Saturday, May 2, 2009

Jorge Delivers

For all of my Posada bashing, the guy can still hit when the chips are down. Last night he delivered a big hit in the bottom of the ninth to seal a dramatic come from behind win for the Yankees. Jorge’s hitting extremely well from the right side of the plate and last night’s late inning heroics were no exception.

Relief pitching is a huge problem. Pete Abraham said that Girardi and Cash were having a meeting and speculated that roster moves were on the way. Veras was horrible and Melancon struggled in yesterday’s game, but consistency has been a big problem with just about everyone in the pen. I’m not sure what moves are going to be made as I don’t really see anyone else ready to step in. Brett Tomko perhaps?

With losses by Boston and Toronto the Yankees are only 2 games out of first at the moment and things are generally looking a little better. With A-Rod likely to return very soon, you have to feel good about the offense.

My two main concerns for now are:

1. Hitting with RISP. Not sure why this statistic is so abysmal for the Yanks. Not dealing well with pressure? Regardless, with a few well-timed hits this offense could explode.

2. Relief pitching. Mo is going through a rough patch. The only consistent pitcher is Bruney and he’s on the DL. Coke is a work in progress. Ramirez, Veras and Albaladejo all seemed to have lost something since last  year. Marte has been awful and probably needs to go back to being a situational guy only.

Still, with the recent wins, Yankee fans should probably be feeling a lot better about the team than there were a few days ago. Hopefully the trend will continue.

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