yankees228

With Dunn's ability to get on base I'd be willing to overlook his other problems (unless he is consistently getting injured).

Unfortunately, these are the kinds of posts that come from Yankee fans who have been spoiled the last 10 or so years, and expect their team to win every year. Now, Jackson, I understand that you're making good points, but to say they should blow the team up after a bad start to the season is jumping the gun a bit. I'll say this, there is a reason why fans of other teams find Yankee fans to be annoying and obnoxious.

That pitch probably would have been quite successful on 1-2 if he threw the 0-2 pitch right under A-Rod's hands. But to throw that after throwing the same pitch on 0-1 is probably a mistake. On 0-2 you have plenty of time to set the batter up, and Papelbon/Varitek decided not to do that.

I don't get it either. Abreu having two hits last night should not all of a sudden make Torre think that he is going to bust out. With that being said, Torre doesn't have much to choose from without Damon in the lineup. He wants to let Jeter continue to hit in the two spot and he doesn't want Melky hitting leadoff. There are not too many options.

That wasn't necessarily the quote I was referring to, I was mainly talking about the one in bigger letters on the left side of the page.

I agree with Cashman's quote more than anything else. But I also agree that A-Rod certainly displayed poor judgement.

Lol, I guess anything is possible. As for the actual baseball that is going to be played, I'm not expecting or looking for a sweep, as a Yankee fan. The Yanks have only won one road series all year (the first one they played), so all I'm looking for is two of three, although that will be a tall task facing Schilling and Beckett. Obviously today will all depend on the starting pitchers. Both are coming off good starts, so we'll see how it goes. However, Mussina was roughed up in his only start against the Red Sox this year, and Schilling was hit hard in both of his. Today could either be a pitcher's duel or a slugfest, hard to tell.

I see your point, but I disagree with the fact that Proctor is going to try to cover his tracks by throwing a couple of strikes. He knows what it is going to look like if he comes up and in to a Red Sox after Cano got hit. On top of that, with the amount of innings Proctor has thrown so far this year, I wouldn't be shocked by the fact that he is simply missing his spots. As for being a Yankee apologist, which mtbykr accused me of, I'm simply trying to look at it from the other end of the spectrum. I'm not saying Proctor was right or wrong, or that it was intentional or unintentional. All I'm saying is that it's certainly possible that there was no intent, just like it is certainly possible that there was intent.

For one, you're making an assumption that I wouldn't feel the same way if the roles were reveresed. You can choose to believe me or not believe me, but your assumption is incorrect. Second, he was tossed for throwing behind Rafeal Betancourt after Josh Phelps was hit (because of an incident involving Phelps running over the catcher), not for throwing at his head. Third, if Schilling hits someone today, you shouldn't simply expect the same response, because the situation might be different. I am simply speaking about last nights situation.

I just figured I would propose this idea considering a lot of the discussion is about the Scott Proctor - Kevin Youkilis incident. Maybe it really wasn't intentional, and I say this for a couple of reasons. With Ortiz on deck, it would have probably made more sense to try to get Youkilis out and then throw at Ortiz. For one, he would be doing it with two outs and no one on base, and second it would make more of a statement if it were Ortiz. On top of that, why wait to get two strikes on the batter? It would have made more sense to either do it on the first pitch, or after the count reached 2-1. But on 2-1, why try to throw a strike and get back into the count, if you plan on throwing at him? Lastly, although Proctor has shown a tendancy for throwing at players/retaliating, he has never shown a tendancy for throwing at player's head. Is it impossible that Proctor was trying to throw inside, and he missed up and in? Its happens all the time. I realize that everyone is going to say that it is not impossible, but it would be too much of a coincidence. I have no way of knowing what Proctor's true intention was, and I expect I'll never know, but for the reasons I stated above I do not believe there was true intent.

In moneyball they mention that they watched a clip (one instance) where he looked at where the catcher setup, not at his pitch signal. Scott Hatteberg (a former catcher), made it very clear that many other players do the same thing.

Giambi wasn't hitting for any power in the first place. Go take a look at his May numbers.

Well, ok, I disagree that because of two incidents he should be labled with that reputation. But we'll have to agree to disagree. As for the incidents, the slap was stupid, uncalled for, dirty, and desperate, but he didn't get away with it. He was called out on the play, and admitted his mistake after the game. He took full blame for the situation, if I remember correctly. It would be one thing if he stood by what he did, but he admitted his wrong-doing. As for the slide, that was also unnecessary, but it is not as clear cut. He didn't back off what he did, because he didn't feel he did anything wrong. What he did was excessive, and once again unnecessary, but was it really flat out dirty. The problem here is that I think he takes more flack because he is the highest payed player in baseball. Once again, we'll have to agree to disagree here. The point is, he has made mistakes. But is it really necessary to jump on everything he does. Some like him, while others don't, and, in all probability, nothing will change that.

For the record, I do blame A-Rod. My first post, in retrospect, was misleading, probably false, and unnecessary. I was simply responding to what you had said earlier, and looking back I see the differences.

I don't disagree with you. A-Rod was wrong for yelling mine, I'm not arguing that. However, you guys are referring to him as be know for doing dirty things in the past. Here's my problem with that. He's started in the major leagues since 1996. You guys have looked back at two things before yesterday (the slap and the slide). Does two things in over a decade make him a dirty player, or give him a reputation as a cheater as others have referred to him as? I'm not naive to thing that he has not done anything similar to this at other times, but I'm also not naive to thing that he is the only one who does it. Many of you have said that the reason this is getting so much attention is because he has a reputation for doing similar things. However, I think it's unfair to give him that kind of reputation based on just a couple of incidents. It's my feeling that the reason this is getting so much attention is that people simply love to hate A-Rod, for good reasons and bad reasons.

Teammates also usually know the voices are one another. Granted, this guy had only come up recently, but you would think he would know the difference between A-Rod's voice and one of his teammates. Granted, it was probably poor judgement on A-Rod's part, but as people have already said, this would not get nearly this much attention if it weren't A-Rod. People are quick to jump on him for every little thing, and that is a fact.

Clemens had a pretty good numbers today, I didn't see it so I can't really comment on how he looked but his line was 6 IP's, 6 K's, 2 H's, 2 BB's, 0 R's. Doesn't look like they'll give him another minor league start and he'll either make his debut at Fenway or against the White Sox. As for the actual game tonight, the Yanks are losing 1-0 in the top of the fourth after a Lyle Overbay home run. DeSalvo looks better this start than his last start and the relief appearance. A-Rod got a leadoff double to start the fourth, but Posada just flied to left on a 3-2 pitch, failing to move A-Rod to third. Dustin McGowan looks really good so far. EDIT: And the inning ends with A-Rod still at second...

Sheffield had almost no impact last year for the Yankees, although it would be nice to have his home runs in the lineup. The only similarity between 1978 and this year is that Gossage also struggled in the first half of 1978.

Nothing much for me to say here besides congratulations on a great weekend.

That was funny because right before the pitch that Pedroia hit out the Texas announcers were talking about the Alex Cora AB because Gagne was on that team.