 Exactly What You Need, Right When You Need It
An extremely short recap tonight, but that shouldn't take anything away from the weight of the performance. Andy Pettitte was worth every bit of his $16M contract on a rainy day in Baltimore. He threw 7 shutout innings and got the ball directly to Joba after the previous three starters in the rotation had completely blown up the bullpen with horrible outings.
We've come to expect performances like this from Andy, and as commenter Alex said to me earlier today, Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy should pay very close attention when Pettitte pitches. He doesn't have dominant stuff anymore, but he still pounds the strike zone. Pitching in the zone will do wonders for you, the sooner those kids figure that out, the better. Johnny Damon came through with a big tack-on dinger in the top of the ninth to give the Yanks some breathing room. Brian Bruney did a great job getting out of Joba's jam in the bottom of the eighth. The only downer of the day was a strained quad for A-Rod (hey, that rhymes). I get the feeling that A-Rod's removal from the game was precautionary. I doubt he'll miss any time beyond tomorrow's off day and any days he was planning to take to be with his wife for the birth of their child. Player of The Game: Team Record: 10-10 (.500 again) Damon's Broken Bats: nada. 
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Hey, come on, how is Andy NOT the player of the game? Most of your post is about the guy, and he was totally the hero. I guess that Sixers game was a little bit more important today :>)
That was a typo. Fixed now. Head is in the playoffs, sorry. Good to see you back, Mike. How's the weather out there on the left coast?
Thanks Brian, good to be hanging around here, waiting for you to start blogging more about the Yanks once the Sixers go all the way and win the whole damn thing :>). Bay area weather is quite nice, can't complain. Hopefully the Yanks start playing in a better weather if that's the reason for their funk (yeah, it's probably not, but wouldn't that be great if that was the reason and nothing else :>).
Hey Brian, I just wanted to share a little info I dug up on the Yankees earlier today.
Watching them play this year, I sensed a lack of patience in the team this year. It seemed like players were swinging at the first pitch more often than last year, were swinging at bad pitches more often, etc.
So, I looked at the team's total stats from last year, and I discovered that the team drew a walk 637 times (third in the AL) in 6572 plate appearances, for a rate of 9.8%
This season, the team has drawn 60 walks (10th in the AL) in 709 PAs, for a rate of 8.5%. Derek Jeter has only walked TWICE this season, and Posada only three times. A-Rod is on pace for 40.5 BBs, which would be a career low for a full season. In faqct, he hasnt had less than 75 walks in a season since 1999, when he missed 33 games at age 23
It's certainly possible that the hitters were pressing and being impatient because of the poor starting pitching, and the desire compensate for this problem.
Which is where a game like today helps out especially. Andy Pettitte comes out, pitches a gem, and takes the stress off the offense, allowing the hitters to take their "usual" approach at the plate, and not have to overcompensate for a poor pitching performance.
Tom,
This is an excellent point, and not one I've seen anyone bring up before. Having to dig your way out of a hole early in games can hurt batters patience in a couple of ways. One, the opposing pitcher has an added incentive to pound the strike zone, a solo bomb is much easier to stomach than a couple of walks and a three-run bomb when you're pitching with a lead. And two, like you said above, when you're down on the scoreboard and you know you're going to need a ton of runs the natural inclination is to want to get the big hit.
That stat is amazing. The YES guys were talking about this today during the game, the formula the Yanks use, where they get good starting pitching, get a small lead and then tack on. This relates directly to patience. The walks you draw in the first, second and third innings may not lead directly to runs, but they lead to getting into the soft underbelly of the opposing team's bullpen. That's where you do the most damage. By letting teams coast through easy at bats early in the game you skip right over the middle relievers and go right from the starters to the end-of-game set-up and closers, who usually don't walk as many and are much tougher to hit off of.
Great work, as usual.
first of all the reason you havent found any experts picking the six is because they have absolutly NO chance to beat the pistons is a 7 game series thus thw -1400series price in vegas.. anyway if not for andy pettite the season would already be over for the yanks. he is clutch hes a big game pitcher and just flat out wins.who would u trust to win a playoff game on this staff? even wang cant be trusted in a big spot.. the bottom line is we must sign a pitcher asap before the season is out of reach i think phil hughs will come around his stuff is too good but kennedy looks terrible. WHy didnt we work out a deal for santana ? we we could have had the best pitcher in baseball and we passed good move hank. by the way if i was the gm or owner i would have gotten yohan at all costs ,,sheffield would still be my dh and my outfield would consist of melky beltran and abreu but i guess signing damon was just as good
by the way stop shorting the yankee recaps cause of the sixers u got 4-5 games left in the season why waste your time ?