The Genius Maker #50

Quick note on the game last night…Jeter had a tremendous offensive game hitting 2 homers and Vazquez pitched another solid game (I think he could have gone 8). It is surprising that he is not consistently breaking 90 MPH, but all of his stuff including different angles on the same pitch make him a craft righty. The key is spotting his fastball well and being able to work off of that. As he adjusts to throwing 2-3 MPH slower than he is used to, he will need to slow up his changeup a little bit. When you are throwing 88-89, a changeup at 83 is not enough of a difference (I think 7 MPH is the minimum and 10 is a good number)

One other quick note as Posada hit a grand slam and may be showing some signs of getting back in a groove. Old timers of my blog who started out as a bunch of friends where I would rant and rave about items remember that I was perplexed why the Yanks kept Posada on the bench only to have a weak hitting catcher who threw runners out worse than Posada play over the far better hitting Posada. People would talk about how clutch Girardi was because of his triple, but not realize that triple was the ONLY RBI Girardi ever had in the postseason…seriously...in over 130 plate appearances this so called clutch guy had an OPS of a horrible .463 with ONE RBI). My point is I have been a huge supporter and believer in how much getting such great hitting production out of the catcher position has been a big plus for the Yanks. However, his comments lately about DH’ing and how he can’t get used to it and on and on kind of tick me off. I can understand stating that he has been having trouble adjusting to the role (it is not as easy as people think); but that he will do whatever is bets for the team. I think it is also fair for him to say that he wants to catch, but he should again talk about doing what is best for the team. So far he has only complained (a little) and used the DH as an excuse. I just wanted to let people know my opinion and while I do think Posada should still catch at least half the game when healthy, he needs to just shut up and do what he is asked.