Let Yourself Go

I'm psyched about Green Day's upcoming trio of albums, starting with Uno! September 25th. I was a little underwhelmed by the first release from that album, "Oh Love", but the second release (in the form of a live video) "Let Yourself Go" has me pumped.

Here's the live video of "Let Yourself Go"

Yankees @ Tigers 8/6/12

UPDATE

Yankees make Justin Verlander pay with his error as Jeter knocks in an RBI Single 2-1 Tigers

Cano keeps the inning alive after the error with another rbi single TIE GAME

Nova has lost all control of everything... 5-2 Tigers

Yanks lose 7-2

Tonight the Yankees will play their fourth game in a 20 games in 20 days stretch in Comerica Park against the Detroit Tigers. Tonight is going to be a tough task for the Yankees since they will be facing Justin Verlander. The Yankees will be sending Ivan Nova to the mound to try and start a winning streak. The game will be televised at 7:05 pm ET on ESPN and YES.

Lineups

Curtis Granderson CF
Derek Jeter SS
Robinson Cano 2B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Raul Ibanez LF
Nick Swisher RF
Eric Chavez 3B
Ichiro Suzuki DH
Russell Martin C

Go Yankees!!

Manny Banuelos Shut Down For Rest Of Season

The year of the injury for the New York Yankees continues and now it is spreading to the minor leagues. First we lost Jose Campos for the season and now we learn that the Yankees have shut down top prospect Manny Banuelos for the rest of the season with an elbow bruise. Manny was only able to muster up 24 IP this season in his age 21 season. This has to be a big set back but the Yankees are going to put him in winter ball to build him back up. The injury does not require surgery so I guess we can take that as a good thing and carry on. See you in Spring of '13 Manny!

Alex Rodriguez Eyes Mid September Comeback

Alex Rodriguez is on the DL with a broken hand from a King Felix Hernandez fastball that is expected to keep him there 6 to 8 weeks. The Yankees seem optimistic that this number, even with ARod getting up there in age, will be closer to 6 weeks. That would be great because it would give Alex nearly 3 weeks of time to shake the rust off at the plate and in the field. Not to mention he should have fresh legs for the playoff and World Series run.

Alex has been swinging a bat one handed, throwing across the diamond, running, and doing everything else that he can to stay in shape and make the return as easy as possible. The problem is by the time he will be ready to return the minor league seasons will be over and will not have a place to rehab. That is ok, in my opinion, if we still have a nice lead in the division and can afford to let him come back slowly. A simulated game or two and Alex sounds like he could return.

Alex Rodriguez , even with this decline, is still better then what we have been throwing out there. His right handed bat in the middle of the lineup keeps us balanced and he still puts fear into opposing pitchers. Do not let the stats of Eric Chavez and Jayson Nix fool you, they are playing way above their heads right now, we need and are better with Alex Rodriguez.

Brett Gardner May Be Used In Limited Role

When the rosters expand in September the Yankees did not leave out the possibility of a Brett Gardner return, in a limited role of course. The Yankees say they can use him as a pinch runner and late game defender because his only complications were when swinging a bat. I cannot really see why we would want to risk it, especially with his arm in the outfield, with such a comfortable lead and no real need for Gardner. This honestly has me scared to death as a Yankees fan that they would, even though they said they would not, jeopardize his 2013 and beyond.

Gardner is one throw in the outfield, or dive in the outfield, or head first slide away from tommy john surgery or a career threatening injury. I do not see the need in this whatsoever. I will be monitoring this situation very closely.

Andy Pettitte's X Rays Look Good

Andy Pettitte went for x rays yesterday on his fractured ankle and according to reports everything is healing well. Andy feels good on it and is still on track to be back in September contrary to all the "setback" reports. 40 year old bones do not heal like they used to but Andy looks like he could be a major contributor for our mission for a 28th World Championship.

Our "Ace" Vs. Our Ace

Ever since we signed CC Sabathia way back before the 2009 World Series winning season we have considered him our ace, our savior, our work horse, etc etc etc. This season though I believe he may have been surpassed as our ace, statistically speaking anyway. This post is in no way supposed to be knocking CC Sabathia at all but more so supposed to open your eyes to just how good Hiroki Kuroda has been since his slow start in Pinstripes.

Let us look at this statistically and as fairly as we can. CC Sabathia has less innings pitched, 135, then Kuroda's 143.2 because of a groin injury but that is not enough of a gap to really worry me about sample size.

W/L
        Sabathia 11-3
        Kuroda 10-8

K/9
        Sabathia 8.87
        Kuroda 6.95

BB/9
       Sabathia 2.27
       Kuroda 2.26

HR/9
       Sabathia 1.00
       Kuroda 0.94

GB%
       Sabathia 48.4%
       Kuroda 50.1 %

ERA
       Sabathia 3.53
       Kuroda 3.19

FIP
      Sabathia 3.38
      Kuroda 3.77

WAR
     Sabathia 3.2
     Kuroda 2.7

WHIP
    Sabathia 1.20
    Kuroda 1.18

I know that this is probably irrelevant but I really love to go to fangraphs and look all the way at the bottom at look at the VALUE of a player, dollar wise, and compare it to their real salaries.

CC Sabathia

Actual Salary - $23 Million

VALUE - $14.5 Million

Hiroki Kuroda

Actual Salary - $10 Million

VALUE - $12.3 Million

While Sabathia is more "VALUABLE" then Kuroda, and is better or close to Kuroda in all the stats posted above he is also making $13 million more then Kuroda. Do not get me wrong I love Sabathia and would not want anyone else on the team starting game 1 of the season and game 1 of the playoffs but where Michael Pineda was supposed to be the #2 starter we have been looking for the last couple of years and wasn't I think we already have him and do not realize it... Hiroki Kuroda.

Plus there are worse things that could happen then a guy like Kuroda having  better or comparable stats to our ace CC Sabathia....

Mariners @ Yankees 8/5/12

UPDATE

Mark Teixeira RBI ground out ties the game 1-1

Curtis Granderson reaches on an error and allows Chris Stewart to score 2-1 Yankees

Derek Jeter with an rbi single makes it 3-1 Yankees

Jesus Montero RBI single makes it 3-2

Raul You're So Cool 4-2 Yanks

Two RBI single for Raul makes it 6-2 Yanks

Yankees win 6-2

The Yankees will go to the field today looking for a series win against the Seattle Mariners today at Yankees Stadium. Freddy Garcia will be on the mound to see if he can continue to pull rabbits out of his hat with his 80 MPH fastballs and will be facing the Mariners Hiasashi Iwakuma. The game will be televised at 1:05 pm ET on YES.

Lineups

1. Curtis Granderson CF

2. Derek Jeter SS

3. Robinson Cano 2B

4. Mark Teixeira 1B

5. Raul Ibanez DH

6. Nick Swisher RF

7. Ichiro Suzuki LF

8. Jayson Nix 3B

9. Chris Stewart C

Go Yankees!!

A Bad Week For Former Yankees

This has been a bad week for former New York Yankees players. After the trade deadline a flurry of roster moves were made around the league and some former Yankees felt the brute of them. Let us take a look around the league at some former Yankees.

It all started when the Rays designated for assignment and then released Hideki Matsui. Matsui, as you all remember, was the 2009 World Series MVP and Yankees fan favorite.

Johnny Damon was also designated for assignment by the Cleveland Indians very far away from 3000 hits. After hitting a lackluster .222 I do not see him getting there.

Randy Choate was acquired by the Dodgers in the deal with the Marlins that brought Hanley Ramirez over to Los Angeles and in his first appearance got lit up for a home run and a couple of hits in a Dodgers loss to Arizona  on August 1st.

The Dodgers, to make room for newly acquired Shane Victorino, designated Bobby Abreu for assignment. This is the second time this year he has been DFA'd.

Mariners @ Yankees 8/4/12

Yankees lose 1-0

This afternoon the Yankees host the Mariners for the second game in a three game set at Yankees Stadium. On the mound for the Yankees will be Hiroki Kuroda and will be facing off against Yankee killer (and ARod  killer apparently ) King Felix Hernandez. The game will be televised at 1:05 pm ET on YES and on MLB Network.

Lineups

Go Yanks!!