I was gonna say ‘Welcome to the A.J. Burnett era!!!’ but we actually got introduced when he wet the bed in the first series in Boston. Basically, we’ve been there since the 3rd week of the season or so.

That sucked.  Their pitching > ours.  Their hitting > ours.  Their fielding > ours.  Papi hit an absolute bomb.

Luckily, it counts the same as a 4-3 loss does.  It was just more painful to watch.  Burnett, in particular, was unwatchable.  Ball 1.  Ball 2.  Strike 1.  Ball 3.  In play (runs).

I am writing the game off as an aberration until proven otherwise.

I was gonna say ‘Welcome to the A.J. Burnett era!!!’ but we actually got introduced when he wet the bed in the first series in Boston. Basically, we’ve been there since the 3rd week of the season or so.

I was never the biggest fan of the Burnett signing, though I certainly am hoping it still works out.  Here’s what I think the good news is: AJ Burnett goes through bad stretches pretty much every year.  He goes through stretches where he pitches like a 5th starter, sometimes for half a season.  But his #‘s at the end of the year are almost always a little better than league average.  Why?  Because he then goes through hot stretches where he’s as good as anybody.

So as bad as he’s been, I don’t think it is unexpected.  And he likely has a dominant stretch coming in him.  So Yankees are tied for 1st and we still have “good AJ” ahead of us.  And I’ll keep telling myself that bad start after bad start.  What, me worry?

Their pitching > ours.  Their hitting > ours.  Their fielding > ours. 

I don’t buy this.  Their bullpen is better than ours, but thats it.  They are going to win tonight, and it is going to be all, OMG!  WTF!

But its ok.  Yanks are going to win the division walking away, and these games won’t matter.

John, I was talking about last night’s game only.  I should have made that clear, I suppose.

Imagine the ruckas if the Yanks went 0-fer against the Sox for the season but won the division anyway…

I wouldn’t care if that happened as long as they beat up on the Sox in the postseason.

Don’t blame the wind for the reason baseballs are leaving the New Yankee Stadium at an alarming rate. The New York Daily News reported a recent study blames the curvature and height of the walls as the reason Yankee Stadium has become baseball’s newest launching pad.

Taking into account the altered field dimensions and the lowered wall heights of the new building, AccuWeather.com has determined that 19% — 20 out of the whopping 105 home runs already hit there in the first 29 games — would not have flown out of the old stadium, according to the report. ...from The Daily News

This would be one of those things I would expect design engineers to look into…smells of gross negligence if true.

The Yankees are tied with the Red Sox despite being 0-7 in head to head games.  Imagine how pretty we’d be sitting if they just managed 2 or 3 wins.

despite being 0-7 in head to head games

So, you’re already taking into consideration Wang’s scheduled implosion tonight?  I like your efficiency.

Sory.  O-6.  Typ0,

In the modern day era, has there ever been a season sweep between 2 teams?

Sory.  O-6.  Typ0,

Harumph!  Smells of gross negligence to me.

But seriously, what is AccuWeather basing the “altered field dimensions and lowered wall heights” on?  And if the homers really are a result of the field being smaller and the walls being lower, then that really isn’t a design engineering issue.  You don’t need engineers to measure 314 feet from point a to point b, or 8 feet from the ground up.  Now, if they had inadvertently created a wind tunnel that blows a gale straight out from home plate to the 385 sign, that would be a design engineering issue.

In the modern day era, has there ever been a season sweep between 2 teams?

Yanks swept the A’s once in the late nineties, and I think the A’s swept the Yanks once in the early eighties.

The different dimensions are due to the auxiliary scoreboard.  Since it is there the wall has to be straight instead of the slight curve that used to be there.  I doubt anyone snuck in an auxiliary scoreboard without the Yankees knowing.

I don’t think there have every been any teams in the same division that have swept with the unbalanced schedule though.  19-0 would be REALLY hard to do even for the best team in baseball history vs. the worst team in baseball history.

Now, if they had inadvertently created a wind tunnel that blows a gale straight out from home plate to the 385 sign, that would be a design engineering issue.

That’s what I’m asking.  Apparently the field dimension survey results are on display at the stadium which “prove” the playing surface is the same as the old stadium…

My point is that whatever the reason for the different size of the field or height of the wall, it’s not very likely that it’s a result of negligence on the part of an engineer or engineers.  Like you said, nobody snuck that scoreboard in, and I really doubt that some engineering firm told the Yankees that they could make the field smaller and the fence shorter without having more balls leave the park.

And why do people keep using Swisher’s picture to illustrate stories about this issue?  He’s got three HRs at home and nine on the road.

This is totally sweet:

BURLINGTON, Vt.—A Vermont man hoping to sow rivalry between his favorite team and their biggest nemesis says he sprinkled grass seed from Yankee Stadium onto Fenway Park.

Ian Ferris of Shelburne told the Burlington Free Press that he sprinkled the grass seed on Fenway Park during a Phish concert on May 31. He says he waited for Phish to finish playing “David Bowie” before he launched a plastic bag filled with seed and water onto the infield.

http://www.wptz.com/news/19712418/detail.html

The new curse:  We covered Fenway with our seed!  <Insert Wang joke here>

I’m glad I missed this game.  AJ is officially on notice.  I feel like he’s been getting by because the team is winning and he just so happens to be the second highest paid pitcher on the team.  This seals it though.

If i were the manager, Wang throws two pitches that sail in the first inning and he’s gone. Play to win. Won’t happen of course for lots of practical reasons, but the leash on my Wang would be very very short.

Would it really be that hard to take a pitching machine and launch balls towards both left and right field and track how far they go?

my Wang would be very very short
hehe

i don’t really understand the big deal about more hr in the stadium. I mean, it’s not like the stadium causes more runners to fall into a pit filled with pirahnas, or the stadium has allowed Brett Gardner to hit 9 HR.

HR are a part of baseball. I don’t get why just because there have been more HR so far, the stadium is a “joke.”

Sticking a giant wall 30 feet a way from home plate seems like more of a joke to me, but all I ever hear about Fenway is how it’s a fucking palace of baseball and grand old lady of the national pastime or whatever.

People are dumb.

stadium has allowed Brett Gardner to hit 9 HR

This.

The Roger’s Center must be a little league field.

...are the lowered wall heights they’re referring to the ones that allow the concourses to be open to the outside air?  Based on observation, I have a hard time believing that 20 of the 105 homers were rinky-dink shots that were propelled by the stadium.  I could buy that ten or so are short-porch jobbies, but then again, the old stadium did pretty much the same thing.  I am definitely of the wait three seasons - at least - crowd.

Pure POOMA, but it seems reasonable that air currents could at ~3% to a balls flight.  Any golfer can attest to how changes in wind affect their shots.  So if there are any wind differences, 3% over 300 ft = 9 ft of incremental travel, which turns warning track fly outs into “rally killers,” according to Tim McCarver.

My point is that the stadium doesn’t have to be a NASA wind tunnel for it to impact results.  Small changes to stadium design should have effects on ballistics.

Like you said, nobody snuck that scoreboard in

Actually, something like this could have happened.  More along the lines of, *after* they designed the Stadium - perhaps even w/ the original curvature of the wall - someone said, “hey, a manual scoreboard would be nice!”  When they added the scoreboard in and straightened the wall, they didn’t bother to ALSO move the fences back.  I don’t KNOW if that happened of course, but that is entirely feasible.

Another possibility is that the engineers believe that after the old YS is removed, the wind-patterns will cause the baseball to not carry as far in RF, so a shorter RF will actually allow for the same (relative) number of HR.  Or not.

Also, if HR are travelling 8 feet further on average across baseball (a wasn’t that the study cited on Was Watching a month or so ago?), then those 20 HR that wouldn’t have been out of the old stadium, may have been using the same baseballs.

Finally, I think they need to wait AT LEAST the full year before making any determinations.  Old stadium needs to come down + they need some more time for the statistical noise to recede.  Perhaps if the HR factor is still over 1.10 they do *something*, but start small; e.g. move home-plate back 2 feet, rather than taking out 2 rows of seats and moving the wall back 8 feet or something.

Would it really be that hard to take a pitching machine and launch balls towards both left and right field and track how far they go?

I wouldn’t be surprised if they are planning on doing something like this in both the new and old stadium to compare.

Yanks swept the A’s once in the late nineties, and I think the A’s swept the Yanks once in the early eighties.

Close.  Our beloved 1990 Yankees got swept 12-0 by the A’s.  I actually remember that futility as it was happening, rooting harder for a win every game.  The Yankees swept Kansas City in 1998, 10-0.  They also went 11-1 against the Rays that year.

it’s not like the stadium causes more runners to fall into a pit filled with pirahnas

This would be very cool.

...start small; e.g. move home-plate back 2 feet, rather than taking out 2 rows of seats and moving the wall back 8 feet or something…

Or maybe, you know, take out the freakin’ auxiliary scoreboard if that really is the cause.  Personally, I wouldn’t have a problem with doing something big, even if the HR rate normalizes.  I like pitchers’ parks, and I like big outfields because they mean more doubles and triples.  The idea that they had to preserve field dimensions that only went back to 1988 was flat out stupid in the first place.  And I wouldn’t move home plate back without taking out a row or two of seats back there, since less foul territory would lead to more run scoring, even if HR went down.

like pitchers’ parks, and I like big outfields because they mean more doubles and triples.

I like more doubles and triples, but I also like kinda neutral parks.  Maybe a slight bias towards pitchers.

The idea that they had to preserve field dimensions that only went back to 1988 was flat out stupid in the first place.

Agree.  I wouldn’t have minded the 1985 dimensions, which were a little larger.  Or even something in between late-70’s and 1985.

And I wouldn’t move home plate back without taking out a row or two of seats back there, since less foul territory would lead to more run scoring, even if HR went down.

I think it is a matter of scale.  I don’t know if 2 feet less will add that much to run scoring given how few plays that should impact.  You could also argue that 2 feet won’t have much impact on HR, but it might, and that’s where something like Hit Tracker comes into play.  If they start looking at needing to move the plate back 6 or 8 feet they may be better off taking out a row of seats in the OF and making the wall higher.  Or they could just add 1000 huge fans in the outfield, blowing in towards homeplate.

The Yankees swept Kansas City in 1998, 10-0.  They also went 11-1 against the Rays that year.

I was just going to respond to the best team ever vs worst team ever argument by asking how the 98 Yanks did against the Rays. Nice.

I did want to pat Joe G on the back for his BP use last night. Only used Tomko, Veras, and got Robertson one inning of needed work. So, he managed to save Hughes and Aceves for when Wang craps the bed in the 1st inning tonight. Let’s just hope the offense puts up some runs early tonight to keep them in the game when Wang explodes.

“Or maybe, you know, take out the freakin’ auxiliary scoreboard if that really is the cause.”

Maybe the Steiner people have advised the Yankees to leave the scoreboard in place for a full season in order to maximize its auction value.

Hi guys—been busy, to say the least. Sunny weather in Seattle = never being indoors unless absolutely necessary.

We covered Fenway with our seed!

During a Phish concert? Are we sure exactly what kind of seed was sown? I know discerning Phish fans are very careful to dispose of seeds.

As for NYS, I was wondering if this is about wind movements? When they built that big glassy mega-suite in Fenway, then known as the 600 club (for still unknown reasons) it changed the winds at Fenway in subtle, unanticipated ways and cut down HRs. So I wonder if they haven’t quite pinned down how wind moves in Yankee Stadium. And we definitely don’t know how it will move in months not named April, May or June. Might turn the other way for the summer. Who knows?

I think if they move the left field truffle bar out a few more feet it could fix things. Also turn down the humidors starting an hour before the game.

It has nothing to do with wind.

Move back into the Stadium.

Put some rides in the new Mickey Mouse park and call it Steinbrenner World.

And this ballpark isn’t George’s fault, rather the fault of an idiot put in charge. That guys bank account must be something!