Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Red Sox Win Their Personal World Series; FAN Hosts Indefensible on Defense

Red Sox 7, Yankees 3

Not really much different from what I'd expected. I figured Damon would be a bit tight. Wang was shaky early but settled down pretty nicely. Panic Joe took Small out too soon. Can we please finally settle the question, once and for all -- that Tanyon Sturtze really isn't that good? Torre is in love with this guy for whatever reason. Joe, enough's enough with Sturtze.

Of course it didn't matter in the end since Mike Meyers was no international man of mystery to David Ortiz. That Ortiz homer put it away late and Francona, somewhat oddly I thought, used Papelbon to pitch the 9th with a four run lead.

Tonight's game looks like it might be rained out -- apparently it's been raining in Boston pretty much all day. That wouldn't bother Me in the slightest -- everyone pays entirely too much attention to these Yankee/Red Sox matchups, especially early on. The last few years the two teams have played to a virtual standstill vs. each other in the regular season. This season will be no different.


Memo to Mike and the Mad Dog: Watch the Games!

I happened to hear a little snippet of the Mike and the mad Dog show on WFAN today. And the topic happened to be Francesa and Russo ragging Cano for his bad defense.

Ahem. To anyone who's watched the games so far this year, it's clear that Cano is vastly improved over last year. He worked extensively with Larry Bowa in spring training, and it shows. Cano had a fine game last night in the field, making Mike and the Mad Dog's comments ever more perplexing.

Mike tried to be subsbtantive, citing Cano's "lack of range." It simply isn't so. The reason that Cano doesn't get to some balls towards the middle is becasue he has to cheat the other way a bit to help make up for Giambi's complete lack of range at first. One would think that Mike Francesa would know this.

Russo's comments were just mindless Yankee-bashing . . . "he's a bad second baseman." Garbage from a garbage-mind who feels that it makes for "good radio" when a New York radio host reflexively trashes all New York teams.

But, for those who like numbers . . . Cano's got one error this season so far. A big improvement over last year. His Range Factor is 4th in the AL among second basemen who've played at 180 innings at second base.

To anyone who watches a lot of Yankee games it's easy to see that Cano's markedly improved defensively and getting better.

Mike and Chris (gleefully) also piled on about the team as a whole not being good defensively. Another mystifying comment. OK, 9 errors as a team doesn't tell the whole story, but it's a big improvement.

Posada: Has never been great overall. But this throwing so far has been stellar, throwing out 6 of 13 would-be base-stealers. Has always been good on popups. Not so great at blocking balls in the dirt, and plays at the plate have never been a strong point.

Giamabi: Gets a worse rap than he should. Lacks range and is terrible on popups. Gets nervous when he has to make a throw. But is excellent at picking poor throws out of the dirt. And that's the most important thing a first baseman does defensively.

Cano: Discussed above.

Jeter: Gold Glover.

A Rod: Should've won the Gold Glove last year.

Matsui: Not as good as he's been. Throwing to the wrong base a couple of times is very unlike the Matsui who first joined the Yankees. Seems a lot less confident out there than he used to.

Damon: It's well-documented he's got a crummy arm. But runs down everything out there. This season all ready I've seen him catch at least 7 balls that would've been triples with Bernie playing center.

Sheffield: Has that bad habit of side-saddle catching that he developed when his shoulder was bad, but overall, plays a decent right field when he's motivated. Strong arm.

Overall, this is not a bad defensive team. And anyone who watched them all last year and has watched them so far this year can see the improvement.


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