The story of the Yankees bullpen in August was Kerry Wood. The finest player on the team was C.C. Sabathia. It is fair to say the pitching had a good month.
The Yankees in August – The Pitchers
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The Yankees in August – The Batters
The Yankees have maintained their record of being the best team in the majors. In August, one additional factor fell into place – the bullpen. The bullpen which had been previously erratic and with roles constantly changing fell into place with the arrival of Kerry Wood. But before we get to that let’s attempt an overview of the batters – those who were strong, those were weak and those who were just plain confusing……..
All It Could Be
All My Sons, written by Arthur Miller
Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London
18th August 2010
Arthur Miller was regarded with something approaching awe in the post-Second World War period. Seemingly critical of American capitalism, investigated by McCarthy’s Un-American activities committee, married to Marilyn Monroe and the author of four hugely popular plays, he garnered a lot of media attention. Those plays – Death of a Salesman, A View From the Bridge, The Crucible and All My Sons – are still frequently seen on the worldwide stage.
As the years went by Miller’s notoriety, critical acclaim and success receded very substantially even though the later years of his career saw him write many plays which were the equal of his earlier successes. If anything his later plays were subtler in their approach and had less of a tendency to attempt to sum up the moral issues of the day (and the play) in the death of a lead character in the final scenes of the script.
Given all of this, it is no surprise that the play currently being seen by sold-out audiences in the West End of London is one of the four huge commercial and critical successes mentioned above which were written at the height of public awareness of his career. There is also no surprise that a review from the Telegraph observing the link between the story of the play – about a man who allows faulty aeroplane parts to be shipped to the air force for use overseas – and the current controversy about badly supplied UK soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq is printed large on the outside of the building. The play may have been written in 1947 but we are assured that it is still relevant for today.
Both that review and the conclusion of the play may be a little simplistic for my tastes but that shouldn’t detract from the fact that this is a very good production indeed. One of the reasons why it is hard to identify the best performance in this play is because the whole cast are producing work of a very high standard.
On the face of it there is nothing revolutionary about this production. Director Howard Davies previously worked on the play some ten years ago and the stage set here is very similar to others I have seen used for the play over the last thirty years. But it is the acting of the company which means that this version of the play is a huge success. David Suchet and Zoe Wanamaker are well known to the audience from their TV work and are on outstanding form as Joe and Kate Keller. Ms Wanamaker displays the necessary mix of distraction, fatalism and strength which are part of the character of Mrs Keller while Suchet catches just the right blend of headstrongness and ebullience which are found in Mr Keller. The would-be-married couple of Chris Keller and Anne Deever, supported by Joe but stridently opposed by Kate, are captured excellently by the twin talents of Stephen Campbell Moore and Jemima Rooper.
This is a production where there are no real flaws. The play has its limitations and has dated but it is well worth its revival as would be virtually all of Miller’s work. On one hand it would have been nice to see some risks taken with the direction but with acting on display of this strength there is very little need to change a winning formula.
The Bronx in July – Yankees pitchers
Releasing Chan Ho Park and signing Kerry Wood looks like a good piece of business for the Yankees right now but before that happened there was July. July when Andy Pettitte went down injured. July when Phil Hughes was relying on high-levels of run support to gain his wins. What was good, bad and indifferent before Park was released?
| New York Yankees – Pitching – Month – July | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Name | GP | GS | GF | IP | H | RA | ER | BB | SO | W | L | Sv | ERA | OBA | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Marte, Damaso | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | .000 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Rivera, Mariano | 10 | 0 | 8 | 9.1 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0.96 | .206 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Logan, Boone | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.80 | .211 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Burnett, A.J. | 5 | 5 | 0 | 27.0 | 24 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 20 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2.00 | .242 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Sabathia, C.C. | 6 | 6 | 0 | 43.0 | 46 | 16 | 11 | 17 | 35 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2.30 | .282 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Robertson, David | 11 | 0 | 2 | 11.2 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 15 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3.09 | .200 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Moseley, Dustin | 5 | 1 | 2 | 16.2 | 11 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3.24 | .200 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Vazquez, Javier | 5 | 5 | 0 | 32.1 | 28 | 12 | 12 | 8 | 18 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3.34 | .237 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Albaladejo, Jonathan | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2.2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.38 | .222 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Park, Chan Ho | 9 | 0 | 7 | 10.1 | 9 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3.48 | .225 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Pettitte, Andy | 3 | 3 | 0 | 16.1 | 16 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 16 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3.86 | .258 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Gaudin, Chad | 4 | 0 | 2 | 9.0 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5.00 | .286 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Hughes, Phil | 5 | 5 | 0 | 29.1 | 31 | 18 | 18 | 7 | 21 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5.52 | .270 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Chamberlain, Joba | 11 | 0 | 3 | 12.2 | 15 | 9 | 9 | 4 | 13 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6.39 | .288 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Mitre, Sergio | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6.1 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7.11 | .308 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 86 | 26 | 26 | 234.0 | 219 | 99 | 90 | 77 | 183 | 19 | 7 | 5 | 3.46 | .251 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Good
C.C. Sabathia. Sabathia is rolling towards twenty wins and very little is getting in his way and when something does 90% of the time he finds a way to get the win regardless. His 2.30 ERA on the month was good enough but his resilience shows up in the Wins column where he added four more.
A.J. Burnett. A.J. Burnett had his best month of the season, finishing ahead of Sabathia in ERA and OBA. He still is unlucky in not getting the run support he needs but this month managed to pull in 3 wins
Mariano Rivera. Mo gave up one run this month and that is high by his standards.When the meltdowns come, they are not pretty but they are so very few and far between as he continues to make his way through an amazing and seemingly never-ending career.
Boone Logan. With the injury to Damaso Marte, Logan has become the left-handed specialist out of the bullpen and he is carrying that weight very well. In a very good month for the pitching staff, he was third in ERA.
Bad
Sergio Mitre. Mitre looked like one of the obvious candidates when Pettitte went down with a groin strain but he failed to take his chance and Moseley is now the guy just about hanging on to that slot. His one start was a primary cause of his ERA ballooning to 7.11 this month.
Chad Gaudin. Gaudin continues to be persistently ordinary. He eats up two innings per appearance – mainly in games that the team has already lost but his OBA on the month was only saved from being the highest on the team by Mitre’s disastrous start and his ERA was once more in the five run region.
Phil Hughes. It is hard to call Hughes bad but it really is only the run support he gets from the team that is making the outcomes less ugly. Whilst he managed to have a 2-2 month, his ERA for the month was 5.52 and he rarely manages more than five innings per start.
Joba Chamberlain. It seems so long ago now that he was going to be the next young phenom on the team. It hasn’t worked out that way and July 2010 was a particular low point and if the rumours are to be believed the month when the Yankees almost gave up on him and traded him away.
Surprises
David Robertson. Robertson has regained whatever it was he lost in the early months of the season and has managed 18 strikeouts in his last 11 innings pitched. The increasing stability in the bullpen is largely down to him.
Dustin Moseley. Moseley produced a good first start for the team and some quality outings as a reliever. He lacks consistency but with Aceves, Marte and Pettitte out, we’ll take one good game in two at this stage of the season.
Damaso Marte. Marte only managed three games on the month before being added to the disabled list but let’s not overlook the fact that they were all good performances. He has not had a smooth time with the Yankees. He’s had times when he looked like he couldn’t pitch and too many injuries but I’m not going to be slow pointing up the good stuff.
Jonathan Albaladejo. Albaladejo has had an outstanding season at Scranton and looked like he was finally to be rewarded when he was called up. Whilst it wasn’t the smoothest outing, he recovered but was sent back to the minors the very next day. There are better candidates for reassignment who are still on the roster.
Back at Elland Road…..
It’s 19 years since I was able to attend an opening home game at Elland Road, Leeds. It’s around that time that I moved to London from my Yorkshire home. It’s 38 years since the first time I attended an opening game there. I guess that me and Leeds United go back a long way. I always get back to Elland Road but it’s a long time since I’ve seen a game there in August.
Arriving at the ground, I was greeted by the bizarre sight of Nigel Clough (son of Brian) walking the Derby team from the bus towards the ground having insisted that the coach stopped on Elland Road itself for the players to walk the rest of the way. This brought echoes of the film "The Damned United" which I finally viewed a couple of weeks ago and which tells a very different story from the one which I remember growing up. It’s interesting that Nigel Clough was seeking to emulate something which the film says his Dad learnt from Don Revie many years ago but which several Leeds players including Peter Lorimer (who is one of the few Leeds players to have anything good to say about the film) say never actually happened. History, fiction, memory and incident all get intertwined as we get older but by any standards this is a peculiar twist of events.
There will be few Peter Lorimers on display in the Leeds team today but I’m guessing that Lash allowed himself a wry smile when the Derby fans tried to get the Leeds fans going by singing classics like "If you hate Don Revie, clap your hands" and "Brian Clough’s a footballing genius". Something odd about the tenses in both of those and the fans singing them could probably not have been alive when Clough and Revie were at the helms of today’s two sides.
So two teams haunted by their pasts and on this evidence Derby doing much better at trying to recapture glory days than Leeds. Derby went ahead through a goal from ex-Leeds striker, Rob Hulse. Luciano Becchio levelled things only for the referee and his assistant (who had exceptionally bad days) to give a dubious penalty to Derby which carried the three points out of Yorkshire as it ended the scoring.
So who was on duty for Leeds in Simon Grayson’s extensively re-tooled line up?
Goalkeeper: Kasper Schmeichel. A new signing from Notts County who proved a popular choice which might be surprising given that his dad filled a similar spot for arch-rivals Manchester United. Schmeichel was Leeds’ best player on the day with a crucial double-save at one point doing a lot to get the Leeds faithful on his side. After all, you don’t get to pick your parents.
Defence: Paul Connolly, playing on the right side of defence, 27 years of age and recently signed from Derby County! Connolly acquitted himself well particularly in the first half. He played with an arm heavily bandaged and strapped but didn’t seem to notice that too much. He defended well and was a good distributor of the ball.
Federico Bessone, another debutant. The Argentinian who moved from Swansea had a quiet game on the left side of the defence. He did little wrong but his work rate will need to improve if the defensive performance of the team is to do likewise.
Neill Collins who sent some time at Leeds on loan last season and has now joined them permanently, was paired with captain Richard Naylor in central defence. Perhaps it was that Collins was not in his best position but the two looked out of place against the lively and energetic Hulse and Commons. They were outclassed and over-matched with Collins perhaps enjoying the better performance of the pair.
Midfield: Leeds crammed the midfield and all the central midfield players performed well. Jonny Howson, Bradley Johnson and Neil Kilkenny all did their best to feed the wide players and to provide defensive help for those behind them. Unfortunately each of these players is more inclined to push forward which left those behind them a little exposed particularly since the defence was out-matched for speed.
Width was provided by loanee Sanchez Watt and new signing, Lloyd Sam. Sam who has joined the team from Charlton looked like he didn’t know quite where he was meant to be playing and he was the first of the Leeds team to be withdrawn to make room for Aidan White. Sam will have to show much greater confidence and application if he is to succeed in West Yorkshire. Watt did better but seemed a little lightweight and was too easily knocked off the ball. In the second half. Kilkenny was also substituted for another debutant and loan player, Adam Clayton. Clayton did okay but all the central midfield guys looked to have similar skills and with one of the wide players drifting through the game there was too little invention to feed the lone central attacker.
Attack: That lone central attacker was Luciano Becchio who also provided the lone Leeds goal and 90% of the opportunities that came Leeds’ way. He was asked to do too much and when eventually offered a partner in Mike Grella who replaced Howson after 86 minutes, it was expecting too much of his tired legs to take advantage of this very late, almost token, change.
So what does the season hold for Leeds? Despite today’s defeat I don’t think the season is going to be too bad. We have a lot of new players who will take time to find their feet and one another. With a few tweaks, some players back from injury and a lot of settling in, I would expect Leeds to finish in the top half.
July in the Bronx – The Yankees’ batters
The New York Yankees went into July in a strong position but during the month they allowed both Tampa Bay Rays and, for a while, Boston Red Sox to close the gap. They addressed some of the problems we’re going to highlight in this review with a group of trades at the end of the month which brought in Lance Berkman, Austin Kearns and Kerry Wood whilst giving up not a lot in return. This has particularly patched the gap left by Nick Johnson’s long and predictable injury. But before all that happened, there was most of the month of July to unfold……
| New York Yankees – Batting – Month – July | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Name | G | AB | R | H | RBI | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | SO | SH | SF | SB | BA | SLG | OBP | ||||||||||||||||||
| Teixeira, Mark | 26 | 96 | 25 | 33 | 26 | 10 | 0 | 8 | 20 | 12 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .344 | .698 | .462 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Thames, Marcus | 9 | 18 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .333 | .500 | .381 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Swisher, Nick | 25 | 102 | 20 | 33 | 16 | 10 | 0 | 7 | 10 | 23 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .324 | .627 | .384 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Cano, Robinson | 25 | 98 | 17 | 27 | 18 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 12 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .276 | .582 | .351 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Pena, Ramiro | 15 | 26 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .269 | .269 | .269 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Miranda, Juan | 10 | 15 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .267 | .467 | .313 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Granderson, Curtis | 26 | 94 | 17 | 25 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 21 | 2 | 1 | 2 | .266 | .436 | .314 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Rodriguez, Alex | 26 | 105 | 9 | 26 | 31 | 8 | 0 | 5 | 9 | 18 | 0 | 3 | 0 | .248 | .467 | .305 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Posada, Jorge | 21 | 73 | 7 | 18 | 10 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 12 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .247 | .438 | .360 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Jeter, Derek | 26 | 106 | 22 | 26 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 3 | .245 | .311 | .310 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Curtis, Colin | 15 | 34 | 7 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .235 | .353 | .297 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Gardner, Brett | 25 | 77 | 16 | 17 | 13 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 18 | 19 | 1 | 0 | 6 | .221 | .338 | .375 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Cervelli, Francisco | 14 | 42 | 3 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 1 | .214 | .238 | .267 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Huffman, Chad | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .250 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Russo, Kevin | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Berkman, Lance | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 894 | 150 | 239 | 148 | 53 | 4 | 38 | 105 | 174 | 8 | 7 | 13 | .267 | .463 | .347 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Good
Mark Teixeira. Teixeira finally hit his stride in July and produced form which emulated his 2009 season offensively. This year whilst he has been consistently strong in defense, he has just not shown up at the plate. Now all that has begun to change. In July, he led the team in ERA, OBA and Slugging percentage. His 8 home runs were also ahead of the rest whilst his RBI total was second only to A-Rod.
Marcus Thames. Marcus has continued to impress against left-handed pitchers whilst his figures against righties were significantly better in July too. He will continue to be very much a back-up player and in that role 6 hits in 18 at bats will do very nicely indeed.
Nick Swisher. Nick Swisher is another player that has grown beyond recognition since he arrived in New York and this streakiest of players seems to be settling into a nice routine. Going into the season he looked like one of the potential weaknesses in an outfield that was going to over-rely on Granderson. As the season has developed, Swisher has become the guy who is first pencilled in of those in an outfield role. His .324 and increased patience at the plate (we could still use a few more walks from him) were highlights of a strong July.
Ramiro Pena. Pena had his best offensive month of the season and this coincided with Russo being the guy to be sent to the minors when changes were made early in the month. He still has a long, long way to go – no extra base hits and, more alarmingly, no walks on the month – but this was an advance.
Bad
Francisco Cervelli. I think Cervelli is over thinking at the plate and whatever hits he was producing last year and in the early months of the season are drying up fast. This is particularly bad timing for a slump with Posada’s on-going problems meaning that the team must depend on him and .214 on the month with one double simply does not cut it.
Colin Curtis. Curtis lost his back-up spot this month and forced the Yankees into making a move for Kearns and he has no-one to blame but himself. His 8 hits in 34 at-bats simply were too poor to be sustainable as things got tight at the top.
Derek Jeter. Jeter’s worst month at the plate in nearly two seasons in the midst of a season that is all the more noticeable poor because of his heroics in the championship winning season.
Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod’s preoccupation with himself and his tendency to concentrate on his own goals rather than the teams became so obvious with the horrible slump that occurred in the run-up to his 600th home run and ruined his July figures.
Surprises
Brett Gardner. Gardner became the player he was in 2009 in July and consequently, he produced by far his worst month’s figures of 2010. His .221 month means that when Kearns settles in, Gardner will begin to lose playing time.
Juan Miranda. Miranda finally settled into a rhythm in July — which resulted him being reassigned to Scranton. His .267 with one homer didn’t set the world alight but the choice of Berkman – who has never had to play DH – to replace him is an odd one.
Kevin Russo. Like so many other players on the Yankees roster this season a bright start when first called up soon became a gloomy outlook for Russo and whereas he was once getting more playing time than Pena, he now finds his future at Triple-A.
Jorge Posada. Things are not right with Posada. He needs more rest and the fact that he is being used mainly as a DH and that his batting figures are still so poor says everything.
Home to London
Back from holiday after a great two weeks in Whitby with sun and sea and lots of seafood. I’ll be playing catchup with some sports reports in the next few days.
Out of town
Heading for two weeks in Whitby.
A play by any other name would smell as sweet…….
The RSC production of Romeo and Juliet which is currently playing in its Stratford-Upon-Avon base and which will transfer to the Roundhouse in Camden, London later in the year is a golden opportunity to see one of the finest productions of Shakespeare in many a year.
The Yankees in June – The Pitching
The Yankees’ pitching has not been predictable this season. The performances have certainly not been like they were expected to be pre-season. Joba Chamberlain and A.J. Burnett have failed, so far, to live up to their top billing. But also, the appearances of April have not gelled into full season trends with Javier Vazquez particularly overcoming his early season problems. How did it all look during June?
| New York Yankees – Pitching – Month – June | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Name | GP | GS | GF | IP | H | RA | ER | BB | SO | W | L | Sv | ERA | OBA | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Mitre, Sergio | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | .167 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Rivera, Mariano | 11 | 0 | 11 | 13.0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 16 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 0.00 | .093 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Robertson, David | 9 | 0 | 2 | 9.0 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.00 | .250 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Sabathia, C.C. | 5 | 5 | 0 | 37.0 | 25 | 9 | 9 | 12 | 35 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2.19 | .191 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Logan, Boone | 4 | 0 | 1 | 7.2 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.35 | .250 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Pettitte, Andy | 5 | 5 | 0 | 34.0 | 29 | 15 | 12 | 12 | 33 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3.18 | .232 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Vazquez, Javier | 6 | 6 | 0 | 39.0 | 26 | 14 | 14 | 12 | 35 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 3.23 | .187 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Chamberlain, Joba | 12 | 0 | 0 | 10.2 | 11 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.22 | .275 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Gaudin, Chad | 7 | 0 | 6 | 12.2 | 12 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4.97 | .267 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Hughes, Phil | 5 | 5 | 0 | 31.1 | 37 | 19 | 18 | 8 | 24 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5.17 | .303 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Park, Chan Ho | 9 | 0 | 5 | 11.2 | 11 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5.40 | .250 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Marte, Damaso | 8 | 0 | 0 | 5.1 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.75 | .125 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Burnett, A.J. | 5 | 5 | 0 | 23.0 | 35 | 29 | 29 | 17 | 19 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 11.35 | .357 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 87 | 26 | 26 | 236.1 | 208 | 112 | 108 | 93 | 211 | 16 | 10 | 7 | 4.11 | .239 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Good
Mariano Rivera. Rivera suffered one or two hiccups in May but his long career show that those occasional problems are nothing more than that and he finds it amazingly easy to get back in the groove. In 11 appearance in June, he only allowed six players to get on base and none of them resulted in runs given up. He continues to astound.
C.C. Sabathia. Sabathia took 5 wins in 5 starts after a largely indifferent start to the season. He is hitting his stride excellently as the season reaches its midpoint and a 20 win season looks well within his reach.
Andy Pettitte. Another solid month for Pettitte who is supposed to be aging and consequently fading. Without last year’s self-inflicted burden on his shoulders, he is looking more intimidating, more confident and simply a better pitcher. True growth isn’t found in pills or serum or injection but in overcoming adversity using those natural God-given resources.
Javier Vazquez. And now Vazquez is giving the Yankees the innings and solid pitching that he has delivered for every other team that he has represented but that he has struggled to match in the Bronx. In June, he kept his OBA below 2 and delivered six and a half innings, on average, each outing. That will do very nicely. Thank you.
Sergio Mitre. Mitre must be truly disappointed to be on the disabled list. That’s always a difficult experience but even more so when everything is coming right for you. His final appearance before the injury was as good as anything he has produced for the Pinstripes.
Bad
A.J. Burnett. Burnett got lost in June but there are already signs that his time in the wilderness might be coming to an end. But June saw him deliver a lousy 11.35 ERA and put more batters per innings on base than any other Yankees pitcher. Let’s hope those better days come thick and fast.
Joba Chamberlain. When he’s good, he’s good. But when he’s bad, he is simply awful. And the bad days are outnumbering the good. They failed to make a starter of him and he isn’t the reliever he was. Sometimes you tamper at your peril.
Chan Ho Park. There was a time when Park was a dominating starter. There was a time when Park was a dominating reliever. At the moment he is not pitching well, his mechanics seem all over the place and he is being hit all over the park.
Chad Gaudin. Having released this guy in Spring Training, I do not understand why we brought him back. Having brought him back when there was a number of injuries around, I don’t understand why he is still around now we have more options. He is ordinary when he is at his best.
Surprises
David Robertson. And in June, the 2009 David Robertson reappeared on the roster of the Bronx Bombers. Only time will tell whether the career of Mr Robertson will be more like this guy or whether the pitcher from the previous two months of this season will return. Certainly, this guy is the better one for the Yankees. He gave up one run and averaged a strikeout per innings. He still allowed too many men to get on base but this was a surprising return to form.
Boone Logan. Logan had a good month in June – which resulted in reassignment and another trip to the minors. The need to make a space on the roster for Dustin Moseley was obviously the core reason for this but Logan does bring something to the roster which will be missed. On the other side of the coin, it could be argued that there were times in June when Logan escaped lightly, having put several men on base but managing to get the final out when in difficult straits. There were also times when he was fortunate that others were able to come in and right the ship for him.
Phil Hughes. Hughes won four games in June – but you don’t have to look far to realise that this was mostly down to a very high level of run support. He may still be winning but he is not pitching as well as he was earlier in the year.
twilightdawning 