Joba and Wang pt. II

Having not attended last night's Trenton Thunder game, I made my way up there tonight to watch Joba Chamberlain pitch - and how! He had perhaps his best start of the season: seven innings, three hits, no runs, one walk, nine strikeouts. My wife and I managed to get seats directly to the right of Trenton's dugout, and were able to watch the players interact. Joba seems like a great teammate - he's talkative, always into the game, and seems to really respect his coaches and colleagues. (pictures coming soon.)

Which brings me to point #2: where's the respect for Juan Miranda? I have to presume the reason he didn't play is that New Hampshire started a southpaw. But is that it? If Miranda (who's probably now the Yanks #1 firstbase prospect) doesn't face lefties in the minors, how will he ever hit them in the majors? He should be facing every single one now - minor league teams have the luxury of an 0-4 from their cleanup hitter. That's much tougher to do in the bigs, especially in the Bronx. I'd say it's far more helpful to have Miranda face lefties instead of righties (if you had to choose). Lefties who hit lefties are very valuable (and would have helped the Yanks immensely this year). Anyway, he was the first base coach for half the game, and we could see how massive his arms were (a true power hitter's body) - so if the Trenton coaching staff is reading this, please play Juan Miranda against southpaws, and play him more at 1b (instead of DH) than non-prospect Cody Ehlers.

As far as the big Yankees go, they squeaked out a 6-4 win against the lowly D-Rays tonight. Wang had just one bad inning (the first), and pitched five scoreless frames after that (six Ks, no walks). The big blow was a Bobby Abreu two-run shot that gave the Yanks a lead they never relinquished. He, more than anyone, is the catalyst for the team - when he hits they win, and when he doesn't they lose.

Kyle Farnsworth gave up another homer in the eighth, so I have to ask: why does Joe Torre have an aversion to using Edwar Ramirez? The guy has four Ks in 2.1 ip, with just one run allowed. I suppose because he's a rookie, and had only a mediocre outing his last time that he can't be trusted in the 'critical late innings,' (or so goes Joe's thinking). So instead he used the useless Farnsworth. I'm counting the days until he's traded...

And here's a tragic story on something that I'm surprised doesn't happen more often.