You could kinda feel it coming last night. I thought Rays would get to Wade and Soriano, but as the Yanks failed to expand lead, it seemed rather likely that Rays would take it. Got to give Girardi some love. I thought his handling of pitchers was good. Obviously, its easier to do what you want with the rookies and he pulled Phelps in good fashion.  Had that been more of a veteran, I don’t know if he’d taken the ball. Niemann really didn’t make any mistakes last night. The run came on a good pitch to Jeter that he fought off and Cano’s double really was a good pitch.  I thought he really toyed with the rest of the lineup.  For a big tall guy, he doesn’t throw that hard but has quite a lot of movement that he controlled well.
Also got to tip your hat to Ray’s approach on Robby. Didn’t let him get ahead in count. I know he’s capable of getting it up to 94-5 at times. Would that have made any difference?  I dunno but you can bet the rest of league will likely do the same.

The two blown saves against TB is a 4 game swing so far.  That means if they just held onto those two leads, they would be a half game up on Tampa with a .600 winning percentage.  God blown golden opportunities against division rivals suck.

[0] CAIRO projections for the rest of the Teixeira contract, with a dead cat bounce during year 6?

OK, let’s get this out of the way.

The big difference for Robertson now versus 2 weeks ago is mental - not the pressure of the game situation with the batters so much as not having Mo behind him. He said so before the game.

Did that change anything ? Did he hold something back, lose his composure, not commit to pitches ? I seriously doubt it. As Kay said in his jinxing, Robertson hadn’t given up a run since September. It was only a matter of time. If Mo says he’s got the heart to close, then it is so. Or Mo will make it so. Mo will form Robertson in his own image.

And blowing one like this may be the learning event Mo needs him to have.

And yes, I see Mo as a player-coach. Actually, that’s based on his own words, so I see him as seeing himself as a player-coach the rest of this year. Mo is not going to disappear from the team off to some Austrian joint factory and reappear in February. I think he will rejoin the team as early as possible and rehab along the way, if that is possible.

Even Mariano had ugly blown opportunities. No one is perfect *cough2004cough*.

Robertson will be fine.

Are their non-ugly blown saves ?

For us, I mean. I think a Papilloma blown save is a piece of art, to be savored. More people should experience this joy.

I prefer to worry about Nun-E. And A-Rod, until he goes on a tear.

Robertson, not so much.

Not worried about D-Rob. He will be the best closer in the AL this year.

[6] Well, there are blown saves and then there are spectacular, holy crap did his wheels come off or what blown saves. Last night was the latter.

Those player must be projections of some kind, right?

A-Rod seems fine, he’s hitting 320/429/492 over his last 15 games.  Tex is at 143/180/232 for the same period.

Arod doesn’t look comfortable at the plate, but he is finding ways to get on base. I’ll take an .800 OPS from Arod this year. But Tex is lost at the plate. I don’t think he is a .650 OPS guy, but don’t think he’ll be the .850+ guy he used to be.

The stats are not projections.  They are actually a combination of players.  “Player” A is an actual stat line, B/C/D are actual stat lines pro-rated to “Player” A’s PA.

Any clue?

A - Teix’s last 521 PA.
B,C,D - The MLE of the 3,4,5 hitter at your local high school prorated to 521 PA.

A = 2012 Yankees with runners on base
B = 2012 Yankees with the bases empty
C = 2012 AL with runners on base
D = 2012 AL with the bases empty

So basically, in a league where the average team hits for an OPS .027 better with runners on base than they do with the bases empty the Yankees have hit for an OPS .072 worse.

Lower average, lower slugging, fewer strikeouts with runners on base? Sounds like they could be swinging at bad pitches and making poor contact.

Smells like WOE. Hopefully Girardi isn’t telling them to do something stupid with men on.

Someone’s hacked Pin’s account.  Way too much optimism from the spider.

So the Yankees do a good job hitting with the bases empty, but then regress to the mean once a runner is on. How much of that can be attributed to Jeter, who either leads off the game, or follows the black hole that is the bottom of the Yankee batting order? (I’m talking to you Russell.)

[21] Unfortunately, this guy sits in the middle of the line-up:

Russell Martin  
95 PA   12BB   18K   .188/.316/.325/.641 OPS

Mark Teixeira
126 PA   8BB   15K   .217/.270/.374/.644 OPS

Would anyone else be fine with more Stewy and less Martino?

I’d be fine with Iguana at 1B and Gardner back.