The LoHud Yankees Blog

January is traditionally a slow month for baseball news. So for the second year in a row, we will showcase other blogs with a series of pinch hitters.

Next up is Sam from The Sam I Am Sports Blog

Sam is from Brooklyn. “I’m a salesman but I wish I was a sports writer,” he says. He has been blogging since Nov. 2007 and says his favorite player is Paul O’Neill. Here’s his post:

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It’s every sport fans dream to one day be the general manager of the organization he adores. You could hear this banter throughout living rooms or bars across the country.

Let’s use Theo Epstein, for example. He?s a passionate Bosox fan and we are definitely seeing the fruits from his labor. I?m not saying you could be an idiot and run a franchise just because you’re a fan. You still must be able to negotiate, be a top-notch decision maker and have a keen eye for scouting prospects.

Before you continue reading, I would like you all to know that I despise Brian Cashman. Not because he’s a bad person, but because he single-handedly ruined my Yankees.

I know many of you reading this love Cashman, think he’s brilliant and admire the “new” direction he’s taking by holding onto his prospects and signing everyone in sight.

News flash everybody: the only reason why he’s taking this approach is because he is finally realizing, you can’t win if you keep throwing big bucks at aging stars or trade away the farm for a quick midseason pick-me-up.

Bad signings or terrible non trades, No matter what, he manages to screw up. You’re probably skeptical of my harsh criticisms. Let me break this down in a timeline format so you can better understand my feelings. I will only point out notable blunders.

1999:
· Trades Mike Lowell for nothing.

2001:
· Trades Damaso Marte for Enrique Wilson, inks Sterling Hitchcock to a big contract.

2002:
· Trades Ted Lilly for Jeff Weaver.

2003:
· Inexplicably trades for Kevin Brown with his ridiculous contract.
· Trades blue-chips Nick Johnson and Juan Rivera for Javy Vazquez. He choose Vazquez over Curt Schilling, who the Bosox acquired for Casey Fossum. This costs us the ’04 series and was the reason the curse was reversed.
· Signed Gary Sheffield over Vladimir Guerrero.

2004:
· Signs Carl Pavano and Jaret Wright to monster deals, which made zero sense at the time.

2005:
· Trades a Vazquez-based package for Randy Johnson along with his contract.

2006:
· Preferred Johnny Damon over Carlos Beltran, who offered the Yankees a discount, then signs Kei Igawa without even scouting him.

2007:
· Re-signs A-Rod, who had just finished crippling the Yankees in the playoffs, and gives him another HUGE contract.

2008:
· Doesn’t trade for Johan Santana or Miguel Cabrera when he certainly had the chips in hand.
· A season later, signs CC Sabathia to substitute for Santana, so he’d rather CC and Mark Teixeira than Johan and Miguel? Insanity!

· Signs A.J. Burnett to the most head scratching contract of all time. How could you give him all that money for all those years?

On top of all this, His drafts have been putrid. Aside for Joba, which one of his draftees impacted the majors? He drafted Bronson Sardina over David Wright for crying out loud. How Cashman manages to escape the media’s criticisms is beyond me.

Bottom line, He’s not that good.

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Thanks to Sam for contributing. In Cashman’s defense, several of these moves he had nothing whatsoever to do with including Sheffield, Johnson, Wright and any draft picks before 2006.

Coming tomorrow: Jeff from Bronx Insider.

Making a snowman was so much fun today that we may do it again tomorrow.

January is traditionally a slow month for baseball news. So for the second year in a row, we will showcase other blogs with a series of pinch hitters.

Next up is Rebecca from This Purist Bleeds Pinstripes. Rebecca is a medieval history Master’s student at Fordham University and a recent graduate of Syracuse University. She collects swords and shot glasses, and she promises that she’ll update her blog, on a more regular basis once Spring Training starts. She loves Mo, Joba and Jose Molina, and can’t wait till her Matt LaPorta-signed bat is worth enough to pay her tuition.

Her post is about living in the Bronx:

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How do I write about this place??

I’ve been here for five months, and still I haven’t tried it — it seems a task too daunting for a graduate student, much less a baseball blogger.

When I walk to the grocery store on Arthur Ave, and I pass the cathedral, bells ringing and all, I imagine I am somewhere in sixteenth century Spain or eighteenth century Mexico. When I can smell the freshly baked bread and I see the fresh seafood lying on display in front of the fish market, I may as well be in Florence.

The language of this place slowly filters in — a Puerto Rican/Dominican blend of Spanish spoken so fast that despite my years of study, I have to strain to understand it. I begin to spot the bodegas that are on every street corner, which sell the essentials: Agua, cerveza, galletas, dulces and the Daily News. More often than not, the News is flipped over so that the back page — the sports page — is what greets you. Every bodega I’ve been in sells the News; I’ve only found one that has the New York Times.

After all, things like the mortgage crisis and the credit default swap don’t mean much to a lot of the people here, not when they’re too busy making sure they have enough money to pay for a gallon of milk and a carton of eggs.

Most of the people I meet could never afford to go to a Yankee game even in the old Stadium. I almost have to wonder if the Yankees even belong here.

And then …

Then I remember that night in The Jolly Tinker, a dirty, dark, dank place that calls itself an Irish pub. I am sitting at a table with three classmates. There are two pitchers of beer, and J. is busy telling us his life story, something that involves parents in a rock band, Katrina, and living homeless in Manhattan for three months. One of the pub regulars walks over to our table and points out his hat, one commemorating the 2008 All Star Game at Yankee Stadium. The same one I am wearing.

“You go to the game?” he asks. His manner betrays a lifetime in this borough, hard work while the world passes him by. In his FDNY fleece with his slurred speech, he is every bit the stereotype. A baseball fan from a generation that no longer matters, his opportunity spent.

“Nah,” I say. “Couldn’t afford the tickets.”

J., sighing because I am again talking about baseball and not medieval England, slams his beer on the table, and then, in his thick southern drawl, says, “All right, that’s it, I have to say it. I hate the Yankees.”

“You’re from the South,” I say. “You don’t get it.”

The man in the hat looks at me and smiles.

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Thanks to Rebecca for writing. She has been a loyal reader here for a long time and it’s much appreciated. Next up: Sam from the Sam I Am blog.

Things that drive me crazy:

The Joba debate: Why does this still continue in some quarters? He had a 2.76 ERA in 12 starts last season. He struck out 74 batters in 60 innings. He’s a really, really good starter and he’s 23. Do the math: It’s better to have a great pitcher throw 200 innings instead of 70.

The idea that Joba should go back to the bullpen because the Yankees signed CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett is inane. The best, most efficient way to win baseball games is to have as many games as possible started by good pitchers. The eighth inning is not as important as innings one through six.

Greed: Those of you who insist the Yankees should sign Manny Ramirez need to get a grip. The offense is just fine. The Yankees need young, versatile, cost-effective position players who can catch the ball and will buy into Joe Girardi’s vision. Not old, expensive, one-dimensional selfish DH types. The idea should be to pay players for what they will do for you, not for what they did for their former team.

Over-thinking: People have told me Orlando Hudson could play center. Robinson Cano should play left. Derek Jeter can play center. Use Hideki Matsui at first base. This is a major league baseball team, not the second game of a American Legion doubleheader. Good teams don’t experiment like that unless there is no other choice. The Yankees always have another choice.

Hating on young players: To read some comments on the blog, people think Cano, Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy has bad seasons on purpose. Mickey Mantle hit .267 in his first 341 ABs and struck out 74 times. Tom Glavine was 9-21, 4.76 in the first two seasons. How about waiting a bit before deciding somebody isn’t any good?

Suspending reality: A rumor flew around this week that the Yankees might have interest in Erik Bedard. Never mind that he has a bad shoulder, a bad hip and a bad personality. He’s a perfect No. 5 starter! At some point, some things don’t make sense no matter how much you try.

and finally …

Leave Hideki Matsui alone: Now that the Yankees have an extra player, some folks want Hideki shipped out of town for most anything. Lest you forget, Godzilla has a .371 career OBP and has driven in 103+ plus runs every year he was healthy. He’s also 34, not 44. When A-Rod had his monster 2007, you know who hit behind him most days? Matsui, that’s who.

This release from the Yankees:

The New York Yankees announced today they will join the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association under the auspices of Major League Baseball in holding a clinic for high school pitchers, catchers and coaches at National Taiwan Sport University’s Taoyuan Campus in Taipei, Taiwan from January 7-11.

As the Yankees’ first-ever large-scale outreach in Taiwan, the clinic represents the latest Yankees-led initiative in cultivating baseball talent and increasing brand recognition in Asia and the greater international community.

“This clinic serves as another step in the outreach and integration of baseball throughout the international community,” said Yankees President Randy Levine. “The Yankees organization is recognized around the world, and we are confident this important event will leave a positive imprint on our countless fans in Taiwan.”

Led by five members of the Yankees’ player development staff in Tampa, Fla., the five-day clinic will focus on pitching and catching fundamentals and philosophy. Yankees representatives will include special assistant Pat McMahon, extended spring training pitching coach Carlos Chantres, assistant director of baseball operations Eric Schmitt, catching coordinator Julio Mosquera and srength and conditioning coordinator Mike Wickland. Taiwanese participants include 40 pitchers, 10 catchers and 20 coaches, all from the high school level.

“Taiwan has given the Yankees one of its brightest stars in Chien-Ming Wang,” said Yankees Senior Vice President and General Manager Brian Cashman. “We hope that this clinic demonstrates our deep respect and appreciation for a place that has given us such a talented player.”

The Chinese Taipei Baseball Association oversees all amateur baseball in Taiwan and organizes their Olympic and World Baseball Classic teams. Their interest in working with the Yankees is natural given the club’s huge following in Taiwan, which is largely due to the success of Wang, a two-time 19-game winner and Tainan, Taiwan native.

I have no idea what MLB Network plans for the future. But hopefully it includes more old games like the 1956 World Series game they showed last night.

Beyond that it was Don Larsen’s perfect game, it was pretty cool to see actual game footage of Mickey Mantle, Jackie Robinson, Country Slaughter, Yogi Berra, Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, etc.

Two things struck me: How normal-sized the players are and how big the pre-renovation Yankees Stadium was. Oh, and Vin Scully still sounds exactly the same.

How cool were the commercials? You could get a razor, a travel case and a mini Baseball Encyclopedia for $1! Meanwhile, Larsen throws a perfecto in the Series and just walks off the mound in the direction of the dugout. He would have kept on walking, too, but Yogi jumped in his arms.

MLB Network will surely have plenty of news shows and live games. But hopefully we’ll get some more of these historic games in their entirety. What a treat that was.

January is traditionally a slow month for baseball news. So for the second year in a row, we will showcase other blogs with a series of pinch hitters.

Next up are the guys from Respect Jeter’s Gangster.

According to them, “the blog started last January at the behest of fans, columnists, sportswriters, Oprah’s book club, ballplayers, Senator Mitchell, and the Nobel Committee for Literature. Everyone was clamoring for someone to fill the void of Yankees blogs relating to the respect of Jeter’s gangster. None existed, until the courage of Fernando Alejandro, Roberto Alejandro, and Deron Peter forced them to act against the injustice. Besides being a Yankees blog, our investigative reporting team has time and again broken the stories that the papers missed. These include Joba Chamberlain’s fist pumping scandal, Brian Cashman’s insensitive means of demoting his players, and many others. If you would like to read these stories, please stop by our site.

Here’s their post:

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Kei Igawa Uses Leverage to Undo Cameron Trade

A number of weeks ago many people thought that the Melky Cabrera and Mike Cameron deal was going through. It was then reported that the Yankees were including Kei Igawa in the deal, and that it was now a matter of how much money the Brewers were willing to take on. Then, the trade talks seemed to fall apart completely. Some speculate that Melky Cabrera’s hot start in the Dominican winter league was the cause of the apparent break down in interest from the Yankees, but the Respect Jeter’s Gangster investigative team found another reason.

“I’ve never folded under pressure,” said Yankees co-chairperson Hank Steinbrenner. “But this was something different.”

Steinbrenner, who has looked to trade Igawa since his troubled beginning, found himself unable to make the trade because of the unusual leverage Igawa had over him.

“I got home one day,” Hank said, “and I was going through my mail and I found a letter without a return address. I opened it up, and all it said was ‘If you trade me, I will punch your horse.’ It included a picture of my prize horse Tornado Thunder and a masked person wearing a boxing glove. I couldn’t tell it was Kei Igawa, but I suspected it was him.”

As trade talks with Milwaukee intensified, so did the letters.

“The next one I got pretty much said the same thing,” Hank said. “That if I traded him he would punch my horse, but this time he specified ‘in the face.’ I have to admit I started sweating a little. Included in the envelope was a strand of what appeared to be a lock of Tornado Thunder’s hair. I had the letter tested for DNA and it came up positive for Tornado Thunder and Barry Bonds. I didn’t know what to make of that.”

Authorities first thought that the finding of Bonds DNA was evidence that Bonds was behind the letter. However, a later letter erased that theory.

“The last letter I got had a picture of my horse again with a black eye colored in with a pen. It was so realistic. He used purple and black ink to really bring out the deepness of the bruise,” Steinbrenner said. “He even drew horns on my horse, like it was evil. The letter said, ‘If you trade me, your horse will be possessed by a demon.’ Sincerely, Kei Igawa. P.S., I’m still going to punch it in the face.’ It had Igawa’s fingerprint on the picture, and he included a newspaper cutout of Alex Rodriguez with drawn on sunglasses and a pipe in his mouth. It didn’t make any sense. Then we did a second DNA test, and got matches for Lonn Trost, our finance guy. I’m not sure how he gets all this DNA.”

Once this picture arrived, Hank decided to pull the plug.

“I could barely deal with my horse getting punched in the eye, never min demonic possession,” Hank paused, fighting back his emotions. “I saw Emily Rose. Enough said.”

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Thanks to Fernando, Roberto and Deron. They’ve been supporters of this blog for a long time and I appreciate it. Coming tomorrow: This Purist Bleeds Pinstripes.

January is traditionally a slow month for baseball news. So for the second year in a row, we will showcase other blogs with a series of pinch hitters.

First up are the guys from River Ave. Blues. Ben, Mike, and Joe started their blog in 2007 after years of going it alone. Since then they’ve built a community of passionate fans who discuss everything Yankees. As they say, it’s sometimes even-handed, sometimes insane, but never dull. Here’s their post:

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Johnny Damon is awesome. Save for two horrendous months in 2007, he’s been everything the Yankees could possibly have expected when they signed him to a four-year, $52 million contract in the winter of 2005. In fact, it’s quite funny to think that the Red Sox thought Coco Crisp could prove an adequate replacement. Covelli might have the advantage on defense, but when it comes to the lumber in general and hitting leadoff in specific, Damon reigns supreme. In two of his three seasons with the Yankees, Damon has put up numbers on par with his career best. In 2006 he hit a career-high 24 home runs and put up a stat line of .285/.359/.482. While his OBP might seem a tick low for an ideal leadoff guy, only seven teams had a better OBP from their top spot, though that’s really only six because the Yankees are one of those seven.

In 2008 he tied his career best in OPS+, 118, hitting .303/.375/.461. Only one team, the Marlins, had a better OBP from the leadoff spot. They got that mostly from Hanley Ramirez, who should probably be hitting third or fourth considering his 30-homer power. Still, we could reasonably call Damon the best leadoff hitter in the American League in 2008. He was a bright spot in an offense that didn’t live up to expectations. In 2007 his slash stats and his OPS+ might suggest he was a bit below average. But as we mentioned above, it was due to two particularly bad months. In April he hit .229/.349/.329 while dealing with calf problems. After a strong May he fell back off in June with a .226/.286/.333 line. After that he finished off the season with three strong months, and posted a post-All-Star break line of .296/.364/.450. Only Boston had a higher team OBP from the leadoff spot in the second half of that year. As Damon said himself at the start of 2008, “When I go, this team goes a lot smoother.” That’s really true of any leadoff man, and Johnny has been one of the best, if not the best in baseball since coming over to the Yankees. With plenty of question marks in the five through nine slots in the batting order, the Yanks sure could use one more season of reliable Johnny Damon to keep the offense running smoothly.

Who’s to say, though, that Johnny only has one more season in him? Because his contract expires after the 2009 season, it seems like many fans assume he’ll be elsewhere in 2010. However, as we’ve all noted this winter, the Yankees have just one outfielder under contract for 2010. If Johnny has a quality 2009 campaign, the Yankees should certainly consider bringing him back. The problem, of course, is in Damon’s agent, Scott Boras, who will surely shop the outfielder in hopes of finding a multi-year deal. Even so, the Yankees need to seriously ponder the question of Damon’s value to this team. He might be one guy we sorely miss come 2010.

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Thanks to the RAB guys. They’ve been a great addition to the Yankees blog universe. Coming tomorrow: Respect Jeter’s Gangster.