I'm Baaaaack (Sort Of)

Well hello there. Long time no blog. As promised, via Twitter, I'm back. I hope you guys have been well. I'm well. Can't complain. Just wish there were more hours in the day. Oh my Mariano it's been awhile, hasn't it? Just checked and it looks like my last blog entry was in mid-May. May 16th to be exact. The Yankees had just lost their 6th straight game, were sitting on a 20-18 record, 2 games behind Tampa in the AL East. Here's what I blogged:

Not much is going the Yankees way right now. Not much at all. Nobody is hitting. The pitching is suspect. It's not a good time to be a fan of the Yankees. I'm not worried though. well, I'm a little worried but not much. Every team has these funks. If you remember, the Yankees lost 5 straight back in 2009 and went on to win the World Series. There is a lot of baseball left to play. There's plenty of time for these guys to right the ship.

Fast forward now almost 5 months. The Yankees just ended a 6 game win streak. They are 87-54 and 2 games up on the 1927 Yankees, err I mean, the Red Sox in the AL East and they have a 9.5 game lead in the wild card race if they were to fall behind Boston. They lead the league in runs scored and have the 3rd best team ERA in the AL (9th in MLB). Looks like the ship has been righted. It's a good time to be a Yankees fan.

Sorry I've been away so long. It became increasingly tough to find time to blog with 3 kids at home, all under the age of 4. I could barely find time to watch the Yankees play. My wife is a teacher and when school ended our kids stayed up later, usually until around 8:30, sometimes even later. By the time we got them to bed and I did what I needed to do (shower, etc), the games were usually in the late innings. I felt extremely disconnected from the Yankees Universe. When I had the time, I usually took to Twitter for talking about the Yankees. I stayed up on things as much as I could but they didn't get as much attention from me as i wanted to give.

Now that school has started up again the kids are getting back to their 7:30 bedtimes which should allow me to catch most of the game. I'm hoping that everything else in my life cooperates and I'll be able to fire off posts with somewhat regularity. It may not be daily. There may be a day or two that goes without a post. But you definitely won't see another 5 month hiatus. At least that's the plan.

Before I get back into talking about the Yankees I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who's ever frequented the blog and/or interacted with me on Twitter. You guys make being a Yankees fan more fun than it already is. Thanks for that. Special shout out to a few people: Susan, Sara, Lorenzo and Timmy. I appreciate the support and the conversation. There are definitely more people to say thanks to and more people to appreciate. I don't mean to offend by leaving names off. Those 4 just immediately popped into mind. If you feel slighted by being not being named personally, please don't. I didn't intend to offend.

I'll close this return with some Yankee thoughts:

• I owe Curtis Granderson a lot of money. I pledged to give his charity $15 for every of his HRs. He currently has 38. Yeah, I didn't see that coming either. I'm currently in for a $570 donation with 22 games to play. When I was deciding how much to pledge I was thinking he'd hit maybe 25 HRs. Definitely wasn't expecting 40+. CG has to be the current favorite to win the AL MVP. He currently leads the league in RBI, he's 2nd in HR, and what I find most impressive is he's leading the league in runs with 126, which is 26 more runs than the 2nd most (Ellsbury w/100). I'll be shocked if he doesn't win that award. Props to CG and K-Long for turning things around.


• Do people still think Brian Cashman is an idiot? Almost every move he's made this year has panned out: Russell Martin, Freddy Garcia, Bartolo Colon, Cory Wade, Eric Chavez and Andruw Jones have all made significant contributions to the team. Low risk, really high reward. Step off his frankfurter if you're still hating.


• Derek Jeter has had quite the season. It looked like 2011 was going to be a repeat of 2010. The he got hurt and he came back a new man. I don't think anyone saw DJ getting his average up to the 300 neighborhood.


• Welcome to NY Jesus Montero. You haven't disappointed. I'm looking forward to great things during your tenure in Pinstripes.


• Poor Jorge Posada. The only thing he has to blame for his fall is his abysmal performance. It's evident to me that this is his last year in Pinstripes.


• Move over Trevor. 4 more saves and Mariano is officially the king of the hill. He's the G.O.A.T. With any luck I'll get to see him break that record in person when the Yankees are in Toronto. I won't complain if he breaks it sooner. Saves mean wins. I'll take those.


• A.J. Burnett is (mostly) terrible.


• Ivan Nova is not terrible. Can you say Rookie of the Year?


• CC is still the man.


• I did not think David Robertson would pitch as well as he has. Dude truly is Houdini. He does need to cut down on the walks.


• LOL @ the Boston Red Sox. Better than the 1927 Yankees? How dumb does that guy look now?

I'm sure there's more to say but that's enough for now. We're in the home stretch and as I wrote above it's a good time to be a Yankees fan. Enjoy the last 3 or so weeks. October baseball will be here before we know it.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Well That Just Sucked

Tonight's Yankee game was the first one I got to see from start to finish in a long time. And just my luck, it was a stinker. A.J. Burnett was again beyond brutal. A.J.'s inconsistency is really puzzling. He'll go on a roll and then make a total 180. Just look at his ERA for example. It was 3.28 after his start on 5/30. It went up after each of his next 5 starts and was at 5.25 on 6/26. It went down to 4.52, then up to 4.93, then down to 4.66, and it now sits at 5.17. His record on the year now sits at 9-12. He needs to straighten things out. The ups and downs need to stop. It's obvious that A.J. knows how to pitch. He has pretty damn good stuff. Someone needs to figure out how to harness it.

I'm hoping as the calendar turns from August to September, A.J.'s fortunes change with it. A.J. made 5 starts in August and the Yankees lost all 5 of those games. To be fair to A.J. he did pitch fairly well in 2 of those games but the bottom line is that he lost 4 of the 5 starts. The same thing happened last season. He went 0-4 in 6 August starts last year. This can't happen. His performance tonight is unacceptable. Just think, he's signed for another 3 years.

It was just an ugly game. Very sloppy. Francisco Cervelli is quickly playing his way out of everyone's good graces. His average is down to .240. He's made 10 errors. Tonight he was on the receiving end of 3 wild pitches. He's got to be better but it's becoming evident that he's not a major league catcher. I can totally see his playing time decrease significantly once the rosters expand. Jesus Montero anyone?

Only positive from tonight was Nick Swisher hitting his 23rd HR. It kind of made up for the God-awful throw to the plate. anyway, the HR adds more money to Swish's Wishes charity fundraiser. That puts the total up to $922. It's not too late to donate if anyone is interested. Basically what's happening is a bunch of us are pledging to donate money to his charity. Every time he goes deep, it's $ in his charity's pocket. Right now every Swisher HR earns his charity $38. Want more info? Click here.

While I was tweeting tonight I noticed some Yankees fans pulling for the Red Sox to beat the Rays. I'm rooting for the opposite. I'd rather have more distance between the Yankees and the team 2nd in the wild card standings than I would the Yankees and the Rays for the division. All I care about is that the Yankees get a ticket to the show. It doesn't matter to me if it's as the division winner or as the wild card. You can't win it all if you're not playing in October. While winning the division is the goal, I'll be happy if they end up finishing 2nd to Tampa Bay. Red Sox losses equal one step closer to getting their ticket to the postseason punched.

CC, aka the Big Man, goes tomorrow. He's on fire. Pay attention Burnett. He'll show you how it's done.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie