The Week That Was
The Yankees get humiliated in Detroit Monday, sweep Boston, get humiliated against Tampa Friday and then see the third of their young guns pitch pretty well for a win Saturday. Meanwhile, Seattle loses eight-straight and the Yankees are now two-games up in the wild card. And since I didn't see a single pitch of any of it, I can't really say much more about it. But, I do have a few observations from reading box scores.
1- Bravo to the Yankees for benching Mussina after Monday's pounding and rolling the dice with Kennedy. From what I read, Brian Cashman doesn't think his innings limit (whatever that may be) will be a concern for the rest of the year, so good for them.
2- Speaking of Mussina, why won't the Yankees pitch him in relief? If a starter gets bombed, why wouldn't they call on Moose? I know they are trying to keep him happy, but Johnny Damon and Jason Giambi have shelved their egos, why can't Mussina be expected to as well?
3- Phil Hughes is struggling, which isn't that surprising when you consider his age. The question is, how long can the Yankees keep throwing him out there? His next start is Wednesday in a huge game with Seattle. If he doesn't pitch well, they have to consider putting someone else in his spot.
4- Chris Britton made it out of AAA, this has to be a mistake right?
5- September callups for Kennedy, Veras and Gonzalez with Mientkiewicz activated. I am just confused as to why the Yankees chose to DFA Kevin Thompson and keep Bronson Sardinha. Sardinha may have more of an upside, he is four years younger, but Thompson could help this club now. He can steal bases and play great defense. He may never amount to more than a 4th or 5th outfielder, but that would be a nice thing on the bench for September in my mind.
6- Scranton made the AAA playoffs, so we won't see some additional players for a bit, but I would bet that Karstens and DeSalvo will be brought back when they end and maybe, just maybe Kei Igawa. The Yankees need to see if Igawa can pitch in the bigs at all and a September blowout would be a good place to start.
26 games left, it should be a fun ride to the finish.
Comments
Welcome back Peter. You missed an up and down week, for sure!
Hughes looks lost right now - he flirts with the corners as if he's afraid that his stuff isn't good enough. As a result, his walks per inning are skyrocketing. His velocity is off a bit too. Hmmmmmmmm.
Viz had a bad outing, Joba went head hunting or lost his release point momentarily (pick one). Kennedy looks great (for how long? who knows).
My guess is that Moose won't pitch relief because: they're either trying to rest him or he's too rigid in his workouts to enable a fast warmup for relief work.
Britton & Bruney - the two fellas with hearty appetities - look sort of terrible at the moment.
Ramirez can't stay on this team. From what I see? he's got one pitch - a changeup. 'Nuff said.
Krazy Kyle also had a bad night. First one in 10 games, though. He's forgiven, for now.
Giambi is contributing more with his glove than he is with his bat - at $21MM this season, we need a bit more from him.
Why Torre persists in playing Matsui in LF instead of Damon is beyond me. Matsui's knees get iced every game. And yes, note today's date please - Damon actually threw a ball hard enough and far enough to throw someone out at the plate from LF.
Betemit can't hit the ball worth a nickle.
And the best news of all ??? The Mariners have lost 9 in a row.
My take is that we don't have what it takes to go all the way this year - unless we get hot during the post season.
Posted by: Mitchell![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://yankeesredsox.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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September 2, 2007 06:21 PM
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I still think Wang, Pettitte, Clemens, Hughes is better than Wang, Moose, Johnson, Wright. We're better offensively than last year as well. I don't know why people thought we'd walk away with the world series last year and think we don't have enough this year.
Posted by: tim | September 2, 2007 08:20 PM |
Looking at today's game with the Mariners? Clemens and Moose both look like pitchers just trying to hold on.
Yeah, I know Rocket's got foot blisters - so what's he doing pitching? And Mosse for long relief? Sure that's an interesting experiment too - not.
Read somewhere that the club ERA has been slowly rising this season.
The only time this team goes on a hot streak is when the bats come alive for many players simultaneously. Wasn't the team average something ridiculous like .320 for a while after the A-Star break? That's not sustainable.
And Tim? I think last year I believed that RJ had something left and the Wright had another good year in him. Moose was also a year younger. At this point, I can't even be sure that we can clinch a wild card berth.
But, as the saying goes: "Hey, ya never know."
Posted by: Mitchell![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://yankeesredsox.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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September 3, 2007 04:03 PM
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Gotta love numbers sometimes: Farnsworth's ERA is less than Clemens'.
Posted by: Mitchell![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://yankeesredsox.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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September 3, 2007 04:35 PM
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We have faults but we've sustained .600 baseball for over half the season. We are 56-33 in the last 89 games. That's .630%. Post All-Star break we are 34-19 [.642%]. That says something. In the end, I agree, ya never know, and the hot team wins in the playoffs but I'd be surprised to see us fall short of the wild card this year.
Posted by: tim | September 3, 2007 08:49 PM |