Don't you get it? Their bullpen is dooming them. They are 12-26....oh wait, they are 26-12, never mind.
Excellent representation of the Yankees this series after being called the best team in baseball last Monday.
The media is more optimistic about the Yankees than actual Yankees fans are. They all see the starting pitching issues.... and like most knowledgable fan bases, they know that without stellar/elite pitching, there is a set limit on how good a team can be.
Way too good. Going to the game on Friday where he's the expected starter against Cleveland. I expect to see that record be tied in person.
All in all a great weekend in NY!!! 3 of 4 in Yankees Stadium is more than anyone can asked except for a sweep that we almost got if not for that big inning from the Yankees. Let's keep it rolling.
seems pretty likely. Things I can't believe about Fiers: He's 1-1 on the season 8.20 FIP, but "only" a 5.75 ERA. Surprised that he consistently gives up multiple HRs, yet manages to go enough innings without completely imploding a la Felix against us (or even Tanaka yesterday) 4.33 xFIP -- if the HRs normalize, he's doing better than we'd need from a 5th starter. I realize this is a case where xFIP probably isn't relevant because the HRs don't look like they're stopping .229 BABIP against (way below avg), 95% strand rate (super high), and 50% groundball rate (career high). He could get a whole lot worse very quickly if those things correct themselves and the HRs don't 4.0 HR/9 -- awful and crazy, but not as bad as Anibal Sanchez, Joe Blanton, and Shawn Kelley among players with at least 10 innings pitched. 2 Nats players, and they're obviously doing well like us. (Those guys have btwn 14-18 IP, Fiers has 36.) HR/FB rate of 39% -- awful and crazy, but not as bad as Dan Otero, Alex Claudio, and Cody Reed (again 10 innings as my min). Otero is on the Indians, successful. Again those guys in the 14-17 IP range. Fiers "only" has -1.0 WAR on the season. The most in the league among pitchers so far is Chris Sale at +2.5. The least, unfortunately, is Mike Fiers.
As I expect his HR problem to get betterm but never go away, his FIP will probably end season closer to his current xFIP, but expect FIP to still be significantly higher than xFIP and just make him undesirable as anything but injury replacement.
As ugly as Fiers HR issues have been, he's been bizarrely effective at keeping us (and the opponents) in games. It's like he does just enough to make sure it's close. Ultimately we are 4-3 in his starts, and he only has one loss, which ironically came in his first start which was easily his best of the season. Meaning we have at least tied every start after he was pulled. We blew a 2 run lead when he left yesterday or else we would be 5-2 in his starts. All of his starts have been winnable, which is what you want from your 5th starter. He's extremely replaceable, but he's not killing us either. Until McHugh is ready or they want to give Feliz a shot, I'm fine leaving him out there, at least for now.
Agree, but based on the stats I posted above, it looks like a lot of his marginally reasonable results are due to luck that shouldn't continue (BABIP, stranding runners, more grounders than usual). So I don't know that they'll continue to be winnable in the same way. Ready for Feliz personally, but won't lose sleep over Fiers if the rest of the 4 guys are healthy
I find the following from ESPN.com incredibly funny. How long did the Yankee's business last...2-3 hours? 3. New York Yankees Record: 22-13 Week 5 ranking: No. 2 The Yankees hadn't lost more than two in a row since they lost three straight April 5-8, but last week they lost three in a row again while scoring three runs or fewer in each of those games. They didn't have more than seven hits in any of those losses after going six straight with at least 10 hits (all wins). Sunday's 11-hit, 11-run explosion to win the first game of their doubleheader was getting back to business as usual. -- Sarah Langs, ESPN Stats & Information
