Sorry we have been busy… homework, vacation, and I am not guarantying
we will be posting every day.

So a good amount has happened since last time we posted
about 3 months ago and we have a great National League races… And AL East as
well…

A-Rod hit number 600, along with 601, 602, 603, and 604.
Yankees are in first place by 2.5 games, Spain won the World Cup.

The MVP races have changed a lot since we have last posted
which is what this small article will be about. Albert Pujols, Joey Votto, and
Carlos Gonzalez. Gonzo leads the league in average and in RBI’S but will have
to get a couple more homers to gain on Pujols. Votto is up there in all the
categories while Pujols is fading away from the Batting Average competition.
Adrian Gonzalez is also up there with the surprising Padres.

In the AL it’s a three man race with Miguel Cabrera , Josh Hamilton
and Robinson Cano. Hamilton’s average is hovering around .370 and Cabrera is up
there in RBI’s and second in BA. Robby Cano has faded down the past couple
months as he isn’t getting much rest especially with A-Rod out, but now he is
back so expect Cano to do much better down the stretch.

Now for the Cy Young races. In the Senior Circuit, it’s a
very arguable race. Tim Hudson, Roy Halladay, Ubaldo Jimenez, Adam Wainwright,
Mat Latos and Josh Johnson. 3 of those are on my fantasy team…. Hah. So anyways
my vote still goes to Jimenez even though he has faded big time over the past
couple months. His ERA has stayed under 3.00, and has 18 wins. Halladay has
been great too, and valuable but he has a much better offense a better pitching
ballpark than Coors Field. Wainwright was a pitching Triple Crown candidate
until Mat Latos took the ERA lead over. Jimenez has the wins lead and Lincecum
has taken over the strikeout league. All these pitchers are great, but only one
can win

In the AL there are less candidates, being CC Sabathia,
David Price, and Felix Hernandez. CC is most likely going to get his 20^th
win in a couple of starts and there is a possibility of 21-23 wins on the
season. Felix has less than half the amount of wins than CC but is better in
EVERY other category. So to finish this off, I will tell you that Felix
Hernandez will win the Cy Young Award though I would like CC Sabathia to win it

Thank you for reading, bye!

Hey fellow bloggers and other people… We are so super
sorry we haven’t written in 1 month + 3 weeks or something… Hehe our bad… We
promise that from now on we will start writing a lot more, because school is
ending… day by day… We will have the daily postgame reports over the weekend
games and a full series recap of each series starting with the Yanks vs Phils
series. Well a lot has happened during the past month and a half or so a lot
has happened… 2.99 perfect games, the struggles of Tex and the power drought of
A-Rod, the unbelievable showing by Robby Cano, and the Yankees are back in
first place. Well tied at least, but that is good enough for me. Plus a bunch
of non-baseball things are happening and we will get that all down.

The Yankees have gone 25- 17 in the time we haven’t blogged
which I would say is pretty good. The Yankees have gotten their share of
injuries (Nick Johnson, Jorge Posada, Marcus Thames etc.) but the rookies have
filled in. Kevin Russo has played remarkably well, definitely higher than I
expected. Cervelli has constantly been coming up in big spots and knocking in
the run always. With 2 out and the bases loaded or with 0 out and a runner on
second. Nick Johnson has been injured and to be honest I’m a teeny bit happy.
The dude wasn’t getting the job done. Curtis Granderson is back, Jorge is back
and he hit 2 grand salami’s in 2 days. The past month has been pretty good so
far, except the starting pitching hasn’t been nearly as good, but it is still
doing pretty well. A-Rod hasn’t been hitting his homers and he only has 8 midway
through June. A-Rod has to get his homerun stroke back or else… I’ll cry…

Tex has been heating up in the past week or so and we can
only hope that they both have 30 at the end of the year. Oh yeah also Tex had 3
homers against the Red Sux a while back! We all thought he was coming out of
it… But no. On the good side, Cano has been phenomenal. His average is STILL
over .380 and is probably the early leader for the MVP. Nick Swisher has also
done very well in the early stages of the season and Jeter is heating it up
too. Gardner has kept his average over .300 most of the way through and has
done a great job so far. Javier Vazquez is doing better every start, and Phil
Hughes just hit his first bump in the road against the Astros on Sunday, but
other than that he is doing great along with Andy Pettitte, who has gotten of
the best start of his career.

Now onto the other non Yankee things. The most uncommon
thing has happened. 2 perfect games + a game that should be a perfect game and
you all know what that was. First let’s all start with the good moments. Dallas
Braden a week after yelling at A-Rod for stepping on his mound… and had the
media battle with Rodriguez threw a perfect game retiring all 27 Rays, the second
time they had been a victim of a perfect game since… Last year. Next Roy
Halladay, who hasn’t missed a beat since being roughed up by the Yankees on
Tuesday. So Halladay had his perfect game against Josh Johnson and the Marlins.
The score was 1-0 on a Cameron Maybin error. I feel so sorry for Josh Johnson.
And here’s the one you’ve all been waiting for. Armando Gallaraga’s perfect
game. No. Wait. Almost Perfect Game, but Jim Joyce messed up the call at first.
What can you say? People make mistakes and what comes out of this is the class
of Armando Gallaraga. After the game after Joyce apologizes for blowing the
s*** out the call, Gallaraga says, “Everybody makes mistakes. I applaud Gallaraga
for that and in my mind and world, he threw a perfect game.

On the same discussion, we go the surprising players so far
like the pitchers, and Ubaldo Jimenez who is sparkling this year, Jimenez
thrusting a 13-1 record with a 1.15 ERA, in fact the only game he lost he gave
up 0 earned runs. Jimenez has been popping up in the discussion for the lowest
ERA ever, most wins since Denny McLain and even National League MVP. That’s how
it proves how great he’s been nthis year. On the other side of the diamond are
the hitters. Jose Bautista has had a bunch of homers, Troy Glaus heads the
National League in RBI’s Vladimir Guerrero is resurging and Adrian Beltre and Martin
Prado are in the top 5 for average with Cano leading with more than 30 points
more… Corey Hart has 17 homers. It’s hard to choose an offensive surprising
player. I almost forgot to mention Andy Pettitte and Phil Hughes who are
shutting down batter after batter.

Thanks for listening, and after this we promise, and we mean
promise to start writing again.

Thanks,

The Yankeeholics.

The Yankees offseason which once looked brilliant now looks
HORRIBLE. Where should I start? Curtis Granderson after starting the season in dramatic
fashion, a homer in his first at bat, has had 3 hits in his last 37 AB’s and
has landed himself on the 15 day DL. Meanwhile Austin Jackson is leading the
American League in hits with 37 and is showing the Yankees what a bad move this
has been. Phil Coke also has a 1.93 ERA and a 3-0 record boosting the killing
the Yankees decision to trade for Granderson even more. Even Ian Kennedy isn’t
doing that bad, thrusting a 4.45 ERA with a 1.05 WHIP. Jackson strutting his
.356 batting average, while Curtis Granderson is attempting to hit against
lefties, only failing. That isn’t the only Yankees failed acquisition this year
as Nick Johnson is only hitting .136 and his 20 walks don’t even matter
anymore, because he is sucking so much. This isn’t good, especially because Tex
was under .150 as well this being the first time 2 Yankees players hit under
.200 since Joel Skinner and Dan Pasqua did so in 1987, almost 20 years ago. Tex’s
.136 was the worst since Jesse Barfield hit .125 in 1992… and guess what the
second worst since Barfield’s was? Nick Johnson’s .138. We all know Tex will
eventually come back to normal but Johnson… The last horrible move this year
was when they trade Melky Cabrera, Mike Dunn, and Arodys Vizcaino for Javier
Vazquez. At first this seemed like a brilliant move but now… not so much. Melky
isn’t doing so great only hitting .195 but it’s better than Tex. Mike Dunn isn’t
doing so great either with his 6.75 ERA but it’s better than Javier Vazquez.
Arodys Vizcaino has a 4.15 ERA in 26.0 innings in the minors. So the trade for
the Braves didn’t go great but it went even worse for the Yankees. Javier
Vazquez has an ERA of 9.78… And a .337 batting average against. He is 1-3 and
is probably the worst pitcher in baseball. So as you can see this hasn’t been
the best offseason ever, but there has been one benefit. When Curtis Granderson
is gone I am looking forward to seeing the Marcus Thames play because he has
been doing great. He has a .550 batting average and a .850 slugging percentage.
Personally, if Nick Johnson and Javier Vazquez don’t pick it up by say the
middle or end of June I would look into trading them in a package for a decent
starting pitcher and perhaps making Marcus Thames the DH depending on how he
does. I hope they pick it up… Javier Vazquez at least…

The Yankees were looking to win after the A’s broke their 6
game win streak. The Angels broke through versus Burnett right away when Kendry
Morales had an infield hit to drive in Bobby Abreu who had doubled. The Yankees
answered with 3 runs in the 3^rd on Derek Jeter, A-Rod, and Robby
Cano RBI hits including Bobby Wilson’s injury. The Angels scored 3 runs of
their own in the bottom half of the inning, 2 of them coming with 2 outs. The
game stayed the same, AJ Burnett making a nice snag that could have easily been
the defensive play of the game but no. The game slowly became a thriller and
then in the 8^th Kendry Morales launched a 2 run shot on a screwed up
curveball. Fuentes came in for the save and closed it out.

Player of the Game:
Kendry Morales: Kendry had 3 hits, 2 runs, and 3 RBI’s, half of his team’s
runs. His 2 run shot in the 8^th, the clutch game winning shot, gave
the Angel’s a win along with his 3 hits and him being on base 4 times to give
his team the win.

Play of the Game:
Teixeira knocks out Bobby Wilson: This was not a beautiful defensive play
obviously but a semi-dirty play that risked the season of Wilson. It started
with Cano singling to right field and Bobby Abreu firing home. The throw missed
the plate but Tex mowed Bobby Wilson over when he turned his body to be
prepared for the tag, but it never came as Tex never slid right giving Wilson a
concussion and an injured ankle. Mike Scoiscia and Joe Girardi insisted that it
wasn’t a dirty play but Tex could of slid normally but didn’t. Plus, Tex was
hit by a pitch and could have done it in retaliation… which is dirty

Drive of the Game:
Kendry Morales’s 2 run shot in the 8^th: I almost started to cry when
Joba screwed up the slider and Morales jacked it into the night over Swish’s
extended glove to give the Angel’s a 2 run lead in the 8^th which they
would unfortunately keep.

The Yankees were going for their 7 straight win but didn’t
get it, a result of CC Sabathia’s horrible first inning. Walk, out, walk, homer
by Kurt Suzuki to give the A’s a 3-0 lead, and they would never turn back. They
would add on a run in the 4^th to go up 4-0. CC wasn’t pitching
great, but it was his control killing him. He ended up with 6 walks more than
he had all season. Thames and Tex added on runs but not much happened except
the first triple play of the year, in the bottom of the 5^th, 5-4-3.
Groundball to A-Rod, step on third throw to second, Cano fired to first for the
triple play. Andrew Bailey closed the game to give the A’s the final game of
this 3 game set.

Player of the Game:
Dallas Braden: Braden went 6 innings only giving up 2 runs to get his third
win of the season. Braden didn’t keep the ball in the infield that well, giving
up 2 homers and getting more outs in the air then on the ground. He did get the
outs, leaving the last three innings to his pen. CC didn’t pitch horribly
though, having one bad inning in which, if he had pitched well, would probably
come out with the win. One pitch to Kurt Suzuki was enough to lose the game in
this case.

Play of the Game: The
Yankee Triple Play: The first Yankees triple play since 1968 was of the
around the horn variety. Suzuki hit a ground ball to A-Rod at third who stepped
on the bag, made an off balance throw to second and Cano fired to first, to get
the slow footed Kurt Suzuki.

Drive of the Game:
Kurt Suzuki’s three run homer in the first: CC struggled in the first and
Kurt Suzuki, who had an odd day, took advantage of it. CC walked Rajai Davis on
4 pitches and Ryan Sweeney as well. Suzuki then came up and on the first pitch
killed the ball to give the A’s a three run lead. This was the only bad inning
for Sabathia and if this had never happened the Yanks would have won and CC’s
3.00 ERA would actually be a 2.00 ERA. 3.00 isn’t bad though, it’s the win that
matters which didn’t pull through.

Player of the Game

Alex Rodriguez-1/2, 3 BB, 3 RBI, 1 HR, 2 R

The A’s were clearly trying to give A-Rod nothing to hit, walking him 3 times, but he still found a pitch good enough to bomb a 3 run shot over the center field wall for his second homer of the season. His ability to work the count and his big drive made him an easy choice for player of the game.

Drive of the Game

Alex Rodriguez’s 3 run shot in the 5th

The only Yankee homer of the day, and it was a big one. A pitch down the middle, and A-Rod smacked it over the center field wall to take the game far out of reach of a weak A’s lineup.

Play of the Game

Javier Vazquez’s Double Play in the Second Inning

Fantastic reaction time from Javi made sure he kept the A’s at bay in the early innings. In the bottom of the second, with the Yankees up 3-0, there were runners on first and third for the A’s with only one out. Travis Buck at the plate smashed a ball straight up the middle, but Vazquez reached between his legs, snagged the ball, and alertly threw to first to pick off the runner and complete the double play. A single would have scored a run and ignited a rally, but Vazquez’s quick and alert play snuffed out any chances for the Athletics.

So there have been a few teams that have totally surprised me so far. Other than the Yankees, Rays, and Phillies who are the 1-2-3 teams in baseball, like expected, even though the Red Sox aren’t in the mix. Yankees (9-3) have had excellent starting pitching, the Rays (10-3) have had excellent pitching as well, but on the other hand the Phils (8-4) have had the best offense in the league. So other than these teams which teams have surprised me? In a good way? 3 teams. The Athletics, the Pirates, and the Nats. The Nationals it might be pretty obvious because they aren’t a thousand games under .500 and have a decent record, even though Jason Marquis has been a HUGE bust. The Pirates continually have clutch hitting on the other hand. Their bullpen has actually been decent and starting pitching is good too. This has fueled them to an 7-5 record, giving them the 2nd spot in the NL Central behind the Cardinals. The last team, the only AL team that has impressed us, is the A’s. The A’s have the best record in the West giving them the lead. They have had some of the best starting pitching in the league. All of their starters have an ERA of under 3, excluding Gio Gonzalez who has a 3.35. The A’s hot pitching won’t stay the same though, with the Yankees coming into town…

The flop teams are my favorite to say because guess who starts the list. The BoSox. They just haven’t been able to do anything right if it’s score enough runs or give up less runs. The second team is another AL East team, the Orioles. They have been able to be the best team at doing nothing. No hitting, no pitching no nothing. The Last team is the Mets. The Mets don’t have the bullpen they want and their starting pitching is nothing after Johan Santana. They don’t have a center fielder because of Beltran being injured and Pagan isn’t doing enough, plus Mike Jacobs was DFA’d and Ike Davis, the rookie sensation, will try to fill the hole Carlos Delgado left.

The best players… Pujols… illegal…. Utley…. partially illegal… So really the most impressive players are? Jorge Cantu, Vernon Wells, and Andy Pettitte. Cantu has had an RBI in every single game this year excluding one game against the Phillies and has dominated with 5 homers as well. Wells has rebounded nicely from a bad year last year with six homers this year so far and more to come. Lastly, Andy Pettitte has had a great year so far and this might surprise some of you. Pettitte has given up a combined 3 runs in  3 starts giving him a 2-0 record along with a 1.75 ERA

The flop players have been some unexpected pitchers mostly. Javier Vazquez has an ERA of nine and a half in his first two starts giving him a 0-2 record. This is definitely not worth Melky Cabrera and Aroldys Vizcaino. I believe and hope that Javy will come back to normal and pitch well again. So the other pitcher that is disappointed is in the NL East, Jason Marquis has an even worse ERA and the same amount of losses. He is not the All-Star pitcher that the Nats were projected to get. The Jason Marquis that gave up 7 runs while only getting 2 outs is not the same as last year. Discussion over. The last disappointing player has been Jason Bay. An all-star last year, he is a .215 hitting outfielder this year. Bay will most likely get it going but he has not always been great.

Here are my very early favorites for the award races this year

AL MVP: Nelson Cruz
NL MVP: Albert Pujols

AL CY Young: CC Sabathia
NL CY Young: Tim Lincecum or Roy Halladay

AL Manager of the Year: Bob Geren
NL Manager of the Year: Bruce Bochy

AL Rookie of the Year: Brian Matusz
NL Rookie of the Year: Jason Heyward

Well I know this is late but after the Mets 20 inning game
which ended at 11 or so and the Ubaldo Jimenez no hitter, I was watching the Jazz
versus the Nuggets, the opening night of the NBA playoffs. So I was busy, yes,
and I didn’t have any time to write this article…

Ubaldo Jimenez No
Hitter

I was texting Mrinal, and we were talking about our fantasy
team and I was asking him if we had traded Jimenez because he was throwing a no
hitter through 4 innings and fortunately we didn’t. So in a way, I called it…
He threw a gem leaving the Rays, Padres, and Mets the only teams without any
no-hitters. He walked 6 and K’d 7 and threw 124 or so pitches, a career high. I
wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to finish the no hitter if he kept it
going. Then I realized that it was Joe Girardi who was managing CC when he
almost threw the no hitter who has a knack for keeping pitchers in even when
they can throw a full 9 innings. So back to the no-no. Jimenez was throwing gas
on his fastball, reaching 100 MPH more than once during the game. His curveball
was all over the place and got hitters to swing which was what fueled him to
the victory. So besides his pitching and his last out (a soft ground ball to
second by Brian McCann) there must have been a great defensive play, like there
is in every no hitter. Like Dewayne Wise for Mark Buehrle and Aaron Rowand for
Jonathan Sanchez. In this game it was Dexter Fowler who made an impossible
running snag and dive to save the no hitter .

Mets and Cardinals go
20 innings

The game started at about 4 and ended at oh about 11. Jaime
Garcia, the Cardinals pitcher, had a no hitter till the sixth and John pitched
7 strong innings. The game wasn’t that exciting, it was sort of like the
Yankees versus Red Sox game except that had so many more defensive plays and
plus, it was the greatest rivalry in sports. Nobody in this game wanted to
score till the Mets broke through… in the 19^th against a position
player… Joe Mather. 2 position players pitched, Kyle Lohse, a pitcher, played
left field, the Cardinals sent two pitches up to bat with the bases loaded in
extras, K-Rod blew a save… in the 19^th, and Joe Mather gave up 2
runs in 2 innings after Felipe Lopez had a good inning. There isn’t much more
to say except the fact that the Mets could only score against an outfielder
while the Cardinals could only score against one of the best closers in
baseball. This means something.

Other notable games and feats.

·        
Tim Lincecum had 6 shutouts innings in his win.

·        
Rafael Soriano had two saves, both for the Rays
in the suspended 12 inning game and the regular game that day.

·        
Ryan Sweeney had a walk-off single to give the O’s
an even worse start

·        
Garrett Jones had a walk off single against the
Reds after Lastings Milledge tied it with a walk.

·        
The Phillies finally lost .

·        
Kevin Correia had 6 innings of 8 K ball to shut
out the D-Backs.

The Yankees were looking for their first sweep of the season and they got it. In the bottom of the first Gardner was hit, Tex was hit, A-Rod walked, and Cano had a sac fly. As Pettitte continued to dominate he was stopped short in the 3rd when the Rangers scored two runs via Elvis Andrus and Michael Young.  To tie it in the bottom, the seemingly impossible happened, Mark Teixiera finally hitting a homer. Ramiro Pena starting had a big 2 run double with the bases loaded. As a stat Pena hits .800 with the bases loaded… The Yanks would hold on to win the game with the great Mariano Rivera getting the save.

Player of the Game:
Andy Pettitte: Andy fired 8 innings of 2 run ball, escalating the Yankees
pitching as some of the best we’ve seen so far, this year. Pettitte had 3
walks, and just 4 K’s but efficiently pitched through the Rangers lineup,
giving the Yankees the sweep.

Play of the Game: Teixeira’s
pair of plays: The first one happened in the third, robbing Josh Hamilton
of a pretty big hit, an RBI double which would have given the Rangers a 2 run
lead. He jumped up with a full extension and almost picked Michael Young off at
second. The second wasn’t as big but was just done for the rob, was in the 4^th
diving to take a hit away from Matt Treanor

Drive of the Game:
Mark Teixeira’s first homer of the year: It’s about time, as Tex launched
his first homer to where he usually does, left field, in the third to tie the
game at 2. If the Yankees were winning almost without Tex then imagine how they
would be like if he gets hot.