2 run first for the Yanks on RBIs by Cano and Posada. Umpire ruled Tex safe at 2nd base as Figgins pulled his foot off the bag too early... something that doesn't get called enough these days.
^ I feel the same way. Jeter with a two run double, 5-0. That's game over, with CC against that anemic offense.
The frustrating thing with Joba is that he keeps saying "Yeah, I have to take this, learn from it, and come back tomorrow." He doesn't actually learn though. I firmly believe he needs a AAA stint now to "learn" how to not be a schmuck. He's hitting 96 on the gun, so velocity isn't his problem. He has zero control. Enough is enough. Send him to SWB, bring up Albaladejo (who now has the SWB record for saves in a season) and let him fix himself away from the real bats. He's just flat out immature right now. Anyway, that game wasn't necessarily on Joba either. The Yankees were facing a Hernandez without his best stuff and only scored a run. Posada had the opportunity to tie the game and watched two crushable balls become called strikes. You can't give away games where you get a pitching performance like Javy gave. Whatever though. 2 game lead in the AL East. Best record in baseball. A pitching staff starting to click on all cylinders. An ARod that you can never afford to face with the bases loaded. A Tex finally breaking out. Everything is falling into place for a roaring second half. Oh, and Lee texted CC after the trade. CC told people he was "confident" that Lee would be a Yankee in the winter.
I don't think that AAA will help Joba at all, his stuff is so electric that he'll dominate hitters even if he doesn't improve his location or pitch selection. I think that the only solution is to start using him in low leverage situations until he proves that he can be trusted to hold a 1 run lead again. Robertson's not been great this year but he's been better than Joba, and I'm a firm believer that there's no reason why Marte shouldn't be allowed to face some righty batters. He could help in the 8th as well. I do agree about Albaladejo, though. Even though he's been mediocre in the bigs, there's no way you can convince me that he'd be worse than Gaudin.
See, I'd disagree here. When he's off, his stuff is decidedly not electric. His fastball - despite a slight uptick in velocity, which was nice to see - is still arrow straight - and his slider has been hit or miss all season. When it's off, he's throwing belt-high spinners every other pitch. I think Joba's got a drinking problem. He looks hung over all the time, and pitches much worse during the day games than he does during the night games. And I'm only three-quarters kidding.
Well, here's a little bit of a reveal on why I say Joba should go to AAA. Now it's second-hand information, but I trust the source. Supposedly, Joba is lazy, out of shape, and immature when it comes to accepting he has problems. If that's truly the case, then a flight back to Scranton would serve as a "this is your wake-up call" message. He's just not getting it together. I'm okay with putting him in low-leverage situations, but the problem is, what happens if he fails there too? His value becomes nothing at that point, and a trip to SWB only tells everyone "we give up." Shipping him down there now allows the Yankees to say "We're going to have him go down to get more work and tweak some of his mechanics." That keeps his value up, just in case they can work out a trade, or fix him. Girardi seems to be sticking with him though. He said Joba is still his 8th inning guy and that they want him to work things out. I think that's silly, but what can you do? I really, really want to see Albaladejo back up though. He's been lights-out this year so far. I mean, even at his worst he can't be worse than Gaudin and is probably also better than Park this year. I'm not a big fan of Mitre, but I'd be fine seeing if he can get righties out. I may have problems with him, but I have much bigger problems with micro-managing games down to lefty specialists. If Mitre can't get multiple batters out, then why is he here? As for Robertson, I don't know what to think of the guy. He's a lot like Joba and Burnett. When any of them is on, they're unhittable. When they're off, they're throwing batting practice. And you never know which you're getting until it's too late.
Heh, see my post. It wouldn't surprise me in the least, especially considering his mother is an alcoholic. Alcoholism is hereditary.
I think it's funny that you want Albaladejo on the team so badly, given how you felt about him last year. Actually, I went looking for some of those posts, just to double check that it was you saying those things, and I found this gem, which is just too funny (in hindsight) not to post: How'd last year turn out for everyone, Alio? :lol: One year later, you want Albaladejo back on the team and are pissed that Matsui and Damon aren't on the team. (And I'm just having fun, don't freak out.)
As much as the Yankees bullpen fails lately, the team has the best record in baseball. If the hitting picks up, they should be unstoppable. ____________ The way I see it, I can only remember a hand full of games, the Yankees had won and lost because of things like pitchers giving up grand slams in the bottom of the 8th... I'd be more concerned with A-Rod picking up his average, Teixeira continuing his hot bat, Cano winning the batting title, Posada getting healthy, CC winning 20+ games... ...who knows with fucking Joba anymore. I was one of the big proponents for him going to the pen and right now he is proving me wrong. But the bottom line is, he didn't have it as a starter and right now doesn't have the stuff as a reliever. Maybe he needs a sports psychologist...hope he doesn't go Ankiel, Wohlers or Rocker on us.
Piss off Cappy :smile: Interestingly though, look at what I said about bunting. Didn't ARod just try one the other day? (I read about it, but didn't see it.) Seriously, I despise the thinking that a power hitter should never be asked to bunt. Why not? If it gets a runner to, say, 3rd, with less than two outs in a game where one run matters, shouldn't it be considered? Anyway, that was April of last year. I've repeatedly admitted to being completely wrong about Gardner. I also said I wanted Vlad Guerrero and people thought I was out of my mind this past winter. How'd that work out? Hindsight is 20/20. Albaladejo is pitching fantastic this year. You've said it yourself, relievers are notoriously sporadic from year to year. Well, this is Albaladejo's "on" year. Anyway, I've generally not freaked out this year. I've gotten pissed off when this team looks flat, but that's happening less and less (the Hernandez game notwithstanding.)
I agree this team will be unstoppable if they hit as a team after the break, and all indications are that they will. As for Joba, unless the Yankees take drastic measures with him (like sending him to the farm) I expect he'll be a bust within the next couple of years.
We'll see, I expect 7-8 winning streaks to be the norm if Teixeira keeps up his bat. A-Rod and Teix seem contingent upon each other's success.
