So the All-star break has just begun and the players get a few days off before the 2nd half begins on Thursday (for some teams). The Yankees ended the 1st half of the season by getting swept by the Angels. Yup. The Angels who were without Torii Hunter and Vladimir Guerrero. They had leads in all 3 games and saw all of those leads get swept away. Let's not recount the embarrassment that was this weekend.
New York Yankees' Goals for the 2nd Half of the Season:
1. Actually beat Boston for once. The Yankees CAN compete with the Red Sox and are just as good as them. There's a reason the two teams have flip flopped between 1st and 2nd place and are generally only a few games apart. The Yanks will not go 0-18 against them. Or I really hope not....
2. Beat good teams! Or at least 1st place teams. Of course they've shown they can't even beat terrible teams like the Nationals. They're going to be facing the Rays a lot the rest of the season and will be seeing the Red Sox 8 more times. They also see the White Sox, Tigers, Mariners, Rangers, and the Angels.
3. Nick Swisher needs to stop making dumb plays on the basepaths. You're not Brett Gardner. The same could be said for other players on the team as well.
4. Johnny Damon needs to get back into the swing of things. Jeter's been known to get lead-off singles and it'd be great if Johnny could move him over (whether it's a sacrifice or a base hit).
5. ARod should get his days off. We know what he starts to look like when he doesn't. He should be refreshed after the break, or maybe not if he's gonna party hard with Kate Hudson.
6. Brian Bruney needs to start pitching well. Phil Hughes has taken over his spot as the 8th inning guy, or at least the go-to guy when the Yanks need someone they can trust in a tough spot (if it's not the 9th inning, or the 8th with less than 2 outs).
7. Joba needs to start pitching well, too. His crap starts are just unacceptable. The least he could do is get to the 6th inning. FYI, you have the stuff to be a great starting pitcher, but you choose to nibble around the strike zone and lose guys on 0-2 counts. YOU ARE NOT PITCHING AS WELL AS YOU THINK YOU ARE.
8. While AJ & CC have been great as of late (maybe not CC against the Angels, but I wasn't watching the game, so I wouldn't really know), but the rest of our rotation? Eeek! Step it up guys. Hey, maybe we'll see Sergio Mitre!
Well, that's all I could think of so far. & with that being said, a recap of the 1st half of the season written by Mark Feisand of the Daily News:
* They are 0-8 against the Red Sox.
* Chien-Ming Wang is 1-6 and on the DL for a second time.
* Brian Bruney missed 40 games over two DL stints and hasn’t found his groove since he returned.
* Joba Chamberlain has been erratic every five days.
* Mark Teixeira hit .190 in April and went 95 at-bats without a home run in June/July.
* Alex Rodriguez missed a month after hip surgery.
* His replacement, Cody Ransom, then went on the DL himself, leaving third-base to scrappy minor-leaguer Ramiro Pena and aging 31-year-old Angel Berroa until A-Rod came back.
* Jorge Posada (22 games) and Jose Molina (54 games) have both been on the DL, leaving catching duties to Double-A call-up Francisco Cervelli and journeyman Kevin Cash.
* Robinson Cano went about two weeks without an RBI and hasn’t hit with guys on base all year.
* Xavier Nady played for a week before blowing out his elbow.
* Andy Pettitte’s ERA at Yankee Stadium is almost 6.00.
* Damaso Marte pitched terribly and has been out with a bum shoulder since April.
* Edwar Ramirez and Jose Veras stunk and were sent down/released.
* The Yankees are 51-34 and tied for first place in the American League East.
*****NOTE: This was before the series against the Angels.
With that being said, I'm excited to watch the homerun derby and the all-star game. If only it didn't count. They should really follow the NHL on this one. The team with the better record should get home-field advantage. Whatever. I'm also happy Pedroia isn't going to be the 2nd baseman. It's a bummer he had to leave because of a family emergency though :-\. Oh well, there are still a ton of red sox players on the roster, ughhh. Go AL!
