A-Rod has been making all the tough plays at 3rd but fails to make some of the routine ones. This leads me to believe that his struggles are purely mental and not at all mechanical. Shocker.

2003: 18G, 6-8, 114 IP, 125 H, 16 HR, 27 BB, 125 K, 4.26

2005×2: 18G, 8-6, 128 IP, 120 H, 16 HR, 24 BB, 110 K, 3.94

Injury recurrence, regression toward the mean, or random noise?

Hey Cliff, the Tivo is one of the most indispensible appliances in existence. Combine it with DirecTV, and the MLB Extra Innings package and you are all set!

Right now they are offering new subscribers a $50 rebate on a $99 Tivo. Therefore you can get one for less than fifty bucks, and the Tivo subscription charge with DirecTV is only $4.99/month rather than the stand alone $12.95/month.

Get rid of that old analog tape, you’ll never go back!

Here’s the url of the offer:
http://www.directv.com/see/landing/dvr_offer.html

This reminds my of a policy my old man has developed: Every time some moronic color guy uses the word “obviously”, he changes the channel on principle. His theory is that something is obvious, the guy being paid thousands of dollars to talk about this game shouldn’t be mentioning it — and if it’s not obvious, then he shouldn’t say it is.

As for Wright, Klapisch is just happy to have new meat to chew on and spit out.

Dude, I love that you love giving Rodriguez the business. We all have our whipping boys, and I like that Rodriguez is in your dog house. One thing that was fun about your post was that it was told from the perspective of someone who had followed the game on the radio.

Rodriguez hit into a double play early in the game, was it the second inning? Dude, he freaking tagged that ball. It was a low-liner that bit Benson in the glove. One of those plays where you just say happy birthday to the fielder. “Hey ma, look what I found.” Benson had a wry little grin afterwards as the threw the ball around the infield. It was lucky as hell; he was just thankful that it didn’t hit him.

Truthfully, that was one of the hardest hit balls by a Yank all day. As an aside, No Sheff, is no fun at all. Yeah, I guess he broke some capilaries his his left hand last week holding up on a check swing. Suprised it doesn’t happen more often, really.

Rodriguez’s real boner yesterday was getting picked off of first late. It wasn’t so much that Piazza made a stellar defensive play to nab him, Rodriguez just got assed-out, not knowing whether to steal or not. It was stupid and he knew it. He got hung up. He started for second and then skipped and paused, and boom, the ball hadn’t bounced past Piazza, and he was a dead duck.

The guy who made the nice defenseive play was Minky over at first base. He got down and blocked first base like a catcher. You know he must love to give it to his old high school teammate. The throw was accurate, and Rodriguez wasn’t able to wrangling himself back in time.

You can also lay some responsibilty on Rodriguez for Koo’s steal of home. Yeah, Johnson should have been there, but in that case, Rodriguez had no place to be but home too either. Not a good 7th inning for A Rod.
It served them right when the ump blew the call.

And bro, Derek Jeter is having a bang-up series so far, huh? Jeez, a guy like David Wright just makes Jeter look old. He’s not the youngest, hottest stud in town now. He’s the veteran. The Mets have Beltran and Wright. I like Wright. He seems genuine. I read Klapisch say he’s one of the most sincere, good guys he’s ever covered in New York. Just hopes he doesn’t sour as he ages. He’s got that Super Joe Ewing amiability, but he can really play. He’s death driving the ball to the right-center field gap.

And Reyes killing us? Dag, that s* is hard to take. Beltran, I can take. Piazza, Cliff Floyd, no problem. But Kaz Matsui and Jose Reyes? Nah, dude. That’s just tough to stomach. Long afternoon. Just as well to have heard it on the radio.

Oh, and I like the Mets radio team. They are really excellent. Their call on the Koo play sounds priceless.

Pedro today. Well, at least it won’t be boring. The stadium should be electric. Let’s hope Meat brings his A-game and we have something to cheer about.

Is it just me who feels slimed and betrayed by his clicker — unable to change channels fast enough to avoid hearing such crap. These clowns were celebrating their 10th anniversary, if I heard right.

Why is that so reprehensible while “If This Is Wang I Don’t Want To Be Wright” is so damned clever in a groaning kind of way? I guess having the Yankees lose made it even more painful…

I hope Pavano replicates his last stellar outing. The Yankees can really use this win and it is always good to stick it to Pedro.