Also, Damon really needs to be dropped to 9th. He just can't be the lead off man for this team anymore. If I were manager, this would be my line-up Cabrera Jeter Abreu A-Rod Matsui Posada Cano Phillips Damon OR, I would DL Damon, call up Gardner, move Melky to left, Gardner to center, and Matsui to DH. Start Gardner batting at 9, and if he produces, switch him with Cabrera
He is NOW on the shit list, never ever been a fan of Moose. Murrell cursed us this series...DeSalvo and Igawa tomorrow? Yikes.
here's someone i wish we kept......javier vazquez.......he was good wen he was on the yanks......he's on the white sox now...............
I like Shelly Duncan's potential to be the DH. I got to see him play up in AAA at Scranton/Wilkes Barre a few times and he was clearly the best hitter out there consistently. I hope they stick with him and give him a shot.
Moose is crap. I argued this point the other day, and I'll just repeat myself again. He is garbage. Always has been, always will be. When he doesn't get out to an early 5 run lead, he is ineffective on his best day. He gets shelled on his worst. A pitch in the mid-80s cannot be considered a fastball at the major league level. F Moose. -------------------- That said, F this whole damned team. When you're losing 10-0 going into the bottom of the seventh, you're going to lose more often than not. I was going to bring this up over the past week or so, but figured I'd just have to deal with another flame-fest. I'm going to say it now. The offense is NOT fixed. When you're winning games in the 8th, 9th, or 10th innings, against inferior (which Toronto is,) teams, you are not playing well. While Moose was ineffective, again, it is on the offense to score some damn runs, and they just aren't. It's sickening. Nothing has changed over the past 3 months. When some guys decide to hit, others decide to nap. --------------------------- Hughes can't save this team. He could pitch a 9-inning no-hitter, and this team would still lose in the 10th. How the hell do we get dominated by TAMPA BAY pitching? REPEATEDLY. --------------------------- Damon needs to go. End of story. Forget moving him in the lineup or putting him on the DL. He needs to be asked to retire like a man or dropped like a bag of bricks. --------------------------- DeSalvo and Igawa. Tomorrow I'm going to take the kids to see Transformers, then we're taking my wife out to dinner for her birthday. Perfect excuses to not suffer through that shitfest. --------------------------- Javier Vasquez? Um, no. Like LTS said, mediocre-to-bad. He had a bright spot or two, but so did Chacon. --------------------------- As for Duncan, I still don't get "why." Unless they have a plan to be done with Damon this makes little sense. Is he a defensive upgrade anywhere? Can he produce a high OBP? F this longball bullshit these Yankees are obsessed with. They can't generate runs. This pursuit of another home run is tired, and obviously doesn't work. I want speed, defense, and guys who can get base hits or walks. Alex, Matsui, Jorge, and Jeter can all drive in the runs with doubles and homers. If there's no one on base though, these guys can't put a dent in these deficits. Hell, they even struggle when there ARE guys on base. -------------------------- Oh well, it was another fun couple weeks. But like both other times this year, it was just a mirage. Still can't count them out, but they can't afford another losing streak, and with the risk of 4 in a row coming tomorrow, it's not looking like October is our season this year.
I thought it was pretty clear the other day that the evidence blatantly does not back up your statement that he "always has been, always will be" crap. This year, Moose has been bad more often than he has been good, but he had a good June, and I think he still has the ability to be a decent pitcher for the Yanks. Once Hughes is back, he'll ultimately be filling the role of #5 pitcher (#4 at most) and, for that role, is serviceable. Man, he can be annoying to watch pitch, though. Especially when he's off. As for the Duncan move, Torre said the plan was to give Damon a few days off (hence Duncan being here as the DH), but Melky complained of sore abs (he strained them yesterday), and so Damon was in CF. Over the longer run of the season, he makes sense as a more powerful bat off the bench, which is something the Yanks sorely lack.
You can blame this loss on the hangover from the day before. Losses like that have this kind of effect. Hopefully it doesn't carry on for the next week now.
I understand your evidence argument. Without getting into a long and drawn out argument, I'll just state simply that stats lie. I'm a seeing is believing guy. Did ARod suck last year? Yes. Did his stats prove it? No. Stats don't show how many innings he ended watching strike 3, or how many times he left multiple runners on while grounding into a DP. I argued with devil earlier this year that the Yankees totally own Wakefield, but his showing of Tim's career stats "proves" otherwise. All I know is that whenever we face Wakefield, I'm a happy guy, and quite confident we'll be gaining a game on Boston that day. ERA doesn't tell a whole story. Neither does a guy's record. A guy could have a 2.50 ERA, and still lose more often than not. Another guy could be 18-5, but have an ERA of 8.25. Any stat is subject to manipulation. I know statjeff would fume at this, but it's true. Sure, stats can clarify a picture, but that picture is still subject to indivdual interpretation. Simply put, I'm never confident when Mussina is on the mound. Again, last night I don't put on his shoulders. When the team refuses to score for 6.5 innings against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, they DESERVE to lose, regardless of who is on the mound. ----------------------- On the subject of Duncan, anyone notice Melky is starting to become oft-injured? It's only a game here and there, but that disturbs me. If we're dealing with another glass-man, we'd be better off trading him now. I don't have a problem with your reasoning for having Duncan here. That's fine by me. As long as it's not to replace Phillips, who has been a sparkplug for this sputtering offense.
Okey dokey. In that case, I'm not sure where these discussions can go. No offense meant. Really. It's just that it'd be like trying to talk evolution with a creationist, because you'll always give credence to that which you already believe (or that which you already believe you saw). All this, despite the fact that perception is misleading far, far, far more often than stats. Especially in baseball, of all sports. Too much information to accurately process in your brain without stats, and human psychology leads you to reinforce that which you already believe. (In other words, you're more likely to notice these psychological "hits" than the "misses" that don't fit in with the schema you already have in place.) They actually have stats on situational events, and - if you cared to check - you'd see that A-Rod wasn't really that bad compared to other players. He certainly didn't "suck." His K's were inflated, and he slumped at times, but all of this was done in comparison to his previous seasons. Yes, he had a down year. But it was a down year for A-Rod, by his standards, not a bad season, overall. What you "see" has the power to deceive you. Too much information to make an accurate judgment. That's why stats are useful. And your confidence is all well and good for you. Makes you feel nice. That doesn't mean it's an accurate assessment or that your confidence is well-placed. (I don't know the stats, so I can't speak specifically.) But this just seems to speak to the fact that the outcome (your mood) plays a larger role in these assessments than the stats do, since your mood will affect how you view each outing... with "good" outings from Wakefield being perceived as against the norm, while bad outings fit your idea of what should be happening. Studies have shown that even if it's 50/50 down the middle, humans will give more weight to the events that fit with their preconceived notions and mistakenly think that those events occurred more frequently than they actually did. Which is fine. In a lot of ways, that's a more pleasant manner in which to go through life. It's just not necessarily accurate. If you're defining "success" in terms of wins and losses, that makes no sense to me. I'll take a losing pitching with a 2.50 ERA over a "winning" pitching with a 4.50 ERA any day of the week. No semi-intelligent baseball fan judges a pitcher by his wins. And the most accurate ways to judge a pitchers performance in such an individually-based sport come from the peripherals. They're not foolproof, and they don't predict future performance 100% of the time, but they're a good indicator of how the pitcher is performing and that is very separate from whether it translates to the "success" of winning vs. losing. I'm not confident when Mussina is on the mound anymore, either. Of course, that has much more to do with the fact that his K/9 is way way down (lowest since 1994, and 2 full K's lower than any year since), his velocity is down, his K/BB ratio is at a career low, his pitches per plate appearance are at a career high. I'm not sure what that means for his ability. If his lack of velocity means he needs to make adjustments of even if he CAN make adjustments. But he DID have a decent June, so I don't think it's that he CAN'T pitch at this level. More likely, he's just going to be very inconsistent from here on out. He'll do well when his control is spot-on, but get knocked around the park when he's off. But it should also be noted that this lack of comfort I'm feeling is due to THIS YEAR. I think Moose has really lost something this year, due to age, or whatever, and the stats bear that out. This isn't because of some pseudo-grudge I've held against him in the past. It's certainly not because I think he's "always" been crap.
This lineup is great... Phillips has been on fire and Duncan has amazing potential. I saw him at SWB and he was clearly the best hitter out there.
Yeah, no kidding. And it's probably Proctor AND Duncan. This would be the stupidest move in a sea of stupid moves made by Cashman. A good reliever and what looks to be a good prospect for another 1st baseman. And what happens when Giambi and his 23 million dollar salary is ready to return? You can only have one DH. On another note, I will be thrilled if DeSalvo can go 5 innings and only give up 2 runs tonight like Igawa did today.
