…Michael Pineda is starting tonight.
Brett Gardner LF
Derek Jeter DH
Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Brian McCann C
Chase Headley 3B
Stephen Drew SS
Martin Prado 2B
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Never mind the summertime blues:
Let’s Go Yank-ees!
[Picture by Bags]
Uh Oh: https://twitter.com/andrewmarchand/status/502182737806372865
Mo'ne Davis is pitching tonight. Little League might be the better option
Draft Mo'ne!
Mo'ne is a fully grown young lady. Her 70mph. fast ball is a big advantage in little league. Danny Almonte has some advice.
Buck Showalter to protest that Jeter hit.
We're not going to score a run here, are we ...
Nope.
Nope.
Sigh.
Come boys, get a couple in for Big Mike.
Christ, Brett.
You're in the city and you're eating national chain pizza?
Grrrrrrrrrr.
Papa John's really is utter shite ...
Wait, there's replay in Little League???
[13] I know, it's like a sign of the apocalypse.
This gives new meaning to "you throw like a girl."
If Pineda remains healthy (and that's an earth-shattering if), he would be an MLB Top 5 pitcher.
Damn, there's a player on the Philly team with a ... MUSTACHE!
NHK has stopped showing the Yankees games on their satellite channel, which is odd because it makes sense.
So we got the Fat Sosas vs. the Pawtucket Sox today or Koshien.
My MLB Premium has been bitchy at home of late.
Looks like Richards just got carted off the field in the Angels game. Guess that might matter if the Yankees ever get around to showing a pulse ...
Ohhhh, too bad.
Well, let's get a shut-out.
The Angels pitcher just got carried off on a stretcher. A no collision leg event.
The fans gave him a big hand for getting himself hurt. Why do the fans always clap when a guy gets carried off on a stretcher?
I get it in football, when it becomes clear that the guy ain't dead or brain dead. You clap because he's OK. But this pitchers' season is over. Nothing to clap about.
ALEX PARKER GOES FULL EDMONDS!!!
Still no runs off of Feldman (from across the hall)?
Whoa.
That's a tough catch that little Nevadan just made.
need to make fantasy team move now...
[24] great catch.
Carter has 30 taters??
Eat it, Carter.
I missed it, why the hell did Altuve bunt?? Was there any explanation?
Every time I see Pineda I think he should posting up Ewing. The ball is like a marble in his hand.
Fug.
About both games.
[20] I have confidence that this Yankees offense could get shut out.
Mo'ne ... getting hit hard.
They're even doing "pitch sequences" at LLWS!
He's out
And so we gave up a run
Oh, for fuck's sake. Stolen base wasn't even close. Nice homer, though.
Hey, Stephen! Look at that!
Pine tar sticking on Prado shoulder a brilliant camera capture, especially since Kay had just started discussing pine tar...
Wow. Just read Schilling fighting oral cancer. His oratory has always be an cancer to me, [sorry] but dang, what a shitty disease. Sounds really awful. He said he can't taste or smell anything.
I suppose the morality police will be calling for a ban on snuff next year.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Has Mo'ne got an out on a ball hit in play yet? I know she has a ton of strikeouts, and there was the nice play on the foul pop bunt.
Yeah, I think the Nevada BABIP is 1.000.
She gone ...
=(
Nice play by the Capt...uh, Prad, uh Horace, uh Drew. That's it!
[44] Whoa I, be the to replace her, she's gone etc.
[46] whoa they edited out the synonym for Satan.
What a gun by Ty!
Wow!!!
Do not run on these guys.
Oh, interesting timing -- I meant the Little League game.
How about that?
A PLAY!!!
Very cool, Jacoby.
[52] The play giveth, and the play taketh away.
Gutsy bunt by Ellsbury, with a rare RBI to boot!
Hurray! Teix didn't strike out again!
I wonder if anyone will ever hit 50 homers again.
Ebb and flow, ebb and flow ...
McCann's looking good.
Last night he pulled a ball hard foul before adjusting and hitting a home run.
Just now, he hit it hard foul and adjusted and just missed a double down the line.
I don't know if it's indicative, but on the face of it, that looks like the sign of a very good hitter.
Mo'ne up with two ducks! No pressure, girl...
[57] For whatever reason, I associate the concept of 50 home runs with George Foster.
I remember being astonished as a kid that George Foster, of all people, hit 52 home runs. It was all but unprecedented back then.
It should be nearly unattainable.
This is just a great game. I usually find Little League too fraught, but this is just great.
Yankee game not too bad, either
Nice job, kid!
Nice, Pineda
David Huff?
Is this a good idea?
[61] Yeah, especially as Foster looked kind of skinny.
Brady Anderson has to be the most unlikley 50 homer guy though.
Oh, man, what a shame for Pennsylvania. Hit that heater hard but right at the 2B.
Esmil Rogers. Is this a good idea?
Held up? Capitalize! Double play please.
Are there any good ideas for the Yankees at this point?
Aw fuck!
Orientation for the new students. Semester starts tomorrow, night all.
[67] Yes. The difference is, when George Foster did it I thought it was an incredible, not to say implausible feat.
When Brady Anderson did it, it diminished the integrity of the game in my mind.
When he did it, it meant that obviously 50 just didn't mean 50 anymore.
Not the best ideas.
Suddenly it's 5-2.
For fuck's sake.
These guys are fucking shitty.
And you, Altuve, run, you fuck.
Fuck you and your showboating single.
I turned the channel at 2-1 and I turn back to 5-2. W.T.F!
I feel for Pineda. Dude's been working his ass off to get back in the rotation and the bullpen has blown 2 great starts. Fucking bollocks!
(To my point yesterday about whether Kay is mellowing in his dotage, I just caught an example: re: the seventh inning stretch, he used to go, "At the end of six and a half, GET UP AND STRETCH!"
Now it's a matter of fact, "It's time for the seventh inning stretch.")
[80] Doesn't he have a baby now? It takes energy, as we know!
[73] I never was bothered by that, the game always changes back and forth. You could argue the 'No-O' era in the late 60s, huge pitching mounds and awful middle-infielders was an unfair advantage to pitchers.
Brett Gardner's such a fascinating case to me. He seems like he has the potential to be a .300 hitter yet he never is. I can't quite figure out what his problem is or why he consistently seems more promising than he turns out to be.
He strikes out a lot, doesn't he? Like, maybe his swing is a .300 swing but he just lacks the talent to make contact with enough balls?
I don't know. I really have no idea but it's maddeningly confounding to me.
[81] I know, I was actually wondering that too. Maybe he's just fucking spent.
:)
[81] Oh, wow, I never heard that about awful middle infielders. Really?
[84] Sure, in the NL you had SS routinely with OBPs under .300 and slugging about the same. Add in pitcher's in the 9th spot and that's almost two free outs out of 7. Not to take away from Gobson and Koufax, but they did have a huge advantage.
[82] Or maybe BA is not all that important? He leads the team in OBP, OPS, OPS+. Seems like he's doing just fine.
Just tuning in and checking the box score, from which I take it that Esmil Rogers has returned to form.
[87] don't blame Esmil, it was the guys before him (not Pineda, allowed 1 run in 6 innings).
[85] Ohhh! Sorry, I thought you meant awful *fielding* middle infielders (though on reflection, that would have worked to raise, of course, rather than lower batting averages).
hahahahah! For a minute there I thought there was this whole facet of baseball history I was oblivious about!
[86] Whether he's doing "just fine" by your measure is not relevant to the point I'm trying to make.
[88] Boy was I wrong. Just checked box score on Gamecast, and Esmil did allow last 2 runs.
Laughing
Talk about a circus catch!!
Great play!
[90] I'm not sure the point you are trying to make, other than to comment on his "problem" or on "why he consistently seems more promising than he turns out to be." He's beentheir best player easily this year, and yet you gripe that seems more promising than he is. You wonder what his problem is...I reject that there is any problem to wonder about.
[93] Hey Monkey, I agree...
Riveraveblues had a short bit on Gardner's changing approach this season: http://tinyurl.com/mzbkw3w. Basically, they contend he's intentionally become more aggressive and tried to pull the ball in the air more---which has resulted in a significant power surge. He did this, they say, in reaction to pitchers challenging him and his slap-hitter approach in the past. In other words, he's traded some BA for SLG (and probably some K), and has become a more valuable offensive player as a result.
C'mon, Snozzberry! Hit one in the seats.
Sigh.... : (
I thought it was a tie game off the bat...stupid wishful thinking.
That's what this years' all about.
[93] I guess we just approach it differently. I'm not arguing he should be benched or that he sucks, just that I've seen things in him over the years that have suggested to me he's capable of having a higher batting average than he seems to have. He seems pretty good at slapping the ball around which, coupled with his speed, is a quality that seems a necessary ingredient of hitting for a (relatively) high average.
Another such ability he seems to have is that of fighting off pitches, spoiling pitcher's pitches, waiting for mistakes or more hittable balls.
Not every player seems to be able to do these things, but he does.
And yet, his average doesn't seem commensurate with relative mastery of these kinds of skills/qualities.
I'm simply asking why that is.
[95] Thank you. That's a sound answer.
Of course, I'm still going to ask whether it's not possible for him to do both (like a Mattingly, e.g.), and if not, why not?
Strength? Batspeed? Batting eye?
I'm just trying to figure out, I guess, how you account for the difference between him and someone at the next level, who both sprays the ball around and hits home runs.
Maybe it's just a matter of strength?
I'm just curious.
[101] Interesting Q. It's all in the swing/bat speed isn't it?
Meanwhile, Yanks may get swept by the Astros tomorrow...
Also, his average is the same as it's ever been, isn't it? He's never hit higher, so he's not really sacrificing anything with a new approach.
So my question remains, why did his old approach never add up to more, based upon the skills as a batsman he seemed to display.
I don't know, sorry, I just find him a puzzle.
I just always sort of expected him to grow as a hitter and now that he's thirty am struck that he really hasn't.
(He's also always struck out a lot. That's part of the riddle to me, he seems good at fighting off pitches, going deep into at bats, yet he also K's a lot.)
[100][101] I get what you're asking, but I am asking you why higher BA is so important? I mean, haven't stat guys and general managers spent the last fifty or sixty years coming up with better ways to evaluate offensive performance that batting average? He fights off pitches, true, and that lets him walk a lot, which is why he has a high OBP. That's more important than whether he manages to turn 3 out of 10 ABs into a hit, so he can reach the magic BA number.
He is currently about 20th in the AL in BAbip (.327), and far above the league average of .298. So when he hits the ball, he hits it with authority and so gets hits with relative frequency. Thus, I don't think it's a matter of his strength. Rather, it would seem that he doesn't put the ball in play enough to be a .300 hitter, which presumably results from his relatively high number of K's (ranked about 17th in the AL).
You wonder why he can't get to the "next level." He's the best player on the team right now...what next level are you talking about? He's around 25th in the AL in OPS+, so I guess you're asking what's the difference between a very good batter and one of the top batters in the league. Who knows?
[105] I just always sort of expected him to grow as a hitter and now that he's thirty am struck that he really hasn't.
What are you talking about? He most certainly has grown as a hiter: his SLG has improved significantly, especially teh last two seasons, and so his OPS+ this season is better than ever. You are simply fixated on BA, so you ignore his clear development as a hitter.
[107] Thanks, mp, that's very helpful.
[108] Yes, perhaps so.
[106] Why is that a mystery? That he goes deep into counts probably contributes to his high K rates. In fact, his K's are up the last two years. Yet he is this year he has a higher than average BA with two strikes (.192 v. .181 league average). Didn't they run a graphic a few days ago that he leads the league in 2-strike hits this season? About half of all ABs this season go to two strikes (to date there have been 71,000+ PAs and 36,000 of them led to two-strike counts). Gardner has gone to two strikes on 314 out of 519 PAs before tonight, or about 60% of the time. So, he takes lots of pitches and gets to two strikes a lot. Sometimes he works a walk (at a fairly good rate), sometimes he gets a hit (a little more than average), and often he Ks. No mystery there.
The thing that I like about Gardner, in fact, is that he was developed in the system---and that he developed as a player). He moved slowly and deliberately through the minors, often spending two years at the same level, struggling the first then mastering it in the second. He had to fight for playing time when finally called up to the bigs. And now he's slowly transforming his offensive game in response to how pitchers have approached him. We're probably seeing the best of Brett Gardner---at 30 y.o. he's probably not going to get much better, and may even decline quickly---but it has been fun to watch him become an important part of the team, even as a late bloomer. Far more enjoyable than watching the Yankees sign some mediocre Proven Veteran™.
Now, should they keep Gardner on his bargain contract (maybe Cashman's best offseason move?), or should they trade him while his value is probably the highest it will ever be?
[111] You stop disparging 'Proven Veterans' right away or I'll sick a Professional Hitter on you..
[112] : )
:)
Thanks, mp, cheers!
And agreed, I have enjoyed watching him over the years too.
I'm quite fond of him.
damn, i missed the thread, per usual...
[61] weeping - i'm the same way with george foster!
oh, and, btw...we suck and are cooked.
[115] Thank you for mentioning that. Picture your ugliest Met-fan friends, and join with me now in saying....
The Yankees SUCK!
Rinse and repeat.