2010 MLB Season

[ghost of miles]

May be in serious trouble? NY's bullpen has sucked all season long so far, outside of Mo--and even Mo has been very shaky of late. Today's Joba meltdown has got to be just about the worst ever, and leaves me wondering how much longer NY can afford to keep grooming him. He is NOT the future Mo, that's for sure. I think he may be at a point where he'd be better off pitching somewhere else...somewhere along the way, playing in NY has screwed him up royally. But yeah, the bullpen is an absolute calamity right now...there is no NY lead after 5-6 IP that can be considered safe.

[JSngry]

...there is no NY lead after 5-6 IP that can be considered safe.

Welcome to RangerLand!

[Matthew]

May be in serious trouble? NY's bullpen has sucked all season long so far, outside of Mo--and even Mo has been very shaky of late. Today's Joba meltdown has got to be just about the worst ever, and leaves me wondering how much longer NY can afford to keep grooming him. He is NOT the future Mo, that's for sure. I think he may be at a point where he'd be better off pitching somewhere else...somewhere along the way, playing in NY has screwed him up royally. But yeah, the bullpen is an absolute calamity right now...there is no NY lead after 5-6 IP that can be considered safe.

Well, this is the thing Ghostie, after the top six, seven players, the Yankees are a mediocre team, if ARod goes down, it's free-fall time. I still don't think they're making the playoffs, Boston's pitching will win out at the end.

[Dan Gould]

Well from a competitive perspective, I heartily recommend sending Joba away.

[Dan Gould]

Interesting stats about Joba:

Yes, he now has three losses and an ERA climbing toward 6.

OTOH, that was the first inherited runner allowed to score, and also his first Blown Save (I don't know how many Holds he has).

Basically you can say that he's screwed the pooch (and the team) three times. Aside from that, how much damage has he done? Only one Blown Save and inherited runners scored only in this game. Maybe he's come in when its close and the team is losing and he's blown it up - that wouldn't show up in the stats - but aside from that I don't see as he should have worn out his welcome in NY. Yeah, some tough stats, not a guy who is lights out all the time. Doesn't mean he won't regain that form.

Long term, I'd rather have him than Bard.

('cepting the fact that Bard has some class on the mound of course)

[Matthew]

Oh, man...A-Rod just doubled off Indians pitcher David Huff's head. A line drive hit so hard that it caromed off Huff's head all the way into right field. They had to take Huff off the field on a stretcher; he's evidently still conscious, as he raised a hand to acknowledge the crowd, but I really hope he's going to be OK. I was listening on the radio, haven't seen a replay yet, but it sounded pretty bad.

Replay of what happened.

[Dave James]

Dan,

I'll trade you straight across right here, right now. At least there's some question about Bard's eventual upside. There is no more question about Chamerlain's. While today's loss officially belongs to him, he was aided and abetted by his two partners in mediocrity, Mssrs. Robertson and Mitre who combined to surrender three runs in one third of an inning, thereby setting the stage for the Chamberlain meltdown. If this debacle doesn't sound the klaxons in the Yankee front office, then I'm not sure what would. I hope the first thing they do is run to the executive washroom and look at themselves in the mirror. They flat out ruined Chamberlain. If they'd just stayed with him as a set up guy, he would have be fine and they'd probably have Rivera's replacement in house. Instead, they mess with his head to the point of rendering him useless. How is it that I saw this coming all along and the best and the brightest (to clarify, that's the New York front office) didn't? It's beyond me. And it's disgusting.

[Dave James]

El perfecto for Roy Halladay. Zeros across the board. WOW!

Edited May 30, 2010 by Dave James

[Matthew]

1880 was the last time for two perfect games in one season.

[Matthew]

What a crazy day in baseball, Kendry Morales injured during a game winning, grand slam celebration, what the heck is going on today????

http://www.youtube.c...player_embedded

Edited May 30, 2010 by Matthew

[Chalupa]

ROY HALLADAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

20th pitcher in MLB history to throw a perfect game. And he did it for the best team in the National League East - the Philadelphia Phillies!!

:party: :party: :party:

[trane_fanatic]

ROY HALLADAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

20th pitcher in MLB history to throw a perfect game. And he did it for the best team in the National League East - the Philadelphia Phillies!!

:party: :party: :party:

It's getting too easy, Braden's perfecto, Ubaldo's no-no and a ton of one-hitters thus far this season.

[Matthew]

As everyone knows, I'm not a fan of ARod at all, but props to ARod for making the effort to drive to the hospital to see Huff, not knowing Huff was back at Yankee Stadium. Arod even phoned him, so, a classy move on Arod's part.

[Chalupa]

Here's a weird factoid: Halladay's perfect game was 6th 1-0 perfect game in MLB history. In all 6 the only run has been unearned.

[papsrus]

Here's a weird factoid: Halladay's perfect game was 6th 1-0 perfect game in MLB history. In all 6 the only run has been unearned.

Wow ...

[ghost of miles]

Freaky day indeed--congrats to Halladay and Phillies fans for the perfecto.

Dan, my sense from following NY game to game so far has been that Joba might actually be a little bit worse than his stats show (which, yes, have been dragged down by a dreadful run--Joba's ERA for his last 5 appearances is 18.00). I'm not even sure how many times he's come into a game with runners on base, as Joe G is usually inclined to bring him in at the start of the 8th... he's just so erratic, either lights-out or awful (and lately mostly awful). Speaking of stats, I think his stats have declined every season since 2007 in several key areas. Hey, I like hard-luck players and ones trying to gut out some redemption...believe me, I badly want to see Joba succeed (and not just for the sake of NY's win column). But I'm really worried that he may have already turned into another NY pitching head-case, who might well perform better somewhere else. I'll keep pulling for him--but man, today's game was utterly painful. Cleveland has a lackluster offense (175 team runs scored so far going into today's game), and they tore the hide off the ball against us.

Our bullpen now has 8 blown saves to its credit, and we're not even quite at the 1/3 mark of the season. That is a huge weakness--and Matthew, yes, it might be enough to keep us out of the playoffs this year...but I'd still match our on-field starting line-up against anybody else's in the majors. Plus we've managed to play through a horrific stretch of injuries and a tough patch of the schedule at a .500 level. Granderson was back yesterday, Swisher seems to be past his bicep issues; Posada's still out, but Cervelli has done an excellent job in his stead. Nick Johnson's still out of commission, for better or worse, but Kevin Russo has been a valuable infielder/outfielder off the bench lately... our bench isn't what worries me. It's almost entirely the bullpen and its terrible tendency to implode. Plus Mo's 40 and quite possibly starting to run out of gas. I give him two more years, frankly.

Eight blown saves! Convert just six of those puppies and NY would be at 36-14. Huge difference.

Edited May 30, 2010 by ghost of miles

[ghost of miles]

What a crazy day in baseball, Kendry Morales injured during a game winning, grand slam celebration, what the heck is going on today????

http://www.youtube.c...player_embedded

Broken angle, may need surgery--accurate report? Man, what a crappy way to get an injury.

[Brad]

Unfortunately he did break his ankle; out for two months reportedly. I wonder if that will give other players pause.

[Dan Gould]

The only stat that has trended down for Joba is ERA+:

1221 (his brief 2007 run)

171

90

72

His WHIP is actually down from last year's performance as a starter, his H/9 is the same as last year, walk rate down a full walk and lower than it was in 2008, SO rate the best since 2007 and his Walk to Strikeout ratio is a very healthy 3.38, better than any other season except his first.

In fact, the worst thing you can say about Joba is that in almost the exact same number of innings, in 2007 he was dominant, and in 2010, not so much.

Can you say "small sample size"? His 2007 stats and his 2009 stats represent 7% of his major league innings.

Honestly, your concern should not be on his state-of-mind or how going back and forth from the pen to the rotation presumably "messed him up". The long-term threat to his career is the violent pitching motion and stiff front leg.

[papsrus]

Buster Olney was just on espn news yammering about how Halladay benefited from an "elastic" strike zone. I think he also called it gigantic. Of course, he didn't provide any video evidence.

I was paying fairly close attention to the latter innings with a couple guys who were Marlins supporters, and nobody said anything at the time about an 'elastic' or 'gigantic' strike zone. Olney should just acknowledge that the guy pitched a freakin' amazing game, unless he has video evidence that a lot of called strikes were well off the plate.

[Dan Gould]

Well with the White Sox finally beating the Rays, the East just got tighter all the way around, and its time to find out whether or not the Jays could be for real, as they host the Rays for three starting Monday. Did I see that the Jays have hit 50 homers in May and there are twenty teams without 50 homers all season? Can that be right?

One advantage to being fourth in the division is that when two teams in front play each other, you got a chance to move up on someone every night, especially if you're in a soft stretch of your schedule.

And I knew it was a long shot for the Indians but 3-0 looked awfully sweet in the seventh. But you can't rely on the worst of the worse to help you out. I still say that Masterson will be a valuable guy. Even if its as a weapon out of the bullpen, he's better than he's shown in Cleveland, and games like this one show how tough it is to get W's with no support.

[Patrick]

In the rundown of the game I saw on ESPN, there looked to be some elastic strike calls in the early innings. Not enough to really grouse and all credit to RH and his fielders, but...

[Ted O'Reilly]

Did I see that the Jays have hit 50 homers in May and there are twenty teams without 50 homers all season? Can that be right?

Yup, and hit three more today, beating Orioles 6-1. (Jose Bautista leads MLB with 16.) Franchise record of 53 now, looking for MLB record of 58. Likely won't do it, though, as the Jays open a home series against Tampa Bay on Monday night, and 6 HRs is unlikely.

[Brad]

Well, the Mets finally pulled one out today, after wasting the benefits of the five game streak against Yanks and Phils. They are about where they will be, basically a .500 team. The Mets principal radio announcer said yesterday that they are probably one good pitcher and one hitter away from being competitive. The hitter could be Beltran if he ever gets here and the pitcher who knows.

[Chalupa]

Buster Olney is a turd.