Sailing On

This won't come as any surprise to those of you who have been trying to keep up with this site despite the lack of content lately, but Matt and I wanted to officially say that we are taking a step back from the day-to-day grind of blogging.

This summer has been a busy one for both of us and despite our best efforts, we just haven't been able to post a steady volume of content. The best blogs are the ones that are updated frequently enough to make you want to check them at least once a day. I'd like to think that we achieved that status for a pretty long stretch here (over a year and a half), however, it requires a massive amount of time and dedication maintain that pace, two things that are in very short supply right now.

As Dennis "Cutty" Wise said in one of the more poorly acted scenes in the greatest television show of all time, "the game ain't in me no more".

I'm hardly at my computer at all during the day, which has taken me out of the rhythm of writing and Matt's schedule has been especially frenetic as of late. Maintaining a blog shouldn't feel like an obligation, and when you are doing it as a hobby, don't have a huge readership and the only chances you have to write most days come before and after work, eventually the inspiration to read and write voraciously enough to blog competently is going to dry up. It was only a matter of time.

It's not as if we are going to shut down the site completely, however. We just aren't going to attempt to keep up with previews for every game and there likely won't be any recaps either. Instead, we'll probably end up writing more analytical or historical pieces, jumping into the conversation every so often instead of trying to tread water and keep up with torrent of news and issues going on with the Yanks on a daily basis. If we find the time to post, this is where it will go, but whether that will be every couple of days, once a week or even less will vary.

As I have many times in the past, I would suggest starting up an account on Google Reader and subscribing to our feed. That way, you'll be automatically notified when we post something as opposed to having to come to the site and check, which could get pretty annoying as the flow of posts slows to a trickle. If you want to keep up with us on a more frequent basis, you can follow our shared items on GReader (Jay, Matt) as well. We got a pretty fantastic crew of ShareBros including the dudes from River Ave. Blues, Moshe from TYU, Jonah Keri, Tommy Bennett, Rob Iracane from Walk Off Walk, Lar from Wezen-Ball, Andy Hutchins from The Sporting Blog and many others.

See you around, Fackers.

Sailin' on, sailin' on,
I can hear sweet voices singin, hear sweet music playin',
Sailin' on, sailin' on,
Oh, I wish you were here with me when I'm sailin on.

Game 84: G'z Iz G'z

Gio Gonzalez gets the ball for the A's as the Yankees go for the sweep. That is all.

'Cause bustaz is bustaz, and G's iz G's,
But ain't nobody fuckin' 'round wit' MCs like these.

-Lineups-

Maybe later?

Game 78 Recap

CC Sabathia carried a shutout into the 8th inning and had allow just four baserunners to that point. It was widely assumed that since the Yankees were facing Ryan Rowland Smith, their bats would come to life, but instead Sabathia had only a two run cushion at that point.

The Big Fella walked the light-hitting Josh Bard on four straight pitches to begin the 8th and after getting Michael Saunders to pop out, allowed a single to Ichrio to put the tying run on base. Sabathia induced another very shallow fly to Chone Figgins but with Russell Braynan at the plate, Jorge Posada let a change up slip past him and the runners advanced to second on third. Braynan then pulled a clean base hit to right field and spoiled not only CC's shutout but the Yankees lead as well.

The tie was short-lived, however. Mark Teixeira came up with a one out single in the bottom half of the inning and Alex Rodriguez took a high fastball from David Aardsma the other way and into the short porch in right, thereby stealing back the win Sabathia rightfully deserved.

The Yanks did at least salvage some dignity in this series after losing the first two and they'll welcome Toronto to the Bronx for a three game set starting tomorrow night.

Game 74: Hollywood Nights

A.J. Burnett and Hiroki Kuroda square off on Derek Jeter's birthday. Burnett has been amazingly shittastic of late while Kuroda has given up just two runs in his last 19 innings (over three starts).

Kuroda is in his third season in the MLB at age 35 and so far it has been his best one yet. He's got an ERA of 3.06 backed up with an FIP and xFIP in the mid-3.00s. He's a fastball and slider guy with the former coming in in the low 90's and the latter in the mid-80's. His heater has a bit of sink on it too, as his ground ball rate is at a strong 50%.

Recent performances would indicate that this match up is leaning heavily towards the Dodgers, but perhaps a trip to California will do Burnett good.

He'd headed west 'cause he felt that a change would do him good,
See some old friends, good for the soul,
She had been born with a face that would let her get her way,
He saw that face and he lost all control,
He had lost all control.

And those Hollywood nights,
In those Hollywood hills,
It was looking so right,
It was giving him chills,
In those big city nights,
In those high rolling hills,
Above all the lights,
With a passion that kills.

[Song Notes: There was one summer during college when my buddies and I would ironically listen to this tune when we were partying and, well, that's probably as much detail as I should go into about that summer.]

-Lineups-

Maybe?

Game 53 Recap

(WPA data from Fangraphs)

Well that is one pretty looking chart for the Yankees. At only one point in the game did the Orioles have a better than 50% chance of emerging victorious, as Luke Scott's one out double in the second inning pushed the O's WE to a whopping 51.7%.

That speaks volumes as to how well the Yankees played last night. Phil Hughes was brilliant yet again, going seven strong, allowing six hits, one run, a walk, and fanning seven. He threw 72 of his 101 pitches for strikes.

On the offensive side, the Yankees continued to feast on the teams they should be roughing up, and once again, Robinson Cano led the charge. He went 3 for 4, with three runs scored and two RBI. He blasted his team-leading 12th home run of the season into the right field bleachers, extended his hitting streak to 16 games, and boosted his line for 2010 to .373/.412/.632. He now leads the AL in batting, is fourth in OBP, and third in SLG. His 12 HRs is tied for sixth.

Cano wasn't alone on offense though. Curtis Granderson continued his hot post-DL hitting, going 3 for 4 with a big two run double in the second to open the scoring. Nick Swisher chipped in three hits of his own, one of them also a two run double in the second inning. Alex Rodriguez had two hits and two runs scored, Brett Gardner doubled and scored twice, and Jorge Posada singled and walked in his return from the DL.

The end of the game saw Chad Gaudin finish off two scoreless innings, with subs Ramiro Pena, Kevin Russo, and Marcus Thames behind him in the field as the Yankees cruised 9-1. You can't draw it up any better than that. They'll go for the sweep behind CC Sabathia this afternoon at 1 PM.

Game 24 Recap

In stark contrast to yesterday's miserable defeat, today's game was overflowing with awesome. Despite trotting out a lineup that contained Ramiro Pena and Marcus Thames and not Curtis Granderson, the Yanks plated twelve runs, six of them coming via the long ball. Robinson Cano, Nick Swisher and Brett Gardner all went yard and Gardner hit one into the freaking bleachers off of the left handed Mark Buehrle.

Phil Hughes had his best start of the year ERA-wise, throwing 7 shutout frames and allowing just 4 hits and one walk. A full 70% of his pitches were strikes and he retired 6 batters via the K. You know things are going your way when Marcus Thames makes a slick defensive play for you.

The White Sox didn't score until the ninth inning and according the WPA, Paul Konerko's three run shot off Mark Melancon changed their win expectancy from 0% to... zero percent. In fact, the Yanks were at 99% or above after Nick Swisher socked his two run shot in the sixth. A thriller it was not, but after the ugliness that we witnessed yesterday, this thorough trouncing was a cathartic experience.

The Yanks are back at it tomorrow night as the Orioles, fresh off a sweep of the Red Sox, come into town and Joe Girardi's BFF Jeremy Guthrie takes the hill.

Game 21 WPA Chart

I wasn't able to watch much of the game, but I did find the time to look at the play by play and put together this kickass WPA chart.

Some thoughts:

• How about that Robinson Cano fellow? Two homers, a double, three runs scored and a slick defensive play. He's now hitting .407/a billion/infinity. M-V-P, M-V-P, M-V-P... What? Too soon?
  
  
• My prediction for A.J. Burnett's line was, um, considerably off. He put together another fantastic start (8 shutout innings) and once again stayed away from the three true outcomes (4K, 1BB, 0HR). He only allowed three hits to boot. As many baserunners as strikeouts? Dominance.
  
  
• Marcus Thames continues to rake, tallying up a 3-4 performance and bumping his average up to .588. You're making it very difficult for me to bitch about your shitty defense, Mr. Thames.
  
  
• Frankie Cervelli notched a base hit and has now reached safely in every game he's batted in this year.
  
  
• Although it wasn't a save situation, Mo pitched the 9th. He walked Matt Weiters and struck out Miguel Tejada en route to a scoreless frame.
  
  
• After picking up two hits last night, Curtis Granderson got back on the suck wagon with an 0-5. He's now 2 for his last 27.
  
  
• That's a salvaged 5-4 road trip for the Yanks, making it 6 out of 7 series victories on the season.

That's all I got. Feel free to chip in any details I may have glossed over in the comments.

Game 17 WPA Chart

1. Swisher's double

2. Cervelli's single

3. Jeter's single

4. Cano's single

5. Swisher's single

6. Torii Hunter's sac fly

7. Teixeira's double

• A recap of Pettitte's 8 innings of one run ball, during which he allowed 6 hits, struck out 8 and walked none.
  
  
• Was this recap a total cop out? Yes.

First pitch tomorrow is at 3:35PM tomorrow as the Yanks and Javier Vazquez look to win their sixth consecutive series to start the season for the first time in franchise history.

Game 6 Recap

I didn't watch this whole game, but what I missed on TV I was following on the FanGraphs app for my iPhone. As such, I can tell you that the steep face the Price is Right Yodeler is attempting to scale was the turning point of the contest.

Robinson Cano chased James shields from the game with a double in the top of the 6th and Randy Choate came into face Jorge Posada. Choate grooved a 1-1 fastball to and Jorgie smashed it into deep left center for a home run, putting the Yanks up 3-2. Curtis Granderson then singled to center, stole second and advanced to third on a grounder by Nick Swisher before scoring on a wild pitch.

A-Rod added a two run double off the wall in the 7th while Swisher socked a solo homer in the 8th with a 34 ounce bat, three ounces heavier than the one he typically uses.

A.J. Burnett earned the win by lasting 7 innings and giving up two runs. He threw only 49 of his 92 pitches for strikes and got just one strikeout but was aided by two double plays and a pickoff. One of the DPs came on a sliding catch by Granderson which he threw to first to double off Pat Burrell. The Rays didn't help themselves by going 1-7 with runners in scoring position either.

Joba Chamberlain came in for the 8th inning but looked a lot more like the somewhat average pitcher that showed up a week ago at Fenway than the one who struck out both batters he faced on Tuesday. I'm eagerly awaiting retractions from those who proclaimed that Joba had returned to relief pitching dominance based on those two at bats.

Mariano Rivera pitched the 9th inning with a four run lead and gave up a hit and a walk. The off day tomorrow gave Girardi the leeway to use Mo and he took advantage of it.

Here Is Our Recap Of Last Night's Game

[Jim Rogash - Getty Images]