Friday, April 11, 2008
Worst Offense Ever Takes a Night Off
In a shocking turn of events, the Yankees managed to score a decent number of runs last night, beating the Royals 6-1. Granted, two of the runs came in the ninth inning against Hideo Nomo, who I could have sworn has been retired for a few years, but it was still good to see. Jorge Posada's HR was especially nice considering the way he has started the season off with his injury and ineffectiveness.More important than the offensive outburst was Andy Pettitte's good pitching. Pettitte went six and two-thirds innings and allowed just one run and five hits. The Yankees really need Pettitte and Wang to do what they are projected to do this season if they want to have a shot at the postseason. it was still a save situation when Pettitte was pulled so Joba Chamberlain pitched the end of the seventh as well as the eighth. I like seeing Joba pitch more than one inning because I still think he should end up in the rotation. Mariano Rivera came in to pitch the ninth despite the Yankees adding a couple of runs, which was fine, he hadn't pitched for a few days and was already warmed up anyway. One thing that I noticed last night is Mo was throwing a lot of two-seamers. I'd like to see him continue to do that.
Now comes three games against some .500 team. Your pitching matchups for the weekend:
Friday April 11: C. Wang (2-0,1.38) vs. C. Buchholz (0-1,5.40)
Saturday April 12: M. Mussina (1-1,3.09) vs. J. Beckett (0-1,9.64)
Sunday April 13: P. Hughes (0-1,5.00) vs. D. Matsuzaka (2-0,1.47)
I hate these series, mainly because of the ridiculous hype certain media outlets try to give these games. It's an interesting set of matchups. Wang makes his first road start of the year and the Yankees haven't seen Buccholz before, so hopefully he doesn't no-hit them. Beckett's still working his way back to full strength but Moose is going to have to try to trick one of the better lineups in baseball, and who knows what either Hughes or Matsuzaka will bring on Sunday night?
Since I don't know how long this will last, here's an early meaningless and small sample size look at how the Yankee defense has performed according to zone rating so far this season.
| Player | Pos | G | INN | Ch | ZR | PM | AvgPM | Diff | RS | RS/162 |
| Giambi, Jason | 1B | 6 | 43 | 11 | .818 | 9 | 10 | -1 | 0 | -15 |
| Ensberg, Morgan | 1B | 3 | 17 | 3 | 1.000 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 26 |
| Betemit, Wilson | 1B | 2 | 11 | 2 | 1.000 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 27 |
| Duncan, Shelley | 1B | 1 | 9 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Cano, Robinson | 2B | 10 | 88 | 43 | .837 | 36 | 36 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Rodriguez, Alex | 3B | 10 | 87 | 29 | .931 | 27 | 23 | 4 | 3 | 50 |
| Betemit, Wilson | 3B | 1 | 1 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Molina, Jose | C | 7 | 55 | 1 | 1.000 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Posada, Jorge | C | 4 | 33 | 1 | 1.000 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| Cabrera, Melky | CF | 8 | 70 | 21 | .810 | 17 | 19 | -2 | -2 | -31 |
| Damon, Johnny | CF | 2 | 18 | 3 | 1.000 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 21 |
| Damon, Johnny | LF | 6 | 53 | 9 | 1.000 | 9 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 28 |
| Matsui, Hideki | LF | 3 | 27 | 7 | .571 | 4 | 6 | -2 | -2 | -90 |
| Abreu, Bobby | RF | 8 | 70 | 10 | .900 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Matsui, Hideki | RF | 1 | 9 | 1 | 1.000 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 15 |
| Duncan, Shelley | RF | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1.000 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 137 |
| Jeter, Derek | SS | 7 | 56 | 26 | .731 | 19 | 22 | -3 | -2 | -54 |
| Gonzalez, Alberto | SS | 2 | 17 | 5 | 1.000 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 52 |
| Betemit, Wilson | SS | 2 | 15 | 5 | 1.000 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 58 |
| Total | 84 | 680 | 178 | .854 | 152 | 150 | 2 | 1 | 21 |
INN: Defensive Innings at Position
Ch: Playable Chances
ZR: Zone Rating (PM/Ch)
PM: Plays Made
AvgPM: Estimated Plays Made over the same # of chances by an average defender
Diff: Difference between PM and AvgPM
RS: Runs Saved
RS/162: Runs Saved pro-rated to 162 games
Melky's had some tough chances so I wouldn't pay much heed to his numbers yet, but I think Hideki Matsui needs to be kept out of the outfield whenever possible. For those of you thinking Alex Rodriguez is playing Gold Glove caliber defense this year, you're right.
In bad news down on the farm, Alan Horne suffered some kind of injury in his start last night and will have an MRI today. Let's hope for good news there.
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