On the Yankees beat

Clearly, Cano should just be left in Florida until the first or second week of May. Either he takes an eon to warm up or the kid simply cannot play in anything below tepid weather.

Bleecker (formerly DC Yank)

I like Al Gonzalez playing over Ensberg.

Quite possibly the ugliest win I've ever witnessed.... except for the pitching of Mussina, Albaledejo, Farnsworth, Joba and Mariano of course.

DOC

Always interesting to watch a guy whose intelligence is significantly above his body temperature on a baseball field, whether he's a pitcher or a shortstop or a catcher -- whatever.

Other guys may essentially play the same season year after year until the wheels fall off, but those are the guys that can surprise you.

Diane

You're being a bit obscure for me at this hour of the day can you clue me in some.

Diane,
Your post was like a Steely Dan song to me. I know I like it, but I don't know what the hell it means.

Doc: I'll take an ugly win over a pretty loss any day!

Too bad about A-Rod. I noticed he was not running well at all while he was warming up before the games in Cleveland and I've had that same injury and you need rest, rest and more rest. Let's hope the boys get all these injuries out of the way early and they stay healthy the rest of the season.

Sorry ruse,

I was thinking about a bunch of things at once. Like these, for example.

Watching Mussina over the last several games experimenting with various approaches to being unable to do things he used to do, seeing which ones work, bringing into development a way to be 39 and on the mound for a team that really needs a quality start. Watching Rivera and remembering how he used to just cut them down one two three with that cutter, which they knew was coming and still left them helplessly staring as he chopped bat after bat in half, and how he has become a different pitcher but with the same results.

Watching Cano, on the other hand, have the same early season year after year, flailing away at anything white that moves in his view -- God forbid the pitcher should toss down the rosin bag instead of putting it gently back in place, Cano would flail away automatically -- until they simply wear him out and out of sheer fatigue he slows down enough to get a thought in there between seeing the white object moving and the decision about what to do about that.

That sort of thing.

How there's something besides muscle moving on a baseball field.

Kenny Rogers, LHP (1-3, 7.66) vs. Phil Hughes, RHP (0-3, 7.85)
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Big game for Hughes tonight. I think a solid start tonight that gives us a chance to win will calm a lot of people down who have been worked up about the injuries and any ideas of moving Joba into the rotation as soon as possible. If this kid can start pitching up to his potential it can really push this rotation up to another level.

Lineup tonight should be interesting with no Posada or Alex. If I had to throw it together this is what I would have:
**MY LINEUP**
Damon (LF)
Jeter (SS)
Bobby (RF)
Giambi (1B)
Matsui (DH)
Melky (CF)
Ensberg (3B)
Molina (C)
Cano (2B)

Jim A.,

Sometimes an ugly win just hits the spot!

An ugly hit can be fun, a series of them can be memorable.

Don't you just smile thinking of that inning last night when a bunch of guys -- worn out, injured, or second-string -- put together something that it seems laughable to even *call* a rally???

But that's what it was, and along with an ugly struggle by an old starter, and an unappealingly long parade of relievers, it was enough for a W.

And that was plenty enough for me.

Here, here Diane! I never saw so many balls get rolled over for weak ground outs that turned into productive outs in my life but I'll take it all day long!

Hughes is going to have to be ready like he's never been before going into tonight facing that lineup.

Seems like Lazarus has risen! Mussina puts back to back W's to climb off the slab.

Jim A,

Relative to Hughes....Its getting late, early! So he has to start doing something. Patience is reserved for those who are 3-4 and struggling to be consistent. Not those o'fer and struggling to contribute anything.

I think it was to the advantage of Hughes and Kennedy that the team has essentially spent April on the road. Patience would indeed be running thin if they had played a month at home without a single W between them.

In a way this is their debut since most of the fans in the home crowd will not even have seen them this year and will probably be willing to give them the benefit of the doubt at first. I'm hoping they've begun to get a grip and what better place for them to demonstrate that than at the Stadium?

Diane,

Quite true. But thats also a knife that cuts both ways. We will see over the next 20 games I guess.

The Yankee faithful could be very ugly this time tomorrow morning if Hughes can't keep us in the game tonight.

Honestly if he gets absolutely rocked i probably will be too. But if he can at least show us some signs of an ability to get some of the best hitters in the league out I won't freak out.

Yanks starters have 12 QS between them .Tigers 4
Righties have clobbered Rogers so far this yr.

Buster Olney is reporting that Posada's shoulder does NOT have any major damage. Please be right Buster, please!

Thanks to the guys that sent warm wishes on the birth of my granddaughter.

I didn't see the game last night but it looked like Mussina pitched okay. I'll read up on the game in a few.

Did you guys hear that the Giants put Zito in the pen?

Nudge,

What did you think of the Jints' draft this past weekend? I like the safety they got from Miami.

Tonight will be tough for Hughes. That lineup can ruin anyone's night, absolutely. I'll be doing my best to watch the Yankee game and the Ranger game tonight as I hate missing Hughes pitch, but tonight's game is VERY important for the Rangers. Ya know what I'm sayin'?

4 straight lefties against this Yankee lineup is tough. Might see Shelley in place of Giambi tonight...the Yankee offensve has really stalled against lefties this season and going on 4th straight could essentially silence the bats, especially without Posada and ARod.

Jim A. ---> I saw this too...lets hope this "unnamed" person is credible.

"Tuesday, April 29, 2008
BY ED PRICE
Star-Ledger Staff

CLEVELAND -- The Yankees last night played a game without Jorge Posada for the first time in nearly 12 years, and they held out hope he will be back soon.

Posada was examined yesterday by specialist James Andrews, and a person briefed on the exam who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak before the team discussed the matter today, said the early indications are that the damage in Posada's shoulder is not season-threatening, but cautioned that the complete diagnosis wouldn't be known for a few more days."

http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-2/1209443715261040.xml&coll=1

MUST WIN for the Blueshirts tonight!!!

Game one was the killer.

John G,

I too meant to send my congratulations to you and your family on the special occasion. Unfortunately we had some terrible tornados here yesterday and I've been down hard on the beach for a while. So I apologize for my late reply.

Diane, I figured you were talking about Mussina and his Stanford education - and 50 lb brain. many of us have been hoping all along he would start using his smarts and become an effective - if not great - bottom of the rotation guy. That said, i was watching a game recently where Mussina was pitching to another Stanford grad. I don't know if it was last night or last week, but the announcers were making a point of it being a battle of wits, or something to that effect. I think Kennedy could certainly learn a lot from Moose because I'm not sure he has dominant enough stuff to be a great top of the rotation guy. Maybe he works out as a 4 or 5 guy.

But it's still damaged and playing the position he plays is not helpful. and now the fear is this problem will carry over to next season do you want a catcher with now shoulder issues

Diane

Your take on Cano is excellent and I know the EXPERTS are going to say well he is warm weather due to him being from a latin nation blah blah blah. No he is a professional player.

then they will say Bernie Williams was a slow starter.

yeah he still created productive outs not swinging at anything moving at home plate plus Bernie's offense support around him was more steady than now with the fatso;s on this team.

Boss,

Thank you! No apology necessary my friend!

Tornadoes? Is everyone ok?

Game 2 killed me even more because Pittsburgh beat us at our style and worse, an early whistle by the ref cost us the game. That was tough.

McCarthy: Do you go down to Trenton for games at all to see Dave? If you do, let me know. I only live 20 minutes away and go to games regularly. wag279@gmail.com

As far as Cano, I really liked this blog entry by Moshe Mandel, so I thought I'd share it:
http://mvn.com/mlb-yankees/2008/04/28/cano-way-this-continues/

Are you in Virginia Boss?

HYD,

Va Beach. At around 4 yesterday, we had a huge bang in the office, with the power blowing. Everything went dead - phones, computers, etc. So the natural thing for everyone to do was go home. Since I work in Norfolk in a vault built within a vault and surrounded by 66 inches of cement and steel, I have no access to the outside unless I physically go outside. So about 4 of us left, opened the door, and there were sirens blasting and announcements being made about lockdown. No one was being let off or on base, and we had to go back in the building. So before we went in, we looked around and right behind us over our building was three giant funnel clouds (granted they were several miles away and moving away). The announcements were saying more funnel clouds were forming at gates X and Y. So we had to wait it out. When I got home and put on the news, i saw the devastation that happened over in Suffolk - just a few miles from here.

Turns out that a few hundred were injured and lost homes, property, cars, etc...but no reported deaths that I know of. My clan is OK as I don't think anything touched down in Va Beach.

Boss is down in the VA Beach area, close to where the tornadoes were.
Although I thought it missed the beach area.

I think I speak for Boss when I say "Go Penguins!". I HATE the Rangers, almost as much as I hate the Cowboys, so I'm a big Penguin fan right now.....sorry Ranger fans, but as an Islander fan I cannot bring myself to root for the Rangers at all.

Hughes -

I have actually never been down to a game at Trenton. I currently live in Boston so thats kind of a trip for me. But I plan on going to a bunch of NH Fisher Cat and Connecticut Defender games this year. Most likely when the Thunder are in town.

But I am guessing Dave is going to get sent up to AAA sometime soon and then i will get to see him in Pawtucket.

I'll def let you know if I end up down there though.

Jim A: Rick yesterday proclaimed you the guy on this blog that everybody liked. After that comment, I do not like you, at least not until this series ends.

I heard about the tornadoes on PTI. They mentioned they weren't too far from them in DC.

HYD..thanks for the article on Cano, maybe the trigger finger Yankee fans can learn to be patient....wait, who the hell am I kidding???? Sorry, forgot what team I root for.

Great win last night. Loved seeing Albaledejo work out of a jam with the game on the line, on the road. I give him a B+, that one hit was a lucky flare shot and the runner on 1st SHOULD have been picked off by our "great" defensive catcher, but some slug couldn’t get back.

Speaking of which, how long are we going to suffer with Giambi at 1st? I really cant stand to see him on this team another day. I know there is no way in hell he's dropped, but once Arod is healthy, I support moving Ensberg to 1st and letting Giambi's fat @ss ride the pine. Time to cut our losses and move on. He looks so bad in the field it makes me sick to my stomach. How many extra outs are we to give to the opposition before a move is made???

HYD,
I understand your feelings completely. If it were any other team but the Rangers I would be happy to see them win for guys like you but.....I just can't do it. I'm sure you feel the same about the Isles.

Jim A,

You are right and right. Nothing hit in Va Beach, but we could see the weather from work as it moved between Norfolk and Hampton. And yes, as much as I like and respect Grandpa John G, I threw up in my mouth a little when he mentioned the Blueshirts needing a win.

Wonderful article on sportsmanship - if this doesn't get to you, nothing will:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/columns/story?columnist=hays_graham&id=3372631

Dru

It seems almost a day in day out occurence watching Giambi botch a relatively easy play.No instincts! He's also something like 1-35 batting 5th or 6th

Just a thought, move Jorge to first for the rest of the year. This way we keep his bat in the lineup. As far as Giambi goes, goodbye, so long, farewell.

Giambi will rise again! (someday....I hope).

Ruse, I hear ya.

True Yank, I think the Yanks toyed with that last year. You could have Jorge and Molina split C duties every week 3/3. Then have Jorge at 1st when Molina is behind the dish. I know Jorge will still need to make throws to 2nd, but thats 1/2 the distance and should help preserve his shoulder. On the days he's catching, I think either Ensberg or Shelly should be at 1st. The only time I want to see Giambi penciled into the lineup is when he's a DH, and that should ONLY be against RHP. Lets look at Jason's stats..

vs LHP - 13 AB's - 0 Hits - 3 BB - 4K
vs RHP - 53 AB's - 11 hits - 3 2B - 5 HR - 11 BB - 7 K

So Giambi has 11 hits this year, 8 went for XBH, so he's still usefull againt RHP.

We are really hurting against LHP, neither Matsui or Ensberg has hit LHP this year. Both have no XBH in 31 combined AB's, thats miserable. Combine that with Giambi's numbers and we have only 8 total hits against LHP between Matsui, Ensberg and Giambi in 44 AB's..none going for extra bases. Maybe when we face lefties we should have this lineup ( once everyone is healthy of course ).

Damon - LF
Jeter- SS
Abreu - RF
Arod - 3B
Posada - DH
Shelly - 1B
Melk- CF
Cano - 2B
Molina - C

Our lack of hitting against LHP means that Shelly may play a larger role this year than 1st thought.

Jim A…we can only hope so!

John G,

I like what the Jints did. They addressed the DB and LB positions with 2 picks a piece. Also this Manningham could be a bigtime sleeper. He was a projected #1 until the "personal" issues surfaced. Kind of like what they did with Bradshaw. They took a chance on him and it looks like he is going to be real good. I hope the same for Manningham. Hope to hear plenty of calls of...Manning to Manningham....next year.

Boss,

Glad everything is OK with you. Vault within a Vault.....sounds nuclear to me! Lots of Marines with shouldered weapons?

Careful Jim A.

I'll have to start singing "Hail to the Redskins" again.

Boss, You root for the Isles? What turned you to the Dark Side?

On a serious note: I'm glad that you and the Fam are fine.

HYD, I thought that the Rangers had to tighten it up on D because they can't get into a wide open game with those guys. They have too many snipers. The Rangers had too many penalties and they got burned on the power play. They had their chances to score, but couldn't cash in. I thought that the whistle was fast on the tying goal, but he lost sight of the puck and he did the right thing. Game 1 was worse because they blew a 3 goal lead. At least it was for me.

I like what the Jints did also Nudge. Spags wanted a DB that he can use in blitz packages and I think the guy that they drafted out of USC will give them that. I like Manningham also. He could be the game breaking wideout that they need.

John G,

Unfortunately I am with Boss on the hockey deal. Been some dry years for us. I was a bigtime Bobby Bourne fan. Many of the Isles of the dynasty lived around where I grew up. So I have met a few of them. A guy I worked with lived next door to Lorne Henning. He used to go to all the team parties. When the Isles drafted Pat LaFountaine he stayed with the Hennings. Years later I read that LaFountaine is marrying Mary Beth Hoey....his sister.

Bobby Bourne lived in Dix Hills and frequented the Hardware store that I was working at for the time. A few Isles would come in because my dad would help them out with things I guess hockey players didn't know anything about. Like fixing a leaky faucet!

I don't think I will ever see days like those for the team again.

Nudge,

You're on the "dark Side" also, huh? :-)

Actually, I met a lot of the Isles from the 1st cup winner. They were playing a charity softball game against Deborah Hospital at Lincoln HS in Sheepshead Bay back in 80. A friend of mine who worked for the hospital and is an Islander fan got me into the BBQ that the hospital had for the team. I got to talk to at great length with Billy Smith and Gary Howatt. Both of them were standup guys and I really liked Smith. In my opinion, and I'm a Ranger fan as you well know, he was the best money goalie that I ever saw. That was a great team and you don't win 4 cups in 5 years and get to the finals 5 straight years without being one.

John G,

Can't help it - grew up in Massapequa and my first grade teacher, Mrs. Engelhardt at Carman Road elementary school, got me a Mike Bossy poster that I still have. 1980-1983 was amazing - I agree Nudge, won't see that again.

John G,

Ahhhh but for the years gone by! Back then winning seemed like it was second nature. Now ....such a struggle. I have to admit to some of those 1940 chants, sorry! I was actually originally a Ranger fan but felt LI had its own team so I switched but still followed the Rangers. But when 1998 rolled around and the Rangers knocked us off, the animousity got too great so I stopped following the Blue Shirts.

I too was amazed at how wonderful the hockey players were to talk to. I don't know if it their humble roots or lack of celebrity, but hockey players all seem so down to earth and humble....with the exception of Avery that is :-)

Boss,

Back then you couldn't get a ticket to the games. Now....you can sit pretty much where ever you want. I hated back when most the seats were bought up by people who were on the band wagon but had the money. I go to the games all pumped up and people are strolling in halfway through the first period and talking about Dr. this one and so and so's teacher, blah blah blah.

Im like.....shut....up! Im trying to watch the game. Socialize some other time. It's like the didn't appreciate or understand what they were watching. Just killed me!

Nudge,
My favorite Isle back in "the day" was Butch Goring, I just loved the "old school" look and the gritty play from him, but frankly I loved them all from Billy, Chico, Bobby B., Nystrom, Gillies, of course Bossy and Trots (BossTrots!), Potvin....Don't say those days won't come again, I think they might. I really like Ted Nolan and Charles Wang is a little whack but at least he's not a criminal.

So back to baseball before I get yelled at....anybody heard any updates on A-Rod or Jorge since Noon?

See discussion on new thread.