Blog Archives

The Pittsburgh Pirates are a terrible franchise and a terrible baseball team. Their list of attributes in 2007 is as follows:

Jason Bay, LF (.310/.378/.531, 11 HR, 45 RBI)
Ian Snell, RHP (2.91 ERA, 71 K, 10 quality starts)
Tom Gorzelanny, LHP (2.53 ERA, 9 quality starts)
Matt Capps RHP (2.70 ERA, 33 G, 4.00 K/BB)
Damaso Marte LOOGY (1.37 ERA, .125/.222/.125 vs. lefties, 0 XBH)

The Yankees won’t see Snell, can pitch around Bay in big spots, and can make Capps and Marte irrelevant if they can do enough damage early against Paul Maholm and old pal Shawn Chacon over the next two days. The only trouble is Gorzelanny, who starts tonight against Andy “Hard Luck” Pettitte. Pettitte knows the Pirates well having spend the last three years in the NL Central. Last year, he beat them in a pair of late-season quality starts. In 2005, Andy posted a 2.08 ERA in four starts against the Bucs. In 2004, he faced them in back-to-back starts early in the year and allowed just one run in 11 innings (that on a Jack Wilson home run during the hottest month of Wilson’s career). Both of tonight’s starters have nine quality starts in 12 tries on the season.

The Yankees and Pirates have met in interleague play just once before, that coming in 2005 when the Yankees swept the Pirates in the Bronx. If the Yanks can pull out a win tonight, they’ll have put together their first four-game winning streak of the season and will stand an excellent chance of repeating that feat, thereby extending that streak to six games.

(more…)

The Yanks cruised to a 5-1 win last night behind a dominating complete game by Chien-Ming Wang. Wang needed just 104 pitches and faced just 33 batters, allowing five hits, all of them singles, and a walk while striking out four and getting 16 of the remaining 23 outs on the ground. Two of those 16 groundouts came on a double play. Wang has induced at least one double play and picked up the decision in each of his nine starts this season.

The only Chicago run scored in the third inning on a single, a wild pitch, and a pair of groundouts. The only time the Sox had more than one man reach base in an inning was in the sixth when Jerry Owens got on via an infield single and stole second. Tad Iguchi then hit a hard single to shallow center and third-base coach Razor Shines sent Owens home where he ran right into the second out thanks to a strong throw by Melky Cabrera.

As for the Yanks, they got four of their runs in the third despite the fact that both Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada ran into outs at second base. In Rodriguez’s case, he hit what looked like a grand slam to left field, but the ball hit off the bottom of the wall for what should have been a two-RBI double, only Rodriguez had merely jogged to first. In Posada’s case, he tagged up at first on a Hideki Matsui sac fly to center and was thrown out when Owens’ throw home was cut off. Both Rodriguez and Posada appeared to be safe on the replays, however, but, using the NFL standard, neither was clear enough to overturn the call on the field.

Wang’s complete game was the Yankees’ first of the year, and the first complete game victory by a Yankee starter since Wang himself shut out the Devil Rays last July. The only other complete game of Wang’s career was the game in Washington last year that he lost on a walk-off home run by Ryan Zimmerman. Wang has pitched a minimum of eight full innings on ten other occasions.

With that victory the Yankees are just one game behind the White Sox in the Wild Card standings and can pull even with them with a victory tonight.

The Yanks and Chisox will finish off this four game series with a pair of matchups of current and former Yankee pitchers. Tonight is by far the better of the two with current Yankee ace Chien-Ming Wang facing off against erstwhile Yankee ace Javy Vazquez in an attempt to move the Yanks a game closer to the Sox in the AL standings. Wang’s new high-strikeout approach was nowhere to be seen in his last outing against the Red Sox (5 2/3 IP, 1 K), but he came away with the win anyway. Vazquez, meanwhile, is coming off eight shutout innings against the Blue Jays. Vazquez has failed to pitch six full innings just once this season, but has only four quality starts in ten tries. Still, it’s been a solid season on the whole for Javy, who has settled into a career as a mid-rotation innings eater, a surprising development from a pitcher who looked like he’d either be an ace or be injured when the Yankees got him from Montreal.

Both pitchers enter the game with .500 records. Vazquez is 3-3 and the Sox are 2-2 in his four no-decisions. Wang is 4-4 having picked up the decision in all eight of his starts. Vazquez last faced the Yankees last August, striking out eight, walking six, and leaving after five innings having allowed thrown 111 pitches. The Yanks lost that game, but would be well advised to try to run up Javy’s pitch count again tonight.

The Yankees waltzed to an easy 7-3 victory in Chicago last night after breaking a 1-1 tie with a four-run sixth inning, but it should have been even easier than it was. With the Yanks up 5-1, Joe Torre replaced starting pitcher Tyler Clippard in the bottom of the sixth despite the fact that the rookie had held the White Sox to just one run over five innings and thrown just 89 pitches.

A quick summary of Clippard’s outing: Stranded two singles in the first. Stranded two walks in the second. One-two-three third inning including strikeouts of Tad Iguchi and Jim Thome. Allowed a run on a pair of singles in the fourth, due in part to the fact that no one covered third base allowing Jermaine Dye to go from first to third on a ground out to short. Gave up a two-out single in the fifth, then pitched around Thome, eventually walking him, before getting the third out.

Why Clippard couldn’t go one more inning with a four run lead is beyond me. Instead, Torre burned through four members of his nine-man bullpen, using Scott Proctor for two innings, and watching Kyle Farnsworth and Brian Bruney cough up runs, the latter forcing Mariano Rivera into action (though the way things have gone this year, getting Mo work at any point is probably a good thing–indeed, Rivera picked up his sixth save by throwing eight of ten pitches for strikes).

This is a small point as it pertains to last night’s game, but is more significant when one considers the larger ramifications, be it the reduced availability of those pitchers for the remainder of the series, or games such as Clippard’s start against the Angels. In that game, Torre removed his rookie starter after four innings and 77 pitches with the Yankees trailing 3-2 only to watch Matt DeSalvo, Luis Vizcaino, and Ron Villone cough up seven runs in the next two innings to put the game out of reach. Torre had a similarly quick hook with Darrell Rasner. After his first start, Rasner didn’t allow more than three runs in any of his other five starts (well, four, we’ll remove his injury-shortened outing against the Mets), yet also never threw more than 81 pitches in any of them. This while the Yankee bullpen was sucking air due to the starters’ inability to go deep into games.

I’d be curious to know if the Yankees had either of these young starters on hard pitch limits, but failing that, Torre’s quick hook with his effective young starters is both troubling and annoying as hell.

Still, good win last night.

The Yanks need to sweep their way through the remainder of this week’s series in Chicago if they’re going to close the Wild Card gap on the punchless White Sox, who managed to punch their card six times last night.

As part of that effort, Tyler Clippard will make his fourth major league start tonight. After dominating the Mets in his debut and being pulled early after four poor, but not awful innings in his follow-up, Clippard lost the plate in his last start in Toronto, walking five and allowing a pair of home runs in five innings pitched. On the other hand, other than those two homers, which plated three runs, Clippard allowed just two other hits, both singles, and no other runs.

Taking the hill for the Chisox will be Mark Buehrle, who has been silencing the doubters who saw his poor 2006 season as a sign of his finally being found out rather than as the fluke it increasingly appears to have been. Buehrle’s last start was also in Toronto, an eight-inning complete game loss in which he allowed just two hits, walked none, and struck out six. The only problem was that both hits were solo homers and the White Sox were shut out by Roy Halladay and company. Buehrle did not face the Yankees when they were last in Chicago, but was cuffed around by them in their one meeting in 2006 (3 IP, 8 R). Buehrle did not face the Yankees at all in 2005 and was also cuffed around by the Bombers in 2004 (2 IP, 8 R) but just ten days prior to that he held them to two unearned runs on three hits in eight innings.

Matt DeSalvo, who failed to make it out of the second inning last night after he allowed more base unners than outs through 1 1/3, was optioned back to Scranton. According to the SWB Yankee Blog, spring training superstar Chris Basak has been called up to take his (and ultimately Doug Mientkiewicz’s) place. Basak, who can play all around the infield, was hitting .265/.321/.423 in triple-A and will be making his first appearance on a 25-man big league roster. He gets the call over Andy Phillips, who is hitting .312/.381/.485 and has moved back to second base. The Yankees will likely move someone to the 60-day DL to make room for Basak on the 40-man roster.

In addition, Kevin Thompson was optioned back to Scranton in favor of Sean Henn. So, really, Basak replaces Thompson, giving the Yankees two no-hit infielders who will never play and no reserve outfielder. That makes about as much sense as Chad Jennings donning a baseball mitt on his blog’s header. With just Basak, Cairo, and Nieves in reserve, the Yankees are in essense playing without a bench as all three are replacement-level or, in Nieves’ case, below. Then again, they do have a nine-man bullpen.

For his part, Henn had started three of his four games in triple-A and posted a 4.26 ERA, a 1.11 whip and struck out 11 in 12 2/3 innings. His best outing was his most recent: 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K. Henn would likely be optioned back down to make room for Roger Clemens’s return on Saturday. Then again, if Henn doesn’t pitch in relief during the week, and Clemens’ groin remains fatigued, Henn could turn out to be the starter on Saturday.

The White Sox are one of the seven teams that stand between the Yankees and the Wild Card, but the Yankees can pull even with them by winning three of four at the Stadium this week, and can pass them completely with a highly improbable four-game sweep.

The big news for the Sox is the return of Jim Thome, though Thome has yet to find his stroke after two weeks back in the line-up. In fact, three of Thome’s eight hits and five of his nine RBIs since returning came in a single game in which the Sox beat up Colby Lewis for 3 1/3 innings then were held to one hit by Lenny DiNardo the rest of the way. Rather, the White Sox’s two best hitters over the last week have been reserve infielder Alex Cintron (5 for 13, 2B, no walks), and fill-in left fielder Rob Mackowiak (5 for 22 with no walks, but two homers). Indeed, Chicago’s struggles to score continue. Over that last week, the Sox have scored just three runs per game (including exactly three runs in each of their last three games in Toronto), with their only win coming behind eight shutout innings by Javy Vazquez, who will pitch on Wednesday. As the Toaster’s resident Pale Hose fan, Scott Long, reports, during that week, the Sox went 61 straight at-bats without reaching base against a relief pitcher. Of course the Sox took two of three from the Yankees in Chicago three weeks ago.

John Garland starts for the Chisox tonight coming off an ugly outing in which he surrendered six runs to the Twins on five hits and five walks in six innings. That followed another ugly outing in which he gave up four runs on ten hits to the A’s. Before that, however, he had turned in five-straight quality starts, going a minimum of seven innings in each, the last of which was saw him allow ten Yankees to reach base, but only one to score.

The Yankees will counter with Matt DeSalvo, who starts in place of Roger Clemens and his “fatigued groin.” [insert Alex Rodriguez joke here] DeSalvo was sent down prior to the Red Sox series but was able to be recalled without spending the requisite ten days in the minors because he replaces the disabled Doug Mientkiewicz. The Yankees will thus play with a 24-man roster tonight and add a position player (Andy Phillips?) tomorrow. As for DeSalvo, did you realize he’s made four big league starts already? Tossing out his one disaster relief outing, DeSalvo has a very respectable 4.15 ERA as a major league starter, but he’s not been nearly that good. He has walked 13 and struck out just six and has a 1.57 WHIP. Opposing hitters are batting .263/.379/.475 against him, and that’s with a far-below league-average batting average on balls in play of .264.

Gulp. Get well soon, Rocket.

Update: Check out my guest spot on NBC.com’s Fantasy Fix in which I discuss Abreu, Cano, Rodriguez, Giambi, Phelps, Damon, and Mike Mussina, if for no other reason than to see my frighteningly swarthy headshot learing at Tiffany Simons (no, that’s not a wig, they cropped my hair funny, and, yes, I had just shaved a half-hour before that photo).

(more…)

Winning series has become the Yankee mantra of late, but coming into Fenway this weekend they’d won just one of their last six. That lone series win came against the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium two weeks ago when the Yanks bookended a loss with a pair of wins. This weekend they pulled the same trick, though it was touch-and-go for a while there in game three.

On Friday night, the Yanks beat the Sox 9-5 in a game that was 9-3 after 3 1/2 innings as the Yankees knocked Tim Wakefield out in the top of the fourth. That game was notable for the fact that five batters were hit by pitches, all seemingly unintentionally, though things got tense when Scott Proctor fired a fastball at Kevin Youkilis’s chin in the ninth inning and was promptly tossed out of the game. Joe Torre had been ejected earlier in the game for correctly arguing that Bobby Abreu was safe on a caught stealing at third base, a play that happened right in front of the Yankee dugout.

Saturday afternoon, the Yankees overcame a 3-2 Boston lead with a four-run sixth inning that drove Curt Schilling from the game, but Mike Mussina promptly gave up the lead on solo homers by Mike Lowell and Jason Varitek in the bottom of the inning. After Derek Jeter hit a go-ahead homer off Joel Pineiro in the top of the seventh, things went very, very badly. Before the game it was announced that Proctor would not be suspended for throwing at Youkilis the night before, but the Yankees might have preferred that he was. Entering in the seventh, Proctor gave up a double to David Ortiz. He was then ordered to intentionally walk Manny Ramirez, but followed that by unintentionally walking Kevin Youkilis on four pitches to load the bases. Mike Lowell then hit a double-play ball to short, but Robinson Cano made a poor throw to the bag forcing Derek Jeter to reach for the throw and spin before making the relay to first. Jeter’s throw bounced in the dirt and, as Doug Mientkiewicz turned toward the foul line to field it, Minky was struck in the back of the head by Lowell’s left thigh as Lowell came through the bag. Lowell would have been safe anyway, but the blow gave Mientkiewicz a concussion and as he lay still face down in the dirt, the balled rolled away and both Ortiz and Ramirez scored to give the Red Sox a lead. As Lowell had moved to second on the play, Joe Torre ordered Proctor to walk Jason Varitek. Wily Mo Peña followed by ripping a ball to short that hit Derek Jeter’s glove, but trickled through his legs for a bases-loading error. Coco Crisp followed with an RBI single. Brian Bruney then came on and gave up a sac fly to Julio Lugo and an RBI double to Dustin Pedroia before Mike Myers came on to retire Ortiz and end the inning. The Sox added one more off Luis Vizcaino in the eighth to make the final score 11-6.

As for Mientkiewicz, he was diagnosed with whiplash in addition to the concussion, but it seems he also broke the scaphoid bone in his wrist on the play and will be out six to eight weeks because of that. He was placed on the 15-day DL yesterday though no move was made to fill his roster spot. Meanwhile, Roger Clemens was scratched from his scheduled start tonight due to a balky groin. He hopes to take his next scheduled turn on Saturday against the Pirates, but Matt DeSalvo will be recalled to start tonight. Apparently the injury to Mientkiewicz is what will allow the Yankees to recall DeSalvo after just three days in the minors and why they played with a 24-man roster last night.

Speaking of last night, Andy Pettitte and Josh Beckett locked horns in a pitchers duel for four innings, with the Yankees scoring the only run when a second-inning Jorge Posada double was plated by singles by Hideki Matsui and Josh Phelps. Then Beckett ran into trouble in the fifth, as the Yanks loaded the bases on two singles and a walk to bring Alex Rodriguez to the plate with two outs. Rodriguez chopped a 0-1 pitch to Mike Lowell at third, which Lowell barehanded and bounced in the dirt and off Kevin Youkilis’s knee at first base allowing Melky Cabrera and Derek Jeter to score, and Bobby Abreu to move to third. Jorge Posada followed by yanking an RBI single into right to make it 4-0 Yanks.

The Red Sox got right back in the bottom of the inning as Varitek, Peña, and Crisp singled to load the bases. Andy Pettitte reared back and struck out Julio Lugo for the first out, but his strike three pitch triggered back spasms and a Dustin Pedroia double and a David Ortiz single later, the game was tied and Pettitte was hitting the showers. Actually, Ortiz’s single was played into a triple (technically a single and a two-base error) by Bobby Abreu as the ball dove at his feet as he was charging it, then hopped over his right shoulder. Luis Vizcano came on to intentionally walk Manny Ramirez, but let Ortiz score the go-ahead run on a sac fly and gave up an ultimately harmless Mike Lowell double before finally ending the inning.

The Red Sox nearly added to their lead against Vizcaino in the sixth when Julio Lugo drew a two-out walk from Vizcaino and Dustin Pedroia double to left, but, despite having David Ortiz on deck, the Sox sent Lugo home. Jorge Posada had to leap to catch the relay throw from Derek Jeter, but when he landed his foot blocked Lugo’s from touching the plate and he quickly made the tag for the third out.

The Yankees threatened in the seventh when Josh Beckett walked Johnny Damon to lead off his final inning and Bobby Abreu singled off reliever Javier Lopez to put runners at the corners, but Brendan Donnelly got Alex Rodriguez to pop out and Jorge Posada’s well-hit drive to center off Hideki Okajima settled into Coco Crisp’s glove.

Okajima was less fortunate in the eighth when Hideki Matsui led off with a single and Robinson Cano absolutely tattooed a ball off the triangle in dead center for a game-tying triple. Unfortunately, the Yankees were unable to get Cano home with the go-ahead run as Josh Phelps struck out, and Cabrera and Damon grounded out.

In the bottom of the inning, Brian Bruney walked Coco Crisp with two outs and Julio Lugo reached on a bounding single in the shortstop hole that lept over the outstretched gloves of both Rodriguez and Jeter. Dustin Pedroia then cracked what looked like yet another double into the right field gap, but Bobby Abreu caught it on a dead run heading for the Boston bullpen to end the inning.

With the game still tied, Ortiz, Ramirez, and Youkilis looming in the bottom of the ninth, and Jonathan Papelbon stomping around on the mound, Derek Jeter grounded out and Bobby Abreu struck out to bring Alex Rodriguez to the plate with two out and none on. Rodriguez swung through a 93-mile-per-hour heater on the inside corner for strike one, fouled off another for strike two, then put a perfect swing on a pitch on the outside corner and sent it sailing into the Boston bullpen for a tie-breaking homer.

That set up what was just Mariano Rivera’s second save opportunity in the last month. Mo battled Ortiz for ten pitches, including six straight fouls, throwing pitch after pitch right to Jorge Posada’s glove. The tenth pitch just missed however. Jorge called for the ball right under Ortiz’s hands and Rivera missed out over the plate and Ortiz crushed it. By then, however, the game was being played in a driving rainstorm and the rain, the wind, and the topspin on the ball conspired to drop Ortiz’s drive into Bobby Abreu’s glove for the first out. Rivera then struck out Ramirez and, after accidentally hitting Youkilis in the forearm on a check swing, struck out Mile Lowell on a check swing to give the Yankees a 6-5 win in the game and a 3-2 series win.

Look, folks, I had to be a Debbie Downer here, but the Yankees string of AL East titles is going to come to an end this year. Even if the Yanks sweep the Red Sox in Fenway this weekend, they’ll still be 10.5 games out in June with just 6 games left against the first-place Sox. And what are the odds that the Yanks are going to sweep the Sox after loosing four of five to the Angels and Blue Jays?

No, my friends, it is time to focus on the Wild Card race, where the Yankees trail the Tigers by seven games with eight head-to-head matchups remaining.

That doesn’t mean that this weekend’s series doesn’t matter. Every win counts. Its just that beating the Red Sox no longer means any more, and actually means a hair less, than beating one of the other seven teams ahead of them in the wild card hunt (which, incidentally, includes the Blue Jays).

Not much has changed since these two teams met in the Bronx at the beginning of last week. Not even the pitching matchups. The Red Sox wound up losing eight games in May, two of them to the Yankees and one more since. Josh Beckett returned to the rotation on Tuesday with a stellar outing against the hard-hitting Indians, and Manny Delcarmen is back in the minors. For the Yankees, Kevin Thompson replaces the disabled Jason Giambi on the roster and the plan for the immediate future is to have Johnny Damon be the everyday DH and Melky Cabrera be the everyday center fielder. Meanwhile Matt DeSalvo was farmed out in favor of Chris Britton, who has been dominating the International League. Britton or another reliever will have to be removed from the roster on Monday to make way for the return of Roger Clemens.

Tim Wakefield vs. the Yankees in two starts this season: 0-2, 7.84 ERA, 10 1/3 IP, 14 H, 9 R, 3 HR, 11 BB, 5 K

Chien-Ming Wang vs. the Red Sox in two starts this season: 1-1, 4.38 ERA, 12 1/3 IP, 13 H, 6 R, 2 HR, 6 BB, 6 K

When these two last faced off a week ago Monday in the Bronx, Wang surprised everyone by utilizing his secondary pitches, particularly his slider, to strike out five Red Sox in 6 1/3 innings. In his last start against the contact-hitting Angels, Wang struck out six in eight innings to give him 11 Ks in his last 14 1/3 innings, or 6.91 K/9 over his last two starts. Despite the change in approach, his extreme ground-ball rate was largely unaffected as he got 24 ground balls in those two games against 11 flies (the fly ball total is typical for him, while the missing grounders all turned in to less risky strikeouts). Wang struck out 7.06 men per nine innings over his minor league career. Brandon Webb rode an extreme ground-ball rate and a 6.82 K/9 to the NL Cy Young award last year. If Wang’s new strikeout rate holds, he may have just made the leap.

The 2007 Toronto Blue Jays just can’t catch a break. Their starting third baseman and hottest hitter hit the DL in mid April. Three days before he came back, their starting catcher hit the DL. Their starting left fielder is out for several months due to back surgery. Their big money closer is out for the year due to Tommy John surgery. Forty percent of their starting rotation is on the DL right now, and that doesn’t even take into account John Thomson, who hasn’t thrown a pitch for them yet this year, or the three lesser relievers currently resiting on their disabled list.

If that weren’t enough, Frank Thomas is struggling, Vernon Wells is scuffling, and rookie slugger Adam Lind lost the replacement left field job to 39-year-old beer leaguer Matt Stairs (albeit the wildly underrated and currently hot as hellfire beer leaguer Matt Stairs).

What’s left is a team that that has five hitters who are actually hitting, two more who might reasonably be expected to, and an eighth on the DL. Beyond that it’s Royce Clayton, Jason Phillips, John McDonald, and Sal Fasano. Lind, if he ever finds his groove, can only play at the expense of one of the guys who’s already hitting, ditto Reed Johnson upon his eventual return.

On the mound, A. J. Burnett has been healthy and effective, but he’s also been lonely. Roy Halladay should return soon from an apendectomy, but will have to shake off not just the surgery, but his last two starts in which he allowed 17 runs in 10 1/3 innings. None of the other starters deserve mention. In the bullpen, Jeremy Accardo has excelled in relief of the injured B.J. Ryan, as have lefties Scott Downs and Brian Tallet and converted reliever Casey Janssen behind him, but Jason Frasor blew his shot at the closer’s job at the end of April by posting a 10.13 ERA in eight appearances, blowing two saves, and losing a third game.

There’s some hope here. Accardo’s solidified the closer spot. Thomas and Wells could heat up. Halladay and Gregg Zaun could come back soon and produce at their expected levels. But the Jays will still be stuck with an eight-man lineup, a two-man rotation, and a four-man bullpen. That’s a recipe for a .500 team if I ever heard one.

As for tonight’s starter, Dustin McGowan is a 25-year-old righty that the Jays once had high hopes for, though those have slowly faded since an injury-shortened 2004 season at double-A. The Yankees saw him four times last year, including once as a starter on the final day of the season, a game in which McGowan allowed eight baserunners and three stolen bases in 2 2/3 innings, but amazingly only one run.

The Yankees enter Toronto a half game behind the Jays, a full game behind the Orioles, and a whopping 12.5 games out of first place in the real world. Personally, I prefer the fantasy world of Pythagarus:

BOS 33-16 –
NYY 26-22 6.5
TOR 24-25 9
BAL 24-26 9.5
TBD 18-30 14.5

(more…)

Just when the Yankees look like they might be putting things together, in come Hell’s Angels, the one team that’s confounded the Joe Torre-era Yankees consistently from year-to-year and is responsible for two of the team’s three ALDS series losses.

The Angels were 6-4 against the Yanks last year, though the Bombers outscored the Halos 55 to 50, while the Yanks haven’t won a season series from the Orange County set since 2003, when they were clearly out for revenge for the 2002 ALDS. Though some of the faces have changed, the Angels team that arrives in the Bronx tonight is the same as ever: good pitching, both in the rotation and the bullpen, and average hitting, with the latter being comprised largely of high-contact, high-batting-average hitters with weak on-base skills and modest power, but a lot of speed on the bases. Notable exceptions to this rule:

Vlad Guerrero: High contact and average, yes, but he also leads the team in walks and slugs with the best in the league. It also appears that his base stealing has finally come to a stop as he’s 1 for 2 on the paths thus far this year. Of course, Guerrero’s so good and so unique in his approach, that he’d be an outlier in any lineup.

Mike Napoli: The Angels are hesitant to commit to him, probably because he’s a low-average slugger who walks a lot and strikes out even more. There are a lot of major league teams that would happy with that from their catcher.

Gary Matthews Jr.: High average, low OBP, modest slugging, speed, yes, yes, yes, yes, but Gary strikes out a lot. Setting runner-up Napoli aside, Matthews has 11 more Ks than third-place finisher Erick Aybar (who was brutal at the plate and on the bases while filling in for the injured Howie Kendrick).

Shea Hillenbrand: Can’t run and isn’t hitting for average either this year. He does have a very impressive two walks in 147 plate appearances, however.

Chone Figgins: Figgins is the prototypical Angels player, versatile, pesky, but he missed April with a pair of broken fingers on his right hand and has hit like a player coming back from a hand injury thus far in may (.133/.198/.187). It’s a bummer to see a burner like Figgins lacking fuel, but I’m sure the Yankees won’t mind his disappearing act this weekend. Nor will my wife, who pronounces his first name phonetically and his last name “Friggins.”

The Yanks get their second look at young Jered Weaver tonight. Weaver beat them in Anaheim last August, striking out eight in six innings and allowing just one run on three hits, actually one run on one hit, a solo homer by . . . Craig Wilson? Well that’s not going to help tonight. The only positive for the Yanks from that August game was that Weaver walked three and needed 104 pitches to get through those six innings, not that getting to the Angels’ bullpen has ever done an offense any good, at least not while Mike Scioscia’s been the Halos manager.

Clay Aiken’s evil twin, Tyler Clippard, makes his Yankee Stadium debut tonight. He was nails against the Mets last weekend, posing a line that was just two strikeouts shy of matching Weaver’s line against the Yanks last August. Clippard was the first of the five Yankee starters to make their major league debuts this season that didn’t look like he was going to plotz in the first inning. After the game, Clippard said he wasn’t as nervous as he expected he’d be, and I believe him. Here’s hoping things don’t change now that Clippard’s in the Clipper’s house. Me, I can’t wait to see Clipp stomping around on the mound and shooting smoke out of his already famously prominent ears as he mows down the Halos with those nasty curves and disappearing changeups. (Incidentally, Rook, Don Sutton has a solution to that ear problem.)

(more…)

My most recent “Wild Card” post over on SI.com’s Fungoes blog compiled an all-star starting line-up of underachieving stars from the early going this season, but those players just scratched the surface. If you’re wondering where your favorite 225-pound weakling is, check out my runners-up below the fold . . .

(more…)

The Red Sox have lost five games in May. Five. That’s it. Five games.

On May 1, they turned a 4-2 ninth-inning lead into a 5-4 ten-inning loss when Jonathan Papelbon blew his first save of the year against the A’s. They lost a 2-1 contest to Johan Santana and the Twins on the fifth (a game started by Julian Tavarez, incidentally). Tavarez lost again to the Orioles in his next start by a 6-3 final. Justin Verlander and the Tigers beat Tim Wakefield 7-2 on the fifteenth. Most recently, the Braves and John Smoltz took advantage of a spot start by rookie Devern Hansack to dropped a 14-0 beating on Boston.

That 2-1 loss to Santana and the Twins remains Boston’s only road loss of the month.

The Red Sox have won 14 games in May. They have the best record in baseball, the biggest division lead in baseball (10.5 games over the O’s and Yankees), their Pythagorean record matches their overall record, they’re winning at home, on the road, against lefties, righties, against the AL, against the NL, against the East, Central, and West, in one-run games, and in blowouts. They have the third-best pitching staff in baseball (behind the pitchers park-assisted Padres and A’s) and the third best offense in baseball (now tied with the Yankees behind the Indians and surging Tigers). Quite simply, they are the best team in baseball, and they’re for real.

Thus far the Red Sox’s only significant injury concern has been a reoccurrence of Josh Beckett’s blister problems that has landed him on the 15-day DL. That might slow the Sox down in the near future (Hansack’s loss on Saturday came in place of Beckett), but it won’t stop them. Lefty Kason Gabbard, who posted a 3.51 ERA in 25 2/3 innings for the Sox last year, started yesterday and handed Tim Hudson just his second loss of the year. He could return to the roster when Beckett’s spot comes due again. Then again, thanks to a scheduled off-day, Beckett will be eligible to return himself when the Red Sox next need a fifth starter, which means the primary impact of his injury could be simply Hansack’s one loss and a couple of extra starts by Julian Tavarez, who otherwise would have been the starter getting skipped.

Incidentally, Gabbard started yesterday because the Sox are going for the jugular in the Bronx. Gabbard’s spot start (he’s already back in triple-A) allowed the Sox to start Tim Wakefield tonight against Chien-Ming Wang in a fantastic matchup of specialty pitchers, each of whom lost their previous outing against tonight’s opponent in April.

The good news for the Yankees is that they have their Big Three starters going in this series (Wang, Mussina, Pettitte), and that Bobby Abreu and Alex Rodriguez showed some signs of life in the final two games at Shea. Abreu collected three hits, including a double, and three walks in those two games and made some hard outs in last night’s contest, while Rodriguez picked up three hits and a walk of his own, two of those hits being home runs.

Oh, and Robinson Cano takes a five-game hitting streak into tonight’s game. This is only Cano’s second full season, but his trend thus far seems to be slow starts. He’s a .249/.272/.360 hitter in May in his young career (he’s hitting a very similar .241/.278/.342 overall this year), but those numbers jump to .350/.383/.541 in June (which is just ten days away). Here’s hoping the trend holds.

The bad news is Mariano Rivera’s continued struggles. Mo worked the ninth last night and gave up a home run to Damian Easley, the third home run he’s allowed this year, two of them coming off the bats of Easley and Marco Scutaro. Mo hasn’t allowed more than three home runs in a season since 2001 and hasn’t allowed more than five in a season since he was a 25-year-old starting pitcher in 1995. Mo has allowed 11 earned runs this year. He hasn’t allowed 20 since 2001 and hasn’t allowed more than 25 since 1995. I’ll be honest. For the first time in a decade, I can’t say I’m comfortable with the idea of handing Mo a one-run lead in the ninth inning, and that’s far more disconcerting than the 10.5 game deficit the Yankees take into this series.

(more…)

Today’s back cover of the New York Post: “Flyin & Dying”

That I don’t have to tell you which New York team is which is about all you need to know about this series, in which the Yankees catch the Mets top three starters and return serve with Andy Pettitte, Darrell Rasner, and maybe Chien-Ming Wang on short rest, maybe Chase Wright, maybe a luck fan . . .

Note the roster below. The Mets have been hit hard by injuries, but they still have the best record in the NL and the second best record in baseball. It’s a bad day in the Bronx when the top two records in MLB belong to Boston and that team from Queens. If the Mets don’t make the World Series this year, Willie Randolph will have ‘splainin’ to do.

(more…)

If there are two things Joe Torre can’t stands from his young relief pitchers it’s walks and embarrassing blowouts. I can’t say I blame him, but I do worry about the severity of his aversion.

Colter Bean’s last outing before he was shipped back out to Scranton saw him pour gas on Kei Igawa’s fire at home against the Mariners on May 4. Bean entered the game in the fifth inning with two men on and no outs and simply could not throw a strike. He walked the first two batters he faced on eight pitches, forcing in a run. At that point the Yankees still held an 8-7 lead, but rather than recognize that the kid just didn’t have it that night, Joe Torre left Bean out there to give up an RBI single and a two-RBI double. Bean threw a total of four of his 17 pitches for strikes and left with the Yankees trailing 10-8. Luis Vizcaino would allow both of Bean’s remaining runners to score along with two more of his own to push the score to 14-8 in a game the Yankees eventually lost 15-11. The next day Bean was optioned back to Scranton in favor of Darrell Rasner, who was needed in the rotation. Obviously there’s no defense for Bean’s performance in that game, and someone had to go to make room for Rasner, but Torre has a habit of allowing one bad outing like that count for more than it should with young players. Those four batters could easily have buried Bean the way Andy Phillips four strikeouts buried him in early 2005, erasing all the good he’d done in spring training and in his three other scoreless regular season innings (and of course his stellar seven-year minor league career).

Yesterday, Sean Henn followed Bean down to Scranton. After beating out Ron Villone for the second lefty job in the pen, Henn had been fantastic in his first seven outings on the year, allowing just nine base runners and one earned run in 10 2/3 innings. Included in that total was one lonely walk. In his next eight games, Henn had walked nine in 6 2/3 innings and compiled a 7.50 ERA. The final straw came last week at home against Texas. The Yankees and Rangers were tied 1-1 after four innings, but Chien-Ming Wang gave up three in the fifth and combined with Vizcaino (there’s that man again) to put up another three-spot in the seventh. Suddenly the Yankees were down 7-1 in a game that had been close. Vizcaino gave up another run in the eighth and Henn was called in with two on and one out to face lefty Brad Wilkerson. Wilkerson singled, Mark Teixeira doubled, and a walk and a Victor Diaz homer later the Yankees were down 14-2. Henn hadn’t pitched since then and got his tickets to triple-A yesterday when the out-clause on Villone’s contract came due.

Again, Henn’s performance was indefensible and he and Bean both had options that men such as Vizcaino don’t. One can’t really get on Torre or Cashman for farming out these struggling young pitchers (well, Henn was struggling, Bean was squeezed out by a more important need), but I do worry about their willingness, or lack thereof, to recall them should Bean and Henn perform well in the minors and veterans such as Vizcaino continue, or in the case of Villone (who had a 1.90 ERA with 21 hits and 27 Ks in 23 2/3 innings for Scraton) start, to struggle.

As for Vizcaino, his game log splits look a lot like Henn’s but worse:

Games 1-8: 1.08 ERA, 8 1/3 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 4 BB, 2 K, 0 HR
Games 9-19: 13.30 ERA, 9 2/3 IP, 16 H, 15 R, 10 BB, 8 K, 2 HR

The only thing that doesn’t make sense is the strikeout rate, which was bad when he was good and good now that he’s bad.

Incidentally, Kyle Farnsworth had one bad outing in the second week of the season in Minnesota (1 out, 4 Runs), but since then he’s posted a 3.00 ERA in 12 games, allowing 14 base runners in 12 innings and striking out seven. Not great, but good enough for middle relief. If you limit it to his last 11 outings, that ERA drops to 2.45 with 12 base runners in 11 innings, all 7 Ks, and just one homer.

The White Sox are two games better than the Yankees according to the teams’ actual records (Yanks 17-19, Chisox 18-16), but if you look at their runs scored and allowed, the Yankees are three games better than the White Sox (Yanks 20-16, Chisox 16-18).

The Yankees are 8-5 in the month of May and have only allowed their opponents to score more than three runs in two of those 13 contests. They of course lost both of those games (15-11 to the Mariners in Kei Igawa’s last wild ride, and 14-2 to the Rangers when things got away from Chien-Ming Wang and the bullpen this past Thursday), but despite the perceived struggles of their offense, they’ve only lost three of those 13 games because of a lack of runs. The Yankees have scored 5.15 runs per game in May, which is down from their overall average of 5.56, but would still place them fourth in the American League. Meanwhile, they’ve only allowed 3.85 runs per game on the month, which would also be the fourth best in the league. It also just happens to be the exact number of runs the White Sox have scored per game over the entire season, barely outpacing the Royals’ league-worst offense. The White Sox have been even worse than that in May, scoring just 3.27 runs per game.

Anyone looking for an explanation for that futility need not look much further than the line-up posted below. Darin Erstad leading off? Pablo Ozuna as the designated hitter? Who the heck is Ryan Sweeney anyway? (Answer: he’s a 22-year-old rookie outfielder who was hitting .256/.341/.397 for triple-A Charlotte before Jim Thome’s back injury necessitated his promotion at the end of April). Even the familiar names in that lineup aren’t hitting. Juan Uribe has been the White Sox’s most productive hitter thus far and he’s hitting a merely league average .255/.321/.447. Jermaine Dye? Nada. Paul Konerko? Zippo. Crede, Iguchi, Pierzynski? Bubkis, Didly and Squat. Over the past week, the team as a whole has hit .208/.269/.302. That they’ve managed to go 6-5 on the month thus far is a testament to their pitching and nothing else. Heck, Mark Buehrle had to go to the extreme of throwing a no-hitter to get his first win, but he did it.

As a unit, the White Sox’s rotation has been outstanding (3.78 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 6.24 IP/GS), though other than Buehrle’s no-no, no individual performances really stand out, while the offense has held that bunch to a 10-12 record. The bullpen has been less consistent, though closer Bobby Jenks continues to silence all of his doubters and new addition David Aardsma, who took Hank Aaron’s spot at the top of the record books before Barry Bonds got a chance to, has been flat-out dominant as a set-up man.

Tonight the Yankees face John Danks, who is the newest and, thus far, weakest link in the Sox’s rotation. Danks was just part of the package the White Sox received from Texas for Brandon McCarthy and has thus far outpitched McCarthy, which he’s expected to do for the remainder of his career. Danks, a hard-throwing 22-year-old lefty with a nasty curve, has made an unexpectedly quick adjustment to the majors. It’s a testament to the White Sox rotation that I was able to call Danks the weakest link. The White Sox are just 2-4 in his starts, but they’ve also scored a grand total of five runs in those four loses, all of which have been pinned on Danks. His last start was his best (6 2/3 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 4 K @ Min), and while he hasn’t really dominated as of yet, he hasn’t been blown out either (his worst outing: 4 2/3 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 3 BB, 4 K @ Det).

Opposing Danks will be Mike Mussina, who has looked sharp since coming off the DL, allowing just seven hits and a walk in eleven innings. Moose threw just 64 pitches in his first start back and 85 in his last. Here’s hoping the Yankees can stretch him out into the high-90s or beyond tonight against the struggling Pale Hose.

(more…)

I hate to be phoning this one in, but c’mon, these teams finished a four-game tilt on Monday, there’s not much that needs to be said. Since then the Yankees took two of three from Texas and the Mariners dropped two of three to the Tigers. Neither team’s made a roster move since then (though the M’s farmed out Julio Mateo for Sean Green in the middle of last weekend’s series following a possible abuse incident involving the former), and tonght’s game is a rematch of Sunday’s contest, which the Yankees won 5-0 behind Darrell Rasner’s job-winning 5 2/3-inning, 3-hit, no-run performance.

Odds are this series won’t be nearly as eventful as last weekend’s, which saw the return of Roger Clemens, Chien-Ming Wang’s near perfect game, a near brawl, Matt DeSalvo’s major league debut, and that dreadful, game-changing blown call in the series finale. One does wonder if there’s any lingering bad blood from last Sunday’s incidents, and if that will in any way be exacerbated with Josh Phelps likely starting against the lefty Jarrod Washburn again, or by a Scott Proctor relief appearance (Proctor has a suspension coming for throwing behind Yuniesky Betancourt, but it’s still on appeal). Of course, Joe Torre, who already served his one-game suspension, could quell the conflict somewhat by starting the hot-hitting Doug Mientkiewicz over Phelps, but he can’t avoid Proctor for the full extent of a three-game series, nor should he.

The Yankees wrap up their season series with the Rangers this afternoon on another gorgeous day in the Bronx. The Yanks have taken the first five games and Chien-Ming Wang will be on the mound in his first start since his near-perfect game looking to give the Yankees a six-game sweep. The Rangers, meanwhile, send out Brandon McCarthy, who’s been a disaster in three of his last five starts, allowing at least five runs while getting knocked out before the fourth inning.

Things have turned around dramatically for the Yanks in the past week. Wil Nieves finally got his first Yankee hit last night after three years of trying (bringing his career OPS+ up to -6). Andy Pettitte got his second win of the season on Tuesday after seeing the bullpen blow three others in his previous four starts. Doug Mientkiewicz has raised his batting average 94 points over the last ten games, batting .407/.433/.741 over that span.

Of course the big news is the performance of the starting rotation, which finally has its intended Big Three of Wang, Pettitte, and Mussina active at the same time. Removing only the stink bomb laid last Friday by the since-demoted Kei Igawa, here’s how that Big Three plus rookies Phil Hughes, Darrell Rasner, and Matt DeSalvo have performed over their past eight games:

51 IP, 27 H, 8 R, 2 HR, 14 BB, 28 K, 1.41 ERA, 0.80 WHIP, 6-0

The only games over that stretch in which the starter did not earn the win (again excepting Igawa’s stinker) were the win Luis Vizcaino vultured from Pettitte in Texas and that ugly 3-2 loss to the Mariners on Monday night after DeSalvo’s gem. The best stat of all from this run: 6 1/3 innings pitched per start.

Incidentally, here’s the bullpen over those eight games:

21 IP, 18 H, 6 R, 3 HR, 6 BB, 13 K, 2.57 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 1-1

Of course, they’ve blown as many saves as they’ve converted (including one of each type in that Pettitte/Vizcaino game in Texas), but then one of those blown saves came on that blown stolen base call on Monday. If Bloomquist is called out, there’s a good chance that Rivera records the save with Beltre standing in the on-deck circle. More encouraging than that, however, is the fact that, with the Yankees on an 8-3 run with the returns of Clemens and Hughes on the horizon, one needn’t cling to those kind of what-ifs.

The Yankees have won just three series thus far this year. One of them came in Minnesota and featured a strong outing from Carl Pavano. The other two were sweeps of the Indians at home and the Rangers on the road, the latter wrapping up in Texas just five days ago.

The penultimate game of that Texas series, game one of last Thursday’s double header, saw Mike Wood start in place of a gimpy Kevin Millwood against Andy Pettitte. Wood and Pettitte matched each other through six innings, but two unearned runs put the Yankees on top in the end. Millwood has since landed on the disabled list (replaced by righty reliever Wes Littleton on the 25-man roster), thus tonight brings about a rematch of Wood and Pettitte on the Yankees’ home turf. The odds would favor a less favorable return from Wood, which could help the Yankees remove the bad taste left in their mouths by last night’s game. Then again, while the Yankees were sister-kissing the Mariners, the Rangers bounced back nicely from the Yankees’ visit to Arlington by sweeping the Blue Jays by a combined score of 21-7.

Incidentally, the Yankees will follow this rematch with the Rangers by flying to Seattle to rematch with the Mariners. The schedule doesn’t get this exciting again until late July when they face the Devil Rays, Royals and Orioles in three consecutive series. Wheee!

Chien-Ming Wang retired the first 22 Mariners he faced yesterday afternoon before losing his perfect game, no-hitter, and shutout all on a single swing when Ben Broussard poked a homer just over the wall in the gap in right field.

Jeff Weaver, meanwhile, had his first solid start of the season allowing just one run through five innings before melting down in the sixth. Bobby Abreu led off the bottom of the sixth with a bunt single (yes, he finally got one), Alex Rodriguez followed with a ground ball up the middle, Jason Giambi walked, and Weaver nailed Hideki Matsui in the thigh to force Abreu home (Matsui was fine and played the rest of the game, making a key running catch on a warning-track shot by Ichiro Suzuki to keep the perfect game going in the top of the seventh). Jorge Posada followed Matsui with a single off the end of the bat to plate the third Yankee run. After Robinson Cano struck out and Doug Mientkiewicz (who was 2 for 4 and briefly got his average above the Mendoza line) hit into a fielder’s choice that forced Giambi at home, Weaver walked Melky Cabrera to plate another run and Derek Jeter finally delivered the knockout blow by doubling in two more to make it 6-0 Yankees. They’d add another run in each of the following two innings to make the final score 8-1.

As for Wang, the scary thing was he didn’t really look that dominant. He went to four three-ball counts and gave up four fly ball outs through the first five innings. The Yankee Stadium crowd really came alive after Wang got two strikes on Jose Lopez with two outs in the sixth. Lopez worked the count full, fouling off a couple of pitches, but then grounded out to Alex Rodriguez, who had made a nice backhanded stop on a hard hit ball down the line by Lopez to end the third. With two out in the seventh, Wang fell behind Raul Ibanez 3-0, but poured in two perfect strikes low in the zone to run the count full, then, after a foul, struck him out on a sinker in the dirt. The pitch that Broussard hit out of the park was supposed to be another of those sinkers at the knees, but stayed up thigh-high and right over the plate. It was the only bad pitch Wang would make all day. He gave up a single to Jose Gillen after the home run, but erased it by getting a double play in the only opportunity he had for one in this game. All totaled, Wang threw 103 pitches (63 percent strikes), struck out four, and got 14 of his remaining 20 outs on the ground. Brian Bruney pitched a perfect ninth.

The Yankees have now won four of their last five and five of their last seven. In the first game of that smaller stretch, Phil Hughes took a no-hitter into the seventh. He and two relievers limited the Rangers to just 29 batters. Yesterday afternoon, Wang and Bruney combined to face just 28 Seattle Mariners. The Yankees have scored 19 runs in the first two games of this series and have finally won starts by Wang, Andy Pettitte, and Mike Mussina in the same turn through the rotation.

(more…)

Last night was ugly, but the Yankees have still won four of their last six games and have Chien-Ming Wang, the only baseball player to make Time Magazine‘s 100 Most Influential People list this year, starting for them today against the Jeff Weaver and his 18.26 ERA.