Best wishes for laughs, love and happiness to Alex and Emily.

Happy Marrymooning, Alex and Emily!

"Lets Go Yanks"

Right, now that's out of the way, on to the important part: baseball.

;)

Here's wishing Alex and Emily a long, wonderful life together!

Let's go Yanks! Would a wedding present win be too much to ask for?

And whatever happened to that Bernie fella?

7-8-9 makes me cringe right now. I thought Thompson would get a start today for sure. Maybe with the weak hitters behind him, Cano will take a few more walks today.

i can't see anything - how'd that DP go down?

And congrats Alex and Emily!

A Yanks win wedded (ha ha, marriage pun) to a Sox loss today, follwed by the Yanks winning at least one in Fenway would be nice indeed

this is fun! not quite louis & ella, but it'll do : )

http://tinyurl.com/2fp7wr

uy, someone stop me : ~

You should never argue with Mackowiak-ak-ak-ak-ak
You oughta know by now

I expect it will update soon, once the vows are exchanged.

Bob Lorenz will probably have a wedding update as well from the YES studio.

http://newpartisan.com/icleart/belth.jpg

It's pretty freakin' outstanding that the GM can put together a team that gives away 6 to 8 outs at least one game a week.

Bravo! BRAV-O!

Phelps
KT
Nieves

as opposed to

Posada
Cabrara
Minky

so we don't have Nieves and Minky in the same line-up.

Let's turn Michael Kay off . . .

For those of you who didn't the no no from last night, go here:

http://tinyurl.com/38l58v

Then click on the 400K link for 'video top plays' for TEX v CWS - they show every PA for TEX. Man, there were some hard hit balls and some great plays made by Chicago.

It DOES get accessed by the brain a bit easier than this

http://www.baseball-reference.com/f/furmajj01.shtml

Almost as annoying as Mad Dog's Mun'dee, Toos'dee, Wenns'dee, Fri'dee, Satter'dee

Doug Glanville
Eric Karros
Bill Hands
Harry Harper
Stan Pitula
Willie Prall

Not that scoreboard watching should be done this early in the season, but it would be fun to enter the weekend with the Yanks and Sox tied.

i, too, love the stolen base

That makes no sense.

way to bare down, razzle!

Eh, its not worth it.

Paulie called that a line drive?

If they lose today, that's three games already lost because of their "bench" or lack thereof.

1. Cairo in LF day
2. Minky 7 LOB day
3. ???

That's f'in disgusting. Just truly horrid.

There's only a scoreboard with a score of 1 or 1 that counts. AL East Champs. 0 or 1? How does Cash/Torre stack up there over the last 10 years?

If ARod or Jete bat .400, will you be pissed at them for the 6 times they made out?

Yes, I'm aware he'll have 8 HR over the next 5 games.

Wow, you wouldn't know Carmona sucked watching him play the Yankees

And if we didn't make the horrible Boone trade or put Jeff Weaver in a game that counted, we might have won that world series.

128 Yup.

130 Last I looked Cashman inherited a team that was Serious winning every year. Now? They haven't been in the Series in three years.

And weren't you one that was crowing about Cashman making more moves in January/February?

I'd say Carmona is URPing the Yanks, except he's not unknown and he's not a rookie.

The 2001 World Series doesn't bother me one bit...I look at it as the Series they won 3 games to 4.

Yeah, except 1997 was Watson's last year, and the Yanks didn't win diddly squat.

And given the crapshoot that the postseason is, I certainly wouldn't say Cashman is a bad GM just because the Yanks haven't played in the Series in 3 years.

The entitlement crap is very old. I blame Derek Jeter for his pointless "If we don't win the Series the year is a waste" cliche - repeated far too often over the years. I wish he'd take it back.

And me I don't have a problem with the the Boone trade - it led to Arod.

My problem is more with the lack of a CF (for two years) leading to the Bubba Crosby game in 2005

And last year it was not having a 1B (all year) led to Shef at 1B.

And still they have no 1B. That's disgusting.

The problem there was that Torre made a dumb decision, saving Mo for a save - not that the Yanks lost (which stunk, but that's baseball).

And even if Torre made the right decision, and put Mo in, not Weaver - the result could have been the same.

But you can't say that that move cost the Yanks the Serious, any more than Buckner's error cost the Red Sox in '86. There were still 3 games to play in '03, and the Yanks didn't get it done, plain and simple.

A 1B should be easy to get if you give up something. They made three trades this offseason and they couldn't get a full-time 1B in one of them? Really?

I can't imagine anyone thinking one swing vindicates an AWFUL run with the team. People compare him to Bucky Dent. Bucky Dent was the World Series MVP. Boone couldn't hit a ball into the air.

You would think it was 20-1 Indians, and the outcome of the game determined if the Yanks went to the playoffs or not.

I can only imagine what things would be like if this was April 19, 1991.

You know, if the results of the regular season are so meaningless, except for entry to the postseason, maybe Derek should give back a large chunk of his yearly salary for each year the Yanks didn't win it all. That would impress me a hell of a lot more than his tired "We didn't win the Series - the year is a failure" garbage.

185 Well put.

So half a season with Minky?

Sure, Tea should be playing Phelps full-time now (with Minky as a LIDR), but given we alreasdy played that game with Phillips (and Cairo starting at 1B last April), it is f'in absurd for the NY Yankees.

Difference is, in 1991, we were all lulled into a 3rd & 4th place mentality for the previous 9 years...:)

The Cleveland Mientkiewiczs

And there's nothing wrong with fans who want to win a world series. You start accepting mediocrity and you become Cubs fans.

GIAMBINO.

201 A-yup. Thanks.

But without being in the office when Cashman made his offseason moves, and tried to make others we don't know about, we have absolutely no idea if he tried to get another alternative for 1B or not. To presume he did not - or that he should have - is speculative at best and specious at worst.

GIAMBI!!

Pavano - check
Wright - check
Womack - check
Minky - check
Erickson - check
Long - check

It's been a few years of this nonsense. That's all on the GM.

When you've got the likes of Bubba Crosby ad Jaret Wright starting deciding playoff games, you can't expect to win. That's a problem.

And Minky still is.

I wasn't there when he signed Pavano either. Was that a good job?

Not going to argue about Jaret Wright or Tony Womack. Pavano was a bargian at the time and no one would have expected this level of not playing.

not going to defend some o the other ones though...

Look I freaking hated Aaron Boone in the 2003 postseason and it still ticks me off that he was the one who got that homer, but what did the Yankees give up for him and Gabe White again? And who is that guy playing for now? Everyone hated that trade at the time because they were convinced Claussen was going to be an ace, but I thought it was a good one and, even though Boone went bust, I still think it was a good move. Where Cash screwed up was dumping Ventura rather than keeping him around as a lefty PH who could have hit for Boone in a spot like that one in Game 4 of the WS. Then again, if Torre calls a squeeze bunt, the Yanks win that game anyway.

Still not sure what the point is, though. Watching this game, you can focus on Minky and Nieves. I'll focus on Rasner and Bruney, two guys Cashman astutely plucked off the waiver wire for free.

This set off no warning bells? He was such a bargain?

It is a cop out Shaun. A young 1B that can hit a little is the easisest position to fill - guys like Garko and Broussard and Shelton and Jackson - all would be much better than Minky.

Phelps could be that too. But when Cashman made the decision to bring in Minky he had to know Tea would give him the majority of the starts.

And all you making fun of me for the BUC argument, keep saying your nightly prayer for Jorge. Shoot, it's not like they ever had a backup for him.

But we've been down this road before. Evaluating Cashman over the years is hard, because who knows what he did, and who knows what the Tampa Cabal did. So look at the last couple of years.

Minky is on Cashman's shoulders, but so is Damon.

Long is on Cashman's shoulders, but so is Bruney.

Erickson is on Cashman's shoulders, but so is promoting Wang and Cano and insisting they play.

And on and on.

No GM is perfect. Even George Weiss didn't take advantage of Bob Cerv. But on the whole, Cashman's motives are in the right place, and his methodology is sound. The Yanks are going in the right direction and if there are bumps in the road, like Minky, I'd still rather have Cashman running the show than some Tampa Toady.

In fact, I can't think of anyone else I could reasonably suggest as a replacement for Cashman, who we can guarantee would be better.

And the cheapness of RHRP (Bruney) is exactly why you don't make one (Vizcaino) the centerpiece of a deal for a HOF pitcher (Unit), especially not when they had at least three young 1B's and two BUC's to choose from.

It's about the arguments, not the people making them.

What makes you think Jackson, Montero, et.al were available? I've yet to come across any credible reports that they were. HOF pitcher with a back surgery at his age might not fetch that much.

I felt the poster and the argument were one in the same. Apparently I was wrong.

2) Minky has a career BA of .270. My guess is they figured he'd bat .250... and if his glove helped ARod, Jetes and Cano, it was worth it. He's not hitting .250. Neither is Melky. Should we dump Melky?

3) There may be trades/aquisitions still in 2007. Has Cashman shared with you what he's working on?

We have some savy, smart people here. We are here to express our opinions and concerns. But we are all backseat drivers, who have no responsibilities and can't see more then 2' in front of the windshield.

I don't like a LOT of Torre's moves.
I would like a better man on 1st.
I would like a better BUC.
I would like to nuzzle Pam Andersons breasts.

Baseball is a very, very, VERY random universe. Shitty ole Jeff Weaver helped a crappy team win the WS.

We ultimately won one WS because a fan reached into the playing field and interferred with a Jeter fly ball.

We lost one WS because the best athlete on our team, with the best and most accurate arm on our team, could not throw a ball from the pitchers mound to 2nd base accurately.

We lost a game that we may have won if Tony Clarks double didn't bound into the stands.

Ah Grasshopper... until we totally solve the nature of Chaos theory, I don't think we should state 'we would have won IF this one thing had happened', because if that one thing did happen, 5 other things may not have happened.

Baseball, like life, id mysterious and complex.

Still, a team out west would have made a deal. I just don't think they explored it.

Why not Seattle? If they were going to sign Weaver for 10 million, they weren't going to trade Broussard for Unit?

232 244 Amen.

Everyone in the pen decided to sh!t the bed today, I guess.

this, with the sox win when they shoud'a lost, kinda stinkz....

time to bust out the whuppin' sticks, Yanks.

Its not over yet - and Carmona is bound to be out of the game now. Let's not forget that Cleveland's pen was (and maybe still is) pretty awful.

NYYFans really is better for this type of trolling...

How does this make the signing any better?

248 "You don't make the deal otherwise - he threw 400 average IP in two years. There was a place for that on this team."

Well, provided he could come back healthy and early enough to make a difference. There were no guarantees of that. We're not talking about a 30 year old pitcher recovering from a disc surgery. I'd prefer a GM follows Branch Rickey's dictum IMHO.

"Still, a team out west would have made a deal. I just don't think they explored it."

I followed that trade very closely, and I've yet to come across any evidence of that. In fact, Sandy Alderson laughed at a reporter asking whether the rumor about RJ for Kouzmanoff was in fact true. As for the Dodgers, they'd signed Maddux and Schmidt. Why would they trade for a guy who possibly couldn't pitch in April AND give up good prospects?

"Why not Seattle? If they were going to sign Weaver for 10 million, they weren't going to trade Broussard for Unit."

Because RJ has a no-trade clause and could use it to demand an extension? The Yanks weren't going to trade RJ for Broussard. They could (and maybe they will in-season) give up some depth (a second tier RH pitcher) for him once they give up the idea that Minky can hit.

The three games Wil Nieves started:

4/8: Score 4 runs - L 6-4 to B'more
4/14: Score 4 runs - W 4-3 Oak
4/19: Score 2 runs ???

You have defeated me.

The point is I think 272 is exactly right. Cashman used his newfound power to erase the Tampa moves. Since Pavano and Farns were "his" guys, he saw no reason to do the same.

Great, Suzyn is talking about this "Youtube" thing and the pizza clip. Brilliant!

that's right, you don't have constructive, serious arguments, your arguments consist of "BUBBA!" or "WOMAK!" or "Minky can't hit!", cripe usually more suited for talk radio; as opposed to a level headed analysis of pros & cons. I can just smell the "how is there any pro to bubba!" coming... boring!

It's a terribly horrible discussion. But the only reason it comes up is because Minky continues to play.

289 I don't think anyone said anything about trading the farm to get a 1B. In one of the trades they made it should have been possbile - young 1B's are plentiful.

See, for instance, Chris Carter on Arizona's AAA team.

This inability to close out games and get on a roll worries me a little. It's also be nice if they could win a game without blowing the other team out.

works 3-2 count

strokes single...

rally time

307 Except Cashman now has complete control. He's said as much. So that makes evaluating 2005 and 2006 very easy. Sure, he's not terrible and he's not spectacular - he's mediocre.

Me, I don't want to get rid of him - just don't want these utterly dumb moves.

Minky is indefensible. As is Cairo. As is Nieves.

Luckily only one plays everyday (now).

In other words, it don't mean a thing.

Cliff, care to weight in? Given your utter contempt for Meat...

There was no trade value for Pavano, and limited value for Johnson. The fact that Cashman got something back for Johnson is impressive. Trading isn't like ordering off of a menu at a restaurant.

You can't forget about the $ saved in evaluating the deal.

"285 And I followed that trade very closely too. They should have thrown in some money and gotten something they needed in return. Instead, Minky will play for a month straight."

Well I don't think you'll get an argument about Minky from me, but do you have any evidence that the Yanks had an opportunity swap money for one of their blue chippers? I've yet to come across it. The only evidence of anything regarding (and that Conor Jackson rumor was nonsense as it was some blogger who came up with it via his "source.") The only (possibly)reliable source (meaning it was mentioned by more than one or sources) was the East Valley Tribune reporter who'd written that the Yanks had asked for Eveland but D-Backs countered with Owings and Ohlendorf. Small sample at this point, but if one has to quibble about the package, that's the one as Owings was highly regarded. However, that's a scout's call and Cashman (as well as Theo, Beane and probably Josh Byrnes and any number of sabermetrically inclined GM's) would be the first to admit that he isn't one.

"The point is I think 272 is exactly right. Cashman used his newfound power to erase the Tampa moves. Since Pavano and Farns were "his" guys, he saw no reason to do the same."

Perhaps, but that's a conjecture that I'd like to see backed up by some evidence.

I guess it's bullpen implosion day. they seem to collectivly have bad days, getting it all out at once.

329 He got four players for Unit. I think one 1B and one BUC is not outside the lines of reason.

Pavano he held onto for too long. After 2005, he could have made a decent deal. This off-season someone would have bitten if he threw in cash. But he wasn't going to - Pavano is his guy.

http://tinyurl.com/29bm5r

Wouldn't disagree with dumping post-05 though - but having small & chacon & wright lined up to play important roles might've had something to do with it (similar to now).

Fri 4/20 @ Bos 7:05 YES (Pettitte v Schilling)
Sat 4/21 @ Bos 3:55 FOX (Karstens v Beckett)
Sun 4/22 @ Bos 8:05 ESPN (Wright v Matsuzaka)

334 You're forgetting they needed Unit. Their starting rotation is:

Webb
Livan
Edgar Gonzalez
Doug Davis
Micah

Cashman jumped at the offer rather than negotiate a better one. If he really wanted a better 1B, he could have gotten one.

Unfortunately, he seems to fall into the "we can afford one bad hitter logic". He's done it in the past and he continues to.

As for Pavano, I'm sure teams were falling all over themselves to pick up an injury prone starter making $10mn over the next three seasons.

And me I'd take Chris Cater and Chris Snyder. One a AAA 1B and the other is going to be their B CU by the end of the year.

And hey look at that - Phelps has as many hits as Minky now - in half as many AB's.

Me, I just can't believe that the typical response to Minky is - "Well, what could they do?"

How about "Anything?"

Yeah, the Yankees were supposed to get their AAA 1B and their backup catcher in a deal for a 59 year old who hasn't thrown a pitch this season. Because it's that easy.

1) The Yanks took 2/3 from the sexy pick to win the AL, starting 3 rookie pitchers.
2) Arod is still a machine. Carmona has owned him in all their matchups.

Yes, I do hope the Yanks win.

Nah, a AAA 1B and a BUC was impossible.

OMFG

The Yankees win!!!!! The Yankees win!!!!!

Think about that tonight Teaman!

this shit is story book!!!

Uh, leverage works both ways or possibly two vs one. RJ wasn't going to pitch in April and possibly May while collecting his full salary not mention his disc surgery and knees that have been described as "bone on bone." RJ played hardball WITH the D-Backs even after the trade was agreed in principle (demanding an extension). What makes you think he'd have made things easier for anyone? The Yanks were lucky to dump him when they lacked leverage.

From this tool:
http://cbs.sportsline.com/mcc/authors/author/47951

Why does his silhouette have no neck?

UNBELIEVABLE!!!

beautiful, unbelievable insanity.

...show off.

And 422, you are right on - still how can you doubt him now. It really did come down to him.

Nice head of steam to roll up on Beantown with. I can't wait...

I'm sure its been said, but someone called a 3 run A-Rod HR. Well done, whoever it was!

Happy wedding day, Alex and Emily!!!

I can't wait to get home and watch SportsCenter!

460 MFD, I think you're on to something there. ;) Good to see you!

Um, can we finally all agree that A-Rod is a True Yankee™ now?

"As the rally was going on, Andy Pettitte turned to A-Rod and said, 'You'd better get ready, because you're gonna win the game for us; I've seen this before..."

Andy "Guru" Pettitte, The Freshmaker!

http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/nyy/history/season_records.jsp

Guess what, Mom, YOU WERE RIGHT!

This is for the record.

Here is an email I sent to a Tribe fan who predicted they would spank the Yankees this year:

------8<--------

Greetings from the Bronx.

This is a note to tell you that YOU SUCK!!!

You faced a team with 3 starting pitchers on the DL, and you lost.

You faced a team that started a pitcher who never pitched above AA, and you lost 10-3.

You faced a team with a questionable Japanese import who was pitching only his third game in the majors, and you lost 9-2.

You faced a team putting up a third-string pitcher who has started less than 5 games in the majors, and you lost 8-6, with 6 of those runs coming in the bottom of the 9th, including a 3-run walk off home run to give A-Rod his 10th long ball in only 14 starts.

You were out-hit 36-20.

You were out-scored 27-11.

You more than doubled your team ERA in 3 games.

You came with a 6-3 record, and left with a 6-6 record.

NEXT TIME YOU COME TO THE BRONX, BRING A PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL TEAM, NOT THE PACK OF BITCHES YOU HAD THIS TIME!!!!

SWEEP!!!!!

KISS THE BROOM, BYOTCH.

KISS IT LIKE IT'S YOUR OWN MOTHER.

--------8<------

I included a large jpeg of a broom.

I am like a school in winter: all class.

If teams are feeling like they need to score more than six runs to beat us... I think we've got it made.

I may have to have a new habit of walking the dog when the Yanks are down & it's late.

Holy crap, that was insane.

As far as I heard from Tier 4, no one booed Alex for the entire game. They certainly didn't boo him in the bottom of the ninth.

Joe Borowski is on my fantasy team. Whatever.

GOLDEN RULE OF BASEBALL FANDOM: ALWAYS STAY UNTIL THE LAST OUT.

So insane.

Mmmmkay?

Unfortunately, I broke that rule. Closed the MLBtv window after the top of the 9th.

*sigh

But that doesn't need to stop a good ole fashion gloat! The beauty of a good gloat is in its transitoriness (or is that transitoryality?). One enjoys it for the moment, and then moves on.

Moments like today linger all to little. Tomorrow is another series and another day.

What a beautiful game.

All the best!