Yankees postgame
Posted by: Brian Heyman - Posted in Misc on Apr 18, 2011 
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After this 6-5 victory over the Rangers, Joe Girardi said that Alex Rodriguez had undergone an MRI on his sore oblique/lower back, and that it came back “clean.” So the Yankees will see how he’s feeling on Tuesday in Toronto.
His stand-in, Eric Chavez, didn’t do so bad in A-Rod’s place. He went 2 for 4 with the game-winning single in the eighth. So that means he’s batting .455, at 7 for 15. In his three starts, he’s 6 for 12. Chavez said he likes being complementary player as opposed to the focal point like he was in Oakland. He’s fine with the sporadic time, too.
“When I made the decision to come here, I knew what it was going to be,” Chavez said. “Obviously Alex is going to play a ton of games. When I get in there, I’ve got to be ready to play.”
CC Sabathia is still 0 for the season, 0-1 with three no-decisions despite a 2.52 ERA. He didn’t sound disappointed.
“This is a team game,” Sabathia said. “Our ultimate goal is to get to the World Series. These are the steps we need to take.”
Soriano bounced back with a one-hit eighth after experiencing a two-run eighth on Saturday. You have to wonder how he’s going to do if the Yankees get deep into October because he said after this one: “I think it helped that it was a little warmer today.” Soriano told Girardi that he won’t see peak velocity from him this month.
The Yankees continue to turn on the power. After three more homers, they now have 27 in the 9-5 start, a franchise record for the first 14 games. They scored 10 of their 14 runs in the three games vs. Texas via homers. They have scored 48 of their 77 runs for the season on homers. That’s 62.3 percent. Yet they still won this game on a single.
Derek Jeter had a single in four at-bats, so he’s 61 hits from 3,000. The Captain’s average is just .241, though.
Russell Martin hit his fourth homer. He had five in his injury-shortened 2010 season with the Dodgers, when he played in just 97 games.
Nick Swisher went 1 for 4 and is batting .526 from the right side, at 10 for 19.
Robinson Cano stretched his hitting streak to nine games with his second homer in two games. He’s batting .351 with five doubles, three homers and nine RBI during the streak.
Phil Hughes began his long-toss program. Larry Rothschild told Girardi it went well. Girardi was told Hughes “had some life on the ball.”
The Yankees took two of three from Texas. Doesn’t really make up for last October, does it? But that’s old news. The Yankees finished the homestand at 4-1. They have won four of their five series so far.
At this point, is Gardner really anything more than a fourth OF/PR/late-inning defensive replacement?
Andruw Jones had 11 HR in 192 AB and a .781 OPS against RHP least year.
I still have a lot more faith in Brett than Jones to be successful over the long season.
Brett is off to a bad start, that’s for sure. He just needs to get more aggressive at bat and swing at more good pitches, instead of getting down 2 strikes so much. And his speed in the field is a big plus.
“Smilly” doesn’t excite me much at all.
4 NYY,
How about a straight-up platoon?
Jeter just grounded out to SS again…….raise your hand if you think he’s going to get a clutch hit…….I know it’s a tough decision but he cannot lead off any more.
I wanted to go 4 and 2 in this homestand but 4 and 1 is even better. Nice week.
YES Man April 18th, 2011 at 2:11 am
Jeter just grounded out to SS again…….raise your hand if you think he’s going to get a clutch hit…….I know it’s a tough decision but he cannot lead off any more.
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Pile that $56 million the Yankees wasted on Jeter onto the Cliff Lee offer and he’s in pinstripes!
Not only that, but we wouldn’t now be faced with having to work around his ego while moving to the bottom of the lineup, and we’d have a better offensive AND defensive player at short stop every day, playing for a tiny fraction of what Jeter is making.
I wanted to go 4 and 2 in this homestand but 4 and 1 is even better. Nice week.
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Taking it to two of the Rangers starters who were getting too much hype was great. And winning series is all you can ask of a team. Great job by the yankees and a well placed day off to keep A-rod/Martin rested.
Yankees are the only AL east team above .500. Rays are back in the middle of the pack. Fairly orioles-esque losing streak by them. I hope Toronto wins tomorrow in Boston so that the yankees can then take it to them in the 2 game set and knock em back down.
Orioles will tear it up again after Showalter returns from his leave of absence.
Meanwhile, at 41, mariano rivera is more unhittable than ever. #greatestever – Jon Heyman Tweet
i didnt hear about any leave of absence but i think the O’s have gotten all the lift they are going to from buck and now thier lack of overall talent is going to start to take over again. thier lineup isnt that good, lee and guerero are shot. the young pitchers will do what young pitchers always do, struggle for consistency. they will finish at or below .500 imo.
whats this about a leave of absence? is willie going to manage?
Lot of positives from last night and it was a really good win for the Yanks. Probably the best Jeter has swung the bat this season…..he’s starting to hit more balls hard now. Ogando was a really bad matchup for him and he make good contact twice off him and ducked in a single the other time…..very encourgaing there.
This team is showing fight early this season…..I like it.
Good morning.
Nice comeback win by the Yankees last night. All of those homeruns are certainly helping.
Good job by the new guys-Martin, Chavez and Soriano.
Agree with Blake, lot of positives. Lot of positives from the home stand as well frankly. We aren’t hitting at all for the most part. We have 5 guys in our everyday lineup batting under .250, 2 of which are under .200. We are 8th in the league in runs scored despite being #1 in slugging. Pitching remains a problem, but the way I see it, things shouldn’t get much worse from that standpoint.
So, to sum it up, we’ve won 4 of 5 series, we’re 9-5, we are winning tight games late, we have a 2.5 game lead in a division in which we are the only team over .500, and we have a 5 game lead over the greatest team ever assembled.
Given the pitching woes and the hitting not being where I think it will be in time, I don’t think we could have reasonably expected things to be better than they are on the aggregate. Net net, good start to the season.
Being able to plug Chavez in there is such a luxury. They may all turn into pumpkins at some point this season but for the moment Cashman is looking really good with these risk /reward moves.
good morning all
and good points by everyone this morning
even the espn crew was complimentary to Cashman for his off season moves.
Meanwhile, I bet Crawford wishes he went to CA or remained w/ the Rays!
Carlo,
Yes….they are 9-5 and really aren’t playing that well yet when you look a things and they are winning the close ones. This team could potentially get on a big roll if their starting pitching will stabilize.
Martin, Garcia, Colon, Chavez, and Jones for less than half of Cliff Lee’s money. Pretty good so far.
Good morning Kate.
Hope you enjoyed your vacation
Yeah, when the ESPN crew complements Cashman, you know he made good moves.
FWIW…..Buster’s anonymous scouts think that Felix Hernandez looks distracted and are wondering if he’s getting frustrated in Seattle…..says the Yanks would be a perfect match for a trade if he asks out. Hey Buster’s scout says it it has to be true right
blake April 18th, 2011 at 7:37 am
FWIW…..Buster’s anonymous scouts think that Felix Hernandez looks distracted and are wondering if he’s getting frustrated in Seattle…..says the Yanks would be a perfect match for a trade if he asks out. Hey Buster’s scout says it it has to be true right
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Need to know how Felix will pitch when he loses 3-4 mph of velocity since that seems to be the norm for pitchers coming to NY. If he can work with that stuff, then we’re all good.
Wow,lol, but who cares about last October at this point? Why even bring that up? This year is this year and you still want to beat them. As to Jeter, it’s too early to be concerned about BA.
Chavez has been a great pick up and will continue to be; he’s invaluable because we can rest Alex (even when he’s not hurt) and know that we have a capable fill-in.
LOL about October again – Soriano has to deal with colder weather and if he can’t pitch in it, that’s a huge problem, but that’s a long way off.
I’ve come to the conclussion that Buster’s ‘anonymous scouts’ are nothing more than a literary construct. They are his thoughts and observations. No scout worth his salt would deem a ST inning by Miller the best one he ever saw.
Buster’s same scout that thought Andrew Miller threw the best inning ever? Silly -I doubt he’s distracted, just struggling. Felix is human after all.
I don’t think Chavez and co., will turn into pumpkins, but people need to be prepared for slumps – every player goes through them.
yankees facing stud prospect kyle drabek tonignt who they’ve never seen, you know what that means…put the whole bench in the lineup.
tomorrow
Buston Onley is the successor to Gammons on NESPN. He was groomed for the job. The real credible source on the Boston oriented media outlet is Tim Kurkjian.
Drabek faced the yankees last year….and lost
108 stitches, so he was ‘groomed’ by nesn while he was working for the nytimes and reporting on the yankees?
btw, i dont think i heard the espn crew last night mention the red socks one time except when mentioning how far ahead the yankees were.
good broadcast last night by espn, imo. valentine could use to tone it down a little and his voice is annoying, but he does inject a ton of baseball theory even if he presents it in his self-assured way.
the way they timed out the yankees dp was very interesting i thought and that piece by hershieser just before the game analyzing ogando’s delivery (from behind his head) was really good.
that is something any good crew could do any night if they werent all caught up in who had to pick up the check for dinner last night and who left a lousy tip.
bad edit omit the 108 stictches quote
so just how was olney ‘groomed’ for nesn, by writing about the yankees for the nyt?
Buston Onley is a friendly fellow with a passion for baseball. he is not a Yankee fan, though he can be objective. Certainly not poisonous like Lupica or a Red Sox fanatic like Gammons.
No one at ESPN really like the Yankees, which is surprising, as without the Yankees their baseball staff would be unemployed. Typical New England attitude, live off of NYC, yet despise it at the same time.
people on here tear up nesn, what about yes? they are a bunch of clowns. kay and flaherty are the only ones who prepare at all, the others just wing it. oneill wings it w/o actually ever watching the yankees play (which is why all he can talk about is food)
i dont much like the nesn broadcasts, but they are no worse than yes, maybe a bit better actually
Dare I say it: this team appears “gritty.”
i’ve gone drug-free. when i cant get to sleep i put on a yes broadcast with john flaherty on and im out in about 30 seconds.
Good morning.
I’m not the least bit worried about this team’s offense.
They have so many guys who can change a game with just one swing, and an incredible bench which will only get stronger when
Montero arrives.
The D is solid.
The backend of Pen oustanding.
Only one area of concern right now and it WILL get fixed at some point. One way or another.
The new ESPN crew is awful.
I miss Miller and Morgan
Ham Fighters, 2-0 and coming off a thrilling down-to-the-wire win over DJR now takes on the 1100 point jaugernaught that is Running Robots. RR has 3 pitchers going twice this week, just to make things harder.
i added a couple of so-so SP’s who are supposed to start twice this week (blanton and beachy) plus lincicum is going twice, but its sure going to be an uphill battle…
Pile that $56 million the Yankees wasted on Jeter onto the Cliff Lee offer and he’s in pinstripes!
___
Cliff Lee is not worth $200M, and then CC opts out and asks for $200M. Also, once Philly offered, Lee chose to go there. He got enough money from them, it wouldnt have mattered.
And enough of pointing out Jeter’s contract. We all know what he is making, we get it!
That being said, no person that has been paying attention still thinks Jeter will ever come through in a late inning clutch situation.
i never minded miller and morgan that much but i think shulman is very good.
“Cliff Lee is not worth $200M, and then CC opts out and asks for $200M.”
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did i pull a rip van winkle and sleep into 2011?
ac1 must see a sunny day and bring his umbrella anyway.
Kurkjin doesn’t seem to have agendas…..Buster more and more just seems to write what will drive the news more.
as last nights GREAT game came to a close all ac1 could do is slam jeter again and again. its really sad that you cant even root for your team or enjoy a hard fought victory without whining about what didnt happen. sad little man
Agreed, LGY. Valentine is an egomaniacal blabbermouth who never tires of listening to himself blather. The only one worse is Sutcliffe.
I wasn’t the biggest fan of Joe Morgan, but i liked Jon Miller. At least those guys knew when to shut up. Why in God’s name do you need 3 guys in the booth for a baseball game?