"Back in the day," before I was aware of sabermetrics, I used to be quite a bit more interested in the debates regarding who deserved to be selected and who was undeserving. (Of course back then I watched Baseball Tonight and thought that Joe Morgan was a good analyst).

The non-selection of Travis Hafner this year is, IMO, analogous to the year that Ty Detmer won the Heisman Trophy over Rocket Ismail. Detmer's selection forever destroyed the credibility of the Heisman award. Similarly, Hafner's non-selection makes the entire all-star game a charade: .322/.461/.650...what's even more dumbfounding is that Hafner even possesses the important stats for the Harold Reynoldses of the world, i.e., "not only does this guy have "pop" but his average is well over .300."

The main culprit in the dissemination of the standard baseball myths is the media. Witness George King in the NY Post last weekend giving Giambi a "B" for his midseason grade. I swear I am not fabricating this:

"Batting average is the only thing keeping him from an 'A'".....

Top 20 in VORP in MLB. .412 OBP, .608 SLG. 27 HRs, 72 RBIs.

Batting average? Sigh....

The Yankees jumped out to an early 5-0 lead thanks to a grand slam home run from Jason Giambi but couldn't score the rest of the way and lost to Tampa Bay 6-5.

Kris Wilson started for the Yankees and worked out of a jam in the first by striking out the last two batters of the inning with two runners on base. In the third, however, Aubrey Huff reached him for a three run homer and Joe Torre called on Ron Villone. Villone worked out of further trouble but then was tagged for a tying home run from Jorge Cantu.

The Yankees had several scoring opportunities but couldn't get the big hit or the sacrifice fly. A-Rod hit into a double play early in the game with runners on first and third and one out. Later in the game he struck out with the go ahead run on base. Rocco Baldelli came up huge for the Devil Rays. The Yankees had a chance to take the lead when Bernie Williams singled to center with Melky Cabrera on second. Baldelli charged the ball and threw it to home on the fly to nip Cabrera at the plate. In the bottom of the inning he led off with a double down the line and scored on a single from Cantu off of Scott Proctor.

In the eighth, pinch hitter Johnny Damon got as far as second but Posada struck out looking to end the inning. In the ninth, Baldelli made a diving catch in right center to rob Derek Jeter of a potential extra base hit with only one out.

The Yankees now head into the All-Star break and look to get healthy. Hopefully Cano will be back shortly after the break and Damon will get some much needed rest.

The Yankees will send A-Rod, Jeter and Rivera to the contest as players. Cano was also chosen but won't play due to being on the DL. After the break the Yankees will be home with a weekend series against the Chicago White Sox.

The Yankees kept pace with the Red Sox and moved to within 5 of the White Sox for the wild card last night thanks to another solid performance by Chien-Ming Wang as the Yankees defeated the Devil Rays 5-1. Wang pitched 8 and 1/3, allowing only one run on 6 hits. The victory is the Yankees' 4th in a row and Johnny Gomes' sac fly in the 9th ended the Yankees' streak of 18 straight innings without allowing a run.

The game was scoreless until the 6th inning when Jorge Posada knocked Johnny Damon, who entered as a pinch runner for Jason Giambi, in with a single. Damon looked like he was feeling just fine in his first game back since Wednesday, as he drove in two runs in his first at bat with a triple in the 7th inning. Melky Cabrera and Derek Jeter capped off the offense with RBI singles in the 8th. Kyle Farnsworth recorded the last two outs, allowing the sac fly which gave the Rays their only run of the game (charged to Wang).

A lot of people are calling Mike Mussina an All-Star snub this year, but Wang also deserves credit for what he's done so far. I'm not saying that he should be there because there are more deserving guys such as Francisco Liriano of the Twins, but Wang's numbers actually compare pretty evenly if not slightly favorably to Mark Buehrle's. Can't blame Ozzie Guillen for taking his own guy though. Getting to the World Series earns you that privilege. Joe Torre's managed 6 All-Star games since he's been with the Yankees, so we all know how that works.

Kris Wilson will be making his first start as a Yankee today at 1:15 ET and will be facing Casey Fossum as the Yanks go for the sweep before getting four days off for the All-Star break. Wilson pitched two scoreless innings in Wednesday's victory over Cleveland.

EDIT: I realize for whatever reason I linked to the wrong guys' stats. Sorry about that, just fixed it.

The Yankees pitching was great all night long. Jaret Wright pitched six strong innings and was followed by no hit innings from Scott Proctor, Kyle Farnsworth and Mariano Rivera.

The Yankees scored early when Bernie Williams grounded a two out single through the middle which plated Jason Giambi for the only run of the game. Jaret Wright escaped a jam in the first inning. Julio Lugo lined a single to center and that was followed by a double to center from Carl Crawford. The ball was hit over the head of Bubba Crosby but was not read well by Lugo and he could only get to third. Rocco Baldelli lined to Jeter at short for the first out. Aubrey Huff popped up to A-Rod and then Jorge Cantu struck out to end the inning.

Later in the game Aubrey Huff doubled to lead off the inning and a ground out by Cantu got him to third. He died there when Wright battled and was able to strike out Gomes and got the next batter to end the inning.

McAfee did a little research and found that, in search engine results, the Yankees were the team to most likely have spyware, adware, etc. included in the screensavers offered by various sites around the web. This isn't a shock to me. Like any download, you should always be careful what and where you download from. There are good, reputable sites out there. And there are others that are not. That's the same for everything.

I would chalk the popularity of the Yankees up as the primary reason that they scored first in this little study. People who look to infect PCs with this stuff want to infect the most people. What team has the largest fan base in the world? Exactly.

They came in at 24%, right ahead of Boston at 23.2%.

In player searches, Josh Fogg took the cake at 75%. (lol, wow). Bonds, Pujols and Isringhausen (?!) came in second with 60%. 5th place was a tie between Jaret Wright (?! again) and Derek Jeter at 58.3%.

After the 19-1 loss on Tuesday, the Yankees sent ace (performance wise) Mike Mussina out against the Indians Paul Byrd. Mussina wasn't at his best, but gave the Yankees what they needed, allowing 3 earned runs over 6 innings. All 3 runs came on homers. A Todd Hollandsworth solo shot in the 2nd, a Ben Broussard 2 run shot in the 3rd. But, that would be all.

The Yankees scored first, in the 2nd inning, with a two out rally that started with an Andy Phillips single. Phillips stole second base (nice call) and Melky singled him in. This would be the start of a big day for the Melkster.

Going into the 4th, the Indians held a 3-1 lead. But, the 4th was where it would unravel. A-Rod would be up first. And he would strike out. All-star shouldabeen (OK, I'll stop whining now) Jorge Posada singled. Bernie's only hit of the day came at a very useful moment as he followed with a double. 2nd and 3rd with 1 out for Andy Phillips. Phillips "hit a routine grounder to Boone, who fumbled it away and was late with a throw to first, loading the bases." Boone had 3 errors on the day - ouch.

So, bases loaded for Melky. BOOM. Grand slam to right center, 5-3 Yankees. Bases clear, 1 out. Miguel Cairo up. He hits a grounder to Boone... who misplays it again for another error. Cairo steals second. Bubba Crosby singles him in. Nice. 6-3 Yankees. OK, good inning, we can stop now. Or...

Time for the top of the order. Derek Jeter singles, moving Bubba to second. Giambi is next and he ... flies out to deep right for the second out. Bubba takes third. This brings up A-Rod, who struck out to start the inning, as I said just a moment ago. Not wanting to make 2 outs in one inning, A-Rod singles to left, scoring Crosby (nice baserunning and thanks Jason) with Jeter stopping at the base between 1st and 3rd. 7-3 Yankees.

That wasn't for long, though, as the double steal was on the next pitch. A-Rod and Jeter both safe. Jorge followed this with a double to deep right, his second hit of the inning. 9-3 Yankees. Bernie strikes out, finally ending the great 4th inning.

The only other runs scored in the game would be in the 8th, when Miguel triples in Melky and Jeter sacs Cairo in. Kris Wilson made his first appearance as a Yankee, pitching 2 scoreless before giving way to Mo who maintained the 8 run lead he was handed, knocking his ERA down to 1.80. Moose notched his 10th win, allowing to join some elite company.

Melky was the big offensive star of the night, going 3 for 5 with a double, a homer and 5 RBI. The bottom 3 in the order (Phillips, Cabrera, Cairo) were particularly productive in this one, going 6 for 12 with 6 runs, a double, triple, home run, 6 RBis and 3 SBs. The Yankees as a team swiped 6 bases, which seems like a lot to me. Jeter and Posada added multi-hit days of their own with Jeter taking 1 run and 1 RBI and Josada doing the same, plus 1 RBI.

Tonight at 7:05, Randy (9-7, 5.25) goes up against Cliff Lee (8-5, 4.69) to try to even the series 2-2 before heading to Tampa Bay.

Moose joined some elite company last night. Here is the list of all pitchers that have put together 15 consecutive seasons with at least 10 wins in the American League:

Mike Mussina

I hope people don't think that this is just me being bitter (if you don't take Jorge Posada, you can't take either of the two catchers who finished BELOW HIM IN THE VOTING!) but the latest from the 12th man vote is really starting to annoy me. I have no idea how it is happening but A.J. Pierzynski of all people, is leading the vote getters right now. For goodness sake people, go out there and vote for anyone else on that ballot. It was an absolute joke when Scott Podsednik won last year and Pierzynski winning this year would cement this vote as a complete farce. EVERY PLAYER on the ballot is having a better year than A.J. If you are at all a fan of baseball and making the All-Star a showcase of the game's STARS, go to the site and vote for someone else. So, here's the plan - go to the All-Star Game website, click on Final Vote and vote for Francisco Liriano. In case, you've missed it, the 22 year old power lefty has gone 9-1 with a 1.99 ERA and is in second place right now and so has the best chance to overtake A.J. Please, I beg you.

Hot

Mariano Rivera
14 G, 16.2 IP, 1-1, 7 S, 1.08 ERA, 0.60 WHIP, .127 BAA

Robinson Cano
22 G, 83 AB, 8 R, 33 H, 6 SB, 1 3B, 2 HR, 7 RBI, 4 BB, 3 SB, .398 AVG, .432 OBA, .566 SLG, .998 OPS

Johnny Damon
26 G, 103 AB, 20 R, 32 H, 8 2B, 1 3B, 5 HR, 15 RBI, 17 BB, 5 SB, .311 AVG, .402 OBA, .553 SLG, .955 OPS

Matt Smith
7 G, 5.2 IP, 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 1.59 WHIP, .158 BAA

Mike Myers
10 G, 3 IP, 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 0.67 WHIP, .200 BAA

Andy Phillips
23 G, 69 AB, 7 R, 23 H, 2 2B, 3 3B, 4 HR, 10 RBI, 7 BB, 1 SB, .333 AVG, .347 OBA, .623 SLG, .970 OPS

Derek Jeter
22 G, 87 AB, 11 R, 28 H, 6 2B, 8 RBI, 11 BB, 6 SB, .322 AVG, .422 OBA, .391 SLG, .812 OPS

Jason Giambi
21 G, 82 AB, 15 R, 21 H, 3 2B, 11 HR, 23 RBI, 11 BB, .256 AVG, .358 OBA, .695 SLG, 1.053 OPS

Ron Villone
12 G, 13.1 IP, 2-0, 2.70 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, .222 BAA

Cold

Alex Rodriguez
24 G, 89 AB, 9 R, 19 H, 3 2B, 3 HR, 11 RBI, 16 BB, 4 SB, .213 AVG, .346 OBA, .348 SLG, .694 OPS

Melky Cabrera
26 G, 98 AB, 16 R, 21 H, 2 2B, 2 HR, 8 RBI, 13 BB, 1 SB, .214 AVG, .313 OBA, .296 SLG, .608 OPS

Kyle Farnsworth
14 G, 12 IP, 1-2, 5.25 ERA, 1.75 WHIP, .294 BAA

Miguel Cairo
20 G, 60 AB, 6 R, 11 H, 1 3B, 2 RBI, 4 BB, 3 SB, .183 AVG, .246 OBA, .217 SLG, .572 OPS

Shawn Chacon
3 GS, 14.1 IP, 0-1, 6.91 ERA, 1.67 WHIP, .293 BAA

Scott Proctor
14 G, 16 IP, 1-0, 5.06 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, .238 BAA

Mike Mussina
6 GS, 34.2 IP, 2-2, 4.93 ERA, 1.24 WHIP, .252 BAA

The Yankees have signed "blue chip prospect", 16 year old catcher Jesus Montero for $2 million:


Cool. Hopefully he's really 16.

(The title of this entry is a joke. :))