Topic: Yankees Baseball

Decent pitching, great defense and discipline at the plate takes you to the postseason. Lesson number two: all of the above and timely hitting takes you to the WS and probably win it for you.  And we all know that timely hitting is a crapshoot, unless Long knows any better.

As Francona said take your time coming back Jeter why rush things when actually you’re not needed that badly and this kid gets some experience under fire (as long as he doesn’t try to rush throws he’ll be okay) we need you back long term and beyond. Foston bucks right now anyway no rush. Alex and the rest of the team are going up there thinking damage anyway . . . what could go wrong?

How about some damage control?

It seems that Hughes is already learning big time from the Moose. Kennedy can’t be too far behind.

And the operative word is p-a-t-i-e-n-c-e.

Girardi is taking many hits for his handling of the team in Foston and he should but the media should not protect their Yankee darling Moose (I’m sure they owe him tons of sound bites against his teammates for several years and counting). Mussina knew what he was doing to his team and manager when he used his intelligence to subtly convince and fool his manager into letting him pitch to Manny. Girardi took the blame and the proof that Mussina knew he undid his manager was the fact that he kept saying “WE” when he should have said “I SCREWED UP.”  The Moose has always been about himself.

Girardi is right about every new day bringing a chance to redeem oneself no question about that and the lesson here (he being as smart as he is) is that he’ll learn from this experience and will know when to cut the Moose loose because Cashman is incapable of making smart decisions when it comes to pitching just look at his record since 2001, it speak volumes.

I was fooled by the Moose too when he volunteered to take a couple of the young studs under his wing. He wasn’t thinking about the team he was thinking about ways to help disguise his waning talents. A real manager knows not only when to train and supervise his underlings but also when to discard them or their influence on the team when they’re no longer useful.

That is part of the learning process as well. The only ones backing the Moose are his friends in the media, WE the FANS owe him NOTHING. Joe paid too much, way too much attention to the media when they wondered aloud if Joe may be respected by his former teammates when he took over from Torre and frankly that should be the least of his worries.

This team is not about old dogs like Giambi, Moose, or even Kyle this was supposed to be about the future of the Yankees and how the Moose became part of that future is beyond me. That’s an insult to the loyal fandom.

I don’t think Girardi is going with his gut feeling how could that be when he decides to pitch to Manny and this incapu throws a ball right down to pipe to Manny? I don’t buy that crap that the “strategy was working until I threw that pitch for a mistake.” You embarrassed your team and your manager in prime time for selfish reasons; don’t sugar coat it old man, YOU screwed up big time. For once own to it.

This team actually looks very much like a work in progress and as Hank said they really will test our patience no question about that specially when our best bat is re-learning his role within the line up now he’s going up there thinking damage I thought he was going up there thinking “golden sombrero” when was the last time you saw Alex protecting the plate with two strikes on, which is becoming a daily occurrence? Try High School maybe.

You pitch to Alex and it’s a no brainer, you pitch to Manny and he makes you pay for it. Maybe Boras could explain to us through some obscure stats how salaries are inversely related to ability.  At least he’s improving because I didn’t read he was tipping his hat to Matsuzaka the way he did to Lechter’s son when he owned him in the second game in Foston instead of saying “I can’t hit for shiit, not this early in the season.”

You no longer get a free pass not at these rates, sorry and I don’t care how many tall buildings you climb during training, show me the love during actual games and I’ll get off your back. Because we will be WS champions again with your help or in spite of you.  ST stats don’t even get you a subway ride; you should know that by now. I know Pappy is doing worse, a lot worse, but that’s a Foston’s concern not ours. When we fail (if we fail) to make the playoffs we’ll be looking at these games and then it will be too late for regrets . . . . Oh and that old “blame me” routine won’t do.  The wakeup call is now not in August or September. Forget the Kodak moments; is about plate discipline and concentration stupid. You’re beginning to look like Bernie Williams at the plate and that’s not a compliment.

I’m happy to report to those two or three people (besides myself) that read these nonsensical comments what everybody already knows: Alex is not wearing a “golden sombrero” and he probably won’t wear one again for a long time.

That’s just fine; it didn’t look good on him anyway.

I’m glad to eat crow and I’ll be perfectly pleased to eat crow 96 more times during the rest of the season.

I was ready to say: hey stuff happens we lost that game but you showed what you can and will do going forward and then magic struck, Girardi went with his gut feeling and Cano saw the ball for the glimpse it took and the ball was re-directed nicely to the seats for a game winning HR. I thought that went nicely with Alex’, Ensberg’s and Damon’s home runs and just like that  . . . .  We’re back in business.

Funny business this game of ours.

As Girardi says that game was indeed a character game and I can say a lot of things about that game before Kennedy got hit but the one thing I won’t say is: “I’m surprised.”

I’m not surprised whatsoever because that’s exactly how I have felt about this team even before the season started although I must confess that I really thought we’d be ahead of the rest of the field by now and out of sight by the All Star break but as some people say this is baseball. Anything can and usually happens at the strangest of times. The most carefully laid-out plans need to constantly be re-arranged or fine tuned . . . . .   Karma.

Great team effort guys; let’s keep it up.

Luckily for us (or the sux) Detroit is still trying to manage or figure out who will hit all those home runs and RBI’s they are supposed to produce. I think is more along the lines of Cabrera winning everybody over with his charm.

Take your time guys there still is a long season ahead of you.

Tampa Rays had the Yankees right where they wanted them: at the plate with the bases loaded. The Yankees weren’t able to figure that one out again and again and again.  I guess that’s not part of “Hitting 101.” Madden is a genius, he said: “let’s load the bases and confuse the hell out of them” and it worked. No worries  . . . . .  they got out of those innings.

One day (hopefully before October) the Yankee batters will be able to learn and trust that in that situation the onus is on the pitcher and all they're aiming for is to put the ball in play. If you do the worst that could happen is you'll end up with one or two RBI's. What is wrong with that?

It wasn’t pretty except for the fact that Matsui sama is getting hot and patiently staring those pitchers in the eyes and daring them to come after him, nice going Matsui sama. Andy labored but steadily advanced to his next W, if that’s how it should be done . . . .  let’s do it by all means.

Not every Win is pretty but a W is a W is a W.

You can’t expect the Alexes and the Jeters and the Matsuis and the Abreus winning the game for you every time and we already have been treated to a few wins by the Canos and the Melkys so it’s all about the collective effort. So the closing unit being that Bruney, Kyle, La Troy, Joba or Mo is just a beautiful corollary to a well played, well pitched game or both.

Let’s face the sux and give them a run for their money and put them on the defensive for once.

Have fun as a team trust each other and win another series; if you do that you’ll have the sux where you want them to be.

And you wackos out there on the stands BE A REAL 10th FRIGGING PLAYER FOR ONCE. Some of you should do yourselves a favor and go to Fenway and attend a game or two maybe you'd learn a thing or two about truly being behind your team.

Take your time Joba; tend to your father.  Family MUST always come first.

Our warm thoughts and prayers continue to go out to you and your loved ones.

That was a slugfest and we can laugh about it now because we won and as some people have so often said; there’ll be games like these, nights like these where the outcome could go either way.

This was a new type of outcome: we score early and often  . . .   and   . . .   we came from behind to beat one of the best teams in the majors on a day when our ACE was nowhere to be found  . . .  yet  . . .   the bats and La Troy won the night for us.

This is a brand new strategy: EVERYBODY HITS, I kind of like that, someone fails somebody else picks him up . . . .  a true Team Effort in which our latest catcher Chad Moeller a USC product stood out and had a wonderful game allowing our 1 and 2 continue to rest their bodies without adverse effects.

Let’s play with the same intensity tonight and help the Moose get a W over the sux who won’t go down easy; it doesn’t matter we’ll prevail because we are the better team and the hungrier one as well.