I don't remember who won the 2010 Best Male Actor Oscar, but he should turn it over to Derek Jeter after his performance in Wednesday nights game against the Rays. With the Yanks and the Rays starting a series on Monday, the question in my mind now is how long in that series will it take before Jeter takes one between the shoulder blades and doesn't have to act?

Jeter's Year

As we all know, Jeter is having a bad year at the plate and having his usual less than stellar year in the field. And he's in his free-agent year. Not a good combo.

But...

Even having a bad year, we all know there is NO WAY the Yankees will let him walk. He's won 5 championships, will be within 80 hits of 3000 and has an outside shot at 4000 hits. They and Jeter know that Yankee fans would attempt to burn down the Stadium. The only to decide really is how long the contract will be and for how much.

The dollar amount has no interest to me at all. He's going to get his, plus whatever he makes in endorsment money. And he deserves it for what he's done. And given what we do know about how much pride Jeter has, do we really think he's going to take less than what Alex Rodriguez makes? I think not.

No, the real issue (in my point of view) is what position he will play. I've written and said in conversations that Jeter was, and always has been, an average fielding shortstop. No team, I repeat no team, has ever won a World Series with a starting shortstop over the age of 36.

The only spots to play Jeter at this point would be left field or right field. He can't be moved to 3B because you-know-who is there. 2B? Occupied by some guy named Cano. 1B? Teixera is there for the next 5 years. This leaves right field, but Nick Swisher is there. Wow, that leaves left field as the only option. And this means that either Curtis Granderson or Brett Gardner have to go. (My choice would be Granderson) But will Jeter volunteer to move? That's the real question.

Also, the Yankes have to move Jeter down in the order and put Gardner in the leadoff spot. If he was any other player, he would've been placed lower in the lineup a long time ago, but he gets a pass because he's Derek Jeter. Personally, I hate seeing him hit leadoff because he strikes out way too much. He can't bat second because then all you see is a 6-4-3 double play. At this point in the year he should be hitting 8th or 9th.

It's going to be interesting in the playoffs and in the offseason.

Yet another fine start by A.J. "Headcase" Burnett. 4.2 innings, 6 ER, and threw 40 pitches in the 5th inning alone!...and couldn't finish the inning. The only difference between Burnett and Carl Pavano is that Burnett is not hurt. With the "stuff" Burnett has, he should win 20 every year. What a waste of talent.

On a side note...it's funny listening to Al Leiter comment on Burnett's inability to put hitters away when you consider that Leiter pitched the same exact way.

This makes no sense...

The Yankees need someone who can be, at the very least, a backup 3B and/or 1B, and they trade for a back up OF (Austin Kearns) and a backup 1B/OF (Lance Berkman), who is having the worst year of his career?...very strange.

It was bound to happen. Someone got seriously hurt in one of those stupid jump-up-and-down dog piles celebrating a win.

After a win by the Angels on Saturday, a win made possible by a 10th inning grand slam by 1B Kendry Morales, the rest of the Angels gathered in a huddle around home plate so they could all jump up and down to celebrate and pound Morales about his head and shoulders. Morales came down the third base line with a huge smile on his face, and like most other runners in this type of celebration, jumped into the air to land on home plate with both feet. Unfortunately, Morales apparently landed wrong and broke his lower leg (left leg I believe). He dropped in pain instantly as the rest of the team began celebrating, but they stopped instantly when they realized Morales was hurt. After several minutes, Morales was taken off the field on a stretcher and had surgery sometime Saturday night.

The only “good” thing you could say about this incident is that Morales’ injury didn’t happen because the rest of the team fell on him as I have seen happen in some other celebrations. The fact someone got hurt in one of these celebrations was inevitable. Take 25 guys who weigh anywhere from 180 to 250 pounds in a big huddle, jumping up and down, and eventually someone WILL get hurt. You can make the argument that Morales wasn’t hurt by his teammates, but think about this…he, in all likelihood, would not have jumped high in the air to land on home plate had that huddle not been there.

Don’t be surprised if you see these celebrations stop in the near future. Teams will start telling players to stop the huddle celebrations because of the possibility of an injury. This type of celebration is fine if you just won the World Series, but kind of stupid for just a regular season win anyway. There are safer ways to celebrate a regular season win.

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Remember when you could tell teams apart because the home team wore white-based uni’s and the road team wore gray?

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7 Days until Opening Day