THE YANKS...AND MORE

***YANKS WIN THE OPENER***
The final score was 5-1, and I don't know if exciting was the best way to describe the game, unless you include the word tense. It seemed that both teams played like there was more at stake than just a middle of the season regular game. There were some good plays and some bad plays, with mistakes being made by the players, the umpires and even the official scorers.

The Yanks power played a big part in their win, but the huge expanse of Citifield was also a big part. A-Rod clobbered one in the ninth that should have gone out but only hit off the top of the wall deep in left-center. But that's only half of the story. Because of that size, the outfielders all had to play deeper than normal, which allowed balls to fall in front of them and any ball hit into the gap looks like a sure triple; just ask Jose Reyes, who has 15 of them.

Speaking of Reyes, everyone is praising his aggressiveness when he tried to take third on a muffed relay from Granderson to Nunez, but I don't think it was a very smart play. He was already in scoring position and the Mets were down TWO runs. Getting to third certainly increased his chances of scoring, but they needed two runs not one, and a rally was in the making. Instead, he took all kinds of pressure off Nova by making the 2nd out and leaving the bases empty. The Yanks were helped by a bad call by the home plate umpire, but that doesn't excuse Reyes. Aggressiveness is good, but you have to pick your spots more carefully.

The official scorer made some questionable decisions, too. Reyes threw a ball high to first base, which clipped the top of first baseman Dan Murphy's glove. He might have caught it if he jumped, but then he wouldn't have been able to stay in contact with the bag. They gave the error to Murphy instead of Reyes. Why? Reyes is the face of the franchise. You do everything you can to keep him from getting a negative stat. In the 4th inning, Jonathon Niese was initially charged with a wild pitch on a ball that scooted through the legs of catcher Ronny Paulino. The scorer came to his senses later and changed it to a passed ball, but Murphy's 'error' is still on the books.

Potential hard feelings were poised to erupt when Russell Martin slid hard into Ruben Tejada trying to break up a double play. You could see Martin checking on Tejada's health and Ruben didn't look too happy, but afterwards, both teams said there was no problem.

The only bad part for the Yanks was Girardi's over-managing style again. I don't disagree with his substitutions in the sixth with a chance to put the game away, but I saw no reason to bring Rivera in to get the final two outs. Of course, Al Leiter was thrilled with the National League style of play, where you "...get to use your whole team." What he should have said was you have to use our whole team. By having to make all those substitutions, sometimes you don't have you best players in the game in those crucial last innings, and Girardi was forced to use his whole bullpen except for Sergio Mitre (yes, he's back).

***OTHER NOTES***
## Matt Meyers, another writer with too much time on his hands, decided to come up with another statistic to determine what pitchers are "aces," calling it the Ace Barometer. Just what we need: another contrived, worthless stat. You can't argue with his top nine, but you didn't need his mathematical genius to come up with the same list without his new stat. By the way, his list didn't include names like Greinke, Lester, Beckett or Sabathia.
## Ben Duronio says that Mark Teixeira is poised to have a big 2nd half of the season as his history indicates. This is good because, according to Matthews, Tex's first half stats are not good. Excuse me? Leading the Majors in home runs and 2nd in RBIs is "not good?" Well, he says, that's because his BABIP is too low. That's "Batting Average for Balls In Play, for those of you who don't know. Rather than that stat indicating a true evaluation of a hitters production, I think it indicates that BABIP is no indication at all. I include all his other "true statistics," such as HR/FB rate (home runs per fly ball), wOBA (weighted On Base Percentage) and his ISP (Isolated Slugging Percentage). Ben says that since all these numbers are below Mark's career average, they're all due to improve for the second half. If they do, good luck to AL pitchers.

One final note to all the Yankee haters who claim the Yankees blow money on players without good results. The LA Dodgers, who recently filed for bankruptcy, still owe some $47 million to players no longer on the team or out of baseball altogether. There's some good financial planning.
The "Most Useless Money Spent" trophy, however, goes to that financial wizard, Fred Wilpon of the Mets. Starting July 1st of this year, the Mets are committed to paying Bobby Bonilla, who retired in 2001, $1.19 million per year for the next 25 years. That's the best pension plan I've ever heard of.

CP-