I’m Miles Miller!

How much are we paying this guy?

So this is the last rival series at Yankees Stadium, a must-win in do-or-die time for the Bronx Bombers against the hated rivals, the Red Sox.  Pretty big deal.

Johnny Damon did his part by homering twice (out of the leadoff spot).  Abreu and Jeter got on base 6 times.  The next guy, the cleanup hitter?  0-5.  With two double plays and two strikeouts.  And an error. 

They get 10 hits, 3 walks, and are the recipients of 2 Boston errors.  Take away those 2 solo home runs and that’s 13 baserunners, and they get 1 run out of it. 

So this guy is the reigning MVP, making $27.5M for the next 10 years.  This is the most important series of the year.  How does he start?  Leaving 7 guys on base.  He strikes out in the 1st inning and (appropriately) to end it in the 9th, hits into a double play with the bases loaded against a rookie pitcher, etc etc etc.  He single-handedly lost the game.

Here are the stats that matter:

• With runners in scoring position he’s hitting a pathetic .246.  That means he is blowing it more than 3/4 of the time all year long.  Isn’t that what he’s paid to do?  The Marlins have a team payroll of $5M less than he gets and they are hitting .255 in those situations.  Twins have another dinky payroll and they are hitting .314.  You’d think the Yankees could find a little better value for their buck.
• He’s 1 for 10 with the bases loaded this season.
• From the seventh inning on, he has 3 RBI this season.

So Beckett has a “tired arm”, Jon Lester just got lit up by the 4th-place Jays, 42 year-old Wakefield is coming back from a hurt shoulder, Paul Byrd is mediocre, Mike Lowell is hurt, Manny is gone… these Red Sox look like they are back to their annual swoon down the stretch that we missed last year.

Meanwhile, Carl Pavano came off the DL and looked real good for the Yankees today, and Joba is progressing. They dumped Sexson, none too soon, and the lineup is coming together like it should: Damon (.311), Jeter (finally back close to .300), Abreu (on fire), ARod (yeah, he can hit), Giambi (he’s got power), Nady (still doing well), Matsui (finally healthy), and Cano and Pudge holding the bottom. It’s tough to make a run with Rasner and Ponson starting  40% of your games, but they should be able to outslug most of their opponents from here on out.

With a rivalry series in the Bronx this week, I like the pitching matchups in the Yankees favor.

They may not catch the White Sox, but the Red Sox are in serious trouble.  I predict that those Yankees, left for dead, will pass the Red Sox on September 21. 

So many of you who are either friends in Provo or family are quite familiar with my car. It’s a yellow POS 1989 Ford Mustang that spends more time in the shop than on the road. I bought it a year and a half ago for like $600 from my uncle’s neighbor with an opinion that it’s not pretty, it will take a little money to get it running well enough, but it will work. That uncle knows a little about cars, and his brother and son are mechanics who checked it out first.

So repairs and replacements at the beginning. Then the transmission gave me trouble. Then some belts needed to be replaced. Then the battery died. Then the alternator died. Then the door handles broke. Then the turning signal died. Poor Kevin and Clint had to jump-start me like 5 times.

The next adventure was in June, when I was leaving town for a month. The registration expired after April and I was debating on what I wanted to do with it. It needed a couple repairs in order to pass inspection that were taking a little while. Meanwhile, I talked to my roommate about where I could put it. Is the street okay? Sure, probably as safe a spot as any. Okay, I’ll leave you the key, can you keep an eye on it? Sure. A week later he tells me I have a parking ticket, a week later it is towed. Good thing I’m in Texas for the next 3 weeks. Yeah, so I could have checked things out a little better and been a little more informed about city parking laws, but I didn’t know a car parked in a legal spot is illegal with expired tags.  Hey, I’m only a 24 year-old college student from out of state.  Anyway, the parents helped get it out ($150), much to my reluctance, so that I had to keep it.

6 weeks later at 4:45am, driving to work, the transmission gave out. To drive again will take transmission rebuilding work. No thanks. Goodbye car, goodbye headache. I never knew what to expect the next day, except the worst. I didn’t know the day a car breaks down for the last time could be such a joyful experience. Getting that car was the worst decision of my life. Seeing it go is one of life’s greatest reliefs.

Soooooo, anybody selling a bicycle?

You Yankee haters can rejoice.

For the first time since 1993, I am resigned to say that the Yankees will not make the playoffs this year. Sometimes even optimism and a bloated payroll can’t beat out an entire All-Star team worth of players taking turns on the DL.
And to think they refused trading Melky Cabrera and Ian Kennedy for Johan Santana…

The Bombers got beat up by the Twins. Ron Gardenhire’s Twins NEVER beat the Yankees. If that’s not a clear signal, they are also getting beat by the Royals. If that’s not enough, Rivera has 5 losses and can’t hold jack in any tie game (even with his still-small ERA). For this twist of history to occur (Derek Jeter not playing in October), you need several signs.

This has been quite the gradual rise and fall. If you go all the way back to 1990, the Yankees lost 95 games that year. They won a few more every year (1990: 67, ‘91: 71, ‘92: 76, ‘93: 88) until they held on to 1st place in the 1994 strike-shortened season. They finally made the playoffs in 1995 and then won the World Series in 1996. They won 4 out of 5, including 1998, when the New York Yankees were the greatest team EVER.

The pendulum started swinging the other way starting in the 9th inning of that cursed game 7 of the 2001 World Series when Luis Gonzalez hit the bloop single and I realized there was no tomorrow. I have no kind feelings for Luis Gonzalez.

The next year they lost in the playoffs and in 2003 they lost in the World Series. We can see a similar trend as before: wins = 2002: 103, ‘03: 101, ‘04: 101, ‘05: 95, ‘06: 97 (a happy little blip in the sequence), ‘07: 94, and ‘08 is on pace for about 86 wins, and the only way they will see the playoffs is on TV.

It’s a good thing they are paying ARod $27.5M this year.

The forecast should be better for next year; it couldn’t be much worse. Wang, Joba, and Hughes should anchor the rotation and Kennedy, Pettitte, and Mussina will contribute. Posada, Matsui, Damon, and ARod hopefully won’t all spend time on the DL again, and Cano and Jeter are sure to improve their batting average. I see 90+ wins as a very good possibility next year.

Meanwhile, there still is some reason to look forward to the postseason. The Red Sox won’t get out of the first round. I’m pulling for Tampa Bay to cinderella their way into the World Series. And in the National League, the Chicago Cubs are about to change history and end 100 years of futility by winning the World Series.

All you bashers will appreciate that this is the last Yankees posting for this season. May God bless them.

It was quite an exciting trading week in baseball with a lot of anticipation that actually followed through, the first time in a long time when that has been the case. Most of the players on the trade block did get moved, including Mr Manny, the owner of the Green Monster. So one of the big questions is: who benefits most from that 3-team trade?

Answer: The New York Yankees.

Come on, Joe Torre is no idiot. Since the beginning of 2006, the former Red Sox slugger has batted and insane .454 against the Yankees with an on-base percentage of well over .500, including 14 homers, 40 RBI in 39 games. In 200 career games against them, Ramirez hit 55 home runs, the most against any team. No one knew how to solve him. Mike Mussina? Nine home runs in 101 at-bats. Andy Pettitte? A .416 batting average. Chien-Ming Wang? Even better: .536. (Thanks to Jeff Passan for those last figures.) And not only did the disgruntled Yankees killer leave the bane of their existence, even better: he left the American League, for far away on the West coast. This has been a wonderful trading season all around for the Yankees, with CC Sabathia, Rich Harden and Joe Blanton all changing leagues as well and no pitchers coming in that are worth taking an Advil over.

All that being said, is there a more confusing person in the sports world than Manny Ramirez? He was in a perfect position in Boston, playing in a potent lineup, owning one of the largest contracts in baseball history, winning two world series, being loved in a high-profile town, being one of the best clutch hitters in baseball, and having a reputation of being one of the best guardians of that big green fence out in left field? Why on earth would he want to leave, and why has he wanted to leave for the last 3-4 seasons? He mentioned before that he doesn’t like being in such a spotlight in a big city as he is in Boston, but Los Angeles isn’t exactly a small town. The Red Sox are 13 games over .500 in a super-competitive 3-team division race, and the Dodgers are currently 54-54. And one other thing I don’t understand, the Dodgers now have 5 outfielders (Manny, Juan Pierre, Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, and the “formidable” Andruw Jones); why did they not trade one of them? Hello Joe Torre, you don’t have a DH anymore…

Hey, great for Jason Bay, too.  He gets to leave the abyss of the Pirates dugout and goes to Boston where he finally gets a chance to produce for a competitive team.  But as a Yankees fan, I welcome him as a replacement for Ramirez. 

So sure, the Angels may have made the best overall move by stealing Mark Teixeira, but it wasn’t exactly a bad week in the Yankees organization, either.  They made arguably the second best move with the pickup of Pudge Rodriguez, a 14 time All Star who helped carry the Marlins to a championship and the Tigers to an amazing turnaround, now hitting around .300, filling a catcher position that has been a black hole for the Yankees all year.  He’ll be a nice bottom-of-the-order contributor.  In need of an injury replacement in the outfield, they signed Xavier Nady who as of now is leading the team with a .328 season average and of Runs + RBI total only behind ARod and Abreu.  He’s no Albert Pujols, but I’ll take him.  They picked up a quality reliever in Damaso Marte, and best of all, they shipped away Kyle “Gopher-ball” Farnsworth.  Somehow, Richie Sexson seemed to squeeze into the mix, too; not sure how or why.

One last note about the Yankees (sorry all you Yankee haters), here’s one thing I don’t understand.  Today, the great Mariano Rivera gave up his 8th run of the season (in 48+ innings).  All but ONE have come in non-save-situation tie games (the other was that unbelievable save against the Red Sox last month).  The interesting footnote is that after every one of those runs scored, he either struck out the remaining batters or induced an inning-ending double play; he never blows up. 

By the way, my prediction: Red Sox will miss the playoffs.