Important series (for April).  The Yankees are starting Lyle Overbay at 1B, Vernon Wells in LF, Jayson Nix gets lots of playing time at SS-3B-2B.  None of those 3 would've been signed by AA in the winter at the ML minimum I suspect.  Overbay has a 82 OPS+, Nix a 42.  But Vernon... wow.  He is hitting 271/375/542 for a 151 OPS+ so far. 

Other notables...
Youkilis has a 143 OPS+ at 3B, Cano a 170, Cervelli at CA is hitting 294/415/500 (153 OPS+), and Travis Hafner is 'wow' at 342/444/711 215 OPS+. 
Pettite has a 341 ERA+ (gulp!), Sabathia 157, Kuroda 142.  Riveria is himself, and the Yankees have used just 13 pitchers so far (Jays up to 16 so far).

Vital to find weakness somewhere and show the Yankees the Jays are for real, not just a winter dream.

Just looking at the starting pitching for the series I give the Yankees the edge tomorrow (Kuroda over Buehrle) and the Jays the edge on Sunday (Johnson over Nova).   I am not sure who has the edge tonight and therefore I think it is a very important game to set the stage for one team to win the series.

 

Bautista DHing, Rasmus in centerfield today.  Good.

Bautista DHing, Rasmus in centerfield today. Good.

It's certainly good that Rasmus is in center. It makes no sense that Davis is in right instead of Bonifacio. At the beginning of the week, Bonifacio was in right and was fine, until he was bizarrely moved to center in the 7th inning of a tied game. Since then, Davis has been starting in right despite being the poorer fielder and butchering plays in both of the two games he's played there.

Gibbons was apparently asked to explain his move Tuesday night and said that Rasmus and Bonifacio were about the same in centre. God help us if he really believes that, but now he appears to be punishing Bonifacio for having to answer questions about his mistake and repeatedly putting the lesser fielder in right.

I think it's a lot simpler than all that, CBDC. Davis is a career 7 for 12 facing Pettitte.

Not to mention that Davis is outhitting Bonifacio on the season, and for for their careers. Or that Davis is 4 for his last 8, or that Bonifacio is 1 for his last 15.

"Gibbons was apparently asked to explain his move Tuesday night and said that Rasmus and Bonifacio were about the same in centre."

He demonstrated pretty clearly that he does not actually believe that - yesterday, by bringing Rasmus in as a defensive sub for Bonifacio.

A good manage pretty much has to know how to say the right things, even if his doing is a bit different. 25 ego's to manage can't be an easy thing. I'm pretty sure Gibbons knows who is the better center fielder, the better right fielder, the better 2nd baseman... etc. Guess he also has to deal with the GM, the prez, the media and fans as well. Good thing he is paid pretty well.

Not to mention that Davis is outhitting Bonifacio on the season, and for for their careers.

I imagine there's not much change in their career numbers since the beginning of the week. On Monday, when Bautista first sat out, Bonifacio was in right and Davis was on the bench. On Tuesday, Bonifacio was again in right and Davis again was on the bench until he pinch hit for Rasmus in a tie game in the 7th and played right, and Bonifacio was moved to center costing the game. Since that time, Davis has started every game in right and Bonifacio has been benched. It could be that Gibbons just discovered that Davis is the better career hitter as you say, or that Gibbons is using a small sample vs. Pettite (has Bonfiacio ever even faced Pettite?) but those factors didn't seem to mean much before Bonifacio was put in center on Tuesday and the game was lost as a result.

Obviously it was John Gibbons' fault for walking the first two batters of the inning followed by a smoked line drive to deep left centre.

and Travis Hafner is 'wow' at 342/444/711 215 OPS+.

I was very much in favor of picking up TH as DH over the winter. He's a Jays killer, and would be way better than Lind all season long, I suspect..

I guess since he's signed for a couple more years, the Yankees brass have shown VW where they're hiding the fountain of youth..

I think it's absolutely shocking that Colby Rasmus is such an easy out vs. LHP.  This is the Major Leagues and the fellow seems incapable of making any adjustments at the plate.  It's embarrassing watching him hit with two strikes.  Pitching wise too, this is a rotation that seems unease and lacking in confidence.  I am not impressed with the pitching and hitting coaching this year. 

To finish my rant here.  Take Brandon Morrow tonight.  It's clear he's not finishing his pitches.  Most of his pitches are elevated which is a result of a shortened stride.  This is Major League baseball and a competitive team at that, you cannot have guys not repeating their delivery.  It's simply not acceptable to be honest.  It's lack of concentration. 

JP Arencibia with another typical catching "cramp."  Trying to block a ball fifteen feet in front of home plate.

I believe Rasmus has now struck out in close to 50% of his PAs. He has great power numbers (in a small sample) but red flags abound.

Also: why didn't he throw to the cutoff man on Nunez's shallow fly (i.e., with Wells unlikely to try to score)? That two-run error may well have iced this one for New York.

The third base coach has made a few questionable decisions this season as well. He hung Lind out to dry on an absolutely brutal send a while back - the most egregious example from the games/innings I've seen.

Sample size or not, this is a team to me that does not understand what goes into a competitive playoff bound club. Sloppy play, lack of execution, disturbing number of easy outs, poor coaching. These are not hallmarks of good baseball teams.

I believe Rasmus has now struck out in close to 50% of his PAs. He has great power numbers (in a small sample) but red flags abound.

He's got nothing on Rick Ankiel. In 28 AB, he has 3 HR and has struck out 20 times. He's a TTO monster and that's without having even walked once this year.

"Also: why didn't he throw to the cutoff man on Nunez's shallow fly (i.e., with Wells unlikely to try to score)?"

He did.

Hmm...that might explain why Zaun called the play a good example of a "team error."

The ball was over Edwin's head. Also, the ball took a TERRIBLE hop, I wouldn't put that all on JP.

Words cannot describe how tough it is to watch Lyle Overbay and Vernon Wells help the Yankees crush us.

Long series, long season, but we look like a rookie ball team out there far too often. The talent is there to turn it around, it's just tough to tell yourself that while watching these type of games.

I agree with each of sam's observations about this team not looking like one ready to compete at the upper echelons of major league baseball, regardless of how the talent stacks up on paper. Perhaps we shouldn't have been so quick to forget that many of these guys were at the core of last year's 73 win juggernaut. Importing a bunch of players, however good they may be, from a sad sack outfit along with a drug cheat who wasn't welcome on the World Series champ's postseason roster may have raised the talent level but it seemingly hasn't done much to enhance the level of professionalism, at least to the extent these things can be observed.

The ball was over Edwin's head. Also, the ball took a TERRIBLE hop, I wouldn't put that all on JP.

Arencibia deserves some of the blame for trying to catch it where he did, rather than just in front of the plate, where he would have been on the receiving end of a long hop rather than a short one.

Still, lots of blame to go around tonight. Rajai Davis is making it unimaginable that he arrived in Toronto with a strong enough rep as a defender to be the team's center fielder.

And no way this is a 9-3 game with a robo ump tonight. Pitchtrax and the umpire were in disagreement over several strikes per inning.

Compounding the misery was Buck's painfully scripted insight that the Yankee veterans "know how to win". Not sure what Wells and Overbay have won lately, beyond second leases on careers that seemed toast. 

Four Seamer, tell us how you really feel.

The starters, Jose, and Edwin need to lead this team. The bullpen is solid, and our D will be fine once Jose is back in RF. It's frustrating as hell to watch them lose these type of games, but they're a better team than this.

We'll be fine.

I understand the difficulties A.A. must operate under. Adam Lind is not striking out a lot, but he's not doing enough to play regularly. He needs to pick up the pace, if only to increase his trade value. A.A. can't explain throwing away $7.5MM (prorated) to Roger's.

When A.A. signed Maicer Izturis because 2B options poor, he didn't know how the Offseason would develop. Izturis just isn't good enough to be a full-time 2B. As backup, he's fine, but could A.A. have done better?

Bonifacio is supposed to be a decent defender at his two best positions, CF and 2B. He is supposed to be less than that at SS, 3B, LF, RF. His bat is supposed to be decent with great speed. He might be pressing. What's happened.

I think A.A. should do better.