...this week will go a long way in deciding this team's fate. ...facing Shields, Porcello, Price, and Buehrle in the next 5 days.
They ran the gauntlet of pitchers once and did pretty well so we shall see what happens. Perhaps getting to Sale today can start that trend.
I live for September, as noted- a crucial month...... some really good races going on......Halo's getting their asses kicked by the A's....just when I've turned around full circle to be a Trout mask replica fan........!
Seriously time to step it up....Last 10 games played = Ichiro....................0 / 3 / 413 Prado....................2 / 9 / 344 Teixeira.................1 / 2 / 285 Ellsbury.................0 / 3 / 256 Cervelli..................1 / 2 / 250 Headley.................0 / 3 / 235 McCann.................4 / 9 / 222 Jeter.....................0 / 2 / 209 Gardner................0 / 2 / 162 Drew....................1 / 3 / 156 Beltran.................1 / 1 / 138 Ryan....................0 / 2 / 125 NOTE: Gardner aside from his slumping bat has stolen only 1 base over his last 28 games. PLEASE! Cashman bring in someone like Henderson during the off season to work with this guy.
...^^^ I've done my fair share of complaining about Gardner's ability to read pitchers' moves and his wavering willingness to steal in the right situations. ...I gotta believe someone has already tried to work with Gardner on honing his skills but he's still tentative. The really good/great base stealers had a certain arrogance about their ability to swipe bases but Gardner does not appear to have that arrogance. It seems to me that he's more concerned about failing than he is concerned about succeeding. ...Again, a good base stealer has to have a mind set that there's no way he's going to be thrown out.
Watching Gardner take a lead on first is mind boggling. His acceleration slows down as he goes into his slide and his feet are almost always in the air, instead of down on the bag. Whatever. This topic is like beating a dead horse. As for the upcoming road trip....winning these games will be a nice surprise, but I am not optimistic. Team is too streaky.....win or lose.
The Yankees need to take 6 of the next seven to stay contending. Checking the schedules of the "in the hunt" contenders this team will need some of them to lose. I don't know how most of you feel but I'd damn sure think real hard about bringing Tanaka back before doing so, lot of future and money riding on that guy.
...they definitely need to test him out this year to see if the tear has healed and can handle the torque. And if they discover he does in fact need surgery, the sooner the better. ...but for now, they need him to be the dominant ace he was earlier in the year. ...he'll pitch a simulated game in Detroit on Thursday, and then they'll decide how and when to pitch him. Girardi is considering the possibility of a 6 man rotation.
I know they did it coming out of the ASB & quickly followed it up losing 4-5 in a row, but I just don't see this team making it a habit of taking 6 out of 7. I hope I'm wrong.
