rilkefan, you have your assumption of ignorance.

He is getting a regular day off. Until tonight, Flaherty has caught every Friday night game to avoid that day game after a night game start. I’m assuming Posada caught tonight because Johnson was pitching. Either that or for some reason they wanted Flaherty to catch the rookie on Saturday.

And for the sake of discussion, why not widen the issue to include pitchers? Is it better to have one ace who pretty much guarantees a victory every five days counterbalanced by someone who never makes it out of the fourth or to have two very good pitchers who will each guarantee a quality start, but no more?

Depends on what kind of production you expect from your lineup, I suppose. If you’ve got no lineup, then take the ace on the bird-in-the-hand principle. If your lineup can carry its own, take the two quality start guys on the don’t-put-all- your-eggs-in-one-basket principle. Or something.

As to our two hitters, I’ll take the .300 guy hands down. Basically, the production of the .333 guy will all but guarantee a win
when he hits but be worthless otherwise (unless he makes productive outs, but that’s another story).

Meanwhile, the .300 guy is in a position to get a key hit every day. You can then structure the rest of your lineup around that consistency. It becomes the anchor.

So I guess what I’m saying is I’d much rather have the guy who can really help you win in a one-run ballgame every day than the guy who carries the team every three. I have no real arugment here, I admit. Maybe it’s just a matter of taste and if that’s the case, I think the .300 guy makes for better baseball.

rilkefan, the hypothetical is that he will get 5 hits, IBBs are bot a part of it.

That hypothetical does get you thinking, though. Is the second choice a power hitter? Or an Ichiro? I’d rather have a consistent hitter, but I’d want one that drives in runs.

Posada is having problems, even though Torre seems to be resting him more then ever before. I would like to see Torre assign Flaherty to one pitcher, and give Posada a regular, scheduled day off.

Maybe Giambi’s bat speed is slowing down, but he is still pulling all his hits. The shift against him will cost him 20 pts on his BA.

There is something wrong with this team.
Call Tony Robbins. There is too much talent to play like this. He who wins 1 and 2 run games is he who plays in the post season.
This team has the potential to gel and score like crazy at any time. But we are 22 games into the season, and there are many ominious signs.

Is there anything that could be done? Can we get Cameron? Are we waiting for Clemens? Who’s coming on board after the all-star break? I am worried. These ‘outbreak’ games do not make up for the mental errors, defense and general luckluster display.
We certainly need to see some Yankee magic right about now.

You get to chose one of two hitters, but whichever one you choose you have to play for every inning of every game. The good news is you know in advance exactly what each is going to do. Both will have identical isolated power and discipline figures, but one will hit .333 and the other will hit .300. The catch is that the .333 hitter will go 4 for 4 every three days and remain hitless in the intervening three games, meaning he’ll take an 0-fer in 108 games, while the .300 hitter will go 2 for 4 in every fifth game and 1 for 4 in the intervening games, but will never go hitless for the entire season. Who do you choose?

I think that’s indeed getting beyond “damned lies” – (warning: blogwhoring ahead) see the top post up at http://rosenschale.blogspot.com.

So we throw out his two best days and get some subpar numbers…why not throw out his two worst ones? 0 for 5′s on April 8 and April 13. Take them out and his BA is .341. I’m not gonna bother calc’ing the other stats, but you can see that cherry picking goes both ways.

Yikes. I knew Rodriguez was scuffling a bit along with some iffy 3rd base, but I had no idea it was so bad. So basically, Jeter is the only consistent hitter with Sheffield, Rodriguez and Matsui chipping in on occasion. No wonder offense has been a mess.

That being said, he is infuriating in his loyalty and inabilites…

Going back to most of last year, Posada is hitting for no power…

“If you take away the two masterful Mondays past of Alex Rodriguez, you find a player with a line of .233/.283/.372″

That should answer any and all questions about why Alex had been feeling the heat from Yankee fans prior to his three-homer night this past Monday. Checking BP’s Rate stats, Alex has also playing a terrible third base (86 Rate). That and Bernie Williams’ 84 Rate in center are a huge part of the reason why the Yanks are dead last in defensive efficiency thus far this year. The good news is Rodriguez can be expected to improve.

The rest of Baker’s article is worth a read

By the way, can Gary Sheffield please wake up? He’s performing like his own Milwaukee Brewer “clueless” self. Taking a minute to pick up a ball in right, then throwing to … nobody? Then he’s on third base with ONE OUT on Hideki Matsui’s line drive. I severely doubt Joe Torre would call a hit-and-run there, so, either Sheffield forgot the number of outs, or he was trying to steal third, or he broke the cardinal rule saying “WAIT FOR THE BALL TO GET PAST THE INFIELDER WITH LESS THAN 2 OUTS!” No matter how you slice it, the Yankees should have been down 2-1, not 3-1, and there’s a mile of difference between a 1 run and a 2 run deficit late in the game, especially at home.

By the way, can Gary Sheffield please wake up? He’s performing like his own Milwaukee Brewer “clueless” self. Taking a minute to pick up a ball in right, then throwing to … nobody? Then he’s on third base with ONE OUT on Hideki Matsui’s line drive. I severely doubt Joe Torre would call a hit-and-run there, so, either Sheffield forgot the number of outs, or he was trying to steal third, or he broke the cardinal rule saying “WAIT FOR THE BALL TO GET PAST THE INFIELDER WITH LESS THAN 2 OUTS!” No matter how you slice it, the Yankees should have been down 2-1, not 3-1, and there’s a mile of difference between a 1 run and a 2 run deficit late in the game, especially at home.

The offense is doing a great great job getting on base (highlighted by Jeter’s OBP). They just need to string together some hits, and I think they’ll go on a tear. I think Posada will turn it around. I was encouraged by his 2-run double in the 9th against Cordero (the 5-3 loss) last week.

Maybe they can put Giambi on the DL for a broken swing so Phillips doesn’t have to go back down to Columbus when Sierra comes back.