I watch Yanqui games so you don't have to (MFYs 2015)

[MFS62]

Frayed Knot wrote: So it turns out that, even after missing most of two complete seasons, ARod is a much better 40 y/o player than Jeter as well. .278/.384/.505 vs .256/.304/.313

And probably a better player in each and every younger year.
The problem was, Jeter wouldn't let him show it.

Later

[Gwreck]

Frayed Knot wrote: btw, ARod must have had a ton of friends and family in the stands tonight because I think he pointed and/or waved at everyone in the stadium during his trip around the bases.

I was there (accompanying some Tigers fans). It was awful.

Yankee fans are a bunch of two-faced, hypocritical phonies.

[Frayed Knot]

MFS62 wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: So it turns out that, even after missing most of two complete seasons, ARod is a much better 40 y/o player than Jeter as well. .278/.384/.505 vs .256/.304/.313 And probably a better player in each and every younger year.

Well, sure, but we already knew that.
The difference here is that while Yanqui fans had to endure Jeter's final season -- hell, everyone talks about how much DiDi Gregarious sucks and yet his season is very similar to Jeter/2014 -- as they focused on wallowing around in the nostalgia and tributes lest they notice that on the field he was contributing Ordonez-like power mixed with Flores-like range, one can make a case for Rodriguez as team MVP.

The downside to all this for YLDBs is that ARod is still vastly overpaid and they have to hope for him to continue this level of production for the next 2-1/2 seasons. But at some point they're going to have to admit to themselves that he's has been a Yanqui longer (11 seasons now - heading for 13!) and better than most of their recent heroes such as O'Neill, Tino, Brosius, etc. iow, Time to clear a spot on 'The Wall' for #13

[Frayed Knot]

The Tigers obviously put 'Be Really Sucky' on their list of things to do while visiting the Bronx this weekend.
Lost 7-2 on Friday and are currently getting pasted 10-0 tonight.

[Edgy MD]

The Tiggs have been a disappointment.

[MFS62]

Willie showed us real class yesterday:
http://nypost.com/2015/06/20/stottlemyre-shocked-by-plaque-as-willie-randolph-swipes-at-mets/

Class D.

Later

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

You've really got to be trying hard to be offended by that remark.

[Frayed Knot]

Yeah, one of the papers stuck a headline on that "story" in an attempt to sell it as something much more than it was.
Nice try but it didn't fly.

[Edgy MD]

It does speak to how needy for affirmation and desperate for another chance Randolph is, though.

[Frayed Knot]

It would have been better if, during this stretch where the Yanx have lost 7 of 10, if all the other AL East teams didn't decide to all suck at the same time too - but it's made for a nice tight race over there as there are four teams within one game of each other.

BAL ---
TBR ---
NYY -0.5
TOR -1.0

the only laggard at the moment is Boston and even they've tightened things up a bit as they've been the ones taking out Toronto the last two nights.
And, unlike the NL East, you don't foresee one team getting hot and running away with things so it's quite possible -- one could even say likely -- that 86/87 wins takes this division.

[Frayed Knot]

I'm declaring this weekend's series with the Rays to be the Yanx first BIG series of the year.
With Tampa & Toronto tied a game behind the also tied Yanx and Orioles this division isn't looking like a runaway for anyone, but a good showing by the Rays this weekend in the Bronx could throw the Yanx into some degree of turmoil, especially if Tanaka & Sabathia get beat again.
So far in Game 1 Chris Archer is out-dueling Tanaka thru 7, both starters now out of the game. 3-0 Rays - top 8.



Toronto is in Detroit this weekend. Orioles at ChiSox. BoSox hosting Houston.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Anyone happen to catch Michael Kays on air interview with the **** who caught Arods HR could only come away wondering whether he, Kay or A rod is the bigger douche.

[Edgy MD]

I'm pretty sure that guy's middle name is "Don't Get Me Started."

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Don't you just want to punch him? In the face?

[Frayed Knot]

Would it be too much to ask for the rest of the AL East not to suck so badly?
Yanx suck lately but are alone in 1st place thanks to Baltimore and Toronto each sucking in 4 of their last 5 games, and the Rays sucking for 6 straight.
Boston has a few wins lately but mostly at the expense of the other AL East teams but they lost to Houston in extras last night and already had the biggest claim to the suck title.
Rays blew a 3-run lead in the 8th then a 2-run lead in the 12th to win the suck prize of the night. They should have had bigger leads each time except that they decided to suck instead.

And just in case the 'replay is only going to be used to correct egregiously bad calls' argument wasn't already dead and buried, Evan Longoria easily cruises into 2nd with an 11th inning double last night, but when replay shows that his foot loses contact with the top of the base ever so briefly and maybe by the length of his spikes following his pop-up slide he gets punched out following the requisite 27 minute review.

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Don't you just want to punch him? In the face?

Which one? Michael Kay, Arod or the ball catcher? I'm not generally a violent person, but I will go with yes, definitely yes, and probably.

[Frayed Knot]

Anytime the teams in the AL East would like to stop sucking it would be OK with me.
The Yanx are 7-9 over the last 2-1/2 weeks but have gone from 1 game out to 2-1/2 ahead because the rest of the pack has decided to take July off so far

Balt: 2-8 over their last 10 games
Toronto: 3-7
and TB has 3 wins in their last [u:1rn4tbnp]17 games[/u:1rn4tbnp]
Only Boston, a full 10 games out on June 26, has a winning record lately (8-2) and have cut their gap in half although are still in last place. But suddenly the three game series in Fenway vs Yanx this weekend might actually be semi-relevant.

Yanx got both Ellsbury and Andrew Miller back off the DL as of last night.

[Edgy MD]

My money is tentatively on Toronto. A lot of bubbles have burst in the division, but Toronto's hitting has been the only constant.

[Frayed Knot]

The Jays also have a serious +/- in runs scored (+84 !!!) for a team that's only a game over .500
Mainly they win a ton of blowouts so their almost Cardinal-esque 'Pythagorean' projection of 51-36 is probably unrealistic, but they're by far the best in that division from a RS/RA perspective.
Yanx +18
Balt +42
TB -10
BOS -37


But the biggest Pythag oddity this year has to go to Oakland, 9 games under .500 (39-48) and in last place despite a [u:222vtww2]+49 RS/RA[/u:222vtww2]
Their problem hasn't been winning blowouts as much as it's been losing virtually every one and two run game they've played. In their first 22 one or two run games of the season they went 3-19
Pythag says they should be 49-38 instead of 39-48 and that disparity is thought to be what's keeping them on the fence as the trading deadline approaches.

[Edgy MD]

The Jays reward my faith in their batting by going out and doing a Mets imitation, wasting a fine R.A. Dickey start in a 2�0 loss to the White Sox.

[MFS62]

Frayed Knot wrote: Pythag says they should be 49-38 instead of 39-48 and that disparity is thought to be what's keeping them on the fence as the trading deadline approaches.

What that tells me is that they have enough hitting and may be in the market for some (relief) pitching.
Sounds like they might be interested in ,say, Parnell for a hitter.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

Just for once I'd like to check into a Yanqui game and NOT see them up 2 or 3 to zip in the 1st inning.
I swear they must score 80% of the time in the 1st inning.

On edit: 4-0 and still counting. Eff-You You-baldo Jimenez

[Frayed Knot]

Twins go up 5-0 vs the Yanx but cough up 8 unanswered and trail 8-5 heading to bottom 9.
Most of the damage was done by [u:1ogh88oq]Three[/u:1ogh88oq] Alex Rodriguez HRs. Dude turns 40 in 2 days.

[Frayed Knot]

The Yanx lead -- briefly as high as 7 games but currently shaved to 4.5 -- is to be tested this weekend by the surging Blue Jays, winners of 8 of their last 9.
So it's an officially BIG series in the Bronx as I have little confidence in any of the other East teams mounting a challenge.
Dickey vs Eovaldi tonight, then Price vs Nova tomorrow, Estrada vs Tanaka on Sunday

These teams turn around and do it again next week and so play 6 of their next 9 games against each other and even then have seven more head-to-heads in September.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

Today, we are all Blue Jays fans.

[HahnSolo]

I have very small hopes. Toronto NEVER wins in New York. And Price and Buerhle are about a combined 2-145 in their careers against the MFYs.

[Edgy MD]

Mets looking to help the Yankees out tonight.

[Frayed Knot]

Edgy MD wrote: Mets looking to help the Yankees out tonight.

And they do, although that division, so tight just a few weeks back, is increasingly looking like a two horse race as the Rays are dropped to 8 games out and the O's lose out west to fall 6 back. The Sox did manage to win but they're all but irrelevant at this point.


Not surprising to see a Yanx/Jays game decided entirely by HRs -- the surprising part was that there were only three of them as with these two teams I was expecting closer to an even dozen.
Nice game by R.A. holding them over 7 innings to just a Teixeira HR, one which was initially ruled a grounds rule double due to fan interference but then changed to a HR on, from what I saw, was evidence that didn't even approach conclusive. Wasn't watching live so maybe there's some angle I didn't see but you figure the hi-light shows (and I watched several) would show the best they had and, if so, the best they had truly sucked. But I suppose that Yanquis hitting HRs off some front row dork's hand several feet shy of actually going over the fence is, like dead people in Chicago casting votes, a time-honored tradition in the Bronx so maybe the umps simply fell back on precedent in their ruling.
Come to think of it, none of the three homers (Donaldson in the 1st then Bautista in the 10th for the Jays) would have been homers in a major league ballpark.

Jays 3.5 out with David Price making his 2nd Toronto start this afternoon (vs Ivan Nova).
Normally you'd think this would be a good thing although the last time Price faced the Yanx (as a Tiger) he got smacked around for 8 runs in 2.1 IP

[Gwreck]

7 scoreless from Price + Justin Smoak grand slam = another Blue Jays win. 2.5 back of the MFYs now.

[HahnSolo]

HahnSolo wrote: I have very small hopes. Toronto NEVER wins in New York. And Price and Buerhle are about a combined 2-145 in their careers against the MFYs.

I take it back.