Carl cannot take all this winning. We’ll actually he can, but does not how to deal with it. After being beaten down with stressful games and endless drama, it is finally good to see some winning baseball. But there is something about the drama mixed in with the winning that makes him come back for more as he explains this week.
ARLINGTON, TX -This is what happens when you win.
You cannot act like a miserable, grumpy sour puss.
That smile covers up the frown. I know it is easier to do the former instead of the latter, but it gives you a chance to embrace the good times.
The bad players do not look so bad anymore. Only the truly awful ones gain closer examination and create more annoyance.
Kevin Cash, I am really speaking about you.
Angel Berroa is not far behind, so don’t think he’s off the hook. I hand out an honorable mention instead. Now that A-Rod is back, I only see him very late in blowout wins when I have already mentally checked out for the night.
This is a good thing.
By the way, (Straight) Cash probably had the luckiest three hit performance I have seen in several seasons on Monday. He got all these hits and I missed all of them while watching on TV.
I swear I didn’t change the channel when he came to the plate, so I am a little confused as to when this took place.
Garbage time clearly was moved to the fifth inning on Monday in Texas once the Yankees had established a 10-0 lead against a pitcher whose code name must be "Batting Practice".
At first, I thought it was just a fluke. Hell, he was hitting one for 21 before then for a cool .047. But then he delivered another two hit performance on Wednesday to now raise his average to a cool .231, making far less than the scrub he was just days before. If he got four more hits without making an out, his average to a more than healthy .300 and I would have to then give him serious consideration for the All-Star Game.
Who needs Joe Mauer when you have Straight Cash?
When you have numerous Yankee players right now hitting and you are getting some good (though not great) starting pitching that we have gotten as of late, it is always a positive vibe that you have about the club.
I don’t want to use the word arrogant, but maybe smug is a better (though they essentially mean the same). No deficit is too large and on the night the team ends up losing, there is no discouragement, as I know the next day we’ll get that one back.
Talk about sunny.
Negativity is swept aside for the moment in a complex one-sided trade for Full-Blown Homerism and a player to be named later.
Is Full-Blown Homerism available to pitch the eighth inning?
Of course, the exhibition games the Yankees have been playing for the last several weeks are essentially tune-ups for the eventual exam June 9-11 in Fenway Park against the Red Sox.
Lose two of three to Boston again or getswept (thus producing a putrid 0-8) for the season versus them and the Yankees may as well consider playing for the Long Island Ducks the rest of the way.
However, in the interim, we take the good vibes, walk-off wins, broken bat home runs, championship belts and pies in the faces. If the only thing I have to bitch about is the (lack of) bullpen (I’m still going to bitch about that) and wind currents at the stadium (unless you think this is Mutant League Baseball), I figure those can be some measures that will not provide as much agita and things are not that bad.
Seriously, things are REALLY not that bad. Have you looked at the standings lately?
Think of it this way, you could be the Chicago Cubs and slowly begin to question where exactly your season is going. That team is playing a dangerous game of "Chance", while acting out their version of “The Wrigleyville Zoo” on a nightly basis.
At the same time, I do miss complaining about stuff going wrong. It's what a lot of us (me included) do best.
I'm not sure if that is an acquired skill or if it takes any real sense of talent to rev up the "Bitch Meter" and articulate one's thoughts about why Girardi mismanaged the bullpen or did not bunt in a specific situation.
As much as we want the 1998 Yankees to be recreated, we have to play a game of “Truth” and we really do not want to see that happen.
The internet message boards, the 24-hour nature of talk radio and all-sports networks were not on the same insatiable, grotesque level that it is now. Such winning would put all of these methods of media out of business once the team reached 40 games over .500.
I'm sorry, but debating who should be the team backup infielder or long reliever in July and August is probably not going to spark a whole lot of debate when night after night you are kicking the other team's ass.
Back in '98 (colonial times for some), the main argument was whether the Yankees needed a better backup infielder for Chuck Knoblauch and whether Ricky Ledee should be in the lineup over Shane (O'Mac) Spencer.
Are you serious?
This is what passed as serious conversation. Hey, what else could you say? It shows you how far we have come in a decade plus.
Losing brings out far more passion than winning. It is hard to extol the values of good for any elongated period without the impression that you are either butt kissing or carrying their water (really, the same thing).
Yet the losing brings a different emotion. You can complain about what went wrong and assess blame for everything. Scrutiny takes on a completely new look to the point where it is like eating the entire plate of rice and leaving no grain to chance.
We revel in the daily drama because it gives us an unusual sense of sanity. You never know what tomorrow will bring with this team. Now the newest episode of “Yankee Drama” comes once again as the argument of whether Joba Chamberlain should be a starter or reliever.
It is the Yankees recreation of “The Never-ending Story.”
So we take these good times because we know the other side, the complaining side, is sure to find itself again and we will be back to what we do best.
Whine. Bitch. Moan. Mind you, this even happens when we are WINNING.
All will be right with the world soon.
For now, let us get on to some real thoughts...
It really is amazing what one man can do for another hitter.
Since A-Rod returned to the lineup, Mark Teixeira has become a beast at the plate. He finally resembles the $180 million dollar player the Yankees thought they were acquiring in the off-season. Going into the weekend series with Cleveland, he is on pace to hit nearly 50 homers and drive in 130 runs and give Gold Glove defense.
Money well spent.
All it took was the $300 million man to return for the $180 million man to hit and not look like Rob Deer up there.
Now, I listened the other day to a baseball person at the All-Sports Network and he suggested that Teixeira-Rodriguez could be the new version of Ortiz-Ramirez.
I don’t want to go that far, but I sure would love to see it.
Only issue I see is that right now there was not an adequate hitter in place behind Rodriguez to give him protection.
Girardi finally smartened up (what took so long?) moving Robinson Cano in the fifth spot in the lineup and has seen good results. Shortly, Jorge Posada is set to come back (he was activated to play in Cleveland on Friday) to add even more length.
Having Cano and Posada hitting fifth and sixth behind Alex in the lineup puts pitchers in a very difficult situation.
Whom would you pitch to?
So much for the Nicky Swish (known in Chicago by White Sox fans as "Dirty Thirty") season of redemption. After a blistering start to the season, he has cooled off considerably and his average is hovering around .230 (though still sporting a very nice on base percentage).
Translation: He would be much served batting seventh in the lineup.
Right in front of Hideki Matsui or hopefully Xavier Nady.
I’m sorry, but even after having a couple of hits on Wednesday night in Texas, including a home run; it is time to say that Matsui done.
It’s over.
He was a great soldier for the nearly seven years he was a Yankee. Many big hits in games came off his bat. However, to be fair, Matsui was never the same postseason player once Pedro Martinez dusted him in Game 5 of the infamous 2004 AL Championship Series.
Matsui, like most of the other Yankees, did not resemble the same hitters from that moment on as the years went on he systematically began to break down. Now, he has lost whatever speed he had, lost his legs and cannot field a lick to where he is a now full time DH.
Allow him to walk at the end of the year and allocate his funds to a player who can play the outfield consistently, hits right handed and produce at a good clip.
I won’t say what his name is, but if he is not resigned, there is certain someone on the Red Sox that I would like to take from them.
How can you not like Francisco Cervelli?
With Posada coming back, his playing time is going to be reduced. The question now is that when Jose Molina is healthy, what do the Yankees do?
Well, let’s break it down.
Cervelli hits better and runs better than Molina. Their game calling skills have been very good and though the veteran Molina has a gun for a throwing arm, it s not as if he has a noodle.
I will address my thoughts on Joba Chamberlain in another column.
AJ Burnett was in my doghouse before his six-inning shutout start on Wednesday against the Rangers.
He may be the ringleader of the “Pie Circus”, but perhaps all the residue from the pie had gotten into his eyes and affected his pitching.
Let’s face it, since his start in Fenway Park when he blew that 6-0 lead, he has not been a great pitcher. That 5.28 ERA he had before Wednesday was not acceptable. For all of that great stuff, he appeared on the surface to be the best six-inning four-run pitcher in the league.
Not much value for $82 million. However, if you want some solace, his ERA is lower than Jon Lester. One friend of mine suggested he was the best left-handed pitcher in the league, obviously unaware that Johan Santana is still playing in Major League Baseball.
I hate when a pitcher yields a two out walk. Force the man to get on base with a hit.
On Sunday in extra innings, pitcher Brett Tomko looked like he was going to have a scoreless 11th frame. Instead, he walked Chase Utley and eventually scored on an RBI double by Carlos Ruiz that would later give the Phillies a 4-3 win.
Ruiz seemed to have the Yankees number last weekend, resembling Johnny Bench at the plate.
How is this possible?
Phil “The Franchise” Hughes was so dazzling on Saturday; it put a smile on my face. But before I could be completely ecstatic, Girardi told the righty that he would not come out to pitch the ninth inning. Hughes did not want to come out of the game and initially refused to shake the manager’s hand for a job well done.
I like that. It showed me that there is a pulse inside of him. There is a drive and competitiveness he possessed on the mound and a confidence that things were going so well that he wanted to finish what he started.
I do not know whether his future the rest of the season is in the minors, but with more starts like last Monday, he does not look to be going anywhere soon.
Which make my belief that he should not have been traded for Johan Santana even more justified.
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