Patience at the Plate Key to Series Opener

The Yanks open a 3 game set at the Stadium tonight against Fausto Carmona and the Cleveland Indians. Returning to the days of plate discipline will be a key to tonight's game.

While I don't wish injury upon anyone, Carmona is my top pick for an injury this year after seeing an increase of 141 innings last year (74 in '06 to 215 in '07). We are certainly seeing some affects of his work load increase so far in 2008. After walking only 61 batters all of last year (2.55/9), Carmona has already walked 26 batters this season (6.88/9). He has also allowed a hit per inning (34 H in 34 IP) making for an extremely high whip of 1.731. He has walked exactly twice the batters that he has struck out so far (13 Ks, 26 BBs). Regardless of all of this, Carmona has only allowed 1 HR so far this year which has contributed heavily to his sparkling 2.60 ERA.

As we all know, there is no way that Carmona will continue to sport an ERA+ of 162 while allowing that many base runners.

The Yanks need to heed the numbers and make sure to work the count aggressively tonight. Make Carmona work, throw a lot of pitches and take their walks. The walks, combined with Carmona's high hit totals, should give the Yanks plenty of opportunities to score and get Andy a 'W' tonight.