[Taliesin]

More fun w/ Jacko

Originally Posted by jacksonianmarch

I dont think this yankee team will start slow out of the gate, mostly because of the youth infusion in the rotation. Most older pitching staffs start out slow and pick up steam as the season goes along. While the younger staffs blow their load early. We'll have to see how we progress, but I'd expect us to be quick out of the gate and potentially fall back to the pack (depending on the Joba situation of course.)

Originally Posted by jacksonianmarch

Lester is by no means a hard throwing lefty. He is a lefty who was sitting 89-91 last yr, and living in Mass, I saw every one of his starts. He apparently threw high 90s in the minors, but that wasnt even close to what he truly threw in Fenway.

He reminds me a lot of Ted Lilly without the success at this point. Inconsistent FB command, a very nice curve that is inconsistently located, a cutter that is average at best and a show me changeup. If he truly does throw mid 90s and the chemo was the main detractor, then we should see this yr. But he wasnt throwing that hard before he started the chemo either and he still had the same problem. He doesnt command the zone well, and for a guy who doesnt have power stuff, that will be problematic.

Originally Posted by jacksonianmarch

I like the signing. This essentially assists us greatly vs lefties since Ensberg has historically mashed them. Last yr, even though he barely OPS'd .700 last yr overall, he OPS'd .830 vs lefties and in 06 when he OPS'd only .859 (well down from prior) he still OPS'd over 1.000 vs lefties. Put that with Duncan who crushed lefties last yr and historically through the minors, and you have two right handed power weapons that we didnt have for the full yr last yr. This is a good thing since we struggled vs lefties.

Our OPS vs Righties last yr was the best in the majors, but our OPS vs lefties was 60 points lower, good for 11th. Most of this was due to players like Abreu (.678 vs .857), Damon (.705 vs .762), and Matsui (.814 to .872). Also, Jason Giambi (even though he was dead on in splits last yr) has been historically terrible vs lefties (.843 to .970 for the past 3 yrs). This essentially guarantees that 2 of the above players sit against lefties, offering us a greater offensive capability. How will they both fit in? Well...

Ensberg plays 1b as does Duncan, but Duncan can also DH or play LF. Also a possibility is Ensberg playing 3b and ARod playing DH on occasion. Regardless, it offers another right handed bat coming off the bench late in games to face tough pen lefties too. I think this helps a lot.

I'm going w/ hubris. Lot's of smashing and mashing words abound. Blowing loads and the like. Also, hence is a favorite.