Game 106: New York at Toronto
Today’s lineups:
NEW YORK YANKEES (63-42)
First place AL East, — GB
1. Derek Jeter, SS
2. Johnny Damon, LF
3. Mark Teixeira, 1B
4. Alex Rodriguez, 3B
5. Hideki Matsui, DH
6. Jorge Posada, C
7. Robinson Cano, 2B
8. Melky Cabrera, CF
9. Eric Hinske, RF
Starter: LHP Andy Pettitte (8-6, 4.51)
TORONTO BLUE JAYS (51-54)
Fourth place AL East, 12.0 GB
1. Marco Scutaro, SS
2. Aaron Hill, 2B
3. Adam Lind, DH
4. Kevin Millar, 1B
5. Vernon Wells, CF
6. Alex Rios, RF
7. Edwin Encarnacion, 3B
8. Rod Barajas, C
9. Jose Bautista, LF
Starter: RHP Roy Halladay (11-4, 2.68)
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~JB
Major League Bastian 
Crap play by Millar, why is he here?
Sending this lineup against the New York Yankees is an embarrassment. Does anyone really expect we can beat these guys with Millar hitting 4th (.178 in July) and playing first base? The guy hitting 4th for the Yankees is Alex Rodriguez. The guy playing 1st base for the Yanks is Mark Teixeira and we have Millar. His error cost us the first run and no one beats the Yanks by giving them extra outs, they’re too good and they “always” capitalize on mistakes.
Oh ya, and Millars 0 for 3 didn’t help either, nor has his recent 8 for 51 clip in which he knocked in a whole 4 rbi’s help much either. Imagine, a guy we’re putting in the 4th hole who’s knocked in a grand total of 9 rbi’s for the two months of June and July. 2 months-9 rbi’s and we put him in the 4th hole, how good is that. Snider and Dopirak both knocked in more rbi’s than that in the last 4 games.
Of course, we can’t put Wells in that spot because he pisses his pants, he gets so scared with runners in scoring position. Although, he does deserve congrats for tonight; that had to be his first meaningful hit of the year and if it wasn’t, the last one was so damn long ago I forgot it actually happened. What is pathetic about that is, we’re hung with this post steroid era loser until the end of 2014. Thanks for that JP!
We need Snider and Dopirak here and in the lineup, have everyone in the lineup playing on all 8 cylinders and it’ll still be one hell of a dogfight to beat these guys.
Come one Beeston, for Christ sakes do something already.
We have another prospect who’s gotten very hot in the last 10 games, Balbino Fuenmayor in Lansing AA. Balbino, was a 16 year old we signed out of Venezuela in 2007 as our Latin bonus baby of the year.
He struggled in 2007 at the GCL and only hit .174, which probably isn’t surprising given his age and background. In 2008, he repeated with the GC Jays and improved greatly, hitting .307/.360/.458 and was promoted to Lansing A for 2009.
He had a forgettable April in Lansing hitting only .152, bounced back in May (.307), struggled in June (.227), and then started taking off in July (.308).
In the last 10 games he’s turned it up a bunch and is hitting .450 with 5 doubles, 1 hr and 9 rbi’s. Maybe he just doesn’t like spring weather or took some time to get used to those damn large mosquitoes in Michigan, lol.
There’s a number of things to like about Balbino, first he’s only 19, second he’s 6’3″ and 235 pounds, third, he hits L & R pitchers almost equally, forth, he’s hitting .364 with risp for the year, fifth, he’s hit 6 hr’s and 13 doubles in 83 games so far in a tough hitter’s league.
I suspect the way he’s heating up, he’ll be well over .300 with reasonable power numbers by the end of year and we might finally have a legitimate 3rd base prospect.
He has also been positioned at 1st base on occasion, which might end up being his final position, time will tell. I think at one point the Jays penciled him at first thinking Ahrens would be the 3rd base guy-but that plan surely must be either out the window or on the shelf by now.
Next year will be an interesting one for Balbino, since I’m sure he’ll be promoted to Dunedin-that is if Ahrens doesn’t block him.
I suspect, he’ll thrive there with the warm weather and could get off to a fast start. I also expect his power numbers will jump dramatically next year and we could see him turn into a rapid riser sooner than later.
He certainly is tuning into one to watch.
Snider was named PCL ‘Player of the Week’ last week. These were his stats for the week:
Pacific Coast League
Travis Snider, Las Vegas
.538 (14-26), 11 R, 7 2B, 1 3B, 3 HR, 15 RBI, 7 BB, 5 SO, 1 SB, 1.231 SLG
I’m glad to see him back wraking again first of all! I really hope he can carry this into next season. For the short he was with the club, in April at least, he did provide a new, exciting and legitimate threat in the Jays lineup.
http://homerfoodandhistory.mlblogs.com/
I feel bad for Doc through these tough times now. Even though he’s happy the trade rumours are done, i’m sure deep down he was really looking forward to going to Philly (or any contender) and winning this year. But instead he is stuck here with this team, and as per JB’s Tweet “Doc’s last 7: 1-4, 3.00, 9 IP 3x, 2.6 runs of support, team record 1-6 w/ 3 1-run Ls and every game separated by 3 runs or less.” They’ve been sucking big time for him again! Any kind of run support would have turned those losses into victories. This team can’t even seem to get up for the games Doc pitches now, to prove to him that they are happy he is still here a team member.
These games are hard to watch, but it must be even more difficult for Doc.
And I agree with the above comments, there is no way way we can continue to put Millar batting 4th, it’s a joke. Yes, the guy was a clutch hitter back in his prime, but those days are gone. It’s time to bring the kids up and give them the rest of the season to play!
I agree Millar is not doing well at all. It might be fun to let Adam Lind play more left field and bring up Brian Dopirak as a DH, with some time at First Base
Speaking of third basemen, Kevin Howard is back with the 51s. Big kid – 6′ – 2″, 190, 28 yrs old. He has hit .341 with 10 HR in 60 games with Las Vegas this year, and had excellent numbers last year bouncing between organizations at A and AAA. In his last 10 games he has had 16 hits in 37 at bats (.432), with 8 RBI, 8 walks and only 3 strikeouts. He is hitting .611 so far in August!
It always amazes me how these guys can go through 6 or 7 seasons in the minors and never get a look at a big league callup, while the major league teams spend millions on their first round draft picks, and about 40% of them never get to the majors.
Does anybody know what happened to Michael Barrett? I can’t find him on any of the affiliate rosters, and there is nothing in the news.