Here is what I'm thinking;
1. We just ran a gauntlet of top teams ( Angels, Houston, Cleveland, and Boston ) and did very nicely, thank you.
2. We ran the table with comebacks and last minute heroics. Different guys stepped up on different days. Have we emptied the well on these Hollywood endings?
3. The pitching seemed better than any of us could imagine. We even lost a starter for two months and survived.
4. There were two long winning streaks. We easily could have won the game we lost last night.
5. But we didn't. And now Oakland rolls into town.
6. This game is huge because there will be a collective sense of achievement from that 18 days of pressure, and a danger of falling into a negative run. The danger is called " over-confidence." The danger is thinking " all we have to do is show up, because these guys aren't that good."
7. We have a pitcher starting tonight whom we still aren't sure of.
8. Oakland is hungry. They dealt us our pitcher for some nice players. Fowler will be playing for them. There is a lot of Karma lined up for this game.
It is a much bigger game tonight than many imagine. A loss could put us on a bad track. Boston isn't easily beaten by anyone, and their pitching seems much stronger than ours, despite us winning two of three. So we don't want to drop down in the loss column.
We need a stopper to get out off this skid.
Is Sonny that stopper? Are we tough and resilient?
Game one of this series is the key to May.
Big game. Must have pants at the ready.
ReplyDeleteYou know how Sunny Boy has pitched so much better the last few outings? His ERA is still 6.00.
ReplyDeleteWhat I was getting at, see, is that Sonny Boy is a terrible major league pitcher. Maybe we can find a slow A ball league where he can be dominant? He'd be so much happier, and I wouldn't feel like a small refrigerator is being forced up my ass every fifth day.
ReplyDeleteI usually agree with you, Alphonso, and I agree here with every point EXCEPT 7 - Some of us HAVE been sure of Sonny for a while.
ReplyDeleteI may be wrong about many things, but I have never wavered in my belief that Sonny is the piece of toilet paper that just doesn't get flushed down with the first flush. I have tried giving him the benefit of the doubt, blah blah blah, but he does not inspire confidence. To use his name in connection with "stopper" is to insult the memory of Andy Pettitte. Between Sonny Boy and Delin, we have a great, gaping hole in our staff.
All it takes is CC's knee, Tanaka's elbow, or some other tweak-able membrane somewhere and we are one car-length from the city dump.
Okay, I'm going to go check on the game now.
Brian Cashman and Billy Beane walk into a room together to discuss a deal and close the door. Which one is more likely to emerge wearing only his socks?
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ReplyDeleteAustin Romine is Sonny Gray's catcher. We done been told that. Alos: He pitches "much better" when Austin is behind the plate.
No Yankee could have been happy with the results of Gray's appearance tonight. But I'm willing to bet Gary Sanchez was stifling a big, fat smirk.
People have known for at least thirty years now, based on historical data, that a SUCCESSFUL sacrifice bunt in ANY situation on average reduces a team's chances of scoring in that inning. Yet Boone-brain did exactly that with one of his better hitters at the plate, two men on, and nobody out. WHAT A FUCKING DUNCE. Right there he radically reduced the likelihood of a big inning.
ReplyDeletei was lead to believe if you play for a run you get just a run
ReplyDeleteHorrible decision to bunt probably cost us the game
That and the bum that is Sonny Gray he seems to be the darling of those running River Ave Blues site.
How many sub standard performances and how high does his ERA have to go for them to realise he is yet another in the long long list of Cashmans inability to trade for a top pitcher.
We gave up far too much (even though 2 players were injured they have potential to be good solid MLB players) for this bang average ordinary pitcher who will never be a success on this team he is hopeless.
Wishaw--But the data clearly show that even a SUCCESSFUL sacrifice bunt REDUCES your chances of scoring even that one run--and radically reduces the chance of a big inning. I thought Boone said he was all in on analytics?
ReplyDeleteSONNY GRAY.
ReplyDelete5 INNINGS, 9 HITS, 5 EARNED RUNS...
NICE.
I agree with the no bunting...but I think, considering how terrible the pitching was, that it's basically a non-issue.
ReplyDeleteWe really needed Sonny Gray, Boy Pitcher tonight...and he didn't come through. Against a weak-hitting team that he is quite familiar with.
Our Scottish friend is right. The Yanks have lucked out so far in that the three minor leaguers we traded for were hurt but yes, all of them COULD be good. Even great.
All we needed out of Sonny Boy, meanwhile, was just somebody to be pretty steady in that no. 3 spot, giving us innings and maybe 13-15 wins.
He can't do it. He looks like a little boy out there, even with his personal, weak-hitting catcher (not that Sanchez exactly distinguished himself today.).
HC66--Gray had one really good year with the A's. Then he suffered two ominous pitching injuries--a trapezius and forearm strain. So of course Cashman couldn't resist. And analysts were all over the airwaves warning that this guy is TOO SMALL to sustain the bodily strains and torques necessary to sustain effective pitching in today's MLB environment. EVERYBODY knew this somehow but Cashman--premier dunderhead among GMs.
ReplyDeleteWith apologies to James Taylor, the song Sunny Skies, and anyone who ever read me advocating trading for this guy.
ReplyDeleteSonny Gray
Sonny Gray throws for the Yankees
He doesn't know how to pitch.
He serves it over the plate or far away
We’re all in mourning
Throwing his whole career away.
He doesn’t let us down slowly.
We know we’re gonna lose in the end.
And Austin Romine non withstanding
Sonny Gray hasn't a friend.
Sonny Gray’s pitches are soaring
Over the wall in right.
I guess he just has to cry from time to time.
Everyone's scoring.
And it’s hard to win when you’re behind.
(I skipped to the end)
Looking at the baseball standings
in the morning
Looking at the trades that got away.
Wondering if where we are is worth
The things we’ve been through
Ending with a putz named Sonny Gray.
Doug K.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteLike a small refrigerator being shoved up my rectums. Every fifth day.
ReplyDeleteAnd, even worse...shoulder stiffness for Justus Sheffield in Scranton. Oy.
ReplyDeletePlus why is Sanchez still at .200? Plus why does Scranton never quite get going?
Frustrating season, this, for one that includes a 17-1 run. Hard to know what to think.
Actually, Anon, Gray had a very good 2014 with the A's, then an excellent 2015, in which he finished third in the Cy Young voting.
ReplyDeleteBut you're right: the breakdown in 2016 should have sounded some alarm bells.
Instead, as usual, our Mr. Cashman heard those first, weird knocking sounds in the car he was test-driving and didn't think, 'Hmm,
I'm taking this lemon back to the lot,' but, 'Ooh, now I'll get a big discount!'
Gray was always a foolish move. We knew it here before he made it. Now all of New York knows it. No doubt, Cash is still conferring about 'how we're going to fix Sonny.'
The operative word should be "trade,' not fix, and it should be activated the moment he has two straight good starts (good luck with that).
Agreed, HC66, although the two starts vs. Cleveland & Houston were, very likely, our best shot; if we traded Sonny Boy now, could we get even ONE good prospect for him, let alone three?? I have my doubts.
ReplyDeleteA pox upon Cash-Puss. Aroint thee hence, Sirrah! LB (No J)
HC66--Gray's 2014 was a decent year, not a great year. He really excelled only in 2015. So his peak is three to four years in the past--just Cashman's idea of a great find. You do realize that on average, pitchers peak at around age 25 vs. 27 for position players. I'm sure Cashman has never studied those numbers.
ReplyDelete
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