Typical NY Yankees Self-Aggrandizing

Joe Girardi is "upset" and "frustrated" that Jorge Posada was plunked by Jeremy Guthrie with the first pitch of the second inning yesterday. See here.

What a joke.

Both Posada and Girardi admit they don't think it was purposeful (and why would it have been?). But Girardi claims Guts "hits lots of people," and "[wishes] he had better command."

For the record:
Guthrie 2009: 9 Hit batsmen in 200 IP, 2.7 BB/9
CC Sabathia 2009: 9 Hit batsmen in 230 IP, 2.6 BB/9
Joba Chamberlain 2009: 12 hit batsmen in 157 IP (league leader), 4.3 BB/9
AJ Burnett 2009: 10 hit batsmen in 207 IP, 4.2 BB/9

Think Joe has a problem with his guys "pitching inside?" Think Joe has a problem with CC intimidating batters?

The Yankees always feel that they should be treated to a different standard - by opposing teams, by umpires, by the league. Their star player has no respect for anyone else and only thinks of himself as he's shown many times. Read A-Roid story here.

Bottom line is this: Girardi should apologize for his comments about Guthrie.

Another Reason the Yankees Win, the-e-e-e Yankees Win

Through 9 innings tonight, the Yankees 5-9 batters (Cano, Posada/Cervelli, Granderson, Swisher, Gardner) were 11-for-24 with 5 runs scored, 4 RBI, 1 3B, 1 HR and 2 2-out RBI.

That lineup has no real holes. Curtis Granderson, who bats 7th or 8th often, hit 30 HR last year. Nick Swisher, batting 8th tonight, hit 29 last year. You get through Jeter, Teixeira and A-Rod, and you still have proven Major League hitters with which to deal.

The O's, on the other hand, have one player who even hit 20 dingers last year (Luke Scott with 25).

Meanwhile, Nick Markakis is on pace for 8 HR now after his first HR of the year ... beats the pace he had coming into the game.

Luke Turns the Tide

Some game tonight.

Two-out hits, clutch relief pitching, good baserunning, some good small-ball. And then of course it almost all falls apart on yet another hard to believe error by Cesar Izturis. (Even the game-ending groundout by A-Roid was almost flipped away by Lugo. And was surprised to see Rodriguez first-pitch swinging.)

But there were plenty of stars tonight.

Rhyne Hughes continues to get huge hits and look good at first. I think Trembley would be crazy to sit him tomorrow night, even against the lefty Sabathia. Go with the hot hand. This kid seems to be sparking the offense.

Izturis finally showed some life with the stick, with 3 ribbies.

Reimold had a big hit.

Wiggy found his way on base a bunch of times and scored the go-ahead run.

Lugo stole a big base and advanced to third on Posada's errant throw, eventually scoring the much-needed 5th run.

Castillo continued to look fantastic, JJ was back to himself in his more comfortable 8th (although he still doesn't look the same), and Simon was electric in the closer's role on his first day back in the bigs.

But I'd like to be the first (I think) to bring up the fact that Luke Scott had a tremendous at bat in the 6th inning. He was down 0-2 in the count and worked a tough walk off of Logan who was brought in to face him. Seemed trivial at the time with two outs, but then the gates opened up and the O's scored three times for the 4-2 lead.

I think that Scott's walk was the turning point in the game. It would have been quite easy for Luke, who's now batting .217, to be swinging for the fences - down by one run and trying to protect the plate.

Give him credit where it's due on a night of many heroes.

Another Millwood No-Hitter in the Offing?

On this date in 2003, Kevin Millwood (of the Philadelphia Phillies) threw a no-hitter against the S.F. Giants.

Millwood will be opposed tonight by Phil Hughes, who had his no-hitter broken up in the 8th inning of his last start against Oakland.

In fact, throughout baseball history, April 27th leads (actually is tied with two other dates) all dates in no-hitters thrown with six.

Notably, Tom Phoebus of the Baltimore Orioles threw one of them in 1968 vs. the Boston Red Sox.

It has been almost 19 years since the last (and 5th) no-hitter in Baltimore history, thrown by Bob Milacki (who was taken out in the 7th after being hit by a line-drive), Mike Flanagan (a starter at the time), Mark Williamson and the great Gregg Olson. At the time, it tied a record for most pitchers used in a no-hitter.

Only three franchises have no no-no's in their history. Tampa Bay (only in the league since '98), San Diego ('69), and the New York Mets (1962). The Mets have played over 7700 games without a no-hitter.

Baby Steps

Greg Calcaterra of "Hardball Talk" on NBC Sports has the Orioles ranked 29th in his recent power rankings, ahead of another perennial loser, the Pittsburgh Pirates.

(1) That's reason enough for me to celebrate. The O's are out of last in someone's opinion.

(2) How Calcaterra ranks a 3-16 team ahead of a 7-11 team is beyond me, even if the Pirates did lose a three-game set to the Brewers last week by a combined score of 36-1 (including an ugly 20-0 loss).  Fact is, they have more than twice the wins the O's do.

(3) Can this be a sign of things to come? Dare we dream? Ranked 28th by June? You never know.

Anyone Want this Job?

Perhaps Dave Trembley lengthened his stay with the O's with the nail-biter win over the Sox yesterday. Maybe the front office ain't gonna stick a new manager in front of 9 more games with the Yankees (6 games) and the Red Sox (3 more), but you've gotta believe Trembley is on a very short leash. I mean, in a season that was supposed to be about "wins and losses," how do you keep a guy that's managed his way to 3 wins and has certainly managed his way to 16 losses?

But here's the thing. Who would take this job? Who wants to get tagged with a potential 100-loss season?

Obviously guys with no experience would be happy to have the job, a la Rick Dempsey, or any of the league's bench coaches.

But if they'd want to hire a bigger name, would they even accept the job?

That could be what has influenced the club to sit tight with Trembley through this miserable start to the 2010 season.

But things might have been much different.

I still think that had Angelos opened the purse a lot wider, Girardi would be the manager here. The O's offered 3 million/3 years. Should have been more like 9 million over 3 years.

And don't believe Girardi was sitting and waiting for Steinbrenner to call.

The lesson here - and with other lost "free agents" is that when you have this much failure, you need to overpay for the real talent. (See Guerrero, Vlad and Teixeira, Mark.)

A Look at Some Former O's and How They're Faring

It's always interesting to see how these guys do after they leave the organization.

Here are some selected players and their stats through yesterday:

(A tip of the cap to Jeff Zrebiec on the idea.)


Kris Benson: (ARIZONA 0-1, 3.00 ERA, 6 IP, 6 H, 2 ER

Russ Ortiz: (LA DODGERS) 0-1, 10.29 ERA, 7 IP, 10 H, 8 ER

Rodrigo Lopez: (ARIZONA) 1-0, 3.50 ERA, 18 IP, 24 H, 7 ER. (Looks pretty good, but he has a dreadful 1.667 WHIP)

Brian Burres: (PITTSBURGH) 0-1, 9.00 ERA, 8 IP, 11 H, 8 ER, 1.875 WHIP (Actually not far off his career number of 1.685!)

Luis Hernandez: (NY METS MINOR LEAGUE AFFIL.) 46 AB, .304 AVG, 1 HR, 1 SB, 3 CS, 5 BB, 5K

That's just some recent players who popped out to me - here are some others from Jeff's posting earlier today, focusing on the "memorable" O's of 2009:

Hitters

Aubrey Huff (S.F. Giants): .268 avg., 1 HR, 5 RBIs, 11 runs, 7 BBs
Chad Moeller (Scranton/W.B., Yankees’ Triple-A): .182 avg. (2-for-11), 0 HR, 0 RBIs, 1 BB, 3 K
Melvin Mora (Colorado Rockies): .273 avg. (6-for-22), 0 HRs, 2 RBIs
Oscar Salazar (San Diego Padres): .000 avg. (0-for-10), 1 run, 1 BB
Gregg Zaun (Milwaukee Brewers): .133 avg. (6-for-45) 0 HRs, 2 RBIs, 2 BBs

Pitchers

Danys Baez (Philadelphia Phillies): 0-1, 6.35 ERA (5 2/3 IP), 4 ER, 4 hits, 3 BBs, 4 Ks
Brian Bass (Indy, Pirates’ Triple-A): 0-1, 4.05 ERA (13 1/3 IP), 6 ER, 15 hits, 3 BBs, 6 Ks
Sean Henn (Las Vegas, Blue Jays’ Triple-A): 1-0, 0.00 ERA (7 2/3 IP), 5 hits, 6 BBs, 7 Ks
Rich Hill (Memphis, Cards’ Triple-A): 1-1, 4.08 ERA (17 2/3 IP), 8 ER, 14 hits, 13 BBs, 15 Ks
Radhames Liz (Portland, Padres’ Triple-A): 2-0, 2.57 ERA (14 IP), 4 ER, 10 hits, 6 BBs, 22 Ks
John Parrish (Kansas City Royals): 1-1, 1.50 (6 IP), 1 ER, 3 hits, 3 BBs, 4 Ks
Chris Ray (Texas Rangers): 0-0, 3.00 ERA (6 IP), 2 ER, 4 hits, 3 BBs, 3 Ks
George Sherrill (L.A. Dodgers): 0-1, 10.13 ERA (5 1/3 IP), 6 ERs, 7 hits, 9 BBs, 4 Ks
Chris Waters (Nash., Brewers’ Triple-A): 2-0, 3.78 ERA (16 2/3 IP), 7 ERs, 15 hits, 5 BB, 14 Ks

Amazing some of these guys still have careers ...