Yankees Throw a Clunker (Postgame Notes 28 July 2009)

For only the second time since the All Star Break, the Yankees lost a game, and this one was a clunker in every sense of the word.

CC Sabathia wasn't sharp, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez air-mailed throws to first base, the bats were largely flat or else erasing rallies with double plays and poor baserunning, questionable calls, and as a whole the team reminded much too much of 2008.

Given the Yankees' recent play, however, this game seems much more like an aberration than anything else, though there is a legitimate concern to be had in Sabathia's ineffectiveness.

It's not that Sabathia was ineffective tonight, but that he has been inconsistent of late, and there is growing speculation that Sabathia's running into a tired arm because of the overwork in the last couple of years.

If the Yankees were in first by a comfortable margin, I wouldn't be shocked to see them contemplating giving Sabathia a start off now and then, but with the race as close as it is, the Yankees do need Sabathia to at the very least give them a chance to win.

There's not much to say otherwise. Offenses go through rough patches, but given the eleven runs scored yesterday with the same line up, I don't think anyone is (while in their right mind) panicking. One just hopes the Yankees brush it off and put together a better effort tomorrow.

If there is a bright spot, Mark Melancon pitched in his first stint since July 10th and did not allow a run.


Chien Ming Wang News Chien Ming Wang met with Dr. James Andrews. The verdict is surgery--same as Posada had last season, and he is out for the year. (Via Mark Carig, Star Ledger)

We already suspected Wang was done for the year, but having shoulder surgery for a pitcher may very well be the kiss of death. I feel for Wang. It's tempting to assign blame, but in this case I don't think you can.


Live Chat:

I will attempt a live chat on Thursday, 6-7 PM, come on by and ask whatever's on your mind.

Breaking Down the Yankees for the Second Half - The Bullpen

[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.]

Since this is the last post in the series, I'll provide you with an index:

The Rotation
The Lineup, Part 1
The Lineup, Part 2
The Bench

Now it's on to the mother of all things Yankees:

The Bullpen

To do this post justice, one has to figure out who should be included, and who might be a little more expendable--since bullpens are fluid and change so much over the course of a season.

In this instance I'm going to settle around the "core" of Mariano Rivera, Alfredo Aceves, Phil Coke, Phil Hughes, Brian Bruney, David Robertson and Brett Tomko--the guys that have been around (or should have been around) all season. Mark Melancon and Jonathan Albaladejo will get passing nods, but we'll go ahead and pretend that Jose Veras and Edwar Ramirez were not utterly awful.

As a whole, the bullpen struggled early--when most of the rotation did, as well--but the call-up of Alfredo Aceves seemed to work miracles. That one move allowed for the short relievers to remain short relievers, for Coke and Hughes to basically claim the eighth between them and for Robertson and Tomko not to be faced with undue pressure.

When Aceves was moved from the bullpen for a spot start, we saw the 'pen fall apart again--though, this time, fortunately, the All Star break came at exactly the right time.

As long as Joba Chamberlain and Andy Pettitte are utterly ineffective, look for Aceves to remain in the bullpen.

(The so-called bullpen core in alphabetical order)

Alfredo Aceves

The statistics will tell you that Alex Rodriguez, and not Alfredo Aceves is the more valuable of the two Yankees to make their first appearance this season in early May, but Aceves' value lies in far more than just the numbers he's posted.

The easiest way to explain what Aceves has meant to the Yankees in 2009 out of the bullpen would be to say that Aceves is pitching in a role similar to that of Ramiro Mendoza, but his numbers out of the bullpen are actually closer to what Mariano Rivera posted in 1996.

Since Aceves can pitch multiple innings at a time without getting worn down, the short relievers--especially guys like Phil Coke and David Robertson--do not have to pitch nearly as much as they otherwise would. This not only saves their arms from, uh, being Proctor'd, but helps keep them more effective over the long haul.

Look for Aceves to remain in the bullpen for now--after the disaster in Anaheim, the Yankees probably don't want to mess with the bullpen too much--but if Mitre, the presumed new fifth starter, bombs and the Yankees decide not to go after Halladay (or another, you know, more attainable starter), Aceves could end up the fifth starter.

In which case we will all have to hold our breath in the second halves of games started by Chamberlain and Pettitte.


Brian Bruney

The season that, for Bruney, started with so much promise has quietly turned into a disaster. He'd earned himself the eighth inning role before going down on the DL with an elbow problem, worked his way back only to go back on it after just one appearance, and now seems to have lost the command that had been so important in the first place.

In short, it's the return of the 2007 version of Brian Bruney.

The Yankees really want to get him right--if he can somehow recover his arm strength and command, the Yankees could consider, more seriously, the idea of sending Hughes down to AAA to stretch him out as a starter (although I explain here why I don't think it would work), but even if Bruney did recover, the risk inherent in relying on a power pitcher who's twice been on the DL in the same season with elbow problems is an enormous one.

It's a shame, really, because Bruney showed so much promise in 2008 before hurting his foot, and then again in early 2009.

I don't know what happened for Bruney to have such awful karma, but something apparently did.

Going forward, Bruney will likely be used in low-leverage situations until his command improves, or he will be used in mop-up like roles after the starters (yet again) are inefficient. He'll have to work his way back to the 8th and even then there is no guarantee.


Phil Coke

The battle between Good Coke and Bad Coke may be as addicting to watch as the battle between Good Melky and Bad Melky. Actually, the entire reason to want to see him pitch is to watch the postgame interviews afterward.

Coke struggled in the beginning, found a groove, and then struggled again in his most recent appearance in Anaheim.

On the whole, he's been fairly dependable, but tends to give up too many hits--6 HR in 38 IP is not a portent for good things to come--so the Yankees are best served if he is used very sparingly, which, thanks to Aceves and Hughes, he now is.

Should Dámaso Marte stop playing catch and start playing baseball, he could help ease some of Coke's LOOGY duties, and provide some relief for the Yankees, who are playing with fire.


Phil Hughes

Probably the most controversial reliever, not because he's pitched poorly, but because he probably should have never been in the bullpen in the first place.

As a starter, Hughes wasn't exactly dominating anywhere outside of Texas, but he was getting better, and showing improved consistency and efficiency. Considering that this is his first healthy season since all the way back in 2006, that's not something to be taken lightly.

As a reliever, Hughes has just dominated. You can see the splits here, but to sum:

Hughes' ERA is 0.98, his BAA is .115, OBPA is .182 and WHIP is 0.655.

Hughes has only pitched 18.1 innings in relief, and his BABIP is an insane .147, so there's certainly a case to be made that the law of averages will catch up to him, but with relievers much of the time, you only have a small sample size to use, so you ride the hot arm as long as it stays hot.

If the Yankees have learned only one thing here, it's that if Hughes, for whatever reason, loses his value as a starter next season, he still has plenty of value as a reliever.

Look for him to keep the 8th inning role in the second half unless the Yankees have utterly no choice but to stretch him out again. If that happens, than the Yankees will probably have bigger issues than what they do about the eighth inning...


Mariano Rivera

He's Mo. Really.

He was getting hit more often in the beginning of the season, which had some worried, but this seems to have been a result of recovering from off-season shoulder surgery and perception, since what he did last season was simply historic.

He's back to his old Mo self now, notching his 500th save and 1st career ERA in the same game.

In the second half, the Yankees probably won't want anything more than for him to keep doing his thing. Wearing number 42, he is, after all, the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.


David Robertson

The easiest way to explain Robertson in this: when he throws strikes, he's unhittable. When he doesn't, he's unwatchable.

When Robertson comes into a game in low-leverage situations, he throws strikes.

When Robertson comes into a game in high-leverage situations, he throws balls.

You can see why this is a problem.

In a mop-up type role, Robertson is fine for the bullpen, but the problem is that the Yankees play a lot more close games than they do blowouts, and they need relievers that can either protect a lead or keep another team's lead within reach.

Look for him to stick to low-leverage situations, and don't be shocked if some combination of Chien Ming Wang getting healthy again and Sergio Mitre pitching well sends him back on the AAA bus--though likely not before Melancon or Albaladejo.


Brett Tomko

The problem with Tomko is that when he gets hit, he gets hit hard.

Though a former starter, right now he can't really pitch more than two innings at a time, and he's seldom seen in anything other than a mop-up role or in an extra inning game when all other pitchers have been used.

That said, I think he does get a bit of a bum rap--for what it's worth, Coke has given up more home runs. Then again, Coke's pitched 38 innings and Tomko's only pitched 20...

Although Tomko is a DFA candidate, it would seem more likely that Mark Melancon or Jonathan Albaladejo would be sent back down to Scranton before the Yankees parted ways with Tomko. We shall see.

Mark Melancon and Jonathan Albaladejo

Melancon, once hailed as the future Mo, was probably called up from AAA Scranton too soon. He's struggled in AAA since being sent back down, and again since being called up. There's too much talent to write him off, but he does need some more time.

Albaladejo didn't pitch well early and got sent down, has pitched lights out when recalled after Wang got hurt the second time, but then got sent back down...to make room for Melancon.

If Girardi is riding the hot reliever, right now he should stick with Albaladejo.



dude, if you made it this far, I kind of want to hug you...

Bad Field for Scranton Creates Problems for Big Boys, Too

Today I went with my friend Brent and longtime blog reader Gayle to Scranton for the second-annual LoHud blog group meet up.

We had only just parked when those in the car next to us told us the doubleheader was canceled due to unplayable field conditions.

After having driven for two hours none of us were in the mood to turn back immediately, so we got out and ended up eating lunch at the Legends Restaurant which is attached to the ballpark.

From the restaurant, large windows look out onto the field, and we could see, first hand, the unplayable field.

In right field, which was closest to us, the field was torn up as though someone had kept stomping the grass with their spikes.

The infield was still wet--even after two days of sun and a helicopter that--somehow (ask Shelley Duncan, he knows)--tried to dry the field.

Some of the Pawtucket players came out to try to have a catch; as we watched we could see them sinking into the ground.


Scranton Yankees' officials acknowledged that the problem is a drainage problem that dates back to when they replaced the turf field with a grass field; the problem has been made all the more the worse by the absurdly wet June.

The problem has gotten so bad, now, that there is talk of finding somewhere else for the team to play. Simply put, too many games are getting postponed or canceled outright. It's not just that it makes it hard for the league, which has to reschedule all of the games, or the team, which has to manage the logistics of double headers and the like, but it also means that players that need to play don't.

For example, Jose Molina was supposed to do his rehabbing at Scranton. Because the field has been so bad, he is instead doing his rehabbing at Trenton.

Pitchers that need to pitch have their slot pushed back and prospects that need to play to develop aren't getting the chance to do so.

Every team, except those with domed or retractable roofs, has a game or two delayed by rain or rained out, but what has happened in Scranton is certainly abnormal.

There are rumors now that the team may consider playing games at Syracuse or Lehigh Valley, which are the only other "close" places with facilities that could handle an AAA team. The other option is to find a field--any field--and play, but Scranton, like the big boys, has season ticket holders to appease.


One can talk all he or she wants about how a professional ballclub, especially one associated with the Yankees, should never have to worry about an unplayable field, but right now, that's not the immediate concern.

Right now, the Yankees need to solve the problem.


While the Yankees' top prospects right now may be at the lower levels, AAA does have Austin Jackson, Mark Melancon and Ivan Nova.

All of them need to play.

They deserve a field to play on.

At the Deadline, 2009 Looks Like 2008....Sorta...

With the All Star Break fast approaching, teams are beginning to have to make that most-crucial of decisions: buyers or sellers at the trade deadline?

With the Yankees, there isn't much of a question--with the third best record in MLB and first place in the Wild Card race (though no one's looking at this quite yet), it's clear that the Yankees are buyers.

So now the question becomes threefold:

1) What do the Yankees need?

2) Can they solve this problem from within?

3) What price are they willing to pay to solve the problem from the outside?


Strangely, although in many ways this season has felt much different than 2008, the needs in 2009 are strikingly similar at the same point in the season.

This might be attributed to the fact that Xavier Nady and Dámaso Marte have been non-entities this season (although credit should be given to Nady for trying to come back ahead of schedule and avoid a second TJ surgery, though that no longer looks possible).

Thus, the Yankees need, right now, the same sort of thing that they needed last year: an additional bat that can spell some of the outfielders if need be, due to age or slump, and a reliever.

The good news is that the Yankees do not necessarily need a left-handed reliever (although they wouldn't say no, I don't think, if the right one is available); but I'm thinking that the idea here is to have another decent (ie, not Veras/Ramirez/Albaladejo) reliever so that the Yankees have the option of bringing Hughes back to the rotation and not substantially weakening the bullpen.

Or, you know, giving the Yankees the option to not have to pitch Brett Tomko, or Proctor Phil Coke or Alfredo Aceves.


The bat is simple here: you want someone better than Cody Ransom available to come off of the bench if need be. As Ramiro Peña can field well, run well and is not an automatic out, I can't see the Yankees sending him down to AAA, even if that would ultimately benefit him the most, unless they can land a bat that can do these things, also. The cost for that, however, would likely be prohibitively high, and while I can't see the Yankees mortgaging the farm for anyone, they would like something better than what they have.




Could the Yankees solve this issue from within?

For a while it looked like the Yankees would be able to solve the relief pitcher issue from within, with Mark Melancon, but after a short stint in the majors where nerves seem to have gotten to him, he's struggled again in AAA. Some other relievers have performed well, but nothing that is that inspiring--except, perhaps, for the ambidextrous Pat Venditte, and he is only just promoted to High A. Certainly not Major League ready.

As for the suggestion that Austin Jackson should be promoted to the Major League level, the answer is a resolute: No. He is progressing nicely at AAA. He is not blasting through the system a la Chamberlain, but everything seems to be coming in time. He is performing well for his level of competition, but he is not, in no way, shape or form, overmatching it. The worst thing the Yankees could do right now is mess with his development.

John Rodriguez is another name that's been thrown around, but he's recently been placed on the DL with a hamstring injury, and as fun as Shelley Duncan is to root for, he's not really as versatile defensively as the Yankees would probably like--not to mention he strikes out way too often.



It's still pretty early, in terms of the trade deadline, and we're not entirely sure which players are available for the right price.

For the Yankees the price is always going to be high--since every other team out there knows the Yankees can pay it.

Let the speculation begin.

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 Red Sox, 25 April 2009: A Liveblog

1.12 PM: I wish I could suspend time so that I could capture today's weather and never let it go. Most of the time I love city living, but today the no porch, no yard haunts me.

1.13 PM: Lots of injury news. The biggest is perhaps that Brian Bruney is now on the DL (coutesy of LoHud, and that Mark Melancon has been called up. he's supposed to be the heir to Rivera, and has pitched in AAA like it, but this isn't quite how the Yankees planned it.

1.21 PM: From LoHud (link above): "No word yet on the severity of Bruney’s injury. … Meanwhile A.J. is readying for his start by watching the movie 300. He has a Spartan warrior tat on his left arm."

I like this Burnett guy more and more.

1.39 PM: I could say that the Nationals are a bad team, but that wouldn't quite cover it.

2.20 PM: Cody Ransom is on the 60 Day DL. Those of you who wanted him gone, you got your wish. Now we get to see what Angel Berroa and Ramiro Peña can do. For another week. A-Rod, O A-Rod, where art thou A-Rod?

2.21 PM: You know, I would probably fit in perfectly with the Nats: no hit, no field...

2.30 PM: Humberto Sanchez has been DFA'd. That Sheffield trade's worked so well for both teams, hasn't it?

2.52 PM: Via LoHud: Bruney's injury is muscular, not ligament-related. That is, believe it or not, good news.

3.36 PM: Check out New Stadium Insider for a plea to save part of the old stadium.

3.53 PM: Melancon--that's Meh-lan-son for the uninitiated--has taken number 39. I called it, but alas left no record of it so I can claim no prize.

4.10 PM: Wonder if FOX will have Swisher reading the line up again...I have the NFL Draftcast up on my computer, since I only have one TV...

4.15 PM: One out single for Johnny Damon. Teixeira boos much more noticeable today.

4.22 PM: Nick Swisher is the MAN, with a one-out RBI single to bring home Johnny Damon and the Yankees now lead 1-0.

4.28 PM: Jorge Posada has a two-out RBI single, and the Yankees now lead 2-0.

4.37 PM: I would pay really good money for Tim McCarver to stop fawning over the Red Sox.

4.38 PM: It's too early in the season to call anyone done, but David Ortiz continues to look awful. Meanwhile the GIDP means at the end of one the Yankees are still up 1-0.

4.45 PM: Jets traded up and got Mark Sanchez. Even if the Yankees did nothing that inning I have this gigantic smile on my face. I knew there was a reason I wore green today!

4.57 PM: Still getting distracted by the draft, but AJ works around a walk and the Yankees are up 2-0 at the end of two.

5.03 PM: Robinson Canó hits a one out two run jack that hits the Pesky Pole. 4-0 Yankees.

5.10 PM: Gardner is simply over matched by Beckett. Still, 4-0 Yankees.

5.20 PM: Burnett has a blink-and-you-miss it bottom of the inning.

5.28 PM: Robbie Canó is an RBI machine, with runs batted in three and four on the day off of the Monster. 6-0 Yanks.

5.43 PM: AJ in some serious trouble. Bases loaded, one run in, only one out.

5.47 PM: And just like that, we're back to a one run game. Hard to believe it's only the fourth inning. Robbie Canó is probably standing there, shaking his head, saying, how many more RBI do I have to give you?

5.49 PM: We go to the fifth, 6-5 Yankees and the Yankees have the bottom of the order due up...

5.59 PM: And now the game is tied. Burnett seems to have just run out of gas. unfortunately, the Yankees don't have a whole lot of options in the pen. This has turned into a disaster in a hurry.


6.11 PM: Jason Bay: Yankee killer.

6.21 PM: As much as I hate Jason Bay, that's how much I love Johnny Damon.

6.32 PM: So, in the middle of the sixth inning, the pitcher's duel of doom is tied at 8-8. Just another Saturday baseball game at Fenway.

6.50 PM: 9-8 Sox on a sac fly by David Ortiz. It sucks, sure, but it could have been a hell of a lot worse. Unfortunately, the Boston bullpen has been stellar and one run for the Sox may be enough.

7.07 PM: Huge spot with 2nd and 3rd and one out and Jeter does the one thing he can't do and strikes out. I am looking everywhere for something to throw through a wall but I can't find anything.

7.11 PM: With a two strike count, Johnny Damon sneaks one under the glove of Dustin Pedroia (it's an E) and the Yankees take a 10-9 lead.

7.22 PM: I am tempted to find something else to watch for another half hour and then come back to this game. At this point, I'm not even angry any more.

7.53 PM: That may be the most horrendously botched call I've seen this season. Pedroia was out by a mile. I think I'm cursed.

Can a Relief Pitcher be a Prospect?

Recently, ESPN's Keith Law came out with a list of top prospects by organization.

The five on the Yankees' list:

1. Austin Jackson, CF
2. Jesus Montero, C
3. Andrew Brackman, RHP
4. Dellin Betances, RHP
5. Zach McAllister, RHP

While one familiar with the Yankees' farm system would expect to see Jackson and Montero on the list, a notable absence is Mark Melancon-who many predict is being groomed to take over for Mariano Rivera.

In this list from Baseball Intellect, the prospects are ranked:

1. Jesus Montero
2. Dellin Betances
3. Austin Jackson
4. Andrew Brackman
5. Mark Melancon

This got me thinking:

Not too long ago, no pitcher predicted to make his career in the bullpen would ever have made anyone's top list of prospects. It used to be that relievers were simply pitchers that weren't good enough to start.

How far we've come.

To be sure, relievers are still not (usually) seen in the same light as starters, and there's a good reason for it--a good starter theoretically means a relief pitcher will not have to be used in the first place.

However, that doesn't mean that baseball today hasn't figured out a way to turn relieving into an art. Players like Mariano Rivera and Francisco Rodriguez will sell more jerseys than Melky Cabrera or Maicer Izturis.

Relief pitchers might not seem like valuable commodities, but if you ask any Yankee fan about Mariano Rivera, they will tell you that few men in pinstripes have been as valuable to the team for so long.

Even so, when asked to rank top prospects, few will list relievers. Either the relief pitcher will be that good, or the rest of the farm system will be rather mundane, and it's not hard to imagine which is more common.

Although Baseball Intellect thinks Melancon will most likely project as a solid middle reliever, the common refrain--groomed to be Rivera's successor--would seem to illustrate that expectations for him are high, indeed.

Whether Melancon should be included in the top five Yankees prospects in terms of ceiling is hard to gauge, but in terms of major-league readiness, Melancon, who could potentially see action in late 2009, if not sooner, still has to be considered at the top.

You know it's bad when...

...When you turn on the Yankee game and see empty seats behind home plate during the last homestand at Yankee Stadium, ever.

Whether this is a reflection of the Yankees' poor performance or the current financial crisis, I have no idea. It's probably a little bit of both, but it's still telling.

***

Congratulations are due to Derek Jeter for breaking Lou Gehrig's record for hits at Yankee Stadium. He needed just one more at bat to do it.


***

Congratulations are also due to the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Yankees and the Trenton Thunder for winning the International League (AAA) and Eastern League (AA) playoffs, respectively.

There is a lot of young talent at both levels, and if you're reading this, chances are you're already familiar with some of the names--Melancon, Jackson, Curtis, et al.

This year might be bleak, but the future is not--as far as baseball is concerned, anyway.