Oh noes! The Yankees have issues
ByAs players report to camps in Florida and Arizona, it’s time for all of us to fill the bandwidth with columns about who’s in the best shape of their life, what team has a chip on their shoulder, things of that nature. Another Spring Training staple is looking at what’s wrong with the Yankees, which both Jayson Stark and Jon Heyman did today. Essentially, you can round up both articles like this:
1. They have too many good hitters, and Joe Girardi doesn’t know how to line them up yet.
2. They have two pitchers in their early-20′s, both of whom were named the best pitching prospect in baseball earlier in their career, and they don’t know which one will hold down the all-important fifth starter’s spot.
3. They won last year, so doesn’t mean they won’t try as hard this year?
And that’s basically it. Ah yes … baseball’s back.
127 Comments»
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I hate Jayson Stark.
I have been avoiding Stark for the past year because all he does is piss me off.
4. They have too many home run hitters, so they are going to run out of baseballs.
ietcvm
1. They have too many good hitters, and Joe Girardi doesn’t know how to line them up yet.
2. They have two pitchers in their early-20’s, both of whom were named the best pitching prospect in baseball earlier in their career, and they don’t know which one will hold down the all-important fifth starter’s spot.
3. They won last year, so doesn’t mean they won’t try as hard this year?
4. Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, and Joe Girardi are in the final years of their contracts and we just don’t know where their heads are at.
5. Nick Swisher ordered a Ham and Egg on Rye and got Whole Wheat, how will he react during the season?
5. Nick Swisher ordered a Ham and Egg on Rye and got Whole Wheat, how will he react during the season?
This is not an issue. Swisher will turn the whole wheat into rye just be looking at it.
Sorry, with proleblems liike this I cannott cnontineu to perchase seeson tikets. Reedickulus.
Sinceerily,
A Bronks Teechur
Lulz.
IETC way, way too much.
Reply fail?
He could’ve enjoyed the Lulz, don’t assume man.
Last year, with Damon occupying the No. 2 hole in their order, Yankees No. 2 hitters led the league in runs scored, OPS, extra-base hits and walks. We can envision the Yankees missing that sort of thing.
This is wrong on so many levels.
Correlation = causation!!!!
This. Irrefutable.
All he did last year was lead all American League DHs in homers (27) and win a World Series MVP award. We can envision the Yankees missing a guy like that, too.
Pretty sure if the Yankees win the World Series, they’ll figure out someone to name the MVP. Or maybe they won’t award it to anyone out respect for Matsui?
Texy hit .180/.282/.311/.593. WHY DIDN’T WE GET RID OF THAT BUM!?!?!?!?
in the postseason, obviously
And a bad April! How can we expect to break 116 wins if he has another bad April?????
So far, I can tell the Yankees’ issues are, according to the media:
1. THE RED SOX ARE TEH AWESUM!!!!! LEGENDARY DEPTH v.2.0!!!!
2. They’ve got Javy Vazquez again. ZOMG IT MUST BE 2004!!!!!
3. There’s a battle for the fifth starter between two very young guys with a lot of upside and potential.
4. Curtis Granderson does too much charity work.
mega reply fail
mega reply fail
http://tinyurl.com/PinstripeDFAIPAHere, have a refreshing Pinstripe Tampa Light Lime™ and don’t be so hard on yourself. Spring’s right around the corner; mistakes will be made. Nobody gets DFA’d the week after Valentine’s Day.
Chin up. Have a cold one.
Looks like you get the mug, bex.
Here, you can have one of mine.
With the way she’s commenting, I wouldn’t be surprised if they red tagged her already.
I can’t tell if this is a bad thing or not.
You guys make me wanna find a drink recipe out of the sperm cookbook.
Wait, what?
Is there any other season!?!?!?!?!?
Depending on who’s batting second, the Yankees two hitter(s) will likely lead in at least two of those categories.
I’m surprised we don’t have 10 comments with Neyer/defense jokes already.
Heh.
Wasn’t there already a thread about it?
Since when has that stopped anyone?
/Ke$ha’d?
No, I can’t take credit for Ke$ha’ing that one. I don’t even get the joke. Boo.
Let’s not forget, they have too many strikeout pitchers as well.
/Rob Neyer’d
Case in point. lol
I’m really starting to wonder who the “anonymous scouts” that everyone is citing are.
Oh, Joba is a bull in a china shop. Got it. Anything intelligent or thought-provoking to bring to the table?
in response to your question about the scouts: the people who live in Peter Gammons’ head
Congratulations on winning the World Series Mariano (STOP TOUCHING ME). Does this allow you to finally stop dwelling on your pathetic, miserable failure 8 years ago? (I SAID STOP TOUCHING ME!!!)
omg. ietcvvvvvm.
Probably just a recycled quote. If someone said it once, is there a statute of limitations for when these mediots can keep regurgitating it?
I’d love to go to spring training, grab a radar gun and sit behind home plate making quotable statements as an “anonymous scout.” I wonder how many of my comments I could get published.
Road trip! Let’s do it, guys.
Back on the pitching beat, is Vazquez really a different guy now than he was the last time he wore this uniform, in 2004?
Over/under on # of times “2004″ is mentioned in conjunction with Javy? I’ll set it at 500 million. And take the over.
Over/under on the number of times 2004 is mentioned without bringing up the fact that he was actually an All Star but tried to pitch through a sore shoulder? I’ll set it at 5 and take the under.
Dioner Navarro says hi.
Just because of ’04, each and every one of his starts will be a referendum on Javy.
Wait per game? Because it’s most definitely over. Way over.
Everyone in America has got over the part that Damon is no longer a Yankee except Jon Heyman.
but teh two bag steal!!1!!
And Johnny Damon.
And Michelle Damon.
http://www.survivinggrady.com/.....779793.jpg (safe)
/’bligatory’d
tommie, your (sometimes only technically) safe links are a big reason to keep coming back.
I know, you give because you love.
And I love boobs.
And I thought your preference was for a$$.
that coke can is small…
Hmmm, I didn’t even see a Coke can until you mentioned it…
When do you think the annual “The Red Sox have the best prospects in baseball, made the best acquisitions this off-season, and are the team to beat this year; meanwhile the Yankees have some work to do” articles will cease to exist or switch? Ever?
Maybe when we win six in a row. Maybe.
We’re the best team in the world when it’s time to talk about payroll and how things aren’t fair and any other negative aspects relating to why we’re good…but then when it’s time to construct actual opinions or predictions based on feelings or non-negative related conversation – the Red Sox have the best team ever assembled.
Rose, you’ve been exposed to too much media and too many mediots.
if we win six in a row, how IMPOSSIBLE would it be to win seven? CLEARLY that would be Bosox’s year!!
I think we’re just a little more sensitive to the articles that are critical of the Yankees that don’t utilize logic or coherent thought.
As long as a substantial portion of the media population are complete morons, we’ll have stories like the Stark and Heyman pieces. And since the majority of the American population are complete morons, I’d say we’re pretty much stuck with them forever.
The Heyman piece in particular didn’t really bother me. He starts out by explaining that they have very few weaknesses. My guess is that this was an assignment from his editor to write about the flaws of the defending World Series champions. Not much he could do if he’s told to write about that.
“My guess is that this was an assignment from his editor …”
Actually, I’m betting it was an assignment from his real boss, Scott Boras, in response to Cash’s recent statements showing how badly Boras messed up with Damon.
When does ESPN the Magazine’s MLB preview issue come out?
Guys, Guys. Johnny Damon stole two bags in the World Series last year to single handedly win the World Championship for the Yankees.
Who the hell do you think is going to steal two bags this year for us in the World Series to single handedly do the same?!?
TELL ME! I WANNA KNOW!!
Clutch-Rod.
Your mind: blown.
Semi-related:
Brett Gardner will steal home against the Sox this year.
Twelve times.
In one inning.
Chien Ming Wang. The Yanks will make a midseason move and then use him as a pinch runner. Their opponents won’t know what hit ‘em.
Nick Johnson, it will be a comedy of errors
GUYS WHAT IF CURTIS IS TOO BUSY AT THE SOUP KITCHEN AND FORGETS TO GO TO THE GAMES?!?!??!
http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20100.....lkw101.jpg
(safe, also YAY!!)
He looks WAY too happy and complacent. Doesn’t he know we’re trying to repeat?! Doomed in 2010.
Not as bad as this one –
http://cache.daylife.com/image.....2/610x.jpg
DFA.
i am furious with the yankees righ tnow
why didnt they see this coming
fire cashman sign reyes get hanley reamirez and pujols, sign sizemore trade joba for papelbon get schilling and lester trade jeter arod and tex this team needs to get shaken up fire girardi.
or somehow just sign Fielder, Lincecum, Pujols, Mauer, Pedroia, Lackey, Crawford, Lee, Beltran, and Damon
/Klapisch’d
(word is the Yankees absolutely love Johnson, he of the .426 on-base percentage last year, batting second).
Excellent
Agreed.
Johnson belongs in the two hole.
(3… 2… 1…)
That’s where Jennifer Steinbrenner Swindal likes him.
Can you tell me what’s the deal with “Steve Lombardi” he seems to have a negative opinion of the Yankees minor leaguers in comparision with the redsox minors. I understand that everyone has his or her own opinion but this guy seems to always have something negative to say.
Steve Lombardi once said, and I quote:
Keep that in mind.
Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?
That was the Koreans. Get with it, man!
Tacos? I don’t get it.
They think I’m Mexican.
You’re not…Mexican…?
LOL.
As a completely unsolicited historical note, one of the reasons the Sistine Chapel is so great is that many of the best Renaissance artists worked on it. (Leonardo Da Vinci, however, was not among them.) Lombardi’s question is like asking “Did Paul Revere need help in starting the French Revolution?” Stupid on multiple levels.
You must be new to this Yankee blog thing because Lombardi has been negative about the Yankees since way back in 2005.
Jason Stark killed my father, raped my mother, and fed chocolate to my puppy.
Chocolate is good for dogs.
Signed,
Michael Vick
The Yankees’ biggest problem is they continue to play a murderer at third base. A murderer of baseball history.
Wait! Didn’t Johnny D say what A-Rod did wasn’t as bad as murder?
/confused but maybe salvageable
Yeah, but someone last year wrote an article about how A-Rod had murdered baseball history. I think it might have been Stark.
Or maybe Goose Gossage.
God, I’m having a hard time with him, right now. I’m glad he’s in the HOF now, but geez.
Psssht don’t you know Mariano Rivera is nothing special because Goose used to do that for two and three innings all the time?
(I love Goose, too. But I know what you mean.)
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/.....id=3892788
Yick. I’m going to go take a shower.
This game’s not about numbers. It’s about heart. And balls. And white guys. And the Yankees don’t have enough of any of those things.
But John Maine said today that the Mets are going to be grittier in 2010. Kim Jones approves of this message.
Now David Eckstein, there’s a player that played baseball the white way.
Elmer Fudd is that you?
Ha!
Who else was thrilled when Heyman annointed David Robertson as a “gritty strikeout specialist”? Now if Gardner gets sent down we’ll still have some grit on the team.
Grits have been known to wipe out entire colonies of ants within 48 hours.
Be careful what you wish for.
“The guess here is that Hughes has a slight edge for the starting job going in, partly because Chamberlain was so much better in the bullpen than as a starter and partly because there are no Hughes Rules”
….
(breaks every single thing he can find, including his knuckles on the now broken walls, screams wildly until he has no voice, fills four hypodermic needles with high quality heroine, injects himself)
….
eh whatever. it’s just not even worth thinking about the things that guys like heyman say. let them think whatever they want to think
Heh, I singled that part out too. That makes less than zero sense. Number 1, if there are rules on either of them this year, it’s clearly Hughes. Number 2, hasn’t Hughes been “so much better” in the bullpen than in the rotation as well?
yeah i mean no biggie, whatever, doesn’t bother me
(gets back to fixing the drywall)
I caught this too. This is precisely why I am so happy that Cash gives interviews to fan-media sites like Nomaas. Some members of the national baseball media are absolutely clueless. How Heyman could right that “Hughes rules” sentence…the mind boggles. I mean he got it exactly wrong. He would be right only if it were opposite day.
The national baseball media, for the most part, is clueless when it comes to the Yankees. That’s why I look to RAB for info/analysis, Lohud for info, and national writers for comic relief.
If the Yankees had a starting outfield of Ruth, DiMaggio & Mantle, the media would say they have “Major Question Marks”. That’s how they operate, Meanwhile, Boston gets Mike Cameron and they act like they are getting Mays in his prime.
Well, having three dead guys playing the outfield would be a problem.
Do you think they’d capitalize “Major Question Marks” to emphasize the point? I do!
Boston getting Cameron was a good deal; I haven’t heard any unwarranted fawning. Do you have some links?
+1
Well who would play CF, Mantle or Dimaggio? That is a huge question mark.
Total Zone on baseballprojection.com says DiMaggio by a lot.
Before or after Mantle wrecked his knee, we don’t know which Mantle and Dimaggio we’re getting.
Well, I just quickly glanced at the career totals. -45 for Mantle, +49 for Joe D.
And how will Mantle and his A-Rod sized ego handle that. He’s clearly a better player than Joe D. Again, MQM’s.
Word.
All three of these guys bring serious off-the-field distractions with them. They are selfish clowns who don’t play the game the right way. We would be better off with three Cody Ransoms.
I’ll tell you one thing, the Yankees haven’t won a World Series with any of those guys in at least 50 years. Meanwhile, they won in 2009 in a season where Cody Ransom manned third base for a portion of time.
[...] « Oh noes! The Yankees have issues Feb [...]
I read the Heyman article and got to wondering about Johnson in the 2 hole (get it?)
NJ is considered a slow base runner. I can’t imagine him scoring from first on a double. He might even have trouble scoring from second on a single. Does anyone know how many times Damon scored from first on a double and from second on a single last year? Will NJs slow running really affect runs scored? Will those losses be offset by his far superior OBP coupled with the HR power of the 3,4,5 hitters on the Yanks?
Does anyone know how many times Damon scored from first on a double and from second on a single last year?
Scored from second on a single: 14 times
Scored from first on a double: 9 times
I have no idea out of how many opportunities that is though.
not to mention shouldnt he have more opportunities since he should be on base more?
eh, i’ve seen Matsui score from first on doubles before, I don’t think it’s particularly unlikely that NJ can do it.
I think you’ve got it in your last question. A player with a .400+ OBP is great to have batting before power hitters, even if he’s slow.