yankees228

I agree, that facing Minnesota in a 5 game series is certainly a difficult challenge, however I'm not so sure that I would rather face Chicago. First, we don't really know about Liriano. He's supposed to come back before the season ends, but who knows how his arm will hold up. He is a young kid who was clearly overworked this year. On top of that, because he was in the minors before this year, he is not used to pitching in September. Radke just had a cortisone shot in his right shoulder. He is getting up in age and who knows if his arm will hold through a grueling pennant race and into October. Santana, who I admit may be the best pitcher in baseball, will almost surely give you a fantastic game 1 but who knows after that. Gardenhire, who in his only two years in the postseason started Santana in game 4 on 3 days rest 2 years in a row. In 2003 he got lit up in game 4 and in 2004 he only lasted 5 innnings. If Liriano and Radke, or one of them, aren't 100 percent, I'm pretty confident he will start him on three days rest again. Ignoring Santana's lack of success pitching on 3 days rest it is a historically a risky idea. As a Yankee fan you have to look no further than the last two times the Yankees tried it in the playoffs. Wells in game 1 of the 2003 World Series and Pettitte in game 5 of the 2000 ALDS. Wells was OK, but got the loss, and Pettitte was horrible. Obviously it has worked out, such as Schilling starting 3 times in the 2001 World Series, but I would take my chances against him on 3 days rest. Chicago on the other hand my be a bit more difficult. They clearly have a much better offense then the Twins, especially if Thome comes back strong from his injury. Iguchi is a really good number 2 hitter, and there may not be a better 3-5 in baseball than Jim Thome, Paul Konerko, and Jermaine Dye. They have a catcher that handles the pitching staff extremely well and has a decent bat in AJ Pierzynski and a third basemen that has had a breakthrough season in Joe Crede. There bullpen, although not as good as last year, is still pretty good. Bobby Jenks is a very good closer, who has the ability to at times pitch up to 3 innings at a time. When Joe Nathan tried to go three innings against the Yankees he blew the most important game of his career (2004 ALDS Game 2). McCarthy and Cotts represents a very good lefty righty tandem as well. The pitching staff, although it has struggled, has showed it's potential, and you have to look no further than last years postseason. It may be the general concensus that because of Minnesota's hot pitching staff you do not want to face them but I would not sleep on the White Sox. Long post, I know. If you actually read the whole thing, then thank you. I'm curious as to see what everyone else's opinion is on who they would rather face, the White Sox or the Twins. Especially because the Yankees are seemingly locked in to playing one or the other.

Well correct me if I'm wrong, but when the Mets were searching for a new manager directly after the end of the 2004 season, many Met fans were calling up Mike and the Maddog and stating that they did not want a Yankee running the Mets and that they wanted to do things their own way.

Well, if you are going to have one guy on the Yanks starting twice in a five game series, who do you want it to be? In my opinion, Moose is the clear cut choice.

I never said it was a bad idea. All I was saying was that in my opinion I think a great deal of Red Sox fans, especially the ones with tons of hatred for the Yankees, might be against the move.

If he gets fired, I'm not sure Girardi would be so quick to go and try to turn around another bottom feeder for the second straight year. As for the Red Sox getting him, I'm not sure that that would get the best PR reaction. Girardi is regared as a Yankee and the Red Sox fans may not like someone from the "enemy" steering there ship. It is pretty similar to the Mets hiring Randolph, in my opinion.

Aside from the fact that the Pavano issues really hurts the Yankees in the long term because of all the money they invested in him, I think this hurts them pretty bad in the short term. Lets assume, I know all the Red Sox fans here will say there is no need to assume, that the Yankees make the playoffs. Lets also assume that Moose is healthy. Assuming they have homefield advantage and that they can setup there playoff rotation as the season winds down here's how I see it playing out: -Moose will start game one simply because he has probably been our best pitcher this year and is probably the guy you would want to start two games in the series. -Wang would pitch game two because he pitches astonishingly better at home than he does on the road. -RJ would pitch game three because Torre has said over and over again that he believes that game three is the most important game of any series, and he would want the veteran Randy on the mound. On top of that, besides maybe Moose, I think that Torre trusts Randy on the road more than anyone. -Game four is the problem. Wright and Lidle are the two guys left. Although they have both had their moments, they really are two inconsistent. I don't think Torre could live with their high pitch counts and poor ball to strike ratios in the playoffs. Because of this, if Pavano came back and showed moderate consistency, he would be thrown right into the fire as the Yanks fourth playoff starter. But, due to recent, and not unexpected developement, this idea is going down the drain very quickly. As a Yankee fan, I would rather Wright and Lidle not see time as starters in the playoffs.

I don't think you are going to have to worry about seeing Orlando Cabrera playing in October. The A's have, I believe, a 5.5 game lead and have a pretty similar team to the Angels. I don't see the Angels making up that much ground in one month.

Lucky the Angels didn't get more that inning. Lots of hard hit balls and a break at second base. I really hope Torre tries a little harder to win this game than the one on Tuesday. Meaning, seeing Farnsworth in the 8th would be a welcome site.

Gift run. I'll take it, although on the replay it looked like his leg might have been over the plate but not on it when sheilds slapped the tag on him. Hopefully Proctor to Farnsworth to Rivera (maybe for more than three outs can get it done). Mo hasn't pitched since Sunday, so a 4-6 out save may not be out of the question.

I wonder how Torre will play this if it stays tied into the eigth? He'll probably let proctor face the bottom of the order in the seventh, but I don't know if he'll go to farnsworth in a tie game in the eighth. Also, I don't see a lefty to let Myers face besides Anderson who won't be pinch hit for.

When Hillenbrand finally got traded, didn't JP Ricciardi say something to the effect of, "If you can't play for Gibbons you can't play for anyone"? Doesn't sound like the FO is about to fire him.

I see what you are saying, it was on the Arod DP in the fourth inning, but if you get a chance to watch the play again it wasn't going to be a very close play at second base. The ball was hit hard and Lowell got it to Loretta rather quickly. I don't think Bobby was close enough to even attempt to break it up. However I heard the same things about his lack of effort when he was in Philly, and most of it I have yet to see. I think he forgot the outs during the second game on friday and there was a play in Chicago where he almost got picked off first on an Arod pop-up. A couple mental mistakes that really won't fly in NY so I do hope he turns that around but I am not alarmed. However, what has become very clear is that he shys away from walls. I heard that rumor as well when they got him from Philly and there is certainly truth to that. Does anyone know if he ever got hurt by running into the wall, or something like that?

I'm thinking the success of the Red Sox pitchers may correlate much more with Varitek being active then with Dave Wallace being with the team. They showed some of the ERA's of the pitchers during the game telecast the other day for the time period after Varitek got hurt until now. It really is pretty remarkable and those ERA's are not indicative of the abilities of those pitchers.

Yeah, I know, I was sort of looking past Seattle. Probably a mistake but for a Yankee fan you always look ahead to the games against the Angels because those are always really tough games.

The Yankees still have a lot of business to take care of, and winning a series against Anaheim would be a nice way to start.

The Red Sox scored first in the very first game between these two teams this year and won.

Wright vs. Wakefield is a very interesting pitching matchup allow I would have to give the edge to the Red Sox, especially considering how Wakefield does against the Yankees. On the other hand, if I'm not mistaken Wright beat the Red Sox in his only start last year at Fenway in April. It is also nice to see Sheffield back, and does anyone know if Giambi is hurt or if Torre is just giving him a day off because he has been struggling a bit lately?

Not to be confrontational, but are you saying that A-Rod doesn't play hard? In terms of this thread, I would have probably cheered Nomar and Pedro if I had know it was there last game with the Red Sox. Also, I would have to think about Ortiz because it is so tough to ignore how fantastic a hitter he is.

Oh, thanks. I forgot about him.

Good luck tonight Sox fans. An interesting sidebar to tonight's game is that the pitching matchup is between two guys who have broke the Yankees hearts in world series play. Anyways just a quick question....I remember last year that Nixon did not play against Johnson because of the lefty lefty matchup. If Francona does this tonight, who will be the other outfielder besides Manny and Pena?

Rivernator. What's the deal between you and Sox Fan in Tex? Just curious.

I think it is unfair to compare Yankee middle reliever who either don't rack up as many innings or do not come in in as many pressure situations as Papelbon or Timlin. If you are comparing the bullpens, I see it as pretty even. Mo has been pretty good this year, although it does not seem like he is making batters swing and miss too much, and, at least in Texas, his gun readings seem to be a bit below average. But he is still Mo. Papelbon has been nothing short of tremendous so far this year, although he is yet to face the Yankees in a pressure situation as a closer. As of this minute, I see that as pretty even. Timlin and Farnsworth are also pretty comparable in my book. By the numbers it seems as if Timlin has been quite good, although I here he is not great with inherited runners. Farnsworth has also exceeded my expectations. His fairly average ERA seems to be a product of some early season struggles in non-pressure situations, but he has also seem to have harnessed his slider and regained his velocity as of late. The wild card I see for the Yankees this series is Scott Proctor. If he can continue to do what he has been doing he might be able to be that seventh inning guy if RJ and Chacon continue to struggle with their pitch counts. But, facing Texas and Tampa is a lot different than facing the Red Sox. The wild card for the Sox is Foulke. If he can regain that changeup, circa 2004, and have a consistent 90-92 on his fastball he can be the seventh inning guy for the Red Sox or come in in a tie game.

Hey. I began posting here during the regular season last year and enjoyed it very much. As I'm sure you have noticed I root for the Yankees, but I'm certainly not here to start fights or anything of the such. I haven't posted here in a while and I hope to start posting again. From reading through some of the threads I see there are plenty of new Yankee fans that have joined since I was last here. Thanks, and heres to some good baseball discussions!

I've been to most of the parks and, comparitively speaking, busch stadium is quite a nice place to watch a baseball game. When i went they were playing the Cubs so the atmosphere was amazing. The fans there are so unbelivebaly loyal. As for the ballpark itself, it was pretty nice. It doesn't have the great concourses like many of the newer parks have, but it a pretty comfortable stadium. It also has that sort of old fashion feel to it which is very nice. I guess the Cardinals are just trying to keep up with the times.

Arizona won the division in 2001, and they had homefield advantage for every round of the playoffs.