Why you hatin' on Moseley? Shit start tonight but he's, for the most part, been a good bandaid for us.
Holy fuck Marcus Tims is hotter than the sun. Gonna suck when the WS moves to the National League park.
Thames is just like Pedro Cerrano from Major League: ridiculous power, but he can't hit a curveball. It is just mindboggling to me that any pitcher throws Marcus Thames a fastball over the plate, yet they keep doing it.
Eh... First off, it was Oakland. Derek Jeter could hit 50 home runs a year if he played Oakland 162 times. It's not a good sign that Hughes is struggling. He pitched "well enough" to contribute to the win, but he's walked a lot of guys lately and that's just not going to get the job done next month. I mentioned this in the prospects thread, but Albaladejo is on his way along with Moeller and Golson. Other guys will get calls when SWB's season is officially over but they're in the playoffs. The Yankees actually won the Ted Lilly waiver claim but now those douchebags don't want to make a trade. F Torre. I hope he gets fired. Rumor I heard last night: When Girardi becomes the manager of the Cubs in a few months the new Yankees manager will be recently "retired" Lou Pinella. I'm conflicted on how I feel about that. Definitely better than Bobby Valentine, but I'm not sure Pinella is the guy for this team.
Two things: 1. I'll eat my hat if that happens. 2. Pinella is the worst kind of old school manager. Dumb moves like Torre, only he has a mean streak. Who was it that he left out there to throw 160 pitches when he was managing the Devil Rays? No thanks. ETA: Make that three things... Oakland's pitching is actually their strength. Or it's supposed to be, anyway. They're playing in a big park in the AL West, so their numbers are inflated. But Gonzalez and Cahill are both pretty good pitchers.
Two things: 1) I agree with you on Pinella. The nasty attitude is the biggest issue for me. This team won't respond to that. It's all prima donnas on this team. They're not going to accept Pinella's rants. 2) The line about Oakland was just sarcasm. That's why I included the part about Jeter, playing off AMJ's remark the other day. :wink:
I know you were playing off his remarks... I was referring more to the "It's just Oakland" part of it. Or were you being sarcastic there, too? Because I agree the sentiment that it is "just" Oakland; the Yanks should beat these teams. But I also wanted to point out that, in the past two games, the bats have destroyed on the team with the best ERA in the AL. So, yeah, it's "just" Oakland. But there's reason to be pleased beyond the Yanks winning games against a team with a so-so record.
Oakland plays in a pitcher's park but they sure do have some great starting pitching. Cahill is 14-6 on a team with no lineup. When Kurt Suzuki and Jack Cust are your 3-4 combination, you got problems.
I completely agree with you. It's "just Oakland" so we should beat them, but it is impressive that we've hit so well. I wasn't being sarcastic about Hughes though. I'm really hoping he can get those walks down. It's weird to be concerned about the league's second-winningest pitcher, but still.
On the one hand, I agree that Hughes needs to cut down on the walks. On the other hand, if Hughes can give us 6 innings of 3 run ball in the playoffs it's not perfect but it should be good enough for us to win. And I don't think that we should be downplaying the Yankees hammering Oakland quite so much. Yes, they're a team that we should absolutely be beating. But they are a decent club, and we've totally pounded them into submission.
The thing with Hughes is, you can get away with giving up 6 walks to Oakland. You can't get away with that against Tampa Bay. Those 6 innings of 3-run ball will quickly turn into Burnettesque 2 innings of 8-run ball. I don't think anyone is downplaying the hammering of Oakland beyond jokes. We're hitting well at the moment, and Alex isn't even in the lineup. Our hitters are really on right now.
The thing is, people have been saying this about Hughes all year but he's actually only gotten shelled 2 or 3 times this season. He's got a lot of growing to do, but there's a reason that he's racked up 16 wins. When you're pitching in front of a lineup as good as the Yankees have, you really just have to keep them in the ballgame. Hughes has been able to do that all year, and although I'm not expecting him to turn into CC Sabathia overnight, I would be surprised if the wheels totally came off in October.
You're not hearing what I'm saying though. He's walked something like 9 batters in his last two outings, whereas in his previous 8 he walked something like 4 total. (I can't recall the exact numbers off the top of my head but I read them last night and they were night and day different.) Giving up that many walks to a team in the playoffs is suicide. You just can't give up that many free bases. Especially if you're playing a team like the Rays. I'm not even saying there's a problem yet. I'm just saying that this is disturbing and concerning if it becomes a trend.
I believe it was ten BBs in his last two outings, but only six in his previous six. He hasn't had command of his fastball (at all) in either of his two most recent starts. But two starts isn't really a trend. I doubt he has forgotten how to pitch forever. What was nice to see was that - once he knew the fastball wasn't working - he tried to go to his breaking stuff instead of just fastball after fastball after fastball.
Okay, that sounds more like the correct stat, thanks for that. Right, it's not a trend, and I really wasn't trying to make it out to be. I was only trying to make the point that he can't continue down this road. Right now it's not that big a deal if he struggles. We're pretty well assured a playoff spot. However, he needs to get his command in check before October. I'm not worried about him long-term. He's still the future ace of the staff in my opinion. I'm just worried about games around Columbus Day right now.
Berkman has been activated. Albaladejo, Moeller, and Golson are with the team. Vazquez has been given the start on Saturday, pushing Moseley back to the bullpen. FTR, I think this is the right decision and I really hope Javy is over his "dead-arm" issue. Andy Pettitte is throwing as I type this so no update yet. Brett Gardner was in the cage early today taking bunting practice. Bunting practice? Relatively weak lineup tonight in support of AJ: Jeter SS Swisher RF Tex 1B Cano 2B Thames DH Kearns LF Granderson CF Nunez 3B Cervelli C
