New Yorkers, I'm sure this is a difficult and confusing time for you, so I'm here to help sort things out. It turns out that Alex Rodriguez really is good at baseball. For real. I noticed this year that you seem to enjoy celebrating career statistical totals, so I thought I would point this out:
583 HR -- Alex Rodriguez, 8th All-Time
2747 H -- Derek Jeter, 49th All-Time
And A-Rod is still two years younger than Jeter.
Anyway, I'm not really here to lecture Yankees fans, as much as I might want to do that. (I can't get over the feeling that they don't deserve A-Rod heroics, not after the way they've looked their gift HOFer in the mouth.) I was just thinking about all the criticism directed Joe Nathan's way today. (Some of it of the righteous "Twins have only themselves to blame!" variety.) When you're Joe Nathan, giving up two runs constitutes a pretty bad night. We've seen him do better, certainly. But what ultimately undid him? He gave up a single to a hitter with a career .378 OBP (an outcome which turned out to be better than when our next pitcher faced him) and then he gave up a home run to a guy with 583 HR. A guy who might just hit more home runs than any hitter in baseball history.
And how many home runs is 583 home runs? Justin Morneau, the Twins' beloved power hitter, the second coming of Kent Hrbek, has hit about 28 HR/season over the last few years. He has 163 HR right now. At that pace, it would take him another 15 years just to reach Alex Rodriguez' 583 home runs. Morneau would be 43 years old. Alex Rodriguez is 33 years old now. I wasn't around when Harmon Killebrew was on the team, so I've never followed a power hitter who was nearly that prolific on a day-to-day basis.
So, yeah, Nathan could have done better, and that game still makes me feel a little ill. But I can't get worked up about Nathan's role in the debacle. This wasn't blowing a 3-run lead against a Yuniesky Betancourt, Willie Bloomquist, and Mitch Maier. This was giving up two runs while facing the best hitters on the best offense in the league. And we all wanted him on the mound in that situation--probably a lot of people wanted him on the mound in the 8th inning, too. Maybe this comes off as making excuses, and if so, I don't really care. Nathan officially gets credit for -.574 WPA last night, but if you adjusted for the strength of competition, I feel like it'd be a lot less than that.
If you look at the gameday pitch chart, Joe Nathan threw that pitch right down the middle. You can't do that to anybody, certainly not on a 3-1 count, and certainly not to arguably the best player in the majors. Don't know whether he mislocated it or what, but that was a huge mistake that ended up costing the Twins the game.
You're right that there's no one else I'd rather have on the mound in that situation, but Nathan's got to get over his Yankee jitters, or we're never gonna be able to hold a lead unless it's greater than 4 runs.
Yes, it was right down the middle, and obviously a mistake. Nathan would never put that pitch there in that situation with that count on purpose. He had been watching that wide outside corner all night, and likely felt he could get some favorable calls on or near the black with his slider. He tried three times and couldn't get the call or get A-Rod to bite on it. In one at bat one of the best closers in the game got beat by one of the best hitters in the game. Smallest sample size applies, and I'm not blaming Nathan. In fact, Souhan's column today putting the whole loss on Joe made me want to kick some Top Jimmy nuts.
Aren't sportswriters obligated to put all of the credit or blame on one person? It seems like everyone must have that in their contract.
People throw the ball down the middle all the time without it getting punished. It's by far the worst place to throw the ball, but the idea that no one ever gets by with a bad pitch is misguided. You think Jason Tyner would have put that pitch over the fence?
Joe's career line vs. the Yankmes: 255/333/382, 18:7 K:BB, 1 HR, 2 doubles in 63 PA.
Joe's last month: 159/260/318, 15:5 K:BB, 2 HR, 1 double in 50 PA.
Joe Nathan is the least of my concerns.
Seriously. Maybe he didn't feel like he had his fastball last night, thus all the breaking stuff lat night. He also threw what, three pitches to Teixeira that were uncalled borderline inside strikes?
Also: nice to see that "Yankmes" is starting to stick.
Nathan was certainly the biggest goat in the loss. There's no doubt about that. However, its not like I think he's a choker or anything like that. He just happened to have a bad game at the worst possible time. Given Mariano Rivera's age, there's no other closer I would rather have on the Twins.
Nathan does frustrate me at times when he doesn't attack the zone with his fastball, especially when the batter doesn't represent the tying run. He still throws hard. He needs to challenge batters before he falls behind, although he doesn't fall behind that often.
It just hurts that what was supposed to be such a great strength for the team failed in a game when some of its bigger weaknesses came through so well (third starter, bench and bottom of the order). Plus, we went from looking at a tie series with two of three games at the Metrodome and our two best starters coming up to trailing 2-0 and trying to just avoid a sweep.