I don’t have a problem with either of them getting the award, they were both deserving, but it really grinds my gears that Jose Bautista (fourth) got a first-place vote and Robbie Cano (third) did not. Furthermore, Miggy Cabrera (second) got five first-place votes. Oh well. Much like the CC-Dave Price argument from a few days ago, it’s quite moot at this point.

There was a lot of news going around in Yankeeland today:

• Kerry Wood and Javy will be offered arbitration, but Javy will reject.
• According to Ken Davidoff’s sources, Pettitte will return in 2011 for one more go ’round.
• The Yanks will not offer Jeet arbitration, and, apparently, the Yanks want him to go “test the market.” The latter link is from ESPN.com, so take it for what you will.

Fun fact (courtesy of You Can’t Predict Baseball): the 101-loss 2010 Seattle Mariners had more players get MVP votes than the 2010 Boston Red Sox.

The decision not to rest CC paid off, as he threw a gem. The big guy went 8 1/3 innings (his second longest outing of the season) and gave up a run on three hits with eight strikeouts to two walks. Mo then came on and got the last two outs to nail down the victory.

What’s interesting is that all six of the Yanks’ runs came on something other than a hit. The team recorded three sac flies, a run-scoring fielder’s choice, a bases-loaded walk and an RBI ground out. The last time NYY had three sac flies in a game was on 9/26/08 during a 19-8 shellacking of the Red Cox.

It is still unclear who they will play in the ALDS, but, obviously, it will be either the Twinkies or Rangers. If the playoffs were to start today, the Yanks would draw the Twins. What’s really baffling is that if NYY gets the Wild Card (which is more than likely as the Rays hold a virtual 1 1/2-game lead with the tie breaker) they would still not get home field advantage despite having a better record than both TEX and MIN.

All photos via LoHud.

Postgame quotes: (more…)

Fun Facts: (more…)

Unfortunately for Yankees fans, the bad was just as evident on this afternoon in the Bronx. Javy Vazquez proved ineffective as a starter once again. In his first start since August 21st, Vazquez lasted only 4.2 innings, as his ERA crept back up over 5 once again. On this afternoon, Vazquez was plagued by some untimely wildness – he walked 4, and threw only 50 strikes among his 88 pitches – and 2 long balls within 4 batters in the 2nd inning. In some strange symmetry to yesterday’s win, for the second consecutive day, Joe Girardi pulled a starter who led 5-3 in the fifth and was one out shy of qualifying for a win. In both cases, Lyle Overbay was coming up with two runners on. Yesterday was rookie Ivan Nova – more acceptable than the high-priced veteran Vazquez putting his manager in that predicament today.

It may just be time for Girardi and the Yanks to admit the Vazquez-as-starter experiment is finished for this season. When he starts games, Vazquez is 8-9 with an ERA over 5, as opposed to a 2-0 mark and 1.93 ERA when he comes out of the pen.

So, the news out of the morning’s simulated game could not have come at a better time for the Bombers. Andy Pettitte threw 50 pitches in a simulated game that included the rehabbing Alex Rodriguez as well. Pettitte said he didn’t go “all out” in the simulated game until his 3rd inning, but he was happy with the results nonetheless. “I didn’t feel anything; [I] didn’t have any problems at all,” Pettitte said. “It was great — a step in the right direction.” Pettitte’s progress will depend on how he feels Sunday. Barring any setbacks, he could be on track to throw on Wednesday – which would be great, except for the fact that the Yankees top 3 minor league teams are in their respective playoffs, and their schedules are still up in the air. What is known about the schedules, is that Double-A Trenton is the only one of the 3 scheduled to host their 1st two postseason games. So, what I’m saying is get your Trenton Thunder playoff tickets, and you could see Andy Pettitte pitching in a September playoff game. Sure, Trenton’s not all that nice in September (or any time for that matter), but wouldn’t it be worth fighting through that to watch the veteran lefty try to win a postseason game for the Thunder? Talk about a strange situation for Trenton manager Tony Franklin to be in.

Odds and Ends:
- The Yanks are 6-0 to start their current 10-game homestand. They haven’t had an undefeated homestand of more than 2 games, since they went 6-0 against the A’s and Twins from July 18-23 2008.
- Thames was in a 1-for-14 slump when he hit his HR

In doing so, the Yanks’ 3-4-5 hitters (Tex, Cano and Swish Dog) went 9-for-11 with two homers, three doubles, seven RBI and seven runs scored. The team duffed Buster Olney’s Cy Young pick, Trevor Cahill, up for a season-high eight runs on nine hits in four-plus innings of work.

Fun facts:

• Trevor Cahill’s ERA against the Yankees this year: 12.60. Trevor Cahill’s ERA against all other opponents this year: 2.17.
• Starter Dustin Moseley went 4 1/3 innings and gave up four runs on five hits with four walks and strikeouts. Banished-to-the-bullpen Javy went 4 2/3 innings in relief and gave up a run on two hits with six punchouts to one walk. I’ve got a feeling that Javy will be making his next start on Saturday against the Blue Jays, just a hunch.
• Cano recorded his career-high 26th home run of the season, has homered in five of his past seven home games and is seven RBI shy of a career high.
• Swish Dog established a career-high 142 hits on the year, and he still has a month to go. Remember, WILSON BETEMIT.
• Ramiro Pena is 5 for his last 10.
• Marcus Thames is hitting .400/.464/1.160 over his last seven games (six starts) and has homered in five straight starts. Hitman, of course, holds the record with homers in eight straight starts.
• Derek Jeter who, along with Grandy, was the only starter to not get a hit, is mired in a 2-for-27 slump and is hitting .268 on the year. To make matters worse, look at his home/away splits. Yikes. That’s not going to bode well in contract negotiations this coming offseason.
• One day after throwing a bullpen session, Pettitte said he felt “A tiny bit of soreness but I haven’t been on the mound in a long time. I just think that’s pretty normal. I feel really good.”
• Lance Berkman was 2-for-5 with a run scored in his first rehab start in Trenton (AA).
• Ace allowed one run on two hits through 1 1/3 inning in Scranton (AAA). He threw 33 pitches, 21 for strikes, which was a step up from his prior two outings.

Postgame quotes: (more…)

Coming off an impressive first career start on Monday, SuperNova will get the nod in Chicago against the White Sox on Sunday. Meanwhile, Javy will be moved to the bullpen for the time being.

No decisions beyond this weekend have been made, but we can only hope that Javy is out of the loop for good. Although he did string together a few good starts after getting skipped earlier this season. So maybe this is another kick in the ass Javy needs to get going down the stretch, which would be a good thing as Hughes approaches his innings limit.

AJ settled down after a shaky first and went eight innings and gave up the one run on four hits with six strikeouts to three walks. Remember this game the next time he goes six innings and gives up five or six runs and gets the win. Pitcher wins/losses are the fucking dumbest stat ever.

Fun fact: over AJ’s last two starts, opponents are 8-for-23 with runners on base.

Girardi on AJ:

I feel he’s going to give us a good start every time he goes out.

Bryan Bullington earned his first major league win as he shut the Yanks down to the tune of two hits over eight innings with five punch outs to one walk. “Cy”an Bullington faced one more batter than the minimum and failed to let a Yankee into scoring position. Fuck. Me.

To (literally) add injury to insult, Lance Berkman is now day-to-day with a jammed right ankle after stepping on Bullington’s foot in a play at first base.

In other news: I’ve said this before recently and I’ll say it again, Francisco Cervelli has got to go. I’ve been the biggest fan of his ever since I attended that game last year when he had the walk off single against the Blue Jays (the one on September 17 right after the brawl with Posada), but he owns a .468 OPS since May 25th. That’s not cool. In addition, he did a half-assed job of covering first base today and then botched the throw to second to allow the runner to go to third (though he was stranded there). The time has come to call up Jesus Montero, I know he’s young but he can’t do much worse than Frankie. It’s time to see what he has.

How do you split a four-game set with the Royals?

Ugh, what a shitty afternoon. The less said about this game the better.

Oh well, you can’t win ‘em all. The Yanks will head home for a four-game set with the Tigers starting on Monday. In other words: Johnny Damon’s first trip to the Bronx since leaving for “more money.” Javy will be going against Max Scherzer in the opener.

Here are some postgame quotes from Girardi: (more…)

Over the course of a 162-game season there’s bound to be some clunkers like Tuesday night’s abortion. There’s nothing you can do about it but put it out of your mind and come back the next day ready to play. Hopefully they do just that.

Instead of going into great detail, here are some facts about that atrocity: (more…)

Tuesday: RHP Hughes (11-2, 3.65) vs. TBA (No stats yet, but I heard this TBA guy can hit the upper 90′s with his fastball) 7:05 p.m.

Wednesday: RHP Javy (7-7, 4.45) vs. RHP Joel Pineiro (10-6, 3.95) 1:05 p.m.

It will be fun seeing Matsui again, and if you’re at the game on Wednesday stop by and say to hi to me in section 108.

LET’S GO YANKS!!!!