AL East

As I mentioned in the post earlier, I got home pretty late on Wednesday night. I got home rather late because I made the rare weekday visit to Queens, NY to hang out with some friends.

The reason for the pilgrimage into Queens was to revisit our childhood by seeing "The Expendables," but to also eat at Darryl Strawberry’s new restaurant, conveniently called Strawberry’s.

Frankie Piliere is a former MLB scout and is currently a writer for AOL FanHouse. He had a chance to watch the Yankees top pitching prospect LHP Manny Banuelos this week and came away very impressed. Here is a link to his article and here is a quick recap of what he had to say:

Physical description

In sports or life, as an individual or as a team once you become a champion is beyond satisfying.

After many failures through dedication and hard work the sense of relief must be surreal.

Oh, Roger.

Love him or hate him, the news that Roger Clemens is being (it is hard to even type it out) indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of making false statements to Congress about his use of performance-enhancing drugs is down-right depressing.

There was a time when the baseball viewing public was being forced to ask themselves:

"Could Roger Clemens be ready to surpass Walter Johnson as the greatest pitcher of all time?"

New York Yankee fans have been waiting patiently for Curtis Granderson to figure himself out and it was well worth the wait.

Presently, the hardest stretch of the regular season is well underway for teams in contention, making the Yankees timing for heading into crisis-mode a serious concern.

As the CC Sabathia and the Yankees beat up on Justin Verlander and the Tigers Tuesday night, a very interesting battle occurred within the war. Austin Jackson, an outfielder who was developed in the Yankee system, hit a home run on the first pitch thrown by the Yankees ace, CC Sabathia.

The inning later, Curtis Granderson, who was traded for Jackson, made two sparkling catches. He later followed with a home run.

In an effort to protect the arm of Phil Hughes, who has never gone beyond 146 innings in any one season in his career, the Yankees are limiting him to about 175 innings this year. Many believed this meant that the Yankees would move him to the bullpen in October, as a way of keeping that innings total down. It turns out that isn’t the case.

Via The Star-Ledger:

"...general manager Brian Cashman said following the Yankees’ 6-2 victory over the Tigers on Tuesday that he believes the Yankees have enough to weather setbacks. As the deadline for waiver trades approaches at the end of the month, he doesn’t intend to make any moves.

Via Chad Jennings of LoHud: The team's 29 signed draft picks alongside the number of the round they were drafted in.