Well, the official press release is below, but I’m gonna add my two cents on the Ivan Rodriguez for Kyle Farnsworth deal. The swap sounds like a winner for the Yankees. Get a Hall of Fame catcher for a few months and then cast him aside when Jorge Posada is ready to return. You only give up a solid arm in the bullpen…

And that’s where the reservations begin coming in. Farnsworth had seemly found new life under Joe Girardi this year. His ERA is down over a full run from last season at 3.65 and he was only getting better as his July ERA was 2.16. On the other hand, you could argue that the Yanks are selling high as Farnsworth’s career numbers show his ERA at 4.42 while averaging close to a hit an inning.

Nonetheless, the bullpen has been the backbone of the Yankees this year and you hate to pull a Jenga block out of the building. Now Edwar Ramirez, Jose Veras and Damaso Marte will combine to set up Mariano Rivera. On paper it looks okay…but you never want to mess with a good thing…

Then there’s the catching side of things. It’s hard to say that Jose Molina is the answer for a full-time catching job, but pitchers love to throw to him and he’s more or less shut down all running against the Yankees…then again, Pudge can do that too…still, Mike Mussina called Molina the best catcher he’s every worked with and it might not be coincidence that the Yankees’ pitching staff got smoking hot with Molina behind the plate (the best ERA in the majors in July).

Molina is hitting .226 while Pudge is hitting .295 so there’s no argument there. Plus, Pudge is a proven winner who has been critical to success in Texas, Florida and Detroit…But I just have this lingering doubt about taking Molina from behind the plate. I’ve heard Pudge get knocked for the way he’s called a game, but have really never paid close attention. Perhaps it’s all just people trying to hate on a legend. Pudge is a great offensive catcher with a great arm…but how will he handle the Yankees pitching staff?

Anyway, here’s the official word from the Yanks:

YANKEES ACQUIRE CATCHER IVAN RODRIGUEZ

The New York Yankees announced today that they have acquired catcher Ivan Rodriguez from the Detroit Tigers in exchange for right-handed pitcher Kyle Farnsworth.

Rodriguez, 36, was batting .295 (89-for-302) with 16 doubles, 3 triples, 5 home runs and 32 RBI in 82 games (79 starts at catcher) with the Detroit Tigers this season. Over his last 30 games since June 10, he is batting .382 (42-for-110) with 3 doubles, 1 triple, 4 home runs and 11 RBI.

Signed by Texas as a non-drafted free agent on July 27, 1988, Rodriguez is a 14-time All-Star (1992-2001, 2004-07) and the all-time Major League leader with 13 Gold Glove Awards at catcher (1992-2001, ’04, ’06-07). He owns a .302 (2,584-for-8,549) career batting average with 520 doubles, 48 triples, 293 home runs and 1,214 RBI in 2,234 games over 18 seasons with the Texas Rangers (1991-2002), Florida Marlins (2003) and Detroit (2004-08). Rodriguez is also a seven-time Silver Slugger Award winner at catcher (1994-99, 2004), second-most all time behind Mike Piazza’s 10.

In 1999, Rodriguez won the American League MVP Award, batting .332 (199-for-600) with 116 runs scored, 35 home runs and 113 RBI for the Rangers. In his only season with Florida in 2003, he won the NLCS MVP after batting .321 (9-for-28) with 2 home runs and 10 RBI in a seven-game series against the Chicago Cubs.

Farnsworth, 32, was 1-2 with a 3.65 ERA with the Yankees this season, leading the team with 45 appearances out of the bullpen. In 181 games with the club over three seasons since being signed as a free agent on December 2, 2005, he compiled a 6-9 record with a 4.33 ERA (170.1IP, 165H, 87R, 82ER, 72BB, 166K, 28HR). The former Tiger made 60 or more appearances in five straight seasons from 2003-07, appearing in 357 games, fifth-most in the Majors over the span.

Hangovers ARE no fun…like the one the Yankees experienced last night when they hosted Baltimore. The 13-4 loss was an experience in emotional letdown compounded by 4am arrival back in New York. It’s hard to blame the Yanks who just went through the emotional high of having their season become relevant again up in Boston. Still, it would also be hard to blame any Yankee ticket holder who demanded his/her money back last night (seats ain’t cheap these days).

Where to start?…Mike Mussina. He’s not getting old and alarmists don’t have to worry that the magic ride is over yet…Moose just looked bad and also had key defensive lapses behind him. Jason Giambi let a ball past him for a key double to start the fifth. To that point the Yanks were still in the game, down 4-0. A few hits later it was 6-0 and the wheels pretty much fell off.

Later in the game Bobby Abreu once again proved he’s chronically afraid of the right field wall while the Yankee bullpen looked mortal for the first time in recent memory. All said, it was a game to forget about and move on from.

If there’s any consolation from getting whupped like that, it’s knowing that the Sox and the Rays also lost last night. Now, the Yanks will take another crack at the last place O’s with Daniel Cabrera (who has had some career days against the Yankees) going against Daryl Rasner.

Sure, the Yankees lost the last game of their three game set against the Red Sox yesterday, but they proved they can match, and defeat, Boston’s pitching. It was only after the Red Sox teed off on a soon to be gone Sidney Ponson that they took control of the final game of the series. However, over the weekend, the Yankees accomplished quite a bit.

They shaved one game off the lead Boston had over them in the Wild Card standings.

The Yankees’ best (Joba) outpitched the Sox best (Beckett).

Xavier Nady is now in left field and the bottom part of the order looks respectable again.

Damaso Marte is also now a Yankee and he struck out Big Papi in an important situation on Saturday.

Not bad. But now it’s back to business against the O’s and then the Halos come to town. After that it’s off to Josh Hamilton’s home in Texas…

Now, in the coming days there will be a lot of speculation about the Yankees trading for a starter to replace Ponson. I think replacing Ponson is important. However, much of the speculation is currently around Jarrod Washburn (Stats) of Seattle coming to New York in exchange for prospects. Bad idea. It’s not to say that Washburn would be a bad number five guy on the Yanks, but with a season ERA of 4.50, it ain’t worth it.

Ian Kennedy will soon be available. Phil Hughes will follow shortly thereafter. If the Yankee brass had enough faith to start the season with these two in their starting five, they should stick with them now. One of them should get Ponson’s job.

Yes, 2008 did not start well for either…Kennedy has a 7.41 ERA in eight starts. Hughes’ ERA is even higher at 9.00 after six starts. However, a combined 14 starts is no reason to trash a couple of guys who have shown as much promise as these two have. To think one of them cannot pitch with an ERA around 4.50 the rest of the year would mean the Yankees badly misjudged their worth.

Now, you could argue that the two young Yankee starters still need to go through growing pains before they can help the team and a pennant race is no place for such development. Additionally, you can argue that Washburn’s veteran experience is exactly what the Yankees need through the rest of the year and into the post-season. I suppose. But these two kids are supposed to be better than an overpaid number five starter. They have shown flashes of this in 2007. If the Yankees really want to go for a championship this year, they take a chance on one of the kids pitching like an ace.

Washburn is the type of pitcher that will do enough for the Yankees in the regular season and then get battered in the post-season. That’s not enough. If you recall, Hughes won the only post-season game for the Yankees last year by pitching an impressive game.

He, or Kennedy, should get the chance to win important games once again in ‘08.

Seriously, did something happen off the field that we don’t know about? Everyone from the Yanks to Terry Francona & Mike Lowell on the Sox are saying that there’s no way Joba is throwing at someone’s head with a 1-0 lead in the seventh inning. Then again, Joba came back to strike out Kevin Youkilis and then also rung up Mike Lowell and JD Drew. Intimidation? A Roger Clemens kind of crazy?

Or was it all just personal? Three times at a guy’s head in two years in the baseball equivalent of slapping a guy in the face, stealing his wife and then dropping a load on his chest….What the hell gives, Joba?

Still, the Yankees have needed a guy who will not only match zeros with another club’s ace, but will also make batters think twice about stepping in with him. Perhaps that’s one of the things that can make a guy an ace in the first place…Nolan Ryan, Clemens, Walter Johnson (I never saw the guy pitch or anything, but word is he was a nasty S.O.B.)…these guys made a living on fear. In fact, some say Mike Mussina has revived his career because he has started to work inside. I actually believe his arm is healthier than it’s been in years, but I also like the inside pitching theory.

Round two tomorrow. Pettitte and Wakefield…I can’t wait to see if there’s a 65 MPH knuckler with A-Rod’s name on it…payback can be funny.

The Yanks and the Sox…Yanks and Sox….here we are again and I have to say this is the one series I’m in favor of MLB keeping an unbalanced schedule for. Do I need to see Yanks-O’s 19 times a year? No. Do I need to watch nine or ten games a season at the backdrop of the Skydome…ahem, Rogers’ Centre? Hell no.

But Yanks-Sox? Now there’s a series I’ll always be ready for…particularly now that more than half the games are off the schedule and the Yanks are on the verge of making it a three-way race in the East. Yes, they’ve won six in a row and the pitching has been smokin’…plus, the June-July hot streak (thank you interleague ball and second rate teams…and that includes the Rays — yes, I said it) has been noteworthy. But who are we kidding? The Yankees aren’t for real until they send a message to Boston at Fenway Park and that means winning this weekend series.

Let’s look at the starters over the next three days.

Chamberlain vs Beckett. I’ll take Beckett who is 3-0 against the Yanks this season. Still, Joba does better commercial endorsements.

Pettitte vs Wakefield. This is the one game where Boston is at a disadvantage from the mound. Pettitte has been gigantic in the second half of any season for years now, but Wakefield is a mystery. We’ll know early if the knuckler is working or not…and if it is not, the Bombers will have batting practice until Terry Francona has seen enough.

Ponson vs Lester. Jon Lester has thrown a no-hitter, beaten cancer and carries a 3.20 ERA into his start on Sunday. Sidney Ponson is 6-1 with a respectable AL ERA of 4.01…but a closer look shows 99 hits and 27 walks in 78.1 innings. Somehow, he’s been a 258-pound Houdini getting out of jams with double plays and strokes of luck. Unfortunately for Sidney, the Red Sox are not a team that forgives too many base runners.

One never really knows how starting pitching will shake out as nothing ever really goes according to plan. Ponson may win the only game of the series for the Yanks and Beckett may get shelled in a winning effort. Baseball is funny like that. Still, the Yanks will need enough starting pitching to keep them in games so that Robinson Cano and the Yankee bullpen can win them (okay, Cano’s not the only one hitting, but he is on FIRE). Joba and Pettitte are the most likely Yankee heroes…or it could be Edwar Ramirez.

One last thought. If Ponson soon explodes — as he probably will — there is immediate help available. Ian Kennedy (I still have faith) has just completed 14 innings of one-run pitching in AAA ball.

We’ll likely see him soon.

It was the top of the 15th inning last night and I was running through the bowels of Yankee Stadium trying to sneak through a side door into an otherwise overcrowded MLB press conference room. Media members had packed the room for innings, staking out space in anticipation of someone breaking the 3-3 tie in the 79th All-Star game (thank you very much, Billy Wagner). A-Rod had left the Stadium in the 5th inning, but did interviews before going. Derek Jeter and most of the rest of AL & NL teams remained at the top step of the dugout, enjoying the end of the game…meaning the press had to wait to talk to them…

As I ran, my cell phone was telling me that it was past 1am. Doing some quick math, I realized that if the game ended soon I would still be at Yankee Stadium until 3am filing sound. (ouch)

Just before getting to the conference room door, I came upon a man walking with slumped shoulders, looking as if someone had just shot his dog. It was Bud Selig.

At the moment we were about to cross paths, we passed a TV that had the game on and a member of the NL had hit a low line drive…we stopped almost face to face, me turning to my left, Bud turning to his right and we both watched in hope that the ball would drop. It didn’t.

I let out an exasperated gasp while Bud’s shoulders slumped even more.

I didn’t need to ask MLB’s Commish what the plan was, whether the game would get called a tie like it did in 2002 when both teams ran out of pitchers. He had decreed that all All-Star games would be played until someone won. Right about then he was regretting that decision, but seemed to be resigned to fate as both squads were on their final pitcher. For the AL, Scott Kazmir was supposed to be hands-off because he had just pitched on Sunday. Now that he had gone one inning, would he have to go two? And what would happen after that?

I grimaced and looked at Bud who smiled back a little bit before moving on.

As it turned out, the AL won in the bottom of the 15th with Michael Young driving in the winning run. Terry Francona would soon tell the media that he may very well have gone with his own player and game MVP J. D. Drew as his next pitcher. Fortunately for everyone, he didn’t need to make that decision.

I’m sure that somewhere Bud Selig was breathing a sigh of relief.

Last night started out painfully as most of Yankee Stadium sat on its hands through the first round of the Home Run Derby.  From my seat high up by the left field foul pole (many regular press seats have been usurped by VIPs for All-Star weekend) I sat at my laptop, spending more time trying to book a vacation on Priceline than I did watching the Derby.  Ryan Braun, Evan Longoria, Grady Sizemore, Dan Uggla…???  Yawn.

Lance Berkman’s presence made things a bit respectable, but where were Manny, Papi, A-Rod, Pujols and Vlad?  In some cases, injured.  In others, refusing to hit.  But then there was this kid that everyone was talking about, Josh Hamilton.  A couple player of the month awards and GMs who said his batting practice was worth charging money to watch.  Interesting…

As the night was close to being a dud, Hamilton started hitting bombs.  (Click here for the highlights). The rest was history.

You probably know Hamilton’s story by now.  A recovering substance abuser who was once the number one overall pick by the Rays.  Power that hasn’t been seen since Mickey Mantle.  At 27 years old, he is a rookie and would be the AL MVP if the award was given at half season.  Outside of baseball, he is doing work to help those who also suffer from substance abuse.

We will hear much more about Josh Hamilton over time.  However, last night was a show I will never forget.  His home run off the Bud Light sign behind the right field bleachers is the closest I’ve ever seen a ball come to getting out of Yankee Stadium.  The Stadium was chanting Hamilton’s name over and over as he hit those 28 home runs in the first round.  The Ranger outfielder may be hearing more of that across the street next season as he is a free agent at the end of the year…

Still, wherever Hamilton winds up playing in ‘09, I want to say thanks for saving the Home Run Derby of ‘08.

You start looking at the bullpen numbers after today’s 9-4 win over Toronto and it kind of shocks you:

Edwar Ramirez: 2.73 ERA, 33 IP.

Jose Veras: 2.87 ERA, 31 IP.

Kyle Farnsworth: 3.51 ERA, 40 IP.

Dan Geise: 2.82 ERA, 22 IP (some as a starter).

Mariano Rivera: 1.06 ERA, 23-for-23 in save situations, 42.1IP.

Add to this list Brian Bruney (who has gotten through four innings of rehab relief in the Gulf Coast) and the main piece of the Gary Sheffield trade, Huberto Sanchez (recovering from Tommy John surgery, also pitching in the Gulf Coast League). That’s some nice depth in the pen now, and perhaps even more in a few weeks.

With the Yanks getting some better starting pitching (even credit Daryl Rasner today for battling after giving up 3 ER in the first and then nothing else through five), this could turn into something nice. So, what’s going on with this cast that makes the Yankees’ bullpen so suddenly effective in 2008?

It’s simple: they’re fresh & they don’t get stuck in the doghouse.

To start with the former, Mo currently holds the high mark out of the bullpen with 42.1 innings pitched. That puts him at a pace to reach 70 on the nose. By comparison, Scott Proctor, Joe Torre’s favorite whipping boy (I can only imagine what’s happening in LA this year) pitched 102.1 innings in 2006. Now, don’t get me wrong, I loved Mr. T, but he had something personal against his relievers. When he found one he liked, he kept riding that horse until it died or needed shoulder surgery…but when he had one that he didn’t like…well, let’s just say they rarely found the outside of the pen in a significant situation.

Credit Joe Girardi for sticking with some guys who struggled early and constructing a pretty sweet situation for the end of games. To see Farnsworth drop over a full run in ERA to this point in the season is refreshing. In the past seven or eight seasons, it was sad to see guys like Proctor and Paul Quantrill (95.1 innings in 2004) have the life slowly sucked out of them.

Torre was brutal, but also had a fast hook for many but the chosen few.  Girardi has proven to be more forgiving and patient…something that should make his bullpen much more productive.

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I’d be remiss if I did not mention the passing of Bobby Murcer after today’s game. There are no witty stories here, just condolences to the loved ones of a life-long Yankee (with a few years apart in the ’70s). It was impressive to see him fight his cancer the way he did over the past two years, and with the way he continued to work, it seemed like he might beat it. Murcer seemed well-loved, and that’s the best thing that you can say about a man.

I felt bad for Warner Madrigal tonight.

Poor kid.  His first appearance in the big leagues and he sets off an offensive explosion for the Yankees.  His hair was puffed out the side of his hat indicating that he, Warner Madrigal, was young and ungroomed unlike the veteran players around him.  He was an innocent pup taking the mound in the seventh inning against Bobby Abreu, Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi.  Just 24 years old, the neophyte from the Dominican allowed six of the seven batters he faced to reach base safely and absorbed six earned runs.  Warner also picked up the loss.

This, however, was good news for the Yankees who turned a 7-6 seventh inning deficit into a 12-7 lead — and ultimately a 18-7 victory — fighting back with a punch rarely seen this year.  The key hit was Jason Giambi’s two-run double to the left-center gap that gave the Yanks the lead.  Yes, for the love of God, he hit the ball to the left-center gap.  Damn.

From there, the rest of the crew laid into Warner and Jamey Wright.  A-Rod even hit home run number 17/535…yes, he’s good.  And no, I don’t believe he’s the devil for skipping the home run derby.  All A-Rod has to do is look across the clubhouse at Bobby Abreu to see how a home run contest can mess with a guy’s swing for a year or so.  I’d rather see him do right by the Yankees, not MLB.

So, here the Yankees sit, 7.5 games behind the Rays — the RAYS! — and 4 behind Boston who are in town starting tomorrow.  Sure, Tampa sits atop the majors, but until they crack the post-season, my money’s still on another Yanks-Sox battle in the AL East.

Lester vs. Pettitte in round one tomorrow in the Bronx.