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Jose Bautista and J.P. Arencibia Homer: Jays Beat Yankees

Posted on May 18, 2012 by admin

Yankees 1 Blue Jays 4 Even if it is just a 2 game series, I LOVE SWEEPING THE YANKEES. Nice game tonight. Drew Hutchison pitched 6 innings and allowed only the 1 run. That’s the good news. He walked 4, gave up 5 hits (3 of them doubles) and struck out just 3. He had a fair bit of luck. He gave up deep, hard hit fly balls but they found gloves, most of the time. I’m glad Rajai Davis was in left tonight, he made some nice catches. I’m not sure that Eric Thames would have made all of them. The good news is that in his first few starts he had one bad inning in each that cost him. His last couple of starts he’s been able to avoid those big innings. He finished with 7 ground outs and 4 fly outs. Our bullpen had another great night. Jason Frasor , Darren Oliver and Casey Janssen each had perfect scoreless innings. Janssen picked up his third save, and each were 1, 2, 3 innings. I hope Sergio Santos comes back quickly, but I’m glad to have Janssen as closer. On offense Jose Bautista and J.P. Arencibia each hit 2 run homers, giving us more than enough runs to win. We had 9 hits. Two each for Yunel Escobar , JP and Yan Gomes (the Brazilian leader in major league hits). O fors go to Kelly Johnson , Edwin Encarnacion and Colby Rasmus . On the not so great side, Ben Francisco was thrown out at the plate on a squeeze bunt attempt by Rajai. We had some great defense. Edwin Encarnacion, Omar Vizquel and Jose Bautista all had great plays. Credit to John Farrell for putting Vizquel in at third as a defensive replacement for Gomes. Jays of the Day ? Drew Hutchison has a .270 WPA, so, with some misgivings, I’m giving him one. Also Bautista (.124), Frasor (.099) and JP (.096) get one each. Kelly (-.126) and Edwin (-.111) get suckage awards, though they both had some good defense so I’m felling bad about giving them the honor. We start a 3 game series with the other New York team starting tomorrow. The Mets come to town. Jon Niese (2-1, 3.40) takes on the Jays and Ricky Romero (4-1, 3.88). Ricky wants to bounce back from a bad start in Minneapolis, his last time out. Congratulations to Yan Gomes for getting his first (and second) MLB hit. Great to see. Great game tonight, maybe we can stop being told that Jays can’t beat the good teams. Please. At least for a little bit. Continue reading →

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Without deviation from the norm (& Ronny Cedeno), regress is not possible. Reds lose 9-4.

Posted on May 17, 2012 by admin

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game Joey Votto gorped his 6th crankwood off the facade in right field and went 2-4. If we didn’t have an unwritten rule against giving this award to opposing players, Ronny Cedeno (2-5, HR, 3 RBI) or David Wright (2 2B, on base 5 times) would be taking home that $15 gift certificate to Buffalo Mild Legs. BML: Come for the lack of distracting wall art, stay for gently-seasoned thigh meat! Key Plays Latos and the Uncanny Dickey traded zeroes until the 4th inning, when Joey Votto hit a frack-job to right field that would have been a bonzai anywhere: Citi Field ’11, the Polo Grounds or Ebbets Field. The Reds got three more in the 5th, thanks in part to wildness/knuckling from Dickey. With the league’s best bullpen standing by, our team made the reasonable assumption that 4 runs were enough. Time to focus on prevention. In the top of the 5th, Andres Torres singled and David Wright walked. With two outs, Jay Bruce misjudged a line drive off the bat of Lucas Duda in the bottom of the inning that may have been catch-able. Latos’ stuff looked good more often than not , but he couldn’t hit enough of his spots. Three walks and a few too many pitches on the fat part of the place bounced him from the game after 5.0 IP. J.J. Hoover came in to limit the damage to a run off a sac-fly. A Todd Frazier double to lead off the 7th would be their last threat while the game was within reach. Aroldis Chapman entered, along with his 25.1 inning scoreless streak. He had yet to pitch in consecutive days and showed some fatigue. Wright led off the inning with a walk. Chapman may have been pitching around him, which is understandishable – especially with three lefties coming up. It’s a move that wound up costing him the scoreless streak (though not the earned run streak). Duda dropped a weak blooper, then Drew Stubbs misplayed another blooper to load the bases. Chapman worked out of the jam with his customary two strikeouts, but not before Wright scored on a sac-fly. The wheels fell off and started a structure fire in the bottom of the eight. Logan Ondrusek’s tab with math, the Universe and everything was long past due. At first, it looked like the Reds were getting flared to death when another potentially catchable ball landed between three fielders, but Ronny Cedeno’s 3-run blast blew it up for good. Cue laugh track. Mets win, 9-4. Source: FanGraphs Other Notes ALTERNATE TITLE: Home Run, Ronny, Run David Wright advanced from 1st to second on an error and scored on a sac-fly. Since Chapman struck out the merciless Cedeno on the very next at bat, he did not get tagged with an earned run. Still sitting 0.00. Learned some more stuff about R.A. Dickey . He has has no UCL , which made me wonder if you could have Tommy John implant surgery. Probably more fun just to become a knuckleballer. To my eye, Chapman’s shaky inning looked more like unfortunate batted ball luck than anything else. Maybe putting Wright on first – or pitching Chapman back-to-back – were technically tactical blunders. But if Stubbs snares that dying quaily that bounced off his glove, he probably gets out of the inning with no runs, 2 K, 1 BB and less than 30 pitches. Stubbs and Cozart, the Reds’ current 1 and 2 hitters, went a combined 0-9. Both are now getting on base below .300. Joey Votto’s one-run homer was a convenient exhibit showing at least one of them needs to be relocated in the order. After the Mets’ series, Todd Frazier is now doing a very healthy .295/.354/.659. Both he and Hanigan are good candidates to move up in the order, though I doubt they both will. Next up: @ Yankees , 7:05 EDT, Yankee Stadium. Bronson Arroyo is the age-appropriate choice to take on Andy Pettite, who makes his second start since returning to the majors. Reds are lined up pretty well for the three game series, throwing Cueto against Sabathia on Sunday. Final – 5.17.2012 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Cincinnati Reds 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 4 8 2 New York Mets 0 0 0 0 2 1 1 5 X 9 12 0 WP: Bobby Parnell (1 – 0) LP: Logan Ondrusek (3 – 1) Complete Coverage > Continue reading →

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Figuring Out The Yankees Early Season Struggles

Posted on May 17, 2012 by admin

As many of you have discussed here, this season the Yankees look a bit off. At 20-17, the Yankees are in third place in the AL East, only three games ahead of the Red Sox , who are in last place in the AL East. Despite all of the panic going around, whether it be about the rotation, Mark Teixeira’s lack of hitting, Alex Rodriguez ‘ lack of power, or the injuries, I’m still confident about the future of this team offensively. Let’s first talk about the hitting. The Yankees are among the top ten teams in the MLB this season in batting average, runs, hits, home runs (obviously) RBI, OBP (!) and SLG. The lineup may not look intimidating every night, but the Yankees work the count, get on base, and while they may mainly rely on home runs, they still get the job done. The offense will get a spark when (if) Mark Teixeira gets into his groove and gets healthy, and when (if) Russell Martin returns to his average self and Brett Gardner returns. Meanwhile, the Yankees rotation is a problem right now. The Yankees are only in the top ten in walks allowed and strikeouts thrown, but the rotation simply is not doing their job right now. Hiroki Kuroda is wildly inconsistent, Ivan Nova regressed after a solid start to the season, and Andy Pettitte is a mystery right now. The positives of the rotation are that CC Sabathia is, well, CC Sabathia, and Phil Hughes looks like he is improving. If Hughes can be an acceptable #4 or #5 starter, Andy Pettitte can pitch at least close to the Andy Pettitte of old, and Hiroki Kuroda can pitch like he did for the Dodgers , the Yankees rotation will be fine. Still, that’s a lot of ifs. Continue reading →

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Mets to Host 2013 MLB All-Star Game

Posted on May 16, 2012 by admin

One way or another, we can now breathe easier in knowing that there will be All Stars at Citi Field next season. Major League Baseball confirmed Wednesday morning that our New York Mets will host the 2013 MLB All-Star Game in Flushing next July. The announcement took place at City Hall on Wednesday morning as Mr. Met conceded the microphone to Mayor Michael Bloomberg and MLB Commissioner Bud Selig among other baseball dignitaries to confirm what’s long been speculated as the preferred venue for next year’s Midsummer Classic. Seriously, he did. Take a look (via @sbnation ): Beaurcratic silliness likely caused the delay in the announcement, as navigating New York City policies and procudures for this scale of event can drive the average person mad. One thing that did not cause concern for Selig was the Wilpons’ dire financial straits in recent months. From ESPN New York : “I have great faith in the Wilpons and the family and I was very confident they would work things out, and they have. I had no trepidation at all,” Selig said. The announcement means that the Mets will host the All-Star Game for the first time since Shea Stadium’s inaugural season in 1964. With the Kansas City Royals hosting the big game this summer, the Los Angeles Dodgers now take over the mantle as the team with the longest All Star drought after last hosting the game in 1980. The game itself should also put an exclamation point on what will hopefully be a wild year in New York sports in 2013,with the Yankees being the Yankees, the Brooklyn Nets coming to fruition, revitalized local sports teams with the Knicks, Rangers and Devils, and WrestleMania XXIX coming to MetLife Stadium next April and Super Bowl XXLVIII taking place there at the end of the 2013 NFL season. (And, hey, Islanders tickets are still cheap.) The official press release is after the jump for those of you who are into that sort of thing. NEW YORK METS AWARDED THE 2013 ALL-STAR GAME Mets Will Host Midsummer Classic for Second Time; Ninth for New York City NEW YORK, NY – The New York Mets have been awarded Major League Baseball’s 2013 All-Star Game and will host the 84th Midsummer Classic at Citi Field, Baseball Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig announced today at a press conference at City Hall. Commissioner Selig was joined by the Mayor of New York, the Honorable Michael R. Bloomberg, and New York Mets Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Fred Wilpon. The 2013 All-Star Game will mark the second time that the Mets, who are commemorating their 50th anniversary in 2012, will host the Midsummer Classic. Shea Stadium hosted the 1964 All-Star Game, a 7-4 National League victory that featured 21 participating Hall of Famers, including Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente, Sandy Koufax, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and Frank Robinson, as well as MLB’s Executive Vice President for Baseball Operations, Joe Torre. It will be the ninth All-Star Game in Baseball history to be played in New York City, which is the most of any host city. Commissioner Selig said: “As we celebrate the franchise’s golden anniversary this year, I am pleased to award the 2013 All-Star Game to the New York Mets and their loyal fans. We are delighted to bring the Midsummer Classic to Citi Field, a wonderful ballpark that has carried on the remarkable National League tradition in New York City. The Mets will be superb hosts to next summer’s greatest sporting event.” “Thanks to the efforts of Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Selig, it’s a great honor for everyone at the Mets to host the 2013 All-Star Game at Citi Field,” Wilpon said. “Mets fans and all people in the New York tri-state area and beyond will have the opportunity to take part in the events that Major League Baseball will bring to New York.” “Next year’s All-Star Game is going to demonstrate once again that there’s no place like New York for world-class sporting events,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “Major League Baseball clearly recognizes this, since they’re bringing the All-Star Game back to New York for the second time in just five years.” The 84th All-Star Game is tentatively scheduled to be played at Citi Field on Tuesday, July 16, 2013. Continue reading →

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Orioles 5, Yankees 2: Wei-Yinsanity

Posted on May 16, 2012 by admin

The Orioles snapped their mini-losing streak, splitting the brief two-game series with the Yankees by winning the finale, 5-2. Wei-Yin Chen outdueled CC Sabathia with an outstanding seven-inning gem, holding the Yanks to just four hits and two (controversial) runs. The O’s backed him with single runs in five innings, with all but one batter reaching base at least once. Earlier in the week, the forecast was predicting rain in Baltimore tonight, but as it turned out the weather couldn’t have been more perfect. Temperatures in the 70s, not a drop of rain. It was a beautiful night for baseball. And you know what else is beautiful? Wei-Yin Chen. Uh, by which I mean, Wei-Yin Chen’s pitching. …Not that’s he not a handsome man, mind you, but…er, that is…let’s just move on. Chen, who pitched well against the Yankees in his major-league debut on April 10, upped his game even more tonight. He was locked in from the get-go, mixing his fastball, changeup, and slider effectively to keep Yankee batters off balance. He mowed through a perfect first inning, then shook off a leadoff walk in the second to keep the runner stranded. Meanwhile, the O’s offense had a tough task in facing half-human, half-walrus CC Sabathia, but they actually managed to hit him pretty well tonight. Adam Jones got the party started, opening the second with a towering homerun into the left-field seats, his team-leading 11th. An inning later, the bottom of the Orioles’ lineup did their part. Steve Tolleson– who’s swung a decent bat since his callup from Norfolk– led off the inning with a double to left. Up next was Xavier Avery , who was thinking bunt all the way. Normally the notion of bunting in the third inning would be ridiculous, but with a lefty swinger in just his third big-league game facing the tough southpaw Sabathia, I’ll allow it. Especially when you consider the impressive speed of Avery. Xavier put down a bunt to the third-base side and easily beat the throw from Alex Rodriguez, even though he was drawn in and fielded the ball quickly. Wow, Avery can flat-out fly. Sabathia then grazed Robert Andino with a pitch, loading the bases with nobody out. The O’s had an opportunity to do major damage, but instead they had to settle for just one run when J.J. Hardy grounded into a double play (plating Tolleson) and Nick Markakis grounded out. M’eh. The O’s tallied another run in the fifth. Avery got the inning started with a walk– nice eye, Xavier!– and two batters later, Hardy plated him with an RBI double into the left-field corner. One inning later, the O’s took advantage of sloppy Yanks defense to add an insurance run. With the bases loaded and two outs, Hardy tapped a grounder behind second base. Robinson Cano fielded the ball, then bobbled it briefly. He tried to flip to second for a forceout, but the vaunted Derek Jeter was late covering the bag, and Andino slid in ahead of his throw. Hardy was credited with a gift infield single, extending the Orioles’ lead to 4-0. Markakis struck out to leave the bases loaded (Nick was 0-for-4 tonight, the only Oriole starter not to reach base), but Sabathia was finished after throwing 103 pitches in six innings. The O’s put 12 runners on base against him, though they stranded eight men in a four-inning stretch. Happily, the wasted baserunners did not come back to haunt them. That’s because Chen was just too damn good. Early on, the Yankees’ only rally against him came in the third, when a pair of singles put two on with one out. But Chen induced a 6-4-3 double play from Nick Swisher to escape the jam. And that began an outstanding stretch of 10 consecutive batters retired by Wei-Yin, who was in absolute cruise control. His only misstep came in the seventh. After a leadoff double, Chen retired the next two batters and had Curtis Granderson down 0-2 in the count. But Granderson lifted a deep drive to left field. Avery rushed back to the wall and attempted a leaping catch, but it appeared that a fan (a Yankee fan, PUKE) got in his way and deflected the ball away from him. Gah! Not again! What is it with snot-nosed doofuses in their stupid Yankees gear and their insistence on interfering with O’s outfielders? Surprisingly, Buck Showalter didn’t ask the Yankees to review the play for possible fan interference. It’s not clear from the replays whether the ball was already in the stands or not when the fan interfered, but I think it was worth a second look. In any case, the homerun call stood, and the Orioles’ lead was cut in half to 4-2. Chen walked the next batter, but recovered to retire Jayson Nix on a fielder’s choice. Showalter let him return to the mound to take warmup tosses in the eighth, then removed him from the game before the first batter came up. That allowed the Camden Yards crowd of 24,055 to give Chen a rousing standing ovation as he exited. That crowd included Chen’s parents, who were watching him pitch for the Orioles for the first time. Aw! That’s adorable. Good show, Wei-Yin. The O’s plated an insurance run against Freddy Garcia in the seventh. Jones led off with a single and was ruled safe on a steal of second, even though the throw appeared to beat him. We’ll take it. Consider it a makeup call for not reviewing the Granderson homer. He later scored on catcher Chris Stewart’s second passed ball of the game, making it 5-2. There was one more challenge to overcome. Setup man Pedro Strop was wild to start the eighth, walking the first two batters he faced to bring the possible tying run to the plate. But after a Swisher fielder’s choice, Strop pounced off the mound to field a Cano bouncer and fired a perfect strike to second, with Hardy relaying to first to complete a rally-thwarting double play. A pumped-up Strop raised his arms toward the sky after his nice escape. Closer Jim Johnson was much tidier in the ninth, allowing a one-out single but then ending the ballgame on another double play, this one slickly turned by Andino as he ranged up the middle, stepped on the bag and fired to first in one motion. And that’ll do it! Another impressive win for the Birds. With the victory, the O’s finished their daunting 15-game stretch against quality teams by going 9-6. Bravo, Orioles. Bravo. Poll Who was tonight’s Most Birdland Player? Wei-Yin Chen (7 IP, 2 ER, 4 K, fourth win) Adam Jones (HR, 2 runs, three times on base) J.J. Hardy (2-for-4, RBI double)   186 votes | Results Continue reading →

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Yankees 8, Orioles 5: That Was Not A Pitcher’s Duel

Posted on May 15, 2012 by admin

Instead of the pitcher’s duel I thought this might be, it turned out to be an ugly slugfest. The Yankees managed to out slug the Orioles and win the game 8-5. Ivan Nova has trouble with his control tonight and the Orioles manage to capitalize on his mistakes. He gave up five earned runs and seven hits over 5.1 innings while striking out four and walking three. Jason Hammel did not fair much better against the Yankees offense as he gave up four earned runs and seven hits over five innings while striking out three and walking three. Tonight both offenses combined for twenty one hits. Again, not the pitchers duel I was expecting. Granderson and Teixeira hit two dingers and A-Rod’s bat was still hot as he had three solid hits. Swisher, Ibanez, and Chavez would also add RBI’s and Derek Jeter made history again tonight with a single. More to come later… Continue reading →

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Hector Noesi’s Modest Consolation

Posted on May 14, 2012 by admin

Hector Noesi started for the Mariners against the Yankees on Saturday. Saturday was two days ago. The Mariners played another game against the Yankees yesterday, and they play a game against the Red Sox in a few hours. Why talk about Hector Noesi now, when by the baseball regular-season schedule his most recent start was ages ago? A fun fact, that’s why. I’m not referring to it as Today’s Fun Fact because this is Today’s Fun Fact. Click, read, and savor. I’ve already come to Noesi’s defense. Noesi allowed five runs and five extra-base hits on Saturday, four of which came with two strikes, but I don’t think his pitches were that bad. I think Noesi was more the victim of good hitting than the source of bad pitching, and while I’ve seen that Geoff Baker disagrees, I’ve looked at this more than I probably should’ve. Visually, most of the pitches that got hit were fine. According to the PITCHfx data, most of the pitches that got hit had fine movement. Maybe they weren’t all exactly the pitches Noesi wanted to throw, but most were still fine pitches. Anyhow, that isn’t what’s important. None of this is important when you get down to it but this post is about one event in particular. Noesi allowed three doubles in the span of four hitters in the bottom of the second. It would’ve been one thing had the inning ended there, but it didn’t – the finishing touches were applied by Jayson Nix , who rode Noesi out to right field. Nix’s homer turned a two-run frame into a four-run frame and put the Mariners well behind in the early going. Here’s the 1-and-1 pitch that Noesi threw to Nix: Looks okay, right? Right on the edge. Here’s a different look at the same pitch: John Jaso wanted the pitch on the outer edge, above the knees. The result: Noesi threw the pitch on the outer edge, above the knees. Noesi essentially hit his target dead-on. Except he didn’t, because the ball never arrived at the target, because Nix swung and made contact and hit the ball over the fence. The ball barely got out . It practically scraped the fence as it descended. According to the Home Run Tracker , the dinger had a distance of 339 feet. That is the fifth-shortest dinger hit so far this season. But wait, there’s more! According to the same source, Nix got an 11-foot boost from the wind. Accounting for conditions, Nix’s dinger had a “standard distance” of 326 feet, which would’ve been good enough to hit it out of zero stadiums. And finally, according to the Home Run Tracker, the ball came off Nix’s bat at 89.8 miles per hour. That is the weakest home run of the season , narrowly undercutting another Yankee Stadium pile of crap by Chris Iannetta . Saturday afternoon, Hector Noesi allowed a two-run home run to Jayson Nix. It was Nix’s first Major League hit since June 16, 2011. It goes in the books as a homer, never to be edited. But some home runs are different from other home runs, and this was not a home run to be held against Hector Noesi. Critics might say that Noesi needs to do a better job of making his pitches, but in this specific instance, Noesi did make his pitch, and you could say he even got his result. He got Jayson Nix to lift an unremarkable fly ball to the opposite field. Sometimes unremarkable fly balls can leave this particular field, especially when aided by wind. From a binary perspective, in this at-bat, Hector Noesi allowed one home run, and zero not-home-runs. From a more informed perspective, the home run that Hector Noesi allowed was the least worst of all home runs. I bet that makes Hector Noesi feel way better. Continue reading →

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A Small Assortment Of Mariners Thoughts

Posted on May 13, 2012 by admin

I decided to take today off and get out there in the spectacular northwest sunshine. Except here I am writing right now anyway, so I guess I mean I decided to take watching the actual Mariners game off. I’m going to write a little something about it. How can I write about a baseball game I didn’t watch? You’re going to find out! And I’ve done it a million times before, where I’ve missed a Mariners game, or I’ve watched a Mariners game but not really watched it. You know the feeling. I like to call it “2008″. Coming back from where we were all day, I asked Ms. Jeff to check the score of the Mariners game. I didn’t want to turn on my own phone because I wasn’t in the mood to deal with it. Whenever I miss a game I fear I missed something special, but Ms. Jeff told me “the Mariners lost 6-2.” That was a load off, then I wondered if she accidentally pulled up yesterday’s game. So the fear came back and I asked her to double-check the date. She said “the Mariners lost 6-2, today.” That was a load off. With the loss, the Mariners fell into last place in the AL West. The Mariners have spent so much time in the AL West’s basement the last few years they’ve got posters and shit up on the walls and a “Mariners’ Room, Keep Out” sign on the door, but this is the first time this season the Mariners have been fourth. So that’s significant, or that’s supposed to feel significant. They’re only a half-game behind the Angels , so tomorrow they could get back to third. Or they could stay in last from now through the end of September. Did anybody think the Mariners would keep up with the Rangers ? No. Did anybody think the Mariners would take one of the wild cards? Not really. We still want the Mariners to look presentable of course, but the Mariners being in last is less embarrassing than the Angels being in last. The Angels are supposed to do things. Good things, I mean. They’ve done plenty of bad things. Albert Pujols has a .514 OPS! He has a lower OPS in May than he had in April! I noticed from tweets and from the box score that Brendan Ryan rode the bench. He had a terrible at-bat at the wrong time Friday night, and in general his numbers are miserable. Said Eric Wedge : “He’s got to be able to defend himself at home plate, which he didn’t do last night,” Wedge said. “He’s got to be able to go up there and compete. You just can’t be an out. You’ve got to do more than that.” This is where I have no choice but to point out that Brendan Ryan has a .267 OBP and Miguel Olivo has a .229 OBP. Last year, Miguel Olivo had a .253 OBP. And Brendan Ryan provides actual, substantial, measurable value in the field, while whatever value Olivo provides in the field we’re supposed to take on faith. Olivo, of course, has power, and I’m not going to sit here and say that Ryan’s offense has been acceptable. By and large he’s been a mess. But Brendan Ryan has a .190 BABIP that isn’t going to last, and his reserve is Munenori Kawasaki , who’s a lot more awesome when he isn’t actually playing much. Ryan’s going to get it sorted out, advancing to the point where his offense is poor but not ghastly. It’s fine for Wedge to sit Ryan for a day or two. Wedge should also understand that, in the big picture, Ryan’s his guy. Now then, while scrolling through Twitter it seemed like Hector Noesi had himself a rough outing. Too many extra-base hits allowed, too many of them in two-strike counts. Before doing any research, I prepared to come on here and say that Noesi needs some help developing an out pitch. But then I looked at the numbers and I looked at the video, and what I feel now is that Noesi was more good than bad this afternoon. After reading through a lot of criticism, I investigated on my own and came away encouraged. First, the straight numbers. There aren’t any lies in numbers, and of Noesi’s 98 pitches, 68 of them were strikes. That is an excellent strike rate. The Yankees put 23 balls in play, and 11 of them were grounders, which is fine, and actually better than we’ve come to expect from Noesi. And I think most significantly, Yankees batters swung and missed 15 times. They attempted 53 swings, so that’s a contact rate of 72 percent. Noesi’s previous high for swinging strikes this year was seven. Swing-and-miss ability! And now for the extra-base hits. Noesi allowed six hits, one of which was a single, three of which were doubles, and two of which were homers. The first extra-base hit was a double by Mark Teixeira in the bottom of the second. Noesi’s 0-and-2 change: That pitch was in the low-away corner of the strike zone, and Teixeira yanked it. Noesi could’ve stood to actually miss the zone, a little lower and a little more away, but that wasn’t by any means a bad pitch, and had Teixeira taken it, it could’ve gone either way. Teixeira had to reach to barrel that pitch up. The second extra-base hit was a double by Raul Ibanez two batters after Teixeira. Noesi threw a 2-and-2 change: That’s low and actually off the plate outside. If taken, maybe the umpire gives Noesi a lefty strike, but that isn’t a pitch you’d expect a batter to drive. This was less bad pitching, and more good hitting. The third extra-base hit was a double by Russell Martin , immediately after Ibanez. Noesi’s 0-and-2 slider: This was a mistake. Noesi left an 0-and-2 slider up and over the plate, instead of low and a little bit off. He got burned, and probably should’ve gotten burned. The fourth extra-base hit was a homer by Jayson Nix , immediately after Martin. This was the one that didn’t come in a two-strike count. Noesi’s 1-and-1 fastball: Outer edge, pretty much exactly where John Jaso wanted the pitch to go. Nix punched it over the short right-field wall, barely, and in I think any other stadium, Nix is out. Remarked the Yankees’ color guy after the ball scraped the fence: “Noesi really hasn’t made too many bad pitches in this inning.” He was right. The inning looked bad for its four runs and its four extra-base hits, but only one of those extra-base hits come off a total mistake. The others were either good hitting or lucky hitting. I personally consider Nix’s to be lucky hitting but I guess he was well aware how favorable right field can be. The fifth and last extra-base hit was a homer by Raul Ibanez in the bottom of the fourth. Noesi’s full-count fastball: That pitch is up and on or just beyond the outer edge. Gameday identifies it as a fringe strike, which is a good pitch to throw in a full count, and while Noesi did miss higher than Jaso’s target, the horizontal location was fine. This, again, strikes me as good hitting. Yankee Stadium is a dangerous ballpark in which to elevate the ball and Noesi did miss his spot, but he didn’t miss over the plate or down the pipe. Ibanez went to the border of the strike zone and hit a ball out. Maybe you can chalk it up to Ibanez being on a tear. Remember how Raul Ibanez developed a reputation for being streaky? I usually don’t put stock in such things but I don’t feel like putting in the work to disprove it. Raul Ibanez, he’s so locked-in! He’s like a bald Josh Hamilton , or a whiter Carlos Beltran , or a much whiter Matt Kemp ! This afternoon in New York, Hector Noesi allowed five runs and five extra-base hits. His ERA increased to 6.32. I don’t think Noesi necessarily deserved all the damage that was done, and while you could argue that maybe his fringe pitches are simply more hittable than someone else’s fringe pitches, this was a day that Noesi generated 15 swinging strikes. On this day, Noesi was not all that hittable. He just got hit a few times. I went in preparing to be disappointed by Hector Noesi, and I’m coming away feeling all right about Hector Noesi. He threw a lot of strikes, he threw a lot of good strikes, and he generated a lot of misses. The Yankees weren’t exactly punishing meatballs. Maybe Noesi could stand to expand the zone a little more in two-strike counts, I don’t know, but I’m fine with his effort today against that lineup in that ballpark. I mean, sure, Jayson Nix took Noesi deep for a dinger, and that dinger’s going into Noesi’s stats, but that wasn’t a dinger pitch that Noesi threw, and that wasn’t a proper dinger ball in play that Nix hit. All in all, decent work by Hector Noesi, no matter what the more negative local media might suggest. Yay for Mike Carp going deep and almost going deep again. It looks like Carp’s injury is completely behind him, which means we can now begin really evaluating Mike Carp. Well not now now. Now it’s dinner time! Yay, dinner! And Mike Carp! Yays all around! Except boo for the loss. Yep, sure am broken up about it. (This is not serious.) Continue reading →

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Young Mariners Beaten By Old Yankees

Posted on May 12, 2012 by admin

Felix Hernandez came into action tonight with a pretty good track record of success against the Yankees . You knew that. Maybe you didn’t know the specifics off the top of your head. Felix came in with a career 3.29 ERA against the Yankees. He came in having made three starts in the newest Yankee Stadium, and having allowed one run in those three starts combined. Those starts lasted a combined total of 24 innings. Felix’s success against the Yankees has been a talking point when Felix has been scheduled to face the Yankees, and the media and the broadcasts have certainly publicized the numbers. Now, it’s all well and good to talk about Felix’s track record against the Yankees, and about his track record against the Yankees in New York. Statistics are facts. All of those numbers above, and others – Felix owned those, they reflected his performances, and they couldn’t be changed except by an unusually committed and slightly insane official scorer. There’s never anything wrong with noting statistics. But there’s noting statistics, and then there’s trying to weave a story out of them. Felix has had a lot of success against the Yankees – that’s demonstrably true. A lot of people weren’t satisfied to leave it there, though, and they took things further. They declared that Felix ups his game against the Yankees. Which, well, I’m sure that Felix gets a little more up for starts against the Yankees than he does for starts against most other teams, because the Yankees are the Yankees, and that isn’t unique to him. But it was implied that Felix therefore does something to boost his numbers. It was implied that his success against the Yankees was sustainable. You can see how that would be a dangerous position to assume. No matter how good Felix has been against the Yankees in the past, they’re the Yankees, and at home they’re especially tough. Over time, one would expect the numbers to start to balance out, and tonight Felix didn’t channel his old self in New York. Tonight Felix got hit a little bit, he allowed four runs, and he lost. Which isn’t in any way to suggest that he was bad , but he got tagged. The Yankees can do that. Felix has had a lot of success against the Yankees in the past. He has had a lot of success in New York. Especially if you count all of New York, since that’s where he hit his grand slam. But that wasn’t really about Felix and the Yankees; that was about numbers behaving strangely. Now the numbers look less strange. That headline up there isn’t just a general statement, by the way. Felix is 26 years old. He’s somewhat newly 26, as five weeks ago, he wasn’t 26. The Mariners got a home run from Dustin Ackley , and he’s 24 years old. The Mariners got a home run from Jesus Montero , and he’s 22 years old. Starting on the mound and winning for the Yankees was Hiroki Kuroda , and he’s 37 years old. The Yankees got a home run from Raul Ibanez , and he’s 39 years old. The Yankees got a home run from Andruw Jones , and he’s 35 years old going on 60. Robinson Cano had himself a big game of his own and he’s only 29 years old, but I didn’t want to include Cano for a reason, and besides that’s still quite a bit older than the noted Mariners. Sometimes when an older person is playing a game against a younger person, the older person won’t try very hard and will simply let the younger person win. That applies when the younger person is in the lower half of elementary school. That doesn’t apply when the younger person can purchase and handle his own alcohol. This is a bit of a tough loss to swallow, because it’s a loss, and the Mariners never have a better chance than they do when they have Felix on the mound. Losing with Felix, against the Yankees, in New York, on a Friday night – none of those are things that we’d want. But then you look at how the Mariners scored, and they got a leadoff home run from Dustin Ackley that probably shouldn’t have gone for a home run, and they got a home run from Jesus Montero that probably shouldn’t have gone for a home run. When each of those homers were hit, the announcers were surprised when the ball left the yard. Then you look at how the Yankees scored, and they got a three-run home run from Raul Ibanez that…probably shouldn’t have gone for a home run. I’m used to Safeco Field’s unforgiving dimensions, of course, and not every stadium is Safeco, but none of those homers were jaw-droppers. I don’t know where this was supposed to go. This isn’t making any point. Annoying long fly outs are a part of the game in Seattle. Annoying short homers are a part of the game in New York. The game is the same, but the game is different. Baseball is so weird for not having standardized dimensions. Right? When you actually think about it, it’s weird, right? Let’s get back to tonight’s baseball game now. Montero’s home run gave the Mariners a 2-1 lead in the sixth inning. At that point, it didn’t feel secure , but it allowed us to think ahead to how great a storyline it would be for Montero to drive in the winning run in his return to Yankee Stadium. Michael Pineda is out for the year. I wish that he weren’t, but them’s the facts. Jose Campos is on the minor-league disabled list with an elbow problem. If Montero’s homer could’ve been the difference, it would’ve been aggressively sweet, just really driving the point home that, yeah, the Mariners are pretty fond of that trade right now. But of course Montero’s homer wasn’t the difference, because Raul Ibanez saw Montero’s revenge and raised him. Not that Montero should have anything against the Yankees and not that Ibanez should have anything against the Mariners, but “revenge” is so much more fun to think about than “coincidence”. For half an inning, we got to laugh at Jesus Montero shoving it down the Yankees’ throat. Then Raul Ibanez shoved it down the Mariners’ throat. That is very graphic and inappropriate, and I wish that that weren’t an expression. It makes the people seem like bad men. Jesus Montero and Raul Ibanez are very nice. If there’s an upside to this loss, it’s that, if you were watching or following on the west coast, it was over at 7, so it left you with an entire Friday night to do something else. Losing a 4pm game on a Friday is a hell of a lot more tolerable than losing a 7pm game on a Friday. You never want a Mariners loss to be your night’s big event. Thank you for losing more conveniently than usual, Mariners! Going to try to make a point of flying through these bullet holes, because it’s Friday night for me, too. Usually when I try this the bullet holes end up being just as long as usual, if not even longer for some reason, but tonight’s the night I turn over a new leaf, maybe. Let us see how this goes! After several starts in a row of Felix looking absolutely brilliant, tonight he looked fine, or good, or whatever is a compliment but still below Felix’s usual standard. He threw strikes – that wasn’t a problem. He got some grounders – that wasn’t a problem. He didn’t allow much in the way of solid contact until his outing neared its end. But the whiffs weren’t there like they have been. The location wasn’t as terrific as it has been. The big blow, obviously, was the homer by Ibanez. It came with two outs and the Mariners in the lead, and it came on the first pitch. Felix tried to throw Ibanez a fastball on the outer edge. The pitch caught more of the plate than Felix wanted, as it didn’t get the sink and tail that Felix wanted. Ibanez yanked it in a way that’s long been familiar, but in a way people didn’t think Ibanez could do so much anymore at his age. Ibanez is up to six home runs on the season. That’s more than any Mariner has. Baseball has a funny way of letting you know when some careers are over, and when some careers are not. The third-to-last batter Felix faced was Derek Jeter , leading off the bottom of the seventh. It was Jeter who delivered today’s requisite line drive at Felix’s head. As has been the case with all other line drives at Felix’s head, this line drive narrowly missed Felix’s head, and I wonder if Felix even gets spooked anymore. The first time that happens, it makes you realize that can happen, and you no longer feel so invincible on the mound. Felix has probably cycled back to feeling invincible again. “They haven’t hit me yet!” At one point, Mike Blowers started talking about a conversation he had with Carl Willis, where Willis told him that Felix throws multiple changeups. He throws a circle change, but then he also shifts the ball around in his hand to make it do other things. This is one of the reasons Felix’s fastball velocity drop hasn’t hurt him, I’m guessing – it’s not like he throws a few distinct pitches. Felix covers an entire broad spectrum with his pitch movement, so velocity is only one contributing factor. When you throw pitches that can move so differently, extra split-seconds might not make things that much better. At another point, in the bottom of the fifth, Mike Blowers took to explaining PITCHfx movement information on the air. ROOT Sports showed an infographic displaying the horizontal and vertical movement on some of Felix’s pitches, and Blowers explained what the numbers meant, and also the effect of gravity. You could point out that some of Felix’s changeups were presumably mis-classified by PITCHfx, so the numbers on the air weren’t perfect. Or you could appreciate the fact that Mike Blowers was talking about PITCHfx. He was talking about PITCHfx! The Mariners’ broadcast talks about PITCHfx, and UZR, and Leverage Index, and yet still employs Bill Krueger. Something for everyone! Hiroki Kuroda came in having never allowed a grand slam in his Major League career, and then in the top of the fifth he loaded the bases. Remarked Dave Sims, “there’s a first time for everything.” No there isn’t. With two on in the bottom of the fourth, Mark Teixeira dropped a single in front of Mike Carp , and the Yankees’ third-base coach waved Alex Rodriguez around. Carp threw him out by several feet at home, taking the legs out from under a potential Yankees rally. There might’ve been another outfield assist, in the bottom of the first, when Robinson Cano singled to right with Curtis Granderson on second. Granderson ran home and Ichiro came up firing, but Justin Smoak cut the ball off and threw to second, where Cano was easily tagged out after Granderson had scored. Blowers noted that the ball might’ve been on line, and that Granderson might’ve been out had Smoak not interfered. It would’ve been very very close and there’s no way to be sure, but here’s an opportunity to pile on Justin Smoak if you feel like piling on Justin Smoak. When Ichiro came up against Kuroda, Sims said he’s “1-for-3 against his countryman.” It would be funny if broadcasters said that whenever an American player faced an American player. Speaking of Kuroda, I don’t know how many of you care, but he established a track record in Los Angeles of throwing about 65 percent of his pitches for strikes. So far with the Yankees, he’s thrown just over 60 percent of his pitches for strikes. Tonight, he threw just 59 of his 105 pitches for strikes. One wonders what his line might’ve been had Brendan Ryan not turned in a ghastly at-bat with one out and the bases loaded in the fifth. Montero hit his home run in a 2-and-2 count by going down and getting a low-away slider. It was exactly the pitch that Kuroda wanted to throw to Russell Martin and still Montero knocked it out to right field. It wasn’t the deepest opposite-field home run I’ve ever seen, but it was an opposite-field home run, and further evidence that Montero can cover the plate without sacrificing his strength. Dustin Ackley homered down the left-field line on the game’s third pitch. Sims, transcribed: Ackley, a fly ball down the line, Ibanez chasing, that’s got some CARRY IT’S GONE! Ackley hits one out! Dave Sims didn’t think that ball was leaving the yard until it was in somebody’s hands. In Safeco, that probably would’ve gone for a double, if not a deep fly out. But Ackley hadn’t homered since Opening Day, and that was in a whole other continent. I will be happy to see that Ackley’s no longer stuck on one, and in a short amount of time I will forget what this newest one looked like. Justin Smoak chipped in with three groundball singles, one of which was rolled to the third baseman. “Justin Smoak is back!” say fans who have Justin Smoak confused with Ichiro, and 2012 confused with 2011. Hector Noesi and Phil Hughes tomorrow afternoon. This is where I should insert another quip about the trade backfiring on the Yankees but instead I am going to publish and leave! See you, suckers! Continue reading →

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Third-Place Mariners Pick Fight with Tied-for-Third-Place Yankees

Posted on May 11, 2012 by admin

MARINERS (15-18) Δ Ms YANKEES (17-14) EDGE HITTING (wOBA) -24.4 (28th) -8.3 21.7 (4th) New York FIELDING 18.2 (4th) 0.7 -16.8 (28th) Seattle ROTATION (tRA) 11.3 (9th) 0.4 0.3 (16th) Seattle BULLPEN (tRA) -8.4 (28th) 2.0 9.4 (3rd) New York OVERALL(RAA) -3.2 (18th) -5.2 14.6 (6th) NEW YORK Explainer I was right. The Mariners did not sweep the Tigers again. However, they came close while simultaneously coming close to being swept. That was a remarkably even-fought three game set where each team plated nine runs. The Tigers scored nine runs in their first series against the Mariners as well, but that time the Mariners went all Blitzkrieg on Detroit and scored 21 times in a sweep. Overall, the Mariners went 5-1 against the Tigers and are now finished with playing them for the 2012 regular season. Too bad because despite the obvious pull of recent success, the Tigers are sort of a fun team to watch the M’s play against. On the topic of fun watching, I mentioned last night and Jeff mentioned my mention later that the Mariners are a dramatically more entertaining team to watch without Miguel Olivo playing. His approach is so anathema to what I think is conducive to successful hitting and his favorable treatment leaves such a bitter taste in my mouth that his mere presence in the lineup outweighs his 1-in-9 weight of contribution. The phrase “more than the sum of their parts” is a well-known one. Miguel Olivo is like that to the Mariners except in a bad way. Brett Gardner remains out for the Yankees as his arm injury lingers. It has not been a banner year for the Yankees’ medical staff so far. Gardner’s absence means potentially some Raul Ibanez in the outfield for New York. That made me notice how many Mariner castoffs the Yankees employ. Aside from Ibanez, Freddy Garcia , Rafael Soriano and Alex Rodrgiuez have all made appearances this season. Garcia and Soriano have performed below expectations. A-Rod is actually off to a good start, but have you noticed how he’s declined down to a steady 4-WAR performance level for the past three years? Did you notice that he’s still under contract for six more seasons (2012-7) and owed at least $148 million still? For their sake, the Yankee’s did front-load Rodriguez’s contract. Heh, Angels . Fri 11 May 16:05 FELIX HERNANDEZ HIROKI KURODA It’s always an event when Felix Hernandez pitches in New York. Since the Yankees moved into their new digs, Felix has started three games and won each with the lopsided scores of 7-0, 6-0 and 9-2. And that was done with the crappy 2010 and 2011 Mariners at his back. Haha, Yankees. Felix Hernandez is ours and you can’t have him. Sat 12 May 13:05 HECTOR NOESI PHIL HUGHES I wonder if Phil Hughes is what Hector Noesi will become. Although Noesi is only six months younger, we have a far broader record of Major League experience for Hughes and he’s shown flashes of immense talent but never a consistent handle on it. It would not surprise me to see Noesi similarly waffle a bit between being a not-as-good-as-he-should-be starter and capable-of-being-dominant reliever. More would be better obviously. Sun 13 May 10:05 BLAKE BEAVAN ANDY PETTITTE* Andy Pettitte will make his first Major League start since the 2010 playoffs on Sunday. Blake Beavan will make his first Major League start since Monday. Or not, since he took a ball off his elbow and reports make it seem unlikely that he’ll make this start. With the off day that happened yesterday it seems most likely that the rotation will simply be turned over a day early. That means Kevin Millwood makes this start. hoooooooray. Series Beer: Anderson Valley Summer Solstice Summer’s here! Summer’s here! Not really, but it’s sunny again and whatever, shut up, I’ll take it. A long time favorite beer, the AV summer ale is a session-able amber-style with one of the more unique and pleasing palates. I’m not sure what they add to give it the mouth feel it has, but it’s smooth and creamy all on its own. I wonder what this beer would be like through nitro. Which they could sort of do since it’s already in cans. Hooray cans! Come on, nitro can. Continue reading →

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