B.A.'s offensive outlook on upcoming Yankees-Tigers series, game 1

I didn't bother writing one for game 3 because I was so fucking pissed about the first two games I couldn't think rationally. I never wanted to see backup catchers die painful deaths as badly as I did after the past two games. And watching that 467 year old loafer, Garret Anderson, who flies open on every swing and sucks, hit that 3-run homer...no words to describe my anger. Anyway, back to business.

Game 1, Yankees face Andrew Miller
Good News
Miller's just coming off the DL from a hamstring injury. Being 6'6", he not surprisingly is like a young Randy Johnson and a current Daniel Cabrera in the control department. In his major league career, here are his numbers:

Andrew Miller (career, MLB/minors)
69.1/80.0 IP
4.67/2.59 ERA
43 BB, 69 H (1.615 WHIP)/26 BB, 72 H (1.225 WHIP)
58 K/65 K

This guy ain't no Joba Chamberlain. He walks a lot of guys, and he's hittable, since he's allowed close to a hit per inning and does not have an astronomical number of strikeouts.

Bad News
This guy owns lefties. Lefties in 50 AB are .140/.233/.180 with just 2 doubles, no homers, and 20 strikeouts. A strikeout rate of 0.40/AB! You see, Mike (Myers)? THOSE are the kinds of numbers a lefty specialist puts up. Anyway, here's what I'd do with the lineup. You HAVE to Shelley Duncan and Andy Phillips in there. I'm sure Torre starts Phillips regardless but he MUST get Duncan in there. I'd put Betemit in for Cano just to give him a day off against a tough lefty, but he got half a day off in the slaying on Tuesday, and Betemit is absolutely useless as a right-handed hitter. In his career, he is .233/.280/.354 with 61 K in 195 AB. That's a strikeout every 3 AB basically. Horrible. Giving Cano the day off against Bedard last week seemed like a good idea until I realized how terrible Betemit is right-handed. The guy is purely a left-handed hitter. So, anyway, I hope Torre reads this or another person close to Torre tells him this. If he had Shelley Duncan in the lineup on Monday instead of Johnny Damon (this ain't Monday morning QB'ing either, the righties all hit Moseley hard that night), he could have given the Anaheim bullpen a nice souvenir and the Yankees could have had that game won early.

But, we got a great outing from Pettitte last night. Some big hits off Lackey. And another overpowering inning from Joba Chamberlain. Especially sweet to see him strike out that little piece of shit, Orlando Cabrera. He fucking sucks. Anybody who wants to give him credit for being a decent offensive player needs to realize that this is the first season he's had an OPS+ over 100. And he's still got time to drop, too. And he should have more throwing errors, but Casey Kotchman catches everything and has probably saved him numerous times. Games 2, 3, and 4 outlooks will each come at some point before that corresponding game.