Daily Archives: June 6, 2008

On the morning of May 19, the Royals were a game under .500 and just two games out of first place in the American League Central division. That night they were no-hit by Jon Lester at Fenway Park, a humiliating loss that kicked off a 12-game losing streak. That streak was snapped last Saturday when tonight’s starter, Kyle Davies, in his first major league start of the year, beat C.C. Sabathia in Kansas City. The Royals took two of three from the Indians in that series, but were then swept by the White Sox. Now 10.5 games back and in last place in the Central, the Royals arrive in the Bronx 14 games under .500 with the second worst record in the American League and the third-worst record in baseball.

On the season, the Royals have scored the fewest runs per game in the major leagues. Their pitching has been solid in their home park, but on the road, where the Royals still have an active 11-game losing streak dating back to Lester’s no-hitter, they’ve allowed 5.22 runs per game.

The Royals best hitter to this point in the season has been catcher Miguel Olivo (.286/.314/.541), who started the season as John Buck’s backup and has just five walks in 140 plate appearances. Zack Greinke, who will start on Sunday against Joba Chamberlain, is the only established Royals starter with an ERA at or above league average. The back end of the bullpen–closer Joakim Soria, lefty Ron Mahay, former Yankee farmhand Ramon Ramirez, and injured set-up man Leo Nuñez–has been strong, but they’ve been of little value with the Royals winning just two of their last 17 games.

Tonight, Kyle Davies makes his second start of the year coming off his five-inning win against Sabathia (who, incidentally, pitched an eight-inning complete game, but lost 4-2). Davies was dreadful last year after coming over from the Braves for Octavio Dotel, and is best remembered by Yankee fans for having surrendered Alex Rodriguez’s 500th home run (a clip I’m sure YES will show about that many times tonight). He’s only 24 and has a career 2.86 ERA in the minor leagues, but most of that success came below triple-A and prior to 2005. This year, Davies put up a 2.06 ERA in ten triple-A starts, but had a limp 1.85 K/BB ratio and only struck out two men against three walks in his last start.

He’ll face Darrell Rasner, who had his first poor outing of the year (in the majors or minors) last time out in Minnesota. Even still, Rasner struck out five men against two walks in 5 1/3 innings and kept his team in the game, falling two outs and one run shy of a fifth-straight quality start.

Rasner will throw to Jose Molina tonight, which is odd, not because the Yankees are hesitant to start Jorge Posada on back-to-back days just yet, but because Rasner’s been pitching to Chad Moeller nearly all season (again both in the majors and minors). The rest of the Yankee regulars surround Molina in the order, including yesterday’s hero, Jason Giambi, who’s back at first base, and Posada is expected to start the next two days.

In bullpen news, LaTroy Hawkins’ three-game suspension was upheld. He’ll serve it tonight, tomorrow, and Sunday. Also, Chris Britton pulled an oblique warming up yesterday and has been placed on the DL. Dan Giese, who was just sent down to make room for Posada, thus returns shy of the ten-day minimum and will likely shadow Joba’s start on Sunday after all. I leave it to you to decide exactly how fishy that makes Britton’s injury appear.

Finally, per reader Travis08 in the previous thread about Yankee killers, the Yanks should beware Kansas City first baseman Ross Gload, a career .288/.327/.419 hitter who has hit .446/.475/.696 in 61 career plate appearances against the Yankees. It will be interesting to see if that small-sample success will be enough for Trey Hillman to play Gload against the left-handed Pettitte tomorrow, as Hillman’s had Gload and John Buck in a complex platoon of late with Buck catching, Olivo DHing, DH Jose Guillen returning to right field, and right fielder Mark Teahen shifting to first against lefties (Gload is 0 for 3 career against Pettitte).

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Last week on ESPN, I overheard an announcer ribbing Yankee fans for labeling anyone who gets more than a few hits against the Bronx Bombers as "Yankee killers."  Alex Rios has a twenty-someodd game hitting streak vs. New York, but there has to be a difference between someone who fares well and someone who is a killer, no?  George Brett certainly stands out in my mind as someone who gave the Yanks a hard time (.307/.365/.504 in 203 games).  Who else are some of the legitimate Yankee Killers of all-time?   

“Listen, I loved the way our guys reacted,” [Ray’s manager, Joe] Maddon said. “I thought it was tremendous. The unity that was displayed, it’s part of us growing as a group. Unfortunately, we did not win the game, but I do like the fact that our guys did defend one another. I think that’s great and speaks well for us. I’m very pleased with every one of them.”
(Tampa Bay Online)

I caught the end of the Sox-Rays game the other night just in time to see Coco Crisp’s hard slide into second base and the ensuing reaction from the Rays. Last night, I saw the full highlights from the Shields-Crisp/Rays vs. Crisp fight. It wasn’t really all that as far as fights go. Shields plunked Crisp, Crisp charged the mound, Shields threw a haymaker and missed, Crisp landed a soft jab, and then Crisp was tackled. The Rays played dogpile on the rabbit but it didn’t look as if anyone got any real shots in (Gomes looked as if he was, but that wasn’t really the case), just a lot of poking and scratching like you see in football. After the game, a defiant Crisp talked about how the Rays fight like “girls.”

Later, Manny and Youk got into it a little something in the Sox dugout. Oh, and the bottom line: the Red Sox pounded the Rays. Swept them out of first place. I think Crisp comes off looking like a punk. Then again, if I was waiting for a full day for someone to plunk me, perhaps I’d charge the mound as well. The Manny-Youk thing is really a non-story. I’m sure this kind of thing happens all the time, just not in the dugout. Hell, the great Yankee teams of the late 70s were built on that kind of creative tension. I sure don’t see it impacting Youk or Manny on the field.

The Rays are a work in progress. The Sox are World Champs. ‘Nuff said.

There hasn’t been as much fighting in recent years. Remember, the 98 Yanks had a few, including that famous one against the Orioles. The 86 Mets had more than a few. Oh, and one last thing on the punch Shields threw at Crisp. It reminded me of the roundhouse that Dave Winfield once threw, and landed, on Nolan Ryan. Remember that one?

Props to the guys at River Avenue Blues and No Maas’ specially created Draft Day Blog (by Lane Meyer) for their extensive coverage of yesterday’s draft. Just terrific work.

“We’re putting a great arm in the rotation that we believe is going to win games,” [Joe Girardi] argued in response to the veteran outfielder’s comments in yesterday’s Daily News. “I want to know the games that we’ve sacrificed by doing what we did. Everyone is assuming that we would have won that game in Baltimore if we had Joba in the bullpen that night. You’re pretty smart if you know that. Everyone is assuming we would have won the game in Minnesota if we had Joba in the bullpen that night. It doesn’t always work that way.

“I think people make the assumption that if he’s in the bullpen, you’re going to win every game. That’s not the case.”
(N.Y. Daily News)

More than a few panicky Yankee fans are not pleased about Joba Chamberlain becoming a starter. I’ve encountered several over the past few days. I am not one of them. I think it’s great that Chamberlain is returning to his original pitching position. Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus agrees:

I have to give the Yankees full credit here. I insisted that once they started the year with Chamberlain in the bullpen, they wouldn’t move him midseason. Given the dropoff from Chamberlain to the next-best reliever in that pen (Kyle Farnsworth or Edwar Ramirez or LaTroy Hawkins), I expected that the team wouldn’t deny Joe Girardi his eighth-inning security blanket in the middle of a pennant race. I remain surprised by the decision. It’s driven by the failures of Hughes and Kennedy (as well as Kei Igawa in a cameo role) to provide quality pitching at the back end of the rotation as much as it is by the desire to maximize the long-term value of Chamberlain. Nevertheless, the right decision for the wrong reasons has its appeal.

The move will work out for both parties. Chamberlain has the build and the repertoire to be a good starter, especially now that he’ll be more than a fastball/slider pitcher. The Yankees have been extremely conservative with his arm and his workload—I actually wonder if some day we’ll look back at the handling of Joba Chamberlain as some kind of peak in the handling of young pitchers, where the industry eventually backed away a bit from being quite so cautious with them. Chamberlain has thrown fewer than 800 pitches since being called to the majors last August, and he had a pitch count in last night’s game of around 60 tosses. There’s a wide, wide gulf between that and what Chamberlain can safely manage, and the Yankees have to start closing that gap to maximize both his potential and their chance of getting back into the AL East race.

Chamberlain will make his second start on Sunday against the Royals. It is supposed to be in the mid-90s in New York this weekend.