IMPORTANT BLOG ANNOUNCEMENT

PLEASE CHANGE YOUR BOOKMARKS AND FEEDS TO THE NEW URL, YANKEEANALYSTS.COM. TYU IS IN NO WAY AFFILIATED WITH THE NEW YORK YANKEES OR YANKEES UNIVERSE.

Wang's pinstriped future in doubt?

Posted by Chris H. at 4:03 pm 40 Responses »
Sep 102009

From Pete Abraham (LoHud):

Wang had a $5 million contract this season and is eligible for arbitration. There is virtually no chance the Yankees will offer him arbitration before the December deadline. That would leave Wang a free agent.

“I would like to stay in New York,” he said. “But I don’t know what will happen.”

One possibility is that the Yankees could offer Wang a minor-league contract. Or another team could sign him to a major-league deal and hope that he returns to form.

“That’s something we won’t even think about until November,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said. “Those are issues for another day.”

Chien-Ming Wang is in a tough situation—one that, I think, was made worse by the Yankees’ handling of last year’s injury and Wang’s subsequent “recovery.” The team did not provide Wang with the correct rehabilitation program following his lisfranc injury and then, when he struggled in 2009, they sent him to the minors, rushed him back, and used him in an irregular manner. He has been the victim of their poorly constructed regimen and, for that reason, I don’t think he should be discarded so quickly after being the team’s de facto ace from 2006 up until his injury in 2008.

I’d like to see the team offer him arbitration, although that seems unlikely given his status. Wang could, as Abraham stated, accept a minor-league deal in order to stay with the team, but given the manner in which he has been treated, why would he want to return? Whether it’s not signing him to a multi-year deal (which wasn’t a bad decision, just one that can be seen as unappreciative) or “lowballing” him during arbitration, the added insult of his injury-riddled 2009 could be the last straw for a guy who has the stuff to win 18-20 ball games a year.

In 2010, maybe we’ll see Chien-Ming Wang in the second half of the season. However, I’m sad to say that it could very well be with another team, as I’m sure many pitching starved organizations will be willing to take a chance on a guy who can keep the ball down with the best of him (when he’s right). I do hope, though, that the Yankees choose to keep him around. As the saying goes, you can never have too much pitching.

(props to MLBTR)

Tagged with: , , ,

The "This Guy Is Not Trying" Fallacy

Posted by Moshe Mandel at 10:58 am 14 Responses »
Sep 102009

Often, fans see a player that constantly makes the same mistakes and assumes that the player is not trying, or is too stubborn to change his ways. This line of thinking has led many fans to become incredibly frustrated with Joba Chamberlain. After he allowed four of the first five hitters to reach in last night’s game, fans on many of the blogs I frequent were echoing that familiar refrain: “I am really sick of Joba. He is really showing no effort or inclination to get better. He is just stubborn and unwilling to change.” This is a ridiculous fallacy, as we really know very little about what is going on in a player’s head or behind the scenes.

Unless a player is obviously dogging it, it is impossible to discern whether a player is giving his all by watching on television. We can try and interpret the events on the field, but ultimately, we just do not have enough information about the player’s level of preparation, will to improve, or willingness to try new things. Usually, a player who is not performing or is making the same errors repeatedly is trying to change, but cannot execute. Does anyone truly believe that these players are satisfied with failure on the largest stage for baseball in the world? The assumption should be that the players are attempting to avoid failure unless they clearly show otherwise.

This brings me to Joba Chamberlain. He wants to get better, and the notion that he is not trying is not supported by anything but his lack of performance. He is not throwing strikes because he is not confident in his stuff and is afraid of getting hit. We can shout “Just Throw Strikes!!!!” at the television all we want, but it is much easier said than done. He wants to throw strikes, he just does not believe in himself enough at this point to do so. He therefore nibbles at the edges, trying to avoid the fat part of the bat. His shaking off the catcher stems from the same issue. He just does not have confidence in the pitches that the catcher is calling for. This is a less drastic version of the problem Clay Buccholz dealt with for a while, where he was so afraid to throw the next pitch that he would check on the runner at first an inordinate amount of times so as to delay having to come to the plate.

Are these guys not trying to improve? Are they satisfied with their failures? Of course not. It is not a matter of effort for Joba. It is a matter of execution.

Tagged with: ,

Harper-Jeter choked along his way to record

Posted by Steve S. at 7:46 am 5 Responses »
Sep 102009

The Daily News’ John Harper wrote a piece before last night’s game that completely misses the mark about Jeter’s 2 mini-game slump on his way to tying Gehrig’s Yankee Hit record last night. He writes:

In a world where the Yankees almost never lose anymore, Derek Jeter’s unlikely detour on the road to pinstriped immortality is practically inconsequential. But it sure is odd.

Hard to say which is more un-Jeter-like: looking as if he’s allowed the Lou Gehrig milestone to get to him at the plate, where he is now officially slumping, or pulling a no-show with the media after the game last night. No doubt he’ll say he didn’t want to intrude on Nick Swisher’s night, after Swisher hit two home runs, including a walk-off shot to right in the ninth to give the Yankees a 3-2 win over the Rays.

But obviously it’s bugging Jeter that his expected coronation as the Yankees’ all-time hit leader has turned into intrigue. As in: what’s wrong with the captain?

Jeter has built up such a resume as a clutch hitter that you wouldn’t think he is suddenly feeling the pressure to get the four hits necessary to pass Gehrig. Then again, the Yankee shortstop is so famously about team and winning that you wonder if trying to reach such a personal achievement is messing with his baseball equilibrium. Not only is he 0-for-12 in three games the last two days, but he struck out three times last night for the first time all season.

This is what’s wrong with some local Baseball writers in most cities and many fans. Totally one-sided examination of a tiny sequence of events with no sense of context added whatsoever. The two pitchers he faced were David Price and Matt Garza. Do you think that may have had something to do with his struggles? On the night Garza pitched the Yanks mustered a grand total of 5 hits against Garza in 7 innings, 3 of them by A-Rod. The next night, Price allowed only 3 Hits in 6 innings of work. Nobody else was hitting either, but we weren’t micro-analyzing the other 8 guys in the lineup. These are the kinds of things that go on all the time in Baseball, but we only notice them when the spotlight is on a certain player. This is what’s been happening to Alex Rodriguez since 2004, as he’s continued to win MVP awards and produce at an elite level.

Next, about his no-show after the game. Until you ask him what his schedule was, you don’t know whether he was ducking reporters or not. He may do this from time to time, but you only notice it when he was chasing a record. Also, on a personal note this is one of my pet peeves about sports journalists. They try to make themselves part of the story when they go down this road. As a fan, nobody cares whether these athletes make your job easy or not. Most fans work jobs much tougher than either sportswriters or professional athletes do, so the last thing they want to read is one of these guys whining about their troubles at the office. Many beat writers also have this big hang up about the big, strong highly paid athlete disrespecting the frumpy, nerdy low paid guy with pencil in his hand. If you feel that way, see a psychiatrist. Again, nobody cares.

Tagged with:
© 2011 TYU Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha