Much Better

I only saw the first 5 innings or so and what stood out to me was Joba's brilliance in back to back. He`s slowly becoming the Yankees ace. Its been a long time since the Yankees have had a guy like Joba. I have no idea how his career will turn out but his future is looking bright. Tomorrow we`ll go against the Angels.

The Yankees also made a trade today. Farnsworth is going to the Tigers for Ivan Rodriguez. My intial reaction was bad but after looking over Farnsworth's stats more carefully I`m in favor of it. Farnsworth looks like he`s pulled things together and Girardi's gotten some credit for it. While some of this is true, Farnsworth has a 20% HR/FB%. This means that 20% of all his FB's go over the fence. The average pitcher gets about 10%. Although certain pitchers have displayed a skill at this most of it is luck and this year is a huge outlier for Farnsworth. Pudge is basically a wash defensively with Molina but Pudge is a much better hitter than Molina. Another issue is that Pudge will probably be a type A free agent while Farnsworth will be a type B. Pudge probably wants a long term deal so he probably wouldn't accept arbitration. This means the Yankees will probably get better draft picks for Pudge than for Farnsworth. This year has also shown has that the best way to build a bullpen is to just try out different young guys with talent and see what sticks. This solves 3 of the Yankees 4 goals for the offseason. Now I`d like to see them get one more starter. Strangely enough, I was actually mulling over the idea of trading Farnsworth this morning but never got a chance to write about it.

Now, I need to say something about the Mark Texiera deal. Although most people are ready to hand over the Pennant and World Series already I`m not. First of all, offense in the regular season doesn;t guarentee offense in the postseason. The Angels already have the division wrapped up so I don't see the point of this deal. They gave up a very good player in Kotchman as well.Unless it gives them an upper-hand in signing Texiera this off-season I don't see the point.

Catchup

Just a few more notes from the past the few days to catch up on.

Joba`s back and his father has recovered. Thank god for that. I also liked Girardi's decision to use Posada at first. First base really doesn't rquire any defensive skills at all. Giambi's bat is also worthless, he still can't hit the ball the other way and can't even hit for power anymore. I`m not ready to completely cut him but they should definitely be minimizing his role. The other first base options really aren't anything to brag about anyway. Jose Molina`s playing great and has always been brilliant defensively. So why not fill the first base void and save Posada's arm at the same time. I hope it isn't a sign that Posada's injury is worse than we thought, though. Farnsworth got suspended but I`m not to upset. I don't think he deserved it, he has no control over his pitches anyway. However, Farnsworth is really no loss worth getting upset over.