Canada In Florida

Yesterday's game was against Toronto in some place named Dunedin.

They have LaBatt's ( a plus ) and canadian bacon as snacks. The stadium was sold out because the Yanks were coming, but the sell-out crowd was 5, 678. The aptly named ballpark is; Florida Auto Exchange stadium.

There is no shade, all the foul balls that go out of the ballbark hit a car or a person, and the cinderblock walls reminded me of Randall's island in the 1960's. I mean, talk about a place that needs to invest some money in a new facility.....

The only thing worse than the infastructure was watching ( suffering through ) AJ Burnett pitch. The guy still can't get by a hitter without a 3-2 count. He has no out pitch, save the one that bounces in the dirt and makes it to the backstop. And, were I playing third base again, I would stand out in left field and talk with my teammate between pitches.

AJ's problem is not simply that he can't throw a first pitch strike, he takes an interminable amount of time to do anything. The fans hated him because the game was so slow. He must be the guy that made that umpire declare Yankee/Red Sox games take too long.

He and Martin could not get their signs straight. Shouldn't that be a non-issue by now?

And AJ still sucks, folks. We really have to worry about Cashman pulling a deal and dealing away the best pitching prospect we have had in years...the Banuelos kid.

Don't be deceived by the box score. In my view, AJ was worse than the stats indicate. An hour per half inning. And runs yielded, earned or not, every inning. That's AJ.

He made our new catcher Russell Martin look like El Duque back there. He had about 4 errors on pitches to the backstop from where he had to throw guys out at first, and threw to the outfield instead. The Jays must have thought Martin was Jorge Posada, because they stole 4 bases off him.

My new idol, Jorge Vasquez, got into the game late and was 1-1 with a walk. Scored a run and hit a few shots foul that rocked the stadium. How old is this dude? He can hit better than anyone I've seen. I think he is close to .500 now.

Is he the Fernando Valenzuela of hitting?

Brandon Laird played well in the late innings, and went 1-1 with an rbi. He is a prospect. I also think Nunez makes this team. Grandy was great as usual.

There is something the Yankees like about Justin Maxwell. He looks ( body type ) a bit like Darryl Strawberry, but does not hit like him. Does he have an option whereby they can send him to AAA?

I also wonder about Andruw Jones. Even though he got a single yesterday, does he get a bye due to his prior reputation? And what happened to Greg Golsten? Is he hurt?

Andy Brackman pitched the final inning for the Yanks and drew gasps for his height. He pitched an inning and got three guys out. Not dominating, but fine work.

This afternoon we raid G. Steinbrenner stadium for the re-match.

How did Jimmy know that I was drinking with Minka last night?