LATEST TEAM INFO:
Tonight's game against the Orioles was rained out, Mussina will start tomorrow against Livan Hernandez. The Yankees are 2-4 in the last 6 games dropping two games to both the Red Sox and Orioles. Torre was clearly frustrated after Monday's 4-3 loss to the O's and had a closed door meeting immediately following the game. The Bombers responded by winning the next game and scoring 13 runs, but followed that up with another 4-3 loss. The Yankees are now 3.5 games behind the Red Sox in the AL East. The rainout will shift the rotation, here is my best guess at how it will shape up. The current rotation will be Mussina (Fri.), Lilly (Sat.), Clemens (Sun.), Wells (Mon.), and Hitchcock/Thurman (Tues.). Pettitte is scheduled to return this upcoming week, Tuesday is probably too soon for his return, so look for him to make his first start in place of Lilly's rotation spot.
LOCAL PERSPECTIVE:
Juan Rivera was called up and started in RF on Wednesday. The Yankees' brass is fed up with Spencer's inability to claim the RF job and they prefer Vander Wal as a bench/platoon player. Spencer and Vander Wal have struggled particularly with runners in scoring postion. The RF job is Rivera's to lose. He's currently batting ninth in the lineup and hit a double in his first game this year.
Should you add Juan Rivera to your fantasy squad? To be honest, it's hard to say how he will produce in the bigs. Upon departure from AAA, he was hitting a robust .328 in 186 ABs, 18 2B, 6 HR, 33 RBI, 2 SB. Those would be nice numbers for one of your fantasy OFs and there is no question the kid can drive the ball. What scares me is that he has 3.375 K:BB ratio (27 Ks/8 BB) this year. I have a feeling that while he'll enjoy some success, major league pitchers will exploit his large strike zone. However, there are some sluggers that do well despite a poor K:BB ratio. Alfonso Soriano's K:BB ratio was 4.13 last year and is 7.75 this year which is significantly worse. However, I feel players such as Vlad Guerrrero, Juan Gonzalez and Soriano are the few exceptions that are successful without walking very often. What does this all mean? Joe Torre on Rivera, "He has something that you can't teach. He's got the ability to hit the ball to all fields. He seems to have the ability to make adjustments during a time at bat." I think that's a bit optimistic of Joe. I think Rivera needs to improve his batting eye before he'll have continued success in the majors. I doubt he'll be an impact fantasy player this year (especially batting 9th). I said these same things about Soriano last year (and was very wrong). I'm not going to be adding Rivera to my squad, but if you want to take the gamble, go ahead. There are much worse players to take a chance on.
RUMOR MILL:
If Rivera can't handle the job, look for the Yankees to make a deal for a star RF.
INJURIES:
El Duque has been playing catch on the side and threw 70 pitches off the mound, but not at 100% velocity. Pettitte will have his last rehab start on Friday and will return to the Yankees rotation this week.
ON THE FARM:
Mike Thurman will probably be sent back down when Pettitte returns.
I'll update you on some numbers here:
Drew Henson: .286 AVG/ 29 R/ 8 HR/ 29 RBI/ 9 BB/ 65 K
Juan Rivera: .328 AVG/ 33 R/ 6 HR/ 33 RBI/ 8 BB/ 27 K
Marcus Thames: .218 AVG/ 26 R/ 6 HR / 20 RBI/ 21 BB/ 31 K
LINEUP
This seems to be the lineup of choice. Soriano still isn't drawing walks.
1. Soriano
2. Jeter
3. Giambi- flipped spots with Bernie, no real impact
4. Williams
5. Posada
6. Ventura
7. White
8. Johnson
9. Juan Rivera- hopefully he's the solution.
QUICK VIEW:
Add:
Juan Rivera- Definitely worth a shot in AL-only leagues and deep ML leagues. In all other leagues, proceed with caution. Most rookies don't pan out fantasy-wise.
Drop: Hitchcock- isn't getting a shot at starting.
Hold: Giambi, Jeter, Posada, Soriano, Ventura, and Williams; Mussina, Pettitte, Clemens, Hernandez, Wells and Rivera.

Correspondent's Note:
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