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

Tuesday’s Thoughts

While enjoying the July heat, here's what I'm thinking about today:

* Sunday's outing by Phil Hughes was certainly encouraging as he gave the Yankees 6 solid innings allowing 2 runs on 4 hits, 2 walks and striking out 5. Hughes' fast ball was clocked in the low 90's but was most impressive was the command on his curve which gave him the perfect strike out pitch. Last year when he enjoyed success, Hughes had command of his curve which really augments his fast ball. Hopefully, he can continue on this path in his next start Friday at home against the A's.

* Tonight Bartolo Colon faces a critical start as he tries to recover from two bad outings. If Colon gets roughed up again tonight, the pressure will really be on Mr. Cashman to get some help for the rotation. The next two days will be real interesting with Colon going today and Freddy Garcia going on Wednesday. In my opinion, bring up Ivan Nova and make a deal.

* The Yankee bullpen did a great job bailing out AJ Burnett last night. Hector Noesi, David Robertson and the incomparable Mariano Rivera shut the door on the Rays while the Yankees fought back to win 5-4. Burnett was awful last night yet kept the damage down to 4 runs. However, this type of start won't cut it in the post season.

* In today's NY Post George King is reporting that the Yankees continue to scout other starting pitchers. While Brian Cashman says that he's happy with his pitching staff, its clear that the Yankees have to make a move if they want to have a legitimate shot of going to the World Series. To me the two guys who I would be going after are Ubaldo Jimenez or Matt Garza.

* The ratings came out last week for this year's All-Star Game and the numbers were not good. In fact, less people watched the game than they did last year and last year's ratings were bad. The excuse being given was that there were too many players who didn't go to the game or didn't play. This is all nonsense. The ratings are down because of interleague play. There is no reason to get excited when I may see Roy Halladay face David Ortiz in May. It was once called the Mid-Summer Classic. It should now be called the Mid Summer Farce.

* As you know in an attempt to get people involved, MLB allows people to vote on the internet up to 25 times for their favorite players to make the all-star team. This I believe also makes the game more of a popularity contest than ever before. I can remember as a kid my friend and I walking down to the local single A team's offices and voting. We could only take a few ballots at a time before the lady in the office asked us to leave.

* It's looking like the NFL lockout should be coming to an end and the free agent period is going to be real interesting. I guess teams will have 3 days to have exclusive rights to sign their own free agents before free agent frenzy will really begin.

* Sure would like to see the Browns go after a running back and possibly a safety. How about Ahmad Bradshaw to complement Peyton Hillis and Donte Whitner paired with TJ Ward?

* Reports out of Columbus that Jim Tressel was not reporting violations to the Ohio State compliance office in 2005-06 should not be a surprise. What is interesting that the previous AD did confront Tressel about it which would lead one to believe that the current administration knew what was going on. The revelation also makes the Ohio High School Football Association's attempt to honor Tressel at all Ohio high school football season openers this year a complete and total joke.

* And finally, I hope you enjoy the new site. The blog now has its own twitter account so feel free to comment either here or on Twitter @tonytalkssports.