HE'S ON FIRE!!! NBA Jam was a great game, and like the exceptionally effective characters in that game, "Tiger" Wang has officially reached "he's on fire" status. Wang had perhaps his most dominant start in what has been a stellar AAA stint by going 9-7-0-0-2-8-0 on Friday night. His overall AAA numbers are now 40.1-31-9-9-8-35-3. This recent stretch is Wang's most dominant since owning the NYPL a while back. It has been so good that Wang has gone from being amongst the "dead" Yankee pitching prospects, in my mind, to moving near the front of the class. When the IL-playoffs are over, I would like to see him get a shot in the bigs. Another starter that has been as dominant as Wang is Brad Halsey, albeit with lesser physical talent. As far as my feelings about Halsey's ML aspirations, those are well known, so I would just like to take the time to point out that on Thursday he went 6-1-1-0-4-7-0. His final AAA regular season line is 144-128-46-42-37-109-8. Performance-wise, I have no complaints. Robinson Cano was 0 for 4 with a strikeout in the Halsey game. That Navarro was promoted without much hand wringing and Cano is still in AAA despite having a superior statistical performance speaks volumes. These are the types of moves that allow for insight into management's thought process and it seems like the Yankees really do foresee Navarro being a significant contributor down the line. Cano, on the other hand, will have to show more. TLE™ had a good start on Thursday, 7-7-2-2-1-7-1. With his struggles with overall consistency and the long ball, yet overwhelming strikeout rate and good control, I think Ramirez would be an absolute stud reliever. Though at 22, and a converted OF, he still has time to figure out the whole SP thing. Sardinha hit 3rd again on Thursday and disappointed again. By going 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts, though he did play errorless defense, he was demoted to 7th for Friday's game. Hitting 7th he was 1 for 4 with a single. Tampa played Thursday, but may not be playing again for a brief bit due to hurricane concerns. To be exact, the rest of their regular season has been cancelled and their next game will be their first playoff contest. Having a franchise in the FSL seems really wasteful to me considering all the weather concerns that need to be managed. Then again, having a facility like Legends Field there does tie you to the spot. I guess I can't help be jealous of the other High-A leagues getting their schedules in. Anyway, in the game that Tampa did play there was more negative than positive amongst the players that matter. Melky Cabrera's downward trend continued as the CF was 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts. I have to assume that Cabrera's struggles may not be as bad as they look statistically since he is still holding on to the 3-spot despite not doing much, but hitting the occasional single or home run as of late. Eric Duncan, on the other hand, is closing the year strong. The 3B was 1 for 3 with a double, a walk, and a strikeout. Duncan has 20 doubles in just 173 FSL at bats. This is after hitting 23 doubles in 288 MWL at bats. On the year his outstanding extra base hit numbers total 43 doubles, 4 triples, and 16 home runs. I think it's fairly certain that Duncan begins '05 in AA. If the Yankees keep him there the whole year, I feel fairly certain he will lead the league in homers. Whatever "it" is, Duncan has it. Rudy Guillen's night was close to Melky's. The RF was 0 for 4 with a strikeout, which dropped his average to .264. Guillen also has outstanding raw power, according to scouting reports, but has not been able to show it in games as much as Duncan has. Like many Yankee affiliates, BC is in a playoff-run. Unfortunately, it seems they picked the wrong time to hit a snag. The goal for the team was to finish second, gain playoff entrance, and take it from there. Instead they have been losing to the worst team in their division. The blame for this is both for the offense and the defense (re: pitching). Tyler Clippard and Abel Gomez, the losers of the last two games, have both had very good years, but did not end them on a positive note. Clippard had one of the worst outings of his pro career, 3-5-5-5-3-0-0, really battling his control, and Abel had one of his lesser outings this year, 5-5-4-4-4-6-0, also battling his control. Though it must be said that it is more normal for Abel to battle his control than it is for T-Clip to do so. Both pitchers seemed to tire down the stretch, which is bad news for the BC Yanks because if they were to make the playoffs, they're who you would want to go to war with at number 1 and 2. Nevertheless, in the scope of full-season debuts both teenagers have much to be proud of. For the season, Clippard finishes 149-153-71-57-32-145-12 and Gomez finishes 142.2-115-73-58-73-149-7. Unless my math is more off than normal, this places Gomez as the '05 organizational strikeout leader, with T-Clip tied for 2nd. Not too shabby. The Erold Andrus .300 dream is over. Following my publishing of what he needed to do to reach the magical mark, the CF responded by going 1 for 9 with 2 strikeouts. Hector Made, for whom I did not make similar proclamations, did well. The SS was 3 for 9 with 3 singles and a walk. With 3 games left in the season, I think the new goal for both players should be .290 (I am knocking on wood as I type this to avoid further jinxing anyone). Made, hitting .283, would have to go 7 for 12, assuming 4 at bats per game. Andrus, hitting .287, would have to go 5 for 12. Jesse Hoover started the Friday SI game and struggles with his control led to a short, but somewhat impressive outing. The big right-hander went 3.2-2-1-1-3-7-0. This is his final appearance of the year and his final line is 55.2-28-14-11-26-90-0. That would make him 2nd in the league in strikeouts, which is amazing considering that the leader only managed 11 more strikeouts in 20.2 more innings. If his control develops... Tim Battle was 1 for 3 with a double, a walk, and a strikeout on Thursday and then 0 for 2 with a strikeout on Friday. Estee Harris was 0 for 4 with 3 strikeouts on Thursday and then 2 for 3 with 2 doubles and a strikeout on Friday. Harris is still having similar problems to what he had in the beginning of the year at BC, but has rediscovered his power stroke. The organization leader in strikeouts will be under pressure to perform in '05. Battle on the other hand will look to really take off in '05 and I think he will succeed. *** Questions, comments, suggestions to minoryankeeblog@hotmail.com   ¶ 2:09 PM