AL East

The Yankees are in the desert this week taking on the last place Diamondbacks, but unlike the Orioles, this last place team has a bit of fire power in their lineup, and they pounced all over AJ Burnett as the Yankees lost <

  From Chad Jennings :

Despite losing their last two consecutive games against the New York Yankees, the New York Mets have showed improvement.

Going 8-2 in the last 10 games they’ve played, the Mets are currently 39-30 and second in the NL East, trailing the Atlanta Braves by 2.5 games.

Since calling R.A. Dickey and Hisanori Takahashi from the minor leagues, the Mets have found success. Dickey is 5-0 on the season with a 2.82 ERA and Takahashi is 6-2 with a 3.13 ERA on the season.

The Yankees have announced that they have called minor league outfielder Colin Curtis up from Triple-A Scranton. 

Curtis, 25, has played 35 games at the Triple-A level this season. In those games, he has 125 at-bats, a .280 average, .357 OBP, .368 SLG, and a .725 OPS. He split 2009 between Double-A and Triple-A. In 132 games last season, he had a combined .250 average, .321 OBP, and a .686 OPS.

Balloting for the American League All-Star team is not over, not until July 1, and the Yankees currently have two players with the most amount of votes for their positions, SS Derek Jeter and 2B Robinson Cano.

Fellow Yankee fans, before you accuse me of high treason or blaspheming our dear captain, please heed my plea for understanding.

As a lifelong fan of the team, I have long loved Derek Jeter and cherish his numerous contributions to the latest run of success in the Bronx. I am fully aware that the Yankees just won a World Series last year and the team is currently claiming ownership of the best record in Major League Baseball.

A couple of days ago I noticed how well Rays' rookies catcher John Jaso and 2B/SS Reid Brignac are playing.  I’ve seen very little written about either of them, so I thought I’d try to fill the void.

Brignac is 24 this year, and he’s splitting time almost evenly for the Rays between second and shortstop.  Regular shortstop Jason Bartlett is back after a hamstring injury put him on the DL for 15 days, but Bartlett hasn’t been hitting, and Brignac has stepped in to fill the void.

The Yankees are right in the middle of their interleague games this season and are heading west to play the D-Backs and Dodgers, two former World Series opponents.

Their last two series have been against the Mets and Phillies, who were also in the World Series against the Bombers.

The Phils and Yanks faced off last October, with the Yankees winning the series four games to two for their unprecedented 27th championship. But it was the Phillies who took the three-game series this year.

First off, A-Rod was removed from today's game just as a precaution, according to Joe Girardi. "Just being cautious," Girardi told the media after the game . "With the little bit of rain, I just thought it made sense." A-Rod also said he feels "really good."

People have been bemoaning the Yankees offense for the past couple of days and even weeks. It’s true that their offense has been inconsistent of late, but with two of their biggest pieces Jorge Posada and Alex Rodriguez missing time, this his to be expected. Overall though, their numbers look pretty good.