Blogs – Page 234 – Keefe To The City

Jun 22, 2010

Grading A.J. Burnett

You didn’t need to stay up on Monday night to know how bad A.J. Burnett was against the Diamondbacks. After his previous three starts prior, you probably could have guessed how his night would go.

You didn’t need to stay up on Monday night to know how bad A.J. Burnett was against the Diamondbacks. After his previous three starts prior, you probably could have guessed how his night would go. I was naïve to think that someone making $500,000 per start could shut down the worst team in the NL West. Stupid me.

It’s never good when a six-game West Coast road trip starts with a first-inning mound visit, and it’s never good when you are hoping your No. 2 starter gets drilled when he comes up to hit and has to be placed on the DL. But such is the life of a Yankees fan dealing with the frustrating A.J. Burnett.

If you missed the game, first off you’re lucky, and second off you don’t even need to see Burnett’s line from the game to find out just how bad he was. All you need to know are the pitchers who followed him out of the bullpen. That would be Chad Gaudin and Chan Ho Park. Yes, it was another egg laid by Allan James Burnett in what has become a trend every five days for the Yankees, and a costly one at that. Here is the supposed No. 2 starter on the Yankees losing four straight games and allowing 23 earned runs in 20 innings in June and doing his best Chase Wright impression by allowing nine home runs over that span. I guess $16.5 million a year just doesn’t get you what it used to.

Sure there are going to be plenty of people with Yankees blinders on that take offense to me saying such terrible things about a player on my team, but honestly, I take offense to the idea that Yankees fans can stand by this guy and say anything good about him. And if anyone has anything good to say about his on-field performance, I know what that good thing is going to be: Game 2 of the 2009 World Series.

I am well aware that A.J. Burnett won Game 2 of last year’s World Series after the Yankees lost Game 1. What about the rest of the postseason? Did we forget that Burnett was 1-1 with a 5.27 ERA in five starts in October and November last year? Did we forget about his Game 5 meltdown in the World Series when he allowed six runs on four hits and four walks in two innings of work, or does that start not count?

I will be forever grateful that Burnett was able to win Game 2 and prevent the Yankees from going into an 0-2 hole with the series shifting to Philadelphia. But it’s not like the man single-handedly carried us to a championship (that would be Alex Rodriguez and Hideki Matsui), and it’s not like he never has to perform well again because of one start last fall.

A.J. Burnett is perfectly capable of going off between now and his last start of the season and making June just a minor bump in what ends up being an outstanding season. The problem is he is also capable of continuing to be the worst starter in the Yankees rotation the rest of the way, and right now, it’s hard to think of him in any other light than what we saw on Monday night, June 16, June 10 and June 4.

It’s not like I didn’t see these types of starts coming from Burnett. We all saw them at times last year, and we saw them prior to his amazing 2008 season with the Blue Jays. Except, I saw them coming at Fenway Park and Tropicana Field. I didn’t expect them to come against the Orioles, Blue Jays and Diamondbacks.

Here is what I wrote about A.J. Burnett after his first start of the season at Fenway Park:

“Watching A.J. Burnett pitch is harder to watch than the scene in Casino where Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) and his brother Dominick are beaten within an inch of their lives by baseball bats and then buried alive. Sure it’s only one start, but it’s not like we didn’t also see this last year. Burnett is either going to come within reach of a no-no or have a start that includes that one letdown inning. On Tuesday, he had the latter and the letdown inning was the fifth.”

And here is what I said about him when I ranked the Yankees starters in order of how much I enjoy watching them (Burnett ranked fourth, but he would be fifth in updated rankings):

“A.J. has two types of starts… 1.) The start where you start checking the inning and how many outs are left because a potential no-no is in the works and 2.) The start where he cruises for every inning except for one and allows three-plus runs that inning. A.J. will never give up a run here or a run there. It’s all or nothing with him. He is either going to try to burn out the P.C. Richard strikeout whistle at the Stadium, or have people heading for the exits with the game out of reach. He’s a nightmare for anyone that likes consistency or good strike-to-ball ratios, or for anyone that plays fantasy baseball. When he’s on, he can be the best pitcher on the planet with the best breaking ball in the league. When he’s off, expect every count to go full and free passes to be handed out.”

This time I decided to take what I have learned about A.J. Burnett since he became a Yankee and take it out a step further. I think its necessary that we have a unit of measurement for Burnett’s starts and a way to categorize his many meltdowns and losses. So like the Richter scale, here is a way to measure another type of natural disaster: A.J. Burnett meltdowns.

Grade 1
Example: June 10 vs. Baltimore

Getting through the first inning with A.J. Burnett is key. If you can get through the first, there’s a chance he will be able to get you through a lot more. A.J. is usually good for allowing at least one run before the Yankees have time to get on the board, but if he can hold the opposition scoreless so the Yankees can take an early lead, you’re in good shape. The problem is you aren’t out of the water yet since there isn’t a lead that is safe with A.J. on the hill.

The meltdown usually starts once the Yankees have given him a lead and he feels it necessary to give it right back. Andy Pettitte did a lot of this in the second half of 2008 before we later found out that he was injured. A.J. Burnett might be the only pitcher that I don’t feel confident with getting out of an inning unscathed with two outs and no one on. Once he gets those first two outs, things can unfold pretty quickly. And when they do, you can no longer control a Grade 1 implosion from becoming …

Grade 2
Example: April 23 vs. Angels

If A.J. doesn’t come with his best stuff (which he never does anymore), then there is without a doubt going to be an inning where he allows at least a three spot.

Most starters prepare for games with the mindset that they are going to go out and win the game for their team. A.J. goes out with the idea that he is going to throw a perfect game. The only problem is that after that first walk, he starts to think, “OK, the no-hitter is still intact.” Then after that first hit, he thinks “Well, now I am just going to strike out every hitter.” It’s this mentality that gets A.J. Burnett in trouble. Instead of pitching the way he finally learned how to under Roy Halladay at the end of his Toronto days, A.J. becomes the oft-injured pitcher he was in Florida, trying to knock down the catcher with his fastball like Steve Nebraska.

A.J. Burnett isn’t capable of limiting damage and working through men on base the way Andy Pettitte has made a career of doing, and he isn’t capable of working through a game without his best stuff the way CC Sabathia can grind through a start. It’s all or nothing with A.J. Burnett and when it’s nothing, it turns into this …

Grade 3
Examples: May 9 vs. Red Sox and June 21 vs. Diamondbacks

This is what we saw on Monday and what we have seen for most of June. It’s like an uncontrollable California forest fire. You think A.J. has had his bad inning for the night and that he will enter cruise control, only to have the game unravel in a matter of pitches (on Monday night it took 15) and once that second crooked number starts to take shape, there is no stopping it until he is removed from the game. The only problem with that is that the game is out of hand by this point and likely out of reach for the offense, so the “loser” relievers (I call them this because they only pitch when the Yankees are losing and also happens to be prime examples of the word) like Chad Gaudin and Boone Logan and Chan Ho Park start to get loose in the ‘pen.

The entire scene is enough to make you think about picking up your remote control and throwing a two-seamer right through the TV screen, or at the very least it’s enough to make you make yourself a strong cocktail.

It was hard enough to watch all nine innings on Monday night that I wasn’t about to sit through the postgame show and listen to Joe Girardi tell us that A.J. “had great stuff in the ‘pen before the game” or that “his velocity and breaking ball were there, he just missed his location.” As much as I despise Ozzie Guillen, at least he would take A.J. to town after a month of losses with a three-team race now taking shape in the AL East.

But the real reason I didn’t watch the postgame show (other than the fact that I had just wasted over three hours of my life watching the Yankees lose 10-4 to the Diamondbacks) was because I didn’t want to see A.J. Burnett. I didn’t want to see him stand in front of his locker and tell reporters that “he sucked” and that “he needs to better.” Tell us something we don’t know. I’m glad that A.J. holds himself accountable (something Joba Chamberlain needs to learn to do and something that got Ian Kennedy a one-way ticket to Arizona), but being sorry on a night when you just made more than Phil Hughes will make all year isn’t enough. Go win a game for once. Go beat the 28-win Diamondbacks.

All weekend long I gave my friend Dusty a hard time because his beloved Dodgers were swept by the Red Sox and allowed the Red Sox to further close the gap in the AL East. After Monday’s loss, I expected a response from Dusty and sure enough at 11:14 a.m. on Tuesday morning, there it was … “The Yankees lost to the worst team in the NL West.”

Thanks, A.J. Burnett. Only another three-plus years of this …

Blogs • Email Exchanges

Jun 17, 2010

A Game 7 For The Ages

It’s Lakers and Celtics, Game 7 of the NBA Finals. I don’t have a horse in the race, but I’m pulling for the Lakers for two reasons. First, I like Kobe Bryant, though I am

It’s Lakers and Celtics, Game 7 of the NBA Finals. I don’t have a horse in the race, but I’m pulling for the Lakers for two reasons. First, I like Kobe Bryant, though I am completely aware that a lot of people don’t, and second, I hate the Celtics. Maybe hate is too strong of a word in this case. I certainly don’t hate the Celtics like I hate the Red Sox or Boone Logan (despite his Wednesday night performance) or Chad Gaudin or the way I am starting to hate A.J. Burnett, but I just can’t stand them.

The problem is when I do talk basketball (which is rare) the one person I talk about it with happens to be a Celtics fan buried deep in the heart of Massachusetts. So to get inside the mind of someone with something on the line in Thursday’s Game 7, good friend and NESN.com writer Mike Hurley joined me to break down the biggest Finals game since ’94.

Keefe: I thought the Lakers were the best team after Game 3, and the Celtics after Game 5. Now I don’t know which team is better. Do you? Everything I read from Boston is that the Celtics will put Game 6 behind them and already have, and I fully believe that they have. If the Lakers could come back in Game 6 after looking the way they did in Game 5, then I have to believe the Celtics from Game 6 will show up in Game 7. I don’t know who is going to win, and wouldn’t be surprised by either team winning. Does that even make sense? Nothing makes sense anymore.

Hurley: No, nothing makes sense at all. I thought I finally had it figured out after Game 5 that the Celtics were in fact the better team. That lasted all of 75 seconds in Game 6. The craziest part of Game 6: Who was the best player? I mean, it was Kobe by default, but he barely had to break a sweat.

If you want to talk about what went wrong for the Celtics it was simple. They were playing as five individuals. Every trip down the court turned into 1-on-5. Even when they did make a pass, it was usually as a last resort with five seconds on the shot clock. That’s how they lost to the Nets and Wizards in the regular season, so it’s obviously going to fail tremendously in the Finals. That’s obviously a fixable issue, and I wouldn’t expect such a horrific effort Thursday night.

Keefe: I asked you the other day about Kobe being MVP even if the Lakers lost and you laughed at me. I would have laughed at me if I thought of the idea given Kobe’s shooting percentage throughout the series, but I didn’t. I just thought it was worthy of relaying to you to get you riled up and bring out your true hatred for the best player on the planet. Little did I know, you would write a story off of it (http://www.nesn.com/2010/06/kobe-bryants-oneman-show-in-game-5-not-worthy-of-praise.html). I’ve seen the comments from readers on your story, and if I were you, I wouldn’t travel to L.A. anytime soon.

Now, if the Lakers win, obviously Kobe is MVP. But if the Celtics win, I have no idea who gets it since you could make a case for a few people right now. I guess it comes down to which Celtic has the biggest Game 7?

Hurley: For the record, those numbers you speak of are: 10-22, 8-20, 10-29, 10-22, 13-27. Those are questionable numbers for an MVP on a winning team, let alone a losing team.

It’s also worth nothing that the story I wrote had nothing to do with hatred. It was clear as day that The Kobe Bryant Show in Game 5 was impressive, but it simultaneously killed the Lakers. They were down by one point with the whole team involved midway through the second quarter, then Bryant reeled off 23 straight points. And the Lakers trailed by nine.

What Kobe did was great theater, but it’s not conducive to winning. His 19 shots in a blowout win on Tuesday only solidified that point.

OK, but anyway … If the Celtics win, the MVP could be whoever plays the best in Game 7. Nobody’s been consistently excellent throughout the series. You could make a case for Rondo, but for two things. One, he’s only averaging 7.2 assists, which means he’s not doing what he does best. Second, he’s shooting 23.5 percent from the free-throw line. That’s just embarrassing.

But if Rondo puts up 16-10-8 or something around there, it wouldn’t be surprising at all for him to get MVP honors. Obviously, a Game 5 repeat for Pierce would get him his second, and to be honest, I’m not sure a huge performance from Garnett wouldn’t give him some consideration.

If I had to bet, my money would be Rondo. If I were to bet, I would have lost all my money by now.

Keefe: If I listened to your betting advice for Game 6, I would be out of money too, but hey, the Celtics at +250 coming off that Game 5 win wouldn’t have been a bad play even with the outcome. In the end, I just couldn’t justify backing the Celtics since I want to watch them go down in flames.

So here we are … Game 7. The whole season for one game. Obviously you would have signed up for this in November. Actually, you would have signed up for this two weeks ago. Take off your 1986 green nylon Celtics jacket and tell me what each team needs to do to win on Thursday night.

Hurley: For the Lakers, it might be as simple as getting an early lead. This Celtics team is not nearly the same team that pulled off that comeback in ’08. They haven’t shown that kind of resiliency this year, and I think if L.A. can open in similar fashion to the way they did Tuesday, it might be enough.

Of course, that might be dependent on Ron Artest draining 3’s and Jordan Farmar stepping in and playing better than Derek Fisher, so I’m not counting on that happening.

The Celtics simply need to play well near the basket. They unofficially missed 408 shots from within five feet in Game 6, and it killed them. They need to rebound, which falls on the shoulders of Rasheed Wallace and Glen Davis. Good luck with that. And they need to score in transition. They’ve made that look easy often in this series, and if they can keep up the tempo on offense, their defense has been plenty good enough to at least keep the Lakers at bay.

Rajon Rondo needs to play 46-48 minutes tonight. Nate Robinson was an absolute donkey in Game 6 and reminded everyone that yes, he is indeed Nate Robinson. Rondo’s been slightly above average this series, which for him isn’t enough. If he can recapture some of that brilliance from the Cleveland and Orlando series, the Celtics are the better team.

But really, you can say all that, and you can throw some fancy basketball words all over the place, but it’s all about hitting shots. The Celtics had open shots throughout the first four games of the series. When they hit them, they won. When they didn’t, they lost. In Game 6, the Lakers shot the lights out in the first half, and it iced the game early.

Keefe: This game is so important on so many levels that the more I think about it, the more reasons it is important I think of.

If the Lakers win, Kobe can further cement his legacy and finally add beating Boston to his resume, and the same goes for Phil Jackson. The Lakers can prove that the Ron Artest experiment wasn’t a failure, and that they would have beaten the Celtics in last year’s Finals as well if Kevin Garnett were healthy and the Celtics made it.

The Celtics can raise banner No. 18, celebrate one more time before the window of opportunity slams shut on their aging stars and make everyone wonder what could have been if KG didn’t have to sit out last postseason.

There is so much at stake for both franchises as a whole and for players individually that we haven’t seen in a long, long time. On a scale of 1-10, how devastated will you be if the Celtics lose this game?

Hurley: To be honest, I see all of that, and I don’t think it’s as big a deal as it’s being made out to be. If Kobe and Phil don’t beat the Celtics, then what? They’re not great? Where were the Celtics in 2000? 2001? In 2002, the Celtics lost in six games to the Nets in the conference finals. Then the Nets got smoked, getting swept by the Lakers and losing by almost 10 points per game. I’m going to go ahead and use the distributive property and say that Kobe/Phil could have beaten the Celtics in the past.

Losing Game 7 of the Finals is automatically a 7 on the devastation scale, but I don’t think it can rightfully go beyond that. This whole playoff run was completely unexpected. The team sucked all year. There’s no other way to put it. They had giant lapses in effort, they had chemistry issues, and they had Shelden Williams playing basketball for them. It was sort of a disaster year.

So yeah, losing in Game 7, to the Lakers, in L.A., against Kobe and Phil, seeing Pau Gasol shouting and yelling with that awful beard … it will hard for anyone with a Boston soul to watch. But nobody – seriously, nobody – expected the Celtics to be in this position, so you just have to sit back and enjoy what we’ll be watching.

Keefe: I know how much it will pain Bostonians to see Kobe flashing his hand around to signify five championships while he is holding his children and kissing his wife. It will probably hurt more to see Phil Jackson pull out a hat with the roman numeral XI on it, and to see Pau Gasol, Sasha Vujacic and Ron Artest hugging at half court.

Hopefully at this time tomorrow the Lakers will have back-to-back championships, Kobe will have five rings and cement his legacy by beating the Celtics in the Finals and every Boston outlet will turn on Doc Rivers and the Celtics and rip the team apart. That would make for an exciting Friday for you.

I’m going with my heart, instinct and hatred for the Green. Lakers 91, Celtics 83 and Kobe gets MVP. And we’ll have to do this again this summer if the Red Sox can stay in the race.

Hurley: Yuck.

You forgot to mention Adam Morrison. Somehow, he’s become the second most annoying person to look at this series, behind Pau Gasol. Just sitting there with his stupid hair and his stupid mustache – in the MIDDLE of the bench! Get down the end, buddy.

I said going into this series that I had a little bit of a head/heart thing going on. My head was saying Lakers in 6; my heart was saying Celtics in 7. Frankly, I thought the Lakers were better than this, so I’ll follow your lead and stick with the heart. Celtics 97, Lakers 91. Paul Pierce’s 20 points, six assists get him MVP.

Blogs • MLB

Jun 16, 2010

Roy Halladay Now Just Another NL Starter

This column was originally posted on June 16, 2010. With a World Series rematch and possible World Series preview taking place in the Bronx, there is only one place to watch it: the right field

This column was originally posted on June 16, 2010.

With a World Series rematch and possible World Series preview taking place in the Bronx, there is only one place to watch it: the right field bleachers. So, I did just that on Tuesday night in the Bronx, thanks to Bald Vinny.

Aside from the postseason, it was the best bleacher atmosphere I have experienced in recent memory (as seen in the picture where the man in the Steve Carlton jersey is the focal point of the YMCA), and also the worst Roy Halladay performance I can remember in recent memory. Sure there was the Fourth of July last year and August 4 as well, but he also dominated the Yankees in every other performance in 2009.

Last night was supposed to be different for Roy Halladay. He was making his return to Yankee Stadium as a Phillie, trying to prove that he is the same old Doc, even if he now pitches in a league where you pitch around the No. 7 hitter to face the No. 8 hitter, and pitch around the No. 8 hitter to face the No. 9 hitter. Considering Halladay pitches for the team that is supposed to have the best offense in the National League and doesn’t ever have to face the Phillies lineup, he only faces three, sometimes four good major league hitters in most starts. Roy Halladay was supposed to show up to the Bronx on Tuesday and represent the tilt of power between baseball’s best in 2009, and make Brian Cashman rethink his stance on giving up the farm for Roy over the winter. He failed to do both.

Halladay looked a lot like every other National League pitcher when it comes to interleague play. Here is the man I refer to as the best pitcher on the planet letting up six runs over six innings. Don’t get me wrong, I will take that kind of performance from Roy anytime he starts against the Yankees, but it’s sad when the man who once dominated the AL East for 11-plus seasons proves that all of these NL starters with sub-2.00 ERAs deserve an asterisk next to them.

Here is Roy Halladay vs. the NL this season:

8-3, 95.1 IP, 81 H, 19 R, 16 ER, 12 BB, 84 K, 2 HR, 1.51 ERA

And here is Roy Halladay in two interleague starts vs. the Yankees and Red Sox:

0-2, 11.2 IP, 16 H, 13 R, 12 ER, 4 BB, 6 K, 4 HR, 9.56 ERA

I will back up Roy Halladay’s abilities and go toe to toe with anyone who wants to argue anyone else as being the best pitcher in the world, but he is making that hard to do. Doc has only had 12 starts as an NL pitcher after 287 in the AL, and it’s like he already forgot his roots. Spoiled by a league in which the bottom third of the order is harder to sit through than my ride to the Stadium on the 4 train in which two overweight men had me pinned between the subway doors and their beer bellies, Roy seems to have forgotten about stacked lineups, designated hitters and the meaning of offense in baseball.

The most enjoyable part of playing interleague games at home is that there aren’t any double switches, intentional walks to face the pitchers or outs given away because the hitter at the plate is a pitcher who last swung a bat in his senior year of high school. I don’t care about National League fans still talking themselves into thinking that their league plays the game the way it is supposed to be played, or that it is the “pure” form of the sport. It’s 2010, and it’s time to let it go. It’s time for the NL to adopt the DH. Enough is enough.

In Happy Gilmore, Shooter McGavin tells Doug, the head of the PGA Tour, “I just saw two big, fat naked bikers in the woods off 17 having sex. How am I supposed to chip with that going on?” Well, over the weekend I was watching the Blue Jays play the Rockies (I’m not sure why), and I had to watch the Rockies intentionally walk Jose Molina, so they could face the Toronto pitcher. I would say watching anyone intentionally walk Jose Molina is as painful as watching fat, naked bikers have sex. How am I supposed to take the NL seriously with that going on?

In all honesty I think I would rather face Jose Molina over any pitcher in the league after watching his at-bats in the Bronx over the last three seasons. The intentional walk was the first time a Jose Molina at-bat lasted more than three pitches and didn’t end with a swinging K. I don’t want to live in a world where Jose Molina is intentionally walked, and I don’t think anyone else does either.

But back to Doc and the demise of the two-time defending National League champion Philadelphia Phillies …

I feel like I owe the Mets an apology. Prior to the season I didn’t give the Mets a chance at winning the division. I’m not sure if it was the Halladay trade, the fact that the Phillies had been to the last two World Series or me simply choosing against a Jerry Manuel managed team, but I pretty much saw this summer as a lost one for Mets fans. How could I have been so naïve?

Yes, the Phillies have the best lineup in the NL on paper, but without Jimmy Rollins, the lineup isn’t the same, and even with him, their pitching staff outside of Halladay (outside of his two interleague performances) is abysmal. After Doc, it’s a steady drop off to Cole Hamels, and after Hamels it’s a freefall to Kyle Kendrick, Joe Blanton and Jamie Moyer. I’m not sure if the Phillies will survive the 162-game season, and if they do, maybe they could survive a five-games series, but a seven-game series? Not a chance.

Do I think the Phillies are bad as they have been? No. But I also don’t think they are as good as they were when they started the season and everyone thought they could run away and hide with the division. We’re talking about a team that got shut out by the Mets for an entire three-game series.

I’m sure Roy Halladay and the Phillies will be happy when interleague plays ends, the way every other NL team that has to face the AL East and every NL starter is. It might have been one start against the Yankees, and it might just be two starts combined against his old foes from the AL East, but the man who was once the most feared pitcher on the planet is now part of baseball’s retirement home: the National League.

It’s the same place Johan Santana resides, and where Cliff Lee might go this offseason. It’s the place that has allowed Jamie Moyer to pitch into his late 40s and might let him pitch until his children’s children have children, and the place that extended the career of Randy Johnson until he could get win No. 300. It’s the home of the pitcher hitting, sacrifice bunts and wasted outs

It’s the National League: Baseball’s natural performance-enhancing drug.

Blogs • Yankees

Jun 4, 2010

Making the Most Out of Mariano

On Tuesday night at the Yankees game, the first few notes of “Enter Sandman” descended upon the Bronx, Mariano Rivera began his trip to the mound from the bullpen and my friend Redz turned to

On Tuesday night at the Yankees game, the first few notes of “Enter Sandman” descended upon the Bronx, Mariano Rivera began his trip to the mound from the bullpen and my friend Redz turned to me and said, “So sick.” The expression isn’t always “so sick,” but every time No. 42 makes his way into a game, it draws a similar reaction with a similar expression.

There is nothing like Mariano’s entrance in all of sports. There is a chill when the door opens, Metallica comes on, Mariano throws his last warm-up pitch and then walks across the warning track before beginning a slow jog to the infield. I think being on-hand for the atmosphere created when Mariano enters a home postseason game should be on everyone’s sports bucket list. The only problem with that is there are only a few seasons left to experience it.

There is a real chance Mariano Rivera is superhuman, and if you told me he will still be getting outs in the ninth inning in 2016, I’d be ecstatic and also have a hard time arguing against it. Aside from a minor ache or pain that comes with a 162-game season and doing his job for the last 14 years, there is nothing to suggest that the Yankees should be worrying about a successor to the ninth inning anytime soon. Realistically, there will be a time when No. 42 will sit behind the outfield for good with the other Yankee legends and won’t be coming through the bullpen door to save the game and the day for the Yankees.

It has always been in the back of my mind that that some day the only way I will be able to watch Mariano pitch is on Yankees Classics or in scenes from Yankeeographies. Eventually, hoping for the Yankees to hold a lead of three runs or less for the ninth won’t make Mariano appear. I will probably need therapy and counseling once the post-Mariano era is upon on, but I don’t think it will be as bad personally as the post-Jeter era.

The more and more I think about it, the more and more I feel as though I have taken his abilities and success for granted. Actually, I know I have taken Mariano Rivera for granted. And now that he is 40, an age where very few people play baseball professionally and an age where no one gets the final three outs of a game, it makes sense to savor every Mariano appearance and not just see each save as No. 538 or chalk up a perfect ninth in what is just another Yankees win.

When you look at the highs and lows of closers around the league and the average life span of every other closer not named Mariano being that of an ant, it makes me lightheaded to think of life without Mariano. If life without Mariano means life with Joba Chamberlain as the closer, the ninth inning will become more of a gamble than a sure thing, and if I want to gamble I will head up to Connecticut and go to Mohegan Sun. I need the ninth inning to be a guarantee, not something left to chance.

Jonathan Papelbon refers to Mariano as “The Godfather” and never forgets to mention that he wants to carry the torch for closers in Major League Baseball after Mariano. But there isn’t another Mariano and there’s a better chance of Armando Galarraga throwing another perfect game than there is of seeing another closer with one pitch being as successful as Mariano has been.

For as long as I can remember Mariano has been my favorite pitcher to watch, and there isn’t even a close second. I have spent more time following his every pitch and every stat than my politician friend Scanlon has spent watching C-Span. In my mind, Mariano is on a level by himself in an exclusive club of one, and I don’t know if anyone else will ever be gaining admission to that club. Joba looked like he might be able to make a case to join the club in 2007, but he’s closer to joining my Boone Logan Fan Club than joining Mariano in the V.I.P.

There isn’t another Yankees reliever that I care about seeing come in as long as they put up zeroes. Aside from getting excited to watch Mariano, it’s all about the Yankees’ starters for me, and in order for most enjoyable to watch, here they are:

Phil Hughes
The Phranchise has me counting the calendar to find which day he is starting and planning my schedule accordingly. There is something about watching homegrown talent succeed that I’m not sure can be described in words. It’s why everyone loves Derek Jeter and why I was devastated to see Alfonso Soriano go. It’s why it’s easy to boo free agents who come here and fail, and it’s why it took A-Rod an October for the ages to finally be accepted. Homegrown talent makes you do crazy things like believe in the future of Brandon Claussen or Brad Halsey, or think that Chase Wright might be able to stick around. Phil Hughes finally showed consistency as a reliever last year, and this year he has Brian Cashman saying, “I told you so” after he didn’t pull the trigger on the deal on that would have sent The Phranchise to Minnesota for Johan Santana. Hughes has me more excited than other Yankees starter right now, and hopefully that doesn’t change for a long, long time.

Andy Pettitte
If I had to play a game for my life and Andy Pettitte was starting that game, I wouldn’t be nervous … as long as the game doesn’t take place during the 2001 World Series when Andy was tipping pitches like he wanted Arizona to win. There isn’t a jam Pettitte is scared of and there isn’t a jam he is in that I’m scared he won’t get out of. Andy will get his Ks and eat his innings, but it won’t always come in the cleanest or most impressive way, but a win is a win and as long as he gets it, that’s all that matter. There will always be runners on when Andy pitches, but that is part of the fun of watching him and seeing the stare, the pickoff move and the sweeping curve touching the outside corner.

CC Sabathia
CC Sabathia ended the World Series drought and is the “ace” of the staff even if he hasn’t pitched like it in 2010. After last October and November, I have a great amount of trust and respect for CC. He might not be my favorite starter to watch, but he is a horse and always keeps the Yankees in games even when he leaves his best stuff at home. If I wrote this, say after the All-Star break, it’s likely that Andy and CC would be No. 1 and 2 on this list given their histories of late-season dominance. But it’s June and for now, CC is stuck in the middle.

A.J. Burnett
A.J. has two types of starts… 1.) The start where you start checking the inning and how many outs are left because a potential no-no is in the works and 2.) The start where he cruises for every inning except for one and allows three-plus runs that inning. A.J. will never give up a run here or a run there. It’s all or nothing with him. He is either going to try to burn out the P.C. Richards strikeout whistle at the Stadium, or have people heading for the exits with the game out of reach. He’s a nightmare for anyone that likes consistency or good strike-to-ball ratios, or for anyone that plays fantasy baseball. When he’s on, he can be the best pitcher on the planet with the best breaking ball in the league. When he’s off, expect every count to go full and free passes to be handed out.

Javier Vazquez
On Tuesday, I saw Vazquez for the Yankees in person for the first time since 2004, and I’d have to say I was impressed. Let’s not pretend that one start against the Orioles in June is going to erase all of my ill will toward Javier, but it’s a good place to start. When Joe Girardi elected to load the bases for Javier with one out, I was pretty sure a three spot or four spot was going to go up on the scoreboard, but Javier showed the ability to get out of a tight spot late in a game, which is something he has had trouble doing all season. I believe that he can succeed in this town for this team and be a productive member of the pitching staff, but there is still work to be done.

Blogs • The Joe Girardi Show • Yankees

May 24, 2010

Mayday in May for the Yankees

I can’t stand when the Yankees have days off. I hate is so much that I look at the schedule in advance to find the stretches during the season in which they play the most

I can’t stand when the Yankees have days off. I hate is so much that I look at the schedule in advance to find the stretches during the season in which they play the most consecutive games. This last stretch lasted 17 games, but after a 7-10 record, and watching a chance to be in first place fade to six games back in the East, I have never been so ecstatic to see an off-day on the calendar for Monday.

I love the Subway Series, and it always bothered me when Joe Torre would downplay its importance or the importance of a Yankees-Red Sox series for that matter. I understand that there was always great pressure from George for Torre and the Yankees to beat the Mets, but the Subway Series is great for the city, for the fans and for baseball. It’s outcome over the weekend created dangerously high levels for my blood pressure, and the Yankees’ inability to hit with runners in scoring position nearly cost me another Blackberry and television remote, but hey, that’s what the Subway Series is about.

If you’re a Yankees fan, you now get to listen to the Mets gloat until Round 2 of the Subway Series, or until they endure another five-game losing streak, whichever happens first (it will probably be the latter). But if you’re a Yankees fan, you shouldn’t be concerned with the second-class citizens of the city. I’m not. I’m concerned with the state of the Yankees, which has elevated to a Code Orange on the Yankees’ Homeland Security advisory system. A bad finish to the month of May and I will be in full-blown panic mode.

Yes, it’s May. Yes, the bottom of the order looks like something you would see in the eighth inning of a spring training game. But June is just a week away, and after starting the season 11-3, the Yankees have gone 15-15, and that scares me. This is the most necessary off-day I can remember in recent years. It gives the Yankees a day with no game in a time without Jorge Posada and Curtis Granderson, and it lets them recoup and reevaluate their current position, which is currently six games back of the relentless Rays.

After this debacle, which has now lasted 30 games, it’s time to answer some very important questions. I wish Michael Kay would let me host The Joe Girardi Show for one week. I actually wouldn’t even need a week, I would just need about five minutes to ask Joe one-on-one about some things that are on my mind and having a negative impact on my life. After cutting the list of questions down from 217, I have narrowed it down to five questions I would ask the Yankees skipper if I were allowed to host this week’s edition of The Joe Girardi Show.

Why did you protest the game against the Red Sox?
The Yankees’ week went downhill right after Joe Girardi protested a game in which the Yankees had a 5-0 lead. After Girardi made a stink about Manny Delcarmen getting some extra warm-up pitches because of Josh Beckett being pulled for a sketchy injury, the week spiraled out of control. It was as if the Baseball Gods said, “Come on Joe, enough is enough” and then struck the Yankees with a string of bad luck and five losses in six games to the Red Sox, Rays and Mets.

The Yankees didn’t lose a 5-0 lead to the Red Sox because Manny Delcarmen got to warmup a little longer. They lost because they weren’t able to take advantage of Manny Delcarmen coming into a game, and because Joba Chamberlain decided May 18 was a good day to give David Ortiz’s season and career some CPR. Marcus Thames’ error and Joe Girardi’s decision to bunt Francisco Cervelli in the ninth inning against Jonathan Papelbon didn’t exactly help matters.

There was no need to try and resort to some loophole in the rulebook to hang on against what was a dying Red Sox team when you just needed to get six outs before giving up four runs. Come on Joe, you’re better than that.

Why is Brett Gardner hitting second?
A week ago Gardner was hitting .323. Today his average is down to .294 after going 6-for-30 since then. If you could buy stock in Brett Gardner, and you did, the phone would be ringing off the hook right now to SELL, SELL, SELL! Gardner’s stock is falling faster than Bluestar at the end of Wall Street and I can’t remember the last time an analyst said something positive about his play.

The best thing (maybe we are now seeing the only thing) about Gardner’s game is his speed, and Joe Girardi won’t let Gardner use that speed hitting ahead of Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez because you know, Tex and A-Rod have been such RBI threats. Gardner’s last stolen base came on May 15 against the Twins despite being on base 11 times since then. Gardner needs to run when he is on base, and if General Joe is worried about making an out on the bases with Tex and A-Rod up then let Nick Swisher hit second. Mark Teixeira has been an automatic out hitting third all year. There is no reason to also have one in the two-hole.

Why does Randy Winn play, ever?
I’m not Kevin Long, but I’m pretty sure when you’re hitting, your back foot isn’t supposed to do whatever Randy Winn’s back foot is doing when he is in the box. Winn has become the easiest out in a Yankee lineup since Jose Molina, but at least Molina played great defense. I’m not sure what it is exactly that Randy Winn still does well as a major league. Whatever it is, it must be in the clubhouse and behind the scenes because in the batter’s box and on the field, he is tough on the eyes.

I understand that Randy Winn is a proven commodity and he has played 13 years in the league, but I also understand that you can’t play this game forever and I think Father Time is doing his best to make that clear to Joe Girardi. I also understand that the Yankees’ roster is depleted with injuries and they need any body they can find right now. So what’s wrong with Kevin Russo? The kid is a local product (West Babylon, NY), he is hungry for a chance to prove himself at this level and he actually has quality at-bats. I can’t think of one thing that Randy Winn does better than him other than swing and miss at dead-red fastballs frequently.

When the Yankees signed Winn, everyone said his two home runs and .262 average with the Giants last season was just a down year. I think it was the beginning of the end. Brian Cashman actually said that he couldn’t believe that he was able to sign Winn for $1.1 million. I’m pretty sure we know why he was able to now.

Do you hate Marcus Thames?
I have tried to make sense out of how Joe Girardi uses Marcus Thames, and the only conclusion I could come to is that he hates him. Either that or he doesn’t see what the rest of us are seeing when it comes to Marcus Thames.

There are three things I know about Marcus Thames: 1. He tries to hit a home run every at-bat. 2. He is the worst outfielder since Melky Cabrera’s Fenway Park debut. 3. He crushes left-handed pitching, but he can also hit righties.

Whenever there is a righty on the mound, Girardi opts for Randy Winn to start over Thames. Joe might give over managing a new meaning, and he certainly gets a high off lefty-righty matchups and double switches, but I don’t care what hand a pitcher uses to throw a baseball, Randy Winn is never a better option over Marcus Thames. And whenever Joe has a chance to use Thames as the DH or an outfielder, he chooses outfielder. There have already been three games Thames has cost the Yankees this season because of his fielding abilities, and it’s a guarantee there will be a fourth if Girardi lets there be.

In the middle of a Yankees comeback in Game 2 of the Subway Series, Girardi sent Thames to the plate to face the lefty Pedro Feliciano with the bases loaded and no one out. But when Jerry Manuel made the move to bring in the right-handed Fernando Nieve, Girardi called Thames back and sent up the left-handed Juan Miranda. The move took Thames out of the game without ever seeing a pitch, and also sent up a lesser hitter to the plate just because he was a lefty facing a righty. And to no one’s surprise, Miranda struck out. I’m not saying Thames wouldn’t have also struck out, but I do know he gave the Yankees a better chance to get them back in the game and possibly tie the game with one swing.

Why is Boone Logan on the team?
This question might be better suited for Robert Stack and the crew at Unsolved Mysteries. I have yet to find someone who can justify Logan’s spot on the 25-man roster, and I have also been unable to find someone who thinks he belongs on the roster or on the team with the highest payroll in the league or in Major League Baseball period. I find it hard to believe that there isn’t a better arm in Triple-A, Double-A, Single-A, some independent league, or some 14-and-under league capable of doing a better job than Boone Logan has done so far. We don’t have to go over his stats again here, all I need to say is that he has been on the team for 38 days (Yes, I’m counting) and he has yet to pitch a 1-2-3 inning in a game the Yankees have won. I won’t stop with Boone Logan until he is on I-80 back to Pennsylvania.