Once again, wow.

…Washington Nationals appear to be eager to get a new deal done with hurler Chien-Ming Wang…

The former New York Yankees pitcher had a “solid outing” for the Nats’ Instructional League team Tuesday, going for two innings, getting four groundouts in 17 pitches, and lighting up the radar gun at 89 mph against the Atlanta Braves’ team, according to MASNSports.com.

I can’t lie, I was deeply upset when the Yankees decided to cut ties with Chien-Ming Wang. He was one of my favorite Yankees hurlers ever and I thought the Yanks were making a bad decision letting him loose. Well, as it turns out, I was dead wrong. Cashman and co. had this move played perfectly. Don’t get me wrong, I really would like Wang to prove Cashman wrong but you can’t argue with results.

That being said, if he’s “lighting up the radar gun” at 89 mph, the Nationals may well be wasting their money. Wang was easily throwing mid 90′s before his chain of injuries. And we saw how the drop in velocity affected his sinker last year. At his worst, though, he was still averaging faster than 89 last year. I can only imagine what he’d be like with a dip that deep.

Bottom line, he might be killing the worms in instructional league. But the worms in the majors might not have much to worry about in the future. Cashman called it.

Boy did Hughes come up big tonight huh? As much as I hate seeing the same “WonderPhil” graphic every time Hughes strikes a batter our, there was really no other way to describe the outing from him. 7 innings, 0 runs and on 4 hits and a lone walk. There is not a single person that would have pegged Hughes for an outing like this back in April. The best part, for me? Chad Jennings had this gem :

Hughes was asked if this is a start he’ll always remember: “I hope not,” he said. “Hopefully it’s a World Series win that I’m remembering.”

That’s what I’m talking about.

I also want to give some “props” to David Robertson and Boone Logan. They bailed the Yanks out big time with the based loaded against the heart of the Twins order. Can’t really get on Wood too much, that’s his M.O.  Strike a guy out, walk a guy, have the ball get hit hard and pray it finds a glove. But when he’s on, he’s on (as he has been).

Offensively, Marcus Thames came through with the huge “steak in the heart” home run.  He’s been doing this all year, and was one of my key ingredients to the Yanks post season future in 2010.

One thing I want to say about the crowd. While playoff games certainly have an added level of electricity with the crowd, this crowd seemed to start to leave around the 5-6th inning. Not sure if you could see it from TV, but I’d say about a quarter of the crowd left by then if not more. To them, I ask, what is wrong with you?

All in all, it was a pretty awesome experience (first playoff game) and I had some great seats up in the Jim Beam suite. I had a pretty spectacular view of the game so I thought I’d share a couple of pictures after the jump.

Click The Images For Larger Versions (Will have to click them twice).

Offensively, Berkman went nuts off Pavano with an absolute bomb to left-center, and then a double that one hopped the wall in nearly the identical spot. People are probably going to point out that Berkman should have struck out right before he crushed the double, but I like to point out that the umpire had the same exact strike zone for Andy (bunch of pitches called a ball on the black), the difference being it didn’t come back to haunt Pettitte. Granderson continued his absolute tear, going 3 for 4 with all of his hits being laser shots.

One thing I do want to credit Posada for, since I’ve been bashing his defense behind the plate so much, is that last night and tonight he scored from first. I can’t recall Posada doing that that often all year, let alone on consecutive nights. The guy does hustle and want to win, there’s no denying that.

Pettitte gave the Yanks everything they could ask for, and outside a mistake pitch to Orlando Hudson he was pretty flawless. What can you say about the guy, he shows up for the big game time and time again.

Next stop for the 2010 World Series champs, the Bronx. There, they look to sweep the Twins with Hughes on the mound. I’ll be there in person, and I’ll take a bunch of pictures for the recap that will be up on Sunday morning. Look for it.

Some of the biggest stars of the 2010 Major League Baseball season will be spending the Postseason at MLB Network. Torii Hunter (Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim), Chris Young (Arizona Diamondbacks), Eric Chavez and Dallas Braden (Oakland Athletics) will serve as guest analysts on MLB Tonight throughout October as the network plans for more than 125 hours of live coverage in October.

Dallas Braden doing commentary on the post season? I think I vomited a little in my mouth just now…

This might have been the most impressive start by Hughes all year. They needed someone to shut down the opponents for 6 innings (we get to forget about the 7th, since Robertson came in and did a fantastic job), and he did just that. My problem with it is, now what? Do you skip his last start and let him pitch in the playoffs with all that rest? Do you start him and pull him after 3-4 innings ala Joba 2009? Or do you just say F it and let him go out there again? At this point, I’d say screw it let him take a regular turn. I don’t think 1 start is going to make or break him health wise. I have to admit though, as good as Hughes was pitching the Yankees offense was making it seem like it was a 10 run deficit rather than a 1 run deficit. Up until A-Rod’s homer (which barely went over the wall), I was on the verge of throwing the remote at the TV.

Is Swisher high off of whatever pain meds he’s been taking for his knee? He’s at least playing like it in right field. He’s been a butcher out there the last week or so, time to sit him for a day or two.

Say what you will about Mariano getting hit, I put the blame on Posada. I hope the other playoff teams decided to call it an early night and didn’t see how the Red Sox got to Mo last night. 4 stolen bases is unacceptable. When Hall stole third, Posada’s throw hit the ground half way up the base line and A-Rod made a decent play making sure it didn’t go into left. That’s how you beat the Yanks in the playoffs folks.

Edit

Just wanted to add one last thing that bothered me. Why are the Yankees celebrating like crazy after a walk off walk? I was hoping they’d just do their handshakes like a regular win, not run and chase Juan Miranda for not taking the bat off his shoulders. Does anyone else think the 1996-2000 version of this team wouldn’t have celebrated like the 2010 Yankees?

Girardi left Pettitte in way too long (which was done on purpose so that he could get somewhat close to 90 pitches). I wonder if Andy had a fever, because he was sweating a lot. I don’t recall ever seeing him dripping like that. Then when Girardi couldn’t let Pettitte get hit anymore, he went to the very back of the bullpen (Albaladejo is just terrible, and they’re lucky that Mitre didn’t give up any runs).

At 10-1 with Mitre coming in, I thought the Yankees would just roll over. This just wasn’t the case as they homered their way to make it really close at the end. That’s pretty encouraging. I can’t lie, party of me thought they’d do it…especially after the Tex message to  Papelbon. But, 9 runs ended up being too big of a lead and I found myself cursing Girardi for putting Albaladejo in and leaving Andy in way too long. Just gotta remind yourself that these games don’t matter and that they’re being managed as such.

Weeks ago, it looked like A-Rod had a very slim chance at finishing the year with 30 homers. Now with a week left and 3 homers to go, he has a very legitimate shot at doing it. Especially with the way he’s swinging the bat lately: .333/.405/.651 in September with 6 homers in 74 plate appearances.