I
really,
really hate Detroit.
Phil Hughes stunk up he joint for a disappointing 3.2 innings tonight, allowing 6 runs on 8 hits and 3 walks. As I took notes I was keeping track of the excuses for his performance. In the first inning, it was bad luck and a horrible decision by Joe Girardi to start Johnny Damon in center over Melky Cabrera. Apparently Girardi wanted to make sure to get every single left-handed bat he had in the lineup against the Gambler, good move. After the first, though, I gave up. At some point the kid has to take responsibility, or more accurately, I have to assign responsibility to him, I don't think he's been ducking it.
He throws nothing but fastballs and curves, he can't throw either for strikes with any consistency and when he does throw strikes, they cut the plate in half. When Al Leiter was breaking down his poor performance he had an alarming stat. Of the 82 pitches Hughes threw, only 3 were change-ups, and only 2 were sliders. He's basically turned himself into a two-pitch pitcher. That's not going to cut it.
We got our first, and hopefully last, look at the Yanks' new backup catcher, Chris Stewart. It was one of the worst games I've ever seen from a catcher, and that's being generous.
At the plate, well, the Yanks took a bunch of walks then couldn't drive in any of the free runners. Robinson Cano got into one for the first two runs, the third scored on a bases-loaded HBP and the fourth on a ball that Miguel Cabrera should've gobbled up off the bat of Jason Giambi. Just pitiful offensive production.
Two highlights of the game. Number one, the bullpen. Ohlendorf, Edwar and LaTroy completely shut down a potent Tigers' lineup for 5.1 innings. Number two, a spectacular broken bat from none other than Johnny Damon.
Oh yeah, remember
yesterday when I wrote about the three worst things that could happen to this team, injury-wise? Well, as of tonight, 2 of the 3 have happened. The
Yanks placed A-Rod on the 15-day disabled list, which means we get to see Morgan Ensberg, his nonexistent throwing arm and his super-slow bat on a daily basis for the next week. If I had my druthers, Alberto Gonzalez would see all the time at third until A-Rod came back, at least he does one thing well. The odds of that happening are pretty much nil, though.
So, for the foreseeable future, the Yankees will be trotting a national league lineup out there to backup a pitching staff with 2.5 legitimate big league starters. A quick note to Joey Jr. after the jump.
Player of The Game: Ross Ohlendorf
Team Record: 14-14
Damon's Broken Bats: 1 lawn dart tonight, 13 on the season.
please dont wait till 1am to write about the yankess cause the sixers arent who u thought they were... anyway what a brilliant mind our skipper has ... start damon and his pop gun arm in center vs a lefty no less and bench a red hot switch hitting CF w/ a rocket arm at least it took 4 batters for it blow up in our face. when hughes pitches there one thing u can count on that olendorf will see 3 innings of action from the 4th inning on. his stuff is overpowering why are we burning hm out like this?? if u need a mop up guy put hawkins in.. joe has been suspect at best im not sure what goes through his head sometimes
You know, Hughes probably gets out of that first inning without allowing a single run if Melky is in center. He absolutely gets out of it with only 1 run scoring, no doubt about that.
I consider the #3 spot in the rotation to be Hughes/Ohlendorf at this point. I mean, Ohlendorf is basically burned for a couple of days after every Hughes start anyway, may as well plan on it.
Edwar or Hawkins should be getting the long work at this point. Ohlendorf should be working his way to the end of the game. Completely agree with you.
Oh, and let me enjoy the last game or two of the Sixers' season, you're still getting my full Yankee coverage, it's just a little delayed. They'll have my undivided attention before you know it.
You should set up a Damon Broken Bat tipline e-mail. Its the only thing that interests me about this team at this point...
Not to sound like a big jerk, but should you guys have been expecting this? When the decision was made not to keep Hughes in the package for Santana after the Twins procastinated, you should have known this season would be a little up and down: relying on two really young starters makes that happen. It's inevitable. Now I think Hughes will still end up being great, and maybe Kenedy still will as well, but of course they're going to be up and down.
You wrote a short little post a little back saying that after you saw Johan give up a bomb to some clown, that you're glad you stuck with the kids. I'm certain you still feel the same way, but what about other Yanks fans. Johan has been quite stellar so far. Anyone out there who originally didn't want to deal PH or IK for santana that now wishes the move had been made?
Just like the Bulls with Kobe, the non-move is going to characterize this Yanks season.
I still wouldn't make the deal today. Johan's leading the NL in home runs allowed and you can multiply all of his "good" numbers by about 1.5 to see what he'd be doing if he was pitching in a real league.
Comparing the Santana deal to a Kobe deal is a little off. Kobe is still in his prime, and will be for the duration of any contract you'd give him. Santana was nowhere near dominant last year, he was actually coming off the worst year of his career and still wound up signing the biggest contract ever for a pitcher.
The Yanks have basically been treading water, waiting for the rookies to settle down in the rotation, waiting for the bats to get healthy. They're treading water and playing .500 ball, as long as they continue to do so they'll be fine.
Funny thing, though. As bad as they've played they still have just as many wins as the ChiSox, who are clearly playing above their heads and have nowhere to go but down over the last 5 months of the season.
I'd be interested in knowing how many of Johan's HR's are solo shots. I'm guessing a lot of them. Actually, I just looked it up. He's given up seven dongs this year and only two of them aren't solo shots and they were both two-run bombs. Makes a big difference.
Well, now I know what I'll be calling home-runs for the rest of the season. And if my life long dream of taking over Bob Lorenz's spot on the post game show comes true, you think they'll let me say 'dong' on air? Fingers crossed!
You had never heard of 'dong' being used in reference to a homer? I think they'd let you use that on the air....once....maybe.
Unless it's something like "He just got himself a big dong on that one"
Sorry for the delayed response, but HAHA!