From Peter Abraham:


Gotta love it.

Peter Abraham shared a press release announcing the Yankees signing of Gary SouthShore RailCats pitcher Edwin Walker. The RailCats are in the Northern League, where the Yankees just plucked Yurendell DeCaster from.

Walker is a lefty that has a 3.26 ERA in 19 and 1/3 innings with 29 strikeouts over 16 appearances. He'll be reporting to Single-A Charleston.

On his Twitter, Mark Feinsand of the Daily News reports that the Yankees have acquired Eric Hinske from the Pirates for minor leaguers Casey Erickson and Eric Fryer. Hinske, 31, is hitting .255 this season.

OurSports Central reports that the Yankees have purchased third baseman Yurendell DeCaster from the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks of the Northern League. He's 29 and was hitting .344 with 13 home runs and 43 RBI through 37 games. The article says that he'll be reporting to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Peter Abraham has some cool audio from Mariano Rivera's session with the press last night after he collected his 500th save. Read on for a more personal note from Abraham about the closer. Very nice.

As an aside, Mr. Rivera was also honored as the co-American League Player of the Week. Congrats.

Jim Salisbury of The Philadelphia Inquirer talks about potential buyers and sellers at the trade deadline. Of interest, he says:


It's hard to see that happening just because we shouldn't give up on Wang and it's simply a bad time to trade him. In the right deal, sure, but the right deal isn't likely to be offered.

Via Diane Firstman.

Mariano Rivera was ESPN's Sunday Conversation (nice timing, ESPN) and, in honor of his 500th save, they also premiered a feature from Tim Kurkjian called "The Great Mariano Rivera." Check them both out below for some Mo related goodness.



As a bonus, check out a recap of last night's game, with comments after the game from the man himself.

MLB.com's Anthony DiComo (twice) and Bryan Hoch as well as Erik Boland at Newsday have reflections from players and Joe Girardi on the career of Mariano Rivera, following his the collection of his 500th save last night. There's some good quotes in there from Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte, Trevor Hoffman and others.

Mariano Rivera did something that only one other person (Trevor Hoffman) has done before, which is pick up the 500th save in his career, as the Yankees capped off a sweep of the Mets with a 4–2 victory Sunday night.

Aside from the amazing milestone, Rivera also walked in a run to record the first run batted in in his career. All three of the Yankees' other runs came in the 1st inning.

Chien-Ming Wang allowed 2 runs in 5 and 1/3 innings and got his first win in what was probably his best outing to this point in the season. Wang turned it over to Phil Hughes, who pitched an inning and a third of scoreless ball. Brian Bruney also recorded two outs before handing the ball to Mo in the 8th for a four-out save.

I've never been a huge fan of the save as a stat, but it certainly takes more than just any old pitcher to record 500 of them. This is Mariano's 14th year as a Yankee reliever and his 13th as the team's closer. For him to reach 500 saves means that he has had to record 36 saves per year over 14 years, even assuming he doesn't record another save this season. That number is just insane, especially considering the shelf life of most relief pitchers in baseball.

The Yankees will have Monday off before finally returning to American League baseball as they'll take on the Seattle Mariners Tuesday evening. Joba Chamberlain will take the mound for the Yanks and his counterpart will be Brandon Morrow (I didn't even know he was a starter). Game starts at 7:05 ET.

Recap records: Patrick: 21–11, Seamus: 17–14, Andrew: 5–7

Marc Carig reports that, according to a Major League source, the Yankees interest in Rockies closer Huston Street is, in Carig's words, "serious."

According to that anonymous person, Brian Cashman reached out to the Rockies possibly as early as the middle of May and the Rockies have been looking over the players that the Yankees have in the Minors, in anticipation of a potential deal.