He's got Em .... she's a keeper ...

But, those San Marzano tomatoes...dag, they are just the best for cooking.

The strike zone is just all over the place this year. For me it kills the game. Knowing the zone and NOT going after a pitch an INCH outside is part of the makeup of a great hitter. Now, the strike zone is anyone's guess. Hitters with a great eye might be at a disadvantage, as they may let close 'balls' go by, only to have them called a strike.

That strike 3 to JD last night was maybe the worse call I've seen. NESN showed the replay with their strike zone graphic, and the ball was literally a good foot outside. Remy said 'terrible, just terrible' and then went on a rant FOR instant replay.

The umping at home plate is just terrible and kills part of the fine art of the game.

See this AB was clutch, and ARod failed, hence he's a bad player regardless of what he does later in the game or next week.

At least the Yanks are making Lester work this time. 50+ pitches and he's not through the 3rd yet.

No Manny, no fear.

Once the realization sets in, I'm sure BB will once again be lively with early thoughts about 2009.

And, there are things to remain passionate about. I'm passionate about Moose getting 20 wins this season and 300 for his career. I want Jeter to move forward to 3,000 hits and beyond. I want to see homeruns by Arod to get him closer to Bonds. I want us to win our last game at Yankee Stadium against the Bosox (in fact, that's why I'm listening today) and I desperately want us to beat Baltimore on September 21 and close the park out with a win.

We certainly don't have playoffs to talk about, but we didn't have that from 1982-1993 either. However, I had to find things like Donnie Baseball to keep my interest. I know we'd all like to gear up for October baseball, but we can still be passionate about our team.

Bud may be right that allowing instant replay isn't going to open the floodgates as long as he's commish. But the day will come when Seligula is no longer commish, and then, who knows?

Whether a pitch is a ball or a strike affects a game just like whether a hit ball is a home run or not.

Is it just me, or does it seem like other teams' players (excluding relievers) don't quite collectively lose their minds and stop hitting to their historic performance as much as, for example, Giambi and Cano did in the beginning of this year.

Of course, when I write it, the sentiment seems ludicrous. Just look at last year's Mets.

Great pitching by Moose. No offense by the Yankees.

Go Yanks!

And no, no more expensive free agent "fixes".

I've been a Yankee fan for as long as I can remember, when I was ripping open that first set of Topps as a kid and getting that Ron Guidry card, it seems - I lived in NY (the state), I should be a Yankee fan. I sat through the years when they couldn't buy a win, and it really wasn't that long, though it seemed like it.

I'm a fan when they win, and a fan when they lose. It's just that when they lose there's not much to get excited. That and I'm getting tired of arguing the same things over and over ("We should have got Santana for IPK and melky" and "Hughes sucks" and "A-Rod sucks" and "Torre never should have been fired [sic]"). It's fatiguing.

What might have made a difference is if Cano had more aggressively charged the ball.

Ellsbury is just too fast to double up most of the time.

For 2005-2007, Giambi's RISP and RunnersOn numbers were well better then his OPS. I have always thought of Giambi as clutch. So this year is very unusually.

I think, for whatever reasons, "the Yank's performance, or under performance seems so mental and so emotional - like a collective funk" is very real, and more then any, the reason we are not in the PS.

I believe the underdog, 'nothing to lose' team (Tamba Bay?) does have a mental advantage. Consistantly high expectations are difficult to live up to.

I'm not saying the Yanks should just go out and spend money, but a team with a good blend of homegrown talent and free agents can win a world series. Just look across the field at Boston's acquisitions that were huge parts of their 2004 and 2007 championship teams (I'm not going to give an exhaustive list but Schilling, Ortiz and Manny from 2004 and Lowell, Drew, Matsuzaka, and Beckett from 2007 were all pretty prominent in their title runs).

The key is to have a good plan and build a team that does things together well both offensively, defensively and pitching.

In my opinion, the Yanks need Tex not only because he's a great hitter, but also because he's a Switch hitter and plays great defense (which makes him more valuable than Giambi who was a little less multi-dimensional). They need Milton Bradley because he will get on base a lot more than Bobby. The Yanks need a front of the rotation starter like CC Sabathia (who will blend quite nice with Wang and the youngsters) rather than hoping guys like Kevin Brown, Jaret Wright, Carl Pavano, Kei Igawa, Ponson, etc. etc. can catch lightening in a bottle.

It's not about whether free agency is smart or not because free agency is a necessary evil, but the Yanks need to make intelligent decisions. They need to hit more than they miss like Boston does.

He does have an option though, so there's probably a buyout not being factored in.

And CC? Tempting. But again, top dollar, buying high. Most long term pitcher contracts have turned out to be NOT intelligent. Is getting CC intelligent?

You just never know how a player is going to perform. It's an intelligent GUESSING game. It's the stock market. It's Vegas.

One of the issues, is the Sox and Mets of the recent past, and Detroit this year, are teams that will take big chances amd gamble the future for a year or 3 of a potential PS team. I think now Cashman is thinking of a different model. The Yankees don't want 2 or 3 PS's a decade. They want to build a sustainable model for long term dominance. Aside from MAYBE the Sox, no other team works on that kind of model.