Postgame Spread: OK, So There's ONE Good Yankee...

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Ladies and gentlemen: Mickey Rivers. (Via Touching All The Bases.)

Yup, I'm posting about Yankees, that's how bad it's gotten. Until the Sox work their way out of this Tampa-and-KC-fueled losing streak (stay on target...) and start beating the worst teams in the American League as they ought (stay on target...) I haven't got much to discuss. Their pitching is not good right now, and unlikely to improve much in the absence of Tim Wakefield. That bullpen really, really needs his complete-game losses.

Anyone else feeling a lag in the sports world? I sure am. Here's what I see out there beyond Sox-land:

* Al Jefferson had ankle surgery. Surprise!
* Tedy Bruschi broke his wrist in practice last week, and is out for preseason and likely the first couple games. Surprise!
* The Bruins cut speedster defenseman David Tanabe over a high arbitration award. $urprise!

Might as well just leave the ol' blog to Jesse and have him wax ecstatic about walk-off grand salamis hit by shark-boys.

1 Comments:

I don't have much to say about the Mariners since the Oakland sweep. They're out of the playoff race, barring a miracle. They're letting Adam Jones rot on the bench in favor of Willie Bloomquist, which is a typically Hargrovian feat of finding a way to make a delicate situation (rushing Jones to the majors) worse (crushing his confidence and then not letting him play). They're giving important innings to Julio Mateo, which is so incomprehensible...really, I can't fathom what it's like inside Hargrove's head. Either he cares more about playing the game a certain way than about winning (primarily, giving veterans their due), or he's actually trying to lose.

Really, even the game last night, like several Mariners' wins this season, had some completely crazy moves. Pinch running for Johjima with Jones, for example, but leaving Willie Bloomquist in the game to bat immediately after. Or, say, bunting the man over with Betancourt only to leave Willie Bloomquist in the game to bat. Seriously, Hargrove finds a new way to confuse me almost every week. Just when I think I've got his stupidity figured out, he manages to top it.

The one good thing you can say about him, is that he has been very cautious with the young pitchers. When Soriano's shoulder started acting up, he shut him down immediately, tried him briefly again a few games later, then put him on the DL. Now, Lowe is unavailable for this series. He worked Lowe pretty hard before that, but reasonably so, I think. So, considering the Mariners weren't about to go win the world series this year, that might be the most important thing.

And there are reasons for optimism. Since June 1st, both Felix Hernandez and Adrian Beltre have been playing like All-Stars, which is huge for this team. Felix's command of his fastball has been typically horrible, but his velocity is back up, and he commands his curve and his change as devastatingly as ever. Beltre's record suggests he's likely to regress again, but this is the best 2 months he's had since signing here, so I'm not complaining or second-guessing. At least we know he still has a valuable hitter in him, combined with probably the best third base defense in the American League.

And the stat of the day? Richie Sexson, this season alone, is 8 for 12 (!) with 4 HRs (!) and 21 RBI (!) after Ibañez is intentionally walked to reach him. Granted, the way Beltre has been hitting lately, and the way Ibañez has been hitting all season (against righties at least), it's a perfectly defensible move. But that is an absurd, absurd line. Granted, it's no Ortiz-Manny duo, far from it, but those aren't two guys any RHP wants to face at the end of a game.

By Jesse, at 1:00 PM