"A New York Treasure" --Village Voice

The Man Who Wasn’t There

Cliff Lee was supposed to start for the Mariners tonight. Then he was supposed to sit in the Yankee dugout. Now he’s on a plane for Arlington Texas, where he’ll become the new ace of the Rangers. Keep an eye on SI.com tonight for my trade analysis.

As for tonight’s ballgame, the Yankees do benefit from the downgrade from Lee to David Pauley, who will be the Mariners’ spot-starter, but last year the Yankees faced a similar situation and lost. Clayton Richard was scheduled to start against the Yankees on the day that he was traded to the Padres in the package for Jake Peavy. The Yankees instead faced spot-starter D.J. Carrasco and got whupped. What’s more, the Yankees still have five games left against the Rangers and thus could face Lee twice more during the regular season and potentially in the postseason as well. Not that I feel bad for them. I’m beginning to think they’ll be the frontrunners for the free-agent Lee this winter.

As for Pauley, he’s a 27-year-old righty on his fourth organization making his fifth big-league start and first since 2008, when he was with the Red Sox. That also came against the Yankees and saw Pauley surrender seven runs in 2 2/3 innings. The Yankees hope for more of the same tonight as well as for a strong outing from Phil Hughes, who has allowed five or more runs in three of his last four outings and has a 5.56 ERA over his last nine starts, only four of which were quality starts.

Nick Swisher is the DH tonight. Colin Curtis plays right field and bats eighth.

Luke French is up to take Lee’s spot on the roster and Pauley’s spot in the bullpen.

Oh, and the Yankees still have the best record in baseball and a five-deep rotation.

Update: here’s my Lee analysis

Categories:  Cliff Corcoran  Game Thread

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90 comments

1 Cliff Corcoran   ~  Jul 9, 2010 8:10 pm

props to Alex for the headline

2 Diane Firstman   ~  Jul 9, 2010 8:13 pm

[1]

I second that emotion!

3 thelarmis   ~  Jul 9, 2010 8:14 pm

Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher DH
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Jorge Posada C
Curtis Granderson CF
Colin Curtis RF
Brett Gardner LF

4 thelarmis   ~  Jul 9, 2010 8:16 pm

[2] saw your peart post on the last thread. looking forward to watching. i know that about neil & fans... have you read his books? the first one is boring, but the other 3 are absolutely *amazing*. ghost rider, traveling music & roadshow. they're all incredible, but traveling music is prolly my fave of that trilogy...

5 Diane Firstman   ~  Jul 9, 2010 8:17 pm

Boston up 10-0, bottom of the 3rd.

Ricky Romero and Brian Tallet conduct walkathon.

6 monkeypants   ~  Jul 9, 2010 8:19 pm

I posted this last thread, but it seems more pertinent to this (game?) thread:

Fuck..the Sox are pouring it on against the Jays. I am not so concerned about the result, but if this game goes long (it’s still only in the top of the third), then it’s gonna preempt the beginning of the Yankees-Mariners game at 10.

Grr...

7 omarcoming   ~  Jul 9, 2010 8:20 pm

I go to play golf and I take Joel Sherman at his word that Cliff Lee is on the Yanks.
My game suffers because I thought Cashman would never trade an "A" prospect for a free agent and I think this is overkill since the Yanks have five starters already.
Cliff Lee is on the Rangers and I drop a few shots to par. I hate Joel Sherman.

8 thelarmis   ~  Jul 9, 2010 8:22 pm

strasburg: 4.2 innings. 7 K, 1 BB, 2 ER, 3 hits. 83 pitches.

man on 3rd...

nats up 2-1

9 Diane Firstman   ~  Jul 9, 2010 8:23 pm

12-0 Boston, Youk and Beltre go back-to-back.

10 thelarmis   ~  Jul 9, 2010 8:23 pm

jesus fucking christ. 12-0. now they're homering every at-bat. goddamn, i fucking HATE the shit sox. whoda thunk their offense would be *this* ridiculously unstoppable...

11 monkeypants   ~  Jul 9, 2010 8:25 pm

[9][10]...and they cut to the Yankee game already in progress that much later...

: (

12 thelarmis   ~  Jul 9, 2010 8:28 pm

13...

disgusting.

13 Diane Firstman   ~  Jul 9, 2010 8:29 pm

Tallet has now given up 13 homers in 42 innings!

14 monkeypants   ~  Jul 9, 2010 8:32 pm

[13] All of them this game!

15 Diane Firstman   ~  Jul 9, 2010 8:32 pm

[0]

So I guess you could say the Mariners are giving the Yanks some Leeway with their pitching selection tonight.

(insert groan here)

16 cult of basebaal   ~  Jul 9, 2010 8:35 pm

[0]

I’m beginning to think they’ll be the frontrunners for the free-agent Lee this winter.

Why?

17 Chyll Will   ~  Jul 9, 2010 8:39 pm

[15] Should have warned us that was coming...

18 Cliff Corcoran   ~  Jul 9, 2010 8:43 pm

[16] Lee has said he likes NY. He and CC are best buddies. He and Burnett share an agent. He'll be expensive (few teams can afford him), and the Yankees have shown a strong interest in having him (they never put Montero up for trade before this).

19 Evil Empire   ~  Jul 9, 2010 8:51 pm

[0] "What’s more, the Yankees still have five games left against the Rangers and thus could face Lee twice more during the regular season and potentially in the postseason as well. Not that I feel bad for them. I’m beginning to think they’ll be the frontrunners for the free-agent Lee this winter."

Who is "them" and "they'll" in the second sentence?

Cliff , I'm sorry to parse your writing, but are you saying you don't feel bad for the Yankees who will be frontrunners for Lee, which is pretty common knowledge? OR, are you saying you don't feel bad for the Rangers who will be frontrunners for Lee, which is not very realistic?

Part of me thinks you mean the former, but weren't the Yanks always going to be the frontrunners for Lee?
I

20 rbj   ~  Jul 9, 2010 8:52 pm

[15] That pun made me want to jump off a Cliff.

Early morning flight to Denver for the annual law librarian convention. See you all on Thursday.

2011?
CC
Cliff Lee
AJ
Pettitte (?)
Hughes.

cue the Homer drool

21 Evil Empire   ~  Jul 9, 2010 8:52 pm

[18] [19] that clarifies it for me

22 Diane Firstman   ~  Jul 9, 2010 9:06 pm

This thread happens to be post #7,000 in Banter history.

Congrats Alex and Cliff!

23 NYYfan22   ~  Jul 9, 2010 9:14 pm

Oh, and the Yankees still have the best record in baseball and a five-deep rotation.

yes yes yes. That's the best part of all the hoopla. We really didn't need another SP. I mean, when you get the opportunity to scoop a guy like Lee, you take it. But, when you consider the immense potential of Montero, coupled with the no-sure-thing of keeping Lee into April 2011, it doesn't seem as big a deal. Plus, I was sick thinking about Hughes bumped off to the pen. ugh.

Also, I just watched The Man Who Wasn't There a few weeks ago on Netflix instant. What a great movie!

[22] how do you possibly know that? (I'm not doubting you.. just curious)

24 monkeypants   ~  Jul 9, 2010 9:20 pm

Gack..now the Jays are putting useless runners on in the sixth. Please, fellas, just play the rest of this mess out quickly.

25 Diane Firstman   ~  Jul 9, 2010 9:25 pm

[23]

I have access to the "administrative" portion of the site ...

26 Shaun P.   ~  Jul 9, 2010 9:37 pm

[23] [25] Wow. 7000 posts. Truly amazing.

I'm glad I was right about the Lee trade not going down. Now if Montero would get his butt in real high gear and force the Yanks to call him up this year, I'd be very happy.

27 cult of basebaal   ~  Jul 9, 2010 9:37 pm

[19] That was the same thing I took that sentence to mean.

28 Chyll Will   ~  Jul 9, 2010 9:38 pm

[25] You have access to the secret break room? Marvelous!

Congrats for the milestone, guys.

29 cult of basebaal   ~  Jul 9, 2010 9:49 pm

Wow, I remember seeing something about Jake Peavy getting hurt, but I didn't know it was like this:

The injury is a very rare injury, in which the muscle ripped completely off the underside of his shoulder that it is usually connected to and now resides somewhere below his shoulder blade. The latissimus dorsi is partially responsible for the internal rotation of the shoulder joint.

Peavy said that for most people the injury would not have occurred, but the violent overhead motion of the arm is what caused the muscle to snap clean off its moorings. The muscle does very little to inhibit his everyday motions.

Doctors feel that he should be able to regain his full velocity back from before the injury, but it remains speculation because there aren't very many precedents for this type of injury.

Yikes.

30 Cliff Corcoran   ~  Jul 9, 2010 9:50 pm

My Lee analysis is up on SI.com.

31 Diane Firstman   ~  Jul 9, 2010 9:53 pm
32 randym77   ~  Jul 9, 2010 10:01 pm

Phillies came from behind to tie the game in the 9th. Six runs scored in the bottom of the 9th. The last two courtesy of Cody Ransom, who hit a two-run homer off Francisco Cordero.

33 Evil Empire   ~  Jul 9, 2010 10:03 pm

[19] Yeah, it was just ambiguous and had to require a couple reads to understand (and even then I wasn't sure); nobody's perfect.

34 Diane Firstman   ~  Jul 9, 2010 10:04 pm

[32]

Shelley Duncan has more homers than Joe Mauer

35 randym77   ~  Jul 9, 2010 10:08 pm

[34] Does he really? I've seen him play in a few games, and he's never hit well when I've seen him. I'm glad he's doing well, though. Seems like a nice guy.

36 Diane Firstman   ~  Jul 9, 2010 10:17 pm

Big fly for Teix ...

37 cult of basebaal   ~  Jul 9, 2010 10:17 pm

TEIX GO BOOM!

38 weeping for brunnhilde   ~  Jul 9, 2010 10:18 pm

Hey, well struck, Teix!

39 monkeypants   ~  Jul 9, 2010 10:24 pm

Jays-Sox mercifully ends, but now I have to suffer through (a hopefully abridged) Sports Net Connected highlight show. Please, please, please cut to the scheduled Yankees game.

40 weeping for brunnhilde   ~  Jul 9, 2010 10:25 pm

Hank Aaron had a 52-game hitting streak???
Really?
Fucking A.

41 Diane Firstman   ~  Jul 9, 2010 10:26 pm

[40]

no no .... 52 hitting streaks of 10 games or more ...

42 monkeypants   ~  Jul 9, 2010 10:27 pm

[40] At what level?

43 weeping for brunnhilde   ~  Jul 9, 2010 10:27 pm

[41] Ohhhhhhhhhh!!
Well that's a horse of a different color.

Since when is that a thing?

44 monkeypants   ~  Jul 9, 2010 10:28 pm

[41] Ah.

45 Diane Firstman   ~  Jul 9, 2010 10:29 pm

[43]

well .... it does speak to a lifetime of consistency ...

46 Chyll Will   ~  Jul 9, 2010 10:29 pm

[40],[41] Hilarious

47 Diane Firstman   ~  Jul 9, 2010 10:32 pm

Interestingly, I mentioned Jeter's 10-game hitting streaks (I had counted 41) back in May on his 15-year Yankee anniversary

http://www.bronxbanterblog.com/2010/05/30/15-years-of-jeterian-splendor/

48 Raf   ~  Jul 9, 2010 10:34 pm

If Lee was traded to NY, that would've been cool, but I'm cool with him not being traded here too.

[18] Montero wasn't put up for Halliday?

[30] It was a decent haul by the M's, but given that they kicked money back to the Rangers, I woud've thought they would get another top 15 prospect. The Rangers' need for Lee was much more than the Yankees.

[40] Hammerin Hank was awesome, could hit for average, and do damage, and could run too.

49 weeping for brunnhilde   ~  Jul 9, 2010 10:49 pm

[45] I guess, but so does 3000 hits!
hahhahha!
Aaron's high up there, no? 34, 37 hundred hits? Somewhere in there?

50 monkeypants   ~  Jul 9, 2010 10:49 pm

Strike two to Gritner was not a strike. And come on Jeter.

51 Diane Firstman   ~  Jul 9, 2010 11:00 pm

Holy crap .... Figgins hasn't had an XBH in 6 weeks? .... playing in Safeco?

52 Diane Firstman   ~  Jul 9, 2010 11:07 pm

Bad pun alert!

If a particular Brewers reliever replaces a pitcher during the at-bat of a particular Phillies outfielder, then you could have "Evan Meek shall inherit J. Werth"

53 cult of basebaal   ~  Jul 9, 2010 11:23 pm

Ugh ... I hate getting URP'd.

54 cult of basebaal   ~  Jul 9, 2010 11:31 pm

HUUUUUghes!!!!!

Good to see him back in form, even if it only against the M's.

55 cult of basebaal   ~  Jul 9, 2010 11:37 pm

crickets ... crickets ... crickets.

56 monkeypants   ~  Jul 9, 2010 11:38 pm

Run Gritner, run...

57 monkeypants   ~  Jul 9, 2010 11:41 pm

Ok, Jeter hit that hard even if it is an E5.

58 monkeypants   ~  Jul 9, 2010 11:41 pm

Run, Jeter and Gritner, run.

59 monkeypants   ~  Jul 9, 2010 11:45 pm

Baaaaaaaad flashbacks to Swisher bunting last year...but it worked this time, so far.

60 thelarmis   ~  Jul 9, 2010 11:48 pm

i've been watching my rush dvd. just wanted to check the score...

looks like we've been urp'ed. i had a feeling...

least hughes is doing great and we just scratched out another run. no hits involved, however...

61 thelarmis   ~  Jul 9, 2010 11:50 pm

ROBBIE!!!

thanks cano, i feel much better now! : )

looks like i checked in at a good time, for a change...

back to rush!

62 monkeypants   ~  Jul 9, 2010 11:51 pm

60) Don't speak too soon!

63 cult of basebaal   ~  Jul 9, 2010 11:52 pm

SCORE TRUCK!!!!

64 monkeypants   ~  Jul 9, 2010 11:59 pm

Gardner misjudged that ball,s it looks like.

65 monkeypants   ~  Jul 10, 2010 12:11 am

Gardner should just run on first move here.

66 monkeypants   ~  Jul 10, 2010 12:12 am

WP. Ok, now steal third!

67 monkeypants   ~  Jul 10, 2010 12:20 am

I feel like i'm auditioning a one-man show tonight.

68 cult of basebaal   ~  Jul 10, 2010 12:25 am

Man, Alex never stops having trouble with high popups.

It's kind of amusing, really.

69 OldYanksFan   ~  Jul 10, 2010 12:26 am

Wow..... how about a reel of all pop-ups to ARod? High comedy... yes?

70 OldYanksFan   ~  Jul 10, 2010 12:28 am

Phil has certainly been philthy tonight.

71 thelarmis   ~  Jul 10, 2010 12:28 am

[67] you got the gig! if you need a drummer, please call - work is slow...

72 thelarmis   ~  Jul 10, 2010 12:35 am

d-rob in for teh eighth

73 thelarmis   ~  Jul 10, 2010 12:43 am

way to mow 'em down after ichiro singled!

74 OldYanksFan   ~  Jul 10, 2010 12:47 am

BOOM! (2)

75 thelarmis   ~  Jul 10, 2010 12:50 am

[74] double bass! : )

76 OldYanksFan   ~  Jul 10, 2010 12:52 am

quadruple base!

77 thelarmis   ~  Jul 10, 2010 12:52 am

pepto in to finish it up...

78 thelarmis   ~  Jul 10, 2010 12:52 am

[76] very fucking nice! [bows & tips hat] : )

79 OldYanksFan   ~  Jul 10, 2010 12:52 am

Oh my. Is this game Park proof?

80 thelarmis   ~  Jul 10, 2010 1:00 am

[79] will pepto be bismol or abysmal?! ; )

1 out away!

81 Evil Empire   ~  Jul 10, 2010 1:05 am

I wish we could get rid of Chan Ho Park. BLECH.

By the way, when I got home I threw on my Yankees world series championship t-shirt. I wonder if M's fans have one of those. Sorry, beating a dead horse

Good win. Let's do the unexpected and beat the king tomorrow.

82 thelarmis   ~  Jul 10, 2010 1:06 am

i really don't wanna see pepto on my team come post: all-star break, trade deadline, aug. 31st deadline, stretch run, playoffs, next year, ever again...

83 cult of basebaal   ~  Jul 10, 2010 1:07 am

Blech.

Let's CHOP CHoP.

84 OldYanksFan   ~  Jul 10, 2010 1:07 am

Good game. Night boys.

85 thelarmis   ~  Jul 10, 2010 1:08 am

[81] only took 32 pitches. i've got nothing against pepto, i just don't want him to ever throw another pitch for my team. ever.

do you ever take your boys to a braves game? would be great to meet up again!

86 jjmerlock   ~  Jul 10, 2010 1:11 am

Solid job by the team tonight. Thanks, Yanks.

Would have sucked to not get Lee and also pass up the opportunity presented by missing him in this series. They got the job done. Very pleased.

87 Mattpat11   ~  Jul 10, 2010 1:16 am

You know what I needed to cap a long, disappointing day? A 30-something pitch Chan Ho Park inning where he struggles to get the soft underbelly of the worst offense in the league out.

88 thelarmis   ~  Jul 10, 2010 1:40 am

whoa, corey patterson just hit a grand slam off netfali perez w/ 2 outs in the 9th to tie it. think cliff lee is there yet to pitch the 10th?! ; )

89 jjmerlock   ~  Jul 10, 2010 1:42 am

[87] But it was the cap to an otherwise satisfying team performance...

Especially as you can throw in a Rays loss earlier tonight, I am feeling very satisfied (not sure if you're referring to external factors in your post - my non-Yankees day was very solidly mediocre).

90 Evil Empire   ~  Jul 10, 2010 9:37 am

[85] Hey thelarmis, I normally go to Braves games with friends. I've taken the boys a couple times, but they get bored and want to run around and do the non-baseball stuff. I'll definitely holler at you the next time I come over.

It's funny that the oldest one is dead focused at the Rickwood Classic each year (and always excited about going to the game -- this year we met Harmon Killebrew and got a couple autographs). Maybe it's because at Rickwood the only thing to do is watch the game, whereas at Atlanta (and other MLB Parks) it's a carnival.

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"This ain't football. We do this every day."
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