Monday, May 3, 2010

The Genius Maker #21

CC against the Orioles should be a win…

I said I wanted a sweep against the Orioles…and Randy Winn helped us. Read that one again. Yes, we had a Randy Winn sighting and he actually hit a 3 run homer with 2 outs after Swisher and Gardner got 2 out hits. When Granderson went down, we knew Winn would get his chance and this is a good start, although hitting homers is not his game. I believe this was his first in 400+ AB’s, so we shouldn’t expect many more of them, but I will take any offensive production from him.

Back to Swisher and Gardner. Gardner has been excellent and while he is hitting above where he will finish, I think he is showing what was said in this blog awhile ago and that is he is a guy who is a productive all around player. He is also someone who has improved at every level he has played at once he got used to it. He has been a huge plus for us. As for Swisher, Kevin Long must have worked with him because instead of moving the back and forth like he used to, he is not resting it on his shoulder and then lifting it straight back and limiting his swaying of the bat a lot. I think this is letting him see the ball a little longer and be quicker with is bat. It is easy to say that after he has been hot, but I have to admit I didn’t notice the lack of movement in his bat until tonight. Regardless, that is a good change.

CC went 8 and was not happy with the ump and I agreed with him; I didn’t like the umps zone. Joba closed out a 4-1 victory throwing a powerful 95 MPH fastball and not throwing a single strike with a few curves and a few sliders. One of those sliders was on a 3-2 pitch and he should not have thrown it. He needs to learn that a strike out is the same as a groundout with nobody on and sometimes a groundout with a guy on first may be better.

The Yankees are starting to get a little banged up. We know Granderson will be out for awhile, ARod has a sore knee that he can play with, Posada has a sore calf and was removed from the game and the Genius Maker had a sore side and did not close out the game. Posada will get an MRI. Rivera should be OK from the way they talked. NJ had a back issue but that seems to be behind him as he has been hitting a lot of hard balls, but not finding any holes.

Finally, the Yankees announced that they will skip Javier’s next start. I agree with the decision as he can lineup by missing Boston and then also missing TB. This also gives him a few side sessions to try and straighten himself out. I do think he will straighten himself out and be the same pitcher he was (a 4.50 ERA in the AL) once he gets back on the mound. I would also give him at 3 more starts before I panicked, but I agree with the decision to miss a start.

2 comments:

  1. A question to you who played the game at a high level, the media is hyping the beaning of our players, especially by Guthrie (who actually pitched a nice game last night except for one pitch thankfully). Is the no rection by the Yanks what we should expect or should they do more?

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  2. I am not a big fan of retaliating unless it is absolutely clear and it does not impact the game. There are times where you need to stand up, but too many times teams do it and they put a guy on base to lose a game. further, sometimes you open your players to even more carnage. This last hit on Posada was not intentional, but the one where Cano was hit earlier in the year was clearly intentional and I would have found a way to let them know we wouldn't take that.

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