Posts tagged ‘David Robertson’

  |   Newer Entries »
September 27, 2010

Yankees magic number down to 1

by Jamie Insalaco

I took a few days off from blogging and I’ve returned to find things pretty much where I left them. The Yankees are a half game behind the Rays and still haven’t clinched a playoff spot. Still, the Yankees have reduced their magic number down to 1 – that is, 1 Yankees win or 1 Red Sox loss, whichever comes first. While the Yankees will get into the playoffs easily, winning the east is going to be tough: they’re facing the Yankee killing Toronto Blue Jays and then going into the hostile Fenway Park environment for another series with the Red Sox. Combine that with Rays schedule, and I just don’t see the Yankees winning the east. Sure, I don’t expect the Baltimore Orioles to lay down for the Rays, but Tampa has four games left with the Kansas City Royals. Nuff said.

So let’s see, what did I miss? Thursday night, CC Sabathia got a butt kicking from the Rays. Friday night, Andy Pettitte got a butt kicking from the Red Sox. Ivan Nova on the FOX Saturday Baseball Game of Death? Butt kicking by the Red Sox. Detecting a theme here? The starting pitching has been dreadful of late. Hence, Joe Girardi went with Phil Hughes last night rather than Dustin Mosely. Hughes pitched well: 6 IP, 1 ER, 3 hits, 4 ks, 4 BB. Girardi sent him out there for the 7th inning, which I thought was a strange move: I can’t remember the last time Hughes pitched 7 innings (that’s because he hasn’t done it since July) and every time he goes out there in the 7th, he always seems to leave a runner out there.

Enter the bullpen: David Robertson, the man the kids call D-Rob, came out and picked up the pieces in spectacular fashion and finished out the 7th. Kerry Wood got two outs in the 8th, and then Girardi wen to Mariano Rivera to get the last out. Strange; he had Wood walk David Ortiz instead of bringing in Boone Logan. Mo got it done against Adrian Beltre, and I’m sure Mo was feeling strong since he hasn’t pitched since Monday, but it seemed like a risky gambit, especially given the lefty v lefty opportunity that Girardi passed by, which I guess was his way of saying that he doesn’t trust Logan in that situation…

So Mo blows it in the top of the 9th. It’s another ugly one as Mo’s September of Horrors continues. The Yankees tied it in the bottom of the 9th against Jonathan Papelbon but don’t win it, despite having the bases loaded.

The Yankees sent out Joba Chamberlain to keep the tie in tact and wouldn’t you know it, Girardi wen tot Logan to get Ortiz after all, which he did. So it’s fair to say that Girardi puzzled me in this game – but not as much as Terry Francona did in the bottom of the 10th. Francona brings in Hideki Okajima to face the lefties Curtis Granderson and Brett Gardner, despite the fact that Granderson already homered off Okajima in the series, but Fancona is managing by the book – fine. Then Okajima fails to retire either batter, and he sticks with him, much to my delight. He’s still got Daniel Bard down there – he said so during his stupid mid game ESPN interview. There is no tomorrow – losing this game pretty much ends the season for the Red Sox because the loss put them in the situation I described at the opening of this piece… what the hell was Francona thinking? I’m sure he had to answer this quesiton after the game, but I didn’t hear what he said – I went to bed. Note to ESPN: starting a game at 8 PM EST is TOO LATE. In the most anti-climatic win ever, Okajima walked in Juan Miranda for the Yankee win. Yep – Okajima saw three more batters after that.

Sorry I didn’t talk about Matsuzaka – he was awesome last night.

So that’s pretty much that. The Yankees can still win the east, but the Red Sox are done – unless the Yankees lose all six of their remaining games and the Red Sox win all six.

Posted in 2010 Season | Leave a Comment »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
September 3, 2010

Sabathia, Posada, Granderson complete Yanks sweep of As

by Jamie Insalaco

The weekday day game is the bane of my existence. Praise MLB for Game Day.

I wish I could have seen CC Sabathia throw an 8 IP 1 hitter against the As, but alas, such is the fate of the working. I bet the defense was working: Sabathia only had 5 Ks and 3 BB. Jonathon Albaladejo is back up from the minors and hit the first batter he faced, but regained control to throw a clean inning. After using Joba Chamberlain, Boone Logan, Kerry Wood and Mariano Rivera on Wednesday, it was nice to give them all the day off yesterday. I suppose that means David Robertson is well rested.

The Yankees left 8 runners on base and were 1-10 with runners in scoring position, but he Yanks can hit the long ball. Jorge Posada had a solo shot in the 2nd, and my favorite, Curtis Granderson, had a double jack day, with a solo and a 2 run homer in consecutive innings. That’s good stuff! Austin Kearns provided the other RBI.

Tampa Bay was idle yesterday, so the Yankees move to 1.5 games ahead as the villains from the north, the home run happy Toronto Blue Jays come in for a weekend series. I am so sick of the Jays. Lets see if the Yankees can give them a taste of their own medicine this time.

Posted in 2010 Season | Leave a Comment »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
August 19, 2010

Power, Bullpen create Yankees win

by Jamie Insalaco

Jeremy Bonderman just ain’t what he used to be.

After a fairly quick inning by Dustin Moseley for the Yankees, Bonderman served up back to back bombs to Mark Teixeira (scoring Brett Gardner) and Robinson Cano, which was followed by the Miguel Cabrera show, who blasted solo jacks in the 2nd and 4th inning. The Yankees quickly responded with 3 more runs of their own: Ramiro Pena (aka Scrappy Doo) tripled and scored Austin Kearns, Gardner doubled and scored Pena, and Gardner came around to score on the throwing error by somebody… Santiago. Box Score.

Don Kelly hit a 2 run homer to make things interesting and chase Mosley from the game, but there was no stopping the Yankees. Curtis Granderson, the student of hitting coach Kevin Long, hit another homer to deep right, and in the bottom of the 7th, as much as the Tigers mixed and matched, they still payed the ultimate price as Austin Kearns doubled in 2 more runs. The Tigers managed one more run on a sacrifice fly, but it was too little, too late.

Now how about that Yankees bullpen? Moseley left after 5 IP, giving up 4 ER, and then the Yankees decided to bring the pain: Joba Chamberlain, Boone Logan, Kerry Wood (I still can’t believe Brian Cashman got the Yankees Kerry Wood), Chad Guadin, David Robertson and Mariano Rivera combined for 4 IP of 1 run ball. Robertson was especially effective pitching out of a Guadin made jam, and Mo restored order to a game that was pretty wild.

So what did we learn last night? The Yankees can score runs without A-Rod – if it’s against a pitcher they’ve seen before. Their bullpen is looking pretty good, but it would be nice if Andy Pettitte could make it back by September 1st to sure up the rotation. Mosely isn’t a horrible fifth starter, but I don’t see him being on this team next year. The Yankees look like they’re starting to turn the corner again, although Derek Jeter put up another 0-4. There are a lot of ifs right now surrounding the Yankees, but they still have a better team than everybody else.

Posted in 2010 Season | 1 Comment »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
August 13, 2010

Yankees beat Royals and 2010 season outlook

by Jamie Insalaco

The Kansas City Royals stink. They’re 47-68. There just isn’t much more to say than that, but here’s some other junk.

The Royals have some good players, but are lacking a lot. They don’t have much speed. Their starting rotation is awful. They don’t feed well. Their bullpen isn’t as bad as I thought it would be, and they got Kyle Farnsworth out of there, who is having a good year for the Braves against NL competition. Even when they have a player like Billy Butler, who’s hitting over .300, still doesn’t have much power for a 1st basemen – but then, if you were an opposing pitcher, would you give Butler anything to hit? He doesn’t have any protection. CC Sabathia ran into some trouble on his way to a complete game and let some runners on base. David Robertson came in and gave up a double that scored 2 of the inherited runners before he got the last out, turning a 4-1 game into a 4-3 game. I guess Mariano Rivera wasn’t available after pitching two nights in a row against the Texas Rangers. Sabathia pitched well until then, but again, he was pitching against the Royals. The Yankees scored 4 runs on 10 hits and left 10 on base, so they weren’t exactly destroying the world, but got their fair share of hits. The game was kind of boring, but I had good company in one of my oldest friends, so it was all good.

What comes to mind now is how the rest of the 2010 season will shake out, so I did some simple math to figure it out. After last night’s win, the Yankees have a record of 71-43. They’ve played 114 games, so they have 48 games to play. If they go .500 the rest of the way, they’ll win 24 games, for a total of 95 wins, and you know they’re going to win more than half of those games… the Yankees are going to the playoffs – put it in the bank! I’ll say they’ll win an even 100.

Are the Yankees as good as last year? That’s a tough one. I would say the talent level is about the same, but some guys are under-performing (A-Rod, Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson, AJ Burnett jump to mind immediately), but everyone is more than capable. The bullpen may not be as strong as 2009, but then, if Joba gets it together and David Robertson pitches better than he did last night, I think the Yankees have enough. Boone Logan has really stepped up in this latest stint with the Yankees, so there’s another weapon. Sergio Mitre has pitched well in some high leverage situations, and Kerry Wood is capable. I think the Yankees have enough to win championship 28, especially given what I’ve seen from the rest of the league.

Posted in 2010 Season | 1 Comment »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
August 3, 2010

Blue Jays take game 1 of 3

by Jamie Insalaco

No, A-Rod didn’t hit his dinger.

Now that we got that out of the way, lets talk about this game and the reason the Yankees lost: the unraveling of AJ Burnett in the 5th inning. What the hell happened? He seemed to be pitching well, but all of the sudden, it seemed like his command deserted him. He came into the inning with a low pitch count, so it couldn’t have been fatigue… I know Michael Kay is fond of saying, "Burnett is like the little girl with the curl: he’s either very, very good or very very bad," and while I don’t exactly understand that simile, I do hear what he’s saying. However, we did learn one thing last night; the Blue Jays do not know hot to pitch with a lead.

I liked what Joe Girardi did with his bench last night. I liked the idea of pitch hitting Marcus Thames for Curtis Granderson; maybe this will act like lighting a fire under Grandy. I do think Austin Kearns can help this team, but I also believe he should have tried to foul off that pitch he took for strike when he pitch hit for Brett Gardner; I feel like when you’re called on to pitch hit late in the game, the last thing you want to do is go down looking, right?

Just a quick shout out to Joba Chamberlain, who pitched pretty well last night. If he gets on track, the Yankees bullpen might suddenly go from a weakness to a strength with the tremendous turn around of David Robertson and the arrival of Kerry Wood. I think demoting Joba and bringing in Wood is just the kick in the ass Joba needs, and since the demotion, he’s pitched pretty well, so lets see how this thing unfolds.

Posted in 2010 Season | Leave a Comment »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
July 27, 2010

Umpires, warnings and rules 2.1

by Jamie Insalaco

Now these are the kind of blown calls I can live with. With one exception…

With Mark Teixeira on first, Alex Rodriguez hit a ball that dropped in front of Trevor Crowe – or so everybody with a pair of functioning eyes thought. But the ruling umpire said he caught it on the fly for an easy double play, as Teixeira, who has excellent vision, went to second as the ball was trapped, not caught. The Yankees argued, but the umpires never huddled to at least confirm that all of the umpires saw the same thing. I don’t want to hear that they didn’t huddle because of the, ‘it slows down the pace of the game,’ argument. That argument is ASS. The Yankees would have stopped arguing sooner if all of the umpires convened and said they all saw the same thing.

Curtis Granderson hammered a ball off the top of the wall and was thrown out at second… accept his foot was clearly on the base before he was tagged. The Yankees didn’t argue.

I can live with these blown calls – they should have convened on the A-Rod/Teix call, but whatcha gonna do? These calls happen and aren’t a result of a strict interpretation of the rules, just humans making errors, which is part of the game. I can live with that.

Otherwise, there isn’t much to tell about the Yankees 3-2 victory of the Indians. Nick Swisher hit a towering solo home run, as did Curtis Granderson, but with a man aboard. Jake Westbrook pitched a great game, but those 2 homers to the bombers were all the Yankees needed to win against Cleveland’s offense. Javier Vazquez had about everything working from the 2nd inning and going forward: fastball command, a good curve ball and change, and that put a lot of the Indians off balance, particularly some of their younger hitters. Speaking of the Indians and young players, they’ve got so many on their 25 man roster right now because they’ve given up on 2010, which means Westbrook is available, and he’s expensive, so the market for him isn’t that big. I’m not saying the Yankees need him, but you never know… As far as starting pitching goes, I think they’re waiting for the off season to throw money at Cliff Lee instead of surrendering prospects. David Robertson, the champion of pressure situations, pitched well in relief, coming into yet another game with runners on base and getting two outs in the 8th before giving way to Boone Logan, who retired the only batter he faced. Mariano Rivera came on for the save – he’s 21 for 23 so far this year, and his numbers are outstanding. That guy is like… uhm, somebody that grows old but continues to perform at a high level in almost the exact same way as he did when he was young. Can’t think of a good metaphor for that… I don’t think Joe Girardi has any interest in using Joba Chamberlain in the middle of an inning; that’s definitely Robertson’s job. Robertson is the Yankee fireman – you ring the bell, he runs out of the pen, puts out the flames and heads to the showers. Rivera might get the saves, but it’s Robertson’s holds of the last few weeks that makes a lot of those saves possible. I don’t want to speculate on what the Yankees record would be without him. They’d probably be tied with Tampa Bay.

Posted in 2010 Season | Leave a Comment »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
July 23, 2010

Yankees put up a 10 spot

by Jamie Insalaco

The Yankees scored a ton of runs, so that’s good… but if you’re trying to figure out what’s going with the Yankees pitching (and their opponent’s pitching, for that matter) since the All Star break, let me advise you to not try. Last night’s game was especially perplexing.
CC Sabathia gave up a zillion hits (that’s 11hits in 6.1 IP for fans of reality) to the Kansas City Royals offense, which isn’t the worst thing in the world – it’s not like they’re Baltimore – and 4 runs, 3 earned. It felt worse, but it’s probably because he gave up like 6 hits in the first two innings. CC’s 9 strikeouts is probably the only thing that kept the Royals from getting out of hand. David Robertson came into the game in the 7th and did a good job again, and then Joba Chamberlain entered the game for another roller coaster ride, but after loading the bases, he managed to wiggle his way out of trouble for what at least feels like a rare scoreless outing. 2 hits, 1 walk in 1 IP. Dave Eiland, your mission is clear.
On the offensive side, Derek Jeter dropped his first in the park homer since his rookie year – David DeJesus almost made a great catch – well, did make a great catch – before his collision with the wall made him drop the ball, and Jeter was off to the races. It looked like DeJesus jammed his wrist pretty good on the wall – I’d be surprised to see him in tonight’s lineup. Alex Rodriguez delivered home run number 599 of his career, along with 3 other RBI. There were also RBI from Posada, Thames, Swisher (2 on the night), and Teixeira.
I know the Kansas City Royals aren’t exactly build for success, but Bruce Chen? Really? I know his numbers are decent this year, and you don’t have to throw hard to get guys out, but Chen isn’t exactly Jamie Moyer – and that’s saying something, isn’t it? And this is the America League, so any success Chen has had this year I would, for the most part, throw up to catching lightening in a bottle. I think the Royals would be better off letting a young guy get some experience in that spot – they’re not going anywhere with Chen in that roll, I don’t care how good his curve ball is this year. It’s a miracle he got through 6 innings. I guess there is some value in having a well traveled veteran on the team in terms of talking to the kids on the team about ‘been there, done that,’ but whatever. I just get sick of teams like the Royals taking revenue sharing money and then they roll out players like Chen. Sheesh!
Oh, and don’t to harp on the umpires again after my last post, but Wilson ‘Can’t find a Better Man’ Betemit was clearly safe at 2nd in the 1st inning. That momentum might have, in some ways, cost the Royals any chance they had in that game. Oh and who got thrown out and home? He was safe, too.
And on to the adventure that is Jorge Posada at home plate. I think Posada is going to have to warm up a bit more to the idea of being the DH on this team, because wow. That snap throw to third was awful. And why did he try to throw over the runner on that dropped strike 3 instead of stepping to the side and throwing to Teixeira? Why did he try to pick the runner off at third in the 1st place? It didn’t look like he had a chance… I feel like I’m missing another one of his moments from last night’s game… Oh well. It’s best not to think about it. I like Posada a lot; in my view, he’s the captain of the Yankees, not Derek Jeter, but I’m ready for him to DH his way into the sunset. The Yankees have at least 3 young catchers in their system that are looking good, and one of them looks like he’s going to hit the ball to the moon (or Queens) on a regular basis, so lets get the Posada to DH transition going.

Posted in 2010 Season | Leave a Comment »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
July 22, 2010

Joba Chamberlain and the middle relief

by Jamie Insalaco

The Yankees put up another bunch of runs in the later half of game 2 against the Angels yesterday and fended off a comeback by the Halos. No thanks to Joba Chamberlian.

Don’t get me wrong: I like the guy. In fact, I like the guy a lot. He has good stuff. But you can’t say much about his 2010 performance. It seems like lately, he can’t get through an appearance without giving up a run, and when you check his <a href="http://yankees.mlb.com/stats/individual_player_gamebygamelog.jsp?c_id=nyy&playerID=501955&statType=2">game logs</a>, that feeling isn’t too far from the truth. He’s made 7 appearances in July so far and surrendered a run in 4 appearances for a total of 7 ER. That’s just too many runs surrendered too often. With his fastball/slider combo, he really should be able to get it done, but as we saw during the days of Kyle Farnsworth, velocity is only half the battle – you’ve got to locate that fastball, or you’re screwed.

David Robertson had a pretty awesome June; he only let up 1 ER in 9 IP while striking out 9. That’s what I call relief. In July, he got blown up in that one game against Toronto, but the rest of the month, he’s been solid and is the only other guy in the pen you can count on other than Mariano Rivera. I think It might be time to have D-Rob setup and move Joba to the 7th – I think it could awaken that famous Joba "bulldog mentality" that certain radio talk show hosts love to talk about. Or, it could shatter whatever confidence he has left.

The rest of the pen? Well, they pretty much suck. Damaso Marte and Alfredo Aceves are both on the DL, its only a matter of time before Chad Gaudin and Chan Ho Park get DFA’d, Boone Logan will be back to triple A when Marte returns, as good as Jonathan Albaladejo’s triple A numbers have been, his first 2010 MLB appearance didn’t inspire much confidence, and Dustin Moseley won’t last much longer. No idea what options are available at triple A… I don’t want to see Mark Melancan again – he clearly can’t get anybody out at the MLB level. Not sure about the little I’ve seen of Ivan Nova…

The trade market? No idea who’s available there, either. What I do know is that every team that’s buying will be looking for pitching, so it’s not going to be easy to get a quality reliever in here, unless he’s over paid… and there’s no way to know if he’ll be able to handle New York. Sigh…

Posted in 2010 Season | 1 Comment »

Tags: , , , ,
May 27, 2010

How do I spell relief? Yankees beating the Twins twice in one day, that’s how!

by Jamie Insalaco

andy_pettitte_wiggler_super_mario_bros

So there’s the good part: the Yankees beat the Twins twice in one day. The bad part: The Yankees didn’t score hardly any runs. 4 runs combined is pretty dreadful. I know the Yankees are beat up right now, but that’s no excuse with this line up.

Game 1 started Tuesday night and ended in a 0-0 tie after five innings due to rain only to resume the next afternoon with a Derek Jeter home run that ultimately won the game. A.J. Burnett looked shaky the night before, but some how, he got through it and wiggled out of trouble, Andy Pettitte style, who I think should be a Batman villain known as The Wiggler! But I’ll get back to that. I followed the afternoon conclusion on Game Day, and Mo looked pretty shaky to me. It also looked like some absurd calls went in favor of my boy, David Robertson (who Game Day neglected to mention got hit in the back – ‘injury delay’ is a waste of my time; they might as well just put ‘delay’ and not give ma heart attack!), who scooted through an extended appearance I was wagering was going to be presided over by one Sergio Mitre… show’s what I know. Bottom line: the Yankees didn’t score any runs.

So imagine my surprise when later that evening, the Yankees left a zillion runners on base. Here are my favorite highlights from the box score:

Runners left in scoring position, 2 out – D Jeter 1, A Rodriguez 1, R Cano 1, B Gardner 2.

Team LOB – 9.

2-out RBI – N Swisher, K Russo, B Gardner.

10 hits, 3 runs.

So there it is: 9 runners left on base. That’s just awesome, guys. And check out the big bats not getting it done AGAIN. Jeter, ARod and Cano all missing out on RBI chances, not to mention the non existent Mark Teixeira, who is positively killing my fantasy team. I know they won both games, but the team is really in an offensive swoon that needs to come to an end.

Enough complaining; it’s time to reward the Constant Wiggler award to Mr. Andy Pettitte, who went 8 innings strong and gave up only 2 runs and wiggled out of an intense 8th inning jam of 1st and 3rd with nobody out. The momentum shifted after he made the impossible happen and set the stage for Nick Swisher‘s home run, which you could just smell coming, and Mo came on in the 9th for his second save of the during which he looked much sharper than he had in the afternoon. I do feel that Mo’s lack of innings in, well, the entire season, is the reason behind his recent ineffectiveness. Still, as the season goes on, he’ll start getting consistent work and I believe we’ll get the same old Mo all year long. I’d like a 2 or 3 foot tall marble Mariano Rivera statue for my veggie garden… can anybody hook me up?

Noteworthy: Ozzie Guillen did battle with Joe West – I love it when two guys I don’t like get into it. No matter what, I win. But really, while Guillen is a knucklehead, it’s time for Cowboy Joe to retire. He’s never going to change and he’s only getting worse as time goes on – or rather, getting better at getting media coverage. That guy needs to learn that umpires are scenery and should not be heard from. Somebody buy that guy a condo in Miami already!

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
  |   Newer Entries »
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 42 other followers