I woke up and saw that the Yanks are 8.5 games back in the AL East and three games behind the Twins (4.5 behind the Sawx) for the Wild Card. We just got swept in LA. As Tyler Kempner puts it, “it’s Getting Late Early for the 2008 Yankees” and he’s right on.
The Yanks rotation consists of a rejuvenated Moose, an eminently hittable Pettitte, a profoundly frustrating Ponson and then a hodgepodge of guys including Dan Giese, Darrell Rasner, a recently sent-down Kennedy (foot-in-mouth disease). Generation Trey, as some had called them, imploded rather than “was here to stay“. Kennedy and Hughes have yet to win a game. The vets are not happy with Kennedy’s comments. Joba’s on the DL after what had seemed to be a seamless transition into a top tier starter. Heck, we might even see American Idle Pavano back before Joba. Wang will be ready just as the regular season will come to a close.
With the bats, ARod‘s still slumping (despite a HR yesterday). Jeter‘s looking lost. Abreu and Damon are still hitting [I am totally on board with keeping Abreu another two years, for whatever my vote's worth]. Melky has been passed. Cano remains an enigma, with the bat and the glove. Matsui’s been out for ages. Nady has been great, though.
What can I say? The best part of my baseball weekend was that I missed the end of every game. Too tired Friday. Hanging with the kids Saturday. Dinner with the extended family Sunday. Missed a lot of the games. Not upset in the least.
More importantly for me was that my older son’s catching the ball better. We had a good long catch on Sunday morning and he’s catching better. And my younger one (age 5) now knows how to throw from a full windup. Not sure where the ball is going to go, but he’ll call out “two seamer” or “four seamer”, go into a windup and hurl the ball in my general direction. Yes, he tries to put his little fingers across four seams. And that’s why I had a good weekend even though my team didn’t.
Sorry, I have been completely underwater today. Got in later than usual (amongst the mere mortals who arrive at 9:30am) as I had to play Mr. Mom this morning. Since then, it’s been heads down on some stuff that needs to be done by COB today.
UPDATE
: Seems that I struck a nerve with old Peter Gibbons, Lumberg, Milton. If you want to end your Friday laughing, check out the “Office Space” quotes.
JoeOrange emailed me this, and quite frankly, I don’t have an answer.
Okay, I have a question for you:Darrell Rasner wears #43. When the Yankees made the trade for Damaso Marte, he couldn’t continue with his number, so he chose (or maybe it was chosen FOR him) #34.
Now I KNOW that the Yankees suffer from a depletion of usable numbers due to the number of retired jerseys, but they have to “borrow” numbers from players on the DL? Didn’t Phil Hughes wear #34 before going on the DL with that broken rib? What happens when he comes back? Does he get his old number back?
So, what happens to Marte and Hughes when Hughes comes back off the DL? Does he get his old number back? Does he go back to the Spring Training garb he wore when he first came up (#65)? Can he “steal” Joba’s #62? For THAT matter, what if he wanted to wear #40?
It really IS about the money, isn’t it? Here’s how the Yanks are (could and should) use their financial advantages:
The Yankees have signed Brett Marshall, a high school pitcher selected in the June First-Year Player Draft, to one of the largest contracts ever given to a sixth-round pick…
…..
The Yankees essentially gave the sixth-round pick the kind of money normally spent on first-round supplemental picks.
…..
During the Draft, Marshall said he heard from the Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Indians, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, and Kansas City Royals. But Marshall said all of those teams told him they would like to draft him in the first three rounds and Marshall told them he wasn’t interested in signing with them.
Now, I have NO idea if this kid will be anything or not, but to toss $1M around at someone with his potential, keeping him out of the hands of others, is a fine risk. Given the amount of money this team will generate in TNYS, it’s a mere pittance (H/T to Neyer for that link).
Investing in the draft (and internationally) is the best thing the Yanks can do.
Mark Feinsand of the Daily News has a blog in addition to his daily byline. He used his space to chronicle Jeter’s career. It seems that he was getting some heat that Jeter was over-rated and never really did much in his career. I know many of you (including buddy Joe’s co-worker, Chris) believe all of that to be true. You like to diminish the things he does well and harp on the things he doesn’t do well. To that, I laugh.
I also know that Jeter’s having a down year. He’s never been a HR hitter and I’m OK with that. He’s a #2 hitter and he does what a #2 hitter is supposed to do: move runners, get on base, let the big guys drive in runs. And do things the right way. I know he’s an easy target because of the team, position, dating history, good looks, etc.
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For some reason, the date the article is published is not readily identifiable, but here’s an example of the GOOD Rick Reilly, the storyteller.
Rick: We need more of this and less of the other crap.
2nd Lt. Campbell felt like he was hit in the nose with a shovel. Every day during his four years at West Point, he was reminded of and lived by the Cadet Honor Code: A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do. Instead the Army lied to 2nd Lt. Caleb Campbell. Now he gets to tolerate it.
Borrowing on the famed “Spahn, Sain and pray for rain”, we now have the “Moose, Pettitte and forget it” refrain.
Last night’s game was just terrible for the Yanks. Pettitte was laboring early and often and the bats hit into four double-plays. Blech.
With Joba off to see Dr. Death, we’re forced to rely on Moose and Pettitte. Moose has been exceptional this year, a huge surprise. Pettitte is up and down. He’s been our “stopper” for years and right now he’s not stopping squat. We need him to pick it back up. Soon.
Pettitte (12-9) last night lasted five-plus innings, giving up five runs on six hits and three walks.”I just set, really, a poor tone to the game,” he said of Josh Hamilton’s two-run homer in Pettitte’s 30-pitch first inning.Through five innings, Pettitte had thrown 93 pitches in the heat. But trailing 4-1, the Yankees sent him out for the sixth — and he failed to get an out.
If Joba’s shoulder is worse than expected, things could spiral down quickly. If he did any real damage, I’m gonna be pretty damn upset.
What happened to Rick Reilly, the great writer that was a fixture with Sports Illustrated? He came to ESPN with great fanfare (and wads of cash) and before my eyes has totally mailed it in. He’s submitting this Page2 knockoffs that are supposed to be quasi-funny, snarky (think Jim Caple less the anti-Yanks tone) but they just read like total crap. I guess I expected more. Like when I now buy a box of cereal and it’s 90% the size it used to be but costs a little more.
It’s so sad when bad anthems happen to good countries. America, for one. Ours goes up and down so many octaves only certain German shepherds can hear all of it. Still, I’ve covered eight Olympics, and our anthem doesn’t come close to these:
Thailand. This anthem is played each day at 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. It declares, “Every inch of Thailand belongs to the Thais.” Odd. Was anyone under the impression it belonged to Diddy?
Syria. Someone must have written this one in a hurry, or bought it at a discount anthem store, because it contains this verse: “A land resplendent with brilliant suns, becoming another sky, or almost a sky.” I would’ve loved to be inside the mind of the guy who wrote that. Let’s see. We have so many suns it’s like a whole ‘nother sky. No, wait. Nobody’s going to believe that. I’ll just add, “or almost a sky.” Hell, what do they expect for $9.95?
Algeria. “We have taken the noise of gunpowder as our rhythm and the sound of machine guns as our melody.” This is why no one invites your band anywhere.
Sweden. Here is a national anthem that has almost nothing to do with the country it honors. It’s mostly about the Nordic way of life. Swedes are like that. Once, at an Olympic soccer game, I listened to Swedish fans chanting and singing. Finally, I asked one what they were urging their players to do. “The players?” she said. “We simply chant: ‘We are from Sweden, we have come a long way and we are drunk!’”
I couldn’t muster a title for this.
I watched much of the Yankees game last night, at least into the 6th or so when the game was tied. I lost much of my appetite for the game once Joba left. Not that he was doing well (he wasn’t), but the image of another Yanks pitcher leaving a Texas game early (that’s where Hughes blew out his hammy in the midst of a no-hitter last year) left me feeling queasy. So I went upstairs to watch TV with my wife (that David Caruso is gawdawful terrible, by the way).
I’ll hope a double mug of liquid motivation kicks in soon.
They always say you’re likely to see something you’ve never seen on any given night…or something like that. What did we just see?
- Damon singled
- Balk to second (Padilla didn’t come set, though he looks like he did on the replays)
- Moved to third on ground out
- Damon scored on a balk (Padilla stepped off with the wrong foot)
I’ve seen the balk called on pitcher’s who don’t come set, but I can’t say that I’ve seen two in an inning, one scoring a run AND as a result of the pitcher stepping off the rubber with the wrong foot.
David Cone clarified it for us knuckleheads by saying the pitcher must step off from their push-off foot, otherwise it’s deemed a move to home. Who knew? I didn’t. I do now.
Here is the specific part of the balk rule (emphasis mine):
Rule 8.01(a) Comment: In the Windup Position, a pitcher is permitted to have his “free” foot on the rubber, in front of the rubber, behind the rubber or off the side of the rubber.From the Windup Position, the pitcher may:
(1) deliver the ball to the batter, or
(2) step and throw to a base in an attempt to pick-off a runner, or
(3) disengage the rubber (if he does he must drop his hand to his sides).In disengaging the rubber the pitcher must step off with his pivot foot and not his free foot first.
Seems like every major trade done this trading season has worked out for everyone. Of course, it’s been only a long weekend for most of these guys, but is it ever too early to declare a winner in these trades? Given how the MSM likes to declare winners before the players traded ever play for their new teams, I think not.
I’ll probably miss one or two, but let’s review:
- CC Sabathia: 5-0 after 6 starts. ERA of 1.88, 3 CG, 1 CGSO, 43 K’s in 48 IP, averaging 8 IP per start. Oh yeah, hit a HR, too.
- Rich Harden: 1.11 ERA in 4 starts; 39 K’s in 24 .1 IP!
- Mark Teixeira: Grand Slam yesterday against the Yanks masks a slower start as an Angel, 1 HR, 5 RBI in 5 games, .222/.391/.389 (sluggling lower than OBP?)
- Xavier Nady: 3 HR, 10RBI, .385/.467/.846 as a Yankee (who cares about small sample size?)
- Pudge Rodriguez: Hits first HR as Yankee; hitting .333/.400/.667 as a Yankee
- Jason Bay: Finished the weekend 4-for-11 (.364) with three RBI and six runs scored
- Manny Ramirez: 2 HR so far, equalling the LF output for the Dodgers season-to-date. Wants to finish career in LA, after only a weekend’s worth of games. Batting .615/.615/1.154
- The Bounty landed by Pittsburgh for Nady, Marte and Bay: Brandon Moss & Andy LaRoche hit HR’s, Karstens won his first game, Hansen’s scoreless debut, Ross Ohlendorf tossed 7 1/3 impressively efficient innings for Triple-A. Karsten’s debut: 6 IP, W, 5 H, 4 BB, 2K.
- Junior Griffey: A nice diving catch, batting .429/.500/.429 after 3 games.
Save all your C+C Music Factory singing for the comforts of your own car (with the windows up). This really made me sit back and say “hmmmm, really?” Really.
You know who Ivan Rodriguez is a lot like as an offensive player now? Derek Jeter . They both are extreme groundball hitters these days who have had their power greatly diminished. Among players with 300 plate appearances, Rodriguez ranks third in the majors in the amount of groundballs hit to every flyball (2.56) and Jeter is sixth (2.41). Jeter has six homers, Rodriguez five. They both — amazingly — have six steals. Pudge ranks 115th in OPS (.756) and Jeter is 123rd (.747). Rodriguez has a .295 batting average/.338 on-base percentage/.417 slugging percentage compared to Jeter .284/.348/.400.
