Carl just saw the Yankees play their best stretch of baseball for nearly a month and saw them flush it down the toilet when they went to Fenway Park and got swept. Now, after being humbled again by Boston in this edition of Random Thoughts, he has no idea what to make of his summer of Yankees baseball looking ahead.
DOUBTVILLE – Welcome to Ducks season!
Two weeks ago, I stated that if the Yankees failed their exam in Boston against the Red Sox by not winning their series that they may want to consider playing semi-pro ball for the Long Island Ducks for the remainder of the summer if not all season.
The result: Red Sox 3 wins, Yankees 0.
Season series: Red Sox 8 wins, Yankees 0.
Quack, quack.
Watching Ducks baseball is going to be difficult to get excited about for a while. How do I take these games seriously? Sure, they count in the standings as wins or losses and if you win more than you lose, chances are you will go to the playoffs.
However, when you are beating up on the Junior Varsity in Interleague play, is that something to get excited about?
Should you really be allowed to give out a championship belt or throw a pie in the hero’s face after coming back to defeat the Washington Generals, err, Nationals and a Florida team who’s mascot is a Fish?
Color me unimpressed.
Mind you, this was BEFORE they disgracefully dropped two of three to those Generals at Pinball Machine Stadium.
The offense went into complete shutdown mode, as if it wasn’t obvious they were taking the first six innings of each game off while making the pitching staff equivalent of Curly, Larry and Moe look like the 90’s Atlanta Braves.
Complete embarrassment.
However, look on the bright side…
If you were one of those souls who waited 5-1/2 hours for the game against the Generals to start, you were given a gift by Communist Yankee Executives to be able to move down and sit in the lower level seats that they cannot sellout anyway. It was a nice gift to the fans. Especially those elected to take advantage, err, use Stubhub to pay a McDonalds Value Meal price for a ticket and then got to move into the area near the Madoff Seats, but not further.
Then, told that you can redeem your ticket for another non-premium game this year or in 2010. The holidays had come early.
With all this charity, it maybe only a matter of time before the Feds get involved.
This much is clear about these Ducks; they are a team that right now can bully every other team in the league (except the Generals too) and bloody their noses. However, whenever they step up to a higher weight class, they become timid fighters who go down with one punch.
This is what the Red Sox have done to the Ducks whether people like it or not.
Now I can’t hear moles say that they are better than the Red Sox even if they claim first place in the standings. We all know whom the two best teams in the league are (no JV team counts) and the gap between #1 and #2 is a wide as Tiger compared to Phil and the rest of the field in golf.
Like the Ducks, Phil too is a distant second.
For the next eight weeks as the weather warms up, they can go about their business. Toppling AL ham-and-eggers Blue Jays, Mariners, Tigers, Twins and Athletics along the way – teams more flawed than the show Joe Buck Live. They get a chance to boost their own morale and inflate it with helium to make themselves feel better, but no one should be silly enough to fall for this mirage.
We are not as good as we think and beating Boston is the only way to change that.
Of course, unless you are one of those dopes wearing 3-D, of the mind that they can essentially punt those games, go 0-18 against them and still make the playoffs.
Thinking about it, you know that might be possible. Even Joe (The Computer) Girardi has to talk himself into believing that the possibility does exist that Obama’s Economy might rebound before they ever beat the Red Sox.
What also might be possible is for some unique baseball karma. The Ducks, having been thoroughly dominated during the regular season, suddenly meet Boston in the ALCS and shock the world, beating them in six games, and clinching the pennant at Fenway Park.
It wouldn’t surprise me one bit.
With that, let’s move on to some real thoughts.
Just because AJ (Underachiever) Burnett beat up on the sorry Mets lineup on Sunday afternoon does not mean he is out of Carl’s Doghouse.
The Underachiever’s performance against the Red Sox in Fenway Park was one of the biggest gag jobs I’ve seen since his last foray there when he pitched in April.
I’ve concluded this about him: He is the pitchers equivalent of JD (Nancy) Drew. A player with immense physical gifts and talent that is unable to harness it all for any consistent length of time. He will tease you constantly and occasionally shows you flashes, but more often will disappoint rather than excite you. Thus never living up to his potential.
Would I be surprised that he pitches to a .500 record during this season and when the playoffs arrive, finds a different switch and goes hot, thus justifying his contract?
Nope.
Nancy did that when he drove Fausto Carmona’s pitch into the centerfield seats for a grand slam in Game 6 of the AL Championship Series against the Indians.
Drew was on the Boston Hate List up until that at bat. His homer propelled Red Sox from a 3-1 series deficit into the World Series. He could have won the MVP if it wasn’t for Mike Lowell, and now no longer has to hear it from fans because they will always remember him for that moment.
It wouldn’t surprise me to see a similar thing happen.
My favorite quote from The Computer was when he said that Mr. Wang had great stuff, but he couldn’t find the (strike) zone with any of it.
Girardi may not want to hear this, but the league is littered with pitchers who have great stuff who cannot find the plate. If you cant get it there, you have no success.
It makes me wonder if he’s been watching Jose (Mayday!) Veras pitch this season.
Speaking of Mayday, after torturing us this season with his own ineptness, the team finally decided to cut him and allow him to go tease some other organization with his stuff.
It was a long time coming. For a while, I kept wondering he had the same pictures Felix (The Run Fairy) Heredia was using on Torre.
The pictures must have been so bad that Torre even chose to use him in the playoffs despite all available evidence that suggest that he was as flammable as a lit match to gasoline.
Even The Great Mariano had to be surprised when his number was called to come into the game Friday night against the Mets in the eighth inning.
I’m willing to bet he looked at the scoreboard; saw the game was tied and wondered aloud, ‘What is The Computer thinking? This has to be a mistake.”
Girardi told the media that pitching in the eighth inning is part of Rivera’s job description. That certainly is news to him certainly he has never been in that situation since 1996.
If one game is not more important that the next game, then why bring him in? It was looking more and more as if The Computer was going haywire with his mind being replaced by that hourglass that shows up on the screen.
Alfredo Aceves and Phil Coke may nice guys, but they are not relievers I want late in these games.
By the way, what the hell was Brian (Mr. Big Talk) Bruney doing talking about Francisco Rodriguez?
It is very difficult to go out and criticize another man for what he does and his antics when you yourself have a yet to pitch a full season in the League.
Considering that he had been on the Carl Pavano List twice in the last month, it would be advisable that he shut his trap.
However, its to be noted that K-Rod (who nicknames themself after a strikeout?) wanted some of Bruney the day after the comments made their way to his ear. Before the game on Sunday, he confronted him and appeared ready for a fight, but only started display fighting words after he was being held back by two Mets teammates and a Yankee.
Where I come from, we call that “sissy fighting”. Kirk Hinrich of the Chicago Bulls tried the same thing with Rajon Rondo of the Boston Celtics during the NBA Playoffs, acting like high school girls attempting to try out for UFC.
Even Dana White had to be offended by that.
Robinson (Robbie) Cano may be the hottest hitter on the team right now…but can he save some of those hits for games against the Red Sox?
His at bats with runners in scoring position in that series was an abomination. What the hell can he possibly be swinging at?
He does seem to have a unique ability to beat up on very bad pitching though. Percentages are that he would be first ball Hall of Fame player if he faced nothing but mediocre starters for his career.
Also, can we eliminate the myth that Robbie is more patient hitter than he was last year? It is nonsense. According to Elias, he is averaging nearly the same amount of pitches seen per plate appearance as he did last year (3.28).
All this talk about how he is taking more pitches is ridiculous. In one crazy instance last Thursday in Boston, he fouled away four pitches, all near his head. Just because the at bat lasted seven pitches does not make it good. Swinging at pitches near your head does not equate to a good at bat.
CC Sabathia is horse as a starter and earned far more in defeat when he left them mound in Boston and saw his lead dissipate because of the terrible bullpen.
But to give up a home run to Anderson Hernandez on Tuesday night against the Generals?
A three-run homer? Huh?
The man had only hit one of them out in over 300 career at bats, spanning four years.
Pinball Machine Stadium working against us there.
It sure is working for Johnny (Sunny D) Damon, who is to on pace to hit 30 homeruns this season and about 30 percent of them will be among the cheapest homeruns you will see.
The balls landing In the first three rows of the Pinball Machine are laughable. Most insulting to my intelligence was in a game against Tampa Bay; he hit a ball in the air and put his head down in disgust while shaking his head.
What he didn’t know was that the ball was going to land 10 rows into the stands for a homerun.
They say the dimensions are the same, but a study says that there is an eight-foot difference in right and right-center field that is accounting for 20 of the homeruns being hit that would not be round trippers at the Old Stadium.
Sunny D sure doesn’t mind.
Nicky Swish is officially one of the three worst outfielders I have ever seen. He is so bad that he makes Enrique (Man Ram’s Man Friend) Wilson in right field look like a Gold Glove winner.
His base running intelligence leaves a lot to desire as well. He has been doubled up twice in the last two weeks and made several bad defensive plays in the outfield.
Be grateful he knows how to talk, blare music and be energetic.
I wonder what he would score on a Wonderlic Test.
Brett (Speedy) Gardner may also bring energy to the team too when he is outrunning his mistakes in center or trying to steal bases. Just one problem…
He can’t steal first base. 
If he doesn’t hit, Speedy’s only value is off the bench when he doesn’t have to hit.
The boo birds are back and chasing A-Rod down. Hit .088 in his last 54 at bats going into Friday night’s game with Florida will do that to you.
Hitting a Rob Deer-esque .219, his only value to the team right now is his walking, which he is doing to avoiding swinging the bat and popping up.
We see the routine now. A-Rod gets a good pitch to hit, gets under it, and has this expression for a split second at the plate before making that slow trot to first.
He went nearly 0 for Boston and there wasn’t much going on against the Mets outside of Luis Castillo sending him a gift from Santa Claus. The fact he couldn’t get around hitting Curly, Larry and Moe this past week at home was a disgrace.
Not all this though was a bad as being blown away Ron Villone and his soft tossing, 88 MPH cheese inside.
Even though I don’t boo personally, that was all I needed to see to get disgusted.
Looks like I will have more angry days than happy ones this summer.
No comments:
Post a Comment