two thoughts:

1) Girardi should be more forthcoming to the media, even if it is just to say 'please don't come to me regarding injuries" and

2) After listening to the press conference the media did kind of exaggerate just how much Girardi blew up--can't imagine if it was Ozzie Guillen or Lou Pinella in the clubhouse...

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.

Something Cone-y This Way Comes (Exhibition Game Notes)

Some notes from today's game against Toronto:

1) Chien Ming Wang looked MUCH better today than he did his last time out, keeping it a little too high in the first inning, but getting much better as the game went on, which is obviously a really good thing.

2) The bats did their thing today. If there's one aspect of the 2008 Yankees I'm really not worried about (well, at least, not right now), it's the offense.

3) Molina was totally safe on the slide, but, that aside, I'd pay good money to see him and Posada in a foot race. An Olympic track star, he is not. However, trying to steal on him would be like signing my own 'out' warrant.

4) Cone was awesome in the broadcast booth. I could listen to him game in, game out.

5) Girardi, to use a geek term, pwned Michael Kay during the interview, and it was a beautiful thing.

Catch-All (Random Baseball Trivia, Week Four)

In honor of Joe Girardi being named manager, today's Random Baseball Trivia nuggets all concern catchers!

First, we have this one:

On May 15, 1973, California Angels backup catcher Jeff Torborg catches the third no-hitter of his career. He previously backstopped gems for Bill Singer and Sandy Koufax while with the Dodgers. This one is a 3-0 blanking of Kansas City and the first no-hitter for teammate Nolan Ryan.

I believe Mr. Ryan went on to have a few more no-hitters in his day...


Then we have:


On November 5, 1978, Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Manny Sanguillen was involved in one of the strangest trades in history. Oakland A's manager Chuck Tanner was still under contract. To obtain the rights to hire Tanner, the Pirates traded Sanguillen and $100,000 to Oakland for their Manager Tanner.

I wonder how that feels, being traded for a manager...is that a plus on your game calling skills, or saying that you're now officially too flabby to run around the bases?


The catch-all sourcs

A (Friday) Night at the Movies

Okay, so my camera battery kept dying as I was trying to do this...I know I say 'uh' and 'umm' way too much.

It's kind of long, but stick through it to the end...





...Yes, I do know that I need a hair cut. Play nice.

The Sun Also Rises

(Thank you, Mr. Hemingway)

The darkest hour is just before dawn.

I’m not always one for overdone clichés, but this one seems to hold a particular resonance with me right now.

When you consider that on Sunday night Yankee fans were hit with the double whammy of archival Boston winning the World Series AND Alex Rodriguez not only opting out of his contract, but insulting the team by refusing to meet with them as well, it’s quite amazing that today seems, all and all, to be such a good day.

Joe Girardi was named manager; while all three managerial candidates were good, most people I’ve talked to (including Brent over at The Bronx Block and Andrea at Joblog Chamberlain ) agreed that Girardi was the best choice. He’s got a very different style than Joe Torre, did wonders for the Marlins in 2006, winning Manager of the Year, and has both played and media-ed for the Yankees.

While Mattingly will not remain with the Yankees, which was the proper option (and if you listen to Mattingly’s press conference, the guy is NOTHING but class), Tony Peña will, and by many accounts, including Pete Abraham, Peña is a class guy that is very close with the kids, and, well, if you saw the picture from the interview, Peña’s got some great fashion sense as well!

Joe Torre landed a gig with the Dodgers, which is great for two reasons: 1) Torre was a Dodger fan growing up, and 2) as an NL West team, the Yankees are unlikely to be concerned with them, except in the event of the World Series. Torre fans can still root for Torre and not feel bad about it.

Oh, and case you didn’t know, it’s been mentioned that Paul O’Neill, a guy whose name is more or less synonymous with drive and winning, could come back as a coach.

Yes, the Yankees need a third baseman, an entirely new bullpen (save Mo), and there are questions about right field (though Abreu’s option is likely to be picked up), 1st base and starting pitching, but one can’t help feeling that we’ve left the era of 2004-2007 (excepting June-September 07) when the Yankees were more a collection of stars than an actual team.

Because A-Rod opted out when he did, and the Yankees, once Torre announced he wasn’t coming back, did not take forever to name a new manager, the Yankees will likely be able to negotiate with Mo, Posada and Pettitte all that much sooner. In fact, Mo was in Tampa today (yesterday?), with his agent. Obviously there’s no reason to rush to a conclusion, but it’s a distinct possibility that whatever Mo wants, he’ll get (unless it’s 10 years and $250 million, of course). Same for Posada.

Are the Yankees a lock for the playoffs in ’08? Of course not, but ask yourself if the Yankees were a lock for the playoffs in ’07 anytime before they went 19-9 in July, and Seattle had the adolescent teenager of all collapses (the mother belongs to the ’04 Yanks and the father the ’07 Mets). Ask yourself if the Yanks were a lock for the playoffs in ’07 in April and May, as even while A-Rod was the Yankees, the team was only 21-29.

2008 is a year where the Yankees have the All-Star Game and that is also the last year of the old Yankee Stadium, a year where we’ve got three pitchers under 24, a year where Derek Jeter can not just be the captain in name.

Is it likely that 2008 will pass without at least some sort of memorable, classic, history-making moment?

Didn’t think so.


Every journey, even one to twenty-seven World Championships, starts somewhere. Sunday, yesterday and today we took the first steps.

A Welcome Letter to Joe Girardi

To Joe Girardi--

Welcome back! We've missed you!

You will find that while much has changed, there are still some things you will find familiar: Derek Jeter is still here, King George is still around (even if it's the princelings Hank n' Hal doing most of the work), anything other than a World Series is a failure...you'll remember it well!

You will also find that there are a few things that need to be done before April, such as finding a third basemen. Wilson Betemit is good, yes, but you do need someone with that Aaron Boone or Scott Brosius ability to play CLUTCH in the playoffs...speaking of which, I have it on good authority (namely, Tyler Kepner's blog) that Aaron Boone is a free agent. I'm not advocating anything here, just find it a wee bit amusing. Anyway, you might also want to hire a proper bullpen, and proper bullpen coach, but you knew that.

Please be advised of the following:

Damon plays best in left.

Wilson can't hit from the right. Shelley can.

Shelley could probably kick Chuck Norris' ass bare handed, so be careful.

Alberto Gonzalez has probably never actually been to the White House, and unlike the chap that shares his name, he should be used for defense only

Bronson Sardinha is not a fish...and neither are you!

I still need season tickets. Bleachers will do just fine.


Good luck in 2008,

Rebecca

PS: You did a great job with Jorge. Never properly thanked you for that one, so Thank You!