Game 78, Mariners at Yankees
The debut of Langerhans! Vargas v. Sabathia, 4:05.
RF-L Ichiro
1B-L Branyan
2B-R Lopez
DH-R Sweeney
CF-R Gutierrez
C-R Johjima
LF-L Guy who was once traded for Snelling
3B-R Woodward
SS-R Cedeno
As slightly weird as it is to break Langerhans in against the lefthander, two things. His statistics don’t seem to indicate much of a platoon split (even doing a bit better against lefties in the majors, slightly worse in the minors, for what those sample sizes are worth). And in terms of lineup construction, it’s still nice to break up that string of righthanded bats that mostly share similar weaknesses and are easily neutralized by a properly deployed bullpen.
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USSM uses and recommends
So… rain delay huh? Awesome.
LF: Serious Injury to Flying Things
CF: Death to Flying Things!
RF: Serious Injury to Flying and Death to Running Things
Try to keep the ball down, though, Jason.
NYC in early July ‘09: Death to Scheduled Things.
Has there been an “estimated start time” announced?
According to Baker, Vargas is sick and was puking earlier. With that and the rain delay, I wonder if they’ll still start him.
How you could spend 1.5 billion on a stadium and not add a retractable roof is beyond me
4:40 start time.
Krugar just called him Langerhouse. Wow.
Lopez & Sweeney 3-4? Wow, flashback to Turbo & Sexson. The continued use of Sweeney doesn’t reflect well on Z & Wak — there must be 50 guys in AAA or the Mex Lg who are readily available, would out-perform Sweeney now, and might even stick around for a few years as decent bench material.
I’m surprised Z & Wak have gotten a relative ‘pass’ on keeping Sweeney on the roster. Time for USSM to put their feet in the fire on this one…
@trtlrock
Sweeney has been worth -.2 wins so far this year. He’s the right-handed portion of a DH platoon. The roster spot just isn’t that big of a deal. Chris Shelton could outhit him to the tune of a couple of runs per year in this role, but there’s no reason to get worked up over such a small difference.
Wak’s doing a great job. That your biggest complaint is that our RH platoon DH isn’t awesome is a huge step forward.
Drat — where’s that edit button gone?
Obvious hyperbole.
Make that “25 guys in MLB, AAA or the Mex Lg”
He’s the right-handed portion of a DH platoon. The roster spot just isn’t that big of a deal.
Exactly, it’s easily filled by trading away a slick-fielding, switch-hitting young shortstop. Or not.
I love it when the broadcast crew has been given a new talking point– walking from the back room as Rizzs says “…from the same town as Felix Hernandez” to the front as Dave say “…from the same town as Felix Hernandez”
Ichiro’s been just abusing Posada. Or are his pitchers letting him down?
Is it bad that I can perfectly picture Felix wearing pinstripes?
Ichiro double to 2B? How does that happen?
Woo, three grounders! Keep it up JV!
AssumedName,
Jorge Posada is not playing in this game.
Ichirun for the M’s in the first.
It was off a glove and dribbled out into the outfield. It was more to RF than 2B, though.
Well, seems I assumed too much. Guess I could’ve scanned the lineup first. Gotta get home and watch the telly.
Birth to flying things.
This week we have seen Wakamatsu eschew the platoon advantage several times. I get the impression he thinks that small sample size success against a pitcher beats the platoon advantage.
Seems to be working for him pretty well.
Hey, this Langin…, Lagner…, Loggermans… this new left fielder makes a good first impression. Might need to learn how to spell his name.
Langerhans.
Ooops, I guess he’s back to “guy once traded for Doyle”
Is that scored a caught stealing? Or a steal and a caught stealing since he came off the bag?
Cedeno is one of the worst hitters I’ve ever seen. And how does langerhans over-slide the base? come on guys….
Would it be possible for a player sliding to ask for time right as he touched the bag, so he couldn’t be called out as he slid off of it?
Is that ruled a SB then pickoff? Or just caught stealing? Thanks in advance.
Also Langerhans is my new man crush. Just got to let him know the bases are only 90 feet not 95 feet when he is stealing.
You can’t make bonehead moves like that overslide against good teams and expect to win. Case in point, last night with Franklin thinking it was ball 4 and getting nailed at second.
I have no doubt we are getting swept. You can just feel it in the air.. even with an early lead.
Glad you’re enjoying yourself!
Dammit – what the heck is wrong with Ichiro lately?
Ichiro, my grandma could have caught that.
Yikes.. two dropped fly balls by Ichiro in the last week.
that’s it, Ichiro is a hack.
Trade him NOW.
Maybe we can get Greg Dobbs back in return!
JerBear – or, “wow – what is with Ichiro lately – making all those runs by himself!”
If there could ever be a world in which anyone would deserve to make some errors or have some hitless games, it would be Ichiro with the Seattle Mariners.
I just voted for all Mariners and all Dodgers for the ASG. Is that wrong? Should I do it 24 more times?
(Note: My dad turned me on to the Dodgers in 1976 when I was 7 (he grew up in LA). Gotta love the Garvey, Lopes, Russell, Cey infield!)
You ow m a nw kyboard.
This strike zone is stupid….
Oh I totally concur – and the first inning was pretty much classic Ichiro getting things done by himself.
He’s just had a string of 3 or so glaring errors that are very uncharacteristic. It’s just weird.
Strikes are balls, balls are strikes, cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria!
I’m convinced some sinister force has placed a ju-on (curse) on Ichiro’s mitt. Where did he find it, in some haunted house in Japan?
Gutierrez is playing some awesome baseball right now. The list of players that he has a higher WAR (he’s 39th among hitters) than are impressive, including Jason Bay (wow, defense really really matters!).
KenShabby, I think this is the first year since Ichiro’s personal glovemaster retired. The new one could be a plant. Or, I’ve been reading too many spy novels again.
As for Ichiro, I think he cemented his HOF spot tonight when he punked the rightfield fans.
Woof! Woodward with the ribbie!
Langerhans has a really nice looking swing.
Keep scoring those runs boys!
That was totally awesome. I thought it looked weird at the time, and then I caught the replay… Hi-larious.
Ichiro! Wow that one just kept going and going.
Gutierrez could have caught it.
You know, if Ichiro had hustled, that probably could’ve been a triple. But, I’m guessing he assumed that even the rotund Yankee center fielder could jog to that ball.
Branyan has struck out in his last seven at-bats. Ultra Sombrero?
Matsui barely touched that one. New Yankee Stadium is ridiculous.
The platinum mitre.
What was the name of the 3rd-baseman from “Major League”? Teixeira reminded me of him on that play.
I was going to post this after Langerhans lined out hard last time up, but small sample size yada, yada yada.
Anyways, here it is now. I’m impressed by what we’ve seen so far. I he’s going to hit the ball that hard frequently, then I’m going to be quite excited about this guy.
damn woodward
and cedeno… this is terrible
batista is actually pitching decent…. quick, trade him!
The veteran who tanked plays to spite Rick Vaughn? Roger Dorn.
Ow. that was the metal-plate hand
Might be time to switch up the signs.
If you’re talking about Joh, I think it was a balk. Go back and look at previous pitches. On the one where Joh took off, the pitcher set, then moved his hands down. That seond movement was not in any of his previous windups. I’m sure Joh was going on first movement and that’s why he got caught.
I pray Sean White is not being considered for the 8th inning.
Why is woodward not hustling? He’s lucky to be playing and he’s not running hard….
Also, we might escape this game with a win, but it won’t be because of the baserunning.
aaand, apparently he was safe. Kulpa not having a good series here, if you are a Mariner.
The ump was right there, but he did look safe on the replay.
It shouldn’t have been close though.. He should have hustled the whole way
Lowe’s muttonchops would look great in one of those Pirates caps from the late 70’s.
I’d like to put the screenshot of A-Rod’s alleged home run up somewhere.
Blow and Simms talkin’ about Dave’s article on Zumaya on Fangraphs.
Blowers brought up Lowe’s fastball velocity that he got from someone in the booth, then Dave Sims mentioned fangraphs.com
Da Muscle.
There goes Aardsma’s save opportunity.
That must have felt good for Russell. And it was a nice compliment to A-Rod pulling up at first base when his fly ball was caught.
Nice way to break out of a slump for Branyan. Now do the smart thing and save Aardsma before nobody is available tomorrow (even if it is Felix pitching).
Aardsma hasn’t pitched since Sunday. He could use the work.
and sweeney is 0-5
I disagree, only because we have 3 with Boston. You know you’re going to need the bullpen (just like you will with New York) since they take so many pitches. Lowe and Batista are going to be unavailable tomorrow. Give the pitches in the 9th to White or Jak or something (with Aardsma on emergency standby) and save the good pitchers for when you might need it more this weekend.
Well, clearly Wak disagrees with you.
I love the Jack in the Box targeted marketing. They know who goes through the drive in at 3 a.m. But why do they think they watch the Mariners on FSN? Must be some kind of market research to back that up.
That said, Wakamatsu has overruled me..
Cedeno should have had that.
come on aardsma….
Roy Corcoran is the only other pitcher likely to be available, unless you count Josh Wilson.
Nah, Jack in the Box just creates a few commercials then finds someplace that will play them for cheap (hello, Mariners), forks over a pile of money and says “keep playing these over and over and let us know when the money runs out”.
Matsui jerks his shoulder as he stands at the plate waiting for the pitch. It always looks strange to me.
Always the tightrope, always the tightrope.
Blowers: He doesn’t have an out yet.
Thanks, I hadn’t noticed.
The fact that the Yanks are down 4 seems not to have deterred the optimism of the Yankee crowd. In Seattle, there would be a bunch of people leaving or sitting on their hands. Except for the Yankee fans who make up a significant percentage of the paid attendance.
That first pitch to Cabrera was a bad call.
Boy, that last strike to end the game, the ump sort of looked like he didn’t want to call it a strike.
Aarsdma whew!!
Off to Boston, where our playoff chances and the nation’s independence are on the line.
Good win. Big win.
All they have to do is win one of those games to come home with their dignity.
You don’t leave Yankee Stadium early. You wait for the crowd. It’s not a neighborhood you wander around in alone.
Let’s Go O’s!
Help us out and make a comeback!
I was at the game tonight. Got a ton of peanuts thrown at me after Branyan went deep and I stood up to yell, “Russell Branyan? More like Muscle Branyan!”
Hahaha, well done.
There was a decent crop of Seattle fans there tonight. More than on Tuesday. Also, a surprising amount of born-and-raised New Yorkers who are Mariners fans. Hopped on board during Griffey’s first tour of duty.
Hahaha, hope ArmLinc don’t get cocky since Mariners Nation isn’t THAT big.
I was there too. My first trip to the new Yankee Stadium, which feels weirdly… normal. And dull. But a fun game to see on my first visit. That Branyan home run was as no-doubt-about-it as any I’ve seen. Also: Langerhans really smoked the ball in each of his first three at-bats, and Gutierrez is awesome. (Ichiro too, but that’s stating the obvious.) I saw a fair number of Seattle fans too — in particular a lot of couples where the girl was wearing a Yankees jersey and the dude was wearing a Mariners jersey. Strange.
How’s that crow taste?
I don’t know what you were “feeling” but you might want to see a doctor about it.
Ken Rosenthal put out his All Star picks.
Branyan, Ichiro, Felix, Aardsma, and Washburn
Pretty decent rake, I’d say.
I was at this game as well, what a great win for the Ms. Branyan, finally not striking out. And I too, got peanuts thrown at me.
Continue to be impressed with Franklin in the OF.
Baker says that Langerhans earned the start by not getting picked off first base last night. Langerhans didn’t play last night you say? No, but Balentien did, and I guess Wak saw enough for at least a few days.
Play Langerhans again
and again
and again