Actually Chavez was downgraded to a bacterial infection.

Johnny Damon CF
Derek Jeter SS
Jason Giambi DH
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Bernie Williams RF
Jorge Posada C
Robinson Canó 2B
Andy Phillips 1B
Melky Cabrera LF

Really, Melky doesn't have a better arm than Bernie?

I got the 880 radio feed with Channel 9's video.

I love him too. I retired him at Canyon of Heroes along with Reggie Jackson, but 5th???!!!

I'd like it better if they didn't fail to bring that runner in.

====

"You can only do what you can do," Giambi said. "This is a game where, if you try harder, you play worse. Guys have to try not to press, do the little things and make those games count.

"If guys start to get out of their game, that's going to be bad for us," he added. "We have a lot of great players on this team. He's a huge part, and hopefully Sheff won't spend an extended time on the DL, but we can't press."

=======

A-Rod is pressing, so what does Joe do? Move a washed up singles hitter behind him. Genius.

when he's on, I can see why the managers feel he can be a stud pitcher going forward.

DO NOT TRADE WANG OR CANO!

nice bunt though, where did that come from Melky?

What gives?

What gives? 47 comments in 5 innings?

Not really fair, as it's only gonna rain harder.
But I can't complain.

Nice to see A-Rod looking so happy and relaxed. He was seriously plecked off his last AB.

And we have a run now. If they call the game, we win.

last inning thought he struggled just a bit. I hope he comes out strong for the 7th.

I would forfeit the game. Someone's gonna get really hurt. I mean, puddles and ponds all over the place.

Lets go CMW.

no more Loretta hits, papi is back in his slump, manny being manny, etc. the only force right now in that line-up are youkilis and lowell

Just got in and saw that Cabrera had a sac bunt with one out, but reading your comments it looks like it was an attempt at a base hit. I was praying that Torre didn't look at the guy as equivalent to a NL pitcher.

Nice work by Wang!

I'm just kidding, I like Bubba.

I like it but its frustrating not to have the count, pitch speed, outs, etc.

How much evidence does torre need to continue starting andy in 1st when wang pitches?

And good old Randy gives Melky a nice hit :)

http://makeashorterlink.com/?G16422A1D

(Scroll down to "Current and Ex-Yankee United by a Coach.")

Knoblauch's dad coached Bubba when he was in high school. Teenage Bubba was a pitcher back then, the ace that led his team to a state championship.

I had to laugh at this though:

"We shipped the complainer off to the Yankees and got some great players in return (Guzman, Milton, and Buchanan)."

Is he being sarcastic?

um.. I am in Hong Kong.

You guys see that at-bat? It was a great ab after that second swing where he flailed at a pitch way off the plate. That was the first really bad swing I've seen him take, not counting the "bunting" the other day.

But the point is, after that bad hack, he hung in there, fouled off some pitches and got a basehit.

This kid seems to be the real thing.

Bubba Crosby comes in for defensive replacement....but he replaces Cabrera instead of Bernie? oy. /end rant.

Very nice play by Cano.

I also miss the status bar, i.e balls/strikes/outs/count etc.

My Digital TV MLB extra innings pkg just doesn't pick up the WOR feed I guess.

So, we have Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, and in the US, NY, San Diego, NH, and somebody said it was a slow night?

alex and cliff must be really proud of the international appeal of this site.

No what am I saying, you will be getting it on tv!

now, having said that, this last inning there were some hit-saving grabs, maybe he's running out of gas. 85 pitches

120 Wang barely had enough pitches each inning to strike out batters.

128 Wang really came through in time, his performance is really needed right now considering what has happened recently.

Brilliant, I tell you. Torre's brilliant. ;-)

So it is 2-0....Wang get a baserunner in the 9th?

But it was a nice moment. The crowd chanted his name really loud, and the place went nuts when he took his curtain call.

I'm kidding...btw

This is really one of the best opportunity for Wang to have his first Major League CG.

Couldn't agree more.

but, its always nice to see mo

Is it really that hard to have someone sit down with Torre and explain basic bullpen management?

http://www.nomaas.org/images/torreape.jpg

This will really piss me off......

Thhaaa Yankees win!

But Wang shoulda stayed in anyway.

Bullpen management: it's all about the CW. Nobody wants to risk getting fired based on a non-standard decision. Until there's a high-profile success by a young manager handling things differently, nothing will change...

185 You bet!

I'm just telling you what I'm seeing which is that he looks like a different hitter from the right side.

I'm just trying to get used to the inevitable.

Not only tonight, but the last few weeks, the 'Banter' game threads have been full of reactions to great plays by Cano in the field, and in 30 games he only has one error.

Considering he had 17 by the end of last season, it looked like he would be a liability in the field, whatever he did at the plate.

I have to admit, I didn't think he would change much. Some guys just don't have a head for defense. It looked like an attitude problem. He seemed to dog a lot of plays and it was suggested that he let his bad at-bats get to him while playing second.

When the coaching staff, especially Bowa, started talking about his work ethic on field and his commitment to improving over last year's performance, I was skeptical. Players don't often change their habits so quickly, and I figured Bowa et al. were just putting on a happy face for the press.

Well, I'm a believer now. Cano has gotten better, and he may even be pretty good out there (still too soon to tell). I figure if he can improve in the field, he can improve elsewhere too.

I'm more confident now than I used to be that he can develop his patience at the plate, for instance. Like fielding, plate discipline isn't the easiest thing in the world for a pro to learn or improve upon. By the time they get to the majors, most players are pretty set in their ways about such things (see Soriano, who neither improved his play at second nor learned to take a pitch). But it seems like Cano's work ethic is the real deal, so there's that much more hope that he'll improve as time goes by.

He may even learn to take better care of himself.

A-Rod will get it straightened sooner than later. And just may end up carrying the team this year. Fans need to get off his ass.

Fingers crossed.

When he first came up the hope was that he just wouldn't kill us in the field. No one was counting on his bat, but his dramatic improvement with the glove now seems like icing on the cake.

And as mentioned earlier, he needs to be moved up in order with Iron Sheff and Mats out.

Cano's a joy in every way. Of course his spraying line drives all over the place is a thing of beauty, but yes, his fielding is immensely improved.

He's really making tough plays routinely and I have a lot more confidence with him there than I think I ever did with Sori.

Pray God we don't trade him for Jeff Weaver or Denny Nagle or some such.

I really want to watch this guy develop.

They claim they're waiting for the big hit, ARod delivers the big hit, then they forget about it and go right back to booing the next day.

This is a guy who tries hard, plays smart, respects the game, never misses a game, and has 450 homeruns at the age of 31 without the aid of steroids (presumably).
Save the booing for somebody who deserves it.

The only trade for Robbie I would approve would be some 3 or 4 way deal that included Sturtze, and brought Pujols, Halladay and Big Papi to The Boogie Down ;-)

So far...
Moose have been just incrediable... i don't want to say more and jinx it .. :P let's just keep our fingers crossed that he can keep it up and stay healthy.

RJ seem to have a defective evil clone on the loose or something... in his 4 good outtings he pitched like the old Randy and in the 4 bad starts he pitched worse than Sturtze or Jaret Wright have been...

Wang seem to really be just a slow starter who doesn't like cold weather.. the last few starts are looking better and better.. he's slug against is amoung the league leader.. and that was before this game tnoight!!.. with that slugging against and the high GO/AO ratio he still manage to be relatively effective even when struggling and is just crazy when he can feel his offspeed stuff well.

Chacon is doing it with a lot of luck... which is a good thing and a bad thing.. but then again he's been that way for a long time.. and he pitch smart and stays tough, he is a very good guy to have in the back of ur rotation..

Wright looked better last time out.. but i'm still keeping my fingers crossed... he didn't throw enough strikes, and got hit hard by the few competent hitters the TB team had left on their line up... I also don't see that supposed miracle cure for his curveball people were talking about...

But even so.. Yankee pitching as a whole is much better than expected... and that's ALWAYS a very good sign. if they can (and i think they can) fight through these tough times.. this Yankee team is more than just a outside shot at the WS...

A franchise has to have people like him if it's going to stay fresh and exciting; hopefully the Yankees have figured that out again finally. With a little luck maybe one or more of Duncan, Tabata, Henry, Cox, Jackson, Marquez, Gardner and Hughes will join him soon.

Melky looked like he may be okay tonight. He doesn't have that scared look he had last summer. He had at least one really good ab. It may be too much to hope that he can give us this year what Cano gave us last year but won't it be cool if we can have the same conversation about Melky next winter that we had about Robbie last and argue again about whether a player is the real deal or just a flash in the pan?

These are all guys with preternatural ability and yet they're all guys who are on some level unreliable.

The bats never seem able to eek out the hit against tough pitching by going the other way and RJ never seems to be able to get batters out if his stuff isn't electric.

Meanwhile, a guy like Mussina or Pedro is able to succeed even when they're not at their best.

It's all about adjustments, isn't it? How many times do the big bats have to strike out with a key run on second base before they decide to shorten their swing?

How many times does RJ have to throw a flat slider before he tries something else, anything else?

Like a big crybaby. He doesn't have his A-game so he just gets really pissed instead of sucking it up and using his extraordinary abilities in clever new ways.

I'd so much rather have a team of scrappers and scrapers.

I don't know, it's just an idea I just had. Maybe it's off base.

Then again, maybe it's not.

I've not seen him give one at-bat away yet.

And he just looks very comfortable up there with great bat control, spoiling pitches and all.

A-Rod is OK.

"Looooouuuu!"

I like it.

:)

Robby won me over when he had that horrible slump last year...and adjusted. People still rag on him for being too aggressive, but he really has toned it down. That was what changed when he came out of that slump. He stopped swinging at the first pitch every single time.

Robbie wasn't projected to be starter material. The only reason he's on the team today is "desperation," as Torre put it. Makes you wonder how much other young talent is down there in the minors, needing only a fair shot.

And Wang is another one. Would he have ever gotten a chance if we weren't desperate for starting pitchers last year?

We were going to trade both Wang and Cano to Arizona as part of the Randy Johnson trade...but they didn't want them. Wonder if they regret that now? I know some Dodger fans are wondering why Scott Proctor and Bubba Crosby never played in LA as well as they're playing here.

==============

Mariano Rivera has a touch of the flu and was visibly sick before the start of the game.

"I'm achy and I don't feel good at all," Rivera said while sipping hot tea.

==============

Doesn't seem to be serious nor will it set him back, at the moment, but man is this guy fragile

Even if he did leave early, that is a nice line.

The 'Bubba will do it' line is the same line they used to make it look like they were NOT going after Damon (which of course they were for quite a while). Getting an OF'er will cost them, so they can't appear to be too needy, or they will really get raped.

Mats is out for the year (as an effective hitter anyway.. he may be able to 'play' late in the season). Shef and Damon make about 1 1/2 OF'ers. We are definitely in need.... assuming the Yanks know Bernie is NOT an OF'er.

So.................
Weigh in everybody.....
Who will be the Yankee's newest OF'er (I'll bet by the end of May/beginning of June).

And I especially want the 'official word' from Cliff and Alex on this question.

That is a very nice pitching line. Bowie doesn't exactly mash the ball but that's still a nice start.

I think they do want to get an outfielder, but it's just not likely for now. Bad time of year to go shopping. And they don't want to give away too much just for an outfielder. They'll be forced to stick with the likes of Melky and Bubba, just as last year, they had to use Robby and Wanger.

If they really start to struggle, or closer to the trade deadline, I expect they will trade for someone. I vote for Soriano as most likely.

For least likely, but most intriguing: Ichiro. Hey, we need those Japanese royalties. ;-)

I think Cashman is being honest when he says today that they're going to wait a couple of weeks and reassess. What will be out there in late May early June will be about the same as today. The only question is will we be willing to pay a king's ransom for an impact player or will we be looking for a stop gap. My sense is that they will do neither if they do anything at all.

If they do make a move I can see it for someone like Abreau who is a borderline impact player that Philly may move in a salary dump. We give up some older prospects around ONE of the guys mentioned above. Other than that I see Melky and the Kevins doing their dance of death to win playing time.

Money should be no object. I am GUESSING, that will Mats out for the year, some insurance money will kick in. I do NOT want to trade any young talent... but am happy to spend cash.

The question is: What will the Yankee FO do?
I say they get someone.
Don't know how, but they will.
Again.... the question is:
WHO will be the next Yankee OF'er in May/June.

Not HOW, WHAT, WHEN or WHY.... but
WHO?