The Yankees have announced the MRI results on ace pitcher Chien-Ming Wang and they ain’t pretty. Wang has been diagnosed with a mid-foot sprain of the Lisfranc ligament and a partial tear of the peroneal longus tendon and will be laid up for at least six weeks.
Remember, Wang won’t be doing any throwing during this span, so you can tack another 4 weeks onto that time table. I wouldn’t expect the Wanginator back on the mound before September, which means the Bombers need an arm badly.
Or do they? With the offense suddenly clicking, can the Yanks survive with a rotation of Andy Pettitte, Mike Mussina, Joba Chamberlain, Darrell Rasner and, say, Dan Giese? Remember, Ian Kennedy, recovering from a strained lat, has begun throwing off the mound and could be back with the team after a rehab start or two. Phil Hughes is still probably six weeks away from returning.
Meanwhile the injury to Wang raises two questions: A) Does interleague play put American …
The Mets have acquired outfielder Trot Nixon, and this Met fan couldn’t be happier.
Following their 7-1 win over the visiting Rangers tonight, GM Omar Minaya announced that the team had traded for Nixon in exchange for cash or a player to be named later. Nixon had been playing for the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Triple-A affiliate, hitting .309 with a .437 OBP, 15 doubles, 10 homers, and 31 RBI.
Perhaps my enthusiasm in response to this move is more a reflection of just how far the Mets have fallen, but I have grown sick and tired of watching this organization sit on its hands while the season slips away. Is Nixon a game-changer? No. He is a gritty dirt dog, a fiery competitor, a strong defender, and a left-handed bat with some pop. I expect Nixon will be an every day player for a Mets lineup devoid of its starting corner outfielders after injuries to Ryan Church and Moises Alou.
“He’s a …
On a miserable day for Mets fans, this is pretty damn neat. Thanks to the digital wizardry of a company called Seats3D, you can take a virtual tour of the Mets 2009 home, CitiField, moving around the ballpark and checking out the view of the field from each seat. It’s pretty exciting, and I would urge the Yanks to put together something similar for their fanbase.
Via Mike Garafolo of The Star-Ledger:
It took a while for the decision to become final, but Michael Strahan won’t play again in the NFL.
According to Jay Glazer of Foxsports.com, a close friend of Strahan’s who also wrote a book with the Giants’ standout defensive end, Strahan took a little extra time after the season and the Giants’ ring ceremony to make sure he was 100 percent sure of his decision to retire.
“It was important that my teammates knew which way I was going before they got on the field to start the work to defend our title,” the team’s all-time sack leader told Glazer today from California. “It’s time. I’m done.”
Yesterday afternoon’s MLB draft saw the Mets break with recent history (GM Omar Minaya picked college pitchers Mike Pelfrey, Kevin Mulvey, and Eddie Kunz in the last three drafts), focusing on college bats this year in order to restock a minor league system depleted by various trades and free agent signings. In fact, the Mets’ selection of Ike Davis with the 18th overall pick marked the franchise’s first first-round selection since Pelfrey in ‘05. The Mets had forfeited their first round picks in each of the last two seasons by signing Type A free agents Billy Wagner and Moises Alou.
In Ike Davis, the Mets hope they have found a power bat to plug into their system, which looks barren beyond the name of Fernando Martinez. Most fans will probably look at the slugging first baseman out of Arizona State and anoint him the heir apparent to Carlos Delgado. However Davis’ presence in the system won’t prevent Minaya from pursuing a big first …
Hello intrepid readers. Welcome to our second ever Live Blog event here on Hot Stove New York, following in the footsteps of our popular Live Blog of the Roger Clemens Congressional Hearings. Of course, technically I’m not Live because I had to run a few errands before game time. Embarrassing, I know. Like being late to your own party. But in any event, I’m here now, and watching the game on a roughly 25-30 minute delay thanks to the wonder of DVR. When my pizza delivery gets here, I expect I’ll fall another 10 minutes or so behind, but hey, what did you expect? You get what you pay for, as they say…
So without further adieu…PLAY BALL!
Realtime 7:40 | DVR time 7:05
Michael Kay is really jazzed for this game, I can tell. And who can blame him? I’m not even a Yankee fan, and here I am Live Blogging. Granted I’m a sick, sick person, but nevertheless, an exciting evening.
Speaking of which, …
In the wake of Oliver Perez’s five hits, six runs, and two walks in 1/3 of an inning last night (good for a 162.0 ERA), it seems an appropriate time to flash back to early May when Super Agent Scott Boras decided to drop in on the Mets on a road trip to Dodger Stadium and delivered a bit of a State of the Union on his struggling client. Boras insisted that Ollie’s early season woes had nothing to do with his impending free agency, and that “the only thing weighing on his mind is being consistent.” In fact, according to the Journal News’ John Delcos Boras denied charges that his client can be an “erratic” performer, which surely must be one of the more difficult things to utter with a straight face were Boras not a soulless snake.
At the time, Delcos cited speculation that placed the starting parameters for an agreement at five years, $60 million. What a difference a …
Despite the fact that as I type this Mike and the Mad Dog are speculating about whether or not Willie Randolph will have Carlos Delgado in the lineup tonight against Dodgers’ southpaw Clayton Kershaw, the Mets manager in fact revealed his hand last night when he announced that Delgado would be right back out there following a 2-for-4 performance last night that included a base hit off a lefty reliever and a diving grab in the field. Clearly the larger than life WFAN personalities don’t watch the SNY postgame.
In any event, I fully support this decision. As I wrote yesterday, you’d prefer that the Dodgers had their righty pitchers stacked a bit better so you could get Delgado in there for two or three games before sitting him again against the lefty. Instead the Mets find themselves facing three lefty starters in four days, making the decision to sit Delgado tonight a tough one, especially given the way he seemingly responded …
Back-to-Back nights on the pine for Carlos Delgado, back-to-back victories for the Mets. Coincidence? I think not.
Not because Damion Easley’s bat in the lineup and glove at first transforms the Amazin’s into a roaring juggernaut, but rather because manager Willie Randolph has sent a loud message to his clubhouse that losing won’t be tolerated, players are expected to perform, and the lineup card will be dictated by who gives the team the best chance to win, not by salary figures and name recognition.
Delgado was not even allowed to run for himself after drawing a pinch-hit walk in the ninth inning last night as John Maine instead entered the game as a pinch-runner. Embarrassing? For sure. Does anyone care? Not in the least. If there are any hard feelings, you’ll find little sympathy around these parts for the .215 hitter.
Incidentally, the Daily News’ Adam Rubin points out today that Delgado ranks 20th in average and dead …
I understand Joba Chamberlain is now going to start, and that that ship has sailed, so let’s look at the situation as it presents itself today. The Yanks have now lost two games when, had Joba been available in the pen, he would have made an appearance.
Last night Joba certainly would have been in the game, however because the game was lost in extra innings, it is hard to predict if he would have been used in the 7th and 8th or 11th and 12th, and whether or not the outcome would have been any different had he pitched. Monday’s loss, however, can almost directly be attributed to Joba’s unavailability as the Baltimore Orioles blitzkrieged the Yankee bullpen for five runs in the seventh inning.
LaTroy Hawkins and Kyle Farnsworth are proving that given the responsibility, they are not going to cut it – an eventuality that most observers predicted all along. I suspect that Ian Kennedy might get dumped …
I’m not a doctor. I’m not even a science major. But I’m a sports fan, and a hockey fan, and over the years I’ve picked up a nugget or two concerning head injuries and the impact of post-concussion syndrome.
The NHL as a league took a long, hard look at head injuries in their sport right around the time that superstar Eric Lindros was clearly losing his battle with the recurring condition – a condition that had already forced his younger brother out of hockey. It’s no coincidence that the league stood up and took notice when Lindros’ career seemed in jeopardy. After all, the NHL had billed Lindros as the next to grasp the baton handed from Gordie Howe to Wayne Gretzky and later Mario Lemieux, much in the same way that the league is currently marketing Sidney Crosby. Nobody cared that Brett Lindros would never play again, but once Eric was felled it was time to take a look at …
You can almost see the high-water mark for the New Mets – that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back. It was a highlight reel catch from Endy Chavez in Game 7 of the the 2006 NLCS, and the orange and blue have receded ever since.
Whether or not you believe this team has been dragged down by the bad karma of 2007, let’s agree that this team stinks.
The lowlight for me? Hearing the loudmouths in the dwindling Shea crowd chant “Fire Willie” during the game’s final innings.
So Knicks fans have abandoned the hardwood and shown up en masse at the ballpark? Is that what we’ve sunk to in Flushing? Is it idiocy, ignorance? It smells a little bit.
And speaking of smells, how has Omar come out smelling like a rose through all of this? His parachuting act into Colorado was clearly brilliantly deployed; and thank goodness for an injury to Marlon Anderson or we might still be …
