Now Hiring: Anyone Who Can Drive In Runs

That was an abysmal loss for the Yankees. Mike Mussina was dominant, even if he did give up 2 ER. 2 ER against the offense is fine for any club. However, the Yankee offense was totally brutal in Moose’s outing as the team only mustered 1 ER off of a solo shot by Alex Rodriguez (off of Scott Feldman, what?). Texas has one of the worst pitching staffs in baseball, therefore, this 1 R loss is all the more embarrassing. In fact, Feldman had never won a road game until today, that’s how bad this loss was.

Although I’m emphasizing the negative right now, there were some positives. Brett Gardner looked great at the plate, even if he didn’t get a hit. He worked counts and busted out of the box, narrowly missing a base hit and beating out what could have been a double play. Also, with the way the offense is going right now, you’d have to assume that they’re poised for a breakout. Hopefully they’ll do enough to win this series against Texas, and then, maybe against Boston, the breakout will occur.

Game 83: Yanks VS. Rangers

Here’s the lineup:

Gardner LF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Rodriguez 3B
Giambi 1B
Posada DH
Cano 2B
Cabrera CF
Molina C
Mussina RHP

Brett Gardner will make his debut. Exciting stuff. It’ll be up to Mike Mussina to keep the potent Ranger offense off-balance tonight.

Support Ian Kinsler

Although we’re Yankee fans, practicality and realism has certainly set in and I’m sure no one is holding their breathe in hopes that Robinson Cano will be the starting 2B in the AS Game this year at Yankee Stadium. Right now, Dustin Pedroia is in the lead when his performance really doesn’t warrant an AS appearance (at least, not as a starter). Ian Kinsler has been one of the best players this year and has stood out as the best 2B in 2008. So, let’s keep that rodent off the field and vote for Ian Kinsler instead of Robinson Cano for this year’s team. If we can’t put Cano there, at least we can make sure the right guy gets the job.

Go here, to vote.

Horne Injured

Alan Horne was injured in yesterday’s start for AAA. Right now, there’s no real information as to what went wrong with Horne and he’s saying that, physically, he feels fine (he’s not hurting) and just needs to regain life in his arm and his body (the patented dead arm experience). Horne had a bicep issue earlier in the year, and hopefully he’ll bounce back soon from whatever is ailing him. I believe that he could be a valuable trading chip if the Yankees decide to go that route in order to better their rotation.

Time To Get Hot

The Yankees have a 9-game test ahead of them, as they’ll be facing the Texas Rangers for 3 games, the Boston Red Sox for 4 games and then they’ll see Tampa Bay for 2 games. The Rangers are an offensive powerhouse right now and while Josh Hamilton and Milton Bradley are both All Star caliber producers, let’s not forget names like Michael Young (he’s turning it on right now) and David Murphy, as this is a team that can really swing the bat. The Yankees are pretty lucky though since their pitching is dreadful and they’ll see Scott Feldman (4.60 ERA), Kevin Millwood (5.08 ERA) and Luis Mendoza (5.74 ERA). The Yankees HAVE to take this series before facing Boston and TB in order to pad their record a bit. Tampa Bay and the Red Sox aren’t pushovers and they lead the AL East (TB is in first, Boston second). Any wins against these two teams will be absolutely huge for the Yanks as they’ll climb the ladder while simultaneously knocking their opponents down a few notches. This stretch of games will define the 2008 season.

Mike Mussina, Joba Chamberlain, and Sidney Ponson will square off against Texas and they’ll hopefully start us off on the right foot (Moose needs to set the tone and get this thing going).

Manny Manhandles Club Employee

Forget Shawn Chacon, at least he had a good reason (sort of) to be angry. Manny Ramirez pushed a club employee to the ground this weekend in Houston after the employee told him that he might not be able to get Manny’s entourage tickets to the Houston-Boston game (Manny wanted 16 tickets on game day). What is that about? Of course, I doubt anyone will be too upset about this, although many fans and writers are willing to crucify Shawn Chacon for what he did. I recently attended a Sox-Mariners game at Safeco and I was able to watch the Sox as they had batting practice. During that time, I saw a pretty big group of males that Manny seemed to know (his “entourage”) that were on the field and talking to him and Ortiz. Then, I saw them in the stands once the game started (they were really close). Talk about diva-like behavior.

Roster Move Recap

Okay, so there were a few notable roster moves (other than the impending Gardner move) that occurred during the week. Here’s a quick rundown:

• Ian Kennedy has been activated from the DL and was sent to Single-A Tampa. It seems rather harsh of the Yankees for them to send IPK all the way down to Single-A, but he’s missed a substantial portion of the season and is still very young (let’s not forget his problems when he was up in the majors), so this isn’t necessarily a “tough love” move. However, as Joe Girardi has stated, nothing is guaranteed for Kennedy and if he wants to see the majors again in 2008, he’ll have to earn his call up. Phil Hughes is in a similar position as Brian Cashman recently told reporters that Hughes may not be seen in the majors again, this year (that’s always subject to change of course).
• Next, after Kei Igawa was called up a few days ago, he’s been sent back down after the series with the Mets (breathe easy). Igawa was just another fresh arm after Friday’s doubleheader and he was basically Ponson insurance over the weekend. Also, Oneli Perez, who was recently claimed off of waivers was DFA’d in order to allow room for Dave Robertson, who was called up on Saturday.

Move Over Melky, Gardner Gets His Shot

Sorry Melky Cabrera, but Brett Gardner has been called up by the Yankees (Gardner’s hometown paper seemed to have broke the story). Gardner is quoted in the hometown article and seems thrilled (obviously) to get his shot. He’ll certainly push Melky for playing time as the Yanks would not have called him up unless he was going to get some regular AB’s (Melky’s production has been fairly terrible these past few months). He could be an option in the DH role, although Girardi will likely alternate Betemit, Giambi and Damon in that position with Hideki Matsui out. Currently, there is no news about a corresponding move, but I’d assume Alberto Gonzalez or Justin Christian will be the victims of this promotion.

Gardner was hitting .287 with an .841 OPS (and 34 SB) before he got the call. If Melky Cabrera is traded, sent down, or relegated to the bench, this could possibly be for the best. We all love Melky, but as an offensive player, he hasn’t shown the club much this year despite a hot start. The Yankees could use a speedy player like Gardner on their team and he could plug a tremendous hole at the bottom of the order (.412 OBP).

Girardi’s Peculiar Lineup

The lineup against Oliver Perez:

Damon, LF
Jeter, SS
A-Rod, 3B
Posada, 1B
Betemit, 2B
Melky, CF
Molina, C
Christian, RF
Rasner, SP

Girardi’s lineup for today’s game was less than stellar on paper and it truly performed that way when facing Oliver Perez and the rest of the Mets. In fact, that lineup made no sense at all. Now, while I understand that all major league players need a day off, what I don’t understand is why Joe Girardi decided to sit Bobby Abreu, Jason Giambi AND Robinson Cano, all in one game. Why do that, seriously?

Let’s look at the numbers for a second.

Jason Giambi is hitting .260 with a 1.015 OPS against lefties this year. He has a .500 AVG against Oliver Perez. Robinson Cano is hitting .281 with a .756 OPS against lefties this year. He has a .400 AVG against Oliver Perez. Bobby Abreu is hitting .316 with an .853 OPS against lefties this year. He has a .000 AVG against Oliver Perez (10 AB’s, 4 BB, 5 K’s). So, what have we learned here?

Joe Girardi could have done something differently with the lineup and it’s not merely a hindsight sort of critique. Giambi and a hot-hitting Cano, in particular, have solid numbers against Perez, so why sit both of those guys? Why not sit Abreu, then sit Cano or Giambi on separate days? Isn’t the job of the manager to be somewhat creative with off-days for his players? Shouldn’t a smart manager stagger his off-days instead of sitting 3 of his regular starters in one game (starters with solid numbers against lefties this year)? How do you think Derek Jeter, A-Rod and Damon felt with this lineup? Do you think that they thought they had their best opportunity to win with this configuration? I doubt it (no matter what they may say).

This is another frustrating Joe Girardi move. With the Yankees already in a significant AL East hole, Girardi doesn’t have the flexibility to sit 3 of his best players (in a game where the pitcher hits!). The righty-lefty explanations don’t hold up with the numbers for the season or the history had with starter, Oliver Perez. While the Yankees may have lost this one today, Joe Girardi deserves the most blame (not the hitters), as he did not give his team the chance to win with this strange lineup.

Jeter Supports Chacon

From the NY Times:

Derek Jeter said he would vouch for Shawn Chacon’s character if the Yankees considered bringing back Chacon after his release by the Houston Astros on Thursday. The move came a day after Chacon admitted to The Houston Chronicle that he had grabbed General Manager Ed Wade by the neck and thrown him to the ground in an argument.

“Chac’s a friend of mine,” Jeter said. “I see Chac in the off-season. I wouldn’t have a problem with him. I think people need to find out all the details. Yeah, it doesn’t look good, doesn’t sound good, but I don’t know what happened. I can’t picture it happening, knowing him like I know him.”

Chacon, a former Yankee, was 2-3 with a 5.04 earned run average in 15 starts and had recently been demoted to the bullpen.

After seeing what Sidney Ponson did for the Yankees on Friday, does anyone else get the feeling that the Yanks will scoop up Chacon (he’s on waivers)? I mean, it’s a low-risk move and if he brings even an ounce of the magic he had in 2005, I’m sure fans would be happy with that.

Santana Who?

Let me say that Andy Pettitte has truly stepped up in Chien-Ming Wang’s absence and has totally delivered ace-like performances for his team this month. Beating Johan Santana is fairly significant and symbolic as well, especially since the Yanks brought Pettitte back in the offseason ($16 million), which allowed Brian Cashman to cite financial reasons (to Hank) for not bringing in Santana. Without Pettitte’s strong outings (consecutive outings at that), the Yankees would not be a mere 5 games out of the AL East throne (the Rays and Sox both lost last night). He deserves a lot of credit for what he has done, especially when you consider that at the beginning of this month, Pettitte gave up 14 ER against KC and Minnesota (two back-to-back starts). Since then, he’s thrown 4 quality starts and has only given up 3 ER.

That’s simply remarkable.

Also, credit the bullpen for preserving the W in yesterday’s Met matchup. Jose Veras has slowly solidified his position as an integral part of the Yankee bullpen and seems to have locked up the 7th inning as he has pitched particularly well in high leverage situations (he has a 0.73 ERA in his last 11 appearances). With Dave Robertson’s call up (74 K’s in 51.2 IP) the Yankees are making strides in creating a formidable bullpen, even with Kyle Farnsworth’s enigmatic performances. Most of the lackluster arms have now been sent down (Ohlendorf was sent down and will work as a starter in order to refine his pitches) or have been relegated to the deepest annals of the NY bullpen (LaTroy, meet Edwar, Edwar, meet Latroy). After the first game of Friday’s doubleheader, I think that prompted the Yanks to make some decisions on these guys and now the bullpen picture, while still in transition a bit, is becoming clearer.

Finally, I have to do a quick rant before I end my post. Today, I was unable to watch the Yankee game, despite being an MLBTV owner (the internet package, where you watch games online). Granted, today’s game was on FOX, so I put on FOX hoping to see a pitcher’s duel. Instead, what I witnessed was a Chicago showdown between the White Sox and the Cubs. While that was a great game to watch, I couldn’t for the life of me understand why I wasn’t able to watch the game. Why not allow west coasters to watch the game on MLBTV? It’s not like it was showing on FOX for us and I pay a monthly fee in order to watch NYY games because I’m a “displaced” fan. In anger, I called the MLBTV people and I was told by one of their workers that the reason the game was blacked out was because the teams want people to go to the stadiums to watch their games (huh?). After that strange response, I asked him why, if I pay a monthly fee to basically see Yankee games, why am I being deprived of that service today? He stumbled with his words a bit and then told me that I can always watch the game on “a pay-per-view”. This bothered me even more, because, one, it made no sense, and two, why should I have to pay more money to see a “nationally” televised ballgame when I’m already paying to see it every month?

Argh, that was frustrating. So, in the end, I thanked the worker for his time (…), then I had to stick with MLB’s Gameday feature, which is like watching a Bingo game between a group of corpses (you know you enjoy this analogy). Okay, rant over.

Game 81: Yanks VS. Mets

Here’s the lineup, courtesy of Ed Price:

Damon lf,
Jeter ss,
Abreu rf,
Rodriguez 3b,
Giambi 1b,
Posada c,
Cano 2b,
Cabrera cf,
Pettitte p.

The Yanks will send Andy Pettitte to the mound and the Mets will counter with Mr. Would’ve, Could’ve (the “should have” part is debatable) himself, Johan Santana. Pettitte has given up 1 ER in his last 21 innings of work and he has a career 3.48 ERA against the Mets. Santana is also starting to turn it up a notch as he’s posted up a 1.87 ERA this month (his best of the season). He has a 2.98 ERA against the Yankees in 48.1 innings.

Robertson Gets a Shot

Dave Robertson, who has produced an impressive body of work in the minors (with little time), has gotten the call and will be with the Yankees today against the Mets. He has only thrown a little over 50 innings in AAA and AA ball (in ‘08), but he’s definitely got the strikeout pitches working (fastball, slider).

Quick Recap

So, in case you missed it, Dan Giese pitched pretty poorly in the first game of Friday’s doubleheader (he and every other pitcher on the Yanks roster were miserable), allowing Carlos Delgado to drive in 9 (a Mets record) against the Yanks in their own ballpark. Giese will likely be relegated to the bullpen after that debacle, and considering how poor the pen was for us in the first game, that may not be a bad idea. Also, Sidney Ponson pitched fairly well for us in the second game, although he flirted with danger more than once. Andy Pettitte will head to the mound for today’s game and looks to extend his streak of quality outings.

While the Yanks split the double yesterday, the Rays and the Sox continue to win. At this point, all the Yankees can do is play ball and hope for either one to hit the skids, at least for a little while.

Game 80: Yanks VS. Mets

Here’s the lineup (via PA):

YANKEES (42-37)
Damon LF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Rodriguez 3B
Giambi 1B
Cano 2B
Cabrera CF
Molina C
Ponson RHP

METS
Reyes SS
Castillo 2B
Wright 3B
Beltran CF
Delgado 1B
Nixon LF
Castro C
Chavez RF
Martinez RHP

Couple of roster moves to make note of as well. Hideki Matsui has been placed on the DL (hopefully he’ll be around for the AS Game) which opens up a spot for Sidney Ponson. Also, Kei Igawa is up so be prepared to see him out there if Ponson gets manhandled (so then Igawa can come out and continue what has been an ongoing trend for the Yankees today).

Insert Curse Words Here

After seeing a dismal Met team (Carlos Delgado?) waste our relievers (the Edwar Experiment is officially over and done with), I can’t watch anymore (I’m not into sadomasochism). Is Sidney Ponson supposed to give us a long outing tonight, because at this rate he’s going to have to (oh wait, there’s always LaTroy!). Good grief, maybe the Yanks should give these little guys a shot in the bullpen.

Fictional or not, at least they’d get someone out by accident.

Game 79: Yanks VS. Mets

Lineup via PA:

YANKEES (42-36)
Cabrera CF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Rodriguez 3B
Giambi DH
Posada C
Cano 2B
Betemit 1B
Christian LF
Giese RHP

METS (38-39)
Reyes SS
Castillo 2B
Wright 3B
Beltran CF
Delgado DH
Nixon RF
Anderson LF
Tatis 1B
Schneider C
Pelfrey RHP

How cool is today? We’ve got Dan Giese versus Mike Pelfrey, which isn’t really the best matchup in the world, but what’s really cool is that our old foes, Trot Nixon and Pedro Martinez (second game), will square off against the Yanks today. Now that is some interesting stuff.

Rainouts Are Not Cool

And, as Tyler Kepner notes (with the help of Mike Mussina) the Yankees hate them because now they’ll have another extra game to play on another one of their well-deserved off days. It’s important to realize that the Yankees are a big money team and, although they’re not in first place, they will always draw a crowd whether that’s through a media outlet (tv, radio, etc.) or in person (the actual ballgames). So, when schedules are created (a stork doesn’t just fly them in), this is definitely taken into account as the schedule tries to optimize financial revenue for the parties involved. PA at the LoHud Blog identifies the culprit in this case, as the Pirates were attempting to “appease their television partners” by having a night game (more people are available to watch night games, obviously), which is why the game wasn’t played earlier in the day despite complaints from the Yankees (with a doubleheader tomorrow, it’s tough).

It’s hard being a multi-millionaire, baseball player (…).

Matsui to the DL?

From Bryan Hoch (MLB):

Concerned that hitting in the cages might do more harm than good, the Yankees have ordered Hideki Matsui to not pick up a bat for the remainder of the club’s stay in Pittsburgh.

Matsui missed his third consecutive start on Thursday with a sore left knee and a stiff neck, and Yankees manager Joe Girardi acknowledged that the team will discuss the option of placing the designated hitter on the disabled list when it returns to New York.

“It’s always a possibility,” Girardi said. “You don’t want it to come to that, but if we feel that’s in the best interests of him and the club, we’ll talk about that.”

Without his legs under him, Matsui isn’t much of a hitter and that was certainly demonstrated in last year’s second half. The Yankees could possibly rest him throughout the weekend (no hitting at all) and hope for the best. If they need an extra hitter, they might as well get the most out of Justin Christian’s bat while it’s still hot.

Yanks Not Interested in Bedard?

From Jayson Stark (ESPN):

Much as the Yankees need pitching, we’re hearing they’ve all but decided Erik Bedard’s personality issues would make him a no-go in their always-serene clubhouse.

Do I detect some sarcasm there, Stark? Either way, I don’t think it makes sense for the Yanks to shut Bedard out as an option simply because of the off-field issues. The Yankees have the parts to get Bedard from Seattle and he’s a strikeout artist (an ace in waiting). Granted, he’s a touchy guy, he doesn’t work well with the media, and he’s somewhat of an injury risk, but he could be had at a discount with the Mariners totally rebuilding their club. I understand that if the team traded a package which included Melky Cabrera to get Bedard, it could be a problem for the players since Melky and Cano are good friends and he seems like a clubhouse favorite, so maybe that’s what Starks’ information stems from.