regardless of what happens versus TB....
Nice start in baltimore. Kevin Brown - 2 innings 6 ER. 2 HR. Nice to see him picking up 2005 right where he left off in '04. I would bet Joe will leave him out there to a) save his bullpen and b) show the world (cashman, media, george) that he really does not have much to work with.
Good times. Can't wait to read the NY papers tomorrow.
Yanks rotation is a mess.
This from Buster Olney:
ReplyDelete"The Red Sox pummeled the Devil Rays again on Saturday. Only 17 more games to play between these two teams, in a one-sided matchup that might play out like a college football game between the University of Tennessee and Vanderbilt."
Maybe I'm being a bit paranoid here, but it almost sounds like he is complaining that the Sox play TB 19 times each year. the same number of games that his beloved Yankees play them.
Not to mention that the Yankees have owned the D-Rays in the past. 62-30 versus Tampa since their inception. Sox 61-35 including the last two games.
We won't even mention the 98 Yankees - such a monster of team - that went 11-1 against the lowly D-Rays. I don't recall Olney deriding the fact that this record setting club demolished the pathetic expansion D-Rays.
Crap. I don't like the O's letting the Yankees hang around. Now 6-3 in the 7th and Brown has settled down.
ReplyDeleteOkay, its obvious no one is here but I'll blog nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteFrancona is now in damned if you do - damned if you don't territory.
Wake looks good - 6IP only 4 Hits (but 3 BB). He has thrown 100 pitches.
And in comes Mantei and the 6 ERA.
If he leaves Wake in, questions about leaving him too long. If Mantei (and rest of pen falter), then they say why take Wake out.
Looks okay for now - two straight ground outs.
Funny how the NY media are talking about how Pedro is the must see story in NY. In choosing between him and the Unit, who would have picked that?
ReplyDeleteSo I missed the game, sadly.
ReplyDeleteLooks like the offense -- which has obviously come alive -- still couldn't figure out Kazmir. My God the Mets are stupid. But yeah, weird that the Mets (and Pedro) are the story of NY and the Yankees (and the Big Unit) look to be in trouble.
And the bullpen was terrific, huh -- 39 pitches in 3 innings, 24 for strikes.
I think you're reading into the Olney thing a little too much. Most divisions have a TB equivalent everyone gets to beat up on.
Speaking of division matchups, do we need to be worried about the Orioles? I remember they started hot last year as well; but not this hot.
You mentioned Torre maybe leaving in Brown to make a point about having nothing to work with. Remember though, Torre's not blameless about the state of the bullpen. Last year it was Quantrill-Gordon-Mo, every friggin' game it seemed. Quantrill and Gordon each pitched more innings than they ever had since '96-'97 (when they were both starters); Quantrill did it all with a bum ankle. And Mo had a career-high 74 appearances. It was obvious they would falter eventually, and they all did (Quantrill in late August, Gordon and Mo not until October). But given their performances so far this season, perhaps Torre didn't just damage them -- maybe he actually broke them?...
Finally, Colorado Rockies watch: after 11 games, they're 7 games back. Not bad.
Yeah Torre did overuse those guys. Seems Tanyon Sturtze has been their most reliable guy.
ReplyDeleteI sure hope we don't get their with Timlin and Embree - hopefully Mantei can take some pressure off them, as well as Neal, Halama and Arroyo.
I would not get too worried about Baltimore just yet. Their pitching is still a major question mark. 2 of their 4 starters (ponson and cabrera have been awful). Lopez had a couple of good starts but looked like the Lopez of Old (inconsistent) the other night. Bruce Chen is Bruce Chen. And Jeremy will probably be picking up Erick Bedard any day now, meaning that his ERA and WHIP are about to go sky high.
As for the Rockies - they may be 7 games out, but they are only 4 games out of the Wild Card. How about the parity in the NL - 10 of 16 teams are 5-6 6-6 or 6-5 with a great race in the East where 4 teams are 6-6.
Their is also a strange symmetry to the standings in the AL as well.
A
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