I guess that means we're the 3 Stooges. Ahhh, I'm a Marx Bros. fan, though I can't argue against the merits of the 3S clip above; good selection.

If these are the official match-ups, this must be us throughout this whole, um... thing >;)

[2] "If these are the official match-ups, this must be us throughout this whole, um… thing"

No it isn't!

: )

[2] perfect! that sketch is exactly like a game thread. :D

[2] Heh hehe heh heh heh!

Very nice.

Hmmmm...FOX is currently have technical difficulties--no sound. This would be lovely.

[6] ok for me.

[7] Too bad.

[6] In maintaining the "Argument Sketch" theme...

Yes it is!

: )

Blast...McCarver/Buck have made their unwelcome return.

What, no day off for Posada after catching in a night game?

Pettitte on the bump...

Hmmm...

Anyone else notice that?

Sweet,McCarver just pre-emptively ruined Buck's point about how all players in the old days would (or would not, which is what Buck wanted to say) run hard on every play.

The first seven hitters in the Yankees lineup all have at least 8 HR

[12] This coming from some hump that got his job from nepotism, feebly attempting to wax rhetoric on baseball pre free agency, when they could bench you or cut you loose and replace you with no notice whatsoever, which was why they always hustled down the line!

*says prayer of thanks for mute button*

[8] sorry to disappoint.

Thanks for "taking pitches" and "working the count" again, Captain Leadoff Man!

Pfft!

Where was that pitch??

And seriously, can we please stop talking about prostate cancer? Honestly, does FOX ever just talk about the damn game??

Andy falling right in with the rest of the starters not named CC...

Did Pettitte hurt his back again on that jump throw?

Woohoo Alex!

[18] seems like a good use of the platform actually.

So, who finally convinced Jeter that he needs to position himself closer to 2B this year? He's cut WAY down on the "past a diving jeter"s. Or am I imagining things?

[23] Jeter has always played where the coaches tell him to. I attribute that to a smarter coaching staff when it comes to that kind of thing.

umpires suck

[25] You misspelled "vampires".

was yesterday's win so embarrassing that no one is watching today?

I think it has more to do with this being a day game.
Maybe.

i guess, but it's a pretty crappy day in ny

[26] My attempt today is to not reference the future. : ) And maybe triple check whenever I use brackets.

[30] But it turned out so well!

[30] LOL

I'm going to the deli, such as it is here... and then shopping for a pair of shoes.

One Matzo Ball Soup and a Ruben are calling!

Enjoy the rest of the game folks!

: )

[32] have fun

nice shot of howard johnson blowing rain drops away

[27] FOX, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that because I live in Ohio I must of course rather watch the Indians-Cardinals game.

[20] yes?

[36] no?

[27] Personally I'm distracted today, trying to follow everything going on in Iran. Pretty amazing stuff.

Someday we'll get a 1-2-3 inning. Maybe if Robertson pitches later.

Huh. That was encouraging.
In fact, if he hadn't already given up that two-run dinger, I would right now say I felt very optimistic about Andy's chances today.

i guess the subway series isn't what it used to be when people are following the real world instead

Speaking of subways, I saw the new "Pelham 123" movie this afternoon.
The remake doesn't have the suspense of the original -- it's much more of a character drama.

[38] What's going on ? (boring game)

[39] Doing so here in the 5th sure would be a peach. And then that. : (

trouble.......

What's with the 0-2 hits??? Pretty decent pitches, too.

1,2,3 hits. Crap.

Well I'm off to watch the Mudhens. Looks like the Subway game is taking an ugly turn.

it would be interesting to have a good fielding outfielder

[41] I'm watching... but yeesh, what a slow game.

[42] I LOVE the original and I'm not inclined to give the new one a shot. Should I bother?

[43] Well, looks like massive election fraud and major protests. But it's all still a little murky, given that the government controls the media in Iran and they've also shut down youtube and cell phone networks there. Lots of rumors flying around, and some pretty violent videos and photos of riots.

http://tinyurl.com/lumne4
http://tinyurl.com/mfkz6y

Hm, this Omar Santos kid, huh?

[50] (The "P 123" part)
Well, if you like Denzel, Travolta, Turturro, Gandolfini, yes. The acting is interesting.

This team is a joke...after choking away three more games in Fenway, they come and play even worse against a AAA team in Mets uniforms. Changes are needed.

[53] maybe they should release pettitte

[54] I say: throw the rest of the games this season and draft Bryce Harper!

In more relevant news that I suspect some Banterers will appreciate, Brian Bruney, rehabbing in Trenton, just went OFF on K-Rod, per the Bats blog:
--
“Couldn’t have happened to a better guy on the mound, either,” said Bruney, referring to the Mets’ closer, as he spoke in Trenton. “He’s got a tired act.”...
... For some reason, Rodriguez’s actions infuriated Bruney.
“He gets what he deserves, man,” Bruney said. “I just don’t like watching the guy pitch. I think it’s embarrassing.”
--
http://tinyurl.com/ks59qq

how did that stay in??

Actually, those were the Rangel Houses, not the Polo Grounds Towers

Nieve is tiring.

Maybe after I'm done walking the hound the boys will be awake. Total effin' Bollocks!

[59] so am i

[38[ wow, i was busy cleaning and missed what was happening in Iran. gotta go read...

[59] If the Yankees weren't swing at everything, he would have walked the ballpwark. The fact that the haven't adjusted to Nieve is very telling.

Castillo will get all the grief after last night, but the Yankees, as a team, have been the real clowns over the past 5 games. The status quo isn't going to work...everytime this team faces something resembling a big game, they play like crap. Eventually, someone needs to be held accountable for that. The excuses are getting old.

Two things seem to be happening the last few games. One, the starting pitching is reverting back to how it was earlier in the season, ie bad. Two, the Yanks have fallen into the main bad habit of the last few seasons - which for a while this season I thought they'd shaken off - seemingly waiting around for a home run. I wonder if their comebacks have had the unfortunate side effect of exacerbating this waiting game.

Wow Damon's BA down to .280.

when francesa interviewed flaherty a few days ago flaherty said that posada doesn't call games by the scouting reports, he just goes on "feel." he guesses that posada calls based on what he would do as a hitter.
is there anywhere you can look up the pitching stats of catchers? that should be a separate category listed under catchers.

I gotta say though, it seems like the Yankees have had some bad luck today - some hard hit balls right at the defenders.

Nonetheless, the Yanks need to touch this f***ing pitcher up for some runs.

i went to pelham 123 too riyank - yeah the acting is interesting
our 56th yankee stadium memory contributor luis guzman was his usual great character actor self

i take it andy wasn't so dandy
and the offense has been candy

[65] that'd be nice to have but you gotta figure out how to do it since that must depend on so much who the pitcher is. and at what point in that pitcher's career. not to mention all the other factors such as ballpark, weather, batter, etc...

Wow, A-Rod is Three True Outcomes player-of-the-game today. (Santos was in the running, but then he went and doubled, the slouch.)

[67] dandy candy. check.

Holy god in heaven Cano looked terrible there

[67] Oh wow, I forgot that about Guzman. Now I'll have to go see the movie again!

Trade Cano to an NL team if you can get something of worth back.

[68] it should be sortable based on all those factors, but there aren't more factors than there are for pitching and hitting.

Pettitte gave up 12 hits in 5 innings? Oy.

Meanwhile, we're being 2-hit. With Brett Gardner being one of the hits. And he's in the game with Damon?

[66] It's not bad luck when you continue to hack away at a pitcher with no control...Nieve threw just over half for strikes, but those include pitches like the last one in the dirt that Cano swung at. From the first AB of the game when Jeter hacked away, the Yankees have shown little discipline. The bottom line with this team is they continue to play awful baseball when the spotlight shines. That isn't going to change unless changes are made.

[73] What does "of worth" mean here? Like a Dustin Pedroia type?

[74] the other factors are more in control. When you hit you have a tremendous amount of control over how you swing, what you swing at, etc... As a pitcher, you may not call the pitches but you have primary control over effectiveness, talent, etc.. As catcher, measuring how you call a game would be mostly dependent on what others do. I think i'm making sense here anyhow. haha

[76] i agree with you, but what changes? trading cano and/or melky might be a good idea. but what about the pitching? it's not like we have bad pitchers, they've just been terrible. could it be that they got better with cervelli then reverted when posada came back? the hitting has been up and down but has it really been the problem?

[78] I think that's all true, but what it means (maybe, I'm still thinking this through) is that you'd have to look at the very long run to get a sense of how the catcher is affecting the stats. Because in the very long run, those other factors would balance out and the differences among catchers would be their 'true' differences.

[79] Do you really think trading Cano is a good idea?
I think it's a terrible idea. I mean, of course it always depends on what's on offer, but I don't see any way the Yankees could really get equal value.

[79] The manager and/or the pitching coach for starters.

[80] you would need a very large statistical sample i agree. I'm not meaning to say it can't be done, just very difficult. probably impossible for catchers without at least a few years in the league.

well this recent stretch has by and large followed the recipe for un-success we saw at the beginning of the year - poor starting pitching, overworked pen, mediocre defense and offense - don't win much with that recipe

[83] Right. It would be very 'noisy'. But you know, all defensive stats are pretty noisy; this would just be another.

[76] I didn't say bad luck overall, just bad luck when you hit a ball on the screws but it's right at somebody.

[78] i guess the big difference is that you only catch 5 pitchers on your team, so there's no real comparison between catchers on different teams. but there aren't really any more factors than there are with hitting (you don't call the pitches or throw them, you just react to them) or even pitching (different opposing hitting abilities, different calls from catchers, ballparks, weather,etc). since to a certain extent pitchers all throw similar pitches, pitch selection is often the main difference between pitchers. obviously there are a million other factors, but i think that we underrate the importance of catching.

[81] I'd love to find out what they can get.

[85] yep, true. I think this would be noisier than most but I guess i'd have to see a formula someone came up with.

[77] Give me a list and I'll tell you.

And btw it looks like once again getting worked by the Red Sox has thrown the Yanks off their game in the subsequent series.

For those who don't believe in a mental component in sports, please ignore the above.

[81] i think that trading cano might be a good idea if we could get a very good starter. but i would have to be really convinced. i think cano might be a liability during the season but an asset during the postseason.

[89] Well, come to think of it, it probably would be noisier, for the reason [87] 51cq24 mentions: that even after five seasons you won't disentangle a catcher from the, say, 9 starters he's been catching for those years.

[90] Jeez, I dunno. I have very little idea of who's available.

I'd rather not trade Cano. I think folks here undervalue him.

[92] Interesting. Well, a vg starter is awfully valuable, sure.
Cano is an ops .800+ second baseman. Those are not as hard to find as they used to be (Chase Utley, Dustin Pedroia), but they're pretty valuable, I think.

[87] if you did have enough data and ran it it some kind of econometric model where you could hold the other factors constant you could basically isolate the impact of the catcher on your dependent variable (probably era+ or maybe whip - whatever you want to use as your measure of the pitchers). as you say, just looking at the stats on their face value will be difficult to parse.

[79] how does your hypothesis involve cash? i wasn't particulalry impressed by his behind the plate skills and he caught more than a buc during that hot stretch?

seems like a pretty typical URP game to me.

[97] You misunderstand. The Yankees are just trying to be efficient. No point in wasting a lot of runs (or hits, for that matter) in a game where our pitching is so bad. To win 97 games this year we need lots of one-run victories, and where do you think those runs are going to come from? Yep, we're saving them up in games like this one.

good job center field platooners!

man melky looked slow there