Redemption is spelled Y-H-E-N-C-Y

Dear readers, our spring-long national nightmare is over! As of Wednesday, Yhency, along with Franquelis Osoria, his presumed rival for the last spot in the bullpen, was officially named to the Dodgers’ Opening Day roster (see the fourth paragraph of the linked article).

Yhency capped off this joyous news yesterday with his most effective outing in two and a half weeks -- one inning, no hits, no walks, one strikeout (see his line in this box score). It was also his first appearance since March 12 in which he didn't allow a single baserunner.

Coming up early next week: My thoughts on the Mets’ Opening Day at Shea against the Nationals. Will Alfonso Soriano blindside Frank Robinson with a folded chair over the head? Will he botch a simply fly ball? Will he run to the Mets’ dugout and seek asylum, Cuban-style? No one knows, and that's what makes days like these so exciting. Or it could be that it's Opening friggin' Day.

Until then, pardon our absence as we party for the weekend and prep for this glorious season!

Looks like the glass is half full

According to the latest report out of Vero, there are four relievers left with the Dodgers -- Yhency, Franquelis Osoria, Brian Meadows and Aaron Sele -- to vie for the two remaining spots in the bullpen. While this seemingly gives Yhency a 50/50 chance to make the squad, our boy passed a huge test today by getting an inning of shutout work (see this box score) in his first back-to-back appearance this spring. So things are looking up.

Does this provide any solace?

Turns out that since Yhency's craze-inducing appearance in Friday's game (see my post from a few minutes ago), Yhency put in another performance earlier today. I'm not gonna call it a good one, I'm not gonna call it a bad one. It was just a performance. According to this box score: two-thirds of an inning, one hit, one strikeout, no runs allowed. In a vacuum, that's good, I guess. But after all his poor outings so far this spring, we're gonna need a lot more of this before we can shake these DL/Triple-A rumors.

Now it's time to freak out

Yhency has toyed with us all spring, and now it has come to a tipping point. For after another un-Yhency-like performance on Friday, where he gave up a two-run home run to some dude named Reggie Abercrombie (granted, one of the runs was inherited), Yhency's deep in doo doo.

Hong-Chih Kuo (0.00 ERA) and Franquelis Osoria (1.80 ERA) have been absolutely tearing it up this spring, and while it was thought that only one of them would break camp with the Dodgers, Grady Little is now saying that it's possible that they will both start the season in L.A., with Yhency either on the DL or with Triple-A Las Vegas.

Please hold while I muffle myself with a pillow.

9.64 becomes 7.94

After a solid inning pitched yesterday (one K, one BB, no ERs), Yhency's ERA has made its way down to 7.94. (See his line in this box score.) Still an ugly number, to be sure, but it's far better than his peak ERA of 13.50 this spring. This is how we do it in Vero, bitch!!

Brandon's gone

Today, Bronson Arroyo was traded from the Red Sox to the Cincinnati Reds for Wily Mo Pena. And while this trade may have been necessary for the betterment of the Sox, we at Son of Yhency are in mourning.

An integral member of the Sox' rotation and bullpen for the last three years, as well as one of only a few white guys that have ever been daring enough to wear their hair in cornrows, Bronson was a central figure to some of the Sox' key moments during their World Series run in 2004. And what do you know, two of those moments involved Fruit-Rod!!

First, there was Arroyo's 70 mph, hanging curveball that hit Rodriguez on July 24 and prompted V-Tek's alleged "We don't throw at .260 hitters" comment, which led to the brawl that featured a certain Pedro Martinez side-stepping a bumbling Don Zimmer (notice I said "side-stepping" and not "threw down", which is what happened) and Papi swinging his arms like a wild man over Gabe Kapler and Tanyon Sturtze as they went at it. Some say it was that brawl coupled with their dramatic come-from-behind victory against Mariano Rivera later in that game that sparked the Sox onto World Series glory.

Second, there was that zany ALCS Game 6 in the Bronx that featured two – count 'em – two overturned calls in the Sox' favor. (How many times can you say that ever happened in a playoff game for the Sox?) First was Mark Bellhorn's home run over the left field wall. And second was Fruit-Rod's slap on Arroyo's glove as he tried to tag him running down the first base line. Following that call being overturned, Yankees fans showed their class by showering the field with trash, thus forcing police to line the field for the rest of the game, turning Yankee Stadium into something resembling a war zone.

Not the best pitchers on the Sox by any means, but how can you turn away from some of these memories?

I keep on telling myself this trade was necessary. It was, really. The Sox are loaded with pitching. They need a fourth outfielder because we're only a month away from Trot pulling a hammy. Really. It was necessary. Needed that extra outfielder. Glad we nabbed him. Some have even called Wily the next Sammy Sosa (although I'm not sure that's a good thing). Very necessary. Yes yes. Necessary. Undoubtedly. Good pick-up. Like it. A lot.

The struggles become an issue

Yikes. Another outing, more of the same struggles for Yhency. Two innings pitched, one wild pitch, one earned run allowed. I keep trying to find the silver lining, and I guess here it would be that Yhency pitched two innings (most work so far this spring) and, like his last appearance, allowed no walks. And he lowered his spring ERA to an astounding 9.64! Again -- yikes.

While I always caution that absolutely zero bearing should be placed on performance during Spring Training, it looks like I may not be entirely correct. For Yhency has pitched poorly enough that there have been some grumblings that he may not even make the Opening Day roster! Eric Gagne and Danys Baez are set at the back of the bullpen, and with several young pitchers making an impression in camp, some serious competition has emerged for the last few spots. I can't actually fathom that Yhency, he of the 21 saves last year, wouldn't make the team, and Grady Little has said that it isn't fair to judge him just yet, but we here at SOY don't need this kind of uncertainty! Yhency, get on it!

I need to compose this letter to Yhency, and that's going to happen soon. Check back for that in the next few days. Or not.

The curse of Fruit-Rod continues

Switching over from the Tourney to U.S. versus Mexico in the World Baseball Classic on Thursday night, I caught Vernon Wells of the U.S. hit into a game-ending double play, thus sealing Mexico's 2-1 victory and sending the Americans back to spring training. I watched silently for a half minute until the cameras focused on Fruit-Rod, standing at the top of the dugout, looking sullenly out onto the field. And I burst. Because while it would have been nice for the U.S. to win this thing, that one sight made the loss all the worth while. That man had never won anything of significance. And it continues.

Good luck boys...

...you'll need it.

And so comes spring's see-saw

It looks like Yhency's taking some time to settle in this spring, as he hasn't shown any consistency in his first three appearances. First, an awful outing was followed by a stellar one.

Now, more struggling. For in one inning yesterday, Yhency allowed three hits and two earned runs, including the go-ahead hit off of Ryan Langerhans of the Braves, thus saddling himself with the loss.

Should we be concerned by Yhency's inconsistency and his 13.50 ERA in three appearances this spring? Not yet, I say. For while he allowed several walks and a wild pitch in Thursday's game last week, Yhency's control seemed to be a little better yesterday, as all of the batters he allowed on base did so via a hit. Not the best of take-aways, but it's something. And I'll take it on to another day, hoping we see improvements.

It's on now!

As covered in my post the other day, Yhency started his 2006 season for the Dodgers a little shaky last Thursday. Walks, wild pitches, no strikeouts. Not pleasant.

But on Sunday, he came on strong. Real strong. Three batters faced, three strikeouts.

How he tempts.

Permanent asterisk

*

















You gotta love what the folks at Boston Dirt Dogs are doing whenever they mention Barry Bonds*. The entire man and his career is an asterisk. So I will jump on this bandwagon and include that asterisk after every mention of the man as well.

Yhency pitches!

It's been a long winter, but in the last 24 hours, we've had two signs that it's coming to an end. First, it's currently 72 degrees here in New York. And second, Yhency has pitched!

Yesterday was Yhency's first pitching appearance for the Dodgers since he pitched 2/3 of a scoreless inning against the Padres back on October 1, 2005. And we here at Son of Yhency couldn't be happier. For the summer of contentment is upon us!

Unfortunately, Yhency didn't turn in the best of performances. In 2/3 of an inning, he gave up two earned runs and three walks, threw one wild pitch and struck out no one. But -- and I'm not sure how much of a "but" this is -- he allowed zero hits. Should we be proud of that? Or perhaps frightened that he gave up two earned runs on zero hits? Who knows. The take-away here isn't that he got pounded -- this was his first appearance of the year and has been pestered by some shoulder issues; the take-away is that Yhency is back!

The summer of contentment. Upon us.

Somewhere, Stephen A is weeping

Slava Medvedenko has been waived by the Lakers in favor of journeyman Jim Jackson, and I couldn't be more devastated. Okay, that's not entirely true, but Monday was still a sad day in the House of Yhency. Hell, even Mitch Kupchak had to have shed a little tear -- as I covered in a post in November, Slava was the very first player he signed as GM on August 15, 2000.

I was going to try to provide a little retrospective on Slava's tenure with the Lakers, but the good folks at Lakers Blog elucidated everything we loved about him so much more so than I could have. So I'll be lazy and let you read that instead.

Now it's up to Jackson -- the Lakers are his 12th team in a 14-year career -- to provide any sort of an increased value over the hilarity that Slava brought to us night in and night out. And that's a tough job to take on.

Slava, we hardly knew ye.

Reese 4 eva

Congratulations to my girl, Laura Jean Reese Witherspoon, for taking home the Best Actress Oscar for Walk the Line last night.

From our beginnings with Fear to the zany Overnight Delivery to the time I saw you outside that Starbucks on Montana and 7th in Santa Monica, it's been a long ride. Now if you'd only drop the zero and get with the hero.

Quakers take the Ivies!

Congrats to the Penn Quakers for clinching their sixth Ivy League championship in the last eight years (and 21st of the last 37) on Friday night, with a 55-57 win over Yale in New Haven. The icing on the cake was their 74-68 win over Brown on Saturday.

Next steps -- Princeton on Tuesday, then a fun one and out in the NCAAs!

Yhency ain't doing WBC

Latest news out of Vero Beach is that Yhency won't be participating in the World Baseball Classic. This, from TCPalm.com:

BRAZOBAN SAYS NO, AGAIN: Reliever Yhency Brazoban, who received a phone call from New York Mets third-base coach Manny Acta asking him to pitch for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic, said Friday he will stay with the Dodgers and continue to work on his ailing right elbow, which has bothered him off and on this spring.

And from the Los Angeles Times, we learn that Yhency's getting a little pressure to not go from Grady Little and the Dodgers, not just because his shoulder is still sore, but maybe because he's not guaranteed a spot on the roster??

"I don't see any way he will be ready to pitch in the first round," Dodger Manager Grady Little said. "It's not in his best interest to do that."

Brazoban will throw bullpen sessions today and Monday, then is scheduled appear in a Grapefruit League game Wednesday or Thursday.

Little said Brazoban shouldn't assume he has made the team — the Dodger team, that is — even though he had 21 saves last season.

"There are a lot of pitchers competing for spots in this bullpen," Little said.

Something to be concerned about? I don't think so, and Grady shouldn't be playing such mind games.

Intensive linguistics

Today, my world was thrown upside-down when a coworker informed me that the saying, "for all intents and purposes" is not actually pronounced/spelled "for all intensive purposes."

Ummmm, did anyone else know that? I know I'm only asking for the inevitable here, but am I just an idiot? I was so befuddled that we went online to check and found fairly conclusive evidence at this site. What the hell?!??!? How come no one has ever corrected me? Did people read stuff of mine and snicker whenever I wrote "intensive purposes", just like I snicker when people misuse affect/effect? I demand satisfaction!