Official New York Yankees Bleacher Creatures Team Thread

[elicoleman]

Re: Official New York Yankees Bleacher Creatures Team Thread

Alright, Sox and O's lost...great day.

Hopefully we can take both vs Baltimore in the Bronx and cut the lead down to 1/2 game.

[Gary Armida]

Re: Official New York Yankees Bleacher Creatures Team Thread

Good points brought up by both of you. Just wanted to follow up with some things.

1. favre4vr, as you mentioned before, defense is extremely difficult to evaluate with methods that we in the public are aware of. From my understanding, the Red Sox (and other teams) have employees responsible for charting every single ball put in play that a defender has a chance to defend. How hard the ball was hit, the fielders position, how fast he gets to the ball, and other variables are measured here.
I'm nearly certain that the Red Sox have been working on method(s?) to properly empirically evaluate defense. We will never be aware of this, however, because they aren't just going to put out a press release stating "We, the Boston Red Sox, have devised a breakthrough new mechanism for evaluating defense! Here it is:". They would put themselves at a competitive disadvantage. So, it's difficult to see what is going on behind the scenes here, but I'm fairly certain that the Epstein front office realizes this is an important aspect of the game to research and has been working on solutions for a long time.

Great points. I just think that there are way too many variables in Defense to truly evaluate. Pitchers, ballparks, weather, positioning by the coaching staff. Take this for example. Cal Ripken was, statistically, one of the best defensive short stops of all time. But, is that really the case. Having watched him over his entire career, I would have to say no. He didn't get to as many balls as say, Tony Fernandez (when he was on the Blue Jays). Fernandez committed more errors, but he got to more balls. So the question is, who is the better defensive short stop? I don't have the answer. I don't think any system can make that call. Great discussion. Thanks for replying.

[Gary Armida]

Re: Official New York Yankees Bleacher Creatures Team Thread

Excellent outting by Wang tonight. Granted he wasn't overpowering and only had one 1-2-3 inning (that was his last oddly enough) but got outta trouble over and over again.

Good W, though the O was awful again today.

He is tough. That's what I like about him. He doesn't sulk on the mound like Unit. I hate seeing that head shake in disgust. I still think he'll turn it around though. Nice to get a close win for a change.

[GBrushTWood]

Re: Official New York Yankees Bleacher Creatures Team Thread

Great points. I just think that there are way too many variables in Defense to truly evaluate. Pitchers, ballparks, weather, positioning by the coaching staff. Take this for example. Cal Ripken was, statistically, one of the best defensive short stops of all time. But, is that really the case. Having watched him over his entire career, I would have to say no. He didn't get to as many balls as say, Tony Fernandez (when he was on the Blue Jays). Fernandez committed more errors, but he got to more balls. So the question is, who is the better defensive short stop? I don't have the answer. I don't think any system can make that call. Great discussion. Thanks for replying.

I'd say Fernandez is better. I personally want a guy who will get to more balls and has more range than the next guy.
It's possible that in evaluating defense, there are trade offs just like as in offense (power vs. contact, gets on base vs. hacker) such as: doesn't muff many plays and has little range vs. gets to most every ball but muffs some of the tougher ones. Again, this is an extremely tough thing to empirically quantify for the reasons you stated. For this reason, we will not be aware of what the ballclubs are actually using these days, and are stuck with crappy metrics like range factor, fielding percentage, and the like. UZR seems to be widely accepted, though I've seen some flaws in it (rating Jose Valentin as one of the premiere SS's, when he is questionable defensively)...

Until some major breakthrough is released to the public, we're stuck having subjective arguments re: defense. Like in the Bret Boone thread, some guy claims Boone is superior defensively to Mark Bellhorn, when I just know it isn't true from watching with my own eyes. I sure as hell can't prove it though.

[Armitage]

Re: Official New York Yankees Bleacher Creatures Team Thread

Remember I was recommending the Yankees getting Braden Looper?

I wonder if the Yanks are looking at Steve Kline and BJ Ryan right now.

[ifiok25]

Re: Official New York Yankees Bleacher Creatures Team Thread

What a game we are seeing today. This is just unbelievable.

[Armitage]

Re: Official New York Yankees Bleacher Creatures Team Thread

What a game we are seeing today. This is just unbelievable.

The Orioles pen looks like it's been nothing but smoke and mirrors and the Yankees exposed it. I have to wonder what goes through a pitchers mind every time they give up a home run to Jason Giambi now.

[NYJets]

Re: Official New York Yankees Bleacher Creatures Team Thread

A win's a win.

But the Yankees bullpen outside of Rivera and Gordon is pretty scary.

[ifiok25]

Re: Official New York Yankees Bleacher Creatures Team Thread

Yankees win in a great game.

[elicoleman]

Re: Official New York Yankees Bleacher Creatures Team Thread

Happy 75th Steinbrenner

Oh man, what a great game. 15 Walks, 4 hit batters, 22 hits, 21 runs...Yanks win 13-8

What kills me is I really want to say this is a "turning point" game, but there has seemed to have been 3 or 4 or those, and then they turn around and drop 3 in a row. Atleast this team is still showing fight despite the pathetic relief pitching. Anderson got his 3rd career win, despite the run and 4 walks. Now the Yanks only trail the O's by a 1.5 games.

And Giambi...two solo shots. I'm happy that he is doing better the past month or so.

Hopefully Johnson will throw much better tomorrow, with Flaherty catching instead of Posada. I still don't quite understand why RJ hates throwing to Posada as much as he does.

Later on tonight - Lets Go Texas

[ehh]

Re: Official New York Yankees Bleacher Creatures Team Thread

And Giambi...two solo shots. I'm happy that he is doing better the past month or so.

LOL, Giambi's 2nd homer is the second cheapest homer I've seen at the short porch, behind Jeter's "home run" in the '96 ALDS vs. the O's.

Anyway, a VERY sloppy game really from start to finish. No pitcher for either side had any type of control. Sturtz was good for his usual 2 innings (same as when he relieves) but after that it was straight down hill. None of the newbies outta the pen were impressive.

Bottom line though, it was great to see us come back after we blew that 6-0 lead. A month ago we woulda quit and lost 8-6. This time we fought and showed some patience at the plate and got a clutch (and yes, lucky) hit from Bernie to put is ahead for good. But those were the type of balls that weren't dropping in for us all season.

Looking forward to seeing how the Unit will do tomorrow afternoon.

[NYJets]

Re: Official New York Yankees Bleacher Creatures Team Thread

4 back

[ehh]

Re: Official New York Yankees Bleacher Creatures Team Thread

Holy hell, Giambi is on fire. Another homer and an RBI double in his first two AB's this afternoon.

Once again it's 6-0 Yanks early, hopefully we won't blow it again!!

[Blzer]

Re: Official New York Yankees Bleacher Creatures Team Thread

I don't know... they did once, I believe it's possible for the Orioles again.

But man, the O's just aren't catching their defensive breaks (except for that one to Mora).

[ehh]

Re: Official New York Yankees Bleacher Creatures Team Thread

Whoaaaaaaaaa Sheff!!!


He's even more on fire than Giambi.


9-0 in the 4th.