MONDAY TIDBITS

To match the weather on the east coast this week, I took a lot of heat over my Kemp to Yanks story. Mostly from one person in particular. That's fine with me, I can take it. I made my points to him in rebuttal and as of now, I still stand by that post and my source.

Funny thing is a man by the name of Pat Dean at Bleacherreport.com reported the same thing that I did 3 days later. I must say that I was very excited to see that, however, a few hours after it was posted, either BR or Mr. Dean pulled it. A message sent to Mr. Dean asking why he pulled it was not answered. A cached copy of the page can be found here.

Unlike others, I did not ask his source. I would not do that, however you will notice that his story is very similar to mine. So this leaves 2 questions for Mr. Dean: 1. Did he get this information through his own sources or 2. Did he use me as his source?

I took the time to read some of Mr. Deans other postings and they are quality articles, I was impressed. I doubt Mr. Dean used this blog as his source.

Home experiment: Between now and the deadline, take note of the rumored trades spewed out by the "credible" sources. Remember, it's perfectly fine if they are wrong because they went to "J-School" and I did not.

On to other things.....

Seems to me that Mark Teixeira is transforming into Jason Giambi (with a better glove). Tex came to the Yankees with a reputation of being a "hitter" not a "slugger". With his talent as a hitter, he should be able to go the other way on occasion to neutralize "the shift". Instead he insists on trying to slug his way through it and his batting average shows it. I can see Giambi and Big Poopie trying to slug their way through the shift but not Tex, being the "hitter" we were told he was.

It is absolutely absurd that Sergio Mitre (DL) is on this team and Adam Warren is not.

I am "old school." Back in my youth, pitchers that were brought up from the minors always went to the pen. Ron Guidry was a starter in the minors, got a call up and went to the pen. Al Leiter and Andy Pettitte started out in the Yankees bullpen. That was the way it was, today it is different. When Mitre went on the DL, Warren, Dellin Betances or Manny Banuelos should have been called up for pen duty to see what they can do. I don't believe in this "stretched out as a starter" stuff. They get a taste of the big league and the Yankees get to see what they can do against big league hitters. Its a win-win. But, that's the old school theory.

First we had "Joba Rules" and he got hurt, twice. Then we had "Hughes Rules" and he got hurt. Ian Kennedy escaped "rules" and is 11-3, 3.22 with Arizona. Keep in mind that last season Hughes was 10-1 when his "rules" required him to skip a start to save innings. That makes him 9-10 since the skip. The Yankees need to reevaluate their "rules" before they ruin Betances, Banuelos and Warren too.

Word is that Rafael Soriano and Eric Chavez will be back with the big club too. Here is a flash: Soripavano is a bum. If Girardi takes David Robinson out of the 8th inning slot, he's a fool.

As for Chavez, it will be nice to have him back but how long until Nick Johnson's replacement pulls another Nick Johnson?

That is all....