Daily Archives: March 21, 2005

Okay, here goes a couple of dopey hunches I came up with this afternoon:

Javier Vazquez will have an outstanding year.

Jason Giambi will do better than expected, while Sheffield will have a down year.

Jorge Posada will suffer the first serious injury of his career.

Derek Jeter will score 100 runs again.

(Man, do I hope that Bernie can do the same, score 100 runs, and go out looking good.)

And for Cliff’s sake, here’s to the Yanks pick up Placido Planco before the trade deadline this summer.

Enough randomness for now. What you got?

Mariano Rivera threw a bullpen session yesterday, while Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams sat out with minor injuries, as Mike Mussina was roughed up by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. As Mussina explains, there are some days when you just don’t have it. He told Newsday:

“As you get ready for a new season, some days it feels like you’ve never been out there before. For me, this is about the time when I feel kind of blah,” he said. “It happens. You work through it.”

I wonder if Moose ever has the dream that Nuke LaLoosh had, standing on the mound with nothing more than his jock and garters…n’aaah, probably not.

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Man, I hate to see to see a great player like Robbie Alomar go out like this, just 276 hits short of 3,000. His brilliant career came to a resounding thud the day he was traded to the Mets. Still, I’ll always remember how he mashed Yankee pitching for years. And, of course, his acrobatic defensive work at second base. My favorite Alomar move was when he went far to his left, got his mitt on a grounder, and then like a spinning top, left his feet and rolled to his left, falling into right field, while being able to keep his balance long enough–as if temporarily being able to float–to make a perfect throw to first and nail the runner. It was as gorgeous a move as I ever remember seeing a second baseman make, and Alomar seemed to have the patent on it.

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