Athletics Nation

Internal conflict

2012-05-29T13:01:54Z

I watched all of yesterday's game, witnessing the A's bullpen implode after 5 unexpectedly strong spot-start innings from Travis Blackley. I saw Jordan Norberto and Ryan Cook, previously reliable relievers and under-the-radar pickups in last year's trades, forget how to throw strikes. I also saw Josh Willingham in a Twins uniform, and the obligatory reaction of A's Twitterati, something to the effect of:

HAMMER! :(
WE MISS YOU JOSH!
I DON'T WANNA LOSE YOUR LOVE, TONIIIIIGHT

While there was some remote chance of the A's re-signing him at the conclusion of the 2011 season, on 12/15/11, the news came down that the Twins had signed him for 3 years/$21M. It was relative steal at the time, and it looked downright cheap for the offensive production he provided last year, defense notwithstanding. Nevertheless, I told myself, this was good, as the new CBA provided that the A's would pick 34th and 62nd as compensation for losing a 2 WAR player. Given that the A's gave up nothing of any real value to get Willingham himself (sorry WaddellCanseco, but Henry Rodriguez and Corey Brown don't count as real value), turning those two guys into those 2 picks seems like a steal.

Then, the A's made a flurry of moves to bolster the outfield, making them one of the busiest teams of the hot stove season. To review the players acquired:

Jonny Gomes
Seth Smith
Coco Crisp (re-signed)
Yoenis Cespedes
Josh Reddick
Collin Cowgill

Now, let's say for a second, that the A's had not traded for Smith, not re-signed Coco, and not signed Gomes. Instead of all those moves, they re-signed Josh Willingham for around the same contract he received from the Twins.

So, the A's Opening Day outfield alignment would have looked something like this:

LF Willingham
CF Cespedes
RF Reddick
4th OF: Cowgill
5th OF/utility: Rosales

Now, certainly there were timing issues in the way the current set of outfielders were acquired. It is almost certainly true that the A's did not know when they re-signed Crisp that Cespedes would be available and willing to sign with the A's, and obviating the need for Crisp. But, I have to wonder if that bevy of moves truly made the A's a better team. Consider:

The A's gave up starting depth in Outman and Moscoso to get Smith, who has been relegated to a platoon role with Gomes.
Cowgill is considered to be an above-average CFer, and could have been a starter had Cespedes not signed
The money difference between Crisp + Gomes + Smith and Willingham is somewhere around $2.5M, not counting any money that will be used to pay Smith + Gomes (or their replacements) from 2013-4.
Whether or not the A's had signed Manny Ramirez, there would have been a spot for Chris Carter in the DH role, at least initially.

Certainly, defense would have suffered with Willingham playing LF. But, offensively, here is the putative starting lineup

Weeks 2B
Barton 1B
Willingham LF
Cespedes CF
Reddick RF
Carter DH
Donaldson/Rosales/Inge 3B
Suzuki C
Pennington SS

I'll leave it to you to compare it to the current lineup.

I have to wonder, if, in the quest for the surplus value of the two draft picks (which is not to be ignored), the team passed up an opportunity to at least be competitive. What's more, is acquiring players opportunistically (The Rockies really want two flyball pitchers, really? And will give us Seth Smith? Done! And Jonny Gomes only wants $1M per? Sweet!) hampering the development of players the A's already know about, in Chris Carter and Michael Taylor.

Indeed, Sam Miller of Baseball Prospectus came on the TarpTalk podcast and made a similar case: that the A's will only "go for it" when the division appears winnable, prospects' developmental progress is not substantially altered, and the right free agent can be acquired for the right price. In other words, the stars have aligned in the A's favor, and now is their time. Give the vagaries of baseball, it is worth asking if such a strategy is truly beneficial. Look at the Royals, who not too long ago had a putative 2014+ World Series contender brewing. Today, their devastating injuries and underachievement have put a serious dent in their "Our Time" slogan this year and their future success as an organization is in question. The Twins are unspeakably bad, the Astros have a +7 run differential, and Brewers are 9 games under .500. Am I saying the Astros are likely to win the NL Central? Of course not. But, they are in the game, for now.

What worries me most about (non-)moves like with Willingham and just being bad in general is the A's falling into obsolescence. While losing 90-plus games for a long time is a sure way to build up a bevy of high draft picks and a highly-ranked farm system, it is also a sure way to never win. Dave Cameron of FanGraphs fame is fond of saying "even division championship flags fly forever", which is a restatement of the Moneyball principle of "playoffs are a crapshoot." This should interest you regardless of what side of stadium debate you fall on: if you want the A's to stay in Oakland, more winning might cause more fans to attend games, and might make an Oakland stadium more attractive. If you want San Jose, winning might cause Commissioner Selig to pay more attention to a team that is consistently good and force his hand.

I don't claim to have all the answers. I'm not saying that I don't believe in advanced statistics. I'm just talking baseball philosophy, here. Feel free to discuss below.

Join me tonight at 5PM PST as the A's try to break the losing streak. Jarrod Parker had an outstanding outing on Wednesday, likely his best in the big leagues. Please, Hammer, don't hurt him!

Will Manny's 2 for 4 Get Him A Ticket To Minnesota? (No, But Read Anyway)

2012-05-29T01:53:20Z

Manny Ramirez is eligible to join the A's Wednesday for their day game in Minnesota, but to do that he'd need to fly out tomorrow -- which would make today's Rivercats game his last. The A's have been waiting to see if Manny is "ready for prime time" and before today Ramirez was just 6 for 28 (.214) with six singles. Generally when you're slugging .214 against AAA pitching, you could use a tad more refining.

Today, Manny went 2 for 4 with, yes, a pair of singles, raising his average -- and slugging percentage -- to .250. Wheeeee. However, results are not important here. What's important is whether Manny is getting the kind of swings, and resulting hard contact, that suggests he has his timing back. Will the A's bend sideways to see today's 2 for 4 as "good enough"? The last odds we heard from manager Bob Melvin were "50/50" on Manny being activated on Wednesday. That was before the A's dropped their sixth in a row today.

I'm betting the A's will go ahead and tell Manny to board a plane to Minneapolis tomorrow. The reality is this: Ramirez doesn't have to perform all that well right now in order to be an upgrade. The A's are a .210 hitting team whose DHs are part of the whole "not setting the world on fire" extravaganza proudly on display in Oakland.

Even if he struggles for the next week, he will just replace someone else who has been struggling but he will add an element of excitement and presence to the lineup. Nothing against Seth Smith and his tremendous presence, of course. Which one are you again, Seth? Or Jonny Gomes, whose at bat to end today's game made one pine for Manny to get that shot just because it couldn't have gone worse and it would have been a heck of a lot more interesting.

By Friday, I'm expecting to see the following lineups as available in Kansas City:

Weeks - 2B
Smith or Crisp- LF
Reddick - RF
Ramirez - DH
Cespedes - CF
Inge - 3B
Ka'aihue/Barton - 1B
Suzuki - C
Pennington - SS

Granted, Manny looks better on paper, where he could be the Manny of 2006 for all we know, than he might in an actual 2012 batter's box, but since the A's aren't hitting, or winning, on the field right now, let's at least look better on paper! I'm guessing that's how the A's will convince themselves to put Manny on a flight to Minnesota. Plus, he's hot: 2 for his last 4!!!!!!!

UPDATE, 7:38pm PDT: Or not...Apparently, the A's have chosen patience and the earliest we'll see Manny is on Friday...

Oakland Athletics at Minnesota Twins, May 28, 2012 11:10 AM PDT continued.

2012-05-28T20:17:33Z

A's tied 3-3

RALLY TIME?

Oakland Athletics at Minnesota Twins, May 28, 2012 11:10 AM PDT

2012-05-28T17:50:03Z

After winning the first game against the Angels in their 6 game home stand, the A's have lost 5 games in a row. They lost two games to the Angels and were swept by the Yankees in a 3 game series.

To try to turn things around, Travis Blackley is getting the start today against the Twins, after Graham Godfrey struggled in his second stint with the A's this year. Graham Godfrey and Pedro Figueroa were sent down to Sacramento again and Andrew Carignan and Jim Miller were called up. Blackley has been a starter for the majority of his career, but he has pitched exclusively in relief this season with time split between the Giants and A's.

Starting for the Twins this Memorial Day will be 25 year-old lefty Scott Diamond who has been pretty good for the Twins this year. Through four starts he has compiled a 3 - 2 record with a 1.78 ERA over 25.1 innings of work. The A's offense is going to need some runs, which have been very hard to come by lately. In the 6 game home stand, the A's only managed to score 8 runs! That comes out to only 1.33 runs per game! Wow.

Game starts at 11:10 AM. Hopefully we can get a win today! Happy Memorial Day everybody!

Here are the lineups:

Athletics

1. Jemile Weeks (S) 2B

2. Coco Crisp (S) CF

3. Josh Reddick (L) RF

4. Jonny Gomes (R) DH

5. Brandon Inge (R) 3B

6. Kurt Suzuki (R) C

7. Kila Ka'aihue (L) 1B

8. Collin Cowgill (R) LF

9. Adam Rosales (R) SS

Twins

1. Denard Span (L) CF

2. Darin Mastroianni (R) RF

3. Joe Mauer (L) C

4. Josh Willingham (R) LF

5. Justin Morneau (L) 1B

6. Ryan Doumit (S) DH

7. Brian Dozier (R) SS

8. Trevor Plouffe (R) 3B

9. Alexi Casilla (S) 2B

Down On The Farm – Week #8: The I-80 Express in Full Effect

2012-05-28T12:08:32Z

So far, early in the season, the A’s have been keeping the I-80 Express between Sacramento and the East Bay plenty busy. In the past week, relievers Andrew Carignan and Jim Miller have returned, lefty Pedro Figueroa and infielder Eric Sogard have been sent out, and right-hander Graham Godfrey booked a round-trip ticket, getting a five-day respite in Oakland before returning to the River City. Could there be more riders on the way? Right-hander Bruce Billings is starting to look like he’s earned a ticket. And with the A’s offense struggling, what about Sacramento sluggers like Brandon Moss, Chris Carter and Derek Norris? You can keep up with all the up-and-comers on my Athletics Farm blog and get lots more details on the last week of A’s minor league action right here on Athletics Nation after the jump…

SACRAMENTO RIVER CATS

(Triple-A Pacific Coast League)

Record This Week: 3-4

Record This Season: 32-19

The River Cats hit a bit of a speed bump last week and had their first week below .500 this season. The starting pitching remained solid, with strong outings from Travis Banwart, Fabio Castro, A.J. Griffin and particularly Bruce Billings, who tossed 8 scoreless innings to earn his 4^th win on Saturday. The bullpen was a little less reliable though. Neil Wagner, Rich Thompson and Trey Barham have had a particularly tough time of late, with Wagner’s ERA now standing at 5.49, Thompson’s at 6.10 and Barham’s at 13.50. The bullpen got a boost with the return of left-hander Pedro Figueroa though, who continues to look strong and has allowed no runs in 11 innings for Sacramento this season. First baseman Chris Carter launched 2 more longballs last week – 1 a grand slam – but outfielder Brandon Moss hit 3 and currently holds the team lead with 11. Catcher Derek Norris is right behind Moss and Carter on the tater totem pole with 7. Infielder Brandon Hicks has also been a hot hitter of late and is currently tied for the team lead in doubles with 16 and has the third best slugging percentage among River Cats regulars, just behind Moss and Norris. Since joining Sacramento last week, infielder Eric Sogard is hitting .385 in 4 games, and since he joined the team, Manny Ramirez is batting .214 with no extra base hits over 8 games.

Top Cats:

Outfielder Brandon Moss (27 R / 11 HR / 26 RBI / 18 BB / 29 K / .309 AVG / .388 OBP / .588 SLG / .976 OPS)

Outfielder Michael Taylor (24 R / 3 HR / 22 RBI / 23 BB / 27 K / .312 AVG / .407 OBP / .489 SLG / .897 OPS)

Infielder Brandon Hicks (31 R / 5 HR / 19 RBI / 14 BB / 47 K / .277 AVG / .349 OBP / .516 SLG / .865 OPS)

Catcher Derek Norris (27 R / 7 HR / 32 RBI / 12 BB / 26 K / .296 AVG / .333 OBP / .522 SLG / .855 OPS)

Pitcher Bruce Billings (48 IP / 37 H / 14 ER / 10 BB / 44 K / 2.63 ERA / 0.98 WHIP)

Pitcher Brad Peacock (55 IP / 62 H / 30 ER / 18 BB / 51 K / 4.91 ERA / 1.45 WHIP)

Pitcher Pedro Figueroa (11 IP / 4 H / 0 ER / 5 BB / 9 K / 0.00 ERA / 0.82 WHIP)

MIDLAND ROCKHOUNDS

(Double-A Texas League)

Record This Week: 2-4

Record This Season: 25-24

The RockHounds had a bit of a rough time last week, losing 4 of their 6 games. Second baseman Tyler Ladendorf has come on strong of late though and has now raised his batting average to a season high of .299. Outfielder Shane Peterson leads all A’s minor leaguers in on-base percentage at .440, but top hitting prospect Michael Choice is currently batting just .250 with 3 home runs on the season. Daniel Straily continues to be the most impressive member of Midland’s starting staff, with 75 strikeouts in 58 1/3 innings. Prized pitching prospect Sonny Gray is now 1-3 with an ERA of 4.17 on the season, and left-hander Sean Doolittle continues to dominate out of the bullpen, allowing just 6 baserunners while striking out 19 over 11 innings of work.

Top Hounds:

Outfielder Shane Peterson (27 R / 2 HR / 23 RBI / 40 BB / 44 K / .280 AVG / .440 OBP / .433 SLG / .874 OPS)

First Baseman Anthony Aliotti (21 R / 3 HR / 18 RBI / 17 BB / 39 K / .315 AVG / .399 OBP / .427 SLG / .826 OPS)

Outfielder Conner Crumbliss (33 R / 4 HR / 19 RBI / 35 BB / 31 K / .271 AVG / .400 OBP / .410 SLG / .810 OPS)

Second Baseman Tyler Ladendorf (23 R / 3 HR / 22 RBI / 19 BB / 25 K / .299 AVG / .386 OBP / .429 SLG / .815 OPS)

Pitcher Murphy Smith (54 1/3 IP / 47 H / 18 ER / 20 BB / 38 K / 2.98 ERA / 1.23 WHIP)

Pitcher Daniel Straily (58 1/3 IP / 51 H / 25 ER / 20 BB / 75 K / 3.86 ERA / 1.22 WHIP)

Pitcher Sean Doolittle (11 IP / 2 H / 1 ER / 4 BB / 19 K / 0.82 ERA / 0.55 WHIP)

STOCKTON PORTS

(Advanced-A California League)

Record This Week: 3-3

Record This Season: 16-33

It was a good week for Stockton. The Ports had their first week where they didn’t lose more games than they won since early in the season. Miles Head continues to be the team’s hottest hitter and leads all A’s minor leaguers in batting average at .372 and slugging percentage at .667. First baseman A.J. Kirby-Jones currently leads the team in home runs though with 10. Third baseman/first baseman Tony Thompson has been coming on strong lately and is now third behind Head and Kirby-Jones in a number of offensive categories. Outfielder Dusty Robinson has hit 2 homers for Stockton since being promoted from Burlington a week and a half ago, and shortstop Yordy Cabrera is batting .152 in 9 games since returning from an injury. Pitcher Sean Murphy had an interesting initial outing for Stockton after his promotion from Burlington last week. The right-hander had a perfect game through 6 1/3 innings on Thursday, until some shoddy defense undermined his efforts and the Ports ended up losing the game. Left-hander Jacob Brown’s been looking good since he’s been given the chance to start, and he’s now struck out 32 batters while walking only 4.

Top Ports:

Infielder Miles Head (35 R / 9 HR / 35 RBI / 15 BB / 41 K / .372 AVG / .420 OBP / .667 SLG / 1.087 OPS)

First Baseman A.J. Kirby-Jones (23 R / 10 HR / 30 RBI / 32 BB / 49 K / .296 AVG / .415 OBP / .541 SLG / .955 OPS)

Infielder Tony Thompson (16 R / 3 HR / 14 RBI / 7 BB / 25 K / .271 AVG / .304 OBP / .450 SLG / .754 OPS)

Pitcher T.J. Walz (48 2/3 IP / 51 H / 22 ER / 11 BB / 50 K / 4.07 ERA / 1.27 WHIP)

Pitcher Blake Treinen (56 IP / 57 H / 26 ER / 12 BB / 46 K / 4.18 ERA / 1.23 WHIP)

Pitcher Jacob Brown (38 IP / 28 H / 9 ER / 4 BB / 32 K / 2.13 ERA / 0.84 WHIP)

BURLINGTON BEES

(Class-A Midwest League)

Record This Week: 2-4

Record This Season: 22-27

The Bees’ pitching staff has been a little shaky of late, and it didn’t help that one of the team’s top starters, Sean Murphy, got promoted to Stockton when right-hander A.J. Cole was demoted to Burlington. In his first start for the Bees, Cole picked up where he left off in Stockton, giving up 8 runs, 5 earned, on 12 hits over 5 innings of work. Right-hander Drew Granier’s been the rock of the Bees’ rotation, posting an ERA of 2.04 and winning twice as many games as any other pitcher on the staff. 19-year-old Raul Alcantara has started to look a little stronger of late though, and he’s allowed more than 2 runs in just 1 of his last 5 starts. With the promotion of slugging outfielder Dusty Robinson to Stockton, Burlington’s spotty offense has primarily been led by infielders Sean Jamieson, Chih Fang Pan and B.A. Vollmuth. But the Bees’ lineup got a bit of a boost when outfielder Rashun Dixon was sent down to Burlington and promptly hit a game-winning home run in his first game with his new team.

Top Bees:

Shortstop Sean Jamieson (28 R / 2 HR / 14 RBI / 22 BB / 30 K / .265 AVG / .369 OBP / .386 SLG / .754 OPS)

Infielder Chih Fang Pan (18 R / 1 HR / 18 RBI / 13 BB / 26 K / .282 AVG / .350 OBP / .373 SLG / .723 OPS)

Third baseman B.A. Vollmuth (25 R / 4 HR / 34 RBI / 18 BB / 54 K / .260 AVG / .327 OBP / .401 SLG / .728 OPS)

Pitcher Drew Granier (57 1/3 IP / 52 H / 13 ER / 17 BB / 55 K / 2.04 ERA / 1.20 WHIP)

Pitcher Raul Alcantara (44 2/3 IP / 52 H / 21 ER / 18 BB / 23 K / 4.23 ERA / 1.57 WHIP)

You can check out my blog - Athletics Farm - for daily updates on the A’s minor league teams and all the top prospects down on the farm.

A's "Offense" Makes Me Want To Do Unspeakable Things To Defenseless Animals

2012-05-27T23:14:46Z

Perhaps the A's should unveil a new marketing slogan: "There's no A in Offense, but there sure is one in pAthetic!" Hiroki Kuroda entered the game with a 4.56 ERA for the season, 6.23 on the road, but limited the A's to 4 singles in 8 shutout innings. Do the A's have the worst offense in the galaxy? Quite possibly, though NASA is currently studying a colony of Josh Donaldsons just northeast of Jupiter.

Earlier in the season, Tommy Milone's detractors warned, "Wait until he faces some good offenses." All Milone did today was limit the Yankees to 2 runs in 6.2 IP, the first one coming on a 2nd inning solo HR by Andruw Jones, the other an RBI double by Mark Teixeira on Milone's final pitch in the 7th inning. Sadly, to win Milone would have needed to hold the Yankees to -1 runs, and that is about as likely to happen as Josh Donaldson is to walk. Ever.

Early on, Milone danced through raindrops, loading the bases with one out in the 1st only to retire Robinson Cano on a pop-up and Nick Swisher on a routine fly ball. In the 2nd, following Jones' HR a Jayson Nix double with nobody out put Milone in further difficulty but he escaped that jam, then stranded Mark Teixeira following his lead off double in the 3rd. From there Milone settled into a groove until he finally ran out of gas in the 7th.

As for the A's, Jemile Weeks led off the1st with a single and was caught stealing. Seth Smith singled leading off the 5th, only to make a base running blunder by not sliding as the Yankees turned Kila Ka'aihue's bouncer to 1B into a 3-6 DP. Josh Donaldson had a broken bat single later in the inning, and then the A's best shot came in the 7th when Coco Crisp singled to lead off, and after a walk to Smith and a pair of Crisp steals the A's had 1B and 3B with only one out. Ka'aihue struck out and Donaldson flied to right. Reddick's two out single in the 9th gave the A's their fifth and final hit, all singles, before Smith struck out and Oakland was shut out for the 8th time this year.

It was so bad that after Suzuki made the second out in the bottom of the 8th, I went into the kitchen just to pour the hot water to brew a cup of tea, and by the time I re-entered the room Cliff Pennington had already made the third out. Gameday seems to think he bounced to 2B, so we'll go with that.

Hats off to Tommy Milone for neutralizing the Yankees' offense enough that the A's had every chance to win. All they would have needed to do is to have a poor offense instead of a joke of one. A joke, I might add, that is not funny.

Game Thread: Yankees @ Athletics Game 48

2012-05-27T20:05:06Z

This has been a series to forget for A's fans who have their hopes pinned to Tommy Milone to stop the bleeding. Milone is the owner of a 4-0 record and 0.60 ERA at the Coliseum this year. In addition to those sparkling numbers he also has managed to hold opponents to a .158/.206/.218 slash line in Oakland, with a .179 wOBA. That record will be put to the test by a Yankees team that has pummeled Oakland pitching for two days. The A's meanwhile will try their luck with Hiroki Kuroda who is having a career worst year since moving over the American League where he faces the prospect of facing real lineups day-in-day out. In 53 1/3 innings in 2012, Kuroda has a career worst 5.7 K/9, career worst 3.4 BB/9 and career worst 1.7 HR/9 leading to a career worst 4.56 ERA and a career worst 5.34. One can argue the luck is against him as he has a career worst .292 BABIP and career worst 19.6% HR/FB%.

The A's hope that Kuroda's struggles continue as they look to get show some offensive punch, or even these days more so, some offensive pulse. Outside of Josh Reddick no one has been doing much of anything these days. Today's lineup features Jemile Weeks leading off and Coco Crisp hitting second assuring that when Reddick comes up no one will be on base for him to drive in which explains why despite having 13 home runs and hitting in the middle of the order he has just 26 RBI, compared to Ryan Braun who has 13 and 34 RBI or Carlos Beltran who has 14 and 38 RBI. With a right-hander on the mound, Seth Smith fills the cleanup spot, followed by DH Kila Ka'aihue, following him is still-hitting-way-too-high-in-the-lineup Josh Donaldson, before being rounded out by Barton, Suzuki and Pennington.

The A's have been swept by New York at the Coliseum each of the last two seasons and hope to avoid that same fate today.

LET'S GO A'S!

I am going to go see the 2015 Oakland A's play in High Desert today, so Nico will have you covered for the post-game wrap and the mid-game keep on winning/rally thread. Have a safe and happy holidays everyone!

1. Derek Jeter (R) SS

2. Curtis Granderson (L) CF

3. Mark Teixeira (S) 1B

4. Alex Rodriguez (R) 3B

5. Robinson Cano (L) 2B

6. Nick Swisher (S) RF

7. Andruw Jones (R) DH

8. Jayson Nix (R) LF

9. Chris Stewart (R) C

1. Jemile Weeks (S) 2B

2. Coco Crisp (S) CF

3. Josh Reddick (L) RF

4. Seth Smith (L) LF

5. Kila Ka'aihue (L) DH

6. Josh Donaldson (R) 3B

7. Daric Barton (L) 1B

8. Kurt Suzuki (R) C

9. Cliff Pennington (S) SS

Mystique and Aura, 1/2 Off Dances, Coliseum Today at One

2012-05-27T15:35:27Z

The last time the A's beat the Yankees in a season series was 2007. Since then things haven't exactly gone the A's way as they have played the Yankees to the tune of a 7-29 record a .194 winning percentage. For the point of proving just how bad a .194 winning percentage is that would translate to a 32-130 record in a 162 game schedule. Basically the Yankees' Mystique and Aura, may be a just dancers in a nightclub to Curt Schilling but appear to be much more to the players on the Athletics of Oakland.

Bill James in his infinite wisdom developed a method for looking at how often a team should beat another. Basically we all can accept the Yankees have had a better club than us all this time but in baseball the best teams win games about 60% of the time when the worst win about 40% of the time, so surely one team shouldn't be beating another over 80% of the time right?

His method, the log5 method. Basically goes like this:

W%(A v. B) = W%(A)*(1 - W%(B))/(W%(A)*(1 - W%(B)) + (1 - W%(A))*W%(B))

Using this and the winning percentages of the A's and the Yankees since 2008. We arrive that the A's really ought to have won 14 of the 36 games. Twice what they have won. No one expects the A's to light the world on fire against New York but still, even as hapless as we've been as a team, we have been doubly hapless whenever we play New York.

Is it mystique and aura? Does their high flying offense trump our pitching every time for some other reason? Why is it New York has our number and how do we end this insanity?