With multiple catchers. But I think you might be kind of missing the point. You have so many potentially confounding factors that it's silly to make claims about any potential effect that a particular catcher might have on a pitcher's performance during a season (or two or three).
Well, most of the weekend was fun. I was actually surprised to see CC be the guy to get revenge, rather than Burnett. I like it though. That's being a good teammate. FTR: I agree with devil. Beckett wasn't trying to hit anyone but Cano. Cano I firmly believe was on purpose, but throwing at Cervelli's head and hitting Jeter were just Beckett trying to force pitches and having lost any control whatsoever. That doesn't change the fact that he's a raging cockfiend. It's nice to see Tex breaking out. I'm still laughing that people were ripping him last month. This is Teixeira. Invisible in April, MVP candidate the rest of the way. Hughes is awesome. I don't know if there's much else that can be said about him and do him justice. Burnett's story was the one I feared (and figured would happen.) I haven't had a chance to see what his stats are for his career in Fenway, but I have a feeling that's one of his worst parks to pitch in, if not the worst. He just seems to struggle there. Ah well. We took the series. I'd have loved a sweep, but I'll take it. I saw some mentions of Nick Johnson. I'm glad people are finally starting to be vocal about that shitbag. He's the biggest red X on what is quickly becoming a horrid winter for Brian Cashman. We let Damon and Matsui go. Now we have Nick Johnson, who sucked as the every day DH, out indefinitely. We had Curtis Granderson, but he's out a month too. So we get a rotation of Randy Winn and Marcus Thames in left. While Austin Jackson tears the ball apart. Now we'll get to see Sergio Mitre fill in for Pettitte, rather than the awful Javy Vagquez. Off-seasons are really easy when you're able to sign CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett, and Mark Teixeira. It's those seasons where you dump your World Series MVP to pick up a known injury risk and dump a guy who played hurt for guys who no one else wanted that define you. Cashman's star shines far less brightly today for me, and I've been a big Cashman fan all along.
Beckett threw at Cervelli after he called time out. Beckett glared at Cervelli and he busted him up and in.
Eh. I still didn't think it was intentional at the time. With Beckett, you definitely never know, but I just felt his control was suspect after he started off really well. And again, whatever the circumstances of anything that happened, he's still a douchebag who is perfect for that city.
Good series. Nothing too much to complain about...you will get a stinker out of Burnett every now and then. On to Detroit.
So you kind of rip on people for judging Teixeira after one month of the season... but then go on to judge Cashman's acquisitions after one month of the season? (A month in which the Yanks have played historically good baseball, too, regardless of the production of the acquisitions.) Let's not forget the time line. The Yanks went after Damon. They wanted him back, remember? His contract demands were unreasonable. He wanted a three or four year deal. They still wanted Damon when Matsui signed with LAA. Two days later, with Damon still asking for 2/$22M, they went for Nick Johnson instead. By the way, just for comparison, since we're apparently judging players based on one month of producting, the World Series MVP Hideki Matsui's OPS is a robust .700. Moves don't always work out. Shit happens. People get hurt. So while I understand judging moves based on results, context does help. I mean, sure, you're missing Matsui (who's sucking) and you don't like Vazquez because of his shitty start... but you really want Melky Cabrera back? He's put up a lovely .502 OPS to start the year. As bad as Vazquez has been so far, Melky's been worse. But the Yanks won another series, on the road, against Boston. That's the important part.
This thing with Johnson's wrist, they said it's the same had he had problems with before. Do the Yankees shop for a DH?? I know DH isn't a need because they've been winning without production there but just a thought. Could it mean against lefties, Cervelli C, Posada DH until further notice?
I tried to look up Burnett's history at Fenway on Baseball-Reference. It found 8 games, but will only allow me to view the previous 3 without subscribing. All 3 games were losses, and in none of them did he get past the 5th. If anyone has a subscription to them, I'd be curious to know what the other 5 results are. Here's the address of the page I was on: http://www.baseball-reference.com/p...5val=1.0&c5pgl_b=&firstgames=&firstteamgames= I have a feeling that he's never performed well at Fenway. As in signifcantly worse there than any other field. EDIT: Actually, according to an article on the Yankees' website, Burnett had won his previous 3 starts at Fenway prior to joining the Yankees. However, in his past 7 starts against the Red Sox in general, he's 0-2, with an 8.35 ERA. Maybe he just gets himself worked up before facing them? He's admitted to feeding into the rivalry.
They've already clearly said they will not bat Posada as DH. Makes sense. You don't bat your catcher DH with your only backup catcher in the lineup. I think (hope) they give Miranda a chance to come up. Let's see what he can do, or at least give him a shot to become some nice trade bait in a couple months. I don't see the Yankees making any trades in the immediate future, but at some point they'll have to address limp dic...I mean wrist...
It's pretty easy to look up manually. Just go to game logs for each year and look for starts at Fenway. It takes a little bit of effort, but not too much, and at least you don't have to subscribe.
