Saturday, June 7, 2008

This staff is more than just Joba

Darrell Rasner is the hard luck pitcher of the team. No doubt about it. His record is 3-3, and it should stand at 5-1, with 6-0 being a distinct possibility. His ERA is a sparkling 2.58, and he has made 5 quality starts. And, no, not the MLB standard for quality starts, but ones by any standard used. Yesterday, he went 8 innings and only allowed 2 runs. That should have registered a "W" but it was not to be.

By the way, Moose has quietly tied for the lead in AL wins with 9. His ERA is a respectable 4.01 and dropping.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the team right itself shortly and go on a run of historic proportions. Maybe reel off 25 of 27 or something like that.

Go Yankees

Friday, June 6, 2008

Some baseball stupidity

Yesterday afternoon, Giambi hit a pinch hit 3 run HR in the bottom of the 9th to win the game. According to Mike and Mike this morning, this was the first time in Yankees history someone hit a 3 run pinch hit home run to win a game that the Yankees were trailing by 2 in the ninth with no one on and 2 outs.

Just when I thought every entirely useless bit of information had been disseminated, along comes this.

In other news, MLB ceremoniously drafted players from the Negro Leagues before yesterday's regular draft.

So, basically, they decided to honor the men who they previously considered unfit to share the field with white players. I don't know, it seems kind of dumb to me. If it makes the men feel better, then I'm glad for them. If it were me, I'd just be more pissed off.

The Yankees drafted infielder Emilio "Millito" Navarro, who played for the Cuban Stars. He is 102 years old, and is believed to be the oldest living professional baseball player. If he was a pitcher, they could use him in the pen in the 8th inning.

Go Yankees

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Jeter passes Mantle

and moves into 3rd place on the Yankees all-time hit total. His hit, number 2,416 for his career put him in 3rd place all-time among Yankees. The Captain now trails only Lou Gehrig (2,721) and Babe Ruth (2,518.)

We can expect Jeter to pass the Babe in a couple of months, and the Iron Horse around the middle of next year. Jeter turns 34 this month, so we can reasonably expect him to play another 4 or 5 years. Lost in the accolades of joining the ranks of all-time Yankee greats, is that Jeter is very close to cracking the list of all-time MLB hitters.

He is just a dozen hits away from being #100. And once he makes that list, he should move up quickly. It is reasonable to assume he will get another 100 hits this year. This should put him into the low 80's, and possibly even into the 70's.

If Jeter can play until age 40, and keep knocking out 150 hits per year, he will easily move into the rarified air of 3000 hits, and, into the top 20 of all-time batters. Considering that a typical year for him is closer to 200 hits per year, he could move into the 3000 club much sooner.

And everyone thought A-Rod was the only first ballot Hall of Famer on this squad.

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Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Generation Trey success story gets start

Joba Chamberlain, the only member of Generation Trey who hasn't stunk up Yankee Stadium gets a start tonight. It looks like he is being rushed a bit because, to be truthful, the starting staff has been terrible.

A quality start is one in which the starter goes 6 innings (or more) and holds the other team to 3 runs or fewer. The theory is that such a performance gives one's team a chance to win.
And, the Yankee starters have been sorely lacking lately. Moving Joba to the starting rotation brings up many questions. First, who will take over his role bridging to Rivera? It was hoped Farnsworth could do it, but based upon last night's outing, I'm not too sure.

It's hard to place the blame on anyone for last night's game. Certainly, any time a team puts up 5 runs, it's hard to not fault the pitching, but holy crap--25 men left on base? (10 for the team--still pretty bad) That's unbelievable. Cano continues to struggle. I'm no expert, but could he maybe take a pitch every so often? How could that hurt? Two days ago, in 4 at bats, he saw a total of 6 pitches. The Yankee teams of the late 90's that were so successful used to go deep into a count. This group acts as if they have a bus to catch.

Joba takes the hill tonight against one of the best in baseball, Roy Halladay of the Jays. (7:05 YES)

I'm hoping for a good start to what will be the next part of Joba's career.
I'm very concerned that they will weaken what had been their biggest strength--the Bridge to Mo.

Good luck, Joba. You'll need it.

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Go Yankees

Monday, June 2, 2008

Quick post

Yankees at Twins tonight.
Pettitte starts. Tomorrow, Joba gets his first start.

Be back in the morning.

Go Yankees

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Yankees win in extra innings

It took 12 innings for the Yankees to finally put away the Twins 7-6 in what turned out to be a very unusual game. It was the first extra inning win of the year, and their 3rd straight win.
Wang started and had trouble early on getting his sinker over for strikes. It was consistently low and outside. Wang usually goes deep into a game because he doesn't waste a lot of pitches, but that wasn't the case yesterday as he threw 92 in a little over 5 innings of work.
Since his 6-0 start, Wang has been struggling, and yesterday was no exception as he fell behind early. He lef in the 6th, clinging to a 6-5 lead. The normally perfect Ramirez gave up his first run of the season (a solo shot by Cuddyer in the 7th) and blew the save.

The rest of the pen held the Twins in check, and Mo nailed down the save (his 15th) in the 12th. Ohlendorf pitched 2 scoreless innings to pick up the win.

The Yankees scored in the top of the 12th as Damon, Jeter, and then Abreu singled to drive in the winning run.

Today Rasner (3-1 1.80) takes the mound at 2:10 (YES)

Rasner has been the most consistent Yankee starter, and with a little support, he would have been 4-0.


In the injury report, Posada has been throwing in Florida, and could rejoin the team and be behind the dish by Thursday.

In other news, Joba is scheduled to make his first MLB start on Tuesday against the always tough Blue Jays.

The Yanks wll be calling up another pitcher to take Joba's place in the pen, but that announcement hasn't come yet.


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Go Yankees

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Downtown, New Jersey, United States
Yankees fan. But the team hasn't been the same since Yogi retired. TV watching expert. Manly man.