Not so fast on Aubrey Huff

It's been almost a week since the Mets had a heartbreaking loss, so you had to figure they were due.

It figures that on the night when Francisco Rodriguez blew a save for real and not just in the stats, Luis Castillo would make two great plays in the field.

But you can't save them all, not when Aubrey Huff is putting on a show for the Mets, going 6 for 12 with 4 RBI, 2 runs, a homer, and a double. Whether or not he ends up a Met, he has already had an impact on their playoff chances, with two game-winning hits on consecutive nights.

Huff now has nine homers and 45 RBI. Both numbers top anyone on the Mets.

So the Mets should do whatever they can to get Huff, right?

Maybe not.

Huff's numbers are much better at Camden Yards than on the road. Seven of his nine homers have come at home, where he has a slugging percentage of .500 and an OPS of .855. On the road, he slugs .371 with a mediocre OPS of .667.

The lefthanded Huff has even worse lefty-righty splits, batting .297 against righties but only .209 against lefties (all percentages going into tonight's game).

Huff has not played the outfield since 2006. This year he has only appeared at first base and DH. So if he came to the Mets, he would probably play first, unless the Mets wanted to have a second DH type out there along with Gary Sheffield.

But Huff playing first would probably put an end to Daniel Murphy's contributions to the Mets for this year at least, since it does not seem likely that the Mets would return him to the outfield.

Murphy ended up with a pretty good series himself, going 4 for 12 with 3 RBI, 2 runs and a double. Murphy doubled in the run that put the Mets ahead, 3-2, before Francisco Rodriguez went on to blow the lead and the game.

Murphy and Ryan Church have not had a chance to stay in the lineup when they are going well. When Gary Sheffield came in, Jerry Manuel kept jerking Murphy and Church in and out of the lineup, which could not have been a good thing for their confidence.

If the Mets could get Aubrey Huff without giving up anything, that would be one thing. But it would be a shame to further deplete the farm system and possibly jerk Murphy around again and Church as well, only to find Huff does not hit so well outside of Camden Yards.

***

Squawker Lisa saw the musical "Damn Yankees" last year. In the show, a member of the lowly Washington team sells his soul to the Devil so he can lead Washington to victory over the Yankees. This year, Lisa, you got to see the revival in the Bronx!

Jonathan Papelbon says 'of course' he would consider being a Yankee one day

Think having Pedro Martinez as a Yankee would be a hard sell? Well, how about Jonathan Papelbon in pinstripes?

The Red Sox reliever, who is eligible for free agency in 2011, talked on SIRIUS XM Radio's MLB Home Plate channel today about whether he ever would consider switching sides and becoming a Yankee:

Host, Jody McDonald: “If you couldn’t work out a contract with the Red Sox before free agency comes up and you eventually become a free agent, is the Bronx ever a possibility?”

Jonathan Papelbon: “Oh, of course. I mean, I think if we can’t come to an agreement on terms here in a Red Sox uniform, I mean, I think that’s pretty much the writing on the wall. If they can’t come to terms with you they’re letting you know that, ‘Hey you know what? We can go somewhere else.’ And I think it’s the same way on the other side, ‘Hey if ya’ll can’t come to an agreement with me then I can go somewhere else.’ Not only in the Bronx, but anywhere. I think anywhere is a possibility. You always have to keep that in the back of your mind because you can’t just be one-sided and think that, ‘Oh I’m going to be in a Red Sox uniform my entire career.’ Because nowadays that is very, very rare and hopefully we can because there’s no question I would love to stay in a Boston Red Sox uniform but I have to do what’s best for me and play in an atmosphere where I’m wanted and play on a team where I’m wanted and that’s all I can really say about that, you know?”

Quotes courtesy of Sirius/XM Radio

Good answer, Jonathan! We all know how live-and-let-live Boston fans are! I'm sure they'll understand you considering to be a Yankee if it were best for you (Translation - if the Steinbrenner family backs up the Brinks truck to the Papelbon home.) The Red Sox fans will be cool with you playing in the Bronx. Just as long as you're happy, dude!

And I'm sure Yankee fans will have no hard feelings about the way you wanted to be the closer instead of Mariano Rivera in last year's All-Star Game. Or how you taunted fans with your ring at the All-Star Parade. Not to mention all the big games you closed against the Yanks.

Besides, your mature and thoughtful actions have endeared you to me and to our readers. From your lovely dance steps to your demure post-game celebrations, you've been a real class act. Why, if you become a Yankee, we'll call you Cinco Dopo with affection!

Okay, now we will enter the sarcasm-free portion of this blog entry. In this radio interview, Papelbon showed why I call him Cinco Dopo. Here's how the closer should have answered that question about free agency:

"Jody, I'm just playing them one game at a time and focusing on doing whatever I can to help the Red Sox win a few more World Championships. Love that dirty water!"

Instead, Papelbon was honest that he is going to do what's best for him. Which is the way nearly all of these guys feel. Most of them know enough not to say that, though.

But he's not going to get any points for candor. Boston fans will be displeased with him even considering putting on the pinstripes, and Yankee fans don't want to imagine what it would be like if Papelbon turned sides.

So yeah, my Yankees may have just suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the lowly Washington Nationals, but at least I know that Boston fans will feel a little hot under the collar over what Papeblbon said. And another closer, the Mets' Francisco Rodriguez, just got beaten by the Orioles. Thank goodness for small favors!

What do you think of what Jonathan Papelbon said? Leave us a comment!

Who's your daddy! Will the Yankees vote for Pedro Martinez?

Think Joba Chamberlain and Jorge Posada bicker a lot during a game? Imagine what it will be like if Posada is catching for Pedro Martinez!

According to Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal (thanks to Squawker reader NAM for first telling us about this story), the Yankees are one of four teams who will watch Martinez throw Friday in the Dominican Republic. The other teams are the Cubs, Rays, and Angels.

Pedro is looking for a $3 million (!) major league contract for the rest of the season. Good luck with that, dude.

However, it's not completely out of the realm of possibility for him to wear the pinstripes. Remember, the Yanks actually talked a bit with Martinez and his agent Fernando Cuza after the 2004 season, and Alex Rodriguez took Martinez to dinner to talk to him about signing for the Yankees. But reportedly the Yankees didn't heavily pursue Martinez due to the objections of some of the Bomber old guard, most notably Jorge Posada. Jorge held a grudge against Martinez because of their argument in the 2003 ALCS.

And time has not healed these wounds. Last fall, Posada criticized Martinez on Michael Kay's show "Center Stage":

"I thought he was going to hit me in the head with a bat after we had the fight and he pushed Don Zimmer," Posada said. "It was ridiculous. I mean, he throws at Karim Garcia because he's losing the game. I mean, there's no class."

True, but six years later, I still don't understand how Martinez escaped that without any Yankee laying a finger on him. Not that I'm bitter or anything.

At any rate, Pedro had an angry response last September to Posada's more recent comments:

"When I pointed to the head, it wasn't precisely to tell him that I wanted to hit him in the head," Martinez said. "Nah. He's a human being, he has a family, and I'm a professional. [The pointing to the head] was because he cursed my mom. I was telling him, 'I'll remember that.'

"He knows - he's Latin, as much as he pretends to be American, he's Latin - that cursing your mom in Latin America will get you into a fight," Martinez said. "That's something I would never do to his mom, because she doesn't play. She's not on the field. She's someone you admire and respect, and I didn't like that."

Oh snap! This feud is so on!

While it would give the media - and this blog - a lot to write about if Martinez became a Yankee, (and make Uncle Mike's head explode!) I just don't see what Pedro's spot would be on the team:

The aging, injury-prone pitcher role is already filled by Andy Pettitte.

And forget about Martinez as a reliever - batters hit best against him in the first inning, according to Baseball-Reference.com

As for class clown, while Martinez has a self-deprecating sense of humor, like when he allowed Nomar Garciaparra and his Boston teammates to tape him to the dugout pole, I think between Nick Swisher, A.J. Burnett and Johnny Damon, they have got the cutup position filled.

Team spokeman? Martinez is one of the smartest and most well-spoken players in baseball, but for some strange reason, I don't think he would be accepted as mouthpiece of a team he once called his daddy.

So, would the Yankees vote for Pedro? It's doubtful. Other than a misguided attempt to stick it to the Mets and the Red Sox, the only possible position I see for Pedro on the Yankees is as designated headhunter for the next Boston series!

Do you think the Yankees could - or should - sign Pedro Martinez? Leave us a comment?

Imagine! John Lannan shuts down Yankee bats

So much for my partner in blogging being the good luck charm for Yankee walkoff wins.

Squawker Jon and I have seen two of the most exciting Yankee thrillers of the year in person together - the Melky walkoff/Brett Gardner inside-the-parker against the Twins, and the Luis Castillo dropped ball game on Friday.

And for a while there it looked like we were going to see our third walkoff win together this year. But Robinson Cano hit into a double play, and there was the end to that dream.

I had a whole vision in my mind of what would have happened if the Yankees had somehow hung on and won the game. What if the Yanks had gotten wind of it, and decided having Squawker Jon watch their games in person was their good luck charm? What if the Yankees had decided to have Jon attend all their games until his streak ended? Is that a good movie idea or what - a diehard Yankee hater ends up inadvertently being the good luck charm for the team he despises! Alas, it didn't happen.

Squawker Jon has already covered much of our experiences yesterday. We met "Confessions of a She-Fan" author Jane Heller, Rebecca of This Blogger Bleeds Pinstripes, and Squawker reader Peggy at a very loud Stan's Bar for Jane's book signing. We also were excited to meet LoHud's Peter Abraham on the main concourse before the game.

In addition to those blogging names, there were many members of the New York Giants in the house, including Tom Coughlin, Justin Tuck, and Eli Manning. Eli's big brother Peyton was also spotted. You know, he's really got a great personality. Maybe he should do some commercials or something!

A few other observations:

It's getting old to see the Yankees struggle against a starter they've never seen before. I know John Lannan actually is a good young pitcher, but he's not that good!

Chien-Ming Wang was pretty decent, all things considered. Even though he got the loss, he can look back on this as a successful start, and hopefully build upon this.

Why is it that Alex Rodriguez is getting criticized for walking last night? I don't get it. And the booing of him by so-called "fans" is getting really old. Do they really think it's going to help him?

Jeanne, one of our readers, asked why Joe Girardi didn't have Alex try to steal second, or have Angel Berroa pinch-run for him. I don't know the answer to that. If Berroa is going to serve as a part of this team, that should have been the place to have him in. (Then again, he literally hasn't stolen a base since 2006, which makes me wonder - again - why he is on this roster if he's not even going to get A-Rod a day off once in a while.)

It stunk that Robinson Cano hit into a double play, but 1) at least he did a gutty at-bat, and 2) he also hit a homer earlier in the game, so I can't get on him too much. The Yanks shouldn't have had to need ninth-inning heroics again to win this game.

Speaking of which, as soon as Derek Jeter gets back in the lineup, can Girardi please, please give A-Rod a game or two off already? Thanks!

Oh well. At least I still have this memory, from the Subway Series game Squawker Jon and I attended. (I saw this video on New York Sports Jerk):

National treasure

I went to the Yankee game with Squawker Lisa tonight, and I would have bet anything that the Yankees were going to win. It was the sixth game we have been to together this season, and her team had won every time, culminating in last Friday's play-that-must-not-be-named.

After that, I figured my team would never win when we were both in attendance. But an unlikely starter, Fernando Nieve, helped the Mets bounce back the next day, and an unlikely team, the Washington Nationals, helped me bounce back in my next game with Lisa.

Going into the bottom of the ninth, I was resigned to seeing my third walkoff in a row at Yankee Stadium (May 15 against the Twins was the first). The combination of the Nationals' flammable bullpen and Coors Field East would do Washington in.

Then Lannan does not even wait for the bullpen to blow the game by giving up a leadoff Yankee Stadium cheapie to Johnny Damon to make it 3-2. After Mark Teixeira singled with one out, Alex Rodriguez came up and the Nationals went to their dreaded bullpen.

A-Rod should have made the final out on Friday, and I was hoping he would make up for that game by ending this one with a double play. But pinch runner Brett Gardner stole second and then third. By this point, I was hoping the Yankees would just win in regulation and get it over with, and not have it drag into extra innings.

Instead, for the second Yankee Stadium game in a row, I was left dumbfounded by the final play. But this time, instead of two runs scoring, it was a game-ending double play. The Nationals beat the Yankees! The Nationals, a team in hot pursuit of the 1962 Mets' record of 120 losses, beat the Yankees in Yankee Stadium!

Lisa, to quote your tweet from last Friday night, "and we were there to see it!"

***

Before the game, Lisa and I had the pleasure of meeting friend of the Squawkers Jane Heller, who was signing copies of her book, Confessions of a She-Fan: The Course of True Love with the New York Yankees.

We also enjoyed meeting fellow blogger Rebecca of This Purist Bleeds Pinstripes and one of our regular commenters, Squawker reader Peggy.

Seven of Nine: Relieving is Futile

I'm all for Seven of Nine when it comes to former Borg drones, but for Met relievers, not so much. I did not get to see the Met game tonight because I was at the Yankee game (more on that later). I did watch the postgame, where the big topic was Pedro Feliciano's workload. Feliciano has now appeared in seven of the last nine games, which could have something to do with him giving up the game-winning homer to Aubrey Huff.

First of all, how thankless is it to be a middle reliever? It's like being a field goal kicker who only kicks in the third quarter. You never get to win the game, but you sure can lose it.

Feliciano is entitled to give up a run or two now and again. After tonight, his ERA is 2.60, behind only Francisco Rodriguez in the pen.

But there's no way that pitching seven times in nine games can be a good thing. Jerry Manuel is managing as if he's still the interim manager. Just because the Mets fired the manager a year ago this week does not mean it will happen again. Jerry is certainly safe until the end of the year, and probably beyond that. But he may not be so safe if, by the time September rolls around, he has burnt out the bullpen.

And let's not hear anything about how the Mets have no choice but to use their only good lefty reliever all the time. There is always a choice. Maybe not a good one, but a choice nonetheless.

Despite the problems finding healthy and successful starters, nobody is suggesting that the Mets go to a four-man rotation to maximize the number of starts by Johan Santana and Mike Pelfrey. The Mets would never risk overworking their top starters like that. Feliciano and the other setup guys should get the same respect.

***

As for Huff, his second audition went a lot better than his first, except for him bizarrely getting tackled during his interview with Kevin Burkhardt.

Maybe the Orioles thought that the Yankees' postgame awarding of a wrestling belt to the player of the game was supposed to involve actual wrestling.

Yanks swat those pesky Nats

While I'm glad the Yanks won last night, this game shouldn't have even been as close as it was. You have the Yankees' ace on the mound vs. the worst team in baseball, and it was still a nail-biter of a game for most of it, thanks in no small part to the Yankee lineup - again - only eking out four hits against an unfamiliar pitcher, Shairon Martis.

It's a good thing old Yankee Ron Villone was pitching for the Nationals, and Elijah Dukes was playing center, or this game could have been a tough loss for CC Sabathia. As Squawker Jon noted, former Met Anderson Hernandez doubled his career home run total with a three-run blast off CC. My cat C.C. was hissing over it!

On the bright side, Robinson Cano did go 4-for-4, and Brian Bruney looked fine in his return to the Yankees bullpen.

But Derek Jeter left the game after hurting his ankle. As for myself, I was feeling a little under the weather yesterday, so I wasn't giving the game my full attention. Hopefully, Jeter - and I -will be feeling better tonight!

* * *

Squawker friend Bernadette Palsey - aka Lady at the Bat - wrote a story for mlb.com about the new A&E Home Video set The New York Yankees: Essential Games of Yankee Stadium- Perfect Games and No Hitters
. Congrats!

What do you think? Leave us a comment!

Dog bites man! Kyle Farnsworth's bulldog goes wild

Former Yankee Kyle Farnsworth is back in the news for something other than blowing games. Kerosene Kyle got bitten by one of his two bulldogs, while trying to break up a fight between the pooches. Farnsworth had to get four stitches in the index finger of his non-pitching hand. The dogs' names - Strike and Rambo!

Congrats to Chien-Ming Wang and his wife on the birth of their son, Justin Jesse. Here's hoping Wang pitches a great game tonight. Squawker Jon and I are planning on being there after attending Jane Heller's book-signing at Stan's.

Pretty cool of Alex Rodriguez to meet the fans in Monument Park yesterday. But why is it that David Letterman apologized to everybody else regarding his tasteless joke involving A-Rod and Sarah Palin's daughter....except for A-Rod?

Jose Veras got designated for assignment upon the return of Brian Bruney. While Veras hasn't exactly been good this year, and he's the pitcher who most deserved to get DFAed, I still wonder why Angel Berroa is on the Yankee 25-man roster, given that he literally plays about one day a week. And why hasn't Joe Girardi given Alex Rodriguez - who is slumping bigtime - a day off and had Berroa fill in for him?

It's funny how things work - Veras was one of the peacemakers, along with the Mets' Mike Pelfrey, in Sunday's confrontation between Francisco Rodriguez and Bruney. And two days later, Veras loses his spot on the Yankees to Bruney, and Pelfrey gets chewed out by David Wright!




What do you think? Leave us a comment!

Aubrey Huff's Met audition

Aubrey Huff, step right up! You're a power-hitting first baseman on a team that might be looking to shed your contract. You can also play the outfield, though you haven't done so since 2006. But hey, that hasn't stopped Gary Sheffield (though his knee might).

Tonight, the Mets got to see Huff in person, and what does the Orioles first baseman do?

He drops a popup that results in two runs scoring, and those two runs are the difference in the game.

After the seventh-inning play, in which Huff and second baseman Brian Roberts ran for the ball down the line behind first base, Keith Hernandez said it was Roberts' ball, but he wanted no part of it.

Just imagine if Huff does come to the Mets, and there is a popup at a very critical time that is within reach of both Huff and second baseman Luis Castillo. Will both players want it? Will neither? The way things go for the Mets, they would probably both go for the ball, collide, and the ball would drop while someone got hurt.

I know what you're thinking, Mr. Huff. You're worried that you've flunked your audition. But not to worry, the other player mentioned as a possible new first baseman for the Mets, Nick Johnson of the Nationals, also dropped a popup just last Friday, and his error resulted in his team losing the game.

As I noted last week, Johnson's eighth inning drop prolonged Gabe Kapler's at bat. Kapler then homered, breaking a 3-3 tie, and the Rays won, 4-3.

So look out, Mark DeRosa, Matt Holliday, Jermaine Dye and anyone else who might get mentioned in a Met trade rumor. Better use two hands on those popups.

***

Tonight's Met win was shaky on several fronts, including Mike Pelfrey failing to get out of the sixth inning and Bobby Parnell being unable to get anyone out in the ninth. But it was a win. Once again, the Mets quickly rebounded from a horrendous loss. If only they did not have so much practice.

***

Over the weekend, Mike Pelfrey helped separate Francisco Rodriguez and Brian Bruney. Tonight, it looked like someone might have to separate Pelfrey and David Wright after their heated exchange in the dugout. (Actually, it wasn't an exchange - Wright was doing all the talking.) I'm glad Wright is stepping up his leadership role. Now let's seem him set more of an example by running hard to first and taking the extra base where possible, which he did not appear to do on Huff's drop and on another play earlier in the game.

On the other hand, if Wright had tried to go to second on the throw home after Huff's drop, he might have been out. After a period when the Mets seemed to be going for the extra base at all times whether or not it made sense, maybe it's good that Wright did not seem to be thinking along those lines.

***

Squawker Lisa, I see that Anderson Hernandez hit a three-run homer off of CC Sabathia tonight. That doubles Hernandez' career homer total to two. Hernandez was traded by the Mets last year for the great Luis Ayala because the Mets did not think Hernandez could hit at the major-league level. Looks like all Hernandez needed were some Yankee Stadium at bats!

More on the Jorge Posada game-calling story, and my thoughts on the Nationals series

The story on whether Yankee pitchers pitch better without Jorge Posada behind the plate is gaining momentum.

Tyler Kepner wrote an article in today's New York Times about it, noting that the Yankee pitchers' ERA when Posada is catching 6.31, while the combined ERA of Kevin Cash, Francisco Cervelli, and Jose Molina is 3.81. If you take out Chien-Ming Wang's horrendous starts, Posada's CERA is still 5.47. That's still very significant.

Tyner asked Brian Cashman about the numbers:

“Jorge is obviously that rare combination of being a catcher and an offensive player,” Cashman said Monday. “Cervelli and Molina are more one-sided, to the defensive side. I can’t really say why there’s a difference. It could be sample size. It could be that the other guys are just better defensive players.”

Squawker reader The Emperor noted that John Flaherty talked about the situation on Brandon Tierney's ESPN radio show today. So I listened to the podcast.

While the Yankee broadcaster seemed to think the controversy was overblown and "unfair," he also said Posada calls the game based on "what he would look for as a hitter," rather than basing it "exactly on scouting reports." Michael Kay also said similar things in his radio show.

If that is indeed the case, no wonder the Red Sox have the Yankees' number. They don't need to do any scouting on pitchers; all they have to do is just figure out what Jorge would be looking for!

Flaherty suggested a meeting with the pitchers and Posada to work out any issues they might have. Good idea.

Squawker friend J-Boogie of Baseball and the Boogie Down broke down the numbers of the Yankee catchers, and came to the conclusion that Cervelli should get more playing time. Here are two very interesting statistics he noted:

Won/Loss Record With Each Catcher
Jorge Posada: 15-11 (.577)
Jose Molina: 5-8 (.385)
Kevin Cash: 5-2 (.714)
Francisco Cervelli: 11-6 (.647)

Won/Loss Record on Which Pitcher Got Win
Jorge Posada: 9-10 rotation/6-1 bullpen
Jose Molina: 3-3 rotation/2-5 bullpen
Kevin Cash: 3-2 rotation/2-0 bullpen
Francisco Cervelli: 7-1 rotation/4-5 bullpen

J-Boogie uses more numbers and data to make his case here.

Posada will be catching CC Sabathia tonight. If CC has a bad game, I would expect this story to gain even more momentum.

* * *

One other note - I am not as confident as some other Yankee fans that the Bombers will kill the Washington Nationals this week. Yes, the Nats are the worst team in baseball. But they have three pitchers the Yankees don't know, and they have a bunch of guys, like Adam Dunn and Ryan Zimmerman, who could very well hit an awful lot of homers in the new Yankee Stadium.

Besides, three years ago, I went down to Washington, D.C. for the Saturday and Sunday Nationals/Yankees games, only to see the Nationals have two walkoff wins in a row against the Yanks! (Squawker reader Uncle Mike was also at the series!)

So, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Yanks lose a game or two (or, heaven forbid, three!) to the Nationals. Well, they probably won't lose three. But two isn't out of the realm of possibility.

What do you think? Leave us a comment!