River Avenue Blues

Going home & movin’ on

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The game thread is kinda lifeless tonight (Holy Shit-Rod!), so I figured I’d get this posted. It is the playoffs after all.  

What kinda fallout would there be if Dice-K pulled this shit in pinstripes? Lupica’s brain would explode.

Go read the first question of this week’s Ask BA. 

Triple-A Scranton (4-3 loss to Richmond) Richmond wins the best-of-five series 3-1…Scranton’s year is over, so the Yanks are calling up Jeff Karstens, Mighty Matt, Sean Henn, The Ghost of Kei Igawa, Bronson Sardinha & Ross Ohlendorf according to Chad Jennings…only Ohlie’s call-up requires a 40-man move (outside of sticking Andrew Brackman on the 60-day DL, I don’t see any reasonable 40-man move that can be made)
Brett Gardner: 1 for 5, 1 E (fielding)
Jose Cruz Jr.: 2 for 4, 1 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K
Bronson Sardinha: 2 for 4, 1 R, 2 2B, 1 BB, 2 K – left 3 runners on base
Angel Chavez: 1 for 5, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 K – .291-.336-.433-.769…very nice year
Eric Duncan: 0 for 3, 2 BB, 2 K – grounded out to third to end the game, and Scranton’s season (I don’t mean to dump on the kid, there’s enough people already doing that)
Jeff Karstens: 7 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 1 HB – when you’re facing elimination, what more could you possibly ask from your starter?
Ben Kozlowski: 1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 0 K – after a great year, he just couldn’t get it done in this one
Ross Ohlendorf: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 1 HB – allowed the winning run in the top of the 9th on a sac fly

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Game 142: Home run 50?

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Could A-Rod hit home run number 50 tonight? Could the Yanks beat under-the-radar rookie Brian Bannister tonight? Can Andy Pettitte pitch deep enough into the game with a big enough lead for the Yanks to ignore the fact that they have no set-up guy tonight with Joba and Farns needing rest and Vizcaino on the shelf?

Stay tuned for answers to these and other thrilling questions.

Lineup in number form:
18 DH
2 SS
53 RF
13 3B
55 LF
20 C
24 2B
14 1B
28 CF

46 P

On the brink

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Triple-A Scranton (6-4 loss to Richmond) Scranton is down 2-1 in the best-of-five series…Jeff Karstens goes tomorrow with the season on the line
Brett Gardner: 1 for 4, 3 K – threw a runner out at home
Andy Cannizaro: 1 for 1, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 HBP – left after getting hit by a pitch on his elbow
Jose Cruz Jr.: 1 for 4, 1 R, 1 2B, 2 K
Bronson Sardinha: 0 for 3, 1 BB
Angel Chavez: 2 for 4, 1 R, 1 RBI
Mike Kinkade & Eric Duncan: both 1 for 4 – Kinkade threw a runner out at 3B from LF…Duncan doubled…Chad Jennings says that Duncan has been one of the team’s best hitters in the clutch
Raul Chavez: 1 for 4, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 K
Juan Francia: 2 for 4, 1 K, 2 CS – what good is going 2 for 4 if you get thrown out on the bases twice?
Might Matt: 7 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 K – great start in a big game
Sean Henn: 0.2 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 1 K – fucks it up, as usual
TJ Beam: 0.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K – allowed an inherited runner to score
Colter Bean: 0.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K
Charlie Manning: 0.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K 

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Game 141: Killing Meche

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It’s been a busy couple of hours, so a few posts may have been buried. Make sure you check out the story of Troy Glaus receiving steroid shipmens and of outrageous prices for parking at the new Stadium. If you want some positive thoughts before the game, check out some words of encouragement for Andrew Brackman and the continued attendance growth at the Stadium. With 2008 being its last year, you can be sure it will only go up.

That said, here is tonight’s lineup:

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

Pete Abraham notes that Royals starter Gil Meche has an ERA over 8.00 in two starts against the Yankees this year.

Ron Villone, sadly, has been activated from the DL. I understand that Joba is young and inexperienced, and thus the Yankees want to keep him under close watch. But I just don’t get why Ron Villone is allowed to come into games with runners on base and Joba isn’t. It goes against logic, really. That rule will hopefully be lifted later in the season, when the playoff field starts to unfold more and we know exactly what we’re playing for (and against whom we’re playing it).

Recently DFA’d Kevin Thompson has been traded to the A’s for cash considerations. He could get some playing time there this month, as the A’s are riddled with injuries.

Should the AL Wild Card end in a tie between the Yankees and either the Tigers or Mariners, the Yanks would host the tie-breaking game. There were a bunch of other coin-flips held today. This was clearly the only one of interest.

Melky is hitting .256/.301/.295 since August 15. His approach has looked terrible lately, kinda like it did back in April. He’s swinging at the first pitch far too often, and is hitting weak choppers and infield pops at a rate you’d expect from a September call-up.

Here’s the pre-game question: If Melky continues to slide, do you play Minky at first, Giambi at DH, Damon in center, and Matsui in left later this month and, God willing, in the playoffs?

What he said

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I was all set to write a post looking at the Mariners’, Tigers’ and Yankees’ remaining schedules this morning when Peter Abraham beat me to the punch. So since he did all the work, I’ll just summarize. The Yanks have a very easy schedule; the Tigers have a harder-but-still-somewhat-easy schedule; the Mariners play a lot of good teams and are struggling. Basically, with a three-game lead, a post-season appearance is in the Yankees’ hands. If they win games, they’re in. And they should win these games.

With $25 parking, take the train instead

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A report released on Thursday has dropped a bombshell on everyone who likes to drive to Yankee Stadium: It’s going to cost $25 to park in the new lots when the new stadium is open.

The Real Estate, a blog run by The New York Observer, has more:

If you must drive to Yankees games, you might as well stash your car in the bleachers. A city economic development official said today that it would cost $25 a car to park in one of the official garages at the new Yankee Stadium. The estimated cost of building new, more and better parking spaces to accompany the new stadium went up 13 percent to $295 million just since April, when the tax-exempt bond issue first appeared before the city’s Industrial Development Agency for approval, according to application materials.

The city’s economic development agency thinks that patrons will nonetheless pony up. While officials had been modeling revenues based on $20 to $23 a car this spring, they modeled $25 to make the higher cost pay for itself, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Currently, fans pay $14.

According to the report, this increase is due to inflation and an increased demand on behalf of the investors for the construction company to cover debt payments. Risings costs and inflation, eh? That’s fairly unsurprising.

This news also bodes ill for those of us holding out for affordable tickets at the new Yankee Stadium. If parking is going to cost $25, how much will bleacher seats cost, let alone anything else in the stadium.

Meanwhile, when 2009 rolls around, my suggestion is to utilize the new Metro-North stop or take the subways. It sure beats paying for gas, tolls and $25 parking.