You Go Mo

Halladay vs. Burnett in a battle for the ages and I'm going to be watching the finale of The Biggest Loser or some other stupid show. Thanks Verizon Fios for not carrying the channel that carries the games on My9. I certainly appreciate it. Normally, I'd be at this game since Toronto is pretty much in my backyard, but having a new 2 week old at home kind of put a dent in that trip. I was able to escape to Toronto for the afternoon though to try and get a few autographs. I made out OK picking up a Robinson Cano, Derek Jeter, and Mariano Rivera. I could have gotten many more but wasn't interested or had them already.

The best part of the day was when Mo got totally ticked off at a guy for trying to double-dip, which is "industry lingo" for trying to get more than 1 autograph. Mo said something along the lines of, "One is enough." And I didn't hear what the guy said but by Mo's reaction it was probably something along the lines of, "You didn't sign for me." Whatever he said, Mo pretty much lost it and went off on the dude. Mo kept yelling at him, "Didn't I sign a baseball? Didn't I sign a baseball?" Mo pretty much got right up in his grill and for a second I thought Mo was going to take a swing. The guy was fumbling around in his pocket looking for the baseball but Mo stormed off before he got the chance, throwing down a baseball card he took from someone else to sign. Woah. Mo is pretty much one of the nicest athletes I've ever come across and I was surprised at his reaction. I don't blame him though. Rule #1 when it comes to getting Mo's autograph is be polite, show some respect, get your one and move on. Mo has always been very gracious with his time, typically signing only once a trip so he doesn't get someone more than once. The guy who tried to double-dip wasn't a rookie either and should have known better.

Excuse my absence over the last few days but I was enjoying some time with the fam. I was disappointed that Hughes channeled his inner Chien-Ming Wang and got rocked on Saturday. The defense didn't do anything to help him out. I was cheering my you-know-what off when Damon put the team ahead on Sunday. Johnny is on fire. Joba had a rough go of things again in the 1st but settled down and pitched alright. As for the fist-pumping display by Aubrey Huff after his HR, I had no problem with it. I don't really get put off by anyone showing displays of emotion like that on the field. However, it wasn't really a display of emotion. It was a calculated move on Huff's part. I had a little beef with that but in the grand scheme of things it wasn't that big a deal.

3-0 Jays in the top of the 6th. Ugh. I'd be shocked if they could manage 4 runs off Halladay. I hate to say it, but this game is over.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

A-Rod Returns With A Bang And CC Stops The Losing Streak

Back in the win column. What a nice place to be.

Congratulations to Alex Rodriguez on hitting a 3-run home run on the first pitch he saw this season. I don't think it's possible to script a better start for Alex. HR on the first pitch. The game-winning RBI. Nice. I hope this is a sign of good things to come. My favorite part about it was watching the guys on the bench get all giddy. A-Rod's dinger could provide the spark to kick this team into high gear. Welcome back Alex!

Congratulations to CC Sabathia for taking the ball and not giving it off to anyone else. A complete game shutout! Now that's what I'm talking about! I couldn't be happier that the bullpen got the night off. His velocity was kicking. His control was on. 70% of his pitches were strikes. That's an awesome stat. CC's ERA is now a very very respectable 3.94. CC's heating up baby. CC is heating up.

Congratulations to Francisco Cervelli on picking up his 1st major league hit. Hopefully there are a lot more of those to follow. You're the man for the time being. Hit .250-.265 and I'll be happy.

Congratulations to Mark Teixeira for striking out 3 times. He has now struck out 22 times in 99 at-bats. Last year as an Angel, he struck out 23 times in 193 at-bats. I was hoping that the return of A-Rod would mean better pitches for Teixeira and he'd be racking up multi-hit game after multi-hit game. I guess that streak will have to wait for another day.

Keep it going Phil. Keep it going.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

You Have Got To Be Freaking Kidding Me!

Mariano Rivera just gave up back-to-back HRs! I am in an utter state of disbelief right now. It's like I wrote in a previous blog: If it ain't one reliever, it's a mother effin' 'nother. I never thought that guy would be Mo. Wow. He's now given up HRs in 3 of his last 5 outings and the 4 he's given up this year matches the total he gave up all of last season. Since 1996, the 1st year Mo was a full-time RP, the most HRs he's given up in a season is 5. There are 138 games left to play so there's a good chance he sets a career high. Wow.

So much for that pre-season prediction I made: Mo wouldn't blow a save all year and would finish with an ERA below 1.

This team is not in a good place right now.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Man Oh Manny

Manny Ramirez busted for PEDs?!?!? Wow. That puts a little dark cloud over those championships he won in Boston, wouldn't you say? And before anyone says that it wasn't a steroid, it doesn't matter. It's a banned substance, identified as a performance-enhancing drug. Period. End of story. Whether it was part of something prescribed by a doctor or not doesn't matter. Manny is now forever linked to PEDs.

How's that taste Sox fans?

J-Boogie

If It Ain't One Reliever, It's A Mother Effin' 'Nother

Phil Coke. Come on down. You're the next contestant on "It's Your Turn To Suck." Aargh. The Yankee bullpen is making me really sick. It's becoming very difficult to watch because you just now that something bad is going to happen. It's just a matter of who will crap the bed and when. Last night the who was Phil Coke, who was the last person, next to Mo, I expected to tank. Coke had been lights out up until the 1st batter he faced took him deep for the eventual game winner. In his previous 9 outings, he had pitched 7 scoreless innings, allowing only 2 hits and 1 walk. What surprised me the most about him giving up that longball was that he gave it up to a left-handed batter. Lefties were only hitting .158 off Coke. So I was a little shocked but at the same time, it's the Yankee bullpen, so it's to be expected.

When are the Yankees going to get off on the good foot? It's becoming the same story, game after game, year after year. They are start out tremendously bad and can't hit consistently with RISP. The Yanks are now 1 game below 500 at 13-14 and are 2 for their last 21 (.095) with RISP. Last year after 27 games, they were 14-13. In 2007, they were 12-15. They started out a little better in 2006 at 16-11, but were bad in 2005 @ 11-16. So 4 of the last 5 years, they've been slow out of the gate. This year they're hitting only .254 with RISP. The AL average is .277 and the major league average is .264. Last year, the Yanks hit .261 w/RISP. The AL average was .276 and the MLB average was .266. It's hard to believe when you look at the guys that make up the Yankee offense, that they're well below average. There is no way on God's green Earth that the Yankee offense should ever be below average. But it is, and I can't really think of a reason why. My only assumption is that they have the longball mentality where they're trying to jack it out of the park instead of keeping the line moving with base hits. As much as I'd like to blame Girardi for this, I can't. He's not the one swinging the bat. But it's his job to get his team to perform, and he's failing miserably when it comes to getting them to play to their potential.

I know they're playing in a new ballpark. I know they've played more away games than home games. I know A-Rod hasn't had a plate appearance yet. I know Chien-Ming Wang has an ERA of 34.50 and that Mark Teixeira is only hitting .209. If you take everything into account, 13-14 isn't all that bad. But the team is better than that and they need to start playing like it.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Are The Red Sox Really Better Than The Yankees?

I've been listening to a lot of sports talk on XM's MLB channel. Over the past few weeks, there has been a lot of mention that the Yankees are old compared to the Red Sox? This is coming from many of the show's hosts as well, and it's an argument people are making for why the Sox are better than the Yankees. It always struck me as being incorrect. Buck Martinez brought it up again today, and that prompted me to pull up the 40-man rosters and take a look at all of their birthdays. I did it all at a quick glance, so I could have made a math error, though I don't think I did. When I broke it down, the teams have the pretty much the same average age. If a guy's birthday was in the next week or so, like Josh Beckett whose b'day is 5/15, I rounded up. Follow me if you will:

Staring lineup:

• C: Posada and Varitek are both 37, Posada is about 8 months older
• 1B: Teixeira = 29, Youkilis = 30
• 2B: Cano = 26, Pedroia = 25
• SS: Jeter = 34, Lowrie = 25
• 3B: A-Rod = 33, Lowell = 35
• RF: Swisher = 28, Drew = 33
• CF: Cabrera = 24, Ellsbury = 25
• LF: Damon = 35, Bay = 30
• DH: Matsui = 34, Ortiz = 33

Yankees lineup = 280/9= 31.1, Sox lineup = 273/9= 30.3. The difference between Bay/Damon and Swisher/Drew basically negate each other. The only real major age difference is between the SS. Now you could substitute Julio Lugo (33) or Nick Green (30) for Jed Lowrie and that would make it about even. But for my money, Lowrie is the guy so the other 2 will be dropped down to the bench.

Rotation:

1. Joba = 23, Lester = 25
2. Hughes = 22, Masterson = 24
3. CC = 28, Dice-K = 28
4. Wang = 29, Beckett = 29
5. Burnett = 32, Penny = 31
6. Pettitte = 36, Wakefield = 42

Yankees rotation = 170/6=28.3. Sox rotation = 179/6= 29.8. So as a whole, the Yankees rotation is on average a full year younger.

Bullpen/other pitchers:

• Yankees = Rivera (39), Coke (26), Albaladejo (26), Bruney (27), Marte (34), Melancon (24), Ramirez (28), Robertson (24), Veras (28)
• Red Sox = Papelbon (28), Delcarmen (27), Jones (25), Lopez (31), Okajima (33), Ramirez (27), Saito (39), Bowden (22)

Yankees = 256/9= 28.4. Sox = 232/8 = 29. The Yanks have the Sox by about a 1/2 a year. Granted, there is a large age difference between the closers, Papelbon and Rivera, but can anyone really say that it matters? It's Mariano Rivera for crying out loud.

Bench:

• Yankees = Molina (33), Berroa (31), Pena (23), Ransom (33), Gardner (26), Nady (30)
• Red Sox = Kottaras (26), Green (30), Lugo (33), Bailey (30), Van Every (29), Baldelli (27)

Yankees bench = 176/6= 29.3. Sox bench = 175/6= 29.2. for all intents and purposes, a wash.

Now, you can flip guys around if you wanted to and probably change the argument. But if you look at the collective age of the 30 Yankees, 882/30= 29.4, and the 29 Red Sox, 859/29=29.6, you'll see that the Sox are actually a little older, albeit by a very small margin. Using age as an argument when comparing the 2 teams has no merit. The only argument you can probably make when it comes to the age difference is if you look at the ages of the 2 guys who put these teams together. Brian Cashman is going on 42. Theo Epstein is going on 36.

For my money, the Sox aren't that much better of a team than the Yankees. Offensively, the 2 teams are on par with each other. Both are hitting .276. Both are averaging 5.7 runs per game. The Sox have a slightly better OPS, .828 to .822. But I'd argue that the Yankees offense is better because A-Rod hasn't played yet. He's a HUGE upgrade over Ransom, Pena, and Berroa. Rumor has it A-Rod will be back Friday.

This may come as a shock to a lot of you, I know it did to me, but the ERA of the Yankees rotation (5.58) is actually lower than that of the Red Sox (5.61). Opposing teams are hitting .282 off Sox starters and .284 off Yankee starters. I'm kind of surprised by this. The teams are basically even when it comes to the rotation, which is surprising considering the outings of one Chien-Ming Wang. Yanks rotation better? Arguably. For my money, yes.

The biggest difference between the 2 teams is in the bullpen. God, the Yankees bullpen blows. The Sox pen is pitching to an ERA of 2.86, which is 2nd best in the AL and 2nd best in all of MLB. The Yankees clock in with a bullpen ERA of 6.35, which is 3rd from the bottom in the AL, and 3rd from the bottom in all of MLB. The Yankee bullpen is atrocious and Cashman needs to get on top of it right now. What's going on is unacceptable.

The Sox may be 3.5 games up on the Yankees, but I don't think they're much better of a ball club. They may have taken the first 5 games of the season between the two, but that doesn't mean much to me. There's a lot of baseball left to be played and it's going to be easier for the Yankees to get better than it will be for the Sox. Dice-K may be coming back. But so is Chien-Ming Wang. You can't say the Sox rotation will improve and the Yankees won't. That would be a subjective argument based on no facts whatsoever. The Yankees offense is taking a hit with the loss of Posada, but A-Rod is coming soon and Jorge will be back. The Sox are missing only Jed Lowrie. Can the Sox bullpen get better? If so, only by a small amount. The Yankees have lots of room to improve there. So get it on Cash while there's still time.

When the smoke clears and all is said and done, both teams will probably be in the playoffs. All things considered, I think the Yankees are in a very good position. Cash just needs to fix the pen.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Things That Make Me Sick

The following things makes me instantly want to hurl:

1. Jonathan Albaladejo
2. Mark Melancon (they're called strikes Mark. Try throwing some!)
3. Joe Girardi's management of the Yankee bullpen
4. The inconsistency of the Yankee bullpen
5. Drew Barrymore
6. Mark Teixeira hitting below 200 (he struck out 23 times in 193 ABs with the Angels, he's struck out 17 times in 86 ABs with the Yankees)
7. Selena Roberts
8. Losing to the Red Sox (again and again and again)

Aargh!!

J-Boogie

Thoughts On Yanks/Sox Game

I didn't see much of last night's Yankees/Sox game. I was dead tired as the little ones have been running me ragged. Our older so has been waking up throughout the night and has been waking up earlier and earlier each morning. Couple that with a 2 hour plus rain delay and you know why I couldn't stay up for the whole game. I think I made it through 4 innings. I remember seeing Phil Hughes give up 4 runs. i don't remember seeing Alfredo Aceves pitch. I don't have a lot of thoughts on the game, but I have a few.

I was a little disappointed in Phil's outing. I don't think he pitched poorly, but he definitely could have been better. It seemed like he was always behind in the counts, which is never a good thing. He walked 4 and only lasted 4 innings, throwing 94 pitches, 56 for strikes. The strike-to-ball ratio was so-so, and it looked like the home plate ump had a hitter-friendly strike zone on a few of his pitches. Phil is going to run into problems when he faces a patient lineup. He needs to be more economical with his pitches and throw more strikes, especially strike 1 on the first pitch. I didn't see that from him yesterday which is the main reason why he was chased after 4 IPs.

I fell asleep with the Yankees down 4-0. I didn't think they had a shot as Jon Lester was dealing. They couldn't touch him in the 4 innings I saw. I was really surprised to see that Mark Teixeira went yard twice. Maybe that will break him out of his season-long funk. Hopefully it's not just a Yankee Stadium thing. He's doing much better at home than he is on the road, hitting 78 percentage points higher with an OPS on the road of .618 and an OPS at home of .949. So yeah, maybe it is a Yankee Stadium thing. Hopefully he can build on last night's performance over this homestand and maybe that will boost his confidence. He needs to be better, a lot better.

I saw on Pete Abraham's blog that Jorge Posada suffered a hamstring strain. Oh joy. That's just what this team needs. The offense suffered a great deal last year without Posada's bat in the lineup. Losing Jorge for an extended period of time would not be good. If he goes down, Teixeira really needs to kick up his game. I know A-Rod is coming back real soon, and that will help, but it might not be enough. I think the pitching staff may have to carry this team if they're going to play baseball in October. The rotation is more than capable of doing it. It's the bullpen that worries me.

Beckett vs. Chamberlain tonight. I was awake last night to see Girardi yammering with the Red Sox first base coach. It would not surprise me in the least if somebody got plunked tonight. Hopefully, the rain stays away. According to weather.com, there's an 80% chance of rain with accumulation up to a 1/2 inch. That can't be good.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

My Obligatory Post About A-Rod

The game today absolutely sucked and I don't really want to write about it. So I figured what better time that now to write about the leaks from Selena Roberts upcoming book about A-Rod. It's not really something I wanted to write about but it's hard not to have an opinion on the matter. So here goes:

1. A-Rod reportedly tipped a Hooters waitress the standard 15%. Really? And we should care about this why? Is there a law out there that says the wealthy should tip more than 15%? Is there a law out there that says anyone has to leave any kind of a tip. It's a standard, not a law. And how do we know that the service didn't suck? How many of us can honestly say that they've never tipped below 15%. If this doesn't lay out Roberts' motives to totally blast A-Rod, I don't know what does.
2. A-Rod reportedly tipped pitches to opposing players in exchange for the same in return, so he could pad his stats. This seems like a wild accusation. I'm not even sure how this is possible and can even be kept a secret. I'd have to think that more people would be in on this than just Alex. I read that Alex used to call pitches when he was with Texas which would give him the opportunity. But to do something like this would be premeditated and the arrangement to do something like this would have to be made before the game. It seems like it would be hard to pull off. If MLB wants to investigate and reprimand Alex for this, I think they're stupid. I'm inclined to believe that things along this line happen in the game today. I'm sure that a pitcher has thrown an intentional meatball to someone. I'm sure that a catcher has probably told a hitter what pitch is coming. What I'm saying is that people are foolish if they think that the game is 100% played on the level by everyone involved. I'm not naive, I'm sure it goes down. How come nobody cared when Brett Favre stood there and let Michael Strahan sack him to break the sack record in the NFL? Isn't that kind of along the same lines? I don't recall there being a huge uproar over that?
3. A-Rod reportedly used steroids in high school and HGH while a member of the Yankees. We already know that Alex used steroids and quite frankly I don't care when he did. There are a lot of things in this world worse than someone using steroids. I don't really care.
4. A-Rod cheated on his wife. Again, who cares? I'm sure that a lot of married ballplayers cheat on their wives, probably more than those that don't. I wouldn't be surprised if they have arrangements along the lines of "I don't care what you do as long as I don't hear about it, and you don't bring home any diseases. As long as I've got this fancy house and car, do what you want." The problem here is that Alex's escapades become public knowledge and his wife probably had little choice but to divorce him. She was made a fool of in the public eye and standing by her man was no longer an option. Why doesn't anyone care about Kobe Bryant like they do about A-Rod? Kobe allegedly raped a girl and that story was over and done with rather quickly.

The real problem that I have with Roberts' book is that it only paints one side of the story. There have been multiple people coming out in recent days saying that these things didn't happen. Doug Mientkiewicz came out and said that he was 99.9% sure that Alex didn't use 'roids in high school. Buck Showalter and Michael Young came out and said that there was no way he was tipping pitches to opposing ballplayers. Yet their accounts are left out of the book. I think it's ridiculous that people are allowed to write things like this without providing both sides. I know that's how it goes, but it's ridiculous. Her claims are obviously unfounded and I think it's irresponsible for her to write them when there are people out there who are refuting her allegations. Maybe if she included that I'd respect her a little more. It's painfully obvious that Roberts' is setting out to do 2 things: 1)Paint A-Rod in the most negative light she can and 2)make a lot of money. I question her motivations and it makes me dislike her even more. I know she was right about Alex in her SI story, but I have my doubts about what I'm hearing now. Especially with guys like Mientkiewicz, Showalter, and Young adding in their 2 cents.

I really hope that no one out there buys her book. I don't really care what's in there and if it's true or not. It doesn't and wouldn't change my feelings about Alex as a ballplayer. I also don't know why anyone really cares that he's allegedly a bad person. Not tipping more than 15%. Cheating on his wife. Making a clubhouse kid put toothpaste on his toothbrush. Why should any of us really care? It's really sad that people out there, namely Selena Roberts, actually try to seek these things out.

How sad does one's life have to be to write a book like this? I hope it bombs and it all blows up in her face. Boycott the book folks. Boycott the book.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Yanks Win Is A Little Undeserved, But I'll Take It

I have mixed emotions right now. I am totally stoked that the Yankees pulled off a great come from behind victory tonight, battering the Angels bullpen for 6 runs on 7 hits over the final 2 innings. It was great to see them win that game, but had they played any other team, they probably would have lost. The Angels have the worst bullpen in all of baseball, entering tonight's game with a league worst bullpen ERA of 7.07. After tonight's debacle, it's up to 7.70. The Yanks definitely should have lost this game tonight. But they didn't, and that's all that matters. The winning streak is now at 4 games, which coincidentally is the exact # of days my newborn son Griffin has been home.

The offense came through again tonight. As a team they went 6-10 with RISP. That's 4 straight games where they've come through when they needed to. I love the fact that they're not doing it with the longball. The 8th inning saw a double, a walk, and 3 singles. The 9th inning saw a walk and 3 singles. I hope they're seeing what's happening out there. Keep the line moving with singles and doubles and the runs will pile up. I like what I'm seeing. I hope they keep it up.

The game tonight was definitely won by the bottom of the order. Hitters 1-4 went 2-for-16. Hitters 5-9 went 10-19 w/ 8 RBI. Robbie Cano is on absolute fire, going 3-5 tonight and raising that average to .378. Cano has really surprised me this year. He's locked in. I wish I could say the same for Mark Teixeira. Sorry Tex, but it's now May, the .189 average doesn't cut it. The game tonight was definitely won by the bottom of the order. Ramiro Pena has been a pleasant surprise. Since becoming the everyday third baseman, he's gone 8-for-17 with 4 RBI, 4 clutch RBI if you will. Suck on that Cody Ransom. Your days in pinstripes may be done.

I thought the Yankees' pitching staff was supposed to be leaps and bounds better than it has been in previous years. I thought the Yankees' pitching staff was supposed to be the team's biggest strength. They've shown brilliance at times but for the most part, they've been awful, especially the bullpen. It's absolutely atrocious. Unless your name is Brian Bruney, Mariano Rivera, and maybe Phil Coke, I don't trust you and I expect that you're going to tank more often than you won't. The pitching staff needs to be better. A lot better.

Andy Pettitte did not have it today. He pretty much struggled from the get go. I'm kind of surprised he only allowed runs in one inning. He allowed 2 baserunners to reach in the 1st, getting out of the inning on a classic Andy Pettitte pickoff. He allowed a baserunner in the 2nd and got out of the inning on a DP. He allowed 2 baserunners in the 3rd, another in the 4th, and another in the 5th. He pretty much grinded his way through the first 5 innings. He wasn't good but he got the job done. Then the wheels fell off and he imploded in the 6th. Overall, it wasn't a good day for AP. He struggled with his control, walking 4 and throwing only 61 of his 108 pitches for strikes. It was his first poor outing of the season and I'll let it slide. A pitcher isn't going to be lights out every time he starts. As long as it doesn't become a habit, I'm cool with it.

Today's relievers that crapped the bed were Jose Veras and Mark Melancon. Melancon came on in a big spot in the 6th. It was his 1st real test at the big league level and he failed miserably, allowing a 3-run triple. I like what I've seen from Melancon, but then again, every other reliever has looked good at one point. Jose Veras sucked tonight, but has looked good about half the time. This was his 10th appearance and for my money he's done alright in 5 of them. Thankfully for the Yanks, Edwar Ramirez and Jonathan Albaladejo didn't suck tonight. Albie pitched well, but is coming off 2 really bad outings. Same goes for Edwar. My point is you never know what you're going to get with these guys. The bullpen ERA is now 6.66, which is the 29th worst bullpen ERA in all of MLB. Like I said above, unless your last name is Rivera or Bruney, and maybe Coke, I don't trust you. I'm scared every time I see everyone else warming up, and that's not good.

The Yanks look to keep things rolling tomorrow afternoon when CC Sabathia makes start #6. CC, like the rest of the pitching staff, has been inconsistent this year as well. I really don't have any idea what to expect. Good things I hope. I'll make sure Griffin is around to try and keep the streak going.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie