Bag O'Stuff

To start things off, I'd like to congratulate Bruce, a fellow Yankee fan, UMass softball teammate, and blogger for 567 Miles from Home for guessing the correct answer to my trivia question from last post--who was the last Yankee to hit at least 50 homeruns in a season?

There were actually two correct answers so either counted. The year was 1961 when Roger Maris hit 61 homeruns and Mickey Mantle hit 54. Bruce guessed Mantle proving his knowledge of Yankee history and not showing any signs of being a bandwagon fan. Good job my man!

Of course since the post on Monday regarding A-Rod reaching 50 HRs he's hit 3 in as many games include two last night all in one inning of work with a bad ankle. If he continues to hit like this, he could possibly match his career high 57 HRs which he set back in 2002 while with Texas.


But I'll get to A-Rod more in another post that I keep putting off to write...onto other Yankee news.



Playoffs and Injuries Could Ruin Wedding Plans


Baseball is a game of luck in many instances and as luck would have it, if the Yankees make the playoffs and the starting rotation isn't 100% Ian Kennedy's wedding plans may be on hold. Ironically for Kennedy I'm sure he didn't expect to zip through the minor leagues as he has this year and is taking the place of Mussina/Clemens in the rotation for now. But whatever happens, I'm sure he'll get married and the Yankees will shove wedding cake in his face.


Clemens Done After '07?

Rumors surround Roger Clemens making an '08 return to the diamond. Now that he has an elbow injury it may be a sign that he needs to hang 'em up for good. Overall, Clemens has been okay but his strikeout rate is down and from what I heard on Baseball Tonight, his close friends have said Roger is really pushing it this season.

My take is that he'll do his usual mulling about it, seeing how his body is in the offseason and not deciding on anything until 2008. I won't say whether he'll come back or not for sure because we have to see how his elbow holds up the rest of the way.

Football Predictions

Football season starts to day and while this is not a football blog I will offer my predictions below:

NFC East Cowboys
NFC North Chicago
NFC South New Orleans
NFC West St. Louis
Wild Card Eagles

AFC East Pats
AFC North Cincinnati
AFC South Colts
AFC West San Diego
Wild Card Ravens

Super Bowl St. Louis vs San Diego
Winner San Diego

Hindsight and Foresight: Yankees Review August 27th to September 10th

There was a great piece this week by Buster Olney about how Cashman's plan for rebuilding the Yankees is just getting started. We've seen bits and pieces of the Yankees' young talent in Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, Melky Cabrera, and Robinson Cano. And luckily it has come together this second half because afterall Cashman was "on the hook" only a few months ago.

It's hard to say if the Yankees will make the playoffs after last week's performance. The great part was the sweep of the Red Sox at home. The worst part was watching them get beat out by the Devil Rays immediately afterwards. I really don't understand how this team keeps losing to some of the worst teams in baseball. They can't afford to be losing with just a month to go--especially when teams like Detroit and Seattle have been struggling this second half. Let's get to the review though...

Hindsight: August 27th to September 2nd
Well, since the 14th this month, the Yankees are 10-10 so obviously they're encountering some struggles of late. But as the Red Sox came into Yankee Stadium last week, I think I said it would be a toss up series. Now that it's said and done, it was the Yankees pitching and some key clutch hits that won the series for the Yankees. It also didn't help the Red Sox that Manny Ramirez injured himself and they're unsure when he'll be back.

Just a comment on the Red Sox, it's been a different story this year watching Manny and Big Papi struggle after 3+ years as the greatest 3 and 4 guys in the lineup in baseball. I know Big Papi has some sort of knee injury, but Manny's struggles before his injury have been a mystery to me.

Back to the series of The Rivalry though, the Yankees pitching dominated--there were no-hitters taken into the 6th and 7th innings by Clemens and Wang--but I say so what, the Red Sox Offense just didn't show up scoring only six runs the entire series. Everything looked back on track until Tampa Bay came into town and beat up on the Yankees pitching.

Weekly Stats

W-L: 4-3
RS/RA: 26/45
Offensive Numbers (AVG/OBP/SLG): .235/.301/.372
Pitching Line (ERA/Whip/K per 9/BAA/SLG): 5.81/1.66/7.40/.282/.529

Who's Hot: Chien-Ming Wang--I've been talking up his durability, stamina, etc. Is he a Cy Young Contender again?

Who's Not: Sean Henn--please send him down again...

My Yankee of the Week: Mike Mussina. Last week's Who's Not hot is on here because he gave an interview honestly saying he was not happy to be taken out of the rotation for a start and then describing his pitching troubles of late. It didn't sound good, but he knows he's not on his game and it could be beacuse his hammy's a bit weak.

Foresight: September 3rd to September 10th
Seattle comes into town for three games. Seeing that the Mariners have the longest losing streak all season seems to say are having worse issues than the Yankees right now and it's the best opportunity for the Yankees to solidify ground in the Wild Card standings. After that they head out to Kansas City--an easy team by the standings--but who the hell knows what could happen. With four weeks left, if there's any sort of good winning streak left in the Yankees it has to start this week. They can distance themselves in the standings but as we all know the offense needs to come back together and the pitching needs to hold up.


On a final note...

Here's a bit of trivia for the week. Alex Rodriguez may hit 50 homeruns this year as a Yankee--who was the last Yankee to do that (who played the entire season for the Yankees)?

Be honest and don't look it up. Please send us a reply to rivalryredux@gmail.com Sorry we have no prize, but we'll mention you on here and give you mad kudos for your knowledge (Doug's answer doesn't count).