The Yankees are beating up on the Phillies here. They're leading 13-4 in the top of the seventh inning. Big nights with home runs and multiple RBIs for Jason Giambi, Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera.
Phil Hughes pitched five innings, allowing three earned runs on three hits and two walks. He struck out six.
Comments (14)
There were some interesting articles on Yahoo! Sports today.
I think Kerry Wood will do fine as a closer with the Cubs. They should have kept Mark Prior as a set up man too.
Related to that, we should keep Joba in the bullpen. Why mess with a good thing?
The team needs to recreate the pen of the Mendoza, Stanton and Nelson years. Even Mo and Wetteland were a great duo. We've lost that in recent seasons with Farnsworth's troubles. Poor guy.
There was also a story on Tibet. 140 killed by the PLA. 140! All of this started around the time of the MLB game in Mainland C. Bud Selig should thank his lucky stars he didn't play the game even a few days later. Can you imagine he and the MLB gang still in Asia when the killing started? He missed it by hours and days!
What would have been truly ironic is Newsday interviewing Richard Gere about all of this when he visited the Yankees clubhouse a few days ago.
Mr. Gere is well known for his hamster ranching, many movies, relations with uber-model Cindy Crawford and also his love for the people of Tibet.
Tibet + MLB + Killings + the Yankees + Richard Gere = Irony!
Does anyone agree with me when I say that a stronger starting rotation would make a bullpen better? What I mean is this: If you have at least 4 starters who regularly give you 6+ innings per start, you don't wear down your bullpen by July 1st and you also don't have to have so many choices as a small amount of guys can get the job done because they will be fresh almost every time out.
We've been debating Joba's place on the Yankees staff for so long and from the looks of spring training, he's better suited for the bullpen right now but the starting rotation is still pretty "iffy" if you ask me and that needs to be addressed first. If teams see Joba three times in every 3 game series they play, they will figure him out. Just look at Mo and the Red Sox, they saw him so much in the past, they can hit him pretty hard.
Opening Day today....in JAPAN!! I couldn't get the game on ESPN2, could anyone else? wtf?
Jim,
I agree that a stronger rotation makes for a stronger pen. But the fact is that with the innings restrictions on him there's really no way Joba could be an effective starter all year long - plus the team has six solid starters and Joba is the only one with relief experience so it makes sense to use him out of the pen FOR NOW. I still believe that he will be a starter before the end of the season and consider what a great "trade" that will be. The Yankees for the stretch run will get a young pitcher with loads of ability without having to give up anything. I would still like to see the team sign Freddy Garcia as a veteran back up for later in the season but I'm not going to go all Rick Keyes/Ted Lilly on the point.
On another note. GREAT article in the NY Daily News on A-Rod. Lots of tremendous quotes from him. Here are a few:
"I went for the contract when my true desire was to go play for the Mets," Rodriguez said of his decision to ink his $252 million deal with Texas eight years ago.
"So to make the right decision just feels really good," Rodriguez said, "versus being taken down a road where I'm like, 'Oh, my God, where am I? Oh, $400 million to play in some place I hate? Great, I'll blow my --- head off.'"
"My wife and daughter both love New York," said A-Rod. "Four days after I opted out (and was living in Miami), my daughter says, 'I really miss my bedroom and my toys in New York.' I wanted to shoot myself. I said to my wife, 'What the --- are we doing?' "
On appearing more relaxed:
"Once you start letting go a little bit, things start coming to you a little easier," A-Rod said. "They did for me last year. In the past, I've always said, 'I have to do this and I have to do that,' mainly because of the expectations.
"Now I've come to a point where, if I get a hit with the bases loaded, cool, and if I don't, so what? Next at-bat. Or next game. People always want it to be about the .individual battle with me, but I just want to be part of this team, and I think that will help me get to where I want to go."
Jim A,
I think its more a matter of what is your team strength. If you have a strong set of arms in the pen you can give a little on the rotation. If you have a strong set of starters you can give a little in the pen. You just can't sacrifice at both. Right now there are question marks in the rotation and the pen. How they prove out will determine if they finish 1st or 2nd.
Nudge,
I don't think you can find any team in baseball that doesn't have question marks throughout their pitching staffs. I mean take a look at the likely playoff contenders:
Boston - Beckett's back, Schilling out, Wakefield's age, a fairly weak pen behind Okajima and Papsmear
NYY - Andy's back/age, the kids, the pen behind Joba and Mo, Moose
CLE - Does Fausto repeat from last year, even if he does, they have a weak staff behind him and Sabathia, Joe Borowski is an awful closer
Det - Does Bonderman bounce back, how about Willis in the AL, with Rodney and Zumaya out the pen is really weak
Sea - probably the best rotation and pen in my mind - but lots of age with Wash and Batista and does Hernandez measure up to his title of King Felix?
Angels - Scot Sheilds was pretty bad at times last year, How do Ervin Santana and Jared Weaver perform - health of Escobar and Lackey
My point, if there ever was one, is that of the teams who we expect to contend for playoff spots they've all got rotation and pen issues and so the deciding factor will probably have less to do with how the teams fix their pitching but which lineups are able to overcome questionable pitching.
I think we should have signed Eddie Guardado or someone like Stanton in his prime, who can throw eighty something games.
Didn't the Nationals have some good relievers.
Cashman's moves are suspect a lot of the time. The lack of quality lefty arms, even in the minors is inexcusable.
Has anyone seen or heard of how Chris Carpenter, the Yankees minor leaguer is doing? What about Brackman? Still hurt? If so, why draft him in the first round with all that talent out there.
What about Igawa? He is up and down. If he can focus and harness whatever it is he does in the good outings, then that would be great.
You have to be joking about NOT having a lefty in the bullpen.
What about Ortiz and other tough lefty hitters?
Some things I just don't understand.
Wow AROD is such an exceptional Human Being, imagine the human tragedy of sacrificing tens of millions so you could take a 300 million dollar offer to stay in NY, I can't think of any greater human sacrifice! In fact this guy is right up there with Mother Teresa and many saints. His sacrifice knows no bounds and the Yankees are truly blessed to have him in their uniform, in fact the Locker room should have an area where fans can come to heal themselves sort of a Lourdes of baseball area, maybe they can have a blessed locker with ARODS soiled uni and possibly some HGH vials for those who are in need of miraculous healing.
Ant - Chris Carpenter decided not to sign with the Yankees and went back to school. He was thinking he would get picked in the first couple of rounds and wants to see if he can hit that draft status this year.
Andrew Brackman will be out with TJ surgery for the year. As for why the Yankees took him, TJ is no longer a career threatening operation, in fact lots of teams don't mind it because it forces pitchers who may have been a little abused by HS or College coaches to take time off.
If the choices are take a bad lefty or a better righty I think you have to take the better pitcher, regardless of what side of the body he throws from. A good pitcher can get a hitter out regardless of what side of the plate he hits from. Keep in mind, the Yankees signed Mike Myers to get out tough lefty batters, how well did that work out?
Chip,
I agree that Boston has just as many question marks as the Yanks. Thats why I am not convinced they are the team to beat yet. Their health situation will be like the Yanks youth situation. If the health is OK they will win, if the youth developes into solid contributors the Yanks win.
The Yanks have rolled the dice. Really 4 of the five starters have to shake of questions of can they be effective and reliable. Thats a lot! Then the bullpen questions. At least by moving Joba where he belongs one question was cleared up. At least for now.
Sox also have some rookie questions. Can Pedroia step up, what role will Ellsbury have. Can they get contributions from the young arms.
See I actually think for once Cashman made the right call with Joba in the pen because he would still be a huge question mark as a starter....and there would be a huge question mark in the setup role. Now, one less question!
Yanks already 1/2 game behind
Sure gene - but they are even in the loss column.
Nudge,
I have no problem with rolling the dice on the rotation the way Cashman has. The only way the Yankees will know if Hughes and Kennedy will be as good as their billing is to let them pitch. They've obviously got nothing left to prove at the minor league level. As for Moose - well there's really nothing to be done with him except let him work. Wang has shown that he may not be a superstar, but he's a reliable pitcher who has quietly won 38 games in 2 years. And if Andy is healthy he's a horse. Like I said, I would like a veteran for a safety net, but if they don't get one, so be it.
I agree with starting Joba in the pen, but in the end, he should be a starter and that means they have to get his innings up. If they keep him in the pen all year then that means he should go to winter league - one way or another, before next spring, he needs to have thrown over 110 innings so that when Andy and Moose are gone next year, he will be free to start and throw in the 150 - 160 innings range.
Chip and Jim,
You guys stated the same thing I've been preaching on this blog for a long, long time.
The starting pitching needs to get significantly better if they want to win postseason games again. Plus, as Jim rightly stated, the bullpen will benefit greatly from a strong rotation.
That is why Joba needs to go to the rotation in the second half of the season and stay there.
Here's what Sweeny Murti said the other day on his blog entry and nailed it:
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Starting pitching is where it starts and ends every year. For those who think the Yankees failures in recent years have come from the bullpen troubles, look again. Their bullpen may have gotten to October in better shape if their starters had been good enough during the season.
Last year Yankee starters pitched just 921 innings. In 2003, the last year they reached the World Series, Yankee starters totaled 1065 innings. That’s a difference of 144 innings that had to be picked up by other pitchers. Strengthen your rotation and your bullpen isn’t overused. If this wasn’t the basic formula, you’d see teams throwing any old 5 guys out there they could and save their best arms for the bullpen. Ever see that happen?
What I would do, and this may be completely nuts, is if Phil Hughes is closing in on his innings limit towards the end of the season and everything else is going well with the starters I would swap him and Joba - that will ensure that a good arm is replacing Joba in the pen and open a spot for Chamberlain in the rotation. Of course that will be tough to do if Hughes is one of the top two starters by that point in the season.