Liveblog 10: The Season Begins

It's not Opening Day, but it's the deciding game of the first series this year against the Blue Jays. In the first game, the Yankees won due to good and somewhat lucky pitching by Wang, Joba, and Mariano. Melky had a big game, making two good catches and sneaking a game-tying home run past the wall in right. A-Rod drove in the team's first run of the season. In game two, the pitching wasn't so good, with Mike Mussina being decent but not good enough against AJ Burnett, who's usually hurt but impressive when he isn't and who can opt out after this season. A-Rod homered, but that was about all the offense they got. Ross Ohlendorf looked pretty good in the ninth, though. Tonight is Phil Hughes' first start of the season, and thanks to quirky scheduling for Spring Training, the first time he'll pitch on TV since the playoffs. Here's hoping he holds his own against Dustin McGowan, who emerged in impressive fashion last year.

Top 1 - Phil's on the mound. Let's see if he can reverse his bad Stadium split from last year. Fastball doesn't have the velocity it did in Tampa but he gets Eckstein to ground out weakly. He strikes out Stairs looking on a beautiful curve. After looking at a few breaking pitches, Rios is also punched out looking at a fastball at the knees. Nice start.

Bottom 1 - The crowd has already taken to doing a "Hughes" call with two strikes and two outs. Pretty nifty. McGowan strikes Damon with a nice fastball out of the zone. Jeter grounds out afterwards. If anyone's following on Gameday, don't trust what it said in the first inning, I don't think they even got the number of pitches right. Abreu swings weakly at the third strike, and we might have a pitcher's duel tonight.

Top 2 - Wells pops out to deep second, nice play by Cano. Not off to the hottest start but I'm excited about his potential for this season. Thomas skies one to Melky on the first pitch. Overbay takes a couple balls before grounding to second. Woo.

Bottom 2 - A-Rod hits it hard but right to third. Giambi works a full count and then walks. No hits yet but he's gotten on base twice. Cano up, hitting sixth again, which I still find interesting and great. He grounds into a force but just beats out the double play. Still needs to work on plate discipline, no need to swing at a pitch outside like that. Gameday's pitch identification isn't flawless yet, because I know McGowan's fastball ain't 86 MPH. Non-speedster Cano steals second, but it doesn't matter because Matsui didn't check his swing in time and is called out.

Top 3 - Hill is right on Phil's pitches, fouling two off. He smacks the third to Melky in center. Scutaro flies out to right. Phil's coasting. Zaun hits a grounder sharply but Giambi snags it. I don't know what's wrong with Michael Kay, it's one thing to bring certain possible outcomes up when it's been five or six innings, but he can't wait until the third is over.

Bottom 3 - Molina's playing again instead of Jorge, who's still got a bad shoulder. It could just be small sample size but Phil pitched better last year with him catching. He singles up the middle. Kay's calling the Yankees' three young pitchers (Hughes, Joba, and Kennedy) Generation Tres. This is a terrible nickname for two reasons. One, it sucks. Two, why would you want to evoke Generation K, a similar situation for the Mets that turned out to be a huge flop? Melky draws a walk, and Kay says it was the second in the inning, but quickly corrects himself. Damon up with opportunity knocking. Paul O'Neill's grousing about lost opportunities when teams don't bunt with runners on base like this. Someone show that man a run expectancy chart. Damon hits it hard, but right at Rios. Jeter's on my fantasy team, so he has two reasons to come through here. Unfortunately, the bastard grounds into a double play.

Top 4 - Interesting storyline this year involves Jeter and the new Stadium. He can set the record for hits at this Yankee Stadium, but he'll have to get at least 91 this year, before they move. He should do it, but he might not. Eckstein pops a duck-fart double down the left field line, and that's the first baserunner for the Jays. Stairs bounces a grounder that moves Eckstein over, and the shutout's in jeopardy. Rios singles cleanly, running his hit streak against the Yankees to 23 games, and Hughes will not have a 0.00 ERA this year. Oh well. Rios goes for second and Cano misses the ball, allowing him to move to third. God damn it. Wells works a full count but strikes out swinging on a nice curve. Thomas does the same, looking at a fastball. He thought it was inside and Gameday agrees, but usually it doesn't help to argue with the umpire, and he gets ejected.

Bottom 4 - The overhead camera shows it was inside too. The new Gameday has problems. Sometimes it will just duplicate at bats, and then you have really confusing looking pitch sequences for a bit. Abreu stings a single to right. A-Rod pops out to deep second. Zaun is starting to annoy me, as does any catcher who jerks the glove a little too much on borderline pitches. Giambi grounds out, but Abreu makes it to third because no one was covering the base thanks to the defensive shift. Kinda funny. Cano hits it well but right to stairs, and another chance wasted.

Top 5 - Hopefully a quick inning here to make up for the last one. Hughes is getting called high strikes on the curve, which makes things a bit easier. Overbay grounds out on the fourth straight offspeed pitch. Hill grabs another curve but hits it lazily to Matsui. Scutaro draws a walk, which is a silly thing to allow him to do. Zaun lines a double right on the line, and Phil's gotta step it up. A-Rod botches a grounder and Eckstein beats the throw, allowing another run to score. Stairs grounds out, inning over. Someone tell Kay he can only say so-and-so works into and out of trouble if they don't allow any runs to score. I swear he has like six things he knows how to say. I'm gonna microwave something, the offense needs to do something.

Bottom 5 - Matsui dinks a single the opposite way. That's how to get started. Zaun just stole a call with his stupid jerk move. Someone hit him with a bat. Molia pops out to Hill ranging to his left. Melky managed to ground into a double play before I finished the second part of preparation for my overly-elaborate microwave dinner. You know what's irritating? This game.

Top 6 - Phil's still in, although I expect this is his last inning regardless of what happens. He almost hits Rios with a bad curve. Bruney's in the bullpen, and I don't think Kay is contractually allowed to mention him without saying he lost twenty pounds since last year. Rios flies out on an ill-advised swing at a 3-0 fastball. Another bad curve comes close to Wells, who then pops out to right. Shannon Stewart, in for Thomas, looks at a strike. He grounds out to Jeter. He could pitch the seventh without getting to 100 pitches, but I don't see him getting the chance.

Bottom 6 - While I was fumbling with my gravy pouch, Damon worked a full count, and then he doubled to right field. Jeter was down 0-2 but drew two balls before getting hit by a breaking ball. It's time for something to happen. If nothing else, they're making McGowan throw a bunch of pitches, but the Jays' pen ain't shabby. Abreu walks and A-Rod's got the bases loaded. There's butter and gravy on this corn. There's a wild pitch and the runners move up, now they're trailing 2-1. A-Rod strikes out, and now Giambi's got a chance to be the hero. He lines an out to Rios and Jeter scores to tie it, but Overbay cuts off the throw and gets Abreu at third, end of the inning.

Top 7 - Billy Traber's pitching, so while Hughes can't get the win, he can't lose either. He matched McGowan, pretty good first start. He strikes out Overbay, and his night's done. Ah, the life of a LOOGY. Bruney's in. Hill works the count full before grounding out to Cano. Scutaro pops out to right field, now let's get a lead.

Bottom 7 - But before that, we'll have to listen to Kate Smith sing "God Bless America" for the 800th time. Seriously Yankee Stadium, enough. And YES, you don't have to show it. Cano weakly grounds out on a pitch from reliever Brian Wolfe. Matsui strikes out. Molina breaks hit bat and grounds out. It's Joba time.

Top 8 - I don't get this sudden debate over Joba's fist pump. Every player I've heard from doesn't mind it, including notoriously angry O'Neill just now, so radio hosts should just find something new to argue about. Zaun strikes out looking. Eckstein grounds out on a nice play by Cano. Who does Kay think he is using "demonstrative" to describe excitable pitchers? Speak like a human. Stairs singles to the right side. Rios flies out to Abreu. Offense!

Bottom 8 - Melky singles to right field. I'm smelling a pretty good year from him. Scott Downs coming in to face the lefty Damon. Damon bunts, and reaches base thanks to a bobble by the pitcher. I guess Girardi needs a run expectancy chart too. Jeter bunts as well, and almost gets a hit out of it. I guess you can't argue with second and third with one out. Abreu dunks a single in front of Wells, Yanks take the lead. A-Rod's down looking on three pitches. MORE LIKE K-ROD AM I RIGHT? Giambi gets hit, and has reached base three times this season despite having yet to get a base hit. Cano flies out, and Mariano will try to protect a 3-2 lead again.

Top 9 - Wells grounds a single up the middle. Stewart grounds to third, moving Wells to second. Another ground ball moves Wells to third. Hill looks at the third strike, and another close win for the Yankees. Last year, Rivera recorded his second save of he season on May 3rd. This year, April 3rd.

Wrap-up - If the bullpen keeps going like they have this year, it will be a good season. They've allowed one run in 8 1/3 innings. They started off on a similar good footing last year, but the difference is they haven't been overworked yet. Phil looked good, and it's encouraging when you can win two of three games against the Jays' rotation when you haven't had a good offensive performance yet. Ian Kennedy pitches tomorrow.

Elimination

Well, that's the season. The Yankees, try as they might, were again eliminated from the playoffs in the first round, after four games. They were looking good in Game 2. And Pettitte had a tremendous, gutsy game. They hadn't scored much, but they were leading Cleveland 1-0 heading into the bottom of the eighth, and Joba was on for a second inning after shutting down the Indians for two outs in the seventh. But something had started previously that was now becoming a big problem... lots and lots of bugs. Midges apparently, they had settled on to the field after the wind had died down and they were everywhere. The Yankee fielders tried using bug spray but it didn't work. Joba's neck and face were covered with them, and it obviously got to him, as he allowed the tying run to score without giving up a hit, just a lot of wild pitches, hit batters, and walks. The offense continued to do nothing until Vizcaino gave up the walkoff in extra innings.

Game 3 started as poorly as Game 2 ended, as Roger Clemens, getting no help from Derek Jeter's phantom error, gave up runs and was visibly uncomfortable on the mound. He was removed in the third inning and replaced by Phil Hughes, who delivered a great performance. He allowed his inherited runner to score on a wild pitch and a bloop double, but shut down the Indians for the next three innings, striking out four. He kept his team in the game until Johnny Damon delivered a go-ahead home run. Joba relieved him in the seventh and seemed to tire before finishing the eighth, and then Mariano closed it in the ninth. Phil was awesome, becoming the youngest Yankee to ever earn a postseason win. Joba was surprisingly human after his incredible regular season, and he shouldn't have let the bugs get to him. But he's not why they lost the series.

Joe Torre, managing what is now likely his last game, decided to start Chien-Ming Wang on short rest for Game 4, despite his poor showing in Game 1. It didn't pay off, as he allowed two runs in the first and loaded the bases in the second before being relieved by the originally intended starter, Mike Mussina. Mussina was decent in reprising Phil's role from the day prior, but not good enough. Cleveland got six runs off the pair, and despite late home runs by Cano, Abreu, and Rodriguez, they ended up losing the game. The Yankees lost because Cleveland got hits when it was needed and New York didn't. The Indians had 12 hits with 2 outs and runners in scoring position, the Yankees had 1. And that's pretty much all you have to know. Derek Jeter grounded into three rally-killing double plays, and Jorge Posada continually struck out with men on base. Alex wasn't great, and will get a lot of blame for this, but he was definitely better than them. He managed four hits in the last two games, but they'll say it wasn't enough, too little too late. There's a strong possibility he and several others won't be on the team next year. He's an amazing hitter, and his offense from third base is simply not replaceable. If he does go to another city, I wish him luck in a place with a local media that's slightly less insane. 2008 could end up a rebuilding year with three promising pitchers 23 or younger in the rotation, but it should be fun regardless of who's still around.

Liveblog 8: ALDS Game 1

Playoffs! The Yankees couldn't catch Boston in the end, but they still played well enough to grab the wildcard. Boston picked the 8 game series, leaving the Yankees playing their first game today in Cleveland. The Yanks killed the Indians this season, but they didn't have to face their ace, CC Sabathia, who's starting tonight. Chien-Ming Wang is making his second consecutive Game 1 start in the playoffs, and hoepfully he can overcome his road woes and pitch well enough to give his team a shot. The big story is going to be if A-Rod can finally get it done in the playoffs. Apparently it doesn't matter that he's the biggest reason they're there, if he has a bad few games and they get bounced in the LDS again, he's a choker. I hate the media. I'm not terribly confident for this series with two geezers pitching in Game 3 and 4 (if that one happens), but I'm very hopeful. So let's go with the liveblog.

Top 1 - Damon leads off against Sabathia. He has bad career numbers against the Yankees, but he hasn't seen them since 2004 and has rounded into a Cy Young favorite this season. Damon works a 3-1 count before smacking a ball JUST foul down the right field line. Or was it? The umpires reconvene and call it a home run! I'd like to see a replay, but they don't seem to have a good angle. They of course bring up the discussion about instant replay in baseball. Most against a change can only cite the "human element" of having umpires make the calls, but I don't see why tradition is more valuable than being correct. If nothing else, they should be definitively right or wrong on home run calls. Jeter works a 2-2 count before popping up. Despite the vast weight difference, CC reminds me of Randy Johnson; big, tall left-hander with mid-nineties heat, good control, and a good slider. Abreu does his thing by drawing a walk. Apparently Froemming isn't giving that outside corner just yet. A-Rod draws a walk as well. They're following their game plan to the letter - make CC work for every out. He has 24 pitches already. He throws two balls to Posada before striking him out with three more pitches. Matsui up with two outs. Froemming starts giving that corner, two called strikes. Matsui grounds out weakly to end it. Would have liked more runs, but they did work CC for 33 pitches.

Bottom 1 - Wang hits Sizemore with his first pitch. Terrific. Cabrera smacks a grounder to Jeter who turns the double play easily. Actually terrific. I didn't liveblog any of Wang's starts this year and I don't talk about him much, but he might be my favorite Yankee at the moment, although my man-crush on Phil Hughes is challenging that. He's a hard worker, doesn't complain, seems friendly and composed, and gets the job done. Wins are an overrated statistic for pitchers, but it's still impressive he's won 38 games in his first two full seasons. I don't think he has the dominance in him to be a true ace, but he's definitely the team's number one starter right now and should be a good workhorse for a long time. Hafner's already seen more than twice as many pitches as the first two batters combined. He walks. Martinez hits a single. Without Posada, he'd be the best catcher in the league. Garko lines a single up the middle, and Hafner scores easily. Wang hung a slider, even though Mr. Gwynn called it an elevated sinker. The sinker's 95 Tony, not 85. Full count to Peralta. This inning would be a disaster without those first two outs on three pitches. It's still pretty bad anyway. Peralta walks, bases loaded for Kenny Lofton. If he gets a hit, I might just kill myself right now. He gets a single, driving in two, but Peralta is picked off on the bases to end the inning. This is why sometimes it's good to be able to get strikeouts. 3-1 Indians.

Top 2 - That was very bad, but there's still plenty of time. Cano walks on four pitches from Sabathia, which is hard to believe. Seriously, why are there outfield umpires if they can't make those calls? Froemming saw Damon's home run clear as day in the first, but the guy who's entire job it is to see it missed it. Cabrera pops up, which is much easier to believe. Eye Chart's up. He pops up as well. Damon works it 2-2, but Cano is thrown out easily attempting to steal. Not sure why they tried that, he's not fast at all. Just throwing away outs early. At least CC has 49 pitches already.

Bottom 2 - Gutierrez pops out to A-Rod. Wang strikes out Blake on four pitches, back to the top of the order. Sizemore singles, but gets caught stealing on the next pitch. That was better. I'm going to grab some food.

Top 3 - While I was gone, CC struck out Damon and Jeter before walking Abreu again, but then A-Rod popped out the first pitch. What a choker! 68 pitches. At least they're doing well on that front.

Bottom 3 - Cabrera clubs a home run to right-center after starting 0-2. Crap. Pronk grounds out weakly. Martinez flies out in similar fashion. Garko flares a duck-fart single. Peralta flies out to left, and the Yankees need to start hitting now.

Top 4 - Posada loops a liner to right for an out on the second pitch. That's not getting it done. Froemming's definitely giving that outside corner now. Matsui K's on 3 pitches. Also not getting it done. Cano hits a dinger, two run ball game. That's how you get it DONE. Cabrera pops out again because he's not a very good hitter. 80 pitches. The count doesn't matter as much any more, he's gonna get enough rope to go two more innings and get to Cleveland's two dominant Rafaels. Unless they light him up, which would just be fantastic.

Bottom 4 - Lofton pops out. He walks Gutierrez, bringing Blake to the plate, who grounds to Alex who gets the out at second. Wang strikes out Sizemore looking, and we're on to the fifth.

Top 5 - Shelley Duncan leads off, taking over for Mientkiewicz. Apparently the old ankle injury he aggravated earlier today has caught up with him. Duncan works the count full before smacking a single. He's pretty awesome, I have to say. I don't see how he stayed in the minors until age 27 before getting a chance. CC stays outside on Damon and walks him. Five walks tonight, very uncharacteristic for him. It's probably nerves. The Yankees should knock him out in this inning. Sweep the leg. Jeter flies out harmlessly to right, but CC has 99 pitches now. Abreu swings at the first pitch, which is surprising, but lines it for a double the other way, a run scores, and here's a big spot for A-Rod - runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. They walk him intentionally. If someone says he didn't get the job done, I'm gonna punch them in the mouth. Bases loaded for Posada. The first three pitches are balls. The next two are strikes. He gets him swinging. HUGE out. Now a long fly ball doesn't tie the game. This would be a good time for Matsui's first hit against Sabathia. He pops out to Peralta. God damn it.

Bottom 5 - That could be the difference in the game and the series - tying run on third base with one out and they don't get it done. Wang has to hold down the fort. Unfortunately he walks Cabrera. Hafner flies out to center. Victor Martinez hits a two run homer. Wang is not getting it done at all. Garko grounds out to second. Peralta bloops a double to short right field. Fact: this is the most annoying hit in all of baseball. Lofton with another single, and a run scores, exacerbating the irritating nature of the dreaded bloop double. 7-3, Indians. Wang's night is over, and he'll be lucky if his season isn't. Ross Ohlendorf is coming in to put out the fire. Or so we hope. Unfortunately he walks Gutierrez after Lofton steals second. You have a fastball, Ross, it's okay to use it. Blake doubles down the line to score two runs. The commentators are going back to Jeter's at bat, thinking that if he had bunted instead of swinging away, they would have tied the game on Abreu's double. I guess they're ignoring that the Yankees have given up 5 runs this inning. Sizemore pops out, but the game is over. No way the bullpen blows this. I'll watch the rest of the game, but I'm done typing up everything that happens. Hopefully Pettitte can do well tomorrow and the Yankees can head back to New York with a split. Back later with the wrap-up.

Wrap-up - The Yankees managed nothing in the rest of their at bats, losing 12-3. It was a damned if he does, damned if he doesn't situation for A-Rod. He didn't get any hits so he'll probably get criticized again, but if he had it would have been dismissed as meaningless stat padding. Never mind that he was intentionally walked in his only high-leverage at bat, he can't win until he does something really big. Ohlendorf struggled as he started the next inning, and had to be relieved by Veras who finished it. Phil Hughes pitched two innings, which is annoying, because it seems like his talent was being wasted in a game that was already over. Besides another solo home run, he looked pretty sharp, commanding his pitches well and getting two strikeouts. I guess he could still pitch in a meaningful game this series, but I wouldn't count on it with Joe managing. Wedge made a couple questionable moves too, throwing his two best relievers a total of three innings with the game already in hand. We'll see if that's a factor tomorrow.

The Yankees Are Streaky

This has been a frustrating season for the Yankees. Since the last game I blogged, they went 10-6. They're within 6 games of the Red Sox and 2.5 games of the wildcard, after being so far from the playoffs for so long. 10-6 wouldn't be so bad in that period, if so many of the losses didn't come consecutively. Those 6 losses include 3 in a row against Baltimore and Detroit and 2 against the Angels, who last night thoroughly embarrassed the team with an 18-9 rout. 10 of those runs were driven in by Garret Anderson, which is disgusting. Garret Anderson is not a good baseball player, at least not any more. The man has 12 walks on the season, how on earth do you give him that many opportunities to hit the ball hard? The Yankees wouldn't be nearly this irritating if they weren't so streaky. They're prone to both long winning streaks and extended slumps. They're fully capable of scoring 10 runs in a game and then getting shut out the next day. The pitching is just as inconsistent as the hitting. Every starter has proven capable of being both great and disastrous, while the bullpen can either shut down an opponent for the duration of a series or get lit up every night.

Most of the players who were struggling early on have improved. Melky and Cano are both having fine seasons after dreadful starts, although they've both slumped lately. Abreu's also turned his season around after a bad start, and is making a strong case for having his option picked up. It's very fair in today's market, and there just aren't many possibilities out there, especially with prospect Jose Tabata's development being hindered by a nagging hand injury that now requires surgery. Johnny Damon still isn't near his expected production, although he's shown improvement in recent days. What's annoying though is Michael Kay being down on him for only having seven home runs, when he's a "20 home run guy". He's done that precisely twice in 13 big league seasons. After Matsui's huge surge in July, he's cooled off in August. Jeter's had a deceptively bad season. He still has a high batting average, but isn't driving in runs like he was earlier, he's not stealing bases like he used to, and his power continues to dwindle. He seems more like a non-factor in this lineup than he ever has, for some reason. Alex Rodriguez is still himself, with six homers since his 500th, although they still come in bunches, with three in two different two-game spans. First base is interesting. Andy Phillips was slumping again after being re-exposed to the league, and is showing basically no power, but has been better lately, maybe worried about his job since Wilson Betemit got here. Betemit is still prone to the strikeout, and really shouldn't be facing tough lefties, but he's still OPSing over .900 with the team. Jorge Posada is still amazing for his age, Jason Giambi has been good since returning, and Shelley Duncan hasn't stopped being a useful pinch hitter.

Mussina was going well for a while, but has been awful in his last two starts. Chien Ming-Wang has also struggled lately, but not as horribly. Roger Clemens has done well besides the bone-headed move to hit Alex Rios in defense of Rodriguez, which cost him a start and led to a brutal 12-0 drubbing by the Orioles when Jeff Karstens took the start in his stead. Whatever effectiveness Karstens had last year appears to be gone, as he's been demoted back to the minors. I still think he could be a useful long-man or back-end starter, but probably not on a team that intends to win. Andy Pettitte scuffled around the all-star break after a good-but-unlucky first half, but now he's rebounded and been on a roll, winning all four starts in August. He's been the Yankees' workhorse this year, and definitely who I'd want to start the first game of an important series. Phil Hughes has only had one good start since coming back, against Cleveland. He's been walking batters, which he doesn't normally do, and his command just isn't where it's been in his minor league career. He was doing well against the Angels, throwing four scoreless innings after a three run double in the second, but allowed two base runners in the seventh, both of which scored after he was taken out, making his start seem significantly worse. Right now, if they make the playoffs, I might make him the fourth starter instead of Mussina. His control has been an issue, but he still has shown flashes of his ability, and Mussina has really been terrible the last two games. By the end of the season, if they do make it, I hope Mike has things basically figured out, and I bet he gets the starts, with Phil going to the bullpen to help when he can. I think Phil has the potential for a Mussina-like career, which would be awesome. Right now though, he's been showing some rookie problems and mistakes, like not hustling off the mound to make the play on a grounder to first, which led to two runs and an eventual loss. Going by both the team's record in his starts (3-3) and his Win Probability Added (-0.02), he's neither helped nor hurt the team significantly. Also interesting is despite the fact that righties hit worse off him than lefties (normal), he's above average at striking out lefties while below average at fanning rightes (not normal).

Mariano Rivera's at that time of the year again where he struggles and we all question how much longer he can be good. I think he'll be okay for the rest of the year and hopefully will be effective through 2009 (he really wants to pitch in the new stadium), but he definitely shouldn't be leaned on as heavily as Joe Torre seems to like. He has other effective arms in that pen now, he just needs to mix them well. Edwar Ramirez has recovered after a disaster before his first demotion, and Vizcaino has been a pretty effective setup-guy. Kyle Farnsworth became a pariah, but after pitching some good games and striking out even-more-hated Gary Sheffield and ML-batting-leader Magglio Ordonez in a tight game, he's on the way to winning back some support. Ron Villone probably shouldn't be on the team anymore. I'd rather have another righty like Britton than an ineffective lefty.

You can't mention the bullpen without mentioning Joba. Since coming up he's lit the world on fire. In an obviously small sample size of 7 innings, he's given up no runs and struck out almost half the batters he's faced, with more than half of his outs coming on strikeouts. Obviously he won't keep this up forever, but it's raised an interesting question of his future role. If he can be anywhere near this absurdly dominant as a closer, some think he should stay there instead of moving back to starting. Having a good closer is important to having a good team. A pitcher with an average leverage index for a closer, who throws 70 innings with a 2.00 ERA, which Joba could very conceivably do, has the same VORP as a starter who throws 200 innings with a 3.69 ERA (Sorry about those nerdy, esoteric terms of discussion, you can ask if you don't get it). In a relatively pitching-strong season, that would qualify as 31st among this year's qualifying starters. That's a pretty good pitcher. The thing is, I think Joba could be that good without that much projection. He has a killer fastball and slider, and two more offspeed pitches with room to develop, which would be a very good repetoire. He could be deadly with just average command, which he basically has. He's also very good at maintaining his velocity deep into games, as witnessed in his minor league starts. A lot of the concern about his weight and injury problems has gone away. The fact is, Phil Hughes was the consensus best or second-best pitching prospect in the minors at the beginning of the year, and a lot of those same analysts now project Joba to be better than him. He could be dominant for years to come. A specimen with malevolent stuff, as Bill Simmons would say. I think a lot of people don't realize how many great closers were failed starters. Mariano Rivera is regarded by many as the best closer of all time. He was a bad starter before he converted to relief. You don't need an amazing, otherworldly closer to be a good team, just one who gets the job done. You should at least make sure Joba isn't your best starting pitcher (which he has the potential to be) before you make him your closer.

Liveblog 6: Phil Returns

Since the All-Star break, the Yankees have been one of the best teams in baseball. They're definitely playing better. They're still not that close to Boston, but they're only 2.5 games behind the Wild Card-leading Tigers, who have been having another second half swoon.

A-Rod's been the center of attention since hitting his 499th home run. He's just one away from becoming the youngest player to ever hit 500, which until recently has made a player a lock for the Hall of Fame. That number has lost some luster since offense has gone up in the game from steroids and smaller ballparks, but it's still very impressive. Unfortunately, Alex seemed to be trying too hard, and went 0-21 after 499. He's played a bit better the last couple games, getting some hits and driving in runs, but the home run still eludes him. Maybe he'll get it out of the way today. I think it would be a bit easier since there aren't hundreds of flashbulbs distracting him during day games.

The trade deadline passed, and the Yankees didn't do a ton to improve. They picked up a solid infield bat for an ineffective reliever, trading Scott Proctor for Wilson Betemit. Proctor was a workhorse for the Yankees, but he was struggling, and Betemit improves the bench significantly. Unfortunately, the bullpen didn't improve overall, since terrible Kyle Farnsworth is still on the team and Eric Gagne got traded to the Red Sox instead. Help could still be coming, though. There's a chance they could still get rid of Farnsworth through waivers, and promising young guys like Joba Chamberlain and Edwar Ramirez could be coming up to fix some holes. I'd like to take credit for being high on Joba before everyone noticed him after the Futures Game, as he's now one of the most highly regarded pitching prospects in baseball. His future is as a starter, but he's been shifted to the bullpen and could be a dominant force to the end of the season. Also coming to help the team is Phil Hughes, who's finally returning after that hamstring injury ended his no-hitter back in May. I think he'll be great in the future, but this season all he has to do is be better than Kei Igawa, which pretty much anyone in the world could do. I still see promise in Kei, since he was the best starter they had at getting strikeouts, but he just couldn't stop giving up runs. They still have him for four more years, so we'll see what happens there.

In the meantime, Hughes is starting today, backed up by an offense that has been rolling through AL pitching. Everyone's been great, and most players numbers look way better than they did just a little while ago. They're back atop the majors in runs scored, thanks in part to Cano learning how to take a pitch and getting his average back over .300, and Matsui having a monster month. He hit 13 home runs and won player of the month honors, to go with A-Rod's two this year. A Yankee has won the award 3 of 4 months this season, and going back to May of 2005, they've won 9 of 15, including 5 by A-Rod.

Top 1 - Phil's on the mound. I'm excited. Wilson's starting at first for the first time in his major league career. I like Andy Phillips, but Wilson will probably produce more. Nice, crisp fastball to start the game. He follows with a disgusting curve. Three pitches later, he induces a groundout to Cano. He starts Grudzielanek with a ball, but strikes him out with three straight fastballs. Seven pitches later, Teahen grounds it back to Phil, and that's the first. Not great pitch count wise, but he did his thing.

Bottom 1 - Kyle Davies is a promising young talent, but he's been bad for the Braves this year. He was traded to the Royals for Octavio Dotel, who spent all of last year on the Yankees payroll doing Jack before jumping to the money Kansas City gave him. Damon works the count full. He may not be long for this team, although I'm sure he's there the rest of the season. He seems healthy and has been getting better with his job in jeopardy, Melky taking over center field and Giambi coming back from injury to hog the DH spot. He grounds out. Jeter singles to center. Abreu's been better, but I still don't trust him against left handers. He walks on four pitches. A-Rod has a chance right now to make history. And he does it! Three run shot is his 500th home run, giving Hughes an early lead. Awesome. Funny thing, that means that he had the exact same number of at bats between 499 and 500 as Mickey Mantle. Matsui doubles over the first baseman's head. Posada moves him to third, and Cano triples to right center. 4 run lead for Phil Franchise. Betemit is called out on strikes, inning over.

Top 2 - Hughes is throwing strikes but he isn't putting batters away quickly. He should be able to pitch at least 5 and get the win, though. He walks Butler after going 0-2. He K's Gload looking. That's a backwards K, for those who do scorecards. He finally throws a changeup, for a strike. If he can nail down that pitch, he could be awesome, but for now he can do well off just the fastball and curve. He strikes out fellow hyped rookie Alex Gordon as well. Gordon grew up and played in college with Joba. Ain't life interesting? Joba probably won't get called up in time to see him, though. Tony Pena Jr, son of the Yankees first base coach, looks at a called third strike. 4 strikouts in two innings, but he's thrown 39 pitches already.

Bottom 2 - Melky Cabrera has also improved much since a rough start to the season. He flies out to left, though. Damon grounds out again. Jeter works a 3-1 count before singling again. Abreu launches a fly ball that's caught in front of the warning track. Much better inning for Davies.

Top 3 - Gathright doubles on a botched fair/foul call down the left field line. The next pitch is wild and Gathright moves to third. If Hughes had gotten him and the next guy out, he would have pitched nine consecutive hitless innings. A faux-no-hitter, if you will. Posada blocks another potential wild pitch, and the hitter pops out. Next guy singles in Gathright, and the next grounds out to first. Teahen hits a duck fart double and there's another run. The curve is definitely going left. Might have been unnerved slightly by the bogus first hit. He really isn't commanding the curve, and they've avoided the fastball a bit since it's been hit. Another curve is swung at and grounded back to Phil to end the inning. Despite the runs, he's maintained the same pace of about 20 pitches an inning. Through 3 innings, 3 hits, 2 runs, 4 Ks, 1 BB.

Bottom 3 - A-Rod's first PA has a member of the 500 club. Even though he was the youngest, Ruth and McGwire did it in fewer games. He walks on four pitches and steals second. So many aspects to his game. I wonder if anyone else stole a base the same day they hit 500? Matsui works a long at bat before walking. Posada strikes out looking. Cano grounds out, moving up the runners. A couple runs would be nice here. Betemit delivers an RBI single. Cabrera pops up to end the inning.

Top 4 - Gload lines a single past Hughes after two strikes. The Royals seem to be seeing his fastball well. He gets a little pick up with a grounder for a double play. He strikes out the next guy for a much better inning, pitch count wise. I'm pretty sure Bobby Murcer said something monstrously stupid, but I'm looking up the numbers to make sure. Just this year should be enough evidence. Bobby called Hughes a fly ball pitcher. This season, in the minors, he has a 2.35 ground ball to fly ball ratio, and 2.83 in the majors in limited innings. He's known for a very low home run rate, partially because he gets so many grounders. Today, he's added six groundballs to one fly ball. I have no idea why Bobby would think he's a fly ball pitcher. He called the game against Texas, in which he recorded three GIDP and only one fly ball out that I can recall.

Bottom 4 - New pitcher for Kansas gets two outs quickly. Gordon snags a grounder from Abreu but he gets to first easily ahead of the throw. A-Rod singles through the hole in the right side. A third straight hit, this time by Matsui, and another run scores. Posada pops out to end the inning. Slow moving game.

Top 5 - Hughes walks Gathright on a very close pitch. The catcher flies out. DeJesus homers, 6-4 ball game. A bit of a disappointing return. People expecting him to dominate should cool off a bit, all he has to do is keep the ERA around 4 instead of 7. He really doesn't seem to have his customary command right now. The fastball's only around 88 instead of the 93 at the game's outset. Grudzielanek pops out to short right. Teahen singles up the middle. Butler doubles, Melky takes a bad route, and a run scores. Hughes is being taken out of the game, and he can't get the win. Disappointing return, although he did show some promise for the future. I'm running on fumes right now and not too interested to see Mike Myers, so I'm going to go hang out my cousins. I'll be back for the wrap-up.

Wrap-up - Myers got the win despite facing only two batters and giving up an RBI double to one of them. Win/Loss rules in baseball are so stupid. Anyway, after the Royals tied the game, the Yankees just kept scoring runs, beating up on the weak KC bullpen. The Yankees ended up winning 16-8. Everybody's hitting except for Damon. Abreu hit another home run, Cano picked up a couple hits, Betemit continued to drive guys in. Definitely another great game for an offense that is stampeding through the league. On the bad side, Kyle Farnsworth continues to be unable to pitch innings without giving up runs. His trade value is decimated and they might have to just cut him if they want to win.

Liveblog 5: 2007 Futures Game

I'm not that interested in the All-Star Game this year, to be honest. As the season goes on and the Yankees continue to be inconsistent and mediocre, the playoffs continue to slip away, and I start thinking of the team's future. Not just the team, but the whole league. I'll watch the game and hopefully see some good baseball, but what I'm actually looking forward to is the Futures Game, where a lot of the top prospects in the minor leagues get a chance to pitch in front of a national audience, and we get a chance to see what they have. Isn't that a little more compelling than watching a bunch of guys who are already famous play in an exhibition that most of them probably don't care about?

Last year, Phil Hughes (Who'll hopefully be pitching in the bigs again by the end of the month) and Jose Tabata were selected to represent the Yankees. Phil actually got lit up a bit in the inning he pitched, which included Tabata smacking a single just past his head. How much would it have sucked to have our #2 prospect take out our #1 with a line drive to the face? Anyway, this year, only Joba Chamberlain will be representing the Yankees organization, but he could be worth it just by himself. Picked in the Supplementary Round of the draft last year, he has great talent and would have been picked earlier if there weren't concerns about his arm soreness and weight problem, but so far he's kept those at bay and been dominating hitters with a K/9 rate of over 13. I haven't been this excited about a Yankee pitching prospect since... Phil Hughes. Anyway, I'll be back to blog this game as it happens starting at 4.

Top 1 - The Yankees just beat the Angels 12-0 after losing 2-1 in 13 innings the day before, and winning 14-9 the day before that. What a weird sport. Michael Saunders reaches on an error off a pitch by Jeff Nieman and steals second. Chin-Lung Hu doubles down the line to score Saunders, then steals third and scores on a sac fly Wladimir "Misspelled Name" Balentin. Nieman has a really nice fastball and strikes out Joey Votto. Max Ramirez pops out on a ball that gets away from a fielder before being saved by another.

Bottom 1 - Boston's Jacoby Ellsbury leads off against Rick Vanden Hurk and grounds out. Justin Upton, brother of Tampa's BJ, is next. He strikes out looking. Evan Longoria, not to be confused with the Desperate Housewives star, doubles to center. He moves to third on a wild pitch. Ian Stewart squibs a grounder to the pitcher and the inning's over. Vanden Hurk had a good fastball too. I think we'll see that a lot today.

Top 2 - Chuck Lofgren of the Indians starts the inning, and I'm not sure why he's here, with an ugly ERA, and a good strikeout rate but a fair amount of walks too. German Duran launches a deep fly out to left. Robinzon Diaz (What the fuck is with these names?) bloops a single to center. Carlos Gonzalez pops out to third. Lofgren's fastball is surprisingly mediocre, but he has a good changeup. A wild pitch moves Diaz to second. Freddy Sandoval goes down on strikes and we're moving on.

Bottom 2 - Stephen Pearce pops out against Carlos Carrasco, but I wouldn't know that without the internet because Erin Andrews was interviewing World Team manager Juan Marichal. He was a great player, but this game is about the young, not the old, damn it. Brent Lillibridge fans on a breaking ball. Jay Bruce wallops a triple off the right field wall, the second Team USA hit that would have been a home run in most parks. Chris Coghlan (this is like an unusual name convention) draws a four pitch walk. Bryan Anderson opts for the completely generic name instead, and pays for it with a strikeout.

Top 3 - This is what I'm here to see, Joba the Hutt. He walks Saunders on 5 crisp fastballs, maybe a bit jumpy with the nerves. Saunders steals second. Hu singles to score the runner. Chamberlain gets ahead of the batter with a change and a curve before blowing a fastball by him, as Hu gets thrown out at second. The next hitter lines an out to first base and the inning's over. Disappointing - not the run, Hughes gave up three last year; rather, on the replay, Hu was safe at second, and I wanted to see some more of Joba.

Bottom 3 - Hey, Joba got an interview with Erin! I like the guy, what can I say. Fautino De Los Santos takes the mound and quickly strikes out Ellsbury. Of the saints indeed. Upton takes him deep on the very next pitch. Longoria gets hit by a pitch and takes his base. The next batter pops out. I've just been informed that he was the first positional player ever drafted in the first round by Colorado. Really? The team known for good hitting and terrible pitching? Okay. The next batter walks. Foul tip strikeout to end the inning, 3-1 World.

Top 4 - Kevin Mulvey is now pitching. This game will only be seven innings, which seems weird since they have ten pitchers, I think. Ramirez slugs a double to left. Duran whiffs. Diaz singles on a play that could have been made, and runners are on the corners. The US defense has been rough today. Replacement Colby Rasmus makes a nice running catch in center as Ramirez tags up easily, and the next batter grounds out. 4-1.

Bottom 4 - Funny thing about this All-Star Game commercial with the players riding trolly cars through downtown San Francisco - it was filmed initially with just a bunch of good players, but a large number of them didn't turn out to be voted into the game. So they reedited the commercial to take out all those players while adding a few other incongruous shots of unexpected guys who got in. New pitcher Henry Sosa induced a ground out to start the inning. He quickly gets another. Steve Phillips quips that Jose Reyes could throw 95 MPH if he pitched. I strenuously object. 95 MPH is an elite fastball, just because a guy's got a strong arm at shortstop doesn't mean he's got a better heater than most of the guys who are actually paid to pitch. A third grounder to end the inning.

Top 5 - Pitching is last year's top draft pick Luke Hochevar. Kenny Williams, GM of a terrible team, tells the broadcasters that Mark Buehrle has verbally agreed to an extension to pitch the next four years for the White Sox, without a blanket no-trade clause. I have no idea why Buerhle agreed to this, he could have gotten more money and it's well known that he wanted to play for St. Louis. Unless he really doesn't care about that anymore. Hochevar gets two grounders before a fly ball to wrap up the inning. He was the first US pitcher not to get exactly one strike out.

Bottom 5 - Deolis Guerra gets a ground ball and then a pop out. He throws a crazy wild pitch, but no one's on base, so no harm done, ha ha ha! I hate this laptop, I've somehow managed to accidently publish this post twice in the last two minutes. John Whittleman clubs a homer, two run game. Pitching change? You know it! Commercial for Pan's Labyrinth. I'm disgusted with myself for not having seen it yet. Franco Morales takes the mound. He looks dominating striking out Stewart.

Top 6 - I don't understand Sam Adams' marketing angle of suggesting that everyone who works at their company is a drunk. Liking beer is one thing, but pointing out someone happily accepting a brew at 5:30 AM... little weird. Votto homers off Boston's Clay Buchholz. Phillips mentions him outdueling Roger Clemens earlier this year. Good job giving up fewer runs than a 44 year old making his second start of the year, Clay. Strikes out the hitter. Brian Bocock makes a nice play to get the second out. Geovani Soto strikes out and the inning's over.

Bottom 6 - MLB's Gameday claims Morales' name is Franklin, ESPN says Franco. Franco seems more likely. Matt Tolbert fans. Quick cut to Joba pointing to the US flag on his uniform and giving a thumbs up. You're a Native American, Joba, this country has been screwing your people since they got here over two hundred years ago. Bocock walks. Steve Phillips, you don't have to tell us that Jose Reyes has "elite" speed. We know, okay? The fact that it's a minor league exhibition game suggests that the average viewer knows a few things about baseball, and the fact that Jose is fast is the first thing they teach you when you sign up to be a fan after they tell you what a base is. Stop patronizing us. Morales strikes out Bruce and he's removed for a reliever. Pedro Beato takes the mound and a pop up falls in between three fielders for a hit. Phillips explains that to be a regular catcher, you have to have a good throwing arm. 2007 all-star Victor Martinez says hi. Beato finishes the inning with a K.

Top 7 - Awesome-named Clayton Kershaw will probably be USA's last pitcher today. James Van Ostrand hits a home run. They're gonna have to pick an MVP for this game, which is usually completely meaningless. It's very unlikely a player even stays in the game long enough to be significantly more important to a victory than anyone else, so what's the point? Ground out. The batter is Gorkys Hernandez. Yes, Gorkys. He draws a walk. You know names are crazy when Elvis Andrus doesn't make me bat an eye. The King strikes out. Ah, manager Dave Winfield removes Kershaw when in all likelyhood, this will be the last out their pitchers have to get. Collin Balester in. Double to the left-center gap. Strikes out Votto, 7-2 World.

Bottom 7 - Rich Thompson will attempt to close out the game. He gets Ellsbury after a long battle with the big hook. A fly out, and Emiliano Fruto is brought in to wrap this bitch up. He allows a walk. Stewart flies out, and that's the game.

Wrap-up - Not a bad game. Some of the players looked pretty good. I was annoyed by how ESPN went out of their way to point out all the great players who played in past Futures Games. Really, have a lot of good players in the minors, selected to play in an exhibition, gone on to have success in the majors? How wild! I didn't pay as much attention as I might have if I didn't watch the Yankee game, because six hours of baseball can start to wear on you.

Liveblog 2: It's Been Ugly

Since the loss to Boston I blogged, the Yankees lost five more of their next six games. That's eight out of nine, and they're looking pretty horrible. The starters are still not going deep. That's overworking the bullpen, and along with Joe Torre's awful management, that's kept them ineffective. Even the offense has slacked off of late. Alex Rodriguez cooled off before he could set the April home run record (he only tied it), and Bobby Abreu isn't swinging well, and now he's compounding the problem by trying to bunt too much. Don't bunt Bobby, it's bad. Statistically, it almost always hurts your team, and the only time it's ever acceptable is to get a runner over to third with one out and you only need one run. Otherwise, just try for a hit, you'll get out of your funk sooner.

Phil Hughes, the Yankees' young blue chip prospect, is making his second big league start tonight. He wasn't great his first time out, giving up two runs in the first and another two before getting out of the fifth. But in between, he showed off his stuff and was dominating for three innings, and he totaled five strikeouts, so he gave me a lot of hope for the future. The Hardball Times had an article today that has me a little worried about his mechanics, but it could have just been an off night. Hopefully tonight he can keep Texas' lineup at bay and get things going in the right direction for his team.

Top 1 - Bobby Murcer is back in the booth announcing, which is good to see. Michael Kay isn't there either, so very enjoyable commentary situation. Kameron Loe is starting for the Rangers, and his name looks like it belongs to a Jedi or something. Abreu is batting first. And he actually squared to bunt with no one on base. Who replaced Bobby with an evil doppelganger? Questionable called second strike. He takes a couple balls before chopping out. Jeter is up, and he's had a hit in 56 of his last 58 games. What does this mean? Nothing. After DiMaggio's streak was broken, he had another right after that lasted into the teens. He grounds out. Giambi draws a walk, as he is wont to do. Rodriguez grounds out, and the inning is over.

Bottom 1 - And here's Phil. He leads off Kenny Lofton, playing for his 38th team, with two called strikes, but then walks him on the next four pitches. Michael Young takes a couple strikes before grounding into a double play. He strikes out Teixeira on three straight nice change ups, and Mark had no idea what was going on.

Top 2 - Matsui leads off the inning. Apparently the only reason a hitter slumps is from "pulling off" the ball, because that's how they're explaining why no one is hitting. Matsui flies out while the cameras are watching the dugout. Posada gets the game's first hit with a single the other way. Cano lines another single and Brad Wilkerson misses the ball, letting the runners advance to second and third. Melky grounds to the right side to drive in Posada, 1-0 Yanks. Loe is nibbling against Doug Mientkiewicz, who he's apparently mistaken for a good hitter, and the count is full. Minty Fresh grounds to Young, who bobbles it, and Cano scores the second run. A lot of people think Young is underrated, because he's a very good hitter that doesn't get a ton of attention, but he's actually a bit overrated because his putrid defense brings him way down. Abreu flies to left to end the inning.

Bottom 2 - Hughes faces his first major league batter with a lead, and strikes him out with his sick curve. Ken Singleton doesn't know what he's taking about. He called a change up a fastball and a curve a change up. Hughes walks Blalock, and he's looking a little wild, bouncing some curves and missing some spots. Ian Kinsler, who is apparently the Rangers' best hitter so far, grounds into another double play on the first pitch, inning over. 6 batters, 2 walks, 2 strikeouts, 2 GIDP, 24 pitches.

Top 3 - Jeter lines the first pitch up the middle for a single, 57 in 59. After getting Giambi 0-2, Loe hits him. That's gotta annoy a pitcher. A-Rod grounds a single through the left, and the bases are loaded with no outs. Matsui grounds into a fielder's choice, but avoids the double play and gets the run in. Acceptable. Posada smacks his second hit, somehow for a double, and the Yankees lead 4-0. In the next few years, Posada could build a serious argument for Hall of Fame consideration. He's always been one of the best hitting catchers in the league, and last year he made strides forward defensively. If he can maintain this level for some time without the usual dramatic drop-off a lot of catchers face in their mid-thirties, he deserves at least a good look. Cano lines a double just inside the line and drives in two more runs. Cabrera strikes out, bringing up Mientkiewicz. This is the second time Loe went 3-1 against him, and I don't know why. A couple pitches later Doug grounds out to first, and the inning's over.

Bottom 3 - With a good lead, hopefully Hughes can just work on his pitches and get outs without worrying too much about the score, and hopefully Joe lets him stay out there for a bit. He makes Wilkerson look like a fool staring at a third pitch strike fastball right down the plate. I like that confidence. Cruz (Cruz?) hits it back at him for the second out. Laird (Laird?) grounds out to Jeter on the first pitch, and I am ecstatic about this start.

Top 4 - Notice how Loe is still pitching? It's because his manager is aware that he might as well just get innings out of his ineffective starter while the other guy is dealing, so he doesn't waste his bullpen. Joe Torre is terrible. Abreu singles to right. What is Abreu doing stealing (actually, getting caught stealing) with a six run lead? He's a good hitter playing small ball, and it makes no sense. Jeter strikes out. Giambi flies out to deep left center, and that's it.

Bottom 4 - Second time through the lineup. Two quick strikes to Lofton, but Hughes waits until the fifth pitch to get him to ground out. One pitch later, there's another ground out. Teixeira makes the third ground out of the inning. No ball has left the infield.

Top 5 - Rodriguez doubles down the left field line. He's 1st in slugging and 5th in average, but only 9th in OBP. No one is walking him, which I find odd. Matsui hits one that eats up Teixeira and it's 7-0. Posada hits the third double in the inning, and Loe's gotta be coming out soon. And here it is, Ron Mahay's coming in. Cano just misses a home run on the second pitch. He settles for a dunked single into center, and the Yanks have scored nine runs. Cabrera walks, and I wonder to myself what it must be like to be a fan of a team at their stadium while they're getting destroyed. I was at a Yankee game once in Toronto while they were ripping the Blue Jays' bullpen apart, but I was in a section with all Yankee fans so it was kind of like a home game without triumphant music. Mientkiewicz just misses a homer himself, but has to settle for a pop out. Abreu grounds into a double play to end the inning.

Bottom 5 - There's the sixth straight ground out by the Rangers. I can't tell if Hughes is magnificent or they're terrible. Blalock makes the first fly out of the game to left field. He runs Kinsler to 3-0 on what I'm calling at least the third time tonight Hughes has been squeezed. He throws a few more pitches before walking him, and I wish he had just walked him on the fourth, since he's on a strict pitch count. He's thrown ten balls this inning, and I wonder if he's been babied too much on pitch counts in the minors. Wilkerson strikes out, and I am in love with Phil Hughes. K:BB isn't great but he's still been economical and the Rangers can't figure him out.

Top 6 - Jeter leads off with a walk. Giambi flies out again. This is the first time I've seen the Gameday for a Yankee game include the pitch speeds and breaks and stuff. I don't get it. A-Rod draws the second walk of the inning. I don't know if I've ever seen a hitter ground into a double play situation but beat it out more frequently than Matsui. He just did it again. Posada draws the third walk of the inning. If I understand the pattern here, Cano will get out in some fashion. And he does, with a strikeout, making it a fancier pattern. Mahay walked three right handers and retired three left handers.

Bottom 6 - Cruz flies out to Cabrera in center. Laird strikes out. I've never seen a pitcher do this well with such a small strike zone. Simply dominating. Lofton strikes out, the sixth by Hughes in the game. The Phil Hughes era is here and it's magnificent.

Top 7 - Melky harmlessly grounds out. Mientkiewicz smacks the team's 12th hit of the game. Abreu strikes out, and he doesn't look great lately. Cruz is wall shy and misses catching a foul ball from Jeter, who strikes out to end the inning.

Bottom 7 - I don't understand how those two pitches are balls, but okay. Young skies it to center for the first out. And this is awful. Hughes tweaked his hamstring on an 0-2 pitch to Teixieira and he gets taken out of the game. He had a no-hitter going. I was concerned he was going to be pulled for pitch-count reasons, but this is 100 times worse. Not only is the dream over, but he could end up with a real injury too. Now that it's over, I can vent about annoying media people. There's a superstition that talking about a pitcher throwing a no-hitter or a perfect game can jinx them, and be the cause if it gets broken up. This is silly of course, what we say has no effect on what happens on the field. But still, it's more fun and adds excitement to avoid mentioning it while we all know it's happening, but news sources can't help themselves but shout about it from the rooftops. The Yankees announcers tonight mentioned it every five minutes from about the fourth inning on, it was a headline on mlb.com, and Baseball Tonight talked about it freely. Do these people not know about this rule? Just play along. Mike Myers comes to pitch in relief and finishes the inning with two outs.

Top 8 - The tension is pretty much gone, this has gone from a flirt with destiny to a normal blowout. The Yankees as a team could still no-hit the Rangers, which would be the second time it happened to them this season (Mark Buehrle did it while facing the minimum with only one walk). This might partially explain why only two Rangers have batting averages over .250. If they did it, it would be impressive, but not completely amazing. Giambi flies out for the third time. It seems like he's just missing. A-Rod gets a hit, and I am unimpressed, as this Rangers pitching staff seems very keen on giving up hits. Interesting, tonight the Yankees have 13 hits, 9 runs, no homers. Matsui flies out. Posada gets out for the first time, inning over. I want my Phil Hughes back.

Bottom 8 - Blalock breaks up the no-hitter. Apparently, the trainer was saying Hughes' hamstring "popped". What if this injury is enough to change his delivery, or make him less effective as a pitcher? We could be getting robbed of something amazing here. Devastating. Myers loses the shutout on the next hitter, 9-1. Hairston grounds into a nicely done double play. This was supposed to be a momentum changing, season-saving win, and now Phil Hughes is never going to pitch again. I'm going to die. Another ground out, inning over.

Top 9 - What's the point of finishing this game? Cancel the season. The Yankees are doomed forever. Cano doubles. Good job, Robinson. Cabrera moves him to third. Good job, Melky. Can any of you guys magically make Phil's hamstring problem go away? I would just love it. Blalock makes his team's third error and another run scores. Abreu lines out to short. Jeter walks. That seemed like it took a while. I'm not paying too much attention, I'm trying to find any tangible info on Phil's condition. Mientkiewicz and Jeter move up on a wild pitch to Josh Phelps, pinch hitting our DH for some reason. He strikes out.

Bottom 9 - A bit of a silver lining on the injury, if we can assume he's out for a bit (or maybe longer than a bit) and can come back the same pitcher, it will mean he'll have more innings left in him for the rest of the season, so we don't have to worry too much about overusing him. Of course, as long as he's injured, he can't actually pitch in that time to stay on the right track, so I don't really know what's going to happen. I still feel awful. Vizcaino is pitching, because Torre doesn't know what he's doing. He gets someone out. I just want this to be over so we can find out the details. There's a second out. Ken Singleton calls it a break out night for the Yankees. Yeah, the offense was great. But we potentially just had a very bad injury. Shut up, man. There's your third out, game over. Hughes gets his first win and first hamstring problem. But it's like the Yankees' 49th this year.

Wrap-up - Kim Jones asks Posada how badly they needed a game like this. I know what she meant, but they needed this specific game like they needed a second asshole. Still waiting for real information. He's going on the DL, no question, so what I'm wondering is who's pitching in his stead. Matt DeSalvo has been great in AAA this year, so he seems likely. I hope they don't go back to Rasner, he's fine if you have four good pitchers, but at this point the Yankees have maybe two.

Hughes is the Chevy Player of the Game. I'm surprised they even asked the fans to vote on it. Boston lost late after Papelbon blew his first save of the year, so that's pretty good news. Thank God today's the first of May, or else his amazing April streak would be over. The Postgame show is wasting my time with a recap instead of getting to the injury. I just watched the game, you dicks, tell me what I want to know. I will kill time by writing some more. Andy Pettitte starts tomorrow, that should be a win. Mike Mussina comes back the day after, I hope he can be effective. Who knows when Pavano is coming back. I felt reasonably okay with a rotation of Wang, Petttitte, Mussina, Hughes, Igawa, but now that Hughes is a big question mark. I wonder who will make it back first, Hughes or Pavano. I'm going to go with Pavano, which depresses me.

Oh my God, YES. Stop stalling. Stop talking about the game. Find someone who knows something, and ask them how serious the problem looks. I'd like to know so I can move on and do something else tonight.

I can't believe how great he looked tonight before he left. It was his second start against big league hitters. He's not even 21 yet. He cut through the Rangers like a knife through butter. Did they not scout him at all? The Blue Jays hit him, and he faced their AAA team in his last game, so they probably had some good info. They had to know something about him, right? They were swinging a lot at the first pitch and when they were ahead in the count, and they kind of resembled a minor league lineup.

Twenty minutes into the Postgame and still nothing. Okay. Apparently, it's not horrible. Joe says Hughes said something similar happened in high school. He's going to be out, but I feel pretty sure he'll be back and dealing in time. I'm gonna do something else now before I develop an ulcer.