Yankees-Phillies Memorial Weekend Series (5/22-5/24)

[Dry1313]

Friday, May 22
Brett Myers, RHP (3-2, 4.50) Phillies (22-17)
@
A.J. Burnett, RHP (2-1, 5.02) Yankees (24-17)


Scouting Report:
Phillies: The proven workhorse gave the Phillies staff exactly the boost it needed in start last Saturday: seven quality innings. No, scratch that. Seven outstanding innings, allowing three hits (albeit two of them homers), striking out eight en route to the team's 8-5 victory over Washington. In the second game of a four-game set, Myers was in control and got stronger as the game progressed, with four strikeouts in his last two innings.

Yankees: After winning his first two outings with the Yankees, Burnett has not won a game in six starts for the first time in a season since 2005, when he lost seven straight for the Marlins. During the six-game stretch, Burnett has recorded five no-decisions. Despite not winning, he has pitched well of late. Burnett allowed just two runs in 6 2/3 innings to the Twins in his last start on Sunday.




Saturday, May 23
J.A. Happ, LHP (2-0, 2.49)
@
Andy Pettitte, LHP (4-1, 4.18)

Scouting Report:
Phillies: Happ finally gets his chance to start after losing a Spring Training competition to Chan Ho Park for the final spot in the Phillies rotation. But after Park went 1-1 with a 7.28 ERA in seven starts this season, the Phillies on Tuesday announced that Happ would replace Park in the rotation. Happ went 2-0 with a 2.49 ERA in 12 relief appearances, so Happ put himself in position to take over.

Yankees: Pettitte was far from spectacular in his last outing, Monday night against the Twins, but did enough to pick up the win. He worked 6 2/3 innings, allowing four runs on 12 hits. Afterward, manager Joe Girardi said he was impressed with Pettitte's grit for battling through the game, despite not having great movement on his cutter, his usual out pitch. It was Pettitte's first victory since April 21, when he surrendered two runs in seven frames to Oakland.




Sunday, May 24
Cole Hamels, LHP (2-2, 4.95)
@
CC Sabathia, LHP (4-3, 3.43)


Scouting Report:
Phillies: Hamels continues to provide some much needed stability to the Phillies' rotation. He allowed three runs in six innings Tuesday in a 4-3 victory over the Reds at hitter-friendly Great American Ball Park. Hamels is 2-0 with a 2.31 ERA in his last four starts, which is something the Phillies' bullpen certainly appreciates. This is Hamels' first career start against the New York Yankees.

Yankees: Sabathia was dominant in his last start, limiting the Orioles to one run on three hits on Tuesday to log his first victory at the new Yankee Stadium. The $161 million staff ace walked one and struck out seven in the 105-pitch outing, leaving after the Yankees gave him plenty of cushion with a seven spot in the seventh inning. Sabathia has won his past three starts, going 3-0 with a 1.12 ERA in those outings against Baltimore (twice) and Toronto. Sabathia will be facing the Phillies for the first time since last year's National League Division Series, when Philadelphia rocked him for five runs on six hits in 3 2/3 innings in Game 2.

[Dry1313]

Dry's Yankees Keys to the Series:
Pitching:
AJ Burnett needs to keep his walks low. The Phillies have a sneaky lineup and walks near the bottom of the order could cause some high run totals.
Andy Pettite needs to do enough to win. He needs to scatter his hits, keep his walks down and pitch effectively with men on base. The Phillies are a strong enough lineup to own Pettite, even with the lefty on lefty issues.
CC Sabathia needs to make sure he remembers that he's as good as he is. If he shows up to pitch, there really is no stopping him.

Hitting:
Derek Jeter needs to get ahead and deep in the count. It's made all the difference this year, hitting wise.
Johnny Damon needs to keep doing what he's doing.
Mark Teixeira needs to make people throw him his pitch. With ARod in the lineup, he's going to get it, but patience is needed.
ARod needs to start taking balls the other way. It looks like he's trying to mash everything into left center, and he's thusly popping up a lot of hittable pitches.
Hideki Matsui needs to react better to the breaking ball. It seemed like he lost his eye for it for a while.
Robinson Cano needs to continue to hit pitches where they're thrown to him and not be afraid of being down in the count. Pitchers are pitching him aggressively, and he has to continue to show why that's a bad idea.
Nick Swisher has to hit from the right side of the plate, plain and simple. He mashed off of Perkins, but he's taking bad cuts from the left handed side of the plate.
Melky Cabrera has to continue to spray the ball around the field. He worries about his power too much, but if he just hits the pitch where it's thrown to him, he'll be fine.
Francisco Cervelli needs to move runners over, bunt, and play good defense. Anything else is cake.

Reserves: Cash will likely catch one game, and Pena will likely spell ARod for a game, I'd say Saturday for both. Gardner may see time to give Swish or Damon a day off/DH time.

Bullpen: Throw ****ing strikes. If a hitter beats you on a hit, that's fine. But walks late in the game start rallys and kill ERAs.

[Dry1313]

Baseball Tonight Clubhouse: Power combo - MLB - ESPN

Steve Phillips had an interesting Series preview.

[BronxBomberz]

Pitching needs to put the water on the Phillies hot bats, especially Ibanez, he's been otherworldly this year.

[Dry1313]

Pitching needs to put the water on the Phillies hot bats, especially Ibanez, he's been otherworldly this year.

I agree. We don't want to see ourselves in a shootout.

[BronxBomberz]

I agree. We don't want to see ourselves in a shootout.

And our BP pitched practically the entire game last night as well. But hopefully we win this series.

Go yankees!

[love_that_reefer]

Over/under 15 HRs in this series. I am taking the over. Peter Gammons even called the new Yankee Stadium a joke. Ouch!

[Dry1313]

Peter Gammons is a Red Sox fan and his journalism integrity concerning the Yankees is long gone.

[ljshorty89]

We all know I'm no Yankee fan, but come on Yankees, help me out and beat the Phils.

PS: If you can take out some of their players, I wouldn't mind.

[NYgiantsfan5689]

I agree though that the new stadium is kind of a joke though. I was talking to LJ the other day, and he made a great point. If the home runs continue, it's almost insulting to the history and integrity of the game.

[ljshorty89]

Not that the stadium isn't nice, but it's a little bit sad that it's averaging 4 HR per game. I mean, it skews the stats so badly that it has similar effects to the steroid era.

[Dry1313]

I agree though that the new stadium is kind of a joke though. I was talking to LJ the other day, and he made a great point. If the home runs continue, it's almost insulting to the history and integrity of the game.

It really isn't though.

As someone who went and sat in the upper deck at the old place and someone who's sat there at the new, I'll tell you right now, it's pretty damned close. The trajectories are different though. What's missed upon everyone is that the guys going yard are more often then not power guys. What's also missed is that nearly every pitch hit out is a terrible pitch that is going to be hit out. Burnett, Joba, Hughes, and Wang have made significant mistakes in leaving balls up, and you can't do that at a small park.

Yankee Stadium was always like this though...the wind blows out a little bit more but you're going to see the homers die down in the humid months coming up.

Not that the stadium isn't nice, but it's a little bit sad that it's averaging 4 HR per game. I mean, it skews the stats so badly that it has similar effects to the steroid era.

So is Petco Park "sad" the other way? Are Coors Field and Minute Maid park also travesties? I don't buy it at all...parks are parks, players hit homeruns.

How's CitiField and it's new dimensions working, by the way? I haven't seen any numbers on it, and I'm interested to see the discrepancies, with CitiField being bigger and an NL Park...

(Mets have hit 14 HRs, 13 3Bs, and 28 2B for 55 XBH; Opponents have hit 17 HRs, 3 3B, and 32 2B for 52 XBH. This is all in 20 games. So 107 XBH in 20 games is about 5.3 XBH/G)

(Yankees have hit 39 HR, 2 3B and 38 2B for 79 XBH; Opponents have hit 36 HR, 2 3B and 33 2B for 71 XBH. So 150 XBH in 20 games is about 7.5 XBH per game.)

Factor in the fact that there's a DH in the AL and that the Yankees are a high-powered offense and there's our discrepancy. Yankees have played 4 vs. CLE, 2 vs. OAK, 3 vs. LAA, 2 vs. BOS, 2 vs. TB, 4 vs. MIN, 3 vs. BAL and 1 vs. PHI.

Let's see...LAA, BOS, TB, MIN and PHI all have legitimate lineups. That leave OAK, CLE and BAL. With the way the Yankees have been pitching, are you THAT surprised? I'm not.

See, it's one thing to say something, but the stats and schedule really show that ultimately it comes down to the team playing there, not the park itself.

[Dry1313]

Game 1 Comments:
All things considered, that was a terrible performance by Burnett and a gritty performance by Myers and we still were close.

We saw a really nice piece of hitting from Melky just before he laced that single down the line.
Swisher swings at a lot of first pitches late in the game. I don't like that.
Kevin Cash is a walking out. Pitchers smile when they see him at the plate. GIVE ME CERVELLI!
ARod and Teixeira did what they were supposed to with those mistakes. Sadly, so did Ibanez.

Carlos Ruiz...really? The key to this game wasn't how Burnett dealt with the big wigs, but the fact that he let guys on base for them. He was not aggressive enough for a guy with his arsenal.

Wang had a nice velocity and some solid movement...but he needs to work DOWN. Inside, outside, doesn't matter. The margin for error for him is too high when he stays around the middle of the zone, as we saw again tonight.

The only way Johnny Damon ever will get an assist was the way he got one tonight. Sinking liner and a fat, slow catcher wanders too far off the bag. That being said...nice one, noodle arm.

Very, very happy the pen got some rest tonight. Now we can have them full strength in case Pettite can only go 5. CC follows also, so they can burn the tanks a little and really bear down. I have a feeling that if Pettite can go 6 tomorrow, the game will be over.

[ljshorty89]

It really isn't though.

As someone who went and sat in the upper deck at the old place and someone who's sat there at the new, I'll tell you right now, it's pretty damned close. The trajectories are different though. What's missed upon everyone is that the guys going yard are more often then not power guys. What's also missed is that nearly every pitch hit out is a terrible pitch that is going to be hit out. Burnett, Joba, Hughes, and Wang have made significant mistakes in leaving balls up, and you can't do that at a small park.

Yankee Stadium was always like this though...the wind blows out a little bit more but you're going to see the homers die down in the humid months coming up.

So is Petco Park "sad" the other way? Are Coors Field and Minute Maid park also travesties? I don't buy it at all...parks are parks, players hit homeruns.

How's CitiField and it's new dimensions working, by the way? I haven't seen any numbers on it, and I'm interested to see the discrepancies, with CitiField being bigger and an NL Park...

(Mets have hit 14 HRs, 13 3Bs, and 28 2B for 55 XBH; Opponents have hit 17 HRs, 3 3B, and 32 2B for 52 XBH. This is all in 20 games. So 107 XBH in 20 games is about 5.3 XBH/G)

(Yankees have hit 39 HR, 2 3B and 38 2B for 79 XBH; Opponents have hit 36 HR, 2 3B and 33 2B for 71 XBH. So 150 XBH in 20 games is about 7.5 XBH per game.)

Factor in the fact that there's a DH in the AL and that the Yankees are a high-powered offense and there's our discrepancy. Yankees have played 4 vs. CLE, 2 vs. OAK, 3 vs. LAA, 2 vs. BOS, 2 vs. TB, 4 vs. MIN, 3 vs. BAL and 1 vs. PHI.

Let's see...LAA, BOS, TB, MIN and PHI all have legitimate lineups. That leave OAK, CLE and BAL. With the way the Yankees have been pitching, are you THAT surprised? I'm not.

See, it's one thing to say something, but the stats and schedule really show that ultimately it comes down to the team playing there, not the park itself.

And it's another to realize that Yankee Stadium is averaging 4.0 HR per game this year. Last year, it averaged just over 2. Not to mention, having watched at least 7 games worth of new Yankee Stadium, I can tell you that while there may be many power hitters hitting HR, there is also Johnny Damon with 7 HR at NYS, 3 away. Melky has 5 HR all at NYS. Not to mention that plenty of the HR swings I've seen, just wouldn't go out of an average park. You can't honestly tell me that the number of HR isn't ridiculous, the Yankees have even admitted it by saying they're looking into "fixing" this over the offseason....

[Dry1313]

And it's another to realize that Yankee Stadium is averaging 4.0 HR per game this year. Last year, it averaged just over 2. Not to mention, having watched at least 7 games worth of new Yankee Stadium, I can tell you that while there may be many power hitters hitting HR, there is also Johnny Damon with 7 HR at NYS, 3 away. Melky has 5 HR all at NYS. Not to mention that plenty of the HR swings I've seen, just wouldn't go out of an average park. You can't honestly tell me that the number of HR isn't ridiculous, the Yankees have even admitted it by saying they're looking into "fixing" this over the offseason....

Swisher has 9, 8 of them away from the new Yankee Stadium, and he hits primarily left-handed. (Also, his HR was RH at the Stadium)

As far as "many of the homeruns wouldn't go out of the average park," who ever wanted an average park? How many fly balls have been gobbled up by the Green Monster at Fenway and turned into doubles? How many doubles and triples have turned into outs at Petco?

The point I was trying to make is that the homerun/XBH numbers aren't alarming and that it's not uncommon for parks to play a certain way. It's part of the game. The last thing I want to do is see the Yankees manipulate their park any further.

As far as Damon's HRs, I can tell that you don't watch because almost all of his HR at the Stadium, like Melky and Cano, have been line drives into the second deck. Ask NYGF or brownie, they'll tell you. For the amount of "cheap" homeruns there are at least 4 or 5 legitimate shots. I'm not worried at all.