Mussina brightens up the place
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Feb 21, 2008 
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Mike Mussina’s locker is in a dark corner of the clubhouse, up against a cement wall. To brighten the place up, he hung a poster of an open window overlooking the ocean.
Then somebody else hung a curtain over the window and added a little shelf. Martha Stewart it’s not. But it was good for a laugh.
Meanwhile, Andrew Brackman shaved his head. If you’re 6-10, 260 pounds, might as well shave your head.
LaTroy Hawkins was walking around in a “Joba Rules” t-shirt.
If you’re 6-10, 260 lbs, you can do anything you want.
Gotta love the new improved Moose. Angry and bitter is no way to go through life.
Also glad to see Hawkins is on the Joba train, that’s as good a way as any to become accepted in that clubhouse.
I love a good sense of humor in the clubhouse
I guess Hawkins didn’t find any LaTroy Rules T’s so he put on a LaJoba Rules T.
Pete take a picture!! We keep joking in our office that we need to hang a picture of a window since we are away from them.
“Gotta love the new improved Moose. Angry and bitter is no way to go through life.”
This is going to sound crazy, but perhaps Moose was never angr and bitter to begin with. In fact I’m going to go out on a limb and say that someone who plays a kids game for a living, and has made over 100Mil dollars while doing it is not angry and bitter at all.
Brackman being 6-10 and 260, he could hold you down and shave YOUR head if he wants to.
ryan howard won $10M his first arbitration! makes wang’s request look a little less ‘above the market’ doesnt it?
http://ap.google.com/article/A.....gD8UUOVM80
Jennifer – I’m pretty sure the sportswriters aren’t allowed to take pictures in the clubhouse
“This is going to sound crazy, but perhaps Moose was never angr and bitter to begin with. ”
you’re wrong. every morning that Mussina wakes up and has to pitch on irregular rest, he murders a puppy.
that’s what Michael Kay told me anyway.
Y’s Guy – How does Ryan Howard’s (slugging 1B) have anything at all to do with Wang’s (starting pitcher)? Teams usually set arbitration numbers by looking at comparable players in the past and what they got.
“ryan howard won $10M his first arbitration! makes wang’s request look a little less ‘above the market’ doesnt it?”
Uh, no. It’s apples and oranges. Ryan Howard put up arguably the best numbers ever for a first time arbitration eligible position player. That’s why he got 10 mil.
Wang was being compared to his contemporaries including Scott Kazmir among others and he got more money than Kazmir. Therefore he was paid above his market.
“you’re wrong. every morning that Mussina wakes up and has to pitch on irregular rest, he murders a puppy.
that’s what Michael Kay told me anyway.”
I realize this but I was just trying to be different and say Moose isn’t angry. lol
Sounds like there’s some early chemistry in the clubhouse. Great to hear.
Patrick, I think you’re right. Pete said so in his comments about comments.
So glad to hear all these reports of fun and humor on the team. I’ve never followed the clubhouse action or even ST so closely before this season, can anyone tell me if this sense of unity and unbeatness is pretty common this time of the year or is it something new?
here’s my reasoning:
howard is great, but wang’s won more games than any pitcher the past 2 yrs, so in my mind howard cant be more than twice as valuable as wang.
“ryan howard won $10M his first arbitration! makes wang’s request look a little less ‘above the market’ doesnt it?”
it’s all about precedent.
for hitters, Miguel Cabrera set the precedent at $7.5M. Howard has an MVP and tons of HRs/RBIs and all the other good things the arbiter might look at.
so all Howard’s people had to do was make a case that Howard should make more than Cabrera, which if you focus on things like HRs and RBIs, was not a difficult case to make.
the arbiter can only pick one number or the other.
one was less than Cabrera, one was more. he picked the higher. had the Phillies submitted $8.5M, they probably would have won.
that said, the Phillies, LIKE THE YANKEES, did not want to set a NEW precedent. so they offered less than Cabrera and took it to arbitration.
same with the Yankees. $4.6M for Wang would have set a new precedent.
everyone focused on the fact that it was “only” $600K, but it was a little more complicated than that.
I heard Kay say that Mike wouldn’t dump a dixie cup of water on him if he were on fire.
“howard is great, but wang’s won more games than any pitcher the past 2 yrs, so in my mind howard cant be more than twice as valuable as wang.”
i hear you, but when we are not talking about free agents, this piece of information is kindof irrelevant.
market value for arbitration eligible players is not the same as market value for free agents.
Wang can’t go into an arbitration hearing with salary data for power hitting 1Bmen. he is comparing himself to other pitchers. and for whatever reason, the market value of elite starting pitchers in their first year of arbitration is around $3-4M.
Supposedly Girardi’s message to the troops yesterday was this team is a family. Guess Moose is just sprucing up the house.
Great stuff Pete. Man am I glad I found this blog this offseason. I’m thinking it’s going to make the whole season more enjoyable (if that’s possible)
raymagneticâ„¢, you wrote of Mussina: “I’m going to go out on a limb and say that someone who plays a kids game for a living, and has made over 100Mil dollars while doing it is not angry and bitter at all.”
I disagree. Moose was surly, perhaps afraid that he wasn’t the youngster with Baltimore anymore. Then there are such as Barry Bonds, Pedro, and Piazza. I suppose anyone can be bitter and miserable.
Pat… JoeG says the Yankees are a family?
Wow! Someone call Stargell and Dave Parker and queue their old Sister Sledge them song.
Seriously, the family stuff won the ’79 World Series from the Bucs, and the Yankees have on paper the better team.
I’m not sure Moose has ever been miserable, but I like that he seems more relaxed and jovial in his outward behavior this year. He’s always had a dry sense of humor that no everyone appreciates, and there have been some comments, like the Pavano ones, that have raised some eyebrows, but he’s always been a fun guy. Did anyone see his Yankees on Deck spot last year?
I love that Hawkins was wearing that. He’s going to fit right in.
That’s funny, we have the same poster in our office. A converted copy room. Someone needs to give me a red stapler!
Mark Alan
The family theme- everyone is responsible for everyone else in here and will always have the other persons back- seemed to work for the NY Giants this year.
A ride up the Canyon of heroes would be a nice way for the Yankees to end their season too.
As many have said you cannot compare Wang and Howard in terms of what they were asking for, what they got etc.However what makes this really scary from the Phillies perspective you better sign this guy long term soon as this was his first year of arbitration and he keeps going at the pace he is going he will be getting really mega dollars each year of arbitration and by signing him to a deal yhou actually might be able to save some dollars. I heard that Howard was making the case not to be compared to Cabrerra in terms of his numbers but was looking at Arod kind of numbers and comparisons in the hearing. Either way nice increase from 900K to 10 mill in one year.
Pete you gotta take a picture of LaTroy in the Joba Rules shirt next time, if it’s as awesome as I think it is, I would make it my background!!!
Y’s Gay – howard is great, but wang’s won more games than any pitcher the past 2 yrs, so in my mind howard cant be more than twice as valuable as wang.
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First off, you NEVER rate a pitcher on WINS. RJ won 17 games in 2006 (5.00 ERA) and Kazmir won 10 (3.24 ERA). Who do you think was the better pitcher in 2006?
Howard has had an OPS of 1.030 over the last 2 years, which is better then ARod, and might be the best in baseball. In terms of ERA, over the last 2 years, Wang has been something like 20th.
Realistically, if you have to pick 1 stat for evaluating a player, OPS+ and ERA+ would be better.
LOL Pete !
Moose is probably trying to brighten his day after the Onion dug up those awful memories of him serving up a walk-off meatball to you in the recent Yankees vs. Media game. He was probably trying to block the horrible memories!
Can’t wait til Brackman finally gets on a mound. It’s a shame he has to lose a full year but then again, if he was healthy, he probably would have been a top 10 pick and Yanks would never have had a shot at him.
If only I could get Pavano to buy a “Pavano Tough” t-shirt off me.
mussina isnt a bitter guy, in fact he is supposedly one of the funniest players in the game and fun to be around