Outside of a pennant race or a playoff, the phrase “must-win” rarely has a place in baseball. The length of the schedule and the vagaries of hot-and-cold running hitters and pitchers require an ability to modulate such extremes, especially before Memorial Day has even rolled around. But last night’s 6-2 Yankee victory over the Mets …
It’s Subway Series time, and if you can detect the lack of enthusiasm here, well, that’s because the series finds the Yankees — 12th on this week’s Hit List — reeling as they head out to Shea Stadium, 18-21 and having lost their last two series. Here’s what I had to say about them: It …
I’m pleased to report that my most recent trip to Yankee Stadium, for Tuesday night’s 8-1 win over the Rangers, went considerably better than the previous outing. The Yankee offense raked Mike Wood over the coals, Alex Rodriguez went deep for the first time in 15 days (since some genius started doing Too Much Math), …
Roger Clemens was on my mind last week. Thanks to a John Perroto piece at Baseball Prospectus, incorporating him into the week’s Hit List was an inevitability, but I managed to have some fun with it: Despite the arrival of Hunter Pence, the Astros are decidedly earthbound after nine losses in 10 games, and at …
Yankees-Red Sox games in the Bronx are always tense affairs, but Saturday’s contest ratcheted the tension through the roof. For starters, the Yanks came in riding a seven-game losing streak, their longest since the end of the 2000 season (their 0-fer on the Hit List stuck out like a sore thumb). They’d lost four straight …
As I cobble together this week’s Hit List, here’s a link to a New York Sun piece I did on Alex Rodriguez’s hot start. Sun articles are now free, but here’s a taste if you need extra encouragement: Before A-Rod this spring, only three hitters have hit more than 11 homers in April — Pujols, …
You call that a four-consecutive-homer onslaught? Puh-lease. While a few of my Baseball Prospectus colleagues were frothing at the mouth that the Red Sox’ back-to-back-to-back-to-back jacks last night was something they’d never seen, I could only remind them that one doesn’t have to go back any further than last September 18 for a precedent. That’s …
It’s a glorious spring weekend in New York City, the first nice one of the year, sunny with temperatures skirting 80 degrees. With the Tompkins Square Park grass emitting a siren call for outdoor fun, my wife inspired me to buy a new mitt, since the Rawlings Greg Luzinski special (RBG80) I’ve been using since …
(continued from here)Prior to stepping out on Wednesday night, I touched base with Alex Belth, and we mutually derided anyone insane enough to sit through the cold weather of early-season contests. “I’m happy to tough it out in October…” declared Alex. Agreeing, I completed his thought: “But now? Fuck it.” I was quickly forced to …
Having already established that the good folks at Yanksfan Vs. Soxfan have fine taste in interview subjects, today the blog offers a tête- à-tête with Peter Abraham. Abraham covers the Yankees beat for the Westchester Journal News, but it’s his accompanying Lohud Yankees Blog which sets him apart from most other beat reporters by providing …