By season's end, Javier Vazquez had few reasons to keep his chin up (AP). The Hot Stove is on a slow burn at the moment, at least in the Bronx, where the Yankees’ pursuit of Cliff Lee is in a holding pattern while the team engages in a staredown with Derek Jeter. Meanwhile, the market for starting ...

It should be an easy call for the Yankees to offer Kerry Wood arbitration, and perhaps some smoked salmon as well. (AP) Today is the last day for teams to offer their free agents arbitration. It used to be that failing to offer arbitration pretty much ended things between player and team, but now the ...

Whatever Javier Vazquez lost during his time with the Yankees, he certainly didn't find it Wednesday night in Toronto (AP). Inspired — if that is the word — by A.J. Burnett’s lousy performance on Monday night, I wrote a piece for Baseball Prospectus about the fact that his poor performance ...

Remember this guy? Everyone's favorite Yankee, Jeff Weaver. (AP) Courtesy of Baseball Prospectus’s Colin Wyers, the last five of the eight games in which a pitcher hit three consecutive batters (going back to 1950, the extent of Retrosheet’s play by play database). Some fairly decent pitchers ...

Nick Swisher croons Genesis's 1980 hit, "Turn It On Again" in a surprisingly rich baritone. (AP) It better not have been a playoff preview. After the Yankees won eight straight games from August 28 to September 4, giving them a record of 86-50, I started to wonder about A.J. Burnett, who ...

In my Thursday morning post, I told you that one of the following two pitchers is a lock to be in the Yankees’ postseason rotation. Care to guess which one? Pitcher A: 5.15 ERA, 1.51 WHIP, 6.9 K/9, 3.8 BB/9, 1.83 K/BB, 10-13 Pitcher B: 5.01 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, 7.3 K/9, 3.7 BB/9, 1.98 K/BB, 10-9 This ...

Where have you gone, Whitey Ford? A rotation turns its lonely eyes to you. (AP) Back on September 2, CC Sabathia pitched eight innings of one-hit baseball. With this evening’s Sabathia start, the Yankees have made a complete trip through the rotation since, comprising starts by (in order) Ivan ...

Phil Hughes: Hoping this pitch lands in bounds. (AP) Over the long weekend, the Yankees experienced their worst-case playoff scenario: they had to pitch four out of their five starters in succession. Ivan Nova, Javier Vazquez, Phil Hughes, and A.J. Burnett lined up to take the mound. The Yankees lost ...

Jorge Posada congratulates Javier Vazquez on another solid long-relief outing. (AP) Following up on Steve’s prescient post on the Yankees pitching predicament, I think we saw the Yankees’ plan emerging in Tuesday night’s game. With Javy Vazquez having thrown 70 pitches on Dustin Moseley’s ...

Ivan Nova: Absolutely the right call, but will they make another? (AP) The Yankees are forewarned. Now it’s up to them to use that information to become forearmed. Over their last 30 games, a span stretching from July 29 to August 29, the Yankees have gone 16-14, a pace equivalent to 86 wins over a ...

Like an injured wasp, Javier Vazquez is still able to sting once in awhile, but he’s desperately in need of being relieved of his misery with a rolled-up newspaper, or at the very least swatted to the sidelines. On Saturday, his season reached another low point, as he yielded four runs in three ...

GRAND REOPENING—KNOW-IT-ALL COMMENTARY 50 PERCENT OFF AT ALL STORES Since last week, ye old Pinstriped Bible host has hinted at a new world dawning here at the web site. We have finally arrived at the day when we can talk about the changes we have planned. I just looked back at the very first Pinstriped ...