evidently, torre and cashman have been discussing whether or not to DL damon ... as I said last night, it probably should have been done after sunday's game

On another note altogether, my wife finally gave birth (this past Monday) to a healthy, smiling baby boy, and we brought him home today. Wireless Internet at the hospital is a wonderful thing. Alex, your fantastic piece about you, your dad, and Reggie was his first story - thanks for sharing, so that I could share it with him.

C'mon boys, let's get a win tonight.

I got her to name our pet bird Soriano when we got him a few years ago, and since then I haven't had any luck working Yankee names in. =)

Go Yanks!

(Psst... since his name already begins with 'M', you can always call him 'Melky' when Mommy's not lookin' >;)

Hm. Some day he could close for Hughes. The age spread is less than Clemens - Hughes. And by then we'll probably need a closer...

On a Yankees note: Melky is back to a .368 OBP in June, which is what he did last season, but he still shouldn't lead off. Why not put Jeter there?

Now, please don't suck, Andy.

8 You are so right. We also have a daughter who's 18 months, and just getting used to talking on the phone a little bit. The best phone calls I get at work are when I pick up, say hello, and hear a cute little voice say "Dad".

14 My daughter won't sit still long enough to watch games anymore, but she smiles and claps when she hears me cheering for a run or a nice play. I'm looking forward to watching many games with little Matthew.

I'm going with 1 hit for Phillips and none for AP.

17 Maybe Jeter hitting leadoff would cut down on his ridiculous 4th inning sac bunts, with no outs and the pitcher throwing poorly.

His career avg/obp/slg are almost exactly the same whether he leads off or bats 2nd. The one big difference is steals. He steals more bases successfully, and is caught less often, when hitting 2nd - even when you factor in he has over twice as many ABs hitting 2nd than hitting leadoff.

He's like an athletic John Edwards.

33 People think Phillips is attractive? =)

In all seriousness, I'd hope so. I think his "underdog" status gets him as many cheers as anything else. And he's an underdog, not because he's Ecksteinian in statute or Erstadian in playing, but because he should have been given a chance back in '04, and a real chance in '05, and he wasn't. Then he got hurt last year, and was buried again (maybe rightfully so).

Congrats as well, Shaun.

Atta boy Andy, leadoff single, followed by 2 Ks, now wrap this up and get a hit!

Text of message: "Do it. Come on. Do it. You won't! Do it."

Don't the Rockies have a young catcher who was supposed to be all that, Chris Ianetta (I think is how you spell it). Where is he?

Better luck with the bat next time Peepot.

Isn't the rule that you can revoke a guy from waivers, with the penalty that you have to keep him on the roster the rest of the year or something? How does all that apply to a rule 5 pick anyway?

And Andy's had such a rough time of it. His wife's first pregnancy turned cancerous, and he couldn't be with her because he was at spring training. He said he thought about quitting baseball, but then he'd lose his health insurance, and so would she.

Then this year, his mom got t-boned by a truck, and he missed most of spring training and lost his spot on the roster.

It just seems like if anyone deserves a second chance, he does.

I hope Matthew can bring Andy Pettite more luck than he's had so far this season, but it looks like that may be too much to expect from the newborn, especially based on the way things are going so far tonight. :-)

And you have to wait to see an outfielder go down to hear the Thompson push hit its boiling point. Its the same with AAAAndy. If we had a first baseman, people wouldn't want to try this experiment again.

BTW, Jeter has now hit in 14 straight games. Are you f'ing kidding me?

I also wouldn't mind if they got one when they were babies too. I could always tell them about it later. =)

Maybe if I let baby Matthew cry in front of the TV, the offense will wake up.

67 Jeff Francis is a pretty good pitcher.

72 That commercial with the team tipping over the sleeping mascot was hilarious.

If by the time he reaches 30 years old, not only the Yankees, but no other team in baseball deems him good enough to waste a roster spot on, that should be some kind of warning bell.

And when the only time we see him, he can't hit a breaking pitch, that, to me, paints a picture of the kind of player Phillips is.

In the future, I envision fearless leader Ken allowing us to have profiles so we can put our Yankee Fan Platforms.

Even in Boston, there were signs that his range was diminished. That, along with constant nagging injuries, made him very unattractive to me.

I hope he can come back, but I think he will not offer us much over the next 2.5 years.

I don't want A.Jones, but I'd jump on Ichiro. Still an excellent fielder, great arm, great speed, and the type of body that ages well.

It seems as though you can only understand Phillips in the context of a false dichotomy--either the team gets a "real 1B" (which you have not defined: Pujols? Phelps? Tino?), or they do nothing. But building and continuing to modify a major league roster over the course of teh season does not involve such false dichotomies.

And for the record, I would prefer that they find a "real" 1B as well, but I am still convinced that playing Phillips at 1B is an imporvement over Cairo, even if marginally.

I just don't see why Andy Phillips, who has been nothing but horrific for us, was even considered.

Hell, I'd try fellow career minor league and likely total failure Shelley Duncan before I went back to the guy who couldn't get the job done last year.

I'm not debating, just curious.

And for all the overplaying of veteran-ness, that's a veteran, calm, cool, quality set of base running right there. Good job boys, play it like pros.

Yay...(zzz)...

3.2 IP 8 H 8 ER 3 BB 0 K

Yanks won the game 20-10 though.

Even still, if the Yanks were to sign Ichiro, I'd still like to see a non-Giambi big bopper at 1B/DH. Giambi's age and this foot injury worry me a lot. Even with A-Rod, the Yanks need another big bat.

the field mic really is picking up a lot of pinheads...

But more than anything else, I liked Cairo there because when he bombs, I knew he'd be removed. I don't have that same feeling with Phillips. Mainly because there is now no one better to replace him with. But I also have an awful feeling that the Yankees will fall into that "if we just give him his AB he'll start to hit!" and we'll get 250 AB of sub .700 OPS.

I'd have to look at Ichiro's numbers in CF, but I believe he is doing well. He is still much faster then Melky, and I'd tend to keep him in CF, move Mats to RF and play Melky in LF.

A lot also depends on if Giambi comes back strong next year and ties up the DH spot.

Oakland and Detroit also won.

Carp, Jorge!

Now let's hope the offense will score a couple more next inning. Insurance is never a bad thing.

Speaking of, Igawa returns Friday.

That's the only reason to call up a minor leaguer, ever? Improving from horrible to mediocre is improving, and keeping the status quo is an alternative that makes the team worse. Further, you also believe in the power of small sample sizes- if someone is bad in one month of play at the major league level, he will never ever be of any value to the team. I would think that Melky Cabrera would have issue with your snap judgments.

They give Andy a lead, and he gives it back.

Better hope we get to the bullpen.

C'mon offense, WAKE UP!

OK, time to punish them. The nerve...

And yes, if a minor leaguer has no real potential or future on the team, I'm really not in favor of wasting three months of an already shaky year waiting for the man to adjust to major league curve balls.

And mediocre is generous. Its an upgrade from horrible to awful.

Though the way Andy is going this inning, the lead may stretch quickly.

The Stink was going to start no matter what. I blame Cashman for that disaster. I can't give any good reason why Phillips, who was horrid for us, was given a shot to be the other part of the platoon, nor do I understand why he went into the situation with the advantage. Phelps had to clearly beat Phillips to win out.

Maybe Torre didn't have anyone in the pen he trusted.

We sure can't afford to start backsliding now.

Can't afford it.

In the past, I would linger and watch for the hint of an improbable comeback...but I just don't get that sense with this team. They did some nice things during the winning streak, but the long stretches of futile at bats don't inspire confidence.

Even though the Dbacks and Pirates aren't great teams, it was nice to see us make a few runs work against their best pitchers (who otherwise kept our bats in check). But these last couple of games have been a return to the horror show and a revival of all the usual debates (Damon sucks, all the first base options suck, Cano sucks, Melky sucks, Torre sucks, etc etc)

So really, the only decision the Yankees will face (unless they snap off another run and cut the WC deficit) is whether to make a move to add player(s) at the deadline, or just sit pat and ride out the season (like the Sox did last year).

suck, suck again.

Ladies and gentlemen, your 2007 Bronx Bloombergs: wealthy, heavy-hitting candidates on paper, but steadfastly vague about their chances of running.