The problem is there is no alternative on radio.  If you are fed cube-steak every day and told it is filet mignon, do you think, as you chew down on the tenderized-yet-still-tough meat, man this is goood? or do you say, man filet mignon is not all its cracked up to be?  Sterling is cube-steak with too much seasoning.  It’s time for some new menu items.

By the way, Finian’s Rainbow had a broadway revival that ran from Oct 2009 through Jan 2010.  Although I’m sure Sterling saw the original, I have no doubt he went to the revival this past off-season and thought…”WOW.  What a great catch phrase!”

Pretty much nailed the Yankees performance (the KC series split 2-2 instead of 3-1 is essentially the difference), and slightly underestimated the Rays.  I did not predict that Pedroia would be out for the year which has impacted the Red Sox tremendously, but I still was only two games off.   These were predictions over 38-40 games.  Apparenlty, Mr. Sterling, you CAN predict baseball.

You clearly hate Boston and would want them as far away as possible, so I clearly cant choose the cup in front of me.

Man in Black: All right. Who do you root for in tonight’s match up between the Red Sox and the Rays? The battle of wits has begun. It ends when you decide and we find out who is right… and who is out of the playoffs.
Vizzini: But it’s so simple.  All I have to do is divine from what I know of you: are you the sort of man who would want to battle a new enemy or an old and battered enemy?  Now, a clever man would want to keep as many enemys as far away as possible, because he would know that only a great fool would want both his enemys at arms reach. I am not a great fool, so I can clearly not choose the Red Sox.  But you must have known I was not a great fool, you would have counted on it, so I can clearly not choose the Rays.
Man in Black: You’ve made your decision then?
Vizzini: Not remotely. Because the Red Sox come from Boston, as everyone knows, and Boston is entirely peopled named Mac and Sully, and those people can be murderous when it comes to playing at Fenway, so I can clearly not choose the Red Sox. 
Man in Black: Truly, you have a dizzying intellect.
Vizzini: Wait til I get going! Now, where was I?
Man in Black: Boston.
Vizzini: Yes, Boston. And you must have suspected I would have known the Red Sox origin, so I can clearly not choose the Rays. 
Man in Black: You’re just stalling now.
Vizzini: You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you? You’ve beaten my giant, which means you’re exceptionally strong, so you could assume that you can take your chances against both Boston and Tampa, trusting on your strength to save you, so I can clearly not choose the Boston.   But, you’ve also bested my Spaniard, which means you must have studied, and in studying you must have learned that no lead is safe, so you would want your closest enemy to fall further behind, so I can clearly not choose the Rays. 
Man in Black: You’re trying to trick me into giving away something. It won’t work.
Vizzini: IT HAS WORKED! YOU’VE GIVEN EVERYTHING AWAY! I KNOW WHICH TEAM TO ROOT FOR!!
Man in Black: Then make your choice.
Vizzini: I will, and I choose – What in the world can that be?
Vizzini: [Vizzini gestures up at the Scoreborad.  The Man in Black looks. Vizzini looks at the playoff-odds report from baseballprospectus.com]
Man in Black: What? Where? I don’t see anything.
Vizzini: Well, I- I could have sworn I saw something. No matter. First, let’s choose, I’ll take Boston; You take Tampa.
Man in Black: You guessed wrong.
Vizzini: You only think I guessed wrong! That’s what’s so funny! I checked the stats while your back was turned! Ha ha! You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders – The most famous of which is “never get involved in a land war in Asia” – but only slightly less well-known is this: “Never go against Veteran Pitching when the Playoffs are on the line”! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha…
Vizzini: [Vizzini stops suddenly,his smile frozen on his face and falls dead]
Buttercup: And to think, all that time the right choice was Tampa.
Man in Black:  There is no right choice.  Regardless of who wins, if the Yankees win their games, they come out of the weekend with a better chance of making the playoffs.

If you look at the season, its been a upswings and plateaus.

• First Sustained Winning Stretch – April 4th to May 8th.  By April 21st, the team was already 11-3 (8 over).  By May 4th (12 games later) they reached 10 over for the first time at 18-8.  By May 8th, the Yankees were 21-8 (13 games over).
• First Doldrums –   Then came the first doldrums of the season.  When the Yankees lost the last game of the Boston series on May 9th, (Burnett giving up 9 runs in 4.1 innings), that started a stretch of inconsistency with the Yankees going 5-10 (losing 3-4 to Detroit, winning a 3 game series vs. Min, splitting a 2 game series with Boston, losing a 2 game series to Tampa, and losing a series 1-2 to the Mets), leaving the Yankees at 26-18 on May 23 (8 games over, back where they were on April 21st).  
• Second Stretch of Sustained Wins – This excellent stretch began after the loss to the Mets.  From May 23 through July 29, the Yankees went 39-18, running their record to 65-36 (the first time they reached 29 over).  Pettitte strained his groin on July 18th, and Mitre lost the first start in Pettitte’s absence (July 24), Mosely one the second start in Pettitte’s absence (July 29).  However, without Pettitte and with Vazquez and Burnett and Hughes all relatively shaky, we are again in the Doldrums.  (FYI this is why Cashman tried to get Cliff Lee)
• Doldrums II – Beginning July 30 with the series with Tampa through today, the Yankees are 12-12, going 5-7 against through the tough stretch of Tampa, Toronto, Boston and Texas and 7-4 against the easier stretch of KC, Detroit and Seattle.  With the loss yesterday (thanks Jose Bautista), the Yankees are back at 29 over at 77-48.

With 37 games left, and the Yankees tied with Tampa, here are a few things to ponder.  A-Rod is on the DL; Pettitte is on the DL; Burnett is maddeningly inconsistent; Vazquez is inconsistent; and Hughes has an innings limit.

Here are the Yankee opponents down the stretch: @ Toronto (who currently lead the season series 4-6 and who hit the most HR in the AL); @ CWS (tough team, in playoff fight, good starters, good bullpen); vs. Oak (best ERA in the AL); vs. TOR (again); vs. The Fighing Showalters (12-8 since Buck to the reigns); @ Tex (good team, great pitching, playoff hunt); @ Tampa (no need to comment); @ Fighting Showalters; vs. Tampa (again); vs. Boston (Armageddon); @ TOR (again); @ Boston (Armageddon II).

The Yankees need to get on a roll, and soon.  Even though Boston is 6 games back in the loss column, all they need to do is shave off 3 games and the those games in September all of a sudden mean a hell of a lot.  Here’s to Pettitte recovering soon.

Oh and as John pointed out in a comment to my earlier post.  The team is 17-14 since the All-Star break and 8-8 since Cashman made his trades.  Berkman, Kearns and Wood will do nothing for this team, whereas the Colin Curtis-es and Jaun Miranda-s add youthful energy.

Will be Starting for Tampa in September

What is it with pitchers the Yankees have never seen and their inability to get any type of offense.  Max Scherzer can be very good, but this continual poor performance against unknown pitchers is extremely frustrating.  And captain clutch is quickly downward negotiating his salary.  As much as he is loved in New York, baseball is a ruthless business and you can’t fall in love with your players.  It leads to irrational decisions.  If Jeter continues his ground ball trend (his GB/FB ratio is up to 2.06 highest in the league) and his speed continues to slow, his production and value decline immensely.

Now on to the soap opera Mets.  I have remained silent on the K-Rod fiasco from the start.  But the Mets handled this completely wrong.  The team is not going anywhere this year; K-Rod’s actions reflected badly on the organization; AND K-Rod’s contract is outrageous.  If he “finishes” out 100 games between 2010 and 2011 or he “finishes” 55 games in 2011, his fourth year at $17.5 M becomes guaranteed.

Since the team is in the tank and the Mets are supposedly so afraid of salary implications, they should have immediately suspended K-Rod for 30 days at a minimum, if not the whole season, without pay.  This would have really hit him in the pocket and make it extremely difficult for him to reach the contract guarantees. Let the Union fight it out for him.  Let them defend his actions.  Have Wilpon step up and say, this is unacceptable.  The fans would back this.

Instead, they suspend him for 2 games  (whoopee) and Manuel actually let him pitch in a game that was not a save (another game finished).  Jon Heyman reported that the Mets were only able to get a 2 game suspension because of the “powerful baseball union.”  However, I never heard anything about the Union fighting the Mets’ attempt at a longer suspension.  This franchise is inept.  Now that it has come out that he injured his thumb in the fight - I guess he never watched Bull Durham – the Mets are apparently exploring whether to void the contract.  The Yankees were able to do that with Aaron Boone.  I don’t see why the Mets couldn’t do this with K-Rod.  Of course this is the Mets, so they will likely end up stuck with this nutcase.

Starting on Thursday, the Yankees have 11 games against Kansas City, a depleted Detroit team and Seattle.  Time to rebuild some confidence.  On July 21, I wrote down what I think the standings will be on Sept 1:

1. NYY 83-49
2. TAM 79-53
3. BOS 76-56

The Yankees have some work to do to meet my prediction (14-6) but its  possible with the rest of the August Schedule (@KC, DET, SEA, @TOR, @CWS, OAK).  Tampa need only go 10-9 to meet my original prediction but face a tougher schedule resurgent-Showalter inspired BAL, TEX, @ OAK, @LAA, BOS and TOR).

ESPN had some nice Jeter tidbits concerning yesterday’s game:

• With his 4-4 day, he passed Joe Dimaggio on the Yankee list with 35 4-4 performances.
• With 2 doubles he now has 460 doubles, passing HOF Jimmie Foxx with 458 doubles.
• With 3 Runs scored, he now has 1652 Runs scored, passing HOF Joe Morgan (1650).

Not a bad day for the Captain.  Oh and Rivera pitched another perfect inning in relief (lowering his ERA to 0.91).   Do you realize of the 40 appearances he has made this year, in 23 of them No one has even reached base?  Of the remaining 17 appearances, 11 times only one man got on base via Hit or BB. The man is unbeleivable.

Now on to more important point.  The series against Boston lines up well pitching-wise for Boston:

• Friday - Vazquez vs. Buchholz (advantage Bos)
• Saturday - Sabathia vs. Lackey (advantage Yankees)
• Sunday – Burnett vs. Beckett (advantage Bos)
• Monday – Moseley vs. Lester (advantage Bos)

The Boston lineup has been decimated by injuries (Youkilis, Pedroia, Cameron and Varitek are on the DL, and Martinez just came off it last week and Elsbury came off yesterday).  So the Yankees pitchers need to take advantage of this lineup and the Yankees batters need to beat up on Boston pitching.  You can’t let Boston back into this race.

The Yankee machine was running well (with a few knocks) but overall pretty well.  Yet Brian Cashman felt it was necessary to replace a few spare parts in the engine.  Well, the Yankees have lost 2-3 since the trade deadline and are 5-5 in the last 10.  If the Yankees had acquired Cliff Lee, I would have said great job.  I’m not to keen on the Kearns and Wood acquisitions, and its going to take some time for me to believe that Berkman can recapture even a fraction of his former self.  This is an important stretch, Toronto, Boston and Texas (immediately following Tampa).  These are playoff (or playoff caliber teams), and so far the grade is a D.  1-2 vs.  Tampa (I have no idea why you rest your team against Tampa) and 0-1 vs. Tor with another AJ blow up and Dustin Mosely as the guy to halt the losing streak.  All this while Alex is completely screwed up in the head.  He needs to hit the HR and get it over with. 

Boston has its pitching lined up, Buchholz vs. Vazquez, Lackey vs. Sabathia, Beckett vs. Burnett, Lester vs. Mosely.  If the Yankees aren’t careful, Boston can be right back into the race.