Of course, the Abreu move means that the Yankees will take on more salary by paying him $4.3 million of the 13.5 million owed this year. They'll also pay him $15.5 million next season. Translation: Gary Sheffield's days as a Bronx Bomber are coming to a close this Fall. Abreu is a few years younger, healthier and plays better defense. Huge pluses. Despite all that, Cashman was intent on getting Lidle included or the deal wouldn't have been completed. The 34 year-old righty won eight games with the Phillies, including his last four starts. The last two he went eight innings in. He should be an upgrade over Sidney Ponson, who hasn't shown much since being claimed off waivers a couple of weeks ago. The one concern the Yanks should have with Lidle is his tendency to give up the long ball. So far, he's allowed 19 this year. Btw...that's one more than all of last season. Not what you want to see. Especially when he'll be pitching a lot at Yankee Stadium with that short porch.
Cashman on the trade:
"The commitment left with Bobby is a pretty good commitment. This club has worked so hard and with so much fight. If I could, I wanted to give it a chance to win."
No question this Yankee team has worked hard this season to stay in playoff contention. Even with Sheffield, Hideki Matsui and Robinson Cano all still out, they're only half a game behind Boston for the AL East and lead the White Sox by half a game and the Twins by one and a half for the wild card. Matsui and Cano are expected back some time next month while Sheffield has continued to point towards September for his return. Cashman had the approval of The Boss to go out and make this move. It had better work or heads will roll.
-On the field, the Yankees bounced back from that 19-6 blowout loss to Tampa by getting a two-homer game from Johnny Damon and seven strong innings from Mike Mussina in a 4-2 win to take the rubber game of the series. Moose struck out eight to improve to 13-3 on the season. He's certainly done his part. Ah. What a contract year does for inspiration. Damon's two blasts went into the upper deck, probably reminding Bomber fans of how he tormented their team the past few seasons with Boston. The leadoff centerfielder certainly has delivered in his first season in the Bronx. He's hitting .299 with 13 homers, 50 RBI's, 73 runs and 19 stolen bases. All while playing through pain. Also, Derek Jeter continued his torrid July with a two-run double going 2-for-4 to raise his average to .354. He finished the month hitting .412 with two dingers and 19 RBI's. Unfortunately, it probably won't be good enough to win AL Player of the Month. That will most likely go to David Ortiz, who slugged 12 homers and knocked in 31.
-Ortiz' two-run double wasn't good enough to rally the Red Sox in a 10-4 loss to the Angels at Fenway. Los Angeles smacked around Curt Schilling for six runs, three homers and 10 hits in five innings to hand the ace his fourth defeat of the season. It was his second shortest outing. In the third, some home run derby was played when Orlando Cabrera, Vlad Guerrero and Juan Rivera all went deep. John Lackey went six to pickup his 10th win, keeping the Angels within a half game of the AL West-leading A's, who also were victorious over Toronto 6-5 thanks to a walkoff three-run homer by Milton Bradley. With the A's once again competing for October, look for ace Barry Zito to stay put as the trade deadline hits at 4 PM.
-The Twins kept pace in the wild card race with a late rally to avoid a sweep at home against major league leader Detroit. Trailing by three runs, Minnesota put up a six spot in the eighth to spoil a strong performance by Jeremy Bonderman. Chris Shelton's error opened the door to cut it to 3-1. Then Mike Redmond doubled in a second run and then later scored on a Bonderman balk to tie it. After a Luis Castillo RBI ground out put them ahead, Michael Cuddyer's two-run triple suddenly gave Minnesota a 6-3 lead. After permitting a run, Joe Nathan closed it out for his 22nd save.
-White Sox closer Bobby Jenks blew his first save in his last 20 chances to drop a tough one 8-7 at Baltimore. After taking the first two games to get back on track, the defending World champs were two outs away from a sweep but Jenks allowed five straight baserunners to reach, including Jeff Conine's tying single and Javy Lopez' game winning hit. Before that, Jenks had converted an AL Best 28 of 29 this season. Tough way for it to end.
-Meanwhile, the Mets completed a three-game sweep at Atlanta thanks in large part to NL MVP candidate Carlos Beltran. The red hot slugger continued his sizzling tear by hitting two more home runs and driving in five in a 10-6 win. The sweep basically ended the NL East race- putting the Braves 15 out. For the Amazin's it capped a great weekend which gave them their first sweep in Atlanta of more than two since taking four back in 1985. But make no mistake about it, Beltran was a one man wrecking crew in this series. He was 6-for-14 with four homers and 12 RBI's in the three wins. Remarkable. Even more unbelievable was that his second inning grand slam which made it 7-0 was his third slam of the month. The centerfielder became the ninth player to accomplish that feat and first since Devon White. For the season, he now has 32 dingers and 94 RBI's. The scary part is that there are still two months left. What will he wind up with?
-It's great to see Beltran silencing critics who questioned whether he was "tough enough" to succeed in New York after a subpar 2005 which saw him finish with a disappointing 16 home runs and 78 RBI's. Clearly with a better supporting cast which includes Paul Lo Duca and Carlos Delgado, he has relaxed. If not for those two trades GM Omar Minaya struck with Florida, there's no telling where Beltran and the Mets would be. Anytime you can add two All Star calibre players, you do it. The former Marlin duo has given the Amazin's a much more potent middle of the order. How many teams have a better 3-4-5 than the Mets? Beltran-Delgado-Wright are as lethal as it gets. Toss in leadoff man Jose Reyes' ability to get on and terrorize pitchers, plus LoDuca and the surprising contributions of Jose Valentin and the Mets offense is awfully tough to keep in check.
-That type of support has helped offset recent poor outings from Tom Glavine, who couldn't even work five and protect a big lead to get the victory. Right now, the former Cy Young winner can't be trusted. Maybe he needs some rest. If you're a Mets fan, you feel a lot more confident in El Duque and John Maine. Who thinks they can win it all if Glavine and Pedro aren't their best two starters? That's the dilemma facing Minaya as the deadline approaches. If they do make a move, it will probably be for a Livan Hernandez and possibly another reliever.
-There's been plenty of discussion on the airwaves about whether or not the Mets should part with a Lastings Milledge to acquire another starter such as Zito. Some fans seemed to be content witb just going to bat with what they have due to the team being young. Yes, Reyes, Wright, Beltran and Mike Pelfrey are but the same can't be said for Delgado, Pedro, Glavine, Duque and Billy Wagner. Those established stars were brought in to win now. Who knows how many good years a Pedro has left in the tank? He already is having health problems. The Mets' success is contingent on the three-time Cy Young winner. He'll turn 35 October 25. Hopefully with a third World Championship.
-In other Senior Circuit action, the Cubs defeated the Cardinals 6-3 to sweep them four straight. No. This isn't a misprint. This actually happened. For whatever reason, the Cubs play their NL Central rivals very tough. They have now taken all seven games at Wrigley Field. They have won six of seven to get to 18 under .500. Still a long way from respectability. But on a team with little hope, Carlos Zambrano outpitched 2005 Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter to finish the month 6-0- becoming the first Cub pitcher to do that since Rick Reuschel in 1979. This is on the Dusty Baker Cubs! Zambrano improved to 12-3 and hasn't lost since May 31. Here's what the underrated 25 year-old ace had to say despite where his ballclub stands:
"I am one of the guys that thinks you never have to give up. When you have that 'X' that says you're eliminated, then you give up. Not anybody in the league, not Kansas City, not Pittsburgh, has that 'X' that says they are eliminated...We're still fighting for something. We still have a chance to do a lot of things."
Impressive stuff. That's a great attitude to have when your team is still 15 games behind St. Louis and sits second to last in the wild card race 11.5 back of the Reds. In a weak league where anything can happen, more Cubs should think like Zambrano. Does anyone really believe the Reds will make October? The competition ahead of them is not that great. They can still make up a lot of ground. It sure would help if Kerry Wood and Derrek Lee were healthy.
-With the deadline less than 12 hours away, Alfonso Soriano still hasn't been traded. Washington just may keep him if they can't get the kind of package they're looking for. Would you trade your best player for less value when he's got 32 homers, 26 steals and 77 runs mostly out of the leadoff spot? The Nationals are nine out of the wild card. Maybe they should keep their star and take a run at it and then try to re-sign him after the season. This isn't the Expos. Stop running them like it.
-Congrats to Bruce Sutter on becoming the first everyday closer to make Cooperstown. In 12 seasons with the Cubs, Cards and Braves, he saved 300 games- topping 100 innings five times and exceeding 100 K's three. One of the biggest highlights included an NL Cy Young in 1979 when he dominated for the Cubs by saving 37 games- allowing only 67 hits in 101-plus while fanning 110. But the best achievment of his career was helping the Cards win the World Series in 1982, clinching it by K-ing Milwaukee's Gorman Thomas in the seventh game. There's some great words from the newly inducted Hall of Famer on what that meant:
"Every pitcher dreams of pitching in the major leagues and imagines himself striking out the final batter to end the seventh game of the World Series. Well, I'm one of the lucky ones who got to realize that dream."
He certainly lived it and deserves his place in Cooperstown. Just wish 94 year-old Negro legend Buck O'Neil could've been elected in the special Negro Leagues class. What a pity.
-From a few nights ago overheard in the press box at the Staten Island Yankee game:
"Steve Phillips was so dumb that he offered to trade David Wright when he was in Double A for Jose Cruz but was turned down."
I'm not sure what's worse? Offering such a ridiculous proposal or rejecting it.
-Is anyone else tired of ESPN's ridiculous overhype of Danica Patrick? She's a female race driver. We get it. Let the "Chosen One" win an IRL race first before going ga ga. Same can also be said for 'media darling' Michelle Wie. Until she wins on the LPGA, I don't want to hear that much about her. Hey. Anna Kournikova almost won a tournament once. Almost doesn't count.
-So did anyone else get a kick out of the Daily News Sunday special report that linked former Indians slugger and current Long Island Duck (how the mighty have fallen) Juan Gonzalez and ex-trainer Angel Presinal to a bag which included steroids back in 2001 at a Toronto airport? Naturally, the trainer took the fall, ultimately losing his job with Gonzalez. Nothing ever came of this case. It was basically a well kept secret. Even well enough for MLB to have no idea. Gee. What else is new?
For those interested, we suggest you read the details put together by Daily News reporters T.J. Quinn, Michael O'Keeffe and Christian Red. Here's an excerpt with the link of the full story below:
"He took the fall, no question," says Cleveland media relations director Bart Swain. "I can remember we weren't exactly laughing about it, but we talked about how, this guy, we never saw him again. Juan only spent another week or two with us and he didn't come back."
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/story/439079p-369944c.html
How soon before ESPN "takes credit" for one of their 'exclusives?'
-Of course, it's no surprise that Juan Gone would be named. The more you find out about the players Jose Canseco named in his book "Juiced,", the more the former credible the former AL MVP looks. Imagine that.
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