-Star of last night’s win was Joba Chamberlain, who looked as good as he has since the run of quality starts he made after the All Star break. 4 Hits, 2 Strikeouts and 0 Walks in 4 innings of work. He credits Dave Eiland with getting rid of a hitch in his delivery with the improved results.
Chamberlain credited the elimination of a hitch in his delivery.”It’s something we’ve had to battle with throughout the year,” Chamberlain said after what was arguably his best outing since he logged eight shutout innings at Tampa on July 29. “We threw everything for a strike and it was a lot better than it has been. My delivery is better. I got rid of the hitch. Everything just comes off that. Everything else is sharper and your fastball command is a lot better, in and out, up and down. (Last night) was just great.”
-No Maas giving the love to Swishalicious:
In a trade that seems more criminal with each passing day, Nick Swisher went 2-4 with a HR and a double on Monday night to help give the Bombers a win over the arch-nemesis Angels. With this performance, Swisher raised his season OPS to .880, his highest since the .865 he posted in 2006. When all is said and done, this may go down as the best season of Swish’s career.
His Right Field play can be an adventure at times, but he’s been better than anyone could have hoped for this year. His constantly upbeat attitude in the clubhouse has also been a welcome change from some recent Yankee teams, which had a reputation for being ‘stuffy’. The trade isn’t even worth discussing, Wilson Betemit has spent most of the year playing for the Charlotte Knights.
-Loved this quote from Mark Feinsand’s (must read) Blogging the Bombers last night:
It was particularly fascinating to watch Joe Girardi give Mike Scioscia a taste of his own medicine, sending Brett Gardner in as a pinch-runner for Teixeira. Gardner stole third, then scored on Mike Napoli’s throwing error. It looked exactly like the way the Angels typically beat the Yankees.
According to LoHud, Brett was watching the Angels’ relievers various deliveries and moves to First Base from the Yankee video room in the clubhouse. So by the time he was sent in as a pinch runner, he was prepared to steal from the first pitch. We’ve heard of various Yankees taking advantage of the video room all season, as recently as Sunday when A-Rod got even more mad at Marty Foster after instantly reviewing his 3rd strike call. As a fan, you love to see that that players are taking advantage of the technology and using it to get an edge. It’s also a sign of a good clubhouse that the manager doesn’t need to tell them to do these things, they do it on their own.
-The HR mark for Yankee Stadium was broken last night with Vladimir Gurerro’s blast in the 2nd inning. With 8 games remaining, the total figures to go well beyond the previous mark set in 2005. But what I found most interesting was this:
The only years 200 homers were hit at the old Yankee Stadium were 2004, 2000 (209) and 2005 (206), according to STATS LLC.
All within the last 10 years, which tells me that the facility may be a factor, but the team playing there is a much larger one.
-Bask in the glow of last night’s win, Sergio Mitre is scheduled to pitch tonight against Roy Halladay.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
0 Responses to Random Thoughts-Magic Number 12 Edition
Leave a Reply
TIQ IQ
I thought Chamberlain pitched more lucky than good last night. Hardly any swings and misses and very little fastball velocity.
Yeah he sucked last night in terms of stuff and dominations. The ball Guerrero hit still has not landed. Where the hell is the fastball this is annoying now-why is Eiland not asnwering questions about fastball velocity. Any fool can see he is a mediocre pitcher right now.
On the home run total: yes, the team may be the key rather than the facility, but the early 2000s were also part of the pre-testing steroid era, so I’m not sure how much credit to assign the team then.
The 4th inning things really started to pick up… you can’t say every time he has a good game he pitched lucky, he won and did good, he only gave up one run and to a great HR hitter! He pitched to contact to go deeper into the game because he has a pitch count, he can’t afford to strike every one out or he won’t go past the third.
I liked Jobas tempo and thought his stuff looked good. The people who are waiting for 99 MPH fastballs will be waiting a long time. He is,nt a rrliever anymore. Hughes sat at 90-92 as a starter and has been 96-97 as a reliever.
First Hughes has been around 93-97 as a reliever and more than not he is lower than 96 than above it… As for Joba, no he isn’t going to throw 100 but no one is expecting him too, he should be 93-95 as a starter and later in games and big situations he should pull back and throw 96 or 97 he can throw harder than he currently is he just waits until he needs too and later in games to do it. In the 4th inning you could see the average velocity went up, in fact he only hit below 93 once in the 4th inning and he would have built even more velocity up had been allowed to keep going so I am not at all worried. However if you think Joba is “right” throwing 91 most of the time your wrong he should thrower harder than that on average but he doesn’t want to get hurt and he isn’t getting as into the game as early although in this game he did get going eralier than the last few games.