Well boys & girls here we go. Both 16 games into the season we have the FIRST PLACE Yankees hosting the FIRST PLACE Mets. Tonight's game came be seen here in NY on the PIX11 network. RHP - Michael Pineda (2-0 5.00 ERA) VS. RHP - Jacob DeGrom (2-1 0.93 ERA) Lineups to follow later...... Looking ahead............................... Saturday 4/25/15 4:05PM Seen on PIX11, SNY FS1 LHP - CC Sabathia (0-3 4.35 ERA) VS. RHP - Matt Harvey (3-0 3.50 ERA) Sunday 4/26/15 8:05PM Seen on ESPN RHP - Nathan Eovaldi (1-0 3.12 ERA) VS. LHP - Jonathan Niese (2-0 1.50 ERA) GO YANKEES!
Yankees have lost their first two series at the Stadium so far. Beating Mets 2 games to one, would be more than OK with me.
We hear (media) about the weak hitting Yankees obviously due to their .239 team BA. Meanwhile, they're tied for 2nd in MLB in scoring, 3rd in HRs, in the top ten or better in OBP,OPS, Total Bases and only seven teams have stolen more bases. They're certainly going to be tested this weekend vs very good SP. No doubt! If the Yanks want to win this series, their pitching better step up. First place (tie) Yanks , with the best run differential in the division, 2nd highest scoring team in the division, best ERA in the division, (5th best in league). Just stay "healthy" boys, just stay healthy. All I can say is, so far, so good......and GO YANKS!
The game tonight is one here on the West Coast......... Looking forward to this great Classic Subway Series, like Rick said: "I'm okay with Yankees / Mets anytime." Best Rivalry in MLB, in the last 112 years, NY vs Boston........ Best Inter-League Rivalry: Yanx vs Mets Even better than Frisco vs Bums, better than any Freeway Series, Bay Series, Chi-Town series, and any other rivalries of decades past.......
...to again show how little run differential means this early in the season, consider that the Yanx are at +20 and the Rays are at -10, which equates to a difference of 3o runs. (THIRTY)...now, take away the first win against the Rays (5-4) and swap the outcome to a Rays win (5-4) and the run differential difference between the Yanx and Rays barely changes...but the Rays' record then becomes 9-7 and the Yanx' record would then become 8-8. ...Red Sox are only +3 but have the same record as the Yanx...Houston is -2 but is in 1st place and 1 game ahead of Oakland. (+19) ...bottom line; run differential doesn't really say as much about a team as opposed to its record...keep the less meaningful stats, I'd rather have the better W/L record any day.
Bottom line is WINS. I can't, and won't debate that. This is a quick look after 16 games.....if Oakland's minus run differential continues it's current trend/pace over 162 games, and Houston can maintain it's negligitable run differential over the course of the full season....then It wouldn't surprise me if Oakland remains BEHIND Houston....in fact, I would bet on it. Yanks won 84 games last year with a minus run differential of 31 , their pitching was kinda in the middle of the pack but their offense was 13th in the league in scoring, 12th in the league in OPS. There goes the plus run differntial, and there goes another 4-6 wins and a WC spot. I agree- WINS are all that matters...but if you think you're going to get enough "wins" to play into October with a final poor run differential, it would be a very rare and infrequent case. That's all I'm saying.
In the 1960 World Series the Yankees set records for hits, runs ect, ect. They put up a huge "run differential" over Pittsburgh but lost the God Damn Series. Mazeroski probably the last guy you'd think of to hits a game winning bomb to beat the Yankees by one run in game seven. I remember Mickey Mantle saying in an interview that with the exception of the Sixty the Yankees deserved to win or lose every series he played in. Said he cried like a baby. Bottom line it isn't how many runs you score it's how many you score to get you the win on game day. I was a 14 year old kid when that series was played, remember walking into class pissed that I couldn't listen, a little while later a kid opened the class room door saying the Yankees has lost.
In 1969 The Mets won 100 games & the world series while 9 other teams (12 total in that year) scored more runs than the METS. Including the Phillies who only won 63 games that year. Just saying. Sometimes pitching dominate as only the Cards had a lower ERA then the Mets that season.
...and the Jays were 1 game worse than the Yanx even though they had a run differential of +37 which was 68 runs better than the Yanx. ...I also was very clear in pointing out "how little run differential means this early in the season".
...^^^ yup, The Yanx outscored the Pirates 55–27 in the 1960 Series, outhit them 91–60, out batted them .338 to .256, hit 10 home runs to Pittsburgh's four (three of which came in Game 7), and got two complete-game shutouts from Whitey Ford—and still lost the World Series. ...and though he was a good 2Bman, if Mazeroski had not hit that walk off HR he would have never been elected to the HOF.
Maz getting into the hall was a joke And Michael, the 1960 series (though only a small sample 7 games) is a perfect example that run differential doesn't always apply.
Yep, its always very nice to have excellent pitching. Lol The Phillies scored a grand total of 13 more runs than the Mets in '69 and there's a good reason why they won only 63 games. They had the 10th worse ERA in the league, 11th worse WHIP out of 12 teams and were exactly minus 100 in run differential. Mets were plus 91 in run differential with the 2nd best ERA and best WHIP in the league while scoring just 26 runs off the league average. I think we solved this one.
I hear ya, the '60 series was a brutal loss for the Yanks. 7 game sample.....ever wonder if both those teams played each other 154 games what their W-L records would be? I know, sour grapes. Lol By the way, those 1960 Pirates were no slouches. They won 95 games, lead league in runs scored, 3rd in ERA and 1st in WHIP. They actually had a better run differential +143, than the Yanks +119. Both teams lead their leagues in scoring and Yanks also lead in ERA, 3rd in WHIP and won 97 games.
The point genius was that run differential doesn't ALWAYS equal success. Don't start being a putz again.
