As I saw the final game of the Dodgers-Yankee series, I couldn’t help but wonder aloud why it is closers seem to have far more trouble in non-save situations (nSS) than in save situations (SS). Oh wait, that was Joe Morgan wondering aloud. Yeah, definitely not me. Anyway, if those are the guys with the most ability to keep their cool when the pressure is at the highest, you’d think they’d excel in a situation with less on the line, right?

Is it that they get complacent? I suppose it’s possible, but doesn’t that fly in the face of the supposed “closer’s bulldog mentality”? Beyond that, are we even sure that the numbers are worse in non-save situations? We hear about it, but I’ve yet to see a report on it. One with numbers and not narrative, at least. By now you probably see where I’m going with all this. That’s right, I’m going to take a look at 2010′s closers with ten or more saves and see if there really are any drastic numbers.

The spreadsheet is all screwy. My bad. Also, I realize this isn’t the most scientific of posts —WHIP and ERA are not the best measurements of how successful a pitcher is in a situation and neither is OPS against, and the sample could be quite a bit bigger— but I think this gives us a fairly good snapshot of how the players perform in both respective situations. If there’s another study on this (one that’s more comprehensive and perhaps use better metrics), let me know. The prevailing wisdom —or at least effused by such luminaries as the ESPN BBTN crew during the game— is that closers perform better in save situations. For some, this is true. For others, it couldn’t be further from the truth.

After averaging all the totals, according to ERA, closers in nSS are actually better, albeit not by a great amount at 2.93 to 2.90. In total, 10 of the 25 closers are better in SS in ERA. Whoa there! What appears to have made the largest difference in the discrepancy is the zeros thrown up by Mariano, Jose Valverde and Brian Wilson in a collective 38.2 innings.

Let’s see how they do on WHIP. According to the data — which, remember, is only from 2010, so it’s by no means comprehensive — closers in SS do slightly better, notching a WHIP of 1.17 to 1.23 in nSS. Quite a few players have much better WHIPS in save situations than in non-save — Dotel is significantly better (.0927 to 2.206!), as are Soriano, Jenks and Aardsma.

If I can just make a stray observation here, holy ‘badZonaroni, look at Chad Qualls’s numbers. Straight up, his ERA in non-save situations this year is AJ Burnett’s June. In save opportunities, he’s roughly Chad Gaudin. His WHIP is almost 2.5 in non-save situations and players are hitting a Ruthian 1.277 OPS against him.

How can your bullpen be SO BAD that you seriously put the guy who faces a lineup of Babe Ruth’s every time out, the role of closer? For a moment, sit back and imagine waking up one morning to find out that Boone Logan replaced Mariano Rivera as the Yankee closer. Then think that he was actually the best guy to take the job, considering the incredible sucktitude of the others. At that point, I’d probably get my asshole all wet, sit next to an electrical socket and put one end of a fork in the butt hole and the other in the wall hole. It would be better than watching the baseball-related travesty on television.

Back to the action. OPS says that closers in the non-save spot do better than those in save situations. Again, as the numbers bear out again, there are wild differences in how some perform. Joakim Soria suffocates batters in NSS but suddenly crumbles when he needs to channel his inner-bulldog. Jenks pitches fairly respectably but loses his shit when there’s no opportunity for the save.

Neftali Feliz and Rafael Soriano put it in beast mode when the SS is up, but are somewhat less impressive when the leverage is lower. Others have the opposite trend going. Cordero, Soria, Franklin, Rauch, F-Rod, Capps and Heath Bell are all way better when the game isn’t “on the line”. Most of the others are fairly even between situations, though that doesn’t mean their numbers aren’t eye-popping. Look at Jose Valverde and Mariano Rivera’s numbers on the year. For all his antics and dance party theatrics, Valverde has good reason to celebrate. The Tigers closer is rendering batters he faces into Ramiro Pena.

While I haven’t figured out why pitchers do or do not perform better in the two “situations,” I think I’ve at least cast some doubt that closers are uniformly great in the 9th and struggle otherwise. There are some drastic splits on both sides of the aisle, and this idea is likely some media-based, false-narrative myth. We’d need to look for more into the context of each situation and eventually compile enough raw data over the course of seasons to draw any real conclusions. Frankly, I’m not up for that kind of research project.

My guess is we’d likely see more of what we see here on this spreadsheet. Some do better in one, some better in others, most with little great difference. Maybe some really don’t “care” as much when they’re not in line for a save, grow complacent and get hit around. Perhaps they’re pitching to contact to limit walks and baserunners. Maybe others just aren’t mentally-designed to “handle” the pressure of a save situation but excel when they don’t have the world watching as closely. Whatever the case, I’m secure in my belief that Joe Morgan is wrong about virtually everything in life.

We’re going to breeze through a quick recap of tonight’s game against the Mariners. There may be no better way to sum up just how awful just about everything went than this photo:

Here’s how it went: Phil Hughes got completely hit around. He couldn’t locate pitches, he couldn’t shut down the guys he needed to (scrub nobodies like Jack Wilson, Rob Johnson and Michael Saunders), he threw nothing but cutters and fastballs. Ultimately, we saw Hughes give up 7 runs (6 earned) on the evening. This had nothing to do with him having his start skipped last turn around. That’s absurd. The sample size of this causing his struggles is one game. More likely it’s that he had poor command of his pitches, left them in the zone and got tagged. That happens, even against a team of shit-hitters like the Mariners.

It’s not like Hughes was burning through batters lately. In his last four starts he’s 3-1, but his ERA in that span is 6.59. It’s better that his start was skipped for the simple reason that Hughes is on an innings limit and it’s far more advantageous to have Hughes contributing later in the season. You don’t want innings limits, pitch counts, conservative pragmatic approaches to managing a valuable, high-ceiling arm? Petition for Dusty Baker to coach the team and for Nolan Ryan to take over as GM.

The offense largely sputtered through the game, though Nick Swisher and Curtis Granderson contributed nicely, the former with 2 home runs and the latter with a few hard-hit balls against a lefty. The rest of the team went 4 for 30, though to their credit they hit a few balls very solidly, all unfortunately at Mariner defenders. There’s absolutely no shame in the team not putting a whole lot together against Cliff Lee. I mean, shit, he’s been one of the best pitchers in baseball for the last few years. He’s legit. I’m hoping he becomes a Yankee next season. A 1-2-3-4 of CC, Cliff Lee, Phil Hughes, AJ Burnett would be murder on any opponent. If there’s a silver lining it’s that Paul O’Neill Theory may be in effect. They put together a nice rally in the 9th before Chad Huffman haphazardly swung at the first pitch, weakly popping out.

Speaking of Chad Huffman, is it just me or does Chad Huffman make everything in left field look SUPER difficult? Most unnatural fielder I’ve seen since I spent hours in a dark room watching clips of Adam Dunn playing RF.

Crazy 8′s

Good news, M&A readers! I was able to find an advanced copy of Carlos Zambrano’s apology to his fellow teammates and fans for his outbursts last week. Here it is:

“I’m sorry. It’s my fault that this organization signed Derek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, Kosuke Fukodome, Alfonso Soriano and myself all to big-money, flexibility-killing deals. Did you know that combined, we have a WAR of 3.5 this year? Guess how much money we combine to make? Over $77 million for just the five of us. These deals were way above market rates and generally at least two years too long. Sorry about that one. Really. My bad. Oh, but hey, at least you have Carlos Silva at over $11 million for the next few years. Ace.

It’s also my fault that instead of having a dedicated owner who would do whatever it took to contend (like Mark Cuban), the fans are stuck with an owner who — out of pure coincidence, I’m sure — is friends with Bud Selig and just happened to submit a lower ownership bid. Again, it’s my fault fans are stuck with an inferior product but pay top dollar to see it – not the ownership or GM Jim Hendry, who, you know, had nothing to do with assembling this whole mess.

It’s also my fault that the players on this team hate each other so much that in spite of good talent, we under-perform so badly that we have priests blessing us before games, throwing salt over shoulders. Also my bad that players are pledging to kill other players’ wives if they choose Team Edward over Team Jacob. We also sacrifice goats and bathe Kosuke with the blood against his will. Saw that on a Japanese porno once. Ok, maybe that one is really just on me. Anyway, we probably won’t have any chance of doing anything noteworthy aside from being a Clippers-like sideshow for the next three or four years. Or maybe 100 years. That’s my fault, too. Again, Cubs fans, it’s all my fault this team has underperformed for years and there isn’t any light at the end of the tunnel. Getting on my teammates for not making any effort to catch balls because they’re indifferent little shits who don’t even feign a work ethic, was totally uncalled for. For that I sincerely apologize.

It’s not Lou Pinella’s fault that this team is lifeless and argue constantly; that GM Jim Hendry has compiled an impressive array of under-performing veterans with awful contracts, a dearth of impact young talent (and when there, are often inexplicably given sporadic playing time), and no financial flexibility; and also, ownership, who seem to have a vested interest in maintaining the 100-plus years of ineptitude as tradition here in Wrigley. So sorry for what I’ve put you through.”

Notes from around the league:

*Harold Reynolds actually believes that Puerto Rico is a country. He actually said it tonight. Seriously. The worst part of this is I actually thought: “Oh that Harold, sending cryptic messages to Jon Kruk.”

*Barry Larkin said that only guys with facial hair can be intimidating as a closers. I’m not making that up. Have you ever heard of Mariano Rivera?

*Edwin Rodriguez is now slated to be the Marlins manager for the rest of 2010.

Thoughts on the Marlins: I really don’t understand how they have any fan base whatsoever. What’s the business process there? This is what I assume is Loria’s 12-step business model.

Step 1: Find old white people, Cubans. Step 2: Get them really, really drunk. So drunk they have no idea where they are. Bus them to that awful “park” the Dolphins used to play in. Step 3: Blow out their ear drums with vuvuzelas. Step 4: Give them more alcohol. Step 5: Spend $20 million on baseball team. Step 6: Steal money from other baseball teams. Step 7: Use stolen money to buy more shitty Jackson Pollack paintings. Step 8: Develop great young talent. Then trade them when they start making more than minimum wage (or turn 25) for prospects. Step 9: Complain to drunk, deaf old people and Cubans that you don’t have any money and you’ll move the team if you don’t get a new stadium and more paintings. Step 10: Steal more money. Step 11: ?????? Step 12: Profit.

*Hank Blalock has been DFA’d by the Rays. If there’s one team that know a thing or two about sunk costs, it’s the Rays. Blalock has been just brutal. Matt Joyce was finally given a bit of playing time, though he’s underperformed. In fairness to him, most of the Rays have underperformed lately. They just lost another one, this game to the Red Sox. Hopefully the two teams split the series so they each stay a few games back of the Yanks.

*Denard Span had three triples tonight! Three! And Gordon Beckham didn’t go 0 for 5 with 5 strikeouts! Wacky day, indeed!

It’s been quite a day in sports, particularly in soccer and baseball. I heard there were also two guys on a tennis court doing something historic, but it’s men’s tennis – one of the few sports where the women are far better to watch. Until they make a true commitment to spicing up men’s tennis (play in Bosnia, Europe’s minefield capital? Have judges shoot them with paintball guns? Make the loser fight a tiger with only his racket?), I’d rather not waste time watching that. Whatever. Anyway, here’s a quick roundup:

Baseball

*Jeffrey Loria fired manager Freddie Gonzalez this morning. Freddie “Fuck Hanley” Gonzalez was probably making over $75,000 that year, which according to Loria, was exorbitant considering the stacked roster he inherited and the team’s performance. I feel bad for the guy. That was a no-win situation. It’s never a good sign when your clubhouse leader is Wes Helms, he of the career .320 wOBA. Even if Hanley is wrong, that guy going at 50% effort is 1000 times better than everyone not named Josh Johnson. Shut the fuck up, Wes. Rumors are Bobby Valentine is in the mix to take over for Freddie.

Why on earth would he do that? No way they make the playoffs, no way they’re adding payroll. It’s a very young team that will struggle to hit the .500 mark. What’s the upside there? He’d have a rotation with a stud ace (that they may trade), a stud SS, a few good-but-underachieving young guys and an awful owner. There is no gain there. None. He’d be a fool to take that job. On the other hand, for comic relief, I really hope his Baseball Tonight buddy Jon Kruk is offered the job. I can only imagine he’d somehow miss games by mistaking one of his hands for a sandwich and losing a finger or two.

*A report surfaced that Johan Santana was accused of sexual battery last October. According to the report, the Mets pitcher was golfing with a girl and then forced her to say, “New York-big, ZZ?” repeatedly. He unhooked her bra, began to kiss her until deciding to play around with her underwear (no details on what type? Awful journalism. It’s in the details!). In wonderful fashion, the Venezuelan then ejaculated on her thigh. All the while the speakers on the golf course blasted “Smooth” by Carlos Santana and Rob Thomas (!) — his walk-up music. According to the report, she said “no” a number of times. In a fashion remarkably similar to my dates, after all that, she watched him play tennis. Let me repeat that – after being sexually molested by this very man, she thought to herself, “It would be awfully rude if I left while he got in a game of tennis.” It sounds like Johan is a quick finisher, so I doubt the game resembled the one we saw at Wimbledon (hiyooooo!). And it sounds like bullshit, too. She wants some money. I wonder if she’ll hang out with a notable quarterback living in the Pittsburgh area.

Soccer:

*What can be said about Team USA? I thought they were starting to resemble Team England for a while. We’ll get to the officiating later, but holy Jesus, they had about fifteen-twenty really good opportunities to score. By the 90th minute I’d decided that if they tied or lost the game, it would be on them —not the refs— they had the chanes and squandered them.

That being said, goodness, the officiating is outrageous. We complain about baseball having egregious calls with seemingly no rational explanation. That’s true. But just as much of baseball umpiring antics seem to come as a result of pride and the baffling need to be “a part” of the game, interjecting their own will to determine the outcome, not simply missing calls and making the wrong call on close plays.

Now I’m not a big follower of soccer, so I can’t say with any certainty that the refs are not like this. But what I’ve seen comes out of general incompetence. The Algerian team showed what seemed to be a concerted effort to play a tough game, seemingly fouling left and right. Few calls were made. And of course, the goal on Dempsey was overturned on another bogus offsides call. If the US had been knocked out this game, I think many of the fans who may have potentially turned the corner and followed the sport would just as quickly abandon it. But now, in spite of the atrocious refereeing, Team USA has a more favorable draw against Ghana in the next round, right on the heels of what could be their biggest win in history. Miraculously, just as the end seemed near, Landon “Hairlino Recedo” Donovan knocked one in after stoppage. It was surreal. One of the most thrilling moments in recent sporting history. The stakes were great and this could be the moment that draws long-term interest in soccer in the States.

Of course, people have been saying that for years and yet it’s still very much a second class citizen. I find that somewhat surprising, considering youth soccer in the States is quite good. But it really levels off when those players enter high school, where they’re drawn to more popular, traditional American sports. I think if the top European leagues drew wide viewership (have a soccer network accessible to US viewers that show the top leagues), it may make steady progress. Of course, this is a country that is very Ameri-centric when it comes to sports and require that the leagues be featuring the best talent in the world, and MLS offers none of the sort, nor is it shown on television with regularity. So it may not ever take off.

NBA:

*The Nets traded away Chris Douglas-Roberts to the Bucks for the 44th pick in the NBA draft. This is all in the effort to get further under the cap and potentially use this pick (they have 3, 27, 31, 44 now) as a package for another team. Frankly, this doens’t make a heck of a lot of sense to me. If you wanted to move up in the draft, why not just package picks 27 & 31. That should get you a top 16 pick.

I just don’t see a big-ticket FA like Wade, LeBron, Bosh joining New Jersey. They’ll probably draft Wesley Johnson, a nice player but will likely never be a top small forward in the league. Seems like a mistake. May as well get the upside of Favors. He has unbelievable potential. Then again, the grumbling is they’re looking to target a PF in FA, probably Amare or (gasp) Carlos Boozer. You’re then left with a lineup of Harris, Lee, Johnson, Amare/Boozer, Lopez. Not bad, but I find it underwhelming.

It’s no secret that the Yankees’ bullpen has struggled this year. Begotten by injuries and general inconsistency, the “big” numbers say that the bullpen has been among the better in the AL, but that doesn’t exactly tell the whole story, as Steve S. (or as I call him affectionately, “Aristeve”) at TYU points out in this post. The positive numbers in the pen have largely come out of the excellent Mariano Rivera and the surprising Sergio Mitre (although he’s been aided by very good luck, well, aside from being injured trying to swing a bat – damn you, NL!).

Throughout the course of the season, I’ve been a backer of Chan Ho Park. I certainly didn’t expect him to post the numbers he did last year as a Phillie (moving to the AL East and having a FB/HR rate that was unsustainable would likely cause some bad outings) but with a fastball that often hits 95, a good repetoire of breaking pitches and the ability to go a few innings — all at a low cost — should allow him some time to show what he has even if he stumbles out of the gate. Well, on the cusp of July I’m just not sure I can continue to pull for CHoPpearrea. His numbers: 6.86 ERA, 5.75 FIP, 2.57 HR/9 (a 20% HR/FB rate) in 21 IP.

Some have said that Girardi is simply misusing Park – he’d be servicable if he were only out there for 1 inning per appearance. Well, let’s take a look at the numbers.

In games in which Park pitched more than one inning (7 of them), he’s had mixed results, as you can see. There’s only one real conclusion that can be drawn when taking in all of the data available. For now, let’s just look at the raw boxscore numbers.

*On April 7th, game 2, Park went three innings against the Red Sox. Although I recall there being quite a few deep flies, he gave up but one hit, in his 3rd inning. No runs were scored in total.

*April 13th versus Angels: Breezed through the first inning of work but gave up a monstrous shot to Kendry Morales in the 8th. No runs in his first inning. One run in his second inning.

*On May 20th, the Yanks took on the Rays. Struggling 1B Carlos Pena took Park deep in his first inning pitched. This is after he was almost burned by a deep line drive to RF by Ben Zobrist, which Swisher caught. Not a good first inning. His second inning against 7-8-9 batters went much more smoothly – he gave up a single to “Did You Know He Was An All-Star?” Dioner Navarro, but that was all. To recap, one run in his first inning. Zero runs in subsequent inning.

*On May 22nd, Park replaced Phil Hughes with after Alex Cora knocked him out of the game (?!). Park immediately gave up a single and then got a groundout to end the inning. Not terrible, but not a shutdown either. His next inning saw him give up a single and a double to score a run. No runs in first inning, one run in his second.

*Park faced the Indians on May 31st. His first inning started with a strikeout and ended with two weak groundouts. Nice, not bad! The second inning though featured 2 hits and a walk, which led to run. No runs in first inning, one run in second.

*In an extra-innings game at Skydome The Rogers Centre on June 5th, Park came in and issued one walk but also struck one out and received two weak groundball outs in his first IP. The second inning featured two strikeouts, a single and one walk. No runs issued.

*Of course, last night in Arizona CHoP got lit up. He came into the game in the 7th and did fairly well. It was surprisingly tranquil. Then, in the 9th, he gave up two singles and then a monster home run to Justin Upton. No runs in his first inning. 3 runs in his second inning.

So if we add up our tally here, in his first inning of multiple-inning games, Park has given up one run in his first inning pitched and 6 in his second frame. Of course, in games he’s only pitched one total inning or less, he’s given up 10 runs in 6 2/3rds innings.

It’s not Girardi’s management of Chan Ho Park that’s caused the issues – it’s that Chan Ho Park has simply been an awful pitcher. The good news is if he were to be DFA’d today, he’d only collect a little over $650k. Later on we’ll explore possible candidates to take his spot.

As a Yankee fan in New England, I live in the heart of Red Sox nation, and get to hear about the Red Sox 24/7.  I’ll give you the weekly rundown of what Sox fans are saying right now.

Weekly Record: 6-0

Season Record: 43-28 (T-2^nd in AL East)

Upcoming weekly schedule: 3 @Colorado, 3 @San Francisco

Offense

Overall the Sox crushed the ball, combining for a .309/.367/.525 line with 10 HR’s.  Dustin Pedroia, who had been off to a very poor start by his standards has caught fire, and David Ortiz has bounced out of his latest slump.  Adrian Beltre continues to impress in his first year with the Sox, having one of his best years with the bat so far.  Victor Martinez cooled off after a few hot weeks and Marco Scutaro had an off week. Otherwise not much bad to say about the Sox offense.  The injury to JD Drew should be watched going forward.  The Sox hope to keep him off the DL, but that’s no sure thing yet.  The irony of the injury is that Drew hurt himself making a very nice running catch that most outfielder’s wouldn’t have made.  Of course Sox fans won’t appreciate the catch, and will instead increase their hate of Drew for being injury prone.

Pitching

The Sox pitching was strong against the weaker NL lineups, allowing just a .234/.296/.376 line.  Like the batting, there’s not much to nitpick over the past week.  Daniel Bard settled back into his setup role with Jonathan Papelbon back, and Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester continue to form a top duo.  The Sox aren’t missing Josh Beckett very much right now, though John Lackey continues to be underwhelming.

Overall: It was a big weekend as Manny Ramirez returned to Boston to a mix of cheers and boos.  I don’t know how Sox fans can boo him.  In the month he “quit” on the Sox he played in 22 of 24 games and hit .347/.473/.587.  He may have been a pain in the ass, but he helped bring two titles and is among the greatest hitters of all time.  The whole “cancer in the clubhouse” nonsense is another media narrative.  If he was so bad in the clubhouse, how come his teams make the playoffs just about every year?  While Manny once again found success in Fenway, the Sox swept the Dodgers. The Sox continue their utter domination of the National League (they have best record all time) and are right on the heels of the Yankees and Rays.  Truly, the best three teams in baseball are in the same division.

Facebook Comments of the week:

Don’t tell anyone, but the Red Sox are back within 3 games of first place. Back from the dead this quickly, who do they think they are the Celtics?

• I think the Red Sox offense is better than people expected.

Manny is back at Fenway. I suppose it’s kind of like seeing an ex-spouse for the first time. Some good times, couple kids (04, 07), but you knew it just couldn’t last. Given what the fans did for Nomar last year, I say they blow the roof off the park for him tonight. I know it ended badly, but in the end I think there

Sox fans are either going to be teed off from last night and will rip him to shreads, or be too exhausted to boo him and eventually cheer. I say they cheer him.

Well that was disappointing. Way to make up your mind, Fenway.

• (I wanted )for either the cheers or the boos to win out. It just turned into a big muddled mess. Manny could have acknowledged the crowd like Damon did in 06 but did nothing.

• They should have cheered his first at bat. The guy helped bring two championships to Boston. Are we cheering only the “uniforms”? Or the people in them?

• That’s why we should boo him. Cuz of the guy in them. He treated the Sox so poorly on his way out that I lost a lot of respect for him.

Rollie Fingers, Goose Gossage and Bruce Sutter are in the Hall of Fame.  David Cone, Chuck Finley and Orel Hershiser aren’t, nor will they get close.  Isn’t there something wrong with this?  I have zero doubt that if Cone, Finley or Hershisher were moved to the closers role at a young age, they would have dominated.  Had Fingers, Gossage or Sutter been good enough to be starters, they would have either stuck in the rotation or been promoted to the rotation.  Why should lesser pitchers be honored because of the role they were put in?  None of the above closers was nearly as valuable in their careers as the starters were, yet they are bronzed in Cooperstown, while the others just had nice careers.

By putting closers in the Hall of Fame, you are essentially rewarding mediocrity.  Closers are put in the bullpen because they are not good enough to succeed as a starter, and as we all know, a #3 starter brings more value than the elite closers.  Even GM’s get this, as #3 starters are often paid much more money than elite closers are on the open market.  So why doesn’t this also apply to Hall of Fame voting?  Why are players who were limited enough in their ability that they had to be put in a less valuable role bronzed in Cooperstown? [...]

I’m not sure what it is but boy, we’ve been neglecting this blog of late. This is a bit late (remodeling my basement; caught snippets of the first few innings), but let’s do an in-game observation starting in the 5th. I always seem to do in-game obs for the Subway series’ and I promise you it’ a coincidence. I don’t actually believe there’s any real rivalry between the two teams. It’s an overblown media thing to increase viewership (what else is new?).

Recap of first four innings:

Both offenses struggle against big-time pitchers with great changeups. In the 4th, Teixiera hit a grand slam after Jeter, Gardner and Swisher all had varying degrees of great luck in getting on base. None of them really hit the ball with any authority, though Teix beat the ball deep over the wall in left-center. Do I dare say Teix is turning the corner? I feel like I say it any time he does something good. And then inevitably he comes back and goes 2-18 in his next 4-5 games. He’s really made me jaded. Also, CC has been rolling. Good velocity, two hits. Pitch count is at 65.

Bottom 5th:

*Jeter starts off with a beautiful shot to right field. Double!

Looks like French Bread misplayed it. Should have taken a much better angle. Or did wind sprints before the game or something. Jeter to second, Swisher is up.

*Swisher was just straight-up frozen on a breaking ball up in the zone.

It wasn’t a ball that looked too kooky. Think he was just looking fastball and was lost when he realized it was a bit slower. Ah well. I’m a lot more level-headed when we’re up by 4 with our ace on the mound.

They’re talking about the Dodgers right now. I wonder if Frank McCourt is issuing memos to his players telling them to care more about the environment by carpooling to work. This includes away games. This, of course, has nothing to do with him not wanting to spend any money because his wife needs money to maintain 7 chateaus in the south of France.

*Teix walks. Santana up to 83 pitches through 4 1/3.

This of course means Manuel will channel his inner-Torre and have Feliciano go 3 innings before his arm physically displaces itself from the shoulder.

*A-Rod given the green light on 3-0. Tied up and pops up on a fairly weak fastball on the inner half of the plate.

Boy, that’s rough. Still, he really hit a ball very hard in the 4th and had the misfortune of David Wright just being right there to make a great play.

*Cano hits a high fly ball to RF. Francoeur has the gall to actually make a good play on that. Inning over, Yankees up 4-0 after 5 innings.

Top 6th:

Every time I think, “You know what? Michael Kay really isn’t that bad,” he talks about wins and losses for a pitcher. He’s pitching worse this year than he is last year but he’s won one more game?

*Some scrub named Ruben Tejada laces a ball into RF for a double.

Swish does a damn good job of playing of the carom. He’s probably really good at pinball. Doesn’t he strike you as a Tommy-like pinball savant?

*Nice diving stop by A-Rod on a hard hit ball by Reyes. Still, a good 3B probably makes that look a lot easier. 1 out.

*Pagan flies a ball to CF, Granderson catches it.

CC is just making it look easy today. On to the bottom of the 6th!

Bottom 6th:

Lunch time. Be back soon.

*Well, not a whole lot happened here. Cervelli somehow legged out a triple thanks to Angel Pagan not having the ability to catch balls in anything less than a completely overcast day. He should request a trade to Seattle.

Also, two other discussions took place. One involved Manuel saying Cervelli should tone down his enthusiastic antics. What? Cervelli? Dude, I love Reyes and all, but c’mon, he’s not exactly the most mild-mannered of players. I think he celebrates on common singles. Seriously. Truth be told, I enjoy the enthusiastic players like Jose Valverde, Reyes, Joba, Cervelli, K-Rod, etc. Baseball, above all, is a game and meant to entertain. I find that quite entertaining. There should be more of it if you ask me.

The second debate involved what the Mets should do with French Bread and Pagan when Beltran comes back. I’ve been following Beltran’s rehab as it’s progressed, albeit slowly. I’m not sure I’d even want him in center field. I think it would be safer to throw him in RF, put Pagan in CF and tell Franceour to fuck himself. Franceouer should not be in the discussion for a starter’s job. Then again, it’s Jerry Manuel. I’m surprised he doesn’t try Frenchy out as a bullpen arm. He’s got a gun!

Top 7th:

*CC gets into a bit of a jam with a hit and a walk. He follows it up by striking out Ike “Highways” Davis and a double play to end the inning. CC looked a bit shaky that inning but rebounded well. He’s been “battling” all year long. I’ve still yet to see him with the dominant stuff he’d flashed of old. Still a tad concerned, though his fastball looks good and the change is nice. Just don’t see the bite on the slider.

Bottom 7th:

*Mejia is throwing. Jeter is up and somewhat predictably hits the ball on the ground. 1 out.

What a waste of this guy’s ability. Dropped his trade alue, lost a year of development. I just don’t get it. Yeah, he has a good fastball with excellent movement. But he’s 20 and needs to refine his pitches, along with building his arm to handle a starter’s load.

That’s not exactly what happened to Phil Hughes. Very different situation. First off, Hughes is a number of years older, had a more developed arsenal, had built up his innings. Frankly, it was a mistake to put Hughes in the ‘pen last year. They should have kept him stretched out when Wang was finally cooked.

*Pagan caught it this time. Gardner out. 2 down.

Why? Oh, you know, because it isn’t sunny anymore.

*Teixiera down on a strikeout.

I’m not even mad. Well, not yet. As I’ve mentioned, I’ll probably get all upset when he goes 0-4 tomorrow and I’ll forget that he single-handedly won us this game (assuming the Yanks hold on).

Top 8th:

*Franceour flies out to Granderson, who read the ball very well off the bat. He’s looked good in the time I’ve seen him.

*Tejada slowly dribbles one to Teix. 2 out.

Ty Pennington? I’ve seen that show. I don’t care if he’s helping people and doing good. Dude is annoying. He’s like Ryan Seacrest with a hammer. I’d like to see Ty Wiggington come out of nowhere and just hit that dude in the head with the bat.

*Reyes trying to hit the ball to Queens with a huge cut. He then meets the same fate as Tejada – a weakly hit ball to Teix. Inning over.

Bottom 8th:

*Damn, it is coming down. Rain delay.

So here we are tonight for Game 7 of the NBA Finals.  I was unsure whether I would be doing this again tonight, but when a picture like the one to the left shows up on the internet, and you have been blogging about the Celtics and Lakers, it has to be done.  I mean seriously, I didn’t know they made Dooney and Burke purses that big.  Pau Gasol is one huge sweaty llama and that thing takes up a lot of space.  Considering it’s clearly a woman’s purse (the trim, print and chain give it away, oh, and it’s a purse) I can’t imagine seeing someone with a vagina haul it around.  Wait, I already am.

Pregame Notes

*In what has to be considered frightening for Celtics fans, I think Rasheed Wallace is a huge key tonight.  With starting center Kendrick Perkins out, the Celtics will need a good 30-35 minutes out of Rasheed tonight. Which one shows up, the one who puts his Hall of Fame caliber talent to good use, or the one who combines his Hall of Fame talent with a rec league effort?  He’ll need to crash the boards, pester Purse Gasol on defense and make some shots on offense while staying out of foul trouble.  I can almost guarantee he gets a technical tonight, which will draw him an automatic suspension for opening night next year.  As Sheed has said, he’s not here for the regular season anyway.

*Rajon Rondo is the straw that stirs the Celtics drink.  More than anyone else, this team goes as he goes.  They struggle to win when he’s playing bad, and are almost unstoppable when he’s playing good.  Need a big one out of him tonight. [...]