Since there’s not a whole lot of data out there yet I am just doing the basics. In case you’re not familiar: FIP is a statistic that only takes the things the pitcher directly controls (Walks, Hit Batters, Strikeouts, Home Runs) into account. xFIP normalizes the home run rate at the league average because pitchers all tend to have around the same rate on HR/FB% unless something weird is going on.

There are some measurements that take batted ball types into play like tRA and SIERA but I’m not including them in this round, maybe I will for May.

With that out of the way, here’s how the Yankees pitching staff did in April according to these three stats:

Very nice especially considering how bad Javier Vazquez has been. Compared to last year, it’s much much better. Thank you for a nice April, pitching staff. I expect them to come back to earth a bit when the rotation sees some more balls fly over the wall but it shouldn’t get too much worse if Vazquez or whoever replaces him pitches decently.

The bullpen has been shaky on and off but is bolstered by Mariano Rivera having a well, very Mariano Rivera month.

Next up is a look at the starters and their K:BB ratios:

What I am most impressed by, and what is probably the least sustainable is that A.J. Burnett is not walking dudes. This is a revelation because walking dudes is A.J.’s specialty. His strikeout numbers are down but I expect those to climb along with the walk rate.

Hughes has walked a few too many but I think that’ll get better as he goes on and “learns how to pitch” as people love to say. His start today against the White Sox was a nice start for that.

The next graph doesn’t mean anything really because of the sample size but it made me laugh and also cry at the same time so I decided to include it:

In April, the Yankees rotation gave up 10 home runs and 5 of those were from Javier Vazquez. This does not include his recent disaster start against the White Sox. CC gave up 2 and everyone else gave up 1. This is not going to hold, but hopefully everything gets spread out nice and easy instead of coming in bunches.

Here’s everyone’s HR/FB% for April, which should correct itself to 10-11% by the end of the year:

Little Phil is going to get pretty hard with a correction if he doesn’t start getting more groundballs. But I believe that he can. 55% of batted balls being flys is ridiculous and not likely to hold up, even if he does wind up with a pretty high percentage when it’s all over. His LD% is also pretty low so expect that to change. He’s had a great, weird, month and even as everything evens out you can expect him to be pretty good going forward.

What does May hold? Well, the Yankees rotation is going to give up a few more runs than they did over April but you can still expect them to be good. I have no idea what is going on with Vazquez so I can’t comment on that, that’s for the Pitch F/X experts and scouts to talk about and I am neither of those things.

Oh and also CC Sabathia is awesome.

The team is hurt somewhat by walks and homeruns but helped by their very high (best in the AL) strikeout rate.

1. April 22nd vs Oakland (won on a Melky Cabrera homerun)
2. May 1st vs Anaheim (Brian Fuentes explosion, Posada hit a single with the bases loaded)
3. May 15th vs Minnesota (Joe Nathan was called on for the fourth day in a row, exploded)
4. May 16th vs Minnesota (Alex Rodriguez homerun off Craig Breslow in the 11th)
5. May 17th vs Minnesota (Johnny Damon homerun off Jesse Crain in the 10th)
6. May 23rd vs Philadelphia (Brad Lidge Explosion, homerun to tie it followed by two singles to win)
7. June 12nd vs Fake New York (Luis Castillo drops the ball)
8. July 4th vs Toronto (The day Robinson Cano could do nothing right and Brett Tomko pitched a scoreless inning)
9. July 20th vs Baltimore (Hideki Matsui homerun off Jim Johnson in the bottom of the 9th)

That’s a lot of walkoffs over the course of a full season, nevermind 3/4 of one. Last year, I think the Yankees had four all year. I was at two of them, both against the Orioles and both ended by Robinson Cano doing something right. This year, I’ve been at four. That’s a lot.

There are a few kinds of walkoff victories:

1. A game that is tied for a very long time. Usually the result of pitchers duels, but also sometimes caused by offensive ineptitude.
2. The bullpen blows the lead (or the starting pitcher hits a bad skid).
3. The come back. You finally get to the bullpen and the offense wakes up!

I prefer the comeback style victory, though it’s also very painful when the team comes up just short of making it. Still, sometimes by hanging around the Stadium or keeping on the TV when everyone else has left or flipped the channel you get to see things you never believed could happen like this:

Bottom 8th: NY Yankees
- H. Matsui grounded out to pitcher
- R. Cano doubled to deep left center
- J. Posada walked
- J. Arredondo relieved R. Rodriguez
- B. Gardner singled to left, R. Cano to third, J. Posada to second
- M. Cabrera singled to left, R. Cano scored, J. Posada to third, B. Gardner to second
- R. Pena singled to right center, J. Posada and B. Gardner scored, M. Cabrera to third
- D. Jeter grounded out to shortstop, M. Cabrera scored, R. Pena to second
- J. Damon struck out looking

4 runs, 4 hits, 0 errors
LA Angels 9, NY Yankees 8

Bottom 9th: NY Yankees
- B. Fuentes relieved J. Arredondo
- M. Teixeira walked
- H. Matsui singled to left, M. Teixeira to second
- R. Cano singled to center, M. Teixeira to third, H. Matsui to second
- A. Berroa ran for H. Matsui
- J. Posada singled to left center, A. Berroa and M. Teixeira scored, R. Cano to second

2 runs, 3 hits, 0 errors
LA Angels 9, NY Yankees 10

It was pretty awesome, it will never happen again. I saved my ticket stub so I can remember this game forever. It’s my favorite game that I’ve been to this season. It was nice to be sent home by a Hideki homerun, for example, but it doesn’t top a game where the Yankees did all of the following:

• Scored 5 runs in two innings;
• Beat the Angels;
• Had beaten the Angels the night before.

Two wins in a row against the Angels! Another reason to hold onto that ticket stub of mine.

Michael Kay is crying somewhere, look at Mariano daring to have fun. Fun in baseball is Anti-Yankees.

Fans can cast their votes for Giambi at www.yankees.com, or by texting ‘A2’ to 36197 (or 88555 for those Yankees fans in Canada). Voting ends at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, July 10. Yankees fans are urged to vote early and often. By voting online, fans will be entered to win one of five authentic Jason Giambi autographed prizes.

The American Mustache Institute officially offered their support for Giambi’s All-Star candidacy today.

“It doesn’t take a mathematician to figure out that Jason Giambi’s hitting prowess plus a fashionable mustache, equals a bona fide All-Star,” said Aaron Perlut, Executive Director of The American Mustache Institute. “Giambi’s significant first-half production as well as his powerful lip fur – indicating great intellect and good looks – make two very compelling reasons for his place on the American League All-Star roster.”

Giambi is batting .256 (63-for-246) with 13 doubles, 18 home runs, 53RBI and 44BB in 78 games this season, leading the team in walks, tying for tops in homers and ranking second in RBI. He is currently tied for fifth in the American League in home runs, ranks seventh with a .393 on-base percentage and ninth with a .537 slugging percentage. In addition, Giambi leads the AL, averaging one home run every 13.7 at-bats and ranks second with 1RBI per 4.6 at-bats.

If you’re lazy, use this widget. Feel free to vote for Pat Burrell too:

Also, I voted for Team USA Giambi because he’s so hilariously skinny. Clean cut Giambi on the other hand, is frightening.

Not sure what a shortstop has to do with runners never reaching second but hey, it’s cute.

End of his warmups, you can see him switch arms here:

First batter, throwing lefty:

Second batter, throwing righty:

Third batter: throwing lefty again:

I know Damon Oppenheimer has said that Venditte is a right handed prospect so I am going to ride this awesome train until he has to focus more. I really enjoyed seeing how different his delivery using the right and left arms are.