The weather wasn’t the only thing red hot at Yankee Stadium today as CC Sabathia picked up his 6th consecutive start and his 19th of the season as he one-hit the Oakland Athletics during the Yankees 5-0 win this afternoon.

Curtis Granderson also had a big day picking up a pair of home runs including one off a lefty.

Even though the Yankees are in the midst of a battle for the AL East against the menace known as the Tampa Bay Rays, and trying to defend their world title, one cannot help  but speculate what the future holds, especially when it involves the speedy left fielder Carl Crawford.

Crawford, who has spent his entire nine season career in Tampa Bay, will be a free agent at the end of this season.  Through those nine season, Crawford has averaged a .295 batting average, 13 home runs, 77 RBI’s with an OBP of .336.  This season, Crawford is hitting .284 with 15 home runs, 71 RBI’s with an OBP of .347.

Perhaps his greatest tool, Crawford possesses absolutely tremendous speed, stealing 41 bases in 51 attempts, currently second in the American League behind Juan Pierre of the Chicago White Sox.

There is no doubt that the Yankees will be interested in Crawford, especially with his left handed stroke in Yankee Stadium.  He will command big money, perhaps in the 16-20 million per year range, and money has never been an issue with the Yankees.

The only question would ..read more

The Yankees, winners of five straight, are about to embark on a rarity in baseball scheduling: five consecutive day games.  Luckily for the Yankees, they have thrived this season in day games, going 31-16.

The teams collectively hits better during the day, with a team batting average of .283 in day games compared to a .262 clip at night.

Here are some individual player statistics of those who fare better during the day than at night:

A few weeks ago I wrote a blurb about Cliff Lee and noted how many innings he was throwing and wondered out loud if it would carry over to next season. As it turns out he didn’t even make it that far before the innings total began to effect him as his back has been acting up.

Here’s more via ESPN:

Texas Rangers starter Cliff Lee complained of back discomfort after Tuesday’s start and flew back to Texas to be examined by Keith Meister, the club physician.

Rangers assistant general manager Thad Levine said tests revealed no structural damage and that the issue was muscular. Lee received a trigger point injection, which the club hopes will reduce inflammation and allow him to stay on track.

The fact that his back issues are just muscular is good news for the Yankees and any other teams interested in signing Lee during the offseason.

I would also say that it’s fortunate that the Yankees didn’t land Lee at the trade deadline, but as soon as Texas acquired him they really started piling on his innings total. Although ..read more

Yesterday I passed along a story that the Yankees had won a waiver claim for Ted Lilly and may have been pursuing him even though the trade deadline had passed.

Later on in the day though Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported that Lilly was interested in signing an extension with and staying in Los Angeles with the Dodgers. Buster Olney of ESPN confirmed the report and added that the Dodgers were interested in seeing Lilly stay in Dodger Blue as well.

Given those reports and the fact that the trade deadline has passed it seems highly unlikely that the Yankees and Dodgers could make a deal for Lilly. It’s just as well as the chances of them finding and exploiting a loophole to get Lilly on the postseason roster were unlikely. September trades are possible, but almost pointless as the player cannot play for the team in the playoffs.

So it looks like the Yankees rotation is standing pat as of right now. Which isn’t a terrible thing as they are probably a week and a half to two weeks away from getting Andy Pettitte ..read more

The Yankees go for a four game sweep of the Oakland Athletics tonight and their sixth win overall and have their best man on the job, CC Sabathia.

Here are some notes:

If you’ll notice, I was not among the many media outlets panicking about the Yankees rotation. Yes, it was bad. Awful actually, but Vazquez looks like he may have put his issues behind him and A.J. Burnett had ..read more

Making a much anticipated start, Dallas Braden will take the hill today against Oakland, making his Yankee Stadium debut in front of the ravenous Yankee Stadium crowd.

Braden, LHP from the Oakland Athletics is having a subpar season individually, going 9-9 with a 3.28 ERA.  His stuff isn’t overwhelming, with his fastball topping out at about 90 mph, while also possessing a solid changeup, a slider and curveball.  He also threw the 19th perfect game in MLB history earlier this season against the Tampa Bay Rays on May 9th.

He is unfortunately not known for that perfect game, or his mediocre stuff and season.  He is most known for his run in with Alex Rodriguez.

Just in case some do not know, Dallas Braden and Alex Rodriguez have a history, all stemming from April 22, when Alex ran across “Braden’s mound” to get back to first base.  He broke an unwritten rule, as Braden describes.  Braden took shots at Alex after the game, calling him a prima donna, like that has never been done before.  Alex responded to it as if it were comical, “coming ..read more

A.J. Burnett wasn’t out of this world last night, but he was good enough to win as he tossed six innings with eight strikeouts and allowed just three runs. The bullpen handled the rest as the Yankees beat the Oakland Athletics 4-3 for their fifth consecutive win.

If you haven’t noticed, the young lefty phenom out of Cuba, Aroldis Chapman, finally made his debut for the Cincinnati Reds last night. He had his fireball popping as well, reaching up to 102.7 mph on the gun and averaging slightly over 100 mph, according to Brooks Baseball.

He came in and made quick work of the Brewers, retiring all three batters he faced and racking up his first strikeout. I don’t like that they are using him as a reliever, but hopefully the Reds will come to their senses by next season.

Anyways, part of me can’t help but think about what might have happened if the Yankees had landed him. I’m not sure he would be getting the call-up to the majors at this point as he probably would have been called up earlier in the season when the Yankees were desperate for bullpen help. That possibly means that the Yankees might not have traded for Kerry Wood, so maybe this whole thing is a wash.

Still it was fun to watch him pitch last night. Here is some video of his appearance (H/T ..read more

According to Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated, when the Dodgers put Ted Lilly on waivers leading up to the trade deadline the Yankees made and won the claim for the pitcher. Then the Dodgers pulled him off of waivers and no deal was made. Now, according to the NY Daily News, the Yankees may still be trying to trade for their former lefty with the idea that there is a loop hole that could get him on to their playoff roster.

River Ave Blues actually has the best explanation of the supposed loophole:

This claim appears out of line with what we know about postseason eligibility rules. The general rule is that any player on the 25-man roster, disabled list, bereavement list, or suspended list can be added to a team’s roster in any round of the playoffs. For the Yankees that includes the 25 active guys plus Damaso Marte, Andy Pettitte, Alfredo Aceves, Lance Berkman, Nick Johnson, and Alex Rodriguez. If any of those players is still hurt ..read more