As if my allergies were not enough to depress me.

Javier Vasquez welcomes himself back into the Yankee ballclub by sucking. Tremendously.

I mean, that was a trainwreck of an outing. He couldn’t get anyone to make an out at a certain point, which was a shame because he had started off the game so well. Still, it was a very inconsistent and poor game for Javy, and if that’s what we’re going to see all season long this year, I doubt he’ll be a Bomber by July.

With that said, do I think he’ll be this terrible all year? No, I think he’ll have many outings that are considerably better than today. I don’t believe, however, that Vasquez is going to be the dominant starter he was in Atlanta. It’s obviously different, facing the Red Sox and Rays rather than the Nationals and Mets. That’s why I always got skeptical when people thought he’d have a terrific year for the Yankees. It just wasn’t going to happen.

By the by, Javier Vasquez happened to be solid in that one year he had with the Braves, but when he was with the White Sox before, he wasn’t nearly as dominant. I doubt that he got so much better from suddenly having great command and poise. Obviously the ballpark and competition he faced got worse.

What We Did Right

Ehh, not terribly much, to be honest. You had a few decent offensive performances; Derek Jeter had two base knocks and a run scored, Nick Johnson finally came through with his first two hits of the year and an RBI, and A-Rod had an RBI triple and a run scored. Pitching-wise, Sergio Mitre wasn’t horrible, going 2.1 innings and giving up one run in his first performance of the year for the Yanks.

That was it.

What We Did Wrong

Well, a lot of things.

Namely, Javier Vasquez’s 8 earned runs surrendered in 5.1 innings of work was pretty bad. You had some bad performances with the bat for New York, like Teixeira’s 0-for-4 outing, and Curtis Granderson was 0-for-4 as well. Plain and simple, we just couldn’t play effective baseball today, and so the Rays, who are a good team, took advantage.

Next Game

The big man, CC Sabathia, will make his second start of the year against Wade Davis of the Rays. I wouldn’t treat this as an easy win as most Yankee fans are. First of all, Wade Davis is a young right hander with very good stuff. I’ve been following him since 07 and he really can blow away a competition with his arsenal of pitches. Second of all, the Yankees seem to struggle against pitchers that they haven’t hit against in the past. Third of all, it’s on FOX. The Yankees suck on FOX.

Other than that, there is good reason to be optimistic. Just hope Sabathia can put on a very strong performance this afternoon, that the offense can start to warm up, and that all generally goes pretty well.

Around the MLB

Jose Reyes is back with the Mets. As my mom would put it, “Por fin!” Finally! Jesus, he was getting injured every five seconds. I got the feeling he just didn’t even want to come back sometimes, and I wouldn’t blame him. These Mets are a trainwreck.

Hot hitters? How about Edgar Renteria, who has 11 hits in 15 at bats? He’s doing pretty well, wouldn’t you say? It’s strange to see the veteran Renteria, who is long removed from being an actual good big league player, start hitting again for the Giants.

You’ve got Jason Heyward, who hits a three-run, go-ahead, 451 foot big fly in his first ever MLB plate appearance. He could have just retired there and made the Hall of Fame, but I get the feeling the Braves and Heyward both would like to keep that success going for a long period of time. By the way, Heyward is hitting .176 on the season including that homer. He’s struck out 8 times. What a bum, huh?

Beats my NL Rookie of the Year prediction, anyway. Madison Bumgarner is in the minor leagues. I don’t know why I make the picks that I do.

Around the World

We have an international tragedy of giant proportions, as the president of Poland, his wife and several officials have died in a plane crash in Russia. I’d add more, but I’m not sure there’s a need for me to do that at this point.

Tiger Woods is back. Am I the only person on the face of the Earth who doesn’t give a damn? I’ve never liked golf.

What You Need to Look At

I typically detest sensations like this, because they go on for a little while, annoy the hell out of everyone, and then die down eventually. But this is kind of cool.

This Taiwanese boy has a voice like Whitney Houston. And I mean that.

http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/chinese-susan-boyle-channels-whitney-houston-becomes-internet-star–1137

Make sure that you read it by the end of this weekend because I’ll be sick of it by Monday.

The Song of the Day

I love this song and have loved it ever since I saw it in a commercial. The lyrics are great, the melody is great and the music is great. It’s just an overall terrific song and it’s my favorite right now. I’ll leave it at the bottom under the signature.

Stay positive, Yankee fans.

-EJ the Kid From New York