Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Yankees(Kennedy) vs Indians(Byrd)

I think we all read into too much about Spring Training games, Thanks to Chad Jennings' SWB Blog, We get one of best quote from players to prove that statement,

One of the New York reporters asked Hawkins if this spring training has been about as good as he could have hoped,

"Spring don't mean sh**, dude."

But, I do believe you definitely can see epitome of players' possible regular season performance.

When you saw Kennedy throwing 48 out of 91 pitches for strikes which is 52%, you know his stuff and command wasn't there. After giving up 4 runs in the first inning, Kennedy actually came back to pitch almost 4 scoreless innings even though he continuously struggled through the whole 5 inning. I like he didn't give up and lose composure in order to keep Yankees in the game, especially when you consider he pitched against great hitting team(Indians). If Hughes, Kennedy and Mussina all give us 3-4 runs at 5-6 innings, we are in good shape. Of course, They will turn into a gem once a while.

The only thing I have problem with Kennedy is his PFP(Pitchers Fielding Practice). He should and will pay attention on that more for sure after this game. If he cover first base and turn that DP, He probably escape this first inning disaster. You can't afford to give good teams extra out because they will make you pay for that.

As for Melky's error, I won't react that too much after I see how difficult for Matsui and Sizemore catch couple of flyballs. These are obvious evidences to prove that difficult condition(wind/no cloud) for players tracking the balls. But, since Melky plays center field, I do feel Melky is not so good at first jump as a CF. He probably need more experience or practice for that, but Melky did has a great arm to stop opponents' running game.

I won't overreact Giambi's missing tag for that possible out when Molina threw to him because Giambi did pick up a nice ground ball and almost turn a beautiful DP if Kennedy remember to cover first base. We all know Giambi won't be a gold glover at first base and won't play there every game. As long as he stays healthy and produce, I won't have problems with that.

The more I saw Molina playing, the more I feel what a great underrating signing and trade for cashman. He gives us a great backup catcher who is very good at defense while he is not automatically out on the plate as well.

2 comments:

yanks26 said...

All I could think of when Kennedy didn't cover 1st was George calling Irabu a fat pusey toad when he did the same.

Jessica Lee said...

Ha! Kennedy is a kid and was shaken by that error and the messy situation he was in at that moment. That's why he forgot to cover first base.

This will be a great experience for him. I am glad this happens to him during spring training. This will help him