The Yankees lost again tonight. And the offense looked worse than anemic, it looked like the Republican PR machine during the last Presidential election.
Of course, the defense looked more porous than my wife’s humus rocks. Giving up runs like they were doing a charity dance. Now, it would be easy to say that I warned you. It would be easy to say that I said, A-Rod’s home run chase would become a distraction because, well I did say that.
You can’t say you weren’t warned.
You see, you spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball, and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time. ~Jim Bouton, Ball Four, 1970
So the trade deadline has come and gone. The Yankees were extremely active. But are they better than they were two weeks ago?
The simple answer is yes. We’re certainly not worse. Every player we got, we got for a song and a dance. I actually heard a guy on the radio today moaning and complaining about the unfairness of the Yankees situation.
Here’s the thing, Berkman, Kearns, and Wood are not the players most people probably think of when they first hear the names. They are serviceable. They will do steady work. They may even get really hot at some point in the next three months. But they don’t make the Yankees significantly better. What these acquisitions do more than anything else is keep these players off of the Rays and Red Sox.
2 things:
1. Buck Showalter who hates the Yankees was hired as the Orioles manager. I love that he’s in their division and that he’s on a terrible team that will get hammered by them this year. He’s a good manager but has a bit of a grudge for how things ended in NY.
2. The Yanks/Rays series that starts tonight will be really interesting. 2.5 games back the Rays have been tearing the cover off of the ball and their pitching has been fantastic. This series will go a long way towards setting the tone for the rest of the season. Get your popcorn ‘cuz you know there’s going to be a show. 
Have you heard? Roy Oswalt went to the Phillies! My oh my! Roy oh Boy. I had two thoughts about this.
My first thought was, “Well, I wonder if the Philly fans will start crying about “buying” a championship now. Of course, they won’t. They won’t stop and cry for the Pirates or the Astros.
The pitcher has got only a ball. I’ve got a bat. So the percentage of weapons is in my favor and I let the fellow with the ball do the fretting.
Hank Aaron
Dear Mr. Selig,
I don’t really feel comfortable calling you Bud yet, but that might change. This letter is the first in a series of letters in an attempt to open a dialogue about how we can fix MLB. Let me be honest, I make a huge distinction between baseball and MLB.
Baseball as a game is just fine. It’s a beautiful game that moves like a wonderful sensual dance.
No game in the world is as tidy and dramatically neat as baseball, with cause and effect, crime and punishment, motive and result, so cleanly defined. ~Paul Gallico
So, I found this article on Bleacher Report today and figured I’d throw my own answers out here.
1. Who has been the best player in the AL East?
-This has to be Cano. The man has been spreading the ball around the field like a farmer fertilizing his fields.
2. And the most disappointing?
-I think this is Joba. The man is more inconsistent than a politician looking for re-election.
3. Who will win the division? And the Wild Card?
I’ve been traveling a lot on a mini vacay with my wife this weekend. We did the Brickyard so my posting will suffer until Tuesday but I am excited to start a new series called If I were commissioner. I’m going to throw some wild ideas to you on how the game of MLB can be improved.
