Stevie:

De La:

Of the three players the Yankees acquired just before the July 31st trading deadline, Austin Kearns was the least heralded. He hasn’t had the career of Lance “Big Puma” Berkman, nor the fame of Kerry Wood. He has never been an All-Star, and probably never will. So it is with some degree of astonishment that Kearns has paid just as much in dividends as the rejuvenated Wood and has had substantially more impact than the injured Berkman.

In 16 games with the Yankees, Kearns has reached base 38 per cent of the time, slugged close to .500, and played flawlessly in the outfield corners. He has become a Pat Tabler force with the bases loaded, showing a knack for coming up with timely hits in the late innings. In other words, he has been exactly the kind of player the Yankees needed in attempting to bolster their outfield depth.

In some ways, Kearns reminds me of Lou Piniella, just retired as manager of the Cubs. More specifically, it’s the way that Joe Girardi has used Kearns that is reminiscent of the role that Piniella once filled in the late 1970s. Like “Sweet Lou,” Kearns plays left field one day, right field the next, and DH’s against the odd left-hander.

That’s not to say that Kearns and Piniella are the same type of players; they’re not. Kearns is a much better defensive outfielder with a stronger arm and more power; Piniella was a better contact hitter who batted for a higher average. But they are similar in that they are the kinds of outfielders who could play every day for a bad team, but should play no more than four to five times a week for a playoff contender.

Not too much, not too little. Girardi has been using Kearns just right.

(more…)

Atrocious. That’s how Michael Kay described AJ Burnett’s performance tonight in Chicago. Nine runs in 3.1 innings. Maybe it was all a bad dream, huh, Meat?

Nope, it actually happened. Seen it with my own eyes. And if Burnett wasn’t bad enough, the rest of the team played like Chico’s Bail Bonds. Francisco Cervelli’s little star has not only crashed to earth, it’s been dismantled to the point where it doesn’t matter how cute he is, his performance, behind the plate and at bat, is lacking. That Yankees were listless for long stretches of the game, scratching out just six hits.

Here’s a shot from Joe Girardi’s post-game team meeting with the team.

Bull Durham and The Bad News Bears. Makes for a great double feature but a lousy model for, you know, winning a real game.

“This is one of those games where you hope the whole team gets it out of its system because they just want to turn the page quickly,” said Ken Singleton. The long view. Right, what he said.

The White Sox whipped the Yanks, 9-4. The Red Sox also beat the Rays, so the Yanks remain tied with Tampa for first place. Boston is just four-and-a-half back.

The Yanks are the defending World Champs and share the best-record in baseball with the Rays. But after CC Sabathia–who pitches on Saturday night–their starting rotation is suspect. The Red Sox are lurking. Could the Yankees–or the Rays, for that matter–spit the bit down the stretch? Could the Red Sox, improbably, make the playoffs?

Stranger things have happened. I’m not panicked but I haven’t been impressed with the Yankees of late and I’m far from comfortable.

I used to like the idea of Ozzie Guillen more than I actually liked Ozzie Guillen himself, but upon further consideration, I’ve changed my mind–I really like Ozzie Guillen. Doesn’t matter that I don’t like everything that comes out of his mouth. I like that he calls ’em like he sees them. Ozzie is a bona fide character in the land of the canned-quote. He’s a reporter’s dream and a fan’s best friend, cause he never stops talking and always adds fuel to the fire. Most of the time, he just cracks me up. I’ve really enjoyed the bits I’ve seen of the MLB Reality Show about the White Sox.

Yanks are in Chicago for the weekend which means Ozzie is wearing bad-guy black for us. At least it won’t be dull.

AJ the Mysterious is on the hill tonight for the Bombers against ol’ Freddy Garcia. Fresh from the Lo-Hud Oven, here’s the line-up (Cliff does the rest):

Brett Gardner LF
Derek Jeter SS
Mark Teixeira 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Jorge Posada DH
Curtis Granderson CF
Francisco Cervelli C
Ramiro Pena 3B

The Rays and Sox also play this weekend–who do you root for? Here’s hoping the Yanks take two-out-of-three.

Feels like the playoffs are starting now and will continue–even through a couple of series against the Blue Jays and especially Buck’s “New and Improved!” Orioles–until they officially begin in October.

Never mind the holiday, Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

Dig in:

According to the buzz-machine on Twitter, Stephen Strasburg is headed for Tommy John Surgery.

Aie. This is a shame.

Believe it.

Wake Up!

Man, Mick Jagger cracks me up.

Andy Pettitte is scheduled to throw another bullpen session today. According to the intrepid Mark Feinsand in the Daily News:

Friday, Joe Girardi will trek out to the bullpen to watch Pettitte test his groin with a 20-25 pitch throwing session, one that could play a huge role in the Yankees’ stretch drive.

“I think we’re all curious to see how he’s going to do,” Girardi said. “I think there’s anxiety on Andy’s part and on everybody’s part. I think it will be a good indicator. Every time that he’s tried to really push off, he’s felt a little tug. If he’s able to really push off (Friday), that would tell me that he’s healed.”

The alternative is the worst-case scenario for the Yankees. If things go well for Pettitte, it would put him on course for a mid-September return, giving him about three weeks to get himself ready for the postseason. If Pettitte still can’t push off the mound at full strength Friday, even the eternally optimistic Girardi admits it would be grim news.

“That would be a pretty big setback,” Girardi said.

The Yanks without Pettitte will be Big CC and praying for a whole lot of the Score Truck.

The New York Times covers the first Hank Steinbrenner sighting since the death of the Boss:

In his first public appearance since the death of his father, George, on July 13, Steinbrenner, 53, said that the direction of the professional franchise would not change with his father gone: winning comes first, always, as it had when George was the principal owner. He also made a not-so-daring prediction that the Yankees would make the playoffs, but he declined to discuss the future of Manager Joe Girardi, whose contract expires after the season.

“It’s always going to be the same,” Steinbrenner said in a brief meeting with reporters. “We play to win. We do what we have to do to win. We don’t make a lot of money because of revenue sharing, and we don’t shy away from paying salaries.”

Early Carlin…

Over at PB, Jay Jaffe smokes ’em up, Johnny:

The Yankees would do well to take another look at Albaladejo as another middle inning option down the stretch; contrary to what Kevin suggests, he might still find a home on the postseason roster. Even as more of a one-inning proposition than a multi-inning guy, he’d be more valuable than Chad “Second Coming” Gaudin given that he doesn’t have such infernal platoon splits; righties are hitting a microscopic . 105/.179/.124 against him this year, with two measly doubles the only extra base hits in 105 at-bats. Meanwhile, lefties are hitting a still manageable .226/.280/.348. Given that the Yankees now have Javier Vazquez in the bullpen and Ivan Nova in the rotation — a situation that could eventually reverse — they have less need for a craptacular long man than another middle-inning arm.

Furthermore, it’s not as though they can count on Alfredo Aceves to fulfill that role once he returns from his rehab assignment. After allowing just one hit and one run in five innings in his first three rehab appearances, Aceves has been cuffed for nine hits and four runs in 3.2 innings over his last two appearances — against Double-A hitters, mind you. Five of the six hits he allowed on Wednesday night were doubles, not a good sign. At the very least, he’s a ways off from helping the big club.

Remember It’s Garry Shandling’s Show? How about the seminal The Larry Sanders Show?

If you are a Garry Shandling fan–and I most certainly am–dig this long profile on the comedian’s comedian’s comedian by Amy Wallace over at GQ.com:

Conan’s not the only one to use Shandling as a sounding board. For the past five years especially, the 60-year-old comic, who counts both George Carlin and Johnny Carson as mentors, has devoted himself to mentoring others. A generation of people at the top creative rungs of Hollywood credit Shandling with shaping both their material and their careers.

“There are so many people who lean on him to be their sage in these matters of what’s dramatic—not just what’s funny, but what’s effective, and what’s real, and why what’s funny is what’s real,” says Robert Downey Jr., who compares Shandling to “a Jewish E.T. He’s kind of vulnerable while at the same time very probing. And he’s got serious opinions.”

Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau dubs him “the Godfather.” Baron Cohen sought Shandling’s advice on both Borat and Brüno. Silverman says Shandling has taught her how to embrace the silences during her stand-up act. And Apatow still counts the night Shandling hired him to write jokes for the 1991 Grammy Awards show as “the biggest break of my career.” Apatow later wrote for The Larry Sanders Show, and their collaboration continues: Shandling often attends table reads of Apatow’s films and gives notes on the scripts. (Apatow says Shandling had a “monumental” effect on The 40-Year-Old Virgin.) “There’s nobody better in the world than Garry at telling me what’s working and what’s not,” Apatow says. “I’m just very lucky that I’ve had his input.”

You guys know that I’m a Pauline Kael junkie, but if I had to choose just one book of film criticism I just might go with this:

Agee has two great long pieces in this collection–“Undirectable Director,” on John Huston, and another one, written for Life, on the golden age of silent comedy. But what I really love, are the brief reviews Agee did for The Nation and Time. Doesn’t matter that I haven’t seen most of the movies or even if I agree with his take. Agee is just a pleasure to read.

Man, name a website, userealbutter.com and it’s a sure bet I’m going to enjoy what it has to offer. And that ain’t the half. Just dig their recipe page.

Now, check this blueberry-peach crisp and enjoy.

[Photo by Kitchenography]

Josh Wilker on Tommy Lasorda and Mickey Rivers.

On Rivers…

The other night ESPN Classic replayed the game that got Rivers and the Yankees to the first of the three straight World Series: the fifth game of the 1976 American League championship series with the Royals. Before the famed riot-sparking home run by Chris Chambliss in the bottom of the ninth, Rivers keyed an early rally by slapping a base hit into centerfield. I’d forgotten how unusual Rivers looked and moved.

“What’s wrong with him?” my wife asked.

We were watching him strut-limp back to first after rounding the bag. He seemed like he’d been assembled in a rush from spare parts, long bow legs springing from a tiny torso, a weird jaunty lean to his body, as if he was suffering from a running cramp. His mouth was motoring.

“He’s a character,” was all I could say to my wife by way of explanation.

One of the Banter crew, Williamny23, has started his own site, The Captain’s Blog.

Go check it out. He’s got some good stuff up there and he’s only just begun.

When I finished reading the Daily News this morning on my way to work, I kept busy thinking about my day, and looked at a kid sitting across from me, music bleeding out of his cheesy earphones. The 1 train was creeping, not zipping along, starting at 191st street. When the train limped  into the 157th street station I noticed a heavyset female police officer in our car and fantasized about her taking out the kid with the loud music.

Then I saw  a crowd of people on the uptown platform. When our train stopped and opened its doors, the officer spoke into her walkie-talkie and stepped off the train. I looked out of the window again and saw a young man, shirtless, sitting on the uptown platform, his legs dangling over the tracks. The crowd gave him plenty of room. An uptown train was stopped about fifty feet away from him. The man had a hard look on his face and he looked straight ahead or down, I couldn’t figure out which.

A woman next to me turned to her companion and raised her hand, indicating that the man was drunk. Maybe he was, or just stoned or maybe crazy. Most of the people in my car stood up to see what it was all about. Then, they returned to their seats, exchanged glances with a neighbor and went back to their book or the paper or thier music and texting.

Once our train left the station it started to move quickly again. I forgot about the annoying kid and his music and thought about the guy on the track.

Well, that’s one way to limit Phil Hughes’ innings.

Like lions attacking a herd of wildebeests (or whatever it is that lions attack herds of), the Blue Jays have spent this series picking off the Yankees’ young – first Ivan Nova, who was good but not quite good enough to escape two nights ago, and now Phil Hughes, who was less good. The Yankees were behind the entire game and lost 6-3 but, thanks to the Angels’ 12-3 thrashing of the Rays, remain in a tie atop the AL East.

There’s been much discussion of Hughes’ unspecified innings limit recently, and so it would, in a sense, be nice that he pitched less than four innings tonight – except that he threw 106 pitches in those three and two thirds innings, his shortest outing of the year. They were fairly high stress, and definitely frustrating, as over and over again he got a batter to two strikes before eventually allowing a hit. According to Girardi after the game,  3.2 innings is still just 3.2 innings, but that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Neither does bringing in Javy Vazquez in relief – it would, except I thought the whole issue was he had a dead arm and needed rest, and I don’t see how pitching 4.1 innings on short notice is going to enliven said arm. I assume the Yankee trainers know more about this than I do, so probably it’s fine… but then again with an off-day tomorrow, why push your luck? The Yankees don’t necessarily need Hughes and Vazquez at their best to have some postseason success this year, but it’s hard to see them getting far without at least one of them. Anyway, the good news is Vazquez pitched well (maybe his arm is only mostly dead?), allowing just one run, on an Aaron Hill homer, and finishing out the game.

Meanwhile, Jays starter Brett Cecil is not this good – at least, not against any other team. As the guys at River Ave Blues point out, he’s now got a 1.64 ERA against the Yanks, and a 4.21 ERA against non-Yankees. Whether that’s because he’s doing something particularly effective against the Bombers, or an accident of small sample size, I can’t really say, but in any case he was effective again tonight, allowing seven hits and two walks, but limiting the damage to two runs over eight innings. The Yankees got two runs in the fourth, when Robinson Cano doubled and Marcus Thames, batting right behind him, homered; they tacked on one more in the ninth, when Eduardo Nunez singled home Austin Kearns. It was a short-lived rally, and the Yankees head into their needed off-day still perched on top of the standings, but a bit battered- Nick Swisher’s knee is hurting now, hence his absence from tonight’s lineup.

The Yankees still have two series to play against the Blue Jays, one home and one, the last of the season, back in Toronto. So you haven’t seen the last of these guys. Presumably the Yankees and their coaches will be watching a lot of Brett Cecil video between now and then.

Yanks hope to have their way with the Jays tonight in Toronto and take this series.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees.