Happy to Help

Just a few days after I suggest that Kyle Farnsworth is expendable, the Yankees send him off to Detroit for Ivan Rodriguez. Obviously, the Brian Cashman has been paying attention to my very sage advice. Except, of course, my suggestion about Farnsworth was preceded by my saying that there was no way to acquire a catcher better than Jose Molina. This, I suppose, is why Cashman makes several million more in salary than I do.

Anyway, this is a fantastic deal for the Yankees, who make a major upgrade at catcher without giving up anything that they'll miss, and not a bad one for the Tigers. In fact, the only people who come out badly in this deal are the cardiologists of the greater New York area, who will dearly miss Kyle Farnsworth and the coronaries he caused.

Saturday Afternoon Pics

Friday was my birthday, and I celebrated by heading down to the stadium for Saturday afternoon's game against the Mets. Unfortunately, no one told the Yankees as they suffered a pretty sloppy loss to the Mets. The goat of the game was obviously Kyle Farnsworth, who came in with the Yankees down by just one run and proceeded to allow two homers and a walk to the first three batters he faced, putting the game well out of reach.

What was almost even more disheartening, however, was watching Derek Jeter make a very rare mental error on the basepaths. In the bottom of the sixth Jeter got a clean hit into center field which he inexplicably tried to stretch into a double. It didn't work out.


As you can see, Jeter wasn't anywhere close to making it to second, and I have no idea what could have made him think that he should try.

On the bright side, Andy Pettitte did a good job dominating the Mets in the first three innings and recovering nicely after putting the first four batters on in the fourth inning.


In off the field matters, the Yankees have been conducting a little ceremony after the fifth inning of each game to count down the final games at Yankee Stadium.

Considering all the nostalgia and schmaltz that's going into the Yankee Stadium farewell hoopla, I think it's pretty weird that they would choose to set the background music for this particular ceremony as Europe's "The Final Countdown". So much for dignity.

Hijinks

It's been a very strange couple of days for the Yankees, and even stranger ones for Yankee fans as the team made some very confusing moves in response to injuries and the weather. Let's see if we can straighten this out.

First, Derek Jeter is out till Friday at the earliest, but will almost certainly stay off the DL. Also avoiding the DL is Jorge Posada, as an MRI revealed no structural damage in his shoulder. What's unclear, however, is how long it'll be until he can actually play. That's all pretty straightforward. What's bizarre is what the Yankees did next.

With Posada and Jeter unavailable, it was obvious that some kind of move needed to be made to get some help. They elected to call up Alberto Gonzalez to start at shortstop tonight, which is not the move that I would make. Wilson Betemit may have looked shaky in yesterday's game, but I think the greater need is for a catcher to back up Jose Molina. Right now, if Molina were to get injured in a game, he would be replaced by Morgan Ensberg, who, as far as I can tell, hasn't played the position in this millenium. However, that's just a questionable move. The bizarre move came when it was time to make room for Gonzalez on the roster.

First, Joe Girardi told reporters that Ensberg had injured his ankle and implied that he was headign to the DL. This, apparently, was news to Ensberg, who told Tyler Kepner of the Times that he was fine. Finally, after tonight's batting practice was over, the team revealed that Shelley Duncan had been sent down to Triple A.

So that's all there is for the injuries, but the wackiness didn't end there. About fifteen minutes before gametime, the Yankees stopped Ian Kennedy from warming up and announced that he had been scratched from his start, without providing any reason. Thankfully, it turns out that there was no injury. What happened was that Joe Girardi, perhaps because of the advice of team meteorologist Al Roker (no, seriously, he really is on staff), felt that the game would be postponed or delayed due to rain and didn't want to waste a start by Kennedy. It probably would've been a good decision, except that tonight's umpires are apparently a little crazy, as we're now in the sixth inning, even though it's been pouring all night and the field is an absolute mess. Meanwhile, Kennedy has finally taken the mound after Brian Bruney, Billy Traber and Kyle Farnsworth combined for four good innings, and one not so good one from Farnsworth.

Tough loss

Last night was exactly the kind of gut wrenching affair we've come to expect from the Angels. Coming back against their bullpen is no small feat. To do so and still lose is pretty heartbreaking.

Joe Torre's taking the brunt of the blame after sending the lefty Sean Henn to face a talented righthanded hitter in Howie Kendrick, who would eventually score the winning run. This is probably a bit unfair, considering his options. The only righthanders left in the bullpen, were Joba Chamberlain and Edwar Ramirez. Chamberlain is only a year removed from the arm troubles that plagued him his final season at the University of Nebraska, and the Yankee brass has rightfully decreed that he not be used on consecutive days. While Ramirez is under no such restrictions, he had pitched two innings the night before, and the decision that Henn would be more effective is a valid one.

Overlooked amidst all this is the fact that Torre elected to bring in Kyle Farnsworth in the 8th inning of a tie game. Considering that everyone, myself included, wanted to see this guy traded, if not released outright, he acquitted himself pretty well. In fact, his past few outings have been pretty good, and I'm starting to think that its more than dumb luck. When he was struggling, Farnsworth's fastball had dipped down into the low 90s, but over the last few weeks its been 98mph at the knees; the kind of stuff he's paid to bring. I suppose it was inevitable that he catch the fire that's lit up the rest of the team.