Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
Andy Pettitte was scheduled to pitch last night, but after the game was warshed-out, he's being pushed to Friday, when Boston comes to town for a weekend series. Which means Phillip Hughes will start tonight as previously planned. After Chase Wright's poor outing at Fenway last weekend, the Yankees are intent on keeping the pressure off Hughes, who'll be plenty anxious anyhow, as he makes his big league debut (Cliff will be at the game tonight and hopefully will have some flicks for us to check out in the a.m.).
"I don't know how he's going to handle it," catcher Jorge Posada said. "We all hope he is going to handle it well. He's very smart. He understands what's going on. The last two spring trainings he carried himself real well so we're looking forward to it."..."I feel like I've really come a long way in just a few starts," Hughes said, "especially that last start that I had went real well."
That last start was against Syracuse, Toronto's triple-A team. Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said they'll learn what they can from the Chiefs but they expect Hughes to pitch well.
"He's thought very highly of," Gibbons said. "Arguably, they say the best pitcher in the minor leagues. So we know he'll be bringing it pretty good."
Jay Cohen, Toronto Sun,
A.J. Burnett, who can be awfully tough to handle when he's on will start for the Jays.
It's funny, while Em and I were away on our marrymoon, I promised her that I wouldn't let myself get crazy no matter what happened in Boston. I said, "I just won't watch any of the games, the Yanks will be lucky not to get swept anyway." Then, we caught A Rod hit a dinger off Schilling on Friday night and watched the rest of the game, only to witness Mo blow a lead. No problem, hey, we just got married. Life is bigger than the Yankees or the Red Sox, right? Even I could swing with that given the moment.
The next day, we returned to our room late in the afternoon, and I went to the bathroom to wash up. When I returned, there was my bride sneaking a peak at the game. (Yes, I appreciate how good I have it.) So we watched portions of that game. Again, the Yanks lost, and again, I kept my composure. Perspective, man, perspective, I can hang with this. But I absolutely refused to watch the Sunday night game. Matsuzaka is way too imposing, I reasoned. I can't bear to listen to the ESPN guys, and stay up late, just to see him crush the Bombers. Why can't a pitcher like that--who is wondefully entertaining--be on any team but Boston for crying out loud? But once again, we found ourselves cliking over to check the score, and all considering the Yanks held their own against him.
Still, I didn't lose any sleep. I read some of the comment threads here and was grateful that I wasn't getting as worked-up as I normally would. The Yankee offense was good all weekend and Alex Rodriguez continued to hit the ball well, so it wasn't a total bust. Plus, wouldn't you know it, but the resort we were staying at was filthy with Red Sox fans. I met a few of them, chatted them up, and they were cool, dangit. One dude, Paul, a classic-looking, Trot Nixon-lovin, die-hard, was particularly cool, and we rapped about the series with the green-blue ocean in the background.
But all bets were off by Tuesday night however, and as I slumped on our couch back in the Bronx after Myers gave up the grand slam to Carl Crawford ("Hey Em, we're home, and they've lost five straight, can I be at least a little grumpy now?"). Yet as lousy a couple of days as the Yanks have had, they've had worse starts under Joe Torre, as Steve Lombardi points out. Let's hope tonight is the start of something good.
Indeed, "let's hope tonight is the start of something good."
Win or lose I think it is.
Based on a bit of Hughes hype I heard a few guys exchanging at the deli this morning fans need to realize that Hughes will not be heating up the Stadium radar gun tonight.
With the Scranton'esque damp chill in the air figure he'll be topping out at about 91 or 92.
Hopefully his curve will be on, and his change up is big league enough to keep the Jays sluggers off balance.
Hopefully he'll keep his composure and show everybody what he can do.
Let's go, #65!
i'm glad they took the day off.
the email that mlb.com sent me about the cancellation said that the game was postponed due to "a forecast of inclement weather" or something extremely close to that.
i love that the team took a personal day.
hopefully tonight will be the night we look back upon and declare to be The Turning Point.
congrats, alex. sounds like you hit the jackpot.
i'm glad they took the day off.
the email that mlb.com sent me about the cancellation said that the game was postponed due to "a forecast of inclement weather" or something extremely close to that.
i love that the team took a personal day.
hopefully tonight will be the night we look back upon and declare to be The Turning Point.
congrats, alex. sounds like you hit the jackpot.
Did they really give Hughes 65 to wear? Pete Sheehy would have given the kid 41 or some sort of respectable pitcher number. 65 screams "Columbus Shuttle."
So, I've confirmed that Extra Innings won't have a feed for tonight's game. Does anyone know if that's also true for mlb.tv? They have a line available for it on the multimedia schedule page, but the links won't be clickable until game time. I would really hate to have to listen to the most important game of the year so far on the radio.
I find it amazing that Hughes will be the only first round draft pick to play for the Yanks since Derek Jeter. And Jeter was drafted way back in 1992.
Newsday had a rundown of the Yank's woeful 1st round picks: http://tinyurl.com/2w8xld
That's my guess. Oh, and a big fat W!
9 I'm looking for the same info. I'll gladly sign up for the free 5-day trial just to be able to see Hughes's first outing. Wish I lived closer so I too could be at the game tonight, like Cliff, Emma, and all the other Banterers who said they'll be there.
12 If you go back to the 70s, you find a bunch of halfway decent 1st round picks by the Yanks - most of whom did their thing elsewhere. Good discussion about it at the end of the last thread.
a blackout tonight would push me past all limits of my tolerance.
Hopefully Hughes wears it better than Irabu.
Stanley wore it well for a while.
Soriano wore #66 for a few games when he came up.
Bernie rocked #63 for a couple minutes.
Wonder how many #65 jerseys they're selling at the Yanks prop shops today.
I'll settle for Hughes having a good game tonight. I'm becoming afraid to hope for a win.
Have you seen the dust up over the red splotch Schilling's sock? Ha. I knew it was fake.
"If I Did Doctor The Sock, Here's How It Happened"
Seriously, why would Thorn make up a doozy like that?
it was 2 years ago. why should anyone care?
not a single keystroke on it over at schilling's blog. ...the silence before the storm.
i'm guessing he'll be livid, whether he shows it or not. that sock was what he was banking on to get him to the HOF. his numbers are borderline, if you ask me.
...which none of you did.
At least we can laugh about it now.
who knows.
i also thought i read a while back that he was hoping for #35.
could you imagine what must be going on inside that kid's head this morning?
oh, to be 20 years old and have so much potential...
https://bronxbanter.baseballtoaster.com/archives/592551.html
Hughes wore #45 in high school. That was his first choice. He told Kay #34 would be his second choice.
Yo, Henn! Give Chase Wright yer mitt, and Hughes yer digits!
I really think this is a one-shot for Hughes. Moose will be activated in a week, there's an off day Monday, and the rain out prevents them from having to throw both Karstens and Igawa this time through the rotation, which also means that, if they go with Igawa Saturday, they'll want to get another look at Karstens before they decide to swap him out for Hughes (or Rasner for that matter).
Also there's the matter of his 180 innings limit. If they keep him in the major league rotation from today forward, he's going to sail by that mark without even taking a potential playoff run into account.
I really think he's going back to Scranton after tonight no matter what he does. But I also think he'll be back in a month or two, that time for good.
Oh, why bother pondering the worst case scenario? It's the kid's big day.
As Giambi or Damon might say, "I'm totally stoked."
I'd be surprised if they didn't hold Karstens for Tuesday. He already got shelled once by Boston, and I don't think they'll give up (even symbolically) on Igawa quite yet.
... but he's no Emma Span!
(I kid I kid .... they're both top notch!)
Welcome back Alex .... congrats on the nuptials.
Oh, and: 6.2 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K (ND)
Gets taken out with a runner on second and two outs in the seventh with the Yankees up 3-2. Kyle Farnsworth promptly gives up a 2 run homer to Frank Thomas. I promptly give up my dinner to the garbage can.
Huge as an extra arm in the pen. If he came in twice a week for two inning stints, he could get regular work against MLB hitters, restrict his innings, and help the team.
Nah.
http://tinyurl.com/39pgl2
Wang, Pettitte, Moose, Clemens/Karstens/Rasner/trade as the top 4.
If Hughes stays healthy, he represents a 10+ year investment for us. Using terms like 'babying him' is insulting. You don't play catch with a Ming vase.
Over at Lohud, Peter posted how many innings of Pro ball this kid has pitched in the last 3 years: 2004: 5.0, 2005: 86.1, 2006: 152. My God! He's practically a virgin! 180 innings is a lot considering.
The kid is 20 and still growing. Stress and injuries on a body still 'developing' have much worse long term effects that do injuries you get as an adult. So the difference between 20 and 23 is huge.
What might he do in his first 1/2 year? A 3.5-4.0 ERA? That 1.5 runs better then we should get from Karstens/Rasner. Do you think it's worth the slightest chance of hurting this kid to gain 1.5 runs every 5 games? And anyone who has played any sport knows that playing under emotional stress creates much greater physical stress.
I'm excited to see him, but I can wait till next year (and at my age,that's risky).
Mirabelli STRONGLY denies saying it was not blood. Schill and Francona are shocked.
My question is: If a suture popped causing the blood, wouldn't the Docs glue/sew/bubblegum him back together, and bind it so no further bleeding or damage would occur? After this, would they put the same 'bloody' sock back on?
It may have been 2 years ago, but that sock is in the HOF and the story is legend. If it's not true, it should be found out.
SutureGate.
Is anyone familiar with the "super 2" rule? Does Hughes' callup virtually lock his arbitration status for 2010 (and free agency status for 2013), or does it depend upon how many days he spends on the roster this year?
So, even though Hughes gets called up now, let's say he gets sent back down for 6 weeks after today (or however long it is). He could still not get enough time to qualify as a "Super 2".
71 I recall someone saying that of course it was a load of crap, that the stain would have changed color as the blood dried if it was real blood. I can't remember where I heard or read it, though. Any thoughts, or am I dreaming this up?
as i leaned closer to the case containing the thing, i realized that it is quite possible that if the bloody sock thing was a hoax, they could easily have thrown some blood onto another one, and shipped the new, phony-but-blood-soaked sock to cooperstown.
yeah.
i'm starting the second sock theory. you're welcome, mr. scorcese.
if we're going to talk conspiracy theories, we might as well make 'em big.
I think Dickie "Grassy" Noles had a hand in this whole episode.
this is why i love this place.
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