Friday, June 18, 2010

Subway Series Weekend

The Yankees seemed to have cured the Phillies offensive struggles in that last series, losing 2 of 3 to them. Couple that with the Mets finally winning on the road (though beating the Indians isn't a huge achievement)and all signs would indicate the Mets may have the momentum heading into the Subway Series at the Stadium. I'm not buying into that just yet. Yankees have Vazquez, Hughes, and CC starting and the Mets are throwing Takahashi, Pelfry, and Santana. Some good pitching match ups there. Don't know if A-Rod will be playing in the field or just serve as pinch-hit duties. Cano is still hitting everything. And the Yankees have officially filed a missing persons report for Mark Teixeira, if anyone finds him tell him he's missed the first half of the season and get him to the Stadium immediately. Should be a fun weekend series.

On another interesting interleague match up...Dodgers head into Fenway...or I guess you could look at it as Manny back in Boston. The way he quit on the team at the end I bet he gets booed unmercifully, I don't care about the championships he helped win, he quit and next to cheating (oh yeah he did that too) is the worst thing in sports.

Lakers win in 7, did anyone outside of Boston or LA notice basketball was still going on?

16 comments:

Crash said...

Something to keep in view...a month ago the Red Sox were dead and buried. It's true the Yankees and rays are tied a top the AL East with MLB's best record (.621)...the third best winning percentage in MLB...RED SOX .588, only 2 games back. I must have been asleep at the wheel I didn't realize they had turned it around that quickly. The AL East is by far the best division in baseball and it is going to be a long good summer.

57 said...

Should be a really good battle in the Bronx this weekend. ESPECIALLY tomorrow with Big Pill and Hughes battling for #10. Your truly will also be gracing that eye sore in the Bronx. It kills me that I have been to Yankee Stadium twice and have yet to see Citi.

Prediction: Yankees 2 Wins Mets 1win. They will lose Friday, win Saturday and Santana NEVER pitches well in afternoon games.... there is a historic trend. I hope Im wrong.

Mid said...

Wow - where is the offense???

57 said...

Props for my prediction, please.

Crash said...

57 nice call on the 2-1 series (even though you got the Friday/Saturday games switched).A lot of questions seem to be popping up about Santana and his effectiveness. I think he'll still be close to 17-20 wins this season. He is notoriously a second half pitcher, it isn't out of the realm of possibility he goes something like 12-2 in the second half.

All in all it was a good weekend for the Yankees 2 out of 3 from the Mets, and they finish the weekend alone in 1st place in the AL East and have the best record in MLB. Both the Rays and Red Sox are a game back with the Rays just percentage points ahead of the Sox.

West coast games coming up for the Yankees. A day off today before they play 3 in Arizona and then to LA with the Joe Torre reunion.

My prediction Arizona smacks about 5 HR's off of Burnett tomorrow night.

57 said...

Not worried about Santana.. he threw one bad pitch... plus he did not get one stinking run... the Mets don't want to score for him for some reason.

old professor said...

Red Sox back in the hunt after a very slow start. If Beckett returns to form, they could be very tough to beat.

57 there should be concern about Santana. His velocity is way down and when there is little difference between his fastball and change-up,he gets hit hard. Speaking of getting hit, Halladay loses for the third straight time.

Yankees need to sweep the Diamondbacks to get some breathing room. My best guess is the division crown and wildcard will come down to the Yankees and Red Sox with the Rays just hanging around.

old professor said...

Burnett gets rocked again. How can a guy breeze through the first two batters, record outs and then gives up five runs. Follow that in the next inning by getting the first two out rather quickly only to give up another run. All seven runs that Burnett gave up came with two outs. By the time he left the game in what the fourth inning he had thrown almost 100 pitches. The guy is a head case and the Yankees need to make some kind of chnage.

In addition, the Yankees have now made the decision to skip Hughes against the Dodgers - poor decision - the kid was looking forward to pitching in his home area. the Yankees tried to baby Chamberlain and all it got them was an inconsistent starter last year and a more inconsistent bridge to Mariano this year.

Package Joba and Burnett to Seattle for Cliff Lee.

Crash said...

So I incorrectly said the Yankees had a day off yesterday...I was just regurgitating what John Sterling said in the radio broadcast. That's what I get for listening to John Sterling on the radio.

Anyway...I pretty much called Burnett's outing. in his first 6 outings his ERA was under 2...the last six starts his ERA is over 6!!! I think that's about a .500 pitcher with an ERA in the 4's. Hmmm.

I agree Old Prof skipping Hughes in LA is a poor decision. All the Yankees have to do is look at what they did to Joba, and look at what Texas is doing with their young pitchers. Pitchers use to go 300 innings in a season not 200. Guess what their arms didn't fall off then. Maybe it's all this babying of pitchers that is causing the injuries.

57 said...

Completely agree! When I heard they were sitting Hughes I was pretty pissed and I am not a Yankee fan. I am a fan of sports and I remember the days when Dwight Gooden and Ron Darling went 11 or 12 and I can count dozens of others. The game has not added innings; there have always been 9. The agents that have created the stats 'quality start' should be shot. In my book, and I am sure in most purist's books, a 'quality start' is if you win the game. PERIOD.

I hope Nolan Ryan's Rangers start a new trend in MLB that forces pitchers to pitch 8 or 9 innings so you don't need 1,000 people in the pen and cause for the inflation of your payroll because teams needs that '7th inning guy'. Good Lord.

If you start them in the minors and stretch their arms out for LONG outings, then MLB will start to get back to the game it once was.

57 said...

and im not sure if anyone noticed the Mets making Verlander look like a AA-er last night.

This Boesch kid on the Tigers is the real deal and Cabrera is fat.

old professor said...

I have said this before and I will say it again. It is not the number of innings a pitcher throws, but the number of pitches. A pitcher who is solid and can spot his pitches can throw 105-110 pitches in nine innings. A pitcher that hasn't got a clue where the pitch is going (read into this AJ Burnett or Dontrell Willis) will throw 100 pitches in five innings.

Unfortunately, most pitchers have the mindset that they need to pitch well for only six innings and turn it over to the pen.

Last nights game in Arizona was one ugly affair. Willis gave the Yankees every chance to blow the thing open in the first inning. Bad base running limited it to one run. Vasquez pitched terribly in the first inning, but seemed to settle down. Loading the bases in the bottom of the 10th with no outs and then getting out of the situation for the win was really a stretch for Mo.

57 said...

R. A. Dickey. Enough Said.

Crash said...

Heard on MLB radio that Hughes was being skipped because he was sore after his last outing and the Yankees are trying to keep it quite. If that's the case, then I don't have a problem with him being passed over, however if it's an attempt to keep the innings down then see the above comments.

Colin Curtis had a big hit for the Yankees in the 6th to tie it (at that point). Aaron Heilman was up to his old Met tricks again as he allowed A-Rod to tie it late on a sac fly and Grangerson with the big HR in the 10th.

Crash said...

I'm really looking forward to this Yankees/Dodgers series this weekend. CC should win tonight, AJ needs to win tomorrow, or at the very least not give up 7 runs in 2 innings...don't think they have officially announced who is starting on Sunday yet.

old professor said...

Watched the whole game last night. CC did a pretty good job though his location was off and on. Mo was Mo and struck out the side in the ninth. Torre got thrown out by the ump after the final out.

Yankees now have the chance to build on a three game lead. Rays are beginning to fade slightly and the Sox may end up losing Predroia for a while which will hurt them.

Will be out of contact for awhile as I head to the mile high city of Denver.

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