Yankees – Page 204 – Keefe To The City

Jul 6, 2012

Good Times Never Seemed So Good in Boston

The Yankees are in Boston for a four-game series with the Red Sox and that means it’s time for another email exchange with Mike Hurley.

It feels like it’s been years since the Yankees and Red Sox last played against each other, and it kind of has been. It’s been 76 days since the two teams last met, and that happened to be the day the Yankees erased an eight-run deficit after six innings at Fenway Park.

The Yankees have exactly half of their season left to play, and out of those 81 games, 16 of them will be against the Red Sox. And with so many games left against each other, that means that there are a lot of email exchanges left between Mike Hurley and me. With the Yankees in Boston for a four-game series this weekend I sent Hurley the mandatory Yankees-Red Sox email to let him know my presence in his city this weekend.

Keefe: So we meet again. I figured you were waiting for this email since the Yankees are in town. I can picture you checking your phone every time it vibrates to see if it’s an email for me. Actually your phone probably makes a ringing or beep noise when you get an email because you don’t seem like the type of person that would courteous enough to put it on vibrate.

The Yankees have a five-game lead on the division and a 7 1/2-game lead on the Red Sox (eight in the loss column). Despite going 1-2 against the Rays this week, the Yankees still managed to pick up another game on the Red Sox after they were swept in Oakland.

In December 2010 you were excited for a Red Sox-Phillies World Series in 2011, and instead the 2011 Red Sox, who were supposed to challenge the 1927 Yankees as the greatest team ever, didn’t even make the playoffs. When the team was falling apart in September and anonymous sources were snitching on the players and pitching staff and other anonymous sources (cough, Larry Lucchino, cough, cough) were trying to destroy Terry Francona’s reputation, I never thought things could possibly get better. But then 2012 happened.

John Lackey is out for the year and Carl Crawford hasn’t played a game. Jacoby Ellsbury has been injured for nearly the whole season and Josh Beckett was playing golf on his off day despite being unable to pitch due to injury. David Ortiz called Boston a “sh-thole” and then said he was embarrassed and humiliated about his contract status even though he makes $14.575 million to only hit. Daniel Bard is now blowing saves in Triple-A and the Red Sox’ closer, Andrew Bailey, hasn’t thrown a pitch this season while the guy they traded for him, Josh Reddick, looks like he could have been the right fielder of the future for the Red Sox.

It has been beautiful to watch and a glorious first half for the Red Sox. I guess my only question for you is did I leave anything out?

Hurley: God, you’re such an A-hole. When Ortiz said Boston was becoming a “sh-thole,” he must have known you were coming to visit.

But did you miss anything? Seriously? OK, here we go (I’m going with a bulleted list format here for simplicity’s sake:

– Daniel Nava bats leadoff.

– Darnell McDonald plays 38 games (enjoy the Darnell era in New York!).

– The Red Sox trade FOR Marlon Byrd. Then dump him. Then he gets busted for PEDs.

– Kevin Youkilis gets traded and goes something like 9-for-10 with a home run and a walk-off hit for the White Sox.

– Kelly Shoppach complains to Bobby Valentine about playing time. Kelly Shoppach!

– Adrian Gonzalez is tied for 146th in home runs. He has six in 324 at-bats. Here are people who have hit more home runs than Gonzalez, with their at-bat total in parentheses: Shelley Duncan (154), Brandon Inge (181), Andruw Jones (113), Todd Frazier (168), Justin Maxwell (121), Jonny Gomes (142), Will Middlebrooks (171), Mitch Moreland (158), Brandon Moss (78!), Scott Hairston (173), Cody Ross (189), Allen Craig (160).

– Nick Punto plays 46 games, hits .180.

– Scott Podsednik becomes a stabilizing force in the outfield. Seriously. Then he gets hurt and goes on the DL.

– Jon Lester goes 5-5 with a 4.33 ERA. His career numbers: 81-39, 3.61 ERA.

– Sox go 2-5 on a road trip to face juggernauts in Seattle and Oakland.

Other than that, it’s been a pretty good season. How are the Yankees doing?

Keefe: The Yankees? They’re doing good enough that if they split this weekend at Fenway, they will still be eight games ahead of the Red Sox in the loss column.

I’m mad at myself for forgetting so many important negative things about the Red Sox. I pride myself in trying to be the go-to guy for negative Red Sox storylines and I forgot so many, so I would like to apologize to everyone for that.

Let’s take a deeper look at David Ortiz’s comments to USA Today though since you wrote and tweeted heavily about them on Thursday and since it’s a perfect Red Sox off-day story in Boston for the media to feast on a day before the Yankees arrive at Fenway. Seriously, can you think of better timing for this story to take over? I can’t.

Here is what David Ortiz said to USA Today about his contract.

“It was humiliating. There’s no reason a guy like me should go through that. All I was looking for was two years, at the same salary ($12.5 million). They ended up giving me $3 million more than that (actually $2.025 million), and look at my numbers this year. Tell me if they wouldn’t have been better off. And yet they don’t hesitate to sign other guys. It was embarrassing.”

“If you go crazy and give contracts to whoever comes along despite not knowing how they’re going to do, then you don’t give me my due consideration, even though I do my thing every year, [expletive] that. I’m going to be open to anything. My mentality is not going to be, ‘I like it here.’ It’s going to be, ‘Bring it to the table, and we’ll see what happens.’”

David Ortiz is making $14.575 million this season, and in case anyone forgot, he doesn’t play in the field. That means he makes $89,969.14 per game and $39,931.51 per day over a calendar year. I’m not sure what’s so humiliating about that.

Apparently Ortiz can predict the future by saying the team would be better off by giving him a two-year deal since he knows that he will have the same production next year. But the Red Sox offered him two years and $20 million and he turned it down and went to arbitration instead and settled on this deal with the Red Sox, according to a Ben Cherington email to USA Today.

This story will likely lead to the media asking Ortiz if he would play for the Yankees because people love stories like that (especially with the Yankees in Boston) even if the Yankees aren’t about to lock up their DH spot to an aging player when they need that spot for their already aging players. And while I don’t think Ortiz has any chance of playing in the Bronx, I would like to see him go somewhere other than Boston, so he can find out if there are any other “s-hit holes” that have MLB teams.

Hurley: I generally look at these little tirades as cutesy little David moments, the times when he goes absolutely nuts for no real, rational reason and it drives him to hit 35 homers and drive in 100 runs and nobody ends up really remembering. But this one, for whatever reason, really pissed me off.

It’s probably because it’s the second time in two weeks he’s gone out of his way to selfishly complain about himself and his contract. Two weeks ago, he said he wasn’t having much fun this year. Poor baby! He’s only making $23,737 for every plate appearance, meaning in one night he earns enough to pay off the college loans that will take you 40 years to pay off, but the guy is not having fun! I just feel bad for him!

And now he’s mad that the team didn’t give him a two-year deal for $26 million? Let’s see … exactly who was it that forced Ortiz to agree to arbitration? Oh it was his agent, who probably told Ortiz that he’d get nothing better on the free-agent market. And who signed his name on the bottom of a one-year contract that gave him a $2 million raise at the age of 36? That was Ortiz.

If he wasn’t happy about any of it, he could have rejected arbitration and become a free agent, or he could have gone into the arbitration hearing and awaited the ruling. Chances are he wouldn’t have gotten a $2 million raise, and as a result, he’ll now make more money in 2012 and 2013 than he initially wanted, and this upsets him greatly.

If he wants to talk disrespect, maybe he should call future Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero. The guy hit 29 homers with 115 RBIs when he was 35 years old (Ortiz hit 29 homers with 96 RBIs at the same age). What’d that get Vlad? A one-year deal with the Orioles for $7.6 million. Ortiz gets nearly twice that, and he’s upset.

He does have a point that the team wastes billions in bad contracts like J.D. Drew, Carl Crawford, John Lackey, etc. But whining about it like he deserves better, after he’s made just shy of $100 million since 2003, is ridiculous. He should be embarrassed and humiliated not for the way the Sox treated him but instead because he’s acting like such a spoiled baby.

Keefe: Whenever you have Red Sox fans saying that they are pissed at Ortiz you know things are going well. Now if only we can get you to write an entire email bashing Dave Roberts I will feel like I have won the war and I will no longer need to talk to you.

Getting up to Boston early in the week for the series has allowed me to catch Felger and Mazz on Comcast SportsNet New England and it has been filled with caller after caller saying that they are Red Sox fans since (insert some year from many decades ago) and they actually root for the Red Sox to lose. They hate the players on the team and they hate Bobby Valentine and they hate that the players are losers who whine all the time. This has all made me feel the type of joy that I have heard people only feel after the birth of one of their children.

The problem is winning cures everything. And while I would like to think that people in Boston are as miserable and pessimistic about their baseball team as they were pre-2004, which was the last strike-shortened season in which where there weren’t any playoffs or World Series, I know that if the Red Sox go on a run and start stringing together wins rather than losses against teams like the Mariners and A’s, Bostonians will be singing a different tune. It won’t matter to them that David Ortiz makes the money he does and participates in each game for only a matter of minutes each night or that Josh Beckett has no respect for the fans or the city and will do whatever the eff Josh Beckett wants to do because Theo Epstein handed him a ridiculous contract extension.

I would like to think that the division isn’t in play for the Red Sox, but I’m not stupid enough to say that, let alone in writing, and have it come back to bit me. But if the Red Sox can stay afloat they will be in play for that one-game playoff that we both love. And if they are in play for that will you change your feelings about the team and the new wild-card format?

Hurley: No. The new wild-card format is an atrocity of incredible proportions. It takes a 162-game season’s worth of effort and flushes it down the toilet in three hours. And you know what? If an underachieving team like the Red Sox sleepwalks through the whole season and ends up winning that one-game playoff against a team with five or six more wins, then my rage will only be tripled. That’s not what a 162-game season is for, and that’s not right.

But yeah, despite all the issues we’ve already talked about, the Sox remain a good weekend away from jumping into that wild-card spot (which is absurd). And they’re definitely good enough to do it, provided the starting pitching can become even halfway decent and Ellsbury can return at even 80 percent of what he was last year.

But the division? No way. I know Ken Rosenthal said if they get a starting pitcher and dump Kevin Youkilis and just “be patient” then they’d be able to win the division, but that’s really nuts. If it were just the Red Sox and Yankees that were competitive teams, maybe, but Tampa is there, and Baltimore and Toronto really aren’t bad. It’s going to be impossible for the Red Sox to leapfrog everyone, especially when they go 1-5 against Oakland.

And Dave Roberts is a saint. Watch your mouth.

Keefe: Let’s talk about what happened to Kevin Youkilis. If the Red Sox win one more game last September then they get to the one-game playoff against the Rays. If they win two more games they make the playoffs. If they do either of those things Terry Francona is still the manager and I think Kevin Youkilis is still the third baseman.

But like I once told you, the “if” game is for losers like Patriots fans who say, “If Wes Welker and Tom Brady connect then the Giants lose the Super Bowl” or “If Rob Gronkowski’s ankle is 100 percent then the Giants lose the Super Bowl.” We’ll keep the “ifs” for losers like Patriots fans. Thankfully neither of us are Patriots fans. (And there is my Giants Super Bowl reference that you say I always have to make in these emails.)

When Youkilis was removed for a pinch runner, Bobby Valentine stood in the dugout clapping and was motioning for the other guys on the team to join him on the top step. There was Adrian Gonzalez clapping for Youkilis as he gave his farewell to Fenway Park. One of the faces of the franchise and the change of culture to the Red Sox over the last eight years was leaving the game and the park and the team while the new faces of the team that has ruined everything Youkilis helped build watched him exit. I feel like a high school freshman English teacher getting all sappy about symbolism.

I understand playing time for Will Middlebrooks became a necessity and along with the finances of the situation it made sense for Youkilis to get moved, but the whole thing and the way it happened just has a stink to it. (Don’t get me wrong, I like the stink it has to it.) You knew that with a change of scenery the guy was going to perform again where he didn’t have to deal with Bobby Valentine’s BS and limited action. I have always hated Youkilis and still do, but I have always respected him and always wanted him on my team. I’m just glad the Red Sox decided differently.

Hurley: I thought the sendoff from the fans was an incredible moment. I’m as cold-hearted as it gets. Some people (believe it or not) even think I’m a real A-hole. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel the emotion of that one. Even a cynical bastard like me couldn’t pick it apart, because really, Youkilis deserved that kind of thank you from the fans, and it’s very rare that athletes have the chance to get it like that.

But watching Bob Valentine grandstand on the top step like he was convincing his buddy to get out there and take a curtain call? Puke-inducing. Give me a break.

As far as the trade itself goes, they got next to nothing for him and had to pay most of his salary, which is what I expected. Teams knew the Sox were desperate to get rid of him, so they held all the leverage. It definitely won’t go in the Ben Cherington Hall of Fame, but he didn’t have too much to work with here. I do think Middlebrooks is ready to play every day (if his hammy heals) and I thought the Sox were playing with fire every single time they put Adrian Gonzalez in right field. He’s so slow, I’m pretty sure you could run faster than him on a Friday night at 2:30 a.m. And I’ve seen you on Friday nights at 2:30 a.m.

And frankly, I’m glad to see him do well with Chicago. He was a bit of a gruff person who didn’t always go out of his way to make himself seem like the nicest guy in the world, but he played the game hard and he (sorry, cliché time) played it the right way. He was the definition of a guy who never takes a second on the field for granted, and he was willing to play any position the manager asked. It’s too bad his Red Sox career ended unceremoniously, and it’s awful that Bob V gets to stick around while a World Series winner gets shipped to Chicago, but that’s how it works.

Keefe: Well, Youkilis did hit a walk-off single on Wednesday and then added a solo shot on Thursday that ended up being the game-winner. So at least you can say he was a homegrown player!

It wouldn’t be right if we didn’t dedicate one part of this email to the man known as Bobby Valentine (or Bob Valentine to you.)

He has a two-year deal. His team is currently tied for last place in the division. If the Yankees do what they are capable of doing this weekend at Fenway then the city of Boston will have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with nothing to talk about other than what is wrong with the Red Sox and who should go and what needs to be done to fix the team. If Ray Allen re-signs with the Celtics and doesn’t do something crazy like sign with the Heat then they will really have nothing to talk about. (Unless Tim Thomas decides to join Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in the election process.) Not having CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte sucks, but not having them for this series to step on the Red Sox’ throat hurts even more.

So what are we to make of Bobby Valentine’s first semester as Red Sox manager? I want you to file it under “colossal failure” but I don’t think even you will do that since it’s not like he was given the ideal pieces to win. But this team with this payroll already got the most revered manager in the franchise’s history fired, so what’s stopping them from getting the ringleader of the circus booted?

Hurley: Bob V, as much as I’m not a fan, hasn’t been all that bad. He had a big adjustment period in April, when he was way too slow to pull guys out of games and seemed truly frightened to argue with umpires. Maybe in Japan you’re not allowed to argue, but here you’re technically not either, so I’m not sure he has an excuse. Either way, I thought he was awful in April and cost them a couple of wins.

Since then though, he’s kind of hit a groove. He played Middlebrooks, and that worked out in the form of 10 homers. He really worked the bullpen well, to the point where they were best in the league for a long stretch of the season, using guys like Scott Atchison and Matt Albers (in real life!). He hasn’t been afraid to “ride the hot hand,” and it’s worked out with people like Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who’s finally playing to his potential, and Daniel Nava, who was somehow playing like a real life major league outfielder for a while.

But like you said earlier with winning solving everything, losing can blow everything up. You can bet a last place finish will spell the premature end for Bob Valentine (for those not in the know, I refuse to refer to a man in his 60s as “Bobby”), and then we can have another four month-long managerial search to follow! Go Red Sox!

Keefe: Four games this weekend including a doubleheader on Saturday and pitching matchups of Hiroki Kuroda-Josh Beckett, Phil Hughes-Franklin Morales, Freddy Garcia-Felix Doubront and Ivan Nova-Jon Lester. I thought we might see some crazy lopsided matchups, but they actually ended up being about as good as can be without CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte. Still these two teams leave the over/under of hours of baseball played this weekend at 18 and the total runs at 44. I’m taking the over on both, you?

And as much as I would like to see the Yankees go into Boston and sweep the four-game series the way they did at the Stadium in August 2009 and similar to the five-game sweep at Fenway in 2006, the Yankees really just need to split this weekend to prevent the Red Sox from gaining any ground and from ripping four more games off the schedule.

Hopefully when I talk to you on Monday you are avoiding me because the Red Sox are double-digit games back and you will be counting down the days until the Patriots’ Week 1 game.

Hurley: I can guarantee that no matter what happens, no matter how many hours of baseball is played, no matter how many runs are scored and no matter which team wins the series, I will be avoiding you on Monday. Enjoy the weekend, pal.

Blogs • Yankees

Jul 3, 2012

Freddy Garcia Gives Reason to ‘Trust’ Him

Freddy Garcia had a lot on the line on Monday night in Tampa Bay in a crucial stretch for the Yankees, so it only made sense to do a retro recap of his first start since April.

“Dirty Dozen” is what the Daily News headline read on May 15, 2007. The Yankees were eight games out in the AL East and a 12-game stretch against the White Sox, Mets, Red Sox and Angels was said to be the defining moment of the season. Either the Yankees were going to climb out of their 17-20 hole, or Joe Torre’s job was going to be seriously questioned following two straight ALDS exits and whatever happened in the strike-shortened season of 2004 in which there were no playoffs.

Mike Lupica wrote a column that day that called for that headline. In it he talked to Brian Cashman about the state of the Yankees and whether or not an aura still surrounded the team. The Yankees’ answered Lupica’s question and the Daily News’ headline by going 4-8 over the 12 games and sat at 21-27 after the four series.

At the end of that season, the 12-game stretch – that I took as a set of 12 one-game playoffs because the Daily News made it seem like that – ended up being just part of a bad stretch to begin a 94-win season. The 2007 Yankees proved that it’s hard to distinguish the key moment in a season or the turning point of a season when the season is still going on. But this hasn’t stopped us from pulling out parts of the season and deeming them more important than other parts.

I first saw the week of July 2 the day the Yankees’ 2012 schedule came out: seven games on the road against Tampa Bay and Boston to finish the first half. Up until last Wednesday at around 11 a.m. I viewed this week as a chance for the Yankees to separate themselves even more than they already have in the division and possibly take themselves out of the one-game playoff scenario before the All-Star Game. (Crazy, right? A wise coach one said, “It’s not worth winning if you can’t win big.” Yes, that coach was Coach Reilly in The Mighty Ducks.”)

But on Wednesday at around 11 a.m. CC Sabathia hit the disabled list with a low-grade groin strain. About three hours after that Andy Pettitte’s ankle was broken by a line drive. About 31 hours after that, Joe Girardi managed the Yankees to a loss to the White Sox despite having a two-run lead entering the ninth. About 21 hours after that, Adam Warren making his major league debut in place of CC Sabathia blew a 4-0 first-inning lead and put 10 men on base in 2 1/3 innings as the Yankees allowed 14 runs (the most runs they have allowed this year) to the White Sox. The idea of trying to create even more separation in the division suddenly became a mission to just hold down the fort (a favorite Brian Cashman saying) until CC returns.

The biggest problem, aside from losing CC and Andy, became the idea that Freddy Garcia would rejoin the rotation for the first time since a disastrous April that has to make April 2009 Chien-Ming Wang and April 2011 Phil Hughes not feel so bad about their places in history. In four starts, Garcia put together this line: 13.2 IP, 25 H, 20 R, 19 ER, 5 BB, 11 K, 3 HR, 12.51 ERA, 2.195 WHIP. Who would want the owner of those numbers to take the ball every fifth day for them? More importantly, who would want the owner of those numbers to take the ball in Tampa Bay and then in Boston in his first two starts since being removed from the rotation? Not me.

Monday night marked an important game for the Yankees because it would start this seven-game finish to the first half against the team’s two direct threats, and it would be the debut of the return of Freddy “The Chief” Garcia. With such a significant game and start, I decided to watch Garcia’s outing and write down my thoughts during his innings of work for a retro recap. Here’s what happened.

First Inning
Freddy Garcia has a two-run lead to work with thanks to a four-hit first inning from the offense. Let’s see if he can do the opposite of what Adam Warren did with an early lead. I’m setting the over/under on innings at 4 2/3, hits at seven and wild pitches at two.

Garcia gets things going with an 88-mph fastball called strike to Desmond Jennings. Some velocity from The Chief!

Garcia gets a little bit of luck (no, not the Lotto guy) as Jennings hits a grounder up the middle and Garcia goes for it, but it deflects off his glove and to Robinson Cano for the first out. If that gets through then Jennings is off and running, and this might be Adam Warren Friday Night 2.0.

No one ever wants to see Josh Hamilton or Jose Bautista or Albert Pujols up against them, but to me, Carlos Pena falls into that same category even if his numbers don’t match up. I felt like the Charlestown Chiefs locker room when they found out Ogie Ogilthorpe was suspended when Pena moved to the NL Central last year. And I felt like the Charlestown Chiefs lineup when they saw Ogilthorpe skate out for introductions when Pena signed with the Rays and returned to the AL East this year.

Garcia gets Pena to 2-2 and then tries to paint the inside corner with a 90-mph fastball that looked like the signature Bartolo Colon two-strike pitch to lefties. The count runs full, but Pena flies out to center for the second out.

Ah, B.J. Upton … yet another guy that most fan bases wouldn’t understand why I don’t want to see him up against the Yankees.

Ken Singleton tells us that Upton is currently 3-for-41, and Lou Piniella says, “Upton should be more consistent than he is.” Everyone always say that Upton has all the potential in the world and should be one of the best players in the league. Upton will be 28 next month, so at what point do we stop thinking he is going to be a perennial All-Star and do we just accept the type of player that he is? I know the 2008 ALCS is a reason to believe that he can be one of the premier players in the game, but as a career .255 hitter, who hasn’t hit over .243 since 2008, he needs to start showing it.

Upton flies out to right field on a great diving catch by Nick Swisher (see, I can give Swisher credit when he deserves it) to end the inning.

After a 1-2-3, 14-pitch first inning from Garcia, I’m really too scared to comment on his performance or his stuff at this point. Why break up a good thing?

Second Inning
Jeff Keppinger replaces Hideki Matsui to lead off the second inning, as Matsui injured himself running after a Derek Jeter foul ball. I used to always think the Yankees were overreacting when they wouldn’t let Matsui play the outfield in 2009, and I thought it was a non-story when people were surprised that he was allowed to play it with the Angels in 2010 and the A’s in 2011. But I guess there’s a reason why Matsui is supposed to only be a DH at this point and not playing right field on turf.

Keppinger drills the first pitch (a fastball down the middle) to left field for a leadoff single and the first hit off Garcia. There goes the perfect game.

Ben Zobrist cranks a 1-2 pitch down the right-field line and it looks like it’s going to be a two-run home run, but it misses the foul pole by a few feet and now I have to erase the “Ladies and gentlemen, Freddy Garcia” tweet I had started typing. I only got as far as “Ladies and gentlem” before the ball went foul.

Zobrist hits a rocket to the gap, but Swisher gets there for the first out. (It’s probably not good when you’re worried about your right fielder making every catch.)

Luke Scott comes to the plate, and if you’re going to have the facial hair design that Scott has you better be an unbelievable hitter. Because if you’re going to go to the plate looking like that and the big screen in the outfield shows that you’re hitting .207 and Ken Singleton tells us that you are in a for 1-for-30 slide then you might want to think about toning the look down.

Scott hits a line drive, but right to Mark Teixeira who steps on first for a double play to end the inning.

Luck has certainly been on Garcia’s side so far. How does that saying go? It’s better to be lucky than good? I think Garcia would sign up for that since no one knows if he’s even good anymore.

An 11-pitch second inning and Garcia has faced the minimum.

Third Inning
Jose Lobaton flies to right on a 1-2 slider to start things off.

Here’s Will Rhymes, who I have never liked from his days with the Tigers, and really for no specific reason. But if that feeling is triggered then he must have done something against the Yankees in the last two years.

Rhymes singles to left on a 1-1 curveball from Garcia and the Rays have their second baserunner.

Elliot Johnson pops out to A-Rod and Garcia is one out away from three scoreless innings. If you had told me before the game that Garcia would pitch three scoreless innings, I would have laughed at you then cried tears of joy when I realized you weren’t kidding and then hugged you to make sure the world wasn’t going to end. We’re one out away from me hugging you anyway.

Jennings grounds out for the second time on 1-2 slider to second. Garcia throws just 13 pitches in the inning and is at a very economical 38 through three. He’s expected to throw between 65 and 70 for the game.

Fourth Inning
Garcia strikes out Pena to lead off the fourth inning, for his first strikeout of the game, and it’s always good to see Pena go down swinging (this time on a slider).

Just as I’m about to type a B.J. Upton joke, he hits a first-pitch slider for a solo home run to left field to cut the Yankees’ lead to 2-1. Upton had been 3-for-42, and just like most players who are slumping, the Yankees are always there to right the ship.

Keppinger goes down swinging and Zobrist grounds out to second to end the inning. A 14-pitch inning and Garcia is at 52.

One run through four innings isn’t bad for Garcia. Actually it’s unbelievable. I would have signed up for three runs in four innings from Garcia and that’s a 6.75 ERA. So, one run in four innings? This feels like watching Cliff Lee pitch for your team in the playoffs, which sadly I have never experienced.

Fifth Inning
Here comes Luke Scott again. Scott usually kills the Yankees and since Upton was in a 3-for-42 slump and then homered, I’m expecting some sort of dagger from Scott here now that he’s 1-for-31.

Garcia falls behind him 3-1, and if Scott sees that “fastball” we could have a tie game here.

A 3-1 slider gets Scott to pop out to A-Rod in foul territory and there’s one down in the inning. A 3-1 pitch from Garcia in April meant an extra-base hit so there’s clearly progress here.

Lobaton goes down looking on a slider for the second out. This game feels too easy. A Freddy Garcia start in 2012 is supposed to be painful and agonizing to watch, but this feels like a Sabathia or Pettitte start. It can’t keep up this way, can it?

Even though Garcia is cruising, this game won’t erase my fear of him starting in Fenway Park again this weekend. Speaking of which, there are four games in three days at Fenway Park. The over/under on hours of baseball is 18, and total runs is 44. I’m going to take the over on both and might even parlay them.

The pesky Will Rhymes singles on a line drive to center field to keep the inning alive, and he’s now 2-for-2 tonight.

Garcia bounces back to strike out Johnson swinging on yet another slider. Garcia has allowed one run on four hits through five innings. Is this real life? Seriously, is this real life? This Garcia start has been so good that I’m too scared to tweet during it because it feels like a perfect game. Yes, four baserunners feels like a perfect game.

Sixth Inning
Garcia is supposed to throw 65 to 70 pitches in this start and he will start the sixth inning at 69 pitches against the top of the order. I’m not sure if he’s batter to batter at this point with Joe Girardi, but you can’t blame Girardi for leaving him in the way he has looked.

Desmond Jennings grounds out on the first pitch (an 87-mph fastball) from Garcia, and there’s one down.

So, remember before when I said how Carols Pena is in the elite class of opposing hitters that scare me? Well, that’s why. Pena hits a 2-1 slider out of the park to tie the game on Garcia’s 74th pitch. Again, you can’t blame Girardi for leaving him, but there certainly are questions as to why Garcia was left in if his maximum pitch count was 70 pitches. And where are the two lefties in the bullpen to face Pena? That’s not me asking these questions of Girardi. That’s just me saying there are potential questions. I’m calm. Everything is fine.

Here comes Girardi to take out Garcia as he signals for the righty, Cody Eppley.

The Yankees would go on to take a 3-2 lead only to blow that lead as well and wind up losing 4-3 after David Robertson couldn’t get a big out and Mark Teixeira couldn’t field a ground ball for their eighth loss in a row at Tropicana Field.

As for Garcia it was obviously his best start of the year. The Chief showed that his thoughts about him lacking arm strength in April were accurate and he finished with the following line: 5.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 2 HR. He proved that he still has some 2011 left in him and that he can be trusted to fill the void left by Pettitte. Well, maybe “trusted” is too strong of a word. I probably shouldn’t throw a word like that around so carelessly until we see what he does this weekend at Fenway.

Blogs • Yankees

Jun 22, 2012

Subway Series Storylines, Part II

It’s the second part of the Subway Series 2012 and that means more interesting storylines for both the Yankees and Mets this weekend at Citi Field.

Another meaningful Subway Series! Is this really the second meaningful one in two weeks after not having one for a few years? Are we sure about this? Quick, someone check the standings and make sure the Mets are relevant.

Three more games to go in the 2012 Subway Series and three good pitching matchups to go with it. We’ll see a repeat from the Sunday game in the Bronx with the Lefty Battle of Young vs. Old between Andy Pettitte and Jonathon Niese on Friday night, Ivan Nova and Chris Young on Saturday night (sorry no unique connections in that one) and the marquee matchup between CC Sabathia and R.A. Dickey on Sunday Night Baseball.

With only two weeks and nine games separating the two teams since they last met the storylines haven’t really changed. But even though it’s only been 12 days since the Yankees came back against the Mets’ bullpen and finished the sweep with a Russell Martin home run off Jon Rauch, it would feel weird if we didn’t look at interesting storylines for the second half of the Subway Series.

Initials This Weekend
For Part I of the storylines, we had the “No Initials This Weekend” storyline, but this weekend we get the initials with CC vs. R.A. Every once in a while when the time is right and the stars align and Jason Bay lands on the disabled list again, everything falls into place and you get a perfect Sunday Night Baseball matchup, and we have that this weekend.

It feels like CC Sabathia hasn’t been himself this year and he’s 9-3 with a 3.55 ERA. But there’s a reason he hasn’t felt like CC and that’s because before his complete game against the Braves on Wednesday, he gave up four earned runs against the Braves on June 12, lost to the Rays on June 7 (he allowed five runs, but just two earned) and gave up three earned runs to the Tigers on June 1. You know you have an ace when he allows nine earned runs in 21 innings (3.86 ERA) over three starts and you feel like he’s sucked. Sabathia has pitched at least six innings and thrown at least 104 pitches in all 14 of his starts. So I guess I’m a little off on thinking he CC hasn’t been CC, but I’m telling you that he hasn’t looked like himself and I think other Yankees fans would tell you the same thing.

R.A. Dickey is currently the best pitcher on the planet. He’s 11-1 (matching his career high for wins in a season in 14 starts) with a 2.00 ERA. He leads the league in wins, win percentage (.917), ERA, complete games (3), shutouts (2) and WHIP (0.889). He’s allowed just 67 hits in 99 innings with 103 strikeouts. He’s averaging 9.4 strikeouts per nine innings, which is his highest since 2003 when he pitched in 38 games (13 starts) for the Rangers and averaged 7.3 (his career average is 6.0). At 37, Dickey has gone from reinventing himself in 2010 and 2011 with the Mets to Cy Young frontrunner in 2012. Two weekends ago I said, “Part of me wanted to see what Dickey could do against the Yankees in what is turning out to be his best season.” I must have been drunk when I wrote that because I don’t want any part of Dickey right now.

(Once again, I forgot to start both Sabathia and Dickey in fantasy on Monday night costing me this line: 2-0, 18 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 23 K, 1.00 ERA, 0.611 WHIP. There’s nothing worse than someone talking about or complaining about their fantasy team, but I had to be that guy for a moment for this unique situation.)

Terry Francona is going to spend a lot of time on Sunday night comparing the knuckleballs of R.A. Dickey and Tim Wakefield, and I mean a lot of time, but it’s acceptable. I would rather have a color guy talking about something relevant to the game than to have Tim McCarver talk about the abilities of Bryce Harper and Mike Trout for an entire inning of a Yankees-Mets game.

You Scratch My Back and I’ll Scratch Yours
Since these two teams played each other two weekends ago the Yankees have gone 7-2 and the Mets have gone 6-3. While the Yankees were helping out the Mets by beating up on the Braves and Nationals, the Mets were returning the favor by sweeping the Rays and Orioles.

I love interleague play because it breaks up the schedule and gives fans the opportunity to see different teams and new players. However, I understand the mindset of those who would rather see more division games because there’s nothing like seeing Chris Davis, Edwin Encarnacion, Sean Rodriguez and Brian Matusz a few more times.

This weekend marks the final weekend of interleague play for 2012, and as a Yankees fan, I’m going to be sad to see it go since the Yankees have gone 11-4 against the Reds, Mets, Braves and Nationals. With the All-Star Game becoming less and less serious even though the stakes are high, interleague play is a necessity to compare the AL to the NL and gauge the differences in the leagues. But I’m not going to lie, I enjoy interleague play because it’s usually the point of the season where the Yankees use the schedule to create separation in the division and they’re doing it again.

Citi Field Complaints
If you don’t know a Mets fan that complained about Yankee Stadium being a bandbox after the three games in the Bronx then you either don’t have a lot of friends or you don’t get out much. Mets fans will find anything to complain about, especially when it comes to the Yankees, and they were out in full force two weekends ago to share their opinions on the “cheap home runs” at the Stadium.

I don’t know what games I watched two weeks ago because it looked to me like the dimensions of the walls were the same for both teams’ at-bats. I guess there is a chance that they could have moved the fences in for the Yankees when they were up and then moved them back when the Mets, and I just wasn’t paying attention, but I feel like I would have noticed something like that.

This weekend if the Yankees hit some balls that would have been out of the Stadium that are kept in, are Yankees fans going to complain the way that Mets fans did about the reverse happening? OK, I’ll answer that one: No.

Subway Series Finale
There’s a very good chance this is the last time we see two Subway Series in the same season with three games on each side of the city. With the Astros moving to the American League and scheduling changes in the works, it looks like we are headed for a Subway Series modification.

No one likes change. Well, let me rephrase that. No one likes poor change. But Major League Baseball is all about making poor changes like the All-Star Game deciding home-field advantage and two wild cards in each league and still letting pitchers hit in the National League. So I fully expect them to take away the six games between the Yankees and Mets that we have grown accustomed to, and that some people have grown sick of. Those same people will eventually long for the days of six Subway Series games.

If this is goodbye to the Subway Series format we have known for so long, I’m going to miss it.

Blogs • Yankees

Jun 19, 2012

The Unsung Heroes of the Yankees’ Bullpen

The Yankees are getting big outs from unlikely arms, and their success has forced power rankings for the makeshift bullpen.

When I hear “Tuesday’s Gone” I think of Happy Gilmore. When I hear the word “magic” I think of Happy Gilmore shaking his caddy on the ground after clinching the Waterbury Open with Pilot’s “Magic ” playing in the background. With the way the Yankees’ bullpen has been performing, the only explanation is magic and because of it, I want to celebrate by shaking Joe Girardi while screaming, “Oh, ho, ho, it’s magic you knowwww! Never believe it’s not so!”

If you told me on the morning of Opening Day that on June 19 I would be writing about the Yankees bullpen currently featuring Rafael Soriano as the closer, Boone Logan and Cory Wade as setup men and Clay Rapada and Cody Eppley as middle relievers, well let’s just say I would be living in Europe and writing about Euro 2012. Luckily no one told me this was going to happen.

The Yankees are 41-25 and in first place in the AL East with the best record in the AL thanks to a 10-game winning streak, which this group of ragtag relievers (that’s the first and most likely the last time I have and will ever use “ragtag,” and you can thank Jack Edwards for putting that word into my vocabulary) has been a large part of. Sure, it’s easy to win games the way the Yankees did on Monday night when CC Sabathia pitched a complete game against the Braves (Side note: I forgot to start CC and R.A. Dickey, who pitched a one-hitter against the Orioles, on my fantasy team. Devastating.) But it’s not so easy to win games when Cody Eppley and Clay Rapada are being asked to serve as the middle relief bridge.

It’s crazy that right now I have confidence in everyone in the bullpen not named Freddy Garcia, but I don’t trust anyone in the bullpen not named David Robertson. And since David Robertson has become the must trustworthy Yankees reliever not named Mariano Rivera since 2007 Joba Chamberlain, I’m leaving him out of these power rankings that I have created to figure out the my personal bullpen pecking order. I’m also leaving out Rafael Soriano since he is now the closer and because he’s making $11 million this year, so he should be expected to get outs.

I have heard these ragtag (OK, there it is again) relievers called a lot of things over the last couple of weeks. Most of the things I have called them while yelling at games or shouting at my TV have been derogatory, but I have heard different forms of the word “hero” thrown around to describe this relief corps. Dwight Schrutte said, “A hero kills people, people that wish him harm. A hero is part human and part supernatural. A hero is born out of a childhood trauma, or out of a disaster, and must be avenged.” I don’t think that’s the type of hero that these guys are, so let’s go with “unsung” hero. And let’s go through the bullpen to figure out who should get the ball from top to bottom.

Number 48, Boone Logan, Number 48
I want to start this off by saying it’s effing scary that Boone Logan is the No. 1-ranked pitcher on any list I create. Oh yeah, Robertson and Soriano aren’t on this list. OK, I feel a little better.

If I make Boone Logan a mixtape that includes Chicago’s “Hard To Say I’m Sorry” do you think he will forgive me? Actually I don’t want him to forgive me. Because deep down I know that the Boone Logan I watched in 2010 and 2011 in key moments is just waiting for me to let my guard down before he ambushes me. He did it to me on Sept. 14, 2010 when I finally wrote an apology to him only to have him on that same day give up a go-ahead, three-run home run to Willy Aybar in Tampa Bay. So Boone, I’m manning up here to say I’m sorry. You don’t have to accept my apology or the mixtape, or the flowers or the fruit basket I am having sent to the Stadium on Tuesday night. Just go out there and keep putting up zeroes and that will be enough for me.

Number 53, Cory Wade, Number 53
Last Monday (June 11) was the one-year anniversary of the Rays releasing Cory Wade. I know what you’re thinking: Where was the party? Well, there wasn’t a party, but there should have been in either Cashman’s office or Girardi’s.

In 68 games and 67 2/3 innings with the Yankees, Wade has 60 strikeouts and 14 walks, a 2.39 ERA and a 1.020 WHIP. He has been prone to the home run (like he was on Saturday) with four allowed in 28 innings this year, but he’s gone from the scrap heap to the reliever “B” team to the reliever “A” team in a year. Thanks again, Tampa Bay!

Number 38, Cody Eppley, Number 38
In real life, Cody Eppley would have gotten sent down and David Phelps would have stayed with the Yankees. But this isn’t real life since Eppley is getting huge outs for the Yankees, and also because the Yankees needed Phelps to go back to the minors to get stretched out to be a starter again.

Eppley getting that double play on an 0-2 pitch last Wednesday against the Braves to preserve a 3-2 lead in the eighth inning with runners on first and third and one out is enough to buy him some time in my book in the even that he remembers he’s Cody Eppley and not Jeff Nelson. (Yes, I’m willing to forget that he gave up hits to two of three hitters he faced before the 6-4-3 double play.) How much time that double play will buy him has yet to be determined.

Number 39, Clay Rapada, Number 39
Clay Rapada has become my Pitching Whipping Boy for 2012 (Nick Swisher remains the Overall Whipping Boy) now that A.J. Burnett is pitching in Pittsburgh and Boone Logan has become (or rather been forced into being) a valuable part of the bullpen.

Entering this season, Rapada had appeared in 78 games with the Cubs, Tigers, Rangers and Orioles. He had a career 5.13 ERA in 52 2/3 innings with 32 walks. Everything about Rapada forced me into the lengthy “Nooooooooooooooo!” that Michael Scott used upon Toby’s return. I wanted the Yankees to have nothing to do with Rapada because I wanted to have nothing to do with him interfering with my baseball season and my summer. But because he throws a baseball using his left arm, (if you have watched Clay Rapada and you have a child and aren’t tying their right hand behind their back until they are 16 then you are doing whole parenting thing wrong) you just knew that Brian Cashman and Joe Girardi were going to find a spot for him on the roster.

Rapada has been goo… Rapada has been goo… He’s been… He’s been goo… OK, he’s been good. There, I said it. Are you happy now? He’s been better than I expected and lefties are just 7-for-46 (.152) against him. However, don’t let him fool you. He will blow up at some point in this season. Let’s just hope it isn’t in a big spot because it’s going to happen. I “Mark Messier guarantee” it’s going to happen.

Number 36, Freddy Garcia, Number 36
I hate to break it to the Freddy Garcia fans out there (if there any), but the 35-year-old righty no longer belongs on the Yankees. Sorry, Freddy and sorry to your fans.

Garcia came up huge in the 12th and 13th innings in Washington on Saturday to earn his first win since last September, but he owed that performance to Yankees fans. I still can’t get over the writers who cover the team tweeting about how Garcia is a “gamer” and sarcastically asking their followers if they still want Garcia off the team after his effort in extra innings? I guess they forgot about him giving up 19 earned runs in 13 2/3 innings in his four starts in April? Maybe they forgot that in those four starts he got pulled in the second inning twice (against Boston and Detroit) and the only reason the Yankees went 2-2 in his starts instead of 0-4 is because they came back against the Orioles on April 10 and erased a 9-1 deficit at Fenway Park on April 21? And how much of a “gamer” was Garcia when he lost Game 2 of the ALDS to the Tigers? Isn’t the postseason when a “gamer” shows up? (I understand what the Yankees got out of Garcia and Bartolo Colon last year was a replica of the lightning caught in a bottle with Aaron Small and Shawn Chacon in 2005, but let’s be serious.) So, to answer your question, yes, I still want Garcia off the team.

And I want Garcia gone because he doesn’t serve a purpose. He has become the long reliever/extra innings/mop-up duty man only because Rivera is out and Robertson has been hurt. Those are actually the roles for Eppley and Rapada, but their recent success and those same injuries have moved them into more important roles. The only thing Garcia presents out of the bullpen is a scary option for Joe Girardi to turn to when his other relievers need a rest.

The problem is there’s a good chance that Garcia will survive the season with the Yankees unless Eppley and Rapada keep getting the job done and Joba Chamberlain and David Aardsma can make healthy returns, and he will survive because he’s owed $4 million this year. If you don’t plan on eating a meal anytime soon, then think about this: Garcia will make $4 million this season and R.A. Dickey will only make $4.25 million.

Yankees

Jun 19, 2012

Boston Has Become the Newer New York

Boston and its fans have always hated New York, so isn’t it weird that the city has become everything it’s been against? Mike Miccoli misses the way things used to be.

Here’s something you probably didn’t know about me, even though we may have never met: I’m a Red Sox fan, but I used to root for the New York Yankees.

As a kid growing up in Rhode Island, the Tri-Guido-County areas dictated enemy lines for Yankees and Red Sox fans. Thanks to my lack of geographical direction, I’m not too sure which side I was on, but I knew that I liked rooting for winners, and in the late ‘90s/early 2000s, the Yankees were the biggest winner.

Of course, I was a casual baseball fan back then. By casual, I mean that I watched the team when they were winning, collected Derek Jeter baseball cards and may or may not have bought a red Yankees cap, similar to the one Fred Durst wore. I was, unfortunately, the poster boy for pink hat fan’s as a teenager. But with hockey and football as my sports, I thought it was somewhat acceptable to root for a baseball team who just won all the time. It wasn’t like the Bruins or Patriots were winning anything for me … yet.

So what happened to my pink-hat ways? Thankfully, I grew up and moved to Boston where the city’s culture forced me to become a baseball junkie (as did years of fantasy baseball). The move forced me to turn in my pink, I mean red Yankees hat for a Red Sox hat. I resisted at first – seriously, I did – before succumbing to the pressures of my friends and the city.

The Red Sox were the perennial underdogs; a group of guys who you could get behind, not because they were a team of All-Stars or the highest-paid players, but because they wanted to win, and erase lifetimes of losing in Boston. The team had been consistently deserving of a “Good job, good effort” meme up until 2004, and it was endearing. But in 2004, everything changed, and then, for good measure, everything changed again in 2007.

Along with the Patriots, the Red Sox became the toast of the town, while the Bruins and Celtics wallowed in mediocrity, turning around the city’s sports focus. The change lasted until 2008 when the Celtics won and earned back their respect and the Bruins regained their status after winning in 2011.

In the span of 10 years, Boston sports teams claimed a total of seven championships. Prior to 2002 (when the Patriots won their first Super Bowl) it might have taken the city of Boston 30 years to reach that number, and it would have only been because of the Celtics’ torrid run in the late 70s and 80s, and the Bruins sole Cup in ‘72.

After the seven titles, Boston wasn’t the home of the underdog anymore. The city and its teams became the favorites. Boston was the city with the parades, the highest payrolls and the seemingly sold-out games. Everyone was a fan, too – for better or worse. And by winning, Boston got what they’ve always wanted: to be exactly like New York.

Championships do strange things to teams and in turn, cities. Win a few and you’ll have a target on your back for years to come. The same fans who might have been rooting for the Patriots to upset the Rams, the Red Sox to stun the Yankees right before sweeping the Cardinals, the Celtics to silence the Lakers and the Bruins to shock the Canucks, probably despise those teams now. And can you blame them? Pair those wins with embarrassing moments like Spygate (ugh), White Housegate (ugh) and Bobby Valentine (UGH), and what do you expect to happen?

In becoming New York, the Boston sports scene turned into everything Boston sports fans hated about their rival city. And now, New York’s teams and players have become … umm … well, likeable. Right now I could say something positive about every New York team sans the Jets, because frankly, the Jets are still the worst. But this was never the case before. When the Bruins were knocked out of the playoffs in the first round, who did I root for? The Rangers: a New York team I grew up hating.

While Boston still has plenty of likeable, hard-working athletes there are a hell of a lot of guys who are considered to be flat-out jerks. New York doesn’t have that same stigma anymore. New York has the universally appreciated Henrik Lundqvist, Ryan Callahan, Victor Cruz and Curtis Granderson, and Jeter and Mariano Rivera are on an even higher level. Sure, New York still boasts some jerks, but the bad apples are clearly outnumbered.

It’s become the complete opposite in Boston. Yes, there’s Patrice Bergeron, Paul Pierce and Dustin Pedroia, but take a look around at fans from the sports world fans and look at how many non-Bostonians hate Boston athletes. How many outsiders are cheering for Tom Brady nowadays? Or what about Tim Thomas? Feel-good stories (like the ones Brady and Thomas shared) get tainted once the ultimate goal is reached and not reached repeatedly, and those two former postseason heroes are experiencing that now have postseason failures.

I guess this is all part of the unspoken trade-off for success: win championships and you will be hated. I get it. But if Boston is going to be New York, the only thing I want to know is if we can give some of our bandwagon fans to New York? We never asked for them.