Seattle: 54-85
Yankees: 74-64
GAMES
Game 1: BRANDON MORROW!!! vs Andy Pettitte*
Game 2: Ryan Rowland-Smith* vs Sidney Ponson(snicker)
Game 3: Carlos Silva vs Mike Mussina
Andy Pettitte is in the midst of another Andy Pettitte season. He's hitting the zone a little more often and missing a few more bats leading to a few more strikeouts and few less walks than 2007. But balancing that is a slight uptick in home runs allowed.
Hahaha, oh sorry. I mean, Sidney Ponson. His control is uhhh hahahaha. Sidney Ponson! He's horrid.
With Mussina's stuff falling ever further toward Triple-A quality, he's taken to pounding the strikezone and has ratcheted up the groundballs. The result is that despite missing bats just over 4% of the time, Mussina has produced another decent season of performance for New York.
However, there are some huge red flags, notably in his called strikeouts. Mussina actually has more strikeouts of the called variety than of the swinging type and called strikeouts do not carry over year-to-year anywhere near the level to that of swinging Ks. Mussina seems to me to be tight-rope walking on the cliff.
Likely Starters:
C Ivan Rodriguez/Jose Molina
1 Jason Giambi*
2 Robinson Cano*
3 Alex Rodriguez
S Derek Jeter
L Xavier Nady
C Johnny Damon*
R Bobby Abreu*
D Hideki Matsui*
Six of the ten hitters here have bRAA totals above +10, which is an incredibly potent amount. Furthermore, four of them (Abreu, Damon, Rodriguez and Giambi) are above 20. Xavier Nady would be among that latter group if he had enough at bats in the American League.
CONTEXT
Brandon Morrow? Against the Yankees? That's insane, but ok, this should be interesting to watch at least. If he makes it through four innings, that would be a success. If he can limit walks against a team known for its discipline, that would be a success. If he can get some missed bats on offspeed pitches and maintain decent velocity on his fastball, that would be a success. I'm not optimistic for success.
I swear, if we get shut down by Sidney Ponson, I will... I will... well, I probably won't do anything. But it would be really stupid.
Jeff has his Ichiro is Fine post (though to brag, I had been saying it for awhile before) and I have my I Love Adrian post (though to be humble, my love for Adrian is eclipsed by many others). Maybe I should pen something about how much I adored 2005 Felix and Yuni and 2004 Jeremy Reed.
THIS SERIES BROUGHT TO YOU BY:
Imperial Red
Lagunitas Brewing Company. Petaluma, CA
A copper red color with some cherry bits to the aroma. A somewhat creamy palate and some decent amount of hops.