Game 39: Yankees at Tigers
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on May 11, 2008 
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YANKEES
Damon LF
Cabrera CF
Abreu DH
Jeter SS
Giambi 1B
Duncan RF
Cano 2B
Molina C
Gonzalez 3B
Pettitte LHP
Andy Pettitte against the Detroit hiitters.
Nate Robertson against the New York hitters.
Notes: Even for Joe Girardi, that’s an interesting lineup. Jeter has hit cleanup one previous time in his career. … It’s supposed to start raining (and a lot) around noon. Fairly decent chance they won’t get the game in. Or it will rain long enough to screw up our flight to Tampa tonight. … Cano has hit in six straight at 8 of 22. … Kyle Farnsworth has thrown 8.2 consecutive scoreless innings. … The Big G is 5 of 13 with six RBI and five extra-base hits.
Back later with updates.
UPDATE, 12:37 p.m.: If you’re sitting around waiting for the game to start, go find something else to do. If it starts at all, it’s certainly not going to start on time as it’s raining and the tarp is on the field.
Wow that is a strange lineup!
There better be a game today. I’m hung over as ****.
That is one strange lineup. whoa
can’t girardi just leave the lineup alone for once
A batter has hit one HR in 123 PA is the clean-up hitter. Very unconventional, at the very least.
Maybe, the idea is to overrun the bases with hitters who have high .OBAs
Why do they bother keeping Ensberg if they won’t use him in this spot?
Joe Lapoint in the NYTimes:
“Perhaps, with the season not quite a quarter complete, all can wait for the broken rib of Phil Hughes to heal, for Ian Kennedy to polish his craft in the minor leagues and for Joba Chamberlain to stay in the bullpen and not rush into the rotation until his maturity catches up to the speed of his fastball.” (emphasis mine)
Does he really think the Yanks are delaying Joba’s starting role because of fist pumping?
Someone show him a calculator and a Tom Verducci manual
It is a strange line-up, but Derek did hit a homerun yesterday. Maybe Girardi thinks now that Derek will go on a homerun tear.
I actually hope that the game gets rained out only to insure that Igawa will not pitch on Wednesday night!
I guess he figures that Abreu (or abrayo as they were calling him on Fox yesterday) will be on first and Jeter can shoot a ball through with his “Jeterian” swing.
Joe is just going to split up the lefties as best he can – and as Jete said yesterday he’s back in the HR race!
A rainout would be nice because I think it would save us from ever having to watch Kei Igawful from pitching in pinstripes.
with jeter batting fourth, girardi has some billy martin in him. weather permitting i hope they get the game in just to see this line up play out.
Doesn’t seem likely for the game.
I don’t know what to do with my Sunday now… Hmm..
Just found out that Sean Henn was claimed by the Padres. Good luck there:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.c.....oves.0104/
since that’s 2 lefties in 3 games that Ensberg has sat against, looks like he is roster toast once A-Rod & Betemit are back.
“Why do they bother keeping Ensberg if they won’t use him in this spot?”
Good question, Fredo. I love the AG, but when ARod’s out and a lefty’s pitching, why not Ensberg? ME’s 1/5 against Nathan isn’t much of a sample size to worry about (though Damon’s, Abreu’s and Giambi’s #s are nice!).
I hope this gets rained out. It would be really tough to watch another mediocre lefty shut us down.
Looking at the radar I don’t think their playing today. Which sucks because they have to play on their off day.
If they pull the plug on this one… when can they make it up? This a wrap on Detroit for the rest of the year…
Hahaha wow i guess my cookies at work saved the boo latroy anti-moose comments from spring training… my bad.
Kei Igawful…Nice one TKinDC!!!
haha Kei Igawful is almost as good as Felix Herendous from back in the day
Let’s hope for a rain out – Tigers kill lefties…
COuld they get the game in this evening or is it supposed to rain all day and night.
You know, I’d figured that Joe would try to take advantage of Jeters #’s w/RISP, but I imagined it with Melky in Leadoff, Damon THEN jJeter and Abreu taking up Clean-up.
oh i hope this game gets played today.
I think they picked the wrong week on Yanees on Deck to spend time with the STrength and conditioning coach to talk about wokring out
They beat
Lester
Sabathia (when everyone was beating him)
Pettitte
Igawa
Gayle – I was thinking the same thing. How much longer does this guy last before he gets fired?
How long can/will they wait to rain it out?
30% chance of precip. maybe they’ll get it in
http://www.weather.com/outlook.....038;epc=be
Fran I am not blaming him for the injuries per se I think the weather had a lot to do with it at least some of them the running ones ie Jeter, Arod as they are workout machines on their own anyway.
Maybe Kyle canattribute some of his pitching prowess to being a member of the 20/20 club lol
1) while i agree that a rainout will eliminate igawa, the tigers are playing poorly right now. i would rather play them now than later in the year when they could be hotter
2) i wish they played ensberg a bit more.
Jeter will do just fine batting cleanup. Remember Roy White did it, and he was another born #2 hitter.
Game would be in the umpires’ hands…they would make the call,not the Tigers.
My guess would be if there is a window to get it in..then they will play…otherwise they will have to play on a common off day for both Tigers and Yanks.
As little faith as I have in Igawa, it’s tough to nix him after a bad Tigers start. They’ve pounded some good lefties.
Though I might want to have Igawa’s backup ready to go by the 3rd inning just in case…
“I think they picked the wrong week on Yanees on Deck to spend time with the STrength and conditioning coach to talk about wokring out”
i don’t get yes. what did he say? i assume it was dana cavalea.
very nice guy, but low on credentials.
kind of a rookie in the field.
“Big G” reminds me “Jimmy” on Seinfeld…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0w2xTexfAg
Wow, Jeter fourth?
The 19th is a common off day, the Yankees have an off day while at home. I don’t think they’d love having to travel from home to Detroit to play one game.
29th is also a common off day but the tigers are on the west coast.
june 23rd is a common off day yankees are going on the road to pitt. tigers are coming home from the west coast. Up till this point June 23rd is the most logical day to play the game.
Yazman
Than you nix him based on his other major league starts.
Randy it was for kids on deck basically he took one of the kid hosts on a workout drill going through stretches,machines, what they do in their circuit etc
can’t be June 23rd.
Isn’t there a players association rule about consecutive days with a game?
That would be 2o days ina row witha game.
Igawa should be on a flight to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre rather than one to Tampa. It’s not like there’s no other options.
Bob I missed that.
Actually it would be okay. 20 days in a row is allowed. More than 20 isn’t.
Nick –
If he gets tatted in St. Petersburg he can just stay in Tampa period… haha.
Nick
The plan is to leave Igawful at the team Hotel in St.Pete when the Yanks fly home Thursday Nite.
If this game is “banged”, then we wont have to watch/listen to him pitch at all this week.
Is 20 the number? Wasn’t sure.
Game time!
thanks gayle-
you don’t often hear of those guys going on air. it would have been interesting if it was a real interview.
i think he’s likely to be with the yankees for a while since everyone seems to like him. he just needs some veteran help with his position. they need to hire someone in addition to him. just like the minor league developmental system was revamped, they need to do it with the conditioning program.
it doesn’t make sense to have a 200 million dollar payroll and an advanced minor league pipeline if the players can’t stay on the field.
“Game would be in the umpires’ hands…they would make the call,not the Tigers.”
From what I remember, it’s the home team’s call until the game starts. Once the game is underway, the decisions are made by the umpires.
Remember that game in Detroit last year, when they decided to start the game after a 4-hour rain delay? And of course, it went into extra innings. The teams were out there until 3:30 in the morning. What a disaster that was.
I think the handing in of the lineup cards just before the game is the cutoff point for the umpires assuming control of the game and whether to start it. I think.
I guess we will find out in a few minutes….
My understanding was if a team isnt scheduled to return to that city that season,then the umpire have control….we will see.
“Melky in Leadoff,”
Melky isn’t good enough to bat leadoff. Better suited to the bottonm half. He’s not a strong OBP guy at all.
First of all, a Happy Mother’s Day to those mothers who visit the blog, and to all of your mother’s. Secondly, since this is the Yankees last and only trip to Detroit, the game is in the umpires hands.
Sounds like Sterling thinks this game will not happen – though he mentioned that the gates had opened to let spectators in.
looks like he just moved Jeter to the cleanup spot to keep the lineup from having back to back lefties, which he had been doing by putting shelley duncan in cleanup but i guess shelley’s lack of hitting so far in the majors has convinced joe to keep him away from a big lineup spot.
eitherway, it won’t matter, it’s highly unlikely this game gets played today.
“Melky isn’t good enough to bat leadoff. Better suited to the bottonm half. He’s not a strong OBP guy at all.”
Well, in his first year, he had the same OBP as Damon, so…
He’s slumped in May, but at the end of April his OBP was .370 against an average around .300. Point is, he’s generally been taking his walks this year, but he’s slumped over the last ten days.
One might want to take into account that this is Mother’s Day and MLB is donating money with their special promotion today. That may play into whether they cancel or not.
Melky’s at bat yesterday with the bases juiced showed me a lot about how much he has improved in terms of patience and working the count. He fouled off strikes that were pitcher’s pitches and drew a walk.
Last year I don’t think he could have done that. I think Abreu is deserving of some credit for the growing maturity and professionalism Melky shows. (and Melky isn’t terrified of solid objects on the field)
Jeter at cleanup – stroke of genius. Jeter is the leader among the Yankees with men in scoring position.
“He’s slumped in May, but at the end of April his OBP was .370 against an average around .300. Point is, he’s generally been taking his walks this year, but he’s slumped over the last ten days.”
You can call it a slump or reverting to career norms. He’s on pace to walk about 55 times this year and strikeout about 70. He’s always had a good K/BB ratio, but he’s not a great average/OBP guy.
darn I want to watch a game.
i’m not sure who i hate more…
chip carey or kei igawa….or myself
Does anyone know the differences between the American and Japanese pitching mounds?
THE GAME HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO RAIN AND NO MAKE UP HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED AS OF YET.