New additions to the blogroll
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Jul 21, 2007 
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My tech guru, Jeff, added some new links to the blog roll over to the right. I urge you to check them out when you get a chance.
The BaseLine Report is a new site from former Yankee Mike Pagliarulo and Adam White. I had a chance to meet Mike in Tampa earlier this month and he is a smart guy with a lot of opinions and information.
Yankees Chick is a blog by, you guessed it, a woman. It has been around for a while and she is quite amusing. She describes herself as a “brunette babe” and that works for me.
Baseball and the Boogie-Down Bronx is a new blog that was nice enough to link to us.
If you have a Yankees-related site and want a link, send me an e-mail. I can’t guarantee immediate action but we’ll get to it eventually. A link in return would be appreciated.
LOL! Good job putting the Yankee Chick up here Peter. I always check out here blog. Its on point and entertaining. Not to mention she is beautiful. I’m trying to see if I can bring here to a game but guys that look like you and I Peter just have no shot with a hottie like Maureen. Anyway, at least you have an in. LOL! Good luck.
Thanks for the link!
As for the “brunette babe”, that is a phrase packed with lies. I’m not really brunette anymore, and I never was a babe. A more accurate description would be something to the tune of “some semi-coherent ramblings from a girl whose appearance may or may not burn your very retinas”.
That said… thank you for the support!
The BaseLine Report’s report card on Cashman was one of the dumbest things I have ever wasted my time reading.
She’s prettier than I am…
uhoh seems like Jennifer has some competition
Adam and Mike also wrote one of the worst articles about baseball I’ve ever read.
Their evaluation of Cashman included gems such as;
‘Without proper insurance on the major league or AAA roster, the Yankees were forced to rush prospects’ –
Erm no, Pavano, Wang, Mussina, Karstens, DeSalvo, Sanchez, Rasner and others all got injured. No team had more potential starters, only a crazy injury rash led to Hughes and Clippard getting called up.
Leading to the comment -
‘Rule 1 about promoting prospects: Call up insurance players when they’re needed and prospects when they’re ready.’
No rule number one is put out a team every day. Sometimes you have to do things you dont want to in order to achieve this.
‘Phelps was a low-risk/decent reward kind of guy, but it didn’t work out, so Cashman must be held accountable’ –
The GM should apparently be held accountable for a low risk move. (Add your own joke here).
About Ohlendorf – ‘He has back problems, but the Yankees haven’t figured that one out yet. A little digging on their part would have revealed this!’
I doubt the Cash bothered to research his medical history, request his records from the DBacks or even have a medical done. If only the took the time to do a little digging huh? Just irresponsible writing.
Viz – ‘To project him as a setup man for a championship team was interpreted wrong in the Yankee reports’ (has this sentence been wrongly interpreted from Russian?)
That would be the guy who has been lights out for the last two months claiming the 8th inning from Farnsworth and Proctor.
Randy Johnson – ‘When healthy in 2006, Johnson gave the Yankees their best chance of having a dominating start’,
When he managed to stay off the DL he had a 5+ ERA!!!! To get rid of his contract (which freed up cash for Roger) I’d have traded him for Viz straight up, heck I’d have traded him for a fungo bat. C minus, erm I think not. Sanchez will be our new set up guy when he comes back. He could start but we have other options there, I’m thinkin he’s the new Jenks.
And instead of signing Clemens (who has helped keep our season alive) we should be investing in scouting and signing international players. As if the Yankees dont spend way more money than any team on this already. And this after initially criticizing Cash for focusing on improving the farm system while trying to remain competitive.
Apartently it is impossible to do while remaining in the race, cos noone can build a farm system unless it is already built. If you can work that one out.
Cash has set the team up for the next 10 years. Pitching wins championships and only Detroit and maybe Minnesota can even come close to competing with our young pitchers. This years team would be top of the division if the everyday players had hit close to the back of their cards and 3/4 of our pitchers hadn’t gotten hurt. And I’m not giving up hope yet!!
Plus the system is filling up at the lower levels again with more great prospects, soon all levels of the system will give Cash great options for our club as well as great chips to move.
I could go on and on since I disagree with about every word in there.
I read everything I can find about the Yanks, but I’ll never look at that site again. Just terrible, irresponsible writing and poorly formed judgements. F-
Pete please stop promoting it!!
Glad I got that off my chest
Could you link to my River Avenue Watch
http://riveravenuewatch.blogspot.com/
Brian M, it sounds like you work for the Yankees.
Brian Cashman absolutely should be held accountable for Josh Phelps’ failure because no one in their right minds thought an outright bum who hadn’t played in two years would someone be reasonable solution. What kind of general manager enters the season with a team built to be a contender and a horrific first-base platoon of Doug Mientkiewicz and Josh Phelps? One who’ll be working at Arby’s next summer, that’s who.
As for your take on Russ Ohlendorf:
“I doubt the Cash bothered to research his medical history, request his records from the DBacks or even have a medical done. If only the took the time to do a little digging huh?”
Then why did he acquire damaged goods? You’re not helping him with this argument here. Same goes for Humberto Sanchez, who already had a history of arm problems before the Yankees acquired him. Cashman’s offseason average was worse than Wil Nieves’ numbers — another great acquisition, by the way.
I hope, for Cashman’s sake, these prospects work out, otherwise he’ll be on the set of ESPN next summer sitting next to Steve Phillips and the rest of the failed GMs who couldn’t handle the job. The Boss gave him the keys to the Porsche this summer and he promptly wrapped it around a telephone pole.
If Mike Pags is a “smart guy”, he’s hiding that fact quite shrewdly in his blog.
Frustrated Fan –
If there was a good alternative at 1st base, I’d agree with you, ut there really was nobody available as a free agent or possible trade. Cashman went with the best free agent available – Minky. His D has justified this choice and his offense is enough to get by. Given that he isn’t going to set the world on fire offensively though and since we have a lot of lefty hitters in the lineup he wanted to have a right handed option at 1st. Not a bad idea.
I think everyone at the Yankees feels Phillips has more to offer the team than he showed last year, but given his personal situation he wasn’t an option coming out of spring training. As Cashman said at the time – for $20k why not give yourself a chance to get lucky with Phelps. He performed well in spring and earned a shot, at least until Phillips could take another run at it, or the market offered some new solutions. As it is, it looks as if Wigginton is about to join.
If Minky hadn’t gotten hurt, Phelps wouldn’t have played nearly as much as he did. Minky was starting to hit OK as well. The 1st basemen this year weren’t supposed to be our offensive producers. Everyone goes on about how it has to be a productive spot for the team, but when you are paying huge dollars to have huge production from spots like SS and 3B which are historically not positions you get a lot of offense from, then you have to make comprimises. The offenseive problems we had we early on were the fault of Abreu, Cano, Damon, Matsui. They were the ones not hitting anyhere near to the career numbers.
As for Ohlendorf, just because someone gets hurt after a trade, doesn’t mean he was damaged goods when he was aquired. He will probably come out of the pen and looks like he could be a solid reliever. Sanchez was a risk because he did have a history of arm problems, but the potential rewards were huge and we had (at the time) a lot of cover at SP so Cash rolled the dice. Loads of people thought he was just going to release Sheff so anything he got was basically a bonus. He took the contract he didnt want or need and turned it into 3 legit prospects. Sanchez will probably be converted to a reliever as well when he comes back because he throws so hard and we have other options to start now. I’m guessing he could be our set up guy in 09 when he is fully fit.
I’m not saying everything Cashman does is right. I’m hoping he trades some of the mid level pitching prosepcts now while their value is highest, since they have real top prospects blocking their path to the NY team, but it doesnt look like he will. I dont like signing Igawa (although I understand why he did). And he is perhaps a liitle too hesitant to shake things up sometimes. I’m just not ready to savage him for not having a crystal ball, forseeing injuries and people hitting .050 under last years numbers. He made logical moves, some paid off well, some didnt, some it is too early to judge. But he has a coherent plan and that is the most important thing. The club has a direction which will build a foundation for the next 10 years.
But he hasnt crashed the Porsche, hes spent a little time getting it turbo charged. Next year Chamberlain and Hughes will be in the rotation. With Wang that it the best young 1,2,3 in the league. Horne and Marquiz would be the top prospects on most ball clubs but struggle to make our top 5. Have a little faith, and a little patience. Good times await.
Also thinng again about the ‘you cant build a farm system unless it is built’ comment in the report, I think they were saying it takes more than a year to achieve that.
This is what people have to remember when they judge Cashman as well. When the current crop of top prospects come up to NY, the system below them is being restocked like never before.
These guys will be in NY for a long time. But the team continues to use its financial power to draft hard to sign guys out of slot, and sign the biggest available international prospects. This means that the system is likely to be among the most productive in the league for years to come. It will also give us better trade chips than ever since we can now not only take on big contracts, but actually offer top prospects (and have the depth that we wont be leaving the cupboard bare).
Imagine Oakland’s system for the last 10 yrs if they had the cash to resign their top guys AND top free agents. That is what is coming to NY. That is Cashman’s goal, not overpaying for a slightly above average 1st baseman with a contract he’ll spend the next 5 yrs regretting.
(by the way Frustrated Fan it may sound like I work for the Yankees but I don’t, although if Cash is reading this and wants to talk…..)
Brian M,
Good job bouncing the Porsch reference right back at me.
Well done, friend.