although he's a truly disgusting human being, i find myself helplessly enthralled by r. kelly's music. the beats and music are usually quite catchy and his lyrics are so juvinile that they border on unintentional brilliance. i don't usually listen to much contemporary R&B (give me otis or marvin or al green and i'm happy), either.

i just downloaded his new album this morning (i'm not going to pay his lawyer's fees), and there are a couple tracks on there that are so ridiculous it is worth swiping online.

the truly astounding use of the word "rainforest" is only surpassed by the fact that he rhymes with it when he calls himself a "sex-o-saurus" for the love of god...

i sometimes wonder if he knows how ridiculous he is, or if he truly believes his own hype.

sorry for the tangent.

go yankees.

How many disappointing games have the Yanks had this season thus far?

In other words, can we just go get Helton and plug him in or would we have to free up another spot?

-----------------------------------------
"I would like to own a team," Jeter told New York's 1050 ESPN Radio prior to the Yankees' 7-3 loss to the Red Sox on Tuesday. "That would be kind of cool to get an opportunity to call some of the shots."

Jeter then predicted he will achieve his goal.

"I will do it one day," Jeter said.

When asked specifically if that team could be the Yankees, Jeter laughed.

"Do you know how much money that costs?" Jeter said. "That is a lot of money, baby."

--------------------------------------------

http://tinyurl.com/2b5a9t

Sucks to be Giambi, but he's not alone. All sorts of MLB superstars of yesteryear used greenies regularly (see at least Ball Four). The rags and the screaming wags will make a big deal out of it, but is it a big deal? My guess is that 90% of the people in the Yanks clubhouse have used greenies at least once - including the manager, the entire coaching staff, and Captain Flirt. ;)

7 Jeter could always buy the Marlins. I'm guessing they are more in his price range. =)

But this quote from Joe Torre, taken from the Pinstriped Blog, is amazing:

A writer queried Joe if, during this difficult season, he had ever asked, "Why me, Lord?" Joe answered, "A lot of times you say 'Why not me?' Why shouldn't things happen to you? It's something you have to deal with and you just move on. Through my career here with the Yankees I can guarantee you I've looked up and said, 'Why me?' when it was on the good side. And I'm certainly not going to go question what's happening now."

3 I hate myself for it, but I too like R. Kelly's music. His voice is velvet-smooth. Got any recommendations on songs? I personally love "Go-Getta."

if you want to download the new album without giving the perv a single red cent, go here:

http://tinyurl.com/33ekl5

you can get it as a zip file. you'll need a password to unzip it, but the password is in the filename, between parentheses. enjoy. try not to laugh at the track where he turns an outgoing voice mail message into a slow jam. i dare you.

C-Posada is a free agent, but should be back and at least solid in 2008.

1B-Black hole - god forbid they are back.

2B-Cano should be around, but I think the jury is once again out on the extent to which he will be productive.

SS-Jeter - here forever.

3B-Arod - How ominous does that opt out look now? With the lineup crumbling around him, is there anyway the Yankees don't offer (and Boras doesn't demand) a blank check?

LF-Matsui - Still here...should be solid.

CF-Damon - Still here, but appears to be in a worrisome, injury hastened decline.

RF-Abreu - His 2008 option is no longer as attractive and his return no longer a given.

DH-Giambi - see above.

If the Giambi/Arod situations play out adversely, you could enter 2008 with only Jeter and Matsui confidently expected to be productive. With very few position prospects on the verge, the 2008 lineup could be scary (in a bad way).

Meanwhile, on the pitching side, the Yankees appear stocked. It seems to me that if they do fall out of it, the team needs to do three things:

1) Go to Arod (and Posada and Rivera) and make a decision either way so as to give more lead time on preparing for 2008.

2) Try to trade veterans for position prospects (no more pitchers!), or at least solid major leaguers who could at least be useful bench players going forward.

3) Deal some pitching prospects for offense prospects.

Just because this season goes down the tubes doesn't mean the near-term future has to go down with it. It is going to be very important for Cashman to get a good read on this team and react accordingly. Nothing would be worse than "throwing good money after bad" in an attempt to save the season. Once he determines that 2007 is a lost cause, he needs to immediately act on plans for 2008.

Anyway, that speculation is a pleasant diversion in Yankeeland this morning.

The Giamphetaroid saga is officially depressing.

A-Rod's horseshit slide into 2nd would only have been more embarassing if he was laying the lameshot on Jennifer Aniston, or Sasha Cohen etc.

Moose's momentum-sucking stinkbomb opened a new trap door on rock bottom, and the team is freefalling again.

No, better to think about Jeter owning the Yanks someday. When's "Scarlett Johansson Bobbleass" day at the Stadium?

At this point the best thing I think the Yankees can do is identify a young catcher to bring in to either split with or take the load off of Jorge until Cervelli could be ready.

Also, earlier in the game in the 2nd inning, Pedroia went well out of the baseline to take Jeter out on a double play. While he didn't pop up and go forward, he was far from the bag. Sometimes, what goes around, comes around.

thankfully nobody got hurt.

he was trying to break up the double play. that's his job. pedroia moved out of the baseline to throw and rodriguez tried to still make contact. it happens everyday. while it may not always be so blatant, this shouldn't be as big a deal as they're making it.

It would be very weird to be on 'the other side' at the trading deadline, unloading useful but time-limited players for prospects. But if we haven't made up significanct ground by then, it's the right thing to do.

I don't blame him for trying to break up the play, but that was very poorly done, and if a Red Sock had done it to one of our players they would be rightfully mocked and scorned here.

Watching it again, especially in slow motion, its not even that bad of a play. ARod goes into the bag (proper slide) and pops up towards the fielder, the only questionable part is that he tried to lean into pedroia on his way up (calling it an "elbow" is silly). I wish more guys would try this hard. He was running the risk of getting them both called out for sure, but Posada was going to be out anyway, so he might as well have taken the chance.

Could it be Moose's time as well? I dunno, leaving him in past the six was questionable to begin with in light of his struggles early on, but when your only immediate option past him is Luis Vizcaintno, well the game was doomed from the first inning. Meh.

Like most R.Kelly songs, he's got great music backing up creepy lyrics, and that's the main reason most people give him a pass. I admit that I think of three instances where I'll sing along with sexpense; "Bump'N'Grind", "My Body's Callin'" and the "Best Of Both Worlds" album, (sans Lil'Kim); again great music, lyrics I'll pass on. "I'm A Flirt" made me cringe the first hundred times I had to hear it on some blaring radio or IPod, but now I'm numb (and that's probably why it gets a pass from most people who would otherwise violently rip the IPod phones off the clod's head leaning over them at full blast; it's not worth the trouble).

My at-bat music? "Straight From The Seweh", "Microphone Checka" or "Hosts Wit'da Most" from Das EFX to lead off an inning, "The Wrath of Kane" or "Set It Off" by Big Daddy Kane during rallies and anything by Art of Noise or Negativeland for anything else >;)

Giambi... cricket, cricket...

I'll buy the Marlins if no one else wants it...?

R Kelly is repellent and I'm not into his music because other than Mary J. Blige, I have no interest in contemporary R&B. All that said, those lyrics as Derek's choice of hitting song are too funny and deserve to be mocked. Derek is not faking the modesty any more.

10 Joe has an amazing outlook on life. Very Buddhist. I wonder if he refers to Jeter as "grasshopper."

8 Slide? More like something from kick boxing.

MLB gets its revenge on Jason Giambi for taking them on by leaking his positive test. Karl Rove must be flattered.

however i will admit that it was clumsy, potentially dangerous, and probably a bad idea.

To me the Phelps collision the other day was more of a cheap shot than the A-Rod play (in fairness to Phelps, I don't think he was trying to hurt anyone). I have seen players take out the 2B/SS in worse ways with no call (IIRC, Sean Casey even took out Jeter last year on a stolen base attempt which I had never seen before).

The real question is what the Red Sox think about the play and will they try to retaliate when A-Rod comes up to bat in tonights game?

When Arod does get plunked, I'm most curious how the Yanks will react. Arod is their best all around player and Torre and Co. can not just sit there and take it. If he does, then he will have lost all of my respect and quite possibly the respect of some of his players.

Having said all that, a nice good fight might just be the red ass thta this team needs ot wak them the fck up!

I wonder if this is only a big deal because it's ARod. If it were Abreu, for example, making that slide I don't anyone would be talking about it.

As for Tavarez, these things happen. Big fluke . . . except that it almost fits the URP pattern. Tavarez isn't unknown, or a rookie, but he's a guy the Yanks ought to destroy. Lots of those pitchers over the last 4-5 years have instead destroyed the Yanks.

I'm not sure if that's just because I never noticed it happening before, or if it really has been that way lately. Someone ought to do an URP study - but expand it to include crappy pitchers, like Taverez, as well as unknown rookies.

if schilling touches a baseball tonight, he'll throw it at rodriguez. he's known for his theatrics, isn't he?

"If a man is sliding into second base and the ball goes into center field, what's the matter with falling on him accidentally so that he can't get up and go to third? If you get away with it, fine. If you don't, what have you lost? I don't call that cheating; I call that heads-up baseball. Win any way you can as long as you can get away with it."

The way the Yanks play the Sox these days, I'm not going to be surprised if the Yanks starter offers Ortiz and Ramirez a glass of iced tea and a cookie before they take their AB. They've got to play them more aggressively.

Again, I can't fault Rodriguez for trying to break up the play, but his attempt was so clumsy and lame, it was laughable.

I have nothing against playing the game aggressively but that slide was a bad joke.

"sex planet" may just be this generation's "stairway to heaven."

Let's let Leo speak for himself:

"As long as I've got a chance to beat you I'm going to take it."

"Give me some scratching, diving, hungry ballplayers who come to kill you."

If I were playing third base and my mother were rounding third with the run that was going to beat us, I'd trip her. Oh, I'd pick her up and brush her off and say, 'Sorry, Mom,' but nobody beats me."

"Some guys are admired for coming to play, as the saying goes. I prefer those who come to kill."