Game 59: How Many More Times

Count me amongst those that think both the local and national media, as well as the fans of both teams, place a little too much emphasis on Yankee-Red Sox games. Of course, that's a convenient thing to say right now when my team is winless against the Sox during the Obama Administration. Even I'll admit that at this point, it's getting very frustrating to lose to them game after game.

Despite all that, the teams are still tied for first in the AL East, but what hurts is that if the Yankees had managed a split through these first six games, they would currently hold a nice six game lead in the division.

Tonight we have Wang vs. Wakefield. Neither pitcher has good career numbers against tonight's opponent. In 14 games (13 GS) Wang is 6-5 against the Sox with a 4.91 ERA and a WHIP of 1.55. He's allowed more BB than K and the Sox have hit .281/.357/.417 off him. Meanwhile, in 49 G (32 GS) Wakefield is 10-17 with a 5.03 ERA and a WHIP of 1.42. Neither pitcher has faced tonight's opponent yet in 2009.

Tonight's theme is "how many more times?" How many more times will these teams have to play this year before the Yankees notch a "W"? How many more times will the Sox treat the Yankees the way they want to? How many more times will CMW take to the hill before he returns to his pre-foot injury form? How many more times will the Yankees play before we see Phil Hughes log some needed innings? I sure hope the answers are zero, zero, zero, and not that many. But if we see Hughes early tonight, things don't look too good for the first three questions.

As an aside, I would have much preferred to go with go with original Howlin' Wolf song "How Many More Years". However, in the interests of framing both the Yankees problems against the Sox and CMW's problems on the mound as being more temporal, I thought it much better to go with "times" than "years". So in this one instance, I'm happy the boys from Led Zeppelin decided to rip off the blues heroes they supposedly admired.



How many more times, treat me the way you want to do
How many more times, treat me the way you want to do
When I give you all my love, please, please be true

Meet Slade Heathcott

Slade Heathcott. No, he's not a writer dispatched from the New Yorker to write a feature on the Peter Max gallery at the New Yankee Stadium. He's the 18 year old kid the Yanks just drafted out of Texas High School in Texarkana. That would be the state of Texas, in case you were wondering.

His first name is Zachary (as is shown on the first frame of the video here) but has apparently since changed to Slade for marketability purposes, or to set up a future career as a porn producer, should this baseball thing fall through. In related news, please refer to this blog as Fackington T. Youkaford from now forward.

The selection represents the first time since 2005 that the Yankees have selected a position player with their first selection and the first time they have selected an outfielder in the first round since 2001. With the Yankees picking at #29 this year, they had to take someone with "warts" and not the kind that Billy Beane famously talked about in Moneyball. Someone that other teams had passed on depsite obvioius talent and upside. Pinto compares him to Captain Kirk, but let's take a look around to see what else is being said.

The Good:

• Power to all fields - He's a lefty, so if he ever does make it to the big league club, that should help.
  
  
• A strong throwing arm - He even pitched an inning in the Area Code Games and was hitting 91MPH on the gun, and has been clocked at 95.
  
  
• Solid defender - Capable of playing all three OF positions. Assuming hitting talent is constant, if he progresses as CF, he will be significantly more valuable.
  
  
• Good baserunner - Has above average speed and instincts on the bases. Supposedly projects to be a good base stealer.
  
  
• Stuff scouts love - He played football in high school, can do backflips, and "Heathcott is muscular with broad shoulders and a v-cut torso". I hope he runs like a deer!

The Bad:

• ACL surgery - He had his ACL repaired in November after a football injury but all accounts indicate that he has recovered completely and is running well.
  
  
• Academic ineligibility - He was ruled ineligible for his high school team's playoff last month due to poor performance in school. Good thing he won't have to worry about pesky bullshit like "schoolwork" anymore! I know, it's probably not a great sign, but being a member of the National Honor Society isn't a prerequisite for MLB stardom. Just ask Manny Ramirez!
  
  
• Attitude - One of the guys from Baseball Analysts was the one watching him in the Area Code games and thought he came across as cocky. If any of us were still in high school were staring down a future of professional athletics and millions of dollars, we might come across as arrogant as well.
  
  
• Parent issues - Both of his parents are out of his life due to problems with drug abuse. This doesn't necessarily mean anything, but it's probably not a great sign. Hopefully he's got at least some sort of a support structure because those years coming up through the minors can be pretty bleak at times.

Well, Zachary Slade, welcome to the crew. But if we hear one more thing about you being a Red Sox fan, this might get ugly.

Manny Ramirez: Admitted Murderer, Rapist

From the horse's mouth [emphasis mine]:

"I don't want to be a distraction for this team," Ramirez said. "What happened, happened. I spoke to [owner] Frank McCourt, I apologized, I spoke to Joe, my teammates and I'm ready to move on.

"I didn't kill nobody, I didn't rape nobody, so that's it, I'm just going to come and play the game."

He seemed to understand sentence negation in the first paragraph, but then drops a cryptic and insidious clue as to his past evil deeds in the second one.

I demand an investigation into these crimes he didn't not commit!

Tonight on YES

Almost to a fault, the Yankees celebrate their history more than any other organization in MLB, if not all of sports. But they do so with good reason, no other sports franchise has as much history to celebrate. One of the best ways that the Yankees celebrate their past is through the Yankeeography series on YES. And tonight, they debut a new Yankeeography that I am very much looking forward to.

As I imagine most of you were, I was raised to be a Yankee fan. I have a picture of Mickey Mantle holding me as a baby. I have a picture of me as a toddler just a few years later, standing next Joe DiMaggio; the Yankee Clipper being either too old or dignified to pick me up. I can recall dressing myself as young child in a "Billy's Back" t-shirt, celebrating Billy Martin's return as Yankees manager for the 1983 season.

But my favorite Yankee as a youngster was Dave Winfield. I'm not entirely sure why. Before I really started following the Yankees, and probably shortly before he took me to my first game, I remember asking my father who the players were on the Yankees. He rattled off some names, most likely Don Mattingly and Ron Guidry and Dave Righetti and Willie Randolph, and maybe even Rickey Henderson. But the name I latched onto was Dave Winfield. Or as my little 3 or 4 year old ears heard it "Wind Field". It was easy to remember; they were words that I knew. Of the many souveniers I weaseled out of my father at that first game, one was a large Dave Winfield button that I must still have kicking around somewhere.

By the time I began following baseball in earnest in 1988, Winfield's Yankee career was closing out. I won't spoil the Yankeeography for you, but let's just say things had gone south between Winnie and Big Stein. Winfield still had one of his best seasons that year, turning in the top OBP of his career, second best OPS, OPS+, and AVG of his career and his third best SLG at the age of 36. He would finish 4th in the AL MVP voting, but a back injury suffered late in the season required surgery and cost him the entirety of the 1989 season.

He would return briefly at the start of the disastrous 1990 season, but too much bad blood existed between Steinbrenner and him. The crowded Yankee outfield provided the perfect excuse to send him to the Angels for the immortal Mike Witt. Winfield would remain productive for another 4 seasons and finally win a World Series with the 1992 Blue Jays. Mike Witt would start 27 games over 4 seasons for the Yankees, post a 4.91 ERA, and earn more than $7.5M for it. He was Carl Pavano before Carl Pavano was.

During the 1980s the Yankees had the winningest record in baseball and had but one pennant to show for it, despite having rosters featuring Winfield, Mattingly, Henderson, Guidry, Righetti, and Randolph. They consistently had good teams, but never great teams, and the instability and insanity of the Front Office couldn't have helped matters at all. Still in his eight full seasons in pinstripes, Winfield hit .291/.357/.497 (135 OPS+) with 203 HRs, many of them screaming line drives that just cleared the fences. He made 8 All-Star teams, won 5 Gold Gloves, 5 Silver Sluggers, and had 4 top ten MVP finishes.

Winfield was elected to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in January 2001. He had spent nearly equal time with the Padres and Yankees and rumor had it he was going to enter the Hall as a Yankee. Fueling the fire, during Spring Training Glenallen Hill switched from Winfield's #31, which he had worn the year before, to #25, causing speculation that Winfield's number would be retired as part of the process. Instead, Winfield took a sweetheart deal from the Padres, much like the one the Yankees had given Reggie Jackson eight years earlier, and became the first man enshrined in the Hall of Fame as a San Diego Padre.

Winfield has been welcomed back into the Yankee family more in recent years, appearing at Old Timers' Days, the closing of the old Yankee Stadium, and the opening of the new one. The team probably wishes they had him along in Cleveland a few weeks ago to help take care of the seagull problem as well. I'm looking forward to checking this one out tonight, but with it scheduled to air following a Yankee-Sox game it probably won't be on until about midnight.

Maybe The Seventh Time Is A Charm?

[Pics from here since MLB.tv still doesn't have the archived game up yet]

The last time A.J. Burnett and Josh Beckett squared off was the day of the NFL draft. That afternoon both of the former Marlin teammates were lit up with very similar lines, giving up 8 runs each, including 2HRs, in five innings of work.

Impossibly, Burnett's performance was actually worse tonight, the night of the MLB draft. He gave up 5 runs (3 earned) in 2 2/3IP, walked five batters, only struck out one and blew through 84 pitches (40(!) strikes) to get those 8 outs. He allowed his 12th home run this year in as as many starts, a deep blast to straightaway center to some chump with a .308 slugging percentage entering that at bat. In an amusing and unintentionally pathetic display, Sox fans called Papi out after this second inning two run jack for a curtain call. Congrats, Papi... You know you are a sad case when people are applauding things that you used to make look pretty routine not too long ago.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Josh Beckett subdued the Yankees offensively like they had been hit with a tranquilizer dart and stuffed in his trunk. In the process of being rung up on strikes eight times in six innings, only three men were able to reach base. No Yankee achieved that feat more than once in the game. Beckett carried a no-hitter into the fourth inning until he was unceremoniously jinxed by an anonymous commenter on the game post. When your team's lone offensive highlight is of someone breaking up the opposing pitcher's no-hitter, you know it wasn't a very fun contest to watch. After only 94 pitches through six innings, Terry Francona went to the bullpen, who kept the shut out in tact.

One of the pitchers he called on was highly touted prospect Daniel Bard. He worked a perfect ninth inning and came out throwing hard. So hard, in fact, that the YES guns repeatedly clocked his offspeed pitches in the high 90's and once at 100mph. Amazing.

The final pitch of the game was clearly a slider to Robinson Cano. 100MPH?

Although there were 11 walks issued in the game (7 by the Yankees), it wrapped up in a tidy 3:04. It was a damp affair, as mist swirled around Fenway throughout the entire contest. It was a horrible game to watch, but it least it didn't take all night like every Yanks vs. Sox game seems to. The six in a row the Sox have taken from the Yankees is the longest such streak since 1912.

That's enough masochism for tonight, I think. Hey, the Yanks are still tied for first with the Sox despite being 0-6 against them. Yaaay...

/downs more scotch.

Let's try it again tomorrow.

Game 58: Five to One

Five to one, baby
One in five
No one here gets out alive
You get yours baby,
I'll get mine
Gonna make it baby if we try

The old get older
and the young get stronger
May take a week and it may take longer
They got the guns but
We got the numbers.
Gonna win, yeah we're taking over

The Yankees are 0 and 5 against the Red Sox in 2009. Boston swept a three game set at Fenway April 24-26, then took a brief two game set at the Stadium on May 4th and 5th. The Yankees followed that series with two losses to Tampa. Since then however, they've been on a tear, going 21 and 8 in that stretch and winning 8 of 9 series. They enter the game tonight with a one game lead over the Sox. They look to get their first win of 2009 against the Sox tonight and make it One and Five against them for the sesason.

A.J. Burnett opposes Josh Beckett tonight in a rematch of the April 25th game. This should be a pitchers' duel, even if their last match-up turned into a slugfest. And David Ortiz will see if his new eye drops solve his problems.

"Five to One" appeared on The Doors' 1968 album Waiting for the Sun. 1968 was one of the most socially and politcally volatile years in the history of the U.S. Though Jim Morrison said that there was no political motivation to his lyrics, one theory suggested that the lyrics were a reference to how the younger generation outnumbered the older "establishment" and that the social and political landscape would soon change.

Perhaps the state of the Yankee-Red Sox rivalry is similar these days. The teams are essentially dead even head-to-head since the start of 2005. The Yankees hold a 40-39 edge in games but have been outscored 451-442 in that time. However, after nearly a century of having their hearts crushed annually, it feels as if the pendulum has swung the way of the Red Sox since coming back from an 0-3 deficit in the 2004 ALCS. Since then they've won two World Series while the Yankees haven't made it out of the ALDS.

But over the past month, the 2009 Yankees have shown many of the same characteristics of the teams that had great success against the Sox prior to game 4 of the 2004 ALCS. It's too early to tell if the momentum is swinging back the Yankees' way. It may take this week's series to find out; it may take longer. But a win tonight would be a good first step towards restoring order to the universe.

Maahhk Passes Yoouuk

There's really no point in gloating about All-Star balloting since who is leading really depends more on the size of a team's fan base or the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns than who the most deserving candidate is. FOTB Jason did an excellent job of laying out exactly why the voting for the ASG is a joke, just this morning. However, if we are going to maintain this niche of Kevin Youkilis hatred we have going here, we are sort of obligated to point this out:

Mark Teixeira shook off a slow start in pinstripes to begin playing like an All-Star, and the fans have taken notice. A blistering May propelled him past rival Kevin Youkilis in the most recent updates for the July 14 All-Star Game at Busch Stadium, but it's still a very tight race. Teixeira's lead over Youkilis stands at just over 1,000 votes.

After spending the beginning of his career in Texas and splitting time between the AL & NL last year, it will be only the second time in his career Teix has been voted in. I guess it's not that surprising when you consider that Teix is a consistently slow starter and first base tends to house a lot of powerhouse offensive players.

Youk's contract runs through 2012 with an club option for 2013 while Teix is signed through 2016. These guys are going to be in duking it out for that 1B spot on the AL All-Star team for a long time to come.

Fack Youk Exclusive: Phil Mickelson Still Left Handed

This morning, my friend Mike and I had a tee time for 10:12 on Bethpage Red. The forecast looked pretty bleak, but not willing to blow off the time and risk a no-show fee if the course wasn't closed, we worked our way out the Long Island Expressway through pretty thick traffic. We walked into the shop and were told that due to all the rain, the course was shut down for the day. It kind of sucked, but typically when you get rained out of a round of golf, you don't get to walk around the course where the U.S. Open is going to be played in less than two weeks.

It was still raining pretty hard, but Mike and I headed over towards the first tee on the Black Course. An archipelago of umbrellas were lined up along the tee box, and given how poor the weather was, we assumed there had to be something worth seeing.
On the tee was Phil Mickelson, his caddy Bones and short game guru Dave Pelz. Phil hit three tee balls, two of them perfect blasts down the center of the fairway, looked at Bones and said "Okay, that's enough. Let's go inside". The balls were just left sitting in the fairway. Phil wasn't going to be playing golf today either (at least for a little while).

That there is the 18th green of the Black course. If it looks like it's completely covered in a sheet of water, well, that's because it was.

I have plans to go out a practice day next week (Tuesday or Wednesday) and possibly a day of the tournament. If either of those happen I'll get back to you with some pictures and a definitive answer as to whether Vijay Singh is as much of a douchebag as everyone says.

On the Red Sox, SS stands for "Spouse Slugger"

Tonight the Yankees return to Fenway looking for the first victory of 2009 against the Sox. And apparently, the Yankees won't be the only team in the park with a defensively limited shortstop.

With Jed Lowrie recovering from wrist surgery, and Nick Green playing like Nick Green, Julio Lugo has been the Sox' starting SS most of the last month. And the Boston Herald's Sam McAdam has seen enough. Which in turn prompted Deadspin to link to the article under the headline Sean McAdam Is Not A Fan Of Julio Lugo's Defense, which is interesting, because Julio Lugo is not a fan of his wife's self-defense.

Derek Jeter may also have limited range, but at least he can hit something other than a woman.

Rumors abound about the Sox making a move for a SS. Given their affinity for employing men with a history of domestic violence at the position, they may want to consider dealing for the Royals' Alberto Callaspo.

A Lesson in Overmanagement

Jay and I were both fairly busy last night, hence the lack of our usual in depth recap. I hit the road just as the first pitch was thrown and was driving for 2 hours of the 2 hour and 34 minute game. I tried to listen on the radio, but I just couldn't stomach a second straight day of Sterling and Waldman. I made it as far as the Teixeira home run, and was left with no choice but to bail out after Sterling launched into his absurd and self-serving "It's a Teix message. Oh you're on the mark, Teixeira!" call. Besides, I had some catching up to do with Jam_On on XM after it had been replaced by DMB radio for all of last week.

I did turn the game back on in the seventh, just in time to hear Hughes retire the side in order and in impressive fashion and then arrived at my New Jersey destination just in time to see that the Yankees Overmanager decided to remove him for eighth. Let's do a quick recap bullet point style:

• The HRs continue to fly out of the park: Teix, Swish, Damon and Jeter for the Yanks, Kapler for the Rays, running the total to 105 through 29 games. By contrast, last year there were 160 in 81 Yankee Stadium games. Yes it's still early, but it's getting later by the day. This trend has yet to show any signs of slowing down.


• Pettitte turned in what is becoming a characteristic performance for him. As Girardi like to say, he bent but didn't break. We don't know if his back has anything to do with it; there was a trainer's visit to the mound in the third. It could be though, that this is what we're going to see from Andy Pettitte at this point in his career - which isn't the worst thing in the world. He still eats up innings and generally gives them a chance to win. It isn't pretty, but he seems to do enough to get by. That's not the worst thing in the world from a back-end starter.


• Hughes was impressive: a perfect inning on 11 pitches, 7 of them strikes. Facing the top of the order, he induced two groundball outs then blew away Mrs. Tony Parker on a 94 MPH fastball.


• Inexplicably, Hughes did not return for the eighth. I'm furious about this. He's a soon-to-be 23 year-old starter who needs innings. As I've stated previously, I'm not opposed to him being in the pen, but he needs to be used. Otherwise he's going to lose arm strength and be at risk for yet another injury when they actually choose to use him again. I'd rather have him start in Scranton if he's just going to rot in the pen. It's June 9th; Hughes has thrown exactly 11 pitches this month.
• I understand that the dangerous Carlos Pena was leading off the eighth in a one run game. I understand that Joe Girardi has a man crush on Phil Coke. I think Coke is a pretty decent pitcher. But I would have left Hughes in.


• The only possible explanation I can think of is that they wanted to save Hughes in case they needed to piggy-back him on Wang Wednesday. But if you keep saving your bullets, eventually you're left with a loaded gun and a bunch of bullet holes in your chest. If the level of confidence in Wang is that low, it's only further evidence as to how badly his return was botched. And, I think Girardi has show that in the event a starter exits early, Aceves is his pitcher of choice.


• Perhaps more curious than Hughes not getting the ball in the 8th was Mo getting the ball in the 9th for the third straight day. Now I didn't have a problem with Mo coming in Saturday, until it was revealed that he was sick. He had a very efficient ninth on Sunday (1-2-3, 10 pitches, 8 strikes) and was nearly as efficient yesterday: 1-2-3, 11 pitches, 7 strikes. I guess that puts to rest the rumors of his demise. Again. However, he's now thrown 42 pitches over three straight days and will likely not be available for tonight's opener in Boston. Great job Joe.

Aren't You Glad The Yankees Are In The AL?

The Yankees pitchers have started taking BP:

Wang was in the batting cage yesterday, as was accomplished hitter CC Sabathia (.261 average in 88 at-bats with three home runs and 13 RBIs). Sabathia is looking forward to taking his hacks for real.

Joe Girardi? He's not looking forward to any part of it. "It's always fun to watch them take BP," the manager said. "This big thing is to make sure nobody gets hurt in BP and obviously during the games. That's a concern of ours."

It's pretty sad that the discussion immeadetly turns to the possibility of getting injured. They aren't squatting behind the plate for 9 innings.

I enjoy watching pitchers hit. Particularly when they are terrible at it and on another team. It's like watching penguin hobble akwardly on land; they just aren't made to do it and it makes you appreciate all the other creatures who were. It will be worth sitting through two or three at bats a game for three series against the Marlins, Braves and Mets we get to watch big ol' CC hustle into second for just one double.

Strasburg... "What's The Risk?"

Occassionally, I have to park my car on the streets of Manhattan, which can take a while. Once in a while I turn on sports talk radio if I'm tired of scrolling through my iPod and usually end up regretting the decision almost instantly. Yesterday, I got back to the city around noon and turned on 1050AM just in time to hear Colin Cowherd say the dumbest fucking thing you will ever hear uttered about the MLB draft.

He spends a while defending Boras' $50M request (which even Scott Boras knows is ridiculous like the first numbers he threw around when A-Rod opted out), saying that like "John Elway and LeBron James", Steven Strasburg is a "once-in-a-decade type talent" and he can throw 103MPH (which obviously isn't true). The 'Herd then goes on to explain that the Nationals have nothing to lose since the Yankees drafted Brien Taylor in the 90's and still went on to become the team of the decade.

The grand finale occurs when Cowherd compares paying three times more than any other prospect ever for Strasburg is somehow less risky than taking a QB #1 in the NFL draft. Take a look at past #1 draft picks in the MLB. Now take a look at football's and tell me where there is more risk.

Listen for yourself. It's incomprehensibly stupid. Can we have Max Kellerman back, please?PLEASE?

Game 57: Serial Killa(z)

Since dropping both halves of a two game set against the Rays back on May 6th and 7th, the Yankees have won seven out of eight series against their opposition. The only one they lost was against the World Champion Phillies and all three of those games were closely contested. A win tonight could make it eight out of nine.

They done it every which way, dropping the first game of three against Toronto, taking all four against the Twins by a grand total of 5 runs, blasting the Orioles in each of the three games in the Bronx, and taking 2 out of three from Texas both in Arlington and at the Stadium. The Twins and O's were the only two sweeps, the other five have gone 2-1 in favor of the Yanks.

Those three walk off wins against the Twins seem like the obvious turning points in hindsight. Dramatic wins and whipped cream pies in the face have a way of galvanizing teams and making them think they should win every game (or at least every series). Momentum is a fickle mistress, but the Yankees appear to be doing a hell of a job of keeping her around at the moment.

The one player with the most influence on whether the Yanks can notch another series victory tonight will be Andy Pettitte. The 37 year old eclipsed the 2800 innings pitched mark in the fifth inning of his last start, which is a hell of a lot when you think about it. The only problem was that he didn't come out for the sixth. He only allowed one run in the outing before that in Cleveland (where his back problems first surfaced) but that outing was only 5 innings as well. Pettitte went deeper into his previous two but allowed 4ER in each. His last quality start was on May 13th and before that you have to go back to April 26th to find another. It's not to say that Pettitte has been horrible, he's pitched well enough to pick up five wins, but we've come to expect a little more from our lefty.

For the Rays, Andy Sonnanstine will toe the rubber. His two starts against the Yankees this year are the only two in which he has not received a decision. One was a 4-3 victory for the Yanks back on April 15th, and the other was a 4-3 win for the Rays on May 6th. In 11 starts this year, Sonnanstine has a decent 4-5 record but a hideous 7.07 ERA. He's been good against the Bombers so far this year, allowing 2 runs in each of his starts, going 5IP the first time and 7 1/3 the second. He's been decidedly more cold than hot against the rest of the league, however. The other Andy has given up 2 or fewer runs just as often he's given up 5 or more (5 times each), so let's set the over/under at 3.5 and see what happens.