Robinson Cano Is The Man, Yankees Clip Rays 5-4

I called it before the season started and I'm sticking with it: Robinson Cano will be the 2010 AL MVP. If the season ended now, would he be? Probably not. But there's a lot of season left and when the dust settles, Robbie will be the MVP. Monster night at the plate tonight for Robbie. 3-for-4 with 2 doubles and the game winning HR off Rafael Soriano in the 9th. Tonight's game ball goes to Robbie. No doubt about it. Cano is on a little mini-tear. He's homered in 3 of the last 4 games and he's 9 for 21 (.429) over the last 5. 7 of his 9 hits have gone for extra bases. Mark my words folks, Robbie will be the MVP.

Not a lot of hits tonight by the Yankees offense but what they did hit they hit hard. 6 hits in total, 3 doubles and 3 HRs. The balls were flying tonight and they were flying far. Joyce's HR was a blast. Teixiera hit a bomb of his own. The chicks tonight must have been going bonkers. Swisher's HR now gives him 20 on the year. The updated pledge amount for Nick's charity, Swish's Wishes, is $808. New to the blog and wondering what I'm talking about? A couple of us Yankee bloggers have gotten together to donate to Nick's charity. Every time Nick goes deep we pledge to donate $38. Want more info? Care to join us? Feel free to drop me a line and I'll give you the info.

Not the best debut for Lance Berkman. My buddy tweeted to me before the game, "F**k Lance Berkman." Not sure what that's all about. As for his debut, it's one game. I'm not going to put much stock in it.

Not Javy Vazquez's best outing of the season but he wasn't bad. David Robertson is making a serious push to be the setup man. He looked impressive tonight. Real impressive. Mariano, as expected, was awesome. He's having arguably the best season of his career. Like a fine wine he's getting better with age. Give that man a multi-year deal already. I have no doubt in my mind that Mo could pitch well into his 50s. He's the G.O.A.T. and he's only getting better.

Big win tonight. The win puts the lead in the East back to 2 and it guarantees that the Yankees leave Tampa in 1st place. The big man goes tomorrow. The odds of a Yankee win are very high when CC gets the ball. A win tomorrow would be mighty nice. So would an A-Rod HR for that matter. I thought for use he'd hit one while they were in Tampa. Alex always seems to hit the ball well when they play in the Trop. I'm calling #600 tomorrow. Hope it happens.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Wood In, Park Out, Me A Happy Camper

Got a text alert while at my company's annual summer picnic advising me that the Yankees acquired RP Kerry Wood from the Indians in exchange for a PTBNL. Just found out that to make room for Wood they DFA'd Chan Ho Park. Like the other two deadline deals the Yankees have made, it works for me.

Park was a disaster for the Yankees. It should come as no surprise that they let him go. Now Kerry Wood hasn't exactly been rock solid in recent years. In fact he's been far from it. It's such a low-risk high-reward move that you have to be a fan of it. In the end this is basically going to cost the Yankees very little. Wood is definitely an upgrade to Park. Winner winner chicken dinner.

I'd have to say that the Yankees were definitely one of the trade deadline winners. They grabbed an everyday impact bat, a veteran bat off the bench, and slightly upgrade the bullpen. Not bad for 2 minor leaguers and 2 PTBNLs. Nice job Cashman. The moves make the best team in baseball a little better. Yankee fans should be very pleased. If you're not, I'd love to hear why.

Girardi has Berkman hitting 2nd tonight. I probably would have hit him 6th behind Cano but that's just me. The 2-hole, while not the ideal spot for him in my opinion, works. Let's hope he delivers.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh Berkman!

Just got the text alert and the deal is official. Welcome to the New York Yankees, Lance Berkman! For those wondering what the title of the blog is all about, all of those nuh-nuh-nuh-nuhs are meant to be the Batman theme song. Bonus points to anyone who picked that up.

The deal breaks down as follows: Yankees acquired Berkman and cash from the Astros in exchange for Mark Melancon and Jimmy Paredes. Works for me. I've never been fully sold on Mark Melancon. I always thought of him as an over-hyped Yankee prospect. Admittedly, I don't have a heck of a lot of exposure to him but from what I've seen I'm not overly impressed. Berkman brings a solid veteran bat to an already potent Yankee lineup. He may be on the decline and not having a typical Lance Berkman type of year, but I think he fits better in the lineup than who the Yankees have now, or could have when and if Nick Johnson ever gets off the disabled list. I think it's safe to admit that nobody cares if that day ever comes.

If I were in charge of filling out the Yankee lineup I'm not sure where I'd slot LB on the lineup card. The choices as I see them are having Berkman hit 2nd, 7th or 8th. I don't see him as a #2 hole hitter but is OBP is decent enough to pull it off. I'd prefer though that they leave Swisher there. Batting him 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 9th are definitely out. I wouldn't hit him 6th unless maybe Posada wasn't in the lineup. I also wouldn't bat Granderson and Gardner back-to-back so to break up the lefties, I'd probably put Berkman in the 8-hole. Lance Berkman hitting 8th? Only in NY. I'm assuming he'll be in tonight's lineup. The game is tonight at 7pm so there's still a few hours before the lineup goes public.

I did get to see most of last night's game though it didn't get my full attention. We had our 7th annual family Pai-gow card game so I was focused more on that. Did have the game on the big screen but with the sound off. Saw Hughes give up the 3-run bomb. Even with a giant buttload of cash in front of me (mainly $1 bills- won $141 altogether) it still bummed me out. I have no complaints about Phil's outing. You have to be pretty near perfect when your team only gives you 2 runs of support. One bad pitch spoiled what could have been a great outing. His pitching line is nothing to balk at. It's one of the better outings Phil's put up recently. It was good to see him bring his game. If only the offense brought theirs.

Game time tonight is 7:10pm. It's a pretty big game. A win puts the Yankees back up by 2. A loss and they'll be tied with the Rays. Javy Vazquez has been pitching pretty well over the last several months. He'll need to bring it tonight as the Rays are throwing out the most recent member of the no-hit club, Matt Garza. Go Javy go.

Almost forgot. The Yanks also made a deal yesterday with the Indians. They get Austin Kearns for the infamous PTBNL. Not blown away by the deal but then again not everybody they deal for needs to be a big named superstar. I really have no feelings about the deal. I have no problems with it. It'll probably end up costing them very little as I'm sure the PTBNL will be some minor-league chump. It's also nice having an extra veteran bat in the lineup. I guess I just talked myself into liking the acquisition. Still though, I shrug a little at it. Have to see how it plays out.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Yankees Close To Getting Adam Dunn? Maybe Berkman?

Just heard a rumor that the Yankees may be close to trading for Adam Dunn. After the cliff Lee deal fell through, I'll believe it when I see it.

Personally, I'd love to see Dunn in a Yankee uniform. Sure he Ks a lot but you can't deny that he's an OBP machine who hits for a lot of power. Being a lefty in Yankee Stadium wouldn't hurt either. Dunn is a career .251 hitter but has exceeded that significantly in the last 2 seasons. His career OBP is .382 and his career slugging is .523 (career OPS = .905). Dunn's bat would be a welcomed opinion to the Yankee lineup.

The other name I've heard floated around is the Astros' Lance Berkman. Umm, yes please. Berkman is another guy I'd like to see in a Yankee uniform. He's a lot like Dunn. A little older sure, but very similar offensively. He's probably better. Well, he's definitely better. He doesn't K as much as Dunn and hits for a better average (.296 career). His career OPS is higher than Dunn's @ .959. Sign me up.

I just checked MLBTradeRumors to get the latest scoop and it's all rumor at this point. Peter Gammons says that "The Rays are convinced that the Yankees will acquire Dunn." Joel Sherman (what a douche) says the "Yankees are taking a long hard look at Berkman," and "Berkman would accept a deal to the Yankees." Typical chatter for this time of year. I've learned my lesson with Cliff Lee. Until it's announced anything can happen.

I'm all for bringing in either of these guys, if of course as Drew Carey would say, if the price is right. The Yankees have scored the most runs in MLB and don't need these guys. They'd be nice to have but I wouldn't sell off top prospects for them. But that's me. I've said before that prospects are nothing more than that, prospects. I'd always prefer proven talent to prospects. Assuming there's a need for the proven talent that is. I wouldn't say there is at this point so I'm interested to see/hear who they're discussing. Assuming of course the Yankees are having discussions on these guys. I'm sure a lot of what we hear around the deadline is made up fodder designed to garner page hits. Not surprised if nothing is cooking.

Deadline is tomorrow at 4pm. We'll find out soon enough.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Yankees Finish Off The Indians With 11-4 Win, Bring On The Rays

I'd like to thank the Yankees for waiting until I turned the game on tonight to score all of their runs. Last night I missed it all. Tonight I saw it all. Scratch that. I did miss seeing them score their first run. But I did hear that on the radio while I was driving between houses. The 7th inning was a lot of fun to watch. I dig the longball but I like a hit parade a lot better.

Game ball goes to Dustin Moseley. He looked pretty good tonight. I'm nowhere near ready to anoint him the new 5th starter but it was definitely an outing that will earn him some consideration. I will say after seeing this one start I will take Moseley over Sergio Mitre any day of the week. I liked what I saw from him. More please.

Lots of offense tonight. The Yankees sent 12 different hitters to the plate and 10 of them picked up hits. The 2 that didn't were Mark Teixeira and Marcus Thames. I'll give Teixeira a pass because he walked 3 times. The team could have been a little more efficient though. You should score more than 12 runs when you have 12 hits and 12 walks. On the surface the #s with RISP tonight look pretty good. They were 7 for 21. But they started 0-9, maybe 0-10. Not a bad finish.

Nick Swisher should be embarrassed. Striking out against Andy Marte is inexcusable. It was also pretty funny. Marte looked pretty good. Gotta give him credit. Maybe the Yankees should swing a deadline deal for him. Kidding of course.

The A-Rod 600 watch will go on for at least another game. I couldn't help but crack up after every A-Rod AB. I loved when YES would cut to all of the fans pouring out of the left field landing after his AB. Not sure why I found that so funny but I did. I'd like to see Alex hit the HR just to get it over with. If not hitting the HR means 3 RBI, I'd much prefer that.

How ugly/funny was the end of the game? I was all set to write a blurb how the Yankees allowed 7 runs in the 4 game series. Then Joe Girardi and his managing got in the way. I don't really have a problem with the moves Girardi made. They did after all have a 10-run lead entering the 9th. If Joe learns anything from tonight's game I hope it's this: don't let Chan Ho Park pitch unless the Yankees have at least a 10-run lead. Dude is awful. You're up by 10 runs. Throw strikes! Second lesson to learn: don't ever let Marcus Thames play 3rd base again. Something tells me he never will. MT made a pretty sweet stop but totally butchered the throw. Funny stuff.

These last 2 games are a nice way to head to Tampa for a set with the Rays. The team is playing some good baseball. This series with Tampa Bay has the potential to be huge. Here's a chance to put a little distance between them in the standings. A sweep would be nice but is improbable. but hey, you never know. They've got all of the tools to do it. Hughes, Sabathia and Burnett will each get a turn and I like that trio. Hughes gets the ball in the opener and I'm looking for him to be the pace-setter. Again, not expecting a sweep, but 2 of 3 would be nice.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Burnett & Bats Lead Yankees To 8-0 Win Over Indians

It took the Yankees 3 innings tonight to equal their combined hit total from the 1st two games of the Indians series. The crappy part about that? I missed it all. Even with the rain delay. We're building a house and it's less than 2 weeks away from being done so the wife and I went to take a look at it. I got home, flipped the game on and it was pretty much already over as the Yankees were up 7-0. It was nice to see that the offense finally decided to show up this series, even though I missed it all. 8 runs on 13 hits. Yeah, that'll play. Here's some thoughts:

A.J. Burnett gets my game ball tonight. Really nice outing from him. He's now won 3 of his last 4 and seems to have gotten back on track for the most part. Over his last 5 starts he's 3-1, 27 IP, 24 H, 8 BB, 6 ER, 20 K, 2.00 ERA. If he keeps pitching like that everyone will forget about the little fib he told about falling and hurting his hand. If they haven't already that is. A.J. needs to step it up and keep this nice run going. His starts are a lot more important with Andy Pettitte on the DL.

Derek Jeter had a rough night at the dish. He went 0-5 and was the only Yankee without a hit. Jeet is definitely having a down year. When I think of Derek Jeter I don't think of a .274 hitter. Just when you think he's busted out of the slump he mixes in an oh-fer. To his credit he has done better recently, going 14-for-45 (.311) over his last 10 games. Hopefully the corner has been turned.

Mark Teixeira really puzzles me. I can't figure out how he can start so bad and then end up with MVP-like numbers. He entered the month of July hitting .231. His 2 hits tonight bumped his average up to .262. He's now hitting .377 this month with 7 HR and 24 RBI. That's a helluva month right there.

A-Rod is still stuck on 599 HRs. As long as he keeps knocking in runs he can stay at 599 for all I care. It's hard to believe that Alex has 82 RBI on the season. I hadn't check the leaderboard in awhile and was surprised to see he had the 2nd most RBI in all of MLB.

I thought it was absolutely hilarious that Girardi trucked Joba out there to pitch when the Yankees had an 8-run lead. If that doesn't send a message to Joba I don't know what will. It's evident that Girardi has no confidence in Joba right now and why should he? Why should anyone? He's been absolutely terrible. His ERA hasn't been below 4.75 since May 25th. God that's bad. It hasn't been below 4 since May 16th. I hope Joba has fun being the mop-up guy.

Sergio Mitre seems to be one-and-done as a Yankee SP. You won't hear me complaining about that.

Both the Rays and Red Sox won. It's going to be a dog fight the rest of the way. 3 days til the trade deadline. Not a lot of rumors floating around there. I'd like to see the Yanks shore up the bullpen and maybe a grab a decent bat. Nothing really seems to be in the works, but who knows? Things seem to manifest out of nowhere. I think the Yanks will do something. It wouldn't be the trade deadline if they didn't.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Brian Cashman, You Done Messed Up

As I sit here twiddling my thumbs because I'm missing tonight's game (thanks Verizon FiOS) a thought came to me: whatever happened to Nick Johnson? Surprise surprise surprise. He's injured. Didn't see that coming. A quick scan of his player card on Yahoo tells me that he's been out of action since May 7th. He's appeared in all of 24 games and is getting paid $5.75 million dollars for his troubles. It was a horrible signing when it happened. It's a horrible signing now. Just take a look at these 3 off-season signings and their 2010 stats (salary info from Cot's Baseball Contracts):

• Nick Johnson, signed on 12/18/09, 1 yr @ $5.75 million, 24 G, .167/.388/.306, 8 RBI
• Vlad Guerrero, signed on 1/11/10, 1 yr @ $6.5 million, 93 G, .309/.358/.521, 76 RBI
• Hideki Matsui, signed on 12/16/09, 1 yr @ $6 million, 94 G, .255/.333/.429, 55 RBI

At the time of the signing I wondered why Cashman didn't resign Hideki Matsui considering the money was pretty much the same. Nick Johnson may get on base a lot but what good does that do when you're always on the DL. If memory serves me correctly he had to leave the very first spring training game because he was hurt. I typically like Brian Cashman's moves but he totally missed the boat on this one. He done messed up and he messed up pretty good if you ask me.

The non-waiver trade deadline is less than 4 days away. The Yankees are reportedly in the market for improving their bench. I hope Cashman exercises better judgement here than he did with the Johnson signing. That signing after all is one of the main reasons the team finds themselves looking for bench help. That horrible signing could cost the team a prospect or two depending on what happens. We'll find out soon enough what, if anything, it'll end up costing them. Deadline is this Saturday. Fun fun fun.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Pitching Leads Yanks To 3-2 Victory Over Indians

I got to catch the last 3.2 innings of tonight's Yankees game. By the time I put the kids to bed the game was pretty much over. Who knew an MLB game could be 2/3 of the way done in 1.5 hours? I almost turned the game off within minutes of turning it on. I didn't even have it on 3 minutes before the Indians took a 2-1 lead. I'm a firm believer in jinxes and was thinking i might be causing some bad mojo. Since tomorrow night's game is on My9, which Verizon FiOS doesn't carry, I stuck with it. Thanks to Curtis Granderson for getting me off the hook.

Javy Vazquez is putting together a nice little season. He's been pretty good in his last 10 starts. JV is 6-2 in those starts with an ERA of 3.05. That's pretty darn good if you ask me. I never would have guessed that he would have bounced back as well as he has. Great outing tonight.

I'm not sure how you felt about the 8th inning but I was very happy not to see Joba Chamberlain in the game. He's way too unreliable and it's evident that the Yankees think so too. David Robertson came up big getting the DP. D-Rob hasn't exactly been awesome this season but he's on a nice roll. He hasn't allowed a run in his last 8 outings. He's got a pretty nice line in those games too: 8.1 IP, 5 H, 3 BB, 11 K. Pretty sweet. He's definitely the most reliable RP right now, outside of Mariano that is. Mo is just awesome, isn't he? I had no idea his ERA is as low as it is. His scoreless inning tonight dropped it to a microscopic 0.96. Wow. He's the greatest closer of all-time hands down. They should change the name of the "save" to the "mariano." I think I'm going to start a campaign for MLB to do that. Mo now has 21 marianos on the season. I like the sound of that.

Not much offense tonight but what they got came in a big way. Nick Swisher went deep for HR #18. That HR added another $38 to the Swish's Wishes pledge drive. We're up to $732 raised for Nick's charity. Want more info on what I'm talking about? Click here. The deathblow tonight came from Curtis Granderson. Curtis has found a little power stroke. 3 HRs in the last 2 games for CG. Hopefully that's a sign of more to come from the Grandyman. His overall numbers leave a lot to be desired.

A-Rod is still stuck on 599 HRs. I predict he'll hit #600 tomorrow. Namely because I won't be watching thanks to My9 and Verizon FiOS. Things like that always happen when I can't watch so I fully expect it to happen tomorrow night. If I'm lucky maybe ESPN or the MLB Network will have live cut-ins. I can only be so lucky. If they happen to then I'm sure the HR will come before I get the kids to bed. That's just how it goes.

Another no-no tonight. Unreal. Congrats to Matt Garza.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

This Is Harder Than I Thought

Getting back into blogging about the Yankees has been tough since I returned from my hiatus. First game back was on My9. Then a day game. As for the last few games? I missed those because I made my annual trek to Cooperstown for the HOF Induction festivities. Not much access to the games when I'm down there. I might catch a quick glimpse if I meander into a shop that has the game on but for the most part I hear/see very little. I did see Joba almost blow the one game (forget if it was Thursday or Friday). Joba blows.

C'town is always a good time though most people don't experience it quite like I do. I sleep very little and when I do sleep it's in the back of the family mini-van. Showers? Nope. Deodorant and toothpaste is about all I do. Meals are usually pizza and soda. I look at it like a camping trip of sorts.

I spend most of my time while I'm there loitering around trying to pick up some autographs, preferably for free. I'm an avid baseball memorabilia collector. I'm trying to get signed baseballs by every living HOFer. After this trip, I'm down to 6. Lee MacPhail, Tommy Lasorda, Whitey Herzog, Hank Aaron, Sandy Koufax, and Eddie Murray are the ones I'm missing. This year I added Bruce Sutter, Dave Winfield and Rickey Henderson to my collection. I paid for the 3 of those. I also paid to have Whitey Ford sign my Yankee Stadium seatback. All together I dropped about $320 on autos. I did pick up 1 free one and that was from George Brett. I've gotten him before but it was on the side-panel of the ball. This one was on the sweet spot. I could have gotten a few more but since I mainly do just baseballs, I don't get guys more than once. I really do need to find other things to get signed because I do turn a lot down. I'll help other people out though.

There a few things I have for certain people outside of a regular baseballs. I made some bad decisions on strategy and probably ended up costing myself free signatures by Goose Gossage, Reggie Jackson and Tim Raines. I won;t get into details but I moved myself from the right place to the wrong place thinking that the wrong place would become the right place. Lesson learned. Stay put. I'm starting though to go more for the paid signings than fighting the memorabilia dealers for the free ones. They're very cutthroat and love to push and shove and lean over people to try to get stuff signed. Eddie Murray is now the only guy I don't have who goes to C'town yearly who does a paid signing. Unless I think of other things to bring for autos I may bot be doing this much longer. Ah, who am I kidding? I think it's fun even though I take it to extremes. What's 3 days, right? Next year will be tough anyway. I'll be leaving the wife and 3 kids behind. I have an awesome wife who lets me take these trips even though it's an inconvenience to her. Next year might be a little more hard on her with 3 kids 3 and under.

The trip was cut short this year as I had to be back for my niece's baptism. I usually leave around 11am on Sunday (after the HOFers golf). This year I left on Saturday at about 2pm. I missed the Saturday night event which usually yields a lot of free autos.

All things considered it's a pretty fun time. It may not sound like it the way I do it but I wouldn't change anything. I find it to be fun. Maybe I'm weird like that? Who knows?

I should be able to catch tomorrow night's game against the Indians. Knock on wood.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

The Baseball Gods Are Against Me Dude

How am I supposed to get back into blogging when I can't ever watch the games. Last night's game was on My9 - not carried by my cable provider. Today's game was an afternoon one - totally didn't realize it until the top of the 9th. A 10-2 loss and a 10-6 win.

Quick observations based on checking out the box scores:

1. Hard to believe Nick Swisher has 2nd highest BA on team @ .302
2. Hard to believe Mark Teixeira is now hitting .256
3. Joba doesn't rule, he sucks.
4. The Yankee bullpen needs a lot of work

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Yankees Win And Lose All At The Same Time

I joined today's Yankees/Ray game already in progress. I turned the game on when the score was tied at 3 and it was the top of the 5th. Not bad I'm thinking and then I hear Michael Kay say that Chan Ho Park is the game and Pettitte left with a groin injury. Ooh, that ain't good. I watched a little bit, nodded off, woke up, nodded off, woke up, and so on. The wife later woke me up and the game was headed to the top of the 9th with the Yanks up 9-4. 3 outs and 1 run later, ball game over. Yankees win. Thuhhh Yankees win.

But in the end they lost. Andy Pettitte was diagnosed with a grade 1 strain of the groin and will be out for 4-5 weeks. Andy was well on his way to having his best season ever as a Yankee. He was sitting on an 11-2 record and a 2.70 ERA. It's a huge loss to lose a guy like Andy Pettitte for 4-5 weeks, especially this late in the season in such a tight division race. He's not going to be easy to replace. But they're going to try with Sergio Mitre. Yeah, I don't like how that sounds. I have a feeling this is going to turn into what seems like a yearly thing when a carousel of subpar guys taking turns as the team's 5th SP. Sidney Ponson anyone?

It should be interesting to see what progresses over the next few weeks. I wonder if Cashman is going to roll with Mitre or look on the trade market for somebody. Ah, if only they landed Cliff Lee. If I had to put money on it, I'd say Cashman will stand pat with what the team has. There are bigger issues if you ask me and the biggest is the bullpen. But that's for another post.

Considering Pettitte's injury, it turns out that A.J. Burnett is pretty damn lucky he didn't seriously hurt himself yesterday. Imagine losing Pettitte and Burnett in back-to-back games. Even with A.J. regularly stinking up the place that would have been hard to bounce back from. I wasn't surprised that the Yankees didn't say much about A.J.'s injury and attempted cover up. It's a private team matter and I kind of knew it wouldn't leave the clubhouse. I'm half-expecting Joel Sherman to drop an anonymous quote on us at some point b/c he's a d-bag like that. Anyway, A.J. is lucky his stupidity didn't turn out to be worse.

As for the game today, again slept through most of it. I caught bits and pieces but not enough to make mention of. The Pettitte injury withstanding, I absolutely love the outcome. It's nice when you beat the team that's 2 games behind you. It's nice when you beat one of the best pitchers in the game. It's nice when the Red Sox also lose.

I'll have to rub that in my kids nose.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Getting Your Heart Broken In 41 Seconds

Earlier today I had a conversation with my soon-to-be 3 year old soon that resulted in my writing this tweet: My heart is breaking. My soon 2 b 3 year old is telling me he doesn't like the #Yankees. Says he likes the Red Sox. It's my worst nightmare.

Here's a brief 41 second conversation he and I had about it.

He doesn't know anything about baseball so I'm sure he'll wise up over time and realize the error of his ways. Regardless, it still stings to hear him say it. I've been trying to bribe him all day into denouncing his new found fandom but it hasn't worked yet.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Inanimate Objects Will Always Win In A Fight

When are guys going to learn that taking your frustration out on inanimate objects is not a good idea? A.J. Burnett apparently took his frustration out today on some clubhouse doors, cutting his palms in the process. What a stupid MF. To make matters worse Burnett lied to everyone about it, stating he fell. Yeah, that's believable. I always thought of Burnett as a stand up guy. Knowing that he lied about it to the team kind of knocks him down a few pegs in my book. Not many pegs but just a few. We all lie about things from time to time. I can't say I wouldn't have done the same.

I only got to see the first 2 innings of the game. We took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner and that took me away from the game for about 6 innings. When I got home I went online to the check out the in-game box score and noticed that Burnett only pitched 2 innings. I knew he must have sustained some kind of injury and found out by checking the Lohud blog that he had cuts on his hand. I didn't think much of it at the time. I caught the tail end of the YES post game show where they were talking about it, but I missed 99.9% of the story so I wasn't sure what was up or what was going on. Kim Jones made mention that the clubhouse was empty so nobody was around to walk about and to stay tuned for tomorrow's pre-game show. I remember thinking something big must have happened.

According to the story over at the Lohud Yankees Blog, Burnett lied about how he got the cuts because he was "embarrassed." Burnett was quoted as saying, “I was embarrassed of the situation. I didn’t want that to be a reason why I came out of the game. I’m an honest person and I’m not going to lie to cover up something. That’s the reason, that’s the truth and I’m definitely not going to lie to this organization and these 25 guys in here who I play with everyday.”

I'll give A.J. some credit for eventually coming clean, but if you're an honest person who's not going to lie and cover something up, why would you lie and cover something up? And if you'll do it once, I'm a firm believer you'll do it again. Trust is a pretty important thing and Burnett's got a lot of work to do to regain that with the team and its fans. Same goes with respect. He's definitely lost some of that.

I can respect being passionate and getting fired up enough to the point where you need to beat something up. Who hasn't punched or kicked something that couldn't fight back? I once beat up an oscillating fan and another time I put a huge dent in my refrigerator door. It felt good for about 1/2 a second and then the pain, cuts, and/or swelling kicked in. I can understand doing that. But I'm not a professional athlete that gets paid millions of dollars and needs his hands to do his job. It was a pretty stupid thing to do. A.J. is lucky that the damage to his hands wasn't worse. The Yankees don't need another Kevin Brown.

In the end I think this is going to be more of a non-story than anything else. I think the team will give him a pass. He'll probably get a lot of flack for it but as long as he doesn't pull these kind of shenanigans again all will be good. But again, he's got a lot of work to do to regain the trust and respect of his teammates and the fans.

What's the best thing A.J. can do to make everyone forget about it? Simple. Pitch better. Burnett is now 7-8 with a 4.99 ERA. He's 1-6 in his last 8 starts, allowing 35 earned runs in 38.2 IP. If A.J. can run off a decent string of games we'll all forget about this. I hope he can make it happen.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

It Figures

I kind of thought this was going to happen. The first night I plan to dive back into the Yankees and the game is on My9, which means no Yankee baseball for me. Verizon FIOS here in Buffalo doesn't carry the games when they're on My9. Not 100% sure why the feed isn't picked up on any of the channels like it is on Time Warner and Direct TV, but it isn't. I'm sure I can find it online somewhere but I've tried that before and it's tough to do.

I did get a chance to see the pre-game ceremony on YES. Nicely done Yanks. The Boss would have been proud. George is surely going to be missed.

Tomorrow is Old Timer's Day. No chance I'm missing that.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

We Now Return You To Your Regularly Scheduled Programming

Greetings friends and fellow Yankees fans. Long time no talk. I hope you've all been well. I've been doing much better. Life is still crazy, and is about to get crazier, but I'm managing. The reason it's getting crazier is because in a few short weeks, the wife and I will be having our 3rd child (it's a girl) and we'll also be moving into our new home (building new). Both are scheduled to "arrive" within a day of each other. Tack onto that a 3-year old and a 16-month old and you've got sheer pandemonium. I love it.

I must apologize for the extended absence. I really needed the downtime. I did a little blog maintenance here and there. Namely I updated the Swish's Wishes donation total. See upper left. The pledge drive is up to $618. For those new to the site or if you just plum forgot, a couple of us Yankee fans got together and are donating money to Nick Swisher's charity. In a nutshell, for every HR Swisher hits, we're donating $38 to his charity, Swish's Wishes. Want more info? Click here and you'll find it. If you're interested in donating along with us you're more than welcome.

The other big thing I've been doing, and this has been a giant pain in the rump, is I've been deleting all of the spam comments being left by our "friends" in the Far East. It go so bad I had to pseudo-moderate the comments. Any comments left on posts older than 7 days get moderated. I may have to shorten that now that I'm going to be more active. Message to you a-holes: don't waste your time posting spam links in the comments. They'll be deleted pretty quickly. Take that shizzle somewhere else.

I've got a lot of catching up to do as it relates to the Yankees. I've been paying attention but not as closely as I'd like to be. I did post a few blogs recently. I talked about the busted Cliff Lee trade and about the untimely passing of the great George Steinbrenner. Man that still kind of stings. The Boss will certainly be missed. As will Bob Sheppard. RIP.

I'm going to rush through the rest of the catching-up and start fresh tomorrow. Here goes:

• The team is 56-32 and has the best record in all of baseball. They're 8-2 over their last 10, 2 games up on the Rays and 5.5 up on the Red Sox. Not a bad way to come out of the All-star break.
• The starting rotation has for the most part been outstanding this season. They're the biggest reason they're doing so well in my opinion. Hughes, Pettitte and Sabathia could all possibly win 20 games. How nutty would that be? All 3 have exceeded my expectations, especially Phil Hughes. Err, I mean Huuuuuuuuuuughes! Why did I use the letter U 11 times, you ask? He gets 1 U for every W. 11 wins equals 11 Us. I did the same thing for Mike Mussina when he won 20. I've always been a big Hughes guy and figured I'd carry on the tradition. It's insane how good that trio of pitchers has been this year. I'll expand more on them I'm sure as they make their next starts.
• Javy Vazquez is hitting his stride. Finally!
• Robinson Cano (my pre-season MVP pick) has cooled down a little but still kicking some ass.
• Mark Teixeira is finally coming around. His streak happened to start right after I traded him in a computer baseball league I'm in. You're welcome.
• A-Rod may not be hitting it out of the park at his normal rate but he;s driving people in. He'll still finish with 30 HR.
• Nick Swisher is not the rally killer he used to be.
• Joba Chamberlain sucks.
• Mariano Rivera is super-human. He has to be, right?
• The rest of the bullpen needs work and upgrading it should be the main focus at the trade deadline.

And there you have it. It's not as in-depth and as detailed as I'd like it to be, but at least it's something. The plan is to ramp up the blog again. I'm going to do my best to post daily but I make no promises. I may miss something here or there but there definitely won't be any long layoffs. At least that's not the plan. When baby #3 shows up I may be singing a different tune. What did I get myself into?

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

RIP George Steinbrenner

Wow. What an insane couple of days! First Bob Sheppard. Now George Steinbrenner. I hope that things don't come in threes because I don't think we could handle another loss. Somebody make sure Yogi and Whitey are on lockdown for the next few days.

Wow. I'm still in shock. I always thought of "The Boss" as immortal. Even in his weakened condition I always thought he'd be around. As soon as the news broke I got a flurry of texts about it. A lot of people know I'm a huge Yankee fan so they were checking in. One of my fellow co-workers was surprised I didn't leave work to grieve.

George definitely revolutionized the game when he took over the Yankees. He was a great owner and fans of other teams would be stupid not to want an owner like George. He went balls out trying to win year in and year out. He didn't care if the team lost money. Winning was everything. You have to give him props for that. It was nice too that he went out on top, as a World Champion.

God bless ya George. Even though you're no longer here your presence will live on. Rest in peace.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

I Love This Time Of Year

So now it sounds like the earlier reports/rumors of the Yankees landing Cliff Lee were a little premature. Par for the course at this time of year. Deals are always "imminent" and "on the verge" of being done. The word on the street now is that the deal is pretty much dead and other teams are back in on Lee. You have to love the trade deadline and the hot stove. How can you not?

The lesson to learn here is to wait for the official announcement. Until that comes anything is possible. Even the Yankees pulling off this deal. You just never know.

Fingers are crossed it somehow happens.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Yanks On Verge Of Landing Lee

I was planning on making my triumphant return to the world of blogging after the All-Star Break (more on that later) but I have to jump the gun on this. According to MLBTradeRumors, the Yankees are on the verge of acquiring Cliff Lee. Can you say "twenty-eight"? Wow.

The rumored deal has the Yankees sending prized catching prospect Jesus Montero to the Mariners along with minor league 2B, David Adams. Make that deal now.

Montero may turn out to be a beast but right now he's just a prospect. Plenty of sure things have become busts. And with Robbie Cano in the fold, there's no need for Adams. Make this happen.

Landing Lee would likely mean Javier Vazquez would be dealt. That deal would bring back cash and/or prospects. That would make dealing prospects for Lee a little easier to swallow.

Landing Lee would also set the Yankees up nicely to resign him and have an absolutely insane rotation next year. Hughes, CC, Burnett, Lee, and possibly Pettitte. We could be on the verge of another dynasty. And if Lee happens to sign elsewhere, no biggie. The Yanks would probably pick up 2 first round draft picks if he does. That should bring back some decent talent.

How is this not a no-lose situation? Shake hands and sign the deal already.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie