We now have to live in fear for Hughes’ inevitable season ending freak injury.

I’m going to put $.25 on “piano dropping from the 3rd floor”. Or a perhaps a safe. But there is a school of thought that says the smart money always bets on the old fish bone in the soup.

ACME just called. Something about a coyote with a questionable mastercard buying fertilizer. Yay win. No polenta for me.

I hereby apologize for…well, none of the terrible things I’ve said about Buck Showalter.

But I am grateful to his managing prowess for capitalizing on today’s fluke win and giving us 1 game of separation over the Townies. Order is fleetingly restored.

Order is a fickle mistress. Catch her in a weak moment, however…

[1] I’m going with breaks entire set of leg bones while pouring himself a calcium enhanced smoothie.

[1][4] So you’re leaving me the “wakes up in the bathtub with ice and no kidneys”?

5 call Raylan it could be a scam

[1] I’ve got a clear run on “Hands eaten by David Cone’s mother’s Jack Russell Terrier,” then.

The Yankees were 25-21 after 46 games last season. Can they go on an epic streak here to delude me into thinking they are as good as last season? I’d take it. I’m not a man who turns down delusions.

[7] Good move.

I’m going to stick with fluke games against inferior competition and he’s going to revert to bust/DFA/bullpen.

Or is this mandatory: but it does give us some cause for optimism?

Luke Hochevar, and they score 3 runs?  WOE!

Thankfully Hughes and the ‘pen did well.  But man the offense looks terrible.

Annoyingly, 2009 is no longer a comfort, as the 09 Yankees were out of their slump by this point (25-18 through the same amount of games). The 2007 Yankees, though, can serve as comfort. They were 20-23 (and 9 1/2 games out of first) and got as bad as 21-29 (14 1/2 games out of first!!) before the team rallied to almost win the division.

The 2005 Yankees were 22-21 and 5 1/2 games out of first and won the division.

Hughes looks much better. He is locating his FB and mixing his pitches. Last night he was inducing more weak contact and grounders with his fastball. The Yankees are so bad right now, that Hughes is one of the players that I enjoy wathing right now.

[13] The 2005 Yankees had an unbelievable lineup. This team looks more like the 2007 Yankees, but still I don’t think they will win 90 games

I think it’s time to stop the comparisons to prior years like 2001, 2005, 2007, 2009.

It is clearly 2008 we’re talking about.

If the Yankees duplicated 2008 this season they’d make the playoffs.

The amazing thing about all of these seasons, though, is that it shows that you have to start putting some distance from .500 pretty damn soon. SG’s numbers bear this out, as well, as if 91 wins gets the second Wild Card, the Yankees have to right the ship pretty soon for 91 wins to be a realistic goal.

The thing to keep in mind is if Baltimore and Toronto are legitimately better than they projected to be, it’s not going to take as many wins to qualify for the postseason, most likely.  They should help in suppressing everyone’s win totals, not just the Yankees.

The whole AL Central looks like there won’t be a 90 win team in the bunch, so it’s not likely they’ll be providing either wild card.  The Angels might be the biggest threat outside of the division because of how they projected coming into the season and because they have the luxury of playing Seattle and Oakland so much, although they’re still 6 games under .500 and Oakland’s actually played decently. 

I’m still not convinced on Baltimore, but they now project to finish the year at .500.  Actually, here’s how the whole AL projects as of this morning.

Rangers: 98.9
Rays: 89.0
Yankees: 86.9
Indians: 85.8
Red Sox: 84.6
Blue Jays: 83.9
Tigers: 82.0
Angels: 81.3
Orioles: 81.1
White Sox: 78.3
Athletics: 75.8
Mariners: 73.7
Royals: 72.9
Twins: 65.3

The fact is, there’s no team aside from the Rangers that projects all that well.  If the Yankees can get their heads out of their asses they should be fine.

I guess I’m one of the few optimists.  I’ve been encouraged by their recent slide because it is almost 100% on the offense.  The pitching has actually been pretty good.  I have faith in the offense doing better than they have lately.  I just hope by the time that starts the pitching doesn’t go back in the crapper. 

As for Hughes… can we just trade him while he is pitching well?  We’ve seen stretches before but I guess after 4.5 years of service time and almost 450 IP as a starter I’ve seen too many stretches where he shows flashes followed by stretches where he looks like the worst pitcher in baseball to get excited anymore.  God I hope I’m wrong about him but I’m going to need to see a lot more before I’m comfortable.  Especially considering he is about to stop becoming cheap very soon.

If the Yankees can get their heads out of their asses they should be fine.

One
Big
If.

“Heads out of asses,” is that KLongs suggestion? Someone called Kay’s radio show to vent that Tex should get a book on hitting to fix him.

[20] I’m not sure who you think will do better offensively.  There could be a correction to the RISP hitting, but that doesn’t make things that much better.  It’s been three years since ARod’s hip surgery and it’s obvious his power isn’t coming back. If anything, his inner circle HOF ability is keeping him in the game.  Lesser hitters wouldn’t be able to maintain a 100+ OPS+

Texeira could get better, but based on the previous three years, I don’t see him getting that much better.  There’ll likely be a few hot streaks here and there, though.  Cano is hitting as well as can be expected - as is Granderson.  Swisher is a bit of wild card.  I think he can do very well that last four months of the season, like last season.  Ibanez isn’t going to keep hitting like this.  I don’t expect Martin or Jeter to hit enough to carry the offense - especially having to make up for an ineffective Teixeira and less powerful ARod.

I think the offense is, more or less, what it is.

Getting Gardner back will help the team’s OBP.  I’m hoping Swisher stops hacking at everything and starts making fewer outs.  Martin isn’t going to carry the offense, but if he can hit .250 with the same walk rate he’d be an asset at the bottom of the lineup.

I don’t think Teixeira’s a .229/.281/.386 now.  I don’t know what he is, but he should be able to get his OBP over .300 and his SLG over .400. 

Jeter has already started his regression, and I expect Ibanez to fall off a fair amount, but I think the gains from Gardner, Martin and Teixeira will be a net plus. 

They’re not the offensive juggernaut they’ve been in the past, but they still rank fourth in the AL in OPS+, and I really don’t think Tampa Bay in third will stay higher than them all year.  They ain’t Texas, but no one else is either.

you mean The Josh Hamilton Show?

I see Teixeira getting much better.  His OPS is 667 right now.  I think he finishes at least 800 on the year, and that would provide a substantial boost to the offense the rest of the way.  I am also more optimistic than most on ARod.  I think he tops 30 HR this year, which means 25 more the rest of the way.  I don’t have anything to base it on other than his career and being fully healthy.  However, if these two guys perform at least reasonably close to their expectations the offense should be fine.

I am also more optimistic than most on ARod.  I think he tops 30 HR this year, which means 25 more the rest of the way.

You think there will be that much garbage time?

I think Ibanez is going to keep it up and next year he’ll get a starting job somewhere. 

Teix is done.  The only thing left in him is a dead-cat bounce.

I wonder about A-Rod.  I find it really hard to believe he’s as done as this, but maybe that hip thing has really affected him in a way that’s not going to change.

This team will be fine. It’s a slump, guys.

This team will be fine. It’s a slump, guys.

That’s one way to look at it. But that doesn’t contribute to teh panic.

[30] Yeah, I realize it doesn’t make for good copy these days ‘round here.

BTW, NYS 2 park factor on ESPN is 0.895. What came first, the chicken or the egg?

[23] - Basically this.

Jeter has already started his regression, and I expect Ibanez to fall off a fair amount, but I think the gains from Gardner, Martin and Teixeira will be a net plus.

I’d also expect a little more from A-Rod.  Not vintage A-Rod but more of the 2009-2010 range of A-Rod.  He just doesn’t look done to me.  He just looks like he hasn’t gone on one of his hot streaks yet.

BTW, NYS 2 park factor on ESPN is 0.895.

You probably want to compare who the Yankees have played at home and on the road and see if there’s some reason other than a change in run environment that their home games have been lower scoring this year.  At this stage of the season there’s a potentially big disparity between strength/style of opposition on the road vs. at home.

For example, if you played the Rockies and Red Sox in half your road games at this point in the year, you’d appear to be playing in a pitcher’s park even if you played in a disgraceful bandbox.

If you’d played a bunch of games in San Diego and Safeco you’d appear to play in a hitter’s park even if you didn’t.

Etc.,

Jeter has already started his regression,

Is it officially not a SSS so we can talk about this without getting yelled at?

So, it has come to this. SG, please consider this my official request for a Cleveland Spiders badge.

[37] Change your “favorite team” option to the Cleveland Spiders in your account profile.

[38] This.

Believe me, fellas, it could be worse. I live out in Pittsburgh, and that offense is truly epic in its ineffectiveness. There’s not a player, outside of McCutcheon, who is hitting any better than Ramiro Pena. It’s painful to watch. Yankees are a comparative pleasure.

Woooooo! Thanks Snuggles.

...oh wait.

Welcome home, sister.

I tried changing my favorite team to Athletics and all I got was…nothing.

[36] - Do you truly not understand why some would object to what you said and not what SG said or do you just need a hug?  I’d be happy to talk about why I objected to the difference but I never meant to for it to bother you this much.

Royals called up a lefty from Omaha for tonight. Reminds me of the 70’s when they would stack lefties vs Yanks. Also the lack of familiarity factor and Yankees recent record against newbies perhaps part of rationale.

I think Royals just promoted to AAA another budding star in Wil Myers. If they hire the right manager, I think this team isn’t far from contending.

I am now officially a spiders fan until Brett gets back.

I’m beginning to think Mark Lisanti reads this blog.