Kansas City Royals @ New York Yankees GameThread, Aug 17, 2008 1:05 PM EDT

Game #124 - Kansas City Royals @ New York Yankees

by anaconda on Aug 17, 2008 12:45 PM EDT in Game Threads Comment 37 comments

Kansas City Royals at New York Yankees, Aug 17, 2008 1:05 PM EDT

KANSAS CITY ROYALS

David DeJesus, CF
Mike Aviles, SS
Mark Teahen, LF
Jose Guillen, RF
Billy Butler, DH
Alex Gordon, 3B
Ross Gload, 1B
John Buck, C
Esteban German, 2B

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
Brian Bannister	7-11	24	24	1	0	0	0	139.1	156	89	83	19	44	91	5.36	1.44

NEW YORK YANKEES

Johnny Damon, DH
Derek Jeter, SS
Bobby Abreu, RF
Álex Rodríguez, 3B
Jason Giambi, 1B
Xavier Nady, LF
Robinson Cano, 2B
Jose Molina, C
Brett Gardner, CF

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
Mike Mussina	15-7	25	25	0	0	0	0	147.1	157	64	54	14	21	101	3.30	1.21

PREGAME NOTES:

Moose is seeking his 266th career win today, which would tie him with some guy named Bob Feller for 35th on the all-time career wins list.

Brian Bannister is a lifetime 1-1, 9.45 ERA, 2.17 WHIP in 3 starts against the Yanks. He is 2-6, 7.74 ERA, 1.72 WHIP in 11 starts on the road this season.

Mike Mussina is a lifetime 17-7, 2.96 ERA, 1.07 WHIP in 34 starts against the Royals. He is 14-4, 2.91 ERA, 1.18 WHIP over his last 21 starts since April 23.

Yanks' hitters vs. Bannister can be viewed here. Royals' hitters vs. Moose can be viewed here.

HUGHES TUNEUP: Phil Hughes is scheduled to make his fifth and perhaps final rehab start later today for Scranton and could return to the Yankee rotation as soon as Saturday against the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards.

MATSUI COULD RETURN TUESDAY: Pete Abe reports that Hideki Matsui has 15 ABs during a simulated game in Tampa this morning and could return to the starting lineup as soon as Tuesday in Toronto if his knee shows no ill-effects.

If Matsui does return, he will be strictly limited to DH duties for the rest of the season.

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Comments

If

that wasn’t against Bannister, I’d say ARod finally did something, but I guess at this point have to take what he gives

by emille2 on Aug 17, 2008 1:32 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

How in the world did Gardner leg out a triple on that?

If that guy showed some gap power on occasion – he’d be a triple machine.

by anaconda on Aug 17, 2008 1:44 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Gardner's trip looked even better

considering that i had a mental picture of Melky weakly popping out to short left in the back of my head.

by Clutch like Leyritz on Aug 17, 2008 1:47 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

No doubt

I believe both Melky and Gardner are fourth outfielders, but I think Gardner has more tools to help the team win.

Melky has a good arm and that’s about it.

by anaconda on Aug 17, 2008 1:51 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

agreed

glad that they finally gave Gardner a real shot.

by Clutch like Leyritz on Aug 17, 2008 1:55 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

It will be interesting to see what happens when Matsui comes back

Gotta wonder if Damon will be playing CF with Gardner sitting.

But don’t be at all surprised if Girardi pulls his over-managing the lineup stuff and platoons Damon and Matsui in the DH role – with Matsui sitting a lot.

by anaconda on Aug 17, 2008 2:02 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

How do you platoon

two lefty hitters?

by DocBrown82 on Aug 17, 2008 2:24 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

He did it early in the season

Matsui sat a lot of games that he shouldn’t have. Remember when Matsui sat two straight games when he had like an 11-game hitting streak going?

That’s Girardi for you.

by anaconda on Aug 17, 2008 2:26 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

question

not sure if it would work on this rotation, but why not throw one of the better pitchers on three days rest, rather than put Rasner on the mound. I mean our better pitchers are aging and not definitely coming back, why worry about their arms?

by emille2 on Aug 17, 2008 1:47 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Because they normally don't perform well on three days rest anyways

I know that’s the case with Pettitte and Moose as well. I just don’t have the numbers in front of me.

by anaconda on Aug 17, 2008 1:54 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Moose doesn't have it at all today

by anaconda on Aug 17, 2008 1:49 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Beckett’s getting lit up early

by emille2 on Aug 17, 2008 1:53 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

maybe getting out of that jam

will kick-start Moose?

by Clutch like Leyritz on Aug 17, 2008 1:56 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Toronto won't get any easier

The Yanks will have to face both Burnett and Halladay. And I don’t have to tell you that they both own the Yanks, especially Halladay.

Then again, you probably won’t find many teams that Halladay doesn’t own.

by anaconda on Aug 17, 2008 1:57 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Halladay’s due for a nice 4-5th inning exit from a game….hopefully

by emille2 on Aug 17, 2008 2:11 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I wouldn't bet on it

There’s a mental game there, too. Halladay owns the Yanks and he knows it. The Yanks know it as well.

Loads of confidence on one side and not so much on the other.

by anaconda on Aug 17, 2008 2:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

hopefully they’ll just keep the rotation going and throw Halladay against Byrd again

by emille2 on Aug 17, 2008 2:16 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

looks like

they caught Bannister on a good day.

by Clutch like Leyritz on Aug 17, 2008 2:01 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

He's had a lot of good days this season

He was 2-6, 7.74 ERA, 1.72 WHIP in 11 starts on the road this season before today’s game.

by anaconda on Aug 17, 2008 2:03 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

yeah i know he's really struggled this year

it’s too bad, because he has about as good of a year as you can have as a modern-day Royals pitcher – 12-9, 3.87 – in ’07.

by Clutch like Leyritz on Aug 17, 2008 2:06 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

He really did have a great season in '07

He’s not this bad. It’s just one of those kind of seasons, I guess.

I’m a big fan of Greinke myself. Nasty, nasty, stuff. And still very young at 24.

by anaconda on Aug 17, 2008 2:12 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

his skill stats are pretty much the same as last year

2007, 2008
K/9: 4.4, 5.7
BB/9: 2.5, 2.8
GB: 41, 39%

Bannister’s 2007 ERA and W-L were pretty lucky based on…
BABIP: .260, .305
HR/FB: 7.6, 11.6

You could even make the argument that Bannister’s a better pitcher this year…
xFIP: 5.14, 4.66
tRA:

my blog // calling BJ Upton lazy is lazy // past results do not guarantee future performance

by Sky Kalkman on Aug 17, 2008 2:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

thanks for the numbers

that’s interesting. i did notice that his K/9 and to BB ratios were similar to last year. i wonder what his run support was?

by saying this i’m not disputing your numbers, but isn’t it ridiculous how in-depth some of these stat calculations go now? i feel like i could actually prove that Barry Bonds had a better season in 2007 than he did in 2001 (73 HR).

by Clutch like Leyritz on Aug 17, 2008 2:20 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

how would you do that?

I agree that there are too many numbers available — every kid with Excel can make up something like H+BB-K+SB-E.

but we should get rid of (or just ignore) the crappy numbers and use the good ones. stats only lie if you believe all of them or none of them.

my blog // calling BJ Upton lazy is lazy // past results do not guarantee future performance

by Sky Kalkman on Aug 17, 2008 2:25 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

i agree with you

and i like the blog. the LI stats you did on closers was interesting – especially because Papelbon was last on that list. i’ve told a co-worker of mine that it seems like everytime he comes in, the Sox are up 2 or 3 runs. looks like the numbers actually back that up.

by Clutch like Leyritz on Aug 17, 2008 2:30 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

yeah, while the closer system isn't ideal

at least the closer tends to be the most important pitcher.

The Yankee bullpen has been interesting, with only Mo and Joba appearing in more important-than-average situations. (Marte’s right up there, but only after 10 IP. Farnsworth pitched in situations that were about average in importance.) You don’t usually see bullpens like that. Probably because roles have changed throughout the year.

my blog // calling BJ Upton lazy is lazy // past results do not guarantee future performance

by Sky Kalkman on Aug 17, 2008 2:51 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs