No Touching! Rangers-Yanks Gamer II

Gob: "Yeah, like I'm going to take a whiz through this $5,000 suit. Come on."

Tonight, it's Goba Joba attempting to get the Yankees back on track while the Texas sends Kevin Millwood. Joba has come pretty close to matching the high expectations of his ridiculous exposure and billing. The problem is, the pitching wasn't the issue last night; Moose was great, but a Posada double and Giambi triple (??) went for naught. I don't know how much uniforms cost, but last night the only bat to do any heavy lifting against the dismal Texas staff was that of Alex Rodriguez, who tied Jimmie Foxx on the all time list with his 534th round rap. I suppose when Alex comes to the plate, there's always a runner in scoring position.

Lineups follow, comment away.

Texas
I. Kinsler 2b	.321
M. Young ss	.285
J. Hamilton rf	.312
M. Bradley dh	.318
D. Murphy lf	.270
M. Byrd cf	.245
C. Davis 1b	.333
J. Saltalamacchia c	.215
R. Vazquez 3b	.320
K. Millwood	5.08
NY Yankees
J. Damon dh	.315
B. Gardner lf	.000
B. Abreu rf	.283
A. Rodriguez 3b	.322
J. Giambi 1b	.263
J. Posada c	.286
R. Cano 2b	.242
W. Betemit ss	.266
M. Cabrera cf	.244
J. Chamberlain	2.03

Comments

[Sam-YF]

Just got home.
yanks down 2-0 in the 4th now.
Joba seems to be dealing but the offense decided to take the day off again so far. 2 doubles by damon have been wasted. Girardi had Gardner bunting in the 1st inning again. Nothing like throwing away an early out against a pitcher with a 5+ ERA. Nice strategy.

[John - YF]

Joba was not sharp early, but now that he has thrown 80 plus pitches he seems to be settling in. The offense is most definitely struggling, but what can you do.

Kinsler is unreal.

[Sam-YF]

Nice RBI single for Cano. good to see his bat coming alive a bit.

[Sam-YF]

As PeteAbe just pointed out, the yankees bunted in the first inning but they dont bunt after getting a lead off single in the 9th when down a run.

This was bad managing by Girardi, pure and simple.

[IronHorse (yf)]

Our hitting with RISP is atrocious - it is .251 on the year but it has got to be half that or worse over the past 2-3 weeks.

Girardi not bunting Melky in the 9th was inexcusable. I give Kay - who I normally hate - credit for pointing out just what a terrible managerial non-move that was and not pulling any punches.

Finally, Jorge, who I love, is clearly a compelte zero when it comes to throwing runners out now. The uber-speedy Kinsler's success (22 for 23 in SBs this year, including 3 for 3 tonight) is not necessarily proof of that, but even on strong pitches to throw on, his aim is way off and the ball is late and sailing.

Bright spot of the game: Roberston's gutsy appearance out of the pen.

8 games back in the loss column is - well - bad.

[Atheose]

Not sure where to post this, but:

http://www.fannation.com/truth_and_rumors/view/56011

ARod is boning Madonna.

[Atheose]

That link uses Aristotelian logic to connect ARod to steroids (Madonna slept with Jose Canseco, Madonna is now sleeping with ARod, therefore ARod does steroids!) but that's a pretty baseless connection. But the fact that ARod is sleeping with Madonna is certainly interesting.

[Atheose]

Sorry, here's the original article, courtesy of the New York Daily News.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2008/07/01/2008-07-01_as_much_as_anything_arod_is_drama.html

[Lar]

No Touching? More like no hitting..

[A YF]

Great roundup of every move Cashman has ever made:

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/files/new_york_yankees_brian_cashman.xls

Wow, in-between the salary dumps (Knoblauch, Clemens, A-Rod, Abreu) there are some real stinkers. Pretty unimpressive, if you ask me.

Here's Epstein:

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/files/boston_red_sox_theo_epstein.xls

[attackgerbil]

> No Touching? More like no hitting..

Yeah, that's what I was aiming for with the title. I'm sick that it was sooth. No hitting. Another non-save loss by Mo. This has been a tough couple weeks to watch this team. At least Cano got in a couple of good cuts.