Joe goes against instinct, costs Yankees
ANAHEIM – During a game in Anaheim last July, the Yankees were in the midst of losing the final three games before the All-Star break against an Angels team missing three of its best players.
The image of the series came when manager Joe Girardi continued to look down at a statistical book while each Yankee pitcher, one by one, continued to turn around and look up as each hit went past them, around them, and out of the ballpark.
This “book”, as seen on the bench, I began to refer to it as “Joe’s Computer”. When in doubt, Girardi would always go to it whenever things got tight.
So it came as no surprise on Sunday that Girardi would remind us all that his computer was in fact, still in existence and needed a little dusting off.
During the playoffs, Joe’s Computer failed him on several occasions, mainly Game 3 and 5 of the League Championship Series when the Yankees had the Angels by the throat, and continued to give them life, extending the series far beyond where it should before eventually winning in six games.
Winning a world championship last year did not eliminate “Joe’s Computer”. Rather, it gained legitimacy and was not going to leave us anytime soon, if ever.
The Yankees were trailing 5-4 in the bottom of the seventh inning with the Angels having runners on first and third and Kendry Morales at the plate.
Before the at-bat, Morales was 6-for-9 in the series, blasting the go-ahead two-run homer on Friday in a 6-4 Angels win. Even though there was not a base open, the first instinct in my mind was for the Yankees to walk him anyway.
Juan Rivera was in the on-deck circle and David Robertson was ready in the bullpen to face him assuming Damaso Marte walked him to load the bases.
Girardi initially signaled catcher Francisco Cervelli to have Marte walk Morales intentionally. However, with the count 1-0, Girardi decided to change his mind and elected to pitch to him.
The count ran to 3-0 and everyone with a brain assumed the Yankees would walk him now with no point in throwing him a strike and Marte looking as if he would rather face anyone else in the world than him.
Girardi and bench coach Tony Pena would signal to Cervelli that Morales would swing on a 3-0 count. Instructing Marte not lay one down the middle of the plate.
Simply enough, right?
Cervelli called for a fastball outside, instead it came right over the middle of the plate and Morales drove it to the trees, deep over the center field wall for a three-run homer.
Just like that, game over.
The whole scene during the at-bat was uncomfortable and you knew the ending was not going to be good.
It was almost as if the inevitable was coming after the first pitch.
The Yankees went on to lose the game (allowing Javier Vazquez to escape further scrutiny for another bum performance, blowing a 3-0 lead) 8-4, and if the question to the manager about that sequence wasn’t the first, second and third question in the press conference, the beat writers all should have been fired.
Girardi said he went against his gut, opting to go for what the computer was telling him and he paid for it by the team losing.
Sometimes your gut can override whatever the computer is telling you. One thing the computer does not have is emotion and feel. However, the one thing the manager does have is eyes, and the look in Marte’s face on the mound told you he did not want to be in there and should have been gone immediately.
Gut 1, Computer 0.
This will be the last adventure into Joe’s Computer for the season. Surely it will remerge numerous times before the end of the season, so I may as well prepare for more of these episodes before the end of the season.
What, you did not think we were going to go through a season without a Girardi controversy did you?
Yes, I may have been exceedingly hard on him last season, but that won’t mean he escapes my wrath when things go wrong made of his own doing.
Down goes Nick
If you had April 23 in the “When will Nick Johnson be out of the lineup due to injury” pool, you’re a winner!
Johnson missed the final two games of the series against the Angels with lower back stiffness.
The moment I heard he was going to miss time, the first thing I thought about was the line that Harry Doyle (Bob Uecker) used in the movie Major League II when describing the Indians left-fielder Hiroshi Kamikaze Tanaka:
“He knocks himself cold for the second time this week. Maybe in Japan that’s better than catching the ball. Personally, I just think he’s trying to get out of the lineup.”
Surely, that .135 average is enough to put anyone out of a lineup, but Johnson has been able to justify his existence by walking. However, it is clearly noticeable to anyone watching these games that he is swinging at air when the pitcher is throwing strikes.
12 of his 18 strikeouts have been looking, which tells you that he either has become so fine in looking for his pitch, or simply has no confidence to swing the bat.
You don’t think he would take a few more swings if he was “feeling it” at the plate?
It has become so bad that Johnson has changed his number from 26 to 36.
Perhaps no one will notice that is really him out there when he returns to the lineup, which at this point is anyone’s guess.
Surely if he cannot return and get his stroke back against the Orioles this week at Camden Yards, then we may be in for some problems.
Javy the “Run Fairy”
Here, we may have a problem.
Going from the National League to the American League and pitching for the Yankees does not take away nearly five miles an hour from one’s fastball does it?
Something has to explain Javier Vazquez’s mysterious loss of velocity from last season to this season. He has gone from throwing 94 last year to barely touching 90 MPH this year, with no explanation whatsoever.
Watching him pitch yesterday, he had the look of a pitcher that one person in the Yankees organization referred to as a “loser’s gene”.
Simply put, a “loser’s gene” is that of a guy without the mental toughness during a game to battle and simply succumbs to the pressure and accepts defeat rather than show a willingness to compete.
Looking at the body language on Vazquez on Sunday and you see a man lacking confidence and belief in anything he is trying to do out on the mound.
The biggest difference has come in his velocity. Right now, Vazquez’s 90 MPH fastball with little movement in the American League amounts to nothing more than batting practice. Curveballs and sliders have little bite and with his changeup variation not decipherable from his fastball, he has encountered tremendous problems.
Perhaps Vazquez is nursing an injury. Problem is that the Yankee right-hander claims there is nothing wrong with him, saying all of his problems are mechanical.
Back in 2004, things were going just fine until after August 6. At the time, he was 13-6 and went 1-4 the rest of the season with an ERA hovering over seven. It was only recently that he told the media he suffered an injured shoulder limiting his effectiveness, turning him into pitching equivalent of a piñata.
Maybe this is just Vazquez’s rough patch and he will turn it around. Or maybe this is going to be a situation where he will have maddening streaks of hot and coldness, channeling his inner Katy Perry.
“You’re hot and you’re cold…you’re yes than you’re no…you’re in and you’re out…you’re up and you’re down”
If that is so, I may have to turn off my TV on these nights just to avoid such nonsense.
He is the weak link of the squad. The other four starters are pitching great, making Vazquez’s ineptness stand out. Lucky for him the Yankees can work through these issues while they are still winning.
Time now for some Yankees Random Thoughts
I know Angel Stadium is still voodoo, but I still came away from that series thinking the Yankees were still the better team.
Something has to give with that place. A three-run lead is never safe there.
I call it “the curse of the three-run lead”.
In each of the last seven games the Yankees have played in that building, they have had a lead of at least two runs every single time.
Give the Angels credit for coming back. However, much like last year’s playoffs, I still feel confident about stealing one game there as the Yankees did in Game 4 last year. It is on the Angels to figure out a way to win in The Bronx.
Mark Teixeira sent Angels catcher Bobby Wilson a big message when he drilled him at the plate while rounding third base on Friday night.
Bracing of a possible collision, Teixeira got into a crouch and lowered his head.
The result was Wilson ending up in a heap at the plate, taken out of the game by doctors and later diagnosed with a concussion.
Could Teixeira have slid, avoiding contact with Wilson?
Perhaps.
How is he supposed to see from 90 feet that the plate is not covered? Then, when Wilson turns to face him, not assume he has the ball?
It was an unfortunate, but tough.
Good, old-fashioned baseball there.
No more Marcus Thames in left Joe, I’m begging you.
Did you know the Yankees lead MLB in strikeouts looking?
Blame Nick Johnson.
Nick Swisher too.
Hell, add Teixeira’s name to that list.
The sound of a rocket you just heard came off the bat of Robinson Cano.
How about the start of the year for Andy Pettitte?
Saturday, the left-hander continued his great pitching with eight strong innings on Saturday giving up only one run.
Admittedly, I had concerns about Pettitte after not throwing much in the spring. Instead, it is probably the best thing that could have happened.
Without throwing his customary 20 spring training innings, that keeps more strength in that left arm to use in games that mean something.
I just wonder if he pitches to another strong season, will he choose to retire in the same manner as Mike Mussina? Or, will he pitch until he cannot do so anymore?
One would think that Pettitte has little concern for records and his ability to win 300 games will not entice him enough to stick around to pitch past the age of 40.
Just remember this: Every pitcher that is more than 100 games over .500 for his career has made the Hall.
Pettitte is 97 games over.
A solid season (think 16-8) will put him 105 games over. Add in his postseason, and a compelling case can be made for him.
We’ll see.
ANAHEIM – During a game in Anaheim last July, the Yankees were in the midst of losing the final three games before the All-Star break against an Angels team missing three of its best players.
The image of the series came when manager Joe Girardi continued to look down at a statistical book while each Yankee pitcher, one by one, continued to turn around and look up as each hit went past them, around them, and out of the ballpark.
This “book”, as seen on the bench, I began to refer to it as “Joe’s Computer”. When in doubt, Girardi would always go to it whenever things got tight.
So it came as no surprise on Sunday that Girardi would remind us all that his computer was in fact, still in existence and needed a little dusting off.
During the playoffs, Joe’s Computer failed him on several occasions, mainly Game 3 and 5 of the League Championship Series when the Yankees had the Angels by the throat, and continued to give them life, extending the series far beyond where it should before eventually winning in six games.
Winning a world championship last year did not eliminate “Joe’s Computer”. Rather, it gained legitimacy and was not going to leave us anytime soon, if ever.
The Yankees were trailing 5-4 in the bottom of the seventh inning with the Angels having runners on first and third and Kendry Morales at the plate.
Before the at-bat, Morales was 6-for-9 in the series, blasting the go-ahead two-run homer on Friday in a 6-4 Angels win. Even though there was not a base open, the first instinct in my mind was for the Yankees to walk him anyway.
Juan Rivera was in the on-deck circle and David Robertson was ready in the bullpen to face him assuming Damaso Marte walked him to load the bases.
Girardi initially signaled catcher Francisco Cervelli to have Marte walk Morales intentionally. However, with the count 1-0, Girardi decided to change his mind and elected to pitch to him.
The count ran to 3-0 and everyone with a brain assumed the Yankees would walk him now with no point in throwing him a strike and Marte looking as if he would rather face anyone else in the world than him.
Girardi and bench coach Tony Pena would signal to Cervelli that Morales would swing on a 3-0 count. Instructing Marte not lay one down the middle of the plate.
Simply enough, right?
Cervelli called for a fastball outside, instead it came right over the middle of the plate and Morales drove it to the trees, deep over the center field wall for a three-run homer.
Just like that, game over.
The whole scene during the at-bat was uncomfortable and you knew the ending was not going to be good.
It was almost as if the inevitable was coming after the first pitch.
The Yankees went on to lose the game (allowing Javier Vazquez to escape further scrutiny for another bum performance, blowing a 3-0 lead) 8-4, and if the question to the manager about that sequence wasn’t the first, second and third question in the press conference, the beat writers all should have been fired.
Girardi said he went against his gut, opting to go for what the computer was telling him and he paid for it by the team losing.
Sometimes your gut can override whatever the computer is telling you. One thing the computer does not have is emotion and feel. However, the one thing the manager does have is eyes, and the look in Marte’s face on the mound told you he did not want to be in there and should have been gone immediately.
Gut 1, Computer 0.
This will be the last adventure into Joe’s Computer for the season. Surely it will remerge numerous times before the end of the season, so I may as well prepare for more of these episodes before the end of the season.
What, you did not think we were going to go through a season without a Girardi controversy did you?
Yes, I may have been exceedingly hard on him last season, but that won’t mean he escapes my wrath when things go wrong made of his own doing.
Down goes Nick
If you had April 23 in the “When will Nick Johnson be out of the lineup due to injury” pool, you’re a winner!
Johnson missed the final two games of the series against the Angels with lower back stiffness.
The moment I heard he was going to miss time, the first thing I thought about was the line that Harry Doyle (Bob Uecker) used in the movie Major League II when describing the Indians left-fielder Hiroshi Kamikaze Tanaka:
“He knocks himself cold for the second time this week. Maybe in Japan that’s better than catching the ball. Personally, I just think he’s trying to get out of the lineup.”
Surely, that .135 average is enough to put anyone out of a lineup, but Johnson has been able to justify his existence by walking. However, it is clearly noticeable to anyone watching these games that he is swinging at air when the pitcher is throwing strikes.
12 of his 18 strikeouts have been looking, which tells you that he either has become so fine in looking for his pitch, or simply has no confidence to swing the bat.
You don’t think he would take a few more swings if he was “feeling it” at the plate?
It has become so bad that Johnson has changed his number from 26 to 36.
Perhaps no one will notice that is really him out there when he returns to the lineup, which at this point is anyone’s guess.
Surely if he cannot return and get his stroke back against the Orioles this week at Camden Yards, then we may be in for some problems.
Javy the “Run Fairy”
Here, we may have a problem.
Going from the National League to the American League and pitching for the Yankees does not take away nearly five miles an hour from one’s fastball does it?
Something has to explain Javier Vazquez’s mysterious loss of velocity from last season to this season. He has gone from throwing 94 last year to barely touching 90 MPH this year, with no explanation whatsoever.
Watching him pitch yesterday, he had the look of a pitcher that one person in the Yankees organization referred to as a “loser’s gene”.
Simply put, a “loser’s gene” is that of a guy without the mental toughness during a game to battle and simply succumbs to the pressure and accepts defeat rather than show a willingness to compete.
Looking at the body language on Vazquez on Sunday and you see a man lacking confidence and belief in anything he is trying to do out on the mound.
The biggest difference has come in his velocity. Right now, Vazquez’s 90 MPH fastball with little movement in the American League amounts to nothing more than batting practice. Curveballs and sliders have little bite and with his changeup variation not decipherable from his fastball, he has encountered tremendous problems.
Perhaps Vazquez is nursing an injury. Problem is that the Yankee right-hander claims there is nothing wrong with him, saying all of his problems are mechanical.
Back in 2004, things were going just fine until after August 6. At the time, he was 13-6 and went 1-4 the rest of the season with an ERA hovering over seven. It was only recently that he told the media he suffered an injured shoulder limiting his effectiveness, turning him into pitching equivalent of a piñata.
Maybe this is just Vazquez’s rough patch and he will turn it around. Or maybe this is going to be a situation where he will have maddening streaks of hot and coldness, channeling his inner Katy Perry.
“You’re hot and you’re cold…you’re yes than you’re no…you’re in and you’re out…you’re up and you’re down”
If that is so, I may have to turn off my TV on these nights just to avoid such nonsense.
He is the weak link of the squad. The other four starters are pitching great, making Vazquez’s ineptness stand out. Lucky for him the Yankees can work through these issues while they are still winning.
Time now for some Yankees Random Thoughts
I know Angel Stadium is still voodoo, but I still came away from that series thinking the Yankees were still the better team.
Something has to give with that place. A three-run lead is never safe there.
I call it “the curse of the three-run lead”.
In each of the last seven games the Yankees have played in that building, they have had a lead of at least two runs every single time.
Give the Angels credit for coming back. However, much like last year’s playoffs, I still feel confident about stealing one game there as the Yankees did in Game 4 last year. It is on the Angels to figure out a way to win in The Bronx.
Mark Teixeira sent Angels catcher Bobby Wilson a big message when he drilled him at the plate while rounding third base on Friday night.
Bracing of a possible collision, Teixeira got into a crouch and lowered his head.
The result was Wilson ending up in a heap at the plate, taken out of the game by doctors and later diagnosed with a concussion.
Could Teixeira have slid, avoiding contact with Wilson?
Perhaps.
How is he supposed to see from 90 feet that the plate is not covered? Then, when Wilson turns to face him, not assume he has the ball?
It was an unfortunate, but tough.
Good, old-fashioned baseball there.
No more Marcus Thames in left Joe, I’m begging you.
Did you know the Yankees lead MLB in strikeouts looking?
Blame Nick Johnson.
Nick Swisher too.
Hell, add Teixeira’s name to that list.
The sound of a rocket you just heard came off the bat of Robinson Cano.
How about the start of the year for Andy Pettitte?
Saturday, the left-hander continued his great pitching with eight strong innings on Saturday giving up only one run.
Admittedly, I had concerns about Pettitte after not throwing much in the spring. Instead, it is probably the best thing that could have happened.
Without throwing his customary 20 spring training innings, that keeps more strength in that left arm to use in games that mean something.
I just wonder if he pitches to another strong season, will he choose to retire in the same manner as Mike Mussina? Or, will he pitch until he cannot do so anymore?
One would think that Pettitte has little concern for records and his ability to win 300 games will not entice him enough to stick around to pitch past the age of 40.
Just remember this: Every pitcher that is more than 100 games over .500 for his career has made the Hall.
Pettitte is 97 games over.
A solid season (think 16-8) will put him 105 games over. Add in his postseason, and a compelling case can be made for him.
We’ll see.
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