My mother and step-father were over for a cup of tea late yesteray afternoon. When they left, I checked the score (okay, I checked the score before they left too), turned the TV off and took my wife into Manhattan. So I missed the whole damned mess. AJ Burnett got bombed by the Red Sox for the third time this season and this was the worst beatin’ yet as Boston rolled, 14-1.
According to Tyler Kepner in the New York Times:
“I didn’t have a lot of conviction behind some pitches today,” Burnett said. “I threw a lot of balls that I didn’t want to throw.”
Burnett stressed that he did not blame Posada, holding himself responsible for choosing each pitch. That is the job of the pitcher, he said.
“We throw what we want to throw; he’s there to aid,” Burnett said. “It’s definitely not him. I had a good hook today and I feel like I should have used it more.”
Burnett added: “He calls it fine back there. It’s just a matter of me throwing what I want to throw. You don’t throw a pitch unless you’re 100 percent behind it.”
Posada said the hitters seemed ready for Burnett’s curveball early, so he called different pitches to keep them off it. His signals are suggestions, Posada said, and it is up to Burnett to accept them or not.
“He was shaking me,” Posada said. “I tried to get on the same page. It seems like at times we were, and then we weren’t at times. It’s frustrating because obviously he wants to throw a certain pitch and I want to throw another one. When they hit them like that, it’s tough to get on the same page.”
So the Yanks and Sox have split the first two games with tonight hopefully giving us a real pitcher’s match-up. Andy Pettitte and AJ Burnett were awful this weekend. Time for CC to make like an Ace, wouldn’t ya say?
mighty good game to have misssed, Alex.
I turned the page this morning cooking pancakes and bacon for my sons to the tune of some Hawaiian slack key guitar in the kitchen.
Here's a beautifully chill classic from the legend Gabby Pahinui performed by his son Cyril, also a master.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL4cHaFapGw&feature=related
I thought by the title that Austin Jackson was being called up to provide an alternative in LF, but that would have made too much sense.
So at no point did AJ say to himself; "yunnow, the pitches I'm throwing seemed to be getting tanked, maybe I oughtta listen to Jorge for the next inning and see what happens..." I left after Gonzalez' bomb, cuz I just knew it was gonna happen. If his pitches were that flat and predictable watching on TV, why wouldn't someone hitting what, .203 was it? with 1 HR; why wouldn't he jack one over the Monster? I wanted to grab a bat and join in, relieve some frustration from wasting my time watching to that point. Ah well, it's only baseball and a 6.5 lead in the division; no reason to have a breakdown over something so unimportant as focus...
[0] Alex, you teased me! When I read the headline, I thought that the Yankees had called up A-Jax to help out the bench, while Damon mends. And of course to that, one of the 95 pitchers on the staff would have to go, and if not Hughes or Robertson, then someone would have to be DFAed, and that would probably have been...
Well, you see where I'm going.
[2] Aggg...you beat me to it!
BTW, it was good to see AJ blame himself for throwing dumb pitches and not listening to POsada. Hopefully that will temper the speculations-turned-accusations on the game thread yesterday that Posada was to blame for calling a bad game ("we really need to to see Molina working with AJ...").
[4] I know, tee-hee... Jinx! >;)
[4] AJ's a blockhead, but at least he's a stand-up guy.
It seems they've had some success matching CC with F.Cerv/Molina, but I was a little shocked to see Posada catching AJ for a day game after the four hour game from the night before.
Posada's catching, as mentioned, has become atrocious once again. He never sets a target, he drops a ridiculous percentage of pitches, he does a terrible job of framing, he seemingly Posada'd out of dealing with contact on the first play of the plate, which may have been an out if he blocked the plate instead of attempting the catch and swipe, which isn't ideal for a guy who simply isn't the best athlete on the team, he couldn't get the damn ball back to the pitcher on a consistent basis, I personally believe that Jorge called the shitty pitches that got hammered, not the other way around (although for all we know, Boston, in desperation, re-fired up their sign stealing technology/camera) and in one sequence dropped all three third strikes in a single inning. He also continues to fail to point down the line for a challenge on close checked swings, because it's like he forgets that this is part of his job. He's in outer space back there.
I was very disheartened to see Posada as the catcher for AJ when the game began, and I think serious questions need to be asked about whether Posada can be the catcher for AJ going forward - down the stretch, and hopefully, in the playoffs. What do other people think?
I know some of this reads like tin foil hattism, but I think most of it is true. I love Posada when he comes through with the bat, but as I noted a number of days ago, when I no longer have to watch him "work" behind the plate, a significant source of ageta will be removed from my life.
Guys, I simply don't believe that these weren't Posada calls. The evidence is there from Posada's past where he has called terrible games with predictable sequences that pitchers have complained about. I think Posada is being protected here.
And honestly, and this is getting close to personal, but I think Posada is flat out stupid. I don't think has the wits to call a creative, hard to clue in on game behind the plate. It's a hard task, mixing up patterns and fooling hitters. I think Jorge is limited in the mental department.
I knew someone who claimed to know Jorge (and some of the other guys) pretty well, and this person would always talk about how funny Posada is and how he liked to mess with people. I always reserved judgment on his brain power, thinking maybe he just looked like a dumb player. But look, he's the single dumbest baserunner in the league (Cano's not even close). It's not like the evidence isn't there.
I think he has concentration difficulties behind the plate, and I think his effort is always 100%, but I question his mental acuity.
Burnett's stuff is fine, and Posada's a good enough catcher to handle him.
Problem with this battery, seems to me is that Posada's not good at calming Burnett down, or getting him re-focused when things aren't going well.
Early in the game Burnett actually looked good, but the Red Sox hitters got to him. A couple of those early runs were scored on good pitches. Soon after, they were hitting everything: good pitches, bad pitches, just everything.
Burnett fell apart, came off the tracks. He's gotta stop doing that, but I'm not worried about him. The Yankee bats gave him nothing. Had our hitters done some damage to Taz as it appeared they woulda/coulda early on, maybe Burnett would have rebounded, and we might have had a game.
Tonight we'll get a game outta CC, and win or lose all will be fine.
Yesterday's game was also insanely frustrating. It would be one thing if they were confounded by a pitcher with soft-tossing nonsense that they hadn't seen before - but they were drilling Tazawa.
Am I assuming correctly that someone has been clever enough to take BABIP to a more useful level, by separating out line drives from lazy fly balls - I think this exists, right?
They were all over the pitches until maybe they started to press as the score got away. Even then, they kept threatening. Hinske and Melky were dreadful yesterday.
Hard to have a lot of confidence tonight. The Red Sox will be stealing the signs to key in on CC's pitches, Beckett will probably be pretty nasty, the crowd will be loud and stupid, although at least it doesn't look like a typically cold Fenway night. There seems to be a heavy threat of rain for tonight's game.
If anyone has access to Eiland, please ask him if any serious consideration has been given to getting AJ to feature a third pitch more, and if not, why not?
[11] If it were, you would've heard it from me first >;)
[11] good question.
and since the man does have just 2 pitches - how much pitch calling can po even do? some of aj's best games have been with po just as some of his stinkers have been with po. yes po is not the greatest catcher in the world, but every time one of these prissy pitchers melts down it is not automatically his fault.
[9] i tend to agree with sliced's assessment of the situation. po is a strong personality who is no nonsense and doesn't seem to coddle these guys and i think that is where some of the "issues" lie - po's personality is not conducive to getting aj to calm down or re-focus.
coney and other good pitches who have some smarts have always said pitch selection and pitching performance is on the pitchers - while we can look to scapegoat a million other people aj pitched like shit yesterday - gotta move on from there.
Yes. Thank you.
[13] And even with those two pitches, Burnett didn't or couldn't control his fastball. That's the way it is with him sometimes. I don't know if a 3rd pitch (he sparingly uses a slider and change) would've helped. At this stage of the game, AJ is who he is as a pitcher.
Lohud Notebook:
Damon received treatment throughout the game on what he described as a "large bruise" and is holding out hope of playing tonight.
"I expect to be in. We had some pretty good treatment. The swelling seems to be going down and the bruise is dissipating, heading somewhere else in my body," Damon said.
Damon did not try and run yesterday.
"Walking too quickly hurts," he said. "I'm trying not to move too quick on it and it was kind of tough to sleep."
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Listeneing to JD's own words, it seems it would be insane to play him tonight. Give him tonight off, thank goodness for an offday on Monday, and look forward to a healed and rested JD on Tuesday.
The fault is not in Posada's game calling (he did catch Wells' perfect game), but in signing A.J. to be a #2 starter. Burnett's just not that consistent.
No way I would play Hinske in LF tonight. I would live or die with Hairston.
Via P. Abe:
Burnett was 9-3 with a 2.59 ERA and a .220 opponents batting average in his 12 starts prior to today. Posada caught 10 of those games including 7.1 scoreless innings against the Red Sox at Yankees Stadium on Aug. 7. Do those games not count?
Just something to chew over for the "START MOLINA!!" crowd
[13] [14] I concur. Thank you.
[18] With Beckett starting tonight Hinske will probably be in the lineup
[19] Good info, although as usual with PA, he doesn't take the next step, and he screws up his stats. I did say I needed to look at the numbers and never should have relied on FOX for any sort of information.
In those 12 starts, when Posada has been the catcher, Burnett is actually 5-3 with a 2.86 era. Still outstanding, but PA, as usual, is not giving you reliable information. Honestly, 12 starts and PA imagined he got the decision in all 12 of them? One would think you would at least check your data after seeing that.
So, to complete the picture, PA dumped out 14 innings of 2-0, 1.29 era pitching, and cut off his sample right after Burnett's last Fenway stinker (where Burnett actually was blessed by the earned run fairy and only charged with 3 earned runs, albeit in 2 and 2/3rds).
What it does show is that Posada certainly can catch Burnett. What's interesting is that Burnett actually did seem to pitch to the backups the great majority of the time during the first half. Posada started catching him during the second half. Now all of his complete meltdowns have been with Posada behind the plate.
Here's something hideous: in 3 starts at Fenway with Posada behind the plate, Burnett is 0-3, with a 14.21 era.
Burnett has allowed 5 earned runs twice with the backups, over 7 and 2/3rds, and 6, respectively. All complete meltdowns, as noted, have been with Posada.
The numbers are reasonably inconclusive, with the one striking thing being that AJ was almost completely switched over from a non-Posada pitcher to a Posada pitcher from the 1st half to the 2nd half.
Maybe Posada has a specific inability to get AJ retracked when he becomes untracked? I don't know what these numbers tell me, and I apologize for using something as basic as earned runs, it's just the most quickly available. I do know that, should the situation arise that AJ pitches in Fenway again this year, I'm not sure I'd like to go for a fourth try with the AJ-Posada combination.
If the Yankees hold onto the division lead, however, any further meeting would likely place AJ at home for the first, and if necessary, the second start, so I guess it doesn't matter. I do know that AJ and Jorge in Fenway has been a horror show.
[6]
Perhaps this should be AJ's theme music?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z4bMzTvsUc
It sucked to lose like that yesterday, no question about it, but I wasn't really entertaining ideas of a sweep; I figured the Yanks would win yesterday and lose today. If we lose today it's still okay because the Yanks will have gone 6-4 on a long road trip, which is pretty good, will still have a 5.5 game lead, and Bawston will have only picked up 1 game since the demolition job at the stadium.
But, I'll add this. Players hate to be embarrassed and I'll think we'll see a better effort tonight. Most of the Yanks hit Beckett pretty well, you can, as Casey Stengel would say, look it up. And, Beckett didn't look too stellar last time out against the Jays, giving up 9 hits, a walk and 7 earned runs to the B-Jays in 5 and 1/3 innings.
I'm calling it now --- Yanks win a nail biter tonight and leave this wretched pahrrrhk with a 7.5 game lead.
Jeter SS
Damon LF
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Matsui DH
Swisher RF
Cano 2B
Cabrera CF
Molina C
Mets find new and exciting ways to lose. Down 9-7 in 9th, they hit into game-ending triple play.
http://tinyurl.com/n855xa
[26] Someone must have been watching the "Odd Couple," Lemon-Matthau version.
Schmoltzie struck out 9 Friars in 5 innings on 75 pitches. 3 hits, no walks, no runs.
hell, i could prolly pitch outta the 'pen in the senior circuit! ; )
Poo-holz now has 40 homers & 106 ribbies...
[28] dude that's awesome...I like Smoltz and hated seeing him with that damn "B" on his lid.
[17] Technically AJ was the number 3 - and deservedly so - at the start of the season.
Anyway as far as Posada goes, he's obviously become more cantankerous over the years, and has trouble catching hot-headed pitchers (AJ, Joba, Randy Johnson come to mind). I think Posada's pretty smart but he seems somewhat ... inflexible. I suppose that might be a sign of some lack of intelligence but I think he is savvy, just not mentally nimble.
[28] I love it!!!
Jeter en fuego ....