Now that 4.01 PM has come and gone...

The Yankees were relatively quiet on the trade front today, acquiring utility infielder for minor-league catcher Chase Weems.

They did not acquire a pitcher, though it is important to remember that waiver deals may be made until the end of August.

There's lot to digest here, but it comes down to the following:

the Yankees upgraded their bench at relatively little cost, which means Cody Ransom's days are numbered, and while the Red Sox acquired Victor Martinez, it has nowhere near the impact it would have had the Sox gotten Adrian Gonzalez or Roy Halladay.

That the Yankees didn't get a pitcher like Brian Bannister is intriguing only because it was supposedly the relatively miniscule amount of cash that kept the deal from getting done. Still, it's important to consider that as fans we do not have all of the information, and there may have been other factors at work.

Only time will tell if the Yankees were winners by standing pat.

Last season we thought Nady, Marte and Pudge would have the Yankees all in, and then not only did the 2008 team miss the playoffs, but none of those three are helping the Yankees this year.

Baseball's a funny game.

Don't Blame This One on Andy

Andy Pettitte, since the All Star Break:

20 IP, 16 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 23 K, 3 BB (Yes, that's 23 strikeouts to three walks over twenty innings pitched).

In those starts, he's also received a grand total of three runs of support.


The Yankees have scored more runs than any other team in baseball, but apparently Pettitte did some sort of voodoo curse on the bats because they are very much not scoring for him.

It's a shame, because Pettitte has been stellar since the break, and even if he isn't exactly the Andy Pettitte of the late 1990s, he's certainly pitching well enough to be 3-0 in his last three starts, and not 0-0, with the Yankees having lost two of those games.

*****

It's tempting to blame the loss on Phil Coke, but Coke didn't put that runner on second, Hughes did. To be fair, Hughes was probably a bit gasses, and Girardi remains afraid to use Rivera in a tie game on a road.

At any rate, if you're going to blame anyone for this game, blame the offense that struck out seven times looking.

If the home plate umpire has a strike zone the size of a small state, you should probably at least swing at anything remotely close.



Some of you will consider this loss more grating than the game Sabathia recently lost; I disagree. Most nights if you get an effort from your starting pitcher like Pettitte gave, your team will win.

PBP First Ever Live Chat

Garza Needs To Learn Unwritten Rules

1) You don't admit when you're intentionally throwing at a batter:

Quote from ESPN recap

"Teixeira was plunked after one of Chamberlain’s pitches sailed over the head of Longoria, who was hit by a pitch by Yankees reliever Jonathan Albaladejo. Garza said he was standing up for the Rays’ All-Star third baseman.

'They can take whatever they want from it, but I just kind of got tired of people brushing him back. It’s about time someone made a statement,' Garza said.

'I hate to be that guy, but someone had to take a stand and say we’re tired of it. You go after our best guy. Well, we’ll make some noise, too, and that’s what happened.'"


If a Yankee made that comment, you could expect a full on six game suspension. We'll see what happens here--while everyone's distracted by the trade deadline this comment could very well pass unnoticed.

Joba Dominates, Bruney, Not so Much (Postgame Notes 29 July 2009)

That All Star Break must have done Joba Chamberlain some good.

Not only has he been great in every start since the break, but he's gotten better--and tonight, he flat-out dominated.

Chamberlain threw 101 pitches over eight innings, allowing just two hits, a couple walks, and no runs. Had Chamberlain been an older and un-innings-capped pitcher, it's entirely possible he would have gone out to pitch the ninth.

Such as it was, the Yankees thought they'd get Bruney some work--with a 6-0 lead, it didn't seem like much of a gamble, but Bruney was awful. The only strikes he threw were hit for a home run and a double; other than that the command was simply not there. Bruney wasn't just missing; he was missing and it wasn't even close.

Bruney's ineffectiveness is an issue because an effective Bruney allows the Yankees to be that much more flexible--an effective Bruney means that the Yankees could consider transitioning Aceves back to the rotation (they won't, I don't think--or at least, they shouldn't lose their one long reliever), or at the very least allow the Yankees to just worry about trading for a starter.

Alas, Bruney has not looked well since coming off of the DL for the second time, and at this point in time one has to ask if he's really entirely healthy. His attitude in postgame interviews doesn't tend to rub fans (who knows about the coaches--whose opinion matters much more) the right way.


At any rate, Brueny's performance was the only blemish of the evening. Joba had perhaps the best start of his young career; the offense had three home runs and a couple of other timely hits to take an early lead and never look back, and while Mariano Rivera inexplicably walked a batter (!!), he did, after all, get the job done.



One thing of note that I might expand on a little later: the Yankees have scored 198 runs in the last three innings of the game (as of this morning); no other team has more than 170 in the later innings. Given that the Yankees have scored 562 runs total, that's more than a third of all the Yankees runs being scored in that time span.

Talk about a team that fights.

Concerned about CC?

Take a look at this list here.

The list ranks pitchers by "abuse points", with the pitchers that are most abused--that is, the most overworked--at the top.

Is it much of a surprise to see CC Sabathia at the top?

When the Yankees signed Sabathia, one of the selling points was that he was a workhorse. His effort with Milwaukee at the end of last season--pitching on multiple occasions on three days' rest--was Herculean.

The problem is, however, that the selling point of Sabathia being a workhorse was also a concern point.

It's perhaps, in some odd and cruel sense, kind of funny that we, as fans, bloggers, analysts, and what have you, put so much stock into the Verducci effect--the idea that too great an increase in innings for a young pitcher is an injury risk--and yet, at the same time seem to decide after a pitcher hits a certain age that being overworked is no longer a concern.

There's no denying that Sabathia has pitched a lot in 2007 and 2008, and that in both of those postseasons he struggled. Of course, we don't know the reason for struggling in those postseasons, but it'd be foolish to ignore the amount that Sabathia pitched during the season.

Could it be, now, that Sabathia is feeling the effects, in-season, of the past two years?


I'm leaving this question open. I'm no pitching expert, and Sabathia's inconsistency could be due to something completley different. I'm just suggesting this as a possibility.


At any rate, whatever's going on, the Yankees should hope they can figure something out--barring injury or rain outs, Sabathia's next two starts would involve facing Buerhle at Chicago and then Boston.


Alfredo Aceves Update: Via Pete Abraham, Alfredo Aceves has admitted to having a sore shoulder, though he doesn't think it's serious. Still, the track record for the Yankees and admitting the severity of injuries isn't exactly stellar.

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:

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