Yesterday was a tough loss, we had a lot of stuff going for us offensively and pitching wise, not to mention the 17 game errorless streak being continued, and to see it slip away like that was not exactly thrilling. However, it wasn’t a discouraging game to say the least, being that we’re still in first place and we did come back on the shoulders of Marky Mark.

Derek Jeter and Mark Teixeira have been red hot this road trip, and they’ve collected long hitting streaks over 10, I’m not sure what the exact numbers are but they are fairly big. Hopefully, Joba can pitch well today and we can take advantage of this great Yankee offense and blow out the Indians, who have soft tossing southpaw Jeremy Sowers on the mound for them.

Some background on Sowers as the first inning has ended, still 0-0 in Chase Field Yanks-Indians: Jeremy Bryan Sowers, 6’1″, 180 lbs, is 1-2 with an ERA very well over 7. Ever since his 127 ERA+ in ’06 for Cleveland, he’s been the epitome of suckiness: a 6.42 ERA in 07, a 5.58 ERA in ’08, and you see his numbers up there. Sowers has below average stuff and doesn’t strike out many batters, so his key is to throw quality strikes(something Flash Flaherty talked about last year with Chien-Ming Wang) and pitch to contact.

Okay, so apparently we have some controversy right now going on with Bob from Eat, Sleep, Baseball and I. For those of you who don’t know, Bob is an 11-year old Red Sox fan who has a blog that you can check out right here.

Bob doesn’t seem very pleased with a comment I made on him saying that Jason Varitek is much more deserving over Martinez for 2nd place on catcher votes(by a billion votes). Here’s my comment on that:

“That’s a very ignorant statement, clearly. If you compare the statistics, you can very easily see how Victor Martinez is blowing Jason Varitek out of the water this year. Martinez is hitting over 100 points higher than Varitek with a way better OPS+. And if you want to say JV’s been much better than he was last year, sure don’t seem like it from the numbers.”  

Now you can call that harsh, but IMO he had it coming. Here are the statistics comparing V-Mart and Tek:

OPS+

Martinez: 149

Varitek: 111

Batting Average:

Martinez: .350

Varitek: .239

Extra-Base Hits:

Martinez: 23

Varitek: 19

Well, Bobby did not take kindly to this. I’ll answer his long response on my last blog on the first place Yanks right ‘ere:

“Okay first off yes my comment about Varitek was not ignorant it was biassed. If Posada was third you would probably say the same thing.”

Well, I appreciate that you admit your bias: however, bias is ignorance, therefore, to say it was not ignorant, it was biased would be a funny thing to say. As for the second statement, I try not to be biased and when one guy clearly has a huge statistical advtange over my guy, I’m not going to say my guy is more deserving. I admit that Kevin Youkilis has been miles better than Mark Teixeira this season. I’m well aware that Aaron Hill and Ian Kinsler are significantly better second basemen than Robinson Cano, and I’m willing to have that discussion about Pedroia.

“And you said Victor Martinez was blowing Varitek out of the water. In some stats like OBP and batting average yes. But Varitek has more homers then Martinez and only has ten more strikeouts them Martinez. He has ten homers while Martinez has 7. Varitek’s average is .239 while Martinez’s is .350. Tek has 19 runs, 33 hits, 22 RBI’s, 17 walks, 31 strikeouts, and on OBP of .327. Martinez’s stats include 33 runs, 69 hits, 36 RBI’s, 28 walks, 21 strikeouts, and an OBP of .350.”

Bobby, that’s nice and all, but you look really silly when you present the statistics, and Martinez has done much better in every stat you put up, but because Tek has more homers Martinez is not better? That doesn’t make sense. Also, you have to realize that statistics like OBP, slugging, average, OPS, OPS+ are way more notable than homers and RBI.

“You also said that Varitek had a better season last year when he was in a massive slump. Well last year Tek batted .220 with 13 home runs, 43 RBIs, and an OBP of .313. This year he is batting .239 with 3 less home runs then he had all of last year and about half the RBIs he had last year. His OBP is also higher.”

I didn’t say Varitek had a better season last year, I said his season last year wasn’t way better than 09.

“Yes I was wrong about Martinez but seriously. You really did not have to say that. You could have just said, “Martinez is having a better year because his stats are better then Varitek, blah, blah, blah.”

In no way was what I said intended to be offensive nor was it offensive in my opinion. The most insulting sentence in that comment I guess was “that’s a very ignorant statement, clearly” which, notice how I said the statement was ignorant, not you. If I said you’re ignorant, then I could definitely see why you’d be angry. But you’re at a ten, when you need to be at a two, as Cenk Uygur would say.

“I actually voted for Jesus Flores five times even though he has only has 4 homers and 13 RBIs. Because I wanted to help you with your ‘campaign’.”

Well, thanks for voting for Flores 5 times. I appreciate it, although with the needless mentioning of his 4 homers and 13 RBI, I’d assume you really didn’t get why Flores deserved to be in. Bob, you gotta understand, again, that OBP and SLG and OPS+, and OPS and batting average are much more important than homers and RBI. I see this mistake very often among baseball fans.

I’d like to comment on some very controversial and downright unintelligent statements that Bob made in his latest blog, “The ‘Future'” because I’m bored and I like pointing out people’s mistakes. Call me whatever, I’m just for some reason like that.

“While the Orioles are having a good season for their standers they are 22-26. On the bright side they are tied for last with the Rays. So there are two young teams who many thought would be good. Both suck.”

Standards, first of all.

Second of all, nobody expected the Baltimore Orioles to be good this year. The Rays, yeah, people expected them to be good because they were amazing last year, they went to the World Series. I’m sure you know this, since they beat your Red Sox in 7 games in the ALCS and took us out of the playoffs.

“Why do both teams suck? Well, the Orioles have six veterans along with no pitching at all. I mean what other team (besides the Nationals) would have Jeremy Guthrie as their ace? The Dodgers who have the best record in baseball have nine veterans without Manny Ramirez. Along with great pitching. And ohh ya they are super young with guys like Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, Russell Martin, James Loney, etc.”

Uhh, what’s the point of this paragraph here? Like, I thought for a second that he’d be making the experience argument, which I can understand, but then he says how the Dodgers are super young (which they’re not by the way, they just have a few young players).

And the Orioles have six veterans? I consider a veteran a person who’s played at least 4 full seasons. Let’s see here, Baltimore 25-man roster.

Danys Baez

Mark Hendrickson

George Sherrill

Jamie Walker

Gregg Zaun

Aubrey Huff

Cesar Izturis

Melvin Mora

Brian Roberts

Ty Wigginton

Luke Scott

That’s more than 6. Even if you think a veteran has to be an ooold guy: Baez, Hendrickson, Walker, Zaun, Huff, Izturis, Mora, Wigginton. Eight.

I mean, how do you make statements like this and not check yourself?

“James Shields is three and four with an ERA of 3.63. To high for an ace.”

Yeah, and the Red Sox, their ace, Josh Beckett, has a 4.60 ERA! Man, those Red Sox suck, huh?

“When will the Rays and the Orioles get better? Never. The Rays have a one percent chance for winning the A.L. East and Baltimore what a joke they are. They have a 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% chance of winning the wild card for the rest of the teams future.”  

This here is the one statement that set me off. Pardon me, I don’t mean to offend, but who the heck are you, Bob, to tell me who the good teams of the future and the bad teams of the future are? Are you some sort of psychic who can see into the future? What basis, what argument did you have to make that ridiculous comment? And by the way… need I remind you that for almost 100 seasons, your precious Boston Red Sox never won a single championship, and they struggled and their fans still stuck with the Sox and still loved their team. The Red Sox were awful, year after year, over and over again, always in the shadow of the powerhouse New York Yankees. I’m sure people thought they’d never win again at times. However, they finally won again in 2004, and again in ’07, and now they’re maybe the best team in the MLB. Now that you guys are the boss, you guys are winning championships, you can suddenly tell us who are and who are not going to succeed in the future? You guys, of all people should know that that’s a dumb statement.

“If the Rays and Orioles want to get better they need to fire their manager, trade for Albert Pujols or Ryan Howard. The only problem? Well, the Rays love Joe Madden and I don’t even now who the Orioles manager is.”

The Rays love Joe Maddon because he made it to the World Series last year, and because the players love him. He’s a solid manager, and easily won Manager of the Year. But of course they have to fire him! Also, if you’re going to criticize a ballclub over and over again to try to humiliate them, you could at least know a thing or two about them. It helps that they’re in the same division as you and they face you quite often during the regular season, so you would think you’d be aqcuainted with their manager. I mean, you expect us to look at your point of view in baseball seriously, yet you obviously don’t pay attention to baseball games all that much if you don’t know who the Orioles manager is.

His name is Dave Trembley. Learn it. Live it. Love it.

Now Bobby, I understand you were angry for some reason and you were taking it out on the Rays and O’s, but I blog angry sometimes, and I’m still able to make intelligent, well thought out blogs. Think things through before you rant endlessly. I don’t mean to rag on you, just saying.

Stay positive, Yankee fans.

-EJ The Kid “durr, what’s their manager’s name again?” From New York