Game 156: Blue Jays at Yankees
-
- September
- 24
Here is the lineup:
YANKEES
Damon DH
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Rodriguez 3B
Matsui LF
Posada C
Cano 2B
Mientkiewicz 1B
Cabrera CF
Pettitte LHP (14-8, 3.79)
Pregame chatter: Yankees are facing RHP A.J. Burnett (8-7, 3.42). Toronto announced that Burnett went home for personal reasons and that Jesse Litsch will start in his place. He 6-9 with a 4.16 ERA. He careful celebrating, sometimes these things backfire on you.
The Red Sox are off today, so at the close of business the Yankees could be one game out with six to play. … Thanks to Brian Heyman for calling in the lineup.
UPDATE, 11:34 p.m.: As always, I read all the Yankee stories today and noticed a running theme, that somehow the “Joba Rules” were broken because he pitched yesterday.
This whole thing is really getting out of hand. The kid has now been a reliever since late July. He has made 16 relief appearances in the majors after making three in the minors. His arm is now conditioned to what he is doing.
The “Rules” were never the 10 Commandments. They were guidelines that would change as time went on. Chamberlain, the trainers, Nardi Contreras, Joe Torre, Ron Guidry and Brian Cashman all have a say in what is right. The main thing is for the kid to be honest and tell them how he feels.
There are a few basic things: if he warms up, he’s coming in. They won’t warm him up two or three times (“dry humps” as the relievers say) before making the move.
He’s not going to throw more than 34-40 pitches in an outing.
If he throws that many, he’s going to get a few days off. But if he throws 10 on one day, he can pitch the next day if needed.
It’s basic, common-sense stuff. But some fans seem to be under the impression that Torre has a team of lawyers looking for loopholes in some document. It’s not like that. Better than anybody, Torre understands what Chamberlain means to the organization.
If he’s going to be manager for another two or three years (which is certainly possible at this point), he wants Joba healthy. Having a rotation of Wang, Pettitte, Joba, Moose and Hughes next season is a good place to start.
UPDATE, 2:32 p.m.: As of right now, Roger Clemens will start tomorrow. Chien-Ming Wang and Phil Hughes will follow. Ian Kennedy has been shut down. Bad for his career, good for his wedding.
UPDATE, 3:36 p.m.: Just spent about an hour going over my postseason travel plans. Basically, we make reservations for all possibilities. So I have rooms booked for Anaheim and Cleveland for the ALDS, the same for the ALCS and rooms in Denver, Phoenix, Chicago, San Diego and Philadelphia for the World Series. I’m lucky that I can stay with my sister near Boston because the hotel rates there are outrageous.
Starting tomorrow, I figure I’ll be working about 40 consecutive days more or less. Either covering games or covering what will happen after the season with Torre and all the free agent players. But it’s an exciting time. When you’re a baseball writer, you basically work every day in October and no days in January.
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YANKEES!!!!!!!!
Love to see Mientkiewicz playing again. I DESPERATELY want him to stay hot. because I don’t want Torre to have a single excuse to play Giambi at first in the playoffs.
They could be 1 out with 6 to play.. Back in April, who would have thought?
And they could clinch when they go out to dinner tonight. I wonder if they’ll be spraying beer and champige in the resturant they go to tonight?
I just heard Blue Jays pitching change? Any word on this?
I love Cabrera in the 9 hole.
.306AVG 3HR 29RBIs .813OPS
Possibly one game behind, that team in New England. Pettitte on the mound for a big game. Burnett being due for a bad one. Oh boy. I love the New York Yankees.
Yankees.com shows Litsch pitching instead of Burnett, but I don’t know why. More good news!
i hate workday games.
Litsch pitching would be a beautiful, beautiful, thing.
Right, guys, I got class during the game today so I need all of you to keep the OPTIMISM going again!
You did a brilliant job yesterday, I’m sure you can do the same again!
I might be back before the end of the game.
LET’S GO YANKEES!
Litsch now pitching for Blue Jays.
Confirmed.
Litsch pitched well against the Sox last week, but I’d still rather see him than Burnett. I was at yesterday’s game and to me, it looked like the Jays stopped caring right after the Yankees scored three in the bottom of the second. So I guess it’s all good.
And I agree, workday games are the worst. I get nothing done. Nothing.
Really wow, any word why?
I hate day games too, At least I kinda get 880 in my office. There is lots of static but I deal with it.
1 out with 6 to play. But WC could be clinched by end of the day with Detroit playing Minnesota. Is it game time yet??
Hm interesting about AJ. I won’t complain though. Go Yanks!
“Burnett had to go home for personal reasons,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said about 2 1/2 hours before the game was scheduled to start
Maybe Aj woke up with a stiff neck it would be justice after all the bad Toronto hotedl pillows we have had to deal with this year
Hope everything is okay
No Burnett?
WOW! The Yankees should take advantage of it!
good news in re: burnett. this is a lineup that plays to win. i wonder when we’re going to start seeing betemit/gonzales/sardhina lineups…
I don’t get why he has Damon as the DH and Matsui is in left. We need to win this game, and as Torre as said time and time again, Our best outfield is with Damon in LF. Plus Damon seems to be better at the plate when he is in LF.
Great, now Litch will throw a shutout.
Pregame chatter: Yankees are facing RHP A.J. Burnett (8-7, 3.42). … The Red Sox are off today, so at the close of business the Yankees could be one game out with six to play.
Don’t forget that we are only 2 games out of FIRST PLACE in the ENTIRE American League, too !...and WHEN Texas takes care of LAA, after tonight we will only be 1.5 games back of CLE for 1st in the A.L…....AND hold the tiebreaker against THEM, too @!!,,,,,,,and DOWN the stretch they come !!! LOL
Andrew isn’t that what always happens to us? We think thank god we don’t have to face so and so and some scrub shuts us down.
NEW YORK (AP)—A.J. Burnett was replaced by rookie Jesse Litsch as the Toronto Blue Jays’ starting pitcher for Monday’s series finale against the New York Yankees.
“Burnett had to go home for personal reasons,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said about 2 1/2 hours before the game was scheduled to start.
Exactly jennifer. If the Yankees score more than one run off this scrub I will be surprised. Pettitte will just have to do him one better.
for those who can get away with it at work and are outside of the blackout areas mlb.tv is running a free 5 day trial.
burnett has looked lights out the past few weeks. can’t say i’m unhappy with his omission from the lineup today.
Who owns the tiebreaker for the division? My mind is numb this morning and I can’t rememember.
Paul-
Yankees do!
We do we won the season series 10-8.
Yanks hold the tiebreaker against the Sox 10-8, so a tie would go to New York.
If that happens, we could look back at that A-Rod HR against Papelbon as the difference, and he will have literally won the division for the team.
Go DETROIT !...they need to push us as long as they can, so that by the time we clinch being in the Playoffs, we will either be IN first in our division OR SO CLOSE to best record in the A.L. and the number one seed that the Yankees MUST push all the way through game number 162. Finishing the season ON A ROLL will be huge and will carry over to the ALDS, ALCS and the WS for RING NUMBER 27 ! Go Yankees….OPTIMISM RULES !!!
I wonder when the Yankees and for that matter the Red Sox plan to celebrate making the postseason. I can’t imagine Torre will let the team celebrate clinching the wild card, but then do they just celebrate after not winning the division (not to be a pessimist)? I guess that means they will celerate tomorrow night in Tampa.
Andrew and Jennifer,
.
Rebecca is gonna have to confiscate your Optimism Club Badges….what is with all that negativity ??? The Yankees will POUND this dude ! The division AND being number ONE in the A.L. are on the line for the next seven games, and we are AT HOME !!!...ready to take advantage of the open door
.
......GO YANKEES !!!!
You’re right Vito. We will pound him and he will be out of the game in the 4th inning. No wait make that the 3rd.
Don’t we have to win an extra game to compensate for the 1/2 in the 1 1/2 back in addition to winning a game when the Red Sox lose?
Or is the half game considered a tie based on mere percentage points?
We do our part this afternoon, the Twins do their part tonight. And all is right with the world.
I may have to go home and work this afternoon!!! Oh, man! GO YANKEES!!!!!!!!!!!! GO ANDY!!!!
that half is tonight. Boston is off.
Hey, anyone know whether I can register for Yankees play-off tickets, even though I’m already a season-ticket holder and have purchased playoff seats via my plan.
Actually Jeff- the 1/2 is this afternoon – Yanks play at 1pm
Kill-Schill(ing)-
Not sure.. But you could give me those playoff tickets from your season ticket plan!
Then im sure you’d have no issues registering. hah.
you have to register for the lottery at yankees.com, good luck
If we win today, we just have to win one more game than the soxs and we win the division.
The Joba rules were put in place to keep Torre from abusing him as he does to all his other relievers.
Play today, win today…
I made this post back in August, after the Yanks lost to the Orioles the day after Phil Rizzuto died:
But these are the things we should be taking away from today’s game:
Phil Hughes can pitch. If Shelley had caught that very catchable ball in right, and they not made the throwing error on that one ground ball to the left of first, Baltimore would have scored, at most, one run. He’s pitching against the guy a lot of people like for the AL Cy Young, or will say should get the Cy Young…and the way Bedard pitched, he deserves it.
The Yankees made the right moves in calling up Henn and Ramirez who pitched scoreless innings. They’re both young, and I like Edwar a little bit better than Henn, but they came in and did their job, no questions asked. It’s not their fault Baltimore scored three runs off of Hughes and defensive misplays.
Shelley Duncan can come through in a clutch moment. Plenty of others would have struck out then, but he went yard. He also, apparently, can throw. If he learns how to properly catch balls hit in right field, then, if Abreu walks, the Yanks have nothing to worry about in right.
The Yankees did score three runs. Yea, it’s not a lot, but it’s more than 0 and they didn’t get shut out twice in a row. It’s a good sign for tomorrow’s game. Yea, the momentum would be completley different if they’d won the game, but we know now that the offense hasn’t gone completley anemic, it just came face to face with a crazy good pitcher, one who is probably LOADS better than Verlande. We got into the O’s pen like we wanted, and y’know what? We scored three runs.
Arod had four hits today. It’s been a few games since he’s homered, but it’s nice to see him coming through with the base hits.
Leche hit the ball hard multiple times, it was just unfortunate that other people were in the way or that the ball hooked foul—I thought the one in the ninth was a goner!
Betemit probably shouldn’t be in the line up batting right handed, even against lefties. He’s just not good from that side. I agree that Cano should have gotten a day off when there was a chance, but his bat would have been more welcome.
Boston lost. No matter what else happens today, we can’t lose ground in the division.
There’s still a month and a half of ball to play. Boston’s shown it has a really, really hard time beating Tampa—even when Tampa’s pen implodes. They needed a near no-no from Wakefield to win game one, and just barely eked out a win in game two. We, however, have scored 7 runs, 17 runs and 21 runs in our last few outings with Tampa, whom we play in the final week, and whom Boston doesn’t.
No score yet in Minnesota and Seattle, but as Jeter’s said, we’re in this for the division.
And we’re gonna get it.
I still stand by it.
...Except for the part about Henn.
Question, do you think he abuses Mo? As some have finally pointed out, he doesn’t abuse the golden arms. quantril always threw that many innings, he was old anyway. Tanyon had a career year under Joe, he pitched with a torn rotator cuff, the list goes on.
other than joba , who has completely blown me away , i think ian kennedy has a right to compete for the 5th spot in the rotation come spring .
i also think you guys are underrating the importance of high quality , late inning bullpen help . i’m not saying one way or another whether joba should stay in the pen or be a starter . what i am saying is i wouldnt be upset if he did stay in the pen .
Being in a position to clinch a playoff spot is still pretty good for those of us who grew up in the CBS years. Or The Madness of King George 1982 to 1993. Will Dave Collins, Ed Whitson and Steve “Rainbow” Trout be on hand? What about Celerino Sanchez, Roger Repoz or Dooley Womack?
I dont think he over uses Mo.. I think sometimes he was forced to put Mo in to get more then 3 outs.. But that was his lack of faith in the bullpen. It’s not something he wanted to do everytime out.
Re: the Joba as a starter vs. reliever argument, I think it boils down to need and skill set. Do they need a starter or reliever. Does he have the pitch repetoire to start or should he only face a line-up one time through because of limited pitches.
By minor league accounts, Joba has four solid pitches. The others in the organization (Ohlendorf, as one example) do not have the number of pitches necessary to make it as consistent starters. This would put Joba into a starter’s role and let the many other arms who only have two major league-level pitches to throw out of the pen.
Kill-Schill, I think you can. I did. They don’t exclude ticket licence holders from registering in the rules, so I assume it’s fine.
edit…not sure why the question marks didn’t show up.
yanks bullpen for 2007 playoffs …
mo
joba
the viz
farnsworthless
kennedy
hughes
veras
edwar
i would rather pitch kennedy over farnsworthless any day of the week .
good afternoon from the work place fellow bloggers lets win this series and make it 16 of the last 21 series
Hey Uncle Vito, today is our last home game, the rest of our games are away!
Yah.. Farnsworth had a great run, and confidence in him was growing.. But that 1 bad outing erased those good games he pitched from peoples memories..
You just don’t know whats going to happen when he goes out there..
Just joining in on the appetizing optimism. I for one love day games as I live in Norway and can watch them when I get home from work ! Go Yankees, the sox have kept our place in the division warm for long enough !
Rebecca, I remember that post! It almost makes me tear up thinking about how far they’ve come this year. I’m so proud of the heart they’ve all played with. Never say die!!! 27 in ‘07! GO YANKEES!
“Being in a position to clinch a playoff spot is still pretty good for those of us who grew up in the CBS years. Or The Madness of King George 1982 to 1993. Will Dave Collins, Ed Whitson and Steve “Rainbowâ€? Trout be on hand?”
I’ve heard rumors of a Chuck Cary and Vic Mata sighting!
with mo , the viz and joba you know what youre going to get . which is normally a high quality outing . as with farnsworthless you know what youre going to get aswell ; a poor outing , bad sportsmanship and a nasty attitude . i dont like his glasses either .
We play today, we win today, dascit!
Clinch a playoff spot.
Rest.
Gear rotation & pen for the playoffs.
Win 11 games.
Fugheddaboutit.
Per Tom Verducci at SI
I guess you are good friends with Joe Torre. How can you seriously say that Torre doesn’t overuse his bullpen? He rarely lets any of his starters go more than seven innings and he has the bullpen up in the fourth at any hint of trouble. To say that he doesn’t overuse his bullpen is just showing you have blinders on when it comes to him. I would expect more from one of the few baseball writers out there that still has some credibility.—Chris Neese, Harrison, Mich.
*****
Do you actually think that Torre, or any manager, prefers to pull his pitcher before the seventh inning? Come on. Bullpen usage is a direct function of the reliability of starting pitching, plain and simple. Here are the starts of at least seven innings by Yankees pitchers in the Torre era:
1996: 54
1997: 77
1998: 91
1999: 69
2000: 67
2001: 64
2002: 79
2003: 87
2004: 53
2005: 56
2006: 44
2007: 40
Now why weren’t you accusing Torre of overusing his bullpen in 2003? Because he could start Clemens, Wells, Pettitte, Mussina, Weaver and Contreras. That’s a little better than Matt DeSalvo, Chase Wright and Tyler Clippard. Torre didn’t suddenly have a sudden philosophical change and decide to start going to his bullpen earlier. He’s the same manager he’s always been; it’s his starting pitching that changes.
thanks dadofjft
‘Limey Yankee
September 24th, 2007 at 11:29 am
for those who can get away with it at work and are outside of the blackout areas mlb.tv is running a free 5 day trial.’
Can’t manage mlb.tv’ but Gameday I can minimize…...
(speaking as a fellow ‘Limey’, that is!)
Kill Shill—yes you can register.
“If he’s going to be manager for another two or three years (which is certainly possible at this point), he wants Joba healthy. Having a rotation of Wang, Pettitte, Joba, Moose and Hughes next season is a good place to start.”
did you forget about IPK ?....If the Yankees keep Moose for 2008 ( which IMO, they shouldn’t ) then IPK has shown to be better than Hughes…If Moose is gone, then he should be in there for sure ( IPK )....Wang, Pettitte, Joba, Hughes and IPK/Moose looks pretty sweet !
If we win today its like being tied with boston. We own the tie breaker. Being that they face oakland and minny for thier final 6 games and we face baltimore and tampa. Our chances of winning the division looks really good. I said friday that if we took 3 of 4 or split and boston lost one vs. d rays that we would take the division. It all boils down to todays game. We win and the pressure is on boston.
We have won 6 of 7 since Doug took over first base duties last sunday. I know alot of you want Giambi out there,but the team looks much more flexable and stronger on the field. Giambi should be a pich hitter from this point on till the offseason,where we find a taker like Oakland or California to take half his salary. He’s from the west coast, so I dont think he would have a problem signing off on that. As far as Damon, he looks real good in left. Keep him their and Matsui at d.h.
This team reminds me of the 2005 team that cameback like 62 times that year. But with stronger defense and pitching. #27 is their for the taking and this is the team to do it.
GO YANKS
Joe’s guess we won’t see Ian the rest of the season
Jeter’s future wife
September 24th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Hey Uncle Vito, today is our last home game, the rest of our games are away!.
Jeter’s future wife
September 24th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Hey Uncle Vito, today is our last home game, the rest of our games are away!.
I gotta get my PC fixed, sorry for the double post…
Clay Buchholz stole my laptop, and David Ortiz stole my cheeseburger (aka Joe)
September 24th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
We play today, we win today, dascit!——————————————————————————
it’s
WE PLAY TODAY, WE WIN TODAY “DAS” IT
saw this on another site
No Brunett, Glaus, Thomas and Wells?
we better win!!
One more thing Id like to add. RESIGN MOLINA NOW! Best backup since Girardi.
No Kennedy for the rest of the year, per Torre on the Pre-Game Show. They are going to take it easy with him, which is the right thing to do.
Unless he is injured or is just awful next spring, he will be in the rotation in 2008.
Jennifer Thomas is in the lineup
Man, crazy thing with AJ just bailing on his start for ‘personal’ reasons. So if we win big today, how many Sox trolls you think will be here crying foul about the Jays throwing the game and rolling over for us? Then again, i guess if the roles were switched and we just found out that Burnett was a last minute scratch vs the Sox, we’d all be pretty sore about it too. Whatever tho, last regular season game at home, beautiful day, chance to take the series: i like our chances.
SJ44,
I want Kennedy to be in the rotation next year more than Hughes or Moose(He has been the one phenom pitcher thats been in the shadows of the other two studs) But do you see Torre choosing him over those two? I just feel like no matter how well he does he will be the 6th pitcher,which means he will start at AAA. I hope im wrong.
Alright, time for score predictions… Just because..
I say 6-3 Yankees.
NO Burnett, excellent.
Oh well bad info than Gayle.
We still should kick their butts
7-2. Pettite pitches 7 strong innings.
Jessie Litsch will start in lieu of AJ Burnett.
Also, for those at work, this was posted yesterday:
Mel #2
September 23rd, 2007 at 2:53 pm
I don’t know how many of you know about this but I just found it…it’s a live feed of the game
http://wham1180.com/cc-common/streaming_new/index.html?refreshed=yes
I know Hughes has been injured, but based on what I have seen this year, I would think Hughes should start the year in AAA…
But, talk of next season depresses me. We should be talking about the next month. There will be plenty of time (after the parade) to discuss next year’s starting rotation.
I’d love to see Hughes in the rotation next year. But it would be nice if he could find the three to five mph that his fastball lost. If not? Kennedy has been a far superior starter.
Hughes was fine in his last start he is actually improving hit 94 mph in the 4 inning he’s gaining his strength back, he allowed 7 hits and 5 of the 7 hits were singles, if not for Matsui muffing balls in the OF it would have been 1 – 1 into the 6th or 7th inning.
He deserves to start in the playoffs imo.
damn i was hoping they’d take Kennedy to the playoffs as a longman. Well hopefully they’ll still take Hughes, but i’m sure we’ll see Kei Igawa, Henn or Villone out there waiting to blow a game for us instead of Phil.
I’m still high on Phil, i think that injury really got to him mentally and messed up his confidence and momentum, kid’ll get strong again before ST and hes gonna tear it up next year, you wait.
Joba has been up since 8/7. Since that time, he has pitched in 16 of 43 games (37%). Over a 162 game season, this pace would give him 60 games.
The Joba rules have been fine. While they don’t need to be as stringent as they are, Yanks would be good to target around 60 games for all of their relievers. Problem is the good ones are used much more….
While they will evaluate Hughes next season and see if needs work, it won’t be about his velocity.. If he doesn’t get back to where he was, then it’s all about control..
His fastball is fast enough now for him to be good, but hes also lost a bit of command. He’ll get that back though, no worries really.
Hughes is going to be much better the IPK.. Hughes is going to be a horse, he is getting a on the job education and he is a sponge.. he has pitched in 12 games iPK 3 or so, do not annoint him Moose Jr. Yet….
either way the Yanks have a bounty of richees in young starters, that is a good problem all teams would love to have…....
Hughes hasn’t shown he is a lock for the rotation in 2008. Moose will be in because they have 11 million reasons why he should be in. Also, if he continues to pitch like he has, why wouldn’t you want him in the rotation next year? Clearly, he still has something left.
Hughes needs a lot of work. Its awfully hard to go from 60-80 innings to 180 in a season, which is what the leap would be for Hughes next year. In fact, in today’s baseball, such a leap is asking for trouble, injury-wise.
At this stage of their respective careers, Kennedy is older, more experienced (from his college and international experience) and a more reliable pitcher. He’s also pitched more innings than Hughes the last 4+ years.
Somehow, Hughes is going to have to up his innings. Its going to be hard for him to do it this off-season unless he plays winter ball. It wouldn’t surprise me if he pitches somewhere (winter ball, Hawaiian League, etc.) in the off-season.
I hope he is in the best shape of his life next spring because there is going to be a lot of pressure on him to perform up to the hype.
I think he’s up to it but, until you see it, its just empty words.
If Torre is back, Wang, Moose and Pettitte are set for the rotation. If they are still set on Joba in the rotation, you add Joba to the mix. That gives them 4 set spots (barring injury) in the rotation, with Kennedy and Hughes fighting for the 5th spot.
Based on what we have seen at this time (which is all we have to go on), Kennedy has that edge.
It will be an interesting battle next spring to see how it all shakes out.
Right, it’ll be a spring training battle for those 2 rotation spots… But the bigger question is about what they do with the odd-man out… Do they leave him in AAA so he gets his regular amount of innings, or do they bring him up and throw him in the BP?... Be interesting to see.. But, for now, Ill focus on this season! Go Yankees!
SJ44:
dont kid yourself, hughes is in next year.
Im hearing people mentioning going after Tejada at 3rd, If we lose A-rod. I dont know how many more years he has left on that rediculous contract,but i would prefer Lowell over him.Better fielder and we could sign him to a short contract.
TEJADA OR LOWELL?
It’s kind of nice, though, to have a six-headed monster. All the older pitchers struggle at some point in the season and benefit from some rest. We need one quality spot starter without a huge dropoff in talent. Look how beneficial Julian Tavarez was to Boston in the beginning of the season. We couldn’t beat him to save our season.
S.o.S.27 : neither, arod is gonna stay
Don’t kid yourself, he’s not “in” anywhere.
He has work to do. If you think the Yankees are just going to hand him a spot based on hype, its not happening.
Let’s put it another way. If he pitches like he has next spring, he won’t be in the rotation to start the season.
The entire turnaround this season has been based on competition. Damon was struggling, here comes Shelley Duncan. All of a sudden, Damon gets hot.
Giambi comes back and is on the bench. He works his way back in.
They blow up their bullpen at mid-season and add new faces because they weren’t happy with the results.
They pull Mike Mussina out of the rotation, during the stretch run, and add Kennedy. Mussina pushes himself, cleans up his mechanics, and is now in the playoff rotation.
What makes anybody think they are going to change that formula next year? If Hughes pitches well enough (ie: out pitches his competition) he will be in the rotation.
If he doesn’t, he won’t be and all you have to do is see what they have done this year as evidence of that fact.
Keep Joba in the pen,have pettite,wang,moose,hughes and kennedy as starters. If there is an injury to a starter,have Joba take his spot in the rotation. Therefore we have all 6 starters up in the majors helping the team and not having to put a starter with no bullpen experience in the pen to start the season.
Yankees win 6-1 today…over the last 7 games go 6-1, finish 96-66 and at minimum hold down the #2 seed in the playoffs…Likely, they grab the number 1 seed and get matched up WITH A NYY Home Field Advantage against CLE, whil LAA and BOS fight it out to see who is the NEXT YANKES VICTIM !!! WOW!...Pettitte is starting strong, folks !!!
Yes, Kennedy has “the edge” on Hughes based on 3 starts in the majors he has “vastly outperformed” Hughes. Yes, Kennedy is the greatest thing since sliced bread and Hughes is nothing more than a 4A retread pitcher.
Kennedy has pitched against Toronto, KC, and Tampa Bay.
Hughes has pitched against Cleveland, Toronto 3X, Baltimore 2X, Detroit, LAA, KC, Seattle. Could it possibly be that Hughes has faced much tougher competition than IPK has thus far?
Nice K for Andy there.
Hughes is a lock for 2008 SJ, there is no doubt about that
quick inning for Andy yay !
SJ44: you are a total doom and gloom guy… it’s amazing.
1-2-3 !!!
great start
Nice first inning for Andy. Hopefully the first of many quick innings for him.
Now lets jump on Litsch early, and put up some first inning runs
today is a rainout makeup game,supposed to have been a day off. would have been nice for the players, but better now that Burnett has personal issues!
GREAT START FOR ANDY!!
Litsch is a “Lefties Delight”...sweet.
Nice looking inning there by Andy.. Not that I could actually see it, but, you know what I mean…
How is that doom and gloom? Because I am not handing a job to a 21 year old kid that’s “doom and gloom”?
I SPECIFICALLY said I think Hughes will live up to the hype. Try reading the posts.
I also said they won’t HAND him a spot, based on how they have run the team the second half of the year.
How in the world is that “doom and gloom”?
Its not anything of the sort.
I really don’t think Hughes has shown the polish to be guaranteed a spot in the rotation next year. A full year in the rotation would also be a huge increase in innings for him.
With Joba and Kennedy performing the way they are, Hughes will have to compete.
Hughes definitely has stuff to work on. Historically a groundball pitcher he is now a flyball pitcher post injury (g/a ratio). He needs to attack more and finish off batters. But, he’s kept the ball in the park and we can’t expect him to run a marathon right after an injury.
He’s going to do whatever it takes. I don’t think he minds Joba lapping him because of his filthy, nasty stuff. But you know he doesn’t want to lose his spot to Ian.
In Phil we trust.
i honestly believe that the injuries that phil went through really hindered his development. i think a full rest and conditioning program will do him fine and he’ll slip into that number 4 spot nicely
if i have to hear about being 14.5 GB one more time, i think i’m going to explode! it’s such old news!
Im all for casually talking about next season and such but, we’re so close to the playoffs!
That should be what gets the majority of our attention. If we’re going to talk about rosters, lets talk more about what players should make up the SP and the bullpen..
Quick inning for the Yankees there.. Litsch threw 9 pitches…
Jeter’s future wife: it’s a big story and a major comeback. you should be proud.
A lot can change between now and next spring. I personally think the rotation will include Wang, Pettitte, Mussina, Hughes and Kennedy. Bullpen includes Mo, Joba, Ohlendorf, Ramirez and down the road Humberto.
The other thing I wonder about next year’s rotation is that they won’t want Joba throwing 180 innings yet (given how few he was thrown in his college/pro career), so how will they manage that?
As someone said, though, this is a great problem to have.
Anyone have the game on? I’m at work. I was just wondering how hard Damon and Pettitte hit those fly balls? It will help me judge whether or not we’ll get shut out.
by Pettitte i mean Jeter, ooobviously. haha my bad.
Oh and by the way, it won’t be that “huge” of an innings jump for Hughes next season. He’s already over 100 innings for the season when you include his minor league numbers. He could theoretically pitch 160 innings next year and the jump will not be that large for him. As a 4/5th starter next year the Yanks can skip starts for him to keep his innings pitched down as well.
my god, Hughes is so young, I don’t think you can really judge him at this stage of things. I was at spring training and he wasn’t there! give him a full season, in spring training with the instructors and a rythm in the rotation and then we’ll see what he’s worth!
I think Hughes is going to learn a lot about pitching this year from all these starts with less than his best stuff. I think he comes back big time next year with the winter off and spring training under his belt.
Leonardo,
they were hit pretty well, but not hard enough…..Leitsch looked a little worried watching Jeter’s ball.
Does anyone know where I can see the Milton Bradly video?
How does Andy look today?
yankee fan in boston-
Haha, click my name… Boy we’re going to confuse people.. =P
jennifer 27 in 07
They had it on ESPN.com, that’s where I saw it
What do you mean Huges wasn’t at spring training? He bought a condo in Tampa, he was there from day one. You might be thinking of Joba and Ian who were not at major league spring training this year.
Should Alex have had that?
Is anyone else here having issues with mlb.tv? I just have black. No audio, no archived, games, nothing. And i’ve been on the phone for customer service – on hold – for like 15 minutes now. And it’s starting to piss me off. Anyone else having trouble?
I would love to know how one can tell if a team will get shutout based on how hard fly balls were hit. Saturday I seem to recall several of the Toronto BJ’s getting on base with an assortment of bloopers.
Crap. my fellow Longhorn just screwed us.
AROD, his fielding isn’t all that spectacular..
What is it about New York that makes Thigpen play like an MVP?
i’m on mlb.com with no problem
all he could have done was stop it Jen, but hey it happens in day games
Thanks. Jeter’s wife. I really don’t know who I hate more right now, Phil Hughes for letting Thigpen break out of his 0-23, Michael Kay for telling me he was in a slump, or Curtis Thigpen for looking like a loser (mlb.com pic).
whatever it is, i think they’re bottling it and selling to crummy teams like TB and BAL as well.
Ummm, Hughes has been at spring training for the last two years. Not that his presence there changes your point, that he is young and it is ridiculous to place a label on him. It is pointless to argue the ‘08 rotation right now. Anyone who follows the Yankees farm knew that IPK was polished, but Hughes has better stuff overall. It is no surprise that I an has stepped in and done well. Let’s let Phil get healthy before we write him off.
Ok Mrs. Jeter, looks like we will be disagreeing today. A Rod didn’t make that play, but he is way better than average defensively. I think he should win the gold glove this year.
I am on MLB.TV and is good … I had to shut down the browser and relaunch it once when it went black…
Jeff NY,
I was there from Mar. 3-5, and Hughes never pitched. Tyler Clippard, Karstens, Kennedy, but not Hughes….maybe he started to pitch a few innings after I left.
YES, Arod should have had that Jennifer!
Blue Jays continue to be annoying. Curtis Thigpen goes 0 for 23 then comes into the Yankees series and turns into willie mays hayes – unbelievable!
I’m listening at work – for those of you watching: is Andy laboring or are they getting lucky or what?
Doh… 3-0..
Pettitte always comes through in the big game!!
So I just managed to get the radio on at work. Waldman says that there haven’t been any hard hit balls except for A-Rods. I don’t trust her. Someone trustworhty confirm or deny her claims, pleeease?
I am finding it hard to care too much if we win today. Anyone else? Seems like we are just better off gliding into the post season and getting people some rest (Jeter, et al.)
Just what i love to see going to the playoffs… terrible
Andy has just been pitching some hard to hit pitches and the hitters are getting some good fouls and then hitting the bad pitches. But Thigpen’s ball should have been stopped and maybe even been turned into a force out at 3rd.
Jeter’s wife, here’s the thing about pitchers, they pitch every 5 days. So the fact that you were there for 3 days and didn’t see Phil does not mean he wasn’t there. He was. But let’s move on.
They’re just putting good wood on the ball, though it looked like melky was outta position on the last RBI
“I am finding it hard to care too much if we win today.”
If we win today, we win the division. If not, we lose it. Today’s game, like the last 15 games, is BIG.
Well I predicted the Yankees would win 6-3, so clearly thats the last scoring the Blue Jays do today.
so many negative people here , WTF was that card board cut out !!
Thanks Shdw. TKinDC, I get pist after any loss. So I really want them to win. Although I see merit to your argument about helping them get some rest. The lineups for today are made now, they have to play the game. How about we blow the out starting now. Then rest everyone.
Why are the BJ’s playing so hard against the Yanks this series? What are they playing for exactly? I believe they already have 3rd place locked up. lol
Here’s what would be weird about winning today. They can clinch tonight when they are on a plane travelling to Tampa. Then win or lose they celebrate tomorrow. It would almost be better to lose today, get the magic number down to one with Detroit. Oh man Michael Kay is making this same point right now.
Hughes pitched 4 and 2/3 innings this spring, but he was also in camp last year. You may recall Jorge’s comments about him that he had the most electric arm in camp (RJ and Mo included). Either way (and like I said before) the point is moot, as Phil is too young to pigeon-hole him as a certain type of pitcher.
Ray, if you were a blue jays fan. Ending up in 3rd place over and over and over, I think you’d understand why they’re playing so hard. That said, Eff them for doing so.
Anyway my point is if they lose today and Detroit loses, they can win tomorrow and celebrate off a win. As opposed to having to celebrate after a loss tomorrow.
Makes sense to clinch a spot in the playoffs and then worry about resting guys.
The good news is that Baltimore is completely demoralized and should offer no resistance even if we play our bench guys.
Well, the Blue Jays just played pretty hard against the Red Sox as well. You have to hand it to their manager and team—they aren’t quitting.
I want to go 7-0 for the rest of the season. Call me naive, call me greedy. Losing sucks.
TK,
That’s the way I feel. The Division is meaningless. Folks get all lathered up for it for the wrong reasons. Its about winning the World Series, not winning the Division.
I just want the playoff spot wrapped up before the Orioles series. The last thing you want are the regulars facing a wild Daniel Cabrera in a meaningful game in Baltimore.
He hits a guy, breaks a wrist, and you have big problems.
They don’t fly Division Champions flags in Yankee Stadium.
The most important thing is to get your pitching lined up, get guys some rest, and get ready for the post-season.
Home field in baseball is the most overrated subject going. The Yankees have had it for years and it hasn’t helped them.
The last thing anybody should want is to look for this team to play hard next weekend in Baltimore. That should be a rest weekend for the walking wounded and a chance for some of the backup guys to play.
i’m so happy litsch is pitching today ya never know
Yes it makes sense for the Yankees to lose today so that they can celebrate tomorrow. That is the most sensible thing that can happen today because the Yankees won’t want to celebrate in the plane or when they land. I absolutely hope they lose today’s game now, what was I thinking.
we’ll be alright. all our batters are making contact so sooner or later we’ll get some of these to go through. 3 runs is nothing
haha just saw it. His own teamate was pulling him back, which caused his leg to buckle.
6 up 6 down
things not looking good so far
we need to hit Litsch early
Did we go down in order in the second? I was out of my office.
I’m still in the camp that believes we should push it all the way just in case we can end up winning the div and avoiding the angels. though its incredible that we’re even talking playoffs now, I can’t stand to see another 1st round exit.
Are we playing like clowns in the outfield? John is making it seem that way.
Yup no worries.
he’s a first ball swinger !!!!!!!!
Sounds over the radio, like Pettitte is missing his spots.
I don’t usually make statements like this, but it really seems like the Yankees are just going through the motions so far today. Maybe they’ll pick it up as the afternoon progresses, though.
Yes the Yankees should try everything possible to avoid the Angels and play a Cleveland team that some would consider to be the best team in baseball right now. Yes, let’s face CC Sabathia and Carmona who are two of the best starters in baseball, and the Cleveland pen with the two Raffy’s. This also makes absolute sense to me now, don’t know why I never thought about it in the first place…..........
Sounds like they are sleep walking thru the game.
yanks look like they are mailing this one in.
2 botch jobs by the left side of the infield.
man has jeter gotten worse at SS this year.
The Jays need towin tody to stay over .500
SJ –
Great point about Danny Cabrerra. I was couldn’t believe the last time that butcher was on the hill and hit a couple (and threw behind a couple) of our guys.
Cleveland is finishing out the year on the round at Seattle and KC, it will be interesting to see how they approach this stretch run.
Man, ugly game.
Avoiding a team is the worst thing you can do.
First off, you can win the division and still draw the Angels.
Secondly, what’s this, “We have to avoid the Angels” nonsense? If you don’t believe the Yankees can beat the Angels, then its time to move onto football season.
The fact is, the Yankees match up better with the Angels than the Indians because the Angels don’t have a lefty as tough as Sabathia.
Regular season numbers don’t mean anything in the playoffs. Zero. They dominated the Tigers last regular season. How did that turn out.
With a lineup full of LH hitters, folks shouldn’t be wishing for the Indians. Be careful what you wish for.
Since the Yankees are playing like crap today, they will take all this talk out of the equation.
You play the team you draw in the playoffs and look to win the series. Its as simple as that.
jennifer, that was actually his manager, Bud Black. The sad thing about this incident is that everyone is automatically looking at Milton like he is the bad guy, when both Milton and the first base coach Bobby Meacham claim that the umpire said some seriously inflammatory things to the player. The only third party in this matter is the 1b for the Rockies (Helton), and he called the exchange “interesting.”
Just like a player cursing out an umpire is wrong, it is also wrong for an umpire to bait a player into a reaction by cursing at him and making questionable statements to him.
ouch…that E couldn’t have helped. cmon Jeter!
“SJ44: you are a total doom and gloom guy… it’s amazing.”
What is so doom and gloom about what SJ44 is saying? Competition is good. That is what made this year’s team turn things around.
Division over.
Eh.. Error on Jeter.. Get those out of your system now Yankees.
ewe, Pettitte not having a great outing
Arod should have done something with that ball down the line
Melky should have not been playing that shallow at CF
Jeter should have made that play. Incredibly sloppy.
Defense has not been great at all.
sure seems like he is… seems to go deep in counts.
50 pitches through 2 2/3.
I hope they’re not going through the motions, WangFan88.
this isn’t a game for them to go through the motions.
SJ44 – I would agree that the division isn’t worth winning. It doesn’t mean much other than the creative design people get to generate another logo. But it would put more pressure on Boston and/or Cleveland if we could keep surging through this last week.
the last thing I want is for us to have “all but wrapped up” a playoff spot, and start laying back for the postseason to start. That seems to be what happened last year… in my opinion.
While not a must-win, it’s still a nice-to-have.
I know that the guys are exhausted from wire-to-wire baseball over the last 3 days, but you got to make those plays with Andy on the mound.
Let’s go guys!
bad D so far today. arod has to get that ball and Jeter.. they look asleep..
bosco take your meds…..loser
It is only the third innning and they are down only 4 runs. We will win.
They’re cutting the lead in half right now.
oh my god, I think that they psyched themselves out that they don’t have to play that great, b/c AJ wasn’t pitching.
OK, enuff is Enuff…Yankees start the comeback right now….new Score Prediction: ...6-4 OR 8-7 Yankees !!!
I want to win the division AND rest guys for the playoffs AND win the World Series.
We can do all three.
My biggest fear, which won’t happen because Torre is too smart, is for the Yankees to go “full bore” next weekend in Baltimore.
You are already seeing him pulling back a bit. They have spent most of this weekend holding open tryouts for spots in the bullpen.
I could see Cabrera, trying to make a point, drilling Arod or Jeter in the wrist, breaking it, and there goes the season.
That’s a helluva lot more probable than many other things discussed on this blog.
Just get in the playoffs. Whomever they play will be tough. There are no easy teams in the AL this year.
The fact this team is even going to the playoffs, given everything that has happened this year, its amazing onto itself.
We have seen in the last 3 post-seasons, what teams do the last week of the season has little meaning in the post-season, unless there are injuries suffered.
The post-season is a whole different animal.
That’s the 2nd “error” by Thigpen today. He was damn lucky that Hill was there to back him up on his first one.
Thigpen looks like a young Hillenbrand.
Theres the first hit and it comes from Doug
lets see if we can rally here
LETS GO GETEM
we’ll see, let’s see what Johnny Boy can do here!
Oh…and I see the the Trolls are here, how surprising….Nah..they aren’t worried about the Yankees…hanging out on a NYY Blog and injecting their stupidity only when we are losing….Ah,the Trolls, the Circus Freak Show Rejects….nice to have you here, Idiots,,,enjoy watching the YANKEES GAME !!! LOL
If there is one thing that people should have learned this year it is – Don’t quit on games in early innings.
This offense can score a ton of runs and I don’t believe that Whitey Ford is on the mound for the BJ’s.
agree with SJ44 about the Angels.
if I remember correctly, there was the same sentiment about the Tigers last year. “We need to play Detroit, they have such young pitching… and then there’s Rogers, who our LH’s will mash.”
it’s all about energy and making things happen.
if we play Cleveland or Anaheim, we just need to play hard and smart.
dang it, Jeet.
anyone watching… how close was that to the wall?
warning track, or shorter?
yeah. damn Jays. i have no doubt in my mind that if the World Series started tomorrow, that this Toronto team could certainly win it, these hitters have been merciless for the last 2 weeks, and the pitching has been just as good. But really, do they deserve it?
Only thing that really drives me nuts about the playoffs, so much hinges on whether your team is ‘hot’ – these Jays are clearly, undeniably overperforming and playing higher than their potential. Sure it hinges mostly on the performance from your starter in the playoffs, but it doesn’t seem to be enough to simply perform to your expectations, cause it never seems to stand up to a team thats gotten ‘hot’ at the right time. Hot teams turn guys like Thigpen and Russ Adams into friggen MVP caliber players – but only for a few days. Does that make it fair?
Infuriating because then you have an ~80 win team (like the Cardinals last year) get to win it all. A team that kinda sucks all year and chills out under the radar – only to get hot for 2 weeks at the right time and win the series? I don’t know. It sounds nice and Cinderella-storyish when you write it like that but c’mon are you kidding me? The Cards were awful last year. For a team to play excellent ball all season long, and then lose to circumstance – doesn’t seem like a correct or accurate contest that determines the ‘best’ team. What if Colorado limps into the NL wildcard and wins the WS? Sure its an upset, but is it good for baseball to reward subpar teams with the whole enchilada? Is it safe to assume that most teams can’t even really control if they’re hot or not, that its completely up to chance, luck and circumstance? And if thats the case, why don’t they just draw straws to see who wins it all?
I guess this goes back to the ‘wild cards should be more penalized’ argument, but seeing as we might pull the wild card berth, i should just shut up…
Litsch is getting hit really hard but none of them are quite hard enough to leave the park and most of them are right at the defense. Pretty much every out I’ve seen besides 2 or 3 have been hard hit line drives.
Umm, why were people excited by Litsch pitching today?
Anyone else think Litcsh looks like Opie Cunningham? The pic of him on Gameday is priceless…
warning track-ish … stairs had it all the way
Surpassing Boston and winning the division would not mean too much for the Yankees, but I believe it would certainly demoralize Boston. I don’t think it is worth going all out to win the division but if we do play Boston, it would give us a big mental edge if we ended up as division champs…
same as always. crtappy pitcher comes in and shuts them down. and he has been awful his last few starts. which means a 2-hit shutout i hope not.
nah that was a couple of feet shy of the wall.
Well Shdw – if that’s the case, it generally will work out. Eventually we’ll break through. Have confidence. Hasn’t this team taught us nothing else but to believe and to watch until the very very end. It ain’t over ‘til it’s over!
and they are out of the inning with zero!
Hmm Come on Yankees..
jesus, cano is hurt
they seem like zombies today
Oh no. Of course, this is always the risk of playing hard until the very very end. Cano ok????
What happened last post-season was Game 2. The Yankees blew that game and it changed the entire series. Had they won Game 2, they had control of the series.
After blowing that game, they had a shot Randy Johnson and Jared Wright going the next two games. Kenny Rogers pitches the game of his life and that’s was the series. “Laying back” had nothing to do with it.
People have to realize, because of the horrible start, this team has played about 100 post-season games, just to get to this point. Its a tired team.
At some point, you have to pull back and get some guys some rest. Torre will be doing just that this week.
We all sometimes search too much through numbers, “jinxes” and all that stuff to find reasons for losses.
Sometimes, as was the case last year, you get outplayed and you get your butts kicked.
This year is a new year. They need to play this final week of the season intelligently.
Which is, not run everybody into the ground trying to win the division. Just get the playoff spot wrapped up as soon as possible.
Their playoff chances will ride on whether or not they pitch well enough to win and nothing more than that.
Cano’s fine. He’ll have a bruise at worst. He slowed down a lot before his knee hit the tarp’s edge and he’s not even limping anymore and he chose to play.
is he out of the game? what happened?
It’s good that he’s staying in, but I’d rather Cano sit if he’s hurting at all. With the magic number at 2, there’s no reason to push him.
cano looks ok. his knee went in to the tarp chasing a pop up.
Cano’s ok. Minky tried to get that ball and then lost it.
Why does everybody think losing the division would “demoralize” Boston? Where is the evidence of that?
We heard the same thing about Detroit blowing a 10 1/2 game lead last year and it certainly didn’t hurt them.
The playoffs are a whole different deal. Whomever gets hot for 2 weeks win it. That’s it.
You can take your stats, charts, ESPN predictions, etc., and throw them out the window.
If Kenny Freaking Rogers and Jeff Weaver can become post-season heroes, anything is possible.
That’s why the most important thing to do is just get in. After that, you take your shot and do the best you can. Its all you can do.
Speaking of knees, anyone see the Milton Bradley incident of yesterday. What a loser.
If we don’t win today, it was just meant to be. For those not watching, Minky smothered that ball, it popped up, and bounced off his back while he’s on his hands & knees. He doesn’t know which way it bounces so he’s sitting there like a dog, turning his head back and forth. If we weren’t losing 4-0 it would’ve been funny.
SJ – I’m saying that laying back in the weeks leading up to the postseason… not allowing losses, but certainly not playing mightily to win… didn’t help us last year. I just don’t want the same result this year.
don’t think we will… just hoping it won’t happen.
you’re right. The team has played about 100 games with postseason-type atmosphere. I would just hate that, in the interim before the actual postseason, they lay up and stop playing as hard as they have to actually get there.
but I fully recognize and admit that that is a much easier said than done thing from the average fan.
“Their playoff chances will ride on whether or not they pitch well enough to win and nothing more than that.”
Pitching AND Defense. They have to play better defense than they are doing today.
Wheeeww
Here we go…putting up AT LEAST 3 runs here on OPIE !!!
I don’t necessarily think it will demoralize Boston to the point that it won’t be able to function in a short series. Actually, the opposite might take effect. That might just be the fire that sparks a two-week run that wins them the WS. You could make a comparative case against ‘06 Tigers.
but it will give them something to think about. They’ve led the division for 5 months, and they lose it to someone who was 14 plus games back 90 days ago? Maybe that creates an inkling of doubt, from what they’ve done the last month or so and into next month.
it all depends on how they respond.