Praising the Moose.

You guys know the saying, “I’ve grown accustomed to your face”? Can a Yankees fan say that about a long time Yankee? I can say that about Jeter, Rivera, Posada, Pettitte and a slew of other greats. But someone else has also become part of the family, the Pinstriped Family; Mike Mussina. He signed with the Yankees in December 2000. Wow, anyone remember that year? It seems so long ago!

That contract ran out in 2006 and he was given a 2 year deal, which ends this year. He’s been the epitomy of consistency. I think that a lot of reporters and Yankees fans have changed their opinion on him over the last couple of seasons. This makes his position in the Pinstriped family complete. I know so many people who thought he was anti-social and arrogant. Reporters found him unfriendly and insincere. Fans thought he didnt have any heart. So much of that has changed.

As Moose earned his AL leading 10th victory last night, I saw many fans praising his postgame interview with Kim Jones of the YES network. Fans commented on how humble, down-to-earth, and gracious he is. He thinks about today. He’s just thankful to be pitching and greatful to be here. He appriciates being given the oppertunity  to pitch as long as he has, rather than saying he’s earned it.

Mike you’ve earned it. Now the media can’t get enough of him. He’s their go-to guy when something happens. They laugh at his “smart-ass” comments rather than taking them as a sign of arrogance. The media is all over him.

I know there is Chipper, the Rays, the White Sox pitching staff and tons of other feel-good stories this season, but in NY with the Mets being so miserable (may God have mercy), Mike Mussina is the Yankees feel good story.

Now, if all goes well, he will represent his team at their home park for next month’s All-Star game. It won’t be a bone to spare for a fading great, it won’t be a sentimental pick, it’ll be because he’s earned it. At 10-4 with a 3.87 ERA and an out-of-this world 11 walks given up the ENTIRE SEASON, Mike Mussina has earned his first trip to the All-Star game in pinstripes (idk what happend in 2001, 2006).

So while experts predicted a 5-11 season with an ERA of 5.66, Mike Mussina makes them look silly. So if you haven’t accepted this season as “forreal” already you better do so soon. If you haven’t accepted him as a consistent part of the Yankees, you better do that soon cuz’ Mussina has won 260 games, and with every 5 victories, being the all time leader in American League wins, he makes his chances of going into the Hall of Fame brighter, and I promise you he’ll wear pintripes in Coopers Town.

 

 

WTF??

The Yankees are at .500 and they need to find freakin’ ways to stay ABOVE it!!!!! This is annoying as hell. More and more games are shaven off our schedule and we’re falling more behind in the division and we just keep losing and winning and losing and winning. UGH.

 

STAY ABOVE .500!!!!

The State of the Yankees.

Going into tonight’s game against the Twins (7:05EST, Wang/Bonser), on May 31st, I thought the Yankees deserved some evaluation.

Yankees are 27-27 on the season. Their best hitter has been Hideki Matsui. The leader in homeruns is Giambi. The leader in Innings Pitched and ERA is Chien Ming Wang. Leader in wins is Mike Mussina. Leader in saves is the greatest relief pitcher on the face of the Earth, Mariano Rivera.

Couple of important points- Jeter is in a slump. Joba is being moved to the rotation. Both Hughes and Kennedy are on the DL for the forseeable future. Posada is close to a return to the team (amen!).

I don’t know. Should Yankees fans be concerned about the Rays? They  have the best record in the AL and are 1st in the East. Yankees are in 4th. I still see it as Yankees chasing Sox kinda thing. Lets see how this plays o ut.

Considering the meager hitting, and having to face the worst possible scenario with the young pitchers, I guess the Yankees are in good shape. If Hughes and Kennedy had stayed healthy and pitched well, we’d probably have a better record.

At times the hitting has gone through the annoying 0-50 with RISP slump. The bullpen has been atrocious besides Joba, Mo (who’s having the best 1st half since who knows), and Edwar Ramirez. With Joba going to the rotation, the setup man scares me. Farnsworth is a HR machine, and Hawkins has been bad too. So there we go, we’re back to the pre-Joba setup woes.

Mike Mussina is the odd ball. Besides his heartiest fans (like me), no one expected he’d be TIED FOR THE LEAD IN AL WiNS. Did you? I don’t think so. But he’s figured things out. His ERA is a respectable 4.26 right now, and he’s 8-4. Imagine if this is the season in which he wins 20 games. It would be soooo ironic.

Jeter hasn’t been hitting like Jeter (he’s been hitting but not the whole Jeterian thing). Cano, yeah idk, hello Robbie wake up! He’s still hitting below .250 and it’s almost June. I hope Bowa keeps an eye from him, even though he has his own thing to do in LA. But I hope someone does a Bowa on Cano.

We need to go on a big win streak where Wang is superb, Pettitte is Pettitte and Moose continues this stuff. Rasner has been great too, btw. If we can get Mo in the game every other day (he could pitch everyday, he throws only like 13 pitches an innings). The hitters, ALL of them need to come together on a tear and the bullpen needs to be tighter.

All in all, I remain very positive. We’re not in some crazy hole sitting 14.5 games back. We aren’t in 1st either but I see the signs of consistency coming back.

 

Some sarcasm, some truth.

Ok, we’ve won 2 straight agains the Mariners. We faced some pretty good pitchers too. Eric Bedard and felix Hernandez. Again, my God! Wang is THE MAN. He’s the ace for sure and right now he and Roy Halladay (in case you don’t know, Halladay has pitched 5 straight complete games) look like the best in the AL. Wang beat the Mariners again, giving up just 1 run and is now 6-0. He’s one win behind Brandon Webb for the most in the majors.

Yesterday’s game seemed like a lopsided matchup to me…and definetly to Moose haters. King Felix who’s both talented and off to a great starts against THIRTY NINE YEARS OLD MIKE MUSSINA. No, you absolutely cannot say his name without mentioning his age, that’s a felony in NYC. You must mention he’s old, wrinkeled and pruney and walks with a stick and everytime he moves you can hear his back creaking. I sound like I am exagerrating but that’s where it’s come to with him. I’m his biggest fan, at least in Pakistan, while i am here,  for sure, so yes I am deeply offended by it, even hurt.

But somehow this aged bum who accidently won 253 games going into last night, did well enough. Seriously. Mike I think has it figured out (minus the molestation by Manny). He’s learned to deal with his aging, his natural aging, the kind all pitchers go through. Last night he changed speeds, did his thing, got 5 strikeouts, pitched 6 innings and could have gone 7, and got his 3rd straight wins. He’s now 4-3. The Yankees need him so much now. Kennedy is back to the minors and Hughes is on the DL, it’s all dissappointing and makes us lean on Mike, Andy and Wang’s shoulders even moreso. But, I guess so far so good.

But anyway, please, for you Mike haters out there… remember no one is expecting him to be a #1, or #2, in fact not even a #3…but if he keeps pitching this way, he can be an above average #4 or 5, so beware…he might even come back for one more season after this.

Wang, etc.

Lots of stuff to talk about concerning the Yankees.

So last night Chien Ming Wang pitched for the first time since the ALDS against the Cleveland Indians, facing off with CC Sabathia. Wang was amazing. I mean..talk about putting several doubts to rest. I know Wang sucked in the ALDS but maybe it was for the better. It changed his outlook on pitching and he’s said that himself. He started changing speeds. He’s working more on his slider and changeups. I know many people were having a cow over Wang being just a groundball pitcher. They all thought that the end began for Wang with last year’s postseason. Well…9 strikeouts of the Indians while giving up no runs sure as heck proved that wrong. No, haters…the sinker is not Wang’s only way to bread and butter.

Another major criticism of Wang has been that he’s won 19 games 2 straight seasons because of the Yankees offense. They all seem to think Wang wins games 8-2 or 11-1 all the time. They think everytime the Yankees hitters hear the name “Wang” they go into a run scoring hysteria. Lets take a look at Wang’s stats for the season:

Wang is 5-0 so far:

W1: 3-2

W2: 2-0

W3: 4-1

W4: 9-5

W5: 1-0.

So 3/5 wins for him, we won by a margin of 2 runs or less, so Wang had no breathing room. Myth conquered.

next myth- Wang can’t win on the road. Ok, so the numbers did a pretty good job supporting that last season, but not so much this season. 3/5 Wang wins this season have been on the road, including t he complete game at Fenway, and that gem yesterday.

Watch out haters, Chien Ming Wang is the real deal. Ouch.

Now for a  tougher subject; Jorge Posada.

I’m really worried about him. He has a tear in his right shoulder muscle. It happens a lot to pitchers and catchers but this is terrible for us. Posada is a leader, Posada is our everyday catcher and Posada can hit! We signed him to a 4 year contract for all these reasons and more. Cashman looks pretty bad right now. If this requires surgery, we will be in a lot of trouble this season. Molina has been a backup catcher forever, and plus…whomever will back him up won’t be as good as he is at it. Our offensive production just took a hit. It doesn’t help that Posada was close to tears when talking about it. Please, lets pray for Po, he means so much to us and we’re really gonna realize it now that he’s on the DL—-somewhere he has NEVER BEEN BEFORE.

Ok, next thing- how about the April Mariano Rivera is having?!

This has to be the best he’s been in April since he started doing this. He’s got 7 saves in 7 tries and a 0 ERA. He earned his 450th save yesterday and he’s not walked a batter in all his appearences. Wow. *knocks on wood* That’s our pride right there.

What’s wrong with Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy?!?!?!

I know a lotta fans are typing up death threats to Brian Cashman as I sit here. They must think him a fool for letting go of Santana the savior for these scrubs, huh? Not so fast. I still believe Cashman will look like a genius really soon, just you watch. It takes patience and Cash knows that too. With Hughes, I think Phil will come around faster. Kennedy is having psycological issues with being in NY and the expectations being so high. He says it’s hard to try and get setteled, pitch well and turn on the TV and see his name being mentioned so much. That’s not a good thing. He needs to be talked with by the expert of “too much expectations, tough city” A-Rod. Talking to his pitching duplicate Mike Mussina and the perfect examples of clutch pitching Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera. I also recommend he sits down with the inventer of the phrase “95% of the game is half mental”, Yogi Berra.

Patience everyone, patience.

So, how’s Joe Girardi doing so far?

That’s a tough one. I don’t agree with taking candy away from the players. I don’t think that will be the difference in making or not making the playoffs. I also think that while the media is annoying, there asre certain things Girardi shouldn’t keep from the media, like Joba’s hamstring…huh, Joba’s what? Exactly.

That’s it for now, whew…long one.

Spring fling and first ‘game’.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. Spring Training has gone really well for the Yankees so far. Andy Pettitte has handeled the HGH situation with class. He faced the music, and as a result, all is calm now and he’s back on the mound with the support of his manager and teammates. Everyone is healthy too. No hammy strains or groin pulls, or oblique pulls and back spasms to report.

It’s so far so good for Joe Girardi. He’s different. He’s tougher. He works them hard. The guys all have to run a lot and workout in other ways as well. Girardi is also handling the media very well. The thing about Torre always was that he knew the right things to say and do at sensitive times. JoeG seems to have picked some of that up from Joe too. FOr example, when Andy had to face the media, Joe G made sure Mo, Posada, and Jeter were there sitting down. That calmed down Andy. You could tell and he expressed he appriciated it. I think I read a quote from him where he sounded pleased and said, “Hey, my boys are all here”. Things like that matter. Torre had the magic touch, now JoeG has to use it a bit too.

The youngins are having fun, fitting in, and creating excitement and chemistry like we haven’t had since 1998. Mike Mussina’s locker was purposely situtated next to Ian Kennedy’s. Later on, Mussina urged Hughes’ be moved there as well. Mussina, as the senior member of the rotation, has really been mentoring the kids. It’s not just about baseball; he bonds with them like a big brother. Unfortunetly, Mussina’s locker is in a dark corner of the room..so Mussina asked ‘for a better view’ and got it. Now his locker has a picture of a window with a view of the water with a boat in it. He’s decoarated that with the help of his teammates, by adding a pane, curtains, a picture or two of himself, a signed baseball, and some of Hughes’ and Kennedy’s stuff. It’s pretty cute.

If I’m gonna make an entry about this Spring Training, I cannot leave out Joba. He talks to everyone. He’s one giant ball of chemistry himself. He’s talking to the hispanic players, the Japanese players, everyone! He challenged Moose to video games and Moose turned him down, so then he challenged Moose to Ping Pong, and Moose sorta ignored him. Joba jokingly told Moose that maybe he hadn’t heard him, because he’s old and with age, the hearing goes first. Mussina turned around and promply added with a smirk, “I hear everything you say, I hear everything you think.” We believe you Mike, it’s a Stanford thing.

A-Rod and Jeter have been patching up their relationship. The two had lunch together and seem much mroe at ease with one another. Meanwhile, ‘old guy’ Jeter has changed his off-season workout system, so he’s come back in the best shape of his career. JoeG has complimented him on it, and so has fitness freak A-Rod, predicting Jeter will win an MVP. Jeter responded by saying he’d rather win the series. That’s why we love you buddy.

Some of the other guys who’re in better shape than last year include Brian Bruney, Phil Hughes, Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon, and Bobby Abreu. These 5 have lost weight and gained agility. Everyone seems incredibly motivated this year. The chemistry and friendship between them is just fantastic. LaTroy Hawkins, the newest Yankee, walked around in a “Joba Rules’ t-shirt. Kennedy, Chamberlain, and Hughes regularly hang out along with other guys like Marquez, Horne and Jackson.

The Boss has paid a few visits to his boys (not Hal n’ Hank). Hank has mentioned that the Cashman contract extension will “just happen”. That’s good news for Cash. Back in the Bronx, the new ballpark is taking shape and looking like  the majestic cathedtral of baseball it should be. It’s simply magnificent. I think the facade will all be up before April. They’re moving at an incredile pace.

The Yankees will play their first game today. It’s an interaquad game with 2 teams within the Yankees. On a side note, old men of pitching Mariano Rivera and Mike Mussina are given freedom to pitch whenever they wantm have BPs wen they want and rest when they want. As a result, Mo might only pitch on road ST games. There is a game Friday against U-South Florida. The first spring training game is against the Phillies. These games will quickly become very boring, and we’ll begin to crave the real deal. Don’t worry, that’s not too far off either.

Music to my ears: Pitchers and Catchers report!

That time is here. Now it’ll begin to feel like spring even when it’s -40 degrees windchill and you have 3 feet of snow to shovel outside- well maybe not. But hey, you can begin to feel the sunshine warm your skin, and the allergies slowly come on. What us baseball fans see of course is baseball on sweltering summer evenings, pennant races, calls to the bullpen, and bottom of the 9th inning basehits. This is what pitchers and catchers all represents.

It’s all a lot of hype on the first day. The guys showed up today. Phil Hughes, Mike Mussina, Joba Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy, Kyle Farnsworth, LaTroy Hawkins, Kei Igawa, Brian Bruney and maybe a few more. They answered a few questions about fellow teammate Andy Pettitte for the media, along with Joe Girardi. Tomorrow is the first official workout. Now that will be fun. Seeing those players on a baseball field: Steinbrenner field. Yes, Legends field had been renamed to honor the Boss and his babies.

Anyway, what my entry is really about is the most useless thing people can ever do; predict the future. But hey, we live off this, make money off this. So what they heck. Here are my predictions for the 2008 Baseball season, in each division.

National League-

EAST

I think the Mets’ aquisition of Johan Santana will payoff. They’ll win the division. Since they will be the most hyped team in baseball next season, Idk how far they’ll get after that. We shall see.

Central

Cubs will win. Maybe Brewers can make it interesting. Cardinals can only do anything if both Mulder and Carpenter come back healthy and pitch well. Cubs wil take it as I see it, and then go on to bomb in the playoffs again.

West

Most interesting race in the NL. The Dodgers have our managerm the Padres have their good rotation, but so do the Diamondbacks. I’m gonna pick the Diamondbacks. Haren and Webb will do major damage. Watch out Mets.

American League-

East

Yeah. There had to be a day when a Mets fan would pick the Yankees over another team. My friend Ramon thinks the Yankees are gonna take it. They’ll pick up where they left off with that amazing 2nd half run. The kids will rock from the very first pitch. He thinks the Red Sox will suffer bigtime without Schilling, and Beckett’s ERA will go up to 5 (I love that prediction ) I uhm..disagree. I think on paper, the Red Sox will win the East. It might wind up playing out differently, but on paper, the Red Sox are the champions, and bought back everyone that got them there. Lets see which way the wind blows.

Central

An amazing race. I won’t get into specifics. I think the Tigers will take it. Their lineup is amazing, and the rotation will  be tight.

West-

Mariners. If the Bedard- King Felix punch plays out like it’s supposed to, the Angels are screwed.

NL WildCard- Either the Phillies, or the 2nd place team in the NL West. I’ll say Phillies.

AL WildCard- I think the Yanks need to win their division to get in. It will be the Angels OR the Indians. I’ll say Indians by a hair.

Well there you go. Now Yankees, prove me completely wrong. Go win #27!!!

LETS GO YANKEES!

Thoughts on Santana, and what I’m interested in about o8′ Yankees.

Well thanks God! The Santana talk can finally end. In my opinion, this was probably the best case scenario for the Yankees. We get to keep our youngsters, Santana is kept away from Boston, and he leaves the American League. He can do anything now for all I care. Whew. Congrats Mets fans. But I must add that for those Mets fans that think that they have automatically won the World Series…the NL West, Phillies, and the AL would kindly beg to differ.

Last night I was thinking about certain Yankees who’s performance and progress I’m really interested in for 2008. Here’s a list of um’.

1- Joe Girardi; no brainer. This is gonna be a year long story. If the Yankees start slowly out of the gate, he’ll be mulled. But that’s not how I’ll personally judge him. It’ll be clear in other ways too. The players reactions, body language, his handling of the media…etc. I think eventually Girardi will ‘get it’.

2- Phil Hughes; there was, much to my pleasure, a very strong reaction to Hughes’ name being tossed around in potential trades. Now he will have to back up that confidence we’ve all put in him…shame on those Yankees fans that want him to pitch better than Santana. Word of advice- don’t take your Santana anger out on Hughes…he was in the package, the Twins were looking for something else. A bunch of fans who have spoken in favor of Hughes are ones with my own kind of thinking. I think Phil Hughes will improve. I think he’ll start becoming more and more comfortable with the Yankees. His arm will get stronger, and so will his state of mind. He showed us shades of his brillience in September and even in October- what’s next?? I hope to GOD he stays healthy though.

3- Chien Ming Wang- I am a Wang fan. I wasn’t expecting the brillience with which he won us 38 games in the past 2 seasons. At the same time, I was starting to feel that Wang was mentally very strong. Maybe that was just people hyping up his Olympic appearences for Taipei, or his poker face, whatever! But where did that mental toughness and ability to perform go during his 2 starts this postseason?! He was terrible. That’s putting it mildly. He’s basically the same pitcher as Fausto Carmona, but man…yikes. I wanna see him continue his regular season success and come through in the postseason as well! Maybe he’ll develop a reliable changeup. He can be amazing. He can be like Brandon Webb, even better. I know it’s there, he’s shown it too..just a little more tweaking left. I am hoping he does that in 2008. He had a great relationship with Gator, lets see what youngster-specialist Dave Eiland can do for Wang.

4- Melky Cabrera- I think of him very highly. I know he’s a terrific player defensively and with him in CF, I feel great. But I was surprised that many fans think he’s also gonna be a very well rounded hitter one day as well. They think he can go .280, 15HRs, 85RBI one day…I wanna see if 2008 is the year he becomes more well rounded. I hope it is because I really like him. And since we’ve locked up Cano for 4 more years, I wanna see his best friend be good enough to stick around that long too. If you don’t know it already- these two are like bagel and creamcheese.

5- Hideki Matsui- Statistically I have should have no complaints with Godzilla. He’s averaged 100 rbis with the Yankees every season, he’ll always hit .290 or better..but something has dissappeared since the end of the 2004 season. He used to have better stats against LHP. He was more clutch. I had even heard Red Sox fans say that they hate facing him. But the OBP has dropped, and he makes outs with those weak grounders to 2nd like crazy. He swings at pitches in the dirt, K’s looking weak…ugh. Idk, but I want more from Hideki next season. more passion, hustle, and more clutch.

6- Alex Rodriguez- another statistical God. What could I possibly  want from A-Rod? Well after 2 MVPs, booing, post-season chocking, wife-cheating, unjustifiable Opt-outs while his team’s biggest rival is about to sweep-win the World Series…and a 10 year contract…I want a ring. i want postseason ownage of opposing teams. I want him to be a one man show. I want A-Rod to be a God of clutch perfection…too much? I think not. It’s a good deal. Hey Alex, you get your HR record, $275 million, endorsements, attention…now us Yankees fans want World Series wins!

7- Mike Mussina; I’m always interested in what he’ll do. He’s my favorite pitcher besides Rivera. Shocked? You probably are. Yankees fans hate the moose. Afterall, he arrived, World Series rings stopped coming. So that must mean he’s cursed. Also, he chokes, he whines, so why should I be a fan of his? *rollseyes* Anyway in all seriousness, this is his contract year, last season was horrible…and I wanna see him rock this year and stick it to you Moose haters.

Well this is all for now- remember, 15 days until Yankees pitchers and catchers report.

Random thought’s about 08′ Yankees, Yankee Stadium II.

I’m horrible with change.

But I think this is the first time I’m looking forward to it. It’s taken a while, but I’m ready for a new stadium, a new manager, and some new, homegrown talent. If you’re not, and you’re a Yankees fan, that’s too bad, because that’s exactly what we’re getting in 2008.

It’s gonna be the last season at the House that Ruth built, and the first season with Skipper Joe…..Girardi. If you  hated Joe T, then awesome, now we have Joe G, if you loved Joe T like I did, then hey, I don’t think there’s a person more different than Joe G to replace him with. That’s one thing I knew all along. The new Yankees manager couldn’t be like Joe, because no matter how much he was like Joe, or even better than Joe, he’d fail. He’d be compared to Joe in every way. He’d be expected to do exactly what Joe has done, in the exact same way.

That’s not Joe G. He’s young, he’s more fit than his player, he’s a Yankee, and a catcher (like Joe T was too), and he’s fiesty, fiery, sympathetic, clever, and brave. He’ll be an @$$hole when he needs to be, he’ll challenge the owners, the bosses and all. He’ll be different. I think he can be successful, but he needs to be given time; 1996 doesn’t have to be 2008.

In terms of new players, they’re not really new, but just different. They’re not old, established, distinguished, rich men with egos larger than Barry Bonds’ head. They are young, hungry, homegrown players who could one day become franchise players: Meet Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy, and their counterparts in the minors of which I will talk about later. Will they be successes? Who knows. But if they aren’t, we won’t lose millions of bucks just to se them throw rehab batting practice in Game 7’s of ALCS’ (cough Brown and Vazquez, cough), or to push away the media on their first day in town,  or to punch walls, or spend their entire contract on the DL. We ARE the Yankees afterall, these guys don’t do well, we move onto Plan B: signing big time players again.

And then there’s a new home, across the street from “The Stadium”. This was probably the hardest thing for most Yankees fans. Yankee Stadium has too much tradition, reps too many good memories, and has housed too many legends to be parted with. But it’s gonna happen and we can’t stop it. So I’ve come to terms with it, and I am following it’s progress weekly. http://www.baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=51384&page=58

Btw, 25 days until Pitchers&Catchers report for the first time under manager Joe Girardi.

Go Yankees!

~*~ babybombers27

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