Tagged: CC Sabathia
Rain On My Parade
2010 Pretty In Pinstripes Challenge Tracker: Entry #39 – 5/18/10 – Red Sox @ Yankees
Box Score:
As we’re coming down from the high of our first walk-off win of the season, we get screwed.
Wow. Talk about raining on a parade.
I didn’t think there was going to be a game. I managed to wait until 1:30am my time, before all the reports about rain in New York made give in to temptation, and go to sleep. I got a message from a friend, 30 minutes before the game, to wake me up. So, I managed to sleep for two hours, and I was cranky and groggy. I’m fine when I don’t sleep at all, but when I’m tired, and only sleep for two hours, my mood is not very pleasant.
This game, overall, didn’t do much to improve my mood.
I’m currently suffering through an injury (severe muscle strain), so I’m pretty tired all day long. The pain and medication are exhausting me, so it took every ounce of strength in me to open my eyes and switch the game on.
When you’re sleepy, the last thing you want is a boring game. The game was pretty boring for the most part. I found myself complaining about it. Sure, we were leading the game, but not much was going on. The pace was slow. Extremely slow. Especially with Beckett taking forever to set up between pitches. So, I hoped that something interesting would happen.
Little did I know that the saying I’ve been hearing since I was a little child, would come back to bite me…
“Be careful what you wish for, lest it come true.”
I wished for a more exciting game, and it came back to slap me in the face.
I have to hand it to our boys, they never fail to make things interesting. The previous game was excitement that ended in glory. This game was excitement that ended in horror.
On a night where our Ace was dominant through seven complete innings, one would think that our team would be able to hold onto a four-run lead and win the game. One would also be wrong in making such an assumption so lightly.
CC Sabathia pitched a “gutty” game, through mist and cold, and held the Red Sox to one run throughout. He gave up only four hits, and struck out five. It was a great start for Sabathia, who further proved that he is indeed a work-horse.
Once again, it came down to our bullpen. Specifically, it came down to Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera.
Joba Chamberlain was awful. There’s no other word to describe his performance in this game. His pitches were off, his velocity was down, and he was inefficient. In one inning of work, he gave up three earned runs on four hits, and a fourth run that was charged as an error.
Three runs were his fault.
This is unacceptable coming from a reliever.
He isn’t pitching seven or eight innings, where three runs could be scattered and go unnoticed. He is in the extremely important role of “Setup Man”. that means his job is to come in and hold the lead for Mariano Rivera to save. He cannot give up three runs in one inning, and have an ERA of nearly 5 on the season. Not as our setup man.
It wasn’t only this game, it was his last game as well. There seems to be a problem with Joba Chamberlain, and I don’t know what it is. If it were an injury, then we would have known about it. Whatever it is, he needs to work on it and get it fixed. With the rest of our bullpen being an absolute mess right now, we need a couple of our ‘pen pitchers to be reliable. Joba Chamberlain needs to be one of our reliable pitchers. There is no way out of that responsibility, not as long as he’s in pinstripes.
I’d like to take a moment here and ask:
“What the Hell were you thinking, Girardi?”
I agree with Joe putting Joba into the game. He’s our “8th Inning Guy”, and we want him to setup for Mariano. Any manager would have made the same choice.
My problem with Girardi came when Joba Chamberlain was struggling, giving up base hits and runs. Normally, when a relief pitcher struggles with a couple of hitters, the pitching coach is sent out to the mound to check up on him, and calm him down. This didn’t happen with Joba Chamberlain. Joe Girardi didn’t send Dave Eiland out to the mound. They just left the guy in there to make a mess of things, and no one even talked to him.
Furthermore, we’ve all seen Girardi’s micromanagement in the past. We’ve seen him take pitchers out of a game while they’re cruising, and have already recorded two outs in the inning. Yet Joba Chamberlain gave up a couple of runs before recording a single out, and he was left in the game. What was that all about?
Mariano Rivera pitched the ninth inning, and the Red Sox scored two runs. These runs were UNEARNED, therefore, Rivera cannot be faulted here. The Yankees defense was to blame for these. They messed up. They messed up bad.
Bill Coyle, a fellow Yankees fan, had this to say after the game:
“If it wasn’t for Marcus Thames, we would have been swept by the Red Sox. If it wasn’t for Marcus Thames, we could have swept the Red Sox.”
Marcus Thames made a huge mistake in the outfield that allowed a run to score while Mariano was pitching. He called off Cano on a fly ball, and then he failed to catch it.
Randy Winn was in the heat as well, because he swung at a “Ball Four” pitch to end the game. He also was playing the field a little too shallow, causing a fly ball to drop in for a hit, but that turned out to be Joe Girardi’s decision.
Listen, in the heat of the moment, we all screamed obscenities at Thames, through our TVs and computers. I’m pretty sure the fans at the stadium did the same. Now that we’ve all had a chance to cool down, we can think a little more clearly.
Marcus Thames and Randy Winn are not our strongest players, we all know that. We know that Thames is a failure in the outfield, and Randy Winn is a failure in the lineup. We dwell on that? Basically, you get what you pay for. What we need to remember is that we acquired both of these players to play off the bench. We did NOT acquire them to be regular starters. We’ve been plagued with a string of injuries, and that is the only reason they have bee
n starting. So, before we jump off the ledge and demand they’re released, let me tell you that they are good in the role for which they were originally chosen.
n starting. So, before we jump off the ledge and demand they’re released, let me tell you that they are good in the role for which they were originally chosen.
Of course, there was some umpiring failure once again (who do we have to bribe to get an umpire who knows how to call a strike?), but I’m not going to be *that fan* and blame our loss on the umpires. This loss was ours.
The Red Sox didn’t win this game, the Yankees lost it.
To me, that’s the worst kind of loss.
Now, you probably need something to make you laugh after the devastating loss, and my depressing post.
I found this on The Girl Who Loved Andy Pettitte blog. This flow chart is 100% comical, and is not to be taken seriously. But, as you know, every joke holds a degree of truth. This chart exaggerates, and makes fun of fans’ reactions to every loss. When I saw it, I laughed.
(Click on the image to enlarge it.)
Fugheddaboutit
2010 Pretty In Pinstripes Challenge Tracker: Entry #34 – 5/13/10 – Yankees @ Tigers
Oh boy….
What a messy start from CC Sabathia.
He looked like a different man in this game. This isn’t the CC Sabathia we know. This isn’t the CC Sabathia we’re used to. This game caused some fans to overreact (Yeah, we’ve never seen THAT happen before), and start to panic.
Relax, people. Switch to decaf and take a deep breath. This isn’t a start to a trend of bad pitching from CC Sabathia. It is what it is: one bad start. So just chill out. He’ll go back to dominating, I have no doubt in my mind about it.
What surprised m
e the most (and I don’t know why anything coming from our fanbase surprises me anymore) is that people were blaming CC Sabathia for the loss. Yes, CC was bad, but he could have been pitching a one-hit shutout, and we still would have lost the game.
e the most (and I don’t know why anything coming from our fanbase surprises me anymore) is that people were blaming CC Sabathia for the loss. Yes, CC was bad, but he could have been pitching a one-hit shutout, and we still would have lost the game.
Our bats seemed to be asleep, and many people were quick to jump all over them, too, but I’m here to tell you it wasn’t their faults, either. It was no one’s fault. We were out-pitched. It’s as simple as that.
We were facing Justin Verlander. He is one of the best pitchers in baseball. He was absolutely lights-out, and shut us out completely. We’re going to face pitchers who completely paralyze our bats. While I was angry at our bats in the first two games of this series, I am not angry at them for this game.
Come on, people, you have to give credit where it is due: Justin Verlander owned us.
Don’t blame CC, don’t blame the Yankees, this loss was no one’s fault. Justin Verlander earned this win. No one can take that away from him.
CC Sabathia will bounce back from this, our bats will hit again, and there was nothing we could have done to avoid this loss, with Verlander being as nasty as he was.
The best thing to do is just to fuhgeddaboutit, and move on.
Let’s go home, boys. I forgot what you guys looked like in pinstripes.
You can find Beeeebzy’s blog entries and more at 161st-and-River.com.
Blow Me Away
2010 Pretty In Pinstripes Challenge Tracker: Entry #29 – 5/8/10 – Yankees @ Red Sox
What can I say about this game any more than what the final score already says? I thought winning 10-3 in the first game of the series was amazing, winning 14-3 is even better!
Can we own the Red Sox any more than we are? Sure we can. We can win the third game of the series, too.
CC Sabathia was not at his best, but he didn’t cost us the game. The Yankees regained the lead that CC gave up, and it looked like he could be on his way to his fourth win of the season. That is, until two-outs in the bottom of the fifth inning. He was one strike away from an official game when Mother Nature decided to celebrate Mothers Day a little early.
The b*tch went crazy!
The rain poured down and the tarp was brought out, and we had ourselves a rain delay. An hour and fourteen minutes later, the game resumed, but CC wasn’t on the mound. He didn’t get the win. Something tells me that Sabathia was just as happy about the team winning, as he would have been getting the win for himself.. He’s a team player, after all.
Sabathia did manage to hit Dustin Pedroia, though. Was it intentional? No one knows. If it was intentional, then CC chose the right spot to hit him in, his derrière. Those muscles can handle taking the hit without damage, so if it was payback for what Beckett did the night before, it was executed perfectly. Intentional or not, I liked seeing the little midget plunked. I’m not going to lie, it made me smile.
The Yankees scored fourteen runs in the game. Ten of those runs were given as RBIs to Mark Teixeira and Francisco Cervelli.
Cerving Up The Runs
Frankie Cervelli. How amazing is he?
This is a young catcher who was brought up to the Major League solely for his defense. Last year, he played some AA ball, and was hitting .190 in over a dozen games. His numbers improved when he played AAA and had some games in the majors, but nothing compared to this year. He’s currently batting .429 with an OBP of .500 this season. I know it’s still early, and he hasn’t been a regular starter, but my God, what more can we ask of our backup catcher?
Five RBIs in one game! Not to mention the rest of his amazing hitting this year!
His defense is amazing, his offense is impeccable, and he’s passionate about the game. Whether it’s behind the plate or during his at-bats, Cervelli’s passion and emotions flow. He hustles, he thrives to win, and he never gives less than 200% during games. What more can we ask of our catcher?
On most teams in baseball, Francisco Cervelli would be the regular starting catcher. I think he should be our starting catcher, too, at least for the short run. Before you go crazy, hear me out.
Jorge Posada is still great to have in the lineup, but his defensive skills are slipping with age. Even when he was younger, Posada was more known for his offense, and his good defense was a bonus. While Jorge’s errors aren’t costing us any games yet, Cervelli is better behind the plate. He’s also proven to be quite the asset in our lineup, so why not keep him there? He lacks Posada’s power hitting, but he’s still a good hitter.
When Posada is available to hit again, the perfect mix would be having both Jorge Posada and Francisco Cervelli in the lineup every day. We need Posada’s power-hitting, and Cervelli’s everything.
Right now, Nick Johnson is on the Disabled List for God knows how long. Therefore, we currently don’t have him filling up the DH spot. I say we regularly make Posada our DH, and Cervelli our catcher for the time being.
Cervelli has shown that he can catch our pitchers, be they our veterans or our young ones. We’ve seen him walk out to the mound and calm our pitchers down. We’ve seen the emotion and passion he brings to every game. Why wouldn’t we want to have that every day?
Will we see him every day? Probably not, especially after Nick Johnson returns. We should, however, take advantage of what is supposed to be a “bad situation” and get the most out of this young talent.
To think, we were worried about Posada not being able to catch. Dare I say that we’re better with Cervelli behind the plate? Yes, I said it. Right now, I’d rather see Francisco Cervelli behind the plate, but I still want Jorge Posada in the lineup.
He’s getting old. Permanently DHing will come soon, for Posada.
Granola Bar, for the win!
The camera was on Mark Teixeira in the dugout while he was eating a granola bar. Joe Buck and Tim McCarver went on and on about it. Well, the granola bar worked, because Mark Teixeira hit three home runs in the game, and got five RBIs added to his name.
Boy, that Mark Teixeira sure loves the month of May.
The best sluggers hit an average of six home runs a month. Teixeira is halfway there from one game. How insane is that? Is he going to hit three home runs every game? No way. However it’s nice to see him starting to make up for his April slump.
Maybe Alex Rodriguez should start eating granola bars.
Charge the Thief with a Hit & Run
Speaking of A-Rod, he had a good game. Sluggers are usually weighed down by their heavy bats. They depend on the power hits, and rarely do you se
e them hitting the small ball. Sluggers not named Alex Rodriguez, that is. Sure, he’s slumping when it comes to home runs, but I’m sure that’ll change very soon. In this game, Alex drew three walks, had two hits, one RBI and a stolen base. That stolen base allowed him to score a run.
e them hitting the small ball. Sluggers not named Alex Rodriguez, that is. Sure, he’s slumping when it comes to home runs, but I’m sure that’ll change very soon. In this game, Alex drew three walks, had two hits, one RBI and a stolen base. That stolen base allowed him to score a run.
Sure, he’s not slugging it up right now, but he’s certainly hitting the ball when it matters the most, and now he’s stealing bases. He needs to get the power back to his bat though. We need him slugging in the clean-up spot!
¡Ándale! ¡Ándale! ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba!
Brett ‘Speedy Gardzales’ Gardner had a good game. Remember when Brett Gardner was an automatic out? Not anymore! He’s getting hits, he’s working walks, and his OBP is ridiculously good. Even more importantly, once he’s on, he’s nasty. His legs have made me call him Speedy Gardzales, and no pitcher wants to have him on base.
In this game, Gardner stole a base, and he now has fourteen stolen bases this season.
Holla!
I also want to give a shoutout to Ramiro Pena for his defensive plays, Swisher for being hotter than hot right now, and Joba who is thriving in the pen (WHERE HE BELONGS).
Good game, boys. Good game. Now let’s go in tomorrow for the sweep!
You can find Beeeebzy’s blog entries and more at 161st-and-River.com.
Welcoming The Orioles Back To Reality
2010 Pretty In Pinstripes Challenge Tracker: Entry #25 – 5/3/10 – Orioles @ Yankees
The Orioles were feeling pretty good coming off of their sweep of the Red Sox, and rightfully so. Sweeping the Sox is not an easy feat, especially for the Orioles, so they deserved to celebrate such a victory.
The Yankees, however, welcomed them back to reality, and reminded them who poses the real threat in the American League East.
Before the game, Derek Jeter and Mark Teixeira received their 2009 Golden Glove awards. They more than deserved them for their defensive performances last year. It was their amazing defense that helped us win our 27th World Series title, so I’m glad to see that their fielding during last season was recognized.
No one across baseball disagrees that Mark Teixeira earned his Golden Glove. The Jeter Haters, however, came out in full swing when the winners were announced last year. They had no valid argument against Jeter defensively, they were only hating on him because he’s Derek Jeter. That has never made a difference to Derek, and it has no effect on me whatsoever. Nobody hates a nobody, and our captain has more than proved that he is one of baseball’s modern icons. This was Jeter’s fourth Golden Glove award, and Teixeira’s third. Congratulations to our two infielders for receiving their defensive titles.
Now, on to the game.
With CC Sabathia on the mound, I’m always comfortable. The man is a beast. How many times have we said “CC pitched a gem”? More times than I can remember. This game was no different. Sabathia pitched eight complete innings beautifully. He only allowed one run on six hits, and walked two.
There was a moment in the seventh inning when CC seemed to have lost his composure. He looked like he was about to storm off the mound, towards the home plate umpire. This is very uncharacteristic of Sabathia, as we’ve seen his nerves of steel for over a year in the Bronx.
I don’t blame him for being angry. I was angry, too. I’ll admit that a part of me – the purely emotional part – wanted to see him get in the umpire’s face.
The umpire’s strike zone was schizophrenic. He didn’t pick a strike zone and commit, but rather changed his box regularly, for the same batter at the plate. During one at-bat, the same pitch was thrown to the same location twice; once it was called a strike, the next time it was called a ball. That kind of umpiring mistake is unacceptable. How is a pitcher meant to pitch when he doesn’t know where the umpire’s strike zone is?
This is not only a problem for the Yankees, but for Major League Baseball in general. The umpires are hit or miss. It’s normal for the home plate umpire to make a couple of mistakes during the game, but some umpires are ridiculous. They mess up calls, allow batters to reach base when they should have been called out a few pitches earlier, and then you get the likes of Joe West complaining about games being too long. Maybe if the umpires didn’t have dynamic strike zones, a pitcher wouldn’t need so long to prepare for his next pitch.
I digress.
Back to the game.
When it looked as though we would see a fiery outburst from him, Sabathia took a deep breath, and walked a lap around the mound to cool down. He came back to complete his eight innings of domination.
That w
as close. You don’t want to make the big man angry. Who knows what damage he could have done? He could have swallowed the umpire whole.
as close. You don’t want to make the big man angry. Who knows what damage he could have done? He could have swallowed the umpire whole.
As always, our bats gave Sabathia the necessary backup to get him the win. The source of the win(n), however, was unusual.
Randy Winn connected with a Guthrie pitch in the fourth inning, and blasted a three-run home run out of the park.
No, you didn’t misread what I wrote, I did say “Randy Winn” and “home run” in the same sentence.
It had been over a year since his last home run, so he’s obviously not a power bat. It was nice to see him go yard, and it was the clutch hit of the night, as the Yankees scored no more runs after the lead that home run gave them. I’m not expecting many more home runs from Winn, but it’s very satisfying to see that he can bank on a pitching mistake every once in a while.
I’m not going to blow Winn’s home run out of proportion, like many people have. I appreciate it for what it is, no more, but no less. Randy Winn will have more at-bats now that Granderson is on the Disabled List, but he will be platooning with Marcus Thames, who is swinging a hot bat so far.
I don’t think that Randy Winn should be our regular starter. He has a career batting average of .286, and a .344 OBP. Those look decent, and they are, but they’re not great when his home runs are a year apart. What helps is that Randy doesn’t strike out too much when compared to other hitters who have similar numbers. His defense makes him great to have on the roster, but I would rather have Marcus Thames platooning with him while Granderson is out, and Gardner is in center field.
Overall, it was a good game. It was a pitching duel between CC Sabathia and Jeremy Guthrie, who has been a solid starting pitcher for the Orioles thus far. In this game, Guthrie made one mistake, the home run to Randy Winn, but otherwise pitched very well.
The Yankees begin a winning streak with two in a row, and it’s on to the next game.
You can find Beeeebzy’s blog entries and more at 161st-and-River.com.
A Very Happy Birthday
2010 Pretty In Pinstripes Challenge Tracker: Entry #10 – 4/16/10 – Rangers @ Yankees
I’m three blog posts behind due to my weekend off while I celebrated my birthday, so let me begin catching up on them now.
Let’s kick it off with the game on April 16th, my Birthday Game!
The game was short and sweet, thanks to Mother Nature once again being on her cycle.
You know, this CC Sabathia kid isn’t bad, he could have a bright future ahead of him.
What can I say about Sabathia that hasn’t already been said? He has made me forget the days where the Yankees didn’t have
a clear Ace. I just can’t get enough of this man. Luckily, there’s plenty of him to go around. Ah, my big cuddly CC Bear.
a clear Ace. I just can’t get enough of this man. Luckily, there’s plenty of him to go around. Ah, my big cuddly CC Bear.
CC Sabathia never ceases to amaze me. I’ve never seen such a large man have such athleticism. He dominates when he’s pitching, he hustles when he’s fielding, and he is a workhorse. His mechanics are absolutely perfect. They have to be, he’s a big boy with powerful pitching. If his mechanics are even the slightest bit off, there is no way he’d be able to eat innings year after year.
He always has this calm demeanor about him. He is confident in his pitching, but he isn’t cocky. He’s a hard worker, while staying efficient. He’s a true star, but you wouldn’t guess it from the way he carries himself. He is humble, but not to the point of discrediting his skills. He has truly become a Yankee, and I hope he continues to be a Yankee until the day he retires.
These are my views of CC Sabathia based on what we’ve all seen from him in his career, especially in his year with us in the Bronx. His start on Friday reaffirmed my beliefs.
His game was cut short because Mother Nature decided to rain on our parade, but she couldn’t take anything away from Sabathia’s amazing start. Yes, he had it easy with the Rangers’ hitters being as impatient at the plate as Yankees fans are with Javier Vazquez, but he still dominated the innings. He pitched through the sixth, giving up one run on three hits, and struck out nine batters before Mother Nature went to town.
He got his second win of the season, and further cemented his place as our Staff Ace. I’ve come to the conclusion that it isn’t fair to judge the Rangers’ hitters based on their performance facing Sabathia. He made them look like a Minor League team.
I don’t know what more we could ask of CC in his first three starts of the season. He’s usually shaky in April, but he’s shown no signs of that thus far. He’s in mid-season form early in the season, and if he continues at this pace, we could see him top last year’s results. He was third in the voting for the AL Cy Young award in 2009, could he be even better in 2010?
I know, it’s only April, and too soon to tell, but I don’t see why Sabathia would magically lose his stuff halfway through the season. At the very least, we’ll see 20 wins from him this season. Especially with our monster lineup and top-class defense behind him. He gave us 19 wins last season, despite his rough outings to start the year off. So why wouldn’t he give us at least 20 wins in 2010?
Let’s not forget that Friday’s game was a “wet” performance from CC Sabathia. It was raining, and the ball was wet, yet he still managed to dominate. If that isn’t a testament to the dominance of our Ace, I don’t know what is.
He threw 73 pitches through six innings. Had rain not ended the game early, we would have probably seen him go to the eighth, possibly even handing the ball over to our closer of the night. I don’t know if Mariano would have pitched in the ninth, that would have depended on how big our lead was by then. I doubt we would have seen more than 1.2 innings from our bullpen, which is amazing, especially since Chan Ho Park is injured.
It’s every team’s dream to have a starting rotation of inning-gobbling pitchers, and rely as little as possible on the bullpen. CC Sabathia is like a dream come true. As always, he showed that he’s a force to be reckoned with, dominating innings, and making the batters he faces look silly along the way.
We won the game 5-1, and continued our hot start to the season.
That was my first birthday present from the Yankees on the night. My second birthday present was something I thought I’d wait longer for.
As you all know, I’m possibly Boone Logan’s number one fan. At first, the attraction to him was purely physical. Hey, I’m a woman. I don’t see why I should hide my physical attraction to our players. I’m confident enough in my knowledge of the sport to show my feminine side. I see nothing wrong with being a knowledgeable fan of baseball, while still being female. Many women think that they need to act like men to survive in a male-dominant field. Not me. Whether it’s in my career, or in my baseball obsession, I’m confident enough to find a balance between being a woman and competing in “A Man’s World”.
Like most of you, when Boone Logan was traded to the Yankees late last year, I knew nothing about him. I looked up his numbers, and they were not impressive at all. I also saw that this wasn’t the first time he was traded as part of a package with Javier Vazquez. My first thought was “Who is this loser that we’re getting?” and I was curious to find out more. Unlike most of you, however, I wasn’t satisfied with making up my own assumptions about him based on his numbers. I’m a firm believer that numbers, while important in baseball, leave a big part of the picture hidden. So, I continued to research this young left-hander, and I came across some videos of him pitching.
The boy can pitch. There is not a single knowledgeable analyst that doesn’t agree that Boone Logan has talent. This talent, however, has been very raw until now. His numbers don’t do him justice at all. He has some filthy pitches, especially that fastball of his. I’ve explained this all before in one of my Spring Training blog posts, so let me re-post an excerpt I wrote about him last month:
“Boone Logan is one of those pitchers who are betrayed by their numbers. I’ve said time and time again, numbers and statistics do not come close to telling the whole story. Yes, his numbers thus far in the majors have been less than impressive, but he has good stuff. Logan’s main problem is his command of his pitches. In his years in the major leagues, he’s lacked the control necessary to avoid being lit up in some of his appearances.
What everyone seems to forget, however, is that Boone is still young. He’s 25 years old, and as a left-handed reliever, it’s normal to have control problems at this age. The big bright spot is that he can pitch, his fastball has been clocked at around 94 MPH, and he also has a good slider, curveball and changeup. Even with his shaky command, Logan has held the lefties he’s faced to a .231 batting average. That isn’t a bad number for a pitcher who’s yet to gain full control of his pitches. During this year’s spring training, Boone Logan has shown good command of his pitches thus far. He had one rough outing, but since then he’s been great. So there’s a big improvement.
… I would love to take a risk and give Boone Logan a chance. With the rest of our arms – I like to call them the “12 Arms Of Fury” – adding Boone Logan would be a low-risk/high-reward move. Give him a chance, if he doesn’t pan out, we still have Marte, and with the other right-handed relievers that we have, losing Gaudin wouldn’t be a tragedy.“
I still stand firmly behind my words. I would love to see us take a chance on Boone Logan.
I’ll admit, I’m not 100% confident in Boone yet, but I do see a big upside to him. He’s no Damaso Marte, not now at least, but Logan would only be Marte’s backup. It’s only April, and we should look at Chan Ho Park’s injury as an opportunity to test our young arms. It’s better to test them in the beginning of the season, than to take a risk on them during the final stretch of the year when we’re in the playoff race.
If Boone Logan doesn’t pan out, no harm, no foul. We have Marte in the bullpen as our “lefty specialist”, and Chan Ho Park’s injury isn’t season-ending. He’ll be back in no time. If Boone does live up to my personal expectations of him, then we would have yet another solid arm. I don’t know how it will work out when Park is ready to return to the bullpen, I have a feeling that Logan will be sent back down regardless of his performance. Even if he finds himself back in AAA, we would at least know whether or not we can rely on him in the second half of the season, should we need another pitcher.
Calling up Boone Logan in the middle of April is a very low risk/high reward move. Worst case scenario, he gives up a grand slam and doesn’t face another batter until Chan Ho Park comes back to us. If that happens, so what? It’s only April, and that grand slam won’t mean anything. Isn’t it better for him to make a mess of things now, when the results dont matter much in the grand scheme of things, than to do so in September?
Best case scenario, he dominates, and shows that he is a great backup lefty in the bullpen. So, the upside is much stronger than the downside. I’m happy that Boone Logan got the call-up. He now has to prove that he is worthy of the pinstripes.
Also, I’m happy that I once again get to end my blog post with this…
Boom Boom Boone.
&n
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You can find Beeeebzy’s blog entries and more at 161st-and-River.com
Almost There
2010 Pretty In Pinstripes Challenge Tracker: Entry #5 – 4/10/10 Yankees @ Rays
I’m not generally a superstitious person, but when it comes to baseball, I’m a nutcase.
I always make fun of other teams’ superstitions such as Boston’s “Curse of The Bambino” or Chicago’s “Curse of The Billy Goat”, and even the Angels’ Rally Monkey. I seem to forget that I have my own superstitious rituals. I have certain colors I wear during games, and others I never wear because, whenever I do, the Yankees lose. I always listen to the same Metallica song on my iPod during the pre-game shows (Harvester Of Sorrow), and I believe that I have the power to jinx players.
Which brings me to yesterday’s game.
Yesterday, CC Sabathia was four outs away from pitching a no-hitter. I don’t remember the last time I was this excited about an April game. While every Yankees game excites me, Yesterday’s excitement was completely different.
I’ve seen four Yankees’ no-hitters in my lifetime (two of which were perfect games). I remember the magic of it all. It’s been eleven years since I saw the last Yankees’ no-hitter, and I was hoping to see one yesterday.
As soon as Sabathia retired everyone in the fourth inning, I began to think to myself “Wow, this could really happen“, but I refused to say it. So, I did what any baseball-obsessed fan would do: I sat in the same exact position throughout the game, and didn’t move a muscle except for my fingers as I typed.
I was on the couch, with my legs folded underneath me, and my laptop on my lap. It was a very uncomfortable position to be sitting in, but I did not move an inch. I needed to go to the bathroom, my legs were numb, and my left knee was killing me from sitting in that position for over an hour, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t going to move and risk losing the no-hitter.
Yes, I’m extremely superstitious when it comes to my Yankees.
My house phone rang several times, and I let the machine get it. My BlackBerry was going crazy with notifications, and I ignored them. I was hungry, thirsty, and very uncomfortable, but I didn’t leave the couch. I wanted everything to remain the same because maybe, just maybe, I was witnessing the fifth Yankees’ no-hitter of my lifetime.
Of course, I refused to even utter the words “no hitter”. I avoided it at all cost. One of my roommates walked into the living room in the sixth inning. She asked me why I was frozen and wouldn’t even move my head to look at her. I couldn’t answer her, because if I did, I’d have to explain that CC was pitching a no-hitter, and that would jinx him. So, instead, I completely ignored her. I didn’t say a word. She thought I was being rude, and got mad at me. I didn’t care. A Sabathia no-hitter is more important.
Then, in the bottom of the eighth inning, with two outs, my BlackBerry started going crazy with notifications. It was notifying me of new messages on BlackBerry Messenger. I tried to ignore it, but the messages were coming very quickly, and obviously from one person. I thought it could be my mother trying to reach me, and since I wasn’t answering any phone calls, it might have been an emergency. So, I picked up my BlackBerry to look at the messages. As soon as I did that, Kelly Shoppach got a hit off of CC Sabathia. The message wasn’t an emergency, it was just my friend from New York saying “Are you watching? Sabathia is pitching a no hitter!”. Oh, the irony.
I’m usually a fan of ironic situations, but I was not happy yesterday. I threw my BlackBerry across the room (for the third time so far this season) and I was angry. I was angry at Shoppach for getting the hit (because, really, when a pitcher is pitching a no-hitter into the eighth, and your team is losing by ten runs, you should have enough courtesy to not swing at anything). I was angry at my friend for messaging me the words “no hitter“, when he knew that it would jinx Sabathia. Most of all, I was angry at myself for picking up my phone and reading the messages. I should have waited until the end of the game or, at the very least, for the final out of the inning.
In my mind, I jinxed CC, and nothing could convince me otherwise. So, yes, I was incredibly angry.
Nevertheless, yesterday’s game was unbelievable.
Even though the no-hitter was broken up by Shoppach (for whom I made several death wishes), the game blew me away.
CC Sabathia was in “The Zone”, and I was in that zone with him. He was so focused, it was like he was in another world. A world in which only he, the ball, Cervelli, and I existed. Yes, I felt as though I was right there with him. He had excellent command of his pitches, kept his count down, and retired batter after batter. I’ve never seen anything like it from Sabathia. It was absolutely magical.
My heart told me that the magic of his performance would be rewarded with a no-hitter. My heart was wrong, as it usually is.
What also blew me away was our defense, especially our “golden” infield. I knew our in
field was incredibly solid, but they were on fire yesterday. The plays we saw from them were unbelievable. Mark Teixeira showed his elite athleticism, Robinson Cano made some excellent plays, Derek Jeter had “mad hops” as always, and nothing was getting past Alex Rodriguez. Yesterday, they were extraordinary, even on their own standards. They wanted the no-hitter for Sabathia. They wanted it as much as he did.
field was incredibly solid, but they were on fire yesterday. The plays we saw from them were unbelievable. Mark Teixeira showed his elite athleticism, Robinson Cano made some excellent plays, Derek Jeter had “mad hops” as always, and nothing was getting past Alex Rodriguez. Yesterday, they were extraordinary, even on their own standards. They wanted the no-hitter for Sabathia. They wanted it as much as he did.
I left Francisco Cervelli out, because I wanted to mention him on his own. He was amazing yesterday. He nearly caught a no-hitter in his first April in the major leagues! The chemistry between Sabathia and Cervelli was strong. Dare I say he caught Sabathia better than Posada has? I especially loved his frequent outbursts of emotion. You could tell Cervelli wanted it. He wanted it, bad. While CC seemed to be as calm as I’ve ever seen him, Franky was emotional enough for the both of them. Fist pumps, cheers, and high-fives came frequently from Cervelli in yesterday’s game. It was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.
The no-hitter just wasn’t meant to be. The game was still one of the most magical games I’ve seen in a while. Not only did it show Sabathia’s dominance in pitching, and our fielders’ strengths defensively, but it also showed that we have a team that is glued together strongly. From the coaches to the players, the entire team stood together to try and give Sabathia the first no-hitter of his career.
Joe Girardi and Dave Eiland both said that they wouldn’t have left Sabathia in the game after the eighth inning, even if he was still pitching the no-no. I don’t believe that for one minute. I saw Joe Girardi in the dugout while CC was dealing, he hardly moved a muscle. He wanted it, too. We will never know for certain what the skipper would have done, and I’m sure the media and the fans will be discussing it for a while, but I saw the look in Joe Girardi’s eyes during the game. He wanted the no-no for CC Sabathia.
The no-hitter didn’t happen, but I believe that our players bonded even more in yesterday’s game. They gave the game 300% of their effort. They showed the urgency of a playoff game with their defensive plays. That wasn’t just to get a win, a large part of it was to give our ace a well-deserved no-hitter.
Sadly, it didn’t happen. Our wishes didn’t come true, but years from now, we will still remember the game when CC Sabathia was almost there.
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