Tagged: Moose
Yanks Take Another One, Make it 6 Straight
Yanks Take Another One, Make it 6 Straight
You’re welcome, White Sox.
Thanks to the New York Yankees, the Chicago White Sox now have a 2.5 game lead over the Twins. The Yankees swept the Twins in their trip to first place in the AL East.
The Twins were downright outplayed by the Yankees in this 3-game set. The rotation and the bullpen shut them down like most other teams, except this time, the offense exploded. The Yanks got a comfortable, big ol’ lead in all three games, something we haven’t seen them do in a while. This has to be exciting for tons of Yankee fans.
The Yankees’ pitching has been fantastic. From the rotation to the bullpen, pretty much every single guy has come in and become a dependable reliever. From David Robertson to Kyle Farnsworth, this bullpen has to be considered one of the best in baseball, no matter what you think. But we’ll talk about the bullpen and the possible addition of lefty Brian Fuentes later in this post. Right now, let’s talk more about the starting rotation and one of it’s keys. That’s right, I’m talking about today’s starting pitcher and winning pitcher, Mike “The Moose” Mussina.
A Cy Young for Moose?
If we were talking about this last year, of course you would’ve laughed and pressed the “X” in the top right corner. But now, Mike Mussina is 13-6 with a lower-3s ERA, and it’s getting to a point where he’s in contention for the Cy Young Award. He’s 6 and 2 with a 2.32 ERA, and he’s only walked 7 in 66 innings in his last 10 starts. He’s only walked 16 in 121.1 innings. In other words, he’s had his control for every start. He hasn’t walked anybody in his last start. If Josh Hamilton weren’t having the year he’s having, Mussina’d be Comeback Player of the Year. Plus, if Cliff Lee weren’t having the year he’s having, Mussina’d have the Cy Young Award. He’s just having a magical year.
I don’t see why people think that he’s not going to keep this up. He’ll have 1 or 2 bad starts, but if you’ve seen the way he’s pitched, he’s going to be like this all the way. He’s gone this far, so he will be able to keep this up.
Fuentes to the Yankees? Now?
A week ago or so, I talked about the possibility of Brian Fuentes coming to the Yankees, which has been rumored about. Fuentes is on the trading block, with a lot of teams showing interest. Now, however, with the bullpen pitching great for a long period of time, the Yankees do not really need relievers. Robertson, Ramirez, Veras and Farnsworth have been switching between set up spots with Mo, of course, to close it out in the ninth. Lefty hitters haven’t been a big problem to the Yankees like people think. Ramirez has been able to shut down lefty batters with his great changeup. If you add the fact that the Rockies want a lot for Fuentes, I really do not think that Fuentes should nor will head over to the New York Yankees this season.
First-Place Yanks?
Okay! So last night, for my Bold Statement of the Day(today’s Bold Statement coming up in the Final Thoughts section as always), I said something interesting. I predicted that by the end of this month, the Yankees would be in first place; whether that would be the Wild Card or the AL East. I got my share of doubt on that. So now, here is my explanation for my thoughts last night.
First of all, the Yankees are rollin’ and the Rays are struggling to hold on. It seems like whenever Boston or New York tries to take the lead, the Rays get a big win to hold them off another day. But I don’t know of the Rays can keep this up. I believe they’ve won 4 of their last 11. They’re a good team, sure, but they aren’t playoff potential yet. I think as time goes on, the Rays will slowly wear down and eventually head to third place. They’ve already started. I think at the end of this month you’ll see exactly what happened at the end of last season. The Rays would get out of first place down to third, and the Yankees will take the Wild Card lead. I’m that confident. Why?
Because we’ve got pitching: we’ve got Pettitte and Mussina, two veterans leading the rotation and dominating. We’ve got Chamberlain blowing fastballs by hitters and fooling them with nasty sliders and curves. We’ve got Rasner, locating with a good cutter and curveball and mixing all of his pitches. We’ve got Ponson, getting out of jams with double plays induced by a heavy sinker. We’ve got a bullpen. We’ve got Robertson, sneaking well-located cutters by hitters and fooling them with solid curveballs. We’ve got Ramirez, locating with a decent fastball and then completely dominating with a circle-change. We’ve got Veras, blowing high-90s fastballs by hitters and throwing them off with slow slurves. We’ve got Farnsworth, overpowering guys with a near-100 mph fastball and a downright nasty slide-piece. And we’ve got Mo, with a fantastic, spectacular cut fastball, a filthy 2-seamer, and an excellent 4-seamer to just blow away hitters, not to mention his outstanding command.
We’ve got hitting. With A-Rod bombing homers and stealing bases, Jeter coming up with clutch hits, Abreu smashing doubles and homers and stealing bags. We’ve got Cano who’ll hit anything you throw at him, whether it’s at his shoulders or his shoes(like Guerrero, no?). We’ve got Giambi, smashing balls out of the park and off the wall. We’ve got Damon, grinding pitchers, spoiling pitchers and always getting on base, usually with base knocks, and getting himself into scoring position with steals. Don’t even think I’m exaggerating.
If you couple this up with a good defense and a great manager, along with the fuel to win it all in Yankee Stadium’s last year, we are one of the best teams in the game. I don’t care what you say. This is no fluke. These are the REAL Yankees (as Vanessa puts it), and the REAL Yankees are always a dangerous opponent.
Final Thoughts
Alright, guys, this is the last section of the blog, as you all know. I started a new thing a couple of days ago, called the Bold Statement of the Day. If you’re a first time reader, what I do here is I make a statement that is arguable and quite bold, You can leave your comments as always, I love comments. Leave your thoughts, and if you want me to do a certain topic in my next post, feel free to tell me and I’ll try to do it. So here it is, my Bold Statement of the Day.
Joba Chamberlain will have a spectacular start against the Red Sox.
And another juicy bold one. I’ve really said big things so far. Tonight I say that Joba will have a fantastic pitching performance against the Sox, which is arguable because of the Red Sox’s fearsome offense, but I’ve got a lot of guts and “hutzpah” as Jeff from Red State Blue State says. For this Bold Statement, I won’t have to explain myself. We’ll just have to watch that Red Sox game and see if I’m right or not.
Seattle looking for a walk-off win in the bottom of the 9th against the Sox, cross your fingers, guys!
Stay positive, you good ol’ Yankees Fans!
-EJ/Kid From New York
P.S.: I’d like you to read this really great, touching story I just read. It’s really moving, and I think if you’ve got a heart, you should read it, because it’s really an awesome story. Here’s the link.
http://www.snopes.com/glurge/allgood.asp
Stay positive, Yanks fans!
The Squad 