"The Funnest I've Ever Had"

So this is what the World Series, the real World Series, feels like, huh?

What with the pitching and the timely hitting and the Mariano-ing and the Hoosierdaddy-ing and the mid-game-change-your-luck-Tweetups with Amanda Rykoff and Brent Nycz and the OHMIG-D YOU DID NOT REALIZE PAUL O'NEILL WAS THROWING OUT THE FIRST PITCH!

This is what it feels like.

It feels pretty darn good.

This isn't just baseball.

This is love.


***
Unlike last night's cold, rainy and windy drudge, tonight felt like October baseball.

There was, first of all, getting off the subway and walking, in the pale, dying sunlight, across the street to the Stadium. There, you find yourself transported to another world, one in which nothing matters except baseball. Nothing.





There was, in the pregame, the Jay Z/Alicia Keys mini-concert.

I'm not even a Jay Z fan, but the show the two put on seemed to set something off: the Stadium came alive, as if, finally, finally, we realized what it is our team has accomplished.







We're here, in the World Series.

We've reached the last round, we will play in the last Major League baseball game on the 2009 calendar; we will play into November.





The National Anthem is sung by John Legend and there's a flyover which goes right over my head, all of which is utterly awesome and makes it hit me again: HEY THIS IS THE WORLD SERIES, but it pales in comparison to the reaction when Paul O'Neill comes out to throw out the first pitch.




We are ready for this game to start.


AJ Burnett takes his warm up tosses not to the 300 soundtrack as normal, but instead to Marilyn Manson.

I don't know if today will be Good AJ or Bad AJ, not yet, but the music choice soothes me: almost every other time I've seen Burnett pitch this season with his normal warm up music, he's been bombed. Maybe the change will do him good.









After a few innings, after the Phillies take a 1-0 lead and Pedro Martinez refuses to let the Yankees do anything besides chant "Who's Your Dad-dy?", Amanda Rykoff and I start texting. She's scored a last second ticket to the game and we're talking about a mid-game tweet-up, along with Brent Nycz, to change the Yankees' luck. We decide: Top of the fourth inning, by section 413.

So, we meet and we walk over to one of the concession stands so I can buy myself some Twizzlers.

We watch the game on the screens, which are about 10 seconds behind the actual play on the field.

We watch AJ Burnett pitch a 1-2-3 inning, and then we watch Mark Teixeira hit a game-tying home run into the Yankees' bullpen, and we decree the tweet-up a success: our luck has been changed.



After we part, Burnett pitches as though he has taken it to another level. Slowly, we stop holding our breath with every pitch AJ throws, and instead begin to long for the next one. It may not be Lee's dominance, but you could have fooled us.

In the seventh inning, the crowd senses that this is something spectacular. So we chant: "AJ! AJ! AJ!"

He dazzles.

Later on, while speaking to reporters, he'll say it's "the funnest I've ever had".



In the bottom of the seventh, with a one run lead, the Yankees threaten for more. With first and third and no one out, a Melky Cabrera singles makes the score 3-1 and knocks Pedro Martinez from the game. Hoosierdaddy!







After a pinch-hitting Jorge Posada reaches, Derek Jeter bunts foul ("I was stupid", he is rumored to have said) and Johnny Damon comes to the plate.

I'll examine this in more detail tomorrow, but from our seats, what we saw was him ground to Ryan Howard, who, without touching first, threw the ball wide of second base. It should have left the Yankees with the bases loaded and no one out, but it was instead ruled a double play.

Somehow, you get the feeling, that it's impossible to conduct a 2009 postseason game without some sort of major umpiring scandal.



Still, the umpires' awful call notwithstanding, the Yankees took no chances, and went straight to Enter Sandman.

With the top of the Phillies' lineup due up in the eighth inning, going to Mariano Rivera is, in terms of, leverage-baby-leverage, a no-brainer. With the off day tomorrow, the Yankees could afford to do it, and so they did.

Rivera did make things a little exciting, but, being the great Mariano, he found a way.



Ball game over, Yankees win, theeeee Yankees win!



****

I found and purchased a "Got Pie" t-shirt. It's a much better souvenir than the program, which cost $5 more than normal and is mostly a reprint of the LCS program.

I still can't get over the umpires' call in the bottom of the 7th. I will address tomorrow, likely in the afternoon.


Any photo taken after the fourth inning is credit Brent Nycz. The video of the final out (will be uploaded in morning) is credit Amanda Rykoff.

Leverage, baby, Leverage

When Mariano Rivera began to warm in the seventh inning last night, there were a variety of reactions. Some liked the move, some did not, and I admit that, at first, I was a little worried--what if something happened, Rivera pitched two innings, the Yankees lost the game and then Rivera wasn't able to pitch a Game Seven?

Fortunately, I soon came to my senses, and remembered that I do believe in the concept of use-the-best-reliever-in-highest-leverage, as this is exactly what Girardi did last night.

In the top of the eighth inning, in a game that was still a two-run score, Girardi went with his best reliever to get the top--and then the meat--of the Angels' batting order: Figgins-Abreu-Hunter-Guerrerro-Morales.

Just as recently as Game 5, Phil Hughes struggled against that same part of the lineup, unable to get the one out he needed, and as big a Robertson fan as I am--and I'm a big one--when you have the option to go to Rivera, you take it.

Now, according to Fangraphs, the fourth inning in which the Yankees scored their first three runs was the highest-leveraged situation of the game, but at that time the starter was still pitching, and, well, ideally you don't remove a starter in the fourth inning.

Still, as the graph indicates, the leverage situation in the eighth inning was still much higher than that in the ninth.

The Yankees, last night, employed Mariano Rivera in the most effective way that they could. How is the mood repaying them?

The team's off to their fortieth World Series.


****

Stay tuned for more World Series/Turnpike Series goodies. I've got somehwere to be this afternoon, but plan on a Live Chat Tuesday evening, round 7.30. I will post a reminder tomorrow.

Anything is Possible

(photo credit: Nick Laham/Getty Images)


I had forgotten what it felt like.

Not the winning, but the euphoria.

This feeling, that nothing can touch us, that nothing can stop us, that for this moment, the baseball gods have smiled.

The Yankees, though, the Yankees were there to make sure I remembered.

***

No one said that beating the Angels would be easy, and it wasn't.

Six games, six games in which every emotion as a fan was tested: there was anxiety, nervousness, pleasure, pain, face-palming and, at long last, euphoria.

To be the champions of your league, you have to beat the best along the way.

The Angels were the only team in the league that played the Yankees well consistently all season, and so it was fitting that the road to the World Series would have to go through Anaheim.

When it came down to it, it wasn't just that the Yankees had ALCS MVP CC Sabathia and the Angels didn't, or that the Yankees had Alex Rodriguez and the Angels didn't, it was that the Yankees never forgot how to play fundamental baseball.

Fundamental errors cost the Angels games two and six; even just costing them one of those games would have been too much.

****

It is only fitting that Andy Pettitte was on the mound tonight.

He was there in 1996, he should be there again this season, when comparisons to the late nineties Yankees have been so apparent.

It was fitting, and Pettitte was vintage.

He only pitched into the seventh inning, but he kept the Angels to just one run, and you get the feeling that once the Yankees scored, the Angels never really had much of a chance.

There was Pettitte, and then there was Joba, where we held our breath, and then there was Rivera.


****

I've gone back and forth on Rivera in the eighth, but ultimately it was the right decision. As a proponent of the leverage argument, tonight's use of Rivera is exactly what should have been done, with him facing Figgins, Abreu, Hunter, Guerrerro and Morales in the the eighth inning, in a two run game.

You knew Rivera would be on the mound for the final out, regardless of the score.

It just wouldn't be right without it.

****

The work isn't done.

Philadelphia's not just a good team, they're the defending World Champions and with good reason.

Yet, you get the feeling, if anyone can beat the Phillies, these Yankees can.

We have watched this team, all season, dazzle us, surprise us, enthrall us and, most of all, make us believe.

And so we do believe.

The quest for 27 remains, and it closer than ever.

This team is showing us that they are of the Substance, that they are Yankees.

The euphoria is back.

Anything is possible.

It's all about the leverage (or why Mariano should have pitched the 7th)

Leverage is a funny word. A loaded word, if you will.

For one thing, it's more or less responsible for the financial collapse of America.

In baseball parlance, leverage refers to an on-field situation--the inning, number of outs, score, pitch count, etc--and how likely the result of that on-field situation is to have an effect on the game.

Example: Bases loaded, no one out, top of the eleventh inning as it was in game 2 of the ALDS is a high leverage situation, because the result of the next pitch (or, if you prefer, at bat) is likely to have a significant impact on the game's final outcome.

Other example: Top of the ninth inning, two outs, runner on second, your team is up 10-1. This is a low leverage situation. At this point in the game, because of the score, whatever happens with the batter at the plate is unlikely to have a significant impact on the game's final outcome.


***

With this understanding of leverage, one can put forth a very simple concept:

Teams should use their very best relievers in the highest leveraged situations.


Simple, direct, easy to understand, right?


Here's where we have a problem: there is a pervading belief among many, especially those that read only main stream media (MSM), that the highest leverage situations are automatically the ninth innings in close games. In other words, situations that would warrant a "save".

This is not necessarily the case.

The ninth inning can become a high leverage situation, but many, if not most, games are decided before the ninth inning.

In the seventh and eighth innings, for example, you are likely to encounter a situation in which the starter has been removed from the game but where most (okay, right now, all) teams will consider it too early to go to their "closer"--who is often the team's best reliever.

Take tonight's game, for example.

In the top of the seventh inning, John Lackey was (wrongly) removed for Darren Oliver with the bases loaded and two outs.

With the score only a four run differential, this was an incredibly high leverage spot, especially with Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez--two power hitters--due up. Now, one can argue whether or not Brian Fuentes should be a closer, but what is clear is that Oliver is not the Angels' best reliever. Jepsen, Fuentes and Bulger are all arguably or factually better than Oliver.

So the Angels and the Yankees were left with a situation where the Yankees were batting against the "soft underbelly" of the Angels' bullpen in a close game, and a team as good as the Yankees doesn't usually miss.

It's not much of a surprise, then, that at the end of that half inning, the Yankees lead 6-4.

At that point in time, Mark Teixeira's at bat shapes up to be the single most important at bat of the game. Never mind what followed afterwards, but at that very moment, it seemed likely that Teixeira's at bat could very well dictate the final outcome of the game.

Think of it this way: if you're the Angels' skip, are you sure you pitch Oliver there? Or would you be better off, if you're determined to take Lackey out, by bringing in Bulger or Fuentes?

***

So now we come to the Yankees and the bottom of the seventh inning.

Let's start here with a couple of knowns or supposeds:

A) Mariano Rivera is the best reliever the Yankees have on staff.

A1) Right now, this is likely followed by David Robertson, Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, Phil Coke, Damaso Marte, Alfredo Aceves and Chad Gaudin, with Gaudin not being used except to mop up a blow out or to pitch extended work in extra innings.

B) Pitching the ninth inning of any game is not an easy thing to do, even if it's not necessarily the highest leveraged situation of a game. Just watch this interview after Phil Coke's first Major League save:



Thus, while one tries to address leverage, one cannot ignore a ninth inning where the leading team leads by no more than three or four runs as being a non-factor.




After tonight's loss, there was much conversation about the seventh inning and what should or should not have been done.

There is no arguing that the inning was the most critical part of the game--just look at the WPA graph:


(image credit: Fangraphs)

The bars on the bottom indicate the leverage of a situation--the ninth inning ended up turning into quite the critical situation, but it doesn't matter if not for the seventh.

As it was, a simple refresher:

With a two run lead, AJ Burnett went back to the mound with 80 pitches, and the first two Angel batters quickly reached base. At this point Girardi pulled Burnett for Damaso Marte, who retired two batters while allowing one run. Marte was then pulled for Phil Hughes, and, well, we know what happened from there.

Here's the leverage argument:

Because of the importance of the situation, with the tying runs on base and the Angels' best hitters (Hunter-Guerrerro-Morales) due up, Girardi should have gone to Mariano Rivera.


It's a claim that much of the MSM and their readers/viewers will brush off as being too reactionary, but it's based on the single, simple premise discussed above:

Teams should use their very best relievers in the highest leveraged situations.


At the time, there is utterly no way to predict that the ninth inning will matter or how much it will matter.

What you know, however, is that at the time, the two potential tying runs on base are the two most important runs you want to prevent from scoring if you are the Yankees.

A tie game will automatically favor the home team, since they always have the final at bat and one less half inning to pitch, so it is imperative to keep that from occurring.


Most (okay, all) teams will use these situations for their set-up men, and this is where those like Mike Francesa start oggling over the eighth inning guys. The fallacy here is the the eighth inning guy, almost by definition of the term, is not a team's best reliever, but the team's second best reliever, the one that teams most trust to get to their best reliever.

Has your head exploded yet?


At any rate, after tonight's game, I had a conversation with Ben Kabak of River Ave Blues.

I had previously asked via Twitter how many would have pitched Mariano in the 7th, and a large number of respondents said either that they would or that they would at least think about it.

I then brought up the issue that if you pitch Mariano for the seventh and maybe the eighth, and the Yankees don't score again, you are still left with a high-leverage ninth inning in which you cannot use Mo (the Hammer of G-d is, after all, 39) and have to choose from the remaining pitching staff.

Ben proposed this solution--and I swear your head IS going to explode--

You have Andy Pettitte pitch the ninth.



It's not abnormal for a starter to pitch in relief in the playoffs.

Starters are, by definition, better than relievers, and many teams, even playoff teams, lack a solid relief corps outside their closer and maybe one other guy.

We saw Jered Weaver pitch in relief tonight; in the past we've seen Mike Mussina do it in an ALCS game 7 against the Red Sox. There are other historical examples, as well.

You don't, as Ben suggests, pitch David Robertson in the ninth in a save situation, because there is an intangible aspect to a save that can't be ignored--see the Coke video above.

You go, instead, with the experienced hand.

In this scenario you don't even need to worry about Pettitte's start on Saturday--because you've effectively used Mariano, perhaps piggybacked with Robertson in the eighth, so you still have the lead in the ninth. Pettitte grabs three outs and the ALCS is over.



I am not the first person to suggest that a reliever's most important role is the ninth inning and I doubt I'll be the last.

Some day, a manager will come to the same conclusion and pitch their closer in the seventh to get through another team's 3-4-5. If that manager succeeds, he'll be branded a hero, visionary and genius, and if he fails, he'll be branded whatever his city's equivalent of "Clueless Joe".

The beauty of baseball is that it is a game that evolves, and that someone, somewhere, will try.

The Legend of Mariano Rivera

The kid, no more than six or seven, sees the pitcher warming up in the bullpen.

"Is that Mariano?" He asks, his eyes wide with excitement.

"No," says the man sitting next to him. No, it's not Mo warming up in the bullpen, it's Damaso Marte.

****

One is 42, one is 43, and yet there are such different emotions attached to the two numbers.

What's the difference between 42 and 43?

What's the difference between the sun and the moon, night and day, water and land?

One enters the game and there is an air of inevitability, even when he does his job: the Yankees will lose this game, it's just a matter of when.

One enters the game and there is an air of inevitability, because he does his job: we are witnessing the Hammer of G-d.

****

In his sci-fi series, Douglas Adams humorously proposed that the number 42 is the answer to life, the universe and everything.

For the Yankees, 42 is the answer, the solution to any ailment, any ill, any misstepping reliever.

Number two might be an icon, the number most readily associated with the team, but 42 is something else entirely.

Forty-two is legend. Myth. Forty-two cannot be mortal. It cannot.

****

Forty-two has had his failures, just as the Greek gods had theirs, but the failures are noticeable only because the successes are so great.

Of the eight teams to enter the 2009 postseason, midway through the LCS, only one has not blown a save opportunity. Only one.

You have three guesses.

You'll need one.

****

There is one reason that the legend grows: he does not lose himself in it.

He does not promote himself as the Greatest of All Time; he lets others do it for him.

****

When did we know?

Have we always known?

It's grown over the years, grown to the point that we cannot imagine life without Forty Two.

Sometimes they say that the most important ballplayers are the ones that you don't think about until after they are gone, but he has transcended this.

We know he can't pitch forever, but we hope, and he teases us.

He has the greatest season of his career at an age when most athletes have already begun to break down, with an injured shoulder to boot, and he follows it with 2009, with his 500th save, first career RBI, and a flat-out magic act last night.


****

Forty-two doesn't need any Chuck Norris facts, any internet memes or doctored videos. He doesn't need the promotion.

He just does his job. No more and no less.


****

He misplays the bunt.

Going to third is the right decision on the play, the out is right there for him to take, but he slips on the grass and we groan.

We hold our breath. Any other pitcher on the mound and surely some of us would have left, but we can't leave here. All he needs is a chance. A strike out and then a double play, maybe. A broken bat grounder. If anyone can do it, he can.

Chone Figgins grounds out to first. Mark Teixeira makes the put out.

Bobby Abreu is intentionally walked to set up a force, and then Torii Hunter grounds to Teixeira who gets the out at home.

We exhale, a little. An out can't score a run. Vladimir Guerrerro grounds out.

The Stadium explodes.

In this moment, anything is possible.

The legend grows.

Mariano Rivera and the....Spitball of Doom?

SERIOUSLY?

I know thinks are whack in California, but SERIOUSLY?



The Greatest Closer of All Time, and not-quite-mortal, and you think the Panamanian is throwing a spitball?


Sheesh, dude, if you forgot, you won the game yesterday.

Yeah, I know, you won in spite of Rivera's 1st-and-3rd, no out heroics, but, dude...

I mean, this is Mariano freakin' Rivera. He could probably beat you throwing one handed. blind and throwing with his left hand. 'Scuse me, I should have been clear about that.

He don't need no spitball.



More later.

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.

Fundamentals 2, Angels 0

Fundamentals. Fun-duh-MEN-tuls. Noun. 1) Something that is part of the foundation of another thing. 2) In sports, the key concepts that must be mastered before attempting advanced work.

Example: A fundamental concept of baseball is the ability to correctly catch and throw a baseball.

Example 2: Another fundamental concept of baseball is that when one's team takes the lead, that team is supposed to keep the other team from scoring.


Were the New York Yankees fundamentally sound tonight? No, not really--they had three errors in the game.

The difference, however, is that while the Yankees worked around their fundamental mishaps, the Angels did not.

Sure, AJ Burnett's wild pitch that led to the Angels tying the game at 2 could be considered an error if you'd like, but that was more typical bad-inning-AJ than it was poor fundamental play on the part of the Yankees.

On the other hand, the Angels' second error of the game directly caused the Yankees to score the winning run, a ground ball that should have gone for the sure out that went instead sailing past the target and allowing Jerry Hairston Jr. to score.

It won't be cast as an error, but attention should also be paid to the game tying home run Alex Rodriguez had in the eleventh inning.

From the Yankees' point of view, their third baseman has been the unequivocal MVP of the postseason thus far (though there is obviously a lot of way left to go). Rodriguez has hit three home runs this postseason, and every single one of those home runs has been a late-inning, game-tying shot; the two at Yankee Stadium coming in what, to that point, would have been the Yankees' last at bat.

From the Angels' point of view, it was a failure of their closer, Brian Fuentes, as the Angels now join the ranks of the teams that have blown a save or late-inning lead this postseason--Red Sox, Twins, Rockies, Phillies and Cardinals are all guilty here.

The Yankees?

Well, the legend of Mariano Rivera still grows.

He pitched two innings tonight, did not reach 30 pitches, and was simply outstanding.

According to the folks at Baseball Prospectus, teams that win championships need good defense, strike out pitchers and lock-down closers.

Is it any wonder, then, that the Yankees are the only team in 2009 to have not lost a postseason game?

****

There will be many comments about Joe Girardi overmanaging the bullpen. Indeed, this is my gut reaction as well.

The more I think about it, however, the more I'm not that bothered by it. Who expects a postseason game to go 13 innings, after all?

With the off-day tomorrow, all of the relievers will get their day of rest, so by the time they play again on Monday, it will be a non-issue.

Ghosts? What ghosts?

The common refrain going around the Yankee fan base right now is that while nothing is guaranteed, and that the Yankees are not guaranteed to win their series against the Twins, there is a different feel around this year's squad than there has been in many years. This team is likable, fun to root for and really, really damned good.

So nevermind CC Sabathia's less than stellar postseason ERA or Alex Rodriguez's absence of a decent postseason since the ALCS of 2004.

This is a team where expectations are not just high for the free agents signees who make more in a year than some entire countries, but for those who have played only for the Yankees and those who came to the Yankees in unheralded trades. The team won 103 games in the regular season, and one or two players can't win 103 games all on their own. Though, God knows Albert Pujols tried.


As with any beginning, there are opening ceremonies of a sort. With the ALDS it's nothing too spectacular--full line ups and guys in uniform, but it's somewhat muted. It's good to be here, but there's still a while to go before the grand prize.



When the players are introduced, some receive particularly loud accolades--like Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter--while others receive, well, lots of non-accolades. Like Carl Pavano.



Because of the odd start time, the Stadium was still fairly empty as the lineups were being announced.



By the time the first pitch was thrown, however, almost every seat was filled.

The National Anthem always seems to add a sense of "this is it, this is what we live for."





As the Yankees take the field, there is a rush of excitement. As stated earlier, if you're a fan at that Stadium at that time, you're either way amped up, or you're dead.



With no other game going on at the present moment, the scoreboard instead displays the line up of both teams, highlighting the next batter to come to bat.



The blazing lights against the sunset make for an auspicious early game atmosphere.



The Twins took an early 2-0 lead that could have never have been: had a close pitch been called a strike three, CC Sabathia would have gotten out of the inning. Instead, a couple hits and a passed ball, and the Twins had a 2-0 lead.

That lead was, however, short lived.

Reason A: Derek Jeter



Jeter has done a lot of great things in his career and is something of an immortal among Yankee fans. Hitting a left field home run to tie a game? Awesome. And in the postseason? Well, there's only one Derek Jeter.



Hit a home run like that, then hear the entire Stadium erupt in chants of M-V-P! M-V-P! (Yes, we know it's going to Mauer. No, we don't care.)


Meanwhile, Sabathia must have been somewhat mindful of his rapidly escalating pitch count: he settled down and started to deal.



Despite having over 70 pitches after the fourth inning, Sabathia pitched into the seventh inning and did not walk a single batter.

The Twins were the first to go to their bullpen--by this time the Yankees had already taken the lead.



Who did the Twins call upon?



I swear I'm not making this up.

Not too long afterwards, Hideki Matsui hit a home run--the type that screams HEY YAY INSURANCE RUNS! My friend Brent summed up our reactions pretty well.





With two outs in the seventh inning and the Yankees with a four run lead, Joe Girardi did the prudent thing and went to the bullpen before Sabathia's pitch count approached abusive levels. He left to a raucous ovation.



In came Young Master Hughes.



There was a massive Orlando Cabrera at bat just to end the seventh inning, but Hughes got the job done, and instead of having to face Joe Mauer with the bases loaded, Joe Mauer came up in the 8th with no one on.

This is the only game I've ever been to where I've actually heard people sing "God Bless America".



It was a stirring rendition courtesy of the NY Pops



This is just a really awesome late-game shot:




Out went Phil Hughes, and in came Joba Chamberlain. Phil Coke also made an appearance and had the best possible appearance for a reliever: one pitch, one out. It was nearly a double play, but Mauer was just a shade too nimble for Teixeira.




With a five run lead--and here it should be noted that two of these runs, yes two are the direct responsibility of Alex Rodriguez, something you haven't seen in an October write up for a while--it perhaps seems strange that the Yankees bring in their closer, but this is October. You don't take chances.

Enter Sandman. Exit Twins.










Magic number, that real magic number that all Yankee fans really care about, is now down to ten.

And we'll see you Friday night!

Yankees Sweep Baltimore; Rivera out with Tight Groin (Postgame Notes 2 September 2009)

View my complete recap at The Yankee Universe

• Marc Carig and Pete Abraham are reporting that Mariano Rivera has tightness in his groin and will miss a few days but could be back by the weekend.

• Sabathia struggled early--five hits in two--but picked it up afterwards and held Baltimore to one run.

• The Yankee offense exploded for seven runs in the 9th.

• All Eric Hinske does is come off the bench and hit HRs.
  

Yanks 30 over .500 (Postgame Notes 14 August 2009)

Doing this one in bullet form because it's late and I'm tired:

• The Yankees have a .902 OPS in the 7th inning or later. The next closest is .787.

• The Mets have 69 HR all year; the Yankees have 68 from the 7th inning on alone.

• Andy Pettitte's 10 strikeouts are a season high for him and match the season highs of CC and AJ. Oh, and he did it in six innings. Ken Griffey, Jr. was the only Mariner not to strike out. Which would be why he's Ken Griffey, Jr.

• Brian Bruney threw a greater percentage of strikes tonight than did Mariano Rivera, but Rivera still retired the side on nine pitches.

• Mark Teixeira is making quite the case for an MVP award, no?

Blog at you in the morning.

Andy is Dandy; outduels Halladay in Toronto (postgame notes 04 August 2009)

Among his many phrases, one of the most obvious--and yet ignored, except in a mocking tone--quotes of John Sterling is simply that "you can't predict baseball."


On paper, this should have been a rough game for the Yankees. They have, historically, struggled against Roy Halladay, and, of late had not been getting Andy Pettitte much in the way of run support.

Thankfully, the games aren't played on paper.

The Yankees never trailed, as they scored two runs in the first before Toronto had an at bat. Although the game did get close at times, the Yankees maintained their lead throughout, making the most important pitches at the most important spots.

Andy Pettitte, the starter, was brilliant.

In his career, Pettitte has solid enough numbers against Toronto, but tonight he needed to match Roy Halladay--and that he did.

He had some of his best stuff all season, and used it in a game where the Yankees sorely needed it.

The Yankee offense was excellent given the opposing starter; like the game on July 4th, the Yankees hit three long balls off of Halladay, this time Johnny Damon, Mark Teixeira and Hideki Matsui being the culprits.

The home runs, all solo shots, came late in the game and gave the Yankees insurance runs that they ended up needing, on a night when Mariano Rivera was not at his best.

I wouldn't get too concerned about Rivera; before pitching on Sunday he had not pitched in a while and thus, rust is rust. What matters is that he held onto the lead--if he's still getting hit like this come September, then there's an issue, but he's still 39 years old...

At any rate, the Yankees have won a game that didn't favor them on paper, and all of a sudden there's just a little less pressure on Sergio Mitre tomorrow.

Breaking Down the Yankees for the Second Half - The Bullpen

[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.]

Since this is the last post in the series, I'll provide you with an index:

The Rotation
The Lineup, Part 1
The Lineup, Part 2
The Bench

Now it's on to the mother of all things Yankees:

The Bullpen

To do this post justice, one has to figure out who should be included, and who might be a little more expendable--since bullpens are fluid and change so much over the course of a season.

In this instance I'm going to settle around the "core" of Mariano Rivera, Alfredo Aceves, Phil Coke, Phil Hughes, Brian Bruney, David Robertson and Brett Tomko--the guys that have been around (or should have been around) all season. Mark Melancon and Jonathan Albaladejo will get passing nods, but we'll go ahead and pretend that Jose Veras and Edwar Ramirez were not utterly awful.

As a whole, the bullpen struggled early--when most of the rotation did, as well--but the call-up of Alfredo Aceves seemed to work miracles. That one move allowed for the short relievers to remain short relievers, for Coke and Hughes to basically claim the eighth between them and for Robertson and Tomko not to be faced with undue pressure.

When Aceves was moved from the bullpen for a spot start, we saw the 'pen fall apart again--though, this time, fortunately, the All Star break came at exactly the right time.

As long as Joba Chamberlain and Andy Pettitte are utterly ineffective, look for Aceves to remain in the bullpen.

(The so-called bullpen core in alphabetical order)

Alfredo Aceves

The statistics will tell you that Alex Rodriguez, and not Alfredo Aceves is the more valuable of the two Yankees to make their first appearance this season in early May, but Aceves' value lies in far more than just the numbers he's posted.

The easiest way to explain what Aceves has meant to the Yankees in 2009 out of the bullpen would be to say that Aceves is pitching in a role similar to that of Ramiro Mendoza, but his numbers out of the bullpen are actually closer to what Mariano Rivera posted in 1996.

Since Aceves can pitch multiple innings at a time without getting worn down, the short relievers--especially guys like Phil Coke and David Robertson--do not have to pitch nearly as much as they otherwise would. This not only saves their arms from, uh, being Proctor'd, but helps keep them more effective over the long haul.

Look for Aceves to remain in the bullpen for now--after the disaster in Anaheim, the Yankees probably don't want to mess with the bullpen too much--but if Mitre, the presumed new fifth starter, bombs and the Yankees decide not to go after Halladay (or another, you know, more attainable starter), Aceves could end up the fifth starter.

In which case we will all have to hold our breath in the second halves of games started by Chamberlain and Pettitte.


Brian Bruney

The season that, for Bruney, started with so much promise has quietly turned into a disaster. He'd earned himself the eighth inning role before going down on the DL with an elbow problem, worked his way back only to go back on it after just one appearance, and now seems to have lost the command that had been so important in the first place.

In short, it's the return of the 2007 version of Brian Bruney.

The Yankees really want to get him right--if he can somehow recover his arm strength and command, the Yankees could consider, more seriously, the idea of sending Hughes down to AAA to stretch him out as a starter (although I explain here why I don't think it would work), but even if Bruney did recover, the risk inherent in relying on a power pitcher who's twice been on the DL in the same season with elbow problems is an enormous one.

It's a shame, really, because Bruney showed so much promise in 2008 before hurting his foot, and then again in early 2009.

I don't know what happened for Bruney to have such awful karma, but something apparently did.

Going forward, Bruney will likely be used in low-leverage situations until his command improves, or he will be used in mop-up like roles after the starters (yet again) are inefficient. He'll have to work his way back to the 8th and even then there is no guarantee.


Phil Coke

The battle between Good Coke and Bad Coke may be as addicting to watch as the battle between Good Melky and Bad Melky. Actually, the entire reason to want to see him pitch is to watch the postgame interviews afterward.

Coke struggled in the beginning, found a groove, and then struggled again in his most recent appearance in Anaheim.

On the whole, he's been fairly dependable, but tends to give up too many hits--6 HR in 38 IP is not a portent for good things to come--so the Yankees are best served if he is used very sparingly, which, thanks to Aceves and Hughes, he now is.

Should Dámaso Marte stop playing catch and start playing baseball, he could help ease some of Coke's LOOGY duties, and provide some relief for the Yankees, who are playing with fire.


Phil Hughes

Probably the most controversial reliever, not because he's pitched poorly, but because he probably should have never been in the bullpen in the first place.

As a starter, Hughes wasn't exactly dominating anywhere outside of Texas, but he was getting better, and showing improved consistency and efficiency. Considering that this is his first healthy season since all the way back in 2006, that's not something to be taken lightly.

As a reliever, Hughes has just dominated. You can see the splits here, but to sum:

Hughes' ERA is 0.98, his BAA is .115, OBPA is .182 and WHIP is 0.655.

Hughes has only pitched 18.1 innings in relief, and his BABIP is an insane .147, so there's certainly a case to be made that the law of averages will catch up to him, but with relievers much of the time, you only have a small sample size to use, so you ride the hot arm as long as it stays hot.

If the Yankees have learned only one thing here, it's that if Hughes, for whatever reason, loses his value as a starter next season, he still has plenty of value as a reliever.

Look for him to keep the 8th inning role in the second half unless the Yankees have utterly no choice but to stretch him out again. If that happens, than the Yankees will probably have bigger issues than what they do about the eighth inning...


Mariano Rivera

He's Mo. Really.

He was getting hit more often in the beginning of the season, which had some worried, but this seems to have been a result of recovering from off-season shoulder surgery and perception, since what he did last season was simply historic.

He's back to his old Mo self now, notching his 500th save and 1st career ERA in the same game.

In the second half, the Yankees probably won't want anything more than for him to keep doing his thing. Wearing number 42, he is, after all, the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.


David Robertson

The easiest way to explain Robertson in this: when he throws strikes, he's unhittable. When he doesn't, he's unwatchable.

When Robertson comes into a game in low-leverage situations, he throws strikes.

When Robertson comes into a game in high-leverage situations, he throws balls.

You can see why this is a problem.

In a mop-up type role, Robertson is fine for the bullpen, but the problem is that the Yankees play a lot more close games than they do blowouts, and they need relievers that can either protect a lead or keep another team's lead within reach.

Look for him to stick to low-leverage situations, and don't be shocked if some combination of Chien Ming Wang getting healthy again and Sergio Mitre pitching well sends him back on the AAA bus--though likely not before Melancon or Albaladejo.


Brett Tomko

The problem with Tomko is that when he gets hit, he gets hit hard.

Though a former starter, right now he can't really pitch more than two innings at a time, and he's seldom seen in anything other than a mop-up role or in an extra inning game when all other pitchers have been used.

That said, I think he does get a bit of a bum rap--for what it's worth, Coke has given up more home runs. Then again, Coke's pitched 38 innings and Tomko's only pitched 20...

Although Tomko is a DFA candidate, it would seem more likely that Mark Melancon or Jonathan Albaladejo would be sent back down to Scranton before the Yankees parted ways with Tomko. We shall see.

Mark Melancon and Jonathan Albaladejo

Melancon, once hailed as the future Mo, was probably called up from AAA Scranton too soon. He's struggled in AAA since being sent back down, and again since being called up. There's too much talent to write him off, but he does need some more time.

Albaladejo didn't pitch well early and got sent down, has pitched lights out when recalled after Wang got hurt the second time, but then got sent back down...to make room for Melancon.

If Girardi is riding the hot reliever, right now he should stick with Albaladejo.



dude, if you made it this far, I kind of want to hug you...

This is a Blasphemous Post

Yesterday, on our three hour ride back from the postponed Scranton doubleheader, Brent and I got into an argument about Alfredo Aceves.

I maintained that the best comparison for what he's done this season is Ramiro Mendoza.

Brent suggested the 1996 version of Mariano Rivera.

As you might imagined, I laughed it off completely.

And then Brent got me the stats.


In 1996, Mariano had a 2.06 ERA. A WHIP of .994, 6.1 h/9, an ERA+ of 239 (!!!) 2.8 walks per nine, 10.9 K's per nine and 3.82 K/BB. Mo stats

In 2009, Aceves has an ERA of 2.02, a WHIP of .925, 6.8 h/9, an ERA+ of 216 (!!), 1.6 walks per nine, 7.7 K's per nine and 4.86 K/BB. Ace stats



Now, there is of course the caveat that Ace's 40 innings pitched do not equal Mo's 100+ innings pitched, but at the halfway point of the season the 40 IP is not a horrendously small sample size.



Of course, the major difference between Mo and Aceves is that Mo is, well, Mo with the CUTTER OF DOOM, but he didn't develop the cutter until 1997, while playing catch with Ramiro Mendoza (you see, in baseball things come full circle).


So in 1996 Mo had yet to discover the pitch that would set him apart, and yet many who remember would say Mo was an invaluable resource as to why the Yankees won that world series.

Now look at 2009 and what Aceves is doing--outperforming Mo (even if only by a little) in ERA, WHIP, BB/9 and K/BB.


Aceves won't turn into Mo, because what Mo has done over his career is un-matchable, unless Mo wants to teach Ace that cutter, but...

...I don't know what the Yankees expected when they signed Aceves.

I don't think it was this.

Even in Boston, they knew Mo was something special

This quote comes via Kevin Kennedy's talk show on Sirius XM radio (With thanks to Andrew Fitzpatrick):

“I’ll never forget this as long as I live, it’s a true story: we’re in New York, the old Yankee Stadium, Rivera comes in and he just blows it by Mo Vaughn, [Jose] Canseco, Reggie Jefferson, whoever. He went through us in the seventh and eighth inning like he was facing little leaguers. And you’re talking about the [1995 AL] MVP [in Vaughn]. I’ll never forget after the eighth inning, I think he struck out Mo, and I saw Derek [Jeter] cover his glove over his mouth and Rivera happened to get the ball and look at him, and Derek just kind of shook his head and laughed. Now, he covered his mouth out of respect because he wasn’t laughing at the Red Sox. He was laughing like, ‘I can’t believe how good this guy is, how dominant this guy is. I’m glad I’m not facing him.’ It was a respectful thing. I knew what Derek was doing. It wasn’t about, ‘Oh, we’ve got you guys.’ It wasn’t about that. I’ll never forget that, watching that from the visiting dugout, and I’m thinking the same thing on the bench. Now, all these years later, did I know Rivera would have 500 saves and be able to do this for, you know, 15 years in a row? No, but I did know there was something special we were watching that year in ’96.” "

Kennedy and Jeff Joyce hold their show, Inside Pitch weekdays, 1-4 PM on the MLB Home Plate Channel--XM channel 175, Sirius 210.



The best writing I've ever seen on Rivera is in the first chapter of Birth of a Dynasty in which Joel Sherman muses simply that the Yankees, in 1995, simply didn't know what they had in Mo...and only, if they had known...

As a fan, the best thing about Mo has been how easy he is to root for, how easy he is to like. It's not just how consistent he's been on the field, but how professional he's been off of it. Always understated, but never deprecating, there's only one other Yankee, in my mind, that has ever come across with the type of understated class that Mo has.


Lou Gehrig.

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.]

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.

The Weirdest Walkoff You've Ever Seen (Postgame Notes 12 June 2009

Michael Kay, for all of his faults, said it best: How many times can you fail, and still win?

Because that is, more or less, what happened tonight.

The Yankees failed in many, many ways.

They didn't get good starting pitching, with Joba walking pretty much everyone he saw and throwing 43 pitches in one inning.

They didn't get great bullpen pitching--Tomko was awful, Robertson was good, all right, Coke couldn't hold the lead and Rivera still can't pitch in tie games, even in the eighth.

They got some offense (I mean, dude, they scored nine runs), but they could never build more than a one run lead.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, they had the tying run on second base and the winning run on first, with two out and Alex Rodriguez at the plate. And A-Rod, as we have so often seen, popped up.

Except, this time, Luis Castillo dropped it.

Luis Castillo dropped it, and Mark Teixeira had the grit and the good sense to run hard on a routine pop up, and he and Derek Jeter BOTH scored.

How often do we see a pop up and automatically draw the conclusion? How often do we forget they actually have to see it into the glove? K-Rod forgot; he did a fist pump as A-Rod popped it.

This wasn't so much a game the Yankees won as it was a game the Mets lost; though, to be completley onest here, I think any question about ghosts moving across the street has been resolutely answered.

Anyway, what it means is that instead of the Yankees having lost four in a row, they've opened this portion of interleague play with a win and keep from falling any further behind in the standings.

Yankees fans can sleep just a tiny bit easier tonight.

Luis Castillo may want to watch his back. The Mets fans are apparently not very happy.

Rivera's Struggles on Saturday Due to Stomach Bug

River Ave Blues sums it up nicely:

"Rivera was not fine. According to a teammate, as we learn from Yahoo’s Dave Brown, Mo was under the weather before the game.

For several hours before Rivera took the ball Saturday afternoon in that tie game, he’d suffered with a stomach ailment that brought aches and repeated vomiting, according to one Yankee. Rivera had rolled off the trainer’s table, where he’d hoped to sleep it off, and into the bullpen in the eighth inning, when he began to warm up.

I think that wording is a bit off. He didn’t suffer the stomach ailment before he took the ball. Anyone who’s had a stomach bug — and that’s everybody here — knows it doesn’t just go away. They don’t call it a 24-hour bug for nothing. Mo pitched anyway, and we all saw the results. "



Now, I have had more than my fair share of stomach bugs, including one that hit while walking home from the (school) bus stop, one the last day of class my senior year in high school and another that hit the night of my 21st birthday.

I know when they hit me, I am down for the count. I can't do anything but lie in bed and sip flat Coke.

That Mo got up and pitched at all is a testament to a super human will, even if it was, in retrospect, a poor decision.

Now we just have to hope the virus hasn't spread throughout the clubhouse.

Witness to a Loss (Postgame Notes 06 June 2007)

"Take that shirt off, they lost today!" A middle-aged man shouts it from the passenger seat of a car while I am crossing 3rd Ave, walking back from the subway to my apartment.

"I know," I say, "I was there."

I was there to see CC struggle in the middle innings, to see David Price allow only two hits, to see Rivera falter, Coke implode and BJ Upton's reach be just long enough to end the game, and quash a rally.

I was there, to see, in the ninth inning, as a foul ball knocked out a young girl and made everyone who could see it--those in the area and those sitting immediately above--forget about the game.

Did Mo know it happened?

If he did, it might explain why he couldn't pitch through the ninth. Alas, I have my doubts that such was the case.

Rivera struggled against the Rays in a tied game in the beginning of May, so while it doesn't excuse it, it might help to explain it.

Much is being made of the decision to take CC out of the game after eight, but I never thought much of it. I'm not sure if it was the right or the wrong decision, because it wasn't as though the Yankees were going for the ninth inning with Jose Veras or David Robertson. Still, you have to balance that with Mo's struggles this year, and you end up playing games of what-if-this and what-if-that.


The only real knock on the Yankee offense today was Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada being unable to even reach base in the ninth, though to his credit Posada did battle.

The Yanks' couldn't hit Price well, but looked as though they were running wild against the Rays' bullpen. Teixeira's jack bounced off the wall on the luxury suite level--utterly no question about it.


Ah well.

Tomorrow's another day.