Monday, March 10, 2008

Hughes Hot,; Horne To Minors

Phil Hughes continues his constant road of improvement as he has yet to give up any runs or hits thus far in Spring Training.

Much to the dismay of Old Prof. Alan Horne (along with Chase Wright) was reassigned to the minors today. Given how well he has done I'm sure we'll be seeing him again at some point this season.

Kei Igawa is a lock for the Bronx in '08.

Miranda and Tabata are struggling. Two guys that have been doing well (in the game I saw anyway) were a pair of outfielders named Blake (#19) and Gardner (#91). What's the scoop, if any on them?

17 comments:

57 said...

Question: why would the Yankees make Joba a starter. The reason why the Yankees were successful in the 90s was because they made every game a 6 inning game. With Joba in the pen, that six inning game Is here again. My take, this is a mistake.

****
johann was tremendous yesterday with 4 scoreless. Both Carlos' returned to the lineup and things are looking up in Port St. Lucie.

***

Watch real sports on HBO this week. The story on Lenny Dykstra is tremendous. Good for him!! GREAT story. One of the hardest working ball players of all time. Worthy of 'Nails'

old professor said...

Actually 57 the only year the Yankees made it a six inning came was 1996. Mo pitched the seventh and eighth with Wetland finishing the game. The tandum of Jeff Nelson and Mike Stanton were successful for two years both were used as a bridge to Mo. Joba Chamberlain has been a starter in the minors and has four pitches he can rely on. If he can effectively give you seven strong innings every five days let him start. If he can't, he can always go back into the pen.

Mid, Spitzer has yet to resign, he probably should resign. Apparently your broad anti-liberal brush forgets that one of the leading conservatives of the 90s, Newt Gingrich, cheated on not one, but two wives (one of which was in the hospital undergoing cancer treatments - now there is a great leader for the moral majority). Oh let us not forget Rudy G. using his city security people to protect his mistress at the time. Easy for you to overlook those items mid.

Paying $5,000 for one hour of service is a little bit much, don't you think? Strange, however, the whole thing got started with Spitzer's bank contacting the IRS to report strange money transactions. You would think as a former federal prosecutor and former attorney general, he would know better.

The Scooter said...

Leave it to the liberal contingency on this blog to circle the wagons and try to deflect the Spitzer debacle by bringing up Gingrich and Rudy.

What was Newt supposed to do when his wife was in the hospital...just sit at home and wait for her? Republicans have needs to, ya know.

And as for Rudy.....His sham marriage of convenience was over long before he started going out on the town with Ms. Nathan. It was no no secret that Judith was "the woman in his life" at the time, and therefor she was entitled to a security detail.

Wall street is absolutely ECSTATIC that this arrogant, blowhard bully is about to get his comeuppance....He is going to see a lot of the same people on the way down that he left bootmarks on during his ascension.

As for where Joba is more important...All you need to do is look at basic baseball economics. Top of the rotation starting pitchers are paid vastly more money then the best set up guys in the game. I will put Wang, Pettitte,Joba and Hughes up against ANY starting staff in the majors.

Anonymous said...

Old Prof - you liberal, bleeding heart, tofu eating sociallist excuse maker.

Your comparison of Newt and Rudy G are not valid for one primary reason - what they did may have been immmoral - what Spitzer did was ILLEGAL. Money laundering, and transporting a sex slave across state lines is way, way different than getting down with a colleague or two.

Anonymous said...

obviously kidding on the tofu eating part.

The Scooter said...

Yea, Mid....you got it mixed up....57 is the tofu eater.

old professor said...

Guys, the bottom line, if the wife was providing, he wouldn't be out paying inflationary prices for a 5'4" brunette who based on the tapes favors save sexual practices. His mistake was not following his own philosophy - "if you can nod versus speak, then nod; if you can wink versus nod, than wink, and never leave e-mails or phone messages. If you do any of that the prosecutor has you". (From a news interview one year ago).

By the way since I am dealing with what appears to be a lynch mob of wallstreet income suckers, let me pose a question to you. Does it not sound like the bank was taking a lot of time monitoring the governor's accounts?? (And don't tell me the bank was doing due diligences - my guess is there was someone hoping for some payback).

(So much for a Hillary-Spitzer ticket). Apparently based on the run up on wall street, the markets are thrilled with the sex scandal. Imagine what would happen if Obama got caught doing the same thing, the market would really fly!!

old professor said...

Mid, Have nothing on Blake. Gardner played at AA and AAA last season. Hit for average (over .300 in AA 260s in AAA. Has a ton of speed - 53 stolen bases between the two leagues [32 and 21 respectively]. Girardi is very high on Gardner believes he gives the Yankees depth and speed. Could be a forth outfielder and pitch runner.

old professor said...

Mid, just a quick follow-up. Number 19 for the Yankees is Jason Lane. He was a free agent pick-up from Houston. Does not hit for power. I believe he hit about .171 for Houston last year. He is also 31 years old. Minor league contract non-roster invitee. Probably will be with Scranton until May 1 when he will be released. Gives the Yankees outfield depth with Major League experience should more than one person go down. Gardner is the better bet to make the team first.

Anonymous said...

anytime there are large cash transfer between accts, an electronic report gets file with the Gov't - its the law, it wasn't any special hunting. When the report gets filed, the suspect in question may be subjected to wiring taping etc. - its all in the fine print of any acct. application you sign.

Longer term this may open the door for suozzi (who should have been the Gov in the first place), Shumer, and/or Rudy G.

Wang will NOT be the opening day starter - Pettitte or Hughes.

old professor said...

Let me guess the oversight of the large account transfers were an off-shoot of the Patriot Act which was passed by a largely paranoid republican congress and signed by Bush on the advice of Chaney. Spitzer wasn't transferring large amounts of cash at any one time - by the FBI investigation, the service charged between 1,000 and 5,000 per hour depending on the requested female. (Maybe he should have stuck with the dollar store variety). For the amount of cash to kick off an investigation, Spitzer must have been going on the per diem rate not the hourly rate.

He might be a candidate for a Viagra commercial.

Anonymous said...

funny -
it can be a number of things. the size of the transfer, or the number of transfers equaling a dollar amount threshold to break.
The monetary monitoring has been in place since the mid 1990s - the procedure was outed by the NY Times about a year ago.

old professor said...

Wang has looked good through four innings. A-Rod crushed the ball for a two run homerun. The pieces are beginning to fall into place for the opening of the season.

One of the only question marks still out there (besides first base), is who will be the lefthander in the pen? Igwa has pitched extremely well, Traber has looked very good and Henn is out of options. Would not like to see Henn released - still young and can be of value for the Yankees. It could be a mental thing with Henn because he has all of the stuff, but doesn't seem to trust it.

The Scooter said...

the San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that a Yankee scout was at the A's game on Sunday tracking Joe Blanton.

Thoughts?

They better not be thinking of moving Kennedy for this guy.

Anonymous said...

Hot Bats thus far inthe preseason:

Abreu and A-Rod both batting over 500, Cano and Duncan over 400, and Giambi and Melkey over .350.

old professor said...

Tempers flare in Yankees/Rays exhibition. Heath Phillips, Bobby Meachem, Kevin Long and Shelly Duncan all ejected from the Yankees side of the equation. Phillips for hitting a batter in the first and Duncan for going into second base with spikes up.

Rays bench empties and J. Gomnes is ejected for pushing Duncan. Seems they don't like it when the Yankees push back with hard slides and playing old style baseball.

Put up or shut up Zim.

The Scooter said...

Prof,

The flair up in the Yanks/Rays game underscores what I think will be the biggest change in a Girardi managed team vs. a Torre managed team (better conditioning notwithstanding)....

Now you all know that I was/am a big Torre guy. That being said, the Yankees have for too long let other teams take advantage of them by refusing to retaliate against rough play (whether it be throwing inside or aggressive base running, etc). Under Girardi, the Yankees will certainly be a tougher team, and guys like Duncan and Joba fit right in with that. Those two (along with Farnsworth) appear willing to mix it up when need be. I think it will help with team unity.

Support the Troops