2010 MLB Season

[Dave James]

Looks like reports of the death of A.J. Burnett have not been greatly exaggerated. He's blown up against the Blue Jays tonight giving up seven runs, all earned, eight hits and two home runs in just 4 2/3 innings. Anyone who thinks the Yankees aren't going to pay dearly for standing pat in the pitching department are sadly mistaken.

[ghost of miles]

Looks like reports of the death of A.J. Burnett have not been greatly exaggerated. He's blown up against the Blue Jays tonight giving up seven runs, all earned, eight hits and two home runs in just 4 2/3 innings. Anyone who thinks the Yankees aren't going to pay dearly for standing pat in the pitching department are sadly mistaken.

Final tally against AJ tonight was 8 ER--Joe left him in there way, way too long. I was hoping he'd pull AJ after the first home run and the walk that followed--seemed clear another classic AJ meltdown was on the way.

[Patrick]

Tribe has thrown out two Red Sox runners at the plate, lead late in the 7th behind another solid start from Fausto Carmona. Go kids!

[ghost of miles]

Crap, Patrick and Skeith, very sorry about Santana--just saw the news on the NY Times baseball Twitter feed.

[Patrick]

Boston may have had a more epic collection of injuries, and Boston and Seattle had much higher expectations at the start of the season, but Cleveland has suffered their fair share of injuries this season: Grady Sizemore for the season, Asdrubal Cabrera, Shin-Soo Choo. These are the three best players on a team without a ton of talent. Now Santana. And the backup catcher is hitting about a buck seventy right now. Hopefully nothing too tough for Santana. Otherwise, might have to draft first base coach Sandy Alomar Jr. for awhile.

Three run blast from Beltre in the 8th. Couldn't possibly have Chris Perez come on with anything more than a one run lead in the ninth.

Edited August 3, 2010 by Patrick

[ghost of miles]

Pete Abraham's tweet doesn't sound good:

Santana had his left leg encased in an orange air-cast as he was taken off in a cart. Looks like he broke it.

Hopefully for the Tribe that's an incorrect speculation.

[ghost of miles]

Matthew--may I offer you, my good friend and foe of all things Yankee and A-Rod-related, this grudging concession: Mr. Rodriguez is rather stinking up the joint of late with his #599 impasse. NY and Tampa Bay now tied for first in the AL East.

[Chalupa]

Bad call by the ump on A-Rod's pinch-hit third strike--see pitch 7:

Called third strike

Instead of first and second the inning's over.

I'll grant you that pitch #7 was a ball but, take a look at that graph again. Pitch #1 was fouled off for strike 1. Pitch #2 was a ball. Pitch #3 which was a called BALL was actually was STRIKE 2 according to that graph. Pitch #4 which Arod swung and missed for strike 2 should have been strike 3. So really Arod should have been out 3 pitches before the ump's 2nd bad call.

I didn't get that chart. Maybe I'm looking at it wrong. The called strike three was an inside pitch. That chart makes it look outside.

It seemed too close to take though.

I saw the video of that last pitch on ESPN this morning and you're right. That pitch was inside, not on the outside part of the plate like it is on the chart. Maybe that chart is from the catcher's perspective?

[Patrick]

Ugh. Just saw the replay of the Santana injury. You know it's bad when the ESPN guys warn you ahead of time. Some folks already groaning about the Cleveland curse and mentioning Ray Fosse. I'm not there yet, but yikes/ouch! I'd be surprised if that thing is not broken or worse. Oh well.

Otherwise, Fausto Carmona improves nicely on his 0-2, 40.50 ERA career record at Fenway. And Chris Perez has saved 3 in a row for the Tribe.

Anyone need Shelly Duncan? The guy's a beast (...yet likely will clear waivers). Step right up!

[Chalupa]

I was watching the at-bat live and pitch 7 looked easily like an inside ball, especially from the overhead angle--that's why A-Rod complained to the ump. It was clearly (from the TV angles, anyway) a bad call. Yes, #3 was a close one, but A-Rod might not have been as inclined to go after #4 if he'd been at a 1-2 count instead of 2-1.

Really not that big a deal--umps miss ball/strike calls all the time, and NY was destined to lose this one... Shields was just pitching too well. And (if the PA posters are right, which is a big if), Shields had been getting that inside pitch called for strikes a few times before... batters/teams have to adjust to the way the ump's calling the strike zone. (It was A-Rod's first AB of the game, so maybe he wasn't as tuned in to how the zone was getting called.)

You know when I saw that replay of pitch from the pitcher's perspective I thought it was pretty close. However, when they showed the replay of the overhead shot it looked like the ball missed the plate by more than an inch, closer to two.

[ghost of miles]

Patrick, Paul Hoynes' tweets much more positive:

# Indians Carlos Santana will get MRI on left knee Tuesday in Cleveland. Initial test on knee by trainers was encouraging. 9 minutes ago via txt

# #Indians Carlos Santana is still in locker room, joking with Fausto Carmona and Andy Marte in the trainer's room. about 1 hour ago via web

Edited August 3, 2010 by ghost of miles

[Patrick]

Good news, given the situation. Hopefully, nothing too serious.

[papsrus]

The kid Hellickson won his first major league start tonight, allowing three hits and two runs with six K's over 7 innings. Seemed pretty poised on the mound. He's headed back to the minors tonight but will likely find himself in the bullpen by Sept. Had a fastball around 92, nice change-up.

Can't have too much pitching. I'm actually glad the Rays didn't make any big moves at the deadline giving up any of their young talent.

Rays have also called up ("selected," actually, is the term they used. What's the distinction?) Dan Johnson, 1B, from Durham for a few games with Pena out. He's hitting .303 with 30 homers and 95 RBI at Durham. Don't know anything else about him, but those numbers are great, and the broadcast booth was giddy over his call-up/selection.

Edited August 3, 2010 by papsrus

[skeith]

Ghost and Patrick

Loved that Carmona game against the Red Sox and hoping for the best for Santana.

[Chalupa]

Howard to the DL. Great. Just great.

[Dan Gould]

Howard to the DL. Great. Just great.

Try making up 6.5 games to the two best teams in the majors without Youkilis. You're only 3 games out of the division and 3.5 out of the playoffs. 90 wins can do it for you, we've now lost our cleanup hitter for the season!

How appropriate that the mother of all injury-destroyed seasons comes to a complete and utter clusterfuck by losing the team's cleanup hitter with an injury that a hand specialist says he's never seen happen in 25 years to an athlete.

"Terrono said that a thumb adductor tear from a sports injury is so unusual he can't recall seeing this in the 25 years he has been specializing in hand surgery."

Anyone want to claim now that the Red Sox have a chance?

Better yet, how about I get some goddamn recognition for knowing enough about my team, its roster, the schedule, and the competition to correctly predict its demise when Pedroia and the rest went down in June?

[ghost of miles]

Dave James: looks like we're on our way to another loss--which will mark the third time since Friday night that we jumped out to a 2-0 lead on a first inning home run and then proceeded to lose through great displays of suckitude. Tampa Bay's up by 3, so I think we can kiss first-place goodbye. Outside of Tex/Swish/Cano, we're looking old & tired right now.

EDIT: now 8-2, we're done for the night. Fourth loss in the last five games--pathetic!

Edited August 4, 2010 by ghost of miles

[papsrus]

Was at the Rays game tonight. Nice win.

Was a little perplexed at how they couldn't seem to field a bunt though. Twins put down three in a row and the Rays finally got the first out of the inning on the third one. Didn't come back to bite them, but yeesh.

Was sitting among some season ticket holders, one of whom characterized 1B Dan Johnson, called up to fill in for Pena, as a AAAA player -- great in triple A, can't hit major-league pitching. ... Jury's out. He didn't look real comfortable at the plate but did draw a couple of walks.

Dan, I can't remember a team being so decimated by injuries. I hadn't heard about Youkilis.

A-Rod missed the team portrait today.

Edited August 4, 2010 by papsrus

[ghost of miles]

A-Rod missed the team portrait today.

He'll be hit hard for that in Kangaroo Court.

Paprus, I know it's just a bad stretch for NY right now and all, but I'm thinking your younger & highly talented Rays are going to outlast the aging Yanks this time around. I'd love to see the Core 4 get a WS repeat for a nice bookend on their careers before they really wear down, but the process might be too far along already.

[Dave James]

Dave James: looks like we're on our way to another loss--which will mark the third time since Friday night that we jumped out to a 2-0 lead on a first inning home run and then proceeded to lose through great displays of suckitude. Tampa Bay's up by 3, so I think we can kiss first-place goodbye. Outside of Tex/Swish/Cano, we're looking old & tired right now.

EDIT: now 8-2, we're done for the night. Fourth loss in the last five games--pathetic!

Is it possible for a team to get old all at once? Over the last week, the old guard position players (Jeter, Posada and A-Rod) have all but disappeared. The idea of paying A-Rod $25 million for this kind of production is ludicrous. He's hitting .264, with just 16 home runs. Wow. At this point, I'd say the Yanks have a 50/50 chance of being overtaken by the Red Sox. If they were to miss the playoffs, I hope some heads will roll. Too bad The Boss isn't still around and in full possession of his faculties. If he'd seen these last 10 games, he'd have gone off like a suitcase nuke.

[PHILLYQ]

Dave James: looks like we're on our way to another loss--which will mark the third time since Friday night that we jumped out to a 2-0 lead on a first inning home run and then proceeded to lose through great displays of suckitude. Tampa Bay's up by 3, so I think we can kiss first-place goodbye. Outside of Tex/Swish/Cano, we're looking old & tired right now.

EDIT: now 8-2, we're done for the night. Fourth loss in the last five games--pathetic!

Is it possible for a team to get old all at once? Over the last week, the old guard position players (Jeter, Posada and A-Rod) have all but disappeared. The idea of paying A-Rod $25 million for this kind of production is ludicrous. He's hitting .264, with just 16 home runs. Wow. At this point, I'd say the Yanks have a 50/50 chance of being overtaken by the Red Sox. If they were to miss the playoffs, I hope some heads will roll. Too bad The Boss isn't still around and in full possession of his faculties. If he'd seen these last 10 games, he'd have gone off like a suitcase nuke.

Jeter's been pretty bad all year- his OBP is way off from last year, as is his BA.

[Dan Gould]

And he's up for a nice contract extension, too - and his ego won't allow anything that's less than A-Rod, nor will he countenance any suggestions that maybe, perhaps, and oh by the way it might possibly be necessary that he move off of SS. His next contract will probably have the greatest possible variance between what he'd get anywhere else and what he'll demand and get from the Yankees. 18 million a year? Does anyone think he'd get an offer, at his age, for more than 6 or 7 million? And for fewer years than the Yankees will give too.

We can only hope and pray that these declines really are here to stay and their stupid contracts will indeed start biting them on the ass, with Posada having one more year to go, A-Rod booked to age 42 and Jeter about to get the same.

[Dan Gould]

At least one aspect of our long National nightmare is over: Ellsbury will be activated today. The positive side is that now Scutaro can bat in the appropriate slot behind him. That allows Drew to lengthen the lineup after Beltre and Lowell. All to the better but hardly ideal as long as Pedroia isn't ready, and given that he can barely run from the foul line to 2B, that has to be ten days away still.

[BERIGAN]

Looks like reports of the death of A.J. Burnett have not been greatly exaggerated. He's blown up against the Blue Jays tonight giving up seven runs, all earned, eight hits and two home runs in just 4 2/3 innings. Anyone who thinks the Yankees aren't going to pay dearly for standing pat in the pitching department are sadly mistaken.

Final tally against AJ tonight was 8 ER--Joe left him in there way, way too long. I was hoping he'd pull AJ after the first home run and the walk that followed--seemed clear another classic AJ meltdown was on the way.

Bet you didn't think back in May you would rather have Javy on the mound than AJ!

Just glad the braves were not able to coax him to the ATL...

[ghost of miles]

#600, at last! Right into Monument Park in center field...

A-Rod hits #600

Kay, Sterling calls

So great that Jeter was on base when he hit it and was there to greet him at home plate--the renewal of their friendship this year has been a really nice thing to see.

Edited August 4, 2010 by ghost of miles