My All-Star Team: National League Pitchers

So far we've covered the hitters from the American League, the hitters from the National League, and the American League pitchers, so now we'll try to tackle the National League pitching. Again, we'll use some of the same criteria we used in the American League to dwindle down the competition until we find the winners. 8 starters, 5 relievers. And since I may have erred in leaving Jose Valverde out yesterday, we'll start with the relievers today (for some reason, Baseball-Reference hasn't updated from last night so we're missing the Arthur Rhodes blow-up and any other pitching performances from last night in the analysis):

Relievers: Again, 25 innings pitched qualifies you for our All-Star pickings so 66 National League relievers are in our mix to start things out. We'll start as we did yesterday by eliminating anyone with a 3.50 ERA or higher. So say so long to 20-save man Francisco Cordero (4.25 ERA), 15-save Octavio Dotel (4.85), Wilton Lopez (0.88 BB/9 but 3.52 ERA), Rafael Betancourt (6.6 SO/BB but a 5.33 ERA), Joel Hanrahan (13.07 K/9 but 4.26 ERA) or Arizona's closers from 2010 Chad Qualls (8.88 ERA) or Aaron Heilman (3.51 ERA). That eliminates 31 players to quickly chop the relievers list to 35 as we try to get down to 5.

Read more>>

My All-Star Team: American League Pitchers

We've tackled the hitters from the American League and the hitters from the National League, now we'll try to tackle the American League pitching. There's only one qualification: starters need to qualify for the ERA title. Let's go through process of elimination to fill out the rest of our team which will include 8 starters and 5 relievers.

Starters: 55 starting pitchers qualify for the ERA title. We need to whittle that 55 down to 8 so let's start by cutting all pitchers with an ERA that isn't under 4.50. It's not the best statistic to start out with since it eliminates hard-luck guys like Gavid Floyd (4.80 ERA but 3.47 FIP), Luke Hochevar (4.96 ERA but 3.86 FIP) and Brandon Morrow (4.50 ERA but 3.43 FIP). It also eliminates such big names as A.J. Burnett (5.25 ERA), Ben Sheets (5.01 ERA), Jake Peavy (4.71 ERA), John Lackey (4.69 ERA), and Mark Buehrle (4.58 ERA). Some of them may have some great peripheral statistics and just have gotten burned, but if you have an ERA of 4.50 or above, you're not an All Star in my book.

Now we're down to 30 pitchers. Next we'll eliminate anyone whose winning percentage is less that .450 and haven't won more than 5 games. That gets rid of Zack Greinke (3-8), Dallas Braden (4-7), Jeremy Guthrie (3-9) and Jeremy Bondermon (4-5). Greinke is a tough loss here, but at 3-8, it's tough to convince me he's an All Star. I know that Win-Loss record is not a good metric to go on, but the truth is that despite Greinke or Braden's great pitching, their teams haven't won enough games to get them to the All-Star game. 26 left.

Read more>>

Derek Jeter Showed His Captain Skills Early On

As the Tampa Bay Rays were struggling to win games this past week, sparks flew in their dugout following a lollygagging-esque play from B.J. Upton. 24-year-old Evan Longoria wasn't happy about Upton's hustle and confronted him in the dugout. Tempers flared and the two teammates had to be separated. One comment I heard was that this type of confrontation (and that of Derrek Lee and Carlos Zambrano of the Cubs) was very un-Yankee-like. But ESPN's Buster Olney shared a story in his blog today that proved that wasn't exactly the truth:

The [Upton-Longoria] incident brought to mind another confrontation between a rising star who, like Longoria, was 24 years old. Late in the 1998 season, the Yankees were playing at Baltimore, with New York having already wrapped up the division title, Joe Torre had taken to resting his regulars in the late innings, in preparation for the playoffs. David Wells was pitching against the Orioles, and in the sixth inning, Torre replaced left fielder Tim Raines and center fielder Bernie Williams with Ricky Ledee and Chad Curtis, respectively.

A pop-up was hit into short left-center field, and when the ball fell between shortstop Derek Jeter, Ledee and Curtis, Wells -- who had moved to back up bases, held his arms far out to his sides, his body language screaming, "Are we really trying?"

That was a team with many veteran players, from David Cone to Paul O'Neill to Joe Girardi to Tino Martinez, but it was Jeter who got in Wells' face about the gesture. And what he said, in so many words, was, "We don't do that kind of thing on this team." Wells was contrite, and apologized to the others involved.

Read more>>

Yanks Win Classic Torre-esque Game...With Torre In The Other Dugout

If any three things epitomized the Joe Torre era with the New York Yankees, they were clutch starting pitching, brilliant relief pitching, and gritty hitting. Andy Pettitte failed to provide the first of those two elements last night and Joba Chamberlain turned in another shaky outing, but the Yankees' win last night could easily be categorized as a Torre orchestrated victory...except for the fact that Torre was in other dugout.

In a ninth inning reminiscent of so many that we had seen before during the last Yankee Dynasty (see 2000 World Series games 1 and 5, 1996 World Series Game 4, etc), the Yankees were able to manufacture four runs in the ninth inning against one of the premiere closers in the National League. Once the big hitters loaded the bases, it was two relatively unknown rookies who gave the Yankees a chance for their biggest win of the year.

Like so many games that the Yankees won under Joe Torre, the team put their faith in Chad Huffman and Colin Curtis, two players with less than a handful of at bats between the two of them. Huffman has bounced around the minors for a few years and Curtis, in a much larger battle than his at bat against Jonathan Broxton last night, defeated the demons of testicular cancer. With the bases loaded, Huffman drove in two runs with an RBI single (his third career hit), putting runners on first and third with one out with Curtis coming to the plate.

Curtis, who had only been called up earlier this week, had an a bat that would make you think he had played the game for over a decade. Much like Paul O'Neill's at bat off of Armando Benitez in game one of the 2000 World Series, Curtis fouled off pitch after pitch from the flame throwing Broxton. Finally, on the tenth pitch, he hit grounder to first base. James Loney, normally an excellent fielding first baseman, stepped on first and instead of throwing to second base for a potential game ending double-play, he threw home to try to catch the speedy Curtis Granderson. Granderson, who took off on contact, beat the wide throw to the plate to tie the game.

Read more>>

NYaT competes in the 2010 KIC IT Triathlon

As much as we here at NYaT enjoy watching and writing about sports, we occasionally enjoy participating in them too!  As a matter of fact, one of our resident guest bloggers, Elissa Glucksman, competed in the 2010 KIC IT Triathlon today in Stamford, Conn.  This Olympic-length triathlon, as the name suggests, benefits Kids in Crisis, which is Connecticut’s only facility for children newborn to age 17.   KIC provides free temporary shelter, therapeutic counseling, comprehensive medical care and specialized educational support for children struggling with a wide range of issues including abuse, neglect, abandonment, family health issues and family conflict.

This was Elissa's fourth straight year competing with a relay team.  Her sister, Deena, breezed through the 10k (6.2 mile) run in just over an hour and Elissa swam the 1 mile in a personal-best 29 minutes.  But the surprise was their bike teammate, none other than former New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine!  Amidst widespread speculation that he's about to win the Florida Marlins' vacant manager position, Bobby V co-chaired the triathlon, hosted the post-race food party at his own restaurant (which is named Bobby V's, of course) and managed to post a 1:39 time in the 25-mile bike segment, besting the 1:43 yours truly clocked in 2008.

The best number of all, though, was the $225,000 that KIC raised today.  Congratulations to all who competed!  Before you go, be sure to check out Elissa and Bobby V in these news clips!

Read more>>

End of Week Link Roundup

Links, links, and more links. And then Joe Torre and Manny Ramirez vs. the Yankees tonight. To the right is a picture from Torre's introductory press conference in November of 1995 from Sports Illustrated. Almost 15 years later, the finger is still being pointed. Let's get to the links!

Yankees and Torre

• The New York Posts' Vike Vaccaro says that Torre's ugly departure does not erase the good times he spent here. SI's Cliff Corcoran goes over ten signature moments during Torre's Yankee time. ESPN's Buster Olney has some direct words in his blog post this morning about Torre and the Yankees' relationship. ESPN's Mark Simon has all the notes and numbers.
• The 2010 Yankees top Baseball Prospectus' Jay Jaffe's Hit List (followed by the Rays, Red Sox, Rangers, and Twins). Mike at Yankeeist compares the Yankees through 71 games in 2009 and 2010.
• Mike Axisa of River Ave Blues goes over three Yankees' trade candidates: David DeJesus, Jeff Keppinger, and Ty Wigginton. 
• Mike also writes about a new and improved Jon Albaladejo down in Triple-A Scranton while Mike Ashmore's Thunder Thoughts reviews the improvement of Phil Hughes.
• Dave Cameron of FanGraphs writes about Robinson Cano's improvement and SI's Cliff Corcoran writes about Cano's AL MVP standing. Dave Cameron also writes that patience has paid off for many teams on some of the top MLB position players (Cano included). Cano also makes ESPN's Tristan H. Cockcroft's All-2014 fantasy team
• Pat Andriolo of FanGraphs writes about the 2008 trade deadline which was a big miss for the Yankees and Ben Kabak of River Ave Blues writes about the conundrum behind the plate for the 2010 Yankees
• Before last weekend's Subway Series, there was a simulated All-Time Subways Series on ESPN New York which the Yankees took much in the same way they took their Subways Series World Series.
• Mark Teixeira had a weird response to Kurt Cobain's death according to 'Duk of Big League Stew. NoMass has an awkward Tex message received by Johan. Speaking of awkward, Lady Gaga provided a little awkwardness around the Yankee clubhouse according to ESPN New York's Andrew Marchand.
• Matt Imbrogno of TYU asks what's so bad about home runs in light of A-Rod not wanting to be thought of as a "home run hitter".  The shift against Mark Teixeira makes even more sense when you consider this article by Jeremy Greenhouse of Baseball Analysts. Joe Capozzi of The Palm Beach Post has news of a bit of Babe Ruth history that may soon be lost. Marc Hulet of FanGraphs scouts the short-season leagues and finds a Yankee prospect most of us probably never heard of: Yeicok Calderon.
• Larry Barnes from Bleacher Report is a bit of an insensitive ass towards Dave Eiland in this article (personal life is personal, Larry). By the way, I just found out that Eiland was Kevin Costner's pitching double in For Love of the Game. The more you know...

Read more>>

The Yankee Clipper: The Game That Ain't Got No Alibi

Last night's Yankees game against the Diamondbacks was U-G-L-Y. No doubt about that one. The Yankees were gifted opportunities because of a plethora of walks and some basehits but they weren't able to turn them into runs due to baserunning errors, great defensive plays by Arizona, GIDPs or just bad "clutch" hitting. It was a game the Yankees had no business winning...but good teams win games like that and they gained a game on Tampa Bay and Boston. Let's look back at the week that was in Yankee land:

1. An Ugly Game, Indeed. Bronx Banter's Emma Span has a title that knocks mine out of the park (and has some good suggestions at the bottom. The key stat: 10 hits and 13 walks for the Yankees. Yowza! Joe Pawlikowski from FanGraphs writes about Derek Jeter's propensity to hit into double plays (which he did twice last night and the team did 5 times!). Jay from Fack Youk has many more of the gory details. But the New York Times' Ben Shpigel put it best: "The first inning of the Yankees’ game against Arizona on Wednesday night included five walks, four hits, three runs, two base-running blunders, two caught stealings and one wild pitch, and the mayhem was only starting. To the exasperation of both managers, an evening of ragged baseball and mediocre pitching dragged on and on at Chase Field, all the way into the ninth inning and beyond."
2. Mariano Rivera Walked A Tightrope...and Won. Bases loaded. No one out. One-run lead. And on the mound where his most replayed, most famous, and most scarring collapse occurred. But is there a man you would rather have on the mound than Mariano Rivera. After most of us on the East Coast had gone to bed, the Sandman sent the D-Backs to bed with a pop up, a pop up and a strikeout. Goodnight. LoHud's Chad Jennings writes about Mo's long and strange night but it went beyond that. It reminded all of us how good Mariano has been at the Houdini act for so long and Mark Simon of ESPN reviews Mariano's best. It will be a sad, sad day when this man decides to hang it up. As Joe Pawlikowski writes for River Ave Blues, we should thank Mo. The same with Andy Pettitte who Bobby Valentine wrote about on Tuesday.
3. I Think They Can Still Play Better. After reading this blog post from Rebecca of This Purist Bleeds Pinstripes, I can see I'm not the only one. This year they're 45-27 through their first 72 games with the best run differential in baseball (last year they had 40 wins and were 4 games out of first). The last time they had more wins through 72 games was 2004 (46). Although the Yankees have been getting great production from certain parts they've been getting less than expected from the top 4 in their Opening Day lineup considering Derek Jeter is nowhere near last year's numbers, Nick Johnson occupies the DL, Mark Teixeira has not figured out April has ended and Alex Rodriguez looks like a less-powerful version of himself. That doesn't even begin to factor in a sub-par bullpen, Curtis Granderson's struggles, Jorge's injury, a bad start for CC Sabathia, or the fact that A.J. Burnett has been awful lately and, as Matt Imbrogno of TYU writes, his K-rate has begun to disappear thanks to a lack of a good out pitch. So I think this team still has room to improve. Scary as that is for the rest of the American League. 
4. Patience At The Plate From An Unlikely Source. Quick, who leads the Major Leagues in pitches per plate appearance? It's not Mr. Three-And-Two, Nick Swisher. It's not the AL batting leader, Robinson Cano. It's not Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, A-Rod, or Posada. It's Brett freaking Gardner. And how about this stat from ESPN's TMI blog: Brett Gardner leads the majors with 4.53 pitches per plate appearance. That would be the highest average since Rickey Henderson’s 4.55 in 1997. After a 4-4 night on Monday and going 2-5 last night, Gardner is now 11th in the AL in hitting (.322), 4th in SB (24), 6th in runs (49), and 5th in OBP (.402). Not too shabby for the guy most people thought was nothing but a fourth outfielder. 

Read more>>

Quote of the Day: LOST Co-creator on Wimbledon

This is an awesome quote from LOST co-creator and executive producer Damon Lindelof via Twitter on the recently completed marathon Wimbledon tennis match between Nicolas Mahut and John Isner:

@DamonLindelof: I found the ending of Isner/Mahut satisfying, but wish they had answered more questions.

Nice serve, Mr. Lindelof. 

Picture from The Star-Ledger

My All-Star Team: National League Hitters

Yesterday we tackled the American League All-Star Hitters. Today we move on to the batters from the Senior Circuit that are worthy of making the 2010 All-Star Game in Anaheim. While there were a couple of tough selections on the American League side, with more teams in the National League, it's going to be even harder. Since there is no DH, I'll be taking two extra hitters to fill out my 21-man position-player roster. And away we go (all stats min 100 PAs):

Catcher: Geovany Soto, Miguel Olivo and Brian McCann. While in the American League we have Jorge Posada, Joe Mauer and Victor Martinez (not to mention John Buck and Mike Napoli), in the National League, the pickings look a little different. But these three are definitely worthy (although all but maybe McCann will be beaten out by Yadier Molina it seems). Olivo has revived his career in Colorado and is hitting .301/.365/.523 with 9 HR, 30 RBI, 4 SB and a .380 wOBA. Olivo's OPS is first among NL Catchers and his wOBA is second to Soto. Speaking of Soto, he has enjoyed a very nice bounce-back year in Chicago. While the rest of his team is underperforming, he's been quite good. His .408 OBP is tops (by far) among NL catchers and actually leads all Major League catchers. Meanwhile, McCann benefits from needing a third catcher here, though his .377 OBP, 8 HR, 30 RBI and .357 wOBA for the first-place Braves is nothing to sneeze at. McCann ranks ahead of Soto on WAR (2.0 to 1.6) mostly due to defensive adjustments, but Olivo's fielding puts him in the lead in that category (2.6). "Counting" Stats: Soto .268 avg, 8 HR, 18 RBI; Olivo .301 avg, 9 HR, 30 RBI, 4 SB; McCann .258, 8 HR, 30 RBI, 3 SB. Honorable Mentions: George Kottaras (.822 OPS and .364 wOBA both third among NL catchers) and Nick Hundley (.822 OPS and .347 wOBA for first-place Padres). Picture from the Denver Post.

First Base: Adrian Gonzalez, Joey Votto, Aubrey Huff, and Albert Pujols. The first place I'll take an extra hitter is at first where there's a ton of legit players. "Gonzo" leads the National League 1st basemen in WAR with 3.3 which is certainly a combination of his bat (.313/.411/.559 with 15 HR, 47 RBI, and a .407 wOBA) and his glove (league-leading at 1st) for the surprise first-place Pads. Votto leads all NL 1B in wOBA with .415 mark in a breakout year for him where he's matched offensive numbers with Gonzalez (15 HR and 47 RBI as well). Huff has been the biggest surprise of this group, in my opinion since I thought it was an awful move for the Giants to sign him. Huff's .311/.401/.549 line is excellent but his .411 wOBA puts him second to Votto among NL 1B, and his extremely low 11.5% strikeout percentage to go along with solid power numbers and at least average defensive  should earn him a trip to Anaheim. And Sir Albert isn't having his best year but still leads the NL 1B in RBI and is tied for the lead in HR and has 6 SB to go along with that. He will be voted in as the starter at 1st as the NL's leading vote getter and even in a "down year" for Pujols, you know he will be there among NL MVP candidates at the end of the year. Counting Stats: Gonzalez .313 avg, 15 HR, 47 RBI; Votto .310 avg, 15 HR, 47 RBI, 7 SB; Huff .311 avg, 12 HR, 37 RBI, 3 SB; Pujols .302 avg, 15 HR, 50 RBI, 6 SB. Honorable Mentions: Adam Dunn (17 HR leads NL 1B), Troy Glaus (.860 OPS as offensive prowess for Braves), Prince Fielder (numbers slightly down but still a force with a .378 wOBA), and Ryan Howard (coming on late with a .294 avg, 14 HR, and 52 RBI). Picture from Bleacher Report

Read more>>

My All-Star Team: American League Hitters

The Major League Baseball All-Star Game in baseball is probably not a game that should count and sometimes the fans seem to get the wrong players elected--but then again, that doesn't make it different than any other form of democracy. And sometimes, people certainly get picked for the wrong reasons as The Common Man showed  last week. In the end, the Mid-Summer Classic is all about being an exhibition of baseball's best players. So I'm going to take only the best players, rule-about-taking-one-player-per-team be damned! Here's my list of the best candidates for the All-Star Game starting with the AL guys who will be swinging the bat (all stats min 100 PAs):

Catcher: Jorge Posada, Victor Martinez, and Joe Mauer. Mauer is the leading vote getter for all of Major League Baseball so he's in without a doubt. But if you were picking a player on pure stats, this wouldn't be the year to take Mauer at first glance (his numbers perfectly mirror his 2007 output). But when you drill down, Mauer has still had a pretty great season and is worth of an All-Star nod. Although not as adept defensively, Posada and Martinez may beat Mauer with the bat this year. Although he's been battling injuries (and therefore spent quite a bit of time at DH as well as only racked up 171 PAs), Posada leads all the catchers in OPS (slash lines of .287/.398/.538) and wOBA (.406 to Martinez's .363 and Mauer's .356). Martinez leads all catchers with 29 XBH so far this season. Amazingly (considering his lack of speed), one stat that favors Jorge this season is GIDP: Mauer has 14, Martinez 9 and Posada 1. "Counting" stats: Mauer .304 avg, 3 HR, 21 RBI; Martinez .291 avg, 9 HR, 37 RBI; Posada .287 avg, 9 HR, 25 RBI. Honorable Mentions: John Buck (.271/.309/.532, .356 wOBA, 12 HR, 38 RBI) and Mike Napoli (.251/.329/.478, .354 wOBA, 11 HR, 27 RBI). Picture from The Star-Ledger.

Firstbase: Justin Morneau, Miguel Cabrera and Kevin Youkilis. All three players are having monster years and all three are early candidates for MVP. Morneau's numbers are off the charts (almost Mauer like) with a ridiculous slash line of .340/.448/.622 and a wOBA of .452 to go along with 15 HR and 47 RBI. That wOBA is the highest (among all players who have qualified for the batting title) in the Majors. Second is Youk (.440) and third is Cabrera (.437). Mourneau's OPS of 1.070 leads all 1Bs trailed by Cabrera (1.041) and Youkilis (1.026). The WAR numbers tell the difference thus far though. Due to extremely positive fielding numbers, Morneau takes the lead with 4.3, Youkilis is seen about even and Cabrera is marked down for his defense. Cabrera leads in the counting stats while Youkilis has been hitting the tar out of the ball recently for the surging Red Sox. Morneau has the lead and should start but the other two should be named replacements on the team. Counting stats: Morneau .340 avg, 15 HR, 47 RBI; Cabrera .328 avg, 19 HR, 60 RBI; Youkilis .312 avg, 14 HR, 47 RBI. Honorable Mentions: Paul Konerko (.296/.396/.574, 17 HR, 51 RBI, .413 wOBA) and Billy Butler (.330/.383/.491, 7 HR, 37 RBI, .381 wOBA). Picture from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Read more>>

End of Week Link Roundup

I don't know if I would call this the mother of all link roundups...but it's pretty close. Two weeks of awesome links are awaiting you in this post. For Jay, we have Megan Fox in a Hartford Whalers T-shirt courtesy of Whaler's Nation. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Yankees Baseball

• The New York Times' Ben Shpigel writes that Monday's World Series rematch proved lopsided. The New York Daily News' Mike Lupica said that CC Sabathia was only so-so while ESPN New York's Wallace Matthews says that Sabathia is heating up again in June. ESPN's TMI blog says that CC won by not allowing well-hit balls (only one all game), getting swings and misses (30.8%, his second highest of the season), mixed speeds well (hitters were 0-6 against off-speed pitches), and owned righties (2-19 for a .105 average). ESPN's TMI blog also pointed out that both CC and Roy Halladay were unlucky.
• Last week Javier Vazquez impressed HardballTalk's Craig Calcaterra and Matt from TYU who declared that Javy was back on track. Meanwhile, R.J. from FanGraphs wonders where all of A.J. Burnett's strikeouts have gone?
• Larry from Yankeeist wants to say "see ya!" to Michael Kay. Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus thinks that A-Rod may have to say "see ya!" to his hip soon and get a replacement, especially when, as 'Duk from Big League Stew points out that he's not going "all out"
• Tim from MLBTradeRumors outlined the Yankees [non-]pursuit of Cliff Lee and Matt from TYU looks into the Yankees OF depth. Luke from MLBTradeRumors writes about the Yankees' signing of Eric Bruntlett to a minor league contract for depth purposes.
• A former Yankees prospect (Jose Tabata) debuted for the Pirates as Harballtalk's Craig Calcaterra writes. Joe from FanGraphs talks about the regression of another former Yankees' prospect, Austin Jackson. Greg from Pending Pinstripes has the Staten Island Yankees' roster.
• Jason @ IIATMS has an honest view of blowing off responsibilities to hang out with the Yankees. SI's Joe Posnanski says that Derek Jeter is really a nice guy and worth blowing off responsibilities to hang out with. Mike from River Ave Blues writes about the lovable Yankees.

Read more>>

Yankees Finding Ways To Utilize Open DH Spot

I don't think the Yankees planned to have Nick Johnson miss time. I don't think they got him thinking "hey, he'll probably get injured and open up the DH slot." But while Nick Johnson's injury isn't a good thing for the Yankees, the vacancy in the DH spot has been a positive point at times for the Yankees. With an older team and injuries to key players, the Yankees have needed to use the DH spot to ease players back in the lineup (as they did last night with Alex Rodriguez). Let's take a look at how the DH spot has gone for the Yankees this season.

The graph below from Baseball-Reference shows all the people that have spent time at DH this season for the Yanks:

	Age	G
Nick Johnson	31	19
Jorge Posada	38	14
Juan Miranda	27	7
Marcus Thames	33	7
Mark Teixeira	30	5
Alex Rodriguez	34	4
Derek Jeter	36	3
Nick Swisher	29	2
Robinson Cano	27	1

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/17/2010.

Jorge Posada has played the most games besides Johnson on this list and for good reason. The 38-year-old would have probably spent a good deal of time at DH anyways due the fact that he can't squat for 162 games, but his foot injury kept him from being the Yankees catcher for quite longer than expected. Posada has historically been a better hitter when he catches and 2010 is no different. A caveat though, Posada's time at DH was spent while he was still pretty injured so the results may have also been hindered by the fact he was not always healthy while DH'ing. His .229/.362/.438 splits in 58 PAs out of the DH slot is not bad as it contains 3 HR in his 11 hits. Joe from FanGraphs wrote about catchers who are good enough to DH back on June 1st, and Posada has given the Yankees a great option of using the better defensive player (Francisco Cervelli) at catcher and preserve Jorge's body while DH'ing. Even now that he's returned behind the plate, I expect that quite a few of Jorge's ABs will come with the other half of the day off.

Read more>>

Austin Jackson, Ian Kennedy and the Other Ex-Yankees

Every once in a while it's good to look back at the ex-Yankees and check in on how they are doing. Last off-season featured a lot of movement and turnover, especially for a team that had won the World Series the previous year. Let's start with the Curtis Granderson trade and work our way through and after each player I'll add if the Yankees miss him or not.

Austin Jackson - Jackson may be the best prospect the Yankees have traded in a while. Although he's come back down to earth since his early-season breakout, he's still hitting .308/.352/.412 with a .347 wOBA and 10 steals. His .418 BABIP suggests that average could continue to come down (and his past month has been pretty atrocious at the bat), but even if he does, Jackson is backing it up with Gold Glove defense. His catch in the 9th inning of the Armando Gallaraga near-perfect game stands out, but John Dewan just came out with his top defenders in 2010 and it shows that Austin Jackson has been the best defensive outfielder in baseball*. The Yankees have had the benefit of not regretting many trades in the past 15 years but this one may turn out to be on they regret. Definitely miss. Picture from MLive.com

*Side Note: A lot of us have seen an improved defensive effort from Robinson Cano, but his inclusion on this list  (#8 in all of baseball) shows that his defense has actually been excellent so far in 2010.

Ian Kennedy - IPK is one of those classics of "would he actually have succeeded pitching in the AL East?" I don't think so. But Kennedy has come back from aneurysm surgery and has proven to be a valuable addition to the Diamondbacks team. His 14 game started is tops in the majors and although he's 3-4, he's put up a 3.57 ERA and a solid 2.48 SO:BB ratio. ESPN's Buster Olney wrote this morning that other than Justin Upton, Kennedy is the only untouchable player on the Diamondbacks team. That's pretty lofty status. Alas, some of the stats may be inflated by good luck and an unattainable pace. Kennedy is on pace to throw 219 innings after never throwing more than 39.2 innings in the Majors before and only reaching his previous high of 165 in 2007 (combined between every single level of baseball). The larger problem is that Kennedy's FIP (4.78), xFIP (4.28) and unusually low BABIP (.259) suggests that there is a correction in ERA coming at some point as well. And in his one American League start (against Boston yesterday) Kennedy got charged with 6 runs in 6 innings. Miss only because of lack of depth. Picture from AZCentral

Phil Coke - The third part of the Granderson deal, Coke has enjoyed a good deal of success in the Tigers bullpen. He's 4-0 so far on the season with a 3.18 ERA and turned around his home run issue from last season (he gave up 10 last year, 1 so far this year). Coke's FIP (3.41) seems to make it possible that his ERA could continue at this point, but when you factor in the home run decrease, his xFIP of 4.15 puts him more in line with last year's ERA. Even if his ERA jumps up a bit, Coke has still been a valuable piece to the Tigers bullpen and a missing piece for the Yankees. Miss in the 'pen.

Read more>>

View from the Seats: Halladay/Sabathia

Ben sent this picture to me from Grandstand Section 408 for the New York Yankees vs. Philadelphia Phillies and wrote this in the first inning:

I'm here at World Series rematch round 1.  CC Sabathia looks on his game, while Roy Halladay hasn't flashed his best stuff yet.

Just visited the new Malibu Terrace Bar where I paid 16 bucks for a frozen mojito that tastes like Crest Toothpaste.

Enjoy the game!

The Yankee Clipper: World Series Rematch Preview

It's been a while since the Yankee Clipper has sailed so I figured it was time to get some Yankee thoughts out there. Today's post come after my astonishment that the Yankees once had a mascot named Dandy as the Wall Street Journal talked about today (and where that picture on the right comes from). Looking at those pictures, I think the Yankees are much better without a mascot. On to the top 5:

1. One thing the Yankees aren't better without is CC Sabathia. Despite Sabathia's struggles, he's still their ace. Make no mistake about that one. When the Yankees needed wins down the stretch and in the playoffs last year, they gave CC the ball and, most of the time, they won. And, despite that fact that many are discounting it, ESPN New York's Andrew Marchand pointed out that his numbers from this year after 13 starts are pretty similar to his numbers through 13 starts from last season. True his numbers on the Yankees weren't as good as his numbers pre-Yankees as ESPN's Rob Neyer points out, but I don't think that's enough to worry about for CC. He still is racking up the wins and even though he's doing it quite a bit against teams like the Orioles which concerns the New York Posts' Joel Sherman, good teams (and good pitchers) are supposed to beat up on bad teams HarballTalk's Craig Calcaterra writes and if he looks good in those starts (as ESPN's TMI blog points out he did against the Os), it doesn't matter much to me. Would I love to see the dominant CC from last summer show up again? Sure. But since it took a while for him to show up in 2009 and the results were pretty damn good, I'm willing to have patience in 2010 as well.
2. Even with Sabathia struggling, the Yankees have been the best team in baseball. They're tied for the best record, have the best run differential in baseball (+103), the most runs scored in baseball (355), the best home record in baseball (22-7), and ESPN Power Rankings has them at #1 (which is probably the kiss of death). This is also without a productive Mark Teixeira, a powerful Alex Rodriguez, a healthy Nick Johnson, a catching Jorge Posada, or a dominant bullpen. 
3. Phil Hughes has been a big part of the past year. As ESPN's TMI blog points out, Hughes was demoted to the bullpen last season on June 14th and in the year since has gone 16-2 with a 2.36 ERA, 122 IP, only 6 HR allowed and 133 K to 33 BB. He wasn't spectacular in his last start but still found a way to win. While Stephen at TYU argues that the birthday boy Andy Pettitte is no All-Star (and I disagree with him, but that's for another post), there's no doubting that Hughes should be heading to Anaheim (close to his hometown) for the Midsummer Classic.

Read more>>

Trivia Tuesday: The Year of the Pitcher Edition

2010 has been declared "The Year of the Pitcher" by many due to the amount of perfect games (and near perfect games) and the dominant pitching that has emerged. The question this week comes from ESPN's Jayson Stark via Twitter:

@jaysonst: Today's @MikeandMike trivia is 20 minutes away: Think the boys can name the only 2 active P who ever had an ERA under 2.25 for a full season

The amazing part here is that Ubaldo Jiminez, Jaime Garcia, Josh Johnson, Roy Halladay, Matt Cain, and David Price all have sub-2.25 ERAs so far in 2010 and Livan Hernandez (2.28) is not far behind.

Put your answers in the comments below (the pitchers have to be able to qualify for the ERA title so no relievers). I'll reveal the correct answers later on.

Bonus Question (also via Mr. Stark): 3 pitchers have pitched a no-hitter in an inter-league game (loosely defined by myself and Jayson Stark as against the other league), can you name them?

Ubaldo Jiminez 2010 vs. Mariano Rivera's Postseason Career

Ubaldo Jiminez has been the best pitcher in baseball so far in 2010. He may be the best player in baseball so far in 2010. Jiminez is doing things on the field that haven't been seen before and making it look easy as he does it. But how does he compare to the master of making things look easy: Mariano Rivera? I took the 2010 numbers from Jiminez and matched them up with Rivera's postseason numbers. Here was the result (Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs with the statistics):

	Ubaldo Jiminez's 2010	Mariano Rivera's Postseason	Mariano Rivera 1996
W-L Record	11-1	8-1	8-3
Innings Pitched	87.1	133.1	107.2
ERA	0.93	0.74	2.09
WHIP	0.927	0.773	0.994
H/9	5.4	5.5	6.1
HR/9	0.2 (2 HR)	0.1 (2 HR)	0.1 (1 HR)
BB/9	2.99	1.42	2.84
K/9	8.04	7.22	10.87
SO:BB	2.69	5.10	3.82
FIP	2.72	2.23	1.88
xFIP	3.96	3.14
BABIP	0.229	0.229	0.293
LOB%	92.4%	90.1%	78.1%

Read more>>

Trivia Wednesday

A day late, but better late than never.

The month of May was a remarkable month in the history of baseball. Two perfect games were pitched only weeks apart.

Here's today's trivia question: When was the last time that two individual pitchers pitched no hitters in the same month and name the teams that they were with? Bonus if you can name the opponent.

End of Week Link Roundup

Two weeks worth of links so we won't cover Jim Joyce here. That's for another post (I could write an essay on it at this point). So here's your Jim-Joyce-less links for the week. Instead, I'll leave you with an AP photo of the Stadium before the Cotto/Foreman fight last night. Enjoy!

We're Talking Baseball (Yankees Baseball):

• According to Conor Orr of The Star-Ledger, Jesus Montero is a lonely man in Triple-A. Lonely can also describe the fate of the 5 player drafted in front of Derek Jeter according to Tyler Kepner of the New York Times. Speaking of Jeter, within this notebook from Buster Olney of ESPN, he mentions that his early-season struggles (and that of A-Rod) will hurt Jeter's off-season contract negotiations.
• Of all the staggering things about Mariano Rivera's 1996 season, Rebecca from This Purist Bleeds Pinstripes picks out her most staggering and ESPN's TMI blog has the staggering stats of 38-year-old Andy Pettitte actually getting better as the game ages.
• Ben from River Ave Blues (rightly) blasts Yankee Stadium for being state-of-the-art yet banning technology. TheCommonMan @ IIATMS (rightly) asks if Joe West has a conflict of interest.
• The Futility Infielder, Jay Jaffe, does what every blogger should be able to do at some point: watch a game from the press box. Right next to the press box is the radio booth and John Sterling would be proud of the name of this blog: You Can't Predict Baseball
• Deadspin with two funny links: The American Idol finale and Derek Jeter. Kim Jones and a pork chop. And speaking of funny, 'Duk from Big League Stew, has pictures, quotes and videos from Target Field's first wildlife delay.
• Jason @ IIATMS takes pictures of people in his section at Yankee Stadium (it truly is the Bronx Zoo some nights) and Zell's Pinstripe Blog has a Kei Igawa sighting in the Bronx. NoMass photoshops some of the Yankees with LOST and the result is awesome.
• Joe from FanGraphs looks at catchers good enough to DH in the wake of Jorge Posada becoming the Yankees everyday DH while Marc from FanGraphs takes a look at all the top 10 prospect lists on the AL East teams. Speaking of prospects, former Yankees prospect Kanekoa Texeira is on the move again according to MLBTradeRumors.

Read more>>

Pitching in the American League East

When one thinks of the AL East, they think of slugging teams and tough ballparks for pitchers to pitch. They think of sluggers like Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez, Kevin Youkilis and Big Papi, Evan Longoria and Carlos Pena, and, more recently, guys like Jose Bautista, Vernon Wells, Nick Markakis and even Luke Scott. What they don't think of usually is pitching, however. But exactly 1/3 into the season, the AL East is producing all the Cy Young candidates for the American League.

ESPN.com produces a Cy Young Predictor based on The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers. Although with advanced pitching metrics, these basic statistics have been less important to some voters in recent years, it still gives a good idea of who is performing at a high level on the season. I posted below the current rankings for the American League pitchers. Since Victory Bonus (VB) is something that is only really applied at the end of the season, I will take away a prorated 3 from Neftali Feliz meaning that the top 9 candidates in the American League are from the AL East.

2010 Cy Young Predictor - AL
RK	PLAYER	TEAM	CYP	G	GS	IP	ER	K	SV	SHO	W-L	ERA	VB
1	David Price	TB	71.9	11	11	74.2	19	53	0	1	8-2	2.29	0
2	Phil Hughes	NYY	62.7	10	10	63.2	18	64	0	0	7-1	2.54	0
3	Andy Pettitte	NYY	61.7	10	10	65.1	18	41	0	0	7-1	2.48	0
4	Rafael Soriano	TB	59.5	23	0	22.1	4	19	15	0	2-0	1.61	0
5	Clay Buchholz	BOS	55.7	10	10	62.2	19	47	0	0	7-3	2.73	0
6	Jon Lester	BOS	54.8	11	11	72.2	24	77	0	0	6-2	2.97	0
7	Shaun Marcum	TOR	51.4	12	12	81.1	25	62	0	0	5-2	2.77	0
8	Jeff Niemann	TB	51.2	11	11	71.0	22	45	0	0	5-0	2.79	0
9	Neftali Feliz	TEX	50.5	25	0	25.1	8	26	14	0	1-1	2.84	3
10	A.J. Burnett	NYY	50.1	11	11	71.1	26	53	0	0	6-2	3.28	0

Read more>>

The Yankee Clipper: We're Going Streaking

The Yankees have hit their soft part of their schedule and after taking 3 of 4 against the Indians, the Yankees just finished off a sweep of the Baltimore Orioles. After the bats had gone silent for a few weeks, health has come back to the Yankees and so has their Bronx Bomber persona. Those bats mixed with great pitching has allowed the Yankees to take advantage and beat up on bad teams. Let's take a look at how we got here:

1. Javy Vazquez, Curtis Granderson, and a break in Game 1. ESPN's TMI blog summarized why Javier Vazquez won and it was pretty simple: he threw first pitch strikes (73% of the time), he kept the ball down (set season-highs with 64 pitches down, 9 ground ball outs, and 52.9% of balls in play resulted in ground-balls), and he got swings and misses (27.5%, his second-highest mark this year). I know that this was "only the Orioles", but pitching is really that simple: keep the ball down, throw first pitch strikes and get swings and misses. As Mark Feinsand of The Daily News points out, the one run that Vazquez gave up was on a pitch up to Corey Patterson. The overall numbers are ugly, but since they skipped his start in early May, Vazquez has pitched in 5 games has a 2.77 ERA and has a .202/.270/.348 line against. Granderson is also out to prove people wrong by hitting lefties and he continued that movement in Game 1 by hitting a home run. As LoHud's Chad Jennings pointed out, Joba Chamberlain also bounced back nicely. And a costly error by Miguel Tejada gave the Yankees the extra runs needed to seal a 3-1 win.
2. Phil Hughes, Robinson Cano, Nick Swisher and Granderson in Game 2. I was at this game and wrote about it from there. ESPN's Buster Olney gives us more details about why Hughes won: "He held Orioles hitters to just 1-for-15 after the count got to two strikes, including 0-for-9 against his fastball. Hughes registered five of his seven strikeouts with the fastball on the night. Hughes challenged Orioles hitters with his fastball up in the zone with success. Hughes got four of his five strikeouts on the fastball on pitches in the upper third of the strike zone. Hughes went to three balls on just one hitter and to a 2-0 count on only two hitters."
3. Today was about CC Sabathia returning to form and A-Rod and Brett Gardner getting in on the power game. CC Sabathia wasn't great today, but what he did well was keep runners off base. The Yankees have been getting great pitching from AJ Burnett, Phil Hughes and Andy Pettitte but this team really took off last season when the hefty lefty was at his best. As Mike from Yankeeist writes, the Yankees made it a lot more interesting than it needed to be, especially Mariano Rivera in the 9th inning but Jay from Fack Youk points out that despite the fact that the Orioles brought the tying run to the plate it never felt like the sweep was going to get away from the Yankees. The Yankees have to be happy to see Gardner and A-Rod starting to swing the bats well again.

Read more>>

View from the Seats

Grandstand 430, row 14 tonight for Yankees/Orioles. The last row of the new Yankee Stadium has a definite breeze and so it's a nice night to be at the Stadium. Also a nice night because Phil Hughes has ptiched great and Robinson Cano, Nick Swisher and Curtis Granderson have helped to pivde an offensive explosion.

The most exciting action of the night may have been in Detroit which was missed at the Stadium because of an odd lack of replays of out-of-town scores.

But a great night in the Bronx as Hughes and the Yankees bats have provided a good night for the Yankees they lead 9-1 heading to the 9th.

-Andrew