Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Yankees (10-6) @ Rangers (13-4), Tuesday, April 24, 2012, 8:05pm
NYY:Hiroki Kuroda (37, RHP, 1-2, 5.00) vs. TEX:Yu Darvish (25, RHP, 2-0, 3.57)
Lineups
1899 Cleveland Spiders
Jeter SS
Granderson CF
Rodriguez DH
Cano 2B
Teixeira 1B
Swisher RF
Ibanez LF
Chavez 3B
Martin C
2011 Boston Red Sox
Kinsler 2B
Andrus SS
Hamilton CF
Beltre 3B
Young DH
Cruz RF
Murphy LF
Napoli C
Moreland 1B
The Yankees eschewed bidding for C.J. Wilson and he rewarded them for that by beating them on April 14, holding them to one run over six innings. The Yankees made a half-hearted bid for Yu Darvish that they surely knew would not be high enough to get him, which in my mind was effectively eschewing him as well.
They felt a better course of action was trading their best prospect for a young pitcher coming off a great year but so far it’s safe to say that the deal has been a disastrous one.
But I digress.
Darvish has struggled despite the decent 3.57 ERA so far in the majors, leading the league in walks with 13 compared to 14 Ks. According to Pitch FX he’s thrown six different types of pitches. A four-seam fastball, a two-seam fastball, a cutter, a splitter, a slider and a curve. He’s getting ground balls and has yet to allow a HR which has helped him put up a respectable 3.89 FIP, but his peripherals don’t support his ERA if you look at other measures like xFIP (5.18), tERA (5.65) or SIERA (5.25). He’s had a particularly difficult time with LHB so far this year (.313/.431/.396 with 10 BB and 8 K in 58 PA compared to .174/.321/.217 with 3 BB and 6 K vs. RHB in 28 PA).
Despite all those numbers, it’s important to remember that sample size rules all. It’s been a mixed bag so far, but I don’t think there’s any question Darvish has the talent to be one of the better pitchers in baseball at some point. But he probably still has some adjustments to make before getting there. Let’s hope those adjustments don’t start tonight.
Hiroki Kuroda has had two crappy starts and one brilliant start this year. Let’s hope for another brilliant one, because if the Yankees don’t win tonight they are going to have to win behind Phil Hughes tomorrow if they want to take this series and I’m thinking that’s not very likely.
Comments
Checking Montero’s progress is such FUN!
A four-seam fastball, a two-seam fastball, a cutter, a splitter, a slider and a curve.
If he could learn a 1-seam fastball and a 3-seamer, he’d be able to throw the fastball cycle, and I’d be impressed.
Until then, he’s just another pretty face that would underperform in pinstripes and we shouldn’t covet him.
Wow. 11 games starting within an hour of each other.
I’m going out on a limb and predicting many spinning wheels of death on mlb.tv.
5 Fifthed. On prior thread.
Jeter now 0 for his last 2.
Way to work that count, Jetes.
[4] That is frustratingly accurate. They really haven’t got their shit together this year.
They felt a better course of action was trading their best prospect for a young pitcher coming off a great year but so far it’s safe to say that the deal has been a disastrous one.
As someone who wasn’t too enthused about the deal to begin with, I haz a great sad :(
Yu’s getting squeezed.
[8] I am constantly hounding them. The moderators don’t even bother posting their “reset your modem, do a bandwitdh check, switch from wifi to wired” jive with me anymore. They just ignore me.
Great. Just great.
AJ lives.
The AL is not treating Kuroda very well
The good news ? This is going to be a high-scoring, offensive feast of a game.
The bad news ? We won’t be getting any of those runs.
Good to see Kiroda is over his 1st inning troubles.
Great start for Kuroda! But as long as he just keeps giving up HRs but K’s a lot, we can say he “had great stuff” and his FIP will look good. So, he has that going for him, which is nice.
[17] Think of the xFIP!
I take 3 grounders after the HR.
[19] Will you take a 9 inning complete game loss giving up 9 solo HR? I actually might because it would be hilarious.
Yu has very good stuff tonight
Someone should wipe the smirk off Nick Blackburn’s face. Ugh.
Teix flashing middle-CF power.
[21] Is he an unknown quantity facing the Yankees? Then of course he does.
Who’s gonna be the first to say “A whirling Darvish” or has Sterling beat me to it?
“Imagine these 400 pound men slamming into each other.”
-Ken Singleton on color commentary
(We really need him on play by play and Cone on color)
[25] Yu gonna be da foist.
[25] Serling is probably saving it in case Yu ever hits a HR.
Yu will be the 2nd Japanese pitcher to throw a no-hitter, right? (IIRC Nomo did it.)
Brutal change.
So it’s gonna be that kind of night eh? They look like shit against Darvish.
[26] Did you catch his comment on Hamilton’s BP homer hitting the beer sign ? “This Bud’s for you, Hamilton.” which is either comically cruel given his issues, or…well, it’s just comically cruel, given his issues.
I don’t think he realized the connection.
OTF, I haven’t listened to Sterling in months, but - no, he’s beaten you to it.
Congrats to Yu Darvish on his first career MLB perfect game no hitter!
Edit - forgot about the walk to the Grandyman
He walked Grandy, so a perfecto is no longer in play. A no-no certainly is, however.
{29] He did. For the Sawx I believe.
The answer to the Toyota Text Poll is e) the Dallas Vigilantes.
A no-no is a certainlyty is, however.
FTFY
The yankees have made 4 good defensive plays to get the first four outs of the game
Cano with what I believe we decided was his signature defensive play, a la the Jeter jumpthrow.
I think he had one with the Dodgers too…
96 for LAD against COL and 01 for TWN against BAL, according to the interwebz.
Show-off
Congrats Yu for your no-no
Chavez is totally fucking cooked.
Meanwhile in Minny-town, a monster AB by Morneau leads to a walk with bases loaded. Magical!
[46]
Jeter still shout have won that MVP
/obligatory NYA-site response]
Chavez is so much better than Nuñez
Jeter is totally fucking cooked.
JETER!!!!!!!!
I’ll take it. 14 game hit streak.
Granderson is totally fucking cooked.
#1 when is nerdfest 2012
#2 drunkblogging seems to be a success. I will offer my services as often as possible
Jeter has no justified his next 20 sacrifices with that “single.”
He should have won in 99 and 06. I’ll concede 09 to Mauer…for now.
The trick here is to move the runners along.
Shouldn’t Yu know how to field a bunt? (Based upon what we learned about baseball in Japan being bunt-centric according to Mr. Baseball)
[54] He should have won in 09 for the same reasons Scorsese won for The Departed.
good enough for me. Screw you Mauer!
Dang.
Gameday says Grandy wuz robbed.
That was way outside
Bases loaded, no one out.
One run or no runs?
Ball.
[62] -1 run.
Did anyone really expect the Yankees to score from bases loaded, no outs?
Yes, when IS nerdfest 2012?
Can believe it
You guys didn’t actually think they’d score with bases loaded no outs there, right? Of course not.
Not with Alex up, no.
I’ll just stfu and watch a Family Guy episode. Shop for katts. Watch Hawkey… anything but this.
It will be even more hilarious when they lose 1-0. And by hilarious, I mean infuriating.
Well, at least we pushed his pitch-count up to first-inning Hughes territory. Just took us three to do it.
[71] I had planned to snark “Game winning run in 5…4….3…” on the Kinsler lead off appearance, but my timing was off because I was watching the tv, not gameday. By the time I realized it, I saw it had already happened, and I had to untype it.
Dammit, I wanted RUNS there.
Good idea to walk him there from 0-2
Who here is the initial vocal fan of this year’s 0-2 count to a walk approach?
Antler! Claw!!
4 straight garbage pitches figuring he’ll swing at something, turns into a run.
[76]
In all fairness, YM, it’s much easier to score with 2 outs, 2 strikes and no one on than with based loaded and no one out.
I am not a fan of throwing balls in the dirt with runners on base.
I don’t suppose they could have done that last inning.
Teix is fucking cooked.
Darvish is very good and all, but lets score a run here
Teix’s actually cookedness easily overpowers our mojo.
Swisher looks helpless at the plate tonight.
Is Darvish this good or are the Yankees this bad? Hmm.WOE.
Tonight would’ve been the perfect game for a drunkblog.
Well done.
Zero for a billion with RISP.
WOE?
Jeter playing really good baseball lately
I just tuned into the game and I have learned 2 things. 1) Nolan Ryan thinks that Darvish has confidence 2) there is a new TV show about drunken Boston/Massachusetts Tuna fishermen.
Coming back against the Red Sox sucked the mojo right up.
A couple times through the lineup now against Darvish. I have a feeling third time may be more difficult for him.
[91] Doesn’t seem to have hurt the Townies much, though.
Meanwhile in Mauer-town, Minnesota mauled by Massholes.
/sorry
So I went out to watch the game with a real live tv and they have dish which doesn’t carry the nyy? Wtf. Is this YES haggling still going on? RLY???
That’s a 93 mph FB. He didn’t have that same velocity early in the game.
Page 2 is the Blow the Quality Start page.
I think Dish haggled with MLB in general. They don’t carry Extra Innings either, I don’t think.
You know, Minnesota bending over for Boston at home doesn’t make me feel very good about the way they played the Yankees on the road.
The japanese people is watching a very good pitchers duel so far
Next entry: Yankees.com: With 10 Ks, Darvish breezes past Yanks
Previous entry: 2012 MLB Offenses through April 23
