The Hottest Corner: Banged Up Yanks Still Playing Catch Up

Welcome to the first edition of "The Hottest Corner".  A weekly recap of Yankees baseball and other baseball related topics.  No mentions of Favre here though, this is officially a, "Favre Free Zone".  Wait, I just mentioned him.  After this, no more mentions of, that number four guy.

Now onto the New York Yankees.  They still remain third in the AL East and are still looking up at the Red Sox and Rays.  At 63-52, the Yankees aren't having a bad season, its just that two other teams that so happen to be in the AL east are doing better.

The Yankees trail the Tampa Bay Rays by 5.5 games and the Boston Red Sox by three games.

Plagued by injuries all season, the Yankees are without two of their best pitchers.  Chien Ming Wang was lost earlier in the season while running the bases in Houston and most recently Joba Chamberlain with a rotator cuff injury. 

Wang has recently removed his cast from his right foot and has since been wearing a protective boot.  Whenever that comes off, he will begin a rehab assignment.  Throwing on flat ground, throwing off a mound and most likely hitting the minor leagues.  He will possibly rejoin the team with a few weeks left in the season.

Chamberlain will be replaced by Ian Kennedy for the time being who will start the first game of a three game series against the Los Angeles Angels.  Kennedy has pitched well in the minors after struggling earlier this season.  He will look to turn things around and pitch well when the Yankees need it the most.  The Angels are tough though so its going to be a big challenge.

The Yankees are in the middle of a very long road trip before the head back home to face the Kansas City Royals on August 15.

After dropping the first two games in a four game series in Arlington against the Texas Rangers, the Yankees bounced back to split the series by picking up the final two games. 

Without a day off, the Yankees are now in California to take on the Los Angeles Angels (71-43) who hold the best record in baseball.

As stated earlier, Ian Kennedy will get the ball on Friday.  Followed by Dan Giese and then Andy Pettitte.

The Yankees bats will be looking for hits hard to come by from three good pitchers they will see against the Angels. Jered Weaver, John Lackey and Joe Saunders will take the mound for the Halos.

After this series the Yankees travel North to face the Minnesota Twins who are currently in a battle with the Chicago White Sox for AL Central supremacy.  The Twins are not going to be an easy task either, the only good thing being they won't face red hot pitcher Francisco Loriano who was recently called up from Triple A.

Ivan Rodriguez is day-to-day after colliding with David Murphy of the Texas Rangers on Wednesday and has a bruised right knee.  He should be fine and could return as soon as Friday night against the Angels.

Robinson Cano has been consistent for the Yankees in the second half has he continues to drive the ball and raise his average.  He had five hits and his tenth home run during the Texas series and is now batting .266 on the year.

Derek Jeter continues to turn his season around to a positive one as he had seven hits and five RBI's.  He also hit his seventh home run of the year in the first inning of Thursday's game against the Rangers.

Alex Rodriguez has cooled off as of lately, in fact, he is ice cold right now.  He went hitless against the Rangers in four games, his former ball club.  He was 0-14 and struck out four times.  He just missed a few pitches so he should break out of this mini slump anytime now.  The Yankees are going to need it too, they need all the offensive production they can get right now.

In fact, I would not be surprised if he breaks out in a big way on Friday night in Anaheim.  We'll see.

First thing for the Yankees is for Ian Kennedy to pitch well on Friday to start the series off on a good note.

"For Ian, we're just looking for him to compete," Girardi said. "That's all. Just compete. Give us an opportunity to win the game."

In other news, Phillip Hughes allowed one run in 4 2/3 innings for Triple-A, throwing 68 pitches on Thursday. Carl Pavano pitched 3 2/3 shutout innings for Double-A Trenton on Thursday.  Both pitchers continue to pitch well and could be options in September.  The Yankees have mentioned they do look to bring up Hughes sometime next month.  Also, Hideki Matsui began a running program down in Tampa.  Matsui also took batting practice this week and it continues to look like he will avoid surgery on his knee and return sometime in September.