What to do with Wang

It looks like the Yankees are going to skip Chien-Ming Wangs start on Friday in Fenway Park. They have a off day on Thursday and it looks like they may have Wang throw a simulated game of 80-100 pitches, they can also stop him during the game and correct some mechanical issues. They then will have him make his next start after that which would be Wednesday in Detroit. If he doesn't make significant progress whatever that is to them then they would call up Phil Hughes to take his spot and put him in the pen as the long man. Phil Hughes has been pitching well down in AAA Scranton and also pitched well in spring training. I think I would of put him on the DL and sent him down to Florida to work with Pitching guru Billy Conners but this seems like a reasonable compromise. I know a lot of people are worried about the pen but the back end of Bruney and MO is solid and honestly I think the rest has been affected by Wangs poor performances. I think Coke will be ok and Marte has his struggles but they will have to use him as the lefty specialist and try to get him right that way. Albaladejo has pitched well, I think in another month or so you will see Melancon and Robertson instead of Veras and Ramirez anyway which is the right way to go and those guys are strikeout machines and young. I know a lot of people say 7-6 is a bad start but in the games Wang doesn't pitch they are 7-3 so I think its just a matter of taking care of Wang one way or another and otherwise they are fine, A-rod will be back soon enough which will be a huge help and I wouldn't be suprised to see Melky playing more instead of Gardner if he continues to struggle, Melky has been playing well.

Pitching Matchups for Oakland series

Here are the scheduled pitching matchups for the Oakland series Monday- Andy Pettitte vs Dana Eveland 7:00pm start Yes/ESPN Tuesday-CC Sabathia vs Brett Anderson-7:00pm start MY 9 Wednesday- Joba Chamberlain vs Josh Outman-1:05pm start YES The Yankees will hope that Andy Pettitte continues his strong start and Dana Eveland made one start against the Yankees last year losing. CC Sabathia will look to be more economical in his start, he had a 6.62 era against Oakland last year in three starts while with the Indians. Anderson is a 21 year old rookie who will be making his third career start. Joba Chamberlain will look to bounce back from his last start and Outman will be making only his seventh career start for Oakland. The interesting thing about this series is that all of Oaklands starters are lefties, with out A-rod and Nady being hurt the Yankees really take a hit with their righty power but Posada and Teixera are switch hitters as well as Nick Swisher so maybe the can counteract this. I don't know what Joe is thinking and I know he loves Brett Gardner but I would look at giving Melky a couple of starts in center and see if he can continue his hot hitting and if he does leave him in there as Gardner is struggling.

Mets lose finale

The New York Mets were going for the sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers today but didn't get it losing by the score of 4-2. I have not been paying attention to the Mets lately on this blog and I have catching up to do so I apologize to the Mets fans and promise to do a better job. Nelson Figueroa made the start in place of Mike Pelfrey and went six innings giving up three runs on five hits with two walks and three strikeouts. Sean Green pitched a scoreless inning giving up a hit with two strikeouts. Pedro Feliciano struck out the only batter he faced and Bobby Parnell pitched one and a third innings giving up two hits and a run with a strikeout. The offense was stymied again as this has been a theme early on, last year also they didn't come through in the clutch. Jose Reyes and Daniel Murphy were both three for five, Reyes had a rbi. David Wright was 0-4 with three men left on base and Carlos Delgado was one for four with a rbi but he left four men on base. Carlos Beltran was two for three with a walk. The Mets lost there opening series of Citi Field to the San Diego Padres two games to one and one this series two games to one. Johan Santana has simply been brilliant pitching to a 0.46 era but after him Perez who was good in his last start is always a question. The Mets don't know if teh good Perez or bad Perez will show up from game to game and John Maine hasn't looked great trying to come back from shoulder surgery, Mike Pelfrey has a injury and Livan Hernandez is the fifth starter which is fine as long as he can eat up some innings for the Mets. The Mets head to St Louis to start a three game series on Tuesday.

Hip Hip Jorge

The New York Yankees defeated the Cleveland Indians today by a score of seven to three. A.J. Burnett made the start and didn't have great control walking seven batters which I think was helped along by the umpire. He only gave up three hits and three runs though in 6 1/3 innings. Jon Albaladejo was the star pitcher though getting out of a bases loaded one out jam in the seventh. Brian Bruney pitched another perfect inning and Mo slammed the door giving up a hit but had two strikeouts. The offense was stymied early by Carl Pavano who retired the first ten batters he faced before Derek Jeter got a double. Mark Teixera had a rbi single and a walk and also got robbed of a hit. Jorge Posada was the star of the offense though pinch hitting in the seventh inning and hitting a two run homerun. The homerun was controversial as it was replayed and took eight and a half minutes for them to decide although they ruled it a homerun on the field and came back with the same decision. The homerun that was hit today is a problem in the New Stadium as Michael Kay mentioned on the Yes network broadcast and was also brought up by Peter Abraham on his blog and I am sure many others. The problem is that in the old stadium after the Jeffrey Maier game in 1996 when he reached over and interfered with a ball that was ruled a homerun the Yankees put security there so no one could do that anymore. The new stadium has seats right up against the wall so they can't do that anymore and any balls that are close like that have a chance to be a potential interference and lots of replays which could be a problem. The game saw a record set for most homeruns in any park in the history of baseball for four games. The new stadium also had the most homeruns hit to open a new stadium ever in the first three games. I don't know if this is good or bad yet but I suspect it will benefit the Yankees as they should have better pitching then most teams and have some firepower especially when A-rod comes back, he must be salivating at getting back and hitting the ball to right field. The Yankees will open up a three game series with old friend Jason Giambi aka The Big G and the Oakland Athletics tomorrow weather permitting.

Yankees vs Indians

The Yankees will try and get a split of this four game series. The Yankees have opened the New Stadium going 1-2 which isn't very good. The game yesterday was a complete embarrassment but Wang is just killing the Yankees not only by getting bombed but also by not going more then a couple of innings in any of his games. Carl Pavano aka American Idle will be on the mound today against the Yankees and they need to knock him around to show how much we appreciated his time in New York. The Yankees called up Steven Jackson and it looks like Anthony Claggett is the one that will be sent back to Scranton, I wonder if Joe Girardi is regretting his decision now to not carry a long reliever. Here is the lineup for the Yankees: Gardner(cf) Jeter(ss) Damon(lf) Teixera(1b) Swisher(rf) Cano(2b) Matsui(dh) Ransom(3b) Molina(c) The game is on the Yes network at 1:00pm and also on Wcbs radio 880 NY. Enjoy the game and your Sunday everyone. I will be back with more information later on if there is any regarding roster moves and also Chien-Ming Wang.