Went to a Nats game yesterday.  The RFK experience has its share of critics, but I’m not one of them.  I think a lot of the seats have great views of the stadium, the seats are comfortable, and the parking lot is big/quick/good for tailgating.  I got two great seat in the first row of the upper level for $15/per, and it takes 10 minutes to go to and from the stadium.

The highlight of the day was after the game when we were leaving the stadium and I locked eyes with Lou Piniella coming right at me.  I said, "Hey – Lou Piniella."  He said, "Hey, how you doing" and we walked right past each other.  It was pretty awesome. I’m guessing he was there with FOX for some reason.  Or maybe he’s a candidate for the Nats job.  He was wearing red.  It would be pretty cool if he were going to be Franks’ replacement.  I might have to go to a lot more Nats games.

Next week I’m going to Fenway because my girlfriend is from MA, and I expect to pay $100/per.  It should be good to contrast the two experiences. 

Today’s Yankee game couldn’t be tougher to watch.  9 times out of 10 Joe pulls the right strings, but today it seems he made a mistake pulling Ponson for Wilson.  Obviously hindsight is 20/20, but Ponson would have done a better job. 

Only a bad inverter board could keep me from posting.  But it’s fixed (under warranty – booya) and now I’m back in business.

Since I’ve been gone the Yankees swept the ChiSox and pulled within a half game of the AL East lead.  And they’ve got a great chance of getting the AL East lead tonight, as the BoSox haven’t come back from the All-Star break yet.

There’s news of Cano being ready by the end of the week, Dotel by the end of July, Matsui in August and Sheff on Sept 1.  That’s the best trade deadline additions I can think of.  Of course I could add Pavano to that list, but I can’t imagine him contributing this year.  I have similar feeling about Dotel since, like Pavano, it’s been more than a year since he pitched.  And of course Sir Sidney was added since my last post.

So things are going well in Yankeeland.  I hope it was unrelated to my absence.  But of course since I started this point, the BoSox score went from 0-4 to 4-4 on a Mirabelli 3-run dong.

In other news, it’s very hot outside.

I am not as indebted to Ryan Howard as the people who won $250K from Century21, but I am much obliged for that sweet push.  Redemption.

I can’t believe Wright had 16 in the first round.

Ahhh, this is the level of analysis and predictive powers you should come to expect with this blog.  Like I said, David Wright is the one guy who can’t win.  Well, after 16 in the first round, he looks like a lock for the final round.  He’s cost me more than a few dollars.  I made individual bets that Dye, Glaus and Berkman would all beat him in the first round.  Dye hasn’t finished yet, but there’s no chance he gets 16.

If Howard wins it all I can push.  C’mon push. 

For some reason, I do my betting through Bodog sportsbook.  Compared to Pinnacle, Bodog takes much more juice.  Yet I haven’t switched my account because it’s more trouble than it’s worth. 

Anyhow, I can’t let any event with the suffix "Derby" pass without betting on it.  That being said, here are the Bodog odds for the HR derby tonight. (Please do not leave comments about how you saw better levels elsewhere)

Ortiz +270
Howard +350
Tejada +450
Berkman +500
Cabrera +550
Wright +650
Dye +1000
Glaus +1000

My pick for the derby is Howard. I guess he’s the "sexy" pick, but I’m a ****** for him.  I’ll put $25 on him.  I think he will either run away with it, or not make it out the first round. 

The other guys I can see winning it are Berkman, and Dye as a long shot.  The only player who has zero chance of winning is Wright.  I just can’t imagine him sustaining that power long enough to go on a long run. 

Here’s to hoping Ortiz makes it to the finals, loses, and screws up his swing for weeks. 

My breakfast at Wimbledon consisted of cold Papa John’s Pizza.  The local pizza options where I live are slim and sometimes I have to resort to Papa John’s – but I’m not proud of it.  Anyhow, it did the trick and it looks like Federer is going to roll, as expected.

My girlfriend is out of town for work so I have the place to myself.  Obviously I’m not going to move from the couch with the exception of a quick run to sweat out last night’s alcohol  There’s a lot of good sports to be watched today.  I just wish there was something to carry me from 5-7.

Kris Wilson makes the start in a few hours.  I was surprised to read that he’s already made 20 big league starts.  I don’t know why, but I thought it was much less than that.  Anyhow, maybe Contreras will do us a favor and win a game against the BoSox so we can have a chance of closing the gap to 2.

Just to bring everyone up to speed, earlier in the week I wrote about the Yankees calling up Philip Hughes.  I wasn’t promoting that idea, just curious why no beat writer or columnist explored the scenario, or detailed the Yankees reasoning.  Well Bob Klapisch of the Bergen Record has written the column.  Thank you.

It’s a good column.  He compares the Mets handling of Mike Pelfrey and the Yankees handling of Philip Hughes.  Klapisch is one of my favorite baseball columnists.  The Washington Post’s Thomas Boswell is great too.

I believe I had the Yankees picking up a game against the BoSox during the Cleveland series.  I need to brag when I have the opportunity, since I will surely get more wrong than right.  I will cash my chips out now and quit while I’m ahead, rather than making a prediction for this series.

Great pitching tonight.  I’ve done an absolute 180 on Wright since April.  After his first couple of starts I didn’t think he was bringing anything to the table and wondered why he was still getting starts.  But since then he’s shown a lot of toughness on the mound.  He might not always be spectacular and he hasn’t gone deep into games, but he’s been getting a lot of K’s and throwing up scoreless innings. 

He should blame all the flack he takes on Carl Pavano.  Wright wasn’t signed to be the ace of the staff.  He wasn’t even signed to be the 3rd starter.  He was signed as a back end of the rotation, 4th or 5th starter.  Unfortunately since Pavano hasn’t given NY anything, a lot of the spotlight has been on Wright and his inconsistancy.  But I’ll take Wright over a lot of other team’s 4th starter. 

Other than that, I’m real tired of NY not scoring runs against pitchers they haven’t faced before.

I haven’t been able to give the blog too much attention in the last 24 hours.  I’ll catch up this weekend.  I need to add a few pictures.  Y’know, put some lipstick on this pig.

NOTE:  THE LIPSTICK HAS SINCE BEEN APPLIED

I watched the broadcast on ESPN tonight.  Steve Phillips and Dan Shulman know baseball, but I don’t think they do a great broadcast.  They talk too much, overanalyze, and paint with broad strokes. 

Although I’ll take Shulman and Raftery for a Big East basketball game any day of the week.

I was pleased with the game, but a recap is unnecessary.  My only thought was, "Why bring Mo in to close out the ninth?"  I know he needs work to keep from getting rusty, but he had a lot of work last week.  Anyhow, it was a moot point as he only threw 12 stress-free pitches and is due for a rest at the All-Star break.

Here’s to hoping Damon isn’t really injured.

Will the Yankees call up Hughest this season? 

His name is getting thrown about in a few of the
mlblogs as a possible call-up to replace Chacon in the
rotation.  This is not surprising, given Chacon’s
performance last night.  But the papers haven’t even
mentioned that as a possibility.  I think this is
because the Yankees made it clear in spring training
that he would not pitch for the big league club this
year.  The reasons being:

1. They thought he would need to develop his pitches
   (especially curveball) and his location in the minors.
   
2. They wanted to bring his arm along slowly so as to
   not over-stress him.  Obviously as a young pitcher,
   he’ll pitch the most innings he’s ever pitched this
   year.  This is why they have an 80 pitch limit for him
   in the minors. 
3. They didn’t want to heap too much pressure on the
   psyche of a 19 yr old.  The Cardinals experience with
   Rick Ankiel was a lesson to a lot of other clubs with
   a promising pitching prospect. 
4. He has a very high trade value right now.  Bringing
   him up before he is ready could diminish that.
   

Given all these reasons I doubt the Yankees will
change their stance on Hughes, although I am curious
to know if they are waivering a bit.  Clearly this is
a topic a beat writer needs to pursue.  I think we’ll
get more information today as the Yankees consider
their options for next Sunday.

Other than that, I have no desire to write about last
night’s game.