SWISH

The Yankees have acquired Nick Swisher and a pitcher, Kanekoa Texeira from the White Sox in exchange for Wilson Betemit, Jeff Marquez and Jhonny Nuñez.

Thoughts:

1) Swisher might not be a great player, but we got him cheap.

2) The funny thing is that the pitcher we acquired in the deal is named....Texeira. So we can't complain about not getting Texeira, even if it's not the one we originally wanted.

3) I have no idea if this means we aren't going after that *other* Teixeira, but hey, you never know. At the very least it seems to say that Cashman and co., are serious about tightening up that roster...and possibly making more room for CC.

4) What the hell were the White Sox thinking/smoking? They got Betemit! Okay, so just because of that, he's going to win the AL MVP next year...




Anyway, I need 35 sources on women and work and late medieval Nottingham. Oh, this is going to be so much fun...

Let the Old Time(r)s Roll (Postgame Notes 2 August 2008)

There are few certainties in life.

Death, taxes. and that Old Timer's Day will always leave a chill in your Yankee fan blood.

At about noon this morning, it was pouring Noah's Flood, and it looked like the Yankees would be lucky to get the ceremonies in, but, almost as if by destiny, the skies cleared and 72 former Yankee players--some Hall of Fame Legends, some that just caught lightning in a bottle--were able to assemble on the field of the House that Ruth Built for one last time.

While Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford produced goosebumps, and Paul O'Neill, Tino Martinez, David Cone and David Wells made you pine for the late nineties, it was the return of Willie Randolph to the Stadium that received the most attention from the Stadium crowd.

As Michael Kay said in his introduction, "once a Yankee, always a Yankee."


The game that followed did not disappoint, from a Yankee point of view.

Mike Mussina pitched an absolute clinic--he did not allow an Angel baserunner to reach after the second, retiring seventeen in a row. It was a pure vintage performance, and while he struggled with his control in the first two innings, he found a rhythym and didn't look back.

The Yankee offense was sparked by an unusual source: a two-run home run from Wilson Betemit in the bottom of the second inning, the first of four Yankee home runs on the day.

After last night's offensive debacle, the Yankees had home runs from Betemit, the streaking Bobby Abreu, Alex Rodriguez, and Jose Molina, who had his first home run of the season as part of a 3-3 day.

The Yankees now have a chance to salvage a split out of the four game set--which would be impressive against a team as good on the road as the Angels are--though a win last night would have meant the possibility of taking three out of four.

Brian Bruney, who was not expected to be back at all this season, pitched a one walk, one hit ninth inning. His command was a little off, but given the time he has missed, it is understandable.

Office Correspondance (Postgame Notes

Memo

To: Yankees
From: Baseball G-ds
Re: Mariano Rivera

Of six runs allowed this inning, five have come in tie games. You may want to consider this before putting him in tie game situations in the future.


Memo

To: Yankees
From: Baseball G-ds
Re: Offense

Look, we can only help so much. If Robinson Canò and Brett Gardner are going to have good days, the least you can do is make sure the rest of the line up, including the "big names" like Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi, actually hit with runners in scoring position.

Seriously, we really do want to help. We understand that this is the last year of Yankee Stadium, so it would be criminal not to play baseball here in October, but we can only do so much. If it's on us for allowing free will, it's on us, but really, we help those who help themselves.

And dude, falling down while trying to steal second with no outs in the ninth? Not a great idea.


PS: By the way, someone's going to want to take Jose Molina out to dinner tonight.


Memo
To: Baseball G-ds
From: the New York Yankees
Re: Correspondance

Duly noted.


Memo
To: Yankees
From: Baseball G-ds
Re: Told ya so!

See what happens when you listen to us? Also, we would like to congratulate Robinson Canò on his best game of the season, and the pitching staff for their 18 strike outs on the day--eight from Joba Chamberlain alone.

Moose-ic to the Yankees' Ears (Postgame Notes 14 June 2008)

In the last fourteen innings he has pitched, Mike Mussina has given up runs in just two of them.

While the two home runs total five earned runs, it also means that in his last fourteen innings, over two games, Mussina has pitched twelve shut out innings.

After last season, you would have been hard pressed to find any Yankee fan that expected Mussina to win ten games this season. If you were on the lookout for a fan who thought Mussina would win ten games before Father's Day, you would have probably spent an eternity waiting for Godot.

Yet, here we are, two hours before Father's Day, and Mike Mussina has ten wins--most of them not flukes, either.

If one subtracts the starts against Boston, Mussina's record would sit at 10-2, not that 10-4 is anything to be ashamed of, either. In fact, by having ten wins already, Mussina could theoretically win 20 games this year--something he has never done in his long career.

That the Yankees are averaging over four runs a game when Mussina starts doesn't hurt, either--and tonight they scored double that.

After Carlos Lee hit a three run home run for Houston in the bottom of the first to give Houston a 3-0 lead, things did not look all that encouraging--Houston starter Wandy Rodriguez entered the game with an ERA of 1.99 and no earned runs allowed in his last thirteen innings.

However, Alex Rodriguez, who lead off the top of the second, hit a solo home run (with a little help from a fan knocking Hunter Pence's glove out of the way), which Jason Giambi followed with a double and Melky Cabrera an RBI single.

In the next inning, Alex Rodriguez was intentionally walked for Giambi, who worked a two out walk to load the bases. Cabrera followed Giambi with a four-pitch walk of his own, to bring in the game's tying run and the Yankees never looked back.

Catcher Jose Molina followed with a two run single, and, in the later innings, the Yankees padded their lead with pinch hits from Robinson Canò (who this season is 2-3 as a pinch hitter with 2 RBI) and Wilson Betemit, whose two run double in the top of the ninth missed being a three run home run by inches.

The Yankees made it interesting when Ross Ohlendorf turned the game into a one run affair with the tying run at third base before getting out of the seventh and when they had Kyle Farnsworth pitch the eighth on back to back nights, but for once, the stars seem to be aligned in the Yankees' favor as they are now a season high three games over .500 (alas, since both Boston and Tampa won today, the Yankees did not pick up any ground in the division, but it's a little too early to be worrying about the pennant quite yet--six games in June is hardly out of reach).

It might be worth noting, that last year, the Yankees had their first extended winning streak of the season when they started interleague play--sweeping Pittsburgh and Arizona while on their way to winning nine in a row.

Maybe a little National League is all the Yankees need to get rolling.

Pregame Notes 14 April 2008

There's no easy way about it.

The Yankees knew April was tough, with 18 of 20 games on the road, and the two home games coming against the Sox.

However, the injuries just keep coming. First it was Jeter and Posada; now Molina is down as well, and, while not an injury, Joba's personal situation will have a similar effect in rendering him unavailable for at least three games (thoughts and prayers are with Joba and family).

Without a long reliever, the bullpen can only go so long. Wang's complete game on Friday was a godsend, but last night's poor outing from Phil Hughes relegates it a moot point. The Yankees don't have a long reliever because neither of the top candidates--Rasner or Karstens--had a particularly encouraging Spring Training, but the bullpen can only go so long before they're scorched.

The Yankees face Tampa Bay tonight, in Tampa, so, to extricate good news from the situation, the Yankees will not be playing in winter weather.

Wilson Betemit has been sent to the DL with conjunctivitis (pink eye) so that Chad Moeller can be brought up to catch and Albaledejo has been brought up to replace Joba who is on the bereavement list.

Also of note, Alex Rodriguez's wife is expecting this week, though given that Morgan Ensberg is on the bench already, it should not be the Yankees number one concern.

Royal Pumpkins (Postgame Notes 08 April 08)

Ugly. Like Cinderella's stepsisters.

That's pretty much the only thing that comes to mind when you think of the Yankees' performance today. That they escaped by a score of only 5-2 belies a much nastier truth: sloppy defense, and a poor start from Phil Hughes, did them in much more than the lack of any discernable offense, though it certainly doesn't help.

Hughes wasn't helped by a small and inconsistent strike zone on the part of Mark Wegner, the home plate umpire, but neither was Brian Bannister. Both starters had thrown over 50 pitches by the start of the third inning.

The lack of Derek Jeter in the line up was felt at both ends--defensively, Wilson Betemit had trouble with a couple of throws that would have otherwise caught Kansas City baserunners attempting to steal, and offensively, Robinson Canò could not muster anything in the number two spot. Betemit did have an RBI single, which was about the only serious offense the Yankees mounted in the entire game.

Alex Rodriguez, especially had a rough day; he was the not-so-proud recipient of the Golden Sombrero, striking out four times. Jorge Posada came out of the game in the late innings; no official word yet, but given his recent shoulder problems, they might have been an issue.

OPTIMIST TAKE: Despite the over-all ugly stepsister feel of the game, there are bright spots. Phil Hughes escaped bases-loaded situations a couple of times without surrendering a run, which, at the very least shows that he is maturing as a pitcher. Billy Traber and LaTroy Hawkins pitched well. Hideki Matsui has hit in every Yankee game so far. The Yankees don't play again until tomorrow evening, so now they can get some rest and hopefully not play like zombies, like they did today.


SCORES AND STUFFS

Don't have time to go through them all, but the ones of interest:

Boston beat Detroit, 5-0. Detroit is now 0-7, and while the first week in baseball usually doesn't mean anything, it's quite a hole to have to climb back from--Detroit is already 4+ games out in the Central. Boston is now 4-4, equal with the Yankees.

Baltimore beat Texas, 8-1 The Orioles are now 6-1. It's still probably a fluke start, but even so...

The Mets lost their home opener to the Phillies, also 5-2.

Who's On First?

It's hard to believe that March starts the day after day after tomorrow...heck, it'd be the day after tomorrow three years out of four!

Anyway, today's question:

Who’s at first base?


Now, of all the questions that might be asked of the Yankees this spring training, this seems like the one that would be hardest to answer, but let's not ignore that the Yankees have a few options. Tino Martinez is not one of them, I'm sorry.


Shelley Duncan: Easily a fan favorite. It happens when you knock two home runs in your third career big league game, and have a personality that makes Chuck Norris look like a...well, not Chuck Norris. Anyway, Shelley's got the bat, though he does strike out quite a bit. His defensive abilities, however, are perhaps more suited for the outfield (think Shane Spencer circa September 1998) than first base. From what we've been hearing, Duncan's getting some practice at it, but I'm not sure you see him at first on Opening Day.


Jason Giambi: Let's face it, there are only two options for him--first base or DH, and if we've got Johnny Damon as our every day left-fielder, Matsui will end up doing most of the DHing as the Yankees can't afford to sit him, while, as they did show last year, they can go most of a season without Giambi and still find a way to win. The problem with Giambi right now is that a)he's not what you'd consider good at defense, and b) if he doesn't get regular ABs, he doesn't hit very well. It's an odd situation when you have Jason Giambi on the bench, but then again, better too much talent than too little.


Morgan Ensberg: Got him from Houston, I think. Dark horse to start at first, but solid coming off of the bench. Other than that, I don't know enough about Ensberg to offer much insight...


Wilson Betemit: He's more suited for third or short, to give Alex or Derek a night off, than he is for first, and he still has to learn to hit from the right side. That doesn't mean he won't be useful throughout the course of a season; just that he's unlikely to start at first.


Between Shelley and Giambi, I wouldn't be surprised to see Shelley get the Opening Day start, but then Giambi see more overall playing time.

Or I could be completely wrong.