AL East

Yankees ace Andy Pettitte left today’s game in the third inning with a Grade One left groin strain, and it has already been announced that he is expected to miss four or five weeks.  Coupled with A.J. Burnett’s recent two-handed assault on a locker room door that left Burnett bloodied and his ego bruised, the Yankees will likely conclude they have to find another starter to make up for their recent failure to land top-prize Cliff Lee.

One Great Season

Here's a conversation that I suppose will happen between 60-year-old men about 20 years from now, joined en medias res , of course:

Old Man 1: "No way, Mike is still the best ever."

Old Man 2: "Kobe had just as many titles, but never had a Pippen alongside him."

Yunel Escobar is the main player Alex Anthopoulos acquired when he dealt Alex Gonzalez away. Anthopoulos had stated that his plan to build (not rebuild) the Toronto Blue Jays is to get young, controllable players—players whose salary we can control for several years.

Stop me if this sounds familiar. A mid-20s middle infielder loses the faith of the Atlanta Braves organization and is sent packing, making him a classic change of scenery guy.

Yup, I will call this Yunel Escobar trade “Kelly Johnson Part 2.” Now of course the biggest difference between Escobar and Johnson is that Johnson left as a free agent after he wasn’t tendered a contract. With Escobar, the Braves got something in return.

Escobar is headed north of the border.

Baseball’s hot stove is heating up. With two weeks left until the trade deadline and Cliff Lee already dealt, the two big names left on the rumor circuit are Carl Crawford and Jayson Werth.

The two have much in common: Both are outfielders who are among the best players on their respective teams. They both play for clubs that are fully in the thick of playoff contention—Crawford’s Rays are three games up in the AL Wild Card, while Werth’s Phillies sit just 1.5 games behind the Rockies and Dodgers in the NL.

I drive a Honda CRV.

It might be the first of its kind; it could be the prototype. There is nothing modern about it. The only gauge I have measures gas; mileage stacks up via flipping digits, and mechanical failures are indicated when the appropriate circle lights up red.

Some people call them idiot lights. That’s because when they glow, idiots wait a few weeks to see if they’ll go out—all by themselves.

I think Ruben Amaro Jr. has a few on. The problem is there’s one that won’t go out all by itself.

To kick-off the second-half of the baseball season the New York Yankees will play host to the Tampa Bay Rays

It is the number one team vs. the number two team of not only the AL East, but all of the MLB.

Entering the All-Star break the Yankees lead the Rays by two games, but this series will be watched because it will set a tone for the two teams. It's a great reality check for the Rays to show their stuff, as this battle might go down to the wire.

Pitching will dictate the series, so let's break down the two AL East Rival weekend matchups:

At the halfway point of the season, the Boston Red Sox are five games behind the American League East-leading New York Yankees. That doesn’t look very satisfying, but considering what they have been through it undoubtedly is.

The injury bug that has hit them borders on ridiculous, with many of their impact-players on the shelf. The performance by the pitching staff hasn’t been anywhere near eye-opening, and their offense has missed its usual bop of years past.

Sports fans knew George Steinbrenner for 37 of his 80 years, ever since he bought the New York Yankees in the early 1970s. But the legacy Steinbrenner leaves behind will permeate throughout the offices of sports owners for years to come. George Steinbrenner set the standard for just about all of today’s franchise owners.

Embodied within one man were many different qualities; not all flattering. Charitably, he’s been described as complex. But he was always larger than life, and not to be forgotten.

When news broke out that Yankees' owner George Steinbrenner had passed Tuesday morning, I predictably got a few texts from friends asking if I was planning on writing about “The Boss.”

At first I hesitated; too much had happened before I was even born. I had never met him in person. What perspective could I possibly give, that a million other writers couldn’t?