tonytalkssports My Take on Sports, particularly the Yankees, Maple Leafs and Browns

Wrigley Filled With Yankee Fans

Plenty of Yankee fans here. Batting practice over. Saw Buck & McCarver in their booth. Getting ready for 1st pitch

Waiver Gems Come Through For Yanks

Have to give Brian Cashman his due.  Temporarily it seems he has found some stop-gap measures to the team's pitching problems in the name of Brian Gordon and Cory Wade.  Gordon held down a good hitting Texas Ranger team to 2 runs over 5 1/3 innings and allowed the Yankees to send the game to extra innings with Jorge Posada's run scoring double.  The eventual game winner, Cory Wade pitched a solid two innings including a big inning ending strikeout of Josh Hamilton.

Of the two, Wade could really be a long-term gem.  Wade was a top prospect with the Dodgers and had a fabulous 2008 before injuries derailed his career.  If this guy can regain that 2008 form, the Yanks may really have found something.  Gordon may be able to fill the Aaron Small role until Cashman is able to pull off a trade to bring in another pitcher or if Phil Hughes is able to come back into the rotation.

What has been evident with the team is that there seems to be some renewed energy.  The infusion of youngsters and guys looking to take advantage of a second chance may have lit a fire under the established stars.  As the Yanks head off to Chicago, they are not out of the woods yet but its possible that Cashman may have stabilized the ship.  The key is to remain close and gear up for a long hot summer.  A summer that hopefully sees the Yankee GM pull more rabbits out of his hat so this team can have a fighting chance in October.

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Heading to Chicago tomorrow morning for Saturday/Sunday games at Wrigley Field.  Not sure how much I'll be able to post but also check out twitter.  I will definitely be back for Tuesday's Thoughts which will probably be filled with plenty of Chicago references and who knows what else.

Life Without The Captain

Last night was a preview of what life will be like for the New York Yankees without their Captain, Derek Jeter.  Jeter was placed on the 15-day disabled list forcing the Yankees to start Eduardo Nunez.  Nunez went 2 for 4 with an RBI in a 12-4 rout of the Texas Rangers.  While it will be a long while before Jeter is replaced in Yankee history, this is an opportunity for the Yankees to see what they have in Nunez as a possible replacement.  Nunez will never be a Jeter, but the Yankees don't necessarily need him to be.  They need him to be a good defensive shortstop, a 270-280 hitter and someone who can stabilize the most important position in the field.  It also gives the Yanks the opportunity to showcase him for a possible trade to bring in a quality starting pitcher.  This will be an interesting 2 weeks to see what the kid has got.  It's tough to replace a legend but that's not really what the Yankees need right now.

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Encouraging news out of Tampa pertaining to Phil Hughes and his attempt to recover from a mysterious ailment that sapped him from his fastball.  Hughes pitched 3 scoreless innings in an intrasquad game striking out 6 while walking only one.  If he feels no pain after this stint, he will pitch for the Staten Island Yanks.  What a boost it would be if Hughes can come back to where he was last year.

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Tomorrow, more on baseball realignment, Game 7 of the Stanley Cup & the Yankees.

Pinstripe Ship Sinking

The season series is 1-8.  0-6 at Yankee Stadium.  Those are the numbers that tell the story of the 2011 Yankee-Red Sox saga with the Beantowners smugly leaving the Bronx with a 2 game lead over their rival.  While being two games out of first on June 10th isn't that big of a deal, the current state of the New York Yankees is a very big deal.  Simply put: unless some type of changes occur this team is going nowhere.

With the news that Joba Chamberlain is done for the year, the Yankee bullpen is a joke.  Unless someone can be called up from the farm and catch lightning in a bottle, similar to what Joba did in his Yankee debut, a deal will have to be made and dealing from a position of weakness is never a good thing.

What compounds the bullpen issues is the starting rotation.  But for CC Sabathia (in spite of last night) the Yankee rotation is a joke when you consider that their number 2 is Bartolo Colon.  AJ Burnett is in a long line of free agent pitchers the Yankees have spent gobs of money on only to get burned badly.  I never was a big AJ Burnett fan going back to his days with the Blue Jays.  Quite frankly, I think he's a head case.  As Mike Francesca said yesterday," they spent $82.5 million for a guy to throw pies".  Great line, Mike.

Freddy Garcia has looked awful, particularly against good hitting teams and Ivan Nova doesn't have it.  I admire Nova's toughness and his desire to be a Yankee but he doesn't appear to have it.  Hopefully, its a question of needing more seasoning.  But I'm not sure he can be counted on down the stretch.  As far as Colon goes, not sure how long he's going to last but if he falters all your left with is Sabathia.

Bottom line is that this team's pitching staff is terrible and we know that in October it's pitching that wins.  But why should I be talking about October, this team as it currently is constructed will be lucky to be playing then. 

Offensively, this team has the talent to score enough runs to win games but as we know good pitching beats good hitting and the top teams have good pitching.  The problem that I have is that when you are struggling you need to do the little things to get a spark going.  Hit and run, bunt, steal a base.  Your best base stealer can't steal bases anymore.  In fact, Brett Gardner doesn't seem to be able to run the bases anymore.

In an earlier post, I advocated that the Yanks needed to bring up some kids from the farm.  If it doesn't happen now it never well.  That includes bringing up any of the prized pitching prospects that Brian Cashman is so proud of.  But based on what I read in the NY Post, that's not going to happen. 

As a Yankee fan, and I will be in the minority here, I would respect and appreciate it if Brian Cashman came out a said, " we are going to go with some youth here and see what happens."  In essence, bring the kids up push some of the old guys aside and if you finish out of the playoffs so be it.  We know that won't happen but Cashman is not going to make enough trades to right this ship.  A ship that is sinking fast.

At the top of this blog you see that I am a Yankee, Browns and Maple Leaf fan.  Of those 3 teams the Yankees have had the most success.  However, right now I would take the management team of both the Browns and Leafs over Cashman and Company.  The blame lies there.  It lies with the Steinbrenner boys, the stooges around them and Cashman.  This team so eerily reminds me of those 80's teams that had the big names but never won a thing.

Yankee management knew that the day was coming for the Core 4 to no longer perform at a level that we were accustomed to.  They have not been able to replace Andy Pettitte.  They did not have the courage to bring up one of their supposed catching prospects to begin the process of replacing Jorge Posada.  If Eduardo Nunez is the replacement for Derek Jeter, somehow I don't see it right now but quite frankly the kid needs to play more.  And what is going to happen when Mariano calls it quits???  Rafael Soriano?? Please!!!!

The Yankees will not allow the kids to play because they need to present the illusion that they are in the hunt for a championship when in reality they are nowhere near one, not with a pitching staff that they have right now.  With the Indians coming to town for the weekend, you are going to see youth versus age.  Should be interesting.

CC To The Rescue!!

CC Sabathia once again proved why he is the Yankees ace by going eight innings and allowing only one run as the Yankees avoided the sweep with a 7-1 win over the Seattle Mariners.  Andruw Jones delivered a base-clearing double that put the Yanks ahead 5-0 and they never looked back.  Jones may have staked a claim for more at-bats with the clutch performance.

Sabathia's performance cannot be overlooked since the Yankee bullpen was used up on Saturday with the extra-inning loss.  The Yankees will need to do whatever it takes to make sure that CC remains with the team as at the end of this year he could exercise his option out of the Bronx.

A couple of encouraging things from yesterday's game: Nick Swisher finally hit a home run and hopefully we can see more of it.  Edwin Nunez continues to show that he can hit big league pitching now hopefully someone can work with him on his baserunning as he was picked off second base on Friday and made a terrible slide into third base yesterday on his first major league triple.  I thought the kid dislocated his shoulder.

The Yankees head to Oakland today for a 3 game series with the Athletics and they'll have to face Cahill, Anderson and Gonzalez.  It won't be easy. 

Make sure you check out Tuesday's Thoughts as there is plenty of things to talk about.

RISP Issues Continue For Yankees

While getting to both of the Mariners' pitching aces, the New York Yankees today face the prospect of being swept after dropping the first two games of the series - 4-3 on Friday and 5-4 in 12 innings on Saturday.  Two issues have reared their ugly heads: starting pitching coughing up leads and failure to come up with big hits with runners in scoring position.

AJ Burnett and Ivan Nova had opportunities to clamp things down but failed.  I have more of an issue with Burnett.  He needs to stand tall.  He needs to be an ace.  He needs to pitch like an $80-something million pitcher.  Both pitchers could not maintain the leads they were given and the bullpens, particularly Boone Logan and Luis Ayala on Friday didn't help the cause.

Then there's the season long problem: failure to hit with runners in scoring position.  The Yanks were 2-15 with runners in scoring position for the two games.  Not sure how or when this is going to turn around.  Until it does, the Yankee warts will continue to show.

As we head toward the month of June, its tough to believe that this team is going to turn it around.  I firmly believe that something needs to happen, whether that's a trade or an infusion of youngsters from Scranton.  Sometimes it's only a couple of players, like in 2005 when a struggling Yankee team sat Tony Womack and brought up Robinson Cano and placed Chien Ming-Wang into the starting rotation which infused some youthful exuberance that propelled the Yankees into the playoffs. 

I could be wrong but I don't see this team winning the AL East and if they do make the playoffs it won't be a long stay.

CC Sabathia will try to salvage the series this afternoon.

Yanks Do Little Things, Take Subway Series

The New York Yankees found themselves down 3-1 heading into the bottom of the seventh facing the prospect of losing the Subway Series to the lowly NY Mets.  Instead of a couple of 2-run homers, the Yanks relied on singles, a sacrifice bunt and a hit batter to erupt for 8 runs and go on to defeat the Mets 9-3.

Ivan Nova allowed 11 hits but it only resulted in 3 runs and kept his team in a position to win the game.  The kid deserves a lot of credit for being able to get out of jams.  Quite frankly, if the Yanks had some timely hits before the 7th Nova may have gotten the win.

The way the Yankees manufactured runs in that 7th inning are what's going to be needed as we head deep into the summer.  This doesn't mean that you dismiss home runs.  It means doing little things when you aren't getting home runs.  The fact that with this win the Yankees are 2-14 in games when they are losing after the 6th inning tells you that they need to begin manufacturing runs.

Having Curtis Granderson bunt was the right call.  The ridiculous second-guessing by the YES broadcast team was laughable.  It's what we need to see more of.  By the way, it was an excellent bunt showing that Granderson has many aspects to his game.  Hopefully, Brett Gardner was watching.

Here's hoping that this win is the beginning of a back to fundamentals for the Yanks as they head into a series against the Blue Jays and then spend Memorial Day on the West Coast.

Check out tomorrow's weekly, Tuesday's Thoughts post.