Comments on: The Braves ended the Yankees’ 10-game winning streak last night

By: deathmonkey41

deathmonkey41 — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 20:00:15 +0000

We shall see when the playoffs roll around.

By: Kevin S.

Kevin S. — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 18:42:19 +0000

And for what it’s worth, the Yanks have only been held to three or fewer runs five times. They’ve won three of those games. Your premise seems to be “well what if the offense does poorly in games when they don’t score runs?” A) That’s redundant, and B) they have a pretty damn good pitching staff.

By: Kevin S.

Kevin S. — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 18:33:33 +0000

The “little things” you speak of aren’t that much of a concern. Yes, the Yankees have an above-average number of GIDP, but they’re closer to the median than they are the leaders, and one would expect them to have an above-average number of GIDP given that they also have an above-average number of baserunners. It’s worth noting that two of the teams above them in GIDP are also in the top half of the league in runs scored, and the team right behind them (the Blue Jays), is fifth in RS. Hitting behind the runners requires a conscious effort to direct the ball not where it’s optimal for gaining a base hit in an effort to make the marginal trade-off of moving a runner up on an out. Yes, it is preferable to move a runner on an out than to not move him on an out, but it’s not worth (significantly, IMO) decreasing your likelihood of getting a hit, especially when their league-leading ISO and second-place SLG indicate they’re quite adept at hitting for extra bases, negating the necessity of moving the runners up with outs, and, if Fangraphs BaseRunning estimator is to be believed, they’re fourth in value added on the basepaths (through a combination of stealing bases, taking the extra base, and not running into outs). Yes, it’s frustrating when Tex and Granderson don’t take the ball the other way to beat the shifts, as game theory would tend to tell us that doing this a sufficient number of times would force defenses into a more normalized alignment and allow them both to swing freely, but Granderson is hitting pretty damn well doing what he’s doing, and Teixeira apparently doesn’t feel comfortable enough in his ability to find the hole on the left side. Remember, the shift only plays when they hit the ball on the ground, something neither does with any great deal of frequency, and trying to hit through the third-base hole almost completely limits them to singles. They’d need to get hits at a significantly higher rate to forgo the benefits of their high ISOs.

TL;DR version: Don’t sweat it.

By: deathmonkey41

deathmonkey41 — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 18:23:35 +0000

Well, I hope I’m wrong, but when you hit the playoffs, you sometimes need to scratch out the 2-1 victory by playing small ball and I just don’t see this team being able to do it if they had to do so. I think their bats have the potential to go dead just like in the playoffs last year.

By: pharmerbrown

pharmerbrown — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 18:08:55 +0000

you can’t ignore the record. this isn’t pitcher wins we are talking about. the team is composed of several perennial leage HR leader(s), and they are perennially in the conversation, if not are the conversation, for team HR. I’ll take first place over stats any day, and twice on Sundays.

I’ll admit that I wish their numbers were better… but i’d also be happier if they were a sterling 67-0 right now.

By: pharmerbrown

pharmerbrown — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 17:55:00 +0000

As a yankee fan, how can you recommend shaking up a line-up that is 15 games over .500, 4th in the league in OBP, second in SLG, and fourth in total bases? The starting pitching has rounded into form of late (the typical pinstripe problem), they lead the division, tied for best record (by W/L differential) AL, and appear to be firing on all cylinders.

By: deathmonkey41

deathmonkey41 — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 17:52:57 +0000

Ignore the record- they’re still not doing the little things right at the plate. They’re relying on the homer to bail them out all the time and when you hit the playoffs, you can’t depend on that happening. Look what happened last year against the Tigers.

By: pharmerbrown

pharmerbrown — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 17:27:53 +0000

That is a junk stat. They are 1-13 in games when they don’t homer, true. But that means that out of the first 67 games, they haven’t homered in 14 of them. By my reckoning, someone hits a bomb in 4 out of 5 games… They then lost an additional 13 games in which someone (or multiple, irreelvant for this point) goes deep. Cuts it down to 3 of 5. Last time I checked, that was enough to make it through True Round 1 (not the silly 1-game play-in).

And it’s not like they haven’t faced some decent pitching, or that the quality of pitching in the post-season is guaranteed to be better. They’ve faced and beaten King Felix, JV, David Price, and James Shields, to name a few.

By: drewmunny

drewmunny — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 17:22:15 +0000

As a Yankees fan, it pains me to agree with your first sentence. As of today, the yanks are just one HR ahead of Toronto, and can’t rely on keeping up that pace through the season, much less through a playoff series. I have to wonder how much they’re affected in the overall lineup with Gardner’s absence, although I can’t imagine it’s really that simple. Time to shake up the lineup? Maybe. The only thing that’s for certain is if they can’t get the RISP problem sorted, they’re in big trouble.

By: deathmonkey41

deathmonkey41 — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 17:15:07 +0000

They are probably going to win the division, but lose in the first round of the playoffs. This whole not being able to win without homering isn’t a good recipe for the playoffs or when facing good pitchers. I don’t understand why they can’t be a power lineup and do the little things right like moving runners over, not grounding in DPs constantly, and hitting away from shifts.

By: sabathiawouldbegoodattheeighthtoo

sabathiawouldbegoodattheeighthtoo — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 17:05:13 +0000

The Yankees have stunk with RISP all season, yet they still lead the division. I would assume they will start cashing in on more of those opportunities eventually, and 11 opportunities with RISP is pretty damned good. This team could be beastly if they get that sorted out.

By: bigharold

bigharold — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 16:43:06 +0000

In fact they’ve been pretty bad with RISP all season even during this recent streak. They been pounding opponents into submission with the long ball.

Hey, .. there’s a reason they call them the Bronx bombers!

By: proudlycanadian

proudlycanadian — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 16:26:14 +0000

So D. J. is reporting that the Yankees came up SHORT with runners in scoring position. If my memory is correct, they had the same problem when they were scuffling earlier in the season.

By: number42is1

number42is1 — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 16:21:42 +0000

Just so everyone here is aware this is all my bosses fault. he walked up to me end of the day yesterday and said “how about them Yanks. looks like they are never going to lose” I called him a bastard this morning. good thing i have that kind of relationship with him