mike546

But I'd have to say atleast half the HRs he gave up were in the first inning, which put us in a hole. After that, he'd either falter and come out after two innings, or pitch perfect for the next 6. It seemed impossible for him to pitch an entire good game.

Comparing Sparks to Wakefield is like comparing Gagne to Billy Koch. WHAT IS SO GREAT ABOUT WAKE? Honestly. He shut us down in the 03 playoffs, and for three innings of ALCS 04. Hes had three good seasons in his career, and one ok season. Hes not god or anything. Hes not as good as Wake, I'll admit that. But comparing them to Gagne and Koch is a bit much.

Are you saying this as going into the series? Because DBacks/Yankees was hell of a exciting series.

I think Hammond may have struggled against lefties with us. Just from memory, I recall Hammond being miscast as a lefty killer. Just because he was aging and left-handed, the Yankees assumed he was a LOOGY type pitcher. He's not. Hammond is one of those rare pitchers who is equally adept at facing both righties and lefties. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh. NOW I remember. How Kay used to ramble on about how the changeup is more effective to lefties than righties.

WOW. Just got this from Anglesaults "wtf is wrong with the Yankees" thread. Funny quote from Al. Andy Pettitte had a 12.27 ERA in the 1999 World Series. A 10.00 ERA in the 2001 World Series. His career postseason ERA is 4.05. That's hardly impressive. Clutch performance is a load of crap. Its not an inherant ability. And before you bring up Derek Jeter, his 314/385/469 career postseason line is nearly equal to his 317/389/462 line in the regular season. And if you mean Vazquez, he IS that dominating. Easily better than any Yankees starter from 2003. Had me tearing up in laughter. God how things change. And this isn't an insult toward you Al, just funny.

Jimmy Key, what's he, like, 45? I could hit him. Did you see the game last night Mike? It sucked, didn't it? It sucked! I was rooting for the Cardinals.

It said in the post today Lieber would be willing to make a new deal. I REALLY want Lieber back. Hes one of those David Cone and Jimmy Key pitchers. A great, nice guy, a veteran with a savy about him. He defintley deserves to come back. I mean, who else out pitches Pedro in a playoff game, and stays close with Curt Schilling in one series?

Any chance the Yankees can get rid of you as a fan? Look what Posada did with the pitching staff that he had or I should say didn't have. Posada is second to Jeter at being the team leader. You mean the GREAT AWESOME job he did with Brown?

Question for you Al. If your the Yankees, would you pick up Lieber's option?

Their not paying him a lot are they? Because they picked him up from the Dodgers farm system. I originally thought it was just a hot streak for Sturtze. For example, he went 4 2/3 scorless innings against Boston on the night Rivera blew a save, then got shelled for 8 runs the next week. But he finished the year on a huge scoreless innings streak, 12 innings to be exact. He pitched the 3 awesome innings against the Twins in game 2, and went 3 scoreless innings during the last 2 two games at Fenway. I can't guarantee he'll be good next year, but I'm fairly confident he will.

Well, that ERA in September turned into good stuff in the playoffs aswell. Honestly though, I don't remember Hammond having that kind of year. And I just couldn't see him with that ERA being left off the post season roster. And his ERA would have been a LOT lower in September had Sturtze not had one HORRIBLE outting against KC in early September. Stats can be misleading sometimes. Ask any Yankee fan, without Sturtze, we were screwed in the playoffs. EDIT: Looging at game logs, Hammond got better down the stretch in 03. odd.

2003: 3-2 2.86 ERA 45K/11BB Yeah, that looks like shit to me. Somethings wrong with those stats, because theres no way he would have been left off the 03 ALCS roster with those stats. And theres no way they would have let him go.

Hammond? Good god no. We had him in 03, and he did shit. And Ruben might have not have had a good OBP, but he had 17 HRS and 65 RBIS in a part time role. And Sturtzes ERA is an exaggaration, because he was a savior the second half of the season.

Yep, his defense sure was awesome when he couldn't throw out Roberts in the 8th and 9th innings of games we should have won. The second Roberts play was a hit and run. Very little a catcher can do there to throw the guy out. Would be quite the shock to both Cano and Dioner Navarro. Being that Cano is a second basemen and all. I meant Navarro.

Yep, his defense sure was awesome when he couldn't throw out Roberts in the 8th and 9th innings of games we should have won. I say we should put Cano on the roster next year, put him in the role Posada usewd to have under Girardi.

Posada doesn't belong back on this team after the post season he had.

Go Cardinals.

Speaking of over looked years, Cabrera had an AWESOME season.

Sturtze earned another year aswell.

He's sending the entire team over to Arizona. EVERYONE. That's not fair. Four or so of them have earned the right to play another year. Moose, Lieber, Bernie and?

I think the Yankees would let go of Giambi if they could.

How are the Yankees getting RJ now? Its not like our farm system got any better since July.

What sucked more... Damon's Grand Slam or his measly 2 run homerun? Did the skies above the stadium look like that scene from Ghostbusters, when the containment unit is shut down, and all of the ghosts are set free? Did Mama Cass make an appearance, with ham sandwich in hand? LET'S GO RED SOX! The worst thing was them celebrating on OUR field.

People say New York is the city that never sleeps. Today is as close as it gets to that.

Again, the curse isn't the Red Sox can't beat the Yankees, its that they can't win a WS.