On the Yankees beat

I don't get how a hitter who is good enough to bat clean-up when he plays doesn't play more often.

It's about splitting up the lefties Jon.

OK, let's split them up more often!

Girardi has already this season stacked lefties in his lineup vs. lefty pitching

The real reason:

Giambi:
0-20 vs lefties should I go on ?

2-28 RISP

6-43 w/ Men on

0-16 2 outs/RISP

YEAHHHHH...NO GIAMBI!!!!! Ok so he had some nice AB's last night, but he still needs a 10HR month to win me back....Ill be waiting...

The problem is Giambi will be in the lineup tomorrow. They need to give Duncan more at bats.

Ruse hit the nail right on the head. His stats are appalling and unless/until he learns how to go the other way like he did in Oakland, he's just going to continue to be a streak hitter with most of those streaks on the bad side.

He doesn't have to hit a ton of dingers for me, he just has to get a big hit and knock in some runs when the situation presents itself. Case in point: take the 1st inning last night. he comes up with the bags juiced and 1 out, ad he grounds into a fielder's choice. That could easily have been a DP and the Yanks get nothing in the 1st.

That shift is not going to go away until he proves that he can make teams pay for using it. Ortiz does that, not all of the time, but he does. he did it this past weekend against Tampa bay. He took an outside pitch and drove it off of the wall in 1 at bat, and he got an opposite field hit down the LF line in another. Both of those at bats got ribbys. While Ortiz takes that outside pitch the other way, Giambi just takes it or tries to pull it.

I still can't believe Miguel Cairo is hitless on the season - two years in a row he carries an 0-for into May. How nuts is that? I know you fellow baseball nuts like me find this interesting. Anyway, I posted about it on my blog.
http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/baseball/yankees/blog/

hope all is well with you guys

Just a little something I read on an ESPN chat. The host on the Chat was Jason Grey, here is his bio =

Jason Grey is a graduate of the MLB Scouting Bureau's Scout Development Program and has won two Tout Wars titles, one LABR title and numerous other national "experts" competitions.

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bill(NY): Are you willing to put the tag of "good AAAA pitcher" on Ian Kennedy after his performance in the minors last nights? Thanks

Jason Grey: Nope, legitimte 4th Major league starter. Lots of young arms hit a bump in the road early in their big league careers. Read my out of the box column today, and see if the teams that gave up on Floyd, Eveland, Volquez might not want to have them back.

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Patience people....

I wrote many times in the off season to trade for Cliff Lee.

His ERA was 0.12 in April and it has gone up a little, but he is the kind of lefty the Yanks could use. I had no idea he was THIS good. He and Sowers are both very talented. Why can't the Yankees scouts find this kind of lefty talent?

I am kind of disappointed at the lack of good pitchers emerging from the minors. All off season we talked about these kids, Sanchez, Brackman, Melancon, Horne ... where are they? What happened? Collectively you would think out of 12 prospects, one would emerge. Maybe Ohlendorf is the one. He and Joba.

If Hughes was pitching with a cracked rib, we can discount his performance in April. This was not the same kid we saw throwing a near no hitter vs. Texas, or shutting down Cleveland in the playoffs.

Don't know what to say about Kennedy, except that the scouts might have found out he gets too fine and when he has to throw a fat strike with his fastball, it is hittable.

Personally I have no expectations beyond 85 wins this year, so it is what it is.

The dynasty is long over. We have to adjust to the new reality.

It's just baseball and if we accept the Yankees, on and off the field, for what they are, for what Cashman assembled and tolerated, then we can watch and enjoy without unrealistic expectations. That's the key.

This is the kind of tripe which makes Ant Colony sound like a moron.

What makes you think that Cleveland was going to hand over Cliff Lee? Would the Yanks just hand over Hughes, Kennedy, Horne, or because some other team wanted them?

How do you know whether Lee was even available for the taking?

The answer is.....you don't. You just like talking out of your @ss.

Here's my brilliant plan:

- Trade for Albert Pujols and their problems at 1B would be over.

- Trade for Roy Halladay and Brandon Webb so they would have two more horses in the rotation.

- Trade for Manny Ramires so he won't kill them any longer

- Trade for Matt Holliday so they'll have a top flight outfielder for years to come.

C'mon. Take your head out of @ss and make intelligent arguments for once.