A tip of the cap
Sometimes I think you have to take it with a grain of salt when a baseball team collectively agrees to use the old cliche of tipping their caps to the opposing pitcher. Sure, it’s possible to have a great pitching performance and completely shut down a team. But wouldn’t it also stand to reason that maybe the batters just didn’t get their approach together?
In any event, the Yankees used the cap-tipping line to explain away their loss to Oliver Perez and the Mets on Friday. The Yankees managed just five hits in the game and, even though they had baserunners against Perez, the left-hander was "wild effective" — unpredictable enough that the Yankees never seemed to be able to get settled in. For a team that outscored the D-Backs 18-4 in a three-game series, it was a drastic change of pace.
"You give [Perez] a lot of credit," Derek Jeter said. "We just couldn’t get any hits with guys on base. We sprinkled some hits here and there but he pitched well."
Zero runs made it impossible for Roger Clemens to win, but he probably deserved better. Joe Torre said he didn’t expect Clemens to be quite as sharp as he was this soon, and saw it as a great sign that Clemens wanted the ball for the seventh inning of his 108-pitch effort.
The Rocket, however, wasn’t quite as thrilled: "When you come up short," Clemens said, "there’s really nothing to be happy about." He was even less happy leaving his postgame scrum with reporters, when one asked him if he was headed back to Houston. Clemens’ only acknowledgment: a deep exhale.
Sleep fast, everyone. The Yankees and Mets are back at it later today in another matchup where age plays a key part – three-game winner Tyler Clippard against 295-game winner Tom Glavine.
Bryan Hoch
This is just the thought of the day for Clemens and the rest of the Yankees team and their loyal fans, like myself. By July 31st trading Deadline, this is my predicition for what the team will look like by then, I hope. Breaking down the team when healthy, with their line-up, bench, rotation and their bullpen too!
Johnny Damon DH
Derek Jeter SS
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Jorge Posada C
Torii Hunter CF
Hediki Matsui LF
Robinson Cano 2B
Melkey Cabrera CF
Chien-Ming Wang RH
Andy Pettitte LH
Mike Mussina RH
Roger Clemens RH
Noah Lowry LH
Mariano Rivera Closer
Brian Fuentes Set-up man
Scott Proctor
Sean Henn
Brian Bruney
Mike Myers
Kyle Farnsworth
The Bench
Miguel Cairo Infielder
Andy Phillips Infielder
Austin Kearns Outfielder
Jason Tyner Outfielder
Javier Valentin Catcher
Sorry its just a predicition and something to think about!
How will they get these guys, Kearns, Lowry, Teixera, and Hunter in particular. And do not forget that Hughes will be back eventually.
Also “Bryan” if you believe the phrase “good pitching beats good hitting” then Perez beat the Yankee bats tonight.
http://statisticianmagician.mlblogs.com/
haha, my friend, you have a better chance of seeing david chase release an Alternate Endings dvd than you do of seeing those transactions carried out
with that kind of retooling, we’d be gutting the farm system and all the young pitching we’ve worked to develop
austin kearns and torii hunter, i think, are especially unlikely because they don’t need another outfielder right now assuming johnny damon’s legs are OK
the most likely guy might be brian fuentes, but colorado actually has a winning record (34-33) so i’m not sure they’re even going to be in sell-mode…and even if they are, they might force a team to take on todd helton as a package deal with fuentes, and the yankees would be wise to stay away from helton’s crippling contract
as far as tonight’s loss, it’s a bit disappointing to see boston take a game back while our bats go completely quiet, but i’ll give our guys the benefit of the doubt because oliver perez is really filthy
i still expect to win series though, so i won’t be happy if they don’t take the next 2
by the way, how can those fans allow carlos gomez to catch that ball?! come on! there’s no excuse–you’ve gotta use your arms, your jacket, glove, whatever it takes, but that ball can’t be caught! if jeffrey maier were dead, he’d be turning over in his grave
What we saw last night was a gameplan from Willie Randolph learned during all those years sitting on the bench next to Joe Torre and watching Roger Clemens.
Willie also has a young team made up of kids who grew up worshipping Derek Jeter and trying to play like him – run, steal, bunt etc. As for Pitcher Perez, perhaps the Yankees thought he was a bit of a nut case because of his jumping over the baselines – not so. He’s a really good pitcher.
So, here we are with the mood of this series altered completely by the outcome of the first game.
Interesting pitching matchup again this afternoon with another veteran against a rookie.
It’s bound to be a good game.
Goodness knows I’m not a fan of Roger’s, so it’s an odd position to almost be defending him. But a couple of things stand out here.
You wrote that he ‘probably’ deserved a better fate. He pitched a quality game and he only gave up two runs. Personality aside, the guy deserved a better fate.
And, what happened after he pitched against Pittsburgh last week? Did he go back to Houston or did he stay with the team? (I honestly don’t know. And that makes me think he stayed with the team since, if he left, it would have been plastered all over the papers and internet).
So if he DID stay with the team, why would a reporter ask him if he was going back to Houston? Why would New York writers beat up on him that way? Just for the sake of doing so?
I don’t think it’s beating up on him to ask him if he’s planning to use his ‘family plan’ for the first time. It would make sense that he COULD do so, since he’s not going to pitch in New York again on this homestand. I didn’t ask the question, but I thought it was a valid one.
//since he’s not going to pitch in New York again on this homestand. I//
Actually, I hadn’t looked at it that way. (That he stuck around after last week because he’d be pitching in the Bronx on his next outing as well.)
Thanks for the clarification!
Lol@ the first post, we get all that and give up nothing. Why stop there? Maybe we can get Sheff back.
Fuentes is possible, so is Hunter but with Fuentes, Helton comes. Package deal.
Stop talking about Hughes please. He had one great outing, he is not a sure thing. He struggled in first start.
cooking, very interesting, and intriguing lineup, but unfortunately it’s only a dream. The addition of those names would break, and ruin the Yanks’ minor league system after a lot of hard work by the Yankees to restore it to respectability. I would like to see Mussina, Myers, and Farnsworth off this team and go with Hughes, Bruney, Proctor, Fuentes and Rivera.
cooking, very interesting lineup, but it’s only a dream. glewis is right, some of those guys will just break the bank in terms of high end prospects. Yes, we do have major holes in our lineup ( i.e. first base & DH, and pitching ), and it would be better we try to resolve those holes sooner than later. Cairo is not going to keep hitting like he has been, and Damon’s body is breaking down, it’s only a question of when he might end up on the DL. Yes, every team has holes, and most of those teams wind up failing rather because of those holes and their inability to deal with them efficiently. We, as Yankee fans don’t want to see that happen. Teams like Boston can survieve having those holes because they are very solid in terms of offense, and pitching, something the Yanks are not.