This Team is Going Nowhere Fast
I know that Joe Girardi is a patient man, but it’s time to shake things up with this lineup. The middle of the order is consistently bad. He keeps saying they need to get hot, but if he is waiting for A-Rod, Texeira and Swisher to all get hot and sustain that, then he may be in for a long wait. I would much rather see Swisher in the two hole, with Cano third and Granderson fourth. That would move A-Rod down to fifth and Texeira sixth, which is much more where they belong than in the four and five hole. They are killing this team and it isn’t just this year. They have been inconsistent for most of the past two seasons and it killed them in the playoffs last year. They are not going to suddenly turn things around and hit well from their current spots in the order. It just ain’t going to happen. Time to shake things up and see if that helps any. What have they got to lose? And when is someone going to tell Texeira that being a one dimensional pull hitter is not the right approach. Last night, he got an outside pitch that he could have driven the other way and instead, he rolled over on it and bounced it off the plate. Pathetic.
Mo Done for the Season and This Team Could Be As Well
It was a freak accident and it would be terrible if this is the way Mo’s career ends. I wouldn’t bet against him coming back next year though. The real problem though is that this team is flawed. The middle of the order sucks right now. Texeira in particular looks putrid at the plate. They had a chance to win this game last night with runners on first and second and no outs. What did Texeira do? Grounded into a double play to end the rally. He does this regularly and it is getting old. Robbie Cano looks lost at the plate as well and A-Rod isn’t exactly setting things on fire either. This is a flawed team. They don’t hit with RISP, the Starting Pitching has been bad and their defense is bad as well. If this trend continues, I don’t see them making the playoffs, let alone making any noise when they get there. There is still time to turn things around as it is only May, but thus far, this team has been less than impressive. And now they won’t have Mo for the rest of the year.
This Team is in Trouble
For the first month of the season, the Yankees were able to stay in the mix atop the A.L. East by outscoring their opponents, despite terrible starting pitching. Well, now that it is may, the starting pitching has been a bit better, although not great. In fact in two games, the starters have allowed 9 runs in 11 2/3 innings. Not great by any means, but the fact is, the starters were so bad in April that even this is an improvement.
The problem is that now the bats have gone cold. In three games against Baltimore, the team scored 3 runs. That’s right, 1 run per game. You are not going to win too many games with that kind of offense, no matter what kind of pitching you get.
So now we have poor offense to go with poor pitching and that is a recipe for disaster. I know that Swisher and Gardner are hurt, but to not DL either one of them and call up someone like Dewayne Wise, who has ML experience and is killing the ball in AAA just makes no sense. The veteran guys like Andruw Jones and Raul Ibanez are not good defenders and playing them this much exposes them on offense as well. Eduardo Nunez is not an outfielder and that fact was very evident on Monday evening. I do not understand the reluctance to call up someone from AAA to help out. That is what they are there for.
This team had better figure things out in a hurry, because in this division, if you fall too far behind, you will not make the playoffs even with the extended format. Teams in weaker divisions will win more games and I don’t see two wild cards coming from this division.
Yes, it is still early and there is plenty of time. However, I don’t see this team doing anything to try and shake this funk. They just continue to run the same lineups out there and continue to play badly. Time for a jolt of some sort.
Another Hughes Start, Another Yankee Loss
Well, I can’t say that I didn’t expect this one. I have read all of the stories this morning about how much better Hughes was and it was something to build on, etc. etc.. Guess what? Allowing 4 runs in 5 2/3 innings is still bad. And it put the Yankees in a hole they could not dig out of. Playing from behind, the offense always seems to press and that makes it harder to hit.
Now having said that, I would have left Hughes in to get that last out in the sixth and it possibly could have saved a few runs. He was at exactly 100 pitches, had two outs and a runner on first and I would have taken a shot with him to get the third out. Of course Girardi brought in Boone Logan to face the lefty, who he promptly failed to get out. That is Girardi’s fatal flaw, he always goes with the book answer and never with his gut.
The other thing that was bad, was the offense. Numbers four through nine in the order had no hits, zero. Overall, it was a team loss, poor starting pitching, poor managing, poor hitting, poor defense. It doesn’t get much uglier than this one.
Feeling better about Kuroda
So Hiroki Kuroda turned in his second straight strong performance last night. That makes three out of his last four. It looks as though he is figuring things out and that is encouraging, because there is no way the Yankees can win the division the way the starting rotation was performing for most of April.
Also, it looks as if Andy Pettitte will get one more start before entering the rotation. He was up to 96 pitches yesterday and after one more outing later this week, he should be ready sometime next week. Phil Hughes better be looking over his shoulder, because he is the next to go. I fully expect David Phelps to be better than Freddy Garcia. It would be hard to be much worse. Phelps’ biggest strength is that he throws strikes. Good to see D.J. Mitchell up in the bigs as well. I believe that he is just as capable as Phelps. Adam Warren could be next if needed.
All in all, it wasn’t a bad April, considering how bad the rotation was, 13-9 against some pretty good competition was OK, particularly after an 0-3 start in Tampa. If they get the starters squared away, it could be a pretty good month of May.
Hughes This Guy Pitching for The Yankees?
Well this is beginning to be a familiar pattern. I predicted yesterday 5 plus innings and at least 4 runs. That proved to be an optimistic projection. Phil Hughes has been consistently bad as a starter for a very long time. Why they keep running him out there is beyond me. I for one, have seen enough. I believe that Phelps, if given the opportunity, is a better pitcher. I know he got beat up last night as well, but I don’t believe it is a reflection of his ability as a starter when you bring him in from the bullpen.
Of more concern to me is the Yankees seeming inability to develop pitchers. Hughes has talent, but he is terrible as a starter. Pineda is gone for the year, so obviously the treatment plan for him was flawed. Banuelos is on the DL with a bad back. Betances has been terrible at AAA. Joba is most probably gone for the year. These guys all have talent, but the Yankees can not seem to find a way to develop them. There is more pitching talent in the minors, but who knows if the Yankees will be able to develop that talent into some effective starting pitchers. Very discouraging. I fully expect this Yankees team to score enough runs to beat up on the weaker teams and win enough games to make it to the playoffs, but this team still does not have enough pitching to consistently beat the good teams. Hopefully things will get better as the year goes on, but I don’t see a path to success right now.
Yu Got to be Kidding Me
Well, I’ve read the stories about how Darvish lived up to his billing and how good he was. For the most part that’s true, but there were two very important things that didn’t get much mention. First, with the bases loaded and no outs in the second, Curtis Granderson took what was clearly ball four on a 3-2 count. It was called a strike and instead of a 2-1 game with the bases loaded and still no outs, it was still 2-0 Texas with one out. Huge difference. After that, A-Rod grounded into a double play and the Yankees got nothing. If that one pitch had been called correctly the worst that could’ve happened on the A-Rod ball was a double play and a tie game. That one call completely changed the outcome of the game.
On another note, the Yankees were completely unable to lay off Darvish’s off speed stuff with two strikes. All the swinging third strikes were out of the zone and if they had made him work a bit more, again it would have been a different game. Ken Singleton was talking about the pattern up in the YES booth, but the Yankee hitters were unable to adjust.
On another note, Hiroki Kuroda pitched a pretty good game. If he can build on that, it will be a huge boost for a rotation that hasn’t gotten much out of anyone not named Nova or Sabathia. Tonight Phil Hughes gets another shot to right the ship. My prediction? Five plus innings and at least four runs. Let’s hope the offense can pick him up.
One Down, Two to Go
Last night was another one to enjoy. Sabathia was good and he gave the bullpen a rest with 8 strong innings. My guess is that the Yankees will need that bullpen the rest of this series, with Kuroda and Hughes going. Kuroda has been inconsistent thus far, with one good game and two bad ones. Hughes has been consistently bad. Let’s hope these two guys find something in the next two days, otherwise, that well rested bullpen will be severely tested.
Last night though, it was all positive. Jeter had another four hits, A-Rod hit a three run bomb and Sabathia was his usual horse like self. Looking forward to Kuroda vs. Darvish tonight. I’m hoping the Yankees are patient with Darvish as he appears to have control issues. Time will tell.
Best Game of the Year Thus Far
Wasn’t that a fun game to watch on Saturday? Nothing better than watching the Yankees completely dismantle the Red Sox in front of their home crowd. I don’t know when I have enjoyed a baseball game more. It was 9-1 Boston when Swisher blasted a Grand Slam to make it 9-5. I checked the score and went back up stairs to watch it on TV. I was just in time to see Texeira’s three run blast to make it 9-8. From there it was more fun culminating in a 15-9 beat down and smiles all around for Yankees fans everywhere.
On another note, Garcia was terrible again for the third straight start. The Yankees have had only one solid pitcher thus far and it has been Ivan Nova. Sabathia has been just okay and Kuroda had been good once and bad twice. Hughes and Garcia have both been terrible. The good news is that the Yankees are in first place. Hopefully they will get this pitching mess straightened out and when they do, watch out AL East.
Hughes Stil Not Cutting It
How many times are they going to run Phil Hughes out there and watch him not get through six innings? Last night he was horrible again. He gave up six runs in 5 1/3 innings including digging his team a four run hole in the first inning. He faced 25 hitters and threw a first pitch strike to 9 of them. Absolutely horrible. And when he left, all the guys in the YES booth could come up with was how good he was from the 2nd to the 5th innings. Are you kidding me? Call a spade a spade. He stunk up the joint AGAIN. I can’t wait for Pettitte and Pineda to be ready so we can stop watching this putrid pitching. I fully expect the Red Sox to feast on this terrible Yankees pitching this weekend and turn their season around. I am hoping for the best, but if they pitch in Fenway like they have so far this season, it will be an ugly weekend.
On a good note, Curtis Granderson was incredible. They can thank him for this win, because nights like this do not happen very often. Three home runs in consecutive plate appearances is something most players will never do in their entire career. Great job by the Grandy Man.
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