Liveblog 15: The Yankees Are Boring

I'm only doing this because it's been over two months since I liveblogged a Yankee game. The season is slipping through their fingers, and it's just not that enjoyable to watch them these days. I had high hopes when they stormed out of the All-Star break winning the first eight games they played, but that was only a blip, as they spent the rest of July and most of August playing pathetic baseball. Now they're seven games behind the Red Sox in the Wild Card chase, and hopes for the division have all but vanished. I hate that this had to happen this year, the first in a long time that the team has not been managed by Joe Torre, because it just adds to the argument that he's some mythically great coach that wills his teams to win, although his Dodgers aren't exactly setting the world on fire either. I don't dislike Torre, but he gets canonized for capably running a team with more resources than any other, when I really haven't seen much to say that any manager makes a large impact on his team's success.

The team's makeup has changed quite a bit. Xavier Nady has been a good addition to the outfield, but this team still can't seem to hit enough to get anywhere. Jorge Posada's season ended early, and the team traded for future Hall of Famer Ivan Rodriguez to replace him, but he's just not the player he used to be and hasn't done squat for the team. Andy Pettitte and Mike Mussina are the only remaining members of the original plan for this year's rotation, with the others all being plagued by injury, and in Ian Kennedy's case, suckiness. Carl Pavano returned from one of his eternal DL stints to pitch a decent game, but it's just not the same. While Pettitte has been showing his age this season, Mussina has been great, and is four wins away from his first ever 20-win season, which would be awesome to see, and he has enough chances left to pull it off, which is the only existing storyline at this point that makes the team interesting. This afternoon (Thursday game at 1:00? Weird.) he goes for number 17 against those dastardly Sox, and I'll be chronicling it here.

Top 1 - This is, barring a large comeback, the last Yankee-Red Sox game at the old Yankee Stadium. Let's hope it's a good one. Tacoby Bellsbury steps in to face Mussina, and takes a strike. On the next pitch, he lines out to Damon in center. Five pitches later, Pedroia is called out looking at a fastball on the outside corner. Another six pitches later, Ortiz draws a walk. If there's one player umpires don't like calling close pitches against, it's him. Next up is Kevin Youkilis, an overall irritating human being. He flies out to Abreu, and we're moving to the bottom of the inning.

Bottom 1 - Clay Buchholz had all the hype for the Sox' young pitchers this year, but he's had a bad year bouncing between the bigs and the minors, while Lester's broken out and become the team's best starter. I can't remember if he's faced them since then, but he pitched a complete game shutout against the Yanks earlier in the season. He throws three straight balls to start off Damon, but eventually gets him to fly out to right. Jeter singles up the middle. He'll have to play well to pass Lou Gehrig for most hits at Yankee Stadium before the season ends, but he's certainly capable. Abreu follows Jeter's lead, and A-Rod's up with two runners on. I just checked, and Lester did pitch against the Yankees between now and the shutout, and it was another great start, two runs in seven innings. After getting 1-2 on him, Lester throws his first non-fastball of the inning low, but Alex doesn't bite. Two pitches later though, he swings through another, and is down on strikes. Nady grounds out, and the team blows a solid opportunity against a pitcher that has dominated them recently. Not so good.

Top 2 - Jason Bay grounds out. Both teams in this game acquired solid hitting outfielders from Pittsburgh and both have been happy with the results. Mark Kotsay, recently grabbed from the Braves, doubles in his return to the AL. It's not a problem though, as the next two batters strike out and ground out respectively.

Bottom 2 - Cano pops out to center, and Matsui recently back from another knee problem, strikes out. Cody Ransom, who has had two homers in two big league at-bats this year, takes a ball off the foot, maintaining his perfect On Base Percentage, but Molina pops to left.

Top 3 - I kinda missed this inning. Moose got three straight outs.

Bottom 3 - Damon takes six fastballs, the first three for balls and the last three for strikes. Good job, Johnny. Jeter smacks a single in front of Kotsay, trying to get things going. Unfortunately, he gets caught stealing on a failed hit and run. Abreu flies out, and it's time for the fourth inning.

Top 4 - Ortiz draws another walk. Youkilis just misses a line drive home run, but pops out later in the at bat. Mussina gets Bay to ground into a double play turned nicely by Cano to end the minor threat. Moose is dealing, it's time to score for him.

Bottom 4 - A-Rod strikes out looking at a close pitch, and the crowd boos him. Why? Because they're morons, of course. Nady also strikes out. Wait, why aren't the fans booing him too? Oh yeah. They're morons. Cano grounds out. That's not scoring.

Top 5 - Kotsay flies out to Abreu. Lowrie hits a solid single for the Sox' fourth baserunner. They're showing the rules for the newly implemented Instant Replay in MLB. It's only allowed for home run calls and gives sole authority to the umpiring crew chief over its use and making the final decision. It's a small step forward, but at least it's something. Alex Cora takes a ball off the leg. The corpse of Jason Varitek manages a single to score the game's first run. Damn it. Ellsbury grounds into a potential double play, but he's fast enough to beat the return throw and a run scores. There are way too many people cheering. This team is so bad that I'm already considering ending the blog early. Ellsbury gets caught stealing and the inning's over. If he gets the Rookie of the Year award because of the time missed by clearly superior Evan Longoria, I will not be pleased.

Bottom 5 - Matsui weakly grounds out to short. Ransom strikes out weakly on a fastball. So does Molina. Weak. Useless.

Top 6 - Pedroia sneaks a single past Jeter to lead off the sixth. David Ortiz strikes out looking, and argues with the umpire, because he has never taken a legitimate third strike in his life. He knows this and is confident about it. Mussina hits Youkilis. Bay grounds out to A-Rod. Replay shows Pedroia clearly out of the baseline, but the umpires aren't budging. They get worse every year. Screw Instant Replay, just get robots to do it. It's not a problem, as Kotsay swings through a curve for the third strike.

Bottom 6 - A predictive haiku:

Jon Lester pitches
Damon, Jeter, Abreu
They cannot hit him

Damon gets hit by a pitch on the arm. Jeter bloops another single for his third of the game. Abreu flies out to center, and Damon tags and makes it to third. Rodriguez pops out behind the plate. Hey, more boos! Nady pops out too. Again, no boos. Remember kids, if you make more money than someone else, people will like you less than him.

Top 7 - Lowrie pops up for the first out. Cora lines a ball off Mussina's glove for a single. He steals second when Molina bobbles the ball trying to throw him out. Varitek strikes out looking at a perfect pitch. Ellsbury lines it right into Moose's glove, ending the seventh. This is the Yankees' last chance to get him a win today.

Bottom 7 - Lester's still pitching, and gets Cano 0-2. He bloops it to shallow center, but Cora makes a solid running catch to nab it. Matsui is K'd looking. Ransom doubles into the left field corner. Lester's being taken out, and Hideki Okajima is coming in to preserve the lead. Jason Giambi is in to pinch hit for Molina. He hits a bomb of a home run to near-dead center to tie the game. Great job guys, but you still need to score one more this inning for me to give a shit about this game. The dream ends as Damon strikes out. I no longer have reason to continue this post, so I will be back later to wrap up. Mussina likely still has six starts left to get four wins, so that hope lives on.

Wrap-Up - Giambi came through again with a game winning single in the bottom of the ninth off Papelbon to avoid the sweep. Beating the Sox is cool, I guess. You have to take what you can, sometimes.

Liveblog 12: Stretching Out Joba

The Yankees have not played well since the last liveblog. They played horribly for about a week, dropping 5 games under .500. But after A-Rod's first game back, an ugly blowout against the Orioles, the Yankees have won three straight, two blowouts of their own and one 2-1 game won on a walk-off single. They might be turning around, although it's too soon to say. The two halves of the problem are ineffective starting pitching and terrible offense. Both have looked better lately, and the Yankees are making a move to help fix the former - having Joba Chamberlain throw more pitches per appearance until he's ready to throw enough to begin starting.

This has been accompanied by the clamoring from idiots in the media to keep him in the bullpen reaching a fever pitch. It doesn't matter what anyone says to them, they see this move as A) an attempt to keep up with the Joneses (Red Sox, who just saw their second young pitcher throw a no-hitter in as many years), B) a silly change in strategy even though the Yankees have said all along that this was the plan, and C) a huge mistake because Joba is excellent in the eighth inning and we don't know what he'll do in the rotation even though that's what he did through college and most of his time in the minors, ignoring that having a lead through seven innings is harder and more important than having someone to keep it in the eighth. Joba will throw about 45 pitches today in relief of Mike Mussina, or at least that's the plan.

Top 1 - Mussina struck out Ichiro, and then gave up a couple singles, but retired the next two hitters to end the inning.

Bottom 1 - Carlos Silva, a mediocre pitcher for the Twins who had a pretty good contract year, became the latest player to get heinously overpaid by the Mariners, now playing for 11 million a year for the next four seasons. He hasn't been awful, but has a 4.83 ERA so far. He retired the first three Yankees he faced, on to the second.

Top 2 - The first batter jumps on the first pitch but flies out harmlessly. Mussina strikes out Sexson swinging on a slider outside. The quick inning finishes with Damon making a nice little catch in left.

Bottom 2 - Some people think A-Rod is just a huge compiler who doesn't get it done when it counts, but you could see how weak the lineup was without him when he was on the DL with a quad injury. He singles to left center, and then Matsui hits it farther in the same area for an automatic double. Michael Kay has been yammering on about Matsui and Ichiro (they're both Japanese!), and it's already becoming tiring here in the second inning. Giambi began the season terribly but has really been having a pretty decent year offensively, especially lately. Giambi hits it even farther to the same spot, getting it over the wall, and the Yankees lead 3-0. He should keep the mustache, it always seems to work for him. Cano, also picking up after a terrible April, hits another double to the same spot. There must be a magnet over there somewhere. Molina, who started off great but has slowed since Posada was placed on the DL, grounds it to second, moving Cano to third. Cabrera dunks a single in front of Ibanez in left, Yankees lead 4-0. Damon singles, runners on first and second. I gotta admit, this team is usually pretty boring. Either they're not hitting at all and losing, or hitting way to well and winning by boring scores like last night's 13-2. I look forward to seeing a few innings from Joba, though. Jeter flies out to right field, and Cabrera takes third base. Abreu pops up behind the plate to end the inning, with a nice lead for Mussina.

Top 3 - Betancourt slices a double down the right field line to start the third. Ichiro hits a ball well but right to Damon for an out. The next batter singles but Abreu fields it quickly and holds Betancourt at third. It's for naught as Vidro hits a three run home run, cutting the lead to just one run. Ibanez grounds out to Giambi. Beltre hits another homer to tie the game. Let's start warming Joba, shall we? Mussina has been solid this year, but he has been giving up too many dingers and after an error by Jeter in his last start, gave up a total of seven runs in just 2/3rds of an inning. He walks Reed on four pitches. David Cone in the booth keeps talking about the frustration of giving up back to back home runs, which would be relevant if Mussina had given up back to back home runs. Unfortunately, he might as well have. He strikes out Sexson again to end the inning.

Bottom 3 - ESPN froze my internet and I lost what I was saying here about the inning. A-Rod struck out, Matsui singled for his fifth hit, he's having a good year, Giambi smoked a double, they walked Cano to get to Molina who flew out, Kay's still talking about Japan, Cabrera picked up the team with an RBI single, and then Damon popped up to end it.

Top 4 - First hitter grounds out to third. Betancourt lines a curveball right at A-Rod. Suzuki grounds out to Jeter, who makes another low throw that Giambi recovers. Lots of low throws by him this year. Nice recovery by the Moose.

Bottom 4 - Jeter leads off by grounding harmlessly to first. Abreu does the same to second. A-Rod does the same to short on the first pitch. Maybe Matsui can ground out to third the next inning to complete the circuit.

Top 5 - Lopez doubles down the left-field line. Drat. Vidro grounds it to Jeter, one out. Kay says he didn't get the job done. I think it's okay after the three runs he drove in the last time up. Ibanez strikes out on an inside curve. Beltre swings at a high pitch, popping out to Cano. Mussina did enough to earn the win, but hopefully it's Joba time in the sixth.

Bottom 5 - Unfortunately, Matsui grounds out to first, ruining the pattern. Giambi pops out to third. Cano doubles past the diving first baseman, reaching base for the third time. Lopez makes a nice play at second to get Molina out, ending the inning.

Top 6 -Joba throws a few pitches before making a nice snag on a ball going over his head to get the first out of the sxith. Sexson strikes out yet again on a nice slider. Another slider to strike out Johjima. That inning used up 16 of Joba's reported allotment of 45 pitches.

Bottom 6 - Melky flies to center for the first out. The next batter grounds out. An error by Lopez allows Jeter to reach base. Abreu hits a two run homer to the opposite field. Just when I was thinking Silva had a pretty good game besides one bad inning. Kay is truly baffling me. Every source has said Joba will throw about 45 pitches today. When Kay brought it up, he said 45-5o. Okay, no big deal. I don't think they'll stretch him quite that far but whatever. Then the next inning he said 50-55. Um, I don't think so, guy. More like 45. Just now he said 50-60. What the hell? Is he even listening to himself? Rodriguez strikes out and now it's time for the seventh.

Top 7 - Betancourt singles with two strikes, and Ichiro flies out. A weak grounder to A-Rod turns into a close out at first. He walks Vidro, but Ibanez grounds it to Jeter for the third out. 40 pitches, and I would not be surprised to see someone else throw the eighth.

Bottom 7 - New pitcher Arthur Rhodes walks Matsui. Giambi singles the other way, and then Cano hits his third double of the game. Not a very good job against three lefties by the lefty specialist. 8-4 ballgame. Brandon Morrow in to face Molina. He finally comes through with a single, runners on the corners, nine runs so far. Melky hits an infield grounder and Cano gets caught on the basepaths, one out. A possible double play ball by Damon is misplayed by Beltre and the bases are loaded. Jeter flies out, but not deep enough for Molina to tag up. Abreu hits an automatic double, two more runs in, and I am very bored. This game is in hand and I think Joba's done so I will take my leave. Back in a bit to wrap it up.

Wrap-up - Kyle Farnsworth had a bad eighth inning, but the Yankees still won 12-6. Joba could have been more efficient with his pitches, but the important thing right now is moving him forward as a starter. Not the best played game ever, but a win is a win.

The Yankees Are Streaky

This has been a frustrating season for the Yankees. Since the last game I blogged, they went 10-6. They're within 6 games of the Red Sox and 2.5 games of the wildcard, after being so far from the playoffs for so long. 10-6 wouldn't be so bad in that period, if so many of the losses didn't come consecutively. Those 6 losses include 3 in a row against Baltimore and Detroit and 2 against the Angels, who last night thoroughly embarrassed the team with an 18-9 rout. 10 of those runs were driven in by Garret Anderson, which is disgusting. Garret Anderson is not a good baseball player, at least not any more. The man has 12 walks on the season, how on earth do you give him that many opportunities to hit the ball hard? The Yankees wouldn't be nearly this irritating if they weren't so streaky. They're prone to both long winning streaks and extended slumps. They're fully capable of scoring 10 runs in a game and then getting shut out the next day. The pitching is just as inconsistent as the hitting. Every starter has proven capable of being both great and disastrous, while the bullpen can either shut down an opponent for the duration of a series or get lit up every night.

Most of the players who were struggling early on have improved. Melky and Cano are both having fine seasons after dreadful starts, although they've both slumped lately. Abreu's also turned his season around after a bad start, and is making a strong case for having his option picked up. It's very fair in today's market, and there just aren't many possibilities out there, especially with prospect Jose Tabata's development being hindered by a nagging hand injury that now requires surgery. Johnny Damon still isn't near his expected production, although he's shown improvement in recent days. What's annoying though is Michael Kay being down on him for only having seven home runs, when he's a "20 home run guy". He's done that precisely twice in 13 big league seasons. After Matsui's huge surge in July, he's cooled off in August. Jeter's had a deceptively bad season. He still has a high batting average, but isn't driving in runs like he was earlier, he's not stealing bases like he used to, and his power continues to dwindle. He seems more like a non-factor in this lineup than he ever has, for some reason. Alex Rodriguez is still himself, with six homers since his 500th, although they still come in bunches, with three in two different two-game spans. First base is interesting. Andy Phillips was slumping again after being re-exposed to the league, and is showing basically no power, but has been better lately, maybe worried about his job since Wilson Betemit got here. Betemit is still prone to the strikeout, and really shouldn't be facing tough lefties, but he's still OPSing over .900 with the team. Jorge Posada is still amazing for his age, Jason Giambi has been good since returning, and Shelley Duncan hasn't stopped being a useful pinch hitter.

Mussina was going well for a while, but has been awful in his last two starts. Chien Ming-Wang has also struggled lately, but not as horribly. Roger Clemens has done well besides the bone-headed move to hit Alex Rios in defense of Rodriguez, which cost him a start and led to a brutal 12-0 drubbing by the Orioles when Jeff Karstens took the start in his stead. Whatever effectiveness Karstens had last year appears to be gone, as he's been demoted back to the minors. I still think he could be a useful long-man or back-end starter, but probably not on a team that intends to win. Andy Pettitte scuffled around the all-star break after a good-but-unlucky first half, but now he's rebounded and been on a roll, winning all four starts in August. He's been the Yankees' workhorse this year, and definitely who I'd want to start the first game of an important series. Phil Hughes has only had one good start since coming back, against Cleveland. He's been walking batters, which he doesn't normally do, and his command just isn't where it's been in his minor league career. He was doing well against the Angels, throwing four scoreless innings after a three run double in the second, but allowed two base runners in the seventh, both of which scored after he was taken out, making his start seem significantly worse. Right now, if they make the playoffs, I might make him the fourth starter instead of Mussina. His control has been an issue, but he still has shown flashes of his ability, and Mussina has really been terrible the last two games. By the end of the season, if they do make it, I hope Mike has things basically figured out, and I bet he gets the starts, with Phil going to the bullpen to help when he can. I think Phil has the potential for a Mussina-like career, which would be awesome. Right now though, he's been showing some rookie problems and mistakes, like not hustling off the mound to make the play on a grounder to first, which led to two runs and an eventual loss. Going by both the team's record in his starts (3-3) and his Win Probability Added (-0.02), he's neither helped nor hurt the team significantly. Also interesting is despite the fact that righties hit worse off him than lefties (normal), he's above average at striking out lefties while below average at fanning rightes (not normal).

Mariano Rivera's at that time of the year again where he struggles and we all question how much longer he can be good. I think he'll be okay for the rest of the year and hopefully will be effective through 2009 (he really wants to pitch in the new stadium), but he definitely shouldn't be leaned on as heavily as Joe Torre seems to like. He has other effective arms in that pen now, he just needs to mix them well. Edwar Ramirez has recovered after a disaster before his first demotion, and Vizcaino has been a pretty effective setup-guy. Kyle Farnsworth became a pariah, but after pitching some good games and striking out even-more-hated Gary Sheffield and ML-batting-leader Magglio Ordonez in a tight game, he's on the way to winning back some support. Ron Villone probably shouldn't be on the team anymore. I'd rather have another righty like Britton than an ineffective lefty.

You can't mention the bullpen without mentioning Joba. Since coming up he's lit the world on fire. In an obviously small sample size of 7 innings, he's given up no runs and struck out almost half the batters he's faced, with more than half of his outs coming on strikeouts. Obviously he won't keep this up forever, but it's raised an interesting question of his future role. If he can be anywhere near this absurdly dominant as a closer, some think he should stay there instead of moving back to starting. Having a good closer is important to having a good team. A pitcher with an average leverage index for a closer, who throws 70 innings with a 2.00 ERA, which Joba could very conceivably do, has the same VORP as a starter who throws 200 innings with a 3.69 ERA (Sorry about those nerdy, esoteric terms of discussion, you can ask if you don't get it). In a relatively pitching-strong season, that would qualify as 31st among this year's qualifying starters. That's a pretty good pitcher. The thing is, I think Joba could be that good without that much projection. He has a killer fastball and slider, and two more offspeed pitches with room to develop, which would be a very good repetoire. He could be deadly with just average command, which he basically has. He's also very good at maintaining his velocity deep into games, as witnessed in his minor league starts. A lot of the concern about his weight and injury problems has gone away. The fact is, Phil Hughes was the consensus best or second-best pitching prospect in the minors at the beginning of the year, and a lot of those same analysts now project Joba to be better than him. He could be dominant for years to come. A specimen with malevolent stuff, as Bill Simmons would say. I think a lot of people don't realize how many great closers were failed starters. Mariano Rivera is regarded by many as the best closer of all time. He was a bad starter before he converted to relief. You don't need an amazing, otherworldly closer to be a good team, just one who gets the job done. You should at least make sure Joba isn't your best starting pitcher (which he has the potential to be) before you make him your closer.