Free Bartolo Colon! Time for Him to Take Phil Hughes' Place in the Rotation

Signing Bartolo Colon wasn't exactly a Brian Cashman move I was crazy about this winter, but the pitcher has actually shown some value so far this year. And given that he has had to come to the rescue for every single Phil Hughes start, I think it's time to put him in the rotation, and Hughes in the bullpen to work out his issues.

I don't think Hughes is afraid, or can't handle starting, or anything like that. He's built of pretty strong stuff. But the Yankees can't hope to have great walk-off wins like last night to salvage every Hughes debacle!

Going to Colon in the fifth was the right move last night, as Ed Valentine of Around the Empire noted. He said he was "shaking [his] head in disbelief" when Michael Kay thought the Yanks had too quick a hook with Hughes. You and me both, Ed!

Oh, and how about that play at the plate last night?

Loved that Nick Swisher hit the sac fly to give the Yankees the walkoff win. He seems to enjoy the pie thing more than any other Yankee.

Speaking of Swish, have you seen the commercial he has with Jonathan Papelbon for Norelco? The best part of it is that the ad plays off on Swish being likeable and amiable (even Squawker Jon digs him), but Papbelbon comes off as, um, kind of a jerk!



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Jon Heyman Criticizes Nick Swisher Over Slide, Tweet

It was great to see the Good A.J. Burnett pitch for the Yankees yesterday -- he's now 2-0. There was one sad thing in the win, though. Nick Swisher's slide into Minnesota Twins second baseman Tsuyoshi Nishioka (you can see the video here.) ended up knocking the player out of the game -- and breaking his leg. It seemed like a clean slide to me, and the Twins agreed. But it's a tough blow for the Japanese-born player in his first week of MLB.

Anyhow, Swisher did all the right things, as the Minneapolis Star-Tribune notes:

Swisher visited Nishioka in the X-ray room.

"The first thing I said was, 'I'm sorry, man. I thought you were going to jump,' " Swisher said. "And he said, 'It was my fault. I should have gotten out of the way.' I was just trying to break up a double play. I didn't mean to do that. Especially with a guy like that, just trying to make his mark over here."

Nishioka said he appreciated Swisher's apology but didn't feel it was necessary.

Added Gardenhire: "[Nishioka] just got caught a little flat-footed. Swisher's a clean player. That's just a good baseball slide, trying to break up a double play. There's no intent there."

The article also notes that Nishioka even apologized to Gardenhire for the play!

It looks like there's no bad blood between the Twins and Yankees over this, and best wishes to Nishioka on a full and speedy recovery. But there is at least one sportswriter who took issue with Swisher -- Jon Heyman of SI.com. On Heyman's Twitter account, he first wrote:

I'm sure all the yankee honks will come after me, but I didn't love that swisher slide. Too late. Best wishes to nishioka

Then he wrote this, retweeting a Swisher tweet after the game:

wheres the remorse? remember nishi? RT @nickswisher Great series win for the Bombers today ... Off to Boston baby!

I like Heyman -- he's emailed me replies when I've written to him, and tweeted back several times. He talks to fans a lot, and is accountable, which is good. And I do like his writing, and I enjoy hearing him on the radio.

All that being said, I think he is way off base here. He has a right to his opinion on the slide, but to gripe about Swisher not showing remorse is a bit much. (Heyman later acknowledged the possibility that it might not have been Swisher himself writing the tweet. But he still thought the post was wrong.)

Are journalists going to start demonizing players not just for not talking for them, but not showing what they deem to be sufficient remorse on their Twitter accounts? Good grief.

And, as I wrote Heyman on Twitter last night, plenty of journalists in newsrooms make black-comedy jokes about tragedies that are much worse than what Swisher did. When I first visited a newsroom in college (my professor was a TV weatherman who gave us a tour during a broadcast) he warned us that we might hear some offensive jokes, because that was the way journalists sometimes coped with horrible stories -- by cracking wise. And Swisher didn't even do that -- he just posted an innocuous tweet about winning the series and getting ready for the Red Sox.

It's a touchy thing when something bad happens. When my father died, I laughed at something somebody said during the wake, and was also delighted to see an unexpected face. Would somebody view that as not sufficiently mourning?

I suppose Swisher could have specifically tweeted his apology. But really, it makes no difference -- he apologized in person, which is the important thing. Whether or not he referred to it on Twitter is irrelevant to me.

At any rate, I don't want Swisher dwelling about what happened, if it constrains him as a player. What if, the next time he is supposed to slide, he is unable to do, because he's afraid of inadvertently hurting another player?

There are a lot of dopey things athletes do on Twitter. What Nick Swisher did wasn't one of them.

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Nick Swisher to appear on "Better With You," his wife Joanna Garcia's show

Was in the midst of writing about the Baseball Hall of Fame votes when I saw something really important -- Nick Swisher is going to have a two-episode arc on "Better With You," the hit ABC show starring Swish's wife, Joanna Garcia!

I read the news on the new site TVLine. Michael Ausiello of the site reports:

Sources confirm to me exclusively New York Yankee Nick Swisher will play himself in two episodes of Garcia’s underrated freshman ABC sitcom Better with You.


The arc kicks off during February sweeps when Ben (played by Josh Cooke) is involved in a mishap with Swisher during a home game. From that moment on, their paths continue to cross.

 Have no idea what the mishap will be, and I've never watched the show, but I'll have to check it out. Have any of our readers watched "Better With You"? What's it about?


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Nick Swisher talks about Derek Jeter and "Movember"

FOX Business Network let me know about Nick Swisher's appearance (see video here) on their network to promote Movember -- the month where men grew facial hair to raise cancer awareness. (You can read more about this here.)

He told FBN's Cheryl Casone and Ashley Webster this about Derek Jeter:  “I could not see him in any other uniform than the pinstripes.”

Here are some excerpts from the interview. Transcript is courtesy of Fox Business Network.

On whether Derek Jeter will return for another season:


“He’s the face of the franchise. He’s done so much for this team, so much for the city, and so much for the game of baseball. Who knows what’s gonna happen, but I could not see him in any other uniform than the pinstripes.”

On the Yankees 2010 season:


“We had such an amazing season this year, we kind of tailed off toward the end, but hey we had a great team didn’t work out for us, but I know that that hunger’s gonna definitely be there next year. It’s a wonderful team, wonderful opportunity, and any time you get to put the pin stripes on every day, life is great.”

On New York:


“I love it here, hopefully I’ve found a home.”


On the difference between a New York fan and a West Coast fan:


“Everything is different. There are no fans in this game that are like the New York Yankee fans. I’ve never been around a group of more loyal people in my entire life and to be able to go out and take the field every day with that pride, honor and tradition…it’s been an amazing couple of years.”


On involvement with charity Movember:


“What a wonderful opportunity to team up with Movember and The Art of Shaving to help raise cancer awareness. For myself, losing my grandmother from cancer and my mother going through Leukemia right now, it’s definitely an honor.”

Nick Swisher sez he's bleeping tired of talking about Cliff Lee

ESPN New York is making a whole to-do over Nick Swisher cursing (shocker!) when asked yet another question about Cliff Lee. Good for Swisher, I say.

Here's what happened (hat tip to Was Watching for the link.) Swisher overheard Andrew Marchand asking his teammates about Lee. Swisher responded:

With the Yankees facing Texas Rangers starter Colby Lewis in Game 6, Swisher did not take kindly to a reporter asking teammates a couple lockers down about Lee.


You guys are talking about Cliff Lee?" said Swisher out loud in a room full of reporters. "[Expletive], who cares?"


As he walked off, Swisher said, "I can't wait to hit against his [behind]."

OMG, a ballplayer cursed! Twice! What is the world coming to? What about the children? (And yes, I'm being sarcastic here.)

The story continues:

Later, when asked about saying this out loud with reporters present, Swisher cut off a question when the words "Cliff Lee" were uttered.

"I'm not talking about Cliff Lee," Swisher said. "I don't give a [expletive]."

A few points:

* Whenever you hear a writer refer to what "a reporter" said, nine times out of ten, "a reporter" is really the reporter writing the story. I don't know why sportswriters keep with this silly, passive convention; it does not serve the reader. And indeed, it is the case here; Marchand's ESPN colleague Wallace Matthews confirms that Marchand was the one to ask the question. Matthews also writes that Swisher was openly tired of the Cliff Lee questions as early as last Saturday.

* As for Swish's response, what's the big deal here? Swisher's response is exactly what I want to hear from him. And I don't give a bleep that he cursed to reporters, and offended their delicate sense of being (yeah, because we all know that the harshest word any sportswriter will say is "gosh darnit"!) What is Swisher supposed to say? That he's really, really scared to face Lee, and the Yankees are just terrified? C'mon now.

* Why don't the reporters worry about Game 6 before raising the OMG! Cliff Lee Is Pitching Game 7 specter? Then again, they raised it after Game 2, so that would be too much to ask for!

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I watch one pitch -- and it's Nick Swisher's walkoff homer!

I completely forgot that the Yankees were playing in the afternoon yesterday. Then I saw something online about them losing 2-1 in the bottom of the ninth inning, and I hurriedly rushed to put on the TV. I saw only one pitch. And it had a great result! Nick Swisher hit a walkoff homer, exactly one year to the day that he hit a walkoff homer to win a game for the Yanks against the Orioles the year before.

Squawker Jon actually grudgingly gave Brian Cashman credit for something today -- picking up Swisher! Jon also made a comparison between Swisher and Jeff Francoeur. Only thing is, Swisher is having another great year as a Yankee, while Francouer is, um, no longer a Met!

Oh, and how about Buck Showalter? Anybody who thinks managers don't matter ought to see what these Orioles are doing. They very nearly swept the Yankees this week, and look like a very different team than the one Jon and I saw in Baltimore this June. Too bad the Mets didn't fire Jerry Manuel, and hire Showalter!

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