Jan
04
Friday Night Open Thread
ByHappy Friday everyone. The Nets are playing tonight and that’s pretty much it, but use this open thread to talk about whatever you like. Enjoy.
119 Comments»
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The Yanks claimed Russ Canzler off waivers. Give us another option in the outfield. Here is his BBR page:http://www.baseball-reference......ru01.shtml
Anyone else always get pizza for dinner on Fridays?
It’s a good meal to start the weekend.
No but Wednesday is Prince spaghetti day.
Is it purple?
It’s boiled in the waters of Lake Minnetonka… Or, cleansed… Or something.
I’ve periodically downloaded songs from Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs list. In the last batch, I downloaded “Purple Rain.”
I cannot figure out if I like it, but I also find that I listen to it repeatedly. I guess that means I like it. Right?
It’s easily both my favorite Prince song and album, and he’s got a ton to choose from there.
She’s from Boston but, if I could have picked anywhere to be this New Years Eve, it may have watching Amanda Palmer play the album in its entirety here in NYC.
You’re dating yourself!
Yup every friday. I love it
During Lent it’s a regular Friday meal. Luckily for me, this isn’t Lent and tonight we grilled some porterhouse steaks.
So it’s cheese pizza then?
Well, the Hall of Fame vote will be held on Jan. 9th. Former Yanks include Mattingly, Bernie, Wells & Stanton. Thoughts?
None of those make it in, and Wells and Stanton don’t make it to the next ballot.
I agree with you on Wells and Stant. Wells’ ERA hurts him, only won 20 games once, 3-time AS and 0 Cy Youngs. Stanton has an even thinner case.
As much as I love Bernie I don’t see it happening. Never had a dominant stretch where he was clearly one of the very best in the game. At the very least, no Yankee will ever where #51 again.
We just need to start a “feared!” campaign for bernie.
Yes, I would give Aubrey Huff an ST invite.
Why not. At this point, you may as well hold open try outs and hope for lightening in a bottle.
So this is you endorsing a Javy Vazquez deal eh?
I would love to see Javy for act three. Of course it won’t happen, but it would make for an interesting story line.
You know the old saying, 3rd time’s the charm…
I’d rather stick my dick in a blender.
Don’t go overboard. But if you do that, take a video, because that will make for an interesting storyline, too!
I am baffled that Donnie Baseball has never received more than 28% of the vote. He is not a lock for a Hall of Famer, but he is unfairly written off because of a shortened career and low power numbers. But he still has more hits than Killebrew and 4 other Hall of Fame 1st basemen. But his defense sets him apart. He has the highest fielding % of any Hall of Fame 1st basemen and is 8th all-time. He also snagged 9 Gold Gloves, 2nd all-time at 1st.
Offensive precedence is set with the inclusion of George Kelly, Frank Chance and Hank Greenberg, both of whom are comparable to Mattingly.
His shortened career has precedence with Kirby Puckett and Addie Joss in the Hall.
For a 4-year stretch from 1984-87 he was the best hitter in baseball. Flat out. The man is not getting a fair look.
Here are some more of my thoughts on the case for Mattingly: http://wp.me/p1Xo18-ut
It’s not just the shortened career. It’s the big loss of power which occurred even within it.
He’s a HOF caliber player. He didn’t have a HOF caliber career.
He’s also arguably my favorite Yankee of all time or, at the very least, the absolute answer to “who was your childhood hero.”
He definitely had a huge loss of power toward the end due to his back problems. It’s hard to argue for 222 home runs, but I also think baseball writers are too enamored with the long ball. Mattingly had more hits than Killebrew, had a career BA 51 points higher and was by far a better defensive 1st baseman. No one will argue that Killebrew is a lock with 573 HR, myself included, yet Mattingly is left with 28% of the vote. It just doesn’t feel right to me.
Because mattingly is a 1B, HR,RBI>Hits for 1B and actually for anyone. 1B is a power, run producing, position and mattingly lost the power which sapped his numbers and defense is not enough.
Killebrew vs Mattingly isn’t even close, it’s a landslide. If Mattingly was a Twin and Killebrew a Yankee, you would laugh uncontrollably at the comparison.
I know. I agree with you. It’s not close, and why? The power numbers. I just don’t think it should be the only qualification. That’s all I’m saying.
I love me some Mattingly, but the case for him is a “peak” case. His peak is no doubt Hall worthy, it just wasn’t long enough. He needed 2-3 more healthy years.
And those peak years were something. I can still quote you his 1985 line.
Funny thing is when I think of Wade Boggs, Kirby Puckett and Mattingly in their prime 4-5 years, I will always think of Mattingly as the best of that group.
Mattingly’s peak was great, but Boggs’ was historic. Mattingly’s best year was .352/.394/.573 in 1986. Boggs hit .364/.460/.508 from 1985-1988.
True but Boggs was a butcher at 3rd defensively for much of his career while Mattingly was an all time great defensive 1st baseman.
Though it s interesting that when you go back and look at players stats and scrutinize them using present day criteria, it sometimes paints a different picture than what you remember from your childhood.
I remember Bonds as a great player but if you look at his stats, he was a superhuman freak of nature and pretty much only Babe Ruth was comparable.
I think this is a good description of Donnie…..
Right. He had HOF talent, had HOF seasons, but the peak wasn’t long enough. He was also hurt comparison wise because by the time he was being voted on for the HOF, we were into the funny-ball ERA, when back-up middle infielders were hitting 20 HRs a season.
That said, Don Mattingly will be elected to the HOF one day, but by some future veteran’s committee.
You’re right. The inflated #s of the steroid era certainly didn’t help him.
My issue is that I’m not sure many of those guys you’re citing for as precedents should be in the Hall either. I’m not sure I can justify adding Mattingly in just because he’s a guy I like when I wouldn’t have let players in with careers like his.
There are just too many holes in his case, and the fact that others choose to dilute the Hall is no reason we should keep doing so.
No doubt the “well HE’s in case, is not a strong one. There are certainly a few week cases in the Hall.
Make the case for Mattingly vs John Olerud or Will Clark or Fred McGriff.
Mattingly was my all time favorite growing up, but he just didn’t do it long enough.
McGriff should be in the Hall.
He should be. And we traded him in ’82… (sigh)
…for Dale Murray, a 30-something, league-average middle reliever who was washed up by the time he pitched for the Yankees, going 3-6 with a 4.58 ERA over two seasons. It would be like trading a future HOFer for someone less productive than Cody Eppley.
McGriff might have hit over 550 HRs playing half his games at Yankee Stadium.
For Dale Murphy, a borderline HoF CFer? That’s not a bad trade at all. Oh…
No, they wouldn’t have traded him for future CFer Dale Murphy, because he was blocked by Yankee CFer and future MVP Willie McGee, a former first-round pick by the Yankees.
Oh, wait, I forgot. In order to make room for the speed Yankee team of 1982 (because of the mistaken belief that the Yankees lost the 1981 World Series by not having enough players who could slap the ball and manufacture runs, sound familiar?!), so in order to make room for that speed and players like Dave Collins, they traded away, wait, a speedy CFer in Willie McGree who was cheaper and better than Dave Collins. You can’t make this stuff up. Yup, they traded him for Bob Sykes, who a below, league-average pitcher who never threw a fucking pitch for the Yankees.
It’s funny to listen to current Yankee fans complain about trading away players like Austin Jackson where the only thing the Yankees got back was a highly productive, 40-HR hitting CFer.
Now on to Doug Drabek.
I must let the ’80s, go, I must!
And how much better things would be if George was still running the show….
#graverollin
This man speaks the gospel.
And I thought I had. At least the 90′s made it easier to forget.
Jeter got hurt on tht play. He struggled the rest of the post season.
Thanks for ruining it.
I thought I was the only person who remembered that, and wondered how the postseason would have played out if he didn’t dive into the stands for that ball. Messed his back up and he was in pain the next two series, which represents the worst stretch of his postseason career. Was swinging great, .444 BA, went 6-44 the rest of the way. A healthy Jeter might have changed the outcome of the 2001 World Series, with game seven remaining the one game I want back in all the years I’ve watched the Yankees.
Yet it serves as a reminder of how luck — good and bad — greatly impacts the postseason.
The yanks need to get UPTON or Stanton here ……………
No outfield power in 2014 and lost a lot of power this off season …
Can I assume from the all caps on “Upton” that you prefer him over Stanton? If so I’m curious why.(…………..)
Too many punctuatonz…………….!!!!!
stuart a does the ellipses way better.
Yanks need fans to calm down here
All you have to do is ask the Marlins or Diamondbacks nicely and say “please”.
I think that this post gets a lot right:
http://espn.go.com/blog/new-yo.....n-the-wane
They seem like some of the only Yankee bloggers willing to call things as they are. Yes, ticket prices are too high; yes, the Steinbrenners are cheap and selfish; yes, the team is old and management doesn’t want to do anything about it; yes, this franchise is really going to have problems in two or three years when the chickens come home to roost and peck on all the old cadavers and nobody is in the stands because ticket prices are too high and Halnk was too cheap; yes, this is an insult to the legacy that makes the team the most legendary franchise in all of professional sports and a cash cow for anyone lucky enough to be born into their ownership.
But Cashman has signed like 4 old people to minor-league contracts this summer so he is awesome and stop complaining just wait until 2014 if you don’t like failure you’re not a fan my OPS+ is bigger than yours etc etc
Come write for us! You’d fit right in!
Ha. Exactly. Never take anything from ESPN NY as anything more than bridge jumping and catering to the lowest common denominator… Present company included…
Also, paid head head hunters , not Yankees Bloggers. They do it for a check, Mike does it fro the love of guys like you…
I think your troll skills are slipping fast.
His spelling was impeccable. Grammar, though? Yeah.
It’s not even worth responding to. Same ol’ shit, and I swear some version of that has been spouted off every year since I was a kid.
Have to reply to this FJM style.
I think that this post gets a lot right:
It was written by Wally Frickin’ Matthews!
ticket prices are too high;
Take an economics class; it’s called the law of supply and demand.
the Steinbrenners are cheap
And yet the Yankees have the highest payroll in baseball.
the team is old
The average age is 28.2 years, the 3rd oldest in MLB. Just for perspective, Boston is 28.0, St. Louis 27.6, San Fran 27.6, Tampa 27.5, so there’s not a huge difference. Unless you’re looking for them to get Houston and Miami young.
this franchise is really going to have problems in two or three years
Why, because you know what moves the FO plans to make over the next few years?
this is an insult to the legacy that makes the team the most legendary franchise in all of professional
the team won 95 games last year. 95!
In closing you are an insult to creative trolls
Return winner.
Post of the year.
Of course, this is only January 4.
Pretty weak using a Wallace Matthews article to troll.
I don’t really get this: “the team is old and don’t want to do anything about it”
The yanks are going to be a very flawed team for the next 2-3 years, no doubt.
But if your #1 complaint is that they are old, they should NOT be doing anything about it. The way to get younger is to NOT do anything and keep your prospects. It’s not to trade 4 prospects for Upton. Or to sign Josh Hamilton.
If the yanks are to get younger, they need 1-2 of their OFers, Sanchez, Pineda, and 1-2 of the CoJo, Adams, Nunez, Mesa, etc crew to become viable major leaguers by 2014-5. That’s how they can get much younger.
What you seem to want them to do is get a little younger NOW, even though they will be older in the long run, just because you want them to do something.
The 2013 yanks will be very old. But then a bunch of the old guys will be gone and the Yankees will be forced to play their prospects in 2014-2015, and they will be ready to spend again around those young players. I don’t really see any way around this.
If it all truly goes down that way, I’d be OK with it, very OK with it….
I see this name and I don’t even read because I know it is going to be super ridiculous.
Ahhh, Wally Matthews, the worst baseball writer in NY. My favorite is when he cites the fact that in a choice between 5 articles about local sports teams, the article about the Yankees came in 3rd. On January 2. Which happens to be during the football and basketball seasons (covering 3 of the articles) and would be during the hockey season (covering the 4th). I am shocked to learn that baseball articles 2 months after the world series are less compelling to people than articles about sports that are currently in season.
Ahhh, Wally Matthews, the worst
baseballwriterin NYever.FTFY.
I saw Wally Mathew’s name at the top and snorted out loud. The man’s a Yankee hating hack, and the fact that he’s the blogger for the Yankees for ESPN says everything you need to know about how “The World Wide Leader in Sports” feels about the team.
Yes Mattingly should be in the Hall of Fame. Hs numbers are better than Kirby Puckett’s. As for this year, Yanks need to get younger. Can;t keep signin old players
Their numbers are comparable. Until you remember Puckett played CF.
Now, if you want to play Bernie against Puckett, I am all for that argument.
Definitely agree there.
Kind of worried that Berkman signs in Texas.
Not so much for the damage that he will do against the Yankees, but he is one of my favorite non Yankees and I would hate to have to dislike him for playing on the Fightin Nolans. Only worst place in my heart for him is with the Sox, but at least I would get to watch him more often.
I hope the Yankees sign him. I loved him when he was here.
I also love the way he drops his bat after a HR http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play......8;c_id=mlb
Funny. I couldn’t stand him. Just was the type of player that looked out of place in pinstripes.
He was, rednecks don’t like the city and you could tell he was not a big fan of it, at least I thought so.
Pretty much every New Yorkers come from somewhere else, though, and a whole lot are converted country bumpkins.
Mickey Mantle was from Oklahoma and was most certainly a country bumpkin. He seemed to enjoy the city just fine.
It was much easier to get away with boozing and womanizing back then.
He was definitely the king of it.
Absolutely. Now you risk upsetting Yank the Frank, or whatever his name was.
Enjoy your success while you can, Johnny Football. It runs out in three years.
I’m not so sure anymore. I think he has a chance in the NFL running a spead offense like RG3 and Cam Newton. His arm isn’t great but neither is Drew Brees and he’s very accurate and elusive.
The thing that concerns me is frail build.
Correction not spread but read- option offense.
RG3 is 6’2″. Cam Newton is 6’5″.
ESPN.com might list Manziel as 6’1″, but he’s 6’0″ if he’s lucky.
Drew Brees, Fran Tarenton, Joe Theisman, Jeff Garcia, Russell Wilson, Doug Flutie, Pat Hayden, Michael Vick are all around 6’0 or less and had success in the NFL.
I’m not saying he’s the next Luck but the more I see him, the more I think he might have that special ability to overcome his lack of size.
And I left out Len Dawson and Billy Kilmer too at 6’0 or less.
Eh, we’ll see. As with most everything, I’m a skeptic. A lot of those guys had only fleeting success, and Newton and Griffin are hardly elite yet.
You’re right, there’s probably 50 or more system QBs who look great in college and fall flat on their face in the NFL for every Drew Brees but I think Manziel might be one who can beat the odds. I was a huge Flutie fan from back in the day so maybe it’s just wishful thinking on my part.
There’s always the CFL…
Oof. That’s verging on Ted territory there, son.
It was a rib on Flutie.
Trade for Joel Madden and Joe Maddon!
And Steve Madden.
And John Madden. Boom! Pow! Unintelligible nonsense!
Damn. I didn’t Hara Hachi Bu tonight. Somebody shoot me and put me out of my misery.
Mattingly was so freaking cool — taking the popcorn out of that kid’s bag at the rail, kneeling on first in Toronto when he finally made the playoffs, everything about the way he went about his business. And watching him hit, good Lord! Only the Mick ever got to me more as far as anticipating at bats. He should be in the Hall for sure, the short-career hitter’s equivalent of Koufax. Never gonna happen, though.
mets are on the uptick…their rebuilding the right way and will have a top notch pitching rotation in 2014
actual comment from the comment section of Wallace’s article that Elton so kindly posted. I swear by everything on this planet that if the Met’s starting pitchers Are in the Top 5 of Starter’s ERA, WHIP, IP, K/9, BB/9,K:BB, I will do the first thing dared of me to do. No matter how ludicrous, within monetary reason.
Go to a Yankees game in full Mets regalia and be as obnoxious as possible, like starting “Yankees Suck!” chants and the like.
Oh, and make sure this isn’t a Yankees/Mets game.
but…I hate that guy…like there has been one at literally every game I’ve ever gone to. But that is the dare, and I accept.
I accept your acceptance.
Now thrown down the NWA belt like Shane Douglas! I don’t know what that has to do with anything, but it just popped into my mind due to the phrase “I accept.”
Shane Douglas and the New York Mets have a ton in common. Talked loud and rarely did shit.
You’re damned right about that.
Try telling an ECW diehard fan that about Shane Douglas, though, and you’ll never hear the end of it.
Can Ted Nelson go all Joe Dimaggio and get into it with someone different for 56 consecutive days?
He is off to blazing start.
Don’t change that web address.
Where are all the idiots on this blog who ridiculed my suggestion several weeks ago that the yanks bring up slade Heathcott this year. According to Oppenheimer they are contemplating it.
That just means you and whomever Oppenheimer is hyping up Slade Heathcott for are at the same intellectual level…
Also, still a ridiculous suggestion that he be of value in 2013, based solely on track history.
As we’ve been made aware, he needs to hit the 40 man roster Next year to avoid the Rule 5 draft anyhow, so we may see him as a September Call up a la Lettuce Guy… doesn’t mean he’s the answer, but you’d be right if it makes you feel better…
We’ll just switch to ridiculing you for shamelessly trying to pat yourself on the back on the comment section of a Yankees blog over total fucking coincidence now.
*points and laughs*
I’m not highlighting anything than your ignorance dick
You still got replaced by Ronnie Wood.
It was worse, he left on his own accord to lead a life of obscurity and far less money.