Sunday, July 01, 2007
A.L. Baseball notes & thoughts
The baseball season continues, though Yankees fans could be forgiven if they don’t want to acknowledge it.
The Clarion believes if there was any hope left for the Yankees’ playoff hopes, it was extinguished yesterday when they went 1 for 28 against Chad Gaudin and the A’s. For goodness sake, the guy sounds like he should be a painter not a pitcher. Yes, he is having an excellent season, 7-3, 2.92, but he had lost his last two starts.
The Yanks on the other hand have now scored no runs in their last 18 innings, including Gaudin’s start, and 23 runs total in their last ten games. That is not going to get it done, Clemens and Pettitt must think they are back in Houston.
The Yankees can’t get timely hitting, pitching and defense on the same day, or even in the same week. Their year is over. Yankees fans haven’t seen anything like this in quite a while. There are times when this feels reminiscent of the era of the bad free agents of the 1980’s. Names like Steve Kemp and Jessie Barfield come to mind. The collapse that would be required by the Red Sox is too monumental. There are too many decent teams between the Yankees and the wild card.
The wild card will come from the quintet that includes the Indians, Tigers, Twins, A’s and Mariners. The Angels have the A.L. West on lockdown, but the wild card race should be terrific. The Clarion loves the Twins pitching.
Johan Santana is a terrific pitcher, but he has always been a dominant Cy Young Award winning second half pitcher. The Clarion also loves Twins rookie pitcher Kevin Slowey, who has started 3 and 0. Last year the Twins were 71 and 33 from June 8th on, winning the division title at the end. The Clarion isn’t predicting that kind of run this year. Note though, Slowey was a winner, with good strikeout to walk ratios in the minors. He is more in the mold of Greg Maddux than a fireballer, and was 17-9 at all levels of the minors combined. Slowey was leading the International League in ERA when he was called up. Also keep an eye out for Nick Blackburn, still at the Twins farm club in AAA Rochester, but 4-0 without allowing an earned run since May 29th. Both Slowey and Blackburn came to the Clarion’s attention shutting down the local Durham Bulls, who lead the International League in home runs. The Twins have young pitching prospects everywhere, clearly somebody in their organization thinks Scott Baker is as good or better than either of these guys, since he was called up from Rochester first.
The Mariners have been a Clarion fave since the beginning of the season. They have been hot this week. As yet the Clarion can see no explanation for the resignation of manager Mike Hargrove. Of course, maybe the M’s will be better off, he never could get Cleveland over the top despite a profusion of talent. He managed the 1997 World Series tighter than a snare drum, playing it not to lose the whole way.
The Clarion believes if there was any hope left for the Yankees’ playoff hopes, it was extinguished yesterday when they went 1 for 28 against Chad Gaudin and the A’s. For goodness sake, the guy sounds like he should be a painter not a pitcher. Yes, he is having an excellent season, 7-3, 2.92, but he had lost his last two starts.
The Yanks on the other hand have now scored no runs in their last 18 innings, including Gaudin’s start, and 23 runs total in their last ten games. That is not going to get it done, Clemens and Pettitt must think they are back in Houston.
The Yankees can’t get timely hitting, pitching and defense on the same day, or even in the same week. Their year is over. Yankees fans haven’t seen anything like this in quite a while. There are times when this feels reminiscent of the era of the bad free agents of the 1980’s. Names like Steve Kemp and Jessie Barfield come to mind. The collapse that would be required by the Red Sox is too monumental. There are too many decent teams between the Yankees and the wild card.
The wild card will come from the quintet that includes the Indians, Tigers, Twins, A’s and Mariners. The Angels have the A.L. West on lockdown, but the wild card race should be terrific. The Clarion loves the Twins pitching.
Johan Santana is a terrific pitcher, but he has always been a dominant Cy Young Award winning second half pitcher. The Clarion also loves Twins rookie pitcher Kevin Slowey, who has started 3 and 0. Last year the Twins were 71 and 33 from June 8th on, winning the division title at the end. The Clarion isn’t predicting that kind of run this year. Note though, Slowey was a winner, with good strikeout to walk ratios in the minors. He is more in the mold of Greg Maddux than a fireballer, and was 17-9 at all levels of the minors combined. Slowey was leading the International League in ERA when he was called up. Also keep an eye out for Nick Blackburn, still at the Twins farm club in AAA Rochester, but 4-0 without allowing an earned run since May 29th. Both Slowey and Blackburn came to the Clarion’s attention shutting down the local Durham Bulls, who lead the International League in home runs. The Twins have young pitching prospects everywhere, clearly somebody in their organization thinks Scott Baker is as good or better than either of these guys, since he was called up from Rochester first.
The Mariners have been a Clarion fave since the beginning of the season. They have been hot this week. As yet the Clarion can see no explanation for the resignation of manager Mike Hargrove. Of course, maybe the M’s will be better off, he never could get Cleveland over the top despite a profusion of talent. He managed the 1997 World Series tighter than a snare drum, playing it not to lose the whole way.
Comments:
At this point in the season, as a Yanks fan, I have written it off. All I want is for A-Rod and Mussina to go. A-Rod will have to opt out of his contract, we can only hope. Mussina is in a walk year. Good riddance. Goodbye.
I wish there was some way we could ditch Johnny Damon, too. Stinking Red Sox. Ya think real Yankee Bernie Williams might have been able to match Damon's scorching .250 avg, 5 dingers and 26 RBIs halfway through the season. Without being clubhouse poison?
The Yankees are the epitome of the old cliche 25 guys, 25 cabs. The Yanks need to go back the homegrown. Emphasis team, small ball, obp, pitching and defense. Keep Joe Torre. Ditch the over priced, on the down side free agents.
I wish there was some way we could ditch Johnny Damon, too. Stinking Red Sox. Ya think real Yankee Bernie Williams might have been able to match Damon's scorching .250 avg, 5 dingers and 26 RBIs halfway through the season. Without being clubhouse poison?
The Yankees are the epitome of the old cliche 25 guys, 25 cabs. The Yanks need to go back the homegrown. Emphasis team, small ball, obp, pitching and defense. Keep Joe Torre. Ditch the over priced, on the down side free agents.
When the limp legged Johnny Damon picked up two hits in last night's game, it was his first two hit game since June 16th against the Mets. He did have two stolen bases, too, and now has 15 this year without a caught stealing. Michael Kay used this as a rationale to tell viewers that Damon had really been hampered by his legs. What a detective! The bottom line is if the guy can't do better than a .341 on base percentage he can't hit lead-off.
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