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Tag: Cliff Lee

Blogs • Yankees

Oct 6, 2015

The Wild-Card Game: Judgment Day

I went to bed on Monday night with a Christmas Eve-type feeling. That’s the feeling I haven’t gotten in three years.

I went to bed on Monday night with a Christmas Eve-type feeling because that’s the feeling I get the night before the Yankees’ first postseason game. That’s the feeling I haven’t gotten in three years.

All of the hours spent watching, writing, talking, reading and listening about this team all makes it worth it on Tuesday night. Well, that is if the Yankees win.

My confidence level for the wild-card game isn’t good. The Yankees will face the one pitcher (outside of 2009-2010 Cliff Lee showing up via the 4 train in the Bronx again) that I didn’t want them to face. They will face Cliff Lee 2.0, a pitcher who has dominated and beaten them twice without allowing a run in 16 innings this season. The only glimmer of hope in beating Dallas Keuchel is that he’s going to be pitching on three days rest for the first time in his professional career. Outside of that, the only positive I can get out of the Yankees and their left-handed heavy lineup against the best left-handed in the American League is looking at his line from Sept. 16 against Texas.

4.2 IP, 11 H, 9 R, 9 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 3 HR.

I’m not sure what happened that day. I have no idea how Keuchel gave up 11 hits or nine runs or three home runs or how left-handed hitters Rougned Odor and Prince Fielder hit home runs off of him. That game, nearly three weeks ago, is the only thing keeping me from feeling any less confident about this game than I already do.

Masahiro Tanaka is going to have to be perfect or close to it on Tuesday night. I would gladly sign up for two runs against Keuchel right now and that means one run against Tanaka to hand the ball to the bullpen and let Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller get this season to the ALDS.

It took two months of bad baseball for the Yankees to end up in this spot when they had a seven-game divison lead (and eight-game lead over the Blue Jays) the week of the trade deadline. They chose not to mortgage the future of the team for a run this season, watched the Blue Jays completely turn over their roster for the better and run away with the division, settled for a wild-card berth and backed into the first wild-card spot in the most depressing way possible. None of that matters now. What matters is one game to extend the season and to get to where this team would be pre-2012 in the old playoff format: in the ALDS.

I wasn’t a fan of the new postseason format when it was implemented and am still not today. The only thing the new format has done for Yankees is given us a few extra “meaningful” games in 2013 and 2014, which were just a tease to get excited about two teams we all knew weren’t going anywhere. And now all it’s gotten us is a one-game playoff against the Yankees’ most-feared pitcher. Maybe someday the second wild card will actually benefit the Yankees and be the reason they reached the postseason, but in four years it hasn’t and this year it hurts them, so I’m still against it.

There’s a good chance the Yankees wouldn’t be in this spot if they never let Chris Capuano start three games in May and didn’t let Stephen Drew and Brendan Ryan get five months of at-bats that should have gone to Rob Refsnyder. They likely wouldn’t be in this spot if Joe Girardi didn’t keep handing the ball to Esmil Rogers or turn to Branden Pinder and Caleb Cotham, or think it was 2009 or 2010 when he would call on Andrew Bailey. But they are in this spot and now they have to get out of it.

Two months of being a .500 baseball team put the Yankees in this spot though on Tuesday night they have the chance to erase questionable managerial and front office moves and the decision to stand pat (aside from acquiring Dustin Ackley) at the trade deadline. They have the chance to make everyone forget about their horrible August and September and their embarrassing finish. They have the chance to win their first playoff game at Yankee Stadium since Game 5 of the 2012 ALDS and get back to the ALDS for the first time since that season. They have a chance to begin the kind of run the Royals went on last season and go to Kansas City to continue that run.

The Yankees have a chance to change how this season will be remembered with a win on Tuesday night. But to do so, they will have to get through Dallas Keuchel.

I think I’m going to throw up.

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Blogs • Yankees

Aug 18, 2015

A Yankees Facebook Conversation

Somehow Stephen Drew is still a Yankee. To recognize his improbable roster spot, here’s a conversation on Facebook.

Today is August 18 and Stephen Drew is still a Yankee. I’m not sure why and I’m not sure how, but he is.

I decided to make a fake Facebook conversation with Drew announcing to his teammates that he could be designated for assignment any day now in hopes that he actually will be. (I have been waiting for him to be DFA’d since the day Brian Cashman inexplicably signed him to a one-year, $5 million deal.) Here it is.

 

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Blogs • Email Exchanges • Yankees

Aug 11, 2015

Indians Fans Found Out the Real Nick Swisher

After being swept and scoring one run in three games, the Yankees find themselves desperately needing to get back on track in Cleveland before heading to Toronto.

The weekend series against the Blue Jays couldn’t have gone worse for the Yankees. After being swept and scoring one run in three games, the Yankees find themselves desperately needing to get back on track in Cleveland before heading to Toronto for another three-game series against their newest rival.

With the Yankees and Indians meeting for the first time this season, Matt Lyons of Let’s Go Tribe joined me to talk about Nick Swisher playing himself off the Indians, the late rise of Corey Kluber and the perception of Terry Francona in Cleveland.

Keefe: After thankfully watching Nick Swisher leave New York following the 2012 season, I couldn’t believe a team was willing to give him a four-year, $56 million deal, but the Indians were that team. But now Swisher is gone and he’s no longer an Indian, as the Braves were stupid enough to trade for him. Even though the Indians have to pay $10 million to cover a portion of Swisher and Michael Bourn’s salary, I think you should be happy to no longer have Swisher on your team.

Swisher finished his time in Cleveland as a .228/.311/.377 hitter and only played one full season (145 games in 2013). I’m sorry your Indians lost the 2013 wild-card game to the Rays, but I happily watched him go for 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in that game to continue his career postseason failures.

Now that Swisher is gone and will play out the final one-plus years of his contract with the Braves, how will you remember his time in Cleveland?

Lyons: It’s difficult for me to hate or blame Swisher personally. He did not ask to be over 30 and have crippling knee injuries. I was not thrilled with the big contract to begin with, but that is more on the Indians front office than Swisher accepting money that was offered to him. On the field he was a total disappointment, no doubt, but it was genuinely refreshing to have a big name free agent come over to Cleveland and be so excited about the city and the team. Even with his lack of production, he still did a lot of good off the field in terms of exciting the fan base. Granted, this is all easier to say now that he’s gone and no longer dragging down the payroll.

However, I will say that the whole “bro” thing got old real fast. At least he toned it down when his production dipped.

Keefe: For the last couple of years, it seems like a lot of preseason predictions favored the Indians to get over the hump and be in position to win the AL Central. After missing out on the second wild card by three games last year, the Indians are in last place in the Central and are 7 1/2 games back for the second wild card.

When you look at the 2015 Indians, while the offense hasn’t been anything special, the entire pitching staff has serious strikeout number and you would think a team with so much power pitching would be in a much better spot than they are in at 51-59.
What has gone wrong for the 2015 Indians?

Lyons: It’s all Sports Illustrated’s fault for picking the Tribe and jinxing it!

No, I think offensively it all comes down to lack of hitting with runners in scoring position and a bunch of players just slumping at the same time. The Tribe as a team has consistently been at the bottom of the league when it comes to hitting with RISP despite being great at nearly everything else. You always expect a player or two to underperform, but almost everyone in the lineup not named Jason Kipnis was bad to start the season.

Pitching wise, don’t forget that this staff struggled early. The fifth spot was a rotating door between Bruce Chen, Shaun Marcum and others, which was a guaranteed loss every week. For a while, it felt like one of the starters, bullpen or offense would blow the game every night. Nothing clicked at the same time.

Injection of young players like Giovanny Urshela and Francisco Lindor have helped the offense a bit and been a tremendous boon for the defense. Although it’s arguably too little too late at this point.

Keefe: Corey Kluber won the Cy Young last season after leading the league in wins (18) and FIP (2.35). This season, Kluber has had similar numbers aside from ERA, which is over a run higher (2.44 to 3.46) and leads the league in innings pitched, but also leads the league in losses with 12.

What changed for Kluber from 2012 to 2013 and from 2013 to 2014 that made him the pitcher he is today, as sort of late bloomer the way Cliff Lee was for the Indians? Do you believe in him as a true ace the way Indians fans believed in Lee or CC Sabathia?

Lyons: Developing a cutter/sinker, for sure. Prior to 2012, Kluber was a typical fastball/slider/changeup guy, but he developed his cutter in the minor leagues, which he now leans on in the majors. Movement in general on his fastballs can be devastating, but when that sinker is working, he is unhittable.

The losses and his ERA are not an indicator of much for him. He consistently has some of the lowest run support in the league, and before Urshela and Lindor were called up, he (and the rest of the staff) was at the mercy of a terrible left side of the infield. I still wake up in panicked cold sweats thinking about this team’s defense in April/May.

He is an ace, absolutely, and not many Indians fans are going to dispute that. It’s no fault of Kluber’s but he hasn’t played on many big playoff run teams so he hasn’t a chance to produce a lot of heroic performances that help the Tribe in the end and grab a lot of national attention. Because of that, I don’t think he’s as well regarded as Lee or CC quite yet.

Even in the 2013 run, the story on the staff was Ubaldo Jiminez, not Kluber. I still see team’s fans asking who this 2014 Cy Young winner is when the Indians go up against them, so I can’t wait until he gets that chance to get more attention.

Keefe: Terry Francona is now in his third season with the Indians after taking the year off in 2012 following the end of his tenure in Boston. Looking back, Red Sox fans aren’t happy with the decision to get rid of Francona after the Bobby Valentine disaster and now second last-place finish in three years under John Farrell.

Francona has led the Indians to a 228-206 (.525) and the calm demeanor he brought to Boston has carried over to Cleveland. Even though his time with the Indian hasn’t translated into consecutive postseason appearances or a championship like it did with the Red Sox, he seems to have the Indians on the right track for the future.
Are you a Francona fan and has his stock remained as high as it was two years ago

Lyons: I’m a mixed bag on Francona. I love some things he does, like bullpen management and the team’s general attitude, but his small ball mentality can make the team unwatchable. It’s just frustrating how often the team bunts. His lineup configurations can be bizarre at times, but I never get too hard on a manager for lineups.

At least from my own observations, I’ve never seen too much “Fire Francona” chatter when the team stumbles, which is interesting. The manager is usually the first piece thrown under the bus, but I get the idea a lot of the Indians fan base believes in him.

Keefe: After reaching the playoffs in 2013 for the first time since 2007 and then coming within three games of going back to the playoffs last year, what were your expectations heading into this season?

Now that we’re in August and things aren’t looking so good for the Indians’ postseason chances, what do you want to see down the stretch and what will your expectations be for 2016?

Lyons: Can I lie and say I saw this collapse coming? No? OK … well I was fully on the hype train coming into 2015. This pitching staff looked nasty from the start, and I thought for sure the lineup would be something special. Surely Jason Kipnis would bounce back after his poor 2014 season (which he did), surely Yan Gomes would keep better (nope), surely Carlos Santana would keep being Carlos Santana (nope), surely Jose Ramirez would keep being a solid defensive shortstop (nope), surely Lonnie Chisenhall would take the next big step (nope). Just a whole bunch of things we all thought would happen did not pan out this year.

As for the rest of the year, I just want to watch young players. It’s already happening with Lindor, Urshela and outfielders Jerry Sands, Tyler Holt and maybe even Tyler Naquin down the line. Watching Lonnie Chisenhall play effectively in right field since being called back up from Triple-A has also been a treat, and I want to keep an eye on how that develops.

2015 has been such a weird year of no one playing like they are “supposed to” and that it makes it hard to predict for 2016. Will any of these players bounce back, or is this what they are? Unless it involves trading one of the big four starting pitchers, I don’t see the front office making any big deals so this is more or less the team we have for 2016. I would be equally surprised to see them go all the way, as I would be to see them as a basement dweller. It’ll be exciting either way.

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Blogs • Monday Mentions • Yankees

Aug 3, 2015

Monday Mentions: The Post-Trade Deadline

The trade deadline has come and gone and it was uneventful for the Yankees unless you like adding former highly-touted prospects that turned into busts and now can’t hit and have no position.

The trade deadline has come and gone and it was uneventful for the Yankees and Yankees fans unless you like adding former highly-touted prospects that turned into busts and now can’t hit and have no position. If you like players like that then you must like the Yankees’ trade for Dustin Ackley.

Here is another installment of “Monday Mentions” focused on questions and comments from Twitter about the Yankees now that the trade deadline is over.

The answer is three since that’s how many the Yankees have now.

I’m not sure why the trade for Ackley was made. Is it because he was the second overall pick in 2009 and the Yankees think he will now develop into that talent at age 27? Is it because he hit two home runs against Masahiro Tanaka after the All-Star break? Is it because he is a lifetime .296/.397/.481 hitter at Yankee Stadium?

The most puzzling part of the Ackley trade is that the Yankees don’t see him as a second baseman, but rather as a first baseman and outfielder. As long as Robinson Cano was sad when Ackley informed his teammates that he was being traded to the Yankees then I’m OK with the trade since I want Cano to feel the pain I have felt with him in Seattle and the Yankees starting Brian Roberts, Kelly Johnson, Stephen Drew, Gregorio Petit and Brendan Ryan at second base since he left.

Apparently, you’re not aware that Stephen Drew’s dad and Brian Cashman’s dad were roommates in college and Brendan Ryan is married to Brian Cashman’s cousin. That’s the only explanation I have for these two to still be on the team at the SAME TIME while everyone else around them gets designated for assignment. Here’s to hoping Stephen Drew never touches .200 this season.

The Yankees definitely had an odd trade deadline strategy. They weren’t willing to give up any of their top prospects, which is fine, but then they were targeting Craig Kimbrel rather than a starting pitcher. Unless their plan was to pitch Kimbrel, Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller for three innings each every fifth day, I’m not sure how not going after a starting pitcher helped improve their shaky rotation.

If Kimbrel had been traded to the Yankees, it would have been intereting to see how the Yankees handled the ninth inning. Kimberl has always been a closer and has led the National League in saves the last four years, which were his first four full seasons in the league, but Miller has been a perfect 23-for-23 in save opportunities this season and dominant in the role. It’s an impossible decision and I’m happy it’s one that doesn’t need to be made now.

That’s a good way to make me cry. The Yankees could have had Johan Santana for three pitchers that are no longer with the organization.

Santana won 16 games in 2008 for the Mets with a 2.53 ERA. The Yankees went 89-73 and missed the playoffs by six games. Darrell Rasner made 20 starts for the Yankees, Sidney Ponson made 15, Joba Chamberlain made 12, Ian Kennedy made nine and Phil Hughes made eight. Those five pitchers won 12 games combined with Kennedy and Hughes winning none.

Santana gave the Mets three great years from 2008-2010 before missing 2011 and then making 21 starts in 2012, and he hasn’t pitched since. I would have gladly paid Santana to not pitch in 2011, 2013 and 2014 if it meant having him for 2008-2010.

On another trade note, remember when Brian Cashman wouldn’t include Eduardo Nunez in a deal for Cliff Lee in July 2010, so the Rangers got Cliff Lee, beat the Yankees in the ALCS and then Lee signed with the Phillies in December 2010? I don’t remember it either.

CC makes about $700,000 per start. That’s a seven followed by five zeroes. Here is what he has done in his last two starts:

5.2 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 2 HR

5.0 IP, 9 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 3 HR

In years past, it would be an automatic loss with Sabathia facing the Red Sox at the Stadium like he is on Thursday, but it’s actually a blessing. The Yankees play the Blue Jays on Friday at the Stadium and the new-look Blue Jays missed out on facing Sabathia by one day. On Monday, the first four hitters for the Blue Jays were Troy Tulowitzki, Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista and Edwin Incarnation. However, the Yankees and Blue Jays have 13 games left this season, so while the Yankees might be able to hide Sabthia from the Blue Jays this weekend and next weekend, it’s going to be hard to hide him forever against the Blue Jays unless they remove him from the rotation.

Mets fans are always so quick to go from a laughingstock to the most overconfident irrational fans in the world. I was at Citi Field on July 23 for Clayton Kershaw’s near perfect game against the Mets and the team was an embarrassment and the fans couldn’t have been more quiet and Citi Field couldn’t have been less full with the best pitcher in the world pitching. Fast forward to Sunday Night Baseball with the Mets looking to sweep the Nationals and the Citi Field crowd chanting “OVER-RATED” at Bryce Harper, who is hitting .330/.454/.667 with 29 home runs and 68 RBIs, which are as bad and ill-timed as the “Yankees suck” chants that will be coming at the end of the month at Fenway Park with the Red Sox a million games behind the Yankees.

I remember the good old days of “Reyes is better than Jeter” debates, which were equally as funny as the “Nomar is better than Jeter” debates I had to listen to growing up. Reyes is 32 years old, now playing for his fourth team in five years and is owed $22 million in 2016 and 2017 with a $22 million team option of $4 million buyout in 2018. There’s a 100 percent chance that option gets bought out when Reyes is 35. When Jeter was 35, he won his fifth World Series. Good debate.

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Blogs • KTTC Classics • Yankees

Jun 26, 2015

CC Sabathia Is Done

CC Sabathia isn’t returning to the dominant starter he was and it’s hard to see him becoming an average starter at this point.

CC Sabathia

When the Yankees don’t win the World Series, which is something they have only done once since 2001, Hal Steinbrener, like his father, issues an apology to Yankees fans. Last season, following a second straight postseason-less year for the Yankees, Steinbrenner offered this apology to fans:

“I apologize. We did not do the job this year. We know what you expect of us, and we expect the same thing of ourselves.”

As the Yankees are currently constructed and as the way this season has gone, much like the last two, the goal for the Yankees each season has shifted from winning the World Series to just making the playoffs. And if the Yankees keep going the way they have with their unpredictable swings and lengthy winning and losing streaks, Steinbrenner will be apologizing for the sixth straight season for not bringing a championship to New York and for the third straight season for not even giving Yankees fans a single playoff game.

If Steinbrenner does hand out his now annual apology in the first week of October after Game 162, it will be as much of a joke as CC Sabathia has become. No one wants to hear that ownership and the front office “expect the same things” as the fans while they continue to send Sabathia to the mound every fifth (or now every sixth!) day as the league leader in earned runs and home runs allowed because of his salary, which is exactly why Sabathia pitched on Tuesday night against the Phillies and why he will pitch again next week against the Angels.

Joe Girardi admitted as much after Sabathia’s latest disaster (4.2 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 2 HR) that the former ace will remain in the rotation because of money.

“He is a starter for us. That’s what he is and that’s what we are paying him to do and that is what he is going to do.”

Sabathia is making $23 millon this season. If he makes 34 starts, that’s $676,470.59 per start. If he makes 33 starts, that’s $696,969.68 per start. If he makes 32 starts, that’s $718,750 per start. So let’s call it $700,000 per start. That means on Tuesday night, Sabathia did the equivalent of showing up to work at noon, immediately going to lunch, returning to his desk to send one email followed by taking a one hour power nap, waking up and watching the first episode of Ballers on HBO GO at his desk, calling his boss fat and then leaving at 4:00. And he made $700,000 to do that.

It only get worse when it comes to the 34-year-old lefty, who will turn 35 in July. Next season, Sabathia’s salary increase to $25 million for the season, and when you consider his 2011 ERA (33 starts) was 3.00, his 2012 ERA (28 starts) was 3.38, his 2013 ERA (32 starts) was 4.78, his 2014 ERA (eight starts) was 5.28 and his 2015 ERA (15 starts) is 5.65, well, where is this going to go? It could go through the 2017 season, as Sabathia has a $25 million vesting option, which will vest if he doesn’t finish the 2016 season on the disabled list with a left shoulder injury or if he doesn’t spend more than 45 days in 2016 on the disabled list with a left shoulder injury or if he doesn’t make more than six relief appearances in 2016 because of a left shoulder injury. (There is a $5 million buyout if any of these things happen, so the Yankees will have to pay him $5 million to not pitch, which is better than $25 million to pitch and not be good). So the only way the Yankees are getting out of paying Sabathia $50 million in 2016 and 2017 is if he injures his left shoulder, and when he’s not even going five innings in starts, that’s not going to happen. The only way to not throw away $25 million in 2017 is for Girardi to start leaving Sabathia on the mound to throw 150-pitch complete games, or hope that he retires and walks away from the money, and that’s not happening. So if you think this season has been bad or 2014 and 2013 were bad, it’s not going to get better.

I have written several times that Sabathia needs to find a way to get outs without overpowering hitters the way his former teammate Andy Pettitte and supposed best friend Cliff Lee were able to do. With the Yankees in Houston, it was made known that Pettitte and Sabathia have talked frequently as Sabathia’s velocity and repertoire has changed, and if this is true, when are the changes going to take place, or are they ever? And do we know Sabathia and Pettitte are even talking about pitching when they talk? They could be talking about anything.

At this point, I treat every Sabathia start like a trip to the casino. If you plan on spending $500 at the casino then you’re going into it assuming you’re going to lose that $500 and anything you don’t lose or if you happen to end up winning, it’s an unexpected bonus. When Sabathia takes the mound, I assume the Yankees are going to lose, and if they aren’t blown out, he will certainly blow a lead they have given him at some point in the game. If he comes out in a tie game, with the Yankees winning, it’s the unexpected bonus. That’s not how it should work for starting pitcher making $23 million this season, $25 million next season and possibly another $25 million in 2017.

During the 2011 season, I said “Jorge Posada is like the aging family dog that just wanders around aimlessly and goes to the bathroom all over the place and just lies around and sleeps all day. You try to pretend like the end isn’t near and you try to remember the good times to get through the bad times, and once in a while the dog will do something to remind you of what it used to be, but it’s just momentary tease.” Well, that aging family dog has become Sabathia.

The next time Sabathia puts the Yankees in a hole before they even come up to bat for the first time, I will try to remember his first four seasons with the Yankees when he went 74-29 with a 3.22 ERA. The next time, he lets the 7-8-9 hitters get on base to start a rally, I will try to remember his win in Game 1 of the 2009 ALDS, his dominance over the Angels and winning the ALCS MVP in 2009 and his role in beating the Phillies in the 2009 World Series. The next time he can’t get through five innings, forcing the bullpen to be overused, I will try to remember his Game 5 win in the 2010 ALCS against the Rangers to save the season. And the next time he blows a three-run lead the inning following the Yankees taking that lead, I will try to remember his wins in Games 1 and 5 against the Orioles in the 2012 ALDS to get the Yankees out of the first round.

I will try to remember the good times CC Sabathia once gave us nearly every time he took the ball because they hardly happen anymore and they are only to going to become more rare. I wish there were more good times to come, but there aren’t.

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