Today in The Journal News
Posted by: Chad Jennings - Posted in Today in the Journal News on Apr 16, 2010 
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The Yankees once again took two of three games in a series, beating the Angels 6-2 last night at Yankee Stadium. Robinson Cano had two home runs, but the night belonged to Phil Hughes who made his season debut with five-plus innings, allowing three hits and striking out six.
During the game, Chan Ho Park was forced to stop throwing in the bullpen when he felt discomfort in his hamstring. He’ll be reevaluated today. The notebook also has items on Randy Winn and two more rings being distributed. Before the game, the Yankees honored Jackie Robinson and everyone wore his number 42 throughout the night.
Randy, lol – I never thought about it like that. I would rather have Jorge for the long haul than have him get bowled over and hurt on a play at the plate. I wish the ump had made the right call as I feel uncomfortable being the beneficiary of a lucky break, but I guess we’ll be on the receiving end in the not too distant future.
I really think it stinks that the pitcher has to adjust to the umpire’s notion of the strike zone instead of the umpire actually calling pitches according to the actual zone.
Last night was a great night for Yankee fans: Phil pitched well, Cano continues to scorch the ball and Grandy was dandy (sorry, lol).
Good morning, all –
1. I thought Phil pitched a bit better than the results. It really looked like he wasn’t getting some of the calls, esp. later in the game. Reading the prior post by Chad that he purposely stayed away from showing the Angels the change up, and it means the rest of his stuff was good enough.
I don’t know, Pat, maybe I’m too optimistic, but I think Phil might get more than 13 wins.
2. Hope Park doesn’t have a serious hamstring problem. My guess is that 1)he gets an MRI today, 2)if it’s anything that will take more than a couple of days, that he gets dl’d, and Logan comes up to fill in for the time as a second lefty.
Off to work.
As Chad wrote also, Phil kept the ball down…He really wasn’t missing by that much; it’s not like he was all over the place.
Have a good day, Joe!
Heading out for the weekend!
Happy Yankee watching
“but when has Posada ~Lately~ called an almost No Hitter? ”
August 7, 2009
2-0 win in 15 innings against the Sox.
Ellisbury got a single to lead-off the game against Burnett, and did not get their 2nd hit until Rivera gave up a single to Ortiz with 2 outs in the 9th.
That’s 26 consecutive batters without giving up a hit, in case it wasn’t clear.
Caught a total of 14 innings, in which Boston got 4 singles.
The Internet is useful!
From last post – Stuckey- You actually win the argument, because in practice, you are right.
But I’ve witnessed many of the best umps calling a repeat borderline pitch a strike, simply because of a pitcher’s insistent precision.
I think Phil will eventually learn to pitch to contact with his cutter and learn to get hitters out quickly with it. Thats what Doc does. SJ was right in the previous thread…if he pitches like that all year he will win a ton of games this year.
That’s why I said last night that every start is also a learning process. In the NJ.com article by Carig yesterday, it mentioned that while the Yankees think Joba is a finished product, they think Phil is one year away from that.
The umpires are not computers. It is not like they are back there purposefully saying I am going to call pitches in the zone balls. They think those pitches are out of the strike zone. They also do not have the benefit of going to a computer between innings and checking out the strike zone plot to see if they are missing anywhere.
They are humans. If you want humans calling balls and strikes you are not going to get an absolutely consistent strike zone from ump to ump and you are going to get missed calls. You live with it and hope it balances it out at the end of the game with getting strike calls on actual balls.
So happy for Phil getting his 1st win, something Javier couldn’t do. It has to be a real confidence boost. Now why couldn’t Joba get the final out ?
Randy, I was wondering what you thought about Phil last night, but I saw your comment in the previous thread. Finally, Phil seems healthy and ready to start living up to his potential.
The umpire had no low strikezone last night, and Phil adjusted and persevered. He still throws too many pitches and doesn’t challenge guys like we know he can, but it’s a great start.
GFD – because it was jackie robinson day, and they got Mo a save. Jeter missing that ground ball looked real sketchy to me.
“because it was jackie robinson day, and they got Mo a save. Jeter missing that ground ball looked real sketchy to me.”
I think there is a zero percent chance that was the case. He just missed it…
LGY
You are right on with your comments about the umpires. Nothing has really changed in the history of the game. They make some calls and miss some. Another ump behind the plate may have given Phil a couple of calls, yet may have called Matsui safe. I look at it as a part of the game. The only umpire decision I want to see made this year is that Joe West can’t umpire any Yankee games the rest of the year, including the playoffs. The man has spoken words that show he has a biased against the Yankees and Sox as well.
Below is Andy’s strike zone plot from Game 6 of the WS.
He was getting squeezed up, down, left, and right. He was able to get through 5 2/3 though on 94 pitches. As Phil gains more experience and learns to better trust his stuff so he can pitch to contact more in certain situations he will be able to do what Andy did.
Phil looked very good last night and that is a big plus in his first start. Phil is a smart kid. He will pick this stuff up quick.
http://www.brooksbaseball.net/.....v_size=500
blake – no reason to bring Mo in for 1 out otherwise. i understand it’s extremely out of the box, but i’m not looking for opinions on the matter either.
The umpires are correct in calling balls & strikes perhaps as high as 75% of the time. It’s the 25% that can be crucial in the outcome of games resulting in higher pitch counts.
If umpires knows they stand a chance of getting overruled by a camera, it could cause them to concentrate better.
At present they’re well aware that a player or manager arguing calls on balls & strikes will be rejected from the game. They hold the upper hand in that respect of the game.
How fitting was it that on Jackie Robinson day the umpires paid tribute by giving back the bad call of Robinson being called safe on his steal of home against the Yankees.
I wonder what the hell the umpire was doing on the Matsui play at the plate. I understand it worked out in our favor… this time… Please get your fat lazy butt up the line so you can see the play at the plate. I saw an umpire take this same improper position in the Dodgers game last night too.
I feel honored to be part of the theme song for the Yankees so far this season ……..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8JA9Qs2Mho
Small sample size factoid:
“Curtis Granderson tripled against Scott Kazmir. He is 4-for-12 off lefties this year and is hitting .333. You know what he is hitting against righties? You got it, .333, as well.”
Unless baseball uses some sort of technology to call balls and strikes, taking the umps completely out of calling balls and strikes. To have a possible 300 pitches up for review would be crazy. Part of the game. Any kind of review just slows the game.
Granderson running out the long fly to the wall turning it into a triple as opposed to what Thames did in the 2nd inning on his long shot was just another in a long line of reason I love this guy.
Hopefully they get the game in tonight.
Granderson running out the long fly to the wall turning it into a triple as opposed to what Thames did in the 2nd inning on his long shot was just another in a long line of reason I love this guy.
—————————-
True. But at least Thames was upset with himself. He didnt just play it off as no big deal. Bottom line, if he’s going to be a part time player and continue to hit .500, he can cadillac it anytime he wants. haha
Phil Columbus – you mean some soft of technology… like this? http://tinyurl.com/y43cmx5
Phil pitched a good game. You don’t want to see 5 BB but 2 of them could’ve easily been Ks. I though he made perfect pitches to Abreau and Aybar. But that happens. When he misssed he didn’t miss by much. The Angels only got 3 hits off him and Matsui was about the only hard hit ball. Hughes used all of his pitches and 6Ks is great. I especially liked the movement on his FB, boring up and in to the RHB. Considering it was his 1st start and he hasn’t pitched vs ML hitters in 3 weeks he was good. Phil has a bright future and I look forward to his next start vs Oakland!
Tom,
Michael Kay noted how quickly Granderson got out of the box last night, and so on the replay I really focused on what Granderson did.
He did not look at the ball. He hit it, put his head down and RAN.
My husband said, “That’s how you play the game!”
When you think about it, there is no reason for a guy to stand and watch the trajectory of a fly ball. If it’s a HR, you’ll know soon enough and then you can break into a trot; if it’s an out, you’re out; if it falls in, you’ve probably assured yourself of an easy 2-base hit or more if you’ve got speed.
The time to admire your own HRs is in the clubhouse on video.
I think Grandy thinks triple every time he hits one past an OF. He really hustles!
Tom B
That sure is a ton of info and that was the first chart. I want to know if “Nibbley” a new baseball term we will be dealing with soon?
Nibbleness is the arithmetic mean of the distance of each pitch, in inches, from the edge of a normalized strikezone. Lower indicates “more Nibbley”.
Even when Granderson hits ones that are pretty much off-the-bat gone he still runs them out hard. That one off Papelbon was 5 rows back or so and he still flew out of the box. Very commendable. Don’t see that too often nowadays.
He was definitely upset with himself CountryClub, and it was good to see. You know Girardi chewed him out too. For a guy who is only on this roster by a hair, he knows he needs to to better.
Doreen – precisely my point. seeing guys playing the game the right way makes me happy
Tom B,
you gave your opinion on the matter…they brought Mo in because he didn’t want to give the Angels any chance to win and he only needed one out. I highly doubt Jeter tanked a ground ball to give Rivera a cheap save….just not who he is.
I think Phil Hughes did an amazingly good job. I probably don’t hold all Yankee players to the seemingly impossibly high standard that some other posters do, so that perspective may not ring true to everyone. For his first time out, in what had to be pressure-packed for him because after all this is NY and the entire world was sitting in wait, with parts of the media I’m sure ready to pounce on anything they could, he was totally poised and in control. I think we can all agree that at least some of the pitches that were called balls were actually strikes. How many walks would he have had in actuality? Who knows.
If Phil Hughes gave us that same kind of performance every time out, we probably couldn’t complain too loudly – though I’m sure some would. But I think we can expect that there will be improvement over time.
I see Phil as a future leader of the rotation and certainly as one of its anchors. I am as sure of that as I am that the Yankees will take home number 28 this year.
“It is not like they are back there purposefully saying I am going to call pitches in the zone balls.”
I agree with the “human aspect.” However, what they are back there purposefully saying to themselves is, “if we see a borderline pitch for a Yankees pitcher, it AINT getting called, but if there is a borderline pitch for the opposing pitcher, I might/will give the call to him.”
Phil pitched well for his 1st start of the year. If you compare him to the other 4 starters, he had the 2nd best debut. Nothing wrong with that.
Lotta good stuff about last night’s game, but Jerry Layne behind the plate was not one of them. No strikes at the knees makes for a much longer game. Maybe Jerry and Joe West could sit down over a side of beef and discuss how pathetic and disgraceful that is…..
He absolutely should have gotten a better angle on the Matsui play at the plate, but it was a bang-bang play and the ball beat him and that’s almost always called an out anyway.
People should stop making excused for Jorge’s unwillingness to block the plate. He’s given up many runs over the years doing that and it’s bad baseball. I would argue it’s his greatest weakness as a player. I love him. but you have to take throws in front of the plate.
Hughes was excellent, but I would also like to see him challenge hitters more. Still it was a very solid outing and something to build on. NYYROC is right that two of the W should have been K which would have made his outing that much better.
I have been pro-Granderson from day one when many here viewed him as a platoon player. He’s got a better chance of being an All-Star than a platoon guy.
LGY
I dont even mind so much getting cheated in regular season games. It’s playoff games that ANGER me.
Like Game 6 of the World Series.
Why were there not many missed calls for Pedro, and in fact, gift calls for Pedro. But for Andy, it was squeeze-city.
I KNOW WHY! I can only hope there are others that know why as well. They were trying to cheat us out of a World Series, bottom line.
“I agree with the “human aspect.” However, what they are back there purposefully saying to themselves is, “if we see a borderline pitch for a Yankees pitcher, it AINT getting called, but if there is a borderline pitch for the opposing pitcher, I might/will give the call to him.” ”
Again, conspiracy theorists NEED to explain the holes in their theory.
Why was Matsui called out?
I would just want to see Phil finish 6 innings going forward. Just a little easier on the bullpen.
“He’s got a better chance of being an All-Star than a platoon guy.”
yup, even if he didn’t progress against lefties he’s still too valuable defensively to platoon. He’s a much better CF’er than many were giving him credit for this winter.
Give umpires augmented reality visors that use the pitchFX system to determine if a pitch is a ball or strike. The zone, and the pitches’ location would be displayed on the Ump’s visor like a HUD and it would signal ball or strike.
Keeps the umps in the game for fair / foul / safe / out and allows them to ‘call’ balls and strikes while letting machine precision take over.
Have a pitcher under MLB’s employ test the system before each game after BP.
Not only does this keep umpires employed but it creates new jobs
“Why was Matsui called out?”
Because the ball beat him and the umpire was out of position to make the call. Live speed I thought he was out too….those calls are tough to make when you can’t replay it from 50 different angles.
Doreen, I think that will naturally happen. And I bet we see it sooner rather than later.
Phil pitched real well for his first start. He didn’t get the benefit of some calls and I really didn’t believe Matsui was going to leave town without inflicting some damage. I thought he would do it against Javy though.
The Angels have a good lineup (with the help of the crumbs the Yanks left on the table) but what’s up with Artie Moreno? He talks big likes he shopping on 5th Ave. but it’s strictly “name brands for less” in practice. Lose and ace and…. poof…nada .
And if you would have told me the Yanks were going to open the season against the Sox/Rays on the road and then the Angels, I would have said 6-3 would be a best case scenario record. Can’t wait for our 3-4 dynamo to get rolling. Murderer’s Row? With their image, I prefer “Damage Inc.”
Umps are Umps . .. i mean .. in some games we’re going to have an ump behind the plate squeeze us…… I don’t think there intent is on purpose. it happens.
I think some of us are paranoid because of Joe West’s comments.
Just saw on You Tube the “Chan Ho Park interview ” where he keeps telling a reporter in Boston that he had diarhea , and I think Mo, Cano, and ARod are laughing in the background. Hilarious stuff if you haven’t seen it.
I never thought Granderson’s CF play should come under fire – what, because he had a couple of bad games last year? It seems like people just wanted to find something to criticize with Grandy because he had an “off” year offensively. I love watching him play; he’s a joy to watch and a joy to root for.
I highly doubt the ump last night was intentionally squeezing Hughes but the fact remains, he was calling an inaccurate strike zone. That’s just incompetance..
Phil April 16th, 2010 at 11:22 am
Just saw on You Tube the ?Chan Ho Park interview ? where he keeps telling a reporter in Boston that he had diarhea , and I think Mo, Cano, and ARod are laughing in the background. Hilarious stuff if you haven?t seen it.
*************************
Phil, I saw a tweet last week that said it’s Joba and Robertson laughing off camera.
I tend to be a purist when it comes to the game so I am always looking for the even playing field (that probably will never exist.)
Here’s how I feel about bad calls in games. They could be the reason that a team doesn’t make it as far as the postseason! Think about a division that ends with the second team .5 games out. Or 1 or 1.5. It happens. If the second place team doesn’t make the wild card, then it’s home sweet home. Think about game-changing calls. We’ve all seen them.
I want things called right throughout the season, not just during the postseason.
I think of the tie-breaker between the Padres and the Rockies and the blown call by McClelland that sent the Padres home.
(Does anyone know if he ever addressed that call? I don’t remember because of course I turned my attention to the Yankees postseason after that; but I remember feeling furious for the Padres and feeling a lot of pain for them.)
Patrick
I can respect that opinion. For me, though, the final 4 innings was fair to the Yankees, while the first 5 were not.
I get the feeling he was trying to squeeze Hughes, so as to make Hughes lose confidence.
Forget about borderline calls, he wasnt even calling pitches right down the pipe strikes.
5 walks? I’d attribute at least 2 or 3 to the umpire.
Hughes performance, all in all (with the ump cheating), was excellent.
Maybe next time out on the hill, he’ll have a more fair HP umpire.
“Because the ball beat him and the umpire was out of position to make the call. Live speed I thought he was out too….those calls are tough to make when you can’t replay it from 50 different angles.”
That’s a reasonable answer blake, but not a sufficient answer from a conspiracy theorist.
When someone argues that umpires intentionally call strikes balls against Yankee pitchers, in order to create more opportunities for the opposing team to score runs, when the very same umpire has an opportunity to give said opposing team an actual run instead of an inning ending out, the theory collapses under its own weight.
Why didn’t the umpire simply intentionally call Matsui safe? Why go through all the trouble of trying to give Angels favorable counts and walks, only to pull the rug out from under them, when he were legitimately safe, no less.
There is no internal logic, which is ALWAYS the fatal flaw of the conspiracy-minded.
Correction:
Last night someone asked what was wrong with Cameron and I said abdominal strain. Hearing this morning it is abdominal pain not strain. Appendicitis has been excluded and they now are looking into kidney stones.
I swear I’m the only one who didn’t find any humor in the Park interview. I felt really bad for him because he was being totally sincere in his answers and didn’t understand why people were laughing.
Patrick
Although, that out call on Matsui was huge for Hughes. I guess we can attribute that to the complete incompetence of umpires, as they cannot even complete their primary objective (cheating the Yankees) correctly.
Somehow, though, I think the extra pitches thrown and extra outs having to be recorded by Hughes weighed more on the game than 1 run taken off the board.
“That’s a reasonable answer blake, but not a sufficient answer from a conspiracy theorist”
I’m not a conspiracy theorist…except about the knowledge of UFO’s
“I can respect that opinion. For me, though, the final 4 innings was fair to the Yankees, while the first 5 were not.”
Exhibit B – no internal logic.
The umpire was intentionally being unfair for 4 innings and intentionally fair the final 5.
Why?
The umpire was trying to shake Phil Hughes confidence.
Of course, why did any of us think of that… lol
If the umpires are that bad, intentionally so, why stop at 4? Why not all 9?
Any explanation for that?
I will never know whether or not any individual umpires either look the other way or make intentionally bad calls. I would like to think they wouldn’t do that, but then I think of Tim Donaghy.
We can only hope.
The Yankees won the game…if the umpires were conspiring against them they didn’t do a very good job.
Regarding Chan, I wish it were just alot of diarrhea instead. I think they caught him coming out of the bullpen bathroom a few times in the 7th.
“The Yankees won the game…if the umpires were conspiring against them they didn’t do a very good job.”
Yeah, 117 times last year too…
trisha
Tim Donaghy – backed by the FBI in this statement – said that the NBA referees have biases against certain players and make calls accordingly.
I’d love for the games to be fair, and for bias to not exist as well. Unfortunately, it’s just not so.
___
blake
It’s a testament to how the good the Yankees are this year, and were in last year’s playoffs.
The umpires can only do so much without being outed for looking completely obvious.
I think Hughes was getting the “rookie squeeze” last night. He did his time as a reliever in ’09 but now as a regular starter the umps may just put him through a little hell until he shows he’s got the goods. They’ll ease off eventually.
New Post: The number five
The idea that the umpires are out to get or “cheat” the Yankees is so mind-numbingly stupid that I can do nothing but shake my head when the topic comes up time and time again.
There’s a big difference between cheating the Yanks and simply making bad calls. Umpiring around the league seems to have deteriorated significantly the last several years.
Umps make bad calls all the time. And those calls don’t always go against the Yanks.
Trisha
Kim Jones when asked about that said that Park “is a very,very funny guy”. I’m thinking that once the laughter started Park just kept it going. Why else would he mention his diareha so many times. Gotta love Mo in the background
Rule 2.00 – The Strike Zone
The Strike Zone is defined as that area over homeplate the upper limit of which is a horizontal line at the midpoint between the top of the shoulders and the top of the uniform pants, and the lower level is a line at the hollow beneath the kneecap. The Strike Zone shall be determined from the batter’s stance as the batter is prepared to swing at a pitched ball.
———————————————————————————————
That’s a rectangle. A fixed 17″ wide and what? maybe 21-25 inches high? It depends on the height of the batter and the amount of the crouch he sets at.
The reality is something way different though. It would seem that MLB umps view it closer to a square.
The upper limit of the zone has been ignored for a long time. And last night, Phil wasn’t getting calls at the knees.
Pathetic…embarrassing.
I don’t believe umpires are biased other than the sorta “root for the underdog” mentality that might hurt the Yanks some. The “make up the strike zone” system drives me nuts!
:rolleyes: