Either haven’t been around or have been busy lately, so haven’t had a good chance to do this, but we’ll see if we can make this stick again. If nothing else, it’s good filler on a night when the Yankees aren’t playing (because C.C. let Dallas Braden know just whose mound he was on earlier today).

Did I mention I’m a little annoyed the Yankees didn’t sign Aroldis Chapman?

In case you didn’t hear, MASN fired Rob Dibble earlier this week.

The Dodgers are an…interesting franchise these days.

I can usually forgive umpires for most blown calls, but the complete lack of professionalism some of them display is totally unacceptable.

I also have no idea how the Padres have had the season they’ve had.

This. Is. Awesome.

In case you missed it, there was a heckuva fight in Florida between the Fish and the Nationals last night. Nyjer Morgan charged the mound after getting thrown behind and took a big swing at Marlins pitcher Chris Volstad before Gaby Sanchez met him with a clothesline that would have impressed your average WWE superstar.

Morgan is apparently trying to see just how long he can get suspended for. He’s already appealing a 7 game suspension for throwing a ball at a fan in Philadelphia, then this past Saturday he needlessly tried to run over the Cardinals catcher, which led to criticism from his own manager. Last night’s altercation stemmed from a similar play the night before, in which Morgan barreled over Marlins catcher Brett Hayes, giving him a shoulder injury that will probably end his season. Most people have voiced the opinion that the collision was gratuitous, but I’m not so sure. Obviously Morgan and his 3rd base coach are banking on Hanley Ramirez trying to turn the double play at first in having Morgan run home. Ramirez didn’t, noticed Morgan coming home, and the throw easily beats Morgan to the plate. The only way Morgan has a chance is if the throw is high which, conveniently enough, it is. The argument against Morgan boils down to “if he slides, he’s safe,” and that’s true, but I think people might be overestimating how much time Morgan has to react. If he slides and the throw is anywhere but high, he’s out easily. By the time Morgan sees the throw is going to be high, he’s already committed to the hit, and probably doesn’t have time to change to a slide. I think it was a clean-ish play, but at the same time I don’t really have a problem with the Marlins hitting him for it in the 4th inning. But yet, there’s the rub; Morgan hat already been beaned! So why did Volstad throw behind him later? I’ll let Wes Helms explain:

The Pinstripes started September by keeping their win-streak going.  A.J. Burnett took a definite step forward and the Yankee bats got to work early as they ensured a series victory against the Athletics and won their fifth straight game, beating Oakland 4-3.

Derek Jeter lead off the bottom of the first with a single to center.  Nick Swisher struck out, but Mark Teixeira followed with a double to center, scoring Jeter for the first run of the game.  Robinson Cano grounded into a fielder’s choice and Marcus Thames flied out, but the Yankees had the early 1-0 lead.

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Starting pitching might not be something Yankee fans want to spend very much time thinking about right now, but there’s a lot to discuss on that front tonight. First of all, Andy Pettitte threw a bullpen session today and reported that he felt good about it, so hopefully that’s a signal that he’ll be back in time to get some outings under his belt before the playoffs start. Also, the Yankees announced earlier that, after a strong relief outing last night, Javier Vazquez will move back to the rotation, taking the start Saturday and bumping Dustin Moseley. And last, but certainly not least, with some people reporting that he was pitching for his job, A.J. Burnett reminded us that “inconsistent” is not exactly the same as bad. He wasn’t dominant by any stretch, but he was very solid; striking out 8 while walking 2 and allowing 6 hits and 3 runs (all earned) in 6 innings. It was a quality start in the books and, obviously, gave the team a great chance to win. Hopefully he’ll respond to the changing of the calendar the same way he did after his last awful month.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not ready to stop worrying about the starting pitching, but today was a very good day, and things are definitely looking up.

I found this blurb from John Harper this morning fairly interesting:

“The question is whether (Brian) Cashman and the others think this is the start of a decline,” he said. “And if so, are they going to factor it into the negotiations or just pay him for being the face of the franchise all these years? Knowing Derek, he’ll say all the right things, but he won’t give an inch based on his numbers this season.”

The second former teammate essentially agreed.

“It’s up to (the Yankees),” one former player said. “Knowing Jeet, he’s not going to let an off-year, if it turns out to be an off-year, play a role in what he thinks he should get paid. He just doesn’t think like that. He’ll be more convinced than ever that he’ll come back and hit .330 next year.”

Jeter may be the ultimate team guy, but two former teammates believe that when it comes to getting paid, his pride will demand that he get something approaching A-Rod money, regardless of what he hits this season.

Complicating matters is the Alex Rodriguez contract, which has another seven years worth $209 million, plus those potential milestone home-run bonuses.

To some extent, I’m a little leery of responding to speculation passed through anonymous sources. But I’m not trying to impugn Harper, and this seems plausible enough, so here’s my question: We’ve all speculated as to what sort of contract we’d give Jeter, but how much is absolutely too much? Where’s your breaking point, where you’d be willing to cut Jeter loose and move on? And what sort of negotiating strategy would you use behind the scenes?

Amazingly enough, it’s September 1st. Fast summer, eh? Yesterday, Mark took a look at the races in each division, as well as some other stuff in the NL, and probably angered the Baseball Gods a bit. Today, let’s get a bit closer to home and see what the Yanks have on tap, probably further angering the Gods. (In penance, I offer up Chan Ho Park as a sacrifice.)

According to Sportsclubstats.com (thank you Adam), the Yanks have a 99% chance of making the playoffs, same as the Rays. And our friends some 200 miles to the North: Just a 1.8% chance. [Defined as: Sports Club Stats calculates each team’s odds of making the playoffs, how each upcoming game will impact those odds, and how well they have to finish out to have a shot. It knows the season schedule and scores for past games. Each night it grabs any new scores from the internet and simulates the rest of the season by randomly picking scores for each remaining game. The weighted method takes the opponents record and home field advantage into account when randomly picking scores, so the better team is more likely to win.]

And ESPN pegs the Yankees’ playoff chances at 98.2% and the Rays at 97.9%, essentially a tie. No surprises here. They’re a “bit” more generous to the Sox and gives them a 3.0% chance.

Note to Baseball Gods: I don’t make the odds; I’m just noting them.

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Tyler Kepner has some interesting anecdotes about just how close the Yanks came to trading Robbie Cano in the 2004 ARod trade, but the Texas Rangers chose Joaquin Arias instead. The same Arias that was just traded to the Mets for Frenchy Francoeur:

In 2003, the year before the A-Rod trade, Arias hit .266 at low-Class A Battle Creek in the Yankees’ farm system. He was one of five prospects the Yankees offered to Texas as the player to be named in the deal. Arias was 19 at the time, and a more polished defender than Cano, who was 21 and had just hit .277 between Class A Tampa and Class AA Trenton. The Rangers chose Arias.

[...]

“Thank God we never traded him,” Gordon Blakeley, a special assistant to Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman, told The Times in 2008. “We liked him a lot and we didn’t want to give him away, but he wasn’t a ‘No, don’t trade him for any cost’ guy. If we felt we could get a Beltran or an A-Rod, he could have gone in a deal. We were fortunate.”

Gee, ya think? Whew.

“His stuff is real … and it’s spectacular.”

-Big League Stew’s David Brown, on Aroldis Chapman

Seriously, if you didn’t see Chapman pitch last night, you missed an amazing display. His slider was so good, Gameday still doesn’t know what to call it.

And yes, I’m a little bit angry that the Yankees didn’t sign him.

The Bombers’ bats continued to batter the Oakland A’s Tuesday night.  Phil Hughes improved over his last outing, picking up another win and holding the Athletics to just two runs despite struggling at times.  Big hits by Nick Swisher and Mark Teixeira gave the Yankees a lead early and at the end of the night they took a 9-3 victory and were a game ahead of Tampa Bay for the top of the AL East.

Brett Gardner got the Yankees started with a lead off single in the bottom of the first.  He stole second and Jeter worked a walk.  With Teixeira at bat the Yankees pulled off a double steal, but Teixeira got hit by a pitch and the bases were loaded with no outs.  Robinson Cano then hit into a double play, scoring Gardner for the first run of the game.  Nick Swisher hit the ball to Mark Ellis at second, and was safe at first when Ellis misplayed the ball, scoring Jeter and keeping the inning going.  Jorge Posada then connected for his tenth career triple, scoring Swisher and putting the Yankees up 3-0.

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New York Yankees vs. Tampa Bay Rays

You have a vested interest in this, the two teams are deadlocked for the division lead, and they’re the best two teams in the majors. Yet, there’s really not a whole lot to get excited about. Boston is nowhere to be seen, and any other Wild Card challengers are four games behind them. Sure, the winning team gets home-field advantage in the ALCS, but I can’t get excited about something that might happen. Otherwise, they’re fighting for the right to play Minnesota or Texas, and those teams are so close that it really doesn’t matter who the team gets, though it’s probably more pleasant to play in Texas than Minnesota in October. So, what’s really up for grabs is division bragging rights, but (quoting Yankee Universe) World Series championships are the only things that matter, right? I imagine that, with two weeks left, both teams will start resting their players anyway with an eye on the playoffs, leaving less to watch. With that in mind, what else is there that you should watch?

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I got this email while on vacation, but I wanted to address it as it touches a few sensitive issues:

You mentioned Steinbrenner’s inclusion in monument park was “strange” on 8/24. That got me thinking about his legacy as a baseball man only. His main accomplishments are, of course, the championships. How could they not be? However, those championships were created in a large part to homegrown players: Jeter, Mo, Pettitte in the ’90′s and Munson (and others) in the 70′s. These players were “grown” during the two periods Steinbrenner was suspended from baseball and he could not (or was not allowed) to be involved. Just wondering your general thoughts on whether his actual baseball knowledge added to the championships and whether that merits his statue.

- Mike Sweeney

First of all, that posting was done by Brien but that’s only housekeeping.

The larger question is: Who deserves a monument and where do you draw the line? This is, of course, and exercise bound to offend the non-Yanks fans among us who view this as overly self-congratulatory. Yogi Berra, one of the best catchers of all time, a 3-time MVP and owner of 10 World Series rings, does not have a monument. Miller Huggins, legendary manager from the early years, does. With all due respect, if we were building Monument Park TODAY from scratch, Huggins would not have a monument. But he was the first one to be given a monument upon his premature death, so he’s there.

There are five monuments dedicated to individuals, plus one in rememberance of the 9/11 attacks and the victims. The five monuments, in order of dedication:

1. Miller Huggins, 5/30/32
2. Lou Gehrig, 7/6/41
3. Babe Ruth, 4/19/49
4. Mickey Mantle, 8/25/96 (plaque awarded 6/8/69)
5. Joe DiMaggio, 4/25/99 (plaque awarded 6/8/69)

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This isn’t a topic that’s really related to baseball specifically, it’s more of a general look at the sports and baseball media at large. But, I think it’s safe to presume that most of the people reading this site consume a disproportionate amount of baseball related media, and it’s obviously relevant to what we do here.

If you missed it yesterday, Mike Wise of The Washington Post kicked off a controversy when he tweeted that Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger would have his suspension reduced from 6 games to 5, according to “sources.” After a while of being questioned about his sources, Wise eventually had to admit he made it up, but concocted some story about how it was some elaborate experiment to prove that people on the internet will “print anything.” He specifically singled out Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. Florio and Craig at Hardball Talk both have pretty good takes on the situation.

Back in the Bronx, the Yankees wasted little time continuing their winning ways.  Despite finding themselves in a deep hole early, the Yankees battled back and pounded the Athletics’ pitching.  Behind big hits from Mark Teixeira, Nick Swisher, Marcus Thames and Robinson Cano, the Yankees took an 11-5 victory over Oakland to start off their homestand.

The first inning saw a lot of action, as Coco Crisp singled to start off the game.  Daric Barton singled to left and Kurt Suzuki worked a walk to load the bases with no outs.  Jack Cust hit a sac fly to left, scoring Crisp.  Kevin Kouzmanoff struck out, but Dustin Moseley walked Mark Ellis to load the bases again.  Jeff Larish singled to center, scoring Barton and Suzuki to give the Athletics an quick 3-0 lead.

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