On the Yankees beat

Hank has every right to be ticked. Team is playing awfully right now. As I said on the last string, it's easy to say they should start running and playing like a younger team, but the bottom line is that guys like Abreu, Damon and Jeter are a step slower than they once were; Giambi and Matsui are not runners, Molina is not a hitter.

BTW for those who wanted to know the fate of Kevin Whalen - he's back from injury and pitching in A ball. It was his activation that led to the flurry of moves that resulted in Mark Melancon moving up to AA and JB Cox going up to AAA

The SWEEP is on!!!!

Go Tampa Bay!

I miss Posada.

I think we need Shelly Duncan to be in charge of a night on the down, David Wells style...

Maybe a good night of drinking and gallivanting around town will get them energized.

Managers must adapt their tactics to the players they actually have. Girardi could send the Marlins darting around the field because he had more kids on that team than any squad in modern history -- not only were they young and spry, but they needed micro-management. I'd be willing to bet that a thought passed through his mind that season that he could win so many more games if only he had a team like the Yankees! Be careful what you wish for...

Anyway now he's got a different situation to handle and he's struggling a bit. Not too surprising. I believe he'll figure it out, and with Alex and Jorge back in the lineup he'll have more to work with, so better days are not too far away. IMO.

Rays sweep 4th team this year! Red Sox-Jays-Angels-now Yanks! Last place after tonite!!

Just a comment that is a few days too late... but.... Matt Garza basically shut the Yankees down a couple nights ago throwing nothing but straight fastballs for 5 or 6 innings at about 90 to 93 MPH.

HIs fastball doesn't even have a wrinkle in it....???

He hardly threw a curve through until about the 6th or 7th (my recollection)... and yet all we hear about with Farnsworth is "he can throw 99 MPH... but his fastball is straight and major leaguers can hit a straight 99 MPH fastball...."

What gives...???

Do the Yankees all overswing....?

Same can be said about Jackson last night... don't you think?

doc, the way most of the Yankees hitters were playing last night, Kei Igawa could baffle them at the plate.

DOC

Currently this NY team isn't hungry.To many millionaires running around underachieving.
Abreu stands around at homeplate w/ his face up his butt.
Giambi has so much admitted he will not hit groundballs to the left side of the infield for singles but instead looks idiotic trying to crush each ball in his wheelhouse + he can't turn on an above average fastball.
Cano ??????
Melky's down in the .260s
Molina can't buy a hit.

The only 3 guys who seem to have a clue right now are Damon,Jeter and Matsui.

*We've got to forget about all the injuries and start playing our butts off.

*(They've) got to start playing the way the Rays are playing. (The Yankees) need to start treating it like when they were younger players and going after that big contract, like they're in (Triple-A) and trying to make the majors.

Say Hey Stank,

Dumb strikes again huh? Freakin' hilarious. Another laugh riot of a quote machine. WE have to start playing OUR butts off.......earth to Stank.....YOU aren't on the team! YOU cant play checkers nuch more baseball. So stop talking in the first person when you are talking about other people. Stupid being stupid I guess. Good for a bellyaching laugh though.

Second note to Stank. YOUR TEAM IS PLAYING LIKE THEY ARE IN AAA. Thats why they are losing.....because they are playing Major League teams....duhhhhhhh. What a joke! Have you been watching this laughing stock lot of AAA players your paying 200M to? Do the in the least bit resemble big league players? So what else do you expect to see? I don't expect my dog to talk to me even though that would be fun....so why do you expect losers to be winners?

Whats funnier....your team playing, or you press releases? Thats a tough one because I peed my pants looking at both of them i laughed so much. Stanks for the memories!!

So, tell me again, where am I wrong?

Say Hey,
Your pitcher got rattled by "guys chanting like a girls softball team". Laugh all you want, but that was funnier than anything Hank has talked about.

So tell me, where I am I wrong?

Oops...type-o at 13:56. Remover first "I" please.

Jimbo baby,

Your inflicted with Stankitis because you say....Your team as if I own one. Oh BTW funny guy...my rattled team has a record that your hilarious collection of AAA hitters and AA pitchers would enjoy having. Then again probably not because your jokesters seem to really love to STANK it up. Just to keep the big dumb guy happy.

Jimmy boy, look at this list of punchlines.........

Shelly Duncan..
Ian Kennedy..
Robbie Cano..
Jason Giambi..
Bobby "Flaming Wall" Abreu..
Wilson Betemit..
Morgan Ensberg..
Jose Molina..
Phillip Hughes..

Not one of these clowns could make my rattled teams roster much less get playing time or even be starters as they are on your joke squad.

Careful reading that list it could be risky to those with a weak heart.

Also dont expect me to respond anymore because I am NOT interested in having a conversation with a bunch of whiney complaining fantasists who still live in 1997 and haven't woken up to the fact that their cherished Yankees are once again the laughing stock of the professional sports world.....Yes now that the Knicks offed their joke and hired serious people the Yanks are officially the funniest sports organization not only in NY but in all of the sports world. Stank we couldn't have done it without you (Note: I spoke in first person for the benefit of those with Stankisitis).

So, tell me again, where am I wrong?

When I say "your team" I mean the one you root for. Just like I consider the Yankees "my team" and you know what, they do suck right now but they will improve, unlike "your" team which is peaking against.....the Nationals.

Let's list the "jokes" on the Mets, shall we:
Oliver Perez
Pedro Martinez
Moises Alou
Carlos Delgado
Luis Castillo
Nelson Figeuroa
Aaron Heilman
Endy Chavez
Billy "Team Chemistry" Wagner
Jorge Sosa
Mike Pelfrey
Oh and let's not forget that Fernando Tatis is a Met.

JimA,

Careful...Tatis is batting 1.000

You got me Nudge.....curses! Foiled again!

Jim,

Figueroa was cut - there's a reason why he was in the Mexican League last year - just took the Mets a little while to figure that out. (now watch the Yankees go and sign him and I have to talk about how great Figueroa is)

Speaking of the bloom being off the rose - looks like Shelley Duncan's magic carpet ride could be coming to an end any day now. He's not hitting for power, not hitting for average, not making productive outs.

Jim A,

I with you on Delgado Heilmann and Chavez

Pedro, Sosa and Figeuroa aren't on the 25 man roster

But Castillo even with off year stats can still do the fundamentals
Perez would be # 3 pitcher for Yanks and Pelfrey is a #5 currently acting as a #4 till Pedro comes back. As a #5 he is OK...as #4 a disappointment. I want a #5 to keep my team in the game for 6 innings most the time and he has done that. Wagner has been outstanding. No earned runs and a WHIP of like .6. Him and Mariano were the only 2 closers till recently that had not given up an earned run.

You should have added Vargas and Matt Wise to your list! Ill allow you roster replacements.

Jim A

Thats me somehow can thru as the dreaded Anon

Say Hey...

You must be kidding me with that last response. The laughing-stock? Dude....please stop. You're not even out to make sense, and if you are...um...I'm sorry for you.

Michael Kay is ripping Giambalco on his radio show. He says that the guy refuses to go the other way. He's not hitting HRs anyway so why not lay one down the 3B line for a hit. Delgado did it yesterday.
I couldn't have said it better myself. Oh wait; I did, a few times already. Some guy is defending Giambi now. Is that you, Jim? (hahaha).

Kay is saying take Giambi out of the lineup when Posada comes back. Make Posada the DH if he still can't throw, and put either Damon or Matsui at 1st. 86 the Roid Boy.

Oh God, here we go again. Making everybody a first baseman. Didn't the Sheffield/Duncan/Piazza experiments prove anything to these guys. First base is the 3rd most important defensive position on your team. The 1B handles more chances than anyone but the catchers so why is it always taken so lightly as if anyone can play it?

John G:

It's easy for you, me, or Michael Kay to tell Giambi what he should or should not do at the plate. Also easy for us to say "hand this guy or that guy a first baseman's glove and make him a first baseman" but it isn't that easy. What's to say they can play first? Sheffield couldn't. Piazza couldn't. Bottom line is this - even if we assume Giambi can get a bunt down in fair territory down the 3b line that won't get teams to stop shifting against him.

As for him not hitting for power - while 7 HR is nothing to write home about, and 5 of them have come off of 2 pitchers - he does lead the Yankees in HR.

Listen, I'm not saying Giambi is playing well - but with Posada and Alex out of the lineup we don't need Giambi dropping down bunt singles - we need him hitting for power.

I feel dirty when I agree with Nudge.

Chip,

No problem, just hop in the shower.

Chip,

Yeah, he's got 7 HRs as you said, but how many of the were solo shots? I don't even know but I'm guessing that you do. How many times has he come to plate with RISP and do what? ground out to the short right fielder? Strike out? Unless/until he starts going the other way at least once in a while, don't expect much from him cause i sure won't.
I don't care about the Home runs. I'd just like to see a big hit once in a blue moon.
As far as 1st goes, I know it's not easy to play there and right now Giambi is the best option. But I'm guessing that Kay made that suggestion as a way to get more offense in the lineup. A .190 BA ain't cuttin' it for the Yanks.

John G:

I don't want to defend Giambi, but he's certainly not the biggest culprit for the Yankees' offensive woes. He's got 20 RBI in 98 at bats. He's still getting on base at an impressive clip (.354).

All fans of NY teams are a tough to please lot, aren't we?

I'll start to look at the bright side in all of this.

Does anyone know where the bright side went?

"I'm not saying they are not giving the effort, but they need to be playing harder"

con·tra·dic·tion
a statement or proposition that contradicts or denies another or itself and is logically incongruous.

I really love me some Steinbrenner, whatever is in their blood, they need to bottle it up and sell it.

Im with you guys on 86ing Giambi, very sick of him.

John G, the bright side? We are shedding some fair weather fans, we are shedding payroll and dead weight after this season...and...uhm...well.........it can only get better??? Yeah lets go with that.

Chip - "Kevin Whalen - he's back from injury and pitching in A ball. It was his activation that led to the flurry of moves that resulted in Mark Melancon moving up to AA and JB Cox going up to AAA"

Nice, so Cox is in Scranton already? Very good news.

You're right Chip. He's not the only culprit and there's enough blame to go around. Some of Abreu's ABs are awful. He's taking good pitches for called 3rd strikes and is always falling behind in the count. Cano is in a God awful slump and Ensberg and Molina are what they are.
I got a little miffed these past 2 games because they were games that were set up well for the Yanks with Pettite and Wang pitching. Now there's a good chance that the Yanks are going to get swept because the pitching match ups favor TB.
Dru,
Exactly! LOL

All that I can say right now is Thank God that I'm bowling in 2 leagues this summer!

Dru - Yeah Cox made his first appearance for Scranton last night.

John G - Hey believe me I understand the frustration. But dumping Giambi because he doesn't hit the ball down the 3rd base line isn't really helpful. If the Yankees had a ready to go replacement in AAA or sitting on the bench I would be all for it. Juan Miranda is not doing much offensively and Eric Duncan has cooled a bit as well - thus limiting the team's options.

For this year though, we're going to have to suffer through Giambi and we can throw a parade when the Yankees buy out his option at the end of the season. If a better option pops up I'm all for it. For now though, the only one I can think of who would be available is Richie Sexson who is Giambi minus the on base percentage

Im ready for the Yanks to clean house. It really sucks that we cant move any of our players for young talent. Would Santana really be making a difference right now? Who would be playing CF for us? With the way the Sox and Rays are setup, there is only one way to "keep up with the Joneses", get more young talent. This year we are paying for past mistakes. The foreclosure notice is in, we dodged the reaper for too long, time to pay up. Even though I think Hank is a Looney Toon, he does have a point. Since the Yanks won their last WS, they are like Rocky Balboa in Rocky III. If you remember in the beginning, Rock was confident, cocky, on top of the world…but at the same time, getting soft. Forgotten was the blood sweat and tears that made him a champ. This has been the Yanks over the past 7 years, from the front office to the players to the bat boy, they aren’t hungry like they were in the 90’s. They’ve lost that “eye of the tiger”. Only one way to get that back, get hungry again. Refuse to lose like we did back in 98. Come together as a team, from the ¼ Billion Dollar man, to the rook being called up from Scranton. That may still happen this year, still lots of time left, or it may take the house cleaning after this season to rid ourselves of the Pavano/Giambi curse. Get fresh blood and youthful enthusiasm to inject some life into this team. Clean house, sign good young FA’s and bring up more minor league players. Either way, its time to get some fight back into this team.

One more thing on young talent, cant miss prospect Clay Buchholz has an ERA in the 5's, was just put on the DL for a finger nail and will most likely be sent down when Fat Bart Colon is ready. Clay, Phil, Ian and kids like Homer Bailey, Nick Adenhart, Johnny Cueto, Max Sherzer, Clayton Kershaw and now even Jered Weaver are having hard times translating their A stuff into the bigs. Like Ive said before, patience is needed with these talented young arms. I bet in 5 years the above players will all be #1's or #2s' for their teams. Let me put it this way, even if you had a prime cut of beef, but wanted to cook it fast by throwing it in the microwave, in the end you would be left with nothing more than cardboard. These prime cuts need to be marinated, tenderized, seasoned and then cooked to get the optimum taste. What am I talking about? I have no friggen idea, but it sounded right.

GO YANKS!!!!!!

How old are Jeter, Damon, and Matsui?

They're the guys who are hitting.

How old are Wang, Mussina and Pettite?

They're the guys who are pitching.

What's the average age of the six of them?

On average, how many years have they been playing?

'Young talent' isn't the answer to everything.

Okay, add Rasner if you feel like it, that'll bring the average down slightly.

Ahh, Sully Diane back at it again.

Response: For the long term question of how are we going to compete with the 'Young Talent' of the Sox and Rays, the answer IS "get more young talent". I would love to hear your suggestion? Is it to get more guys the age of Damon, Matsui, Moose and Andy? I sure hope not.

Cox was promoted to SWB and Melancon to Trenton, but it wasn't set in motion by Whelan. Jason Brown was put on the DL and SWB already had 3 catchers, so they could get by with 2 for the time being. They were short on bullpen arms and Cox was the most ready from Trenton. Melancon was the most ready from Tampa and Whelan was activated as a result, because the timing was right and a roster space opened up.

Dru,

The answer is always to keep a balance between developed and developing players, and to remember that the most productive years are 25-35. Too many guys under 25 and you're in trouble. Same thing with too many over.

Balance in all things. So again: young talent is not the answer to everything. Got it?

And Dru? Please do me the courtesy of calling me by my name.

Oops!

Shoulda been 'too many over 35'.

Sorry.

Call you by your name? I thought I did, oh, the Sully part got you upset did it? Well my mom always told me if the shoe fits.

You did bring up a very good point Diane, balance. Lets have a peak at the Yanks roster shall we?

C - Posada = 36 / 37
C - Molina = 32 / 33
1B - Giambi = 37
2B - Cano = 25 / 26
3B - Arod = 32 / 33
SS - Jeter = 33 / 34
OF - Abreu = 33 / 34
OF - Damon = 34 / 35
OF - Matsui = 33 / 34
OF - Melk = 23 / 24

SP - Wang = 28
SP - Andy = 35 / 36
SP - Moose = 39 / 40
SP - Rasner = 27
SP - IPK = 23 / 24
SP - Hughes = 21 / 22

CL = Rivera = 38 / 39

So Diane, by your calculations, does that look like a balanced team to you? 2 position players under 32 /33 ? Two SP's over 35? A closer nearing 40? So thats 5 starters out of 15 that are under the age of 30, would you say that adding some youth to that team is needed? By your calculations of balance, it seems like a necessity. Wouldnt you say....Diane? So again, since you never answered the question. How would you fix the yanks? Trade some of our under 25 players for guys the age of Matsui, Damon, Jeter and Moose? I suggested that the yanks try to get younger, now I know this is not possible at this juncture because of all the bad contracts the olders vets have, such as Abreu, Moose, Giambi, Matsui, Damon, but again, the Yanks need to get younger. If you think the Rays are good now, just wait until David Price comes up. The Sox have Ellsbury, Pedrio, Youk, Bucholtz, Lester, Paps. who are all under 30. And don’t get me started with the young talent the Rays have. To make matters worse, their farm systems are ranked ahead of ours. So again Diane, how would you go about fixing this team for today, and more importantly, tomorrow? Im all ears.

An article for chip on Yu:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=darvish&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab8pos1

I will come in and help Diane,

as of last year there were rumblings that no one wanted our players yet offers fro damon matusi , Mussina were made and turned down by our GM which he thought was wise I will not second guess as my screen name recommended him for the Job.

The somewhat answer is to revisit these trades.

One would laugh last year at the thought of Bobby Abreau being traded to the Rays, or a Johnny Damon to the D-backs

Sounds funny?

well think about it if these teams are fighting for winning seasons expect them to trade for some veteran leadership and the yanks have the kind of vets that can help a contender.

Yes Damon has a no trade clause but i tell he'll waive it if a team like Aneheim comes knocking, whom do you you trade for ?

Youth

I will pllace you back in the past and remind you of such trades.

1, Melido Perez a relaible SP traded to the whitesox for some apparent scrap heap youth one happened to be named Bob Wickman

2. Robin ventura - a real over the hil lvet traded for two players

scott proctor and bubba crosby.

the answer is make trades release etc.

The gardner kid should have been up here the minute a OF goes down

alex gonzales should be left at 3b A-ROD comes back

the way the pen is pitching if this team is out of the picture you better believe teams will be calling.

Feelers should be sent out for Bobby Abreau NOW! get some prospects I have a feeling he is the type of player a contending Rays will inquire about and since they have talent to spare it should be no issue to have Bobby and a RP traded.

just my two cents

Stick's Rep - I like your thinking my friend, but it doesnt surprise me since you rub elbows with the best! Give my love to Gene.

The margain of error was the disparity in ages of the rotation

the oldest SP should have been Pettite with a Pitcher within his age range followed by the three youth

that leaves out Mosse unfairly so to fix that there should have only been one extreme youth followed by Wang a mid tier pitcher and pettite.

see where this leads?

Back to Johan

Johan age was Ideal in terms of balance he would'nt seem like a fossil to the likes of hughes and or kennedy , if the yankees were to trade kennedy for johan I would have bet you that Hughes would have pitched well.

the Killer for that trade however was not the youth it was when wang was thrown into the Mix that would have created a huge void.
i wonder why Minn would have wanted wang he would have been killed up there since turf and sinker ball pitchers is not exactly buddiess. but to have wang and Johan would have been deadly

well thank you Dru..

I try to bring peace and calm to two apprent nice bloggers in you and Diane.

Not to be the knife in the gut but we all must remember Brian entered his Job with a full well and simply the talnt water has ran out this is a first for him as well in terms of structuring.