Yanks notes for this Friday afternoon

Reading some of this might help kill the hours between now and quitting time.

Ed Price points us to some quotes from Ian Kennedy and Dave Eiland about the youngster’s start tonight in Anaheim:

“I feel real good lately,” Kennedy told the Times-Tribune of Scranton, “and I’d like to take that up there.”
…

“His command’s been a little bit better,” said Eiland, who watches video of the Triple-A pitchers. “And he’s commanded his slider a little bit more, it’s more consistent, with the tilt to it. He’s not hanging as many, he’s more consistent, he’s got a better feel for it. That just comes with repetition.”

The Angels will trot out Jered Weaver, who got knocked around last time against the Yanks. Here’s to hoping they can hit another four homers off him tonight. It would surely help out Kennedy, who could use some run support in his return to the show.

In the same piece, Price shares a quote from Girardi on Melky:

“The important thing is that (Cabrera) gets on base,” Girardi said, “and that’s what we need him to do more of.”

That’s the important thing for everyone. But the sentiment is appreciated.

Ivan Rodriguez is set to start tonight, despite his bruised knee. I’m a big fan of the youngsters going with Molina behind the plate, but if Pudge is going to be the regular catcher, you might as well have him work with Kennedy, who hopefully can reclaim his permanent rotation spot over his next few starts.

Dave Laurila of Baseball Prospectus sits down for a chat with Pat Venditte. The whole thing is a good read, but here’s a pullaway quote:

From the right side, I rely a lot more on my fastball; I throw a curveball but rely heavily on my fastball. From the left side, I rely predominately on my slider, which I throw from a low three-quarters slot, and an occasional fastball. I don’t have as much velocity from my left side, so I have to do certain things to equal it out. One of those things is being able to locate offspeed pitches, which is one thing I really need to do in order to get hitters out.

Finally, I’m not sure why this turned up in Google News, but it’s a Jack Curry article about Don Mattingly wanting to be traded 1991. It stemmed from the infamous “cut that hair!” incident, which also included closer Steve Farr, starter Pasqual Perez, and catcher Matt Nokes.

“Maybe I don’t belong in the organization anymore,” Mattingly told reporters after the Yankees had defeated the Royals, 5-1, without him. “I talked to him about moving me earlier in the year. He said we’ll talk at the end of the year. Maybe this is their way of saying we don’t need you anymore.”

Yeah, good thing that never happened.