Yankees Sweep Twins, Move to ALCS

For the first time since October 2004, the Yankees won a postseason series.

Not only did they win the series, but they swept the way they were supposed to sweep, not like underachieving squads of not too long ago.

The game was similar to most of the Yankee-Twins games played this season: a close affair in which the Twins had a lead, lost it, and had one too many miscues to be able to recover.

Baserunning miscues may have coast the Twins two games this series, and the Yankees' ability to step on the Twins' neck, with two more runs in the ninth inning to turn a 2-1 nail-biter into a 4-1 game almost assured of being a sure thing with Mariano Rivera on the mound, Minnesota never had much of a chance.

No one will forget that the losing pitcher in this game was Carl Pavano, because it simply fits too well.

Pavano, in a sense, is THE symbol of the underachieving Yankee squads of recent note--$40 million to ride the disabled list, pitching just enough in 2008 to prove he can and get signed by another team in the offseason.

When motivated, Pavano is a decent pitcher--and he showed it tonight, matching Pettitte nearly pitch for pitch into the seventh inning.

Still, even the great Carl Pavano (note the biting sarcasm) could contain the Yankees forever. They were simply a better team than the Twins.

There are no MVPs awarded for the ALDS, but if there was such an award, there is no question that its recipient would be Alex Rodriguez.

How many of you thought you would be reading that sentence back in February?

Long the brunt of many a "but-he's-not-a-true-Yankee" criticism, Rodriguez was simply stellar throughout the series and tonight, again, played a hero, tying the game at one with a no-doubt home run into the stowed away football seats.



Andy Pettitte's pitching was also stellar--only one run through six and a third and only throwing 81 pitches in doing so.

There's a considerable question mark as to whether or not Pettitte should have been removed from the game at that point--and I would argue that Girardi simply remembers 1996 too well: going to a lock-down bullpen in the seventh inning to shorten the game, won championship #23.

It remains to be seen whether or not it will bring about #27, but for the moment Yankee fans can content themselves with the knowledge that no matter what, there will be at least four more games of Yankee baseball in 2009.


*****

Check back throughout the week for ALCS previews and analysis. Game one is Friday, 10/16.

Yankees to start Molina in the Postseason a mistake?

Via numerous sources, it has been established that Jose Molina will catch AJ Burnett in the ALDS.

I have no personal issue with Molina, but I am of the opinion--and I know I'm not alone in this--that this is a mistake.

I'd forgive Girardi, for it being his first postseason and all, but the stakes are too high. In a five game series, a team can't really afford to lose even one game at home, and if Burnett starts game two, as seems likely, then the Yankees will have seriously weakened their offense by starting a back up catcher who did not even hit .250 for the season.

If Girardi doesn't want to start Posada, if Burnett has a problem with Posada, at the very least Girardi could consider starting Cervelli. I know Cervelli is a rookie with limited experience, but as he's shown during the season, he's not as slow as fill-in-the-metaphor like Molina, but a legitimate threat to beat out an infield hit.

Neither Cervelli nor Molina, however, can replace Posada's bat.

If the Yankees lose game one tomorrow night and Burnett is indeed the game two starter, the pressure will be on Burnett to deliver.

Still, the Yankees have an offense that will, even without Posada's bat, be more potent than either that of Detroit or Minnesota, and Girardi was a weak-hitting catcher himself, but that didn't stop him from winning rings in 96, 98 and 99.

Maybe he knows something we don't.

Let's hope this is the case.

Posada Suspended Four, Fined

Jorge Posada has been suspended four games and find $3,000 for last night's brawl.

If he has any sense, he'll start it tonight--Marc Carig and Sweeny Murti are reporting he's got a stiff neck, anyway.

Read more here


Given what Youkilis got in his brawl with Rick Porcello, Posada's getting off fairly lightly here.

On Posada and Basebrawls (postgame notes 15 September 2009)

I admit it.

Brawls, fights, whatever you call them, in the right time and place do not bother me.

Hockey is only second to baseball in terms of my love for the sport, and fights have long been part of the game. I like to see guys drop the gloves, play with a little intensity and bring some color to the game.

Don't blame me, I'm a Devils fan.

While baseball brawls, for the most part, play out like senior proms compared to hockey fights, I generally don't have too much of a problem with them. They can make a boring game a little more entertaining.

Then the fight happens to you or your team, and you realize there are very negative consequences.

The "fiery" Jorge Posada, as he's known, had every right to be peeved when Carlson threw behind him, but it should have ended there.

Be at the center of a baseball brawl, and two things happen: 1) you risk injury, and any injury in mid-September is likely to be season-ending, and 2) suspension.

Let's take these two in turn.

1) Injury.

This is by far the biggest issue. The Yankees are where they are right now because, for the most part, they've managed to stay healthy, or as healthy as you could expect a team with a LF, 3B, SS and other assorted on the wrong side of 30.

Even if it was just Posada that got hurt, it would still be a tremendous blow--I point you verily in the direction of 2008.

At the very least, those other teammates that rushed into to the fray put themselves at risk, too. While I understand that Shelley Duncan is unlikely to make the postseason roster, what the heck is Joba Chamberlain or any of the pitchers thinking when they are in the fray?

It'd be one thing if this was a last place team going nowhere, but the Yankees are legitimate contenders. They cannot, right now, risk anyone getting hurt. There's too much riding on it.

2) Suspension

In hockey, you fight and you get a five minute "major" and, barring extenuating circumstances, it ends there.

Baseball, alas, is not hockey. Fights come with suspensions.

If we look at Kevin Youkilis's six-game suspension for going after Rick Porcello, Jorge Posada might expect similar. The good news is that with September call ups, Jose Molina and Francisco Cervelli can split the catching duties as may be and neither will get too worn down. The bad news, however, is that all of a sudden the Yankees miss Posada's bat. The Yankees still have to go back to Seattle and Anaheim, which makes this an even less pleasing scenario.



There are two camps out there.

There's the camp that think the Yankees need to act with class and never retaliate, and then there's the camp that thinks the Yankees should retaliate, and the team should literally fight on occasion.

Normally I'm in the second camp, but this late in the season, with so much riding on it, Posada's actions hurt the team tonight and for the upcoming week.

Yanks do that pitching thing, win (Postgame Notes 26 August 2009)

For the first time since, uh, before last weekend, the Yankees received a quality start from their starting pitcher, and, accordingly, they won.


Andy Pettitte has historically been good in the second half; this year is no different.

After a some-what rough first inning that took a double play to escape scoreless, Pettitte cruised through seven innings.

The Yankee offense scored four runs off of long balls from Jorge Posada and Jerry Hairston Jr (yes, you read that right), and then five more in the bottom of the seventh inning doing damage against the Texas bullpen.

The one blemish to the night was Jorge Posada leaving the game in the top of the eighth inning after a pitch hit his (gloved) hand; via the beat guys on Twitter (Sweeny Murti and Josh Thompson covering for Pete Abraham), Posada re-aggravated a ring finger injury, but x-rays were negative and he is day-to-day--Posada was unlikely to catch tomorrow's game anyway, being a night game after a day game.


AJ Burnett goes tomorrow in the rubber game of this series, and after his last start at Fenway (yet another Fenway disaster in 2009), he could use a decent outing.

A Moment in the 2009 Season (postgame notes 11 August 2009)

If the 2009 Yankee season were a book and you opened to a random page, tonight's game is what you'd find.

Joba Chamberlain cruising through some innings and nibbling in others.

A stellar bullpen taking over in the middle innings and not letting Toronto add to a 5-4 lead.

A rally in the late innings to secure a come-from-behind win, with some help from the short porch in right field and back to back jacks from Matsui and Posada.

A win.

That's the entirety of the game in a nutshell. Sure, there are concerns: Joba's nibbling and the fact that it took the Yankee offense from the second to the eighth to be able to score one more run off of a not-very-good Toronto ball club, for instances.

Still, as is more often than not the case this season, the ultimate result was a win.

Oh, and while there's still some time left--today is Melky Cabrera's 25th birthday. Cabrera has blossomed this year as a hitter, taking more pitches and hitting for more power. He had two RBI on the night.

"An Offensive Orgy" to win an ugly game (Postgame Notes 06 August 2009)

I should explain here that the term "offensive orgy" comes not from me but from Michael Kay.

Aha!, you say, as you make your way through this post.

Basically, it's like this:

If you're going to walk twelve (yes, twelve) batters for the other team, you'd better show up to hit yourselves, and that's exactly what happened.

Every Yankee starter had a hit and only three (Jeter, A-Rod and Matsui, and yes, you read that right, too) did not have multiple hit games. Four Yankees--Jorge Posada, Johnny Damon, Melky Cabrera and Mark Teixeira--hit home runs.

The funny thing here is that going into the bottom of the fourth innning, this game looked much like its 09 Yankees-Sox predecessors: poor pitching, bad baserunning, and timely hits by the opposition.

In fact, everyone--and I mean everyone was killing Jorge Posada for refusing to slide when attempting to score. to be fair, the criticism was warranted, but as so often the case, Posada would more than make up for his blunder, ending up falling "just" a triple shy of the cycle.

In the bottom of the fourth, Posada doubled, Canó reached, and then with one out, Melky Cabrera hit an absolute bomb to right field--out in any ballpark.

That one home run may have been the defining moment that changes the Yankees fortunes against Boston this season.

The Yankees took the 5-3 lead on that home run, and that proved to be the start of an eight-run onslaught in the fourth inning. The Yankees, as you might expect, never looked back. Okay, so that's not entirely true--while the score never got to within four runs from that point, the Yankees did end up walking twelve. Boston had runners reach ever single inning.

To be fair, only Chamberlain and Anthony Claggett gave up runs, and despite the number of pitchers used today, Aceves, Hughes, Bruney, Rivera and probably Coke should all be available tomorrow.

When all said and done, the Yankees win tonight might be the most important win of the season thus far:

1) They get the 0-8 monkey off their back.
2) There's less pressure on AJ Burnett to outpitch Josh Beckett. Of course, that's not saying a whole lot, but it counts.
3) It assures the Yankees, now 3.5 in first, that whatever happens the rest of this series they will still wake up on Monday morning in first place.
4) If the Yankees can, however, they now have an opportunity to go 4.5 up tomorrow. Which could then become...you know...


So sit back, and for all of tonight's ugliness, enjoy it.

This win means just that little bit more.

Breaking Down the Yankees for the Second Half--The Starting Lineup, Part One

[So the All Star Game is officially over--and we can thus consider ourselves in the second half.

This is where it gets fun.

All of those days players got rested in the first half? Well, now they have to play. Now the pennant races start to heat up, and every move a team makes, be it a trade, a free agent signing or simply bringing someone up from AAA has even more added meaning.

What do we expect from the Yankees?

I'm going to do a series of posts addressing this, because there's so much to say that having it all in one post would a) kill your eyes and mine, and b) give me carpal tunnel at the age of 23.]

For your lunchbreak, I'm going to tackle the one area that's remained relatively problem-free: The starting line up.

Here I've included hitters 1-5, because I think any more and the post will get too long. I'll be back with the rest of the line up a little later on today.


The Starting Line Up

The goal of an offense is to score as many runs as possible. The Yankees? Their 495 runs scored is tops in the Major Leagues and frankly is not too far off the pace if this team wanted to score 1000.

The most impressive thing here isn't just that the Yankees are scoring runs; it's the way they are doing it. Aside from the Chien Ming Wang disaster starts, games in which the Yankees have been blown out are few and far between. The twenty-five come from behind wins and eight walk off wins are illustrative of an offense that keeps fighting.

The offense alone can't win a World Series, but with these guys, it's not for a lack of trying.

In the second half there will probably be more attention paid to Mark Teixeira--who has been slumping--now that the excuse of cold weather is no longer acceptable. Joe Girardi will still have to do a balancing act in center, with Brett Gardener and Melky Cabrera--and both of them seem to perform better when they are not playing every day. Johnny Damon and Nick Swisher will need days off--for different reasons, mind--but as the pennant race heats up these will become harder to come by.

Still, out of all the problems the 2009 Yankees have, the offense is pretty low down on the list.

Derek Jeter

The renaissance that Jeter had in the first half was good enough to make him this year's leading AL vote getter in All Star voting. Getting him out of the second spot has drastically cut down on his grounding-into-double-plays, even if we're still not quite used to seeing him hit first.

The biggest boon to the Yankees, however, may very well be his improved defense, which has been attributed to playing further back in the field. It's as though Yankees fans have been whisked back to 2000...

In the second half, the Yankees just want more of the same from Jeter: great hitting and good defense. They could, perhaps, do without him trying to steal third with none out, but such are minor complaints.


Johnny Damon

Damon's first half witnessed a power resurgence that was unabashedly aided by the short right field at the new Yankee Stadium. He's been a good choice to bat second because of his relative lack of hitting into double plays, and he's also been a very poor ambassador for whatever bat company he uses--breaking at least one bat a game.

Going into the All Star break, Damon was hitting a not-so-robust .147 for the month of July--perhaps indicative, again, of his body beginning to betray him. Certainly, a nagging calf injury has kept him out of the line up on occasion and even kept him from fielding decently while in it.

For the second half, what the Yankees need is simple: they need Damon not to break down. An outfield of Swisher-Gardner-Cabrera for any length of time won't give the Yankees a whole lot of power, and it will over expose all three (who may be over exposed already). Hideki Matsui probably can't play the outfield all year unless there are literally no other options aside from forfeiting the game and Eric Hinske is, many believe, not an every day player. The Yankees will easily take Damon's kind-of-cringeworthy arm and misplays if it means his bat is in the line up.



Mark Teixeira


Perhaps the most important thing Mark Teixeira did in the entire first half is show the Yankees just how wonderful it is when everyone on the infield can play a little bit of defense.

Sure, the 20+ home runs and loads of walks help, as does his hustle in running out routine pop ups, but the defense is the first thing you notice when comparing him and Jason Giambi.

In the second half, Teixeira's fate will probably be even that much more bound up with Alex Rodriguez.

When A-Rod is on a roll and crushing pitches, Teixeira will likely get more pitches to hit as teams figure out that it's a bad idea to pitch to A-Rod with men already on base. If, however, A-Rod slumps--and he does--teams will again pitch around Teixeira. It would not hurt Teixeira's cause if he were to hit for a higher average. Right now his .275 average is his worst since his rookie season. Of course, when your OPS is .913, you tend to let these things slide.


Alex Rodriguez

His tumultuous first half saw him miss a month with a hip injury, come back and hit nothing but home runs, which slowly morphed into nothing at all, and then, only after a two-day rest period, has he begun to look something of the A-Rod of old. He may very well be the only player you've ever seen with a batting average of .256 and an OBP of .411.

A lot of this has to do with the inordinate about of games in which Robinson Canó hit fifth. Since Canó has some sort of can'thitwithmenonbaseitis, pitchers simply worked around A-Rod and pitched to Canó, who more often than not grounded into a double play--but more on him later.

Now that Canó has been moved out of the fifth spot--hopefully for good--Rodriguez is getting more pitches to hit. Rodriguez hit all of .207 in June, but is hitting .350 in July. A lot of that probably has to do with him being rested, but don't discount actually having protection in the line up.

In the second half, the Yankees need Alex Rodriguez to hit like Alex Rodriguez. They need to be careful that they actually do rest Rodriguez--once a week if possible--because the hip is only going to get worse until the entire thing can get repaired in the off-season.


Jorge Posada

The most notable thing about Posada thus far is that despite the hamstring injury that had him on the disabled list, his shoulder doesn't just seem to have held up okay, it actually seems to be stronger than it was before last year's disaster.

Teams were--rightfully--willing to run all over Posada to test the arm; while he may be no Molina Brother behind the plate, he has certainly held his own.

The controversy of him having tiffs with the pitchers is overblown--he's found a way to work well enough with AJ Burnett and Joba Chamberlain's had problems with every catcher--so please, please don't get too caught up in that.

With a bat, Posada is having a usual Posada-like season; his batting average fits in nicely with career norms; the on-base percentage is on the low end, true, but Posada makes up for this with a higher slugging than normal. It's not Posada's 2007 campaign--a career year hidden by A-Rod's antics--but the Yankees will take that production from a catcher without blinking.

The biggest concern going forward is, like Johnny Damon, what the wear and tear of late summer and a pennant race will do to a 38 year-old catcher's body. The Yankees know full well now how valuable Posada's bat is, so don't be surprised if he gets a number of half-days at DH or Girardi seems to pick odd days to just rest him entirely. The last thing the Yankees want is to go into that final Boston series with Posada being unable to play because he's too beat up.



[That's long enough for now, I'll be back with the Lineup, Part 2, later on in the day, followed by the bench and the bullpen].

Baseball on the Fourth of July

The spot is perfect.

Dangerous, sure, but we're humans. We sacrifice safety and comfort for bright lights and big noises, all in the name of celebration.

We are Americans, after all. We always find a way.


****

On the mound, starting for the Yankees today, is not an American but a Taiwanese. Chien Ming Wang.

It's no secret how he's struggled all season.

His first three starts were so horrendous the Yankees placed him on the disabled list, even though there were questions about whether or not he was really hurt.

He came off the disabled list again, but slowly, he has begun to look more and more respectable.

The last time he pitched, last Sunday, nearly halfway into the season and against a depleted Mets line up, Wang finally picked up a win.

It wasn't pretty, but the five-and-a-third innings and only two runs given up were a season best.

We're Americans. We like our progress.


****

It's the top of a hill made up of construction rubble; a block east of the West Side Highway it affords us a perfect view of the Hudson River and the sunset over New Jersey.

It's not safe.

Not even a little.

There is a steep climb, full of loosed rocks and sharp weeds, to get to the top, and then, once there, there is a steep drop off into a construction pit. Put simply: take too big a step forward, and you're dead.

Still, this is the best spot we can find, an hour before it's supposed to start.

The West Side Highway is completely blocked off and everything else is too low.

We marvel at our ingenuity in finding the spots.

We're not all Americans; we speak to each other not just in English but in Spanish and Polish and Hebrew; but we are all in America, and on today, that is all that matters.


****

Wang is not an American, but he plays for an American team.

Today, the Fourth of July, an American team is facing a Toronto team.

The Yankees have to win today, it's tempting to think, because there would be something inherently wrong about a Canadian team beating an American team on Independence Day.

Nothing personal against Canada, but today is America's day. It's not that I'm uppity or anything, but Canada had their celebration three days ago.

Today, it's our turn.


****

There are only a few of us on the hill at first, but then people see us, and they follow.

More and more people climb the hill.

Some climb it too fast; some sit all the way over the edge; one has sushi and a Blue Moon.


****

Before the game starts I tell Brent that I don't expect the Yankees to win, so I'll enjoy the game for the sake of enjoying the game.

Brent nods.

Again, it's nothing personal.

Roy Halladay is that good of a starter.

Chien Ming Wang has, this season, been that bad.

I never stop to consider how the two are on divergent paths.

Wang has been getting better. Stronger. More efficient. Halladay has only just come off the DL and struggled in his first game back.

As John Sterling would say, "You can't predict baseball."

****

While we wait we make friends with the others that have gathered on the hill.

We laugh about the danger, about the illegality of what we are doing.

We act like idiots and then proceed to admit that no, we have not actually been drinking.

Neither, we are somewhat shocked to hear, has anyone else.

It's like my brother told me via AIM two nights ago: Fireworks, then alcohol.


****

It's easy enough to tell it's the Fourth at the Stadium: an actual band performing the National Anthem; a reading of Lou Gehrig's farewell address that has lost none of its potency; Ronan Tynan singing "God Bless America"...

...You don't see these things every day.

Another thing you don't see every day: Alex Rodriguez knocking in a two-out base hit with a runner in scoring position to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first. It's not a knock on Alex Rodriguez. The entire team has struggled here this year.

The lead is short lived, but that doesn't matter so much.

The Yankees drew first blood.

The Yankees showed, in the very first inning, that they could hit and score off of Roy Halladay.

He would have to be that much better, if he wanted to win.

****

Five minutes before the fireworks are supposed to start, an undercover cop makes himself known.

"This is a Construction Site. Private property. If you don't want to be arrested, get off the hill now."

He is alone.

We move slowly. We drag it out like a 12-pitch at bat or a 22-inning baseball game.

We do not go quietly into that good night.


****

Somehow, some way, the Yankees get to the sixth inning with a 3-2 lead.

Wang is not just pitching well; he's pitching the best we've seen him this season.

It's the sixth inning and he's only thrown 58 pitches. Both Brent and I want to talk about it, but we won't. We're baseball fans, and superstition runs deep in our blood.

On this day, however, even thinking about it seems to be bad luck.

A single. Then a home run. A 3-2 lead is now a 4-3 deficit and it gets worse when Jorge Posada motions to the dugout, sending Dave Eiland back and bringing out Joe Girardi and the trainer.

It doesn't matter how badly Wang is hurt; that he's hurt is bad enough. It disrupts the flow of the team. Already the speculation begins: what about Wang's next start? Do you take Hughes out of the bullpen? Do you dare to disrupt a bullpen that since the 1st of June has a 2.35 ERA and a .179 BAA? You can't.


****

The undercover cop is soon backed up by a squad of uniformed cops.

I feel like I am in a Law and Order episode, in the very beginning, just minding my own business before all hell breaks loose.

It doesn't.

Not tonight.

We walk slowly downhill. Biding our time.

Then the fireworks start.

We stop. We stop, we turn, and we watch.

The police don't bother us any more.


****

The atmosphere that escapes the Stadium once Wang leaves with the injury is slow to build up again.

It will reach a certain point, and then, like clockwork, Robinson Cano comes up to bat and does something to record the final out of the inning.

This is how the game gets to extra innings.

Sure, scoreless innings from Brian Bruney, Mariano Rivera, Phil Coke and Brett Tomko all help, but it's the failure of Cano's bat that keeps the game going, even as the July sun beats down on us, as some decide they've had enough and leave, even as it comes down to one more pitcher left in the bullpen.


****

The fireworks dazzle.

It's a feast of light, of color and of sound.

"You know," Brent says, "This is what we should do with our firepower. Not blow up other people, but put on displays like this."

I wonder if, when the Ancient Chinese developed fireworks, if they had the same effect on those that saw them.

We are humans. We like bright sights and booming sounds.


****

It ends with Jorge Posada.

Jorge Posada, in the 12th inning, when it's gone from being high drama to please-for-the-love-of-America-end-this-game-because-I'm-hungry.

Is it fitting that Posada ends the game?

He doesn't have the mythical status of Derek Jeter, who doesn't come to bat in the evening; nor does it have the clutchy-mc-clutchness that Melky Cabrera's crafted for himself; nor the redemption that a Robinson Cano hit would bring; nor the long-overdue-ness that a walk-off Mark Teixeira blast would have; nor the grittyguttyness of Brett Gardner.

It is, instead, one of the guys just doing his thing.

Doing his job and doing it well.

That's American.

So's the pie that comes afterward--a fake-out from Joba Chamberlain and then BOOM! from AJ Burnett.

Triumph on the Fourth--that's America, too.*

****

"You know," Brent says, as we make our way east from the Hudson, "baseball, fireworks...we really are the luckiest people on the face of the earth."

"Yeah," I say, "We are."



*The Declaration wasn't actually signed on the fourth. It was made on the 2nd and most didn't sign it until the 19th. But, as in most all of history, such trivialities are minor details.

Burnett, Yanks One-Hit Mets (Postgame Notes 27 June 2009)

I'm not sure if it was AJ Burnett dominating or the New York Mets trotting out a line up that would have a hard time beating some AAA teams; maybe a combination of both, but the Yankees one-hit the Mets tonight.

It always comes back to pitching, and tonight AJ Burnett was en pointe.

Maybe it's something to do with the Mets--he pitched shut out ball against them back on the 14th--but tonight, he dominated, striking out ten in seven and allowing just one hit. He did walk three, but giving the rest of his performance one can hardly complain.

As Bryan Hoch (@bryanhoch) pointed out on Twitter via another, right now, Brett Gardner has more hits (5) in this series than the Mets (4), and I'd like to add that Gardner had an 0-fer today.


To be fair, the Mets lineup has been utterly decimated by injuries, as it has all season, but one should consider that that team did take three of four from the St. Louis Cardinals, who are not, if a spectacular team, certainly not a bad one.


For the Yankee, the offense was not the same sort of spectacular it was on the 14th, but they scored one run on Nick Swisher's home run, and then added more later in the game, with four runs in the top of the sixth inning--and who knows, perhaps the long inning disrupted Burnett's tempo and his quest for a second career no-hitter, but then again, only giving up one hit is no room for complaint.

It was especially gratifying to see Jorge Posada hit a home run--he had a .219 average in June going into the game, and more importantly, to see him so in synch with Burnett.

Perhaps now the "who's better, Posada or Cervelli" debate can stop.

I love Cervelli, I do, but, I mean...really now.

Anyway, the Yankees are back to 10 games over .500 as they've won four straight, and with a win tomorrow (and with the Mets trotting out Livan Hernandez, anything is possible) they could revisit the high-water mark of the season.

Yankees' Errorless Streak Reaches 16 Games In Win (postgame notes 30 May 2009)

Not only are the Yankees in first place right now; they're playing like they belong.

Well, with the exception of Jose Veras and Hideki Matsui's legs, but on the whole the point is still valid.

Their third win in a row and fourth of five (and fourteenth of seventeen) was sparked by the offense, which got on the board when Jorge Posada and Nick Swisher homered in the second, and then took advantage of two Cleveland errors in the fourth, scoring five runs there.

CC Sabathia had no-hit type stuff through four, then seemed to struggle in the fifth and get hit a bit harder in the later innings, but by then the Yankee lead had been built and even if Sabathia had given up a grand slam, the Yanks would have still had the lead.

One of the most encouraging signs this weekend has to be that Jorge Posada has come off of the DL as though he had never gone on it.

On that note, perhaps one of the reasons things have been going so well for the Yankees of late is that even when one player goes down, another steps up in his place.

Think of how well Gardner has been hitting while taking over for Gardner, or Cervelli for Posada, and similar. No team wants to have to play its depth, because then you lose the depth, but the Yanks' depth has exceeded expectations--and now many of the DL'd guys are on their way back.

When Jose Molina returns, likely sometime this week, Francisco Cervelli will likely be sent down; not because Cervelli hasn't done his job (far from it), but because he needs to play every day.


The Yankees have now won 14 of 17 games and haven't enjoyed a stretch like this in a long time.

The feeling you get as a fan is that every day, every game there's a new chance to win...and that might be the best feeling of all.

Liveblogging will return tomorrow...if I wake early enough for the 12.40 start. (this is not a guarantee on a Sunday).

Yankees Do Enough To Beat Cleveland and Take First (Postgame Notes 29 May 2009)

The Yankees have waited more than two years to reclaim solo possession of first place.

So what was waiting another hour and a half rain delay?

Indeed, that is what the Yankees endured before they took the field for today's game, but it did not seem to matter.

The Yankees got to Indians' starter Cliff Lee early; while they didn't really do what they were supposed to do with lots of baserunners and break the game open, they did score three runs before Cleveland scored any, and though they scored without much fanfare, they do still count.

Jorge Posada appeared in his first game after coming off of the DL, and had a couple of the Yankees' best hits in the game. More good news is that instead of having to DFA Kevin Cash to make room for Posada, they were able to option him to AAA. While it's unlikely Cash will reappear with the big club this season, the Yankees do now have some extra insurance if something happens.


Andy Pettitte was far from sharp, but through five made the pitches he needed to make to get out of trouble. The problem was, however, that Andy left early with lower back stiffness. We don't really know more than that right now, but that Pettitte stayed on the bench at the end of the inning has to be an encouraging sign.


Alfredo "Mendoza" Aceves pitched three innings in relief; he allowed an inherited runner to score, but gave up nothing else and Mo pitched a nearly flawless ninth to break the starter-saver record combo (don't ask, baseball likes useless records.)


Anyway, the Yankees now sit eight games above .500 and a half game ahead of the Red Sox in the standings for first place; the first time since the end of 2006.


****

As you may have noticed, I've sort of taken this week sort of off. Everything should be back to normal on Sunday.

Posada's injury hurts Yanks (again)

You can say whatever you want about Phil Hughes last night and Jerry Meals' strike zone or lack thereof, but that is not the biggest issue from last night's game.

As you probably saw (well, if you stayed up), Jorge Posada re-injured his hamstring sliding into second and it's bad enough that he's already going for an MRI today (considering how the Yankees like to delay these things).


If we learned anything last year, it's that the Yankees can't survive without Posada's bat for an extended period of time, and yet this looks exactly like what will happen.

José Molina is a great back up (discounting last night), but he turns into a .200 hitter when playing every day.

The only other catcher on the 40-man is Francisco Cervelli, and he's hitting under the Mendoza line...at AA Trenton.

Cervelli will probably be called up for today's game, but I imagine if Posada's gone for anything longer than a couple of weeks, we'll see the Yankees attempt to make a move.

I have no clue as to who's on the market; they would, I imagine, try to find someone they can sign short term. It's a hard decision to make because, unlike last season, we do not yet know if Posada will miss the rest of the season. I should stress, if it's a similar injury to Hughes in '07, he could be out until August at least quite a while (sorry, forgot about the ankle there)--and given the age difference, probably longer.

The good news, of course, is that the Yankees should get Alex Rodriguez back fairly soon, but there is very big cause for concern here.


Edit, 2.31 PM: Jorge Posada has indeed been placed on the 15 day DL.

Because All Yankee Fans Should Be Born After a Yankee Win (Postgame Notes 1 May 2009)

My baby Niecephew (my wonderful, loving brother and his wife decided they wanted to be surprised) is due to arrive in this world at about 2 AM.

He/She/It will arrive on the heels of quite possibly the most dramatic Yankee win thus far in the young season.

It's hard to pick where to start, here.

At first it seemed like the Yankees would find a way to grit-out a subpar Andy Pettitte and win 4-0 or perhaps 4-2, then it seemed like the curse of the awful bullpen would hit again and the Yankees would lose 9-4, and then, finally, in the later innings, the Yankees said, "our bullpen may be bad, but, dude, we're not like Anaheim bad."

Or something like that.


Andy Pettitte had far from his best stuff tonight. By the time the game got to the sixth inning, it seemed like some sort of miracle that the Yankees were still up 4-0.

It's worrying because, although the Yankees won the game, it's his second so-so start in a row. He hasn't been downright awful in the way Chien Ming Wang has, but he has struggled. Then again, Boston has hit him well of late and the Angels are, well, the Angels, so it probably isn't worth getting too fussed over at the moment.

The Yankee bullpen, on the other hand, is a concern.

As soon as Pettitte left the game, everyone held their breath, and it failed.

One shouldn't worry about Melancon tonight: he made one bad pitch, but he was not responsible for loading the bases. The attempt to nab the runner coming home on ball four showed a pretty amazing gymnastics ability...

José Veras, however, looks flat-out awful right now. He can't seem to find an out pitch and is constantly nibbling--I still haven't figured out how he put together those three scoreless innings against Oakland.

Edwar Ramirez always seems to struggle against the Angels, so perhaps the Yankees were lucky the game didn't get out of hand with him pitching.

Jonathan Albaladejo had a 1-2-3 eighth (with some defensive help), which has to be considered refreshing after he struggled in Detroit.

Still, there are some major bullpen issues in that the Yankees don't know what they're going to get. Until pitchers have set roles, like they did last year when at their best, they will probably struggle. Hopefully the Yankees find a way to fix that, because once they do, there simply may be no stopping this team.


The Yankee offense is making it look like 2008 was a fluke, and instead they've picked right up off of 2007, with the ability, seemingly, to score runs almost at will.

It's not just that the Yankees are scoring runs, it's that they are scoring them almost every game. In 23 games they've been held to less than four runs three times, and they have never been shut out.

Oh, and Teixeira's hitting about .192 and A-Rod isn't in the line up...

Not only that, but tonight, after the offense fell behind 9-4 after being up 4-0, they didn't give up, and showed a type of fight that we seldom, if ever, saw last season.

Right now, the clutch hitting is coming off the bats of Melky Cabrera and Ramiro Peña--perhaps the two guys you would normally consider least likely to be RBI men, but without their contributions in the 8th inning tonight, the ninth, in which Brian Fuentes didn't retire a single batter (Teixeira walk, Matsui single, Canó single, Posada walkoff hit), would not have mattered.

If anything, tonight's win can serve notice to the rest of the league: even if this team currently has the 13th worse bullpen in the AL, they can still find a way to win.


Nick Swisher did get HBP in the elbow and had to leave the game. However, X-Rays are negative and he is Day-to-Day.

Oh, and just for the fun of it: the Yankees have assured themselves at least a series split with the Angels.


***

I will be at tomorrow's Yankee game, sec 309, row 7, seat 22 or 23. Feel free to come by and say hi. Alas, I don't have a fancy phone, so if you want to email to set something up, you'll have to do it tonight.

Yankees at Tigers, 29 April 2009: A liveblog

4.49 PM: Relatively few updates today because I have a lot of work to do and not a whole lot of time to do it.

The most important news of the day concerns Ian Kennedy, who had felt numbness in one of his fingers.

He saw a MD today and was diagnosed with a vasospasm, which, in layman's terms would seem to involve a spasmodic blood vessel.

This is potentially very bad if they cannot find an underlying cause. The vasospasm itself can be treated with medicine, but it's a condition that, IMO is more likely to be a symptom of a larger problem.

Here's wishing him the best.

4.51 PM: Jorge Posada is getting the start today, and please, for the love of all that's holy, stop this nonsense about Molina beint a better everyday player. No one denies Molina has a cannon for an arm, but without Posada's bat, you miss the playoffs. Exhibit A: 2008.

7.12 Pm: I admit it. It's kinda hard to root against Rick Porcello. Why, oh why, did the Tigers get to draft ahead of us that year?

7.47 PM: Did Ken Singleton seriously just ask if a golf course was "white only"? I'm not sure if I should be amused or horrified. Just imagine if Cone had asked that...

7.49 PM: I should either brush up on my golf or get my hearing checked. Possibly both.

7.56 PM: Ayayay Joba...bases loaded, one out. Now 1-0 Tigers on a sac fly. Joba's command seems to be off tonight.

8.13 PM: ...Jorge Posada just stole a base. If this doesn't portend the apocalypse...

8.17 PM: Swisher hit a bomb to left. 3-1 Yanks, and the hitters are working Porcello's pitch count real good.

8.23 PM: Hopefully Porcello will wipe this start from his memory and go on to bigger and better things. I have to root for the Jersey kids.

However, I'd be lying if I didn't say that I absolutely love it when the Yankee offense explodes.

8.27 PM: The Tigers screwed themselves there. They should have pitched to the slumping Teixeira, but instead Matsui, who has been on fire, made them pay. The intentional walks seldom work.

8.42 PM: So what did Swisher have for breakfast this morning? Where can I get some? His second home run of the night, and it's 8-1 Yankees.

9.01 PM: Aww, Zach Grienke gave up an earned run. He has an ERA now.

9.07 PM: Robbie's hit streak is alive and well. Missed first base and grimaced as though he was hurt, but it was just a scare. Phew.

9.39 PM: Is there anything Swisher can't do?

9.40 PM: A warning system has gone off. Don't know why. Now I am very curious.

9.42 PM: False alarm. Someone just ruined their life by tripping the alarm in a crowded ballpark.

10.07 PM: Uh, Mo? Is everything okay?

Yankees at Tigers, 27 April 2009: A Liveblog

4.13 PM: Lots of discussion today about Molina's catcher's ERA versus Posada's. You can find a good discussion here. There are a few caveats:

1) Posada has caught all of Wang's starts
2) Molina has started less than Posada
3) It's still a really small sample size.

Still, Molina is getting the nod at catcher tonight and it will be interesting to see if it alters CC's performance in any way.

5.00 PM: They're kidding, right?

5.37 PM: Weather forecast for Detroit doesn't look that great...it'd be awesome if they bumped the start time up an hour, but of course I'm sure it's not worth the lost revenue.


5.39 PM: You can view a weather map here.

6.12 PM: My brother just showed me this and you have to see it to believe it.

Go to espn.com and Press these buttons and then keep on pressing enter Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Enter.

6.43 PM: Johnny Damon doesn't want to get his shoulder looked at. Everyone with me here: "uh-frackin'-oh".

7.11 PM: This could be a looong night. Yankees go down in order in the first and it's not even close.

7.17 PM: Miguel Cabrera hits a single past a diving Jeter (where have we heard this before?) and it's 1-0 Tigers as Magglio Ordoñez scores from second. Like I said, this could be a long night.

7.23 PM: Jim Joyce must have the most remarkable vocal chords known to mankind.

7.27 PM: Robbie Canó hits a one out single and is stranded as Swisher and Melky Cabrera strike out. I wonder, if I build a temple in Jerusalem and start sacrificing red bulls, if that will do anything...

7.38 PM: CC works around a one out hit and gets a GIDP.

7.38 PM: José Molina hit pretty well the last game he played, too. He is just toying with us.

7.43 PM: Why do I feel like Jeter read the post I wrote last night?

7.51 PM: Quick 1-2-3 inning for Sabathia. Meanwhile, these stop smoking PSAs are really grating on me. I don't smoke. I have no plans to start. So why do I have to sit through this?

7.55 PM: Hey! Look! Nick Swisher with a hit! I'm an idiot. It was Matsui.

7.58 PM: Ayayay Robbie...Okay, here is Nick Swisher.

8.00 PM: And just like Swisher, there's the strikeout. The Yankees right now are making my head hurt. A lot.

8.03 PM: Head, meet desk. Seriously, what does the team have to do to get a run-scoring hit with RISP? Sacrifice virgins or something?

8.11 PM: O Hai Thar CC that we paid craploads of money for in the offseason! That was a beautiful half inning to watch.

8.18 PM: Through 4.5 innings, Verlander has struck out eight. The Yankees may have gotten themselves beat this weekend, but tonight I'm not sure anyone could beat Verlander. Then you add in the Yankees' chronic inability to hit with RISP...

8.22 PM: Swisher may have forgotten how to hit, but he can still play some decent D.

8.25 PM: Good, ole' fashioned pitchers duel right here. If you're a baseball purist (and, uh, not a Yankee fan) it doesn't get better than this.

8.31 PM: Right now looks like Verlander could pitch a complete nine and not even feel it. Great for him and fantasy teams everywhere, bad for the Yankees.

8.39 PM: I think I counted five seconds before someone in a Yankee uniform got to that baseball. Damon looks like he's really hurting.

8.56 PM: Molina took a hard one there. Hope Molina's okay, head injuries are no laughing matter. Dude's tough as nails.

Meanwhile, the Yankees have six outs to score four runs.

Yeah, I'm tempted to turn the channel, too.

9.11 PM: The Yankees may never score a run again.

9.22 PM: Whoa. A run? Where did it come from?!

Two Players, Two Quotes, Two Opinions

Just on the postgame tonight:

Nick Swisher: "Gotta find something to laugh about"

Jorge Posada: "Nobody was laughing tonight. It was embarrassing."


Which side of the debate do you fall on?

[still trying to work out kinks with the commenting, bare with me here]

Sabathia Rebounds while Swisher and Posada drive offense (Postgame Notes 11 April 2009)

Going into this game the number one thought on the minds of Yankee fans was: how would CC Sabathia rebound from a rough outing on Opening Day?

The answer: illustrative of the reason the Yankees dug deep in their pockets to shell out the big dough in December.

Sabathia was nothing short of brilliant, giving up six hits over 7.2 innings, while walking none, striking out six and allowing no runs to cross the plate. José Veras was responsible for the Royals' run in the ninth.

Sabathia simply appeared more relaxed today, and it showed.

After the Yankee offense, courtesy of Nick Swisher and Jorge Posada, staked him out to an early lead, he never faltered. Had the Yankees stopped after scoring just two runs they would still have won--though it's certainly better that they scored the six they did.

The story on the offense continues to be Nick Swisher. His OBP? .625. Okay, so it's a small sample size, but he keeps playing himself into the line up and has quickly become a fan favorite. He should get quite the reception in New York if he keeps this up.

Having won three straight, the Yankees now move above .500 for the first time this season, and with the rotation of Sabathia-Wang-Burnett-Pettitte-Joba, it seems unlikely that the Yankees will ever lose more than two games at a time this season. It will happen, of course, as it does to every team, but each of the Yankees' starters could theoretically be an ace on another team.

Joba Chamberlain makes his first start of the season tomorrow he's on a strict innings count so don't be surprised if he isn't allowed to go more than five or so innings.

EDIT ON TEIXEIRA: According to post game, day-to-day with tendinitis below wrist.

Some Random Thoughts from Spring Training

I'll admit it. I've been an awful blogger the past couple of weeks. I'll spare you the excuses.

Anyway, now that Spring Training is a few weeks old, I've had a couple of thoughts that keep repeating:

• I wish the Yankees would do something about the fact that Derek Jeter is not going to be able to play shortstop for a whole heck of a lot longer. They've got a couple prospects at the lower levels, I think, but I would love to see if perhaps they considered trading some of their surplus pitching talent for a closer-to-ready SS...unless the kids the Yankees have in their system really are supposed to be that good...but, given that you never hear them mentioned in the nearly the same breath as Jackson, Montero, Romine, et al, that doesn't bode very well.

• Posada's been swinging the bat well. I wonder how many people remember that in last spring training, in the first game against USF, Posada hit a triple?

• I wouldn't worry too much about the pitching right now--and here I'm talking about the starting. All you need to worry about is whether or not they stay healthy. Don't go too much on Spring Training performances--remember how good Canó was in March and how bad he was in April?

• As the economy continues to collapse and enters downright scary-as-hell territory, I have to think that it might soon become very possible to see ticket prices, at least from fan-to-fan selling, come down a tad. Granted, no, you still won't be able to afford tickets for Opening Day, but the prices for the Cubs exhibition games, at least the ones I've seen, aren't too bad (until you consider that face value is 1923 prices, but we'll ignore that). I'm still hoping to magically land a ticket (or two) for Friday night, but I have to go to a conference all day on Saturday, which is a shame since I'd much prefer the day game.

• If you haven't seen it, PBP was mentioned on the New York Magazine website here the other day, under the appropriate named linked 'fanatic-blogs'. My inappropriate sense of self-importance grows ever larger.
  

It's March 1st. It's okay to step away from the ledge

Apparently, I never realized that Grapefruit League games actually matter.

Right.

Are we so starved for baseball that we take games in the first week of an extended exhibition season and use these to judge the fortunes of our team in 2009?

Right now, the "regulars" leave the game after four or five innings and the pitchers you see are not your Opening Day starters.

Right now, all that matters is keeping the team healthy and getting them up to full strength.

Thus, Jorge Posada and Edwar Ramirez and Jonathan Albaladejo are legitimate concerns (even if grouping Albie here is pushing it a little bit).

Jesus Montero is a bit of a concern, sure, but he is not supposed to impact the major league team for a couple of seasons...kid's 19 years old! When I was 19 years old, my biggest concerns were staying up till 3.30 AM to finish that paper on African myths...

What isn't a legitimate concern: worrying about losing games in the first week of exhibition play.

Seriously. Remember last spring training? How Robbie Canó hit .440ish? How'd that work out during the regular season?

While, right now, Brett Gardner is pwning Melky, remember, there's still a whole month before the regular season starts, and anything can happen, so, I'd exercise some caution before going out to buy those "Gardner" t-shirts just yet.

Spring Training right now is a time to sit back, be jealous of sunny Florida while in NY it's about to dump a foot of snow, take a seat with a cup of hot tea and Baseball Prospectus 2009, take a deep breath...

...and relax.