This press release from Major League Baseball that I have just recieved:

The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball announced today that New York Yankees Minor League player Angel Reyes has received a 50-game suspension for testing positive for stanozolol metabolites, a performance-enhancing substance, in violation of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.

The suspension of Reyes will be effective at the start of the season for the Single-A Staten Island Yankees of the New York-Penn League.

Reyes' Minor League Totals in his two seasons in the Yankees Minor Leagues: 4-5, 3.02 ERA in 30 games.

Ian Casselberry of Bless You Boys, our Tigers sister-site, was good enough to sit down and answer a few questions for me.

Swing over there to check out my questions for him, and remember to play nice.

Continue reading this post »

Not only was last night a forgettable one for our beloved Bronx Bombers, it was an especially bad day for Brian Bruney.  Tyler Kepner tells us why:

* He had a magnetic resonance imaging exam on his injured right foot, which the Yankees fear has two torn ligaments and which will probably put him on the disabled list.

* He learned that the 18-wheeler transporting his truck to New York had an accident, and his truck fell off and sustained significant damage.

* His aunt in Oregon found his uncle not breathing, and his uncle is now in a coma.

Brian’s a friendly guy whose new attitude and early-season success have been one of the nicer stories of the first several weeks. Here’s hoping his days get better.

Because of Bruney’s foot, the elbow injury Kyle Farnsworth sustained in the 7-6 loss to the White Sox and the fact that the bullpen pitched 6 1/3 innings on Thursday, the Yankees will to make roster moves to add fresh pitchers on Friday in Cleveland.

It's a good thing today is not Friday the 13th because this guy would be coming out of retirement to finish Bruney off.

I'll post the impending roster move(s) as soon as they are available because Bruney is likely headed to the DL and I would not be surprised if Shelley Duncan is also recalled with two left handers (Sabathia and Sowers) scheduled to pitch for Cleveland this weekend.

Chad Moeller did a fine job for this club while Posada and Molina went down, but it is my opinion that the team can't afford to carry three catchers any longer and he needs to be let go.

Our apologies for the technical difficulties that have plagued all SBN sites for the last 24 hours.

Here’s the deal.  In anticipation of the NFL Draft this weekend, SBN upgraded the server and migrated our NFL sister sites to the new platform as it did last month with the MLB sites.

Somehow, a major problem developed during the switch and the whole system crashed.

We don't expect these issues to be an ongoing problem, so please be patient while the SBN techies do their thing.

As for tonight's game, I went ahead and posted the Game Thread anyways.  Feel free to give us your thoughts on tonight's action.

Great job by Moose:

7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K -- 103 pitches

Fifty-five years ago today, Yankee icon Mickey Mantle stepped up to the plate at Griffith Stadium (Home of the Washington Senators) and proceeded to hit the longest home run in Major League Baseball history - a meteoric blast estimated at 565 feet.

Or did he?

Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports takes an in-depth look at the historic blast on this anniversary and the legend that was created that day.

 

Starters' ERA before Monday night's game: 4.34
Bullpen ERA before Monday: 3.09
Average Runs Scored before Monday: 3.3
SLG before Monday: .394


2007 Starters' ERA: 4.57
2007 Bullpen ERA: 4.37
2007 Average Runs Scored: 5.975
2007 SLG: .463


Starters' ERA post-Monday: 4.36
Bullpen ERA post-Monday: 3.63
Average Runs Scored post-Monday: 3.6
SLG post-Monday: .419

It worked yesterday.

I tried to organize a Q&A with Randy Booth of Over the Monster, but being me, I didn't get my act together soon enough for him to organize any questions for me.

He was kind enough to answer my questions, though, so I figured I'll pass along what I've learned:

Although the Red Sox did win the Series, Theo didn't feel it was necessary to make any significant offseason moves to improve the team. Did RSN generally feel this was the right approach or were there any moves or areas in particular that you wanted to see the front office address?
The only real area of concern was backup catcher. Generally, Sox fans knew Doug Mirabelli wasn't going to cut it but the market for a backup catcher just wasn't there. Finally, the Sox decided Kevin Cash could catch Wakefield's knuckleball, so they were able to cut Mirabelli and save a little dough.
An important thing to remember is the Sox didn't make any huge signings, but they generally got younger. The additions of Jacoby Ellsbury and Clay Buchholz will make this team not seem so "stale."

Like the Yankees with Hughes and Kennedy, the Red Sox are relying on a couple of youngsters to fill out that rotation with Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz. What kind of production do you expect out of them this season? Will you miss Schilling, or can the kids handle it?

I think Lester will have a fantastic season. I've felt this way since game four of the World Series; he showed me a lot there. Lester will finally be comfortable since his fight with cancer ended last year. He's at this stage where the cancer thing is in the back of his mind and the most important thing now is baseball.
Buchholz will be pretty good, but I don't think he'll set the world on fire. The Sox are still monitoring his pitch-count, so the reins are still there.

David Ortiz is off to a miserable start (.091/.250/.182) after Wednesday's game. Are you worried?
Not worried. He's healthy, so he just needs to hit a groove. And once he does the AL should watch out. Every player goes through slumps, he just unfortunately started his season on a slump.

Manny hustled out a triple the other day; are you seeing a new attitude in the contract year? Do you expect the Sox to pick up his option ($20 million)?
I think the Sox will and I hope the Sox will. I want to see Manny's No. 24 retired out in right field five years after his career is done.

More and more Yankee fans have taken to following the minor leagues- have you noticed a similar shift among Sox fans? Who do you have your eye on short and long-term?
I definitely see that shift. For Sox and Yankees fans in previous years, the farm systems haven't been really anything special to watch. But with talent from both systems cropping up, it's hard to keep your eyes off. Some names to watch in the Sox system are: Justin Masterson, a tall, powerful pitcher that has the ability dominate once he gets up ... Lars Anderson, the biggest home run threat in the system ... Michael Bowden, an almost clone of Buchholz.

Thanks Randy, we'll get it right next time.

WasWatching and I had the same thought about today's rainout:

How can a team that plays in the Northeast spent a bazillion dollars on a new stadium and not include a retractable roof?

The domes in Seattle and Houston are state of the art, aesthetically pleasing, and open or close in mere minutes. There are about 40,000 fans who don't get rainchecks on the 20 bucks they spent on tolls and parking who would have rejoiced over a retractable roof.

Singer/Songwriter Ryan Parker shot me an email this morning and asked me to check out his new song/video he created entitled "The Yankees Win." 

It’s nicely done so give it a look.

Continue reading this post »