Swing Hard In Case You Hit It

Moved

2008-05-19T14:25:00.000-07:00

I've moved this blog to MLB's blog service . . . apparently someone over there doesn't care if he gets fired and changed MLB's blogs from pay to free.

So you can find my wonderfulness over at http://swinghard.mlblogs.com/

See you there.

Unprecedented

2008-04-26T16:50:00.000-07:00

Unusual Circumstances.

I know I never write two posts in one day. Two posts in one week is productive, for Me. But I'm forced to undertake this unprecedented action by the latest terrible, putrid, unnecessary loss.

Ian Kennedy gave up three runs in five innings . . . 105 pitches. One horrible inning, the second. After that he settled nicely but unfortunately the pitch count was already way out of hand and it was obvious that Kennedy wasn't going deep in the ballgame.

Meanwhile, we're doing nothing against Future Hall of Famer Jeremy Sauers. I think we were something like 0-37 with RISP vs Sauers.

Hawkins stumbles through the sixth . . . the inning ending on a rocket line drive that's gloved by Gonzalez who manages to dive and double the runner off of third.

Top 6 we somehow load the bases. Cano pinch hits and is punched out on a pitch that's way low. He's followed by Posada pinch-hitting who, miraculously, hits a bases-clearing triple (aided by poor judgement by Dave Dellucci -- should've been a two-run single).

But it's a tie game all of a sudden . . . I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth. Hawkins (he hasn't pitched enough lately?) gets out of the seventh.

Meanwhile, Chris Britton has been up and down at least twice.

Farnsworth gets through the eighth, bad elbow and all.

Top 9. With one out, Damon singles, and Melky, despite being dumped on by the Fox team the whole game through, somehow singles.

First and third. Jeter up.

He hits it hard, but it hits the mound and comes up for the second baseman. Double play.

Tied at 3, bottom nine.

Fox comes back from commercial and . . . Ross Ohlendorf is pitching.

Ohlendorf? Ross "Hit Me Hard" Ohlendorf? The Ross Ohlendorf who's been pitching way too much and way too ineffectively of late?

Mercifully, it doesn't take too long. With one out . . . single, single, wild pitch, intentional walk, single. Game over.

I can only assume that MJ2 is doing with Ohlendorf what Willie Randolph is doing with Heilman -- the worse he pitches, the more work he gets.

We bring guys up to shore up the bullpen and then . . . use the same freaking guys who are allegedly are so over-taxed? Huh? MJ2 again shows a chilling similarity to MJ1 in this regard. Carry twelve pitchers and then only use eight or nine.

And, as iris pointed out . . . why on earth do you field that goofy lineup when your starer has an ERA of 9.64? The lefties he sat can all hit lefties.

But it's the offense, stupid. Even with the C team playing today, there were abundant chances. A lousy fly ball by Jeter in the top of the ninth and it's Mariano pitching bottom 9 instead of Ohlendorf and things most likely end differently. And a lot of blown chances before that . . . a couple were bad luck, most were just horrible.

I won't even begin to rag on Tim and Joe, whose anti-Yankee undertones are increasingly moving up to the surface, especially in Tim's case. I don't have the energy to dissect the telecast to the degree it warrants.

12-13. Can someone ask Hank if Girardi is in (more) trouble?

Treading Water Is Tiring

2008-04-26T10:52:00.000-07:00

One, Two, . . . Stop.

Thursday night the Yankees did something that they've done repeatedly over the past two years: Win the first two (or even three, a couple of times) games of a series and then lay an egg when they had the chance to sweep.

A lot had to go wrong for the Yankees to lose Thursday's finale in Chicago, I understand, but a lot that went wrong could've been prevented.

Joba giving up two hits in his second inning of work didn't bother Me too much --things like the are going to happen over the course of 55-65 appearances.

What bothered Me was . . . mostly, the complete brain fart by Morgan Automatic-Outberg in the fourth inning. The White Sox had gotten about four straight hits . . . there was a man on third with one out. Game now tied at 3. The ball is grounded to Ensberg, who throws home and of course, doesn't get the runner.

In the fourth inning, when the pitcher hasn't recorded an out in fifteen minutes, with the game tied, you have to realize that getting an out is the only important thing at that moment. You can't throw home unless you are 100% sure of getting the guy . . . stopping the bleeding is what matters at that point. Another run scores that inning wouldn't have scored had Ensberg recorded the out at first on that play.

A lot else went wrong. The weather, for one. Hughes had looked halfway decent through two innings before the rains came. When the game resumed, fifty minutes later, Hughes did not come back out . . . Ohlendorf did. I can't bitch too much, but fifty minutes I've always been led to believe was manageable in these things . . . it's not like it was a two-hour delay.

Ohlendorf went wrong -- can this guy ever give up a softly-hit ball? Does everything off him have to be a rocket?

Traber went wrong, facing one batter and walking him. MJ2 is apparently already completely addicted to this lefty-lefty BS. Lord help us.

We battled back (Automatic Outberg even getting a huge hit) but Joba's number was up.

It's hard to sweep series . . . at least it is for the Yankees these days.

Are We Missing Something?

When it started raining in Chicago Thursday night, iris pointed out to Me that MJ2 should've sent Andy Pettitte to Cleveland ahead of the team, since he was pitching Friday night and with rain in the forecast, the team might end up getting in very late.

Isn't MJ2 supposed to be the Man-Genius of managing? The guy who thinks of every possible angle to give his team the best chance to win?

How tough was it to know that Andy needed to head to Cleveland ahead of time? Presumably Pettitte wasn't going to make a surprise relief appearance Thursday night.

Shopping at the (Three Hundred and Ninety Thousand) Dollar Store.

Frank Thomas' unemployment didn't persist for long . . . The Big Always Hurt signed with Oakland, the scene of his impressive 2006 late run at an MVP. Barry Bonds claimed that the A's were being racist in signing Thomas over him until he realized that Thomas is in fact black also.

Thomas will be paid the minimum, pro-rated. They may have made a great deal . . . on the other hand, the cars in the junkyard are really cheap for a reason.

Well, There Goes Scranton's Shot At A Title

Pitching injuries, ineffectiveness, and overuse necessitated roster moves prior to last night's game in Cleveland.

Chad Meoller was DFA'ed. Bruney was put on the DL, and word is he might be back for September. Albaladejo and (ta da! finally!) Chris Britton were brought up.

In addition to Bruney being hurt, Farnsworth tweaked his elbow a bit . . . so he's day to day, it seems.

Needed: Some length from the starters. Badly. And some more consistent offense, so that MJ2 can manage with a little margin for error in handling starters.

He Can't Throw, But It's All Good. Honestly.

If Posada can't throw . . . and all indications are that he still can't, he needs to go on the DL. We can't have would-be base stealers simply taking every base they want on us.

As for Posada or DH or 1B: It takes time away from Matsui, Damon, Melky, or Giambi, and Posada's bat, while sometimes useful, isn't so good that you warp the whole lineup to wedge it in there.

It is not really that difficult: Catcher can't throw? Put him on the DL.

Hank Goes Bonkers; Thomas Just Goes

2008-04-21T14:39:00.000-07:00

That 70s Show.

It only took Hank Steinbrenner 20 games to go back 30 years and channel some vintage George, circa 1977.

Hank's tirade is about how Joba should be in the rotation and should be in the rotation now.

Obviously a 10-10 start, Hughes and Kennedy not pitching so well as of yet, and Boston shaking off the non-existent malaise from the Japan trip and winning a lot of games lately has got TCS (The Current Steinbrenner) all jacked up.

The Current Steinbrenner: "I want him as a starter and so does everyone else, including him, and that is what we are working toward and we need him there now"

Swing Hard: Everyone does, Hank? Girardi and Cashman don't, clearly. As for "now," if you make Joba a starter it doesn't happen "now," it happens a good six weeks from now after Joba's had a chance to go down to the minors and build up to pitching starter's innings.

TCS: "There is no question about it, you don't have a guy with a 100-mile-per-hour fastball and keep him as a setup guy. You just don't do that. You have to be an idiot to do that."

SH: Umm, Hank? Were you watching any baseball in 1996, when the Yankees had Mariano Rivera setting up for John Wetteland and won the World Series?

Apparently TCS just has to let off steam in public every so often. He endorsed this plan; it was TCS himself, after all, who mentioned the word "patience" in conjunction with the 2008 season.

Additionally, if you put Joba in the rotation, who exactly leaves the rotation? I don't fancy Mike Mussina as the long man out of the pen, nor do I want Ian Kennedy forced into that role.

Hughes and Kennedy will be fine. It's been four starts. Joba needs to stay in the pen. Mike Francesa put it best, a couple months ago:

"Good eighth-inning guys are like gold. . . . everyone wants one and almost no one has one."

Thomas Fails Carnegie Course, Loses Toronto Gig.

The Blue Jays released Frank "The Big (Always) Hurt" Thomas. The DH, tearing it up at a .167 clip, was unhappy to learn he was going to be relieved of his everyday DH role, thus making it unlikely that he would reach the number of plate appearances to cause his 2009 option to automatically vest. The Blue Jays decided that three weeks was too much and parted ways with Thomas.

It's all right to be a pain in the ass when you're hitting. A team will always tolerate a jerk as long as he's producing. Thomas has never been one to win friends and influence people, but he never had to, his bat doing the talking.

The knee-jerk reaction is to say that Thomas will get another shot somewhere, and he well might. But on the unemployed DH list there's also Barry Bonds and Mike Piazza. Most of the likely AL contenders look pretty well set at DH. Injuries always happen of course, but it's not automatic that Thomas plays in MLB again in 2008.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

2008-04-19T07:35:00.000-07:00

Now Pitching for New York, Number 22, Scott Proc-- No, sorry, wait . . .

It used to be that the worst job in baseball was being Joe Torre's favorite reliever. It appears that MJ2 has inherited the disquieting habit of having a favorite guy out there and for now it's LaTroi (Poor Bastard) Hawkins' turn in the barrel.

How else to explain MJ2's use of him last night? They sent down Albaladejo (now christened "INeedADayJob" in Lenora-World) and brought up Ramirez. For what, exactly -- to pitch in a game that's out of reach? Ramirez hadn't pitched in three days . . . obviously he was capable of giving the necessary length.

Oh well, that other reliever in Scranton with a 0.00 ERA, Chris Britton, can't get a whiff of the big club. I have to think that Ohlendorf's next bad outing earns him an "Explore Pennsylvania" gift certificate, and if Britton isn't the one promoted then there really is some organizational bias against the guy.

Is It As Complicated As Hughes Is Making It?

Watching Phil (The Answer) Hughes struggle early on and thinking that this is one of those times when a baseball cliche actually gets to the heart of the matter.

Trust your stuff.

It seems every young pitcher has to learn this lesson. But The Answer has made enough starts that he should realize that not every mistake gets hit hard, and some mistakes get hit hard right at people. This incessant, Mussina-like nibbling at corners and ending up with 70 pitches in the fourth inning won't cut it.

You can be the right-handed Al Leiter when you're 38, Phil. You're 21, with very good stuff. Pitch like it and see what happens. The Yankees are constantly getting beaten by 88 mph guys who just throw strikes. Hello?

Brother, Can You Spare A Catcher?

Is Posada or Molina coming back any time soon? Chad Moeller is already starting to get exposed and at some point even he is going to need a day off.

Any word? Encouraging long toss session by Posada? Molina seen stretching? Anything?

Blast From The (Recent) Past.

2008-04-13T11:41:00.000-07:00

MJ2 Pulls One Out Of The MJ1 Playbook.

Tough loss in Boston yesterday, made tough to swallow by Girardi absolutely blowing it in a key situation (and earning the first "Clueless Joe" citation of his career from the Daily News).

With men on second and third and two outs, bottom 6, Girardi elects to pitch to Manny instead of walking him and pitching to Youklis.

I don't know if Mussina talked MJ2 into letting him pitch to Manny, or what. If he did then Girardi's a bigger idiot -- Manny had already homered off of Mussina.

And I understand that Youklis is a decent hitter with a good eye for the strike zone, but why the Babe Ruth treatment? You absolutely can't pitch to Manny there. What, he hasn't burned the Yankees enough in big spots?

But Girardi decides to be "different" and I didn't even need to watch. Double. 2-1 Yankees becomes 3-2 Boston.

Then, Brain Bruney decides that 0-2 is a good time to give Youklis something to hit and it's 4-2 and despite a seemingly dramatic confrontation between A Rod and Papelbon (sapped of any real drama by a 2 hour and 10 minute rain delay), the game was basically over at that point.

And a poor at bat by A Rod it was . . . three pitches, two of which were balls (maybe one -- with these umps you never know but the third pitch was definitely a ball) both of which he swung at.

The hitters in the ninth battled Papelbon well and that was the only positive, making Papelbon throw 20-something pitches to get the save.

Girardi on his 6th-inning brain fart:

"We wanted to give him a little wiggle room if he could get Manny to chase something," Girardi said. "If we got behind Manny, then we would walk him. But we never got to that point. That was the decision I made, and I have to live by it."

Please, that's just crap. Pitchers are not geared to unintentionally walking someone. Mussina, if he's left to pitch to a guy, is going to throw strikes. Throwing too good a strike is entirely possible. That's why the manager has to step up and make the decision, not leave the pitcher to decide and then jsutify if with a cop out of "if he'd fallen behind then we'd walk Manny." If he'd walked Manny and Youklis killed us, I wouldn't have a word to say about it.

Manny Ramirez. Kevin Youklis.
Predator. Shrek.
One of the most feared and productive right-handed hitters in modern baseball. A career .280 hitter who gets way too much respect from pitchers.

I didn't think it took a genius manager to make the right choice on which of those two to pitch to.

Oh well.

It's still early. Isn't it?

OK, He Could Catch The Next Simulated Game That Pedro Throws!

Jorge Posada played long-toss the other day. Still no word on when he gets back behind the plate, but in the meantime he's doing a fine job cutting into the playing time of Damon and Shemp by DHing.

I'm thinking an extended minor league rehab assignment is in order.

It Gets Late Early

2008-04-10T15:11:00.000-07:00

Too Clever By Half

Last night Joe Girardi showed that in baseball, you can be too smart for your own good.

Last night in KC, Ian Kennedy was scheduled to start. The weather forecast called for heavy rain, and heavy rain sooner rather than later.

So, MJ Squared (that's Joe Girardi, aka Manager Joe II aka MJ2 aka MJ Squared . . . thank you, iris) decides that he won't "waste" Kennedy in a game likely to be stopped and not restarted. A side benefit of not losing Kennedy is that Kennedy could then pitch Thursday in KC and Pettitte could open in Boston on Friday.

But as with all diabolically smart plans, there was a flaw. Two, actually. No, wait . . . three.

Flaw 1: It might not ever rain hard enough for the game to be stopped.
Flaw 2: With the Yankees not scheduled to return to KC this season and the Thursday forecast ugly, the crew chief might do everything possible to get the game in.
Flaw 3: Getting nine innings out of a parade of relievers means a lot of different pitchers which means the odds of one or more pitchers having an off night are increased.

All three flaws came home to roost. Except for a little while in the second inning, the rain never got to call-the-game intensity. The ump could've stopped it then, but mindful of the logistics and the Thursday forecast, stuck it out. And Kyle Farnsworth lost Reliever Russian Roulette and gave up two runs, which, the way we're hitting . . . was two runs too many.

Then, the game now official (and officially over, pretty much) MJ Squared sticks Kennedy in there to start the sixth inning!

So let Me get this straight. We didn't want him to start, pitch three innings, then have to shut it down. So, um . . . pitching innings 6, 7, and 8 was somehow better? Kennedy, predictably, was not sharp and gave up two window-dressing runs.

And not that this matters, but, please, once, just once . . . can a manager just own up in the press conference and admit he outsmarted himself? Please? One time? I will freely admit that MJ1, Joe Torre, wouldn't have figured out the stop-Kennedy-start-Bruney strategy.

Score one for MJ1. But it's early.

Whew, It's Good To Get Molina's Bat In The Lineup!

Jorge Posada had an MRI on his shoulder yesterday. The results were negative. Negative meaning no structural damage. Not negative meaning "Posada can't throw for shit." Although right now both are equally true. Jorge is suffering from "dead arm," according to Gerardi, the first non-pitcher in the history of baseball to ever come down with that particular condition that I'm aware of. (The rumor that Bully Crystal stole three bases off Posada in an intrasquad game this spring can't be confirmed at this time.)

And here is a situation where MJ Squared is light-years ahead of MJ1. Torre would've let Posada make the play/don't play call himself until Posada's arm fell off. MJ Squared realized that base runners stealing at will was hurting the team and is playing Molina.

Which is a good thing, since Molina is pretty much our hottest hitter.

But it's early.

Twelve pitchers. Brilliant.

Again, it has to be asked. What is Hawkins doing on this team? What possessed Cashman to sign this guy? Albaladejo, who did nothing but get people out when he got the chance, gets sent down. Chris Britton apparently did the wife of someone in the front office . . . there's no other logical explanation for his continuing to languish in Scranton. But Hawkins remains.

And Farnsworth is perhaps the stupidest pitcher I've ever seen. I think it was Cone last night who said of Fonzie something along the lines of "he just has no idea how to pitch to certain guys in certain situations a lot of the time." Ya think?

Hawkins and Fonzie worry Me a lot.

But it's early.

Too Clever By Half, Part II: The Man-Genius Of Baseball.

It came out yesterday that Morgan Ensberg had an ankle injury and would be put on the DL, thus freeing up a roster spot so that Gonzalez could be called up while Jeter is sidelined.

But Ensberg didn't know about his supposed injury. Then it comes out that no, no DL for Ensberg. Shelley Duncan will be sent down to make room for Gonzalez.

iris' comment on this chain of events was that "MJ Squared is the Eric Mangini of baseball," referring to Mangini's refusal to ever give the press a real answer about any Jets' injury.

The Man-Genius of baseball.

But it's early.

The Week That Was

2008-04-05T08:39:00.000-07:00

Formula 1: Engine Is Everything

When it works, it works. A solid start. Joba. Mariano. Seven-inning ballgame.

That first part is the tricky part. Right now the bats aren't particularly potent so overcoming a poor or even fair effort by the starter is difficult. Mussina didn't pitch horribly, but wasn't stellar by any means as a result the Yankees were never really in that game. Kennedy last night was terrible, the offense tried to make a game of it, but the firm of Farnsworth & Hawkins Ltd., General Demolitions, ensured that there would be no semblance of a comeback.

It could be a roller coaster of a year. Kennedy and Hughes (and, yes, even Joba) at times are going to have their growing pains. The offense, as we see right now, is going to have periods of more potential than production. When those two problems coincide there is going to be losing and generally bad feelings. And when those things coincide with Boston not having those problems (though at times they will), the media will make everything seem ten times worse.

So, it's going to be an exciting, but not always calm, season.

And . . .

I go on record as saying the Yankees did the right thing in keeping all the kids and not making the Santana deal. I, for one, am all right with missing the playoffs this year if that has to happen. Yankees management shouldn't be OK with it, of course, but not to the extent of making some stupid panic trade(s) in July. You can remind Me, in August when we're ten games out that I said this. Sometimes the right thing is to miss the playoffs one year, and in parts of the Yankee organization they understand that it's not going to affect selling out the Stadium this year or selling out the new Stadium next year.

Steve, Are You Sure About This?

"The greatest offense in the history of baseball." --Steve Phillips, on the 2008 Tigers.

Wait! I meant, "unless they have to face Gil Meche or Zach Greinke!"

Thank you for that clarification, Steve.

Finally

2008-03-30T03:00:00.001-07:00

The Crystal Ball

Finally, it's time. The silliness in Japan has been concluded. The off-site exhibition games are done. MLB Extra Innings has been ordered. Tonight, the Washington Nationals unveil their new ballpark vs. the Braves. Real baseball tonight. I am so happy I can almost forget that I'll have to listen to Bozo (Joe Morgan) and Balloon-Head (John Miller) for three hours.

And it's time for confident, well-reasoned, fearless predictions. Set them out there like stately Titanics and hope they dodge all those icebergs. Hope and gullibility spring eternal at this time of year. Here we go:

AL East: The idiots on ESPN are gushing over how much better Toronto and Tampa are going to be this season . . . ummmm, no. It's Boston and New York. It's close, but I'll give Boston (the New Evil Empire) the division. Can Baltimore win 65 games this year? Congress wants to investigate something, they should look into Peter Angelos' destruction of a once-great franchise.

AL Central: There's reasons to devalue the chances of every team in this division. I honestly think everyone but KC has a shot here. An awful lot went right for Cleveland last year. Detroit should score a ton of runs, but you never know for sure. Plus their bullpen is putrid/hurt and they have questions in the rotation. The White Sox can't hit as poorly as last year (probably). The Twins are going to be OK without Santana. Cleveland I guess wins it.

AL West: The Mariners are the off-season darlings, having added Bedard. Well, not so fast. Can anyone really know what Felix Hernandez will do this year? Will they really have a better offense? The Angels looked odds-on before the Escobar and Lackey injuries. Texas and Oakland look to be pretty horrible. Angels win.

AL Wild Card: Your New York Yankees. I actually kind of like the team going in. My gut feeling is that the two kids will pitch well enough, the bullpen might actually be a plus for the first time in years, and the offense should be fine, provided Jumpin' Jacks Girardi doesn't go nuts with the bunting and "small ball" (ewwwwwwwww). Assuming Wang has a more or less typical year, a lot is riding on the health/effectiveness of Mussina and Pettitte. I think it will work out OK.

NL East: Mets potentially have an offense composed of three extremely good players and a bunch of nothing around them, particularly if Delgado isn't effective and Alou is hurt (gasp! what? he's hurt already?) Everyone seems to be assuming that Pedro is going to just slide right back into dominant form after basically not pitching for two years. Ummm, yeah. Mike Pelfry or 71-year-old El Duque in the rotation. 'Nuff said. Two bad teams in the division, but two good ones too. Atlanta, Philly, and the Mets fighting it out. Braves.

NL Central: I must love baseball if I'm even covering this division. Cubs in a more or less putrid field. Brewers will challenge them, some.

NL West: They say four teams have a shot here. That's another way of saying no one team is that good. Arizona is the chalk pick. I have a feeling they won't win it. Colorado won't -- last year was not a year, but a great streak at the right time. Joe "The Fire Eater" Torre doesn't help LA quite enough. San Diego wins.

NL Wild Card: Phillies.

ALCS: Yankees over Boston.
NLCS: Braves over Cubs.
World Series: Yankees over Braves. Same as it ever was.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Thankfully.

Play Ball!!!!!!!

iris Is Wise; Pitching . . . Bench . . .

2008-03-08T16:29:00.000-08:00

No Writer's Strike Here!

I was away from the PC . . . when I came back, iris had left Me the following instant messages:

--Not sure if you saw this, but
--Jose Vizcaino has a bad elbow, is getting an MRI on it
--The image on the MRI is going to show Joe Torre waving for the bullpen

I love that girl . . .

And another from the iris file . . .

We were watching a game last Sunday and Jason Lane was playing. "Who's this guy?" iris said. I didn't know -- teams always have 157 guys at spring training. I looked him up and saw that Jason Lane is not a high average hitter. OK, must have some power. Hmmm . . . nope. All righty then, he's got speed! Checking . . . checking . . . nope, no speed. As I'm checking all this, Lane makes a throw in from the outfield to home plate. Not in time. Hm, so let's get this straight:

--No average
--No power
--No speed
--No arm

Wow! The very rare zero-tool player!

Problem is, Lane is going nuts during this game. In the space of half an hour or so he hits a home run and a triple.

At that moment iris nails it.

"i know who he is . . . he's this year's Josh Phelps!"

And it dawns on Me.

Yep. Josh Phelps . . . the guy who comes to spring training, hits the tar out of the ball, and makes the team over better players who unfortunately didn't have as good a spring. Of course once the season starts he totally sucks, thus messing up the bench for half a season.

Thankfully Lane has cooled off some. Morgan Ensberg, however, might still turn out to be this year's Josh Phelps.

Speaking of the Bench . . .

According to John Sterling on the Yankees' radiocast today, the Yankees for some ridiculous reason are going to carry twelve pitchers. To Me that shows a total lack of trust in the bullpen, but OK, they don't have too many off-days in April, so twelve pitchers it is.

That leaves 13 position players. So let's see . . .

Damon Melky Abreu across the outfield. Matsui DH. Giambi, Cano Jeter, A-Rod, Posada, Molina. That's ten.

Benemit. Duncan. And . . . ?

According to Suzyn Waldman, the decision on that 13th guy depends on how well Benemit can play shortstop. If Benemit can play SS acceptably, then most likely lucky #13 will be an outfielder (Jason "Zero Tool" Lane, anyone?). If not, then that thirteenth position player will have to be someone who can handle SS. (Alberto Gonzalez?)

To me that doesn't make so much sense, since we already have two guys, Matsui and Duncan, who can play the outfield. I think the 25th guy should be a speed/bunter/pinch-runner type who can fill in at SS if need be. I don't fancy the pinch-running stylings of Duncan, Benemit, or Gonzalez.

I can't stop thinking about it. Twelve Pitchers?

Sorry, but I need to work out this twelve pitchers thing. Do we even have twelve pitchers we really want to keep around?

Pettite, Mussina, Wang, Hughes, Kennedy.

Mariano, Joba, Farnsworth, Hawkins. There's nine.

Karstens is the long man? Ten.

So, pick any two:

Bruney, Britton, Ramirez, Henn, Ohlendorf, Veras, Albaladejo, Igawa, Chase Wright (note that if you don't pick Wright or Igawa or Henn there's no lefty in the pen, if that matters to you)

From that list I like Britton and Ohlendorf. Now that Torre is gone perhaps Britton will get a semblance of a legit shot at showing what he can do. To carry eleven pitchers, I pick between Britton and Ohlendorf, based on the spring.

The real issue is the existence of Farnsworth and Hawkins on this roster. Without these two dead weights, you could have Britton and Ohlendorf and a lefty and you have eleven pitchers instead of a bloated twelve.

Center Field Update.

Melky was 1-2 today, raising his average this spring to .417. The combined average of all the other center fielders is about .062. End of update.

Hatin' on the Melkster . . . A Sad Sad Tale

2008-03-05T16:48:00.000-08:00

He's Young, And He Can Play! Quick! Trade Him!

Weird noises emanating from Girardi and Cashman about Melky Cabrera. Cashman talking up Austin Jackson, Jose Tabata, Brett Gardner, and I think the beer vendor as center field prospects. Girardi, making the assertion that "the best thing for young players is competition" in response to a question about Melky being the center fielder. (Manager Joe's statement is correct -- about 50% of the time.) Girardi also suggested (and he was sober, as far as anyone knows) that Damon could play center and Matsui could play left.

I don't get the organizational obsession with making Melky prove and re-prove himself.

--In 2006, Melky was a huge reason that the season didn't go down in flames after the Sheffield and Matsui injuries.
--Last year, he singlehandedly fixed the outfield issues, allowing Damon to move to left, where he looked a lot better than he was looking in center, and allowing Matsui (whose defense seems to have deserted him all at once) take over as DH.
--Melky was basically winning Game 2 of the ALDS all by himself until The Attack of the Flies.
--Melky brings an energy that this team badly needs. Torre's inability to see that and thus not play Melky in the 2006 ALDS should have been the final straw and gotten Torre fired after that season.
--Is there some law against the Yankees having a few young players worth rooting for?
--Or some law against having great arms in the outfield?

Hopefully Cashman and Gerardi's comments were just a ham-handed attempt to fire Melky up and not reflective of an organizational desire to get rid of him. But the ferocity with which the Yankees have tried to trade Melky for just about anyone, from basically the moment he showed he could play, tells Me otherwise.

Can't wait to see which 37 year old .500 starter we trade Melky for in July. Enjoy Kansas City or Milwaukee or San Diego or wherever the hell you end up, Melky.

Season Three Looms: Third Time's The Charm?

2008-03-02T07:54:00.000-08:00

2008 will be the third season for this blog, and this time, I really (really) want to make it through the entire season. 2006, I stopped posting in May; 2007, I made it until August.

So the trend at least is promising.

We ARE Having An Actual Baseball Season, Yes?

I pose that question because it seems that all the "experts" are pretty much crowning the Red Sox as repeat champions. (Except for one baseball analyst on ESPN who predicted an Indians-Cubs World Series -- I am praying whatever he is on is legal so that I can try some.)

The "logic" of the Boston Repeat Prognosticators is basically "they're bringing everyone back." Gosh, that's brilliant analysis -- no wonder these guys make the big bucks.

Here is the official list of Boston Questions for 2008.

1. Starting pitching. It's not a given that Beckett will have another career year. Beckett is 77-52 for his career, 25 games over .500. 13 of those 25 came last year when he was 20-7. A repeat performance is by no means certain.

Everyone seems to be convinced that Dice-K will have a better year in 2008. For all the hoopla, Matsuzaka was 15-12, 4,40, on the World Champions last year. He might improve significantly this year, but while he's more familiar with the League, the League is also more familiar with him.

Clay Buckholz had better be the real deal. With Schilling most likely not a factor this season, and Wakefield being what he is, a .500 innings-eater, the Red Sox need Buckholz and Lester to be very good. They might be. But only in the fevered dreams of ESPN Sox-whores is it a given.

Theo didn't take a flyer on Bartolo Calzone (thanks, bostondirtdogs.com) as a humanitarian gesture.

2. Manny will be Manny but will he be good? Was last year just a blip, or the beginning of Manny Ramirez starting to run down? He may bounce back strongly this year, or he may be slowing down, and who knows -- perhaps even the seemingly unflappable Manny might press a bit, knowing the $20 million option is dangling out there?

3. Pedroia and Youklis. They must continue where they left off. If they don't, a sound strategy will be to simply let Ortiz and Manny hit as many solo HRs as they like. At some point AL pitchers are going to realize that Youkliis is a .280 hitter, meaning he makes an out 72% of the time he puts the ball in play, and will stop pitching to him like he's Babe Ruth on HGH.

4. Ellsbury is going to live up to the hype? He very well might . . . his first 116 at-bats were great (sans power, but he did hit .353) . . . but he's not going to be a .353 career hitter.

5. Did Papelbon's shoulder miraculously revert to a state of perfection and no one is saying? The whole motivation behind the now apparently shelved idea of making Papelbon a starter was to (supposedly) put less stress on his shoulder. Did that suddenly stop being a concern? Just wondering, especially because . . .

6. Okajima faltered badly down the stretch last year, clearly overused. He may respond to that better this year, or like many middle relievers, he may follow a good year with a crummy one.

That's the Boston Questions for 2008, going in. I don't intend to imply that the Yankees don't have a bunch of questoins, too . . . certainly they do, and Boston should be the favorite to win the division again, but it is worth remembering that a baseball season rarely goes as predicted.

Stuff I Hear Every Off-Season That Never Ends Up Being True

"Toronto is a lot better this year"
"Tampa is going to surprise some people"
"The Mets finally matter again"
"The Brewers are ready to break out"
"The Indians are taking the next step"
"The Cubs finally have all the pieces in place"

Uh huh.

Experience Is Sometimes Just Bad Habits

2007-08-09T16:46:00.000-07:00

OMG! Season Over! Impossible 20-Game Stretch Looming!!

Driving home today I heard a little of the Michael Kay show on ESPN radio. For those who may not know, Kay is a YES Network broadcaster in addition to hosting the ESPN Radio show.

In the snippet I heard tonight Kay was walking about the allegedly "tough stretch" the Yankees faced over their next 20 games. 17 of these 20 are against teams that are right now in playoff position, this will be a real test to see if the Yankees' run of late is for real blah blah blah.

Kay is not alone in buying into this nonsense I've heard other sports radio and TV hosts spouting similar stuff. Some I foolishly thought would have known better.

The simple truth is this: It doesn't matter who you play nearly as much as when you play them.

Has everyone forgotten that just a short time ago the Yankees were riding high, and were looking at nine games against three indifferent teams -- San Francisco, Colorado, and Baltimore. The result was 2-7. 2-7!!!!

So please. I don't want to hear about Cleveland, Detroit, and Boston coming up. None of those three are playing very well lately. Detroit in particular is playing hideous baseball. Eight games against them is a bad thing? Huh?

Cleveland isn't much better -- they've picked up some ground because they haven't played as badly as Detroit has of late.

Boston and the Yankees is almost always a 50-50 thing. They should flip a coin on opening Day to decide who wins 10 and who wins 9 and save us all a lot of needless hype every season.

Of the 20-game stretch coming up, the two toughest matchups for us are Baltimore and Anaheim. For whatever reason the Yankees have difficulty with Anaheim and Baltimore is playing everyone tough (although they are laying down nicely for Seattle this week).

So enough about how difficult the next 20 games are. It's as I said last week. Tonight's game is the toughest. Until tomorrow. Unfortunately that takes about 5 seconds to say, and then you're left with hours of sports talk radio show to fill.

Kay was speculating, as I was getting out of the car, what Yankee fans should expect from these next 20 games. He said that 14-6 would be a "giddy" expectation.

Rubbish. 14-6 over the next 20 is no more "giddy" than predicting 2-7 against SF, Colorado, and Baltimore would have been "irrationally negative." 19-1 would be giddy. 18-2 would be giddy. 14-6 is simply what the Yankees need to keep doing to stay on the 95 win track and not have to worry about the other clowns.

And it's very possible. The main obstacle to 14-6 (or better) is four games in Anaheim.

Lipstick On A Pig: The 2007 Yankees

2007-07-28T08:39:00.000-07:00

Free Runs Cost.

The Yankees' recent string of scoring a lot of runs masks the essential flaws of this team, flaws that were prominently on display Thursday and Friday nights.

Each night, the Yankees failed to get two 'free runs," that is, a man on second with no outs or a man on third with one or no outs. Runs that you can get without getting any more hits.

Thursday it doesn't look important because the final score was 7-0. But that was a 4-0 game most of the way, and 4-2, which it should have been, is much different psychologically than 4-0.

Last night of course the two free runs not gotten were the difference in the game.

Note that this has nothing to do with the team's 1-18 with RISP or whatever it is the past two nights. These were four runs we missed out simply by not making the right kind of outs.

This team has been horrible at this all year. The recent run-scoring outbursts against Tampa and KC (coincidence? unlikely) masked how poorly this team does with situational hitting, how ridiculously streaky they are, and how vulnerable the bullpen is.

Jeter, Cano, and Posada all had horrendous at bats in big spots last night (Jeter more than one).

Please Make That Deal -- We'll Throw In Airfare.

Rumor has it that the Tigers are interested in re-acquiring Kyle Farnsworth. Brian, make this deal NOW before Detroit comes to their senses. The arm isn't enough, as impressive as it can be. Farnsworth's fastball is straight, making it hittable at any speed, and he simply doesn't have the feel for pitching effectively in the late innings. He's a crummy teammate and a meltdown waiting to happen.

Hillenbrand Signs With San Diego -- Whew!

Shea Hillenbrand signed a minor league deal with San Diego, thankfully making it impossible for the Yankees to acquire him. As I've written before, offense at first base is not this team's problem -- Andy Phillips is more than good enough for the rest of this season. He plays a great first base and gets some big hits.

I Don't Make Idle Threats, But . . .

Rumor has it that Jason Giambi is close to returning to the lineup. If Giambi's return costs Melky an every day spot, I will have to seriously consider investing in a Mets' jersey. For whatever reason Torre doesn't like Melky too much -- I guess being a huge part of saving last year's season wasn't enough for Joe -- and it won't surprise Me at all if Giambi DHs, and Johnny Damon and his .240 average go back into the outfield until Damon literally drops, since he won't ever go on the DL and heaven forbid Torre ever overrules one of his veterans.

By then it won't matter anyway. We'll be well and truly out of it. Hmmm . . . Wright or Beltran, for the jersey, do you think?

I Think My Clicker Is Broken!

Did Mariano throw 72 pitches in the ninth inning of the suspended game last night or did it just seem that way? Amazing how Torre knew he wouldn't need Mariano in the regular game. The man's a genius, I tell you!

Two Out Of Three, The Hard Way (Of Course)

2007-07-22T08:22:00.000-07:00

Caution: Keep Hands And Feet Inside Car While Ride Is In Motion.

After Thursday's shocking loss, I honestly was caught by surprise by the lackluster effort Friday night. This team keeps sucking me in like this -- making me think they've turned some corner, then wrenching me back to reality with a game like Friday night's.

It is going to be a roller coaster ride with this bunch of Yankees this year, and where it ends up is anyone's guess.

But there was one wonderful moment Friday night, and one subtle blown opportunity by Torre to take even more of the sting out.

Late in Friday's lopsided loss, Shelley Duncan got his first major league hit, and as is customary, they take the ball out of play to save for the kid. Always a nice moment, and I felt good for Duncan after striking out in his first two at bats and looking pretty bad and overwhelmed in the process.

The next batter up, Damon, gets a hit to break an 0-for-20-something skid, and, with brilliant comedic sense, calls for the ball!!!!!

I was laughing my head off . . . Damon's move was perfect.

Now, because Torre had earlier put the DH into play a position, our pitcher had to bat, and Ron Villone's spot was up next.

This is where Torre missed his chance: Let Villone bat. We weren't scoring 10 runs to come back and tie the game -- carry the laughs from Damon's calling for the ball forward. Give the guys on the bench something to laugh about, watching Villone trying to make contact against major league pitching.

Am I Psychic, Or What?

During the first game yesterday, with the Yankees down 2-0 and looking pretty blah, A-Rod walked. I told iris, "that was the turning point. Not just of this game but of the whole season."

The next pitch Matsui jerks into the stands to tie the game. Since I said that to iris we've scored 24 runs.

I scare myself sometimes.

Breaking News.

Yanks acquire Molina from Angels for minor-league pitcher. Not earth-shaking but for someone who's going to play once a week it's fine, and Molina is a significant upgrade from Will Nieves.

Breaking News, Part 2.

Will Nieves traded for two fungo bats. The fungo bats are reportedly extremely upset.

A Nightmare On 161st Street, Part 17: The F-Word Cometh

2007-07-16T16:24:00.000-07:00

I Have Seen This Movie Before And It's Just As Scary Every Time.

The script is horrifyingly familiar, made no less upsetting by virtue of repetition.

We lead late. Have to get the eighth inning to give the game to Mariano. In comes Farnsworth.

And then there's a baserunner. Or two. Or a home run. Or some walks. Or all of the above.

Unlike the horror movie series, though, the bad guy isn't wearing a goalie mask, as if he's proud of his grisly crimes.

But, as often happens in the horror genre, the monster has a master, the mad scientist pushing the buttons and throwing the switches, giving life to the beast.

How many times do we have to see this particular (bad) movie?

I don't care how much money Farnsworth is making -- he's pitched his way to the bottom of the heap. That Torre keeps running him out there in big spots is inexplicable and bizarre.

If the archives are still out there, you'll know I'm not second -guessing. When the Yankees were thinking of signing Farnsworth, I wrote on the Yankees message boards that we needed to stay away from this goon at all costs. He had had one good season (one good half-season, really) and that we shouldn't be fooled by that.

He is Armando Benitez with a better workout regimen. All arm and no brains. All stuff and no heart.

Supposedly Cashman is looking to trade Farnsworth. Do it -- amazingly enough there are some teams out there desperate/stupid enough to actually trade us something for him. In the meantime, Torre needs to not pitch him unless we are ahead or behind 7 or more runs. Right now I want to see Proctor or Bruney or anyone else (except Meyers) in the eighth inning.

But this is what Torre does. You'll note that it took no time at all for Ron Villone to earn his way back into important spots. He's a Joe guy and a Joe guy gets 1,293 chances to fail. Meanwhile Chris Britton, who apparently insulted Torre's family or something, rots in Scranton. And don't tell me that Sean Henn can't do a better job than Mike Meyers.

Call 1-800-NO-F-CLUE

2007-07-14T10:02:00.000-07:00

Say Whatever You Like -- The Radio's On But No One's Really Listening.

A WFAN caller today actually took the time to call, sit on hold for 20 minutes, and talk to a screener, just to complain to the host about Melky Cabrera. This caller, presumably sober at such a tender hour of the day, said that Melky's lack of power made him "not the long-term answer" in the outfield for the Yankees.

Now, the host could have done the responsible thing and set the caller straight on Melky, and maybe tossed in the 800 number for AA, just in case.

Instead, the host, Evan Roberts, says, "I think you're right and I"m sure the Yankees aren't thinking of Melky as the answer. Melky's a lot like Endy Chavez -- good in small doses but when he plays every day he gets exposed."

That exchange is wrong on so many levels.

1. If the caller thinks that Melky not hitting home runs is the cause of the Yankees' problems, then I take it back, he wasn't sober after all.

2. Evan Roberts has to concede to the facts and the facts are that last year, when Melky played every day, far from "being exposed," he performed admirably in a difficult situation and was a big part of the reason we won 97 games last year. Torre not using the lineup that won those 97 games in the playoffs is one of his biggest blunders ever. [On a side note, I wonder how Torre feels now about kowtowing to Sheffield last year in the playoffs after Sheffield basically just called him a racist bastard.]

And for Evan, and everyone else who might wonder, here's Melky's numbers from last year:

130 games
Hit .280
50 RBI
75 runs
12/17 in steals
7 HRs

Perfectly respectable for a rookie, in fact better than respectable. And what doesn't show there is the infusion of youth and energy and speed that Melky provides, which was instrumental in last year's run.

After a slow start this year (when he wasn't playing every day, early on), Melky's got his numbers back in range of last year's.

And perhaps the most important thing -- he isn't even 23 yet. Who says this is as good as Melky gets? I see him filling out as he gets older, developing significant power, and possibly moving to a corner outfield spot.

3. Melky is by far our best defensive outfielder, not only because of his arm but because of his ability to get to balls that Matsui can't reach or that Abreu can't be bothered with because Abreu's brooding over being 1 for his last 48 or whatever it was there for a while. Already this season there have been several games we'd likely have lost had Damon been playing center.

But talk radio hosts basically say whatever they feel like, the facts and common sense be damned.

Silly me . . . I thought the idea was for the host to be smarter than the callers.

ESPN's M&M Boys Strike Out. Looking. Twice.

2007-07-12T16:06:00.000-07:00

Mike and Mike Math Moment.

Mike and Mike this morning were talking about about the Yankees' situation this morning, and Mike Golic repeated the oft-cited, but wrong, assessment that teams in the Yankees' situation have "too many teams to climb over."

That matters in September. It doesn't matter with almost 70+ games left.

If 95 games will get the Yankees to the postseason, then they have to get to that number. It doesn't matter what other teams do, IF 95 is the number. Now to do that, as of three games go the Yankees needed to play .688 ball the rest of the way. A tall order, perhaps unlikely, but how many teams there are to climb over is no issue at this point.

Then they started talking about how the Yankees' first 28 games starting today are all vs. teams with under-500 records. What follows is a good illustration of why sports talk show hosts should avoid anything remotely mathematical.

Greenberg : The Yankees' next 28 games are against teams under .500. What do they have to go over this stretch . . . 24-4?"

Golic : Well even that that won't matter if Boston goes 17-7.

Greenberg : Oh well, if Boston goes 17-7 the Yankees are dead.

Um, guys? 17-7 is 24, first of all. Golic by his own admission has the brain power of a bag of slab bacon, but Greenberg went to Northwestern, which I'd always been led to believe was a good school. Secondly if the Yankees were to go 24-4 over these next 28 games, in all likelihood they will be atop the wild card standings or very close to it.

They don't need to go 24-4 over the next 28. If they win 70% of those games, that's 20-8, rounded up. Which won't be easy, but they are playing some less than stellar teams and any second half run has to start immediately.

Mike and Mike Money Moment.

Intertwined with that Yankees' conversation above was the Mikes talking about the "news item" that the Yankees "are willing to negotiate now" with A-Rod about a new contract. To me this is no news -- policies to the contrary, I believe the Yankees have been willing to talk to Boras about a new deal since last season ended. Perhaps now they have leaked Buster Olney's big scoop to make it publicly known that they are going to aggressively pursue an extension with A-Rod.

The Mikes went on to say, correctly, I think, that it will take something like $30 million per, for a fair number of years, to sign A Rod. Then Greenberg veers off the road, saying that it won't work, that A-Rod is definitely opting out and testing the market.

Err . . . Mike? What market, exactly? Given that we are talking about something like . . . $225 million over 7 years, let's say . . . how many teams actually could seriously be in the market for A Rod? I can think of four, perhaps five at the outside. San Francisco (rumored to want A Rod badly) is not an option, unless they are willing to 1) commit 35% of their total payroll to one player, or 2) dramatically increase their payroll. The Yankees, The Mets, The Angels, The Red Sox, The Cubs. Boras knows pretty much exactly what each of those teams can/will offer.

The other point, and this blind spot is not limited to Mike and Mike, but it's the most important thing in this situation: A Rod wants to stay with the Yankees! I know, gosh, how horrible to be the star of the most recognized team in sports, in one of the greatest cities in the world. And A-Rod is cognizant of his place in the history of the game . . . and he knows that, rightly or wrongly, accomplishments with the Yankees just plain mean more. A Rod's going into Cooperstown wearing a Mariners' hat? A Texas Rangers hat? I think not.

All off-season all the so-called "experts" had A Rod traded this off-season. That didn't happen, and all those experts now have him opting out. Greenberg said "I think A Rod really wants to go to Anaheim or the Cubs." This is based apparently on Greenberg's close friendship with and deep personal knowledge of A-Rod.

Not to mention that the Yankees have one advantage that other potential bidders for A-Rod don't have. And that is $81 million. $81 million that the Texas Rangers still have to pay A-Rod if he doesn't opt out of his current contract. The Yankees will extend A-Rod as opposed to ripping up the last three years of the current deal. In exchange for that I'm sure the team will go a little more money, or an extra year. As in all long-term deals with a guy in his mid-30s (A-Rod will be 35, I think, when the current deal is up), you know and have to accept that you're going to overpay in the end year(s). But that overpayment when A Rod is 42 is offset by the fact that Texas is paying a big chunk of A-Rod's salary during these hugely productive years.

I think the odds are very good that A-Rod remains a Yankee for the rest of his career.

2-1 in 13, 12-0. Go Figure

2007-07-08T10:57:00.000-07:00

I Watched Fox Baseball For Four Hours And All I Got Was This Crummy "L."

Catchers often end up managers. Catchers have to think a lot during the course of a game. Because of that catchers can make good managers, and good analysts, too.

The issue is when the former catcher/analyst says everything that he thinks. This is Joe Gerardi's problem. After a couple of innings he becomes unlistenable because he has only two modes: Joycean stream of consciousness or catatonic silence. At one point yesterday, the catcher came out to talk to the pitcher and Gerardi was stone silent for about 30 seconds. I think Steve Albert deliberately didn't prod Gerardi with a "what is he saying to him in a situation like this?" line because Albert needed a break from listening to Gerardi as well.

As for the game. When you lose 2-1 in 13 innings there's always going to be regrets, at bats/situations both before and during the extra innings, that sealed the team's fate.

Two stand out for me. Bottom 7 . . . Posada leads off with a double. This is a free run -- we can score without getting any more hits. (I haven't looked up the numbers but my observations suggest that the 2007 Yankees are doing a terrible job of collecting free runs.) And we don't get this one either. Strikeout strikeout pickoff.

PICKOFF?!!?!!!???!!?!!!??

Off second? Where exactly was Crazy Legs Posada going? For all this talents and wonderful contributions over the years, Posada has always been a terrible baserunner. Not just slow, but with horrendous instincts/judgment as well.

There went that chance.

The one that really sticks with Me is in the bottom of the 13th, with us down a run. First and third, one out. Melky up.

Gerardi immediately talked about how the safety squeeze would work well here. Melky can handle the bat, Cairo's fast enough to score on a safety squeeze, and if they pitch out there's no risk since it's a safety squeeze.

I have to agree. Melky had struck out four times already. And striking out isn't even the worst that could happen -- he could hit into a game-ending double play, and then Jeter, leading the world in hitting with 2 outs and RISP wouldn't get up to bat.

To my way of thinking you do it on the first pitch.

They didn't. Not on the first pitch, or ever. Melky strikes out for the fifth time, Jeter hits a harmless grounder. Ballgame.

Now, since I'm the reasonable sort, I tried to think of reasons Joe didn't do it. I come with two possibilities, both of which seem pretty weak.

1. Joe, having already used everyone in the pen he felt good about using, decided to play for the win.

My problem with that argument is that you have to tie it or nothing else matters. There's no way of knowing -- if you hold your nose and put in . . . Villone, let's say, maybe he pitches three good innings. Plus, Anaheim had already used both of their good relievers. Scioscia's options were to use K-Rod for a third inning or roll the dice. In either case getting the game to the 14th (and esepcially beyond, if it comes to that) puts big pressure on Anaheim as well.

2. Joe felt that the Angels were looking for the squeeze, thus decreasing the play's chance of success.

Granted, K-Rod did pantomime a lot before throwing the first pitch to Melky, obviously attempting to get someone to give away the play. So it was on their minds. It would be hard for it not to be.

But, as Gerardi pointed out, all the ingredients were there for the safety squeeze: A fast enough guy on third and a good bunter at the plate. The night before, the suicide squeeze was used because Posada is very slow and if he doesn't leave the base until the ball's bunted it would have to be close to a perfect bunt. In this situation, with Cairo running all Melky has to do is get the bunt up the first base line a little and Cairo scores standing up.

But Torre, who squeezed the night before in the midst of a big inning . . . in the THIRD inning, when the beer vendor could have thrown on a Yankee uniform and gotten a hit, doesn't squeeze in the 13th inning needing one run to keep the game going, at home.

I'm so mystified I can almost believe that Melky missed the sign, except that there was no conference with the third base coach after the first pitch, as there surely would have been had a sign been missed.

The Bronx Bombers Reappear, Much To The Chagrin Of An New Old-Timer.

Saturday's tough loss had no carryover as the Yankees took Santana deep, repeatedly, en route to a 12-0 win to close out the first half.

It was encouraging to see no hangover from yesterday, and to see someone other than A Rod hitting it out (although A Rod snuck one over the left field wall, too, for a nice round 30 home runs at the break).

But iris mentioned to me that "Roger must be really pissed."

I laughed. Hm. 14 runs the day before he pitches. 4 quick runs the day after he pitches. The day he pitched we looked like the 2005/2006 Houston Astros.

I assured iris that Roger was not mad at all. That he was all about the team. Etc.

Then it was 7-0. "You know Roger is livid now." Noooooooooo, silly. Roger's all about the team, I assured her. He just ran into some good pitching by Lackey yesterday.

Then it was 10-0. They showed a shot of Andy Pettitte in the dugout. No Roger sitting next to him. What the . . . ? At first I thought maybe they let all the starters except Wang leave the team early for the All-Star break, but in that case Pettitte wouldn't have been on the bench.

I had to stop reassuring iris at that point.

A Tough Game To Watch, Made Tougher

2007-07-07T08:01:00.000-07:00

Shut Up.

Michael Kay is perhaps the more infuriating announcer in professional sports. I realize there is a lot of competition, but for Me Kay's aggressive stupidity, his refusal to let go of a "point," no matter how many different ways it is shown to be wrong and/or irrelevant, and his inability to stop doing radio even though he's been on TV for five years now, give him the crown.

Last night Kay was in rare form, even for him.

Pettitte couldn't hold a big lead and was taken out without being able to get the win. Now, in a situation like this . . . the scoring rules are clear. Edwar Ramirez came in, and by the time he left the Yankees had been tied, and then gone ahead again. Ramirez was thus in line to get the win if the score held.

Now there is one exception. If, in the opinion of the official scorer, the reliever who would technically be in line for the win was "brief and ineffective," the scorer can award the win to another pitcher.

It's very rare that that happens. And while there is no strict definition of "brief and ineffective," it's generally assumed that's it really brief and really ineffective, like . . . 1/3 of an inning and four runs allowed. Ramirez wasn't great last night but was nowhere near brief and ineffective -- 1-1/3 innings, one run allowed. Yet Kay several times said that Ramirez was in line for the win but that it would be up to the official scorer. Does he really not know, after all these years, that there was basically zero chance of Ramirez not getting the win?

Infuriating. Aggressively stupid.

Shut Up Shuttin' Up.

But Kay was in rare form already last night. When Ramirez came into the game, he talked about Ramirez' changeup, calling it a "Bugs Bunny changeup."

The reference comes from a Bugs Bunny cartoon in which Bugs is pitching and throws his special pitch, a very slow pitch at which the hitter swings three times and strikes himself out. It's a classic, but if you're going to talk about in on a baseball telecast, you have to have all the facts, namely, what the pitch was actually called.

Say it with me, Michael: The Paralyzin' Palooka Pitch.

Maybe it's sad that I know that, I don't know. But Kay has to know it if he's going to talk about it on TV. Calling it the "Bugs Bunny Changeup" is lame, and sad. And of course in typical Kay fashion, he mentions it over and over. Then to complete the self-humiliation he explains the reference! "For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, there was a Bugs Bunny cartoon . . . "

Stop, Michael, please. Just . . . stop.

And A Special "Shut Up" To The Rules and The Scoring Rules.

Two little odd things from last night. One from the game, one from the box score.

Cano apparently missed third base en route to scoring on Cairo's gapper and was called out when Anaheim appealed. The appeal play last worked in 1967, I think. It's time to take it out of the rules. If the guy left too early, or missed the base, have some guts and make it the umpire's job to call it. A system whereby the other team's mistake/cheating gets penalized only if you notice it, is ridiculous. What are umpires for?

The second thing is that in looking at the box score I see that Edwar Ramzirez, in addition to getting the win last night, gets tagged with a Blown Save.

In the sixth inning?

Not that it matters except I suppose in arbitration hearings, but there should be no blown saves given out prior to the eighth inning. Too much can still happen.

Non-Answers, Math Review, And Pitching Scared

2007-07-06T09:15:00.000-07:00

Depends On How You Define "Is."

I happened to catch a little of Brian Cashman interviewed on WFAN this morning. Kim Jones asked Cashman: "I heard that Philip Hughes is pitching for the [Class A] Tampa Yankees Monday. Is he?"

This would appear to be a simple question. It wasn't. Cashman started talking and I quickly zoned out. Cashman spoke for what seemed like three minutes but I'm pretty sure the answer to the question was "yes." Hughes is pitching for the Tampa Yankees on Monday. Probably.

In other Cashman "news," another non-answer answer revealed that Kei Igawa is going to get another start after the All-Star Break. Sort of. Unless there's some other option, or something else happens. I think.

Kim asked Cashman if he had a number in mind, as in, how many wins in his mind the Yankees need to end up with. Kim wondered if 95 was a number Cashman might have thought about, since well, getting to 95 wasn't going to be too easy now. Not surprisingly, Cashman said he doesn't think of a particular number, we have to try to win each day and be consistently better blah blah blah.

B. S. Cashman thinks about a target number all the time, even if for some reason he feels he can't reveal what that number is. (Don't want to put pressure on the team, after all, right? They might not perform well. Oh . . . wait . . . they're already not . . . ).

In The Year 5525.

Speaking of numbers. We sit at 40-42. 80 games remain. 90 wins means we go 50-30 the rest of the way . . . .625 baseball. 95 wins would require a record of 55-25 -- a winning percentage of .6875.

Most likely 90 wins isn't going to get us into the playoffs but 95 will. So let's forget 90 and say the Yankees need to play .688 ball over the last 80 games.

As down as I've been on them, as much as I am convinced that Torre has been the wrong manager for this team for a couple of years, at least, now, I do not think it's impossible, honestly. If the lineup can just perform to the back of their baseball cards, if there is normal luck with calls and breaks, if thee are no more big injures, it can be done. Will it? I'm not sure. But it will be a fun final 80 games if the team addresses those 80 games with the proper sense of urgency, i. e., you can only win one game at a time but losing comes in bunches.

The 75% Solution / Strike Zone, Paging Mr. Mussina.

A good week, taking three of four from the Twins. Honestly I expected to lose three to the Twins, but the offense and pitching came through very nicely in the first two games, and yesterday, their crappy pitcher was a little worse than our crappy pitcher, and our bullpen was a tiny bit better than theirs. (Very satisfying when Shemp took Neshek deep -- Neshek is one of those pitchers whose mound mannerisms make him easily and instantly unlikeable.)

The Mussina-Santana game is one that, on paper, you could have written off ahead of time and in truth I had done so. But the reality is that for two-plus years now, more often than not Mussina has pitched just well enough to lose in big spots. Wednesday was a highly winnable game. [Why Torre doesn't pinch-hit Posada for the hitless wonder in the fifth inning when the game could be broken open, but then does use him with two outs, none on, down two runs, is beyond me, but even with that it was a winnable game.]

And that has everything to do with Mussina's refusal to not pitch scared. Has anyone noticed that some of Mussina's best starts are those right after returning from injuries, when he's limited to 80 pitches? The reason for that is that in those starts he's not nibbling because he knows he can't do that and last too long under the pitch count.

All these pitchers that can't throw 90 that the Yankees can't hit have one thing in common aside from their 86 mph fastballs: They throw stirkes. When they don't is when they get hurt.

Know it, learn it, live it, Mike. There's no point in making the perfect pitch if 1) it's too perfect for the ump to see that it's a strike, and 2) it costs you four pitches to throw that perfect pitch, one or more of which stands a good chance of getting hit hard or of walking the guy.

Chip, Chip, Chip . . . Oops!

2007-07-01T16:53:00.000-07:00

Once More, With No Feeling.

Another numbing loss today. It would blend into all the others except that it started out with a jolt. That, and more classically horrible managing by Joe Torre make tpday's loss semi-memorable.

The jolt: Andy Pettitte allowing 8 runs in 1.2 innings. (Only 7 of said runs were earned thanks to an error by Abreu, who is suffering from Sheffield's Syndrome, in which poor performance at the plate causes desultory defense.) It was pretty shocking -- Andy has pitched well this year by and large and in most games has deserved a better fate. Not today -- there were some dribblers and bloops but Pettitte's location was way off and the shelling was richly deserved, disconcerting as it was.

So before I'm even settled in we're down 8-0. I check when and where the Boston game is on, since I figure to be watching a lot more of that game than this one.

But Haren is not his under-2 ERA self today. He's throwing a lot of pitches, and giving up some hits. 8-2. Villone, of all people, has replaced Pettite and Ronnie likes pitching down a lot of runs, obviously. Oakland's doing nothing against him.

8-4. We actually get the tying run to the plate with two outs (Cano, inserted into the 3 spot today). He makes out, but at 8-4, middle innings, Oakland's bullpen hardly bulletproof, it feels like we have a chance.

Villone is unhittable. We get it to 8-5, thanks to a 2-out hit by Jeter, his first since Tuesday, it feels like. Once again, the tying run to the plate with two outs. Once again, Cano. He strikes out. But OK . . . 8-5, three innings to go . . . we can do this. (Side note: Cano's approach at the plate this season is, to be kind, comical. Where is the hitting coach? Where is Mattingly? Or Bowa? Someone? Anyone?)

Bruney took over after Villone's 3.1 innings of outstanding relief and in his second inning of work, Bruney does the unthinkable: he allows a baserunner! I'm cursing before the batter even reaches first base because I already know what happens next.

And there he is. Mike Meyers, our "lefty specialist," and I want to throw something at the screen. Please, will the shills in the media who defend Torre no matter what, who humiliate, dismiss, and trash callers who say Joe should be fired, please make a semi-reasonable argument why you bring Meyers into the game at that point. To face a left-handed batter, when lefties are hitting well over .300 against Meyers.

And, to no fan's surprise, Meyers coughs it up to a lefty -- Cust doubles and Ellis easily scores from first. 9-5. And you could feel the life go completely out of the crowd, and the team. There would be no more chipping away.

Vizcaino comes in and gets out of that inning but gives up two more runs later, but it didn't matter. (Vizcaino has been pitching his way up the heap, headed for the coveted status of "Joe's guy." Today may have been just a little sidestep, or was the beginning of the quick slide back down to the bottom of the pile. We'll see.)

But once again, Torre's managing takes away what (admittedly little) chance we had at coming back in this game. Using Meyers in that situation is premature, and a case of slavish adherence to "the book." I wish Joe would look at the book that shows how Meyers is pitching now, not how he pitched for Boston in 2004, which is what Joe must see when he looks at him.

Release Meyers (that's not a knee-jerk reaction to today's performance -- it's long overdue). Fire Joe. Back up the truck and see what interest there might be for various and sundry warm bodies inhabiting the Pinstripes these days.

None of those will happen, of course . . . as I've said, iris has told me "it's going to be long year."

It already is. I think I've said that already, too.

The Silence Of The Lambasted.

2007-06-27T17:39:00.000-07:00

It's Not For Lack Of Trying

I've wanted to post but the words just fail me. Every time I got a thought, it just ran away.

I simply don't know what to say about this team any more. I have faith, though, that they will inspire Me, soon.

Friends In Low Places

Apparently one can not be a credentialed member of the New York media without swearing one's undying loyalty to Joe Torre, and the legend thereof.

The latest gem I'm aware of is courtesy of Yankees' broadcaster and ESPN radio host Michael Kay. Monday Kay dismissed a caller who complained about Torre with this gem:

"Joe Torre's not the problem -- he's been managing the same way for eleven years."

Is the media so mesmerized by Torre that they have lost all common sense? Michael, for the record -- and read this slowly, and repeatedly necessary:

When a manager manages the same way, without the same kind of team, then the manager is the problem.

If we still had Wetteland and Stanton and Nelson and Mendoza in their primes, hell yes -- I'd be routinely pulling the starters at the first sign of trouble. But that ship has sailed. The bullpen isn't as good and (this is related, of course) the starters aren't as good. You have to manage differently with a different kind of team.

Michael . . . is that really so difficult a concept to grasp? Joe is a big part of the problem. And one of the few parts that can be readily fixed.

[Thank you, iris, for pointing Me to Kay's comment.]

Party Like It's 1959

I've written before about how perhaps this, 2007, is "that year." The year where it all goes wrong and a team with good talent just doesn't perform. The 1959 Yankees. Mostly all the same guys who won the World Series the year before, and lost the World Series in seven games to an inferior team the following year. It's just that stuff happens, sometimes.

Predicting "that year" is a tough business. I was pretty sure that 2006 was "that year" (and in retrospect I wish that it had been).

I started to wonder if somehow what's happened since 2000 isn't in some measure a balancing of the books. Perhaps it's payback time. The bill coming due for every whacked-out move Torre made that he got away with. Every Luis Sojo clutch postseaon hit. David Cone in relief in the World Series. The perfect games. The ball call on that 2-2 pitch from Mark Langston to Tino Martinez. Ricky Ledee getting a clutch hit off Kevin Brown (the good, pre-Yankees Kevin Brown). Joe playing the B team, the C team, the D team, hell I think Skippy the ball boy pitched a couple games for us back then and no one knew it and we still won.

I know. There's really no "evening up." But sometimes I still do wonder.

The Songs Remain The Same, Part 2 (With Previously Unreleased Bonus Tracks)

2007-06-21T16:26:00.000-07:00

Song 3: Like Deja Vu All Over Again

Some games, you just know. Even before the first pitch. Wednesday night was one of those where I knew.

I heard all I needed to hear when they were giving the scouting report on the Rockies' pitcher. I didn't even hear the whole thing. But I heard the magic words.

"Doesn't throw very hard . . . good changeup."

We're losing this game, I said to Myself (and to iris, actually). Do the math. Pitcher we've never seen + doesn't throw hard + changes speeds + good control = Yankees do nothing against him.

And then, as Ive' seen at least 15 times over the last 2+ seasons in this scenario, we go. Quietly.

Weak grounder to second.
Swing and miss at an 85 mph fastball.
Lazy fly to center on a 3-1 pitch.
Rinse.
Repeat.

Pettitte does his best for five innings but when he gives up that home run to fall behind 2-1 the game's over. Colorado adds a few runs for show in the late innings.

Sound familiar? It ought to.

Song 4: "We're Not Hitting"

I rarely watch the postgame show(s), win or lose, but last night I couldn't be bothered to change the channel after the game ended so I caught Joe Torre with the press.

Joe's assessment of last night was basically, "we're not hitting."

Now, as of last night it was just two games that we were "not hitting," so I'd challenge the assessment "not hitting." But, OK, let's not quibble there. Where Joe's comment really irks Me is that he said that instead of saying something 1) constructive and 2) challenging at the same time.

Something like: "Guys, our approach at the plate tonight, and last night too, actually, was . . . I'll be truthful, unacceptable. It irks Me a little bit to sit there and watch us making decent pitchers look like Walter Johnson time and time again -- swinging at first pitches and bad pitches. This team is better than that, taking nothing away from the job of pitching that [Rockies' pitcher] did. I expect better from us offensively."

I know. There's 15 different reasons Joe would never say that. And that's one just one more reason he needs to be fired.

Song 5: Riot In Cell Block Number 9

The players love Joe Torre. We hear this time and time again. And I'm sure that it is absolutely, positively true.

It's true because, among other reasons, under Torre, the players, especially veteran players to dictate exactly what they will do and how they will do it (as long it doesn't involve any of George's rules on facial hair).

It's obvious that Johnny Damon is pretty badly hurt. In fact, Wednesday, after taking BP in the cage, Damon announced "my ribs are shot."

And yet he's not put on the DL. Joe's favorite group from the early 70s was Blind Faith, apparently, since Joe continues to use him even though he is useless right now, offensively and defensively. [One could even argue that Damon starting in CF today actually cost us the game, since the man who scored Colorado's fourth run most likely is on second instead of third when the sac fly is hit, if Melky is playing center at that point. But let's not get involved in that Michael Kay calls "the fallacy of the predetermined outcome." Which, while he has a point about, he takes way too far -- most of what happens in baseball would still have happened if you only change one little thing. But I digress . . . ]

His "ribs are shot." Put him on the DL instead of throwing away at bats and costing us defensively.

Who's running the show here?

Never mind . . . no need to answer that.

[Credit goes to iris for this topic.]

Song 6: Team Mascot, Bert Lahr

Bert Lahr played the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz, and he is the perfect mascot for this team. This team for some years now simply can't take a punch. Like a cowardly lion, or a fighter with perfect musculature and a glass jaw, we usually fold up in the face of daunting circumstances. It's most evident in the playoffs but it happens all the time in the regular season, too. That's masked by the fact that we do seem to bounce back, and always figure a way to make the playoffs [thanks to the rest of the AL East minus Boston, and to Boston's fairly regular swoon jobs]. And in the playoffs our lack of heart is quickly exposed.

Granted, this is not the Rockies of old. They are better then they've been, but they are not a great team yet, and to get swept by them, topped off by getting shut down by (omg!) Rodrigo Lopez, is beyond the pale. Five runs in three games. In Coors Field. Humidor or not, that's pathetic.

Can anyone on this staff besides Wang respond, please? I really don't want to hear that Mussina "pitched well enough to win." No he didn't. He pitched well enough to lose. Clemens today, in a spot where we needed a big effort . . . 4.1 innings, 7 hits, 4 runs, all earned, 2 homers, 90 pitches.
$1 million a start. For that kind of money I expect a much better effort in game that psychologically was very important not to lose.

Could it be we've had too many mercenaries (Giambi, Sheffield, Clemens, Brown, Pavano, Johnson, etc.) on this team lately? Guys who don't get excited unless there's some problem with their paycheck?

Perish the thought.

Kei Igawa, who when last seen in the big leagues was doing a remarkably good impression of a deer in the headlights, starts tomorrow night in San Francisco.

Igawa the stopper. Heaven help us.

You Too Can Write For Foxsports.com

2007-06-20T17:33:00.000-07:00

What The . . . ?

I happened to read a column by Ken Rosenthal today. Rosenthal is a senior writer (ooooo!) for foxsports.com, and you may have seen/heard his stands reports during Fox Saturday telecasts.

The column I read today had as its central theme that the Yankees should trade Philip Hughes to Texas for Mark Teixiera.

Along the way Rosenthal makes some observations that are so wrong, so egregiously wrong, that I can't let them them pass without comment.

His basic premise is that we should trade Hughes because, well, prospects don't always pan out, and the Yankees need Teixiera.

Um, Ken, have you been paying any attention to the Yankees the last month or so? Offense at first base wasn't this team's problem, and certainly isn't now. The Yankees have cut Boston's lead significantly and are right there for the wild card with basically no offensive contribution from first base. And going forward they don't need other than what Cairo will give them.

And while prospects, especially pitching prospects don't always pan out, can't we Yankee fans please have a couple of starters under the age of 36 for a change? And, more importantly, so far everything points to Hughes actually being that good.

Rostenthal floats the possibility that Hughes is overrated, based on . . . get this, a comment from a rival GM! Wow, Ken, way to dig for those unbiased sources! This "rival GM," who of course has no interest in driving Hughes' value down, said that Hughes is "only a number 3 or 4 starter." No assessment like that from any scout, or anyone with no axe to grind in either direction. Fascinating.

And since this one of those cutesy "pile on the Yankees without making it look like that's what I'm doing" sort of columns, Rosenthal makes the claim that the Red Sox have done a "much better" job of bringing along home grown talent, and cites as evidence Youklis, Pedroia, Papelbon, and Lester.

Where do I begin? OK, Cano is markedly better than Pedroia. I'll give you Youklis over Melky, but not by that much, especially since Melky can play center field. Lester? can Lester actually do something before we proclaim him any good? And as for Papelbon, he's been an outstanding closer so far, but, more than likely he will still end up a starter, and if he doens't he can't close on successive nights, severely limiting his potential impact. And who exactly was the Red Sox homegrown closer before Papelbon? So, if you want to say Papelbon you have to say Mariano. Oops!

What the Yankees need to do is resist, with all the will they can muster, the urge to get a "name" first baseman and to hold on to some of these prospects nutil at least we know what we have. Want to trade Eric Duncan? By all means do so -- he's had time to blossom and it hasn't happened. (And I'd be the first to admit the Yankees have held onto Duncan too long already.) Don't trade Philip Hughes. Not yet.

I'd hate to read Foxsports.com's "junior" writers.

Justice Comes From The Strangest Place.

2007-06-18T15:54:00.000-07:00

Orioles Fire Perlazzo

The perentially struggling Orioles fired manager Sam Perlazzo today. I have one main thought in response:

It couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

A couple of years back, when Lee Mazilli was hired to manage the Orioles, he was not allowed to pick any of his own coaches. This was of course a recipe for disaster but Mazilli, anxious to get that first big-league job and thus (hopefully) get his name on the managerial treadmill going forward, took the job.

Well, as all Oriole seasons have been recently, it was a disaster, but Mazilli's tenure had the added flavor of the coaches greasing the skids, reporting every little thing back to Angelos behind Maz's back. Perlazzo was the chief skid-greaser, and just as Judas got 30 pieces of silver, Perlazzo got the manager's job when Mazilli was inevitably fired.

The 30 pieces of silver would've been a better deal. The knock on Mazilli was that he "didn't know how to use the bullpen." Well, in 2004, the one full year Mazilli managed, only one Oriole starter had an ERA under 4 and only one other had an ERA under 5. And the main guys in the bullpen, aside from BJ Ryan, were such immortals as Buddy Groom, Jorge Julio, Jason Grimsley, and John Parrish. No one was succeeding in that job, that year.

The O's problem is wqhat it's been for a decade. Angelos is where Steinbrenner was circa the mid-1980s. That is, assemble a team of big offensive names, mostly past their primes. Ignore the pitching. Act like an a-hole so that people think you're "decisive."

It doesn't matter who manages the Orioles. But Sam Perlazzo not managing them was richly deserved.

It Figures.

2007-06-16T09:32:00.000-07:00

Is This Over Yet?

Of course, the Mets won last night. It was too perfect. Yankees had won 9 in a row, Mets had lost 5 in a row. One team streaking, one team stinking. Too nice a setup.

So it cames as no surprise that we basically handed the game to the Mets. Oliver Perez was all over the place last night, but allowed zero runs because we kept swinging at pitches way out of the strike zone.

I am not sure that Melky, Cano, and Phelps swung at a single strike all night. One Phelps at bat in particular killed us.

First and second, both on walks, no outs. The second walk was of the four pitch variety. Phelps comes up and takes ball 1. Nice. Perez can't find the strike zone with a map. The second pitch is high and away but Phelps swings at it. Foul ball. 1-1 instead of 2-0. The whole at bat is different now, and the whole feeling of the inning. After that Perez retires not only Phelps but the next eleven (at least) guys. Coincidence? No.

And let's not forget some of the worst baserunning I've ever seen, courtesy of Matsui. After Phelps makes out without advancing the runners (of course), Cairo comes up and hits one high and deep down the line in left field. Gomez goes to the wall and catches it (not, by the way, robbing Cairo of a home run as the Mets' announcer erroneously said). Problem is, Matsui is almost to third base and is easily doubled off racing back to second.

WTF?

A ball like that, where the runner can see that the LF has time to get under the ball, ends one of two ways: catch or home run. In either case there is no "running" involved, and no reason not to be right near the base. You're either trotting home or walking back to second. Awful, awful, play.

Roger Part II was ok. Two runs in 6.1 innings should've been good enough for a win, but Roger's to blame too, for throwing too many pitches early and and anyone who gives up a home run to Jose Reyes (who hadn't had an extra-base hit in forever) should be fined on principle.

And of course, Boston won last night. San Francisco is a bad team which is getting what they deserve for 1) Bonds, and 2) signing a "Bay Area guy" who is a money guy and nothing else.

Clippard vs. Glavine today. Wouldn't surprise me at all if the newly-energized Mets win this one big, thus putting the pressure on Wang Sunday night against 62-year-old Orlando Hernandez.

Am really looking forward to the end of the "Subway Series" and to the end of dumb-ass interleague play to be over so that the actual baseball season can resume, once the circus leaves town.

The Songs Remain The Same.

2007-06-13T16:15:00.000-07:00

Song 1: Joe Must Go!

Seven game winning streak. Nice. But I'm not going into weather vane mode like everyone else. If Joe deserved to be fired two weeks ago (and he so did), then he deserves to be fired now (and he so does). All the things that suck about the way he manages (as I look at tonight's lineup -- Nieves catching, Posada DHing, no Melky) still suck. And still will.

Doesn't matter if we win seventeen in a row. Fire Joe, sooner, rather than later. No one else will say it now that we're temporarily playing better.

Cowards.

Song 2: The Closer You Look, The Better We Look

I happened to be in the car at lunchtime today and thus caught a little bit of Chris Russo on WFAN. Russo claims to hate the Yankees, but there's no oomph behind it, because you can't truly hate the Yankees unless you love the Mets or the Red Sox, and Russo loves neither. His shtick is being anti all the New York teams while doing a show on New York radio. I guess he feels it makes for "good radio," and after all these years the idiot fans still fall for it, so I guess it does make for good radio.

Today, Russo was downplaying the Yankees' chances . . . based on how good Cleveland and Detroit and Boston and Seattle are. The idea being that we have to many teams to get past.

And for a little extra bonus, Russo was factually wrong when he talked about how the Yankees had picked up "four games" on Boston but how Boston had righted the ship of late. Um, it's five games, loser. It was 14 1/2, now it's 9 1/2. It's a small small thing but I have to bring it up, since Russo is the ultimate hair-splitter.

Russo, please.

1. Seattle is a mediocre team, at best, currently playing as well as they possibly can. It won't last.

2. Detroit is good but not nearly as good as Russo was trying to make them. Who knows if Kenny Rogers returning is a lift, or not? Especially (presumably) if he's not cheating this year? Who's to say their bullpen gets past these injuries and just picks right up where they left off? Their lineup is pretty good, but not the Murderer's Row Russo was painting it to be. Russo procalimed that Verlander will be a "perennial 20-game winner." I almost crashed the car I laughed so hard -- could be win 20 once before you make that kind of pronouncement? Oh wait, as Russo reminded us, he also predicted that Mark Pryor would be a "perennial 20-game winner."

3. Cleveland is inconsistent on all levels and is hardly a lock to stay in the race.

4. Boston's biggest advantage right now is the size of their lead. It will be difficult for them to be caught, just based on mathematics. But Boston is hardly a flawless outfit -- their bullpen is not strong (and while Papelbon can be a dominant closer, he can't be the closer on consecutive nights, so his impact is limited by that), their lineup outside of Manny and Ortiz can be pitched to (the brief Dustin Pedroia hot streak is over already), and their starters outside of Beckett are a mixed bag -- Schilling is not the same, Wakefield, like all knuckleballers, ends up a .500 pitcher when all is said and done (and the Yankees murder him, of late), at some point Julian Tavares will wake up and realize that he actually sucks, and Dice-K thus far has benefited greatly by the Red Sox seemingly scoring 19 runs every time he pitches. Plus, I think there's a good chance that the real Beckett shows up in the second half of the season.

It definitely was fun listening to Chris Russo whistling through the graveyard today.

Stick A Fork In Me.

2007-06-05T17:40:00.000-07:00

The Good, The Bad, and The Very Very Ugly

Two out of three in Boston. "Win Series" the mantra goes. Well we won the series. But why does it feel so rotten right now?

Could it be because Mike Mussina once again showed why I've nicknamed him "Goldfish Guts?"
Could it be because Joe can't shake his Scott Proctor fixation, used Proctor when he had no business doing so Saturday and pretty much wrote a new chapter of "How Not To Manage" in the seventh inning on Saturday?
Could it be because after Sunday night's thrilling win, we came out flatter than a pancake last night against a subpar Garland and overall a very beatable White Sox team?
Could be it because we are carrying a ridiculous 13 pitchers when Joe only uses 9 anyway?

I can't drag myself through all of it, in detail, so I'll settle for some quick hits.

1. Did Matt DeSalvo insult Joe Torre's family or something? How else to explain Torre pulling him after 1.1 innings last night? OK, DeSalvo was NOT pitching well, granted, but what goes through Torre's mind to convince him that attempting to get 7 2/3 out of the pen is a good idea, and in the best interests of the team overall?

Taking DeSalvo out in the second inning was a brutally dumb move.

2. I felt so good for A Rod Sunday night. After the week he'd had -- the New York Post's unfortunate foray into investigative journalism, the brouhaha over the play in Toronto, to end the series like that was an amazing moment. A Rod will hit his 500th home run this year. I hope he's in pinstripes for numbers 600, 700, and 800.

3. What exactly crawled up Tim McCarver's ass on Saturday? I know that the Fox story line obviously is the once-mighty Yankees, now pedestrian and struggling, but Tim really went over the top a few times.

a. Applauding Mike Lowell running over Robinson Cano. Not only praising Lowell excessively but also attempting to say that Lowell's play was perfectly legit while A Rod's play on Dustin Pedroia in the previous series between the two teams was dirty. Even mega-shill Joe Buck couldn't let that pass without (gently) putting McCarver in his place.

Bottom line: Lowell used excessive force, and had there not been all the nonsense with guys getting thrown at the night before, I'd hope that a Yankee pitcher would've stuck one in Lowell's ribs.

b. In Boston's big inning, A Rod made a mistake, not being on third, leaving Melky who might have had a play there, with no one to throw to. McCarver went nuts . . . using the words "Keystone Kops" and saying "the Yankees have had some bad innings this year but this is the worst yet!"

Tim . . . other than Yankee games you've worked, exactly how many innings of the Yankees have you watched this season? Any? How exactly would you know that that inning was the worst?

A totally irresponsible statement from a first-class bandwagon jumper. Disgraceful. And yet Fox retains him, year after year.

Three is all I can muster. Stick a fork in me. I'm done.

Memo To Everyone, Part 2: Shut Up Shuttin' Up.

2007-06-02T11:14:00.000-07:00

Up And In

And here we go again. Last night, in hte ninth inning with the Yankees way ahead and ~~Ty Cobb~~ Kevin Youklis up, Scott Proctor threw one way up and way in. Youklis made a move towards the mound, the benches and bullpen emptied and there was all that testsoterone-fueled milling around and glaring at each other.

Cute.

But ridiculous.

The score was 9-3, Yankees. Bottom of the ninth, one out. All Proctor wanted to do was get two outs and get out of there. Yes, there had been some guys hit in the course of the game. But none of them looked particularly intentional and none of them were up high. There was no bad blood going in this game. Proctor was trying to pitch inside and it got away.

But whenever a pitch goes up and in rationality goes right out the window. Yankees' announcer Michael Kay even acted like it was intentional on Proctor's part. "Why on earth would Scott Proctor DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO that?!!!?!??!?" And Ken Singleton, who played the game, who knows it wasn't intentional, just sits there, instead of saying, "Michael, you stupid snot, have you learned nothing in all your years of watching baseball?"

After the game Kay tried to sound semi-rational, saying "IF it was intentional. . . . " Too late. Either you know it's not intentional and you say that, or you go along with the sexy story line. Post-facto backpedaling makes Kay look even more lame (which isn't easy).

And it makes wonderful talk-radio fodder. Chris Russo on WFAN said this morning that Scott Proctor "has good control." What? Do you watch any games, you weasel? Proctor is always walking guys at the worst possible time. 13 walks in 26 innings. Not "good" control. But of course if Proctor doesn't have good control that blows the whole "Proctor did it on purpose" story line.

Everyone, please shut up. Please.

Fox, today, and ESPN, tomorrow night, will have a field day with this of course. Won't it be fun to hear the opinions of Joe Buck, Tim McCarver, John Miller and Joe Morgan on this?

I may have to watch this weekend's games with the sound off.

Memo To Everyone: Shut Up.

2007-05-31T17:03:00.000-07:00

A-Rod Causes A Stir

The Blue Jays aren't too happy that A-Rod apparently yelled something or other while running between second and third base on a tow-out infield popup. Apparently the Toronto fielder thought he heard "Mine!" and backed off. The ball dropped, everybody safe, and the Yankee went on to tack on some more runs in the ninth inning.

Everyone's been weighing in, and just about everyone I've heard had something negative to say about A-Rod.

Everyone really needs to shut up.

There was NOTHING wrong with what A-Rod did. Here's just some of the reasons why:

1. It didn't change the outcome of the game. The Yankees scored three additional, meaningless, runs. Toronto wasn't winning that game at 7-5 with three outs left.

2. It's no different than an outfielder trying to deceive a runner by pretending he's lost the in the sun/lights. Or, for that matter, no different than when the pitcher fakes to third and throws to first.

3. Had the Blue Jays done that to the Yankees, the spin would've been "that's why the Blue Jays are up and coming and the Yankees look old and slow -- it's just good hard-nosed baseball." Had the Tigers done it, Gammons and Olney and Kirkjian would've been building a shrine to Jim Leyland. So, suck it, everybody . . . the Yankees did it. A-Rod did it. Good play.

4. Some idiot called ESPN Radio today and actually suggested that the play was unsafe because it could have caused a collision! On the INFIELD, you dumb bastard? Amazing that the screeners can't tell when the caller has been inhaling floor stripping compound immediately before calling. And just a little while ago, Mets' announcer (now THERE'S an objective source) Ron Darling suggested the very same thing. Proof positive that an Ivy League education isn't all it's cracked up to be. (Thank you, iris, for reporting those two items today.)

Giambi to the DL

Giambi will be out 3-5 weeks with that bad foot. Torre has an opportunity to do the right thing. Very simple: Damon DH. Melky in center.

This of course will not happen. The team will go into panic mode and make that "big" trade for (or try to) for Texiera or Sexsun or heaven forbid Todd Helton. I hope Rasner and Clippard like pitching in Coors Field.

Lost Weekend.

2007-05-27T22:13:00.000-07:00

Friday

Clippard pitching again and not having as easy a time of it this time. He's throwing a lot of pitches, scuffling a bit. After four innings, though, we're only down 3-2. Weaver doesn't look all that great -- we're getting some hits and making him throw a lot of pitches, too. We're by no means dead here.

Then a strange thing happens. Clippard doesn't come out for the fifth. What the . . . ? He hadn't thrown that many pitches. He must've hurt himself. Damn. Another starter hurt? When will it end? But of course he's not hurt -- 4 innings, 76 pitches, 6 hits, 3 runs, no walks, 1 strikeout. But he's lifted. I stare at the TV, mystified, as the fifth inning starts.

Matt DeSalvo, who was passed over for this start in favor of the guy he's relieving, retires no one. He's in long enough to pitch to four guys, two of whom he walks and two of whom get hits. Vizcaino comes in and all the inherited runners score and before you know it it's 6-2 and suddenly this game seems a lot less winnable.

We actually score a run in the bottom of the fifth, improving the score to a better-feeling 6-3. Weaver is over 100 pitches after five innings . . . maybe this game isn't over all. I mean . . . hey, you never know, right?

Vizcaino comes back out for the sixth and gets no one out. Single homer walk double. Enter Villone. Strikeout single intentional walk sac fly groundout and it's 10-3. And now -- hey, you know. I mean you know. I could easily stop watching but I stick with it out of pure masochism.

We score three in the eighth to bring it to a non-blowout looking 10-6. But make no mistake -- this was a blowout.

Meanwhile, Boston wins.

Saturday

Terrible first inning for Wang and we're down 3-0 before I'm even settled in to watch. But come on, it's Kelvim Escobar, for goodness' sake. He's been pitching well but we can hit this guy.

Wang, bless his heart settles right down. We scratch out a run thanks to Mientkiewicz's two-out hit.

But basically . . . no, we can't hit Escobar.

Great. Wang actually lasts eight innings and it's still 3-1.

And that's exactly where it ends. Shields pitches the eighth, and K-Rod pitches the ninth. The highlight of that inning was Abreu being called out to end the game on a pitch that was, charitably, eight inches outside.

Bur, as horrible as the call was, and a as putrid as the umps have been all season so far (not just in Yankees' games, trust Me -- having MLB Extra Innings allows me to see all the out-of-market atrocious calls, too), the most important thing about Abreu's at-bat is this: You can't be the last out and strike out without taking the bat off your shoulder. The 1-1 pitch might have been a little low. Might have. But, um, don't lefties like the ball down? Isn't the low pitch a good one for a lefty to drop the bat on and jerk out over the short porch?

Never mind. I'm just a dumb fan.

And Boston wins.

Sunday

This is the one that really sticks in me. Maybe because it's the freshest, or maybe it's because it was the most unnecessary of the three losses.

Mike "Goldfish Guts" Mussina is actually pitching pretty well. Going into the seventh we're up 2-1 and what's scaring me most is looking ahead to the eighth and hoping we tack on plenty bottom seven so that Farnsworth has a big margin for error.

Mussina gets an out then walks a guy. Then . . .

I'm seeing it. I'm hearing it. But I don't want to believe it.

Of course I have no choice but to acknowledge it, because it's happening. Mussina out after 6.1 innings, Scott Proctor in.

95 pitches. 95. Not 125, not 115. 95. Is this a veteran major league pitcher or not? 95 pitches?

Has Joe Torre never seen a starter pitch out of trouble after the sixth inning? Is the only way a Yankee starter can stay in the game after the sixth inning to allow absolutely no base runners at all?

Well, you konw how this story goes already. Double walk walk walk sac fly. And I do not want to hear that the long at bat by Aybar culminating in a walk unnerved Proctor -- what about the doudble Proctor gave up before that walk?

It's 4-2 but it might as well be 14-2. We are not winning this game.

We put up a rally against a sub par K-Rod but it's not quite enough, Jeter flying out after a 10-pitch battle, the tying run 90 feet away. (Torre messed up a little with how he used pinch-hitters in the ninth today but compared to the egregious error of taking Mussina out it barely rates a mention.)

This is the game that was really just tossed away, because Torre couldn't wait to use Proctor.

When Torre came out to go get Proctor, the crowd, seeing and feeling the game having just been torched by the Dr. Frankenstein of the bullpen, let Torre hear some of their frustration. Michael. Kay seemed shocked. "Wow, this is quite the change from the reception Joe Torre would normally get," Kay said, or words to that effect.

Well, two points there.

1. It's about time.
2. I think Kay must not listen to his own radio show. As iris pointed out to me (and which at the time I was too obstinate to see), a lot of his callers have to be saying what the fans today "said" about Torre with their reaction.

OK, our starters aren't as good as they were back in the Championship days. I grant that.

But neither is our bullpen. Joe looks out there and instead of Farnsworth and Proctor and Vizcaino it's as if he sees Stanton, Nelson, and Mendoza in their dominating primes. When you have a veteran starter, who's under 100 pitches, who's pitching well, and craftily, getting people out with a mid-80s fastball, you have to allow him to work around one friggin' base runner with one out in the seventh inning when your bullpen is overworked and wildly inconsistent.

Oh, and by the way. Boston won. I think we are 27 1/2 games behind. I can't wait for the "blockbuster" trade for a "name" first baseman. Future? What future?

The Suspense Isn't Killing Me.

2007-05-19T03:36:00.000-07:00

Cookie-Cutter Loss

It's becoming a depressingly-familiar pattern. Decent starting pitching. Good bullpen work (ahem -- hate to say I told you so but as soon as our starters started pitching seven innings as if by magic the bullpen starts pitching better). No hitting. And we lose.

Andy Pettitte looks like he will end up 6-17 with an ERA under 3.00.

A few additional thoughts on last night's game.

1. Who exactly is positioning our outfielders? When Perez got that single in the third inning, Matsui was playing around towards left-center, and at normal depth. Um . . . for a pitcher? Perez of course hits a fly ball exactly how and where you'd expect a pitcher to -- shallow and the opposite way. Matsui had to run half a mile and couldn't quite get there. It's a tiny thing but it's disturbing in that it makes one feel as though those who should be watching these things are asleep at the switch.

2. Within the space of three weeks A-Rod has gone from superhuman hot to pressing as badly as at the worst parts of last season.

His first at-bat last night, on a 2-0 pitch that is borderline low, he swings, hits it off the end of the bat, and hits a weak grounder. In a way I feel as though it changed the game around. Perez came out way over-pumped and gave up an immediate hit to Damon (thrown out on a great play by all-around hero Chavez), walked Jeter, and was 2-0 to A-Rod. A Rod's gift out seemed to settle Perez down and aside from a mistake to Matsui he made very few bad pitches after that.

3. Willie's Whitey Herzog imitation. I happened to catch Willie on Mike and The Mad Dog yesterday afternoon. They asked him who was going to be playing in the outfield.

Mike: Who's in left tonight?
[Long pause. Like, long enough to wonder if they lost the phone call.]
Willie: The kid Gomez is playing left tonight.
Mike: Oh?
Willie: Yeah, he shows good energy and [bunch of cliched crap excised for brevity]
[Some banter cut here -- "sounded like you didn't want to tell us who was playing left, Willie" big fat Francesca guffaws, whiny little laughter from Russo . . . nothing you haven't heard before.]
Mike: Does Shawn Greene play against the lefty?
Willie: Oh, yes, he's my everyday right fielder.
Mike: Well yeah, plus Pettite's a lefty that lefties can hit against.
Willie: Right, and [thirty seconds of fawning over Greene cut]

So, game time comes and, why, Willie, you sly old devil . . . Gomez in right, Chavez in left, and no Greene. Oh, he must've hurt himself between 2:45 pm and game time. Because he'd be in otherwise, right? Since he is the everyday right fielder.

Not that it matters, of course. Chavez did hit the big home run, but even if he didn't play we'd have found another way to lose by one run. I just thought that Willie's gamesmanship was silly and unnecessary . . . and it's not the first time he's felt the need to act like an a-hole where Yankees-Mets is concerned.

4. Does it look to anyone else as though this team is mailing it in, badly? I know that a team that's not hitting always looks a little what way, but really, watching this team lately they look beaten already. Sad.

Blastoff in Tampa

Clemens made his first start last night, pitching in Tampa in Class A, I guess it was. Four innings, one run. Fine.

I didn't want him the first time he pitched for us and I certainly don't want him now. But I have to root for the laundry, even when it pains me to do so.

So, ummmm . . . Go Roger.

Top-Secret Scouting Report!

Through the manipulation of deep inside sources, I've managed to obtain the scouting reports that opposing pitchers use against key hitters in our lineup. Please don't tell anyone you saw this.

Cano: Swings at everything. Throw it anywhere but over the plate. For entertainment value throw it at his back knee and watch the ensuing swing.
Abreu: Swings at nothing. Throw three down the middle.
Jeter: Pitch him way out or way in. Worst case is hitting him, or a single to right. In either case he'll be thrown out stealing or doubled up.
Posada: Doesn't matter. He'll be leading off an inning. Let him hit his double; he's not going anywhere after that.
Giambi: Throw him four balls and save the pitch count. If you make a mistake it will be a solo home run anyway.
A-Rod: If he's hitting it doesn't matter what you throw, or where. If he's not, it doesn't matter either.
Phelps: Who??

What Would It Take?

Last night iris and I were talking about "How many games behind would the Yankees have to be in July to make them sellers at the trade deadline?"

iris thinks they never would be. I think we would have to be 20 games out.

But of course that's not going to happen, anyway. What is going to happen is the worst possible thing -- we will start playing a bit better, and Boston will slip up a bit, and coming into July we will be something like 7 games out, and 3.5 or 4 out of the wild card, close enough to create some (false) hope. And Cashman will pull the trigger on the "blockbuster" deal of DeSalvo and Rasner for Richie Sexsun, who will have gotten really hot by then. Of course with us he will go back to hitting .137 and striking out at a pace to make Rob Deer embarrassed.

As iris said, it's going to be a loooooooong year.

Cure-All

As usual, the Yankees coming to town is the cure for what ails any team. Jermaine Dye couldn't find his ass with both hands -- he was a one-man wrecking crew against us. 52-year-old oft-injured Darren Erstad I think reached base safely 13 times in three games and stole 9 bases, or at least it felt that way.

One Last Thing

I probably seem like I'm really whining here, and focusing totally on the negative. Thing is, there are thousands of happy-talk Yankee blogs. Go read them, or watch YES for a few hours if that's what you need.

One of these years it's all going to go wrong. This might be that year. If it is, no scorched-earth spending, no greatest living pitcher, no nothing is going to stop it.

But rest assured -- I live and die with this team. I can't wait to write some happy posts. Just give me a reason.

The Week That Was.

2007-05-11T17:52:00.000-07:00

Sandwich

Two losses with two wins in between.

A brutal loss Monday, thanks in part to one of tine worst calls you'll see in a long time. But still, can't lose that game. Oh well, at least the umpire admitted the next day that he blew the call and was out of position.

What I don't understand is . . . this was a correctable error. Replay that game from the point of the stolen base attempt, with the guy ruled out instead of safe.

I know. I'm being silly. But I just don't really see how . . . anyway . . .

Yesterday's loss was much easier to take. To his credit, Joe managed somehow to not totally fry the pen in a lost cause.

And two nice wins in between . . . amazing what happens when a starter goes seven innings, even in a loss.

Desperate Times Call For . . .

2007-05-06T15:49:00.000-07:00

. . . Desperate Managing, Apparently . . .

Another win. Nice. 5-0. Great. All's right with the world.

Well, not exactly. Rasner is pitching today . . . and pitching well. Top 6, 2 outs, Yankees lead 2-0. Rasner allows a baserunner. The bullpen starts, and starts fast.

Rasner allows the next guy on. Looooooooooong stall. I mean, I haven't seen a stall like this since before the shot clock was introduced in college basketball.

Then Nieves finally goes back to his position, but The Dour Countenance is already making that slow slow walk to the mound, signaling for Scott Proctor.

I truly can't take the way this man manages anymore. Rasner was at 75 pitches. Richie Sexsun, who I think is hitting .094, was due up.

How is a kid ever supposed to learn how to pitch out of a jam? What exactly was the Dour Countenance hoping for -- no baserunners at all the rest of the game?

But then I realized. Rasner never has to worry about pitching out of trouble, not with the Yankees -- he won't be here that long. He can learn that with whatever team he's going to be traded to in July . . . by that time we will either need 1) a first baseman -- we'll have tired of the Mink/Phelps situation by then, or 2) another starter, when Wang goes down with Bolivian Hemorrhagic Nail Fungus or whatever he's got. So, Rasner can make a career for himself in Pittsburgh or Seattle or Kansas City or wherever we end up dealing him in exchange for another old, highly-paid spare part someone else didn't want and/or couldn't afford.

Did Wang's eight innings convince Dour Countenance that the bullpen problems were magically solved? He's a kid . . . 75 pitches . . . let him try to pitch his way out of it . . .

And of course, we can't just dip into the bullpen -- we have to dive in. Five pitchers. That I can't blame on Dour Countenance since he had been tossed (could we somehow arrange for that to happen more often?); but apparently Guidry/Mattingly have been listening to their tapes of The Fifth Inning is "Late": Handling Pitchers The Joe Torre Way.

I want to be really happy about another win, but I can't even enjoy it . . . thinking more about the needless damage done to the pen today than about the win.

Great.

. . . And For Desperate Measures

Well, Roger's back. Cashman, trying to save Joe's job and his own, made a deal with the devil in hopes of winning it all this year.

At great personal risk I have obtained some details of the special contract Clemens has signed.

Road Games: Roger does not have to go on road trips where his turn to start wouldn't come up. In addition, no one is allowed to say "road game" in his presence. You may say "road," or you may say "game," as long as at least two other words separate those two.

Uniform Number: Roger may wear whatever number he likes on the day he pitches, even if said number is currently worn by another player. The Yankees' Media Relations Department will be responsible for printing up new media guides every time Clemens' number changes.

Tickets: Roger will be provided with 340 tickets by the Yankees for every game he starts at home, and 200 tickets for every r-- I mean, not at home start.

Bonus: Roger will be paid an All-Star bonus, since obviously he'd have been an All-Star had he pitched all season. Roger will also be paid shares for winning the divisional round, ALCS, and World Series, since if the Yankees do not win all of those series, it's obviously not Roger's fault.

Music: Roger controls the music in the clubhouse at all times. All other players will relinquish their radios, boom boxes, Ipods, and laptops before entering the clubhouse.

It's going to be glorious . . . isn't it?

Pat, I'm Really Really Trying, But . . .

2007-05-04T16:02:00.000-07:00

Yankees Sweep Doubleheader, Series

I try hard to follow what I call The Pat Riley Rule. That rule simply states: No griping after a win.

And most of the time I do a pretty good job of following Mr. Riley's dictum. When you bitch after a win, you're sowing the seeds of disaster. I can intellectually and emotionally understand that. So I do my very best to be good after a win.

But this time, Pat, I just can't do it. I'm sorry.

I'm watching last night's game, feeling good about having won the first game earlier that day, feeling good about Mussina being back, feeling good about Melky having gotten three hits in the first game so that Michael Kay (gloriously absent from the Texas series) can refer to Melky without prefacing his name with the word "slumping."

Then it gets to be the bottom of the sixth, and . . . Mussina is gone.

Huh? I know Mussina was limited to 80-85 pitches last night, but he can't have been anywhere near that. I start to look it up but then Murcer informs us all that Mussina in fact had thrown just 64 pitches to that point. 64!!!!

OK, I know what you are going to say. Mussina in all likelihood could only have pitched one more inning.

And I agree. But at this point, one inning matters.

Nine outs needed from the pen instead of twelve, for a bullpen that has been abused and overused from Opening Day, matters. You want to say that's ridiculous -- that one inning in one game can't matter? OK, you're wrong, but for the sake of argument let's say last night doesn't matter. What does matter and what no one who's watched this team for any length of time can argue, is that Joe's psychology is geared towards less innings from starters and more innings from the bullpen. When we had Stanton and Nelson and Mendoza leading up to Mariano, and the right kind of starters, we got away with it. Now, when we have young, untested, shaky, and overrated leading up to Mariano, and being called on game after game after game to get "stress" outs, we get exposed. Continually.

Plus, as Mussina has done in other pitch-count-limited starts, he was aggressive, making the most out of his 80-pitch allotment. No 0-2 to 3-2. No long looks in at the ump when a pitch that caught 2 mm of the corner was called a ball. Mussina was pitching great and should've pitched six innings last night.

One.
Inning.
Matters.

Sorry to gripe after a win, Pat, but Joe needs to know it, learn it, live it.

One Inning Matters.

Good Start.

2007-05-03T16:43:00.000-07:00

Everybody Beats The Viz(caino)

I got home in time to see the last inning and a half of the first game of today's doubleheader. Andy had pitched pretty well, but the walks and the nibbling had his pitch count used up after six innings (pleeeeeeease Brian, please -- get grinders who throw strikes and don't care about their ERAs).

Enter Vizcaino, with the score 3-2 in our favor.

File this one under "Joe, have you got the message NOW that this guy sucks?" Vizcaino gives up a home run. Tie game.

But the baseball gods are in a perverse frame of mind today and decide to reinforce the lesson that "no bad deed goes unrewarded." We score a run top 8 on "Shemp" Matsui's clutch two-out hit. Farnsworth, amazingly enough, doesn't blow the lead.

Mariano comes in and it goes check-swing strikeout, weak grounder, weak grounder. In other words . . .

Mariano saved THE WIN for Vizcaino!

The win. I think a win is worth three points in the Rolaids Relief Man Award standings. Remember that next time you're tempted to think that things like the Rolaids Relief Man Award have any meaning whatsoever.

Joe's Phone Messages

From Proctor, S: Called to say he's capable of lifting his arm above his shoulder again, so you can resume using him in four out of every five games.

From Sturtze, T: Asks that you return his call. Has been working out on his own and really likes the way his ball is moving these days.

From Steinbrenner, G: Just wanted to you let know he was just kidding. Pretty much.

Medical Update, or "$40 million just doesn't buy what it used to"

Carl Pavano, who you might have heard had a "setback" the other day . . . is going to see Dr. Andrews about his elbow.

Basically, going to see Dr. Andrews is the pitching equivalent of being put on "double secret probation." You are done -- you just haven't admitted it to yourself yet.

You can't make this up, or script it. You simply can't.

Happy trails, Carl.

It Figures.

2007-05-02T16:11:00.000-07:00

Hughes Leaves No-Hitter Injured

The way this season has started, I suppose I should've been expecting it. But I wasn't, of course. I was simply enjoying a Yankee starter actually pitching into the 7th inning, when Hughes pulls up lame after throwing a pitch. The no-hitter I wasn't really concerned about, because 1) pitching a no-hitter in your second big-league start ever is way too much to live up to, and 2) no way Joe lets him finish the game anyway (apparently Hughes breaks out in horrific festering sores if he throws more than 100 pitches -- he was at 83 with 1 out in the 7th).

They are saying 4-6 weeks for the Hughes injury, but given how the Yankees handle injuries, and the fact that Hughes is The Pitcher in the Plastic Bubble, don't expect to see him until after the All-Star break.

Is This "That Year?"

I keep saying to iris that one of these years, we are not going to make the playoffs. One of these years, all the money, the mid-season acquisitions, none of it's going to matter and "that year" where everything just goes wrong enough often enough and we end up out of the playoffs. I thought 2005 might be that year. It wasn't, amazingly enough.

But I'm starting to wonder if perhaps 2007 is. We'll see. I hate to even write these words, but not making the playoffs one of these years wouldn't be the worst thing. It might convince the organization of a few basic truths:

1. GM-ing against Boston is dumb. Create your team to be your best team; Boston will do what Boston will do . . . since 1918 it's 26-1 in favor of our way, but since the we started reacting to them it's 1-0 in their favor. Not a coincidence.

2. Missing the playoffs would once and for all end the Torre tenure. He is the wrong manager for the pitching we have had the past few years. It appears that missing the playoffs completely is what's needed to get that point across once and for all.

3. The way to improve the bullpen is to improve the rotation. Bullpen guys are good in inverse proportion to the amount they are used. Forget all the B.S. about guys getting rusty -- the season is long and grueling; everyone in your pen pitches enough over the course of a year. It's pitching too much (and getting up warm up too much) that wears the bullpen down. With this teams's offense, Leiber/Tracshel/Byrd types who give up 4-5 runs but pitch 7-8 innings are what we need in the rotation. One stud (Hughes, if he's ever allowed to exceed the 100 pitch mark) and four grinders is just fine with the way this team can hit.

Huh?

2007-04-29T03:33:00.000-07:00

Streak Over

After the ugliest of losses on Friday night, a nice win yesterday to stop the losing streak. We never do much against 68-year-old Tim Wakefield, but we did enough, thanks to Igawa's stepping in after Karstens had his leg broken by a line drive by the first batter of the game. Perhaps the key with Igawa is not knowing what day he's going to pitch -- but with Karstens gone Igawa is going to have to find a way to pitch well when he does know when his turn is.

And after a brutal 1/3 of an inning on Friday, and having to listen to McCarver and Buck deliver what sounded like Mariano's eulogy, Mariano came in and overmatched the Boston hitters he faced, allowing a broken-bat single to Varitek, and then inducing two weak grounders and a popup to close out the game. A shame he can't pitch against Boston any more, isn't it, Joe? Tim?

Losers.

Joe Is Safe?

I'm totally not buying that Torre's job was in jeopardy if we had gotten swept this weekend. This is the sort of story that "sources" feed gullible sportswriters and which said hacks are all too happy to regurgitate to a credulous fan base.

George is more out of it than into it, and Cashman for reasons unknown to me continues to think that Torre is still the manager he was six years ago. His job wasn't in jeopardy.

But what I didn't need to hear was Joe and Tim's continual apologizing for Torre's brutal handling of the pitching thus far. I understand as well as anyone that the starters haven't been so good and that there's been injuries. But what Torre has failed to see is that April isn't August, that the fifth and sixth innings aren't "late" and that managing these games like they are playoff games can't possibly work when he should have seen how his chewing up the bullpen last year killed us.

And, dirty little secret -- our starters, even with the injuries, etc., aren't the worst. Every team is going to have a run where the starters don't get very deep into games, but the way Torre manages, the starters know that even with a four-run lead, allowing one damn base runner in the seventh inning (or even the sixth, often) is going to get them yanked. What a great way to have to pitch! Not!

Many of our pitching problems are manager-inflicted. And how many extra games have we won as a result of Torre's scorched-earth managing in April? Versus how many extra we will lose over the course of a season?

(I theorized, jokingly, to iris, that perhaps there is a donation made to some charity every time Joe makes a pitching change . . . . or that AT&T (sponsor of the "AT&T Call to the Bullpen") is heavy in Joe's portfolio.)

Joe's job is safe. That's as certain as Mike Meyers showing up in the sixth inning for a "key matchup."

Almost Comical.

2007-04-25T16:35:00.000-07:00

"Trouble In Tampa," starring Mike Meyers (and featuring Joe Torre)

Good news: Wang back! Matsui homers! A Yankee starter glimpses the 7th inning!
Bad news: Games still last 9 innings.

Wang pitched well, got a bit tired in the seventh and left with a one-run lead and runners on second and third and one out.

Enter Vizcaino. This would be his fifth appearance in six games, and he hasn't been effective at all lately. Perfect choice, no?

But wait. Just in case Vizcaino isn't under enough pressure, let's issue an intentional walk to load the bases. Margin for error? That's for sissies!

Vizcano falls behind 2-0. He battles back to 2-2, doesn't' get a call on a close pitch to make it 3-2. I am wondering whether the 3-2 pitch is going to be hit out or simply clear the bases.

The 3-2 pitch is nice and fat but it gets lined to short. Ugly pitch, good result, somehow. Two outs. We could get out of this, maybe. Yeah!

I watch Mike Meyers taking the mound and then I know we're not getting out of this. In fact it wouldn't surprise me if Crawford hits a --

I never get to complete the thought, the ball goes into the seats so fast.

And for the first time since the early 90s, when the Yankees were horribly, pathetically bad, I actually laughed. There was just nothing else to do. And after the laughing I'm just numb, and all I can think about is the stupid bookkeeping aspect of it. Wang gets charged for two of those runs, and gets the loss. Vizcaino gets charged for a run, for intentionally walking a guy. And Meyers gets one charged with one crummy run for blowing up the game. [Meyers also gets a blown save . . . oh boy.] [I have a much better bookkeeping system for situations like this, but now isn't the time.]

It's almost comical. Almost. Using Vizcaino five games out of six when he's pitching poorly. The love affair with Meyers when he's done little to warrant such devotion. The idiots who will very soon start blaming A-Rod for the Yankees' poor showing. I really do want to laugh, to be able to fid it truly funny.

If only I could.

Penthouse to Pavement.

2007-04-21T07:58:00.000-07:00

Boston 7, Yankees 6

Last night's game took me from the almost giddy heights to the crushing numb depths. A-Rod takes Curt "Celebrity Fit Club" Schilling deep, twice. The drunks stuffing Fenway are practically silent. Life is good.

Then it all goes wrong. Immediately I blamed Joe. I was so mad I could hardly see straight.

But I've had a night to sleep on it, to mull it over, to rationally consider all the angles.

And I blame Joe.

1. Pettitte didn't have his best, but got through 6.1 innings only giving up two runs and using 100 pitches in the process. OK, Joe takes him out at that point. I can't quibble too much . . . personally I'd have given Andy another 10-15 pitches and see if maybe he might get a couple of quick outs. But all right. Three run lead. 8 outs to get.

2. Proctor comes in and gets the last two outs in the seventh. OK.

3. Top 8, we tack on a run. Excellent.

Now the fish starts to rot from the head, and rapidly.

4. Mike Meyers comes out to start the eighth. Mike Meyers? Our supposed "matchup lefty" is starting an inning with a four-run lead? Against David Oritz, who I can't ever remember Meyers actually getting out. Amazing, truly. I don't even need to have the TV on to know that Oritz gets a hit off of Meyers. The only surprise is that it stayed in the park.

But OK, four run lead, one man on, with six outs to get . . . no biggie, jeez. I calm Myself down.

5. Enter Luis Vizcaino. I do a double take. We have two pitchers named Luis Vizcaino, and just called up the other one from Scranton? I mean, that has to be it, right? There's no way Joe is bringing in the guy who just yesterday got abused by Cleveland and threw thirty pitches in the process, right?

Ummm . . . wrong. It is the same Vizcaino. I guess Joe is going on the "get back on the horse that trampled and horribly maimed you" theory.

6. Well, shucks, it doesn't start out too well. He walks Manny. I'm not sure but I think Meyers could've done that. Drew grounds out, moving up the runners. One out.

Whew, OK, sanity is restored. Two on, four run lead, five outs to get. Cake.

7. But then Lowell singles. Ortiz scores. Still, I'm not too upset. That was Meyers' run, it was richly deserved, and we're still up by three with a nice slow guy on first. Get Varitek to hit a ground ball and the inning's over.

Yankees are stalling and Mariano is warming up. Rut roh.

8. Mariano comes in for the "five-out save" (would that it ended up that way).

Now, I thought we weren't doing this this year, using Mariano for more than one inning. But OK, hmm . . . he hasn't pitched since Sunday when Marco Scutaro (yes the Marco Scutaro) took him deep for a walk-off loss. Maybe he needs the work.

9. Varitek and his 1-something average up. Mariano gets ahead but can't put him away and Varitek gets a hit. Manny scores, Lowell makes it to second without falling.

I'm starting to get a bad feeling, but then I calm myself. We're still up by two. And Crisp is up for goodness sakes. That was Vizcaino's run and it was richly deserved. Mariano will knock the bat out of Cereal Boy's hands, then strike out the next guy, and that's that.

10. Except I didn't figure on one thing: Mariano throwing a pitch the ONE PLACE where Crisp could hit it hard -- down and in with nothing on it. Crisp grounds to where Mank should have been playing and it's a game-tying triple. I had moved anything handy to throw through the TV screen. Smart move on my part.

Now I know what happens. Red Sox will get this run in, bring in Paperboy, and that's the game.

11. Sure enough the feared Joey Cora singles in the go-ahead run. Cora is thrown out stealing and Lugo strikes out. But it doesn't matter. Might as well be a 12-run lead.

12. But the dagger does need to be twisted one final time. Paperboy is not available, since he's pitched two days in a row.

Enter Okajima who does a perfectly fine job.

Red Sox win 7-6 in a game they had no business ever getting close in. Joe's brutal handling of pitchers and complete lack of game feel strikes again.

And while Mariano's location had been crappy, something about these two losses bothers me more: They say the stuff is there, but if Mariano's stuff was really there, couldn't he make mistakes to Marco Scutaro and Coco Crisp inside and get away with it?

iris said to me last night, more than once, "it's going to be a long year." I believe the sweet girl is correct.

Yankees Win! Yankees Win!

2007-04-11T15:59:00.000-07:00

Twin Killing

Two nice wins. Obivously our starting pitching couldn't be as bad as it looked the first time through the rotation, and getting out of arctic temperatures has helped the defense tremendously.

I was talking to a Twins' Fan last night, and I said something along the lines of "I'm not sure how your Ponson experiment is going to work out." His reponse, of the many he might have chosen, was, "Ponson dind't pitch that badly." While not all of hte Yankee hits Monday night off Ponson were exactly scalded, where Ponson kills you is his total inability to respond to adversity. He can pitch well, but usually it's when everything goes right and he pitches well from the very beginning; when things go badly with Ponson they tend to keep going badly.

One for Joe

I criticize Torre a lot, so when he does something I approve of it's only fair that I mention that, too.

Last night, with the Yankees up by a sizeable magin, Damon came up with men on first and second and no one out. Now, I had the absolute certainty that Torre was going to have Damon bunt the runners over. Maybe Torre wasn't thinking of it, even, I don't know, but I felt sure he would bunt.

The pitching coach came out to the mound to talk to Boof Bonser. My exchange with hte aforementioned Twins' fan went something like this:

Me: He's giving him one of those extra-special pitching coach pep talks. [Note: Pitching coach visits to the mound are a pet peeve of mine -- I believe they are ridiculous and generally unnecessary -- they exist mainly so that the manager looks like he's "managing."]
Twins' Fan: More likely they're talking about how to defense it when Damon bunts.
(I'm thinking maybe he's right, since I do figure Torre's bunting here.)
(Then Damon smashes the Bonser offering for a 3-run homer!)
Me (giddy): Guess that wasn't the "good" pep talk.
Twins Fan: I guess he wasn't bunting.

Good move not having Damon bunt, Joe . . . and I thought that before Damon hit one out.

Totally Hot

A-Rod went deep again last night. I am not sure that I personally have ever seen a baseball hit harder.

It's great to see A-Rod on fire like this. I know it won't matter . . . when he has his first slump, when he makes his first bad/costly error, the idiots will be booing again. And the bigger idiots will be talking about him "doing it in October."

It's OK. I see the look on Alex's face these days, like it's taking all he's got not to just burst out laughing, he'shaving so much fun, and I realize that the idiots don't matter to him.

So they don't matter.

Smarten up. You are watching possibly the best player ever. People decades from now will look at his numbers and laugh at the idea that "fans" booed him.

Have We Started Yet?

2007-04-07T15:47:00.000-07:00

Yankees 10, Orioles 7

Ugly win. Off day. Rainout. Ugly loss. Listless and ugly loss. Ugly win.

Not a good start, despite A-Rod's titanic walk-of grand slam. (I think I heard a couple of A-Rod haters complain that A-Rod was showing off -- a single would've done it. I'm kidding. I hope. Please, all you idiots who feel compelled to mindlessly trash A-Rod, please, get some help, before it's too late. This includes a number of NY sportswriters -- more on that plague upon the NY sports scene below.)

Watching these first four games, if feels like the Yankees were caught by surprise that the season started when it did, because they're playing as though it's about March 20th. And in this I have to blame Joe -- a baseball manager has precious few real tasks -- getting the team ready for the beginning of the season is a pretty important item among that limited set.

Speaking of Ugly

Igawa was the first Yankee starter to pitch five innings. The bullpen is now officially shot, in case you were wondering. These short, ineffective outings by starters are flipping that Pavlovian switch in Joe's head; you can almost hear him muttering under his breath "must use bullpen . . . must use bullpen." Henn and Bruney, who look great now, will age before our eyes as they are ground down by constant (over)use.

After Today's Game . . .

Brian Cashman and Joe Torre spoke after today's game.

Torre: So, should I call Scott or do you want to?
Cashman: Scott?
Torre (swigging green tea): Yeah . . . Scott Boras . . .
Cashman: Huh? What? You think A-Rod deserves a raise?
Laughter. More tea-swigging. Torre belches quietly.
Torre: Ummm . . . no, Brian . . . another . . . client?
Cashman looks puzzled a moment then understands.
Cashman: No, Joe! Absolutely not. Bernie will not be on this team this year.
Torre: Well, I just thought, Brian . . . you know, Damon's day to day, Matsui is hurt, Abreu got hit on the ankle, that was scary . . . we just . . .
Cashman gets up and walks away, waving as he walks.
Cashman: I gotta run, Joe. Talk to you soon. About anything but this.
Torre: (calling after Cashman's retreating form) Sorry, Brian . . . jeez, I just figured . . .
Torre finishes his green tea. Skippy the ballboy, promoted to a clubhouse job this year, quietly offers Joe his highlight reel DVD.

Time for a change

During today's game, the Orioles had the bases loaded and Melvin Mora hit a blooper into the Bermuda Triangle in shallow right field. It falls in. Two runs score. Abreu fields it and throws it to second and Mora is a dead duck. Except Jeter can't handle the throw and a third run scores.

The official scorer, amazingly, ruled this a double and three RBIs. The runner who'd been on first, Dave Roberts I think it was, had stopped at third, and only ran home when Jeter bobbled the throw from the outfield. The correct scoring is single, two RBIs, and an error on Jeter (or E-9 I suppose, but I think Jeter should catch that throw) allowing Mora to reach second and Roberts to score. And really it's not that difficult to arrive at the right scoring call.

Egregiously wrong scoring calls are common in MLB.

OK, I understand that it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. It's not altering the result of the game. And yet, if it's worth having an official score, and thus an official scorer, it's worth having it done correctly. Home-town sportswriters get the gig, and frankly, by and large they're terrible at it.

And I understand why. They have to get quotes from these guys -- their jobs often depend upon at least minimal cooperation from the players. And players are, as we all have seen, an oversensitive lot-- they don't appreciate why they feel are bogus errors or questionable earned runs on their records. The sportswriters are all too happy to oblige. And even if the player(s) in question don't talk a lot to the media, the sportswriters still have to be around them. Familiarity breeds contempt -- in this case contempt for the integrity of the official scoring job.

Time to yank this little perk from the hometown sportswriters. MLB should hire a staff of official scorekeepers, beholden to no one except whoever their boss in the MLB office is.

And away we go.

2007-04-02T16:12:00.001-07:00

Yankees 9, Devil Rays 5

All sorts of good things happened today.

1. Carol Pavano didn't get hurt before, during, or presumably after his start today.
2. A-Rod had 2 hits, including a HR.
3. The lineup hit well, pretty much all the way up and down. Against a LHP, too, which a few talking heads on ESPN said would give the Yankees trouble.
4. The bullpen performed admirably.

And a couple of not so good things, too.

1. Pavano melted down in the 5th, necessitating all those strong innings from the bullpen.
2. Three errors, including one each by the couple who aren't as close as they once were, A-Rod and Jeter.

Overall, I do go with the Pat Riley plan, i. e., no griping after a win. But last year we ran into problems because: 1) our starters weren't' going deep enough into ballgames, and 2) Joe made a lot of panic moves going to the pen (some of that is attributable to the starters, some to Joe just being weak at handling pitchers when said pitchers are not studs).

OK. We're 1-0. The bullpen isn't shot. Yet.

Royals 7, Red Sox 1

Remember when I wrote that Gil Meche getting $11 million a year from the Royals was totally stupid, irresponsible, and ridiculous?

All I can say is . . . wow, was I ever wrong. Gil Meche is My new favorite non-Yankee player. He's worth all $11 million and then some. 7.1 innings, 1 run, against Boston today. Gil is the man! Give him a raise and an extension! Now!

I saw the last couple innings of this game on ESPN after getting home from work. Sadly, Bozo and Balloon-Head (Joe Morgan and John Miller) were calling the game. How these two remain employed by a national outlet like ESPN is totally beyond Me. From the frequent factual mistakes, the annoying over-pronunciation of all words and names Latino by Miller, Morgan's near-illiteracy, and the general buffoonery and unprofessionalism, these two are a train wreck that you really can stop watching. If only there was an alternative.

Note to Morgan: "Big Papi" is not on David Ortiz' birth certificate. Honestly. Calling him by his nickname is acceptable once, twice, even three times. But not every time you mention the player.

Cubs to be sold. Cubs lose!

Real estate investor Sam Zell is buying the Tribune Co., owners of the Cubs. He is keeping all the media assets together. He is selling the Cubs. He will get less for them than he would've a few months ago before the Tribune Co. pumped the payroll way up.

Oh, and the Cubs lost. How long before Lou dumps the kinder gentler act and has his first tirade?

Movin' On Up!

2007-03-26T17:35:00.000-07:00

This is too priceless.

OK, Wang hurts his hamstring. As only the Yankees can do, this hamstring injury means Wang is out until after the All-Star break. (I used to make fun of the Mets' handling of Jose Reyes' hamstring injury until Cano missed a zillion games with his hamstring last season.)

So, no Wang. Mussina? Ummmm, no, t-y-v-f-m. Can't mess with Mike's routine. The cosmic waves that originate in the Andromeda Galaxy and enable Mike to pitch would be disrupted if he pitches Opening Day.

Pettitte? Hmmmm, not so much, the back is a little balky, still. Pencil him in for Late June, sorry, I mean the second time through the rotation.

Igawa? No. Pressure, you know. He's new.

Karstens? Well, the closer Karstens gets to making the team the worse he pitches. His last two outings he's looked godawful.

That leaves Carl "Ow! " Pavano.

In government, this would be the equivalent of 12 people suddenly dying and the Postmaster General becoming President.

What a country. Pavano will manage to hurt himself before the opener, no worries. So Opening Day, look for:

Henn for 3.
Villone for 3.
Proctor for 2/3.
Meyers for 0 (faces one lefty and walks him).
Farnsworth for 1-1/3.
Mariano for 1 . . . Yankees win it bottom nine on Cano's RBI double.

Welcome to 2007. Our record is 1-0. And the bullpen is officially shot.

Forget You Ever Heard It

2007-03-23T16:43:00.000-07:00

It's been a fun off-season. I've been remiss in not updating this blog, basically at all, so let's catch up.

1. The owners did in fact throw common sense to the wind. The new TV and labor peace somehow combined to make Gil Meche appear to be an $11 million a year pitcher.

Back in November, I wrote: "What's Barry Zito going to get -- $16 million a year? $17 million?" I was low by a million there. $18 million a year . . . for seven years.Here are some more numbers to bear in mind re Barry Zito:

Zito's career mark is 102-63, 39 games over .500. Not bad. But . . . 30 of those 39 games over .500 happened in his first three years in baseball. Since 2002, he's 55-46. OK, maybe Oakland isn't as good since then.

Zito gives you innings -- he's pitched more than 200 innings every year since 2000 -- just not a lot at once. ZERO complete games since 2003. But OK, he averages 6+ innings per start.

His other numbers are pretty solid. And that, overall, describes Barry Zito the last 4 years. Pretty solid.

"Pretty solid" gets you $18 million per? Amazing what the Giants are willing to pay to have Barry Bonds not be the biggest story on the team, at least for a while.

2. Pete Rose admits he bet on baseball, a lot, but that isn't apparently what he was supposed to do. For years, everyone's problem with Rose was that he wouldn't admit he bet on baseball. So now he has.

But wait. It's not enough. The way he admitted it, I guess, is the problem. Apparently Pete did not arrange to have himself nailed to a cross before making his admission.

The Rose-haters need to face it: He's never going to feel as bad about what he did as think he should. But when you're given what you claimed you wanted and still you turn your nose up at it, well, you look stupid.

3. Surprise! A-Rod wasn't traded!

I started to get sick hearing every goon on ESPN, FoxSports.com, Michael Kay (who really should've known better) and every other so-called expert call for/demand/predict a trade of A-Rod. But A-Rod, Scott Boras, Joe Torre, Brian Cashman, and every fan who was paying attention knew that A-Rod was no way leaving. This is going to come as a shock to many, but A-ROD ACTUALLY LIKES IT IN NEW YORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Honest. The talking heads and sportswriters said it so often, starting around August of last season, that they had to keep pumping it, so that they didn't look bad. Chris Russo went so far as to describe the Yankees' off-season as "not a success" because they didn't trade A-Rod. But A-Rod, while he reads all the papers (too much, really) . . . overall is having a great time here and sometimes, and I know this is difficult to accept, sometimes athletes actually mean what they say. A-Rod wants to excel and win, in New York. Honest.

Dissed by reality but undaunted, the "experts" have dumped the trade talk (mostly, as you'll see below) and have taken up a new pet theory: A-Rod will opt out of the last three years of his contract. Ohhhhhhhhhh, ok! In this, they are technically correct . . . A-Rod WILL opt out . . . so that he can sign an extension with the Yankees. You read it here first.

One last bit of idiocy along these lines. Some sportswriter reported via his source (a blogger, no less!) that the Yankees were close to a deal with Anaheim for A-Rod, with New York getting Jared Weaver, Molina, and another young player. This is the same Anaheim GM who regards all his young players as the next Walter Johnson or Babe Ruth; he never trades any young player or prospect. That a "sportswriter" would actually repeat this rumor in print . . . is unprofessional, even by the already-low standards of sports journalism.

4. The Roger Clemens circus. At one point, Mike Greenberg described the annual Clemens retirement/unretirement thing as "a cottage industry." A good line, but now I'm just sick of it. A couple months ago Clemens was quoted as saying there was only a 20% chance that he was coming back. What does that mean? How did Roger arrive at the figure of 20%? I understand that the Yankees have the inside track, since Clemens buddy Andy Pettitte has returned to the Bronx, but as a fan . . . much as I root for the laundry, I honestly don't want Clemens back. To Me, he epitomizes just about everything that is wrong with the modern athlete. Since "retiring" after 2003, has Clemens pitched for ANY reason other than money? It certainly doesn't feel like it. And if Clemens does end up with Yankees, there goes the "I really wanted to play in the same organization as my son" argument.

Let whoever wants Clemens have him.

There's so much more to write about, but it will have to wait.

Spin City

2007-03-22T18:24:00.000-07:00

OK, I get the concept. Namely, that the fact that Carl Pavano is acutally pitching in competitive, it not meaningful, games, is such a gigantic thing that any and all comments about his pitching must be totally, unfailingly, relentlessly, positive.

Joe Torre was asked about Pavano's most recent outing.

Star-Ledger: Joe, a shaky outing for Pavano today . . . any thoughts on what might've caused that?

Joe Torre: Careful now, I wouldn't call it "shaky." I saw a lot of good things out there today.

Daily News: Err, Joe . . . 2.1 innings, 19 hits, 14 runs, all earned . . .

Joe: Well, you can't just look at the box score. 13 of those hits were ground balls. His stuff is down, that's all we're looking for.

New Haven Register: . . . 4 wild pitches, 2 home runs . . .

Joe: . . . and he wasn't walking people! that's important!

St. Regis High School Bugle: Mr. Torre, did I see Pavano wince a little after he threw his last pitch? Given his history--

Yankees PR Director: That concludes the press conference, guys . . thanks a lot for coming . . . there's cold cuts out there for you all . . . oh, and hats . . . grab a hat on your way out . . . and a ball! I had Donnie sign a couple hundred baseballs this morning -- grab some of those . . .

Morneau Wins MVP; The Money Starts Rolling In

2006-11-22T14:45:00.000-08:00

Morenau Edges Jeter for AL MVP.

This is the reason that I put little stock in awards that are voted on. That one baseball writer actually had Jeter sixth on his ballot . . . words fail me . . . is beyond childish. That said, Morneau had a fine year, Jeter handled it in classy fashion, and again, take a look at your average baseball writer's work -- we should go nuts over some award they subjectively give out?

The Soriano Factor Kicks In Already.

Gary Matthews Jr. signs with Anaheim for 5 years at more than $10 million per. Juan Pierre joins up with the Dodgers for $44 million over 5 years. Frank Catalanato, yes the Frank Catalanato, signs with Texas for $13.5 million for four.

What's Barry Zito going to get -- $16 million a year? $17 million? Zito is, let's face it, a #3 starter . . . maybe a #2 in an otherwise indifferent rotation. The perenially underachieving JD Drew? Carlos Lee? All of them, and others, are headed into the MegaMillionaires Club thanks to the owners' giddiness over the new TV deal and extended labor peace.

Of course it can't last . . . a couple of years from now the owners will be back to clamoring for a salary cap, bemoaning their inability to make any money owning a baseball team, and I'll have to listen to more interviews with Bud Selig, wherein the Commissioner talks in ominous tones about how bad the game's financial situation is. Maybe by then it will sound funny again.

Business Must Be Good

2006-11-20T15:49:00.000-08:00

Soriano signs with Cubs for 8 years, $136 million.

Word was that the Cubs were "going for it" in 2007. Word also was that Alfonso Soriano was looking for "Carlos Beltran money."

Well the Cubs are apparently going all out and Soriano has his Beltran money.

Rival GMs will be cursing the Cubs this offseason; the Soriano contract sets a market level that means that many average to slightly above-average free agents will be getting a lot more money this year than they otherwise might have.

But purely in baseball terms . . . is it a good signing?

Having seen the Alfonso Soriano show up close and personal for several years, I want no part of him. The most useful thing he did for the Yankees was get us A-Rod. He remains a tremendously gifted player with zero heart and zero hustle. He'll be 31 at the start of this contract . . . an eight-year deal? I know that these long-term deals are entered intp knowing the team get its money's worth up front and way overpays in the end years. But still . . . six years for $108 million wouldn't have done it?

But looking at it just in baseball terms . . .

This past season -- .277, 46 HRs, 95 RBI in 159 games. Nice home run numbers in a park not conducive to them. But . . . 95 RBI? Even on a bad team he coudn't figure out how to drive in 100? In his six years of playing full time, he's only driven in 100 runs twice, and five of those six years he played on great hitting teams.

And the biggest offensive issue with Soriano: 67 walks and 160 strikeouts. Soriano has the same holes in his swing he had as a rookie years ago. Why any pitcher throws him a fastball, ever, is beyond me. Discipline is a word unknown to him in his approach at the plate.

Defensivley, much was made of Soriano's 22 assists in the outfield this past year. Much less often mentioned is his 11 errors, trailing only Adam Dunn among MLB outfielders last year. Soriano doesn't care about defense and never has.

The rumor I've heard is that the Cubs intend to play Soriano in center field and to bat him leadoff. Those would be two massive mistakes. Hide Soriano in left field, where his defensive deficiencies hurt you the least. And you can't bat Soirano leadoff in a National League lineup -- him hitting 40 solo home runs isn't going to help the team very much overall. I'm assuming the Lou Piniella is smart enough to bat Soriano fourth, or fifth.

Soriano is a deeply flawed player capable of occaisionally astounding things. The Cubs massively overpaid . . . suddenly Jeter's $18 million a year begins to look like a bargain, not to mention the piece of A Rod's salary the Yankees are paying, by comparison.

Subway gone; Britton "Eats Fresh"

2006-11-14T16:42:00.000-08:00

Wright traded to Orioles for Chris Britton.

Jaret "Subway" Wright was dealt to Baltimore for Chris Britton. By doing so, the Yankees actually save a little money and get something in return for the failed Wright experiment as opposed to simply buying him out of the last year of his contract. Wright will be reunited with Leo Mazzone, with whom, as a Brave, he pitched most successfully.

Britton is 24, six years younger than Wright. He comes off his first season in the bigs having gone 0-2 with one save and a 3.35 ERA in 52 games for a bad team that mailed it in somwhere back in July. Not terrible. Britton should help the bullpen but he will stress the post-game food budget a bit -- the 6' 3" righthander tipped the scales at a Sabathia-like 278 by the end of the 2006 season.

Mets sign El Duque to two-year extension.

I thought this was a bit of an odd move at first, but then I read that the Mets actually save some money on this deal -- El Duque qualifies for Medicare Part B and thus the Mets won't have to provide expensive MLB health benefits for him.

Let's Try This Again

2006-11-13T15:50:00.000-08:00

I had to abandon this blog last season due to time constraints. I'm giving it another go . . . and now, with the off-season soon to heat up, seems a good time.

Yankees trade Sheffield.

Great move. I'm bemused by the talk-radio idiots, who continually rag the Yankees for:
1) Having a bad farm system (demonstrably not true, but that's another post)
2) Having too many older players
3) Having too many stars and not enough role-players
4) Having old and creaky starting pitching

So, the Yankees trade an aging "star" in exhange for three young pitching prospects. One could expect the talk radio goons to be overjoyed, that finally the Yankees are heeding their "wisdom."

Nope. I heard almost nothing but cirticism of the trade on WFAN and ESPN Radio.

The Yankees won 97 games with basically zero from Sheffield last year. He just turned 38, was going to make $13 million, and is prone to taking little vacations for weeks at a time. Those on talk radio who say, apparently with a straight face, that, "Sheffield plays hard every game" apparently didn't watch too many Yankee games. Sheffield gets in a sulk and dogs it badly at those times. Only when he's 1) playing for a new contract, and/or 2) is made to feel like the most important player in the history of the team he's playing for, does he give consistent effort.

It will only take a couple of months and six or seven would-be home runs to fall into outfielder's gloves in cavernous Comerica Park before Sheffield launches one of his personal "job actions." Having signed a two-year extension with Detroit for $28 million for the two years after this coming year, Sheffield has absolutely nothing to play for, knowing that his next time "free" he's 41 years old. Even that cross between Abner Doubleday and Dr. Schweitzer (eyeroll), Jim Leyland, won't be able to turn this sow's ear into a silk purse.

On the Yankees' side of the deal of course it's a risk. Pitching prospects are just that -- prospects. But you have to have four or five, often, to get one winner out of the bunch. And Humberto Sanchez just might be the real deal. And he was raised in the Bronx. Instant star if he can pitch at all on the big-league level.

Sports talk radio is fun to listen to sometimes, but really, it's hard to take seriously.

Carl Pavano Update.

Pavano is um, tanned, rested, and ready. Joe Torre says he's our fourth starter for 2007.

There are a lot of jokes I could make but none of them are as funny as that previous sentence above.

A couple of losses; Sturtze to the DL

2006-05-16T15:48:00.000-07:00

A's 6, Yankees 1 (Sunday)
Rangers 4, Yankees 2 (Monday)

A great game by Haren Sunday. Although the Yankees helped out a lot by quickly going into first-pitch swinging mode. At one stretch Haren recorded six outs on something like 15 pitches. It was if Randy giving up the three-spot in the first inning took all the starch out of the team. Which is pretty much inexcusable -- even with no Matsui and no Sheffield, three runs is nothing for this team.

As for Randy, perhaps this time they'll do the MRI on the pitching arm.

Last night, a good start by Mussina. He seemed to get unnerved a little by the pop fly home run, but instead of a classic Mussina meltdown he held it together and pitched seven innings only allowing two runs. Unfortunately, Panic Joe turned to his newest favorite pitcher, Kyle (You Lookin' at Me?) Farnsworth, who promptly coughed up 2 runs in the top of the eighth. The Yankees again seemed demoralized by that and went quickly and quietly in the eighth and ninth innings.

Sturtze goes to see Dr. Andrews

Tanyon Sturtze finally admitted what everyone who watches the Yankees has known since the middle of last year: He's hurt. No. 56 is going to see Dr. James Andrews today to discuss his "slightly torn rotator cuff and bursitis."

How much of an idiot did Sturtze make Torre look like these past months? Joe kept running Strutze out there game after game reagrdless of how poorly he pitched, as though he was in the grip of a complex blackmail scheme the likes of which would make the writers of Law and Order: Criminal Intent envious.

And Torre kept calling Sturtze "a gamer." Um, close. The word ends with "r," but the correct term is "liar."

You don't get just a "sligthly torn rotator cuff." Bursitis is a chronic condition. And if you're going to see Dr. Andrews, it's not to shoot the breeze and talk about you don't need surgery.

The sad part is that in all likelihood Sturtze has made whatever is wrong a lot worse by continuing to pitch. Let's hope that Scott Ericson has a little left in the tank, still.

Dodging the weather

Amazingly, with all the cruddy weather of late, the Yankees have somehow avoided being rained out. Not a big deal, but every little bit might help down the stretch. Boston was rained out twice this past week -- they'll have some doubleheaders to contend with. And is it just Me, so does Boston seemingly play all their games at home, and play all of them against Tampa and Baltimore?

Wow

2006-05-13T06:54:00.000-07:00

Yankees 2, A's 0

The best start of Wang's career. Eight shutout innings. 85 pitches. 20, count 'em, 20, ground ball outs. I felt, especially after Bernie's home run in the bottom of the 8th to make it 2-0, supremely confident that Wang could finish this game. Wow.

But of course he wouldn't.

I knew that Joe was going to being Mariano in to pitch the 9th. And he had not, and something terrible happened, the second-guessing would've been deafening. So, Mariano comes in, and with a little trouble, gets the save. All's right with the world. Err, or maybe not.

1. There seem to be a lot more baserunners agasint Mariano this year than in years past. Is this a slow start, or the very beginning of the inevitable dropoff? Mariano is 36, which isn't necessarily old, but he's been a top closer for a very long time, a lot longer than most stay at that level.

2. Further, at this point, left-handed hitters are batting .303 against him. That's a potenitally very troubling thing, becasue it might mean that his out pitch, that cut fastball that renders lefties typcially helpless, is not as sharp as it once was.

3. Mariano's a victim of Joe's managing and circumstance also. Panic Joe using him on Wednesday night when he didn't really have to resulted in last night being the third night in a row and rendering him unavailble today. (He needs to be unavailable today, regardless of whether he says he can pitch or not.) This is the problem with the "give the closer some work when you wouldn't normally use him" theory. You never know. Statistically, all teams get roughly the same number of save opportunites, so as a rule managers are better off not trying to guess.

But, two sides to every coin. And it's entirely possible that the feel of the cutter isn't quite there yet, so Mariano's throwing more fastballs for now. At 36, perhaps he starts a little slower than he did at a younger age. He's pitching a lot better in May than he did in April. The save opportunities haven't been there so far in big bunches and I'm sure that choppiness isnt overall a good thing for his pitching. It's entirely possible that the Mariano will pitch well as long as he feels like it.

So in the end it's way too early to panic about Mariano. I dearly would love to have seen Wang go for the complete game shutout last night, though.

Matsui gone for 3 months; The latest on Pavano

2006-05-12T16:26:00.000-07:00

Yankees 7, Red Sox 3 (Wed.)
Red Sox 5, Yankees 3 (Thurs.)

After the exhiliration of Wednesday's win (and the special thrill of taking Schilling deep three times, none of them cheapies), last night's game started out ugly, went very long, and ended badly.

Seeing the Matsui play, I immediately said "if that's not broken it's a miracle." The announcers happy-talking about a sprain I knew was just whistling past the graveyard. Alas it was broken, and no Matusi for at least 3 months. Ugh.

The overall effect really shouldn't be that horrendous. One positive is that Melky gets a chance to show what he can do, and I have the gut feeling that he's ready. This lineup, even without Godzilla, should be able to score plenty. If, and it's a big if, the pitching holds up.

And speaking of pitching, Brian Cashman was on the phone last night with Tampa, checking on the progress of oft-injured starter Carl Pavano with Tampa pitching coach Rich Monteleone.

Cashman: How's Pavano doing?
Monteleone: Oh, he's doing great, Chief. He's got a great tan, really seems to be having a ball down here in Florida. We went to this place last night called "All A-Broad." "A-Broad" -- get it? Great place. They have this girl there, the things she can do with a plunger and a feather boa . . .
Cashman: Um, Rich . . . I meant, how's he doing pitching-wise? We need him back healthy.
Monteleone: Oh. Well . . . he was doing great, Chief, until this morning. He bent over to tie his cleats and felt something in his back. We've shut him down for a couple of days.
Cashman (softly): Christ.
Monteleone (brightly): But we expect him to be throwing off flat ground again by next Tuesday. Maybe next Thrusday. Backs are tricky.
Cashman: Flat ground?!? I thought he was making rehab starts!
Monteleone (confused): Um, he was, Chief. Until he got the paper cut two weeks ago. Then, just as that healed, he stubbed his big toe on some boxes marked "K. Brown --Personal." Have you been reading my e-mails?
Cashman: (banging on his keyboard) E-mails? What E-mails . . . oh . . . crap. They were in the "Junk E-Mail folder."
Monteleone: (laughing) Cool! I'm a spammer!
Cashman: (not laughing) All right. So when do we think he'll back up here pitching again?
Montleleone: (thoughtfully) Hm. Well, we don't want to rush these things, Chief, and I'd hate to give an estimate and then have to change it again, so . . .
Cashman: (impatiently) When the hell will he be ready?
Monteleone: (quietly) August 15th.
Cashman: I give up, I just give up.
(Crashing sounds and screams heard on the phone)
Monteleone: Sorry, Chief, I gotta run. The Fed Ex truck coming to pick up Kevin Brown's boxes just ran over Pavano's foot and then plowed into the box office. I'll write again soon!
Cashman: Yeah, you do that. I got another call coming in anyway.
(Cashman switches lines).
Steinbrenner: Brian, it's George! How's Pavano doing? Think we can get Barry Bonds? How about that A-Rod! I knew my little jab would get results! Do Matsui's consecutive games in Japan count? I've got a trade in mind . . . what do you think of Sheffield and Sean Henn for Albert Pujols? . . . oh, yeah, I almost forgot . . . I have some ideas for new promotions . . .
(Cashman sets the receiver down and walks over to the window, opens it, plugs his ears and sings "Cotton-Eyed Joe" at the top of his lungs.)

Ugly game; Ugly developments

2006-05-10T16:00:00.000-07:00

Red Sox 14, Yankees 3

A rough night in the Bronx. The Yankee highlight came early when Giambi homered to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead. From there it went downhill fast. Randy was horrendous, allowing 7 runs (only 2 earned thanks to a couple of errors, but make no mistake -- Randy got shelled. Almost every ball put in play was a rocket).

[Side note, speaking of errors: Everybody get off Melky's back. First, Sheffield is no Roberto Clemente out there, and second, everyone in the ballpark and the annoucers thought Cano had that popup all the way.]

But it's one game. No biggie. Because it's Boston (gasp! organ music swells ominously) everyone needs to make it a big deal. The much more troubling aspect of last night's loss is . . .

Randy goes for MRI

Randy had an MRI today on his shoulder. Apparently this was the team's idea. Joe Torre and Brian Cashman discussed the results of the MRI ealirer today a physician.

Dr. Goniff: As you asked, I administered an MRI to Mr. Johnson and also gave him a complete physical. The results are not necessarily bad, but somewhat surprising.
Torre: What?
Dr. Goniff: Well, Mr, Johnson is in fairly good physical shape for someone his age. . . .
Cashman: Yeah, we know 42 is old for a pitcher.
Dr. Goniff: (surprised) 42? Mr. Johnson is 74 years old, gentlemen.
Torre and Cashman: What the hell?
Dr. Goniff: Yes. That's my best estimate of his age.
Cashman: (on cell phone) Betty, I need you to pull out a copy of Randy's contract immediately. Look at Section 14.b.1 -- "Breach by Fraud."
Dr. Goniff: Anyway, as I was saying . . . he's in pretty good health, but he really should lose some weight, he probably drinks a litle more than is totally healthy, and his knees are in very bad shape.
Cashman: (still on phone) I'm going to fry this fukcer . . . 74 years old. What does it say in there? Can we recover all the money or just a pro-rated portion?
Torre: Wait a second, Doc. Do me a favor. Can you describe "Mr. Johnson" for me?
Dr. Goniff: (thinking) Hmmmmm, yes. Short, pudgy, very short stubbly white hair, mostly bald on top. Somewhat abrasive personality. Didn't seem to know why he was here. Said a tall guy gave him $500 and carfare to Belmont in exchange for coming to see me.
Torre: (reaching into his wallet and pulling out a picture of Don Zimmer) Is this the guy, Doc?
Dr. Goniff: Yes! That's him!
(Cashman hangs up the phone abruptly)
Torre and Cashman (in unison) FUCK!!!!!
(Cashman dials the phone again)
Torre: Ummmm, thanks, Doc. We've gotta go.
Cashman: (on the phone) I don't care where the hell he is! I want him in my office in ten minutes!

Sweep! One-month Review

2006-05-08T16:20:00.000-07:00

Yankees 6, Rangers 1 (Sat.)
Yankees 8, Rangers 5 (Sun.)

The Yankees completed the sweep yesterday, good outings by Chacon and Wang making Torre's brutal managing Friday night a non-factor. Now it's an off day, and the Boston comes to New York for three games starting tomorrow night.

Three more games vs. Boston of the schedule. Yay. Personally, I wish the Yankees could play the 19 games against Boston and the six vs. the Mets all at once at the beginning of the season, and leave 137 games to concentrate on baseball. But anyway, it should be a fun series. Randy was 5-0 vs Boston last year; he'll have to pick up his game if he's going to continue that dominance Tuesday.

The One-month performance reivew

It's a month and change into the season, so it's a good time to take stock of the Yankees' performance so far.

First, the bottom line: Results. In first place (percentage points ahead of Boston). Recall last year at this time the Yankees were 11-19.

Some stats:

Team BA: .290 (3rd in AL)
Runs: 183 (2nd in AL)
On-base: .388 (1st in AL)
Slugging: .466 (4th in AL)

ERA: 3.76 (2nd in AL)

Fielding pct.: .989 (4th in AL)
DER: .7193 (4th in AL) (DER is an important but often-overlooked stat that tells a lot more than a team's fielding percentage. DER is a measure of the percentage of balls put in play (not including home runs) that a team turns into outs. For the 2005 season the Yankees ranked 10th in this category in the AL.)

And a few stats that are not quite as big a deal, but are important to this particular team.

--Yankees lead the AL in sacrifice bunts.
--Yankees are 5th in stolen bases in the AL.

I mention those last two not becasue I love sacrificing and stealing so much, but becasue last year's team was often criticized for not playing "small ball" when the situation seemed to call for it, being too home-run reliant, too big-inning reliant.

So overall, the hitting is good (and pretty well-distrubuted -- the Yankees scored 8 runs yesterday with nothing from Damon or Jeter). No surprise there -- this team will score plenty of runs. And while it's not necessairly a conscious small ball approach, I do notice the team picking up the "cheap" runs -- the RBI groundouts, etc. And that's a good sign.

The starting pitching has been pretty decent, even with Randy's uneven start. Mussina looks like a young man again, Chacon and Wright have been surprisingly good thus far, and Wang has been good enough, most starts.

The bullpen is . . . OK. Proctor a nice surprise, Mariano still seems to be struggling to find his form. Meyers has been generally good. But please, Joe, please -- the love affair with Sturtze must end, and end now. Does he have pictures of you in some compromising position?

So overall, not a bad first month. Lost a couple they shoudl've won, won a couple they should've lost. It's all good.

The Texas Bullpen Massacre (Almost)

2006-05-06T08:37:00.000-07:00

Yankees 8, Rangers 7

A thriller that should never have been. After seven innings, Mussina is cruising. He's leading 8-1, having pitched 7 innings, two hits, 85 pitches. 85.

Mussina gives up a single leading off the 8th. Panic Joe pulls him.

Small comes in. Single. Single. 8-2.

Fielder's choice. One out. 8-3.

Single.

Farnsworth comes in.

Single. Bases loaded.

Strikeout. Two outs.

Walk. 8-4. Tying run to the plate. Having managed the game into a save situation, Panic Joe now can use Maraino. Awesome. In a game that was 8-1 before you decided to pour sugar in the gas tank.

Single. 8-6.
Single. 8-7. 8 to freaking 7!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HBP. Bases loaded.

Fielder's choice. Inning over. Christ.

Mariano gets through the bottom of the 9th and the Yankees escape with the win.

Normally, I can at least understand a manager's thinking. But Torre's moves here are indefensible.

Mussina doesn't need the extra rest. You've got two more games this weekend against a good-hitting team in a bandbox. When you get a dominating performance out of a starter, ride it. At 85 pitches Mussina might easily have pitched 8 innings, or even (gasp!) a complete game. There's no thought that you might need some length out of your bullpen tonight, or Sunday, or both? Did the leadoff single in the eighth scare you that much? Small needed the work, you think? Trust Me, he'll get it, with two more games against Texas and then Boston coming to town for three starting Tuesday.

A lucky, lucky win.

Chacon and Wang need to provide some length today and Sunday, and the bats need to keep producing. Mariano shouldn't pitch tonight, neither should Farnsworth. Thank goodness Monday's an off day.

Extra Inning Win; Too Many Starters?

2006-05-04T15:58:00.000-07:00

Yankees 4, Devil Rays 2 (10)

Another nice start by Wright. Thankfully, the Yankee bats woke up enough, tied it in the middle innings and then won it in the 10th. Farnsworth outstanding again. Mariano seems to have gotten it together after some hiccups early on. Nice to see A-Rod get a hit in a big spot.

But why can't this team score about 19 runs against the likes of Casey Fossum? Casey Freaking Fossum. What the hell happens here? Any bum who puts on a Devil Rays uniform magically is able to pitch well against the Yankees but against no one else? These guys got their 7+ ERAs somewhere.

Shawn Chacon was supposed to pitch Tuesday night in Boston, but got rained out. He got skipped last night in Tampa. Chacon discussed the situation with his manager before yesterday's game.

Chacon: Feeling strong, Skip. I'm going to mow them down tonight.
Torre: Umm . . . Shawn, you're not starting tonight. Jaret is.
Chacon: But it's my turn.
Torre: Err, no. Last night was your turn.
Chacon: We were rained out last night.
Torre: Right.
(uneasy silence)
Chacon: Soooooo . . . am I pitching tomorrow night then?
Torre: No. Tomorrow is Randys turn.
Chacon (scratching head): Oh. Am I pitching Friday night?
Torre (incredulous): Are you kidding? Bump Mussina from his turn? I may be crazy but I'm not stupid.
Chacon: So, um . . . everyone gets to pitch when it's their turn except me?
Torre: You got your turn.
Chacon (expasperated): We were rained out!
Torre: (triumphantly): Yes!!! Finally you've got it!
(At this point ptiching coach Ron Guidry happens by the office)
Guidry: Ready to shine tonight, Shawn?
Chacaon: I'm not pitching tonight, Gator. I'm not sure but it's either Wright, unless there's a freak rainstorm in the Dome tonight, in which case Sean Henn gets called up to pitch Thursday, everyone gets moved back two days, and I'm pencilled in to start on June 11th.
(Chacon stomps out of the office)
Guiudry: I think Chacon should pitch tonight, Skip.
Torre (reaching for the Rolaids): Unnnnngggghhhhhhhh . . .

Red Sox Win Their Personal World Series; FAN Hosts Indefensible on Defense

2006-05-02T15:25:00.000-07:00

Red Sox 7, Yankees 3

Not really much different from what I'd expected. I figured Damon would be a bit tight. Wang was shaky early but settled down pretty nicely. Panic Joe took Small out too soon. Can we please finally settle the question, once and for all -- that Tanyon Sturtze really isn't that good? Torre is in love with this guy for whatever reason. Joe, enough's enough with Sturtze.

Of course it didn't matter in the end since Mike Meyers was no international man of mystery to David Ortiz. That Ortiz homer put it away late and Francona, somewhat oddly I thought, used Papelbon to pitch the 9th with a four run lead.

Tonight's game looks like it might be rained out -- apparently it's been raining in Boston pretty much all day. That wouldn't bother Me in the slightest -- everyone pays entirely too much attention to these Yankee/Red Sox matchups, especially early on. The last few years the two teams have played to a virtual standstill vs. each other in the regular season. This season will be no different.

Memo to Mike and the Mad Dog: Watch the Games!

I happened to hear a little snippet of the Mike and the mad Dog show on WFAN today. And the topic happened to be Francesa and Russo ragging Cano for his bad defense.

Ahem. To anyone who's watched the games so far this year, it's clear that Cano is vastly improved over last year. He worked extensively with Larry Bowa in spring training, and it shows. Cano had a fine game last night in the field, making Mike and the Mad Dog's comments ever more perplexing.

Mike tried to be subsbtantive, citing Cano's "lack of range." It simply isn't so. The reason that Cano doesn't get to some balls towards the middle is becasue he has to cheat the other way a bit to help make up for Giambi's complete lack of range at first. One would think that Mike Francesa would know this.

Russo's comments were just mindless Yankee-bashing . . . "he's a bad second baseman." Garbage from a garbage-mind who feels that it makes for "good radio" when a New York radio host reflexively trashes all New York teams.

But, for those who like numbers . . . Cano's got one error this season so far. A big improvement over last year. His Range Factor is 4th in the AL among second basemen who've played at 180 innings at second base.

To anyone who watches a lot of Yankee games it's easy to see that Cano's markedly improved defensively and getting better.

Mike and Chris (gleefully) also piled on about the team as a whole not being good defensively. Another mystifying comment. OK, 9 errors as a team doesn't tell the whole story, but it's a big improvement.

Posada: Has never been great overall. But this throwing so far has been stellar, throwing out 6 of 13 would-be base-stealers. Has always been good on popups. Not so great at blocking balls in the dirt, and plays at the plate have never been a strong point.

Giamabi: Gets a worse rap than he should. Lacks range and is terrible on popups. Gets nervous when he has to make a throw. But is excellent at picking poor throws out of the dirt. And that's the most important thing a first baseman does defensively.

Cano: Discussed above.

Jeter: Gold Glover.

A Rod: Should've won the Gold Glove last year.

Matsui: Not as good as he's been. Throwing to the wrong base a couple of times is very unlike the Matsui who first joined the Yankees. Seems a lot less confident out there than he used to.

Damon: It's well-documented he's got a crummy arm. But runs down everything out there. This season all ready I've seen him catch at least 7 balls that would've been triples with Bernie playing center.

Sheffield: Has that bad habit of side-saddle catching that he developed when his shoulder was bad, but overall, plays a decent right field when he's motivated. Strong arm.

Overall, this is not a bad defensive team. And anyone who watched them all last year and has watched them so far this year can see the improvement.

Here we go . . .

2006-05-01T15:20:00.000-07:00

Yankees 4, Blue Jays 1

Mussina good again, enough offense, and tremendous outings from Farnsworth and Mariano.

Although Mussina wasn't quite as good as the box score might indicate. There seemed to be baserunners all day but Moose always got the crucial outs.

The most interesting aspect of this game was the umpiring, specifically behind the plate. A rookie ump was calling balls and strikes, and, to be chairtable, he was having a tough day. His strike zone seemed to fluctuate from one inning to the next. Amazingly, Mussina, of all people, kept it together. Normally an umpiring job like yesterday's would send Moose right over the edge into a meltdown. And it was no better for Chacin; at least the umpire's missing ball and stirke calls was evernly distributed.

Torre got thrown out, bewtween innings. At one point the Toronto manager had obviously had enough, too, and he got thrown out.

I have no idea if the ump. Adam Dowdy, is in the regular rotation, or is he was filling in for a sick/injured umpire, or what. But he's not likely to forget his Sunday in the Bronx.

Into the belly of the beast

Here we go. Yankees at Red Sox. The first of a two-game series, a little warmup. The big story of course is Damon's return to Boston. I've heard a lot of people speculating about what the reaction of Boston fans will be. I think it's safe to say that the reaction will be loud and overwhelmingly negative. Will there be a smattering of cheers when Damon leads off in the top of the frst and is announced? I imagine there will be; not everyone will be bombed in the top of the first.

Should they boo? Of course not. Damon was an integral part of the first World Championship for the Red Sox in 86 years. It's not like he left for a few hundred thousand dollars more. It was a difference between $40 million over four years and $52 million over four years. That's a lot of money, even for someone making that much. Holier-than-thou fans who claim they woudn't take the $52 million are fooling no one, not even themselves. Plus, Damon played there four years. Not fourteen. He's not from Boston. The Yankees were in fact his third choice, behind Boston and the Dodgers (Damon apparently loved playing for Grady Little, now Dodgers' manager).

But of course Damon will be booed lustily. Damon, for his part, has gone out of his way to praise the Boston fans and speak fondly of his time there. That won't matter tonight at 7:08 when Damon steps into the batter's box, of course.

I would like to think that Yankee fans, in a similar situation, would react a little differently. Being fair, they probably wouldn't. But it will be interesting to see tonight if the Boston fans have at least started to make the transition from the losing to the winning psychology and take a moment to realize, and recognize, what Damon meant to them, and that his appearance in pinstripes is a function of the way baseball works today, and little else.

P. S. The Red Sox finally got tired of not having anyone who can catch a knuckleball and re-obtained Doug Mirabelli today. With our luck Mirabelli will go 4-4 tonight.

Wright not so wrong

2006-04-29T07:45:00.000-07:00

Blue Jays 7, Yankees 2

About what I expected, but not the way I expected. After being behind 2-0 after two batters, Wright got it together and with the help of 17 or so double plays, actually had the Yankees in the game until he tired and Proctor gave up a three-run homer that basically put it out of reach.

Meanwhile, Hallady wasn't his Cy Young self but was more than good enough, in conjunction with the bullpen. Somewhat surprisingly, Gibbons used BJ Ryan for a two-inning save. Presumably he's looking at the pitching matchups today and tomorrow and figured last night was a must-win.

And again, what is with the umps this year? Last night, bottom 8, Yankees down 5-2, one out, men on first and third. Bernie Williams grounds one to third . . . they get the out at second and Bernie is clearly safe at first. In live action he looked safe; on the replay his foot is on first and the ball is maybe six inches from the first baseman's glove.

It probably doesn't change the outcome of the game, but suppose, for the sake of argument, the correct call is made. It's 5-3. Maybe in a two-run game, Joe doesn't put Blow-up Strutze in to pitch the 9th and Toronto doesn't tack on. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Oh well. I konw this is supposed to all even out but so far, the Yankees are way behind this season on the "calls evening out" thing.

Stuff happens. Today's another day.

Cosmic Payback; Going cold in Hot-Lanta would be bad

2006-04-28T16:16:00.000-07:00

Yankees 4, Devil Rays 1

Baseball, as it always seems to, extracted its cosmic payback on the D-Rays last night. Wednesday, the Yankees got 14 walks, stole four (five?) bases, hit a lot of balls hard, and only get 2 runs in 10 innings. Last night, they get very few walks, get some hits on balls not exactly scorched, and win 4-1.

But that was then and this is now. And now isn't lookng too good. Jaret Wright has gone walk, home run, walk to the first three Blue Jays' hitters. I can't fault Wright too much, much as I'd like to. Wright hasn't pitched since April 15th, My expectations for this start are not the highest.

And there goes baseball again, making an idiot out of me. I no sooner finish typing the previous sentence and Wright gets a double play.

Mets have something to prove

The Mets open a three-game series at Turner Field vs. the Braves tonight. Turner Field has been the Mets' personal house of horrors since it opened; there record there is abysmal (can't be bothered to look it up right now but it's 17-50 or something like that.

Right now, the Mets are significantly better than the Braves. And though it's only April, the Mets can semi-bury the Braves, at least for a little while, with a strong showing in this series. And in the process convince themselves that they really are a good team. Which, and it pains me to say this, they are.

No defense against the base on balls?

2006-04-27T15:59:00.000-07:00

Devil Rays 4, Yankees 2 (10 innings)

Yankees hit the trifecta last night:

1. Became the first team since 1954 to be issued 14 walks in a game, scored 2 or fewer runs, and lose.

2. Burned Mariano for two innings and lost the game.

3. Made tonight's series finale against the Devil Rays a much more psychologically important game than it should be.

Fourteen walks! And four stolen bases! Two lousy runs!

I suppose last night's game proves the old saying that every time you watch a baseball game you stand a good chance of seeing something you've never seen before. With this lineup, 14 walks and four steals only amounting to two runs . . . well, before last night I'm sure a bookie in Vegas would've given you 5000-1 odds against it ever happening.

So reluctantly I put last night into the "stuff happens" category. I'd love to be able to bitch about the effort but for the most part the effort was there. (Sheffield's less than blazing dash down the first-base line on the final out of the game was a notable exception.)

Chacon against Hendrickson tonight. Hendrickson beat the Yankees three times least year. So, the Yankees will most likely score 9 runs off him in 2 2/3 innings. Or get totally shut down.

Moose Squirrels Away a Win; Where's the beef in the Kazmir-burger?

2006-04-26T15:05:00.000-07:00

Yankees 9, Devil Rays 1

A good start in what I see as an important series. Tampa beat New York, if I recall correctly, 11 out of 19 last season. With the East improved this year, winning, let's say, 26 out of the 38 games against TB and Baltimore is important both mathematically and psychologically.

Mussina was sharp but not terribly economical last night, having to come out having faced one batter in the seventh and having thrown 100 pitches. But all's well that ends well . . . Strutze actually didn't blow up, we tacked a few more late, and I didn't have to curse and scream at my TV, as I always do when Panic Joe has Mariano start warming up in the 8th with a 5-run lead.

Jeter had a home run last night and went 3-5. He's at .391, with 3 HRs and 18 RBI. (And an OPS of 1.175 for all you new-wave stat types.) Phenominal start. And while he did have better numbers as a leadoff man than Damon did, I knew that returning Jeter to the 2 spot in the order would be good for him and for the team. And Jeter's RBI numbers are with Damon off to an OK but hardly inspiring start (.284 BA, .360 OBP).

And, while we're on the subject of last night's game, what's all the fuss about Scott Kazmir? Here in the New York area, the media is obsessed with Kazmir, since he was drafted by the Mets and traded in 2004 mid-season when the Mets thought they had a shot at the playoffs. They got Victor Zambrano in exchange for the then-prospect, and Zambrano has been singularly unimpressive since joining the Mets (10-14 with a not very good ERA the gory details are here). New York writers and talk-radio hosts love to pound on the Mets every time Zambrano gets bombed but stays in the rotation. And the thinking is that the Mets are embarrassed to have traded Kazmir for this guy and thus are going to treat him like a good pitcher regardless of how poorly he actually pitches.

But really, other than being young, throwing hard, and being left-handed, what's so great about Kazmir? For his career, he's 14-14, 4.09. Very average. Walks a ton of guys. Always seems to be in the fifth inning when the 100 pitch mark comes. OK, he's young (turned 22 a few months ago). But so far, with Kazmir, there's no "there" there. Other than pitching well (usually) against the Red Sox, there isn't much to recommend this "phenom." Tampa may have ruined his career by rushing him up to the majors . . . time will tell. For now, despite Zambrano's struggles, the Mets don't have much to be embarrassed about.

Tonight it's Wang vs. Seth McClung. I still believe that Wang's shoulder is bothering him, so if this game degenerates into a classic NY-Tampa 15-11 deal it won't surprise me. I just hope the Yankees are on the plus end of it.

Set Your TiVo!

Friday night it's The Yankees and Blue Jays. Jaret Wright against Roy Halladay. The folks at YES I'm sure already are thinking this one is going to be an "Instant Classic." Don't use the bullpen too much between now and Friday, Joe. I expect you will have to piece together 5 2/3 innings out of the pen Friday night.

The Restoration of Sanity

2006-04-23T16:14:00.000-07:00

Yankees 6, Orioles 1
Yankees 7, Orioles 1

Amazing what a little pitching will do. I saw Saturday's game. Today's, I'm relying on the box score.

Chacon apparently remembered how to pitch and shut down a pretty good-hitting Orioles team. The offense did more than enough and it was a nice routine win over a team we should beat regularly (I see the Orioles finishing last in the East this season).

Today, Randy must've been totally un-stiff. 8 innings, 3 hits, 1 run. 94 pitches. Could I'm sure have pitched the 9th but Mariano needed the work. In fact, aside from Tejada (4-4) the Orioles were no-hit today.

Two homers for Giambi and 5 RBI. One I heard was an absolute bomb into the upper deck. I'll have to hold my nose and watch Baseball Tonight to see if I can catch the replays of the home runs.

An off day tomrorow (it feels like the Yankees have had about 17 off days already this season) and then Tampa comes to town. A large part of the Yankees having to take down to the final series of the season was becasue of their ineffective play against Tampa Bay last year. Psychologically, I think it's important for the Yankees to make a little statement against the Rays early on.

Mussina pitches Tuesday. Moose and Joe discussed the upcoming start prior to today's game.

Mussina: Skip, if it's OK I'd like to fly down to Tampa today so I'm ready and rested to pitch Tuesday night.
Torre: Err, Mike. The game Tuesday night is at home.
Mussina: Damn!
Torre: What's wrong?
Mussina: This is not good, Skip. My biorhythms, my horoscope, and my personal brain-wave meter all indicate that Tuesday is an ideal day for me to pitch in Tampa.
Torre: Ummmmm . . .
Mussina: (whispering) Plus I odn't like pitching at home. There's an usher in Section 11 who is sending me subliminal messages from Bill Gates telling me that I have to kill every 17th person who asks me for an autograph.
Torre: Ahhhhhhhhh . . . ummmmmm . . .
(Mussina at this point drops a 2 for 1 drink ticket from Big Melons Gentleman's Club in Tampa.)
Torre: Mike, I really can't do anything about the schedule . . . it's . . .
(The phone rings)
Torre: Thank God! . . . I mean, hello?
(Torre covers the mouthpiece) Mike, I've got to take this. it's George wanting to know why Jeter's only hitting .375 and if Proctor is still eiligble for Rookie of the Year.
Mussina: (Leaving the office, picking up the ticket, grumbling) Great, just fucking great. How am I supposed to pitch in New York when I'm supposed to pitch in Tampa? 2 innings, 7 runs, here we come . . . hmmmm . . . I wonder if this thing has an expiration date . . .

Arghh . . . Umps . . . Bud . . .

2006-04-22T08:09:00.000-07:00

Orioles 6, Yankees 5

A brutal loss, especially with the prospect of two rainouts coming up. I hate to say it but I think Wang's shoulder is bothering him. Last night, for two innings he's unhittable, ground ball after ground ball. In the third, he loses the strike zone, loses the sinker, and it pretty much goes downhill from there. Apparently Wang's been working with Guidry on maintaining his arm angle. When his arm drops, the sinker doesn't sink. I'm thinking that the shoulder is bad again and that it hurts to maintain the proper arm angle. I hope I'm wrong, becasue losing Wang is something we can't afford. But if he's going to be ineffective . . .

I hate to talk about umpiring but I have to. In the third, the batter was out at first on the Jeter jump-throw play. Two runs scored on that play, three in the inning. With the proper call there no runs score. OK, it was a bang-bang play, and the batter made it closer than it should have been with the silly head-first slide into first. (When will these idiots figure out that that slows you down????) But still, bad call.

More infiuriating was the Matsui at-bat that ended the game. Down 6-5, bottom 9, bases loaded. The catcher pulls the 2-1 pitch down a good six inches. Called a strike. That's high-school stuff, pulling a pitch down that far. These "professional" umps can't see that? Then, on 3-2, Matsui is called out on a pitch that well, was pretty close but was a ball. Matsui gets thrown five balls , swings at none of them, and gets called out on strikes. Wonderful. Should Matsui have swung at that 3-2 pitch? Probably, but that doesn't alter the fact that the quality of umpiring started to decline badly last year and the slide continues this year. Already in Yankee games I've watched this season I've seen at last 10 egregiously bad calls in important situations. One can only hope they even out over time.

Overall, since Sandy Alderson left the MLB front office, the umpires have slowly reverted to their old ways. The "personal strike zone." The terrible positioning. The "I've got dinner plans" strike calls. I can't believe that Selig deosn't see that he needs to find a new Rotweiler to bring the umps back in line.

Selig to step down . . . in 2009!

This one just cracks me up. Can Selig/MLB do anything right, ever? Selig announces he's going to retire . . . three years from now? What the hell?

Are we to believe that the search process is going to take three years? Three years to find another shill for the owners? How about three weeks? I'm sure the owners already have a good list of potential lackeys lined up.

I can only assume that Bud wants the three years to help put a little time between himself and Barry Bonds, to clean up his legacy a bit. Sorry, Bud, but your legacy is pretty well set. You will be remembered forever as the Commissioner who:

1. Shook the pom-poms while drug abusers made a mockery of some of the most cherished records in the game.
2. Belatedly decides to "investigate" the steroids issue, but appoints perhaps the most conflicted person he could possibly think of to run said investigation.
3. Handed over control of playoff scheduling to Fox, thereby guaranteeing that no one under the age of 14 will ever see a World Series game beyond the fourth inning.
4. Abandoned all pretext of the Commissioner working on the behalf of the game, and gleefully embraced the idea of Commissioner as the owners' butt-boy.
5. Allowed greedy owners to simply pocket so-called "revenue-sharing" money while running their franchises into the ground. The Florida Marlins could draw ZERO fans this year and still make a profit.
6. Established the bogus World Baseball Classic.

The owners should just admit it's a farce and hire Donald Trump as the next Commissioner.
At least his hair is entertaining. And he might fire some people on national TV.

The Best Team in the Universe?

2006-04-20T16:13:00.000-07:00

Birds Crap on Cleveland's Windshield Again

Baltimore beat Cleveland again today, 9-4. Last night it was 18-9. Cleveland held the O's to a tidy 32 hits in 16 innings.

Did any of these so-called experts who predicted that Cleveland would win, I don't know, 130 games and sweep the playoffs and World Series, look at Cleveland's pitching staff at all?

Honestly, should this rotation scare any opposing team?

Jake Westbrook: Has shown flashes, but really has never been that good. For his career, 43-45, 4.46. Chews up innings but to what availe? Besides, everyone knows all the good ex-Yankee pitchers are on the White Sox.
Cliff Lee: A solid starter. 20-game winner potential.
Jason Johnson: 54-86 with an ERA approaching 5 for his career.
Paul Byrd: 74-65, 4.27 for his career (much of that in the NL). Journeyman. Another guy who gives you innings but is a .500 pitcher. And he looks like your creepy "uncle" your mother warned you too stay away from. 9 teams in 11 years.
Fausto Carmona: Too early to tell, of course. Could end up being very good. Had one good start his first time out, got torched today.

In the bullpen, Cleveland has some weapons. Wickman, Sauerbeck, Mota. Betancourt has been pretty decent in years past, is off to a bad start. Rafael Perez, too soon to tell. But, um . . . Danny Graves? Danny Graves? (He beat out Steve Karsay (ROFL!) in spring training, I guess.)

I don't see this team unseating the White Sox or beating out Boston or the Yankees for the wild card without a serious improvement in the pitching staff. They subtracted Milwood and added Byrd, not an even trade. I know that Sabathia is hurt, but how good is he, really? For his career he's 24 games over .500, but half of those 24 came in 2001, when he was 17-5. 2001 is a long time ago. Since then he's 52-40, with an ERA in the 4s. A pretty average pitcher. And could the Indians come clean about his weight? He's listed at 290. CC's a biscuit away from 320, at least.

From the Future News File

December 19, 2017 -- The New York Mets accounced that they had re-signed 42-year-old Victor Zambrano to a one-year deal. Terms were not disclosed.

Observers were surpised that Zambrano was retained, having gone 2-19 with a 7.79 ERA in the recently-completed 2017 season. Mets GM Omar Minaya denied that the signing had anything to do with the fact that Bill Kazmir won his 250th game on the final day of the season and led the Devil Rays to their third consecutive World Series title and sixth in 9 years.

"I talked it over with Joe (Mets manager Joe Torre) and Mel (pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre) and they agree with me that Victor still has a lot of life in that arm and that he can help us a lot in 2018."

Strong Moose Picks Up for Stiff Unit

2006-04-19T15:57:00.000-07:00

Blue Jays 10, Yankees 5

I could say a lot about this game, but I think I'm better off forgetting it entirely. Other than to say how the hell do you send your "ace" to the mound with a 4-run lead and lose 10-5? Randy must've been a lot more stiff than anyone realized.

Yankees 3, Blue Jays 1

Strong effort by Mussina today. Enough hitting, nice work by Farnsworth and Rivera.

Braves take 2 of 3 from Mets

The Braves, with no Chipper, do what they usually do against the Mets. The Mets need to dump that hideous song before their good start goes completely down the tubes. Oh, and three errors by David (The Best Player Ever, Just Ask Any Met Fan) Wright.

Stuff Happens . . . Happy Easter (so far)

2006-04-16T14:52:00.000-07:00

Twins 6, Yankees 5

A nice comeback from 4-0 down to take a 5-4 lead. Farnswroth gets an out in the 8th, then allows a baserunner. I didn't want to see it, but I knew it was coming. Mariano being brought in to try to get the 5-out save.

Mariano gets out of the 8th. As I knew he would. Where these more and one-inning saves get tricky is in the subsequent inning, after the closer's had to sit on the bench for the top of the 9th.

In that top of the 9th, the Yankees fail to tack on. I'm hating this game more and more with each passing second.

In the bottom of the 9th, Castillo leads off with a 15-foot nubber that he beats out. (After looking at what I was sure was strike 3). Man on first, nobody out.

Mauer singles to left (after looking at two very possible third strikes). Matsui, unaccountably, tries to get Castillo at third rather than throwing it to second. Mauer moves up trailing the play -- men on second and third with no outs. The Twins can tie it by accident now and in fact win it by making two of the right kind of outs. I can barely watch at this point.

Mariano bears down and strikes out the next guy. Yes!

Mariano strikes out the next guy, too. All right! Might we actually pull this one out?

Alas, it was not to be. Morneau breaks his bat and places one through the right side of the infield. Ballgame. One hard-hit ball and one mental lapse in left field. Three ball/strike calls, any one of which going the other way wins us the game. Two runs. Brutal loss.

But stuff happens. My only quibbles are not doing more against Santana -- it's obivous that at this point he has no feel for the changeup and he's basically guessing where it's going when he throws it.

And I have always hated the one-inning-plus saves. I can't fault Joe too much last night, though. Farnsworth is not to be trusted (yet) with a one-run lead, and when you have Mariano there it's pretty hard not to bring him in.

Longer term, I do see a potentially bad effect, though. The 7th- and 8th-inning guys at some ponit are going to have to pitch with men on base. Should they really be in the mindset that the instant they allow a baserunner they're going to be yanked?

Yankees 9, Twins 2 (top 7th as I write this)

Two bombs by Giambi, Cano sneaks one around the left-field foul pole, and A-Rod unloads just now. We always hit Radke pretty well. Wang has gotten through 6 innings only alloowing the 2 runs. Presumably the Gang Who Can't Throw Straight can piece together the finall innings and at least we leave Minnesota (next to Florida and Tampa Bay, the worst stadium in MLB?) with a win. Off tomorrow, then two in Toronto against the new-look Blue Jays up at Skydome.

Joe and Randy discussed Randy's upcomng start in Toronto Tuesday:

Joe: You're good to go for Tuesday?
Randy: Yes. If I'm not stiff.
Joe: You're still stiff?
Randy: No.
Joe: Oh. OK, good.
Randy: But I might get stiff between now and Tuesday.
Joe: Oh. Well, would you rather start Wednesday instead of Tuesday?
Randy: No. I might feel good Teusday and then be stiff Wednesday.
(Posada peeks his head into Joe's office)
Posada: Hey guys. Can I catch Randy on Tuesday? Please?
Joe and Randy, in unsion: NO!!!!
(A reporter from the Daily News happens by)
Reporter: Posada is catching Randy on Tuesday?
Joe, Randy, and Posada, in unison: NO!!!!!
Posada: Randy's still stiff, anwyay
(Reporter scribbling furiously in his noteboook)
Reporter: Ohhhhhhh. Who's pitching Tuesday then, Joe?
Joe: (annoyed) Randy is, damn it!
Randy: (quietly) If I'm not stiff.
(Joe gets up and slams the office door)
Reporter: (to Posada as they walk away) Don't you think Joe looks kinda like a retard with his hat barely sitting on top of his head like that?
Posada: No comment. Wait. Fuck that, yes he does. Mariano blew the save last night becasue he couldn't stop lauhging at Joe's hat.

Bad Bats + Bad Call + Bad Bernie + Bad Bullpen = One Bad L

2006-04-15T06:34:00.000-07:00

Twins 5, Yankees 1

The re-emergence of a negative pattern from last year: The Yankees face a guy they're never seen before. He doesn't throw particularly hard. He doesn't throw much of anything. The Yankees lunge and flail at first pitches. Before you know it it's the seventh inning and we've scored one run.

Mussina pitched pretty well. Torre left him in for one batter too many and that cost us a run. Farnsworth blew up and that cost us two more runs, but by that time it really didn't matter.

Along with our burtal approach at the plate last night, two pivotal plays turned this game.

Posada was at third with one out and the Yankees trailing 2-1. Bernie flies to deep right. Posada is slow, and Lew Ford makes a very good throw. Posada's called out at the plate. On the replay it's clear that Mauer doesn't come close to tagging Posada's back before Posada's hand touches the plate. Inning over, huge momentum swing.

Any doubt that the call was bogus is erased next inning when YES shows the home plate umpire going up to Posada between innings and asking him about the call. You can clearly read Posada's lips saying "he didn't tag me." And they weren't arguing; the home plate umpire has this embarrased smile on his face. He knew he blew the call! Aaagggggghhhhhhh!!!!!

The other play comes in the eighth. We get first and second against Rincon, no outs, only down 3-1. Bernie comes up. And promptly bounces into a double play. Game.

But that shouldn't obscure the fact that we lost this game with our approach at the plate. Baker doesn't throw very hard, he doesn't have a devastating splitter or a killer change-up. His curve ball reminds no one of Bert Blylyven. His motion is hardly deceptive. He's the kind of pitcher, whether we've seen him before or not, that this team should if not feast on then at least get more than 3 hits off of in seven innings.

The other issue that games like last night point up is the Bernie Williams issue. This past homestand against KC Bernie did well and the Yankee Stadium crowd practically gave him a curtain call for every hit. And I understand it's going to be a love-fest this year, a "Thanks for the Memories" sort of deal as Bernie takes his "victory lap" all season.

Which is fine, but this is the reason I didn't want Bernie back this year, even at the bargain rate. Becasue I know Torre is going to find a way to play him 14o games this year. And Bernie simply isn't a 140 games kind of player any more. Torre will run two hours of windsprints before he'll go against one of "his guys." Having Bernie there makes Torre manage from the history books, which is bad for the team.

I blame the front office for not addressing the DH situation this off-season. For whatever reason, Giambi hits a lot better when he plays first base. I accept that and can live with Giambi's defensive shortcomings because his offense far outweighs those. Given that, we needed to have a much better option at DH than Bernie. Since we will undoubtedly need pitching by the time the trading deadline approaches, we are most likely stuck with Bernie Brain Lock as the mostly full-time DH all season.

Santana vs. Wright Tonight

Tonight, it's Jaret Wright's first start of the season, versus Johann Santana. And while Santana's first two starts haven't been good, I don't like the way this game shapes up at all. Santana is going to figure it out pretty soon, probably tonight. Wright seems totally incapable of dodging flying objects when on the mound and even when he's not getting hit by stuff he's prone to mental lapses. The Yankees' best hope is that Santana has one more bad start in him, Wright is decent and that the bullpen manages to hold it together. I'm not supremely confident.

A Sweep, But of Course it's Never Quite That Simple

2006-04-13T15:07:00.000-07:00

Yankees 9, Royals 3

A sweep of the Royals. It was a close game late, 4-2, when the Yankees blew it open with home runs from Giambi and Damon.

But amidst the joy of a sweep and getting back over .500, there is the usual attendant nonsense with Randy Johnson. Johnson started today, and after 5 good innings, led 4-1.

He didn't come out for the sixth. Immediately, of course, the speculation is that he hurt himself in some way. Ut-oh. But nothing to do for four more innings but wonder and watch as Proctor, Meyers, Sturtze and Villone piece together the final four inniings. (Sturtze taken deep again.)

Driving home, I hear on the radio that Torre said Johnson had "stiffness," but Johnson says he didn't. What? I can only imagine the conversation between the fifth and sixth innings.

Randy: I think I should come out. I'm a little stiff.
Joe: (laughing) Randy, at our age, being "stiff" is usually considered a good thing.
Jeter: (in the background, to Posada) Mr. Torre made a funny!
Randy: (slightly annoyed) No, really, Skip, I mean it. I've thrown 87 pitches. I think I should come out.
Joe: (to Guidry): What do you think of our bullpen going 4 innnings, Gator?
(Guidry chokes on a sunflower seed)
Kelly Stinnett: His stuff is still really moving, Skip.
Johnson: (glaring at Stinnett) You can be replaced.
Posada: Yeah!
Torre: (shifting uncomfortably) Well . . . . ummm, ok, Randy. Can I tell the media that you came out because you're stiff?
Johnson: NO.
Torre: OK, thanks, I'll go with that.
Torre: (to Guidry, still being Heimliched by the trainer) Get Proctor up.
Guidry: Eeeeeeeeeeeeuuuuugggggggggffffffffffffhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh pttttuuuuiiiiii!!!!!!

Or something like that.

White Sox 13, Tigers 9

Yikes! Garland throwing BP again. Today's line: 5 IP, 13 hits, 7 runs, all earned. 1 walk, 2 Ks, 2 HRs, 104 pitches (68 strikes, most of which were apparently hit hard.)

Garland gets the WIN this time to even his record at 1-1 and lowered his ERA to 13.49.

Thankfully the Tigers pitching was even worse and the Tigers, despite 21 hits, couldn't score enough runs.

Ozzieball 2006?

And the hits (and walks) keep coming . . .

2006-04-12T16:35:00.000-07:00

Yankees 12, Royals 5

I'd have liked 12-2 a lot better. Once again the starting pitching lets down and we're down 3-0 before we even come to bat.

But KC's 3-0 lead wasn't enough for Affelt (who's so tough apparently he scared Ozzie Guillen into using his B-team against the Royals last week). Walk to Damon, walk to Jeter, a bomb by Sheffield, and it's a tie game.

And that was that. Today we put some this together with the walks and this one never felt in doubt once we got the lead. Chacon lasted six innings, giving up all five runs, and got the win, not necessarily well-deserved but earned.

Excellent patience at the plate again today, which makes me happy. The bullpen was good again, Meyers, Farnsworth, and Villone (a wonderful-sounding law firm -- two Ivy League-type barristers and the street-fighter type for those tacky but lucrative personal-injury cases) going untouched the over the final three innings in mop-up duty. This doesn't seem important but the way you become one of "Joe's Guys" is not just by clutch performances; it's by not losing focus in situatioins where it's easy to, also.

One more day game against the Royals (enact a minimum payroll NOW!) then it's off to Minnesota, where the bats will have a tougher test against an excellent Twins staff.

Mets @ Nationals

Is on as I write this. Hoping for the some more fireworks, but so far Pedro is on his best behavior. That can't last, can it?

Thrills and Chills for the Home Opener

2006-04-11T17:33:00.000-07:00

Yankees 9, Royals 7

It was old-school roday -- stuck at work so had to listen to John (The Great I Am) Sterling and Suzyn Waldmyn on the radio.

Yankee jump out to a 3-0 lead courtesy of Gimabi golfing an 0-2 pitch into the stands. They make it 4-1 on four walks a couple of innings later. Things are looking good.

Um, no they're not. Wang doesn't have it, totally loses his mechanics and when a sinker ball pitcher isn't throwing sinkers, bad things happen. (Yankee fans will painfully remember one K. Brown.)

Soon it's 4-4. Then it's 5-4, KC. Enter Tanyon Sturtze. Along the way we've blown some good scoring chances, most notably on a patented Bernie Williams brain-lock creating a gift double play.

Now, Sturtze has a new approach, it seems. One that can be summed up as "hit it if you can." Well, guess what? They can. And they do.

Now it's 7-4 KC. Scott Prctor restores some sanity (how's that for irony?) and we come up in the bottom of the 8th, still behind 3.

We load the bases, courtesy of a couple more walks. Cano an RBI force out. 7-5. Bernie, a redemptive RBI single. 7-6, One out. Pitching change. Damon strikes out on thre pitches. Ouch.

Enter the Captain. Not too long after Sterling says "well, at least they go into the 9th down only one run," Jeter blasts one into the late afternoon sky. Three-run homer. 9-7 Yankees.

Mariano comes in an allows a bloop hit and hits Sweeney (good plan, hitting a guy who's 2-21 for the season), but that's all. Ballgame over . . . Yankees win, Theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Yankees Win!

There's lots to complain about. Wang. Sturtze. Bernie's mental lapses. Getting a million walks and missing out on chances to break it open. But a win's a win. We did score 9 runs. We showed good patience at the plate today. Proctor looked sharp, Mariano got his first save. It's all good.

Willis in Pinstripes (or Elsewhere) by July?

2006-04-10T16:00:00.000-07:00

According to MSN's Ken Rosenthal, the consensus among a number of MLB GMs is that the Marlins will look to trade Dontrelle Willis before the July 31st deadline.

It wouldn't surprise me. Nothing with the Marlins surprises me. I feel for Joe Gerardi; this team isn't going to be competitive with Willis; without them the 1962 Mets could be expunged from the record books.

But what I find really bizarre about this story is that not only will the Marlins pursue a new stadium but that MLB is ready to step in and help in that effort. The question in response to that needs to be screamed from the rooftops:

WHY?????????????

Florida fans are notorious for not supporting any other sport besides football. I don't fault anyone's choices in what they invest their sports-watching dollars in, but MLB needs to look reality in the face, sit down with Luria, and say "Look, we like you as an owner. Let's find a city where the team will be supported and has a chance to thrive. Your perennial fire-sales are bad for the team, and bad for the game. But in another place, you can make even more money and field a compeitive team on a regular basis."

Personally, although MLB won't do this, I'd bite the bullet and move the team to Las Vegas. Gambling is ubiquitous now, with the Internet; Las Vegas is actually "cleaner" regarding the "undesireable element" than many cities that already have teams.

But OK, MLB won't go for Vegas just now. There's other places. The point is, let's not soak the taxpayers of South Florida to help keep a team there that not that many people there really care about (even when they win the Woirld Series).

I won't hold my breath. Bud always has and always will think like an owner.

Good luck this season, Mr Gerardi. If you win 65 games you deserve Manager of the Year.

Splitsville in Anaheim; The Royals Loom

2006-04-09T15:39:00.000-07:00

Angels 3, Yankees 2
Yankees 10, Angels 1

Two games back to back that pretty much sum up this team.

Saturday, Randy pitches pretty well. Not Randy Johnson well, but well enough to win most games. But for another game the bats are dead. Solo homers by Jeter in the first and Matsui in the ninth, and nothing in between.

Today, Colon didn't have it, Posada put on a personal highlight reel and it was over early. Mussina with six good innings. Mariano finally gets in a game, by the way, pitching a scoreless ninth. Flying home tomorrow; the home opener Tuesday is against KC.

What really bothered me about Saturday's loss was something that bothered me all last year. And that's the total lack of patience at the plate. The first couple of innings, the Yankees were taking a lot of pitches; after that, with the exception of Giambi and Damon, they were hacking away, making Santana's job a lot easier.

Announcers are constantly telling us how much video these guys watch, and how great that is. What are they watching video of -- their home run swings? The offensive formula of the Yankees' most recent championship teams was very simple: Take a lot of pitches. Get into the other team's bullpen as early as possible. This works becasue the bullpen, especially the middle part of the bullpen, is the weakest part of most teams; it's what they spend the least money on and it's where talent overall seems to be thinnest.

Since 2002 or so the Yankees have pretty much abandoned that approach. This pattern of one huge game, then a number of games where they can't seem to score at all, happened a lot last year and is going to be repeated this year unless they adopt a more patient approach and get the cheap runs that patient-hitting teams get.

Looking forward: 2-4 isn't great, but it's not terrible, and that's one West Coast swing down already. The starting pitching, my biggest concern, was actually pretty good overall. The bullpen still worries me (am I the only person who thinks that we shuoldn't have gotten quite so entranced by Farnworth's one good year last year?). So a lot is still up in the air.

As to playing KC this week, this is the sort of team that the Yankees can have trouble getting motivated to play, even on Opening Day. And it's too early for KC to realize that they don't have a chance this season, so they're dangerous. The fact that they're all day games (meaning I'm going to miss them, being at work) could be a blessing in diguise. If they turn out to all be glorious wins I can catch them on Yankees Rewind at night.

Yankees drab in loss; Ozzie clueless in KC

2006-04-08T05:52:00.000-07:00

Angels 4, Yankees 1

Yankees lost to the Redondo Beach Angels of Miramax or whatever they're called this year, 4-1. Shawn Chacon never had it, the bats didn't do much, and a decent effort by the bullpen was an afterthought in a rather depressing loss.

Pivotal moment in the game came in the top of the seventh, when the Yankees loaded the bases with one out against the BBE (Best Bullpen Ever -- ask anyone on ESPN). I was watching the game with a friend, who said "I smell a rally." I wasn't quite convinced, but I was starting to get a glimmer of hope. Bases loaded, one out, down 4-1 but with Sheffield and A-Rod and Matsui due up.

Well, before I could start to smell the rally, Sheffield hits a grounder to third, and is out by three steps on the tail end of a 5-4-3 inning-ending, rally-killing, essentially game-sealing double play. Way to leg that one out, Gary. Guess he wasn't smelling the rally or the RBI chance there. For the game, Sheffield left 4 RISP with 2 outs.

OK, it's four games in. I'm nothing close to worried, in the larger sense, but I do see glimpses of something very troubling. And it's not the starting pitching, it's not the defense, it's not the middle relief. It's this:

An unhappy Sheffield is a huge deterrent to team chemistry and winning.

I saw flashes of it last year; Sheffield went into a couple of pouts of different times last season and completely mailed it in, both in the field (where his play has gradually deteriorated anyway) and at the plate. This year, having to play the whole season apparently with the contract option being an unresolved issue, I expect the sulks to be longer and more numerous. A scary proposition.

Torre is trying to do what he can to keep Sheffield's ego boosted, continuing to bat him third, but the lineup as a whole suffers as a result. The Yankee lineup typically so far this season looks like this:

Damon, Jeter, Sheffield, A-Rod, Giambi, Matsui, Posada, Bernie, Cano. (Torre got wild last night and flip-flopped Bernie and Cano -- beat still my heart!)

Several points here.

1. The hitters, in order are: L, R, R, R, L, L, switch, switch, L (L). Way too bunched. When a team only has one lefty in the its bullpen, like the Angels, the lineup has to force the opposing manager to gamble a bit in late-game situations and let his lefty face a one or two dangerous RH hitters rather than lose him for the game.

2. Why is our #3 hitter batting 6th? Matsui is the best overall hitter on the team and the most clutch RBI man they have. Torre's ego-massage of Sheffield isn't helping Sheffield or the team.

3. My proposed lineup: Damon, Jeter, Matsui, A-Rod, Giambi, Sheffield, Cano, Posada, Bernie. That's L, R, L, R, L, R, L, switch, switch, (L). Harder to match up against, better balanced. What's Sheffield going to do in protest? Hurt hiumself? I can think of worse scenarios.

4. If Joe really needs to placate Sheffield, take my propsed lineup and fli-flop Sheffield and A-Rod. Sheffield will still feel like The Man, hitting cleanup, and A-Rod would take fine to hitting 6th and still drive in a ton of runs.

But enough bitching. This lineup should be able to score lots of runs even if Torre threw the names in a hat and pulled them out at random. I do see the spectre of the Gary Sheffield "job action" affecting this team negatively all year, though.

Randy goes tonight against Santana. Looking for better things to start happening. 1-3 bites but the 1998 Yankees started 0-3. (Trust me, I know that this year's model bears no resemblance to that team, but I comfort myself with statistical curiosities.)

Royals 11, White Sox 7

Strange game. The W Sox jump out to a 6-0 lead. Garland gives 5 of them back in the bottom of the fourth. Oops! W Sox tack on a run top 5 to lead 7-5. Ozzie (The Certified Genius) sends Garland back out for the 5th. OK, still got a lead, give him a chance to get 5 innings in and still get the win. Oops! Royals tie it up with 2, bottom 5. Oops!

The White Sox don't score top 6. Ozzie sends Garland out there for the bottom of the 6th! Royals go strikeout, infield hit, double. 8-7. Garland out, Thronton in. Double. 9-7 Royals. Oops! Thornton gets out of the inning, mops up the rest of the way, giving up a couple more runs, letting the Royals fans for one night at least take their eyes off the just-released Chiefs schedule.

Garland's pitching line: 5.1 innings, 10 hits, 9 runs, all earned. 2 walks, 2 wild pitches.

OK, questions abound here.

You can't have Garland start the 6th. He's given up 7 runs in 5 innings, thrown 90+ pitches. He's going to "right himself" in the 6th?

The White Sox have a terrific bullpen. After the bonehead move of letting Garland start the 6th, Ozzie finally pulls his head out of the bag of sunflower seeds and his own press clippings, and brings in Thornton. Thornton? You're only down a run at that point. You had the day off the day before. You wanted the lefty-lefty matchup againts DeJesus? OK, I guess. But your bullpen is good enough that that shouldn't matter. But OK. DeJesus doubles. 9-7. Still it's not out of reach. Ozzie puts the game into mop-up mode, and lets Thronton go the rest of the way?

Not to mention the lineup. Ozzie put the B-squad out there last night, figuring perhaps it's KC, it doesn't matter? Was he that afraid of Affelt? Since when does that lefty make the World Champions put a spring-training lineup out there?

Weird. But I criticize out of love, of course.

Two Duds After the Big Win; "Sandman" Gets Messy

2006-04-06T14:32:00.000-07:00

Yankees followed up their big win in the first game with one lackluster and one miserable effort in Oakland. Somehow it was predictable. The main plus from the last two games was that Mussina pitched fiarly well. I was remarking to someone the other night that Moose is perhaps the oldest 37 I've even seen.

And the nibbling! Pleeeeeeeeeease make it stop. The Moose script is one I can so live without. Strike one. Strike two. Ball one, not that close. Ball two, a bit closer. Stare in at the ump a moment. Ball three, borderline. Long stare in at the ump. Batter swings at the next one, figuring he caught a break last pitch. Foul. Next pitch is normally hit hard somewhere.

It's maddening to watch him pitch. He's like a slightly better version of Kenny Rogers. Sad in a way that this guy will go down as a "number one and a half" starter. Could he be the best pitcher ever never to win 20 games in a season?

The Yankees did a lot wrong after that first blowout win. Costly errors, some Ks in big spots when they could've broken things open, and perhaps most troubling is the fact that of RJ, Mussina, and Wang, Wang was the least effective.

Much more entertaining scene in Flushing last night. The stage was set . . . Mets lead 4-3, top 9. Enter Wagner, to the strains of "Enter Sandman," which there was a little talk-radio flap about the past couple of days. ("Sandman" has been Mariano's entrance music for some years now. Apparently, it's been Wagner's music forever. Some (including WFAN's Chris Russo, the ultimate Yankee-hater) are of the opinion that Wagner shoudn't use this song, in New York, since, well, it's used across town by arguably the greatest relief pitcher ever.)

So, Wagner comes in and, as if Ruth and Gehrig and DiMaggio were calling the shots, gives up the game-tying home run. Not only that, it's no cheapie. It's crushed. Not only that, it's hit by a guy with maybe 50 career ML at-bats. Not only that, it's his first career home run. You couldn't write it as a work of fiction, it would'nt be believable.

So, tie game. The Mets threaten bottom 9 but don't score. Top 10, they bring in Jorge Julio, escaped from the perenially sinking ship in Baltimore. Yankee fans are familiar with Jorge Julio, but not his face. Mostly you see his back as he's watching home runs hurtling out of the park.

True to form, Julio gets taken deep. A bunch of other bad things happen and the Nationals put up a 5-spot. Mets get one run in the bottom of the 10th for appearances sake and lose 9-5. Rumors that Jorge Julio is being considered for the Mickey Rourke arsonist role in the remake of Body Heat can't be confirmed at this point.

And, as if a story like this needs a capper, Wagner, in his post-game interview, throws a dig at Mariano! He said something along the lines of he might consider not using the song anymore "since Mariano never blew a save." I don't know if there's video of this answer but presumably there was a suitable eye-roll on Wagner's part. Way to go, Billy. Pure class.

Three games in and it's a fun season already. Yankees are off today, and start three in Anaheim tomorrow. I'm looking for a much better performance than we had in Oakland. And I'll be so happy when they get off the West Coast; these 10PM starts are murder.

P. S. Has there ever been a dumber team name in the history of professional sports than "The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim?"

1 Down, 161 to go

2006-04-04T15:52:00.000-07:00

Well, certainly nothing to complain about in Yankee-land after Game 1 of 162. The bats erupted. Randy was more than good enough. The Yankees typically hit Zito fairly well but last night Barry was obviously not himself. The only good thing about a 47.25 ERA is that is goes down really quickly.

Tonight's another story, and maybe a big story all year. Mike Mussina seems to be a very old 37. And while on paper the Yankees went into the season with "seven" starters, if Carl (Ouch!) Pavano can't get/stay healthy, and the league figures out Aaron Small, Mussina being ineffective/injured leaves us a starter short. Toss in Wang's surgically-repaired shoulder, Wright's inability to dodge flying objects directed towards the mound, and Randy's age, and things potentially could get very tricky this summer.

But I worry too much. It could all work out.

Remarkable restraint by Randy last night. Three Yankee batters were hit in a blowout game and Randy came close to a few people but didn't drill anyone. Kudos to the home plate ump for not warning the benches, preserving Randy's "free shot." None of the three HBPs were intentional. Oakland's pitchers were clearly in "get this over with" mode after Zito's early exit and Searloos' arsonoist routine.

Digital cable folks: MLB Extra Innings is free on digital cable for the first week of the season. Sometimes when you can't sleep, that KC-Seattle game works wonders.

Opening Day!

2006-04-03T15:54:00.000-07:00

I really had wanted to get started here in advance of Opening Day, but life got in the way. Making up for lost time:

Official playoff predictions:

AL: Yankees, W. Sox, Angels. Wild Card: Boston.
NL: Braves, Cardinals, Dodgers. Wild Card: Mets.

World Series: Yankees/Cardinals. The Cardinals try to get another notch closer to 26 but fall short and the Yankees win the WS in 6.

I hate to be picking so much chalk, but:

Oakland is everyone's trendy pick this year. My not picking them is partially a reflection of the fact that the trendy pick almost never pans out. Cleveland? Teams that overachieved the previous year rarely do as well the following year. Minnesota's pitching should keep them very competitive, but it still looks like the White Sox have too much. I didn't like the Thome acquisition but I look an idiot already, Thome having gone deep last night. Toronto has improved and should hang around quite a while. Tampa Bay will be a very difficult team to play but they still lack pitching and will lose a lot of 10-7 games this year.

I see few playoff locks in the generally weak NL. The Mets should challenge the Braves but every year people get burned thinking the Braves' run is finally over. I don't see any big challenge to the Cardinals in the Central. No, it's NOT the Cubs' year. Perhaps they have something special planned for the centennial in 2008. In the West, I suppose that if Bonds doesn't totally break down the Giants are a contender, but I simply refuse to pick them for the playoffs. The Dodgers are as much a protest pick as anything else.

Predictions are fun. Let's hope my baseball predictions turn out better than my NCAA pool selections.

Dumb thing I heard during last night's White Sox/Indians game on ESPN: John (Balloon Head) Miller said, "it doesn't feel quite right calling the White Sox the 'World Champions' after we've just had the World Baseball Classic." John, please! Put down the Bud Selig Kool-Aid! The White Sox are the World Champions -- they decisively won the Championship of the highest level baseball league in the world. Done. MLB's scheme for selling more T-shirts in other countries has nothing to do with who is the "World Champion."

Dumb thing about last night's ESPN game: The two hour and fifty-seven minute rain delay. The game resumed in the fourth inning at 12:20 AM Eastern time (11:20 PM local time). As usual, MLB and ESPN have the fans' best interests at heart. It reminded me of Bill Murray in Caddyshack, telling the bishop in the midst of a monsoon, "I'd keep playing -- the real heavy stuff isn't coming down for another couple of hours."

Dumb thing about baseball in general: Bud Selig's "investigation" of steroids. On many levels, and I can't begin to get into them all right now. But, one aspect that troubles me, and which I've heard no one talk about, is this: George Mitchell is the Chairman of the Board of Disney. Corporate parent of ESPN, the head cheerleader in all this as MLB looked the other way. Oh well. They don't make investigations like they used to.

My Yankees are taking on those trendy A's tonight a 10PM start, my time. Going to be tough staying up for the whole thing. More soon.

Filler

2006-03-01T17:25:00.000-08:00

First post.