He allowed 9 hits in 4 innings. You can call it whatever you want, but it would be called getting hit hard by any normal definition. His final two starts of the season: 7 and a third IP, 19 hits, 9 earned runs.
According to MLB.com, Morneau is done for the season. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20101004&content_id=15409506&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb
Yeah, I posted that in the playoffs thread. I figured it wasn't relevant here because he was already ruled out for the ALDS. They were hoping he might make it back for potentially the ALCS or World Series.
Not even Burnett? I'd say especially Burnett! Speculation for weeks has been that Girardi would go with a 4 man rotation. Including pitching Burnett in Game 2, which I think is insane. -------------- I'm actually shocked at Morneau being out the entire postseason. How bad was the concussion that he hasn't been able to play in 3 months, and still can't play another month? Especially if it means your team has a chance to get to the World Series? Football players play again in the same season after a concussion. Either the Twins feel they don't have a legitimate shot at the title, or this concussion was a lot worse than anyone has let on.
If you can't concentrate enough and your hand-eye coordination is that bad, a concussion could be career ending for a power hitter.
The season's already too long as it is. By game 110 half the teams are out of the playoff race and play for nothing. Fans don't even show up to watch them play in the stadiums.
Ugh. The only positive is the fact that I have tickets for Sunday's game, so I'm sort of hoping the Yankees don't sweep. Heh.
In my opinion, the Yankees have more problems than the Rays. When they're firing on all cylinders the Bombers are the best team in baseball, but that hasn't been the case for a while. I really think that Girardi takes too much criticism. He overmanages from time to time, but people talk about him like he's the worst manager in baseball and that's just ridiculous. I'd take Girardi's bullpen management over any other Yankees manager in my lifetime.
I wouldnt go crazy over Pettitte's last 2 starts. They were really tune up starts for the playoffs. He got through them healthy, thats the important thing. I still feel good having him on the mound in a playoff game. Hughes pitched really well down the stretch, he's had some bad starts here and there since the break, but overall he has been pretty solid.
I would agree with you except that the Rays kind of limped into the playoffs too. Kansas City's "pro" team isn't as good as Boston's AAA one that we just played. The postseason is sort of a reset button. Everyone has had a couple of days to rest up and prepare. Too much? Maybe. But he is deserving of finger-pointing. It's not time-to-time with the overmanaging though. It's often. And it's akin to the Brian Schottenheimer argument. The guy can be a great coach when doesn't try to be smarter than everyone else. Sometimes you just have to let things play out. Instead, he pulls pitchers after facing one batter, regardless of the outcome. I understand situational baseball, but sometimes you should give a guy a chance to get a couple of outs so you don't spend 2 arms where you can just spend one. Of course it's not just the pen management that drives me crazy. Brett Gardner saw more pitches per at-bat than anyone else this year. Why wasn't he batting leadoff every time he played? Especially considering how bad Jeter was in that spot this year. Perhaps protection from Teixeira might have helped? Why did Girardi do things like play Cervelli while resting ARod and Swisher on the same day, with Pena and Kearns as the subs? I'm all for resting guys, but do you need to dump a full third of your lineup, the entire heart of it no less, to do it? And if you're going to rest people, where's Robbie's day off? Cano played every day the past couple of months. I realize he's young and relatively healthy, but a day off now and then would be nice, wouldn't it? With Girardi, a lot like Torre, it's no "one thing" but rather a series of little things that pile up until they're a sizable pile. I honestly think Girardi is a very good coach, but I'm not very happy with his managerial skills.
You have a source on this speculation? I haven't heard a peep about Burnett in Game 2. Did you watch the game? Five of the nine hits were pretty dinky... fly balls that dropped in or weak grounders in the hole. And he did have 8Ks, so something was going right. Again, not saying it was a good start, but given that his first start was very good, his second start was awful, and this most recent start had both good and bad signs, I'm not really sweating Pettitte's playoff starts too much. I don't sweat any three start swings, though, good or bad.
I agree with this. He's not perfect by any means, but he does manage to avoid most of the completely obvious boneheaded moves. Do I disagree with some of his moves? Of course. Do I think he's awful? Not at all. Relatively speaking, he's (somewhat frighteningly) one of the better managers in the game.
No, I didn't watch the game, but that's a pretty lousy start, no matter how many strikeouts he recorded.
Now you're just being silly... you know it's not black and white like that. In the context of Whether Yankee Fans Should Be Worried About Pettitte -- which is what was being discussed -- it's silly to point to that last start as a harbinger of disaster in the postseason and continuation of a "trend" of Pettitte being lousy since the injury. He wasn't good, but he wasn't awful. It's not like when Burnett is bad (i.e. rockets all over the place and can't get a swing and miss). There were some positive things to take away from that outing.
Cappy, I gotta eat a little crow here. You were spot on with regards to Gardner. His play this season changed my stance on him so much so I don't even think the Yankees will go after Crawford. I think they save the cash there and get some pitching.
