With ARod about to hit #600 and only Manny and Jim Thome in sniffing distance of #600, Roy S. Johnson wonders if Pujols will be our savior, the one who restores our interest in home run milestones:

So far (so far) the St. Louis Cardinals’ Albert Pujols seems unaffected by anything that’s come before to erode our passion for the home run. He swings with grace and power and seems to have been carved for the sole purpose of making us dig the long ball again.

He has 389 of them in his career; and at just 30 years old, he still yanks them out at a prodigious clip. [...]

Sure, he’ll still be about 200 home runs behind A-Rod and 362 shy of Bonds. But write it down. We just might be ready to care again. Maybe.

As with guys like Junior, or Jeter, or Chipper, or McGriff… we only hope (and pray, if that’s your thing) that these guys are clean. But we don’t know and might never know. We all hope and believe that Albert Pujols is spotless. I believe he is. He’d make a worthy all time HR leader. We just have to hope like heck that he’s spotless. But if not…?

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We were discussing this last week and my concise colleague Larry said it best:

So, it means something that A-Rod is going to join the 600 club. It should mean more to me than it does. But it doesn’t.

Waiting for ARod to hit his 600th home run is yet another Fool’s Errand. Yes, the 600 Home Run Club is as exclusive as it comes, but the achievement has become muted and eroded due to the circumstances and amplifiers we experienced over the last two decades. No question, hitting 600 home runs takes extraordinary skill, talent, luck, perserverence and it shouldn’t be ignored. However, I’ve got to admit, the live look-ins and the constant focus on a singular, personal achievement is grating on me.

The Yanks are winning and are being chased like mad by two very talented teams. AJ Burnett has turned his awful June around with a nifty July (I said it then: “if Eiland can fix both AJ Burnett and Javy Vazquez in one season, he’s vastly underpaid“). Jeter’s season has been fits and spurts, three good games followed by many more poor ones. Granderson seems to be finally getting himself into a groove. Joba… I’m sick of the Joba chatter. Pettitte has been out yet team hasn’t missed a beat. The team owns the best record in baseball and the best Run Diff at +134.

Yet, the focus is on one home run, and it’s not a record-breaking home run. Yes, as I said, #600 is huge, no question. The good thing, to me, is that ARod seems to be focused on hitting, rather than hitting a home run. His liner up the middle yesterday to score Teix was perfect. I haven’t seen him take too many at bats that were obvious “I’m going for it here” swings. ARod’s comments sure pleased me:

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A day after being dominated by yet another rookie pitcher, the Yankee offense came to life early and often.  The Bombers crushed Tribe starter Fausto Carmona and A.J. Burnett put together another strong outing to propel New York to an 8-0 victory.

With two outs in the top of the first, Mark Teixeira doubled to right field.  Alex Rodriguez followed with a RBI single to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead.  Trevor Crowe lead off the bottom of the inning with a single.  He tried to steal with one out, but Francisco Cervelli gunned him down at second, which would prove to be a key play as Shin-Soo Choo doubled and moved to third on a wild pitch.  Burnett battled back and struck out Carlos Santana to end the inning.

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The Yankees’ offense continues to be fooled by rookie pitching, as the Cleveland Indians’ Josh Tomlin had almost no problem working through the Bombers during his major league debut.  CC Sabathia had a mediocre start in his old home park, and the apathetic offense did little to help as the Indians tied up the series with a 4-1 win.

Sabathia got into some trouble in the first inning.  With two outs, Shin-Soo Choo singled and stole second.  Austin Kearns followed with a single to left and Brett Gardner gunned down Choo at home.  The second and third innings were relatively uneventful, but the Indians threatened in the fourth.  Asdrubal Cabrera singled to start the inning, moving to third on Choo’s double.  Kearns grounded the ball to Alex Rodriguez who threw home in time to get Cabrera, but Cervelli was unable to hold onto the ball, giving the Tribe its first run of the game.  The bases loaded when Jhonny Peralta grounded to short.  Jeter started the double play attempt, but Robinson Cano came off second early before throwing to first, where the umpire called Peralta safe.  Matt LaPorta followed with a sac fly to score Choo and the Indians had a 2-0 lead.

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Last week, Jason wrote a post here titled “Does Jeter’s 2010 performance *really* matter?” In this post, Jason considered how much Yankees’ shortstop Derek Jeter should be paid after his current contract expires at the end of this year. Jason is my buddy, and as far as this blogging thing is concerned, Jason is my boss. But Jason suggested that it is possible for the Yankees to pay Jeter more than he is worth.

That’s crazy talk.

To be more specific, Jason said that Jeter might be worth less than $15 million a year, or more precisely, that it would be “above market” to pay Jeter $60 million for a 4-year contract. Jason even quoted ESPN’s Buster Olney, who said that “in a vacuum” a shortstop with Jeter’s current production is worth something like $5 million a year. In other words, Derek Jeter <= Marco Scutaro (Marco Scutaro is making $5.5 million this year).

To give Buster Olney the benefit of the doubt, I will step into a vacuum for a moment and see if I can see things his way.

[cough cough. Can’t breathe! Damn vacuum, let me out of here! DEEP BREATH. Much better!]

Personally, I find that I don’t do my best thinking in a vacuum. So I’m left wondering which planet it is where Buster Olney is currently resident, where Marco Scutaro is more valuable than Derek Jeter, even in a vacuum. For his valuation of Jeter, Olney wins this year’s Picard-Riker Double Face Palm Award (pictured above).

To be fair, I think even Buster Olney gets that Jeter is worth more than $5 million a year. And there were plenty of comments on Jason’s piece by folks who appreciate the value of Jeter’s contributions (both historic and current) to the Yankees.

But if someone questions Jeter’s value, there’s something that needs to be said in response. As no one else has said it, I’ll say it.

Derek Jeter is the biggest bargain in baseball.

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Joe Girardi has unofficially put Joba Chamberlain on notice, apparently, giving 8^th inning duties to Nate David Robertson and Boone Logan last night in place of Joba the Hut. Girardi said after the game, “I’m not saying that I’m handing it over to Joba every time we go into the eighth. I’m going to look at things. I mean, that’s my job.” So Girardi is talking about playing matchups more often, which is not a bad strategy in isolation. And given the run of rough outings that Joba’s been going through for the past week, it’s probably a good idea to give him a night in Time Out to think about what he’s done, particularly since he’s given up four walks and two homers in his last six innings (across five appearances).

The trouble is, it’s not apparent that Joba’s been doing anything different from what he’s done in the past. See below.

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While the Yankees have put up quite a few runs since the All-Star Break, they found themselves in a bit of a pitcher’s duel last night.  Kicking off a series in Cleveland, both Javier Vazquez and Jake Westbrook went deep into the game, limiting the opposing offenses to a handful of hits.  A couple key long balls by Nick Swisher and Curtis Granderson, however, propelled the Yankees to another victory, as they beat the Indians 3-2.

Travis Hafner gave Tribe fans some hope early in the game, connecting with a big solo homer in the second inning, giving the Indians a 1-0 lead.  Meanwhile, Westbrook was dealing, sitting down the first ten Yankee hitters down in order.  In the top of the fourth inning, the first Yankee batter connected with a hit – and it was a big one.  Nick Swisher drove a fly ball to right field for a solo homer, tying the game 1-1.  The Yankees had a chance to extend the rally when Mark Teixeira walked.  Alex Rodriguez drove the ball into the outfield, but the umpires determined that Trevor Crowe had caught the ball, despite replays showing he had trapped it, and the Tribe doubled up Teixeira who had gone to second, ending the inning.

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Even a rather lengthy rain delay couldn’t slow down the Yankees’ hot bats yesterday afternoon as New York finished a four game series against the Kansas City Royals.  Alex Rodriguez is still searching for his 600th homer, but Robinson Cano picked up his 1000th hit as the Yankees finished their homestand with a big 12-6 victory over the Royals.

The first couple innings were scoreless, but the Royals broke through in the top of the third.  Chris Getz singled after his liner was deflected by Phil Hughes towards first base.  Getz stole second and then Scott Podsednik drove a two-run homer to left, putting the Royals on the board.

The Yankees answered back in the bottom of the inning, starting with a solo homer by Curtis Granderson to lead off the inning.  Ramiro Pena singled to right and scored on Derek Jeter’s double to center.  Jeter moved to third on the throw home.  Mark Teixeira singled Jeter in and the Yankees took the lead.  A double by Rodriguez finished the Yankees damage for the inning, putting them up 4-2.

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Thankfully, this coulda been alot worse:

After getting ahead of A-Rod in the count, the Royals reliever threw a pitch high and tight that deflected of the New York slugger’s left hand and put him down in a heap. For a moment, the outcome of the Yankees’ 12-6 victory over Kansas City hardly seemed to matter.

[...]

Rodriguez was still a bit shaken by the close call Sunday, though, showing off a bruise that was already forming on his hand while standing in front of his locker.

“I have pretty much full strength, so I should be OK,” he said. “I was more fearful of the ball coming toward my face. Obviously, the hand is so sensitive, and it’s very easy to break a bone or chip a bone, so I’m just thankful that didn’t happen.”

Close call. Exhale. Bring on the midges.

As a general rule, I hate all of those TV “in-depth” or “Investigative” reports that go into my favorite restaurants and show me all of the problems going on behind the scenes. Just ruins the dining experience. Like most of you who have at some point in their lives been around a live, working restaurant kitchen, I know it’s not always pretty and neat and clean. You just hope that none of the unmentionables make it onto your plate and usually they don’t.

So when I read this today, it was just another reason why it’s a good idea to bring your own food, your favorite sammich, to the Stadium:

At Yankee Stadium, 48 percent of vendors were found to be in violation of health codes. The OTL report, citing an inspection-report excerpt, said that five hot dogs registered 91 degrees in a hot-holding unit when they were supposed to be no cooler than 140. Inspectors at the Yankees’ home also had a vendor dispose of a bottle of Chivas Regal whiskey containing dead fruit flies.

You can’t bring a bottle of Chivas Regal into the Stadium, and I know getting a dog and a beer during a game is ritual, but when costs matter –and now your health– maybe it’s time to reconsider your plan. Me? I’m partial to bring a fully-loaded sub to the game and chowing down on that for a few innings compared to overpriced and over-/under-cooked mediocre fare. You can do as you wish, at your own risk! Of course, if you have the Legends seats, well, enjoy the good stuff.

Question: What are your best/worst Yankee Stadium (YSII or YSIII) dining experiences? What about around the perimeter of the Stadium?

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As you have already heard by now, Alex Rodriguez hit #599 last night, putting him on the doorstep of history. And ARod continues to say the right things and prove that he’s gained a bit of perspective, as we noted earlier this week:

Rodriguez is just one homer away from becoming the seventh player in Major League history to hit 600 homers. Unlike his pursuit of No. 500, Rodriguez said he’s having a blast.

“Definitely, I’m enjoying it,” said Rodriguez, who hit No. 599 off Royals reliever Robinson Tejeda on an 0-2 pitch in the seventh inning that put the Yankees ahead by two runs in an eventual 10-4 victory. “Anytime you win and you can contribute, it’s nice.

“There’s no question (things are different than when he was chasing No. 500). It’s night and day. A lot has changed. I’m enjoying the game more so now then I ever have. I get more enjoyment out of the little things, playing the team game, not trying to do too much. Having the perspective I have now after winning a World Championship.

“There’s really no comparison of a team accomplishment to a personal accomplishment. Those are great and nice but I have a much better perspective now. … Early in my career, I loved to win but it was about accumulating numbers and hoping you got to the postseason. Now, it’s about one goal (winning the World Series) and along the way you hope to get big homers and drive in runs to help us win.”

So, are you convinced? Or are you still skeptical that ARod has simply learned the right speech?

But the real question of the day is: What does ARod’s eventual 60oth home run mean and do you even care? Let’s discuss…

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CC Sabathia did not seem to have his good stuff as he got into trouble early, but the Yankees bats provided some relief for the big man.  In a game that was full of strange plays and exciting moments, the Yankees 10-4 victory was actually a much closer game until the Yankees ran away with it in the eighth.

After striking out Scott Podsednik to start the game, Sabathia gave up a single to Jason Kendall.  A single by Billy Butler put runners on first and third with two outs, and Jose Guillen hit a double that sent Kendall home.   Wilson Betemit followed with a sharp grounder that just made it past Alex Rodriguez and down the third baseline, scoring Butler easily.  Brett Gardner made a perfect throw to second, getting Betemit out before Guillen could score (though he could have easily scored had he been running hard and not watching what was happening at second), but Kansas City had taken an early 2-0 lead.

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I like this lightyears ahead of the patch: