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One More Thing About Mystique (The Abstract, Intangible Quality, Not The X-Men Character)
Okay, so Buster Olney wrote a piece called "Yankees lack mystique of dynasty years." Nothing shocking there; I wrote about it a little bit a couple of posts down.
Something struck me, though, as I walked away from my computer. Did Olney really write that you could tell the difference between the dynasty Yankees and the current Yankees based on two close games in late June/early July against the Texas Rangers?
I came back to the computer. And yes, yes he did do that:
The past two nights, the Yankees have played the kind of games that, during the 1996-to-2001 dynasty, they would have expected to win. They have been drifting in the standings, and the Rays and Red Sox have begun to pull away in the AL East. The Yankees opened a series against the Rangers in Yankee Stadium on Monday knowing they had to start making inroads in the playoff chase.
Really? This series, pretty much exactly halfway through the season, against a mediocre non-division foe, is one that the '96-'01 team would've keyed on? Now is when inroads must be made?
The crazy thing is that if the Yankees went on a winning streak right now and A-Rod and Abreu and Giambi and Cano went absolutely house, you would definitely get articles about how "these guys can do it in July but can they do it in October???" And yet when they lose two boring, completely unremarkable games to the Rangers, they're still getting pilloried for not having "confidence" or "edge" or "expectation."
The New York Yankees are 44-40. They are 12th in baseball in runs scored. That is bad. It is especially bad for a team with a $960 million payroll. What's wrong with the Yankees, and in particular, the Yankees' offense? If you're Buster Olney, the answer is simple: the Yankees have no "edge." They lack "mystique and aura." You know, Baseball's Occam's Razor: when you're bad, the explanation is always magical.
The past two nights, the Yankees have played the kind of games that, during the 1996-to-2001 dynasty, they would have expected to win.
This year, of course, instead of expecting to win, the whole Yankee team took a trip to Boot Barn, purchased boots, went back to the clubhouse, put those boots on, and immediately began shaking in said boots.
"Th-th-th-th-th-the Rangers!" said Joba Chamberlain, shakily.
The Yankees opened a series against the Rangers in Yankee Stadium on Monday knowing they had to start making inroads in the playoff chase. In the dynasty years, they would have taken the field with an enormous mental advantage: They would have been convinced they would win, and even if they had lost,
-- it would have counted as a win? they would have been convinced that the matter of success or failure was something firmly within their control.
Oh. Um, okay. They still would have lost, though, so that's not great.
But they don't have that confidence anymore, which is not surprising.
You see what Buster's doing here? Because a team loses, they don't have confidence. Because a team wins, they have confidence. It's unassailable, it's un-dis-provable, and it may very well be backwards. The 2008 Yankees have a bad game in late June against Scott Freaking Feldman -- aura problems. The 1999 Yankees have a bad game in late June -- all part of the plan. It's easy to ascribe invincibility to past champions: YOU KNOW THAT THERE'S NO CHANCE THEY'LL EVER GO BACK AND LOSE THE 1999 WORLD SERIES.
They don't have many players now who have won consistently at the big league level. Alex Rodriguez and Bobby Abreu and Jason Giambi and Robinson Cano don't have that in their experience, and Joba Chamberlain is still learning about being a starting pitcher in the big leagues.
Yeah, these guys stink. A-Rod has a fucking shitty .990 OPS. Giambi's checking in at a crapuscular (made-up word) .945. Joba has a retardedly awful 2.22 ERA. In six starts, he's given up 1, 2, 1, 1, 0, and 1 runs. These guys don't know how to win. Sure, Abreu's been sort of average (.805 OPS), but he's 34 and seems to be in a decline phase (too much experience, I guess). Cano has been absolutely terrible this year. You know who else has hurt the team? The shortstop. .728 OPS. On-basing .340, slugging .388. Defense is no great shakes, either. Guy needs more winning experience, I suppose.
Beyond the stark reality of the standings, however, there is this: The Yankees of 2008 are really no different than the Rangers or the Athletics or the Brewers or many other teams in the majors; they're just another team of talent trying to find a way to win more games.
Here's my explanation of why the Yankees are 44-40. Jorge Posada has missed 45 games. A-Rod has missed 20. Matsui 15. Plus, these guys are old. Almost all of the good position players on the team are on the wrong side of 30, and PEDers aside, most baseball players don't improve at that age. Add on top of this the fact that Cano and Jeter have been giving you almost nothing at the plate, and you have an average to slightly above average hitting team.
With A-Rod and Posada back, though, those numbers are going to go up. If I had to guess, I would say that Jeter and Cano are going to bounce back some, too. The Yankees' hitting is going to be all right.
Buster, your take?
There is no edge, no more mystique and aura, to borrow a phrase. All of that is history.
Ugh. I guess "Mystique and Aura" is a better name for a book than "Some Guys Got Hurt and Plus Most of Them Are Old Oh and Also They'll Probably Be Fine in the Second Half."
Extra note about this craziness: here Buster talks about the Celtics. See if you can spot where he attributes dominance to something metaphysical when the physical explanation is staring him right in the face:
I grew up as a fan of the Dodgers and Lakers (and the Vikings, but there's no need to talk about that in this context), and remember Larry Bird somehow getting the ball in the last moment of Game 4 of the 1987 championship series, in the left corner, the Celtics down a point. And you knew, as a Lakers fan and as a fan of basketball, that the son of a gun was going to drill that shot, because you had seen him do it over and over and over, in big moments. He turned and fired, and it wasn't just fans who assumed he would make that shot; if you watch the videotape of that game, just consider the faces of James Worthy and Michael Cooper.
The ball bounced off the back of the rim, and somewhere in the years that followed, as Bird and Kevin McHale broke down, the Celtics lost that expectation -- that assumption -- that they would win. So, too, have the Yankees.
The Celtics lost their "expectation," so they couldn't win anymore. But wait: why did they lose their "expectation"?
Because Larry Bird and Kevin McHale got old and injured as fuck.
Maybe that's related to why they stopped winning, I don't know. I'm just a guy who watches guys play sports and can't see their auras for shit. Embarrassing admission: I have never, ever, ever been able to see a guy's aura. That's right. I...am an aura-blind American.
YOUTH & NAIL YOUNG YANKS WILL STRUGGLE TO MAKE PLAYOFFS
This isn't necessarily George King III's fault, but there's like forty different ways to read that sub-headline. "Because of their young players, the Yankees will fail to make the playoffs." "The youth of the Yankees will help them during their tough times this sesaon, and, despite struggling, they will make the playoffs." "The younger members of the Yankees will struggle to make the playoffs, while the older members will make it easily."
Okay, fine. Three ways.
They have the same first name, but after that Torre and Girardi are very different.
It really is hard to think of two more different men than Joes Girardi and Torre -- two Italian-American former major league catchers (each at one point for the St. Louis Cardinals) who have each been named Manager of the Year and Manager of the New York Yankees.
Torre let the players police themselves; Girardi is a stickler for detail and will run a tighter ship. How that plays with the veterans will be interesting to see throughout camp.
I guess that will be kind of interesting. Mostly to me, it will be interesting to see how much of the Yankees' success / failure / averageness is absurdly blamed on / credited to / assigned to Joe Girardi, and the way he gets along with the veterans (weren't we going to talk about the younger Yankees?), when it is way more likely to do with, say, pitching.
The organized Girardi can manage, and the Yankees New York Yankees were fortunate he was available. However, he has one year of experience. And his coaching staff is dotted with neophytes.
Surely his inexperience (second year overall, first with the Yanks!) will only hurt the team. One need only look at the list of recent WS winners, and it's easy to see that you simply must have decades of experience both with the league and your team, to win it all:
2007: Terry Francona (4th year with team, 8th overall) 2006: Tony LaRussa (fine -- 100 years with team, 340 overall) 2005: Ozzie Guillen (2nd year with team, 2nd overall) 2004: Terry Francona (1st year with team, 5th overall) 2003: Jack McKeon (1st year with team, 13th overall) 2002: Mike Scioscia (3rd year with team, 3rd overall) 2001: Bob Brenly (1st year with team, 1st overall)
Can Alex Rodriguez, coming off an MVP campaign, and Robinson Cano, the ink fresh on his first big contract, sustain last year's production?
Rodriguez won't hit .314, club 54 homers and drive in 156 runs.
Okay. He might. He certainly might hit higher than .314, not that it really matters that much.
That doesn't mean he won't have a solid year.
Very true. So what's the problem again?
The Yankees made two mistakes with Cano. They didn't retain third base coach Larry Bowa, who rode Cano hard every day last season before following Torre to LA this offseason. Then they gave Cano, not a hard worker, a multi-year deal.
Because he's good. They gave him a multi-year deal because, ultimately, it doesn't matter how hard he works, as long as he plays baseball well.
And so now, I'm supposed to believe, the onus for Cano performing well in his first big contract year falls on...Girardi? Wait -- actually, now I'm not sure what I'm supposed to believe. A-Rod? Probably A-Rod. Everything is that guy's fault.
Unless Cano does well. Then we can all agree that Jeter did it.
There was nothing wrong with Andy Phillips and Doug Mientkiewicz, but the Yankees got rid of them. Instead, they are looking at Duncan, Wilson Betemit, Jason Lane and Morgan Ensberg. How long before Rodriguez complains about not having a glove guy saving him errors?
I love how the bar just keeps getting higher when it comes to creative ways of calling Alex Rodriguez a shitty guy.
He committed plenty of errors last year. I don't once remember him blaming anyone other than himself. Has he ever thrown a teammate under the bus? Why are we suddenly anticipating some sort of inevitable locker room blamefest where A-Rod starts whining about Jason Lane's glove?
Because he went to therapy and kind of liked it?
I don't get it. This kind of A-Rod bashing is Lame Fucking City, USA. In the words of the incomparable Sagat: "Funk dat."
Torre > Brosius? It cannot be. I will not hear such blasphemy, Sir Buster.
Look, Joe Torre seems like a good enough guy. Grandfatherly mien, reassuring eyes, a calm, arms-folded presence in the dugout. No obvious assholish tendencies. Sure, we're all emotional about his departure. I ask you, though, Buster Olney, when you wake up one year from now, will you still really believe this paragraph? How about five years? Fifty?
I always will believe that during the 1996-2001 dynasty, Mariano Rivera was the only uniformed member of the organization more important to the Yankees' success than Torre. They could not have won so much without him, and it remains to be seen if any Yankee manager can ever be as successful or as adept as Joe Torre.
Oh. "Always." You will always believe that no player besides Mariano Rivera was more valuable than Joe Torre. Seriously, when Derek Jeter retires, are you really going to write that, hey, Jetes was a pretty sweet shortstop, but he was no Joe Torre when it comes to winning baseball games? If you had a crazy combo draft of players and managers in 2001, are you really taking Torre over Derek Fucking Fitzgerald Jeter, God of Baseball and Winner of Life?
I'm sorry. This is a heartfelt piece by Buster. He's emotional. There's stuff in there about fatherly pats on the cheek (his words, not mine) and cancer and Scott Brosius' dying dad that I'm not even going to touch. Buster, I understand that you know the man and that you empathize with him. You spent time with him. You know more about Joe Torre the person than everyone reading this blog except for Don Mattingly (hi, Don!). But you can honor Joey T-Bones without resorting to this kind of run of the mill, knee-jerk, Baseball Tonight Bold Prediction-type sports-writing/-commentary hyperbole.
And let's take a step back. Again, we're all sad. Torre is leaving. Stand-up guy. Might be a bad decision for the club. But we're talking about a situation where you're feeling misty-eyed for a guy who's turning down a five million dollar base salary because it is a fucking insult to him. Five million dollars. And he's not hitting 97-mph Josh Beckett fastballs or spearing Curtis Granderson laser beams. He's not doing something that only a select few hundred human beings have the physical and mental capacity to do. He's choosing what order to write down names in a lineup (sometimes poorly). He's deciding when to put a relief pitcher in a game (often incorrectly).
Managing is easier than playing.
Which brings us to value, or as Buster frames it, "importance." Mariano Rivera: extremely important. Thanks for the concession, Buster. And now, a smattering of stats from some of the players who helped the Yankees win four championships in five years. I'm not saying that Joe Torre didn't contribute. I bet he did. Some. But these guys effing played the games.
Tino Martinez, 1996-2001: 175 HR Derek Jeter, 1996-2001: 1187 hits Bernie Williams, 1996-2001: 6 consecutive years of OPS+s over 131 Andy Pettitte, 1996-2001: 1274 2/3 IP, ranging from good to outstanding Paul O'Neill, 1996-2001: 604 RBI
And these are just some of the really good guys. The list, honestly, is endless. Forget these guys. Forget even the regulars: the Brosiuses, the Knoblauchs, the Stantons. How about Chili Davis' 476 okay at bats at DH? At least he got hits and scored runs. Hideki Irabu sucked, but at least he got some outs.
The much belabored point is this: Joe Torre managed supertalented teams for a super long time in a super overexposed media market. For that he is a saint in the eyes of many. But he is a human man, a man who was an okay to pretty good baseball manager doing a job that probably a fair number of other people might have been fine doing as well. Baseball managers do not play the game. They do not have as much influence on the outcome of the game as say, football coaches or Ramiro Mendozas. Search your pinstripe-tattooed soul. You know this to be true.
Now excuse me while I finish crying about Joe's departure. I started several days ago and am not ready to stop just yet.
The man you see on the left of your screen is named Gerry Fraley. I don't believe we've had the pleasure of writing about you before, Gerry. Welcome.
I see you've chosen to write about a New York ballclub. Ah, the Yankees. Excellent choice. Untrod soil. Virgin territory. You're a regular Vasco da Gama.
Cleveland put the New York Yankees out of their misery on Monday night, bouncing them from the American League playoffs. What comes next is an exodus from the Bronx.
Well, no. What comes next are your opinions on who should exit the Bronx. It's very possible any or all of your opinions are wrong, or certainly that your recommendations will not be heeded. Very very very possible. Astoundingly possible. You're Gerry Fraley, and they are the Yankees.
Manager Joe Torre should go.
He's not terrible. The general feeling around here is that unless he's absolute human garbage, a manager doesn't impact the team all that much. Why should he go?
The Yankees of recent seasons did not play with the same verve as the clubs early in his tenure.
Oh. Verve. I think that's in the contract actually. The Bittersweet Symphony clause. If verve drops below 46 verve points, manager cannot continue in any capacity. Your 2008 Yankees manager: the bassist for the Verve Pipe.
I've always wanted to artlessly jam references to both the Verve and the Verve Pipe into a single paragraph in a blog about sports commentary.
That says as much about the players as it does about the manager.
So, right. Kick Torre's ass to the curb. Excellent point.
Third baseman Alex Rodriguez should go, exercising the escape clause in his contract.
You are feeding our monster here, you know that, Gerry? Well done, sir. You are quite an enabler. What his new employer will get is the player whom peers refer to as "The Cooler." Rodriguez will put up big numbers and vanish when most needed.
New metric: number of derogatory nicknames based on William H. Macy motion pictures player has earned. A-Rod's Bill Macy Derogatory Nickname Count: 1. Until next year, when he will be referred to as both "The Shoveller" and "Jurassic Park III."
He did it again in the division series, going 4-for-15 with a meaningless homer late in the final game. When the Yankees needed Rodriguez to do something in the first inning, when they had two on against canny Paul Byrd, he struck out.
Again with the meaningless tag to that homer. Folks, a four-run lead is not insurmountable for the Yankees offense. If Derek Jeter doesn't hit into a double play the inning previous, maybe the homer isn't so meaningless. Christ, what am I talking about? It's a run! In a playoff game! How can that be meaningless? Silly A-Rod. Should've known the at bat he'd be crucified for ex post facto was the one in the first inning.
Catcher Jorge Posada should go.
He's old. He also posted a .426 OBP last year. That is no typo. .970 OPS. What? Those are cartoon numbers. Those numbers don't believe in their own existence. But yeah, fuck him. Jose Molina time or whatever.
Commercial star Roger Clemens should go.
Zing! Has anyone else noticed how awful Clemstone's wife is in that cell phone ad? Hamity ham ham sandwich, Clemens' wife. Tone it down.
In truth, Clemens has hurt his team in each of the last two seasons. Houston went 9-10 in his well-paid starts last season, and the Yankees were 8-10.
Holy assChrist. Yeah, Clemens was unimpressive this year. But last year? You're saying he hurt his team last year? 2.30 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, 16 out of 19 starts with 2 or fewer earned runs allowed ... that's ungodly dominance. A reader sent the following in, so I'm not sure if it's accurate, but what the hell: "Clemens had a 3.09 ERA. Not overall, but in Houston's LOSSES. That would rank 2nd in the NL in 2006. Yeah, the damage he did to that 2006 Astros team is irreparable."
But of course --
Houston went 9-10 in his well-paid starts last season
Nice cherry-pick, Gerry. Good to have you on board.
Closer Mariano Rivera should go.
Given the hunger for relievers, Rivera will have appeal on the free-agent market. He may want to sign on with another contender rather than hang around for the razing and rebuilding that lies ahead for the Yankees.
This doesn't explain why the Yankees should let him go. Weirdly, you turned around and took Mo's point of view on this one. I guess that shouldn't surprise me. You are, in fact, a crazy person.
I can't wait for the years and years of razing and rebuilding that the New York Fucking Yankees are going to undergo. They won't be back in the playoffs for decades!!!
Since TBS and ESPN keep telling us that it was Cleveland's clutch hitting that won the series:
New York, LDS - 60 LOB Cleveland, LDS - 77 LOB
Thanks to reader Matthew. It's crazy how much of the series was determined by one man, Chien-Ming Wang, simply not performing up to expectations. He had two bad games. Horrendous games. Wang was charged with 12 earned runs over 5.2 innings. In a four-game span, that's just huge.
Wang was good to very good throughout the regular season, so he should be given a lot of credit for getting the Yankees to the playoffs in the first place, but it's tough to overcome your #1 guy giving up 18 baserunners in two games, especially when he only records three outs in one of those games.
** EDIT EDIT EDIT, EDIT ALL DAY LONG, AS I WRITE AN EDIT, I SING THIS EDIT SONG **
Reader Ed contributes this rebuttal to reader Matthew:
77 left on base in like 37 total innings? Come on, now.
The actual LOB totals were Cleveland 39, New York 24.
And more caustically, Jason sends this:
I don’t really think it’s a fair comparison. Cleveland had 65 hits + walks in the series and New York had 45.
It’s hard to leave guys on base when they don’t get there in the first place. After all, a team on the wrong side of a perfect game had 0 LOB. Great, huh?
I do think Cleveland had a large number of two-out hits; I don't think this was just over-the-top clutch-loving. The very fact that the Indians actually did get on base more than the Yankees, though, is certainly another part of the story.
There are no words for how stupid this one is. But I will type some anyway. Alex Rodriguez stared down Danks, Logan and Bukvich with his mighty MVP lumber, and he might as well have confronted Gibson, Koufax and Feller with an old maid's broom.
He couldn't manage a single in Williamsport right now, never mind a home run in the Bronx. A-Rod is growing A-Fraid of the moment. He's turning this glorious march to 500 homers into an alarming stagger to who knows where.
I just want everyone to take a deep breath. Have a seat. Shake out the tension in your arms. And realize what is happening.
Ian O'Connor is slamming Alex Rodriguez -- murdering him, calling him a 'fraidy cat, and a choke artist -- because he did not hit his 500th career home run within five or so games from when he hit his 499th career home run.
The man is 32. He has 499 career home runs. He hits one 0-21 patch and he's junk.
"An alarming stagger to who knows where." This seems a little dramatic, sir. Since he's the best fucking baseball player in the world. And since as I write this, he has just hit his 500th HR. So, armed with the glorious righteousness of dramatic irony, I now delve into the rest of this jaundiced journalistic hack piece.
Rodriguez went 0-for-4 in the 8-1 victory over the White Sox on Wednesday night,
Bum.
and he hasn't gotten a hit in his 21 at-bats since Homer No. 499,
Asshole.
equaling the worst hitless streak of his career. If he doesn't become the youngest player to reach 500 by the end of the Yankees' homestand Sunday, Joe Torre said, "We'll all be in straightjackets."
Or at least A-Rod will be in one. Let's see Scott Boras negotiate his way out of that.
Weird metaphor-reality crossover, but since you posed the challenge, allow me to say that Scott Boras will have absolutely no problem finding Alex Rodriguez well-paid work next year, and if it's not in the Bronx, it is the fault of people like you, dummy.
I hope ARod goes to the Tigers, and in his first game back in the Stadium he hits a ball so hard it shatters the Scott Brosius monument in Monument Park. What's that? There is no Scott Brosius monument? Because he was hopelessly mediocre? Huh.
"I'll hit it sometime before the year ends," A-Rod pledged.
Would he bet $252 million on that?
I will! Oh, please -- bet me. I will borrow that much and bet anyone who wants to bet. Email me, Ian -- I will take your bet of any amount, under any odds.
This time around, Rodriguez's teammates didn't smash eight homers, just five. Thirteen homers in two nights from the Yanks, and not a single one from the slugger who will someday take down Barry Bonds. How preposterous is that?
Pay very close attention when I answer this: it is not preposterous at all. It is just an occurrence. There have been many games of baseball where Hall of Fame players played badly and normally-bad players played well. I know this may be a shock to you, since you have clearly never seen a baseball game.
"You kind of just want to join the parade a little bit," said A-Rod, who insisted he'd be far more concerned if his teammates were losing these games.
What a douchebag, huh? Run him out of town. Him and all his not-caring-about-personal-accomplishments-in-favor-of-caring-about-his-team's-performance. Selfish prick.
A-Rod spent the day at the Manhattan store, Niketown, where 500 chanting kids came to celebrate 499 homers. He spent the night at the Bronx arena, Yankee Stadium, where 53,342 chanting kids and adults failed to chase that number, 499, right out of his otherwise charmed life.
One of the worst paragraphs I have ever read. Tortured, sweaty, unnecessarily adjective-heavy, overly-numerical, analogically forced. A perfect "0.0."
His batting average is slip-sliding away, that .300 standard like a fading friend in the rearview mirror.
I should really bookmark the Alex Rodriguez BP player page. I keep thinking it's not worth it, because these brain-damaged articles will have to taper off eventually, but they don't, and now here I am again, taking the long way to get to the information that proves how dumb these people are.
His batting average is under .300? Murder him. Seriously. That's the only proportionate response to someone's batting average falling under .300. Even if, as these numbers show, he is either the best or the second best (by a hair, behind Magglio) hitter in the league.
Those special baseballs the clubhouse boys keep handing to the umps keep landing in the bad guys' gloves.
"It's a festive atmosphere every time I go up to the plate," Rodriguez said.
And then he kills the party, like an angry parent pulling the plug on the speakers.
He kills the party, by not hitting home runs on cue. He kills it intentionally, is the implication, I believe. Because he is selfish. A selfish, selfish jerk, who is also the best player in baseball, but screw him, for not hitting home runs when Ian O'Connor demands he should.
Maybe it's time to aim those flashing cameras at Shelley Duncan, who is only 494 homers away from matching A-Rod.
Oh please do this, New York. Please. Please anoint Shelly Duncan your new hero. Please please please. It will be so funny to watch -- please, I beg of you, put your eggs in the Shelly Duncan basket. Please please please please please?
Maybe it's time for Rodriguez to realize he'd better forget his place in history, and remember there's still time for this year to get as ugly for him as last year did.
So now, this is all happening because ARod is obsessed with his place in history? I thought it was happening because he was a party-pooping choke artist. Get your wild accusations straight, please.
Rodriguez descended into a grim free-fall in 2006, and bottomed out in Torre's one-and-done postseason lineup, finding his name eighth in the order against Detroit.
A "grim free-fall" that saw him go .358/.465/.691 in September with 8 HR, you dolt. He hit better in the second half than he did in the first half. Do you just not care about facts, or are you making shit up to suit your thesis? I honestly want to know.
He's the sport's most gifted player, and he's working on a $252 million contract that isn't rich enough for his blood.
Greedy greedy greedy. What a greedy greedo. It's greed that is making Alex Rodriguez...what? Play so well? How dare he...perform...according to expectations...? I guess?
A-Rod wants more money, and George Steinbrenner or some star-struck suitor will give it to him.
He should play for free, like Derek Jeter. Or take a massive pay cut to remain with the team, like I'm sure Mariano Rivera will next year. Or take a massive amount of money and then cheat and break down and lie about it and miss two years like Jason Giambi. That guy is a a stud! How dare Alex Rodriguez try to earn the maximum amount of money a man can earn given his skill set. Maybe he should emulate Ian O'Connor, who was offered eleven million dollars a year to be managing editor of the New York Times sports section, but turned it down to write for NorthJersey.com for free. (Note: this did not happen.)
Why does all of this seem familiar? Oh, right. Because I have had to write entries like this all year, because this stupid article keeps getting written.
But along with his absurd demands come some not-so-absurd expectations.
Why are his demands absurd? I don't understand this. If I were as good as Alex Rodriguez, and someone offered me $252m to play baseball for ten years, I'm pretty sure I would take it.
Rodriguez isn't expected to be a mere regular-season juggernaut. At his prices, he's supposed to knock down some October walls, too.
He's been a miserable failure in the last two postseasons, and he can't afford to make it three in a row. In this context, Rodriguez might be better off missing this year's playoffs.
I'm not going to publish ARod's postseason stats again. I just can't bring myself to do it. It chips off a chunk of my soul every time I have to point out that he hammered the ball in 1999 against the Yankees, or out-hit Jeter in the 2004 ALCS -- no! I'm doing it again! Damn you, Ian O'Connor.
If he has an MVP season and the Yanks finish a game out of the wild card, Rodriguez keeps the runs he scored at the plate and the points he scored in the stands. But if he has an MVP season and flames out again in the first round, Rodriguez loses all credibility as a money player and, perhaps, loses a few opt-out millions to boot.
That's why he is secretly tanking the season, trying to get the Yankees to finish a game out of the WC. You can tell how he's accomplishing this, because he leads the league in most offensive categories. And just hit his 500th homer. Did you know he's only 32? He is! Weird.
Is another October disaster a feasible A-Rod scenario? Yankee fans can only hope Rodriguez's last 21 at-bats don't amount to a sneak peek.
Well, as science has definitively shown, there is a direct correlation between a player's 21 AB previous to reaching an artificial career milestone, and the first 21 AB that player has several months later in post-season play. I wouldn't have guessed that this is true, but it really never fails. (Note: this is not true.)
A-Rod hasn't exactly been a study in poise at the plate. One could argue that his at-bats since hitting Homer No. 499 have simulated the pitcher-batter tension found in the playoffs, even as Torre shoots that theory out of the sky.
One could argue that, I suppose. One could also argue that if you put tinfoil on your dog's head it can talk to aliens.
A-Rod carried a professional approach into the batter's box Tuesday night, when everyone except Steve Balboni and Kevin Maas homered for the Yanks. But his cuts leading into that game were so absurd, Torre said his third baseman would've hacked away at a resin bag had a mischievous pitcher thrown one.
He had a bad game? I want my $252 million back. All of it. Because I paid it. Metaphorically.
Facing the immortal John Danks in the first, A-Rod hit a weak fly to left. He followed up that effort with a slightly deeper fly off Danks in the third, another can of rotten corn.
Asshole. Choker. Selfish. Two AB without a homer. Take your $352 million and shove it up your choke-hole, choker.
In the fifth, facing lefty Boone Logan, Rodriguez slapped a lame grounder to short. In the seventh, facing righty Ryan Bukvich, A-Rod slapped a lame grounder to third.
The single worst performance in the history of baseball. We paid him $452 million for that?! He makes $2.9 billion per swing! Hey ARod -- go fuck yourself. Come back to me when you can hit a HR off Ryan Bukvich at will. What does Ryan Bukvich make? Not as much as ARod, I'll tell you that much. ARod-for-Bukvich, straight-up. Get it done. ARod will clear waivers, since he makes eleventy-six trillion a year. Maybe once the Yankees have a non-ckoker like Bukvich they can win in October.
At least he didn't get under those. The crowd grumbled anyway. It sounded like an early-inning grumble out of the fans' 2006 playbook, which usually called for an all-out jeering by game's end.
Is it possible -- and this might be totally crazy -- but is it possible that they were grumbling because they were just disappointed at not witnessing history? Is it possible, however unlikely, that they actually -- unlike you -- recognize that ARod is the game's best player, and were just sad that they didn't get to tell their friends that they had personally seen the moment when the 32 year-old made history? Maybe?
Lord knows A-Rod's ears can't take another September and October of that.
This is the worst one of these I have ever read.
Congratulations, Alex Rodriguez, on your 500th career home run. And enjoy playing in San Francisco next year. It's a lovely city.
Why Would You Ask This Man A Question About Baseball?
Of course, no one should listen to sports talk radio. Clinical studies have definitively shown that even brief exposure to ESPN Radio causes memory loss and reduction of cognitive function in lab mice.
So I was just in my car listening to a man whose name I believe is Erik Kuselias (Wikipedia helpfully notes that this man "is a member of Mensa International, the society for people with high IQs"). I have very little to say about Erik, except to plaintively ask him, Why would you ask Stephen A. Smith questions about baseball?
I didn't transcribe any of this, but I believe in about a (loud) five-minute span, Mr. Smith said approximations of the following things: I'm not really a baseball guy
I'm a big Yankees fan
I'd like to see the Yankees get Gagne, or the Mets
(on whether the Red Sox need Jermaine Dye) David Ortiz gave me a hug
The Boston Red Sox KNOW HOW TO WIN
The Red Sox play WillieBall
The Yankees rely on home runs
The Red Sox steal bases, hit and run, and again, KNOW HOW TO WIN
He also once (loudly, confidently) referred to the Boston Red Sox as the Boston Celtics.
Just for the record:
Yankees SB: 80 Red Sox SB: 56
Yankees WillieBall Quotient: 9.36 Red Sox WillieBall Quotient: -3.42
Erik Kuselias, you are a member of Mensa International, the society for people with high IQs. Please, do not ask this man about baseball again.
Causality is when something causes something else to happen. For example. The Yankees signed Jason Giambi in 2001, and he caused their offense to be better.
Coincidence is when something happens, and something else happens, too, but not because of the first thing. For example: Yahoo! CEO Terry Semel resigns; Dan Uggla homers to lead Marlins over ChiSox.
Let's see if the New York Times's Jack Curry can tell the difference.
Yankees Get Boost From Loss of Giambi
No. He cannot.
The correct headline should read: "Yankees Get Boost from Many Players Playing Better than They Were; Giambi's Replacement (Damon) and Damon's Replacement (Cabrera) Probably Like 7th Most Important Factor"
...the Yankees have moved on without [Giambi]. In fact, they are playing their best baseball of the season, by far, without him.
Without Giambi, the Yankees are 13-3 and have scored 6.9 runs a game. With Giambi, the Yankees were 22-29 and averaged 5.3 runs.
Interesting. Perhaps there is some causality. Let's find out.
After Giambi went on the disabled list, Torre moved Johnny Damon and his wobbly legs from center field to designated hitter and inserted the energetic Melky Cabrera in center.
June stats for these people:
Damon: .230/.299/.328/.627 in 61 AB. The Energetic Melky Cabrera: .300/.368/.433/.801 in 60 AB.
Season stats for Giambi: .262/.380/.436/.816 in 149 AB.
Damon has hit considerably worse in June than he was hitting before that.
I know Giambi was in a miserable slump right before the DL trip, but it doesn't seem to me that replacing Giambi/Damon with Damon/Cabrera could possibly ever be worth 1.6 extra runs per game. Hmmm. Causality taking a beating here. Could there possibly ever be any other explanation for the Yankees' scoring spree?
Also, Bobby Abreu, Robinson Canó and Hideki Matsui, left-handed hitters who were slumping, have contributed more.
Oh. Well, why didn't you just say that? Why didn't you title this article: Non-Giambi/Cabrera/Damon-related Hitters Hitting Better; Yanks Winning More"?
Since Giambi went on the disabled list, the Yankees’ designated hitters have batted .299, with 3 home runs and 11 runs batted in.
Well, hang on -- if these non-Damon DH's were additions to the team that would not have been possible if he were taking up that position, then there would be causality at work.
While Damon has started 12 of 16 games as the designated hitter, Jorge Posada, Alex Rodriguez and Josh Phelps have also started at D.H.
In other words, the title of this article could also have been: "Guys Who Are Always Playing in the Yankees Line-Up Continue To Play, Sometimes At Different Position; Put Up Good/Typical Numbers in Sample Size of Four Games"
Giambi hit .177 with three homers in May.
His OBP that month in 62 AB was 51 points higher than Damon's is so far in June. Also, Damon has one HR so far in June. Hmm. I wonder if there's any other factor in the Yankees' resurgence?
Of course, the most significant part of the Yankees’ offensive turnaround has been Rodriguez’s incredible June. He is batting .393 with 8 homers and 28 R.B.I. this month.
Ah. So, the guy who plays every day at third, whether or not Jason Giambi is playing DH or DL, is crushing the ball after a mediocre May. And he might have actually had more RsBI if Giambi and his Damon-besting .380 OBP were hitting in front of him. Interesting.
Perhaps the causality vs. coincidence argument will never be answered. But if there's one thing we can conclusively say, it's that the Yankees are definitely scoring more runs because of the insertion of worse hitters in their line-up, and not because the other hitters who have nothing to do with the switch are all hitting better.
Wallace Matthews is my new hero. I haven't been this excited about a journalist since Junior discovered Bruce Jenkins.
In this edition of "Indefensible Positions," Matthews posits that ARod's salary might be better spent on middle relievers. Because...
$25M could buy lots of arms
A-Rod: Stats but no rings
In 1996, the Yankees got four home runs, 54 RBIs and a .308 batting average out of Charlie Boggs, the two-headed monster that held down third base that year.
In 1998, the third baseman's name was Scott Brosius and the numbers were 19, 98 and .300. In 1999, Brosius again: 17, 71, .247. In 2000: 16, 64, .230.
How dare you assail Scott Brosius. That man is a saint!
The Yankees won the World Series in every one of those years and in fact, won 14 World Series games in a row, stretching from Game 3 against the Braves in 1996 through Game 2 against the Mets in 2000.
Do you guys see where this is going? Are you as excited as I am?!
During the previous three seasons, the Yankees' third baseman has averaged 40 home runs and 119 RBIs and batted just about .300. Two seasons back, he won the AL MVP, and this season he has a great chance to put up the best numbers of a career that already is a first-ballot ticket to Cooperstown.
And with him, the Yankees have won precisely nothing.
Cue the band! Release the balloons! Strip down to your underwear, slap some warpaint on your faces, bang your drums and go wilding in the streets -- because Wallace Matthews is arguing that having an all-world 3rd baseman who hits a lot of HR and generally kicks ass is worse for your team than having a terrible third baseman who does none of these things.
It will be worth remembering this at the end of the year when general manager Brian Cashman is faced with the agonizing choice of burning more cash on Alex Rodriguez or bidding him a fond farewell.
No it won't. Because Cashman, unlike you, is not an idiot. Cashman will want to keep the 31 year-old surefire first-ballot Hall of Famer who is going to hit 70 HR this year despite the fact that he -- ARod -- is a weirdo and everyone hates him and there is an organized media movement -- of which you, Wallace Matthews, are a key player -- to drive him out of New York by arguing that Scott Brosius was better for the Yankees than he is.
There is nothing agonizing about deciding whether to keep Alex Rodriguez. If he isn't sick of NY, and wants to stay, you keep him. Because he's awesome. And because -- and this is the first of several times I will point this out, the Texas Rangers are paying you $7 million a year to help you keep him, because Tom Hicks is a bigger idiot than you, Wallace Matthews.
I am going to repeat that.
The Yankees, who have a $200m payroll, are being paid $7 million a year to help them retain Alex Rodriguez's services. And you still think this is a difficult decision?
To lose A-Rod would do me no good at all - who on Earth would I write about when the Yankees are slogging through some meaningless August tilt with the Devil Rays - but it might be the best thing the Yankees can do to right a ship that be sinkin', slowly, for the past seven years.
Honesty in journalism, here, folks. Who indeed would hacks like Matthews write about, were ARod gone? Who could allow them to drag out their tired old columns about the glory days of Scott Brosius? God forbid Matthews would have to work hard and form new opinions about things. That simply won't do. He needs ARod around, yelling things at rookies on the Blue Jays and saying slightly-off things in interviews about therapy so Matthews can put down his giant tumbler of Old Grandad, head to his file cabinet, blow dust off the A-D drawer, dig through his Brosius file, pull out a winner from 1998 that reads, "Yanks' 3rd Baseman About More than Stats," and do an old-fashioned cut-and-paste job. Then: more whiskey!
You can argue successfully that without Rodriguez, the Yankees would be even worse off than they are right now.
Correct.
You also can point out that without the burden of his salary, they can start shopping to fill the real needs of this team.
Incorrect. They have no limit to their salary. None. They said last year that they had a limit, and then they traded a pile of old hoodies for Bobby Abreu, who cost $13 million last year and $15m this year. Actually, let's just go ahead and list the most expensive Yankees this year:
Jason Giambi: $21m Derek Jeter: $20m Roger Clemens: $18.5m (ish) Alex Rodriguez: $17m (ish) Andy Pettitte: $16m Bobby Abreu: $15m Johnny Damon: $13m Hideki Matsui: $13m Jorge Posada: $12m Mike Mussina: $11m Mariano: $10.5m Carl Pavano: $10m
Are you seriously telling me that of these guys, ARod is the one not earning his pay? That his money is less well-spent than that spent on Giambi? Pavano? Matsui? Abreu? Mussina?
The question of whether he will opt out of his contract isn't even worth discussing. Originally, [the opt-out clause] was included to provide Rangers owner Tom Hicks with an ejector seat to escape from what remains the richest contract in the history of sports. Now it serves as a way for A-Rod and his agent, Scott Boras, to further cash in on what so far has been a phenomenal season...
To think Rodriguez and Boras won't invoke it at the end of this season, no matter what its outcome, is to believe that Donald Trump will wake up tomorrow and say to the latest Mrs. Trump, "Honey, I'm loving you so much, I'm gonna forget all about that pre-nup."
Ain't gonna happen.
Yikes. Leave the comedy to the professionals, Wallace. Stick to Brosiusian Hagiography.
...When the time comes to say deal or no deal, the Yankees would be wise to remember the lessons of 1996 and 1998 and 1999 and 2000. Those championships weren't won by slugging third basemen, or designated hitters built like Schwarzenegger, or prima donna starting pitchers who show up when the season is half over.
Here it comes...the moneyshot...
Those teams were built on small ball - incredibly, Bernie Williams' 30 homers in 2000 represents the peak of Yankees power for that era - on timely hitting, on role players who worked together like the cast of "The Sopranos," and on pitching.
Mostly, on relief pitching.
Okay. Everybody take a deep breath. We're going to get through this together.
First: Tino Martinez had 44 HR in 1997. Second: The 1998 Yankees had all nine starters and one reserve (Shane Spencer) in double-digits in HR. They hit 207 HR that year, which was fourth in the league. In 2000 they were 6th in the league. They were not a huge power team, but they hit their share of HR. Third: 2, 1, 1, 2, 5. Those are the AL ranks of the Yankees' teams in OBP, 1996 to 2000. That's what those teams were always based on, offensively. They walked a lot and grinded out at-bats and wore people down. Fourth: 1, 2, 4, 3, 4. Those were their yearly league ranks in K's by their pitchers. Their starters were very good, 1-5, all of those years, in striking out people and not walking people. Their relievers were good, except Mariano, who was impenetrably brilliant.
The Yankees did not win those championships with "smallball" or "smartball" or "intelli-ball" or "think-ball" or "genius-ball' or "Torre-ball" or "How'd-they-do-that?-ball." They won with great starting pitchers (Cone, Clemens, Pettitte, Wells, Key, Hernandez), a 9-man line-up that grinded out long at-bats and walked a lot and hit for good power, and the greatest closer in the history of baseball.
And these days, more than ever, that is where Yankees games are won and lost. In fact, throughout baseball, that is where most games are won and lost, with starters going six innings and managers jumping for the bullpen phone when the pitch clicker nears 100. For all the brilliance of Mariano Rivera, it is the grunts, the middle relievers, the Sean Henns and Brian Bruneys and Scott Proctors and Kyle Farnsworths, who have become the most important pitchers on the Yankees' staff. Too often this year, they have been much too important and not nearly good enough.
Yes, the problem with the 2007 Yankees so far was been Brian Bruney and his 28 IP with 25 K's, and Scott Proctor's 32.2 IP with a 1.30 WHIP. Not Kei Igawa's 30.2 IP with a 1.60 WHIP, or Carl Pavano disappearing, or Mike Mussina's 5.63 ERA, or having to rush Tyler Clippard up to start games, or having Darrell Rasner and Matt DeSalvo start 11 games, or Hughes' hamstring. I think it's Bruney.
The Yankees' relievers stink. But their starters haven't even been able to start. Except Pettitte and Wang, it's been Russian Roulette out there. (And by the way, I'd like to see Pettitte duplicate his first half while still striking out fewer than 5/9IP. Watching him revert to the mean is going to be very enjoyable for me.)
Anyway, the point is, I think the Yankees should let ARod walk and spend the money on middle relievers. What do you think, Wallace?
Saying goodbye to Rodriguez would be a gutsy and risky move, because he is one of the few players about whom it can be said there truly is no other. But they have done without his likes before and they can do it again.
And surely for every Rodriguez, there are dozens of Mike Stantons and Jeff Nelsons and David Weatherses out there. What the Yankees need to do now is take the money they will save on A-Rod and go find them.
Oh good. You agree with my crazy joke stance.
Read that last paragraph again. Then consider that at the bottom of this article, Newsday saw fit to print this:
Bank-breaking numbers
If A-Rod keeps up his current pace, these are his projected numbers for 162 games:
Hits 186 Runs 149 HRs 64 RBIs 167
as if to chastise Matthews themselves. Consider for a second, again, that the Yankees are being subsidized by Tom Hicks to the tune of $7m a year so that ARod can put up those numbers in the Stadium. Consider that Wallace Matthews thinks they should use the money on 6th inning set-up guys and 37 year-olds with WHIPs in the 1.50 range. Consider also that the Yankees do not need to free up any money to sign anyone, much less a reliever or two who cost like $2m a year. Consider that Alex Rodriguez's EqA is .354. Consider all of that, and then read this article again, and try to figure out why this article ever got written. And then consider why a mild-mannered claims adjuster for a mid-level insurance company would spend his entire morning dissecting it for a meta-critical blog that only he and a few of his stupid friends really care about.
Coincidence? Not if you're Wallace Matthews, who believes that the Yankees' recent resurgence has one cause and one cause only: Jason Giambi's injury.
(And before I begin investigating this article, allow me to say, as a meta-critic of sports journalism, that the discovery of Newsday's Matthews has been, for me, equal to Darwin landing in the Galapagos Islands.)
[Giambi's] rehab is going as well as can be expected, he said. Another MRI is planned, but surgery is not an option because cutting would only make things worse. Yesterday, his treatment consisted mainly of sitting around waiting for his sore foot to heal...As far as the Yankees are concerned, Giambi should take as much time off as he needs.
For the record: Giambi was in a terrible funk right before his injury. Even still, he was at .262/.380/.436 for the year, with a .297 EqA. Not bad. Not everything you want from Giambi, but not bad.
The Curse of the Giambino descended upon Yankee Stadium in December 2001 and they haven't won a thing of importance since. Giambi may not be out of their lives, but he is out of their lineup, and what do you know? They win.
Each of these things has had roughly as much to do with the Yankees not winning the WS as Giambi signing with the Yankees.
Here are Giambi's season HR totals in his NY career: 41, 41, 12 (injured), 32, 37.
Here are his season EqA's: .351/.327/.262/.347/.332.
Steroids or not, (ok: steroids), Giambi is a world-class hitter. He walks all the time. He hits home runs. (He singlehandedly roided two of them out of the Stadium in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS from the 7-hole, keeping the Yankees in the game.) His illicit substance-ing has no doubt been a distraction for the team, but his on-field exploits far outweigh whatever negative effect that might have had.
Also: there is no such thing as a "curse."
Suddenly, October doesn't seem quite so bleak. There are plenty of factors to point to as reasons for this remarkable turnaround - the rejuvenation of Bobby Abreu, the return to his April form of Alex Rodriguez, who hit two homers and drove in five runs yesterday; the long-awaited arrival of Roger Clemens, who, we are told, inspires by his very presence even when he's not around.
Yes. These are all actual reasons. Also, the Yankees were pretty seriously under-performing their Expected Win-Loss prediction before the injury to Giambi, so it was only a matter of time before they went on a run like this. In fact, ExWL has them at 35-26, five games better than what they are now, so the run will most likely continue, if not immediately, then over the next month or so. They had a ton of guys slumping significantly below their career averages, like Cano and Abreu, who have been on fire recently.
And who, might I ask, "told you" that Roger "inspires by his very presence even when he's not around?" Have you been talking to Suzyn Waldman?
And then there is the absence of Giambi, the beginning of whose stint on the disabled list coincides almost exactly with the resurgence of his team. Call it coincidence or call it karma, but the Yankees, who were a far better team before Giambi's arrival in December 2001, are a measurably better team since his departure from the active roster 10 days ago.
Also coinciding almost exactly with the resurgence of Giambi's team, Dr. Kevorkian being released from jail.
I would also like to address the idea that the Yankees were, and I quote, just to rub it in, "a far better team before Giambi's arrival in December 2001." In order to address this, I will quote my own post of April 15th:
The payroll became more menacing after that, but the trophy has not returned. As the Yankees stocked up on Randy Johnson, Kevin Brown, Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon, Gary Sheffield, et al., they became less potent.
Incorrect. They became far more potent.
In 2000 they won 87 games and got to the WS from a very weak AL East. They scored 871 runs, allowed 814 .
In 2002, the first year with Giambi, they went 103-58. They scored 897 runs, allowed 697.
In 2003, they went 101-61. They scored 877 runs, allowed 716.
In 2004, the first year with Sheffield/ARod, they went 101-61 again, scored 897 runs, allowed 808.
In 2005, 95-67. Scored 886 runs, allowed 789.
In 2006, first year with Damon: 97-65. Scored 930 runs, allowed 767.
So. To sum up. More "potent" pretty much every year since 2000. Just haven't won the WS, due mostly to thinner pitching, better competition, and bad luck (esp. 2001, 2004).
In what universe can you claim that the Yankees were a "far better team" before Giambi arrived? Perhaps only in the universe where you point out that the Yankees' pitching was not as good after he arrived; a universe, I might add, that thanks to reason and logic, would indicate that the Yankees being "worse" in some way has nothing to do with Giambi, who has certainly helped the Yankees' offense.
Without the drag of Giambi, the Yankees' lineup is rolling again. In the 10 games Giambi has missed, Abreu has hit .500 (19-for-38) and raised his average 44 points to .272. In the same period, Melky Cabrera is hitting .378, A-Rod .371 with five homers and 18 RBIs, Jorge Posada .364, Robinson Cano .293, Miguel Cairo .292 and Hideki Matsui .282.
This is all due to Giambi not playing.
Abreu is a walking embodiment of the idea of "regression to the mean," given his career .313 EqA, the fact that he was hitting like .040 for the first two months, and the significant fact that he was still walking a lot even while not hitting, meaning that he had not lost his strike zone management. Or maybe it was Giambi going down that caused Abreu to start hitting.
And Cabrera...thanks to his incredible hot streak -- due entirely to Giambi going down with his injury -- he is up to a blistering .255 EqA, which is still shy of his 50th percentile PECOTA projection. Say it with me people: regression to the mean.
ARod is ARod. He hits like a motherhumper all the time. He was mediocre in May, and is knocking the hell out of the ball in June. This is 100% because of Giambi's foot injury, and not his decade-long demonstration of hitting dominance.
And Posada! My God! He is hitting .364 since Giambi went down?!? That is hugely significant, since he is hitting a paltry .358 for the entire season. (Also, if any of you can explain to me how an almost 36-year-old catcher has a .980 OPS this deep into the year, I would be much obliged.)
Robby Cano had an OPS more than 100 pts. below his career average through May. His torrid Giambi-induced hot streak has him...still below his career averages in most offensive categories. So he will probably keep hitting. Regression to the mean.
Miguel Cairo. Oh my God, you're citing Miguel Cairo's 7-24 June as an indication that Jason Giambi's injury is making the Yankees play better. That's 24 AB. And 7 hits. All of these batting averages you've cited -- besides being batting averages, which is a stupid stat -- are from really small sample sizes (around 40 AB or so) but this one takes the cake.
And finally , Matsui. He has hit .282 since Giambi went down! My goodness, that is interesting. You know what he was hitting before Giambi went down, in a much large sample size? .282, dummy. In fact, in the month of June, Matsui's slugging .371. He has 1 HR. His OBP is down. His power is down. He has gotten worse. So the question is: How can you cite his performance as evidence that Giambi going down is helping the team?
If you're going to claim that solar eclipses cause crops to grow, at least cite some crops that are actually growing.
The absence of Giambi has allowed Johnny Damon to DH, a role he likes, and get his legs healthy while Cabrera, a defensive upgrade over Damon, plays centerfield. And because of the regular at-bats, Cabrera has become the Melky of 2006.
The fact that Damon can DH might actually help, since he's been battling leg injuries. But you know what Damon has done so far in June? .262/.340/.333/.673. No HR. Worse across the board than May, when he was in the OF. And the phrase "Cabrera has become the Melky of 2006" sounds like bad Dr. Seuss. (The Melky of 2006 had a .272 EqA. The Melky of 2007 has a .255 EqA.)
In a culture in which a player will wear the same underwear for weeks if it has hits in it, that seems to be prima facie evidence that for the Yankees, the absence of Giambi has been addition by subtraction.
First of all, how dare you try to smarten up your article with Latin. Second, your underwear has hits in it. Third, all the superstition in the world can't change the fact that most of the guys you cited as doing better since Giambi went down with his injury are doing pretty much the same, or worse, or they are simply starting to hit after bad slumping. This, to me, is prima facie evidence that you are a moron, but, you know, de gustibus non est disputandum.
This should come as no surprise to Yankees purists, for whom the signing of the greasy-haired, tattooed captain of the bad-boy Oakland Athletics to a seven-year, $120-million contract signified the franchise's crossing over to the dark side. In his years as a Yankee, the postseason record stands at 19-22 with one World Series appearance, the six-game beatdown by the Marlins of Wal-Mart.
Why in the world would you blame this on Giambi, and not their pitchers? In exactly 100 Yankee post-season AB, Giambi has 28 H, 6 HR, 6 2B, and 19 BB. He rakes in the post-season, roughly like he does in the regular season. How about looking at Pettitte, Mussina, and Wells getting lit up by Anaheim in the 2002 ALDS, while Giambi went 5-14 with a HR and a .526 OBP? That series loss was Giambi's fault?
Dollar-for-dollar, win-for-win and ring-for-ring, Giambi probably is the worst deal the Yankees have ever made this side of Carl Pavano
Kevin Brown. Kyle Farnsworth. Johnny Damon, probably, by the time it's over. Matsui's new deal, probably, by the time it's over. There have been a lot of iffy deals. Giambi's isn't one of them.
Giambi, for on-field only reasons, was a good signing. I don't care if he's immobile and can't field. They signed him in his prime, the year after he had a .381 (!!!!) EqA. And yes, he was clearly on steroids, and yes, he was expensive, but nobody in baseball cared about steroids then, and the Yankees don't care about money.
and like it or not, they are stuck with him, to the tune of $47 million - $21 million each for this year and next, plus a $5-million buyout. The money they will eat. It's the losing they can't swallow.
Fortunately, the losing doesn't really have anything to do with him. And yes, he is expensive now vis-a-vis his performance, by they knew that would happen. This is what teams like the Yankees do -- they offer more years and more money and no-trade clauses, knowing the deals will be costly at the end of them, in order to out-bid teams who can't afford to take that financial hit. For a long time, they suspected they were a better team with Jason Giambi on the DL than on the field. Now they've got the numbers to prove it.
No, they didn't, if they had a brain. And no, they don't now.
You wrote this ab absurdo. I end this analysis ab irato.
If you feel like you deserve something, you will get it.
The Secret.
If you want to want to win a baseball game, you just need the right feeling.
The Secret.
Yankees-White Sox, YES Network: Paul O'Neill: Michael, you've seen more games than Joe and I combined this year, and there's just a feeling this year that when they get behind, they don't have that feeling that they're going to come back and win the game. And as few games as I've seen this year, called live, you don't get that feeling when they're behind early in the game that they believe they're going to come back and win.
Feeling. Feeling. Feeling.
The Secret.
Michael Kay: They haven't had enough of a body of work doing that where they feel confident that's going to happen. They had a couple of those because of Alex Rodriguez in April, but it's been tough sledding. And I think that the big difference in this team, and you said it last time we worked together in Yankee Stadium, the Yankees of the late '90s and early '00s, you know, they thought they were going to win all the time. Now, I don't know if that same feeling is there. I don't know if they go out thinking "We are going to beat this team no matter what." Now I think there's a little more hoping than believing.
Confident. Feeling. Believing.
The Secret.
(The 2007 New York Yankees' team ERA+ is 90.
The ERA+s of the World Series-winning Yankee squads:
One of my favorite things about June is that sportswriters start proposing trades, and they're almost always loonytunes. (Steve Phillips, par example.) The 2007 edition of "They should totally do this!" has been officially kicked-off by FJM fave Phil Rogers.
Given the growing desperation of the two teams [Yankees and ChiSox], is it out of the question Sox general manager Ken Williams would package Joe Crede and Mark Buehrle to the Yankees for [Alex] Rodriguez, outfielder Melky Cabrera and a live arm or two? It's the kind of big-name trade Williams seems to love making. Rodriguez has a no-trade clause in his contract and Scott Boras as his agent, but you have to think he wants out of New York more than ever now that the New York Post is staking him out in hotel elevators.
Well done, sir.
I'm guessing that the real reason this would never happen is because Brian Cashman is a sentient human being with the ability to understand basic information. Joe Crede is a good fielding 3Bman who did hit 30 HR last year (in what might have been a career year) and this year is crashing to earth, sporting a .216 EqA. Mark Buehrle is a pretty good pitcher. Alex Rodriguez is one of the best baseball players in the history of baseball. Melky Cabrera is a 22 year-old OF with good upside. One or two "live arms" are anonymous pitchers with, presumably, some upside.
And before you fire off emails talking about how ARod is miserable and will void his contract at the end of the year and blah blah blah: Buehrle is a free agent after this year. And Crede has one more arb year and then he's free.
So, the proposed trade is:
YANKEES GET 1. Decent LHP (28th in VORP this year) who has a career K/9IP rate of 5.3, which is: eh, and who could leave at the end of the year 2. Good defensive third baseman who has shown good power in the past, whose career OBP is a Guzman-esque .306
WHITE SOX GET 1. One of the very best baseball players of all time 2. A 4th OF who's 22 years old and had a .750 OPS last year 3. A live arm 4. Another live arm
I am not a trained psychologist, but I can say with 100% certainty that Newsday's Wallace Matthews has serious emotional problems. How else to explain this bizarre ad hominem attack on Tim Wakefield?
If the commissioner of baseball truly wants to get to the bottom of one of the great mysteries of his game, he can shelve the steroid investigation and start looking into how Tim Wakefield has managed to get away with his act for the past 15 years.
Let's just get a few facts and figures out of the way right off the bat, here. In his career, Tim Wakefield has thrown almost 2500 IP at an ERA+ of 109. That's pretty solid. Only twice has he ended the season with a below-league-average ERA+. In 2002 he had a 157 ERA+ and a WHIP just over 1.0. This year, at the age of 40, he has a 139 ERA+ in 57 IP. That's pretty darned good for a fourth starter.
In 1995, he was 3rd in the Cy Young voting and 13th in the MVP voting.
Let's face it, we already know that Juicin' Giambi, among many others, took steroids, that baseball's greatest batting records are already either irrevocably tainted or soon about to be, and that at least three of its MVP awards were won by cheaters under false pretenses.
What I want to know is, how in the world has Wakefield been able to draw a major-league paycheck since 1992 with the kind of stuff you generally see at a family barbecue?
What is your deal, man? How does this have anything to do with steroids, even in an over-the-top facetious way? Seriously, what are you talking about? The guy is a rock-solid MLB pitcher. He has better numbers year-in year-out than the majority of the other MLB pitchers. In this day and age, if a guy can throw the ball backwards over his head lefthanded and post a 109 ERA+ over 2500 innings, he's going to be very successful. In fact, one could argue that Wakefield's contract, which pays him $4 million a year in perpetuity at his team's discretion, is one of the absolute best veteran contracts in all of MLB for any team. His knuckleball, or whatever you want to call it, is a bigger menace to the game than steroids, growth hormone or Clomid will ever be. Okay. Even though you're joking, this is actually offensive to me. This is the sports journalism equivalent of yelling "fire" in a crowded theater. You need to apologize for this. I'm not kidding.
When Wakefield is pitching, the game moves slower than David Ortiz going from home to first.
Here are the times of the 8 games Wakefield has pitched in this year:
April 6: 6IP., 2:14 April 13: 7IP, 2:49 (and the Sox scored 10 runs) April 18: 7IP, 2:24 April 23: 6IP, 3:02 April 28: 5.1IP, 3:25 (nine total pitchers used, one long injury delay) May 4: 7IP, 2:33 May 10: 7IP, 2:18 May 15: 7IP, 2:45
The average time of a baseball game in 2006 was 2:51. Tim Wakefield works very quickly, and the longer he pitches, the faster the games go.
If as many guys in major-league baseball threw the knuckler as have taken performance-enhancing drugs, the game and its fans would have died of boredom years ago.
Hey! What did I just say to you? This is shitty irresponsible journalism. Steroids are actual health risks. They kill kids sometimes. MLB stood idly by and allowed them to infiltrate and generally fuck up the game that I love. Tim Wakefield is a good dude who is good at baseball. His knuckleball has nothing to do with anything bad. If anything, actually, it is a cool (and dying) link to the past. So shut the fuck up.
At 40 years old, Wakefield might not be quite ready to retire, but it certainly is time to retire his reputation as a Yankees killer. After last night, when he allowed six runs and five walks in five stupendously mind-numbing innings, his record in his last nine starts against the Yankees stands at 1-7, with an ERA of 6.00. That's not even counting the home run he allowed to Aaron Boone that put the Yankees into the 2003 World Series. In October, he's done more for this franchise than Alex Rodriguez.
Wake has struggled against the Yanks recently. But look at this game (6IP, 2H, 2R and a win) and then look at this game a few days later (7IP, 5H, 1R, and the win), and then shut the fuck up, please, again, thank you.
So before you start to think that the Yankees, who have now won two straight, are back to normal, here's one bit of advice: Now, let's see them do it against a major-league pitcher.
If you thought the Yankees were "back to normal" after salvaging one game of a 3-game series with the Mets and then winning the first game of a series with the Red Sox, making them an awesomely "back to normal" 4-6 in their last 10 games, you are already a moron, and if you think that Tim Wakefield is not a "major-league pitcher" you are a double moron, and if you just blindly write spittle-laden hate pieces against a guy because he doesn't throw fastballs despite the fact that he has pitched an an above-average level for fifteen years, you are a triple-asshole moron, which are very rare. So, this is actually quite an honor, to be reading your writing, good sir!
Wakefield may very well be the least entertaining player ever to appear in a major-league uniform, unless of course passed balls, uncontested stolen bases, endless delays between pitches and three-ball counts on every batter is your idea of fun.
Well, your claims about speed have been scientifically disproven. Passed balls are indeed an element of his game, yes, as are a lot of stolen bases. Over his career, Wake walks 3.0 per nine innings. Tom Glavine is at 2.7, as is Randy Johnson. So, there you have it. Tim Wakefield: walking one more person every three games or so than Tom Glavine and Randy Johnson.
Last night's 6-2 victory over the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium was like watching a T-ball game, only slower. There's nothing remotely entertaining about watching big-league hitters stand rock still in the box, waiting for the ball to make its interminable trip from Wakefield's hand to home plate, then rock back on their heels to swing for Westchester County.
I happen to think it's incredibly entertaining to watch him pitch. It's weird and different and fun. Perhaps you would like all pitchers to be replaced by pitching machines, and for the batter to be able to program the pitch speed and location. Now that would be some fun-style baseball!
And the only thing slower than Wakefield's knuckler is the time he wastes in between throwing it.
I have already shown you to be a moron when you make this claim. And yet you continue to make it. Your only real move right now is to resign in disgrace.
Once Terry Francona, and the rest of Yankee Stadium, had seen enough, the remainder of the game moved along in an orderly fashion. By then, of course, Wakefield had done his job, at least for the Yankees. He got Rodriguez back on track in the first inning, allowing a monstrous two-run homer, and did the same for Giambi, who claims now to be playing with the help of nothing more than orthotics for his aching feet. In fact, Giambi's performance-enhancer of choice last night was Wakefield, who served him an upper-deck homer in the second and walks in the third and fifth.
He also did wonders for Johnny Damon, who had three hits off him, and Robinson Cano, who tagged him for a double and a three-run triple. In fact, by the time Wakefield was lifted, it was hard to believe this was the same Yankees team that was sitting dead in the water, four games below .500, 10 1/2 games behind the Red Sox and 7 1/2 games out of the AL wild-card spot.
The Yankees are very good hitters. They hit all kinds of pitchers. Last night they hit Wakefield. What is your point? That Wakefield losing that game is going to propel the Yankees to a return to glory? Well, Papelbon just struck out Captain Intangibles looking, and the Yankees are right back where they were before Wake took the hill.
A sweep would still leave the Yankees 7 1/2 games out,
Irrelevant, now.
and to reach 90 wins, the minimum number any team could expect to need to eke out a playoff spot, they would have to go 70-49 the rest of the way. Under any circumstances, it is a lot to ask.
Unless, of course, they get to face Wakefield 70 more times.
Why do you hate Tim Wakefield? What is your problem? Is this just sour grapes because ther Yankees are having a bad year, or something? Seriously. I need to know. Please, Wallace Matthews, if you ever read this, e-mail me and explain this weird factually inaccurate and bizarre attack so I can sleep at night.
(I mean, Papelbon just struck out Jeter looking to end the game, so I'll sleep fine. But I would sleep better if you e-mail me and explain yourself.)
Here's one. Her name is Gwen Knapp, and I'm guessing she had a deadline, and had nothing to write about, and Googled "Yankees+cliches+team chemistry+true yankee" and cribbed a bunch of other crap to write this:
(starts with a perfectly good analysis of the injuries that have hit the Yankees this season. Then...)
