Johnny Damon CF
Derek Jeter SS
Jason Giambi DH
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Jorge Posada C
Andy Phillips 1B
Melky Cabrera LF
Kevin Reese RF
Nick Green 2B

vs.

Grady Sizemore CF
Ronnie Belliard 2B
Jhonny Peralta SS
Travis Hafner DH
Victor Martinez C
Ben Broussard 1B
Jason Michaels LF
Todd Hollandsworth RF
Aaron Boone 3B

Let's go, Yankees! Don't like a crappy team take a series.

For those of us who don't live and die with the team, can you explain in a paragraph or two (or even in list form) what it is that ARod did or does that annoys. It's clear he is not a beloved athlete by Yankee fans... or is the press misrepresenting here?

I'm curious because I follow the game but I realize I don't have an answer to why ARod might be unpopular with Yankee fans. Thanks...

5 He hasn't delivered a World Series for us. That's it, really. He's got his foibles, but fans will put with almost anything if you win.

Kay says Chac may have to take one for the team, because the bullpen is so overused.

Well, there was that game against Texas, where Chac and Small gave up 9 runs in the first two innings, and we eventually came back to win with Jorgie's walkoff homer.

Schilling's given up three homers tonight. So far.

I had a feeling he would have a lot of trouble tonight. He's one who needs regular work to keep his edge. I can understand why Joe skipped his turn, but I figured the results wouldn't be good.

I was just starting to feel confident about our pitching, but now...Jaret Wright collapses, the old RJ reappears, the usually reliable Wang struggles, and now Chac implodes.

Dec 22, 1999: New York Yankees traded Hideki Irabu to the Montreal Expos for Jake Westbrook and two players to be named later (Ted Lilly and Christian Parker).

Jun 29, 2000: Cleveland Indians traded Dave Justice to the New York Yankees for Ricky Ledee and two players to be named later (Jake Westbrook & Zach Day).

Source: http://tinyurl.com/qun6k

5 I don't hate A-Rod. Yankee fans are spoiled now, Mattingly never got grief for not delivering a WS title.

Are Monkeypants and myself the only ones who think we need an impact hitter.

Shit. Well, after that Hafner AB, I guess we coulf use an impact pitcher. To bad we can't get one.

That said, Wright and Chacon are clearly not the answer. I can't blame Chacon, he was a very cheap pickup. Wright=second worst offseason signing I can remember (guess who is the first?).

I wonder if Cashman has anything boiling for something like last year. Instead of going for someone like Dontrelle, can we get a decent middle to end of rotation guy?

A better quick fix might be to bring up Mendoza as a long relief/spot starter.

BTW, what's going on with Rasner? He's still on the DL long after he was eligible to be off it. They didn't expect him to need anywhere near the full 15 days.

35 Good point on Rasner. I'm going to poke around and see what I can find.

Hey bro. Thanks for posting over at COH the other day. I like your line of thinking. I'm with you on the offense, but my main point is that we have limited resources available to use in trades. We can either use them for a bat, which we need a little, or we can use them for a starting pitcher who won't crap the bed everytime out. One is a need, the other is an alarming necessity.

Chacon should be sent down, regardless of whether he has any options remaining or not. Like Aaron Small, thanks for last year, but you gotta go somewhere to work shit out. No Bronx for you.

Phil Hughes would be my choice for the spot in the rotation, if nothing else but to see how he stacks up with other rookie pitchers who are doing fairly well. The lack of time in the minors will prevent him from arriving with the big team, so I think we'll see a move very soon to shore up the rotation. I posted an idea at COH about Paul Maholm. He has some shaky numbers, but the GO/AO is encouraging and he's a 24 lefty on Pittsburgh. He practically blanked the Mets yesterday. Maybe he has that Chacon/Small magic in him. Anyone but Chacon at this point.

What a missed opportunity.

Sunday night's offensive explosion was an aberation. In the last 10 games (not counting Sunday), the Yanks scored 30 runs. Of those 30 runs, Giambi is personally responsible for 10 of those runs.

The Yanks went 6-4 over those 10 games. If not for Giambi, that could have easily been a 4-6 or 3-7 stretch.

Cashman, we need an impact corner OF now!

Ok, small sample size, but if the trend doesn't hold, they're pretty much screwed.

Cashman can't just materialize an impact outfielder out of nowhere, and the market is too thin right now.

ARod admitted that the booing bugged him. And if he admiddit it, you know it bugged him a LOT. The fans need to show ARod some love. Chant 'We love you Alex, even more then Derek' every time he comes up. I'm telling ya, it would help ARod. He's overly sensitive, and we (the fans at the stadium) could help him instead of hurt him.

Either that, or it's back to Tibet.

Bastards. Good baseball is for winning organizations with deep pockets. And it's the birth-right of fans from New York, L.A., and Boston.

By the by, do the Yanks recoup any insurance $$$ on ShefSui?

And Craig Wilson has been slumping worse than Bay.

Still a long way left. Come on boy, you can do it.

The bad news is we play Tampa next.

How about just putting Villone in the rotation instead of Chacon (make him the long man)

We beat Kazmir once before. Though that was with ShefSui in the lineup.

Westbrook falls behind Nick Green 2-0 and then throws a fastball for a strike. Runner moving, Green swinging, sinker low, fouled off. 2-2. Sinker, diving low and away. Green swings over it, strike three. Nice pitch.

Jeter steps out. Westbrook and Martinez re-working their signs. Sinker low and away, in the dirt, full count. Sinker up and in on the hands. Jeter pounds it into the ground. A high hopper to Belliard at second.

Runner is left stranded.

And at this rate Moose is going to have to throw a perfect game tomorrow to have a chance at winning.

Guidry looks like he could still pitch.

Cleveland has been scoring all year. Unfortunately, the only team incapable of scoring or their pitching, is the New York Yankees.

They could have Bubba Crosby pitch. He was the ace of his high school team. Had a mean curve and changeup, I hear. And I saw Gator showing him how to grip a splitter in the dugout awhile back.

Ooh, rain. Maybe they'll be merciful and call it a game already.

Once again the Yankees amaze.

You guys are right. We need a bat, or maybe two. The offense is in crisis. The problem is we wouldn't have won this game if we had a lineup of 9 Giambis.

Our 4th and 5th starters are regularly leaving the game before the 5th inning, and recently as early as the 2nd. These guys are not bad, they are totally cooked. If you can't get out of the 2nd inning and your other outings are 4 innings or so, you are not a Major League pitcher. Seriously.

We have a 7-9 group of hitters on the team. They're not good, but they occasionally get on base. They occasionally score runs. They occasionally make plays in the field. They may be minus on the VORP rating, but the pitching is minus on the cardiogram.

We have no 4 or 5 starter on the team. That is beyond worrisome. That's going to sink the season for sure. No two ways about it. Chacon and Wright are bad pitchers. They aren't bad for the Yankees' standard, they're bad pitchers period. Pavano is a lost cause. He's just cashing it in. He was bad when he was halfway healthy and there's no reason to believe he'll be better when he comes back.

We have to live with Wright because he's been good in the past, and he's been fair sometimes this season. Chacon needs to join Small with a thank you letter and a kick out the door.

Sorry for the long post. I'll blog about this tonight at COH, but I wanted to debate the point again, in light of the 16 runs we gave up to Cleveland. Just my opinion, but a bat is a band aid, a pitcher would be open heart surgery.

And Bubba robbed on another good defensive play. Weird call on that one. He dropped it, but they ruled it a catch. Just as well, since A-Rod was heading back to 1B.

I think I'll invite them back over and start drinking heavily....

Is there anyone they can bring up to spell the bullpen this week?

But why weren't these issues addressed by Cashman? Why also did he not deem it necessary to sign a solid fourth outfielder that we were all SCREAMING for on this blog in December-January? True, the Yanks do not have the ability - even if they wanted to - to overhaul the roster by trading off overvalued vets, but they could have - no - SHOULD HAVE addressed the starting pitching/4th outfielder issues prior to opening day.

Has a team with so many resources ever squandered their opportunities so egregiously?

What about Veras?

Anyone know where I can find the final vote totals for ALL the players on the all-star ballot?

Of course, we'll win 2-1 tomorrow, which will take the sting out of my hangover ;-)

Even Zito ans Schmidt couldn't put humpty dumpty together again.

144 Cashman should have been fired years ago.

Fuck Joe Torre. Villone is going to die, Proctor is going to die. Sometimes a guy like Chacon who sucks needs to take a humilating one for the team. Maybe he gives up all 16 runs by himself over 6 innings, but we are going to lose our entire pen if we keep doing this.

Cashman should have been fired years ago?

Is it his fault the Yankees farm system has been stripped faster than it can be rebuilt, so that the Yanks are forced to overpay for mediocre FA pitching?

Considering he is the one who stripped the system with trades, why YES, YES it is.

http://tinyurl.com/gbrvk

....Or maybe Schilling and Beckett shouldn't have been grabbed by the sox.

....Or maybe Vasquez.

....Or maybe Contreras.

....Or maybe any of the players that Cashman just thought he could go out and replace with ease.

In his defense, it's not his fault the Yankee farm system hasn't produced an ace or legitimate power hitter in 20 years.

Brock,

I completely agree. With our resources, it is simply impossible to defed the thinking that two 40 years olds, Chacon, Wang, and Jaret Wright were an appropriate staff to enter the 2006 season with in the AL East.

Cashman is a moron, plain and simple. I don't agree that there was nothing he could do. He could have signed Contreras and El Duque for 10 years for what he decided to pay Kyle Farnsworth.

If Mo had spend any large amount of time on the DL the past few years, Cashman's boobery would have been even more glaring.

And don't get me started on Beltran, who would have signed at $99M vs. $119M with the Mutts — and CF would have been locked up with a 5 tool guy for the next 6 or 7 years.

This is why I just don't understand how folks defend Cashman. It wasn't rocket science to sign Matsui and Sheffield.

Also, they tried to get pitching. Weaver, Vaquez, Contraras, RJ, Pavano. Hindsight makes these decisions look bad, but they looked good at the time.

When you HAVE to win every year, you don't have the luxury to rebuild, be patient and develop talent. This is just the Yankees lot.

You're right about the mid-season moves. For a minute there, they seemed automatic. Just the right guy at the right time — Cone in '95. Justice in '00. Boone in '03 (although it took game 7 of the ALCS for that one to really pay off.) — just for starters.

Props to Ca$h for last year's Small/Chacon trickery, though — and for not jumping into the past off season FA market fists first, given the lack of talent. He stuck with the kids and so far it's paying off.

But yeah, he's due for a Wells-for-Clemens-esque deal here pretty soon. Something's gotta give...

I wish we could pull off a Wells for Clemens.

Unfortunately we are in a precarious position. We have no one in the minors (less Hughes) that anyone wants. We cant get crap for Wright or Chacon. We cant trade Cano or Wang. We don't want to make the mistake of trading any of the guys we drafted this year. I don't see a Reggie Sanders or a Craig Wilson helping measureably. I don't see Florida parting with Willis. I don't see SF parting with Schmidt and the A's are right in it, therefore no Zito.

In other words, we're stuck with what we have. It is the sad but true state of the New York Yankees.

Even if RJ is pitching lights out, we still wont catch Boston at this rate. Something has got to be wrong with Chacon. His away-from-Coors-ERA was just over 3.50 while with Colorado. That's not half bad, and he pitched well last year. Something is amiss with him. We are getting exactly what I expected from Wright. Wang has been solid. We just don't have that guy who can come out in a game 5 or game 7 situation and just shut the door (and no, Mike Mussina is not that guy late in the year).

The reality is we just have to hope against all hope that Matsui and Sheffield come back in September or before. We have to hope Cano comes back strong and no one else goes down. We could get a pleasant surprise from Pavano or Dotel but I wouldn't bet the farm on it. Batton down the hatches and make sure your head and hands are inside the ride at all times, what we have is what we will have to work with.

It still early enough for this one-third-All Star, one-third-AAA, and one-third-cast-off present roster to find a groove, but Jesus H. Crist, if we can't get some consistency from somewhere it's going to be a long summer.

I'm not counting on any outside cure at this point. The starters have to keep us in games and Jetes, Jason, Damon, Jorgie and A-Rod need to make the offense crank. Anyone else just need to work counts and get on base any way they know how.

You think last year was a miracle getting to the PS? Sh*t. Welcome to 2006. We can do it, though. We can.

We have to fix the problems from within, and hope ShefSui get back soon. Play longball at the top of the lineup, small ball at the bottom. Give Steven White and/or Kris Wilson a shot; they can't be worse than Chacon.

And exorcise GOB from the outfield. Please.

I didn't think we would win last year and I don't think we will win this year. I want some new bodies on the diamond two years hense, starting with the mound and then the outfield.