Scott Proctor is a pyromaniac

Scott Proctor makes a campfire.

Wow...this team is falling apart at the seams, and this is just a microcosm of it. Even though I'm a huge Yankee fan, it's pretty hilarious watching this soap opera they call a baseball team. It's as far away from a cohesive unit as humanly possible. It's like a train wreck: it's horrible, but people have to sit by and watch it happen.

Hey, why not: Your 2008 New York Yankees!

Someone asked this question on a Yankees forum:

If you were GM for a day...what would your projections look like for the 25 man roster for:

a) after trade deadline in 2007
b) 2008

So, here's my response, and I'd like to hear yours as well on this topic. Pretty fun to try and figure it out actually, I like coming up with the roster.

Anyway here's mine:

a)Look into seeing if the Yankees can get any value for Bobby Abreu or Mike Mussina. To be honest I doubt there's any market for either, especially Mussina, unless the Yankees pick up some money in the deal. Of course money is no object to the Yankees, and the more money they assume, the better prospects we can get in return. Otherwise, that's about it, I would stand pat. No major acquisitions, no trying to trade Johnny Damon, etc. Try to trade guys like Farnsworth and Vizcaino, they might actually hold some value at the deadline to desperate teams.

b)I'm assuming you mean the offseason of '07. I would do everything in my power to get Ichiro Suzuki on this team. Bat him leadoff, and Derek Jeter second. Or you could flip flop that, seeing as Jeter is the better on base guy. Anyway, that's the manager's decision.This not only improves the team, it adds to the depth of the lineup, allowing the Yankees to bat a healthy Johnny Damon down in the order to prevent the exposing of the bottom of the lineup. BTW for people who think that this further cripples us against lefties: his batting statistics are better when facing LHP than RHP for his entire career in the states, not just here. Obviously Abreu would be off the team.

Re-sign Andy Pettitte. Make a big play for Carlos Zambrano if you can, aces don't normally hit the FA market like this, it may be one of your only chances to get one outside of the farm system/mega trade. For 1B, Sean Casey is available I see. Get him, he may not be a sexy name, but he is a professional hitter and good in the clubhouse, a leader. Or if you are again worried about too many lefties, sign Dimitri Young. Less of a track record, but he's killing the ball in WAS right now, with like a .900 OPS. Not much of a 1B though. And of course, you do anything necessary to keep A-Rod. Re-sign Posada and Mo. Get Hughes in that rotation, promote Edwar Ramirez if he's ready.

For the bench, Cabrera would be shifted there. Try to get Ramon Castro or Rod Barajas as the backup catcher, they are both FAs. Marlon Anderson would be a decent utility infielder we could pick up as well, better then Cairo in my opinion. Sign Travis Lee as the backup 1B.

Bullpen. Let Vizcaino walk, he's a FA. I don't think Farnsworth can be traded unless you want nothing back, but I'll take the salary relief. Put Igawa in the bullpen. Britton needs to be on this roster next year, no Villone. I'll get Edwar Ramirez and Henn here too. Let Myers walk.

My team:

C-Posada
1B-Young or Casey
2B-Cano
SS-Jeter
3B-A-Rod
LF-Matsui
CF-Ichiro
RF-Damon
DH-Giambi

Starting staff:

Zambrano
Wang
Pettitte
Hughes
Mussina (can't be traded realistically)

Bench:

Melky Cabrera
Barajas or Castro
Marlon Anderson
Travis Lee

Bullpen:

Mariano Rivera
Igawa
Chris Britton
Edwar Ramirez
Sean Henn
Scott Proctor
Brian Bruney

There's my 2008 New York Yankees.

Go ahead, you guys can do it too.

To anyone who wants to make a big trade to keep the Yankees alive

Let it go.

The only change that will make the Yankees possible playoff contenders (and even that is not a guarantee) would be a big move giving up big prospects. You don't want to do that, you really don't. So, let it go. The "Brain Trust" wants to keep non major leaguers like Nieves and Villone on the team? Let them. Not like it will cost us a playoff spot anyway, they aren't going anywhere. Stand pat, make the moves in the offseason. Let Joe retire, get rid of Nieves and the like of course. Like letting Abreu walk, acquiring another outfielder, a righty bat, and of course pitching...problem is I'm not sure if I can trust Brian Cashman to make these essential moves. Next years offseason and this years trade deadline will be the crossroads of the Yankees future for years. Do they try to reload for one final run and sacrifice the future or do they stand pat and think down the road. Hopefully the latter in my opinion. Just let this season go people, it's too far gone in my opinion to be saved.

Yankees vs. Orioles 6/26 Game Preview

It's a matchup of two of the best pitchers in the American League. Andy Pettitte and Jeremy Guthrie? Guthrie has allowed two or fewer runs in 9 of his 10 starts and should make the All Star team he has been so good. Meanwhile, Pettitte is coming off of a performance where, in his words, he "quit pitching" and just tried to throw the ball past hitters after he lost his confidence after a Matt Holliday 442 foot bomb of a home run. To me, that's kind of strange coming from a veteran pitcher with 190 career victories.

Fun fact for this game: Yankees have 573 career wins going for them in Pettitte (190), Clemens (349), and Wang (a mere 34). Baltimore has 75 wins between Guthrie (6), Bedard (32), and Cabrera (37). Gap would be even larger if Mike Mussina pitched in this series for the Yankees. Obviously though, I'd rather Wang be out there.

Lineups when they become available. Since the Yankees were off on a travel day yesterday, I would still assume that they would play their full lineup. We will see.

There's not much to say about today's game

Except that the Yankees completely embarrassed themselves. There were really no positives....

This game obviously was not Joe Torre's fault. However, I need to get one thing off of my chest. Why put Damon in the game and thusly make any DL stint retroactive to today instead of the last time he played? (in Colorado) That bothered me a bit, and if anyone has any answers as to why he did that, please leave a comment.

Rod Beck Dead at 38

Rest in peace buddy. 38 years old...police are unsure of the cause of death at this point. I'm pretty much at a loss for words. My thoughts and prayers are with his family.

Yankees Win, Baroid Homers: Yankees 7, Giants 3

If Baroid Bonds is going to hit a home run, that's how I want it to be. Trailing pretty big late, bases empty on a challenge fastball. I have to give credit to Scott Proctor for letting him hit it as opposed to walking someone with a big lead. That's the way the game should be played so my hat is off to Scott Proctor for yesterday. That makes it 749 home runs for Bonds, who inches ever close to the real record holder, Hank Aaron. The closer he gets to the record, the more we'll hear about his on the field exploits, and less about his off the field ones. That's due to the extremely hypocritical nature of ESPN. They'll roast you one day, and prop you up for ratings the next. Big reason why in my eyes I can't take them truly seriously when it comes to some sports news topics.

Anyway, I digress. My prediction was basically the same score flipped around (Giants 7, Yankees 4), but I'm very glad to be wrong. Yankees took a 3-0 lead right away off of great ABs from Miguel Cairo and Kei Igawa, both of them working walks. Yeah, I can't believe that actually happened either. Melky Cabrera scored Cairo and Cano (who singled) to make it 3-0. Kei Igawa looked amazingly sharp in the first four innings, making the Giants players seem lost, including Bonds. He really had that changeup I talked about in the preview working well. Was able to control it pretty easily. What I will say is this: he left some pitches over the middle a couple of times through the first four that he got away with and he needs to prevent this from happening again. Sure, he limited his mistake pitches from his earlier outings, but there still were a couple of floaters. On to the fifth. Igawa started to get hit and it clearly started to show in his approach. He seemed a bit rattled walking to batters in a row, one letting a run in (a Bonds bases loaded walk). I'd much rather see that then the game tying grand slam. At this point the game was 5-2 Yankees and Igawa was pulled after 4 and 2/3 innings of work. It disappointed me a bit because he was doing so well, only to falter. But it was heartening to see that he can be a good pitcher in this league, and he proved it through the first four innings.

Since I've already mentioned the Bonds home run and the Yankees scoring, the game got pretty uneventful after Hideki Matsui saved the game in the fifth on his bases clearing double saving catch. If he didn't catch it the game would have been nodded up at 5. Who knows what happens then: maybe Baroid's homer actually means something. All I know is that it didn't matter at all last night: both in the course of history and in the game.

Baroid Bonds

Sorry to disturb the few readers I have right now, but I had to. I found it funny.

Yankees at Giants 6/22 Game Preview

Hey, look who has made his return...the one, the only: Kei Igawa? Yeah, you definitely cannot liken his rise through the minors like Roger Clemens'. However, Kei was effective in his minor league appearances. In six minor league starts, he posted a 3-3 record with a 2.65 ERA and a .233 BAA. Another striking statistic is that he has struck out 33 batters in 34 innings, nearly 9 K/IP. Apparently Tampa pitching guru Nardi Contreras has gotten Igawa to figure out how to stop pitching up in the strikezone, especially with his changeup, which was a huge problem in the majors, and was a large cause for his major league struggles. With that in mind, expect to see a marked improvement over his initial starts with the Yankees, although it would be rather hard for him not to do better this time around.

Taking the mound for the Giants tonight is the electric youngster Matt Cain. He has pitched through some serious bad luck this season, with a 2-7 record and a 3.15 ERA. Kind of hard to imagine a low ERA like that adjoined with such a poor win-loss record. More proof to the fact that the win-loss statistic is completely meaningless. Run support can do wonders to it, and make a pitcher who really wasn't that good look good and vice versa. To be honest I really can't see the Yankees winning this one. Prediction: Giants 7, Yankees 4.

Rocky Mountain Low: Rockies 4, Yankees 3

This one got to me. They came so close to victory, only to fall yet again to the Rockies. That wasn't what made me cringe about this game however. It was the horrid plays from the Yankees themselves that lost this game. They grasped defeat from the jaws of victory, a trademark of a mediocre ballclub. Right now where we stand, that's what this team is, an average one.

Early on the game looked promising for the Yankees. Hideki Matsui hit a two run homer to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead and Roger Clemens looked good in his first inning of work. But then in the bottom of the second the Rocket allowed solo homers to Garet Adkins and Troy Tulowitski, making it 2-2. After that, both teams were shut down in the third and fourth. Then came the fifth, Yankees don't score, followed by two runs for the Rockies off Clemens, who was pulled after four and one third innings. Bad outing for him, he let the team down.

After the debacle of a fifth, the Yankees squandered opportunities to score, and it cost them the game. It really got to me, because they should have been able to tie it. Really dissapointing. So now they head out to San Francisco to play the Giants and "Baroid" Barry Bonds. We'll see what happens with that.

WP: R. Lopez (4-0) S: B. Fuentes (20)
LP: R. Clemens (1-2)

Yankees (35-35)
Rockies (38-34)

ESPN: Joe Girardi Declines Orioles Job

Whew, everyone outside of the Baltimore Orioles catches a break here. ESPN has reported that Girardi's agent has informed them that he will not be accepted the Orioles job that was offered to him, despite what Chief Operating Officer Andy McPhail would have you believe. This is the best play for Joe Girardi, and may be beneficial for the Yankees down the road, as soon as next season. It's a dead end job. He would have been fired in two years of no fault of his own. Apparently the Orioles do not allow their new manager(s) to pick their own coaching staff, a fate that doomed Lee Mazzilli (or perhaps with that team he was doomed from the start anyway). Girardi, already known as a micromanager of his teams (that seems to be the reason he was boot prematurely out of Florida) would not have any of this. Either that, or he knew it was a dead end job. Doesn't take a genius to figure that out.

Now to why this may be huge for the Yankees. It's simple enough. It looks as if Joe Torre will ride out his contract this season and leave the team, to retire or to pursue other endeavors. So the Yankees will need a new manager. While the popular opinion is that Don Mattingly is a lock for the next Yankee manager, I'm not so sure. If Joe Girardi comes in and blows everyone away with his interview like I know he can, and Mattingly disappoints which is a distinct possibility, who knows? Steinbrenner can change his opinion on a whim, and it can very well happen here. Here's to hoping.

Slammin' Sammy Sosa Hits His 600th Home Run

Just last season with the Baltimore Orioles, this man was a pariah. Now, like a phoenix arisen from the ashes of a massive steroid scandal, he has returned, crow-hopping his way to 12 home runs so far this season in the middle of the Texas Rangers lineup. Pretty amazing when you remember how it nearly ended. Sosa declined a $500,000 contract with the Washington Nationals. That's right, the only team to offer the beleaguered slugger a contract was the woe-begotten Nationals. Declining the offer, Sammy Sosa was believed to be fading away into black in terms of his baseball career, after this one last hurrah with the Orioles. But it was not to be. The Rangers owner Tom Hicks extended a major league contract to Sosa for the 2007 season, giving Sosa one last chance. And he has made the best of it so far.

Creatine scandal or not, this is a pretty good story. No matter what you think about Sammy Sosa, he will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. 600 home runs, steroid era or not, is a 100 percent guarantee of an induction, like 500 home runs used to be. Sigh....those were the days.

How depressing: Rockies 6, Yankees 1

Wow, that game was very demoralizing. Andy Pettitte rolled through the game, seemingly in control. However, so did Rockies pitcher Jeff Francis. Like I had predicted, the Yankees were ahead 1-0 on a RBI double by none other than Derek Jeter, scoring Melky Cabrera who also doubled. Alas, the game was not to be a good one for the Yankees, as Pettitte who was in control lost that control walking the pitcher Francis, and with two outs letting up a homer to one of the better players in all of baseball, Matt Holliday. The picture to your left is Pettitte right after the behemoth bomb. Things continued to get grim after that homer. The Yankee offense rolled over and died in one of the more pathetic half innings I have seen in a while in the top of the seventh. After this, Pettitte resumed his outing and got into further trouble, allowing a run and it was 3-1 Rockies.

Here is where I take issue with Joe Torre. Kaz Matsui up at the plate, Pettitte clearly laboring, and Torre keeps him in, instead of the suddenly decent Luis Vizcaino. So, what happens? You guessed it. Matsui hits a two RBI triple aided by a Hideki Matsui misplay in the leftfield corner. The Rockies would later add another run and the Yankees would go out like sheep in the eighth and ninth innings. Final score 6-1 Rockies.

WP: J. Francis (7-5)
LP: A. Pettitte (4-5)

New York Yankees: 35-34
Colorado Rockies-37-34

Yankees vs. Rockies

The Rockies love it when the Yankees come to town. They have trouble drawing crowds to the park at other times but when the Yankees show up that's no issue. Not a seat left in the house last night as far as I could see. What gets me about the Rockies and the Yankees coming to town is this: they double the prices of every seat for the Yankees games. Talk about sleazy. They're struggling to gather fan support for a team that really isn't that bad (two games over .500) so the thing to do is to cater to the fan base, not alienate it by making a cash grab. But maybe they are right in doing this...80 percent of that crowd seemed to be Yankees fans anyway, so it's not like they'll be back when the Yankees are gone. A solid fan base can be had in Colorado, it was proven when they drew in excess of 4 million in their inaugural season. However they need to make a playoff run before the fans come back...

Anyway, I'm rambling. Here are the lineups for tonight:

YANKEES
Cabrera CF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Rodriguez 3B
Posada C
Matsui LF
Cano 2B
Phillips 1B
Pettitte LHP (4-4, 2.93)

ROCKIES
Tavares CF
Matsui 2B
Holliday LF
Helton 1B
Atkins 3B
Hawpe RF
Tulowitzki SS
Torrealba C
Francis LHP (6-5, 3.61)

The Rockie batters have not experience much success at all against Pettitte. That coupled with how well Andy has pitched this season has me predicting a Yankees win over the talented Rockie team and their starting pitcher, who happens to be very good, Jeff Francis. Again, my prediction: 4-2 Yankees the final.

Welcome to the Made in 1903 Blog

For a honest opinion on the New York Yankees by myself. My name is Dan, I've been a Yankee fan since birth, and hope to provide you with a fresh perspective on the Yankees. Sometimes I can be harsh and hasty with criticism, sometimes not. All depends...on whether the Yankees are doing well or if they're not. Also, peridically I'll be letting you guys know of the side project I have going concerning the Yankees: My Yankees Fan Forum. It really is a nice place for Yankees discussion, a lot of information can be found on Yankees prospects there.