The Genius Maker #34

Two tough and 1 run losses to Seattle were followed by an easy victory. This is not good enough with Boston playing great baseball (as was expected).

On Friday night, we gave up a 3-0 lead with AJ struggling with control followed Logan and Ayala not getting the job done. The offense really failed though once again as the Yanks should have been able to tack on runs and they failed to do so.

Saturday we had King Felix to deal with and while he brought his C game. Once again we jumped out to an early 1-0 and 3-1 lead, but Nova could not throw enough strikes (especially with his curve ball that was great, but he couldn’t control it). Felix allowed 4 runs in 7 innings but the Yanks failed to score against 5 innings of relief. Unfortunately the loss fell on Rivera’s shoulders, but one really has to look at how cheap the 3 hits against him were to understand the picture. It was just one of those things that happen.

The sad part was Seattle gave us some chances with some poor defense by Smoak and a very weak effort by Ichiro who tried to turn an easy catch into a hard one and he missed it. If he goes back to the wall he is standing there to make a catch on Granderson.

Sunday’s game saw all parts of the team do well and CC did his job as the ace. One has to love CC!

A few comments:

Jeter is still really not getting it done; he has been doing a little better, but the cheap hits are really what is keeping him from be horrific. Even with all the dinks and doinks and swinging bunts, his OPS is .644…just barely ahead of Posada (.640) and Swisher (.639). I honestly believe that if all 3 of the above played every game the rest of the way and stayed healthy, Jeter would be the lowest in OPS at the end of the year. Part of that is how much Swisher and Posada are underperforming, but also just looking at their AB’s. Swisher is starting to show some life (thankfully). He worked a good walk, hit a homer and hit a solid line drive twice to left this weekend…maybe a good sign?

Tex has been really swinging well and doing a great job of avoiding swinging at balls.

Cano is still not right, but he will get it straightened out. ARod is in the same category. In looking at ARod’s swing, he has been lifting the bat off his shoulders sooner than he did earlier in the year. That may or may not make a difference, but it is something I noticed. ARod has not been hitting the outside pitch with authority and that is a bad thing for him because that is what makes him so tough. He needs to get the power stroke back

Thankfully, Granderson has been doing great, but overall, we are really under performing offensively.

Not sure if you folks have been watching Robertson, but he has been fantastic! He made two great 95 MPH fastballs on the outside corner and then dropped a knee buckling curve in the same spot for a 3 pitch strikeout and K’d the side in the extra inning game. He now has 35 K’s in 21.1 innings. His 15 walks are far too many, but at 26 this is not just some ordinary arm out there; he has star potential if he can harness the strike zone.

I hope everyone is enjoying the Memorial Day weekend!