Uh-Oh...

AL East Standings
NY Yankees
66-39 .629
Tampa Bay
66-39 .629
Boston
60-46 .566 6.5

After losing two of three to the Rays, A.J. Burnett melted down in the fifth inning and the Yankees lost 8-6 to the Toronto Blue Jays. Meanwhile, the red-hot Twins and the American Idle himself (Carl Pavano) couldn't take care of the Rays, and both teams are in a dead tie for first place. The Red Sox lost 6-5 to the Indians, but still loom just 6.5 games back.

For the first time all season, I'm a little nervous about the Yankees. Burnett cannot, and I mean CANNOT, keep pitching like this. A-Rod needs to hit his 600th home run so he can just move on and stop worrying about it, and the Yankees desperately need Andy Pettitte back from the DL. The Rays are hot right now, the Red Sox are getting healthy, and even if the Yankees fall back and land the wild card, do you want them to face Cliff Lee and the Rangers in a five game series?

Tomorrow is the beginning of the race for the AL East. There are 57 games remaining. Out of the Rays and Yankees, whoever finishes with the best record over the next 57 games, wins the AL East and avoids Cliff Lee. Every game will be under the microscope until a playoff birth is clinched. It's time for the Yankees to find their identity this season and show us who they really are.

Read more...

Game 50: Yankees vs Indians

Let's hope A.J. can go eight and hand it off to Mo, because I don't trust anyone in the bullpen anymore.

Yankees
Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Juan Miranda DH
Brett Gardner LF
Chad Moeller C

Tigers
tba

Read more...

Rays Burned by AJ

Yankees 7 9 0

Image via Wikipedia

Rays 3 9 0

WP: Burnett (1-0)
LP: Choate (0-1)

Player of the Game: AJ Burnett. In his second outing of the season, A.J goes 7 innings and holds the Rays to 2 runs. On back-to-back (belly-to-belly) days, the top two pitchers in the rotation shut down the Rays and win their second consecutive series to start the season.

Play of the Game: The Curtis Granderson double play. The sliding catch and then throwing behind Pat Burell to get the out was very impressive.

Turning Point of the Game: Jorge Posada's go-ahead home run in the 6th inning off of former Yankee great Randy Choate. The catcher's homer got the Yanks offense going and Granderson, A-Rod, and Swisher helped tack on insurance runs.

• While you never want to lose a game, it does happen, so teams focus on winning series. The Yankees have done that so far this season, taking both series on the road against AL East rivals. And the fact that they did it after losing the first game of both series is even more impressive.
• With weird off-days and a 10-0 win yesterday, Mariano Rivera came in today despite the fact that it wasn't a save situation. Mo just needed to get some work in, and there's an off-day tomorrow, so it was the perfect situation to let him just throw.
  
• Joba came out of the 'pen as well today for the 8th inning and surrendered a RBI triple to Carl Crawford. Maybe it was because it's been 5 days since the electric performance in Boston or maybe it was because it wasn't as "exciting" a situation. If it was the latter, the Yanks might want to watch that because they don't need Joba making a guaranteed victory a close game with a poor outing.
  
• Curtis Granderson has made a good first impression with Yankee fans, so he should get a warm welcome at the Stadium on Tuesday.
  

Off-day tomorrow, but be sure to check in because we always have something to say.

SEE YA!

Read more...

Fight for the Fifth Spot, Round 1

I wanted to put this up yesterday after Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain pitched, but I didn't get around to it. The big question this spring training is who is the fifth starter for the Yankees? Hughes and Chamberlain are expected to be the front-runners, but after their performances yesterday, and the performances of some others this spring, it can easily be said that it is wide open. Now that the Yankees have played four spring training games, and each has gotten roughly 35 pitches in, let's breakdown how they have looked and the chances each have.

Chad Gaudin:
2 IP, 1 H, 1 K, 0 ER, 34 pitches, 23 strikes.

Sergio Mitre
2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 K

Alfredo Aceves
2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 K

Phil Hughes
2 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 33 pitches, 18 strikes.

Joba Chamberlain
1.1 IP, 3 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 1 K, 33 pitches, 14 strikes.

Kei Igawa (Yeah, I know. But Girardi has said not to rule him out)
1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 2 K

Analysis: Obviously it's still very early, but, there should be some cause for concern with Chamberlain and Hughes. All candidates had similar lines, with the exception of those two. My theory is that Hughes and Chamberlain could be putting a little more pressure on themselves whereas the others are pitching with no pressure at all. What really bothers me is Chamberlain's performance. Maybe it was because he was coming back from having the flu, but 14 strikes out of 33 pitches? Sounds like the exact same Joba from last year that we know.

On the other hand, the darkhorse of this group is Gaudin. He has the most experience out of anyone in this group, and pitched well for the Yankees at the end of last year. He went 2-0 with a 3.43 ERA in 11 games (6 starts). If Gaudin remains consistent and efficient for the rest of the spring, he has a legitimate chance of being the fifth starter. The the question becomes, do you put both Hughes and Chamberlain in the pen? Or one in the pen and the other to the minors to work as a starter?

There is still plenty of time left for decisions to be made, but this gives you a good idea of where the competition is at the first mile of a five mile race (yes I run cross-country I must make a running reference).

Other Yankees news:

• The Yankees lost 9-1 to the Toronto Blue Jays today. A.J. Burnett pitched, working out of a first inning bases loaded jam, but couldn't get out of the second, giving up 2 doubles and a single, surrendering 2 runs on 5 hits . His main concern was developing a changeup since he is only a two-pitch pitcher. He said that it's "only going to help."
• Francisco Cervelli was hit in the head today by a pitch and suffered a concussion. It was his second concussion in four months, so you know they will be careful with him. Girardi said that Mike Rivera is the third string catcher, not Jesus Montero, should Cervelli not be on the team come April.
• Gaudin and Mitre will pitch tomorrow against the Twins in Fort Myers, Florida. Andy Pettitte will pitch a two-inning simulated game.
• Mariano Rivera, Damaso Marte, and Chan Ho Park are the only pitchers who have not faced live hitting and will throw a batting practice session Monday.

That's it for today...See Ya!

Read more...

We're going back to NY

This game is too depressing to write too much about, so I'm going to keep it short, and in the always easy-to-read bullet form.

Bad:

• Yankees lost 7-6(duh).
• AJ Burnett gave up four runs in the first innings, but he did pitch better until he ran out of gas in the seventh.
• The offense couldn't do anything until the seventh, and couldn't get a hit with RISP in the ninth.
• Joba, Marte, and Hughes did not have it today.

Good:

• The offense scored 6 runs in the 7th inning to take the lead.
• Burnett pitched well from the second inning through the 6th inning
• We still have a 3-2 lead. We would need to lose two games at home in order to lose the series.
  
• We have CC Sabathia going in Game 7, if necessary.
• We have CC Sabathia going in Game 7, if necessary.
• We have CC Sabathia going in Game 7, if necessary.

SEE YA!

Read more...

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!

Read more...

ALDS Game 2: Twins at Yankees

YANKEES
Jeter SS
Damon LF
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Matsui DH
Swisher LF
Cano 2B
Cabrera CF
Molina C

Pitching: RHP A.J. Burnett (13-9, 4.04 ERA regular season)

TWINS
Span RF
Cabrera SS
Mauer C
Kubel DH
Cuddyer 1B
Young LF
Gomez CF
Tolbert 3B
Punto 2B

Pitching: RHP Nick Blackburn (11-11, 4.03 ERA regular season)

TIME/TV: 6:07 p.m., TBS

Lineups from LoHud Yankees Blog

Catch 43: Joe Molina has been the most talked about back-up catcher in the world right now. He will behind the plate tonight for AJ Burnett because the righty has much better numbers throwing to Molina than Posada. Posada may be pissed that he's being benched, which I don't think is a bad thing, but I think the thing that bugs him the most is that he knows it's the right move. I think he might also be thinking back to when he was doing this to current manager, Joe Girardi, and that he eventually replaced Girardi as the starter. But I don't think that's an issue with Molina, he might have to be worried if they're starting Cervelli over him, but not Molina. Also, I like Posada coming off the bench as a pinch hitter in the late innings, because I can think of at least two times where he hit go-ahead pinch-hit home runs.

Make it rain: There is rain in the forecast tonight, but not until 9 PM. At least it's not the snow they're expecting in Denver on Sunday.

Keep it at home: While the Yankees are up 1-0, this game is still important. If the Twins win, it will be tied 1-1 and the Twins will have taken home-field advantage for the series. While I believe the Yankees can go into the Metro Dome and win, it will be good to know that even if you can't you can come back home for Game 5 instead of going home to play golf.

The Teixecutioner: Arriving in my mailbox just in time for Game 2, I will be rocking The Teixecutioner T-shirt from Baldvinny.com tonight.

As with Game 1, we'll only have a few updates on the blog, but follow me @jgeant and John will most likely be on the blog Twitter @KaysSuccessors.

Enjoy the game everyone.

Read more...

GAME 104: Yankees at White Sox

YANKEES (62-41, First Place AL East)
Jeter SS
Swisher RF
Teixeira DH
Rodriguez 3B
Posada C
Cano 2B
Cabrera CF
Hairston LF
Ransom 1B
Pitching: RHP A.J. Burnett (10-4, 3.53).

WHITE SOX (53-51, Second Place AL Central)
Lineup TBA
Pitching: LHP John Danks (8-7, 3.89).

TIME/TV: 4:05, FOX.

Lead Shrinking: Don't look now, but the Yankees are only 1.5 games up on the Red Sox and have lost 3 of their last 4. Time to start winning again, to stay in first by the time they come into town.
New Guy In Town: Jerry Hairston Jr. is in the lineup today. Shelley Duncan was optioned back to AAA, so he got called up to sit the bench one night.
We Got Our Hot Pitcher Going Today: A.J. Burnett has been on a roll of late. He is 8-2, with a 2.08 ERA in his last 11 starts.
Home Run Hinkse: Eric Hinske has 5 home runs in 21 at-bats since becoming a Yankees.

Don't expect updates today. We're both going to be out and busy for the afternoon/evening.

Read more...

Yankees 11-Rays 4

Yankees 11 15 1
Rays 4 6 1

WP: Burnett (10-4)
LP: Shields (6-7)
S: Robertson (1)

PLAYER OF THE GAME: AJ Burnett. With his 7 inning, two-hit performance tonight, Burnett won his fifth-straight decision. We are going to take all the credit for it, because he started his hot streak on June 27 against the Mets, and we were in attendance.

Image by Keith Allison via Flickr

PLAY OF THE GAME: Robbie Cano and Nick Swisher going bakc-to-back, belly-to-belly in the sixth inning. It was the ninth time this season that the Yankees have hit back-to-back jacks.

TURNING POINT OF THE GAME: Robinson Cano's RBI triple in the 2nd inning to give the Yankees an early two-run lead, which is all Burnett would need.

GAME NOTES:

• The Yanks are obviously on a roll. They've lost only 1 game since the All-Star break. In their last 12 road games, they are 9-3 (all three losses were to the Angels) and are averaging 7.2 runs in those games.
• Robinson Cano walked twice (TWICE!) into tonight's game. That means he let 8 pitches go by without swinging. This is a good example of Cano's maturation as a hitter.
• The Red Sox won, so the Yankees remain 2.5 games ahead of Boston, but move 7.5 ahead of the Rays.
• Johnny Damon hit his 200th career home run in the 9th inning. And the fan who caught it didn't get the opportunity to extort Damon because he threw the ball back in.
  

TOMORROW:
Yankees at Rays, 7:08 PM at Tropicana Field (which, by the way, is probably in the bottom 5 of baseball stadiums I've been to)
Sabathia vs. Kazmir
Great match up set for tomorrow, until then....


SEE YA!

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]">

Read more...