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Tag: Joe Girardi

Podcasts • Subway Series • Yankees

Apr 24, 2015

Podcast: Bald Vinny

Mets fans have tried to steal Roll Call and now they are expected to pack Yankee Stadium this weekend for the Subway Series in the Bronx.

New York Yankees

The Yankees’ season looked to be in trouble on Sunday Night Baseball against the Red Sox in the sixth game of the season, but since that win, the Yankees have gone 8-3, including winning six of seven to finish their 10-game road trip. The Yankees have given fans something to be excited about over the last week and they take their three-game winning streak into the most-hyped Subway Series in years.

Bald Vinny of the Right Field Bleacher Creatures and Bald Vinny’s House of Tees joined me to talk about the state of the Yankees’ after the first 16 games of the season, their recent run to end their 10-game road trip, Mets fans stealing Roll Call from Yankees fans and what to expect at Yankee Stadium for the Subway Series this weekend.

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Blogs • Yankees

Apr 14, 2015

Joe Girardi Needs to Stop with the Days Off

The Yankees just had six months off, but that hasn’t stopped Joe Girardi from deciding to give all of his everyday players days off in the first week of the season.

Joe Girardi

Joe Girardi must be stopped. The Yankees manager is out of control with giving his players days off just one week into the season. You would think the Yankees were banged up or undefeated or even at .500 to this point for Girardi to put together a different lineup each game. But no, Girardi has decided that October, November, December, January, February and most of March (I say most because a good part of March consists of playing two innings and then playing golf for the rest of the day) wasn’t enough time off for his under-.500 team coming off back-to-back postseason-less seasons.

Brian McCann played the first game of the season on a Monday, Tuesday was an off day, he played on Wednesday, had Thursday off, played 18 innings on Friday, had Saturday off, played on Sunday and then had Monday off. McCann has played in four of seven games this season. It would be more of an issue if John Ryan Murphy hadn’t been one of the two or three best hitters on the team so far, but why is the $85 million catcher making $17 million playing so little to start the season?

Brett Gardner played the first two games of the season before getting the third game of the Blue Jays series off. Why? Most likely because the Yankees were facing a lefty and I guess Girardi thought it would make the most sense to have his best or second-best all-around player as part of a platoon. (On Monday night in Baltimore, Gardner was hit on the wrist, which eventually forced him out of the games and to have X-rays taken, but not before Girardi let him go to bat unable to swing and bunt in the sixth inning of a tie game at Camden Yards.)

Jacoby Ellsbury played all three games against the Blue Jays and then played all 19 innings on Friday, so he was given Saturday off. Ellsbury is 31 years old and in the second year of a seven-year, $153 million contract and will make $21.1 million this year and $130,511 per game. So why was the player who is making the money that should have gone to Robinson Cano getting the day off after Friday’s long game while older and more injury-prone players played on Saturday?

In the first five games of the season, Chase Headley was 3-for-22 (.136). On Sunday night, he went 3-for-5 with one home run and 3 RBIs. Aside from his game-tying solo home run in the bottom of the ninth on Friday night, it was the first time he has shown any life with the bat in the first week of the season. So why was he on the bench on Monday night?

I didn’t want Stephen Drew on the Yankees last year. I didn’t want the Yankees to sign him to a one-year, $5 million deal this year. I wanted Rob Refsnyder or Jose Pirela to be the second baseman for 2015. I wanted him designated for assignment before the season began and I still want him designated for assignment. In the first five games of the season, Drew was 2-for-17 (.118), including a disastrous 1-for-8 night in the 19-inning game on Friday night. But on Sunday night, he hit a home run and had 2 RBIs. So why was he on the bench on Monday night?

Carlos Beltran has played in every game this season and has started six of the games. In the six games he has started, he has hit third. Beltran is 38 years old and will be 39 next Friday and looks more done than Alfonso Soriano looked last year. I would actually rather have Soriano right now, nearly a year removed from baseball, playing instead of Beltran. I have nicknamed Beltran “Going Through the Motions” for this season as he has shown no signs of life in the field or at the plate where he’s 4-for-28 (.143). I wanted Beltran as much as anyone else after 2013, but his Yankees tenure started nine years too late and has been a disappointment. Maybe instead of giving productive players in their prime days off, it’s time Beltran sits? Or at least take him out of the 3-hole and put him no higher than seventh in the order.

Mark Teixeira got the day off after the 19-inning game most likely because the Yankees were scared of him getting “tired legs” for the second consecutive season for standing around for too long. So who played first base for Teixeira that day after the 19-inning game? Number 13.

A-Rod is 39. He will be 40 in July. He has two surgically repaired hips and since 2011 he has played more than 100 games once (122 in 2012). He has played every game this season. He was pulled in the 11th inning of Friday’s game for a pinch runner that didn’t work out and the Yankees lost their best hitter for the remainder of the game. On either Tuesday or Wednesday against the Orioles, A-Rod will get the day off because the last 18 months off apparently wasn’t enough time off.

The lineup has been improperly constructed for the first seven games and the wrong people have been getting days off. I’m not sure why I thought this season might be different for Girardi when it comes to his excessive resting of his players since it certainly didn’t work the last two seasons.

So who’s going to get the next game off? Whichever Yankee is hitting the best or whichever Yankee is the youngest or most important or making the most money.

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Blogs • Yankees

Apr 13, 2015

Yankees-Red Sox Weekend Diary

This weekend we got 37 innings and 13 hours and 26 minutes of baseball and also a 16-minute delay for a power outage and some sloppy and embarrassing play from the Yankees.

Alex Rodriguez

There’s nothing like a Yankees-Red Sox series. Even if that series comes in Games 4, 5 and 6 of the season and even if that series features pitching matchups of Nathan Eovaldi-Wade Miley, Adam Warren-Joe Kelly and Mashahiro Tanaka-Clay Buchholz.

The rivalry isn’t what it once was and the current rosters reflect that, but even when the seasons and personnel change, the games remain the same. This weekend we got 37 innings and 13 hours and 26 minutes of baseball and also a 16-minute delay for a power outage.

I decided to go to the diary format that I used for a Yankees-Red Sox series back in July 2012 and a Yankees-Red Sox series back in July 2013 for this past weekend. Just pretend like you’re reading this in one of those black-and-white Mead composition notebooks.

FRIDAY
The Yankees’ Twitter account jumped the gun a little by calling Nathan Eovaldi “Nasty Nate” before ever throwing a pitch on Friday night, and therefore, never having thrown a pitch for the Yankees to that point. Eovaldi ended up lasting 5 1/3 innings, allowed eight hits and three earned runs and striking out just one despite hitting a reported 101 mph on the radar gun, according to YES. A Mets fan friend of mine told me to be nervous that Eovaldi might be the next Mike Pelfrey as a hard-throwing righty that can’t strike anyone out and I dismissed that claim, but now I’m nervous it could be true.

The Yankees once again had one hit through five innings, so I think Joe Girardi made the right decision giving some regulars a day off after an off day on Tuesday and after having October, November, December, January, February and most of March off.

The Red Sox’ might have the best lineup in the AL East and the entire league, but their starting pitching is mediocre and their bullpen is terrible. I’m not sure how so many people can be sold on a team that doesn’t have a pitching staff looking for bounceback seasons or a pitching staff looking to stay healthy, but rather just a pitching staff that is really bad. Red Sox closer Edward Mujica proved he isn’t exactly Koji Uehara, or at least 2013 Koji Uehara, after allowing a two-out home run to Chase Headley in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game before 10 more innings of hard-to-watch baseball. Michael Kay had to go and ruin the moment by saying, “Holy Cow!” as a tribute to Phil Rizzuto in the Yankees’ return to PIX11 and it was as bad as Melissa McCarthy doing Matt Foley on the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Show.

The game lasted 19 innings and there were 578 of pitches thrown and up until the last pitch I still had no idea what home-plate umpire Marty Foster was going to call on each pitch. Throughout extra innings, I kept offering Stephen Drew “Ladies and gentlemen” immunity if he could hit a walk-off home run or even just get a hit, but those thing never came. David Cone described a Stephen Drew foul ball as “probably one of the better swings we’ve seen Drew take.” A foul ball.

All Brian Cashman did this offseason (aside from berate the Yankees’ best player in A-Rod) is tell us how good of a defensive shortshop Didi Gregorius is. And so far, Gregorius has yet to make a play that Derek Jeter wouldn’t have made at 40 and hasn’t done anything with his glove to justify his embarrassing offensive start.

If the Yankees hadn’t decided that it would be a good idea to play second baseman Jose Pirela in center field in a spring training game, in which he got a concussion, then he would be on the Yankees right now and not Gregorio Petit. But playing a future everyday player for your team out of position makes a lot of sense, especially when Reggie Jackson called that player the best hitter in the organization. In 2013, Travis Ishikawa played one game for the Yankees and had two at-bats: a four-pitch strikeout and a three-pitch strikeout. The following year, he won the World Series with the Giants as their starting left fielder. I fully expect Petit to win the World Series somewhere next year.

I’m not sure why Brett Gardner can’t steal bases and I’m not sure how he got picked off by a right-handed knuckleball pitcher or why he was unable to steal against a knuckeball pitcher two different times. I’m also not sure why Jacoby Ellsbury was unable to steal against a knuckleball pitcher.

I don’t get the Yankees’ infatuation with Esmil Rogers. He’s 29 (will be 30 this season) and entered the game with a 5.52 career ERA. Who cares that he throws hard? You know who else throws hard? Nearly every pitcher in the majors and the minors. Find someone else to do his job because he can’t do it.

SATURDAY
This time it was one hit through seven innings for the Yankees. One hit against Joe Kelly. Cone said the Yankees “could tip their hat” to Kelly, which was an awful cop-out for a team that is full of excuses and doesn’t need any more opportunities to give them.

A three-error game for the Yankees to keep their games-with-an-error streak alive at five straight to open the season and bring the season total to 8. Brian Cashman told Mike Francesa on Friday that Rob Refsnyder could play in the majors right now, but that his defense isn’t there yet. If Refsnyder can give this team any additional offense, who cares about his defense? The rest of the team’s defense isn’t good, so why are we worried about the defense of someone who can actually hit?

Brock Holt getting credited with a three-run double that Garrett Jones dropped is an atrocity. Between Brett Gardner falling down in the second inning in left field and Jones not being able to catch a fly ball as a major leaguer is the 2015 Yankees. Forget “Our history. Your tradition.” or “Pride. Power. Pinstripes.” or whatever ridiculous slogan the Yankees try to sell. Let’s go with “Strikeouts. Errors. Pickoffs. Left on base.” for 2015.

SUNDAY
A must-win game in the sixth game of the season. The Yankees couldn’t afford to fall to 1-5 and head to Baltimore where they could easily lose another series or possibly be swept and be starting at a 2-7 or 1-8 record with trips to Tampa Bay and Detroit still go.

When I saw the lineup posted with A-Rod hitting sixth behind Carlos Beltran, Mark Teixeira and Brian McCann I almost threw up. How is the best hitter on the team, entering the game 5-for-18, hitting behind three hitters who have gone 2-for-20, 3-for-16 and 3-for-13?

A-Rod proved once again he is the best hitter on the team and should be the No. 3 hitter with a three-run double in the first inning to break the game open. But Joe Girardi should keep hitting him sixth because that makes a lot of sense.

Of course Beltran went 2-for-4 against the Red Sox’ embarrassing bullpen to bring his average up to .167 (.167! Woo!) since that will be good enough for Girardi to think 38-year-old Carlos “Going Through the Motions” Beltran should continue to be the team’s No. 3 hitter.

Even Stephen Drew hit a home run in the Yankees’ seven-run first inning for the fastest Yankees win over the Red Sox. It doesn’t change the fact that I want him off the team as soon as possible, but it was nice to see that his best swings don’t just result in foul balls.

It was a bad week, actually it was the worst possible week, but it ended well. The bad news is the Yankees are 2-4 and about to start a 10-game road trip. The good news is the hitting and defense can’t get any worse than it has been. At least I don’t think it can.

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Blogs • Yankees

Apr 9, 2015

I’m Proud of Joe Girardi for Now

Joe Girardi made me proud in the second game of the season when he decided to not manage his bullpen for a stat, but rather for a win.

Dellin Betances

I’m proud of Joe Girardi. I don’t say that often, actually I don’t think I’ve ever said it, but I’m proud of him for at least today and it’s because of how he used the bullpen in the Yankees’ first win of 2015.

Sure, I would be even more proud of him if he started using this lineup every game:

1. Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
2. Brett Gardner, LF
3. Alex Rodriguez, DH
4. Brian McCann, C
5. Mark Teixeira, 1B
6. Carlos Beltran, RF
7. Chase Headley, 3B
8. Stephen Drew, 2B
9. Didi Gregorius, SS

But since I know that won’t happen (and the No. 1 reason it won’t happen is because Girardi will likely think his lineup is a winning combination even though the Yankees are 1-1 and not 0-2 because of a bloop double, two hit by pitches, a wild pitch and a double-play ball off a glove), I have to be happy with what I get.

Before the season started, I talked with Chad Jennings of The Journal News and we talked about how it would make the most sense for the 2015 Yankees to not have a closer (it would actually make the most sense for every team to not have a closer). The Yankees are better suited to use Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller in any inning and at any time rather than forcing them to have set innings and in Game 2 of the season we got our first look at what Girardi will do in the late innings of a close game. We joked that Girardi isn’t likely to be the guy that revolutionizes the game of baseball by not having a closer and by using his elite back-end arms in any situation, but then Girardi did just that. (I also talked with former Yankees reliever and setup man Steve Karsay about having set bullpen roles and he talked about relievers wanting to know when they will be used.)

Everyone assumed Betances would be the closer to start the season, but on Wednesday night with Russell Martin, Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion due up, Girardi went to the right-handed Betances for the eighth inning. Two walks, a single, an error, an unearned run and 31 pitches later, the inning was over with the Blue Jays extending their lead to 3-1, but Girardi proved he isn’t scared of changing the way he manages games late.

If that had been a game in June or July, we probably wouldn’t have seen Betances in that spot, but with the Yankees’ offense having trouble scoring runs (two runs in 16 innings when Betances came in) and Girardi desperately not wanting to lose the first two games of the season at home, he went with his assumed closer in the eighth inning of a game the Yankees were trailing by one run and didn’t manage for a stat or a save situation. Sitting in the Stadium I felt a sense of pride overcome me that I imagine is the same feeling a parent has when their child speaks or walks or ties their own shoes for the first time.

Andrew Miller was dominant in the ninth, getting two ground outs and a strikeout for the save in his first appearance as a Yankee and proving the Yankees’ bullpen is the team’s strength and really the only reliable aspect of the entire team. Add in Chris Martin’s scoreless sixth inning and the bullpen’s line through two game is: 8 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 7 K. And if Justin Wilson didn’t do his best Shawn Kelley impression and walk the bases loaded on Opening Day and if Betances had any sort of control on his breaking balls then those numbers would look even better.

When asked about the end of the game, Miller (who impressed me with how intelligent and well-spoken he was in spring training) said, “They’re going to look at the lineup card and try to determine who has what portion of the lineup.”

The logic behind that idea made almost too much sense and I had to read it a few times.

“So it’s just however it falls,” Miller said. “If it had fallen that the eighth inning had been that 6 through 1 section, it would have been me in the eighth and Dellin would have gone out and closed the game.”

It really was a beautiful thing on Wednesday night. Using your best right-handed reliever in a non-save situation to keep a game close, not knowing that you will even come back, because the lineup at the time was right-handed heavy (the Blue Jays don’t even have a left-handed, non-switch hitter on their team)? I almost started crying in my seat the Stadium at the sight of it and they wouldn’t have been winter-weather, freezing-rain, cold-wind induced tears. They would have been tears of joy. Thankfully, I kept it together in front of the other 8,000 people at the game.

The season is only two games old and I would have thought I would be writing the latest Joe Girardi Show column questioning his decisions in the first week of the season rather than praising him for them. I’m not about to say that Giradi is in the clear from criticism because I know the second I do he will name Miller the closer, but for now, I’m on Joe’s side when it comes to the bullpen. Now about that lineup …

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Opening Day • Podcasts • Yankees

Apr 3, 2015

Podcast: Steve Karsay

From 2000-2009, obviously no one had more saves for the Yankees than Mariano Rivera, but the pitcher with the second-most saves during that time was his former setup man Steve Karsay.

Steve Karsay

Following the 2001 World Series disaster, pressure was at an all-time high in the Bronx. That pressure was coming from George Steinbrenner and it trickled down to Joe Torre and how he used his bullpen in order to get the ball to Mariano Rivera. The Yankees won 103 games in 2002, but Torre constantly going to his right-handed and left-handed setup men for 79 and 78 appearances respectively eventually took a toll on the Yankees’ bullpen.

Former Yankees reliever Steve Karsay joined me to talk about setting up for Mariano Rivera, what happened in the 2002 ALDS against the Angels, what it’s like to visit Dr. James Andrews and have surgery, being part of Joe Torre’s overused bullpen, what to look for from relievers in spring training, the idea of set bullpen roles and being the only person to play under Torre, Tony La Russa and Bobby Cox.

Also, Keefe To The City has partnered with The Allie Way Sports Bar on East 70th Street between 1st and York in the Upper East Side for Yankees Sunday Funday Viewing Parties this season. The first one is Sunday, April 19 at 1 p.m. when the Yankees head to Tampa to face the Rays. Come to The Allie Way for the game and enjoy drink specials, including $30 (cash) open bar for the entire game!

CLICK HERE FOR MORE YANKEES PODCASTS TO GET YOU READY FOR OPENING DAY

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