Monthly Archives: August 2006

After a couple of ugly losses, the Yankees breezed to victory this afternoon on an impossibly beautiful Saturday in the Bronx. Jaret Wright was up to his usual tricks in the first, walking the speedy Chone Figgins on five pitches to start the game and the dangerous Vlad Guerrero on four pitches after a pair of foul outs by Maicer Izturis and Orlando Carbrera. The hot-hitting Juan Rivera then singled to right to plate Figgins, but Guerrero failed to respect Bobby Abreu’s arm and was nailed trying to go first to third when Abreu fired a one-hop strike to Alex Rodriguez to end the inning (it was the first of two crucial baserunning gaffes by the Impaler, who was later picked off second by Jorge Posada to kill an Angel rally in the sixth). That play just might have been the key to the ball game, as Wright settled down from there, facing the minimum over the next three innings and pitching around a pair of walks in the fifth.

Meanwhile, the Yankees got all the runs they needed in the second inning on a pair of home runs by Robinson Cano, a three-run shot, and Johnny Damon, a two-out, two-run job. Cano’s homer was an absolute blast, landing half way up in section 41 of the right field bleachers. I had been concerned about Cano’s loss of power during the first half of the season. His slugging percentage was below .400 as late as June 4 at which point just 14 of his 63 hits had gone for extra bases. Since then, however, he’s smacked another 14 pitches for extra bases over a span of just 35 hits and in his first five games since being activated from the DL six of his nine hits have gone for extra bags, including this afternoon’s dinger, his second in four games which accounts for a full third of his 2006 home run total. As for Damon, his shot just cleared the right field wall and slipped into the old Yankee bullpen. It was Damon’s 16th homer of the year, putting him on pace for 23 on the season. His current career high is 20. Ten of those 16 homers have come at Yankee Stadium, all of them going to the short porch in right.

The Angels picked up a run off Scott Proctor in the seventh when rookie Howie Kendrick doubled into the gap in left, Adam Kennedy singled him to third, and Jose Molina scored him with a sac fly to right that knuckled on Abreu, preventing him from setting his feet for a strong throw to the plate. But that was all they’d get. Farnsworth and Rivera followed Proctor with a pair of perfect innings, both requiring just ten pitches eight of which were strikes, and the Yankees evened the series with a 5-2 win.

The series will now be decided by a pair of fantastic pitching match-ups, emerging Yankee ace (at least at home) Chien-Ming Wang against rookie sensation Jered Weaver tomorrow afternoon, and all-or-nothing future Hall of Famer Randy Johnson against John Lackey, who at age 27 is suddenly the veteran ace of this exciting young Angels rotation, Monday night. If this weather holds up, and it should, we’re in for a real treat.

The Yankees continued their week of self-destructive play on Friday night as they fell to the Angels, 7-4. L.A.’s rookie southpaw, Joe Saunders pitched very well, mixing fastballs, changeups, and breaking pitches with poise and confidence. No rookie jitters for him, and why should there be? He plays for the Angels, who seemingly have no fear of the Bronx or the Bombers. (The Yanks are now 48-50 in the regular season against the Halos since 1996, never mind the playoffs.)

Still, the Yankees had their chances and, as DeNiro told Stallone in “Copland:” “You blewwwwwwwwwww it.” Battling a stomach bug, Corey Lidle didn’t have much and threw so many pitches that he was gone after four innings, having allowed three runs. Sidney Ponson’s adventures with the leather put two men on in the fifth and then Orlando Cabrera grounded a double past Alex Rodriguez–the ball took a tough hop to Rodriguez’s back hand but it looked as if the Yankee third baseman should have at least knocked it down. Two runs scored, 5-1, and once again the Angels were handling the Yanks. More than 54,000 were sitting on their hands.

The Bombers mounted a threat in the sixth. Derek Jeter reached on an infield hit and then Bobby Abreu lined a two-strike pitch into right for a single. Saunders got ahead of Rodriguez too but then left a pitch over the heart of the plate. Rodriguez lined it to center and it appeared as if it would drop in for another hit. But Chone Figgins raced in and made a lovely catch, robbing Rodriguez of a sure RBI and the Yankees of a big inning.

“He’s unbelievable,” Rodriguez said. “He’s always making some type of heroic play against us.”

[Yankee manager, Joe] Torre called that catch the play of the game, saying, “Who knows what that inning turns into? He stopped it right there.”
(N.Y. Daily News)

Jason Giambi–whose dirty-blong mustache continues to fill out–followed and hit into a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning. O.K., the double play was a drag but what can you do if the other team makes a great play?

The next inning was far more troubling. Craig Wilson reached on an error and Melky Cabrera walked, putting runners on first and second with nobody out. Sal Fasano’s foul ball dropped safely between the catcher and first baseman near the Yankee dugout and then Sal lined a double to right center. Ah-ha, just the kind of break the Yanks had been looking for. Nobody out, runner on second and the score was now 6-3. Nick Green, who started in place of Robinson Cano, looked at three pitches from the new pitcher, Scot Shields, and offered to bunt at two of them. “Vas dis?!” cried many a Yankee fan watching along. When Green finally got the bunt down, it wasn’t down at all, it was popped up. Shields sprung off the mound and caught the ball. Yet Fasano was practically at third, the dope, and he was doubled off second with ease. End of rally, and end of game, so to speak.

Each team would add another run–Vlad and Alex both hit solo dingers–and Fransico Rodriguez got the last four outs (including three strikeouts) to secure the win for the Angels. It was the third time in four days that the Yankees have lost with less than their A-game. The Red Sox–prematurely given for dead by too many members of Red Sox Nation this week–finally won and now trail New York by just two games. It’s a long way from over, folks. The Yanks picked a heck of a time to start playing this sloppily. Time for them to get their heads out of their asses today. With Jaret Wright on the hill today, all I can say is Heaven Help Us (and that famous temper of ours).

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking, but all kidding aside, I feel confident that the Yanks can turn this around.

Go git ’em, boys.

Like the rest of their division, the Angels are average. They’re in the middle of the pack in hitting and pitching, barely over .500, yet just 3.5 games behind the first place A’s, but also just 2.5 games ahead of the last-place M’s. Ho hum.

If there’s anything compelling about this Angels team, which is enduring Vlad Guerrero’s least productive season since he was a 21-year-old rookie with the Expos in 1997, it’s the glimpses into their future this season has brought. Jered Weaver, Howie Kendrick, Kendry Moralis, Mike Napoli and tonight’s starter Joe Saunders have all made their major league debuts this season, though with varying success.

As for Saunders, he’s made three starts since being called up to replaced the injured Bartolo Colon in the rotation, each of them nearly identical to the next. Here’s his average line: 7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 0 HR, 3 BB, 5 K. He did something like that against Cleveland, Oakland and Texas in his first three starts, winning each. Tonight, however, will be his first major league road start. It will be interesting to see how the 25-year-old lefty from Falls Church, Virgina responds to his first appearance in Yankee Stadium.

Cory Lidle, meanwhile, will be making just his second start as a Yankee, both coming in home pinstripes. In his last, eight days ago, he held the Blue Jays to one run on a solo homer by rookie Ryan Roberts, allowing just three other hits, walking two and striking out five in six innings on a brutally hot afternoon (the box score temperature was 97 degrees and you know it was well into triple digits on the field). With the weather having cooled nicely (beautifully, in fact, current temp is 77 with a soft breeze), the hope is that Lidle can go deeper tonight. After all, it only took him 80 pitches to get through those six innings last week.

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On the night that the Red Sox were swept by the major league worst Royals, the Yankees failed to take advantage, dropping the rubber game of their series in Chicago due not to the strengths of their opponent, but to their own ineptitude.

Things started promisingly after a 90-minute rain delay with Johnny Damon doubling off Javier Vazquez, Derek Jeter reaching on an infield single and Bobby Abreu moving both runners up via a fly out to the weak-armed Scott Podsednick in deep left. But Alex Rodriguez struck out and Jorge Posada followed a Jason Giambi walk by lining out on the first pitch he saw, leaving the bases loaded. The Yanks stranded a Robinson Cano leadoff double in the top of the second, then melted down in the bottom of the inning.

Mike Mussina started things off by clipping Jermaine Dye in the hand with a 2-2 pitch, then surrendered a single to A.J. Pierzynski that moved Dye to second. Joe Crede then hit a grounder to Alex Rodriguez that looked like a possible double play ball only Rodriguez threw the ball wide of second and into right field, plating Dye and putting runners on the corners. Alex Cintron then singled home Pierzynski and, when the ball skipped under Melky Cabrera’s glove on the wet outfield grass, Crede scored and Cintron motored into second. Mussina then struck out Brian Anderson for the first out, but allowed another RBI single to Podsednick to run the score to 4-0 before getting the final two outs of the inning.

The Yanks got two back in the top of the third on an Abreu walk and a two-run Giambi homer, but that was all the action until the sixth. In the meantime, the Yankees stranded seven more runners–a two-out Cano double in the third (Wilson K), three men in the fourth (Giambi K), a two-out Wilson single in the fifth (Melky foul out), and two more in the sixth (a shallow Rodriguez fly and another Giambi K).

Mike Mussina, who settled down nicely after the second inning, got the first two outs in the bottom of the sixth on six pitches, at which point he had retired nine of the last ten batters he’d faced and 13 of 16 since Podsednick’s RBI single in the second. He then got ahead of the weak-hitting Brian Anderson 1-2 only to have Anderson foul off two pitches and take a borderline strike that home plate ump Bill Miller called ball two. Moose had taken several steps to the dugout when he heard the call and, forced back onto the mound, served up a two-out double on his next pitch. That man Podsednick then singled home Anderson with a crucial insurance run.

You see, in the top of the seventh, after reliever Brandon McCarthy struck out Jorge Posada and Robinson Cano, Craig Wilson doubled and Melky Cabrera deposited McCarthy’s very next pitch in the right field seats for his third home run in the last four games and the first no-doubter of his young major league career. With that the Yankees pulled within one, but despite a strong relief performance by Scott Proctor and a two-out rally in the top of the ninth against Sox closer Bobby Jenks, they were unable to make up that last run, losing 5-4.

Still, the Yanks finish the season with a 4-2 record against the defending World Champs and current Wild Card leaders, while the Red Sox remain three games out in the AL East and are now two games out in third place in the Wild Card race. Ain’t so bad. Plus the Yanks are coming home for a seven-game home stand that starts tonight against the Angels. More on them this afternoon.

The good news is that, with the Red Sox having lost their first two games to the Royals, the Yankees could lose tonight and still finish the three-game stretch in which they played the defending World Champs while their rivals played the worst time in baseball without having lost a game in the standings.

The bad news is this trend I just noticed in Mike Mussina’s game log:

First 12 GS: 7-1, 2.42 ERA, 7.71 K/9, 1.43 BB/9, 7.16 H/9, 0.96 WHIP, 0.99 HR/9, 12 QS, 6.81 IP/GS
Last 12 GS: 6-3, 4.65 ERA, 8.29 K/9, 2.13 BB/9, 8.67 H/9, 1.20 WHIP, 1.13 HR/9, 6 QS*, 5.97 IP/GS

*would likely have been seven, but he was forced out of his June 30 game after allowing no hits over four innings because of a long rain delay

The more than two extra runs per game (!) seem to be the result of his increased number of baserunners. Moose has been getting hit harder and more often, and that might be the result of a slight loss of command that has also inflated his walk rate (though note that his K rate has also increased). More runners mean more pitches and more pitches and more runs mean fewer innings and a bigger strain on the bullpen.

Now compare that bottom set of numbers to what Moose did over the 2004 and 2005 seasons:

57 GS: 25-17, 4.50 ERA, 7.16 K/9, 2.27 BB/9, 9.85 H/9, 1.35 WHIP, 1.18 HR/9, 28 QS, 6.04 IP/GS

So much for Moose having discovered the secret to late-career success. Not that he’s a bad pitcher, but he is a league average one, though with a great K/BB rate and the ability to go on a dominant run like he did in Septemer 2004 or the first two months of this season. Still, the Yankees would be wise to bear this in mind when making a decision about his 2007 option this fall. Given the other options, it’s likely worth overpaying Moose for a year to keep his reliability in the rotation, but he’ll be 39 in November 2007. I wouldn’t give him a multi-year deal at this point.

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Johnny Damon’s most recent ouchie, a tender right groin, doesn’t appear to be of major concern to the Yankees, but his removal from last night’s game exposed a major flaw in the Yankees current roster construction. With Bernie Williams DHing for Jason Giambi, who was hit hard in the right arm with a pitch in Tuesday’s game, Joe Torre chose to move Bobby Abreu into center, Craig Wilson into right, and insert Andy Phillips at first base in Damon’s spot. Never mind that Melky Cabrera played center field in the minors earlier this year and that Abreu had played just 1/3 of an inning in center since 2002 when he made 18 of his 20 major league appearances there. After Bernie’s at-bat in the top of the eighth, Torre moved Abreu back to right and gave up the DH to move Bernie and his 72 Rate (!) into center and put the pitcher in Wilson’s spot in the order.

That cinched it. If Joe is that dead set on not returning Melky Cabrera to the scene of his defensive crimes of a year ago (which will have to change sooner rather than later), the Yankees need to bring Aaron Guiel back up from Columbus. Guiel played 24 games in center field for the Royals last year and made two appearances for them there earlier this season. He posted a 95 rate in those 24 games in 2005 and is dead average for his career in the middle pasture. What’s more, he’s the lefty bat this team desperately needs off the bench. Bernie Williams is 0 for 11 as a pinch-hitter this season and is still hitting just .250/.284/.380 against righties. Guiel, meanwhile, is 1 for 5 as a pinch-hitter (impossibly small samples, I know, but zero hits are hard to argue for), and is hitting .242/.356/.532 against righties.

As for Andy Phillips (brace yourselves, folks, I’m finally fessing up), he has become redundant in the wake of the Craig Wilson acquisition. As I said at the time of the trade, “a career .268/.360/.486 hitter, Wilson is exactly the hitter I had hoped Andy Phillips would be at the plate given a proper opportunity . . . is just four months Phillips’ senior and has put up those numbers over 2,133 career major league plate appearances.” Both players give the team added defensive flexibility (Andy at second and third, Wilson in the outfield corners and behind the plate), but Torre seems more willing to move Wilson around. What’s more, Andy has had just five at-bats since the acquisition of Wilson, three of them coming last night when Guiel would have been a better option. I may have been Andy Phillips’ biggest fan for the past couple of years, but he no longer fits on this roster. The Yankees need to replace him with Aaron Guiel, and they need to do it now.

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There are many impartial observers who consider Shea Stadium to be the worst park in the major leagues, but for a lot of New Yorkers, there is something endearing about the dumpiness of the place. It may feel like a municipal recreation center, but there is openness—not only to the structure of the place, but to the atmosphere too—that you won’t find at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. It is loose. From the Olay “Jose, Jose, Jose” chants for Jose Reyes, to the organist playing the opening riff from the Violent Femmes classic, “Blister in the Sun,” to the post-“Take Me Out to the Ballgame” segue right into “Tarantella,” Shea offers a completely different, but equally genuine, slice of New York. I was in Queens last night with my brother, my pal Alan, and Jay Jaffe, for Game Two of Mike Piazza’s homecoming. Head on over to Baseball Prospectus (reg. req) where I’ve got a piece on what went down.

For everyone who is positively sick of analyzing Alex Rodriguez’s head, Jeff Albert has a terrifc and informative analysis of Rodriguez’s swing over at The Baseball Analysts. This one is a home run.

I missed the entire game last night as I was fortunate enough to be out at Shea to witness Mike Piazza’s big two-dinger performance against the Mets. Wow, what a nail-biter in Chi-town, though, as the Yanks held-on to beat the White Sox, 7-6. Randy Johnson pitched well, Kyle Farnsworth did not, and Mariano Rivera bounced back to earn the save. Johnny Damon was pulled from the game with what is being called a tweak of in his groin, while Bobby Abreu led the offense, hitting his first home run as a Yankee. The Bombers added another game to their lead in the AL East as Jonathan Paplebon improbably blew a one-run lead to the Royals in the bottom of the ninth. New York’s lead is now three games.

Randy Johnson has not struck out a batter in either of his last two starts. Go figure that. Dude is third on the all-time strikeout list and yet he just hasn’t been able to get hitters to swing and miss of late. Johnson has practically become a hold-your-breath-and-pray pitcher, a far cry from his former self. It would be huge for the Bombers if he can come through with a strong performance tonight. But I figure that we could be in for some real offensive fireworks. The White Sox and Yankees have played some tense games this year. No reason to believe tonight will be any different.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

I realize that the last thing regular Bronx Banter readers probably need is another Alex Rodriguez article, but there are two that I wanted to share with you. The first, by Eric Neel, is up on ESPN today. Neel explores what I’ve been talking about all year–how Rodriguez’s vulnerabilites actually make him approachable. Rodriguez, Neel writes:

…Comes off as this odd blend of superstar talent and confidence, packaged with common-guy uncertainty and instability. He’s someone we have to think about. What makes him tick? How’s he holding up? Is being in the fishbowl getting to him? Someone we have to engage on a kind of basic human level.

“It’s complicated with A-Rod,” says Steven Goldman, author of the Pinstriped Bible at YesNetwork.com. “It’s about us, too — writers, fans, whomever — about how we respond to him. Can we accept him; can we empathize with the possibility that he has weaknesses just like any of us? Or do we reject him? Do we make fun of him and distance ourselves from him? It’s like an after-school special almost.”

Everyone says, “It’s hard to have sympathy for a guy making $252 million.” We struggle to see ourselves in someone so wealthy and so talent-rich. The guy is so good, and at such a young age, that we literally have no analogs for him in our experience. We don’t relate. He strikes us as robotic, as impossibly skilled. We can’t sympathize. But empathy is a different impulse.

Empathy means stepping outside ourselves and our conventions. We don’t really know what kind of stress A-Rod feels, but empathy would have us wonder. Empathy would have us thinking about how “sensitive” might be the flip side of “passionate.” Empathy also could mean imagining how opening up to the media, or being vulnerable to the people, wouldn’t be the easiest thing in the world for a guy who has been under the microscope since he was a teenage kid growing up in Miami without a father. It would mean being emotionally entangled, responsible even.

Most of us reject that prospect. We run from it. We prefer the simple, familiar mechanics of winners and losers, heroes and villains, guys who have it and guys who don’t. We say it’s all about the rings. We say, as if we have no weaknesses ourselves, as if we’ve never shrunk from anything in our personal or professional lives, “suck it up” and “be a man.” We demonize, then exile the “weak” guy. We treat him as if his sensitivities were contagious, as if he had cooties.

Bruce Weber, writing in the New York Times several weeks ago, echoes this line of thinking:

The sports talk shows relentlessly parsed Rodriguez’s personality. What the heck is wrong with the guy? It must be in his mind, right? One television analyst (baseball analyst, that is), said Rodriguez was already a lost cause in New York, that it would be better both for him and the Yankees if he were traded to another city, where his delicate psyche could repair itself in an atmosphere unpoisoned by the home fans’ disappointment. The former mayor of New York Rudolph W. Giuliani was moved to give an interview, counseling New Yorkers not to boo A-Rod because, he said, positive reinforcement is clearly what the man needs, and besides, it’s in the best interest of the Yankees.

Through it all, the lack of sympathy has been remarkable. People aren’t exactly angry at the guy, but they seem to feel his troubles serve him right — certainly not the general reaction to those in the throes of a breakdown.

His critics fixate on his failures: it was rare you heard that the same week he made the five errors, he also became the youngest man in the history of baseball to reach 450 home runs. Besides, hitting is more of a reactive enterprise than throwing; when a pitch is thrown you’ve got only a fraction of a second to swing the bat, and that’s not enough time for a mental lapse. (Another bit of Berra wisdom: “You can’t hit and think at the same time.”) The point is that A-Rod’s problems are not so easy to explain away with a definable diagnosis, as a mental tic that leaves him helpless, a condition you can look at and say, Huh, poor guy, it must be tough to live with something like that. Rather, he seems to be someone with a life, an attitude, a personality, demands, responsibilities, priorities and uncertainties, operating in an arena where success is far from a certainty. Someone, well, normal.

He turned 31 on Thursday; maybe it’s a midlife crisis. In any case, unlike, say, Knoblauch, whose fits of poor throwing seemed alien, like an exotic disease he somehow unluckily caught, A-Rod is anything but strange. Maybe we’re so caught up in his angst because we have met the All-Star and he is us.

We like our failures to be obvious–that is why it is easy to root for underdogs like Sal Fasano and Bubba Crosby. But when the guy who seemingly has everything–talent, money, good-looks, is also terribly vulnerable, it is a turn-off. Moreover, it brings out a viciousness in people that is almost palpable. What’s up with that?

The Yanks lost an extra-inning heartbreaker in Chicago last night 6-5, and had nobody but themselves to blame. Too many squandered scoring opportunities. Mo blows the save. The only silver lining is the Boston also lost. But that didn’t really make me feel much better. Tonight’s game can’t come soon enough, though you’ll forgive me if I’m not exactly bursting with confidence in the Big Unit right about now. More enthusiasm, less pessimissm to come…

As Alex pointed out yesterday, tonight the Yankees begin a stretch in which they play 21 games in 20 days, 15 of which will come against teams that currently have winning records. Following an off day on August 28, the Yankees will play six more games against contenders, which adds up to 21 of 27 games over the next 27 days against teams with winning records.

At the core of that stretch is a five-game series in Boston that kicks off with a Friday double header, but the second most important of the eight series in this period, at least according to today’s standings, is the one that begins tonight in Chicago. Entering tonight’s game, the Yankees are two games better (three in the loss column) than the White Sox, who are tied with the Red Sox in the AL Wild Card lead. Since the All-Star break, the White Sox have gone 8-14 while the Yankees have gone 16-6, each pace being set when the Yankees swept the Sox in the Bronx to start the second half.

Since then, the Yankees have made three huge additions to their roster in Bobby Abreu, Craig Wilson and Cory Lidle. Although Lidle will not appear in this series, the Yankees will make yet another improvement to their roster today as they activate Robinson Cano, who will reclaim his starting second base job as Miguel Cairo takes his spot on the DL with a hamstring injury of his own.

The White Sox, meanwhile, made just two minor deals at the deadline resulting in their swapping out former Yankee backstop Chris Widger for the 40-year-old Sandy Alomar Jr. and demoting 26-year-old righty Sean Tracey for former Royals closer Mike “Mac the Ninth” MacDougal (so much for the nickname). Otherwise, their roster remains the same as it was in mid-July.

So far, so good for the Yanks. Tonight things kick off with Chien-Ming Wang taking on Freddy Garcia. Wang hasn’t allowed a run in his last 18 innings pitched (6 H, 5 BB, 4 K, 208 pitches). Garcia, meanwhile, hasn’t won a game since June, though he pitched well enough to win against the Rangers on July 22, leaving a 1-1 tie after seven innings only to watch closer Bobby Jenks cough up two runs in the ninth.

With Cano back in the line-up following an off day, we should see an order that looks something like this:

L – Damon (CF)
R – Jeter (SS)
L – Abreu (RF)
R – Rodriguez (3B)
L – Giambi (DH)
S – Posada (C)
R – Wilson (1B)
L – Cano (2B)
S – Cabrera (LF)

Man that’s purdy. Oh, and Cano went 7 for 15 with two doubles and three walks (!) in his four minor league rehab games.

As the Yanks prepare to take on the defending World Champs tonight in Chicago–the start of a tough three-week stretch–the local papers cover two of the Bomber’s newest players: Bobby Abreu and Craig Wilson. In addition, there are two stories on tonight’s starter Chien-Ming Wang: one in the Bergan Record, the other by our pal Pete Abraham in The Journal News. Don Amore reports that Hideki Matsui will be re-examined by doctor’s this Friday. And there is a good story on Yankee pitching prospect Phillip Hughes over at MLB.com.

Meanwhile, Mike Plugh takes an early look at the AL MVP race and compares Derek Jeter with David Ortiz.

Finally, tonight gives the return of second baseman Robinson Cano, who has been sidelined since June 25th with a hamstring pull. Welcome back, Robby, we missed ya.

The Yankees bounced-back from Saturday’s loss and beat the Orioles 6-1 on the strength of Jaret Wright’s performance and four solo home runs (Jeter, Johnny, Melky, and G’Bombee). Bobby Abreu went 3-4 with two stolen bases and the Yanks’ now lead Boston by two games in the American League East. It is a good way to enter perhaps the toughest challenge of the year: twenty-one games in twenty days. This stretch includes three games against the White Sox, seven against the Angels, and five v. the Red Sox. New York’s next off-day falls on August 28th, and then they play three against the Tigers followed by three v. the Twins.

The September schedule is far more favorable. The rest of the league must to put the Bombers down during the next three weeks, because if our guys make it through the rain (so to speak) in good shape, they will be tough, tough, tough.

Catchin’ Up

I was away for the weekend. Here’s some links for your face:

The New York Times has a profile of the Twin’s terrific young pitcher, Francisco Liriano today. My latest piece for SI is about pitching phenoms. Liriano and Justin Verlander each missed their last starts, which brings me to my biggest concern for the next two months: Will Chien-Ming Wang hold together? Last year, he threw 116 innings; he’s already up to 156 this season. Is this something to get crazy about, or am I just looking to be neurotic?

According to Joel Sherman in Sunday’s New York Post, the Yankees are seriously considering picking-up Gary Sheffield’s $13 million option only to trade him.

Bubba Crosby was designated for assignment on Friday night and was understandably upset. (“Well, F this F’in game.”) Relief pitcher, Jose Veras took Bubba’s place on the roster.

Bobby Abreu credits Yankee hitting coach Don Mattingly for his early success with the Yanks. One thing that I have noticed about Abreu, however, is that he’s exceedingly tentative going back on fly balls in right field. He may have a strong arm but he doesn’t look comfortable at all with the leather.

Here’s a good piece of news: Robinson Cano will be activated tomorrow and rejoin the team. Miguel Cairo will be placed on the DL, after pulling a hamstring over the weekend. I don’t figure we’ll see him again until September. Meanwhile, we just might catch of glimpse of the $40 million man, Carl Pavano, on the field before 2006 is all said and done.

Finally, better late than never, here is Christina Kahrl’s take on the Craig Wilson deal:

I really like the idea of getting Wilson–and getting him at this price, instead of waiting to let Chacon leave as a free agent–and thereby adding a right-handed power bat who can take over at first base and let Jason Giambi DH. Wilson helps balance out getting Bobby Abreu and eventually both Hideki Matsui and Robinson Cano back. When that happens, we’re back to the days where not even getting down to the Yankees’ nine-hole hitter makes life any easier on a pitcher. I’ve already said I think the Yankees can win the division now, and this only makes that look even more likely.

Unfortunately, there is the one little problem, which was keeping the now-purposeless Andy Phillips instead of Guiel. You play in Yankee Stadium, and Matsui isn’t back yet–this is the team where you do want to have somebody on the bench who can park something in the right field porch. I admit, Guiel’s probably the first choice to go down once Matsui returns, but that hasn’t happened yet. Now that Wilson is here, what is Phillips for? Being a better first baseman than Giambi is no longer a unique skill on the roster, and that’s really the only position that Phillips can play, and he isn’t even any good at it. Hitting? Again, being good enough to pinch-hit for Miguel Cairo or Bubba Crosby, but maybe no Sal Fasano, is not a player you make a point of keeping. Guiel shouldn’t just be on this team now, he’s somebody you want on your playoff roster, certainly instead of Nick Green. Dumping him now on something like the principle of “last hired, first fired,” is just sloppy roster management. This stuff has cost the Yankees in postseasons past, so it’s a bit annoying if you think they’re supposed to have learned something from those years they dragged Enrique Wilson along with them as some sort of unlucky charm.

Her pal, Steven Goldman thinks this is one of the most successful deadline periods in Yankee history.

Lot’s to gab about. The floor is open…

Like Randy Johnson the night before, Mike Mussina wasn’t sharp yesterday afternoon, but still managed to keep his team in the game, limiting the Orioles to three runs in his five innings of work. Not that it mattered much. Rookie Adam Loewen, backed by some great defense by Brandon Fahey and Miguel Tejada, allowed just one hit, a first-inning single by Bobby Abreu, while striking out eight in 6 1/3 innings, and relievers Todd Williams and LaTroy Hawkins set the last eight Yanks down in order. It was the first time the Yankees had been limited to one-hit since July 16, 2004 when Mike Maroth pitched a complete-game one-hit shutout against the Yankees in Comerica Park. In that case the one hit was a Gary Sheffield double and the Yankees managed just three other base runners on an error and a pair of walks, one of which was erased by a double play. Yesterday the Yanks did a tad better, drawing five walks off Loewen such that each of the top six men in the order reached base exactly once (though, again, one was erased by a twin killing).

As surprising as that performance was given how well the team has been playing of late, winning nine of their previous ten and their first four games following the trading deadline, it was the fourth time this season the team failed to win its sixth consecutive game. Ron Villone, pitching in his fourth game in the last five days, gave up a pair of runs in the sixth to run the final score to 5-0, just the second time this season that the Yankees have been shutout.

The only worthwhile thing that came out of yesterday’s game was that Jose Veras finally made his major league debut, pitching two hitless innings in which he allowed just one base runner, a lead-off walk to Jay Gibbons in the eighth that was erased by a double play. That said, Veras had some control issues, failing to record a single K despite his impressive minor league rates and throwing just 46 percent of his pitches for strikes.

Today the Yankees look to avoid what would be a humiliating series loss to the Orioles by sending Jaret Wright to the mound to face Rodrigo Lopez. Wright is coming off throwing a season-high 103 pitches in his last outing, but also has a fairly impressive line over his last two starts: 10 1/3 IP, 10 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 0 HR, 2 BB, 8 K. Despite being a fly ball pitcher, Wright has allowed just four home runs all season, that’s one every 22 2/3 innings, a lower home run rate than Chien-Ming Wang’s.

As for Lopez, he’s been even better over his last two starts: 13 1/3 IP, 15 H, 2 R, 0 HR, 1 BB, 10 K. Of course one of those games came against the Royals, but in his last outing, against the Mariners, Lopez pitched 7 2/3 scoreless innings and needed just 82 pitches to do it. Of course, the Yankees handled Lopez well back in early June (four runs on seven hits in 6 2/3 on their way to an 11-4 win), two starts after he had a very similar outing against Seattle.

Last night’s game looked like it would be a cakewalk for the Yankees in the early going. Johnny Damon homered on the game’s second pitch from Bruce Chen and, after Randy Johnson pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the first, the Yankees added two more runs in the second when Miguel Cairo doubled home Chris Wilson and Melky Cabrera before Chen had recorded the inning’s first out.

Cairo would move to third on a Damon fly out. But when Jeter grounded to third baseman Melvin Mora, Cairo got caught in a run down for the second out. Jeter moved to second on the play, then stole third, and Bobby Abreu followed with a four-pitch walk, but Alex Rodriguez, who had been one of two runners stranded in the first when Jorge Posada struck out, grounded out to end the inning, stranding a pair of his own. The Yankees would strand two more in the top of the third when second-inning hero Cairo struck out looking, and the Orioles would take advantage starting in the bottom of the inning.

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The big news from Baltimore is that the Orioles have just sent 35-year-old catcher-turned-DH Javy Lopez and cash to the Red Sox for a player to be named later. That’s obviously bigger news in Boston (though Lopez is hitting just .265/.314/.412, most of that coming in May), but it will certainly have an effect on this weekend’s series in Camden Yards as Lopez had done particularly well against the Yankees in the teams’ two prior meetings, going 9 for 25 with a pair of home runs.

Still, even with Lopez the Orioles had managed just two wins in six tries against the Yankees in April and June. With the way the two teams are playing right now and the way their starters have lined up over the weekend, the Yankees really should be going for a sweep here. The O’s are 9-11 since the All-Star break and two for their last six. The Yankees, are 14-5 since the break and have won eight of their last nine. Tonight the Yankees have a chance to tie their longest winning streak of the year at five games (they’ve done it three times already, but never reached six). They’ll send Randy Johnson to the mound to get it done.

In his last turn at home against Tampa Bay, Johnson had absolutley nothing, snapping a streak of four quality starts with a dreadful, strike-out free 3 1/3 innings in which he allowed nine runs on six hits and three walks. During his warm up session in the bullpen before that game Johnson was seen taking long pauses with his hands on his knees between pitches, but after the game he refused to discuss the matter.

Johnson’s opponent tonight will be Bruce Chen, who, despite his 7.07 ERA and an 0-6 record, but has been thrust back into the rotation by Kris Benson’s elbow tendonitis. In his first start back in the rotation, he faced the White Sox and allowed four runs on seven hits and no walks while striking out four in 5 1/3 innings. The Yankees last faced Chen in April, driving him from the game after four innings on their way to a 7-1 win.

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Check out this clever, and entertaining Yankee family-tree that our pal Ben Kabak devised over at “Off the Facade.” While you are surfin’ around, be sure and peep what our Toastermate Mike Carminati has on Bobby Abreu. Great job, guys.

A thermometer on the field at Yankee Stadium read 120 degrees. Imagine how it felt to be a Blue Jay pitcher, with the Yankee offense grinding-out at-bat after at-bat? The Bombers put eight runs up on the board, led by Jason Giambi’s four RBI (dinger, double) and completed a one-sided, three-game sweep by beating Toronto 8-1. The Bombers are a game ahead of the Red Sox, who were finally unable to come back in the bottom of the ninth against the Tribe (though they made it close, as both Ortiz and Manny hit long fly ball outs).

Corey Lidle pitched reasonably well and was rewarded with treats after the game. In other Yankee news, Robinson Cano went 2-5 in minor league game last night, while Hideki Matsui’s progress hit a minor snag.