Yankees (nearly) ready for practice
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- February
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It’s warming up here in Tampa (it was 38 when I left the hotel this morning and is 55 now) and the Yankees are 30 minutes or so from taking the field. They’re seeing some sort of video presentation at the moment in the clubhouse.
More live BP today. The pitchers are:
Field 1: Burnett, Kennedy, Giese, Igawa, Cox and Dunn.
Field 2: Bruney, Veras, Sabathia, Chamberlain, Garcia, Kontos, Albaladejo and Robertson.
Meanwhile it’s a big day for TV stars. Hazel Mae and Peter Gammons are in the house.
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on Saturday, February 21st, 2009 at 10:13 am by Peter Abraham.
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Chad Jennings
Sam Borden
Josh Thomson
Hazel Mae’s probably there for MLB Network’s ‘30 Clubs in 30 Days’.
Oh boy – I love the idea for the MLB “30 Clubs in 30 day”, but I don’t hold out much hope for the Yankees show (to be aired on Sunday, I believe) to be anything more than Alex/steroids. I’m not sure I will watch this one.
Pete, thanks for listing the schedule. I hope you will make it a point to watch Burnett and give us a report……
Speaking of MLB Network’s “30 clubs in 30 Days”, did anyone happen to catch the Boston Red Sox one? My goodness, it was a solid hour of kissing Boston’s butt-cheeks.
They said the Red Sox are a healthier bull club than in 2008. Wait a minute…they have an injury prone Josh Becekett, Brad Penny and John Smoltz (who won’t be ready until June or July) in their starting rotation. They have a third baseman in Mike Lowell with a bad back and the same said for their right fielder J.D. Drew. Plus, we all know how injured David Ortiz was last season and he ALREADY has a sore left shoulder.
They also have a shortstop in Juilo Lugo who cannot hit or field for his life, a catcher who batted .219 last season and a Center fielder who did not look like the second coming of Johnny Damon last season. They also replace Manny Ramirez bat with Jason Bay.
But this is the team that is going to win 98 games. This is the team that all three anaylsists picked to win the East. I really cannot wait to see their coverage on the Yankees because they will not reconize any positive things for the Bombers only the negatives.
Anthony -
While it makes no sense at all for the analysts to ignore the possible problems on the Red Sox, I actually have no problem with them underrating the Yankees. The games get played on the field, and we have seen in the past how incorrect pre-season picks can be. Plus, it’s a lot better to fly under the radar without the bullseye on your back. Let the Red Sox be the team to beat. ’sokay with me.
LOL they all picked the Sox? Now I know I don’t have to bother watching the Yankees show – thanks for the warning, Anthony!
Anthony,
Two things. One MLBTV and .com almost never say anything bad about anyone. They’ll say the Pirates will finish above .500.
Second, everyone will pick against the Yankees because it keeps people engaged. ESPN and others have made the Yankees the villain and Red Sox have been made the team that’s all of what’s right in baseball.
Think about it. Can you name the last negative story to come out of that team? Even with Manny, he was always the problem, never Theo, Tito, or another player.
Anthony
I turned it on when they were waxing poetic about how Jason knows how to handle the pen. He knows what to do if it is a game where you are holding the lead, or try to hold the score, or just getting ready for tomorrow. OH WOW!! What a genius.
Also found it funny when they spoke about the starting rotation and how DEEP and how many inning they throw! LOL as you already pointed out they have a lot of problems. I turned it off after that.
Lugo probably won’t be the starting shortstop – Lowrie will be. Glossing over Boston’s warts is shoddy journalism, though.
Hazel Mae’s last job was at Red Sox propaganda machine NESN. She got in more than her share of digs at the “Evil Empire”.I grew up reading Peter Gammon’s but his loyalty to the Sox has compromised his reporting. There’s no chance of the Yanks getting fair treatment.
I love watching the Ken Burns documentary and the old World Series games on MLB.TV. Other than that, their talk programming is pretty easy to tune out. I am optimistic it will improve with Bob Costas now on board.
Pete…keep an eye on Garcia and if you can, please give an update.
I do agree that Peter Gammons is bias in favor of the Sox.
But I did find something very interesting.
Of all the sportscasters out there why did Arod/Yankees select Gammons to do Arod’s first interview? I have heard a lot of sports people (neither Yankee or Sox fans) basically say that Gammons was way too easy on Arod during that interview.
PETE do u kno who will be pitching in the 1st spring training game..
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Anthony–i couldn’t agree more–have you guys noticed all the yankee haters on MLB network? fiirst of all if i hear harold reynolds say that the yankees are having a problem getting the ball to mariano at the end of the game i will scream. how come they don’t talk about how the sox actually DID have a problem getting the ball to pap last year.
Drve-5-4 –i hope you’re right about costas bringing some reason to the table..but having to listen to that joe magrane literally hate on our team is very trying.
It’s not even the fact that all three picked Boston to win the AL East. It’s the fact that they had the nerve to say that Boston is healthier than last season. They also say how deep their pitching is…they have three starting pitchers who, at any day, could land on the DL in Beckett, Smoltz, and Penny. They don’t mention that, though.
It’s not even the fact that all three picked Boston to win the AL East. It’s the fact that they had the nerve to say that Boston is healthier than last season. They also say how deep their pitching is…they have three starting pitchers who, at any day, could land on the DL in Beckett, Smoltz, and Penny. They don’t mention that, though.
It’s not even the fact that all three picked Boston to win the AL East. It’s the fact that they had the nerve to say that Boston is healthier than last season. They also say how deep their pitching is…they have three starting pitchers who, at any day, could land on the DL in Beckett, Smoltz, and Penny. They don’t mention that, though.
They think it sells, and guess what? they are right lol. we are talking about them, aren’t we? When we win the WS and get even more bandwagoners from the next gen, we will get the biased reporting
jen – from previous thread:
jen, same thing with Nady. He is house hunting and said he cannot even use a credit card to put down a deposit because all of his assets are frozen. On the news last night some analyst said the problem with Damon and Nady was that they put all of their assets into one account rather than diversifying with different agents/accounts.
Or something like that.
Off topic but this has been bugiing me for days.
I recently remembered Selena Robert’s name for some reason. Checked in google and she was responsible for a 2007 piece of trash written for the NYT regarding A-rod’s ownership of a Tampa apartment complex.
The article tried very hard to suggest that A-rod was a penny pinching landlord who neglected his tenants and was getting rich at the expense of poor people.
Well if you dug into it, as was shown in a follow-up article in the St Pete Times, most of it was pure BS. They interviewed several people who complained because the management of the apartment had the nerve to make them pay their rent. Also it sometimes took a whole day before someone would come over and look at a maintenance problem.
It was a total hit piece and typical of the agenda driven journalism which is driving the Times revenues into the toilet.
Given that she has been out to get A-rod for at least two years I expect her book to be another garbage laden tract.
Now I am not in any way defending A-rod’s use of PED’s. But I am just trying to let others know that Ms. Roberts isn’t necessarily the crusading straight journalist the media is making her. As the saying goes there are always two sides to every story….
I don’t know if you guys heard, but d’ya know both swisher and CC are on twitter?
Anthony, Smoltz and Penny don’t project to be in the top five. They’re around for depth, the theory being that enough guys will be healthy at the same time.
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Oh I know, Kevin, but their depth isn’t exactly 100 percent non-injury prone, either. What if Becektt goes down, they bring up Penny, and HE gets injured. Or just plains sucks?
Suddenly Boston doesn’t look amazing.
“fiirst of all if i hear harold reynolds say that the yankees are having a problem getting the ball to mariano at the end of the game i will scream.”
Did you also see Bruney on with Reynolds the other night telling him he plans to shut him up about that and Reynolds backing down?
Justin: No.
Anthony, off the top of my head, the Sox have Beckett, Lester, Dice-K, Wakefield, Buchholz, Smoltz, Penny, Masterson (pen/spot starter), and Bowden will probably be ready at some point this year, too (tore up AA as a 21 y.o., and even pitched well in AAA last year too). I’d say chances are good that they’ll have five healthy guys from that group at any given time.
YanksRule57, my dad always told us there were actually 3 sides to every story – “mine, yours, and the truth.”
It’s probably good to realize that with the Roberts/Arod debacle.
I also want to give a shout out to Pete on his article on Presinal and Arod. I guess that’s why it’s so frustrating to read the stuff put out by other reporters (such as Sherman and Harper currently and King of course) in their coverage of the Presinal stuff. Great job by Observer283 in pointing out the difference in the reporting by Curry and then Harper and Sherman.
Here’s a thought. We know that there are 103 other names on that list. (No I don’t care to know who they are.) However, we keep getting a lot of trash about the 2004 ALCS and the meltdown. However, people are also quick to call Yankee championships “tainted” because of players who used PEDs. Well I have one for you. I would not be totally stunned to find out that there were names of Red Sox players on that 2003 list. If so, were they using in 2004? Should we at least consider the possibility that the 2004 ALCS/World Series was tainted?
I personally had more trouble with the Yankees 2006 “one and out” than I did with the 2004 “meltdown” because injuries played such a big part in the 2004 Yankees rotation (including a self-inflicted one by Brown) and it was also the one year that nobody in the Sox rotation spent a day on the DL and our closer had to pitch with an extremely tragic situation in the background.
Anyway, 2009 is our year. I guess the best thing you can say about the protection of the 2003 list and the fact that everyone unfortunately is suspect, is this: there is no way anybody can allege that their team of choice is totally clean this year. Therefore finger pointing against the Yankees will ring pretty hollow if anyone tries to do it.
My opinion.
Well, they can allege it, but they certainly can’t prove it (any more than we can of course.)
Kevin,
Really? 5 of those names are recovering from injuries and 2 of them are over 40 years old.
Five are recovering from injuries? I think you’re playing fast and loose with the definition of “recovering.” Regardless, I think they won’t hurt too badly for five healthy starters at any given time.
I’m not playing fast and loose when I tell you Beckett and Wakefield were injured enough to be innefective 4 months ago or that John Smoltz and Brad Penney were unable to pitch period.
Don’t get too giddy about Bowden. He’s the Red Sox version of Ian Kennedy.
Drive 4-5, I’m not at all fearful of the Sox rotation. Even if you want to argue that they could have a healthy compilation at all times (I don’t think it will happen, but let’s say so for the sake of argument) I don’t think you can depend on having an effective rotation at all times. After all, Beckett had a wicked meltdown last year while not being injured at all (according to Beckett). Wakefield we all know has his best days behind him. Smoltz is coming from the NL so he becomes a total wild card. Matsuzaka has lived on the edge for quite a while. Will this be the year that all of his walks come home to roost? And I cannot imagine anyone with a straight face would mention Bucholz.
I think the Sox have nothing BUT question marks in their rotation.
” Beckett had a wicked meltdown last year”
Yes, but he throws wicked haaad.
You’re typing with a New England accent! lol
If Buchholz cannot be mentioned with a straight face, then neither can Hughes. Both are young, both have struggled, both have had injuries, and neither should be given up on.
Look, I’m probably overestimating Boston, but I’d rather do that and be pleasantly surprised than underestimating them yet again.
Kevin,
I live in Mass and know enough not to pay attention to the Red Sox pr machine.
The Yankees have questions marks.The Red Sox have just as many.
It’s very bad news for them that JD Drew’s back problems are no better than they were in October. Lowery is a good fielder but has a huge hole in his swing a la Melky. Julio Lugo is already voicing his discontent at the thought of not being a starter. Jason Varitek has been nearly an automatic out for 1 1/2 seasons now. Rocco Baldeli still cant fully participate in drills. Wakefield’s back problems at his age are not going away.
Most importantly, they have not proved they can win without Manny Ramirez. The last time a Red Sox team to won a World Series without Manny? 1918.
Hazel Mae works for NESN so obviously she is biased towards the Sox.
“You’re typing with a New England accent! lol”
Actually a real NE accent would say that Beckett had a “wicked bad” meltdown!
“Most importantly, they have not proved they can win without Manny Ramirez. The last time a Red Sox team to won a World Series without Manny? 1918.”
I think you meant that as tongue-in-cheek, because otherwise it’s a massive logical fallacy, though I’m not sure which.
I’m not questioning that Boston has its holes, but there are those here who just seem to assume that Boston and Tampa will melt out of the Yanks’ way, and I don’t see that happening. I see a three-team dogfight going down to the wire, and 95 wins might not be enough for the WC.
Drive, not to mention the fact that Ortiz still isn’t ready to play. Who knows where that’s going!
By the way, in fashion of “where’s waldo” anyone know what the latest is on Manny and his quest for the promised 5-year contract?
Kevin,
My Manny comment was both in fun and factual.
Manny Ramirez contributed mightily to the Red Sox success. You dont take a player like that off your roster without feeling the consequences. Jason Bay is a good player. Manny Ramirez is a great player. There’s not a team in baseball who would rather pitch to Manny Ramirez over Jason Bay. It’s a huge question mark how that will impact the Red Sox over 162 games.
Yes, I’m not denying that. I balked at the 1918 part. I don’t think Bay compensates for Manny, but he’s not chopped liver, either. There were many other integral parts to the ‘07 team that are still around; likewise, many of the integral parts to the ‘04 team were discarded. I’m just saying I don’t think the Saux are going to fall off the face of the earth.
Gammons was sniffing around so he could report to Theo Epstein tonight in Fort Myers what he saw and what Cashman said.
Who’s kidding who ?