Looking back at the free agent class of 2008 which 3rd baseman on the market did you think would have the most impact on winning a championship?  A-Rod off his monster year?  Mike Lowell the reigning World Series MVP?  Try Pedro Feliz, who held down the hot corner for the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies.

The Phillies had been scrounging for an adequate 3rd sacker since the days of Scott Rolen and while Feliz's stats didn't exactly jump off the page during the regular season, he filled his role much like the rest of the Phillies roster in coming over from playing eight seasons with the San Francisco Giants. 

Feliz in 18 World Series at-bats had six hits and two RBI with a .333 batting average and also knocked in the series winning run in Game five. 

So when all the dust settles after "Hot Stove 2009" and the big names have made all their dollars, it will be interesting in the end to see who makes the most sense.

No not quite a bloop and a blast.  But how about two bunts and a bloop?  Yes it was ugly, but it sure beats losing pretty as the Yanks improved to 2-1 on the season, beating the Jays 3-2.

Phil Hughes was particularly sharp throwing six strong innings of two run ball while striking out four along the way.  Phil's velocity wasn't quite up as much as the Yanks would've liked but his control was marvelous all night in his first appearance in the cold Bronx since he picked up the Yankees only win in Game 3 of the 2007 ALDS. 

From there Billy Traber and Brian Bruney looked solid in their respective 2008 debuts, with the lefty Traber striking out the only batter he faced.

Offensively (and some of this could be attributed to being an older team playing in colder weather) the Yankees still have some kinks to work out, though Toronto pitching has to be given a tremendous amount of credit. 

A wild pitch and sac fly resulted in the Yankees first two runs to tie it in the 6th.  Then in the 8th Melky Cabrera found himself in another rally with a single to right, a Johnny Damon bunt muffed by pitcher Scott Downs gave the Yanks two runners aboard.  Derek Jeter then laid down a sacrifice of his own (though wrongly called out at first) and the Yankees had runners in scoring position.  Then it was Bobby Abreu dunking one into short left-center to plate Damon and put the Yanks in front for good.

Then it was Joba Chamberlain giving the 'ol "Omaha Haymaker" to the Blue Jay bats for his first victory of the season.  That kept the seat warm for Mariano Rivera, who with Vernon Wells on 3rd serving as the tying run with two outs, struck out Aaron Hill looking to pick up his 2nd save on the young season the 445th of his illustrious career.

Bomber Bites: The "kiddy carousel" continues Friday night at Yankee Stadium as Ian Kennedy takes to the mound against the Rays or whatever they're calling themselves these days.

Ok Joe, now that we've seen all the relievers, can we also see some bench guys like Duncan, Betemit and Ensberg?

The mark of a solid manager is one that knows how to play situational baseball and knows how to make adjustments throughout the course of a game.  And seeing as how his big boppers weren't booming, Joltin' Joe Girardi-o decided to change it up and play some small-ball rather than waiting on the 3-run homer. 

Perhaps Jason Giambi and Mike Mussina don't speak Spanish, but apparently Bobby Abreu certainly must've heard the words uttered... "contract year."  

No folks, contrary to popular belief the sky is not falling.  But one would have to say that the New York Yankees looked a little long in the tooth in game number two.  I'm sure you were all waiting for it too, you know the post-game comments from Mike Mussina about how the initial rain out somehow had a negative influence on his pitching even though he was slated to go on Wednesday regardless? 

 Aside from pitching 5/2/3 of four run eight hit ball, Mussina could've been virtually perfect but it wouldn't have mattered much considering the Yankees couldn't hit.  However if I'm the Yankees, I desperately try to avoid starting this guy against teams not named the A's, Royals, Rays, Orioles, Twins and Rangers.  And while given the state of the Yankees bullpen at the outset of the season, this is the reason why I clamored all off-season to get Joba Chamberlain into that starting rotation.

Alas the only guy to really do much of anything last night was Alex Rodriguez, who delivered a two-run shot off of A.J. Burnett, for his 1st HR of the season and the 519th of his career. 

 Bomber Bites: Watching LaTroy Hawkins wearing # 21 ranked right up there with being as odd as seeing Ruben Sierra wearing # 24 and Donovan Osborne with # 46. 

Yes he is a young phenom, but can Phil Hughes live blog and pitch at the same time?

For the first time since October 4, 1995, (Game 2 of the ALDS to be exact) a Yankee manager not named Joe Torre led the Bronx Bombers to a victory.  That man was Buck Showalter and just as Buck had a young up and coming star centerfielder in Bernie Williams, so too does the Yanks new skipper Joe Girardi in Melky Cabrera.

And as we embark on a change from this Yankee Stadium to a "new Yankee Stadium" it is evidently clear that change is a good thing (and no I'm not an Obama supporter).  That change in philosophy, brought on by Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman should put the minds of Yankee fans at ease.  When we wonder if we'll ever see the next "Bernie Baseball" we get a young switch hitting kid with speed and a rocket arm, making diving grabs and catches up against the wall with a new confidence and swagger.  That confidence with a little help from the "Ghosts" hanging out on the Bambino's short porch, allowed Melky to take Toronto ace Roy Halladay deep.

Yes it is that same peace of mind we get as fans as we once pondered if we'd ever get an "Andy Pettitte type" pitcher out of the allegedly dry farm system until it produced Chien-Ming Wang.  Like Pettitte, Wang isn't flashy, but he's a workhorse and all the guy does is win and give the team an opportunity to win.

And it is that same pitching first philosophy on the farm which has given us a glimpse of hope that we may have the next Mariano Rivera in Joba Chamberlain.

Folks, Opening Night 2008 was certainly "night and day" in scope from Opening Day 2007.  Wang was on the hill, not Carl Pavano, Cabrera was in center, not Johnny Damon, in the 8th inning Chamberlain was on the mound, not Kyle Farnsworth and at first base it was Giambi, not Josh Phelps.

I know it's only the first game and that Melky is projected to hit 80 homers and Wang to win 30 games and the Yankees to go 162-0, but one can't help but notice the drastic change in preparedness in this ball club.  This team just looks primed, ready and in shape to win.  A lot of that credit goes to manager Joe Girardi

Change is good for these Yankees, especially if the "winning" refrain remains the same.

Bomber Bites: A-Rod looks very comfortable and motivated this season already.  It is obvious that he has taken to New York and the feeling is mutual.  The reassurance that he'll be a Yankee for life, makes him an even more likeable figure in the Bronx.

Anyone else thankful that Melky was doing that in our yard and not in the Metrodome?  Well that and thankful that one is allowed to appeal Spring Training suspensions.

Robbie Cano, slowly but surely creeping up to 6th in the batting order.

Jason Giambi flashes the leather.  Donnie Baseball left the building and apparently left his glove.  Well at least Giambi has a glove, unlike that Shreck character up in Boston.

And finally, though Jonathan Papelbon may be in his prime and the premiere closer over the length of the season in the American League, there's no question in my mind that when it comes down to getting one batter out with the game on the line I'm taking Mariano Rivera every time, hands down.

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.

The Boston Red Sox are the champions of baseball in 2007 and deservedly so.  However I must take issue with those clamoring to call them a "dynasty" or the "gold standard" of baseball.  Perhaps winning twice in four years can go to one's head a little after not winning once in 86. 

Certainly with this most recent championship Boston has put itself slightly in the lead for team of this decade since 2000 with two championships, two pennants, one division title and four playoff apperances, ahead of New York's one title, three pennants, six division titles and seven playoff apperances. 

However all of this hype and hoopla is very comical in what standards have been set in terms of what constitutes a dynasty.  I mean come on Boston, as a Celtics fan I know what constitutes a dynasty and two in four years ain't it.  After the Yankees won in 1996 and again in 1998, I didn't automatically say "DYNASTY."  Unless of course you count teams that won two championships within a seven year timespan a dynasty then congratulations, you're the Minnesota Twins or the Toronto Blue Jays or the Florida Marlins, but NOT the gold standard of baseball.

And while some of the core still remains with Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte, I understand that these Yankees are not those Yankees of the 1990's.  But still it's not like the Yankees haven't won in 40 years, they just took four titles in five years and six pennants in eight.  Call me when you do that and we'll talk.

It's still 26 championships to 7, so tell me... who's chasing who?

If the Tampa Bay Devil Rays were a Canadian team, they wouldn't be playing in Canada anymore.  Instead the D-Rays are what the Montreal Expos became, just another bad American baseball team, with no identity that nobody cares about and they stink!  Why no calls for their contraction or re-location I ask?  This team in Tampa has to be about the biggest joke of a baseball organization ever, a disgrace, a mediocre Triple-A team at best.

Since their inception in 1998 the D-Rays have lost 90 plus games every year and are right on schedule this year with 84 to date.  They've also lost 100 games three times and 99 games twice.  And shame on the 2004 Toronto Blue Jays for letting them finish ahead in the standings at 4th with a franchise best 70 wins.  One might even argue the most significant victory for a D-Ray over the last decade is by the one that got Steve Irwin.

Their most recent series in Boston is only more proof of why this team needs to be done away with.  Incredibly enough the one game they did win was a 1-0 shutout.  Explain to me in game two of that series how one could blow leads of 4-0, 8-1 and 9-5 and go on to lose 16-10?  Then last night to blow a 4-0 lead again and a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the 9th and get victimized by the same guy (David "Big Papi" Ortiz) twice, while Delmon Young on a catchable ball in rightfield was spinning around like a ballerina looking for an umpire to throw a bat at in a 5-4 loss.  What a pile of garbage this team is, you can take a team getting over matched and getting smoked say 20-0 but to get beat in virtually the same fashion blowing sizeable leads on back to back nights is dreadful.  At least the old Montreal Expos knew how to scout some pitching.

 This team is laughable, as laughable as their stupid non-retractable stadium with it's terrible lighting and stupid catwalks.  A building better suited for basketball or hockey or better yet demolition.  Look I don't know if it's a Tampa thing, that they're just slow starters, case in point the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tampa Bay Lightning who had some historically rough starts in their respective leagues but seriously come on!  Does anyone have any use for this franchise other than Yankee and Red Sox fans who get better seats for cheaper on their Florida vacation or O's fans whose team has been kept out of last place for years thanks to this sorry lot? 

Perhaps the solution is to move the D-Rays to Montreal.  Of course that's assuming they'd actually want them at all.

It's always the retaliator, the guy who throws the last punch, the guy who gets caught last.  They always seem to get in trouble while the weasel gets away.  The suspension of Joe Torre and Roger Clemens is a prime example of that old notion.

Why then can't Major League Baseball just let the players police themselves?  There has become too many umpires who think that the fans are there to see them, like they're so darn important.  I'm sorry but the fans don't come to see the umpires and the umpires who abuse that power show that they have even less o####rip on a game than those who choose to use restraint.  After all as the old saying goes, "boys will be boys," well then so let 'em be for cryin' out loud! 

I'm so sick and tired of all of this warning garbage, even when players don't get hit or when the other team hasn't even hit anybody yet.  This isn't some biased pro-Yankee thing either.  Just last week against the Chicago White Sox after one Yankee hit a homer, their pitcher got tossed for hitting the following batter Robinson Cano who got plunked with a knuckle ball, that's right a KNUCKLE BALL.  Can we use some common sense people?

In the case of Clemens and Torre the Toronto Blue Jays were clearly targeting A-Rod and yet nothing was done toward them, none of their pitchers got ejected even though after two days of this everybody in North America knew what they were doing.  I don't mind if they felt they needed to get back at A-Rod, but after so many times there's a code and it's over with.  Thus Clemens answered and plunked Alex Rios and it should've been over with, without the umpire stepping in. 

It's maddness, it's a police state run by the men in blue, can we let the players police themselves before they bring the swat team onto the field at Yankee Stadium... oh wait they already did that didn't they? 

Phil Hughes, perhaps the most hyped and heralded pitching prospect for the New York Yankees since Brien Taylor, will start tonight at Yankee Stadium against the Toronto Blue Jays.  Trying to fufill the promise that Taylor never could, while becoming the biggest star in a Yankee uniform named Phil since Rizzuto played Shortstop. 

The Yankees didn't want to do this, at least not right now.  But when your car or in this case starting rotation is running low, you have to "Phil 'er up," no matter what the cost.  Much like when Jimmy Key went down in 1995 and Jaret Wright, Kevin Brown and Carl Pavano (suprise, suprise) went down in 2005, the Yankees had two pitchers out of their system who were given a shot and helped save the Yankees in both seasons.  Both of them Andy Pettitte and Chien-Ming Wang, currently in the starting rotation did what the Yankees hope Hughes will replicate tonight, for the rest of the season and for the rest of his Pinstriped career. 

The Yankees have had their share of pitchers come up who've been successful after distinguished minor league careers during the Steinbrenner era.  Pitchers like Hughes new pitching coach Ron Guidry, Dave Righetti, Sterling Hitchcock, Pettitte, Mariano Rivera and Wang.  However none of them was expected to be the savior and ace the Yanks anticipate Hughes to be.

Hughes will be donning the number 65 when he takes the mound, with the Yanks hoping he will duplicate and surpass what numbers 46 and 40 have done before him, hoping they can put it off a little longer before they have to make a call to number 22.  And like the Scooter, Yankee fans hope to be saying "Holy Cow!" with this Phil.

Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium, Alex Rodriguez silenced the boo-birds and more importantly the Baltimore Orioles.  With two majestic, towering homeruns, including a walkoff grandslam into the black seats, A-Rod looks loose and at the same time focused.  Much like someone primed for his 3rd MVP award and Roger Maris' single season record of 61 homeruns.  

Were it not for A-Rod's heroics, yesterday's game would've mirrored Friday night's pitching performance where the Yankees quickly took the lead only to give it right back.  Though Kei Igawa actually made it through five innings of work, he also did the impossible by making New York fans nostalgic for Hideki Irabu.  The bullpen was once again perfect, allowing the Yankees to make a comeback keyed by homers from Jason Giambi and A-Rod, blanking the O's through four innings of work.

In the clutch in the bottom of the 9th with two outs, A-Rod brought the Yankees (2-2) back and brought their record back to .500.  The homeruns (466 and 467) respectively put A-Rod ahead of Dave Winfield, good enough for 28th on the all-time list, putting him just 33 shy from 500. 

The 10-7 victory puts the Yankees back in a three-way tie for first with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Toronto Blue Jays. 

News & Notes: Hideki Matsui left Saturday's game with a strained left hamstring.  Just great, because there was no need to carry a 5th outfielder like say perhaps Bernie Williams?