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