Ransom Read

It turns out the coolest thing about Cody Ransom isn’t his name. Apparently, he’s survived a tremendous car accident that claimed the lives of 4 of his friends and he also had a grandfather who was a Yankee farmhand. Who knew? Check out this read at the Times for a bit of background on the helpful bench player.

Oh Cano

Jon Heyman has a new article out where he outlines exactly why the Yankees are “done” for the season (yet he somehow says, at the end of the piece, that the Rockies may be back in the playoff race despite being 6 games out of first). In the text, Heyman’s first point about the Yankees deals with Robinson Cano. Here’s what he had to say about Cano’s year.

How has Robinson Cano degenerated form one of the best young players in the game to a so-so and seemingly indifferent second baseman? None of the young players on the team lived up to their billing, and that goes for Melky Cabrera, Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy and Shelley Duncan, as well.

But perhaps no one is a greater enigma than Cano. The dropoff is so severe and significant that one Yankee said, “Just look at [Red Sox second baseman Dustin] Pedroia, and the year he’s having. The difference between him and Cano is the difference between the teams. Pedroia doesn’t have one-quarter the talent of Cano, but he’s outplaying him by a mile.” There are two theories about Cano’s decline. One is that he misses Larry Bowa, who was the Yankees third base coach from 2006-07, and the other is that his new $32-million contract made him comfortable.

“No way they should have given Robbie that contract. He’s the last guy who should have gotten a contract like that,” one Yankee said. “They never gave a deal like that to Derek Jeter or Bernie Williams or Jorge Posada or Mariano Rivera with so much time to go before free agency. They could have given it to Cano or [Chien-Ming] Wang. They picked the wrong guy.”

Cashman disagrees, and said, “I don’t believe it’s the contract. He came in and worked hard, and he was constantly in the weight room.” Cashman gives only slightly more credence to the Bowa theory. “I think Bowa’s a tremendous coach, one of the best third-base coaches I’ve ever seen, maybe the best. But I don’t think coaches make players. Players make players.”

Wow, the comment about Cano and Pedroia came from a Yankee? That’s a pretty tough indictment. Maybe the contract hasn’t made Cano comfortable, and that’s the problem. Maybe he feels like he needs to justify the contract, which can explain why he’s swinging at everything that’s out of the zone (he normally swings at everything, but this year it’s been really bad). Then again, that wouldn’t explain why Cano has seemed “indifferent” at times, although I feel that that characterization could be misguided, as he always looks so relaxed when he plays and when he screws up, it simply looks like he doesn’t care.

Either way, Cano probably won’t hit close to .300 this year (there’s still hope there), but maybe this will serve as a wakeup call for next year (I think he’ll have a monster 2009 season).

To Pee Or To Sing

From UPI.com:

A New York Yankees fan says he might sue after he was allegedly ejected for trying to use the Yankee Stadium men’s room while a patriotic song was playing.Bradford Campeau-Laurion told WCBS-TV in New York Thursday that the seventh-inning stretch seemed like an opportune time for a pit stop during Tuesday’s game against Boston. However a police officer allegedly blocked his departure until the traditional recording of “God Bless America” was finished playing.

Campeau-Laurion said when he protested that his priority at the moment was the rest room, two officers pinned his arms behind him and gave him the bum’s rush out the gate.

“He shoved me out the front gate and told me get out of their country if I didn’t like it,” Campeau-Laurion said to the television station.

A police spokesman told WCBS that Campeau-Laurion was abusive and appeared to be drunk, which Campeau-Laurion and the person he was attending the game both denied.

The Yankees have a policy that prohibits fans from wandering around when “God Bless America” is playing, but the American Civil Liberties Union said having the police throw someone out for simply wanting to use the bathroom probably crossed the line, WCBS said.

What a strange story. To be honest, I’ve never felt comfortable leaving to use the bathroom or get food during the 7th-inning stretch (I never like leaving my seat during the game, at all). With that said, I’m surprised at how strongly the Yankees have enforced their “God Bless America” rule about not wondering around during that period. I don’t see why leaving to use the bathroom would be frowned upon (why should you have to explain where you’re going anyway?), but I guess if the fan was engaging in drunken debauchery, then maybe I can see why he would get tossed. However, a witness has come forward and disputed that claim.

It’ll be interesting to see how the “God Bless America” bit fits into the new stadium. I wonder if it will feel totally outdated (some say that it’s totally outdated now). What do you think? To be perfectly honest, I could care less about the tradition itself. Maybe it’d be fun to come up with a new tradition in the new stadium?

(Props to WW).

Hughes Working Things Out

From Tyler Kepner (NY Times):

The Yankees have not forgotten about Phil Hughes, who started the season in the rotation but is now laboring for Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. On Wednesday in Buffalo, Hughes worked 6 1/3 innings, allowing two runs and six hits, striking out seven with one walk. It followed two dismal starts that put into question whether Hughes would return in September.

Nardi Contreras, the organization’s pitching coordinator, traveled to Buffalo for the start. He showed Hughes video of his strong outings in 2007 and worked on mechanical adjustments.

“He threw the ball hard,” Contreras said. “Threw the fastball for strikes and had a real good curveball. Real good changeup, mixed in a slider. He attacked the strike zone. They had (Josh) Barfield, Victor Martinez and (Tony) Graffanino in the lineup. He did well.”

Contreras said Hughes topped out at 94 miles an hour and pitched regularly at 92. He would not say what adjustments he made to Hughes’ delivery, but he seemed to like the results.

“He did well, and he had some success,” Contreras said. “He’s on his way.”

Not literally, Contreras meant. That is a call for General Manager Brian Cashman and Manager Joe Girardi, who will start adding players from the minors when rosters expand on Monday.

I thought that Hughes’ two bad starts were attributed to a bout of dead arm, but it seems like that may not be true (although that’s what we heard from a few sources). Hughes has had a lot of problems performing his delivery, over and over again (this has happened throughout his career), and many of his injuries have been the direct result of mechanical problems. Mechanical issues have also hurt Hughes’ control, whether its of his fastball or his curveball and we saw that earlier in the year (and then he was injured, which was probably the result of his mechanics, yet again). Hopefully everything is ironed out now and we’ll see him pitching in the rotation next week (later Sidney), with his best stuff.

Blame Brian

From the NY Times:

“But Cashman, the general manager, took full responsibility for the Yankees’ disappointing season when asked how much blame he deserved.“All of it,” he said. “The bottom line is I’m the G.M. If you want to clear this out of the way, this is not a Joe Girardi issue. We have a terrific hitting coach in Kevin Long. I think we have extremely talented players. I’ve put together a club that is where it’s at, and I’m responsible for that.”

Cashman obviously deserves his fair share of the blame for this years struggles. He constructed a team that was too old and, as we found out with our pitching, it was also too young. Now, at the beginning of the year we were all fine (generally) with the addition of Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes. In fact, it seemed like a good idea at the time, especially with their 2007 season numbers in mind. However, when those guys went down, Brian Cashman’s failure was not having a specific backup plan (e.g. not making a trade, etc.). By promoting those two, we essentially eliminated a lot of the depth we had in the minor leagues (in case of injury) and it wasn’t restocked in an adequate fashion. It seems like that’s where Brian Cashman failed, and his patchwork rotation hasn’t done much since.