Showing posts with label Nick Swisher. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nick Swisher. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Don't count on first place until the season is over

While the Yankees' four-game sweep of the Red Sox was undoubtedly the highlight of the season so far, don't go polishing the 2009 AL East trophy just yet.

Remember how the Mets squandered a 7 game lead in 2007 with 17 games left to play? I sure do - it's one of my favorite things to taunt Squawker Jon about!

So having a 6.5 game lead (now 5.5 games) in the middle of August is sweet, but obviously, it's no guarantee the Yankees will win the division.

Now that I've gotten the "raining on the victory parade" part of the blog over, let me do a little gloating about this weekend. Whatever happened to the so-called Best Bullpen in Baseball? Or the low risk, high reward signings like John Smoltz? Or John Henry's tweets? Or Dice-K's gyroball? I asked one of our Red Sox fan readers on Facebook if the gyroball was like a snipe!

Seeing the Sox get knocked around at the Stadium was great fun. So much fun, in fact, that last night's loss against the Blue Jays didn't bother me at all!

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In other news, I've written a piece for The Faster Times comparing Alex Rios and Nick Swisher. Turns out, Ken Williams may have been better keeping Swisher, than picking up Rios.

One other note - there's only a few hours to vote for your least favorite Red Sox!

What do you think? Leave us a comment!

Monday, June 8, 2009

Yankees are 'comeback kids' against Tampa Bay


This weekend, one of our readers anonymously opined about the difference between Squawker Jon and me. Jon, the reader said, sounds "like Eeyore" (hmmm, does that make me Tigger?) Meanwhile, I assume "every game should be a Yankees victory, and any decision that is slightly against [my] team is a travesty." And that's a problem, why, exactly?

Fortunately, this season it appears that the Yankees feel the same way; Johnny Damon was recently quoted saying something like that. No, not that Squawker Jon is Eeyore, but about how the Yankees have swagger this year. "We think we can win every game," Damon told the New York Post.

And Nick Swisher posted this on his Twitter account yesterday: "Comeback kids strike again. Awesome game today. Never quit attitude. Amazing."

Anyhow, it's getting to the point where no matter what kind of hole the Yanks are in, you can expect them to make some sort of thrilling comeback rally in late innings. I missed hearing parts of the first half of yesterday's game (like the Jeter bunt controversy) but I did listen to the last few innings, so I got to hear the great Yankee comeback. (But hearing it isn't as exciting as seeing it, and doesn't really paint the full picture of what happened!)

Squawker Jon told me the other day that it's no surprise the Yanks keep on having all these come-from-behind wins, giving that they have a great lineup playing in a bandbox. But yesterday's rally had more to do with small ball than the long ball.

Squawker reader Bostowned said this last week about the Yankees, and I tend to agree:
This team is different. As a fan, I see a 3 game sweep I immediately think...well lets see how they do in the next series against a better team. Then they sweep them. Then I start thinking...hmm....well I wonder how well they'll respond after they finally lose a series. Will they lose all confidence as I've seen so many times in the past? Nope, went on to take the next 2 series. After the last 20 games, Im ready to believe that this team isn't the 2004-2008 teams at all. Nothing seems to get them down and break their confidence. Every game appears winnable no matter what the score is or who's on the mound.
Yesterday not only had a thrilling rally, but Mariano Rivera earning the WWE belt for his save, which included getting Evan Longoria out this time! But the real MVP of yesterday's game, and the unsung hero of this season, was Alfredo Aceves, who pitched two scoreless innings to keep the Yankees in the game. He mentioned something about wanting to be like Ramiro Mendoza in Suzyn Waldman's postgame interview with him. As Suzyn pointed out, he's done his homework!
Good stuff.

I'm guessing, though, that Joba Chamberlain's performance yesterday will push Mike Francesa to go on yet another rant about how he should pitch in the bullpen. Good grief.

What do you think? Leave us a comment!