The Orioles have made short work of both CC Sabathia and Chien Ming Wang, so it is up to AJ Burnett to have a good start this afternoon. The Yankees are looking for their first win of the season, and Burnett is looking to make a good first impression. I say he comes through and the Yanks get off the schneid.
C’mon fellas, whatta ya hear, whatta ya say?
Let’s Go Yan-Kees.
Just an awful story out of Los Angeles this morning. Nick Adenhart, a young pitcher for the Angels was killed in a car accident early this morning. Here is a piece that Rich Lederer wrote about Adenhart. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and the Angels organization.
I’m going to ruin the peaceful, easy feeling we’ve enjoyed recently from the lack of Alex Rodriguez news or headlines. After all, the mishegoss machine will crank up next week–if not sooner–when Selena Roberts’ anticipated Rodriguez biography is released.
But I enjoyed Bill Simmons’ recent piece on Rodriguez:
Of all the ways A-Rod has been described over the years, nobody has ever used “bad person.” We hear he’s awkward, needy, annoying, easily rattled, humorless, obsessed with his image, unsure of himself and unable to fit into a group dynamic. Jason Gay, who profiled him recently for Details magazine, claimed that, out to dinner, A-Rod made his order based on how he wanted Gay to perceive it, not by what he wanted. He’s simply a strange guy, not someone you’d want to drive cross-country with, for sure. But he’s not a bad guy.
Comparing him with Barry Bonds, it’s no contest. Bonds hogged three lockers, disparaged teammates, antagonized media members and allegedly cheated to get an edge. He sounded like an unequivocal nightmare, a perfect storm of rudeness. Other notorious cancers (Carl Everett, Albert Belle, Jeff Kent, Ugueth Urbina) earned their reputations by being hotheaded or fighting teammates or barking at team employees. In the end, even Manny went to the dark side, becoming such a distraction that Boston paid the Dodgers to take him.
…I will even go this far: There are undeniable positives to having one antisocial wild card in any close-knit environment. You know that one grating guy in your dorm hall or in your office? Don’t you like bitching about him? You lob grenades at him as soon as he leaves the room. He’s your running joke, an easy target. But he’s also a galvanizing force, one of the few things that bring everyone else together: a mutual contempt for one human being that won’t go away. You’re stuck with him, so you make the best of it — by belittling him.
It’s a common bond of sorts. Even as you believe he’s tearing your group apart, he’s bringing it closer and distracting anyone from turning on someone else. He’s your mean decoy, your Paula Abdul, your Newman. He’s your necessary evil.
*
I wanted to know more about Ramiro Pena, the Yankees’ utility infielder de jour, and Will Weiss hipped me to a piece that Aaron Moore wrote about Pena and Eric Duncan for the YES Network back in June of 2005.
Dig:
While Duncan holds the title of the Yankees’ top prospect, the distinction of most intriguing minor leaguer belongs to the 19-year-old Pena. At 19, he is the youngest player on any Eastern League roster.
The master plan was to keep Pena in Class-A for the season, but he has done more than hold his own as Trenton’s everyday shortstop. The Yankees signed the Monterrey, Mexico, native last February as an international free agent.
The organization was forced to move Pena up from Tampa after
Columbus needed Trenton’s Andy Cannizaro to fill its void at shortstop. During Pena’s short stint in Tampa, he hit only .247 with an on-base percentage of .321.Since joining the Thunder, those numbers have increased nicely as he continues to show no signs of being overmatched by Eastern League pitchers. Through his first 14 games in Double-A, Pena has an impressive .327 average with three RBIs and no home runs.
He will never play the role of the modern shortstop like Miguel Tejada, who puts up gaudy power numbers. Pena is more in the mold of an Ozzie Guillen. A shortstop who fields his position brilliantly, hits around .270, but more importantly, moves runners over while hitting toward the bottom of the lineup.Regardless of what he hits in the minors, Pena’s glove will eventually get him a trip to the majors. And that’s what Thunder manager Bill Masse told Pena on his inaugural day in New Jersey — to focus on defense. In his short time with the Thunder, Pena has already provided a number of highlight-reel plays.
With his fantastic lateral speed, Pena ranges well into the hole on ground balls and does not shy away from contact while covering second base. His spin-move throw to first base is all ready major league worthy. In a recent series against Reading, Pena took away two hits by fielding ground balls on the right-field of second base and making quick accurate throws to beat the runners.
Even though he is still a teenager, Pena has a silent confidence about him that speaks well for his chances of succeeding in New York.
At this point, Pena’s main deficiency is his size. Walking around the clubhouse in a tee-shirt and shorts, he is hardly bigger than a batboy.That should change as he physically matures and improves his workout routine.
Pena’s arm is not Jeteresque. However, his exceptional range and quick feet hide his lack of a cannon arm.
And he already has a big fan in the player who lines up on his left.
“He is so good, so smooth, carries so much range,” Duncan said. “It’s not like I am playing with a 19-year-old, it’s like I’m playing with someone who has been there a while.”
For some, being away from home and playing with teammates much older and seasoned could be a problem. This is not the case for Pena.
“It’s not been that big of a change for me,” said Pena, with the help of teammate Omir Santos’ translation. “I’ve always played with guys older than me. No big deal for me. If I was still in Mexico I would be playing with guys in a league that is like Double-A here.”
Both Duncan and Pena are aware that their chances of playing together in the Bronx are unlikely anytime soon, with Jeter and Rodriguez locked up to long term deals. Even though they have made rapid movements up the organizational ladder, neither focuses on the players above them.“I don’t really think about it,” Pena said.
“All I can do is go out every day and work as hard as I can,” Duncan said. “If it’s with the Yankees, that’s great. If not, it will have to be for another team. It’s just the way it is.”
Well, I guess this is what happens when you forget to smear lamb’s blood over the bat rack.
Why on all other nights during the year does Chien-Ming Wang’s sinker sink, but tonight it is straight down the middle?
Hmmmm, no, doesn’t quite work. How about: The maror, or bitter herbs, symbolize the bitterness of leaving a metric ton of runners on base in two consecutive games….
Or: And Mark Teixeira went unto the Orioles pitchers, and spake thus: let my left-handed swing go, that it may serve the Yankees; and if you refuse to let it go, I will smite all thy borders with… uh, frogs —
Ah, screw it. The Orioles beat the Yankees 7-5 tonight, in a game that wasn’t actually as close as that makes it sound (until suddenly it was). Needless to say it is far to early to fret, let alone worry, let alone panic, but this wasn’t what you’d call a gem of a game. Chien Ming Wang was not himself; Ken Singleton said he wasn’t “getting on top of his sinker,” which is what announcers always say on those rare occasions when Wang starts chucking meatballs down the middle. Japanese pitcher Koji Uehara, formerly Hideki Matsui’s teammate on the Yomiuri Giants, took the mound for the O’s, and while I wasn’t exactly awed by him, he did get the job done. The Yankees’ unleavened (sorry) offense sputtered for most of the game, eking out a run here and there before rousing itself in the ninth – too little too late, but still a somewhat more positive note to end on.
Wang allowed two runs in the first inning on three consecutive doubles, then semi-fooled me with a 1-2-3 second, and squeaked out of trouble in the third. The Yankees scored their first run in the fourth, when Cody Ransom doubled in Xavier Nady, and in general they seemed to be putting together some more impressive at-bats and maybe gathering a little momentum. But things fell apart for Wang in the bottom of the inning – Scott singled, Pie walked, Zaun doubled, Roberts singled, sac fly, home run from Nick Markakis (now hitting .714 on the season) – you get the idea. When the smoke cleared, the Yankees were down 7-1 and Edwar Ramirez was in the game.
Derek “D-Cline” Jeter had a strong night, 2-for-4 in the end with a walk; Posada looked good on a strong double, and scored the Yankees’ second run in the sixth inning, when Cano doubled him home. Mark Teixeira, however, was having tougher time: going into the ninth he was 0-for-4, and so 0-for-8 in his brief Yankees career. And while, obviously, this is completely meaningless two games in, I was still a little worried that it was going to become A Thing – that fans and media would focus on it, laser-like, until some kind of obsessive watch for the first hit developed, and maybe a mental block, and who knows.
[Side note: New York sports fans do not have the right to criticize other fans for their booing habits, ever, so I’m not saying Baltimore fans shouldn’t be booing Teixeira so intensely. They should boo whoever they want whenever they want and more power to them. However, I’m confused about the particular hostility to Teixeira, because: did anyone ever think he was actually going to end up in Baltimore? I don’t believe I heard a soul suggest that as a strong possibility. It’s like if I started booing George Clooney because he wasn’t dating me, or Mayor Bloomberg for not giving me a key to the city… I mean, these things were never even on the table, you know? No one in San Francisco is going to boo Sabathia for not giving the Giants a hometown discount, because it was a nonissue. I just feel like I’m missing something].
It was 7-2 O’s in the top of the ninth when the Yankees got their act semi-together. Gardner was on base with two outs when Jeter hit his first home run of the year, making it 7-4, and Johnny Damon walked. This brought up Teixeira in the big spot, under pressure, A-Rod-style… and he hit a nice strong double to center, and now we can stop reading about his tiny little 0-fer. Phew. Of course Matsui then popped out, so, moot point.
Tomorrow the Yankees face a largely unknown rookie with an ERA over 6, which means you can expect them to be shut out. Unless maybe A.J. Burnett parts the Orioles batters like the… well, you know.
