I’m still absorbing the idea of having CC Sabathia cram 128 pitches into six innings in a game that was in no way a must win as an acceptable strategy—it’s one thing to throw 128 pitches in nine innings, another to squeeze them into two-thirds the space, and I would hate to see the myth of Sabathia’s ...

Since Derek Jeter was last spotted on Planet Baseball, the Yankees have gone 9-3. The quality of the opposition—the Rangers, Cubs, Reds, and Rockies—runs the gamut from very good to fairly miserable, but 9-3 against any level of opposition short of the 2003 Tigers is very good. Vast oversimplification ...

What is Acceptable Production from Your Starting Catcher? Russell Martin finished April hitting .293/.376/.587 and defused any calls for the promotion of Jesus Montero, who has not impressed at Triple-A Scranton. Since then, before/after/during his back stiffness, Martin has hit .194/.331/.301 in 30 ...

As today’s Yankees-Jays game rolls on and Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira knocking home more runs, I wanted to amplify what Jay wrote in his last entry about how the Yankees are hitting in the clutch, using Baseball Prospectus’s RBI opportunities page. The Yankees have hit relatively poorly with ...

Cut it out! (AP) One of my cherished baseball memories is of being at an A’s-Yankees game at the Stadium and having the perfect seats along the first-base line to view Alfredo Griffin being picked off. Getting picked off, along with being caught stealing, is what Griffin did best. In the 1980s, Griffin ...

Brett Gardner is back in the swing of things. (AP) Last week, I pointed out that Alex Rodriguez hadn’t been very productive since bopping a grand slam in the Yankees’ 15-3 win over the Orioles on April 23. You may recall that the Bronx Bombers’ last two runs of the night came via the ...

Curtis Granderson has swatted more homers since last August 14 than any player except Jose Bautist and Troy Tulowitzki. (AP) I spent a lovely Sunday afternoon at Yankee Stadium covering the Bronx Bombers’ 5-2 win over the Blue Jays. Today at Baseball Prospectus (in front of the pay wall, even), ...

Given that the Yankees are on top of the AL East with a 2.5 game lead, this may seem like a niggling matter to bring up. Given that Robinson Cano and Russell Martin both hit home runs last night, it may seem like an inappropriate time to bring this up. Given that the Yankees have played just 14 games, ...

Brett Gardner: Springtime Slugger. (AP) One of my concerns about Brett Gardner this spring was how patient he would truly be. He was exceptionally patient last season. As I wrote in this year’s Baseball Prospectus book, in the short history of recording how many pitches a batter saw per plate appearance, ...

Leading off Brett Gardner is an idea whose time may have arrived. (AP) Over the past several days, Joe Girardi has made minor waves by shuffling his batting order to put Brett Gardner in the leadoff spot and Derek Jeter in the number two hole. Such a move has been hinted at for weeks, but Girardi went ...

I come to you today from Washington, DC, where we just completed a round of radio appearances and a bookstore event. It’s always good to visit a city where they don’t have a competitive team to shrug off your jaded feelings about the coming race. This is a town where the people ask, almost ...

Brett Gardner: Sing it! Born on a mountaintop in South Carolina, he's not tall but he is very fast... Raised in the woods so's he knew every hive... The Yankees drafted him in two-thousand and five! (AP) Yogi Berra famously said, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” ...