Is Mad Dog Russo Serious?

Mike and the Mad Dog used to be able to fill their 5.5 hours of sports radio time with engaging interviews, great rumor buzz and intelligent baseball talk. Their style became the benchmark which all other sports talk shows were measured.

Somewhere over the past few years, the show became a transparent, mindless marathon without any end in sight. No longer does Russo's savant-like photographic memory charm his listeners as the Long Island native constantly speaks before thinking. Similarly, Mike Francesa's smooth, debonair oratory can no longer mask his lack of Yankees prospect knowledge.

Francesa believes Joba Chamberlain should not become a starter because he is already "unhittable" in the 8th inning role. Forget the fact that every lights-out closer was at one point in his career a failed starter [see: Rivera, K-Rod, Hoffman, etc.]. Instead of finding out once and for-all whether or not the Yankees have a Justin Verlander on their hands, Mikey thinks he should remain Rivera's heir apparent for the next 2 or 3 years.

The setup man loses his value when the starting pitcher doesn't hand him a lead to work with... hence the value of Chamberlain pitching the first six innings as opposed to the seventh and/or eighth.

As for Russo's opinion on the Chamberlain conundrum, the Mad Dog believes a bad start against Manhattan while in college proves he is not a dominant starter. Russo then opines Joba never dominated while in the minor leagues. Hm, that's news to every coherent baseball fan. Talk about not doing your homework, Chris. For future reference, here are Chamberlain's 2007 minor league statistics - as a starter.

It has become so obvious that the New York radio giants are no longer able to efficiently fill their time slot, that they are now saying things like this:

Horne Shut Down For 14 Days

Yankees top pitching prospect Alan Horne was DLed on April 10 with what was described as a bicep strain. According to Nardi Contreras, Horne was shut down for a full two weeks and not the seven day layoff which was originally reported:

Contreras said that the Yankees decided to keep Alan Horne inactive for 14 days starting the day after his injury. After two weeks of not throwing, he'll begin a program to build back his strength. "We are very conservative," Contreras said.

Badboy Bronson Sardinha?

Bronson Sardinha, everybody's favorite former Yankees farmhand with the interminable middle name, may be in baseball hot water according to Chad Jennings:

Baseball America's latest transactions list Bronson Sardinha as having been placed on the suspended list and then released by the Mariners. I emailed the media relations guy in Tacoma who said, "That's all I know at this point as well." No clue what's going on there, but it doesn't sound good.

Come on now, Kiheimahanaomauiakeo.

Prior To The Popes Stadium VisitComes UFC #84

What a great reason to go to a game.

Talking smack to a rival fan is expected. Middle-aged men throwing haymakers is excessive. Both taking place during a baseball game is ex-convict.

[Warning: NSFW]

A-Rod With Mild Quad Strain,Will Rejoin Club Tomorrow

It is yet to be determined whether Alex Rodriguez will be playing in tomorrow's game against the ChiSox, but the level of his quad injury appears to be less serious than the one which kept Jeter out of commission for six games.

Alex Rodriguez has a mild strain of his right quadriceps and will rejoin the New York Yankees on Tuesday in Chicago.

Rodriguez will be evaluated again Tuesday, according to Zillo, who was unsure whether A-Rod would be available to play in the series opener.

With his pop-psychology wife Cynthia due to give birth with their second child at any moment, why doesn't A-Quad simply hop onto his private jet, induce labor and miss the next few days of work welcoming his new addition into the world. He'll likely miss a few days anyhow. Never take sides against the family, Alex, never.

Hank Wants Joba Starting Now

From the NY Times comes word Hank Steinbrenner wants Joba Chamberlain in the starting rotation now. Calm it down Hanky:

With the Yankees off to a 10-10 start, and two of their young starters struggling, the Yankees co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner said there was one thing in particular he would like to change: He wants Joba Chamberlain, the Yankees’ hard-throwing setup man, to move into the rotation.

“I want him as a starter and so does everyone else, including him, and that is what we are working toward and we need him there now,” Steinbrenner said Sunday by telephone. “There is no question about it, you don’t have a guy with a 100-mile-per-hour fastball and keep him as a setup guy. You just don’t do that. You have to be an idiot to do that.”

“I think once Hughes and Kennedy get plenty of starts and get Joba back, and with Wang and Pettitte, we will be fine,” Steinbrenner said.

Steinbrenner said the Yankees were working on easing Chamberlain into the rotation, but he would not be specific on a timetable. The Yankees’ brain trust wanted to limit Chamberlan’s innings by having him spend at least part of the season in the bullpen. “The mistake was already made last year switching him to the bullpen out of panic or whatever,” Steinbrenner said. “I had no say in it last year and I wouldn’t have allowed it. That was done last year, so now we have to catch up. It has to be done on a schedule so we don’t rush him.”

Does Hankenstein realize the Yankees would not have made the playoffs last season had Chamberlain not sured up the 8th inning. Also, the Yankees were able to expertly limit Chamberlain's innings by using him in the reduced role of a late-inning reliever.

Relax Hank, you don't know nearly as much about baseball as you think - though you're right Joba will and should soon join the starting five.

An Injury To A-Quad

A-Quad left Sunday's game with a...quad injury and is day-to-day. After 20 straight games, the Yankees *gasp* actually have today off. How A-Rod feels this morning and afternoon may determine if he misses a couple days or like Derek Jeter needs about a week to recover from the quadriceps strain.

So far Rodriguez appears optimistic the injury is more of a cramp than a pull.. As Joe Girardi would say "I don't want to get into semantics, OK?":

Alex Rodriguez left Camden Yards with his leg wrapped with a heat pad. It appears he will be out at least a few days.

“It’s a little sore, a little tight,” he said. “I have some concern about it. Anytime you have any type of feeling like that you have some concern.”

“Maybe,” Rodriguez said when asked whether he could miss a few games. “We’ll see how I wake up in the morning."

Weekend Odds & Ends:The Young Guns

It was another tough turn of the rotation for Hughes and Kennedy, though the former breezed through five innings Friday night before becoming undone in the sixth. During the first third of the game, Phil Hughes showed an uncanny ability to throw strike-one, but was unable to survive the sixth frame thanks in large part to a costly error from Alex Rodriguez.

Omitting the third baseman's miscue may have very well resulted in a pitching like of 6 innings and 3 earned runs, however the actual statistics were 5.1 innings-pitched of 5-run ball. Did he pitch that poorly? Certainly not, [LaTroy Hawkins' horrid relief performance emblazoned Hughes' statline] but Hughes did not pitch great either.

The youngster's inability to consistently mix in his changeup and slider has become the 500 pound gorilla in the room, and every opposing batter knows it. In turn, hitters simply take the curveball and sit on the fastball, knowing at some point they will get one they can handle.

On Saturday, Ian Kennedy followed up an impressive six-inning performance against Tampa Bay with 2.1 innings of an 80 pitch nightmare. Nibbling would be an understatement in summarizing Kennedy's outing as the 23 year-old simply refused to trust his stuff and attack the strikezone. The result was a bounty of earned runs, a bevy of full-counts and a bloated pitchcount.

Though Hughes' pitching line may read otherwise, the righthander seemingly took a step forward in his progression. Though Hughes is a notorious slow-starter, and neither Friday or Saturday's game witnessed much run-support from the Yankees offense, there will soon come a time when reasons become excuses and major league learning curves become minor league stints.

The Silver Lining:

• Hughes consistently threw his fastball 92-93 mph throughout his Friday start, hitting 94 on a handful of pitches. His slider, usually thrown 79-81 mph, made a few appearances during the game as a strike-one pitch. The changeup, which I believe Hughes used once, has become a jilted pitch, collecting dust next to the righty's two-seam fastball. Should Hughes ever command the changeup down and away to lefties or the slider down and away to righthanded hitters, Phil would likely take off.

• Even while observing Saturday's poor performance, Jim Palmer described Ian Kennedy as having "lights-out stuff." Palmer, unlike many broadcasters, actually does some homework and is not afraid of criticizing his pitching fraternity brothers. Therefore, the statement has more meaning than when Joe Morgan cluelessly praises a young pitcher he's never laid eyes on before. [BTW, Orel Hershiser, while very good on BBTN, is an exceptional example of a broadcaster doing his homework]
  

Rotation Tinkering

Joe Girardi and his coaching staff made the correct decision to modify the current starting rotation by separating Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy in the hopes of giving the bullpen a breather.

This week's projected rotation:

Tuesday - Wang
Wednesday - Mussina
Thursday - Hughes
Friday - Pettitte
Saturday - Kennedy

The next pitching modifier should include Ross Ohlendorf contributing in the later innings and not wasting his arm in the longman/mop-up role.

Probably A Bad Idea Anyway

A Kansas City minor league team canceled an upcoming promotional night which would take the form of a Michael Vick Welcome Home party.

No dogs allowed:

The Kansas City T-Bones of the Northern League had planned to have a Michael Vick "Welcome to the Neighborhood" night May 28, complete with prison uniforms, spotlights and escape sirens. Other events promoting caring for animals also were planned.

Vick, the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback, is serving a 23-month sentence at the U.S. Penitentiary in nearby Leavenworth after pleading guilty to federal charges related to dogfighting.

I love the excuse the general manager gives for the event:

"It was not our intent to be culturally insensitive," T-Bones general manager Rick Muntean said. "We simply wanted to raise awareness for what we think are great causes."

Gammons & His Sawx Pom-Poms

I mean please, Mr. Diamond Notes, please.

How could Kyle Farnsworth have the gall to throw a wild up-and-in fastball on Manny Ramirez? What a travesty. [ed. note, Gammons does not remember Pedro Martinez hitting Jeter, Soriano, etc 1000 times] I was at the game last night, and Farnsworth's chin-music was probably the most enjoyable moment of the night - aside from the two runs off Papelbon.

And please recall Wednesday night's game in which Alex Rodriguez was hit, not buzzed, by a Aardsma fastball. Where was Gammons on that one? Ah, life through rose-colored glasses, eh Pete.

Joba To Miss Another Game

Harlan Chamberlain is feeling better and is now breathing on his own without the assistance of a ventilator. Along with this great piece of news, Joba Chamberlain revealed he would miss another game tonight:

Joba Chamberlain's father is breathing on his own and feeling better, no longer needing a ventilator but still in critical condition and awaiting more tests.

Chamberlain was to miss his fifth consecutive game Friday night while attending to his stricken father in Nebraska. The hard-throwing reliever left the New York Yankees on Monday and was placed on the bereavement list, a day after Harlan Chamberlain collapsed at home.

"After several difficult days, my father is feeling much better," Chamberlain said in a statement issued by the team from Baltimore, where the Yankees were to play the Orioles Friday night. "He is still in the critical care unit of the hospital and more tests await him, but he is off the ventilator and breathing on his own. Each day he's acting more and more like himself, and he's even giving people grief -- myself included -- because the hospital doesn't carry Yankees games on television."

The Yankees aren't sure when their setup man will rejoin the team.

Ed Wade: Worst GM Ever?

Ed Wade not only had the gall to acquire PED suspect Miguel Tejada a day before his name was inked within the damning pages of the Mitchell Report. According to multiple reports, Wade has now just learned Tejada is two years older than when the GM originally traded for him this offseason.

The Houston Astros shortstop told the Oakland Athletics when he was signed out of the Dominican Republic in 1993 that he was 17. But he was actually 19, meaning he is now 33, two years older than his listed age in the Astros' media guide and other baseball records.

Kind of like the time Texas traded Alex Rodriguez for Alfonso Soriano only to find he was 28 years old, two years older than his listed birthdate. Then again, Soriano wasn't a juicer and was still five years younger than Tejada was when Wade brilliantly pulled the trigger. Genius.

Pavano Is A #1 Starter . . .

. . that is, if you believe his agent Tom O'Connell:

"Carl’s a 1-2 starter,” O’Connell said. “Those guys don’t grow on trees. Those guys are very rare, 200-inning guys are very rare in this game, and they’re the ones that make the money. And he did it two years in a row, before he got hurt, and I’m sure he’s going to do it again."

By "do it again," did O'Connell mean get hurt or make the money. I would have to assume he meant both.

Trenton Report: The Untouchables

I covered yesterday's Trenton Thunder vs. Altoona Curve game for an online magazine in order to sit down with starting pitcher Daniel McCutchen. Though he pitched Tuesday night - 7 scoreless innings - and carried his team to a 4-0 victory, I was able to closely observe two of the Yankees top three prospects in action.

Pardon the pun.

During this particular game, the plate discipline that Austin Jackson and Jose Tabata exhibited was far more advanced than I had expected. Remember the twosome are 21 and 19 years old respectively. And Jackson's speed may not be elite, but there is an ease and grace to his steps that make him look even faster than he already is - which is pretty damn fast.

Tabata looked incredibly comfortable in the box, and though he wasn't facing Clayton Kershaw or Rick Porcello, his ability to take a pitch on the outside corner and mash it into rightfield is a skillset which will carry over into the big leagues. [As will the apparent clutchness Tabata's shown throughout the minor leagues.]

Two out of the three times A-Jax got aboard [2-4 with a walk] in yesterday's game, Tabata followed him up by taking the outside pitch and lacing it deep into the right field corner. Both times, Jackson scored standing up all the way from first base.

In a mere two different at-bats, both Tabata's and Jackson's strengths were highlighted. Tabata's brute strength with the stick [those doubles could become homers as his body matures] met with Jackson's on-base ability and stealth around the base paths.

In the field, there was little to be determined as the only balls Jackson fielded were either can-o-corn high flies or basehits which could not have possibly been caught. Tabata was not tested very much either, though he did show a bout of a laziness on an Altoona double triple down the line. While in pursuit of the baseball in the right field corner, Tabata was noticeably slow to recover and get the ball back into the infield. As a result, Yankees scouts cringed and a double became a triple.

Inside The Mind of the Wanger

SI.com had a very entertaining feature on Chien-Ming Wang published yesterday - the piece is more human interest than baseball analytic - which chronicles the meteoric rise from Yankee starter to national phenomenon in his native Taiwan.

Stories of his adoptive parents and humble beginnings are somewhat well-known, but here are some more intriguing bits:

After his rookie season Wang returned home to a hero's welcome, receiving an invitation to meet President Chen Shui-Bian. By the time Wang returned home after the 2006 season, in which he went 19-6 with a 3.63 ERA and finished second in American League Cy Young voting, he was more popular than the president. "There's no question that he has more impact than anyone else in our country," says Shao. "The way we look at it, a president is in office for no more than eight years, then someone else comes along. Wang, he's everlasting."

Now Taiwan's major newspapers charge a higher advertising rate for issues published on a day that Wang pitches, as well as the day after each start. The country's largest circulation daily, Apple Daily, estimates that it sells as many as 300,000 extra papers on days that carry reports of another Wang victory. Endorsements that have come Wang's way include McDonald's, Ford, E Sun Bank (one of the largest in Taiwan) and computer-maker Acer, which claims that Wang's name alone has increased its product sales by 10% and lowered the average age of its consumer by almost four years.

Last year a study in a Taiwanese business journal, Money Weekly, found a correlation between Wang's pitching performances and the fluctuations of the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The report attributed a 25% index rise last summer to Wang's strong June and July. "We absolutely believe it to be true," Shao says of the relationship between Wang's performance and last summer's bull market. "Psychologically, how [Wang] does has a huge effect on the Taiwanese people. If he does well, people are in a good mood, and they go out and spend money. If he doesn't, you walk around and you can see people depressed. It's a very personal matter to the Taiwanese people." (For the record, the country's stock index was up roughly 6%, through Monday, since Wang's first start this season, on April 1.)

In their coverage of pop stars and politicians, the Taiwanese papers can be as cruel as the New York tabloids; when it comes to [Wang], they generally do not pry into his personal life.

"The [Taiwanese] media, they know about this image. They could write about the expensive jewelry he buys, but they don't. They don't want to hurt the image."

And you thought Britney and Paris had to deal with scrutiny. Wang's pitching habits may impact Taiwan's national economy, but our "celebrities" can drink, fornicate, rehab and spiral downward like none other.

Hawkins Surrenders #21, Dignity

I am Paul O'Neill's smirking revenge.

LaTroy Hawkins has come to his senses:

Tired of receiving flak for wearing a number last used by Paul O’Neill, the Yankees’ LaTroy Hawkins has decided to surrender his No. 21 before the club opens a two-game series against the Red Sox on Wednesday.

...Hawkins wore No. 22 with the Yankees during Spring Training, but switched to No. 21 when infielder Morgan Ensberg decided he no longer wanted to wear it. Ensberg was randomly assigned the number upon reporting to camp as a non-roster invitee and later revealed that he received numerous vulgar comments from Yankees fans during the Grapefruit League campaign.

Hawkins eagerly accepted No. 21 as a tribute to Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente but quickly learned that a pinstriped No. 21 has other meanings for Yankees fans. Unaware he was donning a number that had not been worn since O’Neill retired following the 2001 World Series, Hawkins was booed when introduced on Opening Day at Yankee Stadium. Fans chanted “Paul O’Neill” during one of his appearances in the Bronx.

According to CBSSports.com, Hawkins made the decision after discussions with Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and other Yankees veterans, who told Hawkins that the number is not worth the headache it’s causing.

“I figure if it’s important enough for Jeter and Mariano and some other veterans to ask me about it, it’s not worth it to keep wearing the number,” Hawkins told the Web site.

Mets Fan Dead After Falling From Stands

It's amazing this doesn't happen more often:

A man attending a New York Mets game with his family lost his balance on an escalator and fell two stories to his death, police said.

Antonio Nararainsami, 36, and several relatives, including his two young daughters, were leaving the stadium at the end of Tuesday night’s game against the Washington Nationals when he fell in a section below the left field stands and landed on a concrete floor. Nararainsami, a Guyanese native who lived in Brooklyn, was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead half an hour later.

Schilling: Doc 'Misremembers'

Mr. Schilling is in scrambling, damage-control mode and has taken the Roger Clemens approach. This, of course, is an approach which worked so well for the Rocket during the confession at Capitol Hill.

"He's at a distance. And, again, Craig is a friend, a very close friend, always will be," Schilling said. "But I've talked to him probably 3-4 times since January. So I'm not sure he's been kept abreast of the facts, and the conversation that, I'm not really sure what conversation he's referring to with regards to a couple of different comments that he made, but the Yankee piece, there's some misinformation going on, and I can remember us having a conversation and laughing about coming back and pitching next year ..."

"The first word that popped into my head, is a word that I think is new to the English language, but everybody understands what it means is 'misrember'. I talked to doc probably within the last week. He's called me a couple of times during my rehab, but I'm not really sure how he got to some of the conclusions he got to."

Maybe the good doctor was sick of hearing you whine about Boston's gameplan and dropped a dime on dat @$$.

Schilling Fed Up With Sox,Would Sign With Yanks

That is, if the Yankees had an iota of interest in a 40 year-old starting pitcher whose shoulder is being held together by a few strands of spaghetti. Maybe he meant signing with the Scranton Yanks, that would be poetic.

This latest Curt Schilling cry for attention comes thanks to the pitcher's physician who spoke to a Philadelphia radio station.

Q: "Is it your opinion that he will not be back pitching for the Red Sox this year?"

A: "Correct. ... Not only that, it's my opinion that he's angry enough that it's entirely conceivable, even though he's 40 years old, its entirely conceivable that he will have the operation, rehab and pitch for the Yankees next year. That's what he wants to do. I'm telling you."

No response from Red Light himself as it remains all quiet on the 38 pitches front. Then again, it's hard to believe the doctor was not simply speaking on his behalf. Classy move.