Game 93: The Royal Scam

Tonight, the Yankees welcome the Royals to the Bronx for the first of a four game set. Luckily, Zack Greinke faced the Blue Jays last night (allowing two runs over 8 innings) and the Yanks will miraculously dodge him this time around.

CC Sabathia will take the mound for the Bombers this evening, a welcome relief after the bullpen has had to soak up 21 2/3 innings in the past three games because of Andy Pettitte's injury, A.J. Burnett's temper and Phil Hughes and Javier Vazquez's collective inability to get an out in the sixth inning.

The Big Fella draws consummate journeyman Bruce Chen (10 teams in 12 MLB seasons) tonight, who has the next lowest ERA in the Royals' starting rotation behind their young ace and is the only one who has a winning record (5-3).

Chen is walking a batter almost every other frame so far this season and striking out just over seven batters per nine innings. However, he has managed to keep his ERA and FIP down by allowing just six homers in 57.2 IP (0.94/9IP) due to a home run to fly ball ratio (7.1%) which is just about half of his career mark (14.1%).

Unless Chen has discovered some sort of magical formula for keeping the ball in the park, he is due to give up a few longballs. Fortunately for him, Chen is a lefthander, but maybe the Yankees can aid him regression to the mean tonight anyway.

And they wandered in,
From the city of St. John,
Without a dime,
Wearing coats that shined.
Both red and green,
Colors from their sunny island,
From their boats of iron,
They looked upon the promised land.
Where surely life was sweet,
On the rising tide,
To New York City,
Did they ride into the street.

See the glory,
Of the royal scam.

-Lineup(s)-

Yankees: Marcus Thames is DH'ing against the lefty as Jorge Posada returns behind the plate.

Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher RF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Jorge Posada C
Marcus Thames DH
Curtis Granderson CF
Brett Gardner LF

But Yankee Fans Are Supposed To Be Giants Fans!

We make no secret about our NFL team of choice around here, but every once in awhile we're forced to acknowledge that there is a second NFL team that calls metro NYC home. Today is one of those days.

Somewhere this morning, Michael Kay's grossly enlarged cranium is on the brink of exploding. As you may recall, several times this season Kay reminded his announcing partner and noted Jets fan John Flaherty that Yankee fans are supposed to be Giants and Mets fans are supposed to be Jets fans.

So why then was Yankees manager Joe Girardi at the Jets' training complex yesterday? Because Jets QB Mark Sanchez has had trouble sliding to avoid getting his clock cleaned. So Rex Ryan emailed Yankee President Randy Levine asking if someone from the Yankees' organization could come teach Sanchez the finer points of sliding. So the Yankees sent Girardi, who worked with Sanchez on his technique.

What the wire stories failed to report was that after Girardi finished his sliding lesson with Sanchez, the Yankee skipper and the Jet coach discussed their philosophies of leading a professional sports team. Fack Youk received an exclusive transcript of the conversation:

Joe Girardi: So Rex, how come Sanchez takes all the snaps for you guys?

Rex Ryan: What do you mean Joe?

JG: I mean, you have three quarterbacks on your roster, why do you only use one of them?

RR: Well Mark's our starter; he's our best QB. If he's healthy, he's taking the snaps.

JG: Yeah, but you have three quarterbacks; you should use them all. Don't you ever play the match-ups?

RR: Match-ups?

JG: Yeah. I mean, sometimes doesn't it make sense to bring in your back-up since he's left handed?

RR: We don't have a left handed QB Joe.

JG: All your QBs are right handed? No wonder you're five and six. You gotta have a left-handed QB to face your left-handed defenses.

RR: It doesn't quite work that way in this sport.

JG: Ok, fine. But doesn't your binder tell you that sometimes Kellen Clemens might be a better match up than Sanchez?

RR: Binder?

JG: Yeah your binder. Your notebook. Whatever you call it. You football coaches always have some sort of sheet on the sideline.

RR: It's a play calling sheet.

JG: Fine. But sometimes one righty is better than another.

RR: Well yeah, Sanchez is better. That's why he's the starter.

JG: No, no. I mean, depending on the match-up sometimes a lesser QB is a better QB.

RR: Huh?

JG: Didn't you watch Game Three of the ALCS?

RR: Nope.

JG: Ok, look. Let's say you've got a third and long. The defense is going to bring in the dime package and probably only rush three guys. Sure, Sanchez has all the arm strength in the world, but what good is it going to do him when he's got six DBs sitting back there? So you bring Clemens in. He has less arm strength but he's more accurate in short yardage. You let all those DBs sit downfield, have Clemens dump a short one off to Thomas Jones, have him shake a linebacker or two and you've got your first down.

RR: I don't think it really works like that Joe.

JG: Sure it does Rex. You don't know what you're missing! You have free substitution by golly! You could put Sanchez right back in. Heck, if I had free substitution, I'd match-up pitchers every at bat or two.

RR: Interesting point Joe. Well listen, thanks for coming down. I really gotta get going. Practice is winding down and I don't want to be late for the post practice spread.

JG: Ok buddy. Think about what I said though, it'll change your life.

Be on the look out for a bullpen on the Jets' sideline this Thursday night.

Bruney & Marte

About two weeks ago, I took issue with Joe Girardi for giving Brian Bruney too many chances to make the postseason roster despite repeated poor performances and was not allowed to fail. Today I would like to log the opposite complaint about Damaso Marte. Despite rising to the occasion nearly every time he's been used, he hasn't been given the chance to succeed.

It's interesting that Girardi favors Bruney over Marte because they've had opposite trajectories to their seasons. Bruney started off well but up until getting 5 outs against the Red Sox on Sunday, he had been pretty bad since coming off the DL. Marte on the other hand, was poor at the beginning of the year but has been perfect - with the exception of one game - since rejoining the team. You'd think the guy with the better track record recently would get the benefit of the doubt, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

Marte has pitched in 11 games since coming off the DL and made it through 10 of them without allowing a run. The one bad outing he had was against the Orioles on September 11th, costing Andy Pettitte the chance at a win on the night when Jeter broke Gehrig's hit record. Even on that night, when he gave up 4 runs, he didn't give up an extra base hit but was instead allowed three singles and a walk and Jonathan Albaladejo let one of his inherited runners score. Needless to say, he wasn't pitching under the most favorable conditions that night either.

Aside from that outing, he's allowed only two hits and one walk over 6 1/3 innings. In his career, Marte has held righties to .728 OPS, which is pretty respectable when you consider that Phil Coke has help RHB to a .695 OPS and he is asked by Girardi to face righties at a higher frequency.

I understand it was a meaningless game, but last night, Girardi pulled Chad Gaudin with no one on base so he could bring in Marte to face Alex Gordon. Although his numbers are pretty terrible this year, Gordon is a talented left handed hitter, so I understand that Girardi was trying to give Marte some reps against lefties in preparation for the postseason.

As soon as he came back up to the Big League club, Girardi publicly announced that Marte would be used as a lefty match-up specialist. I don't understand what good it does to pigeonhole a reliever with a good track record who has never been just a LOOGY.

My contention is that this is the time to see if Marte can get be trusted to get right handed batters out. In fact, Marte has 1187 against RHB compared to only 850 against LHB, indicating that he hasn't been insulated from right handed bats at other points in his career. Coke has only 121 plate appearances against RHB compared to 159 against lefties.

Marte is not Mike Myers. He's not an inverted Chad Bradford. He's not the pitching Freddy Guzman. Yet I know that's exactly how Girardi is going to use him in the postseason.

For whatever reason, I like Damaso Marte. I liked him when the Yankees acquired him and a big part of the reason was that he was a solid lefty reliever who could get guys on either side of the plate out. I'm guessing that's what the Yankees organization saw when they signed him to a three year deal for $12M during the offseason.

I don't think the unidentified injury that kept him stashed away in exile for the better part of the regular season has destroyed his ability to get RHB out. I hope that over the next 5 games, he gets a chance to pitch a few full innings, because there's a pretty good chance that we are going to need him to do that at some point during the postseason because of a shortened outing by a starer or an extra innings contest. Brain Bruney figures to get that chance. So should Marte.

Godzilla Against Southpaws

Good morning, Fackers. Thanks largely Hideki Matsui's continued success against lefthanded pitchers, the Yankees celebrated yet another walk off victory last night. They needed it to stay 6.5 games up on the Red Sox who had some heroics of their own, scoring two in both the bottom of the 8th and 9th, en route to beating the Angels 9-8. However, the Angels' loss means that they Yanks are now 7 games up on the Halos for homefield advantage.

Back to the Yanks, though. Sure, Chad Gaudin put together a solid effort and Frankie Cervelli got the pie, but had Joe Girardi chose to sit Matsui like he did his other power hitting lefty, Johnny Damon, the Yanks might not have been within striking distance when the bottom of the ninth came around.

Hideki started early, as he drove in a run off of lefthanded starter Brian Tallet with a single to put the Yanks up 2-0 in the first inning. He also chipped in late, during cruch time, with the biggest hit of the game in terms of WPA, a game-tying, two run homer in the eighth inning off of lefty reliever Scott Downs.

Amazingly, 12 of Matsui's 25 home runs this season have come against southpaws despite having less than 1/3 of his plate appearances against them. He's averaging a home run in every 11.6 PAs against lefties (which would be good for 51 HRs/600PA) but only every 26.1 PAs against righties (23/600). Matsui has a pretty even platoon split over his career (including HR/PA), but this year, what he lacks in BA and OBP against lefties, he's making up for with long balls, now slugging a truly Godzillian .610.

Is this a product of the New Yankee Stadium? Eight of his 12 dingers off lefties have come at home and all of them have gone out to right or right-centerfield. His BB/K ratio against lefties is down at home, meaning he might be trying to swing for the fences more often.

He also has an even home/road split, which means that only 5 of his longballs against righties have come at TNYS. This seems to be a symptom of the rare but deadly Reverse Inverted Nick Swisheritis.

Is there some luck involved? It's baseball, isn't there always? Sixteen of his 21 doubles have come against righties and you would expect the doubles and home runs to even out on each side of the platoon split over time. His BABIP is lower against lefties too (.242/.291), but that's partially as a result of all the homers.

It seems a foregone conclusion that the Yankees will let Matsui walk at the end of the season and it's almost impossible to argue with that. They aren't going to plug up the DH spot with a guy who can no longer play the outfield. But perhaps a team like the Royals who have the lowest production out of their cleanup hitter in the majors by a staggering margin could use his help. Or perhaps he'll go back to Japan and continue to mash over there. Or maybe he'll just hang up his cleats for good.

Regardless, it's nice to see Matsui during his last our of duty make a graceful exit from the Bronx. He's been nothing short of dignified in his tenure here and it would have been terrible to see him exit with a bunch of strikeouts and errors. Credit goes to Joe Girardi and Brian Cashman who saved his knees by not letting him play the field, but most of all to Matsui who has played a crucial role in the Yankees resurgent offense this year.

Game 136: Join Together

After being held to only one hit last night, the Yankees' bats figure to have a better showing today. Having Derek Jeter and Nick Swisher back in the line up will probably help, but not as much as swapping Brett Cecil for Roy Halladay, one would think.

The rookie lefty has a 5.42 ERA in 16 starts this year which have spanned only 83 innings (just over 5 per outing). His WHIP is an unsightly 1.639 because in addition to giving up 102 hits in those 83 innings, Cecil has also walked 34. The Yanks faced him the day after the Fourth of July at the Stadium and knocked him around for 7 runs in 3 2/3 IP.

Andy Pettitte gets the ball for the Yankees today. After CC Sabathia he's been the Yanks most reliable starter since the All-Star break. The team has gone 7-2 in his past 9 starts and he's picked up the win in four of those. Over that span, he's struck out a batter per inning, and has a 2.35 ERA and WHIP of 1.000.

I'm not going to be around during the game today, but if you are at your computer, be sure to check out our pal Jason's Heartland Digital Living Room. He'll be hosting a live chat similar to the one's we've had before and if you spend any time in the comments section here, you know that Jason always has some insightful things to say. Head over and pop in, and don't forget to tell him we sent you.

You don't have to play,
You can follow or lead the way,
I want you to join together with the band,
We don't know where we're going,
But the season's right for knowing,
I want you to join together with the band.

Game 77: In Bloom

After putting together six straight victories, the Yankees are a season-high 12 games over 500. It's already their second longest winning streak of the year, behind only the 9 game streak that ended on May 21st. In the month or so between those two streaks, the Yanks went 14-15, winning three straight games only once. They held the division lead once, but were sitting five games out heading into the series in Atlanta.

Then something clicked. Over the last six games they have averaged 7.5 runs per game while holding their opponents to just over 3.

It's certainly not a coincidence that over this run, A-Rod has gotten on base 18 times in 29 plate appearances (.621 OBP), hit three homers and driven in 8 runs. Like Tyler Kepner said very early this morning, "as A-Rod goes, so go the Yankees". He won't get one of his perscribed days off tonight, but Alex will be DH'ing as Cody Ransom holds down third base. Apparently Joel Sherman was right about Eric Hinkse. The only other option would have been Ramiro Pena, but he was officially optioned to Scranton today.

Looking to keep this winning streak blossoming tonight will be Andy Pettitte. The offense and the bullpen both saved his bacon after giving up 6 runs in 3 2/3 against the Braves, and the Yanks won 11-7 in spite of Pettitte's dud. Before that, he threw seven innings of one run ball in Florida, so who knows what to expect. His ERA is exactly league average and he's coming up with a run of the mill season so far; some solid performances mixed in with some shabby efforts.

Creating the second half of the lefty-lefty match up for Seattle is Jarrod Washburn. His name always comes up in trade talks because his salary is a bloated $10.35M this year and although the Mariners are only 3.5 games back at the moment, they aren't expected to truly contend for a playoff spot with the Angels and Rangers. Shedding salary always seems to be high on their priority list.

Washburn is off to an excellent start this year, so far compiling a 3.22 ERA in 89 1/3 innings, even though the Mariners lackluster offense has only allowed for a 4-5 record. In his career, Washburn has a 2.56 ERA against the Yanks over 81 innings, but the Mariners have lost nine straight games as guests of the Yanks in the Bronx.

Which one of those woefully incomplete statistics will turn out to be prophetic? Tune in and find out.