New home!

Looking for SMF? Check us out at our new home

http://searchingforfishman.wordpress.com/
Read more

Gamers?

It's been six full days since the last Yankee loss, and here at SMF we could have used even a few more days to recover from last weekend's drubbing at the hands of the merciless Indians. Last night's loss was perhaps equally deflating, and with two remaining games at the home grounds of the "Olde Towne Team", it's highly doubtful that fans will be granted any sort of respite this time. It's become a cliche, but these games, taut as they are with emotion, are replete with mini-dramas, some of them personal, that make baseball the great game that it is.

Here are SMF we downplay the emotional side of the game. In keeping with Sabremetric theory, we avoid subjective descriptions of ballplayers. You'll rarely hear us describe a player as "clutch", or as having "heart" or, one of our favorites, as a "gamer". Last night, though, made us consider, for a brief moment, that the Red Sox might possess those qualities in abundance. In the top of the 10th, the Yankees put two on against the mighty Papelbon, with Teixeira due up. A visit to the mound followed. As the powwow broke up, the camera lingered on the mound just long enough to show Youkilis turn back to his teammate and say something to the effect of "just fucking blow it by him". Papelbon, who had previously been so out of sorts that he allowed a sharp leadoff single to the meekest of the meek, Jose Molina, proceeded to do just that.

The moment probably meant nothing. There's no reason to believe that Papelbon threw any harder after Youkilis's exhortation. Or that Papelbon even heard him. Or that our lipreading skills are even any good. But while it's entirely believable that Youkilis would say something along those lines, could you ever imagine a Yankee player say something so raw and emotional? Do the Red Sox simply have, in addition to the smarest front office in the league, the most gamers as well? If so, the team is at even greater disadvantage that we'd previously thought.
Read more

Blogging the Yankees, one loss at a time

Last night we had a brilliant thought. Since we find everyday blogging too demanding, why not lighten the load by simply writing after each loss? If the fluctuation of comments on Lohud is any indication, it's the losses which boil our blood, not the hum-drum two-run victories.

How could I have known that the very next day my epiphany would provide a loss of titanic proportions, the ground zero of Yankee pitifulness? But now that we've been spotted a lead, we don't know quite what to do with it. How do you sum up such a colossal fuck up? And, more to the point, if today is the first day of a diary of Yankee losses, where can we go from here?

Only up, I suppose. Rather than try to encapsulate today's ballgame, we'd rather highlight a few of the more salient points. Besides, this blog is more about what each loss signifies more than anything else. We care about the failure of the team in theory as much as the team's failures on the field -- and when those two strands happen to converge, all the better.

So, rather than place bets on whether Cleveland reaches 30 to tie an ML record (the game isn't over, so we're cheating a bit), let's run through a few things of note:

- At some point, someone needs to take responsibility for the bench play. And that person has to be Brian Cashman. Any idiot with a blank check can figure out that Mark Teixeira and CC Sabathia are worthy of pinstripes. It takes smarts, though, to go through the trash and find someone serviceable when those stars come up lame. To wit, Cody Ransom. Why not, we wonder, bring in Mike Lamb?

- If this is the offense we can expect all year from Brett Gardner, he's going to have to learn to play a decent centerfield. It's the least we can do for us.

- We've been Edwar's biggest defender, but his inability to throw strikes and keep the ball in play is wearing thin.

- The bullpen is not good. Other than Mariano Rivera, not a single Yankee reliever would crack the pen of the Red Sox. That's very revealing.

Final thought of the day: do Girardi and Cashman have the balls to jettison Wang from the rotation?
Read more

Explaining Brian Bruney

"The bullpen is Bruney and Mariano -- and that's it." That's how Mike Francesa explained the Yankees' bullpen woes on this afternoon's program after the opening day meltdown.

The fan reaction has revealed a similar faith in BB as a reliable arm, a pitcher who will succeed in the eight inning where the likes of Farnsworth and scores of others have failed since the Stanton/Nelson days of yore.

Here at SMF we've never understood the public's embrace of mulleted flamethrower. Apart from a solid spell in an injury-shortened 2008, Bruney has been less than mediocre, and his SO\BB rate for his career is an apalling 1.4. Why is there so much optimism in his ability to bring the game to Rivera?
Read more