You're Welcome Yankees Fans

I missed most of yesterday's game as the wife and I were out looking for a new home. When we got hoe, I immediately flipped on YES, and saw the Yankees were down 3-1. It was the start of the bottom of the 7th and Robbie Cano was stepping into the box. He hits a double inside the 3rd base bag. Matsui then singled him home. 2 batters later, Posada goes yard and the Yanks have a 4-3 lead. Is it a coincidence that the team came back at the exact moment I turned on the game? Probably, but I'm definitely taking the credit for this comeback. The exact opposite happened last Sunday when the Royals came back to beat the Yankees. As soon as I flipped on that game, the Yankee bullpen blew it, and I took the blame for that loss.

How in the hell did Carl Pavano pitch that nice of a game? I was shocked when I saw the score and even more shocked when I saw his pitching line: 6 IPs, 4 hits, 1 ER, 1 BB, and 4 Ks. What gives CP? You were supposed to come in and suck and you almost left with a victory. I really thought the Yankees were going to light him up. I'm kind of pissed they didn't.

I'm tired of hearing people calling into sports talk radio and grumbling about the umpire's call of Posada's HR. I hate fan interference as much as the next guy, but it's part of baseball. Every team is going to benefit from this many times. Conversely, every team is going to get burned by it also. We've already seen it twice this year. Once in Baltimore when a fan interfered with a HR that Damon probably could have caught. 2 days later, again in Baltimore, Nick Swisher possibly was the benefactor of a fan-aided HR. It's going to happen. Accept it and move on.

I didn't see any of A.J. Burnett's outing. I have mixed feelings about his pitching line. 3 hits. Good. 7 walks. Bad. 2 HRs? I wonder if those were "new Yankee Stadium HRs?" I guess things could have been worse. I'll take it.

It's about time Cody Ransom did something, even though that ball should have easily been caught. I'm not sure if it was lost in the sun or what, but Choo should have made that play. But he didn't, so it's a 3 RBI double in the stat pages. Good for you Code. Build on that and start playing better.

Pettitte makes hist first regular season start in the new ballpark tonight. Game time is 7:05. Let's go Yankees!

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Chien-Ming Wang Sucks

I think the title of this post says it all. It really pains me to write that too, because I am a really big Wang guy. I've written many times that Wang is a true ace. I'm not so sure I think that anymore. There's no two ways about it. Wang sucks right now. I can't believe how bad he sucks right now. I'm not even sure he'll be able to bounce back from this. He's God awful.

As I was watching the game, I couldn't help but feel excited when Wang pitched a 1-2-3 first inning. I'll admit it. I thought he was in the clear. Next thing I know Wang is walking off the field to the loudest boos I've heard in a while. He deserved everything the Yankee Stadium crowd threw at him. In 3 starts, Wang had now pitched a grand total of 6 innings and has allowed 23 earned runs, pitching to a ERA of 34.50. His WHIP is 4.83 and opponents are now hitting .622 off Wang. It would take 40 scoreless innings by Wang to get his ERA down to 4.50. 40 scoreless innings just to get to 4.50. Unreal. I love the Wanger, but he sucks right now. He's killing the team.

Anthony Claggett made his Yankee/MLB debut today and I'll be he wish he hadn't. Talk about a set back. He was worse than Wang was and that's hard to do. Admittedly, I don't know much about Claggett. Now, I don't know if I'll ever get the chance. I can't see him making a return to the bigs anytime soon. I am assuming of course that he gets sent back down. He has too, right?

My buddy Dave sent me 4 e-mails during the game. The subject of the first one was "Joe Giradi needs to be fired" and it read, "I am ruining my Saturday watching this Yankee garbage." His second e-mail had the same subject and read, "along with Eiland. And Cashman. Grovel to get Guidry and Mattingly back." His 3rd e-mail was titled "F tha Yankees" and he wrote, "I refuse to spend a dime while Giradi, Eiland and Cashman are running this team. You couldn't pay me to see this team. And they haver a ton of empty seats- Sell outs my ass." He concluded his tirade writing a 4th e-mail titled "Posada can't catch" and he wrote, "He's been the catcher for each of these ass whoopins- sit his ass at DH and play Molina if you want good pitching. Mussina was right after all." Dang Dave, tell me how you really feel. I feel your pain brother.

I don't think firing Girardi or Cashman is the answer. It's not their fault Wang is pitching as bad as he is. I also don't think you can put the blame on Posada. This is all on Wang. He's pitched long enough and well enough that his poor outings can't be blamed on anybody but Wang. I do think Dave Eiland has a small amount of responsibility here. I'm with Dave there. I much prefer Guidry to Eiland. Eiland was brought on because he was so great with all of the young pitchers. Those young pitchers, namely Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy, haven't fared too well under Eiland's guidance. I wouldn't complain if Eiland was given the boot.

As for Posada, I agree with Dave a little bit. I don't think Jorge is the best game-caller, but I don't think the poor performance by the pitchers are the result of Jorge being behind the plate. Chien-Ming Wang throwing flat sinkers that are up in the zone isn't Jorge's fault. Posada sets the target and if the guy is off with his location, is it really his fault? On the other hand, I've seen guys, specifically Mike Mussina, perform much better with other catchers. I know Randy Johnson wasn't a Jorge fan either. So maybe there's a little something to it.

I'm not sure what to think about the new Yankee Stadium right now. It's looking like it's going to be a launching pad. There have been 17 home runs through the first 3 games in the new park. That's a lot of dingers. I'm inclined to think that as the weather warms up, the balls will be flying out of there at higher rates. I am very interested to see how the park plays into things as the season progresses. For more thoughts on that, check out what Steve at Was Watching has put together in his latest blog entry. I agree with Dave that the place looks empty at times. I think that has more to do with the Yankees pricing strategy than anything else. I hope they figure that out because it definitely looks empty on TV.

A.J. Burnett goes up against Carl Pavano tomorrow. Burnett needs to pitch another good game. He's done a good job so far and he really needs to pick the club up tomorrow and pick deep into the game. Hopefully, the Carl Pavano we all know and hate will show up. If CP pitches like we all expect him to, which is terribly, the new Yankee Stadium might eat him alive. Watch, now that I say that, he'll throw a gem.. Ah, who am I kidding? It's Carl Pavano.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

The Captain Clutch & Mo Show

The legendary Mariano Rivera just struck out Mark DeRosa looking and I can hear Frank Sinatra playing through my radio. How sweet the sound?

I didn't hear as much of the game today as I would have liked. Some issues came up pertaining to our new home search and I spent a good portion of the afternoon on the phone trying to get some info. I got back to my desk just in time to hear Derek Jeter go deep for the eventual game-winner with 2 outs in the 8th. I wrote this about Jeter after their win the other day: I want Jeter at the plate when the game is on the line. The last 2 Yankee victories were brought about by Jeter's bat. He's the Captain. He's clutch. He's Captain Clutch. God bless him.

Mo made things interesting in the 9th by letting two on. And what does he do? He gets both Grady Sizemore and Mark DeRosa to go down on strikes. Mo is the man. There's no one better. I wrote a post back in January of 2008 about a new phrase/word I created. The word is "mariano" and it has three meanings:

1. to finish something for someone else.
2. to finish something that someone else started
3. to come in at the end and solve/fix a problem

Say for example your buddy is eating some chicken wings and he can't finish them. He may ask you if you want to "mariano" his wings. My wife was once breaking down cardboard boxes for the recycling bin and when she was just about down I asked her if she wanted me to "mariano" the boxes. My boss was once working on some spreadsheet that she couldn't get to work. She sent it to me to look at and I "marianoed" it for her by fixing a formula or two. You guys picking up what I'm putting down? What do you think? Does it make sense? Think we can get this word off the ground so it becomes part of our vocabularies? How cool would that be? I even submitted it to be added into the urban dictionary. If you're down with it, help a brother out and spread the word.

Big up to Brian Bruney for another solid outing.

Since I really didn't see the game, that's all I have for now.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,


J-Boogie

Some Links Worth Sharing

At work and have some down-time? Bored and looking for some stuff to occupy your time. Give these a try:

The guys at Bleacher Report have an interesting take on the Yankee bullpen. While I think the pen is better than they're performing, there definitely is room for improvement/concern.

As part of a new promotion where you can win a Gillette Fusion razor, Gillette has a new ad out there featuring Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, and Derek Jeter. Is it me or does Tiger look a little weird?



Every Yankee fan out there should know the name Freddie Sez. Here's a video from NoMas called "Bangin Pots: The Freddie Sez Story.



Enjoy.

J-Boogie

Buzzkill

Talk about a buzzkill. The Yanks opened up their new stadium yesterday and got blown out. The underbelly of the Yankees bullpen stunk up the joint yesterday. Jose Veras and Damaso Marte, or Damaso Garcia as Bob Klapisch called him, gave up 9 runs in the 7th inning. Really Bob? Damaso Garcia? Anyway, things didn't go as planned yesterday, for me or the Yankees.

I originally had the afternoon off from work yesterday. I had a team-building thing I was originally doing on Tuesday, but I was asked to reschedule to Thursday and I agreed and by the time I realized the error of my ways, it was too late. I got to listen to the first 2 hours of the game. I pretty much turned my radio off when CC was pulled from the game. I had one of the people in training class pull up the gamecast. I was probably there for 20 minutes when the score ballooned to 10-1. I know it's not the case, but I can't help but think had I not stopped listening to the game, things would have been different. While I was there, one of the guys in the class started talking about how the Yankee bullpen sucks. I wouldn't go as far as saying they suck, but there's definitely room for improvement, specifically with Veras and Marte.

Veras and Marte are the guys I don't want to see on the mound in a close game. The problem yesterday was that CC Sabathia didn't make it through 6 and that I'm sure impacted who Girardi sent out there and when. The problem with Veras and Marte is that they are wildly inconsistent. They're either really good or really bad. And it seems like more often than not, they're really bad. But yesterday wasn't all on them. The Yankees should have scored more than 1 run.

The Yankee offense was pretty brutal yesterday. If I told you before the game that the Yankees were going to rack up 9 hits and 8 walks, how many runs would you say they'd score? I guarantee nobody would say one. The team left 15 guys on base. Not good. Cody Ransom had the worst day (again) leaving 9 men on base. Let's look at Ransom's day at the plate:

• Struck out in 2nd with 1 out and Cano on 2nd
• Flied out to CF in 2nd with 1 out and Matusi on 1st
• Grounded into inning-ending fielder's choice in 5th with runners on 1st and 3rd
• Struck out in 7th with 2 out and runners on 1st and 2nd
• Grounded into game-ending DP with bases loaded in 9th

The Codester is killing us. He's 3-for-30 this season and is 2-for-18 with runners on base, and 1-for-11 with RISP. We really need A-Rod back and pronto. It doesn't help either that he leads the team in errors and has the lowest fielding percentage on the team. If he's not going to hit, he needs to at least field the ball well. The Cody Ransom experiment is failing miserably.

Another day game today. Ugh. I'll be listening on the radio and following along online. I hate weekday day games. Thankfully, they're aren't as many in the coming months. If I read the schedule correctly, there's one next week and then not again until Memorial Day, which is a holiday so that's not a problem. Joba makes start #2 today. I'm staying away from making any predictions. I just hope game #2 in the new digs goes much better than game #1.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Jeter's Late Inning Heroics Spark Yanks to 4-3 Win

What a way to end the opening road trip of the season! Andy Pettitte comes through with another great outing. Derek Jeter does what he does best and comes through in the clutch. Mo does his thing. The end result is a 4-3 Yankees win and a 5-4 record on the opening road trip. Not bad. I'll take it.

Andy Pettitte could very well be the best 4th starter in the game. Ah the hell with it. He is the best 4th starter in the game. Andy has kicked some serious ass in his 1st 2 starts. He wasn't as dominant as he was in his first outing but his start is definitely nothing to squawk at, especially considering it was against the Rays. Andy has impressed me so far. I was a little skeptical about how he'd do this year after his weak finish last year.

How awesome has Brian Bruney been since his first outing of the season? Here's how awesome: 4.2 IPs, no hits, no walks, and 10 Ks. He's faced 14 batters and whiffed 10 of them, including the last 5. Bruney in the 8th. Mo in the 9th. I am down with that. Speaking of Mo, another 1-2-3 inning for the master. I think Mo is going to have the best year if his career this year. Don't ask me why, call it a gut feeling. I predicted he'd finish the year with an ERA under 1.00 and he'd convert every save opportunity. I know it's early, but I'm loving his chances. Knock on wood.

Captain Clutch does it again. His leadoff double in the 8th leads to the tying run. His 2-out single in the 9th plates the winning run and the Yankees walk away winners. Jeter has always been clutch when it's needed most. Coming into today's game, the Captain was 3-4 with 2 outs and RISP, and hitting 500 with RISP. In 2008, he hit .328 with 2 outs and RISP. In '07, he hit .418. In '06, he hit .369 with 2 outs and RISP. You have to go back to 2005 to find a year where he hit below .300 (he hit .250). Since his rookie year, Jeter has hit .320 with 2-outs and RISP, .313 with RISP, and .319 with runners on. For my money, that's clutch. I want Jeter at the plate when the game is on the line. There's nobody better for my money.

Tomorrow is the home opener. I originally had the day off but something got rescheduled at work that going to make me miss it. I'm pretty bummed but what can you do? There's a lot going on here and I really couldn't afford to take the whole day off. So I'll have to DVR it and catch it on the radio. CC gets the honor of getting the 1st start in the new stadium and I hope he brings it. It would be great to see him keep things rolling. I made a prediction before his last start about how he'd do and he bested that prediction. So I'll throw another one out there: 6.2 IPs, 7 hits, 2 BBs, 11 Ks, 2 ER. That should be sufficient. Hopefully he delivers. Enjoy the game!

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Nady Out For Season??

Pete Abraham has an update in his latest post about Xavier Nady's injury. It's not official, meaning the team hasn't confirmed it, nut the MRI reportedly shows a tear and surgery is needed. If true, he's done for the year. I have mixed feelings about this. While I never want to see anyone get hurt and miss time, I'm not a Nady guy. As I've said before, I think he's overrated. But he's serviceable and having him on the roster gives the team some extra depth. It would allow Swisher to play first. It keeps Matsui (and Melky) out of the OF.

Assuming Nady is done for the season, this basically makes Swisher the everyday RF, which is something he should be anyway. Melky is now the 4th OF and I'm sure if Swisher ever has to play first, Melky can make the start in the OF. While it's not ideal, it would work. Hopefully, Mark Teixeira stays healthy because an OF of Melky, Gadner, and Damon isn't ideal for the long term.

The worst part of all of this is that the Yankees no longer have the option of using Swisher or Nady as trade bait. The Yankees were fielding offers all offseason for the two, and now the Yanks can pretty much forget about any of those. Considering they were looking to deal one of them, it's obvious the team can get by without them. Overall, the injury is not a huge blow to the Yankees, but it will definitely have an impact to the depth of the team. Everyone else needs to stay healthy. At least until Alex gets back.

Get well soon X.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Share Your Voice With The Voice

Just passing along that the guys over at The Voice of Yankees Universe have now opened up a message board. So if you're like me, and are passionate about the Yankees and want to lend your voice to The Voice, head on over and check it out. I like it a lot better than the forums you'll see at MLB.com or at the YES Network. From what I've seen, the board at The Voice is being visited and used by real fans and not trolls or fans that only like the Yankees because they think Derek Jeter is cute.

Give it a look. If you're a reader of any Yankee fan blog, you're sure to like it.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Reminder: Bernie Williams CD Is Out Now

Just a reminder to all of the Bernie fans out there that his new CD came out yesterday. Go out and show Bernie some love by picking up a copy. If you'd like to know more about it, you can read me review by clicking here.

If you'd like to check out a video of Bernie playing a song live on Good Day NY, click here.

Enjoy.

J-Boogie

A.J. Pitches A Beaute, I Pitch A Fit

Yeah, I got nowhere yesterday with Verizon. Apparently the local affiliate who carries the MY9 feed stopped providing their signal to FIOS. Needless to say I'm not happy. Basically, I'm out every game that's not carried on YES, ESPN, FOX, TBS, or the MLB Network. So as of now, it looks like I'll miss my fair share of games. Hopefully they're not all games like last night, because it was a beauty. Actually, I hope they are all like last night. I don't mind missing a game if the Yanks kick some tailfeathers.

I did catch one part of the game on the radio while I was booking to the grocery store to buy some snacks. The store is less than a mile away so I didn't hear much, but the one part I heard told me all I needed to know. I heard A.J. Burnett knock down Longoria and then whiff him looking. At the time, I didn't know it was "retaliation" for Garza knocking down Nicky Swish. I've got a lot of respect for Burnett for doing that. We haven't seen that a lot from the Yankee pitchers in recent years. Those days are over. I love it. It looks like Burnett pretty much dominated the whole night. He took a no-no into the 7th. He whiffed 9 while walking only 1. 8 innings, 103 pitches, 67 for strikes. That's a great night. That's 2 starts and 2 solid outings for Burnett. If A.J. can stay healthy, he;ll do great things. I wouldn't be shocked if he throws a no-no.

I saw the highlight of Garza knocking down Nick Swisher and then Swisher taking him yard. How awesome is that? Who is not loving Nicky Swish right now? I know there's been some light backlash on him since his relief outing (which I also missed), but come on people, lighten up. How can anyone have a problem with him keeping the ball from his first (and probably only) strikeout? Players keep balls all the time, usually, to mark a milestone or special achievement in their career. I'm sorry, but a position player pitching and picking up a K is a pretty cool thing. I'd have kept the ball too. Swisher has earned the right to start over Xavier Nady in my opinion. Swish is playing some good baseball. Nady is apparently injured, so Swisher should be a regular in the lineup. That makes me a happy camper.

Andy Pettitte makes start #2 today and if he can duplicate the outing he had the other day, expect good things. There's an obvious statement if there ever was one. A win today means the Yanks will have gone 5-4 on the opening road trip and that for me, is a good start. The home opener is tomorrow. As of now, I should be in front of the TV for it. Let's hope it stays that way.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie