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The New York Yankees have released their 25-man roster for the American League Division Series which begins Wednesday in Minnesota. While most of the roster is as expected, there were some decisions manager Joe Girardi needed to make.

Girardi has chosen a three-man starting pitching rotation for this series. CC Sabathia will start Game One on Wednesday, followed by Andy Pettitte and Phil Hughes. Hughes gets the home start in Game Three on Saturday in Yankee Stadium.

A.J. Burnett, the struggling starter, is on the roster and could be used out of the bullpen. Javier Vazquez, starter turned reliever, has been left off the first round roster. This is interesting as Vazquez could have been useful out of the bullpen. Burnett is not the type of pitcher you would use in a tough spot.

The only reason I can see for taking Burnett over Javier Vazquez or Ivan Nova is the question marks surrounding Pettitte and Hughes. Burnett provides insurance in the situation that Pettitte struggles through his latest injury and Hughes does not perform well.

The bullpen will have just one left-hander in Boone Logan. Royce Ring had an outside chance of making the roster as a second lefty specialist but Girardi decided against that. The Minnesota Twins have a lefty heavy lineup.

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According to reports, manager Jerry Manuel and GM Omar Minaya will not be returning to those roles next season. Jon Heyman of SI.com released the news.

This should not be a surprise of anyone around baseball as the two men have been under fire last past two seasons. With yesterday’s loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, the Mets are assured a second straight losing season.

An official announcement by the Mets is expected to come before the Major League Baseball playoffs begin on Wednesday. The 2010 regular season ends Sunday.

The organization holds an option on Manuel’s contract and will not be picked up.

Minaya appears to have options. While he will not return as General Manager, Minaya is expected to be given an opportunity to take on a different role within the organization. Would anyone be surprised if that roles is something like Latin American Scout, or a general Scout?

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With three games remaining in the regular season, the New York Yankees likely need to sweep the Boston Red Sox in order to win the American League East. That’s not officially the case, it just seems like it will be needed.

The Tampa Bay Rays lost their series opener against the Kansas City Royals last night, forcing a tie atop the division with the Yankees. While the Yankees are in Boston for three games to close out the season, the Rays have three more against the Royals.

If the Yankees are to win two of the three games in Boston, the Rays would have to win just one of their remaining games. Does anyone really think the Rays will loss two of three to the Royals?

To win the division the Yankees must finish a game up on Tampa Bay. The Rays hold the season tiebreaker between the two clubs.

Tampa Bay will face Bruce Chen, Kyle Davies, and Sean O’Sullivan. Not exactly a fearsome trio. Of the three, Chen has the best numbers this season at 11-7 with a 4.45 ERA.

In the three games against Boston, the Yankees will face Daisuke Matsuzaka, Clay Buchholz, and John Lackey. New York has not announced its series finale pitcher, but Andy Pettitte and A.J. Burnett are scheduled to pitch the first two games.

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After clinching a playoff berth on Tuesday, Yankees’ manager Joe Girardi did a little rearranging in his pitching rotation. The Yankees pushed scheduled starter Andy Pettitte back until Friday, likely lining him up better for the postseason.

Taking Pettitte’s turn in the rotation was the inconsistent Javier Vazquez. The righty had a chance to push the Yankees into first place in the American League East. It could very well have been Vazquez’s last chance to make a case for a playoff roster spot.

He blew it.

Vazquez lasted just 4.2 innings, giving up seven runs on ten hits including three home runs to the Toronto Blue Jays. He also walked two and did not strike out a single batter.

With a strong start, Vazquez may have been considered for the fourth starter spot in the starting playoff rotation. While that was a long shot, he could have at least made a case for a bullpen spot.

Any roster spot seems unlikely after this latest rough outing. Vazquez has pitched in five games during the month of September, with three of those appearances as starts.

In those five games, Vazquez has given up 18 runs and 24 hits in 18.1 innings. He has struck out just 10 batters the entire month.

For the month of September, Vazquez is 0-1 with a 8.84 ERA, certainly not playoff type numbers.

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Last season, the New York Yankees were able to ride through the playoffs with a three-man rotation. This year’s staff is not built for that. The Yankees will likely need a regular four-starter rotation when the playoffs begin.

This causes a dilemma for manager Joe Girardi. Who is going to be the fourth starter? CC Sabathia is the clear ace and will get the ball in a Game 1 and pitch as often as possible. Following Sabathia will likely be Phil Hughes and Andy Pettitte, in that order to split up the left-handed pitchers.

After those three, however, the choices are unflattering. A.J. Burnett stands in that spot at the moment, but does anyone really trust him?

Burnett is just 10-15 with a 5.33 ERA this season. His latest outing, last night against the Toronto Blue Jays, could have been a confidence boost for both Burnett and the Yankees. The righty took the mound with the chance to help his team clinch a playoff birth.

Instead, Burnett could not get out of the third inning after giving up seven runs, all earned, in 2.1 innings of work. The Blue Jays pounded Burnett, giving the Yankees yet another disappointing start from their high-paid starter.

A 7-7 record and 4.75 ERA before the All-Star break has gotten worse. Burnett is 3-8 with a 6.19 ERA since the break.

As the regular season gets closer and closer to ending, the Yankees had hoped Burnett could turn his season around. Instead, he has pitched to a 6.14 ERA in the month of September.

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Last night in a 7-2 loss to Tampa Bay, Yankees manager Joe Girardi brought in relief pitcher Royce Ring, who was making his debut this season after pitching in Triple-A for most of 2010.

Ring was very effective and efficient, so should Girardi include Ring on the postseason roster?

All three of the teams the Yankees could potentially face in the playoffs—Tampa Bay, Texas, and Minnesota—have big name left-handed batters. The Yankees currently have just one lefty specialist in the bullpen, Boone Logan. In his first season on the Yankees, Logan has pitched well particularly against lefties.

Logan has given up 15 hits in 19.2 innings against lefties and sports a 1.83 ERA. He has struck out 29 batters while walking just nine. Sure that’s all fine and good, but the Yankees will need more than one pitcher to face the tough lefties late in games.

It may not matter too much, as it appears the combination of Kerry Wood, Joba Chamberlain, and Mariano Rivera will control the seventh inning on. It would be safer though to have a second lefty specialist available.

Ring had a terrific season in Triple-A. In 52 appearances, the lefty pitched 42 innings, giving up just 35 hits while walking 11 and striking out 39. He had an overall ERA of 1.93 this season for Scranton. Against left-handed batters, Ring allowed just 18 hits and struck out 26. Left-handed batters hit just .202 against him.

Some of the left-handed hitters the Yankees will face in the postseason may include Dan Johnson, Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena, and Brad Hawpe from Tampa Bay, Josh Hamilton, Chris Davis, and David Murphy of Texas, and Joe Mauer, Jim Thome, and Jason Kubel from Minnesota.

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Making his first start in nine days, Phil Hughes was dominant for four innings. Perfect actually. He wouldn’t be perfect on this night. In fact, he wouldn’t even get his team a victory, thanks to Dan Johnson.

The Rays designated hitter who spent last season playing in Japan needed two swings to carry his team to their second win in three games against the Yankees.

Third baseman Evan Longoria led off the fifth with a single off Hughes. Two batters later, the Yankees starter made his first mistake. Johnson belted a two-run home run to give the Rays a 2-1 lead.

The Yankees would fight back after an acting session by shortstop Derek Jeter. Rays’ reliever Chad Qualls threw a pitch. All you saw at first was Jeter immediately grab for his wrist and appear to be in severe pain. The Yankees’ captain was quickly checked out by manager Joe Girardi and trainer Gene Monahan.

The next batter, Curtis Granderson, drilled a two-run homer of his own to put the Yankees ahead by a score of 3-2. Replays showed the pitch to Jeter never touched him. The ball hit directly off the knob of the bat. So, at this point, the acting job by Derek Jeter allowed the Yankees to take the lead.

Phil Hughes would come back out for the seventh inning. Since he looked so dominant outside of that one pitch to Johnson, it was hard to argue with Girardi’s decision to leave his young starter in the game.

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The Yankee left-hander has started 40 postseason games in his Major League career. In those games, Andy Pettitte is 18-9 with a 3.90 ERA. He also has five World Series rings.

How could a pitcher with that résumé feel a responsibility to a minor league team?

Well, it’s simple. Andy Pettitte needed to pitch a rehab assignment. The Yankees’ Double-A affiliate, Trenton Thunder, is in the playoffs.

How about that for a lift for a playoff team? You will be starting Andy Pettitte in Game 2.

Even the major league Yankees would be happy with having Pettitte start a pivotal game in the playoffs. That is exactly what Pettitte is working his way towards.

Pettitte pitched four scoreless innings against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats last night, allowing just two hits and striking out four. It was his first appearance in a game since going on the disabled list with a groin injury on July 21st.

The lefty did not walk a batter, throwing 37 of 51 pitches for strikes.

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Since being moved to the bullpen to work on mechanics, the performance of Javier Vazquez has improved. The Yankees are now seeing the type of pitcher they thought they were getting last offseason. His performance has improved enough for the righty to get another shot in the starting rotation.

Now is the time to find out if Vazquez has truly figured out his problems or if he is just better in the bullpen. If he has figured it out, Vazquez could be a very important piece to the Yankees puzzle down the stretch and into the playoffs.

Fellow starters A.J. Burnett and Phil Hughes have struggled of late. Andy Pettitte is still working his way back from a groin injury. CC Sabathia has been the ace but is due for a bad game at some point. Dustin Moseley is just treading water and getting by until Pettitte can return.

Is Moseley better than Vazquez? NO. Is Burnett better than Vazquez? NO.

Joe Girardi needs to insert Vazquez back into the rotation and see if he can provide a boost. Find out what you have and who gives you the best chance to win. Swap Vazquez and Moseley. Or even swap Vazquez and Burnett.

A mechanical flaw in his windup seems to be fixed and the velocity on his pitches is up a bit. Could this just be a case of being in the bullpen? Sure, but let’s find out.

In his last nine innings of work, Vazquez has given up just two runs on four hits. It is also obvious that Vazquez is pitching with more confidence again. The team looks confident in him once again. That says a lot.

It’s time. Javier Vazquez deserves another chance.

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With the New York Mets’ season becoming more and more dreary as the days go by, the team made a few roster moves right before the waiver wire trade deadline. A trade and a few call ups will give the Mets a chance to see some young guys play the remainder of the year.

Since the return of Carlos Beltran, Mets right fielder Jeff Francoeur has been unhappy. Unhappy with being sent to the bench. He wore out his welcome in New York. Always a fairly class act, Francoeur just did not produce this season; one of many Mets player you can say that about.

The right fielder has been traded to the Texas Rangers for infielder Joaquin Arias. The Mets may end up with the better of the deal. Arias is a young player that many believe has great upside. For some reason he was unable to put it all together this season in Texas. He will likely get a chance to play a bit here in New York.

The Mets have recalled pitcher Jenrry Mejia from Triple-A. The team has not announced yet if the 20-year-old  will start on Saturday or be used out of the bullpen. In his last start for Triple-A Buffalo, Mejia looked strong, going eight innings with nine strike outs, allowing just one run. He took a perfect game into the sixth inning.

Mets manager Jerry Manuel will likely make a decision on Mejia after the pitcher goes through a bullpen session today with pitching coach Dan Warthen.

The Mets have also called Lucas Duda from Triple-A. The power hitting 24-year-old outfielder will get some of the playing time now available with the trade of Francoeur.

I wonder why Duda was not given a chance sooner. In 70 games for Triple-A Buffalo, Duda hit .314 with 17 home runs and 70 RBI’s.

Mets fans should keep tuning in to SNY and watching the games. From here on out, you will get a chance to see some of your young players. Maybe, you’ll get a glimpse of what next years team could look like. On second thought, maybe you won’t want to do that.

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