The Sunday Links
-
- July
- 6
Mike Mussina sweated out the final moments of a 2-1 victory against the Red Sox yesterday. The Moose could be an All-Star.
Rick Carpiniello looks at what impact Brett Gardner could have on the Yankees.
Johnny Damon seems headed to the disabled list. This notebook also has updates on the All-Star selections, a “fight” over Joe Girardi’s office, seven hit batters, Jorge Posada, Joba Chamberlain and Jose Molina.
The Sunday Baseball Beat implores Terry Francona to make Mariano Rivera the All-Star Game starter. The notes also take a look at Pedro Martinez’s slump, the silly A-Rod situation, interleague imbalance and other tibits from throughout the game.
The minor-league notebook this week looks at a Yankees fan who changed his tune when the Red Sox drafted him. Brian Heyman has the story of Peter Gilardo.
——————
Sox-Yanks close out the series tonight at 8 p.m. on ESPN. Check back later for the All-Star Game rosters, reaction on the picks from the Stadium and, of course, the lineups.
This entry was posted
on Sunday, July 6th, 2008 at 2:44 am by Peter Abraham.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Share and Enjoy: 
| 
Print This Post
| 
Email This Post
guess that will end any chance of Damon making the All Star Team.
shucks.
If Francona makes Mariano the starter I have ALOT of respect for him
no way should Rivera be starting. he’s a closer, period.
i want to see him coming into to pitch the 9th inning (preferably in a save situation or to close out an AL win) with “Enter Sandman” blaring and Yankee Stadium going nuts.
and I have no problem with Terry Francona managing the game at Yankee Stadium, the man is a class act and has handled everything with dignity.
Why bring up another pitcher if Damon goes on the DL when the bench is short? Was that a typo? That means Betemit is our 4th outfielder?
i have to admit, being a Yankees fan, it’s really tough having a guy like Terry Francona being the Red Sox manager. He’s one of my favorite guys in baseball. I also really like Mike Lowell and couldn’t help loving that video of Papelbon and Delcarmen singing during that rain delay, it was such a classic (even though Papelbon is such a clown it’s almost pathetic)
If a Red Sox manager had to be the home team manager of the last big, publicized game at Yankee Stadium, I guess I’m grateful it’s him…
As for the Rivera situation, I’d rather have him ready to close. I couldn’t live with having Papelbon in there instead, because we all know in which position Rivera has had all his success the past dozen years. I’d prefer if Cliff Lee wouldn’t get the start because that’s almost insulting, considering that he’s only had this success for half a season, and though he does need to be rewarded, I think this is a little too much for a guy whose success is only in 15-ish starts. Plus I have this sinking feeling he’d get bombed out there.
If anyone is going to start this game, it’s gotta be a respected guy who’s had success before and has earned it, like Roy Halladay (omg is he way overdue for a Cy or what)
I think Pete said the extra pitcher had something to do with all the rain delays, though my personal opinion is that with all the garbage we have up here, it’d be nice to see one of the great relievers we have down in the minors get a shot (I’m thinking along the lines of JB Cox, who I remember in spring training of I think ‘05 everyone was raving about…)
Not that I’m comfortable with the position players we have on the roster either…
why is Halladay over due for a Cy? He won one a couple of years ago.
also – I’m tired of these late night games on ESPN. I bet it will be sunny and nice all day long tomorrow and rain all night and a game that could have been played during the day will get washed out instead – book it, that is what ALWAYS ends up happening.
If the Yankees can’t turn todays game into some kind of winning streak there is no hope for them. It would be nice to finish off the first half with, let’s see how about 7 more wins
anyone want to place bets on whether or not the last game at YS becomes a sun nite espn broadcast?? i might as well kill myself.. maybe yes can do their own broadcast and somehow work their way out of the espn-only rights?? ughh, how frustrating and disappointing that we need to listen to miller and morgan during the last game at ys
Rayblay-
it’s only the last game if we don’t make the playoffs.
So I guess it’ll be our last game.
When doing something doesn’t even make sense it’s usually not a good idea. Starting Rivera isn’t a good idea for a ton of reasons.
First, as everyone with two eyes has seen, he has been awful in non-save situations this year. Does anyone here want to see Rivera get hit in the all-star game at Yankee Stadium?
Second, no one’s going to remember the starter. The last three outs of this memorable all-star game are going to be much more memorable than the first 3. Anyone other than Rivera closing it out wouldn’t make sense, nor would it feel fitting. Are you going to honestly tell me you don’t want to see Rivera come out in the 9th to enter sandman in his home ballpark to get the last three outs of the last ever all-star game there?
lol, I didn’t even bother to mention that logic that went into that post… I’ve already decided that I’d be satisfied if we just didn’t even finish 3rd, don’t even care about playoffs cause it’s just not possible with the way this team is currently constructed
Oh and Pete, that article would be great and all if it wasn’t completely overlooking FACTS. “That’s just his modesty talking. Rivera would never ask for this honor or campaign for it.” Uh right, did you see what he said? He said he should be doing what he does best. One minute you’re preaching about how bad he’s been in non-save situations and the next you’re saying he should start the all-star game and he’ll automatically send them down 1-2-3. Are you crazy? Did you forget what has happened almost every time he’s pitched in non-save situations this year? Just by shear performance reasons you would have to say that starting him is a very silly idea, let alone the last 3 outs are the memorable ones, especially if the game is close.
ARod gets it with both barrels, Sunday!!
The NEWS has a front page interview with his mother-in-law.
Playing catch-up, the POST says he’s “brainwashed” and “reveals” his weirdo Kabbalah practices.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/07062008/frontback.htm
It’s none stop comedy!!
RayBlay, I’m sure you know about the construction of teams. I’m sure you looked at the “construction” of the ‘07 Yankees (which is strikingly similar to the ‘08) and said “based on the way this team is constructed I believe they are going to come back from a 14 game deficit”. Yeah, THAT’S believable.
Was the NY Post always a tabloid or has it only been in recent times that the “news paper” has become an utter joke?
The POST has always been a tasty tabloid.
http://www.nypost.com/contests/headlines/vote.htm
dfox, i can’t say that i can account for exactly how i felt about the roster at this point last year, but i can identify the feelings in the pit of my stomach, and i sure as heck know i was a lot more confident a year ago. i will say i have become a pessimist over the past year in all aspects of life, and it may have been because i was more naive about it, but take a look at this team:
offense – sure to improve, like last year
bench – awful ( esp. with damon going on dl): betemit the k-master, no backup of-er (obviously after the as-break this will no doubt improve); nobody on the roster to pinch run in late situations, nobody to come in for defense in tight games
starters – pettitte is becoming unreliable, moose is good but be realistic, how long can this last, joba is joba, he’ll have some outings where you just can’t get so much length out of him because he can’t throw strikes but generally he’ll be pretty great… as for the rest of the rotation, ponson’s sure to be dfa’ed soon, and rasner will probably be sent down. i don’t even know where giese fits into this mess, but i’d be willing to bet that we’ll see ipk in the next month
bullpen – i admit that despite my pessimism i have faith in farnsworth. no idea where it comes from, but he doesn’t worry me. mo is mo, ‘nuff said. veras, we can only wait and see. don’t hold your breath on edwar ramirez, folks. as for latroy hawkins, every team needs someone to mop up in blow outs… robertson also we have to wait and see
now my comment was about the current look of this team. my everlasting enthusiasm about the youngsters leads me to believe we’ll be seeing some fresh(ish) faces in the coming months, including bruney, britton, jb cox, ohlendorf (if he’s used correctly), etc…
maybe a trade or 2 to solidify the bench (a la a molina or craig wilson [not that i liked him as a player but the move was almost necessary.. hey now that i think about it, look what happened to the guy we gave up for him haha]...) like last year and a starter slightly better than ponson (even if from the farm – karstens, horne) and you could be in last year’s position. but the parts NEED to work together or its pointless
DFox, if you’d check the numbers on Rivera’s appearances in “non-save games”, you’d see that he’s had 13 such games. He’s allowed one run in three of those games. Math isn’t my strong suit, but, 77% is just slightly worse than most closers save percentages. NYY is 31-5 in Rivera’s games, with 2 wins, 23 saves. Maybe you’re correct. He’s a bumb if it’s not a save situation.
RayBlay, when did Pettitte suddenly become unreliable? was it after the last loss, or during the his 4 previous starts when he allowed 3 runs and had 6 straight wins? I always get confused when trying to remember the definition of unreliable.
my personal definition of unreliable is 9 wins with a total of 1.64 ERA and 9 losses/no decisions with a 7.34 ERA losses/7.20 ERA no decisions
Well, I’ll take an unreliable Pettitte any time for a starting spot in my rotation.
Hey, I’m not saying I don’t want him in the rotation, I’m just trying to make a point (maybe it wasn’t clear) that he’s not ace material anymore – he’s not going to go out there every time and throw a quality start… he’s more like a #2/#3 – we don’t have a true “ace” now that Wang is gone
Pettitte was never a “true ace”. Whatever the Hell that is. That’s the most assinine tag anybody ever thought up. It ranks right there with “clutch”. Pettitte does what a pitcher is supposed to do. Pitch well enough to win. He’s being doing that for 13 years. No losing seasons.
asinine
*asinine*
The Arod circus can’t be good for the team. He may be one of the best ballplayers of our time, but if all the newspaper stories are true, then he comes across as a jerk of a person. Maybe it would have been better to let him opt out and go somewhere else. All that money could have surely bought a few good players.
Rodriguez is the least of the Yankees problems. It’s narrow minded people that love labeling/tagging players with names that are the problem. Instead of swallowing the gossip with pleasure, be more concerned with his production on the field. If the 6 other position players (Jeter, Cano, Posada, Cabrera, and Matsui) were producing any where close to their normal numbers, the Yanks would be in first place now. You act like Rodriguez is trying to steal whatever spotlight Jeter has remaining. I doubt that Rodriguez reallly cares about Jeter’s spotlight. Rodriguez is not the problem on this team…it’s lack of production.
Okay, let me clarify again… maybe I shouldn’t have used the word ace because he was never considered one anyway (after all Wang was opening day starter, won over 40 games last 2.5 years, etc)... My point is we have nobody to anchor the staff…
Now if we can get past the “ace” argument and look at his numbers, opponent batting average is .289 (he’s on pace to give up the most hits in his career). You cannot constantly depend on him getting out of a jam, which I remember him doing a lot of this year compared to last. His ERA+ is 96. Last year it was 110. This is the first time in his career it’s been under 100.
I don’t care who A-Rod is or what he does off the field (though I will say that this whole celebrity/kabbalah thing is complete BS… real kabbalah is something only older, wiser jewish people study that is extremely complex and difficult to understand)...
With A-Rod, the bottom line is that he produces. That’s it! Compare his BAA with Jeter’s this year… who do you prefer? Power numbers? GIDP? Who’s won more MVPs? Who’s on pace to help the Yankees fill the new stadium once its ‘newness’ wears off by hitting 800+ home runs? etc, etc…
Madonna is an ego driven cougar. A 50 year old retread whos has deluded Arod (who is not the sharpest guy) into thinking they are soulmates.
i doubt that Madonna has a soul, and and she is as close to Kabbalah as Arod is to Einstein.
That’s where you’re wrong. I expect Pettitte to do exactly what he’s always done. He allows a good amount to hits, very few walks, low home run totals and he gets double plays, but, he wins. He’s a pitcher. To say that he’s “never had an ERA+ below 110 is BS. He’s had it before and has gotten it back to his norm. Why are you using crap like that with a half of a season left? Is it your assumption that he will only get worse? If that’s the case, what do you base this psychic revelation on, anyway?
I have a friend who works for the Kaballah Institute who once directly reported to Madonna. She’s the real deal, Vrsce.
Onto last night, we won because of a superhuman effort by our pitching staff. We cannot expect that from them every night, or even half of that. The linep does not play 1-9 baseball and is showing its age more than ever.
It’s time for Brian Cashman to show his muscle and bring back some young position players for whatever tradeable veterans we have. We did not do a bad thing by concentrating on development of young pitchers, but the need has simply shifted. We’ve been losing to teams who, on an individual player level, were not better than us, but played collectively better, since 2001. It’s time to become one of those teams again, as that was who we were when we won four championships.
“it’d be nice to see one of the great relievers we have down in the minors get a shot (I’m thinking along the lines of JB Cox, who I remember in spring training of I think ‘05 everyone was raving about…)
Cox may trun out to be good, but you call him one of the great releivers
The guy is a soft thrower, we do not know how his stuff transaltes into success at ML level. We have one too many soft throwers already in the bullpen and they are not doing that great, may be with the exception of Edwar.
There is too much gossip about A-Rod in the NY tabloids. They basically make up things and write rubbish to sell the papers. A-Rod himself did not say any thing that should be held against him. Take every thing you read with a grain of salt.
Now, A-Rod went through the same with Stripper case last year. Still he had the best year of his career. In spite of all his faults, he is able to separate his off-field issues and produce on the baseball diamond. He is doing the same this year. If he was not as hot as he was after he came back from the DL, the Yankees would be sellers by now. Direct your displeasure on the team’s performanace where it really belongs…. and you know who they are….
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2008/07/05/2008-07-05_with_tampa_atop_division_yanks_and_red_s-2.html?page=1
It may just be, however, there are so many holes in this leaking Yankee clipper that Cashman may have to conclude he’d be better off trying to be a seller at the deadline, especially if it’s possible to procure some legitimate prospects for the still-barren farm system.
LOL the top 5 ranked farm system is still completely barren. Since his insider access has been cut off from the old man and Hank has clearly warmed up to the post writers, madden has turned into Lupica.
RayBlay (from much earlier in the moining),
Sadly ESPN has already picked the last regular season game for a Sunday night game.
a. I said below 100, which is factually correct
b. my assumption is that he gets slightly better because he is a second half pitcher, but that does not mean that he is going to be dominant… look at this stat:
vs. righties, OPS=.897, BAA=.341
Home ERA=5.03
Do any of these numbers make you the slightest bit nervous? The fact that when there’s a guy on first the opposing BAA=.348 OPS=.981
In late and close situations OPS=1.091
Third time+(4th, 5th etc) through the order OPS=.838
His ERA against Tampa Bay is 6.19, against Boston 9.64,
OPS when Jorge’s catching is .891 (he’s caught the most games Pettitte’s thrown of the 3 catchers)
Do these numbers imply that we are dealing with a pretty reliable pitcher? I don’t know…
Stephen M., I just typed up a whole bunch of very bad words and then erased them (I don’t want to be banned) and muttered under my breath some nice things about ESPN. Of course, you can’t fault them, but can’t they cut us the least bit of slack!?
BBFan – I wouldn’t say Edwar’s doing too great… I mean, he’s been pretty good the last few games but you can never be too confident sending him out. Other than him, who are the soft throwers? And when do you think we’ll be seeing Cox (if at all)?
Sorry, Rayboy. I’m not real big on being a “the sky is falling” guy. You can wring your hands over a 4+ ERA (cherry picking at it’s finest) until you tie your fingers in knots, if that makes you happy. Why don’t you come back at the end of the season and you can give me your best “I told you so”.
*4 ERA+ increase*
Joba is WAY better than that wiffle ball pitcher of theirs…our lineup is about to start MASHING consistently….No more Losses until after the ALL STAR GAME…..GO…FIGHT….WIN !
“There’s certainly nothing wrong with adding a guy who can play some small ball, can bunt and run, can play some defense, too, can work a pitcher and a count, can make a defense shift around.”
well that’s a big ,”DUH”.
there has been little rhyme or reason to the yankee bench for years.
first of all bench players should be added that take advantage of yankee stadium.like daryl strawberry for example.
on that note the yankees are two games above .500 at home while tampa bay and the red sox are over 20 games over .500 at home.
yankee stadium is a very unique place. how do you not build a team around it ? one stinking lefty pitcher most of the time. no big lefty bopper off the bench. players like graig nettles were built for yankee stadium. how many players do the yankees have who are built for yankee stadium? is there a maris? a left handed hitting home run hitting catcher like johny blanchard off the bench? a whitey ford, jimmy key,tommy john that eats up opposing teams lefty hitters? how about two lefties in the rotation?
in 1996 the yankees had three lefties in the rotation. jimmy key, andy pettitte, and kenny rogers. you don’t think that negated an opposing lefty lineup that would be thrown in to take advantage of yankee stadium ?
does cashman even think of things like this? if he does, where’s the proof of it? the team does not seem to have any advantage at home in the way the red sox and tampa bay have.
they built their team around their stadiums. the yankees must be built for scranton. they sure aren’t built for yankee stadium.
If the Yankees veterans, who were being counted upon to score runs to support a known-to-be-imperfect pitching staff, were performing closer to expectations, it could be argued the Brian Cashman could/should do something at the trade deadline to shore up the team. However, unless the veterans turn it around, it can now be argued that there is almost nothing that Brian Cashman could/should do that will make that much of a difference.
There really is no rhyme or reason to why the offense this season is underperforming with RISP to such a huge extent. Therefore, there is no rhyme or reason for everything to just turn around of its own accord after 4 days off in the middle of July.
This season simply makes no sense, and any real effort to try and make it make sense it just hashing and rehashing statistics that tell you what is going on, but not why it is going on.
So, let’s see what happens. It sure doesn’t look promising, but in the same way, if you go back to March/April, it didn’t look like it was going to be quite this dismal.
To enter the argument about Pettitte, what he gives you each and every time out is an opportunity to win because of his competitiveness and his talent. He’s not going to win every game and he’s not going to have his best stuff every time, but I doubt there are many pitchers with more sheer will to win on the mound – there may be quite a few with as much, but not many, if any, with more. It can also be argued that this season Moose has been the anchor since the beginning of May – the guy who REALLY gives you the opportunity to win.
It is on the offense right now to take advantage of those opportunities.
(I would also say that I doubt Madonna is the “real deal” on anything! She is the ultimate opportunist.)
Why are you so insistent on the fact that I think Andy Pettitte is bad, done, horrible, no longer capable of pitching? It may be hard to believe, but I brought up those stats (which brings me to my original point) to show that you’re just not necessarily going to get a quality start from him every time. (There are 45 pitchers who throw a higher percentage of quality starts than him.) Which means the starting staff is really shaky when you note that he’s our most established and reliable veteran starter. Opposing hitters can get their hacks and we don’t have anyone else that we can rely on much more. So, as I stated with my original post before you started getting all defensive, I said Pettitte was becoming unreliable when I was discussing how the Yankees couldn’t make the postseason with the way the roster is currently constructed. My simple point: our pitching staff makes me a little bit uncomfortable, Pettitte included. He needs to step up with Wang out, I guess with the young kids who were at least supposed to pitch in the rotation no matter how it turned out; he’s basically the only pitcher, set to start and be in the rotation since spring training for sure (Moose was the 5th/6th guy if I remember correctly), left in the rotation. Maybe that means his current performance is just not enough…
Randy l –
Maybe they should have thought about ARod, although it could be said his HRs can go anywhere.
Maybe they shouldn’t have made the new Stadium to the exact same specs! After all, Babe Ruth isn’t here anymore.
Randy l –
Giambi and Damon were signed, I believe, with one of the factors being the short porch in right. But I’ve read that the temptation of the short porch in right is one of the things that killed Giambi’s overall BA. And Damon’s job is more to get on base than hit lead-off HRs.
And a question: do you sign a less-than-great leftie starter hoping that Yankee Stadium will make him better than he is?
Randy, absolutely amazing. You’re probably the only person anywhere that’s aware of this. Fire off a letter to Cashman and the Steinbrenners immediately. Don’t forget to advise them of where these types of players can be had. also include the cost in money and talent. That will make it look like you have thought things out thoroughly, and, not just some rantings.
Arod sounds like one screwed up dude. He better still hit is all I can say. It is funny that the person in the article said arod seems like he is in a trance or brain washed. I recall when Katie Holmes started to date Tom Cruise, friends of hers said she seemed brain washed and in a trance. there is something very strange about that so called ‘religion’.
I don’t care how REodriguez prays, if he prays or if he believes in the the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus. If he thinks it relaxes him and he produces runs and winning baseball, that’s all I care about.
Andy Pettitte just went through one of the better stretches of his recent career prior to his loss the other night.
How can somebody be “done” If they just did that?
This is why the stats only crowd loses me. They quote stats without any context whatsoever and believe the stats are the only thing that matters.
You use statistical analysis as a gauge, not as the sole reason to determines one’s value. Especially when you cherrypick the stats. Which most of the people who quote stats religiously do all the time.
Is Andy Pettitte a Top 5 pitcher in the AL? No. He also isn’t “done” either.
If he is, explain to me how he had just won 5 starts in a row (prior to the other night) on a team that has no offense?
You can cry in your beer about Pettitte, the pitching staff and Cashman all you want.
The #1 reason this team is struggling is the offense.
Its July 6 and they are on pace to score over 200 runs less than last year. Their avg. w/RISP is 40 points less than it was at the same time last year. Their walks are down almost 20% from last year.
In 44% of their games this year, they have scored 3 or fewer runs. They did that in 20% of their games last year.
We are talking about a massive dropoff in offensive production. Particularly on a day in, day out basis.
All you have to do is watch the games to see it.
You can’t expect any team’s pitching staff to have to win 1-0, 2-1, 302 games all the time.
Several years ago, Elias did a statistical study of one run games. What they found is, over the course of a season, they even out. In other words, if you play in enough of them, you will be on or around .500 in those games.
Meaning, you better score some runs and win games by more than one run if you expect to be a playoff team.
This team has to hit. If they don’t, Cashman would be a fool to trade good prospects to try and prop up them up this year.
Folks should read Joel Sherman’s column today to get some insight into the Yankees thinking for the future. It will clear up a lot of misconceptions that are spewed on here on a daily basis.
I just took a look at the NY Post. Oh brother. What a mess.
With whatever is going on between A-Rod and C-Rod, all I have to say is that I hope they remember their kids…
Anywho, there is always something special about Joba games. Hopefully he has a better outing today than his last time out there. Oh, and maybe the yanks will score more than 2 runs?
doreen-
giambi was really a gap hitter before he came to the yankees so he wasn’t built for the stadium.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/NYY/
take a look at ‘96 -’98 and look at the rotation. lefty starters, pettitte ,key,rogers, and wells.
it’s interesting to look at the rosters of those years to see how poorly this team is put together compared to then.
green beret7-
ranting?
you’ve been around long enough to know this team is not built for yankee stadium. take a look at the above link and you judge if this team is built with the thought that those teams were built around.
how do you explain two games over .500 at home? take a look at other team’s home records.
this is a huge problem for the yankees.
Andy Pettitte’s run support is 5.68 runs per game he pitches.
The Yankees are averaging 4.68 runs per game. (Ironic that it’s exactly a run apart.)
The Yankees scored 4.75 runs per game he started on that good run between the mess against KC and this last one against Boston.
Btw, I would never consider myself a stats person. I was interested in sabermetrics a few years ago but then I realized I’d rather just watch the games and see what happens rather than try to predict things and stare at numbers all day. Baseball’s more fun when you stop analyzing the numbers and just watch the game.
And then you observe things during the game. Such as: Andy Pettitte having to get out of an awful lot of jams. Which he hasn’t necessarily not had to do the rest of his career. I’m just saying that the way he pitches, it makes you nervous. And considering the amount of run support he receives, I’m actually surprised he doesn’t have more wins. But why would we get ourselves caught up in wins and losses?...
My point, for the millionth time, is that our pitching sucks.
Randy, I never said that the things the Yanks have always had (left handed pitchers/hitters) and don’t now, wasn’t aproblem. Just don’t act like you figured this out by yourself and decided to share your wisdom with everyone.
I asked for the names of players that fit this and how you were going to acquire this talent and at what cost. You failed to do that. That would qualify your post as a rant.
But, the pitching doesn’t “suck”. That’s just it.
They are 7th in the league in starting pitching. They are 6th in bullpen ERA. Second in bullpen ERA in the AL since June 1. They were 10th overall in pitching at this time last year.
This is with their season starting #4 and #5 starters (Hughes and Kennedy) with ZERO wins, Wang out, Hawkins and Ohlendorf (who both have been awful) in the ‘pen for most of the season, and Sidney Ponson in the rotation.
Pettitte is in more jams than usual? Have you watched Andy Pettitte pitch throughout his career? He has ALWAYS been like this.
He always gives up a lot of hits and has consistently pitched out of jams in his career. He pitches to contact. When you do, you will give up your share of hits.
When you pitch deep into games, which he does most of the time, and pitch to contact, you will give up your share of baserunners.
There are guys in the Hall of Fame, like Catfish Hunter, who pitched the same way. That’s his style of pitching.
The most ironic part of this season has been the fact that the pitching staff is not the part of the team that has killed them. Its the offense.
If the offense was just 10% better so far this year (and that is STILL under what they were last year), they have 5 more wins and are right in the thick of things.
Yet, that has not been the case. That’s what is so strange about this season so far.
“There are guys in the Hall of Fame, like Catfish Hunter, who pitched the same way. That’s his style of pitching.”
Off topic, but Hunter really has no business being the HOF.
Good Morning, everyone.
We went to the game yesterday, and I’m still keyed up over it. One of the most exciting baseball games I’ve ever been to.
There were some pockets of Red Sox fans near where we were sitting, mostly well behaved. When Drew led off with that single in the 9th, they started they’re chanting; we went back and forth with them during the entire inning until we eventually drowned them out. Nobody could sit down when they loaded the bases. The entire stadium was rocking. When Mariano finally got it together, and finally got Lugo, it was deafening.
Never pass up an opportunity to go to a baseball game.
Ray, andy Pettitte has been getting in and out of jams his entire career. Getting out of it is what makes him a winning pitcher. He has gotten the most out of his talent than most only dream of. He doesn’t WOW fans with stuff, but, he continues to amaze people with the creative ways he gets out of it. That’s why pitchers like Pettitte, Jimmy Key and Wells were and are fan favorites. It’s easy to imagine you can do those things a lot easier than trying to imagine yourself being Roger Clemens or Ron Guidry. People will remember Pettitte or Mussina a lot longer than they’ll ever remember Al Leiter. Pettitte is a WINNER. That’s all that matters to me.
“When Mariano finally got it together, and finally got Lugo, it was deafening.”
That was a little hairy. Helped that Mo was getting a 25 inch plate to work with. Varitek’s AB was the game. He got a 2-0 fatty and couldn’t catch up. Lugo had no shot. I know Mo does well with lefties (he does well with everyone) but I was surprised not to see Casey PH in one of those last three AB’s.
” Just don’t act like you figured this out by yourself and decided to share your wisdom with everyone.”
“I asked for the names of players that fit this and how you were going to acquire this talent and at what cost. You failed to do that. That would qualify your post as a rant.”
green beret 7-
sounds like one’s person’s observations is another person’s rant.
i don’t bother to read comments that i consider rants?
if you consider my comments as rants, what are you reading them for?
bottom line, the yankees home record is what is separating them from boston and new york.
The A-Rod thing:
What if your spouse came home one night and had a sincere conversation with you that went something like this: “You know me. I’ve always been restless and searching and looking for the deeper meaning in life. Well, I think I may have found it. I was talking to someone about kabbalah and how much peace it seems to give them and they shared some more information with me and it seems like something I really want to pursue – I think it might work for me and I want to know more about it.”
You are a Greek Orthodox Eastern Rite Catholic woman and you already think anything else may be a cult, but you know your spouse is a knucklehead in a lot of ways and that he is easily led. Still if it gives him this much excitement, maybe you agree that he will experiment a little to see where it goes. Maybe you don’t think it will be a big deal, especially since he has the attention span of a flea and has never really been a very devout anything for very long. You are more concerned with your little girl and the one on the way and if this makes him peaceful and he behaves better, what’s the harm.
But he starts spending more time with these believers and he starts talking the talk and he is suddenly caught up in the zeal of the converted. He has new friends, ignores the old ones, seems “different” and is starting to import the new concepts into your lives together. You don’t like it but he assures you he is better for it and that it is as important to him as your faith is to you.
Then your spouse makes some startling changes in his life based on these new people in his life and brings one of them into a position of basically directing his career. Maybe he tells you he wants to convert and wants to raise the kids under kabbalah principles. You get nervous, tell him that he is acting strange, that you almost don’t know him anymore. He says you just another narrow minded hater if you think kabbalah followers are cranks and nuts. He says you’re the one who has changed and that if you can’t let him do this thing that makes him so peaceful and centered, then you don’t love him like he though you did, that you are being selfish and that he thinks maybe you two need a break.
Nobody’s heard from A-Rod, and his side of it may be 180 degrees different. But having lived a little life myself, the scenario above is not so far fetched or so different from what a lot of searching, ungrounded, unhappy folks go through in their lives.
that is:
bottom line, the yankees home record is what is separating them from boston and tampa.
Since the Yankees offense has been so “random” this season, I thought I’d keep with the theme.
Random thought one: As much as I hate Fox and ESPN Yankees games on tv, I think I would hate it even more if they weren’t on Fox or ESPN, because more than likely that would mean they’d become irrelevant. So, take the bitter with the sweet, yes?
Random thought two: Yesterday we went to see WALL*E, the new Disney/Pixar movie. It was very sweet. But what made the biggest impresson on me was this: one of the plot points in the movie was how humans had created so much trash on Earth that they had to move away. The irony: after the movie was over, it was clear no impact was made whatsoever – most people just left their trash at their seats. I don’t understand how difficult it is for some people to take their empty popcorn bags and soft drink cups and dump them themselves.
Moose making the ASG would be amazing. I’ve always thought Moose was not an ace pitcher, coming into this season I thought yeah he’s kind of washed up but we need him to eat innings. Was I ever wrong! I have so much respect for him now that he reinvented himself to find a way to win at age 39 instead of just giving up and fading into the sunset. In a way I think that is more exciting to watch than someone who was born gifted with a power arm and ace stuff.
I was at the game yesterday and man, what has happened to Yankees Stadium?! It was such a quiet crowd for the first 8 innings you would think you’re at sunday church. Yes weekend day game crowds have always been quieter compared to night crowds but for god’s sake this is a Yankee Sox game after we’ve dropped the first two no less!! Then in the 9th we all know what happened and the crowd got REALLY loud. Maybe Mo just thought he would make it interesting to wake the lazy crowd up. That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it
Anyone else watching tennis right now? This is good
Andy Pettitte is the Man.
Anyone know the pitching matchup for the Pittsburgh game?
(You guys watching Breakfast at Wimbeldon? I don’t know if Rafa can win from the baseline, but he’s tied it up in this second set.)
murphydog –
I can see that scenario 100%. My husband and I have had a couple of conversations about ARod lately centering on what I deemed his lack of an “anchor” in his life and how those types of people are susceptible to trying many things to find something meaningful. Marriage and family weren’t enough to anchor him; his talent and import to the Yankees haven’t anchored him. Madonna is nothing if not influential (to say the least), and Kabbalah seems to be an attractive route for lost celebrity souls. (Funny, I never thought of ARod as a celebriy; I guess he must see himself that way.) I don’t know enough about that faith, but have heard that the what the celebrity crew follows is a bit watered down.
SJ: thank you for the Sherman article recommendation. i wish other people got the same goosebumps i do at reading articles like that. let’s hope the long-overdue righting of the ship does begin this offseason.
Doreen: as for the Wall-E conundrum, are you really all that surprised?
mel –
I thought I read that Mussina was starting the Pittsburgh game, but I’m not sure.
Jorge –
Not surprised, just disappointed.
Wow Nadal..
“And a question: do you sign a less-than-great leftie starter hoping that Yankee Stadium will make him better than he is?”
i’m kind of thinking good lefties. at least good at yankee stadium.
what’s with all the righty pitching prospects too? a few lefties would be nice to mix in.
SJ, they are 5th in the league in hitting. (Better than the Rays by 5 percentage points… whoop dee doo.) You can’t go by that. And yes, I absolutely agree that the hitting has been the downfall of this team – who knows where they’d be if they could have gotten a few more hits with RISP…
Now that they do have so many pitchers injured, though, it’s time for the few healthy guys to step it up. And I know Pettitte hasn’t changed a thing, nor should he. It just feels like every time we need that one more run or we would have been able to win, he’s on the other end of it.
Randy, I’ll read whatever I decide has something of interest or something that is 99% BS and decide to respond. This one falls into the 99% category. You toss this out and offer no way make the changes. You enjoy the idea of explaing the obvious problem, but, you don’t want to explain the ways to fix it (sensibly).
Stick to slobbering over Livan Hernandez. That’s what you best.
two things:
What in the world is the problem with being on the DL when you are injured? Why take up a valuable spot on the roster when you can’t play….that only hurts the team. It would be a different story if the DL was named after you (ala Pavano).
For Alex- sounds like he isn’t the only one who’s ‘screwed up’ in that mess. If you think of someone as your brother why would you spill their story to the Post (luckily his ‘Godchildren’ are too young to understand all of this). Cynthia went to France (sans the kids) to get away from what was going on in New York….but she was in Miami at the time. And of course Alex hasn’t seen the baby much he’s been traveling with Yankees and they’ve had all of 4 days off since the kid was born. I’m not saying that Alex is spotless in this but there is definitely more to the story than whats being said.
Mel, right now the Pittsburgh game is scheduled to be Rasner and Maholm.
murphydog,
I think that Cynthia’s been using mind control over A-rod for years. There comes a point when a man wants to take back control of his life (especially after feeling empowered by breaking free from the shackles of Scott Boras).
I don’t know if any of what we hear is true, but if Alex chooses to make changes in his life then those around him have to accept it. And (Cynthia) hanging around with other adult males (if that’s true) is not the way to show your commitment to the family dynamic.
(Wow! Rafa just came back from 1-4 to take a commanding 2 set lead.)
Ah, so I had bad information on the Pittsburgh starter.
Doreen, about kabbalah: according to Orthodox Jewish belief, the mysticism and difficulty of understanding kabbalah is not to be taken lightly. it is a bunch of stuff written by rabbis to help understand certain Jewish practices and uncover certain hidden things. it is such a challenging thing to understand that most are not considered ‘allowed’ or they suggest you don’t learn it unless you are a man at least 40ish and have been studying the torah your entire life (many men sit and learn all day, that’s why women cannot).. Even once you’re at that point, you are not necessarily fully capable of even comprehending what you are learning
What the celebrities are learning is a bunch of junk, ideal ways to live your life or something that falls into the umbrella of a certain religion that already exists that a bunch of people thought they’d profit off it if they sold it in a certain way. I guess they insert some ‘mystical’ things in there to get the people excited. But it has really disturbed many people who take kabbalah as it was meant to be taken. it is not to be studied by anyone who thinks it’s ‘cool’ to learn about all this mystical stuff, etc.
Randy,
Its too simplistic to say, “the only thing seperating them from Boston and Tampa is their home record”. The “why” is important.
The same offense averaged almost 7 runs a game at home last year. Why not this year with the same players?
The lineup didn’t have a problem hitting in Yankee Stadium last year. Why not this year?
The “simple” answer? The demise of Jeter as a gap power, RBI force in the two hole, the inability of Abreu, Giambi and Arod to hit with RISP and the dramatic falloff of Robinson Cano.
If you are the GM of the Yankees, how do you plan around that? You can’t. Its impossible.
Who in their right mind thought this offense would be so bad for so long this year?
No GM in the game can play around an entire offense falling apart.
And before the, “they will hit crowd” gets going, WHEN you hit is as important (perhaps more important) than anything else.
If this team gets hot in August, after they are out of realistic playoff contention, and puts up numbers, that’s just stat hanging. That’s not hitting.
You can’t wait 120 games to start hitting and then call yourself a good hitting team.
If Jeter, Arod, Giambi, Cano and Posada can’t give them more than they are offensively, you can put Koufax and Drysdale in the rotation, its not going to matter.
RayBlay –
That’s what I had heard, and read a bit.
Whenever celebrities are concerned with anything – a religion, a cause, whatever, I always take it with a grain of salt. Many celebrities seem to be always searching for the holy grail.
I don’t want to get into a religious debate here, but if a celebrity feels the need to pick up a new belief system such as scientology or kabalah, that’s weak.
You basically need to believe in yourself, live a good clean life, and treat others with respect.
SJ44 whats the link to joel shermans site?
Go to http://www.nypost.com, go to sports, and his story is there.
On a different subject, I’d like to see the Yanks make an offer to get Jeff Francouer from Atlanta. He’s 24 years old and he’s a great outfielder with legitimate 25-30 homer power with a good average and he has the speed to steal 10-15 bases a year. He’s having a down year and may be gotten at a cheaper price than before. Same thing with going after Adam LaRoche of Pittsburgh to play first base. He has power and is a very good defensive first baseman. They’d be a lot cheaper than Teixiera combined. Coming off of down years, the Yanks may get a deal on them for some of the kids along with taking a higher contract off of both teams.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/07062008/sports/yankees/turns_out__yanks_are_set_118681.htm
Francour isn’t on the market. He will be back with the Braves in 2 weeks. He’s going down to AA to work with his minor league hitting coach.
The Braves have no interest in trading him. He’s a guy they are looking to build around for the future.
Cano and Jeff Francouer on the same team would probably cause me to rip out all of my hair. Talk about swing first think later batters.
“Q: Any regrets about Yankee Stadium being torn down?
A: “I’ve heard the new stadium is going to be fabulous, so I don’t really have any regrets. But this has been a great place to play. I always liked how the fans in the upper deck are right on top of the field. This has always been one of the most intimate stadiums in the game, and I liked that. It’s great when the fans are such a part of the game.””
Mike Lowell just summed up, for me, one of the biggest reasons I’m upset about the new stadium – the depressed upper deck, which will no longer hang over the field. That was one of the defining on-the-field features of Yankee Stadium, and…well, it’s just not going to be there anymore. And that’s a damned shame.
SJ44,
You also forgot that you no longer have Posada having a career year (as a matter of fact, he’s almost been an offensive non-factor this season), and A-Rod missing time (sure, he hasn’t been hitting much with RISP, but he’s been better than the alternatives).
It’s interesting, because last season Damon had a down year offensively, and while Abreu declined, he also provided a good deal of OBP and gap power towards the top of the order.
So it’s not really just one or two individuals who are killing the Yankee offense—okay, there was Robbie Cano for the first two months—but rather a regression across the board.
It probably doesn’t help that Matsui, who was one of the Yankees more consistent hitters this season, has gone down, and now Damon (the only other offensive force with life) is going to miss time, too. The Yankees just keep missing their most consistent bats from this lineup, and that hurts.
By the by, you can’t criticize Oppenheimer for not selecting lefties in the draft. First of all, his drafting success the last couple of seasons, I think, give him a slight mulligan (in my view). But secondly (and most importantly), you always need to select the best player on the board. If that happens to be a RHP, so be it. You can’t compromise your ability to grab top talent at the back of the draft to fill a supposed “need.”
The reality is, all the “safe” high-ceiling lefties are usually all gone by the time the Yankees have a chance to draft, and those that aren’t usually have serious signability concerns attached to them. The Yankees did select a few high-ceiling lefties late in the draft (like Blake Monar), but you can’t adjust your entire drafting strategy to pray that you hit the next David Price or Clayton Kershaw.
There was a bit of a run on lefty starters in the supplemental round of the draft this year, if anyone noticed; nothing the Yankees could have done about it. Rumors have it that if Cole didn’t fall to them, they might have selected Mike Montgomery in the first round (he went a few picks before Bleich in the supplemental), but if you’re the Yankees, you can’t make a reach like that if Cole is still on the board.
And who knows? Maybe Bleich turns out to be a (relatively) quick moving answer, himself. Had a lot of success in the Cape Cod league before he was injured, and I loved watching him pitch in the CWS.
mel:
All of this emotional spelunking in someone else’s psyche is admittedly more revealing of us (me) than A-Rod or C-Rod
I wish them luck as they go through this. I just hope they do a better job of managing their disappointment in each other than Christie Brinkley and Peter Cook did.
According to Baseball Reference, his run support is at 4.99, and what’s more it’s an extremely misleading statistic since there were two games in which the team scored 12 and 13 runs respectively, they’ve scored four runs or fewer eleven times when he has pitched this year and the bullpen blew a lead for him in Cleveland or he’d have 10 wins. He won fifteen games last year and is likely to win at least that many again. The Yankees have problems but Pettitte is among the least of their concerns.
SJ, I think Atlanta would rather keep Teixiera and move Francouer. He’s going to hit arbitration and they have outfield talent almost ready. First base is what they don’t have, unless they move Larry Jones to first base. They do, however, also want and need young pitchers. It may take a Jason Jones, Betances Cabrera type package to do it, but, I’d do that as long as they sent a young middle infield type along.
Fallen Phoenix,
No question about it. The regression across the board by the offense is really the problem with the team this year.
And you are correct, Damon and Matsui, the two most consistent offensive performers this year, being out doesn’t help.
That said, if Jeter, Arod, Giambi, Cano and Posada, can’t pick up the slack, its not a team worth helping (at the deadline) this year. Its a team you begin to dismantle at the deadline.
Or, at least as much as you can, given the contracts and age of the team.
SJ44,
That’s a true story. The Yankees have a couple of weeks to see whether any of these hitters can pick it up, and if not…well, there’s really little you can do but pack it up for next year.
That’s not to say you necessarily punt the season, but you at least need to think about shopping guys like Abreu who might net something on the open market (since he should be a Type A FA in the offseason, there’s bound to be a team that takes a flier on him and lets him walk for the draft picks). You’re not going to get top-flight talent, obviously, but it would at least give you more chips to play with, and maybe the Yankees make a big splash trading for a bat this offseason if they don’t feel comfortable with the FA solutions (Teixeira, Dunn, etc.).
“I’m not saying that Alex is spotless in this but there is definitely more to the story than whats being said.”
There are 2 sides to every story and so far all that has been published is coming from “family friends”. People are making judgements yet we have not heard from Alex or his wife. And for me as long as he shows up and gives the Yankees 100% that’s all I care about.
They aren’t keeping Tex. They have no interest in paying him over 100 million dollars. In fact, they may move him.
They aren’t trading Francour. He’s young, cost controlled, and a local guy.
Atlanta really isn’t a “big” market team in the way they run their franchise. They aren’t interesting in jacking up the payroll.
That’s why Francour isn’t on the market.
Jason Jones has no trade value GB. He’s a minor league arm.
Betances hasn’t pitched for two months due to injury.
Those aren’t the guys with any trade value.
Francour isn’t even a solution for the Yankees. As has been stated this morning, he’s a RH Cano. No plate discipline, and its not getting better.
The Yankees need to get back to finding high OBP guys, who are contact hitters. That’s what makes an offense less liable to across the board slumps.
I don’t see a reason to dismantle the team, unless what they get back is better than the two draft picks they’d receive.
You dismantle it because its happening this off-season anyway.
If you can get a couple of players that shorten the time its going to take to retool the team, you do it.
If you can’t, then you go into the off-season and do it anyway.
Either way, this is the last season this team is going to look like this. There will be a lot of new faces wearing pinstripes next season.
murphydog,
It’s more like sewer diving!
The New York tabloids seem to love divorces, no? Didn’t one woman go on Youtube and say all sorts of nasty (true) things about her husband?
We’ll see if Alex can tune it out on the field like he did last year.
But he’d better be prepared for cone-bras and other material girl props when he heads to Fenway.
I don’t think the Yankees have what is takes to dismantle this team in mid season. A season which will be the Yankees last in Yankee Stadium.
I see them buying at the trade deadline to at LEAST make a push for the Wild Card.
The Yankees being sellers and having an empty Yankee stadium in late September would be a disgrace.
Anyone know what’s up with the nyyfans site? It’s been down all morning.
This is when scouting comes in.
Look around AA and AAA, as well as major league rosters, for guys that fit how you want to rebuild the team.
You want to be younger, more athletic, with more high OBP guys and more contact hitting, as Cashman has said he wants to do? Well, go to work and look for those guys now.
If (and I realize its a big “if”) you can move a veteran player to get one of those guys now, you do it.
That gives you an entire second half of the season to see if the player can hack.
Most baseball people will tell you the worst way to evaluate a player is in spring training and in September. You traditionally get false reads on guys in those timeframes.
I realize no trade clauses may inhibit what they can do. However, if a player agrees to waive it to go to a contending team, and this team continues to play themselves out of it in the next two weeks, I think you have to strongly consider making what many would consider to be a “sellers” move.
Its not about saving this season. Its about establishing this team to be a more competitive team over the long haul.
You want to get the attention of the players? Try selling, rather than buying for change. Believe me, that will get EVERYBODY’S attention.
Tampa and Boston aren’t going to get worse next season. The Yankees also aren’t going to spend another 210 million on payroll next year.
They are going to have to do it the “old fashioned way”. A mix of smart trades, homegrown talent, and the right free agents.
If they do it, its one bad year. If they make the same mistakes as they have done to put themselves in this mess (which I don’t see happening), it will take longer to fix.
Global,
The fans care more about the end of Yankee Stadium than the Yankees do. It has no mystical hold on the organization. Hal said as much the other day.
Its much more important for them to have a winning product going into the new Yankee Stadium than it is trying to win to close out the old one. Especially at the prices they are charging for the new Stadium.
Everything the Yankees have done in the last couple of years has been to position themselves to completely re-tool the team in 2009, when all the contracts come off the books.
That’s why they didn’t sell off all the parts of the farm to upgrade the team in the off-season.
They have sold just about all the tickets for the rest of the year.
If they do go into any team of sell mode, Rivera, Jeter, Arod, and Chamberlain, among others, will still be here.
Meaning, fans will still go to the games.
Especially in September, even if they are out of the race.
Jones is having a good season and would do well in Atlanta, and, Betances is pitching. He had a really good game in his return. Besides, I’m just tossing out some names. I’d trade any of them not named Jackson, Melancon, Brackman or Hughes. Unless Jones moves to 1st or they try Thorman again, the only 1st baseman around in Sexton. Just saying I’d like to see NYY make a try at Francouer and LaRoche. I don’t care whether fans feel the need to “pull their hair out” or not. People also make too big a deal out of Cano swinging early in the count. He may never be a #1, 2, or even 3 hitter, but, he makes solid contact. He’s a professional hitter. I don’t see to many people throughout the years complaining about Berra or Clemente swinging at pitches early. Seems to me they made a pretty good career for themselves. And, yes, Cano is that kind of talent.
Agree the Yanks may have to sell but who have they got to sell? Damon may not recover well being it’s his throwing shoulder. Abreu is having a down year and isn’t really a power bat or a defensive upgrade. Molina prob wouldn’t net too much in return. Matsui is injured. Pettite is not going anywhere. Cano and Cabrera have diminished their trade value. Giambi is owed too much next year and has cooled off. Who do they have to sell?
Very Funny Pete
Everyone-
2008 team salary-$209,081,577
Expiring Contracts approx $90,000,000 Giambi at 23.5M, Abreu and Pettite
16M each, Mussina and Pavano at around 11+M each, Farnsworthnearly 6M, Hawkins @ 3.75M and Ensberg, Traber and Sean Henn maybe Shelly Duncan.That brings the salary base down to about 119M, not including whatever raises other players have.total 5-6 M
Damon and Matsui come off the books at end of 2009 @ 26M
If, as I have heard rumored, that the Yankees would like to be at 160M.
That would leave about 35M to spend on FAs.
Santana will be making 22M next year as part of a 6 year deal. Zambrano makes 18.3M and Peavy 17.3M this year
Based on this, and the recent reports that Sabathia will probably be traded to the Breweres or another suitor in the NL, let’s say he restructures a long term deal with that team.
Given the facts so far and the premise Sabathia won’t be available, which 2009 FA’s, including current Yankees, do you see fitting in for the 35M or so the Yankees might be willing to spend. If they resign Pettitte
11M and Giambi11M , that leaves them 13M to spend, certainly not enough to get a Sabathia, Ben Sheets, to bolster the starting rotation.Do they increase the payroll to > 160M??
Any thoughts if you were the GM of the Yankees with fiscal restraints restraints?
Who makes up the active roster in 2009?
no, i’d rather have Mo end the game. he’s the greatest closer ever, so closing the AS Game at the Stadium seems right.
and then if Mo starts, it means Papelbon closes it out, and i’d rather not have a Red Sock pitching the last inning at YS. It puts me in the position of having to consider rooting for the NL in a key spot.
GB,
He isn’t that kind of talent. Did Berra and Clemente have .280 OBP in a season? Both guys had more power and more RBI, as well Clemente being able to run, than Cano has shown. Especially this year.
You can’t trade for guys who aren’t on the market.
Francour is not only not on the market, he isn’t a guy that fits what the Yankees are trying to do.
Look at the Red Sox for example. They built their team to be like the 96-2000 Yankees. Solid starting pitching, guys who grind AB’s, solid defense.
That’s how you win in the AL. That’s how the Yankees built a dynasty.
Francour, and Cano for that matter, are the antithisis of that type of team construction.
The problem with Cano is simple. He doesn’t possess the kind of talent he was assigned to have so early in his career.
Talented? Absolutely. Hall of Fame talent? Absolutely not.
Its part of the problem of NY, IMO. You have two extreme types of emotions when it comes to players. Excessive hype, as is the case with Cano. Or, completely degrading anybody who comes up through the system. As Bill Madden has done to guys like Phil Hughes, David Robertson and Brett Gardner, among others. The truth is between those two extremes.
Cano is a guy who simply put, has to get better as a player. He’s not being paid 30 million bucks to be a #8 hitter his entire career. He’s being paid that money to be a productive, middle of the order guy. Probably as soon as next season, if he remains on the team.
He’s a big reason why the offense has been stuck in neutral so far this year. Hopefully, he gets it going sometime soon.
Comparing him to Clemente and Berra? That’s as bad as people comparing him to Rod Carew. Way too much praise for such a limited type of hitter.
Sabathia isn’t going to sign with the Brewers. He is going to test the market.
He isn’t taking an under market deal to stay out of free agency.
If he wanted to do that, he would have stayed in Cleveland.
JD, only fools think Cano’s value is diminished based on one month. If you think it’s because he’ll never walk 80-100 times a year, that would only be a shock if he did and everyone knows it. There isn’t a better defensive 2nd baseman anywhere. There may be a couple that come close, but, not that close. He’s making plays standing up that people are diving to try and make and nobody turns a faster DP. His hitting will, year in and year out be second only to Utley’s.
I disagree that Betances has no trade value – he’s a raw, but high ceiling arm, and he has the kind of body that scouts (generally) love. That said, I’m not expecting him to be dealt, but I’m sure there are 29 teams in the majors who would love to add an arm like his to their system.
He’s a project, to be sure, and he doesn’t exactly have a high probability of panning out, but the A’s just recently shelled out $4 million to sign a guy who projects similarly.
Granted, Inoa’s younger and has more polished pitches than Betances did when he was drafted out of high school, so he’s a better prospect in that there’s more projectability there. But again, there are 29 teams in the majors who would love to add an Inoa-lite to their system. Doesn’t mean he’s going to be available, and doesn’t mean that any team would pounce on him (obviously it would depend on the deal), but I think Betances is actually one of the Yankees’ more valuable trade chips. Perhaps not right this very moment (getting back from an injury, as SJ44 said), but certainly in the offseason, or at future trading deadlines.
SJ44-
Agree totally that the 1996-2000 Yankees played a better brand of baseball, with lesser all stars. I was at the WS game in Atlanta where Pettitte outdueled Smoltz for a 1-0 win, which along with Leyritz’ homer turned that series around.
However where do you place the blame on a player like Cano?
The hitting coach? On Cano because he doesn’t listen, or doesn’t have the skills to work the count. Earl Weaver believed in winning with the 3-run homer. Is this the same game plan these Yankees have??
GB- Kinda disagree about Cano’s trade value. I think they should keep Cano either way. Who replaces him? They have a decent contract with him. You can build around guys like Cano.
JD-
If you trade Cano, as part of a package for a starting pitcher, then you’ll be looking at a FA for 2nd since currently we have no-one who can play the position with an average even better than Cano’s current one.
You want Orlando Hudson at 2nd next season and beyond? He’s a FA from Arizona.
SJ, the comparison to Clemente and Berra was in the fact that neither one walked much. Clemente walk just over 600 times in over 9500 at bats, and 400 of those came in his last 10 years. Berra walked just over 700 times and his highest OBP was .378. If you think that Cano is going to end the season at .282, then, you’ll just have to think it. He’ll be a career .300 hitter, and the walks will come. Probably not more than 50 a year, but, they’ll get there.
Trading Cano is dumb.Unlike Joba,Hughes,And Kennedy Cano has actually played great in the majors more then a couple of months.We still don’t know about our “Big Three”.
Cano has proven he is a great talent and most likely wil have those .400 months.He did it late last year too.
It sucks Kennedy and Tabatha are untradable.
The strange thing is everybody is saying Sabathia wants to go to the West Coast when he reaches FA…. but I fail to see a match.
Dodgers – As Olney said, they need offense in the worst way. Penny-Billingsly-Kershaw-Krudora is a top young rotation. Why spend $150+ million on a pitcher when that is your strength? They can’t score at all and they never spend big money as it is.
Angels – Have excess starting pitching, they too need offense more than anything.
Giants – He is from the Bay Area, but they already have elite young pitching—thats the reason they are doing so well. Their offense is old and they have NO cornerstone. They just gave Zito $126 million… they have no need for Sabathia. They will be heavily after Texeria though IMO.
Oakland, San Diego, Arizona will never pay him.
None of the West Coast teams have a pressing need for him… but teams like the Yanks, Mets, Tigers, Sox, Phillies, Cubs do.
Kuroda, you mean?
—
Cha-ching; Lidge got a 3 years/37.5 mil extension from the Phillies
I think that would make the Yanks buyers not sellers. Maybe you mean in the off-season they do that deal, which I wouldn’t be totally against. Who would replace Cano now, Gonzo? We were talking about trade-deadline deals weren’t we?
“Stick to slobbering over Livan Hernandez. That’s what you best.”
green beret 7-
yeah , my predictions about him really turned out wrong.
pick on someone you can handle.
SJ, aside from the players that have completed their contracts, what other changes do you see in the way the club will look in 09?
How many class A free-agents can a team sign in one off season?
Randy, there’s innings and then, there’s quality innings. NYY have pitchers that can provide the same 5 earned runs a game that Hernandez gives, at a cheaper rate. The only reason he’s won 9 games is because the Twins outscore every other AL team except Boston and Texas. Do you honestly think he’d have 9 wins with the NYY?
Pick on somebody I can handle? Will you now tell me how much more briilient you are than others? Maybe you need to, because it’s been a while since you’ve mentioned it.
The needs for the Yankees are another dominant left-handed starter, a left handed reliever, more athletic defensive players, a better bench , team speed, and most of all a change of philosophy with developing position players who can work the count.
There are no major league ready position players, a lefty starter or reliever, or a decent bench since we’re carrying 3 catchers because of Posadas injury.
I still don’t see the yankees signing a lefty pitcher like Sabathia for more than 4 years, unless they hold a team option for 2 more years.
If that’s the case, unless he’s just dying to become a Yankee, he’s not coming to NY.
Could they go to the WS with him next year? The Indians, in my opinion got by us because of the midges!! The Indians with their dominant twosome of CC and Carmona plus and outstanding bullpen couldn’t get it done against Boston And it was my belief, whichever AL team made it to the WS would have won, much like in 2004.
or brilliant typos are an embarrassment.
“How many class A free-agents can a team sign in one off season?”
It depends on how many Free Agents declare for Free Agency.
“Its too simplistic to say, “the only thing seperating them from Boston and Tampa is their home recordâ€. The “why†is important.”
sj-
snapshots is sometimes the best i can give in the summer. too busy here. i should have said,” one thing seperating them from Boston and Tampa is their home recordâ€.
do you think this team is built around yankee stadium? i don’t.
you seem to dismiss the importance of home record. the red sox and tampa are basically a .500 team on the road. the yankees need to be a really strong home team. the question is how do they do it?
i agree the decline in offense is inexplicable. but that doesn’t change the fact they need to figure out a way to win more at home. maybe the two issues of declining offense and home mediocrity are connected.
hitting better at home would be a sure way to improve their likelihood of winning at home,
all i’m saying is that whatever it takes, they have to start winning more at home.
Ian Kennedy’s start was rained out last night after 2 innings,but the scouting report on him was not very good.
He wasn’t very good,” said a scout who saw the game. “His velocity was 87-90, and his fastball was straight. He didn’t have good command, and his curve was loopy and it hung a lot, but he had a plus change.”
There are some things to remember here. Offense is down all around baseball. No team is on pace to score 875 runs this year.
The Yankees also scored 511 runs after the break last year. They scored a run and a half a game more after the break than they did before.
You can talk all you want about walks being down. The Yankees are still third in the AL in OBP. The dropoff in slugging average is twice what their dropoff in OBP is. Add in the terrible situational hitting and you have what we have.
Let’s not exaggerate how good the pitching has been. They are 8th in team ERA in a 14 team league, just as the offense ranks in the middle of the pack. Obviously, the difference is that that the offense is supposed to be elite whereas the pitching isn’t.
It’s all context. It’s easy to say that the Yankees have 37 games with 3 runs or less, but what is that relative to everyone else?
Tampa Bay has 33, the Red Sox have 27. The disparity is not as alarming as one might think because everyone’s offense is down.
Regarding pitching, I don’t see the change in MO so much as the moves haven’t worked out. The championship teams were not built predominately from within, it was trades and free agent signings.
What is the difference between Contreras and Hernandez except that Hernandez worked out? Irabu and Igawa? Key and a Pavano? David Cone and Kevin Brown? Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson?
They are making the same types of moves, they’re just not working out as well. That’s talent evaluaton, not a drastic change of course in how they conduct their business.
I think this year is a better example of that. Starting the year with Joba, Kennedy and Hughes. And it’s why the Yankees traditionally don’t have a lot of young pitching. They don’t have the stomach for the growing pains. The mission statement is to win every year. This is a franchise that regards anything less than the World Series as abject failure.
Also this team has too many DH types. If Posada can’t throw out baserunners, like Mike Piazza, then Molina catches, and Posada to earn his salary will have to play 1st, to allow Damon or Matsui to DH, whichever is still with the team. Therefore let Giambi at age 37 walk.
This thread has been an excellent discussion. It would be great if we could do this more consistently.
Have you heard Joel Sherman’s interview on WFAN. It was good. It was basically a folow up to his article in the NY Post today.
The last topic he was asked was about Jeter and his diminishing skills. When he was asked if Jeter should move to another position like CF, he gave very candid answer that like many great athletes, Jeter will be the last to know or admit that his skills are diminished and Yanks will have a tough time dealing with it. His commnet was, if Jeter’s skills are diminished, do you want him to be like Melky in the CF. Then he went on to give the Orioles analogy about how they handled Ripken case at the cost of the team and it set them back a few years. Very interesting. I am sure people who idolize Jeter and think he earned the right to decide what he wants to do will be disappointed, but there is truth to what Sherman says. I know many hate Sherman here, but unlike Lupica, he is pretty right on the facts most of the time.
Molina has shown he can’t catch everyday and Posada is going to be back-up catcher/DH before he plays first and that’s a reality. If the Yanks don’t get Tex or another decent first baseman then you will see Giambi on the Yanks next year.
If not Tex, yanks will probably trade for a young and upcoming 1B. Posada will be more of a DH and C. It really depends on how his surgery goes in the off season. If he can return defensively to what he was last year, he will be serviceable. Molina can always replace him in the late innings.
It’s very frustrating when the guy is struggling a