If they didn't sign him to pitch agains the Red Sox, just what did they sign him for?

Don't give me "well, he won't be ready for the weekend"- he's Roger Clemens, for God's sake!

Yankee management has done nothing but protect him in the big spot, over the years.

As far as the situation at hand, this season, it's really getting thisclose to being lost.

Well, you have to admit - they don't know how he'll perform at the Major League level quite yet...he's still essentially in Spring Training right now. So to expect him to run the gauntlet against Boston in his first start may be a bit much.

That being said, fuck it. I think Clemens now gives you a better chance to win than Mussina.

Yankees' Hughes sprains ankle

TORONTO -- Phil Hughes, one of baseball's top pitching prospects, has a Grade 3 sprain of the left ankle that is expected to set the hurler back an additional four to six weeks in his efforts to rejoin the Yankees' Major League roster.

Hughes, a 20-year-old right-hander, rolled his ankle while performing conditioning exercises Friday at Legends Field in Tampa, Fla., where he was rehabilitating a strained left hamstring.

The Grade 3 diagnosis is considered the most severe possible strain, in which one or more ligaments are stretched and completely torn. The Yankees made Hughes' results public Wednesday, prior to the club's game against the Toronto Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre.

Yankees officials had hoped Hughes would return in mid-June. But now with the setback, the hurler won't even throw off a mound until somewhere from late June to early July.

The Yankees' first-round selection in the June 2004 First-Year Player Draft, Hughes made two starts for the Yankees this season, making his Major League debut on April 26 and suffering a loss against Toronto at Yankee Stadium.

Hughes' second start was far more impressive, as Hughes carried a no-hitter through 6 1/3 innings in a May 1 start against the Texas Rangers before feeling a grabbing sensation in the back of his left leg, which was later diagnosed as a Grade 1 strain of his left hamstring.

Hughes was 1-1 with a 3.38 ERA in two Major League starts this season, striking out 11 and walking four in 10 2/3 innings. He also made three starts at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, going 2-1 with a 3.94 ERA.

Source: Yankees

It's an omen.

They should have kept the plan and had him pitch full time in 2008. Quit while we're ahead - we know he's a phenom. Let him recover, and get ready for next season.

In the meantime, shop for a decent pitcher...unless of course you feel confident in DeSalvo and Clippard long-term...

His mom's maiden name is Pavano.

Anyone see last night's game? And does anyone think that ARod actually called the ball as he was running to 3rd?? He did have just the teensiest smile on his face...

And it sure was nice to see Mo back to his old self. Perhaps he just remembered that his contract is up this year??

Yeah, if that isn't enough, let's worry about Stray-Rod. If the Post story is true, he's really lost me as a fan (not that he cares, but...). He can hit the ball three miles, but anybody who betrays his wife and kids is a piece of trash.



...especially anyone who has as hot of a wife as he does.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18937267/

.............and 2 year old daughter.

You'll be a fan again if he becomes WS (haha) MVP or something like that as a Yankee.

Not defending him, of course, because that was a very bush league act on his part.

His wife IS beautiful. However, does he really think that, as famous as he is, he could go out in public with another woman and someone WOULDN'T take their picture?? Little head talking....

The elbow to Pedroia was bush league; Calling "mine" was bush league; and the karate chop to Bronson Arroyo in the AL Championship series was bush league (and hurt his team).

He's a world class talent with a fourth grade mindset. His cheap stunt last night may have gotten a run, but it bought him a fastball between the 1 and the 3. It also lost him some respect among his peers, and shows why he doesn't have many friends in the game. If you get a chance to see Bowa's reaction after the discussion between A-Rod and the infielders, you can see he was embarrassed.

In the post game interview A-Rod lied twice. First, he sheepishly denied yelling "Mine", and that was confirmed by several; then he said this happens to him 3-4 times per week. I'd like to see if Jeter confirms this because I would bet the third out of an inning on a fair pop up to third with a player rounding second doesn't even happen 4 times a week.

I don't think it is a major incident, but it is another incident that shows how bush league he is.

I guess that ARod has so many other gifts, he doesn't mind the fact that he was in the restroom when they passed out "class".

Jeter, on the other hand, now he's the whole package.

I'm sure my perspective of the Yankees is clouded because I've always disliked them. But still, SB, Jeter is the whole package. He's a pro and all-star in every sense of the word. He knows how to conduct himself on and off the field, which isn't easy, given his stature in sports and his celebrity in New York.

I guess I shouldn't be hard on A-Rod by the way. there are worse things going on in the sport, and he's nowhere near as bad as AJ Pierzinsky.

As Frankie 5 angels says "And everything with them is whores -- whores!"

Or not.

With regards to the A-Rod plays being "bush league," give me a break. Ty Cobb is laughing at this kind of stuff. This is amateur hour compared to what has been done in the past. And other sports all have this sort of thing - football, for example, has hard counts and linemen try to throw each other off all the time - so frankly, this stuff may not happen as often as A-Rod says it does, but it does happen. So, I really don't see any issue with this, except ESPN constantly playing it over, and will probably bring in an audio expert on Baseball Tonight.

It's not how I played the game, or how I want my kids to play the game, or my Little League team, but again, I don't see anything fundamentally wrong with it, given the Yankees situation, the prevalence of such plays in Major League baseball, and the past history of baseball as a game of questionable plays.

Hell, its not like he sharpened his spikes and slid into second, right?

I agree that there has been a history of bush league stunts in baseball, and cobb, while recognized as one of the greatest (if not THE greatest) ball players, is widely regarded as one of the dirtiest. That there is precedent of some cheap stunts, however, doesn't make A-Rod's stunt any less bush league. As I said earlier, it's not the worst thing that's happened in the game, but baseball has its own way of getting back at you. For better or worse, he'll probably take a fastball between the shoulder blades later in the season, and everyone moves on.

I would hate to see this type of crap become the norm.

I think the lie is what gets me,H eis so full of shit,

but then again I think his wife has hear enough of them (lies) from him also.

Like this hasn't been going on all year. Watch the Yankees-Red Sox games this weekend. You're guaranteed to see 1-3 "name" Yankees (i.e. Jeter, A-Rod, Posada) get plunked every game without any retaliation (unless something has changed from the Torre era randomly).

It's ridiculous how much shit he's catching for saying "ha!" Wow. It's exactly as DJ pointed out earlier, it's just like hard counts in football. This is not really bush league at all to me.

The fact that the third baseman was FAKED OUT by a simple "ha" is a bit more bush league than anything.

Don't know if it's true or not, but I heard on WCBS this morning that if you Google the words "bush league", you get ARod!

DJ, I, too, am sick of the Yankees getting hit when they're up at bat. It's gotten to the point that it's ridiculous. And if any other team had experienced the number of injuries that the Yankees have the past few seasons, everyone would be soooooo sympathetic (witness the Red Sox last year). Instead, it's demanded of the Yankees that they win DESPITE their injuries.

I agree that it is embarrassing for a big leaguer to get faked on that. But A-Rod didn't yell "Ha." He deliberately called for the ball. The reaction of the third baseman wasn't one of being startled; it was one of being called off.

In recent Little League games i've seen the bench of an opposing team scream, "Miss it!" just before an outfielder caught a fly ball; I saw a third baseman push a runner off base and tag him (and actually get the out call to the delight of the parents on his team; and last season I saw a catcher ejected and suspended an additional game for yelling "Swing!" when a pitch was thrown.

They're starting out young.

I don't think it was that big a deal. Shame on the Toronto infield.

What IS a big deal is the fact that he just can't keep out of the newspapers. Whether it's his fault or not, the media is never going to be kind to him because of his enormous salary and the pea brained decisions he makes in his personal life (maybe the blonde stripper was helping him work on his next children's book?). The fans here, as a whole, don't seem to want him. My nephew is in grade school and the kids on his little league team don't want him. Now that's more of an indictment on their parents, but still, if an 8 year old NYC kid doesn't want to wear your jersey, you've got problems.

My point is that I really think the Yankees will be happier if he just opts out after the season. I'm reasonably sure that he'll be happier, too.

This was a cheap thing to do period. He is a well paid professional who should act accordingly. Let us hope that the Yankees are not that hard up to be doing this kind of bullshit.

Then try and lay the blame on the infielder is just wrong. I hope his old lady cuts off his pecker and takes him to the cleaners.

Wait till he hears other teams fans yelling at him. "I got it" when the ball is hit towards him.

Who cares. If you're the infielder you should know the difference and not be so damn gullible. Period.

The infidelity is definitley lower than bush league though, and really has nothing to do with this.

Yes it does, it shows what the guy he is really is.

If it looks like shit and smells like shit then it is shit. You don't have to taste it to know it for sure.

Don't worry, he will get his. You just wait.

Ok seriously, what's in the water in New York?

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Giambi's return in question

NEW YORK -- Yankees slugger Jason Giambi will be shelved for at least three weeks and could miss the remainder of the season with torn tissue in the arch of his left foot.

Giambi, 36, was examined in New York on Thursday by Dr. William Hamilton, an orthopedic foot and ankle specialist. Giambi has been told he has plantar fasciitis and a partial tear of his plantar fascia, the band of tissue connecting his heel to his toes.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman characterized Giambi's injury as "severe" and said that he has been told Giambi could miss a span of at least three to six weeks. The Yankees plan to re-evaluate Giambi's condition after three weeks.

"Three to six weeks is just a guesstimate," Cashman said. "It could be longer. Nobody's told me about season-ending, but at the same time, he's going to be ready when he's ready."

The tear is not expected to require surgery and was believed to have been suffered on Tuesday at Rogers Centre in Toronto, as Giambi ran out a home run to left-center field off the Blue Jays' Scott Downs.

Giambi -- who stole a base earlier in the game and advanced to third on an error -- appeared to limp noticeably after rounding the second-base bag and gingerly completed his trip around the bases. He later admitted that he'd felt a "pop."

"When you heard that, you knew something wasn't right," Cashman said.

"I saw the Babe Ruth look there when he was running around the bases," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "He was in a great deal of pain."

Giambi has been placed in a walking boot, and the Yankees officially placed Giambi on the 15-day disabled list prior to Friday's game at Fenway Park in Boston, where the club opened a three-game series with the Red Sox.

Giambi had been noticeably hobbled by pain in his left foot for the better part of two weeks, which has limited his ability to push off while batting because the injury affects his back, or plant, foot.

"[Losing Giambi] hurts, but he's been playing with that bad foot for a period of time, and he hasn't been able to be the same hitter that we all know," Cashman said.

During the Yankees' three-game series in Toronto, Giambi successfully lobbied the training staff to allow him to return to New York in hopes of receiving a cortisone injection in the heel of his foot, which Giambi thought would permit him to quell the pain for the series against the Red Sox.

"I do fine for one day, and then I struggle for three," Giambi said on Tuesday. "We obviously need me to be that player that I am, where I can help carry the team. Singles aren't really going to get it done. I've got to be able to drive the ball."

Instead, a precautionary MRI revealed the injury to Giambi's plantar fascia, which Cashman said was not in the original examinations and did not show a complete tear.

Yankees outfielder Johnny Damon said he learned of Giambi's status while watching the news ticker crawl across a television channel.

"It wasn't what we were expecting," Damon said. "If we would have known, we would have just had him fly to Boston with us."

In 45 games for New York, Giambi is batting .262 with seven home runs and 23 RBIs. He batted just .172 (10-for-58) in his injury-marred May.

Cashman said that Giambi will not travel on the road with the club, as he has been instructed to remain in New York and begin the healing process.

"It doesn't make sense to have him on the road," Cashman said. "He'd want to be with the club to root them on and all that stuff, but there's no treatment. All he has to do is wait."

In Giambi's absence, the Yankees plan to use Melky Cabrera as a regular player in the outfield while allowing Damon to serve as a designated hitter for the majority of the time, so he can get more mileage from his aching body.

"You certainly don't want to deal without Jason, but he was in and out, and when he was in, he was hurting," Torre said. "This may be a blessing in disguise. We know who we have and we know what we're going to do."

Source: Yankees

No love from Joe

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Torre: A-Rod's faux call was 'inappropriate'

BOSTON (AP) - Even Joe Torre says Alex Rodriguez was out of line.

The New York Yankees manager concluded A-Rod shouldn't have distracted a Toronto fielder this week during a popup, joining a chorus of baseball people who said the two-time AL MVP broke the sport's unwritten code.

"He may have been excited about the fact that we were leading the ballgame," Torre said Friday before his team's series opener at Boston. "It was probably inappropriate to do it at the time he did it, but you can't change it, unfortunately."

The play occurred in the ninth inning of New York's 10-5 win at Toronto on Wednesday night.

With the Yankees leading 7-5, Rodriguez was on first base and ran hard when Jorge Posada popped up. As he ran near third baseman Howie Clark, Rodriguez said something - 'Hah!' according to Rodriguez, 'Mine," according to Clark. The ball dropped for a run-scoring single.

When the game ended, many Toronto players stayed on the bench, staring at Rodriguez and New York players.

"They were angry," Torre said. "Oh, there's no question. I can't say I blame them, but what are you going to do about it? What's happened has happened."

Torre said he spoke with Rodriguez after the game.

"It's probably something he shouldn't have done," Torre said. "I don't sense he's going to do it again."

Torre didn't explicitly tell Rodriguez not to do it, and Rodriguez didn't say he wouldn't, according to the manager, but it was clear to Torre there will be no repeat. A-Rod wasn't available to reporters before the game.

"When you know somebody, you sort of have a conversation and it's what you get out of it," Torre said. "I think he was probably uncomfortable with" the reaction.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman wasn't convinced Rodriguez did anything wrong.

"I'm not sure what the difference between that and the hidden-ball trick is, or a catcher dekeing at home plate that a ball is not coming in and the last second he gets the ball and drops the tag down," Cashman said. "I'm kind of indifferent to it, because I was looking at it, trying to figure out, is this something that's not right?"

Cashman said he had heard reports that some players do the same thing and others that it doesn't happen.

It did happen in the bottom of the second inning Friday when the Red Sox had the bases loaded and two outs. J.D. Drew hit a popup short of third base. As Rodriguez camped under it, fans started screaming. He made the catch and threw the ball to a fan as he left the field. The fan threw it back onto the field.

Cashman said he wasn't sure the play in Toronto was "that big a deal, to be quite honest. But, obviously, other people had issues with it."

"Alex, New York, biggest contract, biggest team," Cashman said. "That's combustible right there. If this is in Kansas City, it probably would be a story that wouldn't have lasted two days. It's a longer story and a louder story because it's New York and it's Alex Rodriguez."

Source: FOX Sports

At least they got the W tonight against Boston. Hopefully Moose can keep it up tomorrow against Schilling but I doubt it

It was wonderful to see them win last night, in spite of the bad call at third. Poor Abreu finally starts hitting the damn ball, and look what happens!! Nice to see Torre actually exhibit a little fire for once! I think we need to see more of that.

As for the call, ARod is ARod. Love him or hate him, he's still one of the best players in the history of the game.