Yes You Can

Mike Mussina earned his keep tonight, pitching 6.1 beautiful innings of 5-hit, 1 run ball while making the giddy Tampa Bay lineup look fairly foolish with his slick mixture of yo-yo pitches and circus curves. Moose has now won 5 games in a row and is 6-3 a month into the season. He’s been even more than the Yankees were hoping for from a “declining” (or maybe we should say, changing) 39-year old. To nail it all down, Ross Ohlendorf, Joba Chamberlain (3 K’s in 1 IP), and Mariano Rivera (rebound) solidified the win and the Yankee pen continues to impress.

The offense, despite looking like they’ve been asleep while in the batter’s box, came alive just in time and just enough to score 2 for Mussina against the exceptional James Shields. Robinson Cano’s bat also showed that he’s pretty much out of his slump, going 4-for-4 (with an RBI), and leaving the game with an above-200 AVG (.205). Maybe it was the closed doors chat that Joe Girardi had with his club or maybe they were merely reacting to Hank Steinbrenner’s recent comments, especially since he himself was at the game. Either way, the bats worked when they had to and the Yankees won a squeaker.

So, the march to .500 begins yet again.

Game 3: Yanks VS. Rays

Here’s the lineup for the Yankees:

Damon LF
Abreu RF
Jeter SS
Giambi 1B
Matsui DH
Cano 2B
Cabrera CF
Ensberg 3B
Molina C

Mike Mussina needs to be a stopper tonight. He’ll be opposed by the highly underrated yet amazingly effective, James Shields.

Hank’s Gauntlet

Hank Steinbrenner just keeps going and going. This time, he’s talking about the Yanks-Mets series this weekend, making reference to Johan Santana (which Hank clearly sees as a missed opportunity) and if that wasn’t enough, he decides to go even further into the future and has already begun talking about next year (confident much?):

“To me, it’s not any added significance because Santana is pitching. We want to win, it’s that simple,” Steinbrenner said. “We’re both kind of struggling. We just need to win. They just need to win. We just need to keep putting wins in the win column. We’ve got to start racking up some runs.”

Steinbrenner will likely watch Friday’s game on TV in Florida, but could be at Yankee Stadium over the weekend.

“I think there is a very good chance I might go up there,” he said.

Steinbrenner, in his first season overseeing the team’s baseball operations, expects the Yankees to put together a hot streak, which has become a trademark in recent years.

“We’re going to do everything we can turn to it around this year,” Steinbrenner said. “I guarantee we’ll get his thing straight next year.”

Wasn’t this the guy who was talking about being patient during the offseason?

It’s only May 14th and Hank sounds sort of like a bad fantasy baseball player, ready to call it quits and trade his whole team after a few bad weeks. Everyone, including the talkative owner, needs to relax, because things will sort themselves out just like they did last year. And, hell, if they don’t, at least Hank is letting us know that he’ll be making some splashy moves for 2009 (Teixeira and Sabathia) that could hopefully help the team with their dreadfully slow starts.

Igawaphobia

Just saw the following on MLBTR:

RotoWorld has done some translating of a Japanese Associated Press article. They learned that Japanese righty Kenshin Kawakami reportedly prefers the Red Sox as his 2009 destination (he’ll be a free agent). The translation notes that the Yankees and Mets have scouted Kawakami.

Back in November of 2007, I asked Aaron Shinsano and Jackson Broder of East Windup Chronicle for a profile on Kawakami, among others. Here’s what they wrote:

Kenshin Kawakami – Japan’s highest paid starter for the champion Chunichi Dragons (he made around $3MM) mixes a fastball, cutter, and curveball. His fastball runs around 87 and his curve is very slow. He’s known as a big game pitcher and always challenges hitters. He was 12-8 with a 3.55 ERA in 2007, but the K/BB ratio was an appealing 6.3 in 167 2/3 IP. He’s a HR prone strikeout pitcher. Kawakami has been healthy for the past four seasons.

87 MPH fastball? Slow curve? HR prone strikeout pitcher? Sounds like another guy the Yankees signed a year ago… I say let the Red Sox deal with this eventual headache and save the money for C.C. Sabathia (likely) or Yu Darvish (unlikely) if either one is available at season’s end.

Hank Huffs and Puffs, Yet Again

From the NY Post:

HANK Steinbrenner had a message yesterday for his Yankees: Gentlemen, it’s time to get your act together. New York Yankees

“We’ve got to forget about all the injuries and start playing our butts off,” Steinbrenner told The Post. The Yankees were buried by the Rays on Monday. These are difficult days for Joe Girardi’s club.

“The bottom line is that the team is not playing the way it is capable of playing,” Steinbrenner said. “These players are being paid a lot of money and they had better decide for themselves to earn that money.”

The Yankees, whose $209 million payroll is the highest in baseball, are in fourth place in the AL East with a 19-21 mark. Starting pitching ranked 27th with a 5.08 ERA heading into last night’s 2-1, 11-inning loss in Tampa.

The offense is limping along because of injuries to MVP Alex Rodriguez and perennial All-Star Jorge Posada, but this slide is deeper than injuries.

Steinbrenner is right to say that injuries cannot be used as an excuse. There is too much talent for the Yankees not to be playing better.

“We have good professional hitters and I have a lot of faith in them,” Steinbrenner said from Tampa. As for the team in general, he noted, “I’m not saying they are not giving the effort, but they need to be playing harder.”

He then paid the much-improved Rays a compliment, saying, the Yankees have “got to start playing the way the Rays are playing. (The Yankees) need to start treating it like when they were younger players and going after that big contract, like they’re in (Triple-A) and trying to make the majors. That’s the kind of attitude and fire the players have to have.

“There’s no question we need to turn it around and we have the talent to turn it around. We’ve got the team in place, and now they just have to go out and do it.

“This is going to get turned around,” Steinbrenner said. “If it’s not turned around this year, then it will be turned around next year, by force if we have too.”

If you were a Yankee player, would this threat scare you? To be honest, I’d probably laugh and I can picture Bobby Abreu squinting his eyes and bellowing in the clubhouse. Then again, he’s playing for a new contract next year and he knows that the Yankees can give him a lot of money. Let’s see how he and the rest of the team reacts tonight against Tampa Bay and the talented changeup wielding, James Shields.

No Change Necessary

Here’s a quote from Joba Chamberlain regarding Goose Gossage’s recent comments about the David Dellucci celebration situation (Goose actually called Joba and they talked about his comments):

“It gives people something to talk about,” Chamberlain said. “It might be a topic of conversation for a long time, because I’m not going to change for nobody.”

Good to hear. You stick with whatever works and for Joba, what works is for him to be an energetic, fist pumping maniac. Let the guy live, or, if you’re going to go after him, why not go after everyone? How bout going after the guy who does an Irish jig after closing a game? I haven’t heard any news on that front lately.

Minor League Moves Sign of Something More?

From PA at the LoHud Blog:

Two interesting minor-league moves this week. J.B. Cox was promoted to AAA Scranton and Mark Melancon has been assigned to AA Trenton. Confirmed the moves with Brian Cashman today.

I haven’t had a chance to ask Cashman about this yet, and I’m not sure he would answer the question, but this is probably one of the steps in the Make Joba A Starter Plan. For the M.J.A.S.P. to work, they need some guys who can move into the bullpen. Cox and Melancon are high on that list.

Mark Melancon has some nasty stuff and he’d be a great replacement if Joba is moved to the rotation. The bullpen has been pitching well this year, so the desire to switch Joba seems even greater thanks to that success. If Farnsworth has finally turned the corner (it only took him a few years and a new pitch), he could have taken over in the 8th inning, but obviously, if these moves are precursors to a Joba role switch, then I guess Brian Cashman doesn’t have that much faith in the guy’s revamped performance, or they’re just precautionary measures for when Farnsworth takes over the role and blows it big time.