Good morning,
Although it's not my day to do the news (cough, cough), I'll take a stab at it. Time for some links.
- A rather amusing Boston Globe article asks if the New York Yankees are up to the fight of taking down the almighty and glorious Boston Red Sox. After all, they're better than the 1927 Yankees, right? Journalistic bias at it's absolute best. Reading an article like this is exactly why New Yorkers panic when the Yankees drop two out of three to the Red Sox.
- ESPN writes about how the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry is "dead" and Major League Baseball is the one to blame for that. Here's their solution to fix it -
Stop playing 18 times a year. It's way too much. Make the division rivalries -- with all clubs, not just the Red Sox and Yankees -- special again. It's not an event if they play 18 times every season. Secondly and most importantly: add a wild-card spot and make the two wild-card teams in each league face off in a one-game playoff. Right now, teams are perfectly content to accept the wild card as a postseason entry rather than fight for the division title. However, if the AL East runner-up knows it can win 95 games only to have its season snuffed out in a one-game playoff loss to an 86-win team from another division, there is tremendous incentive not to settle for the wild card.
What do you all think?
- The New York Post writes about the upcoming rotation and the return of Alex Rodriguez. Also, Phil Hughes' next start remains a mystery after his brief tenth inning stint on Sunday against Boston.
The Yankees are going with A.J. Burnett, Ivan Nova and Bartolo Colon in the upcoming series, and though it was not announced, ace CC Sabathia will likely open a three-game series against the Rays on Friday night at the Stadium with five days' rest instead of four.
- Allen Barra of the The Atlantic defends Alex Rodriguez and refers to him as "one of the cleanest Yankee greats ever."
- Derek Jeter's jersey that he wore when he smacked his 3,000th hit will be on display at the Yankees Museum for the remainder of the season.
- Josh Alper of NBC says that fans shouldn't shed too many tears for Jorge Posada. I have to agree on this one, he's been given chance after chance to remain in the lineup. Posada has brought the current situation upon himself.
- Oh yeah, call up Jesus Montero.
- The Yankees begin a three game series tonight against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. A sweep of the Angels will ultimately put them out of AL Wild Card discussions.
- Question of the day: Over/under on home run(s) allowed tonight by A.J. Burnett is set at 1.5. So, do you pick over or under?