On the Yankees beat

Yeah Cano knows he has played poorly. But positive attitudes makes life easier.

Hey Kat hope to see you again today , I still laugh at the look on your face when i said your name.

At least Cano is aware of his short comings so far this season. He does have the look of such a relaxed player that he has no idea whether he's playing in a sandlot game or before 55K in the stands.

Girardi finally allowed his emotions to come out. Joe being of Italian decent couldn't hide it much longer not the way this season has been going. But I like his fire, I could just look back at Don Mattingly elbowing Joe Torre. Torre going to home plate and telling the umpire. I believe that was a bad call and walk back to the dugout, scratching his head.

Lets hope this team enjoyed last night and keeps the fire going.

Nice job by Kennedy, give these kids a chance.

Strange that last night was the first win in the 9th inning in the 2008 season i do believe. In recent years past it has happened earlier, yet I guess yanks are saving them for july, august and september.

kennedy pitched well enough to win, yet more impressive was veras and farnsworth coming in and pitching well too. dont crucify me for this, but if farnsworth builds up some more confidence in his pitching skills and from girardi, he could be an instramental part to the summer and winning close ball games.

i loved girardi coming out of the dugout. if the ump waitied any longer to hear ramon hernadez's explaination of how the ball hit giambis bat, another pitch might have been thrown!

starting 2 nights ago, you can see cano start to chop the ball into LF, hence not always trying to pull the ball. that might be a sign to come in breaking out of early season slump.

got some good pitching matchups this weekend - yanks need 2/3 and head on to road trip winning 4 / 6.

Way to go Ian! Working out of that jam in the third inning had to give him a boost and the fans did their part as well, just like true baseball fans should.

I personally don't need to see my team's manager acting like a fool all the time but if it fires up the guys, I'm cool with it. I find Lou Piniella's act to be a little embarrassing at times so I hope Girardi doesn't make a habit of it.

Larry: I've often heard that behind closed doors, nobody could fire up a team like Joe Torre could. He sort of reminded me of Joe Gibbs during his first tenure with the Redskins. I heard an interview with a 325lb lineman who was asked how Gibbs could fire up a team when he always seemed so stoic and was such a quiet guy. The lineman said "if we were losing at half time, he would close the door and scare the living daylights out of all of us, all without saying one curse word" (Gibbs is a really religious dude and doesn't curse).

Bomber: Take Andy Pettitte aside and do what you have to do to get him back on track, the Yanks need him badly. Then you can catch Giambi and so forth....just work your way through the roster.
Maybe I'll hire you to come down here to Virginia and fire up my staff at work, they're dragging a little lately :)
Oh, and Kat probably got worried that some old college flame was coming back to haunt her! Ease up Kat, you're one of us.

Speaking of Shelley Duncan getting fired up (previous thread), did anyone see his elbow catch A-Rod in the head while he was jumping around after Cano's hit? That worried me a bit.

jim a, larry, diane et al,

re girardi, i think we all realized that his tantrum was somewhat premeditated, and it was funny/embarassing i agree, but just from the reaction of the fans you could see how much we thirst a sign of life from our skipper, after the last 7 years of pulse-less joe.

i think girardi has done a fine job so far (though i would like to see more movement on the bases a-la smallball), and has no blame for the record. despite weird rumors in the papers, i see no scenario where he doesn't finish his full contract at least.

what do you think of the following trade idea?:
there aren't going to be a lot of sellers this year, since races are so tight, but one seller for sure are going to be the reds.
they want to get rid of griffey/dunn or both's contracts. if they were to send harang as well, i'd pull the trigger.
harang is signed through 2011 for an average of 12 mil, is 30 years old, has good stuff, very good ERA (though that would climb up in the AL) and most of all - he eats up innings.

if our near future is to include several young pitchers with inning limitations and learning curve, we need work horse. dunn or griffey can be plugged into the DH slot when giambi is gone, and even the outfield occasionally. and because it's basically salary relief for the reds, the price can be reasonable. just a thought...

I've been waiting for Joe to wake up. I was beginning to think he was morphing into JT. Maybe just a coincidence, but the team DID rally to win right after the Billy Martin impersonation!!! I loved it!!! Something needs to wake this team up.

Thank the baseball gods that Joe Girardi has now caught up with Joe Torre on ejections for the year, it was getting embarrassing that JT had been tossed and JG was still sitting there sipping whatever that whey stuff is... LOL

Gil,
The Yanks don't need anymore LH hitters and I don't really like Dunn's strikeout ratio and the fact that he is an awful outfielder bothers me too. He'd be just another DH on a club full of them at this point. Harang is nice though and if the Reds were dumb enough to trade him then maybe the Yanks could put something together with prospects to get him.
Just my opinion there...

I'd stay far away from guys like Griffey or Dunn. Griffey is way too much of a health risk and the Yanks don't need any more DHs anyways.

Matsui is going to be the everyday DH next season with Giambi gone. Hell, Matsui is the everyday DH now except when Girardi wants to give Damon or Melky a rest.

I don't get why people often rip Torre for "sleeping on the bench" or however they like to characterize his approach.

But there's one thing that the Yanks always did with Torre is make the postseason every season he wore the pinstripes. Regardless what people think of him, he deserves more respect than he's been given.

That said, I do like Girardi and agree that his actions last night were undoubtedly premeditated. And that's fine.

I guess Girardi felt he needed to liven the crowd up a bit but I don't think that kind of stuff really has much effect on a bunch of millionaires who have been around this game for a long time. That kind of stuff probably has more of an impact on the rookies and young kids.

Oh yeah, hey Rick. I guess you were wrong about Joba not making the switch in the middle of the season.

You guaranteed not long ago that it would never happen. Just thought I'd remind you.

But hey, at least you did well in fantasy baseball last season.

I mentioned a few threads back that I thought the Yanks shouldn't have handed jobs to Hughes and Kennedy before ST started. They should have had to EARN the spots. You know, have them come in "hungry". No way to know, but just maybe Kennedy pitched better last night because the transition of Joba is now in effect and the GREAT job Rasner has been doing (with little fan fare). Sometimes players need that little extra "incentive" to get them in the right frame of mind...IMO

For me the great thing last night was seeing Kennedy pitch like the guy I liked last year!

He dropped his average number of pitches pitched per inning (this year) significantly in this game.

He used his curve more, and to good effect, throwing it for strikes and also getting that double play in the second on a curve. Using three pitches made his fastball more effective.

He worked out of the jams he got into instead of imploding.

I was beginning to think I had imagined that Kennedy, but no, he came back.

I just hope he'll stick around. We could use him.

P.S. Rick:

You may be right that seeing Rasner and Joba pass him by in rotation-worthiness may have given him a healthy jolt.

I would imagine that the Yanks feel that they are catching lightning in a bottle with the stellar pitching of Rasner and probably don't expect it to last very long.

And they shouldn't.

That said, I hope he keeps it up for awhile because they really need that stability in the back of that rotation until the young guns like Joba and Hughes do their thing.

I would expect something similar with Hughes that happened last season. He will come back from injury and struggle for a few starts and then he'll get his mojo back and look like the Hughes we saw last September and October.

Why can't Rasner keep it up? He obviously has the mental approach right (the main ingredient to me), and there are alot of major league SP's with worse "stuff". Moyer is still pitching and K. Rogers, etc. There's alot of old guys still pitching that don't have "stuff". Perhaps Rasner CAN keep it up and be a solid #5 guy for us???

Rick, it would certainly be helpful to the team if Rasner can continue to pitch well. A solid, stable, predictable presence in the back of the rotation is a gift.

When Kennedy got out of that Jam in the 2nd, I thought "Man, this could be a turnaround moment."

So my Newsday Yankee friends. Remember the date May 23 at 8:26 AM PDT.

Your Red Sox fan friend Sully is saying "The Yankees are making the playoffs."

And if anyone on the board says I am a lunatic Red Sox fan blind with rage and incapable of complimenting the Yankees, I will remind you of the event of May 23 at 8:26 AM.

The Yankees are playing this October.
I'm not saying how far they'll go... but they are turning it around this year.

OK, back to debating Joba's role

Glad we actually have a manager with fire. Great to see the hat toss and the kick. Girardi did his job and got his butt off the bench and we had a great walk-off victory. Let's keep this going!

While I was watching that 3rd inning last night I thought to myself "here we go again with this kid". He found a way to get it done (thanks to a helpful call on the 2-1 count to Huff) and he settled down and threw a solid game. It was really nice to see them get that BIG 2 out hit and win the game. I agree with what a few of you posted concerning the fact that the Joba move may have been the kick in the pants that Kennedy needed, coupled with the fact that Rasner has thrown 3 good games for the Yanks.
Farnsworth had a nice 7 pitch inning last night and I hope that it's a sign of things to come. (keep my fingers crossed!!!).

Bronx Bomber, glad to know that was you. Sorry I couldn't stop and chat -- I was running late for a press conference. The Yankees have started doing bilingual press conferences with some of the Spanish-speaking players, and yesterday it was Melky Cabrera's turn. Since Melky's normally so shy, I didn't want to miss any of that one.

Sully,

No one has ever accused you of being anti-Yankee to the point where you have lost your common sense or sense of reality. I recall throughout most of the winter where you had been predicting a typical Yankee/Red Sox battle, 94-96 wins each, and playoff appearances. But I have marked 23 May, 1126 hours East Coast time on my calendar as a reminder.

Sweeny Murtri's blog on WFAN.com is a good read today on the Joba debate.

Great win last night, folks. As some have mentioned above, Kennedy and Cano were the best part, and it was nice to see some fire from Joe G--and that's no reflection on Joe Torre whatsoever. They're different men with different styles, and if I remember correctly, Torre's was pretty effective around here for a good long time. Whatever the fans say, you don't find any ballplayers knocking him--at least not any emotionally stable ones.

As for Ian, I don't buy the Joba/Rasner pressure concept. It's a neat theory, but the kid already looked good last start, pitching out of a tough jam, going after hitters in the loss. He's been pretty open about not having the right frame of mind at the start of the season, and said earlier this week that the trip to Scranton really shook him up and set him right mentally. Granted, a little extra competition ain't gonna hurt his competitive juices, but I don't think fear as motivation is what we saw last night. Even Joe said he looked much better in his first start back. I'd prefer to think the kid set himself straight in Scranton and just needed a start to warm up. Plus, I get the feeling he's the most cerebral of the three young guns (which he needs to be, cause he sure doesn't have the other guys' stuff), so if his head's not right, he's got no game. Earlier in the year he was throwing a BB/IP; now he's thrown--what, all of 2 or 3?--since he's been back? Michael Kay says he's at best a 3, probably a 4 or 5 starter--but I have faith in the kid. I mean, come on, he's only like 12. He's gonna improve.

As for Cano, is anyone else starting to get the feeling that he's one of those guys who just can't play in cold weather? Thing is, he could be hitting .180 on June 1 and rack up 20 hits in the next week. My bet is he'll be hitting .300 before July. He's just not going to make too many All-Star teams. So what? He'll make up for it with batting titles, and--who knows?--maybe an MVP down the road.

DC Yank,

The difference between Kennedy last time out and Kennedy yesterday was big. Last time out he was still relying on two pitches (with the exception of 2 curve balls), he was still getting into high pitch counts early, and he was still not able to keep himself steady when he got into a jam.

You may be right in thinking that Rasner and Joba getting into the fast lane had no significant effect, but that would be more believable if he had shown himself to be unaffected by mental factors before.

We can't be sure whether the combination one-two punch of being sent down and being passed up were part of the equation, but it's not a farfetched notion.

Cano made 3 outs on 4 pitches before his hit - I'm not ready to see a turn around yet.

John G,
Where do you find Michael Kay's show on the 'net? I'm like you, I don't really care that he's obnoxious, I just want my NY sports fix here in VA. Thanks!

DC,

The kid hasn't looked good all season so far, except for that start at Scranton. He didn't pitch good against Tampa Bay in his prior start, and last night was the best that's he looked with the Yanks.
Is the fact that Joba is going into the rotation a factor in the way that he pitched last night? It's possible, not saying that's the reason. I happen to agree with it. It's just an opinion and there are no hard facts here.

Jon K,

What is more, if DC Yank is right and Cano just can't play except in hot weather, NYY may have an ugly choice: either resign themselves to two months of zero performance from him every year, or trade him to some southern team for a guy that can play six or seven months instead of four or five.

Jim,

Try this link:
http://sports.espn.go.com/stations/1050espnradio/story?id=listenlive

It's ESPNRadio.com.

Wait a minute! Don't you have XM? If you do, I believe that it's channel 141. His show starts at 3PM your time.

John,
I do have XM, I just never saw it on there, I just always looked for Michael Kay's name on the the radio. Thanks for the tip(s)!

be prepared Jim as he doesn't just talk about the Yanks. He talks about all of the NY teams and whatever is going on in sports.

Diane

I'm always intrigued by the 2 meanings of "resign."

Cano will be fine. Everyone makes to big of a deal about his 2nd slow start in 2 years.

2006 he did not get off to a slow start at all. 2005 was not a great start but his average was around .260-.280 after the first few months.

I think it has a lot to do with his approach in spring training. I`am obviously not with him to see how he gets ready for the season but if I have to guess he is not working enough on his patience and eye at the plate. I don't think it has much to do with the weather since he has been fine coming out the gate some years.

Jon K.,

Me, too, especially since that distant day when I resigned 'from' a good position rather than resign myself 'to' the organizational practices around me...

Maybe I'm just too mean to live, but Cano wasting the team's time while everybody else is assembled for a picture, pouting in the corner until people come to dig him out, is not cute in my eyes.

Diane, he really was not holding the picture up. People were just filing out. I don't think any other players were still in there, but a couple coaches were. It didn't strike me as pouting.

Kat,

I guess I AM too mean to live... :-D

But your description sure made it sound like more than that he just happened to be at the end of the line filing out:

"Every other player had already gone out for the picture. Cano was still inside, quasi-hiding in the hallway between the clubhouse and the manager's/coaches' office. A member of the support staff, can't remember who, said, "Come on, Robby, time for the picture." He protested and stayed there" ... etc.