Oh Jim Dean...

It was still a very good catch though, but it was likely going to be a double or, if it caromed the right way, a triple

That fly ball definitely wasn't going out, but no matter what happened, it was going to hurt us if it hit the ground. Badly.

:)

We're hitting the ball hard, it should only be a matter of time.

I was just beginning to get a sense of what Clippard's doing, using the changeup, and I said to myself, "He's not going to get that fastball over the plate he's looking for."

Not 5 seconds later...

Terrible, terrible, pitch selection.

His off-speed stuff has been effective.

Ok, let's hope he adjusts, because he can keep these Mets off-balance if he gets it together.

That's what happens.

superchunk is better audio...

Prove me wrong, Miggy Mantle...

We just got 'em both back with smallball.

I love watching that kind of execution.

Hats off.

The bottom of the order can still be effective and that's "winning baseball," howsoever much you guys like to mock the platitude.

It rings true to me.

There are a couple more games against the Giants scheduled in July for Fox.

The problem with all that is that the Giants are really dreary to watch unless Lincecum is pitching.

Akk! Rookie mistake...

We almost got out of that.

That Reyes is a fucking one-man run machine.

I've never been precisely clear as to the definition of a balk, for instance, why Andy's move isn't a balk, but they showed an angle from which Clippard did appear to my eyes to make a sort of funky move towards third.

He's a kid, for Christ's sake.

He'll learn.

He's the guy we need to be patient with.

And we got to see it from the catcher-cam angle!

How very beautiful.

Right off the bat, no question.

And holy crap was that a bomb!

53 Youa re obviously watching this live

Not meant at you weeping, just tired of playing this cat and mouse game with a struggling team.

It's got everything.

Speed, pitching, small ball, long ball.

I love it when our attack is diversified. We're unbeatable when we can do small-ball/long-ball in the same game.

And of course, jorge and matsui both just missed depositing theirs over the fence too.

Mostly good swings, except for Robby.

And Derek was off balance his second AB, but otherwise, we should send Glavin out by the sixth.

Was that an 82mph fastball over the plate at the knees?

I feel bad for him, but I hope he regroups in the minors.

He's not pitching well, obviously, but I think he could have gotten out of that inning. If both guys score, all right, but he's got to be able to learn.

We should be able to score more runs and it's certainly not as if Viscaino is any great shakes anyway.

Hope Igawa's gotten himself straightened out.

Otherwise, is it possible that it's time for him to learn for real?

You know what I mean?

How do you know what can be worked out in the minors and what through major league experience?

Nice work, team, nice work, Jose, excellent work, Jorgie!

All right bats, back to business.

I'm enjoying the YES coverage today. That overhead shot of the new and old stadiums was great. And I'm a big fan of Leiter. (As a broadcaster, that is.)

Even you are falling victim to the hype. Sizemore is the better player...

HOMERISM STRUCK! But I struck back.

Man, this is going to be one of those back and forth slugfests, huh? Always seems to follow a low-scoring night game.

113 Nice to see you, Ravenscar.

113 If we can remove the bias one day at a time, I am doing my job :)

:-)

He did and Alex was way off balance, lofting a soft one into left.

What a great game.

How can you not love baseball?

Because the Yankees are 8.5 games behind Boston. If we had a sizable lead, or were totally out of it, then it's fine. But right now we've gotta win games.

His homers used to be mostly line drives, no?-- especially to left.

Losing the battle (or rather risking losing the battle) to win the war kind of thing?

He's been kind of jumpy again of late.

129 You're right: http://tinyurl.com/kfsbh Sizemore is signed through 2011, with an $8.5M team option for 2012 which they will certainly exercise.

He seemed to have enough that, with some adjustment, he might have been able to battle his way through the inning.

Maybe not, but he could have induced Reyes to hit a lazy fly ball with something off speed.

Oh wait.

Torre once said it was because there were wires along the fences in Philly, that would break your fingers if you got caught in them.

Beautiful pitch by Viz!

This is our game.

As for Myers - better to blow the LOOGY now, with the lefty-hitting second baseman having the fluke month of his life due up next! Why save him for Delgado or Beltran late in a game?

And if having a lefty ready for Gotay is so important, why not Villone? Or Henn?

I'm sorry, I'm in a heck of a sarcastic mood.

I even prefer him to Farns, who I don't want to see in anything less than a 10 run game.

With that said, the hook on Viz has to be quick, quick, quick, once he shows signs of losing it.

There.

And I do remember Rowand breaking his nose on the wall in Philly too. I'm sure it was different than the padded walls at the Stadium. Whatever the case, though, Bobby Abreu is scared of the wall. It's really an undebatable issue.

They didn't really hit Clippard so hard, so I would have given him a shot.

Send him down, let him work it out, and let's all pray they fixed the Made-In-Japan lefty.

Everybody's safe!

Just as I'm cursing Robby for that weak-ass ground ball, it actually finds the hole and we get a run!

I love this game.

I was just reading the Baseball Think Factory 2006 AL GG picks. They noted that the Yankees outfielders were pretty awful. Damon scored well by their system, but Bernie, Melky, and Abreu were terrible. They thought the Yanks' bad OF defense was the reason they couldn't get back the Tigers.

I don't know if I'd go that far, but I do think Abreu's fear of the wall and reluctance to dive compromise his defense.

When the Abreu trade was announced, some Phillies fans came here and warned that we'd get sick of him shying away from wall, letting balls drop in in front of him, and whining if he's not batting third.

They were wrong about the batting third thing.

The alltime record could be tough to make if the Yankees don't bat in the 9th however.

CAIRO!!!

Sorry. Couldn't help myself there.

181 Phew. Just saw an SD baserunner, but it was a walk.

Who isn't even playing.

Maybe everyone on the team should run with Abreu into the wall. "See Bobby.. no wires! 10 fingers! Life is good!" This guy needs some aversion therapy.

Two rbi is nothing to sneer at.

Just saying.

hoffmann = 501 saves. zambrano = loss.

how's the rain lookin' in da bronx - pouring or light?

thanks for the link chyll, gonna check it soon!

The second time today.

Off the bat, I started to curse Hideki for rolling over but somehow the ball dribbled through!

Two runs!!

Yaayyy!!

At least Mo is fresh today.

Voices Carry!

I just think it's absurd to be sweating a five run lead at 5 in the afternoon with your "primary set up guy" on the mound, because the guy can't throw strikes and insists on making every at bat an adventure.

His stuff looks amazing. But I have completely lost faith in his mental makeup. Sort of like I did with Contreras, though I always felt he would do well somewhere else.

297 and remember I'm a chick. ;-)

Just throw it down the middle and let the chips fall where they may.

You knew it was coming.

bonds is up at the fens. showered with boos.

And, my vote is to send the Clippard down, and give Igawa another chance.

bonds getting squeezed at the fens.

I CAN'T WAIT.

Man, that Reyes can play ball. There were two things that really impressed me, beyond little things like hitting and fielding and running. One was his persistence at the plate - I don't know how many balls he fouled off today, but it was at least a buttload, maybe a buttload and a half. The other was a throw he made from deep short, where he didn't even look like he was throwing hard, just a nice easy throw that went like a clothesline to first base. Great stuff.

I'd much rather watch Clippard try to play through it than repeatedly smash my head against the wall with Kei Igawa.

That does not bode well. I see a lot of homeruns in the future.

Right now Clippard's not improving.

Let's see after a few starts if Igawa has improved, otherwise you can always go back to Clippard.

Sure, Clippard "could" fight it out in the majors and try to learn on the job, but he;d be far better off doing so in AAA. We aren't talking about Hughes here, who clearly had nothing left to do in the minors...

I still like Clippard in the long run, but I'd give Quest another shot if somebody watching certifies that he's recovered. What we need now is the mostest innings with the fewest runs so we can win as many of those 5-starts as possible, and I'm afraid Clippard isn't the man. I'm not at all sure that Igawa is the man, but it's pretty clear that Clippard isn't.

Ha!

Hey, it netted us Farnsworth.

I sure didn't like that 9th. Good thing the Mets can't hit these days, viz. Beltran.

I have pretty high confidence for tomorrow.

I'm a great fan of Duque and he's been pitching great (last outing was poor, however), but seeing as how we thumped Glavine, I'm pretty sure we'll thump Duque too.

Strange, because I often feel like our boys can't hit the slop-throwing junkballer types (Moyer and Wakefield come to mind, but anyone with good junk seems to keep us off balance) and yet we got to Glavine.

(I know we hit Wakefield sometimes too, but I'm always surprised. When he's at all on, we have no chance.)

Anyway, if we could take care of Glavine, we'll handle Duque.

So don't worry.

Too bad the Bostons won tonight, but we just have to keep pace, more or less, and we'll be fine.

What a game, eh?

He can hit the ball anywhere. Double down the right field line, groundball up the middle, dinger to left.

I'm amazed he has the strength to get that inside pitch out of the park.

Is that all shoulders and forearms, or what?

Do .300 hitters often get this much better at this age?

I know this sounds crazy, but this guy has an outside shot at 4000 hits.

So far he's indestructable, knock on wood (unless he dives headlong into a catcher's knee, and even then, he manages to put up 156 hits).

Anyone know how his hit total stacks up against the greats at this age?

What would he have to do to make a run at 4000?

Anyway, that's just a fantasy. The real point is that his learning to turn on that inside pitch with such authority is just ungodly.

He's really not a bad player, cringe though I do watching him go to his left.

And how 'bout that Jorgie?

People keep saying he won't hit .340, but I have to say, I'm not so sure.

He seems to be getting his hits by spraying the ball around more and reacting to the ball rather than guessing, as he used to do. He's just not getting fooled nearly so much as he used to and he seems to be hitting the ball where it's pitched way more.

Are these skills that are subject to decline with fatigue?

He could slump, of course, but it's hard to see how, given his approach, because I've seen him look very bad and very good in the space of one game, which suggests he's adjusting with unwonted alacrity.

I don't know, it's hard to see how he'll manage to squander so many points off his average by year's end, catcher's fatigue or no.

And when people point to the fact that he's never hit this well before, as if that alone makes it unlikely he will now, I just have to say, he's never hit this well before because he's never hit this well before.

Meaning, it's not just that he's locked in with the same old approach, but he's actually reinvented himself, as far as I can see, which could mean that all bets are off, no?

Either way, we've got some amazing talent on this team and it's a pleasure to watch.

Unbelievable.

Makes Manny look like Joe D.

The guy actually started back-pedaling down the line while doing a little jig.

That was a whole new level of showboating: I can't say I've ever seen anything quite like it. It was really like a little touchdown dance.

Please tell me you're intentionally understating for effect...

As for 4k hits, I don't think he'll get it, but deep into the 3000s is easily possible he stays healthy, especially if he continues to age like the finest of wines.

There's a rhetorical term for it, but I forget.
Reverse hyperbole.

Of course, you never know with me, right?

;)

The question is, what position will Jeter play when he's 40? Probably not SS, not all the time, because his range will have shrunk, and his bat isn't likely to compensate like it does now. CF? I can't think of anyone that 'old' learning to play CF. I can't think of anyone learn to play CF for the first time at 35, or 33 for that matter. So probably not. Third? Possibly, but the question will be, is his arm still strong enough - and is A-Rod still a Yankee? First? That's where Rose got most of his post-40 playing time - but again, A-Rod may be at first by then.

Even Joe D. and the Mick got moved off of CF eventually, because they just couldn't do it - and they were awesome defensive players! The question is, will Jeter hang around to play another position, like Mickey did (and will that position be available?), or will Jeter hang 'em up, like Joe D. did?

My guess is he hangs around (I guess he could DH?), but that's going to depend. By 2011 (when Jeter is 37), I'll be surprised if Mo, Posada, and Andy aren't all gone. Torre too. Maybe there won't be enough reason for Jeter to keep playing. Who knows?

First base!

;)

No, seriously, he'll have to just suck it up and volunteer to move to first or left. He'd learn anything well enough to do a passable job, so that's not a concern.

How cool would it be if he worked out a deal with Arod whereby the latter promised to re-sign on condition the two good buddies switched positions?

The team would be so much the stronger for it, can you imagine? Alex at short? That'd get us a few extra games surely, by some sabermetric or another, no?

Or actually, how 'bout second? Valentin's gotta be about forty, isn't he? He does a very fine job for the Mets.

Wow, if I ran the zoo...

I agree, I feel good about the future, but provided the front office strikes the right development between youth and experience and has a real long-term plan, which at this point has to begin facing squarely what to do with and how to use Mo, Derek, Jorgie, etc. They should by this point be actively thinking about a replacement shortstop, so when the time comes, something's in the hopper. Even if it's not the best choice, at least it would be a plan.

I hate the desperation moves because they've become routine, i.e., not desperate, but only lazy and impatient.

Clemens would be the obvious example of that, but maybe it's less egregious because he's a pitcher, I don't know.

Agreed about Hughes learning from Clemens. Oh, and speaking of which, they mentioned that Mo's been working with Vizcaino lately.

Because it seems like for the past several years at least, these guys would just eat us alive, keeping us constantly off balance in that maddening way where you get a game's full of lazy flyballs, a couple of them mildly threatening, maybe a couple of walks sprinkled in, but never the solid line drives.

I wonder what's changed, 'cause it seems that something has.

I feel like he's toying with me. He's right on the cusp of being great, and then you see greatness for a few days, when he's on every pitch and he's just a force of nature, and then he goes back to the flailing-and-pulling style of hitting. But his swing is still just good enough that even doing that, he'll get his hits by accident, but you want to see his greatness unleashed and made consistent.

I think my greatest pet peeve about hitting, which might be at the root of how I experience the game, is inconsistency. About fielding, too.

I get frustrated by what appears to me to be wasted potential.

I hope Cano never becomes a Farnsworth figure, how tragic would that be?

I mean, by now, it's not just luck that's kept Jeter healthy, but constitution, right? I mean, is it safe to speak of him as an iron man by now?

How many times has he been on the DL?

Other than the Huckaby thing, his low in games is 148. The man just doesn't miss games.

At this point, unless there's really something catastrophic, he's not going to be nagged to death by injuries like, say, Bernie with his shoulders.

It seems likely, in other words, that he will in fact remain healthy, doesn't it?

The abject frustration, the calls for people's heads, the disgust.

Glavine's their Moose, "He's not fooling anybody! He's pitching bp! He misses the corners and when he throws a strike it's deposited in the left field seats. He's done."

Delgado is Abreu. Everyone's now convinced he's done.

It's nice we're playing good ball again; that shit sucked.

400 posts. Not bad.

Aha.

Apparently they forgot to explain properly. "No, no, Luis, you are supposed to be getting tips from Mariano."

Happy Father's Day!

You're right, it's all about control. He looks great getting the hitters to flail at his junk, though, so he just has to set it up consistently and he'll be a pretty good pitcher.

Also, he doesn't seem to come unraveled, at least, so far as I could tell.

I will put out there a crazy theory that conditioning has a lot more to do with risk of injury than age. Age is a natural component of the body's ability to withstand and recover from injury, but as Olympic athletes had shown over time, conditioning and injury history are stronger factors in determining an athlete's projected injury risk, not to mention the type of action an athlete is used to doing.

To use extreme examples of that point, thrusting your fist into a bag of rice will likely have a stronger conditioning effect than thrusting your fist into a dugout wall >;)

But on the point that weeping makes, Jeter has a strong chance of having a long career free of major injury as A-Rod or say Omar Vizquel, excepting that Jeter has a longer injury history and, by nature of his position and style of play, a higher risk.

That risk, however, is lowered to a discernible degree by the training and conditioning that he's involved in. With some adjustments for age, and barring major injury (which is to say, luck), I wouldn't be surprised if he was still manning SS at 40, provided another star hasn't been produced by that point.

But that, like most things I say, is theoretical and subject to scrutiny and ridicule, but more likely ignored >;)

Speaking of ignore, why don't you all come by and ignore me at new blog when you don't have the time. That said, I will not make any more announcements about it, as I do not ever want to be confused with Reader 11375 or whatever the devil his name is >;)

www.seriousconsideration.blogspot.com

Since you're familiar with the 4 train, maybe it would be easier to drive to Woodlawn (E 233 Street exit off of Major Deegan south) and park your car in that area, then take the 4 train down? I know that there's a paying parking lot only a block-1/2 off that stop under the tracks. This way, you save yourself a real headache from Major Deegan traffic near the Stadium. Or, you might find a decent parking spot in that area anyway, but it never hurts to park in a lot.

To get there from CT, I would advise taking I -684 South to Saw Mill River Parkway, then take that South to Cross County Expwy East, then merge right and take the Exit South for Major Deegan. From there, take the E 233 Street Exit, but don't turn onto E 233rd (go straight along Jerome Avenue) until you hit the 4-train Woodlawn stop. Under the tracks and to your left will be the parking lot.

It's a little more complicated from the NE Thruway, and if that's the way you'd be coming then you might as well take that to the Hutchinson Pkwy South, then take the Westchester Avenue-Pelham Bay exit (I think that's the second exit coming off the ramp) and park underneath the 6 Train, which will take you to 125th Street Station, transfer to the uptown 4 Train and go from there. Either way you avoid the heavy-duty crowd traffic, but add about an hour to your trip for subway purposes.

Good luck Bags, and I hope that wasn't too much spaghetti-logic >;)

"JEFF CONINE An official with a National League team, speaking on the condition of anonymity because discussions are ongoing, was asked if he thought the Yankees would make a play for Dunn. He said no, but he also said, "But the Reds have two first basemen." The veteran Conine, a smooth glove man at first base who's making just $2 million, might be a more reasonable fit for the Yankees, who probably don't need a ton of offense from whomever they get."

I wouldn't be opposed to that rental...I like it a lot better than Dunn. Although he's probably getting some park benefit this year...

vs. Left .286/.356/.506/.862
vs. Right .318/.354/.409/.763

Will, I almost feel like I know you by now. Your good nature, not to mention good humor, is one of the great things about this great place.

Actually... ?

Conine is getting a power boost from the GAB (.731 OPS on road, .930 OPS at home including all homers hit at home); otherwise his other rates are about the same. But why give up something to get a guy like Conine, when you have his younger, cheaper, more powerful version sitting on the bench in the form of Josh Phelps? Or when you can get an equivalent guy from the free talent pool, and pay next-to-nothing for it?

No, if the Yanks are giving up anything, I'd rather see them get something of real value in return.