Yayyyyyyy

Not that last night matters at all, but it's nice to see a guy with legitimate MLB starter stuff pitch instead of Rasner. As I said, I like Rasner, but not in the rotation. Aceves, although he only had 2 K, he had 12 groundballs to 8 flyouts, didn't give up a whole lot of hard hit balls, and in his other outings he had struck out more guys. So he has legitimate solid stuff. Nice to see what we can do with this rotation next year.

Bye bye Rasner, Hello Aceves

FINALLY.

I like Rasner as the spot starter/longman, but I do not like him in the rotation. The more opportunities you give him, the more likely he is to be without his command, which he is 100% reliant upon.

I wish we could see Hughes again, but Aceves ain't too bad.

Alfredo Aceves (2008 minors)
140.2 IP
114 K
27 BB
2.62 ERA
0.98 WHIP

Throws 91-92. Cutter, curveball, occasional slider. I like his stuff.

Congrats, Alfredo.

Sickening

Does it make anyone else just puke their guts out to see Dustin Pedroia with a .325 BA and an .862 OPS? Interesting numbers to look at here...

Dustin Pedroia's 2008 Hit Location
Pulled: 175 AB - .457 BA/.794 SLG
Up Middle: 267 AB - .288/.382 SLG
Oppo: 64 AB - .328 BA/.422 SLG

Force this piece of shit to hit the ball to center or go oppo on you. This guy clearly loves to open up and rip everything to left field. He has a combined .298 BA and .390 SLG on balls he wasn't able to pull. DON'T LET THIS LITTLE DIPSHIT PULL THE BALL.

And Robbie...come on. What are you doing leaving the ballpark early to avoid answering questions about the botched DP attempt? Everyone thinks that it's nonchalance, but Cano's style is very smooth so when he screws up it looks nonchalant. Jeter, A-Rod, and Girardi all backed you up in their interviews saying the same things. Why the hell did you run? Once again, just as it looks like he might be heating up and ready to play well the rest of the season, something goes wrong and then to top it off he runs away like a pussy instead of standing there to take the heat like a man. I hope he left for some other reason, but I doubt it. Girardi and Jeter ought to sit him down before tomorrow's game and set him straight.

In other news, Hughes had a good outing the other day, getting back on track in Scranton. 6.1 IP, just 2 ER and 7 K. Back to hitting 93-94 mph on the gun again. I hope we get to see him again before this season's over. At this point, he's not going to learn anything new by pitching at AAA. Bring him up now and let him work on stuff up here. The Yankees aren't going anywhere. Maybe, since Joba will be reactivated soon, have Hughes start a game with an 85 pitch count or something (which hopefully gets him through 5 innings), then have Joba come in to finish the game and go 4 innings.

Done

It's not even worth bitching about how this season sucks anymore. It's not worth putting up numbers and hoping that the law of averages will even everything out (BA w/RISP, Cano's absurdly low BA on line drives, Pettitte's xFIP). It's over. Forget it. Just hope and pray that those cunts don't win another World Series. Posts from now on will be more about the kids in the minors, acquisitions the Yankees should or should not make, etc. 2008 is a lost season, just have to accept it. You can't make the playoffs EVERY year. Look at the cunts. They didn't make it in 2006 and they looked TERRIBLE during and after that 5 game sweep. Look what happened the next year. Just hope and pray that the Rays or Angels can knock them off should they reach the playoffs or that the Twins (even though I don't like them aside from Morneau and Mauer) manage to steal the Wild Card and keep the Red Sox out of the playoffs.

Fucking Fuckity Fuck Fuck FUCK

It's times like these I wish I wasn't a baseball fan, let alone a Yankees fan. Johnny Damon drops 2 routine flyballs, one of which loses the game. What in the name of hell is going on? It's just one freak/sloppy/pathetic loss after another and it's really really fucking annoying.

Even Jose Molina has a .711 batting average on line drives. Derek Jeter? .726. Cano? .611. Fucking dammit. If he had normal luck, he'd have 14 more hits and about 3 more doubles just going by career norms on line drives, which would put him at .295/.331/.433. Anecdotally though, I've seen him robbed of about 6 or 7 doubles (because some of them have been deep/well-hit flyballs on which guys have made absurd catches on and some have been rocket grounders down the lines that have also had great plays made on them) which would put him at something more like .302/.337/.447 for the season.

Kevin Youkilis sucks. The fact that he has a .320/.388/.579 line for the season is a fucking joke. Suddenly at age 29 he goes from being a decent hitter to a monster? Bullshit. You know what his numbers would be if he didn't have hurricanes or massive humidity helping his flyballs out of the park?

.295/.366/.478 with 13 HR

Where do I get those numbers you might ask? Here:

08/19/08 Video View Youkilis, Kevin BOS Cabrera, Daniel BAL 5 Oriole Park ... PL 425 111.8 34.2 102.6 109 -8 5 0 428 30
08/17/08 Video View Youkilis, Kevin BOS Marcum, Shaun TOR 4 Fenway Park JE/L 416 103.5 31.5 84.3 84 29 3 0 383 0
08/12/08 Video View Youkilis, Kevin BOS Rupe, Josh TEX 5 Fenway Park ND 436 111.9 32.2 96.9 98 10 -1 0 427 29
08/12/08 Video View Youkilis, Kevin BOS Francisco, Frank TEX 8 Fenway Park ND 398 108.0 29.9 120.1 81 3 -1 0 396 30
08/02/08 Video View Youkilis, Kevin BOS DiNardo, Lenny OAK 8 Fenway Park PL 375 104.4 29.1 125.6 73 1 0 0 374 30
08/02/08 Video View Youkilis, Kevin BOS Eveland, Dana OAK 1 Fenway Park JE 349 96.3 36.1 124.7 90 5 -1 1 345 16
07/29/08 Video View Youkilis, Kevin BOS Lackey, John LAA 9 Fenway Park ND 371 101.6 35.8 127.6 98 -1 3 0 369 30
07/19/08 Video View Youkilis, Kevin BOS Saunders, Joe LAA 2 Angels Stadi... JE/L 417 104.7 33.8 94.5 96 21 2 1 392 1
07/18/08 Video View Youkilis, Kevin BOS Lackey, John LAA 2 Angels Stadi... ND 412 106.7 36.1 126.0 107 15 2 1 394 30
07/12/08 Video View Youkilis, Kevin BOS Liz, Radhames BAL 3 Fenway Park PL/L 390 96.9 38.8 109.4 104 38 2 0 351 0
07/09/08 Video View Youkilis, Kevin BOS Reyes, Dennys MIN 8 Fenway Park ND 407 101.0 42.7 107.4 129 40 6 0 362 2
06/22/08 Video View Youkilis, Kevin BOS Parisi, Mike STL 13 Fenway Park PL 384 102.1 41.7 105.9 127 10 2 0 371 10
06/22/08 Video View Youkilis, Kevin BOS Pineiro, Joel STL 7 Fenway Park JE/L 343 96.2 51.6 119.1 151 48 1 0 294 0
06/14/08 Video View Youkilis, Kevin BOS Lincoln, Mike CIN 10 Great Americ... PL 408 105.0 36.4 79.3 109 5 6 4 394 14
06/12/08 Video View Youkilis, Kevin BOS Sarfate, Dennis BAL 7 Fenway Park PL 359 99.2 37.6 119.4 102 -2 1 1 360 16
05/18/08 Video View Youkilis, Kevin BOS Torres, Salomon MIL 7 Fenway Park JE/L 362 94.1 34.2 126.8 79 30 -2 0 333 3
05/10/08 Video View Youkilis, Kevin BOS Perkins, Glen MIN 2 Metrodome PL 383 106.0 27.6 121.7 69 0 0 5 377 30
05/08/08 Video View Youkilis, Kevin BOS Verlander, Justin DET 5 Comerica Par... JE 362 107.2 42.8 118.6 139 -22 -6 5 386 30
05/07/08 Video View Youkilis, Kevin BOS Galarraga, Armando DET 6 Comerica Par... JE/L 361 97.0 30.5 118.4 71 16 -2 3 344 3
05/07/08 Video View Youkilis, Kevin BOS Galarraga, Armando DET 4 Comerica Par... ND 405 106.2 37.7 119.6 114 11 -3 4 393 30
05/05/08 Video View Youkilis, Kevin BOS Bonderman, Jeremy DET 4 Comerica Par... PL 390 100.7 38.5 121.2 108 22 0 4 365 29
05/04/08 Video View Youkilis, Kevin BOS Wheeler, Dan TB 7 Fenway Park JE 416 114.4 31.8 89.4 99 -15 -9 0 440 29
04/22/08 Video View Youkilis, Kevin BOS Weaver, Jered LAA 5 Fenway Park JE 368 104.4 32.6 113.2 89 -14 -3 1 386 29
04/14/08 Video View Youkilis, Kevin BOS Betancourt, Rafael CLE 8 Jacobs Field PL 352 97.0 43.0 124.2 118 20 -10 4 338 7

The last 2 numbers are the distance the ball should have gone in normal atmospheric conditions and the number of parks in which the ball would have been a home run around MLB. And as you can see, about 11 of his 24 home runs were helped massively by the weather conditions. That 294 foot flyball that turned into a 343 foot home run is really laughable. So, subtract 11 hits, 11 home runs, from his totals, and there you have it. He's having just about the kind of season you can expect out of him. The lucky homers he's hit this year make all the difference in BA/OBP/SLG. His averages on grounders and liners are normal (.256 and .750 respectively). They are right around where they should be. It's all due to the bullshit home runs. He's such a prick, why does he get to have all the luck on his side? Matsuzaka as far as I know is not a prick, he just sucks and doesn't deserve to have 15 wins and a sub-3.00 ERA because of how terrible his peripherals are.

Ugh, I'm done. I needed to vent, and now I'm just too fucking sick of going over how things keep going wrong. Pricks/players I don't like all getting lucky and having phenomenal seasons and players/teams I do like all sucking. MLB 2008. Welcome to hell if you're a true baseball fan. MLB 2009 better be less full of bullshit so things even out. Hughes, Joba, and IPK are all healthy and pitching the way they're capable of. Cano hits .340 with a .960 OPS. Youkilis has the worst weather conditions ever in every game which causes him to hit .260 with a .710 OPS, changing those "YOOOUUUUUUK!!!!!!!" cheers to "BOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!". Matsuzaka gets absolutely shelled and knocked out of games by the 3rd inning every start for the first 3 months next year to the tune of a 7.83 ERA.

Now THAT would be nice.

What I want to do right now...

The baseball gods, the hideous AJ Burnett, Daisuke Matsuzaka (who once again got away with putting 11 men on base in 5 innings), that little fucking piece of shit Marco Scutaro (who joined in with the baseball gods to rob Cano of another double), and everybody I hate (which just about includes everyone on the planet) are in the line of fire...



Die you motherfuckers.

(I'm not an angry person...)

Unfortunately the baseball gods didn't die in that nuclear blast...

As I've already written, the Yankees season has been insanely frustrating. Underperformance, bad luck, injuries, etc. Nothing going their way. On the other hand, Daisuke Matsuzaka once again gets away with murder. His line from last night:

7 IP
5:5 K/BB
6 H
0 ER

HOW DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING? HIS STUFF FUCKING SUCKS. He walks the ballpark and doesn't strike out that many people to go along with it. He allows a lot of fly balls, too. He pitches in Fenway Park. How on earth does he have a 1998-2003 Pedro Martinez-like ERA? Pedro was legitimately unhittable. He struck out like 20/9 IP and never walked anybody. Matsuzaka SUCKS. If he had enough innings to qualify, he would have the 5th worst xFIP in the AL, right nearby his knuckleball-throwing buddy. Seriously, why are those 2 guys getting away with not being very good? Baseball gods, can you please explain to me why just about everything has to go right for the Red Sox but everything has to go wrong for the Yankees? Can you? And don't give me David Ortiz and his wrist. Blowell, Pukelis, and Petunia all hit way over their heads while he was out or sucking. And Manny wasn't too shabby either before they traded him. Fuck Youkilis. Hitting .322 with a .963 OPS. Are you kidding? Since when did he become mid-80s Don Mattingly? And also...why are you pricks making my favorite player hit .260 and OPS under .700? I wouldn't care if it was Pat Kelly doing what Cano is doing right now. It's the expectation of .300+, .840+ OPS, .850 ZR and he is underperforming in all aspects right now. For the longest time he wasn't letting his offensive struggles bother his defense, now it is.

As Yankees fans we're spoiled, yes. But this is not about feeling entitled to make the playoffs or win the World Series every year. This is about players who should be good all either underperforming or getting hurt and players who suck playing way over their heads. Of course, that happens in every year. But it's the number of players it's happening to. If you look at last year, nobody was DRASTICALLY under their xFIP. And most people who were under it by a close to a run had some other factor in there contributing to it. Carmona was about a run below, but he had a psycho GB% (and even then, it was 3.99 xFIP to 3.06 ERA, he was still good regardless). Shit like that. Brian Bannister was the only one who appeared to get really lucky (3.87 ERA vs. 5.14 xFIP) and guess what, his ERA is 5.36 this year. It caught up to him. This year, Matsuzaka, Saunders, Jackson, Wakefield, Duchscherer, and to some extent Garza are all WAY overperforming.

I wish I could believe that things will even out, but it's been a couple months and things still haven't evened out. Oh well, I guess I'll get through today's work and then go watch the Yankees strand 20 runners tonight. Who knows, maybe the law of averages will overtake Murphy's Law. That would be nice.