I could use another rainout.

Me, I'm hap-py this morning!

Did you see the game last night~!?

That Hughes kid! 5 K's in 4.1 IP!

Minky had one walk! A solid BB! Meanwhile, that defense!

And Matsui - he had three walks!

Even Cairo...uh....

Always look on the bright side of life...do do..do do do do...

I'm not too worried, the Yanks' rotation is going to solidify, the top three are too good not to.
To co-opt an important piece of American writing for a comparatively trivial matter:

"THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. . ."

http://www.ushistory.org/paine/crisis/c-01.htm

I am puzzled by Henn's line last night:
1 IP, 0 H, 2 BB 2 K 2 ER. What happened there?

Props to the evil genius punsmiths at the NY Post:

Bad Hughes Bears.

The delayed steal and error said it all. The Giambi attempt to stretch a double said it all.
Pancakes in pinstripes.

My longtime buddy Jeff the Mets fan hit me with an e-mail from L.A. overnight:

>Subject: spring ball
>
>Too soon to talk about the Mets v. Yankees? I know better than to gloat--
>I'm sure the Yanks will rip off 15 of 17 games in the near future, but man
>is their rotation a MESS. I also don't know how long the Mets can win with
>four guys who graduated the same year we did in their lineup, but they're
>pretty fun to watch right now. anyway, hope all's well with you and the
>family.
>Later,
>J

my reply:

Mess? What mess? The only mess I see around here is the confetti from last night's official "Mission Accomplished" pep rally at Yankee Stadium. Sure, it
was a little premature, but we all had a good time.

Peace

I think I agree with what Gammons had to say on ESPN radio this morning. The key to the Yankee season is going to be how effective Mike Mussina is.

If Mussina comes back healthy and they have a front three of Wang, Pettitte, Mussina pitching deep into games, they'll be OK with 5 inning starts out of the 4th and 5th spots in the rotation.

If anyone hears if tonights game is postponed please post it here or let me know how to find out the fastest as I'm taking my son and a bunch of boys to the game after their freshman practice. Also, how is parking this year? I've been too busy to go so far so my partner has been going but he lives in NY and just takes the subway back and forth. Also, I've always driven to the stadium but is there a decent way to get to Yankee stadium via Mass transit from NJ. I'll be too late to catch the ferry but I hear if you park in Jersey City or Hoboken you can do fine. If anyone can enlighten me I'd be very appreciative. Sorry this is so off topic. I'll post later on my depression over the state of Yankee Nation.

Usually, I'm an optimist, but all of the signs do not look good. The only SPs with whom I have complete confidence are Wang and Pettitte. Having said that, the latter is still probably good for one DL stint, while the former is also not without some injury risk (remember 2005). Mussina's velocity was way down in his first two starts before the injury, so I don't think you can pencil him in to repeat his rejuvenated 2006 campaign. If he reverts back to 2004/2005 form, the team will be in big trouble. Still, even if he is very good, that leaves two spots filled by rookie pitchers.

Clearly, one of those slots should belong to Phil Hughes. I actually think he looked pretty good last night. I'll discount the 1st inning to jitters and even mollify the 5th based on McDonald should have never reached base (blame Cairo or the ump, but either way he should have been out). The curve ball is what has me most excited. If he could have commanded it a little better, he would have been unhittable. The hitters were so fooled by it, they kept taking it…unfortunately, it was just missing. Even if Hughes is the real deal, however, that doesn't guarantee early success. I know I'd gladly sign up for Hughes' career to mimic John Smoltz (who debuted at only a few months older than Hughes), but that first season ERA+ of 67 would be a killer this season.

Even if Hughes can be effective, that still leaves another slot. C---P----- is now dead to me. I will no longer even say his name. Unfortunately, he would have been a much better option than Karstens or Rasner. Igawa also doesn't seem to factor in because it looks as if they have already abandoned ship on him.

Any way you look at it, this rotation is a very high risk proposition. With the way the AL is stacked with good lineups and mediocre pitching, the Yankees relative strengths don't seem to match up. I am not giving up by any stretch, but I think a realistic Yankee fan now needs to look at the Red Sox as the favorite in the race while keeping an eye on the wild card.

Darned exciting last night watching Phil Huge break in - can't remember last time I paid such close attention to a rook.

I definitely think Phil was squeezed a few times last night, however. The strike zone was wildly inconsistent, as Frank Thomas could probably attest to when Myers came in.

So Phil can hang, that's for sure. Toronto's big bats can be brutal, and it was encouraging that the hardest hit ball last night still stayed in the yard. Although I'm not sure why Damon wasn't playing deeper...

So give the kid a few more starts until Moose comes back, then send him back to AAA to work on a third pitch. We'll see ya in August when everyone will need a little injection of youth & energy...

6 Take the PATH train to 6th Avenue/14th St., walk over to 14th St./Union Sq. (or take the L train one stop toward Brooklyn)and take the #4 train to 161/River Avenue.

Should be able to park if you arrive early enough. The lots on River Avenue and 164th street seem to be the best bet. DON'T park in the lots adjacent to the Stadium.

I think we should all start taking a look at Guidry. I mean the guy never coached before and now he's the pitching coach for a Major League. It seems like he was chosen for the sentimental value of being a Yankee favorite, but not much thought was given to how well he can coach. It's funny that most of the blame is going to Torre (who I still agee may be past his prime), when the pitching has been horrendous. And who's supposed to correct the pitching? Just thought I'd throw this out there for discussion.

Also Hughes did look good. First inning jitters, then he settled down. Keep him up and let him learn in the bigs. He was never challenged in AAA.

10 Injuries is the problem. Guidry has coached in ST for a number of years. I'm putting the lousy luck on starting pitching just to bad luck. Our big guns get injured, necessitating the rookies Hughes, Karstens, Rasner and Wright (and Igawa) all having to pitch big, rather than develop a bit more at AAA, or hide in the #5 slot.

Now, if only Cashman can work some magic and get this year's version of Chacon or Small. . .

11 All the people who are using 2005 as their rallying cry need to remember that Cashman caught lightening in a bottle, not once but twice. There is no way the Yankees are going to wind up finding a Chacon and Small this season, so it's foolish to even look at 2005 for solace.

One other point about Hughes...because there isn't a better option anyway, getting a look at Hughes is also beneficial for the purposes of planning the 2008 rotation. Along those lines, if I was Cashman, I would risk the tampering charge and release an anonymous quote stating that the "Yankees intend to make Carlos Zambrano a limited partner should he opt for free agency".

3

Henn went walk walk to start the seventh. He was replaced by Proctor. Proctor walked the next man to load the bases. Then a wild pitch to score one of Henn's base runners, and then a sac fly to do the same.

I don't know if they should go after anymore National Leaguers (Zambrano and Clemens). They just make me nervous. I'd much rather see the development of homegrowns, even if we miss the playoffs. I love the Yankees just as much as anyone, but if they don't make the playoffs it really won't be the end of the world (though it might be if the the Sux win it all again). I just enjoy the excitement of watching the young players come through the system, a la Hughes.

I was at the game last night. In fact, I'd hoped to post here throughout the night, but it takes too long to scroll down to the end of the messages on the Blackberry. I would have missed half the game.

I was a little worried for the kid in the first. Some solid contact was being made. The first inning is a tricky thing. Even vets sometimes get rocked or knocked-out early. I recognized it as an important test. Would he go the way of Daan Eveland, Edinson Volquez and Jason Hirsh of 2006 and let things spiral out of control? He didn't. He kept coming. He battled. In that alone there was something to be excited about.

From my seats in the upper deck, 1st base side, you could clearly see the bend to his hook. I don't know that it was knee buckling or that the break was sharp enough, but it wasn't the loopy, headed for the bleachers type curve either. I took note that according to the scoreboard the curve was sitting at 74, while his fastball was being clocked at 96. I wondered if that was the ideal difference in velocity.

By the 4th inning I think, I'm now on the lower deck, 3rd base side, I began to worry when I saw that his fastball was hitting 90, 91, 89. He was tiring - quickly. I figured he didn't have long, but hoped he'd get through the 5th at least. Oh, well. Better to take him out. Each pitch must have felt like 2 on the night of his debut, anyway.

I came away from the game with my original expectations intact. There's a good chance he is not a savior to the season. There's a good chance he does not go all Verlander, good-Weaver or Hamels on the AL. He may start off more like the Rocket or Kazmir. It may take a year or two or even three to get where he wants to be and where we need him to be. But, there's certainly promise there.

13 Right. But Henn looked sharp the previous inning, when he struck out two of the three batters he faced.

14 Clemens isn't really a NL'er...he pretty much transcends league.

I agree that developing Hughes should be a priority, but as this season has shown, the Yankees will have more than a few slots to fill next season. Outside of Zambrano (or a trade for Santanna), there isn't much on the horizon.

I'm sure somebody here commented on it during the game thread, but Hughes's sister is a looker. Just sayin'.

Maybe Cliff will have a shot of her in his slide show.

Bring on the slides, Cliff!

13 Thanks. It just looked kinda odd, as Phil went 4.1, and Bruney went .2. Figured Henn started an inning.

18. But his dad is like the father from the wonder years...no emotion whatsoever.

20 Good call on the Wonder Years dad. Hughes's dad is a Sox fan so it was probably more than a little weird seeing his boy up on the Stadium mound in his pinstripes.

21 I'm willing to venture a guess that the days of the elder Hughes rooting for the Sox are now over.

As for the team, I am not panicked. In fact, I'm having a hard time understanding the doom and gloom that seems so pervasive, particularly on Pete's blog. The baseball season is a very long one. Wasn't it two seasons ago the Nats were in first at the break and the Braves' streak seemed in jeopardy?

There are reasons for concern. But, even if the back end of the rotation were to be Hughes+Karstens/Rasner/Clippard we wouldn't be the only ones with inexperienced 4/5 starters. We have a mighty offense. They have shown that in 2007, unlike the last few seasons, they can hit good pitching, not just bad mistakes by good pitchers. We will win a lot of games.

What we can't have is Minky ever batting 2nd again. I was floored when I saw Minky coming up. I kept muttering to myself about it throughout the "contest". Torre needs to wise up. He can't banish Farns if it hurts the team. Joe's got to get better. I'd hate to see his tenure end without a dignified exit. Though, I don't hate the idea enough to allow us to squander the season.

An even simpler way to get from Hoboken or Jersey City to the stadium: Take the PATH to 33rd Street and pick up the D train there (It's the 34th Street stop on the D--you don't even have to go outside to transfer). Take the D to 161st Street-Yankee Stadium.

One last thing - what about starting Henn? Yeah, he failed previously, but he now has more innings under his belt. He should have confidence based on his results this season. Give him a spot start or two and if he succeeds add him to the rotation.

Real stupid question. I'm a long time reader, but a newbie poster. How do you make the number of the comment you want to respond to underlined and a link? I know, I'm an idiot. By the way, this site gets me through the day. Amazing and insightful!

26 put [brackets] around the number you want to link to.

27 Thanks!

Our SP is not the best right now, but would anyone please post the number of blown Saves we have? Then post what our record would be if we only had ONE blown save.

Last night we ran into: 'Good pitching beats Good hitting'. AJ had his 'A' game on. It happens.

While our SP can be pointed to (and I'm not really disagreeing) I would point out:

1) Poor defense has lost us a game or 2?
2) Blown Saves have cost us a game or 5?
3) ONE key hit in a NUMBER of chances (bases loaded and NO outs in the 8th, hit into 4 DPs in one game, etc) have cost us a few games.

So, SP has been an obvious problem, which will get much better. But we have been creative, and have thrown away Wins in quite a few ways.

Hughes is the real deal. His velocity dropped at the end, and he is not as strong or conditioned as he will be in 2008 and 2009.

I'd love to have him in 2007... but if for ANY reason he gets hurt by being UP in 2007, I will have more 'I told you so's then Jim Dean and Rob Gee at a crystal meth party.

I want to win now, but Hughes is the closest thing we've had to a golden goose in decades. I don't think we should take ANY chances with him at all. For what?? An extra run or 2 saved every 5th game?

9 and 24 Thanks. I'll try that tonight if the game isn't called early.

10 Welcome E-Rocker (any relation to John? ;-)

I'm with you on the Guidry thing (I posted about that yesterday):
http://bronxbanter.baseballtoaster.com/archives/641286.html#23

Gator may not be the current problem, but unfortunately he doesn't seem to be the solution either and in the long run that could become an even bigger problem.

31 Definitely no relation the Johnny boy. My name's Eric, but my friends call me E-Rocker.

I think I'd rather have Kerrigan as the PC than Gator. Maybe do a flip flop with them, Gator in the Pen and and Kerrigan on the bench.

I don't know how much blame to assign a pitching coach. People hated Stottlemeyer when he was here (and the Yanks were on the decline). People hated Kerrigan in Boston after he took over as manager (and again after he went to Philly). I figure there must be a reason why they put him in the pen.

I assign most blame this season to our new conditioning coaches - everyone's getting injured (lots with the same injuries too) and everyone's tired early in the season. They supposedly changed to a new conditioning coach or conditioning regimen to improve things but it looks like things got a lot worse.

17 Look at Clemens years between his Yankees stint and the Astros one.

Yankees ERA+
97
137
128
101
112

Astros ERA+
145
221
197

Something's been different, cause if he was that pitcher the Yanks would have never let him leave or retire - i.e., they would have thrown too much money at him. The open question is whether he reverts back to his Yankees "form". That's good (sometimes), but not Astros good.

29 How will you connect Hughes getting hurt in 2008 or 2009 to him being up in 2007? You know cause pitchers get hurt, that's what they do. And if Hughes pitches about 180 innings, you'll have no leg to stand on, becuase that's well in line with what all the experts give as sensible for his progression. The Yanks have been, and will continue, to do it by the book. Why change course now? Because they're five games out in April? And if they fall far enough behind, there's even less reason to push Hughes. Same thing with Clemens aboard.

34 I am not saying I'd expect him to pitch as well in the AL...just that he isn't one of these NL-guys who haven't proven they can win in the AL. I usually don't pay too much attention to win totals, but in Clemens' case, it did seem like he "pitched to the score" more than you'd expect from random variation.

35 I'll take Clemens back for the sheer fact he moves guys off the plate. Manny, 2003 ALCS - loved it.

29 William in 35 makes a good point: Clemens is a situational pitcher, and will pitch differently with a lot of run support. Also, he became increasingly more and more a 6 inning pitcher, which he never was with the Yanks, so batters got to see him less (a problem Mr. Hughes will have due to his IP restrictions in AAA).

Re Hughes and injury:
Hughes would get injured if he wasn't held to the same restrictions as he is in AAA. 90 pitch or so limit, and MLB is more stress/IP. He could concievably pitch fewer than 180 innings and still get hurt. That aside, if he stays up he'll be no better than a super version of Jaret Wright.

I was interested in one thing Jim Kaat thought: that pitchers get stronger by throwing, not being babied. I hope that he doesn't get hurt BECAUSE he's not throwing enough. There just isn't enough health information to determine the truth behind pitch counts and the like.

Whats the weather look like in nyc, bad?

Ok, just read the weather report, I think there isa very good chance of no game tonight. Which would be good. We can go with Pettitte and Wang for a two game series...

My theory on Henn is: he's pitching well out of the pen, lets not mess with a good thing. If Karstens can get that rust off and give us 5-6 innings of 4 run ball, thats all we need from him, and hes capable.

I notice Moose's rehab start got bumped due to crappy weather so he's just throwing from the pen. ANyone know when he's due to return?

36 I agree that the Yankees need to get tougher with regards to pitching inside. They also need to start retaliating. Did anyone notice during the Boston series when Julian Tavarez was talking to Dice-K telling how to throw inside to scare and hit the hitters. Low and behold Douche-K hit Jetes and A-Rod. For years the Sux have been hitting our players on purpose. I say we start hitting Papi and Manny and see how they like it.

How annoying was it last year after Manny stared down Proctor after hitting his home run. Why the hell didn't they whack the hell at out him next time he came to bat?

There's a happy medium to all this and its what we expect to happen. hughes makes another start, then goes down to the minors for two months, then is up here for good. That way, we get him for most of the season plus he keeps his innings down, stays on schedule etc.

I don't think he has anything to learn in AAA, but I do want to see him keep to that 180 limit so we can have a full year of him next year.

39 A-Rod actually went to Manny personally before the next game and told him that it wasn't cool. The next time he still hit a homer off of Proctor, but just put his head down and ran the bases, a la A-God.

The weather sucks.

Additional observations from Section 10:

A-Rod's fly out sounded better off the bat than Wells's double. Wind, perhaps.

BABIP vs Hughes was .500.

Lind was totally overmatched by PH heat.

A manager-type at Stan's said he wouldn't carry a #65 shirt until PH pitches well for a month. Humph, I was prepared to pay $35.

39 I don't believe in "retaliation," but I definitely believe in pitching inside.

What I saw was Tavarez telling Matsuzaka to bust Rodriguez in on the hands, which is a perfectly appropriate way to pitch. Jeterleans over the plate and then lunges at the ball, so of course he gets hit when pitchers come inside.

The Yankee pitchers should do more of that, but hitting in retaliation just isn't good baseball. (Remember, every time you hit Ortiz, you've got Manny coming up next.)

39 Once again, E, you and I are on the same page. I have been saying that since last year (although a lot of people around here seem to disagree). I would not be happy if I played on a team where our batters were getting hit and our pitchers did nothing about it. I thought Chase Wright should have plunked Varitek during that homer barrage at Fenway (especially since A-Rod and Jeter had been hit earlier).

Also after Jeter was hit during the Rays game, I thought that we should have tried to at least come inside a little more to Crawford in his first at bat (if he got plunked on his leg then so be it). He ended up getting a hit IIRC and did not stop there.

Again, I know it is unpopular around here, but it seems like our pitchers are afraid to pitch inside (altough it looked like Hughes did it last night) and IMO we need to protect our hitters a little more.

37 Kaat has always had this thing about pitchers being babied, that pitchers in the old days threw lots of innings and it never hurt Kitty. The problem is that it did hurt a lot of them, you just don't hear as much about them. For every Jim Kaat there are a dozen guys like Wally Bunker, Jim Bouton, Mark Fidrych, even Jim Palmer (though he came back).

44 I agree, I'd much rather play without retaliating. It's just that over the years, how many times have Boston pitchers intentionally hit our batters. To not retaliate sometimes is like cutting your nose to spite your face. I understand that the Yankees are respected for not retaliating, but every once and a while wouldn't hurt. Maybe our batters wouldn't get hit so often.

45 Funny how perceptions work. I did some tallying the other day, and here's what I came up with.

HBP, Yankees vs. Red Sox, 2004-2006
2004: 18 HBP by Sox, 15 by NY
2005: 10 by Sox, 6 by NY
2006: 7 by Sox, 6 by NY

That's a total difference of 8 HBP over 57 games, or 1 every 7 games.

Somehow, that just doesn't seem like an outrage to me.

48 I guess you got us on that one:) However, what we can't tell from those stats is how many were intentional.

But those stats do lessen the rage...a little.

I do NOT believe Dice-K hit our guys intentionally. The 2 batters Dice-K hit both scored. To put Jetes on, in front of Abreu, ARod, Giambi seems foolish. Wasn't one of them on an 0-2 count?

Pedro was another matter.

I think I understand Minky in the two-hole now. He's got good numbers against Burnett. He's 3 for 7 with two walks. Small sample size, but Torre's never let that stop him.