Wrapping it up from The Trop
-
- May
- 12
Tonight was Andy Pettitte’s first loss at Tropicana Field since Sept. 16, 1998.
Matt Garza is pretty good. But he beat the Yankees with just a fastball tonight. The scoreboard said 92-93, but Johnny Damon said it looked faster.
Joe Girardi announced that Ian Kennedy would start Thursday. Kennedy and Kei Igawa were the only alternatives discussed. “I didn’t have a timetable (on Kennedy). We feel he’s ready to go. He’ll get another shot,” Girardi said. “We have belief in this kid.”
Because a player has to stay in the minors 10 days once he’s demoted (unless replacing somebody on the DL), Kennedy can’t be activated until Thursday. So he’ll fly here on Wednesday.
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on Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 11:04 pm by Peter Abraham.
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Peter Abraham
Have you seen Zombie Strippers?
it wasn’t that long ago Joe G said he needed to stay down, this in my eyes does not fair well for Mr. Kennedy.
GO GET EM IAN, HERES UR SHOT!
Wang better be Wang tomorrow or it’s a sweep for sure.
I don’t feel good at all about Moose and IPK going against Shields and Kazmir. Especially with how pathetic this lineup is.
I had hoped IPK and Alex would come back on the same day. If the offense is planning to play the same way they did tonight then Ian please stay away. A massacre at his first game back will surely screw his head up even more.
Kennedy will go against kazmir, he will have to wait for his first win a little longer.
Plus Boston heads to Baltimore now and they always role over for them.
We are gonna be in a deep hole behind 2 teams by the weekend, just watch.
Even though Kennedy vs. Kazmir doesn’t look good on paper for the Yanks, it looks a lot better than Igawa vs. Kazmir…
Go Yanks!
Bob, not so sure about the “we” there, but assuming that you’re actually a Yankee fan, things will be easier for you if you chomp down on the cyanide pill now instead of waiting.
On one level, it’s remarkable how deep the Yanks are pitching wise, since they’ve lost 2 relievers (Bruney and Albie) plus their first-in-line AAA starter (Horne, though Horne for a short time), and can still bring up Britton’s, Edwar’s and Rassner’s.
However, Igawa just gums up everything, because he takes up a spot on the 40 man and Cashma is obsessed with giving him a shot.
IMO, DFA him (yes, it’s not my money, but at this point, he’s a horrible sunk cost). If he’s not picked up by anyone, either have him go to Japan or re-sign him to pitch at AAA (if he’s outside the 40 man, I don’t mind him at AAA, where he might become passable and accrue some value).
When are the Yankees going to try stealing some bases to keep out of so many double plays? There is no energy with this team.
Girardi was supposed to bring some “new” looks to this team, yet what do we see? Lineup changes and not much else.
Nick, how can you be anything but negative after watching this team so far this season?
Please tell me. I want to be positive, but what is there to be positive about? A-Rod and Jorge aren’t gonna be back anytime soon.
The offense is just absolutely dreadful.
Outside of Wang, you never feel confident about the starter taking the mound.
I’m all for being positive, but at some point reality has to set in. This team is not very good at all and is almost certainly gonna hover around the .500 level all season.
Not really related to anything, but the games in Tampa are just so depressing looking. The Trop (if that’s still it’s name?) has to have the worst atmosphere not just in baseball but I would suggest in North American professional sports. It’s like where baseball would be played after Armageddon when the surviving humans can no longer live in Earth’s poisoned atmosphere.
ill be alot happier when a bunch of you fair weather fans fall off the bandwagon and go start rooting for the mets again, or whomever you rooted for before 1996.
To belabor the obvious (a personal specialty of mine) we are 3 games back in the loss column. The whole division has flattened out with the bad teams better and the BoSux not performing well enough to put any serious distance in the standings.
So be of good cheer my Yankees compadres! At least we don’t have Kei Igawa to kick around for a while, Cano is almost batting over .200 and Wanger is waiting in the wings to restore order to the universe.
I miss A-Rod and Posada
something wierd is happening in baseball this year, young teams are starting to dominate.
wierd things are happening….yeah its called may and the season is not even 6 weeks old!
Bob,
Yes, but if Wang and Moose give us good performances we’ll be fine…
Besides, it’s not as if anyone is running away with the division…
It’s Mid May and we have as good a chance as any!
GO YANKS!
Maybe its all the older players now off the roids. That and no other drugs to give them a lift. And in Girardi’s clubhouse, no snacks to give a sugar high.
It’s called perspective. Think where the team was a year ago. Right now the offense looks awful a lot of the time, other times not so much. The MVP will be back soon, not quite as soon as we’d hoped, but soon. Posada a little after that, but he’ll be back too. Giambi has looked less awful the past week than he did before that and Cano the same.
Pettitte was bad tonight but we know he can and will do better and will give the team a change to win most outings, provided they can score more than a run. Moose has been adequate to better than that several starts in a row. He gives us a chance to win. Rasner has been more than fine both starts.
We don’t know what we’re going to get with Kennedy’s second go ’round, so I don’t ask you to be optimistic about him, but you can if you try, you know he’s capable of much better than he’s shown at the MLB level this year. Ditto Hughes. We all joked about his fake injury and then it turned out that it was real and it was worse than anyone suspected. We know that he can be far better than he’s shown this season.
Finally, Joba. It was really awesome having him in the pen tonight to setup for Mo, a tremendous hope. He’s coming to the rotation in the summer. Be optimistic about that.
The Yankees will have a couple of games where they pound out 15 hits and we’ll be saying how they’re turning it around…
Just you wait!
Skippy,
The Trop is the hands-down most horrible stadium to watch TV games from (that title used to belong to Olympic Stadium in Montreal, which thankfully is no longer around).
Nick I think your missing how dangerous Joba was in the BP role tonight.
im pretty sure stad olypique is still around, its the expos who no longer exsist.
Nick in SF,
Well said! I couldn’t agree with you more!
Except for your last paragraph…
It’s no longer around as a MLB stadium….
Even when Arod and Posada are back I don’t think this is a juggernaut offense. Neither one will have seasons like they had last year. and it looks like too many guys are on their way to having so so years or bad years.
The offense will eventually be good but it’s not going to be devastating good.
just make the jorge tabata for arroyo trade already
something strange going on in the white sox broadcast of thier game with the angels. the announcer (harrelson i think) just stopped announcing about 2-3 minutes ago. game is much better without them, i think.
inning ended on a strikeout and they went to commercial without a word. very strange, even though i cant stand the man, i hope he’s okay.
I’d be happy with an offense that could just be a little more consistent. Once they master that, they can work up to devastatingly good.
Last year the entire offense looked like trash and the beginning of the year except for Arod and sometimes Posada, and those are the guys who are AWOL right now.
Matsui is hitting better than he did last year, Abreu is going well, and Cano is having his usual slow awakening. And Melky is doing better than a year ago! So I really don’t know where this ‘everyone looks worse’ is coming from. We don’t know what kind of full year anyone will have as of May 12.
And Dynasty, don’t worry, you’re just in deep denial about Joba, but eventually you’ll see the light too.
Poos Barry Zito, he actually had a shutout going into the 6th inning but just gave up a 2-run bomb to Lance Berkman and they’re all tied up at 3-3 going to the bottom of the inning. Still, that’s the old quality start for Zito. Who’d a thunk it.
“Maybe it’s all the older players now off roids. That and no other drugs to give them a lift.”
I thought about that too. Not that young players don’t use PED’s, but if they got off it they still have a naturally energetic feel to them that comes with being a young player.
There are tons of older everyday players that seem to rely on amphetamine usage to get their energy.
JRVJ–
But at least the Expos had Youppi.
well the announcer came back in the next inning and never explained what happened. they went to commercial after a pitching change and then had no announcer from the time they came back from commercial till the inning ended over 5 minutes later.
Nick in SF said:
“Matsui is hitting better than he did last year, Abreu is going well, and Cano is having his usual slow awakening. And Melky is doing better than a year ago! So I really don’t know where this ‘everyone looks worse’ is coming from. We don’t know what kind of full year anyone will have as of May 12.”
I agree…just think, when we add A-Rod and Posada to that mix we’ll be fine…and that should be soon!
Regarding Joba…just when do you think they’ll start to transition him? And will it be in the Minors or up here?
Usually I am very optimistic, but the return of A-Rod and Jorge will only help the team so much. They can’t play all positions or hit for everyone. THE TEAM is the problem, no speed, old age and to many back-up players. Someone posted something about how many DH’s, 1st basemen and the proclivity for DPs’. If one could reconstruct this team I would have;1-Brett Gardner CF, 2-Jeter SS, 3-Cano 2nd, 4-A-Rod 3rd, 5-Matsui DH, 6-Jorge C, 7-Melky RF, 8-Eric Duncan/Shelly 1st, 9-Justin Christian LF…Alberto, Abraham Almonte, maybe Colin Curtis, Bench. Pitchers CMW, Andy, Phil, Mike, Raz. BullPen; IPK, Farnsy, Joba(for awhile), Mo, Ohley, Robertson, and Chris.
the most surreal sport setting ive ever seen was olympic stadium, montreal was my nearest major league city when i lived in vermont. the lighting was horrible and the place was so big and devoid of anything interesting. it was built for the 1976 olympics , so its was built to hold something like 80,000 ppl. you can imagine how strage it looked with less than 9000 in attendance (which was usual) it was a huge echo chamber and fans made themselves heard by banging the metal seats. add in all the strange cheers, youpee, the scoreboard in french, it was very strange.
thank god mickey#7 isnt the G.M.! there are only 6 major league quality hittters on that roster dude! that is a guaranteed last place team in this division!
when was the last time a player not named johnny damon stole a base for the yankees?
Dynasty, I have no idea what the secret plan is for transitioning Joba. It’s all about getting him to around 140ish innings for the year. Accounting for a possible postseason just makes the calculations that much harder to do.
Just because I’d like to see Joba pitch on the big team as much as possible, I’d hope they have a plan to stretch him out without going down to AAA, but I don’t know how feasible that is, so I really have no clue.
I’m a little worried about Pettitte…is anyone else?
yeh I am too Rebecca, I keep thinking he is playing hurt or something
arod’s out, jeter’s still getting over a bad quad and damon’s been stealing. what do you want giambi and molina to try to steal b/c arod’s hurt?
JMO.. doesn’t this broadcaster have a partner (like does he do both play by play/analysis)??
“I’m a little worried…” is not how Optimists Prime should start posts.
I’m just saying.
Pettitte had his only bad start of the year tonight. he came in with a 3.77 era. he is a notorious 2nd half pitcher, so he’s way ahead of his normal season. with all the real problems the yankees have, dont go looking for problems with the guys who are performing well, like pettitte, he’s fine.
Hi Rebecca,
I know what you mean…he has been a little erratic…
But I wouldn’t worry just yet…
i guess the white sox announcers just stop annoucning when the other team is beating them up. the angels have scored 8 runs in the past half hour and the announcers only announced the sox half of the last inning, now that the angels are pouring it on, they seem to have left the booth!
yes, harrelson and another guy are in the booth but they just arent announcing the when the angels are up b/c they are beating the pants off the sox. they did cut in for about 25 seconds in this inning then went silent again for about 2 minutes before the sox changed pitchers again and cut to commercial, again without any outtro from the announcer.
now the sox are up and he’s announcing the action and doing the out of town scores. thats wierd, man…
JMO,
Shucks. I was hoping that it was a case of “he gone”…
Nick: You’re probably right…it happens when I haven’t slept.
But notice, I said a little worried. As opposed to apoplectic
Off topic but did anyone see the hightlight of Rick Ankiel’s two OF assists at 3B over the weekend? Both were no-hop strikes but on the second one the 3B didn’t have to mnove his glove to tag the runner. Some OFs get their assists from there when a runner is going from 1st to 3rd on a hit, not on fly outs when the runner is tagging from 2nd.
About 5 years ago or so (I don’t remember exactly but as most of us know) Ankiel guy was a pretty good pitching talent until suddenly he couldn’t throw strikes to save his life. Now it’s clear that all the guy had to do was step back about 210 feet.
Does anybody think Kyle Farnsworth or Brian Bruney can play OF?
i was worried that the guy had a heart attack or something. iv always known how crappy an announcer he is, i guess i just figured it wasnt possible for him to get any worse….but then again, the game without him is alot better than with him.
alot of the yankees games would also be better on tv without thier announcers. in fact alot of yankees games would be better on the radio without the announcers…
I’m a little worried about Andy too.
Ugh, I’m worried about everyone. lol
A couple of questions for my fellow message board denizens:
Do you like what Girardi is doing with the lineup-i.e., all the shuffling?
Or…
Do you prefer he pick one lineup and stick with it for an extended period of time?
If you were Joe G., what would you do?
hey S.A., I just noticed your “Trade Igawa for a candy bar” tag, I forgot I’m supposed to be buying a case of Moose bars! Thanks for the reminder, I’m going to do that right now.
Then I will try to use one to trade for Igawa’s rights. If that works, I’m trading them to the Nippon Ham Fighters. I don’t know what I’ll get for them… a case of canned ham?
canned ham would be good.
we’re about a month away from Joba’s conversion to the rotation begginning, Melancon is starting to rack up K’s in A ball he’s about 2 weeks from AA, Robertson is settling in AAA he’s about 3-4 weeks away from the Bronx, Sanchez is 2 weeks away from AA…things look bad now but really isn’t as bad as it looks
P.S. who saw Laptop hit his head on the dugout ceiling
i dont know why it matters where they hit, but the injuries and cold starts have forced girardi to switch lineups even if he wanted a regular lineup. i think the whole issue is very overrated. damon, jeter, abreu and arod have batted in thier normal positions just about every time they have played this year. who is going to be the most effecive in the #5 slot is in flux and changes depending on whether they are facing a Righty or lefty. the other guys dont really have an established battin spot and if they did would probably want to bat somewhere else. So i dont see any problem and even if we had a regular lineup, it would have been available in less than half the games so far anyway.
i think this is just something for ppl who want to blame girardi for not being in 1st place are using to suggest it means he doesnt know what he’s doing, its a non issue b/c he is just dealing with the team he has on hand each night.
“Two days after asking out of role, Gagne says he’s ready to close again”
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3393408
Alrighty…
Y’sGuy…
Are things going better now? And you are right, the line-up I put out there would not win a lot of games. But, it was fun while it lasted, they would be fun to watch anyhow. Some are giving up on the team already, ONLY 38/39 games into the season…I never give up! 27/08.
I think there are too many lineup changes this year. While there are times when you do it to rest a player, Girardi seems to think he needs to do it for every game. Why?
The injuries have messed things up a bit, but still, why rest good defense players when you have pitchers who can use all the defensive edges you can put out there? Such as Kennedy’s last game and Igawa’s.
I don’t understand why there is almost no stolen bases, or even attempts at them from this team. With all the DP they hit into, doesn’t it make sense to try stealing once in a while? Even if they are thrown out I’d rather see that then no attempts to steal and they hit into a DP.
those guys are all nice to have in the minors, but that team would suck much worse than the orioles and ppl would be in mass revolt ( at least the 1/2 of current yankee fans who will run back to the mets as soon as the yanks miss one PS) i think ichiro is one of the best players in baseball but you’d have to pay me to watch the mariners, they are horrible. watching a team lose 90 games is not fun in any way, no matter who the players are. i know; i was a yankees fan in the late 60’s and lat 80’s-early 90’s.
giradi
so you wanna see guys that cant steal go ahead and get thrown out to make up for the fact that jeter and arod have bum quads? thats real intelligent.
“Do you like what Girardi is doing with the lineup-i.e., all the shuffling?
Or…
Do you prefer he pick one lineup and stick with it for an extended period of time?”
I’d like to see him stick with the same lineup for at least 4 games in a row and see what happens. I understand his logic behind spacing out the lefties when facing certain pitchers. But his logic about giving guys rest I don’t get. It’s only May and these are supposed to be professional athletes. It’s not some accounting firm office softball league.
This is a hard to team to watch right now. It feels like we’re just sitting back waiting for home runs again.It just feels like the offense is walks and home runs and that’s not good enough. It’s just not.
I got furious tonight when Molina squared to bunt on the first pitch (which was ball 1) and then swung away into a double play on the next pitch.
Where is this small ball move the runners philosophy Girardi was supposed to bring?
I swear to God this looks like every Torre Yankees team of the past few years.
I said this a ton last season and I’ll say it again, this team needs contact hitters. .300 hitters who are not long ball guys. Guys that can handle the bat and go the opposite way to move a runner or keep an inning alive.
Some clutch professional hitting would be nice.
Watching Giambi not take advantage of the shift when the guy is a professional hitter being paid 20+ million to hit is just sad. Hitting to LF is adjustment he can try to work on. Once he gets 10 hits to LF, the shift will stop and he’ll have the right side open to him again. It’s so simple, why doesn’t he try?
The real mark that depresses me is the team is very inconsistent and shows no pluck and fight on many nights.
I think what’s been beaten into this team is this whole, “just tread water for now and we’ll catch them in July” attitude which just sucks to see as a fan.
They give away way games with the confidence that it’s a marathon and not a sprint and they just continue to make the season harder and harder for them.
Putting the pedal to the metal the past 2 seasons just to get into the post season has resulted in first round losses.
By treating the early part of the season the way they do, they turn the 2nd half into a sprint every year and when it comes time to come together, they’re gassed.
I think that Cashman needs to make some bold moves here, but I’m afraid he’s stung by this tepid start and this boring team and he doesn’t know what will work.
If this Gardner kid in AAA is hitting .300 down there and running like lightning and playing a good OF, then we need that in the lineup more than we need what we currently have on the roster.
If it means trading Damon or Matsui to let some young legs get onto the field, so be it.
This lineup looks limp most of the time and if someone isn’t hitting home runs, the team rocks itself to sleep.
Here’s the season so far; We fall apart when we face a soft throwing lefty. We fall apart when we face a hard throwing righty.
If that’s this team for real, we’re cooked.
damn where are the regular posters it’s like they cut and ran
later people I’ll be back I hope
Amen G Love…Amen.
so you think it improves the team to get rid of matsui (#2 hitter in al) or damon (on pace to score 112 runs)? id like to see you explain that away when gardner is hitting .238 by the asb!
tampa made about 4 good D plays tonight to take away hits or get DP’s the Yanks are so unathletic compared to a team like that.
I love the posts here if Wang does not win they will be swept etc.. Man seriously have these poeple ever watched baseball do they any clue??
they have not even played 40 games yet..They are hard to watch but there is a long season, I personally agree they need to get faster and more athltic sooner versus later but it is not Girardis’ fault it is 10 yrs. of trying to sign every old expensive superstar slug………
I have been a Yankee fan since the early 60’s and have seen the good and the bad seasons/teams.
Right now this team is just not one of the top 3 or 4 teams in baseball. Will they come around? Possibly.
But, the current state of baseball certainly doesn’t lend itself to the quick fix of trading a prospect or two and cash to land a very serviceable everyday player to plug a hole.
With revenue sharing and just plain smarter owners and GM’s around the league; teams don’t need the Yankee’s money and it seems like everybody has prospects that can play.
Things will get better for the Yankees as their cash resources are better than just about any other team. However, those resources have to be utilized very wisely in these times as even they seem to ultimately have limited resources when they apparently refuse to DFA certain players who are of limited value.
IMO this team needs a shake up of some sort that sends a message that just because you have a large contract doesn’t mean that you have a spot on the 40 man roster. I point to Pavano and his 10M. What kind of message does it send to the rest of the team when you won’t DFA a guy who has been of no value to you in the past and almost certainly will be of no value in his final year but yet continues to take up a roster spot. Are they (management) that ticked off at him that they won’t release him just to spite him. And no I don’t buy the insurance angle. This is about spite, plain and simple.
I live in the Tampa area and have watched the Rays last 4 or 5 games on tv. Shut down pitching (2 shut outs) excellent defense and timely hitting as well as speed to burn have made them an exciting team to watch. You can see that they have a certain chemistry that seems to imbue each player with a confidence that some way or another they will get the job done.
I have said several times over the last season or two that the Yankees just don’t have the right chemistry to be all that they can be as suggested by the sum of their parts. Too many distractions (Arod, Clemens) and too much pressure for the younger players (Hughes, Kennedy, Cano) have this team pressing to produce.
The silver lining in the clouds overhead is that it is a long season and there is plenty of time to right the ship and compete. On the other hand will they do what they need to do and will their moves be successful?
Yes, the Yankees were destroyed by distractions last year in their 95 win season.
Yeah, Pete, you were obviously completely right. Pettitte is no Igawa. 4 IP 5 ER - wow, what a difference.
G. Love I hear everything you’re saying.
Agree with it all. I just have a bad feeling about this year.
Oh sorry - I should have remembered that you wussed out Yankee fans can dish it out but you can’t take it.
Censor away, and enjoy your mediocre season and insular strokeoff blog. tards.
Time to get Igawa off the 40 man? At this point it’s time to release him…..