Today in The Journal News
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on May 14, 2009 
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Three rookies played big roles as the Yankees topped the Blue Jays.
Derek Jeter was out again and will likely miss tonight’s game as well. This notebook also has updates on Hideki Matsui, Chien-Ming Wang, Brian Bruney and Phil Coke.
The Yankees play the series finale tonight against the Jays and will have CC Sabathia on the mound.
Pete, I’m curious as to what you think about the NYU graduation at Yankee Stadium earlier this week..
http://subwaychatter.com/blog/.....n-toronto/
Look at the pictures. Apparently, they don’t want anybody sitting in those legends seats. Ever.
It appears as though there were more graduates than there were Legends seats is all
Sorry didn’t see new thread….
Coach I’m just throwing some ideas around.
Really the changes in lineups, for me at least, are more motivated by Damon and the way he’s killing the ball.
In both my lineups I have him in the 3 or 4 spot. I know he’s a career leadoff hitter. But I’ve watched every game this year and Damon is BY FAR our best bat right now. I know Tex will come around. Its not like I dropped him to 7th in the order.
Also, these would be temporary until Posada and Jeter get back. Its just with so many weak spots right now, you need to give your run producers the best chance to drive in runs.
Right now Melky and Cano get on base the most, and Damon drives them all in. The guy has a ton of RBIs from the 2 hole. Imagine if he was hitting cleanup.
“This team was built on pitching this year.”
sj44-
i agree that it was, but the strange thing is that despite little contribution from arod and teixeira the yankee offense is very close to the league lead in runs scored.
despite all the injuries, the offense has scored runs. when arod and teixeira get bacj to normal, the offense looks to be very good.
the pitching on the other hand is still dead last in the league.
that’s beyond belief. no one would have predicted this. if yankee pitching stays dead last for another 3-4 weeks, eiland will be fired whether it’s his fault or not . there would be no choice.it would be too embarrassing for the yankees for this to continue.
so eiland is on a 3-4 week leash. it shouldn’t be too hard to get off of it though. how could this starting staff continue to be this bad?
i guarantee someone like eiland who has always had to pay attention to having a job is starting to think about his job being in jeopardy. that’s not necessarily a bad thing as he should be very focused on getting some improved pitching results.
I dont understand the wanting to drop him when he is clearly coming into his own. If you didnt shuffle him before, why now, when he is starting to come around are you going to drop him. Makes no sense at all.
I don’t believe in messing with the lineups. For instance, everybody wants to move Cano up in the order.
However, if you chart his career, everytime he gets moved up, he slumps because he tries to do too much and he gets out sorts. Same thing happened this year.
He’s a guy that hits best when he is hitting 6th-8th in the order. I’d wouldn’t mess with him.
Same goes for Melky. I wouldn’t mess with him either.
Regardless of how hot Damon is, you don’t move him. You don’t mess with guys who are on hot streaks.
When it comes to Arod and Tex, I don’t care how they are hitting, you don’t move them. You start moving those guys, they start thinking, “the team doesn’t believe in me”, and that causes more problems.
Good lineups are steady lineups with guys assuming their roles in those lineups. You start trying to mix and match like its football, you mess it up.
The whole key to hitting is being relaxed and thinking as little as possible. That’s what a manager can give to his hitters by leaving them alone.
Randy,
No doubt they score a lot of runs. But, as we see, its a very inconsistent offense.
That said, its still good enough to make the playoffs if the pitching picks up.
There is no way this is the worst or second worst pitching staff in the league. I know they have pitched like it after 33 games but, there is no way they are that bad.
They have to pick it up. Now is as good a time as any.
Also, guys get pitched differently in different spots in the lineup. Damon isn’t going to see the same pitches hitting third or fourth than he is hitting second.
Same holds true for Cano.
Good lineups have a flow to them. You also have to be willing to ride out guys cold streaks.
Everybody has cold streaks during the year. If you have a lineup with a good flow to it, you are able to ride them out.
Coach, they had to put them in section 131, where they had no view of the stage! they were behind it.
They should have used the “once in a lifetime” $325 and the Legends seats. By not using the legends seats at all they had kids out by the foul poles with no view of their own graduation.
Funny, in a few years they are going to want those same people to buy those seats…
Where is Wang’s velocity!?
I’m getting impatient.
The way Tex was hitting the ball hard last night was a good sign. Also, he took a slider down and in that looked like a strike for a while. That shows that he is recognizing the pitches and should start hitting well real soon. The FB he took for a called strike 3 in his last AB, though, shows he is not out of it yet, he has been doing that far too often thus far.
The way things work, if you change Damon’s spot in the order to take advantage of the roll he is on, he will soon go cold for an extended stretch. Nobody this side of Pujols stays hot all year.
Has anyone seen an update on how IPK’s surgery went?
Hi Guys and Girls,
I’ve been reading a number of Yankee Blogs since spring training and this seems to be the place to be.
As this is my first post, I’ll introduce myself. I am a life long Yankee fan living in Conneticut. I grew up in a family split between Yankee and Red Sox fans as you can imagine being from CT. My favorite player growing up was Mickey Rivers; now a days, I’m a huge fan of the Captain.
OK OK I was just throwing out some ideas. I didn’t think the team would actually shuffle the lineup that drastically.
I understand the best thing long term is a consistent lineup.
Hi Guys and Girls,
I’ve been reading a number of Yankee Blogs since spring training and this seems to be the place to be.
As this is my first post, I’ll introduce myself. I am a life long Yankee fan living in Connecticut. I grew up in a family split between Yankee and Red Sox fans as you can imagine being from CT. My favorite player growing up was Mickey Rivers; in recent years, I’ve been a huge fan of the Captain.
Like a lot of the fans here on this blog, I have been vary high on and vary low on our team this year. Hopefully we’ll see the team get healthy and pitch better…
Talk to you all later,
Patrick
Sorry about the double post.
I’ll figure this out…
Sorry about the double post.
I’ll figure this out…
As for tonights lineup, I’d have Brett in there again but bat him 8th or 9th. These young guys don’t seem to do as well up in the order.
SJ44, give us your lineup for tonight…
I think we will know that Tex is locked in when he starts hitting balls hard to left center. He has been pulling off everything so far this year and teams are now shifting against him the way they when Giambi was here.
Tex has used the whole field his entire career (from both sides of the plate) … when he begins doing it again, he will take off because it will mean he is staying on pitches. Tex can hit for power by going the other … he has proven that already during his career. … he doesnt have to pull the ball to be a power hitter.
Patrick from CT,
Welcome to the madness. Is baseball talk off-limits when your family gets together?
Hi Patrick,
Where do you live in CT?
“Gardner laughed at the prank. “I sure hope that’s not the ball,” he said.” –From the Daily News…
I guess we can end the “Gardner needs to lighten up” chatter now?
hokiehill
Funny how T-Kep had a totally different take on it.
No, we talk baseball all the time. I have two brother in-laws that are Sox fans with my sisters being Yankee fans.
The toughest one I have to deal with is my 6-1/2 year old son that some how has become a Red Sox fan. You knoe he wouldn’t go with me to the new stadium when I made my first trip. I guess thats what I get; my father is a Sox fan…
I live near the shore in the middle of the state in a little town called Ivoryton.
Good game last night. Maybe Tex has finally turned the corner. I like Cervelli – I wasn’t expecting much, so at this point I’m pleasantly surprised. Bruney can’t come back fast enough.
We need to win tonight just to stay close in the standings. While we don’t look like a playoff-bound team now, things could change if ARod and Tex start hitting and Wang comes back and pitches like an ace. And Bruney returns. And Mo builds up his arm strength. And everyone stays healthy. And the Blue Jays pitching collapses. And Ortiz remains homerless. And Tampa Bay plays like the Devil Rays instead of the Rays. It could happen.
Boy Eric, those are a lot of “if”s…
If most happen, we should be good…
There haven’t been enough games played yet to determine who is playoff worthy and who isn’t.
Everybody is finding out what they have and what they don’t in some form or another.
If they stay close for the next month, and get the injured back healthy, along with suffering no more serious injuries, warts and all, they will be in the playoff hunt all season.
I’d like to here some linup thoughts for tonight.
Swish or Sui tonight? I think we need RH bats in there…
Check with you all later, got to get some work done.
Premium ticket prices. Hm.
For $80 per seat, per game, you could drive to Baltimore for 10 Sunday afternoon games over the season, and sit in the most expensive seats in the stadium for every single game. Include gas, tolls (if you were to drive from NY for each game) some stadium food & beer for two people at each game and it’s still not as expensive as ONE single game premium ticket at Yankee Stadium.
Yes, I know … this is the Yankees and that’s the Orioles. And unless you have a nice car and you like to drive, all that driving would be insane. But the Yanks are only a few games ahead of he Orioles, and the Orioles have a really nice park. And, no, I’m not looking to switch loyalties. Just saying.
Just saying also, that new fans don’t have loyalties yet. The price of being a Yanks fan at a game is several times as much as the price of being an Orioles fan at a game, and eventually we’ll all die off.
Welcome Patrick,
I’d love to believe Tex is showing some signs of life. It seems that way anyway. He’s hitting .304 as a righty but with only 23 ABs.
you hope jeter can play as it would be nice to put pena at 3rd and DH Alex.
OF should be Damon- Melky – Swish against the lefty.
Even after reading the quote from T-Kep, I don’t read into it anymore than Gardner saying through the media that the prank wasn’t all that good…maybe he was issuing a challenge or something
If C.C. Sabathia is anywhere near as good as his last outing, the Yankees have a chance at a 2-game win streak before heading home to face the Twins.
Tonight is the type of game for which they signed CC. The final game of a 3 game series where it’s win and win the series. Close it out CC and let’s get this season on already…