Thursday, July 16, 2009

How to get Halladay

The only way Cashman is going to be able to weisel a trade within the division is if somebody frees the Blue Jays of Vernon Wells' awful contract.

I think packaging the two together for a few prospects, maybe Melky, and maybe even Joba (gasp) could land Doc Halladay.

There only a handfull of teams that can take on both contracts (Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Dodgers, Angels).

Aside from that, there is one other obvious solution: Halladay for Hinske... straight up.

Basic Math
Halladay > Joba

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Meaningless Grades

Everyone else is doing it, so we will too...

Here they are: the long-awaited Yankee Midseason Grades!

Pitchers

C.C. Sabathia: B
He's been solid. Nothing real bad, but nothing worthy the money he's being paid.

A.J. Burnett: B
Again, has shown signs of greatness, but hasn't lived up to the green.

Chien-Ming Wang: Inc.
(Insert quip about Wang's inability here)

Andy Pettitte: C-
Andy has been brutal as of late, and overall very inconsistent. A few decent starts sprinkled in here and there keep him from an F.

Joba Chamberlain: D
Hey, remember when Joba struck out 12 Red Sox? You don't? Why not? Is it because he got rocked in the first and got the loss? It is? Damn. Joba's inconsistency as a starting pitcher is about as frustrating as it gets.

Lineup

Derek Jeter: A
I don't feel this explanation needs more than this: .321

Johnny Damon: B
Was very hot to start 2009, I'd like to see his average up closer to .300, but he's had a great year so far.

Mark Teixeira: B
Yeah, he hit the cover off the ball in May and part of June, but he was about as bad as you can be in April, and went nearly a month without a home run.

Alex Rodriguez: C+
Starting to come around, finally looking healthy. He's still running like a fat toad.

Jorge Posada: B
Missed some time in May, but is so vital to the lineup. Good season so far for the aging backstop.

Robinson Cano: B-
Of course he's hitting over .300, he better be. But his average with RISP is .211. That's about as ugly as it gets. No wait, check that: this is as ugly as it gets.

Nick Swisher: B+
Swish carried the Yankees through April, finishing the month with a ridiculous 1.144 OPS, but has come back down to earth.

Hideki Matsui: B
I can't stand the fact he's a permanent DH now, but he has hit well at times.

Francisco Cervelli: B+
Listen, no one is going to come in a replace Posada's bat, but this kid is going to be the next big thing when old man Jorge finally realizes he's a DH. He worked the staff, called great games and had five multi-hit games in his short time with the big club.

Melky Cabrera: A
He's been solid, posting a .347 OBP in the bottom third of the lineup. His defensive skills and clutch hitting in '09 help him make Dean's List.

Brett Gardner: A
I said before the season, when the new Clueless Joe named "Gardie" the starting center-fielder, that if he hit .270 he'd be useful. He's hitting .282 and is a threat to run every single time he reaches with his .352 OBP. Almost the biggest surprise ever.

Cody Ransom/Ramiro Pena: C-
Pena might have scored an A by himself, but averaging it in with Cody Ransom being the dunce of the class, it resulted in a C-. Why is Ransom still on this team? Ransom is slugging .027 lower than Jeter's batting average. Just awful.

Mariano Rivera: A+
Three walks in 37 innings. 0.89 WHIP.

If you have any problems with these grades, and would like to set up a parent-teacher conference, please leave a message with a reservation. I have 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. open all next week.

We're Back

Here at The Black and White Cookie, we have held many closed-door meetings with upper management recently, and have made the executive decision to get away from our previous theory of one post every three months. We feel the average NY-area sports fan needs a bit more consistency from BWC. Don't get crazy, it's not going to be much more, but it'll be something.

The two main goals here at BWC will be to initially introducing our huge staff, and providing readers with an extremely biased fan blog, covering all the tri-state sports teams you hear rattled off really fast in those IO commercials.

Comments and suggestions are always welcomed, please drop all inquiries below the article in question. We expect an absolute flood of fan mail, so any organization will help us sort them accordingly.

Enjoy!