Guzman Added, Hinske Dropped

Joe Girardi announced today that Freddy Guzman will be on the roster and that he will be replacing Eric Hinske's spot. Also A.J. Burnett was officially announced as the Game 2 starter and Andy Pettitte will pitch Game 3. Girardi continues to keep everyone on their feet as a Game 4 starter is still yet to be announced.

I really like this move out of Girardi. The Angels are a very fast team and the only way to beat them may be to make their greatest strength a strength of ours as well. Hinske would only have been used in a pinch-hitting situation, which is highly unlikely considering the Yankees lineup. With Guzman on the bench, that gives you him, Gardner (or Gardy as Girardi calls him), and even Jerry Hairston Jr. as possible pinch-runner options. This also leads me to believe Gardner will get a start in the ALCS too, now that they have an extra pinch runner.

As far as Burnett pitching Game 2, Molina will most likely catch him again although I do not think Girardi has made that official. Although you lose Posada's bat, Molina will be twice as important because if Burnett is walking guys, they will steal and Molina's arm is much better than Posada's.

Lastly, the one thing on everybody's mind before we begin the ALCS tommorow is the weather. Heavy rains are expected the entire weekend (it evened snowed today in Connecticut). Friday there appears to be a window in which the game can be played, but Saturday is very questionable. The Yankees would not want to have a rainout because it would allow them to use Sabathia three times in this series should it go to seven games. Also, with the games being broadcasted on FOX, if they cancel a game and it is replayed Sunday there will be a conflict with the football games. All I can say is hopefully the rain is light and they can play through it or else the entire ALCS schedule is going to have to be remodeled.

Also, those who have tickets for Games 1 and 2 must use their tickets for the game that they bought. So if Game 1 is pushed back to Saturday night, fans with tickets for Game 1 would go Saturday and fans with Game 2 tickets would go Sunday. I hace tickets for Game 2 and the easiest thing for my travel plans would be for them to play the game Saturday night. But the MLB loves screwing me over with playoff tickets so who knows.

Anyway that's all the news out of Yankeeland today. Seems like I wrote a lot so I'll try and find a picture of Freddy Guzman to make this post look better.

Now, back to writing a paper on the bioethics of human cloning!!! (Don't ask me why a journalism major is required to take 7 credits of science).

(Note from Jim: It may have snowed in Connecticut, but it hasn't snowed more than a couple of minutes yet in Syracuse, and none of it's stuck. Unfortunately, however, I haven't seen the sun in over a week.)
See Ya!