Yankees @ A's 5/27/12

UPDATE: 

Andruw Jones solo home run 1-0 Yanks

Mark Teixeira hits an RBI double for insurance to knock out Tommy Malone. 2-0 Yanks

Kuroda pitches 8 shut out innings and Soriano comes in to get his 5th save of the season in a 2-0 Yankees win and a Yankees sweep. 

Its amazing how well Kuroda pitches against a National League style and type lineup huh?

The Yankees go for the sweep this afternoon in Oakland when Hiroki Kuroda takes on Tommy Milone in the rubber match of this three game series. The game will be televised on YES and will come on at 4:05 pm ET. 

Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Andruw Jones DH
Jayson Nix LF
Chris Stewart C

UFC 146

Yes I know that this is a Yankees blog but the Yankees game is over, it is Saturday night, and if you are anything like me you have nothing better to do tonight. Im pretty excited about this one because it is all heavyweights on the card. The main event is Junior Dos Santos and Frank Mir fighting in the Octagon for the Heavyweight Championship. 

Who do I think is going to win you ask? I'm glad you asked... because I take any opportunity to bash Frank Mir because I hate the guy.  The WINNER....AND STIIIIILLLL Heavyweight Champion... Junior Dos Santos!!!

Yankees @ A's 5/26/12

UPDATE:

Yanks go quietly in the Top of the 1st. Johnny Gomes added an RBI single in the first to put the A's up 1-0 over the Yanks. 

Cano hits his 7th home run to tie the game at 1 run a piece. 

Jeter puts the Yankees ahead with an RBI single scoring Eric Chavez

Josh Reddick strikes again with another home run. 2-2 tie

You're On The Mark... Teixeira... 3-2 Yankees lead

Alex Rodriguez sac fly adds a run , making it 4-2 Yanks. Mark Teixeira looks like he is heating up and adds a two run single to put the Yanks up 6-2 after 5 IP. 

Derek Jeter hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to give the Yankees their 7th run. Teix adds a two run home run in the 9th to make it 9-2 Yanks

Yanks win 9-2

The Yankees have a quick turn around with their night game last night and having an afternoon game today. Nonetheless the Yankees will send workhorse CC Sabathia to mound to once again be the Yankees ace and keep the win streak alive. Facing the Yankees ace is former Yankee SP Bartolo "Fat Joe" Colon . The game will be on at 4:05 pm ET and will be televised on YES

Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Alex Rodriguez DH
Robinson Cano 2B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Raul Ibanez LF
Nick Swisher RF
Eric Chavez 3B
Chris Stewart C

So much for this "Chris Stewart is not CC Sabathia's personal catcher" mess huh?

The Better Choice

Player A
This guy is 30 years old, played 6 seasons in MLB with a total of 271 plate appearances in 104 games. His triple-slash in MLB is .206/.272/.288, while averaging just 5 HR per 162 games. In 34 PAs over 11 games this season he's hitting .242/.265/.273, with 1 extra-base hit (a double).

Player B
This guy is 29 years old, and has played 7 years in MLB with a total of 3,323 plate appearances over the course of 830 games. His MLB career triple-slash is .263/.357/.395, while averaging 15 HR per 162 games. In 134 plate appearances in 38 games this season he's hitting .173/.321/.318, with 8 extra-base hits (4 doubles and 4 homers).

Going by their career numbers it's clear who you'd want to be in the lineup more often. The low SLG by Player B is not attractive, but he's certainly the better choice over Player A and his triple-slash of .206/.265/.288.

Who is it?

If you were to take the hot hitter though, who would you want? A guy with a triple-slash of .242/.265/.273 is hardly a great choice, but when you see that Player B has a batting average so far this season of .173 the choice doesn't seem that hard. But how can you ignore an OBP that's 66 points higher? And what about the fact that Player B also has a SLG 45 points higher (although it's nothing spectacular)? The hotter hitter is probably Player B too.

So why is it that some Yankee fans are clamoring for Player A to get more playing time? The short answer... I haven't a clue. I really don't get it. I mean, I'm all for trying to improve wherever possible, but the fact is the Yankees can either use Player A or Player B... there is no Player C. Those that could be considered "Player C" are not only in the minors, but they aren't exactly tearing things up there either.

"I don't get it. I mean... are they cute?"

And keep in mind that this is in regards to a guy that regularly hits 8th or 9th in the lineup. So it's not like the offense is leaning on the guy in this position to carry the offensive load.

If you haven't guessed who Player A and Player B are by this point, then shame on you. Then again we're only talking about Chris Stewart and Russell Martin, so I can't blame you for not caring. Because you really shouldn't care. No matter who starts behind the dish for the team, it doesn't matter a whole hell of a lot. The offense doesn't need them to pick up a slumping offense, or at least they shouldn't need that. The offense needs Mark Teixeira to hit better than .226, they need Alex Rodriguez to have a SLG higher than .444, and they need Nick Swisher to get on base more than 30% of the time.

"My bad"

Russell Martin will get better. Will he hit well enough to garner MVP votes? God no! But when Brian Cashman re-signed him for Joe Girardi and the 2012 Yankees, he didn't do so thinking Russ was a guy that made a good offense great. Martin is there because he's a fine defensive catcher, and the pitchers seem to like him (CC may be the exception). And it didn't cost an arm and a leg, in terms of dollars and years, in order to bring him back to the team either. 

It's no surprise that some Yankee fans are going to get upset over every little thing. But let's use a little more perspective, what do you say?

Yankees @ A's 5/25/12

UPDATE: 

Holy Home Run Fest!!!

Robinson Cano plated Curtis Granderson on an error with 2 outs by Coco Crisp to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead and keep the inning alive. The next batter, Mark Teixeira, hit a two run home run to put the Yankees up 3-0.

Josh Reddick hit his 12th home run of the season, off Ivan Nova, to bring the A's back to 3-1. 

Robinson Cano got into the homer fest with his own solo shot to make it 4-0 Yanks.

Swisher, the former A, went the other way and out for a two run home run to put the Yankees up for good at 6-1

The Yankees win 6-3 with Rafael Soriano's 4th save of the season.

Welcome to West Coast baseball and late starts and REALLY late endings to games. Tonight the Yankees face the Oakland A's for the first game in a three game series. Ivan Nova will be on the mound for the Yankees and facing Tyson Ross for the A's. The game will be televised on YES at 10:05 pm ET.

Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Raul Ibanez LF
Nick Swisher RF
Eric Chavez DH
Russell Martin C

Yankees Sign John Maine

Yankees have signed former Mets starting pitcher John Maine to a minor league deal. Undoubtedly he will be going to AAA Empire State Yankees. I never have a problem with a minor league deal on a guy who has recently had a lot of success so I am in total agreement with this signing. That does not mean I think he will even make the team before September but it never hurts to try to catch lightning in a bottle. 

Series Awards: vs. Royals, 5/21 - 5/23

Jake Taylor Award
Alex Rodriguez - ARod went 2-for-4 in Game 1, which included a double. It was good to see Alex hit something other than a single, but it's the long-ball that fans are clamoring for. He couldn't come up with anything more than a single in Game 2, either. But in Game 3 Rodriguez finally broke out and hit a couple of bombs to lead the Yankees to victory.

Gentry Award
Nick Swisher - Nick went the entire three-game series without a hit. In fact, he was only able to draw one walk in Game 3, while striking out 3 times in Game 1, and K-ing once more in Game 2. A low batting average is not that big a surprise for Swish, but an OBP of .304 is just not him.

Rick Vaughn Award
Andy Pettitte - It wasn't as good as his last outing against the Reds, but this time Andy was able to give the team 7 innings of 2-run ball. And he did so while striking out 8 hitters, and walked only one.

Kelner Award
Hiroki Kuroda - He really didn't pitch that badly. In 5.1 innings Hiro gave up 3 runs on 7 hits, while striking out 4 and walking 3. Okay... not a good start. But it wasn't awful either. At least not "get red-tagged by the Cleveland Indians during Spring Training" bad.

--------------------

*The awards are named after one of the best baseball movies of all time... Major League.

Jake Taylor Award - Awarded to the most valuable position player. Named after the hard-nose veteran catcher that, despite making the league minimum, was the heart and soul of the 1989 American League East winning Cleveland Indians.

Gentry Award - Awarded to the least valuable position player. Named after the very first man cut from the 1989 Cleveland Indians, #47 Gentry. A man so insignificant he wasn't even given a first name.

Rick Vaughn - Awarded to the best pitcher in the series. This one is, of course, named after the "Wild Thing". The man that made Clu Haywood look silly in the division deciding game.

Kelner Award - Awarded to the worst pitcher in the series. Named after the Opening Day starter for the '89 Indians. Not a good game for Mr. Kelner, as Indians' announcer Harry Doyle famously quipped "thank God" after Kelner left the game. And yet another bad player without a first name.

What's Next For Andy?

Soon.

Things are looking great so far for Andy Pettitte and the Yankees. After three starts Andy has thrown 21.1 innings to a 2.53 ERA and 1.078 WHIP. Looking at the total stats for Yankee starters, and ignoring the fact that Pettitte has only started 3 games versus 8 to 9 for the other guys, he's leading the team in ERA, WHIP, Hits/9, Walks/9, and Strikeout/Walk. In fact, Mike from River Avenue Blues went as far as to say "if the Yankees were going to start a best-of-five playoff series today, Andy would be my number two starter".

But I can't look past the fact that Andy has thrown against the Mariners, Reds, and Royals. Seattle and Kansas City are 10th and 11th in the American League, and Cincinnatti is 12th in the National League, in runs scored. Not that I believe anybody expects Andy to keep a 2.53 ERA all season long, but perhaps we're all feeling a false sense of security. What do some of Pettitte's "other" stats look like?

Sooner.

For starters, hitters are getting a bit unlucky against Andrew Eugene. The MLB average Batting Average on Balls in Play this season is .298, and Andy's career BABIP is .312. Which has led batters to have a triple-slash against Pettitte of only .234/.280/.390, which are 37, 45, and 8 points below his averages. So far it looks like we're in for a bit of a correction, and in a bad way.

In his career Andy has struck out batters 17.1% of the time, and walked batters 7.4% of the time. In his three starts this season he's striking out 22.9% of hitters, and walking only 6% of hitter. Not a huge difference, but this too leads me to believe his 2.53 ERA is a bit of a mirage.

Batters are also hitting a lot more ground balls against Andy. In 16 MLB seasons Andy gave up ground balls in 48.6% of at bats, while in 2012 hitters are putting the ball on the ground 56.1% of the time. Which has led to him getting more double plays than normal too (25% vs. 13%). But there have been only 12 double play opportunities with Pettitte on the mound this season, against 2,561 opportunities in his career. So chances are we're going to see a few more fly balls hit off of Andy, and fly balls tend to lead to more hits against a pitcher.

Here it comes.

Which leads me to the one stat that makes me believe that Andy isn't due for a big-time correction... the wrong way. That would be his Home Runs/Fly Ball rate. So far this season opponent's have hit home runs on 22.2% of fly balls hit off of Andy. That is way above the MLB average this season of 7.9%, and even higher than Pettitte's career mark of 6.3%. But this isn't something that only Pettitte is suffering from, as I wrote on Monday.

To sum things up, don't be surprised if Andy starts giving up more hits, and therefore more runs. But there's no reason to expect him to drop that far either. So Andy may not be the team's #2 starter come playoff time, but he probably won't be pitching out of the bullpen either.

Gotcha!

Royals @ Yankees 5/23/12

UPDATE: 

Curtis Granderson and Alex Rodriguez both belted home runs to put the Yankees up 3-0. Has the offense finally awoken? 

A ground ball scores Jeter with a fielders choice. Alex Rodriguez follows it up with a long solo home run, his second of the game,  to make it 5-0 Yanks.

Yankees win 8-3

The Yankees host the Royals for the rubber game of the series at the Stadium tonight at 7:05 pm ET. The game will be televised on YES and will showcase Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte pitching for the first time since he jumped out of his time machine and completely shut down the Reds for 8 shutout innings. Here is tonight's lineup.

1. Jeter SS
2. Granderson CF
3. Teixeira 1B
4. Rodriguez 3B
5. Cano 2B
6. Swisher RF
7. Jones DH
8. Martin C
9. Nix LF

Royals @ Yankees 5/22/12

UPDATE:

The Yankees are on the board!!! Robinson Cano solo home run, his 5th, making it 2-1 Royals

Derek Jeter ties the game with an RBI single. 2-2 Tie

Granderson on an RBI ground out gives the Yankees the lead 3-2. It may be YET ANOTHER RISP fail.. but it was a productive RISP FAIL... Baby steps Yankees fans. 

Hughes probably done after 6 IP and 103 pitches. 2 runs allowed and lowered his ERA under 5. Encouraging signs coming from Hughes even if 2 of his good starts were against the Royals and the bottom dwellers of the American League

Yankees win 3-2

Tonight the Yankees will be facing the Royals in the middle game of their three game series at 7:05 pm ET on MY9 and MLB Network. I have not heard yet if the Yankees offense will be active for the game but I do know that Phil Hughes will be starting for the Yankees against the Royals worst pitcher, Luke Hochevar.

1. Jeter SS
2. Granderson CF
3. Cano 2B
4. Rodriguez 3B
5. Ibanez DH
6. Swisher RF
7. Teixeira 1B
8. Martin C
9. Wise LF