Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Yankees @ Tigers 8/8/12

Somebody was listening to my article, seen HERE, about needing to move Curtis Granderson out of the leadoff spot. Think Girardi reads The Greedy Pinstripes?

UPDATE

Eric Chavez RBI single makes it 1-0 Yanks

Curtis Granderson follows that up with an RBI single of his own 2-0 Yanks

Curtis Granderson will never bat lead off again, especially after that 3 run home run
5-0 Yanks

Nick Swisher RBI single 6-0 Yanks

Mark Teixeira sac fly 7-0 Yanks

Ichiro RBI infield single makes it 8-3

Mark Teixeira adds an insurance run to make it 9-7 Yanks

Productive out for Chavez makes it 10-7 Yanks

Now we've seen it all tonight. A balk makes it 11-8 Yankees

Robinson Cano singles to make it 12-8 Yankees

Yankees win a wild one 12-8



In the fifth consecutive game in a twenty games in twenty days stretch the New York Yankees will be taking on the Detroit Tigers once again tonight in Comerica Park in Detroit. On the mound for the Yankees will be Yankees ace CC Sabathia and he will be opposed by recently acquired Anibal Sanchez for the Tigers. The game will be televised at 7:05 pm ET on YES.

Lineups

Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher RF
Robinson Cano 2B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Eric Chavez DH
Curtis Granderson CF
Russell Martin C
Ichiro Suzuki LF
Casey McGehee 3B


Go Yankees!!

Curtis Granderson : The Lead Off Hitter


Curtis Granderson has been the Yankees lead off hitter now for five games and after five games I am ready to move him back to the #2 spot. I know I am probably overreacting and in a little bit of a ranting kind of mood after watching the Yankees for the last two or three weeks so I say that in advance of you reading this.  With that said, here we go. 

The Yankees, first and foremost, are 2-3 in the games that Curtis is leading off. Does that mean the offense is any less efficient with him as the leadoff hitter? Probably not, especially when A Rod is out and guys like Raul Ibanez and Eric Chavez are being leaned on as 5th spot hitters, but like I said I am in a rant kind of mood and disgusted with watching us lose. Curtis Granderson is 2-20 as a lead off hitter which equates to a .100 average. He has zero extra base hits and only 2 RBI's to go with his 3 walks and 6 strike outs. 

Curtis has seen his batting average drop from .248 as a second place hitter to .240 in a matter of five games. He has seen his OBP also drop from .343 to .335 since making the switch. His slugging and OPS are down as well but that can be expected with a .100 average and no extra base hits. 

I know this is a extremely small sample size and I know that I am overreacting but I am just tired of losing. Make the change and make it now. 

Pedro Feliciano Starts Rehab Assignment Friday

Coming Soon To A Mound Near You

Pedro Feliciano, you know the guy that pulled a Carl Pavano and signed a 2 year deal worth $8 million only to never (to date) throw a pitch for us, is scheduled to start his rehab assignment this Friday, 8/10,  for the Gulf Coast League Yankees affiliate. Feliciano is coming back from a torn capsule and rotator cuff in his throwing shoulder last September. He would be a third lefty in the pen , and probably only a September call up, but would be a welcomed addition to the bullpen.


Yankee Stadium - Yay or Nay?



Sean Rowland over that StadiumJourney.com, a site that has reviewed 1,034 stadiums around the world, recently reviewed Yankee Stadium. He goes over everything from the food & beverages all the way to return on investment (with the way they're playing right now, that's probably not a high rating). I think it's a fair view of the stadium, which includes some tips on how to better your trip there. You can check it out here.

Just How Bad Are The Yankees Struggling?


That was almost 29 years ago, and no... I don't expect to see the Os win this year.

Over the last two weeks the Yankees are 5-7, which includes 4 losses by 1 run, and another loss by just 2 runs. So although the record isn't good recently, I think it's safe to assume that things are not as bad as they seem.

In those two week, the Yanks have a run differential of that time of +9. They've scored 63 runs during that time, and given up 54. I figured their Pythagorean Win expectation to be about 7. Still not the Yankees we saw earlier this season, or want to see from here on out, but no reason to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge either.

So what's going on?

It may seem like the bats are really struggling, along with being without Alex Rodriguez, but that's not entirely true. In the last couple of weeks the team's wOBA is .339, which is 5th in the American League. Their team wRC+ is 111, 4th in the AL. And that run total of 63 is 6th in the league. So while I do believe they could hit better than they have, the bats aren't the real issue.

Turning our attention to the pitching we see what's truly ailing the team.

On the surface, where the team ERA the past 2 weeks is 4.54 (9th in the AL), you say "ah". But looking at the team FIP during that time I see a mark of 3.94, which is 5th in the junior circuit. So we must dig a bit deeper to pinpoint the problem. I mean, they've given up 54 runs, which is actually the 5th least amount of runs allowed during the past 14 days.

While the team's relievers have had an ERA of 2.91 (6th in the AL) and FIP of 2.91 (4th in the AL), our starters ERA has been a whopping 5.03 (10th in the AL) and their FIP was 4.45 (also 10th in the AL). It's true that I expect more out of our bullpen, and actually feel fairly optimistic with Joba in there now, however our starters need to get their butts back in gear.

"I got this."

Even with that said, though, it's hard to point fingers. Yes, Ivan Nova's 10.57 ERA in his last 3 starts is easy to get mad at, but it's only 3 starts. In the start before he went 6.2 innings, giving up only a couple of runs to an Oakland team that's hitting pretty well. The start before that against the Angels was pretty bad (6 runs in 6 innings), but then you'd have to go back 8 more starts to find a game in which he gave up more than 3 runs. And even then, Ivan had only give up more than 1 run twice in those previous 7 starts.

Sabathia has put up a bit 5.40 ERA, but I'm not the least bit worried about him. You see... it's 2-3 starts. That's hardly a sample size to give much thought to. Hell, I've done way too much thinking about that sample already. But it helps prove my point... there's no reason to worry.

Even if I make the sample size larger, to the past 30 days, we see that only Ivan Nova has been throwing that badly, and we already talked about him. Kuroda is killing it with a 2.27 in his past 5 starts, Sabathia is only a little over his "normal" ERA at 3.86, Hughes has been throwing really well with a mark of 3.38 over his past 5 outings, and I can live with Garcia's 4.66 ERA since he's the 5th starter (note that he does have a FIP of 4.04, so he's been a bit on the unlucky side of things).

How do you say "who's your daddy" in Japanese?

So it's going to take a hell of a lot more for me to get worried about the 2012 Yankees. I don't like seeing their AL East lead drop to 4.5 games, but something tells me that the Yanks we've seen lately are not what to expect for the next 53 games. Oh, and the Orioles still don't bother me, seeing as how they have a run differential of -54.

Austin Romine Scratched With Stiff Back


Austin Romine was scratched from his AAA start last night with a stiff back although he fully expects to be back in the lineup tonight for the Empire State Yankees. When you miss half of a season and all of spring training with back issues you never like to hear about problems like this so hopefully it was just precautionary. Back problems tend to linger for a long time, and sometimes your entire career, so I hope Austin can put this behind him.