win expectancy assumes average everything.  Average hitter, average pitcher, average defense, average baserunners, etc.,

Seems about right for tonight’s game.

Sweet, Pettitte is only 23 (but also a right-hander).

Derek Jeter, SS (.334/.398/.479, 4.7 WAR)

Modamn!

The 4-pitch walk came early today.  Glad the Yankees got that out of the way…

BattleCat in battle mode immediately, thanks to ARod’s E.

See Joba, that’s how you battle.

Nice.  Battlemode, power down.

Battler battling the right way.

Take notes, Joba, take notes. Don’t hurt your arm in the process.

“When you pick a guy to hit 3rd in your lineup, you don’t want him walking a whole lot.”
-Rick Sutcliffe

[9] Wow.  There’s a reason I’m listening to my iPod while watching the game.

A-Rod keeps correcting his BABIP.

“Teixeira has never been a big walk guy.”
-Rick Sutcliffe

Teix: 69 BB this season which is 18th out of 884 players in baseball, and 97 BB last season which was 6th in all of baseball.

Umpires have told Holland that he cannot get away with his balk move yet, but he will eventually get that?

Are the umpires just habitually corrupt?

Yay Jorge!

So much for getting a ground ball to SS.

Prowess !

Well, Sutcliffe, it turns out he really was in trouble there, and Jorge doesn’t need to run very fast this trip.

Hip hop-opotomus.

Yay.

Yay, Sutcliffe!

“That 3-run HR was a rally killer.”

I am not really enjoying the Melky “chop the ball on the ground weakly” Cabrera experience.

Also, who is doing the game with Sutcliffe? He is even stupider than Sutcliffe.

“Whoever designed 90 ft had it nailed. It was right in 1901, in 1934. The game is always close.”

Is there a more vacuous, nonsensical statement that one could possibly make? Would it have been really much different if it were 85 ft? The players would have adjusted their play to still make things close. Yes, perhaps there would be less caught stealing and more hits, doubles and everything, but people would still get out by inches.

Never ceases to amaze me.

The game is always close

Except all the times when it’s not close and someone is thrown out at 1st by 5 feet, or makes it there safely by a few feet.  You know, what happens a lot.

Pettitte knows how to battle the right way.

Balls are 4-pitch, efficient battling.

Erased by double play.

Love the 8 pitch inning that includes a walk.

Sutcliffe:

“Michael Young is all about team. Moved to SS for Soriano, then moved to second base for A-Rod, and moved to third base for Andrus.”

The chronology is wrong, and he did raise quite a bit of stink before doing that.

Why do these people think that factually wrong babbling is good for tv? Or are they just trying to avoid awkward silence?

Balls Walks are 4-pitch, efficient battling.

Dave O’Brien wonders why anybody would ever question the bunt.

[21] Are those examples of where the bases are too far apart, or too close, rather than good or bad running/fielding/throwing ?

Dave O’Brien wonders why anybody would ever question the bunt.

Which confirms is was the complete wrong move.

Sutcliffe should be incarcerated for his ignorance.  On and on he goes about how Michael Young moved to 3B to make room for Andrus, and so what matters to Young is “the name on the front of the jersey.”

When in fact Young complained bitterly (and publicly) about being asked to slide over.

And did you hear Sut practically double over with laughter at the other guy’s pitiful “Elvis is in the building” joke.

Yankee baserunning (or Yankee base coaching) has been kind of awful this year.

We must lead the league in being thrown out at the plate by 10 feet.

Beat me to it sam.

espNESN’s announcers are making me pine for Sterling and Suzyn, and that should be impossible.

Also, I was informed Dan Patrick was taking jabs at espn today, something along the lines of Gammons refusing to mention the Rockies recent streak because the Sox aren’t involved.

O’Brien uses “nonetheless” when he means “no less.”

There’s a drinking game to be developed around Sutcliffe’s Follies.

Nice snag, Andy.

[34] Drink everytime he says something that is factually incorrect?

Although that would mean drinking everytime he spoke, and would lead to people passing out/dying by the 3rd inning.

[36] This is where my plan falls to the ground.

We need some sort of criteria that recognizes his stupidity, but sets the bar high enough to make the game last more than about 15 minutes.

Some kinda “perfect 90 feet” yardstick for stupidity…

So, Andy Pettitte, pitching ace?

Cano hustles out an IF hit, you just can’t predict baseball.

Sut is not a bright guy. I don’t think I’ve ever heard so many factually incorrect, idiotic statements in such a short period of time.

And Cano gets picked off to make up for that hustle, you can predict baseball.

Pretty close to being a balk.

Hairston!

Is Cano the worst base-stealer of anyone who has functional legs?

Jerry Hairston for president!

Cano for his butler.

There’s another rally killed stone dead.

Nice shot, Jerry. Hmm, another 4-0 lead…hope it turns out better.

Like that Holland put his glove in front of his face before yelling “Fuck” after the Hairston dinger.  Do the MLB PR people instrct them to do this?

Can someone please explain to Sutcliffe that Maris hit 61 HR in an expansion season and had the luxury of 8 more games than Ruth.

Yikes, 1 out run. This is going to be added to the inevitable two-out runs.

Doesn’t Pettitte’s veteran status mean he can stop 2-out runs?

Sutcliffe unwittingly confessing his chosen, active stupidity. “I want to believe Ortiz, that it was some sort of MetRx shake. Whereas A-Rod obviously had some things to hide.”

Which, of course, A-Rod tried the “Ortiz defense” and no-one believed him, because he’s A-Rod and not “Big Papi”, and after the pressure built he ended up coming clean about all the specifics. But since Ortiz has moved squarely into official has-been status and plays in Boston, he can continue stonewalling and nobody will ever care.

They should be asking a lot more pointed questions about who made the decision to sieze the data, who leaked it, and of course the conduct of the Mitchell Coverup.

[49] Not to mention that Maris fits the classic profile of what would be a modern day alleged PED user. He never hit more than 40 HRs in any other seasons, and hit more than thirty twice more. Is it possible he was on some kind of performance enhancers, when knowledge about this was preliminary and PED control non-existent?

More importantly, because of Mark McGwire’s congressional performance and Canseco, we believe that he was juicing when he broke the record. But there has been 0 proof of his PED use, except for the andro found in his locker that journalists chose to deliberately ignore at the time. And whatever Bonds was taking wasn’t banned either.

‘A-Rod tried the “Ortiz defense”’

I thought he didn’t.

[53] But let’s not let facts get in the way of Sutcliffe’s babblings.

I like the fact that Dave O’Brien wanted to talk about winning baseball and Derek Jeter, and Jeter made him look like an idiot by making a 1-pitch out.

But these guys are not going to give up, and keep talking about him anyway.

[54] Early on he tried to say he took lots of stuff from GNC, etc. In fact, wasn’t that the drift of the Katie Kouric interview ?

Thought [52] was about the post-list era.  I’m not up on the Couric interview.

It seems like the Evony people have found a decent looking girl, for a change.

[57] The thing is, he could still have gone the Ortiz way. He could have just said that he took supplements from the Dominican that triggered a positive, perhaps false positive. He could have said he did it in one-off situations like Pettitte.

He volunteered a lot of detail about his usage. Very, very different from Ortiz.

Of course, Ortiz could be speaking the truth. But in the event of a denial by A-Rod, he would have been as likely to speak the truth as Ortiz.

Not only is BattleCat in full battle mode tonight, but he has a nice battle sweat going.

[58] Yeah, this was maybe a year before the shitstorm that broke along with the book and the leak. That’s about the right amount of lead time for Roberts to conduct her “research”. My suspicious nature suggests to me that the same leaks made to Roberts also prompted the Couric interest.

[57] Yeah, Sam, that’s the contrast I was driving at. Sure, A-Rod’s hand was forced, and he didn’t lead with the open confession. But he also didn’t cling to the stonewalling.

Oh, and I’m switching over to YES on MLBEI for Cone/Singleton. I’m getting way too hammered trying to drink Sutcliffe sensible.

In 8 starts since the all-star break, Pettitte’s got himself a nice little 2.66 ERA over 50.2 innings.  That’s some nice work.

That’s some nice work.

And some nice battlin’.

I see too many fat kids on the Yankees stands. Hopefully, one day the find the cozy confines of mother’s basement and start blogging. That will make me proud.

[64] Nice enough to get him another one year contract? (Keep in mind, they can’t plan on anything from Wang next season and other than Lackey, who will be getting a 4 or more year deal, there are no appealing FA pitchers)

Unless he has some elbow trouble between now and the end of the season, I think he’d be a smart signing.

Did Sutcliffe really just say about A-Rod “for a guy who had hip replacement…” ?

Oh no, teh two-out run!

Use your veteran mojo, Andy!

That was unfortunate.

Can the Rays get no-hit twice in the same year?  That would be something with all their offense.

[69] Probably, I have gotten to the point where I am just blocking out what he is saying.

Did Sutcliffe really just say about A-Rod “for a guy who had hip replacement…” ?

Yes!

There’s always solace in the fact that Sterling sounds more wasted than I am.

There’ll be a little drinkin’.  There’ll be a little dancin’.  There’ll be a little battlin’.

hughes then mo? please don’t tell me a lefty is coming up…

Kinsler the righty leads off the 8th.  Have no fear.  7 IP, 2 R deserves a pat on the back and a seat in the dugout.

Haha, Sterling was speculating whether Hairston might bunt.

Hughes is warming up. That means we’ll get Bruney. Phil just getting in his throws in a bullpen session.

7 IP, 2 R deserves a pat on the back and a seat in the dugout.

Pettitte working hard to make his contract look like a great idea.

103 pitches.  Gotta be Hughes to face the top of the order in the 8th.

Almost already teh ate!

I’m already fantasizing about a blown Papelbon save tonight.  What’s wrong with me?

If Sterling’s the Yankees, he’d bunt.  He’s not.  They shouldn’t.

1st and 2nd no outs, Sterling calls for a bunt. Yes.

[83] Nothing. Now if you were routing for a Wagner hold and Papelbon save, there would be something wrong with you.

Nice Hairston AB.

I suspect Melky won’t be bunting but would have been if not for last night’s hideousness.

[87]  That’s a good point.  If last night didn’t happen, the bunt’s 100% here.

Please tell me that Posednik HR to tie the game was off Bard or Wagner.

What’s wrong with me?

Your fantasy didn’t include him getting charged and beaten to a jelly after a HBP while his teammates stand by watching.

You have to learn to dream in color, Dave.

I told ya so. It would have been undefendable.

Alexi Casilla just made one of the best plays I’ve ever seen by 2B.

[89] - Ramon Ramirez, sorry.

MVP.

MVP! MVP! MVP!

O Captain, my Captain.

My Papelbon blown save fantasy was more along the lines of Richie Tenenbaum’s meltdown: shoes off, sitting on the mound crying, underhand tosses the ball to the plate.

The Yankees aren’t playing the game the right way. Scoring runs with less than two outs is unsportsmanlike. Jeter should be suspended.

[92] He has to make up for that 54 OPS+ somehow.

Nice hit Swish, but I hope ya putting in more time on the bunts.