Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Well That Was A Spectacle

The Good

Let's go with Vernon Wells going 3-4 with a pair of doubles.  That could turn the season around.

The Bad

Well, the Yankees' season is on tenuous ground.  Pettitte got shelled yesterday, giving up a bajillion runs in less than 3 innings of work, bringing his ERA up to infinity.  But worst than that, news came out that Jeter has a calf strain, and he is back on the DL.  Honestly, the only bright spot of this lineup this season was having Jeter back in it, and for the second time in the last month, he's back on the DL.

The Ugly

The ugly section for the rest of the season may be reserved by A-Rod.  A-Rod is appealing his 211 game suspension, because, let's face it 211 games is a ridiculous suspension to begin with.  Now perhaps MLB has evidence that can support this suspension, or even a lifetime ban, but what they've described thus far still does not merit this long of a suspension.  100 games?  No problem.  211 games?  That's a witch hunt.  Ironically, A-Rod's return gives the Yankees exactly what they needed but failed to attain at the trade deadline: an offensive upgrade at 3rd base.  Even returning from surgery, A-Rod can out hit any and every 3rd baseman we've put out there this year.

The Yankees offensive upgrades in trading for Soriano, and getting back A-Rod and Granderson from the DL will be a boost, but our pitching is now proving to be really bad.  Right now, Kuroda and Nova are the only consistently competitive pitchers we got.  Hughes and Sabathia have been abysmal, and Pettitte is just as likely to get shelled as he is to give us a quality start.

Also ugly, Cervelli has been suspended for being wrapped up in this Biogenesis scandal.  As faithful reader Rich Mahogany said some time ago, if Cervelli's been using performance enhancing drugs, he really needs to ask for his money back.

No Homeruns from Anyone Last Night

But over the weekend Granderson and Romine each hit a homerun.  A first for Romine. 

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 12hr = $24
Brennan Boesch 3hr = $6
Francisco Cervelli 3hr = $6
Chris Stewart 3hr = $6
Ben Francisco 1hr = $2
David Adams 2hr = $4
Curtis Granderson 2hr = $4

Mark Teixeira 3hr = $6
Zoilo Almonte 1hr = $2
Derek Jeter 1hr = $2
Alfonso Soriano 1hr = $2
Austin Romine 1hr = $2

Total 92 hrs = $184

4 comments:

Rich Mahogany said...

I hear that MLB chose 211 games to equal the number of ARod's fans.

Anonymous said...

I don't like A-Rod, but enough is enough. He is not the first player to use PED's nor the last one. If MLB wants to control PED's use, they better negotiate lifetime suspension for first time users. Of course, that is assuming that they can come up with a way to catch users, which they have not. Otherwise, they are just enabling the use of PED's because it is good for their business.

Rich Mahogany said...

MLB's statement on the ARod suspension is not a model of clarity, but I think it goes like this:

PED use = 50 games

Obstruction of the investigation into PED use = 161 games

There is no precedent here except for Braun. We are far removed from the straightforward framework of "you fail a drug test, you receive a set punishment." Not only is MLB punishing players for PED use based on unscientific evidence, it is adding more punishment based on subjective factors.

I would love to see a lifetime ban for first-time PED users, but I wonder whether MLB can be trusted to impose that penalty fairly.

Rich Mahogany said...

You might say that ARod hasn't given this team the shot in the arm that it needed.