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Post by kaybli on Sept 2, 2024 17:20:50 GMT -5
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 2, 2024 17:41:11 GMT -5
The Yankees fly down to Texas to play a 3-game series against the defending World Champ Rangers. The two teams played at the Stadium three weeks ago and split a doubleheader after a rainout, but the Yanks nearly blew the rubber game when they had an 8-3 lead, giving up 4 runs in the 8th and 9th, and leaving the tying and winning runs on 2nd and 3rd when Holmes got Taveras to ground out to Torres.
The Rangers have had an awful time trying to follow-up on their title. They started decently and by early May, they were 22-17 and a game in first. They then lost 12 of their next 14 to fall five games under, and have been underwater ever since. They fell to 9 games under by early July, then won 12 of 16 to climb to within a game of .500 and within 2 1/2 games of first. Then they collapsed, losing 16 of 21 to fall to 56-68 and 11 games out of 1st. Since then, They've won 9 of 13, and at the start of the series the Rangers are 65-72, still in 3rd, still 4 1/2 behind the Mariners and 10 games behind the Astros in first. They're not completely out of the playoff hunt, but they are 9 1/2 behind the Twins and Royals, and time is running out fast.
The Texas team that won it all last year had so-so pitching, but was the best offense in the league, leading the AL in runs, hits, HR, BAVG, OBA, SLG and OPS. The pitching was 10th in ERA last year, and it's 11th this year, but the offense has fallen down a hole. It's 10th in runs, 10th in HR, 8th in batting, 10th in OBA, 11th in slugging and 11th on OPS. Semien, Seager and Lowe have suffered signifcant dropoffs, but the big decline is right fielder Adolis Garcia, who was .245-39-107 last year but is batting .221 and on pace for 25 HR and 77 RBI this year. On the pitching side, they haven't really been able to replace the loss of Jordan Montgomery.
What has gone right? Kirby Yates, who's had a terrific year as the Rangers closer. Also ex-Yankee farmhand Josh Smith, who's done a credible job filling in for 3rd baseman Josh Jung, who's missed over 100 games due to injury. Wish he could've done that for the Yanks, but he was traded to the Rangers with Ezequiel Duran for uh...uh...Joely Rodriguez (oh, and Joey Gallo). And rookie Wyatt Langford made it quickly to the majors. He hasn't been the uberrookie everyone though this February and March, but he hasn't embarrassed himself, either.
The Rangers are playing better lately, and are trying to stay relevant, or at least get back to .500 before year's end, but they waived Robbie Grossman and let him go to the Royals to save some money, so that tells you where their collective head is really at. The Yanks are again matched up against a team they should win a series against, but the Rangers are at home, and they're playing better than the Yanks the last two weeks or so, so...we'll see.
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Post by bumper on Sept 2, 2024 17:44:01 GMT -5
lineup starting to look long particularly w the 2 "V's" hitting. two hit game for rizzo is his 1st game back. maybe wishful thinking but hoping we see the rizzo of early season. in any case, he's probably the best glove we have there.
after 4 great starts for cole, a bit of hiccup as he put us in 3-0 hole against corbin who pitched his best game in the last 2 seasons. we seem to be the "cure" for a number of pitchers. need a bounce back from gerrit.
hope to catch most of this before hitting the road for a 3-day golf outing in the morning. been dealing w hip bursitis much of the summer so haven't played much. gonna be ugly.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 2, 2024 17:44:43 GMT -5
In the series opener, the Rangers start big prospect righty Jack Leiter, cousin of Yankees reliever Mark Leiter, Jr. Taken by Texas with the 2nd pick of the 2021 June Amateur Draft, Leiter signed with the Rangers in July, and attended a draftee orientation that summer, but returned to Vanderbilt to continue his course work toward his degree in the fall. He spent all of 2022 in AA, but pitched very poorly in 23 starts, going 3-10 with a 5.54 ERA. In 2023, he started in AA again, and pitched poorly again. He got hit hard in back-to-back starts around the end of June, so the Rangers pulled him back to developmental camp for almost two months. When he returned at the end of August, he was OK in 4 starts back at AA, so the Rangers moved him up to AAA to make a poor start in the playoffs. This season, Leiter started at AAA, make 3 OK starts, and the Rangers called him to the majors...to take a beating from the Tigers, and go back to AAA for two more good starts. They called him back up in early May...to take two more beatings, one from the A's and another from the Guardians. Back to AAA he went, and threw 12 more solid starts. They called him up again five days ago, and he pitched a so-so 4 innings, finally...but it was against the horrendous White Sox. On the season, Leiter is 0-1 in 4 starts. In 13 1/3 innings, he's allowed 24 hits, 22 runs, 19 earned, 3 HR, 8 BB and struck out 11. His WHIP for the season is a nightmarish 2.400. It's hard to believe there's a rookie starter who has underperformed Will Warren, but there is and he's a much higher draft choice, a much more highly rated prospect. Obviously, tonight is his first ever game against the Yanks.
Repertoire: Leiter is a hard-throwing 5 pitch righty: 4-seamer, slider, curve, change and cutter. He hasn't really thrown enough to get a firm read on his movement, but what the tables show so far is: the 4-seamer gets better rise but less run inside on righties than average. The slider gets more or less average drop and break into lefties. The curve gets more or less average drops and break away from righties. The change gets better drop than average but less tail. The cutter gets average drop and very little break in on lefties. In run values, the cutter is a huge minus, the 4-seam a big minus, the slider a small minus, the change is essentially neutral and the curve is a decent-sized plus. His FB velocity is well above average, the spin is above average and the he gets near-elite extension. His average exit velocity is above average, the barrel rate is very high, but the hard hit rate is about average. The grounder rate is below average, the flyball rate above average, the line drive rate is considerably above average, and the popup rate is well below average. The swining strike rate is below average, so is the called strike rate, and the CSW is considerably below average. Luck factors are almost meaningless in this small a sample, and pitching this poorly shreds any significance, but: the BABIP is sky high, the strand rate is ridiculously low and the HR/FB rate is a bit below average. His ERA estimators therefor say his ERA say his ERA should be SIX RUNS LOWER than it is, but that's still 6.88. The pitch mix so far is: 4-seamer averaging 96 about 50% of the time, slider 86 about 29%, curve 80 about 10%, change 89 about 7%, cutter 91 about 4%.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 2, 2024 17:49:08 GMT -5
Playing the Name Game: Today's name game is skewed by the fact that three of Leiter's close family members have pitched in the majors. Lots and lots of Jacks; hundreds of them. Dozens with quality 10-15 year careers. On paper, the best pitcher named Jack is 19th century hurler Jack Powell, who was 245-255 with an ERA just under 3.00 in 16 seasons, compiling nearly 55 bWAR. There have been any number of famous Jacks who've played for the Yanks: McDowell, Aker, Jackie Jensen, Hall of Famer Jack Chesbro, Jack Fournier, Jack Thomas "J.T." Snow and Jack Quinn, who won 245 games and pitched in the majors for 23 seasons starting at age 25, and was on the first Yankee pennant winner 103 years ago.
In modern times, the best pitcher is Hall of Famer Jack Morris, who won 254 games over 18 season, getting Cy Young votes in 9 seasons, and MVP votes in 5 of those seasons. His selection to the Hall was somewhat controversial, both statistically and because the writers rejected his selection for 15 years, although he got over 60% of their votes in the last 3 of those years. Statistically, the case against was simple, if not simplistic. His career ERA was a very high 3.90, very high for a Hall of Famer. In 2018, he was selected by the Veterans Committee 4 years after the last the BBWAA's final rejection of his candidacy, maybe for two reasons. The first: he was a starting pitcher on 4 title-winning teams, the 1984 Tigers, the 1991 Twins, and the the 1992 and 1993 Jays, although he didn't pitch in the 1993 post-season because of a season-ending injury. The second: he pitched one of the greatest clutch games in all baseball history, the 10-inning complete-game 7-hit shutout in game 7 of the 1991 World Series against the Braves, finally winning 1-0 when Gene Larkin knocked in Dan Gladden with a single in the left center gap to walk it off. The best hitter named Jack would be ex-Yankee Jack Clark, except that...
The greatest Jack in all MLB history is Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson. The story of Robinson as a pioneer of racial equality is well known, as is the story of his courage in just about every way a man can be courageous. It has been told and re-told in many books, histories (both baseball and non-baseball forcuse). It has been dramatized in multiple episodes of television shows, multiple stage plays and multiple movies, including one made in 1950, in the middle of Robinson's MLB career, starring Robinson himself, and based on his autobiography to that point in his life, My Own Story. (The movie is titled, The Jackie Robinson Story), including a couple of TV movies, and of course, the contemporary film, 42. There's little I have that I can add to what almost everyone already knows in this area, so instead of focusing on all that historically crucial background, I'd like to focus on this: people frequently forget this important item concerning Robinsion: he was a brilliant, spectacular player, and despite not starting his big league career until age 27, he's one of the 6 or 7 best secondbasemen in MLB history, and would've/should've made the Hall of Fame even without consideration of his cultural/social significance.
Robinson barely made the minimum requirement for the Hall: 10 big league seasons, and his career was in serious decline the last two of them. But into those first 8 sesons, Robinson packed a fantastic career: Rookie of the Year in 1947, made 6 straight All-Star Teams, got MVP votes in 7 seasons, and again in his last season, winning the Award in 1949. He led the NL in player bWAR twice, averagin over 8 bWAR a year for the seasons from 1949 through 1953. Hed the NL in steals twice, in BAVG once and OBA two years after the batting title. Top 4 in BAVG four years in a row, in OBA five years in a row and top 10 in OPS 6 years in a row, despite never hitting 20 homers in any season. He was an outstanding defensive secondbaseman as well, leading the NL in double playes turned four years in a row, in fielding percentage three years, in top 10 in plays per game at 2nd four times and later in his career, at 3rd once. He was a shortstop in the Negro Leagues, and if Pee Wee Reese hadn't already been established as a terrific' shortstop for several years before Jackie got there, he'd likely have been the best defensive shorstop in the NL in that period.
As a baserunner, Robinson was electrifying, speed, daring and smarts; he had it all. It was said that because of his speed, rapid accleration/deceleration and anticiapation of the fielders' moves, he could get out of a rundown better than any other runner of his time, and he stole home 19 times in his 10-year career, a number close to the total number of steals of home in each season in the entire modern Major Leagues. (He was also caught stealing home 12 times, but his success rate was still over 60%, where the modern success rate is almost always under 50% in any given season.). His most famous steal of home was in the first game of the 1955 World Series against the Yanks. Yogi Berra jumped up and down like a crazy man insisting he got the tag down in time, and having slowed the one film camera view of the play several times over the years, I believe the mitt was there in front of Robinson's right foot as he slid across the plate. He was likely out, and the ump was in a bad position behind Berra's back; I believe he was screened out on the tag and was guessing; he appears to be trying to peak around Berra's right shoulder, and not very successfully. It didn't matter, the Yanks won the game by a run, and lost the Series in 7, the only Dodgers championship before they left Brooklyn for LA.
Let's consider Robinson's Hall of Fame case as if he were some player we'd never heard of before. He passes two of the four Bill James measuring tools, the Grey Ink test and the Hall of Fame Monitor, but fails the Black Ink test and the Hall of Fame Standards. His worst credential is only one of his 10 best stat comps is in the Hall, none of the other nine are likely to go. But both the Standards and the career stat comps are based on stat totals, which are severely foreshortened in Robinson's case because his career might have begun as many as 7 years earlier if not for World War II and the "color line". In Jaffee's JAWS system Robinson is the 10th best 2nd baseman in MLB history. If not for missing roughly 5 prime seasons, he'd likely be in the top 5. Looking at bWAR per 162 games in his career, Robinson is 2nd highest in MLB history among 2nd basemen, behind only Rogers Hornsby. The Brooklyn Dodgers had many great players, not so many great pitchers, but they started winning consistently when Robinson showed up (well, Branch Rickey played a huge role too), 6 pennants in 10 seasons, and after they traded him to the Giants and he sesquently retired without playing a game for then, they stopped winning for 2 seasons until they could piece together another contender. And they won their only title in Brooklyn with Robinson on the team. It is very likely that had he come along 10 years later, he still would've made the Hall of Fame, and it likely would be as clear a case as it was because he'd have had another 3-6 great seasons.
Everyone knows that above even the honor of being selected to the Hall of Fame, Robinson has one even higher distinction: alone among all players in MLB history, his uniform number, 42, has been retired not just for the only team he played for, the Dodgers, but for all major league teams. Forever. The honor is a just one; Jackie Robinson was a forever player, and a forever man.
Turning to the less immortal, but still interesting, there are just four players with the last name Leiter, and they're all family relations: the brothers Al and Mark Leiter, Sr. and their sons Jack and Mark, Jr. Two have played for the Yanks, Jack's father, and his cousin. The best pitching Leiter is Al, and although it's possible that Jack gets straightened out and has a long, successful career, it's unlikely now he'll surpass his father. Neither of the fathers was even remotely a good hitter, but by an inch, Mark, Sr. was the better hitter, .269 OPS to .243, so he's the best hitting Leiter in MLB history.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 2, 2024 17:55:58 GMT -5
The Yanks send Gerrit Cole to the mound to oppose the rookie. Cole had a hiccup in the middle of his last start, back-to-back HRs by rookies Chaparro and Tena, and though the Yanks tried to rally late, that put the Yanks in a 3-0 hole they never recovered from, losing 4-2 to the Nats. It ended a run of 4 outstanding starts. On the season, Cole is 5-3 with a 3.86 ERA, In 63 innings, allowing 62 hits, 27 runs (earned), 11 HR, 22 BB and has struck out 69. His WHIP for the season is still below average at 1.333.
Cole is making his 17th career start against the Rangers, and has a very medicore (for him) record against Texas: 6-4 with a 3.74 ERA. In 96 1/3 innings, he's allowed 86 hits, 42 runs, 40 earned, 15 HR, and 27 BB with 152 K's. As I mentioned 3 weeks ago, his K/9 vs. the Rangers is over 14, his highest against any team in MLB. His WHIP against them is a solid 1.173, and their team quadruple slash line is .234/.290/.411/702.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 2, 2024 17:57:01 GMT -5
Yankees' lineup vs. Leiter: as with many other opposing starters lately, Leiter's never faced the Yanks and none of them have ever faced him. So instead, here's tonight's lineup:
1. Torres (2B)
2. Soto (RF)
3. Judge (CF)
4. Wells (C)
5. Stanton (DH)
6. Chisholm (3B)
7. Rizzo (1B)
8. Volpe (SS)
9. Verdugo (LF)
On the bench:
==============
Rangers' lineup vs. Cole:
1. Semien (2B) is 12-44 with 3 doubles, 3 HR, 5 RBI, 4 BB, 12 K, and 1 GIDP
2. Seager (SS) is 5-19 with 1 double, 3 RBI, 3 K and 3 GIDP
3. Smith (DH) is 2-8 with 1 double and 3 K
4. Garcia (RF) is 5-16 with 1 HR, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 6 K and 1 GIDP
5. Jung (3B) is 2-8 with 1 triple, 1 BB, and 4 K
6. Lowe (1B) is 3-14, 2 doubles, 3 BB and 9 K
7. Langford (LF) is 2-3
8. Heim (C) is 2-5 with a HR, 2 RBI and 1 K
9. Taveras (CF) is 3-9 with 1 double, 1 HR, 3 RBI and 6 K's, so every one of his PA vs Cole is a hit or a K.
On the bench: Kelly is 0-3 with 2 K; Duran is 3-5 with 1 double, and 1 RBI
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 2, 2024 17:58:23 GMT -5
Yesterday, the Cards buried the Yanks early 7-2 as Nestor Cortes had nothing, and the Yanks rallied to tie the game in the middle innings, only for the Cards to get 5 in the 7th off of Cousins and Kahnle, and 2 more in the 9th against Marianaccio, and win in rout-turned-tie-game-turned-back-into-a-rout, 14-7. Lars Nootbaar knocked in 5 on 3 hits, including a double and a HR for the Cards, and Jordan Walker went 5-5, scoring 4 runs and driving in 3, part of a 21-hit attack for St. Louis. Stanton, Rizzo, Chishom and Verdugo had 2 hits each, Chisholm scored 3 runs, Stanton his hit 24th HR for the Yanks. Miles Mikolas was knocked out in the 5th, failing to qualify for a W, so JoJo Romero, who pitched the 6th, became the pitcher of record after the 5 run 7th, getting his 6th win against 2 defeats. Cousins took the loss to drop to 1-1 on the season.
The loss was the Yanks 4th in 5 games, dropping them to 21 games over .500 at 79-58 with 25 games left on the schedule.
In other AL East games...in Detroit, Spencer Torkelson hit a 2-run HR in the 5th and Riley Greene hit another one in the 6th, and that was all the runs the Tigers would need to beat the Red Sox 4-1, taking the series at Comerica. Beau Brieske opened with 1 1/3 scoreless innings, but rookie Brant Hurter pitched 5 innings of 1-run ball as the bulk reliever following Brieske to pick up the win, going to 3-1 on the season. Cooper Criswell threw 4 shutout innings for the Sox, but they brought in the recently-signed Rich Hill and he surrended the Torkelson HR, taking his first loss of the season. Hill is 0-1. Jason Folley pitched a 1-2-3 9th for his 20th save.
At the Crap-O-MaticDome™ in Tampa, the Padres took a 3-0 lead in the 4th on a 2-run HR by rookie Jackson Merrill and a sac fly by Profar, but the Rays answered in the 6th on a bases loaded HBP of Caminero, a run on a DP groudner by Josh Lowe, and a WP scoring Brandon Lowe from 3rd after the DP to tie it. It stayed that way until the 9th, when Xander Bogaerts hit a sac fly to score ex-Yankee Tyler Wade. Robert Suarez gave up a walk and a hit in the bottom of the inning, but got a popup from Siri and struck out Walls to wrap up the 4-3 Padres win. Tanner Scott pitched a scorless 8th and was the pitcher of record when Bogaerts hit the sac fly and got the win, improving to 9-5 on the year. Maunel Rodriguez gave up that sac fly and run, taking the loss to fall to 3-4 on the season. Suarez' save was his 30th.
In Minnesota the only run of the game for 6 1/2 innings was Ernie Clement's solo HR in the 1st. In the bottom of the 7th, the Twins tied the game on a RBI grounder by Carlos Santana, but the Jays took a 3-1 lead in the 8th on a bases loaded HBP of Leo Jimenes, and a RBI grounder by Joey Loperfido. The Jays brought in ex-Yankee Chad Green in the 8th, and he gave up two singles and a 3-run HR by Royce Lewis, and the Twins held on for a 4-3 win, taking the series. Green took the loss, dropping to 4-4 on the year. Griffin Jax got a cheap win; he gave up the two Jays runs in the 8th, but the Lewis HR got him off the hook. Jax is now 4-4 on the season as well. Duran hit a batter, but got a grounder and a flyout to lock it down for his 20th save.
At Coors Field, the O's broke open a 1-0 game with 4 in the 4th on a single/E-9 throwing error, a RBI single by Mullins and a 2-run HR by McCann, taking a 5-0 lead, then coasting to a 6-1 win, winning the series against the Rockies. Zach Eflin had another brilliant start for the O's, 7 innings of 4 hit, 1 run ball, striking out 9 and walking 1 for the win. Eflin is now 10-7 on the season, and has won all 5 of his starts with Baltimore with an ERA of 1.95. Ty Blach gave up the 5 runs in 4 innings, taking the loss and dropping to 3-7 on the year.
Coming into the games today, the Yanks lead over the O's is down to 1/2 game, the Sox are still 9 games back in 3rd, the Rays crept a game closer to 11 1/2 back in 4th and the Jays are still 13 out of first. The Sox loss to the Tigers lowered the Yankees Magic Number for clinching a playoff spot to 17.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 2, 2024 18:02:34 GMT -5
In other East games today/tonight...The O's opened a 3-game series against the insanely bad White Sox at 3:05 pm. The White Sox offered some brief false hope, getting two runs in the top of the 1st, but the O's took the lead with 2 in 2 in the 3rd, 2 more in the 5th and blew it open with 6 in the 6th to coast to an 13-3 rout of the Extremely Pale, Nearly Invisible Hose. Corbin Burnes wasn't great, but he got through 5 winning his first game in five starts, he's now 13-7 on the season. Chris Flexen gave up just 3 of the 13 runs, but that was enough to saddle him with the loss, dropping to an emblematic 2-14 on the year. Save? In this game? Well, yeah, there was, because Cole Irvin pitched the last 3 innings, giving up 1 for ummm...lemme see here...his..uhhh...first save of the season.
The Yanks and O's are once again tied for first coming into tonight's game in Texas, with the Yanks barely ahead, .577 to .576. For most of the season the Yanks had played 2-3 more games than the O's but as of the end of today, the O's have played 1 more game. The loss also extended Chicago's current losing streak to 10 games, and they're now 4-41 in their last 45 games.
Elsewhere, the Twins start a 3-game series at the HorribleDome™ at 6:50 pm. Simeon Woods-Richardson (5-3, 3.85) starts for Minnesota; Zack Littell (5-8, 3.89 ERA) goes for Tampa. Littell has allowed just 3 earned runs in his last 4 starts and 22 2/3 innings. At 7:10 pm at Citifield, the Red Sox start a 3-game series against the Mets. Brayan Bello (12-6, 4.66 ERA) starts for Boston. Ex-Yankee Luis Severino (9-6, 3.96) throws for the Mets. The Jays have Labor Day off, they start a 2-game series on the against the Phillies in Citizen's Bank Park tomorrow.
And at 8:05 pm in Arlington, it's Cole vs. Leiter. See you then; I'm off to make dinner.
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Post by JEGnj on Sept 2, 2024 18:04:49 GMT -5
The Jekyll and Hyde Yankees. Which team shows up?
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 2, 2024 18:08:55 GMT -5
lineup starting to look long particularly w the 2 "V's" hitting. two hit game for rizzo is his 1st game back. maybe wishful thinking but hoping we see the rizzo of early season. in any case, he's probably the best glove we have there. after 4 great starts for cole, a bit of hiccup as he put us in 3-0 hole against corbin who pitched his best game in the last 2 seasons. we seem to be the "cure" for a number of pitchers. need a bounce back from gerrit. hope to catch most of this before hitting the road for a 3-day golf outing in the morning. been dealing w hip bursitis much of the summer so haven't played much. gonna be ugly. I don't play golf myself, but I've heard that golfers have a saying: "Bad golf is better than good just about anything else." Good luck with that, bump, and enjoy your time away from this. |
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Post by chiyankee on Sept 2, 2024 18:40:14 GMT -5
Hopefully Judge returning to the scene of one his greatest achievements gets him going again.
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Post by chiyankee on Sept 2, 2024 19:02:16 GMT -5
Wow, a David Cone sighting.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 2, 2024 19:07:05 GMT -5
Rangers take the field. Leiter throwing his warmups.
Torres getting ready to step in.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Sept 2, 2024 19:08:41 GMT -5
Game underway. Fb outside at the top, 1-0 on Torres.
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