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Teixeira Leads Yankees to Victory

August 18th, 2010

Mark Teixeira was 3-for-4 with two RBI, and seven New York pitchers led the Yankees to a 9-5 win over Detroit Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium.

With the win, New York remained in a first place tie in the AL East with Tampa Bay. Detroit dropped to 2-5 against the Yankees this season.

New York used a pair of home runs to open the scoring in the bottom of the first inning. With a runner on first and one out, Teixeira homered over the left field wall, his 27th of the season. He entered the at-bat a career 1-for-15 against Tigers starter Jeremy Bonderman.

Robinson Cano, who was only batting .200 (5-25) in his career against Bonderman, followed Teixeira with a solo home run. It was the fifth time this season the Yankees hit back-to-back home runs.  

Detroit answered with Miguel Cabrera’s home run to lead off the top of the second. He added another solo home run in the top of the fourth to cut the Yankees lead to 3-2.

New York put some distance between themselves and Detroit with three runs in the bottom of the fourth. With a runner at first and one out, Ramiro Pena tripled to right center to score Austin Kearns from first base. Brett Gardner followed with a run-scoring double to left center to score Pena. The final run of the inning scored when Tigers second baseman Ramon Santiago’s wild throw home eluded catcher Alex Avila, allowing Gardner to score from third.

Detroit immediately answered in the top of the fifth. After Avila walked with one out, Don Kelly smacked a two-run home run over the right field wall to trim the Yankees lead to 6-4. However, Curtis Granderson responded with a solo home run in the bottom half of the inning. Granderson did not play against the Tigers earlier this season due to an injury, but he is 5-for-10 against his former team in the first three games of this series.

New York added their final two runs in the bottom of the seventh. With the bases loaded and two outs, Kearns hit a ground rule double to deep left center field to plate two runs. Detroit loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the eighth but only managed one run on Brandon Inge’s sacrifice fly RBI.

Dustin Moseley (3-2) earned the win after allowing four runs on five hits with two strikeouts and two walks in five innings. Joba Chamberlain, Boone Logan, Kerry Wood, Chad Gaudin, David Robertson and Mariano Rivera allowed one run over the final four innings to preserve the win.

Bonderman (6-9) lost his third consecutive start after allowing seven runs (six earned) on six hits with three strikeouts and three walks in five innings. He dropped to 3-9 in 13 regular season starts against the Yankees.    

Detroit and New York will conclude their four-game series on Thursday afternoon. Rick Porcello (5-10, 5.53) will start for the Tigers, while Phil Hughes (14-5, 3.94) will counter for the Yankees. First pitch is set for 1:05 p.m. ET.

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Posted in Game Recap, MLB, new york yankees

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Hurlers for the Hall 3: AL and NL West

August 17th, 2010

The pitchers of the AL and NL West may not be the best to use as a finale in my Future Hall of Fame series. Unlike all of the groups I’ve done, there have been no sure-fire candidates, like a Chipper Jones or a Mariano Rivera. This is largely due to the youth of the group in question. I struggled to find any pitchers in their 30s who had any sort of a chance at all (the last cut resulting in the loss of Barry Zito-yes, I really was that desperate for players). But then, maybe it’s fitting that I finish with the youngest, most potential filled group.

And, because I know you’re all dying to know, the only chance Barry Zito has of coming close to the Hall is if he becomes Jamie Moyer, Mark II: the soft-throwing lefty with good command and movement who somehow hangs around racking up wins into his mid-40s. 

And so, onto the real analysis.

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Posted in Clayton Kershaw, Cliff Lee, Dan Haren, MLB, Rankings/List, Ubaldo Jimenez, tim lincecum

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New York Yankees Bullpen is Red Hot

August 14th, 2010

Last night the Yankees bullpen went a combined 3.2 innings without allowing a run. At a certain point this season that would have been a major achievement for them, but lately it has been par for the course for them.

Get this, over the last 30 days the Yankees bullpen has had a 2.35 ERA, good for the best in the American League.

Leading the way has been David Robertson who has grabbed the eighth inning role and hasn’t given up an earned run since July 2. That’s 15 straight appearances without allowing a run.

Boone Logan has also emerged as a force since his latest recall from the minors. He was recalled from the minors in the middle of June, he allowed a run in his first appearance back, but hasn’t given up another run since. Overall he’s made 16 appearances with a 1.53 ERA since the recall.

Joba Chamberlain lost his job as the primary setup man and has been great ever since. In his last eight appearances he hasn’t allowed any earned runs going back to July 28th.

Also helping the bullpen has been Kerry Wood, who was acquired from the Indians at the deadline. In six appearances with the Yankees, he’s allowed just a single run and the depth he provides has helped keep everyone fresh.

Finally there is Mariano Rivera, who doesn’t even need to be discussed. He’s just great.

The Yankees pen has been a strength of theirs right now and it couldn’t come at a better time with their rotation a little shaky. If this isn’t a fluke and they can sustain this success for the rest of the season and into the playoffs, it will make their chances in October exponentially better.

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Posted in AL East, MLB, Opinion, new york yankees

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Jonathan Papelbon and the Demise of the Boston Red Sox Closer

August 13th, 2010

There was a time when Jonathan Papelbon was considered one of the elite closers in baseball, among the likes of Mariano Rivera, Joe Nathan, and Francisco Rodriguez.

Between a mid-90s fastball that could hit 98 mph, a plus splitter, and a solid change-up and slider, Papelbon had a deathly arsenal that he could unleash at will on opposing hitters.

In his first full year in 2006 as the Red Sox closer, Papelbon was brilliant. He threw 68.1 dominant innings, striking out 75 and walking only 13 en route to a 0.92 ERA and an All-Star selection.

He was just as dominant in 2007 and had perhaps an even better year in 2008, striking out 77 and walking only eight for a ridiculous 9.63 K/BB ratio (Roy Halladay's is 7.64 this year). Then in 2009 something happened—Papelbon became human.

Despite posting a 1.85 ERA and saving 38 games, Papelbon was noticeably shakier on the mound. His WHIP ballooned to 1.147 (previous career high was 0.952 in 2007). The culprit? He couldn't control his pitches anymore.

Papelbon walked 24 batters in 2009 as his K/BB ratio rose to 3.17. He blew three saves and allowed 25 percent of inherited runners to score (awful for a closer). In the playoffs he was atrocious, allowing three runs and walking two in two innings as the Red Sox got eliminated by the Angels.

In 2010 things just got worse. His K/BB ratio is 2.37 (Daisuke Matsuzaka's is 1.78). He's blown six saves in 35 chances. His ERA is a career high 3.26 and his WHIP stands at 1.148. He's even striking out batters less, only 45 in 49.2 innings (he's never struck out less than a batter per inning in his career). His inherited score percentage is a ghastly 36 percent.

After blowing another must-win game against Toronto on Thursday, the four-time All-Star has hit an all-time low. He can't throw strikes consistently, and even when he does he is getting hard. The biggest hole in his game this season has been the splitter, a pitch that when thrown correctly looks exactly like a fastball coming out of the pitcher's hand. Without it, Papelbon is simply a fastball pitcher who can't throw a fastball for a strike.

Questions are surfacing whether he will finish out the season as the Red Sox closer, or give way to the closer-in-waiting in Daniel Bard. That scenario seems unlikely, especially since they need Bard as the set-up man.

However, Papelbon's run among baseball's best closers seems over. He's still a better pitcher than 90 percent of the relievers out there, but if you're contending for a championship you need to be able to trust your closer to finish the game. There's no way Papelbon deserves that trust anymore.

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Posted in AL East, Boston Red Sox, Jonathan Papelbon, MLB, Opinion

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New York Yankees: Genius Joe Girardi At It Again

August 13th, 2010

Back in the day, there was a pro wrestler who went by the moniker of The Genius. You may remember him.

As you could guess, The Genius' entire shtick was centered around his (supposed) immense level of intelligence. He wore a academic cap and graduation gown to the ring and mocked the audience with derogatory poems about the area in which their civic arena was located.

Unfortunately for The Genius, he was regularly defeated by other wrestlers, since, you know, the brain has little defense against the running power slam.

I was thinking of The Genius when Joe Girardi decided to show us how smart he was in the ninth inning against the Royals on Thursday. CC Sabathia was on the mound, in a minor jam thanks to a pair of bloop singles sandwiched around two outs.

He was at 110 pitches, or about 10 pitches less than his standard workload this season. Mariano Rivera was not available, having pitched the two previous evenings. He had a three-run lead.

Surely, this was Sabathia's game to finish. Right? Right!?!?!?

That's when Girardi emerged from the dugout. He might as well have been wearing a cap and gown, spewing a stanza into his microphone about how the people of Kansas City had no idea how much fat content was in a standard Midwestern barbecue dinner.

He removed Sabathia from the game, the agitation clear in the big left-hander's face. When new pitcher Dave Robertson promptly served up a two-run double, I thought Sabathia was going to take a steel chair to Girardi's back.

The second-tier YES announcing team of Ken Singleton and John Flaherty made you long for Michael Kay—which is pretty incredible in and of itself—playing the company man card to the hilt by not even so much as mentioning that removing the team ace without Rivera available might be the wrong decision.

Luckily, Robertson stranded the tying run on third by striking out Jason Kendall. Sabathia's win was preserved. The papers wouldn't get their chance to roast Girardi after all.

If you watch the Yankees regularly, you understand that this type of stuff isn't new. Girardi has always been the type of manager who changes pitchers enough to make you wonder if there's some type of escalator built into his contract.

The frustration is that sometimes his love of percentages gets in the way of baseball common sense. Regardless of how it turned out, it was a foolish move to take out your best pitcher—one of baseball's best pitchers, not to mention a known workhorse—to bring in any pitcher not named Rivera there.

Call me old-fashioned, but if your starter takes you 26 outs into a game and you have the lead, he deserves his shot to finish it off.

My ultimate concern is that one of these days Girardi won't get covered by his players, and one of these, "Look how smart I am" moves will blow up in the team's face in a big spot.

The Genius, no matter how smart he was, almost always lost. Somebody may want to send Girardi some Wrestlemania DVDs.

Dan Hanzus writes the Yankees blog River & Sunset and can be reached via e-mail at dhanzus@gmail.com. Follow Dan on Twitter @danhanzus.

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Posted in AL East, Joe Girardi, MLB, Opinion, new york yankees

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