I completely concur with you on all points Ed. At this point, how much worse can Gardner be than Swisher? Nick has been given MORE than ample opportunity to remove his head from his rear end and he has not been able to do it. I have nothing but respect for Nick’s onfield performance this year, I think he’s been a fantastic addition to the clubhouse, and that ALONE is a big reason why we are where we are. It’s time to give Gardy a shot though. Swish can still fire people up from the bench.

If I don’t see Posada behind home plate tonight, I’m going to go about as nutty as I did when Brian Bruney came into the game last night. We need Jorge’s bat tonight.

Pedro is a big-game picture, but the Yankees know this man. We can wail on him, we’ve done it before. Let’s do it again. I want to hear the, “Who’s your Daddy?!” chants echoing loud and clear.

If Jorge catches and AJ gets shelled early, what does Girardi do? Bring in Gaudin? I agree that we need Posada in the lineup tonight, but I don’t see Joe G. doing that at all. The quick hook for AJ, maybe. GGBG? Looks unlikely too.

From what we’ve seen so far, we’re not really going to put the game away early even if we get to Pedro. So I hope we score often and at least make it comfortable by the 6th/7th.

I think this decision was made when Cervelli was left off the roster. The only reason he was there in the previous two rounds was in case of emergency when Posada replaced Molina in the games Jose started. There’s no way Molina will play 9 innings (assuming there isn’t a blowout), and I don’t think Girardi is the kind of guy who will feel comfortable having no reserve catcher in the later innings if something were to happen to Jorge.

The last time I looked, Girardi was the manager, so why is he letting Burnett dictate who catches for him? Obviously it didn’t help with Molina behind the plate in Anaheim when Burnett got his ass kicked for four runs in the first inning! Girardi is too stupid, ignornant, head strong, and stubborn to make a change, as much as we need it. This is a must win game tonight. Going into Philly down 0-2 for three games is not good. Yes, Lee was brilliant last night but our hitters did NOTHING to try and take him out of him rythym. Why didn’t batters frequently ask for timeout, step in and out of the box frequently, ask for time and go down and talk to the 3rd base coach, anything? They just stood up there swinging wildly like it was a pinada. And seriously, as much as I love Tex and his gold glove defense, he has been aweful. We know he’s a great hitter but he’s just not cutting it in post season and he’s swinging at everything. I really hate to say it but he looks like the old A-Rod. And I love the guy. I know he’s trying as hard as he can.

See how Swisher hits, and if it doesn’t work bench him for Game 3.

Molina is only in there for 1, 2 AB at most. If that’s all we have to sacrifice to prevent a complete AJ meltdown, I say stick with it.

Our bigger problem is the ‘pen. Who do you turn to in this situation? Gotta figure it’s Mo in the 8th and 9th if we’re anywhere near a lead, but what do you do in the 6th-7th, assuming AJ goes 5? Joba for 1, Robertson for 1?

the problem i always see with AJ pitching is that we give him no run support early on. So when he does have that one bad inning things spiral out of control and seems more devastating than it is. If we have him say a 4-5 run lead, if he coughs up 2 runs or sumthing late in the game it’s less of a problem when if we give him essentiall no run support.

Phils fan here. As much as I am looking forward to tonight, I can’t even begin to fully appreciate the multi-layered levels of drama and history associated with Pedro, once again, taking the mound in your park in a pivotal playoff game. It’s such an unlikely script. Who could have ever thought at the beginning of the season that this could happen?

Pedro’s now one of ours, and we will passionately support him even though he almost certainly will not be back with us next season. When I listen to the cat-calls and jeers of “who’s your daddy” tonight, can you offer me any more insight as to what his appearance means to you?

…Gardner is number one. Because adding his pitiful bat to this lineup is the answer.

Why not Hinske in right instead of Swisher?

AJ is going to be nervous tonight, he knows he’s gotta come up big, I’m surprised he didn’t go to Joe and ask if Andy could take this one.

And so does Jorge…BAH!!!!

I’m not even joking. Maybe Joe thinks that you have to have an NL lineup to beat an NL club.

due to his success against Pedro. At least that’s the word.

Well, I’m glad to see Hinske get the start, considering he’s 10 for 27 off Pedro, that’s a definite offensive upgrade over Swish and Gardner.

I’m really disappointed to see Jorge on the bench though. Jorge Posada knows Pedro Martinez and we need him to be in the line up.