I got hooked on Idol last year. Until then, I fought it. Now, I get it. Actually, I look forward to it. So do a lot of other people!

Steve, I hope it’s your kids who mandate “Idol” play in the house. Otherwise, all hope may be lost.

~~~How can you go to the game and miss whatever show you normally watch instead of the Yankees – e.g., “Deal or No Deal” or “Heroes”? What are you going to do?~~~

No issue tonight for me. Ask me again on Wednesday – when I miss Idol, the Yanks-Sox game, and Clemens in Trenton to go watch an Independent League game.

Sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do!

My own take is: no-hitters with two or less walks are impressive, and you can’t have a ton of conspicuously good plays made behind you a la Mark Buehrle (where he actually gave up a home run — a ball that traveled over the wall — but Dye brought it back in). I thought Hughes’ no-hitter-in-progress was impressive because it was almost like a perfect game: people weren’t even getting the ball out of the infield.

But sometimes it’s a little silly. Like Doc’s no-hitter. Where he walked six (I think two or three of those were in the final inning). Or A.J. Burnett, who walked nine! Nine base runners in nine innings isn’t impressive to me.

Anyway… it’s always a nice story for a day.

Steve,

How can you go to the game and miss whatever show you normally watch instead of the Yankees – e.g., “Deal or No Deal” or “Heroes”? What are you going to do?

Count me in as a big Tyler Clippard fan.

I think that it is great that, the day that my nephew Tyler was born last year, the Yankees got a no hitter in the minors from a pitcher named Tyler.

(DISCLAIMER–Nothing in the preceding sentence shall be construed to deny or disparage my insistence that a no hitter is off the charts in the overrated category and is no different from any other shutout.)

a lefty specialist who shouldn’t even be in the game
——————
I was saying that–screaming that–when I saw Myers trotting out after Rasner was taken out. And I was in Miami with people who really don’t care/know much about baseball. They must have thought I was nuts. Glad someone states their agreement with me.

There’s little love left between Willie and the Yanks.

It goes back two years.

http://www.waswatching.com/archives/2005/06/the_willow_cash.html

That was an incredibly fun game last night. I even had fun watching it with Mets fans (a first).

Since the Mets took the first two games, and the Yankees are so far back in their own division, everyone was just able to have a good time and sort of joke about how Clippard was dominating their team (apparently the Mets never hit rookie pitchers — or so I was told again and again).

The cap to the night was Clippard’s double. That was just awesome.

I’ve always rooted for Clip, and it’s hard not to — he’s been dismissed his entire career by the “experts” because he doesn’t throw all that hard, and then he goes out and proves everyone wrong.

In such a pressurized situation, he was calm as can be — he was even joking around in the clubhouse. He has just enough fastball with that crazy delivery and his curve and change both look plus to me (and he had a better feel for his curve last night than his change and his change is actually the better pitch).

With Rasner out for three months and Hughes still over a month away, Clip is going to get to stick around. That’s pretty cool. I’ve been basically dreaming of the day the rotation finally featured the two best pitchers from the farm system — Clippard and Hughes — and amazingly, that might actually happen next year.

I was a little disappointed by Willie in this series. He’s supposed to be tight with Joe, but he looked overjoyed to be hitting the final nail in Joe and the team’s coffin. I know he always wants to win, but did he have to seem so thrilled to knock a pitcher out with an injury and then watch his team savage a lefty specialist who shouldn’t even be in the game? He was definitely enjoying himself. And then he dissed Clippard on ESPN, saying Clippard was getting too much credit, and that it was really just because his team hadn’t seen him before. Yeah, okay, fine. You can say that the first time through the order. Maybe the second. But when he strikes you out the third time through, that smells like bullshit to me.

Enjoy Jen!

~~~Keeping/acquiring them should be a plus in Cashman’s ledger, right? ~~~

Acquiring them? I’m not sure. That credit may/should go more to the people who work the draft, etc., in terms of scouting and the like. But, in terms of keeping them, yes, Cashman deserves the credit for that – no question in my mind.

This is esp. true on Clippard. DeSalvo and Karstens may not have had many asking for them. Many asked for Hughes, but, that’s a no-brainer. I’m sure people have asked about Clippard. Give Cash a star for not moving him – yet.