Tagged: Hiroki Kuroda

Offseason Thus Far

Well I haven’t posted anything for quite some time and mostly that’s because last year’s team just wasn’t any fun to watch and I kind of lost interest.   There was a definite need to re-shape this roster and I believe Cashman and Company have done a good job thus far.  Of course, nobody wanted to see Robinson Cano leave, but for less money and less years than what Cano and Granderson got, the Yankees signed four players that should help them this coming season.  Brian McCann came first.  He represents a tremendous upgrade at catcher and brings a mental toughness to go along with his skills that this team was sorely lacking last year.  Then came Jacoby Ellsbury.  He won’t hit that many home runs although at Yankee Stadium, I believe that he will reach at least double digits, while stealing 50 or so bases and creating runs in a way that also was lacking last year.  He’s also a pretty good defensive center fielder.  Then came Carlos Beltran.  He still can hit although he isn’t the defender that he once was, but again he can deliver in the clutch which is something this team sorely needed.  I like the addition of Kelly Johnson as well.  He is a monster W/RISP and can play four positions, giving Girardi some flexibility when filling out the lineup.  It doesn’t hurt that he’s a left handed pull hitter that hit 16 home runs playing part time last year.  Another guy who should do very well playing half his games at Yankee Stadium.  Finally they have brought back Hiroki Kuroda who arguably was their best pitcher last year.   He is a horse who will eat innings and give the team a chance to win almost every time he takes the mound.   With the winter meetings starting today, there is still work to be done, but so far, I believe the Yankees have been very aggressive in trying to put together a team that is competitive and has a real shot to win it all next year.

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.

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.

More Proof of my Theory

For the past few days, I’ve been talking about how hard it is to win when your starting pitcher puts you in a hole and how you usually win when he is solid. Last night, Hiroki Kuroda surrendered 4 runs after 14 pitches. The Yankees were down 4 and never caught up. They had their chances, especially after scoring three and having the bases loaded with one out in the first. That threat ended when Eric Chavez hit a rocket to second base for an inning ending double play. The Yankees never led in the game after that. Five runs is usually enough to win, but not when your starter gives up six in five innings. This Yankee rotation has not looked good with the exception of Nova and once again they fall to .500 at 6-6. Not too bad and hopefully they will get the pitching straightened out.

On another note, now that Brett Gardner is going to the 15 day DL, how is that decision not to keep Justin Maxwell looking? I thought they should have kept him instead of keeping the extra lefty Rapada. Now they need Maxwell and they don’t have him. He has the look of a good player and is only 28. Oh, by the way, in his first AB for Houston he hit a pinch hit, walk off homer. Neither Andruw Jones or Raul Ibanez is equipped to play left field every day and even splitting time leaves them open to injury and leaves the team with poor defense in left. On top of that, instead of calling up an outfielder to take Gardner’s place, the Yankees called up right handed reliever Cody Epply, who was cut by Texas a couple of weeks ago. Sometimes the moves this team makes baffle me. Dewayne Wise is killing the ball at AAA and has experience as an every day ML outfielder. Seems like a good fit, so of course they didn’t do it.

Another poor outing by a Starting Pitcher

Baseball really isn’t that complicated. When your starting pitcher does well, you generally have a good chance to win the game. When they don’t, it puts you in a hole that can be hard to dig out of. So far. after two times through the rotation, the Yankees have had two poor starts by Sabathia, one good and one bad from Kuroda, two poor ones from Hughes, two good ones from Nova and two poor ones from Garcia. I’d say they are pretty lucky to be 5-5 at this point. I’m sure things will get better, but I would also wager that if they don’t pitch better soon, both Hughes and Garcia will be gone from the starting rotation by mid season.

Nothing Like Opening Day at the Stadium

Yesterday was a Yankees classic. From the pre-game player introductions and fly over to Jorge Posada throwing out the first pitch to his Dad, this one was special before it even began. Then once the game started, it was a great game to watch. Swisher started it off with a clutch bases clearing double in the first. A-Rod added to the lead with a HR to dead center, then Granderson capped it off with a solo shot. Hiroki Kuroda was effortlessly brilliant. I may have been wrong about him, he will bear watching. All in all, a great day for Yankees fans. Looking forward to this afternoon.

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.

Day Two and Another Loss

First, let me say that I know it is only two games. Both, however were winnable and both wound up losses. The first, as I stated yesterday was lost in the first inning by an over analytical manager. The second was lost by sloppy play and poor pitching.

In the first two games, the Yankees have scored 12 runs and given up 15. You are not going to win too many games giving up an average of 7.5 runs per game. The two starters alone have given up 11 runs in 11.1 innings. From what I have seen of Hiroki Kuroda, both in the spring and in this first outing, I fully expect that he will be one of the guys pitching out of the bullpen before this season is over.

It will be a long season, and no need to panic after two games, but this team has not exactly come out of the gate firing on all cylinders. They have pitched poorly and played some shoddy defense to go along with some questionable managerial decisions.

Time to get their acts together this afternoon if they hope to salvage one of these three games in Tampa. Regardless, I fully expect them to get well in the three game series at Baltimore before returning home.