From Alden Gonzalez (MLB):

The Yankees announced on Sunday that they will open the Stadium Field Level and Great Hall to the public to watch the Yankees face the Angels in Anaheim as New York tries to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the ALCS.

“We wanted to provide a place for our fans to come together to cheer for our team, even if the game itself is taking place across the country,” Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner said in a news release. “This is a way of saying ‘Thank you’ for their continued support.”

Turnstiles between Gates 4 and 6 will open at 3:30 p.m. ET for the 4:13 p.m. game — broadcast on FOX — and fans can watch it in the Great Hall or in the open sections of the Field Level. Food and concession stands, as well as NYY Steak and Hard Rock Café, will be open and available to fans.

Awesome stuff by the Yankees. I think they’ll get a nice group of fans, as the weather looks to be pretty favorable. Opening up the park should be good for the surrounding community, as well.

Via Marc Carig (props to RAB), we learn that the Yankees will start CC Sabathia on short rest for Game 4 of the ALCS.

From Jon Heyman (SI):

A.J. Burnett threw another nice game with favored catcher Jose Molina behind the plate, allowing three hits and two earned runs in 6 1/3 innings. So look for Molina to remain his personal catcher thoughout the postseason. Yankees manager Joe Girardi and Burnett have suggested it was Girardi’s call to employ Molina. But of course it comes with Burnett’s unspoken (at least publicly unspoken) approval.

A couple of the Yankees’ more finicky star pitchers have had issues with Posada before, most notably Randy Johnson, who was eventually caught every game by backup John Flaherty. Others see the benefits of Molina but understand that the team is better off with Posada in the lineup. According to people in the Yankees’ clubhouse, the two biggest reasons Molina may be favored by pitchers are 1) game calling (and more specifically, the speed of his game calling), and 2) framing pitches.

Word is that Molina is much quicker than Posada at calling for pitches when there’s a baserunner at second base, enabling the pitcher to stay in rhythm, and also much more likely to accept a pitcher’s wishes. Posada is seen as slightly stubborn about his opinion of what pitch should be called. Molina is also viewed as one of the best in the league framing pitches, and thus stealing strikes. One pitcher said Molina may steal up to three or four strikes an inning when he’s at his best.

Heyman isn’t necessarily providing us with any new information here, as it’s common knowledge that Molina is a better game-caller than Posada and that he can frame pitches as if they were photographs. However, I did not know that Molina was more likely to accept a pitcher’s wishes, which explains why he’s able to an induce such a rhythmic tempo when he’s behind the plate. I’ve always thought that he took the lead and made good calls, making it easier for the pitcher to simply trust him and throw whatever it was that he asked for. That doesn’t appear to be the case, however, according to Heyman.

This, then, explains why A.J. Burnett and Joba Chamberlain seem to have such a good rapport with Molina. It’s a lot easier for a stubborn power pitcher to work with a fairly submissive catcher who accepts the pitcher’s pitch selection over his own, as this allows one to steer clear of a potentially harmful egotistical struggle. This intimate relationship between a pitcher and his catcher is a tremendously complex issue. There are a lot of psychological nuances involved, it seems. Too bad there isn’t any real statistic that I know of which probes the matter further (maybe the complexity prevents that, though).

From Ken Davidoff (Newsday):

A quick recap: According to a person in the loop, Matt Holliday’s top choices in free agency are: 1) Yankees; and 2) Mets. The Oklahoma native is apparently not intimidated by New York.As of now, I’d say the Yankees don’t want to make another large purchase like that, in the wake of last winter’s shopping spree – and if they win it all, then the pressure from the yakosphere (trademark Neil Best) to get Holliday should alleviate.

Matt Holliday, like Mark Teixeira, really is a good fit for the Yankees. Whereas the Jason Bay’s offense has likely peaked this season (he’ll be 32 next season), Matt Holliday, at 29, has yet to reach that mark.

This year, his numbers in Oakland were very good (.286/.378/.454) despite a miserable April (.240/.288/.360)—he was probably getting used to AL baseball and his new team—and once he returned to the NL, where the pitching was once again familiar, his stats were off the charts. He hit .353/.419/.604 in 63 games with St. Louis. That doesn’t mean he’s just an NL player, rather, it proves what “knowing pitchers” can do for your overall numbers.

Add Holliday’s exceptional defense—he’s 7.4 runs above average, range-wise—to his offensive talent and, on the season, you have a complete player, one that’s worth 5.6 WAR. If he were on the Yankees this year, he would be the 3rd best player on the team, behind only Derek Jeter and CC Sabathia (according to WAR). Furthermore, given his mixture of speed (14 SB), power and patience, he would be an excellent number 2 hitter for the Yankees (sorry, Johnny).

If Cashman and co. intend on adding another player to man left field for them, Matt Holliday is certainly the best choice. Whether he’s the most viable option, financially, though, has yet to be seen. Scott Boras is Holliday’s agent and is always looking for a massive payday. But, the Holliday family really seems to like the idea of their son in pinstripes, so perhaps that will factor into the negotiations and allow the Yankees to reel in another prized free agent this winter.

Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images

From Jon Heyman (SI):

In each of two different playoff games already, Yankees manager Joe Girardi has used eight different pitchers. Perhaps he’d use even more if he wasn’t running out of them.

Girardi’s playoff style is part Joe Torre and part Tony La Russa, which makes sense since he played for Torre during three victorious World Series and calls La Russa the best tactician he ever played for. La Russa was practically the inventor of the pitching change. And Torre learned early to manage with great urgency in the postseason from Don Zimmer, who’s also a mentor of Girardi.

But Girardi has taken the urgency to a whole new level.

Girardi used Joba Chamberlain for only one out in the seventh inning, and he used vaunted closer Mariano Rivera in the eighth inning of a tie game (plus the next two innings, as well). Rivera’s 2 1/3-inning outing was the longest of his season.

In the five games, Giarardi has made 19 pitching changes to cover 17 2/3 innings. That’s a lot of calls, but a vast majority of Girardi’s relief calls have worked.

As Steve over at WW points out, Girardi has managed the only 2 games in postseason history where a team has employed 8 or more pitchers in a contest that was 13-innings or less and where the team actually won (there are 7 instances where a team lost after using 8 or more pitchers in a 13-inning or less affair). One of those games was Game 2 of the ‘09 ALDS against the Twins and the second was Game 2 of the ‘09 ALCS (last night). Essentially, Girardi is going to his pen quite a bit, but the results are definitely positive. The Yankees are winning games on the backs of his decisions (the bullpen itself deserves credit, too, of course) and he appears to be pushing all of the right buttons.

Some folks may argue with Girardi’s use of Joba Chamberlain, specifically — he was in for 1/3 of an inning last night — however, thus far Joba hasn’t looked particularly sharp in his bullpen stint (he was off last night). For this reason, and taking into account the regular season, as well, I like that Girardi is willing to go batter-to-batter with him. It’s better to take a reliever out early (prior to an implosion), I think, than it is to take him out when it’s already too late (after an implosion).

Though I’ve been an outspoken critic of Girardi’s managerial decisions throughout the season, I have to say, he’s really winning me over in October.

Form Ben Reiter (SI):

On Fuentes’ third pitch, a 90 mile-an-hour fastball, Rodriguez took an inside-out uppercut swing and sent the ball soaring the other way. It landed just over the right field wall, giving Rodriguez an RBI for the sixth straight postseason game and making him just the third player ever, according to the website baseball-reference.com, to hit a game-tying home run in extra innings of a postseason game. “When Al hit that game-tying home run,” Hairston said later, “We knew something special was happening.”

No one is really sure what has happened to Rodriguez, who once upon a time struggled in the postseason. “I know you guys are probably looking for something profound,” he said to reporters after the game. “I’m just in a good place. I’m seeing the ball and I’m hitting it.” Later he said, “I think [it goes] back to spring training. It was a rough one this spring. I thought making things simple was the best thing for me … the fact that I’m out there playing baseball is a miracle.”

Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images

Here are the lineups, via LoHud:

YANKEES
Derek Jeter SS
Johnny Damon LF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Hideki Matsui DH
Nick Swisher RF
Robinson Cano 2B
Melky Cabrera CF
Jose Molina C

Pitching: RHP A.J. Burnett (0-0, 1.50 ERA)

ANGELS
Chone Figgins 3B
Bobby Abreu RF
Torii Hunter CF
Vladimir Guerrero DH
Kendry Morales 1B
Juan Rivera LF
Maicer Izturis 2B
Mike Napoli C
Erick Aybar SS

Pitching: LHP Joe Saunders (0-0, 0.00)

TIME/TV: 7:57 p.m., FOX

If the game starts on time, then they’ll do everything in their power to make sure it finishes at some point tonight (tonight is relative here, as the game could go beyond 12 am if there’s a rain delay). Either way, I don’t think they’ll postpone, regardless of the rain. Too bad it wasn’t a day game. The weather was fine earlier.

Here are Burnett’s numbers against the Angels, lifetime.

Here are Saunders’ numbers against the Yankees, lifetime.

I’ll call an A-Rod homer in advance. Over 14 AB’s, Alex is hitting .500/.533/1.071 against Saunders, with 2 HR, 2 2B, and 4 RBI. This is a good matchup for him. In fact, I expect to see Kate Hudson shown at least twice.

Based on the data provided above via Weather.com, it looks like there will be light ran and perhaps no rain prior to 10 pm. If we assume that this illustration is accurate (ha!), then the game should be able to start on time (7:57 pm), although delays could very well occur throughout the course of the night. I’ll provide updates as they become available to me, so stay tuned.

Here are three quick notes, assuming the game goes on as planned:

• Tino Martinez will throw out tonight’s ceremonial first pitch.
• Jose Molina has been declared the Yankees’ starting catcher for Game 2.
• A.J. Burnett will have to rein in his emotions tonight in order to be successful.

The site’s new layout is now fully functional and, from this point on, I’ll only be posting at www.i-yankees.com. I hope that you’ll meet me over there as the Yankees continue their postseason trek. Also, please, feel free to provide me with some feedback on the site via Twitter, Facebook, email or comment.

RIP THEBRONXZOO.WORDPRESS.COM (this site will remain as an archive).