&#?#!

#FireJoeGirardi

Is It Time To Fire Kevin Long?

Greetings and salutations everyone. How’ve you been? I hope you’ve all been well. Things are pretty good with me. The family is well. The kids are getting big. The wife and I are expecting our 4th right around Halloween. We’re not finding out what we’re having but if it’s a boy and born on Halloween, I want him to have the first name Michael, middle name Myers. The wife has already put the squash on that dream. What’s up with that? Women.

Wow, it’s been a while since I last posted. It looks like my last post was in October of 2012. As I’m sure you can imagine a person with 3 kids (ages 3, 5, and 6) doesn’t have a ton of free time. But after the Yankees lost last night to the A’s I felt compelled to temporarily come out of retirement and fire off a blog post about Kevin Long’s ability, or possibly inability, to serve as the Yankees’ hitting coach. It’s been painfully apparent for years that the Yankees offense has been underperforming. They always seem to fail when it comes to hitting with runners in scoring position. They never seem to fare well when facing a pitcher they’ve never seen before. Those are my perceptions and I know many of you share those perceptions as well. Perception, as they say, is reality. It may not necessarily be true but that’s how it looks.

Now I’m not sure how much of these “failures” are the result of Kevin Long’s coaching. I was up until about 1:30am last night looking at the Yankees’ batting stats at a team level (You guys better appreciate this!! Insert smiley face emoticon here) I looked at totals for the 7+ seasons that Long has been the hitting coach (he was hired in 2007) and compared them to the team totals from 1996-2006 (I stopped at the strike). I know it’s not a direct apples to apples comparison as some factors change. Players come and go. Old Yankee Stadium vs. new Yankee Stadium. You get my drift. But Long has been a constant over the last 7+ years so there may be some merit in the numbers. I’m not going to pretend to be an advanced stats nerd either. I know a little about sabremetircs but not enough to know what I’m looking at. I also don’t have the time for that research. As that lady from the video says, “Ain’t nobody got time for that.” I looked at the basic stats. The newspaper stats if you will. It still paints a picture. And it’s not a picture I’m very fond of.

Team batting average under Long: .268
Team batting average from 1996-2006: .278

Team on base percentage under Long: .343
Team on base percentage from 1996-2006: .357

Team slugging percentage under Long: .438
Team slugging percentage from 1996-2006: .450

Team OPS under Long: .781
Team OPS from 1996-2006: .807

Seeing a trend here?

Average hits per season under Long: 828
Team average hits per season from 1996-2006: 890

Average doubles per season under Long: 286
Team doubles hits per season from 1996-2006: 298

Average triples per season under Long: 25
Team triples hits per season from 1996-2006: 22

Average HRs per season under Long: 202
Team average HRs per season from 1996-2006: 206

Average runs scored per season under Long: 828
Team average runs scored per season from 1996-2006: 890

Average walks per season under Long: 588
Team average walks per season from 1996-2006: 646

Average strikeouts per season under Long: 1101
Team average strikeouts per season from 1996-2006: 1013

Average sac flies per season under Long: 45
Team average sac flies per season from 1996-2006: 51

So the only statistic that works out in favor of the “Long Yankees” is triples (3 more per season on average under Long). I find that interesting. And again, let me restate, that I know it’s not an apples to apples comparison. But there is something there, right? Pretty much every basic offensive statistic is down under Long’s tenure as hitting coach.

We have to put some of this blame on Brian Cashman as he’s the man bringing the players to Long. It’s obvious something isn’t working. Things need to change. If only The Boss were around to make that happen. The Steinbrenner boys are soft compared to the old man. That needs to change.

I hope you guys enjoyed my return to blogging. I’ll try to do it more often but I make no promises. Until next time. Take care.

Peace, love and Pinstripes

J-Boogie

PS: if you want you can follow me on Twitter at @jboogiedown. I tweet regularly and it’s usually about the Yankees.

Why People Need To Shut Up About A-Rod & Why He Needs To Be A Yankee

Hey hey. Unfortunately, my return to blogging isn't to celebrate the Yankees 28th World Series championship.  The 2012 postseason was rather depressing and I'm not even going to get into that.  I'm here for one specific reason and one specific reason only.  That reason is to try and shut people up about getting rid of Alex Rodriguez.  If you're a level headed person and able to look past any distaste you may have for Alex I hope you'll see my points. But I'm a realist.  I've been listening to some of the sports talk.  There are a lot of Yankees fans who are way off base and borderline insane when it comes to baseball.  I understand and appreciate the passion but some of you guys are downright idiotic with what you say.  Example: someone suggested the Yankees get Jeff Francouer. That made me laugh and left me speechless.  But anyway, back to the reason why I'm here.....

There's really only one reason why the Yankees need to keep A-Rod around and quite frankly it's because he makes the team better.  Let's take a look at some numbers, shall we? 

I'm going to break this down and keep it simple and I need you to keep in mind that A-Rod went on the disabled list back in July and missed a stretch of 36 games, spanning from 7/25-9/3.  Now, I didn't comb through the schedule to pull these #s.  I pulled up the standings as of such-and-such a date.  It's possible I may be off by 1 here and there.  It's not enough to dispel what I'm trying to prove.

• Yankees W-L record after 7/24 game vs Seattle: 58-39 (.598) and had a 7 game lead.
• Yankees W-L record from 7/25-9/2: 18-18 (.500), lead dropped to 2
• Yankees W-L record from 9/3- end of season: 19-10 (.655) and finished 2 gamed ahead of Baltimore.
• Yankees W-L record w/A-Rod: 77-49 (.611)
• Yankees W-L record w/o A-Rod: 18-18 (.500)

You can't really dispute that the team played better with Alex on the team.  Had he not returned when he did maybe the Yankees don't make the playoffs.  Who knows?  I do know one thing and that's that Alex makes the lineup better.  Take Robinson Cano for example:

• Cano's splits after 7/24 game (last game w/A-Rod): .317 avg, .376 OBP, .571 SLG, .947 OPS
• Cano's splits after 9/2 (last game without A-Rod): .303 avg, .366 OBP, .544 SLG, .910 OPS
• Cano's final season splits: .313 avg, .379 OBP, .550 SLG, .929 OPS
• Cano's average from 7/25-9/2 (while A-Rod was on DL): .263 (35 for 133)
• Cano's average from 9/3 thru end of season (when A-Rod was back): .353 (41 for 116)

I'm not going to go through and pull Robbie's splits from 7/25-9/2. I don't need to.  You can easily see the numbers dropped and they dropped quite a bit.  You can also see that after A-Rod came back his numbers climbed pretty sharply. If you think that had nothing to do with Alex being in the lineup you're kidding yourself.

I'm not going to get in to any more.  It's enough for me to see that Alex provides a ton of value to the Yankees and they're not going to be better without him.  If you think they will be you're nuts. 

Last night I fired off a few tweets about Alex.  I'm going to close with those as I think they sum up my feelings nicely:

If this was A-Rod's last game as Yankee, just want to say thanks to the guy. Without him there's no title in 09 & Yanks don't do as well. A-Rod got a raw deal in NY from media & fans. He could do no right. At times he carried team. They don't win close to what they did w/o him. A-Rod made lineup better and having him on team gave them best chance to win. Lots of goats on the team. Unfair he's only one scapegoat. I think Alex still has a lot of value. I hope the marriage isn't done. He may not be worth the $ but few would be. Not his fault. A-Rod isn't perfect & may be a douche at times. But he's a Yankee. A true Yankee that deserves the Pinstripes. You don't hate your own.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

 

Baseball And Poker

Hello friends. I hope you all are well. As I watched the end of the Yankee game the other night (the extra inning loss), I began to think about similarities between baseball and poker. Flashback to the top of the 9th inning: Yankees up by 2. 1 man on, 2 outs, 2 strikes, Rajai Davis up and Rafael Soriano pitching. Davis singles through the infield bringing Colby Rasmus, the go-ahead run, to the plate. 2 pitches later and the Yankees, instead of winning, find themselves with their backs against the wall, needing a run to tie and 2 to win.

If you know poker, specifically no-limit hold-em, you probably can see how the two games are similar. Imagine these two teams are the final two at the table. The Yankees have a commanding chip lead and the Jays need a miracle to win the big purse. The Jays, needing some runs, are forced to go all-in. The cards are dealt and here comes the flop. We have a strike-out, a single, and a pop-out. The Yankees are sitting pretty and are currently 90% favorite to win the hand. Here comes 4th street. It's a 2-out single. Still, the odds are heavily in the Yankees favor to win it all. The Jays need a miracle to stay alive.

Here comes the river. The Jays pull the one and only card that will help them stay alive. It's a 3-run homer. The Jays are overjoyed and now the chip leader. The Yankees are stunned and now have their backs against the wall. In baseball, like in poker, your fortune can be gone in a blink of an eye. The Yankees try to put the odds in their favor with Girardi's binder. In poker, Pokerlistings.com is the poker equivalent of Joe's book. It's the world's largest online poker guide with the best bonus offers guaranteed and exclusive free tournaments for new players

As you all remember the Yankees, thanks to that Jeter kid, did come back to pull even with the Jays. Only to eventually have their luck run out a few hands later. See what I mean? Baseball and poker, as games, share a lot of similarities. Both are fun games for sure. Baseball though, will always be #1

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Why Can't You Be More Like Him?

Hey hey hey. Long time, no blog. Hopefully, those of you that have been here before and are now back for some more, are doing well and that life has been good to you. Life has been good to me. I can't complain about much. The only thing I wish I had more time for was the Yankees. Back in the day when the blog first started, which was 5-6 years ago, I was married without children. Now, I have 3 kids, age range from 4-1. They can be a handful and it's tough to take what free time I have away from them and devote it to the Yankees and this blog. When I last posted, I had no idea if I'd ever blog again. I figured I would if I had something to write about. Today is that day.

Hey Mark Teixeira! What's up with all the freaking infield pop ups? To quote the late great Phil Rizzuto, holy cow. It seems like every few ABs Teix is popping out. It's so bad that it's a running bit on Twitter. Time for a commercial (shameless plug): you can follow me on Twitter @jboogiedown. I am much more active there with the Yankees talk than I am here. Back to your regularly scheduled programming:

I decided to see if I could find out anything about how often Teix pops up and lo and behold there's a stat for that. It's called the Infield Fly Ball Rate, or IFFB%. A quick visit to Fangraphs and I have the info that I'm looking for. Here's a brief snapshot of Teix's IFFB% over the last few years:

• Career IFFB% = 10.8%


• 2011 IFFB% = 11.8%


• 2010 IFFB% = 13.6%

I tried, albeit not hard, to find out what the MLB average is for IFFB%. I didn't find it. I did though find a leaderboard on Fangraphs. Out of 145 people, Teix had the 43rd highest IFFB%. Not sure where the rest of the player pool is, I'm guessing it's just those who qualified for the batting title, but whatever. It's not really needed for where I'm going with this.

For those interested, the list includes 6 Yankees:

• Brett Gardner = 19.60%


• Mark Teixeira = 11.80%


• Robinson Cano = 9.10%


• Nick Swisher = 7.5%


• Curtis Granderson = 7%


• Derek Jeter = 2.30%

So here's where I'm going with this: Teixeira (and Brett Gardner) need to get with Kevin Long and review some tape. They need to study how Joey Votto goes about his ABs. I heard during some game last year about how Votto never pops up. Check out these #s:

• Votto Career IFFB% = 1.6%


• Votto 2011 = .6% (1 infield fly ball)


• Votto 2010 = 0% (yes, that's zero infield fly ball)


• Total career infield fly balls (since 2007) = 10

To again quote the Scooter, holy cow. Joey Votto has hit a total of 10 infield fly balls since becoming a big leaguer in 2007. Teixeira has a career total of 187, and 106 since 2007. To quote the hip-hop legends Cypress Hill, that's insane in the membrane. Insane in the brain.

So as the title of this blog post reads, why can't you be more like him? Enough with the pop ups already.

And I'm out. Mic drop.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

The End Of The Road

Well, Yankees fans. Here we are again. The curtain has dropped on another season and unfortunately things didn't end up going our way. Mission 28 will have to wait another year.

As I was getting condolences today from friends and family members on the loss, I tried to explain that it actually wasn't that bad. Sure the loss hurts but it's a manageable pain. I think it's easy for me to get past the pain of the season ending because we've been here so many times before and we've been fortunate enough to walk away on top. I think winning has made the sting of losing easier to deal with, if that makes sense. Either way, it still sucks. I definitely wasn't ready for the season to end last night.

I spent much of last night and today digesting the loss. I read through a ton of Twitter comments and listened to a good amount of sports talk radio. I've come to a conclusion: There are a great deal of smart Yankees fans out there but Good Lord there are a lot of dumb ones. I have to wonder if I'm watching the same games as everyone else.

For starters, I saw and heard a lot of blame being thrown on Joe Girardi for over-managing last night, specifically with the use of the pitching staff. That couldn't be further from the truth. Let's take a look at his moves. Ivan Nova gets hurt and gets replaced by Phil Hughes. Logical move in my opinion. The team needed to eat some innings and who better to use than a starter turned reliever to do that. Hughes following Nova was the right call. Girardi lifted Hughes after throwing 21 pitches. That made sense to me as Hughes had only pitched a total of 3.2 innings since September 12th. Phil wasn't stretched out to throw much more. Boone Logan came in to face the lefty and lasted for 2 hitters, which is about what he normally does. I think here is where it got interesting. In came CC.

Using CC in that spot made perfect sense. Continuing with Logan made no sense and in an elimination game you want your best pitchers pitching, right? Other than Mariano Rivera, who's better than CC? Nobody. I understand the confusion because he was pitching on 2 days rest. I think a lot of people didn't get or didn't know that starting pitchers normally throw a bullpen session at this point during their rest. The bullpen sessions, as I understand them, usually lasts for about 40 pitches. It makes perfect sense to have CC get the preparation for his next start in during the game rather than before it, like the Tigers did with Verlander. CC's outing lasted 37 pitches by the way. He wasn't overused. I think many people also thought that since he pitched in game 5 of the ALDS he couldn't pitch in game 1 of the ALCS. I'm pretty sure had the Yankees won last night that we'd have seen CC start game 1. Like I said, it's not uncommon for a SP to throw 40 or so pitches at that point during his rest. It's actually the opposite. It's part of the prep work. What surprised me the most is that there were a lot of people that are supposed to be "in the know" (beat writers, Ken Rosenthal) who were pointing out that the move to CC would prevent him from starting. CC pitching in relief last night was the right call. Who else did you want to pitch there? I'll take CC all day.

There was no reason whatsoever to blame Girardi's management of the pitching staff for last night's loss. That's just dumb. The pitching staff had absolutely nothing to do with losing last night. That blame lies strictly with the offense. I can kind of blame Girardi for that.

Girardi should have recognized that certain people in the lineup were struggling and he should have done something about it. The 4-5-6 hitters in the Yankees lineup (A-Rod, Teixeira, and Swisher) were absolutely brutal. Beyond brutal even. That trio combined to go 9-for-55 (.164). You can't expect to win when you get that from your 4-5-6 hitters. Girardi should have recognized the struggles and made an adjustment. Personally, I would have moved Teixeira to the 3rd spot, Cano to the 4th, A-Rod to the 5th, Posada to the 6th, and Swisher to the 7th. The lineup would have looked something like this: Jeter, Granderson, Teixeira, Cano, A-Rod, Posada, Swisher, Martin, Gardner. That in my opinion, is a much better lineup.

I like Cano in the 4-hole for several reasons. One he's the best hitter on the team. Just like it did last night the game often comes down to A-Rod. A-Rod usually hits 4th. If the game often comes down to that spot in the order who do you want hitting there? Your best hitter, right? If you weren't aware, that is without a doubt Robbie Cano. He's the guy I want up with the game on the line. And let's face it, Robinson Cano doesn't need protection in the lineup. He's better at giving protection that getting it. Mark Teixeira could have used better protection. If you hit in front of Cano you're going to see better pitches compared to what you'll see hitting in front of Swisher.

Girardi should have also moved Jorge Posada up a spot in the order. Girardi should have recognized he was swinging a hot bat and moved him up ahead of Swisher. I'm not sure why Joe stuck with that lineup. Not changing it is the biggest criticism of how he managed that series. But it's not his fault that those guys didn't hit.

So why didn't they hit? I have a theory on why Teixeira and Swisher didn't. I'm not going to try and dig through numbers to validate it either. I don't have that kind of time. But here's my theory: good pitching shuts them down. There's no doubt that Swisher and Teix put up good numbers throughout the season. Over the course of 162 games you're going to come across quite a few subpar pitchers. Those guys feast on that. But I think they struggle against the cream of the crop. How else can you explain their postseason struggles at the plate? Wouldn't you agree that the teams that make the playoffs have better pitching than those that don't? I think those guys don't do well against good pitching. I don't know how else to explain it. If anyone has theories my ears are open.

After Girardi, A-Rod was receiving his fair share of criticism. While I think he deserves it to an extent, it's evident that Alex isn't 100%. I think I heard today that he was hitting .190 after coming of the DL in August. Alex was hitting .299 right before going on the DL. He finished the season with a .276 average. He definitely wasn't himself and I'm inclined to think that was a big reason why did so poorly at the plate. To his credit, he played outstanding defense the whole series. He made several great plays and I don't think you can begin to measure exactly how valuable his glove was in the ALDS. I'm not going to crush the guy over his ALDS performance.

Wow, I've been at this blog post for about an hour. I've got a little bit more to say and I'm just going to bullet point it out. Enjoy!

• I'm pretty sure Jorge Posada's time with the Yankees is over. I don't think it makes much baseball sense to bring him back. It's obvious he's not going to catch. The only role he fills is as DH or maybe even at 1B. The plan should be to have Jesus Montero DH full-time. I don't see a spot for Jorge. I'll miss Jorge. He was a gamer and he always, as he put it, just grinded it. Thanks for everything.
• I love Nick Swisher. I do. I think he's a great clubhouse guy but let's face it, he's not a clutch performer. I don't call him "The Rally Killer" for nothing. The Yankees will have a decision to make when it comes to whether or not they should pick up his option. My gut says I hope they don't but he does ring value to the team. My main concern is how he fades in October. I'm indifferent on Swish. Would be fine if he stays. Would be fine if he goes.
• I fully expect CC to exercise his opt-out clause. He'd be dumb not to. Having said that, I fully expect him to resign with the Yankees. He's made it known several times that he loves pitching in New York. He's done very well here and he has to know that the club is committed to putting a winner on the field. He should op-out and renegotiate the next 4 years of his deal. The Big Man deserved more dough. The only way he gets it is to opt-out.

I'm sure I've got more to say but I'm running in fumes so I'll save it for later. I'll close with saying that despite the Yankees failing in their mission to win, it was a really great year. Derek Jeter joined the 3000 hit club. Mariano Rivera officially became the man. We saw the emergence of Ivan Nova. We saw David Robertson step up and become an 8th inning guru. Brian Cashman's "scrap heap rejects" performed above everybody's expectations. It was a great year with a lot of great memories. It's sad that we reached the end of the road.

Speaking of reaching the end of the road I'm not 100% sure what the future holds for this blog. I really enjoy doing it but it's becoming harder and harder to keep up with. When you have 3 kids aged 4 and under it's tough to free up the time for blogging. I want to keep it going but I'm not sure what commitment level I can make to it. If this ends up being my last post (I doubt it will be) the blog will kind-of live on through my Twitter account. If you're not on Twitter you're missing out. It's a great place to connect with people that share your passion. I'll always be on there talking Yankees. That you can count on.

Until next time......

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

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

Yankees Lose.......Again

I didn't get to see much of the game tonight. The 6:40 start time kind of made it tough to watch. I had a shot to watch the beginning but my wife, aka Butterfingers, dropped my son's tadpole habitat on the kitchen floor and as she put it, tadpole fecal matter was everywhere. That shifted bath duties to me while she cleaned up. Then it was kids TV shows, put the kids to bed, make the kids lunch, put one kid back to bed, then put him back to bed a 3rd time, then game. By the time I tuned in it was the 8th inning. I'm glad I didn't see much because I probably would have thrown something thru my TV screen. So this makes 6 losses in a row. Ugh.

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.

Congrats to Curtis Granderson on yet another HR. CG is mashing. I'm donating $15 to his charity for each of his HRs. I was expecting him to hit about 24. He's more than halfway there and we're not even 40 games into the season. At this rate I'm going to go broke. Hopefully he keeps it up. He's really the only Yankee hitting right now. It's too bad they can't clone him.

I'm too frustrated to blog anymore tonight. Watching these guys lose night after night adds up and it's taking it's toll on me. I may have to storm into work tomorrow, scream at my boss, and demand I not work. More on that tomorrow.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Jorge Posada Stirs Up Some Yankee Drama

The Yankees lost again tonight. In what's becoming typical Yankee fashion their offense was non-existent. But that's not the story. The big story tonight is what the eff is up with Jorge Posada? If you missed it let me quickly sum it up:

Joe Girardi put Posada in the lineup batting 9th. Posada took himself out of the lineup saying he had to clear his head. Posada's wife posted that Jorge had a bad back. Cashman, during the FOX broadcast said it had nothing to do with injury. And then people had press conferences about it. I watched the post game show. I listened to both Girardi's and Posada's press conferences. I've taken it all in and digested it. Here's my take: Something is rotten in Denmark. Allow me to explain, bullet-point style:Jack Curry opened the postgame show with the story, as told to him by "Yankee officials" that Posada said he was insulted by batting 9th, threw a fit, and took himself out of the lineup. I don't see why the Yankees would make that up and why Curry would report it if he didn't believe it to be true.According to both Girardi and Posada, Jorge didn't mention anything about his back stiffness in their brief meeting. Isn't that something you should tell your employer about if it's a factor in your decision not to play?Why is Laura Posada posting that about his back if it's a non-issue?Girardi said the conversation with Posada was brief and Joe didn't ask any questions. I can't see a situation where an MLB manager, when approached by a player asking for a day off, wouldn't ask why.Posada and Cashman had a conversation after Posada talked to Girardi. I don't see Cashman talking to Jorge for something as simple as requesting not to play.I didn't go back and re-watch Jorge's presser but I think at one point he said he did mention his back to Girardi.I don't know why Cashman would go on-air to talk about this if it was as simple as Jorge asking for a day off.I'm sure I'm missing something but it's late, I'm tired, and the brain is starting not to function. But from what I outlined something doesn't add up and someone, or someones, aren't telling the whole story. Quite frankly, I'm not buying what Jorge is selling. The biggest thing for me is what Jack Curry reported at the beginning of the postgame. I don't see Jack running with that if he didn't think it were true.I've lost a lot of respect for Posada tonight. His actions to me appear to be selfish and I have a problem with that. Nobody is bigger than the team. Look, I get all the hardships Jorge is battling through this year, namely, not catching and sucking at the plate. Bottom line, he's not performing and he's lucky to be in the lineup at all. I can respect needing a mental health day. He's human just like the rest of us and we've all been there. Now granted, we're not all filthy rich and making millions of dollars, but we've been there. But doing what Jorge did, or allegedly did I guess, was just wrong. He talks about feeling disrespected when in fact he's the one disrespecting his teammates and the organization with his actions. The name on the back of the jersey isn't as important as the one on the front. And yes, I know the Yankees don't have names on their jerseys.I did see some people bashing Cashman for going on the FOX broadcast and addressing this. That doesn't surprise me. But I challenge everyone who has access to it to go watch it again and tell me what specifically Cashman said that was bad. Was it for contradicting the bit about Posada being injured because according to Jorge nobody knew about his back. Well, except for his wife. I don't see anything wrong with what Cashman said. I don't think anybody should.Tonight was a lot to take in. Based on what I've seen and heard I'm concluding that Jorge threw a tizzy and refused to play. Regardless of what happened there's one thing I'm 100% certain of and that's that this won't end well for the Yankees. Something wicked this way comes. I'm really interested to see how this plays out. That though, I can't wrap my head around just yet.As I wrote earlier I lost a lot of respect for Posada tonight. I don't care how proud he is, or how messed up his head is. What he (allegedly) did tonight is not becoming of a New York Yankee. The team is currently struggling and this was one of the last things they needed. Like I said, this won't end well.Peace, love and Pinstripes,J-Boogie

My Thoughts On The Last 3 Yankees Games

The Yankees offense is currently terrible.

That's it.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie