Games 128-130
@ Baltimore Orioles
Pitching Match-ups
Tonight, Friday August 22
Mike Mussina (16-7, 3.35) vs. Radhames Liz (4-3, 7.47)
Saturday, August 23
Carl Pavano (0-0, 0.00) vs. Jeremy Guthrie (10-6, 3.15)
Sunday, August 24
Darrell Rasner (5-9, 4.93) vs. Daniel Cabrera (8-8, 4.98)
Series Analysis
So now the Yankees are in the precarious position of absolutely having to sweep the Baltimore Orioles this weekend in order to stay afloat. In New York, the Yankees have vanished from the back pages of the tabloids, which have mostly buried the team and turned their attention towards the Olympics and the Mets. The Post has engraved the tombstone and started the countdown until the Yankees are eliminated from playoff contention. And so the season has come and gone for the Yankees in the eyes of the daily papers and their lowest common denominator pandering. Still, there is a lot yet to be determined, and one of those things is if the Yankees are really totally dead or not. They have 1 and three-quarters feet in the grave, no doubt about it, but I think the series coming up against Boston, and what position the team is in when they start that series, is when you decide if the season is dead or not.
But, like I said, they pretty much need a sweep this weekend in Baltimore. They have to face two pitchers that have absolutely shut their offense down this year in Jeremy Guthrie and Daniel Cabrera, and they are subjecting themselves to a circus-like atmosphere by starting Carl Pavano on Saturday night. A sweep is not going to be easy to come by because of those factors. Any mis-steps by Yankees starting pitching will mean sure doom considering their offense has a glass jaw on par with a terrible team completely out of the race and playing out the stretch run in September. Meaning, they pack it in as soon as they fall behind by more than a run or two. Any four or five run deficit is insurmountable for this group of overpaid, underachieving, and aging one-time superstars.
So the weight of the “Yankees Universe” will fall on the shoulders of The Moose tonight in the park where he made his name. He’ll need to provide some sanity, and the offense will have to tattoo an erratic rookie, in order to set the stage for the return of the Plastic Pitcher.
My prediction for Saturday, I mean, I can’t even begin to predict that game. Pavano could come out and completely lay an egg and I wouldn’t be one bit surprised. He could throw a game like he threw on Opening Day 2007 when he gave up some runs but kept the game close into the 5th inning and gave way to the bullpen. He could also throw 6 or 7 shutout innings, and I wouldn’t be surprised. Nothing can ever surprise a Yankees fans anymore when it comes to Carl Pavano—he has re-written the book on surprising a fan base. And Guthrie is the Orioles’ best starter hands down, and he has pitched well against the Yankees in each of his starts against them this year. This to me is the hardest game of the series to predict a Yankees victory in. But, this year has been so bizarre that anything is possible—it’s not like the Orioles are a great team, but they have killed Yankees pitching all year, and I don’t see Pavano bucking that trend.
Sunday’s game could potentially be a high scoring one if the Yankees figure out how to hit Daniel Cabrera, a secret that the 13 other teams in the AL have picked up on this year. That combined with Rasner coming off an out-of-his-mind start against the Jays that I doubt he will recreate, means there should be some runs scored. The Yankees have not won many slugfests, but Camden Yards has been a friendly confines to them for many years, so I am guessing they end up taking 2 out of 3 in this series, winning tonight and Sunday.
Some random notes before I sign off for tonight.
--I am actually going to the Mets/Astros game tonight, in an effort to get there one last time before they turn the place into a parking lot, and because I need to see an actual baseball team that plays in New York in person (joking). It’s a great pitching match-up between Johan and Roy Oswalt, so I’m hoping for a great game. I still don’t regret not trading for and signing Santana, even as more and more fans clamor that the Yankees will end up paying more for Sabathia this offseason than they would have ended up paying for Santana. Those idiot fans don’t realize that they won’t have to both trade for AND sign Sabathia, though. Those same fans, however, have already decided that Phil Hughes is washed up and will never amount to anything so they should have just traded him last year.
--Speaking of the much-maligned Phil Hughes, he pitches again for Scranton/Wilkes Barre tonight. I will be curious to see if he overcomes his self-described dead arm and pitches more like he was in his first few rehab starts, as opposed to his outing last Sunday. A good performance by Phil and a poor one by Pavano on Saturday would increase some pressure to pull the plug on Carl’s starting gig and give Phil a shot. No concept of what the team’s leash will be like with Pavano, and I would be appalled if they gave him respect and actually ran him out there regardless of if he stinks it up or not.
I’ll be watching the out of town scoreboard from my seats at Shea tonight and hoping to see some crooked numbers next to NYY. Hopefully, there won’t be any crooked numbers popping up next to the BAL portion of the scoreboard.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Nothing has been made official as of yet, but it is looking like Carl Pavano will be the team’s choice to start Saturday night’s game in Baltimore. It seemed like his candidacy was in doubt when the Post’s George King, the man who has most reviled Pavano during his time as a complete waste of the Yankees’ money and dubbed him the “American Idle”, broke this story about Carl suffering from a stiff neck the day after his Sunday start in Trenton.
He skipped his bullpen session on Tuesday, which seemed to be another red flag. Was Pavano again asking out of major league duty due to a mysterious injury?
It would appear, however, that the severity of his stiff neck and his skipping a bullpen have been clarified. Not just by GM Brian Cashman’s quotes that he was “fine” and was experiencing normal stiffness. No, Carl Pavano declared himself ready, as hard as this may be to believe, through his actions, namely walking up the mound and throwing in Trenton on Wednesday. He threw a bullpen that was described in this story as being “perfect” by Trenton’s pitching coach. I can only speculate what his definition of perfect is: perfect because Carl didn’t tweak his left ear while compensating for his stiff neck? Perfect because Carl showed up not reeking of booze from an all-night binge session of boozing and shacking up with a random New Jersey floozy? Perfect because he didn’t crash his Lamborghini on the way to the ballpark and break every bone in his pitching hand?
All jokes aside, Carl is currently the hands-down best choice for Saturday’s start. Considering Phil Hughes’ struggles in his recent Scranton outing and, well, the other choice being Victor Zambrano, I’d much rather see what Carl has to offer. For some reason a rotation that includes Sidney Ponson, Darrell Rasner and Victor Zambrano seems like it should be featured in the International League playoff race, not the American League Wild Card chase.
My perception of Crash-Test Dummy Carl, however, is a little different even in spite of all those “injuries” and all those frustrating days spent doing something other than pitching for my team. The few moments he’s been healthy in his career, he hasn’t been a terrible pitcher. So the question will be how his still-recovering pitching arm and arsenal will adjust to again facing major leaguers on Saturday. Baltimore has an extremely potent offense, so it will be an extremely tough test for Pavano. My guess is he will have a short leash, both in Saturday’s game and in general in terms of having a rotation spot. No string of good starts can really erase the 3 years of unbelievable frustration he caused, but it really will be must-see television when he toes the rubber in Camden Yards Saturday night.
I don’t mean to draw undeserved and unnecessary levels of attention to one game, because honestly it may not mean anything in the long run of the season. The game’s importance and Carl’s potential impact on the season will first and foremost depend on what happens over the next two games.
The Yankees are facing one of their (and the entire American League’s) biggest antagonists this season in Roy Halladay, and they have been awful in the first games of series all year long, so Friday in Baltimore is no sure thing, even if the O’s are throwing an erratic and hittable young starter. That could get balanced out since Friday’s starter for the Yankees, The Moose, has been knocked around by his former team this year. Granted, most Yankees starting pitchers have gotten knocked around by the Orioles this year, but hopefully that trend ends in Charm City this weekend.
So, by the time Carl takes the mound on Saturday, a lot of bad could be swirling around the team…and I don’t know how that is a good environment for one of the central harbingers of Yankees fans’ sorrows in recent years to make his triumphant return. But, then again, a lot of good could have happened once Pavano returns. A win tonight against Halladay would be a dream come true considering how easily he’s throttled the Bronx “Bombers” this year. That, following the tidy, clean win last night would be the perfect way to erase the bad taste left from Tuesday night’s fiasco, and it would give the team a lot of confidence as they head south to a ballpark where, historically, they’ve hit well and won a lot of games.
I’m excited by this wondrously bizarre development, but I can’t really get myself to focus totally on it until I see some more good results tonight and tomorrow. Suffice is to say, I’ve circled Saturday in red on my calendar.
Monday, August 18, 2008
That is a major question that looms over the team as they begin their road trip. It's going to get answered sooner or later, but let's look at the two primary candidates a little closer.
Phil Hughes had a chance to cement himself as the Yankees’ best option to try and fill the #5 slot in the rotation this past Sunday. However, he struggled with his command was knocked around in his start against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs (great name for a minor league baseball team). His line for the night was 3.2 IP 8 H 5 ER 0 BB 4 K. After the game he spoke to Chad Jennings who covers the Scranton-Wilkes Barre Yankees for their local paper, and Hughes attributed his struggles to leaving too many pitches over the plate and going through a bit of a dead arm period resulting in diminished velocity and life on his fastball.
The phrase dead arm sounds worse than it actually is: Hughes has been out of action since late April, so he was bound to hit a wall after resuming the regular every-5-days routine for a pitcher. It seems like there is little cause for concern in terms of Phil’s health, but his stuff was simply not as sharp Sunday as it had been during his earlier rehab starts.
The other strong candidate, according to this report on ESPN, is the much-maligned Carl Pavano. He also pitched on Sunday, though his start was at Double A Trenton. He fared much better than Hughes, as his line read: 6 IP 6 H 1 ER 1 BB 6 K. When you look at Pavano’s numbers and consider his major league track record (he’s done it for longer, won more games than Hughes), he would seem to distance himself as the best candidate for Saturday. However, Pavano is still only in his 3rd start back from Tommy John elbow ligament replacement surgery. So one assumes that he normally would be on a slower-paced rehab timetable based on his injury’s severity. However, this is Carl Pavano we’re talking about, the man that has done jack diddly to earn the almost $39.95 million the Yankees have paid him during his 3 years on the organization’s payroll.
Perhaps he gets the first call in this his final 2 months with the organization in an effort to get something, anything out of that wasted investment. Whenever he gets called up (it has to happen sooner or later, because he’s only on a 30-day rehab assignment, as he hasn’t been demoted to the minors), it will be a huge distraction in the Yankees’ clubhouse. That said, I don’t think that the team’s feelings will be part of the decision making process re: Saturday’s starter.
My final guess is that it will be Carl Pavano in Baltimore on Saturday, and it will be quite a weird day. I think that the team will want to try the veteran first, with the hope that he will not feel any added personal pressure joining a team chasing a playoff spot. It’s dually productive because it gives Hughes more time to try and get his arm in shape and build up personal confidence by being successful at AAA. Furthermore, if Pavano is a terrible flop in his, say, two starts, and Hughes pitches well at Scranton, then they can switch to Hughes for #5.
All in all, I think Pavano makes the most sense on a lot of fronts. I would rather watch Hughes pitch, but I will also gladly sign up for the high drama and trainwreck/bizarre hero potential of seeing Pavano on the mound for the Yankees. Honestly, whoever they pick out of Phil or Pavano, Saturday’s game will be a must-watch for Yankees fans.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Professional sports always involves discussions of momentum. Baseball has a cliché to neutralize any speculation that a particular win can jumpstart a middling team: your momentum is only as good as the next days’ starting pitcher. In the Yankees’ case, at least Darrell Rasner is starting on Tuesday instead of this afternoon.
The team had a chance to win the series in Minnesota but the bats remained dormant in the third game of that series. They again have a chance to overcome two days of insipid performance with the bats in RBI situations with a strong showing this afternoon against soft-tossing Brian Bannister. At least Meche and Greinke can somewhat be attributed to the offense’s futility Friday and Saturday, although the “tip your hat to the pitcher” card as been played to ridiculous excesses this season. But if the bats aren’t swinging today, there are no excuses other than just not being capable of performing anymore this year.
After yesterday’s grueling almost 5-hour Chinese water torture session of stranding runners and pitching superbly keeping Kansas City scoreless for 11 innings, this afternoon is a sure-fire must win. Throwing around labels like “must win” on baseball games is never an exact science, but all the stars are aligned for the Yankees. They have to start this stretch of baseball against inferior teams with a 2-1 mark. Going to Toronto 1-2 against K.C. means the death knell has sounded.
Mike Mussina will be leaned on heavily to keep pitching like the reinvented maestro on the mound that he’s become—if he shows any signs of laying an egg today, it will be dually disastrous as the bullpen had to work a long long afternoon yesterday. They could use the rest, and the offense could use the assurance that they have their best performing up to his capabilities on the hill. Perhaps that will remind the hitters that they, too, should be performing up to their much-talked about but rarely seen “capabilities” this year.
Here are some other interesting notes to wrap up before today’s game:
Hideki Matsui has had 8 at-bats for the High-A Tampa Yankees over the last 2 days, and he also took part in a simulated game this morning in Tampa, according to Peter Abraham’s blog. Abraham also speculates that he could return to the lineup as early as Tuesday, if his knee holds up. I guessed that they might wait until Friday since they wouldn’t want him running on the artificial surface in Toronto, but a win today could increase the sense of urgency in terms of putting the best offensive foot forward for the stretch run. Either way, adding a professional hitter like Hideki into the #5 spot, which has been a black hole this year while he’s been disabled, could do wonders to help the lineup as a whole, as well as New York’s #1 head case who hits cleanup. Giambi looks like total dead weight at the plate, and Nady has gone into his first slump as a Yankee, so the spots in the lineup behind A-Rod could use some reinforcement.
Granted, though, a lot of this optimism needs to be taken with a grain of salt and also shrouded in the potential for a let-down. His knee is guaranteed to require surgery. Meaning he is not any healthier than he was when he first went on the DL, he’s only been able to get to the point where he can treat it, wear the right protective gear, and deal with the level of pain that comes with hitting and running the bases. However, if anything goes wrong, if there are any tweaks, or if it swells up again and just doesn’t respond to the grind of playing major league baseball, Matsui’s return will end up being very short-lived, and the lineup will go back to relying on Jason Giambi for big at-bats with men on base. Along that line…
Brett Gardner got the game-winning hit yesterday, but if Matsui returns his playing time most certainly will evaporate. Granted, Matsui won’t be able to play every day, but he will be in the lineup at DH as often as Girardi can swing it, meaning Damon will be in CF and Brett will be on the bench. It would be encouraging going forward, though, if Gardner could string together some good games at the plate until Matsui is ready to return. It gives him more confidence in his ability to hit at the big-league level, and it also makes the question of who will be starting in CF in 2009 a little harder to answer. Furthermore, if Matsui breaks down, there is already a backup plan in place, with Brett sliding back into center field and Damon mostly DHing and playing left. Also, looking ahead to 2009, a good stretch run for Brett may give him as much of a chance of winning a job in Spring Training as Melky or anybody else brought in from outside the organization. All in all, interesting consequences follow Brett’s at-bats at this point in the year.
Phil Hughes will make his 3rd start for Scranton today, with their game scheduled to begin at 5:35 pm. My hope is that if he pitches well, finishes strong and doesn’t fatigue once he gets up to around 100 pitches, he needs to make a start in Baltimore. He has too much ability and he could be too much of a stabilizer to their rotation to leave at AAA to continue to “work on some things”, as Girardi put it when probed about Phil starting on Tuesday in Toronto. At this point, a rotation of Mussina, Pettitte, Ponson, Rasner and Hughes is serviceable enough, and if Joba is ever able to return in September, their rotation looks a lot better, as Ponson and Hughes at the back end look extremely appealing. Still, though, Hughes will have a lot to prove upon his return this year—fans will not be accepting any guff about him having to work his way back into big-league form, as was the case last year when he returned in August. Coming off his putrid April and combined with his ceiling-free expectations in the eyes of the faithful, Hughes will be expected to step right in and contribute. It’s a lot to ask of a 22 year old starter that’s been inconsistent and injured most of his short career, but based on his handful of shining moments it is not out of the question for Phil to live up to those expectations.
That’s all for now, I’ll write again this evening to talk about this afternoon’s game and wrap up any other relevant pieces of information that pop up.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Wanted to briefly go over some relevant news that’s developed in the last day or so. It’s amazing that even on off days there are so many nuggets of information that pop up and warrant some discussion.
---Touching on what I wrote yesterday, Darrell Rasner has been officially named the starter for Tuesday night’s game in Toronto, replacing disabled Dan Giese. Chris Britton will be in the bullpen tonight to take Giese’s place on the roster. Britton has become quite the punchline in the “Yankees Universe”. I honestly don’t know what to make of keeping a player in such limbo as Britton. I guess he must be glad that the team keeps calling his number to come up to the big leagues, but he is never given a real chance to pitch with the Yankees so I doubt he’s ever really that thrilled to show up in the clubhouse anymore. Oh well, I’m sure he’s crying a lot when he looks at his six-figure paycheck.
---Tyler Kepner wrote on the NY Times blog that the Yankees’ 1st round pick in this June’s draft, right-handed high school starter Gerrit Cole, has decided to forgo signing with the Yankees, instead choosing to go to college. The way it seemed to shake down: Cole is represented by the nefarious Scott Boras, with Cole also receiving influential counsel from his father. Boras’ demands apparently were for a major-league contract with a $9 million signing bonus. So that would mean that Cole would be added to the Yankees’ 40-man roster, even though he is a ripe 18 years old and years (3 or 4 in best case scenario) from cracking the majors. Furthermore, to put the rumored money demands into perspective, the Rays signed the draft’s #1 pick, shortstop Tim Beckham, to a minor-league deal with a bonus of $6.15 million. So, Boras has decided that Cole deserves to get the richest bonus of any player in the draft. It seems possible that the Yankees might be okay with the obscene money demands (since they are, after all, the Yankees) but would not be willing to give up a precious 40-man roster spot. The team gave last year’s #1 pick Andrew Brackman a big-league deal with a 40-man roster spot, but he is years older than Cole. Plus, giving one #1 pick a spot should not dictate a norm for years to come, especially since the Yankees have had to juggle their 40-man all year to keep from losing players.
A truly sticky situation is what the Cole process seems to be. Kepner’s post makes it seem as though the deal is totally dead because Cole and his father will turn down any offer and are fully set on Gerrit attending U.C.L.A. in the fall. In that scenario, though, he wouldn’t be eligible for the draft again till his junior year, which is an eternity for a young pitcher—his stock could completely disintegrate in that time, and he may never approach the type of interest/deal he could get this year from the Yankees. However, this is Scott Boras that is involved with these negotiations, and the deadline for draft picks to sign is tonight at midnight, so I don’t think this issue is completely dead. If anything changes, I will be sure to post an update.
---Sports talk radio in New York has seen a radical change announced yesterday: Mike and the Mad Dog, mainstays on WFAN for 18 years, will no longer be on the air. Chris Russo is leaving WFAN, apparently signing a big-money deal with Sirius Satellite Radio, leaving Mike Francessa solo on the airwaves at The Fan. I never enjoyed listening to or watching their show, but they were the biggest names in the country’s biggest market. Oodles of New York sports fans tuned in to their show every afternoon and listened to these two buffoons preach on the good and bad of every team in the city (except for hockey because, to them, it wasn’t a real sport). The writing had been on the wall for their split for quite a while, so this news comes as no surprise.
---Rehab notes: Hideki Matsui’s scheduled debut in the Single-A Tampa Yankees’ lineup was sidetracked by rain last night. He is scheduled to play tonight, so it will be interesting to see how he comes through that. Phil Hughes is still scheduled to start Sunday in Scranton, and should get up above 90 pitches for the first time in his rehab appearances. There is mucho speculation that it will be his last appearance in the minors, and I think that will be case as well—but if he struggles with control or labors in any way, I think the team takes it slow with him. The struggles early in the year of both Hughes and Kennedy, and the short leash on Kennedy when he returned last week, makes me believe that they would rather let those guys work it out at AAA then put them in the majors before they’re completely ready.
---Speaking of Ian Kennedy, Chad Jennings’ S/WB Yankees blog has his catcher and pitching coach saying he threw approximately 30 curveballs in his start (5 IP 6 H 1 ER) for Scranton last night. They told him to work on his secondary pitches, and Ian took the note and ran with it, also throwing many two-seam fastballs, a pitch that seemed non-existent in his starts in the big leagues. He was in a lot of 3-ball counts as a result of the experimentation, causing his start to only last 5 innings. But it seems like the focus is not on his numbers, but instead on his ability to refine his pitches and be more than just a four-seam fastball/change-up guy. The next start for him will seem to be a big test, as he says in the Jennings post that he will look to incorporate the entire arsenal into one start. The key will be throwing his curveball for a strike—when he showed that pitch in the majors, it was never in the strike zone so hitters didn’t have to respect it. If he builds up consistency with that pitch and can throw it in any count, he becomes less predictable and ultimately less hittable, even in the majors. Should be interesting to see how he looks once he gets recalled in September, after doing all this work to reinvent his approach ¾ of the way through the season.
I’ll be back later with a preview of this weekend’s 3-gamer against the Kansas City Royals.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Today the Yankees announced that Dan Giese is going to the 15-day disabled list with the dreaded rotator cuff tendinitis that took Joba Chamberlain out of commission. There has been no decision announced about who will start in Giese's place Tuesday in Toronto. The only two candidates seem to be Darrell Rasner and Phil Hughes. The team has been adamant about giving Phil another start to "work on some things" at AAA this Sunday. So we'll probably be subjected to another tightrope act by D-Razz where he struggles through 5 innings and the team doesn't score him any runs. I understand the thinking in terms of not rushing Phil back and making sure he has the endurance and confidence to make it through a full major league start, but I am just sick of watching Darrell Rasner make starts for the Yankees--no knock on the guy, I know he competes and he's got more guts than Ian Kennedy right now, but he is just a borefest and his potential ceiling is 6 decent innings.
Oh, and just for the record, when Giese left the game in Minnesota Wednesday Girardi's quote was something along the lines of "This shouldn't change anything for his start on Tuesday..." Joe Girardi, always telling it like it is to reporters and fans about his players' injuries.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Last night was a rarity. The bullpen blowout that cost the Yankees a lead late in the game has generally been rare this year, although not lately (see: the debacle in Anaheim this past Saturday). Mariano Rivera serving up the game-tying gopher ball is the shocking part of the equation. The offense, specifically the Golden-Rod, producing a timely home run to give them the lead, was surprising. Even more so was their ability to tack on 2 more runs after A-Rod’s blast to give 12th inning closer Edwar Ramirez a 3-run cushion.
What’s most shocking to me, though, is that they actually won an extra-innings game on the road. They had lost their only three extra inning road games this year, including one on that same Minnesota field on May 31st. Since 2007, their record in such games was a whopping 1-10. Not a huge sample size when you consider how few games it is total. However, all those circumstances make the win last night a satisfying one. The problem, however, is that there’s no way to predict if that win will have any positive residual effect on this afternoon’s matinée affair in the Hubert H. Humphrey Dome. The cliché is that a team’s momentum is based on the next day’s pitcher. That doesn’t seem to favor the Yankees, as Darrell Rasner is fresh off a demotion to the bullpen that he escaped thanks to Ian Kennedy’s physical and mental implosion in Anaheim. They are going to have to put some runs up on the board, early and often ideally. Kevin Slowey is a good candidate to comply, as the Yankees have already touched him up on two occasions so far this year. Should be an interesting game, for a number of reasons:
--A terrible Rasner performance could force the organization’s hand in deciding what to do next with the rehabbing Phil Hughes. This weekend’s starters are set, with Pettitte, Ponson and Mussina scheduled to toe the rubber. Next Tuesday in Toronto, however, is where it gets interesting, and Dan Giese is the central figure of interest. Giese deserves another start based on his performance Saturday in Anaheim. However, Dan is also the team’s best long reliever. It’s feasible that he’d be needed to pitch today and perhaps one game this weekend, if either Rasner, Ponson or Pettitte flame out early in their starts.
If he pitches twice between now and Tuesday, Phil will be up and starting in Toronto. If he doesn’t pitch today but is used over the weekend for an inning or two, I still think he starts on Tuesday. All of these scenarios aside, though, I think barring injury or poor performance at Scranton, Hughes is back in the rotation next weekend in Baltimore.
--Derek Jeter fouled a pitch off his instep of his left foot last night, and even though Girardi said that he thought he’d start today’s game, Jeter is on the bench. Wilson Betemit is starting at SS today, and you assume that Jeter will be well enough to start Friday night in the Bronx. It’s unbelievable to me how bad Betemit has looked at the plate all this season, yet how much confidence Joe Girardi has in constantly putting him in the lineup. How can occasional home run power overcome tons of strikeouts and defensive mediocrity? The Yankees’ bench has not been good in 10 years because of players like Betemit littering the roster.
--Tampa lost last night in Oakland so the Yankees picked up a game, and they’re now 8 back in the AL East race. No advance in the Wild Card hunt, as Boston won a football game against the Texas Rangers, 19-17. They were winning 10-0 after the first inning, yet Charlie “Tim Wakefield 2.0” Zink gave it all back in his major league debut.
It’s still unrealistic to be gunning for the Rays based on the size of the deficit, but Crawford and Longoria out of their lineup change their dynamic a whole lot. They have been winning all year with pitching, but their young pitchers have thrown a lot of innings and have never experienced the wear and tear of pennant race games in August and September. The possibility is still there, but the Yankees need to pretty much win or split every series they play from here on in, including against teams like the Angels, Rays and Red Sox. A tall order, for sure. Boston is more vulnerable head-to-head without Ramirez and with people like Lowell and Varitek struggling, but they are still winning games and scoring runs. The Yankees have to almost become a different team over the next 6 weeks, and a short-term personality makeover is hard to do in baseball. Usually by August, you are what you are as a team and your identity isn’t changing drastically.
--Mark Melancon gave up the 2 runs that Phil Hughes was charged with in Pawtucket last night, as he relieved Hughes in the 6th after Phil had allowed two men to reach base and had hit his magic pitch count number of 85. Still, though, bringing Melancon into the middle of an inning is a sign that the Yankees have to be considering promoting him to help their bullpen, which has struggled lately after a season of overachieving. It should be interesting to see if their from-within reinforcements (Hughes, Matsui, maybe Melancon) pan out this year. Kennedy is already firmly in the “didn’t pan out” category of reinforcements, and unlikely to move from there before October. But three out of four would be a great ratio.
Back later with more about today’s game.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
When a team looks as bad as the Yankees have in the last four days, the days leading up to a game are excruciating. You want to fast forward from 1 p.m. to, in tonight's case, 8 so the game can get here already and the team can try and erase their recent awful play. If you're like me and you read the comments of other Yankees fans across the vast internet wasteland, you really want to see the overwhelming negativity about the team and its players silenced for at least 3 hours. I know those negative vibes won't totally go away until the Yankees are breathing down the necks of either Boston or Tampa, a scenario looking less and less likely as the days wear on, but days like today make you dream.
In my dream scenarios, here are five things that will happen across the remainder of the regular season to get this fast-sinking ship turned around:
#1--Melky Cabrera is optioned to AAA Scranton/Wilkes Barre and told to get his mind right and work extensively on his offensive game. He is promised a call-back when rosters expand on September 1st. Called up for the millionth time this year is reliever Chris Britton. Johnny Damon and Justin Christian split the time in CF, with Damon playing center against righty hurlers and Christian spotting him against lefties.
#2--Phil Hughes, after a strong rehab start in Scranton tonight, returns to the rotation this weekend against Kansas City and starts a string where he pitches the kind of baseball that everyone expected from him at the beginning of the season.
#3--Hideki Matsui has a successful rehab stint and rejoins the team as full-time DH during next weekend's series in Baltimore (wishful thinking, early next week in Toronto, but why risk his knee on the artificial turf?).
#4--Joba Chamberlain works himself back with a clean bill of health and returns to the rotation when the team opens a series on the road in Tampa at the beginning of September, taking Dan Giese's spot after he did a serviceable job filling in. The rotation for the stretch run is Mike Mussina, Andy Pettitte, Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes and Sidney Ponson.
#5--Jason Giambi, Robinson Cano and Derek Jeter's offensive games come alive, and with the re-insertion of Matsui, the lineup consistently performs to the level that they were expected to coming in to the season.
Basically, all five of those things have to happen for this team to have any chance at making the postseason. The Melky Cabrera demotion, actually, doesn't have to happen--Johnny Damon playing 90% of the time in CF would suffice, although why not at least give Melky a chance to succeed at AAA and get his confidence up?
I don't believe all 5 will happen, and I don't believe this team is postseason bound. I just hope that they don't cash in their chips now and keep playing like a team that is giving in to the fact that injuries and inferior performances from expected contributors have already ended their season. Hank Steinbrenner today basically said he doesn't have a ton of confidence in the team rebounding this year but is psyched for next year. I don't want to give up yet, regardless of what he says.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Lucky, only from a Detroit perspective, since it's the number of Yankees their pitching staff left stranded on base. For the Yankees, it's another great example of the team's complete inability to string a legitimate rally together. A rally, meaning numerous consecutive hits; not a 3-run homer, not the kind of half-assed job they did on Monday backing into 4 runs through outs, infield hits and misplays. Cano and Giambi are the biggest culprits in the clutch so far this year; Giambi showed at least a sign of life with his 9th inning RBI single, but Cano, save for his early homer, left a ridiculous 5 runners on during his trips to the plate.
The starting pitching set a negative tone, yet the bullpen allowed the team to stick around and have a chance up until the final out. Unfortunately, though, the offense is so stagnated and walk/home run-reliant that they have very little hope of climbing out of holes. In years past their lineup would be capable of chipping away here and there, putting up a consistent comeback; now, too often there's a general team-wide wait for one big inning that will feature one big hit.
The Tigers did all they could to give the game away. 8 walks by their pitching staff, numerous jams from The Gambler on down to Todd Jones, yet they bent but never broke thanks to the limpness of the Yankees' bats.
Tomorrow brings Jeremy Bonderman as the opposing pitcher, someone who hasn't been the same since having arm troubles last year but is nonetheless capable of shutting down any lineup. Andy Pettitte will be looked to for a quality bounce-back start tomorrow night, as usual. No concept of if A-Rod will be back in the lineup, but it seems like he'll most likely be out until some point this weekend.
Not a very pleasant night for the Yankees; not much good to report, except for a solid relief performance from the bullpen, mostly Ohlendorf, who had one of his better performances of the season. The problem, though, is that it's still more likely he follows it up with a flame-out where he gets knocked around than with another solid performance.
I really don't think the team can demote Hughes, simply because so much of their success depends on him becoming a reliable starter this year. It would be counterproductive to send him to AAA, no matter how bad his April has been.
Either way, not a great start for the team's supposed future ace.
That's where it seems like Phil Hughes is heading. Can't get out Curtis Granderson or Placido Polanco, gets booed off the mound after giving up 6 in 3 2/3, gives way to Ross Ohlendorf who has been getting flogged lately. Not looking good for this game, which feels like absolute torture to watch.
Give a ton of credit to Joe Girardi for deciding to give Chris Stewart zero time to get acclimated to the Yankees' pitching staff and putting him immediately behind the plate to catch his struggling top-prospect starter. Probably the dumbest move he's made in a while. Forget about pitching to Manny Ramirez in Boston, not starting Kennedy in the rain in Kansas City, or walking Travis Hafner to get to Victor Martinez. You start a catcher that has no idea about a staff, only what he's seen on film, after only being with the club for 2 days? Great move, Joe.
Hughes and Stewart were confused most of the night, Phil couldn't make pitches when he needed to, and things fell apart extremely fast. Looking forward to the uproar that comes around tomorrow about how Hughes isn't ready for the big leagues and needs to be exported to the minors in favor of Darrell Rasner or Kei Igawa. The fact is, the team needs Hughes to pitch well, and they need to stick with him; otherwise, this year is going to amount to nothing. You need to deal with an atrocious April and you need to keep working on making him a better big league pitcher; going to AAA and dominating the International League isn't going to do anything for Hughes.
So, great start to a series. The Gambler will pick up a cheap victory even though he can't throw strikes and is basically walking the tightrope in every inning because he's completely washed up. The pressure will be on the bullpen to not let the game get out of hand, otherwise perhaps Chris Stewart will get to make the move from behind the plate to on the mound. At least in that scenario he won't be the one getting crossed up when it comes to what the pitcher's throwing.
Not the best way to start a homestand. You turn to tomorrow and expect Andy Pettitte to now throw 7 innings, a tough task when facing a deep lineup.
Monday, February 11, 2008
With the apparent foresight of 8 months, the New York Post on Sunday declared that the Yankees will not make the playoffs in the 2008 season. Granted, the sub-headline claims the team will "struggle to make the playoffs". Still, George King's article certainly reads like an epitaph sent out to the mourning fans of a team that's made the playoffs for 12 straight seasons.
King makes it clear that anyone looking through a Pinstriped Prism be on alert immediately in his piece, claiming that the team's young pitching has achieved a dubious level of "premature adulation". In other words, slow down that hype machine, Yankees fans; these rookies aren't really that good. If that's the case, and they've just been overly lauded without merit, you, even the most irrationally loyal fan, can't think the team can contend in 2008, can you? Really going right for the heart of the man or woman who thinks 2008 is their year already, George! And only in your article's first graf, no less.
With the rain adequately doused on the 2008 Yankees' parade, A-Rod, Abreu, Posada and Rivera's returns are cited as a case of wasted money. King's logic dictates that since you're banking your franchise on the arms of 3 20something pitchers who aren't yet anything to write home about (I mean, Hughes/Chamberlain/Kennedy only won 8 games combined in '07, even Mike Mussina did more than that), you should be stockpiling assets for 2 years from now, when you can really (hopefully) contend, with the development of whomever is left standing out of The Big 3.
This logic does not bode well for those that utilize hindsight at all, but then again, nothing the Post writes bodes well for those types of baseball fans. Had the team abandoned all its veteran Free Agents, as King is now suggesting, and gone in the rebuilding direction, one can only imagine the back-page abuse that would have been directed at the Yankees. However, that's not really the issue here, since you can't criticize what the Post never had a chance to write. The issue is the identity of the team, or at least what George King thinks their identity should be. Since they ended up opening the Steinbrenner purse and paying the old guard to stick around, now the angle has to be that the team is worse than it was last season and can not improve. Therefore since the team's faces stayed 90% the same, and since they got bounced in the first round last year, it's a sign of regression, and a sign of a team that thinks it can contend when really, uh...not so much. This should really be dubbed 2008 Chicago White Sox Syndrome (Orlando Cabrera, Nick Swisher, Octavio Dotel...Detroit Who?). The Yankees, however, don't quite fit into that mold just yet, as I'll argue here.
King's concern of identity crisis is a legitimate one to a degree, since it is impossible to expect or predict status quo performances from the retained Free Agents of 2007. A-Rod won't recreate his absurd numbers from 2007. Similarly, there is going to come a time soon when Jorge Posada's skills begin to decline, and it might be this season (the likelihood of them completely vanishing overnight seems very low, but for the sake of the argument, it is there nonetheless). Likewise for Mariano, who goes through rough patches more than he used to and no doubt that will continue.
To say that none of these players should have been brought back, however, makes zero sense. The crux of my argument against that thinking emerges when you consider the anemic possibilities for replacements for each player, both internally and externally.
Catcher
Paul LoDuca or some other retread for 1 year, instead of Jorge Posada for 4 years, when there is no internal "catcher of the future" lurking anywhere in the Yankees' farm system? To me, this is the easiest call out of the 4. Four, though, is the key number in regards to this particular scenario. The four year length of Posada's contract is no doubt frightening, and it puts a lot of pressure on Jorge to above all maintain his abilities with the stick, even if his legs fall out from under him within the length of his contract; at least after this season, the DH logjam will be somewhat lessened by the departure of Jason Giambi upon the expiration of his contract, opening up the possibility for Jorge to transition to a DH/occasionally playing the field kind of guy.
Closer
The elephant in the room here, is Joba Chamberlain. Since it's widely regarded that the Yankees were bidding against themselves for the services of Mariano Rivera, and since it's clear that Joba could handle the closing job based on his run in the bullpen in 07, why go to the lengths of a 3 year deal with Rivera? This to me is the only case where the departure of the old guard could have been covered from within. And yet out of the four, it would have been the highest-profile loss, yes even with A-Rod included. In terms of what he's meant to the pitching staff's success in the 9th inning for the past 10 years, a ton of noise would have been made about whoever was replacing Mo. That's even considering if Chamberlain was christened as the replacement. I don't think the franchise wanted to put Joba in the position of dealing with the endless "can you replace...can you close...can you handle the transition from 8th to 9th?" questions that would have come with being the 2008 closer. Plus, I really do believe that the organization wants him in the rotation in 2008, be it starting in April, July or September.
Right Field
One more year of Bobby Abreu, for 16 million, is in no way the same as the signings of Rivera and Posada; A-Rod exists in his own stratosphere, which we'll attempt to enter after this short talk. If anything, it's the biggest no-brainer of the 4 since the team had control of Abreu's option and had nobody to bid against at all. The number of dollars is a bargain considering the exorbitant contracts OFs are signing these days. Plus, the Yankees' few valuable position prospects just so happen to be outfielders, with one of them even playing full-time in RF. So, with that said, the retention of Abreu for only a year actually does lean more towards the youth movement than the "old guard" philosophy. You keep Jose Tabata and Austin Jackson motivated all throughout the 2008 season with the carrot dangling over their heads that might as well be playing a recording of Brian Cashman saying "You know, we don't have anyone signed to play right field for 2009, plus Melky Cabrera is looking at a make or break year, so..." (not any type of direct quote, mind you, but possible nonetheless). If competition is the buzz word of this upcoming 2008 Spring Training in regards to the pitching staff, it might as well be the modus operandi of the 2008 season for those two highly-touted outfield prospects as well. Plus if the season completely falls apart by June (possible depending on injuries, God knows what else), you can always peddle Bobby Abreu at the deadline to a team looking for an offensive upgrade. So he doesn't even belong in the same breath as the other 3 returning players.
Third Base
Basically, there was no one out there that was going to cover for the lost production of A-Rod. The scenario that George King proposed, letting everyone walk, would have only made sense if A-Rod was completely gone from the Yankees universe once he opted out, something that seemed possible in late October. Then you can get away with changing the identity of the team completely; however, since that didn't happen, you still stick to the formula of trotting out a deep, patient lineup of hitters to surround A-Rod and make sure you've still got the 9th inning in the hands of the tried and true. With these pieces still in place, you can still mash your way through the rough patches your own starting rotation encounters. Joe Crede, Scott Rolen or Eric Chavez playing 3rd, and someone like Hideki Matsui or Jason Giambi or Posada batting cleanup in lieu of A-Rod, would not have allowed you to throw 2-3 rookies into the rotation and asked them to develop on the fly. People seem to quickly forget that the rotation was in utter shambles for most of last season, when Carl Pavano (hah) was the Opening Day starter, then pulled a Carl Pavano, Chien-Ming Wang and Mike Mussina both spent time on the DL, Kei Igawa was getting bombed, and so on.
Yet the team was carried at points by its offense, particularly A-Rod. That's why you pay him $27 million per year, because there are going to be points when he single-handedly wins you games; you couldn't find that anywhere else, and you're still going to need it at points in 2008. How that will be working in 10 years is another story, but this is more about 2008 than 2018.
The difference, though, will be that you won't be tossing never-will's like Jeff Karstens, Darell Rasner and Chase Wright at teams in desperation (that is, barring injuries to any of The Big 3, which will be the worst case scenario of this Spring Training), but instead will be trotting out your organization's supposed future and saying "give us a chance, learn on the job, mature as you will" because your team can still put up runs, especially against the teams with the thinner pitching staffs (Baltimore and Tampa, I'm looking in your direction).
To wrap up that article by George King, though, he also claims that Phil Hughes will somehow be dogged by the fact that he's the guy the Yankees wouldn't trade for Johan Santana. First, that's just wrong, since he was eventually included in the offer, which to me still was the best one Minnesota got (maybe I'm just partial to Pinstriped Phil and not Phil Humber). To be more accurate, the guy they wouldn't trade is Ian Kennedy, since he was the desired "seal the deal" throw-in prospect that the Yankees just wouldn't ante up.
This idea that Phil will be remembered as a "could've been Santana" demagogue is ridiculous, except for the possibility that it just hints at the idiotic questions Mr. King will be asking him upon his first bad outing of the season. Something real friendly like "How does it feel to know that you pitched so poorly, when the team could have had Santana instead?" Obviously that's a little too harsh for a beat reporter, and he'd ask something with a little more tact, but that's clearly the type of question he alludes to.
Furthermore, King questions why the team would give Robinson Cano a long-term deal while simultaneously saying goodbye to his mentor/taskmaster Larry Bowa, since Cano is simply, according to King, "not a hard worker". Glad to see that Cano is given zero possibility of maturing and becoming a hard worker on his own without Bowa; and wait, didn't the team just hire a taskmaster manager? Shouldn't Joe Girardi's rep for being a tight-ass be enough to cover for the defection of Larry Bowa? Also, it's not like Cano is suddenly making 15 mill a year for 10 years, they just signed him through his arbitration years to avoid having to negotiate year after year with him until he reaches free agency. Not something so outlandish for someone that's done nothing but produce since he was called up. So now we're to believe that his habits will deteriorate and production slow up, because he doesn't have to play year in and year out to up his arbitration number? Maybe that is accurate, considering how greedy and number-driven the modern athlete appears to be, but in this case I will plead Yankees Bias and say that I hope the presence of A-Rod as an emerging mentor for Melky and Cano (it's weird to think of considering A-Rod still loves having mentors himself at 32, but it's still a fact), plus the manager's philosophy of hard work and preparation, will be enough to keep Cano on the straight and narrow.
In closing, what the article as a whole gives readers is the image of this 2008 Yankees team as one marred by bloated contracts attached to players who no longer deserve them. It also discredits every young talent that Yankees fans can be and are excited about for one reason or another. If it's an attempt to set the bar low for the 2008 season in the Bronx, it succeeds; its only legitimate argument for setting that bar low, however, is the state of shambles that the Yankees' pen is in, something that I will write more in-depth about in the coming days (really cross your fingers about LaTroy Hawkins and Kyle Farnsworth, Yankees fans!).
The other problems that George King latches on to, as I've tried to explain in the above words, seem silly to me. If it's just for the sake of conjuring an eye-grabbing tabloid read, something that doesn't escape me since this is the New York Post I'm talking about, then so be it, he's doing his job and trying his hardest. The identity crisis, though, just doesn't seem to exist. The team's lineup is still good enough to trot out there against Boston, Detroit and Cleveland, and while there are question marks galore, don't try to create them about players who need not have them stuck above their heads. For me, that would be 20 year old pitchers with lots of ability, since they all come with questions (health, ceiling, consistency), as well as proven veterans, and a steady, young second baseman.
Dedicate your article's question marks to the mess at 1B and in the bullpen, instead of trying to drag down the starting rotation and lineup. My argument remains that one of those two will certainly be a strength coming into the season, and by the middle of the season when everyone is catching Pennant Race Fever, they should realistically both be strengths. Either way, this is all extremely premature since we're still 9 days away from the team's first full workout in The Girardi Era.
But don't let it be said that the New York Post isn't out there making bold statements in February, and stirring up doubt about each and every one of the 25 potential 2008 New York Yankees.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Apparently, Filip Bondy of the NY Daily News has unearthed some new evidence about two of the Yankees current starters who just happen to be two of their top prospects: The organization is worried about both of their out pitches.
I refer to this article in today's Daily News, where Filip unearths the fact that the Yankees are worried sick. No, not about the fact that they've been forced to rely on neophytes Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy and Joba Chamberlain so heavily in this year's pennant race. Their worries instead are with "Hughes' slow curve", and "Kennedy getting away with a lot of change-ups." And of course, in true b.s. NY tabloid nature, Mr. Bondy wants to see the Yankees maximizing Joba's usage, so when Joba goes in for Tommy John surgery in the middle of the 2008 season he can go back to one of his Bill Pulsipher/Jason Isringhausen/Paul Wilson stories from the 90's and just change the names around a bit to make it work and save him some stress near a deadline.
In all seriousness, though, just where the hell did this nugget of a scouting report emerge from? Did Brian Cashman, quoted here on page 2 of this story in the Post, near a Stadium elevator no less, gushingly referring to Mr. Wonder-Phil was "awesome", sour on his organization's best pitching prospect? Did Ian Kennedy, in his solid first start against the D-Rays, just get by with a mediocre big league change-up?
Pitching Guru Filip Bondy apparently thinks so. Of course, he saw no need to flip through a scouting report of either Ian Kennedy or Phil Hughes, or else he would have figured out this fun fact: Kennedy's change-up is his #1 out-pitch, and Phil...ditto with the hook, my friend. Fans shouldn't have too much trouble identifying that fact with Phil, since they've been able to watch a fair amount of him by now. But to suddenly claim that the pitch that propelled him through the minors worries the team that brought him up early in the year while he was still 20 years old in order to solidify the starting rotation, is now a problem? Idiotic.
Kennedy's case, at least Filip can use the excuse of unfamiliarity, since I doubt he spends any time reading anything about prospects or watching prospects or even using the word "prospect" in a coherent sentence. But, like I've already said, all you've got to do is a little research. According to this scouting report I found (via Pending Pinstripes), "His best secondary pitch is the changeup, a plus offering that he particularly outstanding command of."
So, of course, he got away with his best pitch in his first start in the majors. That's usually how it works, you know, logically, in the baseball world.
I'm not trying to attain lieutenant status in The Official Ian Kennedy Fan Club, I'm just looking for some due diligence from some sort of featured sports columnist at the Daily News. Kennedy has not been as highly touted as Joba and Phil because he doesn't project as a high-end, #1 or #2 starter as those fellows do due to their dominating pitches. Joba's dominating pitches are apparent to any idiot who watches baseball (i.e. Filip Bondy of the NY Daily News), thanks to the flashy radar gun numbers that get the Stadium oohing and aahing in his every appearance. Phil's dominating pitch apparently is Suspect #1 in the Yankees universe. And Ian Kennedy, forget about him actually having an effective pitch. He just got away with the soft stuff; he couldn't possibly be a right-handed control/soft-stuff pitcher, could he? Why would the Yankees have any of those kinds of guys when they could all be like Joba?
A maddening bit of scouting from Baseball America's next head writer, Filip Bondy. A stupid name for a stupid baseball writer.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
-Yankees head home going 5-1 between Toronto and Cleveland, ready to face a Baltimore team that they've struggled against all year long, to the tune of a 3-6 record. The pitching match-ups are not particularly appealing for the pinstripe crew, either:
Monday: (Chien-Ming Wang vs. Jeremy Guthrie) The Wang/Guthrie pairing nominally might favor the Yanks, yet they've had zero success against Jeremy Guthrie this season: (1-0) 12.1 IP 13 H 4 ER 4 BB 10 Ks. Still, Chien-Ming historically has pitched to an ERA a full run lower at home compared to on the road, and Guthrie's shine has dwindled a bit since the All-Star break, with his ERA post-Midsummer Classic 4.74. However, the Birds' hurler has also yet to lose a road decision yet this season. It will be interesting to see how all these tendencies work themselves out.
Tuesday: (Jeff Karstens vs. Daniel Cabrera) Thanks to the Rocket's suspension, combined with the rotation's dominance of the once-high-powered Tribe offense this weekend, we're treated to Jeff Karstens and his glowing 10.13 ERA on the hill Tuesday evening. All the talk was about 2006 1st round pick Ian Kennedy making his major league debut, but that hinged upon Karstens having to pitch in Cleveland. Since Karstens didn't leave his spot on the bullpen bench all weekend, he fully earns his chance to start on Tuesday in the thick of the pennant race. Of course, his availability allows the Yanks to avoid the headache of squeezing Kennedy onto the 40-man roster simultaneous to his potential call-up, so I'm sure it will have been for the greater good of the organization if and when Karstens gets spanked around and the team squanders a winnable game when every game needs to be won.
Wednesday: (Phil Hughes vs. Erik Bedard) The tastiest tandem of the three-game set in the series' matinée finale. Phil comes off his best start since The Star-Crossed May 1st, but now he's facing a lineup not struggling to figure out which way they're going, once again pitching in The Stadium (where he's been the Mr. Hyde of a 10.00 ERA, compared to the microscopic 0.73 in road grays) and against the league leader in Ks whose dominated the Yankees over the years. This is the most viewer-friendly game of the series in terms of name value as well as sheer talent on the mound. Hughes will have to provide innings, based on the assumption that Karstens most likely won't provide much length on Tuesday night. Overall though, it will be the marquee game of the series. Personally though, every time Hughes appears on the mound it's the marquee game these days. A player providing excitement simply by being the scheduled starter is something that the Yankees have lacked, despite their high-priced, greatly-experienced starters.
These three against Baltimore make for a potentially problematic stretch leading into the weekend's monumentally important series against Detroit. The New York squad taking two out of three doesn't look like an easy prediction based on the scheduled starters, but the Yankees have been too hot of a team to suddenly be wary of a team 8 games under .500. All the conjecture, though, by 7 p.m. tomorrow, will fade away to true hardball results.
Friday, August 10, 2007
-The last three days, for the Yankees, have featured two games and an off day in dirty Cleveland. The two games were polar opposites, with the staff's ace getting shellacked by the Jays on Wednesday, followed by The Big Phil and Jah-bah shutting down the Tribe. There are tons of interesting newsworthy sprinkles garnishing the team's universe these last few days, so for this post I'll go for a brief rundown:
The suspensions that resulted from Tuesday's shenanigans were inevitable, but they still feel like an exercise in futility. The Jays' bloodthirst should have been quenched on Monday. If the Jays felt as though they still needed revenge because Luis Vizcaino plunked Matt Stairs in the 8th inning of Monday's game, they're a bigger bunch of mindless thugs than they already come across as. The pseudo-fisticuffs Tuesday and Clemens' plunking of Rios spurred a lot of interesting little sidenotes:
1. Josh Towers, of the sparkling career 4.95 ERA, is I'm sure exactly who the Jays want to represent their fine organization by drilling A-Rod after the fact, jawing at he and Tony Pena on the field, and then ripping Tony Pena in the papers for quitting on the Royals. It's like J.P. Ricciardi has scripts prepared during games so his players can carry out his shit-talking bravura act in the press.
2. Brian Butterfield being angry about Shelley Duncan and Johnny Damon's slides probably means there'll be more beanballs the next time these two teams meet, or perhaps this time they'll try to take out Cano or Jeter's legs around 2nd base. Undoubtedly the Jays will still be hovering around .500 and saying they're still in the race, so it will be chalked up to heated competition, instead of overall organizational incompetence combined with frustration due to the horribly volatile personalities of the team, its manager and General Manager.
-More importantly, though, the Yankees got out of the Great White North relatively intact save for Alex's "sore calf" that I'm sure was expertly tended to by a combination of Gene Monahan and the classy dancers at Toronto's finest gentleman's club. Chien-Ming getting spanked was due sooner or later due to his strike-throwing/lack of Ks tendencies.
-The big story, overall, on this Friday evening, is the performance turned in by the two rookies on the mound at Jacobs Field. Dr. Fausto has seen his shine dim slightly as the season has progressed, and despite the #3 and #5 hitters' insistence on trying to hit into double plays as much as possible, the offense gave Franchise Phil enough of a cushion.
-Both Phil and Joba experienced their first taste of important performances, and it would seem as though the flavors agreed with both their palettes. There will be bigger games and stickier situations to come for these guys, but the pressure has to begin building somewhere.
-The news that brightened my evening above all, though, is that there is an actual major league team interested in taking the plunge and acquiring Kei Igawa. The San Diego Padres, just dismissing Boomer Bad Back Big Gut Wells, have put a claim in on Kei Igawa, which apparently translates to "Eternally Hittable" from Japanese to English. The Times says the Yankees are trying to make sure they don't get nothing back in a potential deal since they've already lost the $26 million posting fee for Kei's dis-services. Honestly, Brian Cashman could get the proverbial pu-pu platter of the "player to be named later/cash considerations" variety, and it has to be scored as a monumental victory considering the signing was beginning to look like a total albatross around the GM's neck for the years to come.
-So to sum up, this Friday August 10th featured a dominant performance from the two brightest and youngest arms in the Yankees universe, an escape from The Kei Igawa Era before the year 2012, Joe Torre being able to enjoy his suspension accompanied by Mike Fratello and a nice Starbucks iced coffee from the friendly confines of a luxury box, and the offense continuing its steady performance against a pitcher not belittled by having the logo of the teams from K.C., T.B. or Toronto on the front of his jersey.
Plus, Boston lost, thanks to their much-revered bullpen imploding, leaving the AL East deficit at 5 games. And Detroit continues to scuffle. The playoff picture is still extremely cloudy in the Yanks' proverbial crystal ball, but the beginning of this pivotal stretch of the season makes it easier to prognosticate positively going forward.
