Baseball’s unusual batting stances [Globe]

Caution: the following gallery presents major league baseball's most unconventional batting stances and pre-at-bat mannerisms that are not recommended for replication by youth baseball players.

Click here to proceed.

Ex-Yankees on the list include Hideki Matsui, Johnny Damon, Albert Pujols and Alfonso Soriano. (I was going to include Bobby Abreu, but frankly I don’t know what his current stance is. I read on the Interwebz that before he had his loose hands grip with the Yankees he had an overlapping golf style grip. Plus, Abreu torched the Yankees last night. No point in featuring him.)

For laughs, look for Dallas Braden and Dae-Sung Koo, too.

Yankees news: CC & Grandy lead Yanks to sweep, A-Rod & Boras split, Aceves setback

I wasn’t able to post yesterday after the game because I was in class from 3:30 to 9 p.m. and then I worked on a project deep into the night. If you were in a similar situation, here’s a quick recap of what you missed.

• CC Sabathia and Curtis Granderson had huge days in a 5-0 win to complete the sweep of the Athletics. See if the NY Times thinks CC will win the AL Cy Young. On a side note, Dallas Braden had to leave after five innings with cramps.
• Alex Rodriguez and Scott Boras have officially split ties. According to SI, this happened a month ago when A-Rod sent Boras a letter.
• Alfredo Aceves suffered another setback and did not rehab with the Trenton Thunder last night. He’s visiting doctors in New York. It doesn’t look like he’ll be ready for the postseason, folks.

Teixeira reminds me of my dorm room

This is my first week back at Quinnipiac University for my junior year, and I’ve had to endure some of the harshest living conditions of my life due to the scorching sun and lack of air conditioning.

When I see Mark Teixeira having a monster series against the Athletics, his hot bat reminds me of my dorm room. Hot, hot, hot. En fuego. En feu. However you want to say it, he’s tearing the cover off the ball.

After last night’s 4-3 victory, he’s combined to go 8-for-12 with two homers, eight RBIs, five runs scored and two doubles against the A’s. He gets one more shot at the Athletics’ pitching staff today, led by Dallas Braden, who Teixeira is 4-for-13 against in his career with a homer.

Cam you remember when Tex was hitting in the .220s in June? Now he’s up to .268/.372/.514 with 30 dingers and 98 RBIs. That means he’s two RBIs short of his seventh straight 100-RBI season, all of which coupled with 30 or more homers.

Little known fact about Tex: He’s also the major league leader in runs scored with 100 on the nose.

Unbelievable. Robinson Cano still is this year’s breakout performer and top MVP candidate for the Yankees, but Teixeira is making quite a run at Cano in the past couple of months.

Athletics-Yankees series preview

The Athletics are in town this week, and so is Dallas Braden. Alex Rodriguez isn’t eligible to return in time for Thursday’s affair, possibly avoiding a major conflict.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, click here.

As for the rest of the series, the A’s are no slouch. They’re second in the AL West (well behind Texas) and hold the best team ERA in the league.

The Athletics pitching really has been phenomenal this year. However, I credit a lot of that success to their pitcher-friendly ballpark. Here are the splits:

Home: 2.86 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 458 Ks
Away: 4.17 ERA, 1.39 WHIP, 397 Ks

The Yankees are just 14-13 in August, easily their worst month of the year, but still hold a share of the division lead and a 6.5-game lead over the Red Sox.

Head to Head:
The Yankees have won four of their six games against the Athletics this season, and swept them in Oakland last month. The Yankees need to take two games to secure a season series victory.

Pitching Matchups:

Date:	Athletics starters	Yankees starters
Mon., 7:05 p.m.	Trevor Cahill (14-5, 2.43)	Dustin Moseley (4-2, 4.53)
Tues., 7:05 p.m.	Vin Mazzaro (6-6, 3.61)	Phil Hughes (15-6, 4.12)
Wed., 7:07 p.m.	B. Anderson (3-5, 3.32)	A.J. Burnett (9-12, 5.17)
Thurs., 1:05 p.m.	Dallas Braden (9-9, 3.28)	CC Sabathia (18-5, 3.14)

Lineup Notes: Mark Teixeira is in the lineup tonight. He was in last night’s originally, but he was a late scratch. We’ll see if he’s healthy enough to play tonight.

Prediction:
The Yankees have a tough matchup tonight against a top candidate for the Cy Young Award, but I like the pitching matchups for the Yankees in the rest of the series. I bet Burnett brings his A-game Wednesday too. I say the Yanks take three out of four.

Yankees-Athletics (Braden-less) series preview

The Yankees finish up the first half with a seven-game west coast road trip, starting with the Athletics tonight and ending with a four-game series with the Mariners.

The Yankees start the series atop the AL East with the best record in baseball (50-31), while Oakland resides in third place in the West with a 41-42 record.

Head to Head: 
The Yankees beat the A’s twice in their three-game set last time, but that wasn’t the real story. Alex Rodriguez and Dallas Braden exchanged words after A-Rod ran across “Braden’s mound.” Braden went on to throw a perfect game a few starts later and the rest is history. Now, there are even t-shirts for sale.

Braden is unfortunately on the DL and will not be pitching in this series. There’s still hope for a rematch, however, as these two teams meet again in late August.

Pitching Matchups:

Date:	Yankees starters	Athletics starters
Mon., 10:05 p.m.	J. Vazquez (6-7, 5.11)	Ben Sheets (3-7, 4.98)
Tues., 10:05 p.m.	CC Sabathia (10-3, 3.33)	Trevor Cahill (8-2, 2.74)
Wed., 10:05 p.m.	A.J. Burnett (6-7, 4.90)	Gio Gonzalez (7-5, 3.50)

Players to Watch:
Yankees: Rodriguez. He’s clearly not liked by this team thanks to Braden’s mouth. And I’m willing to bet no teams are very fond of him since he took a spot on the All-Star roster undeservingly.

Athletics: Daric Barton. Who? He is the A’s best hitter, hitting to the tune of .289/.396/.409. However, Kurt Suzuki carries the team’s pop. Watch out for both.

Prediction:
I’ve been right the past two weeks, so I’ll hope to keep my streak alive down the stretch. I say the Yankees have it set up for a sweep this series. Vazquez will lower his ERA below 5.00 with a decent start tonight and Nos. 1-2 will take care of business.

Poll Results: Still no respect for Braden

Dallas Braden is living evidence that even a perfect game can’t dig you out of a hole you dug yourself in the media. In my latest poll, 63 percent of fans still do not have respect for him (and I’m sure his grandma too).

I sided with the fans. Braden pitched the 19th perfect game in baseball history. It’s a miraculous accomplishment, don’t get me wrong, but it doesn’t translate to fame. Don’t believe me? Fine. Ever heard of a guy named Len Barker? That’s what I thought.

He threw a perfect game in 1981.

Barker finished his career with less than 100 wins and an ERA higher than 4.00

Enough about Braden and the perfect game. There is an exciting week ahead upon us. The Yankees play the Red Sox, the Rays and the Mets all in one week!

New poll: Who do you miss more? Curtis Granderson or Nick Johnson?

Video: Dallas Braden’s top 10 thoughts in perfect game: ‘I can Give Kate Hudson a call’

The most recent perfect game thrower, Dallas Braden, appeared on the “Late Show With David Letterman” Tuesday night to list off his top 10 thoughts during his perfect game. Here’s the video:



He described his feud with Alex Rodriguez a “slight misunderstanding as far as some of the unwritten rules that we’ve kinda put on the back burner. It’s been taken care of.”

Here’s the list:

10. “Grandma’s right. Stick it, A-Rod.”

9. “I did it! Oh crap, it’s only the fourth inning.”

8. “Seriously, how cool a name is Dallas Braden.”

7. “Now maybe Justin Bieber will notice me.”

6. “I must not tell the world I’m Iron Man.”

5. “This is something they can never take away from me. But for $50,000, you can have my glove.”

4. “This next pitch, eyes closed.”

3. “Even I’ve never heard of me.”

2. “I should at least give up one hit so I don’t have to do Letterman.”

1. “Maybe I can give Kate Hudson a call.”

A-Rod on Braden’s perfect game: ‘Good for him’

When Dallas Braden called out Alex Rodriguez for stepping on “his mound” on April 22, nobody seemed to have heard of Braden’s unwritten rule. The 18-23 lifetime pitcher may have established this rule now that he’s got a perfect game under his belt.

Before yesterday, Braden was what CC Sabathia called “a clown” for opening up his mouth about A-Rod. Now, as measured on my new poll (left sidebar), we’ll see if Braden has earned some respect.

All controversy aside, it’s a great story for Braden to throw a perfect game at home on Mother’s Day with his grandma in attendance plus the fact that his mom died from melanoma when he was a senior in high school.

After the game, his grandma said “Stick it, A-Rod,” which wound up on the back page of the NY Daily News today.

A-Rod replied with “Uncle.”

Right after Braden completed the perfecto, A-Rod answered:

"I've learned in my career, it is much better to be recognized for all the great things you do on the field," Rodriguez said. "Good for him, he threw a perfect game. And better yet, he beat the Rays."

On a sit-down interview with his grandma on ESPN, Braden said the July 5-7 series with the Yankees will hopefully be a “well-played series by two clubs that are hopefully going to try to be standing at the end of the race.”

He opted to completely ignore the A-Rod situation (wisely), however, I don’t think he will forget about this incident come July. I’m standing by my original call: It’s going to be a dirty series.

Poll Results: Granderson’s loss won’t stop Yankees from taking first place from Rays

With Curtis Granderson out for at least the month of May, Brett Gardner became the everyday center fielder and left field became a platoon of Randy Winn and Marcus Thames.

Granderson was hitting .225/.311/.375 before getting injured. Gardner has stayed hot in May, and Thames and Winn have combined for .241/.353/.344.

However, now Nick Johnson is most likely out for May too. It looks like the Yankees will continue to use this as a time for giving veterans half days off and Ramiro Pena and Francisco Cervelli work at the major league level.

New Poll: Do you respect Dallas Braden after his perfect game?

Yankees-Angels series preview

The Yankees took two of three from the Angels last week at Yankee Stadium. This weekend the two teams will square off in Angel Stadium for a three-game set.

The Angels have won five of their last seven while the Yankees just lost their first in seven games yesterday.

In the last series, the Yankees faced the same three starters as expected this series. The only one who gave them trouble was Joel Pineiro, and he’s coming off 7 1-3 shutout innings against the Tigers.

Pitching Matchups:

Date:	Yankees starters	Angels starters
Fri., 10:05 p.m.	A.J. Burnett (2-0, 2.37)	Ervin Santana (1-2, 4.35)
Sat., 4:10 p.m.	Andy Pettitte (2-0, 1.35)	Joel Pineiro (2-1, 1.77)
Sun., 3:35 p.m.	J. Vazquez (1-2, 8.27)	Scott Kazmir (1-1, 7.45)

Players to Watch:
Yankees: Alex Rodriguez. Yesterday’s altercation with Dallas Braden may provide a spark for him this series. And his history at Angel Stadium is ridiculously good. In 88 games started, he has 37 homers.

Angels: Howie Kendrick. The second baseman is hot hot hot in his last seven games, hitting .391/.440/.565.

Prediction:
The Yankees have won all five series thus far, and they don’t look like they’re slowing down. Yesterday, CC Sabathia didn’t look like he was going to make it past the third inning, but wound up pitching his second straight complete game. Look for Yankees’ starters to continue to thrive as they win another series.

Yanks-A’s series in July could get dirty

Alex Rodriguez and Athletics pitcher Dallas Braden exchanged words in the sixth inning of today’s game. Here’s what happened and what was said after the game (via LoHud):

A-Rod: “He just told me to get off his mound,” Rodriguez said. “I was a little surprised. I’d never quite heard that. Especially from a guy that has a handful of wins in his career.”

The story: The whole thing started when Rodriguez went from first to third on a foul ball by Robinson Cano. On his way back to first, Rodriguez ran across the pitcher’s mound, which Braden saw as a sign of disrespect.

Braden: “I don’t care if I’m Cy Young or the 25th man on the roster, if I’ve got the ball in my hand and I’m on that mound, that’s my mound,” Braden said. “… He ran across the pitcher’s mound foot on my rubber. No, not happening. We’re not the door mat anymore.”

Rodriguez later said, “I thought it was pretty funny, actually.” And Braden also said, “He should maybe watch his Captain a little more often.”

This will not be forgotten when the two teams face each other again in Oakland July 5-7. I’m sure A-Rod won’t forget this either.

Yankees turn triple play, fall to Athletics

The Yankees turned their first triple play (video) since June 1968, but the Yankees fell 4-2 to the Athletics in the series finale.

Quick ‘Cap:
The A’s mounted a 3-0 lead four batters into the game on Kurt Suzuki’s three-run bomb to left. The big hit came one pitch after a mound visit.

After a sac fly in the fourth to make it 4-0, Marcus Thames earned the run back with a solo shot to left in the fifth. Mark Teixeira, who DH’d for the first time this season, slugged his second homer of the season to make it 4-2 in the sixth.

After the first two runners got on in the bottom half, Suzuki hit a hard grounder to Alex Rodriguez, who stepped on the bag, threw to Robinson Cano at second, who fired it to first to nab Suzuki for the 5-4-3 triple play.

But there was no comeback in store for the Yankees, as Brad Ziegler and Andrew Bailey shut the offense down in the final three innings. CC Sabathia completed his second straight game in the loss. Full box score here.

Thoughts:
Choosing to take a nap during the middle of this game was my worst decision of the season. I woke up for the ninth inning, but Bailey made quick work of the Yankees for the save. The Yankees had won six in a row heading in, so I guess you can’t win them all.

Line of the Night:
Dallas Braden: W, 6 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, BB, 2 K. He baffled the Yankees with his changeup, but manager Bob Geren pulled him after just 81 pitches.

Up Next:
The Yankees continue their west coasts wing with a three-game series against the Angels this weekend. Full series preview will be up tomorrow.