Wow, LaTroy Hawkins blows.

Good things from the game: I like what I see from Albadejo and Traber.

Any word on who gets sent down?

Hopefully Farnsworth.

I would probably send down Ohlendorf, although he doesn’t deserve it.  Cashman really needs to unload Farnsworth.  In any case, Albaladejo was just too dominating to send down.  The guy pitched two and two third innings, struck out four, walked none and kept the ball on the ground.  It’s only one outing, but the Rays are not creampuffs.  Ohlendorf pitched well too, but one guy took him to the 399 sign in right, which probably would have been out on a warmer day.

YANKEES
Damon CF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Rodriguez 3B
Giambi DH
Cano 2B
Posada C
Matsui LF
Duncan 1B
Pettitte LHP

RAYS
Iwamura 2B
Crawford LF
Pena 1B
Upton CF
Gomes RF
Aybar 3B
Bartlett SS
Riggans C
Johnson DH
Jackson RHP

Pete Abraham is guessing that Albaladejo will be sent down.  He’s probably not available for a couple of days after throwing 2.2 innings yesterday.  Maybe Hawkins and Farnsworth will injure each other in a clubhouse brawl, and Jon can get recalled early when they go on the DL.

I think, at the end of the day, the Yankees will have a pretty good pen.
Abaladejo, Ohlendorf, Traber all have looked good.  They need to get rid of the old guys and cycle through some young arms ‘til they find one or two more.  That way, they’ll be ready for Joba to replace Moose or Kennedy in June.

Hawkins is awful - I’m looking for thread in which someone claimed to like Hawkins, followed by me saying that there’s no way that would last past April.

You can’t write Hawkins off after one outing.  Farnsworth, however, has shown himself to be the same ridiculously bad pitcher for more than two years now.  He really needs to go: first because he’s bad and second, because he’s taking a spot from someone who can actually help the team.

I agree.  I remember a certain “gas-can” from last year that showed himself to be at least a servicable pitcher throughout a good deal of the season.  Hawkins almost certainly won’t be a lights-out middle reliever, but I think he has a good chance of being able to be at least helpful.

By the way, Alby was optioned to Scranton, which is a crime.  Personally, I’d rather the Yanks just release Farnsworth.

Also, Melky can’t return soon enough.  Seeing Matsui play LF is sickening.

Nice inning.

I’m sure the best of Matsui is well behind us.

Old Thurm, good to see you my Hibernian friend.

As for Matsui, he’ll probably hit all right, but he really should never play the outfield again unless it’s some sort of emergency.

Damon really ought to take second.  It’s not like Ivan Rodriguez is behind the plate.

I was surprised to see the Baseball Prospectus had Matsui listed as hitting into almost 8 fewer double plays than average (based on how many AB’s he has with a DP opportunity) in 2007. Damon was at 4 below, Abreu 6, even Giambi was at almost 8.  Jeter?  3 more DPs than average.

Gomes pulls a Soriano.  That’s not good hardball.

Hi IE. I’m not being rude (yet) just busy. Real life messing with the Yanks and my virtual buddys. Thats what Mrs OTF calls yuze.

Jonny Gomes deserved that.  Yankee Stadium ghosts getting payback for tackling Shelley.

Farnsworth and Hawkins are worse than replacement players already within the Yankees’ system. I don’t think Hawkins is really as bad as he pitched last night, but he adds nothing and should be properly disposed of ASAP. The same is true of Farnsworth. Albaladejo and Ohlendorf are capable of 2+ good innings. Either Patterson or Britton could nicely fill the remaining bullpen slot. Anything they can get back for Farnsworth and Hawkins would reduce their payroll and their luxury tax.

Blah haha. Congrats, Joe Madden and Johnny Gomes, protectors of the sacred act of “playing the game right.”

Horne is pitching for Scranton today and McCutcheon for Trenton - two guys who could be starting at some point for the Yanks this year.

Who is this guy and what did he do with Robbie Cano?

Within 30 seconds of one another Singleton said “see visually” and Flaherty said “think mentally”.

As for Matsui, he’ll probably hit all right, but he really should never play the outfield again unless it’s some sort of emergency.

Matsui is going to have to spend a fair amount of time in LF this season. His playing time in the OF was limited during spring training. He deserves some time to get back in shape before writing him off completely.

The ball pops out of his mitt on a regular basis.  That has nothing to do with Spring Training.  I’ve seen him do it time after time after time.

Gomes now pulls a Matsui.  I heartily approve.

Kay:  “It has not been a good day for Gomes.”

How true that is!

Damon has to get the run in there.

I guess he doesn’t have to.

He probably wanted to at least.

Mistah Clutch.

That could have gone better.

At least he didn’t ground into a DP

j, funny.

What’s the line about Willie Mays, how if you were down by 5 runs you expected him to hit a 5-run homer?  I sometimes expect Jeter to ground into a double play when there are 2 outs.

What does Pettite have against Pena?  2 HBP in to PA’s?

Sort of the same way I used to expect Kelly Stinnett to strike out on two pitches.

Damon looks like he has tyrannosaurus rex arms when he throws..

Andy’s laboring…no thanks to his defense, of course.

Unearned runs.

I’m waiting for Andy Pettite to remove his mask and show that he is in fact Kei Igawa

I expect Farnsworth to give up a 2-run double when there’s only one baserunner.

More like waiting for Jeter to remove *his* mask and show that he is, in fact, Christian Guzman.

I used to expect Bernie to have to play line drives on one hop even when they were behind him.

That was…double-plus ungood.

Cano getting on track will really help the offense.

A hit with runners in scoring position by anyone would also really help the offense.

Flaherty’s comment about his 1st home run being 2 years later was really funny.

Figure I’d pop back in and see how the fellowship of the negative is holding up.

I hate his glove, but Matsui’s bat looks fine.  He’ll make a fine DH next season as well.

here comes Duncan revenge

Jeter is licking his chops at another potential DP opportunity.

It’s one thing to suck against people like Halladay.  But this?  This is…wrong.

This sort of thing seems to happen every year.  It’s quite infuriating.

So is there any reason Betemit isn’t starting at 1B against the righty instead of Duncan?  I love Duncan, but against a righty, glove+bat has to favor Betemit, right?

We dont even have Torre to blame. That kinda takes some of the fun out of it.

I believe the thinking on Duncan is that they may as well use him before he begins serving his two days suspension.

Haha, did Pena run over Pettitte’s dog or something?

OTF: You can always blame Torre.  Personally, I blame Farnsworth.  Or Cairo.

So all the running and svelte waistlines are for naught?

Kyles fault. OK That works. My new mantra.

Hmmm.  This is not going as planned.

It has been a good game for Gomes.

Dammit.

That was Kyles fault.

I preferred the 101-loss Rays from 2 years ago.

On the bright side, at least the minor league pitchers (Horne and McCutcheon) are doing nicely.

Well, another 4 innnings for the bullpen today.

Kyle should pitch them all.

I really don’t think Pettitte’s doing that bad - he gave up a walk, bloop fly ball, and a 340-foot fly HR that hit the top of the wall.

Good? No. But he looks OK - I’m not worried about him.

The new park for the Rays looks spiffy, all spaceship-like.

By the way, I think Damon could’ve caught Gomes’ ball.  It just barely cleared the wall.

Uh oh.  Who had 4.5 games in the “Giambi gets injured” pool?

31 of us.

Here’s Horne’s line for his first outing at Scranton thus far: 6IP 5H 2ER 6K 2BB.

Starters going 5 innings or less on a regular basis is a recipe for a start to the season similar to 2007.

Did they say what was wrong with Giambi?

McCutchen’s line for Trenton thus far: 5IP 3H 0R 7K 3BB.  The walks are a bit disconcerting that they mostly came early in the game.

Nope, no word on Giambi as of yet.

Wang will pitch 7-8 innings tomorrow and give the bullpen a rest.  One the big problems last season was that Wang missed the first month.

By the way, Bruney should pitch the 7th inning too.  If the Yanks go down meekly in the bottom half, let Hawkins and Farnsworth finish out the game and hope for the best.

Also, trying to use fewer relievers for 2 innings a game seems like a better recipe to cover for short starter games.  I’d like to see Bruney come back at least for a few batters in the 7th.

I like the way you think.

Pathetic.

My goodness Jackson is on fire or we suck or both.

Ditto on bringing Bruney back - why burn through another reliever?

Man, this is starting to piss me off.

Nice job making Jackson look like Beckett all afternoon. Kids gonna wanna watch this dvd next winter.

Yankee hitters seem to need a few weeks to figure things out every year.  How else can one explain their docility in the face of Andy “86 mph” Sonnanstine and Edwin “I have no idea where the strike zone is” Jackson?  I feel bad for the people at the Stadium.  I, at least, can wash my hand of this and go for a run.

What an offensive juggernaut. Only 987 runs left to get to 1000!

At least Eckstein is doing his thing to Boston.

Warm up Krazy Kyle and explain that the idea is to “get him right back out there.”  Save the good relievers for Wang tomorrow.

Why must the Yankees suck EVERY April? For three years in a row we’ve had to suffer through crap until June.

Sweet, 20 games in a row. It may suck for the team but it’s great for the fans.

For some reason, the Jays always beat Boston - even when they were fairly bad they still played the Sox very tough.

Pitch Kyle every day until he goes on the DL, then bring up Albaladejo.

Eckstein is a scrappy scrap face!

Huh.  They actually retire Pena this time.

These guys really need to explode in one of these innings. The mantra has to be to win series. I’m not in the mood for another 19-21 bullshit start. It fucks up the whole summer for me.

This is Brian Bruney circa 2006