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Yankees 7, O's 1: The thing about talent is...

By Scott Christ

Capt Taking two out of three from a team that is expected, at season's end, to be 25-30 games better than the O's is quite OK by me. I just can't bring myself to get negative about today. The Yankees have five or six times the amount of pure talent and ability on their 25-man roster. It's going to happen.

If it continued to happen one out of every three times, we're probably going to the playoffs.

Steve Trachsel, following what will probably end up being one of his best starts of the season (one that resulted in a loss), summed it up best: "We took the series from them. We're happy with that."

Amen, brother. I firmly subscribe to the belief that you're going to win about 60 and lose about 60, and you have 40 or so games that define how good you really are.

One thing that does concern me is George Sherrill's second crappy outing in three appearances. I'm not big on early season ERAs for relievers (or for anyone in most cases), but he's up over six now. "Shutdown" Sherrill may be a mirage. Like, look:

 

  1. Giambi (LH) strikes out
  2. Cabrera (SH-R) walks
  3. Moeller (RH) singles
  4. Damon (LH) walks
  5. Jeter (RH) plates everyone with a double
  6. Abreu (LH) strikes out
  7. Hey, go get Sarfate.
Kind of looks like what happens when you throw a lefty specialist into full-time duty. I know Sherrill got righties out last year. For his career, that is just not quite the case. LOOGYs have value, and it's certainly worth trying Sherrill as the closer. But if you're surprised at any point that he fails, don't curse his name. He's had exactly one season where he's shown the ability to really get right-handed batters out in his pro career. It wouldn't really be his fault; it would be the Orioles taking a perfectly reasonable chance on a guy and it not working out.

Let's go back to Trachsel, though. Can Steve Trachsel be considered a gamer? Pitchers rarely get this, unless they're closers like Troy Percival, but I think Steve might be worthy. True, he struck out five and walked three on Sunday, a feat about as rare as Brandon Fahey's two-hit bonanza on Saturday, and he pitched fairly legitimately well from the box score look of things (I missed most of the game), but let's talk about his gamer credentials.
  1. He pitches awfully, walks too many, doesn't strike anyone out, throws crap up there, and yet he keeps getting by without turning into one of the absolute worst pitchers in baseball. This shows an ability to "make the most out what talents he has" -- check!
  2. He's white. Generally speaking, this is a prerequisite to being a "gamer."
  3. He has, in fact, been to the playoffs. Check! (We'll ignore that it was one time, and that his performance once there was, ohhh, a little less than stellar.)
  4. He wants his team to win and tries his best to make that happen. I think this is true of all baseball players, really, but the more sports opinion articles I read, the less it seems this is the case. Check!
  5. He inspires people to, I dunno, do stuff? Check? I guess?
  6. He's not particularly handsome. And he always makes that face when he's pitching. The same face. That's consistency. Check.
  7. Consistency. Check.
  8. When the chips were down the other night because Dave Trembley decided to pull the DH instead of the four or five other things he could have done, Steve Trachsel was in the cage taking cuts in case he had to hit. Going the extra mile! Check!
Yeah, I think it's settled. Though he rarely gets his dirty jersey, being an American League pitcher, I believe Steve Trachsel is a Gamer.

Nick Markakis walked three times. Lazy jerkoff.

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