It's 10:30pm on Monday night, here in Japan. I can tell that the upcoming series in Boston is big, because I already have a decent number of hits from the US over at Canyon of Heroes, and it's only 9:30am there.

That shows a thirst for Yankees/Red Sox material. I'm going to bed soon, so I can get up, drink my coffee, and watch a little of the game before heading out on some errands. I took off work tomorrow morning for the errands, hence my ability to catch the start of the game.

Japan celebrates "Golden Week" the first week of May and workers get a rare respite from their jobs for Wed., Thurs., and Fri. As it happens the Yanks are on everyday during that stretch, plus the weekend, so I'm going to O.D. on Bombers. See you on the other side!! 'Scuse me as I kiss the sky.

From the end of yesterday's thread -

Hughes bumped to AA:

http://tinyurl.com/fj57s

Recap from Tampa: 5 GS, .70 WHIP, 30.0 IP, 19 H, 2 BB, 30 SO, 1.80 ERA

The pitches to Arod were shown from the overhead camera. They were 4" inside. They weren't strikes. If Giambi takes those same pitches, the story is that he has a great eye. Since it's Arod, the ump must have screwed up.

I woke up this morning with this tune fresh in my head. How appropriate.....

Bring 'em out, Its hard to yell when the barrels in ya mouth
Bring 'em out, bring 'em out
Bring 'em out, bring 'em out
Bring 'em out, bring 'em out

I see a high scoring game today. First team to ten wins. I know I'm worried about Sheff. If we were playing at Yankee stadium I wouldn't feel so bad, but Sheff seems to like hitting in Fenway.

For us out of market fans, no YES coverage for the Bosox series as far as cable broadcasts go. Tonight's game is only on ESPN. The game is not on MLB Extra Innings. Broadbanders get the game on MLBTV on mlb.com (don't know what the feed is). NESN will be the feed tomorrow night on Extra Innings.

5 For all the money people (like me!) pay for Extra Innings, that's a crock of bs. Someone has to tell those folks to get their houses in order, make every game available, and always offer the choice between the home feed and the away feed.

Listened to the game on the radio yesterday - wish I had seen some of the replays on TV. Umpiring this year has been awful. Isn't someone at the Commish's office still monitoring them or what?

And I couldn't believe that Farnsworth finally went more than 1 inning - 'bout time!

6 Alderson left for SD and took quality assurance for the strike zones with him.

Wonder if the there was a bit of a coaches mutiny with Farns yesterday. Hopefully tonight is high scoring 4 then we can see the Mo/Farns redux tomorrow.

FYI- to the best of my knowledge, yesterday's Yankee game was the first one available in HiDef on my Extra Innings package this year (in Arlington VA, on Comcast). It was on one of those couple HD 'showcase' channels. Tuesday night's game will be as well (probably the NESN feed though.) I'm hoping it's the start of many Extra Innings games in HD...

so i go over to ESPN to look at the standings just to make this otherwise mundane monday feel a little better (yanks in first, woohoo!!). to my dismay, i found them listed UNDER boston in the AL East. the yankees have a higher winning percentage, yet are slighted because the have played less games? i understand that the sawx have on more tick in the W column, but they have also lost one more than the yanks. is there something i am missing here?

Alphabetical?

On the standings i was trying to get intelligent and wanted to suggest run differential.. but Sox is under.. so lets just say ESPN of Connecticut and home of alleged impartial but RedSox fan-filled commentators and analysts have got it wrong again.. checked the official MLB and also CNNSI.. Yanks are at 1..

If A-rod is waiting to make a splash, tonight and tomorrow would be a good time to start playing $25mil/yr baseball.

Agree 100% with Alvaro. It's time for an "A-Bomb from A-Rod" to step up to the plate. Especially if Sheff isn't there to pepper the wall.

BTW, it's going to be a coooooold night tonight. Does that favor the Yanks or Sawx? Doesn't Wake have a tougher time controlling his knuckler in the coooold weather?

Heres hoping that Torre puts some thought and plays Crsoby over GOB.. there is no Alex Rios to let singles go into 2B hits.. and that RF is a dead cave with wacky dimensions only Boston conjure..

here's hoping the yankees employ that crazy Drays shift on Papi just cos i think it's hilarious.

BTW, ESPN is reporting that the Sox reaquired Mirabelli this morning to catch Wakefield. Buster Olney also reports that the Yanks tried to grab Mirabelli to keep him away from the Sox.

In exchange for Mirabelli, the Sox sent Josh Bard (previously Wake's personal catcher) and Clay meredith to the Padres.

Wasn't Meredith a highly-touted pitching prospect for Boston?

thanks for trying, knuckles and yankaolic, but i am still kinda angry seeins as it's where a good chunk of people go to check this sorta thing out every day. even the boston globe website has the yanks listed above the sox. i am not as much a detractor as some, this is some pretty shoddy journalism on ESPN's part.

Mirabelli back to the Sox -- too bad, I was very interested in seeing Bard catch Wakefield at Fenway vs the Yanks! Amazing that the Sox got Loretta for basically Bard and Meredith. That was quite a deal for them.

so, what you're saying is:
the red sox traded a minor leaguer and a crappy back up catcher for mark loretta? ; )

The Sawx required Mirabelli to catch Wakefield. I guess they'll stick him in a what ever supersonic transport is available to get him to Yawkee Way by 7:00 pm tonight. After watching Wakefield's last start and witnessing Bard (who was included in the trade) wear a path out between the plate and the backstop I don't blame them even a little bit. Now it looks like they gave up Bard a minor Leaguer and cash for Loretta; an even better trade than the original. We apparently attempted to intervene but could manage to block it.

Meredith is a 23 relief pitcher out of Virginia Commonwealth, where he was a closer. He breezed through the system prior to a call-up last June, where he was overmatched and mashed. In his first turn, we walked a couple and then gave up a wind-blown grand slam by Richie Sexson, pop fly that blew around the Pesky pole.

Sent back to Pawtucket he struggled the rest of the year. And he's struggled again this year. He's ranked 12 on the Sox prospect list, fourth among relievers behind Hansen, Martinez, and Delcarmen. Easily expendable.

Meredith and Bard were shipped to SD along with an undisclosed, as of yet, amount of cash.

Who on earth is the San Diego GM?? If i were Cashman.. i would call him up and ask about Peavy or Chris Young or Williams.. maybe Cashman should have traded Womack to SD.. no wonder they are under .500

17 Meredith had better be good! Otherwise someone should investigate this series of roster moves. . . It is ridiculous.

I think I have committed more ethical trades with under-the-table allies in Monopoly.

Thanks for the Mirabelli info. Yeah, now there won't be the five PB's tonight. But at least Bard was 28 y.o.

If you thought the Yanks had an organizational blackhole at C, check out the Sox. And Varitek isn't exactly earning his last contract right now (.250 .345 .375). He needs more days off, and Mirabelli isn't exactly a guy you want playing two days a week, and especially not at the bottom of that 'inspired' line-up.

If you thought Womack was Womackian check out these numbers from Loretta (101 AB's) - .218 .282 .297. Hey, at least he plays defense, right murphy 20? Not too late to sign Tony off waviers...

The ESPN ticker also had this highly inspired journalism -

Kaman: Evans pulled testicles, prompting outburst

http://tinyurl.com/n4lga

Revenue sharing garbage:
Philly and San Diego each received money from revenue sharing last year (as did Det, Cin, Pitt, Mil who all have ballparks only a few years old)...
Revenue sharing is calc'd by each team pooling 34% of their local revenues (stadium revenue and TV/radio deals) and dividing it equally. Seems to me that with new ballparks and decent TV markets (Philly especially) these teams are doing a pretty crap job of maximizing their local revenues.
And as for Selig's belief that new ballparks are necessary to compete financially- stats say otherwise.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/story/413695p-349768c.html

It was not the first time Dowdy, a Triple-A umpire who has filled in on major league crews since 2002, had been in the center of a firestorm at the Stadium. In September 2004, Dowdy ejected righthander Orlando
Hernandez and then-pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre for comments they made from the top step of the dugout.

debris, it has been so rare lately, we miss your eternal optimism!

In case anyone missed it, Small was called up at the expense of, no surprise, Smith, who had been perfect in the Pen. At least he clearly showed he can do it and belongs when they get fed up with Sturtze sucking so much...

And totally off topic, but I am so happy with the new Jets regime, this weekend was great!

Wait, the Sox reacquired Doug Mirabelli!? The sky is falling! Not!

Tonight their infield will be:
1B - Youkilis (.299 .406 .414)
2b - Loretta (.218 .282 .297)
SS - Gonzalez (.186 .275 .243)
3B - Lowell (.318 .371 .511)
C - Mirabelli (.182 .308 .227)

I think the back-up catcher slot is the least of their worries.

How's this guy looking now, debris and murphy?

Hanley Ramirez (92 AB's - .304 .379 .489)

BTW: Loretta has the most AB's on that team. Exactly the guy to have in the #2 hole. Good thing he produced yesterday with the game on the line. Oh wait, sorry...

And here's their 'stud' waiting in the minors:

Dustin Pedroia (47 AB's - .255 .364 .383)

His back-up: Enrique Wilson.

At least Choi is producing (55 AB's -.327 .472 .527). Too bad he forgot how to play defense (3 E's in 16 games) and that they already have one full-time DH. Maybe A-Rod will bring his MVP trophy with him and show why he won it 12 13?

On yesterday's homeplate umpire - was he one of the replacement minor league umps, or one of the striking ones?

Oooh snap...I didn't know smack was being served for lunch today.

Gotta love the first series of the season! YEaaaah!

More Shef news:

(from rotoworld.com) "The New York Times reports that Gary Sheffield (hand) will likely miss the next two games. Asked when Sheffield will return, manager Joe Torre said: 'Whenever he can hold the bat. This may be a couple days.'
It's tough to lose Sheffield for games against the Red Sox, but the Yankees dodged a bullet with the severity of his injury."

As for our old friend David Wells:

(also from rotoworld.com): "The Boston Herald reports that the third synthetic lubricant injection has done little to improve David Wells' knee injury. 'I think he's had some frustrating days,' manager Terry Francona said.
The newspaper also reports that the Red Sox admitted to rushing Wells back the first time, so expect the team to be very cautious with his comeback now."

25 you can see the vid of the "pulled testicles" on www.youtube.com. Just type in "Reggie Evans"

Here's something else for you:

Mirabelli: Age 35, career: .240/.328/.421 (1352 PA)
Stinnett: Age 36, career: .239/.320/.390 (2119 PA)

Mirabelli's a hair younger (eight months to be precise) and a hair better (primarily due to more pop), but in essense, this is what a solid back-up catcher looks like. Bard may be 28, but he can't hit even this well (.240/.293/.368 career). I'm glad to know the Yankees tried to divert Mirabelli to New York. But I'm also glad to know they didn't overreact and do something foolish to make it happen.

Meanwhile, can we all lay of Stinnett now? Mirabelli's basically the same animal and he's been a hot property (the Loretta deal happened before the Padres signed Piazza. They knew they were losing Ramon Hernandez and likely expected Mirabelli to start). The Yanks did well to sign Stinnett and dump Flaherty (38, career .252/.290/.377).

Meanwhile, the Yankees have shown that they're conscious of their need for more catching depth, turning an out-of-options and redundant Bret Prinz into Wil Nieves last spring, adding Keith McDonald this spring, signing Ben Davis to a mL deal and looking into Mirabelli here. None of these guys are all that good, but all that good just isn't available for the price the Yanks are willing to pay right now. It'll take a big trade to replace Posada when the time comes.

In the meantime, understand that the Yankees are no worse off than any other organization when it comes to catching. There's just not that much catching talent out there. Yes, other teams may have propects on the way, but those teams don't have an All-Star starter, they're hemmoraging outs at the major league level now waiting for production later, while the Yankees are getting production at the major league level but are at risk of not doing so later. I'll take the production now, thanks.

Hope you enjoyed the Philips shot yesterday Cliff. Did you know that Torre had just got booted? Affect your enthusiasm a bit? Too bad that DP grounder didn't get through.

35 Stinnett is adequate for what he is - a break for Jorge once a week. But my humble opinion still remains: We need a back-up starting two days a week if we want Jorge producing at all this September and October. A young guy in the apprentice role would work nicely.

While we've tried to do some, it's all been those no-risk waiver deals. I would have much preferred some move to get a legit prospect at the catcher slot. If Meat wasn't a chip (Loaiza got 7/mil for three years from Beane. You're telling me Meat didn't have more 'hypothetical' value this off-season?), then you move Duncan after his AFL numbers to Seattle for Clement.

There were windows of opportunity there. The GM should have gotten something d-u-n. Next off-season it will be that much harder.

"Loaiza got 7/mil for three years from Beane. You're telling me Meat didn't have more 'hypothetical' value this off-season?" 36

Absolutely! Loaiza has no injury history and was very good in two of the last three seasons and even at that I thought that contract was ridiculous and surprising. Pavano doesn't have two very good seasons in his entire injury-plagued career!

As for Phillips, yeah, that was pretty sweet. He has three career home runs now, one in Fenway in 2004 (his first ML hit, I believe), and two since at the stadium, and I've been in attendence for both of the home homers. Here's hoping I get to see more Phillips four baggers in the future.

37 Okay, so in your opinion Meat < Loiaza.

Burnett got 55 mil over 5 years. An actual free market move. Over-priced to be sure, but someone paid it.

What was Meat worth this off-season?

38 I thought about how psyched you must have been esp. since it came in such a big spot. Good times! Too bad Torre missed it from the bench.

The deal with Mirabelli is IMO that while he is either just above or below a replacement level BC he may make another player, Wakefield, more effective. So there is a synergistic effect that raises them to a greater level of effectiveness when they are employed together than when considered individually. Bard and Mirabelli may be about equal but Mirabelli plus Wakefield is more valuable than Bard plus Wakefield. This is more than a lateral move for the Sawx.

41 Point taken. But Wake wasn't pitching half-bad before this trade. What's done him in is that they've scored ten runs across his starts. This trade isn't going to change that.

41 You don't have to sell me on that, wsporter. In fact, I'll go farther. I think Mirabelli is significantly better than Bard at the plate (35 points of OBP, 50+ points of SLG). My post wasn't slamming Mirabelli, but praising Stinnett.

I hope that we can do better than "a big trade to replace Posada when the time comes." I'm with Rob on holding out hope for the acquisition of a real prospect/apprentice.

A couple of months ago, BP ran a piece on young catchers. I noticed that several teams (Dodgers, Angels, Braves plus a couple more) had multiple young catchers with high upsides. The challenge is that to acquire another team's surplus, you need to have to offer surplus of your own, and the Yankees have not had any surplusses for quite some time.

If the bullpen continues to fire on all cylinders, then a surplus could be developing. In July, a bullpen-challenged contender may part with a strong catching prospect for a solid reliever.

We have to keep tabs on the Braves and Dodgers, both have 2 good catching prospects.. Russell Martin and Navarro (he is not that good, and he went the other way in the Randy deal..) and Mcann and Saltalamachia for Braves.. I was hoping Victor Martinez would be on the market but he signed an extension last year with the Indians..

39 Meat was worthless due to his contract and injuries. Pointing out two of the worst free agent contracts isn't going to convince me otherwise.

I think with all the turnover we will be getting in the rotation.. we might not looka t catching, Posada's option will kick in after half a season this year.. the immediate worry for the front office is rotation, we would need atleast 2.. maybe 3 new starters.. I think Moose will be back on a 1 yr or 2 yr deal.. but Wright will be gone.. And do you guys think if we dance in October Randy will be back??

So, does the cash given to SD make Mirabelli the highest paid backup C in the game? Not that either team is counting pennies but (according to dugout dollars) about a mil$/yr. So will he get the same "lifetime" deal as Wake now? Stinett is ok in my book. Yes we need to look for the future and ATL and LA are the best places to look. If we could get out pen in order I wouldn't mind dealing Dotel. He could be the best chip we've got.

43 I'm not sure if you're right Cliff that Belli > Bard or even Stinnett > Bard. I don't think you can rely too much on career numbers when you're talking about 35 and 36 y.o. catchers. That's like looking at Piazza and seeing 'potential'. It's a different comparison. The numbers this season (sure small samples) suggest that Bard is learning plate discipline. Will his upside ever equal that of career Stinnett or Belli? Probably not. But at least he still has an upside. I wouldn't be surpised to see him break out for a decent year (.750 OPS) in the inferior league. The more I think about it the better the trade for S.D.

45 Victor Martinez? Reality check here, guys. Martinez is the best catcher in baseball. That kind of talent just doesn't become available shy of a blockbuster. This is what I'm talking about. You can't just assume these players can be had.

That said, the Dodgers situtuation is indeed one to keep an eye on, and McCann is also worth monitoring. But Salty ain't goin' nowhere, so take his baseball card out of your hope chests.

Cliff.. i meant Victor on the Free Agency Market after a few years service.. but the Indians were smart and gave an extension to him after 1 full season.. as they did to Peralta and Sizemore.. I know VMart is off.. as for Mcann or Salt.. either of them are good.. but there were reports.. Braves may turn Salty into a 1B and keep them both..

46 Worthless = Value of zero to all teams.

Those contracts show that Meat was worth something, esp. more than now, and that there was a demand. At least Meat never had arm trouble. Burnett did.

In my humble opion, this off-season that worth was between 5-7 mil/year, depending on the team. That means we could have packaged him with 9-12 mil for something. That we didn't is the fault of the G.M. - he didn't want to move Meat.

But Clement (Seattle C prospect) was there for the taking with the Kojii signing.

47 Randy is signed for next year at 16/mil. In the FA market there are plenty of pitching options. No such luck at C.

The reason not to play Posada is not because of the option. It's because he wears down every year in the Fall (look his monthly splits). Thus, we benefit later this year if we had someone to give him two days off a week behind the plate. This is CF all over again. You pay more if you have to. But you get it d-u-n.

Cliff, good insight on the Mirabelli vs. Stinett comparison really puts things into perspective, thanks.

I guess it's just a matter of timing. By hanging onto Flaherty last year, we missed the boat on Mike Redmond who has been the best back-up catcher over the past 7 or 8 years.

And Redmond not only mashes lefties, he has destroyed great lefties (Johnson, Glavine, etc.) Does anyone know of a free website that gives Pitcher vs. Batter breakdowns. I'd be willing to bet Redmond has hit .500 against those two.

53 doesn't MLB give those stats?

55 ESPN does, though I think your evaluation of Redmond's overall skill set is wildly off-base. He's a bit better at getting on base and has a bit less pop than Mirabelli. He's just another in the Mirabelli/Stinnett clump, in no way does he stand out as any better than the others. He's certainly not better than Todd Pratt, who is, of course, old as the hills at this point. Of course at this point we're essentially arguing that red M&Ms taste better than brown M&Ms.

53 ESPN gives batter v. pitcher breakdowns.

Meanwhile, Redmond is just another guy in the Mirabelli-Stinnett clump, he's not any better. I could argue Todd Pratt has been better than them all, but at that point we're basically arguing for the best-tasting color of M&M.

Weird, that first comment didn't show up until I posted the second. Oh well, sorry 'bout that.

52 Rob, I am going to side with Cliff here. If Meat were a free agent, there is no way he gets 5-7 million a year, especially with the time he spent on the DL for the yanks last year. He would get an incentive laden contract with few guarantees.

I think a comparable deal would be the one that David Wells got after leaving the Yanks in 2003. Wells got $1.2 million from the Padres, pitched well and still only got $4 million from the Sox.

Now imagine both Wells and Pavano were free agents this past winter, who would you pick? Pavano has only pitched over 200 innings twice in his career. One of those times, he went 12-13. Last year he was injured.

Wells has won 15 games last year for the Sox pitching 195 innings. And Wells is earning $4million. So no way, Pavano gets more. IMHO, Pavano gets $2-3 million with incentives clauses for innings.

After thinking about this its seems to me that catchers who can hit as well as call a good game, throw and play defense are a gift from God; there just aren't many around. So we end up with guys who maintain partial skill sets, some are so good in one or two of those areas that they manage to start in the big leagues, some are good enough to just hang around for a while and become career backups. It's just such a demanding position that it neither breeds longevity nor attracts many of the best players. Over the years the search for a "good' backup catcher seems to something of a fools errand, there just aren't many who stand above the crowd. There never really have been to my recollection.

I think the best backup catcher is in Toronto. I really like Zaun. I like Ramon Castro, too. To me those guys would represent the elite of backup catchers. The Orioles having a combo of Ramon Hernandez and Javy Lopez are rare and that's probably the best duo right now.

Rob, why do you keep mentioning Pavano? That if we would have traded Pavano the current construction of the Yankees roster would have been much better, I don't think so and I don't see it.

60 Zaun is a career backup who Toronto discovered was good enough to become a budget-priced starter (an excellent example of making good use of an undervalued player). Molina, meanwhile, is a career starter who's no better than the best back-ups. The Jays now have two top back-ups to split time. I'd still take Posada-Stinnett over that combo.

Meanwhile, Lopez is a terrible receiver, that's why he's not catching this year and why the O's have a third catcher on their roster in Raul Chavez (who makes Josh Bard look like Johnny Bench at the plate). Hernandez is a solid starter, but his career line isn't much better than Mirabelli's.

Raul Chavez, meanwhile, is a career .222/.304/.387 hitter. Outside of the Indians Martinez-Shoppach combo, and the Twins Mauer-Redmon combo, there's no better catching twosome in the majors than Posada-Stinnett (though Varitek-Mirabelli is close). In any case, the strength of all of those combos lies with the starter. There's just no gold to be found in the backup catcher hills.

58 Don't be silly. Wells is ancient. Pavano is not. Indeed, the best comparison is the guy he shared a team with - Burnett. And all he got was 55 over 5. Ridiculous sure. But he got it and with a history of arm trouble, not just injuries. Other teams were lining up to give the 40 and 4 that Meat got. And whereas Burnett has been hurt every year, Meat was coming off two 200 inning seasons (2003, 2004) in Florida. Last year could have been explained as a 'fluke' (which it wasn't). But somebody would have bitten.

61 It's pretty silly actually. I just argued with folks pretty hard this off-season that the time to trade Meat was this off-season because his value was only going down. Now, after my opinions on CF were well-known, I perseverated on the backup catcher slot (BUC). There was much discussion at the time that we had nothing to trade for a prospect BUC. I thought Meat + 9-12mil fit that bill, especially to a pitching needy team like Seattle. Even if it didn't, the G.M. still had to trade the rotting Meat this off-season for whatever he could get. That he didn't has me still very bitter (esp. with all the argument about the merits of the current G.M.) but it was because he's the G.M.'s boy.

The current BUC problem, and Jorge's end of season trends for the last six years, makes me furious. It really is the CF problem all over again. And it won't be solved for a long time to come. Every year they wait means the price only continues to go up as our need becomes apparent to even the Jim Beatties of the world. With how difficult it is to find a good backstop that has all the requisite skills 59, you have to keep trying with legit options (drafts, trades, signing Latin youngsters). Was the last catcher we drafted really Lance Parish Jr.?

I'll go back to my hole now.