Phil Huge

By Glenn Giangrande
Me thinks it’s time to proclaim Phil Hughes a reliever for the remainder of the 2009 season.

A few days ago while driving to the New York Islanders Draft Party at Nassau Coliseum, a.k.a The John Tavares Spectacular, Joe Girardi was on WFAN talking about how the Yankees will, in a few weeks, lose the ability to stretch Hughes out as a starter down at Triple-A. There’s no doubt that his Major League future lies in starting. He was the top prospect in all of baseball just a few years ago. He should help the Yankees’ rotation for a long time to come.
 
As far as the here and now is concerned, his performance out of the ‘pen should speak for itself.
 
By throwing 1.2 scoreless innings against the Mets on Sunday night, Hughes lowered his ERA as a reliever to 1.50 in 12.0 IP. He’s pitched in seven games, allowing runs in just one of them – a pair of them at Fenway Park on June 10th, when he threw 3.2 IP in relief of an ineffective Chien-Ming Wang. His fastball is humming in the mid-90s. He’s been close to unhittable. Given the other options the Yanks have for the rotation, Hughes’ power arm in the ‘pen is a major asset.
 
Let’s assume the Yankees make it to October. They’ll only need four starters, with CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte the locks. Joba Chamberlain has made big strides in the rotation in recent outings, and Wang appears to be making his own steps in the right direction. Why mess with a good thing?  If Brian Bruney can stay healthy for the remainder of the year, he and Hughes would be a formidable 1-2 late inning punch in front of Mariano Rivera. Then Alfredo Aceves can stay in his “swing” role of being able to set-up or settle things down early. If David Robertson and his 2.60 ERA are able to handle some high leverage innings, the Yanks will have cobbled together a pretty solid bridge to Mo.
 
There’s no reason Hughes shouldn’t be a part of it, if only for this year.

Do the Yankees need another outfielder?

By Glenn Giangrande

With Xavier Nady seemingly done for the year, do the Yankees need another corner outfielder?

Let’s assume that Brett Gardner’s red-hot June continues, giving him the starting job in center that he lost to Melky Cabrera earlier this year. Melky COULD slide over to right, but would having Gardner and Cabrera together in the lineup be detrimental to the offense? Say yes for the sake of argument. Nick Swisher is an adventure out in right, and Johnny Damon’s defense has clearly taken a step back in left. The Yanks would do wise to bring in one more outfielder with the versatility to handle left or right.

The perfect fit? Mark DeRosa.

A New Jersey native, DeRosa was a guest on Batting Practice Today earlier this season, saying he’d love to play for the Yankees before his career ends. He’s in the final year of a three-year contract that he signed with the Cubs, who traded him to the Indians over the winter. Cleveland appears headed for a rebuilding phase, with ace pitcher Cliff Lee being rumored to be on the block. If he was on the Yankees right now, DeRosa’s bat would qualify as the second best among players able to handle the outfield behind Damon’s – I’m not counting Hideki Matsui, whose knees have betrayed him. DeRosa is probably best known as an infielder, but he’s got a fair amount of experience in the outfield, having started a total of 179 games in right field and left field combined. In 216 total games counting those in which he moved to one of those positions, he’s made only two errors.

Prior to the news developing concerning Nady’s likely need for Tommy John surgery, Brian Cashman was quoted as saying that the Yankees didn’t need a bat and that “all the bats are here.” If his perspective has changed, the idea of DeRosa is one the Yankees would do well to pursue.

Lineups: Yankees vs. Mets 6/26/09

Yankees
Brett Gardner CF
Johnny Damon LF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Melky Cabrera RF
Francisco Cervelli C
Ramiro Pena SS
CC Sabathia P

CC Sabathia P

Mets
Luis Castillo 2B
Alex Cora SS
David Wright 3B
Gary Sheffield LF
Fernando Tatis RF
Ryan Church CF
Nick Evans 1B
Omir Santos C
Mike Pelfrey P

Mike Pelfrey P

Happy 35th birthday, DJ

By: Joe Auriemma

It’s June 26th and that can mean only one thing — it’s the captain’s
birthday. Derek Jeter is 35 years old today. Wow, where did the time
go? It seems like just yesterday, we saw this young, lanky talent get
his first Major League hit back on May 30, 1995, in the Kingdome. Even
in that 1995 season, we saw greatness, but we didn’t fully realize how
much he would mean to the franchise until the 1996 season when he won
the Rookie of the Year. Jeter and company created one of the most
magical seasons in the history of the Yankees. His maturity level was beyond his years, and his knack for hitting in the clutch provided a spark to a veteran squad. One of the memories that most people will never forget from that first season is of course the Jeffrey Maier home run against the Orioles in the ALCS.

Throughout his career, Jeter has given Yankees fans so many memories. He is still the only player in the Major League history to win both the All-Star Game MVP and the World Series MVP in the same season (2000). In that aforementioned World Series, the Subway Series against the Mets, Jeter lead off game four with a home run off of Bobby Jones that turned the tide in that game and the momentum in the series.

Who can forget the flip against the A’s that changed the momentum in that series? Grasping on to a 1-0 lead, that play not only gave the Yankees that game but led the charge to another two wins and a series victory.

The play that might be the most quintessentially “Jeter-ian” is the dive into the stands against the Red Sox. It was the classic Yankees-Red Sox showdown on July 1, 2004, and it was a defining moment in the career of the captain. The dive exemplified everything that Jeter is as a player, a person and a leader.

When Jeter eventually does retire, he certainly will go down as one of the greatest players to ever wear the Pinstripes. Shockingly, he is on pace to be the only Yankee to ever attain 3,000 hits in a Yankees uniform. So here’s to you Derek on your birthday.

Also, I’d like to send out a special Happy Birthday to my wife Kelly, who shares a birthday with the captain and just might be his biggest fan.

Derek Jeter’s Career Stats on his Birthday

AVG     .325 
H-AB    13/40
XBH       2
RBI        3
Runs      6
OBP     .404 

Pretty good I would say!

Could it Actually be Sunny in New York?

By: Joe Auriemma

The sun is shining in wonderful Stamford, CT, the home of the YES Network’s studio. I was really starting to think that New York had inherited Seattle’s weather pattern. What a brutal month this has been for both weather in New York and for the baseball teams that reside here. How appropriate that they are both ending June by playing each other in the last weekend series.

The Yankees will finally check out the Mets new digs. I’m going for the first time on Saturday to get some interviews with some players and hopefully chat with both managers. I know that Jerry Manuel has to be pleased, that even though his team is not playing its’ best baseball, they are still only one game back of the Phillies in the division. The Mets have suffered some major injuries this season that would cripple any contender into the cellar, however, they have endured and continue to compete. Even though they have won their last three out of four, they are only 9-13 in the month of June and this series with the Yankees might give them an opportunity to leave this month unscathed after getting swept by the Pirates to start June. The other teams in the NL East continue to struggle giving the Mets the golden opportunity to stay in the race, while some of their main cogs try and get healthy.

The Yankees are five games back of the Red Sox, who seem to have had a stranglehold on the Yankees and the AL East since the meltdown of 2004. Now I know the Rays won the division last season, but it just feels like the Red Sox get all of the breaks the Yankees used to get before the 2004 ALCS. The Yankees need to figure out a way to beat those guys in the second half of the season or else it’s going to be another long offseason for the team’s fans and especially the team itself.

This weekend series is more than just a regular Subway Series for the Yankees; they need this series to make a push and finish out their first half on a high note. Let’s hope for sunnier days after the All-Star break.

Other Sports Related Notes

Basketball

According to Chad Ford of ESPN.com, the Nets and Orlando Magic have agreed to
a trade that would send Vince Carter to the Magic. The official deal is Carter and
Ryan Anderson for Rafer Alston, Tony Battie and Courtney Lee. Orlando
would add Carter to an already star-studded lineup that would include
Dwight Howard, Rashard Lewis and Jameer Nelson, while Hedo Turkoglu is
most likely going to opt out of his contract this summer. The Nets are
trying to be big players in the big free agent market next summer, when
all of the big names seem to be free agents at the same time. The Nets
are going to be well under the cap with this move.

Shaquille O’Neal will be 38 years old next season and has one more opportunity to win a championship by teaming up with LeBron James. The Suns and Cavs have agreed on a trade that would send Shaq-daddy to Cleveland. My question is, when is Nike going to make a Shaq puppet. This should be interesting to see how Shaq and LeBron play together.
 

Wasted Fantasy Baseball Pick

Literally my pick was wasted on Geovany Soto this season. I thought I was getting a stud catcher and in his second major league season, he is turning out to be a dud. I’m happy that I traded for Victor Martinez, but Soto has been a huge disappointment. Now word is that he has failed a drug test administered by the International Baseball Federation for marijuana use during the World Baseball Classic. Thanks Geovany!

Can you believe the decade is almost over?

I want to put together a poll here on YESNetwork.com about the best and worst moments of the decade in New York and National Sports. I don’t know about anyone else, but this decade flew by. Give me a shout on twitter, https://twitter.com/JoeAuriemmaNYY, or comment on here if you like the idea and I’ll start to come up with some moments.

Till next time! 

Holy Geez! What happened while I was gone?

By: Joe Auriemma

To say that I went off the grid for a little bit is an understatement. On June 12th, I got married to my lovely wife Kelly. I’m quickly learning to say things like that in the early stages of married life. However, the week leading up to the wedding and then the honeymoon thereafter has made me lose touch with the team that I not only have been covering for the last eight seasons, but watched faithfully since I was a little boy.

wang_blog_062409.jpgBefore I left, the Yankees again got swept by the Red Sox but were still in decent shape in the division — even after the Fenway massacre. I would try and get some sports updates in Aruba, but I was lost. It wasn’t until I came home and watched the team lose to Atlanta 4-0 and saw Chien-Ming Wang fall to 0-6 on the season that I realized how much trouble the Yankees could be in soon. The Red Sox are now five games up in the division, the Yankees still have not beaten them, and they are losing series to the Nationals and the Marlins. No offense to the Nationals and Marlins, but the Yankees that were rolling along in May wouldn’t have had that much trouble with any team.

Are the Red Sox still in their head? Will the offense start to show up again? How long are they going to go with Wang continuing to lose and not give them length in his starts? What happened to that powerhouse that we all saw in May winning day in and day out?

arod_062409_blog.jpgOver the last 13 games, since the beginning of the Sox series, the Yankees are 4-9 and the offense has sputtered. They are averaging four runs per game while hitting .240, and have hit one home run per contest over this span. To make things worse, A-Rod’s batting average is now down to .207. The previous 29 games before this 4-9 stretch, the Yankees were 21-8.  Over that time the Yankees were hitting .279, scoring 5.8 runs per game and hitting 1.8 home runs per contest. The numbers speak for themselves.

This team is at a crossroads right now and it could start spiraling out of control sooner than later. I still think this team is good enough to compete for a championship, but they need to start answering some of the questions surrounding them and move on.

Well I’ve finally given in and I have my own Twitter account. You can follow me at https://twitter.com/JoeAuriemmaNYY. I’ll update it as much as possible, but I’m still on my Facebook kick. I’ll catch you next time.

The Pulse of New York

Every Tuesday, YES Blog takes the pulse of New York on the hottest topics being talked about right now in the world of sports. What’s your take on the below issues?


How many games will the Yankees win this weekend at Citi Field against the Mets?(polls)

Who will start at first base in the All-Star game for the American League?(answers)

Who should the Knicks take with the 8th pick in Thursday’s NBA Draft?(polling)

Which current division leader is least likely to win the division?(surveys)

How many starts will CC Sabathia miss with his biceps injury?(trends)

Who is to blame for the over-coverage of the Brett Favre situation?(poll)