An excellent observation by Buster Olney (Insider subscription required):
Andy Pettitte has been known throughout his 16-year career for having an excellent pick-off move, and in that time he has been called for only 11 balks.
Of those, three have been called by Angel Hernandez.
Why is this relevant? Well, Hernandez is scheduled to be the first base umpire tonight, at a time when the Rangers are running the bases hyper-aggressively, and when Pettitte will be working to keep them anchored to the bag.
When Joe Torre managed the Yankees, he would grow frustrated with Hernandez’s interpretation of Pettitte’s move to first, once telling the umpire that he was seeing something that nobody else was seeing.
Something to watch for…
Devoid of usual NY Post-like paranoia and panic, Joel Sherman dishes on AJ Burnett with heaping spoonfuls of logic-infused commentary:
And, you know, there is not an actual law that states the Yanks can’t beat Lee or win when Burnett starts.
This really comes down to the Yanks trying to win one game with Burnett starting as opposed to hoping to get as many as four strong starts in a row on short rest. And, remember, Burnett is starting against Tommy Hunter, not Walter Johnson. How is this for a concept: If you want to be a champion then figure out how to win a Hunter-Burnett matchup at home.
Amen. To hang the success or failure of the entire ALCS on AJ is unfair and unreasonable. Game 4 is a game the Yanks could, and should, win.
(click “view full post” to read more)
AJ Burnett is going to start Game 4, no matter what happens in Game 3 tonight. I’m not ready to roll over and concede Game 3 despite how good Cliff Lee has been. Doc Halladay, fresh off a no-hitter, gave up 4 runs in his last start so no one is completely automatic. Except for Mo.
AJ hasn’t given any of us reason to believe but I’m feeling it. AJ’s stats do not foretell a successful start tomorrow. Yet still, I have a feeling he’s going to surprise. Maybe I’m trying to use reverse psychology on myself and force myself to think positive. Whatever the case, I think AJ will bring the “Good AJ” to help fight off the “Bad CC” and the “Bad Phil“.
Towards the end of September, I did a “deep dive” on AJ. I’ve updated his stats below, though the charts/graphs remain as is.
(click “view full post” for the deep dive on AJ)
As one of the millions to have been lucky enough to bang that spoon on his ever-present pan, I will sure miss Freddy Sez. God speed, good man.
Freddy “Sez” Schuman, the longtime New York Yankees fan who made a tradition out of bringing signs to Yankee Stadium and encouraging the crowd to cheer by banging together a spoon and frying pan, has died at age 85.
Schuman died at Lenox Hill Hospital on Sunday afternoon after suffering a heart attack on Friday night, according to longtime friend Chuck Frantz. A hospital official confirmed Schuman’s death.
“It’s a sad day for Yankee fans and for anyone who knew Freddy,” Frantz said.
It sure is.
(click “view full post” to read more, including a bunch of classic Freddy Sez pictures)
I’m not going to go on a rant about the “human element”, or the poor umpiring we’ve seen these last few years, aided by the lens of high definition television. I’ll just explain what the chart above shows. Squares are pitches thrown by Texas pitchers, triangles are pitches thrown by Yankees. My count shows 17 red square outside of the strike zone, a number of which are more than six inches outside (and one six inches too high). There are only two red triangles outside the zone. Colby Lewis is a good pitcher–as are many of Texas’ relievers. But it turns out they’re a lot better when they get a 23 inch wide strikezone.
The Yankees took a 1-0 lead in the ALCS in epic fashion on Friday night, but needed an equally big comeback if they were to win Game 2 on Saturday. Unfortunately, the Yankee offense was unable to repeat that performance as the Rangers jumped on Phil Hughes early and the Yankees took a 7-2 loss to even up the series at 1-1.
Elvis Andrus lead off for Texas and hit a single that deflected off Hughes’ glove and bounced to short. A wild pitch allowed Andrus to move to second before he stole third. Josh Hamilton walked and with two outs, the Rangers pulled off a double steal. Posada tried to gun down Hamilton at second, but was unable to, allowing Cruz to score from third.
(click “view full post” to read more)
The long rest between the end of the ALDS and Game 1 of the ALCS had the Yankees looking a bit rusty Friday night. CC Sabathia was not his dominant self, putting the Yankees in a hole before recording his first out. The Yankee hitters could not figure out C.J. Wilson through most of the game, but a big eighth inning capped off one of the Bombers’ biggest postseason comebacks as they won 6-5.
It was evident that the long time off was not good for Sabathia as he immediately walked Elvis Andrus in the bottom of the first. Michael Young followed with a line drive to left, putting runners on first and third with no outs and Josh Hamilton at the plate. Hamilton lined a big three-run homer over the wall in right field and the Rangers took an early 3-0 lead. Vladimir Guerrero hit a deep fly ball to center, that Curtis Granderson caught for the first out of the inning, but Nelson Cruz followed with a single to right. Sabathia walked Ian Kinsler but got Jeff Francoeur to pop up to short. Matt Treanor walked to load the bases. A fastball got by Jorge Posada and Cruz tried to score, but the ball bounced hard off the backstop and Posada tossed the ball to Sabathia who dove to tag out Cruz at the plate, saving a run and ending the inning.
(click “view full post” to read more)
I’ll once again be jumping in on ESPN’s BBTN Live chat covering the ALCS Game Two. Join me there and help me defend the chants of bias and anti-Yankees stuff. Not to mention secondguessing all of Ron Washington’s Glorious Parade of LOOGYs.
Brien, and many others, made an excellent case that Ron Washington is a moron and should have used Neftali Feliz last night in the eighth inning. I don’t necessarily disagree, but I wonder about how much of that is results bias—stating something was the right/wrong (in this case, wrong) move because it did/did not work out (in this case, did not). Now, most people disagree with Washington’s moves, and a lot of those people are very smart people. This isn’t so much an argument with them as it is an exercise in re-examining our thoughts because we should do so anyway. So let’s look at the situation again.
CJ Wilson is dominating the game into the top of the 8th, but he’s thrown close to 100 pitches. It’s 5-1, but you have to know that the Yankees can score on you in a hurry. Hoping that Wilson can get through one more inning before going to Feliz for the ninth for the orthodox and clear-cut move, Washington lets Wilson pitch to the first two guys who single (Gardner) and double (Jeter) to bring the score to 5-2. Nick Swisher and Mark Teixeira are coming up, and because both are switch-hitters, the manager has a tough decision because you can’t get a R-R or L-L match-up that you’d normally like. Praise the Yankees for having the lineup flexibility. So, what should Washington do?
click “view full post” to read more
Everyone else has pretty much already noted this, but it was so baffling at the time, and even more so this morning, that I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring it up.
The Rangers entered the top of the 8th last night with a 5-1 lead. C.J. Wilson had allowed just one run in 7 innings, on a Robinson Cano solo home run. Other than that one at bat, Wilson was simply dominating the Yankees lineup, and it hadn’t felt like they’d had a good scoring opportunity all night. Washington did the predictable thing and brought Wilson back out to start the 8th, and Wilson then allowed an infield single to Brett Gardner and an RBI double down the line to (who but?) Derek Jeter. Suddenly the Yankees were kind-of-sort-of in business, trailing by 3 runs with a runner on 2nd, no one out, and ther big bats coming up. This is where things got curious.
With the big switch-hitters coming up, Washington turned to 100 year old lefty Darren Oliver, even though Oliver has been much better against left-handed batters this year and Swisher and Teixeira have been better from the right-side of the plate. It was a curious move, and it ended with both batters walking, setting the bases loaded, no outs, go-ahead run at the plate stage for none other than Alex Rodriguez. Considering the situation and A-Rod’s history with the Rangers, I think most of us at least had fleeting visions of A-Rod coming through with a soul crushing (for Texas fans) grand slam to put the Evil Empire on top.
(click “view full post” to continue reading)
We’ll have much, much more to come but this picture pretty much says it all.
J-Doug has updated his charts, tables and other gizmos to reflect what’s transpired in the playoffs so far and also what the data shows in terms of predicting the future. In short, his number-crunching shows the following:
Projected LCS Outcomes:
- Yankees 4-1 over Rangers (17.5%)
- Phillies 4-2 over Giants (17.7%)
Of course, the Yanks are already spotting the Rangers 3 games (both of Cliff Lee’s plus AJ Burnett’s), so winning in five games, as J-Doug’s predictions show, might be a bit tough.
/end sarcasm
(click “view full post” to get a better understanding on what J-Doug is talking about)
(click “view full post” for the full chat transcript)
