A Few Yankees Points

The Yankees have lost once in their last 11 games and of course I was there. But they also won with CC Sabathia on the mound and me watching from the stands against the Boston Red Sox. So I have to feel good about that. CC was equally as good last night and is looking more and more like the pitcher I expected to see when we gave him that enormous contract in the offseason. Why CC won last night from Buster Olney:

A.      Twenty swinging strikes, most of season (11 on his slider -- also a season-high).

B.      He threw his off-speed pitches for a strike 82 percent of the time (MLB avg. is 61 percent).

C.      Seattle went 1-for-14 against his fastball (opponents are 2-for-27 against Sabathia's heater in his past two starts).

One of the biggest problems CC had earlier in the season was not being able to put away hitters and get swinging strikes. He’s doing that a lot more now. Rob Neyer points out CC’s role is in tune with his career splits which says he pitches much better down the stretch.

Another part of the Buster Olney article I found very interesting was that he pointed out that the Yankees were among the league leaders in hit batters. One of the aspects of the game that Dave Eiland preaches is pitching inside and I think that’s been a huge part of the Yankees’ pitching turnaround. If you don’t pitch inside, you lose an entire portion of the plate and the hitter gains an advantage, leaning out over the plate and feeling comfortable in the box. Once you stop letting them feel comfortable, it changes the whole at bat.

Tyler Kepner with a really good piece on how (finally) Alex Rodriguez is letting his play define who he is instead of trying to be someone else.

Peter Abraham talks about how Jeter being Jeter has been so vital for the Red Sox when you consider who they’ve been playing at SS even since 2004. They added another to that mix, getting Alex Gonzalez from the Reds today, but Rob Neyer doesn’t think it’ll help much.

Ken Davidoff agrees with me about not just forgetting about the Joba Rules: “The Yankees and other teams didn't come up with these theorems and ideas off the top of their heads. They conducted research and came up with countless examples of pitchers who damaged their long-term futures with overwork. The idea for pitchers is to gradually work their way up in innings count, to not make too significant a jump”. Joel Sherman has a few other points on the innings limits.

FanGraphs through their top AL Rookie pitchers and I wanted to throw in Alfredo Aceves name to the mix. I know he’s not a rookie in the classic sense of the term and I know his numbers don’t always stack up to some of those other guys, but he’s been a big part of the Yankees and been doing this season.

Sweeny Murti says not to worry about how Mariano Rivera performs in August. He usually isn’t his best this month.

Neil Best from Newsday says that love him or hate him, John Sterling has our attention. I will truly miss the guy when he finally retires.

Lastly, more from Rob Neyer: “One more thing about the Yankees and the Mariners ... Prior to the game, pregame analyst Bill Krueger offered "Bill's Keys to the Game," and No. 2 was: "Can't buy a jet stream," referring of course to all those home runs the Yankees have hit at home this year. Fair point. But it's probably worth mentioning that the Yankees entered last night's game fourth in the American League in road homers, and second (just a point behind the Indians) in road slugging percentage (they exited last night's blowout first in the league). Yeah, the new stadium makes them look better than they actually are. But the Yankees can hit anywhere; they don't need a jet stream -- which, by the way, they don't actually have -- or even a cozy ballpark (which they do have).”