Wake Up, Yankees

While the weather in Minnesota is heating up, the Yankees are going the opposite direction. Over the past 12 games, this team has been very disappointing. Losing two series in a row to the NATIONALS and the MARLINS? Dear god, how embarrassing. Despite the Nationals actually being a very good offensive team, which is probably overshadowed by their terrible record, their pitching and defense is terrible. That's why they've only won 20 games. Sure, one of their starting pitchers pitched a good game and it's good to give credit when it's due, but seriously Yankees? And the 2nd game against the Marlins, they faced a very good pitcher. But they had runners on in the 9th against their bullpen and could've won the game, but they failed. Same with the game last night. Maybe if Brett Tomko hadn't come in and given up those homers, they could've had a better chance. Maybe if they didn't make those errors, they could've been closer.


If the Yankees want to stay in the hunt for 1st place in the division, they need to play better baseball than this. Their starting pitchers have been very good as of late (Burnett the other day? Outdueled, but still did very well). And the Yankees lineup pays them back with a poor effort at the plate and not coming through when they should. The bullpen hasn't been bad either. It's not cool for a lineup to slump all at the same time. Hopefully the Yankees can turn it around against the Braves (who are a team that has hot/cold offense - they lead the majors in runs scored w/ 2 outs and have the best batting avg with the bases loaded). They better turn it around because they've had the opportunity to play crappy NL teams and haven't capitalized like the Red Sox, Jays, or Rays have.

Yankees Take Subway Series Round 1 in Bronx

Lots to talk about....first off, the Yankees game today:

* NYY- 15 NYM - 0. I was going to go on a big rant about how angry the Yankees were making me this past week and weekend, but today they kind of did everything they were supposed to. They worked the count, got hits, got hits with risp, and for once knocked the opposing pitcher out of the game early. It wasn't our pitcher at 50 pitches in the 3rd inning for once, but the opponents! What a concept. AJ Burnett bounced back from an awful last outing and looked great the first 2 innings. He ran into some trouble in the 3rd, but worked hard and got two batters looking and Jeter caught a hard-hit ball right at him and AJ escaped a bases loaded, no out jam. Jeter was 4-for-4 today and Cervelli got 3 hits of his own. Cano and Matsui homered. The big thing was that Santana, who was previously 3-0 against the Yanks, gave up a career-high nine runs.

*Friday night's game was a memorable one. Down 8-7 in the bottom of the 9th inning, Jeter got a 1-out hit, stole 2nd, Tex walked, and of course ARod came up with 2 outs and risp. On a 3-1 count, he popped out and threw his bat down in frustration. Castillo got under the ball, it fell into his glove.....then out. Castillo fell to the ground and threw to 2nd but it was too late as Tex slid home safe. The Yankees won 9-8 and celebrated yet another walk-off in in an unusual way.

*If we could forget the Boston series ever occurred, that would be GREAT! :)

*CMW is on the hook as he turned in another poor outing this past week. I feel for him, I really do. I'm a huge fan of his, but Yankee fans are impatient and can't stand to see him go out there for 2 innings or less and give up hit after hit. The difference in his last start was that we saw great stuff from him at times and his velocity was up and his sinker was sinking. He hasn't suddenly lost his pitching ability, he just has no confidence out on the mound. I really hope he can turn it around during his next start against the Nationals, or we're going to be seeing more of Phil Hughes.

*The big juicy gossip is the brewing feud between Mets pitcher K-Rod and Yanks pitcher Brian Bruney who is set to rejoin the team on Tuesday. After K-Rod blew the game on Fri, Bruney was happy to see it happen to him. To sum up his quotes, he basically dislikes K-Rod's antics on the mound - how he celebrates like he threw a perfect game every save he makes - basically. While I'm a fan of pitchers celebrating, K-Rod's act IS tiring. You're a closer for crying out loud, you don't need to jump around pumping your fist after facing the bottom 3 of a lineup against a crap team (as one example, lol). I don't expect them to just not show any emotion like Rivera, who just happens to be a class act on the mound, but dont' act like a complete ass celebrating like you just won the lottery - that means you too Papelbon! Anyway, K-Rod responded saying don't go through the media to say things like that and I don't know who you are so I'm not going to even be affected by your comments. Would you like to eat your words, K-Rod? Today before the Yankees game, K-Rod went over to Bruney yelling at him and trying to start a fight. He had to be held back by his teammates while Bruney just stood there as CC and AJ rushed to his defense. If a nobody pitcher's words really didn't affect you, then why did you try to start a fight with him? K-Rod is such an idiot. Here's to hoping he blows more games for the Mets this year and to Bruney setting up even more saves for Mo :) Oh, and I know K-Rod said Bruney should say these kinds of things to his face, but what is he going to do? Walk up to him, tap him on the shoulder, and say "Excuse me? Francisco Rodriguez? I'm Brian Bruney, 8th inning set-up man for the Yankees and I just wanted to let you know that I think you're an embarrassment to MLB and your celebrations on the mound are completely unecessary. Ok, bye!" Get over yourself, K-Rod.

* The MLB 09 draft was this past week. The Yanks top 5 picks were:
-CF Zachary/Slade Heathcott from Texas High School
-Catcher John Murphy from the Pendleton School
-RHP Adam Warren from UNC Chapel Hill
-RHP Caleb Cotham from Vanderbilt
-3B Robert Lyerly from UNC Charlotte
They took a lot of pitchers and stocked up on some left-handed pitchers. They mostly stuck with college players.

The All-Star game selections is on July 5th, so keep voting! I also found a site that is trying to get Swisher into the all-star game this season as a write-in, so check it out. VOTE SWISHER

Who will be #1?

The 1st place Yankees took both series this past week against the Rangers and the Rays, losing only one game in each series. They now go on to face the Red Sox at Fenway, hoping to finally win a game against them this season. They're 0-5 so far, but they're also a very different team this time around. Apparently it's raining in the Boston area, so we'll see if a game gets in tonight (which I hope it will!). If you want to catch one of the games on t.v. (and don't have YES, NESN, or MLB.tv), wednesday and thursday night's games are being aired on ESPN and MLBnetwork.



Tonight @ 8:10 ET....
A.J. Burnett (4-2, 4.69) faces off against Josh Beckett (6-2, 4.09) - both are coming off one of their best starts of the season.
Tomorrow @ 8:10 ET....
Chien-Ming Wang (0-3, 14.46) hopes to improve from his last start against Tim Wakefield (7-3, 4.50) who has become Boston's new ace this season thanks to early struggles by Beckett
Thursday @ 8:10 ET....
CC Sabathia (5-3, 3.56) takes on the Red Sox for the first time this season and as a new Yankee facing Brad Penny (5-2, 5.85)

It should be a good series as the two top teams in the AL East fight for 1st place in the division early on in the season. Over the past week or so, they've been alternating between 1st and 2nd with the Yankees gaining a full game on them thanks to yesterday's win coming into the series. An interesting fact I learned last night while watching the Yankees game on tv is that the Red Sox, Yankees, Rays, and Blue Jays' pitchers lead the AL in strikeouts. That's pretty crazy and shows you how competitive this division really is. The Red Sox were 1st then the Yankees and I forget if it was the Jays or Rays after them.

Also, don't forget to vote for your favorite players to make it into the All-Star game on July 14th in St. Louis! Jeter and Longoria are in a tight battle for the most votes in the AL, while Tex has overtaken 1st place for 1st base. Go to mlb.com to cast your vote up to 25 times.
Another thing, the MLB draft is starting tonight. If you're interested MLBnetwork and MLB.tv are showing the 1st round of drafts. Anyone who has been following baseball headlines know that Strasburg is expected to be the #1 overall pick and will be playing for the Nationals. The question is, how much money will he get?

Diving/Bellyflopping 101

Reason #500978 Why Jonathan Papelbon is a Complete Douche

It's also another reason to have that much more respect for a guy like Mariano Rivera. I understand why Papelbon would be angry, but don't be such an idiot. Of course someone like that will never learn. It really stings much worse when you serve up a homerun ball to a back-up catcher...ouch! My favorite quote of the article?

"He knew I was shooting him, and he didn't say a word," Causi said. "A true champion realizes you got to take the good with the bad." Talking about Mariano Rivera blowing a save earlier in the season against the rival Red Sox.

Anyway, enough about the idiots in baseball. Onto the Yankees! They've won 15 of their last 19 games, including taking 3 out of the 4 in Cleveland while battling rain, disgusting insects called midges, and flocks of seagulls. If I was a fan, I would run for cover in fear that the midges would attack me and eat the flesh off of me, and that the seagulls would poop all over me. As someone said on the 161st and River site, Cleveland is a landfill! Yesterday's game was a great one. Joba pitched a career high 8 innings, giving up 4 hits and only 2 runs, while striking out 5. He finally got over his 1st inning problems and was hitting 94-95 in the first inning. By the 7th and 8th innings, he was hitting 97! This is the Joba we all know and love. Because of that showing, he really should go into the bullpen....Hahaha! *Sarcasm*

Other game notes:

-Jeter collected his 2600th hit in yesterday's game. He needs to score one more run to hit 1500. Just amazing, those numbers.
-The Yankees drew a season-high 11 walks from the Cleveland pitchers, including 8 over two innings. They really could've made their pitchers pay and the game could've been a blowout, but they wasted a few opportunities, but made it count in the 7th inning.
-The Yanks set a new MLB record for playing 18 consecutive games without an error! They beat the previous record of 17 games set by the Red Sox in 2006. They are 14-4 in this stretch of errorless games.
-Joba made a webgem play during the 5th inning. The Indians had two runners on with no outs when Shoppach bunted. The ball popped up in between homeplate and 3rd base and Joba charged toward it. Like everyone else, I was expecting it to fall and have the bases be loaded. However, Joba dove and literally was suspended in the air for a few seconds before bellyflopping and somehow catching the ball. Jorge ran towards him, pointing towards second where Garko had strayed a little too far from the bag. Joba made the throw to complete the doubleplay. He followed the play with a fist pump and cheer. Maybe Aubrey Huff should do that the next time he catches a bunt popup."It looked like he was going into a swimming pool," said Andy Pettitte, who led the guffaws from the Yankees' bench. (source: Bryan Hoch, mlb.com)

A link to the amazing play.

The Yankees will hopefully continue with their great pitching, defense, and offense as they return home to face the 1st place Rangers followed by the Rays. Let's go Yanks!!!