Foist!

Dare I say Burnett just appeared… electric?

Remember when it was an open question whether Nick Markakis or Melky Cabrera was better?

El Capitán turns it around today.

[3] Just how ancient do you think I am?

“Remember when it was an open question whether Nick Markakis or Melky Cabrera was better?”

Was it ever?

How did Jeter get to 2nd, a ground ball and an error?

Aaaaaand crappy AJ is back.  Great.

[5,6]  Steven Goldman, usually pessimistic about Yankee prospects, one wrote this:

NICK MARKAKIS AND MELKY CARBERA: THE TALE OF THE TAPE
Revisiting an observation made several weeks ago about how these rookies seemed to be tracking each other:
    AGE   G   AB   R   H   2B   3B   HR   RBI   BB   K   SB   CS   AVG   OBP   SLG
Markakis   22   106   324   46   96   17   2   6   38   29   52   2   0   .296   .359   .417
Cabrera   22   85   316   53   92   17   2   7   38   35   35   9   4   .291   .364   .424

Cabrera’s 10 months younger, is a switch hitter, and plays in the tougher park. Markakis is the more celebrated prospect, but make mine Melky.

Nice recovery.

Waldman just claimed that “most” of Burnett’s HBP’s came on the back foot of left-handed hitters.

It’s been a while since AJ actually did a little battlin’.

If Gardner was facing AJ he would have walked ten times in that inning.

Gardner, 4th most foul balls with 2 strikes (YES graphic).

Good thing the Cap’n pre-emptively broke up the perfecto.

Anyone with the game on the telly .. . would a left fielder have gotten to Roberts’ soft fly ball?

How is AJ pitching?

This would be like a 3-0 game with Jorge behind the plate.

16. Nah, clean bloop.

Still clutch…

7 game win streak snapped by his return wasn’t bad enough. He’s gotta go on hurting the team with more home runs. Disgraceful.

I know Matusz isn’t throwing gas, but it’s very encouraging to see Alex hitting two inside heaters to left on consecutive AB’s, obviously crushing that last one. I feel like he’s been a little off on the inside pitch all season. A similar September/October ‘09 run from the Rod would be… timely.

That was almost seriously stupid by Teix.

I am shocked AJ gave that run right back.  Shocked.

Pitching to the score…

I quite enjoyed Brian Roberts’ absence from baseball. Sadly, it was not to last long.

Gameday so hates this ump.

gameday had a number of balls by aj where strike one on BG was called.

Captain Killrally.

Did anyone really expect Jeter to get another hit?

31 pitch inning, plus we cleared the automatic ground-out spot in the lineup.

A.J. back to “work”.

I guess this is good AJ, sort of. But I’ve formed the impression that much of the time when good AJ shows up, so does WOE.

I suppose I could tell for sure by looking back at gamelogs, but why bother when I’m already so sure of it ?

Edit: OK, I checked. 5 times he had quality starts and either got the loss or no decision.

Anyone warming? If not, why not?

[34]  Girardi’s too smart to expect to win this game.

Green light, please.

100 RBI !

Ah-Woooooooooo !!!!

That works.

Izturis had Pie in face.

Cano with a bullet line drive

A.J. giving up another Oriole leadoff base hit.  Nice.

Setting up the DP…

Frack.

And he gives the Orioles the lead right back.  Can’t wait to see how he performs against a playoff team.

I’m calling Walk, Sac Bunt, 6-3 for this inning.

Wait… that’s not possible. Amended to say force out, not sac bunt

The 6-3 goes without saying.

What a fucking waste.

After a new pitcher walks a batter, you make a guy with a nice OBP sac bunt.  Smart move.

Why, why try to pick off Golson with Jeter up?

Fantastic moves this inning.  Lookin’ good, Joe.

CS takes away the DP.

All set up by the stupid bunts throwing away strikes.

Absurd.

Showalter is laughing at Girardi now.

Defensive indifference by the pitcher on the soft comebacker.

Ah, well. At least we’ll gain on someone today.

Ah, well. At least we’ll gain on someone today.

Gain?  So they’re going to come back and win this one?  That’s too much optimism.

I mean either Boston or Tampa’s elimination number will go down.

who bunted?

I mean either Boston or Tampa’s elimination number will go down.

Nonsense.  How can either have an elimination number when they’re both making the playoffs?

/Mitched

[59] They had Gardner bunting until he had two strikes.

[60] True. I forgot, the only question is who wins the AL Northeast Division.

Two down and eight to go on our losing streak as Selig designates wins for both Boston and TB in a decision “for the good of the game.”

I love how Laz Diaz extended the strikezone a whole foot in that inning. Way to be consistent.

That game sucked.

Now transferring the rest of my rooting for the day over to the Giants, in an attempt to keep Philly from the NL Wild Card….

Also, Sole Posession !

Other then Andy, if healthy, and CC who would we like to see start a big playoff game?

can we just not have big playoff games when they’re not pitching?

Kind of funny that of “Generation Trey” Ian Kennedy is currently in possession of the best season as a starter.

Kind of funny that of “Generation Trey” Ian Kennedy is currently in possession of the best season as a starter.

Eiland is no longer his pitching coach, so….

Other then Andy, if healthy, and CC who would we like to see start a big playoff game?

Moose.

and even with his new pitching coach do you think he’d keep his ERA+ >100 in the AL?

[68] He’s not pitching in the AL East though.

Nova, maybe. Hughes has been a 5.00+ ERA pitcher for almost 4 months now. I’m guessing about the same for Javy and AJ.

Javy vs. Mauer in DNYS…yikes. But I think he’ll be the 4th starter (assuming Andy and AJ are 2 and 3), because Hughes probably won’t be any better and they’ll be watching his innings.

How about CC and BattleCat just start every postseason game and Mo is the only RP used? They basically ALMOST did that last October.

74 - well, yeah, except that AJ was the #2 starter.

71, 72 - Doesn’t change the fact that he’s had the best year as a starter (to this point) of the 3. Sitting on about 170 innings of 115 ERA+.

[68] He’s not pitching in the AL East though.

True, but he’s pitching in one of the two or three worst parks for a pitcher.  I’d say Coors -> Fenway -> BOB in that order.

Knock him down a bit for not facing DHs most of the time and for the better talent in the AL, usually worth about 0.5 in ERA.  So, adjusting his performance to date, it’d be something like:

Adjust to neutral park: 4.2 / 1.045 = 4.02
NL -> AL conversion = 4.02 + .5 = 4.52

Probably knock some innings off too since he won’t get as many outs facing DHs instead of pitchers, maybe something like 10 innings.

Not sure how Kennedy’s defense has helped/hurt him to this point.  His BABIP is probably unsustainably low at .276 and Arizona’s defense rates above average so far this year. 

Moving him to DNYS probably raises his HR rate too if we’ve converted him to a neutral park.

So in theory he’d probably be a bit worse than Hughes right now if he had remained a Yankee I guess, although you never really know how a player’s skills translate to a different team/park/league.

JFTR, I’ve long been a proponent of IPK, and hope he bestrides the NL like a colossus and grinds them underneath his passage like a juggernaut.