I agree with everything you said.

This might put more pressure on the Red Sox to acquire Halladay, but it seems like Cashman could shake out some more useful parts himself. Bruney is a disgrace, I just don’t want to see him come in anything but low leverage situations until he starts getting people out.

NY Times is reporting that Yanks are interested in Josh Anderson.

Fine, but let’s see them beat a good team.

Newsday:

The Yankees have maintained contact with the Blue Jays, but Hal Steinbrenner doesn’t want to take on significant payroll, and Brian Cashman doesn’t want to trade major prospects for a year-and-two-months rental, as Halladay would be.

Nothing about Anderson is jumping out at me. Decent glove, decent minor league OBP, not too old, and cheap. Hard to argue with that but don’t we already have 2 guys like that (Melky and Gardner)?

Isn’t the point that they don’t have Gardner right now?  I’d assume they want Anderson to backup Melky until Gardner comes back, at which point rosters will be pretty close to expanding.

Hard to argue with that but don’t we already have 2 guys like that (Melky and Gardner)?

One of them’s on the DL , the other one’s just brought his OPS back up over .800 again.

The main point is . right now, if we have to rest Melky, our option to play center is ..... um…... Johnny Damon (gulp) or Nick Swisher (gasp)  , they make good comedies I guess.

I sometimes overstate the importance of games

Gold!

I hereby anoint SG the most interesting man in the world!

Isn’t the point that they don’t have Gardner right now?

One of them’s on the DL

Yeah I agree. But, what value do you place on getting a back up for Melky? Doesn’t seem like it would make sense to give up that much. Like I said.. decent guy for the bench if they’re giving up spare parts for him.

The Yankees have played pretty well on the road this year.  In fact, the Angels and Yankees are the only AL teams with road records over .500 at this point.

j, check the article.  Anderson was DFA’d.  They won’t have to give up squat, hardly.

j, check the article.  Anderson was DFA’d.  They won’t have to give up squat, hardly.

Ahh. My fault.

Now, can someone explain to me why grabbing Josh Anderson is ok, but not grabbing Andy Marte when he was DFA’d was not ok? Wouldn’t mind having him in AAA.

Hey everyone, how’s it going?

BBTN crew spent 5-8 minutes speaking about Joba “throwing at Longoria” and how he should quit it before the entire league hates him… Barely spent any time on the fact he pitched great.

Kepner:

Less than two months before he turns 24, Chamberlain is pitching like an ace. It’s an exciting prospect for the Yankees, tempered only by that pesky innings restriction. Manager Joe Girardi never elaborates on it, saying only that the Yankees have a plan.

Let’s say Chamberlain makes 11 more starts and averages six innings. That puts him up over 175 innings, which I would guess is beyond his limit. Maybe they’ll skip him here and there, which would bring the number down. But he has to get regular work to stay effective.

My question, which Girardi understandably wouldn’t answer on Wednesday, is whether postseason innings count toward a pre-determined innings cap. Innings in October cause the most stress of all, and if Chamberlain has reached his ceiling, would the Yankees risk starting him then? Maybe so. Maybe, because of the stakes, those innings are extraneous to whatever number the Yankees have attached to Chamberlain. I’m not sure.

Maybe we can get Kepner to work on the Riemann hypothesis in the meantime.

The Cardinals are in the midst of crapping away a lead-off triple in the bottom of the 15th.

Pujols now batting with runners on first and second and two outs (after a pop-up, a walk and a fielder’s choice with the runner getting thrown out at home).

Luckily, Pujols is, you know, really good.

He “singles” in the winning run.

The New York Yankees are now tied for the best record in the Major Leagues.

Pujols singles in the bottom of the 15th; Yankees are tied for the best record in baseball.

And don’t look now, but the Yankees are now only 10 runs off of the much more valuable than best record in baseball #1 Pythagorean ranking!

Dodgers are at 94, the Yankees are at 84.

Worth saying twice.

What’s the league pythag correction as a function of n_games formula?

I have this image in my head of Girardi in an Ali pose screaming down at a prone Joe Torre.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4365353

Don’t you have to not say this sort of thing?  I mean, he’s going to be suspended, right?  He kind of has to.  So no matter what kind of message you’re sending your team by “standing up for you guy”, you’re making it harder for your team to win games by getting suspended.  Whatever.  The whole thing is stupid.

Yeah, I’d say he’d have to get suspended for this, but the league seems to be sort of half-assed when it comes to enforcing this particular rule.

The odd thing is that if he IS suspended, it would most likely have to be for 5-6 games, so it’s like, seriously dude? You think it’s worth a possible SIX GAME suspension to complain that Evan Longoria gets thrown at?

Especially when the HBP on Monday was Jonathan Albala-fucking-dejo, who had absolutely NO reason to be intentionally throwing at Longoria.

Was Joba obviously throwing at or around Longoria’s head?  “At” is what it looked like on gameday, but the batter is rather impressionistic.  Not really cool by me if so.  Kepner says “over the head”.  I’m not sure about that case - still not my favorite tactic.

Do we credit Eiland for fixing the hitch in Joba’s delivery, or blame him for taking so long to find it?

What’s the league pythag correction as a function of n_games formula?

I’d use something like AL pythagenpat winning percentage = 1.04 times NL pythagenpat winning percentage (I had the league talent difference estimated at about 4% in favor of the AL entering 2009, not sure how much this year may have changed that).

So if the Yankees are a .578 team right now (94 wins), if they were in the NL I’d assume they were now a .601 team (97 wins).  The Dodgers are at .597 right now, which is about 1/2 win worse.

In the interest of full disclosure, Boston still has a tiny edge on the Yankees if you use Pythagenpat (.580 to .578) although that is essentially equivalent over 162 games (93.96 wins vs. 93.63 wins).

I totally agree, rilkefan, that it is not cool on Joba’s part (it looked like he was buzzing him and the ball got away from him - which is even scarier than the thought of buzzing him - if you’re gonna buzz someone, you can’t let the darn ball get away from you).

Garza is either completely clueless about the consequences of such an admission, or he is overcompensating for something.

Hey, is this the best day of the season so far or what?

Do we credit Eiland for fixing the hitch in Joba’s delivery, or blame him for taking so long to find it?

When are teams going to start employing an office full of non-uniformed coaches to pore over video and report directly to the pitching coach, batting coach, etc.?

Best record in baseball. Amazing that Brian Cashman a notorious half wit could have built a team with the best record in baseball after 100 games.

Oh well, back to WasWatching.

Joba doing well is great, but Toronto and a legit lineup will be the real test.

Yay win!

Or does Joba gets skipped- next scheduled start is off day Monday? Depends on Andy tomorrow?

[30] Real baseball. As long as you don’t throw behind the hitters head.

Piazza had an obvious blind spot that the 1990’s, 2000’s “gentleman’s” rules didn’t allow be exploited. Ask Steve Balboni about that, they threw up-and-in at least once a game on him a generation earlier. Same with all other sluggers who had a blind spot.

[35] Tampa scores the 3rd most runs in the AL.

[35] No farnsin’ way are they gonna skip him.

[37] I guess no one believes in mojo.

I agree with rilkefan and Brian Cronin.  It’s getting harder and harder to defend that Joba isn’t throwing at heads on purpose.  I have no problem throwing in on people and making them uncomfortable.  Hell I have no problem with flat out drilling people, but keep it at the numbers or lower.

By the way, did anyone see Longoria stare at Joba after being K’ed in their final matchup?

As for skipping Joba’s next turn personally what I’d do is skip him against the Blue Jays, move Pettitte up one day, throw Mitre (why is he in the rotation again) the 2nd Blue Jay game, and have A.J., C.C., Joba, and Pettitte lined up at home against Boston.  With our 4 best going hopefully we can make good on SG’s promise.

I don’t know what Joba’s intent was on the pitch to Longoria, but if he was trying to brush him back, he should be instructed to throw the ball at shoulder level.

That pitch was the closest of Jobas near the head pitches that I’ve seen.  It was pretty freaking close.  I winced.  I’d rather he didn’t do that.  Throw inside, absolutely.  Even waaaaaay over a guy’s head (Youk).  But that pitch was almost right at Longoria’s head.  Yikes.

Melky set a career high in HRs last night. Yay Melky!

Sherman:

Corey Patterson was recently put on outright waivers by the Nationals and the Yankees are considering signing him to fill in as the backup center fielder until Brett Gardner recuperates from his hand injury, the Post has learned.

The third overall pick in the 1998 draft, Patterson never developed the plate discipline necessary to capitalize on his elite speed and power potential. He hit just .133 in five games earlier this season with the Nationals. At Triple-A, he hit .274 with seven homers and 14 steals. The Yanks would view him as a 25th man who could spell Melky Cabrera plus run or play defense late in a game.

That pitch was the closest of Jobas near the head pitches that I’ve seen.  It was pretty freaking close.  I winced.  I’d rather he didn’t do that.  Throw inside, absolutely.  Even waaaaaay over a guy’s head (Youk).  But that pitch was almost right at Longoria’s head.  Yikes.

Yeah, that’s my take on it pretty much exactly.

I wouldn’t mind Patterson as Gardner insurance.

I wouldn’t mind Patterson as Gardner insurance.

There could be worse players to get.  According to UZR, he should be at least average in CF, and obviously has some utility as a PR.  If they want Curtis and Jackson to keep getting PA’s in the minors, and just need someone for 2-3 weeks until Gardner is ready, Patterson is a good choice.

I’m not crazy about Patterson, someone with more utility would be better, but I guess whatever.

I was away in Vermont for 4 days, so I missed it… how did Gardner break his thumb?  And what’s the deal with Aceves?  Unspecified shoulder trouble?

Gardner supposedly broke it sliding into second to break up a DP, if I remember correctly.

I really don’t see how bringing up Austin Jackson for a few weeks would ruin his development.  He has played the entire season in AAA after all.  It’s not as if they are bumping him from Tampa or anything.  He can play good defense and there’s a reasonable chance he won’t be horrible with the bat.  I mean, isn’t this why teams (excluding the Mets, of course) try to build depth in their minor league systems.

The chin music is too loud, to be sure.  I’m not going Big Sis on Joba or anything, but it’d be easier to like him if he didn’t lose pitches that way.  Mildly in his defense, he may have been acting, but Joba cursed himself pretty obviously after the ball hit Posada’s glove.

I wonder if Garza came in on Teix in retaliation.  Teix was all business about getting hit, either way.

I really don’t see how bringing up Austin Jackson for a few weeks would ruin his development.

I would say callups helped Pena and Cervelli, as an example.  But this situation is a bit different because I think it is reasonable for Melky to start in center everyday, so Jackson would just be a defensive replacement and injury insurance.

[53]

Also, Peña and Cervelli came up without great expectations, so anything they produced was a plus, while AJ would have all eyes upon him, which might entail the risk of affecting his development, esp. if he doesn’t do particularly well.

Joba is kind of reminding me of Lincecum. 93 with great command and ++ breaking stuff

It just occurred to me that CC is approximately 1.65 times the mass of Lincecum.  The latter apparently dates a Jersey girl.

Lincecum needs to cut his freaking hair.  Dirty hippy.

It just occurred to me that CC is approximately 1.65 times the mass of Lincecum.  The latter apparently dates a Jersey girl.

Elaborate the significance of this for the clueless but intrigued, please.

Best record in baseball!

[58] I was remarking on his good taste, I think?

I was remarking on his good taste, I think?

Ahh, that explains it all.

I remember SG once catching some banter because he mentioned he did not hold it against Ron Villone that he is from Jersey.

Michael Kay was asserting his open-mindedness - as anti-Jersey as he was, he now thought it must be OK if his friend Don LaGreca was from Jersey.  If Michelle Beadle was from Texas, he continued, how bad could it be?
In the background, you could hear Michelle saying, in a voice of such utter conviction that it could have come only from intimate first-hand knowledge:
“It could be bad.”

Bring up Ajax!

With out old heads in the outfield there’s no reason he couldn’t get 3-4 starts a week rotating amongss all three spots.

I wonder if Garza came in on Teix in retaliation.

Garza came right out and said he hit Teix intentionally because he needed to stand up for Longoria.  Garza has to be suspended right?  I mean, AJ *intimated* he was sending a message throwing up and in (but not hitting the batter) and got suspended for 6.

[63] is a good argument against Patterson, and for Ajax. The other OF position could use the occasional breather enough so that Patterson would be overused, with little of the potential benefit that would be gain if AJax (or a better than Patterson option) was in the show.

but keep it at the numbers or lower.

But that pitch was almost right at Longoria’s head.  Yikes.

I’m not defending Joba or claiming to know his motivations, but I do know that a pitch aimed right at the head is the <u>easiest</u> one to avoid—as every batter’s instinct is to simply duck and fall backwards.  If you truly want to bean someone, you throw shoulder high and slighlty behind them, as that is where their head will likely wind up.

I am not condoning this and I find macho beanball wars and posturing irritating.

I really don’t see how bringing up Austin Jackson for a few weeks would ruin his development.

I guess I’m ambivalent about it.  If they have another “for free” option like Patterson, I think there are two questions to answer.  1) who gives more value *this* year 2) What - if anything - does it do to Jackson’s development?

The first question should be pretty easy to answer, at least based on what you EXPECT each player to do.  The second one I think is more up to the Yankee coaches.  E.g. Butch Wynegar saying (note this is just an example, I don’t know if this has happened) he just made a change to Jackon’s swing and he has to stay on top of Austin to keep him doing it right.  Yankees might feel Jackson is more receptive to Wynegar at this point and promoting him could slow down the development.

I guess on the other side; a lot of people on this board haven’t seen Jackson play and are curious.  I’ve seen him play 10 times this year and I expect to see him play at least once (if he isn’t called up) at a double-header on Saturday.

I am not condoning this and I find macho beanball wars and posturing irritating.

I’m on the fence about it.  I mean, I don’t want to see people head-hunting and causing (potentially life threatening) injuries, certainly not.  But I think hitting - or throwing “at” - a batter *can* be an effective tool for a pitcher. 

See if anyone backs me up on my memory here: 6 or 7 years ago, when Clemens was with the Yankees and ARod on Texas, first PA for ARod Clemens threw the ball *behind* ARod.  ARod mouthed off a little, and then proceded to bail out on every pitch.  IIRC he struck out bailing out on a pitch out of the strike-zone, low and away.  I think Clemens owned him for the entire game.

So is there some middle-ground between protecting players from reckless head-hunting and allowing power-pitchers to intimidate batters “safely”?  That’s not rhetorical, I’m curious.

Why do people think Joba was throwing at Longoria- did something happenin a previous game?  I haven;t been able to watch this series too closely.  I think pitchers can be wild and so it is often unintentional when a ball gets away and hit a batter.  But I still see why a batter would be pissed and his pitcher would retaliate- it’s a message to be more careful as a career or life might be at stake.

Hey Cowboy, you notice who has taken over number 2 on FanGraphs WAR leaderboard in the AL?

Clickable link:

Garza hit Teix on purpose

[52], see [25]. Garza admitted that he hit Teix on purpose as retaliation.

D’oh, got scooped. :(

So is there some middle-ground between protecting players from reckless head-hunting and allowing power-pitchers to intimidate batters “safely”?  That’s not rhetorical, I’m curious.

Yes.  I agree with you 100%.  I’m ok with throwing at or even hitting batters… as long as it’s at the numbers or lower.  I’ve taken heat here before for saying I prefer a batter to be hit in the back rather than thrown at the head before but so be it.  That’s where I stand. 

Why do people think Joba was throwing at Longoria- did something happenin a previous game?

Because it’s Joba and it’s happened too many times now to ignore.  His has more than his share of stray pitches that go near heads.

Okay, Joba, now imagine everyone is a butthead…

Cause national MSM believe Yankees are evil, and Boston is holy, and everyone else is scrappy.

I think Boston is both holy AND scrappy.

Joba looked great on the whole last night.  I liked the quick pace.  He did benefit early on with some hard outs right at fielders, but he also supplemented some of the good breaks with some great K’s.  His fastball more often than not was 92- when I checked the TV. Was he faster at times?

Chamberlain does seem to be getting a rep for throwing near the head and I agree that probably isn’t a good deal long term.  I do like the fact that he is intimidating at times. That’s a good thing.

You know with the headhunter thing, I’m wondering if he wore a Sox Jersey, just how much love we would be showing him?  I don’t like Paplebon’s antics either and by all accounts it irritates the heck out of our side, so I guess fair is fair and I would have to admit that some things just won’t ever make sense.  After all is said and done we root for the uniforms first right?

Duh, if he were on the Red Sox, we’d think he’s an immature punk who should quit with the antics and act like he’s been there before. 

Hell, I think that anyway.  But I still root for him to own the inside corner and intimidate the hell out of batters.

Verbatim headline from today’s Boston Metro: “Red Sox closer not, in fact, a superhero”.  Sounds like the Onion!

Ortiz and Manny tested positive in 2003.

[81] That sounds 100% official and indisputable!

Sorry to hear that about Ortiz.  Also a bit angry at the players who used and didn’t stand up next to A-Rod this spring.

the only reason i’m happy is now sox fans can’t be such self-righteous pricks.

Those must be some helluva eye-drops.

I’ve been waiting for the Ortiz shoe to drop for a long time.  Not because he’s unique, or because I even dislike him.  But because I really want to see the sanctimony on BBTN and other outlets turned on its head.  It’s particularly grating on BBTN, where most of the former players probably weren’t paragons of virtue or honesty.

And I want to hear Gammons, who played Baghdad Bob when Manny alleged he’d taken the drug for sexual dyfunction.

And then I want to see Manny hit 35 more home runs this season.  Because I barely care about “PEDs.”

“we’d think he’s an immature punk”

who must be stupid or overcompensating for something.

Here’s the direct link to the NY Times article.

They really need to just relase all 100 names already, and air this out.  MLB has to do a truth commission and quit vilifying its players…they hunted A-Rod after his admission, wagged fingers, tsked ad nauseum, will they do the same with Ortiz?  I’m with [84]...it shuts up the self-righteous Sawx fans…but it’s annoying in its own right.  We have to move past this, it’s just such an irritant.

[86]!

More shocking news: A. Berroa doubled to deep right center, C. Sullivan and O. Santos scored.

I’m gonna assume the news report is based on that hoax list from a couple of weeks ago. Did I ass-umed wrong?

[91] It’s top of website NY Times news…multiple anonymous lawyer sources…seems more legit than the hoax list.

That sound you just heard was one million New Englanders tearing out their thinning orange hair.

That sound you just heard was one million New Englanders rending their polo shirts.

That sound you just heard was one million New Englanders crying into their Cold Stone Creamery.

That sound just heard was one million New Englanders plopping their faces in bowls of chowdah.

That sound you just heard was one million New Englanders packing their bags and moving from Hell’s Kitchen back to Worcester, Mass.

(Hey, a guy can dream, right?)

The sound you just heard is one million New Englanders hitting themselves in the face with their Berkenstocks and hanging themselves with their hemp necklaces and pink pants.

I have yet to see any New Englanders with thinning orange hair wearing polo shirts, pink pants, hemp necklaces, and Birkenstocks.

Clearly I work in the wrong part of Boston.

So what’s the plan if Joba indeed only has around 7 starts left?  Will they skip him when there is an off day(instad of skipping Mitre?) or is the plan to switch Joba’s and Hughes’s roles?

Is hard for me to believe that a man with character as impeccable as Poopy’s would ever, ever use PEDs