Yeah, but it is frustrating that we could have very easily won this series in Boston. A 2 run lead in the 9th is generally fuckin money for us, and a 6 run lead in the 4th with Burnett on the mound is a pretty safe bet. I'm not worried, but it would have been nice to win the first series at Fenway. Oh well :shit:
You're completely ignoring the point. No, in the standings, it never matters what you lost by. If the final score is 36-3 you still lost. The point is, you gave up a lot of runs, and didn't score. The Yankees would have won the games this past weekend, even without great pitching performances, if they could score runners who were on base. But we get guys to second and third and our hitters choke. It's fine that you're not worried yet. I'm not trying to convince anyone to jump off a bridge. I'm simply saying that there are far too many "dead weight" players on this team, and we're not going to win the way this team is composed right now. People can disagree with that, and that's fine.
We scored 11 runs on Saturday. Clearly it wasnt the cause of choking at the plate. Our pitching blew it this weekend, plain and simple.
They scored enough runs to win 2 of the 3, they didn't b/c of pitching. I would rather get crushed than lose the way we did Fri or Sat.
Here's why I disagree with that. You don't make that judgment after 18 games. You can't make that judgment accurately after 18 games. It's not possible. This isn't to say that you're right or wrong. Just that it's silly to make this kinds of proclamations. It's like watching the first half-inning of a ballgame and pretending to know what the final score is going to be.
I see what you're saying, and I'd normally agree with you. However, when I say "dead weight" players, I don't mean Gardner (because I assume that's who you assume I mean, but please correct me if I'm wrong.) The players I'm speaking about are: Matsui. Let's face it, he may get a hit here and there, but he is clearly a shell of his former self. He looks completely uncomfortable out there. It's time for him to hang up his cleats. Ransom. Granted, the DL took care of him, but he was a gaping hole in the lineup for weeks. It's not even like his defense was good enough to make up for his bat. Damon. This is a tough one, because when he's healthy, he's an offensive weapon. But his body is shot. When he hit the wall and went down the other night, I didn't think he was getting back up without help. At some point he's not going to. Nady. I don't know how I feel about him right now. Swish has struggled lately, but he's been pretty damn good over the past two months. Girardi clearly made the wrong decision coming out of camp (and I said that I liked Swisher more at the end of Spring training, even though I came into March a big Nady fan.) Obviously right now the DL makes this conversation irrelevant. Honorable mention: Wang. He's been flat out atrocious. I'm surely hoping that the Yankees aren't just full of crap with the whole "hips" thing, but if not, he's an anchor, and not for the rotation, more like the kind that sinks really quickly and keeps the ship from moving forward. Then there's the pen. Albaladejo is either masterful, or nothing more than a BP machine. Edwar has finally been exposed as a one-trick pony. Marte is a lefty specialist that can't retire lefties (where have we Yankees fans heard that before?) Veras is toast. I'm confident Coke will be fine over the long haul. I like that Melancon had a good outing. Robertson makes me nervous, but I'd like to see him succeed. I really hope Bruney is okay and can come back after a short DL stint. I'd like to see a pen of: Coke, Robertson (conditionally,) Aceves, Melancon, Bruney, and Mo by the end of May. Maybe Albaladejo (again, conditionally) gets to stay, and one more middle-innings guy. One of those pen slots needs to go to an additional positional player though. We're carrying too many pitchers and too few bench options. I'd actually like to have another catcher on the roster. When Posada DHs it completely wrecks the moves available (and makes me sweat the entire game.) I'm actually cool with keeping Gardner, as long as it's a rotation between him and Cabrera. The two of them seem to thrive off the implied competition between each other. Plus, at least both of them can be asked to bunt once in a while (though Melky needs a few lessons.) The lack of Alex Rodriguez continues to plague the team. Pena and Berroa just aren't MLB-ready. One or the other on the team would be great, as a backup, but relying on either to make daily starts at third is a lot to ask of either of them. (I would be okay carrying both if we dropped a pitcher from the pen though.) Yeah, I ranted pretty hard earlier in the day. Between feeling like the Jets' draft sucked and the Yankees getting punched in the mouth repeatedly, I was at the end of my nerves. There's time to turn things around, as I've said, but there needs to be turnover on this team. I've calmed down about both things though, so we'll see what happens. We need a big rebound against Detroit. Go Hughes!
^we're carrying like 23 pitchers because the entire pen sucks. Which as you mentioned leaves us with absolutely no bench. The fact that CF is covered by a Gardner/Melky platoon makes me long for omar Moreno
I had no idea who you meant. I think it's a strange claim to make twenty games into the season, regardless of who you were talking about. This baffles me. You realize he's put up better numbers than Jeter (whose praises you were singing) so far, right? Okay... a replacement player is dead weight. This surprises you? There's a reason why he (and Berroa, and Pena) are replacement players. Damon -- better numbers this year than both Posada and Jeter. You're concluding that his body is shot based on what, exactly? That he was bruised when trying to catch a ball off the metal wall? Wait... I thought this team didn't have enough heart? *shrugs* No argument here. Whaddyagonnado? It's an injury. He's not dead weight, because he's not on the roster. See, this is where I think you're not paying attention or just making stuff up. Albaladejo has had eight appearances this year. Six have been great. Two, not so much (one of them was a laugher at the time he came in, and he was asked to throw three innings). Where do you get this idea that he's Jekyll/Hyde. (If anything, I'd give that title to Veras, since he's been that way for almost three seasons now.) And I'm also not sure how you get that Edwar has "finally been exposed" from six outings (four good, two bad). Veras is inconsistent. Always has been. No options left on him, though. I have no problem cutting him loose eventually, but I think the Yanks are going to give him a little more time. He's maddening to watch when he's not on... but even he hasn't been bad enough for you to make these kinds of judgments after eight appearances. Marte? I don't know. He's looked awful in nearly every outing. But I think something's up with his arm... he came back from the WBC injured, and he doesn't look like his old self. I don't disagree with having another position player on the bench... but a third catcher doesn't really offer much for flexibility, either, you know. Dude, Berroa won the AL Rookie of the Year a few years ago. He's (generously) listed as 31 years old. The problem is not that he's not MLB ready... it's that he sucks and stopped giving a shit about conditioning and practice. This is due to A-Rod's injury. I'm not sure what you're expecting here. If you're considering them dead weight because they're doing pretty much what's expected of backup players, I don't know what to tell you. And the nice thing about those two (and Ransom, too) is that they play multiple infield positions. So I don't know, man. A lot of your complaints seem to be injury related (which seems a strange thing to rant about... there's not much you can do) or not really based on actual performance. *shrugs*
Except that this on top of years of the same old crap. This season is as predictable as sunrise. By September we'll be in the race for the division/wildcard. And then in mid-October, the boys in pinstripes will be watching the playoffs from their couches, just like us. Oh really? Which of those numbers exactly? Code: Player TEAM POS G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI TB BB SO SB CS OBP SLG AVG 1. D Jeter NYY SS 18 77 12 23 4 0 4 11 39 7 10 3 0 .357 .506 .299 2. H Matsui NYY DH 15 50 6 14 4 0 2 4 24 9 7 0 0 .400 .480 .280 Do you mean his OBP? Sure, Matsui has a better OBP. And it doesn't mean squat. Jeter has more hits, more runs, and more RBI. You know, the stats that actually help your team win? I don't know how many ways to say it, but what I want is players who help the team win, not stat compilers. I'm not worried about my fantasy team. Who said anything about being surprised? My problem is when a guy like Ransom just keeps getting the opportunity to fail, no matter how bad. I'd much rather watch "the future" like Pena, than continue to watch a guy who couldn't break into the majors until his kids started college. (Yes, I'm being a little ridiculous, whatever.) Based on him saying in the past that his legs are tired? Based on him hitting the wall and staying down for a while? Based on his shoulder injury from crashing into the wall last year? And you're ignoring that I specifically said he's an offensive weapon as long as he's healthy. I like Damon, I just fear what the contingency plan is when his body just can't take the wall crashes anymore. Is he actually injured? That's a question I have. Or did they tell him that he has no choice but to take a two week break? Sure, he's not on the roster, but unless Hughes comes in throwing fireballs we've lost what we should have gotten from Wang. (Not that I don't have faith in Hughes. In a way I'm almost happier, since I think Hughes has a higher ceiling than Wang.) Okay, I'll give you the selective memory on Albaladejo. I wasn't happy he made the team in the first place. He took the spot that should have went to Aceves or Giese, and it immediately bit us when we needed long relief early on. Veras is just infuriating. I think it's easy to agree on him. He's a one-trick pony. He throws his change, and when he misses, he gets lit up. It's going to get worse. (I'll give you that this is my expectation more than enough evidence yet.) So how long does he get? This season on top of last year isn't a large enough body of evidence? Somehow, regardless of whatever he's shown he's going to suddenly "get it" and be on all the time? He wasn't all that great since he's been here to begin with. Another NL pitcher who can't hack the AL. And even if we are to believe it's an injury, isn't him not saying anything making him dead weight? A third catcher doesn't offer a lot of flexibility, but if Girardi is going to continue to bat Posada as a DH on his non-catching days, we need another catcher. (I'd love it if there was someone who could do emergency duty as a catcher, but who was a utility infielder.) So he's not MLB-ready. Yes, like I've said, it's due to ARod's injury. That doesn't make it any easier to deal with them playing every day. Except that practically every complaint I made was directly related to performance. I mean, unless we're now excusing people for injuries to others.
