Daily Archives: July 30, 2008

I have to hand it to Brian Cashman. For the past week, both before and after the Yankees’ acquisition of Damaso Marte, I’ve been going on about how the Yankees didn’t need another relief pitcher. It was a total waste of resources, so I argued, to trade for a reliever when the bullpen was already stacked, excelling, and backed up by major league ready reinforcements at triple-A. So what does Cashman do? He goes out and trades from that strength to fill the biggest hole on the ballclub by acquiring a legitimate starting catcher.

By now you’ve surely heard about the deal that has sent Kyle Farnsworth back to the Tigers for Ivan Rodriguez, but think of it this way: Daniel McCutchen, Jeff Karstens, Ross Ohlendorf, and Jose Tabata for Xavier Nady and Ivan Rodriguez. Suddenly that deal with Pittsburgh looks a whole lot better, doesn’t it?

Marte now replaces Farnsworth in the bullpen straight up, which has several benefits. First: no more Kyle Farnsworth. As well as Farnsworth had been pitching (2.84 ERA, 21 K in 19 IP since June 1 with a hidden no-hitter–9 IP, 0 H, 5 BB, 10 K–from June 27 to July 22), his home run rate on the season is still 2.23 HR/9, and he’s always a meatball or two away from both disaster and a return to his unreliable ways of all but the last two months of his Yankee career. To that end, the Yankees are selling high, which is what they should be doing with an inconsistent veteran like Farnsworth. If Farnsworth leaves any legacy as a Yankee, it might be that he finally got hot at exactly the right time. Second, removing Farnsworth increases the chances of Joe Girardi using Marte properly–that is, as a full-fledged set-up man who pitches for a full inning or more–rather than creating more work for his other relievers by using Marte as a LOOGY. Finally, replacing Farnsworth with Marte increases the variety of the relief corps. Both Farnsworth and seventh-inning guy Jose Veras are right-handers who throw straight cheese and sharp sliders. Replacing Farnsworth with the lefty Marte gives opponents yet another type of pitcher to contend with in addition to Veras, changeup specialist Edwar Ramirez, curveballer David Robertson, Dan Giese and his softer fastball/slider mix, and whomever winds up taking Chad Moeller’s spot on the roster tomorrow (then again, Brian Bruney is another straight cheese and sliders guy, but better to have two of those guys than three).

The final accounting on the Marte-Farnsworth substitution also works out pretty well. Their season numbers:

Farns: 3.65 ERA (113 ERA+), 44 IP, 43 K, 17 BB, 11 HR, 0 BS, 2 L
Marte: 3.67 ERA (114 ERA+), 49 IP, 51 K, 17 BB, 4 HR, 2 BS, 0 L

(more…)

Has Manny gone too far? The rumor mill is hot with talk about Ramirez tonight, and here is what Manny told ESPN earlier today:

"The Red Sox don’t deserve a player like me," Ramirez said. "During my years here, I’ve seen how they [the Red Sox] have mistreated other great players when they didn’t want them to try to turn the fans against them.

"The Red Sox did the same with guys like Nomar Garciaparra and Pedro Martinez, and now they do the same with me. Their goal is to paint me as the bad guy," Ramirez added. "I love Boston fans, but the Red Sox don’t deserve me. I’m not talking about money. Mental peace has no price, and I don’t have peace here."

…"There are still many hours left before the trading deadline, but I doubt that they will trade me."

The Red Sox pride themselves on not being emotional when it comes to making roster moves. But Manny is really pushing the envelope, he’s really putting them on the spot, baiting them, insulting them.

Think their relationship is beyond the point of no return?  This is starting to get ugly.  Ramirez is right about one thing, though–there are an awful lot of Red Sox star players (Fisk, Lynn, Tiant, Vaughn) whose time in Boston ended on a sour note.  It’s only fitting that it end badly for Manny in Boston too. 

I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite fastballs…

Joba Chamberlain pitched this afternoon against the Orioles’ Dennis “Who?” Safarte today, and the Yankees won 13-3, snapping their losing streak at three games. Not that three games amounts to much of a “streak,” really, but given the opponents and manner of the losses, it certainly felt like one. And sometime during the seventh inning, as you may have heard, the Yankees traded the intrepid Kyle Farnsworth for some dude named Pudge Rodriguez. Brian Cashman is a mad genius.

I’m sorry for the lateness of the recap; I got delayed at Shea, donating blood in exchange for free Mets tickets. Yes, really. I did it last year because I was writing about it, and I was going to skip it this season, but the New York Blood Center people kept sending me these increasingly desperate letters and emails with headlines like “There’s something special about your platelets!” so I finally caved.

Anyway, today’s game started off unpromisingly when the Orioles scored an unearned run off Joba in the first, on an Aubrey Huff blooper following a Robinson Cano error. The Yankees struck back right away, though, in the bottom of the inning: Jeter and Abreu walked, and Alex Rodriguez’s base hit scored two runners on an errant throw; not long after, Rodriguez scored on a passed ball.

Joba was good, again. He’s gotta be due for a real blow-up of a bad start – I mean, you would think – but fortunately it didn’t come today, in the middle of a losing streak. Things got sticky for him in the third, with a series of hits plating another run, but even there Chamberlain wasn’t getting shelled by any means. “They were aggressive early on the fastball,” Chamberlain said after the game. ”When Josie recognizes that… and our offense scores runs, it’s pretty easy.” Easy. Right. In the end Chamberlain threw 98 pitches over six innings, allowing five hits, one earned run, and once again no walks.

In the bottom of the third, Abreu, DHing for the day, knocked a two-run homer into the screen of the right field foul pole, and the Yankees never really looked back. Chamberlain settled down, not that he’d been unsettled really, and a few frames passed quietly – until, in the sixth, the Yanks started tacking on: another Abreu hit, a very bloopy Giambi bloop, a rare and fantastic first-to-third from the ‘Stache on a Cano single (watching Giambi run first-to-third is like spotting a really horribly ungainly unicorn), an Xavier Nady double, a bases-loaded walk to Damon, a bases-loaded passed ball… it was a tough day for Orioles relievers.

In the 7th, Edwar Ramirez soared a ball over Kevin Millar’s head and was immediately tossed from the game. Didn’t seem like a logical spot for retaliation, if any retaliation was even necessary — but Ramirez’s complete and utter lack of reaction to getting thrown out did raise my eyebrows. Usually pitchers at least PRETEND to be surprised in a “whoa how’d that get up there?!?!” kind of way. So who knows? But Dave Robertson and Dan Giese finished up the game with a minimum of fuss and just one additional run allowed. Abreu hit another homer, A-Rod knocked out his 23rd of the year, and even Richie Sexon got a single, scoring on Nady’s second double of the day; lucky run #13 scored on a Justin Christian grounder.

There’s already been much discussion of the Farnsworth/I-Rod trade. After the game, Farnsworth was visibly choked up, which made him seem like an empathetic, three-dimensional guy for the first time in a while; and not to promulgate outdated gender double standards or anything, but nothing gets to me like watching a tough guy cry (or, as in this case, even almost cry). Listening to Joe Girardi’s voice break when discussing Bobby Murcer’s death just killed me a few weeks back, and watching ol’ Farnsy blinking back tears had me making sympathetic distressed noises at the TV. I mean this is a guy who strides across the clubhouse in camo underwear reading gun magazines, you know?

Meanwhile, though you have to have a ton of respect for his skill, I’ve never warmed up to Ivan Rodriguez — even before the steroid allegations, he seemed suited to playing the villain, though he was always fun to watch. Maybe I was just jealous of his shapely eyebrows.

No, it’s hard to criticize this trade… except that I’m absolutely indignant that the Yankees never ONCE had a real brawl, not one, during Farnsworth’s entire tenure. This is a colossal waste – I mean, that’s pretty much the main reason to have Kyle Farnsworth on your team, as far as I’m concerned. A missed opportunity that will haunt the team for years.

It was a fine afternoon in the Bronx for the home team.  We’ll have the re-cap a bit later.  But here’s something to chew on…ESPN’s Buster Olney reports that the Yankees have traded for Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez.  Whoa.  Lo-Hud says the Tigers get Kyle Farnsworth in exchange. 

Yowza. 

C’mon, Meat.  Keep your wits about you and John Blaze your way through the O’s.

Time for a win.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees.

Dig Syreeta Wright’s version of "She’s Leaving Home." The lyrics really have a different emotional kick with a female vocal.  Syreeta is Stevie Wonder’s ex-wife; he produced the track.

Even when he falters, Mariano Rivera’s greatness remains untarnished.  Rivera gave up a home run last night, but still reached another milestone.