Batter Up May 1st
Batter Up May 1st
The A’s were swept in Yankee Stadium this week and all of baseball marveled how the sputtering New Yorkers saved their season. The same may be said of the A’s if they learn from the debacle in the Bronx.
Here’s why.
Click below for more!You can never let up when you play the Yankees. The Yankees are in their October “the world will end if we don’t win†mode in April. When you have them down, you must finish them off. Sure the bullpen was ready Tuesday night to protect an 8-4 lead. So was Tim Hudson, the Athletics leader and ace. He was in complete command of the game.
Hudson could have pitched the eighth. Arthur Rhodes was ready for the save in the ninth. Don’t give the Yankees an opening? Step on them when you have them down. Go with your best.
This was not an ordinary game. A victory Tuesday night by Oakland surely would have brought the wrath of George into the Yankee clubhouse. The new A’s players have not been part of any previous postseason meltdown. They got to experience an A’s October first hand this week.
Lesson: The entire A’s organization must treat every game this year like it is the seventh game of the world series. That’s the way you become a champion. If the A’s leave the Bronx understanding this, then the Yankee sweep was well worth it.
Yankee closer Mariano Rivera is a first ballot hall of famer. With bullpens blowing leads all over baseball, the cool Rivera simply comes in and shuts the door time after time. Forget all the statistics, when you watch baseball the great baseball players are easy to spot. Rivera is Eck, and that’s all you need to know.
If you are watching the scoreboard and the Indians, Royals, Rockies, White Sox, Blue Jays, Diamondbacks, Reds, Expos, or Brewers have a ninth inning lead, don’t you sense that trouble is one pitch away?
If the AL MVP vote was taken this morning, Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, and Jermaine Dye lead the voting.
For NL MVP, Barry Bonds, Scott Rolen, and Miguel Cabrera.
Mike Piazza finally hit his 351st home run as a catcher, tying Carlton Fisk for the all time record. Is he the best catcher in baseball history? Not by a long shot. I’ll take Johnny Bench, Pudge Rodriguez, Josh Gibson, and Yogi Berra before the one dimensional Piazza.
Now that Piazza has finally caught Fisk in his home run chase, the Mets can ship him off to the American league where he can play his best position, designated hitter.
The Reds are stuck with Ken Griffey Jr unless the Yankees get tired of seeing subpar play in center field. Bernie Williams can’t go get them anymore and who knows what Kenny Lofton’s mood will be when he comes back from the DL. Watching Griffey play this season reminds me of an aging Willie Mays when he was a Met in the ‘73 World Series. Not a pleasant sight, Junior’s day as a dominating player unfortunately is over.
Has the league caught up with Ichiro? Seems like he doesn’t beat out those rollers to short anymore. When was the last time he stole an important base? A .258 leadoff hitter who doesn’t walk, isn’t going to get it done. It’s not just this year, Ichiro’s decline now spans more than a full season.
Trading Russ Ortiz to the Braves for Damian Moss may be one of the worst all time trades for the Giants. Merkin Valdez, the highly touted minor leaguer included in the deal for Ortiz now has a tender arm.
Where is Moss these days? He lasted 1/3 of an inning giving up seven runs to the Red Sox Thursday night, in what should be his last start for the Devil Rays. I imagine Lou Piniella has seen enough.
Ben Sheets to the Yankees? Apparently some writer in New York called the Brewers asking if Sheets was available. Like Yankee GM Brian Cashman needs more help.
The scouts are following Pittsburgh righthander Kris Benson very closely. Benson makes too much money for the lowly Pirates, so you know what that means. Benson looks like he is back from arm miseries which plagued him the past few years. If Texas keeps winning, they could become interested in Benson.
AJ Pierzynski had a horrible spring. He dropped so many balls behind the plate that it appeared he was breaking in a new glove every day. His regular season isn’t going very well either. Pierzynski has one extra base hit among his 17 hits, even his singles are bloops, not line drives. His lack of game preparation may be more troubling than the double plays he hits into when he comes up with men on base.
Brian Sabean rarely gets them wrong, but signing the oft injured, out of shape Ray Durham, then trading for Pierzynski may make the Russ Ortiz trade look like a stroke of genius.
With Durham on the shelf again, Michael Tucker gets to lead off, Edgardo Alfonzo moves to second base, while Pedro Feliz takes over at third. I like this lineup. Barry Bonds said it very clearly last weekend, pitching not hitting is the Giants problem.
How do you like this contract perk? If Roger Clemens is not the starting pitcher during a Houston road trip, he doesn’t have to go with the Astros to that city. Clemens hangs out at home until his turn comes up.
Not bad work if you can get it.
The Diamondbacks NL West chances became as dislocated as Richie Sexson’s shoulder this week, when the big slugger went on the DL.
0 comments
Marty,
Great point about the first game in the A’s/Yanks series and comparing it to October ball. I wasn’t thinking about it that way. But it’s very true. It was crucial for the A’s after getting swept in Anaheim and keeping the Yanks reeling to shut the door. It was a dumb mistake by Macha to not let Hudson continue. I think Macha is way too mechanical sometimes with his way of thinking. He is certainly like that in looking at the numbers. And I think in that instance, he wanted to keep Hudson’s pitch count low because there is concern about Hudson throwing too many innings last year. Well, bad mistake. At least see if he can get 1 or 2 quick outs before you go into the less than stellar pen. I don’t have any faith in anyone in the A’s pen to pitch to more than a couple of batters. Cause of this decision the Yanks were given life and now look. There bats are coming alive. They’re going to win their 5th in row today.
-Mike E.
I don’t think I agree with the Comments about the Hudson game. The season is 162 games long. We had a four run lead. It was the eighth inning. If you can’t trust your pen in that situation, then we got bigger problems.
You can’t treat every game like the 7th game of the series, because young starting pitchers can’t throw 120 pitches every game.
Now I don’t know what Hudson’s pitch count was when he was pulled, but like I said, it is a 162 game year.
Ask a Cubs fan about Kerry Wood or Mark Prior.
I can remember losses every year for the last 4 years that stung. The back to back homers in Yankee Stadium in the bottom of the ninth a few years ago for instance. But after 162, they even out, and the A’s end up in the playoffs, ready to go (Boston Bar Fights not withstanding).
Now if the point is that the A’s are not ready mentally when the playoffs come, because they haven’t had the proper mentality for the past 162 games, maybe that is valid. But the killer mentality should be derived from means other than not trusting your bullpen.
It is not a coincidence that rediculous things happen to the same group every year (Tejada not taking the extra base on the Giambi single, Jeremy not sliding, Tejada not running home in Fenway, Huddy going out to bars the night before Game 4, etc.).
The development of the players’ professional mindset needs to be advanced by all 25 guys coming together, not just by further leaning on the Big Three. I hope Mecir and Rincon got better for going through the meltdown, and I hope the team comes together through victory and defeat, and is ready to play like a champion for 11 games in October.
Ultimately, I agree that all hell breaks loose in April if the Yankees aren’t winning. I agree that they have a professional mindset. But I think their professional mindset is a function of their focus on October. Writers and fans have such high expectations in April, based upon October success. So lets focus on October success. Lets focus on having Mecir, Rincon, Hammond, and the whole group in the pen ready for the pressures of October. Lets get to a point where October success creates April expectations. But lets focus on October.
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