Good start Derek.

A hit with RISP and Yankees take a lead!

Does Kay really think the book Moneyball was about guys taking walks? I didn't even like the book but at least know that it was about way more than high .OBP guys! How is there no YES producer to tell Kay something so basic?

[3] The TBS discussion of Moneyball was even worse.

Sorry, I meant ESPN. Dave O'Brien, Nomar, and Mark Mulder (who was of course in the book! but hasn't read it).

So yeah, what was that?

[6] That, sir, was what they call a play.

I'm convinced the only time Joe Girardi will use a hit and run is situations where they're doomed to fail so he can stick to his bunts only philosophy

The Braves return the favor with a play to avoid scoring.

Folks Yankee stadium at Dixie is hopping tonight.

No problem with that out.

Whoa.
ESPN just showed the Jeter flip (Mulder was in the dugout for that one) and then the dive into the stands (Nomar was nursing an injury in the dugout for that one). Nomar wasn't fazed, but man that was one dismal day for him.

[12] Thing was, he was ordered to sit, Boston never really came to his defense on that.

[13] I'm not blaming him. I'm just saying it must be one of his least favorite games/days in history.

Rob seems a little sluggish today.

[14]I was just getting in another dig at the Red Sox.

Hiroki-san!
He's pitching very well. Last inning that walk-then-single was his only problem so far.

[15] Oh, far be it from me to get in your way!

I just remember it as the day RSN turned on him. Before that day, Nomah was bettah than Jetuh. After, no, they conceded, Jetes was #1.

[17] Yeah, very unfair to him.

Oh, that must truly suck. Damn.

Biiiiiiig AB here.

Wow, the Mets are helping us out, huh?

Apparently there is a whole twtter phenomenon devoted to Fredi Gonzalez' bad managing...thelarmis, are you there? you watch more Braves games than the rest of us I imagine..any comments?

Wow, Kuroda is just money today. Good man.

Nice done, Hiroki!

Greetings all ... free Yankees baseball is teh awesome!

He's dealing tonight. I guess the foot is o.k.

[21] Who knew they had a use?

Seven Mets Earned Runs charged to David Price.

Man, Nomar and Mulder are a perfect storm of inane jock banality, aren't they?

[28] Examples, please? I'm on Gameday but am always up for some juicy jock cliches.

Oh, and 久しぶり, Cult! (Long time, no Banter!)

Nomar's first 4 year's OPS: .875, .946, 1.022 and 1.033.
Then he hurt his wrist and was never the same.
But those years he was closer to ARod than to Jeter.

Phew, foul.

[28] They are hideous. And Dave O'Brien is not a bad play-by-play guy, but they turn him horrible.

Crap

[29] Long time no Banter, indeed! Right back at ya! Got a new job ... that doesn't let me work from home, so I'm usually not back in time to catch the games. Plus, because of that, I haven't gotten mlb.tv, so I don't get the games anyway, unless they're on ESPN3.

Meanwhile ... FUCK.

Yeah. That couldn't hold up, huh?

Now we need the weather to improve.

[34] Ah right, home gamnes would be a 4pm start for you on the west coast..man, I'm so used to morning baseball now that when I was ni NYC recently it felt odd to watch at night with some beers.

Kuroda can keep it at 2, feeling confident with the O these days to come back!

[29] They're just so blandly generic and cliche, I don't know if they've said anything that stands out. They just literally have nothing insightful to add. Not notes, not stats, not analysis, not anecdotes.

Dreadful.

Though, as hard as it is to believe, they're still better than Kasey Keller has been on ESPN's Euro 2012 broadcasts.

[36] Yeah, I'm now living about 10 miles from Rally-Monkey-Silly-Rocks-Park, though annoyingly, I wasn't able to get to any of the games the Yankees just played there ...

Get those runs back.

Did everybody see the frickin' BOMB that Bryce Harper hit last night.

Lawdy, that was crushed.

Cap'n!

YES FUCKING CURTIS.

God I love him.

Curtis! He reads this blog.

GRANDY!

DANDY!

THIS place just erupted. The Grandy Man can!

I'll give some examples of the banality of Mark and Nomar in a minute, but can someone explain what the hell the ATL crowd is mooing about? It's bizarre, and ESPN is pretending it isn't happening.

It's a good thing that Curtis is nothing but teh fucking awesome, because otherwise, what the Yankees gave up in that trade would make me a sad, sad man ...

[40] Yes. SCARY! And on a lowish pitch. I said before, he is the second coming of Mantle.

Evil Empire, are you at the Ted?

So one thing was, they were talking about Moneyball, and Mulder kept rambling about why exactly it was that his guys couldn't win in the playoffs. He would start down some stupid cliche path, and keep talking until it was obvious what he was saying made absolutely no sense, and then he would start over. "We were young guys, I think we didn't know how good we were, we didn't have that established veteran presence that you need to win in the postseason. It wasn't that we'd all freak out, I think we just didn't know how to finish off a team..."

I love Curtis!!

[48] Harper, Trout and Stanton (don't forget him)..some amazing young talent out there now.

[48] What I thought was impressive was that it was not a straight muscle shot, although, obviously, you have to be strong to hit a ball 450 feet (BTW, over on BBTF today people were trying ... and failing ... to find a ball hit further by a teenage (Hittracker era only)).

But that was a *math* shot (well, physics, but math sounds better), perfectly centered in the sweet spot and perfect contact with the lower half of the ball to generate backspin and thus the kind of lift that makes a ball carry and carry.

[49] That sounds excruciating. Basketball is really the only sport where that "veteran presence" nonsense has any validity.

Yep RIYank I'm here.

[49] I'm on the YES feed. Kay doesn't sound so bad.

So nobody knows what the crowd is rumbling about? Or is it some kind of illusion on ESPN? It sounds like they're constantly BOOing.

[43] If Curtis really reads this blog, I have a beautiful young cousin who would really like to meet you...

This will be Kurota's last batter.

I've been catching this game on the porch via John and Susyn. Love me some more good pitching. [51] I was down on Harper before the regular season just b/c of all the negative press he received. Damn you media! But I have changed my tune. Dude is fun to watch!

Here's a money quote from that BBTF discussion:

After just 40 games, Harper is already #8 on the list for age 19 BB-Ref WAR.

Barring injury, he might end up with just about every significant age 19 hitting record in the book.

Now call the game on account of lightening.

[57] Yeah, he did catch a lot of shit before this season. But everything I've heard (and seen) has been positive. He's just an all-out baseball playing freak.

AND we've got Trout in the AL at the same time???

I can easily see those two starting the All-Star Game as rookies, which is fantastic for baseball ...

[56] Name and number. Now mind you I'm 47.

Also, anyone else catch this?

The slugger, who continued his assault on the record books Tuesday night, was voted by 100 big-league baseball players as the sport’s second-most hated star (10 percent) behind White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski (34 percent) in a “secret survey” by Men’s Journal.

And look who came in third with 9 percentage points: jovial Yankees outfielder Nick Swisher.

[62] Oops, "The Slugger" refers to none other than CentWAR himself: Alex Rodriguez.

[62] That's odd as I read the other day several players had commented on Harper as "he plays hard"..ultimate compliment from one ballplayer to another..

[62][63] Oh, I totally blew that one with poor reading comprehension..you meant A-Rod.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOne!

Hey, Mulder with an actual pertinent insight!

I've heard old timers compare Bryce to Pete Rose. I fucking hate Pete Rose but I'll root for Bryce. I watched that kid's debut night and he rocketed a double and had a guy pegged at the plate if the catcher had not dropped the ball. Damn. I wish the Yankees were not missing Strasburg. He's damn fun to watch, too.

If Glavine and Maddox didn't get that 3-2 pitch their careers would been have far different.

Hmmmmmm, right now it's just BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Scary 3rd out.

Booooooooooooooo...ne.

Well, no harm, no foul ...

Good punch out. Not a strike. Asshole!

????

Uh.
Walk A-Rod to pitch to Rob? I understand, they're going to call on Venters, but still.

Time for The Ripper to make an appearance ...

Or ... not.

Meh.

Uh, when the hell did Cody Eppley show up?

6-4-3. Put it in your pocket.

Let's go, Sori!

Well positioned = Well played!

Atta boy, Soriano! This is some run. Winning. It cures all ails.

Evening gents!