Results tagged ‘ AL East ’
Brian Cougar Show: Week 2 — Staying on Schedule!
Do not doubt me!
Well, after a 5-1 homestand for the Yankees this week, I think the great Joe Posnanski has the perfect summary of their season after 12 games:
“The Yankees look absurdly good as expected.”
I think that statement is especially true for the starting pitching … outside of Javier Vazquez. CC Sabathia won Friday’s rain-shortened game against the Texas Rangers — which I attended (hooray me) — where he allowed one run and struck out nine over six innings. A.J. Burnett then followed that with seven strikeouts over seven scoreless innings on Saturday; Phil Hughes, in his first start of the 2010 season, was charged for two runs on six hits over five innings on Thursday. Hughes, not surprisingly, was a bit amped up and walked five batters, but the velocity on his fastball looked pretty good, and the only extra-base hit he allowed was the homer to Hideki Matsui. And Andy Pettitte, Andy friggin’ Pettitte, won two starts this week, throwing six scoreless innings during the home opener and then eight innings of two-run ball against Texas yesterday. Pettitte’s stats over three starts:
20 innings pitched, three runs, 15 hits, nine walks and 14 strikeouts for a 1.35 ERA
Now it’s early, and Andy’s an old man (excuse me, crafty veteran), so I’m sure that ERA is going to head near the 3.5-to-4.5 area by the end of the season, but to see Pettitte pitching like this, at his age, after winning his fifth World Series title only a few months ago, well, it’s pretty impressive (I’m aware he’s made piles of money and is making a good chunk of change this year, but his work ethic and the results are impressive).
Vazquez is the only blot (great word) in this rotation. He received a few boo’s and got to see his name in print with the “he can’t pitch in New York” angle already, but, come on now, it’s two starts! I realize he left on a bad note in 2004 and hasn’t really done much (anything) to impress so far in his second go-around, but he’s the friggin’ No. 4 starter. I feel much better watching Javy struggle as opposed to, say, CC or A.J. (Not that I don’t like Javy, it’s just him being slow out of the gate doesn’t really concern me). His velocity did look a bit low in the game on Wednesday, so that’s something to keep an eye on, but I’m giving him two more starts before I get worried. Again, they traded him for Melky Cabrera (The Melk Man!), who’s hitting .119 with a .245 OBP for Atlanta right now.
Highlights: Everything. I even think the vendor accidentally gave me two free beers at the game on Friday (It still hasn’t showed up on my statement. I’m not sure how long that’s supposed to take).
Lowlights: The only lowlight this week (outside of Vazquez) would be Nick Johnson (Mark Teixeira avoids it due to the home run and slick defensive plays yesterday), especially after his three strikeout game to close out the week, however he was able to, for the second time this season, drive in a run via a bases loaded walk earlier this week (OBP .407!) and … AND … he comes up to the plate to “Party in the USA” by Miley Cyrus. I know he’s not the only one doing this (Cameron Maybin of the Marlins is apparently doing it as well), but to walk up to home plate in Yankee Stadium, in front of 50,000 people, with that song playing … well, that’s amazing. Especially since, even though he said it’s his daughter’s favorite song, I’m sure it’s one of his top-five favorite songs of all-time as well (UNPROVABLE CLAIM).
So, a very relaxed week two of the season. Rings were handed out (both real and fake), Godzilla returned (standing ovation!), homes were opened and the Yanks are 9-3, tied with the Tampa Bay Rays at the top of the AL East. The Yanks head out west this week for a battle with the hot-start A’s and a rematch with the Angels. I’m sensing a couple of series wins. And some A-Bombs. Five A-Bombs this week. UNNECESSARY PREDICTION THAT WILL UNDOUBTEDLY COME TRUE.
Joba Joba Joba
Post four looks at the starting five
I will continue making references to my post numbers in the
titles until it no longer amuses me.
Therefore, I will continue making references to my post numbers in the titles
until the blogosphere implodes on itself.
Anyway, I promised a season preview, so, to start, let’s look at the 2009
Yankees’ rotation.
1. CC Sabathia:
Well, with the money he’s making, I’m sure most Yankee fans would like to
see CC make 35 starts and post a 35-0 record. Guess what? So do I!
I’m kidding, of course, but everyone, and I’m sure that includes Sabathia,
expects a big year out of the new Yankees’ ace. His ’08 season was interesting,
in that, in a contract year, he started out slow with the Indians, going 6-8
with a 3.83 ERA over 18 starts, then was traded to the Brewers, went 11-2 with
a 1.65 ERA over his final 17 starts to carry Milwaukee to the playoffs and
had people talking about him as a potential NL Cy Young and, in some cases, NL
MVP candidate for a half season of work. Should we expect the ’08 Sabathia in
Cleveland who looked to be struggling with the pressure of a contract year (he
said it was a mechanical flaw that was fixed by the time he got to Milwaukee)
or the ’08 Sabathia who absolutely dominated the National League?
The two guarantees with CC are usually a high amount of
innings pitched and a ton of strikeouts, and that should be no different this year.
It will be interesting to see how he handles the pressures of his first year in
NY, but I’m going to do a quick, five-second computation in my head and come up
with a final record of 19-7.
2. A.J. Burnett:
With Burnett, the key, of course, is his health. If he’s healthy, like he
was last season, I think you’ll see similar results to his 18-10 record in
2008. He’s used to pitching in the No. 2 hole behind a bona fide ace (CC
replacing Doc Halladay), he knows the AL East after three years in Toronto,
he’s got a tremendous curve to compliment his low-90′s heater, so, barring
injury, my computations come up with a final record of 17-10.
3. Chien-Ming Wang:
Or, as Derek Jeter calls him, Mr. Wang. The big right-hander somehow
remains slightly underrated even while pitching for the Yankees, no easy accomplishment.
Wang was headed towards another 18-win season before his freak foot injury in
Houston last June that caused Hank Steinbrenner to call for the banning of
pitchers having to hit, and I don’t know why anyone would expect any different
this year (That includes Hank saying something crazy). With Wang you know
what you’re getting, if his sinker is down in the zone, which it usually is,
he’ll get his groundouts and pile up the wins. Occasionally (and so far,
in the postseason) his sinker will stay up in the zone and he’ll get
tagged. Last year he seemed to be making progress with his slider, which
allowed him to give hitter’s another look, and I think as long as he’s not
running the bases, he’s the pitcher I’m least worried about in the rotation.
Final record: 18-9
4. Andy Pettitte:
Pettitte’s an interesting case. On one hand, he struggled big-time
last season. He’d get ahead in the count, but didn’t have an out-pitch, so more
often than not hitters extended their at-bats and got on base, and it seemed
like he was constantly getting into jams and having starts destroyed by one big
inning.
On the other hand, there have been some rumblings that he was dealing with
shoulder issues last year in the second half, but gutted it out because the pitching
staff was already decimated by injuries. So, maybe he’s a pitcher who’s
dealing with diminished stuff at the end of a great career, or, now that he’s
healthy, he’ll have a bounce back year like Mike Mussina did in ’08 (Not a 20-wins
bounce back like Moose did, of course). I think it’s likely a combination
of the two, so he’ll turn that 14-14 record last year into a 14-7 campaign
in ’09.
5. Joba Joba Joba:
I already discussed this in my 2009 return to MLBlogs, so this will be
brief. Again, I’m pro-Joba in the rotation, and I think he’ll one day be a top
tier starter. It’s tough, even with my highly scientific formula, to
predict his win-total due to how the Yankees are going to handle his innings
limit. I said 13 wins in the previous post and I’ll stick with it.
I also think there might still be some growing pains in his first full year
as a starter. 13-8
This is, in my opinion, easily the best the Yankees’ rotation has looked
going into a season since 2001, when you had Mussina, Roger Clemens and
Pettitte at the top of the rotation with Ted Lilly and El Duqe at the back
end. Will the results be the same? Well, that depends. How
will CC handle NY and the pressure of his big contract? Will Burnett stay
healthy? Is Joba ready for the workload of a starter? Will Pettitte have a bounce
back year? Who will the Yankees call up due to the innings-limit on
Joba or if anyone’s injured? Phil Hughes? Ian Kennedy? “Oh dear God,
no!” Kei Igawa? As a Yankees fan, I’m hoping for and expect great results,
but, as always, we shall see.
Tomorrow (Or Friday, or next week, or … No! I promised to keep on top of the
blog this year!) I’ll take a look at the 2009 lineup.
briancougar
Recent Comments