Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

Derek Jeter just moved into 5th place on the all-time Yankees hit list. He's still behind Lou Gehrig (2,721), Babe Ruth (2,518), Mickey Mantle (2,415) and Bernie Williams (2,336). Just for the record - Jeter would also be 5th on the all-time Red Sox list behind Carl Yastrzemski (3,419), Ted Williams (2,654), Jim Rice (2,452) and Dwight Evans (2,373)... Speaking of milestones - Manny Ramirez needs 7 more RBI to pass Fred McGriff for 35th place on the all-time list... The Red Sox and Yankees have both scored 244 runs this year. The reason the Red Sox lead the Yankees by 9.5 games is the fact that the Yankees pitching staff has given up almost as many runs as the Yankees have scored (212 runs allowed) while only the A's and Padres have given up fewer runs than the Red Sox pitching staff (173 runs allowed)... It looks like Carl Pavano is done as a member of the Yankees. His final totals as a Yankee should look like this - 5-6, 111 IP, 19 GS, 4.77 ERA. His contract was for $40 million though so I guess he gets the last laugh... A distressing fact for Yankee fans has to be the fact that the team is just 5-14 when opponents score first. Playoff caliber teams usually exhibit the will to fight no matter how many runs down they are. This Yankee team just doesn't seem to have that heart. And the same can be said about the fans. In Tuesday's loss to the Red Sox - Yankee fans were streaming out of Yankee Stadium starting in the 7th inning even though the team was just 4 runs down... Mike Sweeney's contract is up with the Royals at the end of this season and the Royals aren't exactly contending. as a 10-5 guy - Sweeney has the right to approve any trade but it should be noted that he gets a $1.5 million bonus if traded. That could be viewed as a parting gift by Kansas City to a loyal employee...