1-0

[Royce]

Great performance all around. I love this team! :D

[Obri]

Could there have been a better start than that? A-Rod comes up huge, Johnson pitches great. We got Zito out quickly, and there were no problems after that. Fantastic.:cool:

[YankeesFanJS]

if the yanks continue to play well and get solid pitching they will win 100 games this season...with as potent of an offense as they have, they don't need great pitching, just limit the opposition to 4 or 5 runs and this team will go far

[Eva]

Last night game is a perfect example of how the Yankees are going to play all year. Killer offense, with solid to great pitching. Johnson might become the great Randy Johnson, but we'll have to see. The chance for this team to have multi-20 game winner is very likely when you look at it.

[Yankeesfan27]

Yeah, the Yankees pitching staff is over criticized. Really the only reason the pitching was so bad last year was because of injuries. Wright was really the only pitcher that stunk. Pavano pitched pretty well when he was healthy.

In terms of the bullpen. It was decent(not that I say decent) last year. And really it was only three guys last year that did close to all the work. But THIS year the Yankees bullpen is the deepest bullpen in the AL East. And when Dotel comes back in late May or early July he'll make it that much better. And when Small comes back. Which will be probably not to long, maybe a week.


The ONLY thing stopping this team from winning the World Series is if they suffer injuries like they did last year.

[Royce]

I love all this optimism. Last year I thought we were screwed when we were 11-19. Let's hope that doesn't happen again.

[Yankeesfan27]

We probably have a better chance of starting 30-0 then 11-19 this year.

[Royce]

We probably have a better chance of starting 30-0 then 11-19 this year.


I don't know, we got the Royals coming up soon. ;)

[Yankeesfan27]

Just keep Wright from starting. Thank god he's long relief. Because we're going with a 4-man rotation unless we really need to bring Wright in as that 5th man before Pavano gets back.

[RollingWave]

Except that the Yanks dropped two strait after the starter....

And whats worse both could have been wins but were just thrown out of the park by horrible coaching decisions and/or horrible fielding.

Game 2: Torre decided it was a good idea to go with Proctor with the game tied in the 9th... good idea, I mean you can't go wrong with a guy who just flew in to join the team after he's baby daughter had to be rushed to the hospital for a FREAKEN HEART SURGERY in a tied ball game in the last inning could you? I don't think any guy with he's head screwed on strait would blame Proctor more than the coachs that decided to put him in.

Game 3: Wang pitched 3 perfect innings... showing significant improvements in he's K/9 ratio and allowing nothing but singles... giving up no extra base hits and pretty much nothing the outfielders have to run backwards at...

All this until the 4th with 1 out 1 on first and a grounder that should have been a double play and another perfect inning.... turned into a hobbled on Jeter than a soft toss that Cano dropped like a little leaguer... turned a double play into a two man on 1 out situation... and then they blow another possible double play chance and only gets one out.. good job multi million defense!!!

Wang lost some control after the bad error and failed double plays. and he ends up walking 2 strait (the second was in a full count though, and he missed both of the last two balls by a tiny inch) and giving up a forth run with the base loaded walk... and have to leave the game after 4 2/3 inning.

Amazingly, two of the pitchers that people had feared the most (Wright and Struze) turned out to give the Yankees solid enough middle relief innings .. until Mike Myers and Kyle Farnsworth manage to give up a 5 run 8th (thx partly to ANOTHER Cano error...) and the Yanks dropped it 4:9

On the brighter side of things... some positive things did turn up this game despite the ugly lost.

1.Wang: ERA 3.86, not bad ... espically considering that he probably woulda gotten a lot less if it weren't for a goofy error... higher K/9, giving up nothing deep or even far out.. still a lot of grounders... this SHOULD have been a quality start if the Yankees played major league defense.

2.Struze and Wright: well at least THEY didn't blow the game... which is already a major improvement over themself last year.... lets hope they could keep this going for the whole year this time...

Worries:
1.Cano: ok this was just poor game from him.. they really need to teach him some fundimentals, he have good move and read and makes great stops often.. but he also makes stupid little league mistakes just as often as he makes great plays... they need him to be consistent, espically with a team that essentially carry at least 4 pitcher that will see a lot of balls in play. (Moose, Wang, Chacon, Small)

2.Farnsworth: He doesn't look as Sharp as flash was last year... on the brighter side he's a young pitcher and young pitchers tend to be unstable but will usually improve...

3.Small ball: helllloooo? didn't Torre say in an interview just before the season that the Yanks will play more small balls this year instead of the all or nothing swing from 1 to 9 ? or is he's small ball defined as "make the ball look small as it flys out of the park?"

[Yankeesfan27]

I'm not worried about Cano or Farnsworth at all. You shouldn't be either.

But ALL OF US should be worried about small ball. Joe Torre continues and continues to piss me off with the way he coaches the game, or rather the way he just sits there and does nothing. Damon has not even ATTEMPTED to steal yet. And neither has Jeter. They both should get atleast 25 steals this year.

[Royce]

I'm not worried either. The A's are a very good team. We should have won all 3 of those games but it's not a 3 game season, it's a 162 game season. This series means practically nothing right now. We'll get on track soon.

[Yankeesfan27]

Absoluately.

[RollingWave]

Well, Chacon's first outting was also not that great, though like Wang he did show siginficant (and more) improvement in the K/9, striking out 4 in 4 2/3 inning.

On Cano, it's not like these errors were complete flukes, he had a far above average error to games ratio last year also, including a big one in game 2 of ALDS. (IMHO Yankees punted both game 2 and 3...)..

When you watch this guy play though, you realize he's certainly not a bad natural fielder, in fact he is a above average fielder.. but he makes silly mistakes that major league second basement shouldn't. particularly in handling toss...

I'm sure he will improve.. but he better do it soon.

On the other hand, if Berine dont' start hitting soon, it seems logical that they might want to give Bubba Crosby more time on the outfield and Sheff/Matsui more time on the DH.. if Bernie don't hit well in DH than Bubba's bat isn't really much of a downgrade and in fact is a upgrade in speed.. ( of course.. that is irrelvent if Joe Torre continues with the "make the ball look small as it flys outta the park small ball games").

And more importantly it gives them at least 2 outfielder that actually have some range instead of just one... and keeping both of the corner outfielders healthy will be a very big issue for the Yanks this year....

[Yankeesfan27]

Well, Sheffield, is the Yankee thats pissing me off the most.

[milky_way]

Hi ya'll. Sorry for the extended absence; I was in the mainland to watch Opening Day and then my Internet blew out (and is still out) for reasons unknown.

WELL, I like the discussion here. I agree with RollingWave about the Proctor thing. Absolutely nothing about that move contained any form of logic, so of course Torre does it. He may be a brilliant manager in the clubhouse, but the man cannot manage a bullpen.

ANOTHER thing that's been irking me about Torre in this oh-so-young season is the dumbass lineups we've been using. L-R-R-R-L-L-S-S-L. This is about as easy as it gets for opposing managers to match up relievers. Not to mention, our OBP leader is batting 5th, and we have complete dead weight (Bernie) batting 8th (well, 9th today). We should make some 'START ANDY' shirts.

Now that the bad stuff is out of the way, some GOOD things I've seen so far:

- We're going to have a kickass offense that will drive opposing bullpens nuts. The patience of the lineup (minus Cano) is insane. We'll be knocking starters out of the game in the 6th every game.

- Randy looked great. Mussina looked good. Farnsworth hitting 97. Villone looking good. I'm psyched about having a real LOOGY in Myers.

- ARod's been looking great defensively.

We'll be peachy once Torre fixes the lineup and stops throwing Proctor to the wolves.

[milky_way]

On Cano, it's not like these errors were complete flukes, he had a far above average error to games ratio last year also, including a big one in game 2 of ALDS. (IMHO Yankees punted both game 2 and 3...)..

When you watch this guy play though, you realize he's certainly not a bad natural fielder, in fact he is a above average fielder.. but he makes silly mistakes that major league second basement shouldn't. particularly in handling toss...

I'm sure he will improve.. but he better do it soon.
I generally agree. Robi has great range, turns the double play great, and is excellent at tags at second. He shouldn't be blamed for the botched double play in Game 2 against Oakland (that was on Jeter). The error in the 9th IS on Robi though, and is of the same pattern as nearly all of his bad errors last year (simple groundballs in important situations that he somehow botches). Since it doesn't appear to be a physical problem, I don't think much can be done other than hope he grows out of it with experience.

On the other hand, if Berine dont' start hitting soon, it seems logical that they might want to give Bubba Crosby more time on the outfield and Sheff/Matsui more time on the DH.. if Bernie don't hit well in DH than Bubba's bat isn't really much of a downgrade and in fact is a upgrade in speed.. ( of course.. that is irrelvent if Joe Torre continues with the "make the ball look small as it flys outta the park small ball games").

And more importantly it gives them at least 2 outfielder that actually have some range instead of just one... and keeping both of the corner outfielders healthy will be a very big issue for the Yanks this year....
It would have been nice if we got a better 4th OFer this offseason so Sheff could DH more, but no dice :(. ANDY PHILLIPS FOR DH! :)

[Yankeesfan27]

The line-up is definately the thing that drives me crazy the most. I would have:

Damon
Jeter
Rodriguez
Matsui
Sheffield
Giambi
Posada
Phillips
Cano

[milky_way]

I would do:
L - Damon
R - Jeter
R - Rodriguez
L - Giambi
R - Sheffield
L - Matsui
S - Posada
L - Cano
R - Phillips

[Eva]

Yankees have a tough schedule to start the season, so I'm not all that shocked they're not off to great start, but I'm a bit shocked they have dropped four straight games. Johnson pitch another good game and lost this one. Heck, he actually pitched the entire game and still lost. Who would think you lose if you only gave up 3 runs with that line-up? :laff:

Still, it's a very good sign for the Yankees that Randy Johnson is, well, looking like the Ace Randy Johnson of the past in his first two starts. Of course, a bunch of other positive despite the 1-4 start is Damon off to first start to the season.

Tough 1-4 start, but of course, they got contenders to start the season in the Angels and A's. I wonder if they'll get swept today by the Angels...?

Anyway, time to comment on some posts in this topic.

I think we all know that Giambi, Matsui and the Sheff should be platoon DH while playing the field. Of course, Giambi prefer being out on the field. Personally, Phillips is not getting many chances to play, because of this fact and why decline like Bernie is starting at DH. I was never too keen on the Yankees bring Bernie back when you have Bubba as your fourth OF.

I agree with milky's line-up. This should be the line-up the majority of time, with Bubba toss in while Sheff DH and Giambi on at 1B from time to time. Of course, like I said, Giambi prefer being on the field oppose to DH.

[Royce]

I'd prefer Giambi in the clubhouse. He sucks.

[Yankeesfan27]

I would do:
L - Damon
R - Jeter
R - Rodriguez
L - Giambi
R - Sheffield
L - Matsui
S - Posada
L - Cano
R - Phillips


I like that alot.

[RollingWave]

Giambi is off to a slow start stats wise also but if you actually see him hit you realize he's actually not doing bad and just having some tough lucks and slight adjustment problems.

He's battling almost every at bat, taking the pitcher deep into the count and drawing quiet a few walk or double digit pitch count outs. That is a good sign, it's not like last year when early in the season he either freeze or fan for a K in 3-5 pitchs or ground out weakly in 1-2 pitchs...

If Bernie's decline continues than he's no better than Crosby and certainly worse than Phillips at bat... and both of those guys bring a much better defense to the Yankees, (Crosby is an upgrade defensively to either Matsui or Sheff really.. and anyone is an upgrade over Giambi at first lol).. at least Crosby have speed which Bernie no longer have also.

So yeah I would agree that Sheff/Matsui/Giambi should be the Yankee DH and Bernie should just be a back up DH when they all play the field (and even then.. Phillips might be better) and let Crosby and Phillps get a more consistant fielding ... it's really a no brainer. a possible (probably not even) minor downgrade as a bat in the 9 hole for a significant upgrade in the defense and possibly speed game also..

The only reason Bernie should stay on as DH is if he can regain some of he's batting capability from being a full time DH... at least up to .285+ and something like 15+ homer full season would make him a worthwhile DH.. otherwise Crosby/Phillips can't possibly underperform in the bat to the point that would justify keeping Bernie as the main DH. But so far we are not seeing that kind of performace...

Personally though, signing Bernie wasn't a horrible move (despite a somewhat too high contract... but then this is Yankee land.. an overblown contract for a Vet is normal XD)... but using him as the full time DH IS a mistake.

[Yankeesfan27]

Agreed.

[milky_way]

Giambi is off to a slow start stats wise also but if you actually see him hit you realize he's actually not doing bad and just having some tough lucks and slight adjustment problems.

He's battling almost every at bat, taking the pitcher deep into the count and drawing quiet a few walk or double digit pitch count outs. That is a good sign, it's not like last year when early in the season he either freeze or fan for a K in 3-5 pitchs or ground out weakly in 1-2 pitchs...

Agreed. Jason's slugging isn't too hot, but he's still having great at-bats.

Also, he got on base at a higher rate than everyone else in the American Leaguelast year, so I actually think he should be moved up in the order...

Sheff in the 3rd spot makes little sense at all.

[Yankeesfan27]

Yeah, but Torre won't bat Sheffield 6th, thats the whole big issue of why Giambi and Matsui are batting next to eachother.

[milky_way]

Well he could do a little juggling; shift ARod to the 3rd slot, Giambi to the 4th slot, and put Sheff in the 5th slot (which he's batted in before). That would move our OBP leader up one and balance the middle of the order R-L-R-L.

But that's too logical for Torre ;)

[Yankeesfan27]

Exactly.