Game 126, Yankees at Mariners
Wang vs Hernandez, 7:05 pm.
63.5% of Chien-Ming Wang’s balls in play are grounders, best in the American League. 56.2% of Felix Hernandez’s balls in play are grounders, fourth best in the AL. Felix’s GB% in his 12 starts last year was 67%, which is just off the charts for a starting pitcher. In other words, don’t expect the outfielders to get many chances tonight. Jeff Sullivan and I were joking around last night that both teams should go with 5 infielders and 2 outfielders, and after a night of thinking it over, I’m not sure its that crazy.
This will be an interesting matchup for Felix. No A-Rod in the Yankee line-up tonight, so its not quite the juggernaut it usually is, but they’re still extremely patient hitters, and that can give Felix fits. He gets a lot of swings-and-misses on pitches out of the zone, so if NY isn’t biting at those pitches, he could run up a high pitch count pretty quickly. It will be important for Felix to get ahead in the count, and do so with something besides constant first-pitch fastballs.
The line-up is the same as last night.
1. Ichiro, CF
2. Snelling, RF
3. Beltre, 3B
4. Sexson, 1B
5. Ibanez, LF
6. Lopez, 2B
7. Broussard, 1B
8. Betancourt, SS
9. Rivera, C
Another day off for Johjima. He hasn’t started a game since last Saturday. He’s pinch-hitting late in games, so it’s probably not an injury.
Also interesting, this is Snelling’s fourth start in the last five games after Hargrove proclaimed that he “didn’t expect him to play much”. It’s pretty likely that Hargrove was asked to get Doyle in the line-up more often than he originally planned. And the team is certainly better for it.
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219 Responses to “Game 126, Yankees at Mariners”
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I seem to remember a line where Franco played with somebody who played with somebody who played with Ruth (or maybe Gehrig).
201:
Ruth –> Elbie Fletcher (’35 Boston Braves) –> Warren Spahn (’49 Braves) –> Phil Niekro (’64 Milwaukee Braves) –> Franco (’87 Indians)
Gehrig –> Bill Dickey (’28 Yankees) –> Yogi Berra (’46 Yankees) –> Tug McGraw (’65 Mets) –> Franco (’82 Phillies)
There are at least six managers younger than Julio Franco: Ozzie Guillen, Bob Melvin, Mike Scioscia, Eric Wedge, Terry Francona, and John Gibbons.
I wonder how John Franco felt to be pitching at 45 as the second-oldest Franco in the game.
One more: Rafael Palmeiro played twenty years in the league before being disgraced and out of a job this year. He debuted four years after Franco.
His brother is a fourth outfielder and pinch-hitter for Houston and is 11 years younger than Franco, but he has 86 PA to Franco’s 124. Franco’s VORP is 1.7, Palmeiro’s is -7.0. Again, Franco is 47 years old.
48!
191: From the Corey Brock article in 157:
Rookie outfielder T.J. Bohn, recalled from Tacoma on Tuesday, didn’t exactly get a soft landing in his first game. Bohn struck out in the eighth inning as a pinch-hitter with the game tied and with two runners on. “It’s a tough first at-bat in the big leagues but he came to play. I felt like it was the right move to make and I’ll do it again,” said Hargrove.
All I can say is “…”
From the David Andriesen P-I Article this morning:
“‘I know Hargrove uses his bench guys a lot and I knew it was a possibility,’ Bohn said Wednesday.”
Obviously, a new callup.
Theis by B.S. err..B.F. Finnigan
“With catcher Rene Rivera trying hard to establish Hernandez’s considerable fastball (one problem regular catcher Kenji Johjima has had is calling too many off-speed pitches), the youngster’s first 16 pitches were all heaters.”
208, AAAAHHHHHHHH! How are paid journalists allowed to disseminate such trash? And, in reference especially to Hargrove’s quote referenced in comment 206…
…How much would you guys pay to fire him yourself? I really, really wish I could be a fly on the wall to hear Bavasi really dress him down sometime. I know I wouldn’t want to get yelled by Bavasi; he seems like he could be pretty damn intimidating if he wanted to.
From Larry Stone this morning, re:Doyle
“Speaking before the game, Rohn had said, “He’s (Doyle) probably seen more pitches in the last week than some of our guys have seen in two weeks.””
210 – All the more reason to sit is ass down in the middle of big spot, right? Because lefties can never hit lefties, right?
Wow, #116…that took me back to childhood and the Chuck Cottier years.
Ok so I’m getting convinced that Jered Weaver is 5X better than Felix Hernandez. I think Felix will be a 20 game winner in a few years though.
No, Jered Weaver isn’t better, he’s simply older, more developed, more polished (and somewhat luckier). He has thus been more effective this season, but that doesn’t make him better in any meaningful way.
#201– the Mets came up with a 6-degrees for Franco… “Six degrees of separation connecting Franco to Deacon White, recorder of major league baseball’s first-ever hit. That’s right: Franco played with Tug McGraw, who played with Yogi Berra, who played with Bob Newsom, who played with Charley O’Leary, who played with Sam Thompson, who played with White — who, in 1871, inaugurated this league.”
oh, and I guess it is Doyle Day. Dave Boling, Corey Brock, and Larry Stone all have articles.
When Julio Franco finally retires, I will, for the first time in my life, be older than anyone playing Major League Baseball.
. . . sigh . . .
True #213..age has a lot to do with it…like a bottle of wine or Jamie Moyer….so yeah King Felix will be a force in his late 20’s and early 30’s, I hope he becomes a career Mariner but doubt that, nice to see him still throwing hard stuff in his early 40’s.
#198 and #200. RE: fan calling in to suggest Willie Bloomquist take Richie Sexson’s place playing 1B.
Has to be a Yankee-fan transplant living in Seattle who called in…when you visit nyyfans.com you see all kinds of brilliant suggestions like that. The Mariners don’t need any more idiotic lineup/fielding changes (#206/191/157) scuttling their season than they already get from their manager.
Brian Rust: me too. That’s when you’re officially old. Franco’s had me holding on FOREVER, though; it was YEARS ago I started tracking this. “Charlie Hough retired? Damn, there’s another one”.