Why Do We Have A Chance?

A lot of people, myself included, think that the Yankees have a chance to make a run at the Wild Card. Today’s loss against the Blue Jays, which was a tough loss (especially since A-Rod was safe in the 9th off of a bad tag), puts the Yankees’ record at 66-59. The Blue Jays’ record is now 65-60. The two teams are essentially tied for third place in the AL East and the Jays now have a chance to pass the Yankees in the WC hunt. TB just won and the Red Sox look like they’re headed for another victory despite their injuries and hardships (they may be losing their ace, and yet they’re still playing well–sorry Hank!). Meanwhile, Yankee fans are clinging on to a tiny sliver of hope that seems to get smaller and smaller with every embarrassing loss.

However, in light of the Jays’ record, I have to ask, why do we think that we have a chance at the Wild Card (the AL East lead is long gone)? Nobody has said anything about the Jays, who basically have an identical record (we’re 1 game apart). Why don’t we hear Jays’ fans talking about their shot at the WC? Maybe we’re just blinded by what the Yankees have done in recent years. Coming back after bad first halves and securing a playoff spot (that would soon be lost a few games later) has spoiled us into thinking we have a chance when, in fact, we’re no better than Toronto, or maybe even the Baltimore Orioles. Maybe it’s time for the Yankees to reevaluate their goals and concentrate on separating themselves from Toronto in the standings. That’s all we’ll ask for now.

You Can’t Make This Stuff Up

From George King (NY Post):

TORONTO — Yankees pitcher Carl Pavano came out of a minor-league rehab start Sunday with stiffness in his neck and didn’t throw a bullpen session today.

Pavano has been sidelined seemingly forever with a list of injuries ranging from a balky back to a bruised buttocks to rotator cuff tendinitis to a torn elbow ligament.

“He came out of his start with stiffness,” Joe Girardi said before the game against the Blue Jays. “I don’t think it had anything to do with him not (throwing a bullpen).”

If Pavano is Saturday’s starter in Baltimore, he would have to throw a bullpen today, but Girardi didn’t say if that was in the plan.

Finally, the universe is restored. More on this later.

Matsui’s Return Brings Clarity

PA is reporting that, from now on, Joe Girardi will use Matsui as the everyday DH, Damon will play CF and Gardner will be on the bench. Good call skip. Justin Christian has also been sent down (this seems like a fairly big story since everyone was wondering what would happen with Damon, Nady and Gardner upon Matsui’s return, so I’ll leave it as its own post instead of inserting into the game thread).

Game 125: Yanks VS. Blue Jays

From the man himself, PA:

YANKEES (66-58.)
Damon CF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
A. Rodriguez 3B
Giambi 1B
NadyLF
Matsui DH
Cano 2B
I. Rodriguez C
Rasner RHP

Matsui has good numbers against Burnett (.375 AVG//.920 OPS), so hopefully he can add a “hitting with RISP spark” to the Yankees’ underachieving lineup. Also, if he starts hitting, he could end up in front of Nady and maybe even in front of Giambi (in the lineup). Since Matsui is one of my favorite players, I’m pretty happy to see him back. Let’s go Yankees. This is a big game.

Bottom Feeding Brian Strikes Again?

While many Yankee fans anticipate the great Carl Pavano’s return this weekend against Baltimore, another name has been floating around the internet as a possible candidate for Saturday’s start. That name is none other than Victor Zambrano. Joel Sherman has actually brought his name up in light of all the Pavano or Hughes talk. Zambrano was signed in late July and is part of Brian Cashman’s infamous “Adopt-A-Pitcher” program (e.g. Ponson, Chacon, etc.), where he takes terrible pitchers from other organizations, puts a Yankee uniform on them, and hopes for the best.

Zambrano has pitched well for the Yankees’ minor league system, thus far, yielding 0 ER, 8 hits and 3 BB over 13 innings (between GCL and Double-A ball), while striking out 9. That’s pretty solid stuff, but let’s not forget that Victor Zambrano has been god awful since, uuh, forever, and before signing with the Yankees he had a 9.45 ERA and a 2.30 WHIP for Colorado THIS year (in AAA!). While getting hit around in Colorado is understandable, Zambrano walked 30 men in 40 innings. That’s just unacceptable and downright horrible when you’re dealing with a 33-year old veteran. But, maybe I’m being hard on the guy. He’s had a variety of very serious arm injuries (2 TJ surgeries, a torn elbow ligament, etc.) and had major surgery in 2006, yet somehow managed to pitch (albeit terribly) in 2007 for Toronto and the Orioles.

Actually, you know what, I don’t think I’m being hard on him. I don’t think he’s a great candidate for a start (he has a 6.97 ERA against Baltimore and an 11.45 ERA at Camden Yards), but then again, is Carl Pavano? I’d rather see Hughes over either guy, although I’d like to see what Pavano can do. However, that may just be curiosity that’s seeping in, and maybe I’m not thinking objectively? Remember when everyone was talking about starting Alfredo Aceves just a month or so ago? I guess that 5.12 ERA and 1.39 WHIP in AAA ball has forced everyone to rethink that option.

Will Pavano Get The Nod?

The Yankees have been mulling over their pitching options for Saturday’s game against Baltimore. Phil Hughes and Carl Pavano are the two primary candidates for the start, and with Hughes’ most recent start (a poor one, reportedly caused by a minor illness) and with Pavano looking sharp in his latest outing, Pavano seems to have the upper hand. “He’s close to being ready,” says Cashman and as the end of the season draws near, hell, we could all use a good laugh, so why not?

It Is What It Is

From Wallace Mathews at Newsday:

Can you imagine how hard and fast the fists would be flying in the Bronx today if Torre had accepted the deal, only to find himself 91/2 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays, of all teams, and five games out of the wild-card race with fewer than 40 games to go?

For a guy dubbed Clueless Joe before his first day on the job, it was an incredibly shrewd and prescient move by Torre.

And for an organization that prides itself on its baseball judgment, it was an incredibly weak and shortsighted play by the Yankees, who thought they needed a new voice in the clubhouse.

Meanwhile, Torre got a change of scenery and believe me, the view of Chavez Ravine is a lot nicer than the Grand Concourse.

Today, Torre’s Dodgers sit atop the NL West in a first-place tie with the Arizona Diamondbacks. And in the Bronx, Joe Girardi — New Joe — struggles to find a way to keep his $209-million roster alive in August, let alone October.

In one sense, it is clear the Yankees owe Torre an apology, because clearly, he wasn’t the problem with this team last year any more than Girardi is the problem with it this year.

In another sense, it is Torre who owes a hearty thank you to the Yankees, for showing him the way to the door just before the roof fell in on the rest of them.

Nearly a year later, the ugly public divorce between the Yankees and Torre turns out to have been a blessing for one but a wash for the other.

It probably would not have mattered who managed the Yankees this year, what with the rash of injuries to key players such as Jorge Posada, Chien-Ming Wang, Hideki Matsui, Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes, the lack of production from the likes of Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera, and the undeniable effects of aging on Johnny Damon, Jason Giambi and yes, even Derek Jeter.

Throw in the unreliability of the bullpen and the appalling thinness of the bench and you have a mess Miller Huggins couldn’t have managed to win with.

Torre, of course, would have loved to stay here under the right conditions — i.e., minus the threat of “Win the World Series or else” — but was smart enough to realize that taking a job simply for the money is a sure road to misery and failure.

Last year, the bullpen and our rotation were the biggest issues for the Yankees. The offense was good and Joe Torre was blessed with a career year from Jorge Posada and another MVP year from Alex Rodriguez (they helped to make up for Damon and Abreu in the first half). Matsui clubbed 12 homers in one month, and everything was fine and dandy in the Yankee universe (offense-wise). This year, we’ve seen Joe Girardi handle his pitchers well (BP and rotation) while he’s lost control of his offense (injuries and his quirky lineup decisions have played a big part in that). Now, if only we could get Joe Girardi and Joe Torre together to have a baby, maybe then we’d have the perfect balance in our manager. Oh well.

Despite the results we’ve seen this year, I’m still fine with the decision to part with Joe Torre. It was time for a new direction and it seems as though Torre is enjoying his tenure in LA (his Dodgers are tied for first in the NL West, by the way). While Joe Girardi has been somewhat disappointing at times, he’s still fairly inexperienced and should be better equipped for next year. Let’s be honest, I’m no Girardi apologist, but he’s done a nice job when you consider the assortment of injuries and inconsistencies that have plagued the team.

Not Cool Jeff

I like reading Jeff Passan’s columns over at Yahoo Sports, however, I must say that his latest is a bit depressing. In Passan’s text, he documents the Yankees’ struggles with RISP and wonders how different the playoffs will be without those hated (and our beloved) Yankees (he basically believes that our season has been over for quite some time now). Passan also makes a particularly compelling comment about the team in the following passage.

The Yankees rank 22nd in on-base-plus-slugging with runners in scoring position, a number difficult for Cashman to fathom.“As a collective, we have been so poor in that arena,” he said. “And this was a team that was supposed to be built on offense more than anything else. We’ve been offensively challenged.”

Cashman, in his 11th season as GM, was the team’s architect, though some of the bloated contracts came from George Steinbrenner’s totalitarian edicts. Cashman wants to build the Yankees much like the Red Sox and Rays: through superior scouting and development supplemented – not suffocated – by free-agent signings. It’s how the Yankees constructed their four-titles-in-five-years dynasty late last decade, and a philosophy from which they drifted as their payroll swelled past $200 million.

Gone, too, is the Yankees’ identity. Bad guys lose their villainy when their ability to inspire fear wanes. For so long, the Yankees were beasts and menaces, the last 13 years proudly wearing bull’s-eyes and eating every bullet like it was a Fruity Pebble. Now, they take solace in a schedule that has them facing the Rays and Red Sox a dozen times but offers little else in the way of hope.

The final paragraph could be important for the future of the franchise. For years now, the Yankee mystique and aura have been taking hits (most of those hits were handed to us by the Red Sox and by anyone else we played in the playoffs). Slowly, the team’s collective persona as an offensive juggernaut has all but chipped away (look at the Rays or even the Orioles, as they are no longer intimidated). Brian Cashman’s job, if he sticks around for next year, will be to revamp the team’s lineup and pitching corps, but he’ll also be looking to create a new identity for a team in transition. Whatever that identity is (offensive juggernaut or pitching first) could ultimately define the team’s future.

Simple Solution

With Hideki Matsui’s impending return, many are wondering, how will Joe Girardi manage this situation? With Matsui (who can only play DH), Nady, Damon, Giambi, and Gardner all vying for playing time, some believe that Girardi actually has a very tough decision to make with the Yankees’ lineup. Who will sit? How often will Matsui play? What about Damon, Gardner and Nady? What’s more important, offense or defense? For some, these are hazy questions with even hazier answers. However, I for one, do not really see it that way. To me, and to many fans out there who are tired of the endless inconsistencies that have defined the season, the answer seems extremely clear, and I would think that it should be one of the easier decisions Girardi has had to make while managing the team.

Hideki Matsui must play as much as possible. That’s the only answer there is. He’s coming off of a serious injury that’ll likely require surgery after the season has ended. Nonetheless, if he’s ready to go, he must be inserted into the everyday lineup. That would mean Jason Giambi plays 1B, Matsui will be the DH, and Johnny Damon will play CF (with Nady in LF and Abreu in RF). Brett Gardner will be relegated to the bench and although he’s coming off of a nice game, we cannot forget the manner in which Matsui’s mere presence changes the look of our lineup. Girardi seems to like Gardner a lot but, at this point, this decision and defensive configuration (Damon in CF), although not the best for the Yankees’ pitching staff, is the right move to make. The pitching will get by as it has proven to be quite resilient all year long. It’s the hitting with RISP that needs to be “fixed”, therefore, Matsui, who was hitting .338 with RISP before being sidelined with knee problems, is just what the Yankees are looking for.

It’s crunch time and the team’s offense needs a huge boost. The back end of our rotation features Sidney Ponson and Darrell Rasner (and maybe Carl Pavano). These are guys who are going to get hit and hit hard, so as we near the end of the season, isn’t it best to put all your eggs in the offensive basket and hope that things turn around? Let’s see what decision Joe Girardi ultimately makes. The the right decision would be to play Hideki Matsui as much as possible. He’ll definitely need a few days off, here and there, but you just cannot sit a guy who can produce runs in the middle of our lineup when that has been our biggest problem this season. Some think that the Yankees need to face reality and understand that the team won’t make the playoffs for the first time since 1993, so giving Gardner a chance to play is important (for next year and beyond). However, is that a realistic concept for the NY Yankees? Hideki Matsui’s return is, in and of itself, a move that demonstrates they’re not willing to concede (at least not yet).