The Yankee Clipper: A-Rod Disses Dallas

Not exactly Debbie Does Dallas, but because A-Rod is involved, there's just as much controversy. The Yankees take their 5th series to start a season matching the 1926 squad and two wins in Los Angeles this week would set a new franchise record. Before we get there, let's look at the series that was:

1. A-Rod vs. Dallas Braden. Here's my quick opinion: Dallas Braden was wrong and A-Rod was wrong in how he responded to it. As far as A-Rod's controversies go, this ranks pretty low on the list. Everyone weighed in: The New York Times' Ben Shpigel (picture to the right from that article), ESPN's Wallace Matthews, LoHud's Sam Borden, HarballTalk's Craig Calcaterra, River Ave Blues' Mike Axisa, FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal (with a quote from Tim McCarver), Mark Feinsand of the Daily News, TonyBlogs, the Posts's Joel Sherman (who made an unfunny joke), and Jay from Fack Youk (who weighed in on everyone weighing in). Twitter users oh_gee_en and LadyBlueICU came up with funny pictures. 'Duk from Big League Stew summed it up nicely: "You can read more of [what Braden and A-Rod said] at MLB.com or listen to his interview at the LoHud Yankees Blog....On one hand, it's nice for A's fans to see that one of their young guns won't cede any ground or be intimidated by one of the best players on the defending world champs...But on the other, there's something to be said for knowing your spot in the game and earning enough capital to call out a perennial All-Star over something so petty." ESPN's Rob Neyer adds another layer to it: "There's something odd about this, though: The inning was over. Braden wasn't on the mound anymore. It wasn't his mound."
2. Oh, by the way, the Yankees turned a triple play yesterday (no, not that triple play or that triple play). According to John and Suzyn, it was the first triple play turned by the Yankees in a long time. According to the broadcast team, the last one was June 3rd, 1968: Dooley Womack to Bobby Cox to Mickey Mantle ("yes that Bobby Cox and yes that Mickey Mantle"). More than 6600 games ago. I saw one in person last year (unassisted) when the Mets had one turned on them in Citi Field (DJ AM threw out the first pitch that game, sadly enough). It's a really cool feat. Too bad they couldn't follow it up with a win. Quick side note: I also got to hear Suzyn say during the broadcast: "Isn't texting just the best thing in the world." Ummm...
3. Javy Vazquez got his first win. It wasn't necessarily pretty, but it's a move in the right direction. He went from really bad, to bad to good enough in his last start. Hopefully the upward progression continues in Anaheim. Vazquez's line would have looked a lot better had Girardi taken him out before the inning started instead of after he got into some trouble. It's a big managerial difference between Torre and Girardi: Torre would have taken Vazquez out so he could leave feeling good about himself; Girardi wanted to leave him in and see if he couldn't push it a bit further. I'm not saying either style is better but with a fragile person like Javy, you might have wanted to go with the Torre method.
4. Nick Johnson and Mark Teixeira are still scuffling. According to Baseball-Reference, out of all players with 45 official ABs, Johnson is tied for the 2nd least amount of hits (6) and Teixeira is one behind him. But they're not alone on that list, Melky Cabrera also has 6 hits, Chris Coghlan (who hit .321 last season) has 7, and Aramis Ramirez, J.D. Drew, and Carlos Lee sit at 8. Here's the big difference: Johnson and Teixeira are contributing in different ways. Johnson leads the American League in walks with 18 (leaving his OBP at .382). Teixeira has 11 walks and is playing his usual Gold Glove-caliber defense at first. And the rest of the team is picking those two up. So while last year the Yankees were losing and Tex was struggling, this year, his problems are hidden behind the Ws.
5. Phil Hughes came oh-so-close to a no-hitter. I'm still unhappy about how it ended.

On to battle the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Yankees have struggled here in the past decade but this is a much different Angels team. The only holdover from the 2002 World Series winning team is Scott Shields. The Yankees are a half game behind Tampa for the best record in baseball. The Yankees lead the American League in OBP, wOBA, SLG, triples, complete games, hits allowed, and runs allowed. And if they can win two of three in Anaheim, they'll have overcome demons and set a new franchise mark. The quest for 28 continues tonight.