Torre's New Boyfriend

Which pitcher has appeared in the most games in July? Answer: Luis Vizcaino, with 16. The guy has been lights-out this month, with 17 K and a 1.62 ERA. Vizcaino is also tied for second for the most appearances all season, with 54.

But the question is, how long will Vizcaino stay hot? The guy looked like the second coming of Gabe White earlier in the year. He reportedly had Rivera help him out with some mechanical issues, but how long will Vizcaino stay hot?

More importantly, will his arm hold up to Torre's abuse? He's projected to pitch 80 innings (probably more, now that he's been so effective), and has only done that once in his career.

- I'm hoping the Yanks don't get Gagne, but even if they do, I'm not worried. I don't see Gagne having the same impact as Abreu had last summer.

A-Roids?

Very interesting news piece about Jose Canseco, claiming he has "stuff" about A-Rod in his new book. I know when Canseco came out with "Juiced," nobody took him seriously, and, in the words of Fred Hickman, people just thought he had an ax to grind with the guys he ripped.

But after McGwire's infamous "I'm not here to talk about the past" line and Palmeiro getting busted, I think we've realized Canseco isn't totally off. Plus, I haven't seen "bit characters" in the book like Pudge and Juan Gonzalez running to sue Canseco for defamation.

So I look forward to hearing what Canseco has to say. And this time, he's got more credibility than when his first book came out.

- Whether you wanna call it a split or 2 out of 3, I liked what I saw this weekend. After ripping through Tampa Bay and KC, the Yanks looked poised to put the O's hot streak to rest. Instead, the Yanks have lost that momentum, and Farnsworth's antics certainly didn't help the cause. I wouldn't be surprised if, after the trading deadline, the Yanks designate him for assignment and
eat the rest of his large contract. Cashman, what the hell were you thinking?

OK, So I Was Wrong

I guess I was a little off about the results of the Yankees-Royals series, with the Yankees cruising through games 1-3 before stinking it up tonight, behind Kei Igawa.

But hey, you can only give me a hard time for being off if you picked the Tigers to win the AL pennant last March.

I know the Royals are bad, but the Yanks have played solid ball in the last week. The offense has been on fire, but you know that won't last. And the pitching was pretty good, but not great, this past week.

Let's see how long the offense stays hot. They clearly weren't on tonight, but maybe they'll bring it tomorrow. Who knows.

Royals Won't Be Easy

After demolishing the Rays, it looks like the Yanks are in good shape. And with four games against the Royals while the Sox play the Indians, maybe the Yanks can gain some ground.

It won't be easy. Kansas City just took two of three from Detroit, arguably the best team in baseball, and as Buster Olney discusses in today's blog post, the Royals are slowly improving and recovering from a decade of futility. They've got a very good bullpen behind Grienke, Soria, and Dotel, Gil Meche has made Dayton Moore look very smart so far, and the Royals' collective .292 team average for the month of July trails only the Yanks and Boston in the AL.

So I don't expect the Yanks to get past the Royals as easily as they blew by the Rays. I wouldn't be surprised if the Yanks take three of four this week, but there's a pretty good chance KC can do the same.

- Even though he lost last time out, Wang is still the best bet for a win this series. Clemens has had a few good starts, but the low Ks aren't a good sign. And you don't know what to expect from Moose (ERA now at 4.97) and Igawa.

Twinbill Sweep For Yankees

Gotta admit I was impressed by the Yankees sweep yesterday. After Friday night's 10 BB disaster, the Yanks regrouped in a big way. Sweeping the twinbill behind Igawa and DeSalvo reminded me a little of the doubleheader in 1996, when the Yankees started Brian Boehringer and Ramiro Mendoza. They easily swept the Indians, and that was one of the early indications that the '96 Yankees were a special team. But believe me, '07 is a far cry from '96.

The biggest difference between the two sweeps? The '96 one was against one of the great Indians teams of the '90s, one which had come very close to winning the Series the year before, the Indians of Manny, Thome, and Albert Belle.

This sweep was against the Devil Rays, one of the worst teams in professional sports history. Can't get too excited.

But the Yanks proved something yesterday - sometimes, they can still beat up on horrible pitching. And they'll need to do that consistently over the next couple of weeks, before August brings them the Tigers, Angels, and Red Sox.

The Sox Will Be Fine

Great post today on one of my favorite baseball sites, The Hardball Times. The piece is entitled, "Are the Red Sox Collapsing?" and as you can tell from my title, the answer is no. Gassko does a good job going through the numbers (Hey Johnny Damon fans, did you know Coco Crisp has an OPS of over 1.000 in the past month?), and concludes that we don't have much to worry about.

Between that and a sweet win by the Jays, not a bad day.

Can't Panic Yet - Yankees 6, Blue Jays 1

At the break, I was worried about the Yankees and their soft schedule. Well so far, they're 6-1 since the all-star break, and they're 7 out of the division and 6 from the wild card.

And tonight was a solid win. Clemens gave up nine hits and had only three Ks, but 1 run in 6 innings is very good. And he's gotten his ERA down from 5.32 to 3.88. A-Rod put the Yanks up front, and they didn't look back.

One positive from this game: 4 walks from the bullpen. Let's face it - nobody is reliable in the pen this year. Even Mariano is no longer Mr. Automatic - batters are hitting .247 off Rivera - not bad, but it's his highest since '95. (His career BAA is .215.) Sometimes I think I'd rather see the Yanks get a first baseman than a guy like Otsuka or Gagne - their pen is very shaky.

As I said in a comment, I'm not worrying until the Red Sox lead is cut to 4. Obviously, the past few days have stunk - the Yanks have won three against the Jays, and the Sox lost two of three to KC. But the Yanks still have their fair share of question-marks, especially the bullpen, the bench, and whether Abreu and Matsui will stay hot. And I'm hoping this streak fades as quickly as the one in May did.

Oh, the Pain! Yankees 3, Blue Jays 2

It's bad enough that the Red Sox lost, but for the Yankees to win back to back games in which (a) Kei Igawa started and (b) Roy Halliday opposed them, that is torurous.

The Jays left a ton of guys on base, but then again so did Old York. It came down to a blown save, which is the thing that kills Yankee despisers most. You think you have it in the bag, and the guy BALKS in a run! Oh, the pain!

This had all the makings of a good Yankee loss. Jeter and Abreu both 0-5. Damon 0-3 (albeit with two walks) to drop his average to .238. Pettitte pitches well enough to win (for a change) but comes away emptyhanded. Farnworthless, who Snorre assures us is still his eighth inning guy, allows the go-ahead run.

But of course, the tables are turned, and Old York is on a roll in which once again, they are picking up games on Boston like candy. Oh, the pain!

BTW - Damon's July average? .188.

Please, please lose a game!

Another Close One - Yankees 6, Toronto 4

This was one of those games that the Despiser described so well the other day - Yankees against a bad team, Yankees with three times the payroll, and it ends up being a very close one. The Sox showed the Yankees how to play bad teams last night, shutting out KC behind Kason Gabbard.

Igawa had another awful outing, and is starting to give Pavano a run for his money as worst Yankee pitcher signing of the decade.

And I wonder how long Andy Phillips will stay hot. I wouldn't bet on it lasting too long. But as long as he fades in September, when it counts the most, I've got no complaints.

If you're rooting for a Yankee-free October, you've gotta hope Phillips plays well through the trading deadline, so the Yanks don't get a guy like Teixera to boost their chances. Then again, to get Teixera, they'll have to part with some great young arms. It's unclear what the better outcome is here. But I'd be shocked if Phillips keeps hitting like this the rest of the year.

Another Hole In The Torre Mystique

A lot has been said about Gary Sheffield's comments on Joe Torre, and most people, knowing Sheffield has a tendency to rant, aren't taking him seriously. But I think there are a couple of reasons to believe the guy:

1) Kenny Lofton agreed with the guy. True, Darryl Strawberry disagreed, but I'd be curious to hear the take of other black players from the Torre era (Raines, Hayes, Chili Davis, Charles Gipson, etc.). Anyway, it isn't just Sheff.

2) Why would Sheffield pick on Torre? The guy's played for many managers in his career, from Tom Trebelhorn to Jim Leyland. I know he had issues with Davey Johnson in LA, but he never called the guy a racist. If Sheffield has a beef with a manager, he's not shy about it. So why would he make allegations about Torre, and not about any other manager he's had over his long career?

It's very difficult to know whether Sheffield is correct; who knows what goes on behind closed doors. But for the reasons mentioned above, I wouldn't dismiss his statements too quickly, either.

Lousy Pitching, Yankees Win Anyway, Beat D-Rays 7-6.

I know it's sour grapes, but the Yankees were able to fiest on lousy Tampa Bay pitching for most of this series. Sure, they couldn't pull out a win when Clemens pitched a stinker on Friday, but on Sunday they did just enough to win. But come on, Edwin Jackson was not beating the Yankees.

It's never good when the Yankees win, but Mussina was spotty as usual, and the bullpen nearly gave the D-Rays a win with Villone stinking up the joint, and Farnsworthless reverting to form.

On Saturday you had Wang do the same as Mussina, 3 earned runs in 6 innings. I don't care that people call that a quality start. A 4.50 ERA doesn't cut it.

Clemens, of course, got rocked on Friday, with 5 earned runs in 5.1 innings. Another start or two like this and he ought to go the way of Julio Franco. Ah, all those fans who got pumped about two decent outings in a row....

So out of four games, they got only one good start, and that was from Andy Pettitte. What you have to take out of this is that a team that has even mediocre pitching will eat up these type of performances. Old York was lucky that as bad as their arms were, Tampa Bay's were worse. To put things in perpective, the D-Rays are dead last in ERA in the majors with a (gulp!) 5.80 mark. The second worst? The Texas Rangers at 5.05. Wow.

If these were all 5-0 games, I'd be way more paranoid. But the way they played this weekend gives me hope.

Lousy Start to Second Half: Junkees 7, D-Rays 3

What a game. What a crappy game. Andy Pettitte didn't have his best stuff, got out of some jams, but it didn't matter, as Tampa Bay was as flat as a pancake, losing to Old York 7-3 in a 1998 kind of game - you were never confident that the Devil Rays were going to start a rally.

Worth pointing out that Pettitte's been horrible in June and July. With 3 earned runs in 5.2 innings, his ERA creeps up to 4.27. Nice.)

On one hand, you can say that Tampa Bay stinks, so what do you expect. On the other hand, however, I don't like to think that way. I know Yankee fans are horny about their schedule, facing sub-.500 teams for the next few series, but any of those teams could get hot and give the Yanks a run for their money. In the beginning of the season Old York was getting beat by Tampa, Toronto, Chicago, so to me it's not hopeless.

Only two things to highlight. First, two caught stealings for Old York, one for Damon, and the other Melky. Second, Cano went 0-4, but who cares. This better not be the start of a roll.

- Red Sox won, so the lead remains at 10, and the tragic number for elimination in the AL East dips to 67.

Lousy Ending To A Great First Half

I was away for the weekend, and no time for a Sunday roundup yesterday. My apologies.

But the way things turned out, it was a rotten weekend. 2005 hero Ervin Santana got spanked by New York, and Wang pitched well again. Meanwhile, the Red Sox got swept by Detroit, a team they'll probably face in the playoffs. And the Yanks have an easy couple of weeks ahead of them, playing Tampa Bay, Baltimore, and KC. The Rays better show up against the Yankees, even though they've been dead the past two weeks.

In any case, if you would've told me in March that the Red Sox would have a 10 game lead on the Yankees at the break, I would've given you a wave, thinking, "don't be ridiculous," and walked away. If you would've told me that the Yankees were gonna be under .500 come the All-Star break, I would've looked at you like you had seven heads. And don't forget, the Yanks still have 8.5 games to cover in the wild card standings.

So while seeing the Yankees go 5-2 against the Twins and Angels is frustrating, they still need a Red Sox collapse to win the division, and need to pass a whole bunch of teams to catch Cleveland for the wild card.

And that's why even after a rough weekend, I will still spend the All-Star break celebrating the Yankees' worst half-season in the post-dynasty era.

Igawa Stinks Up Joint (What Else Is New?), Junkees Win Anyway 7-6

Wow, hard to believe Igawa's ERA is ONLY 7.14, after giving up 5 earned runs in 5 innings. Wait a minute, I thought he got straightened out in AAA.... Hard to believe it's only 7.14 because that means he gives up 7 earned runs every 9 innings. I don't remember any scoreless innings. Where did those go?

So the Yankees jump out to a 5-2 lead, and of course, Igawa can't hold it. Shemp's homer in the eighth puts them ahead, and Mariano comes in for a SHAKY ninth, allows a run but nails his eleventh save after a pretty questionable strike three call, but the calls have gone both ways this year, so I can't complain too much. Nevertheless, he got a little lucky. If Cuddyer walks you have Morneau up with a couple runners on, and I don't think Mariano holds on. He was far from dominating today, and we haven't seen the dominant Mariano in quite some time. So that's a good sign.

Offensively Old York did well against lousy pitching, getting 13 hits. The only highlight was Ringo's 0-5. Ringo's July average is .176, so we'll keep an eye on that.

So that's it. Otherwise, Detroit won, so Old York gains nothing in the wild card race, and Anaheim comes into town, and they always give the Yankees fits. Should be a fun weekend.

Moose Pitches Like Old Self: Twins 6, Yankees 2, Tragic Number in AL East 70

For all you Yankee fans who got horny when the Moose shut down the A's last time - ha! Actually, he wasn't horrible (even though I don't consider 3 ER in 6 innings a "quality start"), but he couldn't hold the lead either, and after giving up the 2-run homer to Kubel, you knew he was out of gas. So his record is now 4-6.

Has anyone noticed that A-Schmuck is 0 for his last 18? His last hit came on June 29th. Yes, he still has great numbers, and he may still be the AL MVP this year, but he's been hot and cold. Great April, lousy May, great June, lousy July (so far).

Speaking of cold, that was the Yankee lineup today. They came up with four hits, and I know some of the regulars weren't playing, and it was Johan Santana, but they way the Old York broadcasters were going crazy about the offense in the previous few games, you expected something better.

And Brian Bruney came on in the ninth, trying to keep the lead to a managable two runs, and he gives up a home run to a guy hitting .182. If he gives one up to Morneau or Mauer, fine. But Luis Rodriguez? Gotta love it!

And the Red Sox won, so the lead goes back to 12. To be honest, I got paranoid after Tuesday's Yankee win. I thought it was the start of another hot streak. But Minny wins at Yankee stadium for only the third time in their last 18 games, and all is well in Yankee Despiser land.

- BTW, didn't go crazy about A-Rod's hammy injury because until I see him on the DL, it's much ado about nothing. Although Snorre may use it as an excuse for Alex's cold streak.

Easy Win For Yanks - Yankees 8, Twins 0

Even in a down year, the Yanks are managing to beat the Twins. Tonight's game was a joke, with a mismatch of pitchers between Silva and Wang. Wang was sharp, and every Yankee starter except A-Rod got at least a hit.

Yankee fans can't get excited yet, however, not after another great outing by Dice-K and another Red Sox win. Still an 11-game gap. And I don't think the Yanks will get 14 hits every night. They'll probably take 3 of 4 from Minnesota, but hey, their last hot streak feels like a million years ago.

I predict the Yanks will end up with 87 wins this year. It wouldn't be too bad; 12 games over .500, but not nearly good enough to make the playoffs.

Listless Twins Lose: Junkees 5, Twins 1

Well, the Red Sox won, so the lead stays 11.

That said, the Twins were listless. They were swinging early in the count, not hitting the ball hard ... either Clemens was incredible or Minny just didn't have it.

But I'm not here to make excuses for the Twins. Yes, they played a night game in Detroit and came in late, but they could have done better.

Only thing good was Shemp going 0-4. He's been in a tremendous slump, 3 for his last 26. But they won, so today's not the day to give them a hard time about re-signing him a year ago. It's like Julio Lugo in Boston. Major bust, but with the team up 11 games, no one's going to go too crazy.

Charlie Brown gave up a pair of hits in his one inning of work. Thirty hits in 31 innings is pretty human.

But the big story is Clemens. If he pitches this well each time out, that'll be pretty scary. This could have been a fluke, and perhaps his previous two starts are more indicative of how he'll do from here on out. We'll wait and see.

So not much to get excited about. The tragic number for the AL East is 72, so we'll keep an eye on that.

Top Ten Reasons The Yankees Missed the Playoffs in 2007

I know, I know, premature. But it's not looking too good right now, and I guess I should preface the title with "If they miss the playoffs, here's why." But I'm in an optimistic mood right now, so let's go with the flow.

(10) Relying on Pavano: Carl Pavano has had a total of one good year in his career, and that came in 2004 as a member of the Marlins. Since joining the Yankees in '05, he's been perhaps the worst signing for Old York this century. As a Yankee, he's won a grand total of five games. Yet Ca$hman was talking about Pavano coming back and having a big year in '07, probably to get some of the $39 million worth. They could have traded him and gotten a better pitcher but kept Carl, and relied on him to be an ace. Ha. He's on the shelf, and may never throw another pitch as a Yankee.

(9) Dropoffs for Melky and Cano: In 2006, Melky Cabrera batted .280, with a .360 OBP. In 2007, he's hitting .259 with a .320 OBP. In 2006, Robinson Cano batted .342, nearly won the AL batting title, and had an OPS of .890. In 2007, Cano is hitting .265 and has an OPS of .701. Had these guys maintained their '06 form, who knows. But all those extra outs add up.

(8) As Manny wrote a few weeks ago, once you get past the regulars, who do you have? Miguel Cairo, Kevin Thompson, Wil Nieves ... a joke. Granted, in the AL the bench is not as important as in the NL, but you figure that there will be injuries, there will be doubleheaders where you want to rest a regular, and Ca$hman was terrible in not acquiring any bench help. And that's killed them.

(7) Ringo's Arm: The guy can't throw anyone out anymore, it's psyching out the pitchers and giving the opponents a lot of extra bases.

(6) Johnny Damon's Injuries: The guy's been a bust in 2007, mostly because he's been playing injured, and refuses to go on the DL! So he wastes a roster spot, has terrible power for a DH, and is slow in the outfield. Had the guy taken a couple of weeks off in early May, perhaps he'd come back and do better.

(5) Charlie Brown and the Yankee Bullpen: This was finally the year we'd all been waiting for - the year he became just another pitcher. Horrible in April, decent in May, mediocre in June... and the team gave him very few save opportunities, but that's because the rest of the pen couldn't hold leads! Lefties are hitting over .300 against Mike Myers, Vizcaino was a bust, Farnsworthless is just that, and even guys like Brian Bruney are walking a ton of guys. As Manny pointed out, the K/BB ratio for the Yankee pen may be the worst in recent history. Snorre's boyfriend Scott Proctor hasn't gotten the job done, and it'll only get worse in August when their arms fall off.

(4) Outfield defense: In a word, pathetic. Shemp, Damon, and Abreu have terrible arms, and smart teams have been taking advantage of that all season long. Cabrera has a decent arm, but he misplays so many balls that he's worthless as well. Matsui is good at getting a read on fly balls and tracking them down, but he's still lost a step or two from his first couple of years here. Extra hits and extra bases taken lead to extra runs and extra losses. It's that simple.

(3) Moose: Re-signing Mike Mussina was a disaster. Every once in a while he pitches a brilliant game, so Old York figures that as long as they can straighten him out, he'll be a Cy Young winner. In 2007, however, his brilliant games have been few and far between. Nearly halfway through the season, he's got a grand total of 4 wins and an ERA of 4.63. And get this - he's on pace to strike out about 90 batters. Ca$hman, I know the market for starting pitching was thin, but what the hell were you thinking?

(2) First base mess: Relying on Doug Mienkiewicz was silly, considering the guy hasn't hit a lick in years, but at least he was great defensively. After Doug came Josh Phelps, Andy Phillips, and Miguel Cairo. Nada. Junkee first basemen rank 10th in the AL in OPS, and in the bottom half of just about every category. Had they gotten someone decent, we might not be dreaming of a Yankee-free October.

(1) Abreu over Sheffield: We've gone through this many times, but to me, this is the move that killed them more than anything else. Other than A-Schmuck, they don't have a legit home run hitter. A-Rod's hit 28 home runs. The next best is Ringo at 9. Abreu is at 4. Sheffield, meanwhile, over in Detroit has hit 18 dingers, and has an OPS of .931. Abreu's OPS? Only 200+ points lower at .689. Ca$hman may have had enough of Sheff's antics and thus let him go, but Abreu was yet another bust, and this was the bust that broke the camel's back. So bye bye Yankees.

- Feel free to add your own in the comments section.

Sunday Roundup 7/1/07 - Write 'Em Off

For weeks, we've heard rumblings like "it's only April," "it's only May," "it's gonna be 1978 all over again." After yesterday's embarrassing loss, the Yanks are almost halfway done with the season, and a long ways from the division and the wild card.

Very good piece by Larry Brooks in the Post, about how the Yanks aren't in a rough patch; this is just the way the whole season has gone. He points out what Despiser mentioned a few weeks ago, that aside from A-Rod, the Yankees have no power bats. This team could use Gary Sheffield.

Dom Amore of the Hartford Courant also discusses the Yankee troubles, and mentions that the lefties (Matsui, Abreu, and Cano), who usually hit well against lefties, have not hit them well in '07.

Classic Joe Torre: Igawa gives up 4 runs in 6+ innings, but he's headed in the right direction. What's he gonna say next, that Clemens is a Cy Young candidate?

Mike Lupica echoes a piece I wrote in May. His piece, entitled "Who's Watching The Store?" is basically the same as my "Who's Running The Show"? But Lupica doesn't even address George's health issues. Bad job there.

Great piece by Bill Madden, who says things will only get worse for the Yanks in '08, '09 and beyond. Here's an excerpt:

"Take a good, hard honest look at this underachieving, uninspired, aging Yankee team and then weep if you will. The entire outfield of Hideki Matsui, Johnny Damon and Bobby Abreu is clearly past its prime and in need of being replaced. There is no first baseman. The catcher, Jorge Posada, is 36 and a free agent at the end of the season. The DH, Jason Giambi, is a broken-down, old 36 and probably done, certainly as a big-time middle-of-the-order run producer. And lest we forget (easy to do since we've seen him so infrequently this season), Mariano Rivera is going to be 38 in November when he, too, will be a free agent.

Nobody wants to talk about the fact that Derek Jeter will be 35 when the Yankees are in the new ballpark in '09 - and the silence has been deafening regarding that opt-out clause in Alex Rodriguez's contract. Whereas a couple of months ago the Yankees could smugly say they would not allow themselves to be held hostage by A-Rod, now it may not even be their choice."

The only area that Madden doesn't address is that the Yanks will likely pick up some big-name free agents over the next few years. They'll make huge offers to Johan Santana, Jake Peavy, Andruw Jones, and others. But as we've seen over the past few years, that won't help them all that much. Plus, with revenue sharing, maybe teams like the Twins and Padres will be able to keep their young stars.

Torre was not a big fan of Farnsworth's antics on Friday, but the guy isn't going anywhere. He's gonna get $7 million next year, and no team will take him unless the Yankees eat that up. It's one of the worst signings in the Cashman era.

Manny Ramirez is playing harder than ever this year, says Tony Massarotti.

ANTI-PICK OF THE WEEK: With the Yankees having their worst season since 1992, what could be more juicy than an interview with George Steinbrenner/Harold Rubinstein? Instead, the folks at the Daily News serve up bigger softballs than the ones Andy Pettitte gave to the A's this afternoon. Very disappointing. Terrible job by the News.

Then again, maybe I can't kill the News here. The interview was probably rigged by George's handlers. They don't want him to cause any controversy. There are a lot of layers there, and I'm pretty sure they didn't let the News ask the questions the fans wanted to hear answered.

PICK OF THE WEEK: One of my guilty pleasures? Checking out nyyfans.com when the Yanks are playing lousy baseball. Check out this piece: "DAMON HOLDS YANKEES HOSTAGE: DAY 82 + COUNTING."

- Yanks lose again, with Pettitte putting out his worst effort of the season. Everybody was impressed with his hot start to the season, but I figured he'd lose a step or two as the season went on. He had a 4.77 ERA in June, and he'll have to do really well to bring that figure down on July. The guy isn't getting any younger, and was pitching above his level, better than he did against the weak NL Central the past couple of years. I'd be surprised if he ended up with a sub-4.00 ERA.

- Two of my favorite teams, Minny and the Angels, take on the Yankees for the next seven days. Looking forward to this one.