Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
Since stomping the Mets 9-0 in the second game of last Friday's doubleheader, the Yankees have scored just seven runs in four games. Tonight they look to break the slump and avoid a sweep against Rangers rookie Luis Mendoza.
Mendoza hasn't allowed a run since April, but he also hasn't made a major league start since April, when he posted a 9.31 ERA in three starts, all of them Ranger losses. Mendoza spent most of May on the DL due to inflammation in his pitching shoulder and has made three scoreless appearances out of the Texas bullpen since being recalled from his rehab assignment in mid-June. The 24-year-old Mendoza has made six starts in his brief major league career and never seen the sixth inning in any of them. He's also never faced the Yankees.
Opposing Mendoza is former Ranger Sidney Ponson. The Yankees signed Ponson on the day I left for my recent vacation and I was still away when they called him up to pitch against the Mets, so I didn't have an opportunity to register my disgust at the return of the player who very nearly made my list of my least favorite Yankees of the past 25 years based on his 16 1/3 innings as a Yankee in 2006.
Ponson had three quality starts in ten tries as a Ranger earlier this season, with all but two of his starts for Texas coming in May. When the Rangers released him for bad behavior that reportedly included making a scene at a hotel bar and fighting with manager Ron Washington, Ponson had a 105 ERA+, which marked the first time he'd been anything close to league average or above since 2003.
Ponson pitched six scoreless innings against the Mets in his Yankee debut this season, and could have another solid outing if facing the team that released him increases his focus tonight, but he is not a long-term solution. He is a stop-gap as the team waits for a variety of young pitchers to overcome injury, setbacks, and inexperience. That said, I'd rather have Dan Giese in the roation right now. Giese has had just two poor starts in 12 tries between triple-A and the majors this year. I'd also rather give Jeff Karstens, who is finally healthy and pitching well for Scranton (1.88 ERA in June, 3.67 K/BB on the season), or Jeff Marquez, who has rediscovered his ability to get ground balls and posted a 1.89 ERA in June for Scranton, or fast-moving Dan McCutchen (3.88 K/BB in Scranton) a shot to prove themselves in the rotation rather than have to endure watching the Fat Ponson Toad work his black magic. It pains me that we're back in this spot two years later. Three-fifths of the Opening Day rotation may have hit the DL, but that's still no excuse for employing Sidney Ponson.
Word of warning: in his last stint as a Yankee, Ponson pitched the Yankees to a win in his first start, allowing four runs in 6 2/3 innings. He was then lit up in his next outing (six runs in 2 1/3 innings) as he went on to post a 13.97 in his final four games of the season. The Yankees released him after those five appearances and he spent the rest of the season out of work. I repeat: Sidney Ponson is bad.
Melky Cabrera gets the night off tonight, so Brett Gardner will make his debut as the Yankee center fielder. He's batting ninth. Jason Giambi will DH with Wilson Betemit, who is likely to be a permanent fixture in the lineup in Hideki Matsui's absence unless Gardner starts getting on base and forces Johnny Damon to DH, at first base.
Cliff, have any plans for a mid-season or maybe ASB mini-recap of the season? You're always level headed, I'm looking for a reason to think this team shouldn't be a seller at the deadline.
When are Hughes and IPK due back? Soon, please.
On another note, it looks like Molina got off easy:
http://tinyurl.com/4qr7mc
A fractured left testicle. Ulp. William, you'd still prefer this to getting hit on the knuckles??
That was an entertaining moment at the bar at Monday's BP get-together. Everyone has one eye on the game, and they see Molina get hit by a pitch and roll around on the ground. One guy next to me says "oh man, I think he got that on the wrist." Someone else thought he was hit somewhere else mundane. Just as YES begins to throw to the replay I say, "I don't know guys, it looked to me like he got it right in the . . ." at which point the replay shows, in slow motion, exactly where that unencumbered fastball hit Molina and the entire bar lets out a collective "ooooohhh!" of emphatic pain.
"Yeah. That's what I thought."
Unfortunately, Duncanstein hurt his shoulder the other day.
Ponson continues his domination.
But I have a kind of abstracted interest this evening, not a fannish kind.
Hey, another 2 out rbi hit! Yanks had one of those last night too.
=)
=)
it was a commercial on the YES broadcast
I'm getting concerned that people don't like reading about all these losses, though. So I'm thinking about just writing a nice positive description of a win, no matter how the team actually does tonight. Thoughts?
hmmmm .... could you do it MadLibs style .... where we can enter in nouns, verbs and such?
'STACHE SMASH!!
'STACHE SMASH!!!
Hell, William and I will record a motivational tape for them!
81 Thanks!
Nice AB by Jorge here no matter how it ends.
Or we could just use the Eight Belles treatment on him.
Hey, I believe Crazy Uncle Milton is a free agent after this year . . . can anyone say, Abreu's replacement?
I'm not sure if that's fair or not.
unfortunately, joey joe joe was ...
11 IP, 14 H, 7 BB, 7 ER, 1.909 WHIP 5.72 ERA
Brilliant signing. Whoever could have seen this coming.
I bet Cashman is really wishing he did that Hughes-Melky-Horne deal for Santana now, though...
I think its far more likely that Brian Cashman, who has proven repeatedly that he has no clue how to evaluate pitching, sees something he likes in Ponson that's not apparent to anyone else. Either that or he saw his ERA this year and decided he FINALLY TURNED THE CORNER.
/ sarcasm
Obviously the criterion for filling this roster spot was a warm body with no regard for skill. There has to be someone in the system body. If you don't care if the pitcher is any good, you might as well give some fringe pitcher in the system a shot. Just not someone we've seen fail over and over and over and over and over again.
Of course, I'm asking this of a man who seems to build a pitching staff around men put on base and a player's most recent results over his career, so this was expected.
Our youth? Wang, Hughes, IPK, Cano, Melky. Injuries? Problems helping the team win?
Sure, being young beats being old, but what makes a player valuable is producion. Our three most fragile vets, Moose, Giambi and JD are the main reason we still have any chance at all.
And Jeter leads the team in hitting with RISP?
The only thing I can think of is: I must have missed those games. I remember 2 hot weeks after he came back from his first injury. Do they tract hitting into DPs with RISP?
We have 5 hits. We are in this game because of BBs, a HBP and one big hit.
A MAsh by the Stache
A Slug by the Lug
A shot to the Moon by the Big Goon
And he does it again!
But the team is STILL NOT HITTING!
In all seriousness though, I see no reason to jettison Cashman now. If he was fit to do the job before the season started - and he was - he's still fit to do it. The man can't win.
As much as I would rather have seen Karstens, or Marquez (who probably isn't ready), or (especially) McCutchen (who really isn't ready - read Chad Jennings' blog, kid is having trouble getting his curve, his 1A pitch, over for strikes at AAA) - if any of them were here right now and had gotten shelled, the comments would have been, "Why is Cashman trying out a crappy (Karstens)/untested (Marquez)/not ready (McCutchen) kid instead of taking a flyer on Chacon/David Wells/pick your veteran flavor of the month."
Pulling the plug on Girardi after one year might be quick (although it's been done to him before), but if you bring in a new GM, I don't think Girardi has distinguished himself to the point that you would thrust him upon the new hire.
237 Speedy Gardzales? Way to run, kid!
Way to run, kid!
http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=427
And Kyle 259 is not a challenge to you.
And he's still just 32!!!!!
I want to be excited about today.
I really do.
And I am, in that it's great to watch an explosion of hitting, but damn it, we should have won yesterday.
Fuck.
I saw A Rod's dinger. Kind of funny that he doesn't get more of those, isn't it? Liners to right.
I was at a birthday gathering for my great aunt down in the Village--she's 95--and I saw Jorgie walk with the bases loaded, which made it 6-3. But I figured it was still gunna be a long night. They blew the lead, huh? Guess they made up for that suckatude. Dag, nice to see them bust out the can o whup arse.
No, mild grion stuff or anything?
or Junior ....
95. Wow.
Mazal Tov.
I liked Actor's Studio, until they started interviewing such noted actors as Jim Carrey and the like.
rat shit, bat shit
dirty old twat
69 assholes tied in a knot
yay!
lizard shit!
FUCK!!!
Hank, bitch about: 1) catching bin Laden, 2) oil prices & 3) me deserving a raise.
post of the night nominee ....
I think Giambi comes back.
I wish they'd stop. Scoring all these runs almost makes the last three losses sting more, and sets things up for another low output tomorrow! Save them.
Dude, I'm so with you. Man, superstition rocks don't it? LOL
(with apologies to Elvis)
MIRACLE MAX
Don't rush me, sonny. You rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles. You got money?
INIGO
Sixty-five.
MIRACLE MAX
Sheesh! I never worked for so little, except once, and that was a very noble cause.
INIGO
This is noble, sir.
His wife is crippled. His children are on the brink of starvation.
MIRACLE MAX
Are you a rotten liar.
Memo to Joe Girardi: Intentionally Walk Manny Ramirez Whenever You Can.
Consider that the stadiums were much bigger back then, and pitching was much better (20 teams in MLB as opposed to today's 30).
Yankees to Rangers: SPANK YOU VERY MUCH!
I think the Rays are for real. A sweep of Boston will only energize them more. Plus they have this kid Price waiting in the wings. Management will spend a little money now, and they might spring for one impact FA over the winter. They may be a contenter for a few years.
Manny on first, 0 out.
Cash: "Yunnow, my Dad said I oughtta be a farmer...
Sir Sidney: "My Dad wanted me to be baseball player..."
Cash: Well you're the worst player I've ever had, and you're the worst damn pitcher I ever saw. Suit up..."
>;)
http://tinyurl.com/3j475s
no mention of Anna Benson there, right?
Updated: July 3, 2008, 2:24 AM ET
NEW YORK -- Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez and his wife have split less than three months after the birth of the couple's second daughter, according to a report in the New York Daily News.
This could mean more sleepovers at Jeter's.
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