Daniel Doyle's Atlanta Braves friend's fan blogs

A NY Daily News reporter has penned Cody Ransom as A-Rod's understudy. This player is no stranger to injuries. I checked out his bio on MLB.com. He survived a car crash that killed 2 of his teammates while in college. He is a family man with a 5 year old daughter. He been spending the last 7 seasons going up and down from the Majors to the Minors with the San Francisco Giants, Houston Astros, and New York Yankees. Just what exactly is an understudy? Random House dictionary defines it as "a performer who learns the role of another in order to serve as a replacement if necessary." Scary, isn't it? To be the understudy to a player with a tainted history. Some might say, "Uh-oh! A-Rod's gonna teach him how to use steroids." Others might say, "Uh-oh, he's hanging o

Continue reading "Yankees backup infielder Cody Ransom: A-Rod's Understudy?"

It was a series where Alex Rodriguez got closer to Rafael Palmeiro on the all-time home run list. Mariano Rivera continued to pile up saves. Joba Chamberlain continued to pile up no decisions. The mark set by Andy Pettitte and Mo continued to increase. Ken Griffey Jr continued to approach Willie Mays in career HRs. Ichiro Suzuki continued to get hit after hit. Could he be on his way to a 9th consecutive 200+ hit season? Let's break this all down.

A-Rod's been getting a day's rest every week and will continue to do so until the All Star Break. It's been paying off for the Yankees with home runs in Games 1 and 2: 2 days, 2 homers. You go, Alex, rest up that big bad hip! A lot of people will say, "Oh, he's juicing up again." Others will say, "Oh, he's been hanging out with Kate Hudson." I say leave him alone. He's a grown boy. Unfortunately, baseball's steroid policy has become like rules in pro wrestling. It's legal as long as the ref doesn't see it. I guess in baseball terms, it would be that they can take whatever they want as long as they don't test negative. As long as he continues to test negative and keeps hitting home runs, I'm a happy camper.

Continue reading "Mariners-Yankees: A Series of Milestones Approached & Standards Set"

It's starting to look like Joe Torre is running away with a 14th consecutive trip to the playoffs as a manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. They've been straight up dominating the opposition in the NL West. Some might say, "Oh, the NL West has the worst teams in baseball. It's the easiest division." Regardless, the Dodgers are where they're at 79 games into the season. All this and they're doing it without Manny Ramirez. They're hasn't been a superstar in the lineup. Everybody on the team is pitching in. Over the past 14 years, Torres had a knack of making things happen with the players given to him yet still make the playoffs.This team is starting to remind me of Torre’s 1998 Yankees. How’s does this Dodger team compare? Let’s take a look.

These are the 1998 Standings for that record-setting Yankee championship team 79 games into the season:

Continue reading "Are Joe Torre's Dodgers looking like Torre's 1998 Yankees?"

There's a new face on the New York pro baseball scene. His name is Francisco. Sorry Mets fans, I'm not talking about K-Rod, who granted has been perfect this year in saves opportunities except for that 1 save opportunity that slipped away when a route pop fly by second baseman Luis Castillo was dropped. A.J. Burnett might as well have snuck behind him during his interview on SNY and stuffed a whipped cream pie in his face.

Anyway, I'm talking about Yankees rookie catcher Francisco Cervelli. In Wednesday night's victory against the Atlanta Braves, his home run brought revival to the Yankees offense. Check out the drama here: Joe Girardi gets kicked out of the game for arguing that call on a play at first base. (Replays show that Brett Gardner was safe) Next up is Frankie Cervelli.

Continue reading "Frankie serves up some spark for New York...(no, not K-Rod)"

Dateline: last season. New York Yankees catcher Jorge Posada injures his shoulder. He ends up needing season-ending surgery leading to a Pudge Rodriguez summer rental. Fast forward to this season. There is no doubt his shoulder's gotten better. It just seems like every time I turn on the Yankee game on TV, some baserunner is trying to steal 2nd and the throw from Jorge is...........IN TIME! He's caught a couple stealing in last week's series against the Washington Nationals. I remember him catching somebody stealing against the Marlins. I believe it was Hanley Ramirez and if I remember correctly Ramirez was perfect so far this season until he got caught by Posada. Cool, huh? There is no doubt that Jorgie is back to form before the injury. Throw in a couple of home runs here and there and you've got yourself one of the most exciting Yankee players to watch. I love it! Every time he throws the ball to second and catches a baserunner stealing, it shuts the mouths of all those skeptics out there who think he's coming off shoulder surgery and he's an easy stolen base. It shuts the mouths of all those skeptics out there that think he's done. It shuts the mouths of all those skeptics out there that think the Yanks should have kept Pudge. Don't get me wrong I have nothing against Ivan Rodriguez. Congrats Pudge on beating Carlton Fisk for most appearances as a catcher. I have a lot of respect for him. He's just too clutch against the teams I root for and a straight-up dud when he plays on teams I root for. This frustrates me just a little bit. Let Pudge be a journeyman going from team to team making history. I'll just stick with Jorgie, the best catcher in baseball as a staple on the New York Yankees.

Continue reading "Posada's shoulder holding up nicely for the Yankees"

Hazel Mae interviewed Ken Rosenthal from Fox Sports the other night on MLB Network’s show Quick Pitch. Mae brought out the point that the Yankees needed to improve their bullpen. Ken mentioned that the Yankees are all set with Brian Bruney and that they expect improvement in their bullpen upon his return. He also brought out some possibilities considering that Brian has been on the DL twice this season. Here are his picks along with my personal reaction to each pick:

 

Jose Valverde (Houston Astros) – Valverde is the closer for the ‘Stros. Last year he had over 40 saves for them for the 2nd year in a row. Last I read, he’s only got 3 saves this year so far. He’s been hampered by an injured calf and an injured foot from a comebacker hitting off his leg against the Dodgers earlier this year. He tried his best to work through it but ended up on the disabled list and ex-Yankee LaTroy Hawkins filled in for him. Do you think Houston will give him up if they fall out of contention? At first I thought, “He is their man. He is their closer. He’s their version of Mariano Rivera. He’s had 40+ saves the previous 2 seasons. They’re keeping him.” Then I looked at their place in the standings and found that they were in the cellar 6 games behind the 1st place Cardinals in the NL Central. If they fall out of contention by the trade deadline, I believe they might trade him to a team looking for a reliever.

Continue reading "Rosenthal’s Picks to Improve Yankees Bullpen before the trade deadline"

The New York Yankees have a 3-game series this weekend against the Florida Marlins. One of the pitchers they could be facing is Chris Volstadt. An interesting little article in the MLB Insider section of the May 18 issue of ESPN the Magazine shed a little light on his background. His dad was a golf tutor to Hall of Famer Jim Palmer. This was a great help to Chris when he was in little league growing up in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. He had a very awkward delivery. As a favor to his dad, Jim Palmer gave him some tips. The result: Chris Volstadt grew up to be 6'8". He's got a killer sinking fastball that causes opposing batters to hit a lot of ground balls. Through the month of April, he had an ERA of 2.67. How's will he fare against the Yankees? Well, since April his ERA ballooned to 3.46. His last start was against the Cardinals. He gave up a career high 6 runs in 5 2/3 innings in the Florida Marlins loss to them. I believe if the Yankees end up facing him at some point this weekend, it's going to be straight up domination. If the Cards can jump on Volstadt like that, so can the Yankees. Don't miss out on this upcoming series this weekend.

Continue reading "Scouting the Opposition: Florida Marlins P Chris Volstad"

Ball players and their fans are very superstitious creatures. Ballplayers will do anything to get a hitting streak going. Pitchers will do anything to get a winning streak going. The fans will go anything to get a rally going if their team is behind during a game. They'll do everything from not washing their socks, to putting tar on their helmets. When a pitcher is throwing a perfect game, the rest of the players stay away from him, thinking that their mere presence is going to mess up his chances to make that milestone. New York Yankees SS Derek Jeter, our beloved captain is very superstitious. If he or his team is approaching some kind of milestone that he is not aware of, he will dog the media and say that they jinxed the team by bringing it to his attention. Case in point: during a post-game interview a couple of days before the Yankees beat the 2006 Boston Red Sox team record for most consecutive games played without committing an error, Kimberly Jones brought it his attention. The first thing that he tells her is, "Why did you tell me that, it's bad karma, " then he answers the questions. In a commercial on the MLB Network, they show fans showing up at the gate to their favorite teams ballparks some of them have face-paint on. Others are dressed like Shamans carrying Voodoo beads. Come on, people. Enough with the superstitions all ready! How about praying for your team? I do it! Whenever the Yankees are behind in a game and they're rallying, I lean forward in my chair and put in my hands together and bring them to my face in a praying position thinking, sometimes saying, "Come on!" I do this because I believe it will bring God into the situation and the Yankees will bring home runs. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Either way, I praise the Lord because ultimately the game is in His hands. Only He knows the outcome, but I believe prayer does more than just spark up a rally a bring in runs.

Continue reading "Yankee fans for Jesus, arise! Pray for your team!"

The losing streak against the Red Sox continues. Yankee management needs to set up their rotation so that they have their best against against Boston. They need to come up with some kind of plan to keep the Boston offense in check every game. This losing is PATHETIC! Are the Yankees going to bow down to Boston all season, slide into the playoff picture via the Wild Card without beating them and spanking the other teams? It's been done before. During their World Series years (96, 98-2000), they were getting spanked by the Angels and they still won the World Series those years. Back to pitching, how can you set up a rotation where 2 opposing pitchers face off against each other back to back?  Every time A.J. Burnett takes on Boston this year so far, it's been against Josh Beckett. Are they going to do this again in their series against Boston in August and September? I hope not, Beckett seems to have A.J.'s number this year. How about putting in C.C. Sabathia against him? The Milwaukee Brewers worked him like a Hebrew slave in the time of Moses last year, pitching him on 3 days rest to win key games during the season. How come the Yankees can't do that? Unfortunately, Girardi's strategy is to keep the pitch count down on the rotation because he doesn't want to tire them out. Starting pitching needs to improve against the Red Sox. Mark Teixiera tried to get something going last night going 3 for 4, but the offense as usual fizzled out leading to a 5-4 Yankee lost. Oh well! Tonight, it's C.C. Sabathia against Brad Penny. Can even C.C. hold the Red Sox down in the early innings? Can Texieira, A-Rod, and the boys jump on Brad Penny's flamethrowing fastball? We'll find out tonight.

Continue reading "The Yankees need to get it together against the Bosox"

He's been a Yankee killer for the past few years. He is a big hero up in Boston. Big Papi, yeah! What's been going on with David Ortiz? Bill Simmons wrote an article in the June 15 issue of ESPN the Magazine that will please Yankee fans everywhere. He's been slumping big time. Mr. Simmons compared him to Clark Kent in Superman II when he lost his powers and ended up getting beat down by a bully. He also said that in a game against the Twins that Big Sloppy couldn't even keep up with a 89 mph fast ball. Red Sox fans are even jokingly saying that they need to mail him some HGH. Well, they can do that all they want because it looks like Big Papi has become Big Sloppy.

I first heard of David Ortiz back when he was with the Minnesota Twins. He totally stunk back then. It just seemed to me that every time he went against Yankee pitching he was an easy out. He was flat. 2004 came around and he just kept getting clutch hit after clutch hit for the Red Sox against the Yankees. I was like, "What's going on here? He totally sucked back in Minnesota. Come on! Get him!" I tell you the last few years, no one has caused me to shut off the TV in the middle of a Yankee game more than this guy. Now Yankee fans don't have anything to worry about. The Red Sox still have a tremendous amount of faith in this guy. They are diluted enough to think that he's going to come out of it. If all goes well tomorrow against the Red Sox with A.J. Burnett on the mound, expect to see David Ortiz somewhere towards the bottom of the batting order and him not able to keep up with any pitches. I mean c'mon, not being able to hit an 89 mph fast ball? My 5 year old son can hit an 89 mph fastball and he plays t-ball. Mr. Ortiz is going to be in trouble. Joba's going to be blowing it by him. Hughes is going to be blowing it by him. Even a slower Mariano Rivera is going to be blowing it by him. So Yankee fans rejoice! Big Sloppy is on his way out.

Continue reading "Scouting the opposition: "Big Sloppy" David Ortiz - 1B: Boston Red Sox"