Results tagged ‘ Cliff Lee ’
Nova will take time
It kills me how the NY writers expect every new player that comes up to be a superstar right out of the gate. Ivan Nova will be a very good major league pitcher. The fact is that he’s only had a handful of Major League starts. Last night he experienced some growing pains and there will be more. I am hoping the the Yankees will be patient with him though, because his greatest asset is his makeup. He is very confident in his abilities and when you have stuff like he does, plus confidence, that is a winning combination. And how about that debut by Lance Pendleton? Three perfect inning in his debut. This guy could really help in the bullpen. David Robertson has been skating on thin ice for a long time. He is wildly inconsistent and last night we got the bad David. If Pendleton or someone else can be more consistent, then my guess is that Robertson will be gone.
And how about this headline from Ian Begley over at ESPN.com?
“Ace shunned both teams, but the Rangers are coping much better than Yankees are” He was talking about Cliff Lee of course. Once again, a national writer shows his ignorance. So after 12 games, both teams are in first place and Texas record is 2.5 games better, but they are somehow “coping much better than the Yankees”. News flash for all you experts out there. It is a long season. That was one game last night pitched by a rookie and it still was only 5-3 with the winning run at the plate in the ninth inning. These teams both have a lot of games to play, so let’s save the “expert” analysis for later on in the season OK?
Not the end of the World
So finally the Cliff Lee saga has ended. I for one was getting a bit tired of it. Would it have been nice to aquire Lee? Absolutely. Do the Yankees need him to win the World Series? Probably not. This is a team that was a couple of wins from the WS this past season with a patchwork rotation. Is A.J. Burnett going to be worse this year than he was last year? Doubtful. So let’s look at what the competition has done. Has Boston gotten better? A bit, but not as much as you might think. Last year Victor Martinez and Adrian Beltre combined for 48 HR and 181 RBI. Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez had 50 HR and 191 RBI. So by adding these two big guns, they added exactly 2 HR and 10 RBI. Boston finished 7 games out of first last year. Is this enough to push them past the Yankees and Tampa Bay? Doubtful.
Secondly, the off season is not over. It is a pretty sure bet that the Yankees will make some moves. Just exactly what they will be and if it improves the team remains to be seen, but if they went into the season with just what they have now, they would still be a pretty good team, possibly even good enough to win the division. So let’s just wait and see what develops before anyone jumps off any bridges. And oh, by the way, the payroll flexibility that the team gained by not signing Lee will be a huge benefit in the next six or seven years. I for one am not heartbroken that he went to Philly. Dissapointed, yes, but not heartbroken.
So who’s pitching for Texas tonight?
I think the Yankees have a pretty good chance of winning two of three at home, but not sure who is pitching for Texas in game three. Of course I am being facetious. If you listen to or read the media, you would think that the Yankees might as well forfeit game three and move on to game four, which of course they will also lose because A.J. Burnett is pitching. Now the “experts” may very well prove to be right, but I for one am looking forward to the games. This is what playoff baseball is all about. It’s about testing yourself against the best the other team has to offer. It’s about a player finding out if he can dig deep and turn around an ugly regular season when his team needs him the most. Can’t wait to watch the games and see how this all plays out.
Pitiful Performance and now it’s best of five
That was pathetic. It started with Hughes and his inability to put hitters away with two strikes. This has happened numerous times this year and he’d better develop something to put hitters away besides a fastball or we will see a lot more games from him like this one. The Rangers scouting reports were spot on and they were sitting on the fastball with two strikes and that is exactly what they were getting. Part of the blame has to go to Posada or whoever was calling the pitches, but Hughes has got to develop a put away pitch or he is doomed. Secondly, the Yankees have got to do a better job with runners in scoring position. They got seven walks last night and none scored. They left two men on base in three separate innnings. All in all, it was an ugly performance. This looked a lot like the team that stumbled it’s way through September, not the one that won four straight playoff games. Now it’s back home and they’ll need two of three if they are to win this series. Starting off with Cliff Lee, it will be no easy task. Last night they wasted a golden opportunity by playing a stinker and it may come back to haunt them. Let’s hope not.
It’s Texas!
So this is what I was hoping for. Not so much that I believe that Texas will be easier to beat than Tampa. Truthfully, I think those two teams are pretty much equal and it showed in the ALDS. No, I wanted Texas to win because I just don’t like Joe Madden. He seems very cocky and he always makes excuses when his team loses. This should be an interesting series as the Yankees won’t get Cliff Lee until game three. They need to really bear down in games one and two, because as someone else pointed out. If they split the first two in Texas, it’s a five game series and you might get Cliff Lee 3 times. I believe that the Yankees can beat Texas if they play the way they did against Minnesota. They were very poised and relaxed and played some of the best baseball I have seen them play all year. So who knows what will happen? One thing is for sure, the playoffs are baseball at it’s finest and most intense. It will be fun to watch.
The one that got away and thoughts about the non trade
Well, after seven straight wins, I guess the Yankees were due for a loss. This one just slipped away when Joba Chaimberlain couldn’t get through the eighth before giving up a grand slam, the lead and the game. Joba has been a bit erratic this year. My personal feeling is that he doesn’t get enough work. I believe he needs to pitch multiple innings like he did when he first game up. I’m not saying three or four innings, but two inning outings would be a way to get him a bit more work. I believe he is more effective when used that way than he is currently. Can’t complain too much though. They still have a two game lead with one to play before the All Star break. All things considered, that ain’t too bad
On another note, although I would have loved to see Cliff Lee in the Yankees rotation this year, I am glad that they didn’t trade Jesus Montero. I saw him play last week and this kid is the real deal. At 21 years old, he has adjusted well to AAA after a rocky start. He currently is heating up and even at 21 he looked like a man among boys when I saw him play. This kid is going to be an All Star some day and I hope that it is with the Yankees. Cliff Lee can wait and as we saw last night, Javy Vazquez is every bit as capable of putting up zeroes as Cliff Lee is on any given night.
Seattle does it again
Contrary to reports in the NY papers, the sky is not falling. When you get beat by Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez, you can’t really feel too bad about it. Granted, the Yankees countered with Phil Hughes and Javier Vazquez, both of whom looked pretty rotten. And the bullpen didn’t help much either night. But overall, this is just a bump in the road. The team is still in first and they will pick it back up again soon, both offensively and pitching wise. Nothing to worry about, just one little rough patch in a very long season. Let’s see where they stand by the end of the weekend. My guess is they will pick things up today and play well against Toronto as well.
Cliff Lee
Nothing else needs to be said about this one. Lee completely owned the Yankees last night. I still believe that the Yankees willl win the World Series, but they better figure out how to beat this guy, because they will see him at least one more time. CC Sabathia didn’t pitch poorly, actually he pitched quite well. Lee just pitched better. I fully expect the Yankees bats to come alive tonight and for them to win game two. This is a very good Phillies team and if the Yankees don’t win tonight, I believe they will lose the series. They have to hit the ball and score some runs, which they haven’t done much of in the past few games. They need to put pressure on the Phillies which they failed to do last night. Not only did they not score until the last inning, they didn’t even pose a threat to score. They made it very easy for the Phillies to beat them. A lot of that can be attributed to Lee, but some of it was swinging at bad pitches and helping him out. They can’t be doing that against Pedro. He isn’t what he once was, but he is a very smart pitcher and if they help him out, he is perfectly capable of beating them.
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