The National League is the only league left anywhere that pitchers still bat.  While I'm of a younger generation, I still consider myself a big time historical baseball aficionado.  And I can see both sides of the argument, strategy and purity and tradition vs. offense and entertainment, I get it.  That being said its really stupid and boring to watch pitchers bat.

I say this coming from the perspective of a Yankees fan, American League baseball fan and as someone who has known nothing but the DH in the AL growing up.  And to that #### Steve Phillips (are the Seattle Mariners going to rally back and make the playoffs this year Stevie?) over at ESPN who talks about the "tradition of the game," I've got news for you.

If baseball stuck to tradition Chien-Ming Wang wouldn't never gotten hurt running the bases.  Know how I know how?  Because if baseball stuck to tradition and never installed inter-league play, American and National League teams wouldn't meet until the World Series in October and hence Wang never would've been running the bases because the Yankees wouldn't have been playing in Houston, but maybe in Arlington you know against a team in their own league who they've still yet to play this season! 

Does this come off a bit as sour grapes?  Sure.  Could Wang have gotten hurt as easily running sprints in the outfield warming up?  Possibly.  Say what you will of how fluky the injury was or how asinine it is that anybody would come up lame like that just simply running the bases, but the point is Wang should've never been on the bases to begin with.

I've voiced my opinion in previous posts about my feelings on instant replay and the wild card and while NL owners stick with the pitcher batting for financial reasons, I have no use for it as a fan.

Nobody wants to see a pitcher bat in the All-Star Game, but it can still happen in an NL park.  Sure it makes things interesting in the 6th or 7th inning strategy wise, but in the 3rd or 4th inning with runners at the corners and two outs, nobody in their right minds wants to see the pitcher come up to the plate.  One could even argue that in a close game in the AL, the manager of the team with the lead has to make more of a decision strategically.  Do I leave my starter in to face the power hitting DH or do I go to my pen, or do I go to my pen because there's basically no easy automatic outs in the lineup.  In the NL if I'm a manager with the lead and the pitcher comes up, there's no way my starter is coming out, so I sit there and say ok go strike 'em out kid! 

If you enjoyed watching Billy Crystal batting in Spring Training, then knock yourself out, because like him most pitchers are an automatic out, but the sad thing is these guys aren't 60 years old either.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then the New York Yankees may want to follow the lead of the Boston Red Sox in grabbing what could be a bargain of a pitcher.  While the Red Sox inked Bartolo Colon to a minor league pact, the Yankees would be equally wise to inquire about the services of Freddy Garcia. 

Though Garcia may not be ready until about June or July, he's well worth the risk.  Because aside from his injury last season, only once in his career (2000) has he ever not hit at least 200 innings in a season.  As evidenced by their 2007 campaign, one can never have enough pitching and Garcia seems to fit the bill as a solid insurance policy.  He's even younger than Colon and would add an effective veteran presence to the staff, even moreso than Roger Clemens did when he joined the staff last June. 

Signing Garcia if even for a short time works well for the Yankees needs.  If say for instance Andy Pettitte is worn down by off-field distractions, Mike Mussina really is over the hill, Phil Hughes pops a hammy, Ian Kennedy is back down in Wilkes-Barre and Joba Chamberlain is desperately needed in an ultra-thin bullpen, Garcia could truly be that pick-me-up the Yankees need.  Now hopefully none of those things happen, but this could also be a beyond 2008 plus for the Yanks. 

Assuming Garcia pitches well, at 33 as one of the veterans on the staff he could take Mussina's spot in the rotation after his contract is up or if for some reason Pettitte decides to ultimately hang 'em up. 

Garcia is also needed because if the Yankees truly plan to limit the amount of innings on their young trio of Hughes-Chamberlain-Kennedy, to say 150 innings a piece, it is paramount to have someone to be able to eat those innings.  Another plus out of this is that unlike Roger Clemens, this won't cost them $28 million either.

Did I mention that Garcia also has an impressive post-season resume?  Overall he is 6-2 with a 3.11 ERA and 45 K's in 55 innings.  He won a ring with the Chicago White Sox in 2005, pitching a gem in the World Series against the Houston Astros allowing no runs in seven innings striking out seven along the way to pick up the win.  His first post-season win if you're wondering came at... Yankee Stadium.

Peter Angelos says that despite complaints from the Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays, steroids have done nothing to "diminish our 4th place dynasty."  Angelos' Baltimore Orioles have finished in 4th place every season since 1998 except for 2004 when they "miraculously" or "su####iously" ended the season in 3rd. 

Rays owner Cheapskate McDouchebag, whose team has only finished out of the AL East cellar once (2004) since their inception in 1998, said "no wonder we can't compete, not only are we playing against Major League teams, but now they feel they have to cheat and beat us by 30 runs instead."  The O's owner also dismissed complaints from the Rays only to say, "if you're not cheating you're not trying and its only cheating if you get caught, besides we're the one's who got creamed 30-3 by the Texas Rangers this past season for crying out loud, so get off our backs!" 

As for that 2004 season, coincedentally enough that was the year former New York Yankees bench coach Lee Mazzilli brought all of his steroid needles from the Yankee clubhouse and green-tea from Joe Torre to manage the O's.  Rafael Palmeiro, Miguel Tejada, Brian Roberts, David Segui, Larry Bigbie, Jay Gibbons and Jason Grimsley among others played for Baltimore that season as well.  I mean seriously just because the O's roided up in 2004 doesn't mean their 3rd place finish does anything to disparage their 4th place dynasty.  I mean Roberts' 50 two-baggers and Miggie's 150 Ribbies were just career years right?

After all it wouldn't be until Sammy Sosa joined the club in 2005 that they would resume their 4th place dynasty and that is some kind of record that baseball will never be able to take away from Mr. Angelos' legacy.

Roger Clemens is overrated as a post-season starter.  Yes I give him credit for having a lot of guts and trying to give it a go in Game 3 of the ALDS.  However for all the regular season greatness, from the seven Cy Young's to the 350 plus wins and the 4,000 plus strikeouts, Clemens has disappointed in the playoffs on more than a few occasions.

Roger isn't the only geriatric to let the Yanks down in the playoffs (see Kevin Brown and Randy Johnson) and the fact that he gave the team a shot in the arm which Carl Pavano, Kei Igawa and countless rookies couldn't along with imparting his pitching knowledge onto Joba, Phil and Ian is priceless.  However for all of his accolades and accomplishments, if one had to pick a pitcher to start Game Seven of a World Series, Rocket might not be in your top 20.  Certainly not ahead of the likes of Bob Gibson, Sandy Koufax, Walter Johnson, Whitey Ford and Tom Seaver.

Thus let us chronicle the playoff failures of Roger Clemens shall we.

His team has lost 17 of his 34 playoff starts. He's either coughed up leads (8 different games, one in 2002 he blew 3 separate leads), or has left prematurely or controversially.

With Boston during the 1990 ALCS in game 4 at Oakland he gets tossed by umps with two runners on, they score, A's win 3-1 and sweep the series 4-0.  With New York in the 1999 ALCS game 2 at Fenway Park he gets blasted, the Yanks lose 13-1 for their only playoff loss that year.  In the 2001 ALDS game 1 vs. the A's, Clemens gives up solo HR's in 1st and 4th, leaves in 5th with "pulled hammy" Yanks lose 5-3.  In the all important 2003 ALCS game 7 vs. the Red Sox he gets lit for 6 hits and 4 runs in 3 innings.  With Houston during the 2005 World Series game 1 at Chicago, Clemens gives up 3 runs and 4 hits over 2 innings and leaves with a "pulled hammy," (sensing a trend here?)  With the Yankees again most recently in the 2007 ALDS against the Indians, Clemens was unable to get out of the 3rd inning with a pulled hammy, giving up 3 runs on 4 hits.  Which could've prompted Suzyn Waldman to say "Oh my God, Roger Clemens is sitting on an ice box!"  You know for that busted hammy. 

In six of his playoff starts Clemens has blown 2-0 leads: With the Red Sox in the 1986 World Series game 6 at Shea Stadium against the Mets, 1988 ALCS game 2 vs. the A's, 1995 ALDS at Cleveland.  With the Yankees during the 2000 ALDS game 1 at Oakland, 2002 ALDS game 1 vs. the Angels.  With Houston in the 2004 NLCS game 7 at St. Louis, 2005 NLDS game 2 at Atlanta, 2005 NLCS game 3 vs. the Cardinals.

His teams have a 2-4 record in World Series.  He has a 4.61 ERA in Division Series play.  Left game 4 of the 2003 World Series at Florida, losing.  Had a 13.50 ERA in 2005 World Series against Chicago.  Is only a career 4-4 in LDS play, 5-4 in LCS play.  Has only 1 complete game and one shutout in 33 career playoff starts. Don't get me wrong great regular season pitcher, mediocre playoff pitcher.

And no doubt Clemens has pitched teams to the playoffs. However aside from his 2000 ALCS and World Series, (you know the one where he threw the bat at Piazza), his playoff numbers haven't quite lived up to the regular season. He essentially piggy-backed onto the Yankee dynasty after they won 125 games in 1998 and he's never won a post-season MVP award. As much as it pains me as a Yankee fan, in the playoffs I'd take Curt Schilling over him in a heartbeat to win a big game. Rocket needs to prove more.

The playoff stats and record bear it out, Clemens is overrated in the playoffs. He's never even won more than 1 game in a playoff series. Has seven post season series where his ERA in that series was over 5.00. His last three post season starts he has three strikeouts combined. He wasn't able to win a game in the 2001, 2003, or 2005 World Series. He won an MVP and Cy Young award in 1986 and couldn't win a game in the World Series against the Mets. He's certainly wasn't a lock this time around in the 2007 playoffs. 

So Roger thanks for the memories, but we've got plenty of young pitching for 2008.

     Opening day in April, outside of the Fall Classic in October it is the biggest day

for all baseball fans.  A day that is celebrated in major and minor league ballparks

across the country.  A day that for Albany never comes, at least it hasn’t for some

long time.

      How is it possible that a city like Albany, the state capital of New York, does not have at least a Double-A major league affiliated minor league baseball team?  After all upstate cities like Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse all have Triple-A teams and Binghamton has a Double-A team.  A better question might be, how could the city and county of Albany dare let the Double-A minor league affiliate of the New York Yankees, leave town after the 1994 season?

     That’s correct, for those of you not from or not familiar with the Albany area, Yankees once played here.  From 1985-1994 the Albany Colonie Yankees, a Double-A Eastern League minor league affiliate of the New York Yankees called Heritage Park home for ten years. 

     In fact nearly 100 or so players who made it to the major leagues honed their craft at the ballpark by the airport.  Including Yankees Captain and Shortstop Derek Jeter (’94), Catcher Jorge Posada (’93), Closer Mariano Rivera (’94) Starting Pitcher Andy Pettitte (’93-94) and recently retired Centerfielder Bernie Williams (‘89-90).  Other players who contributed to their recent run of dynastic success who played at Albany are guys like Catcher Jim Leyritz (‘88-89), Secondbasemen Andy Fox (‘93-94) reliever Brian Boehringer (’94).

      Amongst other notable names to have played here are Starting Pitcher Al Leiter, Gerald Williams, J.T. Snow, Roberto Kelly, Hal Morris, Doug Drabek, Pat Kelly, Randy Velarde, Andy Stankiewicz, Russ Davis, Sterling Hitchcock, Bob Geren and even “Primetime” himself Deion Sanders.  Current players still in the majors along with those current Yankees are Brad Ausmus, Russ Springer, and Mike DeJean.

      While their parent club in New York was essentially sleepwalking through the better part of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, Heritage Park was the place for exciting Yankee baseball on the way up to the big leagues.

     Which would explain why in 1985 Albany smashed and set the Eastern League record for attendance with over 324,003.  In fact as the Oakland A’s Double-A affiliate in 1983, Albany drew over 200,000 fans for a team that finished in last place.  Back to the Yankees though, from 1985-1987 Albany led the Eastern League in attendance and from 1985-1990 Albany was top 3 in attendance each year and if one wants to count the A’s days (1983-1984) Albany finished in the top 3 in attendance from 1983-1990.  Of course attendance figures were skewed in the last remaining years (1991-1994) due in part to a fan base that was alienated by constant rumors and attempts by ownership to move the team.

     Perhaps no more memorable moment happened than in 1986 when Yankees legend and current pitching coach Ron Guidry came to pitch in a rehab start for 3 innings in front of a packed beyond capacity crowd of 14,491.  Of course there would be other occasions where fans would see former players like Reggie Jackson or Willie Randolph around the park to help with the younger players.  Or scouts who came with radar guns by the dozen to watch former Yankee fireballing lefty prospect Brien Taylor pitch in 1993, a year before he would ruin his arm in a bar-fight.  Even in 1994 during the strike Buck Showalter who managed the Albany Colonie Yankees to a championship in 1989, their second of three (1988, 1989, 1991) with many of the players who would contribute to World Series Championships in New York, was on hand to scout players who would also contribute to those championships with Gene “Stick” Michael and Billy Connors.

     After the 1994 season the team left and along with it cheap quality minor league baseball.  Mostly because there was no local ownership and no local businesses willing to step up and keep the team in Albany.  Nobody wanted to put any money towards improvements of a ballpark that was unfortunately built before the Camden Yards era.  Failure also stemmed from the state level of government with former Governor Mario Cuomo, to local politicians in Albany County and the Town of Colonie, to Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings who years after the team left could never build a new stadium to secure another team.  Part of this has to do with minor league restrictions on having two teams within a certain mile radius of eachother.  Of course with the Single-A NY Penn League short season Houston Astros affiliate Tri-City ValleyCats playing across the river at “The Joe,” the prospects for Albany are none too good.  While I will agree that “The Joe” is a beautiful state of the art minor league ballpark, the problem that exists is that college and high school teams use the field from March through May, which is the season starting time for a Double-A or Triple-A team.

     From living in Albany now going on 24 years one of the things I’ve noticed is how people say it’s great that we’re centrally located about 2-3 hours away from other major cities like New York, Boston and Montreal.  Which is great but tell me how many people can practically go to say three games a week while plopping down $50 bucks a ticket, get home at 2am and go to work the next day?  If you said yes, then you’re a better and wealthier fan than I. With all of that having been said I’m not comparing Albany to New York City, nor am I comparing the old Heritage Park to Ebbets Field or the Polo Grounds.  However Albany and the Capital Region have a strong and rich history of great players and quality Double-A baseball.  Hopefully we’ll get it back before I have to show my kids that where Derek Jeter played Shortstop is currently a patch of dirt sitting under a nursing home or who knows what else.

The New York Yankees are engaged in a "Cold War" of sorts.  Well armed with pitching to be sure, it's all a matter of whether the Yankees fire off any of their missles in a trade or if they can get them to fire for themselves down the stretch.  Back in the 1980's the Yankees dealt away the likes of Jose Rijo, Doug Drabek and Bob Tewksbury and ended up with little or nothing to show for it.  However in the 1990's they held onto the right guys in Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera and Ramiro Mendoza and turned prospects such as Sterling Hitchcock, Eric Milton and Matt Drews into Tino Martinez, Jeff Nelson, Jim Mecir, Chuck Knoblauch and Cecil Fielder.  Now the Yankees must decide on what they'd like to do with a plethora of prospects which include: Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy, Alan Horne, Tyler Clippard, Jeff Karstens, Darrell Rasner and Jeff Marquez.

If I'm the Yankees, I'm not letting any of these guys go at the deadline period.  Not that I'm writing off the division just yet, but if this team as currently constructed with enough talent, can't catch the Cleveland Indians who are just four games ahead of them presently in the Wild Card standings, then they don't deserve to make the playoffs. 

What the Yankees should do is unload Kyle Farnsworth on somebody, call up Phil Hughes to replace the recently demoted Kei Igawa (which will happen assuming all is right, this Saturday), call up Jeff Karstens to be their long-man/spot starter out of the pen and call up Joba Chamberlain to pitch out of the pen.  The worst case scenario is for the Yankees to remain stagnant, the best case is that their moves aid them much like the 2002 Anaheim Angels where Phil Hughes becomes John Lackey and Joba Chamberlain mirrors Francisco Rodriguez. 

Would a guy like Eric Gagne, Chad Qualls or Octavio Dotel be an upgrade over Farnsworth?  Yes.  But worth the prospects?  No. 

What is all comes down to is that the Yankees can't be afraid to trust their own guys, especially their heralded prospects.  Over the last three years (2005-07) the Yankees have called up players that weren't initially on many people's radars nor were they trusted until injuries or poor play necessitated their call-ups.  It was Robinson Cano and Chien-Ming Wang who were called up two years ago to replace failures like Tony Womack, Kevin Brown and Jaret Wright.  Last year it was Melky Cabrera getting called up due to the injuries of Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui.  This season it's Andy Phillips getting the every day nod in place of the off-season disaster situation at 1st.  In summary, Cano, Cabrera and Phillips while pumping life into this club as every day regulars are all hitting around or over .300 on the season and Wang has 12 wins as the ace of the staff after missing almost a month of the season. 

While it would be nice for the Yankees to also further upgrade their bench at the deadline, they'll likely have to hope that Jason Giambi can come back at full strength either as a power bat off the bench or as a DH.  If Giambi can come back at 100% it would do wonders for the type of protection A-Rod needs.  Because A-Rod knows that he has to be the guy to knock in runs consistently given the fact that others usually don't and thus with opposing pitchers knowing that, they aren't giving A-Rod anything to hit, which in turn is frustrating A-Rod and making him impatient at the plate.  A healthy Giambi would curb that.  However what a healthy Giambi should not curb is the playing-time of the surging Melky Cabrera.

Hall of Fame Perspective: Anyone happen to notice about 70,000 fans descended upon Cooperstown this weekend?  This was for two guys in Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. who transcended the game, were class acts and were guys who you could just respect and admire watching as a fan no matter what team you rooted for.  Imagine then given the proximity of New York Yankees and New York Mets fans state and city wide with Cooperstown in their own backyard so to speak, just how jam packed that place will get when players like Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Alex Rodriguez, Roger Clemens and Mike Piazza all get inducted one day?  Perhaps we'll get a barometer and a small taste for that next year when Goose Gossage is finally enshrined at Cooperstown. 

Lately there's been this notion of how Roger Clemens' package deal somehow disgraces the mystique of the New York Yankees.  To detractors such as David Wells and Phil Garner, I say go out and get your own contract negotiated in that fashion.  I don't even necessarily bash the Yankees for doing this because imagine if they hadn't accomodated him and then lost Clemens to Boston or Houston?

There's no mistake the mystique left the Yankees when the ball left the bat of Luis Gonzalez in November of 2001.  They started going after guys who were bigger than the team.  The Yankees replaced two of their classier guys in Tino Martinez and Paul O'Neill with Jason Giambi and his steroid problems and Raul Mondesi and his attitude problems.  They made a foolish trade of Ted Lilly for Jeff Weaver and gave a boatload of money to Jose Contreras solely so that Boston couldn't get him.

In 2004 they essentailly sold their heart and soul, allowing character guys in Andy Pettitte and Clemens to go, while dealing for overpaid, oft-injured, headcase, mal-content Kevin Brown.  Sure A-Rod might be the best player in baseball, but the trading for him went against the grain of the 90's Yankees who weren't about the super-star.  That season the Giambi signing, Brown trade, not signing Pettitte and Clemens and trading for Javier Vazquez instead of Curt Schilling came back to bite them in the end. 

Before 2005 they again let a clutch pitcher in El Duque walk away, the same El Duque who dominated the Red Sox in a relief apperance in the playoffs that year allowing the White Sox to sweep.  They signed Jaret Wright who had red flags all over the place and was another oft-injured headcase.  Signed and overpaid for Carl Pavano, again another oft-injured headcase, just so Boston wouldn't get him.  And traded for and overpaid the moody Randy Johnson, one year too late.  Perhaps the biggest move they didn't make was signing Carlos Beltran to be their centerfielder for the next decade.

When one looks at this season and the Clemens deal, ask yourself this: If the Yankee mystique was so important, why then did they sign Kei Igawa to $46 million?  Igawa's main problem is gripping the ball and getting a feel for the mound!  Really, don't you think that your genious scouting department would've picked up on those two things before anything else?  Anyone who doesn't believe that deal was done solely for marketing purposes to Japan and to compete with Boston's signing of their own Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, you're fooling yourself.  That move right there, which was obviously not a baseball move, spits in the face of Yankee mystique and tradition! 

This shift from the 1990's Yankees to now reeks of sheer sellout.