With Rob off on his honeymoon (congratulations), I thought I’d take the opportunity to attempt to fill-in with a quick recap of the weekend’s Yankee games.
The Yanks took 2 of 3 from the Blue Jays this weekend (take one guess as to which game I was at) and were a big hit on Friday night away from a sweep. One of my favorite stats to look at – at least for recapping a game – is WPA. Those of you not familiar, it’s actually a pretty simple stat that measures how each player’s performance impacts the teams chances of winning a given game. For example, if A-Rod comes up to bat and at that moment, based on the current score and inning, the Yankees have a 40% chance of winning the game and after his AB, they have a 60% chance of winning, he scored .2 WPA. The value is cumulative and can also be negative. You can read all the details here at fangraphs.
So here are some notable WPAs from this weekend’s games:
Friday – Blue Jays 5, Yankees 3
Alex Rodriguez: -.358
Jose Bautista: .320
Jon Rauch: .274
Robinson Cano: .262
Freddy Garcia: -.038
So A-Rod was definitely the least valuable player in this one, but that’s what an 0-5 night and a double play with 1-out and the bases loaded will do. Good games from Bautista (whose HR ball almost hit me in the left field stands) and Cano. Jon Rauch had big outs at the end. Garcia was pretty awful and had no control, walking 6, but I was actually impressed he was able to keep the Yankees in the game. That his WPA is barely in the negative reflects that.
Saturday – Yankees 5, Blue Jays 4
Kyle Drabek: -.395
Mariano Rivera: .183
Rafael Soriano: . 131
Eric Chavez: .111
Joba Chamberlain: .102
Pretty simple here. Kyle Drabek got hit hard by a wide variety of Yankees and the Yankee bullpen closed things down.
Sunday – Yankees 5, Blue Jays 2
Jesse Litsch: -.252
Curtis Granderson: .250
Ivan Nova: .133
Brett Gardner: .121
Mariano Rivera: .041
Granderson got the big hit, Gardner got on base in every AB, Litsch got hit around some, and Nova had a solid outing. Though Rivera got the save, it wasn’t exactly the highest leverage.
Altogether a decent weekend for the Yankees, though watching them squander all those scoring opportunities on Friday night was pretty hard to stomach.
5/2: A win tonight for the Yanks, 5-3. They squandered a lot of opportunities, but a Swisher RBI single in the 9th was the game-winner. A PB added an insurance win. Colon 7 IP, 3 R. He continues to surprise. Joba the W. Rivera S #11 (570 career). Yanks go to 17-9, and Mo is 1-0, 11 saves, 1.84.