Off-Topic
We’ll load up a new thread when this one starts to get too long. Relive the madness, the tears, the good times in the archives:
- Off-Topic Thread #1 (Feb. 3, 2010 – March 14, 2010)
- Off-Topic Thread #2 (March 14, 2010 – April 1, 2010)
- Off-Topic Thread #3 (April 1, 2010 – April 25, 2010)
- Off-Topic Thread #4 (April 25, 2010 – May 27, 2010)
- Off-Topic Thread #5 (May 27, 2010 – July 25, 2010)
- Off-Topic Thread #6 (July 25, 2010 – August 25, 2010)
Sup bitches?
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/ne.....ials082410
I think we’ve all seen this story, but this is nice, tidy analysis of the whole situation. I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised, but anytime Jeffrey Loria is made to look like a tightwad crook, it makes me smile.
alex gonzalez, Wally Matthews is having a chat today.
Oh shit when?
It was at 1.
http://espn.go.com/sportsnatio....._/id/34070
Darn, missed it.
Hopefully he starts doing the chats with a little more consistency. He changes days and times so frequently.
My dad tried to hook the TV/the stuff that needs to be plugged in around it up to a new extension cord because the old one was really really ugly and old and I am useless with electronics. It was fine yesterday after he left.
Well. Now the TV doesn’t work. But when I try to turn on the TV with the remote, the lamp next to the TV comes on. (Twilight Zone music)
This is half frustrating and half really really amusing.
I just heard on the radio, Chad Ochocinco broke the Jay Mariotti getting arrested story on twitter? Crazy if true.
John (NYC)
The Killer B’s. Brackman, Banuelos, Bentances. Who cracks the top 100?
Klaw (1:15 PM)
All three.
It’s high noon on my sun dial.
Saw that. With Jesus a lock for the top 10 and Romine figuring in the 50-75 range, the Yanks will be stacked in the top 100.
Tried to get KLaw to bite on a Sanchez question about his D, but he wasn’t interested.
Klaw (1:15 PM)
All three.
I JIMP’d
Did anybody see what Hanley did to his hair? It looks atrocious.
Yes. What the heck, Hanley?
I found a picture. Holy shit, that is worse than when my friend got his hair straightened in Washington (he has an afro).
http://outofbounds.nbcsports.c.....ezhair.jpg
He must have lost a bet, right?
And didn’t he go 4-5 last night (IIRC)? Maybe it’s going to stick.
from the ESPN writeup of last night’s Marlins/Mets game:
Earlier in the day, Ramirez tried to dye his dark hair blonde — but it didn’t quite turn out that way. His short, curly locks wound up a reddish-orange rust color after the salon experiment in his hotel room.
“Hanley told me he did that because he’s going to be en fuego [on fire] the next five weeks,” Rodriguez said.
“but it didn’t quite turn out that way”
Understatement no?
Here at Rumblings, we love Johnny Damon. But what the heck was he thinking this week? His decision to block a trade back to Boston made no sense. But worse than that, it could also cost him millions of dollars.
Damon’s biggest selling point, as he heads into the market this winter at age 37, is that he’s a winner, a guy who can rise up to meet any big September/October moment. But his chance to prove that was by going, not staying in Detroit.
“Maybe he believes he didn’t need to prove that, that he’s done that already,” said one AL executive. “But it could only help his market to be on that stage [in Boston] in big games and perform.”
Yes, because after winning the 2009 World Series teams were beating down Damon’s door. Jayson Stark is absurd.
For as bad as it may seem in Yankeeland right now, look no further than their World Series foe of ’09 to see how much worse it could be.
The Phils are on the verge of being swept in four games by a bad Houston Astros team. And, in the process, have let the Rockies right back in the thick of the Wild Card race as well (they were 7 games out on Saturday; cut that in half and that’s what it will be after today, barring a comeback).
Speaking of the Phillies, here’s a crazy thing to see: Since August 11, the Braves and Phillies have both played on 12 out of 14 days. On all 12 of those days, when one them won their game, the other won too. When one of them lost their game, the other lost as well. On the off-day for Atlanta, the Phillies won. On the off-day for Philly, the Braves won. Atlanta is off tonight. Hope they enjoy that.
On K-Laws recent chat he said that
The Killer B’s (Betances/Brackman/Banuelos) Would all crack the top 100 prospect list.
http://tinyurl.com/22mu9u7
my mistake I didn’t realize someone posted it already
It deserves to be posted twice. It is pretty awesome.
Agreed.
Who do I blame for this stupid upside down L shaped eye-black trend?
Do you mean like what Bryce Harper does?
If so the first person I ever saw do that was Kevin Millar, but it is tough to see him as a trend setter.
Yeah, like Harper. I think he’s to blame for the recent explosion of it (at least among all these damn kids at the LLWS) since he was sporting that look on his SI cover.
The Ultimate Warrior?
I’d be willing to bet my left pinky that at least 90% of the kids in the LLWS have no clue who that is.
That’s sad. He was awesome.
Shit, these kids were infants for 9/11 (wow it’s really strange to think that was almost 9 years ago. Damn.). There’s no way in hell they know who the Warrior is/was.
Totally unrelated: did I just see a Twisted Metal clip in this PSP ad? Awesome.
There’s no way in hell they know who the Warrior is/was.
But I knew who Bruno Sammartino and Gorilla Monsoon were. I know they didn’t grow up with him, but if they are into wrestling they should know the legends, even if he was a Gale Sayers-style (I know, blasphemy) short term legend.
In my interactions with that generation of kids, aged 11-14, I find that kids nowadays are much less inclined to give a damn about sporting heroes of years past than people of our generation (I’m assuming you’re close to me in age…how old are you, Steve? Why do I not know that?).
I’m a man, I’m 30!!!
Alright, you’re close enough to me (23) haha.
It may have evolved, but I’ve been seeing some form of it for the past few years. I think it really started in the College World Series. A lot of guys on my legion team used to do triangles, and the L type shape you mentioned.
Oh man, this is gonna sound super-mean, but the kid on the mound for WA looks like a total crier. If he gives up the lead, he will be blubbering in no time.
Wow, this umpire’s strikezone is TERRIBLE.
Called it.
Don Wakamatsu is an analyst on MLBN now.
Sanchez hit his first SI home run.
Cito with a hit and SB to boot.
Is it possible for the Yanks to call up Montero when rosters expand on September 1? I read on Wikipedia that a player has to be on the 40-man roster for that to happen. Montero is not currently on it, so can it happen? I don’t mean do you think it will happen, I mean is it possible. Thanks.
/Pleaseexcusemyignorance’d
Not answering any questions about the liklihood, yes it would be possible. Either a player on the 40 man would have to be moved to the 60-day DL or someone would have to be designated for assignment.
Awesome, thanks man. I appreciate it.
One more question for you, is it possible to move someone to the 60-day DL or DFA someone after September 1?
Yes. In fact, players moved onto the 60 day DL in September allow for injury exceptions for teams that reach the playoffs. A player who otherwise would not be postseason eligible would be eligible if they play the same position as the player moved to the DL.
So figure Nick Johnson. He’s a certainty to be moved to the 60 day list in September, and that would allow the Yankees to put someone in his stead on the playoff roster, previously eligible or not, if they so opted to (odds are, they won’t).
Players can be DFA’d after 9/1, but it’s irrelevant to do some in many cases with the expanded rosters. That’s why the Yankees won’t bring back someone like Marte or Aceves prior to the first of the month, since they would have to let someone else go (Gaudin/Mitre), when waiting a few days would allow them to keep both of them. Whether that’s worth it or not is another story, though I’ll go on record as saying I think Gaudin is a fine long reliever.
Thank you, good sir. I appreciate it.
I just noticed while looking at the standings that no AL team currently has a winning or losing streak longer than one. Odd.
Ugh, no link yet but ESPN just reported that Stras probably needs TJ. For shame.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/.....id=5502866
Wow.
For shame, but not completely surprising.
For shame, but not the end of the world, or even the end of Strasburg. He’ll miss all next season, but he’ll be back in 2012, still shy of 24. Elbow injuries suck, but TJ has a pretty good success rate.
I bet Dibble feels like an ass now, but probably not
You didn’t have to say that. You already knew it.
Yeah, Dibble was the first thing that I thought of, after feeling bad for Stras. I used to live in DC and I have Nats fan friends who have actually claimed to like Dibble as a commentator. I literally had no words when they told me this. I mean, the guy was using the term ‘we’ to refer to the Nats when he had only been an employee of the team/network for a few weeks (um, and he is an announcer not a player).
Plus, he is an ignorant meathead and a relic from a bygone era where stupidity was celebrated and false machismo was encouraged. Not to mention that his commentary likes to assign blame to the umpires for the Nats failures instead of acknowledging that the team is a work in progress.
Yup, instead of just having a torn ligament, he should have continued pitching and rip that sucker right in half. Man up!
As a fan of the game, that’s pretty sad. Hopefully he can recover and not have to go the Kerry Wood path where he keeps getting hurt at different points in his career.
I’m pretty sure Strasburg also broke Twitter.
Also, ESPN put up a list of other notable pitchers who have had TJ surgery. They included Rivera. Research fail.
Did they include Favre and LeBron too?
He was under the list of “pitchers who had TJS” on Wikipedia forever (until I removed it)
Oh Bexy, always fighting the good fight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGzqbEeVWhs
(SFW, but … SHOWTUNES. dramatic music)
I know Keith Law in the past has mentioned that the Yankees almost never acknowledge that a guy had TJS, they always manage to call it something else.
Wait, he didn’t have TJ surgery? Why the hell have I always thought he did?
It’s a pretty wide-spread belief, but he didn’t. He did have elbow surgery, but it wasn’t specifically TJ.
ttp://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2009/08/mariano_rivera_tommy_john_and.
Ugh, try this.
http://tinyurl.com/ppjjet
It’s a good read, even if it’s short.
I don’t know what “moving the ligament” really means, but I’m assuming it was hardly the major procedure that TJ is. TJ surgery involves drilling holes in bones, and taking another ligament from elsewhere (the leg, usually) and attaching it to the arm. It’s a pretty big deal. “Moving a ligament” doesn’t sound so serious.
“Brett Marshall, RHP, Yankees (Low-A Charleston): 6 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K
A sixth-round pick in 2008 who received a well over-slot bonus of $850,000 as a small righty with power stuff, Marshall’s full-season debut last year was well below expectations and finished with Tommy John surgery. He returned to action quickly, and might be finally finding his groove, allowing just one run on 12 hits over his last 29 innings. With a low 90s fastball and biting slider, just add him to the long list of Yankee pitching prospects who have taken a step in the right direction.”
From a Future Shock article on BP. That last sentence is just so beautiful.
My head is spinning with all of the promotions and breakout performances we have seen from pitchers on the farm this year. From an MiLB season that started out sleepily, it has blossomed into a huge year with high upside arms developing along with more sure-thing college guys.
http://twitter.com/SI_JonHeyman/status/22266810429
Heyman is reporting that we’ll know if Manny was claimed in about 20 minutes. I want to know if someone picked him up, mostly because I’m tired of all this MSM coverage on the topic.
Manny>>>>>Tiger>>>>>LeBron>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Favre
I’d rather ESPN create ESPN-Manny with 24 hour programming then listen to 2 more minutes on Favre.
Manny + Ozzie in the same clubhouse? Only reality show I would actually watch
I remember one time ESPN showed Manny driving around in a golf cart and they were playing the “Duck Tales” theme song in the background. It may have been the greatest thing ESPN ever did.
Now he says multiple teams claimed Manny
Can anyone link to the Cashman interview where he was like getting the players you want is a first and you always have to spend to get it?
http://riveraveblues.com/2010/.....ian-31385/
http://sports.espn.go.com/new-.....id=5356746
RAB article & original interview
Derek Anderson practicing with the first stringers and starting the next preseason game over Leinart. I know that doesn’t guarantee he’s the Week 1 starter, but…wow. I was skeptical about drafting their receivers before, I wouldn’t touch them with a 10ft pole now.
Glad I drafted Wells, he’ll be getting even more touches
As a Golden Domer, it’s so satisfying to see Leinart fail and Bush be nothing more than a 3rd down back who finally got caught for his transgressions.
OK, I promised myself I’d keep politics out of this…but, hey, the person mentioned here says this isn’t political.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/.....id=5504656
Of course if you’ve read anything about this it seems like it’s going to be very political, especially considering Glenn Beck’s rather daft statements recently.
/hoping I’m not opening a can of worms but knowing I probably have’d
It’s ok, Rose already met the Banhammer
Whoah, really? For good?
Anyway, I’m not trying to open a can of worms here either, but I think it’s kinda weird considering just what LaRussa and Pujols said, respectively, about the Arizona immigration law.
“I don’t know who’s going to be there, who’s going to accept it,”
So he doesn’t know who’s going, but he knows it’s not political? Good research Tony.
Really Albert? Major drop in respect.
Yeah it seems like a “See me and Tony are cool” appearance
Ted Lilly placed on waivers by Dodgers. Will the Yanks have any interest?
i hope so
http://i.imgur.com/Km85Q.jpg
Think about it.
Schmexcellent
Well done.
very well done
nsalem and I were discussing Catfish Hunter on the “Buyer Beware” thread (http://riveraveblues.com/2010/...../#comments). nsalem said this to me:
So I looked up Hunter on baseball reference. Hunter was a damn good pitcher. He finished with a career ERA of 3.26 in 15 seasons. And, like I said in the thread, he had some truly dominant seasons, the most dominant being his 1972 season where he had a 2.04 ERA in 295.1 innings. He had 4 seasons with an ERA below three.
Catfish is a HOF’er, and few question it as far as I know (maybe they do question it, I could be wrong). BUT-here’s a big catch to all of this-I don’t think Catfish was nearly as dominant as nsalem suggested. Let’s take a look at parallel pitcher b.
Pitcher b:
. Pitched 14 seasons
. Has a career 3.29 ERA
. Had 4 seasons with an ERA below three
. Had a truly dominant 1978 campaign in which he pitched 273.2 innings to the tune of a 1.74 (!!!!!) ERA
Now, back to Catfish. He:
. Pitched 16 seasons (only 1 season more than pitcher b)
. Has a career 3.26 ERA (only .3 points lower than pitcher b-less than half a run)
. Had four seasons with an ERA below three (the same as pitcher b)
. Had a truly dominant 1972 campaign in which he pitched 295.1 (!!!!!) innings to the tune of a 2.04 ERA. Pitcher b had an at least equaly dominant (I think even more dominant) 1978 campaign.
So who is pitcher b?
He is, as you all have no doubt guessed by now, Mr. Ronald Guidry, staff Ace of the NY Yankees in their two word championship campaigns in the years of 1977 and 1978.
In the past I’ve seen people argue for Guidry to be in the HOF. Their arguments are always, always shot down. Yet, I’ve never seen people complain about Catfish eing in the Hall.
So what do you guys think?
Is Catfish a HOF’er?
How about Guidry?
I don’t think Catfish belongs in the Hall, but that’s JMO.
Oh, yeah. Source: The Internet.
I keed, I keed.
http://www.baseball-reference......ca01.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference......ro01.shtml
No I don’t think Catfish belongs. Shave his mustache and call him Jim and he might not have gotten in.
…Is it wrong of me to think that the Yanks will attempt to sign V-Mart? His arm has improved since that elbow surgery, as he’s back around his career number in throwing out runners (21% vs 24%).
I would think so… isn’t he sorta like jorge at this point?
Meh, I really don’t see it with Posada coming back next year. Posada seems like a slightly better version and if the Yankees wanted a big offensive, low defensive catcher, Montero is primed and ready to go. VMart is hitting .243/.296/.348 vs RHP this year.
Posted this at the end of the Game Thread so it might get missed: on this date in 1998, the Yankees clinched a playoff spot.
Um.
The 1998 Yankees were good at baseball
Anyone know the earliest a team has clinched a division since 1995? Before September seems pretty early.
The 1998 Yankees were the first to clinch a playoff spot. The earliest a division was clinched since 1995 was September 8 (the 1995 and 1999 Indians). The 1998 Yankees clinched the division on September 9.
The earliest a division was ever clinched was the 1975 Reds, on September 7.
For what it’s worth, the 2008 Angels clinched on September 10th. You don’t have to be super awesome (they won 100 games, which is pretty good, but not historically so) provided the teams behind you stink. The 1995 and 1999 Indians had no one else over .500 in their division.
This is true. It’s a combo of both, you’re a good team with shit teams behind you in the division.
Thanks. Interesting stuff.
…Montero…
DoTF Spoiler
2-2 2 HR 4RBI
Question: Is Montero coming up for the September stretch run?
this phrase appeared in an actual MLB.com article:
And from what we know of Pedroia’s nature you can assume it won’t be long before he’s on his knees again …
Ummmmm
Innuendos are fun!
Which Pedroia are they talking about?
I was thinking this, but didn’t say it
Could you imagine if A-Rod had a brother who did that? I can’t imagine the heat he would get for it.
Agreed, he’d get a lot of crap. But honestly, and I dunno how popular this opinion is… I really don’t see what Dustin Pedroia’s brother has to do with Dustin Pedroia. If A-Rod’s brother was a pedophile, it wouldn’t have anything to do with A-Rod, really.
Still, very unfortunate phrasing.
I share that opinion.
I remember similar stuff about Slade and his parents’ troubles around the time of the draft last year, it should have nothing to do with Slade, unless he had issues himself.
Culver too.
If A-Rod’s brother was a pedophile, you’re right it wouldn’t have anything to do with A-Rod, at least to us. But unfortunately that’s not how the rest of the world would feel. It would be portrayed as A-Rod caused his brother to do that. You know it, I know it, there is a double standard for A-Rod.
Oh of course there is. There’s a ridiculous double standard. My point is, I don’t think it’s that okay to make fun of a baseball player, or really anyone, based on something a member of their family did. Not that AiSD was making fun of Dustin Pedroia.
Oof that didn’t even occur to me x_X
FanGraphs had this interesting article on who had the biggest drop in WAR from 2009 to 2010 (Linkage: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs.....from-2009/). The one that caught my eye is that Chone Figgins went from 6.1 WAR last year to .2 WAR this year. I find it amazing that someone can go from among the league’s best to replacement level in a whole year.
Did the position change have anything to do with it?
I think sucking has something to do with it
You’d think the position change would help him, since he went from being a 3B, generally a power position, to being a 2B, where you don’t get a lot of offense.
It’s pretty easy to see why he fell off the table so much. He went from a 16.2 UZR to a -9.1 UZR. His wOBA/wRC+ was .358/120 in 2009 and it’s .295/85 this year. Dunno why he declined so much all around…
Eh, Fangraphs is actually working on my computer so it’s interesting to look. Figgins has a .303 BABIP this year, compared to .337 career. He’s hitting for almost no power at all, a .290 SLG (!!!) and an .044 ISOP. He’s hardly a power guy, but he does have a career SLG of .377 and ISOP of .091. So that at least partially explains it.
I think it might have something to do with Safeco, in 115 career games there and 502 PA (by far the largest number of games he’s played at any stadium outside of Angel Stadium) he’s hitting .256/.353/.306/.659. That’s a tOPS+ of 80.
I still wonder if the position change had something to do with it mentally. Like they moved him from his comfort zone or something. We know he had an incident in the dugout. Either way, yea, he’s sucked a new one.
Can we trick the Dodgers into trading us Matt Kemp?
Yes, I think they would trade him.
I am just guessing, but Nova and Montero might do.
Not saying I would, but I think that would do it.
We always rag on umps, but good job to get together and make the right decision on the McCann homer yesterday.
/broken clock
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/.....backs.html
Brandon Webb’s Agent:
“Webb loves Arizona and they will be considered highly, but Brandon WILL be looking at an incentive-based contract [with] a guaranteed base where [Brad] Penny and [Rich] Harden at $7.5MM, [Ben] Sheets at $10MM and [Tim] Hudson’s $9.33MM average annual value are all conversation starters.”
Conversation starter? It’s going to be a quiet offseason for you then.
http://www.telegram.com/articl.....3/0/News02
His defense should be PTSD, Post Torre Stress Syndrome.
“A reporter called Mr. Sturtze’s mother, Linda, for comment. Mrs. Sturtze said her son is not in town, refused to answer an additional question, and hung up.”
I smell a Pulitzer for the article author.
Scott Proctor and Paul Quantrill could use that excuse.
Does A-Rod ever lead the Yankees in WAR again?
Ryan Zimmerman destroyed a set of lights in Miami. Oh my.
Fun fact: Last season the top 5 second basemen in baseball (by fWAR) were Ben Zobrist, Chase Utley, Dustin Pedroia, Ian Kinsler, and Robbie. This season the top 5 are Robbie, Rickie Weeks, Kelly Johnson, Dan Uggla, and Brandon Phillips.
this is hilarious, especially in retrospect
http://www.tauntr.com/content/.....delusional
I love the Yankee one. “What are we doing in this commercial with all those other shitty teams?”
Assuming that was made before the season began in earnest, especially considering the Padres comment.
Still really funny though.
The Cubs fan looked like Bobby Abreu.
Also Mitch Williams, not so good at the whole analysis thing.
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/articl.....8;c_id=mlb
Josh Beckett is only 4-3 and has missed most of the season, due to injury, but he’s back now, and we all know how tough he can be in September and October.
In fairness to Williams, Beckett does have a 2.96 ERA in 42 career September appearances (40 starts) and a 2.84 ERA in three October regular-season starts. In those two months, his career FIP is 3.16. His next-best month is June (3.24 FIP, 3.36 ERA).
Postseason-wise, Beckett was lights out in 2003 and ’07 but awful the last two years. So, he’s far from untouchable in the playoffs – which was probably your point to begin with.
OK, I just read the entire article as opposed to only the Beckett blurb you posted and you’re right – Williams is a complete moron. You know what, Mitch? I will count out the Red Sox. With a month remaining, they’re seven games back and missing their best two position players, all while chasing the two best teams in baseball. Quit clinging to straws and drown already, man. That goes for everyone who thinks Boston is still in the hunt.
OK, I just read the entire article as opposed to only the Beckett blurb you posted and you’re right – Williams is a moron. You know what, Mitch? I will count out the Red Sox. With a month remaining, they’re seven games back and missing their best two position players, all while chasing the two best teams in baseball. Quit clinging to straws and drown already, man. That goes for everyone who thinks Boston is still in the hunt.
Dammit. Double post. Sorry.
Williams bases his entire point on reputation. If he wants to make the point that outside of CC and Hughes, the Yankees rotation has been far from solid, I will agree with him. But guess what? Outside of Bucholz and Lester, the Red Sox rotation has also been far from solid. Dice-K is mediocre at best, Beckett is having a terrible year (and all the great starts in the past won’t save him now), and Lackey has been pretty bad all year. The Yankees have the ability to hit their way into the playoffs, and Boston’s rotation really does not scare me as much as Tampa’s.
Yep. And all the stuff about the bullpen. New York and Tampa have much better bullpens than Boston. Bard’s great and Papelbon has explosions here and there but is otherwise pretty good, but other than that, there’s no one in that pen I’d want anywhere near a playoff game.
You mean you don’t want Scott Atchinson in the 8th inning of a playoff game?
I know I do. Since I’m a Yankees fan and all.
I just can’t figure out why Boston is so overrated by the media. I don’t think it would be right for them to say they are flat out dead, but to overrate their chances so much is beyond delusional. I guarantee you if the Yankees had the exact same starters as the Sox, people would be saying how bad Beckett, Lackey, and Dice-K are.
Too le-grit, too le-grit to quit.
Ye gods, I finally notice this two days after the fact!!
You can’t declare them dead, because the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry is still what people care about, and that is lessened by one of the teams not competing. I get that, but yeesh–tone it down a bit.
Also, Mitch Williams is a fucking idiot.
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/articl.....8;c_id=mlb
I was unfortunate enough to stumble on the above column about the Yankees’ July pursuit of Cliff Lee, and while I do credit the writer for using WAR and BABIP in his piece, the rest of it was absolutely infuriating. If you feel like FJMing something in your mind, give it a click.
That’s just. Um. Wow. That’s terrible.
I’m going to FJM this after I come back into the house.
Facts be damned, let’s just write pure drivel.
Wow, once I got into that WAR paragraph, I really thought I was going to throw up.
I guess today is “write about how bad the Yankees’ rotation is day”
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/s.....rdi-082910
You know who would look great in a Yankee uniform?
Felix Hernandez, Cliff Lee, David Price, Roy Halladay, Adam Wainwright, and Johnny Damon.
sincerely,
Bob Klapisch
P.S. Yankees are screwing the Jeter situation up, they should give him an 80m extension.
/Bob
ok i have to admit. My heart did a little flutter at the idea of King Felix and Halladay in pinstripes. (And Cliff Lee but I figure I’ll see this next year.)
‘Ol Man River- Thames
How bout’ that for a Showtune/Yankee combo Bex?
I giggled and cheered.
Wow, the people on No Maas are really whiny anymore.
Check out these “comments”:
Benjamin Kabak says:
August 31, 2010 at 12:34 am
It would be quite amazing if I ever got laid.
Joseph Pawlikowski says:
August 31, 2010 at 8:47 am
Can I conjure up a 10,000 word post with nonsensical stats to describe this photo? Hold onto your hats. Let my chubby hands do the work.
Not sure why there’s no posting from Mike, but, hey…who knows?
I’m not sure if I would consider this an example of imitation being the sincerest form of flattery.
There’s a Josh Beckett poster who frequently says that Mike gives good head.
But whatever. It’s all people we banned. And, as these copy/pastes demonstrate, for good reason.
At least they spelled your last name right. Gotta give credit where it’s due!
Yeah, whatever. One of these days maybe I’ll give a shit.
Glad to know it doesn’t bother you guys. I like No Maas, but I very infrequently post because a lot of the posters…are like this.
At least Shelley Duncan stopped posting there.
What, you aren’t constantly amused by HULK SMASH for every single post?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_.....itter-hoax
The question I have is…what was he trying to prove that probably wasn’t already known? It’s been this way with cable news outlets for some time, and the internet in general, so why did he feel the need to prove that it extended to Twitter?
Sometimes people are just taken by an urge to destroy their own professional credibility
Axl wants to know why he was banned again, He says he broke no rules in your guidelines.
K thanks
This is not up for discussion. Thank you.
Aroldys Chapman hits 103 on the gun. Wow.
*Aroldis, sorry.
pitch f/x had him at 103 twice!
Frenchy to Texas. Errr why?
Right part of a platoon with David Murphy.
Yay, the magic number countdown is up! At first it actually said Bobby Murcer, but it was probably a glitch or something because now it says Don Mattingly.
One question though. Is that the countdown for the AL East or a postseason birth?
Postseason. Don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves. The Murcer pic was from last year, I didn’t realize it would update by itself before I saved it with the Mattingly pic.
I hate that Winfield wore 31. We can never see that pic up there.
Lowrie was one of few players to make himself available in the sullen Boston clubhouse. Beckett left by the time reporters were allowed to enter and Ortiz refused to talk.
Such lovable grittydirtunderdogs.
Way to be accountable, guys.
Someone send for the waaaahmbulance.
I guess they’ve finally realized that they have to play at a pace far beyond what they’ve done all year to make the playoffs.
It’s ok, Beckett had good games against Baltimore and Seattle so they can label him as being “back”
Aw, poor babies.
The Manny in Chicago era has begun.
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/articl.....8;c_id=mlb
Can we get a “Jeter you are in a year long slump” post? Every time you guys posted a negative article about a player last year, they went out and did very well. I’m hoping for the same magic this year.
Saw this in the Lohud comments this morning:
“Orlando reportedly in talks to move minor league Tampa Yankees to town”
http://www.abcactionnews.com/d.....es-to-town
Personally, since I live in Tampa and enjoy going to the TY games, would not like this! Through in that SP might move as well, that makes it even worse. I wonder if Tampa is pushing hard on the Steinbrenners not that The Boss has passed to move so the Rays can move to Tampa. Most people think where Steinbrenner Field is right now would be an ideal fit for the new Rays Stadium (when they move).
Where are the Yankees going to play, at Disney’s Wide World of Sports? Are they going to kick out the Braves?
The yankees have responded to the report, here’s the statement from the Yankees.
“Reports today that the New York Yankees are considering moving the spring training facility from Tampa are completely erroneous. The Yankees are in very preliminary discussions regarding the possibility of a partial sale of their Single-A Tampa minor league affiliate to a potential group of Orange County, Fla., investors. The investors will make an announcement tomorrow. These exploratory conversations will have no impact on the Yankees’ spring training facility or the Major League team.”
That’s a great non-denial. No reports said the Yanks were moving Spring Training, just their Single A affiliate.
Orlando is a dump. Why go to Florida if you can’t be near the beach?
Who is the Mariner’s play by play guy? And why does he sound like he has smoked a million cigarettes? And why does it seem to me like he doesn’t always do the whole game?
I think it’s Dave Sims but God I hate the Mariners broadcasting crew SO MUCH. Like if I’m watching Quick Pitch and I hear their voices I get a little irritated.
Dave Niehaus
I can’t wait to see Latroy Hawkins on the Magic Number tonight.
So Manny is already paying dividends for the White Sox no?
Just a thought, I imagine the Yankees will have their champagne celebration when they clinch a playoff spot as opposed to last year when they waited to win the division.
Everybody has been talking about a hitting Triple Crown. However, no one has talked about how Roy Halladay is closing in on a TC of his own. He leads the NL in strikeouts, is second in ERA (by 0.03), and is one win behind Wainwright and Ubaldo. I think if he continues to be Roy Halladay he’ll have an NL Cy Young and Triple Crown.
No one talks about it because the pitching triple crown has been done six times in the last 13 years.
I think that’s partly due to the fact that if you strikeout a lot of batters, you’ll probably be winning a lot of games and putting up a good ERA. They’re all complimentary stats.
Hitting a lot of home runs doesn’t always correlate to driving in a lot of runs or hitting for a high average.
That’s true, and that’s and why the hitting triple crown is more impressive (though I would argue that racking up RBIs is not a skill per se)
Still, before Clemens did it in 1997, the pitching triple crown had been done just once in the previous 25 years (Gooden, 1985) and hadn’t been done in the AL since 1945. If that were still the case, people would be talking about it more.
But .. the steroids?
I agree that the more common something becomes, the less intriguing it is. Doesn’t mean it’s not impressive, but people lose interest in stuff once it’s been done for awhile.
Space shuttle launches. Used to be huge news and now people are kind of like, “Another one? Ehh, I’ll watch if it explodes.”
I read something interesting the other night. Had New York won the 2012 Olympic bid, the Mets would have had to play in Yankee Stadium for the season. Citi Field would be where the events would take place.
Glad that didn’t happen, then.
The whole season!? That doesn’t sound right. Didn’t MLB just send the Braves on a 2-week+ road trip when the games were in Atlanta?
They built Turner Field specially for the Olympics and then turned it into the Braves home.
In 1996, the Braves played in the run down dump known as Fulton County Stadium.
h/t to the other Rebecca
http://stlouis.craigslist.org/laf/1930411367.html
Also, Rob Dibble’s supposedly called his last Nationals game. \o/!!!!
I’ll need to see confirmation of this!
As far as phony Craigslist postings for sports related stuff, this one’s not overly impressive.
. . . into the vortex?
(No, I am not linking that here)
Fun fact: In a down year, A-Rod is still in the top 5 of AL 3B (I don’t count Bitchtista because he’s started 95 games in RF).
I love how stealing bases when you’re down by 11 in the 4th goes against an unwritten rule in baseball, but waiting until a guy’s 3rd PA for a payback pitch when you’re up by 11 is ok.
To be fair, Nyjer Morgan seems like an asshat because of other stuff, not just this incident, but I’ve never heard that stealing bases when you’re down by a ton of runs is an “unwritten rule,” just when you’re up by a ton of runs.
My point is that if he is such an asshat and the Marlins wanted payback so bad from the previous night- that he leadoff the game and they did….nothing. He came up in the third with a guy on 2nd in a 5-1 game and they did….nothing. He came up in the 5th in a 4th in a 14-3 game, and then they got payback.
Both sides were in the wrong.
Well, I’m not sure it’s one of those “unwritten rules” (at least not one I’ve heard of) but it is pretty damn stupid to risk that when down by so many runs.
How does Manny Ramirez use an interpreter? That’s just ridiculous Manny Being Manny.
Considering how bad the majority of the baseball media burned him in the preceding 24-48 hours, I don’t blame him for making their jobs tougher.
Considering the MSM is often ridiculous, I have no problem with players screwing with them a little bit.
Agreed with both you and Matt. The media has been unfairly ripping Manny the last few days. I don’t blame him for not wanting to talk to him in his 2nd language and have them latch onto some mistake he might make. And also I love that he’s probably just screwing with them.
He’s been the states since at least HS. He’s completely fluent at this point.
It’s still his 2nd language though and he obviously feels more comfortable speaking spanish.
I was gonna say, I think you’re giving Manny a little too much credit. I think he’s just screwing with them. And that makes me love him all the more.
Going to my first game of the season Saturday. How strict are they now about backpacks with bottled water and sandwiches/snacks? Still have to check it across the street???
In 2 innings Aroldis Chapman has 6 swinging strikes. $84 million man John Lackey has 8 starts of less than 6 swinging strikes and 3 more at exactly 6.
While Chapman looked amazing- I didn’t see a slider remotely close to the strike zone. If he can’t throw that for strikes, then major league hitters will lay off it and just sit fastball.
Whipped this up: http://www.facebook.com/photo......id=9004187
Use it as you see fit.
illustration from this pic: http://cdn.nicekicks.wpengine......nson-5.jpg (safe)
Uh, oh, more red flags:
http://sports.espn.go.com/dall.....id=5521151
Is this gonna lower his asking price, should it continue?
Also, did anyone see a blog on ESPN about why BABIP is unreliable? I can’t seem to find it today.
sorry about the spambot hacking my twitter account, dunno how that happened. I changed my password. My account is currently suspended. I am appealing the suspension.
That sucks. Good luck on getting your account back. Stupid hackers just ruin everyone’s fun.
Hope everything gets sorted out soon.
This is the Mets lineup tonight, just because I goggled over it for about two minutes.
Castillo
Duda
Beltran
Carter
Wright
Davis
Arias
Blanco
Santana
I think Wright is like 1-for-50 in Turner Field this year, but STILL*. CHRIS CARTER BATTING CLEANUP. More at-bats for Lucas Duda, a completely broken Carlos Beltran, and Chris Carter than David Wright.
That’s why you’re the Mets, I guess.
* I just checked. 1-for-33 with a walk, .031/.061/.063/.123 WTF
When did the Mets trade for A’s uber-prospect Chris Carter?
Oh wait, they have the other Chris Carter batting cleanup???
That lineup is sooooooooo bad. They only have 2 starter-caliber players out there. (Didn’t count Beltran because of the knee)
I also find it funny Carter only has 126 ABs this year, 5 v LHP.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/.....s1000902_1
Jason Stark picks award winners.
His ballot looks like:
1. Felix Hernandez
2. Clay Buchholz
3. CC Sabathia
4. C.J. Wilson
5. David Price
He makes a case for Wilson over CC. I think Felix should win, but if CC ends up with 10 more wins than the King, it won’t happen.
My problem is with Buchholz and Wilson (perhaps) being placed ahead of CC.
Using ip/gs:
Felix 7.27
Buchholz 6.35
Wilson 6.34
Price 6.62
and for good measure,
Lee 7.67
CC 6.97
I understand you can use any stat to back up a reasonable opinion, but what guys like CC, Felix and Lee do is so remarkable. CC, on average, gets 2 more outs than Wilson and Buchholz. That may not sound like much, but when you’re talking about an elite pitcher getting 2 outs versus a middle reliever, it is a big deal.
Felix should win, Lee should get plenty of votes, but I think CC has been the 2nd or 3rd best pitcher behind Felix and maybe Lee. Besides, its not like CC has an ERA over 4 with just a bunch of wins.
As of Tuesday, Buchholz was 33rd in IP and K. Felix has 66 more IP than him, CC has 54 more. How can people say he’s having a better year when he has pitched 25% less than the two other top guys?
i still think that if cc ends up with 20+ wins and an era around 2.80 (which is more than possible)he will get the award.
also, can anyone look up the stats of the lines of the opposing hitters of each cy candidate? i mean, al east hitters –> higher era
I think if CC wins like 22-23, he wins no matter what his ERA is, unless he has a TOTAL Disaster Start or whatever toward the end. Doesn’t mean he should, necessarily (and I’m not trying to take away from CC’s year, it just feels like Clemens/Moose 2001 all over again. Clemens was great. Moose was better.), but he will.
Yeah, there’s no way he doesn’t get the award if he has 22-23 wins. Especially if the next best candidate has only 12-13.
Statistically, King Felix is having a very similar season to last year where he went 19-5. Now he’s 10-10. That alone should tell everyone wins are a fickle stat that shouldn’t be depended on.
One more note (although its obvious).
CC’s run support: 6.21
Felix’s run support: 3.16
The Yanks have scored fewer than 4 runs in CC starts 5 times.
The M’s have scored fewer than 4 runs in Felix starts 15 times.
Felix is 0-6 (and Seattle is 1-7) when Felix gives up more than 2 runs.
http://www.nydailynews.com/spo.....not_h.html
Maybe he’s not all bad after all.
Lance Berkman is on WFAN right now if anyone is interested.
Wow, Verducci, I thought you were better than this.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.c.....itter_feed
Read the part about Manny. I get the poor defense stuff, but no team is better off with friggin’ Podsednik than Manny. Not a power threat? He slugged .510 with the Dodgers. He has a 149 OPS+.
(Then again, Verducci is eating out of Torre’s hand, so this could kind of explain it.)
Does anyone know the last time an MVP was from a championship team? Seems to have been a while ago. It just seems odd that the best teams tend not to have the best player.
I think it was Kirk Gibson in 1988. If you look at the MVPs though, they’re generally from playoff teams. Better teams = better players (plus the voters are generally biased toward players on playoff teams).
You are correct.
Harold Reynolds, renowned
idiotanalyst, just said that the 2010 Yanks are not as good as the 2009 team. Jeter and A-Rod haven’t been playing like themselves, yes, but we’ve had the emergence of Cano and Swisher. Teixeira is playing like an MVP. Granderson is starting to put it together. Our starting pitching depth is much better. We’ve had a dynamite bullpen for three straight seasons. This team is every bit as good as last year’s team.Reynolds and Williams are not worth listening to when it comes to analysis, honestly
Wow, relax there. I personally think this team is better than last years but it is pretty close and I certainly wouldn’t call someone an idiot for saying the 2009 Yankees were better than this years team.
Jeter and A-Rod haven’t been playing like themselves, yes, but we’ve had the emergence of Cano and Swisher
Cano and Swisher were pretty damn good last year too. The decline of Arod and Jeter are more drastic than the improvements of Cano and Swish.
Teixeira is playing like an MVP
Same as last year, this is a wash.
Granderson is starting to put it together.
Definitely encouraging and I’m glad we have him both this year and going forward but it is hard not to admit that
2009 Damon + 2009 Matsui > 2010 Granderson + 2010 Johnson
in terms of the production received. Granderson and Berkman can be better than their 2009 counterparts over the next 2 months but that is still a big unknown.
Our starting pitching depth is much better.
Sure, because we have Javy. But starting pitching depth isn’t that important come playoff time. AJ’s year in the #2 slot and Pettite’s injury makes me less confident in the rotation going into this years playoffs than last year.
But starting pitching depth isn’t that important come playoff time
By “isn’t that important” I mean not as important as having a couple really strong guys at the top of the rotation.
Evan Longoria, 2008 ALCS: .259/.333/.815/1.148
Evan Longoria, 2008 WS: .050/.050/.050/.100
That’s just weird.
He’s just not that much of a winning player.
NO CLUTCH
/Arod’d
The “Eva” chants got in his head.
Out of sheer curiosity and boredom, I went back through the RAB fantasy league that I’m in and looked at the draft. Here’s the highest ranked player drafted in each round.
The first number is their season ranking according to Yahoo! fantasy sports, as of the last day of our regular season. The second number is the overall pick with which they were taken. The number after the parentheses is how much better their rank is than their draft position. Obviously, the higher that number the better. The highest in our draft this year was Aubrey Huff at 370. Steal.
So these are statistically speaking the best value picks of each round. There were some good ones that just missed being their round’s featured pick.
1st round: Miguel Cabrera (3/14) +11
2nd round: Joey Votto (4/33) +29
3rd round: Adam Wainwright (7/60) +53
4th round: Ubaldo Jimenez (14/74) +60
5th round: Josh Hamilton (1/81) +80
6th round: Jered Weaver (31/114) +83
7th round: Carlos Gonzalez (2/138) +136
8th round: Nick Swisher (33/141) +108
9th round: Alex Rios (15/179) +164
10th round: Tim Hudson (19/181) +162
11th round: Adam LaRoche (77/215) +138
12th round: Paul Konerko (12/234) +222
13th round: Vladimir Guerrero (26/247) +221
14th round: Clay Buchholz (38/264) +226
15th round: Chris Young (25/298) +273
16th round: Scott Rolen (98/301) +203
17th round: Delmon Young (50/332) +282
18th round: Luke Scott (99/347) +248
19th round: Mat Latos (11/368) +357
20th round: Angel Pagan (55/388) +333
21st round: Aubrey Huff (44/414) +370
22nd round: Kelly Johnson (88/432) +344
Honorable Mentions
21st round: Gaby Sanchez (110/420) +310
17th round: Casey McGehee (91/337) +246
17th round: Shawn Marcum (90/331) +241
18th round: Matt Capps (109/346) +237
18th round: Ricky Romero (151/357) +206
13th round: Juan Pierre (54/257) +203
12th round: Martin Prado (42/231) +189
10th round: Billy Wagner (30/193) +163
12th round: Francisco Liriano (75/257) +158
9th round: Rafael Soriano (46/166) +120
7th round: Adrian Beltre (21/132) +111
4th round: Josh Johnson (16/61) +45
Players in the Top 100 Not Drafted
8. Jose Bautista
39. Trevor Cahill
49. CJ Wilson
53. Andres Torres
76. Jaime Garcia
80. Brett Myers
96. R.A. Dickey
100. Dallas Braden
Some Notes
–> Of the Top 20 ranked fantasy players this year, only 6 went in the first round of our draft.
–> Of the 20 first round picks in our draft, 9 were not Top 50 players and 4 were not Top 100 players
–> The five lowest ranked draft picks from the first three rounds were Kendry Morales (3rd round, 782), Matt Wieters (3rd, 914), Brian Roberts (3rd, 1138), Grady Sizemore (2nd, 1210) and Jacoby Ellsbury (2nd, 1236)
–> Yahoo! really seems to value closers as there were nine closers ranked in the Top 100. Personally, I wouldn’t use a high draft pick on one.
–> Compiling this made me realize what my team COULD HAVE looked like. Ahh…what if’s.
The Padres lost their eighth in a row last night. I figured they would come back down to Earth eventually, but christ not a total collapse!
And yet they’re still up 3 games, 4 on the loss side, so they’re still in pretty decent shape.
Yeah, ‘cuz San Fran can’t win for shit. I swear, either the AL or NL west is the worst division in baseball (this year it’s def the AL.)
NL Central says hey too.
Nah, the Reds and Cards are both respectable organizations, but I see your point considering that the low quality and crowdedness of the division makes it look the Mumbai slum of baseball.
Agreed there, but it’s a 6-team division and only two are even .500 teams. That’s pathetic. The AL West looks awful this year but I think all the teams have decent management and what have you, even if Seattle’s made themselves look fucking awful this year, especially with this new revelation about that prospect they got who was accused of rape…
The Padres are extremely reliant on their pitching staff, which is full of young guys and overachieving relievers (that’s not an insult, but a matter of fact).
They’re slipping up a bit, and it’s killing them in a big way. I’m still holding out moderate hope for Colorado to reach the playoffs, and the NL West is the much “likelier” way now (though certainly still unlikely to happen). Of all the road venues they’ve sucked at this year, PETCO isn’t one of them (5-2 this year). Go figure. It’s only the most notorious pitcher’s park in the National League.
Oh, and they avoid Latos in this series, and have five more to go with San Diego.
Who wold love to see Nick Swisher host SNL in the off season? Click on this link that leads to a facebook fan page, and then click on “like”! http://www.facebook.com/pages/.....7038614552
so pat white got cut by the dolphins- do we still have rights to him?
No, they lost his rights on the day of the 2010 draft. White should be a free agent now because he’s out of college eligibility.
Did he have any real baseball skills? Or just extremely fast?
After that hit he took from Pittsburgh, I would be all for a change of sports.
The past four AL wildcards have all come from the east division, and it likely will this year, too.
Does anyone know the differences between how fWAR and bWAR are calculated for pitchers? I’m really confused as to why Cliff Lee has a 6.0 fWAR, making him the AL’s most valuable pitcher this year by FanGraphs’ standards, and only a 3.5 bWAR. That’s a significant gap in value, obviously.
fWAR uses FIP and bWAR uses RA. I’m a little wary of using a WAR stat that doesn’t take how many runs a pitcher gives up into its equation (in the end, that’s what matters. I don’t care how good Joba’s first half peripherals were, a 5.58 ERA is not exactly very far above replacement level), so I tend to use bWAR more for backward-looking evaluation. For forward-looking prediction, fWAR is probably better.
Cool. Thanks a lot, JGS.
So I saw No Country for Old Men the other night. Good movie, IMO.
…and then I woke up.
I love people who bitch about the ending. Had they ever seen a Coen Bros. movie before?
I saw that movie in a theater and when it ended someone yelled out WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT. It was pretty entertaining.
When I saw it in the theater, it was a weekday afternoon so the theater was largely empty. I heard a few people grumble, but nothing to that extent. I would have laughed out loud at that person and told them why if they had asked me why I laughed at them.
Didn’t have that opportunity though…
Does anyone know what the rotation is for Trenton in the playoffs, specifically Game 4?
Today’s lineup, according to LoHud:
“Brett Gardner LF
Derek Jeter SS
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Marcus Thames DH
Jorge Posada C
Curtis Granderson CF
Greg Golson RF
Ramiro Pena 2B
Just a few minutes ago Joe Girardi specifically said it would be either Nick Swisher or Thames in right. Now it’s Golson. You can’t predict lineups.”
Gotta love when the beat writers start using the you can’t predict line.
Swishaaaaaaaa, where are you??????
I guess him and Kearns are still banged up.
WHO WOULD LOVE TO SEE SWISHER HOST SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE? JUST CLICK ON THIS LINK: http://www.facebook.com/pages/.....7038614552 AFTER YOU CLICK THE LINK, CLICK “LIKE” TO HELP… MAKE IT HAPPEN! GO YANKEES!!!
I’m heading into my fantasy playoffs with some banged up pitching, and I need to pick 2 of the following starters to put on my playoff roster:
Tommy Hunter
JA Happ
Bronson Arroyo
Brian Matusz
RA Dickey
I’d go with Arroyo and…flip a three sided coin.
Funny story: My friends and I play baseball at this field that has 200 ft fences. We have a good time just taking swings like you would in BP. It’s my turn to come up and I get a meatball down the middle. I hit it. The funny part is that I drop to my back knee and it goes out. I am know forever known as Adrian Beltre lite.
Former Red Sox pitcher, Bill “Spaceman’’ Lee, 63, started and got the win in a Brockton Rox 7-3 home win over the Worcester Tornadoes yesterday at Campanelli Stadium. He threw 5 1/3 innings, giving up two runs on five hits and no walks in a 63-pitch effort with one strikeout. He also had two at-bats, grounding out both times. The Rox played to a sold-out crowd of more than 6,000 and the game was delayed 30 minutes to allow for the fans in line buying tickets to get into the park. “It felt good out there. Everything was where I wanted it to be,’’ said the 14-year big-leaguer, believed to be the oldest pitcher to earn a victory in a pro game. “I got pulled before I could use all of my pitches today,’’ Lee said
He’s a complete idiot, but that’s still pretty cool.
Breaking news: The New York Mets have given Bill Lee a three year, 21 million dollar contract to shore up their rotation.
I stole this in the game thread.
In case you’ve never seen it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldQwkO3Rxr4
I don’t even know most of the non-baseball stuff, and just… wow.
I got chills. Thank you for posting that.
I got chills too. And for all of the great plays, legendary players and moments, I think the the simple act of Bo Kimble shooting that left-handed free throw is what got me the most.
How the hell did we watch sports before HD?
Ladies and gentleman, Brett Gardner is a 5 WAR player. He is closing in on Cano (5.9) and how unbelievable would it be if he did actually (I know very unlikely) have the highest WAR on the team?
He’s #8 in the AL, ahead of Mauer. It’s amazing what he was done as most saw his ceiling as a 4th OF.
Macbook Pro 15″: 2.4GHz Intel Core i5 processor, 320GB 5400-rpm hard drive, 4GB memory, $1700 (after $100 student discount). A free 2nd generation (meh) 8 GB iPod Touch is included for student.
HP Pavilion dv6t Select Edition series 15″: “Intel Core i5-450M Dual Core processor (2.40GHz, 3MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.66 GHz,” 640GB 5400RPM Hard Drive, 6 GB memory, $723 (after $47 student discount).
I have to choose one by the time the game starts tonight. Which one do you guys recommend? Although I am a student and don’t have money, it’s not the biggest issue right now. Which one is better overall and why?
I’m just looking for some more opinions because I want to make sure I make the right choice (leaning towards the Mac right now – I’ve been a PC guy for life but am completely willing to change). Thanks in advance.
I’m not too much of a tech guy, but in my opinion I would definitely go with the HP. Even taking money out of the equation and trying to stack up the info the HP looks pretty good. The processors are similar and the HP has a lot of memory with the 6 gigs. Of course depending on what you do with it, the difference between 4 and 6 won’t matter. If you play games on it though, it makes a difference.
I don’t really see a reason to go with the Macbook all things being even, and then taking into account prices, its HP all the way. Of course, then you won’t be able to get the shiny new ipod (ooooohhhhhh, aaaaahhhhhhh).
I believe both those systems use the same exact processor, so that is a tie. For memory the HP select edition usually has 1333 MHz memory compared to Apple using 1066 MHz. Also the HP has more memory. So that is a clear HP win. HP also has twice the hard drive space which is another huge plus. You didn’t mention graphics cards but the Apple has a 330M as a default. Compared to onboard being standard for the HP. The default configuration is a huge win for Apple.
If you plan on playing any games you should upgrade the video card in the HP dv6t. If not, I think the HP is the winner not including price and including price. One warning, HP installs bloatware when you first get the laptop. You have to clean that stuff up and it will run much smoother. I recommend taking the $1000 you saved and buying Legend Seats at Yankee Stadium.
“Remember this, a great starting pitcher is more valuable than a closer because you get more innings out of him.”
-Joe Morgan
No, seriously. That was said by Hall of Famer Joe Morgan.
Keith Law probably wrote it for him.
“Help Your Friends At Fire Joe Morgan Make Fun Of Bad Sportswriting”
Remember: Fire Joe Morgan returns to Deadspin on Sept. 22. If you come across any atrocious sportswriting in your daily reading—never doubt that someone, somewhere, is saying too nice things about David Eckstein—send a link to fjmtips@gmail.com.
http://deadspin.com/5632002/he.....rtswriting
I’m sure some of you can think of something to share…
http://www.tampabay.com/sports.....on/1119958
I guess there are crazy Rays fans too.
I didn’t know there were any Rays fans, crazy or sane.
ditto /cheap shot
Freaky coincidence: There’s a kid in my Spanish class named Javy Vazquez.
Does he crumble in class in any high pressure situations?
I don’t know yet. We only started today.
Punch him for 2004.
Mike (Ohio)
Do you think Chapman has enough control/command to be a big success as a starter? The speed is great, but once the book on him gets around I think a lot of hitters will start to lay off the slider.
Joe Morgan (11:13 AM)
Yes. He hasn’t walked a hitter in the innings he has pitched. I just think he’s going to be a great pitcher. I saw him in spring training as a starter. He’s coming from a different culture. He doesn’t speak the language. It takes a while for him to adjust. I’ve had opportunities to speak with him, I speak a little Spanish, he has a great demeanor. He’s very calm on the mound. I think he’s going to be a great pitcher.
3.1 IP shows Chapman has control, if you ignore the 4.9 BB/9 in 95.2 IP in AAA
“He doesn’t speak the language. ”
Does Chapman only speak Latin or something? Spanish is just as much the “language” of baseball as English.
Ray,
Sorry for the late response regarding your question in the game thread. Hope you see it over here
There are many intricate ways to evaluate W/L depending on the individual pitcher, season, etc. There are skills involved in winning or losing baseball games as a pitcher that are not solely reliant on random luck or chance. In general these type of things will even out, but at the margins is where these skills are demonstrated. The extra wins or the extra losses that separate some players from the pack. This is meaningful to particularly a team like the Yankees who live at the margins and who those extra wins every single season are extremely important to, because they are always in playoff contention. In these case it is a matter of being intellectually honest and not using outliers like Felix Hernandez to prove a point. But, to be able to watch a pitcher throughout a season or a career and have the ability to recognize the players that do or do not have that skill to overcome the other variables keep his team in the game long enough for them to get ahead and pitch deep enough into the game to limit the huge variance you get from relievers. There are tons of players and other intricacies of some value you can discern from pitcher wins that it would take far too long to delve into these type of examples.
So, I will keep it more general. IMO on a general level the major thing you can discern from pitcher wins is consistency. Measuring consistency is something that is sorely lacking in baseball statistics. The samples presented for performances can often be very misleading, because a lack of consistency. You can often just end up in the middle where the player never really performed to this level but on each end of the scale. I spoke in the game thread about Burnett as he is the most drastic example of this I know. His career ERA is extremely misleading because it is just in a way a median of his Good or Bad AJ persona. You are not getting the player with his career ERA. You are getting the player on one extreme or the other every single night and eventually it just averages out. Obviously AJ fits this mold perfectly, but there are many pitchers in baseball who really lack consistency year to year and during individual seasons. Their ERA, FIP, etc statistics can become misleading at times, because of this.
Rate statistics, which many sabermetric people rely on now, can be very misleading as well due to injuries. They can paint a much better picture of a player than who he really is because of his playing time being limited due to injuries. Nick Johnson is an example of this.
So, wins basically wraps it all together. You are not going to have a lot of wins unless you are consistently pitching well. If you are not consistent you put a lot of pressure on your team to win those games when you actually pitch well. You are not going to have a lot of wins unless you are pitching deep into games. Bullpen arms are very inconsistent and tend to blow a lot of games. You are not going to have a lot of wins unless you can stay healthy. This is simple, but something that rate statistics miss.
It has its flaws and they absolutely have to be recognized when you are conducting an analysis. However, when teams are making multi-million dollar decisions on these players, you are not supposed to ignore information you have available. The amount of data you have is crucial to conducting a statistical analysis. There are players wins enter into the analysis and help. Plus, even though wins won’t help you evaluate some players it does help with the analysis. Having potentially contradicting information and then using the other data you have to prove this information wrong only enhances and is often crucial to arriving at strong and reliable conclusions.
You sound like Joe Morgan here. If Cashman’s really using W/L to determine the value of a player, well I am going to smack him across the head a few times.
But, to be able to watch a pitcher throughout a season or a career and have the ability to recognize the players that do or do not have that skill to overcome the other variables keep his team in the game long enough for them to get ahead and pitch deep enough into the game to limit the huge variance you get from relievers.
Sure. I think pitching lots of innings is really important for a good SP. You could also just look at IP, though. That tells you something much better than W/L.
Yeah, some advanced stats are rate stats, but some are at least partially counting stats like WAR, so if you miss time because of injuries, it’ll show that. I’m not 100000% sold on WAR, especially for pitchers, but it’s a billion times better than W/L.
Also, we can’t use the Felix Hernandez 2010 outlier example (not that much of an outlier, as there are examples of pitchers who are waaaaayyyy better than their W/L record every freakin’ year pretty much), but you can use the AJ Burnett outlier example? Got it.
Rate statistics, which many sabermetric people rely on now, can be very misleading as well due to injuries. They can paint a much better picture of a player than who he really is because of his playing time being limited due to injuries. Nick Johnson is an example of this.
WAR takes playing time into account though, and that’s kind of a big sabermetric stat.
While Felix may be an outlier in that the best pitcher in the league rarely has so few wins, but there are tons of pitchers every year who have great rate stats and stay healthy that have win totals that do not match up with how they pitch.
Remember this, the Worst Bleacher Report Article Ever, which really says something?
http://bleacherreport.com/arti.....nd-wang-go
Well. HE’S BAAAAACK.
http://bleacherreport.com/arti.....mon-etc-go
he also writes terrible articles about the Red Sox. Don’t make me want to defend Theo Epstein, dumb person.
http://bleacherreport.com/arti.....e-playoffs
(for clarification’s sake, I was “talking” to the writer of the article when I said “dumb person” here. I don’t like Epstein but I don’t think he’s dumb.)
There are no redeemable qualities about the bleacher report. None. None at all.
I couldn’t even finish the new article.
Would you trade AJ for Zambrano?
No–people who have been placed on the restricted list scare me
They both scare me. I don’t know if I would. It’s two bad contracts but Zambrano’s ends a year earlier. That might push me over the edge, even though I have no idea if Zambrano could have any measure of success in the AL at this point.
Probably not.
The devil you know…
Yeah, and AJ is generally loved by his teammates, Zambrano hated. While a lot of that is predicated on winning and losing, it’s not worth the risk, even if we could get out of one year of a horrible contract.
VMart wants more than 2 years? Let the smear begin
http://www.weei.com/sports/bos.....um=twitter
From KLaw:
The drama came as he was coming in and warming up; he replaced J. Brent Cox, who slammed the ball on the ground when Trenton manager Tony Franklin came to take it from him, then proceeded to throw a tantrum in the dugout and confront Franklin again. That should earn Cox his walking papers, as his stuff isn’t what it was before Tommy John surgery (he had an above-average slider but threw it all the time with bad arm action) and no team should tolerate that behavior from any player, much less a non-prospect like Cox.
Uh oh.
Just read the scouting report. Keith does not seem as impressed as Frankie Piliere was. Theyhad very different opinions on his fastball even. I wonder who’s right.
If Betances is overrated, what does it say about Drabek, the guy he out dueled?
You can’t really look at statistics for any one night and say that one guy is better than the other.
this is a really, really good article about the whole Walter Reed thing with the Mets. I mean, it’s certainly possible they were just being jerks, but there are a lot of issues.
http://www.nydailynews.com/blo.....ure-d.html
Thanks for passing that along; I enjoyed it.
“benny (jersey)
With all the big names on the roster, has last years fourth outfielder to start the season, Swisher, been the most unreplacable this year?
Wallace Matthews (12:13 PM)
Hey, Benny. Swisher has had the kind of year not even the Yankees could have expected from him this year. he’s even toned down his sometimes obnoxious clubhouse schtick. For a guy who was expected to play behind X Nady, he has paid huge dividends for them. And as I’m sure you know has become a huge fan favorite. He made Randy Winn expendable within three weeks of opening day. Can’t imagine the Yankees doing as well this year with, say, Gardner in right and Thames in LF, or Austin Kearns. And obv, his stock has never been higher than it is today after yesterday;s walk-off.”
Nick Swisher made Randy Winn expendable? How does that make any sense?
I asked him a follow up but he didn’t answer unfortunately.
I think he got his years blended together- thinking Nady, Swisher and Winn played together, and Swisher’s performance alllowed them to cut Winn or something.
That’s the only plausible thing I can come up with- which is still dumb for a writer covering the team to mix up.
Fantasy Help who should I start Breaston or Mason?
Oooooh, that’s tough. I’d go Breaston, Revis Island is no joke.
The only thing is, it might be Boldin on Revis Island, not Mason.
And Housh probably isn’t totally up to speed, so Mason is likely the #2 target early in the season.
Should the magic number go down to 13 today: http://static.blogcritics.org/.....d-runs.jpg
A-Rod tied it in Game 2 of the ALCS against Fuentes.
There’s no one that picture is from ARod’s ALCS-tying home run. Look at the crowd, hell, look at ARod. No one was that lightly dressed in October, especially in the pouring rain (which was missing there).
That has to be ARod’s 15th inning walkoff.
It may be. I just assumed it was.
Doesn’t it look like he’s looking out at RF though?
Arod looks the same, he is the reverse shot of that HR.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_42w5.....in+9th.jpg
No shin guard, in the other.
Steve (mystiqueandaura.com)
Wally, CC has pitched almost identical to last year but should end up with more wins. Do you think he?s done a better job of getting his teammates to rally around him, leading to more wins?
Wallace Matthews
(12:30 PM)
Hey Steve: Better run support, going deeper into games, keeping score close enough for team to come back and win on days he doesn;t have his best stuff. He’s a workhorse who saves the bullpen and keeps some of the sketchier guys out there off the field
Almost got him to bite again on tRA.
I know it’s not his fault, but Greg Amsinger’s (sic?) voice grates my ears like no one else can.
What the current playoff picture looks like:
Texas at New York
Tampa Bay at Minnesota
Cincinnati at Atlanta
Philadelphia at San Diego
The Rangers will fall to us. They’re coming into the big dog’s house.
Hah. Philly could kill San Diego, especially if the Pads had the home field edge.
I’m starting to wonder about Minnesota. They’re a good team, yes, but this ridiculously good? They don’t lose games anymore.
The Twinkies are unstoppable at Target Field. I actually think they’ll sweep Tampa and we’ll take them on in the ALCS. We have Minnesota’s number, so we’ll go into Philly/San Diego/Atlanta/Cincy and kick ass.
As I said the other day, I view Tampa as the highest vairance team in the AL playoffs. They can get crazy hot, but they also have had bad stretches this year (12-20 from late May through June). I think the likeliest outcomes for them are either ALDS flameout, or World Series championship. Neither would surprise me.
That said, I think they would beat Minnesota, but I can say right now Liriano/Price would be fun.
I actually think of Texas more of this team. They’ve had times this year where they go on crazy runs and just dominate in all facets of the game, and times when no one’s hitting and they pitch terribly. Wouldn’t surprise me if they all clicked and won the WS. Wouldn’t surprise me if they got swept out of the ALDS.
I actually think of Texas AS more of this team*
If Phil Hughes and Jim Thome had a son, he would look like JB Cox.
http://johnalbone.wordpress.co.....-incident/
Jesus cristo. You aint kidding
I am actually overwhelmed by the number of Andy-Pettitte-in-high-socks pictures floating around these here internets right now *_____*
“Three Gms insist D’Backs- Kevin Towers deal is set, but “process” has to be completed before it’s offiicial. Great man.”
http://twitter.com/pgammo/status/24091378758
Well maybe they should have waited before they traded their best pitcher? You know, actually get the type of guys that the new GM likes.
But Joe Saunders has a great winning percentage!!
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn.....id=5543839
Great story about one of baseball’s more famous tragedies.
If Melkman is non-tendered, you think Cashman throws a contract his way as a 4th/5th OF?
5% chance.
Melky sucking this year is part of Cashman’s evil genius plan to get him back. The Braves will non-tender him, the Yankees will immediately snap him up, and next year he will be a star. A STAR.
I just miss the days of articles showing how he sucks and others violently defending him, not to mention the Cano+Melk buddy controversy.
@OldHossRadbourn:
“Very rare copy of J. J. Audubon’s “Birds of America” up for auction. I’d like to buy it and burn it. No politics. I just hate birds.”
(http://twitter.com/OldHossRadb.....4132229327)
Everyone on Twitter knows that Mark Feinsand (@BloggingBombers) hates birds. Does anyone think that he could be the genius behind Old Hoss? After all, it was a beat writer who was behind @IAmCentaur.
For what it’s worth, most of Feinsand’s statuses are posted via web, while most of Old Hoss’ are posted via Echofon. They’ve both used UberTwitter several times.
Based on Feinsand’s other tweets, no, I don’t think he’s Old Hoss at all. I really do wonder who it is, though.
I once picked up a book called “The Book of Dead Birds”.
Not because I knew what it would be about or even to read it. I just liked the title that much.
Old Hoss is hilarious and Feinsand is decidedly not so I’m prone to think that Hoss is someone else.
http://twitter.com/AdamRubinESPN
Wow, Johan’s season ends with another arm surgery with his status for spring training up in the air.
That’s shame. It’s adding injury to insult for the mets.
It sucks that Johan’s career is ending under the knife. Most pitchers don’t come back from shoulder surgeries.
Well its a labrum or 12+ month rehab thing
it’s not**
Although Santana says it’s similar to what Jorge had. I’m not sure if that’s good news or bad news though?
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/ne.....tsn-167200
DEREK JETER HAS A HOUSE IN MY AREA
you all jealous…
I’m not. I don’t want him banging the greater area of North Carolina.
“Well obviously, they aren’t going to the World Series.”
- MLBN on the Red Sox. Holy shit. They said that. Then they didn’t go on about “oh but it’s so tragic, the five aces” either. Whoah.
I started fantasy baseball this year and thought I’d give fantasy football a go too. Granted, I know much more about baseball than I do football, but any thoughts/suggestions on the team? 10tm league in which I had the 4th overall pick.
QB: Aaron Rodgers (2/17)
WR: Roddy White (3/24)
WR: Jeremy Maclin (6/67)
WR: Donald Driver (8/87)
RB: Ray Rice (1/4)
RB: Arian Foster (4/47)
TE: Vernon Davis (5/54)
K: Sebastian Janikowski (13/134)
DEF: San Francisco (7/74)
Bench: Reggie Bush, RB (9/94)
Bench: Santonio Holmes, WR (12/127)
Bench: Vincent Jackson, WR (15/154)
Bench: Austin Collie, WR (10/107)
Bench: Alex Smith, QB (11/114)
DEF: Atlanta (14/147)
I figured I’d take fliers late on guys serving suspensions and got Holmes and Jackson pretty late. Almost didn’t draft a 2nd QB, but checked matchups during Rodgers’ bye week and saw SF was playing the Rams. I figure he’s got a good chance to put up some numbers against STL.
I think we broke the game thread.
Yeah I was going to request a new one here. Its just white
This game has officially gone on far too long
Tied in the NL West… (with the Rockies somewhere between 3.5 and 2.5 back, not sure)
Rockies are down 2.5. I’m pretty sure they’ll streak to either a division title or Wild Card berth.
Get ready for some call-ups, Scranton’s getting their ass whooped.
Noesi got destroyed. Lots of hard hit line drives.
Who’ll be up? Romulo and Noesi?
So the playing field might be level tomorrow as far as the bullpens go?
Because a manager using 9 relievers isn’t something common or anything…
Through some random perusing, I found a chat Joe did on this day last year, and one of the first questions he got was this:
“[Comment From JonJon: ]
Right now they’re 91-50, what record will they finish with?
Joe: “103-59″
BOOM. Joe should try his hand again at this stuff.
Please AJ just keep us in the game today. I’m not asking for a shut out, but don’t put us down 7 in the first inning. I can live with 4 runs over 5 or 6 innings.
Is it just me or does it seem like R.A. Dickey pitches every fucking game for the Mets?
And wow, that’s Mike Pelfry. I suck at life.
And Reyes goes upper deck. Wow.
The Facebook movie and that damn Legends of the Guardians need to come out because I cannot stomach another ad for either.
Any news on #badattitude and his festered leg?
Amputated.
did they give him Patrick Duffy as a leg?
I laughed hard.
Stud catching prospect Jesus Montero won’t play in the remainder of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s International League first-round series due to a procedure done on his ankle Wednesday night.
“He had a bone bruise that got infected and they had to scrape it,” Cashman said. “It wasn’t a surgery.”
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/sports.....z0zFxjoU7u
“Like Jeter and Joe Girardi, Cashman believes Jeter is about to bust out of the slide that has his average at a season low .262 and hitless in the last dozen at-bats with runners in scoring position.”
I think he means Cashman *hopes* he’s about to bust out of it, so he’s actually paying a productive player 20m/per
Cashman is the same man who paid a total of 46 million to gain the minor league services of Kei Igawa. Do you really think he’ll blink at the prospect of over-paying Jeter? Hello?
And he’s the same man that let Abreu, Matsui, and Damon walk in the last few year instead of overpaying?
They got bad reports on Igawa obviously- but atleast you can hide Igawa at AAA, you can’t hide from Jeter when he’s batting leadoff with a sub .700 OPS
Fine, let’s just play Ramiro Pena or Eduardo Nunez at short for the next couple of years. Rotsa ruck.
There’s difference between wanting Pena/Nunez to be our SS and wanting Jeter to NOT bat 1/2 with a sub-.700 OPS.
One of those was my arguement, the other is not. You’re taking my point and turning it into the extreme position to argue against it, that’s a move that politicians do.
I love how the Mets are advertising the 2010 postseason.
Are they really? God. Who’s going to be advertising it next? The Sox*?
*both.
Giants/Jets both go 10-6, win one playoff game.
Packers over colts in a shootout Super Bowl.
MLBN’s countdown of the 50 most bizarre moments in baseball history was pretty great. If anyone else sees it on, it’s definitely worth watching.
It’s still not Steve Bartman’s fault that Gonzalez made an error on a routine play.
Yea, I mentioned this in the game thread on Saturday, during the time when the Yankees were trailing.
Not the best time to post that.
Hey all.
You should read this and vote on it. :>
http://youcantpredictbaseball......pb-awards/
Is there a NY Giant website close to the quality of RAB? Thanks
But Treanor switched things Saturday, and his new choice of the theme song from The A-Team plays to every kid who grew up in the 1980s watching plans come together, big explosions and a cool black van.
I’m now a fan of Matt Treanor (still my 2nd favorite athlete in the family though)
I’ve seen this more than a few places and it’s absurd, but people are comparing Ichiro’s rookie year to Austin Jackson. I actually found a much better comp (in the past 10 years) who happened to have a much better year than A-Jax offensively
A-Jax .305/.361/.415 109 OPS+, 3 HR’s, 22 steals, .418 BABIP, 52/152 BB/K, .347 wOBA, 2.4 bWAR
S-Pod .314/.379/.443 116 OPS+, 9 HR’s, 43 steals, .361 BABIP, 56/91 BB/K, .369 wOBA, 4.3 bWAR
Obviously Podsednik was older, so I’m not saying that A-Jax will have Podsednik’s career, but it will be closer to Podsednik than it will be Ichiro’s.
Nice comparison.
by fWAR:
Ajax: 3.5
Pods: 3.5
Granted, Ajax still has a month to go, but that likely won’t change too much. Ichiro was older too. Who the hell is comparing Ajax to Ichiro??
I can’t remember where I saw it the first time, but they are basically saying good fielders with >.300 average and similar raw numbers (even though they’re really not). A guy in Rob Neyer’s chat today brought it up. He probably saw it whereever I saw it, but instead of realizing the absurdity of it, he bought it. Rob didn’t.
AJax sure loves to strike out.
Whoa–big correction here. b-ref recently redid their layout of the player value bar, and the 4.3 you were looking at was only his offensive contribution. He also had two more of defense, giving him a total of 6.3 bWAR in 2003.
That was, by a lot, the best season Podsednik ever put up.
Thanks. I didn’t know about the new layout, that’s a big difference.
I’m in an AP Class, and we do a lot of activities online. My picture for the blog is this: http://janeheller.mlblogs.com/arod-cigar.jpg
Will Montero play fall/winter ball anywhere?
Kinsler got a one game suspension for coming back onto the field to celebrate Cruz’s HR on Friday.
You got tossed, dude. You keep your ass in the clubhouse!
Holy shit does Golson have a hose.
Lots of love for Montero in Olney’s column yesterday.
http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb.....id=5570764
Here’s the link.
Steve is right, lots of love for Montero.
Who’s the pitching the Orioles series? I know Andy’s starting Sunday but I’ve lost the track of the rotation at this point.
Kevin Goldstein on the Yankees system:
http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb.....id=5572351
Good stuff if you’re an ESPN insider.
http://twitter.com/LoHudYankees/status/24599398438
There ya go, tsjc.
From Jim Callis’ 2:00 chat on Baseballamerica.com :
Eli (NY): Does Montero rank in top 10 prospects for 2011?
Jim Callis: Yes, easily. Jesus Montero is still one of the top five prospects in baseball, and I’d take him over Bryce Harper.
And Frankie Piliere said in his chat today that he thinks jesus will be passable as an everyday catcher.
As much as i wish that were true, based on what everyone else is saying it doesn’t sound like he’ll ever really catch. sounds like he’s a catcher in the way delgado and konerko were and probably won’t be great even at first base, just like those guys weren’t. He’s just way too big and bulky and likely to get even BIGGER.
He also resembles konerko in another way: that is when he’s running it looks like the base paths are wet cement.
That doesn’t mean he won’t mash. On the contrary, I LOVE his bat. so much so that if i had to pick the one current minor league hitter to have the most successful big league career and my bottom dollar depended on it, i’d take Montero.
Hitting ability and skills have NOTHING to do with being nimble, agile, fast or athletic – as proven by Prince fielder, ryan howard, david ortiz, manny ramirez, albert belle, frank thomas, mo vaughn, konerko, delgado, and many others.
it’s very rare you get a great athlete with great hitting skills as well. when you do, you end up with Arod, Griffey Jr, josh hamilton, Hanley, Mauer, Mantle, Mays, Dimagio etc
A few days old, but Rebecca and I had a good back-and-forth a few days ago about the whole Jets/female reporter/Clinton Portis thing.
I’m not a pro athlete, but I have played some ball in high school and college. Reporter or not, I’d rather not have women in a men’s locker room. It’s not some chauvinistic “women can’t be reporters” ideal, it’s simply the privacy of the matter.
Men aren’t allowed in women’s locker room’s in the WNBA or the NFL (cheerleaders) and allowing women into men’s locker rooms is a doubles standard.
Say what you want about the way men and women differ in regards to thought processes, but if I’m a pro athlete doing my job, I’d rather not have strange women poking around for an interview while I’m showering, changing, preparing or whatever.
http://voices.washingtonpost.c.....fl_lo.html
Men in WNBA locker room:
“Uh, male reporters are allowed in WNBA locker rooms.
To repeat, MALE REPORTERS ARE ALLOWED IN WNBA LOCKER ROOMS.”
Privacy:
“After the game, there is a 10-minute cooling off period, during which the locker room is closed to the media. This period often lasts longer. By the time we enter the room, some players — often including Chris Cooley, for example — are already showered and changed. There is also a private training room for players who’d like more privacy, plus the shower area. “
http://thedailywh.at/post/1123.....ell-out-of
Head explodes.
My hands were sweating while watching that video.
Mike, would u trade montero for wieters? would the O’s?
I wouldn’t at this point. I don’t think either team would do that trade, they love their own players more than anyone else.
Hear u. trying to figure out how to turn Jesus into a player that plays a position other than 1B or DH. Considering the kind of guys that are gonna be available for that spot (dunn, konerko, c Pena, Berkman and maybe even prince and A gonzo)do you think it would be wise for the yanks to do so?
My heart rate just jumped.
Where is Tampa going to pick up the extra game in their schedule so the .5 is gone? Am I reading the schedules wrong? I don’t see where we have an off day and they play someone…
Thursday the 30th.
“The Yankees declined Arizona’s request to interview their scouting director, Damon Oppenheimer, whose three-year contract runs through 2011. It’s Yankee policy not to give permission for executives with multi-year contracts.”
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.c.....z0zdgKYanA
I guess that answers the questions from a few weeks ago. No issue with the policy, Oppenheimer and others knew the terms of the contract when they signed.
“So the SABR rattlers have pronounced Derek Jeter old and creaky. The captain’s average is average and his OBP is WTF. The New York Yankees hit king was once the belle of the ball, but now he’s dragging along like a tin can behind a “Just Married” car. The $50 million over three years he’s sure to get from the Yankees this winter is more like a Wall Street golden parachute than a worth-every-penny contract, at least if you listen to the stat wonks.
….
So next year, maybe Jeter will bat lower in the lineup, or hit .250, or play the outfield. But when October comes, every teammate will know Jeter has seen it all before. And October seems to always come for the Yankees, even with Jeter in a slump. The Yankees can afford pay younger players for the regular season. They will pay Jeter for October. They will pay him for the moment, and for the moments.”
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/ne.....eter091410
What at terrible article
How the hell did the Twins get this much into the race for the best record in the American League?
With the division they play in, they probably have the best chance to earn that mark. The Yankees still play 10 vs. TB/BOS. Rays still four against NYY. Twins? They don’t play Texas, Boston, Tampa, or NY anymore, so how hard can their schedule possibly be from this point forth?
They have no games left with teams over .500 as of right now. Three with Toronto (73-73) and three with Oakland (72-73) are close, but yeah…nothing challenging left.
22 comments in the post about bad timing and not coming through with runners in scoring position and not a single Damon or Matsui mention.
I am pleasantly stunned.
Nah, that shit just showed up in the next post instead.
Look at the timestamps. At the exact moment I was posting this we got the Matsui/Damon nonsense in the other thread.
Silver Lining: Phil Hughes will be an ace in 2-3 years. Guaranteed. Take away just half of those homers, and his numbers start to look Sabathian.
Side note: Sabathian, adj. definition: of or pertaining to the ability to beast unstoppably.
There are no guarantees in baseball.
I’m jus’ sayin’.
Sure hope so, but Sabathia’s HR rate is supported by a high GB%, while Hughes has one of the lowest GB%s in the majors.
So Neyer linked to this article:
http://www.slate.com/id/2267670/
So much for that “trend.”
Can anyone spot PeteAbe in this photo?
http://straightcashhomey.net/page/6
Meh, link fail on my part. For those interested in my bad joke, check out the 6/28 posting on that site.
Derek gets it:
As for the notion that he somehow cheated by taking first base after it was awarded to him by home plate umpire Lance Barksdale, Jeter wasn’t having it.
“The umpire called it from the get-go,” Jeter said. “It seems like people think I turned around and told him that the ball hit me and please let me go to first base. What am I supposed to do? Say, ‘I’m sorry sir but it didn’t hit me, please let me continue to hit.’ You know what I mean?”
The man has a point, and the umpiring crew has remained curiously free of scrutiny in this controversy. As Jeter went on to point out, in a roundabout way, it’s completely up to them — not the player — to make sure everything is carried out on an aboveboard basis.
“So the next time somebody steals a base and the guy doesn’t tag you and the umpire calls you out do you want the fielder to say, ‘No, sir I didn’t tag him so let’s just keep him here.’ Come on, man. I mean, seriously,” Jeter said. “Or you’re playing football and they call holding and the guy doesn’t hold him you want him to go to the ref and say, ‘I didn’t hold him, sir, please put the flag back in your pocket.’ Come on, man.”
Seriously. I mean, no one wrote articles about how Jason Donald was a terrible person for not telling Jim Joyce “Yeah, I was out” in the Galarraga game earlier this year. There were other issues, of course, with that game, which was probably part of it, but yeah.
Can’t trust guys with the name “Barksdale.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Barksdale
Jahvid Best (vs. PHI), Arian Foster (@ WAS) and Steven Jackson (@ OAK) for 2 RB spots this weekend.
Who should I sit?
I’d sit Best.
Sure hope he didn’t…
Lol. oops.
Should have figured that with Stafford out Hill would take a lot of dumps, I mean dumpoffs to the RB’s.
http://community.nytimes.com/c.....6#comment6
Batshit insane.
(In case it doesn’t link properly, it’s comment #6, Dan Frederick’s first comment, not the article itself. Enjoy the other comments, including someone saying WAR is “fiction.”)
Why do you insist on trying to make my head explode?
As for the WAR comments, I think I can see his point. First of all, as we here all know, WAR is never going to be given much credence until we agree on how to calculate it. That’s what needs to be done first. Also, I think that guy was saying that contract decisions aren’t based upon WAR. Isn’t that true? Or shouldn’t it be true? WAR isn’t predictive, is it? Am I still behind the curve on this? Am I asking too many questions? Is this too many question marks???????
“1. We begin with Joe Mauer, period. Give up the farm! Surely give up Joba, Pena, Curtis, maybe even Nova.”
Wow… Yea! It would be nice if giving up the farm did not include any of the team’s top prospects.
Fun article on Yahoo. http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/ne.....aphs091710
Some knocks on Jeter and Teix, but love for Gardner and (gasp!) evidence that the Yankees can hit changeups.
Chris Carter (the good one) is 0-29 to start his career. Yikes.
Can you imagine if The Jesus came up and went 0-29 to start his career? The MSM would be having a field day.
The field day will start if he debuts and goes 0-4; throw in a PB and SB to break Twitter.
Willie Mays went 0-12 to start (before massacerring a Warren Spahn fastball over the fence and going on to win rookie of the year).
And also going on to become the second greatest player ever.
well… Hank Aaron makes a pretty good run for that title…
as do Honus Wagner and Ty Cobb. In fact, one could say that Honus Wagner was the greatest player ever.
Octavio Dotel just got traded to the Rockies … and they’re currently playing the Dodgers … I always find it funny when that happens
Troy Tulowitzki has hit two home runs today.
In other news, Mexico City is highly polluted.
Halo: Reach
Not as good as advertised.
There I said it.
I’m a PS3 guy, but my brother said it’s the best Halo game ever, FWIW.
The definitely improved a lot, but I find myself getting way too frustrated with the game. But some of the things they should have left alone. Some of the game modes they added are just too conducive to people just sitting around, hiding, and firing across the map.
So the NYT is saying Johan won’t return till 2012—if he returns at all
That’s not exactly what it says: “the Mets cannot expect him to return to his normal pitching capabilities until late next season at best, and more likely not until 2012″
So he may not be back until the ASG, and it might take 70-80 IP to get back to the pitcher he was. The article also says some pitchers can come back even stronger.
And that is all from one shoulder expert.
Wrong side of 30 + major shoulder surgery = loooong road ahead.
But I’ve heard from a few sources the injury is similar to the one Wang had, and we’re still waiting…
I read that Johan compared it to Posada’s surgery. Either way, it’s shoulder surgery. So I wouldn’t be shocked if he was pitching in May or held back until September.
Plus they had to do more than arthroscopic so that means scar tissue will form too.
No worries. Mike Pelfrey is ready to become an ace. At least that’s what the Mets broadcast team keeps telling me. Speaking of which, Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez spent an entire inning debating the Mets’ decision to play Daniel Murphy at second base. Both of them agreed it would be difficult for Murphy to learn a new position, especially one which required more quickness and agility than he’s ever displayed. Funny thing is, that’s where Murphy was playing before they decided to try him first in LF and then at first base. Imagine that, the Mets announcers not be knowledeable about their own players. I’m waiting for Raissman’s column on that. Not!
Has a losing team ever made the playoffs?
No, but it almost happened in 2005. On September 26th, the Padres were 77-79 and had a three game lead in the division. They won five of their last six to finish 82-80, winning the division by five games.
Any thoughts on the use of maple bats and the danger they pose to the players, umpires and even fans? I am bringing this up due to Tyler Colvin’s chest being puntured after Welington Castillo’s maple bat shattered and struck Colvin as he was running home from third in yesterday’s Cub’s game against the Marlins. This incident is not the first one caused by a maple bat shattering. In 2005 plate umpire Brian O’Nora was hit on the head when Miguel Olivo’s maple bat shattered. O’Nora had to leave the game. Any thoughts?
Obviously something needs to be done, in 2010 they have the technology. I know there’s a theory about the handle of the bat being too small (Damon), and Yahoo has a story up now above a guy working on a sleeve or something to limit bats turning into flying objects.
theyankeewarrior’s plan for the Yankee SS situation:
2011: Jeter
2012: Jeter
2013: Jeter/1 yr. stop-gap/AAAA player like Nunez/Pena/Corona
2014: Culver’s debut/tryout (assuming he is developing as planned)
2015: Decide if the position is Culver’s or Tulo’s/Hanley’s (both hit FA)
like?
I’d just trade Melky and IPK for Tulo now.
Who’s a better QB2 option this week – Jimmy Clausen vs Cincy, Freeman vs PIT or Sanchez @ MIA?
I’ve got Aaron Rodgers in my QB1 slot and picked Vick up for last week, but with Kolb starting I want to go in a different direction. I have Roethlisberger stashed, so my pickups are based solely on week-to-week matchups.
Sanchez
Clausen
Freeman
All tough matchups but you have to ride Sanchez after this weekend.
so can i get some info from people and feedback? I can’t go to mlbtraderumors.com anymore because it turned into a badware site or something. I clicked to go on it and firefox automatically warned me and won’t let me go to it. It’s the only site that’s doing that and i don’t have a virus. is anyone else having this problem?
I have had the same problem. I went on this morning, but when I tried an hour or so later, I had the same you mentioned happen with firefox. However, I decided to override it, since I knew it wasnt bad. A bit later, I got stuck with this Security Tool (Rogue trojan) and just spent the last hour getting rid of it (I dont know for sure, but I’m guessing these two incidents were related.) I have no idea whats going on with MLBTR…
right i just tried to override it and it won’t even let me do it. i think their website just got ruined….
Yea, when i did it, the menus were all distorted and what not. I seriously dont know what I’m gonna do w/o MLBTR for a while…
They tweeted earlier that there is an issue right now with Firefox and to access using another browser until fixed.
Apparently it’s having issues with Chrome too. They said just use IE to go to the site.
“Ask Scott Boras about his newest client, Phillies right fielder Jayson Werth, and the first words out of the agent’s mouth are, “He can play center field.””
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/s.....ber-090110
Maybe for a year or two, not giving him CF money for 5+ years only to see him move to the corner after 2.
Boras will have a 257 page binder that concludes Jayson Werth is as good as Willie Mays.
The top five who haven’t made it to full-season leagues:
1. Manny Machado, ss, Orioles
No. 3 overall pick in 2010 draft has all five tools.
2. Zach Cox, 3b, Cardinals
Best pure hitter in 2010 draft will develop power as well.
3. Gary Sanchez, c, Yankees
Could be the second coming of Jesus Montero.
4. Jurickson Profar, ss, Rangers
Flashy defender can do it all except for hitting home runs.
5. Yasmani Grandal, c, Reds
Switch-hitting catcher with solid power and defensive tools
From: Jim Callis of Baseball America
Looking more and more like Sanchez is going to make most top 100 lists this offseason.
If i had to bet my bottom dollar on who the yankees’ catcher of the future will be i’d go with Sanchez.
Over Montero (won’t catch for long, if at all) Romine, (not that great – likely to be traded) and JR Murphy (who know if he ever sees the majors?)
Can somebody tell me why ESPN’s standings have Tampa Bay with a higher percentage of making the playoffs than the Yankees??
Meh, the different between 99.7 and 99.9% is negligible. Probably has to do with Tampa having the easier schedule the rest of the way.
Because of the 6 games left between the Yankees and Red Sox.
Is there a law against savoring a big win for more than 24hrs without bad news to shit all over it?
Braylon, you are a fucking MORON.
He probably thought that the Jets won the Super Bowl by some people’s reactions.
DUIs in the NFL are a joke though. 4 games isn’t doing anything obviously.
Although Chris Mortensen says that DWI doesn’t fall under the person conduct policy because it’s under substance.
http://twitter.com/mortreport/status/25117194052
That’s kind of insane. Drinking alcohol is 100% legal for Edwards. Edwards putting a legal substance in his body should lead to zero punishment for him.
What he does afterwards, driving while loaded, should lead to a stiff penalty. The unfortunate irony is that Edwards was almost twice as loaded as Stallworth was, but luckily for Edwards no guy was trying to catch his bus to work and crossed the street. What Edwards did was at least as bad as what Stallworth did (and probably worse due to level of intoxication) but the punishment will be less severe, in both the NFL and in a court of law.
After Donte Stallworth did he learn nothing?
Apparently not.
Is it so hard to call a damn cab? Or hire a driver!?
It doesn’t even take that. The NFL has a FREE program for millionaires to call for a ride home, no questions ask. And they take of the car that got them there too.
Unbelievable…
Maybe in the next CBA they’ll institute harsher penalties? If they’re willing to help you out that much and you STILL blow it off and drive drunk…
They can try, and the union will demand that Goodell actually waits until a guy is proven guilty before they get suspended without pay.
I think Roethlisberger is a scumbag like everyone else, but I don’t think it’s right that he loses 1/4 of his salary without even being charged.
Derp. DEEEEERRRRRRPPPPP.
http://baseballsecrets.tumblr.com/post/1160318490
I personally don’t ever remember Rivera being a sure thing. However, I do remember Rivera being the best in the game, which is easy since you know . . . I only have to remember back to the present.
The Yankees reaffirmed to the Rays Monday night that they are the best team in baseball
I cannot fathom why these idiots take one game in a 162 game season and use it to declare anything. Of course this is the same guy (Verducci) who said Josh Hamilton is undoubtedly the best player in baseball a few months back.
Well normally these sort of things only come out when a team beats the Yankees, so I guess it’s nice that for once, it’s being used in a pro-Yankee way. But yeah, I agree with your general point.
“A” lineup tonight!
Double Rainbow!!!!!!! It’s so beautiful (sobs)
Twins just clinched the AL Central.
I would really, truly love to see Ozzie Guillen react to this one.
What do I think about the Twins? I think it’s [bleep] and I’m embarrassed at my [bleep] club. We just let them have it, and that’s [bleep][bleep] Bush League [bleep]. [very long extentended bleep]
Extended, of course. What the hell is extentended
What the hell is extentended
Ozzetta Stone
Wow the MSM is stopping stories on Boston making the playoffs to the Rays and Yanks not getting past the first round. Unreal.
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/s.....ays-092010
“Lee, as we know, has no fear of the Yankees — see Game 1 of last year’s World Series.”
But please ignore Game 5 because it doesn’t help my story line.
Ken Rosenthal wrote a piece around this time last year saying that the ’09 Yankees were really no different at all from their 2005-2007 predecessors.
And literally a day or two later, after the Yankees beat the Red Sox 3-0 on FOX Saturday Baseball for their 99th win and reducing their divisional magic # to 1, Kenny said in a piece for Foxsports.com that the Yankees do indeed have the ingredients in place for a long October run.
I’m too lazy to look for it, but I’m sure you can find links for the aforementioned column and video. Well played, Kenny.
Look at the open thread from 9/26 of 2009.
It would’ve probably been smarter to include that in the passage of that post too you fucking douche.
Did he really say that Ivan fucking Nova was the Yankees probable No.3 playoff starter??!
Happy FJM day everybody!
Can’t believe that HatGuy died on the day of their re-reunion. Fucking creepy/crazy/etc…
Anyone know the way the rows are numbered. I have tix for Friday nights game, Section 105 row 10. When looking at the seat locater, i cant find a row 1-9, am i in the first row??
I think so, yea. I was in 133 row 16 last night, and I was about the 6th row back.
Scott Boras once compared Oliver Perez to Sandy Koufax and all he can say about Jeter is this:
“You have a shortstop who scores 100 runs and makes all the steady plays.”
Neyer’s commentary on his links today:
The reality, I’m afraid, is that the Yankees’ debt isn’t going to prevent them from doing almost anything they want to do.
Has he ever come out and said he hates the Yankees? If he has, ok. If he hasn’t, he’s a clown because it’s blatantly obvious.
It’s a badly kept secret that Neyer despises the Yankees. Some people never grow up. He grew up a Royals fan in Missouri during the late seventies and early eighties. Chris Chambliss probably scarred his soul forever.
You wonder how readers would react to a nationally syndicated sportswriter who, say, despised the Milwaukee Brewers and took every opportunity to sneer at and deride them. It would seem psychotic to most. That it’s the Yankees Neyer hates eases its reception by the teeming millions.
Neyer has made no secret of not liking the Yankees. He has said that the Yankees beating the Royals in the ALCS in those years in the ’70′s was painful for him.
You know what else? He is still much more fair and objective than the multitude of bloggers and writers out there. Does he make snide remarks from time to time? Sure. But it’s not only directed at the Yankees. Does he knock teams and players at times? Sure. But it’s not only directed at the Yankees.
Are we really so touchy as fans that we can’t tolerate this sort of backhanded slap? Jeez, lighten up.
I don’t mind if Rob Neyer hates the Yankees and bashes them at every turn as long as he admits he hates the Yankees and his writing about the Yankees is therefore biased. There is a difference between not liking them because they beat his team in the 1970’s and how he (almost daily at this point) takes shots at them. As long as he admits it, I’m fine with it. But if he wants to paint himself as a national writer with no interest in any team and no bias, I have a problem with it.
This.
Yea, I’m pretty sure he’s said many times that he doesn’t like the Yankees.
It does not mean that he can’t be objective about them.
Buster Olney has done it, he’s cracked the Twins code to success!!!!
The Twins’ pitchers are taught to throw strikes;
So the FJM day at Deadspin has been whatever, but this article…
http://deadspin.com/5644328/is-this-normal
I watched Leake in the Reds’ clubhouse for 20 seconds before the game Wednesday, and in those 20 seconds he slapped the naked ass of Reds executive and Hall of Famer Joe Morgan…
What
what
WHAAAAATTTTTTT
How was this article not everywhere when it first came out? The other articles they’ve covered I saw because they are terrible, even if they’re old, like the one about Frenchy’s 100th HR and the “titties vs. VORP” article. But… this just… came out of nowhere and it’s just… horrifying is a good word to describe it.
I guess Mike Leake would tap Joe Morgan for the 8th inning role.
I guess Leake would tap Joe Morgan as the 8th inning man for the Reds.
It’s incredible how Michael Kay doesn’t grasp the unimportance of batting average in relation to scoring runs (when compared to OBP). Oh my GOD! How are the Rays scoring so many runs with a .249 BA?!?!?
ugh.
“I guess that one for four must be when the runner’s in scoring position”
/Kay’d
This… is… awful.
http://sports.espn.go.com/new-.....KHeadlines
With only reading the headline, I could see how it could.
We know the voters aren’t always the most intelligent people, and a bunch of voters will likely have this game fresh in their minds and reduce it to “Price outpitched Sabathia” at the very least.
Or maybe the voters are smarter than that again this year. But if they really were, they’d vote for Felix.
Regardless of what happens this season, I am realllllyyy looking forward to the 2011 season.
The Rise of Jesus and the 3Ls.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09.....rosby.html
Game 7 of the 1960′s World Series discovered in Bing Crosby’s wine Cellar.
It will be on MLB Network this fall.
I remember talking to someone on here about this game.
Can’t wait.
ESPN 30 for 30 will have a special on the 2004 Red Sox. Ken Burns’ Baseball the 10th inning will have a lot of the Sox, as he is a huge Sox fan. Now this.
Pretty funny lol. Lets hope the Yanks win it all this year
I can totally understand the 2004 Red Sox being a pretty significant part of The Tenth Inning – I mean, it was a huge deal in baseball, no doubt. Just hoping it’s not the whole damn thing. And that the 2005 White Sox get an equal amount of face time, of course (ha ha yeah right).
But the whole 30 For 30 thing, I haven’t been watching it, but wasn’t it supposed to be like… new stories from new points of view? It’s not an original story and from what I’ve heard, it’s not going to be told in too much of an original manner. It’s just an MLB Productions movie.
From what I’ve seen, a lot of 30 for 30 will be behind the camera of Kevin Millar.
Not gonna lie, but I’m gonna watch it.
Anybody wanna tell me what IETC is?
I enjoyed this comment.
I Enjoyed This Comment.
Beautiful. Thanks.
Passed along from a friend. Dear John letter for the Mets. I just like the last line.
It’s been a rough 2nd half. 36-30 to this point.
It seems as if this season we’re bucking our recent trend of being a really good second half team. I think it’s offset by the fact that we had a very good first half.
Yeah I felt the same way, we had a really good first half, and myself as I’m sure many others looked back to recent second halves and got a little greedy.
27-26 since July 30.
For the last 53 games, they’ve been a .500 team.
On the bright side, for as much as the Yankees have struggled of late, at least they aren’t the Braves.
Talk about a team that was firmly in playoff positioning for at least four months, and has capsized of late. Wow.
Kerry Woods ERA+ with NY is 1183. SSS and all, that’s crazy.
Just as a reference:
Joba’s ERA+ in 07 was 1221
That’s how good Kerry Wood has been
Heh I just talked to my Philly fan friend and she was panicking about how the Phillies are “peaking too soon” and Halladay being worn out for the playoffs.
WE’RE DOOOOOOMED!!!!
It looks like he’ll [Mark Reynolds] become the first everyday player in major league history to finish with a higher strikeout total (206) than batting average (.199).
http://www.rotoworld.com/conte.....38;id=4649
I had no clue his BA was THAT low this year.
Yikes. Last year his line with the strikeouts removed was .423/.526/.885. This year it’s .343/.493/.751.
When your OPS drops 166 points when you aren’t striking out, and you still strike out 35% of the time, we have a problem.
I’m no expert at this but:
His LD% went from 17.4 to 13.4
His FB% went from 47.4 to 55.0
His In-field FB% went from 9.5 to 15.6
And all of that leads to his BABIP going from .338 to .255.
So basically the dude swings as hard as possible and either pops it up or hits it out, and strikes out more and more every year.
Wow, that infield FB% is pretty bad–6th worst in the Majors among qualified hitters (side note–who is fourth worst? Troy Tulowitzki, at 16.2%. Did not see that coming.)
I have Mark Reynolds on my fantasy team. I drafted him in the 3rd round of a 12 team league. My top 4 picks turned out to be not so good.
Of Mark Reynolds’ 98 hits, 32 of them were HRs
I’m kind of impressed by that
If he didn’t K unapologetically, he’d definitely hit around 40 in a season.
Not likely. If he didn’t K as much, it would probably be because he wasn’t swinging all out as much, which would lead to fewer home runs, not more.
He’s hitting .199?!
I mean I knew he wasn’t a BA player, but I could have sworn he was at least in the .220s. Damn, that’s pretty rough.
He hit .070/.197/.070 in September, 4 for 57 with 26 K.
I guess he’s been playing with a bad hand all month, but he was also only hitting .216 at the beginning of the month so yeah, bad either way.
Does anyone ever go back to their draft results for fantasy baseball and just facepalm?
Matt Cain has a no-no through six. No walks and Tulo reached on an error.
Cain’s no-hitter remains intact. He’s made it through seven. Six outs to go.
And Juan Uribe double clutches on a routine grounder and the no-hitter is over. Funnily enough, last year Jonathan Sanchez had his perfect game (but still got the no-hitter) killed by Juan Uribe booting a routine grounder.
Exhibit #4,020,521 on why MLB’s rules and discipline practices are a joke:
http://bit.ly/b9A2IW
Giving up five runs to the Yankees: Acceptable, best offense in the league, yadayadayada
Giving up five runs to the Mariners: Unacceptable, you should be taken out back and shot, yadayadayada
You hear that James Shields? You want to get put down? Don’t ever give up more than zero runs against the Mariners again or I will personally put you down and bury you with that crazy outfit(but continue giving up runs to the Yanks. We appreciate that).
He deserves to be shot based on his eye-rendingly ugly windup alone.
Joe Morgan was sabermetrically the greatest percentage player ever.
But not according to Joe Morgan.
Joe Morgan is the sabermetrician’s dream player
Plays a premium position
Plays defense at said position, really well
Patient hitter (.120 IsoD)
Hits for power at a powerless position
Hits for average
Fast runner
Steals bases at an effective rate
It’s really a shame that he has no clue what made him such a good player.
In ’75 he had 132 BBs and 52 Ks; but he was probably more impressed with his 6 sac flies.
Inspired by the note at the end of the post about Mo: I’m glad Papelbon said something about Phil Cuzzi. But I’m also equally glad it wasn’t Mo whining about it. And he should’ve recognized that he wasn’t the only one getting a bad zone, too.
It’s good that he called him out, but it’s also great because it looks like Papelbon is making excuses.
Plus now that he has an ERA over 4, Theo can’t trade him to some dumb GM who thinks “his ERA is still low so he’s an elite closer”
Yeah, I think if they are looking to trade him the market will be pretty limited. He’s going to be a closer making $10+ million coming off of his worst season and 1 year from free agency. Only a true contender without a good closer will even consider it and that is still risky and severely limits potential trading partners. How much would you really give up for 1 year of Papelbon at that salary?
No I agree, there’s no real fit. You can argue for maybe ATL, LAA, & STL; but those teams have bigger issues than closer.
I’d take Atlanta out of the mix, they’re pretty set on handing the 9th inning to either Craig Kimbrel or Johnny Venters if Wagner decides to hang it up (likely).
And they’re right, why give up anything when you have two cheaper and arguably better options?
The Angels I could see making some sort of ridiculous deal to get him, but I doubt the Cards would, they’re more of a logical team in regards to personnel moves.
Oh I know- those are just the only 3 teams that have a potential need and have the potential payroll that caught my eye.
He could always pretend this year didn’t happen. Maybe the D’Backs will take him. They might be desperate enough.
So is he going to get fined? Don’t players get fined if they criticize the umpires?
Jesus I feel like Andy. I pulled my groin in gym class today. Ouch.
So with the new Erias Rankings out do the Yankees offer Berkman arb? Assuming his story of him wanting to choose where he’s going to play is true then I say yes.
I’m not sure they do ’cause that’s a really big risk. If Posada was set to retire and Montero was defensively ready, I’d say yes, offer him arbitration. As a one year, full time DH (assuming he accepts), I’d love Berkman to come back. But with Montero ready with his bat and Posada in need of more DH time and less behind the plate time–ideally they split C/DH next year–it’s not worth the risk since Berkman would likely be left without a position. I still say no arb to Lance unless he makes it abundantly clear he is not going to return.
Unless he makes it abundantly clear he is not going to return.
Didn’t he already do that? Wasn’t a condition upon being traded that the Yankees refuse to pick up his option so he could return to Houston?
Anyone know anything about Drabek? Highly touted is what I’ve read, but not much more. Except, of course, his advantage of never having been seen by us.
Who did Roy Halladay get traded for in the offseason?
Because with all he’s done this year, and how close the Blue Jays were to being competitive, there’s no way it was worth it.
Halladay + cash
for
Kyle Drabek
Travis D’Arnaud
Micheal Taylor (who was promptly trade for Brett Wallace and Brett Wallace was traded for Anthony Gose at the trading deadline)
San Diego might not make the playoffs?
HA
I didn’t get back from class until the 8th inning- so maybe this was discussed in the game thread but does Drabek really wear #4? Does he know he’s a pitcher?
Baseball America or Baseball Prospectus. Who should I subscribe to? Or both?
“It’s only happened [four] times before” counting the times his team has missed the playoffs since his rookie season, 1998.” The times I’ve been hurt.”
Can you imagine the outrage if A-Rod said such a thing?
Who said this thing and in reference to what?
It’s Varitek, in reference to the Red Sox not making the playoffs.
Ha! Obviously he’s the most important Red Sox player of all time.
Now that’s a true captain, standing up and taking responsibility and blame for his team missing the playoffs.
is there a source on this? i wanted to share with some folks.
http://sports.espn.go.com/bost.....id=5628101
I honestly don’t know if he meant it in such an assy way but damn I don’t like Varitek.
Anyone else see the story about a future HOF’er making a “Jose Canseco milkshake” in front of a sportswriter? Believe it’s featured in Ken Burns’ “The Tenth Inning.”
My money’s on Ripken.
Gotta be either Cal or Rickey
Is it future HOF or present HOF? If it someone who will be elected in the future, it can’t be Ripken or Henderson.
Someone currently in the Hall
Ahhh. I’m going with Kirby.
James McDonald of the Pirates. Free agent possibility- Yanks interested?
He still has 3 years of arbitration?
Check out this picture of a hat I saw on the bus this afternoon. Hats like this need to die.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/r.....037363898/
I went to a game this year where the guy sitting in front of me was sporting one of the horrendous white caps they wore for Memorial Day/July 4th this year and a jersey with a name on the back. I wanted to scream at him.
That hat is an abomination. Even if it didn’t both a Red Sox and Yankees logo on it, it still be hideous.
In all, it had six team logos: The Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Angels, Cardinals, and Orioles.
#hatfail
Anybody see this play?
http://tampabay.rays.mlb.com/v.....38;c_id=tb
Nobody catches that…
also…Rays… plaid + baseball cap bill = ewwwwww
I actually like that hat lmao
I will probably take some heat for this, but if the Yankees do get eliminated, I would much rather see the Rays win than a lot of other teams. That play is part of the reason why.
I was able to claim Vick off waivers so who should I start: Vick or Brees?
Vick. Overall Brees is the better player, but he was wearing a knee brace to practice yesterday so there are supposed questions about his mobility (unconfirmed; heard it on ESPN).
You put me in a pickle because i usually just do what espn doesn’t say.
So hey, Brandon Phillips, still the best second baseman in baseball?
?
According to him, he’s the best second baseman in baseball. That is what he calls himself.
He is wrong.
Cano, Uggla, Pedroia, Utley, Prado, Weeks, and Johnson are all better than Phillips. Pedroia, in an injury shortened year, was on pace to be better than Phillips. Chase Utley missed a few weeks and STILL has a better fWAR than Phillips.
Who the hell said Phillips was the best second baseman in baseball? He’s not even the best in his league.
Keith Law went ManBan over Martin Perez. So good to hear after being beat down by Perez hype as I live in DFW.
So I guess someone found out how Burnett got that black eye. According to Incarcerated Bob
“Wrestling match between relief pitcher Joba Chamberlain & AJ Burnett turned a little rough a few weeks ago that left AJ Burnett with a shiner beneath his eye. The wrestling started out in fun but turned a little serious after Burnett, took Joba to the ground – Chamberlain landed a elbow to the eye of AJ .. As we all saw it was a nice shot. Seems like they are cool after WWE style stunt performed in the clubhouse. So not big news but still every1 wanted 2 know.”
Anyone who follows Incarcerated Bob on twitter knows that he actually has good sources that break news a lot faster than anyone else.
Didn’t Grant Balfour have to go to the DL after wrestling with the Rays pitching coach?
Wasn’t Incarcerated Bob the one who said Teixeira was the player busted for PEDs during that whole “PED suspension” thing that ended up being Edinson Volquez?
Yes it was him.
He also said everyone was sleeping and Braylon was going to be cut before the Dolphins game.
Some of his other “breaking news” is that AJ may not make a start in the ALDS and Javy is pitching for his playoff spot. Which you need sources to figure out…
Not sure. I only followed him for the recent past, and he has gotten a ton of stuff right before the rest of the media. Well, if he was, then I guess he gets 90% of stuff right, haha.
I’m not saying that this is 100% what happened, but I more or less believe him, and can see this happening haha.
IF that is true, that’s pretty cool.
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports......edness.php
Great article defending his view, something people in love with W/L are unable to do
Will the Padres be a contender next year?
I’m thinking that since they would seem to have the pitching down, perhaps all they need to add is some good offense. Of course, I could very well be wrong.
Sickels broke the cardinal rule of prospect rankings. When asked who is better, Casey Kelly or Player X, he went Player X. With a smug smile I see that player X is ManBan.
Yeah I asked that. I was surprised as well.
A few weeks back I asked KLaw a question on twitter about Banuelos. I don’t remember exactly what my question was, but his response was that some scouts have told him Man-Ban was the best minor league pitcher they had seen all year.
IBBRA voter says:
October 1, 2010 at 7:21 am
Our ballots have been counted. Tommiesmithjohncarlos of RAB has been unanimously voted the most pretentious douchebag on the internet. His prolificity in posting cheese tortellini with basil-pesto saucesure responses to not only every thread on RAB but almost every comment, his overuse of inside jokes and mastery of inane words-after-a-slash has made RAB’s comment section unreadable all year. Congratulations on your prize!
/isuckjoepawlikowski’d
I don’t know what’s going on between RAB and NoMaas. Maybe it’s a joke and they’re all ripping on each other, or maybe the guys/readers at NoMaas don’t really like RAB. Whatever it is, I think it’s hilarious reading some of those comments.
http://nomaas.org/2010/09/the-.....ment-21231
It’s just one of those guys who comes over here from another site and does one or more of the following:
1. Posts off topic
2. Gives a continuous strawman argument
3. Posts a sky is falling, 2012 is upon us, kind of comment
4. Personally attacks TSJC or other posters
This results in them being made fun (usually at the hands of TSJC), or RAB blocking them, or both. They then go to NoMaas, a site with no commenting guidelines and complain about it. Someone call the waaaahmbulence.
That site has been so mediocre this year and the people who comment there are not very bright.
I’ve been personally attacked at least once.
Theo Epstein said during a Thursday radio appearance that the Red Sox were pushing to sign Kerry Wood at the deadline before being outbid by the Yankees. “We scouted [Wood] on rehab, we liked what we saw. He was available last minute at the deadline … and we put in what I thought was a pretty aggressive financial bid for him and we were outbid by the Yankees when they were willing to take on just a little bit more of his salary. It ended up being a great move for them and cost us.”
The Boss would be so proud.
If the Red Sox weren’t stuck in that tiny market they may have been able to afford more salary.
I love how Theo always adds in the money part when he’s talking about the Yankees.
Sure we offered more than 28 other teams, but the Yankees outbid us.
If the sox were really in a position to compete, they could have chipped in more money to get Kerry Wood, but they knew he wouldn’t be a difference maker to them. They just sucked too much this year.
I like the new features by the way. I’m not too sure what to do with the bigger comment box button, but I’m using it anyway. Solid work on always working on improving the site.
I dragged my comment box all the way to the right and now the box cannot be resized. I have broken the box.
The spell check will make the trolls blend in better though.
No more: “yankes sux, rays da best, sawx r comin for da wild car”
Most browsers already come equipped with spell check, so if they didn’t use it then, I dont think they’ll use it now.
This is tonight’s Red sOx lineup. Why would they be putting in these scubs against Andy? I get it, that they are out of it, but you would think they would try to stop teh Yanks from winning the East. No Beltre, no Martinez.
Darnell McDonald CF
J.D. Drew RF
David Ortiz DH
Mike Lowell 1B
Jed Lowrie SS
Jason Varitek C
Bill Hall LF
Felipe Lopez 2B
Yamaico Navarro 3B
Pitching: Daisuke Matsuzaka (9-6, 4.72)
0 (0 Ratings) Report
Beltre’s wife just had a kid.
Was Martinez the father?
Hmm, the timelines don’t fit.
Is the game even happening tonight? I heard it’s pretty nasty in Boston right now.
“The eyebrows are raised because the Rockies have such a great home-field advantage and don’t have a blue-ribbon resume, like, say, Atlanta. Ever hear anybody moan about Atlanta having an unfair edge at Turner Field?”
“It is nice to know that now that the Giants don’t have Barry Bonds to sell tickets for them, they can focus on cleaning up suspected indiscretions in the game. And come to think of it, maybe they are so fired up over the idea that a team could switch balls to its advantage because of the Bonds experience.”
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/s.....he-rockies
Tracy Ringolsby, auditioning for Director of PR for the Colorad Rockies
Dice-K vs. Burnett in a 9:05 ET start time? Please tell me Joe West is the home plate umpire.
Anyway, as you’d imagine, it was fun to talk to all three of those guys for 20 minutes or so in a casual roundtable atmosphere. The bombastic Wells was the least engaged and opinionated, while Darling and Ripken were enthusiastic and insightful . . . though Ripken did say one thing that caught me off guard.
He thinks A.J. Burnett is . . . good.
It’s true. While talking about the Yankees, Ripken casually mentioned that he expects Burnett — who is atop the public enemies list in the Bronx after losing 15 games with a 5.33 ERA this season — to be a successful member of Joe Girardi’s postseason pitching rotation, saying, ‘‘I totally expect him to right himself.’
Cal Ripken may be insane but I hope for some reason he’s right.
I like AJ, but even I don’t think that.
The only positive is that if he’s #4 in the ALCS then he’s going up against the likes of Tommy Hunter, Davis/Niemann, or Nick Blackburn.
So I was watching (500) days of summer with my girl last night and had no idea that Minka Kelly was in it. All I have to say is way to go Derek!
PS cool ABC spell check but you should just make this site only visible on Chrome or FF because they have it built in.
What are the chances ManBan is in BA’s top 20 prospects? I never really thought he would be rated that high, but most evaluators seem to have him rated higher than Kelly or Perez, who were #14 and #20 respectively. Crazy to think the Yankees could have two top 20 guys.
Jeff Pearlman doesn’t like being called out for his absurd 2009 predictions:
http://twitter.com/TheYankeeU/status/26220341952
http://twitter.com/richardiuri.....6220553039
http://twitter.com/jeffpearlman/status/26227612775
http://twitter.com/richardiuri.....6227938557
When is Austin Kearns officially a bad trade?
When McAllister no longer has a 5.29 era in AAA?
“#Tigers have told Laird and Damon they won’t be re-signed. Dombrowski says they “most likely” won’t pursue Bonderman.”
http://twitter.com/beckjason/status/26281504748#
Wait, you mean they don’t want to re-sign a DH hitting .271/.355/.436 for 8m? How do they expect to contend next year without him?
They apparently will have millions of dollars off the books to unload on players less risky than Damon. As good as he is, he’s been worse this year (8 HR?!) and his age means that next year he probably isn’t going to be a lot better – and would likely be worse.
this CAN’T be by a real Yankee fan, can it? D:
http://baseballsecrets.tumblr.com/post/1234251975
The typical Yankee fans are EPIC DUMBASSES
Anyone else psyched for ESPN’s 30 for 30 this week? Four Days in October, made by MLB Productions?
Am I the only one it feels that it’s weird how “MLB Productions” is the maker of this film, rather than an individual or couple of people, like all of the others?
a. why would you be psyched for that
b. I’m sure the Red Sox fans are really psyched for it. Especially considering it’s not like they have the playoffs to look forward to OH BURN.
/sarcasm fail
Brett Gardner’s final season line:
.277/.383/.379, wOBA .358, wRC+ 126, UZR 22.0, WAR 5.6
Many may say this is unsustainable, and even I, the fanboy would say yes, there’s some likely regression in 2011, but I offer this to say that it is not unreasonable for him to be a 4+ win player during the rest of his prime:
Career Z-Contact %: 95.8%, career swinging strike %: 3.3%
That’s still a lot of Ks for someone with no power, but the ability to make contact definitely helps there.
Hm.
http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/s.....king-felix
Since when are WHIP and OPS sabermetric stats?
Even if the Yankees get swept out of the first round we can all still laugh at this. Warning: Shaughnessy.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.c.....index.html
Until today I had no idea what CHB stood for or it’s backstory. Now I know…and knowing is half the battle.
The Yankees concentrated on getting ready for the playoffs. And now they will play a superior team, on the road, in Game 1 of the American League Division Series on Wednesday night.
Is he saying the Twins are superior to the Yankees or to the Rangers?
Think he means Twins are superior to the Rangers.
But I’m sure he had another article on hold saying that “Yankees’ ego made they win the division, now they have to face a superior team in the bandbox of Yankee Stadium, instead of resting their guys and playing a worse team in a huge stadium,” and that would have been published if they won.
It’s definitly one of those talking in circles stories where no matter what happens he will look like a sage. Whever a writer uses a lot of “maybes” you know it’s all fluff.
“When Alex Rodriguez heard me casting doubt on the Yankee strategy and painting a doomsday scenario against the Twins, he walked over to the clubhouse TV and turned it off.”
Stands and applauds
One thing I don’t understand is the Faux leader comment. Is he saying that Alex is a fake or false leader? Or is he saying that Alex is an unofficial leader?
Saying Alex is a fake leader would be an awful thing to say. Saying he is an unofficial leader would be correct but incorrect at the same time. He’s not the captain of the team. However, he’s been with the organization for 6 years now. That’s longer than anyone not in the Core-4, and is looked up to and helps so many of the younger players (i.e. Cano). If that’s not what a leader is, then I don’t know what is.
I think if he meant “unofficial,” he would have used that. “Faux” means fake or false. I think that this interpretation — that it’s little more than a petty swipe at Alex — is backed up by the tenor of the whole exchange:
He’s implying that if Alex were a real leader, his turning off the t.v. would have motivated the team to win the division. Since the team lost after Alex said “we’re in a good place,” it must mean that the team despises him, he’s nothing but a phony, and the Yankees are headed for disaster.
In other words, it’s an exemplary instance of what passes for “sports commentary” these days.
Maybe we should ask the man himself. Anyone follow CHB on twitter?
Don’t all raise your hands at once.
so theres a 30 for 30 documentary on espn tomorrow about the 2004 ALCS….DUN DUN DUN!!!!
im not surprised at all that this is one of the 30 documentaries, as much as 2004 was awful, i’ll probably just watch it because its actually an interesting story.
But never again.
The irony of it being played at the start of a postseason that involves the Yankees and not the Red Sox is entertaining.
Anyone know how a non-cable subscriber should watch the ALDS? Right now I’m planning on spending the evenings at some bar. Is Postseason.TV any good?
Mike Schmidt is often regarded as the best 3B ever. I say Alex can stake a claim in that conversation. In his seven years at the hot corner, Alex has hit .296/.393/.559. In seventeen years at third, Schmidt hit .267/.380/.527.
Obviously Schmidt has a larger sample size, but I think barring a huge decline, Alex will become the best 3B to ever play the game.
Well when A-rod’s contract is done he’ll have played 14 years at 3B. I’d say you’re right that barring a huge decline, he will become the best 3B.
I’d say offensively he’ll be the best 3B ever. However, Schmidt was the much better defender and that may make him the better player overall at third.
Not only did Schmidt do it for longer, but he was also the better defender.
Finally, you have to adjust those raw stats for park/league context. Am willing to bet that Schmidt played in a lower scoring environment than the Centaur.
I love looking at what Schmidt did after turning 30. As great as he was in his 20’s, he was at a whole new level in his 30’s.
Steroids, huh? Thinking the same thing myself.
Seriously though, it is interesting how he had such a significant decline between 37-39. He went from being an MVP caliber player to an average offensive player to a complete offensive non-factor over his final 3 seasons.
When guys that age start to slow down, the end probably isn’t far away. God, I hope Jeter bounces back next year.
now that the RAB fantasy leagues have ended (you’re looking at the RAB Baseball League One champ right here!!!) who will do all the calculating and such for next year? if i recall, don’t the top 3 in each league move up one? how will this all work again?
I came in 18th out 20. My team was uh no bueno.
Why do I get the feeling that if the Yankees won the division with 88 games and the Rangers and Angels made the playoffs with 95 wins, all the articles would be about how the division is overrated and it should just be about overall record for home field advantage?
No more smiley. Sad face.
If Royce Ring makes the postseason roster, I will be upset. I definitely worry that he’d take innings from a superior RHP. (Although if Girardi would rather have Ring face Thome/Mauer than Joba/Robertson/Wood, he should probably be fired)
Mo’s 41 in November.
WOW.
Not dissing him, just amazingly impressed that he’s still doing it. He could be like Satchel Paige and keep throwing well deep into his forties, no?
so i saw this hilarious seinfeld clip that has steinbrenner in it and i felt obliged to share.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related
“HOW COULD YOU GIVE 12 MILLION DOLLARS TO HIDEKI IRABU?!”
I laughed for twenty straight minutes at this.
How do you see others’ profiles on RAB? Is there a way?
/stalker’d
haha so has anyone seen the new “this is sportscenter” commercial with jeter and his razor?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M06kTVwXUs4
“the hair got here all by itself, thats what were saying? ok”
Ha, for all the complaints I have about ESPN- I have to give them credit, these commercials are great.
I will be very bummed if Kearns plays over Gardy tonight. I think speed and defense are more of what we need. We have enough power and free swingers make me very nervous in RISP situations in the post season.
Say it ain’t so Joe!
Does anyone know who the TBS announcers are going to be?
So the Sox can spend half a billion on a soccer team but not a few hundred thousand for Kerry Wood or $10 million (over 8 years) for Tex. Poor small market team.
Who do you guys think, apart from the obvious choice of Sabathia, will have the biggest postseason for the Yanks?
I’m going with Granderson, with a .322/.384/.753 line and 7 HRs. Yeah.
Clutch-Rod
Finished on a tear and doesn’t have the playoff monkey on his back anymore.
Definitely A-Rod. He goes yard tonight.