Posada Dogs it as Yanks Lose Again

I’ve had enough of Jorge Posada, the biggest prima donna on the Yankee roster, vastly outstripping egos of guys like A-Rod (and this is in no way defending A-Rod).

Let’s take a step back to last year when Jorge was struggling with injuries yet still managed to put up a stink about the possibility of playing at first base where he could actually help the team. Nope, he’s a catcher and would rather take the Carl Pavano route of sitting on the bench collecting a fat paycheck than actually helping out the team. Yes, I just compared Jorge Posada to Carl Pavano.

Next we have the whole clubhouse captain mentality that’s gone to his head as Jorge has a little talk with Nick Swisher about how a Yankee should act. Give me a break. Swish was just what the Yankees needed to maintain some vestige of sanity, not the dour faced “my feelings are more important than the team” Posada.

Lastly we get recent play by Jorge – typical big star behavior of “too good out forth effort”. Did anyone watch the game last night where Jorge had a a chance to drive in some runs and tie up the game? What did he do – hit into a double play. More specifically, he hit into a force out at second and gave the defense ample time to get him out at first. Now I understand he’s no Brett Gardner, but if you watched carefully, Jorge had his head turned to the left watching the play unfold as he jogged to first. Look straight ahead, put on a little extra speed, and you’ll be at first well before the throw, keeping the inning alive and advancing one runner. This is just one example of the way Posada’s been playing lately, head not in the game (stealing home?) and lack of effort.

Jorge has been a great player but somewhere long the way he became too caught up in his own stardom and has become an embarrassment. At this point I’m just fed up with seeing his half-hearted efforts, selfish focus, and lack of respect for the team.

Cause for Concern

Spring training has only recently begun and most Yankee fans have reason to be worried about the upcoming season. One of the main reasons for last year’s troubles was a plague of injuries and that slowly looks to be happening again this time around.

The biggest news of the pre-season is A-Rods upcoming hip surgery which will take him out 6-9 weeks. The idea is that he’ll have arthroscopic surgery to get him mostly healed and able to play the vast majority of season and then he’ll have another procedure in the offseason. If all goes well, they should only miss him for about 1 month of the actual season. If all goes well.

In the meantime, Cody Ransom is the everyday backup to start in his place and Cashman is probably exploring other options and thinking about making a trade to pick up another third baseman. This would be an unfortunate move if the Yankees had to give up anything significant, which they likely would. Moving Cabrera or Kennedy wouldn’t bother me, but giving up an actual prospect would be a big setback to the depleted Yankee farm system, especially if you’re only acquiring a guy who will likely only see a month or two of work as a Yankee.

The second area of concern is Jorge Posada, who had a bit of shoulder stiffness early in the spring and sat out a while. While his replacement Molina might be a fine defensive backstop, he is an offensive liability. The Yankees surely missed Posada’s bat last year and will do so again if he’s not up to snuff. The idea of DHing Posada doesn’t quite work out because of Matsui.

Which brings up the last area of concern, Hideki Matsui. Yes, he’s looking somewhat healthy this year and is expected to be able to DH, but there’s no talk of him returning to the outfield any time soon. The reason this is a concern is that the Yankees now have 3 guys who may end up being nothing more than DH when the people actually playing the skill positions have significantly lower offensive outputs. If A-Rod can move back to third and Posada can’t throw from behind the plate, the Yankees are going to be in a world of hurt.

Hitting Goes MIA

Once again the lowly Pirates bested the Yankees, and Jorge Posada does his best to poison the atmosphere in the clubhouse.

Mike Mussina pitched six full innings giving up nine hits but only two runs. Not a bad outing in the end. Jose Veras gave up just as many runs in one inning of work, displaying the typical Jeckyl and Hyde behavior so common among Yankee relievers. A few great outings, then some bad outings. Like Forrest Gump would say, "You never know what you're gonna get."

Jorge Posada played first base last night, apparently still having a bit of trouble with his shoulder. Girardi had Molina starting as catcher every day this week and Jorge was DHing earlier. Being the whiney dirtbag that he's become lately, Jorge made several heated comments explaining how he doesn't like playing first base and how he's a starting catcher. Brian Cashman - we all know Jorge can hit, if you can find anyone out there willing to make a deal to take this guy off our hands, please do! To further solidify his comments on how he's not a first baseman, Jorge missed an off-target throw from Jeter to first. Players who shoot their mouths off too much, start pouting publicly to the media and think their above getting moved around really annoy the heck out of me. I've got zero respect for Posada right now. Shut up and play the game and give your best effort, no matter where you end up on the field. I think the rather large contract you have with the Yankees obliges you to try a little harder.

There wasn't too much else going on with last night's game. The Yankee's just didn't get the job done at the plate.

Solid Pitching Wins the Day

Rock solid pitching for 9 innings propelled the Yankees to a much needed win. Chien-Ming Wang continues to surpass expectations and has blossomed into a true ace. Wang's 6 inning, 1 run performance was a beauty, earning him his sixth win of the season.

Kyle Farnsworth entered the game to a chorus of boos but received a decent ovation on his exit after retiring the side in order. Chamberlain and Rivera were sharp as well with Joba allowing one hit and Mo knocking them out in order.

The Yankees offense put together some hits and drove in enough runs to maintain a comfortable lead, highlighted by Melky Cabrera's 2 run double. Matsui had an RBI single and was the only player in the lineup currently hitting over .300.

Jorge Posada's shoulder appears to be a case of rotator cuff tendonitis and might require surgery, but no until the off season. Team officials expect him to be out up to 5 weeks. The immediate plan is to give him 10 days off then try a 2 week rehab and see how things are.

Phil Hughes saw an eye doctor who told him he was nearsighted and needs glasses. Hopefully that will help with some of the vision complaints Hughesy has been having.

RHP Jose Veras was called up to the bullpen to fill an empty roster spot after Hughes went on the DL.

Posada Being Selfish

“I’m not playing first base. I’m a catcher. We’ve got seven first basemen."  That quote from Jorge Posada was taken from today's New York Times article on the injured Yankee catcher.

So much for all that leadership and character. This comment sounds like something you'd hear from a certain Cincinnati Bengals receiver.

If your team needs you to play another position, you do it. Especially when they went out on a limb to sign you to a big contract in the twilight of your career. Posada's comment really sent me through the roof and killed any respect I had for his character.

Platooning at first base and DH may give Posada a way to continue playing while his shoulder recovers and if so he should accept his fate if that's what the Yankees decide.

I would not, under any circumstances, expect him to play first or DH if it were going to do more damage to his shoulder or if it would prevent his injury from healing quickly. If Jorge doesn't have surgery and playing first is an option, he darn well better go where they tell him.

Yankees Win 1-0

Chien-Ming Wang was on top of his game today pitching 7.0 innings of 4 hit, scoreless ball. CC Sabathia was almost as good for Cleveland but gave up a solo dinger to Melky Cabrera for the only run of the game. Wang racked up 9 strikeouts and only walked 2.

Joba and Mo were perfect in relief, retiring all 6 batters in order in the eight and ninth innings. Chamberlain was throwing 98 mph heat and looks healthy.

Shelley Duncan hasn't produced at the plate and went 0 for 4 today.

Jorge Posada was scratched at the last minute although the Yankees refused to comment on the reason. The New York Times is reporting that he has a shoulder tear and might need surgery. We'll see if we get any definitive information after the game from the media-shifty Girardi. If Jorge can't catch the Yanks will have to bring back Moeller if he clears wavers, or else find another catcher. Chris Stewart might come up from AAA if they need a replacement before Moeller is available again. If no surgery is needed but Posada has to lay off throwing, there's a chance he could still DH or possibly play 1st base (although Jorge won't like that idea).

If another catcher has to be brought in (or up) I don't expect Shelley Duncan to stick around. Alberto Gonzalez is tremendously useful with his defensive skills and Ensberg can play first and third. Outfielders the Yanks have aplenty.

We'll have to wait and see what happens as there is no immediate report yet.

Mussina Showing Trade Value?

The Yanks won 6-4 last night, beating the Chicago White Sox with the help of a good outing by Mike Mussina. Moose toughed out 7 innings, throwing 101 pitches, 66 for strikes. He gave up 4 hits, 2 runs, walked 1 and struck out 3. Mussina got worked deep into counts a few times, but came out and challenged some hitters early, getting ahead on the count and putting himself in the driver's seat. I'm wondering if this very nice performance will give Mussina some trade value, enticing some poor unsuspecting team to pick up the washed up veteran?

The bullpen had some troubles, apparently stunned at not having to come in early with Mussina on the mound. LaTroy Hawkins got the first batter out then couldn't find the plate with his fastball and walked the second batter. Hawkins then gave up a single to Orlando Cabrera and was pulled as Girardi brought in Billy Traber to face the left handed Jim Thome, who lit up Traber with a ground ball single to right. OK, not really, Traber did a fine job and the play was botched by the defensively inept Giambi. The official scorers should credit that earned run to Giambi rather than Yankee pitcers. Having seen enough and with the right handed Konerko coming to the plate, Girardi called for Mo. Rivera allowed one run to score on a sacrifice fly and quickly got the third out by getting Dye to pop one up. Mariano made quick work of three batters in the ninth to finish the game.

Mariano Rivera is on a tear this year. He had me worried at the start of the season last year, but this season, he is an absolute machine.

Guys like Hawkins can't be relied on to reliably get people out in pressure situations. If Girardi left him in, he may have ended up retiring the side without letting a run score, but you'd like to have one or two relievers who can be counted on to get a particular batter out. Hawkins and Traber didn't deliver this time.

Jorge Posada went 4 for 5 and there were no stolen base attempts. As a team the Yankees hit well, but I don't like the 11 LOB. Johnny Damon continues to deliver in the clutch, knocking in 2 runs.

A good win for the Yanks, an encouraging outing from Mussina and some offensive production. If only we could get this every game...

Abreu Grand Slam Propels Yanks to Win

Chien-Ming Wang was getting hit frequently Tuesday night in Chicago, but Bobby Abreu came through with a 2 out grand slam home run.

Wang gave up 10 hits in 6 innings and allowed 3 runs. Many of Wang's pitches that were put into play went deep and were caught on the warning track. In a different ballpark the results could have been much uglier for the Yankees. Chien-Ming's win was the 50th of his career, reached in only 85 games. Dwight Gooden and Ron Guidry reached the 50 mark after 82 games.

The Bullpen was less than stellar today. Billy Traber was only allowed to face one batter, which he walked. Brian Bruney came on and proceeded to load the bases while only getting one out. Finally the Yanks called in Joba Chamberlain to get out of the bases loaded, one out jam. Struck out one batter, walked in a run, and then got the final out on a pop fly fielded by Posada.

To keep things interesting, New York manager Joe Girardi gave every fan watching a scare by brining in Kyle Farnsworth to close out the game. With the Yankees up 5 in the the bottom of the ninth, Farney walked one, gave up a hit, and allowed a run to score before getting the third out of the inning and ending the game.

Bobby Abreu had the biggest clutch hit of the night and put the Yankees on top in the seventh inning. Johnny Damon went 3 for 5 with a home run of his own. Jason Giambi was removed from the game with a swollen thumb after a horrible defensive play at first that should have been scored an error. While Giambi did hit a solo home run, his offensive production is still poor and he remains a huge defensive liability.

Surprisingly there were no stolen bases with Posada behind the plate, and no runners were caught stealing. Yankee pitchers did a good job of keeping runners close to first, but the one or two times runners went early, balls were put into play. I'm surprised that there weren't more attempts to steal, given the vulnerable arm that Jorge has.

The team LOB tonight was 6, a respectable number. If the Yankee bats can get on base and drive runners home like they did tonight, they'll be able to overcome their problems with pitching. Up until now it's mostly been starting pitching, but tonight the bullpen looked particularly vulnerable.

Congratulations to Alex Rodriguez and his wife on the birth of their second daughter.

Competition Notes: The Boston Red Sox beat the Los Angeles Angels 7-6, and are showing no signs of letting up. This is troubling to Yankee fans because the Sox ace Josh Beckett was scratched from the game. Instead, David Pauley was called up from the minors for the start. Pauley was shelled, giving up 7 hits and 5 runs in 4.1 innings of work. The Boston bullpen held strong, and even Mike Timlin got a batter out as they waited for the offense to come alive in later innings and secure the win. Even with their best starter out, this team finds a way to win. The Yanks will have to wait another day to try and close the gap.

Posada for Hall of Fame?

A recent discussion came up on another great Yankees blog, This Purist Bleeds Pinstripes, and the idea of Jorge Posada being a Hall of Fame player intrigued me. I went over to Baseball Reference (.com) to check out some stats of other HOF catchers to see where Posada stacks up. I looked at two Yankee catchers and a few well known modern guys. The list included: Bill Dickey, Yogi Berra, Johnny Bench, Carlton Fisk and Gary Carter.

This is just an informal look at this point and for a more accurate analysis I would use a wider range of statistics and compare to every HOF catcher to date. For now, I think the data presented paints a fairly reasonable picture.

Let's take a look at how Jorge measures up to his competition in the Hall.

I emailed my thoughts to friend Tim who is much baseball-smarter than I am, a die-hard sabermetrician, and a decent baseball player (catcher). He had some different takes on the analysis and I'll throw some of his comments in here in italics. Note, I hit him up at work and so he didn't have as much time as I did to research the numbers, but the guy is a walking encyclopedia of baseball knowledge.

Offense:

	#Seas	OBP	SLG	OPS+	HR	RC	RC/G	EQA*
Posada	14	.380	.478	124	218	899	6.5	.299
Bench	17	.342	.476	126	389	1239	5.9	.289
Fisk	24	.341	.457	117	376	1378	5.5	.282
Carter	19	.335	.439	115	324	1184	5.1	.279
Dickey	17	.382	.486	127	202	1165	7.0	.292
Berra	19	.348	.482	125	358	1265	6.0	.285

*Equivalent Average, adjusted for all time (Baseball Prospectus)

I threw in RC (runs created) and RC/G (runs created per game) on a lark, although I'm not sure how much weight I would give either of those stats.

Baseball Prospectus also provides another stat, WARP (wins above replacement player) that provide some useful insights, but need to be looked at on a season by season basis. Johnny Bench had some monster seasons with WARPs between 10.6 and 12.0 during his 4 best years. He sets the bar for modern offense among this group. Posada's best season comes in at 9.1.

OPS+ (adjusted on base percentage plus slugging) is the best number here as far as league corrections go and probably the most comparable. Posada stacks up reasonably well to these other hall of famers, hitting better than guys like Fisk and Carter and on par with old-timers like Dickey and Berra.

Tim points out that Carter hit in a deficit era and if corrected for would probably be more in line with Posada. Carlton Fisk had a lot of career ups and downs, and career stats for him are misleading. Bench and Berra outclass Jorge in the offensive department in Tim's opinion.

He astutely points out that Jorge's numbers right now don't include his decline years. Yogi's numbers are affected by decline years and if you only tallied the stats up to the same point in his career that Jorge is at, Yogi would have even better numbers. I think we can safely expect to see decent numbers from Posada in the next year or two, but they won't match his 2007 output. Hence the career averages and rates will start to creep down.

Post Season Offense:

	Appearances	OBP	SLG
Posada	23 PS Series	.352	.379
Bench	10 PSS	.335	.527
Fisk	3 PSS	.355	.407
Carter	5 PSS	.320	.466
Dickey	8 World Series	.329	.379
Berra	14 WS	.359	.452

Sub-par post season performance won't keep him out of the hall, but making a splash in the series can put an extra shine on your resume. Nothing here for Posada that really impresses, however.

Defense: (catching stats only)

	Seasons	PB	WP	SB	CS	SB%
Posada	14	123	414	806	337	71%
Bench	17	94	446	610	469	57
Fisk	24	129	428	1302	664	66
Carter	19	84	464	1498	810	65
Dickey	17	76
Berra	19 (9*)	76	85*	154*	141*	52

*Only 9 years of data is available for Yogi's SB and CS.

Defense is a weak point for Posada, who's arm is a well known target for base stealers. In 2007 he led the league in stolen base attempts. His stolen base percentage is usually right around or below average for league starters.

Comparison statistics with players of different eras aren't all that useful when it comes to stolen bases, and so it can be more helpful to look at other current players. Ivan Rodriguez has a 53% SB%, Jason Varitek 74%, Bengie Molina 67%, Ramon Herndandez 69%. Ivan is one of the best defensive catchers when it comes to throwing out runners. The others shown are veterans who have been around a while and are in a similar range as Posada. Younger arms like Yadier Molina, Gerald Laird, and Kenji Johima had 2007 SB% of 46%, 47%, and 60% respectively. Jorge is certainly quite a bit off the mark when it comes to the top defensive arms.

Tims take: Posada is adequate but not good. He was a better blocker early on and his arm has been failing lately. Bench was a defensive powerhouse and Pudge is also a good current standard. Tim used several expletives to further drive home the point of Johnny Bench being the bar against which all others are measured defensively.

Other Numbers:
Posada has been fairly healthy most of his career, making a decent number of starts. His overall durability adds credence to the notion of his hall-worthiness. He has never one a gold glove, unlike others (Bench 10, Fisk 1, Carter 3) and has only won the MVP twice. With guys like Ivan Rodriguez around, Posada has had tough competition along the way. His post season performance hasn't netted him any series MVPs, but he's been playing with quite a few other future HOFers.

Baseball Prospectus' take from 2007 puts Posada solidly in the hunt based on their JAWS scores. When it comes to evaluating HOF candidates, however, I don't like breaking down too many factors into a single number.

Final Thoughts:
One important number right now for Jorge is 14. The number of seasons he's been around. He still needs to have a few more productive years to solidify his place as a legitimate hall of fame candidate. If he can get at least 3 more years and still maintain offensive production, I think he is in. If something were to happen and his career ended now, I'm not so sure. His 2007 season was spectacular, but at age 36 he's unlikely to repeat and very likely to see significant drops in performance over the next few years.

Tims analysis: Posada doesn't have Fisk or Carter's longevity, Bench's total package, or the bat of guys like Berra. I disagree with his offense assessment slightly, but agree that Jorge needs a few more good years to pad his career numbers and gain a sense of longevity and durability. After a second round of discussion we reached a consesus opinion:

Right now: borderline; After a few more good years: lock.

Disappointing Outing For Hughes

Phil Hughes wasn't dialed in today and the quiet Yankee bats did little to help him out. Phil lasted 3 innings, giving up 3 runs on 6 hits, walking 4 and striking out 2. In defense of the Yankee starter, the umpire had an odd and inconsistent strike zone. Phil wasn't able to adjust and had poor control in his limited outing.

Ross Ohlendorf came in and pitched 3, giving up 2 runs on 4 hits. Billy Traber and LaTroy Hawkins each pitched a scoreless inning. Latroy performed a little better than he has previously and perhaps the absence of booing Yankee fans helped.

There were no offensive standouts today and Alex Rodriguez struck out in all 4 appearances at the plate.

The Yankees defense was rather poor today and Kansas City stole 5 bases. Wilson Betemit couldn't handle any of Posada's throws on a couple of pitchouts, and Jason Giambi had trouble getting the ball out of his glove when a runner should have been picked off going from 1st to 2nd. In the late innings Benji Molina had come in and made a nice throw to get Gload attempting to steal 3rd.

Posada left the game with a sore shoulder and might be heading to the DL. The Yankees will be sorely missing his bat.

The Yankees are going to have to put bigger numbers up on the board if they hope to have a chance of winning this season with 4 unpredictable starters (Wang being the only one who has shown consistency).

AL East News: Dice-K was sharp in Boston's 5-0 win over Kenny Rogers and the struggling Tigers. Manny Delcarmen had settled down and pitched 1.1 innings to set up Okajima. Youkilis had 3 hits and 2 RBIs to lead the offense.

Baltimore continues to win with a solid outing from Brian Burres who gave up 1 run in 6 innings of work. Baltimore outscored the Rangers 8-1 and 1st baseman Aubrey Huff went 4 for 4 scoring 1 and driving in 4.

Toronto and Oakland are tied 6-6 in the top of the 6th and Tampa Bay is trailing Seattle, down 4-3.