Tagged: Charlie Manuel

3 key and avoidable screwups that cost the AL

The streak is over. The NL finally found a way to win, blah blah blah. The AL didnt help its case much last night, and speculations can be made all day over what Girardi and Manuel did or didnt do. However, the following three things DID happen, and ended up costing the AL.

1-Joe Mauer makes a baserunning mistake they teach you not to do in little league.

5th inning. Robinson Cano just hit a sac fly to put the AL up 1-0. Joe Mauer is on 2nd, 1 out. Carl Crawford hits a groundball to short, and Mauer takes it upon himself to go for 3rd, right in front of Hanley Ramirez! Ramirez easily nails him at 3rd for the 2nd out.
What professional baseball player pulls a stunt like that? You go AFTER Ramirez throws to 1st, then you wouldve scored on the Torii Hunter fly ball.

 

2-Elvis Andrus stole 2nd, then caught off the bag.

Jeter led off the 6th the only way he could, he got a hit. Then in comes Andrus to run for him. He takes 2nd as Konerko strikes out, but he came in to 2nd too fast and slid himself right off the base. Brandon Phillips catches him a mile off the bag and applies the tag. Josh Hamilton then hits a single that wouldve scored the speedy Andrus. Big Floppi strikes out to end the inning.

 

(For those counting, thats now at least 2 runs the AL lost out on…but was there a way to prevent the NL runs?)

 

3-Matt Thornton (how the hell is he an all star?) walks the bases loaded despite being ahead in the count 0-2.

7th inning. Runners on the corners, 2 outs. Marlon Byrd steps up to the plate against Thornton. The count quickly goes to 0-2. One more strike and the AL can breathe easy. Thornton then decides hes gonna get Byrd to chase some high heat.
Ball one.
Ok, so, lets try something new. BUT NO! Thronton trys to get Byrd to chase another high fastball!
Ball two.
Alright. Byrd clearly isnt fooled. Go to a new pitch? Nope! Lets try the same pitch AGAIN!
Ball three. Full count.
Thornton finally decides to try a different location. Down and away, and Byrd isnt swinging.
Ball four. Bases loaded. McCann steps up and the rest is history.

 

Honerable mentions go out to Joe Girardi for leaving David Ortiz to run the bases in the 9th, Joe Mauer for that terrible throw to 2nd that ended up in center field, and David Wright for not taking 3rd on the beforementioned Mauer throw.

 

Despite the above, im not that bitter. This just means the Yankees wont need 6/7 games to win the world series at home this year.

2010 All Stars

Lemme start simple: No. Stephen Strasburg should not even be consitered, so good job Charlie Manuel for that one….though please explain to me and the rest of baseball why the hell Omar Infante is there…

AL starters are more or less what I expected, though Ichiro Suzuki should not be starting over Jose Bautista. I blame Japan for this one. Odds are Americans dont even vote for him (outside of Seattle) but an entire other country gives him all the votes he needs…

Theres also the snubs in the pitching named Jered Weaver and Andy Pettitte.
Fausto Carmona should not be representing the AL over those two. One is having the best season in years, the other is being denied a chance to pitch in front of his home stadium…besides, both are way better than Carmona. But God dammit, Cleveland needs a rep. Better solution? Shin-Soo Choo shouldve made the roster instead of the washed up David Ortiz.
There. Choo can represent Cleveland, meaning you can send Carmona home and let a more deserving pitcher like Andy Pettitte pitch in the game.
Trevor Cahill is a little iffy as well, but Oaklands offense sucks so Ill let his borderline good 1st half fly…

Yankees and Red Sox lead the pace with 6 All stars each…but Bostons are mostly either injured or undeserving, so for them its more like 2 or 3 real all stars.
Yankees are all legit BTW: Jeter and Cano are the unquestioned best at their positions. ARod squeeked in as well. Mo Rivera, CC and Hughes are pitching. Pettitte got snubbed BIG TIME (by his own f**king manager). So we’ve got 6 (should be 7)…but Swisher will make it 7 (should be 8)

In the NL, the big thing here is Charlie Manuel had a brain aneurysm and snubbed Joey Votto and went with the before mentioned Infante instead. Not much to weigh in there seeing how Votto will prolly win the final vote thing by the fans.

 

…Im suprised that any Rays hitters are allowed in the all star game. There should be a rule saying “if your offense gets no-hit twice in the same season before the break, then you dont get to be all stars…”

Freeway Series? HA! Dont make me laugh!

1st of all, lemme just say that I’m soooooooo happy both wild card teams didnt make it through round 1…I just hate it when a wild card team wins. (97, 02, 03 and 04 were all sh!tty years for baseball)…anyway, onwards with my post…

One, if not, both LA teams will fail this round. Mainly cuz the Yankees don’t plan on losing. Here are 8 reasons why one, if not both LA teams will fail to win 4 of their next 7 games…(or, if youre an optimist: why the Yankees and/or Phillies will be going to the world series)…

1. The bums went home.
Matt Holliday will not be patrolling the outfield in anymore 9th innings and PapelBUM won’t be around to offer the Angels anymore rallies courtesy of a meltdown.
The Sillies may not have an intimidating trio in the OF, but they can field their positions, so the Dodgers can forget about any choke-aided rallies. Slick defense is what wins the close games. Though in comensation, Brad Lidge and his 11 blow saves are around, but Manuel seems to have found a compromise, bringing Lidge in only for those rare four three two 1 out saves.
Meanwhile, Papelbum is home and now the Angels will have to face the wrath of Rivera in the 9th inning. ’nuff said.

2. Yankees aren’t afraid of Anaheim anymore.
If we learned anything from winning that intense series in LA late in the regular season, its that YES WE CAN! And unlike Obama, we delivered, taking 2 of 3 in that series and becomming the 1st team to clinch a playoff birth. Now we can basically do the same thing again and become the 1st team to clinch a world series birth.
(Cue the fallout for the meaningless political shot…)

3. C.C. Sabathia will pitch 3 games in the series.
Angels fans might cry foul at this one. Our ace will pitch a mind boggling 3 games in the series. And he should. Hes gotten an incredible amount of rest over the month, and hes the only pitcher in baseball you’d feel fine about pitching again and again on short rest because hes done it before with success (see: Getting the Brewers into the playoffs)
Hell, if this works, let him pitch games 1, 2 and 3 of the world series, let him have game 4 off, then pitch him in game 5 if Burnett screws up.

4. The AL MVP is facing the Angels.
“But I thought Joe Mauer went home?”
Yeah he did, but A Rod is still playing.

 

ARod.jpgThe man missed an entire month and the Yankees sucked. The moment he came back, we took off and never looked back, while he still found a way to post 30HRs and 100RBIs. Thats not just incredible, thats MVPcredible. The way he played this season, recovering from hip surgery, shrugging off the ‘roids bitching, and going on a tear in October…to me that says MVP.
If he somehow wins this, it would be the 1st one I feel he’d deserve since now hes got the October credentials to back it up for once.
…Plus, ya know, A Rod RAPES the Angels pitching everytime he faces them.

5. The Phillies rotation.
…for a minute, I forgot to include the NLCS…
Cliff Lee against any non-AL team + Cole Hamels against the Dodgers in October = easy wins.
…and for extra credit…Pedro Martinez + him not pitching against or anywhere near the Yankees = more easy wins.
The Dodgers may have a better overall look, but the Phillies have a 1-2-(maybe 3) punch that will give those (trolly) Dodgers a run for their money

6. Yankees have a bench and bullpen deeper than most hookers’ va-jay-jays
(Thats right, PG for the kids…)
Lets start with Molina, who has an arm that will keep those pesky Angel runners in check…expand to Speedy Gonzalez Brett Gardner who can steal bases at will…and end with a bullpen so deep, Girardi can pitch them <1 inning of work, and still have enough talent left to win an 11 inning game against the Twins…though if he does that again, I’ll personally slap him.

7. The Phillies infield.
Ryan Howard…Chase Utley…Jimmy Rollins? In one infield? Wow.
…and Pedro Feliz, yeah…no infield is perfect…but it’s still way better than any infield out of LA…

8. Angels and Dodgers benefited from slumping opposing bats in LDS.
The Cardinals couldn’t drive in a RISP to save their lives. The Red Sox fell asleep and Ortiz apparently forgot to take his roids right beforehand. The Yankees on the other hand had to fend off a streaking Twins team while the Rockies managed to win a game and almost forced a game 5. Yankees and Phillies earned their wins.
The Dodgers survived from some solid St Louis pitching, but had the luxery of a popless Cardinal lineup.
The Angels probably overhyped themselves for undoing their woeful past against Boston.

 

…I’m not saying both LA teams will lose in their LCSs…but AT LEAST one of them will (My money is on both…but my money was also on the Dodgers to lose in round 1, so go figure)
Crap (OPTIMISM, dammit!)
I’m not saying the Yankees and Phillies will both win their LCSs…but AT LEAST one of them will (My money is on both…but my money was also on the Cardinals winning the NL, so go figure)