If It Ain't One Reliever, It's A Mother Effin' 'Nother

Phil Coke. Come on down. You're the next contestant on "It's Your Turn To Suck." Aargh. The Yankee bullpen is making me really sick. It's becoming very difficult to watch because you just now that something bad is going to happen. It's just a matter of who will crap the bed and when. Last night the who was Phil Coke, who was the last person, next to Mo, I expected to tank. Coke had been lights out up until the 1st batter he faced took him deep for the eventual game winner. In his previous 9 outings, he had pitched 7 scoreless innings, allowing only 2 hits and 1 walk. What surprised me the most about him giving up that longball was that he gave it up to a left-handed batter. Lefties were only hitting .158 off Coke. So I was a little shocked but at the same time, it's the Yankee bullpen, so it's to be expected.

When are the Yankees going to get off on the good foot? It's becoming the same story, game after game, year after year. They are start out tremendously bad and can't hit consistently with RISP. The Yanks are now 1 game below 500 at 13-14 and are 2 for their last 21 (.095) with RISP. Last year after 27 games, they were 14-13. In 2007, they were 12-15. They started out a little better in 2006 at 16-11, but were bad in 2005 @ 11-16. So 4 of the last 5 years, they've been slow out of the gate. This year they're hitting only .254 with RISP. The AL average is .277 and the major league average is .264. Last year, the Yanks hit .261 w/RISP. The AL average was .276 and the MLB average was .266. It's hard to believe when you look at the guys that make up the Yankee offense, that they're well below average. There is no way on God's green Earth that the Yankee offense should ever be below average. But it is, and I can't really think of a reason why. My only assumption is that they have the longball mentality where they're trying to jack it out of the park instead of keeping the line moving with base hits. As much as I'd like to blame Girardi for this, I can't. He's not the one swinging the bat. But it's his job to get his team to perform, and he's failing miserably when it comes to getting them to play to their potential.

I know they're playing in a new ballpark. I know they've played more away games than home games. I know A-Rod hasn't had a plate appearance yet. I know Chien-Ming Wang has an ERA of 34.50 and that Mark Teixeira is only hitting .209. If you take everything into account, 13-14 isn't all that bad. But the team is better than that and they need to start playing like it.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie