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

Brian Cashman: How You Like Him Now?

In my postgame post from last night I talked a little bit about Brian Cashman and what I dubbed his "scrap heap rejects," aka Eric Chavez, Andruw Jones, Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia. Missed it? Yeah, not surprised. Anyway, I wanted to hit on it again, so here it is, slightly edited:

How smart does Brian Cashman look right now? All of his "scrap heap rejects" are doing rather well for the Yankees. And the "rejects" I'm referring to are Eric Chavez, Andruw Jones, Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia. Yesterday it was Chavez's turn to do his part. He made a few slick plays at 3rd but the big moment came in the 8th when he singled home the game-winner. EC is swinging a sweet stick so far. His 2 hits last night raised his average to .467. Granted 15 ABs a small sample size but he's already paying dividends, on both sides of the field.

I want to give a little praise to Brian Cashman. Eric Chavez is hitting .467. Andruw Jones is hitting .333. Freddy Garcia pitched 6 shutout innings in his first start. Bartolo Colon has been more than effective on the hill. Heck, if you want, add in Russell Martin. Russell Russ has been a huge surprise for the Bombers. He's now hitting .289, has 4 HRs and 11 RBI. Boom. Let's even take this one step further. Cashman spoke publicly about not wanting to sign Rafael Soriano. Sori isn't exactly lighting the world on fire. Point Cashman.

I know we're only 14 games into the season but step off his nuts haters. Show the man some love.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

The Bronx Bombing Continues As The Yankees Down The Rangers 6-5

I'm having some serious writer's block right now. I don't know if it's caused by lack of sleep or what, but I'm blanking on how to open this post. I just let out a huge yawn so it's probably due to a need for sleep. I'm going to try and keep this post short and sweet. Whenever I say that I end up writing a book. Let's see how this goes. Hope it's coherent.

It was a great come from behind win tonight against the Rangers. CC Sabathia wasn't sharp but he pitched well enough to leave with the lead. He battled his way through 6.1 IP and was in line to pick up his 1st win of the season when Joba blew the save. I wrote yesterday that my confidence in Joba was increasing. Today he took 2 steps backwards in that department.

Despite blowing the lead, the "formula" of using Joba, Rafael Soriano, and Mariano Rivera to close the game worked out. Those 3 make up quite the tandem, don't they? Just imagine if Joba and Soriano could be more consistent like Mo.

Man, how good is Mo? It truly is a gift to watch him pitch, isn't it? I have never laughed out loud watching Mo strike out a hitter but I did tonight. He made Ian Kinsler look absolutely stupid. And when I say stupid, I mean stoopid. That was unreal. Vintage Mo. Now in case you didn't know this, Mo's 1-2-3 inning tonight dropped his career WHIP to 0.9997. It's unreal to think that Mo has a career WHIP below 1. It seems like he's getting better and better as he gets older. If only he'd sign a lifetime contract. Somebody make that happen.

This year's offense is definitely worthy of the Bronx Bombers moniker. Three more HRs tonight, which puts the team total at 27 thru 13 games. There was a stat flashed during the ESPN broadcast that the Yankees have scored 61.1% of their runs via the longball. Five of the six runs tonight came off the HR so that percentage went up. The crazy thing about that stat is that it's almost double the league average. Unreal. Now, I don't know why people make such a big deal about them scoring so many runs via the HR. Last time I checked HRs were a part of baseball. Who cares how the runs score as long as they score?

Curtis Granderson is going to ruin me financially. I pledged to donate $15 to his charity for every HR he hit. Curtis is on pace to hit about 50 HRs. That'll cost me about $750. I'd be happy to pay it.

How smart does Brian Cashman look right now? All of his "scrap heap rejects" are doing rather well for the Yankees. And the "rejects" I'm referring to are Eric Chavez, Andruw Jones, Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia. Tonight it was Chavez's turn to do his part. He made a few slick plays at 3rd but the big moment came in the 8th when he singled home the game-winner. EC is swinging a sweet stick so far. His 2 hits tonight raised his average to .467. Granted 15 ABs a small sample size but he's already paying dividends, on both sides of the field.

I'd end the post here but I again want to give a little praise to Brian Cashman. Eric Chavez is hitting .467. Andruw Jones is hitting .333. Freddy Garcia pitched 6 shutout innings in his first start. Bartolo Colon has been more than effective on the hill. Heck, if you want, add in Russell Martin. Russell Russ has been a huge surprise for the Bombers. He's now hitting .289, has 4 HRs and 11 RBI. Boom. Let's even take this one step further. Cashman spoke publicly about not wanting to sign Rafael Soriano. Sori isn't exactly lighting the world on fire. Point Cashman. Show him some love haters. He deserves it.

Off day tomorrow. Correction, the clock just flipped to midnight so off day today. Next stop, Toronto. Toronto is basically in my backyard. I've got something going on Tuesday so I won't be making it up there for the series opener but as of now, I'm going to Wednesday. Can't. Freaking. Wait.

That was not short and sweet.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Joe Girardi Done Messed Up, Costs Yankees Game #5

Yeah, I'm all kind of pissed right now. Freaking Joe Girardi. What the heck are you doing my man? His bullpen management cost the Yankees the game tonight! And I don't want to hear from anyone that it's only April, or that it's the 5th game of the season, or that it's only one game or only one loss. Divisions are lost and playoffs are missed because of one loss. Every game matters and every loss counts, regardless of when the game is played. Tonight's loss didn't need to happen. If the Yankees miss the playoffs by one game this will be one of the losses that could have changed their fate.

I'm putting this loss on Girardi's bullpen management because he made a move that shouldn't have been made and it came back to bite him in the ass. Joe never should have opened the 8th inning with Rafael Soriano on the mound. The right play was open with David Robertson and go to Soriano if Robertson gets into trouble. That's how I would have managed it. Here's why: The Yankees were up 4-0. Soriano had just pitched the day before. Freddy Garcia is starting tomorrow and who knows what you'll need from your bullpen. I would have tried to save his arm as much as I could. David Robertson is a quality RP and has the stuff to get hitters out. Girardi should have let him take a shot.

The thing that makes me the most annoyed is how Girardi responded to questions in his post game press conference? When asked why he went to Soriano he responded because Soriano is "our 8th inning guy." Umm, what? Last time I checked every game has an 8th inning. What are you going to do Joe? Use him every game? You've got to be smart and pick your spots. Tonight wasn't the right spot. Many factors need to be taken into account. The biggest factors: What's the lead? (4 runs) When did he pitch last? (yesterday) When will he be needed again? (possibly tomorrow). Add all that up and your answer should be: open the 8th with another pitcher. Girardi also comment that he didn't want to bring Soriano in during the middle of an inning? Why not Joe? Soriano is a closer by nature, not a set-up guy. Everybody knows that closers do better when something is on the line? We've all seen Mariano Rivera falter in non-save situations. Maybe bringing Soriano in with a 4-run lead isn't a good idea. I'm sure he'd do better with a little pressure. Who knows? One last question for Joe: who's your 8th inning guy tomorrow?

Aargh. It's late and my brain is fried. I want to blog a little more but I still have some stuff to do before bed and in addition to being pissed I'm dead tired. Here are the rest of my game thoughts in quick-hit fashion:

• Great outing by CC. He was in mid-season form. He'll only get better. Too bad the pen couldn't hold it. CC deserved the win.


• Mark Teixeira hit another 3-run HR. Doesn't look like he'll struggle this spring. He's locked in.


• Andruw Jones. Welcome to NY. Nice first AB. He hits LHPs rather well. Keep it up.


• I hate lefty specialists. I've said it for years. Boone Logan didn't get it done tonight. He's there to get out Denard Span and Joe Mauer, not issue leadoff walks and singles. Shape up or you're getting shipped out.

After ranting about Girardi, let me add this: I know it's not all his fault. Players still need to execute. It was Rafael Soriano's job to get those guys out, He failed in that. But again, he shouldn't have been in the game to implode like that. Aargh.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie