I still say I'd be surprised he starts tonight. Even if he is red hot, I'd still sit him vs. a LHPer, hard to ignore his splits from this year (and career) based off of an at bats from last night.
Verlander is tossing tonight for DET...if Yanks can wrap it up tonight with Hughes and save CC & Pettitte to kick off next round thats huge.....even if A's pull it off, its an advantage regardless with them traveling west coast to east coast to kick it off ALCS. If Yanks win, both teams advancing would have Friday off...and game 1 starts Sat @ Stadium.
That was INSANE last night, I was jazzed after the Yankee game so I watched that game, and watching that 9th inning was great..... Verlander was all yacking it up, HUGE smiles on his face, then boom in an instant, he was deadpan serious and in "pitching tomorrow" mode.... And laughable it happened to Valverde that guy is such a riveting assho%e it isnt even funny...
My prediction for the lineup 1) Jeter DH 2) Ichiro LF 3) A-Rod 3B 4) Cano 2B 5) Tex 1B 6) Martin C 7) Swish RF 8) Granderson CF 9) Nix SS
Martin is hitting everything on the screws right now..... either Nix or NunEEEEEEEEEEEEz in the 9-hole?
I still think Swisher is the better hitter. I'd go with NunEEEEEEEEz in the 9 hole to start the game and have Nix as his defensively replacement for late in the game, but that's just me.
Jerry Girardi, Joe Girardi's old man died today from Alzheimer's.......RIP 81 years old..... Lets go win this for Joe...
Jeter is dhing 1)Jeter 2) I 3)Tex 4) Cano 5) Arod 6)Swish 7) Martin 8) Curtis 9)Nix 3-10 3 HR's off Saunders O's same lineup as yesterday...
Interesting Joe moved Arod to #5, when he hits LHPers pretty well. Perhaps his thinking was if he had to pinch hit for him late in the game with Raul he didn't want to have 3 LHHs in a row.
Yanks blew it, the 8th was their inning to score and they could not come through. Swisher, Arod, Granderson all cant hit right now. Even if we win this game these guys need to get their **** together. its still baseball. How do you forget how to hit.
in terms of the next round i'm not that worried about the bats. neither the tigers or A's scare me though of course anything can happen. will be more worried about the bats in the world series. national league seems to be the hitting better right now
but what? the orioles? not worried about them either. we should win tomorrow. doesnt mean we will but we should. same next rd. we're good enough to make the world series not sure if we're good enough it to win it this year though. this isnt the 1998 team. we're going to be in battles with everyone
Yeah, hindsight 20/20 I would have loved to pinch-hit for Arod with Ibanez then and there with 2nd and 3rd, 1 out and all you need is fly ball. But can also see Joe G. giving him rope to succeed and show last ditch faith. But that ship has now sailed and you sit him or pinch hit for him anytime you want now. Just sucks, our arms did such a solid job once again....4 straight well-above-quality starts and crap to show from it with no bats stringing together anything. we can all get on Arod for how horrific he has been, but for the life of me, I cant tell you what pitches Granderson sees coming out of the pitchers hands cause he is lost too. We have others that may not be getting hits either, but they make contact....but Arod and Grandy are lost. After burning Ibanez and inning to late.....Joe G. rolled the dice and pinch hit for Arod in the end. Sad. Not good to let this one get away and now force Game 5. Sucks...but is what it is.....shame really. How the F are we letting Nate F-ing Mclouth beat us?
you might. i'm a yankee fan though. 27 trophies will do that. for us that's all that matters. and if we dont make it this year we know we'll be back next year...and the year after that and the year after that. we average one every four years so 2012 is one year early. we'll see. it's not as if there is a superior team out there. just a bunch of evenly matched teams battling it out. game of inches and breaks and luck
I wish I had your confidence but man no one can hit. Its pathetic really. This team looks bad right now, minus the pitching
What next round? That have to win to move on., Why even look ahead the way the Yankee bats are swinging?
I seriously don't understand Girardi's managing at all. You have to pinch hit Arod in that spot in the 8th especially with O'Day pitching. I know Girardi will say "but they would just walk Ibanez in that spot" and that's probably true but so what? Now you have bases loaded with 1 out and Swisher up, increasing your chances of scoring by a BB or HBP. Just a bad job managing last night.
As far as the next round goes, you don't think that Verlander, Fister, Scherzer and Sanchez can match the Yankees in terms of pitching and shut down that Yankee line up? If the Yankees make the next round I'd absolutely be worried. But really that's the great thing about the playoffs this year, every team is pretty evenly matched and there's really no great team out there. I wouldn't be shocked if any of the remaining 6 teams wins.
Seriously Fink!?!?!? Lets simplify your question.... Will the Yankees get more than one run today......?? Gardner in for Granderson Chavez in for A-Rod Ibanez the DH and I am really thinking about wanting them to play Nix at 2nd..... you are seeing the direct result of what I have been saying all year in that this freaking team CANNOT string 2-3 base hits together to save their lives.... Baltimore's pitching SUCKS watch what Detroit will do to them if they win tonight...... I dont get to see it tonight as I have to work, just as good....
Yes at this point in the series I would probably bench both Arod and Granderson tonight and have Ibanez DH. You have to have almost zero confidence in Arod doing well against a RHPer right now and Granderson actually looks just as bad against any pitcher. Put in Chavez and Gardner and hope for the best as they can't do any worse. Crazy to think that in an elimination game we're talking about benching Arod and Granderson, a guy who hit what 39 or 40 HRs this year? But desperate times come desperate measures. Don't worry you still have 5 more years left of Arod....
because none of those guys are actually "hitters" they beat up bad pitchers all year, and the mindless sheep follow and love them, then when it is time to actually perform against good pitching they disappear......Cano included....
YIPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE For the record I dont think playing Gardner is that desperate, as he was originally a starter to begin with... Who hit the ball the best last night? Honestly.....
Jeter probably, or Nix, sadly. Seriously though and not to beat a dead horse but after watching Arod this year, especially this post season (granted extremely small sample size) does anyone really want to criticize the Red Sox for dumping Crawford and Gonzalez and washing their hands of those years and that payroll? I know Bill Simmons tweeted it last night but watching Curtis Granderson this series just brings back flashbacks of Carl Crawford last year and with Gonzalez' lack of power and lack of athleticism this could have been what Sox fans would be watching for the next 5 years too. And that's not even talking about Teixeira's slow decline. I mean it not crazy to think Arod might end up being a right handed platoon DH in another year or so.
BINGO!!!!! you have to try something different....these loyality thing isnt working..... u see NunEEEEEEEEEEEEzZ's smooth fielding play? ahahha
Of course, everyone at Yankee Stadium all held their breath at the exact same time. That's what playoff baseball is all about. You have to think Jeter plays SS tonight, it looked like he was moving much better yesterday.
Yes I think he fakes a little to get some advantages for himself...because the guy who ran that double out yesterday didnt look THAT hurt....Manny used to totally do that, he would come up and look at called strikes that we all know he could pound..... Given his limited defensive range yes I agree you have to play him today in the field, they need that DH for something else...
I am holding out hope that it was Joe's last grand gesture to give him a shot to produce and break out of the funk.....but that funk is wide, that funk is deep, and that funk is tall. Shame the chance had to be taken and it was wasted, cause all the alternatives were better for Yanks for sure. The minute Buck took out Matusz following the weak Cano at bat (but productive out), and brought in the Righty, an Ibanez appearance was screaming as the right call. Shame. The only good thing about next round is how it wipes away all the past rounds and you start fresh. Therefore I would not be worried until Yanks lose 3 games in that next series vs. DET. Would like our chances to win 4 prior to losing 4. But who knows...the feeling would be great till that happens though. I agree, its great you got rid of the contracts and are starting fresh, I just dont agree with quitting on the season, never seen that before from any top organization is MLB till Sox did it. It was always a move for the worst clubs...but maybe I have to re-asses and realize Sox were one of the worst clubs in MLB and re-adjust my position and say its really no different than if SD or HOU or SEA, etc. But yes, no doubt, Arod's contract would be a blessing to ship off. Tex's glove still saves more runs in a WAR perspective then the bats slumps that Grandy and Arod cost us.
However, it feels different for this Dolphins' fan....the above must be from a Dolphins' fan who is also a Red Sox fan for example.
It's possible he fakes it a little but he looked pretty hurt 2 nights ago. And yeah Manny claimed that he would let a pitch go earlier in the game that he could pound in an attempt to try and get that same pitch later in the game in a key spot. I also heard Greg Maddux would do that in games, especially ST games, where he would pitch a hitter one way to get them thinking that's what he'd always do and then totally switch things up. That still makes zero sense though. You have an extreme righty specialist on the mound and a hitter that hasn't touched a RHP for the past month or so at the plate with the game on the line in the 8th. It was the wrong move. I guess it's ok to pinch hit for Arod down a run late in the game but with runners on 2nd and 3rd and 1 out in a tie game it's not? Just bad managing. That I would agree with this for the most part however I think the Yankees, if they make it to the next round and I think they will, will have some trouble with the Tigers' SPers due to them being strike out guys. The Yankees right now are having a lot of trouble catching up to and making contact with average speeds and pitchers, someone like Verlander or Scherzer, if they're on, will eat them alive right now. Haha I love how you keep harping on quitting on the season, like if the Sox kept Gonzalez, Beckett, Crawford and Punto they would have been that much better. At the time of the trade they were in 4th place with a record of 60 and 67, they were 14 games back in the L column from the Yankees for 1st in the AL East and 10 games back in the loss column for a wild card spot, do you honestly think that if they kept those guys they would have made the playoffs or even finished in 3rd place in the division? Perhaps they might have finished 4th ahead of the Jays but in the grand scheme of things who cares. Crawford was lost for the rest of the season so he wasn't even a factor, Beckett was terrible all year, Punto is a part time player and the upgrade from Loney/Gomez to Gonzalez isn't that much greater since Gonzalez had a poor year, maybe if they kept Gonzalez they might have won 2 extra games, maybe. The Sox were without their starting 3B since August 10th, their starting DH since July 16th (he played 1 game on August 24th and was shut down), Ellsbury was hurt all year and even the games he played in he wasn't 100%, ditto for Pedroia, so even with Gonzalez in that line up and Beckett pitching every 5th day they wouldn't be any better off. And who's to say if the Sox waited until the offseason that they would have been able to do the same deal? We have no way to know that. But you really need to get this whole "quitting on the season thing" go, as you're the only one who keeps harping on it thinking it's a big deal, not even people in the media are talking or mentioning that because everyone realizes that the team wasn't going to go anywhere due to all the injuries and underperformance they faced all year. But hey if "quitting on the season" means the Sox had to punt the final 5 weeks of another already poor season and finish in last place instead of a possible 4th place finish but be able to get rid of those massive contracts, so be it. It was completely worth it and I'm sorry but if roles were reversed and if you would rather "play the season out" but be stuck with bad contracts for possibly finish in 4th instead of a last place finish you'd be crazy. And you've never seen a team 14 games out of 1st place and 10 games out of the wild card on August 24 trade players? Geez it's not like this trade went down in April or May, the Sox only had 35 games left on the schedule, essentially only 20% of the season left, the other 80% they didn't quit, they just weren't very good for that part.
