October in April

By Ron Prezzano

The New York Yankees vs. the Boston Red Sox, never have two teams generated more media hype, or fan rivalry in American sports history. That statement, in itself, sounds very egotistical and biased coming from a New York Yankee baseball fanatic like myself. Truth be told, this stuff just gets the old blood flowing, even this early into the season. It’s April 20th and, besides the weather, it feels like October baseball.

These two teams have been competitive as siblings for the past several seasons, hell the last eighty plus seasons.. This year seems to be following that same pattern. Almost always though, the results of their rivalry made the Yankees appear to be the older wiser big brother.

What better pitching match up could a Sox and Yankee fan expect in the first game than Curt Schilling facing Any Pettitte. These two seasoned veterans handle pressure with the confidence of a certain NYC Mayor during a city crisis, with leadership and determination.

Both teams have good offenses with the edge going New York’s way. I say this because with the loss of Sheffield the Yankee hitters are taking a more situational approach to the game. The injury to Sheffield last year was a blessing to this Yankee team. It forced them to play more of an aggressive type of offensive game and it paid off. When Sheffield returned they looked like that “long ball offense” once again, and that wasn’t working. Replacing Sheffiled’s bat with Abreu’s changed this lineup to a more consistent situational hitting one and this one works. When Hideki Matsui returns from the DL the Yankee lineup is obscenely loaded with good hitters. Sidebar…(the Mets offense is equally as obscene) but I digress; we are talking Yankee Red Sox here.

One last thing on Yankee offense, Jorge Posada just seems to get better with age. His hitting is to all fields from both sides of the plate. Jorge will make a formidable DH when his catching days are over.

The Red Sox offense centers around Ortiz and Ramirez and has been bolstered by the addition of J.D. Drew. Drew has gotten off to a very good start. That part of the line up could produce up to 380 to 400 RBI’s at years end. Scary.

Pitching, at this particular time, seems to be heavily in the favor of the Red Sox. This is in part to the Yankees having four starters on the DL (Wang, Mussina, Pavano and Rasner). The Red Sox starters have been formidable, to say the least. Schilling, Matsuzaka and Beckett all pitched well, even Wakefeild has had a decent start; their combined ERA is 2.09.

I have got to give New York the advantage in the middle relief department in the bullpen. The closers, (Rivera NY, Papelbon Bos.) at this time, cancel each other out, although Papelbon has four saves and Rivera none.

We never know what lies ahead in life, so enjoying the moment is essential and I truly recommend it. Right now I am not going to worry if Alex Rodriguez opts out of his contract at years end. Alex is here right now. I will ride the current wave of majestic performance he is displaying, knowing this might not happen again in my lifetime. Watching him hit right now is a feeling of provocative anticipation. The past is the past, so now this is fun.

So, I am treating this weekend like a playoff weekend just because it has been a long winter and the atmosphere is there. Enjoy, and guess what? We get to do it next weekend again and at home. Priceless.

Yankee Weather Chart

By Ron Prezzano


With injuries throughout MLB appearing to coincide with the unusual weather patterns this spring, the New York Yankees are on familiar turf. After all, it was a year ago that the same injury plague descended on the Bronx. The difference this year is that, so far, none of these injuries appear to be season or career ending.

The Yankees can probably count on right-handers Chien-Ming Wang, Mike Mussina and Jeff Karstens to return and contribute quality innings.

Carl Pavano, on the other hand, is as fragile as a mobile home in a trailer park during a hurricane. He is also becoming that predictable. (I just had to say that because the thought was lurking there in the frontal part of my brain). The problem really is his reliance and durability. This latest injury, to the area around his elbow, appeared to be minor last week, but this week may be more tenuous. Hopefully it is an injury of fatigue related to not pitching competitively in the last year and a half. Stay tuned.

The Yankees biggest concern going into the season was their starting pitching. On paper it looked formidable to pretty darn good. There were veterans’ and a Cy Young runner up to take the mound every four or five days. The return of Andy Pettitte was a great acquisition. Fill that out with a couple of young semi tested prospects and hope springs eternal. Unfortunately the questions concerning age, injuries and experience, early on, are becoming issues of reality.

This week the Yankees face two very good offences. Cleveland and the Red Sox. To put it into missionary terms, pitching wise, the Yankees could be horizontally violated several times in the next six days. The rotation looks rather adolescent with Chase Wright, Kei Igawa, Darrell Rasner, Andy (Milf) Pettitte and Jeff Karstens to pitch these six games. Meanwhile, the schedule has the Red Sox throwing Curt Schilling, Josh Beckett and Daisuke Matsuzaka at the Yankees The onus is on the Yankee offence to act like knights protecting the chastity of their loved ones.

The tide is changing and the future is rapidly descending on the Bronx. What I like is the Yankees will now be forced into giving some of their young arms major league experience. It is early in the season allowing Cashman and Torre to get a feeling for quality moves, if needed, later on. This is how Brian Cashman has set up his system. Not bad in my book, plenty of young resources and flexibility. No hostage situation here.

As far as Philip Hughes coming up to the big club, he is not ready and will be best served pitching in AAA, hopefully the Yankees will not pop his cherry too early.

As Ari Gold says “ we may be whores but we are not pimps.” Please Brian, no pimping allowed.

Now about that Clemens guy…..

Joe Torre's Last Stand

By Ron Prezzano


Judging by the amount of injuries and lack of post season fight this New York Yankee team has displayed in the past two seasons It is definitely time for a managerial change for the New York Yankees. That last statement exceeded my self-imposed allotment of twenty two words per sentence. That just goes to show you how frustrated and tired I am with Joe and his laid back approach to managing.

The Yankees have once again gotten off to a slow start. I guess we can also blame the atrocious weather conditions across the country for this sub-par showing. Why not, Joe does, but yet the Mets continue to play well in equally poor weather. Can you guess where I am going with this?

Look across town and you will see a manager who does not take poor or lackadaisical play lightly. Willie Randolph will let his players know when he sees things that are not to his liking. The Met players will run through a wall for Randolph and their on field play shows it.

Joe's decision to go with a three headed first baseman is a signal that he is showing signs of dementia. This move has created a logjam at first base and will cost the team a much needed roster spot. By electing to nurture this three headed sinkhole, and go with twelve pitchers, Joe leaves himself short handed with position players. This has already been obvious regarding the injury plagued start of the season.


Johnny Damon had a calf muscle strain and Hideki Matsui has a hamstring issue that has put him on the disabled list. This transformed into playing Miguel Cairo in left field for a couple of games. Cairo is a utility infielder and played four games in the outfield last season. This is the New York Yankees for God's sake. The highest pay-rolled team in baseball. Miguel Cairo, Josh Phelps, Doug Mientkiewicz manning two power positions for the highest paid team in baseball? This is like Having a Bentley and letting your wife use it to pick up groceries.

The Yankee defense has been nothing short of frightening. Derek Jeter's weakness to cover ground up the middle, and to his left, has always been his Achilles heel. Now his inaccurate throwing to first base is being exposed. Tino Martinez and Jason Giambi were great at making that scoop play at first base and saving Jeter a ton of errors. With Josh Phelps now playing some games at first base it is evident that The Captain will long for days past. There goes that Gold Glove Award.

A-Rod, at third base, has shown signs early that he has more agility at the hot corner, but still is a defensive question mark.

Robinson Cano, at second base, makes the hard plays look easy, and at times the easy plays look hard.

Hideki Matsui, in left field, has looked less than stellar defensively as time goes on.


Johnny Damon, in center field, covers adequate ground but he throws like I do left handed and I am right handed.

Bobby Abreu, in left field, is not the most graceful or fluid of players to play that position. Sometimes, (as in recently) he has shown his Reggie Jackson "Iron Glove" impersonation. Not pretty.

Combine this with a very shaky (so far) and injured starting pitching staff and the formula looks bad for this year's Yankee team.

If there is a positive and a strength to this team it is their offense and bullpen. Somehow, between Joe Torre's ability to mismanage and over use his bullpen this could turn into another weak link.

The offense will be solid for the regular season. If the Yankees make the playoffs, and that is not a given this year, good opposing pitching will shut them down again.

Although the Yankees have improved themselves in the off season with a younger farm system and pitching staff, that is not enough. Baltimore, Toronto and even the Tampa Bay Devil Rays have improved significantly. They are all good offensive teams and Baltimore and Toronto have a decent bullpen. Sound familiar?



The American League East is turning into a cloned division, with the exception of Tampa Bay at least. They will beat up on one another and Boston could open up a good lead by June.

The Red Sox, to me, seem to have an upper hand on the division. Good Starting pitching, the usual decent offense, and Jonathan Papelbon as the closer, this will be the team to beat. There, I said it, as painful as it is.

Injuries always play an important role and that could dictate who survives.

Pitching and defense win titles and the Yankees are falling short once again in that department.

This will be Joe Torre's last stand.