MVN - Most Valuable Network

Game 141: Yankees at Mariners

New York Yankees (75-65) vs. Seattle Mariners (54-85)

Andy Pettitte (13-11, 4.52) vs. Brandon Morrow (1-2, 1.47)

September 5, 2008 @ 10:10 p.m. @ Safeco Field

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
New York											0	0	0
Seattle											0	0	0

Preview:

The Yankees kick off a three-game set against the Seattle Mariners tonight.  It’s no small footnote to mention that they finished a game around 10:00 last night in the south-eastern-most state in the continental US, only to fly to the north-western-most.  We’ll see if they look at all sluggish tonight.

Starting for the Yankees tonight is Andy Pettitte.  Pettitte is coming off back-to-back bad starts, allowing six earned runs in each.  He doesn’t exactly have great career numbers against the Mariners, either.  His career ERA against them is 4.73, second only to his 5.50 against the Texas Rangers.  That said, he did well against them earlier this year, allowing two runs over six innings.

The big story of the night is the debut of Brandon Morrow as a starter.  Morrow spent most of the year as a reliever, and was incredible.  He put up a 1.47 ERA, with a 0.90 WHIP and 11.54 K/9, for and ERA+ of 281.  Then, about a month ago, he was sent down to the minors to stretch his arm out to fit the role of a starter. 

The 23-year-old right-hander will have a lot of eyes on him tonight, and it will be interesting to see how he does.  The #5 pick overall in the 2006 draft, the Mariners hope to have Morrow as a big part of their future, and tonight will be a big part of that.

In other news, Melky Cabrera will return to the Yankees tonight.  He spent a little over three weeks at AAA, and batted .333/.409/.368 in 15 games.

Jeremy Bleich’s first start (and other extras)

Hey guys. This post is a bit of a break from my game posts and other assorted posts to bring to you a few things I had the amazing fortune to bump into last Tuesday and last Thursday.

If you haven’t guessed, I love baseball. I also love minor-league baseball. Being able to be in the City for my 4th year at Fordham, I thought to myself, “why not go to a minor-league game?” I picked the Staten Island Yankees for a few reasons: 1) Relatively close (one Ferry ride away), 2) it’s a Yankees afflicate and 3) I can actually watch both affordable and winning Yankees baseball.

I picked two games to go to: the September 2nd and 4th games. Amazingly enough, in those two games, I unknownly stumbled into watching three fairly significant pitchers on the mound.

1) Jeremy Bleich

I got to Thursday’s game at Richmond County Bank Ballpark. The link I attached has my picture of the ballpark during Bleich’s warm-ups. Notice the two photographers near the backstop.

Before I got to my seat behind home plate, where most of the scouts on hand sit, I took a look around and saw the line-up card. I almost literally screamed when I saw “Jeremy Bleich” in the pitcher’s slot for the SI Yankees. Sure, I got to see Phil Hughes pitch his first game at the Stadium, but this? This is the first professional start for the lefty gamble or, according to some, overdrafted starter. I immediately went “camera mode” and tried recording as much footage as I could.

Let’s just confirm one thing that Eric Schultz of Pending Pinstripes wrote about Bleich: “He supposedly has a high 80’s-low 90’s fastball with a good curve and changeup, good stuff for a lefty.”

The “stuff” numbers? Bleich sat on 88-89 mph on his fastball for most of his outing, touching 90-91 on occasion. In terms of his curveball, he sat between 76-78 mph.

In terms of the statistics, Bleich pitched 47 pitches. I’m assuming the start was a tune-up for the playoffs. He went 3 innings and gave up 2 hits, 2 runs, and had 4 strikeouts (one or two looking, not completely sure). He started out the game with a strikeout. However, he was shaky after-wards, hitting a batter and offering up a first-pitch two-run HR that hit the center field black wall. After the home run, he got hit for a double, but he shut down the next 8 hitters he faced.

Aside from his bout in the first inning, he showed great composure and control, working the corners better towards the third inning. Do I attribute the first inning to nervousness? I honestly do, though I can’t speak on behalf of Bleich.

Take a look at the video and make your own judgment on it.

** With all the videos, I do apologize for all the shaking and crazy camera angles (especially on the two-run HR). I don’t bring a tripod to the ballpark usually and I also cheered and celebrated when something happens, like any fan. **

2. Pat Venditte

The man, the myth, the legend. It’s amazing how many people love a guy whose only real reason of fame is that he can pitch with both arms. However, I’m one of those amazed people. Venditte got the biggest cheers out of anyone when he came out to try and nail his club-record 23rd save and secure SI Yankees’ place in the playoffs.

Watching Venditte can be described in one word: fun. He pitched with his right arm the first batter and with his left arm the last two. The results? Ground-out, three-pitch strikeout swinging, and bunt out (on one pitch).

The question is deifnitely brought up with Venditte: does he have the stuff to become a major league reliever? His ERA is absolutely ridiculous (0.83 ERA in 30 games) and he shows great movement and good control with both arms. However, I can’t help but have bad flashbacks to Colter Bean. Maybe my fears make no sense, but I do think that one arm could potentially be better in terms of getting hitters out. For the Yankees’ sake, I’m hoping his left arm.

3) Jonathan Albaladejo

I was able to see Albaladejo pitch on Tuesday in his first rehab start from a fractured elbow. He only pitched two innings, but did the best he could in those innings, allowing a hit but getting two strikeouts. He was hitting 90-91 mph on the gun for his fastball and had some good movement. Sure, he is building up arm strength, but hope is there that he’ll be ready and healthy for the 2009 season.

And here are some pictures from the Thursday’s game with action shots of Jeremy Bleich and Pat Venditte:

Enjoy, and I’ll be more than happy to answer any questions you may have to the best of my ability.

** I also want to take this chance and shout-out fellow blogger and one of my closest friends Rebecca from This Purist Bleeds Pinstripes for being my guest to Tuesday’s game. It’s always great to go to a game with someone who knows the game as much as Rebecca does. **

Series Preview: Yankees at Mariners

Andy Pettitte	Friday, 10:10 PM	Brandon Morrow
Sidney Ponson	Saturday, 10:10 PM	Ryan Rowland-Smith
Mike Mussina	Sunday, 4:10 PM	Carlos Silva

7.5 games out, 22 left to  go.  And they aren’t going to be easy games.  In fact, with seven series left, this is one of only two against teams with losing records.

However, playing the good teams hasn’t been the problem this year.  Against Tampa Bay, Chicago and Boston - three of the four teams currently in playoff position (they have gotten creamed by the Angels) - they are a respectable 18-15.  That’s actually a better winning percentage than their overall percentage.

Their big problem this year has been their inability to put away the bad teams.  They’ve posted records such as:

• 5-5 against Kansas City
• 8-7 against Baltimore
• 2-4 against Detroit
• 3-4 against Texas

Luckily, tonight they will face one of only two AL teams that they have dominated this year (the other being Oakland).  So far against the Mariners, the Yankees are 6-0 with an average score of 8.33 to 2.83.  Abreu, Giambi, Cano, Damon and Matsui each have an OPS over one against them.  Cano leads the pack with a 1.324.

With the Yankees coming off a series win against Tampa, they need to be able to extend that into continued domination of Seattle.  With their playoff chances on life support, anything short of a sweep would be disappointing.

And the rotation the Mariners will send out this weekend has a lot of question marks in it.  Starting tonight is Brandon Morrow, who has been a succesful reliever so far in his young career, but will complete a Joba-esque transformation into a starter tonight with his first career start.  On Sunday, Carlos Silva will make his second start back from the DL with an elbow injury.  His first start was not impressive.

Saturday’s starter may be the most predictable, but even he is an interesting case.  Another reliever-turned-starter, Ryan Rowland-Smith made his first career start last month.  He has been largely successful so far, and has a 1.77 ERA in his last three starts.

The Yankees, on the other hand, have their two most reliable starters going in this series.  Pettitte and Mussina are usually very dependable, and we’ll just hope they do their thing this weekend.  Because I honestly have no idea what to expect from the Seattle rotation.

Will Mussina Make 20?

With the Yankees’ playoff chances just about down the tubes, attention is turning to the other burning question of this season: can Mike Mussina really win 20 games?

As you all know, Mussina has often been called “Mr. Almost” for the many near-misses in his career:

• He has twice appeared in the World Series, but never gotten a ring.
• He’s come in the top five in Cy Young voting six times, but never won.
• He’s carried a perfect game into the ninth inning twice, and lost it both times.
• At the age of 39, he is at 267 wins, making it fairly likely that he will just miss 300.
• He has won 19 games twice, and 18 games three times, but never reached that golden 20.

But that last one could change this year.  With a little less than a month to go in the season, Moose is just three shy of 20.  Most of the times that he has come close, it’s been due to a late rally.  In 1995, he only got to 19 wins by winning his last three starts. 

However, there was one time when he was in much the same situation as now.  On September 7, 1996, Moose won his 19th game.  With four starts left, he needed just one win.  He went 0-2 and missed the mark by one game.

This September 7, Mike will go for his 18th win.  The Yankees have two off-days left, and assuming they skip the #5 starter those days, Mussina will get a total of five starts to get three wins.  That means he will have to win 60% of his starts to get to 20.  So far this season, he has won 59% of the time.

Mussina’s season can be broken down into 25 5-game segments.  Of those 25 segments, he has won at least three games in all but seven.  Unfortunately, that includes his five most recent games, in which he is only 2-0.  Of course, that doesn’t necessarily indicate bad performance, as the team is undefeated over that stretch - in fact, they’ve won the last seven games he’s started.  He simply has been victim to no-decisions.  In his first 24 games, he had two no-decisions.  He’s had three in the last five games.

This could all be very important when it comes to Hall of Fame voting time.  Mussina is right on the edge of being a Hall of Famer.  He has put up some great numbers in a career spent entirely in baseball’s toughest division.  But he has nothing to hang his hat on.  No big accomplishment that he can point to to validate his career.

I think he’s a HOFer, and a couple more solid seasons could get him 300 wins and an automatic ticket.  Either way, I believe that he will eventually get in, if not necessarily on the first ballot.  But 20 wins this season could really put him over the top, and secure him a spot in the Hall.

So what do you think, will he get there?  Will history repeat itself, or is this finally the year he will breakthrough?

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Also, here are the results of our most recent poll:

What should the Yankees be concentrating on at this point?

• Winning the division - 10 (4%)
• Getting the Wildcard - 112 (45%)
• 2009 - 125 (51%)

So those of you who are looking towards 2009 have a slight edge over those still aiming for the wildcard.  Of course, this was taken over a period of a couple weeks.  For most of it, the wildcard was in the lead, but 2009 finally passed it a few days ago.

I think it’s fair to say that in the first week or two of this poll, most of you were pretty optimistic, but over the past week or so, not so much.

Game 140: Yankees at Rays (L)

New York Yankees (75-64) vs. Tampa Bay Rays (84-53)

Darrell Rasner (5-9, 5.08) vs. Scott Kazmir (10-6, 3.13)

September 4, 2008 @ 7:10 p.m. @ Tropicana Field

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Yankees	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5		5	7	0
Rays	0	5	0	1	0	0	0	1	X		7	14	0
Kazmir (W, 11-6) Rasner (L, 5-10) Wheeler (S, 11)

Preview:

The Yankees go for the s-word (I forgot that I was superstitious) tonight. On the mound is Darrell Rasner, who is looking to finally pick up a win. His last win? July 12th. Since then, Rasner has gone 0-2 with a 5.27 ERA.

Scott Kazmir is looking to stop the Yankees’ small 3-game winning streak. Kazmir is looking to piece together another successful start. Though his last start was short, he pitched 5 and a third shutout innings against Oakland.

Enjoy the game, and to the Yankee fans who are also NY Giant fans, tune in between commercials. This may be a great game to watch.

************************

Recap:

I only have one question after this game: Should Alfredo Aceves start in place of Rasner when his turn comes up in the rotation?

Rasner was terrible tonight and couldn’t even get out of the 2nd inning. He gave up 6 hits and 5 earned runs. Yes, the Yankees’ offense didn’t give him any room to breathe, especially since they couldn’t score until the 9th inning. However, Rasner didn’t help his case either. Aceves went 5 innings in relief, only giving up one run on 5 hits and 4 strikeouts. Why not give him the shot?

Steinbrenners want Cashman Back - Do you?

According to the NY Post, the Steinbrenner family has decided that they want Brian Cashman to return as General Manager of the Yankees.  Brian is reportedly aware of these sentiments, but has not made a decision in that regard as of yet.  Cash has some notable holes in his resume which you can view here.  He is considered by many, however, to be a top 5 GM, as evidenced by this article by John Heyman.  I’m going to relay what I view as Brian’s main weakness and strength, here, and I encourage you to add your own feelings on the matter.

  Weakness

1. Identifying and acquiring the absolute top talent.  Cash has made some nice pickups in his tenure.  The recent Nady deal is one example.  He never seems to give away too much value in return.  On the flip side, however, he never gets the clutch superstar at the right time, often acquiring the second-tier star that puts up solid numbers but can’t carry the Yanks to the promised land.  Passing on Randy Johnson only to pick him up just as he loses his stuff, taking Sheffield over Vlad, acquiring Pavano and Vazquez instead of making a run at Beckett  the next year (though they may just not have had the chips, admittedly), not picking up Big Papi when George wanted him, not getting Santana this year are all examples.  Even when they bag the buck, as he did with A-Rod, he gets a stud who can’t produce in the clutch.

Strength:

1. I think his primary asset is his ability to deal with, and provide a voice of reason to an otherwise chaotic Yankee front office.  Before Brian seized sole control three years ago, there were several factions within the organization that prevented any long-term vision from materializing.  This gutted the farm system which Cash has managed to almost completely rebuild in surprisingly short period of time.  The Steinbrenners are an notoriously volatile powder keg lying right next to the eternally burning flame of the New York media.  Brian is an extremely loyal, team first guy that the Steinbrenners trust and are willing to lay off of.  This is a lot tougher to find than some people might think.  Without Cash there, the situation could easily explode.  Before Brian arrived, the shelf-life of a Yankee GM was less than your average ham sandwich.  Cash is an experienced baseball guy who isn’t going to make any incredibly rash or horribly boneheaded moves, and he’s going to protect and build the farm system.  All bets are off, if he leaves.

Options:  There really aren’t many guys out there that you can point to as being better options than Cashman.  I think Billy Beane and Theo Epstein are the only two guys that are clearly above Brian at this point.  Andrew Friedman of the Rays and Josh Byrnes of the D-backs are guys that have shown ability to recognize talent, but would they have the savvy to navigate the minefield of NY politics?  I’m not sure.  Is there a guy out there that you’d rather have?

Game 139: Yankees at Rays (W)

New York Yankees (74-64) vs. Tampa Bay Rays (84-52)

Carl Pavano (2-0, 3.27) vs. Edwin Jackson (11-8, 3.81)

September 3, 2008 @ 7:05 p.m. @ Tropicana Field

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
New York	0	2	3	1	0	0	0	0	2		8	12	0
Tampa Bay	1	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	1		4	8	0
Ramirez (W, 5-1) Jackson (L, 11-9)

Preview:

After taking the first game of the series last night, the Yankees have a chance to win it this evening by taking the second game.  The Yankees are undefeated so far in September, and have averaged 10 runs per game this month.  Of course, they’ve only played two so far, but hey, I’m an optimist.

Going for the Yankees tonight is Carl Pavano, who has been a pleasant surprise for the Yankees thus far.  His last time out, he allowed one run on just three hits in six innings.  When he gets his first out tonight, he will match his innings total from 2007.

The Rays will send out Edwin Jackson.  Jackson has faced the Yankees four times this season, and was brilliant in three of them.  In those three, including the two most recent, he combined for two runs in 19.1 innings.  In the other, he allowed five runs in five innings.  He has a 1.73 ERA in his last four starts.

Headlining the Yankee offense tonight is Jason Giambi, who has an RBI in seven straight games.  According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that is the most for a Yankee since Alex Rodriguez’s incredible April last year, and it’s the most for Giambi since 2001.  Both those occasions were also seven straight.  Giambi is batting .300 over these last seven games.

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Recap:

Carl Pavano couldn’t deliver tonight, but the bullpen stepped up and the offense came through.  All that added up to a predominantly positive win.

Pavano was by no means terrible, but he couldn’t get through the fifth inning.  With two men on, Edwar Ramirez came in and promptly gave up a bases-loading single.  However, he quickly made up for that, getting out of the bases packed, no out jam with a double play and a pop-up.  Phil Coke and Brian Bruney followed that up with three combined scoreless innings.

That was more than enough for the Yankee offense to deliver a win.  In innings two and three, the Bombers scored five runs on seven hits, including five doubles.  Cano, Giambi, Abreu and both Rodriguezes each had a two-bagger in those innings.

Of course, the biggest story of the night came long after most of that action.  In the ninth inning, Alex Rodriguez hit a towering shot that went approximately 927 feet, right down the foul line.  After initially calling it a homer, the umps got together and decided to use instant replay for the first time in Major-League history. 

Quelling the fears of those who were afraid replay would slow the game down, the umps came out after just two minutes, 15 seconds, and confirmed the home run call.  To my eyes, the umps got it right.  When the ball finally hit something, it was clearly in foul territory, but it appeared that it traveled over the foul pole on its way there.