You can’t spell embarrassing without Barra.
Perhaps the most disheartening thing was once again watching C.C. Sabathia look un-hittable in early innings and then all of a sudden run out of steam. It has become painfully obvious that he is not and probably never will be the big game ace the Yankees have always tried to see him as. Wednesday’s game was absolutely crucial, but Sabathia, who whizzed through the first two innings on just 18 pitches with three strikeouts, nearly lost it all in the 3rd, giving up 5 hits and surrendering the lead 3-2.
...Actually, Sabathia’s performance was the second most disheartening thing in the game. Even worse was he performance by Joba Chamberlain, who, despite all logic, was brought in by Girardi in the 9th to keep the game at 6-5, Toronto. Instead, Joba gave up a double to Escobar which made it 8-5 and then hit a batter.
But now, at age 26, he looks like a relic from Double-A ball who is working his way back into the bigs by learning to throw a knuckler. The old sinking fastball and hard breaking slider are gone. So, too, is the look of barrel-chested intimidation that he used to project. Yankee press information now lists him at 250 pounds, about 15-20 more than he carried a few years ago when Joe Torre and his staff couldn’t seem to decide instituted “the Joba rules,” limiting his work load while paradoxically trying to decide whether they wanted him to be the greatest starter or greatest reliever of all time.
This year Joba’s given up 16 hits and four walks in just 7.1 innings for a ridiculous 8.59 ERA. Why the Yankees still have him on the roster is another mystery, but one that they can no longer afford to try and solve as the Orioles come to the Bronx for the biggest series so far this season.
Repoz
Posted: August 31, 2012 at 07:38 AM |
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1. RollingWave Posted: August 31, 2012 at 08:23 AM (#4223332)\bitter
\yes, very
TL;DR: I'm not bothered/concerned by the performance of any one Yankee because there is no juggernaut this year.
I don't think it's necessarily weak but it lacks a "holy crap" team. Going through BBRef there is a chance that 2012 will be the first time since 1992 that no team outscored its opponents by at least 1 run per game. I think all the playoff teams do have holes (though I think Texas is pretty damned close to not having any) so there is no end result of any possible series that would surprise me at this point.
I think the relative newness of the top teams plays into this. For some reason Texas doesn't get the "fear factor" coverage the Yankees or Red Sox got despite being two time AL champs and being damned good this year. Washington is a newcomer to the post-season and Cincinnati is pretty close to it with just one post-season appearance in the 2000s. These teams are all very very good and deserving of being favorites but the perception is different.
Again, this might be because I just haven't paid as much attention this year, but Texas' starting pitching seems like something the Yankees, for example, would feast upon.
Wow.
Well the Yankees are third in the AL in runs and second in OPS+ so they feast on most teams' pitching. The Texas pitching is weaker than it was in 2010-2011 certainly but they have an excellent bullpen so they can be a bit aggressive in the post-season.
I think you're onto something though. I suspect that this post-season, maybe more than any other in recent memory, is going to be like a series of boxing matches where the styles truly make the fights.
In what was this game remotely crucial? The Yankees lost, and still lead the AL East by 3 and the wild card race by 4.5.
Weren't the Phillies last year's "holy crap" team?
Four Yankee starters would have DL stints, including CC twice.
Rivera and Gardner wouldn't play 10 games; either of them
The Yankee cleanup hitter as of August 29 is Steve Pearce
Jeter would have one less home run than Alex Rodriguez
Our catcher would hit .195 - BA is overrated, but I simply can't remember an everyday player on a pennant contender with that sort of average
Either Andruw Jones or Raul Ibanez is in the lineup every day, and they're both playing the field a lot
The team is in first place by three games at the end of August, and the Red Sox have exploded and are completely out of it
most Yankee fans would have taken it.
Carlos Pena hit .196 in 2010 for the Rays and he's hitting .188 this year.
That's the only sub-.200 comp I could find since 2000 (yay BBRef!). If you stretch it out a bit to sub-.210;
Adam Dunn - .204 in 2012
Dan Uggla - .208 in 2012
Jason Varitek - .209 in 2009
Sluggers and catchers seems to be the way to go. I was eyeballing it but the lowest regular average I could find for a guy who wasn't in one of those categories on a contender was Punto at .228 in 2009.
I immediately went to Yadier's 2006 when he hit .216 (it's pretty cool that a guy top five in average this year, was that bad at one point in time...drawback of being brought up to soon before his bat reached his glove quality)
I do think it's funny that the article is implying the Yankees are in trouble because CC "isn't an Ace".... not really sure how much having an Ace or three helped out the Phillies. I think writers focus on pitching ace to much in a mistaken belief that they are as important to a teams post season success as a quarterback is to football.
Weren't the Phillies last year's "holy crap" team?
Yes and they are "wholly crap" this year!
According to Barra, a 124 ERA+ while dealing with injuries no ace, especially when he's killing the bullpen by averaging only 7 innings per start and killing the bullpen.
A real ace are guys like Hernandez or Verlander, who don't get hurt so they pile up innings pitching less than 6.5 per game.
It's better when you just check the BB-Ref page and don't actually have to watch him flail away.
I wonder if the author even watched the game. The "Double" was a bloop fly ball to RF that in my opnion any RF except the one out there would have caught. (And darned if I can figure out why Ichiro is in LF and Jones in RF when for the past few years they have been playing the opposite.)
He got a foul pop up behind the plate and one K. So, NO hard hit balls and one can even argue that it bordered on dominant. At least for one game.
Has anyone done a study on whether or not a team with an "ace" does better in the post season? And by ace I mean someone who was an ace before the post-season, not an average guy who turned in an ace performance (e.g., Kenny Rogers). Obviously, having one of those guys is very correlated to winning. is it possible that there really is no real truth and that Koufax tainted everyone's view?
The problem is that most teams do have an ace, so it's going to roughly equal out. In today's game the pen is arguably as important as the starting pitcher for a short series. Baseball is not football, even with an ace performance, you are talking about a guy who figures into 50% of one game out of a minimum of three games, and of course he will usually be facing off against the other teams 'ace equivalent'.
I think when going into the post season, to evaluate the pitching, you have to look at the top three starting pitchers on the team, and the top 4 relievers. Those are the guys that are going to figure into the game when the score is still being contested.
If the Os get swept this weekend, their changes at the division go from long shot to no shot. But they'd be, at worst, 1.5 games out of the wild card spot, so their season wouldn't be over.
They were the most dominant team for years and built especially for success in the playoffs, if that's what you mean.
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