Tonight the yankees start the 2nd half of the 2008 missing 2 starting OF's and 3 SP's, including the ace of the team, from the projected opening day lineup. Practically every single starter went down for a period of time in the first half with the exception of Cano (who maybe needed the time off the most to find his old self), Pettite, Moose and Abreu. Miraculously the Yankees find themselves just 6 games out of 1st place in the division. If they turn it up the season can easily be ours, and with the way the pitching and bullpen performed in the first half all we need is to score a few runs every now and then to win. Lets be clear, an avg run of 5 in a row and then fall back to mediocrity isn't gonna cut it...We need to start scorching like the weather thats hitting us in NY now, we need to scorch like dare I say, give me a minute im having a hard time typing this as my finger are reluctant to hit the keys, the mets...gulp! I was going to throw myself off the blog for that, but I will make up for it by saying the mets are paying Johan $137 million for an 8-7 record at the break...Here's hoping the yankees can put something together against the second toughest remaining schedule for the second half of the season (although most of those tough teams we are fighting with in the Wild Card and division race so they are high impact games)
-The ghost
Friday, July 18, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
I can't help dreaming about next season in the new stadium
Although I was only able to catch the first 3 innings of last nights allstar game because I was catching a flight from DFW to EWR, I had a few epiphanies while sitting in the airport sportsbar that I feel must be shared:
1. Great pitching really does shut down great hitting
2. The Yankees must sign Sheets and/or Sabathia, whichever one the Brewers can not afford to sign.
3. Top priority number 2 of the off-season should be signing Texeira (behind signing the fallen Brewers).
Evident by last night's all-star game, there is no greater asset to a team then great pitching; after all great pitching wins championships right? In 30 total innings pitched, the all-star pitchers held the hitters to 6 earned runs, and 1 of those six runs were given up by billy wagner who is awful in situations that are actually important! By following point #2 in the off-season, the yankees would have a rotation that would sport: Wang and his strike-out badass self, Ben Sheets who made AL hitters look stupid last night, Joba the ace in training, Pettite the reliable vet and TRUE YANKEE, and Philip J. Hughes the prospect who inexplicably has lost favour in the eyes of many yankee fans dispite being just 21 and being ranked THE TOP PITCHING PROSPECT IN ALL OF BASEBALL (I didn't count matsuzaka as a prospect that year) when he was just 20 years of age and the last year he was eligible to be considered a prospect. To all of you downers on Phil Hughes I say go hump a tree this guy is the real deal just give him a little time! That rotation has the ability to win 85 games just between the starters!!! Having Phillip J. Hughes as your 5th starter??? not normal.
Second objective of the utmost priority in the off-season is to sign Mark Texeira. That gives the Yanks another masher from the right side, an all-star studded infield, and a class act that is a switch hitter. This platoon garbage @ 1B has gone on long enough (almost every year Giambi has been with the team) and must come to an end. This will let Matsui be the everyday DH and we can have some stability in the lineup for a welcomed change. I must add again how important it is to having him able to bat righty so its not just A-rod, Posada, and Jeter playing when opponents throw out a LHP.
After signing one or both of Milwaukee's aces, we won't really need most of the plethora of SP prospect that we have just dwelling in the minors. Take a bunch of decent-above avg arms (Listed in order of who I would like to jettison: Kennedy, Marquez, Horne, McCutchen, McAllister, Brackman, Betances) and trade it in for an above avg outfield prospect THAT CAN ACTUALLY HIT A BASEBALL. We already have 5 amazing starters in our hypothetical rotation so we can afford to give up a few arms for the cause to add QUALITY youth to the lineup. Who to trade for? Honestly, I don't know other teams prospects but I know its much harder to come by quality pitchers then hitters so it shouldn't be so hard to make a deal. To give a little more of a picture, I am thinking like a Garza for Delmon Young type of deal that went down last summer, except we would probably have to give up more then one pitcher.
THE BULLPEN IS AMAZING AND ONLY STANDS TO GET BETTER. Within the next year the yanks should be adding Melancon, Cox, Sanchez, and Bruney to an already stacked bullpen. Life is good when you have a lead after 6 innings again...
Stop the Melky mistake and let Abreu go. With damon in LF, our newly aquired OF talent through a trade, and Gardner/Christian holding down fort until Ajax is ready for a ML call up (which Keith Law believes could be as soon as the middle of '09) we now have an above avg. outfield!
The beauty of this plan is not only does it make the yanks younger and better, but they are feasable goals and don't require to much work to get done. If you disagree with any of the ideas above you can comment in the comment box or just throw your opinions in the garbage, whichever is easiest for you.
P.S. --> Yes I did say we should trade some prospects because the sign of a good organization is its ability to use their farm system to improve the big league club. Sometimes this means using the prospect to fill the holes in the majors and sometimes it means pawning off those prospects that are deemed "expendable" to fill a larger hole on the big league team.
-The Ghost of SAMIAM
1. Great pitching really does shut down great hitting
2. The Yankees must sign Sheets and/or Sabathia, whichever one the Brewers can not afford to sign.
3. Top priority number 2 of the off-season should be signing Texeira (behind signing the fallen Brewers).
Evident by last night's all-star game, there is no greater asset to a team then great pitching; after all great pitching wins championships right? In 30 total innings pitched, the all-star pitchers held the hitters to 6 earned runs, and 1 of those six runs were given up by billy wagner who is awful in situations that are actually important! By following point #2 in the off-season, the yankees would have a rotation that would sport: Wang and his strike-out badass self, Ben Sheets who made AL hitters look stupid last night, Joba the ace in training, Pettite the reliable vet and TRUE YANKEE, and Philip J. Hughes the prospect who inexplicably has lost favour in the eyes of many yankee fans dispite being just 21 and being ranked THE TOP PITCHING PROSPECT IN ALL OF BASEBALL (I didn't count matsuzaka as a prospect that year) when he was just 20 years of age and the last year he was eligible to be considered a prospect. To all of you downers on Phil Hughes I say go hump a tree this guy is the real deal just give him a little time! That rotation has the ability to win 85 games just between the starters!!! Having Phillip J. Hughes as your 5th starter??? not normal.
Second objective of the utmost priority in the off-season is to sign Mark Texeira. That gives the Yanks another masher from the right side, an all-star studded infield, and a class act that is a switch hitter. This platoon garbage @ 1B has gone on long enough (almost every year Giambi has been with the team) and must come to an end. This will let Matsui be the everyday DH and we can have some stability in the lineup for a welcomed change. I must add again how important it is to having him able to bat righty so its not just A-rod, Posada, and Jeter playing when opponents throw out a LHP.
After signing one or both of Milwaukee's aces, we won't really need most of the plethora of SP prospect that we have just dwelling in the minors. Take a bunch of decent-above avg arms (Listed in order of who I would like to jettison: Kennedy, Marquez, Horne, McCutchen, McAllister, Brackman, Betances) and trade it in for an above avg outfield prospect THAT CAN ACTUALLY HIT A BASEBALL. We already have 5 amazing starters in our hypothetical rotation so we can afford to give up a few arms for the cause to add QUALITY youth to the lineup. Who to trade for? Honestly, I don't know other teams prospects but I know its much harder to come by quality pitchers then hitters so it shouldn't be so hard to make a deal. To give a little more of a picture, I am thinking like a Garza for Delmon Young type of deal that went down last summer, except we would probably have to give up more then one pitcher.
THE BULLPEN IS AMAZING AND ONLY STANDS TO GET BETTER. Within the next year the yanks should be adding Melancon, Cox, Sanchez, and Bruney to an already stacked bullpen. Life is good when you have a lead after 6 innings again...
Stop the Melky mistake and let Abreu go. With damon in LF, our newly aquired OF talent through a trade, and Gardner/Christian holding down fort until Ajax is ready for a ML call up (which Keith Law believes could be as soon as the middle of '09) we now have an above avg. outfield!
The beauty of this plan is not only does it make the yanks younger and better, but they are feasable goals and don't require to much work to get done. If you disagree with any of the ideas above you can comment in the comment box or just throw your opinions in the garbage, whichever is easiest for you.
P.S. --> Yes I did say we should trade some prospects because the sign of a good organization is its ability to use their farm system to improve the big league club. Sometimes this means using the prospect to fill the holes in the majors and sometimes it means pawning off those prospects that are deemed "expendable" to fill a larger hole on the big league team.
-The Ghost of SAMIAM
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