Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms out there. Make sure you tell your mother, wife, daughter, whoever it may be how much you love them. Moms make the world go ’round. Once you’ve done that, hang out here in our open thread. The ESPN Sunday Night game is a good one, Braves-Phillies (Jurrjens vs. Hamels). I’m sure there’s NBA and NHL playoff stuff going on as well, but talk about whatever you like. Go bananas.
There was so much discussion on yesterday’s post about what not to wear that I felt it was absolutely necessary to do a sequel. I wasn’t clear where I should have been, and people brought up some questions that I wanted to answer and arguments that I felt needed to be refuted. After all, there is nothing more important than dressing well for the game, short of winning.
Hats
First of all, I don’t care how old you are, how young you are, if you’re purple, black, green, gray, or white. I don’t care if you’re a girl, a guy, or you identify as some other gender. I don’t care if you’re from New Jersey, New York, Alaska, the moon, California, or France. Not taking the sticker off your cap looks dumb. If I saw Derek Jeter wearing the sticker on his cap, I would first stare with huge eyes, then turn to the person next to me and go, “Oh my god, Derek Jeter looks like a total moron with the sticker on his cap.” No stickers on caps. For anyone. Ever.*
I realized afterwards that all the caps I posted were $35+ and up. You might have tight finances and still want a proper Yankees hat, so I’ll propose another option. Now, granted, I haven’t been to New York City in about four years now (this sucks), so maybe this assumption is wrong, but aren’t there those shifty stands run by people that sell bootleg Yankees caps for $5 or $10? Did I just make this up? Do they only sell hideously ugly oil spill caps? Did I just superimpose Oakland on New York (I’m so sorry)? Those caps tend to be black and white or navy and white. Cheap and fashionable, the perfect combination!
A few additional notes on hats:
Jerseys
Again, there are financial ways to get a good jersey. There are plenty of fake jerseys you can buy from China for $20. A simple googling displays plenty of jerseys that are close to the authentic jerseys. Here’s some. They’ve got lots of numbers, home and away, and all for the low, low price of $21 plus shipping. Combine that with your street-bought cap, and you’re correctly dressed for the game for $30, give or take shipping and tax. Even someone living on a shoestring budget should be able to scrape that up, right? And if not, I don’t know if I’d advise going to too many baseball games.
There’s a lot of discussion on whether the named jerseys for the Yankees are okay or not. Well, I’ve decided that they’re acceptable stadium wear, but not advisable. Like above money-related issues, you might want to divide up your finances. Say you’ve got $200, but you want both a Rivera and a Posada jersey. If you’re looking to get both authentics, you’re out of luck. However, if you can tolerate the names, you’re in business! The Jeter replica jersey will cost you a cool c-note, where the nameless authentic is almost double. Can’t blame a guy for not wanting to drop an extra hundred bucks to lose fabric.
Alternately, if you do not want a fake jersey and can’t afford an authentic/replica, I would suggest a player-customized shirt, sometimes known as a shirsey. Even if you pick these up from MLB.com and they cost only $25 or so. You can also get them customized for an additional $10, give or take. The great thing about these shirts is you can wear them everywhere. Jerseys aren’t really good everyday wear, but you can’t lose with a t-shirt. Looking for an affordable piece of clothing you can wear in and out of the ballpark? Look no further.
I had a couple of specific questions that I’d like to answer before I wrap up Fashion Weekend on River Ave. Blues:
I hope you all had as much fun with this like I did.
(*Mariano Rivera can wear the sticker on his cap if he wants, because he’s freaking Mariano Rivera.)
The Yankees have tomorrow off, and we all know how much more enjoyable an off day is when you’re coming off a win rather than a loss. The laws of reverse lock might in play given the completely lopsided pitching matchup, but boy do I hope not. The Yankees could really use this win before heading home for a few days, so get it done boys. Here’s the starting nine…
Derek Jeter, SS
Curtis Granderson, CF
Mark Teixeira, 1B
Alex Rodriguez, 3B
Robinson Cano, 2B
Nick Swisher, RF
Jorge Posada, DH
Brett Gardner, LF
Frankie Cervelli, C
CC Sabathia, SP
Hooray for no more weird Texas start times after today. Both YES and TBS will carry the game when it begins shortly after 2pm ET. Enjoy.
There are a lot of different reasons why a baseball club decides to trade a player in the middle of the season. It many cases it’s because the player’s contract expires at the end of the year and the team expects him to depart via free agency, so they decide to try to get some value for him. This usually happens with clubs who have fallen out of contention. Another reason is financial: if the team is unable to afford the player’s salary, or needs to free up cash. This summer it’s possible that we’ll witness a confluence of these two factors in Los Angeles.
After failing to buy the Red Sox, Frank and Jamie McCourt completed a largely debt-based purchase of the Dodgers in 2004. Since then their fiscal style has been, shall we say, less than austere, and it all came to light when Frank and Jamie split up. It’s been a particularly messy and public divorce, one made worse by a shoddy prenup, and the team has fallen on tough times. At the end of April Major League Baseball seized control of the Dodgers’ finances. The team has over $400M in debt and has seen a drop in season tickets this year. Worse, Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times reported on Tuesday of this week that the Dodgers lack the finances necessary to meet payroll through the end of this month. The $30M loan that McCourt received from Fox earlier this month, a loan which seemed to be the straw that broke the camel’s back for Commissioner Bud Selig, only provided funding for April’s two payrolls and the first payroll in May. This is what’s known as a cash crunch. Right now, the Dodgers are having trouble paying the bills.
The baseball season is still young. The trading deadline is a little less than three months away. Yet this mess of a situation in Los Angeles might mean that the Dodgers become more likely to trade some of their more expensive players this summer. One intriguing name is Hiroki Kuroda. He’s signed only through the end of this year and for a relatively hefty salary of $12M. Despite my best efforts (I heart Hiroki), he remains one of the more underrated pitchers in the game. Since 2010 his K/BB ratio is 3.31, similar to Zack Greinke, Felix Hernandez and Tommy Hanson. He has a 3.44 FIP and a 3.43 ERA. He’s gotten goten ground balls at a 50.5% clip, nearly identical to Chris Carpenter. Carpenter is a decent comp for Kuroda over the past two years, except Kuroda has walked fewer batters. Kuroda has no doubt benefited from facing weak NL West lineups and from pitching in a pitcher-friendly home ballpark, but his skillset is strong and he’d represent a great midseason rotation addition for a lot of contending teams.
As evidenced by the divorce proceedings and interactions with the MLB Commissioner’s office, McCourt isn’t one to shy away from a fight or go away quietly. Say what you want about him, and Dodgers fans can say plenty, but he clearly has a backbone and he’s proud of the fact that he owns a baseball club. For this reason he may be less likely to punt on the season and trade away his expensive pieces, especially if Major League Baseball is providing any sort of financial backstop for the club. Yet the math could become a bit different if McCourt is still experiencing a cash crunch in a few months and if the Dodgers have fallen out of contention in the NL West. They currently boast a 15-19 record, 4.5 games behind the division-leading Rockies. Maybe a disappointing season from the Dodgers will encourage McCourt to decide to free up some cash in the short-term to help his long-term goal of retaining control of the franchise. Shoot, perhaps he’d be willing to pull the trigger on a salary dump now. The Dodgers aren’t short on pitching, but they are short on cash.
There’s something a bit macabre about this whole affair. The divorce is ugly, and it’s sad to see a great franchise like the Los Angeles Dodgers be put in this situation because of the personal affairs of ownership. I’ve always liked the Dodgers, and I’ve always felt nostalgic when I see their stadium and the palm trees and the classic white uniforms. It’s a little uncomfortable to feel like a vulture circling overhead waiting for the wildebeest to finally give up the ghost and collapse into the desert sand. But this isn’t a community softball league, and the Yankees may need to pick up a a pitcher this summer. I feel bad for Dodgers fans, but here’s to hoping that Cashman can pounce with quickness if an opportunity arises.
Just a heads up, I’m going to be appearing on Fantasy Pros 911 on Sirius (210) and XM (87) Fantasy Sports Radio at 9:35am ET or so this morning. We’re going to talk about the Yankees and baseball around the league in general, so make sure you tune in.
Almost, almost. It looked like it would be a blowout early on, but the Yankees fought back valiantly to tie things up before losing the battle of the bullpens. I’m not sure how often that will happen, but two hits in six innings against Brett Tomko, Arthur Rhodes, Darren Oliver, and Neftali Feliz is facepalm worthy. Recap time? Recap time.
Rubber game Sunday afternoon at 2pm ET. CC Sabathia will square off against Dave Bush. Alexi Ogando was supposed to start, but he’s been scratched with a blister issue. Dave Bush is certifiably terrible, but we know how that usually goes for the Yankees…
Triple-A Scranton (7-3 loss to Pawtucket)
Dan Brewer, RF: 2 for 6, 1 2B, 2 K
Chris Dickerson, DH: 0 for 3, 1 R, 2 BB, 1 K, 2 SB – seven walks in his last six games
Jorge Vazquez, 1B: 1 for 5, 1 RBI, 2 K – four for his last 27 (.148) with ten whiffs
Justin Maxwell, CF: 1 for 4, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K – that’s homer number ten
Brandon Laird, 3B: 0 for 5, 1 E (fielding) – still below the Mendoza line
Jordan Parraz, LF: 2 for 4, 2 R, 1 BB
Luis Nunez, 2B: 1 for 4, 2 R, 1 SB
Gus Molina, C: 3 for 4, 1 2B, 2 RBI, 1 BB – yay Gus!
Doug Bernier, SS: 0 for 3, 1 RBI, 1 K
Jesus Montero, PH: 1 for 1 – didn’t start because of the whole day game after a night game thing
Adam Warren, RHP: 4 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 2 K, 1 WP, 7-1 GB/FB – 50 of 86 pitches were strikes (58.1%) … at least he out-pitched his former college teammate
Amaury Sanit, RHP: 3 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 1 WP, 4-1 GB/FB – 33 of 46 pitches were strikes (71.7%)
Ryan Pope, RHP: 1 IP, zeroes, 1 K, 2-0 GB/FB – ten of his 15 pitches were strikes
Kevin Whelan, RHP: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 1-0 GB/FB – seven of his dozen pitches were strikes (58.3%)