Wednesday, April 21, 2010

The Genius Maker #11

These updates are good because the west coast games are brutal to stay up for on the East Coast. I just record them and watch them at 5 am.

My take:

Vazquez was still not that sharp. His stuff was not bad, although I would like to see his fastball at 90+ all the time and most of the time it ranged from 88-91. He struggled with his change as it ran away outside to the lefties most of the night. The announcers said they wanted to see more fastballs, but from the start his best pitch was his slider and curve. His change did get a little better later in the game, but both homers he allowed (5th and 6th inning) were off fastballs. He got a little unlucky that before the 2nd homer there was a popup that both Granderson and Cano gave up on. I think they both could have caught it, but Cano peeled off and Granderson stopped to look at Cano. The ball should have been the CF’rs though so Granderson gets the blame. Javy ended up going 5.1 allowing 3 runs while striking out 6. Should have been only 2 runs and 5.2, but he still has not been good; I expect him to right the ship and be in that low 4 ERA area.

First inning – Swisher got a big 2 out single that gave the Yankees an early lead.

ARod continued to be locked in showing great plate discipline and later crushing a 3 run homer that was a no brainer. ARod's OPS is now 1.035

You could tell Jeter is still battling his head cold as he looked a little weak at the plate and also should have had an error later in the game (I have no idea how they scored it a hit – it was an error). Jeter went 0-5

Cano had a memorable game. I don’t know the history, but Cano walked 3 times! Yes, read that line again – he tripled his walk total in one game. The odd part was that he didn’t have good AB’s; he tried to swing at a lot of balls yet he still got walked as he fouled off about 8 pitches that were balls. He is not being as disciplined as he should be and needs to lay off the inside pitches he can’t do anything with but hit foul or miss – he did K the other 2 times he was up.

We got to see Boone Logan for the first time and he seems like an ordinary lefty who is a little better against lefties. He throws a fastball around 91-92 and has a slider he throws about 81. Nothing is sharp, but if he can throw strikes he can be somewhat effective. The matchup with all the lefties Oakland has a good one for him, but he doesn’t impress me as anything other than another mediocre lefty arm (which is not always easy to find sadly).

Joba came on with the bases juiced and a 7-3 lead and 2 outs and struck out Kouzmanoff to end the threat. Joba was throwing 94 consistently and hit 96 a few times. He pitched a dominant 8th as well. He only threw 18 pitches and I was wondering whether Girardi was going to stick with him for the 9th. The previous inning they showed Rivera who looked cold and was yawning (it was a cool and windy night) so I didn’t expect Rivera to start the 9th, I expected Robertson to start the 9th with a righty and then a switch up. But Marte came out and he walked the first guy and after ball one to the next batter Girardi pooped up and brought Rivera into a game NOT in a save situation! As I mentioned before I could care less about the save, but it seemed like the type of game I would not want my old closer to get up in, but if Robertson was available I think Joe’s biggest mistake was not starting Robertson in the 9th (I understand not letting Joba go another inning). Of course, Rivera earned his nickname as the Genius Maker because regardless of what the manager does, Rivera bails out the manager almost every time. He didn’t look good, but the results were excellent10 pitches, a K and a DP ended the game!

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