Thursday Afternoon Linkarooski

Like seemingly everyone on the Yankees, these links are day-to-day.

A recent calculation by Forbes determined that the Yankees have the most valuable brand of any sports franchise in the world. At least internationally, I think this has more to do with this association with New York than their history as a baseball team.

I'm sure others who have traveled abroad have had the similar experiences, but I've talked to a good amount of people in counties like China and South Africa who were wearing caps with the interlocking NY and had no idea what the Yankees even were. To them, the hat stands for New York City and not the Yankees as a baseball team.

On Monday, Curtis Granderson wrote about his road to recovery - which included a case of strep throat - at Big League Stew.

Thanks to everybody who sent this one in: the NC State baseball team's media guide had a fantastic misspelling of "Wolfpack" that us Fackers were all too happy to see.

Apparently Matt Garza hasn't stopped being a complete cock between last July and now.

Still down about last night's loss? The first comment on this page should cheer you up.

Both Larry from the Yankeeist and frequent commenter Jimmy suggested the same thing this morning: moving Derek Jeter out of the lead off spot. As Matt said in the comments, it wouldn't be worth the media backlash and given how many balls Jeter has hit on the ground, particularly to short, he would be on a record setting pace for double plays this year.

So it appears that Josh Beckett is really hurt, unless putting him on the 15 day DL is just another part of the Red Sox elaborate ruse.

The Yankees are purportedly interested in Yunesky Maya, a 28 year old, right handed Cuban pitcher who has recently been unblocked after defecting nine months ago.

Ross from NYYSI discovers the seedy underbelly of Yankee Stadium's Bat Day.

Here's a puff piece from USA Today about George Steinbrenner and his contributions to the city of Tampa.

Joe Posnanski wrote a post explaining his contention that it's "just barely above possible" that Derek Jeter will break Pete Rose's hit record and then made some more predictions about which career numbers players including A-Rod, CC Sabathia and Mariano Rivera will reach.

The WSJ says that Rivera is the best Yankee pitcher of all time. I don't agree with their methodology because Mo has a distinct advantage in categories like ERA and I'm not sure how they are isolating his "impact on attendance", but it's hard to argue with their conclusion. Mo is the man.

By now you know that Hanely Ramirez was benched for jogging after a ball that he booted into left field and was back in the lineup last night after apologizing to his team. Morgan Ensberg took him to task for it, David Ortiz told him to apologize, Bert Blyleven thinks how he dealt with it in the media was the real problem, and Posnanski mined some comments from his readers who imagined what Derek Jeter would have done in that situation, such as:

Jeter wouldn’t have chased the ball. The ball would have chased Jeter.

Plenty of words have been spilled about Ramriez think already, and it's basically over, but very quickly, I think it's kind of amazing amazing that we expect athletes to give maximum effort (or at least act like they are) on every single play, and for the most part, they do. We are imperfect as humans but we are capable of trying pretty damn hard.

Theo Epstein went to a Pearl Jam concert during a Red Sox game. Wearing a disguise. No big deal, Matt did the same thing when he saw them in Hartford. Gotta find a way to deflect all the attention from the roving hoards of Fack Youk Floozies, you know?

Ryan Wilkins explored what exactly the addition of historical WAR to Baseball-Reference.com means for the future of baseball history.

Angel Pagan hit and inside the park homer and started a triple play yesterday. And the Mets still lost.

Dave Cameron wonders why the respect for Ken Griffey Jr. is a one way street.

Ultimate Zone Rating just got a facelift. Over at FanGraphs, MGL lays out the updated primer and David Appelman announces the introduction of home/road splits for UZR (which unfortunately will be a small sample size minefield and probably only useful for outfielders).

Carson Cistulli's series at FanGraphs rolls on with Why Tommy Bennett Writes. It's both incredibly well-written and a veritable tour de force in one downsmanship. Here is Will Leitch's installment as well.

Bronx Native Randy Ruiz has been released by the Blue Jays and is heading straight for Japan.

Ben Jacobs from THT was at the game Stephen Strasburg started against the Rochester Red Wings last night and wrote about the phenom's performance.

Weekend News And Notes

Good morning Fackers. How was your weekend? Ours was pretty damn good. Nice victories on Friday night and Saturday afternoon. Word is Jay had a helluva party Saturday, complete with a wide variety of grillable meats and a now empty keg. I, on the other hand, opted for BBQ Saturday night. It was delicious, and then at long last I finally saw Pearl Jam in concert. It was one of the best shows I've ever been to.

Of course, if you were around these parts last year, you may remember that anytime I talk about Pearl Jam, disaster follows. So of course, the Yankees had a meltdown in the eighth inning yesterday. By that time I was out to dinner with the family, celebrating my youngest brother's 20th birthday, so I was only getting updates via phone. Since 2007 Joba is Back Baby!, I'm sure he had nothing to do with things falling apart. It can only be the bad karma brought on by me going to see that band. Sorry about that. On to the news and notes:

Today marks the twelfth anniversary of David Wells' Sunday afternoon perfect game against Twins. As chance would have it, the Twins were at Yankee Stadium yesterday, for a Sunday afternoon game, and Boomer was in the house doing the game for TBS. Unfortunately, things didn't work out quite so well for the home team this time. Oddly enough, the Twins also played a Sunday afternoon game in the Bronx on May 17th last year, and Wells was covering that game for TBS as well.

Speaking of starting pitchers, after Saturday's game Joe Girardi laid out the Yankees' rotation for the remainder of the week. Phil Hughes gets the ball tonight; Javier Vazquez is getting skipped again, this time pushed back to Friday night at Citi Field. We'll have a little more on this in our next post.

As we mentioned in yesterday's preview, Chan Ho Park is ready to return. It still makes no sense to me why he wasn't activated for yesterday's game, and the fact that he wasn't seems to indicate that it'll been Ivan Nova going to Scranton to make room for him, rather than Boone Logan.

That move doesn't add up to me either, as it will leave the Yankees without a longman for the rest of this week, though I suppose we could see Javy in relief tonight or tomorrow. That, in turn, could jeopardize his start for Friday, depending upon how much is needed from him. Which would mean another spot start for Sergio Mitre, who would once again be unable to return the longman role for a few days. All this just to keep Boone Logan around?

In other injury news, Nick Swisher remains day-to-day with a sore left bicep. It bothers him most when batting left-handed. On Saturday, he took a right handed at bat against a right handed pitcher, the first time he'd done that against a non-knuckleballer. He was held out of yesterday's line up against a right handed pitcher, but came on to pinch hit against lefty Brian Duensing in the eighth. When Ron Gardenhire pulled Duensing in favor of righty Matt Guerrier, Swish was immediately lifted for Juan Miranda. This will merit watching as the week unfolds.

Curtis Granderson ran at about 75 to 80 percent on Saturday and took batting practice yesterday, so he appears to be progressing well in recovering from his pulled groin.

In less pleasant injury news, Nick Johnson may need surgery on his injured wrist. If the cortisone shot he received last weekend doesn't do the trick, he'll go under the knife yet again. Best case scenario the shot works and he's back in three weeks. Worst case, we're looking at surgery and maybe an August return. Cue the indignation at signing the injury prone Johnson! Just remember, if you're going to bemoan his fragility keeping him out of the lineup now, you can't complain that he was slumping when he was healthy. Can't have it both ways.

Speaking of shots, Alfredo Aceves had one as well. The reliever with a bulging disc in his back was given an epidural over the weekend. Both mother and baby are said to be doing well.

Brian Cashman traveled to Scranton Friday to watch Chan Ho Park's rehab appearance. He held court with the media there, and sounded surprisingly callous in talking about releasing the oft injured Christian Garcia. I mean, I don't disagree with you Cash, but jeez, have a heart. The guy's had a rough few years.

In the same session, Cashman described Shane Lindsay, the pitcher who took Garcia's spot, as "a lesser version of Brian Bruney" Yeesh. Color me inspired. Hey, accept no imitations. The real deal is available.

Lastly, Cashman also said the Kevin Russo is going to get the Jerry Hairston Jr treatment, and will be playing all over the diamond in an effort to turn him into a super utility player. This is something I advocated for last summer, so I'm happy about it. Beyond tooting my own horn though, there's value in this. Russo profiles as a useful bench bat. He's not about to usurp any of the Yankee infielders, so making him a capable infielder and outfielder is only going to increase his value. With Ramiro Pena struggling, it could even position him to take the Big League utlity infielder job. There would be concerns about Russo's ability to play short though. Either way, if he's capable of playing all over the diamond, Russo would be a very useful bench piece, with or without Pena on the roster.

Meanwhile, down in Trenton, starter Ryan Pope has been shifted into the depleted bullpen. To take his place in the rotation Hector Noesi has been recalled from Tampa. Noesi was a darkhorse addition to the 40 man roster last offseason, and he's been dominating the Florida State League this year to the tune of a 2.72 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, and a 53:6 K:BB over 43 IP.

Tampa can easily absorb the loss of Noesi, since they added starter Graham Stoneburner from Charleston last week. Stoneburner has a 2.08 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, and 44:10 K:BB in 39 IP in the Sallie League prior to his promotion. He made his Tampa debut last Thursday, retired the first 15 batters he faced and allowed two runs, three baserunners and fanned seven over six innings.

Back with more in a bit.

Game 135: The Long Road

Baseball's regular season is a long road. With the completion of game 135 tonight exactly five sixths of that road will be in the Yankees' rearview mirror. Also in the Yankees' rearview mirror is the entirety of the American League. They hold a 10.5 game lead on a playoff spot, a 7.5 game lead in the AL East, and 7 game lead for home field.

As such, the Yankees have the luxury of not having to put the pedal to the floor heading down the stretch. They didn't have to panic and make a deal for a brand name fifth starter at either trade deadline. They don't have to rush Sergio Mitre back after he took a liner off his arm last Saturday. They don't have to trot Mariano Rivera out to the mound while his groin is bothering him. They don't have to bend their already flexible rules as it pertains to Joba Chamberlain's innings and push him because they need to win games.

All of those factors will be in play tonight. Chad Gaudin, the swingman pitcher the Yankees acquired in place of a bigger named starter, spot started in place of Mitre last night and required 5.1 innings of relief from the bullpen. Mitre will start Sunday, on seven days rest and having pitched six innings just once in seven starts this year. Rivera, who did not throw his scheduled bullpen today, will be unavailable for the third consecutive game. And Joba Chamberlain will make his second consecutive start on regular rest but with a strict pitch and inning limit.

Last Sunday, Chamberlain was on a 50 pitch or 3 inning limit. He got through three on just 35 pitches. I haven't seen it posted anywhere yet, but I'd imagine that he'd be capped at about 60 pitches or 4 innings today.

The fact the Yankees even considered that Joba would reach 50 pitches prior to completing three innings speaks to how poorly he's pitched of late. Since throwing eight shutout innings against Tampa Bay on July 29th, Joba has made five starts to the tune of an 8.22 ERA and 2.00 WHIP. Opponents are batting .323/.414./500 off him during that time and he's walking a Bruney-esque 5.87 per nine. He's averaged 18.78 pitches per IP during that stretch, so a three inning start tonight is a distinct possibility. Yet the delusionary Joba still insists he's pitching well (see the 5:50 update). I'm hopeful that tonight he'll turn in a performance that a more discerning observer would deem acceptable.

Either way, the Yankees will likely need four to six innings from the bullpen tonight. With Gaudin having started last night, Mitre going Sunday, and Alfredo Aceves having thrown 2.1 innings last night, they're without their usual long relief options. My guess is that Mark Melancon will follow Joba for two or three innings, then it's anyone guess from there. With Mo being day-to-day they'll likely not use Phil Hughes for more than an inning. Thankfully even with Mo and Alf presumably unavailable, they'll still have nine men in the bullpen due to September call-ups, and six of them didn't pitch last night. It should be enough to get them through the weekend.

As for the Blue Jays, they'll also send a struggling starter to the mound. Roy Halladay was one of the big name starters the Yankees were rumored to be pursuing at the deadline. The Jays ended up overplaying their hand and held on to Halladay. A Cy Young candidate at the deadline, Halladay has been horseshit since, going 2-4 with a 4.71 ERA and a 1.40 WHIP since, as opponents are OPSing .860 off him. One of those losses came against the Yanks on August 4th, his second straight poor start against the Yankees. They'll look to hang another "L" on him tonight.

Derek Jeter and Nick Swisher get the night off, replaced by Ramiro Pena and Eric Hinske respectively. Johnny Damon slides up to the leadoff spot, and Hinske, interestingly, bats second.

Heading into Memorial Day weekend, the Yankees had a nine game winning streak going. I wrote this preview, featuring "Once" from Pearl Jam. The Yankees lost that night.

Heading into Fourth of July weekend, the Yankees had a seven game winning streak going. I wrote this preview, featuring "State of Love and Trust" from Pearl Jam. The Yankees lost that night.

Now we're heading into Labor Day weekend (or Labour Day for the Jays fans) and the Yankees have a seven game winning streak going. In an effort to prove how non-superstitious I am (or how stubborn and stupid I am), I'm going to roll the dice again.

"The Long Road" was originally written for Mirror Ball, the 1995 album from Fack Youk's favorite Canadian, Neil Young. Pearl Jam was his backing band for the album. "The Long Road" was one of two Eddie Vedder tunes that didn't make the final cut for the album, and were later included on Pearl Jam's EP Merkin Ball, considered a companion piece to Mirror Ball.

With the Yankees in Canada this weekend, hopefully this song's connection to the Canadian Young will bring a little better luck. And hopefully tonight Joba will pitch well, even if he cannot stay around for long. Either way, tonight's another step on the season's long road.



And I wished for so long,
I cannot stay,
All the precious moments,
I cannot stay,
It's not like wings have fallen,
I cannot stay,
Without you something's missing,
I cannot stay.

Wang Gets The Knife

Good morning Fackers. After a clunker of a game last night, we don't have much in the way of good news for you this morning. In case you hadn't heard, as you read this, or perhaps even prior to your reading this, Chien-Ming Wang is in Birmingham, Alabama undergoing surgery on his right shoulder at the hands of Dr. James Andrews, allegedly to repair a torn labrum.

This is the latest and hopefully the last in a series of professional misfortunes to beset Wang over the past 14 months: his lis franc injury, his improper offseason rehab regimen, his historically bad three starts to start the season, his dubious trip to the DL, his botched rehab assignment and panicked return to the Bigs, his relegation to mop-up man, his lackluster return to the rotation, and then his Fourth of July shoulder injury and subsequent trip to the DL, rehab set back, and now the operation that will cost him the remainder of this year and a good chunk, if not all, of next year. What concerns me is that even if this is the last bad break for CMW, it may also be the straw to break the camel's back.

Much of this is irresponsible speculation at this stage, but look at it this way: Wang will be 30 years old come next Opening Day. He had rotator cuff surgery as a minor leaguer, and then missed time during his rookie season with another rotator cuff injury. He's a sinkerball pitcher who has a very good track record in his career, but possesses neither the peripheral statistics nor the pitching repetoire that is predictive of future success. He missed more than half of last season following a foot injury, pitched very very poorly this year, and now is having his second shoulder surgery before the age of 30. Shoulder injuries are the scarlet letters of Major League pitchers. Few survive one; Wang has now had two, in addition to another shoulder injury that was rehabbed without the knife. Chien-Ming Wang's career, or at least his career as an effective pitcher, may well be over.

Jay pondered something similar nearly two months back, but I thought such speculation was premature at that point. Wang was the rare sinkerballer who had beaten the odds and been wildly successful, and after a very rough start to the season, I thought he was primed to get himself back on track. Now rather than the scenes in Casino that Jay recalled, I can't shake the thought of Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption:

Andy: I wound up here. Bad luck I guess.

Red: Bad luck? Jesus.

Andy: It floats around. Has to land on somebody. Say a storm comes through. Some folks sit in their living rooms and enjoy the rain. The house next door gets torn out of the ground and smashed flat. It was my turn, that's all. I was in the path of the tornado. I just had no idea the storm would go on as long as it has.

CMW has been in a shit storm of bad luck of late. I only hope it gets better for him, but I don't like his chances. The fact that his current situation reminds me of a conversation between one guy who's an avowed life-long Mets fan and another who's allegedly dating his step-granddaughter can't possibly be a good sign.

Of course, Wang is being operated upon by the most famous orthopedic surgeon in the world, someone who has salvaged the career of many an injured athlete . Yet, he's also the man that allegedly ruined the career of former Yankee (as well as middle finger enthusiast and sometime Pearl Jam punching bag) Jack McDowell. The fact that Wang's surgery comes the day after the McDowell story broke just about sums up the horseshit luck the poor guy has had of late.

In the short term, the Yankees need for another pitcher - particularly with Alf now having a sore shoulder - just went way up. Unfortunately, so did the price they'll have to pay for one - particularly with the non-waiver trade deadline just over fifty hours away. As much as I didn't like the now debunked rumored Bronson Arroyo deal on Monday, the one solace I took in it was that it would have been a preemptive move before the bad news on Wang could break. As noted linguist Omar Minaya might say, that train has now sailed.

Andy Dufresne said hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. Hope is one thing, but right now optimism is quite another. Chien-Ming Wang is crawling through a river of shit. I don't like his chances of coming out clean on the other side.

Game 78: State Of Love And Trust

Last Wednesday, Yankeedom was in a panic. The team had dropped consecutive series to the lowly Nationals and Marlins, and were a Luis Castillo error away from having lost to the reeling Mets as well. They also dropped the first game of the series in Atlanta. The pitching had been good, but the bats were dead wood - A-Rod in particular.

Brian Cashman arrived prior to game two of that series, and the rumor mill started working overtime. Would heads roll? Would there be a trade? Melky was in the lineup then yanked. Swisher had a closed door meeting with Cash and Girardi. Then all the hitters had a closed door meeting with Cash and Girardi.

The Yank were still listless, trailing 1-0 in the top of the sixth and getting no hit. After Brett Gardner was called out on an egregiously bad pick off call, Joe Girardi got himself tossed from the game. The Yanks put up three runs that inning. They haven't looked back since, not once trailing in a game, winning seven in a row, and posting seven runs a game while the pitching has held solid at just three runs per game. They even managed to pick up a useful bench piece in Eric Hinske.

Everything is peaches and cream right now in Yankeeland. Winning streaks have a way of doing that. Now as we head into the holiday weekend, the Yanks go for the sweep against the league's worst offense. And they do it with their ace on the mound.

In eleven career starts against the M's, CC is 4-3 with 2.95 ERA and 1.27 WHIP. More importantly, the big lefty has won six of his last seven decisions and last Friday dispelled any concerns about his biceps tendinitis by allowing just three baserunners in throwing seven innings of one run ball against the Mets.

Jason Vargas has never faced the Yanks. After bouncing from Florida to the Mets to the Mariners over the past four seasons, and not appearing in the Majors at all last year, the southpaw has surprised this year, posting an ERA+ of 112. However, his FIP is a third of a run worse than the league average, suggesting he may be getting helped by his defense, and Seattle's defense isn't that good. He gives up a lot of flyballs and a lot of homeruns, and that's bad news in Yankee Stadium, particularly with the way the lineup is swinging the lumber right now.

We've been celebrating the Fourth of July all day at Fack Youk. I can think of no better way to finish today's celebration off than a fireworks display courtesy of the Yankee bats.

We've been riffing on classic Seattle grunge all series long. Tuesday was Alice in Chains, yesterday was Nirvana, so today is Pearl Jam. Sorry Soundgarden. The never-satisfied Yankee Universe is rather content right now. Recent play has inspired a state of love and trust, and with CC on the mound tonight and a long weekend looming, there's no reason to feel any other way.



State of love and trust as I busted down the pretext
Sin still plays and preaches, but to have an empty court, uh huh
And the signs are passing, grip the wheel, can't read it
Sacrifice receiving the smell that's on my hands, hands, yeah

Game 42: Once

The final series of the homestand begins tonight against the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies. In the 127 seasons of Phillies baseball this only the second time they could be referred to as such. That's nuts.

This marks Philly's first visit to the Bronx since July 2000, a series during which a soon-to-be-traded big mouth, with a son named Gehrig no less, told anyone who would listen how much he'd love to play for the Yankees. Funny how no one remembers that anymore.

A.J. Burnett gets the ball for the Yankees. Just as they did in his first three starts this year, the team will need innings from Burnett tonight in order to spare a fatigued bullpen. Burnett came up big in those three starts, all Yankee victories, before turning in four clunkers in a row. He did better in his start last Sunday (6 BBs notwithstanding), and will look to build on that tonight. To do so, he'll need to keep Philly sluggers Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, and Raul Ibanez out of the right field stands. Burnett will be opposed by former wife-beater Brett Myers.

Johnny Damon returns to the line-up after a night off to rest a sore neck. Brian Bruney is unavailable, Albaladejo has been optioned out, and Chien-Ming Wang will be in the bullpen as the long man. With that, here's the bullpen situation tonight:

• Albaladejo: Optioned out
• Aceves: Out tonight, likely tomorrow as well
• Bruney: Ditto
• Veras: 1.2 IP last night. May be available tonight
• Rivera: 2.1 IP over two days. May be available tonight
• Coke: Available I assume. Held out last night after taking a liner off the arm Wednesday
• Wang: Available to make his 4th professional relief appearance
• Tomko: Available (but do you really want to see him?)

We've been lucky the past three days picking songs that focus on the next number in the winning streak. The problem is the further we go with that, the more tenuous the connection becomes between the song and the game. But you gotta be superstitious during a hot streak and I'll be damned if I'm going to be the one to jinx this. So bear with me. Today we're going to stretch things a bit further, focusing on the album name rather than the lyrics or the song title.

We'll go with Once, the opening track from Pearl Jam's seminal debut album, Ten. Pearl Jam was the first band that I really got into. It's hard to believe that this summer will mark 18 years since Ten was released. It's not hard to believe that Pearl Jam kicks as much ass today as they did then.

Once is a song about a guy going insane to the point of becoming a serial killer. That doesn't have a helluva lot to do with the Yankees, but the inconsistent play earlier this year certainly was maddening. And there were more than a few people out there who were ready to lose their marbles over it. Once upon a time it seemed this team could do no right. That's all a distant memory right now; winning has a way of doing that.

So that's your loosely-founded connection today. Believe it if you need it, or leave it if you dare. At the very least this video will give you a jump start for your Memorial Day Weekend. It was shot four days before Ten was released.



Once upon a time I could lose myself....