Now That I Can Think Rationally

How often does the home team lose in extra-innings during the regular season? It seems like the home team wins more often during the post-season, but I’d be interested to know what the winning percentage is during the season.

While I do agree that Joe G has a tendency to yank his pitchrers out way to early….let’s think about this….Harrold Reynolds from the MLB network made a valid point. After abreus single in the 6th Joba started warming up. Tori hunter then proceeded to pop up on the 1st pitch…thus screwing any possibility of bringing in joba to face vlad….honestly. Chamberlain looked downright human yesterday…I would also like for Girardi to stay in the Dugout….stop coming out in the middle of an at-bat to make sure your veteran pitcher is ok. Pettite has been doing this for years, he looked pretty annoyed when girardi walked away….w.e CC today…..let’s hope he gives a strong outing and let’s score some runs boys!!! LET’S GO YANKEES

The usual well worn rap is that this is a team built for the marathon schedule, but will fail in a short series when the teams flaws are exposed. Start with the manager. Aceves has been good…maybe great in middle relief when our hitters had time to stage one of the many comebacks…hence Aceves’ gaudy and misleading record. In that situation yesterday, Robertson was the right person to overpower one more hitter. I would even have preferred Bruney over Aceves. Power pitchers in the playoffs – right?

So now we go with the horse on short rest. In my mind we have to win this game. And if not, can you afford to sit Jorge’s 2 HRs in 3 gameswith AJ pitching a game 5? Lets worry about that tomorrow!

Grady Little got fired for a whole season’s worth of transgressions that cuminated in his managerial botching of game 7 in the ALCS in 2003. Girardi is a better manager than Grady (by a fair bit) and probably better than Torre was too. Rewatching game 5 of the 2004 ALCS reminded me of just how bad Torre was. He probably cost the Yankees the 2004 AL pennant via his overuse of Gordon, his use of Quantrill and Gordon in an 18-9 blowout, not going to Rivera early enough in game 5, never running on Wakefield (with Varitek passing balls left and right) or a gimpy Schilling in game 6, and not pitching out on Roberts when everyone and his grandmother knew he was running. I fully agree that he is way way overmanaging the pen in the playoffs, and he may have blown last night’s game. Otherwise, he has not done the weird things Joe did (batting ARod 8th in 2006) and he did not blow out his pen in the regular season the way Joe did. He likley knows at this point not to stick his head in that dumb binder and simply go by who is throwing well and leave it at that from now on.

OK, his moves are driving me crazy also. Do guys have confidence that they’ll get more than two batters other than Mo? And remember, he ran out to talk to Andy Pettitte while he was pitching to Vlad. I think Andy knows how to pitch by now after 15 post season wins and after Girardi leaves the mound, BOOM HR. He messed up his concentration.
Andy was in a groove and he took him out of it…What could he possible tell Andy that he didn’t already know? Did his book have super secret intel?
He used two lefties on two hitters..Marte and Coke…That didn’t make sense either.
The series is about players.

I love the MLB network, but Harold was wrong. Andy should have kept pitching the full 7…if he took him out in the bottom of the 6th, Gaudin would have been the last pitcher standing in the 9th inning.

At worst, Melky vs. Gardner is a push. Melky has more power, but Gardner has the edge in OBP. Melky has a stronger throwing arm in CF, but Gardner has the speed to get to more balls. Even at a push, I would opt to play Gardner more often because he has the one thing the Yankees lack – game changing speed. This speed is useful in innings 1-7.

Even Girardi has wanted more speed in the lineup to press Angel’s pitching. He can’t use him today.
Ha,
Flaherty brought up my Girardi coming out to the mound to talk with Andy point…Is John reading Pinstripe Alley? LOL…

I agree that Gardner should be starting, especially when Melky is swinging at balls in the dirt. Swisher has been too valuable to us to be benched at this point, and he’s shown that he can, at any time, hit one out.

My biggest issue yesterday was the Robertson substitution, just because he’s been throwing so well, but I can understand every other move. Pettite has a tendency to hit the wall, so that substitution makes sense to me. The Angels scored from 2nd on a base hit to shallow left field in game 2, so I know why Girardi took Damon out.

Let’s not forget the Aceves may be the MVP of our bullpen. The guy has pitched in every possible scenario and has pitched effectively. He gave up a couple of hits yesterday, but he’s proven that he can be trusted.

The moves didn’t work out yesterday, but they will. Girardi seems to like to play the percentages, which in my mind is better than “playing his gut”. The Yankees are going to score more than 4 runs a game; they got unlucky yesterday with the 4 solo HRs (particularly with the 4th coming immediately after the caught stealing by Gardner). I still like their chances to win the WS.

we should have kept Vasquez instead of trading him for the Big Unit and used that money to sign Beltran, who is possibly a tad bit better than Melky or Gardner

that Grady Little’s mistake was a smaller mistake than Girardi bringing in Alf last night. That said, it was a terrible decision. You take out a guy who is dialed in and up to game intensity to bring a cold pitcher to get the last out. When you have Tex and Arod due up in the 12th. I know I don’t have to convince any of you as you all agree that it was a blunder, but I think time will tell what kind and how big of a mistake this was. If we win tonight, it make it seem smaller. We lose, it’s big. Too early to tell.

always a player, unless you are paid to be a manager. Joe’s problem seems to be one of still thinking he has to be participating in the game. He had overmanaged this team a number of times, but the Yankees are so talented it hasn’t showed much until last night. Someone should get Girardi a valium prescription and make him take it. Ijust hope last night’s game hasn’t given the Angels new life. If they’d been down three games instead of two……..

i live in philly and am stuck listening to their retarded fans all day about how the phils are gonna just kill the yanks. so i come on here to be with like minded intelligent fans and to feel better about a tough loss. 2 and a half more hours to go up 3-1!!!! let go yankees! clap clap clap clap clap

1. Not subbing Gardner for Damon immediately. We still would have lost the DH, but we would have had a much better defensive outfield (it’s POSSIBLE that Melky or Gardner could have gotten Mathis’ double). Using Gardner as a PR only takes away his biggest contribution to the team.

2. Taking Robertson (a power reliever) out for Aceves (a long reliever who WILL give up runs) in a tie game when you’re the away team is just indefensible. I made this exact argument yesterday before the game with regard to Game 2. You can’t put long relievers into close games and not expect to give up runs.

Before the"2nd guess" accusations come on, if you read yesterday’s game comments, we ALL recognized that Joe taking out Robertson was a terrible idea at the time…that’s not second guessing, that’s FIRST guessing. I also think we’d all agree that Joe had done fine until then…Joba was clearly not getting it done, Andy had to work for his 6.1, Coke and Marte are only supposed to be in for one or two guys. But Joba, Hughes, Robertson, if they’re on, should never, ever go less than 3 outs.

3. We have no power off the bench, no Ruben Sierra-type, which left us with Cervelli. We have to either sit Swish for a PH moment or we should have picked up Hinske and not Guzman.

Anyone who has watched the Yankees all year long knows that they’ve won DESPITE Girardi,
He doesnt engage with the umps, even to back his players. Witness the ridiculous call against Swisher tonight. Not a peep.
His use of the bullpen is bizarre, and unexplainable in most cases, and he doesn’t seem to follow the flow of the game – he goes on stats only. Like a computer.
Worse than this, his love affair with Swisher and Molina is inexplicable. Swisher CANT HIT IN THE CLUTCH, cant field, cant run and cant throw. He draws walks and occasionally hits homers, mostly when it doesn’t count. Gardner offers speed, fielding, throwing and better contact. Is Girardi blind?