Golden Globe winners: Yankees edition

The Yankees made a splash at last night’s Gold Globe Awards, leaving award-deserving movies like “The Social Network” empty-handed. Without further ado, I present the major award winners from last night.

Best Actor in Motion Picture - Drama:

No pitcher left you at the edge of your seat like Joba Chamberlain did in 2010. Houdiniing his way out of jam after jam in each of his 73 appearances without a single blemish last year made him a no-brainer for the Globes’ most desired award.

Best Director – Director:
Joe Girardi prepared a compelling script in 2010, but occasionally found ways to surprise viewers and sometimes crew members too. Despite stacks of binders filling up his office — and even the set at times — no director made as many gutsy decisions as Girardi.

Top 10 visited posts on lenNY’s Yankees in 2010

The Yankees made a ton of news in 2010. Some news garnered more attention on my blog than you might have expected. Here are the top 10 visited posts at lenNY’s Yankees of 2010.

10. Chan Ho Park’s diarrhea of the mouth (literally) [Video]
This may have been the funniest news of the year, and it came just two weeks into the season.

Yankees News: A-Rod’s 600th, a win, CHoP

Thanks for passing along your pic of A-Rod hitting No. 600, Jerry!

It was a pretty eventful day in Yankeeland. Here’s a quick rundown:

• Alex Rodriguez finally cracked homer No. 600 today (video), three years to the day of No. 500. The Star-Ledger staff put together a list of all of his homers, starting with 600.
• A-Rod’s homer backed Phil Hughes to help the Yankees to a 5-1 win over the Blue Jays.
• The Pirates claimed Chan Ho Park off waivers, Mark Feinsand reports. The Pirates also have ex-Yanks Jose Tabata, Ross Ohlendorf and Jeff Karstens playing for them. I wonder which Yankee will be next!

And just for fun, I’ve transcribed Michael Kay’s No. 600 call from the video linked above (an instant classic, and typical Kay for you):

The 2-0, high drive, center field, deep, going back Wells, looking up, seeeee ya! There it is! Number 600! Alex Rodriguez, the youngest man, ever to get to 600 home runs! And now one of just seven big league ballplayers in the history of the game to hit that many home runs. Six-hundred is a two-run shot and a 2-0 Yankee lead.

If anyone heard John Sterling’s call, I’d love to hear what that was like too!

Halos thump Hughes, Yanks

The Angels’ bats came alive against Phil Hughes and the Yankees’ pitching staff Tuesday night in a 10-2 slaughter at Yankee Stadium.

Best of All: Alex Rodriguez and Juan Miranda both had two-hit nights, and Nick Swisher stayed hot with a solo shot in the first.

Joe Girardi got ejected. He was wrong on a stupid play on the bases in the sixth inning, but he was right to get ejected. Why not? Down 6-2 with time still left for a comeback, why not try to spark the offense?

Worst of All: Hideki Matsui hit one of three homers against Yankee pitching. Godzilla may be closer to home in Los Angeles, but I bet he liked New York better.

The Yankees allowed 10 unanswered runs, as both Yankee runs were scored in the first inning.

Jonathan Albaladejo, Chan Ho Park and Chad Gaudin each allowed at least one run after Hughes was rocked for six runs over five-plus innings.

With Hughes and A.J. Burnett struggling, and now Andy Pettitte shelved for three to five weeks, the Yankees’ biggest strength may now be one of their most glaring weaknesses.

Coming Up: The Yankees will put the ball in the hands of Javier Vazquez to avoid the short-series sweep.

Yankees crush Price, Rays in rubber game

The Yankees knocked around All-Star starter David Price for seven runs over five innings to take the series with a 9-5 win. More important than the win, however, was the loss of Andy Pettitte, who left the game in the third with a strained left groin.

Best of All: David Robertson and Chan Ho Park looked sharp in the bullpen, keeping the Yankees in the game early.

Each of the first six hitters had at least one hit and an RBI in the contest — a pretty impressive feat against the Rays’ ace.

Worst of All: Obviously Pettitte was the worst news from today. Other than Pettitte, the only blemish was Jorge Posada’s throwing error. He tried to make a throw like a shortstop on the run, but while wearing catching equipment.

Coming Up: The Yankees get a day off before six more home games this week. The big question is whether or not Alex Rodriguez, who slugged No. 598 today, will be able to slug No. 600 at home.

Yankees pitchers midseason report cards

I wasn’t so nice to the Yankees hitters in their report card, but the pitchers are a whole different story. At least the starters are.

The Yankees sport the second best ERA in the American League at 3.81, only trailing division foe Tampa Bay.

I will give each pitcher a grade based on their expectations. A grade of ‘C’ is meeting expectations, ‘A’ and ‘B’ are above expectations, you get the picture.

Starters:
CC Sabathia: A- 
The first of three Yankees starters named to this year’s All-Star team. Sabathia finished the first half on an eight-game winning streak — all quality starts of seven innings or more — to lower his ERA by a full run to 3.09. His WHIP is at an astounding 1.14.

A.J. Burnett: C 
He’s right where I expect him to be. He got off to a hot start, but followed it up with a cold stretch heading into the break to even out his numbers. He has a 7-7 record and a 4.75 ERA with a 1.47 WHIP. Those stats are a little worse than his career averages, but he seems to be climbing back ever since Dave Eiland returned.

Andy Pettitte: A+ 
I expected him to pitch like a No. 3 starter, not an ace. He’s got 11 wins under his belt with a 2.70 ERA. The second All-Star of the rotation, at age 38, notched 14 quality starts in 17 tries. Not too shabby.

Javier Vazquez: B+
After April, this would’ve been a solid F. But if this was only since June 1, it would be a solid A. His hot pitching has helped him even his record at 7-7 and lower his ERA from 9.78 (May 1) to 4.45. If he continues to pitch like he has since June 1, the offseason trade will prove to be a huge success. You saw a couple days ago how poorly Melky Cabrera has been doing.

Phil Hughes: A-
The third All-Star in the rotation was on pace for a Cy Young and a start in the All-Star Game through May 12, but Hughes has stumbled through a rough patch recently. His team has puffed up his record a bit, offering him 7.61 runs per game for an 11-2 record. His ERA is up to 3.65, but his WHIP is still very low at 1.18.

Bullpen:
Mariano Rivera: A
In Mo’s spectacular 16-year career, he’s never posted a sub-1.00 ERA. This year he boasts a 1.05 ERA in 34-1/3 IP. He was selected to his 11th All-Star Game, but wasn’t healthy enough to pitch in it. Hopefully Mo can manage his health honestly and be prepared for another World Series title run in October.

David Robertson: B+
Robertson has been the second best reliever in the pen, but that’s not saying much. He has a 5.46 ERA, but has two outings of four earned runs inflating it. In his last 13 appearances, he’s allowed runs in only two.

Joba Chamberlain: D- 
When the Yankees opted to put him in the bullpen, I was excited that the Yankees would have a lockdown setup man for 2010. Joba has been far from a lock in the eighth inning this year, allowing runs in 10 of his 39 appearances. Most recently, he took the loss against Seattle after allowing a grand slam.

Chad Gaudin: C
Gaudin has been mediocre for the Yankees after getting off to a terrible start to the year with Oakland. In 17-1/3 innings, he’s allowed nine runs with a 1.39 WHIP.

Damaso Marte: C-
A 4.08 ERA is pretty atrocious for a lefty specialist. Against lefties his K/BB ratio is 3.67. Against righties, the ratio is 0.13 (8 walks, 1 strikeout). I don’t like that at all.

Chan Ho Park: D
Diarrhea man’s numbers are as rotten as his nickname. A 6.18 ERA in 27-2/3 IP is just not healthy. It’s only a matter of time before he gets DFA’d, in my opinion.

Sergio Mitre: A-
He’s been great, but only for 12 appearances. He’s been slowly recovering from an injury and is starting for Triple-A tonight. The Yankees really miss the Meat-Tray.

Boone Logan: C+
He’s having his best year in the majors in his fifth year, but he hasn’t been overly impressive. The southpaw has been just as effective against righties as he has been against lefties.

Alfredo Aceves: B+
I’m considering him because he has at least 10 appearances, but he hasn’t pitched since May 8 and isn’t likely to return this year.

Burnett shelled early in loss to D’Backs

The Diamondbacks rocked A.J. Burnett in the first inning for five runs on three homers to put the game away early. They went on to win 10-4, as 22-year-old Justin Upton led the way with a 3-for-3 day including two homers, four RBIs and four runs scored.

Best of All: Brett Gardner had a huge day in the No. 8 spot, going 4-for-4 with a stolen base. He scored twice, but didn’t drive in any runners.

Chad Gaudin had a nice day in relief: 2 IP, H, 0 R, BB, K.

Worst of All: Burnett was atrocious: 4 IP, 9 H, 7 ER, 2 BB, 4 K. Burnett’s 6-6 with a 4.83 ERA.

Chan Ho Park allowed Upton’s second homer dampening his line to 2 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 3 K.

Coming Up: The Yankees will look to get out in front early tomorrow at 9:40 p.m.

Yankees’ slide continues against Mets

The Yankees’ offense was shut down for the third night in a row, as Hisanori Takahashi and the Mets defeated the Yankees 4-0.

Best of All: Javier Vazquez pitched well enough to win, but that’s impossible when his team doesn’t score any runs.

Worst of All: The bullpen was bad again. Chan Ho Park and Boone Logan toughed out two innings allowing only three runs.

Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez combined to go 1-for-8. Not pretty.

Coming Up: If the Yankees aren’t careful, they’ll lose their second series in a row with a loss over the weekend. Luckily, that’s NOT what I predicted in the series preview.

A-Rod leaves with groin injury in loss to O’s

Alex Rodriguez left before his first at-bat with what was later determined as a sore groin, and the Yankees fell to the Orioles 4-3 in the series finale.

Best of all: Chan Ho Park. He’s allowed just one run in his last six innings after a two-strikeout, one-inning performance tonight to give the Yankees a chance at a comeback. No Yankees had multi-hit games and A.J. Burnett allowed four runs over 6 2/3 innings.

Worst of all: The injury to A-Rod has to be the biggest concern. Chad Jennings’s report said he may have to miss a few days. The other bad part of this game was Jorge Posada. An 0-for-4 night made him 3-for-27 in June. Yikes.

Coming up: The Yankees get to face the Astros this weekend in the Bronx as interleague play starts back up.

A-Rod's grand slam heads 11-2 pounding of Indians

Alex Rodrguez broke open a pitchers' duel in the seventh inning with a grand slam following an intentional walk of Mark Teixeira. He is now 5-for-5 with 18 RBIs when opposing teams walk Teixeira to load the bases and it was his 20th career grand slam to give him sole possession of third place on the all-time list.

Andy Pettitte pitched seven innings of one-run ball en route to his seventh win of the year, an 11-2 thumping of the Indians.

Best of all: A-Rod's six RBIs. He now leads the team with 41 with Robinson Cano, who hit a solo shot after A-Rod's granny, trailing by one.

Every Yankee starer had at least one hit and combined for 18 as a team.

Worst of all: Chan Ho Park walked a hitter with two out in the ninth. The walk snapped a streak of 65 batters faced without a walk.

Coming up: The Yankees start a three-game series with the Orioles on Tuesday night. I'll have a series preview posted, as usual. Although, I haven't quite figured out the Internet in my new apartment. I should be able to figure it out.

Kubel, Twins rock Vazquez to avoid sweep

Javier Vazquez allowed five runs, eight hits and a lot of hard-hit outs against the Twins, and Jason Kubel drove in five runs on two long homers to propel the Twins to an 8-2 win over the Yankees.

Best of all: Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira and Robinson Cano had two hits apiece. Cano drove in both of the Yankees’ runs.

Worst of all: Vazquez. I guess two good starts in a row is his max.

Also, the bullpen is in trouble. Chan Ho Park and Chad Gaudin looked awful and were awful tonight. Damaso Marte, the lefty specialist, was brought in after lefties Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau hit in the seventh. With Alfredo Aceves possibly out for the year, the bullpen is going to need some help.

Coming up: The return of Curtis Granderson! He’ll be in the lineup — we don’t know where yet — to start a series against the Indians in The Bronx.

Post: Aceves could be out for the year

George A. King III of the New York Post reported last night Alfredo Aceves could miss the rest of the season if he needs surgery to repair a bulging disc.

Chad Jennings reported this morning that the Yankees are still waiting on a team doctor’s examination from Wednesday.

Aceves suffered a setback on Tuesday and was eligible to return from the disabled list this week.

If he is out for the year, the Yankees will rely on Chan Ho Park, Sergio Mitre and the recently acquired Chad Gaudin for long relief help. Boone Logan was sent back down to Triple-A to make room for Gaudin.

The return of ‘The Chad’

Chad Gaudin has rejoined the Yankees in Minnesota today to help complete the one-and-a-half header, according to Mark Feinsand.

Gaudin had a rough spring training with the Yankees, allowing 10 earned runs in 11 1/3 innings. But he was even worse for the Athletics this season, allowing 17 earned runs in 17 1/3 innings.

This addition may be directly correlated with Alfredo Aceves, who suffered a setback in his rehab yesterday, and perhaps Chan Ho Park too, who has been awful since returning from injury.

Lately, the only stable forces in the bullpen have been David Robertson and Sergio Mitre. We’ll see today if Gaudin can eat up some innings without completely blowing a game.

A miserable time at the ballgame

 
Batting practice when I arrived.

Even with the help of my presence at the stadium, the Yankees couldn’t keep pace with the Rays. The 8-6 loss was the third in a row for the Yankees and fourth in their last five.

Best of all: Derek Jeter had three hits including a two-run double in the ninth. The captain was becoming a major cause for concern — and still is — but a night like this helps.

The bullpen wasn’t so bad tonight either: 4 IP, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K. David Robertson pitched two scoreless and Chan Ho Park allowed a solo shot to Carlos Pena.

Worst of all: Andy Pettitte. This was by far his worst start of the year — his first loss — as he gave up six earned runs over five innings. His ERA is still under three, but the Rays really embarrassed him, slugging three home runs.

Line of the night: Juan Miranda: 2-for-3, 3B, HR, 3 R, 2 RBI, BB

Up Next: The first Subway Series of the year begins Friday night at Citi Field. Full series preview will be posted as usual.

The sad stadium as I left.

Joba, Mo blow away another

For the third straight game, the Yankees held a lead heading into the eighth inning. Sunday, Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera combined to blow the game. Monday, Chan Ho Park blew the lead, but the Yankees offense had his back. Tuesday, Chamberlain and Rivera blew the lead once again, and the Yankees comeback fell just short, as the Red Sox held on for a 7-6 victory.

Best of all: CC Sabathia pitched seven strong innings. He allowed one earned on four hits and three walks while striking out five. He left with a 5-1 lead going into the eighth. Joba owes CC a dinner.

**Note: This game isn’t technically official. Joe Girard protested a fifth-inning play. More here from Yankees.com.

Worst of all: Obviously, the bullpen. Chamberlain and Rivera are supposed to be automatic. They usually are, but both have looked absolutely lost in their past two outings. Chamberlain isn’t throwing any strikes, and even Rivera is missing spots by more than an inch.

Line of the Night: Robinson Cano: 2-for-5, 3 RBI, 2 2B.

Up Next: The Yankees stay at home with a tired bullpen facing the best team in baseball, the Rays, for two games.

Chan Ho Park to return Sunday, Nick Johnson TBD

Chan Ho Park hasn’t pitched for the Yankees since April 13, out with a hamstring, but was with the Yankees today and is expected to be available on Sunday. Hopefully diarrhea won’t play a factor in his availability.

Nick Johnson’s return to the team is in question (via LoHud). In sum: he’ll be out either three weeks or as many as six weeks — and it’s a 50-50 bet.

After going on the DL in Boston, he got a cortisone shot and the Yankees are waiting to see if that solves the problem in his wrist. Brian Cashman said that the shot does the trick roughly 50 percent of the time.

“We’re hoping that works,” Cashman said. “But if it doesn’t, we’ll have to take other avenues.”

Those other avenues are pretty limited to some sort of surgery. If the shot has done the trick, Johnson could be back in three weeks or so. If he has to have surgery, it will be another four to six weeks from the time of the procedure before he can pick up a bat. The Yankees should know within the next 10 days whether surgery is necessary.

Aceves DL’d with back injury, Golson recalled

Speedy outfielder Greg Golson will be available on the bench for the doubleheader today, taking Alfredo Aceves’ place on the active roster. Aceves was inactive the last few games and his back did not get better, forcing him to the disabled list.

Aceves is the second long reliever the Yankees have lost this year, joining Chan Ho Park. Both were having good seasons too.

The Daily News is reporting Park will throw rehab games today and Friday, in order to return possibly Sunday or Monday.

Below is a comparison of the Opening Day bullpen and bench to today’s.

Opening Day bullpen	Today’s bullpen
Mariano Rivera	Mariano Rivera
Joba Chamberlain	Joba Chamberlain
David Robertson	David Robertson
Damaso Marte	Damaso Marte
Chan Ho Park	Boone Logan
Alfredo Aceves	Ivan Nova
Sergio Mitre	Sergio Mitre
Bench	Bench
Francisco Cervelli	Francisco Cervelli
Ramiro Pena	Kevin Russo
Randy Winn	Marcus Thames
Marcus Thames	Greg Golson

Winn wins it for Yankees with 3-run jack

Randy Winn entered tonight with one hit in 13 at-bats on the season. His second hit was a three-run homer that gave CC Sabathia and the Yankees (17-8) a 4-1 victory over the Orioles (9-17).

Quick ‘Cap:
After Matt Wieters homered to right off Sabathia in the second inning, the big lefty used two double plays and made big pitches to complete eight innings of one-run ball. With Mariano Rivera unavailable due to an injury in his left side, Joba Chamberlain came on for the save in the ninth and got the job done.

Winn’s three-run shot to right-center came in the fourth after Nick Swisher extended the inning with an RBI single off the wall and Brett Gardner singled to center. With three hits, Swisher was the only Yankee with a multi-hit game. Orioles-Yankees box score. 

Thoughts:
Jorge Posada left the game with tightness in his right calf and is getting an MRI tonight, Rivera has been unavailable since Saturday, Chan Ho Park hasn’t pitched since mid-April, Alex Rodriguez missed Sunday’s game and Curtis Granderson is out for a month. What fans feared most seems to becoming reality: Age is taking its toll on the Yankees. More injury updates to come.

Line of the Night:
Winn: 1-for-3, HR, 3 RBI. Here’s a guy who had 538 ABs last year and is stepping into a backup role for the first time. Good for him to keep up his confidence.

Up Next:
Tuesday night belongs to A.J. Burnett as he looks to stay hot.

Chan Ho Park’s hammy lands him on DL

Chan Ho Park was placed on the 15-day disabled list today after feeling tightness in his right hamstring at the end of his warm-ups in the bullpen last night.

Left-hander Boone Logan was called up to replace him. Logan has only allowed one run in 6 2-3 innings with Triple-A Scranton this year.

After Park, 36, took the loss on opening night against the Red Sox, he earned the win in that series finale with three shutout innings. He pitched once in the Angels series and allowed a run over two innings.

Not a terrible blow to the bullpen, but I’m more worried about the chemistry in the clubhouse when it comes to CHoP.

Chan Ho Park’s diarrhea of the mouth (literally) [Video]

This video of Chan Ho Park is too good not to post. See transcription below (via Huffington Post).

PARK: I had a lot of diarrhea. That - That is what you want to know?

REPORTER: Your manager said you were sick.

PARK: Yeah, I had a lot of diarrhea. I had diarrhea and then.... what? What, it's funny?

REPORTER: No. He thinks its funny.

PARK: The off day - off day I had a lot of diarrhea.. and flu too...a little. A lot of cough. Chest hurts. I feel dehydrated, something like that.