When the Yankee bullpen struggled so badly during the first two months of the season, too many members of the mainstream media called for either Joba Chamberlain to be relieved of his starting duties or for Brian Cashman to pull off a trade that would reel in a veteran reliever. Well, those media members have grown silent over the last two months as the bullpen has achieved lofty status in the American League. Those writers and broadcasters turned out to be dead wrong in their assessments, largely for two reasons. First off, they forgot that the Yankees boasted one of the league’s most efficient bullpens just last year. And second, they didn’t stop to consider the depth of pitching in the organization, specifically the wealth of talent waiting at Triple-A in the form of Phil Hughes, Alfredo “Ace” Aceves, and David Robertson.

I had already counted myself as a believer in the talents of Hughes and Aceves, but I have to confess to knowing little about Robertson prior to 2009. Kudos should go to the Banter’s own Cliff Corcoran, who was one of the first analysts to sing the praises of Robertson. Cliff turned out to be absolutely right about the 24-year-old right-hander. With a consistent 93 to 94 mile-per-hour fastball and a terrific overhand curveball (reminiscent of Neil Allen in his hey day), Robertson has the stuff to be a reliable reliever for the foreseeable future. If he can improve his control sufficiently, he could be the much-celebrated eighth-inning bridge by 2010. For now, the Yankees have four different relievers (Robertson, Hughes, Aceves, and lefty Phil Coke) that they can feel good about in the seventh and eighth innings…

The Yankees have assembled one of their best benches in years, and it figures to get better whenever Brett “The Jet” Gardner returns from the broken hand that landed him on the disabled list. Gardner will not only give Melky Cabrera the competition that he seems to thrive on, but also one of the most explosive pinch-runners in the game. So here’s the question: whose roster spot will Gardner take? I’d vote for sinkerballing Sergio Mitre, who is still building arm strength after major surgery, but the Yankees have become as married to the 12-man pitching staff as they once were to left-handed hitting DHs. So that means that Ramiro Pena will become the odd man out once Brett the Jet returns. Pena has done well in spot duty this year, but he lacks the experience and versatility of Jerry Hairston, Jr., the power of Eric Hinske, and the ability to catch (the role filled by Jose Molina). When and if the Yankees send Pena down, they should give him as many at-bats as possible during the Triple-A postseason, with the idea of letting him compete for the utility role in 2010. Pena might not hit enough to play everyday at shortstop, but his glove, speed, and ability to work the count should merit consideration for a backup job…

Speaking of Gardner, I’m trying to figure out if he’s the fastest Yankee I’ve ever seen. Prior to Gardner’s arrival last year, I would have voted for Mickey Rivers, followed by Rickey Henderson and Alfonso Soriano. (Rickey was obviously the best basestealer of the three, but at his peak “Mick the Quick” was slightly faster.) Perhaps I’m missing someone else from the last 40 years, but I believe Gardner has to at least move into the top three of this list, bumping Soriano to honorable mention…

The staying power of the late Thurman Munson is eye-opening. Thirty years after his death, the story of the tragic Yankee captain remains a compelling and popular read. Marty Appel’s new book, Munson: The Life and Death of a Yankee Captain, has been the nation’s best-selling sports book for the last four weeks. That’s quite an achievement, considering that Munson is not a Hall of Famer and is generally not considered an all-time great. Furthermore, most Yankee fans 35 and under don’t remember seeing him play, except for the occasional replay of the Bucky Dent Game and the 1978 World Series. In an era when the Yankee dynasty of the 1996 to 2001 has overshadowed the accomplishments of the Bronx Zoo years, Thurman Munson’s story still manages to capture the sincere interest of so many lifelong Yankee fans.

Bruce Markusen, a resident of Cooperstown, writes “Cooperstown Confidential” for The Hardball Times.

Today’s news is powered by the (Yankees’) quest for the Holy Grail:

• More of Jeter’s own perception of his future:

Jeter joked to Joe Girardi the other day that he could see himself being a designated hitter for five more years after he stops playing short, saying that DH duties are “easier” because “you only have to worry about one thing.” A handful of reporters were talking with Jeter on Wednesday when one asked him if he could see himself being a DH at age 41 – six years from now.

“You’ll see me at short still,” Jeter said without a hint of humor in his voice.

After riding Jeter’s defensive ability for years, the stat-heads have decided this season that he’s actually a pretty good shortstop. I asked Jeter if he felt like he was playing any better in the field this year than he ever has, and his answer was typical Jeter: “I don’t know. It’s not over yet.”

Then, he added, “I just try to be consistent. I don’t sit around and rate my seasons. That’s your job, right? I feel good. That’s pretty much all I can say.”

• Six bullets left in the Chamberlain:

Because (Joba) Chamberlain threw only 100 innings last season, the Yankees intend to limit his innings to guard against injury. Chamberlain has thrown 126 innings so far. Six more starts would likely put him around 165.

“We sat down and figured out a plan that works for both of us as far as keeping it as regular as possible,” Chamberlain said. “It gives my arm the rest that this whole thing is for, so it all worked out great. Mentally, for me to know that this is the plan for the rest of the year, it’s definitely calming.”

. . . Come the postseason, Chamberlain will be used as a starter with no limitations.

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Today’s news is powered by The Thin White (not Zach) Duke:

• Joe Posnanski: Jeter . . . UNDERrated?:

. . . I think that in many ways Derek Jeter this year has added a third title. He has, against all odds, become UNDERRATED. And that is a wicked turn. I think Jeter at 35 is having one of his greatest seasons. I think he’s playing defense better than he ever has, he’s getting on base and slugging like he did in his prime, and in my view he has been the Yankees most valuable player in 2009. And, for once, it’s funny, I don’t hear too many other people talking about it.

Now, let me be clear — there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the American League MVP this year is Minnesota’s Joe Mauer, and nobody else is even close, and I feel so strongly about this that I am doing daily updates about it on my blog. But the Twins are probably not going to make the playoffs, and there are many people who feel that the most valuable player must come from a playoff team. And if that’s the case then … well, I think at this moment Jeter might be my MVP, non-Mauer division.

Look: He’s hitting .330 through Tuesday and has a .394 on-base percentage — tied with A-Rod for best on the Yankees. He’s on pace for 218 hits, 109 runs, 21 homers. 27 stolen bases. He’s having a great offensive season, quite similar to the season last year’s MVP, Boston’s Dustin Pedroia, had.

And — this is weird — those advanced statistics that have so universally mocked his defense now show him to be, well, darned good defensively.

• Ian Kennedy update:

New York Yankees pitcher Ian Kennedy likely will pitch next month in the instructional league, his first game action since having surgery May 12 to remove an aneurysm from beneath his right biceps.

Kennedy said Wednesday it’s doubtful he will return for a minor league game this season. The right-hander is throwing fastballs and changeups during bullpen sessions and could be ready for a simulated game early next month.

• Spare the A-Rod:

Alex Rodriguez winced as he made his way down the first-base line on Tuesday, having been drilled on the left elbow for the second time in the Yankees’ past five games.

While Rodriguez certainly wouldn’t claim the repeated bruising is helping his performance at the plate, he also isn’t about to use it as an excuse. For the time being, Rodriguez is prepared to keep moving forward.

“I’m not really concerned,” Rodriguez said prior to Wednesday’s series finale with the A’s. “I’m probably just dealing with a little bit of a back [issue] and my elbow. It’s all part of it. I feel pretty good up there. I felt really good up there last night. I had five quality at-bats.”

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Today’s news is powered by . . . a sneakerphone!

• How’s the knee, Hideki?:

(Hideki) Matsui had not played in New York’s past three games after having his troublesome knee drained on Sunday during the club’s series in Seattle, but he said that the stiffness and lack of motion has subsided.

“There never was any pain,” Matsui said through an interpreter. “That’s not really an issue. There’s the difficulty of movement when there’s fluid in there, and it’s harder to move the knee. It just feels like there’s all this pressure there. Right now it feels very light and easy to move.”

Knee difficulties have become a fact of life for Matsui, part of the price he has had to pay for a lengthy consecutive games streak that spanned 1,250 contests in Japan before setting a big league record with 518 straight games played to open his Yankees career.

• No Haranguing with the Reds:

The Yankees inquired about Reds right-handers Aaron Harang and Bronson Arroyo, but backed off when the Reds said they would not include any money in a deal. While the Yankees remain active in their pursuit of a starter, they likely will stand pat and await the benefit of the roster expansions on Sept. 1.

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The A’s played a horrendously sloppy game Tuesday night, committing four errors, hitting two batters, setting up a run with a wild pitch, setting up another with a cross-up passed ball that hit the home plate ump, and generally booting away the game on their way to a 7-0 loss. That’s the story of the game, but lost in all that slop was a third-straight dominant performance from CC Sabathia.

Near the start of the game, MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch tweeted that prior to Sabathia’s last two starts, the last Yankee to win consecutive starts with a minimum of 7 2/3 innings pitched and a maximum of three hits in each was Dwight Gooden in May of 1996 (the second being his no-hitter). CC, who had allowed one run on five hits over 15 2/3 innings over his previous two starts, allowed a whopping five hits Tuesday night in the course of pitching another eight impressive innings. Over his last three starts, Sabathia has pitched 23 2/3 innings and allowed just three runs, all on solo homers.

Sabathia pitched with runners on base in just two of his eight innings last night. In the latter case, he pitched around a harmless, two-out single by Ryan Sweeney in the seventh. His only real jam came in the fourth when Scott Hairston singled with one out and both he and Nomar Garciaparra capitalized on a Johnny Damon bobble on what was ruled a double for Garciaparra. After the hot-hitting Mark Ellis lined out to shallow right, holding Hairston at third, Joe Girardi had Sabathia intentionally walk righty Tommy Everidge to pitch to the lefty Sweeney, who grounded out to end the threat.

That intentional walk might have seemed like a bit of overmanaging, but Everidge, who looks like a right-handed Erik Hinske but even thicker, had homered off Sabathia in his previous at-bat and, with two-outs, the walk set up the force at every base. With some pitchers you wouldn’t want to walk the bases loaded for fear of a hit-by-pitch or unintentional walk driving in a run, but as River Avenue Blues pointed out after the game on twitter, Sabathia threw just 28 balls all night, four of them in the free pass to Everidge.

The other solo homer off Sabathia came in the bottom of the first. A’s starter Vin Mazzaro hit Alex Rodriguez in his tender left elbow in the top of the first, and Sabathia retaliated by throwing behind catcher Kurt Suzuki with two outs in the bottom of the first. Suzuki dodged the pitch, then hit the next one into the left field seats, thus earning the Bad-Ass of the Game award (not recognized by the YES Network). Both benches were warned, but despite the fact that Melky Cabrera was hit later in the game by a clearly wild Jay Marshall, there were no further incidents.

As for all of those Yankee runs, Derek Jeter plated a Cabrera double in the second by hitting a ball through Adam Kennedy’s legs for the A’s second error in as many innings. The first A’s error was a throwing error by Suzuki on a Johnny Damon steal, but Damon was stranded when Jorge Posada struck out with the bases loaded trying to check his swing on a curve ball that almost hit his back foot). Posada made up for that strikeout in the third by doubling home Alex Rodriguez, who had singled, moved to second on a wild pitch, and to third on a groundout.

That tied the game at 2-2, but the Yankees made Mazzaro throw 103 pitches in five innings, then jumped all over the A’s extremely shaky middle relievers in the sixth. If Joe Girardi had brought a sidearming lefty with a 6.43 ERA and four more walks than strikeouts in to face a lefty and two switch hitters in the sixth inning of a tie game the readers of this blog may well have burned the Bronx to the ground. Fellow former Yankee catcher Bob Geren did just that and got what he paid for.

After getting the lefty (Robinson Cano) to ground out, Marshall gave up a double to the wall in left center to Nick Swisher (a switch-hitter batting right), moved him to left by crossing up Suzuki immediately after a mound conference with a pitch that somehow hit the home plate umpire on the left elbow after hitting Suzuki’s glove, hit Cabrera, then gave up RBI hits to Derek Jeter (single) and Johnny Damon (double). With that, Geren handed the ball to righty Santiago Casilla, who walked Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez on eight pitches (the last to Teixeira intentional), forcing in another run, then gave up an RBI single to Hideki Matsui and a sac fly to Posada before Cano came back around to groundout and put the A’s out of their misery.

In the middle of that action came the absurd scene pictured to the right. When Marshall hit Melky in the rump, Melky jumped back to try to avoid the pitch, but Suzuki also shifted to his left to try to block the pitch, resulting in Cabrera tumbling over the A’s catcher, much to the delight of his Yankee teammates and coaches (Tony Peña was in hysterics and both Joba Chamberlain and Jorge Posada mimicked Cabrera’s duck-winged attempt to keep his balance). The ball, meanwhile, deflected off Melky and headed toward first base.

That was this game in a nutshell. Yanks win a laugher 7-2.

The Yankees enter tonight’s game having lost consecutive games for the first time in August. Last night they were shut out for the first time since June 23 (though honorable mention goes to that 15-inning scoreless tie on August 7). This is what qualifies as a slump in a second-half that has seen the Yankees go a staggering 23-8 (.742).

Vallejo, California native CC Sabathia takes the mound to try to keep Yankees from playing like a normal team comprised of humans rather than ass-kicking baseball-playing robots. He has his own battle to fight as well, as he’s struggled at the Coliseum over the course of his career (0-4 with an 8.54 ERA in his last five starts there). CC has been flat awesome in his last two starts (15 2/3 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 HR, 4 BB, 19 K, 0.57 WHIP, 0.57 ERA, 2-0).

Facing CC will be Hackensack, NJ native Vin Mazzaro, who gave up six runs in 4 1/3 innings against the Yankees in the Bronx on July 23. Mazzaro started his major league career in June with four quality starts, but hasn’t had one since. He did pick up wins his last two times out by holding his opponents to three runs across five innings, but those opponents were the Royals and Orioles.

The Yankees run out their standard lineup tonight against the righty Mazzaro. That means Hideki Matsui is back in at DH having missing just one game after having his knee drained during Sunday’s contest. Last night the lineup behind Derek Jeter went 4-for-28 with a pair of walks against Brett Tomko and company. They’re almost guaranteed do better tonight.

Four prominent members of the 1979 Yankees have passed away over the years. I’ve written extensively about three of them—Thurman Munson, Bobby Murcer, and Jim “Catfish” Hunter— in this space. All three were beloved players, though for very different reasons. I have hardly written anything about the fourth player. It’s about time to end that practice.

Jim Spencer has become a forgotten link to the late 1970s. When he died in 2002 from a heart attack, there was barely a mention in the New York newspapers, like the Daily News and the Post. There might even be a few longtime Yankee fans who are surprised to hear that Spencer is deceased. His passing created little fanfare, even for those who grew up with the Yankees during the Bronx Zoo years.

No one ever remembers Spencer fondly as part of the late seventies run of pennants and world championships, just like no one remembers Jay Johnstone or Gary Thomasson. I guess that’s the fate that befalls old platoon players or bench guys; the more time that goes by, the less and less they seem to become pertinent. That natural human tendency to forget overshadows the fact that Spencer could provide decent production in a part-time role. Did you know that he led the 1979 Yankees in OPS with a mark of .970? I certainly didn’t. In just 295 at-bats, Spencer clubbed a career-high 23 home runs. It’s too bad that Spencer couldn’t have timed that performance to occur in 1978, when it would have felt far more relevant as part of a world championship contribution. Limited by injuries in 1978, Spencer came to bat only 166 times, rendering him a footnote during that memorable summer and fall.

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Today’s news is powered by a tour of the current home of the Oakland A’s:

• Heathcott, what you got?:

The Yankees have signed first-round pick Slade Heathcott for $2.2 million. He was drafted 27th overall, and the MLB recommendation for his slot was $1,107,000.

• Not only Heathcott, but Murphy and Cotham too:

The Yankees have also agreed to terms with their second-round pick, catcher J.R. Murphy, and a fifth-round pick, right-hander Caleb Cotham.

A catcher with power and good arm strength from the Pendleton School in Bradenton, Fla., Murphy’s signing bonus was for $1.25 million, Baseball America reported. A Vanderbilt sophomore, Cotham signed for $675,000.

• The fight to save Gate 2 rages on:

Despite the opposition of baseball romantics and some Bronx residents, the city plans to dismantle the classic Gate 2 from the old Yankee Stadium.

“I think saving it is a good idea,” Sandra Mullen, 33, of the Bronx, said of the majestic entrance opposite the new Yankee Stadium.

“I like the old stadium from when I was a child. The new one is beautiful, but the old one was a classic.”

Boosters of the effort to save Gate 2 want it incorporated as the front door to the new Heritage Park, a 10-acre park slated to fill the footprint of the House That Ruth Built.

• Tyler Kepner opines on the defense of Derek Jeter:

I’ve always contended Jeter’ defense has not hurt the team as much as some people think. Now, has he been better in the field this season? Sure, but look at the reasons, none of which have anything to do with Jeter himself.

He has a new infield coach, Mick Kelleher, whom he trusts and has known for many years. He has a better first baseman in Teixeira. And he plays behind pitchers more capable of hitting their spots than their predecessors, meaning, in theory, that hitters more often hit the ball where the fielders expect it to go.

Jeter is also playing on a new home field and might have made a change in his workout habits, though he never talks about that. I don’t know how those factors might have impacted him.

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Since the Yankees took three-of-four from the A’s in the Bronx in late July, Oakland has gone 11-9 including a split with the Red Sox and taking three of four from the now-Wild-Card-leading Rangers. Of course, the Yankees have gone 14-6 over the same stretch with half of those losses coming on the south side of Chicago as the calendar turned to August and are 5-1 against the A’s on the season.

Still, the A’s are suddenly doing something they hadn’t done all season: scoring runs. In April, May, and June, the A’s averaged 4.21 runs scored per game. In July and now half of August, they’ve scored 5.22 runs per game. What the heck happened?

The most obvious thing is Mark Ellis, who returned from the disabled list at the end of June and has hit .313/.342/.520 since, pushing Adam Kennedy to third base. Ellis thus replaces the A’s non-Kennedy third basemen, who hit a combined .195/.284/.324 in 292 plate appearances. That’s a huge upgrade at that spot in the lineup, one highlighted by his throwback walkoff in yesterday’s game. The A’s are also getting a ton of production from Rajai Davis. Since taking over in center field after Matt Holliday was traded to St. Louis (with Scott Hairston sliding over to left), Davis has hit .373/.429/.533 and stolen 11 bases in 12 tries. Less dramatically, Cliff Pennington (.296/.333/.407) has thus far been a slight upgrade on Orlando Cabrera (.280/.318/.365). I’m not sure that that adds up to a full run per game, but those are the big upgrades you might not necessarily see when looking at their lineup below.

Again the Yankees have the A’s beat, having scored 5.57 runs per game in July and August, but when you consider the disparity in the two team’s home ballparks, it’s shocking that the A’s offense has come that close to matching the Yankees over a full month and a half of the season.

As you may have noticed, the Yankees have won 12 of their last 14 games and 13 of their last 15 series. Tonight they look to keep that ball rolling by pounding recent bullpen castoff Brett Tomko, who was released just before the trading deadline after posting a 5.23 ERA in 15 relief appearances for the Yankees and has since posted a 7.94 ERA in two starts and one relief outing spanning 5 2/3 innings for the A’s Triple-A team in Sacramento. Said Girardi of Tomko after Sunday’s game, “I think we have an idea of what he’s going to do.”

Opposing Tomko tonight will be A.J. Burnett, who has turned back into A.J. Burnett in August after an awesome run of eight straight quality starts in which he went 7-1 with a 1.68 from mid-June to the end of July. Burnett’s last three starts have been a dud (4 2/3 IP, 7 R, L), a gem that still managed to include a ton of walks (7 2/3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 6 BB), and something in the middle that included a lot of strikeouts, but also a game-tying wild pitch (6 IP, 10 H, 3 R, 7 K, 3 WP, ND).

Matsui’s out after having his knee drained during yesterday’s game. Derek Jeter will get his hits at DH, not shortstop tonight as Ramiro Peña gives him a half-day off on the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum field which has been battered by preseason football.

Update: Aaron Cunningham is the player sent down to make room for Tomko, leaving the A’s with a three-man bench.

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Today’s news is powered by baseball-playing robots:

• Hideki’s knee acting up:

Hideki Matsui was held out of the New York Yankees’ lineup on Sunday, got his swollen knee drained and will likely miss at least one more game.

Manager Joe Girardi said after New York lost for just the second time in 14 games on Sunday, 10-3 to Seattle, that the designated hitter will have his surgically repaired knee reevaluated on Tuesday to see if the 35-year-old can play the second game of a series at Oakland. That’s New York’s next stop on its season-long, 10-game road trip.

“That is why we are careful with him, because he is really important to our lineup,” Girardi said.

Matsui had his second two-homer game of the season and a season-high five RBIs on Friday. He spoke afterward with huge ice packs on both knees, then sat out Saturday.

• Tom Terrific on the Joba Rules/Map:

“Tell me, how does a pitcher get to the next level unless he’s tested under fire?” (Tom) Seaver asked. “Where are you going to find the next Bob Gibson or Nolan Ryan or Steve Carlton unless a young pitcher is pushed? You won’t.”

. . . “[The Yankees] probably have a lot of money invested in Chamberlain, it’s a financial thing and they want to protect him. But he won’t reach his baseball limit this way.”

Seaver’s rejection of the innings limit is based on a single premise: A pitcher builds his arm by throwing, not resting. Seaver cites his own body of work as proof. At 23, the same age as Chamberlain, Seaver threw 277 innings and zoomed up to 290 innings only two years later in 1970.

By contrast, the Yankees are carefully rationing Chamberlain’s final 32 innings before he reaches his cutoff at 160. While Seaver considers such coddling counter-intuitive, if not damaging, the Yankees say the old-schoolers are just plain wrong.

. . . What Seaver probably doesn’t know, say the Yankees, is that Chamberlain threw only 100 innings in 2008. There are numerous examples of young pitchers who’ve been injured after increasing their workload by more than 30 innings the following year.

. . . “What really galls me is seeing a pitcher taken out of game that he’s dominating the opposing team,” Seaver said. “These people today don’t understand what it means to walk off the mound after holding the other team down for nine innings, the feeling of triumph for your own team — and the effect it has on the players in the other dugout.

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I’m not sure why, but I’ve given in to the trend and opened a twitter account. I have no idea what will become of it, but I hope to keep it regularly updated with random thoughts, random stats, links to my non-Banter articles, and perhaps the occasional bit of news (though surely someone in comments will beat me to the last). I have a few posts up there already on Sean Black, Alex Rodriguez, and Amani Toomer. If you’re so inclined, follow along.

Today’s news is powered by the memory of a music legend, Mr. Les Paul:

• The “Joba Rules” have some quirks:

Joe Girardi announced Joba Chamberlain will start on Wednesday in Oakland, which will be on seven days’ rest and prevent him from pitching against Boston in next weekend’s series. Girardi also said that come playoff time, the Joba Rules may be waived as it will be “all hands on deck.”

“This is part of the plan, and this is what we have to do because this is not just about the next two months,” Girardi said of the varying degrees of rest between starts. “This is about years and years to come.”

• A couple of choice Q&As from Thursday’s online chat with Steven Goldman at Baseball Prospectus:

Pete (Bronx): If you were Brian Cashman, what would you offer Johnny Damon to re-sign? 2 years for ?? million?

Steven Goldman: It seems like the assumption now is that Damon should be brought back. Given that the Yankees don’t have great alternatives (Austin Jackson’s MLE doesn’t inspire confidence)and the free agent class is not bursting with possibilities, maybe it’s a reasonable assumption. I do worry about Damon being a product of Friendly YS II (or III, really), with only .273/.346/.459 rates on the road and declining defense. Two years would be my upper limit… I really wonder if Damon is going to last long enough to get 3,000 hits and wind up as a totally unexpected HOFer. It could happen.

Jeff P (NYC): Hi Steve, thanks for the chat. What are your thoughts on how Girardi handles the Yanks’ pen? He seems to be excellent strategically (players know and are comfortable with their roles, no one’s overworked, flexible in who has what role) but mediocre tactically (who to bring in to face which batters).

Steven Goldman: I think you’ve nailed it exactly. As I said earlier, in both of his seasons in New York, he’s started with one bullpen and finished with another, and after more than a decade of Joe Torre’s obsessive focus on one or two relievers, as well as blind loyalty to anyone who had been on the roster for more than 15 minutes, it’s been quite refreshing. If Torre were here, we’d still be watching balls hit off of Edwar Ramirez fly over the moon… It’s been so long since I’ve seen a manager who excelled at pen matchups on a regular basis. Who would you rate as tops at that? Scioscia? LaRussa?

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Despite not having Alex Rodriguez (elbow) or Jorge Posada (finger) in the lineup, everything went right for the Yankees Thursday night. The offense dropped some early runs on Ian Snell, ran up the score as the game progressed, and CC Sabathia held the M’s to three hits over eight innings, allowing just one run on a solo shot inside the left-field foul pole by replacement shortstop Josh Wilson, and striking out ten.

The Yanks got a pair of two-out runs off Snell in the top of the second, but the key sequence of the game came in the top of the third, when they added three more runs over the course of just five pitches. Derek Jeter, who showed no ill-effects of being hit in the right foot by a pitch on Wednesday night, led off with a first-pitch home run over the home bullpen in the left-center gap. Johnny Damon followed by doubling on a 1-0 pitch, and after Mark Teixeira pushed him to third on a first-pitch groundout, Hideki Matsui hit Snell’s next offering into the seats in right-center for a two-run jack, his first of two in the game.

With subs in for Jeter and Damon, Brian Bruney mopped up with a 1-2-3 ninth, sealing the 11-1 win for the Yanks.

The Yankees avoided a post-Red Sox let-down by taking two of three from the Blue Jays, but they needed eleven innings to take the rubber game and a late-game comeback to win Game 2. Now they’re coming off a cross-country flight with Derek Jeter (foot), Alex Rodriguez (elbow), and Jorge Posada (middle finger on throwing hand) all smarting from being hit by the ball in Wednesday afternoon’s nearly-four-hour marathon.

The good news is they’re playing the Mariners. The Yankees took two of three from the M’s in the Bronx as June turned into July and the M’s are 9-10 over their last six series. Like the Yankees, the Mariners are also coming off a nearly-four-hour extra-inning win (1-0 in 14 frames over the White Sox) that saw their shortstop, the newly acquired Jack Wilson, leave with an injury (hamstring).

The Mariners are also a bad team that is wildly outperforming its Pythagorean record thanks to the league’s best defense and correspondingly strong pitching. Felix Hernandez, Erik Bedard, and Jarrod Washburn have combined to pitch 374 1/3 innings with a 2.76 ERA for the Mariners. Fortunately for the Yankees, Washburn is now a Detroit Tiger, Bedard is about on the disabled list headed for season-ending shoulder surgery, and Hernandez pitched yesterday and will miss this four-game set.

Which leaves what exactly? A team with the worst offense in baseball, a negative run differential, a replacement-level rotation, and a few spectacular glove men (Beltre, Gutierrez, Suzuki, and Wilson, who, like Jeter, is back in the lineup tonight).

Tonight, the M’s offer Ian Snell, a 27-year-old righty who has fallen hard from his breakout 2006 season and was toiling away in Triple-A for the Pirates, who were all too happy to unload him on the M’s in the Jack Wilson trade. The Mariners are banking on the moody Snell, who had fallen out with Pirates management, benefiting from a change of scenery that involves a pitchers park and a strong defense. It worked for one start, ironically in the Rangers’ launching pad. In his second Mariner outing, and first at Safeco, he walked six men in 1 1/3 innings before getting the hook.

I ridiculed the Wilson-Snell deal on SI.com. True, I took the short-view, analyzing the trade as the M’s attempt to thrust themselves into the Wild Card race (this was before they traded Washburn), but even looking at Wilson as a multi-year solution at shortstop on a defense-first team (a sketchy premise given the 31-year-old’s fragility and below-average bat, even for a shortstop), I find the trade uninspiring at best.

Snell faces CC Sabathia, who is coming off his biggest Yankee start (7 2/3 scoreless frames of two-hit ball in which he struck out nine Red Sox). CC actually struggled against the Mariners in July, allowing six runs on ten hits in 5 2/3 innings, and he’s been up and down since, often battling through a lack of command. Still, he’s 5-2 since that loss to the M’s, and that last start was a a beauty.

Alex Rodriguez, as previously scheduled, and Jorge Posada get the night off. Derek Jeter is in the lineup, of course. Jerry Hairston Jr. plays third and bats eighth. Jose Molina catches and bats ninth. The rest of the regulars are above them.

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Two comments from local sports talk radio that were uttered this week absolutely need to be addressed:

First, on Monday, Michael Kay, reveling in the Yankees’ sweep of the Red Sox, commented on his afternoon show that the Red Sox — and I paraphrase here — “finally misplayed their hand at the trade deadline by not getting Roy Halladay. They made the move for Victor Martinez, who doesn’t have a position. They tried to get Felix Hernandez from the Mariners. They should have given Toronto whatever it wanted to get Roy Halladay. They’re holding on to Clay Buchholz, who’s 25 years old. Getting Halladay would have put them in position to make a run this year and next year. The Red Sox finally misplayed their hand.”

To my former colleague, I say, “Huh? Did they really?” I don’t know about you but when I saw the news that the Sox got Victor Martinez and the Yankees’ big move was Jerry Hairston, Jr., the fan in me was sulking for a few hours. Then I got to thinking, “This puts Terry Francona in a bind as far as maneuvering Martinez, Kevin Youkilis and Mike Lowell. But that’s a decent problem to have.” Plus, who’s to say that the Red Sox didn’t offer everything the Blue Jays wanted? It’s entirely possible that Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi had no intention of trading Halladay to a division rival at this stage of the season.

(My guess, and this is just a hunch with no inside information at all: Halladay goes to some team flush with money like the Red Sox, Yankees, Mets, Phillies or Dodgers, in a deal similar to the one struck between the Sox and Marlins that sent Hanley Ramirez to Florida and brought Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell to Boston. Halladay would obviously be the centerpiece, and I imagine Vernon Wells and his bloated contract would be an add-on, much like Lowell was in the aforementioned deal, in exchange for a name major leaguer and some major-league ready prospects.)

Back to Theo Epstein and the Red Sox “misplaying their hand” … Kay went on to say that having Beckett, Lester and Halladay 1-2-3, with Matsuzaka and Wakefield bringing up the back of the rotation when they come off the DL was a risk the Red Sox had to take, and they didn’t. I still believe they’re a playoff team without Halladay, provided their bullpen can hold up and Francona pushes the right lineup buttons.

Moreover, and Kay of all people knows this from being around the Yankees and Red Sox for so long, it would have been inconsistent with Epstein’s pattern to make a deal for someone like Halladay at the deadline. He’s more apt to jump on it in the offseason, like he did with Curt Schilling, arrange the trade and sign Halladay to an extension right away.

Your thoughts on this are welcome.

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Today’s news is powered by the late, great Stevie Ray Vaughan:

• Key Yankees bruised and ailing:

Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, both hit by pitches, are questionable for Thursday’s series opener against the Mariners — Rodriguez more uncertain than Jeter. Catcher Jorge Posada, who took a foul ball off his right hand and a series of other pitches off his body during Wednesday’s 4-3 win over the Blue Jays, is also unsure whether he will play. And closer Mariano Rivera, who woke up Wednesday with a sore right shoulder, is similarly in question.

[My take: Hughes should be the closer for the next week.  Give the Mo Man a full rest.]

• A very interesting quote from the manager on bullpen usage, courtesy of Baseball Prospectus:

. . . Girardi is being lauded for turning a bullpen that, beyond closer Mariano Rivera, was perceived to be a weakness to many mainstream observers coming into the season into a strong point. Girardi has pieced together a quality bullpen without having any of his pitchers ranking in the top 10 in the AL in relief innings pitched.

“The bullpen, to me, is something you really have to watch,” Girardi said. “You have to be careful that you don’t fall in love with one guy because then you wear him down and he no longer can be effective. The key is to be effective for the whole year, not just two weeks or a month.”

Girardi’s approach is not lost on his relievers. “Phillip Hughes is the eighth-inning guy but it’s not like he’s going to pitch every day,” right-hander Brian Bruney told the New York Post’s Larry Brooks. “Everybody responds to pressure situations because we’re rested and ready. Girardi is careful with the way he uses us. He communicates directly with us more than any manager I ever played for.”

[My take: So Aceves is NOT Scott Proctor?  And Phil Hughes REALLY DOES understand his role?]

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The Yankees had a scary day on Wednesday. In an afternoon rubber game against the Blue Jays, Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, and Alex Rodriguez all got hit hard by baseballs, Jeter in the foot, Posada in the hand, and Rodriguez in the elbow. As fits how well things have been going for this team, however, the Yankees turned what what looked like a series of season-altering injuries into a pair of runs and yet another walk-off win.

Jeter got hit in the right foot by a 1-2 curveball from Jays lefty Ricky Romero leading off the bottom of the first. He crumpled to the ground like one of those old toys, but got back up, limped to first, hobbled to third on Johnny Damon’s ensuing double, made a slick baserunning play by drawing a throw home from Edwin Encarnacion on a potential inning-ending around-the-horn double play, then diving back to third ahead of catcher Raul Chavez’s throw, and finally scored on a Jorge Posada groundout.

Jeter didn’t get a fielding chance in the top of the second and in his next at-bat in the bottom of the inning, he ground to an inning-ending fielder’s choice and headed straight for the trainer’s room after hobbling to first. Fortunately, his x-rays were negative.

Randy Ruiz–a Bronx native, former Trenton Thunder teammate of Phil Hughes, and now a 31-year-old rookie with a career .304/.378/.531 line and 192 homers in the minor leagues–deposited an A.J. Burnett fastball in the visiting bullpen in the top of the second to tie the game at 1-1. Johnny Damon and Robinson Cano added solo shots in the third and fourth to give the Yankees a 3-1 lead.

Burnett gave that up in the top of the sixth when Ruiz and Encarnacion singled with one out and moved to second and third on a wild pitch. Chavez singled home Ruiz, then with two outs and a 2-2 count on Marco Scutaro, Burnett uncorked another wild pitch that bounced between Posada’s legs and brought Encarnacion home with the tying run. Burnett led the majors with 14 wild pitches entering the game, added three more to his total and also hit home plate umpire Joe West in the chest on the fly with a fastball that crossed up Posada, but refused to discuss his wildness after the game.

In addition to having to chase all of those wild pitches, Posada was hit in the throwing hand (specifically the knuckle of his middle finger) by a foul tip in the top of the eighth. He stayed in the game and said afterwords that his hand will be fine.

Meanwhile the game remained tied at 3-3. Romero left after a 1-2-3 sixth and 109 pitches. Brandon League followed by allowing just one baserunner in three scoreless innings. Burnett also left after coughing up the lead in the sixth, having thrown 107 pitches. Phil Coke, David Robertson, Phil Hughes, and Chad Gaudin, making his Yankee debut, combined for five scoreless frames in relief with Gaudin pitching around a single and a walk and striking out three in his two innings of work.

Gaudin, incidentally, looks like a converted position player, though he’s not. He’s short, but athletic in build, and effectively mixes a slider and changeup with low-90s fastballs. His stuff isn’t electric, but it’s legitimate, and the hitters will let us all know when it is and isn’t working. Perhaps because he’s spent most of the year starting, he worked from a full windup with the bases empty, something you rarely see from a relief pitcher these days.

Shawn Camp replaced league and pitched a 1-2-3 tenth, but he fell behind 2-0 on all three hitters, throwing just six of 14 pitches for strikes. In the eleventh, he threw ball one to Hideki Matsui but rallied to strike him out looking. He then got ahead of Alex Rodriguez 0-2 before hitting Rodriguez flush on the left elbow. Rodriguez wears a pad on that elbow, but he, too, crumpled to the ground, then walked into the grass toward the visiting on-deck circle, and knelt down in pain, holding his arm. He was behaving as if his arm was broken, but as Paul O’Neill explained on the YEScast, he was most likely just hit in the funnybone, which when it’s done by a major league pitch (in this case an 89 mph fastball), can render a hitter’s arm completely numb.

Rodriguez eventually took his base, but looked like he was going to hurl from the pain. Fortunately, he didn’t get the opportunity. In the space of the next three pitches, Posada singled him to second and Robinson Cano shot a gapper to the wall in right-center that brought Rodriguez home with the winning run.

Yankees win, 4-3 in eleven innings, thanks in part to the feeble Blue Jay offense leaving 14 men on base.

So now the walking wounded head out to Seattle. Jeter and Posada are both questionable for Thursday’s game. Rodriguez was going to get the day off anyway. Meanwhile, Gaudin will start on Sunday allowing the Yankees to push Joba Chamberlain back to Wednesday to keep his innings down. Word from Brian Cashman is that Joba will remain in the rotation throughout the regular and postseasons. These large gaps between starts are their plan for keeping his innings down, and his limit is now said to be higher than the 150 we’ve been assuming all season.

Oh, and Mariano Rivera was unavailable on Wednesday because of a “cranky” shoulder and the 25 pitches he threw Tuesday night, but should be available on Thursday as well. The Yanks just went 6-1 on a homestand that included a four-game sweep of the Red Sox, are 8-1 over their last nine games, all against division rivals, and are 9-1 over their last ten including wins in games started by Mark Buehrle, Roy Halladay, Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, and Rookie of the Year candidate Ricky Romero, and four of their last five wins were either extra-inning walkoffs or late-game comebacks. They’re feeling no pain right now.

Long time readers may recall my April 2005 post about when I took my then-67-year-old boss, Ray, to his first Yankee game. Ray Roberts passed away this morning after succumbing to a respiratory illness. Ray and I had done a poor job of staying in touch following his retirement. We had standing plans to get together which never panned out, and I failed to call him in hospice because I was afraid to face the reality of his illness.

So do me a favor. In memory of Ray, call your grandfather/grandmother/mother/father/sister/brother or old friend who you’ve been meaning to call. Better yet, take them to a ballgame.

Today’s news is powered by some live Pretenders:

• No Joba this Sunday:

For some time now, Yankees manager Joe Girardi has alluded to the fact that Joba Chamberlain’s schedule for the rest of the season is “mapped out,” without revealing the details of that map.

Girardi did not do so Tuesday, either. But he did offer a crumb.

Asked if Chamberlain will take his regular turn in the rotation Sunday in Seattle, Girardi would not answer. Asked if Chad Gaudin would start Sunday instead, he rolled his head from one side to the other before finally nodding. He had not yet told Chamberlain of his plans, and had no intention to do so until after his start Tuesday night against the Jays.

But, barring a change, Gaudin seems likely to start in Chamberlain’s place Sunday.

• Cont(r)acting Jeter:

Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman said the Yankees had no immediate plans to renegotiate the contract of Derek Jeter, which expires after the 2010 season. He said they would likely handle future negotiations with Jeter the same way they handled them with Jorge Posada and Alex Rodriguez.

• Ian Kennedy is on the road to recovery:

New York Yankees pitcher Ian Kennedy has thrown off a mound for the first time since undergoing surgery May 12 to remove an aneurysm from beneath his right biceps.

Kennedy threw 25 pitches during a bullpen session Tuesday. The right-hander says everything was fine and he would work off a mound again Friday.

As we all know, 1979 marked the final season of Thurman Munson’s career as a Yankee—the end result of one of the game’s worst tragedies. A number of other Yankee also played their final games in pinstripes that summer, though for far less heartbreaking reasons. Dick Tidrow left in May, traded to the Cubs in an ill-fated deal for Ray Burris. Mickey Rivers left in August, traded to the Rangers for Oscar Gamble and prospects. After the season, longtime Yankee mainstay Roy White moved on, opting to continue his career by playing in the Japanese Leagues.

A future Hall of Famer also left the team that winter. Jim “Catfish” Hunter decided to call it quits, his right arm having buckled under the stress of so many innings and far too many sliders.

Like most great pitchers, the 33-year-old Hunter owned great inner pride. He had no interest in hanging on as a mop-up man wallowing in long relief. The refusal to accept life as a fringe pitcher probably came as no surprise to people who had followed Hunter since his early days with the Oakland A’s. Prior to the 1971 season, A’s owner Charlie Finley had angered the pitcher when he offered him a mere $5,000 raise, which Hunter considered inadequate after winning a career-high 18 games in 1970. Finley preferred emphasizing Hunter’s 14 losses and his extreme reliance on closer Jim “Mudcat” Grant, who had rescued eight of Catfish’s wins with late-inning relief work. (Yes, it was a different baseball world back then.) Hunter didn’t appreciate the suggestion that he had depended so heavily on Grant to enjoy a successful season. “Mudcat was a good relief pitcher last year,” Catfish told The Sporting News, “one of the best I’ve ever seen. But I didn’t like it when some sportswriters suggested that he get half my salary this year. He did his job and I did mine.” Without minimizing the efforts of one of his teammates, Hunter had provided a thoughtful defense of his own contributions to the team.

Yet, Hunter didn’t take himself too seriously. He enjoyed playing practical jokes, which served to loosen up a clubhouse that was sometimes sidetracked by tension and mistrust. He never really liked being the center of attention, which was exactly where he found himself in 1964, when a horde of scouts had initiated an all-out raid on his home in Hertford, North Carolina, and its population of 2,012 residents. Scouts considered the young Jim Hunter one of the best high school pitchers in the country. Finley, at the time the owner of the Kansas City A’s, succeeded in signing Hunter to his first professional contract. The following spring, the A’s wanted to send the 19-year-old Hunter to the minor leagues, but his surprising maturity convinced management that he should remain with Kansas City.

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