Results tagged ‘ Andy Pettitte ’
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.
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.
Yankees Win, Theeeeeeee Yankees Win!
Well, like I said yesterday, I fully expected the Yankees to get well in Baltimore. I won’t predict a sweep, but two out of three doesn’t seem out of the question. Last night, Ivan Nova showed us why he was so good last year. He is still the Yankees second best starter ahead of Hughes and Kuroda.
In fact, I am going to make a bold prediction. Once both Andy Pettitte and Michael Pineda are ready to join the rotation, it will be Kuroda and Hughes who are pitching out of the bullpen. Kuroda because he has shown nothing to prove he will be effective in the AL East and Hughes because he has shown that he doesn’t have an out pitch when he starts. This causes a lot of 3-2 counts and high pitch counts, all of which spell reliever.
Regardless, tonight it’s Freddy Garcia who tries to keep the ship headed in the right direction. I fully expect a good outing from him.
3 straight losses and the sky still ain’t fallin’
So would it be nice if the Yankees had won 3 straight instead of losing three in a row? Absolutely. But guess what? Before this they won 8 straight, so that still makes them 8-3 over their last 11 games. I’ll take that every single time. And even if they manage to lose a season high 4th straight today, it still ain’t the end of the world. The Yankees will still have the best record in baseball and a real shot at repeating as World Champs.
Of course if you live in the NYC area, all you will be reading about is how the rotation is in trouble and Derek Jeter is fading fast. Both of these stories are way overblown. I expect Jeter will get a little rest down the stretch and bounce back just fine in the playoffs. And as for the rotation, Andy Pettite will be back soon and I expect that either Burnett or Vazquez will come around eventually. Hopefully it will be for the playoff run. So watch out for this team folks. They will be very dangerous come playoff time. Amid all the doom and gloom, the naysayers are forgetting about how important Lance Berkman and Kerry Wood can be down the stretch. Both are money players with loads of talent and just made this team that much harder to beat.
ESPN sucks
So on the day the Yankees finally break an eight day tie for first with the Rays, ESPN homepage says nothing. Amazing how every time the Yankees get beat, they make the front page, yet every time they do anything good, it is ignored. The bias is so obvious that it is pathetic. When I first moved to Newfoundland, I used to miss watching Sportscenter. Not anymore. When I do visit the States on business, I find it to be very full of itself and frankly quite boring. ESPN has lost all relevance and any journalistic integrity that it may have once had is long gone. It is now nothing more than a tabloid in its coverage of sports which more closely resembles TMZ.com than anything that resembles sports reporting.
So since they won’t tell you about it, let me. The Yankees battled through an August filled with injuries and a tough road schedule to come out in first place on 1 September. That sports fans is something to be celebrated as a true accomplishment. This team showed grit and determination and a will to win that has gone largely unnoticed. Watch out for this team in September and October as they get A-Rod, Berkman, Pettitte and Aceves back. The expanded rosters will also give Girardi some more flexibility and the ability to give some of the guys a day off once in awhile and some rest in late innings. Once again, fasten your seatbelts folks. It will be a great next couple of months. Mark my words.
What a difference a day makes
Although the middle of the Yankees lineup is still scuffling, they managed to put together enough pitching and clutch hitting to take two from Minnesota on Wednesday. Combineed with Boston’s shellacking of Tampa and that pulled the Yanks to within 3.5 games of first. Not bad considering that they were six games back to start the week. Picking up 2.5 games in three days is pretty good. There is still cause for concern though as Texeira still looks pathetic at the plate. I am tired of hearing about his track record. It is time for him to start producing. He said after the game “We need to do a better job.” No Mark, YOU need to do a better job.
Perhaps overlooked in all of this was the steady hand of Andy Pettitte. What a job he did. Once again, the Yankees really needed a win and he came through. How many times over the years has he done that for this team? Great game Andy.
Welcome back Andy
So the first two games of this series were just what the Dr. ordered. Great pitching and a return of the offense proved to be a deadly combination for Minnesota. The Twins are a good team and are really due to beat the Yankees, so maybe today will be their day. Regardless, it has been a great opening to the homestand and I believe that this team will still be very good, despite the recent rash of injuries. I was beginning to get a bit worried during the Detroit series, but the team has bounced back nicely. Shuold be a good week with Boston and Tampa coming to town. Looking forward to those “series” even though each is only two games. Really weird scheduling. The Yankees have already played six games at Boston and the first series against them in NY is only two games? Seems a bit weird to me, but it doesn’t really matter. As long as the Yankees are playing well, they are clearly the better team this year.
Rule 5 Draft
Well, it’s official. The Yankees have selected OF Jamie Hoffmann from the Dodgers. Don’t know much about him, but from what I have read, he could stick as an extra outfielder. Looks like he has a nice combination of speed and power and a solid arm from CF or RF. For the $50,000 price tag, he looks like a safe pick. We’ll see how it all pans out. On another note, Andy Pettitte resigned yesterday for 1 year and 11.5 million. Glad to have him back in the fold, but I expect the Yankees are still looking for a solid number four. Last year’s playoffs proved that they are not comfortable with either Hughes or Joba as a number four. Today is day four of the winter meetings, so we’ll see if anything new develops. Overall, it has been a productive three days as they have picked up Granderson, re-signed Pettitte, traded Bruney and picked up Hoffman. Stay tuned for more.
Tonight we Win it All
OK, enough is enough. So A.J. Burnett couldn’t get it done. Time for Andy Pettitte to finish the job. The Yankees had a very real chance to sweep in Philadelphia and finish this thing, but failed miserably. Tonight it is time to get the job done. I beleive tonight will be the night that they do just that. I don’t expect Pettitte to go very far, perhaps six at most, but I do expect the Yankees to solve Pedro. Facing him twice in one week definitely should give the Yankee hitters something to work with. I fully expect an offensive outburst tonight. Time for Robinson Cano to pitch in and I believe he will. The rest should just continue to do what their doing. I don’t expect Texeira to look so bad this time out either. Hopefully he has relaxed by now and will have a bettter approach. Looking forward to the game and I have my champagne on ice. Number 27 on the way tonight!
Burnett Throws another Clunker
Last night was a perfect example of why A.J. Burnett will never be a big game pitcher. He seems like a good team mate and a generally good guy, but his mental toughness is just not at the level of a guy you can depend on when you need a win. This was his opportunity to shine and he completely folded. This is not the first time. He did it in the ALCS against the Angels when he allowed four first innning runs and he did it against Boston in the regular season up in Boston. Given the opportunity to come up big, it just isn’t in his mental makeup to do so. Now things could get ugly. As I stated yesterday, when this thing started, I expected the Yankees to win in six and they still could. What I did not expect was that Pettitte would have to go on short rest and that Sabathia might have to do it twice. This three starting pitcher thing could blow up in Girardi’s face. Let’s hope not. I still don’t think that Philly will win both games in New York, but they are a very good team and it certainly is possible.
On another note, how many home runs does Chase Utley have to hit before they make him move his feet? They haven’t gone up and in or even down and in on him once. They have got to start making him feel uncomfortable at the plate or he will continue to hammer them. His swing is tailor made for right field in Yankee Stadium and they cannot let him just sit there and jack home runs all day. Time to move him off the plate.
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