New York Yankee News: Rolling, Ramiro and Realignment

The offense has looked good the last two nights, covering up mediocre starts from CC Sabathia and Ivan Nova.

What bizarro world am I living in that I just called a 5.2 IP, 4 R start from Ivan Nova "mediocre"? He has far exceeded my expectations. Now, my expectations are rising. I hope he can keep up.

I know that it's 50 years since 61*, so everyone wants to make the comparison. But Maris went insane in June: only 34 hits, but 15 home runs. And to get close, he had a week in August when he hit 7 homers in 6 games.

I'm not saying that Tex, Granderson and Bautista aren't having phenomenal seasons. And maybe one of them can challenge the record (the real record, I mean). But slow down a little.

Eduardo Nunez is getting the attention at the moment because he's playing shortstop, he's the brighter prospect, and he hit a home run last night.

But Ramiro Pena hit a homer, too, and I like Pena's glove a lot more than I like Nunez's. I hope he gets some ABs; utility infielders aren't free, and a homegrown one is the best kind.

I agree with Mark Teixeira on the MLB realignment debate. No divisions is the worst option. Just look at the NBA, where the race is never around the best team, but around the worst team to make the playoffs.

"When it comes to 15 teams and no divisions, I think you might lose a little bit of competition just because you can say, 'I just need to make the top five,' versus 'I need to win my division.' There's still something special about winning your division even if you're playing the same teams the same amount of times. But overall I like the idea of the balanced schedule and I like the idea of playing the same teams and the top records make (the playoffs)."