A quick word of thanks
Posted by: Chad Jennings - Posted in Misc on Feb 13, 2010 
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To be perfectly honest, there were a handful of the Pinch Hitters posts that I disagreed with, but that was kind of the point of the series. The most important role Sam and I play on this blog is to provide news and information, but in the winter, most days come and go without any real news to report. Quite often, opinions and predictions become king in the offseason, and I think it’s best to get as many of those as possible.
Sam and I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you to all of the Pinch Hitters and to all of you who took those posts and ran with them in the comments. It was a lot of fun and worked out even better than I had hoped or expected.
I would say the high point of the series came on January 25, when Lucas Vanderwarker’s post on Derek Jeter and the all-time hits record was picked up by Rob Neyer at ESPN.com. Rob disagreed with Lucas, but it’s the discussion that matters, and that post generated discussion here, here, here and here. And probably in other places I missed or forgot to bookmark.
The series came together with Sam and I asking for proposals, not finished posts. In most cases, we picked the posts and put them in order before actually seeing the finished product. I remember getting Ryan Lee’s post in my email inbox and saying outloud, “The kid nailed it.” There was poetry, and what seemed to be a page ripped out of a memoir. There was a new statistic, and a near dismissal of statistics altogether. There was a post from England that was nothing like what I expected and even better than I could have hoped.
It doesn’t make sense to mention all of the guest posts in this space, but thank you to everyone who participated. Great stuff throughout.
Now, let’s get spring training started!
agree, can’t wait until the yanks get back to doing what they do best, win baseball games
And thank you Chad for all the hard work and for providing us with our Yankee fix in this most boring time of the year.
I wish more of the guest posts were like Ryan’s. Straight from the heart of a baseball fan. Too many of them this year concentrated on number crunching and showing off someone’s ability to look up stats. Who cares? Anyone can do that. Tell me a story. Next year consider more posts that focus on someone’s original thoughts, not stats that I can, and have, looked up myself.
I enjoyed the guest posts. It was nice to have a new topic to look forward to each day.
For me personally, I agree w/ Jason, the number crunching and stats posts were not as interesting. They also seemed to bring out the most negativity between posters.
LETS GET IT STARTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
haven’t had a chance to post since the new year – I cannot wait for the season to get started!! How is the new comments layout working out?
I think the idea is good in principle. It allows the more serious poster to skip over the more trivial posts that some of us enjoy. If you just check in from time to time, it gets very confusing and you can waste a lot of time.
So,what are we watching today at the olympics?Americans don’t really seem interested in speed skating right?
From Trade Rumors:
—————–
“Pitchers and catchers report next week, but Johnny Damon still doesn’t have a home for the 2010 season. ESPN’s Buster Olney hears that “at least one team which might have extended an offer has no expectation that [Damon] would actually take a two-year offer; rather, part of the negotiation with that team is that he would take only that one year.”
Olney says that executives involved in the negotiations expect Damon to eventually accept a one-year deal worth $7MM with some deferred money, so his people can say he turned down a two-year deal.”
——————
Weird stuff.
do you find yourself scrolling up and down all day – that’s the only thing I wonder – during the chaos of a gameday thread this could get really annoying
player projections for 2010:
http://www.fangraphs.com/proje.....8;type=fan
the # crunchers expect a bounce-back yr for Granderson (5.7 wins against replacement).
As much as I can’t wait for the new season to start, part of me still wants to hold onto last year. I have hours and hours of the 2009 post-season DVR’d, and I never tire of watching any of it. The more I watch, the more amazed I become of A-Rod’s heroics. What an incredible run.
For added kicks, I love to replay Papelbon’s meltdown against the Angels in the ALDS. The looks on the faces in Fenway as the top of the 9th unfolded never grows old!
I have hours recorded as well, which my husband is making me sort thru so he can record some of the Olympics
exactly, altho I don’t usually post during the games. My computer is in a different room, and besides that it gets too crazy for me
at our house, we love the Olympics. we are lucky to be close to the border, so we get the Canadian coverage, which is usually better.
I’ve spent time over the last two days watching highlights onine at mlb.com … the familiy deleted all my 2009 post season highlights so they could DVR all their shows in HD
I like the pinch hitters series a lot. Like Jason, the stories “straight from the heart” were my favorites as well. It also seemed to me that the discussion that followed was a lot more civil then in the past. BTW, If the idea of the pinch hitters series was Pete’s, kudos to him.
Speaking of Pete,I really liked how he handled spring training coverage. Everything from airport musings,to the stupid IPhone pics. I am looking forward to Chad and Sam following Pete’s lead and of course making it even better. Thanks Guys!
I didn’t actually see Papelbon’s meltdown. I heard it on the radio. Still good. But it must have been something to see the Fenway population emotionally deflate.
I still have the YES Network’s pre-post-season montage bookmarked and from time to time I replay it. Brings a smile every time!
The other night on the YES Network, they had a 2009 Season Yankeeography that included the season walkoffs, plus all the post-season heroics of ARod, Matsui and Damon. It really does make you feel good to watch it all again.
Today will be the first gold medal for the Netherlands.
Sven Kramer will win the 5000.Mark my words!
Chad, Sam -
I really enjoyed the pinch-hitters series. There seemed to be something for everyone, even if each and every post didn’t appeal to each and every person. Good job pulling it together. I also appreciated your posts that reflected on the pinch-hitter’s posts that came directly after.
There is so little going on otherwise and the series kept the discussion moving forward.
And what would Lohud be without a good back-and-forth between the old school versus the sabres??
I have that recorded and have watched it a few times…it makes me miss Johnny, Sui and Melky.
I don’t understand the logic of that. How is it a good thing to say he turned down a 2-year deal? Am I missing something?
It’s really starting to play as if neither of them (Boras and Damon) knows what they’re doing.
Me, too.
So bittersweet.
While I thought that the Opening Ceremony was great, I was a bit disappointed in the contingent of athletes representing The Netherlands.
The cameras kept on focusing on all the cute females as the teams came parading out and I was expecting an army of Nordic-super model types from your team but for the most part it seemed to be comprised of normal looking people.
so the pinch hitter series of articles definitively proved that the lohud blog is full of total bullspitters LOL!
There’s this:
“In other words,Tigers’ owner Mike Ilitch would help Boras save face for completely failing one of his clients. This might be done not just with the general public or even Damon in mind, but other possible clients, who saw Felipe Lopez show him the door on Friday.”
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports......n.html.php
doreen-
this is rather fun to watch:
http://losangeles.angels.mlb.c.....8;c_id=ana
i wonder how it will affect papelbon this year.
there are some die hard red sox fans i know who wanted to see him traded even before he imploded in the angel finale.
I dvr’d the 2009 Yankeeography and have found myself watching it 4 or 5 times already. I also have the Giants 2008 special I saw on the NFL network saved. Wonder if DirecTV will let me keep my DVR when I move?
I’ve watched that about 5 or 6 times! It never gets old. lol
And I see he’s skating with an American on the outside track.
Great… humiliation from the onset.
Or maybe it’ll be another “Miracle on Ice”!
But seriously, 6 minutes of watching men skate in a circle is far too long for our ADD strained culture to handle.
you can include my sister in that group!
thanks for the link. I did get to see it before, but it is worth seeing again. paps is probably my least favorite sox, followed closely by Youk.
i swore i wasn’t going to take a season off from fantasy baseball but here i am on a saturday in february, reading through espn’s mock draft and looking for potential sleepers…..my resolve is not looking too strong.
i meant say i swore i WAS going to take a year off
Further prof that the Universe is indeed expanding.
A local Tampa radio station is negotiating the rights to broadcast Yankee games.
http://www.tampabay.com/sports.....ip/1072957
Wouldn’t it be funny if the moment of truth comes and Johnny has two contracts in front of him with Ilitch and Boras nervously watching and he just screws everybody over and signs the two year version?
I know it wouldn’t actually work that way but it would be funny.
Poor Scott Boras
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/.....t=FaceBook
As I have said all along, this is more about Scott trying to save face than Johnny getting a deal right now. Which is a shame.
All that nonsense about a “bidding war” on Thursday was laughable.
There are no bidding wars for players in February when teams salary budgets are at their limits.
Is anybody with a functioning braincell really going to buy Johnny turned down a 2 year deal to sign a 1 year deal?
Especially when he has said on numerous occasions that a 2 year deal is a must for him.
The entire situation has been mishandled by the Boras/Damon side of the ledger. Now Scott’s only hope is for Mike Illich to bail him out.
Johnny will play for less money in a bigger ballpark.
I can’t wait to hear the spin on how that’s great for Johnny’s career.
Felipe Lopez should have fired Scott in December. If he did, he would have a job today.
from Peter King:
“The Yankees have been on him for a while,” said a scout who saw the 21-year-old shortstop work out recently in the Dominican Republic. “Two weeks ago, about 50 scouts watched him work out and the Yankees were there. They also have seen him in smaller workouts.”
Because the Red Sox gave 19-year old shortstop Jose Iglesias $8 million, industry sources expect the right-handed-hitting Hechavarria to command a $7 to $8 million signing bonus.
http://www.nypost.com/p/sports.....CcBA6XHaiO
so the Yanks have $7-8M for an unproven Cuban commodity but not a square to spare for Hideki?
He isn’t going to take a 2 year offer because there isn’t one to take.
Its amazing how many of Boras’ buddies in the media (Heyman and Rosenthal top the list) will try and sell this side of the story. Its illogical.
Dave Dombrowski is no dummy. If Johnny had a 2 year offer from the Tigers, he would have signed it already, IMO.
My guess is, its a one year offer and the rest of this stuff is just posturing to try and put the best face on a bad situation.
One has nothing to do with the other.
The money also comes from two different budgets. Player development/bonus money is from a seperate budget as major league salary money.
if matsui was willing to say just dh, he be here
I assume that’s George and not Peter King? Either way, they both know nothing about baseball, lol
I love the off-season because it gives me a chance to de-stress, but I’m so glad that pitchers and catchers are reporting as it’s starting to get a little stale on the various message boards I visit. How much can one talk about how Gardner will do (badly, I think) or when Damon will sign?
I must admit it’s much easier to follow the nesting when there aren’t hundreds of comments.
Does anyone know if the players work out on Sundays at the minor league complex or do weekend workouts not start until ST is officially underway?
After the Damon fiasco, other clients of Boras will think twice before being allowed to wait this long to be signed.
Players want a sense of where they’ll be in order to get situated with living arrangements etc.
Sunday workout starting times (11:00 AM) are always later than during the week by an hour. This would involve the 2 Sundays of February 21 and 28.
Every year I write out Yankee player projection numbers ( been doing this since 1975 ), and I just finished Robinson Cano’s …..I see him to pal up with Alex, and produce thses numbers…..337 ba, 31 hr’s, 103 rbi’s, 38 doulbes, 97 runs scrored……This is the season that Robinson Cano elevates his game and stature to the next plateau…..
Wow, so the Olympic officials are blaming the poor luger for his own death – unbelievable
http://www.nydailynews.com/spo.....t_to_.html
I still refuse to use the reply button; it doesn’t make any sense and it’s still more work to get through the posts.
New post
I still don’t like Gardner in LF at all, but:
http://www.nydailynews.com/spo.....rdner.html
I hope you are correct, he certainly has the potential
is it not possible that someone could cause thier own death by making an error while sledding at 90mph?
pesonally i think people should just refrain from snap judgments about who’s to blame until there is alot more information.
Thanks Rick. My husband will be in Tampa tomorrow and thought I’d encourage him to go to the complex and give me play by play by phone but I guess not.
Relax fella
I didn’t like any guest post that dealt with stats. Great you can go to fangraphs and post numbers. That’s the RAB crap.
Agreed