Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Hope on the Horizon?

The Good

Nova's been pretty good since returning to the team.  His problem is that he puts too many guys on base, but yesterday, he was able to get outs when he needed them, and finished with a respectable 7 innings with 3 runs.  He's always been a bit of an anomaly.  When he's on, he's brilliant.  Like 9 innings, 11 strikeouts brilliant.  When he's off however, he's off for like 3 months at a time, and therein lies the problem with young Nova.  Hopefully though, he can build off of this. 

Another piece of good news is that the Yankees are reportedly close to acquiring Alfonso Soriano.  This is a good pick up because Soriano has some pop, and the Yankees are in desperate need of some offense.  However Soriano still strikes out a whole lot, and he still can't take a walk as is evidenced by his .286 On Base Percentage.  But I stand by what I said yesterday.  If the Yankees do not acquire two productive hitters, they are phoning it in this season.  If they only trade for one hitter, then they are only giving the appearance of wanting to compete this season.  The Yankees offense is too sparse for one batter to make a difference.

The Bad

Overbay had two hits yesterday.  If he had those two hits one day earlier, we probably would have won the last game of the Red Sox series.  Since he waited until yesterday to get those two hits, we simply took a 3-hit shut out loss.  Thanks Overbay.

The Ugly

The Yankees took a 3-hit shutout loss yesterday, with Overbay and Ichiro giving the only offensive contributions.  Is it me, or does the decision to allow Raul Ibanez and Russell Martin to walk when they were asking for so little really looking stupid?  Ibanez has 24 homeruns, and it turns out he can hit left-handed pitching.  Russell Martin has been healthy all season, and has been productive at his position.  Ibanez is what we hoped Hafner would be.  Why we would let Ibanez walk after the season he gave us is beyond me.

Just Forget About It

No.

Travis Hafner 12hr = $24
Vernon Wells 10hr = $20
Brett Gardner 7hr = $14
Kevin Youkilis 2hr = $4
Jayson Nix 2hr = $4
Robinson Cano 21hr = $42
Ichiro Suzuki 6hr = $12
Lyle Overbay 11hr = $22
Brennan Boesch 3hr = $6
Francisco Cervelli 3hr = $6
Chris Stewart 3hr = $6
Ben Francisco 1hr = $2
David Adams 2hr = $4
Curtis Granderson 1hr = $2

Mark Teixeira 3hr = $6
Zoilo Almonte 1hr = $2

Total 87 hrs = $174

5 comments:

Rich Mahogany said...

It's hard to second guess letting Ibanez go because he's 41. The Yankees picked Hafner instead and apparently made the wrong choice, but it could have gone the other way (or both players could have ended up injured all season).

In letting Martin go, the Yankees may have thought Cervelli was ready to turn the corner. He was playing very well until he got injured. Then the Yankees were left where most teams end up when their primary catcher is injured - screwed. I was strongly in favor of the team signing Martin or Pierzynski, but Cervelli could have made the team look very smart.

Soriano is a fine "why not" pickup, but he will not make much of a difference. I'm not sure who the second impact bat (assuming Soriano is an impact bat) could be.

Rich Mahogany said...

Maybe the second bat could be Ibanez. The Mariners should sell high on him.

Anonymous said...

I appreciate what Stewart has done for us defensively. He is playing well. If he just could figure out how to bat in the majors.

Rich Mahogany said...

Romine makes Stewart look like Posada.

Fernando Alejandro said...

I hear you, but my issue with letting Ibanez go was that he was productive for us last year, and he was cheap. It's a very low risk signing, and at worst, you end up with what we have now with Hafner.

And yes, Romine makes Stewart look like 2007 Posada.