2012 ALCS Game 4 Preview: The Hour Is Getting Late

It's officially do-or-die time for the New York Yankees.  Their backs are against the wall, there is no tomorrow, and they've got to do the impossible.  They have to take it one game at a time, and overcome the odds, but they're playing with house money tonight so all that's left is to go out and do it.

Did I cover all the cliches for the 0-3 hole the Yanks are in?  Good.  Glad that's out of the way.  In all seriousness, the Yankees are in the best possible situation they could be for a must-win game tonight.  They're got their ace on the mound, they've got their 2 best relief pitchers rested and available for 2 innings apiece if needed, and they've got a lineup that at least showed the ability to battle last night against the best pitcher on the planet.  That doesn't change the fact that a win tonight only guarantees them one more day of must-win-ness, but it's something.

It's as simple as it could possibly be.  The Yankees need to win tonight or their season is over.  No stats needed to support that, no arguments for or against anything, and no looking ahead to the next situation.  Win tonight or it's curtains.

Updated Starting Lineups (4:25PM)-

NYY: 1) Ichiro- LF, 2) Swish- RF, 3) Cano- 2B, 4) Teix- 1B, 5) Ibanez- DH, 6) Chavez- 3B, 7) Martin- C, 8) Gardner- CF, 9) Nunez- SS

DET: 1) Jackson- CF, 2) Infante- 2B, 3) Cabrera- 3B, 4) Fielder- 1B, 5) Young- DH, 6) Peralta- SS, 7) Dirks- LF, 8) Garcia- RF, 9) Laird- C

Pitching Matchup-

CC Sabathia (17.2 IP, 12 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 16 K in 2 postseason starts) vs. Max Scherzer (5.1 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 K in 1 postseason start)

This Opposite-Field Hitting Situation Is Bullsh*t

The taking of hittable pitches, the popping up of hittable pitches, the swings and misses at balls way out of the strike zone, the glaring lack of power, and the constant shuffling of bodies is all frustrating enough when you watch the Yankee offense right now.  But to me the most maddening thing has been their continued stubbornness in not adjusting to the Tigers' pitching strategy and failing to take outside pitches the other way.  What is the deal?  Has everybody just gotten that bad at staying back on the ball and taking it to the opposite field?  Has Kevin Long turned every left-handed hitter into a pull-only baseball robot??  I refuse to believe that, but let's go to the numbers:

• Robinson Cano- .420 wOBA in 119 PA hitting to the opposite field in the regular season
• Mark Teixeira- .212 wOBA in 34 PA
• Nick Swisher- .471 wOBA in 59 PA
• Curtis Granderson- .255 wOBA in 82 PA
• Eric Chavez- .408 wOBA in 67 PA
• Raul Ibanez- .266 wOBA in 62 PA

I knew it!  I know for a fact that Chavez hit an opposite field HR against the Tigers in their own park earlier in the year, and I watched Cano hit one over the Green Mawnstah.  Teix has pretty much given up on it, and C-Grand and Raul's numbers aren't pretty, but the other guys can get it done.

It's not like this group doesn't have the ability to go the other way; for whatever reason they're just not doing it in this series.  The Tigers' pitchers have executed their game plan and are just straight up taking the Yankee lefties to school.

2012 ALCS Game 3 Thoughts & Afterthoughts: DET 2 NYY 1

(I feel ya, guys.  Courtesy of the AP)

Justin Verlander is a great pitcher 25 hours a day, 8 days a week.  The Yankee hitters are beyond terrible right now.  On paper this was a decidedly one-sided matchup going into last night's game, and that's what scared me.  The Yankees were dying to score some runs, anyway, anyhow, and they had to face the pitcher who's hardest to score them against.  He wasn't even at his best, like he was in Game 5 of the ALDS when he closed out Oakland, but he was plenty good enough to beat this team and put them on the brink.  Valiant effort by the relief corps backing up an early-exiting Phil Hughes, but an effort that was once again in vain.  The fat lady isn't singing quite yet on the 2012 New York Yankees, but that bitch sure is humming loud.

2012 ALCS Game 3 Preview: Weak And Powerless

I don’t know if it makes me overly pessimistic after only watching 1 game of this series so far, or realistic because of how bad the Yankee offense looked in Game 2, but I admittedly have little faith in this team tonight. The manner in which they carried themselves on Sunday, more than the negative results they produced, was very disconcerting and signaled a dying team. There was no energy, no emotion, no life from a team playing an incredibly important home playoff game, and that doesn’t bode well for the Yankees in the rest of this series. Now the half-empty, boo-filled Yankee Stadium didn’t help matters at all, so maybe a change of scenery will help guys relax, but relaxed or not, facing Justin Verlander tonight is going to be a tough task. Yes, the Yankees have hit him before, but they’ve done that when they’re healthier and swinging the bats much better than they are right now. With the way they’re not hitting and the way Verlander is pitching, a complete game shutout seems like a very realistic possibility tonight.

In the most literal definition, tonight is not a do-or-die game. If the Yankees lose, they still have a chance to run the table and win this series in 7 games. But realistically, a Yankee loss tonight pretty much seals this deal up and in all likelihood ensures that this series doesn’t make it back to New York. If the struggling hitters have just been waiting to make their adjustments at the plate, tonight would be the night to do it.

Updated Starting Lineups (4:20PM)-

NYY: 1) Gardner- LF, 2) Ichiro- RF, 3) Teix- 1B, 4) Cano- 2B, 5) Ibanez- DH, 6) Martin- C, 7) Chavez- 3B, 8) C-Grand- CF, 9) Nunez- SS

DET: 1) Jackson- CF, 2) Berry- LF, 3) Cabrera- 3B, 4) Fielder- 1B, 5) Young- DH, 6) Dirks- RF, 7) Peralta- SS, 8) Avila- C, 9) Infante- 2B

Pitching Matchup-

Phil Hughes (6.2 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 8 K in 1 postseason start) vs. Justin Verlander ( 16 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 5 BB, 22 K in 2 postseason starts)

Fair To Throw Some Blame K-Long's Way?

(Has the hitting doctor lost his touch?)

Kevin Long has done a lot of good things since becoming the Yankees’ hitting coach. He cleaned up Nick Swisher’s swing to help him make more contact, hit for a better average, and maximize the value of his power and pitch recognition skills. He did the same thing to Curtis Granderson’s swing to help him unleash his power potential in his speedy bat and make him a more effective hitter against left-handed pitching. He’s worked with Robinson Cano on pulling inside pitches with power, he did some things with Jorge towards the end of his career, and he’s helped Alex Rodriguez fix his timing and swing mechanics when A-Rod has been off multiple times during his coaching tenure. Sure, not all of his efforts have produced fruitful results (see Derek Jeter’s new swing last season or Teix’s new approach early this season), but overall Long has done a solid job, built a reputation as a coach that players in the clubhouse love working with, and inspired my “Dr. Long” Photoshop character that’s still one of my all-time favorites.

But in light of the offense’s collective disappearance in this postseason, the third straight season that the Yankees have had a playoff slump with the bats, the question is starting to be raised about Long’s future with the club and whether or not he deserves to have the spotlight shined on him for the lack of production from the lineup. It appears as though some of Long’s teachings have turned guys like Granderson and Cano into one-dimensional, dead pull hitters incapable of doing anything even remotely useful with pitches on the outside, and essentially provided opposing pitchers with an easy-to-follow blueprint for how to attack and shut down the Yankee lineup.

Lineup Needs To Be Blown Up For Game 3

(Just sit down, Curtis.  Courtesy of Getty Images)

The offense is fucking up big time in the postseason. They are the primary reason why the Yankees had to go 5 games to beat Baltimore in the division series and why they currently find themselves down 0-2 going on the road against Detroit. There’s no point in trying to say it any other way; these guys, with a few exceptions, have flat out sucked a dick at the plate and wasted what has been a great team pitching performance. The Yankee starting pitchers have allowed just 14 runs in 7 postseason games, a number that even in my wildest dreams I wasn’t expecting them to do, and yet the Yankees are 3-4 in those games. That’s almost hard to fathom given the names and reputations and career numbers in the Yankee clubhouse, but it’s a sobering stone cold fact.

Joe and Kevin Long have stayed consistent with their messages of guys “needing to step up” and needing to “make adjustments up there” to try to turn this around, but it just isn’t happening. The hitters clearly aren’t making adjustments, the small tweaks to the batting order and baserunning strategy are returning little to no dividends, and the clock is starting to count down on the Yankees’ season. At this point, the time for waiting and adjusting is over. The Yankees need a spark, something to try to generate offense where this is none, and it needs to start with a major shakeup of the lineup for Game 3.

The ALCS, Where Bullpen Logic Goes To Die

(Best relief pitcher on the time right now.  Didn't pitch in the biggest spots.  Does not compute.  Courtesy of Getty Images)

It got glossed over by almost everybody after Game 1 because of the 9th-inning drama and Derek Jeter injury in extra innings, and it got glossed over again yesterday thanks to Hiroki Kuroda's outstanding performance, the lineup's non-existent performance, and Jeff Nelson's horrible 8th-inning call, but I can't bite my tongue about it today.  The failure on Joe Girardi and his staff's part to use David Robertson and Rafael Soriano in the 8th and 9th innings of both games in this ALCS is an absolute managerial disgrace of the highest order, and a much bigger contributing factor to the Yankees losses in those games than people realize.

2012 ALCS Game 2 Thoughts & Afterthoughts: DET 3 NYY 0

(Courtesy of the AP)

As big a loss as Derek Jeter's broken ankle was on Saturday night, it didn't have to automatically signal the end for the 2012 New York Yankees.  There is still a lot of talent left on this team, and there is still a starting pitching staff that's throwing the ball as well as they have all year.  Pitching always wins in the postseason, and as long as you can get good pitching you have a chance.  Jeter's injury could have been just the wake up call that the rest of the scuffling offense needed, something for them to build from and pull motivation from and to use as a jumping off point for a turnaround.

Instead, it looks like the moment Jeter broke his ankle in Game 1 was the beginning of the end for the Yankees this season.  They came out yesterday against a perfectly average pitcher in Anibal Sanchez and looked absolutely helpless against him.  There was no spark, no energy from an out-on-their-feet offense, and another brilliant starting pitching performance, this one by Hiroki Kuroda, was wasted by their inability to do anything even remotely productive.  They failed to plate a single run, to even mount a single real scoring chance, and every boo they got yesterday from the Yankee Stadium crowd was well-deserved.

Down to 2-0 and heading to Detroit to face the best pitcher in baseball on Tuesday night.  The lights are slowly being turned out on the Yankees, and it doesn't look like anybody is in a rush to flip the switch.

Looks Like A Good Angle To Me...

At the end of today's game, Craig Sager said something to the effect of "just imagine if the umpires had a look at the same angle that we've gotten to to see."  Yeah, imagine that.

Jeff Nelson had the BEST angle to make that call and he straight up blew it.  Dude even admitted it.  Would it have made a difference in the end?  Impossible to say but probably not with the way this team is hitting.  But that was an unforgivable fuck up by Nelson and just another example of MLB looking like a bunch of assholes for not having a better replay process already in place.

2012 ALCS Game 2 Preview: Falling Away From Them

After the jubilation of Friday night's victory in Game 5 of the ALDS, the Yankees didn't have much time to celebrate.  They had to shift their focus to the Detroit Tigers, their opponent for the ALCS, and start working out some of their offensive kinks if they wanted to have a chance at winning this series.  Andy Pettitte took the ball last night and pitched pretty well, but another double dose of offensive futility and some absolutely abysmal bullpen management by Joe combined to waste Andy's start and put the team in a 4-0 hole heading into the 9th inning.  Some A+ drama sparked by 2 2-run homers off the bats of Ichiro and Raul Ibanez (who else?) tied the game, but only really delayed the inevitable as the Yanks ended up losing 6-4 in extras and losing even bigger when Derek Jeter broke his left ankle.  There's a lot to recover from heading into tonight's game, but the Yankees have to make the recovery and have to wake the fuck up offensively.  Going down 2-0 heading into Detroit would make this series damn near over already.

Starting Lineups-

NYY: 1) Ichiro- LF, 2) Cano- 2B, 3) Teix- 1B, 4) Ibanez- DH, 5) Martin- C, 6) A-Rod- 3B, 7) C-Grand- CF, 8) Swish- RF, 9) Nix- SS

DET: 1) Jackson- CF, 2) Berry- LF, 3) Cabrera- 3B, 4) Fielder- 1B, 5) Young- DH, 6) Dirks- RF, 7) Peralta- SS, 8) Avila- C, 9) Infante- 2B

Pitching Matchup-

Hiroki Kuroda (8.1 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K in 1 postseason start) vs. Anibal Sanchez (6.1 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K in 1 postseason start)

Why Does This Sh*t Always Happen When I Go To Weddings?

Seriously, that's not even meant to be a humorous question.  There have been four instances this year where I've had to take days off from the blog for wedding-related activities, and every single time something out of the ordinary happened.

My one buddy's bachelor party on April 21st was the amazing 15-9 comeback win against the Fraud Sawx, and his wedding on June 2nd was the 4-3 loss to the Tigers when Joe and Kevin Long got run by Bob Davidson.   My other buddy's bachelor party on September 22nd was the crazy 14-inning win against Oakland that started the almost month-long Raul Ibanez Clutch Hit Party, and his wedding last night was Game 1 of the ALCS, where the Yanks showed nothing on offense again only to make a dramatic 4-run comeback in the 9th to tie the game only to lose in extras.  Oh, and Derek Jeter, the most consistent player in the lineup right now, broke his ankle and is out for the rest of the year.

Maybe I should just start being a huge dick to everybody so I don't get invited to any more weddings.  I always end up missing out on great games and great blogging material.  Game 2 preview coming up shortly...

Saturday Morning Food For Thought: A-Rod vs. The Tigers

No time to look back tonight, as much as I'd like to gush about how absolutely dirty CC Sabathia is.  Game of the ALCS is tonight, and the biggest question surrounding the Yankees will continue to be how they plan to use Alex Rodriguez.  He's been absolute crap against righties (0-12 w/ 9 Ks in the DS), and the Tigers will roll out 4 righties in this series.  A-Rod's career numbers against each are as follows:

- Vs. Doug Fister: 1-5, 1 BB, 1 K

- Vs. Anibal Sanchez: 0-3

- Vs. Justin Verlander: 8-24, 3 HR, 7 RBI, 4 BB, 3 K

- Vs. Max Scherzer: 1-10, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 4 K

Not exactly inspiring numbers, although he has been very good against Verlander.  My guess is Joe keep A-Rod out tonight, and if Chavez does nothing against Fister we will see A-Rod back for Games 2 and 3 against Anibal Sanchez and his lack of postseason experience and Verlander and A-Rod's familiarity and positive track record against him.

Still An Ace...



2012 ALDS Game 5 Preview: The End Or The Beginning

And this is exactly what I hoped wouldn't happen so that I wouldn't have to write this as my Game 5 preview.  The personal commitments I alluded to yesterday are a wedding that I'm in this Saturday.  And while that's a beautiful thing and an honor to be a part of and all of that stuff, it still royally screws up my plans to watch and write about the most important thing in the world every October, Yankee playoff baseball.  Rehearsal and rehearsal dinner is tonight, and the wedding itself is its typical all day/all night affair on Saturday, so at best I'm going to get to watch the first half of tonight's game, miss the end, and if the Yankees do advance I'll also miss Game 1 of the ALCS.

As for that whole "advancing" thing, what do you really say about this team?  If you would have said before Game 1 that the Yankee starters would combine to allow just 8 ER in 30.2 combined IP, that should have worked out to a slam dunk 3-1 series victory.  And if anybody in the lineup not named Derek Jeter or Mark Teixeira would have shown up in this series that's exactly what would have happened.  But the station-to-station problems and RISP Fail that plagued the offense all season has been kind enough to stick around for the playoffs, and now it all comes down to tonight.

Updated Starting Lineups (2:30PM)-

NYY: 1) Jeter- SS, 2) Ichiro- LF, 3) Cano- 2B, 4) Teix- 1B, 5) Ibanez- DH, 6) Swish- RF, 7) C-Grand- CF, 8) Martin- C, 9) Chavez- 3B

BAL: 1) McLouth- LF, 2) Hardy- SS, 3) Jones- CF, 4) Davis- RF, 5) Wieters- C, 6) Machado- 3B, 7) Mark Reynolds- 1B, 8) Ford- DH, 9) Andino- 2B

Pitching Matchup-

CC Sabathia (8.2 IP, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K in Game 1) vs. Jason Hammel (5.2 IP, 2 ER, 4 BB, 5 K in Game 1)

Friday Afternoon Linkapalooza: 10/12

Sorry for the short intro this week. Everything I could possibly say here has already been said in my other series-related posts this week. The Yankees need to win tonight and they damn well better or I’m going to be really pissed about not at least being able to see the final game of the season.

- On Monday, Jimmy Kraft of Yanks Go Yard looked back at past performances to show how CC has been very ace-like in his Yankee postseason career.

- Mark Duggan of Pinstriped Bible broke down Russell Martin's brilliant defensive 5th inning in Game 1.  Russ probably earned himself a new deal next season with that performance.

- Brien Jackson of IIATMS, after A-Rod's slow start to the ALDS, asked how long a leash A-Rod should have been given before Joe moved him in the batting order.  We got our answer on Wednesday and Thursday nights.

- On Tuesday, Domenic Lanza of TYA compiled and presented the staff MLB and Yankee award selections for the 2012 season.  I went off the board with Teix as my biggest disappointment.

- Another one from the Pinstriped Bible team on Wednesday, when Bill Parker compared Robinson Cano's career performance against some great second baseman to try to project Cano's future and value of his next contract.

- Greg Corcoran of Bronx Baseball Daily made a point to remind everybody that this year's playoff format is absolute dogmess.  Because somebody has to keep saying it.

- On Thursday, Mike Axisa of RAB put a nice little bow on the A-Rod pinch hitting story by discussing it as the beginning of A-Rod's end, echoing the sentiments I had after the game.

- Brian D. of Yankees Fans Unite dished a harsh dose of perspective and reality to people who were ragging on A-Rod for his performance.  It is important to remember that most 37-year-olds aren't 30/30 guys anymore.

- William Juliano of The Captain's Blog analyzed Joe's decision to pinch hit Ibanez for A-Rod in Game 3 and similar decisions he's had to make managing an older team.

- SJK of NoMaas took a more positive look at the events that unfolded in Game 3 and punctuated Raul Ibanez's introduction into Yankee immortality with another great Photoshop.

- Alex Belth of Bronx Banter posted his frustrated take on Game 4 last last night.  It's worth reading based on the title of the post alone.

No Friday Jam today.  Song will be covered in the Game 5 preview.

Enjoy your weekends, everybody.  Hopefully it includes a couple of ALCS games.

2012 ALDS Game 4 Thoughts & Afterthoughts: BAL 2 NYY 1

(Way to look alive, guys!  Courtesy of Getty Images)

The emotional high that everybody was surely riding from Wednesday night through yesterday afternoon was immediately grounded with the news coming out that Joe Girardi's father had passed away.  Things become even more somber when it was reported that Joe's dad actually died on Saturday, and that Joe had kept it quiet until an obituary was posted in a local paper earlier today.  Knowing that Joe has gone through the emotional ups and downs with his team through the first 3 games of this series while dealing with his father's passing makes the job he has done even more impressive, and puts an "emotional" decision like whether or not to pinch hit for Alex Rodriguez in the proper context.

Another thing that this sad news did was give the Yankees another reason to go out and get a win last night.  It wasn't as if they were already lacking motivation with a trip back to the ALCS on the line, but to be able to do it for their manager, as a tribute to him and his dad, is the type of stuff Hollywood writers used to come up with before they all ran out of ideas.  If there was a "let's win this one for Joe" speech given in the locker room, odds are it came from the mouth of Derek Jeter, who despite being limited to DH duties because of his bruised foot wasn't missing this game for his life.

Emotions were high, there was a lot at stake, and the Yankees held the advantage going into the game again.  Everything should have added up to a win and a series victory.  Instead, last night ended up being one of those textbook deflating losses where everybody swinging a bat just didn't show up.

2012 ALDS Game 4 Preview: What More Can I Say?

I honestly don't know what to say after last night.  Or even after the first 3 games of this series.  It's been the highest of highs and the lowest of lows as a fan and as a writer these last 4 days, and to be perfectly honest I am drained.  The Yankees certainly looked like the were fixing to break our hearts last night, but some more Raul Ibanez fireworks, this latest round some of the biggest Yankee postseason fireworks in recent memory, changed all that.  Now the Yankees come into tonight's game with the series lead, the momentum, and the emotional edge with the way last night's game finished up.  Baltimore's got a tall order in front of them to try to keep this series alive tonight, and putting their playoff lives in the hands of a pitcher they basically picked off the scrap heap, even if he did pitch well in the Wild Card game, is a tough spot to be in.

I'm hoping for a nice easy game tonight.  I could really use it, and not just to catch up on sleep.  There are some personal obligations on the horizon for Friday and Saturday night that I was hoping wouldn't interfere too much in my postseason viewing/writing plans, and those obligations become a lot less intrusive if the Yankees take care of business tonight.

Updated Starting Lineups (3:55PM):

NYY: 1) Jeter- DH, 2) Ichiro- LF, 3) Teix- 1B, 4) Cano- 2B, 5) A-Rod- 3B, 6) Swish- RF, 7) Martin- C, 8) C-Grand- CF, 9) Nix- SS

BAL: 1) McLouth- LF, 2) Hardy- SS, 3) Davis- RF, 4) Jones- CF, 5) Wieters- C, 6) Thome- DH, 7) Reynolds- 1B, 8) Flaherty- 2B, 9) Machado- 3B

Pitching Matchup-

Phil Hughes (16-13, 4.23 ERA/4.56 FIP, 7.76 K/9) vs. Joe Saunders (9-13, 4.07 ERA/4.08 FIP, 5.77 K/9)

Giving D-Rob His Due

(Doin' the damn thing again)

The Yankee starting pitchers in this series, as awesome as they’ve been, have been completely overshadowed by the A-Rod saga and Raul Ibanez’s heroics last night, and that’s a bit of a shame. CC, Andy, and Hiroki last night have all been terrific and limited the Orioles to just a handful of well-struck balls that led to runs. Subtract maybe 3 or 4 pitches and we’re talking about a couple of shutout games here. And the small bit of credit and ink the rotation has gotten has also overshadowed another positive pitching story from this series- the lights out relief work of David Robertson.

The Yankee bullpen has pitched 5 total innings in the first 3 games of this series, and Robertson has pitched 3.1 of them. He’s the only Yankee pitcher who has appeared in every game, and as usual he’s been used in a variety of different situations. He came in to get the final out of Game 1 in relief of CC with a runner on, he pitched the 8th inning of Game 2 to hold the O’s down and give the offense a chance to come back in the 9th, and he pitched 2 scoreless innings in the 11th and 12th last night and got credit for the win.

And he hasn’t just been getting by on some lucky pitches, D-Rob has been BRINGING it. Dude has allowed just one baserunner, hasn’t walked a batter, and has struck out 4. He’s thrown 41 total pitches in his 3 appearances, 17 curveballs, 14 cutters, and 10 4-seamers, and 33 of them have been strikes. He’s pounding the zone, getting ahead in the count, and overwhelming the Oriole hitters with his combination of great late fastball life and near impossible-to-square up curveball movement. He’s essentially been a footnote in every game thus far, but don’t discount the great job that The Fireman has done in this series.

2012 ALDS Game 3 Thoughts & Afterthoughts: NYY 3 BAL 2

("Thanks for bailing me out, dude."  Courtesy of the AP)

Well there wasn't much debate as to what the #1 talking point in Joe's postgame press conference was going to be after he released his lineup yesterday afternoon.  A-Rod still being in the #3 spot surely rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, and if the Yankees lost reporters were going to be fighting each other to ask him that first question about why he chose to DH A-Rod instead of just moving him down.  Raul Ibanez made sure that was an easy question for Joe to answer with his late-game heroics, just the latest in a long series of big moments written up by the 40-year-old Voldemort look-alike.

Ibanez may have very well saved the Yankees' season with his pinch hit game-tying HR in the bottom of the 9th to send last night's game to extra innings, and when he became the only player in postseason history to hit 2 HR in a postseason game in the 9th inning or later he became the undeniable offensive MVP of Game 3 and forever etched his name into Yankee history.

Ra's al Ul

(Courtesy of Getty Images)

 

"But is Ra's al Ul immortal?"

 [Ibanez swings and hits a game-winning home run into the right field bleachers]

"Are his methods supernatural?"

RAH-MOTHERF*CKING-OOL!!!!!!

 

Blog done.

Hey, Curtis...

A Word On The Weak Yankee Stadium Crowd

(This is not a good look.  Courtesy of Jim McIsaac/Newsday)

The statistical advantage will be on the Yankees’ side tonight with the series shifting back to Yankee Stadium. But the other great part about playing at home in the postseason is the emotional lift a team gets from its home crowd. The atmosphere, the cheering, the mere feeling of anticipation and tension building in the stadium as the fans get ready to explode, while not being something that can be statistically measured, is something that can have an impact on a game. That impact will be something to monitor tonight simply because next to comments on the price of beer, the expensive tickets, and the “living monument” presentation of the team history in the new Yankee Stadium, the one comment that I’ve heard most consistently about it from people who have been there is that it doesn’t have the same feel and energy to it as the old Stadium did.

Having still not lost my new Stadium virginity yet, I’m not qualified to comment on that from personal experience, but from what I’ve seen come across on the TV broadcasts of the past few homes games I’ve watched I would have to agree with that assessment. The Stadium hasn’t been full, the fans haven’t been loud or even seemingly into the games at all. The whole atmosphere in the place feels like it’s just a bunch of people who came to watch a baseball game because it was something to do, and that needs to stop tonight.

2012 ALDS Game 3 Preview: Take The Power Back

The Yankees could have and should have won Game 2 easily.  That's a fact.  Lost in all the "A-Rod sucks" discussion and talk of RISP Fail, pinch runners, and Derek Jeter being a terrible shortstop is the fact that the Yankees had more hits, more baserunners, and more scoring opportunities than the O's.  If just 2 or 3 plays in that game go differently, the Yankees could have very easily won a 5-1, 6-1 game and the Orioles know it.  They did what they had to do to salvage some semblance of a chance in this series and the pressure is still on them tonight to win a game and negate the homefield advantage that is now clearly in the hands of New York.  Game 3 tonight could be the swing game in this series, and the Yankees need to put Game 2's failures behind them and come out ready to score some runs tonight.

Updated Starting Lineups (2:30PM)-

NYY: 1) Jeter- SS, 2) Ichiro- LF, 3) A-Rod- DH, 4) Cano- 2B, 5) Swish- RF, 6) Teix- 1B, 7) C-Grand- CF, 8) Martin- C, 9) Chavez- 3B

BAL: 1) McLouth- LF, 2) Hardy- SS, 3) Davis- RF, 4) Jones- CF, 5) Wieters- C, 6) Thome- DH, 7) Reynolds- 1B, 8) Flaherty- 2B, 9) Machado- 3B

Pitching Matchup-

Hiroki Kuroda (16-11, 3.32 ERA/3.86 FIP, 6.84 K/9) vs. Miguel Gonzalez (9-4, 3.25 ERA/4.38 FIP, 6.58 K/9)

As The A-Rod Turns (And Walks Back To The Dugout Frowning After Striking Out)

(#Failboat.  Courtesy of Getty Images)

I ended my last A-Rod post with the following statement:

“Maybe the best move to start is to see how the opposing team approaches A-Rod and hope that he finds his power swing. If he doesn’t, though, it might be time to go back to the drawing board and bump him down.”

4 days and 2 ALDS games have passed since then, and in case you hadn’t noticed, Alex Rodriguez is still swinging a limp, lifeless bat. It’s not quite “dogs and cats living together” levels of hysteria in Yankeeland over this situation, but the overwhelming majority of people out there think it’s time for A-Rod to be removed from the 3rd spot in the batting order, and I’m becoming more and more inclined to agree with them. As Mike Eder pointed out earlier today, playoff performance and statistics always need to be looked at in the proper context, that context being one of constant small sample size and lack of reasonable conclusions that can be drawn for them.

Keeping that in mind, it’s certainly overkill to say that A-Rod sucks based solely on his production in the first 2 games of this series. But expanding that sample size scope beyond just the ALDS, it’s clear that those numbers have not just been an isolated SSS fluke, but rather a continuation of a trend that started the day Rodriguez came off the DL.