Categories
Sox Gamers/Postmortems Yanks Gamers/Postmortems

Number Nine?: Sox-Yankees Gamer IX

Baseball in the Bronx. One team hot, the other not. One team on top, the other in a drop.

John Smoltz heads to the (or, should that be over the?) hill for Boston, Joba hunts heads for the Yanks.

Discuss, and please behave yourselves, here.

270 replies on “Number Nine?: Sox-Yankees Gamer IX”

To reiterate: those commenters who see any thread as nothing more than an opportunity to bait other commenters into a David Ortiz deathspiral should consider themselves forewarned. This thread is not for that subject, it is for the game.

Go Yanks!
I don’t listen to talk radio, but other than the initial fallout, I haven’t really heard much about Ortiz (at least in the newspapers) until of course, now that they arrived, which is not surprising.
Joba vs Smoltz is a should-win game for the Yanks, if only because Smoltz has been terrible lately. But we’ve seen “terrible” (no disrespect, just numbers) pitchers dominate the Yanks before. Is the lineup up? Bay in?

Red Sox
1. Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
2. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
3. Victor Martinez, C
4. Kevin Youkilis, LF (!)
5. David Ortiz, DH
6. J.D. Drew, RF
7. Mike Lowell, 3B
8. Casey Kotchman, 1B
9. Jed Lowrie, SS
— John Smoltz, SP
Yankees
1. Derek Jeter, SS
2. Johnny Damon, LF
3. Mark Teixeira, 1B
4. Alex Rodriguez, 3B
5. Hideki Matsui, DH
6. Jorge Posada, C
7. Robinson Cano, 2B
8. Nick Swisher, RF
9. Melky Cabrera, CF
— Joba Chamberlain, SP

Also an important game to set the tone, if nothing else. If the Yanks win, they will be first out of this series (and they can go back to beating lesser teams). But of course, no one thought they would start 0-8 either, so..
Personally though, I’ve seen the Yanks “beat” the Sox during those head-to-head series a few years, and that did nothing for them in the post-season. It’s been awhile since the Yanks are on top though, so it’s a meaningful game (for August 6th) for everybody, with those pesty Rays vulturing around..

You can obviously tell I’m excited since I’m writing an article or two or something about it.. haha..
Yanks with the “A” lineup today, everybody in, pushing the recently hot Swisher to the 8th spot. That’s a killer lineup, if everybody clicks.
Red Sox with a (?) in their lineup, with Casey playing first. Anybody else injured? Anything else I’m missing?

And Youk playing LF. I don’t follow him, so maybe someone can chime in about that one..

I am with you, rod. I think Smoltz gives up like 3 or four in the first four innings, then a crooked number in the fifth or something, like six or seven runs total.
Hopefully he does a Houdini act. That’s the only way the Sox win, I think. Unless it’s like a 12-8 5 hour slog.

So who is Joba going to buzz with a heater tonight?
That’s a great question! I forgot about that…um, Ellsbury for stealing home? Youk just for fun?

God, Ichiro is just a machine. Too bad he doesn’t play for a team that can play into October. That would be interesting.

that was easy…it’s so easy to call ARod’s K’s. No idea what f-cking pitch he was looking for that AB…two straight 90 mph fastballs right down the middle to start it off. He REALLY needs to get it together this series. He won’t.

“…To reiterate: those commenters who see any thread as nothing more than an opportunity to bait other commenters into a David Ortiz deathspiral should consider themselves forewarned….”
i’ve been “out and about” for awhile, so i guess i should catch up before i challenge you on this one sf, but given the over the top vitriol and ball-busting you sf’s heaped upon gambini, sheff, clemens, and a-roid, i’d say you got it coming on man-roid, big pill-poppy, and the roid sox of ’04 and ’07, but i’ll do my homework before i dump too much on ya…welcome to the club…as for when it’s appropriate, i’ll decide that, since you mod’s don’t have the nuts to set up posts to discuss stuff like the sox employees implicated…ok?

I’d comment on the game thread, but I am in the midst of making a homemade batch of chicken parm. Mmmm. Chicken parm.

why’s joba throwing a ton of breaking balls? can’t remember him going to it so often in our last meetings.

dc:
The point was to not turn this gamer into that thread. There have been countless other such discussions at this site, but the gamer should be a refuge from that and focus on the action.
Jeez.

JOBA IS THE GREATEST PITCHER EVER!!! ;)
Now if he could get that pitch count down and stop putting dudes on base…
RUNS NOW! BRING THE NOISE YANKEES!!!

I am not watching but my spidey sense tells me that the Sox are leaving men on base.
Am I right?

Better get used to it, I guess.
Wow, if you haven’t gotten used to it over the last several weeks, it ain’t ever gonna happen Jackie.

“countless”…? i doubt it sf, but ok, i’ll cut you some slack because i’ve been absent for awhile, and i don’t know for sure, but my gut tells me that you guys were harder on a-roid and co…..frankly, i’ve been dealing with more important stuff than keeping score of whether or not you guys are keeping an even keel on this topic…i do agree that the game is the important thing right now, regardless of who is doing what, so i’ll respect the notion of keeping this thread for that…bottom line is that it’s all very disappointing…i’ll comment later after i review…

dc, if you haven’t read the site then don’t comment baselessly on what you haven’t read just to antagonize, ok? That was kind of the point of my original comment.
Back to the game, please.

The biggest game of the f-cking season and Hip Hip AS-SHOLE DOESN”T SLIDE??? Are you kidding me??? That is inexcusable. Bench his sorry-ass and put Molina in the game. YOU SUCK JORGE!!! IDIOT!!!

This game is ALL Sox…couldn’t have drawn it up better than this. Joba will be gone by the 4th, per usual. Smoltz pitching awesome and the Yankees making the same old stupid, bush-league plays to lose game. This team is a f-cking joke.

I’ll admit, I expect Papi to GIDP on the third pitch rather than the very first one he saw, but was anything more predictable than that?

Also, if folks are real gluttons for punishment and this game isn’t enough frustration for you, I just posted a long-ish comment in the previous thread about steroids. Because it looked like everyone was having so much fun this afternoon.

“…then don’t comment baselessly…”
please, sf, don’t insult your own intelligence…all one has to do is peruse the post headlines and lead-ins to know that this is one-sided coverage, but like i said, i’ll review the commentary as time permits…in the meantime… we have a game to discuss…

seriously dc, just go away. I asked explicitly that this thread not go near this subject and you willfully did exactly what it asked you not to do. What don’t you understand?
Take it up tomorrow, in a different thread. Please.

Make no mistake about it, they’re hitting him hard. But no results so far.. it’s just a 1-1 game..

i wouldn’t call dc’s comments baiting (until the last one), but maybe just write your thoughts on the thread from today. we’ll read it. i promise.

Have any of Theo’s pitching reclamation projects worked out? I support the idea, but it’s yielded very little.

a different thread?….which one?…don’t bother banning me, i’m out…you proved my point…you don’t want balanced discussion, you want mindless compliance…

“Weren’t we told that LaRoche had more power?”
casey’s homerun wasn’t a product of power, it was a product of architecture.

Did I call it or what?
I think the thing I hate the most about Joba is how cocky he comes off. The kid has done NOTHING. I repeat NOTHING so far. You can mow down the KC’s and Baltimores of the world but if you can’t beat a 56 year old Smoltz, at home, in the BIGGEST GAME OF THE F-CKING SEASON? You just suck. Period. Should have traded his sorry-ass for Halladay.
This game is over. Goodnight all. Enjoy your win SF’s….again.

‘…What’s your fucking problem?…”
classy, sf…i said i was out…i know what your problem is…loud and clear

Where’s that Melky/Bay debate now? ;P
Alright, I’m being an asshole, but Melky with a clutch shot, and now it’s a 5-3 game.
Where/when do you decide you let Smoltz eat IP and save the pen, and when do you decide it’s still winnable and pull him early?

so i put the over/under line on homeruns for this series at 15. i think they’ll go over that number by tomorrow nite.

SF’s under/over on ER is also very tight as of right now. Great lines, I guess, though I thought they were a bit pessimistic.
Still, there’s still 5 and change innings to play, and the game’s not won yet..

Is Ellsbury playing shallow or is it just me? Jeter drove out to CF, but apparently Ells is right there.

waiting for someone to try to convince me that melky’s “popup” would’ve been an out in any other stadium…i remember having the discussion whether or not melky could start on the sox, lar… ;)

Still, the way Joba is pitching, no lead is safe. Let’s keep the train going.
JD with a single.

these were the lines:
Over/under on Smoltz innings pitched: 3.2
Over/under on Smoltz runs allowed: 5.5

Is that what the vaunted Red Sox pitching depth looks like?
That’s a rhetorical question, right?

That’s a bit unnecessary, I mean, we have Joba who might not finish the season with the IP limit, and err.. Mitre for sakes..

Can someone tell me why Smolz is still on the mound? Or in the rotation?
Anyone? Bueller?

ARod IBB.
SF, your lines are on fire. Not quite a push, but I am impressed..
Matsui in, against Traber.

Billy Traber, the former washout Yankee long reliever, is warming up.
This is amusing.

Matsui can really add to this lead right now, as maybe it would ease Joba’s mind a little bit.

What mixed signals Francona’s sending! Pulling Smoltz says he wants to keep it close, but then bringing in Traber says something quite different.

I wonder what the Sox would have had to give for Cliff Lee, if they were involved in the discussions. I assume the HAD to be, since they were obviously talking to Cleveland about Martinez. I still can’t really fathom that Theo looked at the Sox’ rotation and felt comfortable with the back three. I like Martinez as a pickup for next year, considering what the Sox gave up, but for this year he wasn’t what the Sox needed. Lee or Halladay would have given the Sox a really amazing front three.
Can we at least see Michael Bowden for a couple of starts?

Sounds like Smoltz needs to learn how to pitch more “like Jamie Moyer”, am I right guys?

Sounds like Smoltz needs to learn how to pitch more “like Jamie Moyer”, am I right guys?
Pretty sure he wouldn’t do much worse throwing lefty.

“… It’s just stupid and pointless….”
we agreed to drop it for this thread gerb…but, since you decided to continue the debate, thanks for calling my comment “stupid and pointless” …just as ignorance of relevant news is “stupid and pointless”, as well as, well, ignorant…would have been worthy of a whole post if it were yankee employees buddy…continues to prove my point that this is a one-sided deal…

Paul Byrd has so much guile, Guile from Street Fighter was based on him.
The double-pump delivery is actually charging up a Sonic Boom that he applies to every pitch.

Ground ball fielder’s choice for an RBI. That was a tough earned RBI, and it’s a 6-3 lead with two outs.

Posada with a 3 run HR, and 9-3 Yanks.
Traber finally came through for the Yanks?
Off the bat I thought it was a pop up. But ya, he definitely made up a little bit for that slide for that one..

Batting around! Bruce Willis and his nubile young lady friend love it!
Billy Traber is not the solution to anyone’s pitching depth problems.

No, but he might be left there to eat up innings for the rest of the game..
I hope the Yanks keep on hitting just to dig into that bullpen a bit, even though Paps will be rested, and Beckett should give them some rest anyhow.
Swisher hits one hard but foul.

Until the Yanks can prove they can win a game against the Sox, I will not believe what I’m seeing otherwise.

Traber is probably going to be out there to take one for the team. But if he keeps on giving these hits, that “awhile” might not be long enough.
Here’s Melky, who might be the hero of this game so far.

Willis just remarried a twenty-something former model. His kids got hit with an ugly stick (mean, yes, but am I supposed to be nice right now?), so it’s probably his wife.

Melky pops up. Really, it could’ve only been worse if they dropped it. Still, 9-3 Yanks.

Have fun, YFs, this has been a long time coming. Enjoy it and see you tomorrow.
Off to spend some time with the wife…

The crowd hasn’t really gotten on Papi very much…we are SO much classier in the Bronx than Fenway!!!!
KIDDING!!! I”M JUST KIDDING!!! ;)

C’mon Joba, at least make them work that.
Joe G does not look happy, and I imagine tons of people are not.

Walks the f-cking bases loaded…unbelievable. Grand slam coming. GET HIM OUT OF THE GAME JOE!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME???
Joba rules? Hell no, Joba SUCKS!!!

Well, he did get the strike out, but he did also give the fist pump. Ah well, that must be his last inning.

“…we are SO much classier in the Bronx than Fenway!!!!…”
nah, we’re apparently just worn out k, as are the sox fans…it’s ok…we feared the worst, and we got it

Traber’s ERA for today down from a Chien-Ming Wang-esque 27.00 to a Penny-like 6.75 — but can he keep it there?

Grateful that Matsui tacked on two runs. Really shouldn’t need to in a previously 5 run game.

Traber ends the inning at 16.20 — and also ends my interest in continuing to watch the game.

Meh…his numbers aren’t that bad. Looks like a strikeout pitcher, not too many walks or HR’s either. We’ll see how he does in the AL.

I cannot fathom the fact that we have to blow up our bullpen with a 8 run lead…is this really happening??? You know AJ is only going to make it through about 4 tomorrow…

Traber is single handedly saving the Sox bullpen for the rest of the series. Smart move by Francona. Meanwhile, we cannot get through an inning and continue to burn our pen in a game where we have an 8 run lead…
As I type…Tex HR. 13-4

Tesh with a garbage time HR. To be fair, he was close some at bats ago..
And he is on my fantasy team, so I like either way.

Seriously, is there not a pitcher that the Yanks can just throw out there to eat up the rest of the innings?

Yanks just tossing every piece of garbage pitcher out there to save the good ones…all, what, 3 of them.

I just wanted to remind everyone of Kreug’s comment:
“Well, that was easy…double for Pedroia. GAME.”
Because faces should be rubbed in things, just to keep it all in perspective.

Two questions:
1. Can I eat Krueg? Seriously.
2. 4 runs on ten (10, ONE ZERO) walks. I thought SF was overreacting, but this game seems to have proved him right.
3. No, seriously, can I eat him? I say this as a YF.

What is your deal? Other than ALL CAPS and exclamation points. I’m a curious person, so if there’s a deeper meaning I’d love to know.

Man,I sat in front of the tv just to see the Bombers score 8 in the fourth. It happens a lot, guess I’m a lucky charm of sorts.Good for the Yanks!

Well, I say stupid things all the time in threads. Normally on the first hit for the opponent I post that. Just messing around, I don’t mean them so what perspective is to be gained from your post? YF or not?
Eat me? Seriously? I have no idea who you are, have never seen you post here before, you post something out of context and you want to eat me? Um…ok.

No dude. No deeper meaning whatsoever…you’re the one assigning meaning to it. Check through the rest of the Yankee gamers. I started posting over-the-top negative posts early in the season and they started winning, so I’ve kept it up…superstitious.

Come on,krueg is ok,I don’t know him either but no need to pick on anybody like that,Statler.Seriously. And btw,krueg,wont you cut a break on Joba?hehe.I guess it’s just what u called,negative assertiveness? I dont remember

Negative reinforcement bro…I lay it on thicker for guys who need an extra push. That’s the only reason he got out of those last two jams…
You know I love Joba!!!

I’m not a big commenter. I usually watch the games and read the threads. The reason I got sandy is that, as a YF, your comments make me anxious.
It’s hard to tell from the text whether you’re serious or not, but hey, I’ve got my superstitions too.
Fair enough.

I’m sorry I called you an ass.
For the record:
I DO NOT ACTUALLY MEAN WHAT I TYPE!!!! IT’S NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT AND IT’S BEEN WORKING!!! ;)

Yeah,i could feel it, and it cracks me up, it doesnt sound like u hate him,sounds like u are going at your brother.And I guess I’ll hang by everytime I can,since the Yanks seem to win when I watch them.Or it’s just me being paranoid…

krueg, FIP stands for Fielding Independent Pitching. It’s an advanced stat that measures how well a pitcher using only normalized homerun, walk, and strikeout rates, taking out defense entirely. Tom Tango invented it.

Well, Joe should have called Claggett before, see if he could lower that stratospheric ERA(Or Wang-esque,like someone posted earlier

Well, bright side…Ace, Hughes and Mo are rested for tomorrow. If AJ can give us a solid start, maybe 7 innings, we should be in good shape. Of course if Joshy-boy is on it might not matter.

I can’t believe he just gave up a piece of sh-t run in the 9th…
I think I can say in all seriousness that this guy is f-cking terrible. He needs to go the way of Veras, Edwar and Al-ba-la-DOUCHE-ho…GOODBYE LOSER!!!
And he gives up another run as I type…for a blowout, this game sure hasn’t felt that way. Totally agonizing.

ballgame over, wow, claggett almost got Mo to work, Jeez! Why all Yanks-Sox have to be that crazy? Not for the weak hearted.

It means that Gaudin isn’t as bad as his 5+ ERA suggests. A pitcher with an FIP lower than his ERA is pretty uncommon. Team defense is supposed to help a pitcher’s ERA numbers, not make them worse. To use a Yankee example, AJ’s FIP is around 4.45, which suggests that the Yankees’ defense has been saving him runs.
Gaudin’s BABIP this year is also a ghastly .338, while his line drive % and HR/9 are within his career average. It looks like he’s been unlucky this year. His K/9 this year is 8.97. I like the idea of having a proven strikeout pitcher as the no. 5 starter instead of a poor man’s poor man’s CMW.

Well, I take the win. Gotta go, see you tomorrow maybe.Hopefully another win. Night!

mike: I had to look up DICE, but it looks like FIP and DICE are almost exactly the same, except FIP adds a constant that changes every year to reflect the league to scale it to ERA. FIP also doesn’t account for HBPs, unlike DICE.
I just used FIP because it’s what Fangraphs and THT tend to use; I read those sites regularly.

Just a pathetic effort by the staff…a win is a win but come on. Lucky to only give up 6 runs.
We were supposed to win that one…let’s see what they do against Joshy tomorrow. They lose tomorrow night and they could easily lose the series.
3.5
Goodnight boys!!!

Ok,good to know,thanks Doug. And another stat to fill my mind,hehe.But that one is one of those you just glance over, I don’t tend to mull over every stat.But it’s good to know there’s another one anyway.Gotta go now,see ya guys-and girls(if any).

Couldn’t catch any of the game tx to work – still haven’t see highlights but seems like it was ugly. 7 walks for Joba is crazy. Yankee offense has been bashing bad pitching and scrapping runs well vs. good pitching. Hope they can do some of the latter tmrw.

Yanks will most likely grab 3 out of 4 this weekend…But September will be where fireworks go off, and we’ll see if CC and Joba can hold it together down the stretch. This isn’t the NL and CC has thrown many innings. His WHIP and ERA are bad. You better hope Hughes stays dominant, too. Sox will get the rotation back to normal and Bay is only gone two weeks tops.

dc said: “since you mod’s don’t have the nuts”
dc, I like you and usually like the way you think, but if you tell me that neither I nor my co-authors don’t have the “nuts” to promptly talk about a topic you think needs attention, I’m obliged to say that it is indeed stupid and pointless to set up a steroid debate and pursue “bias” accusations on that topic in a gamer thread or during the game.

With all due respect Chris, there isn’t much reason to worry about Hughes staying dominant. Young pitchers who find themselves in flame-throwing bullpen positions tend not to suddenly lose it. The bigger issue for the Yanks as discussed earlier here is whether the Yanks stick to Joba’s innings limit, in which case he may be moved out of the rotation within 2-3 weeks and they’ll have very very weak # 4 and 5 slots in the rotation. And that’s barring injuries to any of their top 3.
Of course, if the Yanks do take 3 of 4 this weekend as you say, then you’ll need to worry about the Sox staying in the wildcard race let alone the divisional race so it’s all relative.

I can’t believe I recorded this game and spent 3 hours watching it this morning. Ugh, what a crapfest.
Smoltz got ahead of plenty of batters, then left a bunch of pitches up in the zone. Pathetic. We’ve seen all we need to from him. Byrd please.
Also, when’s Wake coming back?

Well, if the Sox don’t make the playoffs it’s becoming perfectly clear why:
Brad Smoltz – 2009 –
29 GS, 156 IP, 104 ER, 24 HR
All that for only $12 million (and more depending on how much they keep throwing both). Now we know why guys like Lowe and Burnett cost what they did.
Coming in at a close #2, besides SS, is no viable option to cover for 1B/DH for half the season.
I don’t understand how the Sox could have been prepared to spend close to $200 million for a 1B but then tried to ducktape the rest of the roster after that fell through. They could have signed a guy like Furcal, besides Dunn, for comparatively little.

“Is the Rooster still living?” yup – he was on Charlie Moore great outdoors recently – looks good, too. As does Dewey.

“The bigger issue for the Yanks as discussed earlier here is whether the Yanks stick to Joba’s innings limit, in which case he may be moved out of the rotation within 2-3 weeks and they’ll have very very weak # 4 and 5 slots in the rotation. And that’s barring injuries to any of their top 3.”
Maybe you missed it IH, since you are out of town but we traded for Chad Gaudin. Hopefully he can give us some quality starts and we’ll never have to see MEE-tre again. As to the Joba situation, he CLEARLY belongs in the pen… ;)
Maybe we can find another serviceable starter off of waivers? I’m still down for Garland, although I know some of you don’t like him really…

Post-mortem, Sox edition:
1) Smoltz clearly should not start for Boston again. Among other things, he just can’t get lefties out. Either he should be retired or tried as a right-hand specialist only (and I don’t see the value in that, even). He’s done.
2) Ortiz needs to be dropped farther down in the lineup and platooned even more often. He’s got nuthin’.
3) I can’t believe Boston still doesn’t have a shortstop who can hit over .240. What is it with Epstein and shortstops? Never should have traded Cabrera.
4) Boston can still come out of this series 3-1 or at worst 2-2, assuming Beckett and Lester do what is expected of them. But this team is looking more and more like the August Faders of old, pre-’04. With several starters who are certain to cough up 5-6 runs in as many innings,, and with Wakes and DiceK out, the prognosis is bleak.

Tks Krueg…yeah I heard about Gaudin. I guess I’m not factoring him in as an upgrade over Mitre until I see how he does in the AL. His numbers don’t seem great with the Padres but I did see the discussion here last night re: some of those stats seeming to be the result of bad luck. We’ll see. The NYS also seems to bring increased “bad luck” pitchers’ way so I just don’t know enough about Gaudin to feel much encouragement there – yet.

well gerb, i like you too for the record, the “news” i referred to was actually a couple of days old, and wouldn’t have required you guys to drop what you were doing to give it “prompt” attention…i may be the only one who thought it was noteworthy and relevant…since i don’t voluntarily talk to myself, i’ll let it go…
have to admit that i was also a bit disappointed not to find a munson post to note the 30th anniv. of his death…wonderful yankee player…a real hero…if there was one, accept my apologies for missing it, and please point me to it…

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.