Topic: Yankees Baseball

Is Damon a true Yankee?  Only tabloids and frontrunners worry about that crap.

Same thing happened with Alex a couple of years ago. The answer remains the same: if you give us a good effort every time you’re out there “putting the team ahead of yourself” and even putting yourself in danger (although this is NOT a requirement) how could you not be a true Yankee? The list is long and distinguished: latest members Small, Chacon and Lidle.

Let’s make this last comment short (sort of) and sweet; I just happened to have my Yankee haters scanner on.

The reason Jeter doesn’t get picked on as often as Reyes does despite Reyes being the fastest player in the Flushing Universe (ok make it in the ML) is not because Jeter has never thrown his glove to the ground in disgust because he was given an E for a throw he made and didn’t say afterwards: “I threw the glove because I was upset at myself for the error” the only two persons who believed that are Reyes and Lupica.

Maybe the reason why the media cuts Jeter some slack (if you take into consideration the fact that the tabloids have shown that piece about Jeter being judged overrated by his peers like a zillion times in the last few days) is because of the fact that none of us remember Jeter being on third base on the most crucial game of his life when his team needed him to be himself but instead he decided to pick up a fight with a third rated catcher and thereby got himself thrown out of THE GAME and the end result was his team failed to make the post season because of that one game. If that’s the case maybe the media is biased in favor of Jeter. When was the last time Jeter got into a fight with a Yes announcer for comments made on the air about a Jeter tasteless behavior on the field?   Try  . . . . .   NEVER.

Gardner on Gardner: "Be aggressive," he said. "Don't let them beat you with a fastball. Don't let them get ahead of you in an at-bat. I feel like I'm letting them get ahead a little bit. "I feel like some pitches I should be swinging at, I've been letting go, but I learn from every at-bat, and that's one thing I can continue to work on -- not allowing them to just get one over for a strike."

  . . . . . . . .  Sounds like those famous last words from the mentally challenged school of hitting.

This coming from a guy that terrorized triple A pitchers. He gets called up and the first thing he does is he changes his style and shoots himself in the bat in the process.

Now he has bought into this theory that when you’re disciplined at the plate you’re allowing the opposing pitchers the advantage of the first strike on you. That my dear grass hopper is nothing new that‘s the theory that has pervaded MLB for many many years until Money ball came into existence.

Discipline at the plate is the reason why you were praised and brought up to the show.  Anybody can be fast or faster and anybody can hit a fastball.

The reason why you’re here is because you’re both fast and disciplined at the plate.

Any idiot can swing at the first pitch    . . . .   I repeat any idiot can swing at the first pitch if you don’t believe me ask Melky, Posada or Cano or Duncan.

It takes discipline to be a good consistent hitter like Bobby, Alex, Jeter or Matsui.

The only thing you’d  learn from those M Leaguers is that with two strikes on you protect the plate nothing else should change for you otherwise I don’t see you patrolling any field at Yankee stadium medium term or long term.  Historically the Yankees like their CF superstars in every possible category, brand names to be specific (Mantle, DiMaggio) Melky is just an aberration an accidental one and it won’t matter how much Girardi loves you if you don’t consistently get on base and steal bases like crazy and score runs IT WON’T matter how fast you think you could be.

First you learn how to be disciplined then you adjust to those pitchers (very few good ones) who throw first pitches for strike (like the sux seems to be amassing).  You have already acquired that discipline through the minors don’t throw that away and become just a fast idiot with a lousy OBP. The greater your OBP the better your chances of putting pressure on the opposition on the base circuit BUT FIRST you have to get on base.

You swing at the first pitch good luck you’ll be back in the minors for good, you’re no Pedroia (or maybe you are) but unless you have an eye for the ball as Pedroia or Youkilis you’ll be done soon.

The only other way you’re going to get on base without being disciplined at the plate is by bunting your way over but how many players do you know that do that consistently?  You want to turn into the type of hitter that allows pitchers like Santana or Lester to get out of an inning by throwing the minimum amount of pitches now that’s a way to give your own pitcher a fighting chance.

Check the following OBP’s:

Alex.407      Damon.387         Giambi.395            Matsui.404             Beltran.363            Reyes.355   Wright.385             Youkilis.377

Pedroia.357  but  AVG.313

Lowell.361 but AVG.302

 BJ UPTON.388     Longoria.351   and rising

Do you get the picture? And you don’t get there by being a free swinger.

In order to help the Yankees on the base path you need to get on base and the more disciplined you are the best your chances of getting on base, it’s that simple.

How in the world are you going to get on base? As is you’re no match for these pitchers.  Ask Abreu or Alex and stay away from Giambi he’s on a walk off year, therefore he doesn’t count he’s the Dean of this old school of thought and that’s why when he’s hitting the team stinks and vice versa but he still hasn't learned anything yet and he doesn’t care (does shortcut ring a bell?)  nor those Yankee haters in the media.

Hank. Who’s minding the store? And you still think Long (come to think of it Girardi was never a threat at the plate) is a great hitting instructor?  No wonder Tampa Bay comes to the cathedral of baseball and diss your team and they are not the only ones, Texas, Cincinnati, Boston, Baltimore . . . No discipline and no timely hitting.  Great combination.  There is a reason for all those LOB and your pitchers losing all those games they should win.

We should be beyond “WE KNOW WE’RE A BETTER TEAM THAN THAT” by now. Time to show us all that love!   We’re paying top dollars for those tickets     . . . .   show us top baseball, intelligent baseball, professional baseball.

You've got the flu? stay away from the rest of the team. The team comes first. If Girardi can do it so can you.

Still with Gardner on hitting (because Cashman says that Gardner is an important part of the Yankees’ future).

Case in point:

Fifth inning last night.

Youkilis against Joba. Joba started Youk with two strikes, Youk didn’t say: “Oh I’m down 0-2” nope he just hit the next pitch the other way and he was on.  Sean Casey followed Youk and soon he had a strike against him and he continued to wait on Joba until he hit Joba the other way for a hit.  Joba started two hitters with a strike and what did the sux do: they waited and soon they had two men on base one on third one on first base and with Coco Crisp at bat Joba had a wild pitch and the sux were on the board and Coco was on first afterwards   . . . .  Joba is pitching well but that’s what DISCIPLINE does for you meanwhile in the previous inning the Yanks sent three men to the plate against a knuckleballer and went down on FIVE FRIGGING PITCHES no harm done following Gardner’s theory (and his coach) and they didn’t wait for a hittable ball to reach the plate and they screwed their pitcher (JOBA) by sending him back to the mound after only five LOUSY offerings from Wakefield.  To make a long story short the inning started Yanks 1-Foston 0 and ended Foston 3- Yanks 1 with Pedroia waiting on Joba before punching a hit for 2 rbi’s himself. Do you get the picture?  Discipline my man  . . . .  And Oh yes the Yankee hitters in that fourth inning were Jeter, Abreu and Alex even great hitter forget the basics.

Now when you came in the sixth and had two strikes on you and waited and punched the ball for a hit   . . . .   that   . . . .   was a good start and it produced a run soon afterwards when Jeter brought you home, that was good baseball   . . . .  not a lot of thinking     . . . . .   muscle memory and reaction  . . . . . .   just plain execution.

In the seventh inning Alex got on after a 0-2 count and that hit and run with Posada at the plate and Alex running that was a thing of beauty Posada aiming at right field all the time to send Alex to third followed by Cano’s triple   . . .   game tied.

Morgan said during the game: “great hitters make pitchers work HARDER” and Morgan knows a thing or two about hitting having been part of the big red machine.

We come to the 10th inning and your last at bat and after getting two strikes on you (remember what you said? The pitcher has the advantage  . . . .  no kidding) what did you do?  First you protected the plate with two strikes on and on the first hittable offering you singled down the middle for the first walk off hit by a rookie against the sux since Jeter. Game over: Yankees 5 Sux 4.

And that my dear Grass Hopper is   Hitting 101    in the majors.  The decision is yours. Ask Mariano or Alex. Focus and Discipline and your talent will take over.

That was a well fought game and it should serve as the basis for playing TB with the same focus and intensity, we’re playing at home that should mean something for our players and Alex will be going for his next meaningful jack.

Joba was ok, the relievers Robertson and Kyle did a fine job, Mariano was awesome in double duty. Joba is shaking off too many signals for a rookie and giving too many walks and exposing himself to danger on WP and passed balls you need to be on the same page with your catcher. You were lucky Youk didn’t catch you with his spikes as he almost did on that slide   . . . .   Don’t block the plate (you have no protection whatsoever) someone is bound to hurt you and that my friend is a NO-NO.

A hard fought WIN just like the last one and that should carry over to the next series.  Tampa Bay is a very good team but inexperienced   . . . . .   let’s take advantage of that. And if we are not going to make a sure throw to first let’s live with it instead of compounding the initial setback.

Bobby Cano had a good night, Giambi started a good DP and Bobby Abreu should have had at least two line drives for extra bases but that’s Baseball.

We’ll get better. Someone will step up and deliver.

C.C. Sabathia goes to the Brewers which is of no consequence to the Yankees. The reason is that the sux own Sabathia (such a big menacing ogre of a pitcher yet he’s their piñata) and we don’t need a very expensive power hurler who will be deflated by the sux at will.

On the other hand   . . . . .   this might be bad news for the Mets if they are successful and go on to the post season (as they may very well be)    . . . . .   because if they meet the Brewers in the playoffs   . . . . .    in head to head competition Sabathia has consistently bested Santana.  Yes you’ve heard that right so the inaction of the Yankees first helped the Mets now    . . . .  I’m not so sure. Such is life  . . . .   Such is baseball.

Alex hold those hounds and behave like a real man. Remember when the media was after you and when you took your wife to visit Hank because you wanted the Yankees to know how serious you were about truly wanting to wear the Yankee uniform and how much you wanted NY to be the domicile for your entire family because your wife and your little girl loved NY ? 

You’ve lost me when I learned you named your two little girls Alexander as in the great Alexander. Talk about a Huge EGO. Now you talk about being “humbled” by the experience of reaching the levels of the Mick and others before you.  You’re beginning to sound like Giambi in his walk off year.

Do you think Madame would care to acknowledge your presence if you were still a nobody from Southwest Miami? Think again. There’s nobody phonier.

I had your back long before anybody else. I only agree with Madame on the fact that you should tell your posse to shut up. Do the right thing and then get back to baseball. You’ve screwed up now pay the piper. If it makes you feel better buy yourself another Jet afterwards if you feel like.