1.  Anyone have any word on this rumor that the yanks are interested in the recently released bret boone? how realistic is a a trade or a resigning after clearing waivers? Where will he play/role?

Doesn't seem he would fit in with the current roster and the bottleneck with backup players, but if anyone has any info.
I personally think he still has something to prove but maybe bad timing for the yanks to pick him up. if this was last year, maybe.

Would be interesting to see if we could grab another seattle outcast from waivers (Olerud ala 2004) and another boone family member to save our season. heh

2.  why in the world would the Yanks want Boone and his swiss cheese bat?

Robinson Cano is so on the verge it's scary!

3.  I can't picture the Yankees being high on Boone's list should he clear waivers. I have heard that San Diego may sign Boone to play 2B, and move Loretta to 3B upon his return. Sean Burroughs has been awful, and seems to be on his way out of town.

4.  unpopster,

cano "on the verge"? despite gammons's poll, i think cano is a clear ROY candidate already. if we can come out of the gate screaming from the all-star break, we can continue to steal some media spotlight and hopefully draw attention the kind of season this kid is having.

5.  So who would everyone rather have on the bench: Bret Boone or Tony Womack?

6.  ok rbj. good call!!!

(now how does roll call for bret boone go?)

(and where is our center fielder?)

7.  i have been watching the game on mlb.com gameday tracker and the yanks are winning 1-0 in the 2nd... yeah...not until i strolled onto cbssportsline and noticed that the yanks have been up 6-0 in the 4th. Whoa...i thought it was a misprint.

8.  talk about teeing off... yanks up 9-0

9.  talk about teeing off... yanks up 9-0

10.  Gamechannel's not much better. For a long time it was A-Rod at the plate in the first, 0-1 count. Next thing Giambi had hit a homer (third in two days!).

11.  I am hating the internet today. i dont know if they are joking with me. Back to back homers shef and arod. 10-0 bottom of 4th. Is this for real?

12.  Took me a while to figure that MLB glitch out too - they still haven't fixed it.

Wow, 4th inning and every Yankee start but two have a hit (Flaherty & Womack...not that that is really surprising).

13.  I'm watching the game and the offense has been amazing, but the real story I think is RJ pitching 4 perfect innings beautifully. He's been devastating and efficient, the slider is unhittable and the fastball is hitting 96 and 97 at times.

By the way, yes, Giambi is back, look out!

14.  Is there anyone in baseball who could be as big of a rally killer as Tony Womack? It doesn't hurt so much today but jeez, how may times does he snuff out a rally just as it's starting with a key DP or strikeout or something...Put him on the bloody bench and KEEP HIM THERE, send down Bubba Crosby and bring up Kevin Thompson for a while so that there will at least be another serviceable outfielder on the team.

15.  and of course the rally killer womack kills the nice rally with a double play. idiot.

16.  OK, Tony, grab a bat and put an end to this rally...

17.  Can someone tell me the real score? ESPN is saying the Yanks have 7 runs on one hit.

18.  Real score is 10-2, Yankees, 2 outs top of the sixth.

19.  Giambi haters take note.... he is coming back. It's a confidence thing, and both he and Torre have it. .843 OPS (and climbing).

Not to make this a steroid discussion, but has anybody seen Sosa's numbers? Are there any other 'suspected users' out there having a tank year?

I would think that with all the physical problems Giambi had last year, along with the tremendous pressure generated by the 'Steroids situation', I believe he is still healing... and will get better. He is certainly not MVP (or 15 mil) material, but he will help our club... and that's the real issue.

I still think both our O and D are better with Tino 1B/Bernie LF rather then Giambi 1B/Womack CF... and Tino's bat replaces Womacks. Any idea when they haven't even tried Bernie in LF?

We could use a CF but if we continue to hit, I think we could get by with Bubba/farmhand. Maybe trade Womack, a kid and some cash for a young, no hit/good field CF. What we really need in a reliable 4th guy in the pen. There is no winning in the PS with our pen. If Brown can't stay healthy, we will need a 5th starter. Pitching we need. Position players we can probably live without.

20.  I agree, the pitching is atrocious.

Good Randy
Good Moose
Wang
Gordon
Mo
and Sturtze aren't enough to get this team to the PS.

Outside of those guys, there's really nothing to feel good about.

21.  Whew...Johnson just made it out of a rallying 6th inning for the Orioles with a strikeout. If I was Torre, I would take him out soon. 78 pitches on 3 days rest. 10-2 lead. That's good enough for his turn in the rotation. Get some of the rookies hands in there.

22.  My best guess as to why we haven't seen Bernie in LF yet is that, as Torre himself pointed out a week or two, Bernie has notoriously bad baseball instincts, and it's likely that he would have a really hard time adjusting to a new position on the fly, without a full spring training to practice. That, coupled with the fact that Joe's got a long history and a lot of respect for Bernie, and I don't think he wants to put him in a situation where he's likely to embarrass himself out there.

As for why the front office and coaching staff didn't anticipate Bernie's struggles in the field before the season, especially in light of the fact that they were prepared to make him the full-time DH (with Lofton playing CF) before LAST season for the very same reason...well my only answer to that is that these are the same people who thought Tony Womack would help this club.

23.  Understatement of the day:

from MLB Gameday:

"Tony Womack singles on a SOFT ground ball to shortstop Miguel Tejada."

24.  I love that either Torre or Gene Michael made the following comment before the season:

We all agreed that Tony (Womack) and Cairo were pretty much a wash at the plate, but Tony was the much better defensive player.

ON PLANET CRAZY MAYBE.

25.  Great line at Yahoo sports:
- B. Groom relieved R. Johnson
- R. Johnson at third
Somehow, I don't think they're the same person.

26.  Speaking of steroids cases, Brian Roberts struck out 4 times today. Good to see, BTW, someone in an Orioles uniform upholding the long-honored tradition started by Brady Anderson. Of course, he's not the only juiced guy in the Orioles' lineup...and I don't mean Sosa.

27.  singledd,

One name that comes to mind -- mainly because he is currently in the news -- is Brett Boone. A couple ofyears ago he was a home run hitting machine...now look at him, designated for assignment due to lack of production.

28.  Sheff's name got mentioned in connection with BALCO, but he seems to be doing alright this year.

29.  Sheff is wired differently than most guys, i think. I don't think he'd lose confidence in himself, no matter what he stopped doing. The guy is a little psycho...which i really enjoy. Plus, he just put some crap on his knee right? ;)

30.  JohnyC,

Are you suggesting Roberts is currently taking 'roids?

31.  Do you think it's inconceivable? How do you explain a man who had hit 12 home runs in 1500 ABs hitting 15 home runs in less than 300 ABs this season? Clean living?

32.  Roberts performance this year is certainly surprising, but he did hit 50 doubles last year in his first season as a full time player.

Often with young players, doubles turn into HRs as they mature.

33.  Roberts has admitted to taking creatine, a legal suplement that is exactly what Brady Anderson admited to taking (Ken Caminiti, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, among many others, were all admited creatine usersback in the day).

For the full story on creatine, Brady, and the steroid crisis in general, I highly recommend Howard Bryant's Juicing the Game (which, in the interest of full disclosure, I edited). Read today's New York Times review: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/05/books/05kaku.html?pagewanted=all).

The book hits the shelves on Thursday.

34.  Cliff is too modest to say so, but that should be "Read today's very positive NYT review from the notoriously critical Michiko Kakutani".

35.  JohnnyC,

I guess I would just be surprised that he started taking them this year, i.e. why the boost this year as opposed to last when they weren't banned?

36.  Creatine, FYI, is banned by the NFL, NCAA, and the International Olympic Committee.

37.  tommyl,

Last season was Roberts' first complete season as the regular second baseman (he and Jerry Hairston fought for the job for the better part of three seasons). He was concerned with just holding down the job. His 50 doubles were as much a testament to his greatest asset (until this season): his speed and hustle as to his nascent power. I imagine he saw 2005 as his time to establish not only some bargaining points for his first free agent contract (2007)but his arbitration case this winter. 30 home runs would rank him just behind Soriano among AL second basemen (sorry, Bret Boone).

38.  Good win. Nice to take down those cocky Orioles two games in a row. I enjoyed Roberts many Ks today.

"Giambi haters take note...."

Why does any criticism of a popular Yankee player means that you "hate" them? Was Giambi supposed to be praised for his horrific performance stretching over a period of 1.5 years as well as his steroid use? Are there no standards to which baseball players should be asked to meet in terms of their ability to perform? Does this mean that we are all "Womack haters" because we expect that he should be able to hit or bunt or walk for the money, he is being paid? I think not.

Regardless, I'm thrilled that Jason has improved. Good to see that the Yankees are getting some return on their investment.

39.  By the way, good to see ESPN finally focusing on Keith Foulke's struggles. I watched him blow that league last night and had a good chuckle.

40.  Simone, Keith Foulke is on the radio here in Boston (WEEI) and is incredibly rude, pompous, and condescending as it gets. I am enjoying his demise. On the opposite note, I am also enjoying the return of the "GIAMBINO"..... I taught my 2 year old son to say that ("Giambino") and it always makes me smile.....

(especially lately!)

41.  JohnnyC,

Are you sure about that creatine ban in the other sports. I have a tendency to doubt that claim very much, especially since creatine is naturally produced by our bodies, especially in people who eat large amounts of meat, which if you lift hard, usually constitutes a good portion of diet. This would also make it very hard to test for as you could and would get a ton of false positives.

Also, if it were banned, the stuff wouldn't be as available (and as cheap) as it is now. Look what happened to ephedra after the major sports banned it - it was banned altogether. The same would have happened with creatine if there was a sports ban. That doesn't seem to be the case though...in fact, the opposite seems to be happening as every supplement company seems to have 5 diff. versions on the market.

You could be right - but I would have my doubts in this regard.

42.  Andro is banned in the NFL, IOC etc, not creatine. Creatine is still legal everywhere.

43.  JohnnyC:
Creatine is not banned by a single one of those governing bodies. Not only is it the most well researched supplement available, according to some studies it is estimated to be used by around 90% of all professional athletes. Not a single study has found negative health consequences aside from some gi distress if taken while dehydrated. As an employee (and student) at the UMD Athletic Department, I can assure you that creatine is not banned by the NCAA. You'd be hard pressed to find a single male athlete who's not taking it. Long story short, if Alonzo Mourning's doctors have okayed it for him, with al of his medical problems, you probably don't have to worry about the stuff too much. Just thought I'd set you straight. Let's go kick some Indian ass!

44.  The Indians' series will be a good test. They're playing well now. Ok, so they've been beating up on the Orioles & Tigers too, but they're 8-2 for the last 10. A 2-2 split for the next four games is barely adequate.

45.  "...I watched him blow that league last night and had a good chuckle."

Apparently Foulke's been a busy boy. Perhaps he should save some of that energy for pitching.

I've gone over it a million times in my head. There is absolutely no logic behind Torre opting for Womack over Crosby in CF. Bubba's defense is superior and, AT WORST, he's a wash offensively. Actually, that's not true either. Bubba has more power (a backhanded compliment, to say the least).

Hell, if Crosby turned into a serviceable CF, maybe the boys would only have to make one trade at the deadline (for a hard-ass reliever) instead of two.

Someone please make ANY sense of this for me.

46.  The only reason I can see behind Womack playing is that maybe Joe is hoping he gets on a hot streak and therefore becomes a bit more desirable as a trade option for someone. Maybe? Possibly? It could happen, right?

47.  Umm, that should have been "lead" not "league."

"Keith Foulke is on the radio here in Boston (WEEI) and is incredibly rude, pompous, and condescending as it gets. I am enjoying his demise."

joe in boston, something about not caring about what "johnny fan at Burger King thinks" right? What a tool. I may not like Red Sox fans in general, but they pay a hell of a lot of money to attend games at Fenway, he could show them some respect.

"Apparently Foulke's been a busy boy. Perhaps he should save some of that energy for pitching."

I read about Foulke's impending divorce. I bet he is doing the typical professional athlete groupie/stripper thing, probably following Johnny Damon's lead. I hope Foulke keeps up the extracurricular activity.

I think that Joe is playing Womack out of pity. There is no other explanation.

48.  alasky,

I hope you don't personally have anything to do with distributing creatine to student-athletes because you'd be in violation of the NCAA rule in place since 2000 that forbids the distribution of creatine. Personal use cannot be banned because it is not an illegal substance.

49.  JohnnyC:

thanks, but I'm well aware of this as well as about 400 other compliance issues that come up. Appreciate the help in doing my job though! For what it's worth, most protein bars are illegal for distribution by that same 99-72 rule, so I wouldn't read too much into this as an indication of creatine having possible deleterious effects.