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

The Rivalry Renewed

Well this afternoon at 2pm at Fenway Park, the greatest rivalry in baseball begins the 2011 edition as the Yankees play the Red Sox to kick off a weekend series.  To me, I wish the Yankees weren't playing them until sometime next week.

The Red Sox are 0-6.  0-6!!!!  This from a team that has spent a ton of money and has been anointed as the 2011 World Series Champions.  It's ridiculous to think that the Yankees will sweep the Red Sox.  In fact, I'll be happy if they come out of the weekend 1-2.

Any time a team breaks a losing streak, they are apt to win a few in a row.  Particularly a team with the amount of talent the Red Sox have.  The Red Sox have not been hitting and usually when a team breaks out of a hitting streak that lasts for awhile.  And finally, take a look at the pitching match-ups: Hughes vs Lackey, Nova vs Buchholz and Sabathia vs Beckett.

Hughes appears to be struggling and what a way to try to right yourself by starting in the Fenway Park season opener against a team that is 0-6.  Then you have Ivan Nova being exposed to The Rivalry on Saturday afternoon against Clay Buchholz.  These first two games do not look promising.

Much will be made of this first series regardless of who comes out ahead.  Typical for when these two teams meet.  I have learned that I need to tone myself down, particularly in these April meetings because the hype will be ridiculous.

This afternoon it all begins.  Sit back, relax and enjoy.  The key word being relax.  Maybe I'll be surprised but  I'll take 1-2 right now and move on to the next series.

Yankee Notes

Phil Hughes had his first regular season start yesterday and he got pounded.  Now, there is talk that he may be the biggest headache of the Yankee rotation.  Really??  No question the lack of velocity which plaqued Hughes in spring training was also the case yesterday as he barely broke 90 mph.  However, as Joel Sherman pointed out in his article this morning, this is not any different than last year except that last year he was the number 5 starter.  As a result, he didn't make his first start until the second week in April which allowed him to build up arm strength.  Let's wait to see what Hughes does throughout the month before we throw him overboard.

Brett Gardner went 0 - for Sunday striking out a couple of times.  What totally confounds me is with his speed why doesn't he bunt for a hit.  Mark Texiera is red - hot and it was great to see Jorge Posada belt a couple of home runs.  If Jorge keeps this up, the Yankees will have one of the best DH's in the AL. 

While everyone is on Hughes, what about the performance of Bartolo Colon.  Little Andre was brutal and could not slam the door on the Tigers.  Not sure how this guy is on the roster.  It was fitting that his first appearance was on the same day as Wrestlemania.

Ivan Nova makes his 2011 debut tonight against the Twins at the Stadium.

Opening Day Victory: Yankee Recipe For October

The Yankees opening day win over the Detroit Tigers couldn't have been drawn up better by Joe Girardi.  Six solid innings by the starting pitcher (C.C. Sabathia), big home runs (Mark Texiera and Curtis Granderson) and a lock down finish by the bullpen (Joba, So and Mo) produces a win.  Couldn't have worked out better.

As the Yanks get ready for this afternoon's game against the Tigers, its clear that the Yankees will need offense and a reliable bullpen to be successful this season.  And for the Yankees, success means an October run ending with a World Series ring.

One game does not make a season and today will be a little different as the enigmatic A.J. Burnett toes the rubber for his 2011 debut.  The Yanks have spent a lot of time with Burnett this off season and spring.  They have 82 million reasons for the extra attention.  If the Yankees are to be successful, it may depend more on Burnett's performance than that of Ivan Nova and Freddy Garcia.

Thursday's win was a promising one not only because of the perfromance of Joba and Rafael Soriano but also the hitting of Texiera and Granderson.  Texiera has historically started slowly with last year being his worst April ever.  He changed his off season regimen and focused on hitting.  Granderson had terrible first half of the season last year.  However, after working with Kevin Long, Granderson has hit the most home runs off lefties for a left-handed hitter in the majors.  If both these two can continue this for the season, the Yankee offense will be deadly.

First pitch today at the Stadium is 4:07pm.

Jeter Responds With Class

When questioned today about Hank Steinbrenner's comments, Derek Jeter as usual took the high road. Acknowledging that as owner Hankenstein can say what he wants, Jeter said he wasn't upset and that he was planning on being ready for the upcoming season.

Jeter is the ultimate team player and personifies Yankee tradition. That's why George made him the Captain. Maybe Hankenstein should think about that the next time he opens his mouth.

Hank: Shut the Hell Up!!!

Well he's at it again.  Hank Steinbrenner decided he needed to become Boss Jr. again by delivering a shot at his Captain by stating that the reason for the Yankees not winning last year was because they were too busy resting on their laurels and building mansions.  Since Jeter was the only player who was building a mansion (it's 30,875 square feet!!!) it is evident that Hankenstein was taking a shot at Jeter.  The question is: why???

Does Hankenstein really believe that Jeter needs more motivation to bounce back from a bad 2010???  I'm not sure that there isn't a baseball player who is more motivated than Jeter every year, particularly after coming off of an abnormal season.  Jeter has plenty of pride and if you don't think he wants to prove his critics, his GM and ownership wrong then you are off the mark.

For Hankenstein to believe that his pot shots are somehow going to motivate these guys is really laughable.  These guys are millionaires.  Do you think they really care what this spoiled rich kid thinks???  If Hankenstein is looking for answers as to why the Yankees didn't win in 2010 he needs to look at what happened to his pitching rotation after Petitte got hurt, Arod's hip issues, Texiera's slow start, Jeter's struggles,  the reluctance on the part of Cashman to include Eduardo Nunez in the Lee/Seattle deal and the decision by Cashman & Girardi to take their foot off the gas pedal at the end of the season to qualify as a wild card.

Hank was on a roll yesterday as he was squawking about Major League Baseball's revenue sharing arrangement.  Once again, Hankenstein speaks without thinking.  Does he honestly believe that the current arrangement is going to change??  From a Yankee perspective, it could only change for the worse: a hard salary cap.  In other words, no more luxury tax.  You only can spend so much, similar to the NHL.  So then Hank you won't have to worry about the tax and spreading the wealth and moving teams from minor markets (his term not mine).  Then Hank you will have to rely on your farm system, something that this organization can't do because of the market which you have created.

Hopefully we have heard the last of Hankenstein this spring.  Unfortunately, I doubt it.

Heat’s on Mr. Cashman

As the Yankees begin spring training down in Tampa, questions abound over their starting rotation, which has been an issue since last year when Andy Petitte went down in July, A.J. Burnett imploded and Phil Hughes wore down.  It's apparent that the Yanks put all of their eggs in the Cliff Lee basket only to have the big guy from Arkansas spurn Pinstripe dollars for Philly.  The winter was further thorny for the Yanks as their blood rivals made two big acquisitions in the off season.  While Brian Cashman was having  dinner with Carl Crawford, Crawford's agent was working out a deal with the Red Sox to have his client join with Adrian Gonzalez to make the Red Sox lineup very formidable.  Talk about being played!!

Cashman had a bad winter.  He openly questioned the signing of Rafael Soriano, publicly feuded with future Hall of Famer, Derek Jeter and lost out on Lee.  It's been reported that Cashman resents the notion that he's nothing more than a money manager for the Yankees.  There are some who believe that Cashman may want to go somewhere else to prove he can build a winner without Steinbrenner dollars behind him.  If that's true, Brian must have hit his head when he was repelling down that building in Connecticut.

Cashman, and rightly so, has stressed the importance of building up the farm system.  But what has the farm system produced during Cashman's tenure as GM?    The last first baseman that the Yankee farm system developed was Don Mattingly.  Robbie Cano is obviously a success story for Cashman, though the truth be told Cano was not a top prospect in the Yankee system.  Derek Jeter goes back to the Gene Michael days.  Third base???  Are you kidding, the last Yankee bred third baseman of note may have been Clete Boyer!!!

But for Bernie Williams, Yankee raised outfielders are far and few between.  Austin Jackson was traded to Detroit but it remains to be seen whether he could reach Bernie status and as for Brett Gardner.  Please.  As far as pitchers go, Phil Hughes is a bona fide keeper.  Remember the young guns of three years ago: Hughes, Ian Kennedy and Joba Chamberlain.  Kennedy has proven to be a serviceable starter and quite frankly the Yankees have messed up Chamberlain to the point that the best thing for the kid may be a change of scenery.  Oh and by the way, who on the horizon is going to step in when that fateful day finally arrives and the greatest closer in the histoty of the game calls it quits??

If Cashman is committed to the farm system, then why sign Russell Martin when you have extraordinary young talent at the catching position??  With Jorge Posada there as a mentor,(by the way Jorge was from Michaels era) similar to the way Girardi was with Jorge, let's see if Montero or Romine can pull it off.  If these young guns on the farm are as good as they say they are why sign Colon and Garcia??  Let Nova pitch and let either Dellin Betances or Manny Banuelos battle it out for the 5th spot.

You see Cashman wants it both ways.  He wants a good farm system but he also knows that he needs Steinbrenner money to make sure the Yanks are a winner.  He would not be able to come out to this fan base and say, "we are going with the kids because we are building for the future."  Yet, he doesn't want to be a money manager.

The heat is squarely on Cashman.  He must hope that Garcia or Colon (mini Andre the Giant) can nail down a rotation spot.  He must hope that Ivan Nova can slot in the rotation.  He must hope that AJ Burnett shows he's worth the $82 million they signed him for.  He must hope that Sabathia and Hughes pitch to the Yankees expectations for them.  And if any of these don't come to pass, he must hope that his offense and re-tooled bullpen will be able to carry them through while he is able to make a trade to bring in another top line pitcher.  A trade that will certainly involve talent from the Yankee farm system, a system that Cashman holds dear but doesn't have the courage to use to start the season.  By the way, he also better hope that Eduardo Nunez is the eventual replacement for Derek Jeter because if he had included him in the deal with Seattle for Lee, the Yanks may have won a World Series last year.  Some pressure for the kid, replacing a legend and being the reason why the Yanks may have missed out on a championship in 2010.  Heat's on Brian!!!