Not So Dandy Andy

Andy Pettitte was as bad as he could possibly be tonight and the Yankees made the Rays look the way the Yankees are supposed to look.

Pettitte continues to be get lost with two outs in an inning the way that Scott Proctor used to get lost with two strikes. The Rays just smothered his cutter and embarrassed him on the base paths.

Andy Pettitte better do some thinking and find out what type of pitcher he wants to be because the garbage has brought with him his last three of four starts is unacceptable. Pettitte has a 7.18 ERA over his last four starts and hasn’t won a game since April 20th.

Here is what Andy has done since his last win:
21.1 IP, 28 H, 17 R, 16 ER, 7 BB, 17 K, 5 HR

Guess he is really earning his $16 million this year.

As for Jose Molina…it’s time he found a seat on the bench and took back his role of backup catcher and give the starting duty to Chad Moeller. But I am sure Joe Girardi is about as close to making that swap as he is to starting runners or trying to steal a base.

Maybe Joe G hasn’t realized it yet, but Jose isn’t that fast and in his first at bat with Robinson Cano on first and no outs, Molina showed bunt on the first pitch, then took the sign away, and grounded into a double play. Alberto Gonzalez then single and would have either scored a run and given the Yankees a lead, or made it men on the corners with one out. Instead there was two out and no one on for Gonzalez’s single to right.

In Molina’s next at bat, Melky Cabrera was on first and with one out, Molina hit into his second 6-4-3 double play of the night in as many chances. He is 4 of his last 37 and is batting .214 on the season. Stellar numbers. Meanwhile, Chad Moeller is wasted on the bench with a .342 OBP.

Bobby Abreu came into the game 3 for 4 lifetime vs Matt Garza with two doubles, but looked as if Koufax in his prime was on the hill as Abreu weakly flailed at fastballs, mistiming them in every at bat.

The Yankees need to win this series and now that means winning the next three in a row.

Three’s A Crowd

The YES broadcast team has been very much like the team they cover in 2008, as neither the commentators nor the Yankees lineup has remained consistent throughout the first 36 games of the season. Because of this the Yankees are playing .500 ball and the inconsistent calling of the games on YES has created sub-par broadcasts. Right now the Yankees can’t help their own lineup due to injuries to the heart of their order, but YES can certainly make adjustments by eliminating one personality from the broadcast every game.

When the YES team crams three personalities into a single telecast of a game, it actually interferes with what is happening on the field as the cameramen scramble to capture shots of what is being talked about in the booth in a chaotic manner. The last thing I want to do here is sound like the whiny Bob Raissman, but YES could use the advice that I am sure many fans in Yankees Universe aka the Tri-State area would like to give.

The formula of a play-by-play man (Michael Kay) and two color commentators (can be any of a large pool) can only succeed in certain circumstances, but during the previous series with the Indians, Kay along with John Flaherty and David Cone, just wasn’t what it could have been. While Kay is trying to call the game every pitch, he is constantly held up while the other two finish up their thoughts, which most of the time are repetitive statements from earlier in the game.

Having Flaherty, a former catcher, is a great addition to the telecast as he does a very good job telling about what might be going on in a mound conference or what pitch sequences might accompany a certain hitter. At the same time, Cone is good talking about pitcher’s preparations and why they may or may not shake off a catcher’s choice of pitch. But, both of them tend to venture outside their area of expertise and their opinions sometimes clash and contradict each other, and before you know it, you’re watching a Yankees game with Mike and the Mad Dog on in the background.

I understand that YES has a problem turning down former Yankee players searching for a broadcast considering they have chosen to keep on commentators who had a minimal role in pinstripes (Flaherty) or a very short one (Al Leiter). Nevertheless, if you wore the “NY” on your chest at some point, there seems to be a spot for you somewhere in that booth and if not, they will just make room, even if it jeopardizes the value of their broadcast, as the YES Network attempts to mirror FOX’s Super Bowl Half-Time Show team of six.

It is a constant competition for air time with Kay trying to get in his nerdy and relentless cliches acting as though he is hosting his ESPN Radio show instead of calling a Yankees game, while Flaherty and Cone both try to out-do each other and make the finer point about the game or analyze a certain situation. And don’t think it is just Flaherty or Cone creating this problem, it also occurs when Leiter is present and Paul O’Neill as well.

It is a shame that Ken Singleton has not done as many as games as he used when Jim Kaat (the Babe Ruth of broadcasting) was still in the booth and it’s too bad that Bobby Murcer has had the health problems he has had otherwise, none of the problems with the YES broadcasts would exist.

Even though many Yankees fans dislike Michael Kay and his ability to call a game, I think that he does do a good job and there is no reason to remove him of his duties, but rather just remove some of the pieces around him. If there is anyway to get Ken Singleton back in there on a regular basis (though I am unsure of his personal and family life, which might be causing him to call fewer games) then that is the answer to fixing the broadcast. But until Singleton is back in there and with Bobby Murcer not always in New York, there needs to be some sort of order in the booth because before you know it, Aaron Small and Todd Zeile will be part of the YES team.

Under .500…Again

Ballgame over. Indians win. Theeeeeeeeeeeeeee Indians win.

For what seems like the millionth time, the Yankees will try to salvage a series tomorrow afternoon with Mike Mussina on the mound and given his recent roll, the Moose is due for a nice shelling.

Cliff Lee is on living the dream right now shutting the AL, but let’s not forget who this man really is and how badly he sucked in 2007 before being demoted. He is a lefty who throws 88mph fastballs and somehow gets the job done. His counterpart Chien-Ming Wang however was not equally as good.

Wang might be the Yankees ace, but tonight he was anything but that. The definition of an ace is someone who will match the other team’s starter with zeros until the offense puts some runs on the board. Sure, the offense didn’t help Wang out while he was out there, but then again he put them in an uphill battle before they ever had an AB because he was scared to throw strikes to Grady Sizemore to lead off the game.

Right now the Yankees are a tease. Win three, lose three, win two, lose two, and the pattern goes on. 17-18 through 35 is just funny because right now they might be only four back in the loss column, but they are so much worse than that.

It is funny that Alex Rodriguez Jorge Posada and Robinson Cano all got new contracts before the season and two of them are currently not playing (A-Rod, Jorge) and the other one might as well not play (Cano). So Murderer’s Row is rounded off by an ineffective Cano, a AAA-worthy Morgan Ensberg, and a backup catcher Jose Molina. The majority of the NL has a better offense than the New York Yankees.

It is hard to say the Yankees suck right now, which they do, because of the injuries and the fact they have played with their real lineup in only two of the 35 games this season, but no one in the AL East or AL for that matter cares about their problems. And none of the other 13 teams in the league are prepared to slow up so the Yankees can get healthy and come out swinging at the end of the month.

Back Over .500

After the strikeout to Derek Jeter I sat there wondering how the Yankees could possiby leave the bases loaded with one out in the 7th inning against Octavio Dotel, who we all know first hand is not good. But everything turned around with one swing of the bat as Bobby Abreu went deep with a grand slam off.

What a win.

Even with the grand slam to win the game, the offense on this team needs to get its act together as we are now in Game 21, and they were unable to chase even Jose Contreras from the game early on, after his pitch count.

The Bombers failed to put a crooked number on the board in the first when they were nicely setup to rattle Contreras and put Ozzie Guillen on tilt.

Watching the game on the Chicago White Sox network is torture as I am not sure how MLB Extra Innings can possibly choose the YES broadcast over the garbage that Chicago puts out there. I am positive that even the White Sox fans would rather watch the YES broadcast of the game as they should feel embarrassed at the way Ken Harrelson and Darin Jackson call a game. Whether they are ecstatic over a seeing-eye single off the bat off one of the Sox or cheering on Paul Konerko, trying to will one over the fence for him it is pretty disgusting. The line of the night had to be “WHERE WAS THAT?” after a 1-2 pitch to Jeter missed the plate by half a foot.

Anyways, back to the Yankees.

You have to love Joe Girardi sending Billy Traber out to start the 7th after the Yankees just took the lead as if Traber is automatic. And then once a guy gets on via the walk, Brian “I can’t come into an inning with runners on” Bruney comes in and walks the next guy. I know everyone in Yankees Universe wants Bruney to be the 7th inning guy before Joba and Mo, but bringing the tying run to the plate with a three-run lead isn’t exactly the way to impress. But it wouldn’t be a Yankees game if they didn’t almost give the lead right back, would it?

On a side note, how could Ensberg possibly have hit 39 home runs in a season, unless he had the help of a substance. His batting stance and presence at the plate is the farthest thing from intimidating and when he is up there it looks as though looks like a 0% chance he is going yard.

It was a solid win, but the one bad thing that came from this game was the Jason Giambi home run. While Jason was close to falling off the interstate and possibly batting himself right out of the lineup, he goes and hits an opposite field home run, which will surely make Girardi think that the Giambino is back. But maybe those thoughts were washed away when Jason failed to come up with a grounder to his right in the 7th that loaded the bases.

You gotta love Kyle Farnsworth giving up a bomb in the 9th. I am beginning to think he doesn’t like 1-2-3 innings.