Top 10 New York Fantasy Baseball Targets for 2010

As the snow melts and spring inches closer, it’s hard not to imagine the beautiful green grass at the new Yankee Stadium, the brand new championship banner being hung, and hopes of a repeat in the minds’ of all the fans. Across town, the old saying, “hope springs eternal” comes into play at Citifield, home of the New York Mets, a team looking to rebound from an injury plagued 2009 season and unseat the defending National League Champion Phillies from atop the NL East. There are some great team storylines. However, though they say there is no “I” in team, fantasy baseball is all about the “I”. Will Jose Reyes bounce back? Will knee surgery affect Carlos Beltran’s bottom line? How will Curtis Granderson fare in The Bronx? I’ll answer these questions and more in my Top 5 Mets and Yankees to target in fantasy baseball for 2010.

Continue Reading…

Yankees Win 27th World Series

The Yankees 2009 season started with a trip to the pool hall on an afternoon during spring training. It ended with a World Series championship. The new Yankee Stadium’s inaugural season started with a Boston fan named Gino Castignoli burying a Red Sox jersey under the structure. It ended with champagne and the Commissoner’s Trophy. The 2009 season started with an A-Rod press conference and ended with A-Rod coming up clutch in big postseason at-bats. February was a long, long time ago.

The Yankees needed everyone to win the championship. Not everyone had Hideki Matsui numbers in the World Series but it took a complete team effort to get to October and get through the ALDS and ALCS. Phil Hughes had a tough postseason but was a big reason why the Yankees had such a strong regular season. Robinson Cano didn’t have many hits in the postseason but batted .320 in the regular season.Then there’s Damaso Marte who had an injury plagued regular season and became Girardi’s go-to-guy with outstanding pitching in the postseason.

There’s also the guys that are consistent; The “Core Four”. Jeter, Rivera, Posada, Pettitte were good all season and their postseason experience shined in 2009. Rivera was the only closer in the postseason not to blow a save. Pettitte was the starter in each of the Yankees three series clinching games. Posada came back from an injury riddled 2008 season and led the pitching staff and clubhouse. Jeter was Jeter. What else can be said about the Yankees captain.

On to the newcomers. Sabathia, Burnett, Teixeira, Swisher. The Yankees don’t make it to the World Series without acquiring these guys. Sabathia was incredible in the postseason. He went 3-1 in five starts with a 1.98 ERA in the postseason. Teixeira led the AL in home runs during the regular season with 39. He also had two big postseason home runs. Remember back to the first month of the season and Nick Swisher kept the Yankees going when A-Rod was out with injury and the bats were as cold as the April and May weather.

Finally, A-Rod. He was clutch. Nobody can say he chokes in October anymore. He put his critics to rest. He batted over .360 in the postseason with six home runs and 18 RBI. A-Rod was a big reason why the Yankees won number 27.

The Yankees broke in the original Yankee Stadium with a World Series championship in 1923. In 2009, the Yankees broke in the new Yankee Stadium with a World Series championship.

Phillies Win Game Five, Send Series Back to the Bronx

Cliff Lee and Chase Utley combined to beat the Yankees in game one of the World Series. They were back at it again in game five. Utley hit his fourth and fifth home runs of the series, tying him with Reggie Jackson for most all-time in a World Series. Lee had another impressive performance against the Yankees although they got to him in the 8th inning. Lee’s line doesn’t exactly show how well he pitched. He gave up five runs on seven hits.

Yankees’ starter AJ Burnett pitched two plus innings and was blasted. He gave up six runs and four walks. The 6-1 Phillies lead after three innings was too much for the Yankees to overcome and the bullpen couldn’t hold the Phillies down either.

New York hitters didn’t put on their best display against Lee until the 8th inning when A-Rod knocked him out with a two-run double off the glove of a diving Raul Ibanez. The Yankees weren’t able to put their best offensive team out there with the pitcher batting and Jose Molina catching for Burnett. The Yankees lineup will be at full strength, minus the injured Melky Carbera, in game six at home but they’ll most likely rely on Andy Pettitte to pitch on three days rest.

The Yankees tried to put together a comeback in the 9th but the Phillies weren’t having it. With runners on the corners and no outs, Jeter grounded into a double play that killed the rally. Damon singled with two outs, giving Teixeira a shot to tie it or at least get A-Rod to the plate but he struck out to end the game.

We go back to the Bronx for game six with the Yankees leading 3-2 in the series.

A-Rod Not Only Yankee Hitter to Blame

By now you can recite the statistics. A-Rod is 0-8 with six strikeouts in the first two games of the World Series. A-Rod may be the person that everyone focuses on but other players need to start hitting too. Teixeira is 1-7 with a solo home run and three strikeouts. Johnny Damon is 1-8 and Robinson Cano is 1-7. What the Yankees really need to do are string together some hits. They haven’t been able to do that so far in the World Series.

The Yankees’ 2-3-4 hitters have combined for two hits in the first two games. With A-Rod’s supporting cast not hitting, it allows the Phillies to not give him anything good to hit. A-Rod is swinging at a lot of bad pitches. Someone hitting behind A-Rod needs to start hitting and intimidate the Phillies. This way they won’t be so inclined to throwing A-Rod garbage. It falls on A-Rod too because he needs to lay off the bad pitches and work the count into his favor an draw walks.

The Yankees as a team need to walk more. They walked only twice so far in the series and were struck out 22 times. That’s an incredible statistic for a team that lead the Majors in walks during the regular season and also had the 4th fewest strikeouts of any team in baseball.

Angels Beat Yankees in Game 5, Force Series Back to the Bronx

The Yankees and Angels are two teams you can never count out of a game until the final out is recorded. Game five proved it once again. With a couple of questionable, if not just dumb, moves by both managers, the late innings were entertaining to watch and people will be second guessing there calls until the next game.

The Angels scored four runs off AJ Burnett before they made an out. From that point until the 7th inning, the game took it’s course and neither team put up any runs. Lackey was superb through seven innings but it was the 7th inning when the game took a wild turn.

John Lackey was taken out of the game, to his discontent, with the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the 7th.

You could read Lackey’s lips when Angels coach Mike Scioscia went to the mound to take Lackey out.

“You’re (expletive) me,” Lackey said. “This one is mine!”

Scioscia didn’t think so. Scoiscia called on Darren Oliver to replace Lackey and Oliver’s first pitch was pounded by Mark Teixeira to left center for a bases clearing double. The Angels intentionally walked A-Rod and Hideki Matsui followed with a single that drove in Teixeira to tie the game at 4-4. Oliver’s day was over without being able to get that last out in the 7th. Kevin Jepsen replaced Oliver and gave up a triple to Cano that gave the Yankees a 6-4 lead. Swisher popped out to end the inning.

Mark Teixeira couldn’t have picked a better time to get his first hit with RISP this postseason. The Yankees scored six runs in the 7th inning, all with two outs.

AJ Burnett gave up four runs in the first inning before recording an out. After the Yankees broke out for six runs in the top of the 7th, Girardi left Burnett in to start the bottom half of the 7th. Burnett gave up a single and walk and was taken out. Those two baserunners came around to score, being charged to Burnett. The Angels tacked on a go-ahead run with a Kendry Morales single and the Angels had a 7-6 lead.

Both teams knocked on the door the rest of the game but weren’t able to score anymore runs. The game ended when Swisher, who has been struggling mightily, popped up to shortstop with the bases loaded, a full-count and two outs in the 9th.

The series heads back to the Bronx for games six and seven, if necessary.

Yankees Win Wild Game Two in 13 Innings

The Angels were so close to stealing a game before heading back to Anaheim but a man named Alex Rodriguez had other plans. After Chone Figgins drove in a run in the top of the 11th to give the Angels a 3-2 lead, A-Rod answered with a line drive home run to right field over the glove of Bobby Abreu to tie the game at 3-3.

“Wow, what a game,” Rodriguez said.

What a game indeed, A-Rod. His dramatic home run adds to the incredible postseason he is having.

“I’m doing what I’ve done all year. Try to stay in the moment and really enjoy the moment,” A-Rod said. “I had a blast out there today.”

In the bottom of the 13th, Jerry Hairston Jr. led off the inning with a single, his first career postseason hit. Brett Gardner sacrificed him to second and the Angels intentionally walked Robinson Cano. Melky Cabrera hit a grounder to the left of second baseman Maicer Izturis who tried to get the force out at second. His throw was out of Erick Aybar’s reach, which allowed Hairston to make a run for home. Figgins, who was backing up the play, couldn’t get a handle the ball to make a throw to home and Hairston scored easy to give the Yankees the win.

After the game Izturis said, “I was a little aggressive there. I’m not scared to be aggressive. Unfortunately, it cost us the game.”

The Yankees have made two fundamentally sound teams, the Twins and Angels, play anything but fundamental baseball. The Angels’ two errors Saturday night gives them a total of five errors in the first two ALCS games.

The Yankees didn’t play good defense either in the 13 inning marathon. Jeter bobbled a taylor-made double play and Cano misplayed two balls for a total of three errors.

What may be lost in the game is the jobs both starting pitchers did. AJ Burnett and Joe Saunders pitched really good. Burnett gave up two runs on three hits in 6.1 innings and Saunders gave up two runs on six hits in 7 innings.

Call A-Rod what you want, a choke artist is not one of them. In the Yankees’ five games this postseason, A-Rod has had three game tying home runs in the 7th inning or later. Two of the three were when the Yankees were down to their last half inning. In the regular season, 15 of his 30 home runs either tied the game or gave the Yankees the lead and 50 of his 100 RBI either tied the game or gave the Yankees the lead.

Everyone but Chad Gaudin was used out of the Yankees’ bullpen and they did an outstanding job. They combined for 6.2 innings and gave up one run. They may have gotten themselves into trouble, but other than that one blip in the 11th, they were able to get out of it. David Robertson earned the win.

The win gives the Yankees a 2-0 lead in the series. The series heads to Anaheim.

Yankees Have It All Going for Them Right Now

It’s a wonderful time to be a Yankee fan right now.  They have erased the eight losses and early season blunders to the Red Sox and started a new streak against the Red Sox; Five wins in a row.  The Yankees and Red Sox played a slow-pitch softball game last night in a 20-11 Yankee blowout at Fenway.  What more could a Yankee fan ask for right now?  They are punishing Boston, expanding their division lead, and diminishing Boston’s wild card hopes while setting up Joba and their pitching staff, giving some position players occasionally days off and hitting the ball all over the place.  

Let’s look at what Jeter’s done his last five games:  3 for 4, 3 for 4, 3 for 5, 2 for 4, and 3 for 6.  He was batting .318 ten days ago and now he’s batting .333.  Jeter’s exceptional production makes up for a guy like Robinson Cano’s recent struggles.  It gives Cano the chance to work out the kinks when the guys around him are producing.  The Yanks have so much depth on the bench that they can afford to sit Damon out for some games while he heels after taking a ball to the inner knee last night.  

We are finally getting what we expected all along from the Yankees.  The hottest team in baseball can put the Red Sox away in the next two days and even if they lose the next two games it’s not the end of the world.  I still don’t think we are seeing the Yankees at full potential and I hope they are saving that for October.