On the Yankees beat

Anyone saw Matsuzaka took his cap off, and bowed slightly when he hit A-Rod?
Here is the pic.

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l38/mns1961/070424mt20070424011_MDE00256G070423.jpg

That's how Japanese pitchers apologize when they hit batters.

Dice-K takes his cap off between every pitch. They were squawking about it on the radio last night!

So if I had to guess the lineup will be:

Melky
Jeter
Abreu
A-Rod
Giambi
Matsui
Posada
Cano
Phelps

And with Wright going back to the minors there is no starter set for Friday - Andy is throwing on Wednesday, Mussina is two weeks away. The other two pitchers for that series are Wang and Igawa. Does Torre go with Karstens or Rasner or Henn or might it be one of the Hughes, Olendorf, Clippard group.

Great take on the Yankee pen by Francessa:

The problem is that 1 out of every 4 games Farnsworth looks unhittable, the other three times he stinks, you can't use him on back to back days and there are days Joe calls down there and Farnsworth says his back hurts - and then you have Proctor who will take the ball no matter how he feels and so Joe gives it to him. And they all just try to make sure his arm doesn't fall off like it did to Sturtze and Quantrill.

Player W L ERA G GS CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR HB BB SO WHIP HLD GF
Philip Hughes 2 1 3.94 3 3 0 0 0 16.0 11 7 7 0 1 4 17 0.94 0 0
Ross Ohlendorf 0 0 3.60 3 3 0 0 0 15.0 13 6 6 1 0 12 8 1.67 0 0

As you can see neither one looks spectacular [CLippard has an ERA over 5 right now]. I think they might go with Ohlendorf simply because they don't want to bring Hughes up unless he's staying, although he's walked a ton of people which is one thing the Yankees hate. Also Hughes started off poorly, and recovered nicely in his last start.

[Sorry the Numbers are a bit out of whack]

Can someone please explain whyy the worst hitter in our lineup in Melky is leading off? Why can't Jeter or even Abreu lead off?

All of Damon's injuries are getting very annoying.

Hopeflly Igawa gives ua a lot of innings and we can bring in Mo to shut the door.

I think we need to bring up Hughes and give him a chance. If he doesn't do well, then you can send him down. It's not going to kill his development if he gets hit by the Red Sox.

BREAKING NEWS: On the Michael Kay Show Phil Hughes will pitch on Thursday against the Blue jays

LETS GO KID LETS SEE WHAT U GOT!

The Messiah is Coming Finally... Does anyone planning to buy ticket and watch Phil Franchise pitch?

They listened to me!

The Yankees should have just kept Wright in the rotation. Young players being "yo-yo'd" from New York to Scranton ruins their confidence, and wastes options. We went through this with the "Columbus Shuttle" years ago.

Noooooooo

I think bringing up Hughes is an awful idea this early in the season.

He is only 20 years old. He needs to develop more down in the minors.

So pissed.

Cashman is showing the same desperation that Joe showed this weekend.

When Cashman was chasing Damon I remember Boris giving this voodoo analysis of Damon and comparing him to all these other better players and his angle for Damon was in normalizing the comparison to Damon's lack of injuries. See at the time it was thought that the Sox had held back because they had doubts about his physical state.

Cashman swallowed the pill and here he is missing playing time constantly.

You're right Hitch.

Most of us Sox fans, while sorry to see Damon go..he was a great palyer for the Sox and a definate fan favorite...most of us wondered whether he would worth that fat contract in the final two years. He is certainly entering the "twi-light" of his career.

2 points.

1) do y'all notice that we've stopped getting updates on pavano's status? the guy claims to have "something" wrong with his elbow that doesn't register on MRI... the guy's done.

2) the following was written first during the off season and is NOT a result of the first 17 games. yanks should have traded melky during the off season when his value was as high as it can ever get. there's no point in keeping him since he'll never be a regular because you need tons of production from your corner OF's, and he's light-weight. there was serious talk about him going to the pirates for gonzales the reliever, and i think it's still not too late to try and get something for him. even if he somehow rights himself and gets his average back up to around 270, he's still marginal at best.

I agree with you, Roy.

But at least the Scranton shuttle is shorter. I remember people not even making it all the way between NYC and Columbus before being turned around and sent back.

Just saw a report we're bringing up Phil Hughes to start Thursday. Let's review: Mariano in the 8th, Pettitte TWICE in relief, Phelps catching, Chase Wright on 2 AA starts, Proctor and Vizcaino every day, Mintky below the Mendoza line, Nieves below the Nieves Line ( .020). If you add it up, we have officially pressed the panic button.

From MLB Trade Rumors site:

A-Rod Options

A couple of high-profile options for Alex Rodriguez were discussed in the papers today. A-Rod's hitting like a madman, which brings his opt-out clause to the forefront even though it's April 20th.

Gerry Callahan of the Boston Herald has "no doubt" that the Red Sox will make a run at Rodriguez after this season. It does make plenty of sense - the Sox proved they'd pay a ridiculous amount for star power with the Daisuke Matsuzaka bidding. They've got the open slot at third base with Mike Lowell leaving. And they almost acquired Rodriguez in 2003. Basically, all the talking points you're going to hear between now and when he signs somewhere.

Some salary should come off the books for Boston after this season: Curt Schilling at $13MM, Matt Clement at $9.5MM, Mike Lowell at $9MM, Eric Hinske at $2.8MM, Joel Pineiro at $4MM, Julian Tavarez at $3.1MM. Of course, the Sox need to replace some of these guys, but they could be subtracting $40MM. There is room for a marquee addition, and it could be on offense. I could see a big push to sign A-Rod and John Smoltz, if he'll leave Atlanta.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/

Before Randy Johnson came here ther was also questions about his health (as well as his Steroids use) He had knee and back problems for several years and none of those ever go away. Yet Cashman see fit to give him a contract extension. He seems to act like nothing will go wrong with these guys once they put on the uniform, yet all the doubts become reality.

Gil,

I agree with that Melky assessment...buy low sell high. E-mail that to Cashman.

Brining up Hugues brings mixed feelings to me. I just hope that he is ready
seems Damon is propetually injured.

Can Abreu catch anything over his head? That was some disappointing RF play this weekend. Even the ones he catches going back, he looks like his expecting someone to jump him

Did anyone ask where Bernie was this weekend? He should have been there! He could have helped.