Tuesday, August 19, 2014

The Daily Dozen - August 19, 2014

The Daily Dozen - August 19th, 2014 - YANKEES LOST TO THE ASTROS EDITION!
(Twelve Takeaways from Tonight's Game vs. the 2nd Worst Team in Baseball)

1. Jose Altuve is a base-hitting machine.  He goes 1 for 3 tonight with 2 walks and now has a .339 average.  He's a Robinson Cano type hitter...just saying...remember that guy?

2. Capuano had 6 Ks through 4 innings.  He seemed to be rolling.  Then the 5th inning happened.  While 8 Ks to 2 walks seems like a good outing, the hits combined with the walks equaled out to a 1.88 WHIP for the night.  That many baserunners will hurt you at some point no matter how many Ks you get.

3. Ellsbury and Teixeira will be key to a Yankees playoff run.  That combined with Gardner and Jeter getting on base, which isn't happening all too often right now.  Ellsbury went 3 for 4 tonight getting thrown out at the plate in the 8th while Teixeira went 1 for 4 with 3 Ks.  Note the result of the game.

4. Jeter's hit that tied Wagner was ruled an error today.  As it should have been in the first place...there is no place for home cooking of the books in my opinion.
(Credit: Bryan Hoch, MLB.com, Yankees.com)

5. Matt Dominguez had a 9-pitch at-bat in the top of the 4th. Capuano ultimately prevailed, but I believe this may have been the deciding factor in the game, not what happened in the 9th as Capuano was rolling to that point and then started to lose it heading into the 5th.  As a baseball fan, you've got to love at-bats like that.

6. Brian McCann's HR in the bottom of the 4th was his 14th of the season with 49 RBI in his 104 games for the Yankees.  Contrast that to his last season with the Atlanta Braves in which he played 102 games total hitting 20 HRs and 57 RBI.  Those of us that expected his numbers to go back to 2006 to 2009 numbers (average of 22 HR with 92 RBI) should expect more of the 2010 to 2013 numbers (average of 21 HR with 68 RBI).  I'm not sure it is worth the contract he got, but the jury is still out.

7. Martin Prado comes through in the bottom of the 5th.  He plates 2 runs with a double to tie the game at 4 a piece.  Prado was 3 for 4 on the night to match Ellsbury.  There would be no more runs after this inning.  In the month of August the Yankees have only scored 17 runs past the 5th inning and are 6-3 in games in which they do so.  In 6 of those games only 1 run was scored past the 6th inning with 4 games in the 9th inning.  They scored 2 runs against Boston on August 1st.  They scored 4 runs after the 5th against Verlander on August 6th placing him on the DL.  On August 8th when they scored 5 runs in the 6th to double up the Indians Native Americans.  They are 2-5 when they don't score past the 5th inning.  Heck on August 5th, they didn't score a run from the 6th inning to the 12th.

8. Betances faced 4 batters in the 8th inning and struck out 2 of them.  He now has a strikeout to inning ratio of 13.6K/9 innings pitched.  This is unreal.  He also has 113 Ks, which is 7 shy of Mariano's strikeout record for a reliever for the Yankees.  He is making a strong statement to be the closer of the future for the Yankees, especially after DRob's lackluster performance tonight.  But please, don't be so harsh on Houdini!  He's only human!
(Credit Quagliata and DiPietro of the YES Network)

9. Just how hard is it to hit a 99 mph fastball?  Well, it only takes approximately four tenths of a second to reach homeplate from the pitcher's hand.  Throw in a little funk in your windup and the batter's reaction time is diminished even more.  Everyone believes that good hitters can hit fastballs.  That is true if you are talking about 85 to 95 mph fastballs.  But once you start reaching the triple digits, if the pitcher has command of his pitch and can spot it where he wants it, it is nearly impossible.  Take out a stopwatch and see how many times you can stop it at 0.4 seconds, or better yet step into a batting cage at 70 mph and see just how quickly the ball arrives at your hands.  Major props to any of the MLB hitters that can catch up to Aroldis Chapman's heater.  Although, they are probably just guessing as soon as he starts his windup.

10. Ellsbury stole his 32nd base of the season.  He is on pace to record 42 steals this season which is well below his 162-game average of 53.  If he were to play every remaining game he would have played 158 this season, so that number is close enough.  Hopefully the emphasis on speed will be more going into next season with Gardner and Ellsbury tearing up the basepaths.  Of course when you have a true leadoff hitter batting 3rd, it is difficult to expect him to get as many steals...someone has to knock in runs!

11. Chris Carter hit a 3-run BOMB in the 9th off of Robertson to make it 7-4 Astros.  Prior to that he was 0-4 with the Golden Sombrero (4 strikeouts for those scoring at home).  It was his 30th HR of the season to go along with his 133 Ks.  This guy either jacks a HR or strikes out...consider him Adam Dunn, Jr.  On a sidenote, I would expect better plate awareness from a Hall of Famer.
Wait...not THAT Chris Carter! (Credit: theVikingAge.com) Go Bucks!

12. The Yankees lost to Houston for the 3rd time this year.  They are now 1-3 against the team with the 2nd worst record in the AL and can only tie the season series.  Not what you would expect for a team looking to make the playoffs.  Then again, their odds of making the playoffs BEFORE the loss tonight was only at 3.6% according to ESPN.com.

2 comments:

  1. While I understand fans believing Betances could be a great closer, it baffles my mind that many of those same people don't understand that losing Robertson would be a huge blow to the bullpen.

    It's simple Betances & Robertson >>>>>>>>>>>>> Betances & "somebody"

    With all the questions our rotation is going to have next year (health of Sabathia, Tanaka, and Pineda... will Nova even be good when he returns from TJS around mid-season), having a very good bullpen will be even more important than it already can be.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree with you Bryan. Even if you went out and got a top flight reliever to replace Robertson it's the devil you know vs. the devil you don't. D Rob can handle NY, not everyone can.

    Also just as an FYI for everyone. My power was out all night so don't expect much on the blog today from me.... sorry about that.

    ReplyDelete

Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)