Yanks Rearrange Rotation For The Rays Series

The Yankees have their last scheduled off-day of the regular season today, and in a move that's ultimately too little too late but still the right strategic decision, Joe is going to use that off-day to rearrange his rotation.

The Phil Hughes-David Huff 2-headed 5th starter monster was scheduled to start tomorrow's series opener against the Tampa Bay Rays.  With the off-day keeping the rest of the rotation behind them on regular rest, Joe will skip over his 5th starters and go back to the top of the rotation.  He'll have 3 of his 4 best starters - Hiroki Kuroda, CC Sabathia, and Ivan Nova - start the 3 games against Tampa and push Huffes back to the final series in Houston later in the week.

In a perfect world, Joe would have Andy Pettitte in that mix, probably in place of CC.  Pettitte was brilliant yesterday and should have the adrenaline flowing again when he makes his final career start.  The Yankees' only chance to make the postseason is to sweep these 3 games from Tampa and get a lot of help, something that doesn't seem very likely given the agonizingly inconsistent nature of their lineup right now.  So with the season all but over, it's probably better to keep Andy on his regular schedule and let him make his final start in the other MLB city he called home.  Even without him, the decision to go Hirok, CC, Nova is the right one and an upgrade over letting Hughes and Huff pitch a meaningful game.

Gut Check Time For Sabathia & Nova This Weekend

(Can't have this again, Ivan.  Courtesy of the AP)

The Yankees have fought their way back to 4-4 on this 11-game meat grinder and they're heading back to Boston this weekend to finish it up.  They took a pretty bad beating in the 4 games at The Stadium last weekend, and need much better starting pitching to make this weekend's results different.  Hiroki Kuroda gets the ball tonight and he was pretty good last Sunday against the Red Sox.  The bigger concerns are with the two guys following him, CC Sabathia and Ivan Nova.

Yanks-O's ALDS Preview: The Prediction

(Used courtesy of The Baltimore Sun)

The rosters are set, the comparisons and contrasts have been made, the advantages, on paper at least, have been analyzed, and the lineup cards for tonight are in the process of being filled out.  The only thing left to do from a blogger standpoint is put my fictional internet money on the line and make a pick.

Truth be told, it didn't take a lot of time to come to this conclusion.  I've felt the Yankees are the better team all along and I still think it's a matter of time until the rabbit's foot Baltimore has been carrying around in its back pocket all season falls out.  And if you're wondering why I haven't said boo about the 2-3 setup for this series that starts the Yankees out on the road despite having a better record than Baltimore and winning the division over them, there's an answer for that too.  I don't think it's going to matter much after tonight because I believe CC Sabathia is going to come out firing tonight.  I think the extra rest his 2 DL stints gave him is going to do him a world of good this postseason, and I think he comes out tonight and dominates to win Game 1 and set the stage for the rest of the series.

Yanks-O's ALDS Preview: 3 Things That Will Decide The Series

(Hey, remember this?)

There wasn't nearly as much drama and work involved as I was personally hoping for last night, but the Orioles sent the Rangers packing and the Yankees now know who they'll play in their divisional round matchup tomorrow night.  As a divisional rivals, the Yanks and O's saw plenty of each other this season.  They played to a 9-9 stalemate in their season series, with the Yankees taking 5 of the first 8 and Orioles winning 6 of the last 10.  That record and those trends mean little now, as the slate is wiped clean for this 5-game series.  But they can give some insight as to the type of things we should be looking for to make predictions and a decision on who will ultimately win.

These teams have a lot of similarities, and there aren't many points of comparison where one has the clear advantage over the other.  The Yankees are the deeper and more talented team on paper, but the O's have played with that undefinable "it factor" all year long, and that is reflected in their undeniably impressive 1-run game and extra-inning records.  I expect this to be a close series and a competitive series, and after the jump are the 3 things that are going to decide who wins.