Mitre Finally Delivers

[Photos]

Who would have thought that after two dominant performances by A.J. Burnett and C.C. Sabathia which resulted in a loss and a no-decision that it would be Sergio Mitre who finally followed through and picked up a win? Ten runs in support surely didn't hurt, but the start he turned it was better that what either of the high-priced offseason acquisitions turned in the past two games, at least in terms of runs allowed: 0.

Mitre effortlessly plowed through 4 1/3 perfect innings before allowing his only hit of the game, a double down the line ot Jim Thome. He then induced back to back ground outs to Jermaine Dye and Alex Rios to keep the White Sox off the board. The only other baserunner Mitre gave up was via a walk to Brent Lillibridge to start the 7th inning. The very next batter, A.J. Pierzynski, hit a line drive off of Mitre's right forearm, which Mitre corralled and threw to first for the out, but ended his dream start after only 6 1/3 innings. X-Rays were negative.

The Serg had only thrown 73 pitches, and looked to be ticketed for at least the 8th inning and possibly a complete game. He only struck out two batters but benefited from some excellent defensive plays like the diving stop and throw to first by A-Rod to keep his perfect game alive in the 5th and a ridiculous ranging snag and toss by Robinson Cano behind second base in the 6th. Chad Gaudin came on in relief, finishing the game with 2 2/3 scoreless innings, 4 strikeouts and only one walk.

Oh yeah, the offense was pretty good in this one, too. The Yanks pounded Jose Contreras, tagging him with 7 runs without the use of a homer before chasing him from the game in the 4rd inning. D.J. Carrasco allowed one of his inherited runners to score so in all, 8 runs scored on the big Cuban's watch, 6 earned.

Continuing with the even-numbered inning scoring barrage, the Yanks tacked on individual runs in the 6th and 8th innings, the first on a single by Cano scoring Mark Teixeria and the second on A-Rod's 23rd homer of the year. Derek Jeter continued his impossibly hot streak by going 3-4 while everyone in the starting line up scored a run.

Today probably marks the last time I try to play amateur meteorologist for a while. Not only were there no delays, but it hardly rained at all during the game despite overcast skies. I wasn't alone in my assumptions, though, as the stands were sparsely populated, at least for a Saturday afternoon game.

The win tonight brings the Yankees to a season-high 33 games over .500 and one win away from completing the sweep of the White Sox in the Bronx. The Red Sox get underway shortly over at Fenway, and they'll have to win to stay 6.0 games behind the Yanks. Your move, Boston.

The Good And The Bad (But Mostly The Bad)

Since that game was unbearable and it's Saturday night, we are going with an abbreviated recap.

The Good:

• Jeter, A-Rod and Mark Teixeira combined to go 7-13 with 3 RBIs.
  
  
• Jerry Hairston, Jr. had a solid debut, driving in a run on one hit (although it should have been two when he dropped a single into leftfield in the 6th and Jorge Posada was forced out at 3rd).
  
  
• David Robertson and Mark Melancon each threw scoreless 2/3's of an inning.
  
  
• Seriously, that's it.
  

Okay, and The Bad:

• Cody Ransom started at first base. Did Eric Hinske have something better to do?
  
  
• A.J Burnett's great streak is now officially over. It was basically over when he allowed six runs in the 2nd inning. To start, he got Paul Konerko to fly out but then the Sox went: single, single, single, walk (to the #9 hitter), single, double, single before Burnett got the final two outs of the inning. His line for the day: 4 2/3 IP, 10 H, 7 ER, 2BB, 4K.
  
  
• Phil Coke's ERA went from 3.77 to 4.58 in 1/3 of an inning. 4 hits, three walks and six runs will do that to you. To be fair, two of those walks were called for by Joe Girardi, but they still count.
  
  
• The team went 2-13 w/RISP, leaving 8 runners on base. The White Sox were 8-19.

If I had to choose just one play to boil this game down into, it would be the at-bat between Phil Coke and A.J. Pierzynski in the 8th. Coke got him to swing over a slider on the first pitch, and then Peierizynykksssiki fouled off two more tough ones. On his second 0-2 pitch, Piersznik the catcher on the White Sox swung at a pitch that was a good foot off the plate and well below his knees, but fully extended his arms and just got enough of the bat on the ball to send it into left field and drive in a run. Tim McCarver called this a "great piece of hitting" which of course is complete bullshit because he swing at a terrible pitch and got unimaginably lucky.

Anyhow, this series has evolved into quite the disaster, hasn't it? One loss by walk-off followed by two blowouts. And tommorrow the Sox send Mark Buehrle to the mound who is about as hot as an pitcher could be against CC Sabathia who is 1-8 against teams over .500.

Here's my plan for tonight.

Runnin' On Jorge

Entering this season, before everyone was questioning whether or not Jorge Posada could call a game, the biggest concern was whether or not his shoulder would be healthy enough to throw out potential base stealers. Given that Posada is 38 years old, there was no guarantee that his shoulder would make a full recovery from the surgery he underwent to repair a tear in his rotator cuff and damage to his glenoid labrum. It seems that opposing teams still aren't convinced that he is healthy.

Last year, in 241 innings behind the plate, teams attempted 41 steals against Posada. He was run on in 10.3% of the plate appearances where there was s stolen base opportunity, which was second in the the American League only to Toby Hall (11.2%). Kevin Cash (9.3%) was the only other catcher with significant playing time to be tested more that 8.4% of the time. The attempts against Posada were successful 34/41 times, and of the seven times they were caught, five times the runner was picked off before the pitcher delivered the ball. That left Jorge's percentage of actually throwing out runners at a horrific 5.5%.

This year, one of those trends has reversed dramatically. Teams still are running on Posada, in fact, at an even higher percentage than before. They have attempted to steal in 11.2% of stolen base opportunities, far and away the most in the AL. Jason Varitek has been challenged next most often, but at only 8.5% of the time.

Here is the good news. Despite teams running on Jorge at an even higher rate than last year, they are successful far less often. Would-be thieves have been nabbed in 15 out of 47 attempts, 10 by Posada. That's 32% caught stealing and 21% by Jorge himself. It's still early in the season, but judging by this metric, the results of his surgery appear to be pretty incredible.

Frankie Cervelli gets run on 7.4% of the time (7th among the 21 AL catchers with 200+ SBOs) but has thrown out 31%, and sports a total CS% of 38. Here are the top 10 by Run %.

Theoretically, caught stealing percentage and run percentage would have an inverse relationship because in aggregate, managers should be less likely to test the catchers most likely to throw out the runner (obviously). But a lot of managers still rely on their gut or other instincts as opposed to hard numbers, so the list doesn't really bear that out.

It would seem that opposing managers and speedsters are underestimating Posada pretty drastically. Since a pitcher picking a runner off in the process of trying to steal a base has little to do with who is behind the plate, the best way to determine who gets the least respect for throwing out runners would be to juxtapose Run % with the Catcher's Caught Stealing % (CS% by C above).

Using this method, here are the three most disrespected catchers in the AL, sorted by the differential between the two rankings:

Kenji Johjima has the highest caught stealing and caught stealing by catcher, yet he ranks in the top half in Run % (8th). Talk about No Respect... Kenji is a very low key player, stashed away up in Seattle which must work to his advantage because this is one of the cases where flying under the radar does you a lot of good.

Figure this one out: A.J. Pierzynski only gets run on 5.5% of the time (18th out the 21), but has only thrown out one runner this season. Attention AL Skippers... you might want to start running on A.J. Pierzynski. Navarro and Suzuki are far less egregious cases, but it should be noted that they haven't quite earned the respect they have been given.