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Cervelli Stance Change

Posted by Stephen R. at 1:00 pm 21 Responses »
Sep 302010

Francisco Cervelli has long been the whipping boy for Yankee fans.  It’s not really his fault: he’s a backup catcher, and good hitting backup catchers are hard to come by unless you’re the Cincinnati Reds, so perhaps the biggest problem with Cervelli is that he’s gotten so much playing time this season.  Cervelli’s year has been quite the rollercoaster, a study in how shifts in BABIP can affect the results.  By playing a little arbitrary start and endpoint game, we can see how his season has been divided into very good and very bad.

Start of season to May 31st: 120 PAs, .320/.388/.400, 0.364 BABIP

June 1st to August 27: 145 PAs, .178/.254/.217, 0.215 BABIP

August 29 to present: 47 PAs, .441/.587/.529, 0.517 BABIP

The simplest and easiest answer here to explain his recent surge is to assume that he’s just getting more good fortune on balls in play like he did when the season started.  In all probability, this is the best explanation. But in this morning’s comments leftylarry suggested that Cervelli had made some changes to his batting stance:

“Anybody else notice that Cervelli is no longer leaning his head forward with his back (right ) shoulder up to high?
LONG finally figured it out and lately he’s hitting the ball again PRETTY well.  He won’t get HIT in the head now anymore either as he can see the ball earlier and pick up the rotation and velocity better.”

I’m always interested in alternative explanations, so we’ll examine his batting stance over the past few months after the jump.

Continue reading »

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Pitching Frustrations in Last Night's Game

Posted by Matt Imbrogno at 11:00 am 3 Responses »
Sep 302010

During last night’s game, I found myself rather frustrated by the Yankees’ pitchers.

Javier Vazquez’s performance–which could be his last innings as a Yankee–was the cherry on top of the disappointment sundae that has been 2010 for Mr. Vazquez. He was one out away from giving up just four runs in 4.2 innings, but a hanging curveball to Aaron Hill changed that. I was sad for Javy that he gave up that blast, but there was a bit of anger in me. Granted, that anger had little to do with Vazquez and everything to do with the hitter: I have an irrational hatred for Aaron Hill. I don’t know why; I don’t know where it comes from…I just hate the dude.

Encouragingly enough, Javy did manage to get six swings-and-misses last night, but that’s just looking on the super bright side. As I’ve said many times, it’s just sad, and borderline painful, to see the 2010 version of Javier Vazquez. Many will stand up and say, “See? I knew he couldn’t pitch in New York!” but that’s ridiculous. Javy lost the zip on his fastball and the bite on his breaking pitches. Because of that, his changeup was ineffective. No matter what league, no matter what city, Vazquez likely would’ve struggled this year. Diminished stuff, not physical location, is what killed Javy.

Most of my frustration about the pitching, though, came from after the exit of Vazquez.

Even after the Yankees made it 7-3, this game was most likely not winnable and not high leveraged. Look at the WPA graph; the Yankees were never really in this game. Why, then, were David Robertson and Joba Chamberlain allowed to pitch? Robertson has had back spasms and should not be pitching in this low leverage a situation. Obviously, he needs to stay sharp, but I think resting him before an off day may’ve been a better choice.

Joba just threw the other night against the Red Sox and I think he, too, could’ve used another day before an off day.

I’m not really sure what Joe Girardi was thinking by throwing those two in this essentially meaningless game. I could see them pitching if the Yankees had a slim lead or even a slim deficit, but to throw these guys when the team is down four in a throw away game is maddening. I’m usually very supportive of Girardi and what not, but I’ve got to question these moves.

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Does Joel Sherman read TYU?

Posted by Steve S. at 7:14 am 10 Responses »
Sep 302010

Odd thing happened yesterday. I was reading Joel’s latest article on AJ Burnett and something struck me as very familiar.

On Tuesday, September 28 I posted this:

By contrast, Cervelli has been AJ Burnett’s personal catcher, logging 23 of his 33 starts behind the dish. When Burnett is on the mound, opponents have stolen 36 bases this year, which is the highest of any pitcher in all of Baseball. AJ has also logged 15 wild pitches (#2 in AL) and hit 16 batters (1st in AL) to go with his 75 Walks (7th in AL). When a pitcher is that wild, it makes it that much harder for the catcher to catch and throw to 2B.

On Wednesday, September 29 Joel had this passage in his article:

Burnett’s strikeout rate is down to 6.97 per nine innings, which is actually lower than Vazquez (7.13). His opposing OPS is .823, which means he turns the average hitter against him into Torii Hunter. And how, exactly, do you trust the pitcher who has the most hit by pitches (17) and steals against (36) in the majors, and the second-most wild pitches in the AL (15)? This guy does everything conceivably to try to lose a game.
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Coincidence? Maybe. But if you’re out there Joel, thanks for reading.

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