[新聞] New Yankee Stadium a hitter's paradise

看板NY-Yankees作者leddy (耿秋)時間17年前 (2009/04/20 23:06)推噓14(14推 0噓 8→)

留言22則, 15人參與討論串1/1

New Yankee Stadium a hitter's paradise by Ken Rosenthal Ken Rosenthal has been the senior baseball writer for FOXSports.com since Aug. 2005. He appears weekly on the FSN Baseball Report and MLB on FOX. Updated: April 19, 2009, 11:10 AM EST NEW YORK - What shall we call it? Coors East? Citizens Bank North? A $1.5 billion bandbox? Three games are not enough to draw conclusions about a ballpark. Twelve games are not enough to draw conclusions about a team. And yet . . . Seventeen home runs have been hit in the first three games at the new Yankee Stadium. The Yankees on Saturday allowed 14 runs and 13 hits in an inning for the first time in their 106-year history. Indians 22, Yankees 4. Yankees right-hander Chien-Ming Wang is a problem. The Yankees' bullpen, aside from Mariano Rivera and Brian Bruney, is a problem. And with popups to right field dropping for home runs, the ballpark is a problem, too. It's only April. The first three games at the new stadium took place on warm afternoons. But just imagine: Home runs might fly out of the park even more frequently when summer hits and the weather gets even hotter. The dimensions of the new Yankee Stadium are the same as the old. The short right-field porch is no more or less inviting. But for whatever reason, balls seem to carry better to right than they did across the street. A pity that Babe Ruth no longer is with us. In this park, he might hit 75 home runs. "The ball gets legs. It climbs," says one scout who is attending the opening series. "It's not so much that it's getting out of there quickly. It's just staying up there." And once the old stadium is knocked down, sometime this summer, the new stadium could play even smaller. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told the MLB on FOX broadcasters before Saturday's game that the demolition of the old stadium will allow the wind from the Harlem River to blow directly into the new one, perhaps creating a jet stream to left-center field to match the one in right and right-center. Who needs steroids? The Yankees' Melky Cabrera has become Miguel Cabrera. And the Indians' Asdrubal Cabrera is hitting grand slams. To be fair, the Yankees did not know how the new park would play. They cannot predict with any certainty what will happen when the old one falls. For all the money spent on wind studies, predicting how baseballs will fly is an inexact science, and it's possible that the first three games will prove a fluke. Then again, what if the pattern holds? True, the park could be an advantage for the Yankees' left-handed sluggers, and even right-handed hitters such as Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez who like to go to the opposite field. The psychological impact on the team's pitchers, however, could more than offset any offensive gain. And right now, the Yankees' pitching is not very good. Scouts wonder if Wang is hurt. It seems inconceivable that a sinker-baller who won 19 games with ERAs of 3.70 or below in 2006 and '07 could pitch this poorly. Wang has worked only six innings in his three starts. His ERA is 34.50. The Yankees would be insane to allow him to make his next scheduled start at Fenway Park, especially when right-hander Phil Hughes is 2-0 with a 2.31 ERA in his first two outings at Class AAA. Right-hander A.J. Burnett and lefty Andy Pettitte are the only Yankees starters pitching well; lefty CC Sabathia and righty Joba Chamberlain have been inconsistent. The bullpen, though, is by far the bigger mess. Edwar Ramirez, Jose Veras, Damaso Marte . . . all have been disappointing. The Yankees have allowed 70 runs in their six losses, an average of 11.7 per game. Take away Saturday's debacle, and that average reduces only to 9.6 per game. The Indians, Rays and Orioles — three of the Yankees' first four opponents — are strong offensive clubs. But not this strong. The bullpen is in crisis in part because of short outings by Sabathia, Chamberlain and Wang in this series. Poor Anthony Claggett allowed eight runs in 1 2/3 innings Saturday in his major-league debut. Of course he had no chance; this is his first season at Class AAA, and the Yankees promoted him only because they needed another arm. For the moment, the debate over whether Chamberlain should be the setup man is not even relevant. Bruney, who has retired 17 straight hitters, seems more than qualified for that role. The Yankees' problem will not be getting to Rivera. It will be getting to Bruney. Then there is manager Joe Girardi, whose job security will grow tenuous if this embarrassment continues. Or will it? If anything, the Yankees' deficiencies should earn Girardi a pass. He didn't construct the pitching staff. He didn't construct the ballpark. For $1.5 billion, the Yankees should have thought of everything. Alas, they forgot to buy off Mother Nature. -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 61.225.144.62

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