Daily Archives: June 18, 2010

Friggin’ Mets. I wish they’d decide what they are. They finished April with an eight-game winning streak that lifted them into first place, but by the time the Yankees made their way over to Queens on May 21, the Muts had fallen all the way down to last place in the National League East, a full seven games behind the Phillies. The Mets took two of three from the Yankees that weekend and, including those two wins, they have gone 18-5 since, vaulting past the slumping Phils and climbing within a half game of the similarly surging first-place Braves.

What gives? Well, a seven-game winning streak built on series sweeps of the Orioles and Indians has played a part, but the Yankees can’t talk trash about that having just beat up on those two teams to slip into a first-place tie themselves.

Replacing John Maine and Oliver Perez in the rotation with 23-year-old Jonathon Niese (who had been on the disabled list with a hamstring strain) and journeyman knuckleballer R.A. Dickey (who had been in the bullpen) has also been key. Maine and Perez both hit the DL with ERAs over 6.00, while Niese and Dickey, in eight combined starts since mid-May, have gone 7-0 with a 2.28 ERA. Hisanori Takahashi, another repurposed reliever, has also been a solid addition to the rotation having turned in three quality starts in five tries, going 2-1 with a 3.81 ERA. Add in a Cy Young-contending season from Mike Pelfrey and his new split-finger fastball and incumbent ace Johan Santana, and the Mets rotation, which seemed in ruins a month ago, is suddenly a strength.

Then there’s David Wright. On May 7, he was hitting .287/.416/.568 with seven homers, earning an honorable mention in my debut Awards Watch column on the MVP races soon after. Then, from May 8 to May 29, he hit just .187/.256/.320 with one home run and 31 strikeouts in 20 games, a rate of one K every 2.8 plate appearances. Since then, over a period of just less than three weeks, he’s hit .431/.477/.724 with four home runs and just 12 Ks (5.4 PA/K). It’s oversimplification to say as goes Wright, so go the Mets, but the parallels are certainly indicative of his importance to the team. Of course, Wright needs someone to drive in, and on that count, Jose Reyes’ resurgence has been perfectly timed. Over that 18-5 stretch, Reyes has hit .371/.419/.577 with eight steals in nine attempts.

Those performances from Reyes and Wright have been especially important because Jason Bay, since tripling his season home run total by going deep twice off CC Sabathia, has hit just one more dinger in his last 19 games, going .234/.306/.351 over that span. Similarly, rookie Ike Davis, who was driving the offense when the Yankees were in Queens, has hit just .235/.278/.425 since, though he’s been hot the last few games, getting two hits in each game of the Cleveland series, three of them for extra bases.

The pitching matchups for this weekend’s Subway Series finale are identical to the previous series in Queens four weeks ago. In that series, Javier Vazquez and Takahashi dueled to a draw in a 2-1 Yankee win Friday night. Then Pelfrey and Santana shut the Yankees down the next two nights as Phil Hughes and CC Sabathia struggled. Hughes and Sabathia have been better of late, but they have their work cut out for them rematching against the Mets top two starters.

Tonight, the Yankees look to rouse their bats from their recent two-game slumber as they take on 35-year-old Japanese “rookie” lefty Takahashi. There’s been a general impression lately that the Yankees are struggling against left-handed starters. There’s something to that as the team has hit just .252/.337/.426 in games started by a lefty versus .290/.374/.451 in games started by a righty and is just 12-11 in games started by opposing lefties, but I’m not sold. Overall, the Yankees have hit .277/.363/.460 against left-handed pitching and .277/.361/.434 against righties. I think the issue is rather the quality of the lefties they’ve been facing rather than the handedness of those pitchers. Nine of those losses were started by Johan Santana, Jon Lester, David Price, Rickey Romero, Brett Cecil, Jon Danks, Jamie Moyer, Scott Kazmir, and Dallas Braden. The other two were games were lost by the Yankee bullpen and had little to do with the either starting pitcher (one was Sergio Mitre vs. Detroit spot-starter Brad Thomas, who pitched just three innings, the other was the game in which David Huff got hit in the head by an Alex Rodriguez line drive in the third inning).

Takahashi’s first major league start came against the Yankees. His second came against the Phillies. In those two games he allowed no runs in 12 innings and struck out 11 against one walk. In his next two starts, against the weak-hitting Padres and Marlins, he gave up 11 runs in 9 1/3 innings while striking out six against four walks and yielding three home runs. His last time out, he allowed just one run in seven frames to the Orioles, but struck out only two. As for Vazquez, as I reported on Monday, he is 4-2 with a 2.94 ERA over his last six starts, including six scoreless innings against the Mets, and has won each of his last three starts, posting a 2.57 ERA while striking out 22 in 21 innings against just five walks and 11 hits (albeit with four of those hits leaving the park).

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Wally Wood

Wrapping up boxing week, here’s one that Diane suggested:

And, well, I couldn’t resist…

When your team is grappling with the Rays for the best record in baseball, there is not much that needs to be overhauled. But fine tuning is always a consideration, especially considering the high standard that Tampa Bay has established over the first two and a half months of the season. Then there is the presence of the Red Sox, who have quietly moved within sniffing distance of first place. Those factors, coupled with the long-term concerns over the groin and the hip (not again!) of Alex Rodriguez, should have the Yankees thinking about their infield depth and their overall bench strength.

Kevin Russo and Ramiro Pena, the two current backup infielders, have hit about as well as Chicken Stanley on a good day. If A-Rod has to miss significant time later this season, or if he has to be relegated to extensive DH duty, the Yankees will find themselves with a gaping hole at the hot corner. So lo and behold, two significant names have found themselves designated for assignment over the last week. They are Jake Fox, late of Oakland, and Akinori Iwamura, formerly of Pittsburgh. Both players happen to be having lousy seasons (their combined OPS figures would fall short of one of Barry Bonds’ hallmark seasons), but both are far better hitters than they have shown. Either man would give the Yankees a better backup option at third base, while also providing depth at other positions.

The 27-year-old Fox is not much of a corner defender, but he can hit like a third baseman–at least when it comes to power. (Fox slugged a respectable .468 for the Cubs in 2009.) He can also play the outfield, serve as a DH against left-handers, and perhaps most significantly, is capable of putting on shin guards and a face mask. He would make an ideal third catcher, far better than the offensively-overwhelmed Chad Moeller.

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It’s the season, man, and my oh my, how I do adore cherry pie….(Hey, Now)

The projector is broken, so no show today. We’ll be back on Monday for Stanley Kubrick Week. The plan is to do a theme week in this space, if not every week, then every other week. So if you’ve got any suggestions, feel free to let us know and we’ll do our best to soup it up. It doesn’t have to only be for an actor or a director. It could be for a cinematographer or just a theme–Worst Date Movies, Laugh-Out-Loud Movies, Best Late Night Movies–you name it.

Whadda ya hear, whadda ya say?

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen as unsightly a Game 7 as the one played last night between the Lakers and Celtics for the NBA title. At one point, Jeff Van Gundy said that it was one of the worst displays of offensive execution and one of the hardest, toughest defensive efforts too. The defense played by both teams was terrific, and the offense was horrid. Hear that clang? More paint being chipped off the rim. Kobe Bryant, Ray Allen, name the player, they all missed a ton of shots. Ron Artest turned out to be one of the heroes for the Lakers and he missed a lot of shots too (it is somehow fitting that a junkyard dog like Artest would be the key to victory in such an ugly game).

It was the kind of game that made you want to sit up and yell at the TV, “Can’t anybody make a jump shot?”

Bryant didn’t only miss, he forced the action and took bad shots in traffic. He turned the ball over. Phil Jackson said that Byrant was pressing; after the game, Bryant, who was named the Finals MVP, said that he was exhausted. It would have gone down as his worst moment as a pro had the Lakers lost. But the Celtics didn’t bury Los Angeles when they had the chance–up nine, up thirteen–and in the end the Lakers were just too long, and they dominated the boards.

Sure, the Lakers got some calls, but for the most part the refs let both teams play. And in the end, the Lakers survived their own offensive futility by hitting a few big shots down the stretch (including the expected lollipop three pointer from Derek Fisher) and finally made their free-throws.

It wasn’t pretty at all. In fact, this game felt like the demon child of the Pistons-Knicks Era style of mug-’em hoops. By the middle of the forth quarter, all of the players looked more like heavyweight fighters in the 15th round, as if they were moving under water. It was an agonizing game to watch, and yet as bad as the offense was, the game was always competitive, never boring. And the entire season came down to the final minutes between the Lakers and Celtics. In our imaginations it should have looked better, prettier, more spectacular, but you couldn’t have asked for more passion or determination.

Just for someone to nail an open jumper.

Lastly, great night for Queens, so okay, Ron Ron, I’ll say it: Queensbridge, baby:

[Photo Credit: Ronald Martinez, Jae C. Hong, Christian Petersen, Lisa Blumenfeld: Getty Images]

Chat about today’s World Cup match here, if you please.