Sunday, April 26, 2009

Paging Sigmund Freud


Take A Bow

Dear Jacoby Ellsbury,
Thank you for giving us a reason to hate your fucking guts. In the meantime, suck a bag of dicks.
Cordially,
Fack Youk

Game 18: Spotlight

Was yesterday's 16-11 shitshow the worst game ever? It was far too nice out to spend four hours and twenty one minutes in front of the TV yesterday, so I only saw about 15 of the lead changes. Let's take a lazy Sunday stroll around the blogoverse and see what we missed, shall we?
  • PeteAbe tells us that it was only the second game in franchise history that the Yankees lost by 5 or more runs after leading by 6 or more

  • Kim Jones got her wish for 9 innings, but somehow I don't think that was quite what she had in mind
All is not lost, friends. A win tonight and the Yanks can salvage some dignity, stop the Sox 9 game win streak, and stay above .500 on the season. Andy Pettitte takes the hill against Justin Masterson, who is off to a good start filling in for Matsuzaka.

The rivalry shifts to primetime tonight, or as some might call it, the Spotlight.



(Not a huge DMB fan, but that's a pretty cool version of that song, which he hasn't played live since 1993)

Regardless of your rooting affiliations, I'm sure you are you are thrilled by the inevitability of being entertained by the vocal stylings of Jon Miller, the flawless logic of Steve Phillips and of course the sage insights of Joe Morgan. If you hear anything egregious, feel free to preserve it in eternity by dropping it in the comments section.

Just remember this it's not only an East Coast thing.

Happy Trails, Brayan Pena

Yesterday, the Royals DFA'd Brayan Pena. Does that name sound familiar? I alluded to the situation in a recent post, but just in case you didn't click through...

Going for the sweep in Kansas City on April 12th the Yankees held their first close, late lead of the season. It was 4-3 entering the bottom of the eighth inning, and Joe Girardi called on Damaso Marte, who quickly retired lefties Mark Teahen and David DeJesus on two fly balls. When the Yankees signed Marte to a $12M/3 year extension this offseason, I'm guessing they thought of him as more than just a lefty specialist. But instead of leaving Marte in to face righty Billy Butler, Girardi went to the 'pen for Jose Veras, who had pitched 3 out of the last four games, and proceeded to walk Butler on 5 pitches.

Sitting in the on-deck circle was the legendary Brayan Pena, with 75 Major League games spread out over 5 years under his belt, 2 career HRs and a .254 OBP. So Girardi brought in lefty Phil Coke, who promptly allowed a double, single, and a double, resulting in the three runs that won the game for Kansas City. Oh yeah, and Pena's a fucking switch hitter.

Remember now?

Baseball is a cruel game. One day Joe Girardi is bringing in a pitcher specifically to face you, and two weeks later you get sent to the minors.

It's amazing how a bullpen can go from being quite effective last year to extremely sporadic this season without any significant changes to the cast of characters. I think at least some of the blame belongs to Joe Girardi and Dave Eiland who have been getting awfully cute with their match-up decisions. I don't want to nitpick every managerial move, but in general, I'm not in favor of bringing in the third pitcher of the inning to face a switch hitter with a .582 career OPS.