Boy, Texas had nuthin’ last night. Troubling in that that’s the first time there never was really even a glimmer of hope at some point in the game. Wilson was just awful and Washington again justified my lack of confidence in his ability to stem the bleeding.
Perhaps watching could have been made more tolerable if those two stunning brunettes were back in the seats to the left of home plate again but no, we struck out there too.
The Gardner move to lead-off is more about his speed and patience at the plate. I like the idea of a steady line-up and thus Gardner (L), Jeter (R), Cano (L), A-Rod (R), Teix (S) seems like a logical and steady 1-5.
Fill it out with Posada (S), Swisher (S), Granderson (L) & the DH/other Catcher to be determined. Cervelli is a righty but might lose his job to Monterowho is also a righty. I’ll assume Thames (R) is probably back next year, but never know. Unsure of a Lefty DH type when Posada is catching. Please don’t let it be Nick DL Johnson.
Unfortunately, I think that Gardner will be gone next year and replaced by Crawford. While I like Crawford, I think that Gardner still has quite a bit of upside potential and provides a very unique skillset. Plus, he always works hard. But the Yankees being the Yankees…
The Yankees are well aware that Jeter is on the decline. As captain, Jeter needs to swallow some pride and voluntarily place himself further down in the line-up. I really wish he had volunteered to move to 3rd when A-Rod came over. They would have been much better defensively and I think A-Rod would have hit better during those playoff-losing years of the mid-00’s. While the Yankees have little fear in trading away young non-pitching talent, they always seem to have too many sacred cows that hold them back. Cano should be batting clean-up.
I’m getting really tired of hearing people say that the Giants better watch out, because Roy Halliday is pitching tonight. They seem to be forgetting that the Giants have a pitcher throwing tonight as well, and he’s not exactly a pushover. Listening to most of the media, you’d think they were putting Charlie Brown on the mound tonight (or maybe Salomón Torres).
If there are more that 4 runs total scored tonight, I’ll be surprised. It should be a hell of a game.
You missed the opportunity to say “please don’t let it be Nick Johnson (DL).”
But I laughed anyway.
Of course the Giants should watch out. Roy Halladay is probably the best pitcher in the entire major leagues.
I’m getting tired of Giants fans (mostly on other boards, not this one) griping about the media coverage/predictions of this series. The Giants are 1 win from the World Series; as fans, we shouldn’t give two poops about what some suits or sportswriters are saying.
I really haven’t been paying much attention at all to the AL playoffs. My hatred for the Yankees is surpassed only by my genetic predisposition to despise the Dodgers; nevertheless, I just sort of expected that they’d figure out some way to win, so I haven’t been really concerned one way or the other.
So going into Game 6, what do things look like? Are the Yankees ‘lucky’ to have made it this far against the Rangers? Or are they just two equally matched teams? I know that here in Northern California there’s a ‘Team of Destiny’ kind of feeling concerning the Giants; is there the same sort of thing going on in Arlington?
Personally, I’d love to see a Giants-Yankees World Series, both for the historical component and because everybody wants to beat the Yankees. But I have the feeling that the Rangers would be an easier team to beat, though I suspect that’s just because they’re “not the Yankees”. So as a cautiously optimistic Giants fan, who should I be preparing for, and who should I be most afraid of facing in the WS?
But what if Jeter deteriorates further? The list of quality offensive seasons of shortstops in their mid to late 30’s throughtout baseball history is quite short. There is a non-zero chance that Jeter will be the worst hitter in the lineup. Would you still want him batting 1st or 2nd?
I didn’t say I want him hitting first or second if he deteriorates further. I said I don’t think they’ll hit him (say) seventh even if that happens. I think he’ll be better next season than he was this season. If not, I expect him to accept a “demotion” after a couple of weeks of media frenzy.
I’m just hoping the Yankees can get past the Rangers because I think they’d have an easier time beating the Giants. It’s the Phillies I wouldn’t want to see.
By a wide margin, despite not having a huge number of guys on base. They’re slowwwwww.
If the Giants win it all they’ll be one of the more unbalanced tams to win the Series lately; sensational pitching, but on the hitting side they can hit a few homers but aren’t good at much else. They will certainly be the slowest team in recent memory to win a World Series.
Just curious, why do you think the Phillies would be tougher than the Giants?
I ask because that seems to be the general consensus of the mainstream media, and those of us here on the Left Coast often feel the main reason for that is simply “East Coast Bias”. I’m wondering if your feeling comes because that’s what you hear on TV and in the papers, or if you have any ‘independent’ knowledge of the teams.
And bear in mind that I’m asking this as someone who pretty much assumed the Yankees would make it out of the AL simply because they spent enough money to basically buy their way to the World Series. 
I can’t answer for Blank Slate, but the Phillies have an arguably better pitching staff and an objectively superior offense.
See, this is exactly the kind of thing I’m talking about. who told you this?
The Phillies have an objectively superior offense.
It’s not all that superior:
.260 Batting Average for the Phillies vs. .257 for the Giants
1064 Strikeouts vs. 1099
166 Home Runs vs. 162
1451 Hits vs. 1411
772 Runs Scored vs. 697
Philadelphia leads all of those statistics, but they’re all pretty damn close, with the exception of Runs Scored. Given that Philadelphia also gave up a lot more runs than San Francisco, that statistic doesn’t mean a whole lot all by itself.
The Phillies have an arguably better pitching staff.
Lots of people do keep arguing that, but the numbers don’t bear it out.
3.36 ERA for the Giants vs. 3.67 for the Phillies
1279 Hits Allowed vs. 1402
583 Runs Allowed vs. 640
134 Home Runs Allowed vs. 168
1331 Strikeouts vs. 1183
The Giants numbers are better that Philadelphia’s across the board.
I’m not trying to say the Phillies are pushovers, because they obviously aren’t, but they are by no means the vastly superior team that ‘everyone’ has been saying they are. Their bats are marginally better than the Giants. Their pitching is not. It’s superb, but from 1-5, and then into the bullpen, all the way to the closer, the Giants have a better staff.
Runs are kind of the only one of those that matters. I’m not sure what the 2nd part of that is supposed to mean.
Yeah, but the Phillies now have Oswalt, Hamel has pitched much better of late, and Zito much worse. The phillies are also a lot more top heavy, which is useful in the postseason. It is close, but I’d take the phillies rotation over the giants, though I’d go with the giants bullpen.
[quote=“Suburban_Plankton, post:374, topic:556197”]
See, this is exactly the kind of thing I’m talking about. who told you this?../QUOTE]
No one told me. I know the players on both teams and made that assessment myself. I will admit that the difference in ballparks makes the Phillies batting look better and the Giants batting look worse. On the other hand, it also helps the Giants pitching look better and Phillies pitching look worse.
Because scoring runs is only half the game. Preventing runs is the other half. Obviously scoring many and allowing few is best, but there can be good teams that score and allow many, or score and allow few. Comparing two teams only on the basis of Runs Scored actually tells you nothing at all about their overall relative quality.
Well yeah, but that was a discussion of best team offenses.
Put aside the stats, which make a very strong case for the Giants, I simply believe the Phillies have more talent and that they are under-achieving. And vice-versa for the Giants.
I have almost zero hope the Yankees can take two in Arlington this weekend, and if so, I hope the Giants win the NL and kick some Texas ass.
The sentence in question appeared to be Plankton’s transition from the offensive discussion (which appeared to put Philly a little ahead) to the defensive (San Francisco).
It’s also been noted that these differences correlate with the respective ballpark factors. I think the widely-held perception that the Phillies were much better can be ascribed to just the preceding two NL pennants, and maybe the fact that the Giants had to fight more at the very end of the season to advance.