Oh Well

Good pitching performance all around. Cliff Lee is pretty damn effective. He just gets outs which is the name of the game. Chien-Ming Wang did as much as he possibly could. I'll take 3 runs on 5 hits any day of the week.
Where has the hitting gone?
Without A-Rod, Posada and a legit table setter the Yankees look pedestrian. Damon is no longer a lead off guy. Sorry but Girardi has to experiment with moving him down in the order, he doesn't work the count, he can't run anymore. He's a fly ball hitter in this stage of his career. Matsui is the only guy hitting with any consistency in this lineup. Abreu is good at what he does but his approach just pisses me off. He never swings at the first pitch is always behind 0-2 and if I hear "he likes to hit with 2 strikes" again I'll stab myself in the eye with toothbrush.
That being said it is still relatively early and I'm not worried yet. This has been the norm for the Yankees for the past couple of years. The Red Sox are within striking distance. And no one has established themselves as the class of the AL. I see a trade in the future that gets them a pitcher I'd like to see an effort to get Roy Oswalt away from Houston or maybe if Milwaukee falls out of it they will trade Ben Sheets because they don't want to loose him at the end of the year.
Who knows. I sure as hell don't.

Buck does it again.

Another good point by Buck Showalter. Cliff Lee had to throw 11 extra pitches after Abreu beat out the play at first and how that might cost him an inning. With the bullpen issues the Indians have and how well Lee is pitching it might be beneficial to see their bullpen.

This Game Sucks

This game is awful, not too much going on.
So lets dabble in some politics.
Sen. Clinton, you are the junior senator from my state but I don't support you. I know your trying to win the nomination. Sure you've gotten almost half of the Democratic votes this primary season. But what are you really doing?
Are you trying to win at all costs to the party? I think so. Sen. Obama has more than proven that he is not the average politician. He seems to be a genuine person. He gave his friend (Rev. Wright) a chance to atone for his wild remarks then when the man he called a friend called him just another politician he told him to go to hell. He didn't throw him under the bus like Wright did to Obama.
Sen. Clinton are you serious about your image you've changed so many times this year I'm starting to believe that you are a regular women that isn't elite.
Who are you kidding. You are a Yale law grad. I'm pretty sure that puts you in elite company and you have elitist views. Obama is elitist too. So are Bush and McCain.
Why is it so bad to have an elitist president. Don't we want to have our president more knowledgeable than average citizens? I know the basics but that's it.
Sen. Clinton please drop out and unify this party before it's too late. McCain is not the McCain of 2000 who we all loved.
Obama in 2008.

C & C Boys

Melky just nailed a shot to right and then Cano just pulled his hands an blooped a shot in right. Now, instead of going to a Right Now can't Buck break down how Cano was able to get his hands in and how he just got the ball in front of Francisco. Is that too much to ask?

May 7th

Happy birthday Bizzle.

Carlos Beltran led center fielders in plus/minus last year. And was in the top 10 in range factor. He also finished runner up in the Fielding Bible Awards. If you don't know what any of that shit means. Look it up.

The knock on Beltran is that he plays too deep. Maybe he doesn't have the speed that Andrew does to track down fly balls on the wall by playing so shallow. However in Shea Stadium, a gap hitters dream park, Beltran prevents a lot of extra base hits by playing so deep. You'd much rather have your center fielders allowing singles and keeping everything in front of them, than giving up extra base hits all the time. He reads the ball off the bat very well and he's got one of the strongest arms to roam center field in the majors.

He's not homegrown, but he's well worth the money we're giving him. His all-around game and 30+ hr pop negates any overrated chants he hears in visitors ballparks.

Now I'll be fair...he should definitely get that sick mole removed.

Kissinger

Dr. Henry Kissinger is at the Stadium. WHO CARES. What kid watching this game knows who he is? I know who he is, but why is he famous again. He was some presidnets Secretary of something, but who cares. At least we know O'Brien can make Buck giggle like a girl.

Cig Break

Sorry if I miss anything time for a cigarette.

Why

Cliff Lee is pitching to his defense. He looks like he puts the ball in spots where people can hit it to the fielders. Much the same Wang makes people but the ball on the ground.

Who Cares?

I don't care that A-Rod passed out during the birth of his child. He probably didn't pass out, he was probably just overwhelmed and needed to lay down. Talk about the game and analyze the struggles of hitters and talk strategy.
SportsCenter Right Now's suck. Way to many during the game. Please take away the bottom line too and shrink the scoring line thing.
How many people need constant updates of the Mets-Dodgers game. And who cares about what Dale Earnhardt thinks of his step-mother?
Stick to baseball during baseball games. Update at the top and bottom of every hour. I bet we will get more updates of Joey Vatto's game rather than that of the Magic-Pistons game.

Casey Blake

According to Buck Showalter he is a winning player. Don't you have to win in order to have that distinction?

WOW

Every Bobby Abreu at bat I've seen this year starts the same way. First pitch he doesn't even move. Don't you think if I've noticed that every other video guy in MLB has? Swing the bat Bobby.
Cliff Lee. Is his real name Clifford? Like the Big Red Dog. Or the Martin Short movie? Wonder if he's a fan of either.

Cliff Lee

How will Cliff Lee deal with a patient Yankees lineup.
So far he's faced Oakland, twice. Minnesota, Kansas City and Seattle.
All of which are young teams with young hitters who are aggressive.
The Yankees aren't aggressive and will make a pitcher work and throw pitches. If Bobby Abreu gets a first pitch ball he will get on base.
BTW, I have Derek Jeter in my 56 game hitting streak contest at www.prosportsdaily.com

Cleveland

Why are we supposed to be afraid of the Indians lineup? Dellucci hitting third, Peralta hitting fifth and Hafner not even playing. Martinez is a stud, really really studly.
A very Angles like scoring route. Walk. Seeing Eye Single, FC, Sizemore to third, Francisco out at 2nd. Then a SF scoring Sizemore.
Not your average way of scoring, weird FC 9-6.
Midway through the 1st:
1-0

Joba isn't human?

4 minutes into the game and I've heard that Joba might be human 3 times already. Really Joba is human. I know he's got a weird name and all but I'm pretty sure he's not an alien.

Role Call

God damn is there anything better than the Role Call?

Yankees vs Indians

Running diary of tonight's Yanks Indians game. ESPN telecast. God Help us if Steve Philips is in the booth.

Starting lineups

Yankees Indians

Damon LF Sizemore CF
Jeter SS Francisco RF

Abreu RF Dellucci LF

Duncan 1B Martinez DH

Matsui DH Peralta SS

Cabrera CF Caberea 2B

Cano 2B Blake 1B

Ensberg 3B Shoppach C

Molina C Marte 3B

Wang P Lee P

Yikes. Dave O'Brien and Buck Showalter in the booth. I suggest if you can do not watch ESPN's telecast of the game. We could be in for a rough one.

Few thoughts about the lineup.

Who would've thought Melky batting ahead of Cano. I like how Girardi has split up the lefties which could be the reason for the Cabrera (6) and Cano (7).

10 Years

2 notable anniversaries.

1. Kerry Wood-10 years ago he struck out 20 batters. WOW. 10 years.
2. Roger Clemens- Last year he was so graciously welcomed back to the Bronx. "Oh my goodness gracious,"to quote Suzyn Waldman. What a sad sad year for Mr. Clemens.

Like I said in my previous post, I don't like to compare players until their careers are over. So all I was trying to say is that its hard to project players and no one would have said Bernie would be in monument park after his first 3 years. Plus, I only care what Yankee fans think of their players. Mets fans wouldn't know a good CF even if he grew out of the grass at Shea Stadium.

Whoa what?

I'm not a yankee fan, but I'm offended. I stopped reading the sentence after you compared Melky to Bernie Williams. Don't get me wrong, I love milk. I drink a gallon a day literally. But that comparison is almost as bad as Mike Francesa comparing Ryan Church to Paul O'Neill.

Stop.

Wait.

At the end of the '09 season if either one of them hits over 20 homeruns. Then let's chat.

Melky Cabrera

I don't claim to be a statistical genius that can break down a baseball players stats and project them to be a player that came before them.
I can try though. So I'm going to take a stab at it.
Melky Cabrera is the starting CF for the New York Yankees. He's done the job so well he forced the Yankees brass to move a two-time All Star in Johnny Damon to LF. Now we can all say it was a move that was a long time coming due to Damon's lack of arm strength and you'll get no argument from me.
Damon is not the Yankee CF I'm going to draw comparisons too.
I'd like to compare Melky to a Yankee near and dear to my heart, #51, Bernie Williams. Now everyone who is probably reading this knows of my allegiance to Bernie, his is the only Yankee jersey I own.
Bernie broke into the major league in July of 1991, played in 85 games and was nothing special. .230/3/34/.336. That's batting average, home-runs, RBIs and on-base-percentage. I'm old school, I like to stick to the proven statistics.
Bernie again played for the Yankees in '92 playing in 62 games and posting .280/5/26/.384, again for 62 games they are decent stats. There is one thing that we can conclude from seeing these numbers, (and i know numbers don't tell the whole story) Bernie Williams was not headed toward immortality and a place out in Monument Park.
Bernie's first full seasons in '93 he posted .268/12/68/.333 while scoring 67 runs and the strike-shortened season of '94 (108 games) he posted .289/12/57/.384 while scoring 80 runs. In all intents and purposes we can say that this would have been a stellar season for Bernie had they played out the rest of the season. Also we can say that this was Bernie's third season in the majors.
Melky is entering his third full season on the Yankees. He was a September call-up in 2005 and played in 6 games, nothing we can draw conclusions from. So i won't.
In 2006 Melky was thrust upon the scene after a rash of early season injuries to our multi-million dollar corner outfielders, Hideki Matsui and Gary Sheffield. He posted solid numbers hitting in the 9-hole, .280/7/50/.360. He also scored 75 runs.
In 2007 Melky made the team as the 4th outfielder, and was awarded the CF job after Johnny Damon had chronic calf problems. With a healthy Matsui manning LF and Bobby Abreu fitting in nicely into RF, Melky posted .273/8/73/.327.
Nothing great, I'll admit it. But how many runs did Melky save with over-the-wall catches and frozen ropes from CF?
Bernie for all his offensive prowess was never a great fielder. His arm was more comparable to that of Damon, not Cabrera.
Through 31 games this year Melky is posting .291/6/18/.359. He has not been slotted into one spot in the lineup like Bernie's customarily hitting #3. Melky has hit lead off, second, sixth, seventh, eighth and nineth.
Melky is a fan favorite at the Stadium with his exciting plays and for the youthful exuberance he displays with fellow youngsters Robinson Cano and Shelly Duncan. He and Cano have also taken to doing the same pre-game routine A-Rod has started since his time in the Bronx began.
All in all, I say the "Melk Man" has and will continue to deliver.

Rangers

What a disaster. To quote the ever so literate Joe Beningo. The Penguins were clearly the better team. I just have one beef. Why did Ryan Malone's high stick on Chris Drury (which drew blood) not get called for a 4 minute penalty, let alone even a 2 minute? Yet Drury's high stick on Malone (which drew less blood) was accurately called for 4 minutes. A 4 minute powerplay can easily change a game. Kudos to the Ranger penalty kill units for killing Drury's 4 minute. Oh the pain.