Yankees tell Pavano not to pitch for two weeks, AP, August 31, 2006
“Hiding injuries and stuff like that loses credibility, loses respect, and clearly he’s got a mountain to climb to get back into the fold, and that’s on him.”
- Brian Cashman
Detroit 5, NY Yankees 3, AP, August 31, 2006
NY Yankees 2, Detroit 0, AP, August 31, 2006
• One day, there will be no Mariano Rivera to nail down games like these for the Yanks. Instead, there will be some mortal like Scott Proctor on the mound, giving up two-out, game-winning shots like Craig Monroe’s. And yet, every year Yankee fans will continue to push for players like Jeter or A-Rod as MVP candidates.
• He’ll continue to overuse his bullpen, as he always does. But with regards to Mariano, it seems Torre may finally be coming to his senses:
“I have to look at the big picture. This game isn’t an October game. That’s when you throw the rules out the window. We’ve got to take as good a care of him as we can.”
Pavano has two broken ribs from accident he hid from Yankees, AP, August 29, 2006
The two New York dailies have almost identical ‘crash dummy’ headlines today. And the sports media in general is coming down pretty hard on Carl Pavano for his secret auto accident / broken ribs. What a strange tale this has become. We’ve seen countless players come to the Bronx and wilt on the ‘big stage’. But never has there been a player that seemed to evade the stage altogether. When Cashman says he is ‘in the process of gathering information’, does he mean that he wants to have a look at Pavano’s Porsche? Does he mean talking to the other driver in the truck? For their $40 million investment, you would expect that the Yankees would launch a full investigation on the accident. Unfortunately for Pavano, the jokes will continue. This story may have legs.
NY Yankees 11, LA Angels 8, AP, August 28, 2006
• A third inning, eight-run lead wasn’t enough to prevent Torre from overusing his bullpen once again. A day after he declared that Mariano Rivera would not pitch a two-inning save the rest of the season, there he was in the eighth, forced to record six outs.
• We all know that the YES cameras are rose-colored. But yesterday’s seventh-inning stretch in Anaheim was a little much. It seemed every Yankee fan in attendance was detected and broadcasted, creating the illusion that the stadium was brimming with NY fans. The YES agenda could not be more overtly stated: It’s a Yankee Universe and you are privileged to be living in it.
The Daily News dubs him ‘The New K-Rod’. Mike Lupica speaks of a time when the Yankees might trade him away. And suddenly everyone is referencing that ancient Esquire article, in which Rodriguez slighted Jeter for being a No. 2 hitter (A-Rod’s current spot in the Yankee batting order). Finally, The Post has put together this lovely collage of John Wooden and A-Rod.
LA Angels 12, NY Yankees 7, AP, August 27, 2006
• Undoubtedly the ’smartest fans in baseball’ will love recent ‘call-up’, Brian Bruney. Unlike Mike Mussina and countless other Yankee pitchers in recent memory, he will throw at opposing batters:
“Everybody needs to be protected. These guys go to war for us every day, so you’ve got to protect every one of your guys.”
• The Yankees have to hope Giambi is not starting in on one of his mysterious health breakdowns.
“He was cramped up in his legs, his arms and his legs — the whole nine yards. He was a mummy down there,” Torre said.
• John Wooden weighs in on the A-Rod situation in today’s NY Times: “Just forget the past, concentrate on today.” In other words, forget about yesterday’s four-strikeout performance and concentrate on today’s three-strikeout performance.
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LA Angels 6, NY Yankees 5, AP, August 26, 2006
Rodriguez Struggles in Loss to Angels, NY Times, August 26, 2006
• On this roadtrip, the Yankees continue to struggle against every team not named the Red Sox. Maybe it will remind the ’smartest fans in baseball’ that the division is not necessarily won or lost in those heated head-to-head rivalries. “I told you guys: the bottom line is it’s great that we won in Boston, but it means nothing,” says Jeter. And he’s half right. Those games weren’t meaningless. But the Bombers have to realize that they are also competing against teams other than the Red Sox. And a handful of them are actually much more difficult opponents.
• YES came up with an alarming statistic last night: A-Rod has struck out in eight of his last ten at-bats (4 times yesterday). And let’s give them credit. The words ’sore throat’ were not mentioned.
• It’s getting harder for Joe Torre to sing the praises of Jaret Wright in these losses. Sure he’s ‘courageous’ and a ‘battler’. But what does all that mean if you can’t get out of the fourth inning?
• Quote of the Day:
Mike Myers, on the pitch he threw for Garret Anderson’s double in the ninth:
“It had one of those rotations on it that said, ‘Hit me – hit me hard.’”
A-Rod Grumblin’ With Sore Throat, New York Post, August 25, 2006
The New York media likes to take the ‘temperature’ of the Yankees almost daily. So it’s no wonder that A-Rod’s fever and sore throat are news. If you are keeping score along with The Post this season (and we know you are), that’s one mystery injury, one stomach virus, one episode of supposed dehydration, and now a sore throat & fever for A-Rod.
Seattle 4, NY Yankees 2, AP, August 25, 2006
When it comes to assessing the performance of the 42-Year-Old Man, it must be a matter of perspective. A four-run, complete game loss certainly does not constitute a ‘bad’ outing. But, like last week’s performance against the Red Sox, it isn’t great either. Or is it?
“Randy was great,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said.
“How much better can I do?” Johnson said.
Whether this kind of ‘great’ performance is good enough for the pennant race and October remains to be seen.
