Tagged: Abreu
First Ruth to Rodriguez Entry Made!
Yay!
Finally after all of this time, we’re able to get the first blog entry of From Ruth to Rodriguez, a blog that me and my colleague Chris are doing together. It’s just a short interview of Chris, nothing special, but hey, at least we got there. I implore you, that’s right I implore you, to read it and make comments. I’m aiming for From Ruth to Rodriguez to have some success. It’s going to be awesome, I promise.
We haven’t been able to do the blog entry we wanted to do, Chris doesn’t have his computer and he can’t get enough time to do it, so I hope you can forgive us, and be patient, and wait a month or two until we’re able to really talk baseball. Until then we’ll have little snippets and interviews and thingamabobs… we won’t have those big, thick, juicy, full depth entries that we want to have for a while, but hey, we’ll try to keep you reading and entertained.
Here’s the URL:
http://ej-and-chris.mlblogs.com
Read and enjoy, and be sure to comment.
Anyways… we move on to the sad passing of Bobby Abreu.
Okay, well he didn’t die, but he signed with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Now I’m not sad because he didn’t resign with the Yankees: I love Bobby, but I knew it was his time to go, because our outfield was already cramped and stuff. I wanted him to sign with the Nationals or the Rockies or the Rangers, even the Mets. However, he just had to sign with the Halos.
Now in case you all are brain dead… the Angels of Anaheim in Los Angeles in California of the United States of Planet Earth, ZIP Code 22222 (not really), Right Across the Corner of Blah Blah Blah Street, You’ll See a Box, Inside the Box is a Picture, the Picture Will Show You Your Next Clue etc. absolutely destroyed the Yankees last year and are the only team that really have consistently beaten the Bombers over time.
Now Bobby’s going to be a part of that traditional Yankee whoopin’… he joins the likes of Chone Figgins, Torii Hunter, John Lackey… I might cry.
Anyways, I’ll get over that. We all will.
Stay positive, Yankee fans.
-EJ the Kid From New York
I’m baaack…
Yes I am alive and in good health, unless the doctors aren’t telling me something…
I’ve been posting on the MLB message boards since my last post, and I’ve been neglecting my posting duties. Well no more.
It hasn’t been a particularly good year at ALL, in any sense of the word. Injuries and inconsistensies have held back an undeniably talented New York Yankee lineup. While the efforts of Girardi have been valiant, it’s simply a huge disappointment of a year. The Yankees will not go to the playoffs, it’s official. No more speculation, no more “one more chance”, no more “just a little hope”, and certainly no more “mathematically possible”. It’s done now. So now the focus shifts to the 2009 season.
It’s an aging ballclub, no doubt about it. Jeter, Damon, Abreu, whoever we plug in at catcher, etc. etc. You can’t expect success in a few years with these same ol’ guys. That’s why we have talented prospcts in the minor leagues. I’ll bring them to you. I’ll exchange my thoughts on possible offseason transactions. I’ll share my notions on what the young callups of this year could do next year; Cervelli, Gardner, Christian, Sanchez. All of these guys can make an impact on 2009.
So stay tuned!
Stay positive for next year, Yankee fans,
-EJ/Kid From New York
Boom.
Well, maybe we are still alive. I highly doubt it, but this team showed me so much yesterday that you have to wonder if a comeback is coming. They came back from 2 deficits with big hits and big homers. The bullpen showed that it’s still dominant. The offense showed what they really can do. Will we see more of that? Only time will tell. But right now, we gotta hope that this will continue, that the playoffs will be back in the Bronx this season.
I’m hosting an in-gamer tonight, it starts at 6:00. Please, stop by and watch the game with us, it’s going to be a good one in all likelihood.
Mussina’s Great Performance Carries the Bombers; 8-2 Yanks
Mussina’s Great Performance Carries Bombers; 8-2 Yanks
Hey guys, first blog post in a while, and it comes off of a great game. The Yankees bombed the Angels today, 8-2, and they’ll make an attempt to tie up the series tomorrow. Mike Mussina gave up 2 hits in 7 innings and dominated a very tough Angels lineup. After two awful games for the Yankees against the Angels to start the series, the Yankees beat up on Jered Weaver and the Angels pitching with 4 homers. It was a great day. The real blog post is coming later at 10:35, and tomorrow I’ll be hosting the final game against LA, be sure not to miss that, guys. See you in a bit!
-EJ/Kid From New York
Yankees Crush O’s 13-3; FARNSWORTH TRADED!
Yankees Crush O’s 13-3; FARNSWORTH TRADED!
Well, the Yankees whooped the Baltimore Orioles’ butt. Seriously, we spanked around those O’s. We got back at them for the first two games of pain and punishment. We smacked them around. 2 homers by Bobby, a homer by A-Rod, a great performance by Joba, 2 RBI Doubles by Nady, even an RBI single by Christian. It was a great game. I loved it. I’m sure all the Yankee fans in the world loved it. But apparently, the game was not the biggest part of the day, suprisingly.
Kyle Farnsworth, our set-up reliever, the one with great stuff who Girardi exercised so much patience and confidence in, is no longer with the Yankees. We have traded him to the Detroit Tigers, and who did we get back? Well, none other than 14-time-All-Star and 13-Time Gold Glover catcher Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez. I, of course, think we won this trade. Not only that, I think that we blew out this trade. We owned this trade. Sure, Pudge isn’t what he used to be, but he’s a pretty solid offensive producer. He’s hitting close to 300, and he runs pretty well too, with 6 steals. Plus, he’s always had an absolute cannon behind the plate, and he is rock solid defensively. We give up a guy who has great stuff and was having a pretty good season, but he’s inconsistent. He gives up too many homers when he’s off, he’s off. You don’t know what you can get from him. So, we once again bolster our team, adding a great defensive and a pretty good offensive catcher. Plus, he adds a great veteran influence who has plenty of experience and won a World Series. I wish Farnsworth well, I hope he pitches well for Detroit, in fact, I think he could be closer for the Tigers for a period of time.
Alright, time for the next segment;
7 Years From Now…
Alright! Welcome to a brand new segment that I’ve been thinking about for a long while! Here, we talk about very young, lower-level prospects who could become big, impact players about 7 years from now. These guys have great talent and a big future ahead of them. Here are today’s first three!
#1: Dellin Betances
Dellin Betances is a BIG prospect. He’s one of those lesser-known prospects, but he is a TREMENDOUS part of the future of the New York Yankees. The 20-year-old Betances is 6-foot-8 and 240 pounds. His stuff is overpowering; a mid-90s fastball with heavy movement that continues to improve. He has a developing PLUS knuckle-curveball and a good changeup that also continues to improve. He has good command, though he sometimes has difficulty repeating his delivery as usual tall pitchers do. This guy will be an ace one day, and I’m really high on him. He’s dominating Charleston, with a mid-3s ERA and well over a strikeout per inning. 7 years from now, he’ll have All-Star appearances under his belt and All-star appearances in the future.
#2: Jairo Heredia
Jairo Heredia is 19-years old, but he pitches like he’s 29-years old. The Dominican starter has very good control that only gets better. He has a low-90s fastball that he throws for quality strikes. He has a big overhand-curveball that, when located well(which is pretty often) can dominate. He has a 3rd pitch, a changeup, but it really isn’t as good as his first two pitches and will improve over time. At times he throws too many strikes and he needs to build up his stamina, but he can be a solid starter. In 7 years I see him pitching well at the major league level and improving even more as time goes on.
#3: Brandon Laird
Brandon Laird is a big power hitter. He has 12 homers in the GCL this year. He’s got power to all fields, and he’s got plenty of it. He hits righties and lefties out of the park. He’s a big guy who, when he gets a hold of one, can send it out. The 20-year-old (turns 21 on 9/11) corner-infielder also has a plus arm, however he doesn’t have much accuracy with it. Laird also has good plate discipline that’ll get better as time goes on and he matures. The younger brother of Gerald has a future with the Yankees, considering he’s probably their best 1st base prospect and Jason Giambi is at the end of his career. 7 years from now I can see him tearing up the majors, though not yet fully reaching his stride.
Information from River Ave. Blues and Pending Pinstripes.
Final Thoughts
Well, it’s time for the blog to come to a close, but before I do that, it’s time to keep up the new tradition of the Bold Statement of the Day! If you’re new to the blog here and you don’t know what this is, well, you better aks somebody(not a typo). Here’s today’s Bold Statement of the Day!
The Yankees, led by Xavier Nady and Pudge Rodriguez, will beat the Angels and Mark Texeira in the upcoming 4-game-set.
My Bold Predictions and Bold Statements are always positive towards the Yankees… anyway, you heard it here first, Nady and Pudge are going to lead the Yankees to a series win against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Thanks for reading, see you after tomorrow’s game, I’ll have a brand new, fun post.
Stay positive, Yankee fans! Have a good day.
-EJ/Kid From New York
Andy the Ace? And Another Thrilling Walk-Off
Andy the Ace?
Hello fellow Yankee fans! As you all know, Andy Pettitte pitched a beauty last night against the first-place Tampa Bay Rays. Pettitte pitched eight shutout innings, getting the win as the Yanks won, 5-0. Pettitte struck out five and gave up four hits, but probably the most impressive of all is that Pettitte did not surrender a single base-on-balls. If you know anything about baseball, you know that attacking the strike zone and getting ahead in the count early allow pitchers to dominate any lineup. Pettitte did both; he was economic with his pitches because he got the Rays to make outs early. He threw strikes and attacked the strike zone. He used his cutter to shut down both lefty and righty hitters, which is significant.
Early in the year, Pettitte was having trouble. Why? He nibbled a little too much, he had a bad 4th or 5th inning, and he couldn’t get righties out consistently. Now, he’s been spantastic. He’s been fanticular. He’s been throwing strikes consistently. He’s been economical with his pitches. He’s been going deeper into games because he’s not having one very bad inning. He’s been getting both righties and lefties fairly well at a decent rate. In his last ten games, Andy’s 7 and 1 with a 3.55 ERA. He’s walked 13 in 66 innings. In his last 10 starts, Andy Pettitte has been the ace of the Yankees in his last ten starts, plain and simple guys.
Another Thrilling Walk-Off
Boy, what a game today. I woke up really late today; I stayed up until like, 2:00 AM last night, and I woke up at around 1:37 PM (Summer Vacation ROCKS!). When I turned on the game, I had already found out that we were leading 1-0. The game was good, really; Sidney Ponson turned in a good performance, his second this year as a Yankee. He allowed 1 run in 6 innings. That’s about what you can expect from Ponson on his good days; he probably won’t go farther than the 7th, he’ll give up about 1 or 2 runs, he’ll strike out around 4 or 5, he’ll walk 3 and he’ll give up around 6 hits on his best starts. If you get that from Ponson, than you have to be really happy. Ponson really had it today, he located well, he attacked the strike zone as I talked about before, and he let hitters make contact, another thing that both Pettite and Ponson did in the last 2 starts.
After Carlos Pena hit a solo shot for the Rays, the game was tied, 1-1. The 9th inning was near disastrous; the winning run was at 3rd, and you could smell victory, you could almost taste it. You had the picture in your head of the Yankees getting a walkoff single or something to win it; and then Melky struck out swinging and Molina popped out. Unbelievable; in their defense, they’re spectacular on defense. Melky just continually makes great catches out in center field, and Jose Molina keeps throwing out baserunners. Still, what a bad inning.
In the 10th, with Derek Jeter on first, Bobby Abreu, the struggling Bobby Abreu, launched a hard-hit liner into deep right-center. The ball split the outfielders, went all the way to the wall and scored Jeter from first. The Yankees have a 4-game winning streak and have 2 walkoffs in their last 3 games. In other words,
WHOOOOOOOOOOO!
Final Thoughts
Yes, I know this is a short post for me, but really, I’ve been blogging a lot lately. There was that big one two days ago and a big one yesterday, I’ve been making comments on other blogs trying to advertise the blog to no avail, really. If you’re reading my blog right now, let me know! Leave a comment, share your notions and thoughts. If you have something you’d like to ask me about, anything in the baseball world, leave a comment asking me to do a blog section on it, I’d be glad. Again, please leave all your comments, and constructive criticism is welcomed.
Keep optimism alive, Yankee fans! Optimism is something I preach, I think every fan of every team should have some optimism in them. Also, I’d like to announce I’m changing my release time from 8:35 PM to 8:05 PM simply because more people may notice it. Not like you care. Again, leave comments, keep hope alive, and keep cheering on your New York Yankees.
The Squad 