Joe Girardi gets a reprieve due to Freddy Garcia’s finger

Today was to be the day that Big Triple Girardi had planned to cut down his starting staff from 6 to 5. According to Fitz and Vig, that time was overdue, but it looks like Big Trip Skip will get another week to make his decision. Freddy Garcia has a minor, very minor, cut on his right index finger but it’s enough for him to miss his start. Good news for guys like CC Sabathia so he can maintain his pace for 300 wins (CC300), bad news for Yankees fans because we need to sit through another A.J. Burnett start (prediction, 6 innings, 4 runs). In my eyes The Chief (Garcia) is our #3 starter behind CC300 and Ivan Nova so I don’t like him missing an easy victory over the Kansas City Royals. I’ll await your decision in a few days, Girardi.

Yankees washed out

Yankees are rained out tonight, blogspacers.  No makeup date announced.  FitzandVig will catch you tomorrow in KC… first pitch 8:10pm.  Burnett vs. Paulino.  Advantage?  Paulino is 1-8 but has an ERA well south of AJ.  Gotta love Kansas City!

Brett Favre wants even more money

Over Brett’s never ending career he earned a ton of dough. Last year alone he brought in about $20 million from the Vikings alone for his 13 starts and 5-8 record. His $4 million per win is more than even Barry Zito makes per victory. Even in retirement, Favre is still finding ways to pull in the bread. His office website is selling all sorts of autographed memorabilia from Favre’s long, very long, career. Take a look here. Some of it is on quite the discount too. The “A night to remember” autographed photo is 80% off and I guess a somewhat reasonable, $44.99. From the looks of all the other ads on his website, I can see why Bretty (Big Triple Girardi nod) has no financial reason to return again this year.

Betting on NFL Win totals: NFC edition

The NFL is the most watched sport in this country for a few reasons. It helps that each team only plays once a week so their is a ton of anticipation for each game. Since it has the shortest season of all the major sports, each matchup is key to a team’s ultimate success. It also is a high paced sport that draws the American desire for bigger, stronger, faster athletes. However, the main reason that every NFL game is watched so intently is because of gambling. Betting on teams is easy between friends, legal in Las Vegas, and a multi-billion dollar industry. Fitz and Vig don’t mind wagering a few bucks from time to time and the NFC team by team win totals were recently released. AFC picks coming soon. Here’s Fitz’s picks:

Quick thoughts from last night’s Giants game

Don’t expect a detailed summary of the NY Giants and Carolina Panthers first preseason game. Like any normal person, I couldn’t sit through the whole game. I caught a good number of snaps from the mid first quarter through early third and here’s what I noticed: 1) The Giants offense is in trouble. Eli Manning looked average at best. Nothing great. I saw a third and one where we went to Brandon Jacobs for a power left play. End result, 4th and 1. We need to convert that third down 100% of the time. Our WR’s also looked bad. I can’t remember the names of each player but I saw a handful of drops. Now how dumb do we look for missing out on Plaxico Burress, not signing Jerricho Cotchery, and letting Steve Smith walk? We need to pick up a quality hands guy.

Non breaking news: This Chrysler commercial is badass

Fitz and Vig are late to this party, sure.  But damn, this Chrysler commercial is two minutes of blood stirring, energy inducing, USA chanting awesomeness.  A campaign that successfully positions a 100 year old mega-corporation as the little guy, while painting Eminem as the all American hero is not only ad-agency genius, but also fantastically absurd… and we dig it blogspacers!  By the way, did you see the Audi ripoff?  Lawsuit recently settled.  WTF?

Jorge Posada’s 9 Tampa Bay Triple A’s 2

The New York Baseball Yankees defeated the Tampa Bay Who-Are-These-Guys on Saturday afternoon in the Bronx behind a strong start from Phil “Don’t Demote Me” Hughes and Jorge “You Already Demoted Me” Posada.  Hughes tossed 6 innings of 4-hit 2-run ball, and Posada turned back the clock (to high school) by going 3-5 including a grand slam (10th homer) and 6 ribbies.  Grandyman offered up his 33rd bomb of the season as well, as the Good Guys got back on track versus a Tampa lineup that can best be described as Scranton-like.  Wade and Noesi continued their non-Red-Sox dominance to close out the final three innings.  Yeah fellas, Fitz and Vig noticed.

Freddy Garcia to miss a start. AJ and Phil rejoice.

The Dipsy Doodler has been scratched from his scheduled start this weekend (vs Tampa) due to a cut finger on his throwing hand which he sustained in “a kitchen accident” (aka Baseball Illuminati actions) this week.   AJ Burnett will get the start in his place and Big Triple Girardi gets to push his decision back on who gets cut from the 5 man rotation for at least one rotation turn.  Fitz and Vig are emotionless, logic-driven cutthroats when it comes to athletic competition and roster moves.  But we’ll admit that Big Trip Skip has a tough choice ahead of him.  It’s either Hughes or AJ to the pen… and it’s a 7 layer cake of factors weighing on Girardi’s mind.  If Cash-man’s ridiculous AJ endorsement is any indication, it’ll be Hughesy to the pensky.  Fitz and Vig are here for you blogspacers: check out this video of a drunk Freddy Garcia here.  Awesome.

Jorge Posada has his swan song. Now retire.

Wear this when you throw out the first pitch next April

A swan song is someone’s final effort or performance before death or retirement. Posada had his today and now it’s time to go. Fitzandvig were happy to hear when Big Triple Girardi pulled him out of the lineup last week with no future playing time guaranteed. This benching coincided well with the return of Eric Chavez, the emergence of Eduardo Nunez, and the coming return of Alex Rodriguez. It’s obvious that Posada hasn’t been performing well this season, but given a chance to start again today he has the best game of his season. In the 2nd Posada had a two run single, the 5th brought him a huge grand slam, and by the end of the game he finished up going 3 for 5 with 6 RBI’s. Hip Hip Jorge! That was a great game, but lets get back to reality. This was an aberration, not a sign of things to come. We need his roster spot forcontributors. I guarantee he will not have another performance like today this year. Posada needs to do the right thing and ride off into the sunset.  See you at old timer’s day.

Scott Proctor returns to Yankees

Scott Proctor signed a minor league deal with the Yanks today.  The well-travelled right hander was a Yankee fixture during the latter part of the Joe Torre era.  Many (including Fitz and Vig) would probably say that Scott was too much of a fixture in fact, as the heavy workload (including 100+ innings in 80+ relief appearances in ’06) placed on Proctor eventually took its toll on the 34 year old righty.  He should report to Scranton on Monday.  Sweet!

Who is Terry Tiffee and why is he hitting .340 in 3A?

Fitz and Vig dig prospects… mostly to trade for great big leaguers.  So we keep an eye on all Yankee minor league affiliates, which is how we stumbled across Terry Tiffee lighting up 3A ball at a .340 clip in 100 at bats.  Bottom line is that Tiffee is a 32 year old mostly career minor leaguer (got his big league shot with the Twins a few years back) who has gone through stretches of smoking minor league pitching (which is how Terry made the 2008 US Olympic baseball team) then dropping off the cliff back into averageness.  So, no, the third baseman is not going to push ARod for his job anytime soon… or Eric Chavez… or Eddie Nunez (wow we have a depth chart at third huh?).  But after battling his was back from the Independent League (Darryl Strawberry, anyone?) and returning to the minor league ranks as a New York Yankee farmhand, Tiffee may just be ready for his another cup of coffee during September callups.  Fitz and Vig say: Go get ‘em brother, we could use a Roy Hobbs on the 2011 Yanks!

Where are they now? Former prospect Eric Duncan.

FitzandVig are just like you… we dig blue chip prospects.  Mostly to use as trade bait, because if there’s one rule that FitzandVig follow about the youngsters, it’s this: They don’t pan out.  Usually we’ll latch onto one prospect per year as the guy to keep (we’ve been following Montero since he was 16) but for the most part we’re all about trading the minor league phenoms for quality major league talent.  I’m sure we’ll get into that more at a later date (FitzandVig’s thought processes on prospects in general).  Anyway, Eric Anthony Duncan was the Yankees first round pick in 2003 (27th overall) and quickly ascended to being ranked as the top prospect in the entire Yankee farm system by 2005, due to a scouts-dream bag of five tools.  Duncan is a Jersey guy that came up as a third basemdn but was converted to first after the signing of that #13 guy. 

ARod beats up on the kiddies (A ball, that is)

Note to self: Alex Rodriguez is too good for A ball.  #13 went 2 for 3 with a home run and a double during his first rehab start since undergoing surgery to repair a torn miniscus in this right knee.  FitzandVig would not be surprised if the three-time AL MVP was giggling while at the plate, since he was most likely a) the only one on the field that has (will ever?) sniffed the bigs b) the only zillionaire in the building c) the oldest player by at least a decade d) the only dude who has been featured in a tabloid kissing his own reflection and e) the only member of the Baseball Illuminati in the building.  Hurry back Alexander, the faster you get back the fewer at bats for Jorgey (Big Triple Girardi nod).

CC gets blasted x5

CC Sabathia continues to struggle against quality teams and that didn’t change on Friday night. Pitching against David Price and the TB Rays, CC gave up 5, yes 5 home runs on his way to a 5-1 loss. He is the first Yankees pitcher to give up 5 homeruns in a single game since David Wells in 2003. The Bronx Bombers continue to fizzle against other team’s top pitchers. We’ve had plenty of experience against Price but that was no help last night. Lack of clutchiness, Arod (who homered and doubled in a rehab start), and a slow running Nick Swisher all contributed to this loss. Here’s a shocking stat that YES put up on the screen. After last night’s defeat Sabathia is 6-11 versus the Rays and Redsox, and 50-11 against the rest of the league during his Yankees tenure. Ouch, that’s a problem come October.

AJ Burnett has put a spell on Brian Cashman

$82.5 million buys a lot of art

I love magicians, but I don’t really believe in magic. Yeah it’s great when we see a woman sawed in half, but I know she’s not really being separated in two. However, A.J. Burnett may be a true wizard because he has convinced Brian Cashman (Yankees GM) that he deserves to stay in the starting rotation. Cashman was confronted today by reporters about Burnett’s woes this season. Here’s a few delusional lines from Cashman, “”We’ve got six guys who are capable of pitching in a rotation in a pennant race,” Cashman said. “But this stuff about [whether] A.J. Burnett is worthy of being ripped from the rotation is a bunch of crap.”  “Break it down. Compare him to other people. Look at his start-by-start. Look at his run support.” Is Cashman serious? AJ is getting 7 runs per game on average in support. He hasn’t won a game in August in his three years with the Yankees. He’s also 91st in the league with a 4.60 ERA. We have 6 pennant race pitchers? Have you seen Phil Hughes pitch lately too? Cash, you may have been responsible for his bloated contract, but at least take responsibility for it and speak intelligently about his poor performance.