Saturday, July 31, 2010

The Genius Maker #87

Tough loss for the Yanks after jumping up 2-0 in the first inning...the bats did nothing the rest of the game, although the ump was very bad behind the plate (I actually reviewed the many calls I had major issues with and they were all clearly balls that were called strikes (MLB allows this, but don't always take their word on what type of pitch because it has trouble distinguishing between cutters and fastballs - the HR by Joyce was called a cutter and it clearly was not). What was aggravating to me was that after throwing a curve in the dirt he had Joyce set up for another one as he was not seeing it well and instead Posada and Hughes tried to go inside and while the pitch was up it tailed over the plate...THEY SHOULD HAVE THROWN ANOTHER CURVE! The fact the batter was all over the high fastball shows you how wrong the pitch selection was.

The offense did a bad job though...

Onto the trades. the Yankees got Austin Kearns...I have NO idea why. This is not what they need. He is a righty who actually hits righties a little better. Now unless they see something that they know they can make a 30 year old better, he will not be helpful. His OPS the last 2 years was .630 and again he is better against righties (not what we need to pinch hit for Granderson (or even Gardner possibly). This year his OPS is at least respectable at .764, but that is not what they need, they need a guy who is a lefty killer.

It is not confirmed but it seems like the Yanks also got Lance Berkman. I like this a lot more as Berkman is a guy who could DH against righties all the time. He could be used against lefties but the Yanks would be better off DH'ing Thames. Berkman is at least 200 points higher against righties (where he should be really good). But once again, the Yanks have failed to realize that Granderson should not play against lefties...Gardner should be the every day CF'r and LF should be a platoon. Thames should play against every lefty, but it would be a lot better to DH him and have a left fielder who could hit lefties.

Berkman good, Kearns not good!

I would expect Miranda would be the person sent down because Berkman does everything Miranda can do...but better.

Kearns? Not sure where he should be, I imagine he will be on the bench and maybe start once in awhile in LF? I am not sure who gets cut for him?

4 comments:

  1. I agree with the game evaluation. Austin Kearns? WTF! I like Lance Berkman for the same reason, and Granderson could be a much better player if he hit the other way instead of trying to pull everything! He also is not very good at working the count, but they knew all this before they got him. They also didnt know that Gardner would be doing as good as he is. Plus another thing to add with Gardner.......I DONT thing Gerardi uses him well when he gets on base, Gardner needs to be allowed to be more aggressive on base putting more fear(distraction) into the pitcher. Hell, if he is on first with 2 out it should be almost automatic he is gonna go. If he gets thrown out Jeter will be leading off the next inning. GERARDI CANT PLAY SMALL BALL!! that AZZ!

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  2. This off season I'd have Rickey Henderson(AAA) come in and work with Gardner too! You know the reason I put the AAA there, just brining back old memeories!

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  3. Ricky Henderson, AAA steal rating, lol.

    I think I heard the announcers saying something about Gardner replacing Granderson as the everyday player against lefties. I hope so, overdue, but better late than never.

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  4. That was funny regarding the AAA (for those of you not familiar he was referring to the steal rating for strat-omatic baseball - although I think AA was the highest rating, but I could be wrong)

    As for Gardner, I think he has the green light most of the time and he just isn't good enough to read pitchers yet and he is too tentative...I think a good SB guy is fearless..but not crazy.

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