BASEBALL AT IT'S BEST: DONNIE BASEBALL & A NO-HITTER

Don Mattingly was always one of my favorite Yankees. I marveled at his subtle greatness. His crouched batting stance and his amazing play at 1^st Base. I wanted to be a 1^st baseman because of Donnie Baseball. I was saddened that he never got a ring as a player and is still the greatest Yankee to never have played in a World Series. I also lamented about Donnie not getting the manager job. Nothing against Girardi but Donnie is a Yankee icon and he was mentored well by Joe Torre but no regrets. Joe got us our 27^th so life is good all around here in Yankeeland.
 

 As for Donnie Baseball these days, as we know he landed in Los Angeles with the Dodgers as bench coach for Joe Torre and eventually succeeding him as manager. I gotta tell you. It is really hard to see Donnie in Dodger Blue. I have never liked the Dodgers. They were my mom's favorite team dating back when they were still in Brooklyn. But, since her death in 03, my loathing of LA has subsided somewhat, but not altogether.

So, fast forward to last Friday night, June 8^th. Living in Seattle now, I cheer for the Mariners, (when they don’t play my Yanks of course) and I was really looking forward to seeing Donnie Baseball again for the first time since he left the Yankees. However, I had no idea it would be on a historic occasion.

I tried to get a good pic of Donnie, but unlike Bobby Valentine who is despised by his players, the Dodgers love Donnie and he is usually surrounded by coaches and players, and with everyone wearing blue sweatshirts, it was hard to make him out. The Dodgers have a great pitching staff but without Matt Kemp, their lineup is not that formidable.

The Mariners are not that great either but Kevin Millwood who started, has been on a resurgence this season. The game sped along without much action and when I glanced up at the scoreboard in the 4^th inning, I noticed that the Dodgers were hitless and then again in the 5^th and 6^th and I started getting a feeling that something special was gonna happen this night. I had never seen a no hitter in the hundreds of games I have been to in my life so far so I was getting excited. But, that changed when Millwood was pulled due to a groin injury, I thought, there goes the No-Hitter but was I wrong. 5 M’s relievers combined to preserve what Millwood started including Charlie Furbush, Stephen Pryor, Lucas Luetge, Brandon League and Tom Wilhelmsen. For an intense 1-0 Mariners win. This was the 10^th combined no-hitter in baseball history. And anchoring the Mariners that night was none other than former Yankee phenom, Jesus Montero.

I was very happy for Jesus to have played such a pivotal part in this historic moment. Looks like his catching isn’t so bad after all. Still, I’m not looking back on letting Jesus go, I keep looking forward. Everything happens for a reason I believe and it was Jesus’s time to not be with the Yankees any longer. Can’t dwell on it.

The bottom line, it was great to see Donnie Baseball again at a ballpark, it brought back many memories of seeing him many times in Yankee Stadium. But it made it even more special was getting to see him on such a historic night. 

--Thomas Brophy, BYB Guest Writer





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A YANKEE FAN IN SEATTLE: MY TAKE ON PINEDA

This piece is from a BYB reader and a Yankee fan...Thomas Brophy, who now lives in the Seattle area. We Love Thomas here at Bleeding Yankee Blue and interact with him often on Twitter and Facebook. He's one of the good ones. I wanted to get his take on Pineda and luckily for us, he was happy to. Enjoy this.

--Casey
Like many Yankee fans, I was wondering who the Yankees were going to try and pick up during the off season and was starting to get nervous. All was quiet from the front office and then BANG! We trade for Michael Pineda and Hiroki Kuroda. Woo Hoo! Now, living in Seattle, I had the privilege of seeing Pineda pitch all the time last year and while it is true, he tailed off during the 2nd half of the season, there is no doubt, this kid's got the stuff from what I've seen. He averages a K per inning and his fastball clocks in consistently around 95 mph. Now, in addition his stuff, I also saw a "Beast-mode" mentality when he took the mound. He was composed and he has a great intimidating presence. The downside is that he obviously got tired in the 2nd half of last season and he also seemed to put on some weight. I don't think we need another pitcher with a CC physique . However, in many of Pineda's losses, the M's only scored 1 or no more than 2 runs for him. He didn't have run support. Clearly that won't happen in the Bronx.

Put it this way, if Pineda was on the Yankees and Ivan Nova on the Mariners and you were to take into consideration their run support, this is what their final records would have been:

Seattle provided 98 runs in Pineda’s 28 starts; An average of 3.5 runs per game.

• Pineda and the Seattle relievers allowed 111 runs in those 28 starts (-13 run differential.) That's 4.0 runs per game.

New York provided 162 runs in Nova’s 27 starts: average of 6.0 runs per game.

• Nova and the New York relievers allowed 95 runs in those 27 starts (+67 run differential.) That's 3.5 runs per game.

The illustrated actual splits for Pineda and Nova projected from their splits based on reversing the run support. Proportioned the ratio per each start and adjusted the decision and non-decision accordingly. If Nova had Pineda’s run support his projected W-L record would have gone from 16-3 as a starter to 10-10. See breakdown below:If Pineda had Nova’s run support W-L record his projected W-L record would have gone from 9-10 to 13-5. See breakdown below:These stats were compiled by Jeff Permuy of JPSportstats.
As difficult as it is to lose an up-and-comer like Jesus Montero, this works out to be a win-win for both squads. Mariners needed a bat and my Yanks need another arm. We can always find a spare bat, right? Bottom line, we picked up a future star in Pineda, who could become a #1 or #2 starter in the future and could win as many as 25 games or more. I'm not kidding.

From a Seattle perspective, I can tell you that Mariner fans are rally upset about this trade, they too saw this kid's potential. As a Yankee fan in Seattle, I can safely say, enjoy this kid fellow Yankee fans! I know I will... Pineda is going to rock!



--Thomas Brophy, BYB Guest Writer




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