Friday, August 31, 2007

What to Expect From Ian Kennedy

The number one first round draft pick out of USC, Ian Kennedy, makes his debut Saturday afternoon against a good offensive team in the Devil Rays. Kennedy's college track record is quite impressive and his career at USC matches those of Mark Prior's and Randy Johnson's but unlike Prior and Johnson, Kennedy has a much lesser fastball. The scouting on Kennedy is mixed. Some scouts have him listed as a solid #2 and the next coming of Mike Mussina while others think he won't be anything better than a #4/#5 starter.

here is an idea of what Kennedy throws...

Fastball: Kennedy sits comfortably at 90-92 and according to a report at Trenton, he hit 95 on the gun once. His fastball doesn't have amazing velocity or movement but he is an artist at locating it ala Mike Mussina

Curveball: Kennedy's curve is his second best off-speed pitch. I've heard mix things about it but from what I've gathered it seems to be a pretty good pitch. Its not a plus pitch but its pretty close to it. He has pretty good control of this pitch also

Change Up: Kennedy's change is a plus pitch and like his fastball he can throw it in any count. He uses it effectively and mixes it well with his fastball. Its his best weapon

Slider: Its not his best pitch but he still mixes it well with his repertoire. Its an average pitch.

I think Kennedy could end up being a really solid #3 starter. While his ERA may not be a pretty 3.00 ERA every year, he can provide solid pitching and give innings to an already strong rotation for the future. With a tactical baseball mind and impeccable control, I see no reason why Kennedy can't be extremely successful.

Josh Beckett: King of Punks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzlcHGQAN_Q

If you can't read his lips, he says "get out of here you [expletive] [expletive]"

The same guy who is notorious as a head hunter and who isn't afraid to hit anyone on purpose. The same guy who whined about Ryan Howard not running out a pop up and Shea Hillenbrand walking to first on a pitch he thought was ball 4- both in ST.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Yanks beat Bosox behind Damon, Pettitte

picture
Damon since the All-star break: .304/.390/.466

Pettitte pitched a solid game, giving the Yankees length so that we'd only need Joba for one inning before turning it over to Mo, allowing us to have a well rested Kyle Farnsworth and Luis Vizcaino for tomorrow. He looked very sharp against a very potent offense aside from the home runs allowed to Manny and Varitek. Damon came up big with his 2-run shot and as the stats above show, he has done a nice job since the all-star break.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Pathetic.

Over the last 4.2 innings of the game, the Yankees went 1-for-15.

Embarassing, and to make matters seem worse, the Tigers did not have a hit after the third inning.

Awful game.

On a positive note, however, Hughes looked improved from his past few starts and his control looked very sharp, and aside from 2 bad pitches to Guillen and Thames, he pitched very well, and Kyle Farnsworth also looked extremely strong in his inning of relief.

WANG 8IP 5H 1ER 2BB 6K




After struggling in most of his starts since late July, Chien-Ming Wang absolutely dominated the Tigers. Until tonight even in his "good" starts Wang had been giving up a ton of hits. Check it out

I was really starting to worry about the cracked finger nail that has been plaguing him for a while, but he really impressed me tonight. He also had six strikeouts. Although he still doesn't strike out a lot of batters Wang has K'd 6 in his past two starts. Obviously we would like to see him locked-in like he was against the Mets when he punched out a career high 10. It's highly unlikely... Last season, Wang struck out only 76 batters in 218 IP. This season he has 81K in 159.1 IP. Obviously an improvement, but to rise to the next level he would need to improve even more next season.

Maybe next season he will improve, but right now I'd be happier if he continued to roll ground balls and eat up innings. Wang's 8 IP tonight were exactly what the team needed and with Mussina struggling, Clemens being inconsistent, and Hughes being inexperienced; the Yankees really need Wang to pitch well down the stretch.


"Why did we become Tiger fans? Billy you didn't throw away my Red Sox hat did you?"

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Wow

General manager Brian Cashman inquired about stocking the Yankees with another pitcher from the Minor Leagues, Torre said, but the early-morning telephone offer was rejected.
Link

Amazing.

HENN LAYS EGG! But who can we blame?



"Is a 6.10 ERA gud?"

This is my first entry on the Holy Cow! Yankees Blog and I regret that it had to come on such a horrible night/morning for the Yankees. After avoiding being swept by the Angels the Yankees came in to Detroit needing this series in the worst way. By the time the game (delayed four hours by rain) was underway the Red Sox had already won twice and the Mariners were on their way to another victory...

Clemens obviously wasn't sharp, but the Yankees were able to score 6 runs... A-Rod hit his 43rd homer of the season. The bullpen tossed 5 shutout innings of relief, Mariano Rivera pitched. This sounds like it should have a good ending right? WRONG! It was horrendous. Sean Henn blew another huge game for the Yankees by giving up a 3-run walk off homer to Carlos Guillen. One of the worst losses of the season in my opinion. It's easy to ride Henn because of the two heart breakers he has lost over the last week, but who is really to blame?

Some fans have chattered about Torre not using relievers for more than one inning, and I agree Chamberlain could have gone another inning, perhaps Ramirez too, but you really can't kill him on this one. Farnsworth is a one inning pitcher, Vizcaino has complained of a tired arm recently, and with Rivera's little hiccup recently you don't want to stretch him more than you need to. At some point in long games you are forced to use your worst relief pitchers.

Obviously Sean Henn is not major league material. Moving him to the pen seemed like a good idea before the season, but it hasn't worked. Going into the game Henn had a WHIP of 1.58, horrible. How he's managed to pitch 31 innings for this team is beyond me. I'm sure this topic will come up more in the future as it has all season, but where the FUCK is Chris Britton?

What was the point of trading Wright for Britton if he's going to rot in the minor leagues all season? I'm not saying the Yankees should have kept Mr. Wright, but what the hell? The guy was a good pitcher out of the O's bullpen (is that really possible?) last season and he has pitched well on every level so far this season. While I applaud the front office for many moves it has made this season, it's really a joke that Britton hasn't become a staple in the bullpen.

Instead the Yankees decided to call up Brian Bruney who to my knowledge didn't even warm up during this game. Regardless he had a 6.00 ERA since being sent down to AAA. Prior to that he still had a relatively good ERA (3.40), but since June Bruney walked 16 batters and struck out only 8. That's beyond alarming, I think we all know why the Diamondbacks let him go now.

Anyway that's more than enough to chew on for one entry... Since the Yankees started to make this nice little run that they have I claimed that this stretch of games at the end of August would be the defining point of the season. Right now it only looks so-so. Are the Yankees the team that started off the season horrendously? Are they the team that dominated in July/Early August? Or are they somewhere in between? I'd like to think they're a championship caliber team this season, but these next three games and the upcoming series with the Red Sox will really speak volumes about what kind of team this is. Let's not forget there is a potentially huge series coming up in early September against the Mariners as well.

One last thing:
The worst umpired game I have ever seen, Posada getting tossed was bullshit, but the game ended so bad I didn't feel like writing more about it.

*It felt good to make my first entry here... This certainly isn't the first Yankees blog out there and it won't be the last. We don't have any "inside" sources, just solid and well formed baseball opinions. Hopefully there will be some unique content (funny images coming soon) that will keep you coming back.

Friday, August 24, 2007

Ron Villone to DL, Brian Bruney called up

Why, exactly, was Bruney called up? All Bruney proved with us was that he had consistent trouble throwing strikes with his 30 walks in 42.1 innings, and since being sent down he has allowed 4 ER on 5 hits in 6 innings with Scranton Wilkes-Barre, while walking 2. Meanwhile, Chris Britton continues to dominate AAA ball, earning him all of 5 major league innings this season.

Welcome

Hey all Yankee fans, this blog was made with the title picked as a memorial towards the late great Phil Rizzuto. Myself and my colleague, "Well I thank you Suzyn" will be doing the lion's share of the posting with possible graphic contributions from two other colleagues, John Flaherty and Stan Papi. We look forward to many future posts and to help this blog grow into the echelon where great blogs such as nomaas and firejoemorgan are at.