The matchup for tonight's Yankees-Red Sox series opener is Boston's Tim Wakefield vs. New York's Chien-Ming Wang.
Wang, in his career against Boston, is 2-4 with a 5.09 ERA in eight games, seven starts. Notable good or bad hitters against Wang include Ortiz (.450), Hinske (.526), Ramirez (.625), Lowell (.200) and Varitek (.083).
Wakefield, in his career against the Yankees, is 9-14 with a 4.62 ERA in 43 games, 26 starts. Notably good or bad hitters against Wakefield include Jeter (.321), Giambi (.173), Matsui (.175), Mientkiewicz (.063) and Phelps (.320).
Comments (39)
Kat: thanks,good insight to who should be playing.
Wakefield has been on a roll lately. Remember when the Yanks brought that guy in during the playoffs to throw knucklers during BP? That was funny but if I remember right, it worked.
JETER RULES !
Take Tek out of the mix...with Wakes pitching, Beerbeli (Maribeli) will catch.
Yanks will sweep this series, mark my words!
When is the last time the Yanks even won a series...let alone swept one?
You suck Casual Observer !
Casual
I believe it was the Indians and it was quite a while...Maybe that makes us due?
No, actually, I do not.
Phuck,
No question ...past due.
I, for personal reasons, you understand, hope it isnt this weekend though.
Manny is batting 625 against WANG!!! I knew he liked beating on us but Wang too?
LMAO Phuck...
One of my favorite headlines in a NY paper was:
"Torre yanks Wang in 5th"
Casual
If you take even 2 of 3 from us-At home-under the current circumstances-(where we're already demoralizingly far out of the div hunt...)
I'm afraid I will join Rick and do my own yankee death dance.
HAH
Or better yet I'll find a redsox blog and I'll "Casually Observe" till '08 LOL
baseball in May is boring. Still NBA/NHL Playoff time
yawn
wow rick and PTRS jumping off the bandwagon....i'll have to remember that come late Sept.
tonights linuep-
damon- cf
jeter -ss
matsui- lf
a-rod - 3b
posada - c
abreu - rf
giambi- dh
cano - 2b
mientkievitz - 1b
Phuck,
I can assure you that you'd be most welcome on the Sox blogs/chatrooms I frequent...we like good folks...and there are quite a few in here.
I know it's frustrating...but think about it...the Yanks aint exactly a team without resources....this nightmare you're currently going thru will not last. I know I want to see the Sox and Yanks at each others throats...scrapping for the east....and I believe if not this year, it will happen, as it seems to always happen, in 08 and beyond. The Yanks can get a whole lot better realy really quickly...and I believe they will.
"There's no way the redsox can be caught."
Except for Posada, Giambi and Doug M. the Yankees should do some running tonight. The three other guys have pianos strapped to their backs.
If , I remember correctly didn't the Yankees come back from 14 games down to the Red Sox's in '78 when Bucky freakin Dent hit it the over the green monster. So, why can't the Yankees do the equivalent with more of the season remaining in'07 just a thought.
Wakefield got lit up in his last start. The guy is such a crapshoot, who knows what we'll see tonight.
Is Aaron Boone still on the team? Can we bring him back?
Larry M:
Yankees don't even have to repeat 78 to win, because of the addition of the wild card. They can finish 15 games out of first and still beat Boston by winning 4 out of 7 games in October.
everyone should stop worrying about the Red Sox- Yankees just need to win their games and get to October. Division winner and wild card are equal as far as I'm concerned- one extra home game in a series isn't that big a deal.
Wakefield has allowed 11 earned runs in his 8 starts....or 52.1 innings....not exactly "lit up" numbers eh? His era is a miniscule 2.41....He lacks run support. He did have his worst start of the season last time out and gave up 5 runs. I wouldnt exactly say that he is a "crapshoot".
Casual,
Cute! You are so different in all the comments where you stick up for your guys! Whole other tone than your usual...
Cs07: My point exactly
Gee cs07,
I've been preaching that for several years...the WC and the DW are the same....funny thing is, not many Yankee fans like yourself ever agreed with it.
I wonder why?
LOL Diane,
I've always maintained that you, my lady, are very bright. You have caught me ..ahem...red socked, you might say.
I do what I can.
CS07,
I completely agree with you. We just have to worry about our own games. Nothing matters if we don't win, period!
As I said, 120 to go, 1 game at a time.
As Al Davis use to say: "Just WIN Baby!"
Cas,
The reason that we Yankee fans didn't agree that the WC and DW weren't the same was because the 2 times that we made the playoffs as a WC, we got bounced in the LDS. In 95 Seattle beat us and in 97 the Tribe did. We won the 4 WS as DW's and the 6 pennants as DW's.
However, since 2002, it didn't matter that we won the East because we got bounced and never made the Series. The exception was in 2003.
Casual,
Very human there all red-socked, I like you that much the better for it.
John G.
I know...it was a "cutting humor" crack.
Trust me...I suspect if the Sox win the east..I'll be one of those who say..."Hey...HEY!!! WE won the damn division!!...dont give me your WC crap"....goes with the territory.
No worries.......
Cas
Wild card has been a godsend for the RedSox- without it, no world championship and no post-season since 1995- wonder how big redsox nation would be if that were the case?
This may make some of you feel a little better....nice article.
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Look out, AL: Yankees could bounce back
By Jonah Keri
Special to Page 2
One of the topics frequently discussed in this space is the danger of judging the performance of a player or team based on a small sample of evidence. One at-bat doesn't make a player great, even if that at-bat results in a grand slam that wins the World Series. One game doesn't make a team terrible, even if the team loses 20-0.
The question then becomes, at what point should we start believing what we're seeing? We've reached the season's quarter mark, enough time for hitters to rack up 150 at-bats, for pitchers to pile up 50 innings. In many cases, that's enough time to draw some conclusions: Bobby Abreu isn't the player he once was; Jose Reyes has arrived as one of the best players in the game; the Cardinals aren't going to repeat as World Series champions.
Logo
Those are the easy ones. But there are no hard and fast rules to tell us exactly when to start believing in a trend. In some cases, a quarter of a season can still leave us with misleading information. In the first edition of Keri the 10, we looked at BABIP (Batting Average on Balls In Play), a pitching stat that can help pinpoint fluky results among pitchers. This week's column starts with a look at one simple metric which reveals two teams that have played better than their records suggest.
1. Based on their 19-23 record, the Yankees look like one of the worst teams in baseball. They may turn out to be one of the best.
After they dropped two of three to the Mets, the biggest stories coming out of New York are that the Yankees supposedly have no heart; that Joe Torre should be fired; that Jason Giambi's contract could be voided because he kinda, sorta admitted he juiced; and that the Mets can start printing their World Series tickets. We'll skip the psychoanalysis, the dissertation on the role of a manager, the thesis on contract rules and the state of the NL pennant race. But there's no denying one thing: The Yankees have been one of the unluckiest teams in baseball.
With 27 more runs scored than allowed (227 to 200), the Yankees' combination of offense and run prevention points to a team that would figure to be three or four games above .500 instead of four games under. One of the biggest reasons for the divergence? The Yankees are just 2-8 in one-run games, the second-worst mark in the majors. Teams rarely fare so much worse in one-run games than they do the rest of the time. When you see a team post such a bad record in one-run games, it's usually the result of two factors: a lousy bullpen and bad luck. There's no denying that the Yankees' relief corps has been lousy, with Mariano Rivera uncharacteristically struggling, and a band of would-be set-up men failing to do the job. But bad luck can often turn for the better, especially over a 162-game season.
Adding Roger Clemens and Philip Hughes to the rotation will help a lot. Abreu, Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera will probably start to play better, even if they don't get back to 2006 levels. The front office will probably make some moves to upgrade the roster. But even if the Yankees do absolutely nothing, it's unlikely that they'll keep scoring that many more runs than they've allowed, yet continue to flirt with last place.
2. Based on their 20-22 record, the Cubs look like one of the worst teams in baseball. They may turn out to be one of the best.
That one team with a worse record in one-run games than the Yankees? It's the Cubs, who've gone just 2-9, prompting Lou Piniella to ponder a series of ill-advised moves, from bumping Ryan Dempster to the rotation to having Rob Dibble, Norm Charlton and Randy Myers take his place in the pen.
Carlos Zambrano
AP Photo/M. Spencer Green
Another reason for the Cubs' less-than-stellar start: Carlos Zambrano has a 5.61 through 10 starts.
Rob Neyer broke down the Cubs' bad luck in his blog last week. In that entry, he noted two facts: "Runs scored and runs allowed predict the future more accurately than wins and losses" and "The Brewers and the Cubs, at this moment, have identical run differentials: +34." Updating that figure, the Cubs have scored 30 more runs than they've allowed. The Brewers have scored 22 runs more runs than they've allowed -- eight fewer than the Cubs. But they're 10 games over .500 at 27-17 and are six games ahead of the third-place Cubs.
One final point on run differential: For the Yankees and Cubs, those losses are in the bank. To get to 90 wins, the Yankees now need to go 72-48 for the rest of the season. That's a .600 clip, about what a 97-win team would produce over a full season. With the Red Sox riding high and some stiff competition around the league for the wild card, 90 wins still might not be enough. The Cubs will need 70 wins to get to 90 for the season, a .583 clip that's the equivalent of a 94- or 95-win effort over a full season. If the Yankees and Cubs keep up their current pace at the plate and on the mound, they should both expect to play well above .500. But there's no guarantee their luck will improve -- and it's unlikely that it will "even out."
cs07,
I couldn't agree more. Again...it was just my sarcastic nature...you'll get used to it.
and Lucy....if your reading...that article kind of validates what you were saying on the other thread.
Casual, thanks for the great article. I found the analysis of the runs scored and runs allowed interesting. I was certainly aware of the great number of runs scored by the Yankees, which I found to be a very compelling stat considering their sub-.500 performance, but its significance when compared to the runs allowed is very telling. Statistically speaking, pitching injuries and a battered bullpen are now clearly shown to be the culprits (so we're not just looking for excuses, as some have suggested).
Right Lucy,
Pitching, pitching, pitching....and then more pitching.
I've been preaching that for years.
Funny thing is, the Yanks pitching aint horrible....just pummeled by injuries. Thye get Healthy it would seem to me they have a solid mix of "proven veterans", a reliable guy in Wang, and a nice stable of young and talented arms in Hughes, Clippard, Ranser etc.
If I were the Yanks...I'd be hoping that Giambi gets out of his present mess and the Angels still want him....a Chone Figgins and Benjy Molina would great additions to this team.