Game 32 WPA Chart and Notes

Like your first girlfriend said, "That was, uh, quick".

• The best thing to come out of this on was the fact that Javy Vazquez pitched pretty well. Amazingly well compared to how he had fared thus far in the year. However, he had absolutely no margin for error. He had one bad inning - the sixth - during which he allowed four hits - all singles - and gave up the only two runs of the game. The offense never helped him out before or picked him up after that. It's his fourth loss of the season and the first one he really didn't deserve.
  
  
• Rick Porcello was working quickly and the Yanks were hacking away. He induced 15 grounders to just four fly balls and struck out two over seven scoreless innings. Ricky needed just 91 pitches to cruise through seven innings and aside from loading the bases with two outs in the second, was never in much trouble.
  
  
• Randy Winn had a good day at the plate, walking twice and knocking a single (one of only four hits for the Yanks).
  
  
• Ramiro Pena left five men on base and made four outs in three plate appearances. Yeah, he was really bad, but the only reason we are focusing on him is that Vazquez, Winn and Boone Logan all managed not to suck.
  
  
• Why did Kevin Russo pinch run and not Greg Golson in the 9th inning? For that matter, why wasn't Russo starting at 3B instead of Pena?
  
  
• That was the first time the Yanks were shutout this year. In fact, they had scored three or more runs in every game except one so far. It was bound to happen eventually, I suppose.
  
  
• At just two and a quarter hours, this was the second shortest game of the year (not counting the rain-shortened game against the Rangers at the Stadium). CC Sabathia's complete game loss in Oakland against Dallas Braden was the quickest.
  
  
• Apparently there will be no more roster moves today, meaning that Jonathan Albaladejo and Juan Miranda are both stuck in limbo. Or Detroit, which would be worse. Good luck with your doubleheader, Scranton!
  

Back with the preview for the late game in a few.

Joba Sits In With The Roots & Some Other Links

Did you know Joba Chamberlain can play the keyboard? Well, he can't really, but Jimmy Fallon bet the band on his show - who just happens to the The Roots - that if the Yankees won the World Series, they would have to let someone from the Bombers sit in with them: (via Jambands.com)



Apparently, the song they played was Empire State of Mind which I'm sure most of us have heard enough times by now that we are thankful that the clip didn't include it.

Onto some Yankees Hot Stove talk...

Hey y'all, Andy Pettitte told the guys he wants to come back for one more year! (maybe)

Brian Cashman has arrived at the GM's Meetings in Chicago.

Joel Sherman relays through his Twitter account that Cashman, like your high school girlfriend, will be more cautious than anxious this offseason.

Ken Davidoff thinks that this kind of restraint has made Cashman the 6th best GM in baseball.

As such, here are a couple of tidbits from elsewhere in the MLB:

The Elias Free Agent Rankings have been released. As River Ave. Blues points out, World Series MVP Hideki Matsui isn't on there at all but Xavier Nady, who played 7 games this year, is.

Unsurprisingly, the Red Sox have picked up Victor Martinez's $7.1M 2010 option but not the $5M one they had for Jason Varitek. However, the Captain might not be giving up his Capital C just yet, since he has until the end of the week to decide if he'll exercise his $3M player option.

The Sawx also renegotiated the guaranteed money in Tim Wakefield's formerly infinite contract.

The Rays have exercised Carl Crawford's $10M option, so you can forget about only giving up money to get him for a while. I believe desire to keep Crawford might have played into the decision to trade Scott Kazmir, who is due $8M this coming year. Well, that's the only way I can defend this post from last December, anyway.

The Mariners seem pretty intent on keeping Felix Hernadez. Which you probably already knew if you looked at the rumored package they turned down from the Red Sox back at trade deadline.

Game 7: Kashmir

As the Yankees send their groundball machine Chien Ming Wang to the mound tonight to avenge his horrible showing in Baltimore, the Tampa Bay (Nothing Ungodly-Sounding) Rays counter with lefty strikeout tallier Scott Kazmir.

Scott's dad co-owned a company with Adam Dunn's father in Houston and despite being 5 years apart, used to play wiffle ball together growing up. Kazmir was quarterback of his football team in high school, but found that his talents on the pitcher's mound far exceed those under center. Kazmir threw two no-hitters as a sophomore and then four consecutive no-hitters his junior year. As a senior, he broke Josh Beckett's strikeout record for the state of Texas by punching out 175 in 72 innings and was named Baseball America's High School Player Of The Year.

The Mets were surprised when he fell to them at the 15th pick in the draft and signed him for $2.15M, the largest bonus the team had ever given out (guess who his agent was). Kazmir continued his dominance on his rise through the minor leagues, but was traded when he was still in Double A. He was moved to the (at the time Devil) Rays for Victor Zambrano and Bartolome Fortunato at the behest of pitching coach Rick Peterson who thought he saw a fixable flaw in Zambrano's mechanics. Although Steve Phillips is commonly assumed to have made the trade in hindsight (since it was retarded), it actually occured Jim Duquette's watch.

After missing the first month of the 2008 season, Kazmir signed an extension last May with TB that locked him up through 2011 with team option for '12. He made 27 starts last year and had a 3.49 ERA, but averaged only 5 2/3 innings per start (5.8 for his career). As is the case with many strikeout pitchers, Kazmir has trouble keeping his pitch count down. In his first start this season he went six innings and gave up one run, but needed 111 pitches to do so.

I know Mets fans pine for Kazmir like an old girlfriend who got away, but he's not a guy that I particularly wish was on the Yanks. Don't get me wrong, if Scott Kazmir is your second or third best pitcher, you've probably got a great staff. But he doesn't seem like a true top of the line starter to me because he puts too much pressure on the bullpen. And I hate guys who throw too many pitches.

Don't go proving me wrong now, Scott.


[I know, the spelling isn't the same, but it's close enough]