The sweep this weekend was big for the Yankees, but they've got a lot more work in front of them if they want to make the playoffs. Hat tip to Steve Lombardi of WasWatching.com, as his research indicates that no other team has been this far back in the A.L. wild card standings on this date and wound up winning the wild card. Winning the division is a different story, as if you're trailing by a few games in the division race, there's probably only one team you need to pass.
But the Yankees have to hope for a couple of teams to stumble if they want to play in the postseason. Betting on passing the Rays would probably not be a smart move. Even in the division race, where the Yankees are five games back in the wild card, they need to worry about the Red Sox as well as whichever team (Minnesota or the White Sox) doesn't win the AL Central. One interesting thing to watch will be how the Twins deal with their hellacious road trip. Due to the Republican National Convention coming up in St. Paul, they will play 24 of their next 30 games on the road. Talk about brutal, especially this late in the season.
This week should tell us a lot about the Yankees' chances. If the Yankees don't win the series against the Red Sox, I'd say they're basically done.
Comments (12)
I wouldn't go that far Kat......
The only way I see the Yankees as "done" is if the Sox sweep us.
If the Yanks somehow sweep we will be right back in it. 2 out of three either way is only a 1 game swing and does not say a whole lot either way about what may happen.
We need a run. Lets all hope they got it in them.
I agree with Kat.
Look, Tampa's out of reach and good for them. But the Red Sox are vulnerable. They're without Beckett, Lowell, and Drew. Manny the Yankee Killer is gone. Who knows what Wakefield will give them on Tuesday and Clay Bucholtz has quietly been awful.
The Yankees need to run through these guys and close the gap. I think the 15 game road trip is going to really hurt the Twins and allow the White Sox to gain some separation. The Yankees have their top three starters going against Boston, I don't think a sweep is too much to ask for.
A sweep would be wonderful, but you can't bank on it Chipster.
2 out of 3 in our favor would leave us 4 games back with plenty of games to play.
If we are going to make a run. Pavno and/or Joba need to be healthy and pitch well.
Test: If this works, then it is confirmed that Safari is the only browser I can find that will work with this new system.
I agree w/ Kat by the way, if they don't beat Boston, at least two out of three, which still may not be good enough, it's over.
Can't bank on it, but could use it.
I agree, down the stretch if we can use a rotation of Joba, Andy, Moose, Ponson and Pavano the Yankees have a good shot.
But again, pitching hasn't been the issue, getting offensive production on a regular basis is what's missing. Hopefully the fact that the team is now working with a set lineup that will come too. Though, lets be honest, scoring runs against the O's is about as simple as hitting water when you fall out of a boat.
I was at the game yesterday, and I have a couple of observations:
-D. Cabrera wanted to hit a Yankee so bad he could taste it, he finally got A-Rod and it sounded nasty when it hit him.
- Cano still looks lazy in the field, but his bat finally came through. I was sitting very close to the field, and I yelled for him to take a pitch for a change his first time up and he smiled when I said it- then he took a pitch! Lo and behold, he hit the ball well all day.
- I-Rod is not impressive at all, either with the glove or bat. He did try to throw my son a ball though but my kid wasn't paying attention and he just shrugged and gave the ball to the umpire (it was a foul ball up the first base line)- my son is still mad about it.
- Mariano looked awesome and I honestly think he walked Roberts on purpose because his control was awesome otherwise.
I've been on vacation the last 10 days so I'd like some updates from my farm followers: How are the youngsters doing? Especially Hughes, obviously he's not doing great if they chose Pavano to come up over him.
I agree the offense is the number 1 reason why we are in the position we are in now.
But starting pitching has been a major issue as well. Besides Pettitte and Moose we have had to deal with the following:
Ponson: 3-3 with a 5.46 ERA
Hughes: 0-4 with a 9.00 ERA
Rasner: 5-9 with a 5.03 ERA
Kennedy: 0-4 with a 8.17 ERA
Jim,
Welcome back. Hope that you had a nice vacation.
Bill Madden in the Daily News wrote an article that mentions the Yanks farm system. basically, he called the Yanks to task about it. When you get a chance, check it out.
I was watching the game yesterday and it was a real slow moving affair. Rasner stinks and I was ready to give up when Edwar gave up the HR to Roberts. Saw the "American idle" do decently on Saturday.
Let's hope that they can give Boston some fits in the next few days.
Jim A
Hughes got blasted for his second consecutive AAA start 2 days ago.
Something like 6 runs in 3 innings?
He's done that twice now and this time he wasn't "under the weather" aka Girardi speak for sucked.
I know I'll get killed for this but I think Hughes is a relative bust as things look so far.
He's 22 I know but this is the second year that's been completely wasted he wont even have his innings count for 09...
Next year he'll be 23 and if we're to go by the progression of pitchers such as Peavy/Lackey/Santana etc...They all took 3 - 5 ML seasons before they became top tier starters.
Sure some are faster than others but at this pace the kid still has no third pitch has shown nothing in the way of consistency (other than a freakish ability to stay on the DL for long periods of time) and will basically start 09 the same as he started 07 and now 08.
If he were ever to get where we hope he will someday be as projections go it may still be 3 to 4 yrs away. Until then a back-end type #5 with very good days and very bad days is probably what we'll be looking at.
Hindsight is a bitch but I'd say that Jim A and myself look pretty good right now regarding the Santana/Hughes debacle.
That said, I'm not sure it would've helped drastically this season with the offense scoring 200 fewer runs than their annual average.
PS. CHip,
Pelfrey didn't take essentially 2 yrs off, Hughes has. I can't see a realistic comparison between the two whatsoever.
PTRS,
I see where you are coming from. I never like to label a 22 year old a bust, but Hughes is very disappointing thus far and this was the kid who was supposedly being held back at 20, even though he was "major league ready" by that age. I guess not.
John G: Thanks, the vacation was great, but it's good to be back in a normal routine too. Thanks for the info on Madden's article, I'll check it out.
During yesterday's game I had no idea why Girardi felt he had to take Robertson out for Ramirez to pitch to B. Roberts, it wasn't like he is a lefty and you had the lefty on lefty matchup and it obviously didn't work. One thing I did notice though was that Edwar didn't melt after the HR, he fought back and pitched well afterwards.
Marte' was pretty impressive and it was good to see that.
I think yesterday's lineup is the lineup that should be run out there every day from now until the team is eliminated or has clinched a spot in the playoffs.
By the way, message to Brett Gardner: You must think you are a true big leaguer now as you completely ignored the group of kids calling your name as you walked into the dugout after coming up from the batting cage- way to go dude! You just alienated all those kids because it was too much trouble to even wave. Yup, you're big time now buddy.
Message to Johnny Damon: You are still the class act on the team.
Yesterday the O's had a promotion where they had a little girl race from the outfield wall to second base, pick up the bag and take it back to the fence and if she did it in a certain amount of time, she got to keep the base. She was very small and could not get the base up and which big leaguer stopped to help her? Yup, Johnny Damon ran over, dropped his glove, pried up the base and handed it to her. Oriole Park roared like it was Yankee Stadium- everyone appreciates class. Way to go Johnny, take Brett Gardner under your wing will ya?
Oh yeah, what happened to Kim Jones? I saw her hobbling around with a cast on her ankle yesterday.
Welcome back, Jim A. So, you come back from vacation and go on Safari? (Har Har) I got on with Firefox, but it took a couple days of the thing making feel like a troll.
Kat's on target about the Twins. The WC race probably won't have as big a field in another couple weeks, because the Twinkies--and the famously democratic state of Minnesota--are really being bent over the barrel by the GOP.
[Political aside alert]:
Does it seem strange to anyone else that the republicans insist on holding their convention in enemy territory? Last time it was New York. Granted, Colorado is hardly Massachusetts (or Minnesota, for that matter). But St. Paul? That's like the dems holding a convention in Wyoming. I don't get it. Do they want people throwing eggs at them? Maybe they're hoping to cause such a ruckus that "regular folks" will somehow feel sorry for them and turn against their opponents. Or maybe it's the evangelical approach: descend, convert everyone. I'm no Beltway insider, but sometimes it seems like the parties are run by the Pittsburgh Pirates' FO (although Marte's making those guys look smarter and smarter every day).
[End, political aside alert.]
Read this AM that Cabrera's velocity is way down, and that he may be hurting. He was wild all day yesterday, and almost hit several guys in the early innings. I kinda doubt he was head-hunting. Sounds like he's got arm issues. Dumb to hide it, but that's my guess.
I don't think Cano is a dog. I think he's one of those athletes who is so natural and fluid that he easily can be mistaken for not trying when he screws up. I also suspect that he's immature and has lapses in concentration that hurt him and the team. I was hoping that sending his buddy Melky down would shake him up and and make him focus; but I don't think he's ever going to be the kind of player who "looks" like he's playing hard--a la Pete Rose or Lenny Dykstra. It's just not in him. He's too natural. He may, in fact, be trying harder and have renewed focus, but we might not ever know; because I suspect he's hurting a bit right now. Remember, he was perhaps the hottest hitter in the game at the All-Star break, then he got beaned on the hand shortly thereafter, and hasn't really been the same hitter since. But that's always gonna be a problem for a guy who hits .240 until July 1 and .400 after--if you get
hurt on July 1, you're hitting .240 for the year.
If the boys go 22-10 over the last stretch of the season, they'll end up 92-70 . That's a .688 clip, and may not be enough to win the WC. For whatever it's worth, no one's won the AL WC with as few as 92 games since '96.
This time of year, everyone says leads are insurmountable, and cites statistics of how few times x has been done in x decades. But I give you one four-letter word: M-E-T-S. The Rays are young, the Sox are hurt and cocky, the Twinkies are being screwed by the GOP, and the ChiSox are--well, gonna win the division.
With Joba coming back, Hughes on his heels, Pavano suddenly a living breathing mammal. Who knows? Personally, I'm hoping for 25-7 (.780), but I'm a dreamer, and I've been drinking the DC tap water for the past 5 years.
Just to be fair: I have no idea if the democrats are displacing the Rockies this week with their ridiculous media spectacle of a convention; but the NL Champs are 10 games under .500 and 8 games out in the awful NL West. So I'd call it moot.