D.O. speaks:

The Yankees scouted Garza in 2005, but they passed on him with the 17th pick and grabbed a high school shortstop, C. J. Henry. The Minnesota Twins took Garza eight picks later, and now he is 11-8 for the Rays.

Oppenheimer recognizes that [there are no bats close to the majors], but he said it was hard to draft for specific needs.

“You start trying to keyhole things, and what happens is guys start moving up your board that probably shouldn’t be that high,” he said. “You start emphasizing to your scouts that you’re looking for a shortstop, and then every shortstop they see, they’re going to put him higher than he should be, just because he’s a shortstop." 

It's easy to get frustrated waiting for prospects to develop.  But we have to remember that more bust than make it.  The key is to deploy your resources well.  For the last several years, Oppenheimer has drafted pitchers early, mixing some lower ceiling solid bets like IPK with some gambles like Joba.  The Yanks have taken chances on several high risk, high reward bats because those were the best guys left on the board.  For the bats, it hasn't worked out.  But you only have to strike gold like that once in a while for it to dramatically strengthen the farm (and, eventually, the team).

For a while, the Yanks have followed a pattern of drafting pitchers while buying foreign bats.  It seems to be as good a plan as any I've seen.

If Giambi, Abreu, and Pudge all sign with new teams the Yanks should have a bunch of high draft picks, although they'll give one up on Sabathia.  Watch this next draft class closely.

Girardi stuck with Rasner too long.  I'll grant his pitch count wasn't high (83), and he'd been throwing strikes (61) but I don't let him face Zaun.  

Cano nonchalanted the throw, contributing an error to the inning.

Does anyone expect Marte to be effective at this point?  I know he had an injury that Girardi wouldn't talk about, but I would have stuck with Bruney at that point.

I know Arod grounded into a double play, but against BJ Ryan it's hard to be too critical.  Blame this one on the pitching that allowed 7 runs, and on the (mis)management.

Today we are all Twins fans.

Exhibit A via LoHud:

Pre-game question to Joe Girardi: “Marte has thrown 12 pitches in the last nine days, you haven’t used him much. Is he OK physically?”

Answer: “Oh, he’s fine. I had him up last night. Physically he’s OK.”

Question: “It seems strange because he hasn’t pitched much.”

Answer: “No, no. It’s just when the situation presents itself.”

Question to Marte after the game: “You had a few days off, did you feel strong today?”

Answer: “I did. For the last week I’ve had inflammation in my elbow. That has been bothering me. I needed a break.”

Is it possible that Joe G thinks his life is a sitcom?  Does he pause after saying things like this to wait for the laughtrack?

Exhibit B:

Tigers Thoughts projects the Elias rankings.

Pudge is on the cutoff from A to B, so he'd need a strong finish to net a pair of draft picks.  Abreu is a lock for an A, but a weak finish by Giambi could drop him out of B status.

Exhibit C:

The Yankees are on pace to score 784 runs, down 184 from last season.

They're on pace to allow 726 runs, down only 51 from last season.

I missed this yesterday, but it looks like Joba's return will involve setting up for Rivera. It's like 2007 all over again!  The more things change...

This won't reignite the "starter-reliever" debate, will it?

Personally,  I don't bring Joba back at all unless the Yanks win their next five in a row, while the Red Sox and Twins/White Sox struggle.  If we're not within 3 with 25 to play, let the kid sit and fully recover.

"We've always thought of him as a starter," manager Joe Girardi said Friday. "That's how I still think of him.
"There's not a lot of time to build up, so we might have to be creative how we build him up. ... We're not exactly sure how we're going to do it."

I don't want creative gambles in September 6 games out of the wild card.

From an email I received today:

I’m a Bronx native and lifelong Yankees fan though transplanted to Atlanta for the last 13 years. I think it’s a tragedy that Yankee Stadium is going to be torn down after the season... It should stand so others can appreciate it.

Memories like that just won’t mean the same thing at “New” Yankee Stadium. Babe Ruth, Joe D., Mickey Mantle and Reggie Jackson will never be a part of that place as they are in the original House That Ruth Built.

 

The Stadium is a national treasure, part of our country’s history and our heritage as New Yorkers. It should be a landmark; especially when it is still more than capable of benefiting the community economically. Yankee Stadium could be a museum, a shopping mall, a recreational sports complex or maybe all of the above. They could bring a branch of the Hall of Fame there. The Stadium could create jobs and revenue while allowing us to preserve a piece of our history for future generations.

 

I’ve started a web site called SaveYankeeStadium.org to help gather support for the Stadium and have asked visitors to sign a petition. We would love to have you visit and check it out and we’d definitely appreciate it if you would consider linking to the site from your blog. The site has only been live for a couple of days, but it looks like the word is starting to get around and people have been very generous in sharing their opinions.

While I agree with the sentiment, I'm afraid it's too little, far too late.  Part of the Stadium deal was the agreement that Old Yankee Stadium will become a park and Little League field.

One of the reasons that this deal is happening is that the Old Stadium stands on public ground, so the Yanks pay rent.  If I understand it correctly, New Stadium's land was sold to the Steinbrenners, so once the construction cost are paid off (will the generous support of John Q. Public) the Yankees will redefine "cash cow."

I don't know why Yankee fans never got a grassroots "Save the Stadium" going.

Maybe we'd simply listened to big Stein make so much noise about moving the team over the years that we didn't take the possibility of a new stadium seriously until way too late.  I'd believe any fan who told me that keeping the team in the Bronx was/is enough.

Maybe the remodel in the '70s sapped the place of that much of its nostalgia; it hosted championships in the late '70s and again in the late '90s, but Renovated Yankee Stadium is farther removed from Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, and Mantle than most sports writers will admit.  No one waxes poetic about the '80s.  

Check out his site, sign the petition.  Then gather up you best photos of the Stadium and got buy a couple frames.

(clap clap clap-clap-clap)

Edwantsacracker and I were on hand for Jeter's 2000th hit- a squib that should have been a throwing error on the catcher.

#2500 wasn't much more impressive; it was just a dying quail that Brian Roberts couldn't get back on.  The ball hit Roberts' glove, but the degree of difficulty spared him the error.

Here's hoping Jeter's 3000th is a ringing double down the right field line.