Author: briancougar

A.J. Burnett has more wins than the Red Sox

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The fact that we’re six games and two Burnett starts into the season and the title for this blog entry is true is amazing. Was that available as a prop bet in Vegas? Do I know what a prop bet really is? Loyal readers will have to help me out on that question (I will NOT google it).

But it is true, and while Burnett hasn’t been amazing, he has been closer to “Good A.J.” than “Bad A.J.,” which is (sadly) all most Yankee fans ask from him. Should a person being paid $82.5 million over five years be expected to simply keep his team in games? Nope, but as Kurt Vonnegut said, “so it goes.” (Vonnegut hoped that phrase would be used to justify mediocre performances from subpar pitchers, right?)

Back to the Red Sox … this first Yankees/Boston series, which gets overhyped as it is, will now be hyped through the roof due to the fact that the Sawx are going into it (home opener no less) winless. SEASON ON THE BRINK! Are the Red Sox buckling under the pressure of being the team to beat heading into this season? (And were the Yankees smart by pretending to be $200 million underdogs?) Will Boston sweep and immediately return to being most people’s pick to win the AL East? Will the Yankees sweep and cause Red Sox Nation to despair about a season already lost in April? However it ends up, the Red Sox will be happy to know they get to face the Rays starting Monday, and that team is in much worse shape than they are right now (seriously, that offense is little league).

— Brian Cougar

A.J. Burnett has more wins than the Red Sox

Big Pelf = Big Herb to start 2011

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Tonight’s Mets/Phils game put a bright light on the good, bad, and ugly of both teams. For the second straight start, Big Pelf failed to make it out of the third inning. I don’t think anyone expected him to pitch like a true ace, but right now he is straight up grossness. His fastball has no life or location, and his “get me over” slider is doing far more damage than good. The game quickly went south for Pelf after he tried to sneak a double play in by letting a terrible bunt by Blanton fall, and then proceeded to bounce the ball past first base and up the right-field line. The wheels quickly fell off, and the end result was a 7-0 deficit for the beautiful Mets. If Pelf doesn’t figure it out soon, this Mets will be in big trouble, because the middle relief is not a strength, and the starters do not go deep enough to make up for a lot of short outings by Pelf.

On a positive note, the Mets bats continue to show a lot of life. The have now batted around for the third consecutive game, which I cannot recall happening at any point last season. Unfortunately, they are still struggling with runners on third and less than two outs, which absolutely drive me insane. They still managed to score seven unanswered to tie, but the bullpen quickly gave the runs back with some horrendous 0-2 pitches. It is very difficult to win baseball games when you leave runs on third with less than two outs, and when your pitchers serve up 0-2, two-out RBIs. The Mets’ Rule 5 pick, rookie Pedro Beato, also had a solid 1, 2, 3 inning against the top of the Phillies order in his first appearance at Citizens Bank Park.

I’m still not sure what took Charlie Manuel so long to give Heavy B the hook, but it almost cost the Phils the game. I assume he was trying to save the overused bullpen from last night, but Blanton had absolutely nothing left and Manuel left him in there as the Mets rallied to tie. Blanton will not be asked to do too much this year, but with a seven-run lead, he could have provided the overworked ‘pen with some rest before the series-ending day game tomorrow by not being a scrub and pitching deep into the game. The inning ended with two men on, and continuing the trend from earlier in the game, the runners left on base proved costly. The Mets were a very good 5-for-10 with runners in scoring position, but seven men left on base is too many.

Overall, the major weaknesses of this Mets team were exposed, and a good opportunity to guarantee a series win against the hated, division rival Phillies was wasted (Doc Halladay vs Niese tomorrow … not impossible, but not an easy W).

In the other dugout, Ryan Howard is an absolute monster (hit a bomb to center off a hanger from Pelf), and petrifies me every time he steps in the box. With Chase Utley on the DL, there is no reason to let him beat you, but apparently no one told the Mets’ staff about this (they went after him and survived last night, but not surprisingly got burned by the same approach tonight). Victorino had a nice day at the plate (including a huge check swing double that lead to the go-ahead run in the fifth). The bullpen did a good job shutting down the Mets the rest of the way, and are looking towards Doc to provide them with some rest tomorrow afternoon by going deep into the game.

The Mets have their work cut out for them against Doc tomorrow, and both teams will be looking for their starting pitching to take them deep into the game, to give the relief pitchers some rest. Tonight’s Faker of the Game award goes to Mike Pelfrey for his outstandingly fake effort for the second start in a row. The Realest player on the field was Ryan Howard, but unfortunately for him, members of the Phillies are not eligible for this high honor as punishment for playing on the fakest baseball team in the beautiful US of A.

Keep it real, and eat your pizzas, America.

— Kevin McReal

Big Pelf = Big Herb to start 2011

Here comes a bikini whale!

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ROCK LOBSTER!

Of course the day I pointed out how well the Joba/Soriano/Mo
trio was performing this season, Soriano goes out and is charged for four runs
in two-thirds of an inning in a dumb loss to the Twins. First moral of the story:
don’t walk three batters in less than an inning when you come into a game with
a four-run lead. Or ever. Second moral of the story: things I say are true will often be proven false within 24 hours.  Also, let’s not forget that Boone Logan walked the
leadoff hitter in the tenth. Relief pitchers drive me insane (outside of
beautiful Mo).

–– Brian Cougar

Here comes a bikini whale!

Real > Fake

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Hello America/Earth. In order to improve your overall well being, I have decided to join forces with my jambroni brother to rant and rave about all things baseball, with a focus on the beautiful Metropolitans, and a lot of hating on the Phillies. If you read Brian Coug’s post below, you know that my brother’s blog attempts for the MLB season have a very short life expectancy. Thankfully for you and him, I will be providing daily doses of realness to keep this up and running. Whether or not a season-long blog of nonsense from us is a good thing remains to be seen, but there is a strong chance it will vastly improve the quality of life of the people lucky enough to read it.

Mets: This Mets have been on the receiving end of a lot of hate punches over the course of this offseason, but I find myself strangely optimistic about this upcoming season, mainly because I think they have a solid lineup 1-9. Having a healthy Jose Reyes to start the season, along with the return of Carlos Beltran, should shore up a lot of the weak parts of the Mets’ offense that struggled so often last year. These two should provide a boost to the already studly numbers of the First Team All-Real third baseman of the New York Mets, Mr. David Wright. I think Wright is going to have a monster year, and might bring home some MVP hardware. Angel Pagan continues to play at a very high level, and has a chance to put up some big numbers to go along with his 40+ stolen bases (I can see .300 .avg, 25 hr, 80 RBI, and 10+ triples). As long as he avoids the sophomore jinx, I’m going to trust the big Ike Davis that showed a lot of promise at the plate and in the field at first base last season. My biggest question mark in the lineup is what kind of production my Mets will get from Jason Bay. I would like to think that he has to significantly improve from last year (based on his career stats), but he needs to get on the field first before those questions can be answered. If he is anywhere near the 30 bomb, 100 RBI guy he used to be, the Mets should have no problem scoring runs this year.

The biggest obstacle the Mets have to overcome this year will be their starting pitching. Jon Niese looks like a potential stud, but the inconsistency of Big Pelf and the back end of Young and Capuano leaves a lot to be desired. Lacking a true ace with the loss of The Johan is a glaring problem, especially in a division full of dominant starting pitching. My boy R.A. Dickey looks like he will continue to be a solid No. 3 starter for the rotation, and should be able to win from 12 – 15 games. The Mets didn’t lose many games because of their pitching last year, so hopefully the starters can keep them in games and get the ball to the ‘pen, where I think Parnell and Krod should have some success closing out games. (Bring back Izzy!)

Overall, I do not expect this team to win the NL East, but I definitely see how they can compete and win a decent amount of games this year, while possibly contending for a Wild Card spot. (if Johan can get back soon after the All-Star break close to true Johan form). They have already won a road series two months earlier than it took them to accomplish that last year, and they are currently beating up on the Phils, after teeing off on Cole Hamels. Hopefully they get off to a hot start, and ride that momentum into a surprising 2011 season. If not, I will be suffering through a long six months of abuse from Phillies fans and lame Bernie Madoff jokes.

Tune (blog?) in tomorrow for some good ol’ fashion Philly hate that would make my main man George Washington proud (GW hated Philadelphia, thought it was the fakest city he had ever stepped foot in). This blog will be more ridiculous going forward, but I just wanted to throw a brief summary of my thoughts on this Mets team to kick things off

— Kevin McReal

Real > Fake

New Yankee Stadium

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Well, before I get into my predictions for the 2009 lineup, I must first give my thoughts on the new Yankee Stadium after attending Friday night’s game vs. the Cubs.

I’m still shocked they were able to even play the game (Although the field seemed to drain just as advertised, as that field looked game-ready just a few minutes after the tarp was removed).  All day I was staring out the window, noticing the rain stopped for five minutes and convincing myself the game was on, then it would start pouring and the game was back off, and then, finally, after reading on yankees.com that they were opening the gates on time no matter what, heading out to the Stadium, game or no game, for the chance to finally see the Stadium myself.  I mean, my ticket cost $1.30. While I was excited to see the Yankees play, the main attraction Friday night was the Stadium, and it did not disappoint!

First, unless you are one of those people who are against the new Stadium on principle (Which is a perfectly acceptable point of view.  The Yankees did not NEED a new Stadium. I mean, ticket sales were fine, the whole “Ruth/Gherig/Dimaggio/Mattingly/Sojo played on this field! reason ((Again, I guess I understand this point, but, hell, if you can’t knock down Yankee Stadium because Babe Ruth played there, well, he played in a ton of parks during his life.  Was there rage when Braves Field was knocked down?  I know that’s stretching the point big time, but how many games does Ruth have to play in a place before it’s deemed unknockdownable (((made up word)))?) Anyway, as you can tell,  while I loved the old Stadium and would have probably had no issues with the Yankees playing there for another 80 years, I had no problem with the building of a new Stadium and was extremely excited to see it for the first time.

My verdict: Fan-tabulous!

It honestly looks like someone just took the old Stadium and improved everything about it.  Nothing seemed gratituous, it didn’t look like they were enhancing things just for to show off that it’s new. For some reason I really like the navy blue on the seats and the outfield wall.  It’s a lot sharper than that lighter blue at the old Stadium, and really gives it more of a classic look.  The Great Hall is, well, great.  There’s tons of classic photos everywhere, with all the World Series teams over the concession stands throughout the Stadium.  The manual score boards is a minor change but, like the navy blue, gives it a more classic feel.  On the other hand the gigantic screen gives it a much more modern look, and the picture quality is ridiculous. 

I was in the last row of the grand stand on the third base side of the field and, outside of a small corner in right field, the sight lines were great.  I could even turn around and look at the old Stadium across the street, which was a bit weird at first.  Later in the game (after the great Mariano Rivera’s appearance) I went down to the area between the two bleacher sections, on top of the Hard Rock in center field, and, while I still would probably not by a standing room ticket myself, that area seems like it will be an awesome place to hang out during games if you want to leave your seats for a while.  It also had the best view of the frieze stretching around the grand stand.  Again, there was nothing that seemed out of place or unecessarily overdone.  Just a great job. The game was fun, too. 

New Yankee Stadium

The Joba controversy

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Because Hank Steinbrenner said this quote in Play Magazine:

“‘Red Sox Nation?’ What a bunch of (expletive)
that is. That was a creation of the Red Sox and ESPN, which is filled
with Red Sox fans.

“Go
anywhere in America and you won’t see Red Sox hats and jackets, you’ll
see Yankee hats and jackets. This is a Yankee country. We’re going to
put the Yankees back on top and restore the universe to order.”

He is already a Yankees legend.  Just like Hideki Irabu, Luis Sojo, Derek Jeter, and Jose Canseco.  You see, anyone who has ever worn a Yankees uniform is a Yankees legend (yes, that includes Kyle Farnsworth).

However I, like many sane people, am not with Hank on the current Joba controversy.  You see, I support what seems to be the Yankees’ current plan.  Start the season with the rotation they have now, keep Joba in the setup role and then, around June, work him into the rotation.  The only reason the Yankees have to accelerate putting Joba into the rotation is if any of the five starters suffer an injury that would keep them out long-term.  Right now (and hopefully, not ever), that hasn’t happened.  I realize Hank and many fans of the Yankees think Hughes and Kennedy may not be ready, and that Mussina may be finished as an effective starter, but I do not agree.

With Hughes and Kennedy (and Moose to some degree) the main problem right now seems to be they’re not being aggressive.  Moose, of course, needs to take a page out of Tom Glavine’s book and start pitching inside more.  This doesn’t mean Moose has to completely reinvent himself as a pitcher, that’s not what Glavine did, he just has to sneak the fastball inside enough that batters can’t sit on his breaking balls or a fastball over the outside of the plate.  A successful Moose start at this point also relies on him having excellent control and a sharp breaking ball.  He had that against the Rays and he pitched a great game (He also worked inside a bit more, especially to Gomez).  In the first start against Boston he had it early, but they have one of the best offenses in the league and were going to score a few runs off him no matter how great he pitched.  It also didn’t help that in both starts against Boston he was matched up against Josh Beckett.  Moose can still be successful (I’m talking a 2008 record of somewhere in the 13 wins, seven losses range) but he’s going to have to make some adjustments.

With Hughes and Kennedy I think they’re problem, right now, is their both being tentative.   With Hughes, and I’m not sure if this is because he’s still building up his arm strength, his fastball velocity seems to be less than he’s capable of throwing.  When he was pitching his brief and infamous no-hitter against the Rangers last year, he was topping off with a fastball in the mid-90’s, while I don’t think I’ve seen him hit over 93 on the gun this year.  If it isn’t an arm strength thing, I think it’s a situation where he’s aiming the ball too much, and not relying on his stuff.  He has a tremendous curveball, and he’s had success with it so far this year, but it seems like he’s too concerned with absolutely nailing his spot with his fastball that he’s either missing off the plate for a ball, or he’s getting too much of the plate with a subpar fastball and it’s getting hit hard.   Again, I’m not sure if this is a arm strength issue or a situation where he’s worrying too much about hitting his spot with perfection.  We will see as he progresses over the season.

I managed to catch a few of Kennedy’s starts during Spring Training and was quickly becoming a fan of his approach.  He seemed willing to throw his tremendous change up on any count, and he was consistently throwing strikes with his fastball.  Then, in his first start against the Rays and his start against Baltimore this weekend, he became an extreme nibbler.  And when he was getting into 3-0 and 3-1 counts, he would then just throw a fastball right down the middle of the plate.   He seems afraid of letting the batter make contact early in the count.  At 89 mph, hitters are going to catch up with his fastball.  For him, he has to keep it low in the zone and, most importantly, throw strikes.  It would be great if he could hit the black with every pitch, but it’s not going to happen.  Attack the zone, work in the change up (I’d also like to see a bit more of the curve, for a different look) and, most importantly, throw first-pitch strikes.

The most exciting part of this season, for me, is the young pitching.  The offense will be great, there’s too much proven talent there, but the great unknown is the pitching.  Outside of Wang and Pettitte, it’s off to a rough start, but they’re young, they’re talented, and I think fans have to be patient (and by patient I mean see progress by Memorial Day) before there are any shake ups with the rotation.

The Joba controversy