Im not saying the season is over because we lost 3 games in April either. The part that Im concerned with is the performance of the people the Sox call up from their system versus our call ups. Tonight was a great example with the three kids that shut us down.....then you got the Ellsburys, the Lesters and Pedroias....and we ave brett gardner and phil hughes and meljy cabrera. That worries me. And if your rival with whom you compete every year for the division continues to pruduce top talent while you produce Brett Gardner, you're going to beon the losing end if lots of division races to follow.
Sample size, dude. Sample size. This kind of attitude has everything to do with expectations, very little to do with reality. You see Ellsbury have one semi-good game, and you're fighting Jon Miller for dick sucking space. Ellsbury has sucked so far this year (OPS .695)... almost as bad as Gardner has sucked this year, in fact. And Melky has been significantly better than him this year, believe it or not (OPS 1.053). Pedroia has been great for the Sox... but Cano has been great for the Yanks, too. You also bring up Hughes, who hasn't even pitched for the team this year, and was injured for most of last year, but extol Lester's virtues, despite his league-average stats. Just relax and watch the year play out. The Yankees have plenty of talent, and the law of averages will assert itself by mid-September.
I'm sorry, but I have to agree more with jonnyd these days. All the individual stats in the world don't mean jack shit when you look at stats like RISP. I don't give a flying rat's ass that Cano is beating the piss out of the ball. Yeah, it's awesome to see Cano hitting, but no one after him can make contact with the ball. Matsui is no longer a major leaguer. It's time to cut ties. They showed his OPS OBP whatever last night, and I was like "Oh shit, really?" And it's not because I'm being selective with my memory, it's because he's not hitting the ball when guys are on base. Brett Gardner is not a major league ballplayer. I'd rather Melky got the starts over him at this point. That's not even a thumbs up to Melky, it's just that Gardner is that worthless. Teixeira has been disappointing. His defense has definitely been a godsend to watch after years of Giambi, but at the plate he just looks lost. I know he's a slow starter, so I'm not ready to give up on him yet, but as the supposed anchor in the lineup, he's not getting the job done. It's time to start facing the music with Damon. He's hitting, no matter what the situation, so it's tough to think about, but his body is falling apart. The last thing we need is more players headed for the DL. Swisher has imploded. I'm just hoping he gets it turned back around, but damn, this was a bad time to fall off a cliff. Third base is just a big gaping hole for us. Anyone who cheers that ARod still isn't back deserves a punch in the mouth, and I almost gave it to my brother yesterday. But of course he'll come back and start grounding into inning-ending DPs anyway. I don't see what the complaint with Posada is. Between him and Jeter, they're the only two guys I ever want to see at the plate anymore with RISP. As for pitching, holy shit what a shitstorm of suck. I don't give a damn if guys can pitch against the Royals. Beat the gawddamn Sawx. See, this whole "It's only April, don't put too much weight on the first Boston series" only goes so far. If the Yankees were playing well, then yeah, it would be a valid argument. But when the Yankees are stranding dozens of guys in scoring position, and the pen is being utterly failtastic, it's something to worry about. They've been getting their asses kicked by the likes of the Indians, Rays, and Red Sox. We may split series, but we're getting getting outscored by a lot. You can sit back and not worry all you like, but this is clearly the same team we've been seeing every year over this decade. It sits back on its stats and believes that it will be better by the end than it actually is. Meanwhile, the Sox are putting together good innings. Getting runners on base, stealing, getting base hits to move guys over. Getting good relief pitching. Showing fucking heart. Yeah, yeah, OPS, OBP, ERA+, OB/GYN, XP, FU, whatever. All those stats look really pretty. Except when they don't show up in the boxscore. You could see a clear difference in the heart of these two teams with the same exact play, in two different games. Melky hit a game-winner last week, and the team hugged, did a couple bounces at first, then was off the field and probably showered by the time Swisher's post-game interview was done. Youkilis won the game the other night and they were partying on the field like they just won a playoff game. The Yankees play dead. As has been said, there's no confidence that they'll make a comeback late in a game. There's no moving runners. Shit, no matter who gets on base, there's never a guy coming up who can fucking bunt. Fuck this "wasted at-bats" bullshit. Sacrifice bunts work. Every asshole on this team making 14 million dollars should be able to lay one down to move a runner over with no outs. There should be none of this bullshit "Well, you can't ask Teixeira to bunt Jeter over, he has a chance to hit a double and score Jeter." Fuck. That. Shit. If you're hitting and scoring, then fine, let guys swing. But they're not. A sacrifice bunt is much better than a K. Shit, Gardner's sole usefulness is that he should be moving around the basepath when he actually gets on. Yet no one wants to move him over. Girardi is a terrible manager. Terrible. Terrible decision making skills is his trademark. I don't want to hear the write-offs based on single calls in single games anymore. He makes bad decisions over and over again. That's not selective memory, that's remembering that he doesn't make good calls. Ever. Whatever. I know somebody is going to tell me I'm wrong. I don't care. This team reminds me of the ones I used to watch as a kid. The one with names like Dave Winfield, Don Mattingly, Rickey Henderson. Tons of potential for runs, and every 3 or 4 days you'd get 10 of them. Then you'd spend the next half of the week waiting for them to score once. It was the same garbage. A bunch of big names, and no one plays like a team. The Yankees just got swept by one of the best teams in the sport. Congrats Sox fans, you legitimately kicked our asses.
Alio, do you mind if I quote your post in September? Because I'm willing to bet that you'll be embarrassed by that vent. Aside from that, I'll just say, yes, dude... your memory is very selective.
Well, well..there is more in that rant that I agree with then disagree with however most of it I have being saying all along anyway. I would have to think Girardi is already walking on thin ice although I have no idea who they would replace him with. Maybe Valentine if he isn't working now.
Congrats to devil and the sox fans, they are playing excellent baseball. I know we'lls ee the Yankee fans jumping off cliffs b/c of this series but it's still very early and this series always seems to start out w/ Boston sweeping or taking 2 of 3 then it always seems to even out.
I would have felt better about had we lost the games by losing them fromm the beginning. Blowing a 4-2 in the bottom of the 9th and a 6 pt lead is unacceptable.
It was an AWFUL weekend, losing those first 2 games in the manner which we lost was as bad as could be BUT it's still April and we always have games like that w/ the Sox.
I really don't give a shit if someone quotes me, but do it in November. Because with this overpaid shitshow anything less than a World Series appearance is unacceptable. Half a billion dollars pays for shit. You're damn right I'm going to rant. You know why? It's because this team is embarassing. The haters are right, the Yankees try year after year to buy titles, and they still suck ass. With all the money they spend they should compete. It's inexcusable not too. But who gives a damn? For all this money, they should at the very least win the division, and the pennant. I'm finally done with this bullshit of spending all this money every year to grab every single top guy on the market. The Sox spend loads less and have a better team. All my ranting is a bit unfair to the Sox fans because their team is just flat out better. They played better because they are better. They get hits when it matters, read: clutch. The Yankees strike out with RISP. Twenty something chances with RISP, and how many runs scored from them? All the OPS and whatever other stats you want to quote mean squat compared to that. Shrug off whatever you want with this "selective memory" crap. I really don't give a shit. The fact is, this team can't beat good teams, just like it's been over the better part of the past decade. They can beat up on the Royals, or the As all they want. Eventually, they're going to have to play "important" games in the cooler months against teams with solid rotations, good pens, and run-manufacturing lineups. You know, like those Red Sox we just got swept by. I hate John Miller and Joe Morgan, but they were absolutely right last night. This team needs an overhaul. I want to have confidence in this team, but right now, unless it's Jeter at the plate with runners on, I have zero confidence in anyone.
You know, I would be of the same mindset if the entire month wasn't filled with mediocrity. @ Baltimore: L: 10-5 L: 7-5 W: 11-2 Y: 21 B: 19 @ KC: W: 4-1 W: 6-1 L: 6-4 Y: 14 KC: 8 @TB L: 15-5 W: 7-2 W: 4-3 Y: 16 TB: 20 Cle: L: 10-2 W: 6-5 L: 22-4 W: 7-3 Y: 19 Cle: 40 Oak: W: 5-3 W: 9-7 Y: 14 Oak: 10 @Bos: L: 5-4 L: 16-11 L: 4-1 Y: 16 Bos: 25 We're scoring less than a handful more than teams we should be much better than, and getting pummeled by others. (I don't even know which category the Indians should be put in. They shit on our doorstep, but they aren't winning a lot otherwise.)
We lost the Baltimore series. We won the KC series (big deal.) We won the TB series, but got smacked around in the first game. We neither won nor lost the Cleveland series, but considering the two spankings we got, I'd say that should lean more towards a lost series. We won the Oakland series (again, yippie-dee-doo.) And we were taken out back by the Red Sox in a sweep. Sometimes the situation goes beyond the individual statistics, boxscores, and standings. The Yankees, like every year over the past (at least) half-decade, can't beat the good teams on a consistent basis. They can't drive in runs when runners are in scoring position. They can't rely on the bullpen, no matter what the rotation does. These are recurring storylines, and while every year has the opportunity to be a new story, it's hard to ignore the signs that things aren't changing, no matter how many new faces are introduced. Trust me, I'd love to come back in a couple months and say "Holy crap I was wrong!" I don't enjoy ragging on my favorite sports franchise. I love the Yankees. At this point, I've finally come back around to my youth where the Yankees were the center of my sports universe, even more than the Jets. But it gets tiring, seeing the same old garbage over and over. ------------------- Oh, and I didn't mention it earlier, but I'd never knock Girardi for not using Mo for a 4-out save. No matter what happens, Mo should never pitch more than an inning. I'd be pissed we lost anyway, but I want Mo to be used exclusively for one inning of work.
we have lost just 2 series. You can make whatever excuses you want to make but that's a fact. Teams do not get more wins for blowing another team out so we beat Cle twice and lost twice, we beat TB twice and lost just once. We aren't even out of April and the panic from yankee fans is comical.
It's also a fact that through 18 games we've been outscored by 22 runs. And it's not a matter of whether a team "gets more wins for blowing another team out" it's a matter of getting blown out. This month may not be "critical" (though I don't get how April games are any less important than September games, either way you have to win x number of games,) but the performance shown by this team so far screams "Same old story" to me. This has nothing to do with panic. I can't control what happens on the field. Who knows? My hope all along has been that things will make a huge turnaround once Alex is back in the lineup. That should help out throughout the order, since it will knock our bottom hitters down a notch, and eliminate one completely. Like I said, I'd love to come back a couple months from now and say "Hey, I'm happy to have been totally off-base" but I don't see it happening.
Losing by 1 or 10 doesn't matter, they all count the same. Did they award TB or Cle more wins b/c they blew us out? I think the lineup has been fine, the pitching has been the problem and I think long term the staff will be fine so I am not worried at all YET.
