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In Boston AJ will go into the 7th inning, giving up a single run...

you asked for predictions

Peter,

Totally agree with your take on the good loss and the bad loss. It's great they came back and beat the A's, but that was a statistical oddity. My take-away was that I didn't feel good because of Hughes' atrocious performance against a weak-hitting team. Also, I was none too happy they lost 2 of 3 to a weak-hitting team they've manhandled the past few years. As for Colon, while I obviously wanted the win, it was good to see he pitched OK.

The Yankees occasional offensive outburst aside, I find the offense maddeningly inefficient at converting scoring opportunities into runs. Your take on that?

Oh, and if AJ pitches against the Red Sox, I fearlessly predict he gets clobbered. (This is good news Yankee fans -- I usually get these things wrong!)

Bartolo looked great today and I honestly can't "read" him at all. I thought he was fading from fatigue, but he looked strong, very strong, in today's game.

I truly hope this year isn't a repeat of 2010, when the Yankees swooned in the last month or so. They have looked unfocused for a little while now.

And no, I can't watch AJ pitch any more. Life's too short ... I will leave the predictions to you folks. :-)

BL

Care to bet?

Greg

Totally agree with the perception, but statistics don't back us up. "OBI" is basically a measure of opportunity to drive in runs (And you obviously can't drive in runs unless you have the opportunity to do so.)

So, the league median is 14.4% if you use 300 plate appearances as a cut off. Every Yankee regular is above that number, except for two- Posada and Gardner. It's also worth noting that of the Yankees with 100 or more plate appearances, only Posada, Gardner and Nunez are below 14.4% and some part timers like Cervelli (18.9%) and Chavez (19.2%) are way above it.

Anyway, Gardner is miserable (9.7%) and Posada is only a bit better (11.6%) But apart from them, the Yankees get the runs home.

Mitchell

Me too! But I put a lot of the 2010 swoon on Girardi. He was very, very inconsistent down the stretch. I hope he learned from that and keeps the team focused this time around.

Note to AJ Burnett:

if a kid like Ivan Nova can find a way to make a mid-game adjustment - keeping his cool after getting hit hard and watching between inning video - how come a seasoned veteran like you can't?

From LoHud: "“My arm feels good and my body feels good, but you know that something is not right,” Nova said. “I wanted to go fastball away, and it was coming to the middle. Something was happening. So, for me, I just found a way to help myself, and I think that’s what I did.”

Mitchell

I wonder if AJ will ever look back on his career and ask "what if"? Sure, he has made a fortune and won a couple of rings, but he has to know that if he had ever been smart enough to adjust like that he could have been a Hall of Famer with his stuff. I have absolutely no idea if that would bother him or not.

I don't imagine it will/would bother him. I don't imagine he will figure it out and wonder at all.

Peter? I'm sorry to say that I think BL is right. I would truly LOVE to be wrong in my belief that AJ won't ever be able to transition from a thrower to a pitcher, which is what he's got to do at this point in his career.

I watch guys like Garcia mow batters down with stuff that ranges from the mid 70s to the upper 80s and I agonize at every pitch as
he seems so hittable - but AJ just baffles me with how incapable he is of making an adjustment and refining his game. Sad, infuriating, etc...

Mitchell/BL I am sure you guys are right and I think sad is the word for it. I think of David Cone who was so good at changing things when he needed to. I really, really hope Cone works a game that AJ pitches in the next few weeks. I will tune into that just to hear what Cone might say about AJ.