River Avenue Blues

Game 85: Another crappy righty we’ve never seen

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Many teams have rocked Luis Mendoza this year. The Yankees have, in theory, a powerhouse offense. So can we please just knock this guy around? I don’t think it’s asking too much.

MLB.com has a a piece on Talib Kweli, a life-long Yankees fan. Says the emcee: “I collected every baseball card, I had season tickets to Yankee Stadium, but baseball is a great metaphor for life.” I loved his stuff with Mos Def in Black Star.

To keep the game thread filled with randomness, here’s evidence that Joe Buck should no longer be calling baseball games:

Couple of notes from Chad Jennings. Chris Stewart has cleared waivers, of course, and is back with Scranton. Alan Horne is on the DL with what’s being called a tired arm. It doesn’t sound serious. But Shelley Duncan’s shoulder injury does. He could miss the rest of the season.

Your lineup:

1. Johnny Damon, LF
2. Derek Jeter, SS
3. Bobby Abreu, RF
4. Alex Rodriguez, 3B
5. Jason Giambi, DH
6. Jorge Posada, C
7. Robinson Cano, 2B
8. Wilson Betemit, 1B
9. Brett Gardner, CF

And on the mound, number forty-seven, Sir Sidney Ponson

Why the Yankees (and Mets) care about the cement-truck drivers strike

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When the city’s cement-truck drivers went on strike yesterday afternoon, work on the city’s major construction projects ground to a halt. As Steve Greenhouse notes in The Times today, those projects include construction on Yankee Stadium and CitiField. The strike is expected to last through Monday at the earliest, but the drivers could stay out of work longer. While a short delay won’t disrupt the timetables for the two stadiums, if the strike appears to be a long one, both the Yanks and Mets could face the prospect of delays as both teams race to finish their new stadiums before Opening Day 2009.

The amazing disappearing offense

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When Hank Steinbrenner starts talking, you know things are bad. But just how bad is another matter.

Over the last four games, the Yanks are 1-3. They managed to beat Johan Santana but have since been shut down by the likes of Oliver Perez, some guy named Scott Feldman and Kevin Millwood. That’s quite the rogues’ gallery of pitchers.

With the help of Baseball Reference, we know some cold, hard facts about the Yankee offense lately. Since Saturday, the Yanks have 140 plate appearances. They’re hitting, as a team, .172 with a .230 OBP and a .258 slugging. While the Yanks have had a few unimpressive four-game streaks this season, this one is by far the worst of the year.

For the Yankees, the timing of this slump couldn’t really be much worse. After closing their AL East deficit to about five games, they’ve slipped a beat. Just four games over .500, the Yanks find themselves 7.5 games behind the red-hot Rays and five games behind Boston in a very crowded Wild Card race.

With the Red Sox and Rays due in for a four- and two-game set, respectively, the Yanks needed to beat a mediocre Texas team before playing the AL East’s top dogs. But our Bombers, it seems, weren’t up to the task, and once Texas leaves town this evening, the Yanks — and their currently slumping offense — will face its toughest challenge of the year. While no team built like the Yanks and with their resources can ever be considered down and out by July 10, we’ll know in a week what sort of team we’re pulling for this year and what to expect over the last 70 games of the season.

Hank: “We’ve got to start hitting. It’s getting ridiculous.”

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Well, at least we know our owner can pick out the obvious. Hank Steinbrenner has opened his mouth again, so we in blogosphere are ready to listen with open ears. It’s nothing much, really, just echoing a lot of the talking points about the team’s poor offensive play. Strange part of the quote: “I don’t know. Maybe a little less outside distractions and a little more concentrating and they’ll start hitting better.” Is there any outside distraction in particular that you’re worried about, Mr. Steinbrenner?

For what it’s worth, the Yanks are 6-7 since the Yanks allowed ice cream back in the clubhouse.

International Signing Day

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July 2nd always used to be an exciting day for me, it was basically another amateur draft, minus the bothersome shackles of the predetermined selection order. I’ve sort of lost interest though, the too-good-to-be-true scouting reports and Age-Gate have since turned me off. I’m not going to spend too much time discussing the goings-on (especially since this year’s big prize, Michel Inoa, is already off the market), but luckily Eric at Pending Pinstripes will. He’s got a list of confirmed signings set up that he’ll update as the news trickles in, and also a general discussion thread. Baseball America has an in-depth preview up at their site (subscribers only, sorry), and Saber-Scouting has all sorts of good info available (free!).

Vote Ian for ASG

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Ian Kinsler last night was a one-man wrecking crew at the top of the Rangers’ lineup. He went two for three with two walks, stole three bases and scored the game-winning run in the top of the 9th. For his efforts, Yankee fans and the YES Network awarded him with the Chevy Player of the Game. Let’s see if we can do better.

On the season, Kinsler is having quite a year in his third year with the Rangers. He’s hitting .324/.380/.536 with 187 total bases, 13 HR, 50 RBI and 23 stolen bases. He’s been caught on the base paths just once. By any stretch, those numbers make him the obvious choice for the All Star Game.

Except that he plays in Texas, and really, who follows the Rangers? Instead, this guy with his .303/.348/.439 line is leading in the latest AL balloting results. While honestly Dustin Pedroia isn’t a bad choice for second base, he’s not the best choice, and he’s not the guy Yankee fans want to see manning second base during the All Star Game in the Bronx in two weeks.

So with just 14 hours left in the voting, let’s see what we can do. Let’s get Pedroia out, and Kinsler in. In the grand style of Chicago politics, everyone is allowed to vote up to 25 times (per e-mail address) on MLB.com. If, optimistically, just half of the visitors to RAB voted for Ian Kinsler 25 times today, we could send nearly 100,000 votes his way. Stranger things have happened.

Head on over to the MLB.com All Star Ballot, and vote Kinsler. Otherwise, don’t complain when widdle Dusty is starting at second base in two weeks.