Happy Monday, all. If you’re reading this before 3 PM, I’m stuck in “professional development” for middle school English teachers, even though I’m not technically a teacher. Such is life. Anyway, here’s what was running through my head during the weekend.
Friday night’s game was just embarrassing to watch. I’ve umpired Cal Ripken League games that were cleaner than that “game.” That’s back to back ugly starts on Friday nights for Burnett, and he’s starting to get me concerned. Obviously, he can turn it on at any time and has done so this year (six starts of at least five innings with zero earned runs allowed), but I’m not gonna hold my breath. It looks as if that sharp drop in strikeout rate is biting A.J. now in the second half. “At least CC is starting tomorrow,” I said to my girlfriend before we fell asleep.
Then CC started on Saturday night and it frankly wasn’t great. He didn’t pitch horribly, but he was getting hit hard and gave up two homers. There’s literally no way any of us can or should be mad at CC. He was straight beasting the league. Before that start, CC hadn’t allowed more than three earned runs in a game since was on May 29th. From the start after that, June 3rd, to August 22nd, CC threw 116.1 innings to a 2.32 ERA and a .630 OPSA. Chances are Saturday was just a bump in the road. Speaking of hitting well…
How about this Marcus Thames guy? Remember when I said it was silly to bring him on the team and they should’ve kept Rule V pick Jamie Hoffmann since he could actually play an outfield position? Yeah, I was way wrong on that. Keep on doing your thing, Marcus. I’m glad he’s been able to hit righties just as well as lefties this year, though I don’t expect that to keep up. Whatever, I’ll take it.
Another solid start for Ivan Nova, this one with more strikeouts. That wasn’t exactly something he did much in the minors, so I won’t expect that to keep up. But, Ivan, if you want to keep striking guys out, go right on ahead.
The Yankees will draw Trevor Cahill against Oakland tomorrow night at home, while Dustin Moseley goes for the home team. Cahill’s quietly put together a good season. His 2.43 ERA is sparkling, but his 4.03 FIP and 4.12 xFIP show that he may not be doing as well as his ERA shows. But, at the end of the day, the runs aren’t crossing the plate against Trevor Cahill.
I’m gonna list some stats for two players. One is considered a borderline Hall of Famer by many, the other is an afterthought for most. They both played the same position. Guess who’s who. If you were following me on Twitter last night, don’t ruin the surprise. KEY: bWAR = WAR on Baseball-Reference
Player One: .295/.398/.465/.863, 128 OPS+, .376 wOBA, 3.34 bWAR/season
Player Two: .307/.358/.471/.840, 127 OPS+, .361 wOBA, 2.84 bWAR/season
Congrats to Japan for winning the Little League World Series. It’s always cool to see the little kids play, especially since I occasionally umpire for that age group (though a different league and different rules).
Lastly, how odd was that Red Sox/Rays series for us as Yankee fans? I mean, either way, the Yankees saw some benefit. If the Red Sox won games, it would give the Yankees space against the Rays. If the Rays won, it would move the Sox closer to elimination, and how awesome is it when that happens?
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2 Responses to Weekend Thoughts
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TIQ IQ
B is Donnie Baseball. No clue on A–Keith Hernandez?
A would be John Olerud.Mattingly is given stronger consideration for the HOF because for a period of time he was considered the “best player in baseball” while Olerud never was despite his challenge to 400 in 1993 and his excellent work between 1997 -2002.IMO, while both were oustanding players with a lot of similarities, both fall short of the HOF.