Blech

Much better.

McCan't ... McCan!!!

How about we SCORE SOME RUNS?!?!?!?

I'm watching tonight's Channel 9 feed on Channel 26 in Oneonta NY (Pettitte and Posada played MiL ball here). My 12-yr old grandson is playing in a baseball tournament at "Cooperstown All Star Village," located outside Oneonta. This is week 11 for the facility, and 41 teams are competing, from NY, NJ, MA, VA, MI and CA. Each team plays 6 games in a 3-day period, with playoffs the next 2 days. His team finished 4-2, though he fractured his fibula hustling out a roller to first at beginning of game 2. Another facility closer to Cooperstown has 30 fields and hosts 104 teams each week!

[5] Well, those are the kinds of injuries you have to expect when you field an older team. If his team were stocked with more eleven-year-olds, they'd be healthier.

Seriously, sorry about the fracture. Our family got a Frequent Fracture card at the local orthopedist -- every twelfth x-ray on the house.

[5] His injury mimicked the Manny Machado play at first last year against Yanks, where he tripped leaping for the base. Interestingly, one of my grandson's teammates is named Machado!

So who's responsible for singing lullabies to the bats?

He cann!

Well one just woke up!

Wouldn't lullabies to bats have to be sung at dawn?

[11] Um . . . You're making my head hurt.

Phew!

Should would be happier with more than 2 runs scored ...

Ruh roh.

Here's something I found interesting (heard on sports talk radio driving home).

About a decade ago the baseball punditry started extolling the virtues of the Red Sox front office, especially lauding their farm system and drafting strategy and development. So, who is the last position player Boston drafted who's had any real MLB success?

We watch him almost every day. It's Ellsbury. They haven't nailed a single position player since they drafted Ellsbury. And the only one they've drafted in the past decade who's a successful player and still on the team, is Pedroia.

(I think this was a slight exaggeration by the radio host, actually -- I'd call Josh Reddick a successful player, though just a league-average outfielder. Oakland got Reddick in exchange for Andrew Bailey and Ryan Sweeney, so not exactly a huge success for Theo Epstein there.)

I don't know if Gardner and Ellsbury forgot who was running, but there was zero urgency from either one of them there.

Fugh.

That was trouble off the bat and a dangerous one once Capuano reacted ...

Capuano looks Pettite-ish, for a number of reasons ...

Blargh.

Warren doesn't fill me with confidence, but Capuano almost certainly had to come out ...

Uh, yeah.

Warren has turned to suck.

Fugh.

So Michael Kaye raves about the pitching job of Capuano - and then the game turns to shit. Sort of like Jody Applegate's life the night before her wedding.

Well, that's that ...

You know what?

Call me crazy (and this is funny given [22], but it's an independent thought) but is it just me or has Kay mellowed somehow? Something about his demeanor or something suddenly strikes me as far less aggravating than I used to find it.

Has he matured or something? Or am I just crazy?

Sometimes bad teams get beat by the Marwin Gonzalez' of the world

[24] dunno! but when I'm forced to listen to most other broadcaster the Yankees don't seem so bad. Reds guys are boring.

Upon further reflection, I wonder if he's actually talking less, letting the silences be, letting the game breathe a bit more than he used to.

[24] You mean day in, day out?
I find that some days he is less annoying. It seems to have a lot to do with who else is in the booth and how they're interacting. His most annoying days are with O'Neill, but sometimes Paul is in a better mood and it goes fine. When it's just Michael and Flash, that's generally the worst because, how shall I put this... there just isn't enough personality plus brain power in the booth to generate any light.

[26] Yeah, I've heard that a lot.

Beltran is so overdue. Clutch hit please?

[26] That's interesting. I generally like local broadcasters when I'm traveling. I don't think I've ever heard the Reds, and obviously the White Sox guys are unbearable, but generally I enjoy them.
What I find incredible is how much better local crews are, on the whole, than any national baseball broadcast team I've heard in many years.

Good for Carlos.

A walk is not as good as a hit

If someone nominated John Sterling for the Ice Bucket Challenge, would it count if he just emptied his drink on his head during one of the middle innings?

[28] Laughing

Maybe that's what I'm responding to, the relative dullness of Kay and Flash.

I like dull when the alternative is insufferable.

Lucky bounce!

MarTEEN!

[33] Turns out it was.

Putting the DO in Prado!

Martin's museum in Madrid is my fav

[31] They are better. Watching a team over the years gives some better insight and can relate humanizing elements to a player, but even the Tigers guys overly boost a league average player for their team.

Of course league average at the ML level is pretty damn fine.

Woo Hoo!

[41] Oh, sure, there's the homerism. That honestly doesn't bother me. It doesn't even bother me when I watch Red Sox games.

Sipp's motion makes it look like he's throwing 99 when it's really 92. Is that deception?

Jeezus blue, that was in New Jersey.

I don't mind some homer ism, you should hope the local team wins. But call out your guy for not doing his job. Remy does that, and I have fond memories of Scooter taking a Yankee to task for a poor bunt attempt.

O.K., orientation starts tomorrow, night all.

Perfect time for a rare Jeter HR

Or not

(I'm from Yonkers.)

When Dellin comes in, maybe the opponent should just say "We'll pass on this inning."

Sigh.

Betances is arguably the best reason to watch a Yankee game now.

[51] Yes.

That Johnny Damon sure could steal a base.

Following up on [16]:
The Red Sox, famously, now employ Bill James to do projections (and other analysis but they won't say what). James projected that Will Middlebrooks would hit 30 homers this year; he has two so far (but there's still plenty of time left!). He estimated 19 homers for Xander Boegarts and 17 for Jackie Bradley Jr.

Sabermetrics still has a ways to go.

Yay!
Now get him in, Mark, just do it.

Well that was a propitious turn of events.

Or, uh, Carlos, since that was strike three he stole on.

OH, FOR FUCK'S SAKE!!!!!

Terrible.
Horrible.

Oh, so if only the throw to second on the steal hadn't gone into CF, we'd have a run on that single!

Can't predict baseball.

Damn. Tagged it, too.

Now I think we'll lose. Although, Dellin and D-Rob, we might have a couple innings to score. So I'll be optimistic.

[54] Interesting. How do you know that?

This ma be a stupid question, but why was Ellsbury running on contact there?

Wow, Kay agrees with me.

The explanation is stupid, btw.

[62] Heard it on sportstalk radio. I don't know where they got the info, though -- I assume they have a Red Sox insider.

[64] Why? It makes sense to me. Not that Flash is the most cogent explainer, but the point is that you do take a risk but you also increase of scoring on a grounder.

What's with all the Flash-bashing tonight? Not only is he not dumb, but he's a superior analyzer.

I'd much rather have the runner on third with two outs than the runner on first with two outs because we banked on someone throwing the ball away.

Although I suppose the Yankees are bad enough that "maybe he'll throw it away" is the only way he could have scored.

We simply cannot lose to Houston. Ugh.

[67] Yeah, no. Not superior. Not awful, but it wasn't a very good explanation.

Mean while, wtf happened to the damn strike zone??

There's never a good reason to get Rich Hill up

Wow.

Jesus.

Yeesh.

Well, Dave didn't have great control, but the strike zone didn't help.

Not a bad night. 4 strikeouts and 1 HR

[73]This isn't the umpire's fault. He looks awful.

Cursed.

[54] Bill James...ugh...I know he's the GodFather and all but seems like a truly unpleasant man, and his writing skill is over-rated..

But I'm down with a cold and grumpy, what do I know..grumble grumble..

Announcers: Would Pa Sterling and Hawk Harrelson be the worst possible combination?

[68] Uh, yeah, obviously everyone would rather have two out and a man on third than two out and a man on first. That wasn't in question.

The point is that on a large percentage of grounders, Ellsbury can score if he goes on contact. If he waits to see if it's going to be fielded easily he'll be able to score on fewer of those. So that's the plus side of running, while on the minus side there's the risk of losing the lead runner.
I have no idea, myself, how the numbers work out, but apparently Girardi thinks it's worth the risk.

Tragedy, when the feeling's gone and you can't go on, it's tragedy.

I wonder how much it's going to take to land Rusney Castillo. I'm assuming the current success of Puig, Cespedes, and Abreu will build his value.

Except for some obvious wishin' and hopin' moves that have backfired, Girardi has done a great job keeping the Yankees viable this deep into the season.

But I have a feeling he's not coming back next year, as management wants the perception that things will be blown up after Jeter's retirement. We'll see...

[81] Interesting. I've heard no inkling of that.

He's doing well, as you say, and it's such a crap shoot to hire a new manager. Could be fine, could be a disaster.

Well, buenas noches.

I hate when other teams beat the Yankees with clutch hitting. Remember that?

Yanks should have won this one.

[84] Bobby V is still available!