Dec
27
The openest of open threads
ByAs is pretty obvious at this point, the three of us have been most most of the weekend. We’ll start serving up actual content again at midnight. But for now, another open thread, at its regularly scheduled time. I’m assuming most of the talk will be about the Cowboys-Redskins, but anything goes.
166 Comments»
RAB Info
The Founders
Mike Axisa, Ben Kabak, Joe Pawlikowski
Editor-In-Chief
Mike Axisa Archives | Email
Managing Editors
Ben Kabak Archives | E-mail
Joe Pawlikowski Archives | E-mail
Contributing Editors
Larry Koestler (Archives)
Moshe Mandel (Archives)
Eric Schultz (Archives)
Weekend Writers
Hannah Ehrlich (Archives)
Matthew Warden (Archives)
Special Contributor
J.R. O'Grady (Archives)
Technical Consultant
Jay Gordon
Subscribe to RAB by RSS
Follow @RiverAveBlues
Search RAB
Loading
Yankees News from YESNetwork.com
- Yankees-Blue Jays finale rained out
- Yankees continue to dominate Blue Jays, improve to 8-1 in the season series
- With a strong start against the Blue Jays, David Phelps makes a case for himself as a regular starer
- Cano homers twice to help Yankees beat Blue Jays for the eighth time
- Yankees acquire Reid Brignac from Rockies
- Kuroda proving he's one of baseball's best
- Joe Girardi's confidence helping Yankees rookies seize their opportunity
- Postgame Notebook: Yanks holding out for a Hiro
- Kuroda pitches eight scoreless innings to carry Yankees past Blue Jays in series opener
- Managing a steady stream of injuries, Girardi's creative lineups powering Yankees
Banner Design By
The Tyler Austin Watch
Tech question: I recently changed my Google password and now my Gmail checker extension won’t work on Chrome. Anyone know how to fix this?
change password back?
Under the wrench menu, there should be some kind of “manage extensions” option. Check there. The gmail checker must have some kind of config or options panel tha let’s you set the email address to check and the password to use.
Holy fucking Jets, Batman
It makes last week all the more frustrating.
I refuse to get my hopes up once again.
The fact that within the next 12 hours it’s entirely concievable that the Jets will still be alive while the Giants may not (depending on the Cowboys) just boggles the mind
If I’m the Jets, I’m glad we won today, but I wouldn’t be thrilled with the offense.
+ A lot
Holy fucking Peyton Manning out in the third quarter, batman.
+ A billion
The Jets beat some team with a dude named Painter at QB. I mean, come on.
I wonder what the Colts coaches told the players?
“Men, we are afraid you’ll get hurt, so we aren’t going to try and win and go undefeated. We quit.”
Don’t read the next post.
“The openest of open threads”
Seems like the appropriate place to tell everyone this.
Salty Buggah is gay. Not just gay, but he and Mike Pop are madly in love with each other, and plan on running off to Vermont to get married.
Phew…finally got that off my chest.
JMK’s gonna do the service.
Am I invited?
Sorry, no straight girls. Mike gets very jealous.
Which Mike?
The one whose name is pronounced the same when spelled backwards.
Heh, Vermont? At least make it a fun place
“plan on running off to
VermontSan Francisco to get married”Happy?
Coop, what’s a “vagoina?”
Someone asked this to Buster Olney:
Do you have any thoughts about where Xavier Nady will go? I can’t understand why the Yanks are not re-signing him. He would be a bargain (cost-wise) coming off Tommy John surgery, and if healthy, he is a great corner outfielder. Wouldn’t he be worth the risk? I think he is better than [Brett] Gardner or [Nick] Swisher.
Seriously, do people STILL not realize Swisher is better Nady is almost every way? Jeez…
Nady’s good as a vs. LHP caddy for Gardner, that’s it. Even then, he’s lower on my list than either Johnson.
Any player that is a “caddy” for Brett Gardner, should seriously think about retirement.
“Either Johnson”: apropos of the wedding announcement above.
no, that is false. nady is at least an average or a bit above average corner OFer when healthy. brett gardner is not that. swisher > nady, yes, but Nady is definitely a better starting left field candidate than gardner (again assuming he’s healthy)
McKid needs to stop calling screens. At least half of the non-running plays are those dumb bubble screens and they never work.
It almost took the Broncos out of FG range but that long FG is good. Tie game.
Two WR screens in a row = not good. That’s Gilbrideian.
Seriously, EVERY fuckin game I complain about those. They never work for us yet he’s always calling them. I guess that’s what happens when Orton is your QB.
Oh Salty is not going to be happy.
FUCK!!!!! 3rd down and 25 and McNabb runs it for 27 yds for a 1st down! Wow, Broncos D fail!
Potential season killer right there
GO EAGLES! Denver losing only helps the Jets
They have had so many killer penalties today
If the Broncos could only get a turnover here…
Great tackle by Goodman.
Can we make this thread dedicated to shitting on Jon Heyman for being a disgrace to baseball journalism?
He tweeted within the hour:
“just mailed Hall of Fame ballot, beating deadline yet again. voted for alomar, dawson, larkin, parker, morris & mattingly”
I don’t understand how Sports Illustrated and MLB Network keep this man employed. He knows literally nothing about the game of baseball outside of what he hears from Adam the Bull and Francesa.
Alomar and Larkin? Okay. Everyone else? No…maybe Dawson. Maybe, but I lean to no.
Ehh, I’d go no Dawson as well, Parker=Dawson without the counting stats. In fact Parker’s probably a little better than Dawson for a 10 year peak period.
Alomar/Larkin no brainers, but then again so is Raines and Blyleven. And I still cannot get over Whitaker not even getting enough votes to stay on the ballot.
Oh shit, I forgot Trammell as well.
Trammell>>>>>>Ozzie
Alomar and Larkin are HOFers. Dawson is borderline, but I wouldn’t vote for him.
Blyleven is the 13th best pitcher of all time according to CHONE, but of course Heyman leaves him off.
Parker, Morris and Mattingly are absolutely not HOFers.
McGwire is (I don’t personally care about PEDs, since there’s no way to know who did and didn’t do them), Raines most definitely is, Trammell is.
You can make a case for McGriff, but again, I lean no.
I like McGriff, McGwire should be in as well. I like Raines in there, too. I’m leaning towards Trammell, I just need someone to push me over the edge.
And, we all know how I feel about Blyleven.
15 year peak as a SS with a 116 OPS+ and stellar defense. Again, if you went back to the 80′s and asked a manager if they would rather have Trammell or Ozzie, they’d take Trammell. If Ozzie Smith gets one of the highest vote totals of all time, Trammell clearly belongs. If only he could have done backflips.
That’s backflip comment is unfortunately accurate I believe.
Rather than you know, baseball skills, backflip ability is counted in a player’s favor.
Career WAR per CHONE:
AT: 66.8 in 2293 G
OS: 64.7 in 2573 G
Well if you subscribe to CHONE WAR, Trammell accumulated 66.8 WAR.
That’s more than Willie McCovey, Ozzie Smith, Gary Carter, Ernie Banks, Yogi Berra, Eddie Murray, Pee Wee Reese and so far Manny Ramirez, amongst many others.
+100000
His intentionally vague style of writing went out about 20 years ago. Journalistic standards have risen since then. Might work in a gossip column, but not a hard news magazine that wants to be taken seriously like SI.
Well, Steve, I talked to a source who’s close to the situation. He said that journalistic standards have not risen since then. Additionally, an unnamed editor said that Heyman’s style is hot in the sports-writing scene.
I love this very, very much.
It’s not even vague, it’s just his uninformed opinion and rumor spreading that he wishes would happen. And the shit he hears from his nightly phone call with Boras.
And to this this jackass called Law and Carroll dumb sports writers to his then 25,000 followers.
I’d love to see a Law vs. Heyman debate.
Debate?
Is that what they call the hammer vs. the nail?
Law would provide fact with fangraphs style metrics and logic.
Heyman would complain and cite ERA, W, and avg. He may bust out OBP. But that’s stretching it.
Law would also dominate Heyman from a scouting perspective as well.
/redundant’d
But Heyman would have a tiny hearing device in his ear with Boras on the other side.
Rich Lederer just shed a tear.
So when Rex Ryan was reading his Christmas wish list I had no idea Caldwell had pulled his name for Secret Santa.
FML.
Fucking Eagles are going to win this game.
Awesome.
What a catch
Are these announcers dumb? Yes he had both feet down but then he bobbled the ball a bit, you gotta see after that.
This ref is very demonstrative.
WOW! Could Broncos season right there.
How big was that McNabb run? Completely flipped field position. Broncos were so close, yet they made way too many mistakes. Too many penalties that killed.
Also, they had three straight possessions at the 50 yardline in the 4th quarter. The result? 3 points
Fuck the Eagles.
My mother suggested that I try to sign up with a temp agency. Any tips on what I should look out for or recommend an agency?
Avoid guys like this: http://tinyurl.com/n8gvxn (safe)
Heh, I’ll keep that in mind.
What a crushing loss. Last week they lose to the Raiders by 1 point and today by 3 points. They were one less mistake away from probably winning. Bad play-calling, execution, too many mistakes, inability to run, inability to stretch the field (thanks Orton!), inability to stop the run, inability to limit the big play, some injuries, and other shit = Potentially ruined season
broncos/yankees, interesting, how did that come about?
wow, whats wrong with me today. obviously that was a response to Salty.
I was introduced to baseball while still in NY so I’ve liked the Yanks since. Then, I moved to Denver in 99. I didnt start watching football until around 2001 and the Broncos were the hometown team so I became a fan of them. I do like the Giants 2nd and the Jets 3rd though.
Though I must admit that I didn’t start watching baseball religiously until 2006/2007. I just watched playoffs or the ESPN games. I had been a huge basketball fan but since 07, baseball has replaced basketball.
Yea, I agree. Heyman is still stuck in the 80′s. Law is definitely better than Heyman. This tweet just proves Heyman is an idiot:
not that theres anything wrong with it, but the stat people are taking over #yankees: johnson .426 OBP, vazquez 1.02 WHIP
Stat people?!?!?! WTF? Since when is OBP and WHIP for “stat people?” This isn’t anything advanced like WAR, it’s common sense!
And, like the Broncos, FAIL
Call me crazy, but if recognizing on-base percentage and WHIP is the harbinger of the “stat people” taking over, the stat people took over twenty years ago. Maybe longer.
From Craig Calcaterra.
On WFAN (the big talk radio station in NY) yesterday, one of the hosts started lamenting the opinion of “sabermetric fans” by talking about how they LOVE stats like WHIP. That was all he had. WHIP. The ignorance of lazy thinking is astounding.
That’s what pisses me off the most. If you don’t want to get into sabermetrics, fine, whatever (there’s a line of discussion I could take here but I’ll avoid it ’cause I’ve already talked about it…w/Salty, I think). Regardless of that, though, you should at least be aware of what the new stuff is. Then again, it took the MSM how long to latch on to OPS?
Or as John Miller would say, “Ops.”
That annoys me. A lot. I wonder if he’d say “Woe-ba” for wOBA or “Fip” for FIP or “tra” for tRA.
I actually say Woh-ba. But then it’s Eff Eye Pee and Oh Bee Pee and Oh Pee Ess.
*shrugs*
I don’t know if I’ve actually ever said “wOBA” out loud. No one would know what the fuck I was saying anyway.
Hey, I say “woh-ba.”
I say “fip” when just thinking about it, but i say “fielding independent pitching” when talking about it to other people, who in turn stare and nod.
I tried explaining tRA to a guy I worked with over the summer; it didn’t work.
This brand new stat that just came out.
/McCarver
It’s on Mike Pop.
Go Skins.
Amen.
Prediction: Giants will make the playoffs.
BOOOOOM.
Fuck the TD. Redskins will STILL win.
Prediction: Giants will make the playoffs.
No.
You’re just a hater.
Did you watch the abortion today? There’s no way in hell they make the playoffs.
Remember when you predicted that the Cowboys sucked? How did that work out for ya?
They DO suck. Im serious. They lost to games to the Giants. Giants, even if they make the playoffs, suck.
I could understand one, but…two?
Time to grow up.
The Giants aren’t all that bad of a football team. Especially in Week 2.
The second game was in your house, GMen/Dallas games are always tough. Just like most division games.
No, seriously, the Gmen have an atrocious defense and no running game. Their receivers are young and drop balls. Their kicker sucks.
Basically, the Giants have an okay offensive line and Eli. And you lost to them twice.
You want to point to two games, I want to point to the whole season.
9-5 says enough for me.
Good teams lose to bad/average teams all the time.
You lost to them TWICE. And again, they’re not a playoff team yet.
Like I said above, it’s time to grow up.
The Cowboys are 9-5. Far from a shitty team. The Cowboys lost to the Giants in Week 2. That’s when the Giants were on a current streak of going 5-0. Playing great football.
Plus if you want to be childish about this – that game was a joke. You won because a ball deflected off Witten’s foot into one of the Giants’ defensive players hands.
/waits for the ‘you lost to them twice’ line again.
Oh, please. The ball deflected off Witten’s foot because it was a ridiculous shitty pass.
The Giants actually were NOT dominated that game. look it up. Everybody thinks they were for some reason.
You’re 9-5 NOW. Next week it’s possible you could be 9-7 and out of the playoffs.
Anyway, you lost to us TWICE. Yeah, I said it.
RRR, by your logic, the Yankees suck because they lost twice to the Nats. The Cowboys do not suck. They’re not a fantastic football team, but they’re not sucky either.
Football is very different than baseball. You play many more games in baseball. A team that loses only 16 games in baseball is fantastic. In the NFL it’s one of the worst teams ever. Can’t compare.
Getting serious for a second….for the record, Dallas is not totally awful, neither are the Giants. And I find it unfortuantely unlikely for Dallas to lose this game.
But you know what? It’s possible. And it’s possible the Giants win next week and Dallas loses. So I’m keeping the faith, dammit.
Regardless, the logic of “Well, Team A, who is a generally bad team, beat Team B, who is a generally good team, therefore Team B sucks” does not hold water.
In football, when you lose to a mediocre team twice and may be in danger of missing the playoffs you’re no elite team anyway.
No, but the argument isn’t that they’re an elite team. Your argument is that they lost to the Giants, hence, they suck. Neither Pop nor myself has said that the ‘Boys are an “elite” football team; we’re just holding that they don’t suck.
Do all the teams who lost to the Raiders or Browns or Lions automatically suck because they lost to those teams? Sure, some of them suck, but not necessarily because they lost to the aforementioned crappy teams.
Oh, Redskins.
Did you read my last poost though? I was using extreme hyperbole. Neither the Boys or G-men suck. In truth the ‘Boys are probably better.
Neither are that good either.
Heh. “Poost”. Gotta love typos.
Not to mention, there’s time yet for Dallas to suck.
The Giants and Skins will be doing the same thing come January, vacationing.
While the Cowboys will be doing the unthinkable and winning that first playoff game in a long time.
Heh.
No shot Drew.
I can’t wait until the Jason Campbell era is over. Collinsworth can sit there and say he’s had an “okay career” all he wants, his inconsistency is maddening.
Luckily, losing wouldn’t be the worst thing, I’m always in favor of a higher draft pick.
I hear you, Drew.
I’m still hoping Shanny ends up in Chicago instead of Washington. We shall see.
Jason Campbell : Redskins :: Melky Cabrera: Yankees
Does this analogy work?
Nah.. Melky’s role on the Yankees was far less crucial to the success of the team.
They are both inconsistent, but I don’t think the analogy works.
Right, right. I figured that after I posted it. If Melky was an SP rather than a CF perhaps it would work better.
Heyman update:
“regarding bert, 86% voted “no” his 2nd yr. unlike others, i’m consistent. he never led league in wins, ERA but led in HRs, earned runs, Ls”
KILL ME NOW.
Blyleven had AWFUL run support.
Re: Bert:
Here’s a piece I wrote nearly two years ago on the subject:
http://www.fannation.com/blogs.....e-for-bert
“consistent” apparently means intellectually incurious to mr. Heyman.
He’s basically bragging that he hasn’t learned anything in 15 years, and that he takes pride in that.
Yep. Fantastic. The anti-intellectualism displayed by the baseball mainstream is incredibly frustrating.
Oh, really?
No, Chris that’s not “two football players going at it” it’s Santana Moss grabbing the defender by the bicep and throwing him down.
Go Bengals, Raiders, and Dolphins next week!
Go Chiefs, Browns, Bucs, Seahawks, Raiders and Bills next week!
ha, Skins could potentially catapult themselves to the 3rd overall pick if they all win.
Maybe it’s just my mentality, but if a guy I ever played any sport with was doing what they just showed Keith Brooking doing to pump us up before a game, I think I’d laugh heartily before feeling pumped up.
So Nfldraftblitz has the Gmen picking Clemson RB CJ Spiller from the 22nd slot. The reasoning: big backs like Brandon Jacobs tend to fall off a cliff. The writer names guys like Christian Okoye, Barry Foster, and Earl Campbell. Spiller looks to be the first RB off the board.
You guys think Gmen should draft RB before addressing the OL ?
They need a middle linebacker.
They need lot’s of things.
I think MLB is the biggest problem because I think that their defense is the biggest problem. There is at least a decent chance of Jacobs coming back and doing well, and anyway our offesne is pretty good regardless.
Our defense, now THAT’S the issue.
Definitely that’s a need, and arguably the top need as the off-season stares us right in the face. But if we’re picking from the 18-22 range, and a RB like Spiller is there, he’d be tremendous value. The kid has Chris Johnson-like speed and athleticism.
Anyways, Sintim could be converted to MLB.
What’s Sintim’s ceiling? Wasn’t he a second round draft pick?
I thought Sintim was drafted as a hybrid DE/LB. The “knock” on him was that he’s a superior pass rusher than defender against the run. What kept Sintim out the 1st round was speed out in the open. There’s LB upside ’cause he’s young, and he knows how to tackle … but if speed is already questionable … i dont know.
Watching LaRon Landry play man to man coverage makes me want to vomit.
Anybody think this loss to the Panthers was the worst loss in Giants history? With their playoff hopes more or less riding on this game, and playing a subpar team with a backup QB in the final game at Giants Stadium, the Giants did not just lose, they got EMBARASSED. This was seriously one of the worst losses I can remember them ever having.
Don’t give me the miracle at the meadowlands, that game meant shit.
Today wasn’t a game, it was an abortion.
Yes Matt. We get it. Suckage indeed.
I cannot be more clear about this: today was terrible. This game and the Saints game were definitely the worst games of the season…the Broncos one is in the discussion, too.
As for the historical relevance, I’m not sure I’m well-versed enough in Giants history to say so.
The most gut-wenching loss was the Chargers loss. I mean Coughlin, Eli is playing great. Call a fucking pass instead of conceding the field goal and a one score lead.
Or maybe I should blame Gilbride. The dude is a bad offensive coordinater. Don’t give me the Super Bowl, our offense was mediocre that season. I want Charlie Weiss.
Kevin Killdrive, ftl.
BTW…for the record, I LOVE Coughlin. I think he’s a great coach, certainly better than the overrated Andy Reid. But those play calls were just awful.
I like Coughlin a lot, but I cannot stand Killdrive.
Great move by Campbell, drop, turn, run the wrong way, get sacked.
http://www.pinstripealley.com/.....r#comments
Anyone see that??? I think it’s referring to the Mets though
when I saw the title I was so pissed…Yanks don’t need a Terrence & Phillip character manning LF
I’m hoping it’s not true.
“The Mets have seemingly been the most aggressive suitor for Bay, after Urbon all but ruled out the 31-year-old outfielder’s return to Boston earlier this month. New York has reportedly offered four years at about $65 million to the three-time All-Star.”
It’s the Mets.
Yes, it is referring to the Mets. Read the article, there’s no offer by the Yanks, and it even quotes Cash saying ‘it won’t be a big piece’.
Attn: Drew and Steve:
I don’t like to actually read things.
Using Nostra-Artist’s real name eh? Trying to be like Lanny/Sal/Bo/Grant?
If the Yanks are going to go big on a Left Fielder, why wouldn’t we sign Holliday?
Game’s not over, but the Redskins and G-men look prety damn dead.
Now they are pretty damn dead.
Ah well. Yanks were awesome, Devils are great.
For all the bellyaching about Heyman’s ballot (and it’s not the ballot I would turn in), but I can live with a HoF without Blyleven. (Yes, he is better than some pitchers who are currently in, but we can’t take those guys out.)
The love for Morris is something I’ll never fully understand. Yeah, he was a workhorse, and he had that Game 7 . . . but he’d be one of the worst, if not the worst, pitcher in the Hall.
I wish Dan Uggla could play LF.
I was thinking about that before.
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/s.....t-MLB-buzz
Rosenthal seems to think Atlanta would like Uggla to play LF (whatever their reasons may be) and
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/s.....t-MLB-buzz
Cafardo thinks that the Marlins are going to go into another salary dump phase with Uggla as the centerpiece.
I’m not sure how I feel about the idea, but if its something the Yankees want, it seems (at least somewhat) doable.
This bit by Chad Jennings makes me mad:
“I think Hughes is the better starter of the two. He has the fastball, curveball and cutter, and I believe the changeup will be a quality pitch.”
Okay, while he does have those pitches, he’s been in the Yankee system for 2 more years than Joba. He’s also spent most of that time in the minors, able to work on secondary pitches.
Joba’s been the opposite, his first year in professional ball was capped up by a spot on the Yankees. He’s stuck since and has had to work on secondary pitches while getting major league hitters out.
Damnit man, let Joba grow.
I know I’m preaching to the choir but I thought I’d voice my displeasure.
I think you’re overreacting to that CJ quote. He’s not saying Joba can’t be an effective MLB starter, he’s just expressing the opinion that he thinks Hughes will be the better MLB starter, in 2010, of the two of them. He’s not saying he’s giving up on Joba or that Joba can’t make it.
Another quote from the same post:
“I’ve long been in the ‘Chamberlain should be a starter’ camp, and I’m still there. I think the best thing for the Yankees is to use both Hughes and Chamberlain as starters…”
I may be overreacting a bit but I find all that a bit contradictory.
He says that neither should work in Scranton because they can be more impactful in the pen. I mean, if he’s in the Joba should start camp, he shouldn’t sway imo. If his excuse for swaying is that Joba isn’t as polished as Hughsie then wouldn’t it make more sense for Joba to work on it in Scranton, as a starter?
btw, I’m not posing that question to you, just voicing why the post aggravated me.
Oh I hear you, I just think you’re maybe a bit worked up over this issue (the Hughes/Joba rotation/pen issue) and you misguidedly directed that annoyance at CJ’s post. What CJ said isn’t what you’re annoyed with, it’s the situation itself that’s bothering you. His post doesn’t say the things you think it says.
“He says that neither should work in Scranton because they can be more impactful in the pen.”
No, he says nothing of the sort.
CJ: “If everyone stays healthy, the Yankees rotation will have room for only one of Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes. That’s obvious. Whichever doesn’t make the cut will fall back into the bullpen or go to Triple-A (though I tend to think Triple-A is unlikely simply because the bullpen impact would be too great to pass up).”
He’s not necessarily arguing that it’s smarter to send the loser of the 5th starter competition to the MLB ‘pen instead of to AAA as a starter, he’s simply acknowledging that it’s more likely that they’ll choose to send the odd man out to the ‘pen instead of to AAA. What I mean is… He’s not addressing the question of whether they should send the odd man out to the ‘pen or to AAA, he’s looking at the situation and venturing a guess as to what the Yankees will actually do… And I don’t think many of us, even those of us who’d prefer to see the odd man out back in AAA to start the season, disagree with that assessment. He’s just saying ‘I think they’ll send the odd man out to the ‘pen, and the following is why I prefer that odd man out to be Joba instead of Hughes.’
Yeah, you’re right. He wasn’t saying he should go to the pen, just thinks that is the most likely scenario.
my bad
[...] The openest of open threads | River Avenue Blues [...]