Yankees postgame: Garcia disappointed
Posted by: Brian Heyman - Posted in Misc on Apr 17, 2012 
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Freddy Garcia didn’t throw a wild pitch in this 7-3 loss to the Twins, unlike the five he threw in his first start at Baltimore. But he did give up five runs and nine hits in 5 2/3. He was really disappointed that four of the runs scored with two outs.
“You’ve got two out, you’ve got to put it away no matter what,” Garcia said.
Joe Girardi said earlier in the day that what happened in the previous start was uncharacteristic for Garcia. But what happened in this start was also uncharacteristic.
“The one thing that we’ve seen Freddy be really good at is minimizing damage and making pitches with people on base,” Girardi said. “But he gave up a lot of two-out runs and that was the difference.”
On the other hand, Carl Pavano gave up next to nothing against his old team after a three-run, four-hit first. He yielded just three more singles — two were infield hits — over his final six innings. He was moving his fastball inside and out, tossing in a good changeup and just generally keeping the Yankees off-balance in beating them for the first time in his career.
“He’s the same all the time,” Derek Jeter said. “He’s going to throw whatever he wants whenever he wants to whoever he wants. … He pitched well. He mixed it up. He knows how to pitch. Carl has always known how to pitch. The only problem he has ever had is health. When he’s healthy, he pitches well.”
Robbie Cano said the Yankees just have to forget about this game.
They are 5-5 after losing for the second time in three games and are just 2-2 on the seven-game homestand. The Twins had already been swept twice in losing seven of their first nine. This stopped a three-game losing streak and marked their first road win of the season. Of course, Minnesota is usually a team the Yankees beat up on. They are now 17-5 in their last 22 regular-season games against the Twins and 28-6 in their last 34 home games against them since the beginning of the 2002 season.
“You know what, it’s a new season,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “So we’re 1-0 at Yankee Stadium.”
The Twins will play the second of four against the Yankees tonight. It will be a pitching matchup between two winless lefties, CC Sabathia vs. Francisco Liriano.
We’ll have more this morning about the Yankees’ starting pitching.
Quiet night on the LoHud… oh yeah, the Mariners are off tonight.
There really is nothing to say about tonight’s game. They got owned. It was a laugher.
Hughes problem is,he throws the ball too high,catching the middle of the plate,and higher,and his offspeed pitches are not quality enough,and he does not record enough outs with his offspeed offerings.
Like niese for the mets said,”you have to focus on keeping the ball down”.
Hughes throws mostly fastballs,and they are pretty straight,middle of the plate,and higher,so batters square up,and foul a lot of pitches off.
If he threw lower,he would get more ground balls.
Watch him pitch sometime.
Everything is straight,and aimed.
He has too go high,low,in,out,and make the batter move his feet out of the box.
Then how about a picture of Sir Francis Ford Coppola at the ballpark:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9.....hotostream
Living large all right, enormous is about right. Francis Ford Coppola, cool a 400 lb slob stuffed into that little seat at AT & T. Perhaps instead of sucking down a dozen hot dogs he should look into lap band surgery.
Freddy Garcia. Bigmouth. Mr. I Don’t Want To Be In The Bullpen in spring training.
Ok, well, you’re in the rotation, Freddy, and so far you’ve shown nothing, zero, nada.
I think it’s a given that he and Hughes will be out of the rotation when Pettitte and Pineda join the Yankees and when they are Garcia should be in the pen and Hughes should be sent down to AAA on his final option before he can veto being sent down June 1. These two are sure making it easy for the Yanks to decide on who goes.
If Pettitte or Pineda have a setback where he can’t return, the Yanks should give David Phelps a looksee.
Hey that slob brought us The Godfather, The Godfather II, and even The Godfather III haha.
“Ah Godfather I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to do.”
SLAP! YOU CAN ACT LIKE A MAN!!!!
“WAUUUUUU!!!!! AUUUUUUU!!!!! AUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!”
(Woltz when he pulls the sheet up to find the horsehead in his bed.)
LOL!
Well you know what they say, ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’. ‘Every time I try to get out, they pull me back in’.
Is a Godfather IV possible?
The time between II and III.
I mean Michael was young at the end of II and old at the beginning of III.
Why not the era where he’s in his 30s and 40s?
Who could play him? It has to be a guy who’s at least in his mid-late 30s?
You could leave out Tom and everyone in III, so we’re talking new comrades, enemies, and traitors of Michael.
I think it’d be intriguing considering everyone would either be dead (The Don, Mama Corleone, Sonny, Fredo) or out of the picture (Tom, Kate, Connie, the kids etc.)
Oh yeah…who wouldn’t go see it?
Of course it wouldn’t be as great as the first two but it could be better or much better than III is the plot was juicy and the cast was good enough.
No Pacino but so what? He’s 70+ years old now so we can’t expect him to come back.
Michael loses his family and builds a new one of sorts with non-familia – totally new, unchartered territory.
The only thing is we’d know how it turns out in the end from III so this would really be a prequel to III.
It’d have some continuity in that the first one was all about the family banding together, the second one was all about outsiders and traitors within the family threatening the family, and the third one was the remainder of the family being an unintentional enemy (Michael holding on to his past, Sonny’s son doing what he did, both getting Michael’s daughter killed.) The fourth one could be somewhat of a continuance of II but more business-like and real, not so much about treachery. ‘Problem is we saw the real deal in 1980s Gotti so the story would have to be somewhat rooted in that but not another Gotti / Gotti-related movie (Gotti, Witness To The Mob) or Goodfellas.
“The reason I give generic answers is simple. I don’t ever want my players to think I’m sending a message to them through the media. Messages are sent face to face.” Joe Girardi.
Garcia is looking awfully pedestrian this year. All that guile and sneakiness just gone. Trade him while you can.
Although they are more than talented enough to win it all, this offense often looks very good or very ordinary, IMO, because they have too many hitters that over swing far too often. Jeter’s amazing start is covering up some of their vulnerabilities. I would much prefer more contact hitters like him (not necessarily as good, but a similar approach).
Just a thought, but the two pitchers (outside of CC) having the most difficulty (Hughes & Garcia) were the two pitchers who had to pitch for a job during spring training, rather than just getting in their work.
Could this be a sort of “dead arm” period for both? A slight drop-off from more effort early?
As stinky as it is, perhaps patience is the order of the day?
Rich,
I think when Cano comes around, it will make a big difference.
I agree that when Cano gets going it’ll help a l lot…..I think teams are pitching around him a lot…..he’s not getting anything to hit…I like Alex hitting 3rd because he HAS been seeing some pitches to hit…..but right now teams are preferring to attack Tex…..I really think they should get Granderson behind Cano vs RHP…….but otherwise I still think they coukd use another prime age bat…
And Martin is contributing pretty much nothing at the plate….its early but he’s just swinging out of his shoes …..I like the walks ….but he needs to make more good contact and contribute at least something.
Well I’ll be heading home today and will feel a lot better about being able to get a handle on exactly what is going right or going wrong with our Yankees. Being away I can’t really give it the time I want or need to.
It’s certainly premature to do postmortems because we don’t have any reliable sample size. So the only thing I can say at this point is that the old maxim about pitching always finds a way to inject itself into baseball reality. There is no such thing as “too much” starting pitching. What remains to be seen is how it all shakes itself out.
Can someone give me a relatively full evaluation of Garcia’s pitching from last night? Did he have anything good going on? Were any of his pitches effective? What went wrong?
Thanks.
Justin Verlander amazes me…..I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pitcher that could pitch an entire game and just keep like a Nos reserve he can tap into at the end of the game like that……he was sitting 100 yesterday in the 9th at 125+ pitches……he’s incredible.
“As stinky as it is, perhaps patience is the order of the day?”
Villa – I think it has to be.
About the Yankee offense. If you buy into the saying that good pitching stops good hitting, the Yankee offense cannot always be put on the cross if it doesn’t get the job done. There are going to be some pitchers who manage to stymie the offense. So if on balance your offense is giving you a decent number of runs, it’s doing its job.
There will be times when opposing pitchers make adjustments, just the way Yankee pitchers will make adjustments. You get to know what pitchers are good at pulling it back in and the need to get to them quickly. Beckett at his best is that kind of pitcher. Maybe the Idle is going to have that kind of season. Time will tell.
Maybe Jeff Novitzky needs to hang around Verlander’s locker a little bit. (And maybe not.)
“Can someone give me a relatively full evaluation of Garcia’s pitching from last night? Did he have anything good going on? Were any of his pitches effective? What went wrong?”
He pitched ok in the middle of his start…..he just made some bad pitches early and some bad pitches late….its almost always location with Freddy…..he has to hit his spots and if he doesn’t he gets hit…..even if he does though guys with good approaches can still hit him because his stuff is mediocre.
I think Freddy will be ok and probably pitch somewhat like last year if given the chance…..but the Yanks will probably have better options available soon so it is what it is…..
Martin has one of the highest OBP’s on the team.
Cano, Alex and Tex are the culprits. I’ll take a good defensive catcher on base at a .400 clip
I think the Yanks have the bats to win the division, they just have not performed overall as could be reasonably expected yet (reasonable means not expecting Tex to hit .300 vs rhp, etc.).
That combined with some rocky starting pitching = .500.
Hopefully CC can be CC and Kuroda is like hi last start and the team can get back on track.
blake – thanks.
An interesting watch will be to see whether either Hughes or Freddy manages to right the ship, and if so, which one does it first.
raymagnetic April 17th, 2012 at 7:37 am
Martin has one of the highest OBP’s on the team.
Cano, Alex and Tex are the culprits. I’ll take a good defensive catcher on base at a .400 clip
—
It’s good that he’s taking walks but you can’t expect .160 avg / .417 obp to continue.
“Martin has one of the highest OBP’s on the team.”
Its almost all.walks though….his OPS is .577 which is Jeff Mathis territory …..he’s not going to continue to have a good OBP hitting .160……its early but Id like to see a better approach from him….and less swinging as hard as possible.
He’s the same all the time,” Derek Jeter said. “He’s going to throw whatever he wants whenever he wants to whoever he wants. … He pitched well. He mixed it up. He knows how to pitch. Carl has always known how to pitch. The only problem he has ever had is health. When he’s healthy, he pitches well.”
——-
Jete, I beg to differ. The only problem Pavano has ever had is when he had a multi-year deal and had no urge to compete. When his job or career is on the line, he pitches well.
blake April 17th, 2012 at 7:31 am
Justin Verlander amazes me…..I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pitcher that could pitch an entire game and just keep like a Nos reserve he can tap into at the end of the game like that……he was sitting 100 yesterday in the 9th at 125+ pitches……he’s incredible.
——————–
Always been a fan of Verlander just hate when he’s facing the Yankees lol. But you’re right it’s exciting tou watch him pitch. When Joba was starting I always hoped he would be our version of JV.
Pavano expanded the strike zone….the umpire let him….and instead of adjusting the Yanks stood there and complained….the junker ballers MO
Against,
Yea….I love watching him pitch against other teams
Too bad he will never be a Yankee. The fans would love him.
blake -
I never understand that – with the umpires that is. I’ve gotten accustomed to the fact that from umpire to umpire the strike zone is usually different; but I think the least players deserve is for the strike zone to stay consistent during the course of a game. The least.
Failing that, sure I guess they need to adjust, whatever that means. What DOES that mean? And exactly how do you go about that? When for the first 4 innings something is a ball out of the strike zone and then you go up to bat for the third and/or fourth time and a pitch in the same location is now a strike? I don’t think it’s as easy as it sounds to just “make an adjustment” during the course of a game.
And what if they’re “expanding the strike zone” within an at bat? Where a pitch is called a ball early in the count and then a strike later on in the same at-bat, and you end up striking out on a pitch that was earlier called ball one?
That is how inconsistent some umpires are. How do you adjust to that?
I guess the only way to have success is “see ball, hit ball,” and not even think about what’s coming.
Verlander seems superhuman.
Got to think that Garcia is on the bubble right now….followed by Hughes.
Short video of Verlander’s mechanics. This is the way he generates so much power. Look at his stride and follow thru:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbVQc2gYjFQ
Villa,
Its not easy and its why the players get so mad….but it is what it is….you have to try and foul those pitches off and try to get a mistake….it sucks but its what you have to do I guess…..it was a bad game….a game they should have won but lost for a variety of reasons.
The bullpen has done a nice job this year…..but im a little less confident with the depth out there than I was…Soriano scares me….Wade has been inconsistent ….and Logan has trouble with lefties often….Rivera and Robertson are lights out and that’s huge….and Phelps looks awesome ….but the rest are a bit shaky…..fortunately (or unfortunately ) its probably going to get stronger within a month or so…..as much as Id hate to see Hughes out there….Hughes, Robertson, Rivera would be a nasty end of the game crew most likely….especially when you throw Soriano in there as well….
Trisha-
The early innings of Garcia’s start, the Twins were laying off the splitter, and waiting for his pitches in the zone. His next start will be the Red Sox. If he can’t get the job done, I personally don’t see where he’d be an option as the long man out of the bullpen. I’d have little confidence in bringing him in with runners on base needing either a strikeout or a DP.
Oh yeah, when I saw last night’s umpire was Gerry Davis, my stomach tightened up a bit.
I hope that every umpire who blanks up games by having an inconsistent strike zone ends up with a severe gallbladder attack that keeps him out of the game for, say, the next six to seven months and then has a repeat episode this time every season.
Something like that.
Current Yankee pitching stats and more:
http://espn.go.com/mlb/team/st.....rk-yankees
It’s still early, but if Hughes can keep up those strikeout rates and dial up his high heat, then he definitely might be going to the bullpen, especially when Pettitte returns and Garcia, unless he turns it around quickly might find himself elsewhere.
Here’s one that might surprise you. It’s the regular with the lowest BA combined with the highest OB%
The lowest BA might give it away. Any quick guesses?
There’s really no point in sending Phil to the minors. At 26, they are not going to bother continuing to bother developing him, especially since they’d have to send him to the low-minors and take him apart. If he had been showing progress with things that have always given him issues, like being unable to put hitters away, it would be more encouraging. So while I feel sorry for him if he does go to the pen (because it basically means he’s there to stay for his career unless he’s traded before 2013), that’s just the way it goes.
As to the offense, why is anyone surprised when they have games like this? They have games where they just explode, which is why their stats are impressive at the end of the year, but if you watch them game by game, you know that there are too many nights like last night.
Martin or Swisher?
Martin hitting .160 and OB% .417, 9 walks, 4 hits in 25 ABs
Yankees have all kinds of options with their Pitching.
They need to continue the evaluation period.
Clock is ticking for Hughes and Garcia.
Tick. Tock.
Hear that guys.
Better get on it if you want to stay in stripes.
Betsy-
I believe you mentioned that the Giants might be interested in Soriano.
I dug this up from a Jon Morosi article in Fox news yesterday, regarding the Giants bullpen without Brian Wilson.
“The remedy for San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy is pretty straightforward. His team had the second-lowest bullpen ERA in the National League in 2011, and most of last year’s relievers are back. In Santiago Casilla, Sergio Romo and left-hander Javier Lopez, Bochy has three veterans who should be able to handle the job on a rotating basis; none has surrendered an earned run this season, and Lopez was the winning pitcher in Saturday’s walk-off victory.”
“Wilson’s injury illustrates why Giants officials decided over the offseason to keep their bullpen depth rather than trade it for offense. As Casilla, Romo and Lopez are pushed later into the game, the onus will fall on the San Francisco starters to extend themselves by an out or two.”
I just don’t see any team willing to take on Soriano’s remaining salary, especially the 14M next season.
As of now I am not a huge Russell Martin fan.
Unless he has a much better season than last year I would not be in favor of re-signing him for the 10 Mil he might try to get.
Not worth it IMO.
I really don’t want to see Hughes going back to the bullpen…..I wish they could just let him pitch and try to progress and reach his potential…….but the facts are that they have other options and they have to go with who is pitching better to both win games ans because Hughes is nearing free agency……the Rays have faced a similar thing with Davis (even though he’s signed) ….Im sure they would rather him be starting….but they have 6 starters for 5 spots and they felt he’d transition better to the pen than Niemann.
Blake-
Hughes will become way too expensive very soon to be working out of the pen.
He either remains a starter or he needs to be moved out IMO.
For that reason alone I hope he starts nailing it.
Maybe Hughes will be lights out in his next couple of starts and make the decision tough…..Pettite will likely replace Garcia first and then they’ll have to decide which two of Nova, Pineda, and Hughes stays after that…..
And Girardi needs to stop having “tunnel vision” when it comes to Phelps.
He is a very viable option as a starter.
Has looked way better than both Freddy and Phil.
Blake-
Nova is in.
That’s already obvious. He’s going nowhere.
That leaves 3 to fill one.
Pineda, Phelps, or Hughes.
That’s tough competition.
Nova is staying.
No va = no go
Blake-
Matt Moore, consensus candidate for ROY has been the worst starter for the Rays so far. ERA 5.54 SO/9 6.23
If Pineda comes back to form and is available with an improved CU and a blazing fastball, let’s say by mid June, and Pettitte is Pettitte, while Nova is Super Nova, there’s no place for Hughes in the rotation if all are healthy.
In fact if Phelps continues to impress and Hughes can’t do the job against the Red Sox/ Rangers/Tigers, 2 of those 3 he’s likely to face this month, then I think he’s in bullpen and Phelps gets some starts before Pettitte is back.
By June or so our rotation is going to look different than it does now.
jack-
I like it.
Hughes or Garcia are pitching themselves out of the rotation. The first one out is the one with the worst starts from now until early-mid May. What to do with them is the big question. I would have thought one to become the long man, but they cannot replace an effectively pitching player, Phelps, with one not performing. At least I hope not.
The way Jeter is hitting, maybe he should be batting 3rd or even cleanup.
New Post—->
YT-
If Hughes has to go back to the pen his career in stripes is over IMO.
There will be no more oportunities with all the talent the Yankees have coming unless they try to remake him somewhat at AAA. I don’ think they’re likely to go that route.
He could be very effective out of the pen but he’s gonna be too expensive to be a setup man or vanilla flavored reliever.
I hope he just starts nailing it. That’s the best outcome. The other sucks.
new thread —–>
“Verlander seems superhuman.”
naw, he’s just coached by one of my old daytona explorer buddies .
i caught jeff, gave him the secret magic touch, and he’s passing it on to verlander
jeff jones was a pretty good pitcher before he got hurt
another one of billy’s boys
as much as some people bash martin , his legacy is still in the game through players he brought up to the majors
Its 2 starts people!!! Calm down! Think the Giantys are thinking of replacing Lincecum in their rotation cause he got roughed up in his first couple of starts?