So that’s what a win feels like….

So much to cover, so let’s just get right into all the Yankee News and Notes from the past week…

- What would you as a fan rather see?  Your team win a game handily behind solid starting pitching and timely hitting, or your team blowing a game they had in the bag, only to rally back in extra innings with impressive bullpen work and clutch hitting?  I would say last nights game really makes you choose between the two options I listed above.  Never though Rivera blowing a game (yep it’s August, which as Yankee fans know is Mo’s annual time of the year to blow a few saves) would turn out to be such a good thing, but perhaps managing to win last nights game will get this team motivated.  Hey at this point, where the Yankees trail Tampa by 8 games and Boston by 5, you’ve gotta cling to something.

- Speaking of Mo, I hated the way he went after Delmon Young.  Young has been criticized this year for both his lack of plate discipline and for trying to go to right field with every pitch.  So what does Mo do with 2 strikes?   He throws him a fat fastball on the outside corner, which Young of course went to right field with.  Why not go up in the zone as John Flaherty mentioned, or at least bust him in with a cutter?  Don’t tell me it’s because that’s his power zone, because Delmon Young has no power zone, which is evident by his .400 slugging percentage and 6 homeruns in 423 at bats.

- As great as Nady has been, Marte has been the complete opposite.  Marte needs to focus on pitching one inning at a time and locate his pitches better (duh I know).  At least Farnsworths 2 blown saves in Detroit in 4 opportunities has softened the blow of trading him away.  And please spare me on “look at Jeff Karstens, did they give up on him too soon” speech.  First I say respect the sample size, and secondly I say Karstens was mediocore in the majors and in AAA for the last 3 years.   I wish him the best in Pittsburgh but he’s not a loss.  Plus Nady has been fantastic and will replace Abreu in right field next year. 

- I’m glad A-Rod was the one to steal victory from the claws of defeat last night.  Arod has been slumping a bit as of late, which of course has been an invitation for all the haters to get on their soapboxes and deem him “unclutch”.  Joe Posnanski of the Kansas City Star was able to churn out this beauty of a blog entry, despite being thousands of miles away in China.  I urge you to take a look and what JoPa has to say about stat padding:

http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2008/08/11/baseball-talk-from-china/

And if you’re lazy and don’t want to read the whole thing (not that I blame you), here’s the best part which is in regards to Arod and how people believe he hits his best when the game is out of reach (these are career averages):

Alex Rodriguez
Score within 1 run: .304/.398/.584
Margin greater than 4: .310/.384/.573.

Not to bad huh, now get off his case unless you rather see Wilson Betemit playing third base every day.

- How about this beauty from Hank:

“I’m not writing off this season. They’re trying hard to win. There’s only so much you can do. They’re not supermen. I think it’s very simple, we’ve been devastated by injuries. No team I’ve ever seen in baseball has been decimated like this. It would kill any team. Imagine the Red Sox without (Josh) Beckett and (Jon) Lester. Pitching is 70 percent of the game. Wang won 19 games two straight years. Chamberlain became the most dominating pitcher in baseball. You can’t lose two guys like that.”

“It’s not making excuses. It’s reality. That’s part of the game. That’s clearly our problem. We’re going to win it next year. If we need to add a top veteran pitcher, we’ll do that. We’ll do whatever we need to do. Next year we’ll be extremely dangerous.”

Sweet, its nice to know that next season the Yankees will be world champions again.  As for his thoughts on this season…well at least he’s not threatening to fire anyone like his old man.  All I get out of this is a) Sabathia or Sheets will get a very nice offer come November and b) if Cashman wants to come back, the door will be open for his return.  I’m not sure how I feel on the two free agent pitchers, but I would love to see Cashman return.

- Girardi has been getting a lot of flack from the fans and media alike for his decision to sit Damon and Giambi on Monday.  If Girardi has one weakness, it is his inability to stick with a consistent lineup.  I think Girardi is a very good manager, but he should have a talk with Joe Torre about how to use your best players regardless of the platoon options available.  I mean even against Randy Johnson in his prime, who would you rather have hitting: Jason Giambi or left handed specialist Richie Sexson? 

- I found this link funny: http://www.fannation.com/truth_and_rumors/view/61754

Sheffield is no doubt a great player and a borderline HOF, but what a pain in the @ss he can be for a manager.  Wasn’t his reunion with Jim Leyland suppossed to make him happy?  Somewhere Joe Torre similing. 

- Jim Mulligan touched a bit on Boston’s acquisition of Paul Byrd in his blog entry today, and he raises an interesting question.  Why would teams fighting for a playoff spot pass on a pitcher who is 4-0 since the all-star break with a very respectable era?  Well they could believe his recent success is mainly due to sample size for starters. 

The reason I believe the Yankees passed on him is because I think the organization does not see him as more than a 5th starter, which really isn’t much of an upgrade over Ponson, Rasner or Giese.  Add in the fact that Hughes is probably one more AAA start away, and there really is no need to bring in another fringe pitcher.  Byrd’s ERA+ of 98 means he is league average, so there is no point in taking a spot away from Phil Hughes who will need to log some innings this season so his cap won’t be to low next year.  Also if you really want to reach for another reason to dislike Byrd, his BABIP (batting average of balls in play) over the past month is a low .255.  Over the last 14 days it’s .218 and over his last two starts it is an even .200.  Odds are he’ll even out, especially now that he’s pitching in Fenway.  In 5 games at Fenway Byrd has surrendered 38 hits in 31 innings, while giving up 7 homeruns.  I do think he’s a nice pick up for Boston now that Buchholz is nearing his innings cap and with Wakefield out, but I can understand why the Yankees passed on him.

- Speaking of Hughes, he has looked good in AAA thus far, where he has a whip under 1 in 10 innings.  I’m not going to list a bunch of stats due to such a small sample size, but the encouraging sign is apparently his fastball is touching 95 again.  Also he’s scrapped his slider in favor of a cutter which is new to his repertorie.  As for the man who shall remain nameless, lets just call him Carl P….no wait thats too obvious, how about C. Pavano, his line from Trenton last night was 4 1/3 innings, 5 runs on 7 hits, 2 homers surrendered, and 2 strikeouts.  According to Mike Ashmore who covers the Trenton Thunder, his velocity was in the mid to low 80’s, so clearly his arm strength isn’t all the way back.  But apparently he has made friends in Trenton, as his teammates seem to like him, shocker I know:

http://thunderbaseball.wordpress.com/

If Pavano was a decent human being he would accept a one year deal from the Yankees for the league minimum after stealing 40 million over the last 4 years.  Of course we know that won’t happen since this isn’t 1960 anymore and because Pavano isn’t a decent human being.

- Lots of minor league and draft news which I will touch on in Friday’s blog.  Just a reminder that Friday at noon is the deadline for team’s to sign their draft picks.  The organization that drafted said player loses the rights to sign him if that player is not signed by then.  The Yankees are still working on their first two picks, Gerritt Cole and Jeremy Bleich, but they are both Boras clients so it will come down to the deadline for sure.   I’ll go through all the signings on Friday, so keep an eye out for that. 

Okay that’s it for me today.  Big afternoon game for the Yankees today/now, as they haven’t won a series since they played Boston nearly 3 weeks ago.  Also btw, I think we’ve found a sporting activity that is harder to do than hitting a baseball.  How about those gymnast who have to balance on that 4 inch wide beam.  You have to feel bad for that girl who fell of the beam for the US last night (well unless you are Chinese, and Canadian).  Kind of sad when people are calling her a disgrace for falling, despite the fact that they could never do that themselves in a million years.  Plus the girl is just 20 and isn’t getting paid (as far as we know) for competiting in the Olympics. 

Thoughts and Comments can be sent to jvg019@yahoo.com.  See you Friday!

Like this post? Share it »

Last post (s) by Joseph Gallo

• Yankees sign Mark Teixeira - December 23rd, 2008
• Report: Burnett to Yankees for 5 years, $82.5 million - December 12th, 2008
• 3 Team, 12 Player Blockbuster Deal - December 10th, 2008
• Sabathia signs with Yankees for record setting contract - December 9th, 2008
• Winter Meetings Day 2: UPDATE 3:40 PM ET - December 9th, 2008