Our Starting 9 today is all about baseball:
1) Let's get some more Joba-to-the-'pen reaction: LoHud's Peter Abraham says "no, no a thousand times, no." Sam Borden of SNY declares Joba a starter. Tyler Kepner of the New York Times says that if you need a reason for Joba starting, ask Johan Santana. On the other side, WFAN's Sweeny Murti is changing his tune a bit and thinks maybe (and he emphasizes maybe) they should move him back to the bullpen (I think he's just drinking too much of Mike Francesa's Diet Cokes), but Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News says that Joba's last start brings that debate to a halt (temporarily) and Steven Goldman says that Joba can pitch the eighth inning -- as a starter. I know that if Joba goes out and throws a stinker tomorrow, then the nay-sayers will be out in force again. You can't be that fickle.
2) In multiple Peter Gammons articles and on Baseball Tonight, he refers to Melky Cabrera as having the best defensive matrix of any centerfielder. But according to FanGraphs, he's not close -- he's not even the best CF on the Yankees. That spot belongs to Brett Gardner. I'm convinced that the best Yankees defense (and one they had at the end of the game yesterday) has GGBG in CF, Melky in RF, Damon in LF (that OF speed tracks down any and all balls in the alleys), and, yes, Ramiro Pena at SS. It's easy to take out Swisher for Gardner/Melky late in a game; Jeter is going to be a tougher task. But Melky in right makes a big difference. His arm isn't as great as some make it out to be (I guess it's relative with the other arms the Yankees are sporting), but in RF, it's extremely effective as shown by his gun to third yesterday. Eventually, they'll have to make room for Austin Jackson, who is tearing up at AAA, but for right now, they're OF is more than OK.
3) I love Andy Pettitte. But he has his share of stinkers. One was the other night where he issued 6 walks and generally looked uncomfortable on the mound. Someone remarked to me that at least he doesn't do that in the playoffs. Well, that's just not true. According to Baseball-Reference, Pettitte has the most starts in the post-season where he's pitched 5 innings or less and allowed 5 runs or more. The first, Game 1 of the 1996 World Series where he got bombed by a young Andruw Jones (among others) in 2.1 innings. It was interesting seeing him face Jones again the other night.
4) With how what has occurred with Tom Glavine and David Ortiz this season, I hope that Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera retire before they reach the point they need to be dismissed because of lack of performance. David Ortiz is a pretty bad case with some defending him and some wanted to put him to sleep. Many journalists are asking whether this is withdrawal from PEDs, which Ken Rosenthal apoglizes for. That may be the tamest of all. Bill Simmons says that Big Papi is actually just really old (lovely, easy excuse) and like an old, senile dog, Gerry Callahan of the Boston Herald wants to put Papi out of his misery. Baseball-Reference tries to say he hasn't been that bad looking at his last 162 games (nice try...). And Big Papi is trying the "maybe I'm not seeing so well" excuse according to the Boston Globe. If he continues like this, you wonder what Boston is going to do with him. It's a shame too, according to Dugout Central, because they think that baseball needs the Yanks and Sox to reminisce.
5) On the two New York teams: The New York Times gets critical with the dining selections of Citi Field and New Yankee Stadium. Forbes gets in on the act of saying you can get cheap tickets online for games to those two teams. Peter Abraham has a post about Brian Cashman and Joe Girardi greeting fans before a game (I think this is awesome and more of what the Yankees should be doing with their fans) and a sad part about the Old Yankee Stadium in its final months (was pretty rough walking by it yesterday all boarded up).
6) The White Sox have DFA'ed Wilson Betemit according to MLBTradeRumors. I think the Yankees did OK in that deal. Zach McAllister is another good young pitching prospect for the Yankees as the NY Post talks about him being named Eastern League's Pitcher of the Week. Sweeny Murti gives some proof about how it really is a looooong season. The New York Times on how Brett Tomko stopped Tony Gwynn. And The Star-Ledger on why they think Alfredo Aceves should be the guy working the 8th -- and they claim it's not even close (I don't know if I agree...Phil Coke and, if he returns, Bruney, could be very good there too).
7) According to FanGraphs, the Most Valuable Players (and I define value in terms of dollar value here) are Evan Longoria in the AL followed by Joe Mauer and Ian Kinsler and Raul Ibanez in the NL followed by Adrian Gonzalez, Albert Pujols, Hanley Ramriez and Ryan Zimmerman. I think that's pretty damn accurate. The Yankees Most Valuable Player so far? Derek Jeter followed by Mark Teixeira. I'd flip those. According to Jon Heyman: "Mark Teixeira's 13 home runs and 34 RBIs in May were the most by a Yankee in the month of May since Mickey Mantle had 15 and 36 in 1956 en route to the triple crown, notes cbssports.com's Danny Knobler. The moniker 'Mr. May' is taken, however."
8) A few Yankees randoms: Did you know Josh Towers was on the Yankees AAA team? The guy was a pretty good pitcher not that long ago (as shown by B-R). The New York Times on why there's been a rash of hip injuries like the one A-Rod had (really interesting article, with the reason I gave, players are too strong for themselves because of PEDs ). Deadspin tells us about the problem with Chien-Ming Wang (pretty funny). The New York Daily News tells us that Derek Jeter won't be getting engaged anytime soon to Minka Kelly (because of follow the lead of A-Rod, of all people). An old link (but pretty awesome) has Tyler Kepner with 25 random facts about the Yankees. And WFAN's Wayne Hagin with a pretty interesting story on former Yankee Rickey Henderson (albeit when he was with the A's).
9) A few non-Yankees randoms: Deadspin on why that curveball is actually an optical illusion (if people can't hit it, who cares?), FanGraphs on Russell Branyan's emergence and why no one gave him this chance before (because people, foolishly, are way too scared about strikeouts). SI's Tom Verducci on who should be sellers with two months gone from the season. And with these stats below provided by Buster Olney, why would ANYONE throw Justin Upton a fastball?
Fastball wizard | ||
Category | Fastball | Non-fastball |
BA | .411 | .175 |
OBP | .483 | .253 |
SLG | .741 | .381 |
OPS | 1.224 | .634 |
HR | 7 | 4 |
Miss % | 24 | 41 |
K % | 22 | 31 |
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