Monthly Archives: April 2008

Well, I guess Chien-Ming Wang has solved Fenway Park. Wang shrugged off his career 6.17 ERA at the Fens last night and dominated the Red Sox for nine innings. Wang only struck out three men and gave up more than his share of fly balls and line-drive outs, but he needed just 93 pitches to complete the game and held the Sox to just three baserunners on the night.

Wang set the first ten Boston hitters down in order, striking out David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez along the way. With one out in the fourth, Dustin Pedroia hit a hard grounder to Alex Rodriguez’s right. The Yankee third baseman hit the dirt to backhand the ball, scrambled to his feet, and fired high to first base as Pedroia reached with what was initially ruled an infield hit. On the very next pitch, Wang got Ortiz to ground into an inning-ending 5-4-3 double-play. In between innings, Pedroia’s hit was changed to an E5.

With two outs in the fifth, J.D. Drew hit a fly ball to the front of the Boston bullpen in right field. Bobby Abreu had the ball measured. He drifted back, found the five-foot-three wall with his bare hand, and lept to make the catch. Unfortunately, he got a bit too close to the wall and, as he jumped, his back caught the top of the wall and stopped his momentum. Drew’s fly ball tipped off the end of Abreu’s glove and fell into the bullpen for a home run that knotted the game at 1-1. Wang wouldn’t allow another hit until Coco Crisp’s bunt single with two outs in the ninth.

Clay Buchholz was good, but he was no match for Wang. The two pitchers combined to face one man over the minimum through four innings (a Hideki Matsui single in the second), but Buchholz started the fifth by walking Matsui and Jorge Posada. (Posada was again serving as the designated hitter. Johnny Damon took a night off while Matsui played in Fenway’s small left field.) After Buchholz rallied to strike out Jason Giambi, Jose Molina struck a first-pitch double into the left field gap that plated Matsui and gave the Yankees a slim 1-0 lead. Buchholz escaped further damage when Alberto Gonzalez, who followed Molina with a walk, strayed too far off of first base and was doubled up on a Melky Cabrera line-drive to Sean Casey. The Yankees threatened again in with two outs in the sixth when Alex Rodriguez singled and Hideki Matsui doubled him to third, but Posada ground out to end the threat.

With his young starter up to 98 pitches and no margin for error given Wang’s performance, Boston manager Terry Francona went to his pen in the seventh, calling on Mike Timlin, who had just been activated from the disabled list before the game. Timlin’s first batter was Giambi. Giambi got out to a 3-1 advantage, looked at strike two, then sent the payoff pitch 379 feet to dead center for a skin-of-his-teeth homer into the nook to the right of the Green Monster. That gave Wang all the runs he’d need, but another Molina double, a Gonzalez sac bunt, and a Cabrera sac fly added another before Hideki Okajima managed to get the Sox out of the inning. The Yanks then added one more for good measure against should-be Pittsburgh Pirate David Aardsma in the top of the ninth when Gonzalez led off with a double, was bunted to third by Cabrera, and scored on a two-out infield single beaten out by Abreu.

The Yankees are now 6-5 on the season. Wang has three of those six wins. Wang also has a 1.23 ERA, a 0.73 WHIP, and is averaging 7 1/3 innings per start. In other Fun With Small Samples news, four members of the bullpen (Mariano Rivera, Joba Chamberlain, Brian Bruney, and Billy Traber) have yet to give up a run in a combined 18 1/3 innings. As a team, the Yankees are only allowing 3.55 runs per game and have allowed two runs or fewer in six of their 11 games. None of that will persist through the whole season, but it’s nice to see. Similarly, Jose Molina, who was 2 for 4 with a pair of doubles last night, is hitting .346 and slugging .577 while filling in for the sore-armed Posada. Six of his nine hits have been doubles, which ties him for the American League lead in two-baggers. Alberto Gonzalez is hitting .375/.444/.625 after three games of filling in for Derek Jeter, boasting a pair of doubles of his own. Again, that won’t keep up, but with both Jeter and Posada hoping to return to action by Monday, when the Yanks will be in the climate-controlled Tropicana Dome, it won’t have to.

As for Wang, new pitching coach Dave Eiland has him working inside to batters (Wang struck out Ortiz in the first with a series of inside pitches), working both sides of the plate, and mixing in his slider, changeup, and split-finger. Eiland was also able to make an in-game correction with Wang last night following the inning in which Wang gave up Drew’s homer and three other loud fly outs. Sez Eiland, “It was just his hand position behind the ball. He was kind of getting on the side of it and it was staying flat. He just repositioned his hand and threw down through the baseball and got his sinker working again and got back on track.”

With that sort of guidance, one wonders if Wang might actually be taking his game to another level in his age-28 season. It makes Eiland’s career 5.23 ERA as a Yankee seem totally worth it, don’t it?

Boston Red Sox

2007 Record: 96-66 (.593)
2007 Pythagorean Record: 103-59 (.635)

Manager: Terry Francona
General Manager: Theo Epstein

Home Ballpark (multi-year Park Factors): Fenway Park (106/105)

Who’s Replacing Whom:

Jacoby Ellsbury replaces Coco Crisp in center field (sometimes)
Sean Casey replaces Erik Hinske
Kevin Cash replaces Doug Mirabelli
Jon Lester replaces Curt Schilling (DL)
Clay Buchholz replaces the starts of Julian Tavarez (bullpen) and Kason Gabbard
David Aardsma replaces Mike Timlin (DL)
Bryan Corey replaces Kyle Snyder

25-man Roster:

1B – Sean Casey (L)
2B – Dustin Pedroia (R)
SS – Julio Lugo (R)
3B – Kevin Youkilis (R)
C – Jason Varitek (S)
RF – J.D. Drew (L)
CF – Jacoby Ellsbury (L)
LF – Manny Ramirez (R)
DH – David Ortiz (L)

Bench:

S – Coco Crisp (OF)
L – Alex Cora (IF)
S – Jed Lowrie (IF)
R – Kevin Cash (C)

Rotation:

R – Josh Beckett
R – Daisuke Matsuzaka
L – Jon Lester
R – Tim Wakefield
R – Clay Buchholz

Bullpen:

R – Jon Papelbon
L – Hideki Okajima
R – Manny Delcarmen
L – Javier Lopez
R – Julian Tavarez
R – David Aardsma
R – Bryan Corey

15-day DL: R – Mike Lowell (3B), R – Mike Timlin
60-day DL: R – Curt Schilling

Lineup:

R – Dustin Pedroia (2B)
R – Kevin Youkilis (3B)
L – David Ortiz (DH)
R – Manny Ramirez (LF)
L – J.D. Drew (RF)
S – Jason Varitek (C)
L – Jacoby Ellsbury (CF)
L – Sean Casey (1B)
R – Julio Lugo (SS)

(more…)

Other than Kent Tekulve, I can’t think of anyone who looked less like a ballplayer than Rawly Eastwick. At six feet, three inches and 175 pounds, Eastwick bested Tekulve by a few pounds, but he still looked more like the 98-pound weakling than the second coming of Jack LaLanne. Eastwick’s face didn’t give him any additional toughness either. The antithesis of Clint Eastwood, Eastwick had the kind of baby face that would have made Barbara Stanwyck jealous.

And then there’s the name. Rawly Eastwick, short for Rawlins Jackson Eastwick III, which makes me think of English royalty, or might even conjure up memories of that clever 1987 film, The Witches of Eastwick. It sure as heck doesn’t sound like the kind of name that we should be seeing on the front of a 1978 baseball card.

In this case, Eastwick provides a good example of the variations in Yankee cards that were issued that spring and summer. The Eastwick card depicted here is the only one ever issued that shows him wearing the colors of the Yankees. It’s not part of Topps’ official 1978 set; that card shows him sporting the airbrushed colors of the Cardinals, for whom he had finished out the 1977 season after a mid-year trade from Cincinnati. (The Reds, having given up hope of re-signing Eastwick, traded him for the likes of Doug Capilla.) No, this card is part of a special Yankees set, fully authorized by the Pinstripers, but sponsored by a third party—Burger King.

With the full cooperation and permission of Topps, the Yankees and Burger King used the same basic card design—both front and back—that the venerable card company featured in its 1978 set, but the photograph on the front of the card posed a problem. Rather than airbrush Yankee colors over the airbrush of Cardinals colors, the Yankees snapped a new photo of Eastwick, by now wearing an authentic Yankees uniform, and provided it to the card designers for transferal onto the Topps design.

In most cases, the 1978 Yankee cards used the same photo as the regular Topps set, but variations were produced for Eastwick and Rich "Goose" Gossage. Gossage’s Topps card shows Yankee colors airbrushed onto a Pirate uniform while the Yankee/BK card features a new photo with "The Goose" wearing an authentic Yankee uniform. As with Gossage, the Yankees and Burger King decided that a fresh photo would be a better place to start.

Unlike Gossage, Eastwick wasn’t the most integral member of the 1978 World Champion New York Yankees. He made only eight appearances for New York that season before being traded to the Philadelphia Phillies for flaky backup outfielder Jay "Moon Man" Johnstone. (Chapter and verse could be written about the Moon Man, but that will have to wait for a later date.) Eastwick’s early-season presence in pinstripes, however, did provide one of the first controversies of that tumultuous summer. With Eastwick, Gossage, and Sparky Lyle all on the ’78 roster to start the season, Billy Martin had an overload of ace relievers. Martin picked Gossage to close most of the time (sticking with him despite an early season slump), employed Lyle in a late-inning set-up role, and predictably had little use for Eastwick.

(more…)

The Yankees got a solid effort from Andy Pettitte, the usual from Joba and Mo and some pop from ‘lil Melky as they avoided being swept in Kansas City and now head into Boston with a 5-5 record (the Sox are 5-5 as well). Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada added back-to-back solo dingers in the ninth against Hideo Nomo (Rodriguez passed Mickey Mantle on the all-time RBI list, and with 521 home runs, is just one shy of Ted Williams. Rodriguez is just 32 years-old). Final Score: Yanks 6, Royals 1.

Chamberlain replaced Pettitte with one out in the seventh. He got out of inning unscathed but allowed two singles in the eighth (the Yankee lead was just 4-1 at the time). Jose Guillen, the potential tying run, struck out to end the inning. The last two pitches he saw were, in a word, unfair. First, he waved at a nasty, biting slider, and then Joba blew a fastball by him. It was right over the plate and came in at 99 mph according to the YES radar. Joba trudged off the mound. No arm swinging, no yelling. Just very tough.

I was on the Upper West Side last night and walked through my father’s old neighborhood. It’s funny how quiet Broadway can get in spots in the high 80s and 90s. It almost feels desolate at times. But when the traffic has ceased temporarily, there is a stillness that falls over the streets, that is welcoming. You can still hear a hum of noise, and then a stray siren in the distance or a horn from the upper floors of a nearby apartment building.

I thought I heard a familiar tune as I crossed 96th street but wasn’t aware of it until I got to the next block and saw a man in a beret and an overcoat playing a flute. Just outside of what used to be the Wiz. And now–I didn’t notice–I still don’ think anything is in that spot, making it even more isolated. There was a Beatles songbook on a music stand in front of him. The flute case was open at his feet (red velvet) and he was playing “And I Love Her,” almost painfully slowly; the mournful sound of his instrument echoed throughout the vicinity. I could still hear him playing, faintly, fading, several blocks away.

I stopped in at Sal and Carmine’s on 101rst street for a couple of slices. Sal and Carmine’s is my childhood pizza jernt–though they used to be in another spot—and I still go back when I can. Sal and Carmine are both old, wrinkled and cranky, but they warm up to you if they know you a little bit. The pizza is too salty but I love it. I prefer my slices lukewarm when I’m on the go. I finished one of them when I got the 103rd street subway station and then started to dog the second one as I waited on the platform for an uptown train. I was thinking of you guys. Dag, I better house this slice, I can’t get on a train with food after my rant this morning. The slices didn’t give off any smell becaue they were cold, but that made the dough doughier and harder to chew. When the train came, I was down to the crust, but my jaw was killing me (only one other thing I can think of can make your jaw ache like that–think Shelley Duvall and Woody in Annie Hall).

Yo, Royals fans must be pleased, huh? And why not? Their team has handled the slow, old guys from New York for two consecutive days and they are going for the sweep tonight. Andy Pettitte is sure to hear it but good from them. He’ll need to get used to it, of course but I doubt he’ll be bothered by it.

I know I sound like a broken record, but I feel good about the bats tonight. Something’s gotta give.

C’mon, let’s get somthing cookin fella, wouldya, hah?

The Bats blog over at the Times is really heating up. There are more posts these days and most of them are either informative or entertaining. Witness Jack Curry running into Vanilla Ice up in Boston recently. Hey, toys are people too you know.

Joe Pos has a link to a new blog by veteran columnist Ian O’Connor. Joe asked Ian a few questions in the post, which I thought you might enjoy:

Joe: You grew up a Yankees fan. What year is your favorite Yankees team?

Ian: ’78, hands down. I’d totally given up, like every other Yankee fan I knew. The Boston Massacre is still my all-time favorite series, that and Brideshead Revisited on PBS. I count Bucky Dent’s homer as the third-best day of my life, right after my wedding day and the birth of my son. In the still of night in a hotel room in the middle of nowhere, I’ll still occasionally do Bill White’s call.

Joe: Who is your favorite Yankees player, first as a fan?

Ian: As a fan, Bobby Murcer. Roy White and Reggie Jackson are right in there, too, Roy for the way he carried himself, Reggie for being Reggie. But Murcer was my guy. No, he didn’t turn out to be the next Mickey Mantle as hoped.* There was just something about the way he carried himself. He’s obviously dealing with a very serious health issue now. I hope he lives forever.

Pos interlude: *You know, Murcer obviously did not become Mantle. But, in context, his 1971 and 1972 seasons are very Mantle-like. Here’s what the numbers look like:

1971: .331/.427/.543, 25 homers, 94 runs, 94 RBIs in 146 games.
1972: .292/.361/.537, 33 homers, 102 runs, 96 RBIs in 153 games.

Excellent numbers. Throw in that Murcer was a very good outfielder (Gold Glove in ’72), and you see a really good player. But the numbers deceive because it was such a low-scoring era. Murcer led the AL in on-base percentage, OPS and runs created in 1971, he led in extra base hits, total bases and runs scored in in 1972, Here’s what those numbers adjust to if you place him in Yankee Stadium in the mid-1950s:

1971: .362/.461/.591, 27 homers, 108 runs, 108 RBIs.
1972: .328/.399/.601, 39 homers, 133 runs, 125 RBIs.

Back to the interview.

Joe: What about your favorite Yankees player as a columnist?

Ian: Bernie Williams. He was always good to me, for whatever reason, and I always loved the dignified grace on the field. He wasn’t Jeter or Rivera, and he wasn’t the greatest defensive center fielder by a longshot. But he was very good when it mattered most, and I found him to be a most thoughtful interview.

Man, I miss Bernie. I really do. You can also check out O’Connor’s web site here.

Thanks to Repoz, I caught Steve Goldman’s NY Sun column today about Jorge Posada:

In Posada’s injury there have been disturbing implications that Girardi could reside among the group of blinkered skippers. Posada’s shoulder strain, which apparently will not force him to the disabled list, was said to interfere with his throwing, not his hitting. The possibility existed, then, that even if the injury prevented him from getting behind the plate for an extended period of time, he would still be able to swing the bat as the designated hitter.

Girardi apparently rejected this suggestion, not wanting to remove Hideki Matsui from his DH role. By extension, this also means that he did not want to move Matsui to left field (a position he has proved healthy enough to play) and bench Johnny Damon. This would have been a tremendous misjudgment. In his career, Damon has rarely been much more than a slightly above-average hitter at the best of times, and a below-average hitter at his worst — and the minimum contribution expected from his bat has only risen as Damon has shifted to left field, more of a power position than center. Last year, major-league left fielders batted .277 AVG/.347 OBA/.453 SLG. The year before they hit .278/.354/.464.

It is doubtful that Damon’s hitting will rise to that level. It did not last year, it has not over the course of his career, and it has not during the present season. Posada, however, should reach those numbers with ease, though he is older and unlikely to repeat last year’s .338 batting average. A .277/.380/.478 hitter, he is more likely to come closer in failing to reach them than Damon. The Yankees would also gain an additional benefit from shifting Damon to the bench, adding the pinch runner and outfield substitute they are lacking.

What do you think?

When I was at the Stadium last week with Jay Jaffe two kids, must have been about six or seven-years old, sat nearby. They were dressed in Yankee gear, down to the batting gloves. I wondered what they would actually remember of Derek Jeter or Mike Mussina when they get older. It is possible to watch so many more games on TV today, I wonder if kids of this generation will have more than fleeting impressions of the stars of their childhood.

Probably not. I don’t know how many times I actually ever saw Willie Stargell or Joe Morgan or Yaz actually play. But to this day, I can imitate their batting stance. It’s like being able to do an imitation of Ed Sullivan or Richard Nixon–it doesn’t necessarily have to be good or even competent to be recognizable. In a simple motion of twirling the bat around and shaking your ass you can instantly become Pops Stargell. It is something that you will be able to do until the day you die.

After work last night I walked from midtown through Central Park and east to the Frozen Ropes hitting cage located on York Avenue and 90th street, a place my father would have called “the ass-end of the planet.” On the way, I passed an apartment building on 89th street between 1rst and 2nd avenues where, one summer in the early 80s, my father subletted an apartment for the summer, the year the USFL folded and I became addicted to Sports Center (Remember the days when Bill “Doran” Doran, Jose “Can You See?” Cruz and Chris Berman’s other quips were something that you actually looked forward to hearing?).

Soon, I was standing over a tee with a ball on it in a mesh cage with a bat in my hands, imitating Don Mattingly’s stance and using one of Mattingly’s bats. Joe Janish, a public relation’s man for Mattingly’s line of “V-Grip” bats, met me at the hitting cage to demonstrate the product. Janish explained that when Mattingly played, he would shave the sides of his bad near the handle so a “V” shape was formed. This helped him keep his knuckles lined up on the bat and prevented him from holding the bat in the palms of his hands, which robbed him of his power and he met the ball. Later, when Mattingly saw his boys struggle with keeping their knuckles lined up properly he had the idea of designing his own line of bats.

(more…)

Everything is cool. The Yankees aren’t scoring any runs and I haven’t had a tantrum…yet. I watched the end of yesterday’s game and saw Alex Rodriguez strike out for the fourth time. He was caught looking in his first three at bats against B. Banny, and fell behind the count quickly his fourth time up. Then he fouled off a few pitches and laid off another couple of sliders just off the plate. I had a great feeling that he was going to hit the ball hard. That something good was about to happen. I generally don’t feel that way about him, which says more about me as a nervous fan of my hometown team, than it does about Rodriguez. But he eventually chased a ball out of the zone and went down swinging.

Someone is going to pay and soon. With our heroes Jeter and Posada* hurting, it’s up to the rest of the boys to get the lead out. That’s easier said than done, particularly with Mr. Grienke on the hill for the Royals tonight. Here’s hoping Ian Kennedy comes through with a nice effort.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees.

(more…)

We should come up with a list of our favorite pet peeves. As a New Yorker, I am driven to distraction by people who block the subway doors, who have conversations smack dab in the middle of the sidewalk, who walk down the street in threes side-by-side-by-side, who don’t know the golden rule that if you stay the right (walking down the stairs, a corridor, the block) you are right. One of my biggest peeves is sitting near someone on public transportation who is eating hot food. If it’s an untoasted bagel or a buttered roll, I can deal. But if it smells, I squirm. In the morning, it’s not surprising to see someone dogging a heart attack special (ham/bacon, egg and cheese on a roll) or a Cuban sandwich.

Just imagine how uptight I get.

One of the most amusing things about pet peeves is the inclination to think that your friends, family and other like-minded, sane people will share them. One day, I called up my great pal Lizzie Bottoms to rail about food on the train, assuming she’d feel the same way.

I go, “Dude, what’s your reaction when you smell food on the subway?”

“I get hungry.”

I stopped cold. Jeez, I hadn’t thought of that. Makes sense though. Then again Lizzie gets knuts when she sees people smooching and grabbing ass in public (PDA, public display of affection) where that generally doesn’t bug me at all.

Anyhow, I was on the subway this morning. We were still way uptown and the car wasn’t packed yet. An older gentleman sat two seats away from me. He was the kind of guy who looked like he was wearing a toupee even though, on closer inspection, it looked like his real hair.

He broke out a roll. I waited to see if a smell was going to soon follow, indicating that it was something warm. But it wasn’t. Just an plain buttered roll. Soon, a high school kid got on the train and sat between us. The older man asked the kid if he was taking math in school. The kid mumbled a response which evidentally gave the older guy–who, it soon became clear, was not only touched in the head but a math teacher himself–permission to give a uninterrupted lecture on trig, Isaac Newton and all sorts of stuff about math I never wanted to know.

The poor kid didn’t have it in him to tell the guy to shut up, so the old man went on…and on. I put down my book, unable to concentrate. The guy didn’t have any interest in making a connection with the kid, just on hearing the sound of his own voice. I wanted to say something to him and then thought, ah, don’t be such a hard ass, he’s harmless. Still, I was dumbfounded.

Finally, the old man got up and left. I asked the kid if he knew him and he said no. Then I started in about how incredible it is that some people can just go on like that. The kid tuned me out just as he had ignored the old man.

The subway was now downtown. We were stopped at a station and the doors opened and closed several times before the conductor got on the p.a. and said, “Hey, the kid in the back of the train that’s messing around, if you get killed, I get three days off, which is fine by me, so keep it up.”

Bing Bong.

Watch the closing doors.

I caught bits and pieces of the home opener at Shea yesterday and was struck by the backdrop of the new park that is sitting just behind the outfield. Last season, the construction looked like something out of Waterworld, but now the facade of Citi Field looks almost complete. It was a surreal but arresting image, one that has me curious to get out to Shea and see it up close.

Neil deMause, a freelance writer and contributor to Baseball Prospectus, has been following the construction of the two new stadiums in New York. I haven’t been paying close attention to the dollars and cents of it all, but here are three pieces by deMause that detail what’s what ( “>two and three). deMause is unabashedly critical of the financing of both parks, which again brings to mind Robert Lipsyte’s SI story about the rennovation of the old Yankee Stadium, “A Diamond in the Ashes” (April, 1976):

Myles Jackson, a lineman on Michigan’s 1951 Rose Bowl team, was not born in the Bronx, as Abrams and Garelik and I were, but he lives there now, a block from Yankee Stadium. Four years ago, rebuilding himself after a business failure, he found an inexpensive apartment in the neighborhood, which is basically commercial and industrial. The Bronx Terminal Market is nearby, and the Bronx County Courthouse stands on the highest hill.

Sometimes Jackson spent a dollar to sit in the bleachers. I have done that, too, and it can be a soothing place, as public or private as one might need it to be, a sun deck, a gambling casino, a patio from which to see green, a tree house of old August fantasies.

And sometimes Jackson went to jog in Macombs Dam Park, which includes a football field ringed with a cinder track that lies literally in the shadow of the Stadium. The track was poorly maintained by the city; it was often unusable. When the Stadium was closed for renovation after the 1973 baseball season and the little park deteriorated even more, Jackson became angry enough to found a local organization called the Committee to Save Macombs Dam Park.

“Yankee Stadium is a symbol of the value system by which this city, this country, bases its decisions,” he says. “They can spend all that money for a stadium, but when it comes to a little more for a recreational facility that will really enhance the quality of life through sports, there’s just nothing left.”

But symbols and chemistry are the name of the game, whether your city is New York or someplace else, whether your game is baseball or some other sport. The “new” Yankee Stadium is not the all-weather, all-purpose facility New York needs. But as an example of the state of the art of cosmetic architecture, it is a handsome improvement. When I take my son to his first major league game, it will be in a brighter, airier, more comfortable ball park. The pillars that obscured the view of too many of the old 65,000 seats are gone, replaced by a steel cable-counterweight system of the type used to support suspension bridges. Gone will be that chilling dankness of Giant football Sunday afternoons, when the pillars cast late-fall shadows on the seats behind them. Of course, gone, too, are the Giants (to New Jersey), and gone are 11,000 seats, a million baseball seats per season.

…Perhaps the most luxurious new appointments are the 19 private lounges, complete with televisions, wet bars and bathrooms, that open onto 14—and in two cases, 30—reserved seats in the second deck behind home plate. The larger lounges go for $30,000 per season, the others for $19,000. The first was rented by the Yankees’ principal owner, George Steinbrenner III, recently returned to active participation after his suspension from baseball following his felony conviction for illegal Presidential campaign contributions.

Ironically, one of Steinbrenner’s first public actions since his comeback was the edict last month that in the interest of “order and discipline” players may not wear beards or long hair. “I want to develop pride in the players as Yankees,” Steinbrenner explained.

Yankee Pride costs a pretty penny. And it ain’t so cheap out in Queens neither.

It rained all morning in Kansas City yesterday, and though the precipitation stopped in time for the Royals’ home opener against the Yankees, the weather remained cold, dank, and dreary. The two teams played accordingly, putting 30 men on base, but scoring just seven of them in a slow, sloppy contest which the Royals won by the surprisingly tidy score of 5-2.

Brian Bannister failed to execute his gameplan early on, throwing first-pitch strikes to just three of the first 11 men he faced. Phil Hughes didn’t fair much better, getting strike one on just four of his first dozen batters. Neither pitcher was sharp, and the weather was at least partially to blame, as Hughes seemed to spend as much time blowing into his pitching hand as he did actually pitching, but home plate umpire Mark Wegner’s strike zone wasn’t helping. Wegner’s performance behind the plate was one of the worst I can remember. There was absolutely no consistency to his zone not only from at-bat to at-bat, but within single at-bats. Both benches were riding him, both pitchers were frustrated, and batters on both sides couldn’t figure out what to swing at or what to take. In part due to Wegner’s embarrassing performance, there were ten walks and 19 strikeouts in the game, eight of the latter on called third strikes.

Things were bad all over. At the end of three innings, the game was tied 2-2 with both starters having walked four men. Brian Bannister had thrown 71 pitches and allowed eight baserunners. Hughes had thrown 79 pitches and allowed nine baserunners. Things tilted in the Royals’ favor when Bannister pitched around a Johnny Damon single in the top of the fourth and Phil Hughes came out and gave up a pair of singles to start the bottom of the inning. Those two at-bats pushed Hughes’ pitch count to 87 and, thanks to the baserunning of Joey Gathright (more on that below), gave the Royals a 3-2 lead. With a man on first and no outs, Joe Girardi went to his bullpen, hoping for a groundball double play from Ross Ohlendorf.

Ohlendorf delivered exactly that, then struck out Jose Guillen to end the inning, but after Bannister pitched the first 1-2-3 frame of the game in the top of the fifth, Ollie coughed up a pair of runs in the bottom of that inning to set the final score.

The Yankees got three more baserunners against lefty reliever Ron Mahay, but never staged a credible threat in the late innings as their last nine batters were retired in order by Mahay, former Yankee farmhand Ramon Ramirez, and the end-game combo of Leo Nuñez and Joakim Soria, thus wasting scoreless innings of relief by Ohlendorf (who saved the Yankee pen by going three full), Billy Traber, and LaTroy Hawkins (who again put two men on only to work out of his own jam).

Adding insult to injury, the Yankees played poorly in the field. Bobby Abreu made the only error of the game in the second inning when he tried to backhand a single on the run only to have the ball clank off the heal of his glove and the runner go to second, but there were several other misplays by the Bombers. Johnny Damon uncorked and errant rainbow throw from the outfield on an RBI single in the fifth that allowed the batter to go to second. Wilson Betemit, who otherwise acquitted himself well at shortstop, twice misplayed throws from Jorge Posada at the keystone, once having the throw clank off his glove and another time attempting, unsuccessfully, to take the throw while straddling the bag, narrowly avoiding a knee injury in the resulting collision with the baserunner. Most distressingly, the Yankees thrice correctly identified when the Royals were going to attempt a steal, twice pitching out and once throwing to first behind the runner, but failed to catch the runner in any of those three instances. In the last, Jason Giambi failed to get a good grip on the ball and never even made a throw to second.

Those issues with opposing basestealers were the most disturbing part of the game. Clearly aware that Jorge Posada had been struggling with a sore throwing shoulder, new Royals’ skipper Trey Hillman decided to run on the Yankee catcher at every opportunity. The Royals’ first batter, Joey Gathright, led off the bottom of the first with a single, then stole second. In the second, Hillman again found himself with a runner on first and no one ahead of him and had Tony Peña Jr. steal second. In the fourth, Gathright again led off with a single and stole both second and third in the next at-bat.

Posada singled in three at-bats, but his inability to control the Royals’ running game forced Girardi to replace him after six innings. Jose Molina’s record was promptly tainted by Ross Gload stealing on the pickoff botched by Giambi, but Molina announced his presence on the next pitch by throwing Gload out at third.

So here’s where things go from bad to worse. Adding injury to insult, Posada was scheduled for an MRI on his shoulder after the game. He says he feels no pain in the shoulder, but that his arm feels “dead,” a feeling he’s had before, but one that’s previously gone away with four or five days of rest. Posada rested three days last week and had Monday off, but obviously his shoulder is no better.

The thing is, with Derek Jeter also out of commission, Posada’s injury leaves the team with a two-man bench and Morgan Ensberg, who last donned the tools of ignorance as a schoolboy, as their backup catcher. Either man could be back in action by the end of the weekend, making a DL stay excessive in either case, but the Yankees may be forced to make some other sort of roster move in the meantime just to avoid being caught shorthanded. For example, farming out Ohlendorf in the wake of his three-inning, 36-pitch outing in order to make room for triple-A catcher Chad Moeller or an extra infielder might make sense. Ohlendorf would have to spend 10 days in the minors, but the Yanks could juggle the roster by replacing Moeller with Jonathan Albaladejo when Posada’s ready to catch again, then decide what do with Ohlendorf when he becomes eligible to be recalled (certainly Ollie’s ability to come in and get a groundball DP like he did yesterday is of considerable value, as is his 6:0 K/BB rate in seven innings thus far this season). Of course, Posada’s MRI could show that he’ll need to miss more time, making a DL stay and Moeller’s recall an easier decision, but we likely won’t know more about that until closer to game time. Stay tuned . . .

If there’s good news to be had here it’s in Molina’s performance thus far. Molina has picked up a hit in each of his four starts in place of the injured Posada, two of them doubles, and has thrown out four of the five men who have attempted to steal on him (not counting yesterday’s botched pickoff). If he can stay hot both at the plate and behind it, the Yankees won’t miss Posada too much provided he doesn’t miss any more than the 15-day minimum, preferably much less. That’s a lot of wishful thinking, but Molina has looked good in the early going.

Kansas City Royals

2007 Record: 69-93 (.426)
2007 Pythagorean Record: 73-89 (.452)

Manager: Trey Hillman
General Manager: Dayton Moore

Home Ballpark (multi-year Park Factors): Kauffman Stadium (103/104)

Who’s Replacing Whom:

Jose Guillen replaces Emil Brown and Shane Costa (minors)
Alberto Callaspo replaces Jason Smith
Miguel Olivo replaces Jason LaRue
Billy Butler takes over Mike Sweeney’s playing time
Ross Gload takes over the playing time of Ryan Shealy (minors)
Zack Greinke takes over the starts of Kyle Davies (minors)
John Bale takes over the starts of Odalis Perez and Billy Buckner
Brett Tomko replaces Jorge de la Rosa (minors) and Scott Elarton
Joakim Soria takes over Octavio Dotel’s save opportunities
Yasuhiko Yabuta replaces David Riske
Ron Mahay replaces John Bale’s relief innings
Ramon Ramirez replaces Joel Peralta (minors)
Hideo Nomo replaces Brandon Duckworth (minors)

25-man Roster:

1B – Ross Gload (L)
2B – Mark Grudzielanek (R)
SS – Tony Peña Jr. (R)
3B – Alex Gordon (L)
C – John Buck (R)
RF – Jose Guillen (R)
CF – Joey Gathright (L)
LF – Mark Teahen (L)
DH – Billy Butler (R)

Bench:

R – Esteban German (IF)
S – Alberto Callaspo (IF)
R – Miguel Olivo (C)
L – David DeJesus* (OF)

Rotation:

R – Gil Meche
R – Brian Bannister
R – Zack Greinke
L – John Bale
R – Brett Tomko

Bullpen:

R – Joakim Soria
R – Leo Nuñez
R – Yasuhiko Yabuta
L – Ron Mahay
L – Jimmy Gobble
R – Ramon Ramirez
R – Hideo Nomo

15-day DL: R – Luke Hudson

*DeJesus sprained his ankle on Opening Day and hasn’t played since.

Lineup:

L – Joey Gathright (CF)
R – Mark Grudzielanek (2B)
L – Alex Gordon (3B)
R – Jose Guillen (RF)
R – Billy Butler (DH)
L – Mark Teahen (LF)
L – Ross Gload (1B)
R – John Buck (C)
R – Tony Peña Jr. (SS)

(more…)

Here’s a question for you guys, and something I’ve been wondering about for a while now: Is Jorge Posada good at calling games?

Yesterday, for the second time in this brand-new season, Jose Molina was behind the plate for Mike Mussina. I don’t know if the Yankees are going to use Molina as Mussina’s personal catcher – Posada missed Moose’s first start with a sore shoulder, and last night was a logical day off because of today’s afternoon game. Still, given that last season Mussina pitched to Wil Nieves until July — you remember Nieves; incredibly nice guy, didn’t have a hit until May 9th — it seems that Mussina prefers, or at the very least has no objection to, throwing to someone other than Posada.

I don’t think this is a problem — Molina’s got to start sometime, and unlike other recent Yankee backups he’s a capable hitter; if Mussina likes working with him, so much the better. And Mussina can, as you may have noticed, be a bit persnickety about his pitching circumstances, so I don’t want to read too much into his apparent inclination towards someone a bit more defense-oriented.

Randy Johnson, in his brief and unhappy time in the Bronx, also opted for a personal catcher, the YES booth’s own John Flaherty*. Now, Johnson was so prickly that he makes Mussina look like a Teletubby, so you can take that with a grain of salt as well. Still, since Flaherty and Nieves, even working together, would be hard pressed to hit their way out of a paper bag, there must be some reason two of the best pitchers of their generation embraced such blows to their run support.

This is all just curiosity on my part, and no cause for concern — Posada’s game calling really isn’t a big issue. He’s so good offensively, even during an average season, that he makes up for any defensive shortcomings, and he’s been incredibly durable besides. Of all the mid-90s Yanks still around, he’s the one I think the team will find it hardest to replace. And besides, he’s been behind the plate for countless excellent pitching performances over the years, including a perfect game – obviously he can’t be that bad.

(more…)

The Yankees cruised to an easy 6-1 win last night to split their four-game series against the Rays and leave town with a winning 4-3 record. Mike Mussina was sharp, allowing just three baserunners, two hits, and a lone run in six efficient innings of work. He had his best curveball working and was able to throw it at a variety of speeds between 70 and 80 miles per hour while correspondingly varying the severity of the break from a slow 12-to-6 yakker to a quicker pitch that broke in the zone. He also had a good changeup. Moose only recorded three strikeouts on the night, but got 11 of his other 15 outs on the ground, which was largely the product of having his best curve. Fittingly, the one run Mussina gave up came on a hanging curve to Jonny Gomes. Gomes put a lumberjack swing on the pitch, his bat and body tilted at 45 degree angles to the ground, and drove it into the seats in left field.

That was the only run the Rays would get all night as Brian Bruney and Kyle Farnsworth pitched perfect seventh and eighth innings, respectively, combining to throw 19 of 24 pitches for strikes. LaTroy Hawkins came on in the ninth and struggled with his control, his confidence, and a contingent of jackass fans who began chanting “Paul O’Neill” after Hawk’s first pitch of the inning was a ball, but despite throwing just half of his 22 pitches for strikes, Hawkins managed to strand his two baserunners by striking out Gomes to end the game.

The Yankee offense, meanwhile, had it’s most productive game of the year thus far with season-highs in runs (6) and hits (11). Bobby Abreu got things started in the first with a two-run homer to the right-field corner, the third Yankee home run of the homestand to that spot, none of which likely traveled more than 320 feet. After making Mussina sweat out his six innings, the Yanks then added on in the bottom of the sixth when Abreu, who had singled in his second at-bat, tripled off the wall in right center, Alex Rodriguez singled him home, and Hideki Matsui doubled Rodriguez home to make it 4-1 Yanks. Mid-game replacement Morgan Ensberg picked up his first Yankee hit with one out in the seventh bringing Abreu to the plate with a chance for the cycle. Abreu, true to form, drew a six-pitch walk. After Alex Rodriguez was called out on strikes at the end of a seven-pitch at-bat of his own, Matsui singled home Ensberg and Robinson Cano, who was hitless in the game to that point, singled Abreu home to set the final score.

That five run-lead allowed Joe Girardi to bring in Farnsworth and Hawkins without being second guessed, though I was still troubled that for the second game in a row Girardi did not appear to consider using Billy Traber against the all-lefty top of the Rays’ order. That aside, while it was rough watching Hawkins in the ninth, the scoreless frame and game-ending K should serve him well, just as Farnsworth’s easy eighth should him. Good on Girardi for getting those guys in there for some confidence-boosting low-leverage work.

The one wrinkle on the night was that Derek Jeter left the game after two innings with what an MRI revealed to be a strained left quadriceps. Jeter hit into a fielder’s choice in the first and scored on Abreu’s homer, but you could see as he ran to first that his legs weren’t right, and he was stretching out the quad while standing on the bag.

Sez Jeter, “I felt something so I didn’t want to be stupid. . . . You can’t hide not running. If you can’t do that, you can’t [play]. I tried, but I felt something, so I thought it would be best to come out.” When asked how long Jeter was expected to be on the shelf, Joe Girardi said, “it’s gonna be a little bit,” but said that the team did not expect him to hit the DL. Jeter will not play in this afternoon’s opener in Kansas City. As he was last night, Wilson Betemit will be the shortstop while Jeter’s out.

The Yankees will close out their season-opening homestand tonight by trying to salvage a series split against the Rays and thus a winning mark on the homestand. The buzz around the team this first week of games has concerned the poor performance of the offense, which has scored just 2.83 runs per game, the fifth-work mark in baseball at this absurdly early stage. Me, I’m more interested in the excellent performance of the pitching staff.

All three of the Yankees’ wins have been close, low-scoring games, the type of games a team has to be able to win in order to advance in October. The Bombers have scored no more than three runs in any of their wins thus far. Last year, they were 5-35 in games in which they scored three runs or fewer and their third win of that kind didn’t come until after the All-Star break. This year they’re out to a 3-2 start in such games in the season’s first week. Call me crazy, but I see that as a positive.

It could be that runs have just been down all over in the cold, windy Bronx this week, but for those worried about the offense, consider what the pitching staff has done. Removing the performances of Ian Kennedy and LaTroy Hawkins, who allowed 13 of the 28 runs given up by the Yankees thus far in Friday’s ugly series-opening loss, the remainder of the staff has compiled this line:

2.17 ERA, 49 2/3 IP, 40 H, 15 R, 12 ER, 4 HR, 10 BB, 42 K, 7.61 K/9, 1.81 BB/9, 1.23 WHIP

Of course, that doesn’t include the three inherited runners that were allowed to score in Friday’s game by Jonathan Albaladejo (1) and Kyle Farnsworth (2), but were charged to Kennedy and Hawkins, respectively. Still, even if you add those three runs in above, the non-IPK/Hawk staff still has a strong 2.72 ERA.

This is all slightly meaningless, of course, given the small sample (only Chien-Ming Wang has pitched more than six innings thus far), but it’s certainly encouraging.

At the same time, one could argue that the concerns about the offense are legitimate. Look at who’s hitting and who’s struggling. Melky Cabrera, a young player primed for a breakout, is leading the team with a .364/.417/.636 line despite missing two games due to suspension. Alex Rodriguez and Hideki Matsui are both making strong contributions. Bobby Abreu is doing fine. Jason Giambi, Jorge Posada, Johnny Damon, and Robinson Cano, however, are full-on struggling, going a combined 10 for 71 (.140) thus far. You can be confident that Cano will get hot, though given his history it might take until after the All-Star break, but both Giambi and Posada are in their late-30s and have already missed games due to aches and pains (Posada’s throwing shoulder, Giambi’s groin). Neither is in tonight’s lineup. Damon, meanwhile, is a very old 34 and struggled mightily for the first half of last season with a variety of aches and pains of his own. As meaningless as the above pitching stats are, however, these first-week hitting slumps are even more so.

Tonight the Yankees face Jason Hammel, who is only in the Rays rotation because Scott Kazmir is on the DL once again with an elbow strain. Hammel hasn’t pitched since spring training. He had a 6.23 ERA in the spring, has a 6.70 mark in the majors, and a career 6.41 ERA against the Yankees. That is to say, he’s reliably terrible, and is the first pitcher who meets that description that the Yankees will have faced this year (Edwin Jackson isn’t much better in terms of results, but has the raw stuff Hammel lacks). All but one of Hammel’s confrontations with the Yankees (three of four starts and both relief appearances, the latter totaling just one inning) occurred last year. In the best of them, an early September start at the Stadium, he held the Yanks to one run on five hits, walked none, and struck out seven, but he only lasted five innings as he needed 97 pitches to get that far. It’s likely that Joe Maddon was thinking of Hammel yesterday when he used J.P. Howell to eat up three innings, thus saving the rest of his pen for tonight.

Hammel’s mound opponent is Mike Mussina, whose 5 2/3-inning/four-run outing in his first start is about all that can be expected of him at this stage of his career. Certainly, Girardi will need more than just Joba and Mo tonight, fortunately they were the only relievers he used yesterday. It could be that we’ll have our first high-scoring game of the year tonight. Or maybe the crisp Bronx night will keep the bats of both teams frozen for one more game before the Bombers head out to play 18 of their next 20 games on the road.

The first week of the baseball season presented a range of stories that provide no information out of the ordinary. Below are one man’s observations of what can be taken from the general coverage:

• In this, the last year of the current incarnation of Yankee Stadium, we should be nostalgic at every turn, and re-live every great moment in the Stadium’s history. Every living Yankee, past and present, will be asked how he feels about the new stadium, and what he will remember most about the old one.

• Joe Girardi has a tough task in front of him as new manager.

• With so much uncertainty on the Yankees’ roster, with the greatest mix of youth and veterans since 1995, the odds of them missing the playoffs altogether are about the same as winning the World Series.

• Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens aren’t great friends anymore.

• Based on the season previews of all the major local and national outlets, while the Yankees are still a focal point of many discussions, the Mets are not to be taken lightly. And did you know Johan Santana pitches for them now? This is a big deal, supposedly, because he was not a Met last year, they choked in September, and the fragile Pedro Martinez is in the last year of his contract. Everywhere you look, if there’s a Met poster or picture, Santana’s face is on it.

AROUND THE HORN
• Best wishes to Bobby Murcer, whose ongoing battle with cancer kept him off the air on Opening Day. It was a goal of his to be ready to work by March 31, but that didn’t happen. Murcer was always accommodating, classy and gracious, not only in his TV work, but in his collaborations with us on YESNetwork.com. I would not be surprised to see him in the booth by the All-Star break.

• I don’t mean to sound like our good friend Phil Mushnick, but I don’t understand why on Opening Day, there is a predisposition to make such a big deal out of firsts. Of course everything that occurs is the first whatever of the year. Do we need to be beaten over the head with it? They won the game, and that was important. YES did a good job of highlighting the fact that the Yankees have set a new MLB record with 11 straight wins in home openers.

• Speaking of home-opening victories, you’d never know unless you watched the game or went online for a summary immediately thereafter that they did win. Why? Because Wednesday morning, the back pages glowered over Alex Rodriguez’s salary, specifically the report that he makes more than the entire Florida Marlins team. I thought A-Rod handled himself well in what must have been a tricky subject to have to comment on.

• Is it me, or during YES’s Yankees Post Game Show, when there’s a wide two-shot of Bob Lorenz and David Cone, if you look quickly it’s very difficult to tell them apart. They have the same hairline. It’s uncanny.

• Bronx Banter gets a mention in Kat O’Brien‘s story on Yankee fans’ blog sites. Don’t know if our fearless leaders Alex Belth and Cliff Corcoran were solicited for a quote, but it would have been nice to see something there as a differentiator between NoMaas, RiverAveBlues, WasWatching and Replacement Level. We’re a pretty tight fraternity and we all read each other. Maybe I’m biased, but I think and Alex and Cliff would have had plenty to add.

BACKPAGE WATCH: Yankees and Mets even with leads after one week. We’ll see how long that lasts.

Until next week …

Yo, I’m a total nerd. I don’t mind if people call me a nerd because I was never really a dorkasorous dweeb when I was growing up, so I can embrace the label without any personal scars. (The folks that tend to bristle at that label really were nerds and were ostrasized because of it back in their high school days.) One nerdy thing I love doing is hiding out in the microfilm room of the New York Public Library on 42nd street, scrolling through old magazines. On that note, I was geeked to find that I made the NY Public Library’s most recent newsletter.

Oh, and I just had to give a shout out to one of our most loyal readers (and commentors): Happy Birthday to our man Chyll Will.

Show of hands, how many of you out there were excited to see Joba Chamberlain enter the game with two runners on and nobody out in the seventh inning? Joba struck Willy Aybar out on three pitches, including a fastball that hit 101 mph on the scoreboard radar gun. According to Sean Brennan in the Daily News:

Did Chamberlain think his triple-digit fastball got into Aybar’s head?

“I think a little bit,” Chamberlain said. “But you can’t rely on that because then you get too complacent and you leave one over (the plate) and it doesn’t matter how hard you throw to these guys. They can come in 101 and it’s going to leave at 140 and go about 500 feet.”

…In all it took Chamberlain 16 pitches to nail down six outs, and the righthander seems to have grasped the notion that low pitch counts may be more effective than logging strikeouts.

“I’m probably a little smarter,” Chamberlain said. “I’m still young and dumb sometimes but that works for me. I just try to attack the zone and be aggressive. I’m a little more experienced (though), not necessarily any smarter.”

Leave the smarts to Joe G, son, everything else will fall into place.