Johnny Damon CF
Derek Jeter SS
Jason Giambi DH
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Hideki Matsui LF
Jorge Posada C
Robinson Canó 2B
Miguel Cairo 1B
Bubba Crosby RF

Seems a tad high.

1 Is Joe protecting the rook from that nasty nasty knuckler?

Cliff, I do things like that all the time. You had to be thinking "per game" yet something got your attention and it came out the way it did. Drives me nuts when I do it.

Funny, I used to think that the term rubber game had something to do with the pitchers or the pitching match-up. But I recently learned that it doesn't. It's just a phrase that's used to describe any last game of any series that'll untie the series. i.e. 3rd game of a 1-1 3-game series. Or even better: Game 7 of the World Series.

Let's go Yankees! (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)

3 Could be. Doesn't want to shake his confidence, or throw off his timing?

If Wakefield proves hittable tonight, maybe Joe will pull Bubba out and put Melky in.

Perhaps it is to protect the fly ball pitcher, Chacon?

1 I just remembered that Bubba has the same line against Wake as Cano, but he's only had six ABs and he has two Ks in those six ABs to Cano's one in 15 trips. All of that said, I seem to recall when Melky was promoted last year his Trenton manager said he was the best breaking ball hitter he'd seen. Why not give him a shot at the knuckler then?

Meanwhile, props for using the accent mark.

.158/.238/.342, 0.580 OPS, worst among Yankee regulars.

Getting Cairo in the lineup smacks of the old "Enrique Wilson is 10 for 20 vs Pedro, so he starts tonight/Randy Velarde has good numbers against Johnson so he plays tonight" schtick. Everyone say it with me: small sample size! Sigh.

Its way too early to have to start up a "Free Melky!" campaign. Right?

"...Robbie's veteran teammates wave at Wake's knuckler like they're swinging at houseflies with a rolled up magazine..."

I am sorry to find that real funny...because when I can see the image in my brain I break out laughing. Hopefully, tonight is a new start.

BTW, who would have thought Lowell would be this good again. he's a legit threat now in that line-up.

I don't remember but I think weather like the current one in the bronx (windy) favors the knuckleball right?

http://tinyurl.com/bb7pb

Details are sketchy, but early reports indicate he was suffering from a serverly bruised ego.

Surely, you mean his fastball, right?

Sorry, I'm a sucker for the knuckler, and I always enjoy watching Wake pitch, even when he pitches well against the Yanks.

I have to say that it'll be easier to be a member of the knuckleball cult if Haeger comes back and sticks around, though.

It also says "Watch for lightning." :-P

Or are they gonna put in Bernie?

Matsui's streak may be broken.

At least their moving Bubba to left.

Bernie doesn't even belong in right, forget left.

But the fans in Japan are going to be distraught.

I hope he doesn't stay out long.

at this pace it will certainly be a battle of the bullpens begining in the 5th inning

In general, "If it's high, let it fly. If it's low, let it go." is about as good a rule as you could hope for to hit a knuckleball, assuming the knuckler you're seeing is bad-to-passable.

Now, bad-to-passable is anything that's finished fluttering 20-30 feet to the plate, so the high ones are pretty much sitting there for the hitter to line all over the field. The low one will still generate grounders.

But a good knuckler, or one moving inside of 15-20 feet to the plate, forget about it, high or low. Just let the pitcher walk you.

The ones up in the zone, if they're moving in the last fifteen feet or so, turn the line drives into nubbers, pop-outs, and whiffs. And the low ones still generate the grounders.

So I think Morgan was right when he said the high knuckler is more difficult than the low one, at least if it has plus movement.

I hate you.

Some pitching coaches think that pitching is just like any excercise, repetition, to a point, makes for endurance. I think Leo Mazzone considers that to be the case.

And seriously, Mark Loretta? Come on, get that guy out. He should be a black hole in the 2-spot.

That's a break.

He literally can't pitch out of a bag, and at the end, he has this look on his face that says, "I need surgery."

Melky is definitely better than Long already.

BP

100 pitches through 4 2/3.

No word on Matsui.

No word on Matsui.

And nice catch, Bernie.

sigh...

Or are we going to the Villone Zone?

Oh wait, Tanny was trying to get Manny out!

All my posts are lagged a few minutes late.

All those men left on base.

Can you believe that Proctor's men were left on base, cuz I can't.

Tip of the cap to Robbie, Villone.

Game's almost three hours old anyway.

Oh why won't the skys open?

Surgery for Hideki tomorrow.

I heard Lima and Sturtze were 1-2 for the worst ERA for pitchers with ten years or more in the majors.

The Matsui news is awful.

Looks like Melky is up for a while.

And that play showed Jeter's total lack of range

I for one am thrilled at the chance of watching this Melkie kid for a few weeks.

Melkie and Bubba will be fun to watch, but they'll probably never both start. Bernie in left, I suppose and Melkie in right.

Farnsworth has to get 5, or Mo has to get 6. Any chance the game is rained out on Friday?

Soivs im right.

There's no commandment from on high that says a corner outfielder must have such and such power.

This team has plenty of power to carry a line-drive hitting rightfielder.

I think he had time.

Damn. Cairo has to hold onto that.

Damn. Cairo has to hold onto that.

Giambi might have made the swipe, but I kind of doubt he'd have caught the ball in the first place.

See? That's what we can't have.

No excuse for back-to-back strikeouts with the tying run on second base!

Contact, people, contact!

Exasperating.

:)

Remember those signs?

They don't even need those signs anymore because no one's even heard of pepper anymore.

Grrrr

I never knew what those signs were talking about. I remember seeing them at Yankee Stadium, but never have I played a game of pepper in my life.

Hey, remember back in the day of the old WPIX broadcasts at night, where if they showed a close-up of a batter, you could see the reflection of the stadium lights on the helmet cause streaking in the tv shot?

Wrist injuries are death for a batter. Guys have played with fractures in fingers and other places. Painful, but they can still play. However, in batting the wrists do all the work, so this is a bad injury. Shefs turned out to be worse then initially thought.

It's bad new for everyone except Melky.

They just don't teach the fundamentals anymore and for the life of me I can't figure out why.

Why can't some rookie (Melkie, in this case) be trusted to lay down a textbook bunt when called upon? It's really not that hard to do, it just takes practice and attention.

I mean, if some small thing can be the difference between winning and losing, why not make sure everyone can do it?

I don't believe my eyes!

From the left side.

Ok, now, he must score.

Fundamentals!

No Bunt Here (in this situation) - That's for you Cliff

Good Old Jorgie with a non-productive out.

Shouldn't people be making some noise?

Try to rattle Pappelbaun?

Nice job, Miguel.

Damn...Phillips coulda roped one.

Agh!

Yes!

Though I don't think I'd call 6'-4" and 200+ pounds "little."

Enough to make you want to scratch your eyes out.

Good enough that I fear we'll be seeing a lot more of Bernie in the weeks to come.

I just realized this makes no sense because of the DH. Whoops.

Until the Damon deal, they were seriously considering using Bubba as the starting CFer. I'd be happy to see him get a chance at LF or RF.

He was a power hitter in college (still holds all kinds of slugging records at Rice, I believe), and had some great runs in the minors. I know it's different in the Bigs, but I think he could be passable. They're working with him on his mechanics.

Bubba in LF, Melky in RF.

Hey...How about Phillips in the OF like someone here mentioned before? It can't be worse than Bernie everyday...

Because that's what name Torre drew when he and Lee were drawing names out of Mazilli's empty box of Just For Men, post-game. Torre figures it works for picking guys to come out of the bullpen, so what the hell.

(1) Cairo shoudln't be on this team. But if he is on the team, he never ever never ever never ever should be playing first base. End of story. That's a routine play for even a bad 1st baseman like Giambi. Philips makes that no problem.

(2) Bernie cannot be in the field. Frankly, he shouldn't even be allowed to do more than pitch hit, but if he's gonna play, it has to be dh, not outfield.

(3) What about Brett Gardner? I know he's only in high single a, but he's advanced age wise, had a very good college career, is mashing the ball, is patient, and can field. Send him up to Columbus, skipping Trenton, to replace Melky/Reese and see what he can do. It seems he has a better chance of being an ML starter than either of the Kevins, and maybe has more of an upside than Melky. Matsui being out could be his opportunity.

Easy guys. First of all, Giambi was 0-5 and looked as lost as Cairo, should he be off the team too? It was Wakefield, lighten up.

Paul O'Neill admitted it took him half a season to figure out those fly balls in the wind in that corner. Take it the fuck easy on Bernie. If anyone thinks Andy Phillips would do a better job in right with no experience, then you are a reacationary moron.

Of the two "Kevins," one is 28-29 and the other is young and has potential, he's not So Tagughi, that is why he is being brought up. If you're 29 years old playing AAA or A, you're done man, get over it already.

Before you blame Bernie ior Jeter, relax, Jete's ball was ruled a base hit for Chrit's sake! And further, both of them got in scoring position late, what winners do, the bottom of the order choked, and so did the top! They did their part, the rest of the team has no idea how to come back. We win early or we lose early, this team doesn't come back. Pitching to Arod is as easy as pie in close situations. Just as easy as it is with any other hitter who is too boneheaded not to take the ball where it is pitched. You cant pull an outside fastball, but Arod sure will keep trying! Curve, outside foul tip, high fast ball, Arod goes down, very simple. It's the pitchers with too much testosterone who give in and give him a pitch to hit. The smart ones get him out every time in that situation.

What's wrong with Bubba? All he does is make great defensive plays and hit the ball when he's in the starting lineup.

Blame Sheffield before you blame Bernie, if we picked up his option, he'd have been out there tonight. I live in LA and we are just beginning to see how testy he gets when he gets "disrespected," the new synonym for selfishness.

This team will be fine, once they actually begin hitting the ball with 2 out and runners in scoring position. RBI in games when we're ahead by 6 don't mean shit! Stats are stats, but winning is winning, and that's all that matters.

339 That didn't look like a routine play to me. It was great that Jeter even got to the ball, and pretty good that Cairo caught it, if only temporarily. I don't think Giambi would have gotten it, and if he did, he'd probably have thrown his back out reaching for it that way. :-P

I would rather see one of the kids in the OF, instead of Bernie, but all things considered, he did okay last night. The one he missed was pretty tough. It went out over the stands and blew back in. I don't think Melky would have gotten that one, either. (And then the poor kid would have been tagged with "can't catch fly balls" forever.)

340 I'm really warming to Bubba. Bobby Murcer has been waving the Bubba flag since before spring training at least, and put in plugs for him last night both before and after the game. He thinks Bubba can be an offensive threat. Says he has all the tools, his problem is mechanics. Which Mattingly is fixing.

I'm really bummed Hideki was hurt. He's one of my favorites. But it's not the end of the world. We'll have a younger and speedier team, if not quite as powerful. And hopefully, Sheff will be back soon, and Hideki will be back before the end of the season.

Matsui before he gone down was .261/.353/.461 playing everyday

Bernie is.. .264/.303/.330 and mostly been starting..

Bubba is .259/.355/.370 and mostly getting rare starts or one at bat every couple of games...

What is Bubba's problem again ? .355 OBP is NOT a auto out.. he's been hitting the ball pretty darn well to all fields when he does start... he can run and he can definately defend...

Why are we so down on him again?? for all we know if he can get consistent starts he might be brining that number up close to .280 BA and maybe .380 OBP.. that's pretty damn good for the last guy in the batting order.. watching his swing I also cna't see the problem, he swings fast and don't go after bad pitches that often.. he hits to all field and out legg a lot of things.

The only thing he DOESN't have is slugging, and that's perfectly fine when ur the last guy up and when u can rob hits every day out there...

He's not Matsui, but he should be more than servicable replacement.

And if Melky can hit Beckett and Schilling, I can't see why he shouldn't be the starter everyday out there.. Bernie has been looking better at the plate but he's never looked worse out there in the field, he can be a ok DH in the back end right now but there's no way you start him in the field when you have 3 sets of young legs as the alternative...

I forget exactly what they were trying to fix in his swing. Trying to flatten it, or something like that. And they said Mattingly was making him hit balls off tees further away than usual, to make him reach out more.

There is no downplaying the loss of Matsui -- the guy has been a huge clutch hitter, particularly against the Sox in Fenway. That is the sort of stuff that neither Melky nor Bubba can replace.

I don't understand the anti-Cairo sentiments. I'm so happy the Yanks did not go with the Frank Thomas/Ruben Sierra power hitter type. I'd rather have a contact hitter like Cairo up.

Cairo's issue last night was a lack of physical height not fielding ability. He made that play. And if you think about it, IF he made that play what a gut wrenching end of inning for the Sox and their fans -- it's not that time of year yet. Remember, Red Sox Baseball -- it's all about getting to game 7 and losing.

They're coming back to Boston where the Rangers are going to beat up on them. It's Clement Time: oh my darlin' oh my darlin, oh my daaaahlin Clement Time. We are lost and gone forever, dreadful sorry, Clement Time

He will keep trying, won't he? These hitters just seem incapable, constitutionally incapbale from altering their approach to suit the situation, and yet they're great hitters.

But having your two big guys strike out consecutively with the tying run on second base is nothing but unacceptable horseshit.

Can't anybody here play this game?

Wow, every team has it's share of bizarro fans.