Today in The Journal News
Posted by: Chad Jennings - Posted in Today in the Journal News on Apr 05, 2010 
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The Yankees dropped their season opener against the Red Sox last night. They scored early and came back in the middle, but in the end Boston had the bats to win it.
Sam wrote that Joe Girardi is becoming more comfortable as the leader of a team that’s expected to win them all.
The good news is that the Yankees are healthy again. The notebook also has items on the possibility of using Marcus Thames on Tuesday and the potential to stick with Nick Johnson and Jorge Posada throughout the first several games of the season. Robinson Cano hit some balls hard last night, and the Yankees plan to stick with him in the No. 5 spot even if he gets off to a slow start.
Betsy how many people have to lecture you every game before you get it? You?re a problem and you ruin game threads. Your friends here baby you by saying it?s about the trolls. Read the game thread. Lots of them nicely telling you to back off. But you refuse. Stop your BS about worry. You?re plain selfish.
Cano was just fine last night. The only ball that he didn’t hit hard drove in a run.
its one game . . I’m over it . . Love the Offense .. the middle relief will work its self out .
GO YANKS !!
You just wasted valuable typing space, troll – I don’t give a flying fig what you say and I shall not be taking your advice, Ann Landers.
Marte is healthy?
NY Yanks-
Don’t speak for others.
I don’t believe for one second Betsy is the problem on game threads
Its nasty people like you who attack other posters that are a part of it
I don’t think Marte is healthy – I think his shoulder should be re-examined.
Found an interesting tidbit last night during the game, you’d think the media would do a tiny bit of research?
Chan Ho Park’s first ML appearance in 1994 was a game umpired by Joe West, a game where the dodgers got no-hit by the braves coincidentally.
If you don’t like to read what Betsy posts then don’t read it. Its simple…Betsy is far from the problem with this blog and many of is like her.
Let Gardner play every day.
Erica, thank you. I’m not going to not post because people only want to hear good things. They can ignore me if they like. This guy is probably one who thinks the Sox are awful, the Rays pathetic and the Yankees are the very best team in the whole world just because we are the Yankees. Talk about a homer……and you’re right, he’s a nasty little bugger. I’m sorry that I invoked the memory of Ann Landers when referring to this gnat; she deserved better.
Blake, thank you; I appreciate it. These guys make me laugh; I have zero respect for them, so they can’t upset me.
If she’s not a problem why do so many of the more intelligent posters lecture her all the time? Her comments are from out of space.
I find it annoying to scroll past all of the bickering, not just yours.
When you complain about having to scroll past the troll posts, just remember how you acted when they tried to give us threaded messages.
I’m confident that know the physical state of Marte’s shoulder. It’s now about how much discomfort he can tolerate, assuming he is being honest with them.
There is a reason why I don’t read nor participate in the game threads. It’s not worth the aggravation and it takes away from my enjoyment of the game.
Yeah, I don’t do the GT here either.
Marte should not be lifting weights as he does not know how to do so correctly; he had an issue last year and now this. I thought if he was healthy, he’d be a reliable guy; I’m not sure that’s possible now. They probably should DL him.
Which is worse, trolls or people who lecture the trolls and keep the acrimony going? The reason game threads break down is when you have someone like SJ, who eggs them on and gets into a back and forth like he owns the blog.
If someone thinks Park stinks (and it sure looks like the AL will be too much for him) and says so, just let go.
There were good signs and bad signs last night. End of story.
wish I had the Yes Network. It was painful listening to the ESPN2 crowd. They drilled Cano for bashing a ball off the RF wall and Drew getting a great bounce and strong throw to 2B and not getting an attempt to get there. Cano was wise to stop at 1st. Also, later Peds did the same thing to LF but his went over the monster via high pop up. ARod?s blast to LF wou;d have been gone anywhere else.
I kept hearing how Cano couldn?t hit with RISP & he was lazy. Also, that Yanks were old at their core. Grandy couldn?t hit LHP. Also every pitch that was within a block for RSox pitchers was a strike that Ump missed. (V-Mart pulled every pitch to strike zone.) Every mistake made by RSox was uncharacteristic, yet Yank?s mistakes were the norm.
The very 1st time I saw Joba shake off a pitch (twice on same pitch) Cameron blasted the fastball up the middle. Joba then lost his mojo & looked disgusted.
That’s an interesting question, about Marte. Given how well Logan and Ring pitched in ST, the Yanks certainly have options there. They must have truly believed he was healthy. If that’s the case, then he just stunk last night. That can happen, too.
The kind of game you’re glad no one has anything broken, and move on.
Chad, can you please ask what is going on with Joba? He looks nothing like the pitcher who set the world on fire in 07 and 08. Last night, his fastball was sitting at 92 mph as a reliever! There has to be something mechanically or physically wrong with him. A pitcher doesn’t lose 6 mph off his fastball in one year because of nothing.
As far as the Yankees go, ESPN is the TV version of trolls.
Robtom, it’s April 5th.
Did you watch Cano just lazily jog out of the box like he had hit a 500 foot HR? He deserved to be bashed, imo.
NY Yanks,
Its called discussion…her intentions are good.
Ray, do you have NESN? I was blacked out of ESPN2 and it seems like a good thing that I was!
blake – good? consistent, i’ll give you that, but consistently negative. That does not promote any sort of discussion other than bickering/trolling.
Joe from Long Island April 5th, 2010 at 10:07 am
As far as the Yankees go, ESPN is the TV version of trolls.
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is it strange that now pedro has lost games to us in a different uniform in the playoffs, i don’t hate him as much? he’s a clown, having more fun than anyone… and it doesn’t irk me like it used to. no longer hating pedro… whats wrong with me?
It looks like the best that can be hoped for from Joba is to be mediocre. After Beltre, his pitches had zero life to them and he looked like a million other guys in middle relief. People can say velocity doesn’t matter, but it’s a huge factor for Joba.
I have been told that my elevator does not go to the top floor.
And that I don’t have enough brain cells left to fill a thimble.
But the good part of all that is “selective forgetting” which allows me to forget the bad stuff, and move on to to the next game as if a bad one never happened.
Really works quite well.
All those beers really weren’t just for fun. They had a practical purpose.
I would need a fifth of Jose Cuervo just to make it thru the game threads.
crusher – velocity doesn’t matter when you throw the ball right over the middle. the problem with everything joba did last night, and all spring for that matter has been location.
The velocity argument is getting tired.
crusher April 5th, 2010 at 10:07 am
Did you watch Cano just lazily jog out of the box like he had hit a 500 foot HR? He deserved to be bashed, imo.
Cano took two steps just like Peds did later. When you crush a pitch it is almost human nature to not quite get to full speed. Cano would have been a sitting duck at 2B had he run hard all the way and tried for 2. Drew got a lucky bounce to his bare hand & fired a strike to 2B. You could hear the disgust in the ESPN announcers as they thought Drew would have gunned down Cano and were hoping to see it.
I thought Cano looked & played great.
No more game threads for me. There’s far too many Joe Girardi wannabes and bawlbabies thinking every game should be a 20-0 Yankee win. Critical of everything in sight.
Wait until the morning after when rational posters post some sense.
” But it would be interesting to know, behind closed doors, what the reaction was of all the folks in the Yankees’ organization, because Posada’s ability to handle pitches may well be a growing concern.”- buster olney
umm, he had 8 passed balls in all of 2009 .
buster boy should worry more about victor martinez and varitek who gave up two stolen bases already in one game and stand little chance of improving as the year goes on.
go back to milking cows buster boy.
I do think the one area of concern is Joba. He just isn’t the same pitcher. i know it’s one game and hopefully he bounces back to the pitcher he can be. But last night was more of the same. Not attacking, poor control, no bite to slider.
I could see the time come where he’s sent down to rework himself. I say this only if he continues this trend going back to last year.
Pedroia hit a deep high fly ball that was either going to be a HR or a foul ball. Cano hit a line drive that looked like a double off the bat and he should have been hustling out of the box. No excuse for the lack of hustle, but it’s not the first time we’ve seen that from Cano and it won’t be the last. it’s who he is.
IMO anyone who takes away anything from last night’s game, other than the Yankees lost, is probably reading far too much into it or doesn’t understand the ebb and flow of baseball. Anyone who thinks that any part of the first game of the season makes any kind of meaningful statement on ANYTHING or ANY PLAYER, IMO, probably needs to be watching something safer, like horseshoes.
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Last season Fran and I had our own game thread. We found it much more enjoyable than being here with the human hand grenades. I am guessing it won’t be long before we are forced into doing the same thing again.
REPOST:
I will say this about the ESPN broadcast: Orel Herchiser had some really great pitching points. And also in fairness, no one wants to watch a 10-2 beatdown, other than the fans of the winning team. It’s more exciting for most involved, even more so for the announcers, when the game goes back and forth like that.
One more thing: I like the ignore idea. Yahoo comments has a feature where certain comments aren’t seen after they have a certain ratio of negative ratings. Is there a way that can be done here? The site gets its hits, the blog would be self policed. Win-win!!
I’m not the reason for the game thread problems. Nice try though.
If Cano busted it out of the box he still would have been thrown out by Drew, who played the wall perfectly.
Cano stopping at first was not only the right play, it forced Beckett to throw more pitches and he ended up being unable to finish the inning.
He made the right call.
Stop listening to ESPN. It makes you dumber and not smarter.
Randy-
“go back to milking cows buster boy.”
A sound utterance if ever there was one.
trisha – OPPC member who sees, hears, and knows all. 28 is on its way!!!!! April 5th, 2010 at 10:09 am
Ray, do you have NESN? I was blacked out of ESPN2 and it seems like a good thing that I was!
No I don’t. I still liked seeing the game. I must admit I paused it so I could run through it quicker w/o having to listen to all the 2 bit comments. The HR by Granderson took the wind out of their sails for a moment. And they tried to downplay Posada’s HR as the Pesky pole thing. Posada drilled that ball down the line & it would have been a HR at Yankee stadium too and most stadiums IMO.
The homerism of the ESPN gang does wear one down. My favorite was Peds sliding into 1B and being called out (which he was) & announcer said he would have been safe if he slid into the front of the bag, but other guy said yeah but CC’s size 13 shoe may have crunched his hand.
One question about Joe’s plan to leave CC in:
Why he is doing any of his game planning around David Ortiz?
Trisha-
” I am guessing it won’t be long before we are forced into doing the same thing again.”
If you can stand my particular brand of insanity please let me know if you have room for one more.
“If Cano busted it out of the box he still would have been thrown out by Drew, who played the wall perfectly. ”
So what?
You still hustle down the line. Cano had no idea whether Drew would play the ball well or not? There’s no excuse for his continued laziness. How much effort does it take to bust your a** down the line?
Randy, Buster is the same guy who insisted that he and AJ shouldn’t bother working out their “problems”. He’s an idiot. Speaking of, the Newsday had a piece trying to resurrect the controversy by making it sound as if Jorge was blaming Girardi for last year; it never ends.
Blake, ignore the jerk; I don’t want you to waste your time on this guy.
“Anyone who thinks that any part of the first game of the season makes any kind of meaningful statement on ANYTHING or ANY PLAYER, IMO, probably needs to be watching something safer, like horseshoes.”
I love it.
May be some worry-warts who do nothing but flood the blog with negative comments heed to this advice and the game threads will become more enjoyable.
I have been clamoring for the Yankees to move up Cano in the lineup for a couple of years, so its good to see Girardi state plainly that Cano will bat fifth. His numbers are what they are, and they can’t be ignored, but I have always wanted to test the theory that Cano needed more responsibility and pressure in order to reach the zenith of his offensive potential.
I was watching the MLB Network prediction show, and of the nine analysts, only Al Leiter had the Yankees IN the World Series ( beating the Phillies). Verducci had the Rays and the other seven all picked the Red Sox to win the pennant.
I don’t care about analyst/writer predictions as they don’t know any better than I do, and deviant picks yield more publicity. But I was surprised that it was a 7-to-1 split in favor of the Sox. I think the Sox will be nasty and I think it is a toss-up between the Yankees and Sox, so I was surprised to see that the predictions weren’t split down the middle considering that once Arod returned last season, the Yankees went 90-44 in the regular season (wow!). I know it isn’t the same team, but I think the Yankees improved overall.
He can SEE Drew playing the ball.
He was watching the entire play unfold. Go watch the replay?
So what? lol
He made the right call, it helped get Beckett out of the game, and you are incorrectly bashing him for it.
SJ – but… but…. he’s lazy! the guys on the teevee said so!
Cano was jogging from the first step, well before the ball had hit the wall. He has no idea whether the ball would carom past Drew or not. Defend the laziness all you want. Cano dogged it, thinking he hit a HR.
crusher April 5th, 2010 at 10:20 am
I take it you never played baseball. Cano crushed that ball so hard that Drew could not even go back on it before it was over his head. Orel said it was crushed and would have been out of most parks including the FL spring training fields. Cano hustled. He also made the right call to stop at 1B.
So many folks buy into this negativism. Give it a break. People look stupid expressing thoughts that are wrong and brash.
The worst plays of the day for the Yanks were Gardner’s throw, Park’s location and Marte’s wildness.
The RSox had their share of whatever too. Ellsbury looked lost in LF, V-Mart had no clue throwing to 2B, Scutaro looked weak at SS.
Both teams had a lot of plusses too.
Maybe the bridge jumpers should take up bungee jumping without the bungee ?
Who would clean the mess though ?
crusher your wrong, he had no shot at a double
cano made the right play
It’s funny that there are certain posters that are considered more intelligent than others and yet guys who excelled at the major league level like Morgan and Hersheiser don’t know what they’re talking about when they called Cano out for dogging it.
i thought there was an excellent core of posters on the blog last night.
it’s not possible to really watch the game and read all the comments.
what i do is read about ten people, interact with them and skip the rest.
it goes without saying that the dans don’t get read.
crusher you are a moron, stop posting
Cano was 2 for 5, w/ a RBI and a run scored, so why exactly is he being criticized?
I am very tired of the “lazy” comments.
patrick you are a moron, stop posting
But, sniff, sniff, my heroes on ESPN said he didn’t hustle.
Good God man, learn something.
The ball was crushed. Usain Bolt wasn’t getting to second base on that hit.
Give it a rest.
Cano is so often mis-characterized as lazy out of the box. When he swings his body is either completely still after he swings through the ball or his momentum is going backwards after he swings through the ball. Last night Cano’s momentum went backwards after he swung through. It is very difficult to look fast or be fast out of the box with the way Cano swings.
Of all players to be criticized for last night, Cano is not one of them.
“It’s funny that there are certain posters that are considered more intelligent than others and yet guys who excelled at the major league level like Morgan”
If Ego was money Joe Morgan would be a Bizzillionaire.
Arguing about the Cano single is almost crazy.
A hit to right field is right in front of him and Drew had the ball before he got to first, busting it or not. It was perfectly played.
If he had gone for two and been thrown out the compliant would be how “dumb” he is instead of “lazy”.
Yes sir, SJ!
The great SJ knows more about baseball than Joe Morgan and Orel Hersheiser, lol.
Our little child said it himself…
If they said it on ESPN, it must be true.
Another young mans brain taken away by the clowns in Bristol.
Haha you are quoting Joe Morgan as a reliable expert. This is funny. The guy is a blowhard, firejoemorgan.com was created for a reason.
“A hit to right field is right in front of him and Drew had the ball before he got to first, busting it or not. It was perfectly played.”
Cano went into a HR trot IMMEDIATELY, well before the ball had even gotten to the wall. The guy is chronically lazy.
crusher – do you honestly think that if you keep posting the same thing over and over, we’ll start believing you?
I thought ARod’s crushed line drive off the top of the Green Monster was a site for sore eyes. The crew on ESPN were spell bound. They said to their credit that it would have been out anywhere else as it was still going up when it hit the wall.
Also, the Posada HR was played down as luck, but moments later Granderson crushed the ball out. There were lots of Yankee Highlights. Yes RSox won, but Yanks were the better team. Cameron & Beltre looked good, but Cameron threw to the wrong base (3B) on one play trying to get Gardner which was really dumb. V-Mart looked clueless behind the plate jerking every pitch to a strike and his throws were weak.
The Cano hate is laughable and quite sad as well.
On this issue little man, not only do I know more than they do on that play, so does everybody else commenting on here in this thread.
You are just another victim of ESPN brainwashing.
Perhaps the new health care plan will offer an affordable remedy for you.
And if you watch the play, you will see that Cano lazily jogs at first and then gives a half-hearted attempt to speed up when he sees the ball isn’t going out of the park.
I do confess that I will take the analysis of Morgan and Hersheiser over anyone here.
Wow. What’s with all the Cano bashing??? ‘Cause he really had a lot to do with why they lost last night
MTU, you would be more than welcome. I’ll keep you posted. If the lohud guys don’t either set up some kind of alternate thread or install an ignore button, I’m sure we’re headed in that direction.
BBFan – although I’m one of the most optimistic people on the face on the planet, unfortunately I don’t feel too much optimism about this ever turning into an enjoyable place during game threads.
crusher – then go post on their website and go away.
crusher April 5th, 2010 at 10:30 am
You are flat wrong! Morgan did not call him out! Morgan said that Cano crushed that ball and thought it was a HR and that it would have been in FL or most other parks. He went on to say Cano made the right play stopping at 2B.
I don’t know what kind of opinion you want to make, but get your facts straight.
Cano is so lazy he ought to be demoted to the minors for rehab.
He should be sippin’ Pina Colada’s on a Dominican beach somewhere instead of playing for the Yankees.
He’s a no good bum who can’t hit, field, throw, or run.
I think the Yankees should put him on waivers and see if they can get anything for him.
I doubt it though. Who would want him.
“On this issue little man, not only do I know more than they do on that play, so does everybody else commenting on here in this thread. ”
your arrogance knows no bounds, but it is amusing…
actually, the announcers did a better job than usual last night. one of them astutely pointed out how Park pitched scared from the start, pitching backwards and not challenging the hitters.
“You are flat wrong! Morgan did not call him out! Morgan said that Cano crushed that ball and thought it was a HR and that it would have been in FL or most other parks. He went on to say Cano made the right play stopping at 2B.
I don’t know what kind of opinion you want to make, but get your facts straight.”
lol, did you watch the game? they kept showing the replay and saying Cano should have hustled out of the box.
stopping at 1B & not going to 2B. Orel said he should have tried for 2B.
“crusher – then go post on their website and go away.”
ummmmmm……….no.
MTU (aka GBURL) April 5th, 2010 at 10:40 am
Cano is so lazy he ought to be demoted to the minors for rehab.
He should be sippin? Pina Colada?s on a Dominican beach somewhere instead of playing for the Yankees.
He?s a no good bum who can?t hit, field, throw, or run.
I think the Yankees should put him on waivers and see if they can get anything for him.
I doubt it though. Who would want him.
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I must say though, I would gladly join him on a Dominican beach ‘sippin Pina Coladas-in the off season of course.
I don’t think you realize how comical it is that you are putting any stock into Joe Morgan’s opinions. He’s stupid, you’re stupid, go away
Can we just ignore trolls?
Please?
crusher – park had no control, he almost put the first pitch in some guys ear, and before the end of the at bat he handed the guy on 3b a run. were you watching the game or just listening to the ESPN announcers?
The way Cano plays LOOKS lazy. But it’s really not. He just makes things look so easy. I apologize on his part for him not diving for balls 4 steps to his right like Pedroia, or sliding headfirst into 1st like Pedroia, or basically him not being Pedroia. Happy now?
i’ve never paid much attention to scutaro.
his arm sure looked weak for a shortstop.
a well placed lob over to first that the runner beats by a step or a ball that scutaro eats because he doesn’t have the arm to get the runner doesn’t go down as an error , but i don’t see how a team is pushing defense when they have a pop gun arm at shortstop.
Erin
don’t worry, we have your guy’s back! It is only one person doing the bashing.
Your stupidity knows no bounds.
Using Joe Morgan to back up your POV is comical, given Morgan’s history in the booth.
It’s ok to say “I’m wrong” on this one.
To continue to state your incorrect POV isn’t making you anymore correct.
Come on guys, let the boy vent his feelings. After a while he gets tired and falls asleep just like my little nephew of 2.
upstate kate April 5th, 2010 at 10:45 am
Erin
don?t worry, we have your guy?s back!
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thanks kate! Good to know
“Your stupidity knows no bounds. ”
This is hilarious.
SJ, you may like to think so, but you do not know more about baseball than a couple of former all star major league ballplayers. Their opinions carry more weight than any of ours.
what a waste it is to have a yankee’s-redsox series anywhere near opening day. no one is ready to play, or pitch, and its basically a coin flip every time out for the first 2 weeks. sigh.
crusher April 5th, 2010 at 10:41 am
Yes I watched the Game. I also saw Cano take two steps somewhat timidly before breaking fullspeed. I’m sorry you don’t like it, but it is something that comes somewhat natural when you crush a pitch. Joe Mo said so too. Did you watch the game????
The announcers had a card in front of them that read like this:
RSox are great.
CC is out of shape & tires easily.
Cano loafs.
ARod is on Peds.
Granderson can’t hit LH.
Tex starts slow.
NJ is fragile.
They repeated this crap all night long. Meanwhile their Mr Hustle Peds slides into 1B head first risking injury and is out still. He would have beat the throw running. He made a dumb play but was rewarded for getting dirty. Peds also took 2 to 3 steps jogging to 1B on his pop up HR. It could have hit the top of the wall and he could have been held to a single too. But Peds was dirty already so it is a good thing.
crusher – you may like to think so, but we don’t give a crap what they said. get it through your head.
While I didn’t have the ESPN2 feed and so cannot comment on exactly what was said, it would greatly surprise me to hear that Joe Morgan criticized anything about Robinson Cano. He loves Robby and it’s one of the things I’ve really respected about Morgan – he recognized Robby’s talents early on and never stopped raving about them.
Incidentally, the NESN commentators (and Remy is noted for being objective) said that the ball hit so hard that Robby was forced to keep it to a single. Doesn’t sound like they detected any laziness in Robby.
Robby knows how to play baseball,
I would say ignore the troll, but it’s fun watching SJ toy with him.
I think we need a change of subject. Who looked worse, Steven Tyler or Neil Diamond?
TomB, I’m probably in the minority here, but I kind of like opening with the Ped Sox. Yes, I know Opening Day is exciting enough, but I think playing the Sox makes it more exciting by stressing the importance of a fast start against our biggest division rival. It’s fun.
I don’t however, enjoy the long stretches in mid-summer without playing them. But I don’t think three games upfront is a bad thing at all.
rayvt – he would not have beat the throw running, diving headfirst into 1B is the absolute fastest way to get there.
I want to know why a bigger deal isn’t being made of the collection of post-steroid users on the redsox? ortiz, drew, victor, cameron, beltre… it’s like they scouted directly off the mitchell report.
Not when they are wrong little boy.
The EFFECT of Cano stopping at first helped knock Beckett out if the game.
Did your heroes in the booth notice that? Nope.
Playing the game doesn’t mean you are good in the booth. As Joe Morgan shows each week.
It’s all relative, Randy. Last year they got neither offense nor defense from SS (maybe a little D when Gonzalez returned, but even he was a pale comparison of what he was). If he plays right around average defense and gets on base at a .345 or so clip, he’s Ruth and Ozzie rolled into to one compared to what they went with last year.
Was Steven Tyler the one who sang the whole song or the one that joined in at the end?
blake – that is an incredible question…
trisha – OPPC member who sees, hears, and knows all. 28 is on its way!!!!! April 5th, 2010 at 10:50 am
Morgan didn’t have anything negative to say about Cano! You are right he loves him. He is partial to all 2B. LOL!
Wow.
Used to be the morning after a loss, even if the game thread was like wading through trash, the discussion the day after was a lot more cogent and a lot less toxic.
I hate player bashing. If a player makes a mistake, like Gardner’s throw, it’s reasonable to expect people to criticize and suggest he needs to make some adjustments, etc. But the Cano stuff is over the top and totally unwarranted. In fact, if this were last season, I’d be willing to bet Cano tries for that double, is thrown out and is roundly and correctly criticized for doing so.
I, too, would love an ignore button. Sure, one can scroll past the trolls and stupidity, but it becomes very tedious in games like last night, when the mood changes quickly. It’s like they’re lying in wait for the perfect moment to pounce. I don’t think it’s fair that the reasonable discussions have to suffer, and good posters be discouraged from sharing the game with each other (bodhi – don’t go!) because some people just love to bait other people and see the reaction.
Some really good things in last night’s game. If Marte’s not hurt, then, he wasn’t sharp at all and hopefully that will rectify itself. Chan Ho Park – well, the way I look at, he was due for a clunker – wish it came last week!
About Fenway Park. Well, they build their team to excel in their park. So do the Yankees. At this point, it’s not a big deal. I just think it’s funny how the Yankees apparently play in a wind tunnel enhanced band box because they have a relatively short porch in right, but no one in the general media really ever talk about how, for instance, Dustin Pedroia would be half the hitter he is if he didn’t play half his games at Fenway.
It’s faster to run through the bag at first than to dive. In order to dive, the runner has to slow down first. Negative Zero advantage to diving.
“The announcers had a card in front of them that read like this:
RSox are great.
CC is out of shape & tires easily.
Cano loafs.
ARod is on Peds.
Granderson can’t hit LH.
Tex starts slow.
NJ is fragile.”
Okay, let’s look at these….
–Are the Red Sox great? Obviously they’re very good.
–Does Cano loaf? He sure did on that single off the wall.
–Arod got plenty of praise last night.
–Granderson hits under .200 vs lefties, so that’s accurate
–Tex does start slow, so that’s accurate
–NJ is injury prone, so that’s accurate
So what’s your beef? That they don’t fawn over the Yanks enough? NY got plenty of praise for much of the game and only when idiotic plays were made (like Gardners throw) or the horrific bullpen came into play, did they start to get criticized.
ESPN Sunday night team vs Foxs bunch…who would you rather listen to? that’s a mind bender…
Trisha, Morgan made a good point after Cano’s single about how the ball JUMPS off of Cano’s bat. He hits everything hard. IIRC Morgan said he hits like Rod Carew, with line drives everywhere. Also said he can still see Cano winning a battting title. He was one of the 1st to say it, so it’s good to see he’s sticking to his guns.
“i thought there was an excellent core of posters on the blog last night.
it’s not possible to really watch the game and read all the comments.
what i do is read about ten people, interact with them and skip the rest.”
Agreed. It tough with game threads obviously. But it’s also unfortunate when the good posters don’t participate because by that process of natural selection the threads just spiral and get worse.
I’d like to see the good posters post more frequently during the games. Even if the good posters don’t read the threads just post your thoughts and read a select few people.
The more good posts get made the more the nonsense just gets turned into noise. Noise that becomes easier to skip.
Doreen, take a shot at guessing Pedroia’s season stats if he played in Seattle or Citifield!!!
GB7 – you do not have to slow down to dive, i don’t know where you came up with that. it’s absolutely proven to be faster if you dive headfirst and land on the bag, if you land and slide then it can be slower(but isn’t every time). the second you dive you are 6 feet closer to the bag(or 5 feet in pedroia’s case i guess).
Cano didn’t know off the bat where the ball was going to hit off the wall. He didn’t know Drew was going to catch the ball off the wall with his hand. You can’t go wrong by busting it out of the box right away, you can decide later whether you are going to go for a double or not.
Tom B – April 5th, 2010 at 10:53 am
I beg to differ. When a runner leans forward he slows down. Also the risk of injury is greater. We use to do drills in HS & college diving into 1B versus running. Although it may appear faster every time it was slower. A head first dive into 2B or 3B to go for an angle to avoid a tag is appropriate.
What the hell was with Swisher’s angle on that triple? He looked like a beer league softballer.
The only time you should dive into first base is if you sense an errant throw and get down to avoid a sweep tag…otherwise as GB7 said you slow yourself down by sliding and its faster to run hard through the bag.
“The EFFECT of Cano stopping at first helped knock Beckett out if the game. ”
Cano still could have stopped at first if he has bothered to put any effort into running hard out of the box. The end result of the play, whether it was to stop at first, make it to second or get thrown out, doesn’t excuse the blatant laziness and lack of hustle.
Doreen, I thought the game thread was fine for the most part until one guy started his thing; I enjoyed the conversation there last night. As I said before, just scrolling by his garbage was not easy because I was inevitably forced to gaze upon it.
i’m not talking about sliding. forget it.
If diving headfirst got you somewhere quicker than running through, then wouldn’t track and field sprinters dive across the finish line???
Tom B – April 5th, 2010 at 10:58 am
GB7 – you do not have to slow down to dive, i don’t know where you came up with that. it’s absolutely proven to be faster if you dive headfirst and land on the bag, if you land and slide then it can be slower(but isn’t every time). the second you dive you are 6 feet closer to the bag(or 5 feet in pedroia’s case i guess).
———————————————————————————————————————-
Which is contrary to what every ex-ball playing annoucers says. You don’t run as fast as you can and just throw yourself on the bag, and in order to get in possition to dive, yeah, you do need to slow down, however slight that might be.
crusher April 5th, 2010 at 10:56 am
LOL! How about the same things for the RSox:
Ortiz can’t hit a barn if it were in front of him.
Ellsbury has no arm.
Scutaro can’t get to a ball more than a step away & has no arm.
V-Mart looks lost behind the plate & has no arm or judgement on when to throw.
I would have posted more last night but I was too wrapped up in the game. Also the news about McNabb broke right around game time and that was a distraction considering he’s my favorite player on my favorite team
New Post: The view from behind the plate
if the yankees and red sox played every game of a 162 game schedule with this year’s teams, i think the yankees would win about 53% and the red sox about 47%.
i think they’d beat the red sox by about 8 games playing head to head.
but 53% is so close to 50% in the short run, games are essentially a coin flip.
you just can’t get that revved up over any one game .
you may begin to see some trends , but it really will take 30-40 games before there is any real separation between the teams that we can see.
to make a big deal about a play like cano’s rocket is ludicrous. there may not be another play like that this year.
if there is cano will be the first player since ted williams to hit .400.
“Trisha, Morgan made a good point after Cano’s single about how the ball JUMPS off of Cano’s bat. He hits everything hard. IIRC Morgan said he hits like Rod Carew, with line drives everywhere. Also said he can still see Cano winning a battting title. He was one of the 1st to say it, so it’s good to see he’s sticking to his guns.”
But SJ says Morgan doesn’t know what he’s talking about, so Cano has no chance at a batting title.
favorite player formerly on my favorite team
SJ44
If I can be completely honest, you should probably just ignore crusher. And should have ignored Dan last night.
I really enjoy your posts and I think we’re getting robbed of some good, solid discourse when the trolls get your attention and the attention of other posters.
Having said that, I agree with your analysis of the Cano play and thought the same thing. Drew made an amazing play on the ball and Robbie would have been out no matter how hard he ran.
Everything last night broke the wrong way, but our team showed a lot of positive things. You can’t expect the bullpen to be lights out coming out of Spring training, but everyone looked decent besides Marte. Without Fenway, there’s no way Pedroia or Youkilis get the double and the homerun.
Really not sure why Cano is even a discussion.
He played a very good game last night. He did a good job of situational hitting driving in that run from third with less than two outs.
He smoked that ball to RF and had the play in front of him. People might ridicule JD Drew but when he’s on the field he’s one of the best defensive RF in the game. He as good range, a strong arm and knows how to play RF in Fenway.
Cano tries for two on that play and Drew throws him out. Staying at first was the right play, no question about it.
That’s just baseball. Cano scolds the ball and hits it almost too hard to safely try and take the extra base, especially given the way Drew played it perfectly. Youkilis hits a pitch much less well to RF but Swisher completely misplays it and Youkilis winds up on third rather than second.
Those two plays are good examples of how defense impacts games in ways that don’t show up in the box score.
If Yokilis is on 2b rather than 3rd Robertson very well might have pitched Beltre differently.
RF defense last night was part of why the Sox won last night.
That’s not on Cano. He played very well.
Ray I actually have loved listening to Morgan gush about Cano. He probably does favor 2B, but he thinks that Robby is the absolute bomb. I hooked onto it when I was taking a lot of heat for singing Robby’s defensive praises (again my perspicacity, Doreen! ha ha ha) . I called it before I heard Morgan talk about it, but I figured that I wasn’t in bad company if an HOF 2B saw what I was seeing!
Doreen, I think that the fenway bandbox and its favorability to its players isn’t given nearly the attention it should be! When some Yankee fans say we shouldn’t be using the HFA of fenway as an excuse for the Suxers winning, all I can say is this: only two teams had winning records on the road and the Suxers weren’t one of them. Yet they had an astounding winning record at home. That tells me everything I need to know, especially since the New York Yankees happened to be one of the two teams with a winning road record. Looks like they didn’t need the “comfort” of the Stadium to get the job done!
“LOL! How about the same things for the RSox:
Ortiz can’t hit a barn if it were in front of him.
Ellsbury has no arm.
Scutaro can’t get to a ball more than a step away & has no arm.
V-Mart looks lost behind the plate & has no arm or judgement on when to throw.”
–Ortiz’s bat has slowed considerably.
–Ellsbury does not have a good arm (much better than Gardner, though)
–Scutaro is average defensively, but does get big hits
–Martinez is weak defensively, so why does Winn not run? And it’s too bad that the Yanks now have a number two hitter that can’t take advantage of a catcher’s weakness.
PeePee Hands April 5th, 2010 at 11:00 am
What the hell was with Swisher?s angle on that triple? He looked like a beer league softballer.
LOL! Yeah Swisher did look funny. It appeared he hesitated to run harder or dive for it & then decided to play chase. That was not a good angle to take on the ball, but in all fairness it was hit a lot harder than he probably thought it was. It is easy to make those judgements watching on TV or the stands, but it is harder on the field. The ball most likely was slicing away from him too to make it even more difficult.
CB-
The point isn’t whether Cano should have tried for a double. The point is that Cano wasn’t in position for a double if something good had happened, for instance Drew doesn’t catch the ball off the wall cleanly. He ought to have run full out from the start, anything else is just a post hoc excuse.
Is it still Spring Break? The children are out…
Ignore the twerp.
Betsy -
That’s the thing – it’s easy to say scroll past, but you really can’t – you’re eyes are drawn and you still notice enough to be annoying. The game post was peachy as long as the Yankees had the lead. But once the Red Sox started to come back into the game, it got a lot less fun. Well, on the one hand, the game is no longer as much fun, so that part is understandable. But as I said, it’s the bashing and the trolls (the baiting) that gets to me.
I truly don’t know if the answer is more of the “reasonable” posters try to stick it out and rise above the “distraction,” of if they should stop coming to the game threads in order to get the blog to do something about adding an ignore button or something.
While this is America, and everyone’s entitled to his/her opinion, some clearly are less concerned about making valid points or posing their opinions, and instead like to incite discourse. Like some recent political folks, but I’ll leave that alone.
Regardless, everyone, even the trolls, have valid points from time to time. The hard part is acknowledging the good points and ignoring the bs that may surround it. Usually, I ignore the trolls. We can agree to disagree, but some people are just annoying for the sake of being annoying.
It’s like they don’t get enough attention (or probably enough of something else), so they seek the attention here. Sad. So very sad.
“The more good posts get made the more the nonsense just gets turned into noise. Noise that becomes easier to skip.”
cb-
i like that idea of posting thoughts and observations even if you don’t have time to read a lot of posts during the game because after games i hit command f on my mac and check out posters i like to read and just click my way through that posters comments.
pat m for example is easy to miss in the game flow because he doesn’t say much, but what he does say is something i want to read. it makes for good after game conversation.
i think that we on the blog need a discipline like a hitter at bat needs to have and only swing at strikes and let the “pitches” out of the zone go by without biting at them.
“I truly don’t know if the answer is more of the “reasonable” posters try to stick it out and rise above the “distraction,” of if they should stop coming to the game threads in order to get the blog to do something about adding an ignore button or something.”
doreen-
all posters on the blog should have 10 virtual pizza slices that they can throw at any other poster’s comments that they want .
whenever someone is annoying you, you throw a pizza slice at their post and it covers up ten percent of what they say.
if a troll comes on they can throw ten pizzas but over a thousand comments they aren’t going to block out much.
on the other hand, the blog can throw about a thousand pizza slices at a troll’s comments.
they’d be slimed right out of commission.
plus it’d be really fun to throw pizza slices to vent.
and even between the regular posters, i can see some interesting pizza tosses taking place