Baseball-around the league

I wanted to do this yesterday but didn't get a chance. I know it is early and it doesn't necessarily mean much but the Toronto Blue Jays are off to a 5-1 start, the Red Sox have started slow going 2-3 barely hanging on today for their second victory. The Orioles have the offense and can score runs on anyone but I don't think their pitching will hold up. The Cleveland Indians are 0-5 and come to the New Yankee Stadium next week, Cliff Lee the Cy young winner has looked bad in his first 2 starts. The Anaheim Angels know how to win and play the game the right way, when you watch them it just doesn't matter who is hurt they plug guys in and just play that team game and drive you nuts. The Seattle Mariners look like they will be better but that isn't saying much and the Texas Rangers have a potent offense but can they get any pitching?? The Kansas City Royals are a sleeper pick for many but I don't think they have a good enough offense and their pitching isn't great. The National League has the East looking good, you figure the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies will be there but the Braves look much improved, pretty good pitching and the Florida Marlins look good, a lot of fun to watch. The Marlins are my sleeper pick. The Chicago Cubs look stacked but they are a cursed team, Alfonso Soriano has 3 homeruns already. The Houston Astros are just bad and Albert Pujols is still a monster having 7 rbi tonight. The San Francisco Giants have scored more runs in the beginning of this season then they scored in a month last year. The Padres are not a good team and the Dodgers are lucky to be in a weak division but seem to be the best team out there with Manny Ramirez.

New York Mets recap

The New York Mets defeated the Florida Marlins tonight by a score of 8-4. Livan Hernandez pitched 6 2/3 innings giving up 6 hits and 2 runs with 3 walks and 4 strikeouts. Pedro Feliciano got the one hitter out he faced. Darren O'Day didn't fare so well 1 1/3 inning giving up 3 hits and 2 runs. Frankie Rodriguez pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up a hit with a strikeout. Jose Reyes was 2 for 5 with 3 rbi, Daniel Murphy was 1 for 4 with a walk. David Wright was 1 for 5 with a rbi. Carlos Delgado was 3 for 4 with 2 rbi and a walk. Luis Castillo was 4 for 4 with a rbi. The Mets will go for the series win tomorrow with Johan Santana going against Josh Johnson. I am sure the Mets are feeling confident with their ace on the mound.

CC is Back

CC Sabathia pitched a brilliant game tonight going 7 2/3 innings giving up 0 runs on 6 hits with 6 strikeouts. Jose Veras came in to finish the game with 1 1/3 innings giving up a couple of hits, 1 run with 1 walk and strikeout. The Yankees offense got out to an early lead again and then tacked on. Jorge Posada had a couple of doubles and 3 rbi. Nick Swisher continued to be red hot having a 2 run homerun and a rbi triple with 2 walks. Derek Jeter had a walk and a hit, Johnny Damon had a hit and walk. Hideki Matsui who has been struggling had a doube and walk and Xavier Nady had 2 singles. The Yankees go for the sweep tomorrow on Easter with Joba Chamberlain making his first start against Gil Meche, I wonder who will sit because I don't think Nick Swisher can be taken out of the lineup. Happy Easter and Passover to everyone, I will try and post in the morning but not sure how much I will be able to do tomorrow.

Lineup Change for the Yankees

Mark Teixera was scratched from tonights game with a sore wrist that bothers him when he swings right handed. Nick Swisher will be playing first base and batting third and Johnny Damon will be back in left field batting second. The rest of the lineup remains the same. It looks like their are a couple of more players that took steroids Troy Glaus being the biggest name along with Scott Schoenweis. I will have more on this later when there is more information and confirmation. I hope everyone enjoys the game and I will be back later.

New York Mets at Florida Marlins

Livan Hernandez makes his first start of the year against Ricky Nolasco. Here are the lineups Mets Reyes(ss) Murphy(lf) Wright(3b) Delgado(1b) Beltran(cf) Church(rf) Schneider(c) Castillo(2b) Hernandez(p) The Mets hope to get a decent 6 innings out of Hernandez and hope to even up the series at 1 and make tomorrows Easter game the rubber match. The game is about to start at 6 but won't be seen on SNY until 7:00 due to the Fox window, no games can be on TV until 7:00pm.

Yankees at Royals

UPDATE 5:02PM- The lineups have been posted and here they are Yankees Jeter(ss) Swisher(lf) Teixera(1b) Matsui(dh) Posada(c) Cano(2b) Nady(rf) Ransom(3b) Gardner(cf Royals Crisp(cf) Callaspo(2b) DeJesus(lf) Butler(dh) Gordon(3b) Aviles(ss) Jacobs(1b) Olivio(c) Bloomquist(rf) Both teams are 2-2 CC Sabathia makes his second start of the year today, trying to improve on his dreadful opening day performance. He worked on a mechanical issue with pitching coach Dave Eiland in his bullpen session and believes he corrected the flaw. It was his footwork especially his front foot, so if he has his fastball command early we will know it should be a much better game from him. CC is 14-10 with a 3.40 era in his career against the Royals, he has started the most games against them in his career. In the last 2 games yankee pitchers have struck out 22 batters, after the first two games we didn't think they would strike anyone out all year, well at least some fatalistic fans thought that. Robinson Cano has a 349 career avg against the Royals the highest he has against any team. He has a 15 game hitting streak dating back to last year and is 4 for 6 against Ramirez who pitches today for the Royals. The Yankees are the only team in the majors without an error but of course Nick Swisher dropped a ball yesterday that should of been an error and Robinson Cano rushed a throw yesterday that could of been an error although that isn't as bad as Swisher not getting an error. Mark Teixera aka Big Tex turns 29 today, Happy Birthday Tex. The Elias Sports Bureau came up with a couple of interesting things. Jorge Posada has caught at least 1 game for 15 straight years. The last person to do that was Johnny Bench with the Reds from 1967-83. Nick Swisher drove in 5 runs on Thursday becoming the first Yankee since Roger Maris in 1960 to drive in 4 or more runs in their first starts with the Yankees. I will be back with the lineups in a little while, the game doesn't start until 7:00pm, the Red Sox vs Angels is the Fox game of the week at 4:00pm. Peter Abraham gets the credit for having this information on his blog at http://yankees.lhblogs.com/ and much more so check it out.

Ian Kennedy Dominant

The Scranton Yankees-AAA affiliate of the New York Yankees beat the Lehigh Valley Ironpigs yesterday by a score of 2-1 in 11 innings. Ian Kennedy made his first start of the year and went a strong 6 innings giving up 1 run on 4 hits with 0 walks and 11 strikeouts. Dave Robertson had a strong 2 innings of relief giving up 1 hit, 0 runs and 3 strikeouts. Brett Tomko pitched 2 innings giving up 2 hits, 0 runs, 0 walks and had 3 strikeouts and JB Cox closed it out with a walk and hit but no runs allowed. The offense had Kevin Russo go 3-5, Shelly Duncan 1-5 with a rbi and Juan Miranda also go 1-5. Austin Jackson went 2-5 but also had 3 strikeouts. Angel Berroa went 1-4 with a rbi. Chad Jennings of the Times-Tribune and the Scranton Yankees blog had some postgame notes and reaction. Chris Stewart the catcher said that Kennedy was as good as he ever was last season and Manager Dave Miley said it was as good as he as ever seen him pitch in AAA. Chad Jennings thought he looked aggressive and confident like he did when he breezed through AAA on his way to the majors in 2007. He said you can be as aggressive as you want but it still comes down to execution. I think Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy are going to have big years and be waiting for another chance at the big leagues. The Trenton Thunder AA affiliate of the Yankees lost to the Binghamton Mets 4-3 yesterday. Zach McAllister pitched 5 innings for Trenton allowing 4 hits and 3 runs only 1 earned though with 2 walks and 2 strikeouts. Kevin Whelan pitched a scoreless inning giving up a walk and having a strikeout. The offense saw Eduardo Nunez go 2-5, Edward Gonzalez was 3-4. Tampa the A affiliate of the Yankees won 2-1 in a strong debut by Dellin Betances. He has been called the Baby Unit and keep your eye on him, he is young and has had some injury problems but if he stays healthy he could be in AA at some point this year and definitely next year and expect to see him in the Big Leagues in a couple of years. He pitched 6 innings giving up 3 hits, 1 run, 2 walks and 7 strikeouts. The offense saw Jesus Montero go 1-4 and Austin Romine go 0-3. Damon Sublett went 0-4 and Brandon Laird was 1-4. Tampa has a bunch of pretty good prospects so I expect to talk a lot about them this year. Charleston A affiliate of the Yankees won 4-2. DJ Mitchell pitched 6 innings giving up 1 hit, 1 run with 6 strikeouts. The run was unearned. Pat Venditte who is the ambidextrous reliever pitched a scoreless inning giving up a hit and had a strikeout. He picked up the save, he is a guy I will be watching this year as it is a fascinating story. DJ Mitchell is another good prospect for the Yankees but is in A so we can't get too excited over him with so many guys in front of him.

Walkoff loss for the Mets

The New York Mets lost to the Florida Marlins today by a score of 5-4. John Maine pitched well going 5 innings giving up 2 hits, 2 runs with 1 walk and 5 strikeouts. Sean Green pitched 1 inning giving up 3 hits, 1 run with 1 walk and 3 strikeouts. Bobby Parnell pitched 1 inning giving up 3 hits and 1 run. JJ Putz pitched a scoreless inning giving up a hit, Pedro Feliciano pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up 1 run on 1 hit with 1 strikeout. Daniel Murphy and Carlos Beltran were the hitting stars both getting 3 hits. Carlos Beltran had 2 rbi. Ryan Church also had 3 hits with 1 walk. David Wright was 1-4 with a walk. The Mets will continue their 3 game series in Florida tomorrow with Livan Hernandez going against Ricky Nolasco.

Andy was Dandy today

The New York Yankees defeated the Kansas City Royals today by the score of 4-1. Andy Pettitte was just dominant pitching 7 innings giving up 3 hits, 1 of which should of been an error, 1 run, 1 walk and 6 strikeouts. Brian Bruney pitched a 1-2-3 8th inning with 2 strikeouts and Mo got the save in the 9th only giving up a infield single with a strikeout. The Yankees bullpen over the last 3 games has pitched 10 innings giving up a infield single, 0 runs and 12 strikeouts. I think what seperates the Yankees is what you saw today, did Andy Pettitte look like a #4 starter to you?? Joba Chamberlain has a chance to be a #1 or #2 pitcher someday but he is the #5 on this team. I love what Nick Swisher brings to this team and he had a rbi double today. Jorge Posada had a 2rbi single. Cody Ransom is struggling at the plate but has had some hard hit balls and nothing to show for it. Mark Teixera was 1-2 with 2 walks, Hideki Matsui was 0-4 with 2 strikeouts, he is 1-14 on the season. I wonder if Nick Swisher will be in rf tomorrow with Xavier Nady the dh. Brett Gardner had a infield hit and a sac bunt. The Yankees will have their ace CC Sabathia on the mound tomorrow looking to get on track. The game is at 7:00pm on YES.

Yankees at Kansas City

UPDATE 3:05PM: I do have the lineups now and here they are Yankees Jeter(ss) Damon(lf) Teixera(1b) Matsui(dh) Posada(c) Cano(2b) Swisher(rf) Ransom(3b) Gardner(cf) KC Crisp(cf) Aviles(ss) Dejesus(lf) Teahen(rf) Gordon(3b) Butler(dh) Jacobs(1b) Olivio(c) Callaspo(2b) This is a bonus for today as I usually won't be posting the opposing teams lineup. Derek Jeter and Mark Teixera have fared well in their careers against Sidney Ponson. Jeter has 5 hrs going 29 of 77. Big Tex is 8 of 15 against him, the Yankees also will get to see old friend Kyle Farnsworth who already has blown a save for the Royals. Pettitte is 12-3 with a 3.59 career era against the Royals and 7-2 3.34 career in KC. Cody Ransom has struggled going 1-10, maybe they do need Arod after all. Robinson Cano is off to a great start going 6 of 11 with 5 runs scored, 3 rbi, 3 walks and 2 extra base hits. He hasn't struck out yet and it took him 19 games last year to get 3 walks. I give a shoutout to Peter Abraham for having the lineups and notes on his blog, check it out at http://yankees.lhblogs.com. Enjoy the game everyone and hopefully I will be back later with a happy postgame recap. I don't have the lineup yet or any notes but the Yankees will take on old friend Sidney Ponson today at 4:10pm. Kaufmann Stadium underwent a renovation and it will be interesting to see how it looks, i have always liked their stadium out there. I think the Yankees will score some runs off Ponson and if Andy can pitch a good game they should get a victory today. I think they will be more relaxed after getting their first victory and Big Tex after a rough start had a good day yesterday and I think he will be ok. I will be back in a little bit when I get the lineups and pregame notes. I do have a quick note, Andrew Brackman got shelled in his first outing yesterday in A-Charleston. AA Trenton picked up their first victory 5-4 in 14 innings yesterday and AAA-Scranton picked up their first victory in their first game.

Yankees minor leagues

The Trenton Thunder AA affiliate of the New York Yankees opened their season last night, losing to the Binghamton Mets by the score of 5-3. Erik Hacker got the start and went 5 1/3 innings giving up 6 hits and 1 run with 1 walk and 2 strikeouts. He was in camp with the major league club this year and Jorge Posada said he is a guy to watch for. The other Yankee pitchers didn't fare so well Kevin Whelan pitched 1 1/3 innings giving up 2 hits and 2 runs with 1 walk and 2 strikeouts and Mike Dunn pitched 2 innings giving up 4 hits, 2 runs only 1 of which was earned and 5 strikeouts. He was also in major league camp and did impress some, he is worth watching but I am not sure how much of a prospect he is, he was converted to a reliever from starting. The offensive side didn't produce much as no player had more then 1 hit, Colin Curtis did have a double and Eduardo Nunez had a hit. I am not too sure how many legit position prospects are at this level, I think you can look more at AAA and A for that. The rest of the minor league affiliates kick off their seasons tonight. The Scranton Yankees play Lehigh Valley with Jason Johnson making the start. Austin Jackson will be in CF and they also have Shelly Duncan to watch.

The season is rescued

I am being funny here but to some they really feel this way. Brian Cashman says around here it is 162 1 game seasons and that is how a lot of fans treat it and even some in the media. The Yankees played a great game today winning by the score of 11-2. AJ Burnett looked good going 5 1/3 innings, 2 runs with 6 strikeouts. Nick Swisher made his first start and had 5 rbi, Robbie Cano continued to be the All Star version having 3 hits a homerun and a couple of rbi's. The bullpen was just pure dominance again with Phil Coke striking out both batters he faced then Jose Veras, Brian Bruney and Mo pitching perfect innings. Mark Teixera had a couple of hits, a homerun and rbi. Ramiro Pena got one at bat and had his first major league hit. The Yankees head to KC now and will play tomorrow afternoon at 4:00pm with Andy Pettitte going against ex teammate Sidney Ponson. Saturday night at 7:00pm Joba will square off against Horacio Ramirez and Sunday afternoon Easter Sunday CC Sabathia will face Gil Meche. I hope the Yankees will take a deep breath now and relax and get at least 2 out of 3 in KC if not sweep them. I know it is early but I really like what I see out of Nick Swisher so far and think he needs to get some more at bats, I am sure he will be playing tomorrow and if he continues to hit he will keep playing. I do like Xavier Nady but he is more of a free swinger and I also like the fact that Swisher is a switch hitter and just brings a lot of enery to the team. The Yankees need to get their pitching right and they will be fine, if there pitching keeps them in it they will win because they can score enough runs even without Alex Rodriguez. I fully expect that all the pitchers will get going and be very potent and tough to beat.

Terrible Tragedy hits the baseball world

UPDATE: I apologize, Nick was pitching for the major league club, he just made his fourth career start last night and was the #3 starter on the team because of the injuries on the staff. This incident happened after the game around 12:30am. A terribly tragedy hit the baseball world this morning. 22 year old Angels pitcher Nick Adenhardt was killed in a car accident. He made his first start of the year in the minors yesterday. His car was struck by a vehicle that ran a red light and it was a hit and run. He was killed with someone else in the Angels organization which no one knows who it is yet. Edwar Ramirez, Jose Molina and Mark Teixera were all with the Angels, Tex didn't play with him but knew of him. They were all shocked by this as I am sure everyone else was also.

Mets vs Reds

Here is the Mets lineup for todays game against the Reds which begins at 12:30. Reyes(ss) Murphy(lf) Wright(3b) Delgado(1b) Beltran(cf) Church(rf) Castro(c) Cora(2b) Perez(p) The Mets are off to a good start going 2-0, Santana was good in the opener and yesterday the Mets scored some runs with help from bad defense by the Reds. The Mets pen was shaky yesterday but held on. Pelfrey did not have a good start, he did finish with 4 scoreless innings but threw way too many pitches. The Mets question this year is how much will they get out of 2,3 and 4 of the rotation?

Game 3: Yankees at Orioles

Game 3: Yankees at Orioles

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Recap of last nights Yankee game

I know there can't be too many positives after losing again last night but for the Yankees there were a couple. The biggest positive of the game was the bullpen, who didn't allow a run after Wang came out of the game. Ramirez, Albaladejo, Veras all came in and did the job. The Yankees staged a 9th inning rally and it was good to see that they have some fight in them, Big Tex got his first hit and rbi in the 9th which was a good thing also. The Yankees are 0-2 and that isn't good but the last Yankees team to go 0-2 and they actually ended up going 0-3 and 1-4 was the 1998 team who ended up 114-48 in the regular season and 125-50 overall winning the World Series. The 1998 team is considered by many as the greatest team ever. I don't think anyone expected Wang and CC to get hammered like they did but no one expects that to continue also as they are very good pitchers. I am sure the Yankees will get it together very soon. I expect AJ to pitch a good game today and really the bullpen needs it.

Where is the pitching?

I don't know what to say, the Yankees are getting beat by the Orioles not the Red Sox. I just can't believe both Wang and Sabathia got crushed, they didn't not pitch well, they were horrible. This team better get it together quickly but remember the 98 Yankees were 0-2 and 1-4 to start the year and then finished 114-48. I hope AJ can do what he is capable of 7 innings 3 runs or less and maybe get us a win before we head to KC for the holiday weekend. The Yankees better win soon or I am sure the Joe Girardi watch will start which isn't fair but bound to happen. I don't really know what to say, the only positives were they tried to come back playing right to the last out and the bullpen was good. I will probably have a lot more tomorrow but this is it for now.

Game 2: Yankees at Orioles

UPDATE 5:42PM- I should of mentioned this before but Dan Giese got picked up off waivers by the Oakland A's, good luck to Dan. The Yankees lineup for tonight is the same as opening day. Jeter(ss) Damon(lf) Teixera(1b) Matsui(dh) Posada(c) Cano(2b) Nady(rf) Ransom(3b) Gardner(cf) Wang gets the start and is on the mound for the first time since last June when he got hurt in Houston rounding third base. He is 3-1 with a 5.13 era in 8 starts against the O's in his career and 2-0 with a 4.20 era in 4 starts at Camden Yards. Robinson Cano for only the 13th time in his career walked twice on Monday. The Yankees on their opening day roster had players that come from 7 other countries, the only team with more was Atlanta which had 8. The Yankees have 12 foreign born players tied with the Mets and Red Sox for 2nd most in the majors only trailing Seattle who has 15. These stats come via Peter Abraham and his blog. The Elias Sports Bureau had a interesting stat, on Monday Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera became the first trio of Yankees to play in 15 straight seasons(1995-2009). Enjoy the game, I will be back later with some reaction, comments, opinions. Hopefully Wang will get the team back on track before some people jump off a bridge.

Joba in the headlines

I have to admit when I saw this in the Post this morning I was a little nervous. When you read the story though it is a lot of nothing. He was pulled over and charged with the DUI 6 months ago and then he was recently sentenced to probation and lost his license for 6 months. The papers obviously had nothing to write about with the Mets and Yankees both off yesterday so they had to come up with this. The smoking gun website had a video of Joba yesterday during his arrest and he said some things but what he said was that Yogi Berra is short and that NY drivers are rude, Wow this is so alarming, I didn't know any of these things. The papers of course made it out to be a big deal and it's not. The big deal is that he was driving drunk but that is over and done with, hopefully he is over that and it doesn't turn into a big problem. I know I did stupid things when I was young and I am not famous and don't have money. He got caught up in his fame and just had too much too fast and hopefully this was a hard lesson for him to learn but that he did learn it. Mike Ashmore the Trenton Thunder beat writer and has the Thunder Thoughts blog posted some stuff from Media Day down there yesterday. He has audio, video and quotes so check it out if you are a fan of the farm system and the Trenton Thunder.

Yankees at the White House

The New York Yankees visited the White House today on their day off. Nick Swisher was there as well as Xavier Nady, Joba Chamberlain, Cody Ransom, Edwar Ramirez, Jose Veras, Phil Coke, Jonathan Albaladejo, Ramiro Pena. They took a 90 minute private tour that included the West Wing, Rose Garden and Oval Office. There were a total of 22 players, coaches and others in the traveling party in attendance. Peter Abraham of the Journal News and http://yankees.lhblogs.com had this on his blog, thanks to him for pointing this out.

Yankees minor league rosters set

UPDATE: 9:46PM: Chad Jennings of the Times Tribune and AAA beat writer and has his own blog is reporting that Brett Tomko will be the closer at AAA and Austin Jackson will be hitting sixth to start the season. I have been waiting for this to be official for about a week, the Yankees announced their rosters for Scranton-AAA, Trenton-AA and Tampa-High Class A, Charleston-Low Class A. I am not going to list the whole rosters here but you can find it on http://yankees.com/ under minor league affiliates or on http://milb.com/ which is the minor league site. I am going to list some of the top players though first with Scranton: Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy, Mark Melancon, Austin Jackson. The Catchers down here are Kevin Cash PJ Pilittere and Chris Stewart. PJ was in Trenton for a couple of years and is known as a good game caller. The other names most of you are aware of, I am looking for Austin Jackson to have a big year and maybe be up in the big leagues in September. I also look for Mark Melancon to be on the big club at some point this year. AA Trenton-Kyle Anson and Francisco Cervelli are here as the catchers both pretty good prospects although Cervelli is thought of as the most advanced catching prospect the Yankees have and could be up in AAA at some point this year, he of course had a lost year least year when he broke his wrist in spring training. They have some interesting pitchers here such as Zach McAllister, Mike Dunn, Wilken Arias, George Kontos and Ryan Pope. Zach McAllister is one of the top young prospects that the Yankees think very highly of. The position players Eduardo Nunez impressed a lot of people in spring training and suprisingly Justin Snyder is at this level, Snyder was in his first year last year. A Tampa- The pitchers here are led by supplemental 1st round pick Jeremy Bleich who could move quickly and Dellin Betances who is just a stud and many have labeled the Baby Unit. They also have the 2 big catchers in Jesus Montero who reminds me a lot of Mike Piazza although he seems to be improving a lot behind the plate and may actually stay as a catcher and also Austin Romine who is a good catcher with a good bat. It will be interesting to see if either moves up and they break these two up for the first time in their young careers. I wouldn't really get too worked up over any of the other prospects but I will be watching the minor league teams all year also and update you on what is going on and if anyone else emerges. A-Charleston- The pitchers here are led by Andrew Brackman they also have Manuel Banuelos, Brett Marshall and the ambidextrous reliever Pat Venditte. The infield has Carmen Angelini who is a well though of ss and also Garrison Lassiter who they drafted last year, these guys are very young and a ways off. I have been to both Scranton and Trenton and love going to both places, its a lot of fun and you get to see some prospects and possibly future Yankees. If you have a chance to go, check it out, neither is too far away and pretty easy to get too. I will be in Scranton for an outing July 5th and plan on having a good post about it afterwards. I don't know if I will get to Trenton this year but that is where I have met Melky Cabrera, Joba Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy, Shelly Duncan, Jeff Karstens and more.

Big night for Asia

The Yankees game tomorrow night in Baltimore is going to be a big deal in Asia. Chien-Ming Wang will pitch for the Yankees vs Koji Uehara. Wang is from Taiwan and Uehara is from Japan and Hideki Matsui from Japan. Hideki Matsui and Uehara played on the Yomiura Giants and in 2002 Matsui won the MVP award and Uehara won the Japanese equivalent of the Cy Young. Peter Abraham of the Journal News and the Yankees lohud blog which can be found on http://yankees.lhblogs.com and also Tyler Kepner on his Bats blog and the NY times also had a post on this. Uehara has broken down the last few years and had a hamstring injury in spring training but was cleared to start tomorrows game.

Its 1 of 162 not the end of the world

I admit it was a terrible way to start the season and I get just as upset as everyone else but you have to calm down over one bad game. I think I know enough about baseball and am a big enough fan to say this: I have always thought you can't accurately look at a baseball team until they have played 25 games, not 1, 5, 10 of course we can be upset before then but lets just wait. I also look at the season in series and sometimes more like this 9 game roadtrip. I looked at it at the beginning and say the Yankees should be 6-3m 5-4 would be acceptable but no worse then that before returning home to officially open the new stadium. The object is to play around 500 on the road and win your home games, the Yankees have Wang and AJ Burnett going the next couple of days, if they pitch well they will win those games and be ok. The point is lets just calm down and wait a little before we go nuts or say whats wrong with the Yankees? The Yankees have a very good pitching staff and you are not going to see much of what happened yesterday. The Boston Red Sox play the Tampa Bay Rays today at 4:00pm after getting rained out yesterday. Josh Beckett will go against James Shields. There are a whole slew of other games also today and I will go through them later on today. The Yankees will play 12 straight games starting tomorrow so there won't be much time to get all upset about one game, just got to keep chugging along.

Mets win opener

The New York Mets won their opener today in Cincinatti by a score of 2-1. The Mets ace Johan Santana went 5 2/3 innings giving up 1 run on 3 hits with 4 walks and 7 strikeouts. It wasn't his best performance but it was a terrible day and was effective. The Mets showed off their new look bullpen today and they didn't disappoint. Sean Green, JJ Putz and Francisco Rodriguez combined to go 3 1/3 hitless innings giving up 0 runs with 1 walk and 2 strikeouts. The offense saw Carlos Delgado and Ryan Church go 2-4. Jose Reyes went 1-4 and Daniel Murphy went 1-5 with a homerun and 2 rbi. David Wright went 1-3 with 2 walks and Carlos Beltran was 1-4 with a walk. The Mets are off tomorrow and will be back in action on Wednesday night at 7:05 with Mike Pelfrey on the hill against Edison Volquez. This was a good day for the Mets, but the problem they have is can they get any starting pitching after Johan Santana, lets see what happens on Wednesday.

Will the real CC please stand up

The New York Yankees were spanked by the Baltimore Orioles today by a score of 10-5. This was a horrible way to open the season, the Yankees stranded runners and didn't pitch well at all. The Yankees left 11 runners on base, at least one in every inning. The bottom line though is the Yankees Ace was awful, he just didn't have command of his fastball and couldn't get anything going. He pitched 4 1/3 innings giving up 8 hits, 6 runs and 5 walks with 0 strikeouts. The starting pitcher sets the tone for the game, and the Yankees were in trouble right from the get go. The Yankees got close cutting it to 6-5 and having a couple of chances to at least tie but then the bullpen just let it get away and that was it. The Yankees have gotten off to bad starts the last few years and seem to struggle with Baltimore lately but this year they can't do that, they have to have a good road trip here heading back home to the New Stadium. If Wang comes out and pitches the way he can I am sure the Yankees will be fine and score some runs. The positives of the game were Derek Jeter had 3 hits, Brett Gardner had a hit, a sac bunt and threw out a guy at home plate. Johnny Damon was 2-3, it looks like the top of the order switch worked out today. Hideki Matsui and Jorge Posada hit homeruns, the offense looks a lot different with them in the lineup. Jorge Posada also caught all 9 innings with no problem. I hope the Yankees got a bad one out of the way and now go on a good run. Joe Girardi said I guess we won't be going 162-0 and didn't seem overly concerned with the game. He said CC is fine and that they just didn't execute the way they did in Florida. He said it is only one game and you just have to move on. The Yankees will be off tomorrow and then play Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon before heading to Kansas City.

Opening Day

It looks like the Yankees will get the game in today. Joe Biden the Vice President of the US will throw out the first pitch. We will get our first real look at the New ACE, the big lefty Carsten Charles. The Yankees lineup looks pretty good even with Gardner and Ransom at the bottom of the order and no Arod, they still have Matsui, Posada, Jeter, Damon, Big Tex, Cano. I will be back later with a lot more, opinions, analysis and hopefully some postgame reactions. The Rays at Boston game was already postponed and will be made up tomorrow. Today is opening day around the majors, lets hope not too many games get postponed.

New York Mets opening series

I don't want to forget about the New York Mets, they open up the season tomorrow at 2:00pm in Cincinatti. The pitching matchups for the series are Johan Santana vs Aaron Harang tomorrow. Game 2 will be Mike Pelfrey vs Edison Volquez and Game 3 will be Oliver Perez vs Micah Owings. The Mets are off Tuesday and then play Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon. The games will be on SNY and WFAN radio 660am in NY.

Baseball Predictions

The baseball season started tonight and it is time for the season predictions. AL East AL Central AL West Yankees Minnesota Anaheim Boston Cleveland Oakland Tampa K.C Texas Baltimore Chicago Seattle Toronto Detroit NL East NL Central NL West Philadelphia Chicago Los Angeles Mets St Louis Arizona Atlanta Cincinatti San Francisco Florida Milwaukee Colorado Washington Pittsburgh San Diego Houston I am going to go with the Yankees over the Red Sox in the ALCS and the Dodgers over the Cubs in the NLCS The Yankees will defeat Joe Torre and the Dodgers in the World Series Houston

Yankees ready to go

I talked about the matchups for the Baltimore series yesterday with a TBA for Thursdays series finale. The pitcher for the Orioles for that game is RHP Alfredo Simon who was 0-0 with a 6.23 era last year he will face AJ Burnett who was 18-10, 4.07 era last year. CC Sabathia who opens up the season tomorrow is 5-0 in his career against the Baltimore Orioles. He is 3-0 with a 2.60 era in 4 career starts at Camden Yards. He said he didn't know the stats just that he has pitched well there. " I'm excited to get the season started." Jorge Posada said he has been looking forward to opening day a lot, it's been a while since he has been out there on the field. He said you have to put the time in when your hurt and a lot of work, it will be fun to just be out there again. He said he is eager to see how the team looks and how they play. Derek Jeter said on paper we have a pretty good pitching staff we have guys that can dominate you. It is a challenge facing any one of them 1-5, for us that's a good thing, you need pitcheres that can shut down teams in order to win and we have that. It looks like the minor league rosters are set and hopefully tomorrow or maybe later in the week I can post something about that when I have more information. The lineup for tomorrow is as follows Jeter (ss) Damon(lf) Teixera(1b) Matsui(dh) Posada(c) Cano(2b) Nady(rf) Ransom(3b) Gardner(cf) Joe Girardi said he had a brief talk today with the team and said basically keep doing what you have been doing in the spring. The team took a special train from Penn Station to Baltimore which is interesting. I wonder if Joe Girardi did this for team bonding, usually they take a charter. Tomorrow it all begins at 4:00pm on YES and ESPN also WCBS 880 radio for those who will be at work or in the car coming home. Lets go Yankees and enjoy the game.

Baseball 2009 almost here

The baseball season is set to kick off tonight with the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies hosting the Atlanta Braves. Brett Myers will get the start going against Derek Lowe. The game will be on ESPN sunday night baseball. It will be interesting to see how the MLB network will be during the season, I think they have done a great job so far and it should be fun to watch. They will have the nightly show beginning at 7 and not ending till the last pitch of the last game. They will have live look ins, highlights, analysis. The New York Yankees are in Baltimore now taking batting practice and working out. You can see some pictures over on Peter Abrahams blog http://yankees.lhblogs.com Joba Chamberlain made his final start of the spring down in Tampa pitching for AA Trenton against AAA Scranton. He threw 75 pitches going 5 1/3 innings giving up 2 runs on 2 hits. He was so good though that he faced 5 additional batters with 3 outs. He started out giving up 2 hits and a walk but then retired 16 straight, he had 5 strikeouts. He said he was working on fastball command and his changeup. He said it was good, one of his best days as far as consistency goes, He said he is excited to get going.