Archive for April, 2009
There are plenty of rumors floating around in Yankees nation about the possibility of Joba Chamberlain being injured. He had a good start last night, but his velocity is still way down from where it was when he used to pitch out of the bullpen. He’s not consistently in the 90-93 mph range, where he was 98-100 mph as a reliever. It makes sense that he would be pacing himself to go 6 or 7 innings, but I would still expect him to dial it up to 96 or 97 mph to get a strikeout. His top speed in his previous start was just 95 mph, and that was several mph above his average fastball. Can he only dial it up to 95 now?
Joba is averaging about 7 K’s per 9 innings this season, which is down a few strike outs for him. He is also walking more batters. I don’t like the combination of lower fastball speeds and less control. That tells me there might be something wrong with his mechanics or there could be an underlying injury that he’ll have to deal with. Let’s just hope he keeps on making quality starts and he can get through what we hope is a temporary dulling of his skills.
The Yankees have been shutout in 14 of their last 18 innings, yet they’ve managed to win 2 games in a row against the Detroit Tigers. The Yankees did it last night by scoring 7 runs in the 4th inning and then holding on as the Tigers scored 5 runs in the botton of the 9th for a final score of 8-6. Mariano Rivera gave up his 2nd home run of the season during the Tigers attempted comeback, a 3-run shot to Curtis Granderson with 2 outs. Rivera came in for that situation because Albaladejo showed a complete lack of ability to get anyone out. Of course, even he could have thrown a meatball to Granderson, so I’m not sure what use Rivera was there.
Derek Jeter was 0 for 5 in this game and is really hurting my fantasy league team. He was supposed to be a batting average booster. That’s what the scouts ESPN.com said, and lil’ Frankie with the gimpy leg and lazy eye down the street agreed. He said it was a sure thing, year in and year out. If I wanted another hitter who’d struggle to hit .280 and would prove to be very inconsistent, I would have taken A-Rod.
I should probably at least mention that Nick Swisher had a home run from each side of the plate in this game. With all our high-class, luxury players playing like crap, it’s nice to know when can still get production from a guy we picked up at a K-Mart clearance sale.
After 6 scoreless innings between the Yankees and the Detroit Tigers, the Yanks’ bats came alive in the top of the 7th inning as they scored 10 runs against Tigers middle relievers. Catcher Jose Molina, filling in for an ailing Jorge Posada, capped the inning with a grand slam. Phil Hughes had a fantastic start and earned his first win of the season after pitching 6 innings of 2-hit ball. Nick Swisher also had a home run in the game, his 5th of the season.
Mark Teixeira is still looking like one of the worst players in baseball. He was 0 for 4 in the game and his average is down to just .206. If he doesn’t start waking up that bat soon, he’s going to hear about it from Yankees fans. If the opening series against Baltimore was any indication, Tex does not take well to the boos. He seems to be the kind of player who becomes flustered very easily, and you can bet opposing fans are going to be aware of this.
CC Sabathia went the distance for the Yankees on Monday night but still ended up on the losing end of a 4-2 game to the Tigers. Sabathia struggled at times but showed some of the endurance he displayed during the second half of last season. Tigers ace Justin Verlander got his first win of the season, giving up no runs and striking out 9 Yankees in 7 innings of work.
Robinson Cano was the only Yankee with an extra base hit — one of his two hits in the game, although all the other starters except Johnny Damon had at exactly one hit.
This loss drops the Yankees below .500 for the first time since the first week of the season. With the weekend sweep at Fenway, the Yankees are now 4 games behind the Red Sox and Blue Jays.
CC Sabathia may not have had a good start yesterday, but the Yankees bats finally bailed him out and the Yanks won over the Athletics, 9-7 in 14 innings. Melky Cabrera hit the game-winning 2-run blast as the Yankees bullpen shut down the A’s offense for the final 7 innings. This is without a doubt the team most Yankees fans expect to see this season. Even when their ace pitcher has a bad outing, the Yankees still found a way to win. The Yankees have an off-day today, which should rest up their bullpen before heading into a 3-game weekend series against the Boston Red Sox.
The 6-runs in 6 innings that Sabathia gave up is even worse than it looks on paper, as the Athletics might have the worst offense in baseball right now. Even with the offseason acquisitions of Jason Giambi and Matt Holliday, they are a team of weak hitters who have only managed 4 home runs on the season, which trails several individual players in baseball. I’m sure bookies are already writing up Nick Swisher vs. the entire Oakland Athletics roster props.
This was a milestone game for a Derek Jeter, who became just the sixth player ever to appear in 2,000 games as a Yankee. All but one (Bernie Williams) are enshrined in Cooperstown, a place where Jeter will certainly end up.
CC Sabathia is not looking like the dominating pitcher we saw last season with the Brewers so far, but the Yankees lineup is keeping them in the game today against the rather weak-hitting Oakland Athletics. Hideki Matsui, who is still battling a chronic knee injury, has a solo home run on the day, as does Derek Jeter. This is good news not only for the Yankees, but also my fantasy baseball team.
The Yankees lead the game 5-4 at the moment, and Sabathia has given up 3 earned runs over 5 innings.
I’ve got to say, having Derek Jeter on my fantasy baseball team has been frustrating through the first week of the season. Jeter got off to a good start in his first couple games, and then completely fell apart for the rest of the week. I’m talkin’ 1 for 20-something falling apart. He destroyed my team average and ended up being the main reason I lost for the week. Jeter was 2 for 4 yesterday, including a game-winning RBI (a stat in my league) as the Yanks won 4 to 3 over the Tampa Bay Rays (can I go back to calling them the Devil Rays or D-Rays? I just can’t get used to a team that has the same name as my overweight uncle).
While I’m on fantasy baseball talk, I’d like to vent some of the anger I’m feeling towards Mark Teixeira. How many more 0 for 4 games can this guy have. I realize he hurt his wrist doing something he can’t tell the press about (he “doesn’t know” how it happened), but for the love of god, he’s getting paid too much money to do nothing. If we wanted to throw money at someone who wouldn’t produce, we would have kept Carl Pavano. Tex is hitting .174 on the season. We could have signed a pitcher to fill that spot in the lineup and we’d be doing just as well right now. He’s got 3 RBI so far, which averages out to about 1/3 of an RBI per game. We probably could have plucked someone from the stands and got an equal amount of production. He’s a gaping black hole in my fantasy team, sucking in potential victories and giving me sorrow and disappointment in return.
A fan who was kicked out of Yankee Stadium last year for leaving his seat during God Bless America is suing the team and New York City for discrimination. He claims he was leaving his seat to use the bathroom and the team and city have no right to force him to remain at his seat while a song with religious overtones is sung. Do any lawyers out there want to take a stab at this one in our comments section?
An MRI on Xavier Nady’s elbow was not good, according to sources within the Yankee organization, and the outfielder is now expected to miss an extended period of time. They did not elaborate on how long that will be, but the tone indicated that this was more serious than a stint on the 15-day DL. That’s just one more player who was supposed to be a part of the Yankees potent lineup that will not get a full season in this year. Luckily, sources are also reporting that ARod will begin taking some batting practice next week. He should be back in the lineup by this time next month. We can only hope there is someone left to bat behind him by then.
A.J. Burnett gave up just 3 hits over 8 innings as the Yankees rolled over the Rays 7-2. Bruney struck out the side in the 9th in a non-save situation. Nick Swisher hit his 4th home run of the season and Derek Jeter snapped out of his slump with a homer of his own.
The Yankees have Andy Pettitte going tomorrow afternoon against Andy Sonnanstine. Starting time is listed at 4:08pm EST.
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