Yeah, I know I said in the subsequent blog entry by Dave that I was surprised that Washburn wasn’t destroyed every time he faced the heart of the Yanks’ order, but…

…those guys are definitely not hitting on all cylinders, and quite a few of them haven’t been for at least a couple of weeks.

Cano hasn’t all season so far. He’s ‘WAY less selective that he was last season/pitchers have adjusted. ARod isn’t getting fastballs on the outside of the plate as much as he was in April. Abreu…not even Yanks fans know what’s happened to Abreu, but pitchers have figured out that he’s “patient” and pitch accordingly.

The “excuse” for their poor showing offensively offered at the Yanks’ MLB.com site is this:

…an offense that may have been suffering a hangover of sorts from a 12-run pasting on Thursday at Yankee Stadium and an ensuing cross-country flight.

I don’t know how many times I’ve read that excuse, but obviously it hasn’t dawned on the writer that the MARINERS also had that cross-country flight, and they too were beat soundly in Detroit by their own pitcher as well as the Tigers.

I’m not going to steal Dave’s thunder by saying anything more except that… these last couple of games by Washburn have been some of his best stuff in years. He looked a lot more like 2002 Washburn tonight, and it was fun to see.

This year we’re getting a “lucky” season out of Jarrod Washburn. It doesn’t mean that Washburn is suddenly a true #2 starter, but it doesn’t mean we should avoid enjoying his success either.

This was a pretty good game from Washburn. Heck, it’s a good game from anybody. He did get some help one a couple of really good defensive plays and one bad ump call in our favor. But overall, it was a good good piece of work.

I would say J-Wash’s best pitching performance for us was probably his first game last year against the Angels when he went 7 IP gave up 2 runs but struck out 7. He had an 8-5 GB:FB ratio that game and walked nobody. He did give up a longball tho.

Isn’t Putz’s nickname “The Wolverine”, because he went to Michigan?

Is Ibanez any better of a hitter than Johjima?

I know the measurements and statistical data say otherwise, but who’s to say 2007 won’t be another exception?

I’m rooting for an exception.

I’m sure Dave will go over Washburn in a whole lot more detail later Saturday. But no one in here is stupid enough to say that Washburn sucks and he’s only been lucky. But it’s possible to be good and lucky as much as it’s possible to just be only good.

Washburn’s been good, his strikeout numbers compared to his walks and the number of groundballs he’s induced are a good sign of that. But he’s also been lucky with his line drive rate and his left on base percentage. The way’s he pitching right now he doesn’t have to be lucky to look good, but the combination is certainly impressing.

Dave, DMZ and all the others: you have done a tremendous job at maintaining this site.

BTW , can we get a nickname for Putz????

how about MR AUTOMATIC?