| Batter | pLI | WPA | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Davis– DH | 1.03 | -0.048 | |||
| Kawasaki – SS | 1.00 | -0.122 | |||
| Bautista – RF | 0.85 | -0.066 | |||
| Encarnacion – 1B | 0.74 | 0.128 | |||
| Cabrera – LF | 0.65 | -0.049 | |||
| Arencibia – C | 0.84 | -0.055 | Pitcher | pLI | WPA |
| Rasmus – CF | 0.97 | -0.099 | Buehrle – SP | 0.81 | -0.334 |
| Lawrie – 3B | 0.82 | 0.107 | Cecil – RP | 0.46 | 0.055 |
| Izturis – 2B | 1.13 | -0.052 | Lincoln – RP | 0.67 | 0.034 |
| Total | 0.88 | -0.255 | Total | 0.72 | 0.375 |
Bests / Worsts of the game after the jump!
Read the rest of this entry »
| Batter | pLI | WPA | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kawasaki – SS | 1.01 | -0.021 | |||
| Cabrera – LF | 1.00 | 0.147 | |||
| Bautista – RF | 0.70 | -0.022 | |||
| Encarnacion – 1B | 1.18 | -0.096 | |||
| Lind – DH | 0.78 | 0.090 | Pitcher | pLI | WPA |
| Arencibia – C | 1.27 | 0.188 | Johnson – SP | 1.67 | -0.150 |
| Rasmus – CF | 1.06 | 0.208 | Cecil – RP | 1.59 | 0.007 |
| Lawrie – 3B | 1.24 | 0.166 | Rogers – SP | 0.74 | 0.069 |
| Izturis – SS | 0.69 | 0.102 | Oliver – RP | 0.26 | 0.016 |
| Total | 0.98 | 0.558 | Total | 1.42 | -0.058 |
Bests / Worsts of the game after the jump! Read the rest of this entry »
Visual approximation of what’s left in Lyle Overbay’s bat.
Nothing against Lyle Overbay– who, much like Vernon Wells before him, both now and back in the off-season between 2006 and 2007, is maligned unfairly for little more than signing a contract that somebody put in front of him and then struggling to live up to it– and not to keep tempting the baseball gods with giddiness over what the Yankees are doing, but tonight [chortle!] check out what [guffaw!] what the latest big [snort!] move on the horizon for [heeeee!] the Bronx Bombers might be.
From Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe earlier today:
The Yankees may need a lefthanded compliment to Juan Rivera at first base. Yankee scouts have been watching Overbay closely.
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA [deep breath] HAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…
Oh fuck, that’s awesome.
Surely by now you’ve heard about the “report”– or whatever you want to call it– that surfaced yesterday at a site called Dog And Pony Show, where writer Joe Bisceglie has given us his word– and not a whole hell of a lot else– that A-Rod, Robinson Cano, Ryan Braun, and Curtis Granderson will all be suspended for failed PED tests this season.
It’s a motherfucker of a bold claim, and would be a hell of a thing, if true– a Yankee-derailing possibility certain Jays fans must be salivating over– but… is there really value in making the effort to envision a world in which this is something that’s really about to go down? Absolutely not.
I mean, I don’t want to pretend I’m so offended by the quasi-journalism of it that I couldn’t possibly even hold my nose long enough to acknowledge the fact that this stuff is out there– there’s a lot that’s interesting going on in this story, regardless– but there’s just isn’t nearly enough information, or corroboration from additional sources, of what he’s telling us, to start doing something crazy like actually believing it.
In yet another blow of the kind that the Yankees, and fans of the senior citizens on their roster, are probably going to have to get used to, Alex Rodriguez– fresh off a horrific playoffs, and second half of the season– will undergo “a left hip arthroscopy to repair a torn labrum, bone impingement and the correction of a cyst.”
We’d been hearing most of the morning that surgery would be necessary for A-Rod– MLBTR has a handy timeline– but the club made it official in a press release around 1:30 PM ET.
Not to wish anyone– even A-Rod– poor health, but it certainly appears to be good news for a newly-competitive Jays club, but I don’t think it’s quite so simple as that.
Ken Rosenthal tweets that Yankee doctors are saying that there’s a good possibility A-Rod’s poor end to 2012 was due to the hip. While he’ll never again be the same guy he was at his peak, even a return to his early season form makes Rodriguez a quality player– albeit one still on the decline and maybe not so suited for third base any longer.
That’s a problem, as Dave Cameron points out at FanGraphs, since the market for third basemen isn’t great. “The league just lacks interesting young third baseman who haven’t already become franchise players,” he says. But that doesn’t mean the Yankees can’t get creative– and Jon Morosi of Fox Sports think its time they do it, arguing that they can’t wait for A-Rod, and that they ought to make a play for Padres star and Brett-Lawrie-dream-projection Chase Headley.
It’s a terrifying thought– not enough people know how good Headley is, but they’d find out in a big hurry once he moved from Petco to the Bronx– but one we don’t have to worry about too too much, as Morosi suggests a package built around Phil Hughes and David Phelps, which… seriously?
Still, they’re probably going to do something here– otherwise the Jays window, I think, creeps open just a little bit more as the Yankees wait.
So… there’s that.
Mentoring 101…
Oh, the ironing is delicious. After shooting his mouth off to the Toronto Sun about the lack of accountability inside the Jays clubhouse– which we covered earlier today– Omar Vizquel was held accountable for his actions. The Jays held a closed-door meeting during which, according to a tweet from Shi Davidi, was about Vizquel’s “comments regarding accountability in Jays clubhouse. He apologized to coaches and team.”
Davidi adds a two more tweets:
Farrell on meeting: “We had an opportunity to address a number of things. I would say the comments were a little bit of a tipping point.”
— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) September 28, 2012
Farrell says all issues addressed internally in individual meetings, early work on field. “Those have all been handled in house.”
— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) September 28, 2012
So… that’s pretty much all awesome. Oh yeah? You’re going to try to save your own skin after the Escobar stuff and try to coast out of town on your bizarrely-earned reputation and longevity? Well, Omar, I think perhaps it’s time we made it crystal clear that we DO have accountability in this clubhouse, and guess who just walked right fucking into that one?
I know, I know, I tried to make clear earlier today that it’s as bad on one side to dismiss these concerns as it is to swallow Vizquel’s self-serving tripe whole hog, but I’m sorry, it really is just too rich for me to take seriously, especially now that the Jays have made so clear that they’re not buying what Vizquel is selling– and also, in light of the conveniently ill-remembered fact that last year’s narrative was that the intimidating Farrell would have supposedly never allowed Boston’s chicken and beer brigade on his watch. So… which is it, people constructing a narrative from the crumbs in their ass in the desperate need to point fingers in the wake of a disastrous season?
And, I’m not going to lie, it doesn’t help that Gregg Zaun– who would like you to support his golf tournament in support of Right To Play, just as long as you’re really, really clear that HE HIMSELF, GREGG ZAUN, IS NOT GAY– is fully on board the defence of Vizquel, and not at all for his own entirely self-serving reasons, right?
Ok. I am accepting apologies from all the haters, now that a future HOF Shortstop, who’s been in the room all year has backed up my claims
— Gregg Zaun (@greggzaun) September 28, 2012
But you know what? Zaun actually offers some insight on this– for example, he tweets that “veteran leaders have to be everyday players in order to garner respect”– and I’m reluctant to entirely throw the baby out with the bathwater, as there are definite questions about what’s happened here with Vizquel, including– at the very least– how the front office seems to have got it so wrong on either him or Farrell.
It’s just… as much as people want to believe Vizquel and Zaun simply for who they are, neither has a hell of a lot of credibility on the issue, as far as I’m concerned. Vizquel bitched publicly more than once about his role on the team this season, kinda has a history of shit like this, and has all the reason in the world to want to distance himself and his ambitions as a leader from the Escobar situation. Zaun seems to crave the attention, cashes easy points for being a kind of clubhouse insider even though he hasn’t actually played here since 2008, and must be absolutely loving how directly this new narrative ties into his one-man drumbeat for a more old school approach.
So… I’m skeptical– probably more than that. But I’ll own up to the fact that it’s partly because they’re saying things I don’t particularly want to hear. It’s just… give me more before I can really believe it. Give me statements from guys who don’t have the same kind of agendas. Give me statements that aren’t so contravened by the acts of discpline we’ve actually seen– first for Escobar, now for Vizquel. I’m not saying it can’t be true, just give me more.
TV: Sportsnet
And now the lineups, by way of the live box score at theScore.com. And for those of you who’ll be out and about, be sure to follow all the action on your phone with Score Mobile…
Toronto Blue Jays
B. Lawrie 3B
C. Rasmus CF
E. Encarnacion DH
J. Arencibia C
A. Lind 1B
Y. Escobar SS
K. Johnson 2B
R. Davis RF
A. Gose LF
C. Jenkins RHP
New York Yankees
D. Jeter SS
I. Suzuki RF
A. Rodriguez 3B
R. Cano 2B
N. Swisher 1B
C. Granderson CF
R. Ibanez LF
R. Martin C
E. Chavez DH
H. Kuroda RHP
Image of Omar Vizquel’s in-dugout handiwork during June’s Marlins series via @whatadewitt.
