Wrapping it up from Coors Field
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Jun 21, 2007 
Print This Post
| 
Email This Post
The Yankees were 21 of 94 (.223) with one homer in three games at Coors Field. Raise your hand if you saw that coming. They drew five walks and struck out 22 times.
When they did get on base, it got worse as they were 1 for 17 with runners in scoring position.
But Kei Igawa pitches tomorrow night!
Here is some audio from Joe Torre:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
and Roger Clemens:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The Rockies were 5-1 against the Yankees and Red Sox. They are 20-7 since May 22.
So much for this series. A few us are headed off to a restaurant recommended by Colorado resident Mike Myers. Supposedly they serve such things as elk, buffalo and rattlesnake. Hopefully they also serve cold beer.
If I survive, I’ll blog at you from beautiful AT&T Park tomorrow.
I must reluctantly say that I, too, was not surprised to see the Yankees offense go into a bit of a slump. Everyone was just getting too excited to be 8.5 back from the Sox. Unfortunately, the hole that the Yanks have put themselves in the first half of this season makes ruts like this Colorado series and watching Igawa (or whoever the minor league pitcher de jour is) pitch every 5th day all the more difficult to swallow. There is simply no room for error from here on out…
Wild Card this year. Yanks are gonna lose series. It’ll happen. When they go on another winning streak, you won’t even think about this one.
This season, in two weeks time, the Yanks went from 14.5 to 7.5 back in the standings. Over 3 months to go. Anything can still happen. Moving things around and shifting players around and Damon not being half of himself isn’t exactly good for the Yanks. Inconsistency like that makes a difference. Get a 1st baseman and leave him there. Use Damon as the DH and only as the DH. He should have had this series off fully to help him recover. Swinging like he was isn’t going to help his strain get better.
They need to stick with Cairo at 1st till they trade up for a better 1st baseman. Stop moving everyone around. Pick a spot and keep them there, especially when it brought you the best days of the season.
Have fun Peter. Eat some rocky mountain oysters for us and let us know how they went down…
You should give the hat to some kid. Good gestures like that are always nice for the soul.
Peter,
Garlic fries, fudge, and salsa await you at MaBell Park !!
Peter:
According one of TW’s printed media that CMW’s neck still didn’t feel all right, in his words:”it’s not pain but discomfort” Thus, his bullpen cut short for it and will continue today…
Hope that he will feel better in days…
Giambi Uses “S” Word
Thanks to Steve Lombardi of Waswatching.com for the tip
http://waswatching.com/
Jason Giambi comments, today, via an AP report on his upcoming meeting with George Mitchell -
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.c.....thru.0987/
“I will address my own personal history regarding steroids.”
“A direct conversation the commissioner impressed upon me the idea that the game of baseball would be best served by such a meeting. I will continue to do what I think is right and be candid about my past history regarding steroids.”
I recall reading that Giambi’s contract has a clause in it that reportedly says he cannot use illegal drugs and needs to stay away from chemical use/dependency. While that does not say “steroids” specifically, will the Yankees now try and make a case (that steroids are illegal, etc.) and then try and void Giambi’s contract?
It would save the team $26 million and a roster spot for next year.
It’s very tempting, if you’re New York, no?
Thoughts?
_Supposedly they serve such things as… rattlesnake._
sounds like the taco bell on 4th st. in the Village.
Elk and rattle snake!! EWWWWW
Now Dr. Garlic fries sound good!! MMMMMM
Jen-
it gets even better, they have all this latino food, including a 40 (yes, I said 40) clove garlic, chicken sandwich!!
as for Pete’s “rattle snake” diner, it kinda sounds like the KFC on 6th St. in the Village !!
Jen-
yeah, Elk doesn’t sound too good. Please, Pete, don’t eat Bambi’s mom!
40 CLOVES! thats at little much don’t you think!?
Now at the KFC you might get roasted rat. LOL
That’s the one thing SF does better than NY – food. Well that, and there’s no humidity or winter (yeah, they abolished winter).
KFC/TBell so FIRED their cat. I think the cat was named Pavano!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su0U37w2tws
Yeah I hope when the new YS opens they will have a better food service.
i blame the season going to hell on pavano and george w bush.
Jen-
At these prices, I’m surprised Big Stein doesn’t make the vendors wear ski masks!!
TEN BUCKS for a lousy beer.
Though congressman Serrano musta told Big Stein there are latinos in NYC (sans Staten Island, of course), and they just opened a Washington Heights style eatery (yum, yum)
http://www.hispanicbusiness.co.....C_ID=11796
Gonzo-
I wonder how’s more unpopular, Pavs or Mister Twenty-six-Percent-Nationally-Uundoubtly-Much-Lower-In-NYC ??
Hey, remember when Cheney got boooooooed outta Yankee stadium, that was soooo funny. You woulda thought he was pedro or 38-stitches.
Did anyone see the incredibly ridiculous poll question on espn.com tonight?
“Was Roger Clemens’ third start (4.1 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 6K, L vs Rockies) worth a pro-rated $840,909 salary?”
Well duh?
CMW makes $489,500 for the year.
ESPN is incredibly stupid. I don’t even know why I go there.
I think anybody that has watched the Yankees this year is not surprised that offense went into the tank. They have shown that for most of the season.
A two week streak doesn’t offset most of the season of bad offensive baseball.
When your DH, 1B, 2B, CF and RF positions are well under their career numbers, you are going to struggle offensively.
Add to that a very bad bench, and its easy to see the offense shutting down for long periods. As we have seen this year.
Until the organization gets back to being a pitching first organization, and putting together less “boom or bust” lineups, they are going to struggle against good teams.
Its one reason why they haven’t fared well in the post-season in recent years.
Its impossible to remake the team during the season. One can only hope the team has learned from their mistakes over the last 5 years and re-construct this team in a way to get back to what they had when they were a dominant team.
Now, its just a traveling all star show with mediocore results.
As Bill Parcells says, “You are what your record says you are”. They are a .500 team. That’s it and that’s all its going to be unless they can find a way to fill a lot holes.
Not going to be easy.
Two things as I wrap it up for the day.
First I do blame George Bush. Did you know the Yankees have NEVER won a World Series when a Republican has lead the country
Second for those music fans out there I highly recommned a show that starts tonight on The SUndance Channel, called Live From Abbey Road. It was originally shot for Channel 4 in teh UK and what it is is artists perform from the legendary Abbey Road Studios (of Beatles fame) no audience as if they were in the studio. Shot on film and it looks and very cool show.
SJ44,
Good point on the failure of the offense in the post season. The pitching has been so bad (Brown, wright, johnson, etc.) in the playoffs we tend to focus on that as the most glaring issue.
However, the offense has been frequently very poor in the post season. It’s an offense that gets shut down by the type of good pitching encountered in the playoffs. I wonder if the team, as built, depends a lot on hitting mistake pitches and when they don’t get them they flounder.
A solid righty bat that can play the OF is what we need. It will solve the problem. Abreu is a platoon player. Michael Cuddyer? Does Torii Hunter become available?
Its why I am not into blowing out the good young arms in the farm system in trades to try and fix this team.
Guys like Joba Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy, Phil Hughes and some others are the future of this team.
You can move some others to fill some parts. However, the elite arms? I wouldn’t trade them for anybody.
Young arms are gold. I wouldn’t give up too many in terms of trying to fix things this year.
Ever since George went through the locker room after Game 7 of the 2001 WS and bellowed, “there’s going to be lots of changes around here”, most of the changes have been for the worst.
Too many “me” guys. Too many big money, cower in NY type of guys and they have gotten completely away from what made them a dynasty. Pitching, pitching, pitching, good defense, and solid fundmental baseball.
Throw more strikes, do a better job of baserunning, situational hitting and clutch pitching and, despite the lack of offense, they win 2 of 3 in Denver.
Instead, we see the same mental and physical breakdowns that have hurt this team all year.
Cashman is trying to get it back to a pitching first organization. The fact they have more good young arms than anybody in baseball is proof of that.
But, will the fans, media and George be patient enough to see it through? That’s the big question.
Gayle-
I blame the supreme court!
_The SUndance Channel_ ?? New Yorkers are so urbane!
SJ 1 thing you posted is true; 2b, rf, cf, are definitely underperforming. 1B is not underperforming because the plan was that was going to be weak anyways especially without giambi..
catcher and 3b(he is great but not this great) are overperforming and that is about it.
they really need Cano and Abreu to play better and more consistent. they are not the same power maniacs they have been in the past..
how about trying milton bradley it is little risk, will help the bench at a minimum and he at times can play???If he can play they can try to get Damon healthy once and for all..
I still try to make little changes/trades and try to improve the team, they can make the playoffs but when you are not hitting in the clutch and you make 3 baserunning mistakes in 1 game it hurts… that was jeter, cano, and I forgot the 3rd…
keep the faith..
SJ44,
Agreed again. Hopefully they’ll sneak in for the wild card and get hot in october and who knows. It’s a possibility. Heck the division is still theoretically possible. But making the playoffs (never mind winning the series) might not be in the cards this year. We’ll have to wait and see.
A key thing is that one trade for a big name isn’t going to put them over the top. The problems on this team are strange ones – they’re diffuse, sort of all over the place. If they don’t win, it’s because there is something fundamentally flawed in the shape of the team, not because it’s missing a piece here or there.
You can’t touch the arms. As painful as this year has been and may turn out to be, not winning the series this year will be different than in prior years because they are rebuilding while trying to compete. The depth in the minor leagues in terms of arms is astounding. Give Oppenheimer another year and I’d bet we have something similar with position players. Chasing the next free agent/ big money player hasn’t worked for the past 7 years and if we try it again still won’t work.
For anyone who calls for Cash to get the ax if they don’t win – be careful what you wish for. The next GM will probably by reflex go back to collecting veterans and free agents while trading the kids. We’ll be back in the same position for the next seven years.
Gayle, that is an untrue statement about the Yankees not ever winning a title when a Republican has been in office. They have won 7 titles with a Republican in office, just none since ’58 when Eisenhower was the President.
As far as the Yankees offensive outage, ugh. That was painful to watch. Hopefully they can get it back this weekend in SF.
I saw that Milton Bradley was released, I would give him a shot, could help against lefties, give Damon a rest and a platoon with Abreu is in order
Bon Appetit, Peter. Remember it tastes like chicken.
26% = the dregs of society
I was reading nomaas there suggestion of getting bradley is not bad. if he goes postal let him go.. if you add him to the roster he can field, he is a switch hitter and can allow Damon to play 1b and DH totally.
if damon plays 1B or Dh when he is at 1B, dh Matsui, have bradley in lf, melky in cf, and abreu in rf.
there lineups weakest hitters are bradley and melky then damon(that ain’t bad), there defense is significantly better and there bench gets much better. Bradley backup in Rf, CF, and Lf play him a few times a week and if he lays an egg DFA him…
Is he better then Kevin Thompson? Probably much better and he has some speed and definitely can field, and would be a very cheap signing. I would trade for him it would cost the Yanks something(not much) and they would be on the hook for his salary but he is a FA at the end of the yr. and he can help so I would trade for him not wait to he clears waivers………
I’m definitely on board with adding Bradley.
I also think we should be talking to Tampa about Dukes. He’s going to be traded for pennies on the dollar any day now and if he’s released, Cashman should be on his doorstep. I know, he’s made mistakes, has a terrible attitude and he’s got issues, but so did Sheff and Straw and Josh Hamilton. He needs to mature. Dukes has the potential to be a star and I think putting him in the locker room with Torre, Mattingly, Jeter, Posada, Arod and all the good guys on this team can help to straighten him out and see the big picture.
I also think we should sign Edgardo Alfonso, give him a few weeks in AAA and if he hits, put him on the bench as a right handed pinch hitter, backup 2b, 3b, 1b. Fonzy is too young to be done. The guy was clutch for the Mets and I think he’s more valuable on our bench than Basak. I also think if he hits, he would light a fire under Cano’s butt because he could play 2b and do the little things with the bat. I’ve been hearing he looks good for the independent league Long Island team and then there was an article about him on espn.com today mentioning he looks like he can help a major league club. Let’s get him and give him a shot. What could it hurt? It’s not like we’re rich in positional prospects at the AAA level.
I’d also like to see us get Carlos Pena or Hatteburg for 1b. Get rid of Andy Phllips now.
Imagine replacing Phillips, Thompson, Basak with Bradley, Dukes, Pena/Hatteburg. And if Alfonso shows something in AAA, it makes things even more interesting.
That would be my thought for helping the lineup in the short term. I think Torre having viable options so he could bench underperformers, have more speed and athleticism and also match the team up a lot better against left handed pitching would be a step in the right direction.
As for pitching, I’m not worried. Our starters (with the exception of Rocket today) have been going a lot longer and our pen is performing much better with less work. We could use the one impact arm in the pen, but other than that I think we can make the pitching work with what is already in the organization.
In the glory years, Torre had better options for stars like Boggs and Tino. He had legit players on the roster 1-25
Right now, he’s hamstrung by the bench since he can’t sit a Cano, Matsui or Abreu or even a healthy Damon and send a message to them. He doesn’t need to blast them in the press, but having the luxury of replacing them with someone who can perform would be nice.
We need pitching.
WE DONT NEED OFFENSE.
A bullpen arm or two. Or a starter. A half-decent one.
NO OFFENSE.
ps: Am i the only one who doesn’t give a rats ass about what happens with this Giambi thing? We just don’t need him.
Wake up call.
We lost a series.
Nobody had a damn thign to say when we won 5 or 6 series in a row. This team is fine. You lose some games in a 162 game season. The rockies are red hot and have great pitching.
Our offense is great and our pitching is great. There’s nothing to worry about. The Wild Card will be had by mid July.
Dukes is radioactive.. he has like 5 kids from 5 different women, 1 a cousin and the guy is 23 and has severe anger issues.. Milton Bradley is a boy scout compared to this guy no way.
we had Pena he did nothing and is striving this yr. he is not a long term answer. hatteberg is 33 or so and has no power, another pass.
My list in priority order is Bullpen by far top priority, then bench (especially backup catcher), starting 1B is next but I doubt doable before the off season…
Starting pitching is the 3rd priority but if Hughes is back soon it stays 3rd…. If hughes comes back that helps a ton…
Gayle-
The Yankees won the WS 3 or 4 tims under the Eisenhower administration and a couple of times during Hoover. Granted, the Jpe McCarthy dynasty was under the Dems but then again Rossevelt/Truman did control the Whitehouse for 20 years which is about 1/5 of the Yankees entire existence.
Stuart-
Atleast we know Dukes doesn’t shoot blanks
as for the cousin thing, that would fit in well in NYC (Giuliani’s first marriage was to his second cousin, Regina Peruggi, they were married for 14 years)
OKay, a couple of more puns.
Atleast we know Dukes doesn’t use a corked bat.
With Dukes, we’ll land the Chock Full O’ Nuts account.
Dukes would be an awesome designated hitter.
Milton Bradley? Heck, offer Carl Everett a shot. The Yankees don’t need Milton Bradley and his attitude around.
Meanwhile, whoever is knocking SJ44, knock it off. The guys posts more interesting comments and information here than I do.
Guys, I know SJ44 from another Yankee board. He has some inside connections to the Yanks and he shares info with us. Posters like him make this board more entertaining and informative.
I drop in on this site occasionally, and I’ll gladly join the defense of SJ44. He has good info and defensible insights. I don’t necessarily always agree, but the points are well taken.
While I’m here, let me suggest ine issue with the Yankee offense which has historically plagued Red Sox teams. Specifically, their “hot streaks” and “slumps” run concurrent with whether they are at home or on the road. This edition of the Yanks thrives on fan enthusiasm and the short porch (for all those lefties). Absent that advantage (on the road), they struggle.
The bad Red Sox teams were like that. The better ones manage to win their share of low-scoring, close games on the road. To this point in 2007, that has been the big difference between the two teams.
If you look closely at what Kevin Thompson did in his limited playing time last year, you will see he did very well in evey game he started. He even hit well against Kazmir. In a 1-0 shutout win by Wang, KT made a brilliant catch in rightfield to save a run. He has great speed, is a good defender, and has been hitting about .360 with lots of walks and has really cut down on his K’s in his last 100 or so at bats at Scranton. We don’t need Bradley, just DL Damon so he can heal, put Thompson in left, DH Matsui (and sometimes Abreu with Thompson in right). This would give us a different look with a lot more speed and energy.
testing:
S
test
test….
S…