Granderson is batting second against the lefty because...he's fast? No Arod. No Swisher. Seems like Girardi take a perverse pleasure in losing battles to (he hopes) win the war.

Good first inning for Dusty.

Why did they bother to fly to Texas?

Girardi's explanation for bunting 3-0 was pathetic.

[4] What was it?

[5] He wantedhim to have two chances to bunt and thought he'd get a good pitch 3-0. I guess the fact that Cervelli could have walked never entered his mind.

Gints up 31-16

howdy .... channel-surfing between g-men and yanks

[6] Maybe he preferred man on 3rd and 1 out, rather then 1st and 2nd and no out. I you only want 1 run, what situation is better odds?
You might disagree with the strategy, but the explainatio is fine.
And, Brains was successful. So, Girardi's plan did work.

[9] Ok...but with first and second, you could have Golson bunt to setup 2nd and 3rd for Swisher and Tex. How is third with one out better than that?

[9] Also, if the stratregy is bad, what difference does it make if it worked? Besides, Girardi's "strategy" was to score one run,so in fact, it did not work.

[10] I have no opinion of which is better. For scoring ONLY one run, as Brains is our best bunter, it seemed to work. I can't say what's better, but we have all seen tons of BPs, and MANY times we had man on 2nd, no out, and didn't score.

What I can't figure is that after going through all that, he brings in Thames to hit against the right-hander. I know he was 2 of 3 against the pitcher, but that was just more over-managing.

[12] We don't have to guess.The run expectancy matrix tells us that having 2nd and 3rd with one out and 1st and 2nd with no outs both give you a better chance to score ONE run than third with one out. Even second with no outs offers a higher probablity.

Endzone INT by the G-men.

No hitter through 4?

Run expectation in 2010: 0 outs, runner on 2nd: 1.12; 1 out, runner on 3rd: 0.93

[13] After making the mistake of the bunt, I don't mind Thames hitting, but had Cervelli walked, he could have used Golson to bunt for Kearns and saved Thames to hit later on in the game if needed. There is no justification for the bunt. The fact that Girardi has conjured one (like his silly reason for keeping Arod in to run, but then having Pena replace him on defense in the next half inning) illustrates how much he harms this team.

Rays about to the lead.

[14] Except that stat assumes the possibility or logs the reality of getting a hit with RISP. The Yankees simply resfuse to get a hit with RISP. So Girardi, who is supposed to help his team to play their game, gave them an opportunity to score WITHOUT getting a hit.

And since Jeter couldn't do it a few days ago, Joe put up Thames, who is is a deep, fly ball hitter.

The bottom line is Joe's decisions are prompted by the fact that the Yankees have simply SUCKED at the plate the last week. He simply tried to set up the easiest run scoring situation.

Normally, I'd prefer 1st and 2nd. But normally, the Yankees don't choke on 90% of their scoring possibilities.

I think you are seeing the moves of a VERY frustrated manager, desperate to help his team put a run across.

walk off win for Jays.

[19] They also haven't had much success getting the runner in from third with fewer than two outs. Besides, it was a 3-0 count. If a strike, Cervelli is still gettinga good pitch to bunt. If a ball, you can bunt into an even better situation with Golson. Again, there is no sound basis for the decision.

Part of the reason the Yankees are struggling to score is BECAUSE of the manager.

Gints win, now lets get some hits -- and runs.

Why did he stop!

[23] No kidding, I don't get that- he had that base standing up I think.

There has been a Derek Jeter sighting...#2900.

Finally, Cap'n comes through.

[25],[26] A hit! A very palpable hit!

Teix always swings at the first pitch after a walk, and I swear it never works out. Ugh.

Tex has to start hitting again. He has gone AWOL this week.

Just disgusting.

Moseley's holding his own against Cliff Lee.

The Yankees have to lead the league in not even throwing to 2B on steal attempts.

All that simply because Moseley wouldn't challenge Andrus.

Another awful decision.

Should've just taken the out. Not a good inning for Teixeira.

Meanwhile, the Yankees stick with the strategy of throwing first pitch meatballs to free swingers like Vlady and Cruz.

27. Chyll Will
September 12th, 2010 at 4:33 pm
[25],[26] A hit! A very palpable hit!

Jetes needs to retire now... while he's on top!

Scranton's season is over. It's time to promote Montero, let him catch most games and have Posada settle in as the DH.

Montero is done for the year, he had minor leg surgery for some infection.

[39] Didn't realize that...unless it was a pressing issue (which it must not have been if they waited until after the aaa playoffs), they probably should have waited.

[37] I dunno, maybe he needs to talk with Kevin Long for a few days...

[40] Looks like he missed the playoffs. The Yankees are really screwed if Posada goes down to an injury.

[40] They didn't wait. Montero didn't play in the post-season. It was PJ Pilittere and Robby Hammock catching for the playoffs.

Cano and Tex picked a bad time to go into slumps.

I wonder if Lee's performance has convinced Girardi that may he should actually try to win some games down the stretch.

I hope Posada is on the same wave length with Oneill. Moseley is skating on thin ice with that handing curve.

Another lead off walk by nibbling. That'sjust a stupid approach.

Yankees are going to get hurt by one of those hangers eventually.

Golson looks very shaky.

Funny how at the beginning of the year, it seemed we had such a wealth of catching talent. Cervelli looked like he might be good enough to start (somewhere, if not in the Bronx). Romine was on a tear, and scouts were saying the Yanks should start him and trade Montero, who was struggling a bit.

Frankie crashed back to earth, Romine ended up with a nightmarishly horrible second half, and Montero had a terrific second half, but ended up injured.

[50] Murphy and Sanchez might actually wind up being the best all around catching prospects when all is said done.

Are you watching Girardi? That's when you bunt.

What a bunch of horseshit.

52) Maybe Brett Gardner can take fucking notes.

Well, might as well lose on a bunt, they've lost every other way to Texas.

Why did he keep running all the way to second? I thought you just started and stopped?

This is spoiling my nice gray Sunday afternoon...

Moseley at almost 100 pitches.

I think they left him in too long.

The Yankees simply do not have a good team. They have about 6or 7 great players, and when they don't play well, the Yankees have no shot.

Awful decision by Granderson...this team has embarrassed itself all week. I hope Hal and Cashman are making notes.

[58] He was handing curves over the last two innings. He was going to get hurt sooner or later. Girardi has managed the bullpen poorly all series. Too quick with the hook on Friday and Saturday, and too late today.

I am sorry, but Moseley did not pitch well. When you walk the lead off batter in back to back innings of a close game, that is not doing your job.

Sigh.

Again, why did they bother to fly to Texas?

If Burnett had done his job this season, the trickle down effect on the rotation/bullpen wouldn't be so severe ..

I don't like the walks, but Moseley pitched fine. I'd sign up for that kind of outing from him any day.

Well, getting swept by a team that was running on fumes is always good. Just pathetic.

Albaladejo is making Moseley look like Cy Young.

[65] I guess I'd take four runs in 6+ from him as well, but I would prefer not to be in that position in the first place. I am just tired of people saying guys like Moseley pitched well because they did so for part of the game. Wins are overrated, but this is a perfect example about why they do have some meaning. A "winning pitcher" does not walk Andrus and Kinsler.

Yeah, Golson should still be batting here in the 8th, good thinking. It's not like rosters were expanded or anything.

The team seems to be taking their queue from the manager. Apparently, these games aren't important.

[59] Seriously ... a bad, BAD series for Coffee Joe.

[67] Yeah, but a good manager looks at 6 innings and 1 run and thinks, "that's pretty goddamn good, no point in getting greedy" and has somebody warming behind Dustin Freaking Moseley to start the inning.

There's NO way that Moseley should have been left in a position to give up 4 runs.

[59] I sure hope they know what to make out of those notes. They could read them wrong and give Girardi a five-year extension.

The Yankees catching situation is dire.

[70] Fair point...Moseley had shown signs in the sixth that he was near the end.

[71] That is a frightening possibility. I want to be believe that the Yankees are aware of Girardi's shortcomings, but it doesn't seem so. Instead, I am putting my faith in the lure of the Cubs job. I really hope Chicago is as close to Girardi's heart as so many people seem to think.

Wow ... Ron Washington trying to out-stupid Girardi here.

What possible reason is there to risk ANYTHING getting another inning out of Cliff Lee here.

THE STUPID, IT BURNS!!!!

[74] This weekend hasnt been a managerial showcase, that's for sure.

What an idiotic, clueless fan!

Marquez strikezone has been very good today.

A ball is a ball. Moseley didn't get the call on a similarly close pitch earlier.

How do you pull Lee with Granderson due up?

I guess I gave Granderson too much credit...his ABs can be just awful. He is playing himself back out of the Yankees future plans.

So the ump does a great job all day and then falls to pieces on the last at bat.

[81] Yankees mailed it in, so I can't kill the ump for missing the last pitch of the game.

Well, THAT sucked.

Good luck against Tampa, boys, I think you're going to need it ...

[73] The thing is, I have no clue who would be a suitable replacement given the direction they want to go in with managing styles; Girardi was chosen over Mattingly supposedly because of his grasp of current statistical breakdowns and how to incorporate them into his game, which is what Cashman had wanted in a new manager after Torre's belly-full-o'guts ran dry some years before. But Girardi seems to either rely too much on them or he has singularly awful depth perception, maybe both. Raf mentioned Trey Hillman some time ago, but he's been out of the Yankee system for a while and made no impact outside of the Yankees, so I don't know how viable that would really be. I had considered Buck Showalter before he went to baltimore, but since then there's been a lot of talk about how domineering and slick he was when he was first here, so there seems to be a firewall built specifically for him concerning the Yankees. So I still don't know.

Btw, no talk from anybody about how Kevin Towers and Damon Oppenheimer are being considered for D-Backs GM (though a conflicting report says the Yanks nixed talks with Oppenheimer)?

[84] Showalter would have been. I am on record here as advocating him for at least three years. He can't be the only one out there. The Yankees can't be afraid to make a change, and this time around have to interview more than three or four candidates. This is one of the most coveted jobs in all of sports...the Yankees have to start demanding higher quality candidates.

Sorry folks. The "emperor" has no clothes. Catching is pathetic, managing is too wonky, the "core three" (may go to four when we see how Pettite fares on his return) have rotted, pitching is inconsistent, the YES announcing (mainly Kay) is self-congratulatory, and on and on and on. Good luck. IF the Bombers make the playoffs, can't see them making it to the Series. They don't have the horses.

The Yankees have been a singular bummer this weekend.

That series was one, long drawn out horror show. In every single game I found myself simply hoping the Yanks would win, while feeling a terrible certainty that logic, probability, and what my gut was burbling told me each game would end badly.

Three games, chances in all three games, three losses in a variety of awful outcomes.

Joba shits the bed, blown opportunities, inevitable Gaudin-Cruz home run; an inexplicably overused Mariano blowing a save; a time game headed into the 7th with Dustin Moseley and who knows up against Cliff Lee and what looks like a variety of good options in the Rangers bullpen.

0 for 3.

I happen to agree that this team looks dreadful right now, and, as I said after game 1, they look like a bad bet against ANY of the possible postseason teams, so long as neither the White Sox or the Red Sox go on a hellacious run while the Yankees crumble.

Minnesota or Texas? Probably doesn't matter if the team can't play better than this.

The overwhelmingly depressing part of the series against Texas is that Hamilton sat the whole thing out. That's ugly.

I'm furious with the Yanks for getting to me in every which way - watching every brutal minute of Game 1, out drinking and home to see the shock of the Yanks leading in the 9th and then the peekaboo check of the score to find a 7-6 turd on my doorstep, tuning out the game all day and then idiotically watching the 7th before turning them off in disgust.

Fuck you, Yankees. You still couldn't ruin a weekend that included that epic win over Notre Dame. I banish you from my thoughts. Mostly.

Is there a chance that this is just the suck before the surprise of suddenly solid, tenacious play that leads into a surprising postseason? I suppose it could be - we're not going to throw some of these guys as starters in a postseason series if Pettitte returns in form.

Cano's slump may be temporary; the team as a whole does ebb and flow.

I'd be very surprised, though, if this season isn't what I've had this nagging feeling it will be for at least a month: as someone said in one of the game threads, this one just screams that it's all going to end in tears.

Two things from the series - a question and a statement.

First, the statement. Albaladejo SUCKS. To heck with any of you who have fooled yourselves into thinking this isn't obvious. I watch, he sucks. My eyes tell me he sucks. Just like they told me that Melancon SUCKED. Albaladejo could save 100 games in a season in the minors, and until I see stuff that looks any different from the crap and slop he throws every time he wears the real uniform, I'm pretty certain he's straight garbage.

Second, a question: has there been ANY sort of answer for the decision to throw Mo for two innings in game 1? That was the decision I found most inexplicable in a weekend of strange choices. When they didn't take the lead after Mo's first inning, I thought the situation demanded that you sit your 40 year-old wizard down. Has Girardi given ANY plausible explanation for that?

Closing thoughts in this sloppily written complaint (I'm tired): this Texas team reminds me distressingly of the semi-recent Angels squads. Not just because Vlad is there - but more because I see solid, if occasionally unspectacular starting pitcher, a team that has frighteningly more team speed than the Yankees, a billion guys in the bullpen who throw high nineties or something else nasty, and a horribly overmanaging manager who doesn't look like a dope because all the parts are the right parts, meaning most moves, no matter how stupid, are still passable moves.

Finally, fuck you Joba. I blame your fat gutlessness for this whole series. You started a chain reaction with the most pathetic pitch I've seen a Yankee throw all season. And this is a team that starts AJ Burnett.

Managers? This constant plaint for Buck may include a massive falsehood. Isn't it quite possible certain players whose wishes were simply not going to be overridden at the time sent up a vote of "no thanks" with regard to Buck? With the transition in ownership of the Yankees and Cashman's shaky position at the moment of Torre's departure (let us not forget that this was pre-actually winning a WS), I think guys on this team were in a position to demand or reject a Buck. And if it was a non-starter (which I suspect that it was), constantly asking for something that was not a legitimate possibility is to pretend to be a realist while existing in a world of utter fantasy.

Hillman? I've met the guy, interviewed him for almost an hour, and came away incredibly impressed. But he's floundered since the day that impression was formed (early 2001). Great presence, very logical and clear-thinking, but he has not flourished.

Who else? Who ya' got? If Buck's a BS answer, you have to have something else.

I think Girardi has had some massive head-scratchers throughout the last few months. But there are things he's done well with a team that has many problems that lurk below the surface that can't be so easily dismissed.

Is he perfect? Definitely not. Still waiting for a REAL candidate to prefer.