Yanks Take Series from Cleveland, Mets Drop Opener to Pittsburgh

The Yankees capitalized on some wild pitching by the Indians and got great pitching from Joba Chamberlain in a 5-2 win. The win gave the Yanks 3 of the 4 games in the weekend wrap-around series with the Tribe and ended the road trip with a 5-2 record. Pretty good once again.

Highlights of the Game:
*Bottom 5: With runners at 1st and 2nd with no outs in the bottom of the 5th, Kelly Shoppach popped up a bunt along the 3rd base line. Joba came out of nowhere, made a full-out dive for the ball and caught it for the out. He then immediately popped back up and fired a strike to 2nd for the double play. It will be on highlight reels for a while and stifled a potentially big rally.

*Top 6: Jeremy Sowers walked the bases loaded, and then was relieved by Greg Aquino. He proceeded to A-Rod, Posada, and Cano without giving up a run. Great job by Aquino and poor hitting by the Yanks.

*Top 7: Yanks get revenge...Aquino then walks three straight, and this time, Nick Swisher doubles off the left field wall, just missing a grand slam, and scores two. After they intentionally walk Teixeira to face A-Rod, former Yankee Luis Vizcaino gives up a 2-run single to Rodriguez as the Yanks extended the lead to 5-1

Key Stats:
*#1 has to be the line of Joba Chamberlain: 8.0 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 106 pitches, 66 strikes. For everyone who is still whining that Joba should be in the bullpen, tonight's start proves that he does have the stuff to go deep into a game and be economical. Yes, he was facing a weak Indians team without Grady Sizemore, but his stuff was nasty tonight and would've tamed any team. Fastball in the mid-90's, hard-breaking slider, and accuracy. Joba was economical, which was important, got off to a good start too, and really made just one bad pitch.

*#2 will be that Indians pitchers walked 11 batters. The Yankees showed patience at the plate and didn't bite when the Indians' pitchers were wild. Back-to-Back innings, the Yanks had the bases loaded on walks. However, the Yankees were also 3-for-16 with runners in scoring position. That's pretty bad, but they still found a way to win.

*The final key stat would be the #0. As in, 0 errors for the Yanks defense. That's the 18th straight errorless game for the Yankees, who broke the all-time record for consecutive errorless games, surpassing the 2006 Red Sox who went 17 games without an error. Nice team record to have and a big reason why the Yanks have won 15 of their last 19 games now.

Didn't catch much of the Mets game tonight, so this recap will be much shorter from what I did watch and could dictate. Either way, they blew a 5-0 lead and lost 8-5 at Pittsburgh to open their road trip. The story of this game was, once again, woeful pitching by J.J. Putz, after he struggled Sunday against the Marlins. Here's my highlights and stats:

Highlights:
*Big Met highlights would have to be the RBI Triple for Wilson Valdez in the 2nd and his 2-run double in the 4th. For a guy that isn't expected to do great things for the Mets, he plated 3 of the Mets' five runs out of the seventh-hole and ignited the Mets' offense tonight.

*For the Pirates, it would have to be their entire 8th inning. Adam LaRoche started it all with a lead-off double, trailing 5-3. After that, the Bucs put together four singles, a walk, a fielder's choice, and a sac fly to take an 8-5 lead. Great hitting by the Pirates to take advantage of bad pitching by the Mets' pen.

Key Stats:
*Biggest has to be the line of J.J. Putz, who was not effective once again in a big eighth inning role: 0.0 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 12 pitches. That is awful, and something that will not bode well with his manager, especially against the Pirates, and especially after Jerry Manuel told reporters he still will go to Putz in the 8th inning.

*The combo of Daniel Murphy, Gary Sheffield, and David Wright (hitting 3-5 in the order with Beltran missing another game with a stomach virus): 0-10, 3 walks, 1 RBI, 1 R. With Beltran out, the middle part of the line-up needs to step up, and they didn't tonight against Ian Snell and the Pirates. If the Mets are going to be successful with all of their injuries, they need to get production from these spots.

Looking at the New York Rotations

So with today being a fairly slow news day among the New York sports teams, and with pitchers and catchers reporting this week, I figured I'd take a look at the Yankees and Mets in terms of their pitchers. I will try over the course of the next week or two to look at both teams and compare where they stand as a whole.


The Yankees Projected Rotation (in my projected order):
1. C.C. Sabathia
2. Chien Ming Wang
3. A.J. Burnett
4. Andy Pettitte
5. Joba Chamberlain


Analysis: The Yankees have one of the top rotations in baseball after spending an absolute fortune to get Sabathia and Burnett. With two power arms like that, I think it would be in the Yankees' best interest to split them up and stick Wang in between. Wang can throw the ball hard, but his heavy pitch is a sinker, not a fastball. Bringing Pettitte back (finally) was a good decision to slot him into your number four spot. He will give you a lot of innings, barring injury, and can still get you about as many wins as he will losses. Who knows what can happen with him? Mike Mussina won 20 games last year when many said he was washed up. The move also allows Joba to slide down to the number five spot. The Yankees can watch his innings by easily skipping over his turn if need be and throwing Sabathia out there on short rest. He certainly had enough experience with that in Milwaukee last year.

Big Key: AVOID THE INJURY BUG! The Yankee rotation spent last season without their ace for half the season when Wang was hurt running the bases. Joba went down toward the end of the season with a shoulder problem. Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy also suffered injuries early in the season and weren't really seen at all the rest of the year. If the Yankee rotation is going to be as dominant as it looks now, they are going to need to stay healthy.

The Mets Projected Rotation:
1. Johan Santana
2. John Maine
3. Mike Pelfrey
4. Oliver Perez
5. Freddy Garcia/Tim Redding/Livan Hernandez


Analysis: The Mets come in with another solid rotation, especially in the NL East for 2009. Santana is arguably the best pitcher in baseball and would have had 20 wins or more if not for his team scoring few runs or his bullpen blowing games. He'll be splendid again. John Maine and Mike Pelfrey both have shown flashes of great pitching but both are very inconsistent. Same can be said for Oliver Perez. They all have the ability to be very dominant at times. However, Maine has seemed to lose a lot of his brilliance after suffering through injuries last year. Pelfrey is still very young and inexperienced to be a number three starter in New York. Perez seems to do well in big situations but struggles against teams he should be able to beat. Garcia and Redding will compete for the number five spot. I think Garcia gets it unless he struggles coming back from shoulder surgery. Redding is just not that good. Overall, nothing amazing, but certainly solid enough in the NL East to compete with the Phillies.

Big Key: Develop consistency among starters. There is no question the Mets have the guys that can perform and have in the past. The problem is, aside from Santana, neither of the other starters have shown any consistency. For the Mets to be successful, they need to have John Maine pitch fairly well each start, keeping his team in the game or have Oliver Perez find more consistency after getting signed to a fairly large contract. If the Mets starters continue to pitch like they did last year, it will be another disappointing season for the "other" New York team.

Pettitte Puts on the Pinstripes One More Time!

A deal has finally been reached on Monday afternoon and Andy Pettitte will come back to pitch one more year in pinstripes. Anyone who has followed the ongoings of this entire drama knew that he would come back to the Bronx. That's where he wanted to play, and while it looked like money was a big factor in all of it, Pettitte made sure he came back to help open the New Yankee Stadium.

Reports that I've heard are that the deal will be incentive-laden, guaranteeing $5.5 million, which is less than the previous offer of $10 million the Yankees had on the table. However, with incentives, the final figure could increase up to $12 million. That is if Pettitte remains healthy and puts up solid numbers. He will likely be the fifth starter in a rotation that as of now already includes C.C. Sabathia, Chien Ming Wang, A.J. Burnett, and Joba Chamberlain.

I think this was the right way to sign Pettitte to a deal. Let's be honest, at his age, he's not worth double-digit millions of dollars. He just simply is not that dominating despite some flashes he showed last season. In addition, at his age, who knows if he can continue to stay healthy? Giving him a decent amount of money up front with the ability to make more than was originally offered if he stays healthy and performs makes sense.

If Pettitte can remain healthy and win his fair share of ballgames, he'll be a great fifth starter for the Yanks. He brings a veteran prescence into the clubhouse to not only help continue mentor the young pitchers in the team's system but also can help in the adjustment process for newcomers C.C. and A.J. I was certain a deal was going to get done, as were many, and now that it is, Yankee fans can rest easy knowing who will more than likely be their starting five in 2009.