PinPonPun

While I was unable to make it to the final game at Yankee Stadium I did score some tickets to the second-to-last, penultime, game against the Orioles on Saturday, September 20th. It was an exciting walk-off win, 1-0, and somber fun was had by all.

Click through below to visit my flickr album of pictures from the game:

On Sunday the Yankees, on way to a 13-0 rout of the Houston Astros, suffered a terrible blow as their ace, Chien-Ming Wang, injured his foot while running home from 3rd base.

Diagnosed with a “mid-foot sprain of the Lisfrance ligament of the right foot and a partial tear of the peroneal longus tendon of the right foot,” perennial 19 game winner and staff ace Wang will be wearing a protective boot and stuck on crutches for at least the next six weeks. Assuming all goes well, he’ll then require some time to get back into pitching shape; by Peter Abraham’s estimation Wang will be out, at the minimum, for ten weeks.

So what are the Yanks to do?

Needless to say, many fans and pundits alike speculate a knee-jerk trade for an ace (C.C. Sabathia anyone?) but this is no longer George Steinbrenner’s team. As shown during the Santana negotiations this winter and the public words of the outspoken Hank Steinbrenner (as well as his more subdued brother Hal) indicate more patience than we’ve seen in the past.

This season alone, we’ve already seen the team willing to fill holes from within; when relievers Brian Bruney and Jonathan Albaladejo went down with injuries, Cashman filled their roles with internal pieces (Edwar Ramirez and Jose Veras) rather than overpay for a middle reliever. With Posada out, the Yanks turned to their backup Molina. When he went down, they found Chad Moeller on the wire. Jeter and ARod also missed time and were filled with internal tools.

All told, the Yankees have faced innumerable obstacles this season and yet their record, (37-33), is not far off from where they stood in 2007 (35-35) or 2005 (37-33) when they made it to the playoffs. (Though, in the interest of disclosure, their run differential this year is slightly worse than either of those years.)

The hole created by a missing Wang obviously needs to be addressed; still, it represents approximately 18 starts between now and the end of the season.

SG over at RLYW breaks down the ramifications of this, considering the more likely internal replacements and compares those to what Sabathia might provide while over at WasWatching they take a look at what the Yankees will need to replace Wang. LoHud also goes over the options.

To me, it sounds like there are plenty of options before the Cashman resorts to a blockbuster trade for Sabathia — remember that Indians’ GM Shapiro is the same mastermind that received Grady Sizemore, Brandon Phillips, and Cliff Lee for a Bartolo Colon rental — and some time to explore the numerous internal options before pulling the trigger on such a deal.

Who knows, perhaps Dan Giese can be the next Aaron Small or there’s a Shawn Chacon or Cory Lidle out there to be had for a song.

(Personally, I think that the Yanks should at least inquire about Rich Harden; as wise as A’s GM Beane is, he’s always struck me as fairly reasonable and I’m sure a deal could be had without giving up on too many high ceiling prospects. Yes, Harden is always at risk to hop on the DL but when he’s throwing, he’s truly dominant — and it’s that DL risk that might allow the Yanks a light discount.)