It's quite simple, really. Here goes. You ready? Of course you are. Well, you've probably already figured this out yourself. But if you haven't, take a listen, cuz it's real simple.

He has proven he can do it effectively.

Back in CC's Brewer days, he almost single-handedly carried them to the playoffs by pitching on three days' rest over and over(and over and over and over).

It's safe to say he was pretty successful there in Milwaukee. So why not? He's a better option than Chad Gaudin, and it's only one start on that short of rest. Plus, it gives us a chance to have him pitching 3 games this series, which gives us a great chance of winning the ALCS.

TONIGHT! In New York we have some rough weather, in contrast to the beautiful day the Dodgers and Phillies get to enjoy.

The doubtlessly jealous Angels are covering up their faces like New York is freakin' Antarctica.

While Mike Napoli played catch in his bankrobbing getup, A-Rod sat around the batting cages with a "towell"(as spelled by the Yahoo! editors) as his only protection against the elements, consumed deep in thought and looking a bit like he was about to cry.

The Mischief Twins, also known as Melky 'n' Robby, upon seeing this, cheered him up and took him for an adventure. God only knows where they went after this picture was taken. Narnia, you say? Yes, that's probably it.

On the subject of A-Rod, who here thinks he's really broken out of his playoff funk? Raise your hand (and leave a comment as to why you think he has or hasn't!).

That's basically it. Here's a random picture of Kobe Bryant and Tommy Lasorda that's funny if you add a caption in your brain. I have my suggestion, but you can add your own.

"If I just ignore him, maybe he'll leave me alone."

I'm back y'all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the Yankees are going to the ALCS with the Angels!!!!!!! The Red Sox' season is over as well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Today is a very happy day in my life. Also, Alex Rodriguez seems to have broken his postseason curse and if he is able to perform at the level he did during the Division Series all playoffs long, we'll be unstoppable!!!!!!!!!!

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT GO YANKEEEEEES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Horrible Failure of the Past Few Weeks:

Me.

After saying I was looking to post every couple of days, I went a few weeks without posting. My bad guys. I'll hopefully be back with a new one in a couple of days. But I should really stop promising consistency huh!

Since I usually have lots of trouble naming posts, I'll likely just use The NMYF Report and the date for in-season posts in the future.

Also here at the NMYF Blog I'm going to try a different type of format. Rather than bouncing around week-to-week with posts, I'll try to make this more consistent, with posts every other day or every three days covering whatever I see fit to cover, with some random features or something to keep it at least semi-entertaining.

With this in mind, let's jump into the first installment of the New Mexican Yankee Fan Report.

Rare Feat Of The Day:

In what will immortalize Phillies infielder Eric Bruntlett as the answer to a trivia question, he turned an unasissted triple play (add exclamation points as you see fit) in the Phils' 9-7 win over the Mets. Incidentally, it was Pedro Martinez's return to New York and his first start as a Phillie (I think). That's pretty cool I guess.

Totally Over The Top And Ridiculous Celebration Of The Week (or last week, whatever):

I know he's supposedly the best pitching prospect since Doc Gooden or something, but seriously, Nationals? Stephen Strasburg has not yet thrown a pitch in professional baseball, and they present him to a crowd who they sold $1 tickets to to celebrate his arrival. With fireworks. And a #37 jersey. Presented by Ryan Zimmerman.

In a hilarious and totally predictable side note, the Nationals lost that day's game vs. the Brewers, 7-3.

Most Eerily Consistent Player Of The Past 9 Years:

Albert Pujols hit his 40th homer today. Need I say more?

Guy Who I Thought Had Fallen Off The Face Of The Earth Of The Day:

While I thought Scott Podsednik was floating around in the universe of socks lost in the wash and baseballs thrown into bushes, it turns out he was back in Chicago the whole time getting 400 at-bats and 20 steals! And a .293 average! Where was I when this happened?

Semi-Forgotten Feel Good Story Of The Year Of The Day:

Zack Greinke still has a 2.44 ERA, but he's 11-8 and no one seems to care anymore. That's what happens when you play for the Royals. Never make that mistake again, Zack.

Weekend Boskees Series Of The Weekend!

Last night was bad, as you can see. We'll leave it at that.

However, the night before resulted in this scene, so the series is even going into tonight's game, the finale of the Yankees' penultimate Red Sox series of the year. We've got what looks like a pitching duel in the works, but we must keep in mind the winning team has scored double-digit wins in both games this series.

The matchup...

CC "The Big Brown Lion" Sabathia vs.

Josh "Blister Boy" Beckett.

WATCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Or in my case, listen. Should be a great game.

Rather than write a really long post about everything that's been happening let's get right down to it.

Trade Deadline 2009:

Just some of the faces of the swapping season are here!!

Nate McClouth was the first to be traded from the crumbling Pirates, to the Braves.

Mark DeRosa was traded from the Indians to St. Louis on June 27.

Nyjer Morgan and Sean Burnett were both shipped out of Pittsburgh in exchange for Lastings Milledge and Joel Hanrahan.

The next person out of Pittsburgh was Eric Hinske, sent to our beloved Yanks to help fill the void left by Xavier Nady.

Scott Hairston was sent to the A's from San Diego.

On July 7, flamethrowing setup man Tony Pena was sent from the D'Backs to the White Sox.

The Braves and the Mets swapped outfielders, trading Jeff Francoeur and Ryan Church for each other.

Jack Hannahan was traded to the Mariners to fill in for Adrian Beltre.

Felipe Lopez got shipped out of Arizona and to Milwaukee.

Power-hitting first baseman Adam LaRoche was the next key Pirates player to go, to the Red Sox for depth.

Julio Lugo finally got traded away from the Red Sox, to the Cardinals for Chris Duncan.

Rafael Betancourt got traded out of Cleveland to the Rockies.

The next deal was a doozy, with the Cardinals acquiring Matt Holliday to protect Albert Pujols in the lineup. He's back in the NL, where he put up huge numbers for the Rockies, after a three-month AL excursion.

Ryan Garko got traded from the Indians to the Giants, who are looking to bolster their offense and did so with this trade.

But yesterday was huge trade-wise for the Pittsburgh Pirates. They had already traded McClouth, Morgan, Burnett, Hinske and LaRoche but yesterday, July 29th, was the day the Pirates gave up on the next three years at least.

Jack Wilson and Ian Snell were traded to the Mariners for a package which included Ronny Cedeno and Jeff Clement. Freddy Sanchez was traded to the Giants. And John Grabow and Tom Gorzelanny were traded to the Cubs. 

So the Pirates are dead, basically.

Anyways other than that there were a couple of other trades...

Cliff Lee and Ben Francisco were sent away from Cleveland yesterday to the Philadelphia Phillies. That's two straight years the Indians have traded the reigning Cy Young winner to the NL.

And today, George Sherrill was sent to the Dodgers to bolster their bullpen.

In the next 17 hours or so, Jarrod Washburn or Roy Halladay or more Pirates may be traded, but it has already been a busy deadline.  

Yanks are on a rollllll:

These are just pictures from the Yankees win last night, one of 11 (!!!) in their last 13 games while the Red Sox have stumbled out of the post-All Star Game gate, so we're up 3 games on them right now.

  Oh yeah and Mark Buehrle threw a pretty good game a couple days ago.

Oh wow that last picture doesn't look weird at all...

Oh yes and how could I forget Jonathan Sanchez, who threw a pretty decent game himself. It wasn't as good as Buehrle's, but a no-hitter's a no-hitter.

All right this next thing I'm going to write is basically for my own pleasure, rather than your reading enjoyment, unless you are a fan of heavy metal music, then you may enjoy this!

I'm going to review Metallica's latest album, because I would like to and it's my blog, so there.

My opinion on their latest album is that it should have been released 20 years ago. Instead of the Black Album, which was a good rock album (but not really a metal album!) Metallica should have released Death Magnetic, a true metal album. From the Black Album, a rock album, to Load and ReLoad, kind of metalbilly albums, to Garage, Inc., a cover album, to St. Anger, an annoyingly over-aggressive, ridiculous Metallica album, about 20 years passed. In 1988 they released their last metal album until last year, ...And Justice For All. That was a great album, as were Master Of Puppets, Ride The Lightning, and Kill 'Em All. But with Death Magnetic they're back to the old logo, back to metal!

1. That Was Just Your Life

2. The End Of The Line

3. Broken, Beat, And Scarred

4. The Day That Never Comes

5. All Nightmare Long

6. Cyanide

7. The Unforgiven III

8. The Judas Kiss

9. Suicide & Redemption

10. My Apocalypse

10 great songs!!! They pick up the tradition of having an instrumental again with Suicide & Redemption, a great song to space out to and enjoy. All Nightmare Long is a great song too!!!!!!!! What a great album. Buy it if you like metal music. Buy it all!!!! Haha.

Uhm yeah this is all I can write right now. I'm happy to be back to the blogosphere guys. Thanks for reading.

Hey all, since I have barely been posting at all this season, I'm going to try refraining from posting at all for some amount of time in an attempt to recharge my creative batteries and get my life in order in general. I'm sorry to all my dear readers, and I feel I owe you an explanation or at least a random list of reasons why I am taking a break from MLBlogging.

1. I have a job now. An amazingly boring job, but I'm making money for it. This is consuming most of my days.

2. I can't come up with anything new or creative for these posts, so I feel like I'm writing the same post basically every time.

3. My life outside of my job and home life is kinda booming, and I'm consumed in lots of things, including the pursuit of more musical knowledge to take to my band so we can create.

4. I just haven't been on the Internet much lately.

5. And of course, since my parents still control me for 3 more years, they're kind of putting all kinds of strange rules and limitations on a lot of things, and lots of chores every single day.

With all these things factoring in, I haven't had much time to be on my computer and when I have been on, I've been brain dead. So hopefully with a break from this (I'm also taking hiatuses on lots of online things), I'll be able to get my life into some kind of rhythm and get back to this (and be able to actually give some level of entertainment in my posts). Could be a week or even a month or two, but hopefully it will be sooner rather than later. 

Of course, I will still be listening to the Yankees games and watching them when I can. Thanks for understanding guys, and thank you for reading my little blog, and GO YANKEES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. E.J., sorry for not stopping in to your in-gamer last week.

P.P.S. Warped Tour is coming to New Mexico on Wednesday, and me and a bunch of people from school are gonna go check it out. I'm super psyched and it should be fun!!!

Last time, I promise:

Thank you all. I will be back

All right, it's finally summer break in New Mexico, so hopefully now I'll be able to post with some regularity.

Now let's continue the Boskees comparison I've been doing. Today we have shortstops.

Derek Jeter vs. Jed Lowrie/Julio Lugo

Derek Jeter:

The Captain, one of the greatest Yankees in history. While he has been on a steady decline, he is still a solid shortstop. There has been some controversy concerning his defense lately. Some of the statistics come up with by Bill James to measure defensive prowess have rated Jeter as the worst defensive shortstop in the league, despite the fact that his peers voted him to win each of his 3 Gold Gloves. I don't buy into stats being everything, but I also think Jeter won his first Gold Glove off of one single catch, and possibly his second. You all know the catch. This one?

So my opinion of DJ's defense is that he's just about average. Maybe a teensy bit below, but not worst-shortstop-in-the-league below. Offensively I think Derek is, at this point, basically a singles hitter most of the time. He can tear it up every now and then, but overall at this point in his career he's a useful tool, but not a middle-of-the-lineup or offense leader type. He is one of the, if not the leader of the team. He brings invaluable experience and leadership skills to the team, which is why he is the captain, one of the three in the American League (Red Sox' Jason Varitek, White Sox' Paul Konerko). Tends to catch fire in key spots, and The Captain's incredibly clutch in the playoffs.

Jed Lowrie/Julio Lugo:

The two JL's will be sharing shortstop this year with the majority of the time going to Lowrie once he comes off the disabled list. Lowrie is in his second year, and while he has strong potential, he's unpolished and inexperienced at this point. He played just about exactly half a season last year (double his stats and it comes to 162 games, 520 at-bats, 144 hits, a .258 average, 4 home runs, 92 RBIs, and an impressive 50 doubles (with a .258 average!). Julio Lugo, thus far, has been a bust and done very little to deserve his 4-year, multimillion dollar contract. The Red Sox signed him after one of the better years in his career (.276 average, 12 homers, 24 stolen bases). Since then he has been basically a one-dimensional player, with only speed. Lugo is filling in for the rehabilitating Lowrie, which is kinda -- um -- a bad starting shortstop to have. Once Lowrie's back, it will be solid but unpolished still, with Lugo providing speed off the bench.

Advantage: Yankees

Likely you Yankee fans know what has happened lately, so I actually won't be reviewing those games. Today we're in Texas with Andy Pettitte starting. I'll be reviewing that game later on, I suppose.

Thanks for reading. I'll be posting more often.

UPDATE: My bad, last night's game was in New York. Yes, I knew that, I just screwed up.

First off, I am very sorry for not posting for so long. In about 2 weeks now, I should be able to post with some regularity, but until then it should be very unpredictable. I'll post when I can.

So now let's go back to baseball with a continuation of my position-by-position comparison of the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.

Alex Rodriguez vs. Mike Lowell

Alex Rodriguez:

A-Rod is a great natural talent, and that's for sure, but his off-field life can often be a distraction to him and the team. He is constantly swarmed with media members wanting to know every detail of everything, from his past steroid use to his love life. 2 days ago, when he (finally) rejoined the Yanks, he said while showing off his deep tan from the Florida sun he is now only focused on and only motivated by baseball. I'll tell you guys about that game later on. If he can hold true to what he said, likely he will have a monster season, simply because a monster season is the usual for A-Rod. If he can stay locked in, look for him to put up 35+ homers despite missing 28 games to begin this year. Alex is 34 years old, and he has had injuries in the past two years, which is some cause for concern for Yankee fans. However, he has a history of being a durable player and will likely bounce back just fine. But then there's the postseason. His career postseason average is .279. His playoff averages with the Seattle Mariners were .313 and .371, and in his first playoffs with the Yankees he hit .320. His .421 average in the division series that year bumped that up, as he hit .258 overall in the Championship Series and did not drive in a single run in those horrible final four games of our 2004 season. The next year he hit .133 and the Yankees were eliminated in the divisional round. In 2006 he hit .071 and the Yanks were done in the first round again. In '07 he hit .267 and his first postseason home run since the 2004 ALCS. The Yanks season was over after one round yet again. Last year we didn't even make the playoffs. While these are bad playoff stats already, his astounding ability to strike out in seemingly every crucial at-bat in the playoffs is very concerning. However, as I stated before, he will likely help us a lot on the way to the postseason, we should just call up Ramiro Pena when October comes around.

Mike Lowell:

A Yankees draftee, he had 8 games and 15 at-bats in a Yankee uniform in 1998, hitting .267 with 4 singles, scoring 1 run. He was traded to the Marlins that offseason, where he became an elite third baseman, both on the offensive and the glove side. His peak year was likely 2003, when he hit .276 with 32 homers and 105 RBIs. He has been a 20-30 homer hitter the rest of his career. In '04 he hit .293, the closest he came to hitting .300 in a Marlins uniform. In 2005 Lowell's bat just died, hitting .236 with 8 home runs in 500 at-bats. His lowest previous total with Florida in a full season was 18 in 2001, but he drove home 100 that year. In '05 he drove in 58. The Marlins were having another fire sale that offseason, and the Red Sox picked him up in what would have been one hell of a bargain if they hadn't included Hanley Ramirez in the deal. Nonetheless, the Sox got a starting third baseman in Lowell and an ace in Josh Beckett. In '06 he bounced back to a .284 average and 20 homers with 80 RBIs. In 2007 he was even better. He hit .324, his first time past the .300 threshold. His home run total only went up 1, but he established a career high in RBIs with 120. He ended his season by winning the World Series MVP award, and the Red Sox re-signed him. But what a difference a year makes. Last season Lowell was hurt and nagged by the injury for much of the year, though he still managed to post a .274 average with 17 homers and 73 RBIs. Now 35, his durability is a concern.

Advantage: Yankees

Now, the last game I reported on was on April 22. It was right before our first series in Boston. Long and painful story short, we got swept. After a loss to the Tigers made it four straight, we won two straight to pull out a series victory. The Yanks then proceeded to win the first two games of the Angels series. We then lost, and the last game of the series was rained out. So we proceeded to lose 5 straight games to the Red Sox and Rays, our two catchers, Cody Ransom, Brian Bruney, Damaso Marte, and Chien-Ming Wang, who all joined Xavier Nady on the disabled list. Ramiro Pena and Angel Berroa were our co-third baseman until A-Rod came back, and now we have Phil Hughes up taking Wang's place in the rotation, Alfredo Aceves and Brett Tomko in place of Bruney and Marte. But now catcher is a severe weak spot, with Jose Molina and Jorge Posada getting hurt. Francisco Cervelli and Kevin Cash are our new catchers. Mark Melancon was up until A-Rod came back, and he did very well. A-Rod did come back, though, and on the very first pitch he saw he smacked a three-run home run and the Yankees won 4-0. CC was positively stellar, throwing a complete game and giving up 4 hits and 1 walk, striking out 8 batters.

Then yesterday Phil Hughes got torched for 8 runs in the second inning and we lost 12-5.

Today's game is going on right now, and the Orioles have a 3-1 lead.

Now, as for Manny... I really don't know what to say. You guys all know about Manny and his 50-game suspension. I really don't know the details and I don't care to find them out, because frankly I think I speak for all baseball fans when I say I am so tired of hearing about these things. Yes, we should definitely crack down and make sure no one is using steroids, but it's awfully tiring to keep hearing about some new scandal every other month.

I'm not quite sure what else to write about, but if I think of something I'll post it.

Thanks for reading guys, I'm trying to keep up here.

Let us continue the comparison!

Robinson Cano vs. Dustin Pedroia

Just a year ago, I would have given the Yankees the advantage. Now, we'll see.

Robinson Cano:

Like Pedroia, Robby is a home-grown second sacker. Last year was a down year to put it lightly. However, there is no reason to believe he won't rebound in 2009. He has been compared to Rod Carew by Joe Torre. And in 2007, Buster Olney of ESPN published this glowing report on Robby. In 2005 he took over early for the rather disappointing Tony Womack. That year he hit .297 with 14 homers and 62 RBIs, showing pretty good defense and a rocket arm. 2006 was probably his best year ever, finishing third in the AL batting race behind The Captain and Joe Mauer, hitting .342 with 18 homers and 78 ribbies. The next year his power numbers went up, with 19 homers and 97 RBIs, but his average went down to .306. His strikeouts escalated alarmingly from 54 to 85, which is still a pretty good total. But still, that's about a 60% increase. Last year Robby hit a dismal .151 in April, hitting .246 total before the All-Star Game. He's always been thick, especially in his legs, but last year he was beginning to get heavy. He still managed a .307 second-half average, but he totaled a very disappointing .271 with 14 homers and 72 ribbies. After having a .237 April average in his last three years, a trimmer Cano is hitting .367 this one. At age 26, there's still time for him to fulfill Reggie Jackson's 30-home run power prophecy.

Dustin Pedroia:

Dustin Pedroia is listed by the Boston Red Sox as 5'9", but no one is really buying that. The two "real height"s of Pedroia I have heard most are 5'7" and 5'5". I'll say he's 5'6". Either way, he is a great run producer and a gritty leader in the field. In 2006 he debuted, playing in 31 games and hitting .191 with 2 homers and 7 RBIs. In '07 he became the Red Sox' regular secoond baseman, playing 139 games and winning the American League Rookie Of The Year award with a .317 average, 8 homers, and 50 RBIs. Last year he really busted out, hitting .326 with 17 home runs, 83 RBIs, and 20 steals. He won the MVP award, an award  many did not agree he deserved...but it was still a great season. Dustin P. is 25 years old.

Advantage: I'll give it to the Red Sox by a slim margin.

I'm trying very hard to keep posting right now...it's just hard. In 3 or 4 weeks I'll hopefully be going back to posting often, but for now, it'll be pretty hard for me to get out an interesting post more often than weekly, if that. So for this post, I'll review only our last game.

Two days ago, Melky Cabrera did the honors on the first walk off homer in the new Yankee Stadium!

We played 14 innings in the Bronx, but we're gonna start this from the beginning. CC had another horrendous start, lasting 6.2 innings and giving up 7 runs, 6 earned with 4 walks and 2 K's. But that's where our bullpen took over and was admirable. While the Yankees struggled for a single run from the 6th inning on, Phil Coke, Jonathan Albaladejo, Mariano Rivera, and Damaso Marte all held off the Athletics, and the struggling Jose Veras brought his ERA down to 5.59 with 3.1 perfect innings and 4 K's. The offense was pretty good before the 7th. Melky hit the first homer of the game for the Yankees in the 2nd, a solo shot, and Hideki Matsui did the same in the same inning. Robby had an RBI groundout in the 3rd, and Nick Swisher had a ribbie single in the 3rd as well. In the 4th, the Captain corked one out to center. He hit an RBI double in the 6th, and Tex hit a ribbie single. After Matt Holliday's ribbie single in the 7th tied it at 7, the scoring stopped for a long time as both bullpens performed well. Former Yank Dan Giese pitched a scoreless 13th, but could only get 1 out in 14th before Melky popped one out to right, scoring Nick Swisher for the win.

By the way, what ever happened to the Yankees selling out every game? There's a lot of empty seats in every picture...Someone tell me what's going on with that. Please. I'm guessing it's the ridiculous ticket prices, but..

In my last piece of news, today is the first Boskees game of the year! The greatest rivalry in sports will be renewed at Fenway Park, with Joba Chamberlain facing Jon Lester. I'll try to post later on that!

Just remember...