By now, I’m sure you’ve all heard about the tragic news regarding former Yankee pitcher Hideki Irabu. If you haven’t, I’ll just assume that you live either in a cave, or a home where you’re TV gets three channels and your PC is connected to the internet via CompuServe. Six in one hand, half a dozen in another–but that’s besides the point.

Either way, Irabu’s untimely and particularly sad death has shaken the sports world. Even though he hasn’t been at the forefront of our conscience since he was unceremoniously released by the Texas Rangers in 2002, his death has still created a groundswell of emotions among fans, analysts, and journalists that have been both (mostly) positive and (rarely) negative. In the case of Joel Sherman of the New York Post, his reaction was mostly negative.

“Sad news on Irabu who I will remember as a guy who could not integrate into a veteran #Yankees clubhouse, nor deftly handle hitters here #RIP.”

Classy. While this may not have been how he meant it to come out, he comes off as saying, “I guess I should say something about Irabu dying. It’s sad, but he sucked and was kind of a jerk. Oh, rest in peace.” Again, I’m not saying this was intent, but this is how it comes off. A man took his own life, and yet Sherman feels it’s appropriate to discuss Irabu’s perceived faults? Really? I’m not saying that his death forever inhibits Sherman from takling about Irabu’s legacy, but there’s a time and a place for everything. That time is not now. It’s not tomorrow. And it’s not next week. Sherman should, quite frankly be ashamed of himself. What he said was in poor taste.

To Hideki: where ever you are, I hope you found your peace. We may never understand your motives for doing what you did, but rest assured your demons can’t hurt you anymore.

Scranton beat Buffalo 6-3:
The Yankees got an early lead in the second when Jordan Parraz doubled with two outs and scored on a double by Luis Nunez.   Brandon Laird and Parraz hit back to back doubles to start the fourth, and Nunez hit his second RBI double of the evening, putting Scranton up 3-0.  Buffalo came back in the bottom of the inning, when Jason Botts walked and Joshua Satin singled.  Two runs scored on a single from Jesus Feliciano and the Yankees held a slim 3-2 lead.  Buffalo tied the game in the bottom of the sixth on a Valentino Pascucci homer, but the Yankees put together a big eighth inning to retake the lead.  Jorge Vazquez led off with a homer.  Laird singled and Parraz was hit by a pitch.  Nunez singled, followed by a RBI single from Doug Bernier.  Kevin Russo hit a sac fly and the Yankees took a 6-3 win.

Luis Nunez was 3-4 on the day with two doubles and two RBIs.  Parraz was 2-3 with three runs scored, two doubles and a RBI.  Buddy Carlyle pitched two hitless, scoreless innings and picked up the win, while starter Greg Smith went six innings and gave up three runs on nine hits, two walks and three strikeouts.

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I’m mostly running out of energy to argue about Jesus Montero anymore, but one thing I did want to correct is the notion I’ve seen someone frequently that his walk rate has decreased this year. To wit, it’s true in a strict sense, but it’s not really meaningful at all. Consider:

So as you can see, in a nominal sense Montero’s walk rate is down from where it was last year, but not by much, and it’s still right in line with where he’s been for the rest of his minor league career, at a level where he was putting up some really gaudy numbers. To put that in perspective, Robinson Can’s best walk rate for a season was 8.2% in 2010, and prior to that he’d never even walked in 6% of his plate appearances. So while I don’t expect criticism of Montero to abate anytime soon, it’s just wrong to bring up his supposed lack of walks this year as part of the case against him.