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

Ivan Nova And Curtis Granderson Lead Yankees To 4-1 Win Over Rangers

I'm not sure how this post is going to turn out. I could feel myself dozing off as Mariano Rivera was picking up his 12th save of the season. Shortly after the game ended I did fall asleep for a few minutes. I have that sleepy feeling in my head and I'm getting drowsy. It's been a long week. But, I wanted to blog tonight because if I don't I know I won't tomorrow. So here goes nothing.

Outstanding job by Ivan Nova. The kid was remarkable. He definitely gets my vote for player of the game. It was the longest outing of his short career. He pitched 7.1 innings, allowed only 2 hits, walked one, struck out one, and the one run he gave up was unearned. Job well done kid. This is the 3rd straight outing where Nova has pitched extremely well. In his last 3 starts, the kid has thrown 20 IP, allowed 13 hits, 8 walks, and 4 runs, 3 of which were earned. He's dropped his ERA from 7.63 to 4.08. As the weather has gotten better so has Nova. I was most impressed today by the number of ground ball outs he had. 16 of the 22 outs he got came from the ground ball. He had it working tonight. Great job.

The Yankees offense was again kind of pathetic. There were a few exceptions but for the most part they were underwhelming. The offensive POG was Curtis Granderson. He belted 2 HRs, his 9th and 10th on the season, and knocked in 3 of the 4 Yankee runs. Curtis has been great at the dish this year. Props to Kevin Long for righting that ship. Unfortunately for my wallet he righted it too much. I made a pledge to Granderson's charity. For every HR he hits I donate $15 in his "Scoring For Schools" program. Curtis is on pace for 54 HRs, which would work out to $810. Yowza. I hope he gets that money too. It goes to a great cause and let's face it, how can I not be a fan of Curtis hitting 50+ jacks? Keep it going Curtis.

There's a bunch of negative things I could write about the offense but that could take all night. I'll save that for another day.

I really wish the Yankees would stop bunting. That would be a dream come true. Speaking of dreams I need to turn in. So very tired.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Yankees/Jays Weekend Wrap-Up

Greetings everyone. I hope you all had a great weekend. Mine, as it usually is with 3 kids in tow, was very busy. I realized that 4pm games are a horrible time for me to watch Yankees games. When it's a 1pm start, I can usually fit most of it in as that's when my kids nap. With a 7pm start I might miss the 1st hour as it's the kids' bed time. I can usually though pay half-attention to it as I get them ready. 4pm games are not my friend. The kids usually wake up from their naps around then and I can't justify ignoring them for 2.5+ hours. I sneak in little breaks and make sure to check my phone for updates but it's tough to catch it for a large chunk of time.

I didn't see much of Saturday's game which is why I didn't blog about it yesterday. I figured I'd save it for a "weekend wrap-up" post. I did catch most of the game today. I did though miss the last 2 innings as I made a trek to Best Buy to see if they could help at all with my dying laptop. They couldn't. I am though in process of hopefully fixing it. I had recovery disks and they appear to have solved the problem. So far so good. Unfortunately using recovery disks meant I wiped out the hard drive so everything on it is gone. Right now I'm installing 2 years of windows updates. I've been doing that for 2+ hours and it's on #68 of 94. Wait. why am I blogging about that? I don't write a tech support blog and that's not why you're here. My apologies. Let's talk Yankees, shall we? I am though going to keep it brief as I've got a lot to do still before calling it a day. And we're off:


Very pleased with how the series with the Jays turned out. It was nice to see the Yankees come back to win two straight to take another series. The Jays are a pesky team and always give the Yanks fits. I will never complain when the Yankees take a series.
Great start today by Ivan Nova. i don't know if it was the bad weather but he's been pretty good since the weather has gotten better. The only gripe I had was with the walks. He walked 4 and threw 60% of his pitches for strikes, which in my book is a so-so strike-to-ball ratio. But as long as he can keep the runners on base from scoring, I'm cool with it. The Jays went 0-9 with RISP today. Kudos to Nova for keeping them from scoring. But, that's a dangerous way to live. He needs to reduce the # of baserunners he allows.
It was nice to see the Yankees win Saturday without hitting any HRs.
I hope A.J. Burnett can continue pitching well now that we're out of April. As a Yankee, A.J. has made 16 starts in April and has a 9-1 record to show for it. He's 18-24 after April. I think he's going to continue to pitch well.
Curtis Granderson hit his 8th HR and I now owe him $120. Way to go Curtis.
Robbie Cano bruised his hand and left Sunday's game early. I don't think it's serious. at least I hope it's not.
Rafael Soriano hasn't given up a run in two, count 'em two, straight games. Yay.
After blowing 2 straight saves Mariano Rivers has saved 3 straight and hasn't given up a run. He's the GOAT.
Pretty good series for the bullpen. They've pitched 8.2 scoreless innings since D-Rob's little fielding snafu.
A-Rod has been struggling since missing a few games with his injury. He's 3 for his last 27 which has dropped his average 96 percentage points. Uh oh.
That about sums it up. I'm sure I'm missing something. I'm tired and I'm not 100% focused. The wife has been asking me to help her put some stuff away and I've been ignoring her to do this. Gotta run.
Peace, love and Pinstripes,
J-Boogie

Ivan Nova Shines, Rafael Soriano Doesn't, And The Yankees Bats Don't Help Anybody Out

Like last night, I don't feel like blogging much after that loss. I could cut and paste yesterday's blog into this one, change a few things, and it would work, but that would be lazy. It was a tough loss and there a plenty of things you can point to as contributing factors but the bottom line is when you don't hit you shouldn't win. Four hits isn't getting the job done. The Yankees could have won a game tonight they shouldn't have but alas, it wasn't meant to be.

I didn't get to see much of Ivan Nova's outing but I saw a little bit here and there in between doing some things around the house. I didn't need to see it to know it was the best start of his career. He looked good and for once the wheels didn't fall off in the middle innings. It was actually the longest start of his career. I'm very encouraged by it. It's too bad he didn't pick up the W.

I did find it curious that Joe Girardi left him in to pitch the 7th. Now don't take that the wrong way. I'm glad he did. It was the right call. But I'm curious why he left him in and not Freddy Garcia a few days earlier. The two had very similar outings through the first 6 innings. Here's what we know: Garcia had thrown 90 pitches thru 6, Nova 85. Nova had pitched 1 inning in the last 11 days. Garcia was virtually unhittable and was pulled with a 3-0 lead. Nova had good stuff and was left in with a 2-1 lead. Garcia is an experienced pitcher who's been there before. It was Nova's deepest start of his career. I thought that Joe should have left Garcia in to start the 7th like he did with Nova tonight. I'm curious why the change in philosophy because if anything, Garcia's situation was a little better. The only thing I can think of is age. Anybody have any thoughts?

Girardi made another curious move in the 9th when he had Curtis Granderson give himself up with no outs and Jeter, they tying run, on 1st. Based on my Twitter timeline there were very few people that were OK with the move. I was one of those OK with it. Now that's not to say I wasn't a staunch supporter of the bunt. I hate giving away outs and am not a huge fan of sac bunts to begin with. All I'm saying is I get the logic behind it. Here's my take on it: It was a lefty-lefty matchup. Granderson is his career was 2-15 vs. Thornton. Granted, Granderson has done much better vs. LHPs since last year and Thornton is struggling, but that matchup still favors Thornton in my opinion. I get why you'd want to put the tying run at 2nd with your 3, 4, and 5 hitters waiting to drive them home. There's no way to know what would have happened had Curtis had the green light to swing away. It could have been a double play. Nobody knows. If not for two unbelievable catches by Brent Lillibridge the move would have worked. Hindsight is 20-20. Bunting may not have been the right move but it wasn't a wrong move, if that makes sense. Damn you Brent Lillibridge.

Who would have guessed that the Yankees starting rotation would be a positive and the bullpen would be a negative? The Yankees rotation has been awesome over the last 5 games. Over the last 5 games the 5 SPs have combined to throw 35 innings, allowing 21 hits and 9 walks, while striking out 26 and allowing 7 ER. That works out to an ERA of 1.80 and a WHIP of 0.86. That's outstanding.

The bullpen, specifically the major players, have been scuffling over the last 3 games. We've seen 2 blown saves by Mariano Rivera. We've seen Joba gave up a 2-run HR. We've seen Rafael Soriano pitch in the last 2 games and absolutely stink up the joint. In those 2 innings he's allowed 4 hits, 2 walks, a HBP, a HR and 3 runs. Simply put that's terrible. And that's putting it nicely. Soriano has been a sore spot in the pen but I'm not ready to give up on him yet. I have some faith but it's wavering.

I was planning on writing a little more but I've been having laptop issues and I'm on a backup computer. I wasted about 20 minutes tinkering with that and in addition to being tired I've grown agitated, and I still have to iron clothes for tomorrow. So I'll leave you with this: As I mentioned above you shouldn't win if you don't hit the ball. The Yankees offense has been non-existent these last few games. Talk about no run support. You can blame the bullpen. You can blame Girardi. But none of that matters in you don't hit the ball.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Double Plays, Walks And Wild Pitches Do In Yankees

The Yankees lost what I think was a very winnable ball game tonight. It was frustrating to watch and there really isn't a whole lot to say about it. It was a sloppy game to say the least.

The Yankees tied a record tonight and unfortunately that's not good. They grounded into 6, count 'em 6, double plays. Talk about rally killers. Hat tip to Matt Harrison for inducing so many DPs. If you can induce that many you're doing something right.

Ivan Nova was well, Ivan Nova. Did alright early but then the wheels fell off around the 5th inning, which pretty much happens in most of his starts. I didn't think he started too poorly but popular opinion said he was a little less than decent. In his 4.1 innings he allowed 4 hits, 5 walks, 1 HBP and a wild pitch. That's not going to get it done. Nova needs to be better, much better.

I'm a little concerned about the Yankees rotation. Phil Hughes hasn't been effective at all and is now on the DL with a dead arm. I didn't know ineffectiveness was a reason to DL a guy. Everyone has maintained Phil's not hurt so I'm not sure how they pulled that off, but whatever, it works. Phil's DL stint means Bartolo Colon now moves into the rotation. That's a move I'm a fan of. Bartolo has pitched well this season and he can easily slide into the starter role. But I'm not sold on him just yet. And we haven't even seen Freddy Garcia yet. Right now the Yankees have 2 reliable SPs and that's all dependent on A.J. Burnett continuing to pitch well. I have confidence in CC Sabathia and that's about it. I'm worried about everybody else, to varying degrees.

The positive tonight was the bullpen. 4.2 innings of hitless/scoreless ball. The highlight was the debut of Lance Pendleton. He faced 9 batters and retired them all. The kid looked good and I was impressed. But it's 3 innings. I'm not ready to crown him the second coming of Mariano Rivera just yet. Who am I kidding? There will never be a second coming of Mariano Rivera. Best there is, was, and ever will be. He's God.

Congrats to Curtis Granderson for hitting his 3rd HR and banking another $20 for his charity. I think we're up to $65. At this rate Curtis is going to break my bank. He's on pace to take $600+ from me. If anyone is wondering what I'm talking about, every time Curtis goes deep, I donate $$$ to his charity, the Grand Kids Foundation. If you're interested in donating along with me, please feel free to do so. If you're ever curious about how much is getting donated, just check out the total in the upper left. To learn more about the "pledge drive" click here.

The Red Sox just lost, again. They're now 2-10. Talk about pathetic. Wow. They're terrible.

Freddy Garcia makes his first start of the season tomorrow. There's rain in the forecast. Wouldn't that be something if he got skipped again? Weather is supposed to be bad so it could happen. 1:05pm start. Hope they play.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Bats Power Yankees To 9-4 Win Over The Sad, Sad Red Sox

How sad are the Boston Red Sox? Wow. They're 1-7, in last place, and currently have the worst record in all of baseball. I hope the Fenway Faithful take notice of that tomorrow at the ballpark when they see the standings on the Green Monster. The Red Sox, simply put, are terrible. Outside of Dustin Pedroia there isn't one person on that team that's doing much of anything.

As a team, through the 1st 7 games, they rank 29th out of 30th in team batting average, 27th out of 30th in OPS, and 21st out of 30th in runs scored. I remember having an exchange with a Sox fan on Twitter during the offseason. I had tweeted that the acquisitions of Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez provided a marginal offensive upgrade over Victor Martinez and Adrian Beltre. I was of course called an idiot or something. I wish I remembered who that Sox fan was so I could throw this at them but alas, their Twitter handle escapes me.

What even makes the team sadder is their pitching. They rank dead last in team ERA and OPS. They've allowed the most HRs and I don't think the stats I'm looking at include the 4 they gave up today. Outside of one start by Jon Lester they've all been horrendous. So much for having a team of 5 aces, eh Sox fans? The Red Sox, as the title of this post says, are a very sad, sad team. For now anyway. I don't expect them to stay this bad for the entire season. I think they're highly overrated, arguably the most overrated team ever, but they are a good club. They will win their fair share of games. But enough about them......

How about that game today? Awesome, right? Sure, the Yankees had a few sore spots, namely Ivan Nova, Brett Gardner, and Mark Teixeira, but by and large, great game. The story of the day was the offense. They hammered the Sox, scoring 9 times on 13 hits and 4 walks, and best of all, 4 HRs. The highlights pretty much came from the bottom of the order. The 5 thru 9 hitters combined to go 10-21 with 8 runs scored 9 RBI, 3 2B, 4 HR and 3 BB. They stole the show.

The 2 biggest scene stealers came from the very bottom of the order. Eric Chavez, making his first start as a Yankee, went 3-5 with 2 doubles. The big knocks though came off the bat of Russell Martin. Russell Russ went 2-4 with 2 HRs and 4 RBI. How big has Martin been this season? I am very, very impressed with what he's brought to the table. He now has 3 HRs on the year which is 2 less than the entire Red Sox team. Let me say that again. The Yankees catcher has 2 fewer HRs than the entire Red Sox team. Insert gut busting laughter here. If you were to put Martin on the Sox he'd be leading their team in longballs. The Red Sox. As previously mentioned, they're a sad, sad team.

The biggest negative from today's game had to be the start from Ivan Nova. As Yogi Berra would say, it's like deja vu all over again. What we saw today was reminiscent of the 2010 version of Ivan Nova. For those that can't remember that far back, in his seven 2010 starts Nova often struggled to make it through the 5th inning. He would be doing alright but then the wheels would fall off. His outing today kind of reminded me of that. He didn't have good stuff today. Lucky for him the Red Sox offense is terrible. If the Sox offense were any better the game could have finished much differently. Nova gave the Sox plenty of chances to score but the Sox just couldn't deliver. As a team the Sox went 1-17 with RISP. As I said they're a sad, sad team. Nova got away with one today in my book. He's got to be better. What he did today won't cut it.

Solid game by the bullpen. Glad to see David Robertson pick up the W on his birthday. D-Rob, Joba, and Luis Ayala combined for 4.2 scoreless IPs. Ayala was the only one of the trio to have a rough go of things. He allowed 3 hits and a walk. He struggled enough that the Yankees had to warm up both Rafael Soriano and Mariano Rivera. But Ayala got the outs when he needed to. Game over. Yankees win. Thuhh Yankees win.

We've got Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN tomorrow. CC vs. Josh Beckett. Yeah, I think we all know how this game is going to go. But hey, you never know. That's why they play the games, right. If they didn't the Red Sox would have already won the World Series and we wouldn't have any idea just how sad of a team they really are. Thankfully, we've gotten to see that. If you couldn't tell I'm absolutely loving it. But as I said up top I don't expect it to last. They've got a good squad and they'll win their share of games. I think it's clear though that they won't win as many as the Yankees. It's pretty evident who the better team is. As I tweeted this morning, Yankees > Red Sox. Always have been, always will be.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Nova And The Bullpen Carry Yankees To 4-3 Win Over The Twins

I'm coming to find that having 3 kids makes it very hard to watch night games. The whole putting to bed process takes roughly 1.5 hours from start to finish, beginning around 7pm and ending around 8:30. It starts with baths, then some TV, followed by books, then bed. It's a tough schedule for a die-hard Yankees fan. I try to sneak in as much of the game as I can. I throw a little PIP action up on the TV during some kids show when the wife isn't looking. When that's not working I've got the audio feed playing on my Droid using the MLB At-Bat App. It's not the most ideal way to follow the games but it works. Kind of. If push came to shove and I could only do one or the other I've got to hang with the kids. I love those guys. But as long as I can pull off some double duty, I'm going to.

Great job by Ivan Nova tonight. 6 strong quality innings for his 2nd career win. Unlike last year he didn't seem to run out of gas at any point during the game. Remember last season? It always seemed like he hit the wall around the 5th inning. Tonight was his 8th career start and only the 2nd time he made it through 6 innings. Overall, great job. Nova has shown signs of being a great pitcher. If he can build on his outing tonight I have no doubt that he will be.

Hats off to the bullpen. It's apparent that Joba Chamberlain is Joe Girardi's lead-in to the Soriano and Mo show. I'm not 100% sold on that. Joba makes me nervous. Whenever he pitches it's as if I have to watch the game through my fingers. I rarely feel comfortable watching JC pitch late in games when the Yankees have a 1-2 run lead. Apparently, Girardi has confidence in him. I don't not yet anyway. I do feel confident about Rafael Soriano and Mo finishing off games. That level of confidence is off the charts. Odds are if the Yankees take a lead into the 8th the game is over. Soriano came up huge today, Retiring both Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau is no easy task. Soriano did it no problem. I really like that signing. Not a fan of the contract but love the player. Mariano Rivera = game over. 'Nuff said.

The Yankees have been living off the long ball this season. Two more slam-a-lama-ding-dongs today. Posada hit his 3rd and A-Rod his 2nd. As I wrote yesterday, being a full-time DH is going to be huge for Posada. He's always had a good bat. Without the added wear-and-tear on the legs it could be great. So far it's looking like it will be. Alex is locked in and is poised to have a MONSTER year. He's healthy and it's showing. He was my pre-season MVP pick and I'm feeling really good about it.

It seems like every post I write has a "Russell Martin is awesome" section in it. It seems that way because it's true. He had another one of those nights tonight. Who knew he had that much speed? In 4 games he has 2 stolen bases. I didn't think at any point in the season Russell Russ would be among the league leader in SBs. I don't expect him to keep it up but that doesn't mean it can't be fun while it lasts. A catcher with speed. I dig it.

The Yankees are currently 3-1 and their 1-2 hitters aren't hitting. Gardner and Jeter are a combined 4 for 29 (.138). If you told me after 4 games that those two would be hitting so poorly I wouldn't have guessed the team would be 3-1. That .750 winning percentage won't last for long if those 2 don't start setting the table. I'm not overly concerned. It has been a very small sample size. It's just painful to see them both doing so poorly at the same time. I don't think Brett the Jet will do as well as he did last year. I'm still not 100% sold on him being an everyday OF. Don't get me wrong, I really like BG and think he deserves the starts. I'm just not feeling him all the time. Most of the time? Yes. All of the time? Nope. It'll be nice if those two can get it going by the weekend.

CC back on the bump tomorrow. I always feel good when he's on the hill. Hopefully, if I'm lucky, I can pull off seeing most of his start. I need to find a way to get my kids to bed by 7:05 every night. Suggestions anyone?

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Goodbye Andy Pettitte, Hello Officially Crappy Offseason

Ladies and gentleman, the dookie has hit the fan. I didn't think this day was coming but it has and I am totally bummed out. Andy Pettitte, aka one of the greatest Yankee pitchers ever, aka one of the greatest Yankees ever, aka one of the Core Four, aka one of if not the best big game pitchers EVER, is hanging up his spikes and calling it a career. And now a moment of silence.....





As I tweeted earlier today this sucks balls. I thought for sure Andy was coming back for one more tour of duty. When I heard he was working out I was further convinced. When the news broke today I felt I got punched in the head, slugged in the stomach and kicked in the balls all at the same time. It was not a good feeling and it hurts on many different levels.

For starters, it pretty much makes this a terrible offseason. I had blogged after Cliff Lee signed with the Phillies that it wasn't a big deal that the Yankees didn't land him. I stated that the real key to the offseason was the return of Andy Pettitte. Had Andy returned the Yankees would have pretty much had the same team as last year. A team that won 95 games and made it to the ALCS. They would have gone into 2011 with the same squad and same chance for success in my opinion. Pettitte's retirement coupled with the offseason moves by the Yankees, or better yet lack of offseason moves, might make for a pretty rocky 2011. The starting rotation right now is the biggest weakness. After Sabathia and Hughes there are a lot of question marks. Which A.J. Burnett will show up? Who will fill out the back end of the rotation and will they be serviceable? Right now none of the candidates (Sergio Mitre, Ivan Nova, Mark Prior, Bartolo Colon, Freddy Garcia and possibly Joba Chamberlain) instill a lot of confidence. I saw a tweet today that read, "CC and Hughes and then we lose." Confidence levels aren't high on starters 3-5 that's for sure.

I think the Yankees will still be competitive. Their offense is stacked. The bullpen is rock solid. They will win their fair share of games. Hopefully they'll win enough. Hopefully Brian Cashman has a trick or two up his sleeve and can bring in a starter via trade before the season starts. The Yankees do have a highly thought-of farm system that can certainly be used to land a top-flight starter. Fingers are crossed because I'm not liking what they've got after Burnett. I don't though think it will be as bad as "CC, Hughes and then we lose." Burnett will bounce back in my opinion. I don't think it's all doom and gloom. At least I hope it's not.

I'm really going to miss watching Andy Pettitte pitch. I was fortunate enough to see him pitch several times in person in Toronto. It was always a treat, whether it was in-person or on TV. I have a lot of fond memories.

I'll always remember his trademark stare to the plate. I'll always remember 2009, when he pitched the clinchers. I'll always remember the home opener in 1996 against the Royals when Andy took the mound while it was snowing. I'll never forget the several times I got his autograph in Toronto. He was always so nice. I'll never forget how crappy I felt when he left in 2004 and how great I felt when he came back in 2007. I'll never forget when he beat John Smoltz in game 5 of the 1996 World Series. I'll never forget the 19 postseason wins and the 5 World Series titles he helped win. I'll never forget how he would say the word "y'all." I'll always remember Andy Pettitte.

There is a press conference scheduled tomorrow for 10:30am, which I believe is going to be broadcast on both the YES Network and the MLB Network. I have the DVR set up to tape both channels. I would love nothing more to have Pettitte pull a fast one on everybody and say something like, "I'm here to announce that I'm retiring from baseball........after this season. Let me sign the contract." Doubt it will happen but I'm holding out hope. I also wouldn't mind if he at some point pulls a Brett Favre and unretires. There's no doubt in my mind he could still pitch at a high level.

I'll miss you Andy Pettitte. Hopefully I'll see you (thought I doubt I will) see you in Cooperstown. Take care and best of luck to you. Thanks for everything.

Peace, love and thank you Andy,

J-Boogie

Cliff Lee Went To Philly, B.F.D.

Greetings everyone. Long time, no talk. I have no good reason to explain my absence. I've just been super-busy with work, life, and all that jazz. I've been meaning to blog an entry here and there but it's been hard to find the time. I told myself I would when the whole Cliff Lee drama resolved itself. So here I am.

I can sum up my feelings about Cliff Lee signing with the Phillies in 2 simple words: don't care. Would it have been nice if Cliff Lee signed with the Yankees? Abso-freaking-loutely. But is it the end of the world that he didn't? Not even close. Adding Lee to the Yankees rotation would have been a huge improvement to the team. No doubt about that. But they're still fine without him, as long as one thing happens, and that is Andy Pettitte returning to the Yankees.

Had Lee signed with the Yankees it would have made losing Pettitte not such a big deal. Lee would have been like a super-awesome insurance policy. The fact of the matter is that last year's Yankee rotation, which included a horrible A.J. Burnett and a revolving door of 5th SPs, won 95 games and made the playoffs. If Pettitte resigns, the rotation, is for all intents and purposes, the same as it was last year. Sure the 5th spot is open but let's face it, anybody could step into that spot and do as well as Vazquez, Moseley, Mitre & Nova. A rotation of Sabathia, Hughes, Pettitte, Burnett and Lee would have been awesome. A rotation of Sabathia, Hughes, Pettitte, Burnett, and ?? would still be pretty damn good. Again, that tandem won 95 games last year. They'd be formidable enough to win that many again. Right now, Pettitte is the key to that happening. If he retires, then we have a problem.

It seems pretty clear to me that Lee never wanted to be a Yankee. If anybody out there is blaming Brian Cashman for messing things up, and there are people saying he did, they need to stop. Silly irrational fans. There isn't anything he could have done, except for mortgaging the entire future of the franchise, to sign Lee. He was never coming here. I can understand why he went to Philly. I think it gives him the best chance to win. The NL East pales in comparison to the AL East. The Phillies should pretty much roll over that division with ease. Their rotation is pretty sick and is arguably the best in MLB. I'd give that nod to the Giants. They did after all beat Halladay, Oswalt, Hamels and Lee in last year's playoffs. If Lee comes out and says he chose Philly because it gives him the best chance to win, I can kind of respect that. But, it's kind of a wuss move. The AL East is without question the toughest division in baseball. Maybe Cliff was afraid of a little tough competition? Everybody knows NL pitchers have better numbers. I can't blame him for not wanting to face the teams in the AL East 19 times each per season. That's my slightly-irrational view on that. I can admit it.

I also get that Lee loves the city of Philly. I know he has a child with cancer and the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, aka the CHOP, is one of, if not the, best cancer center for children in the country. Makes sense that he'd want to be close to that. Signing with Philly was a good move for Lee. Even at what could be $40-50 million less in guaranteed money.

And those are my thoughts on Lee. Again, not a big deal to me. Assuming of course that Andy Pettitte comes back. I'm inclined to think he will but who knows. The Yankees have been down this road with him before. He'll be back. I hope.

Tomorrow, I'll have up a post about the Red Sox and their fans' misguided confidence about next season. I'm going to write it now and have it come up about this time tomorrow. I also hope to blog more regularly but I make no promises.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Yankees Announce ALDS Roster & Rotation, No Real Surprises

A little behind on this as the update came down earlier this morning, but better late than never, right. I really wish I could post things right after they happen. Sucks to have real things to do. The Yankees really should rule all things in the universe.

No major shocks to me on the ALDS roster. A little surprised Javy Vazquez got left off and by little I mean very little. But really, what role would he fill. I'm also a little surprised Dustin Moseley made the roster over Ivan Nova but I can see that going either way. Not at all surprised and I'm rather thankful that Chad Gaudin isn't on the roster. I'd be happy if he didn't throw in another game this year. Sergio Mitre on the roster. Like Gaudin, I hope he doesn't pitch either. You could make a case for keeping Nova on the roster over Mitre and I'd think prefer that but whatever.

Offensively, no big shocks. I probably would have kept Eduardo Nunez over Greg Golson but again, I could go either way on that. Outside of that, I'm cool.

The only real area where I would consider making a change is with the rotation. And like with the roster, I can live with and understand behind doing it how they're doing it. The only thing I'd do differently, and I've mentioned this in my last few blogs, is I'd flip-flop Phil Hughes and Andy Pettitte. As I wrote the other day Phil's #s are much better on the road then they are at home. I think it's also better to pitch the 2 LHPs in back-to-back games in Yankee Stadium. But on the flip-side, we are talking about Andy Pettitte, one of the best postseason pitchers there is. I'd prefer Andy on the mound in a game 5 (if necessary) than Phil Hughes. I thought yesterday that the game 2 SP would be starting game 5 on short rest but I was wrong. I have a problem counting to 5 I guess. I'm also skeptical on Andy being 100%. All things considered I'd like to see Hughes in games 2 and 5 but again, no problem with the decision to go with Andy.

It also appears the Yankees are going with a 3-man rotation for the ALDS. I'm a big fan of that. The only SP that could possibly go on short rest is CC (games 1 and 4) and let's face it, if there is any guy that can go on short rest, it's CC Sabathia. That makes A.J. Burnett the odd man out. I think Yankee fans everywhere are rejoicing over that one. I only saw them using A.J. in game 4 if they had a 2 games to 1 lead. As I think more about it, what would be the point when CC is the horse that he is. I like A.J. being in the pen rather than being left off the roster altogether. He does have some value, albeit it's not a lot.

To sum up all that drivel, I have no major problems with how the Yankees are going after the Twins. I might have done a thing or two differently, but I can totally see why the roster and rotation are the way they are. To me, it's all good.

Less than 24 hours til first pitch. Excitement is building!

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Swisher's Walkoff Propels Yankees To Victory

Didn't get to see or hear any of the game today. I got to check here and there and when I last looked they were down 2-1 during the 7th inning stretch. I got back to my desk right after 4pm and was happily surprised to see that they came back and won 3-2. That put a smile on my face. That smile got bigger when I saw that they won on a walkoff. It got bigger when I saw it was a walkoff HR. It got even bigger when I saw that Swisher hit the winning shot. That HR puts us past the $1000 mark in the Swish's Wishes charity drive. The total pledged, which is based on $38 per HR plus a little more, is now up to $1036. Way to go Nicky Swish.

In looking at the box score, I'm assuming the story of the day is pitching. It looks like Ivan Nova had a nice outing. It would have been a great outing if not for the one bad pitch to Matt Wieters. All in all I'm impressed by his line. I especially like the strike-to-ball ratio. 61 strikes on 90 pitches = 65.93% strikes thrown. Pretty nice in my book.

Also, it looks like the bullpen deserves some love. Robertson, Logan and Joba combined for 3 hiteless/scoreless innings. That kept it close, which let the offense do its thing. Well done guys.

Knock another game off the magic # to clinch a playoff spot. The magic # is now 15 to eliminate the White Sox and 14 to eliminate the Red Sox. Tonight is a win-win for the Yankees as the Red Sox play the Rays. Either the Yankees go another game up on the Rays or get 1 step closer to eliminating the Red Sox. It would be a perfect night if the White Sox lost as well. Dare to dream.

Off day tomorrow and then a 9-game roadie. Now the real fun begins. It's crunch time and from here on out it's pretty much tough game after tough game. 3 with Texas, 7 with Tampa, 6 with Boston, 3 with Toronto, and 3 with the much-improved Orioles. Talk about a tough stretch. I think the Yanks will be up to the task.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Super Nova Leads Yankees To 2-1 Victory Over White Sox

I haven't checked out any other Yankees sites yet but I'll bet that I'm not the only one who's going with "Super Nova." I don't really want to but it's been a long week and the brain is running on empty. But let's face it, he has been a little "super" in hist 1st 2 starts. So it works.

The name of the game today was pitching and the charge was led by Nova. He looked pretty sharp in my book. 66% of his pitches were strikes. Great K/BB ratio @ 7:1. Well done rook. Congrats on your 1st big league win. There's been some chatter in the last few days about the Yankees possibly changing up the rotation based on the sub-par performances of certain pitchers (talking 'bout you A.J.). It looks like they're staying with the current rotation but they could very easily switch things up. Personally, I wouldn't move A.J. out just yet. The guy has good stuff. I think his problem is more mental than anything else. I'd like to think he'll figure it out. Anyway, it's a little crazy to think that we're headed into September and the Yankees rotation features guys named Nova and Moseley. What's crazier is that right now they're 2 of their better starters. I hope they keep it going.

Major props to the bullpen for shutting things down. Nice little rebound from last night. The pen really has been pitching rather well in recent weeks. I'm going with Saturday's meltdown as an anomaly and not reality. They got it done today. Even with his nice string of games I still get crazy nervous whenever Joba takes the hill. I don't think I'll ever shake that feeling. He's got a lot of work to do to earn my faith in him back. He's on the right track but he's got a ways to go. Something hit me about Joba today and tell me if you agree or think I'm totally wrong. Doesn't he kind of look like the Hideki "The Fat Toad" Irabu? I think they could pass for half-brothers of something. Again, brain is fried from a long week so maybe I'm wrong.

Not a lot of offense today. Crazy that Francisco Cervelli went 4-4. Never thought I'd see that happen. Cisco has had some ups and downs this year but I do think he's suitable as a backup catcher. Problem is that because of Jorge Posada he's a little more than a backup. I think I expect more from him since he sees more action than the average backup but he really does have some value. If he played less I don't think people would be as critical of him.

What has gotten into Marcus Thames? He had one hell of a road trip. He saw action in 5 games, had 8 hits in 17 AB (.471), hit 1 2B, 4 HRs and knocked in 8. To be honest I'm surprised he's still with the team. I thought for sure the Yankees would have released him back in May or so. So glad he's proved me wrong. He's been rather productive in a limited role.

I'm really surprised at Jeter's numbers. I would have thought they'd be much higher especially in a "walk year." His .270/.336/.384 are well behind his career averages of .315/.385/.454. Not counting 1995 when he appeared in 15 games, they're the lowest averages of his career by far. He's never hit below .291, never had an OBP below .352, and never had a SLG below .408. Very un-Jeterlike. I'm not sure what to make it of it. I wouldn't think his skills would drop off that much from last season. Here's hoping he has a great September.

The win today was nice because it means that they'll either keep pace with Tampa for the division and have 7 losses at hand on the Red Sox for the wild card, or they'll be 1 up on Tampa and 6 losses up on the Red Sox. Quite frankly either outcome works for me but I'd prefer that Tampa win. I'll take the playoff spot ASAP. A Red Sox loss would put the Yankees 7 up in the loss column with 32 to play. Same distance the Sox were back 19 games ago. 19 games have rolled off the schedule and the Sox at best will have gained one game on the Yanks. That wont get it done. Making up that ground could be done but let's face it the Sox would have to go one a historic September run and the Yankees would have to have a historic September collapse. You don't need a magic 8-ball to tell you that outcome is unlikely. It's currently 10:10pm and a check of the scoreboard says that the Rays are ahead 4-3 at the 7th inning stretch. That works. Hope to see that outcome hold true when I check in the morning. For now, it's off to bed.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie