Pudge by the Numbers

Here are a few interesting numbers on the newest Yankee, Ivan Rodriguez,

He's a career .283 hitter in Yankee stadium. (And a career .302 hitter in Fenway)

He doesn't walk. He only walked 9 (Nine!) times last season... He's managed 19 walks so far this season.

He has a.240 .Avg this season with RISP, and with 2 outs and RISP he's hitting .216

He's also listed as hitting .196 in "late and close" situations.

Pudge is an improvement at the plate, but he's a roleplayer now, not a superstar. He's turned it on lately, hitting .350 over his last 16 games so let's just hope that lasts another few months.

Hey, Someone Gets It.

CBS put up their weekly Power Rankings today which I can never help but look at. Writer Larry Dobrow makes a pretty good comment in the Yankees section when he says:

"The Red Sox spent the past five seasons plunking Derek Jeter with impunity, but now Joba Chamberlain's the jerkhead for going after Kevin "Looooouuuu" Youkilis? The funniest thing is Youkilis seems genuinely surprised every time it happens."

Don't get me wrong, clearly throwing at someones head is a bit different than hitting a guy in the elbow a hundred times, but the point is the same.

When Pedro was here in Boston, he was a well known head-hunter. Who doesn't remember the game where Pedro looked in at Jorge Posada in the dugout while pointing at his head.

A few people spoke up back then, but it seems like people have forgotten how many Yankees have been hit over the last few years in these heated Yankee/Sox games.

Manny the Hot Topic...

I found myself in the car for about an hour today, and since the Yankees won last night, I decided to listen to some Boston sports radio.

For almost the entire hour, there wasn't a mention of Beckett, Chamberlain, or the great game that was played... All the focus was on Manny. At first, it seemed a lot like the types of things we've been hearing year after year about Manny, but when you pay more attention you can see that this is a bigger deal.

Check out this article by Boston sports writer Dan Shaughnessy. This type of action was never even discussed in years passed and was just played out as 'Manny being Manny'.

This really is the teams fault. They've let Manny do whatever he wants since 2001, because his performance on the field was so good. All his antics were played off as cute and funny, but now things have reached a boiling point. The ownership, the team, the media and even the fans are starting to turn on Manny. It seems like they've finally had enough.


Now all eyes are waiting to see if he's in the lineup for todays game. If he pulls himself, the feeling is that the team will take some disciplinary action.

Now it's Getting Exciting...

The Yankees seem to finally be pitching and hitting well. Everyone seems to be falling into a rhythm, and the timing couldn't be better.

They have these last two games against the Twins, before heading into Boston for 3 big games.

The start of the Boston series also marks a stretch in which the Yankees play 20 straight games from July 25th until August 13th. The Yankees have to hope they can stay as consistent as they have, and hope that they have the depth to carry them through...

Yankees Start the Break Early

Today the Yankees faced a pitcher, whose team had publicly said was on a pitch count. So what do they do? They let him pitch almost the entire game while keeping his pitch count under 100.

This was another game in which the Yankees just looked bored and in a hurry to leave. I'm sure that's not the case, but most of them looked like they were thinking ahead to what they had planned for the All Star Break.

Now the Yankees find themselves with 67 remaining games. Last year they played great in the second half, and this year they have to do it again. They should be able to do it again, but who knows. Baseball is always unpredictable in the end.

Didn't See That One Coming

Sidney Ponson pitched great and kept the Yankees in the game. Eventually, their lack luster offense managed to put another run across and win a very exciting game.

Hows this for a stat...

They Yankees are 17-11 in 1 run games. That's second best in the AL only in the to Texas, who is 18-10.

Last year at this time, the Yankees were 7-14 in 1 run games. The worst in the AL at that time.

In Other News...

Suspect in Cape baseball bat attack held without bail

Man beats another with bat, believing him to be a Yankees fan.

Brett Gardner after 21 At Bats...

Brett Gardner had a dramatic 10th inning hit to win the game. You know that by now.

You also probably know that after last nights 2-5 performance, he's hitting .143 on the season.

Lets look closer at the numbers. He has 3 hits, and 2 walks. Of those 5 times that he has been on base, he has come around to score on 4 of those occasions. He is also a perfect 3 for 3 in stolen bases.

Still, he is only hitting .143 with just a .208 OBP. Yes, he has hit a few balls hard that found their way into gloves, but not enough times to think he'd be doing much better than .143.

His defense has been great. When I watch him approach a fly ball or throw in, I haven't been worried.

I think he has the potential to be a good all around player for the Yankees. I don't know if he'll hit .270, but he could steal 30 bases the rest of the way. He also seems to do what a lot of the other Yankees can't right now, and that's just put the ball in play. His sacrifice fly in Saturdays game was huge, and seemed like something the Yankees haven't been able to do all season. He also tends to see a lot of pitches, which is great for the Yankees since they need a lead off man right now.

We'll see how it goes the rest of the way, but so far despite the low average Yankee fans have to be encouraged by what they've seen from Gardner.

The Start of Something?

Watching the bats come alive last night was both refreshing and encouraging. Sometimes a game like this can really get a team on a roll.

A few weeks ago, on June 12th, Matsui blasted a grandslam in a Yankee victory over the Oakland A's. This put the Yankees over the .500 mark at 34-33. This seemed to spark the team, as after that game they went 10-4 in the next 14 games.

Of course that didn't last, and the bats had seemed to go silent again during the last few days of June and the beginning of this month.

In last nights game, Giambi bashed a grand slam and had 6 RBI on the game. The rest of the Yankee offense also did their part.

The Yankees are entering a critical part of the year, so lets hope last nights offense performance carries over into the couple weeks.

He's. Getting. Worse.

Melky Cabrera:
last 28 games: .191 avg.
last 14 games: .170 avg.
last 7 games: .148 avg.

And of course like every other Yankee, his avg. with runners in scoring position is terrible, currently at .222.

I really don't like picking on Melky, especially a day after the whole team looked inept... However the majority of the team had been producing the previous 3 or 4 weeks, while Melky continues to slide closer to the Mendoza line.

Yankees should bounce back tonight.