Yankees Mystique, Aura, Baseball-Playing Ability Overcome Royals

He does a lot of things as manager that I think are pretty stupid, like trying to blow out Tim Collins arm, sitting Soria for entire weeks if there are no save situations, and batting Chris Gets in the leadoff spot. I can live with those things, though.

Nothing, however, makes me madder than his refusal to take advantage of matchups or pinch hit for poor batters in high leverage late game situations. As far as I can tell he does this because he’s more worried about having the best defense in the game, which is of course mostly irrelevant when we don’t score the runs.

And I’m sure I’ve heard he won’t pinch hit for catchers because then if the only one remaining gets injured the world would explode. Which means he’s sacrificing runs all the time so that he won’t potentially lose a game in the off chance that 1) the catcher gets injured and 2) putting mitch at catcher directly leads to a loss

Summary: Ned’s basic failure at probabilistic reasoning makes me want to punch a wall.

And if you never let Escobar hit.. he’s never going to hit.. and you may as well groom Colon for SS. You can’t just treat him like the pitcher in the NL.

why Betamit didn’t start at 3B; Aviles is kind of sucky against righties, as is Getz and Giavotella. Best hitting line up might have been Maier in left, Gordon at third, and Betamit at second with Getz on the bench. Maybe Dyson DH. Getz did get a hit and a walk leading off, which is what lead off guys are supposed to do.

Christ people, Alex wasn’t going to hit .370. Hitters go through slumps. You can’t take a 50 bad at bats and make a season any more than you can 50 good ones.

Also, Alcides should have got that ball, but its ONE FUCKING PLAY. All of a sudden we’re getting the pitchforks ready because one time he didn’t make a highlight reel play. It’s not like he booted a gimme.

In the second each of Francouer, Hosmer, and Aviles had belt-high cookies that they just missed for fly-outs. As I went to bed I actually fantasized about Hosmer hitting it a mile. Was that how the rest of the night went? Lots of seemingly easy pitches missed?

Anyway, this stretch shows just how important it is to have at least two very good hitters in the middle of the lineup. WIth Butler AND Gordon struggling it’s nearly impossible for this lineup to mount any real attack. The good news is that we know that Butler will come around and become a very tough out again, probably soon. Also, it shows that the team really needs Hosmer/Gordon/Moose to be a very good hitter if it’s going to be dangerous.

Butler will be fine – hit two balls hard last night.

Gordon looks like he could use a mental day off. Maier could use another start to keep the rust away. Do it, Ned.

As for Ned’s managing. Usually, I’m itching to use PHs, and Ned waits until later in the game. Most all of the year, he has been right and I’ve been wrong. Last night, as many of you have already discussed, he screwed up. Let me offer a different reason for the screwup:

In the 7th, it appeared on the surface that the bottom of the lineup, where Ned would normally employ Betemit to PH for Treanor/Escobar/Getz, that those spots would come around again in the 9th; however, I viewed it differently: The middle of the order was going to bat in the 8th, and Rivera was going to pitch the 9th, so using ANYBODY in the 9th would be IRRELEVANT – you are simply not going to hit Rivera, whether you are Betemit or Escobar, no matter.

So, BECAUSE OF RIVERA, I would have used Betemit and/or Maier sometime in the 7th inning to PH. If we were playing a different team, with a mortal closer, then perhaps Ned’s holding Betemit/Maier back would have made some sense.

The ML record for appearances by a rookie pitcher is 80. Collins is on pace to blow that out of the water.

I’d really like the Royals to tinker with their bullpen in order to add a 2nd lefty reliever, since Ned can’t seem to resist the urge to use Collins in any and all situations.

(Of course, I’m different than the Royals. I would be tempted to try Collins in the rotation, because he has more talent than any of our starters, and has the 3 pitches needed to succeed (FB, CB, Change))

Odorizzi with another kick-ass start last night. Look at his updated line for the season:

32 IP 22 H 7 ER 8 BB 51 K

Only 1 HR allowed to boot. Yeah, Wilmington is a pitcher’s park, but still – those numbers are screaming promotion to me. Would be shocked if he’s not in AA by the end of the month.

1) We coulda signed Freddy García. I suggested it and you guys all laughed at me. 2) Nice outing by Collins, but is Ned trying to throw his arm off? We have several other relievers. 3) Gotta take advantage of half-decent outings by Davies, because there aren’t going to be many.

4) They had some chances and didn’t play sloppily, though Alcides had a couple of singles get past him to his left. He can’t get away with being less than a defensive ace, as he and Getz combined to leave ELEVEN runners on base. What is Getz doing hitting leadoff? I like him, and he got a hit and Swisher robbed him of one, but he is Mr. Eighth Up. And, yes, Ned should have pinch-hit for Getz with Mr. President, put him in at third, and moved Aviles to second base.

5) Good thing Melky homered and Frenchy got two hits, since this game was against the Yanks, and some club executive somewhere actually might have seen it and gotten his thighs all dewy. 6) I don’t understand the balk rule, and I don’t think anyone else does, either. 7) At least it wasn’t an embarrassing, sloppy loss and the Röyals didn’t simply get outclassed. 8) Mazzaro tomorrow?