YANKEES DECLINE OPTIONS ON 1B JASON GIAMBI AND RHP CARL PAVANO

The New York Yankees announced today they have declined their options on first baseman Jason Giambi and right-handed pitcher Carl Pavano, making each player a free agent.

Giambi, 37, hit .247 (113-for-458) with 19 doubles, 32 home runs and 96 RBI in 145 games with the Yankees in 2008, making 112 starts at first base and 26 starts at designated hitter.  He ranked second on the team in home runs, recording his eighth career 30-homer season and reaching double-digits in home runs for the 13^th consecutive year.  Giambi’s 209 home runs as a Yankee rank 10^th on the club’s all-time list.

Pavano, 32, was 4-2 with a 5.77 ERA in seven starts with the Yankees in 2008.  He made his first Major League start and appearance of the season on August 23 at Baltimore, recording the win.  The victory was his first win and appearance since April 9, 2007 at Minnesota, after recovering from “Tommy John” surgery.  In four seasons with the Yankees (2005-08), Pavano went 9-8 with a 5.00 ERA in 26 starts.

The Yankees’ roster now stands at 36.

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.

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.

I mean I knew in my mind that I wouldn’t be posting until June, but this still feels like a hell of a long break.

But there’s good reason and I won’t bore anyone who still looks in at this site once in a while with many of the details. See, I just finished my first year of teaching Sports Journalism to high school students. Seriously, it was a trip…and in our last month I taught them how to make sports blogs. Honestly, a great experience I wouldn’t trade for the world as my kids started with game recaps, learned sports columns, profiles and finally the blogs…from writing a new curriculum, to writing grants for supplies and taking educational grad classes, there was just no time for the blog. Still, I managed to squeeze in coverage of a few games here and there (Rangers, Knicks, Mets and Yanks)…and now, with school out for the summer, I’ve got nothing but time.

So here the Yankees are seven games out and off in Oakland…did anyone expect much else? New manager…young (and oft injured) pitchers…I have to say if Joe Girardi has made one good move (and he’s made several), it’s that he threw Jason Giambi back at first base. It seems that everyone in the world besides Joe Torre knew that Giambi hit better when he also played in the field. Call it a psychological quirk or what have you, the numbers simply did not lie…yet Torre insisted on sitting Jason for health reasons even when he was healthy — Joe T. used to worry about Jason’s knees — and for defense. Well, after starting the season with a woeful .165 average in April, Giambi hit .315 in May and is at .364 for the month of June. Not to mention that Giambi is 4th in the AL in home runs. Kudos, Joe G.

Meanwhile, Giambi has 4 errors in 43 games at first for a fielding percentage of .990…his glove is always good for a scoop and even though he won’t get to all the balls in the hole, he’s not losing games with his defense.

Not bad at all…

Anyway, I don’t see any reason why I won’t be back at this on a regular basis throughout the summer. Hopefully, I haven’t been gone so long as to lose all of my readers. Certainly, it feels good to be writing again.