Results tagged ‘ Andy Pettitte ’
Pettitte retires
Andy Pettitte has officially announced his retirement from the game of baseball. With that announcement, a generation of Yankee fans this morning will have heavy hearts but fond memories of #46, a pitcher who in 1995 was skinny and looked lost on the mound. Seriously, who would have thought that this skinny kid from Louisiana would be part of the backbone of a Yankee dynasty that started the very next season in 1996. Although Pettitte wasn’t an overpowering pitcher, he was a smart pitcher and his ability to throw that 12 to 6 curveball along with a devestating cutter made him a very successful pitcher, especially when it counted most during the post-season. I guess we have to thank Jimmy Key once again for the aneurysm in his pitching elbow, because with out it the door wouldn’t have opened for Andy and Mariano that 95 season.
As for the PED issue…
Andy Pettitte should be forgiven for his use of PED’s. The reason is simple, he admitted it when presented with the fact. Didn’t try to hide the facts and said the reason for it was to help his team. The fact that he was truthful about it, instead of telling some half truth, or just avoiding the issue all together is enough for me to forgive Andy. Although I don’t believe he has the numbers to be in the Hall of Fame, if he is considered, I hope the Baseball Writers can also forgive Andy as I have done and strickly view his career based on the good things he did on the mound.
I don’t want Cliff Lee.
As a Yankees fan, let me say this once and for all: I don’t want the Yankees to sign Cliff Lee. The reason why I feel this way is that the Yankees, with Lee, will continue to be a team that is old and falling behind their American League competition in youth and talent. Lee will no doubt contribute to the Yankees in the short term and give them another legitimate innings pitcher. However, whatever short term success there is with a guy like Lee in the rotation, the Yankees in my humble opinion will hurt their long term plans. In five years, Cliff Lee will be 37 or 38 years old. Whatever he has accomplished since 2007 thanks to his skills will probably be lost by 2015. More over, three of the Yankees “Core Four”, the foundation that built the late 1990′s dynasty, and the 2009 Championship team are diminishing in skill. Only Mariano Rivera continues to be productive. But Jeter, Pettitte and Posada are looking older and playing like it. As I wrote before, Jeter’s range at short is clearly diminishing. The fact that he was award a Gold Glove fails to account for the fact that MLB scouts last season saw his actual defensive skills short of what is expected by an average shortstop. Once again, the Texas Rangers believed they could hit and run and bunt their way on because Jeter, Posada and A-Rod have lost a step. Instead of wasting valueable resources on Lee, the Yankees should do more to get younger.
I know that patience with getting younger runs thin in New York. But remember, the Yankees built their championships, not on high priced free agents, but on the drafting of solid talent like Jeter, Posada, Bernie Williams, Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera and by the signing of solid role players like Paul O’Neill, Scott Brosius, Chuck Knoblauch, etc. I think the Yankees should return to that model instead of wasting $400 million in free agency every two years.
Yankees season down to one game…at a time.
After another crushing defeat at the hands of the Texas Rangers, the Yankees season comes down to the strength of CC Sabathia’s arm later on this afternoon. Out of options, the Yankees now need to take it one game at a time if they hope to continue playing this season, and ultimately hope that Sabathia would come out and pitch like the ace he has been for the Bombers since 09. Otherwise, another bad start by Sabathia and the season ends….no more baseball until March for the Yanks. So CC’s job today is simple; pitch 8 innings of shut out dominant baseball, and hope the offense wakes up and figures out CJ Wilson. Take this series back to Texas and hope for the best.
What happened?
Even though I don’t make predictions before the beginning of a playoff series, and I specially do not make predictions when the team I root for is involved, I did however write before game 1 that if the Yankees have trouble with their situational hitting, they would lose this series. So far the Yankees have not only struggled with their situational hitting, but have struck out an unreal 39 times. A team that is built on power, as the Yankees are, will not win many games if they are undisciplined at the plate. Putting aside game 3, their inability to put pressure on two suspect Rangers starters in Hunter and Lewis will be the reason why this team will lose this series. Pitching wise, the Yankees starters, other than Pettitte and for five innings, Burnett, haven’t pitched to their level. Sabathia, as has been noted, was horrible in both his post season starts, not pitching to the level of an ace the Yankees have become accustomed to. Hughes had a very good start in the ALDS, but unfortunately pitched poorly in game two of this series. In those two games, the Yankees gave up 13 runs and if not for a miraculous comeback in the 8th inning of game one, would have been outscored 13-1. On top of that, the Yankees will now be forced to be without Mark Teixeira who hurt his hamstring in last night’s debacle. Although Teixeira wasn’t having a good series, his glove in the field will be missed. Lance Berkman is a decent defensive first baseman, but he isn’t Mark Teixeira.
The Rangers on the other hand have done everything right. They have not ony pitched well, but are hitting in the clutch, getting big hits when needed. Last night, the big clutch hit came off the bat of Bengie Molina, who once again hits another clutch playoff homerun against the Yankees. This time, the three run job, gave the Rangers a 2 run lead to basically put the game away. Now all the Rangers have to do is win one more game. If they lose today and in Friday night’s game, they have literally nothing to worry about, as the Magnificent Lee will take the mound in game 7 and possibly send the Texas Rangers to their first World Series in franchise history.
NLCS Update..
The Giants take a 2-1 series lead over the heavily favored Philadelphia Phillies and are now on the drivers seat ready to take control of this series later on this afternoon. Before the series began, I questioned Matt Cain’s ability to out pitch Cole Hamels and wonder if the moment would be too big for Cain and the young Giants pitching staff. Well, I guess Cain answered my questions by outpitching Cole Hamels and continuing his good pitching in the post season. In 13 innings so far, I don’t believe Matt Cain has allowed a run to score. Moreover, the Giants are suddenly hitting in clutch situations. Cody Ross delivered a key RBI single with two outs in the 4th and two runners on, to give the Giants a one to nothing lead. After Ross’s single, Pat Burrell hurts his former team and drives in the second run of the inning. The Giants tagged another run in the bottom of the 5th thanks to an error by Chase Utley (who just had a bad game) to put the game away. All that is left for the Giants to do is win Lincecum’s start in game 5 and hope Matt Cain repeats his performance in game 7.
The Phillies on the other hand have nothing to worry about, but I would pitch Roy Halladay today instead of Joe Blanton and have him ready for game 7. Of course, I think the Phillies will win this series (and the World Series), they are just too good, but a bad start by Blanton could be devestating as the Giants would be one brilliant Lincecum start away from wrapping up the series. I’ll be watching (darn cablevision and news corp) tonight.
Classic game 3..
Tonight’s game three between the Rangers and Yankees should be a classic pitching match up if both pitchers live up to the hype. That is easier said that done, but given the performances by both Cliff Lee and Andy Pettitte during the post-season it would be hard to think of them being on something less than their A-game. As classic a pitching match up tonight’s game could be, this is also a very pivitol game because of the winner of this game will have the advantage the rest of the series. If the Rangers win, then all they need to do in the next two days is just win one more game and take the series back to Texas where they could win in six, or in seven with Cliff Lee yet again on the mound. If the Yankees win tonight however, they will have the advantage the rest of the series, and will most likely clinch their 41st American League pennant.
National League….
Unfortunately, I haven’t seen the NLCS because of News Corps’s greed. With that being said, I’m not surprised that Halladay didn’t have his best stuff in game one. Afterall, he is human. However, the Phillies will be too much for the Giants as they will no doubt wrap up this series in 6 games. The Phillies pitching staff is the best in the game at the moment. During the Division Series, Halladay pitched a great no-hitter which was followed by a so-so performance from Roy Oswalt. Still, the Phillies found a way to win and in game 3 of that series, Cole Hamels pitched like the 2008 Cole Hamels propelling the Phillies to the NLCS. So if Hamels has a bad start, Halladay could follow with a great start, in vice versa. The best the Giants could hope for is that their pitchers keep up or out pitch the Phillies starters. In game 1, Lincecum did just that, however, Sanchez couldn’t. Now the question is, will Matt Cain out pitch Cole Hamels…
Yankees take game 2
Game 2 between the Yankees/Twins series followed the same script of Game 1 and last season’s ALDS. This script is simple: Twins get the lead, Yankees tie the game and then take the lead, only to see the Twins make a comeback and either tie the game or take the lead, and then the Twins give up the lead the following inning. For the Twins, this has to be in their heads. For a team that one can argue has not only out played the Yankees in some of these games, but had many opportunities to win, for them not to squeek out a victory has to be painful.
After Orlando Hudson got the Twins back in the game with a solo shot in the 6th, all the Twins had to do was keep the Yankees off the bases. Since August, the Yankees have had their share of troubles getting runs across the plate, and tonight was no different. Unfortunately, Carl Pavano, who was doing a pretty good job through 6 (and showed once again why the Yankees signed him), had the roof cave in on him when he lost the plate and allowed a big RBI double by Lance Berkman. Pavano could have been out of the jam had the home plate umpire called the preceding pitch strike three. There was no doubt that pitch was a strike and Berkman was fortunate he wasn’t called out.
After the Yankees tagged another run, the game was all but over. Andy Pettitte came back in the 7th inning and pitched a quick one-two-three frame. Overall, Pettitte was the vintage post season pitcher the Yankees have known since 1996. Andy pitched 7 very strong innings, and only threw 88 pitches. He had enough to finish what he started, but Girardi decided to keep Andy fresh for the rest of the series.
Berkman…
What more can I say about the play of Lance Berkman tonight. When the game was tied at 1, Berkman hit a towering shot into the Twins bullpen to give the Bombers a 2-1 lead. Later, when the game was tied, he knocked out Pavano out of the game with another shot to centerfield. Berkman who has great post-season numbers, continued his outstanding play in October by helping the Yankees with two big hits.
Situational Hitting..
But not everything was great for the Yankees tonight and just like last post-season, they are once again having problems with their situational hitting. The Yankees in several big spots of the game, left too many runners on base, including leaving the bases-loaded in the sixth inning, when the Yankees could have broken this game open. If the Yankees hope to win this series, the ALCS and the World Series, they have to improve in their situational hitting. The Yankees were lucky last season that their poor situational hitting didn’t cost them a game or two. This post-season could be a different story because of the fact that the pitching around the league is much more improved.
Hopefully, the Yankees will bust out at home and take care of things and make their 13th trip to the ALCS!
Top 3rd….
Andy Pettitte appears to have injured himself and has just been taken out of the game. That’s not good news for the Yankees, as the bullpen has been overused in the last two games. Maybe the All-Star break took some of the momentum Yankee starters had gained out on the west coast, but three games after the break, not very good pitching by Yanks.
As for the Rays, David Price is struggling as well, but so far he is holding his own and is getting run support by his lineup, including Carlos Pena who has a tendency to kill Yankee pitching.
All Stars snubs..
Now that the 2010 All Stars for both the National and American leagues have been announced, too much was made about the players that were snubbed. Personally, I don’t pay attention to the All Star game, but when baseball writers and commentators talk about players that were snubbed then the All Star game gets my full attention.
Frankly speaking, nothing perks up my interests than a little controversy; and since the All Star game is hardly a place where controversy is found, the list of snubs by both the AL and NL has me wondering if this year, of all the years since the last meaningful All Star game in 1994.
So, lets see if players were indeed snubbed.
AL Snubbs…
Kevin Youkilis: Yes he was snubbed. Joe Girardi as AL Manager decided to take one of his own players to the game, therefore he chose Alex Rodriguez. As a Yankee fan I agree with the move, why take a Red Sox player over a Yankee player? It would be blasphemous for a Yankee manager, who is managing the All Star game, not to pick one of his own guys for a Red Sox player. However, as an objective baseball fan, A-Rod doesn’t deserve a parking pass at Anaheim this year, since Youkilis was more deserving of a roster spot. Lets just look at the numbers. Youkilis this season is batting .299, with 17 homeruns and 54 RBI’s. He has an OBP of .416 and a slugging percentage of .584, which gives him an impressive 1.000 OPS. Youkilis has accumulated 160 total bases, has walked 50 times, and has scored 65 runs. To put all those stats into perspective, Youkilis is a player that helps the Red Sox create runs, which is no wonder why the Red Sox are one of the teams that leads the majors in runs scored.
Alex Rodriguez on the other hand is batting .276, with 12 homeruns and 62 RBI’s. A-Rod’s has posted a slugging percentage of .486 and an OBP of .349. That gives A-Rod an OPS of .835, which is .165 points lower than Youkilis’s OPS. A-Rod has been struggling for the most part this year, even though the Yankees haven’t missed a beat. Even though he has more RBI’s than Youkilis, that is probably because there are more runners on base when A-Rod bats than when Youkilis bats.
However, Youkilis carried the Red Sox offensively until Big Sloppy woke up and started to hit homeruns again. Without Youkilis in the lineup early this season, the Red Sox could be 5 games back of the Yankees instead of being 1.5 games behind. Yeah, I think Youkilis was clearly snubbed.
Andy Pettitte: He wasn’t snubbed, he was robbed of a deserving spot. The fact is, Andy Pettitte has been the only consistent starter in the Yankees rotation this season than All Star pick CC Sabathia. It took until the middle of June for CC Sabathia to settledown as a consistent started. Moreover, AJ Burnett has been consistently inconcistent, while Javier Vazquez has looked lost on the mound for the most part this season. That brings me to the other Yankee pitcher that made the All Star game, Phil Hughes. Hughes had a very strong start to the year, posting an ERA under 2.00 in his first seven starts, but since May 17, Hughes has an ERA over 3.00. In his last two starts in particular, Hughes surrendered 6 homeruns and frankly, has looked anything but sharp.
Pettitte on the other hand has been a consistent pitcher all year. There are times when he gets in trouble, but finds a way to fight and get out of it. It has been the ability to get out of trouble that has earned him 10 wins this season and his best start to a season during his career.
Paul Konerko: Possibly snubbed. Konerko has carried the White Sox offensively, and is second in the league to Jose Bautista in homeruns with 20. Again, Girardi had to make a choice, but we know that he will always pick one of his players than one from another team.
NL Snub
Joey Votto: In my humble opinion, Votto was the clearly snubbed. When a player like Omar Infante makes the All Star team, instead of a player that is putting MVP numbers you know something is wrong. Votto is batting .320, with 19 homeruns and 53 RBI’s. He has been the most important offensive player for the Reds this season, and their success so far this year is because of Votto’s offensive production. Votto is definately more deserving of an All Star selection than Omar Infante.
Yankees bust out
It took the Yankees until the third inning, but they finally bust out against the Blue Jays and scored 11 runs during the frame. With the offense that has been struggling this week, it was nice to finally see them put a pitcher on the ropes and knock him out of the game. This time, suprisingly, Ricky Romero was the victim of a rare Yankee offensive onslaught.
Romero has been pitching well all season long, giving the Blue Jays quality start after quality start; and against the Yankees this year, Romero only allowed two earned runs in 7 innings of work. So I guess something had to give today right? Well, it did. Brett Gardner (more on him in a moment) started the inning innocently enough with a single to right, and from there the roof caved in on Romero as the Yankees batted around and scored eleven runs. Jeter walked; Swisher hits a bloop single; Teixeira drives a double down the left field line; A-Rod hits into a ground out RBI; Cano hits a screaming line drive single, and then later with the bases loaded, Gardner hits a grand slam. For the yankees this inning couldn’t have gone any better than it did as they knocked Romero out of the game and gave Andy Pettitte a nice 8 run cushing to work with.
So where has the offense been lately? I guess it was hiding after being rattled by the great arms of Lee and Hernandez. But today the offense came out and decided to put the game away early and give Pettitte a chance to earn his 10th victory of the season.
As for Brett Gardner…
During the off-season I had my doubts that Gardner could be an everyday player, let alone be a factor in the Yankees lineup. But after 70+ games, Gardner has not only proven he can be an everyday player, but has effectively proved me wrong. Gardner not only finds ways to get on base, but once he is on base, the Yankees have a strong chance of manufacturing a run. Success in baseball depends on how a lineup manufacture runs. Over the past five years, the Yankee way of manufacturing runs came via the long ball. However this season, the club is now rellying on stealing bases, timely hits, hit and run to manufacture runs, instead of just waiting for a big blast. The reason for this has been Gardner’s play all year.
Gardner’s at bats are complete and discipline because he makes the pitcher worker harder than necessary. One of the things Gardner does very well is that he fouls off very tough pitches. By doing that, the pitcher strike zone gets smaller, which allows Gardner to take close pitches and draw a lot of bases on balls. And when he is on base, he is a threat to take off and get into scoring position. A player like Gardner, that consistently gets on base becomes a consistent run manufacturer. And today against the Blue Jays, Gardner began, or should I say, manufactured the foundations of an 11 run inning. Not bad for a guy I said wasn’t even a good hitter.
Yankees bounce back
Yankees turned the tables last night against the Arizona Diamondbacks, to tie the current series. It all started in the bottom of the ninth with the Yankees trailing the game 2-0, when Byung-Hyun Kim gave up a lead off double to Jorge Posada. But after getting two quick outs, Kim surrendered a game tying homerun to Scott Brosius. The homerun by Brosius was the second game tying homerun that Kim has given up in successive nights, and…………wait a minute, that happened almost 9 years ago in the World Series…. darn Yankees Classics on YES.
Fast foward to the present; the Yankees did turn the tables against the D-Backs to tie this current interleague series at a game a piece. After AJ Burnett basically imploded in the first inning of Monday’s game, Andy Pettitte was the total opposite, as he was able to work into and out of trouble, and pitched 7 strong innings to preserve a one run lead until the Yankees broke the game open in the 8th inning.
Alex Rodriguez set the table last night with a first inning two run homerun against Dan Haren, and later in the third inning, with the game tied at 2, Rodriguez delivered a single to give the Yankees the lead for good. Haren was able to settle down after that inning, and kept the game competitive. But after Haren was taken out of the game, the horrible D-Back’s bullpen took over and basically gave up the game. After scoring 6 runs and extending their lead to 9-2, the Yankees bullpen finished off the D-Backs.
What a difference a day makes. One night, D-Backs lit up Burnett, the next night, Andy Pettitte set things right. That is the difference between Pettitte and Burnett. Burnett has great stuff, but he isn’t a smart pitcher when he gets in trouble. Pettitte on the other hand, when he gets in trouble, he finds a way to get out of it. If Burnett wants to become a better pitcher, he should start talking with Pettitte more often.
Pettitte strong but Yankees still fall…
Tough game yesterday for the Yankees to lose, after an outstanding outing by Andy Pettitte. Yankees had their chances, unfortunately, the inexperience of some of their baserunners showed, as they were unable to get the job done in key situations. More importantly, the Yankees couldn’t take advantage of the fact that the Rays lost down in Texas 6-1 to the Rangers. As of now, the Yankees are 2 games behind Tampa, and just 1 and half behind the Red Sox and Blue Jays.
But, it isn’t all bad news for the Yankees. As I wrote above, Andy Pettitte once again gave the Yankees a quality start by striking out 10 Jays in just 7.2 innings of work. At times during the game it seemed that Pettitte was about to lose control, only to have him throw a pitch that got him out of trouble. The defense behind him was also solid, as Nick Swisher, not known for his defense, made to good catches in right field. For Pettitte everything went right, except his run support.
The same unfortunately can’t be said about the Yankees lineup. In two games, Jays pitching, which has been very good all year (as I said, this team can pitch just as well as they hit homeruns), and yesterday, although Romero wasn’t as sharp as he has been in earlier starts this year, he still found a way to hold the Yankees down to two runs. The Yankee that had the most difficulty with Romero was Mark Teixeira, as he was literally owned by Romero’s nasty changeup. Teixeira’s struggles continue as he struck out 5 times in a row, earning him the olympic rings. The rest of the lineup wasn’t good either, so I’m not going to lose sleep over the fact that Teixeira is still struggling.
But, I did lose sleep over one thing, and that is Francisco Cervelli’s boneheaded baserunning mistake. With less than two outs, every player is taught from little league on up to freeze on a linedrive. So I was surprised that in the 7th or 8th inning of the game, when the Yankees had two runners in scoring position with one out, that Cervelli took off for home plate after a Derek Jeter lined out to a drawn in infielder. Seriously, I like Cervelli, but as a Major Leaguer he should know better. It’s mistakes like those that drives me nuts (what drives my really insane is when major leaguers can’t bunt the ball in play) and after that inning, I knew the Yankees would lose the game.
Give Credit to the Jays…
Ricky Romero (not to be confused with JC Romero) did a heck of a job, even if he was struggling. He got out of a bases loaded jam in the second inning, and held down the Yankees offense during his 8 innings of work. His only mistake came on a fastball that had “hit me” all over it to Derek Jeter, who certainly hit it to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead. Other than that, Cito Gaston should be happy with his pitching, as Romero and the bullpen got the job done. More over, the Jays, unlike the Yankees, cashed in with their situational hitting. With the way the Jays are playing, I wonder if Gaston is having flashbacks to the early 90′s…I know I am :-\
David Veloz
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