jung

Other than the long out that was a better 1st for Rick that Fatboy had by a long way. That said, its when CC starts to feel confident with his location that he starts changing speeds with EVERYTHING and that is when he gets tough. Odd the way pitching has gone in MLB. Depending on your pen a guy that gives you good innings 2 through 5 can make a fortune pitching.

How many almosts has Kinsler had. It gets to the point where almost looks like all we are going to get from him. I like aggressive hitting. But bases juiced, very first pitch you see from a guy that is really not throwing a great 1st inning and that is what you do! Not pleased!!!!

I absolutely think Holt should be in there someplace. 2nd or 3rd are the likely choices, especially since Cora has chosen Vaz, Holt's hit and run partner to catch. What the heck is that about? There is little sense to having Vaz in the lineup without Holt IMO. If Holt is out, let Sandy catch and bat RHed. Vaz is driving me nuts with his crazy targets behind the plate in this ballpark. Just asking to see one of those doink jobs going over the RF wall.

Tough assignment for Porcello tonight. Yanks will be looking for any lead past the 4th inning to start the cycle of closers from their pen. That is really all they are looking for from Fatbathia....4 innings, 5 tops of goose eggs which he is quite capable of providing. Hence, this is not the night for an early Porcello going over the wall. Rick is capable though. I just wish it was Sandy catching him as Vaz has proven to be subpar in setting his targets for his pitchers in this ballpark. Eo led Vaz to where he wanted to throw the ball as Vaz just would not set good targets for him..Pretty rare for the pitcher to lead the catcher back to where he wants to and needs to throw the ball.

Kinsler could have come home from 3rd on the first WP at the end of last night's game. But he simply refused to move. Then the 2nd wild pitch was just too much for Kinsler to cover. He literally walked home on that one. What else was he going to do. But he was obviously not trying to give the Yankees any incentive to think the Sox were rubbing their noses in it. Conversely, Holt is wagging his dingdong from 3rd base when he tripled and going ga-ga over a HR hit off the backup Catcher. The waggle from 3rd was probably fine. But the ga-ga over cycle v backup catcher heaped atop it probably even got under Cora's skin. I fully expected to see Holt plunked early in this game in any situation where he could be plunked without damage to the Yankees. Notice how Cora handled idiot ERod who would not even cover 1st in the 7th inning of post season game2. Erod got to pitch the 9th inning of ultimate garbage time, up 16-1. Thats your reward Eddie. So its obvious Cora watches this stuff.

1. Mookie Betts ® RF 2. Andrew Benintendi (L) LF 3. Steve Pearce ® 1B 4. J.D. Martinez ® DH 5. Xander Bogaerts ® SS 6. Ian Kinsler ® 2B 7. Eduardo Nunez ® 3B 8. Jackie Bradley Jr. (L) CF 9. Christian Vazquez ® C So Cora goes JBJ in CF and no Holt anywhere. Standard lineup against a LH pitcher this year. While I can just revert to "its the regular lineup against a LH pitcher" I also don't wonder if Kinsler's very professional behavior at the end of last night's game combined with Holt's slightly premature ejaculation were a factor as well. I would have bet Holt would have been plunked early tonight for one thing. The other thing that sorta' does not make much sense is Vaz here without Holt in the lineup. They are a potent hit and run duo, best on the team without question. But I don't much think about Vaz as contributing over switch hitting Sandy without Holt in there.

Eo throws harder than Porcello. In fact he throws much harder than Porcello. But Porcello's opportunity to succeed comes with how naturally his pitches gravitate to up and in or away at the bottom of the strike zone. So I was not pleased with Vaz's targets last night. He looked like he was on the way to an Erod/Vaz Yankee Stadium copy which was IMO the worst battery performance of the year...maybe the worst I have seen in a few years. Eddie only went 3.2 innings in a game we eventually won 11-6. Eo did not get stung by the pitches he threw to cosmically stupid Vaz targets and eventually Eo led Vaz to where he wanted to throw the ball not the other way round. Vaz in the later innings started targeting at the bottom of the strike zone on the outer black, not at the hitter's thighs as those are the balls the RH hitters just doink right over that RF wall. So I love throwing our RH pitchers in Yankee stadium. Never would have even considered using Porcello in relief last night as using our two RH starters in only one game would have been ridiculous. Porcello controlling that lineup will depend on whether his pitches go where they naturally tend to fall to the RH hitters....FB up....2 seam FB in.....Sinker to the bottom of the zone, Slider down and away. Just trust your pitches Rick.

Perhaps CC simply does not care what Hernandez is doing or not doing...calling or not calling. Entirely possible that you have to be able to lay down a bunt to get CC riled these days or to even phase him or get him to change a single thing he is doing on the mound. I don't see Hernandez picking up a bat anytime soon. In that case, that Hernandez slightly calls more strikes than balls compared to other umps might favor CC without CC enduring the wreckage other pitchers suffer trying to comprehend what the heck Hernandez is doing back there.

I posted this at another thread before anybody started a Hernandez thread. It is clearly more appropriately placed here. There is a chart from Hardball Times titled Strikes vs Average (per game) 2017 season. it is a box-plot of specific game ball and strike calls. It is really a struggle to pull data even from this box-plot and honestly, it shouldn't be this way. But this box-plot is specifically about consistency. It shows that for the 2017 season Laz Diaz and Gary Davis called the most consistent strike zones at least using the games recorded. it also shows Hernandez calling slightly more strikes than balls when compared to other major league umps. It also shows Hernandez as having the widest range ...meaning he is or was in 2017 about the least consistent ump in MLB. Now here is the kicker and to me one of the maddening aspects of this topic. MLB and the Umps union would likely argue that: - Zone Evaluation is improving all of them (probably true to some extent). - that while a guy like Hernandez shows a pretty high degree of inconsistency in his ball and strike calls he is not wildly calling more strikes than balls. - Hernandez is leaning more toward strikes than balls but is nowhere near the ends of the range either way And therefore (TA-DAAA......Hurray) Hernandez is not really effecting game outcomes. That is what MLB would argue. I however would argue that there is absolutely NOTHING more frustrating to both hitters and pitchers than an ump that is just all over the map. Inconsistency DOES affect outcomes because nobody playing knows what the f*** is going on! In case you are wondering nobody but nobody charted is as consistently INCONSISTENT as Hernandez. Paul Emmel is close but Hernandez is perfection personified as it relates to his inconsistency and his ability to screw up balls as easily as strikes while calling slightly more strikes than balls. Hernandez is so consistently inconsistent that if you told me somebody could produce numbers like his I would have called you a liar. Its uncanny. Every other GD stat and chart I found literally measures the wrong things!!!! The one I am referencing here is the only one that speaks to issues that truly drive game action and player performance at least that I have found. Fangraphs has it loaded at their site as well but it is a piece and chart provided by "The Hardball Times".

There is a chart from Hardball Times titled Strikes vs Average (per game) 2017 season. it is a box-plot of specific game ball and strike calls. It is really a struggle to pull data even from this box-plot and honestly, it shouldn't be this way. But this box-plot is specifically about consistency. It shows that for the 2017 season Laz Diaz and Gary Davis called the most consistent strike zones at least using the games recorded. it also shows Hernandez calling slightly more strikes than balls when compared to other major league umps. It also shows Hernandez as having the widest range ...meaning he is or was in 2017 about the least consistent ump in MLB. Now here is the kicker and to me one of the maddening aspects of this topic. MLB and the Umps union would likely argue that: - Zone Evaluation is improving all of them (probably true to some extent). - that while a guy like Hernandez shows a pretty high degree of inconsistency in his ball and strike calls he is not wildly calling more strikes than balls. - Hernandez is leaning more toward strikes than balls but is nowhere near the ends of the range either way And therefore (TA-DAAA......Hurray) Hernandez is not really effecting game outcomes. That is what MLB would argue. I however would argue that there is absolutely NOTHING more frustrating to both hitters and pitchers than an ump that is just all over the map. Inconsistency DOES affect outcomes because nobody playing knows what the f*** is going on! In case you are wondering nobody but nobody charted is as consistently INCONSISTENT as Hernandez. Paul Emmel is close but Hernandez is perfection personified as it relates to his inconsistency and his ability to screw up balls as easily as strikes while calling slightly more strikes than balls. Hernandez is so consistently inconsistent that if you told me somebody could produce numbers like his I would have called you a liar. Its uncanny. Every other GD stat and chart I found literally measures the wrong things!!!! The one I am referencing here is the only one that speaks to issues that truly drive game action and player performance at least that I have found. Fangraphs has it loaded at their site as well but it is a piece and chart provided by "The Hardball Times".

Hard to tell from the ump stats. Hernandez is actually right in the middle of a pack of awful. That is about all I can say for him. His walk rate is not remarkable. His K rate is not remarkable. His deviation from computer is not wildly all over the place. One stat you cannot find or I can't find is the only one that matters to hitters or pitchers...."consistency". Nobody really cares how accurate an ump calls the strike zone. They all care whether they call it the same way in any given game for the whole game. If a ball an inch off the outer edge is going to be a strike, fine. Just make it a strike for the whole game. Now if an ump is calling stuff 6" off the plate a strike that is a different kind of a problem as consistently calling those strikes will not satisfy anybody but pitchers. They are all marginally more likely to call a strike a strike. When they err it is more often than not in calling a ball a strike which of course benefits the battery which already has something of an advantage just because of the way this game was designed. They have the hardest time with strikes that are either at the top or bottom of the zone (calling them balls) and with balls inside and outside (calling them strikes). This consistency factor should not be hard to categorize and spread sheet for people to see and I suspect that we don't get to see it and nobody tries to do it because there are powerful baseball interests that don't want such a public exposure of the lack of consistency even within how one ump calls balls and strikes. I should add that umpire ZE scores have apparently done a good deal to improve ball and strike calls according to the Umps union and MLB (taken with hefty amounts of salt). However, the dif between the best of them and the worst of them according to ZE scoring as about 10 missed ball/strike calls a game. That is more than 1 an inning and is somewhat disappointing as it represents not an absolute number but the dif between the best and worst umpires calling balls and strikes.

Except for Holt who actually hits LH pitchers better than he hits RH pitchers. His slugging % is better against RH pitchers. But he plays in Fenway Park. Anybody who bats from the left side can "slug" in Yankee Stadium.

And JBJ is a particularly problematic LH bat. The question IMO is not whether Holt or JD can handle the smallish RF in Yankee stadium but whether Mookie can handle CF for a game. I would say that for one game, Mookie can be just as spectacular, just as special as JBJ. My preference for JD is RF over Holt is twofold. Nunez is barely a fielder of any sort. 3rd is his best field position but he is not more than an emergency 2nd baseman. So I don't mind tossing Nunez at DH. His only field position is 3rd. As for RF, there is no room out there to stretch your legs. But what is the worst thing that happens in Yankee Stadium RF? One of those dink shots into the first row is the worst thing by far that happens in Yankee RF. Is Holt going to reach up and take something at the Wall?...NOPE. Can JD? Yup. JBJ will get his chances later in the game. CC will not be around for more than 5 innings and 4 is just as likely.

That works as well. As long as JBJ sits, Vaz catches and Pearce gets 1st the rest is fine. I just think Holt v Nunez at 3rd is a better compromise than Holt v JD in the short Yankee RF. But either is fine as long as JBJ sits, Vaz catches and Pearce gets 1st. I don't want Holt at 1st.

The only option that makes sense to me would be JD to RF, Mookie to CF, JBJ sits, Nunez to DH and Pearce to 1st base with Holt at 3rd and Kinsler at 2nd. Vaz catches tonight. We don't get much having Nunez at 3rd v Holt. 3rd is simply the best field position Nunez plays. Holt can play 3rd and he is simply so focused right now that I want him playing and I want Kinsler playing and I want Pearce playing. I want Nunez bat tonight. CC wants to put up 4-5 goose eggs on us and head to the bench for the pen. We have to fight through that as CC is quite capable of putting up 4 goose eggs on us. Never feared Severino. But CC can execute his plan on us and get out of the game after 4 or 5 tops.

Biggest concern for the Tuesday game is CC's ability to put up 4 straight goose eggs and leave the game for the pen. He is quite capable of that if he can locate and change speeds with everything which is what he does when he is on. Can't do it for more than 4-5 innings tops. But with that pen, that is all they want out of CC anyway.

Porcello naturally throws to the bottom of the strike zone on the outer black to RH hitters. Evo doesn't and Vaz kept targeting him from the waist to the thigh on the outer black which is the worst place to target for the Yankee RH hitters. They want to see the ball there. Finally in the later innings Vaz started leading Evo to the bottom of the strike zone on the outer black. The Yankee RH hitters can't do anything with that pitch. You pound them inside and when you go back outside you make them stretch to hit the ball. So if I had to guess, Vaz should be fine catching Porcello because Porcello's pitches naturally go to the bottom of the strike zone when he is pitching on the outer black to RH hitters and Vaz helps us in the batting order. I would start Holt as well. He is on fire and CC scares nobody off the plate at this point in his career.

What an embarrassment for the League. What is Hernandez running...something like 1:4 correct calls? I thought post season umps had to earn the assignment. I have no idea how there is not at least one better ump than Hernandez based on this year's stats. Is that even possible?

Our LH pitchers cannot pitch in this park and Vaz can't call a game in it. He is driving me crazy just as he did in the ERod game here. Thank God we are up by 9.

For God sake Vaz...you pitch Voit INSIDE. Bust him on the hands. What are you doing???

Sevy...nothing...Lynn never has anything. Green getting bent over the desk.

Oh-Oh-Oh Rafi...you know you want that one back!

Long sit for Nate. Make it worthwhile. More runs please.

Get him in X. I want 8....9 if I can get it.

Severino was quite pliable tonight. Lesson for Sox...that mound is going to be a problem all night for all the relievers when they come in....including ours.