2014 Yanx - The Crumble Continues ???

[Edgy MD]

Headley heroix aside, the last few nights have give us a pitcher who can't throw to first, and a grounds crew who can't get a tarp down.

Don't want to glory in anybody else's struggles, but man, how much bitter damnation would these guys have gotten from George Steinbrenner?

[Edgy MD]

Chuck Knoblauch busted for allegedly beating up his ex-wife. His induction into the Twins Hall of Fame has been "cancelled" --- which is a notably different word than "suspended" or "delayed, pending the outcome of this matter."

[MFS62]

Edgy MD wrote: Chuck Knoblauch busted for allegedly beating up his ex-wife. His induction into the Twins Hall of Fame has been "cancelled" --- which is a notably different word than "suspended" or "delayed, pending the outcome of this matter."

Are they sure he was aiming at her?

Later.

[Frayed Knot]

So all this wheeling and dealing (including one deal where the two combatants dealt with each other) comes on the eve of a Yanx/Sawx series, albeit one with less emphasis than most of the ones in recent years.
All of which got me to thinking, for the Sox in particular but it kind of works both ways: So who's left to actually pitch in this series?

See if you can match up the pitchers for this weekend's games with the team for which they'll be toeing the slab:

Shane Greene
Chris Capuano
Anthony Ranaudo
David Phelps
Clay Buchholtz
Allen Webster


OK, Buchholtz is fairly easy but the others have made 1, 4, 0, 16, and 8 game starts for their clubs this season.
There are probably a dozen other games that would serve ESPN better on their Sunday Night GotW - but of course they are powerless to resist.






Greene, Capuano (picked up Last week), Phelps are Yanx
Buchholtz, Ranaudo (ML debut) & Webster are Bostonians

[Frayed Knot]

Only two hours into the game in Fenway tonight and they're already through 4 innings!!!
7-4 Sox as I type this but the score changes every two or three minutes so depending on how quickly you're reading this ...


Fortunately for the Sox Jeter's been there to pour a bucket onto the end of each Yanqui rally.

[bmfc1]

Jeter is so classy, ain't he? Keith Olbermann explains:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rK8jw4jR_0

[Frayed Knot]

Jeter is so classy, ain't he? Keith Olbermann explains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rK8jw4jR_0

And what goes unmentioned by Olbermann is that one of the more prominent graffiti-like things on those shoes is: MVP ... which is all well and good until you remember that Jeter's never been an MVP*

* despite attempts by writers a few years back to get him one in the style of a lifetime Oscar even as they admitted he didn't deserve it for that year

[Benjamin Grimm]

Maybe it stands for Most Venereal Player.

[Frayed Knot]

The Yanx are getting better starting pitching with all these scrubs than they ever were before all the injuries hit.
Losing Tanaka was obviously a big blow, but the current collection of no-names is performing MUCH better than Sabathia, Pineda, Nuno & Nova even were.
Shyeet, Chris Freakin' Capuano is shutting down the Tigers tonight.

[Edgy MD]

Orioles the only team with a real lead in their division, though. At least, they were until yielding to the Dickeys this evening. Their lead is down to four.

[Frayed Knot]

I don't see anyone pulling away in that division (with only the Sox being truly out of it) so things will almost surely go down to the wire there both for the div win and for the 2nd WC.

But this entire season I've seen the Yanx as not only NOT a playoff team but a sub-.500 one - and then when their pitchers going down I thought that was all just a matter of time. Hell, they were 30-40 runs in arrears before all that happened.
But now, with Gardner suddenly on pace for 25 HRs, McCann slowly waking up, Headley being an improvement, and, like I said above, scrub pitchers pitching as well or better than the high-priced guys they replaced, I'm not so sure. They just won 2-of-3 vs Detroit while Brandon McCarthy (5.00 ERA before trade, 2.08 since), Hiroki Kuroda (looked like toast end of last season) & Capuano (released twice this season) basically out-pitched the last three CY winners as the Tigers needed an extra-inning HR in order to not get swept.

[nymr83]

Don't drink the Yankee KoolAid! those pitchers are going to fall apart and revert to their usual suckitude!

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

Jeter makes everyone around him better. I fully expect that the Yankees will hoist the World Series trophy at the end of October. Jeter as WS MVP. It will be terrible.

[nymr83]

Mets � Willets Point wrote: Jeter makes everyone around him better. I fully expect that the Yankees will hoist the World Series trophy at the end of October. Jeter as WS MVP. It will be terrible.

This is the most terrible thing ever. Jeter striking out to end a must-win game on the last day of the season to end the Yankees' playoff hopes is a much prettier image.

[HahnSolo]

The Tigers bats sure found an opportune time to take four days off.

[Frayed Knot]

Nice job by the Cleveland Native Americans this weekend, bouncing back after a bad loss Friday to hold Skankee bats to just one run total over two games.

Yanx start a six game road trip tonight with three in Baltimore then three in Tampa.
A bad week here would really do some damage to their October dreams. A good week, followed as it is by visits from the much softer Houston & ChiSox, puts them right in the thick of things.
Detroit gets another shot at them towards the end of the month so, Mr. MGiM, tell your Tiggers that they have one last chance to get off my shit-list (and I'm sure they're worrying themselves sick over this)

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Os clobbered the MFYs 11-3 after trailing 3-1

[Frayed Knot]

Pineda came off the DL and was no-hitting the Orioles thru 4 and had a 2-0 lead.
But he could only last 5, left up 2-1, and Girardi went to Bettances for 2.1 innings.
But because he came in so early he couldn'tt finish the 8th inning and so the O's scored 4 times on 2 HRs

5-3 Baltimore is your final.

[Frayed Knot]

5th straight loss, 5-0 to Tampa

That game also brought the TBR up to .500 for the first time this season since being 10-10 and after falling to a low point of 18-games under in early June
Rays now just 1 game in back of the Yanx who could conceivably fall from their current 5th WC slot to 7th before this weekend is over, caught and/or passed by TB and Cleveland

Tigers, btw, not only fell out of the ALC lead this past week but, as of last night, the 2nd WC slot as well (serves them right for sucking v the Yanx).
Seattle makes the playoffs if the season ends today (although I heard it won't).

[Lefty Specialist]

I'm rooting very hard for Derek Jeter to play empty, meaningless games in late September. The kind that he's forced to play in because the fans demand their last look at the myth, the legend, the Ford Edge spokesman.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

Lefty Specialist wrote: I'm rooting very hard for Derek Jeter to play empty, meaningless games in late September. The kind that he's forced to play in because the fans demand their last look at the myth, the legend, the Ford Edge spokesman.

And he piles up a streak of 0-for-4's and LOBs.

[MFS62]

Mets � Willets Point wrote: Lefty Specialist wrote: I'm rooting very hard for Derek Jeter to play empty, meaningless games in late September. The kind that he's forced to play in because the fans demand their last look at the myth, the legend, the Ford Edge spokesman. And he piles up a streak of 0-for-4's and LOBs.

He drove in the winning run last night with the 2,347th seventeen hop, seeing eye, opposite field, hit of his career, extending his own all-time major league record.

Later

[Ceetar]

Seen on a Brooklyn Brewery bathroom 3/18/2012

[MFS62]

They had a day for Clueless Joe at YS III yesterday, and put his number up on the wall.
Callers to the local talk shows are saying that Mariano Rivera, the guy who added 50 points to Torre's baseball IQ wasn't there. (If he was, he was invisible. Bernie Williams wasn't seen there, either.)
I can neither confirm nor deny those comments.

Later

[G-Fafif]

MFS62 wrote: Bernie Williams wasn't seen there, either.

Gerald Williams wasn't there. Bernie Williams was front and center. Torre called him his favorite, told sickeningly adorable stories about their Special Relationship.

[MFS62]

G-Fafif wrote: MFS62 wrote: Bernie Williams wasn't seen there, either. Gerald Williams wasn't there. Bernie Williams was front and center. Torre called him his favorite, told sickeningly adorable stories about their Special Relationship.

You can't believe anything MFY fans say.
Thanks.

Later

[G-Fafif]

9 1/2 in back of Baltimore in the East with 26 to go.

5 back of Detroit for the second Wild Card, tied with Cleveland and 3 1/2 behind Seattle as well.

Only a half-game up on Toronto for second place in the division.

Only four games over .500.

Got spanked by last-place Boston.

Playoff chances at 2.1%, per FanGraphs.

[Lefty Specialist]

Don Meredith is standing by the light switch.

[G-Fafif]

No MFY received an MVP vote of any weight in 2014. First time since 1992, which was the third consecutive year no American League writer was awed by the sight of pinstripes and/or feel the breath of the Babe bearing down on him from MFY Heaven.

2014 also marks the first time since 1991 that a Met (Hojo then, Duda now) won MVP support while every MFY was completely overlooked.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Also MFYs traded Frankie Fistpump to the Pirates for LHRP Justin Wilson