A - Bombs

HB, maybe so, but he seems to be someone the Yankees think highly enough of to move him from third base to first in order to fit him into their future.


My mistake, it was against the Devil Rays, not the Royals.

May 3rd. Top of the 10th...

Top 10TH B:2 S:0 O:0
Johnny Damon hits a ground-rule double (10) on a line drive down the right-field line.  

Top 10TH B:4 S:0 O:0
Derek Jeter walks.  

Top 10TH B:3 S:2 O:1
Jason Giambi grounds out, shortstop Tomas Perez to first baseman Travis Lee.    Johnny Damon to 3rd.    Derek Jeter to 2nd.  

Top 10TH B:0 S:0 O:1
Pitcher Change: Ruddy Lugo replaces Tyler Walker.  

Top 10TH B:2 S:1 O:1
Alex Rodriguez singles on a line drive to center fielder Joey Gathright.    Johnny Damon scores.    Derek Jeter to 3rd.

Top 10TH B:0 S:2 O:1
Hideki Matsui singles on a soft line drive to right fielder Damon Hollins.    Derek Jeter scores.    Alex Rodriguez to 2nd.  

Matsui tacked on an extra run but it came after Giambi had already grounded out and A-Rod came through in extra innings.

 

I think--I have no first hand knowledge of this--next year, the Yankees will make Duncan the everyday first baseman. They'll move Giambi to DH and Bernie will either be retired or a reserve outfielder. This way they have their version of Kevin Youkillis, someone who won't hurt the Yankees in the field.

 

And this would mean two things...

1. Duncan is major league ready.

2. The Yankees think highly enough of him to want him up here despite the fact that he was a third baseman and only became a first baseman because A-Rod plays that position.

3. The Yankees would rather have him on their team next year than trade him last year or this year for what would be a quick patch to make the post-season.

 

The reason being they finally started getting some pitching, plus Teixeira and Mench started blooming. They'd have been in the playoffs a couple of times by now with A-Rod.

 

     Oh, God, this is the sort of argument that makes the rest of the country wish all Yankee and Red Sox fans were dead and in a hell full of nothing but soccer arguments.
     Point the first: A run scored in the first counts as much as a run in the ninth. The ball doesn't know what time it is. There's no such thing as an unhelpful homer, that only exists in the minds of the sort of fans who blame all bad things on their team's best player-like Yankee and Red Sox fans.
     Some fan stat lunatic publiished a disturbingly detailed defense of A-Rod last week on one of the many on-line sites for demented Yankee fans. He did offer one illuminating stat. Within differences of at most two percentage points and usually less, A-Rod and Ortiz hit the overwheliming number of their 2005 homers at THE SAME TIME-SCORE SITUATIONS. That is, A-Rod had as many homers in the last three innings of close games as did Papi, while Ortiz hit just about as many homers in the early innings of games the Sox won 13-2 as A-Rod did in Yankee blowouts. I don't have a link, and Christ knows I won't do that kind of research, but I have no dog in this fight. I want to shoot both dogs.
     Point the second: Let me correct a widespread misconception. David Ortiz is almost exclusively a DH, but that has next to nothing to do with his fielding ability. He's a perfectly competent first baseman. The problem is Ortiz's knees. If he played the field every day, Ortiz'd be on the DL by August 1. The Sox understandably want to avoid that if possible.
     

 

Unless ARod had a mid-90s fastball and a knee-buckling curve, the Rangers wouldn't have had enough pitching to get to post-season with him.

 

Two points:

1. Joe Torre has seen fit to place the "MVP" fifth in th batting order even though the Yankees are pretty beat up (Sheffield and Matsui in particular). Can anyone recall the last time a healthy MVP was batted 5th in the order? Can we assume that Torre knows value when he sees it and also knows a guy who doesn't deserve top of the order status when he sees it as well?

2. A-Rod leads the AL in errors by a 3rd baseman. Does anyone think that if David Ortiz was the full time first baseman that he'd be leading the AL in errors?

 

See, as a disinterested observer this is what you'd call a good argument. This is a plane well above the pissing matches over politics or page design.

 

Mayor of Framingham, it really doesn't matter where the Yankees hit ARod. He'll have a chance to drive in runs. Look at tonight's boxscore (starting position players are bolded):

 

If they had him as their pitching improved, they would have been. It wasn't his fault that the youngsters, whose pay was low, hadn't bloomed yet and the Rangers were not patient enough to keep him.

 

The guy is obviously in a slump. Apparently that never happens for anyone else. :

Yes. But does it matter?


The guy has had a bad month and now suddenly he's pinned as the worst player on the field. Unbelievable.

 

Exactly BYH - I would much rater have Ortiz up with a game on the line than A- Rod. Tonight for A-rod - 1-5 with 3k's and 5 LOB . You can sight all stats you want but with A- rod its the intangilbles that count most. Time and time again A- rod does not come through in big sitautions.

Going back to yesterday - men on 2nd and 3rd A Rod at plate with 1 out - A- Rod K's - I don't care what you say you have to get that run in. This is A-rods time to step up and carry the team and he has not done it.

At this point A Rod seems like the second coming of MR May. He get those same type of outs as Winfield - weak grounder to third from ball hit off end of bat.