Meanwhile, the other Jeter gets a heart transplant

This from today's Daily News:

Named after his dad's favorite player, 16-month-old Jeter Villacis is recovering from a delicate, lifesaving heart transplant at Montefiore Medical Center last week.

...

Little Jeter underwent the nine-hour surgery Friday afternoon, just a few miles away from Yankee Stadium

...

While Weinstein was operating, the Bronx Bombers took Game 2 of their playoff series against the Minnesota Twins in a dramatic, come-from-behind victory.

(Bold my emphasis, Click the above link for the full article)


The Yankees, of course, are no strangers to mixing kids, miracles and baseball.

The most famous might be when Babe Ruth visited a sick kid, promised to hit a home run, and then does so, but there have been others.

There have been some more recent karma-boosting examples, however.

Like when Matsui was a representative of a program aimed at"fostering international exchange between American and Japanese children. " The kids asked Matsui to hit one home run; he hit two the next day.

Then, just this season, Brett Gardner visited a girl waiting for a heart transplant, didn't promise any home runs (he's Brett Gardner) and then proceeded to hit an inside-the-park home run, anyway.


Also this season, the Yankees had their "HOPE Week", where the most memorable event may have been when the team hosted a group of kids with a rare disorder, XP, that makes them allergic to the sun. As you probably remember, the kids stayed all night, as did various Yankees, such as AJ Burnett, having a carnival on the field.

What you might also remember is that the Yankees did not lose a single game during the entirety of HOPE Week.

Karma or coincidence, take your pick.


Now, all young master Villacis needs is a visit from his namesake, and, well...



Oh, and watch this video. It's full of awesome.

Jeter hits, Hard Rock Donates

Via Hard Rock:

In celebration and recognition of Derek Jeter's 2,722 career hit to break Lou Gehrig's team record, representatives from Hard Rock International present a charitable contribution to Derek's Turn 2 Foundation in the amount of $52,722. This donation marks the beginning of a new philanthropic relationship between the Turn 2 Foundation and Hard Rock International.



(Pictured from left to right: Jim Allen, David Miller and John Pasquale of Hard Rock International; Sharlee Jeter and Derek Jeter)

Photo credit: Brad Barket/Hard Rock

Ghosts? What ghosts?

The common refrain going around the Yankee fan base right now is that while nothing is guaranteed, and that the Yankees are not guaranteed to win their series against the Twins, there is a different feel around this year's squad than there has been in many years. This team is likable, fun to root for and really, really damned good.

So nevermind CC Sabathia's less than stellar postseason ERA or Alex Rodriguez's absence of a decent postseason since the ALCS of 2004.

This is a team where expectations are not just high for the free agents signees who make more in a year than some entire countries, but for those who have played only for the Yankees and those who came to the Yankees in unheralded trades. The team won 103 games in the regular season, and one or two players can't win 103 games all on their own. Though, God knows Albert Pujols tried.


As with any beginning, there are opening ceremonies of a sort. With the ALDS it's nothing too spectacular--full line ups and guys in uniform, but it's somewhat muted. It's good to be here, but there's still a while to go before the grand prize.



When the players are introduced, some receive particularly loud accolades--like Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter--while others receive, well, lots of non-accolades. Like Carl Pavano.



Because of the odd start time, the Stadium was still fairly empty as the lineups were being announced.



By the time the first pitch was thrown, however, almost every seat was filled.

The National Anthem always seems to add a sense of "this is it, this is what we live for."





As the Yankees take the field, there is a rush of excitement. As stated earlier, if you're a fan at that Stadium at that time, you're either way amped up, or you're dead.



With no other game going on at the present moment, the scoreboard instead displays the line up of both teams, highlighting the next batter to come to bat.



The blazing lights against the sunset make for an auspicious early game atmosphere.



The Twins took an early 2-0 lead that could have never have been: had a close pitch been called a strike three, CC Sabathia would have gotten out of the inning. Instead, a couple hits and a passed ball, and the Twins had a 2-0 lead.

That lead was, however, short lived.

Reason A: Derek Jeter



Jeter has done a lot of great things in his career and is something of an immortal among Yankee fans. Hitting a left field home run to tie a game? Awesome. And in the postseason? Well, there's only one Derek Jeter.



Hit a home run like that, then hear the entire Stadium erupt in chants of M-V-P! M-V-P! (Yes, we know it's going to Mauer. No, we don't care.)


Meanwhile, Sabathia must have been somewhat mindful of his rapidly escalating pitch count: he settled down and started to deal.



Despite having over 70 pitches after the fourth inning, Sabathia pitched into the seventh inning and did not walk a single batter.

The Twins were the first to go to their bullpen--by this time the Yankees had already taken the lead.



Who did the Twins call upon?



I swear I'm not making this up.

Not too long afterwards, Hideki Matsui hit a home run--the type that screams HEY YAY INSURANCE RUNS! My friend Brent summed up our reactions pretty well.





With two outs in the seventh inning and the Yankees with a four run lead, Joe Girardi did the prudent thing and went to the bullpen before Sabathia's pitch count approached abusive levels. He left to a raucous ovation.



In came Young Master Hughes.



There was a massive Orlando Cabrera at bat just to end the seventh inning, but Hughes got the job done, and instead of having to face Joe Mauer with the bases loaded, Joe Mauer came up in the 8th with no one on.

This is the only game I've ever been to where I've actually heard people sing "God Bless America".



It was a stirring rendition courtesy of the NY Pops



This is just a really awesome late-game shot:




Out went Phil Hughes, and in came Joba Chamberlain. Phil Coke also made an appearance and had the best possible appearance for a reliever: one pitch, one out. It was nearly a double play, but Mauer was just a shade too nimble for Teixeira.




With a five run lead--and here it should be noted that two of these runs, yes two are the direct responsibility of Alex Rodriguez, something you haven't seen in an October write up for a while--it perhaps seems strange that the Yankees bring in their closer, but this is October. You don't take chances.

Enter Sandman. Exit Twins.










Magic number, that real magic number that all Yankee fans really care about, is now down to ten.

And we'll see you Friday night!

Bunting is bad

Last night, in the fifth inning of a tie game, Derek Jeter bunted runners on first and second over to second and third.

When you play small ball, it's expected that you can master the art of the bunt.

When you have hitters that struggle to hit for power or are otherwise weak--like pitchers and nine hitters--bunting can make some sense.

When you have a hitter that's headed to Cooperstown on the first ballot--like Derek Jeter--bunting makes almost no sense, at all. Sure, there's a risk that Jeter would hit into a double play, but the price of giving away an out in a close game is too much for a hitter of Jeter's caliber.

Bunting is what you do with your American League pitcher in interleague play or when Brett Gardner is batting and the infield is back looking for a double play.

It's not what you do with Derek Jeter. Or Nick Swisher (you remember that...).

I have very few complaints about the way that Joe Girardi has run the Yankees this year. Best record and all that. Still, if bunting costs the Yankees a postseason win against a team like those Angels (or Red Sox or whomever), it won't be pretty.

Dude. Just call the darned game.

It's September 11, a cold, rainy, windy, icky night.

Derek Jeter has broken the hits record--which is what about 80% of the fans paid way, way over market value to see...then again, you can't place a value on it...yadda yadda...

Anyway.

The Yankees, barring an Angels 1995-like collapse (in which case their problems become many), are going to the postseason.

The Orioles are going golfing in October.

It's nearly midnight, and the two teams have to play again at 1 PM the next day.

They have already played not just five, but six innings. The Yankees lost their lead, but they also had their at bat.

It's a 10-6--not a tied or even a close, even by 09 Yankee standards, game.

Why, on earth, was the game not called?

I know New York is the city that never sleeps and all that, but seriously?



Also worth noting here: via various updates on Twitter tonight, even when the game restarted at 12.40, with about 900 fans still in attendance, ushers were still checking tickets.

Dude, I know you're bored, but really?

I know New York doesn't have a reputation for being the friendliest city in the world, but seriously?

If the few hundred people in attendance can't be allowed to move down to the lower level in an empty stadium, I'm not sure what to say. I'm not talking about moving down to the Legends seats; I'm just talking about moving down from the grandstand.

These things make me a very, very grumpy fan.

Your new record for all-time hits as a Yankee goes to...

Derek Jeter.

2722.

Enough said.

[Scroll down for a more comprehensive post on Jeter].

Derek Jeter and All That

The first time I heard of Derek Jeter, he was not a star shortstop, but instead a politician.

In 1996, my fifth grade teacher, Ms. S, tried to teach a group of fidgety ten year olds about the presidential election between Bill Clinton and Bob Dole.

To do that, she had the class divide in two, and each group had to dress up a life-size paper doll, come up with a name and come up with a platform for the candidate. Someone in my group decided that ours should be Derek Jeter. I didn't know who Derek Jeter was, and I didn't ask.

When I did start to follow the Yankees closely, I made a conscious decision that Derek Jeter could not be my favorite Yankee. Everyone loved Derek Jeter, and I needed to be different. I chose Mariano Rivera instead.

I don't regret my choice, but I've also come to realize that there's a reason everyone loves Jeter, and it's not entirely about his looks.

It's hard to explain Jeter to the uninitiated--he's not the most prolific home run hitter nor is he the greatest fielder--but there's only one Derek Jeter.

It's not just that Derek Jeter has a knack for doing the right thing at the right time, like that October night in Oakland in 2001, or that he won four World Series rings in his first five years (discounting 1995), or that he's now tied with Lou Gehrig as the Yankees all-time hits leader, but that he's done it all in a simple way: team first. Always, always, team first.

During Spring Training, Jeter was asked if he'd consider batting leadoff instead of batting second, to reduce the chances of him hitting into a double play. Jeter has the pull and the clout that he could have said no, and it would have gone unchallenged, but that's not who Jeter is. Jeter agreed, and now not only is 2009 a great year for him, but it's also been a great year for the guy with whom he switched places--Johnny Damon.

If ever the Yankee ghosts and the baseball gods have blessed someone, they've blessed Derek Jeter, and they've blessed all of us who have had the ability to watch him for these fourteen years.

It strikes me that Jeter should be tying a mark set by Lou Gehrig, because in many ways the two are similar: they play(ed) with grace and with class, role models in every sense of the word.

Gehrig and Jeter will likely have the two most well-known speeches in Yankees' history--Gehrig's already is, and Jeter's, given at the end of last season, will be made more with the passage of time. There aren't any other two Yankees you would want to give such speeches.

***

My nephew's much too young to understand all this--he's only four months--but when he's old enough, I'll take him to a Yankee game, and if his father hasn't already, I'll tell him to be like Jeter. To put one's team first. To play hard, even if you don't play well. To behave with dignity and class.


That's just the Jeter way.

Yanks have 13th Walk Off of Season (Postgame Notes 08 September 2009)

For a complete recap please check out my post at The Yankee Universe

• Nick Swisher hit two home runs, Phil Hughes blew a 2-1 lead in the eighth inning, and Chad Gaudin pitched an utter gem for six innings.

• Derek Jeter was again held hitless, and it’s beginning to look like he’s pressing–not for sake of a record, but because Jeter is now in his longest 0-fer for the season.

• The Yankees have been playing .750 baseball since the All Star break.

Yanks Sweep Double-header; Magic # down to 16

For a complete recap, check out my post on The Yankee Universe

• Perhaps it's a microcosm of how this season has gone for the Yankees, but both Sabathia and Burnett turned in stellar outings

• In the first game, the Yankees remained deadlocked at 1-1 in a pitchers' duel until the eighth.

• In the second game, the Yankees scored eight runs in the third inning, and never looked back, notching Burnett his first win since the end of July.

• Derek Jeter went hitless, the first time in his career in a double-header.

• Larry Mahnken of Replacement Level fame mentioned to me that the Yankees are now getting above league-average production at every position.
  

Jeter Would Be First Yankee to 3000 Hits

With Derek Jeter only nine hits away from breaking the Yankees all-time hits record, it struck me the other night that the Yankees have, in their illustrious history, not had a 3000 hit hitter--certainly not one that was a Yankee his entire career.

Yesterday, I was talking to Mike McCann of WFAN, when I brought this up, and we devolved into a long conversation as to why this has happened.

As it turns out, most of the everyday Yankees that we idolize as part of the team's storied history have legitimate reasons as to why they were never able to play long enough to collect 3,000 hits:

• Lou Gehrig got sick with ALS, a disease that now commonly is referred to as Lou Gehrig's Disease.  There is little question that had Gehrig remained healthy he would have broken the record.

• Joe DiMaggio lost seasons due to World War Two, as did many other of the best players of that era.

• Mickey Mantle's career was derailed by injuries and some not-so-good off field habits.

These are only three  examples, but they are among the most high-profile Yankees (you could also consider Babe Ruth and Yogi Berra here) to have ever worn the uniform.  If they never reached 3000 hits, that tells you two things:

1) It tells you just how hard it is to achieve this feat--how long one has to play and how long one has to remain healthy.

2) It tells you just how good Derek Jeter really is.  No, seriously.  He might never win that MVP award (Gehrig never won a World Series without either Ruth or DiMaggio; this is baseball, strange things happen), but Jeter is easily one of the ten best Yankees to have ever put on the uniform.

Joe Mauer for MVP

A few weeks ago, some of you will no doubt be aware that I did a guest post on River Ave Blues arguing that Derek Jeter should walk away with the MVP.

No disrespect to Jeter, who is still having an amazing season and an even more amazing road trip, but I need to change my vote.

I have seen the light, and the light is Joe Mauer.

How have I seen the light?

Mauer's average, .383, is higher than Mark Teixeira's on-base-percentage. That means that Joe Mauer is getting a greater percentage of hits than Mark Teixeira--one of the league leaders in OBP--is getting on base.

Mauer has 139 hits and 25 home runs to go along with it--and let's not forget, he missed the entire first month of the season.

As one might now expect, his walks and strike outs are almost exactly identical (46 and 47), and this is already mid-late August.


The only, and I mean only, knock on Mauer here is that the team he's playing for is, well, not very good, and the award is most valuable and not most outstanding player.

Still, it can't be much of a complaint. Alex Rodriguez, after all, won on the last place Texas Rangers, right?

Take heart, supporters of Jeter and Teixeira, however: those two could very well pick up some other hardware that might skip Mauer by (this season, at least)--and that hardware is plenty valuable on its own.

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].

Waxing Philosophical

Today is Derek Jeter's 35th birthday.

It's kind of strange to think about when he broke in, really, in 1996--thirteen years ago.

When Jeter was busy being a rookie, I was busy hiding from my evil fourth grade teacher in the spring, and in the fall learning about the American Revolution in Ms. Servon's fifth grade classroom. Everyone loved fifth grade, because for the first time we were actually the oldest, and the most senior kids in the school. The highlight of the year was a trip into NYC to see Beauty and the Beast and a backstage tour of Radio City Music Hall.


The things you remember...

Thirteen years might not seem like much, but to think, if we knew then what we know now, about what would happen, both in the world of baseball and the world without...

Who would have imagined in 1996 that not one, but three players would break the Babe's home run record, and that all of them would leave the game with tarnished legacies?

Who would have imagined that despite the PEDs scandal baseball attendance would grow to record numbers, threatened now only by economic collapse.

Who would have imagined that Boston would break the curse or that the Yankees would tear down Yankee Stadium?

Never mind imagining how cell phones would become ubiquitous and small enough to fit in a pocket, or how you could stream movies and live television over the internet, or that computers could come with terabytes of memory, or that VHS would be obsolete, or that the biggest investment banks have nearly all gone kaput within the space of a single calendar year...

Never mind the things that don't need to be said.


Does this mean that Jeter has been around forever?

Julio Franco and Jamie Moyer might disagree.

But it does shed a light on how long Jeter has been with the Yankees, and, despite the Captain GIDP moments, how much he is part of our identity as Yankee fans. It's not just that Jeter plays, almost without fail, but that he is such a great player. He doesn't hit for tons of power, sure, but he has a way of making his hits count, of sparking the offense, and of leading the team not by voice but by example. Which is exactly what you want your captain to do.

Just as there will never be another Babe or another Yogi or another Mantle, there will never be another Jeter.

Enjoy it while you can.

Yanks Get Early Lead, Hold Ground versus Fish (Postgame Notes 19 June 2009)

By the end of the third inning, the game felt like a blow out, even though it was only a four-run lead.

Still, that is what early hits--nine in the first three innings--can do for a team, especially one coming off of a performance where, let's face it, they were simply going through the motions against the league's worst team.

Once Angel Berroa and Andy Pettitte had back-to-back doubles in the second (yes, you read that right), however, the game was firmly in the Yankees' hands, and the only question would remain how Pettitte pitched.

Pettitte allowed three hits (including a solo HR) over seven innings, struck out seven and walked no one. It was one of his best starts this season, and came at a time when the Yankees needed an effective start.

Brian Bruney pitched an excellent eighth inning, which the Yankees really, really need, and Brett Tomko had a nice rebound outing in the ninth.

The one real blemish here was that the Yankees left 11 men on base, though some of this has to do with being in an NL park and losing both the DH and A-Rod's bat (as A-Rod will be taking the first two games off since he's slumping something awful), but I think the key here is that when the Yankees had to get the runs, in the beginning of the game, they did. Had the Marlins played a better game on their end, I'm not sure the Yankees' bats appear to get so lacksidasical at the end.

Derek Jeter is still limping a bit--I guess tomorrow we'll see if there are any lingering effects.


****

I'm headed to Citifield tomorrow with my friend Robin, who is a Mets fan. I'll get to see Johan (probably not that) up close and personal. I will actually be rooting for the Mets--because they're playing the Rays.

Yankees Do Just Enough to Beat Lowly Nats (Postgame Notes 16 June 2009)

Someone must have sent the Yankees a memo: beating the Nationals (or, as some prefer, Natinals) is a simple affair.

Hang in against the starter, get a few off the bullpen and pitch competently on your own side.

Was it the best game the Yankees have played all year?

No, probably not. The pitching was decent sure, but the offense could have been much better. Still, when one plays a team on pace for as many losses as the Yankees had wins in 1998, one's flaws are more easily hidden.

The offense was able to do just enough--take the lead, and add one more as insurance--to win without making one sweat too much, though, it could be argued, against a starter with an ERA over 5, they should have probably done more.

CC Sabathia pitched two outs into the 8th inning; Brian Bruney faced one batter and retired him, and Mariano Rivera, with some help from the Yankee defense (which, when one keeps the Nats in mind, isn't to be underestimated) retired the side in order in the ninth. Rivera, for the record, is fast approaching his 500th save.

The only real concern of the evening--don't mind the offense, they don't like hitting guys they've never seen--is that Derek Jeter left the game with left ankle stiffness. No word yet on the severity, but losing Jeter's bat for any length of time wouldn't be a good thing, to say the least.

Also, the Yankees might want to consider giving Alex Rodriguez a day off--while they probably don't want to play Angel Berroa and Ramiro Peña in the same game if Jeter is out for any length of time, Rodriguez needs the day off. Really, really, really.


Tomorrow, Chien Ming Wang, the proud new papa, will get what might be his last chance to stay in the rotation. Expect a quick hook if he can't get it going--the games against the Nationals are must wins because, really, do you expect Boston to drop any against the Nats?

A-Rod and Melkman Come Up Clutch; Yanks Walk Off (Postgame Notes 23 May 2009)

Earlier this afternoon, Helen and I are on the D train from Columbus Circle, going north to Fordham.

Helen has just arrived from Newcastle, England; she's not, as you imagine, a baseball fan by nature, though she is trying.

We're standing, holding onto one of the poles, it's about 4.30 pm and I can't remember now what we were talking about then, but at 125th street, a guy and a girl get on. The guy is wearing a Yankees' cap while the girl is wearing a Phillies' cap.

As one might imagine, the girl starts uttering,

"We'll be lucky if we get there by the seventh inning."

I can't help myself.

"All the good stuff happens in the later innings, anyway."


Self-fullfiling prophecy, it would seem.


I have no idea as to how Andy Pettitte pitched or as to how most of the Yankees hit; when I turned the game on, it was 4-1 Phillies.

Here is what I did see:

Phil Coke is something, that 8th inning guy if/when Bruney can't go.

Derek Jeter had a nice home run, but Alex Rodriguez hit one out in the ninth, and that one mattered, no question.

Bottom of the ninth inning, off of Brad Lidge, to tie the game...and, of course, once that happened, there really wasn't much of a question:

AJ had to go get the pie ready.

The question became not if the Yankees would win the game, but who, and it would somehow seem fitting that Melky Cabrera, who started the last winning streak, should start this one.

***

CC Sabathia and Cole Hamels tomorrow; should be quite a match up

CC Sharp Again as Yanks Take Series From Jays (Postgame Notes 14 May 2009)

The Yankees did not score four runs today, but since they only gave up two, they can probably live with it.

CC Sabathia did not dominate in the way he dominated in Baltimore, but two runs over eight innings ain't exactly a bad thing, either.

He had some good innings and some stressful ones, and needed Brett Gardner to throw out Rod Barajas at home in order to keep the score at 2-1 Jays. He also worked himself into a jam in the seventh with runners at first and third with only one out, but like any true ace, was able to gather it together to get a strike out and a ground out.

It wasn't the best performance CC's had this season, but the eight innings was just what the Yankees needed, given Phil Coke's bad back and the fact that anyone else pitching that inning would have resulted in through-the-roof sales of Tums.

Mariano Rivera pitched a 1-2-3 ninth and looks as though he's finally built the velocity he needs. Reports of his demise have been greatly exaggerated.

The Yanks didn't do much offensively, but at the same time Brian Tallet has been impressive in his starts thus far.

In the first they scored when Tallet walked Swisher with the bases loaded; they tied the game in the seventh when Derek Jeter blooped a single to score Gardner from third and then took the lead on a Hideki Matsui solo shot in the eighth.

Johnny Damon extended his extra base hitting streak to ten straight games, tying Don Mattingly and Paul O'Neill for the Yankee record, but struck out twice after that and did not reach base again.

Alex Rodriguez looked as though he just missed a few pitches--his timing, understandably, is not quite there yet, but when it comes, he's in for a monster season.

Francisco Cervelli had two hits again tonight; a Mendoza line hitter in AA, he's holding his own thus far in the Majors.


The Yankees head home having gone 4-2 on a road trip, as well as having won three of the last four. Only Hughes pitched poorly on the trip--Burnett could have won his game had someone not named Halladay been pitching against him.

With the team back at .500, gaining a game on the Sox and the Jays, and Bruney, Posada and Wang all looking like they'll be back sooner rather than later, things are looking up for the Yanks.

Yankees at Blue Jays, 14 May 2009: A Liveblog

3.57 PM: Just a heads up, I got plans this weekend (surprising, I know), and won't be able to cover any games live. I'll do my best to make sure I get a couple posts up, but I will be back Monday, no sweat.

3.58 PM: Derek Jeter and Hideki Matsui are both back in today's line up. Melky Cabrera is sitting in favor of Brett Gardner; one assumes this is to reward Gardner's performance last night and nothing else.

5.14 PM: Yanks have promoted Reegie Corona from Trenton to SWB; the Scranton team has not scored a run in four games.

5.23 PM: Great news, Yanks fans: Someone in the front office has a brain!

" According to the new rules, posted on the Yankees’ Web site, fans can watching batting practice starting three hours before the start of each home game. Fans can stay on the field level and in the bleachers until the players leave the field or 1 hour 45 minutes after the gates open. Then “all fans will be asked to return their respective seats."

NY Times Bats blog

6.29 PM: This can't be good

7.11 PM: Johnny Damon has tied Don Mattingly and Paul O'Neill with 10 consecutive games with an extra base hit with that double.

7.20 PM: One more out and three walks later, Tallet walks Swisher and forces in a run. 1-0 Yanks. Could have more here but Canó has horrible numbers with the bases loaded so we'll see.

7.24 PM: Told yah. Actually, that was an excellent call by the umpire.

7.32 PM: When it's going well, it's really going well. Damon made a great catch to end the first inning.

7.37 PM: Nothing to see there as the Yankees go down in order. Had Gardner bunted a little slower he may have been safe.

7.42 PM: I like this version of CC.

7.51 PM: A hit and nothing else in the top of the third.

8.03 PM: What is it with Robbie Canó not hitting with the bases loaded? Because he's an awesome hitter otherwise.

8.07 PM: Single and nothing else doing there. This game could be over by 9.

8.12 PM: Solo HR from Alex Rios ties the ballgame. This guy has a personal vendetta against the Yanks, or something.

8.21 PM: That was so not the inning the Yankees needed.

8.28 PM: Wheels have come off CC a little bit here. Walk and a double and now 2-1 Toronto. Yanks are still in this, of course, but they haven't hit Tallet well.

8.32 PM: Brett Gardner (yes, that Brett Gardner) just nabbed Barajas at home to keep it a 2-1 game.

8.37 PM: This is Brian Tallet. We aren't hitting him because...

8.52 PM: Jeter plays defense? Since when?

9.00 PM: Walk to Gardner and perfect hit-and-run execution. What this means is even if Jeter GIDPs here, the Yanks could (likely) still tie the game.

9.04 PM: Jeterian clutch! Gardner scores on the blooper and Yanks have first and second with no out.

9.14 PM: What's frustrating is that in another two weeks, A-Rod probably hits three 3-Run home runs based on the pitches he saw that at bat. Still, the Yanks tied the score and have six more outs to play with, provided they keep Toronto from scoring.

9.28 PM: This is what an ace does. He gets himself out of his own jams. Now the Yanks gotta go out there and score some runs.

9.33 PM: Hit-deki Matsui. Punnalicioius, I know.

9.42 PM: Hold onto your hats folks. A one-run lead heading into the 8th could be in for a wild ride.

9.48 PM: Okay, I'm trying to decide what's scarier: Veras warming or that near XBH.

9.49 PM: The Yanks held onto that 3-2 lead there by about two feet. An insurance run (or two or three) here would be oh so wonderful...

9.55 PM: You nervous?

10.02 PM: There is only one Mo Rivera.

Yankees Ride Three HRs, Good Bullpen to Victory (Postgame Notes 10 May 2009)

It was some old-fashioned Bronx Bombing that won the game for the Yankees today.

Joba Chamberlain continued to struggle in the first inning--giving up a three-run home run to Aubrey Huff in the first--but he settled down after that, and the Orioles did not score another run.

It was not Joba's best effort, but six innings and three runs is both enough for a quality start and a win, and the Yankees got just that.

To be quite honest here, Joba's putting together a quality start was the best possible retaliation for Aubrey Huff's home run fist-pump (which itself was a retaliation for Joba's fist pump). It puts Joba on a higher plane, above the fracas and hubbub about an issue that really should not matter.

For the Yanks, they received solo home runs from Mark Teixeira in the first, and Robinson Canó in the seventh, but the biggest blow was Johnny Damon's three-run home run in the seventh with two outs.

The important thing here is, perhaps, not that Damon hit the home run (he's had an XB hit in each of his last seven games), but how the runners got on base before him.

Francisco Cervelli has not played even a week in the Majors, and is certainly not in there for his bat, but when he does put bat on ball, he does the little things right. Like today, when he hustled down the line to beat out an infield single--I'm not quite sure I remember the last time a Yankee catcher had anything resembling speed, but with two outs, that single play changed the outcome of the game.

Derek Jeter followed with another infield single, though with Melvin Mora playing back, that nubber was more obviously going to be an infield hit than Cervelli's--which had been grounded to the second baseman.

With those two on base, the Yankees' hottest bat came up to the plate, and did his thing.

It's probably not much of a surprise that Damon's playing for a contract here, but if he keeps hitting like this it won't be a very hard question to answer.

The bullpen today, in Phil Coke and Mariano Rivera did their job. They may be the only relievers that Girardi can trust, but that trust is not misplaced. Rivera's earned it over a fifteen-plus year career; Coke's done it in a few months.

***


I would like to wish all mothers out there a Happy Mother's Day.

The Big, Bad Yankee Problem No One's Talking about...yet

This weekend's sweep in Boston left many of the Yankees' immediate weaknesses exposed:

A beat up bullpen
A phantom in center field
A big bad black hole of doom at the bottom of the line up
Starting pitching that didn't so much pitch as throw the ball somewhere in the vicinity of home plate, and prayed.

Yet, these problems are, when you think about it, not necessarily all that bad.

When Alex Rodriguez returns from the line up, it should take care of the big bad black hole of doom at the bottom of the line up.

If Cashman wanted, he could probably sign Mike Cameron for a reasonable amount and receive an upgrade over Melky and Gardner in center field.

The bullpen's a mess because Bruney's hurt, though this should be a relatively minor injury, and Mark Melancon certainly impressed tonight. When the starters start giving more innings, the bullpen will be in much better shape.

There's no reason the starting pitching can't get its act together, either. Power pitchers-and the Yanks have three in their rotation-can take a while to heat up. We all know how CC struggled last April.


These problems exist, and frustrate, but they are not the end of the world.


However, the Yankees do have a much bigger issue to contend with, and it only takes a little digging to see what it is.

Derek Jeter's contract is up in 2010--the end of next season.

This, itself, is a big enough problem already.

Jeter's power declined enough last season that many fans considered him a GIDP machine, and they weren't the only one. This season, except when Girardi has opted to play both Gardner and Cabrera, Jeter has hit lead-off, to avoid the DPs.

He is showing more power this season, early though it is, than he did last season, but there is no guarantee that it will last.

What's more, no team has ever won a World Series with a starting shortstop aged 35 or older.

Then, of course, there's Jeter's defense, which, Andrew Fletcher of Scott Proctor's Arm has generously described as "past a diving Jeter"...



Now, imagine for a moment that the Yankees are not playing sentimental, that they are thinking long term and elect not to resign Jeter, or not to resign him for any longer than one year.

Guess what wonderful task the Yankees are then faced with?

Replacing Derek Jeter.

So, if you're Yankee management, which of these kids would you want replacing Jeter?

Straight from the Baseball America 2009 Prospect Handbook

Carmen Angelini? He's #1 on the depth chart. Good, right? Well, he's playing for low-A Charleston right now and has made an error in all but three games this season. It's gone from amusing, to worrying, to worrying and vaguely amusing. Angelini's still young-born in 1988-but even Jesus Montero was not this much of a defensive ornamental fountain last year.

Garrison Lassiter? He's #2, and also at Low A. He's putting together a nice average...but I repeat: he's at Low A.

Eduardo Nuñez is at AA, and is hitting .258. The season's still young and anything can happen-kid is still young-but someone hitting .258 at AA does not a Derek Jeter replacement portend.

Fourth on the depth chart is the guy currently wasting away on the Yankee bench: Ramiro Peña. Peña's certainly got the glove for the position, but unless he starts playing every day, his bat won't get the chance to develop like it should. For the moment, he's the most likable of all the guys listed here.



Now, I should be very clear about this: there is no replacing Derek Jeter.

Jeter's the guy whose name you utter when you are talking Yankee greats: Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Berra, Mantle, Mattingly, Jeter.

They may-I repeat MAY-one day replace his production, and they can certainly replace his defense, but in terms of other intangibles, it's not possible.

So in that regard, the Yankees would be foolish if they were trying to find someone that can replace Jeter as Captain.


They still, however, need to replace Jeter as shortstop and right now the options aren't too appealing.

Granted, it's still early and the young guys have a lot of developing left to do.

The Yankees could decide to use some of their overstocked pitching talent to pursue a trade, but any other GM worth his (or her) salt will probably up the price considerably.

The Yankees could sign a free agent. The list is here. It's not a very promising list. Most teams will do anything to keep their SS worth their salt since it's such a thin position. José Reyes is probably the best on the list and he's a franchise player for the Mets.

The Yankees could-and probably will-resign Jeter, though that might be their worst option. If his glove won't play at shortstop, the only other realistic option is DH-which his bat can't really carry in the American League, especially if the other option is (and it probably will be) Jorge Posada.

For 2009 at least, Jeter remains the Yankee shortstop and the Yankee captain, but while possible heirs to Mariano Rivera (Mark Melancon), Jorge Posada (Jesus Montero/Austin Romine) and Andy Pettitte (Joba Chamberlain/Phil Hughes/Take your pick) are at least beginning to emerge from the shadows, Jeter's situation is much murkier.


If the Yankees do not already have a plan in place for November 2010, they need to figure one oout.

The sooner, the better.