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Melky, Yankees pick up uneven Wang

Bob Watson is [headline edited for content]

I think it had to be said. AJ Burnett was not perilously close to hitting the guy nor was he ejected from the game, and yet he gets slapped with a 6-game suspension.

Why not suspend Vicente Padilla, Bob? He hit Teixeira twice! Or does that not comply with your agenda?

Yankees Game 22 Wrap-up and April in Review

They're up! They're down! They look good! They're getting murdered! A typical pinstriped April. Except this one was actually slightly more tilted to the "they're good" side as they beat the Angels 7-4 and finish their first month of the 2009 season at 12-10. It was their first winning April since 2006, when they were 13-10. They will close out the month 2 games out of first place, which is also their best end-April standings situation since 2006 when they were tied for first.

As for tonight, it had all the makings of a "we're the Angels, you're the Yankees, and we're going to beat you no matter what you do" kind of game. The Angels led, the Yankees came back, then the Angels took it away again, but the 8th inning rally was good enough to put the Yankees over the hump. Mariano Rivera got the save and Mo is now but 13 saves away from 500.

Mark Teixeira had a bad April, even for him. Tex is hugging the Mendoza line as we turn the page into May, and as we know, he typically is a slow starter. His career average for the month, however, is in the .250s. Might have been higher after this month was factored in. I doubt Robbie Cano wants to see April go, though. He's smoking with his .366 average.

Finally, I think Ramiro Pena, everyone's favorite baby-faced fill-in third baseman, has earned himself the backup IF spot when A-Rod comes back. I'm beginning to like this fellow.

A-Rod: Back in 10?

An article on MLB.com seems to think so.

It became obvious to most Yankee fans a few weeks ago that Alex Rodriguez was ahead of schedule in his surgery rehabilitation process. Now it appears that he will, in fact, rejoin the Yankees before his projected return date of May 15.

A-Rod has suffered no setbacks to this point, has already taken batting practice, and now (as of tomorrow April 30) will be in intrasquad games playing some live baseball.

Ramiro Pena is a nice young player, but he's no A-Rod. For all the crap he's taken from Yankee fans over the years, after what they've seen so far, they're going to welcome him back into the clean-up spot with open arms.

Yankees Game 21 Wrap-up

Well, you certainly can't move Joba to the bullpen after that. Not that you could in this situation anyway, lest the Yankees be down 2 starters as opposed to just Wang, but young Mr. Chamberlain tonight threw his best start of the year at the Detroit Tigers. Once the Yankees put up a touchdown in the 4th inning, Joba gave it everything he had and mowed down Detroit hitters like target practice dummies. Things got interesting in the bottom of the 9th -- perhaps too interesting -- but the outcome of the game was never really in doubt once the Yankees had their big inning. The 8-6 win moves the Yankees to 11-10 as they've taken 2 of 3 in this series.

Now they get to play the Angels, who are suddenly playing well (then again, they played Baltimore). Fun fun fun. A split may be the best case scenario.

This is a very interesting homestand for the Yanks: 4 against the LAAoA, 2 against the Red Sox and 2 against the Rays. It will be up to the Yankees to (1) play well at home against teams that are generally regarded to be contenders for October, regardless of current records, and (2) get back at Boston for the thrashing at Fenway. Probably the minimum acceptable outcome is 4-4.

Yankees Game 20 Wrap-up

Order, at least for now, has been restored. The Yankees got their first shutout win of the year against the Detroit Tigers tonight by a score of 11-0. 10 of those runs came in the 7th inning when the Yankee offense evidently had had enough of their own BS and decided to start scoring the necessary runs to win ballgames.

Phil Hughes pitched like Phil Hughes should have pitched last year: 6 shutout innings for the kid in his 2009 debut. Imagine if our new and significantly unimproved Wang were still in this spot; it might have been 11-0 going the other way.

A record of 10-10 isn't a terrible spot to be in when you have 142 games to go, although the 2008 Yankees were also 10-10 and that didn't turn out so well.

Joba pitches the series finale tomorrow. It will be his mission to shut up his detractors whether he knows it or not. Oh and Yankee fans, did you notice who's next on the schedule? That would be the Angels: a team that, no matter how good or bad they are, could invariably hand the Yankees their asses on a golden platter in absolutely any situation.

Yankees Game 19 Postmortem

Is it going to be another one of those seasons in the Bronx?

The game's not even as important to me or any Yankee fans right now as the record is. The Yanks are looking at a 9-10 start right now after being 9-6 and heading into Boston with confidence. This team has played like total crap for the last few days now and once again, it's looking like another April to forget.

April 2009: 9-10 (to date)
April 2008: 14-15
April 2007: 9-14
April 2006: 13-10
April 2005: 10-14
March/April 2004: 12-11

With the exception of 2006, which was at best OK, all of these starts since 2004 have been average, lackluster, or just plain bad. The Yankees have gotten themselves into a familiar pattern of looking bad early in the season and then forcing themselves to play from behind most of the year. In 2007 it cost them the division title, and in 2008 it cost them the playoffs altogether. It remains to be seen what it will be in 2009, but whatever "it" is, the 2009 Yankees do not have it yet.

Let's play some catchup

It was a nice productive weekend off of the blog...maybe...but here's some of what Soaring to Glory missed:

* The Yankees played a terrible series in Boston and got swept by the Red Sox. Three games, three leads, three losses.

* The Marlins are crashing back to earth after starting 11-1, going 0-for-Pennsylvania in the last 6 games.

* Al Davis did it again by taking Heyward-Bey with the 5th overall pick. He's not a bad player by any stretch, but how can anyone pass up Crabtree in that spot?

* BC baseball lost 2 out of 3 to Duke in their weekend road series to put their record at 26-17 (11-11). They've now matched last season's win total overall at 26 and already have 2 more ACC wins than all of last season.

* The Rangers have all but blown their series against the Washington Capitals.

Yankee Game 15 Wrap-up

This game was long and definitely several shades of boring (especially in the extra innings when seemingly nothing happened), but the Yankees won on a walk-off home run by Melky Cabrera of all people. Joe Girardi left CC Sabathia out there too long; I was questioning letting him pitch to Giambi in the 7th, and I certainly was opposed to letting him pitch to Holliday. The game probably should have been over in 9 innings. Again, CC wasn't that great, but he managed not to lose. The bullpen came up huge, not allowing a single run in innings 7 through 14. The Yankee offense should have scored at least one run with the bases loaded in the 7th; so yeah, the game probably should have been over in 9 innings.

More importantly now is that the Yankees are 9-6, 3 over for the first time this year. This is also their best 15-game start since 2003.

Oh yeah, and they play Boston next.

Yankees Game 14 Wrap-up

The Yankees won a game against the Oakland A's tonight that really was never in doubt. Andy (Pettitte) was dandy for yet another start. The offense left 10 men on base but no one really thinks about that when you score 5 runs and have great pitching. For tonight, it didn't matter, but overall I thought their situational hitting was fine. Had Damon not gotten greedy and been out at 2nd base during their big 2nd inning rally, they'd probably have scored more than 5 tonight.

It's good to see Matsui swinging the bat well again, and it's equally as good to hear that Xavier Nady won't be out for the season.

This is the first time this year that the Yanks are 2 games over .500. With Toronto's loss, they're within a game and a half of first. It could be better, but it could be a lot worse. A-Rod will return and Wang will not be pitching in the rotation if he looks like crap.

Yankees Game 13 Wrap-up

A few days ago, I'd have probably figured the Indians were on their way to taking 3 out of 4. After yesterday, I'd have taken anything positive today. The best way to avenge a terrible loss is to win the next day: after all, the terrible game only counts for one loss, and can easily be negated by a win.

Carl Pavano showed why he is still a Yankee killer, hurting them both in and out of pinstripes (for those needing a history lesson, he gave up 1 run in 9 world series innings against the Yankees and of course only won 9 games in 4 years in the Bronx). He didn't get the win however, which doesn't excuse the fact that the offense was dreadful for much of the game. The Jorge home run call was the correct one; I think that ball was just about out of the park or would have been.

I expect the Oakland game tomorrow to be rained out.

Yankees Game 12 Postmortem

I'm glad I missed it.

Wang must be removed from the starting rotation immediately. He is an automatic loss right now and needs to figure his crap out in some other capacity.

Yankees Game 11 Wrap-up

I consider this to be an odd, ugly win for the Yankees. Joba Chamberlain was not particularly stellar and the offense let a number of chances float away. Except for the part that they hit 5 home runs. You can't say that the offense sucked when they hit that many pitches out of the park, but at the same time, you can't say they were great when they leave 9 men on base in a one-run game and frustrate the hell out of the fans.

The bullpen was great. Not one run allowed since Joba left the game.

But now what's this: Wang is pitching tomorrow. This will be a very important game for him -- two bad starts in a row can be forgiven, but three bad starts in a row will make a lot of people very concerned despite it being April.

Yankees Game 10 Postmortem

Not even waiting for the game to be over.

The Yankee franchise was embarrassed today. The bullpen is a disgrace and the hitting decided to crawl back into its shell a la 2008.

Yankees Game 9 Wrap-up

Now that was one damn fine roadtrip if I do say so myself. Sure, Chien-Ming Wang sucked, Nady might be out for the year, and some of the key guys aren't hitting, but they still managed to put together a 5-4 record. Now they head home to face a very blah Cleveland team and an improved but beatable Oakland squad. The Yankees could pull a few games over .500 if all goes well.

Today's game was about as satisfying a win as yesterday's. Andy Pettitte pitched well for the 2nd time out of 2 this year (not to mention the fact that he went deep into both ballgames) and the offense found it within themselves to come from behind in the late innings. Brian Bruney has now struck out his last 5 batters in a row dating back to last night.

Tomorrow morning, the new stadium opens for regular season business. Get to your seats by noon, people.

Yankees Game 8 Wrap-up

The season is only 8 games old, but this was the most satisfying win of the year to date. AJ Burnett continues to be impressive and uninjured, taking a no-hitter into the 7th inning and striking out 9. Also impressive was Brian Bruney who pitched the 9th, striking out the 1-2-3 hitters for the Rays on 10 total pitches. The offense wasn't much to write home about until the 9th inning when they poured on 4 insurance runs to put the game away, however Nick Swisher is and continues to be the subject of many mancrushes in the tri-state area. The Yankees move to 4-4 and can wash the taste of Wang's bomb out of their mouths.

The Yankees now average nearly 6 runs a game, which is fine considering they do not have A-Rod, Tex missed 3 games, and Matsui is playing like crap.

One more Yankee note

Q: Who was the only Yankee pitcher today not to surrender a run?

A: Nick Swisher, who isn't even a [expletive] pitcher. I'm not kidding...look at the box.

Yankees Game 7 Postmortem

I'm not even waiting for the game to be over; I'm writing this right now.

Chien-Ming Wang wasn't just bad -- he was absolutely terrible. Wang was even worse than his first start in Baltimore. Though it is only 2 starts, Yankee fans should at least be puzzled by Wang's miserably pitching, if not just plain concerned. He has allowed a lot of runs in a short amount of time, his velocity is down, and his pitches are up. This can quite possibly be corrected in time, but these 2 performances have been so bad that you can't fail to take notice.

The offense did about what I thought it would against Kazmir. Ransom and Melky are both awful, and Matsui is slumping badly. Jeter doesn't look so good either.

Yankees Game 6 Postmortem

Sometimes your whole team just looks like crap, and sometimes your bullpen just chokes the game away. The latter is what the Yankees experienced in Kansas City as the Royals avoided the sweep, putting the Bombers at 3-3 going to St. Pete. Phil Coke wasn't really due for a stinker, as he wasn't particularly good in his first outing, but he delivered one anyway as he came into the game in the 8th and promptly surrendered the runs which put the Royals ahead for good.

Meanwhile, Joba went 6 innings and allowed just one earned run. Clearly he's not cut out to be a starting pitcher (dripping with sarcasm).

Not a big deal, as the season is 6 games old and the Yanks won the series. This next one will be a test, however.

Yankees Game 5 Wrap-up

I just wrote a nice post about how the Yankees looked good in their win today. The blog software ate it. I'm not rewriting it. Oh well.