Over the Moon

Leave it to the Tao to take the ideas right out of my head and get them down much better than I ever could. The ever-popular Cito v. The Lineup debate rages on; with the Tao coming down on the side of "get Lyle Overbay more at bats." And with good reason. Look no further than the missile he struck to centerfield yesterday. Hit Tracker Online has the facts, and a link to the video: 451 feet to just right of centerfield, leaving the bat at a mindbending 108 mph. Look at the pretty picture:



Just in case you've been asleep: Lyle Overbay's been killing it of late. .572 weighted on base over the past two weeks (!), good for a 1.381 OPS. Wow. Unlike other Jays (Hill, Aaron) I wouldn't categorize Overbay as a streak hitter. Looking at Fangraph's day-by-day charting of his wOBA we see, outside his disastrous 2007, he's very consistent. Slowly building throughout the year. Compare those graphs to those of The Streak himself Aaron Hill. Wild swings like your mother during a hot flash. Double to left! Clean out the garage! 0-22! My exhausted ovaries invalidate me as a person!

Overbay won't consistently ricochet 108 mph bombs off dusty chicken parm factories; but there is nothing to suggest him falling off the planet. So let's get him some more at bats, no? Nothing crazy, just a few more trips to the dish a week.

Strength of Schedule - House of Cards

Well shit. The Yankees are first in the division and first in the world's hearts. Ole Griff moves them up to third in his inanity rankings and I'm sure they'll be slotted similarly in any number of listicles of this sort. One question: why don't we hear questions of their soft schedule and inability to win within their division? The Yanks are two games under .500 against the mighty East, feasting on the weaker sisters of the Central and West. Conveniently they're outperforming their Pythag by a cool 2/3 wins also. WORSHIP NOT THE FALSE IDOLS!