Washington Nationals reportedly agree to a contract with former Yankee Chien-Ming Wang

By Chico Harlan

Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Throughout the first portion of the offseason, the Washington Nationals remodeled their team by signing a half-dozen free agents, each serving a particular purpose and place. But the Nationals, on Tuesday, opted for a far different strategy in making what is likely their final major move of the winter, signing a pitcher whose payoff is hard to project and tantalizing to imagine.

Chien-Ming Wang is less a purchase than a gamble. The former New York Yankees ace, now trying to recover from shoulder surgery, agreed to a contract with the Nationals on Tuesday, according to a team source. Wang will earn $2 million in 2010 and can earn up to $3 million in incentives. He has already passed a physical.

Washington plans to announce the signing at a news conference Friday at its spring training headquarters in Viera, Fla., stamping the official pitcher-catcher report date with a celebrated arrival.

But predicting Wang's role with Washington beyond that requires some guesswork.

If the right-hander regains his form, he becomes a relative bargain. No pitchers in the organization can match his track record, after all. Between 2006 and 2007, no pitcher in baseball won more games than Wang (38). The sinkerball specialist, who turns 30 on March 31, has a lifetime 55-26 record and a 4.16 ERA.

During the last two seasons, though, Wang lost his stature as a front-line starter. He had trouble staying on the mound, problems equally attributable to injuries and opposing batters. In June 2008, he tore a tendon in his right foot and missed the rest of the season. In 2009, he made an early trip to the disabled list because of weakness in a hip abductor muscle. Then came right shoulder surgery, performed in late July by orthopedist James Andrews.

The Yankees non-tendered Wang in December, following a season in which he earned $5 million but pitched just 12 games, going 1-6 with a 9.64 ERA.

Barring any injury setbacks, Wang could be ready to take the mound -- presumably in a minor league rehab stint -- in May. His condition, and his ability to regain his pitching touch after the shoulder procedure -- one of the harder tasks for a pitcher -- will foretell much about the competence of Washington's starting rotation.

As it stands now, the Nationals will search during spring training from a group of five or six unestablished starters to fill the last spot or two of their rotation.

But a healthy Wang, Manager Jim Riggleman said, "gives us the opportunity to add a pitcher in May or June and it's like, 'Wow, it almost feels like we just made a great [midseason] trade.' "

Riggleman, speaking Tuesday afternoon, qualified his comments on Wang by saying that he hadn't been officially told of the signing. He had only read media reports. Still, Riggleman recalled seeing Wang from the opposing dugout in 2008 as Seattle's bench coach, where he heard Mariners hitters marvel at Wang's best pitch.

"I know the comments that our hitters would make about him -- the quality of his sinker," Riggleman said. "Not only does his ball sink, he throws very hard. Just really, at that point in his career, hitters were saying it was like hitting a bowling ball."

Although Wang received a one-year contract, the Nationals, if they choose, own his rights through 2011. Next winter, the Nationals can either renegotiate a contract with Wang or use the arbitration process to determine his salary. Or, of course, they can non-tender the pitcher, again returning him to the free agent market.

In some ways, Wang already fits the Washington-pitching profile. The Nationals have assembled a cadre of starters -- Jason Marquis and John Lannan, in particular -- that depends on groundball outs as much as any staff in the league. At his best, Wang is a groundball pitcher with few peers. Within the last 10 years, only six starting pitchers have recorded single seasons with groundball-to-flyball ratios higher than 3 to 1. Wang did that in 2006, when his grounder-to-flyout ratio was 3.06.

"At his best," said Washington reliever Brian Bruney, a teammate of Wang's in New York, "he's a guy that is gonna give you a run for the Cy Young every year; that's how good his stuff is. And hopefully that's the Wanger we're getting. Because that would be a good addition to any ballclub."

Nationals notes: As a corresponding 40-man roster move to the recent signing of second baseman Adam Kennedy, the Nationals designated left-handed pitcher Doug Slaten for assignment. . . .

Bruney had his arbitration hearing Tuesday in St. Petersburg, Fla., where he asked for a $1.85 million salary for 2010. The Nats argued that Bruney should earn $1.5 million. The three-person panel is expected to hand out its decision on Wednesday. Bruney, acquired in an offseason trade from the Yankees, earned $1.25 million last season, when he went 5-0 with a 3.92 ERA in 44 appearances. Relief pitcher Sean Burnett is the other Washington player with an unresolved arbitration case. He's scheduled to appear before a panel on Thursday.

Yankees Find Winning Formula and Shut Down the Angels in Game 1

Alex Rodriguez ran over Los Angeles Angels catcher Jeff Mathis while trying to score in the 5th inning. He was tagged out.

By TYLER KEPNER
Published: October 16, 2009

The American League Championship Series arrived at Yankee Stadium on Friday with the icy blast of mid-winter and the blazing heat of C. C. Sabathia. The go-go Los Angeles Angels might as well have worn snowshoes. They hardly used their spikes.

There were no base-running high jinks by the Angels, no first-to-third dashes, no daring leads, no stolen bases. Sabathia kept them stuck in their tracks for eight innings of a 4-1 Yankees victory, allowing four hits and striking out seven with a walk. He has done precisely what the Yankees wanted when they made him the centerpiece to their off-season, winning the opening game of the division series and now of the A.L.C.S.

The Yankees looked more like the Angels than the Angels did. They challenged outfielders on the bases, played flawless defense and collected timely hits. There were no home runs on a wind-whipped night, just resourceful hitting and the knack for capitalizing on mistakes by the Angels.

The Angels earned a chance at the World Series partly because they made just 85 errors in the regular season, a franchise low. But they made three in Game 1, leading to two unearned runs off starter John Lackey.

Sabathia matched his reputation in the first inning, and the Angels upended theirs. Sabathia makes a living pounding the strike zone, and that is what he did. But the Angels, who have a reputation for not making mistakes, cost themselves on defense.

Most pitchers try to attack the zone, but few have the stuff to do it as confidently as Sabathia. He came out pitching fearlessly to the Angels, with 12 strikes out of 15 pitches in the first. Each of the first three hitters faced an 0-2 count, and Bobby Abreu struck out looking on a slider.

The Angels helped the Yankees in the bottom of the inning. Derek Jeter won an eight-pitch duel with Lackey, smacking a leadoff single to right, and then Lackey sawed Johnny Damon’s bat. But Damon got enough of the ball to flick it down the left field line, taking second when Juan Rivera’s throw sailed to the middle of the infield for an error.

With runners at second and third, Alex Rodriguez drove in Jeter with a one-out sacrifice fly to center. Lackey would have been out of the inning a batter later, but Hideki Matsui’s pop up landed just past the infield dirt, between shortstop Erick Aybar and third baseman Chone Figgins.

It seemed as if nobody called for it, and in any case, Aybar wore a ski mask that covered his ears. He and Figgins looked at each other a moment before the ball thudded to earth, and it must have been a miserable helpless feeling: there was nothing to do but pick it up as Damon scored the second run.

Lackey seethed as he watched the play, letting loose what seemed to be a roar of frustration. It was hard to blame him: a 2-0 hole was a lot on a frigid night with Sabathia on his game.

He struck out Kendry Morales on a changeup in the second inning, and got Figgins and Abreu looking on 94 mile-an-hour four-seamers in the third. In just three innings, against a contact-hitting team, Sabathia had registered strikeouts with his changeup, slider and fastball.

The weather helped Sabathia in the fourth, but only momentarily. With one out, Vladimir Guerrero reached down and punished a slider to left center. Off the bat, it had the trajectory and the sound of a home run, but the flags above left field told a different story. They blew straight in, and the wind knocked the ball to the warning track.

Guerrero pulled his creaky body into second with a double, and he scored with two outs on a single by Morales. It was the last base runner Sabathia allowed until the seventh, when he had a 4-1 lead.

Damon, who was 1 for 12 in the division series, led off the Yankees’ fifth with a double to left center. After Rodriguez walked with one out, Matsui drove a double — a legitimate hit, this time — to left. Damon scored easily and Rodriguez motored around third.

With his surgically repaired hip, Rodriguez has been less likely to take extra bases this season. But he has been off for four days, and must have felt spry enough to challenge the arms of Rivera and Aybar. He ended in a heap at the plate with catcher Jeff Mathis, who lost his helmet and mask in the collision, but not the ball.

Even in making an out, though, Rodriguez had taken the Angels’ game to them, with daring and aggressive base running. There was more of the same in the sixth, when it seemed as if the Angels, not the Yankees, were the ones on the bases.

With two out and nobody on, Lackey walked Melky Cabrera for the second time. Cabrera had drawn two walks in just one of his last 65 games, and despite playing center field, he is not much of a stolen-base threat.

Yet he concerned Lackey enough to prompt a pickoff throw, which spun away from Morales at first for an error. Cabrera took second, and scored the Yankees’ second unearned run when Jeter blistered a single up the middle. For good measure, the hit bounced off Torii Hunter’s glove for another error.

Lackey was finished after 114 pitches and five and two-thirds innings. Sabathia, meanwhile, had just 80 pitches through six. Strong defense kept his pitch count low.

In the sixth, Damon slid to rob Abreu of a hit and Sabathia nimbly grabbed Hunter’s bunt and threw him out him at first. Hunter and Manager Mike Scioscia argued, to no avail, that Mark Teixeira’s foot had come off the bag.

In the seventh, after a walk to Morales, Cano dove to his left to corral a grounder by Howie Kendrick. Sabathia followed by striking out the pinch-hitter Mike Napoli on a changeup, and he exulted on the mound, pumping his fist and shouting.

It was the kind of reaction a pitcher might have at the end of a postseason series, just before his joyous teammates swarm him in a dog pile. This series is just beginning, but unless the Angels find themselves, it will not last very long.

News source：http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/17/sports/baseball/17yankees.html?_r=1&ref=sports

Yankees Take Opener According to Plan

Yankees 7, Twins 2

By TYLER KEPNER

Published: October 7, 2009

The Yankees’ old shrine still stands on 161st Street in the Bronx, dark and cold and gutted. The October games that made it so famous have moved across the street, where the new Yankee Stadium hosted its first playoff game in style Wednesday night.

The bright lights twinkled above the signature frieze, and three decks of seats thumped on a night when nearly everything went perfectly for the Yankees. They snuffed the Minnesota Twins, 7-2, in the first game of their division series, benefiting from the kind of shutdown pitching they have lacked in October for much of this decade.

The Yankees scripted this after missing the playoffs last season. They signed C. C. Sabathia to be their ace, to overwhelm hitters when he had to. They nurtured and kept homegrown arms like Phil Hughes, Phil Coke and Joba Chamberlain. And they hoped that Mariano Rivera, as ever, would throttle their opponents.

It all happened Wednesday, when Sabathia struck out eight and allowed one earned run over six and two-thirds innings, and the bullpen blanked the Twins. Derek Jeter jolted the offense with a two-run homer in the third, and Alex Rodriguez shook his playoff slump with two run-scoring singles.

Every Yankees batter had a hit or a run except Mark Teixeira, and it added up to something the Yankees could not do against the Twins in their two prior playoff meetings. In 2003 and 2004, Minnesota won the first game at Yankee Stadium, only to lose the next three.

The Twins had won the American League Central crown in 12 innings Tuesday, beating Detroit in a playoff and arriving at their Manhattan hotel at 3:50 a.m. on Wednesday. But there were no real signs of fatigue: in fact, they scored first.

This is the third postseason in a row for Sabathia, with his third team. In 2007, he lost his last two starts for the Cleveland Indians, who fell a game short of the World Series. Last fall in Philadelphia, he was knocked out in the third inning of his only playoff start for Milwaukee.

Sabathia said those failures motivated him, and after giving up a leadoff double, he did what the Yankees pay him $23 million a year to do, generating strikeouts with runners in scoring position. He fanned Orlando Cabrera and Joe Mauer with sliders, and a flyout ended the first.

Included in that inning, though, was a danger sign. Jorge Posada is baseball’s career leader in postseason games as a catcher, but he looked crossed up with Sabathia on a passed ball. Two innings later, it happened again and cost the Yankees a run.

A single by Cabrera and a double by Mauer put two runners on for Michael Cuddyer, who singled to right for a run. Then Posada missed Sabathia’s first pitch to Jason Kubel, and glared at Sabathia as he trotted to retrieve it.

Everyone involved seemed confused: Mauer stopped in his tracks between third and home, and Sabathia stopped before covering the plate. Sensing an opening, perhaps, Mauer dashed home and slid in for a two-run lead. It was charged as another passed ball, making Posada the first catcher in 10 years with two passed balls in a first-round game.

To that point, the Twins rookie starter Brian Duensing, 25, had retired six Yankees in a row. Duensing, a teammate of Chamberlain’s at the University of Nebraska, had never been to New York. He was having a fine time until meeting a local landmark in the third.

With one out and one on, Jeter curled a hanging off-speed pitch down the left-field line for a homer. It was Jeter’s 18th in the postseason, as many as Mickey Mantle and Reggie Jackson, and it tied the game, 2-2.

Rodriguez, who had ended the first inning with a lazy pop-up to right, ended the third with a strikeout. That made 40 consecutive runners Rodriguez had stranded in the postseason, a streak of futility that dated to 2004.

The rest of the Yankees were hitting Duensing harder their second time through the order, and with two out and a runner on first in the fourth, Nick Swisher blistered a double down the left-field line to score Robinson Cano.

With two out in the fifth and Jeter at second after Duensing’s first walk, the Twins decided to pitch to Rodriguez with the left-handed Hideki Matsui on deck, but Duensing was not careful.

Duensing challenged him with a first-pitch fastball, and Rodriguez hammered it to left-center. He had finally broken through.

Jeter came in, Duensing went out, and reliever Francisco Liriano grooved a fastball to Matsui, who crushed it into Monument Park in straightaway center for a two-run homer and a 6-2 lead.

Up by four runs, the Yankees cruised. Twins Manager Ron Gardenhire had called his team scrappy before the game, a style that serves the Twins well every season. But more power would have been useful on Wednesday, to make up the deficit quickly, and the Twins did not have it.

Sabathia retired Mauer on a groundout with a man on second to end the fifth, and he needed just eight pitches in a 1-2-3 sixth. He issued his only walk with one out in the seventh, then deflected a bouncer off his shin that might have been an inning-ending double-play ball.

With his pitch count rising, Sabathia lasted one more batter, getting Denard Span to fly to right. Swisher, who worked on his throws this season so he would not be lifted for defense late in games, fired a strike to the plate. It kept the runner at third, and Swisher pumped his fist in delight.

Joe Girardi came to the mound to remove Sabathia after 113 pitches. Sabathia had made just the fifth quality start (minimum six innings, maximum three earned runs) for the Yankees in their last 18 postseason games, and the fans saluted him with cheers. They had longed for such playoff dominance again, and they appreciated it.

Sabathia lifted his cap on his way to the dugout, basking in the first October standing ovation in his new team’s new home. If the Yankees keep playing like this, there will be many more.

News source：http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/sports/baseball/08yankees.html?_r=1&hp

Matsui Makes Sure Ejections Don’t Stop Yankees

By BEN SHPIGEL
Published: September 13, 2009

Even teams 40 games over .500 are not immune to frustration. Witness the fifth inning Sunday, when the Yankees — piqued after two consecutive losses and engaged in a tie game loaded with missed opportunities — watched the ejections of their cleanup hitter and manager in quick succession.

“That’s a big bat out of our lineup,” Manager Joe Girardi said of Alex Rodriguez, “and we’re fighting for a lot of different things down the stretch here.”

Their release came in the form of a 13-3 romp over the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees pulled away in the eighth inning with an eight-run rally fueled by Hideki Matsui’s three-run homer. C. C. Sabathia worked seven sturdy innings, improving to 6-0 with a 2.01 earned run average in his last eight starts, and Melky Cabrera drove in four runs to help the Yankees restore order and avoid a three-game sweep.

Such an occurrence, however rare, would have posed no danger to their goals, immediate or long term. At 92-52, they hold comfortable leads over Boston in the American League East and over the Los Angeles Angels, who visit the Stadium on Monday for a makeup game, in the race for home-field advantage throughout the A.L. playoffs.

But the prospect of losing three straight — and to the lowly Orioles, no less — revolted them, which is why a steely-eyed Matsui, through an interpreter, said afterward, “Winning today’s game was pretty important.”

The Yankees battered Orioles starter Jeremy Guthrie and a parade of relievers for 20 hits and 12 straight runs, the first two coming in the fourth inning, which ended with Rodriguez striking out looking with the bases loaded. Rodriguez was furious with the call, flipping his bat, and expressed his displeasure with the plate umpire Marty Foster.

As for what happened next, there were conflicting viewpoints. Rodriguez said that he was initially upset with Foster’s call, but that he was more displeased that Foster maintained a conversation with Baltimore catcher Chad Moeller throughout his at-bat. Before the Yankees batted, Rodriguez went into their video room to see the location of the contentious pitch, an outside changeup — “still a ball,” he said — but said he did not discuss it again with Foster. He said he told Foster to “just keep talking to Moeller.”

As for Foster, he said that Rodriguez did not stop challenging him, arguing from third base, then again from the dugout. “I let him go, I let him go, but there has to be an end of it,” Foster told a pool reporter. “I can’t let him argue with me all day.”

Foster tossed Rodriguez, his first ejection since July 24, 2004.

“For him to take it into his own hands, with no warning, I thought was very unprofessional,” Rodriguez said.

Girardi stormed out of the dugout. He did not last long. Girardi tossed his cap and continued to argue just a few inches from Foster. Girardi gestured as if he were throwing out Foster and had to be restrained, an eruption that may earn punishment from the commissioner’s office. They have a history dating to July 6, when Foster ejected Girardi, who was defending Derek Jeter after a close and controversial call at third base.

“I don’t know what his deal is with the Yankees,” Rodriguez said of Foster.

The Yankees’ outburst went on without Rodriguez, with his temporary replacement at third base, Eric Hinske, playing a pivotal role in their go-ahead sixth. Hinske drew a two-out walk to load the bases and bring up Matsui, who ripped a liner into right field that drove in Jeter and Johnny Damon. For Jeter, who had three hits, it was the 100th run he scored this season. That is 12 straight seasons with at least 100 runs. In that category at least, Lou Gehrig (13), still has him beat.

Sabathia overcame a rough start and a mental lapse from Damon to pitch into the seventh inning for the ninth straight time. As indispensable as Sabathia has been this season — his 17 wins lead the A.L. — he is particularly valuable when pitching the day after Yankees losses. They are 5-0 in those last five starts.

“This was tough,” said Sabathia, who only struck out one, his fewest since June 21 at Florida. “I didn’t really have the command and stuff that I’ve had the past about a month and half.”

Even afterward, Damon was apologetic, embarrassed that he forgot how many outs there were in the fourth inning. After catching Jeff Fiorentino’s fly, Damon, believing the inning was over, turned around as if to toss the ball into the stands. He quickly realized his mistake, throwing the ball in to Jeter, but Justin Turner had tagged up from second and scored what was the Orioles’ final run.

“It’s happened to me a few too many times playing this game,” Damon said. “I’m just glad we won.”

News source：http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/sports/baseball/14yankees.html?_r=1&ref=baseball

Burnett’s One Bad Inning Dooms Yankees

By BEN SHPIGEL

Published: September 12, 2009

Derek Jeter played shortstop and batted leadoff for the Yankees on Saturday afternoon, as if there was ever a doubt. The day after he surpassed Lou Gehrig to become the franchise’s career hits leader, in a rain-delayed game that ended at 1:28 a.m., Manager Joe Girardi quashed the notion of giving him a mental or physical break. If the Yankees are playing, so is Jeter, their paragon of consistency.

On the other end of that spectrum is A. J. Burnett, who combusted in the second inning of the Yankees’ 7-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium. A fresh batch of fans had barely finished standing and applauding Jeter, who padded his total by leading off with a single and later scoring, when Burnett gave back that lead by allowing six runs.

Brian Roberts capped the outburst with a grand slam that landed in the Yankees’ bullpen in right-center field, where Josh Towers was hastily warming up. Towers did eventually succeed Burnett, but not until the eighth inning. Burnett finished by retiring 17 of the final 19 batters he faced, including eight straight after Roberts’s slam.

But his tendency to throw “one bad pitch,” as he called that down-and-in sinker to Roberts, and have one bad inning is what concerns the Yankees as they steam toward the American League East title and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

“You do want him to get on a roll,” Girardi said. “It’s important for us.”

Despite losing two consecutive games for the first time in almost a month, the Yankees (91-52) have little to worry about aside from manipulating their rotation for the playoffs. Starting C. C. Sabathia in the division series opener is a near-lock, meaning that for Game 2, Girardi would choose between Andy Pettitte (5-1, 3.06 earned run average in 11 starts since the All-Star break) and Burnett, who has pitched well at times but rarely throughout an entire game.

In eight starts between June 14 and July 27, Burnett was 6-1 with a 1.68 E.R.A. In his last nine starts, he is 1-5 with a 6.14 E.R.A.

Jose Molina, who caught Burnett on Saturday, speculated that he might be tired but quickly added that he had not seen any evidence.

“That’s a question that a lot of people are going to ask, if he’s tired or worn down, but I don’t think he needs a rest, I think he’s 100 percent,” Molina said. “To me, it seems like he’s battling all the time. It just happens to be that way and he’s on a bad roll.”

Compared with other A.L. teams, the Orioles do not hit many home runs — they entered Saturday tied for 11th among 14 teams — and had not hit one since last Saturday, a stretch of 42 2/3 innings, before Nolan Reimold led off the second inning by clobbering a fastball into the seats in left-center.

A one-out walk to Matt Wieters preceded three consecutive singles, the last, by Robert Andino, driving in Wieters to nudge the Orioles ahead, 2-1. After Roberts’s slam, three of Burnett’s next five outs were deep drives caught on the warning track.

“No, I’m not concerned, man,” Burnett said, adding: “I’m not looking at what’s in front of this team. I’m looking to my next start.”

By giving up two home runs Saturday, Burnett has allowed a career-high 24, including 9 over his last seven starts. The hitter-friendly dimensions at Yankee Stadium have hardly been a factor, as he has surrendered 13 homers over 15 home starts compared with 11 in 14 starts on the road.

“There’s a lot of little things you have to do to be successful,” Girardi said. “Sometimes, if you don’t do one of them, you can get away with it. If you don’t do a couple of them, it’s hard to get away with it.”

Brian Matusz, the Orioles’ rookie left-hander making what may have been his final start of the season, allowed four hits while silencing the Yankees over seven innings. Baltimore does not want to overtax the 22-year-old Matusz, one of its prized pitching prospects, in his first full professional season. He has pitched 157 2/3 innings in the majors and the minors.

The Yankees have some history of being humbled by pitchers they have never faced before — Fernando Nieve, Craig Stammen, Doug Fister, for example. They will see a lot more of Chris Tillman, who struck out eight in five innings Friday, and Matusz, and they did not sound excited.

“What did we have? Four hits on him?” Jeter said. “They were just scattered. He was never really in trouble.”

Neither are the Yankees, who scored twice in the ninth off Jim Johnson. But their final three weeks would feel a little less like an anticlimax if Burnett had not thrown one bad pitch, in one bad inning.

INSIDE PITCH

Johnny Damon missed his second consecutive game because of a sore hamstring and lower back, but Joe Girardi said he expected him to start Sunday.

News source：http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/sports/baseball/13yankees.html?ref=baseball

Even in Class A, Posada and Pettitte Sensed What Was to Come With Jeter

By JACK CURRY

Published: September 12, 2009

He was an 18-year-old shortstop from Kalamazoo, Mich., a first-round draft choice who wore his cap tilted back on his head and who looked as if he needed to gain 25 pounds. When he showed up to play with the Yankees’ Class A affiliate in Greensboro, N.C., in 1992, Derek Jeter was a curiosity to some teammates.

Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte were on that team and they remembered when they first saw the 156-pound kid who was supposed to become a great Yankee. So this skinny shortstop is the next star? It did not take long before Posada and Pettitte understood why Jeter was not the same as the other minor leaguers.

“Nothing really surprises me when it comes to Derek Jeter,” Posada said.

On the night when Jeter slapped a single to right field — where else? — to surpass Lou Gehrig on the Yankees’ career hits list, players like Posada and Pettitte spoke about Jeter with a mixture of appreciation and awe.

As Jeter pursued Gehrig and each of his at-bats turned into an event, it was obvious that his teammates, especially his longtime teammates, relished riding in the back seat. Pettitte said that Jeter always had “a lot of class and a lot of charisma” and carried himself differently, something that did not change as he boosted his hits total to 2,723.

“We were so young and started this run off at a young age,” Pettitte said. “Again, you knew that he was special.”

In 1992, Jeter did not feel special. He went 0 for 7 and struck out five times in his debut with Class A Tampa. Because Jeter had received an $800,000 signing bonus, he felt as if every pair of eyes was scrutinizing him. He called home several times a day, pushing his phone bill to $400 a month.

After Jeter batted .202 in 47 games with Tampa, the Yankees sent him to Greensboro to get some more at-bats. Jeter would have rather traveled back to Kalamazoo. Posada recalled how Jeter was erratic at shortstop in his first day at Greensboro but rebounded.

“The second day, you saw what every guy in the organization saw,” Posada said. “He made a great play in the hole, he made a great play over second base and he hit a home run. He hasn’t looked back ever since.”

That is not entirely true. In his first 11 games at Greensboro, Jeter batted .247 and made 9 errors in 48 chances. Pettitte recalled how some of those mistakes came in his starts.

“I know he made a few errors behind me while I was pitching,” Pettitte said. “I was like: ‘Look at this guy. Are you kidding me? The first-round draft pick or whatever.’ He says to this day that I big-leagued him bigger than ever. And I may have. I don’t know.”

Pettitte laughed about how he and Jeter had different versions of the story. Seventeen years later, Pettitte and Jeter still tease each other about a game that should have been forgotten. But if Jeter knows it will make Pettitte chuckle, he will talk about it for another 17 years.

“Like Jorge says, he hasn’t changed,” Pettitte said. “He still says the same corny jokes or wisecracks that he did back then.”

Even as Posada called Jeter his “best friend,” he spoke about Jeter in a reverential way. Posada said Jeter did not open up to many people and probably never would, preferring to keep “the same people around” who have known him the longest.

“I admire him, I do,” Posada said. “I enjoy playing with him. I think he’s a great leader. I think he wants to win. He shows that. That’s the only thing he wants to do. He wants to, every game.”

The teammates at Greensboro — Jeter, Pettitte and Posada — graduated to Yankee clubs that won four World Series titles in five seasons. The Yankees (91-51) have the best record in the major leagues this season and, with help from those three players, are trying to secure another championship.

Still, after the Yankees lost to the Orioles, 10-4, on a soggy Friday night, the loss was shoved to the background. The focus was on Jeter, who passed Gehrig with a single off Chris Tillman. The fans gave Jeter stirring ovations, something that his longtime teammates matched with praise of their own.

“You take for granted sometimes that you play with him and you see him and see him,” Posada said. “The last week, coming to 2,721 hits, then you’re like, ‘This guy has some unbelievable numbers.’ He breaks the record. He’s the No. 1 all time.”

News source：http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/sports/baseball/13jeter.html?_r=1&ref=baseball

Ripken’s Respect for Jeter

September 11, 2009, 11:31 pm
By Jack Curry

As the dreadful Baltimore Orioles staggered into Yankee Stadium on Friday, Derek Jeter needed one more hit to zoom past Lou Gehrig as the franchise’s career hits leader.

Cal Ripken Jr., the Hall of Famer from the Orioles, was being honest, not critical, when he discussed the chances of Jeter not getting at least one hit in the three-game series.

“It would be a miracle if we held him without a hit,” Ripken said.

Obviously, the Orioles, who are last in the American League with a 5.06 earned run average, do not believe in miracles. In Jeter’s second at-bat, he rapped Chris Tillman’s 94-mile-per-hour fastball past first baseman Luke Scott and into right field. It was Jeter’s 2,722nd career hit, the most by a Yankee.

Fourteen years ago, Ripken displaced Gehrig from a more monumental record when he played in his 2,131st straight game. Ripken extended the record to 2,632 games before not playing in a game in September 1998.

While Ripken was uncomfortable with being compared to Gehrig, one of the best players ever, as a player, he enjoyed it when he was compared to Gehrig as a person. Ripken guessed that Jeter appreciates that part of the comparison as well.

“Privately, humbly, I’m sure Derek feels really good about that connection to Lou,” Ripken said.

Ripken was proud and relieved when he finally broke Gehrig’s record, but said the enormity of it sank in later. In another 10 or 15 years, Ripken said Jeter will “be even prouder” of what he had accomplished.

Jeter has always been a gentleman with the Yankees, a personality trait that has been mentioned often as he chased Gehrig. Interestingly, Ripken, who retired after 2001, said that Jeter’s respectful approach created a situation where opponents did not begrudge his success.

“In some ways, you take pride when you play against a guy like Derek,” Ripken said. “You respect him because he plays baseball the right way. You’re there to win and you want to win. But there are players that you like to see have good games along the way. He’s one of them.”

News source：http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/11/ripkens-respect-for-jeter/

Jeter Passes Gehrig as Yankees Hits Leader

By TYLER KEPNER Published: September 11, 2009

Derek Jeter grew up on Yankees history, by birth and by providence. He was nurtured as a fan by his grandmother, who lived in New Jersey, and drafted into the tradition as a first-round pick in 1992. Only a few years ago, though, did Jeter notice that nobody in his team’s history had ever reached 3,000 hits. Teammates stumbled on it while paging through a record book.

“Then we were wondering who had the most,” Jeter said on Friday afternoon. “But it’s not like you sit there and target it.”

For more than 70 years, Lou Gehrig had the most hits for the franchise, a record that stood until Jeter passed him Friday with his 2,722nd hit, a single that skipped past Gehrig’s old position, first base. Jeter’s graceful grind through 15 seasons has vaulted him past his storied predecessor as team captain.

Jeter connected in the third inning, on a 2-0 fastball from Chris Tillman of the Baltimore Orioles that got past the diving first baseman, Luke Scott. Jeter, who has made a career of hard-hit balls to the opposite field, spread his arms wide and clapped after rounding first base.

The players on the Yankees’ bench poured from the dugout to greet him at first base, taking turns hugging him. Alex Rodriguez was the first to arrive, then Mark Teixeira, Joba Chamberlain, Johnny Damon and the rest.

The fans chanted Jeter’s first and last names, and Jeter waved his helmet to several areas of the new Yankee Stadium. As he did on Wednesday, when he tied the record, Jeter pointed to the box with his parents, sister and friends on the suite level above the Yankees’ on-deck circle. Jeter’s girlfriend, the actress Minka Kelly, stood beside his mother, Dorothy, and both smiled widely.

The crowd continued to chant for Jeter. Nick Swisher, the next batter, stepped out of the box to make the moment last. As the cheers cascaded over Jeter, he waved his helmet again and then clapped a few times in Swisher’s direction: back to work.

The hit arrived in Jeter’s second at-bat against Tillman, a heralded Orioles rookie who challenged him with a 94-mile-an-hour pitch. Tillman won their duel in the first inning, striking Jeter out with a curveball after getting ahead with fastballs.

It was raining then, a persistent, heavy mist swirling around the stadium, with standing pools of water on the warning tracks. (The rain picked up later, and the game was delayed in the seventh.) The grounds crew hustled to rake the mound after the top of the first and spread new dirt a half-inning later. A double splashed in a mud puddle down the right-field line in the second.

By the time Jeter set the record, though, the rain had tapered. In any case, the crowd of 46,771 did not seem to care. The fans stood for Jeter’s at-bat, snapping photos of each pitch, and an inning later, commemorative T-shirts and pennants were on sale at Stadium gift shops.

George Steinbrenner, the team’s principal owner, was not there — he has not been to a home game since opening day — but his publicist quickly issued a statement on his behalf.

“For those who say today’s game can’t produce legendary players, I have two words: Derek Jeter,” Steinbrenner’s statement said. “As historic and significant as becoming the Yankees’ all-time hit leader is, the accomplishment is all the more impressive because Derek is one of the finest young men playing the game today.”

The statement went on to praise the character and ability of Jeter, comparing him favorably to Gehrig, who died of A.L.S. in 1941, a little more than two years after his final hit. Gehrig was far more prolific as a run producer, but Jeter matched his hit total Wednesday in 64 fewer plate appearances.

“He continued to be consistent year in and year out; I think that’s something every player admires,” Jeter said Friday as he talked about Gehrig. “Every story you hear about him, you hear he was a classy person and a great teammate. People thought really highly of him.”

Dorine Gordon, the president and chief executive of the ALS Association Greater New York Chapter, also issued a statement congratulating Jeter. “Derek epitomizes so much of what we admired in Gehrig,” her statement said. “Each skillfully filled their roles as team captains with strength, determination and humility.”

Jeter reached the milestone 24 years to the day after Pete Rose passed Ty Cobb to become baseball’s career hits later. Jeter, 35, has more hits than Rose did at the same age. Rose played until age 45 and finished with 4,256 hits.

That record is within Jeter’s reach, if he wants to play that long. He is signed through next season and said this week that he would keep playing as long as he has fun.

The game is fun now for Jeter, with the Yankees holding baseball’s best record and possessing, perhaps, their best chance at a championship in years. He has helped carry them there with a storm of hits, part of an annual barrage that has set a new standard for his famous team.

INSIDE PITCH

Johnny Damon missed the game with a sore hamstring and lower back. Damon said he might have sustained the injuries on Wednesday, when he jumped at the wall for a home run and his spikes did not stick in the padding. “I’m just happy this is a one-day thing and by tomorrow, I’ll be fine,” Damon said. ... Reliever Dave Robertson said he would begin his throwing program in a week or so as he recovers from elbow stiffness. ... Derek Jeter is hoping for a quick workday Saturday; his beloved Michigan Wolverines play Notre Dame at 3:30 p.m. “Big game,” Jeter said. “I hope it doesn’t rain. No delays here.”

News source：http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/12/sports/baseball/12yankees.html?_r=1&hp

Some News about Yankees

Yankees Reliever Undergoes Second M.R.I.

September 10, 2009, 7:40 pm
By Tyler Kepner

The Yankees right-hander Dave Robertson underwent a second magnetic resonance imaging exam for his stiff right elbow Thursday in Pensacola, Fla. Dr. James Andrews, who examined Robertson, recommended that he rest for 10 days to two weeks before starting a throwing program, a timetable that does not rule out Robertson for a chance to make the postseason roster. Robertson has a 3.29 earned run average in 42 games, averaging more than 13 strikeouts per nine innings.
洋基右投手Dave Robertson由於右手肘僵硬的問題，星期四在佛羅里達的Pensacola接受了第二次的MRI檢查。負責這項檢查的醫師James Andrews建議他最好休息10至14天的時間再開始練習投球，這樣的練習時間表也不會影響到Dave Robertson是否能夠進入季後賽名單的問題。Dave Robertson本季出賽42場，獲得3.29的ERA及高達13的K/9值。

News source：
http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/yankees-reliever-undergoes-second-mri/

--------------------

The Long and Short of Derek Jeter

September 10, 2009, 11:26 pm
By Jay Schreiber

Twice in his remarkable career, Derek Jeter has had a hitting slump that suggested he was letting outside factors distract him ever so slightly at the plate.
在隊長輝煌的職業生涯當中，遭遇了兩次明顯的打擊低潮，主要是受到外界因素的影響，導致分散了他在打擊時的注意力。

The first slump came in April 2004, when in the presence of his new, and very expensive, teammate, Alex Rodriguez, Jeter went 0 for 32. The second came this week, when Jeter went 0 for 12 over the course of three games in two days, perhaps because he was trying a little too hard to get the last few hits he needed to pass Lou Gehrig.
第一次發生在2004年4月的時候，當時是他貴翻天的新隊友阿肉加入洋基的時刻，他那陣子繳出了32之0的打擊成績。第二次則是在這禮拜，隊長在兩天連續出賽三場的情形下，繳出12之0的表現，也許是因為他太過積極想追上前輩Lou Gehrig的紀錄而導致的結果。

Back on April 29, 2004, Jeter ended that 0-for-32 slump emphatically, smacking a first-inning home run off Oakland’s Bary Zito that carried over the left-center field wall at Yankee Stadium.
讓我們回溯到2004年4月29號當天，隊長在第一局，就敲了一發飛躍中左外野大牆的全壘打終結了32之0的打擊低潮，當時的苦主是運動家隊的雞頭。

On Wednesday night at the Stadium, Jeter ended his slump ingeniously, dropping a first-inning bunt down the third-base line that the Tampa Bay Rays didn’t even try to make a play on.
而星期三晚上，隊長在第一局則是聰明的利用偷點的方式上壘，球沿著三壘壘包滾去，讓光芒隊一點守備的機會都沒有。

A blast and a bunt, one more little piece of evidence to support the notion that Jeter may not be the most talented player of the last decade and a half, but he might just be the most resourceful.
不論是全壘打或是突襲短打，這些或許都沒有辦法證明隊長是過去這十五年來最具天份的打者，但他或許是場上最能夠隨機應變的球員。

News source：
http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/the-long-and-short-of-derek-jeter/

The Iron Horse and the New Yorker Profile

By RICHARD SANDOMIR Published: September 10, 2009

In The New Yorker 80 years ago, Lou Gehrig was portrayed as an unsophisticate and a mama’s boy once rumored to have gone to the movies with a “red-cheeked German girl who wore a bunch of flowers in her hat.”

Asked in the profile, written by Niven Busch and titled “The Little Heinie,” if he would ever marry, Gehrig said, “My mother makes a home comfortable enough for me.”

His mother, Christina, Busch wrote, “is continually cooking for him, making apple cake, and cookies with raisins and pieces of bright red suet in them, making roasts, and frying the fish and eels he catches in the Sound.”

Lou caught so many eels that his mother pickled them, Busch reported. Some Yankees seemed to believe that pickled eels helped their hitting.

“Why should Lou eat eels?” one teammate apparently said to Gehrig’s father, Heinrich, during a meal at the Gehrigs’ residence in New Rochelle. “He always hits good, doesn’t he, Mr. Gehrig?”

It is unimaginable that such a chaste, even fluffy, article would be written about Derek Jeter, who now shares Gehrig’s Yankees record of 2,721 career hits. Jeter is also close to his parents, but has lived on his own for quite a while, and his active social life (parodied in a Visa ad with George Steinbrenner) is no secret. But unlike the naïve Gehrig, Jeter is a shrewd manager of his public image, perhaps one reason he has never been profiled by The New Yorker.

Roger Angell, who has written about baseball for decades at the magazine, and greatly admires Jeter’s hitting, said: “I’ve never heard him say an interesting word. He’s not a guy who likes to talk. But he’s very well liked.”

In the 1929 Gehrig article, Busch sets up Gehrig as something of a cipher unsuited “to have a public” because he is not “stimulated or discouraged by the reactions of the crowds that watch his ponderous antics at first base for the Yankees, or cheer the hits he knocks out with startling regularity and almost legendary power.”

Aside from baseball, Busch wrote, Gehrig’s main amusement is fishing and his primary associates are “his mother and Babe Ruth.” Gehrig’s mother “has exercised a good deal of care on his upbringing.”

Christina could not keep Lou from reacting in anger when mean old Ty Cobb repeatedly called him “a Wiener schnitzel” and “thick-headed Dutch bum,” Busch wrote. Gehrig got so unnerved that he charged Cobb, who eluded him, and “hit his head on a stanchion of the low roof and fell down stunned.”

Busch reappeared in the Gehrig saga in 1941 when, as a story editor for the producer Samuel Goldwyn, he suggested making a film about Gehrig. Goldwyn said a baseball movie would be “box-office poison,” according to A. Scott Berg’s biography of Goldwyn. Ray Robinson, a Gehrig biographer, said that Busch told him he had a projectionist show Goldwyn newsreels of Gehrig’s “luckiest man” speech of July 4, 1939. Goldwyn cried at hearing Gehrig’s simple, heartbreaking oration, which guided him to produce “The Pride of the Yankees” as a love story between Lou (Gary Cooper) and Eleanor (Teresa Wright) that would appeal to a female audience. The film was released in 1942 — the year that Busch married Wright. They divorced 10 years later.

Their son, who is also named Niven but goes by Terry, does not recall his father talking about meeting Gehrig in 1929.

“He didn’t tell many New Yorker tales,” said Terry Busch, whose father wrote the novel “Duel in the Sun” and co-wrote the screenplay for “The Postman Always Rings Twice.” “He never talked about ‘Pride of the Yankees,’ probably because he didn’t get credit for it. He had a fairly bad falling out with Goldwyn, not the least because of my conception, which caused my mother to default on several projects. He blamed my father.”

News source：
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/11/sports/baseball/11gehrig.html?_r=1&ref=baseball

A special moment at the Stadium

A few weeks ago, I would wager that very few people knew Lou Gehrig was the franchise hits leader of the Yankees. Breaking that record was not something Derek Jeter had on his radar until he heard about it from the media.
我敢打賭，在幾個星期之前，很少有人知道Lou Gehrig是洋基隊史上的安打王，在隊長從媒體得知自己已經慢慢追上這項紀錄之前，對於這件事，他也一直沒放在心上。

But what this record has done is give everybody — fans, teammates and even the media — a chance to celebrate Jeter the individual.
然而，達成這項紀錄對於所有人（球迷、隊友甚至是媒體）來說，都是一個慶賀隊長個人榮耀的機會。

Jeter has never won an MVP. He has never led the league in hitting or had the most RBI. He scored the most runs once, but that was back in 1998. He is a player defined by team accomplishments and his own consistency of effort and performance. What speaks better to that than having the most hits?
隊長從來沒有拿過年度MVP獎項，他也從未拿過美聯的安打王或是打點王。他曾經拿過一次得分王，但已是早在1998年的事情了。他被公認為洋基隊史上最有成就的球員，他對於球隊穩定的貢獻與績效也是令人稱道，但，有什麼比得到隊史上安打王這項榮耀更值得大家談論的呢？

Sure, Jeter has more at-bats than Gehrig. But that record had stood since 1939. It took somebody special to come along and break it and Jeter was that person.
的確，隊長的打席數比Lou Gehrig要來的多，但是，這項紀錄自從1939年就已經高懸在那。這項紀錄是設立給某位特別的球員來打破的，而那個人正是隊長。

You know what stuck with me from tonight? Seeing the Rays on the stop step of the dugout applauding.
你們知道今晚哪個畫面一直停留在我腦海中嗎？就是看到光芒隊的隊員們站在休息區的階梯上替隊長鼓掌喝采。
PS：有影片有真相http://mlb.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?content_id=6560995

“I’m very happy for him,” Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. “He carries himself in a manner that’s worthy of passing Gehrig.”
「我真很替他感到開心。」光芒隊總教練Joe Maddon這麼說，「他利用這個方式證明了自己有能力超越前輩Lou Gehrig的成就。」

Maddon speaks for everybody in baseball when he says that.
Maddon當著所有人的面發表了這次的言論。

It also was fitting that Derek’s buddy Jorge Posada won the game with a home run. That enabled Derek to really enjoy the night. One would think that the Stadium would be packed on Friday night and wouldn’t it be just like Jeter to poke a single into right field in the first inning?
這項紀錄的喜悅加上隊長的好哥兒們厚黑擊出致勝全壘打幫助球隊取勝可以說是配的恰恰好。這也讓隊長真的可以好好享受今晚美好的時光。大家可以想見星期五晚上一定又是滿場的球迷，而隊長會不會又在第一局的時候，就來支右外野的安打破紀錄呢？

News source：http://yankees.lhblogs.com/2009/09/10/a-special-moment-at-the-stadium/

Yanks’ Season Unraveled One Injury at a Time

By TYLER KEPNER
Published: September 27, 2008

BOSTON — When a stiff shoulder knocked Joba Chamberlain from his start in Texas on Aug. 4, the Yankees were finished for 2008. They had made such careful plans for Chamberlain, invested so much hope, and at that moment none of it mattered. Chamberlain was just another injury casualty in a doomed season.

The Yankees were two and a half games out of a playoff spot when Chamberlain went down. They went 16-20 in their next 36 games, a stretch that lasted into the final homestand at Yankee Stadium. Losing Chien-Ming Wang to a foot injury in June was brutal. Losing Chamberlain was fatal. Neither made another start.

“We had one ace go down, and we produced another No. 1,” General Manager Brian Cashman said. “Then he went down, too.”

It would be too simplistic to say injuries alone ruined the Yankees’ season. Years of corrosive institutional problems also forecast the end of their 13-year playoff run. But health was the biggest factor. The Yankees were not a bad team this season. But they were never whole.

The Tampa Bay Rays, surprise champions of the American League East, were the only team in the majors with five pitchers who each made 25 starts. The Yankees, who will finish third, had two pitchers make 25 starts. They were the only team in the majors that did not have three pitchers throw at least 115 innings.

They patched their rotation, and they might have gotten away with it if the offense had produced as it did in 2007. But that never happened. Injuries to Jorge Posada and Hideki Matsui — and regressions by Robinson Canó, Melky Cabrera, Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter — were too much to overcome.

In 2007, the Yankees scored 191 more runs than their opponents. This season, through Friday, they had outscored opponents by just 59 runs.

“Have they worked, have they grinded, have they done everything that they did last year? Yes, absolutely,” the hitting coach Kevin Long said. “But if you break it down much deeper than that, you can see why it didn’t transform into six runs a game. It just wasn’t going to happen. It was just something that, after opening day, never really transpired.”

When Wang went down, the Cleveland Indians were aggressively peddling an answer: C. C. Sabathia. The Yankees could have used Phil Hughes to front a package for him, but Cashman passed.

He did so partly because he believed the Yankees had enough offense to get by, but mostly because he believed it was foolish to trade elite prospects for a pitcher with no indication of wanting to sign a long-term contract with an East Coast team.

It was roughly the same logic Cashman applied last winter to the trade talks for Johan Santana, then with the Minnesota Twins. But those talks might have ended differently — and changed the course of the Yankees’ future — if not for a brief and devastating period of dysfunction in the team’s decision-making.

The start of the 2007 off-season played out largely beyond Cashman’s control. After Rodriguez fizzled in the playoffs for the fourth year in a row, then opted out of his contract, Cashman started preparing for life without him.

In the short term, it would have been impossible to replace Rodriguez. But in the long run, there was an upside in not saddling the Yankees with a contract that would pay Rodriguez more than $20 million a season for the declining years of his career.

It was just those kinds of deals that started to infect the Yankees after they lost the 2001 World Series. That was when George Steinbrenner, their principal owner, demanded more control over baseball operations, sending the team on a four-year spending spree that started to wane when he yielded authority to Cashman after the 2005 season.

But last winter, when Steinbrenner put his sons, Hank and Hal, atop the hierarchy, the wild spending returned, over Cashman’s head. Hank Steinbrenner engineered the deals for Rodriguez (10 years, roughly $300 million), Posada (four years, $52.4 million) and Mariano Rivera (three years, $45 million).

As he kept spending, Hank Steinbrenner kept talking. He publicly campaigned for a deal for Santana, even though he had told Andy Pettitte he could take all the time he needed to decide on a $16 million option.

If the Yankees had held Pettitte to his original deadline — and if they had stood firm when Rodriguez came back to them — their thinking on the Santana deal might have been different. Cashman might have sacrificed Hughes and other prospects to get Santana, then signed Santana to a long-term contract.

But after the payouts to Rodriguez, Posada, Rivera and Pettitte (which totaled about $73 million for 2008), it seemed unwise to further bloat the payroll. The Yankees forged ahead with Pettitte and trusted Hughes and Ian Kennedy to hold spots at the back of the rotation. Pettitte faded badly in the second half, and Hughes and Kennedy did not win a game all season.

Cashman offered no apologies about putting faith in Hughes and Kennedy, offering the Twins as a parallel.

“They’re contending, and they have five young guys in their rotation,” Cashman said. “In New York, they talk about, ‘You can’t contend with two young guys,’ but in Minnesota you can with five? It just comes down to getting the job done, simple as that.”

Hughes, 22, and Kennedy, 23, are still young enough to inspire hope, though neither will be guaranteed a spot next spring. They will probably compete for a job with Alfredo Aceves.

As the Yankees enter another off-season, their first priority is to re-sign Cashman, who is well liked by the Steinbrenner brothers. Hal Steinbrenner has worked closely with Cashman and Manager Joe Girardi, and Cashman said, “I have a tremendous relationship with the Steinbrenner family.”

Hank Steinbrenner has publicly promised to be aggressive in pursuing free agents this winter, and the crop will be thick. The Yankees will explore Sabathia, although they are pessimistic about his desire to play for them.

They also face decisions on Pettitte and the rejuvenated Mike Mussina, and will look into the 18-game winner A. J. Burnett. A second tier of starters with past success in the American League — including Derek Lowe — may also be appealing. Pitchers without A.L. experience need not apply.

“It’s the toughest division in the league, and that’s why when teams go after pitching,” outfielder Johnny Damon said, “they can’t just throw a National League guy into the American League East. It’s a grind every single day, and that’s what G.M.’s are figuring out.”

The Yankees learned that lesson again this season with reliever LaTroy Hawkins, who was signed for $3.75 million but had a 5.71 earned run average. Traded to Houston in July, Hawkins dominated the National League.

Expect the Yankees to ignore all free-agent relievers this winter, confident in the setup corps Cashman has assembled through castoffs (Brian Bruney, Dan Giese, Edwar Ramírez, José Veras) and prospects (Phil Coke, Mark Melancon, Dave Robertson, Humberto Sánchez).

The pitching talent gives the Yankees choices, but the crop of position players in the minors is thin. A study by ESPN.com showed that only one position player drafted by the Yankees from 1997 to 2005 — the departed Andy Phillips — has amassed even 200 at-bats in the majors.

Restocking the farm system takes time, and the Yankees are excited about the Class AA center fielder Austin Jackson and the Class A catchers Jesús Montero and Austin Romine.

Yet there have also been crucial mistakes when evaluating position players in the draft. In 2004, the Yankees took pitcher Brett Smith with the 42nd pick. Later in the second round, Boston took Dustin Pedroia. A year later, the Yankees had the 17th pick and took shortstop C. J. Henry. Six picks later, the Red Sox grabbed Jacoby Ellsbury.

The lack of major-league-ready position players puts the Yankees in a tricky spot as they devise a new lineup. Two of their most productive hitters this season were Bobby Abreu and Jason Giambi, but they are free agents who are past their primes. It would be unlike Cashman to retain them with multiyear deals.

The Yankees could let Cabrera and Brett Gardner, two strong defenders, compete for the center-field job. But they must prove they can hit. The team could also see if the Dodgers would trade center fielder Matt Kemp for Canó, who has bothered many in the organization for producing so little after being rewarded with a long-term contract. Canó could be replaced at second base by a free agent like Orlando Hudson.

The free-agent first baseman Mark Teixeira is a Gold Glove fielder and a disciplined switch-hitter with power who will be only 29 when the new Yankee Stadium opens. With more than $75 million in expiring contracts, the Yankees could probably afford him.

If Teixeira replaced Giambi at first, Xavier Nady could take over for Abreu in right field, with Damon in left, Matsui at designated hitter and Gardner, Cabrera or Kemp in center.

Whoever makes the decisions — Cashman, a new general manager, or the Steinbrenners — the Yankees of 2009 will not be the same. As disappointing as it was to miss the playoffs, the Yankees understand that simply making it was not their goal in the first place.

“Our season is ending here at the end of September, but the last few years we’ve been going through this about five days after that,” Cashman said. “We’re trying to get through the entire month of October and be the last team standing, and obviously there’s a lot of work to be done. We’ll keep trying to figure it out.”

News source：http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/sports/baseball/28wrap.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=sports

Yankees’ Offense at Heart of Team’s Problems

By TYLER KEPNER
Published: September 11, 2008

When the Yankees splurged last winter to preserve the majors’ best lineup, they showered millions on several hitters. Another deal went largely unnoticed: a three-year, $1 million contract for the hitting coach, Kevin Long, who helped guide the 2007 offense to 968 runs, the most for the Yankees in 70 years.

A career minor leaguer, Long was a success story for the Yankees, validation of the organization’s plan to build from within — with a coach as well as with players. A year later, however, the Yankees’ offense has turned from an asset into a major problem.

After averaging 5.98 runs a game last season, the Yankees are down to 4.82 a game. Their final homestand at Yankee Stadium, which starts Friday against Tampa Bay, may be less a celebration than a countdown to elimination.

“It’s going to be a bit strange, because we definitely thought we would be pushing for a playoff spot,” Johnny Damon said. “But we owe it to the fans and the Stadium to go out there and play hard. There’s definitely some pride aspects to go out and play for.”

For Long, the end of the season is just another phase of a year-round job. He will consult with General Manager Brian Cashman and Manager Joe Girardi on how to retool the lineup, and he plans to make off-season visits to two of the Yankees’ more confounding players.

Long said Wednesday that he would travel to the Dominican Republic to work with Robinson Canó and Melky Cabrera. The Yankees have little invested in Cabrera, who lost his everyday job after struggling for most of the season. But Canó is a mystery.

In February, the Yankees signed him to a four-year, $30 million contract, making Canó the first Yankee in recent years to be awarded a long-term deal before free agency. They were convinced he was ready to become an elite player, but instead he has regressed.

Canó is hitting .261 with a meager .295 on-base percentage. He has not walked since Aug. 20, but more troubling to Long is his startling lack of power. Canó has 13 homers and a .397 slugging percentage — numbers lower than Coco Crisp, Fred Lewis and Skip Schumaker, among many others.

“He’s got big power that never plays, because there’s so much movement,” Long said. “He can’t get the barrel of the bat to the baseball with that much movement. So, basically, you’re taking a big tool and not using it.”

Canó uses an open stance, and Long said he plans to square Canó’s legs from the start. He said intensive, one-on-one sessions could help Canó the way they helped Alex Rodriguez after his disappointing season in 2006.

“Could we have done that before this year started? No,” Long said of changing Canó’s approach. “Anybody in their right mind would have said, ‘You don’t change this kid.’ He was able to dominate major league baseball to this point.”

Canó said he knew Long planned to visit, but they have not discussed specifics. Canó defended his season by saying he was “not going to be perfect every year,” but acknowledged that this has been a learning experience and said everything must improve.

“I don’t want to be back in this situation again,” Canó said. “This is a year that you can say, ‘O.K., this is not happening again.’ ”

As bad as Canó has been, he is only one reason the Yankees have fallen. The pitching is markedly better in the division this season, and the Yankees never used their intended lineup after opening day, when catcher Jorge Posada hurt his shoulder.

The Yankees did not expect Posada to duplicate his 2007 season, when he hit .338, but they relied on him for extra-base power and at-bats that wore down opposing pitchers.

They have also missed his presence as a clubhouse enforcer. Girardi is relentlessly upbeat, and the captain, Derek Jeter, is even-tempered and optimistic. Posada, who played only 51 games before season-ending surgery, has a different leadership style.

“We’ve missed him tremendously,” Long said. “First of all, Jorge’s one of those no-nonsense guys who will jump in a player’s face, jump in a coach’s face. He’s got that mentality of, ‘You know what, I don’t really care about this or that, this is how we’re going to do it. If I don’t like what I see, I’m going to tell you.’ We miss that.”

Long is positive by nature, but he also tries to be honest with hitters, telling them what he sees in unvarnished terms. His pupils have not responded as well this season, but they remain loyal.

“I really don’t think anything can be pinned on him,” Damon said. “He’s in the cage every second we’re in here, working with the guys. The only thing he can’t do is swing the bat for us. There’s no one who works harder at his job than him. He’s the best hitting coach in the league, without a doubt.”

The Yankees were designed to be the league’s best offense, too, built to withstand injuries to the pitching staff. Cashman’s faith in the lineup was one reason he did not trade for a starter when injuries depleted the rotation.

But the offense was not strong enough to dull the impact of the injuries, scoring two runs or fewer in 46 games, compared with 33 last season.

“We could never get on that really big roll to really get us over the top to negate those injuries,” Jason Giambi said. “If you get the team rolling, sometimes you can battle through because you’ve got momentum going. We just never could get on a big roll.”

They are all but out of time, and soon the players will scatter while the better teams play in October. For Long, though, there is no off-season, no rest from correcting the flaws of an offense that failed.

News source：http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/12/sports/baseball/12yankees.html?_r=1&ref=sports&oref=slogin

Yankees Get Stellar Start From an Unexpected Source

By TYLER KEPNER
Published: September 10, 2008

Yankees 7, Angels 1

ANAHEIM, Calif. — The man in the gray T-shirt, marked in black with a giant number 91, had been waiting for this moment for decades.

He played 10 years as a first baseman in the Mexican League, where he was teammates with Fernando Valenzuela. But Alfredo Aceves Sr. never got a chance with a major league organization, and his eldest son, Jonathan, topped out at Class AAA in a 10-year minor league career.

On Tuesday at Angel Stadium, a younger son, Alfredo Jr., made his first major league start, and it was a rousing success. Aceves held the Los Angeles Angels to one run and five hits in seven innings, pitching the Yankees to a 7-1 victory before 43,042 fans, including a father who was too tense to be excited.

"Just nerves," said Aceves Sr. "More nerves than emotions."

Baseball teams learn to be skeptical of what they see in September, a lesson that was reinforced for the Yankees this season. They gave starting spots to Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy after both pitched well late last season, a decision that seems rash in hindsight.

So while there was reason to temper enthusiasm over Aceves, the Yankees were cautiously excited. At 25, Aceves is older than Hughes and Kennedy, and catcher Chad Moeller said his pitches are well above average. Aceves throws a fastball, cutter, changeup and curve.

"He attacked hitters, and he has plenty of stuff," Moeller said. "He has a lot better stuff than a lot of guys in this league. It's just going to be learning what to do here."

Aceves' effort was not enough to rescue the Yankees from fourth place in the American League East, because the third-place Toronto Blue Jays won both games of a doubleheader in Chicago, running their winning streak to 10.

But it was the Yankees' first victory in five games this season at Angel Stadium, where the Angels often expose the Yankees' flaws. The Angels (87-57) used a makeshift lineup on Tuesday, but that did not matter to the Aceves family.

"His confidence," said Alfredo Sr., when asked what made him most proud. "He confronted a team that had big bats – the biggest, strongest team, the Angels, with a lot of respect to them."

Aceves signed with Toronto in 2001 and played one season for their team in the Dominican Republic. When the Blue Jays tried to send him back the next season, Aceves asked for a trade to the Mexican League, where he stayed until the Yankees paid $450,000 to sign him in March.

Manager Joe Girardi was unfamiliar with Aceves at the time, but he could not help noticing him with each glowing minor league report. Aceves went 4-1 for Class A Tampa, and soon worked his way to Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

The Yankees promoted him last month, and after throwing five strong innings in relief of Darrell Rasner last week, Aceves took Rasner's spot in the rotation.

Manager Joe Girardi said the quality of the last two opponents Aceves has faced -- Tampa Bay and the Angels – makes his effort more impressive. Girardi also noticed how confident Aceves seemed with his pitches, throwing a changeup to the veteran Garret Anderson with a 2-0 count.

"I think he has good stuff, because he locates and he changes speeds," Girardi said. "He's not a guy that just blows you away. He locates his fastballs, he locates his changeups and he has the ability to throw off-speed when he's behind in the count for strikes."

Girardi continued: "Not only in that at-bat to Garret Anderson did he throw a 2-0 changeup, he threw a 3-2 curveball for a strike. It's one thing when you've thrown 20 in a game, but he probably only threw four or five. He has a good feel for all his pitches."

The Yankees supported Aceves with a run in the second inning and a three-run homer to right by Alex Rodriguez in the sixth. The rest of the runs came on homers by Johnny Damon, who chased Ervin Santana (15-6) in the seventh and connected again in the ninth off Justin Speier.

Aceves was gone by then, leaving after seven and taking the approach of a pitcher who has done this before. He said he had more than 30 friends and family members at the game, but he did not know where they were sat and did not look around.

"I don't see the stands," Aceves said. "Just the game."

INSIDE PITCH

Derek Jeter singled in the first inning for his 2,519th career hit, passing Babe Ruth for second place on the Yankees' career list. Lou Gehrig is the leader, with 2,721 hits. … Andy Pettitte, who starts on Wednesday, said he does not know if he will pitch next season but has no interest in playing for any team but the Yankees. "Obviously anyone else would say, 'I'll go wherever I want to,' because people want to try to get the most money," Pettitte said. "But, I mean, I'm not going anywhere, you know what I'm saying? The Yankees know me enough, it's not like I'm going to hold out. I guess if I had spent all my money or whatever, it might be different. But it's not about that, really, anymore." Pettitte said he would talk with his wife and oldest son in hopes of making a decision sooner than he did last winter, when he waited until December to tell the Yankees he would return.

News source：http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/10/sports/baseball/10yankees.html?ref=sports