THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

It would be truly impressive, given the failure of nearly the entire Yankee lineup and the starting pitching, if they pin this one on A-Rod.

I am going to suggest to the Cardinals to try and acquire A-Rod if the Yanks are willing to pay around 5 mil per year to get rid of him.  That will then cost the Cards around 13 mil, which is probably a bargain for him, although I am not sure he can still play SS or even 3B.

Anyway, Kenny Rogers always pitches poorly in the post-season, he can’t beat the Yankees, Torre benches Sheff because Bernie hits better against Rogers, then benches Giambi in favor of Melky.  Torre is an idiot, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.  The Yankees deserve to lose for what they and their fans have done to A-Rod.  Then again, the Tigers deserved to lose for getting swept at home by KC.

Seriously, the game by Kenny Rogers is one of the best pitched games by a good, but not great, pitcher I think I have ever seen.  Speaking of Kenny Rogers, when will the announcers realize that Rogers, at 91-93 on his fastball, is not a junk-ball, finnesse-type pitcher, like Tanana late in his career?

Rogers at 91-93?

I don’t remember ever seeing him above 87-90.

Perhaps the gun was cranked up, so in later innings they could make a big deal about Zumaya hitting 103.

He was 91-93 from the start.  Whether the gun was cranked up or not, I don’t know.  I don’t recall that he was throughout the season, although I was surprised.  I think he may have had a cutter or 2-seamer also that was in the high 80’s.

Rogers’ K/9 in 2006 was only 4.37.

Sounds like a finesse guy to me.

I’ve got a scouting report on Rogers saying his fastball is 84-89, so I’ll blame this on the gun.  Won’t be the first time they do this in the playoffs, won’t be the last.

MLB’s new enhanced Gameday shows the speed/break of every pitch (to 1/10th of a mile per hour!)

Rogers’ fastest pitch by inning --

1st - 92.6 (2nd pitch to Jeter)
2nd - 91.5 (1st pitch to Giambi)
3rd - 91.9 (4th pitch to Cano)
4th - 93.6 (3rd pitch to Giambi)
5th - 91.9 (3rd pitch to Matsui)
6th - 93.7 (2nd pitch to Abreu)
7th - 89.6 (1st pitch to Matsui)
8th - 92.8 (3rd pitch to Damon)

Threw 92.1 on his last pitch of the game. Lot of pitches clustered around 91mph, 86 and 82—I guess fastball, curve and change.