"A New York Treasure" --Village Voice

Close Don’t Count

CC Sabathia threw a strong game against the Tigers on Monday night. He allowed four runs–one in the first, and three in the sixth–but pitched better than that. In fact, he only made a couple of mistakes all game long, including a hanging change-up that Magglio Ordonez barely punched over the right field wall. He struck out seven and didn’t walk a batter. Problem was, Justin Verlander was even better and the ninth inning rolled around by 9:15, a virutally unheard occurance for the Yankees.

justin20verlander1

It was a tidy, efficient, and brisk pitcher’s duel. Verlander allowed back-to-back hits to start the eighth but the Yankees could not score against Bobby Seay. Robinson Cano led off the ninth against Fernando Rodney, lacing the first the pitch to the left center field gap for a double. He scored on a single by Nick Swisher, who advanced to third on a base hit by Melky Cabrera.

With runners on the corners, Jorge Posada came up as the pinch-hitter. He got tied up with an inside pitch and hit a weak grounder to the left side. Brandon Inge fielded it, tossed it to second, and the relay throw miraculously got Posada in time for the double play. That’s an exaggeration on my part, a slow-footed catcher pushing forty shouldn’t be expected to have the legs to beat out even a slow ground ball, but good gosh, Jorge!–it looksed as if he had seventy pounds of cement in his drawers.

A run scored but the rally was squarshed. Ramiro Pena flew out and the game was over before 9:30.

Final Score: Tigers 4, Yankees 2.

No two ways about it, right now, the Yankees are…lacking.  Still, it was an encouraging start for Sabathia.  No cause for panic, but if you are so inclined, why not do it right?

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31 comments

1 Mattpat11   ~  Apr 27, 2009 9:52 pm

I think the team has defeated me (Hell, at least they can beat someone). Yet another embarrassment in the seemingly endless series of embarrassments that the 2009 Yankees are, tonight's debacle didn't enrage me. I'm just tired.

2 cult of basebaal   ~  Apr 27, 2009 10:12 pm

judging by the tone of comments around here tonite .. this wrap-up should have been brought to you by ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czmb6tEwFE8

3 Rich   ~  Apr 27, 2009 10:17 pm

The entire perception of the team changed when they blew Friday night's game.

It's unfortunate that this burden now falls on Phil Hughes, when it should really be on the people who assembled this skin deep roster.

4 Joseph   ~  Apr 27, 2009 11:04 pm

After that gut-wrenching series against Boston, and another tough loss tonight, I find myself strangely calm. Alex's description of Jorge's cement laden boxers was good for a laugh. Watching the replay of Jorge chugging to first was painful to watch and looked like somebody's grandmother chasing her cat down the street. Seriously! I've noticed Jorge seems to be jumping out of his crouch behind the plate a lot, sometimes on close pitches that could possibly be called strikes if he would sit still and frame them, but it seems he's preoccupied with baserunners, trying to set to throw quickly instead of trusting his arm. Possibly with good reason.

I thought that Kevin Long had Gardner striding into the ball and driving it in spring training? He seems back to standing flat footed and swatting at balls.

I really feel this is going to be a good Yankee team. The lineup will get a big boost if the good Alex comes back shortly, and Tex is gonna hit. The rotation is gonna be good (looking forward to Phil's start tomorrow night, fingers crossed), and the pen, though struggling now, has some good arms in it and should settle in. I liked Melancon Sunday night. I hope he stays. Not much has went right lately, 'cept Robbie Cano, and I hope he can keep this up. Anyway, it's a long season and there's lot's of time to right the ship. Hang in there guys, panic is a long ways off.

5 tommyl   ~  Apr 27, 2009 11:12 pm

I really, really, really hope Phil has a good start tomorrow night. With that gut blow in Fenway, I don't think I could bear to watch him give up a zillion runs, last two innings and walk everyone. I might have to cry at that point.

Ugh, remember when we had a team that didn't start April at .500 or below? When we'd expect to win? and did? Please come back team, please.

6 monkeypants   ~  Apr 27, 2009 11:19 pm

[3] Is it fair to rate the roster construction as skin deep? The team is currently operating without (or effectively without) the starting 3B, backup 3B, starting RF, starting DH, starting set-up man, #2 starter. Meanwhile, the starting 1B has been banged up and the #1 pitcher--the consensus #1 FA and expected ace of the staff--has been scuffling. And Mo blew a game.

7 tommyl   ~  Apr 27, 2009 11:22 pm

The only silver lining to this whole start is I hope it makes all the A-Rod haters shut up. I think the guy is a jackass on a personal level, but he sure can play the baseball well. Watching Pena, Berroa and Ransom "bat" has been painful.

8 Raf   ~  Apr 27, 2009 11:30 pm

Ugh, remember when we had a team that didn’t start April at .500 or below?

That would be the 2006 squad, that went 13-11 in April

9 Mr. OK Jazz TOKYO   ~  Apr 27, 2009 11:44 pm

[4] Full of panic! But you speak the truth..we just have to hope Boston doesn't go 8 games up by mid-May..

10 Mattpat11   ~  Apr 27, 2009 11:44 pm

[8] Unstoppable juggernaut.

11 tommyl   ~  Apr 28, 2009 12:04 am

[10] Its sad, but I literally spit on my monitor laughing at that one.

12 Raf   ~  Apr 28, 2009 12:14 am

The 2004 squad had a record over .500 in April too

13 Rich   ~  Apr 28, 2009 12:33 am

[6] Given that the replacements for the 3Bman have been Ransom, Berroa, and Pena, I think this so, because it underscores their absence of mL depth, and therefore their drafting failures.

Nady have been the nominal RFer, but according to every statistical metric, Swisher is better.

As for the DH, they knew Matsui's physical situation coming into the season.

They haven't been without Wang to this point and that has been the result of a conscious choice They knew that his velo was down in ST, and probably that his sinker was inconsistent at best. They still choose to start the season with him in the rotation, and despite him being non-competitive in his first start, they started him two more times.

As for CC and Tex, given the way almost every big acquisition over the last decade except Vazquez has struggled in their first April with the team, their "scuffling" was probably foreseeable as well.

Mo blew a huge game, but I thought it was stupid to use him for four outs in the first month of the season after offseason surgery.

When you start a AAAA CFer in most games, and the catcher that backs up an offensive catcher, who is also coming off surgery, can't hit his weight, you are putting a huge burden on the remainder of the roster to compensate for any or all of these shortcomings.

To this point, the roster hasn't been deep enough to do that. Since most of these potential issues were foreseeable, I think it's completely fair to cite the suboptimal roster (and sometimes the lineup) construction.

btw, I still believe the Yankees will win the division, but some roster changes may have to be made.

14 Mattpat11   ~  Apr 28, 2009 12:40 am

To be fair, I assume many players can't hit Molina's weight.

15 Rich   ~  Apr 28, 2009 12:44 am

Heh. Nice.

16 Cliff Corcoran   ~  Apr 28, 2009 1:14 am

Yeah, I know it was their fourth loss in a row, but a crisp, well-pitched game, a good performance by CC, who looked dominant at times, and Alex dropping Spiders-era Bowie has got me feeling pretty good. Looking forward to Hughes tomorrow.

17 monkeypants   ~  Apr 28, 2009 1:45 am

[13] You are correct about the replacements for A-Rod, but that does not change the fact that the team has been hit hard by injuries.

Nady have been the nominal RFer, but according to every statistical metric, Swisher is better.

This is irrelevant. Having both Nady and Swisher was depth--in fact, that one could step in and start for the other is the very definition of depth. However, again, injury has depleted the roster. Are you suggesting that the team should carry 3 or 4 RFs?

As for CC and Tex, given the way almost every big acquisition over the last decade except Vazquez has struggled in their first April...

That's a silly argument. The Yankees signed frontline FAs, which made their roster much, much stronger. You are suggesting implicitly that the team must carry high-level backups on the expectation that the top two FAs would struggle? (One of whom, Teixeira, has been injured.)

18 PJ   ~  Apr 28, 2009 1:45 am

Panic schmanic! Panicking say, over swine flu for instance, is one thing.

"It's Hamaggedon!" "It's a Pigpocalypse!" "It's Snout of Control!" - Craig Ferguson

Correctly identifying tragically played and losing baseball, is quite another...

"The Yankees Stink! Please allow me to cite the ways in which I've come to this logical conclusion..." - Bronx Banterers

Viola!

: )

19 Rich   ~  Apr 28, 2009 2:58 am

[17] You are correct about the replacements for A-Rod, but that does not change the fact that the team has been hit hard by injuries.

And their lack of depth has impeded their ability to overcome them.

This is irrelevant. Having both Nady and Swisher was depth–in fact, that one could step in and start for the other is the very definition of depth. However, again, injury has depleted the roster. Are you suggesting that the team should carry 3 or 4 RFs.

You used the words "starting RF," so the relevance or lack thereof flows from your post, and it's the reason that I used the word starting as my point of departure. Granted, Nady would have provided depth, if nothing else, but he is the only quality depth they could have reasonably counted on when they constructed the roster.

I'm suggesting that their suboptimal drafting has been the primary impediment to assembling the kind of quality backups that could have mitigated any loss of manpower that resulted from injuries or less than anticipated performance.

That’s a silly argument. The Yankees signed frontline FAs, which made their roster much, much stronger. You are suggesting implicitly that the team must carry high-level backups on the expectation that the top two FAs would struggle? (One of whom, Teixeira, has been injured.)

If it's a silly argument then the logical extension of your point is that Tex and CC were expected to contribute from Day 1. If one then uses the April stats of Tino, Sheffield, Giambi, Clemens, et al, in their first season as Yankees as a basis of comparison for the expected performance of Tex and CC, it's difficult to understand why you would even challenge my argument because it is factually unassailable.

I'm simply pointing out that it was reasonable to expect that both CC and Tex could struggle in April and that if their goal was to get off to a fast start, they were going to have to identify other contributors to fill any temporary void in production.

But when your staring CFer is Brett Gardner, your fallback position at 3B is Cody Ransom, and your backup catcher, who everyone knew would get significant ABs in April, is Jose Molina, it's not that hard to understand why they couldn't fill any temporary void.

That's why I have said that their roster construction is, to be charitable, suboptimal.

Is Tex still injured? I thought the cortisone shot resolved the problem. Comparing his splits from April 2008 and 2009, although his AVG is much lower, the difference in his OPS isn't as great as I would have thought (2008: .845; 2009: .798).

20 Cru Jones   ~  Apr 28, 2009 4:38 am

I disagree with criticizing Cashman for not having a suitable major league back up for A-rod, of all people. Look at A-rod's injury history (or lack thereof). You simply can't plan for every possible contingency, and I think the team had bigger worries than getting a fully adequate replacement at 3B.

To suggest otherwise is to panic, IMHO.

I think monkeypants nailed it ([6]): "The team is currently operating without (or effectively without) the starting 3B, backup 3B, starting RF, starting DH, starting set-up man, #2 starter. Meanwhile, the starting 1B has been banged up and the #1 pitcher–the consensus #1 FA and expected ace of the staff–has been scuffling. And Mo blew a game."

21 randym77   ~  Apr 28, 2009 7:09 am

[4] Agree that Gardner is not using the lower half of his body while hitting. It's like he's swinging only from the waist up, while most players swing from the feet up.

They have been working with him on that, but I gotta wonder...why did it take so long? You'd think this would have been addressed during his four years in the minors.

22 The Mick536   ~  Apr 28, 2009 7:35 am

Not counting the injuries, the team remains tragically flawed. Not one of the previous Banterers spent any characters on the bull pen. Posada isn't injured; he is old, slow, and coming off an injury. Forget about his fear of throwing out runners, he still doesn't like to block the plate. He shouldn't have been resigned. Have we forgotten last year? Matsui, as was pointed out, was a known weakness. Is he still having his knees drained? Two operations. Below average fielder when well, not the kind of batter who makes the DH relevant. Cannot play him in the field. He shouldn't have been resigned either. And I have never been a Damon fan. Isn't he supposed to be the leadoff hitter? He cannot play the field either, any more.

I think the Nady discussion is also off line. Yanks needed Jason Bay. Sox bought two fielders and raised another. I'd take Elsbury in a flash. I may be just getting too down on them, but a more youthful and agile right fielder would have made the catch Swisher missed.

Every team deals with injuries, but the Yankees barely have a starting lineup, even if they are healthy.

Most teams don't start the year learning that their star player not only has a hip injury which they should have investigated last year, but tested positive for PEDs. Lowell took care of his problem at the end of the season and seems to be doing just fine. This should be charged to Cashman, also.

None of this really matters. The point is that they don't hit in the clutch. Look at the LOBs for last night's game.

23 The Mick536   ~  Apr 28, 2009 7:43 am

I almost forgot. In addition to not liking Gardner, I don't like Swisher, in case you cannot tell. Another figment of Cashman's imagination, he barely hit his weight last year, though he still hit a handful of homers. What is he batting over the last ten games--.179. I don't even like his practice swings. Not going to win with him on the roster. His biggest contributions so far are his music selections and relief appearance.

24 The Hawk   ~  Apr 28, 2009 8:21 am

This either/or proposition of A rod vs Ransom, etc is just false. Someone making an argument against A Rod would not hold up Cody frigging Ransom as a suitable replacement, so an A Rod supporter saying "See?" about the results is ridiculous.

Anyway, the Yankees have scored runs. I don't think the offense is the problem. Obviously it's not. They were up by SIX vs Beckett on Saturday. Yeah they have trouble with RISP. So does A Rod. He's not the key to this whole thing, it's the pitching. Do they need someone decent at 3B? Absolutely. Do they need A Rod? Not necessarily.

25 Diane Firstman   ~  Apr 28, 2009 8:34 am

[18]

“The Yankees Stink! Please allow me to cite the ways in which I’ve come to this logical conclusion…” - Bronx Banterers

Viola!

: )

========================

I don't think luring Frankie V. out of retirement is going to do much good. :-)

26 The Hawk   ~  Apr 28, 2009 8:37 am

[25]

Don't be a smartass - he's obviously requesting musical accompaniment ....

27 Diane Firstman   ~  Apr 28, 2009 8:40 am

[26]

ok .... BUT only if Bernie plays guitar, not CF ...

28 Rich   ~  Apr 28, 2009 10:27 am

[20] Panic? That's pretty comical given that I said in [13] that: "btw, I still believe the Yankees will win the division, but some roster changes may have to be made," it's called accountability.

Try rebutting my post rather than mischaracterizing it.

29 PJ   ~  Apr 28, 2009 12:52 pm

[25] [26] *Curses @ not having an "edit" feature!*

;)

30 OldYanksFan   ~  Apr 28, 2009 2:43 pm

Any of you folks know of any sites for Yankee fans? Ya know, believe who believe and support their team?

We are ahead of TB. Any calls for their manger? For the GM? Any scathing criticisms for their weaknesses?

This is a goold team. Certainly in the top 25% of MLB. Probably better. Will they make the PS? I hope so. I think so. Will they win it all? They could. They might. They might not.

They are not the dominant team in baseball. They will still need a few years to build the farm and produce in the international market. Our core will be gone soon. It is a new day. Time to move on from the dynasty mentality.

The critical micro-analization is getting old. We have holes. We are old. We lack depth. BFD! So does everyone else.... have issues, and cracks in their makeup.

Maybe it's the internet, but 'fans' seem to be a little different then I remember.

31 Rich   ~  Apr 28, 2009 11:53 pm

[30] Jeez.

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