The Yankees may have won last night’s game and avoided a sweep at the hands of the Angels but I am sure they are probably very happy to be turning the page on this past month. They ended up going 14-14. When I wrote my April month in review post, I predicted the Yankees would go 17-11 in May. I wasn’t off by much but no, I’m not predicting anything for this next month. Maybe they’ll do better without my prognosticating.

The same problems that seemed to plague the Yankees last May, reared their ugly heads again this May. The main culprit? RISP. They didn’t lack runners in scoring position – they had plenty of them. The problem was, they didn’t score. If Yankee fans had invented an “RISP” drinking game in which shots would be downed whenever a broadcaster mentioned how bad the Yankees were/are with runners in scoring position in May, well, most of those fans would be dead and buried by now. Hell, I wouldn’t be alive to write this post.

» Continue reading “Yankees: .500 Shades of May”

I don’t like this feeling at all. It is like I’m on a extremely tall roller coaster and I’m stuck on the longest, steepest hill which seems like it’s never going to end. Just when I think I’ve reached the bottom, it just keeps going. The skin on my poor face is being pushed back against my head from the G forces and I’m starting to feel nauseated. I’m usually a big fan of roller coasters but this ride, is not fun at all.

So how awful are the Yankees right now? Let us count the ways, shall we?

• They’re 2-7 in their last nine games and their numbers with runners in scoring position have been putrid.
• In last night’s game, the Yankees were 0-16, they’re 6 for their last 72 and they are now mired in a 23-151 slump for the month of May with runners in scoring position.
• But there is a glimmer of hope. The Yankees have been bad for nearly the entire month of May so far and have only lost three games in the standings.

Right now, nothing is going right for the Yankees. The best game they’ve had in the past two weeks was pitched by a guy who won his first decision since July 2010. Derek Jeter’s hot bat has cooled off some. Alex Rodriguez just can’t get the ball to travel. Mark Teixeira has a cough that won’t go away and the Yankees really miss having Brett Gardner both in the lineup and in the outfield.

At the beginning of the month I said that I thought the Yankees could go 17-11. Boy, was I wrong. I didn’t envision this nightmarish month. Nobody did; not the players, not the coaches and certainly not the fans. And now, because of their play in May, the Yankees are sitting in last place with the Boston Red Sox with a record of 21-21.

Stop this crazy ride! I want off!

Here’s Jack’s “Are you kidding me?” face.

Are the Yankees bad? Right now, yes. Will they be this bad the rest of the season? I highly doubt it. They’ve just hit a rough patch and I am certain they will snap out of it.

Okay, I hope they’ll snap out it.

They’ve lost five out of their last six with Andy Pettitte’s start on Friday being the only win during that span. The pitching staff needs to step up, the hitters need to stop hitting into so many m*****f****** double plays and, actually, I think that’s it.

Raul Ibanez wasn’t signed to be the offense’s savior but so far, he has been. He put the Yanks ahead with a towering two-run shot that gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead that seemed like it would stick with the way CC Sabathia was pitching. And then, it didn’t stick. Sabathia gave up two solo home runs and walked in the go ahead run in the seventh inning.

Blerg.

Up next for the Yankees, the always dangerous Kansas City Royals. I mean hell, the Yanks split a series with them earlier this month so you never know what will happen this week.

Hey guys,

It’s Stace. I know last night was disappointing and it was shocking to see David Robertson blow a save but some of you out there really need to take a breath and calm down.

Knee-jerk reactions never help situations and last night was filled with them. From some of you calling for Robertson’s head to others saying he doesn’t have the “mentality of a closer” to even more of you claiming the season was over you really made yourselves – and the rest of Yankee fandom – look like fools.

David Robertson hadn’t given up a run since last season, last night was the first time he had a bad outing all season and yet, people were reacting as if the world was ending because of one blown save.

Really? I do realize it happened against a rival and that  the Yankees were in the lead the entire game. I also realize that it’s a tough way to lose but still, it’s really not the end of the world. And it won’t be if Robertson blows three more saves.

Mariano Rivera is not coming back this season and yes, that’s awful, but to say that David Robertson can’t be a closer because of one bad outing is silly. With the way some of you were reacting you’d have thought that Mo had never blown a save in his career – he has 73 blown saves. He also had trouble adjusting to the closer role when it was given to him in 1997. Some of you may be too young to remember it but he wasn’t lights out right away.

It’s a long season and we’re still in the part that’s considered early. As a fan of baseball, you should know that and you should stop the silliness. Please? Because you’re really not helping yourselves and you’re not helping the rest of us who root for the team in Bronx.

Thanks,
Stace

A Yankees Haiku:

First month is done and
Yankees are pretty good
They can be better…

Okay, so the haiku is pretty awful but that’s because it has been a while since I’ve written one. Honestly, I think the last time I wrote a haiku was when I learned about them in elementary school way back in the 1980s.

Anyway, it’s April 30 and the first month of the season is almost over. So far, the Yankees have been ordinary. They’ve had some highs – an epic nine run comeback against the Red Sox and they’ve had some lows – losing Michael Pineda for the year and Freddy Garcia’s pitching woes just name a couple.

» Continue reading “New York’s First Month: A Yankees Haiku, Some Facts and Some Stats”

I saw this tweeted earlier: “The Rangers have as many wins (13) as the Angels, Red Sox and Royals, combined.” And yes, as I said in my previous post, it’s only April but the Texas Rangers are a formidable foe and barring major injuries probably will be all season. They have great pitching, a great offense and yep, so far, they’re scary.

The Rangers are returning home from a road trip that saw them go 8-1. EIGHT AND ONE ON THE ROAD. Come on. And they’ve won every series so far this season. They just finished a four game series in Detroit, winning three of out four*.

The Yankees had a rain shortened series win in Boston that included a dramatic comeback from a 9-0 deficit in the sixth inning of Saturday’s game to win 15-9.

After starting the season by losing three straight to the Tampa Bay Rays, the Yankees are 9-3 in their last 12 games. As good as the record has been of late, they’re still having issues with their starting pitching. Freddy Garcia made the comeback necessary in Boston on Saturday because he couldn’t even last two innings. Phil Hughes is still having issues putting guys away and CC Sabathia had his first good game of the season last Tuesday.

Series Pitching Matchups
Tonight: CC Sabathia (1-0, 5.59) vs. Derek Holland (2-0, 3.10)
Tomorrow: Hiroki Kuroda (1-2, 5.00) vs. Yu Darvish (2-0, 3.57)
Wednesaday: Phil Hughes (1-2, 6.75) vs. Scott Feldman (0-0, 0.00)

Sabathia has faced the Texas Rangers 17 times in his career and has a 10-3 record with a 4.44 ERA against them. Last year the Yankees were 7-2 against the Rangers.

大事 is “big deal” in Japanese (according to Yahoo babelfish) and tomorrow’s match-up will be a big deal in Japan. Thanks to last night’s wash out in Boston, the Yankees’ rotation was pushed back one day which made a Hiroki Kuroda – Yu Darvish showdown possible. It should be interesting to see if Kuroda can rebound from his iffy start against the Twins last week and to see how Darvish handles the Yankee lineup.

Prior to tonight’s game the Rangers will honor catcher Ivan Rodriguez. Rodriguez is scheduled to retire this afternoon after a 21 year major league career. Rodriguez played with the Rangers from 1991-2002 and the end of the 2009 season.

To see more from the Texas Rangers side of things please visit Big Game Claws.

*I made a mistake when I first published this post. The Rangers and Tigers played a four game series. I apologize for the error.

When the news of Joba Chamberlain’s injury surfaced, I knew that I’d probably read at least one article from a local writer that would make me want to roll my eyes. I was right. I am also not surprised in the least by which writer would be the offender.

Ladies and gentleman, I present to you, Bill Madden of the New York Daily News with his article, “Yankees’ Joba Chamberlain only has himself to blame for potentially career-ending injury,” complete with the tagline “Reliever has long been undisciplined off field.”

And Madden pulls you right in with his lede:

“So the Joba Chamberlain star-crossed era with the Yankees will apparently have the same sad ending as the Brien Taylor saga.”

Yes, Bill Madden is doing what you knew he’d do, he’s comparing Joba Chamberlain with Brien Taylor. Chamberlain having a play day with his 5 year-old son is comparable to Taylor getting into a brawl at a bar, being thrown down onto his pitching shoulder and thus, ending his career in pinstripes.

Okay.

Call it dumb and dumber for two Yankee golden-arm pitchers who threw away their careers with off-the-field hijinks.

Speaking of dumb, it’s kind of dumb to compare the two incidents. Or even the pitchers themselves.

The rest of the article is much of the same. It’s really just an excuse for Madden to say bad things about Joba Chamberlain as if he were waiting for something terrible to happen to him so he could call him fat and stupid.

Although, this is my favorite part:

They [the Yankees] would continue to nurture and protect him in subsequent seasons as they tried to figure out where his bright future was — starting or relieving — but it wasn’t enough to prevent him from blowing out his elbow last June, requiring Tommy John surgery.

And it wasn’t enough to prevent him from nearly killing himself on Thursday afternoon in suffering a gruesome open dislocation of his right ankle while apparently playing on a trampoline with his 5-year-old son.

Now, this is just silly. I really don’t think Joba Chamberlain was thinking, “Hey! Let’s see how reckless I can be today!”

What happened to Chamberlain on Thursday afternoon was an unfortunate accident. I’m sure he feels bad enough that it happened.

It was clear from hearing GM Brian Cashman and Manager Joe Girardi talking about the incident that they were both disappointed in what happened but also fearful of what the future could hold for Joba Chamberlain.

Girardi spoke during yesterday’s split squad game against the Twins and said that the Yankees were a big family. He said they would do whatever they needed to do to help Joba. And after the game the Yankees manager even spoke about how he hurt his back playing with his daughter when he was still a major league player.

I just don’t think trashing Joba Chamberlain less than two days after his injury is really necessary and that’s what Bill Madden is doing. Articles like this one say more about the writer than the player he’s writing about. And what this article is saying about Bill Madden is not very good.

When he was signed by the New York Yankees in December 2008, A.J. Burnett was on a high. He just had the best season of his career with the Toronto Blue Jays – winning 18 games – and was a coveted free agent pitcher. Now, it’s three seasons later and those same Yankees are about to trade Burnett to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The writing was on the wall for Burnett after the Yankees made a trade with Seattle for starter Michael Pineda and signed free agent starter Hiroki Kuroda in January. The question that was on everyone’s mind had been “What will the Yankees do with high priced, low performing starter A.J. Burnett?”

***

In his three full seasons with the Yankees, Burnett has been just a tad below mediocre record-wise with scant flashes of brilliance and with many abysmal outings under his belt.

Since joining the Yankees, Burnett has amassed a 34-35 record. His best year was his first season – 2009 – when he was 13-9 with a 4.04 ERA and helped the Yankees with a big start in Game Two of the World Series. Facing the prospect of heading to Philadelphia in an 0-2 hole, Burnett out-pitched Pedro Martinez to knot the series at one game apiece and helped the Yankees win their 27th Championship.

Unfortunately for Burnett, baseball fans – and especially fans of the New York Yankees – are of the “what have you done for me lately?” mentality. 2009 was a long time ago. What they care about is the recent past and the recent past isn’t very pretty.

» Continue reading “Saying Good-bye to A.J. Burnett: A Somewhat Painful Retrospective”

It’s October 17, 2011 and instead of preparing to watch their team play in the World Series, Yankees fans have been without baseball for over a week.

During that span, a few stories about the upcoming offseason have been published and a number of them had made mention of CC Sabathia’s opt out and C.J. Wilson’s free agency.

Wilson, whose Texas Rangers just punched their ticket to the World Series for the second year in a row, will be a free agent at season’s end. In some of these stories, Wilson is “likely” to leave Texas for the brighter lights and deeper pockets of the New York Yankees. But why? If Texas wins the World Series, wouldn’t he want to stay there and continue their run?

As for Sabathia, why would he want to leave New York? Which team could offer him more money? Some articles say Texas could offer him a big contract but I honestly don’t see Sabathia leaving New York – a team he helped lead to the World Series title in 2009 and helped lead to the playoffs three consecutive seasons.

I also don’t see C.J. Wilson coming to the Yankees. He seems to enjoy being in Texas and I also don’t see the Yankee front office overpaying for him – at least I hope they won’t.

When the World Series ends, this will all be front and center leading into the Winter Meetings and Hot Stove. Until then, let’s have fun reading the speculation!!

Or Phil Burnett if you’d like.

After last night’s lackluster performance by AJ Burnett people can’t stop talking about the state of the Yankees’ pitching rotation. They want Burnett out of the rotation after his “gutless” outing against the Angels and they want Phil Hughes to replace him because of his strong outing against the Chicago White Sox last week.

Both Hughes and Burnett have issues when they make their starts that Yankee fans have problems with.

For A.J. Burnett it’s length. It seems like it’s been a dog’s age since he’s pitched past the seventh inning (although for the record, his last 7+ IP performance was against the Orioles on July 29 when he pitched eight innings in a 4-2 loss to Jeremy Guthrie).

I posted a stat in the gane recap last night that bares repeating in this post as well – Thanks to Jay Jaffe from Baseball Prospectus and Pinstriped Bible for the info – Burnett hasn’t thrown a quality start since June 29. His stats since then, 6.00 ERA, 1.5 HR/9, 4.5 BB/9 in 7 starts.

Yikes.

Here are Burnett’s stats by inning for 2011 and you’ll see how the stats change, notice the trailing off of IP in later innings while hits and runs increase in later innings as well (though his stats in the first inning are nothing to write home about either):

Now for Hughes, his 2011 is abbreviated thanks to his lengthy stay on the disabled list so he’s only made nine starts compared to Burnett’s 24.

Hughes’s two main issues have been his velocity diminishing in later innings and his inability to put hitters away when he’s recorded two outs (or at least it seems like he has that issue when watching him).

During his start against the White Sox on August 2 he looked a lot better but some people are wondering if it’s because the idea of pitching for his rotation spot has lit a fire under Hughes’s ass so to speak.

I came up with an idea on Twitter after spying on other people’s Burnett and Hughes discussions. It was as a goof but still, bare with me.

Here it goes:

Why can’t the Yankees just have both Burnett and Hughes pitch the same game? Burnett can start and pitch into the fifth inning and then Hughes, who has bullpen experience can come in for the sixth, seven and eighth. Then you can choose who you want to close out the game!

So the rotation would be CC Sabathia, Bartolo Colon, Freddy Garcia, Ivan Nova and Burnett/Hughes (or Hughes/Burnett). You could have six “starters” but everyone would be going on regular rest!

Aren’t I a genius? Okay, so that won’t actually work.

So what do the Yankees do now?

As for A.J. Burnett and where he stands now, I actually agree with Jack Curry of the YES Network. On the postgame show last night he said that Burnett should skip a start, take a week to work with Yankees pitching coach Larry Rothschild and see what happens.

This will give Hughes a chance to show if he can replicate his performance in Chicago and give Burnett the chance to regroup.

Then again, AJ Burnett has been a mediocre pitcher his whole career and so far, that’s what the Yankees have gotten. It’s just that his really bad starts seem to happen at the wrong time – like when the Yankees have lost two games in a row and fans are rabid. Also, he hasn’t won since June and he’s winless in August while with the Yankees and those are glaring problems.

Now where I didn’t agree with Curry during the postgame was when he implied that if AJ Burnett had actually made a quality start and not given up a run, or maybe had gotten out of that sixth inning only having given up one run, it wouldn’t have been a big deal because the Angels aren’t a great team offensively.

That’s interesting, isn’t it?

So maybe Burnett was better off crapping the bed – for lack of a better phrase – because it’s what expected of him. And if he had pitched well and led the Yankees to victory all we’d be seeing, “Well it was only the Angels. Let’s see how he does against the Red Sox!!!” all over Twitter and being uttered on various sports radio shows.

Well, I have news for everyone. The Angels have a good shot at making the playoffs. They’re within striking distance of the AL West leading Texas Rangers so it is conceivable that the Yankees could face Anaheim in the Division Series – if the Yanks make the playoffs – so wouldn’t it have been significant if AJ Burnett out dueled Dan Haren?

Of course he didn’t, so the point is moot but I wasn’t quite understanding the whole downplaying the opponent aspect of the analysis. Normally I love Curry but he kind of lost me there.

I mean, I guess the same could be said for young Mr. Hughes. Yes, his last start was great but it was against the Chicago White Sox who aren’t a great offensive team and it was a rain shortened outing.

See what I did there?

Anyway, Hughes is scheduled to start against the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday at the Stadium. That should be a good test for him. If he does well against the Rays, who aren’t exactly burning any barns, but who are are still pesky and annoying, it could be a very good thing for his confidence. And if he can keep them off the bases altogether it could a really good thing for the Yankees.

Another good sign for Hughes will be his velocity staying elevated and his ability to get people out swinging and missing or pitching to less contact. If his curve is working he could have a great outing.

Oh who am I kidding? Let’s all just pray to the Baseball Gods and hope that AJ Burnett somehow becomes a better pitcher and that Phil Hughes lives up to his potential as at least a number two starter.