Thursday, July 28, 2011

The Genius Maker #64

Hughes had good numbers 3 starts ago and at that point I said he was lucky and didn’t pitch well. 2 starts ago, he got crushed. Yesterday, he only allowed 2 runs in 6 innings, but it was the Mariners and he did allow 9 hits. I am thoroughly unimpressed with Hughes right now. While he did get squeezed on a few pitches, his control within the strike zone was awful. He hung curves and missed with his fastball more than hitting the target (looking for a fastball inside and he threw it outside yet still for a strike). If Hughes pitched against a decent team he would have been crushed again…look beyond the runs and it is clear he is not where he needs to be. His cutter was non existent and his changeup was not usable yesterday.

Later in the game, the Yanks defense failed them. Cano and Jeter combined for 2 bad plays that both should have been outs and neither player did the job on either play. Then, Granderson misplayed a ball in CF and had a bad jump on another one. I said this the day they got Granderson and that is Gardner should be in CF and Granderson in LF. I know Gardner’s arm plays well in LF and he had another assist yesterday, but Gardner’s speed in CF would cover a few more plays that Granderson is just short on (probably about 6 this year I feel would be made. While this is 6 doubles, one could argue that Granderson would miss a few in LF that Gardner gets, but I think you get a few more chances in CF where the long runs matter.

The Yanks had some chances, but simply couldn’t get the job done. The key AB was with Jeter up, bases loaded and one out. He hit a sac fly, but that is all we got out of the inning.

Boston won so we are 3 out, but 5.5 up on the Angels for the wild card.

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