Rocked in Colorado, Getting ready for San Fran, and Giambi goes on the record...

ROCKED IN COLORADO SWEEP

I'm starting to re-think my opinion of the Colorado Rockies franchise right about now.
They've just got done polishing off a three game sweep of the Yankees and just two weeks ago they won 2 out of 3 against the Red Sox and came an eye lash away from a sweep there.
They might be on to something out there in Denver and this went from a series that I couldn't wait to play to help pad our record to a series I couldn't wait to put in our rear view mirror as we leave Coors field and head to off to San Francisco.
Why our hard luck Yankees couldn't muster up any significant offense against the 'Rox is beyond me, but I'm going to go on record here and now as suggesting that this Rockies team will be one that could contend in the NL West sometime soon.
They are 3.5 games out of the NL Wild Card and 3.5 games out of first in the NL West.
I don't know if Arizona can hang in there all year and if they don't --- I could easily see the Rockies either pushing past them and LA and taking the division or playing the role of spoiler.
That's one of the positive things about interleague for baseball fans.
It allows you, or maybe forces you, to take a closer look at teams that you really never paid any attention to before.
The Rockies have some very good hitters and their pitching staff managed to go 5 for 6 against the Red Sox offense and the Yankees offense.
Not to shabby.
I'm happy to leave Colorado and leave it to the NL West...


THE SAN FRANCISCO TREAT

Continuing the theme that was started with the Diamondbacks and the Mets last week, the Yanks will see another former World Series rival in the form of the San Francisco Giants.
The Yankees met the Giants (the New York Giants at that time) 7 times in the World Series (1921-1923, 1936, 1937, 1951, and 1962) and won five of the Fall Classics and lost two.
This time there won't be any Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays.
No Babe Ruth, or Carl Hubbell, or Mel Ott.
No Bobby Thompson and the 'Shot heard 'round the world'.
Just the 2007 Giants and the 2007 Yankees and a little interleague action by the bay...

Yankees fans get to see their favorite team play the San Francisco Giants this weekend in the Bay Area and we'll get to see Barry Bonds and Barry Zito at AT&T park.
Well, they'll get to say "hi" to Zito and they'll get to "see" him, but they won't be facing him in this three game set.
The pitching match ups are set to be Kei Igawa (2-1, 7.63) against Matt Cain (2-7, 3.15) tonight, Chien Ming Wang (7-4, 3.33) against Matt Morris (7-4, 3.21) tomorrow afternoon on FOX, and Mike Mussina (3-4, 5.10) against Noah Lowry (6-6, 3.74) Sunday afternoon.
Tonight will be Igawa's first game back as a New York Yankees starting pitcher since his outing in at Yankee stadium against Seattle on May the 4th where he gave up 8 earned runs on 9 hits in just four innings.
Since that time he's been down on the farm working on his control and mechanics and Joe Torre seems satisfied with his progression.
This will be the first time anybody from the Giants has faced Igawa but it should be noted that Giants outfielder Randy Winn is batting over .340 off of lefties.
The hitters for the New York Yankees may not be too familiar with Cain and Lowry, but Bobby Abreu seems to have tomorrow's Giant's starter Matt Morris all sorted out as he is hitting .348 (8-for-23) with two home runs and five RBIs against Morris.
And don't let Matt Cain's win/loss record fool you.
He's a very good pitcher and has pitched very well so far this season.
As a matter of fact this is what Jayson Stark had to say about him recently on ESPN.Com:

Here's the question we should be asking about Matt Cain: Is he the best 2-7 pitcher in history? Hey, he just might be, as a matter of fact.

We couldn't find a single pitcher in the expansion era who had an ERA as good as Cain's (3.15), or a hits-per-nine-IP rate as good as Cain's (7.02 per nine IP) who wound up a season with a winning percentage as lousy as his is now (.222). But even 2-7 doesn't do justice to how crummy the Giants have played behind him. Their record when he starts is an incomprehensible 2-12.

So how do we explain this? Just about every way possible. He has lost two 1-0 games and a 2-0 game. The bullpen has blown three saves for him. And the offense has scored two runs or fewer in nine of his starts. It's been so ugly that he has allowed three hits or fewer five times -- and won one of them.

"To me, he's a lot like Justin Verlander," says one scout. "It's easy to think he could throw multiple no-hitters. That's how good his stuff is. And he's 2-7. Now that doesn't make a whole lot of sense."

GIAMBI TALKS

Well, Jason has finally broken down and decided to speak with Bud Selig and the Mitchell Investigation about his use of anabolic steroids.
What impact this will have on his career as a New York Yankee for the remainder of the 2007 season or the 2008 season is yet to be determined.

Here is his official statement:

Today, I have agreed to commissioner Selig's request that I meet with Sen. George Mitchell. In a direct conversation the commissioner impressed upon me the idea that the game of baseball would be best served by such a meeting. I will continue to do what I think is right and be candid about my past history regarding steroids. I have never blamed anyone nor intended to deflect blame for my conduct. I alone am responsible for my actions and I apologize to the commissioner, the owners and the players for any suggestion that they were responsible for my behavior.

I've come to this decision for a number of reasons. I did not want to put my family through a lengthy legal challenge in support of my position. In addition, the uncertainty of my playing status could detract from the efforts of our team to win the American League East. My focus at this time needs to be on rehabbing my injury, getting back on the field, and contributing to the goals of my team. To be embroiled in a legal battle could undermine all of this and I would never put my family, my teammates, or the Yankees in that position.

Accordingly, I have agreed to this meeting. As I have always done, I will address my own personal history regarding steroids. I will not discuss in any fashion any other individual. My hope is that this meeting will serve as a positive step, as all parties involved seek the best approach in dealing with the issue of "drugs in sport." That has always been the intent behind all of the comments I have made on the subject and it remains so to this day.

Myself, I sort of wish that he had not said these things and sort of wish that he not decided to cooperate with Senator Mitchell and Bud Selig.
I just don't know what good can come from this or will come from this.
People in major league baseball had to have known that a significant number of players used some form of steroids or performance enhancing drugs from the years of 1986 to 2006.
They must have known.
I don't think any of these people are stupid men.
I don't think that they are exceptionally gullible men either.
These are highly educated men, for the most part, with years of experience dealing with professional sports.
I might be more inclined to believe that they didn't know what was going on with these things at the start of it.
I might be more inclined to believe that they didn't know about it in the 1980's or the early 1990's.
I might be more inclined to believe that they didn't know about it before 1997.
But after the home run chase and the home run boom from 1997 through 2001 --- I just can't understand how anybody with an ounce of common sense to go along with their education and experience with professional baseball and professional athletics would not suspect that at some of these players had dabbled with supplements, steroids, and other performance enhancers.
That type of naivete just defies description.
I just don't believe it.
I'm sorry --- I just don't.
I mean, prior to 1998 only two players had ever hit 60 home runs in a single season (Babe Ruth and Roger Maris) in the previous 100 years and only Roger Maris had hit more than 60 (he hit 61 to set the home run record with the New York Yankees in 1961).
Babe Ruth's home run record of 60 home runs stood for 34 years until Maris broke it.
Maris's home run record of 61 homers stood for 37 years until McGwire brook that.
Big Mac's record of 70 stood for all of 2 and a half years until Bonds smashed that one.
Also while all of this was going on --- in the four years from 1998 to 2001 Sammy Sosa averaged 60 home runs per year and hit at least 63 home runs three times in that span (66 home runs in 1998, 63 home runs in 1999, 50 home runs in 2000, and 64 home runs in 2001).
In addition there are 18 players to hit 500 home runs or more that joined the 500 club prior to 1998 but since 1998 there have been 3 new members to the 500 club...
And there will be at least 3 new members this year and perhaps 4.
By the end of next season there will be 1 or 2 more.
That means it took 100 years to get 18 members of the 500 club and we'll get 7 or 8 more in a matter of 10 years?
If anybody looks around they can see it.
Baseball turned a blind eye to what was going on as long as it helped the turnstiles start spinning again after the strike and they didn't care how things got done to help to restore baseball to prosperity as long as they got done.
Well it worked.
Home runs flew out of the ballpark and tickets got sold and money got made and records got broken.
And then got broken again.
Now almost ten years later ticket sales are at record highs and attendance at the ballparks is going up each year for the past several years and everybody got what they wanted.
But now, almost ten years later, there's finally a fuss being stirred up about steroids in baseball and that we need to "clean it up".
So now, after a decade of doing almost nothing about the issue, the league decides it's time to get tough on the problem and the players they look at as the worst offenders.
And now, almost ten years later, they want to strong arm one of the few guys that actually admitted doing anything wrong and had the temerity to suggest that they were other people besides just him that knew what was going on and maybe if baseball wanted to clean itself up that lots of different people should speak up this time.
Such as coaches, GM's, trainers, owners, sports writers, broadcasters, doctors, club house people, and more.
I don't see anything wrong with that and I don't know why Giambi has to wear the scarlet A for everybody else.
Especially while Sosa, Bonds, Sheffield, and dozens of others get to act like nothing happened...

Anyways, that's the odds and ends for today...
Tonight's game is at 10:15 EST on YES...
Until later tonight lets all get ready to stay up late and cheer for the boys in pinstripes...

LETS GO YANKEES !!!


Until after the game,
Mike

P.S.

It was just announced today that the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League Central division have claimed first baseman Josh Phelps off of waivers from the New York Yankees.
Josh Phelps was designated for assignment by the Yankees on Tuesday after hitting .263 with two home runs and 12 RBI in 36 games this season.
So far in his  career he's played in 388 total games and has a career batting average of .268 with 59 homers and 224 RBI's.
In addition to his time with the 2007 Yankees, Phelps has played with the Toronto Blue Jays from 2000-2004, the Cleveland Indians in 2004, and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2005.
When he was selected by the Yankees from the Baltimore Orioles in the Major League phase of the 2006 Rule 5 Draft in December of 2007 he became the first Major-League Rule 5 Draft selection by the Yankees since Marc Ronan from the Milwaukee Brewers in the December 1995 Rule 5 Draft.
His best season was probably with Toronto in 2003 when he hit 20 homers, drove in 66 RBI's, and had 186 total bases in 119 at bats.
The 29 year old Anchorage, Alaska native and wife Eleanor have one daughter named Hannah who turned two this year.
Phelps graduated from Lakeland High School in Idaho in 1996 and was named the Most Valuable Player in baseball while graduating fourth in his class.
He has been added to the Pirates minor league roster and it remains to be seen if and when he'll be brought up to Pirates major league roster.
My thanks go out to Josh Phelps for his time and effort this season so far and in Spring Training.
He always worked hard and did his best to be the best player that he could be for the New York Yankees and I appreciate that.
Good luck in the National League with the Pirates Josh.
I hope you find happiness and both personal and professional success there !