5-19

Friday was all about Kuroda having a great slider and great command.  He has been great this year with a 1.99 ERA so far he is wheeling and dealing with good stuff and good command.  I had not watched him much when he was in LA but I have liked him from the first day he was here and he has been a great pickup and a great resigning.

Saturday saw Phelps give us more quality innings.  Phelps had a very good slider all day.  He used it as a change of pace, but it is a good pitch because it appears the batters don’t pick up the slider rotation quickly on it and he throws with a similar motion as his fastball.  It is not sharp, but it breaks late which makes it very effective (compared to a pitch that can be recognized quicker.  Phelps is not a dominant guy, but he is a solid rotation guy (even if back of the rotation).  He is a heck of a lot more consistent than Hughes and while Hughes has got his velocity back, a few years ago I was talking about how Phelps could give us everything Hughes can…

Some crazy stuff in the game helped us out as Phelps was in some trouble early on.  Phelps had walked 2 guys and had 2 outs but a 3-1 count on the batter when Bautista got picked off at 2^nd base!  That is simply inexcusable and an enormous blunder.  Honestly that could have been the game.  I know I was just speaking highly of Phelps (and I do think he is not a weak starter), but he was having first inning troubles with control and after 2 walks and a 3-1 count what was Bautista thinking?  HUGE play.

In the 2^nd inning, Toronto bunted and their batter stepped fully out of the batters box (his foot was behind the plate) but nobody caught it and nobody said anything.  Could have gotten an easy out there.

Toronto messed by not turning 2 on a comebacker and instead of being out of the inning we rallied for 3 runs with 2 outs.  Their defense has been bad against us.

Overbay made a great scoop on a tough in between hop after Nix made a very good play to get the ball over to him.  I let out a cheer when I saw that play as it saved a run.

David Adams, who appears to now be our 3^rd baseman until the MASH unit comes back, is an important person for us.  Mostly because he represents what I have been writing about for the past few years; bring up our minor leaguers instead of signing the Ichiro’s and Ben Francisco’s of the world.  Let our minor league guys play as well if not better than the veterans but more important develop them.  I didn’t like signing Gonzalez to play short, but it is possible we didn’t have anyone, but no we get rid of him and bring in Reid Brignac.  At least he is a lefty and known as a solid defender.  He won’t give you much stick, but he should give us more than we have now.  I like this move better than Gonzalez, but it is still not a long term solution, it is a band aid…but at this point it was fine.

Adams has played pretty well so far and showed some good awareness on a tag play where he caught the ball as he was moving his glove toward the runner (who was correctly called safe on a very close play).  Those are the subtle differences that can make the difference, even if it didn’t this time. 

I like Granderson in RF and benching Ichiro.  I wasn’t sure who would play RF and who would play LF (not sure I care that much), but I wanted Gardner in CF.

Melky made one of his patented throws that I used get annoyed with as he took five steps before uncorking a very good throw that was late.  I am a believer that getting rid of the ball quickly is as important as the throw itself and I think the overall time it touches the glove to getting to the tagging fielder is longer when you take so many steps.

We are doing better than I expected with so many guys out…enjoy it!

5-16 game

When Brett Gardner is up with 1^st and 2^nd nobody out in a very close game, you should be bunting 95% of the time.  In this case Girardi should not have invoked the 5% rule as it was idiocy.  The fact Gardner struck out is not proof it was a bad move; it was simply an awful decision.

Pettitte and Stewart went out with injuries, hopefully they are not too long term…at least for Pettitte.

Fast forward to the 8^th inning with the tying run in scoring position and Ichiro up with 1^st base opened, they were so unconcerned about Ichiro, even with Romine on deck; they went after him and struck him out.  The issue then was Romine led off the 9^th and after have a 3-0 count he took the “give me” 3-0 strike but it looked like a ball to me.  He should have taken another pitch at this point but instead swung at the 3-1 pitch that was low but possibly a strike and weakly (corrected to say soft liner) short hop to 2^nd.  Gardner had a 3-1 count on him and he tried to bunt.  Kay, incorrectly, said that shows a sign of a guy with little confidence (Gardner did stink up to this point) trying to bunt.  I think it was a smart move as he figured he would get a good pitch and the 3^rd baseman was deep and if he could get on he could run all day on Montero and if it was a ball, he could take the walk.  He ended up fouling it off but then lined a clean single through the left side to get on base.  Nix was now up.  Think about how truly sad it is that Romine and Nix were up in crucial 9^th inning AB’s against a righty closer!  Anyway, Nix gets ahead of the count while Gardner steals 2^nd and 3^rd and swings at ball 4 on a 3-1 count!  That swing might have cost us the game because with Cano up and an open base, Cano didn’t see a single good pitch (credit the pitcher) and he grounded out to end the game.  It was a fun AB too watch, but with a guy throwing 97-98 and an open base, it was a tough AB for Cano as walking him intentionally wouldn't have been a crazy move.  Cano needed a little more discipline, but the pitcher made a lot of quality close strikes.

Tough loss as we had chances.  Seattle has some guys throwing hard but they all have some wrinkles too.

5-15

It was interesting watching the Yankees AAA team play against Cleveland in the 2^nd game last night two nights ago, but they came through.  It is also nice to see exactly what we do have in terms of minor league talent, something the Yankees have been avoiding for too long.  Of course, the Yankee brass didn’t have much choice with all the injuries yet they still have chosen top bring in two infielders (who are not very good) rather than give some of our other minor leaguers some action.  Either way, we are getting to see some of them because of the injuries.

Tuesday night:  King Felix and his sub 2 ERA against CC.  Both guys have dropped some velocity but CC is about 2-3 down from a few years ago and that is significant.  Seattle’s offense is not strong and he was able to keep the damage down.  Granderson looked really bad in his AB’s…very different swing. 

After being down 3-0 to King Felix Cano hung in there and took a curve ball out to close the gap to a one run game.  It really shows how good he is as he looked uncomfortable (just like many others against Felix) and then pulls us right back in the game.  Later on Overbay did his job getting the sac fly getting us the go ahead run and turning a one run lead over to Robertson and Rivera.  Robertson did a poor job of walking the first guy on 4 pitches (how does that happen?).  Then it got worse when Romine made a poor decision on a bunt that was just in front of the plate, but Romine should have seen the jump and known the speed of the runner and not tried to get him at 2^nd.  Now we have 1^st and 2^nd nobody out.  Fortunately, the same runner who was going on first move to 2^nd on the bunt also made the mistake of going on the line drive to Nix and that that one false step was enough for Nix to double him off on the line drive and that saved the inning.

The Genius Maker looked great breaking two bats and was aided by the final strike of the game…that was clearly a ball.  Either way, he looked good again and saved another 1 run game.

Wednesday night saw Hughes just pitch horribly and not get out of the first inning and the game was over (7-0) before the Yanks stepped to the plate.  Hughes just has far too many of those types of situations.  This is why I just have never been a fan. 

Ichiro, who has not been doing well and actually made one of his throws where he took 5 steps before releasing the ball, did hit the ball hard a bunch of times with nothing to show for it. 

It is amazing that our record is what it is…we have been lucky in all these one run games

Game 35-36

Happy Mother's Day!

I still don’t understand why Stewart keeps his hand out in the open in the same way Cervelli got injured?  Can anyone explain why nobody has said anything?

Saturday’s game:

Pettitte raised his arm slot a little and he had better movement on his pitches.  It seemed he was getting lazy with his arm and throwing a little more side arm.  He pitched well and looked better not walking anyone (the umps walked a guy with only 3 balls (I find it impossible that the Yankees didn’t say anything).

Wells came through with a big 2 run HR with a 3-1 fastball that was grooved.

Robertson looked great striking out all 3 batters and having his cutter look a little like Rivera’s.  He also has the good hook.  If he can keep his control he can be dominant.

Rivera had good movement on his ball but KC had good AB’s dropping a double down the RF going with an outside pitch and just missing tying the game on line drive pulled down the RF line.  The same batter then hit one in the gap that Wells ran down nicely.

14-14 is amazing for the Genius Maker.  He is leading the league in saves (tied with 2 others).

Sunday’s Game:

Wells had another good at the plate and Cano hooked another curve ball for HR supplying the offense and Kuroda went 7.2 innings and probably would have finished off the 8^th if not for a missed strike call that he uncharacteristically made it clear right after the pitch he was not happy and continued as he was pulled for Robertson.  The Genius Maker   allowed a groundball single and then immediately got a DP before a weak fly out ended the game.  15-15!

Yanks have a double header against Cleveland tomorrow so the fact Rivera only threw 9 pitches means he could be used.  Robertson only threw 2 pitches, so he is OK as well…even if 2 pitches aren’t much different than 9 pitches.

BTW, I don’t see the Joba and Rivera exchange of words to be anything important.

Game 34

A three-way tie for 1^st place (ahead on %).  Based on our injuries, I am more than happy with that.  I am surprised we have won 62% of our games, but was hoping Baltimore and Boston wouldn’t have been playing so well.  I knew Toronto was improved, but also knew that they were not able to play with the others in this division.  I do expect them to play better as the season goes on though.  Tampa is a solid team as well.  We have been a little lucky as well so far as we have one a larger share of close games than normally happens.  Rivera at 43 has been amazing so far for us and I am constantly amazed by The Genius Maker.  It really is special watching him play at such a high level so far and he has been perfect in save situations…truly amazing.

I wrote about Cervelli and where he puts his hand and how critical I was of that.  I am shocked that Stewart still keeps his hand in harms way for no apparent reason?  I just don’t get it?  As I used to say about Posada, you are just asking for an injury that is easily preventable and Cervelli broke his hand because of it.  I don’t get why nobody is watching this? 

Stats are inflated a little after last night’s offensive explosion.  Overbay had a great day and Ichiro and Gardner had a lot of bases as well.  Chris nelson even got a few hits (I didn’t understand that signing either as I said I would have given a minor leaguer a chance.  Ichiro has his OPS over .700 at .719, so he is now officially not awful, just very weak.  Gardner is at .742 so he is avg for a CF’r, but his D is still very good.

Wells misplayed a ball yesterday as he crossed to his left (our right) rather than going back and then couldn’t catch up to the ball.  Overall he has played as well as we could hope, but I am not so sure it will continue.  Because of injuries and because the way his contract was structured, it might have been necessary, but I am still luke warm on it.  I hope he can keep it up, but I get the feeling he will drop back into the mid .700’s for OPS.  I hope I am wrong as we will need him because he has to be better than Ichiro or we will be in trouble.

I hated the signing at the beginning, but can we just end the Ben Francisco era?  It was a mistake and let’s just move on and give someone else a chance.  I would rather see Brennen Boesch play in every situation Girardi wanted to put BeFran into.

BTW, Cano has 21 RBI’s and Overbay has 20 (Hafner has 18).

Shawn Kelley looked dominant yesterday and while it was one game, he has made an adjustment that has put more life on his fastball (movement wise) and he has not walked anyone in his last 4.1 innings (allowing only 1 hit with 9 k’s!).  Hard to say whether he has turned a corner yet, but his numbers have been great in this stretch and he does show strikeout stuff.  Nothing is sharp though and I usually like that in a pitcher. 

Preston Claiborne has done the job so far as well, but while nothing stands out, these guys have been throwing 93-94 so they have a fastball that needs to be respected and they have some movement as well as a decent slider and change.  Those are traits you can work with. 

I have been missing the Vidal Nuno pitching opportunities but I would like to see what he has because, as you know, I feel it is a must to have at least two lefties in the pen.

Hughes continues to be inconsistent in his command.  His stuff is fine, but command is a big issue as he doesn’t seem to be able to be as consistent as one would like.  Overall, an ERA of 4.43 is not bad and he is showing signs of being able to consistently throw a little harder, but he will need to get a little better command to stop allowing so many big hits (7 HR’s in 40 innings is not getting it done).

The one area that the Yanks are doing a good job in is not giving away too many free passes as they have walked 86 batters in 305 innings.  Only 2 teams have a lower walk % in the AL.

Just a random note is how many strikeouts are happening in the AL.  The ratio of strikeouts per inning is .874 so far this year when in past years it has been .824, .771, .759 (notice the trend going up)

The injured are getting ready to come back…I am looking forward to seeing Youk, Grandy and Tex back in the short term along with Joba.  Then Cervelli, ARod and Jeter (who am I forgetting?)  Girardi got his 500^th win and while I think he is far too condescending, he has done a good job this year and overall is not bad (except for keeping Robby Thompson).  BTW, sending Nix yesterday with one out was not a bad choice and not because he made it, it was because the other team executed perfectly and Nix still beat the throw.

Finally, I thought Girardi has made all the right pitching moves the last two days as he followed my exact thoughts.  Maybe he is maturing…or maybe I am losing it J

4-27

First things first…those veterans to the blog know I used to talk about how some catchers and Posada was one of them, would expose their throwing hands to foul tips when they didn’t need to with nobody on base.  This happened all the time and I would point out how this was bad and while it doesn’t happen often why risk it?  The Catcher should have his throwing hand behind his back with nobody on and only with 2 strikes should the hand come out on a ball on the dirt – you have plenty of time to do that; in fact, you really have enough time if the runner steals to bring your hand out if you want to hide it for those situations as well, but many times you think he is stealing and you just have to take the chance and expose it.  However, why expose it for no reason other than just being lazy?  Well there was Cervelli’s hand exposing itself for no reason at all and he got a foul tip and instead of a good hitter (or at the least a hot hitter) we get a huge downgrade.  It amazes me that nobody says anything until after the injury.  I wish people would have read the blog because Cervelli would not be hurt. 

I am concerned about CC.  He was throwing 89-91 most of the game and when he tried to dial it up he got up to…92.  After he got a big strike out he looked back at the scoreboard (I assume to check the radar gun) and shook his head.  Hard to explain the sudden loss in velocity, but all I can say is it seems that is a common occurrence on our team.  CC also had poor command of his pitches, making a lot of poor 0-2 or 1-2 pitches and missing spots.  Toronto should have hit him more,  CC had very little but gutted out an 8 inning performance where he got some help from Gardner and some obstacles from Stewart behind the dish.  In the same inning, Stewart let a passed ball by him moving a runner to 3^rd with one out.  The next flied a shallow/medium fly ball to Ichiro in RF who took his jump 2 extra steps (too long in my opinion), but he did throw a one hop bullet strike to Stewart who tagged the runner but the ball popped out and the runner barely, and I mean barely if he actually touched slid his one or 2 fingers across the black side of the plate.  The slo mo was not conclusive, but it appeared the angle would have barely touched the side of the plate…and Stewart would have tagged him out if the ump had ruled he didn’t touch the plate.

What a game by Hafner who got the start against lefty because Girardi finally realized that Francisco (Ben) isn’t that good against lefties…and boy did he respond,  After 2 straight walks, the pitcher fell behind Hafner 2-0 and hit a fastball on the outside corner.  On the 21- pitch Hafner sat fastball and ripped a 3 run homer into RC.  Later in the game, against Cecil (their lefty out of the pen), Hafner tripled to deep CF/RC and finished with 4 of our 5 RBI’s; Wells had the other. 

Joba came on for an eventful 1 run save.  He allowed 2 hits but was able to right the ship and end the game. 

One other note, CC has become a little bit of a liability in the field.  He slipped today and almost cost us a run on a play he should have been covering.  Later on he had a ball that was a pretty easy fielding play and he just didn’t (or couldn’t) bend down for the play.  He better regain some of his stuff because added to the poor fielding, he may not be dominant anymore.  That being said, he just won 4 games in the month of April for the 1^st time in his career.

4-26

I enjoyed this game for 2 main reasons and 2 minor ones.  The minor ones were that we came back after being down 3-0 and that Joba and Robertson created a strong bridge to Mo.  The major reasons were that we won and The Genius Maker, Rivera, looked dominant in this outing.  He had good movement and velocity on his cutter but more impressive was his pinpoint control in this game.  It was vintage Mo!  His first two pitches were both called balls and they both could have been strikes, but he stayed in the same spot and made the 1 inch adjustment and threw 3 more in the same spot with the same movement and struck out Arencibia.  The he bored his cutter in on Rasmus and broke his bat (always a good sign).  Finally, strike one away, strike 2 away fouled off and then he froze Lawrie coming inside striking him out looking!  That was awesome to watch.

The game was frustrating at the beginning because Kuroda did not have good stuff; his fork ball was flat and his breaking pitches were not crisp.  He was not able to do work his normal magic and unfortunately could not get out of the 1^st inning unscathed allowing a walk and a HR with 2 outs.  He allowed 2 more hits before getting out of the inning but still struggled in the 2^nd allowing another HR.  He realized that he needed to work in his slower stuff more so that his fastball could have more of a differential and he was able to get gut out 4 scoreless innings getting us to the 7^th inning only allowing those 3 runs. 

Wells got us on the board with a towering HR to center and then in the next inning with 2 outs and runners on 1^st and 2^nd Cano had a 3-1 count on him.  I would bet if it was 2^nd and 3^rd they would have walked him, but the catcher went out to the mound and decided to try to come inside on Robbie and Cano was ready pulling his hands in nicely and launching a 3 run shot!  His ability to get his hands in and keep the ball fair is really special.

A few other notes:

Overbay is known as a stellar defender and while he has picked his scoops very well at first he has made two poor plays on grounders.  I know he won’t be around once Texiera comes back (at least I doubt it) and I was in favor of his cheap signing because we need a competent defender, but so far he hasn’t delivered stellar defense…only adequate.  His offense has been barely acceptable.

Tex coming back will really help the team a lot, as will Granderson. 

Cervelli not only clubbed a HR, he drove one to deep RC early in the game; he has really swung the bat fantastic early on.  He has been the biggest surprise so far this year; hopefully it is legit!  Catchers do tend to fade just because all the nicks and bruises form getting foul tips, but even so he has given us needed offense from a spot I was not expecting too much.

People may not like when Cano bats 2^nd…and I admit it is a little funky, but does Ben Francisco really need to get the extra bats by batting 2^nd?  I would rather see Nix bat there. 

Finally, it is a shame Nunez isn’t giving us any offense because if he could give us a .700 OPS the loss of Jeter would not be much of an issue, but so far Nunez has been a doughnut offensively.

4-25-13

Hello everyone!  I don’t think to continue to apologize for not being able to write often is very useful, so I will say that with my crazy schedule just watching the games (on video) is about all the extra time I have had.  I have had things to say, but just not the time to get them down.  Therefore, if you are NOT getting my email message that I have posted and you would like to get on the email list so you know when I do post, please send me an email at swigdor@optonline.net.  I blind copy so you won’t get responses from people you don’t know.  This way you can wait for me to let you know to go to the site.

I have been watching the games and I will make a few comments:

• The lineup is really toothless when Youklis is added to the MIA list.
• I think Kuroda is our best pitcher right now.  The guy is a pitcher with good movement, location and also has enough power to keep you honest.  CC throwing only 91 is a concern.  He can still be effective, but unless his location gets stronger he will not be as dominant.  Pettitte has a similar repertoire now as CC which says Pettitte is pretty amazing for 40 and that CC has come back some.  They are both good though and while Pettitte’s last outing was not his best stuff, he was still good.   I am not sold on Hughes, even though his last outing was his best I have seen in some time (not talking about the results as much as the actual pitching) and the outing before had great results, but I felt he was very lucky.  He just makes far too many bad pitches for my liking.  Look at the game Cobb pitched against us yesterday, he hit spot after spot, I am not sure Phil is capable of that.  Nova has more upside that Hughes, but Nova has the same location issues (but better stuff than Hughes)
• Our bullpen should be good but we need another lefty.  Joba has looked very good regardless of his overall numbers; he will get better.  While the results for Robertson have not been as good, I think with regular work, he will get his control back.  His curve was nasty the other day.
• It is great to see Rivera look good and have movement.  His control won’t be as deadly accurate, but he will still be good and that is one thing I was really hoping for.  I surely didn’t want to see his last year to be one where we said, “we can’t have him close anymore.”  It appears he can still do the job and so far has (6-6).
• I don’t understand how Ichiro doesn’t know how to slide after all there years?  He was clearly safe the other night but slid in a way that made it easy to allow him to be tagged easily and also like he was trying to slow down before he hit the base.
• While on Ichiro…he had a huge hit the other night and is showing some signs of not being horrible of late, he still is not good and as the poster child of why I thought giving him 6 mil for 2 years was a blunder, I am frustrated.  I have given my reasons a few times why it was a bad move, but my hope was he wouldn’t be so awful (.566 OPS) and in fact, I would have loved to eat crow.  Bottom line is that the guy is not a productive player and if he doesn’t hit .320 will not be a very good player.  His defense is above average and solid, but he is no Gardner, his SB ability is not as good, and his offense for a corner OF is mediocre IF he improves a lot; right now it is awful.  For perspective, an awful hitter, Chris Stewart has a career OPS of .595.
• Like that transition to Stewart?  He and Cervelli have probably been the most surprising events of the new season.  Stewart is a really good defender and thrower (even if the first few games of the year he was a little stuff) and he actually picked a guy off the other day but the ump blew the call.  But he is off to a good start offensively with an .809 OPS.  This will not continue; I can virtually guarantee that, but so far so good.
• Cervelli is off to a good start as well with an OPS of .817.  While he probably won’t keep his OPS above .800 (I would be thrilled with a .750 OPS) he is 27 and has shown some more pop in his bat.  Further, I was shocked when I looked at Cervelli’s splits and noticed that he is actually a decent hitter against lefties over the last 3 years with an OPS of .826 (.648 against righties).  Stewart is a better thrower, but so far the two of them have done far better than I expected.  I still have not seen a lot of Cervelli’s defense this year (his throwing has not been tested), but I will be watching closely…so far so good!
• In my posts for the offseason, I liked the Travis Hafner signing (always liked him), loved inking Kuroda again, was understanding of the Youklis signing as a need and only for one year, was indifferent with Brennen Boesch as a cheap fill in if needed (and at least he is young-27), was not fond of rolling the dice on Vernon Wells but it was OK from the cap hit standpoint, hated the signing of Ichiro and Ben Francisco and was annoyed we didn’t get a lefty specialist.  I also liked the cheap signing of Overbay to be our best defender at first (I like specialists on the yanks).  So far, Wells has been great so that role of the dice has worked…the others I have been pretty locked in on. 
• While on Wells, I have been impressed that he has taken the ball to the right side, something he was not doing well the last few years.  That being said he is playing above his head right now, but still with all the injuries and the fact our RF is poor, he will help a lot and as I said prior, I expect Wells, Granderson and Gardner to be our starting OF when Granderson comes back.
• Ben Francisco is not as bad as he is playing, but it was horrible signing from the beginning (getting a mediocre guy who is better against righties to be your guy to hit against lefties is simply dumb) and he has 2 hits in 25 AB’s.  Just admit the stupid signing and move on to some young guy in the minors who will do better and have upside.
• Nunez…where to start?  His hitting has been awful so far; he is better than this, but how much?  I am not convinced he will ever be a reliable defender, but maybe he can become average with his athleticism.  So far he has been just OK defensively, but he made an outstanding play in last nights game that we have not see a SS make for us in a decade.  Jeter never had great range and the play Nunez made going up the middle was as good as any you will see…really great!
• Overall, the team is doing just fine with all the key guys out and the issue with depth.  We have an incredibly weak bottom 4 or 5 guys in the lineup.  At 11-9, I am pleased; it is a pace for 89 wins.  I think if we can hold that until the help arrives we will be making a run. 

I had a lot of game specific items to mention while watching but because they are old, they may have no bearing, but the one thing that stood out more than anything was when Girardi pulled Kuroda in his game.  It was a terrible decision and it proved costly with Robertson not getting the job done.  I was also critical of him bringing Logan against a lefty when Joba was throwing well, but Logan did do the job.  My consistent behavior is that when a guy is throwing well in extra innings, you let him throw as much as you can stretch him safely because you never know how long the game will go.  Unless the matchup is critical (there was nobody on in this one), you let the pitcher go.

Game 6

CC battled and ended up performing great.  Still didn’t break 91 that I saw, but he got through the lineup.  Detroit didn’t swing the bats too well though.  Robertson and Rivera looked pretty good in getting the last 6 outs.  Both had good movement and decent control for early on.  Rivera threw some of his running fastballs into righties which was good to see and hit 91.

As for the game Nix had a great game with a dinger, another deep fly that just went foul but still came back with a single and another one later on.  Cervelli also continued swing well (along with Youkilis).  Gardner was having a bad game at the plate, especially after failing to get down a bunt with a Nix on 1^st and nobody out (amazing how the pros still drop the head of the bat on a bunt which leads to popups, but Gardner did make a nice running catch and got a hit later when we blew it open.  I didn’t understand not pinch running for Hafner in the 8^th inning with the score 3-0 and the deciding to pinch run for hafner with Nunez after Wells doubled to make it 2^nd and 3^rd with one out?  First, the double might have scored Hafner if it wasn’t touched by a fan, but if Nunez was on 1^st it definitely would have scored Nunez and the ump would have ruled as such.  But why wait until he was on 3^rd.  I get the feeling Girardi didn’t think of it until he saw Hafner running slowly…C’mon Joe!

Santiago the SS for Detroit looks excellent defensively…very quick, good arm and release.

Cervelli showed some good emotion behind the plate but he hasn’t received all that well so far, I have not loved his pitch selection and I am waiting to see his arm, but I have to say his offense has been terrific so far…

Not sure about Rivera closing out a 7-0 game, but it was really nice to see Detroit honor Rivera at the final game at Detroit this year!  As Yankee fans, we should find those games at other stadiums!

Games 4 and 5

A quick update on our 4^th and 5^th games.  Our advance scouting department doesn’t do a very good job.  I am shocked at how certain players dominate against us yet other teams can get them out (even if they have weaker pitching than we do).  Somebody isn’t doing their job!  Of course, it could just be bad pitches, but game 4 was lost in one key spot.  The Yankees held on to a 3-2 lead going into the bottom of the 5^th,  Nova had retired 6 in a row and was getting into a bit of a groove after really struggling early on with control.  He allowed a fairly weak single and then walked Austin Jackson before getting a DP.  Now we have Cabrera up (who we obviously don’t have a clue how to pitch) and Nova came inside and hit his hand.  I didn’t have any issues with this as he made sure it was inside as he should.  So with 1^st and 3^rd and the lefty fielder coming up, Girardi made the key decision in the game…go to the only lefty in the pen (who is not a specialist although better against lefties).  The advance scouting department, as everyone else knows, should say throw something off speed and out of the strike zone to Fielder on the 1^st pitch because he hacks at the first pitch most of the time.  Instead we throw a fastball (a high one) that he gets on top of for a 3 run homer and the game is over at that point.  Nova was one out away form grabbing himself a possible win and while I don’t advocate managing by this type of formula, I do think that showing some confidence in your pitcher and giving him a chance for the win and building some confidence is a good idea early in the year and also when the other decision is not a no brainer.  I would have stuck with Nova understanding the risks.  Girardi made a choice that didn’t work out…not saying it was a terrible decision, but it proved to be a bad one.

5^th game.   I have documented how bad our 3rd base coach is over the past two years!  We must get more guys thrown out at home with no or 1 out than any team in baseball and how Robby Thompson simply has bad judgment and his attitude of saying "I am going to stay aggressive no matter" just drives me crazy.  the situation has to matter...no matter what.  Anyway, Brennen Boesch tripled and then after a shallow fly by Cervelli, Boesch got thrown out at home with one out!  This drives me crazy and Girardi deserves a lot of criticism for keeping Thompson there after his first terrible year.

Another huge play in the game came in the top of the 6^th.  We were down 5-1 and after a 3 walks and a single we had bases loaded nobody out and the score is 5-2.  Brennen Boesch is up and he rips a line drive down the first base line and Vernon Wells makes a rookie mistake by first starting to run toward second base, yet he still almost had time to get back to the bag before being doubled off, but he couldn’t beat Fielder to the bag.  The ump actually called him safe, but even Wells started to get up and go to the dugout as if he were out.  The umps got together and ruled him out.  First, terrible play by Wells and then, second, wait for the darn call and act as if you are safe so that the issue couldn’t be “reviewed.”  I mean how many times do you see an umps call, even a bad one get overturned, especially a judgment call?  This was a key point in the game and while Overbay did get a huge 2 out hit knocking in 2 guys, it killed a huge rally opportunity (and it was a tough break that the liner was right at Fielder).

In general, our pitching has been terrible and it needs to be much better for us to hang in there with the limitations on offense.  We have allowed 33 runs in 5 games…no other team in baseball has allowed as many runs as we have this year…nobody!