Great job against King Felix this morning, let's go for the sweep boys!

Is it just me, or are baseball aficionados also food aficionados and music aficionados?

Maybe it's just me.

That sounds elitist, I suppose.

In any case, great post, Alex.

Meanwhile, the rotation appears to be Wang, Pettitte, Moose and Rasner (as #4 unless he implodes too). Who's going to be our 5th starter? Please tell me that it won't be Kei Igawa!! I'd rather give Alan Horne a crack in 10 days

Hey, that reminds me, I thought of you (and the rest of yous BB crew) the other day. I was in Park Slope and saw some kids playing kickball right there on the sidewalk.

I stopped to watch, lost in the moment, thinking that the stickball tradition lives on and how beautiful that is.

When I moved to the Slope in 1995, there was a lot more of that demographic (black/hispanic middle/working class kids playing in the street). It was like Sesame St.

I guess what struck me is how this old time Brooklyn is being squeezed out by the newcomers.

One of the girls playing nearly kicked the ball onto the roof of a brownstone and I nearly called out, "Careful of the roof, there, kids!"

Happy times, long live NY.

This little Giambi can't hit
This little Giambi gets the shifts
This little Giambi can't field
This little Giambi kills rallies
This little Giambi starts every game
And this little Giambi is 2-44 with RISP

(Yeah I can't rhyme but it's all true)

Oh NO, not Cano

The point is we KNOW Jetes and Cano WILL hit better. We KNOW they are in slumps. With Giambi we DON'T know. He may be done, but he may not. The truth is this team NEEDS a Good Jason, so I think we need to ride him out abit longer and HOPE he has something left.

His conditioning and ST told us he should be decent. I'm just hoping he ain't done and will be productive with the bat.

and Cano, nice!

Melk's current OBP is .363. His SLG is better then expected. I think he needs to maintain a .370ish OBP throughout his career in order to really be effective.

Man... it's amazing how a few wins can change your outlook. With Joba and Mo available, I gotta feel pretty good about this weekend.

Now lets hope Kazmir can help us out.

If Rasner can throw strikes, there's no reason IPK (and Hughes, once he's healed), won't be back and throwing strikes themselves.

10th in the AL in runs score/game.
11th in the AL in EQR (runs adjusted for park effects etc).
10th in the AL in hitter VORP.
9th in EqA (also adjusted for park effects!)

And the pitching isn't much better.

6th in the AL in runs allowed/game.
BUT 9th in the AL in EQR allowed/game.
9th in the AL in pitcher VORP.
12th in defensive efficiency.

This is what the Yanks should be doing to such teams - destroying them for 3 games in a row.

Doc Rivers.

Of course, today they seemed to have remembered how to play defense properly . . . IIRC, by some advanced metric, the '07-'08 Celtics were the 3rd best defensive team of all time.

That said, I would leave Rasner in the rotation as long as he provides league average or better starts.

I'm pissed about Kennedy and the thought of Igawa makes me throw up a little every time. I just hope that they actually work with him down there and don't just let him do well against AAA kids without really fixing anything, have him come back up and face the same problems....

I hope that they call up a 5th starter, because as of right now, I'm going to Thursday's game, and I had my heart set on seeing Wang.

And, Igawa would slot into IPK's Wednesday start, and the Indians do NOT hit LHP. Only 2 of their guys have OPSs over .782 vs LHP. Better he faces Cleveland than Detroit. More than half of Detroit's lineup has OPSs over .833 vs LHP.

The crazy thing is, no matter when Veras/Edwar/Britton gets sent down for Igawa, the Yanks will still be carrying a 13-man staff and thus a 3-man bench. If any offense can survive this, its this one, but the Yanks can't afford for any other position players to get hurt.

OYF, with respect, think you are expecting too much of Melky's minimum OBP. If you put it at .370+for 'effective' you are close to Damon at his best levels ... and JD's career is well below that (.354 as of now, and THIS year at .394 is his highest ever so far! Da Mon.).

I think Melky's plate control is well ahead of Cano's at this point (even without Robbie's spring slumps) and if power's arriving on schedule towards 20 hrs we can legitimately jump on this bandwagon ... his outfield routes WILL improve. Somewhere in the spring he'll have ONE season at CF in the majors. If he holds at .350-.360 and plays solid D with some pop ... he's a big league CF. We were horribly spoiled by Bernie who had EIGHT years above .390 IN A ROW.

In fact, brief pause to remember just HOW good he was.

89 Them was the days ... very funny.

I think I've been away from Bx Banter for three games (checking in at the end of the games). Maybe I should keep that streak going...