Friday, June 19, 2009
A Hard Rain
(The "You Gotta Be Kidding Me!" Edition)
Alright, if I put the over/under at 10.5 (for the Yankees' 15 games from the Nationals series through the Mariners series), the under is looking pretty darn good this morning. Last night, after the dreariest June day I can ever remember and an interminable, please-put-us-out-of-our-misery rain delay, the Yanks concluded what was nothing less than a deplorable series loss to the worst team in baseball. A team that is/was/maybe still is on pace to be one of the worst teams of all-time. A team that hadn't won a series since May 8-10, well over a month ago.
There's the Joba issue and the Wang issue that weigh on the make-up of this team on a daily basis, with the bullpen/starter/bullpen/starter scuttlebutt forever on an endless reel. Beyond those issues, which did rear their heads over the last few days no question, the Yankee bats went dead against the worst team at run prevention. In a series that was just begging for stat-padding, Robbie Cano-style, the rest of the team took a pass, opting for ridiculously quick & impatient at-bats early last night and waking up too late in all three games offensively to do much damage.
The Yanks dropped to 8-8 in June, and have now officially entered the next phase of their season. After a woeful April and a spitfire May, which carried into the first week or so of this month, the team has settled into the kind of malaise that has been the trademark of most of the Yankee teams post-'04. The difference this time around is that they're not floating around the .500 mark and in need of a 30-15 2nd half spurt to get back into contention. They're right there, still the favorites for the Wild Card, a manageable three games behind Boston. But when I hear my friends say things like, "This team is tough to watch" and "This team is tough to root for," well . . . this is the kind of thing they're talking about.
When the bats go dead on this team, even for three days (and granted it's more pronounced against the heretofore pitching-challenged Nats) it's like a four-alarm siren. Because the only thing about this team that even hints at being "special" is their offense. Their ability to get on base; their ability to hit home runs. And when those things go down the tubes, there's just not much there.
From the beats. McCarron first [Daily News]:
Jack Curry in the Times, with an idiotic quote from a once self-proclaimed idiot:
Hey Johnny, what does that make the people who weathered the delay, pun intended, and had to sit there and watch your half-assed performance?
Damon, by the way, is at the front of the line when it comes to the recent Yankee run of mediocrity. He's got four dingers and four doubles in June so he's slugging at a .500 clip for the month, which is fine (he was .500 in April and .565 in May), but his other main rate stats have plummeted.
Batting Average
.295 - April
.304 - May
.214 - June
OBP
.385 - April
.355 - May
.302 - June
From Pete Abraham's LoHud Blog:
For a beat writer, Pete doesn't mince words, which is why he probably has one of the top two or three most popular Yankee blogs on the planet.
Now the Yanks head off to that wasteland of a stadium to play the Marlins for three days. Yeah. Even if New York manages to take 2 of 3 in their next four series (Marlins, Braves, Mets, Mariners) they would still only hit the baseline of what I thought would be acceptable in these 15 games: 9-6. Amazing how a series loss to one team can change the colors of the landscape.
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Foot-In-the-Mouth Disease
Wrote this little nugget on Tuesday night:
They're even with the Rays as I write, but I imagine in 24-48 hours that will change, and once they fall behind them it's going to be brutal for the Jays to keep up the pace.
As of this morning, the Jays are now up two on the Rays after an fairly improbably sweep at Philadelphia. I was home from work a little earlier than usual yesterday, so I was able to catch the last few innings of the Toronto game. They showed a lot of grit, and the Phillies are now 13-19 at home (23-9 on the road).
Meanwhile, the Rays lost the last two games of the Rockies series, and have slid back to two over .500. The Rockies are back to the .500 mark for the first time since April. Catching L.A. is a pipe dream, as it is for everyone in the West, but Colorado is now just 2.5 games behind St. Louis for the Wild Card. As Neyer noted earlier this week, it's amazing what one hot streak in June can do for a club. This is a team whose season looked lost, its manager fired and issues to address on both sides of the ball. They're now a player in the playoff race.
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Most Interesting Series of the Weekend
Tampa @ New York (NL)
Milwaukee @ Detroit (The two leaders of the Central divisions)
Dodgers @ Angels (The halos have won six in a row, and are now within a game of the Yanks and 1.5 of the Rangers for the division lead)
(The "You Gotta Be Kidding Me!" Edition)
Alright, if I put the over/under at 10.5 (for the Yankees' 15 games from the Nationals series through the Mariners series), the under is looking pretty darn good this morning. Last night, after the dreariest June day I can ever remember and an interminable, please-put-us-out-of-our-misery rain delay, the Yanks concluded what was nothing less than a deplorable series loss to the worst team in baseball. A team that is/was/maybe still is on pace to be one of the worst teams of all-time. A team that hadn't won a series since May 8-10, well over a month ago.
There's the Joba issue and the Wang issue that weigh on the make-up of this team on a daily basis, with the bullpen/starter/bullpen/starter scuttlebutt forever on an endless reel. Beyond those issues, which did rear their heads over the last few days no question, the Yankee bats went dead against the worst team at run prevention. In a series that was just begging for stat-padding, Robbie Cano-style, the rest of the team took a pass, opting for ridiculously quick & impatient at-bats early last night and waking up too late in all three games offensively to do much damage.
The Yanks dropped to 8-8 in June, and have now officially entered the next phase of their season. After a woeful April and a spitfire May, which carried into the first week or so of this month, the team has settled into the kind of malaise that has been the trademark of most of the Yankee teams post-'04. The difference this time around is that they're not floating around the .500 mark and in need of a 30-15 2nd half spurt to get back into contention. They're right there, still the favorites for the Wild Card, a manageable three games behind Boston. But when I hear my friends say things like, "This team is tough to watch" and "This team is tough to root for," well . . . this is the kind of thing they're talking about.
When the bats go dead on this team, even for three days (and granted it's more pronounced against the heretofore pitching-challenged Nats) it's like a four-alarm siren. Because the only thing about this team that even hints at being "special" is their offense. Their ability to get on base; their ability to hit home runs. And when those things go down the tubes, there's just not much there.
From the beats. McCarron first [Daily News]:
The loss to the lowly Nats, which meant that the worst team in baseball - by far - took two of three games from the Yanks, plunged Joe Girardi into a funk. Afterward, the manager was clearly disappointed in the team's recent play and refused to delve into the Yanks' ineptitude against unknown hurlers.
"For me, I'm just not going to talk about it," Girardi said. "You've got to find ways to win games. That's the bottom line. We can harp on this this year, last year, the year before, 1999. But you have to find ways to win and put runs on the board, even if you don't know the pitcher. Look for a pitch and hit it."
"For me, I'm just not going to talk about it," Girardi said. "You've got to find ways to win games. That's the bottom line. We can harp on this this year, last year, the year before, 1999. But you have to find ways to win and put runs on the board, even if you don't know the pitcher. Look for a pitch and hit it."
Jack Curry in the Times, with an idiotic quote from a once self-proclaimed idiot:
“I think it probably seemed like 30,000 empty seats,” he said. “Thirty thousand smart people who didn’t want to weather the delay and wanted to watch it on TV.”
Hey Johnny, what does that make the people who weathered the delay, pun intended, and had to sit there and watch your half-assed performance?
Damon, by the way, is at the front of the line when it comes to the recent Yankee run of mediocrity. He's got four dingers and four doubles in June so he's slugging at a .500 clip for the month, which is fine (he was .500 in April and .565 in May), but his other main rate stats have plummeted.
Batting Average
.295 - April
.304 - May
.214 - June
OBP
.385 - April
.355 - May
.302 - June
From Pete Abraham's LoHud Blog:
UPDATE, 9:30 p.m.: And the Yankees have lost two of three to the Nationals. If this is not the low point of the season, I’m not sure what could be.
The Yankees just scored seven runs in 26 innings against the worst pitching staff in baseball — two in the last 18. It’s an embarrassment. The Nationals came to New York planning to fire their manager and took two of three. Brutal.
The Nationals were 16-45 when they showed up. They had lost 25 of 30. The Yankees mailed it in for three days and that falls on the manager. Even the game they won was a no-show job for six innings.
The Yankees just scored seven runs in 26 innings against the worst pitching staff in baseball — two in the last 18. It’s an embarrassment. The Nationals came to New York planning to fire their manager and took two of three. Brutal.
The Nationals were 16-45 when they showed up. They had lost 25 of 30. The Yankees mailed it in for three days and that falls on the manager. Even the game they won was a no-show job for six innings.
For a beat writer, Pete doesn't mince words, which is why he probably has one of the top two or three most popular Yankee blogs on the planet.
Now the Yanks head off to that wasteland of a stadium to play the Marlins for three days.
----
Foot-In-the-Mouth Disease
Wrote this little nugget on Tuesday night:
They're even with the Rays as I write, but I imagine in 24-48 hours that will change, and once they fall behind them it's going to be brutal for the Jays to keep up the pace.
As of this morning, the Jays are now up two on the Rays after an fairly improbably sweep at Philadelphia. I was home from work a little earlier than usual yesterday, so I was able to catch the last few innings of the Toronto game. They showed a lot of grit, and the Phillies are now 13-19 at home (23-9 on the road).
Meanwhile, the Rays lost the last two games of the Rockies series, and have slid back to two over .500. The Rockies are back to the .500 mark for the first time since April. Catching L.A. is a pipe dream, as it is for everyone in the West, but Colorado is now just 2.5 games behind St. Louis for the Wild Card. As Neyer noted earlier this week, it's amazing what one hot streak in June can do for a club. This is a team whose season looked lost, its manager fired and issues to address on both sides of the ball. They're now a player in the playoff race.
----
Most Interesting Series of the Weekend
Tampa @ New York (NL)
Milwaukee @ Detroit (The two leaders of the Central divisions)
Dodgers @ Angels (The halos have won six in a row, and are now within a game of the Yanks and 1.5 of the Rangers for the division lead)
