No Worries

Maybe it's just me, but it seems like the same thing happens every year. First, Mo gets rocked by the Red Sox in April and people start to wonder whether age has finally caught up to the greatest closer of all time. Then Rivera spends the rest of the season being his usual dominating self and all is right with the world. I, for one, resolve not to get caught up in it this year,

Update 1:14AM: Turns out it's actually every other year, as this has happened in 2007, 2005 and 2002. Still not worried.

Santana Claus Going to Boston?

The great Will Carroll, over at Baseball Prospectus, is reporting that a deal to send Johan Santana to the Red Sox is "all but done," with Minnesota getting Jon Lester, Justin Masterson, Ryan Kalish and an unnamed center fielder. If that center fielder turns out to be Jacoby Ellsbury, then I'm quite happy with the news. We all saw what Ellsbury and Lester are capable of in September, and the other two players are very good prospects as well. Plus, the players are only Minnesota's price. The Red Sox will still have to contend with Santana's price, as the pitcher won't waive his no trade clause without a long term deal. Considering what Barry Zito got last season, the Sox will be lucky to sign Santana for "just" $120 million over six years. Obviously Santana is a great pitcher, and I don't relish the idea of seeing him in a Red Sox uniform, but I'm glad to see Boston pay so heavily. Of course, I won't be quite as happy if the unnamed center fielder is Coco Crisp, but I've got a feeling that that's not the case.

An open letter to Red Sox fans

Dear Red Sox Fans,

It's been a while since we've had a heart to heart, and I think we need one before tonight's World Series opener. Before we start, however, those of you whose love of baseball keeps your fandom from devolving into buffoonery can excuse themselves (I'm looking at you, Peter). The same goes for anyone who learned any basic sense of sportsmanship as a child. As for the rest of you, I want to remind you of a few things.

First of all, making it to the World Series while the Yankees were knocked out of the playoffs in the Division Series is not a moral victory; it's just a regular victory. I know you like to think of this rivalry as the good "Red Sox Nation" versus the "Evil Empire," but it's not. I know this because the Yankees have yet to enslave the people of Connecticut, and the Red Sox have yet to restore freedom to the oppressed peoples of Rhode Island. Instead, they've played baseball, a game where good and evil don't come into play. So you should stop thinking that rooting for the Red Sox makes you a better person than me.

Please don't look at me like that. I really do understand how you feel. I'm a Buffalo Bills fan and, while I haven't endured 86 years of heartbreak, I defy you to find any fan who went through a more devastating four years as Bills fans did from 1990 to 1993. I know it's tempting to take solace by creating a comforting fantasy world where, even though you lost, you did so fighting evil, but when you do you run the risk of starting to act like an idiot.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy mocking fans of other teams as much as you. It's going to be a few months before my brothers stop hearing about the Mets' incredible collapse. However, I don't call them names (at least not for baseball reasons), nor do I hypothesize about the sexual habits of David Wright, and I certainly don't harass random strangers wearing Mets' paraphernalia.

Now, the reason that it's so important for you to understand this before tonight's opener is because you're playing the Colorado Rockies. This is a scrappy young team who rode an incredible hot streak to make it into a one game playoff for the wild card. Now they've made it to the World Series for the first time in franchise history where they face a perennial contender who had the best record in baseball and sports a payroll more than three times their own. In other words, they're the underdogs and if you persist in your delusions you'll find that you've become the Evil Empire.

Calm down, now. I know it's scary, but I'm going to help. Have a glass of water, take a breath and repeat after me:

"Baseball is a great game that can be enjoyed without being an ass to other people."

I'm glad we had this little chat, and I hope you've learned something. Now run along and have a fun World Series.

Sincerely,
Amol

Sneaking Up

I know I said I was going to go over the playoff roster options, but that voice in my head won't let me write about anything but the division title. For weeks I've been saying that even if the Yankees stayed hot, they wouldn't have a chance at the division unless Boston stumbled. Well, Boston most definitely stumbled, losing three games against Toronto after having lost the series against the Yankees over the weekend. With the title suddenly in reach, we have to ask two questions: How hard should the team try to win the division, and what are their chances?

On the surface, "How hard should the Yankees try to win?" seems like a silly question. Winning is their goal in every game. However, you have to look at the bigger picture and ask what their overall goal is. Is it to win the division, or is it to win the World Series? It may seem like semantics, but its actually an essential question for determining the team's strategy for the rest of the season. If you want to win the division, that means you should be sending your best players out there. However, since the Yankees already have a sizable lead in the Wild Card race, if they want to win the World Series, they should be gearing up for the playoffs. This means using backups while your best players get some rest. I'm not just talking about the ones with nagging injuries, like Giambi, Matsui and Damon. Everybody on the team could use a day off. Sure, taking the division from the Red Sox would be sweet, but I don't think anyone on the Yankees wants it more than they want to win the World Series, and Joe Torre needs to plan accordingly.

Of course, there's no reason that the Yankees' can't win the division while getting themselves ready for the playoffs. Its not like they'll stop trying to win games just because the regulars are resting. So, let's take a look at what their chances are by looking at their schedule and Boston's. The Yankees have nine games left, three against Toronto at home, then three in Tampa and three in Baltimore. Meanwhile the Red Sox have eight games, two in Tampa, two at home against Oakland, and a final four against Minnesota. The Yankees definitely have the advantage in strength of schedule, playing more games against teams that are either bad (Tampa Bay) or bad and completely falling apart (Baltimore). That said, Oakland and Minnesota, while not bad teams, are pretty mediocre and the Red Sox do have the home field advantage. So, the story's the same as it ever was. The Yankees need to stay hot, and Boston needs to stumble just a little bit. Its going to be an interesting week.

I'll be in the right field bleachers Sunday afternoon, if anyone wants to say hi. You can look for me in section 39, row H.

Makin' Me Sweat

Never let it be said that I'm not man enough to admit when I'm wrong, even when no one would know. I didn't get around to writing it before the game, but I didn't think Roger Clemens should have started tonight's game. I simply did not believe that his elbow could stand up to the Red Sox offense. Granted, Clemens said he could pitch, but I'm pretty sure he'd say the same thing if he were run over by the bus. He's just that kind of Texas son of a gun. The Rocket, however, was pretty sharp, pitching an efficient six innings, allowing only one unearned run, while striking out four and allowing only six men to get on base. While he had only thrown 87 pitches at that point, Joe Torre wisely decided that he didn't want to push Clemens' elbow to hard and turned things over to the Joba Chamberlain.

Unfortunately, Curt Schilling was just as sharp, if not more so. He only needed 69 pitches to get through seven innings, giving up only one run off a solo homerun by Robinson Cano in the 5th. Considering that Chamberlain was available for two innings, and Mariano Rivera was pretty well rested too, it seemed like we might be in for a long night, waiting for someone to scratch out a run against these dominating pitchers. Derek Jeter, perhaps having plans for the rest of the night, had other ideas.

After Melky Cabrera struck out to start the eighth inning, Doug Mientkiewicz managed to get on with a single. It was then that Joe Torre made a gutsy, brilliant call. Rather than have Jose Molina try to sacrifice Mientkiewicz into scoring position, Torre sent in Jason Giambi to pitch hit. What made this decision so surprising was that the only catcher who could replace Molina, Jorge Posada. For those who don't know, when you have a DH take over for a player in the field, the pitcher has to take over for that player at the plate. Torre, however, saw his chance to get a run and took it, deciding to worry about the pitcher's at bat when it came.

The gamble worked out beautifully, as Giambi singled and Damon grounded into what would have been the third out had Torre used Molina to sacrifice. Since Torre didn't, though, the Captain had the opportunity to come through in the clutch, and he did so in style, knocking a home run over the Green Monster to put the Yankees ahead 4-1. That would be all the offense the Yankees' needed, though the bullpen would make it close.

In the bottom of the 8th, Chamberlain gave up the first earned run of his short career when Mike Lowell took him deep for a solo home run. The 21 year old remained poised, as he came right back against J.D. Drew. Joba the Hutt struck him out with a breaking ball that Drew watched go by like he was frozen in carbonite.

The real nailbiting came in the botton ninth, which Mariano Rivera started by walking Jason Varitek. A Julio Lugo double would score him, and a hit batter followed by another walk would load the bases with two outs for David Ortiz. It's funny how Yankees/Red Sox games always seem to come down to big moments like these, where the game is on the line and each team has exactly who they want on the mound and at the plate. This time the moment was Mo's, as he got Ortiz to Big Papi out to shortstop with the classic cutter inside. The perfect ending to a game that was everything this rivalry is supposed to be.

Even though the Yanks won the series, without the sweep they're too far back to have a realistic shot at the pennant. However, by winning five of their last six against Boston, they've proven that they're more than ready to meet them in October. As far as getting to October, they remain two and a half games ahead of Detroit for the Wild Card, and their magic number drops to 10.

Wow

I'm a little too drained to write anything in depth about tonight's incredible, improbable win , but there is something I must share. I know that the Yankees are still four and a half games behind the Red Sox. I know that they have to win the next two games to have a chance at the pennant. I know that even then, their chances are slim. I know all these things, yet I can't help hearing this voice in my head; this voice that says, in a thick Boston accent, "Bucky freakin' Dent."

Thank God That's Over

We may very well have seen Mike Mussina's last start of 2007, and possibly the last appearance of Sean Henn in a major league game. There's no word yet on exactly what kind of roster shuffling is going to happen, but here are my thoughts on the matter:

Obviously Henn will have to be sent down(or sent home, since his wife is about to have a baby). There's really no point in having a lefty in the pen that can't get lefties out. Just ask Mike Myers. The real question is, who is your new lefty? The system is dreadfully thin on lefthanded pitching, with the only candidate in Triple-A being Kei Igawa. Its enough to make me wonder how Ron Guidry's arm is feeling. In all seriousness, the team might be best off simply using righties like Jose Vizcaino and Joba Chamberlain, who've been just as effective against lefties as righties.

One guy who should never be sent up against a lefthanded hitter, though, is Edwar Ramirez. Its a pretty small sample size, but his splits are pretty astounding. Against righties, he's thrown a very solid seven innings allowing only five hits while walking two and striking out nine. Against lefties, he's struck out an impressive seven in just three and two thirds innings, but has walked six and given up four hits, two of which were homeruns. Granted, last night's homerun came from a righty, Placido Polanco, but that was the first time he's given one up to a righty, and has been generally effective enough against them to have some value in the pen.

One guy who has been able to get lefties out in his career is Mussina, who will either have to go to the bullpen or the DL. Considering that no one's got any idea what's wrong with him, there's really no reason to believe he'd be any better in relief, so the DL would be preferable. Neither he nor the Yankees have said that there's anything physically wrong with him, but at 38 years old there's got to be something that needs resting. The candidates for replacing him in the rotation consist of guys who have either been bad in the majors (Igawa, Jeff Karstens and Matt DeSalvo), or who have never been there (Ian Kennedy and Steven White).

Fortunately, the schedule is on our side. With three off days, the Yankees should only need a fifth starter three times in September. Even better, two of those games (Septembers 1st and 26th) are against Tampa Bay, a weak team if ever there was one. The other comes on the 16th, the final game against Boston, which may end up being a painful affair, but its still much better than it could have been.

The schedule's also on our side in the hunt for the wild card. Despite losing the last two series, the Yankees remain only two games behind Seattle for the wild card, and have a much easier schedule from here on out. Other than the six games against Boston and the three against Seattle, the Yankees only play two kinds of teams from here on out; mediocre and bad. Seattle, meanwhile, has seventeen games against contenders, and finish out the season playing a brutal 24 games in 24 days, with only one day off. Right now, I can't help but think that despite the standings, the Yankees have to be the favorites in this race.