HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUGGYBEAR!

I've been trying to have some fun with this blog doing contests and all... what do I get? Nada. We've had two participants in our current Yankee trivia contest happening live on Twitter. The World Cup reference contest? No participants...

Happy birthday to Phil "Huggybear" Hughes. A young man, Hughes has lead this team throughout this season. Disregard the cliche, he's finally stepped up to the plate this season. He's a serious contender to win the Cy Young if he keeps up this pace.

I completely hate these Hughes Rules. They're sooooooooooo dumb. They didn't work with Joba "The Pizza Hut" Chamberlain and Huggybear is way better than him. We need him now. We're in the midst of a tight pennant race. He's our best pitcher. It's a bad logistical decision to take him out for a series of games. Come on Joey Braces. What are you thinkin'? We need wins. Wins are important.

Topic 2: Beating the Diamondbacks

We should take 3 out of 3 from a team as dismal as the Diamondbacks. I mean, come on, what is a Diamondback. But you know why we didn't break out the brooms? A-FREAKING-J-FREAKING BURNETT. I'm still furious about this. He's sooooo bad. Some say we should trade him. Go ahead, type "Burnett for" into Google. Look at the suggestions. He's worth, according to Google, carmel. Carmel. That's what we have pitching for us. Carmel is pitching for us. Thats right friends.

But seriously, we couldn't get jack for AJ. If we're lucky, the Metros would take him off our hands.

So. If you can get three things out of this post, here they are:

1. Have fun with us. Off day twitter trivia contests and blog post contests. Win magical prizes.

2. The Huggybear rules are dumb.

3. I hate AJ. He's dumb and worth carmel.

An open letter to AJ Burnett

Dear AJ Burnett,

Stop sucking so much. You are far and away the worst pitcher on the staff. Even Javier Vazquez is better than you. Well, heres the deal. Either suck all the time, or pitch well all the time. No more necessary prayers for you to pitch well. Just do it. We shouldn't have to ask you. You get paid way more than my 8.50 an hour. You make 565 times what I make in an hour PER PITCH. Pitch like you do.

You're berserk. Watching you pitch in 3 different games is like watching Clint Eastwood's The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Your last three starts (not counting tonights dreadful game against my sister's love affair: The Phillies): 1-2, 13 runs allowed (11 earned), an ERA of nearly 5, with 4 hit batters! These are in "Low Pressure" games (.89 aLI, below the league average of 1). These are Joba "The Warrior" Chamberlain numbers. Not 16 million dollars per year numbers.

AJ. Step it up. We want more rings. We can't do it without you. Well, thats a lie. We can. But things would be alot easier for us if you would just pitch well.

Love,

Yankee Fans all over the world

PS. Tonight was ugly, and it sparked me to write this letter.

Only 100 to go!

Thats right folks. We have a mere 100 games left to this season. Following today's win against the Astros, the Yankees stand at 39-23, an excellent 16 games over .500. So, here is the report card for Yankee Players as of the 38 percent of the season mark. In no particular order

Robbie Cano-A. Cano is on fire this season, and shows no signs of slowing down. He's batting .373 with an OBP of .417. He's slugging .610. He leads the Yanks in OBP (1.027), so he's having a great year. On the fielding front, he hasn't made nearly as many bonehead plays in the field as he has in past years.

Derek Jeter-B. A subpar start for Jeter, but that's ok. He tends to come on later on anyways. I'm not too concerned about Jeter. He's only about .1 points below .300 batting and his OBP is respectable (.343). He looked strong today with 2 home runs against the 'Stros.

Mark Teixeira- D-. Tex has clearly struggled. About a month ago, we blamed it on April. May wasn't much better. Mark is last among the Yankee starters in batting average. However, he's 4th on the squad in RBIs and 3rd in home runs. It's just the lack of singles and doubles thats keeping him down. I foresee a down year for Mark, but he should still improve by the end of the year.

Carsten Charles Sabathia- B-. Sabathia has looked brilliant in his wins this year, especially in his near no hitter against Tampa Bay. However, it's the losses that's dragging Carsten Charles down. 4th among the starters in ERA, Sabathia just isn't shutting down opponants like the way he was last year. Expect a rebound soon from CC.

Andy Pettite- A. A Cy Young-esque year for the Southern Man . He's wheelin' and dealin'. He's leading the Yankees with 8 wins. He leads the starters in ERA (2.46) and BB/9 (2.5). Pettite looks poised to win a Cy Young this season, but in order to do so, he'll have to beat out teammate...

Phil Hughes-A. Cy Young-esque year for the young gun. If Pettite doesn't lead the starters in a category, Hughes does. This is the sort of pitcher the Yankees have been waiting for from Hughes. Have a pair of teammates ever been this dominate? One has to look back to the dreaded 2001 Diamondbacks with Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson.

And last, but not least

Joba Chamberlain-D. Joba has done horrible this season. He is 1-3 on the season (from the bullpen) with an ERA of 4.94. Joba seems to be struggling to get anyone out. As of late, he's brought his grade up from the depths of hell, but he needs to give up less runs. His strikeout number is excellent and his low walks make him seem better. But he needs to turn around quickly in order to be the dominant pitcher he has the potential to be.

Let's go on a badenture through the Blogosphere

As I just said to my Yankee copanaera Liz, let's take a badenture through the world of Sports Blogging. As Ron Burgandy said, "I'm kind of a big deal". Well, not really. I just survived my Junior Year in high school. I'm still convinced that the only way I actually survived Spanish was because my teacher loves the Yankees. On November 5th, he and I had a "fiesta"in class.

I love the Yankees. I'm a man, so I try not to cry. But when we won in November, I cried. Broke down in tears while on the phone with my sister. I was 7 when we won in 2000. Not really a fan, I remember only this from the series. I never thought we would win again, but we did.

The Yankees are my first, my only and my true love. Sure, I like other sports. I'm a Knicks, Giants and Rangers fan. But there's always been something about the Yankees. Maybe it was the first major league home run I saw (John Van Der Wall, by the way) or maybe it was just the first view of the grass at the Stadium. Maybe it was the kid in the net against Chicago. Or maybe it's just hearing John and Suzyn or Michael, Kenny, Al and Flash calling the game. I love the game and I love this team.

I'm a Posada guy. He's a natural, among the best catchers ever. I like Jeter too. He's never said a mean thing about anyone, a real class act. I like Andy. Man, he can pitch. Robbie, Gardy, Swish, Tex, Mo; All great players, love 'em all.

Two players are clearly missing from that list. A-Rod and Joba. They're both completely overrated. I was at the Cleveland game a couple of weeks ago. We had a lead and Joba comes in. I look to my dad and say "10 bucks we're losing after he's done". Guess who walked out of the Stadium with 10 dollars more than he started with? A-Rod is completely annoying. He thinks he's hot stuff. But really, no. He's nothing more than a pretty boy with some decent strength and a weak groin.

I hate the Sox. Pedroia is terrible. He's a niche player who can only play in Fenway. Papelbon is a Mariano wannabe. He'd be lucky to be half the man that Mo is. Beckett requires a shave NOW. He looks like a complete scumbag. Playing for the Evil Empire doesn't help his image either. But the worst player on the Red Sux? David "Big Papi" Ortiz. He's a horrible, horrible player. He's fat, can't field, can't run and can't hit (ever since he quit the 'roids)

So, I look forward to writing sports for all of you. It's a hobby of mine. I hope all y'all enjoy this. I know I will!