Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
Last week's heat wave has given way to some absolutely beautiful days here in the New York area. Not that it does the Yankees any good. Last night's game time temperature in Arlington was 94 degrees, but the Yankees were as cool as the other side of the pillow, answering a second inning solo homer by Mark Teixeira off Randy Johnson with four runs over the next three innings.
In the third, a pair of two-out triples by Melky Cabrera and Derek Jeter tied the score. In the fourth, Alex Rodriguez and Bernie Williams scored on a two-out double by Miguel Cairo to give the Yankees a 3-1 lead. In the fifth, Alex Rodriguez received some cosmic justice when, with Melky on third and Jason Giambi on first and one out, Rodriguez hit a sharp grounder to third and Texas third baseman Mark DeRosa tried to nail Melky at home, but threw the ball in the dirt, allowing Cabrera to score.
The Rangers got that run back in the bottom of the inning when that man Teixeira drove home a Gary Matthews Jr. double with two outs only to get nailed by Cabrera when he tried to stretch his hit into a double and overslid the bag. Two pitches later, the Yanks returned the favor via an Aaron Guiel solo shot.
A pair of doubles by Jeter and Rodriguez added another run in the seventh, capping the scoring at 6-2 Yankees. Johnson, showing no ill effects from the 129 pitches he threw in his previous start, pitched six strong and Proctor, Farnsworth, and Rivera combined to hold the Rangers to three hits and no walks while striking out five over the final three innings.
Farnsworth has now struck out the side in his last two appearances and hasn't walked a man in his last 11 innings pitched, dating back to June 25 against the Marlins. His line over that stretch is 11 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 HR, 0 BB, 8 K. Proctor has also been pitching well of late. Since the All-Star break his line is 7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 HR, 0 BB, 12 K.
Speaking of the bullpen, as expected, Sunday's performance earned Kris Wilson a ticket back to Columbus. He's been designated for assignment and T.J. Beam, who has allowed just four baserunners while striking out 11 in seven innings for Columbus since being demoted, has been called up to take his place.
In addition to taking Wilson out of the picture, Joe Torre has decided to take advantage of Thursday's off day to skip the fifth starter's spot, which means the Yankees won't need a fifth starter again until after the trading deadline. Hmmmmm.
The other news is all injury related. Johnny Damon tweaked his back getting into a car to go the ballpark last night and was scratched from the line-up, shades of Mariano Rivera tweaking his back putting on his spikes earlier in the year. Damon hopes to return to action tonight, though that seems optimistic. Meanwhile, Derek Jeter, who was replaced in the ninth inning last night due to a sore back attributed to playing four games on turf in Toronto over the weekend, shouldn't miss any more time.
Hideki Matsui continues to make progress and, though he hasn't been cleared to do so yet, could take regular batting practice by the end of the week. That said, Derrek Lee's return to the disabled list yesterday should serve as a warning about how difficult it is for a hitter to come back from a broken wrist.
Soft tissue wrist injuries are even more problematic. In his latest Under the Knife colum, Will Carroll estimates that Gary Sheffield is five weeks behind Matsui, which to me means he might not be back this season.
Octavio Dotel was given a clean bill of health by Doctors James Andrews and Stuart Hershon, but his rehab has again been reset somewhat as he won't throw off a mound again until the end of the week. Lastly, Robinson Cano still has no projected return date.
The Rangers also have some injury-related news as Adam Eaton, who has been out all season with a strained middle finger on his pitching hand, will be activated before tonight's game to make his Rangers debut. No word yet on which marginal reliever will get the book to make room for Eaton. Meanwhile, Rangers' manager, co-architect of the Yankees' last dynasty, and notorious workaholic, Buck Showalter, was recently hospitalized due to hydration. He was released yesterday morning, but did not actually manage the team last night, instead yielding the role to bench coach Don Wakamatsu.
The good news is the Yankees are almost done with the AL Central going 16-7 against the best division in either league while the Red Sox are only 8-7. The bad news is the Red Sox have far more home games remaining. In any case the 9 games between the Yanks/Sox including the rare 5-game August series will likely decide the AL East pennant.
OT: Is Don Wakamatsu the first Japanese-American to ever manage a MLB game?
Yonsei means fourth-generation Japanese American. Wakamatsu's family likely emigrated to the US somewhere between 1885 and 1924 when about 300,000 Japanese emigrants came to the US and Hawaii to work sugar plantations. Wakamatsu was the very last pick in the 1984 June Amateur draft by the Yankees. He could have been the next Juan Espino!
http://www.nypost.com/sports/espn_fires_reynolds_sports_andrew_marchand.htm
Doesn't say much. ;) Maybe Reynolds wasn't anti-ARod enough for them. I shudder to think who they replace him with.
Considering the baby steps Matsui has been taking I was starting to lose optimism about Sheff's return. It seems more unlikely now. Dang.
Fortunately, as Yu-Hsing Chen noted above2, Melky is stepping up. He's maturing quickly, as Cano did last season, and emerging as a reliable player.
Melky should be a solid presence in right field, and the bottom of the order down the stretch, after Matsui returns.
The Yankees offense will improve drastically when Cano's back, too.
re: Jeter. I don't think his grimacing and stretching throughout the game was the result of 4 days on the hard Toronto turf. I think he tweaked something lurching backwards to avoid Milwood's pitch toward his helmet last night. Thanks to adrenaline and cosmic justice, Jeter ended that at-bat with a standup triple.
Hopefully, Pavano will get his sore buttock off the massage table so Jeter can receive treatment today.
Good game last night. Big Unit did not have his best stuff for sure, but the Rangers helped out by not taking advantage. I'm glad this start wasn't against the Jays and their hot bats, or the results likely would have been Ponsonish.
I don't want to sound greedy, but a Texas sweep sure would taste good after that Toronto butt kicking.
Fingers and toes crossed re: SheffSui. Geez. I want to see those guys back before the end of the year. I want to see that fearsome lineup a few more times before the end of the season.
Pavano? Name rings a bell, but I can't seem to place the face. Hmm ....
Fire Harold Reynolds? Now BBTN has clearly jumped the shark. Watching Kruk is barely tolerable, only because Harold was there. If it's essentially Kruk & Philips then forget it, the show is unwatchable.
'Nuf said about that jilted jerk off.
It doesn't make sense to me why so few people mention the history between A-Rod and Phillips. Phillips pointlessly called out A-Rod when the Mets were trying to sign him (yeah, that was smart) and then A-Rod blasted him right back in the press. These guys don't like each other. Phillips took heat for what he did. Who doesn't think this is a little payback?
Phillips' contention that A-Rod won't flourish in New York ignores that he had his BEST offensive season in New York last year. I don't get how people forget that the guy won the MVP last year with unbelievable offensive production.
Phillips would be better served if he applied for a job with MSG, that is if the rumor about possibly booting Clyde has, ahem, "merit". He'd get all the tender loving care he needs and would likely be in line to succeed to the top job in two years.
I also think that Phillips is performing his job as an ESPN analyst/comedian/provocateur by mucking up the trade talk.
Thirdly, as a general rule, I always take the contrarian view of Raissman. I think he's pretty much a twit. Who knows...
If Phillips were a Mini-Me, would it be to James Dolan or Isaiah Thomas or _________?
Somehow, I don't remember Jeter and other prominent athletes name-dropping other superstars when discussing themselves. A-Rod is certainly a world-class athlete, but I could see his name-dropping as something that is easy for his detractors to poke fun at i.e. "you know, Gandhi was thrown under the bus for just doing what he believed in, so I can't let the criticism get to me"
When Randy Johnson said last year that his job was just to keep the Yankees in the game and give the team a chance to win, everone screamed b.s. and said he's a superstar. If he said he is a superstar and expects to win every game, people would say "Well, isn't he full of himself".
It's about time I get the whole media and what not a rest and just watch the games and enjoy the play on the field. This Yankee team is too fun to let this nonsense get in the way of enjoying the games.
The "Boys of the Banter" set a good tone and I enjoy reading the game recaps and the analysis the next day. The rest - the tabloits and the national sites and the radio shows - they seem intent on sucking the fun out of all of it. No thanks.
21 That's not exactly foot-in-mouth disease (and believe me, the press has already jumped on it), but it could go a little as to why Jeter and company are perceived as not jumping to defend him. Also, I might also suspect that certain things were said one way and reported another.
[In General] Say Jeter says something that fully satisfies our desire for him to defend A-Rod. Then say A-Rod says something similar to his Tiger reference. The immediate perception is that A-Rod is a crybaby and can't defend himself. The next thing is that it undermines Jeter's defense of him and places him in the press' crosshairs looking for vulnerability in his leadership. Eventually it devolves into a he said this, he said that, why did he say that, whatever, FU, FU2, STFU, trade me, blahblahblah.
IMHO, there are too many media outlets competing with each other, trying to stir something up so they can profit from the resulting disaster. MLB is in bed with ESPN and sees this as publicity for the game; a soap opera with potential emmy nominations and a film option to boot. It all boils down to economics. If A-Rod were making only half the money he's making in general, he'd be treated like Matsui no matter what his production is. That's not to say I feel sorry for A-Rod with the biggest contract on this side of the asteroid belt, but it's really, really stupid what all that money has done to everyone involved; fans, writers, teammates, bosses, etc.
Frankly, as a Yankee fan I'm tired of it altogether. With all due respect, can A-Rod and everyone in the media scrutinizing him play ball and warm up the STFU, please?? (No disrespect to BBers intended, folks, and I do suspect I offend a lot)
I thought Cliff did a great job today. He talked about the game and what was interesting about it. He mentioned what Rodriguez did that was significant, didn't make a big deal out of it, and went on to discuss the rest of the game. That's what we should be doing. The fact is, this team is interesting and kind of fun for a lot of reasons, some of which have nothing to do with the third baseman. When every discussion reverts back to him, we're part of the problem.
Also, will we now be seeing more of Guiel against righties? I hope so, as that was the stated intention all along.
Is it just me or do you all notice Alex and Cliff have stayed away during all the ARod news that's been coming out? I don't blame them for being fed up talking and/or writing about him. It gets old....
1) bringing quiet professionalism to his job
2) not being a self promoter
3) exhibiting intelligence above that of a mole.
Clearly, ESPN has no such use for such immoral behavior.
I think something had to go on behind the scenes for Reynolds to be fired. You don't get dropped this abruptly after ten years. I'm guessing either a contract dispute or maybe some sort of indiscretion they just found out about.
With that said, I'm very fascinated as to what it is in his personality that draws all this attention. All the pat stuff about his contract, being a Yankee, being phony, etc etc really doesn't seem to get at what makes such a vanilla guy (personality-wise) so worthy of attention.
But it's pretty impossible to discuss rationally because as others have said, it's like religion or politics...the polar opinions overwhelm any nuanced discussion.
I brought up the my previous point in 21 because I think there is something to being media-savvy in ravenous markets like Boston or New York, even when you're as bland as Jeter or Bernie...it's not as simple as giving cliched answers and avoiding any sign of controversy. Pretty amazing that someone with so much money has so much trouble playing the media game.
31 Baileywick, Harold was on the 6 o'clock show, he must have done something real bad.
30 He's working out in Tampa, but not running the bases. He's been eligible to come off the DL since play resumed after the break.
When Arod went to Texas in 2001, every time he struck out was gleefully announced by Berman or whoever else was doing Sportscenter at the time. After about 50 games, they showed a stat that had Texas with a better winning percentage in games he failed to HR as opposed to those he went long. It's continued to the present.
The people in sports media are, by and large, very jealous of the money athletes make. As far back as the 50s, when Mantle struck out, they mentioned his salary. This is why they take ownership's part in every labor dispute, even when they're obviously in the wrong. What a player makes in a sport without a cap has zero to do with what happens on the field, but it's all most of the media can see.
27 Cano's absence might have helped with Melky's maturing day by day.
Will Torre start experimenting with Melky in the RF again? How is Guiel or Crosby in the LF?
Maybe they'll get another needle dick drone to take his place ..to go along with the other needle dick drones (Kruk, Phillips, Ravich). I suspect we'll be seeing some serious Rob Neyer face time. Ugh! It might just be the end of ESPN as we know it. When do we celebrate?
NY papers: A-Rod Hurts the Yanks AGAIN!
Reality: He provided their only offense of the day and is one of the better fielders in the game at his position.
But perhaps Kenny Williams just doesn't see a way that they can improve their pitching staff significantly - is there anyone available, espcially a starter, who would really make a big difference? So if he can't improve his run prevention significantly, maybe improving his run production is his only option.
He'd be a fool to give up McCarthy in that deal. But hey, anything that keeps Soriano away from the Yankees is OK with me.
1. Smart Yankee fans still love him.
2. The best way to watch ESPN is with the TV off.
I was in a restaurant today, which fortunately meant I couldn't hear the TV, but on "Cold Pizza" they had a segment called "Understanding A-Rod." Are you f'ing kidding me? You have such a thorough grasp on baseball that you've shifted your attention to psychology now?
I've declared my own personal jihad against ESPN.
Also, since we're bashing ESPN, their lack of understanding and appreciation for any non-American sport (say soccer) is embarassing for an American. I watched the World Cup and some analysis shows with a few European and South American friends and was just flat out ashamed. Then you have the guys on PTI saying they'd rather penguins playing soccer than the World Cup. C'mon, guess what guys, no one in Europe cares about Yanks/Sox.
I understand ESPN is for the masses but do they have to be so lowbrow? I'm not asking for an analysis of VORP, but if you are on PTI you should know what OPS is (one of them didn't). Their "analysis" in almost every sport is just wild speculation punctuated by sound bites.
Meanwhile Carl Pavano has accelerated his rehab program. He now goes down to the lobby to get the pizza instead of having it brought up to his room.
That is just too funny.
http://www.deadspin.com/sports/espn/was-this-why-harold-got-the-axe-189733.php
Deadspin thinks it is Sexual Harassment.
LOL
Joe Torre immediately inserted Harold into the starting lineup, noting his experience and having been an All-Star.
"It's difficult to understand why so many Yankees are having back problems since they have a Cairo-Proctor on the roster."
61 Man, that is really bad. LOL!
I tried to start a Don Wakamatsu thread but had few takers.
Comment status: comments have been closed. Baseball Toaster is now out of business.