Statement from The Boss
Posted by: Sam Borden - Posted in Misc on Oct 12, 2009 
Print This Post
| 
Email This Post
Sorry for the back-to-back posts, but this e-mail popped in about 30 seconds after I hit send on the last post.
Here’s a statement from George Steinbrenner – via spokesman Howard Rubenstein – on the Yankees advancing to the ALCS:
“As we move on to the ALCS, our team’s focus remains the same. With the support of the greatest fans in the world, we will continue to march forward as we have done all year.”
It’s possible that The Boss will make a NY appearance during the ALCS, though I think it’s more likely we’ll see him if the Yankees make the World Series. Jennifer Steinbrenner was among the officials watching the clubhouse celebration in Minneapolis last night.
UPDATE, 1:20 p.m.: I’ve heard from a number of people who have said they’ve heard/seen reports about a game at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. That sounds about right to me – maybe first pitch itself is closer to 8 – but I want to hold off posting a schedule until MLB makes it official. You never know what Selig and his crew are going to come up with (like, say, a World Series that doesn’t end until November …)
How hot was Jen Steinbrenner, holy cr*p!
Statements from the Boss rock.
“The Red Sox will most certainly sign Jose Molina next year to split time with Martinez behind the plate and then we can hear Gammons wax poetic about Molina’s game calling and how Theo find this undiscovered gem the Yankees foolishly let slip away not to mention how all the Yankees pitchers secretly preferred to throw to him over Posada.”
so why don’t the yankees pay the extra million and keep molina as the back up and have a cheap third string catcher at triple a not using up service time .
chances are posada or molina will be disabled at some point ant cervelli still plays some.
i think this is the strongest way to go for the yankees plus it has the added benefit of keeping molina away from the red sox as a back up.
Going back to guestimating 8pm start-
103 hours and 53 minutes until Game 1!!!!!!!!
Friday and Saturday game at 7:30 per Francesa
Erica- Mike just said 7:30pm start. So now I’ll have to find something to do between work and game. I can’t go right to the bar and drink. lol
I missed the Papelbon discussion earlier-
But here is a link to an interesting Yahoo entry that feels Papelbon could be dealt. I would not be surprised at all. He does not get along with team management. And every team needs a fall guy
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/bl.....mlb,195294
Trisha, for yours, my and deadline’s sake, I hope I’m wrong on the 8 p.m. start! Sadly, I think Fox will always want the Yankees in primetime …
jennifer
October 12th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
Erica- Mike just said 7:30pm start. So now I’ll have to find something to do between work and game. I can’t go right to the bar and drink. lol
****
I like 8pm better. The math is less complicated
I have a feeling that Steinbrenner dictated a whole bunch of these for the future.
=====================================
from danpatrick.com:
McCarver explains why pitchers like certain catchers better
11:37 AM10.12 Posted By: Andrew Perloff SHARE COMMENTS (0)
The Yankees’ A.J. Burnett has not had success with Jorge Posada as his catcher.
Getty Images
FOX’s Tim McCarver joined the show to break down the MLB playoffs. Here are some of his takes …
– McCarver discussed designated catchers. McCarver explained that he could call Steve Carlton’s games very well. McCarver explained that Carlton thought Bob Boone was always four pitches off with him (and he only had three catches).
McCarver said that A.J. Burnett and Jorge Posada just can’t get on the same page.
– McCarver thinks the Yankees-Angels could be “one of the great, dramatic series of our time.” He likes the Yankees to win an incredible series.
– McCarver thinks the Dodgers will come out of the National League.
– McCarver and Dan got into an interesting discussion about instant replay in baseball. McCarver thought the blown foul call in Game 2 of the Twins-Yankees. They agree that instant replay is coming, so they need to figure it out now. Dan wants the manager to be able to call for one instant replay per game. McCarver thinks Dan is headed in the right direction.
– McCarver couldn’t believe the Minnesota Twins’ errors on the basepaths.
Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.c.....z0Tk5cnuJP
=======================================================
I like having Jorge/Molina/Cervelli because when the first 2 went down Cervelli stepped up. If Cervelli’s the secondary catcher next season, who’s his backup? Let’s hope we win, and a drunk Molina will sign a cheap one-year contract during the celebration.
Keep up the great work Sam, Chad and Josh. You guys have been great so far
Frances just reported Fri and Sat at 7:30, and Monday at 4:00. I guess the NY Post was wrong. What a surprise. I will dismiss my students and run to the subway on Monday. School ends at 3:15 and I have 45 minutes to get from Brooklyn to downtown Manhattan. I should make it!
Sam- I am hoping for a later start too. I have to catch a train back home after the game, and they don’t run all night.
That should have read Francesa reported.
Oops that should be earlier.
I hope Boss can make the trip and gets to see a victory.
You look at teams like Minny which is owned by a billionaire who cries poverty and pockets the profits or even the Red Sox who slashed payroll and signed cheap reclamation projects and tried to sell that to their fans as big moves while they raised ticket and merch prices.
What fans of those teams don’t realize is their owners have the money to spend, they just choose not to and try to maximize profits on their teams.
Here’s what we get. Great players who get treated well. A commitment to youth that has our roster stocked with home grown talent. We get a state of the art stadium where during the post season I didn’t have to wait longer than 2 mins for the bathroom or a concession.
I wish the ticket prices weren’t so high but we get a great product all around.
Red Sox fans are now wise to what their ownership was pulling this past season. It’s all over their message boards. They cut so much payroll this year and kept increasing what it cost to go to a game. That’s just greed.
Now they are going to have to spend to keep the fanbase happy and it appears, at least to me, that last post season was the wisest season to spend. This one has a lot of question marks.
Cashman and the Steins opened the checkbook at a serendipitous time.
4pm start Monday?! That is awful! I’ll miss the first 2 hours, so probably about 4 innings.
Randy L,
I think the only reason they wouldn’t sign Molina is if they decide to bring back Matsui to DH which I think there will be a huge push to do.
I have a feeling that Hideki is going to have some more very dramatic moments the rest of the way and the Yankees are going to feel compelled to bring him back to DH.
I could be wrong, but as it stands, Hideki is one of the best DH’s in the game.
I also don’t think Posada is going to want to be full time DH and I don’t think Jeter or Arod are old enough yet to play more DH.
If Molina is going to cost 2-3 million per year to come back or more I don’t know if the Yankees spend that money on him. We’ll see.
I just think he’s going to be a big target for the Red Sox as teaming him up with Martinez behind the plate makes their catching situation better overnight.
I am off next Monday. That works for me
On the Jeter play from last night. If Posada doesn’t throw a perfect strike to Arod and Punto makes it back to the bag, does anyone second guess Jeter’s decision to throw to Posada after Punto put on the breaks? Wasn’t the correct play there to run at the runner until he committed to a base?
Aura, do you see where Jeter was? He was behind second he can’t run at him and make him commit to a base.
Mike, Nick Punto said he heard the fans cheer really loud, that is why he kept running. What a genius!
Bring back Molina for one more year to defend the title and then try to trade AJ away for the final three years of his contract?
Normally, I would love an 8pm start time. However, its my friends birthday party this friday. She said we can “pregame” somewhere and watch the game before we go to whatever place she picked out for her party. I hope she realizes that I’m not leaving our “pregame” destination until the game is over!
All these discussion over the two plays are giving me a headache. What we need is an overhead view of the whole play. Where was Punto when Jeter decided to throw the ball?
(btw, it’s great that our players don’t give up on plays. Yes, the Twins’ baserunners made errors, but the Yankees made them pay).
I like Jose a lot, but if the Sawx make him a dumb $4-5 million, 2-3 year offer, then its vaya con dios.
At $2 million they may keep him, depending on the 40 man.
why are my posts getting eaten ???
Nyy626
October 12th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Normally, I would love an 8pm start time. However, its my friends birthday party this friday. She said we can “pregame” somewhere and watch the game before we go to whatever place she picked out for her party. I hope she realizes that I’m not leaving our “pregame” destination until the game is over!
*****
In that case, the “pregame” is sounding a whole lot more like the actual game
I am in Atlantic City next Saturday. Just wait until I tell my friends they have to sit at the sports bar with me for 3 and a half hours
Mike is making it sound like that blown call was the reason the Twins lost that game. Um no 17 left on base is the reason they lost. Yes if it happened to the Yankees I’d be ticked, but I am also smart enough to know that they left a village on the bases.
Had A-Rod been at third the play might have been to trap the runner right away, but Alex did not break for the bag until after the throw home so Jeter did the right thing.
jennifer, I know, I don’t think anyone could fault Jeter from throwing home because all he saw was Punto motoring around 3rd and it was of most importance to protect the run but I can only imagine that there would be some people who would have faulted Jeter for not throwing to 3rd on the play if Punto was safe.
“If Molina is going to cost 2-3 million per year to come back or more I don’t know if the Yankees spend that money on him. We’ll see.”
g love-
i think the problem will be years. molina can probably get two years somewhere.
i’d sign him for two million for two years.
the red sox surely aren’t going to pay a back up more than that.
if the yankees don’t want him the second year, he could be traded at that point.
it’s very tough to get a veteran to go to triple a unless you pay them so by having cervelli go there you have a capable back up cheap.
it’s hard not to want matsui back.
i think damon is the one who could get a two year contract and will leave.
i just like keeping the posada /molina tandem together until the young cathers just push them out in a few years.
OMG, why am I listening to Francessa? He is a tool. He is still jammering about the blown call that Cuzzi made. He hung up on a guy because the guy brought up that the Twins still had bases loaded with no outs. I’m shutting him off now because he’s giving me a migraine.
I am listening to the Mike Francesa show for the first time in months.
I just wanted to hear this idiot’s incredulity that the Red Sox actually got spanked by a team that is vastly superior to them.
What I find interesting is his harping on how bad Punto’s base running was. The point is, the Twins don’t have the OPS factor going for them – they run themselves out of innings and make baserunning mistakes (see Gomez) because they are under pressure to manufacture runs.
That’s why the runner there is prone to make a mental error.
My point is, not that it wasn’t a bone-head play, but that the Twins, by virtue of their makeup, are disposed to make such mistakes.
If they had the OPS factor going for them, like the Yankees do, they wouldn’t be in the mindset.
It’s not some anomaly that circumstances the Twins would find themselves in would potentially cause their demise from an offensive point of view.
This idiot on the phone now wants Gardner playing CF in the next round.
Oh sure, people are staying up nights worrying about Posada’s arm vs. Angels runners (I would, FTR, NEVER take Posada’s bat out of the lineup against the Angels).
Any amount of money people who want Gardner in CF are the same idiots who worry about Posada’s arm against the Angels – even though the Angels will be running first to third all day if Gardner’s out there.
catchers are cheaper so the rs should move youk to 3b,vm to 1b,get rid of tek,lowell,pappi,get a catcher,ss,pitcher,dh
“why are my posts getting eaten ???”
Maybe the blog is hungry.
“why are my posts getting eaten ???”
livan is in charge of the new blog filter.
G. Love,
$2-3M per year sounds high. He got a 2 year contract from the Yankees (such an under the radar move/re-signing, who knew it’d cause such a firestorm, lol). I doubt he gets a multi-year at this age. Maybe $2M, but $3M is stretching it considering that he’s making $2.l25 right now and baseball salaries have dropped across the board. How about Abreu at $5M for a comp?
BTW, someone asked about Jamie Moyer yesterday? He had surgery to repair something (groin/abdomen), but has been hospitalized with a blood infection. Hopefully he’ll be okay.
Also they had to watch the runner on first and make sure he didn’t attempt to advance to second. So there was a lot going on. Jeter threw to the right base.
I’m w/you Laura, and I’ve had enough and am turning him off now.
Wow, 4:00 start on Monday? I think I’ll have to go to the boss and see if he’ll let me rearrange my schedule for next week!!
Throwing home is the right play because that’s the base you want to prevent a run from scoring more than anything, right?
A friend of mine (a White Sox fan no less) has his own take on the blown Cuzzi play and I think that he may have a point. He says that Cuzzi wasn’t looking at where the ball landed, but at where Melky’s glove was at the time. Melky’s glove was in foul territory. That could have been the basis for Cuzzi’s call. Only he knows and he certainly isn’t going to admit to looking at Melky’s glove and not the ball. Thoughts??
I never thought the soxs were for real this year. I mean look at their lineup. Look at all the work the GREAT THEO has to do this off season. By comparison how much does Cash have to do? Decide if he is bring either/or/none of Damon Matsui back. And maybe a little work in the pen. Otherwise not much else. If J-Hair/Eric etc want to come back you bring em’.
Not to get ahead of myself or anything.
Laura, Mauer himself said that if he was on 2nd instead of first the ground ball through the hole by Kubel probably doesn’t get past Teixiera.
The Ghost,
But in that case wouldn’t Mauer be standing at 3B, with 1 out?
“Laura, Mauer himself said that if he was on 2nd instead of first the ground ball through the hole by Kubel probably doesn’t get past Teixiera.”
Exactly. This notion that the Twins would have definitely plated Mauer had Cuzzi not blown that call is ludicrous.
Laura, you ever wonder why Melky paints those stripes on the outer edge of his cleats? Well it obvious now that they are there to hypnotize umpires into calling balls foul
Someone just said on Francesa that the umpire lost the ball behind Melky’s cleats. As good a theory as any.
m, I would think that Teix would check Mauer before running to the bag, no?
Aura
October 12th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
jennifer, I know, I don’t think anyone could fault Jeter from throwing home because all he saw was Punto motoring around 3rd and it was of most importance to protect the run but I can only imagine that there would be some people who would have faulted Jeter for not throwing to 3rd on the play if Punto was safe.
———————————————————-
the first priority is to stop the run from scoring
jeter has a sense that most if not all other players do not have
he knows everything that is going on at all times
you cant teach that
he will be a great coach
if he held the ball the runner at 3b is safe if he goes back wich he probably does.if he threw to 3b the runner scores
Mourneau being out of the lineup mitigated against the Twins possibly extending the series.
That lefty power bat, especially in our park, might have made this a closer, although we’d have won any way.
Argh. I don’t know. How hard was the ball hit? Mauer’s supposed to go on contract with a ground ball, no? (it was a ground ball wasn’t it?)
Anyway, we won. And we had 10 come from behind wins against the Twins this season. That has to be some kind of record, no?
Personally, I hope Molina stays with the Yankees. Randy’s suggestion that giving him the extra year with the knowledge you can trade him if needed is spot on.
I’m just worried that Cash may look at the savings from Molina to Cervelli and say I can take that 2 million next year and put it to good use somewhere else on the field.
I also think Boston will want him because they already have offense behind the plate in Martinez. They need to shore up their defense there and give the opposition something to think about before going off to the races. Out of all the free agents, I think Jose is the best fit in that regard.
I want Matsui back at DH next season. I know it’s a heart move, but he is our 5th place hitter and he does a tremendous job.
He is a DH in the purest sense since he can no longer play the field. Reminds me of Edgar Martinez in his Seattle days except Edgar hit for a higher avg.
I’m not sure what’s going to happen with Damon. I too think he’ll get other offers from other clubs and I’m not sure keeping him in LF is the right move defensively yet I don’t know how you replace his offense on the market not to mention his intagibles.
I don’t love the Bay/Holliday option in the OF for LF. Something about both of them spooks me.
Can’t wait for this series to start though. I think it’s gonna be a classic.
somebody feed the blog
“Laura, you ever wonder why Melky paints those stripes on the outer edge of his cleats?”
I heard that and laughed. Too funny.
I’m with you bru, I just noticed Arod calling for the ball after Punto passed him (maybe Arod heard the 3rd base coach screaming for Punto to stop) so I can see that in hindsight people would be saying “why didn’t Jeter throw to Arod??? blah blah blah.”
does jg go
cc
burnett
pettitte
cc
burnett
pettitte
cc ???
this gives us an extra pitcher in the pen
“I want Matsui back at DH next season. I know it’s a heart move, but he is our 5th place hitter and he does a tremendous job. ”
Keeping both Damon and Matsui are both heart moves. As fans, we would do it. Cash can’t let his emotions get in the way of him making the tough decision. If I had to guess, Cash will keep Damon and let Matsui go. However, if Damon continues to have a crappy postseason, he may find himself out of luck as well.
G. Love,
I’d love to keep the core intact + a few key bench players (i.e. Molina).
Damon (1 year) would be great. Yes, he’s slumping now, and some have soured on him. But I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that something personal’s going on his life.
I posted earlier that McCarver thinks it’s going to be a classic, with the Yankees coming out on top.
I don’t need so much drama, is a sweep by the Yankees too much to ask for?
Also the throw to the plate from his position was the easier throw…Also Derek threw a easy to handle one hopper to Jorge who threw a seed to Alex…..
bru, I wouldn’t go with that rotation. It reeks of desperation. CC, AJ, Pettite, Gaudin, CC, etc is fine.
I would think the plan right now is to have Gaudin/Chamberlain start game 4, with Aceves waiting. If we are down 3-0, or 2-1…THEN maybe we’d see CC.
To only go with a 3 man staff means all 3 will be pitching on short rest?
If Molina leaves, who backs up Cervelli ????
Francesa is an idiot. He said he’s looking at the stat of the percentage of scoring a leadoff double then the caller said is it better than the odds of bases loaded no outs and Francesa said that’s not the point. He’s just stirring the pot, and watching the phones light up. If people just stopped buying his crap he would stop this nonsense.
Listen to Mike F. He is saying that all the calls go our way at YS. The Yankees are owed a couple of bad calls at YS during the postseason. Why does Mike F. not come out and admit that he is a Red Sox fan. He is still complaining about the Mauer double. That bad call in the Yankees favor does not make up for the hundreds of cheap strike/ball calls we suffered this series and every other playoff series in this decade.
In Puntos defense the 3rd base coach did give him a very late stop sign.
Without breaking down the precise geometry of the play, if Jeter threw the ball to Arod, they probably get Punto in a rundown and (perhaps) the play isn’t quite as close as it ended up being.
But as commenter m pointed out, Jeter throwing home first eliminated the likelihood of Punto scoring and had him heading back to third.
Another consequence of a rundown would probably have been letting Span get to second base on the play.
“I would think the plan right now is to have Gaudin/Chamberlain start game 4, with Aceves waiting. If we are down 3-0, or 2-1…THEN maybe we’d see CC.
To only go with a 3 man staff means all 3 will be pitching on short rest?”
no only CC would be on short rest for game 4…every other pitcher would be on normal rest for every game except game 4
At bats were shortened, at bats were altered all series long against the Twins. In the Tigers ALDS, it appeared as if our bats went into shutdown mode. Instead, it was the batters having to constantly change their approach at the plate because of the inconsistent strike zone in the opposition’s favor.
Laura – I’m going to need valium to get through the next series!
October 12th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
bru, I wouldn’t go with that rotation. It reeks of desperation. CC, AJ, Pettite, Gaudin, CC, etc is fine.
———————————————————–
jg is scratching his head i guarantee it
the problem with it is if cc comes out early we get our pen used up
i go
cc
burnett
pettitte
gaudin because if cg starts getting hit he is out
it also allows us to use cc in relief in game 6 & 7 i think
“In Puntos defense the 3rd base coach did give him a very late stop sign.”
Actually, Gardenhire said that Punto didn’t even look at the 3B coach; that he had his head down.
CC on short rest > Gaudin
CR9,
I turned off the loser.
The amount of blown calls on what should have been “caught looking” for strike 3 against Twins batters trumps that blown call.
A look at GameDay backs that up – so there’s no sort of “homerism” charge that carries any weight.
The run last night that the Twins got was only possible because the HP Ump blew another such call, which would have ended the inning.
CR9
October 12th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
At bats were shortened, at bats were altered all series long against the Twins. In the Tigers ALDS, it appeared as if our bats went into shutdown mode. Instead, it was the batters having to constantly change their approach at the plate because of the inconsistent strike zone in the opposition’s favor.
====
You are 100 percent correct. This happened to CC repeatedly in Game 1.
No harm in starting Gaudin in Game 4
1. We have a full bullpen with Aceves, Robertson, Coke, Joba etc.
2. We have an off-day before game 5, so we can afford to burn the pen.
does jg start cc in game 4 & monitor him closely??
with cg coming in if needed
you can go both ways
no way of knowing
Francessa had a caller earlier who was saying that he didn’t understand why people were making such a big deal about Jeter’s play; that the ONLY play was to throw home and ANYBODY would have done it. That’s not true. Yes, Jeter’s only play was at home, but how many other players might have tried to get Span at 1st? How many other players might have just held on to the ball?
I don’t think you can shortchange Jeter’s ability to always have his head in the game. I don’t think that Jeter should get all of the credit for that play; Jorge and Alex made the play happen as well (as did Punto – ha, ha!), but it’s wrong to act like every other SS would have thrown home because I don’t believe that is true.
Still have the yankees roster up.
Fascinating factoids, Jeter, Tex, and Alex are all listed as 6-2, but Tex is listed as 25 pounds heavier than Jeter and Alex is 33 lbs. heavier than Jeter.
Cervelli’s only 23. 23!
Tex is only 29. How
is that? Oh, boy, Boston might regret that non-move for years to come. Why pass on the filet mignon because you don’t want to pay for it even though you can afford it?
Cervelli 23, Hughes 23, Joba 24, Robertson 24, Melky 25, Aceves 26, Gaudin 26, Gardner 26, Cano 26, Coke 27, Swisher 28, Tex 29, CC 29.
Talk about younger and more athletic! And a big reason why we’ve been able to stay healthy for the most part. (knock on wood).
How would you know in advance that there would be no harm in starting Gaudin in Game 4? Couldn’t it be harmful if he got shelled early?
And how do you know what the precise state of the bullpen would be? Game 3 is the day before.
i think jg will keep his options open
if we are up 2-1 or 3-0 it might not happen
Somehow, I don’t see Jose Molina as a fit in Boston. He may want to head for an NL team where he can see more of his brothers.
With Jesus Montero 2 years away and Jorge retired, the tandum of Montero / Cervelli is the future of Yankee catching.
No decision will be made with Matsui until Cashman has positive reports on his knees.
Neither Damon or Matsui will be offered more than a 1-year deal with a team option of a 2nd year. If both elect to leave, Cashman can go hard after free agent Marlon Byrd
who can cover all 3 outfield positions. A-Jax may need another year before cracking the Yankee OF.
im loving francessa
vintage mo
sawing the bat right out of mauers hands
saying jg knows mauer wants to go the other way & mos cutter tails inside preventing that
I think CC pitches games 1, 4, and 7. They did it in the olden days, and CC can pitch game 4 on three days rest, especially in warm weather Anaheim. He’s a horse.
Chad Gaudin or CC Sabathia on 3 days rest–which would you choose?
The only issue is rainouts–that screws everything up, but as long as game 1 is on schedule, everything is OK.
Another issue is that the Yankee starters for the ALCS didn’t have that great a regular season against Anaheim. That is more of a factor than anything in this series. On the other hand, Yankees won the last 3 of 4 played.
Do we think Saturdays game will bevat night too?
I don’t care about the statement. I just want to know how you get Howard Rubenstein’s job. You know he’s not gettin’ paid bad for a a few minutes worth of work
Sam, don’t apologize about back to back posts! my eyes light up every time i see a new post. The more posts the better. Thanks