Coverage of the 2009 New York Yankees

Working on Some Things

2009-04-14T03:17:00.002-04:00

I'm working on something here, which I will talk about some more once I get the ball really rolling. Better stuff on tap.

-Tom

Worse Radio Switch- 92.3 to Top 40, or Kellerman for Cowherd

2009-03-30T18:22:00.002-04:00

Now, I can tell you right now that nobody mourned the loss of K-Rock more than I did. I'm driving in to work now with literally no music to listen to on the radio. Add that to the fact that it's gone to a Top 40 station like Z-100, and it's adding insult to injury.

92.3 was the first station on my FM station on my dial, and my girlfriend will attest to the fact that I am adamant about how much Top 40 music sucks. So that was a huge loss.

But I have to admit, what 1050 ESPN radio did was even more unbearable.

A couple of years ago I worked a job that afforded me a lot of time to listen to radio over the summer. The only caveat was that it was online, so ESPN's national broadcast was all that was available at the time other than WFAN. So I'd connect and I started listening to Colin Cowherd talk sports on the radio. I got through about an hour before I wanted to stab myself through the temple.

Now, I am clearly not Cowherd's demographic when it comes to sports-talk radio. I love watching sports, going to games, talking about sports, and trying to solve the problems of how to make my team better. I know a lot more than I should about specifics in sports, and can have a solid debate with anybody you throw out there. In a sense, I'm not a complete retard.

I am not one of the people Cowherd associates himself with. The first time I listened to him that summer, he railed against OPS, lambasting it for being meaningless nonsense that geeks who've never played the sport in their life use to break down the game.

When you grow up playing baseball (like I did) you are taught that your job at the plate is to get on base anyway you can. If you get on base, you can score runs and ultimately win the game. Very simple concept, which leads to On Base Percentage.

As you play baseball getting older (like I did) you come to realize that the better players are the ones who can hit for extra bases. Those are the dangerous guys you pitch around in the lineup defensively. Those are the guys you try to get on base ahead of offensively, because they give you the greatest chance at knocking runs in. Because a double is better than a single, and a homerun is better than a double, that stat of Slugging Percentage was created as a means of tracking how many total bases a player accumulates.

Add the two together and you have On Base Plus Slugging, or OPS, which is a way to measure a hitter's rate of success.

Now I'm not a hardcore sabermetrician, but I'd be far too much of a 'stat nerd' for Cowherd's liking. I think OPS is one of the best ways to determine which hitters are the best in baseball, so I'm a geek.

After that, I never listened to him again.

I started listening to Max Kellerman on the radio about a year ago, and I'll admit I was already a fan of his. He was a brash, arrogant Yankee fan and New Yorker, but had all his opinions backed up with facts and statistics. As arrogant as Max was, he's rational in his arguments, which I pretty much all I ask for.

During August of last season, Max floated the idea that the Yankee lineup would look better if they batted Jeter leadoff, with Damon second, and Rodriguez third, and Abreu fourth. The logic was that your best hitters would get more at bats with Jeter and A-Rod moved up, Jeter would have fewer GIDPs, and Abreu's presence would afford A-Rod better pitches to hit.

It was brushed off as illogical by many- "you got Damon to be a leadoff hitter"- but I bought into it.

Low and behold, Jeter is going into this season as the Yankees leadoff hitter. Joe Girardi (who was hired because he was such a stat nerd) saw the benefits of toying with the lineup, and will flip flop Jeter and Damon. For what it's worth, Jeter is a significantly better leadoff hitter (and hitter in general) in his career when compared to Damon statistically.

So as of a couple of weeks ago Kellerman is out after a mutual agreement was reached with ESPN Radio, and he was replaced with Cowherd's during the midday show. I caught some of it today, and suffice to say that Cowherd is still a retard. Apparently fans are only true fans if they don't go to games when tickets are too expensive, or some shit. I don't know, I couldn't be bothered to continue to listen to his version of 'logic'.

I don't know if Kellerman has something better lined up or if he was pushed out by higher ups, but I do know that I won't listen to ESPN radio anymore because of it.

Less than 2 Weeks

2009-03-24T22:27:00.002-04:00

You know, maybe A-Rod is smarter than all of us give him credit for. He does so much stupid shit, the public is really getting to the point where they don't care. He was involved with the Spitzer hooker ring, and I heard about it for 15 minutes. By the time he gets back in May, people will have forgotten he was on steroids.

Seriously, I'm pretty sure it's going to come out that he killed Jon Benet Ramsey, and people will just shrug it off. He's going with the Manny Ramirez philosophy of "I want to, but I can't rip him. I think he's just batshit insane." So give some credit to the A-Rod team of handlers, they really know what they're doing.

There's an old adage that says 'a pair of shoes fits well, if you forget about your feet.'

I have no idea what that means, but there's another one that says 'pitching wins championships.' And for the first time in a long time, that's the strong point of this Yankee team.

You know what you're getting from Sabathia, Wang, and Pettitte. Lots of innings at a superb, above average, and league average ERA, respectively. The two question marks in the rotation aren't the usual "does Kevin Brown have a year left" or "can Randy Johnson handle New York." Its "is Burnett really over his health issues", and "how good is Joba going to be?"

There are adequate arms waiting in the wings in a pinch, highlighted by 22 year-old Phil Hughes. And my God, the bullpen. Rivera is at the very least a deity of some kind. Marte is the Stanton we haven't had since... Stanton. And there are a variety of arms, each with unique, significant pluses- Bruney, Ramirez, Veras, Robertson, Coke, Giese.

This is the most significant reason why 2009 is different than every year since '03.

A Final Thought

2009-02-10T18:59:00.002-05:00

My final thought on this before hopefully moving on to baseball this week is this-

Yes, Rodriguez took steroids. So did Pettitte, and we cheered him. So did Giambi, and we had mustache day at the Stadium.

Yankee fans are going to have to get over the fact that Rodriguez took steroids. We have to rally around our team and support them. There was going to be more than enough vitriol coming from all angles this season anyway, now it's going to be tenfold. It will be detrimental to the team to boo A-Rod, so get over it.

You know if this was David Ortiz, or Josh Beckett, or Kevin Youkilis, that the fans in Boston would have their back. We've got to be able to stick up for our team, no matter how much we probably dislike the player.

This team is too good to have it torpedoed by some stupid bullshit from six years ago.

Roberts, Harvey Dent, San Mariano de Panama

2009-02-10T17:12:00.004-05:00

Yes she got the story, and was obviously right about it. That doesn't change the fact that Selena Roberts is a self serving bitch.

She buried the Duke Lacrosse kids a few years ago during the entire proceeding. Even after they were exonerated, she refused to paint the kids in a positive light. Her bleeding heart attitude toward the poor stripper who falsely accused college kids of rape says a lot about her character. (Side note- is there anything more brazenly selfish than making up a rape charge? It destroys the character of who you are talking about and is a slap in the face to anybody who has had to deal with actually being raped. That's disgusting.)

I'm sure Rodriguez is telling some form of truth about how aggressive she was while "investigating" him. Get on Rodriguez all you want, "this lady" is no saint in this. She wasn't doing this for journalistic integrity or righteousness. She's been writing a book about Rodriguez and has been trying to dig up dirt on him.

If her sources can get her one name, her sources can get her the rest of the names. She didn't push for it because she got the name that will sell her books.

I can't help but compare Alex Rodriguez to the Harvey Dent character from the Dark Knight. He was supposed to be the one who rescued us from the evil of steroids by making the homerun record pure again. But in the process he was corrupted by the evil around him, and became the poster child for the problem. The problem is there is no Batman to fall on the sword for A-Rod, and Two Face is now known publicly.

This whole mess has left me even more cynical than I was before about professional athletes. The only two guys left who it would kill me to hear took steroids are Jeter and Rivera. And even Jeter... it wouldn't be the most unbelievable thing in the world. Look at his rookie card vs. when he was banging Jessica Biel.

http://www.homeruncards.com/imagesrc/jeterud.jpg
http://rpjsyndicate.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/jeter_biel4.jpg

And his numbers in say, 1999, are way up there compared to everything else he's put up.

Sigh. Who knows. I hope he didn't.

That leaves me with Rivera, who I sincerely doubt has ever taken them. He's been consistently lanky and dominant his whole life. That's our hero in this mess.

Re-Tard

2009-02-10T02:09:00.002-05:00

We all knew A-Rod was going to pass Barry Bonds one day, just not in this manner.

His interview with Peter Gammons confirms exactly what I've thought about him since this Madonna thing came out. Rodriguez is dumb. Really dumb.

Here he is, hands down the most talented guy in the league, putting shit in his body given to him by meatheads in Texas. Here he is, role model for what's special about the game, and he's still taking steroids before a survey test done by the MLB for steroids.

But why are we surprised? This is the guy who dissed his best friend Jeter in a magazine article for no reason. This is the guy who turned down the offer from the ready-to-win Mets to take more money from the Rangers. The guy who gave both his kids the same middle name, Alexander. He has two daughters.

He cheated on his supermodel wife with a butch stripper. Then he cheated on her with a singer who is more used up than everyone else on TMZ combined. The guy who listened to Scott Boras and thought it was a great idea to opt out of his contract, and do so during Game 4 of the World Series.

He bought into Kabbalah.

He is an idiot.

For this reason, I take him at his word that he took steroids without knowing exactly what it is. Fuck, Palmiero probably asked Alex to try out his brand new syringe kit.

A-Rod is the type of guy who would reply to the Nigerian prince via email, or comply with the wallet inspector.

The interview was basically a cakewalk for Alex and I'd imagine that if and when he meets with the New York media, he's going to have to do a lot better. He didn't specifically say when he started, he didn't specifically say who turned him on to it. Those are things he's absolutely going to have to address going forward. If he's trying to go the Andy Pettitte route, which is probably his best course of action, he's going to need to be 100% honest.

By not mentioning who introduced him to steroids, Rodriguez leads me to believe it was another ballplayer and not somebody from the gym. He didn't want to throw another union guy under the bus.

I don't buy that he got the wakeup call when he got a strained neck, or whatever bullshit that was about. He got the wakeup call when they made steroid testing mandatory for everyone in 2004. He's not that stupid.

But I also do not buy the idea that they made him the player he is.

He played in Texas and posted numbers that fall in line with his career averages when you take park considerations into account (ie. Texas is a bandbox, and that had more to do with his homerun numbers than any drug he took.)

He posted higher OPS+ numbers before he left Seattle, and twice in his four years with the Yankees.

Look. He got the richest contract in baseball history before he took steroids. The steroids did not make him a great player. You're not the number 1 overall pick, let alone playing in the big leagues at 18, because you're taking steroids. He is a great, great player.

Like I said with Bonds, it's a shame he took steroids. I'd have loved to see his numbers stack up cleanly with the greats in history, but that's an impossibility now.

To those fucking morons who are saying the Yankees should cut him loose, shut the fuck up. First off, he didn't test positive for steroids today. He did in 2003, before he was with the Yankees, anonymously. The Yankees have no grounds to get out of the contract. And if they tried to push it, they'd be laughed out of court.

Even ignoring of all that, why in God's name would the Yankees want to get out of his contract? He is still in the prime of his career. This isn't a washed up Jason Giambi we're talking about here. This is the best hitter in the American League. After all that work they put into fixing the hole in the lineup by getting Teixeira, they're going to get rid of the guy who lead the league in SLG% last year?

The Yankees (like the other teams in baseball) don't give a shit about past steroid use, they care about production going forward. It's why Giambi got a contract in Oakland, Pettitte is still in pinstripes, and A-Rod is going to be an integral part to Yankee success the next nine seasons. At least.

I can't think of a more uplifiting final post for 2008

2009-02-02T23:10:00.003-05:00

I love that last post. Pretty much summarizes what happened the last two months of the season. A lot has happened since then. The Dev... Rays won the American League, the Yankees flexed their money muscles, and Joe Torre threw his former players under the bus.

You know all that, so I'll just hit on what's relevant right now. I've had the itch to write about this stuff for a few days now.

Up until Christmas, I was legitimately worried about the lineup. You don't know what you're getting from Posada and Matsui, and to a lesser extent Nady, Swisher, and Damon. Centerfield is a black hole offensively with Melky and Gardener, Jeter played hurt all year, Rodriguez had a down year without protection offensively, and Cano was miserable up until he was benched.

Then Cashman went all ninja and signed Teixeira from under the Red Sox noses, and cured lots of my fears. Not only were they able to replace Giambi's contract with Teixeira's, but you take what Giambi did well (batting eye, power) and add them to what Tex can do (glove, average, switch hitter). Perfect move, which bolsters the lineup and makes the infield defense (and pitching) better all over.

However, there's a catch here. Teixeira is a noted slow starter, and gets better as the season progresses. His OPS basically improves every month from .787 in April to .997 in September. Maybe Girardi gets him in shape and hitting early, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him start off similar to his career line, and have the media get on him right away.

The same seems to go for Sabathia, who's April numbers are not pretty on a whole. Add in the adjusting to NY bullshit that everyone goes through, and it could be a rough start. The biggest X-Factor to me is going to be Rodriguez. If he has his odd-numbered year MVP season, he'll make it easier on everyone in the lineup.

There's a million things to go over, and I will hit on some of them as spring training opens. Some of my favorites are the rotation and the bullpen.

Cashman has played this offseason as well as I could have hoped, so I'm looking forward to an outstanding season.

Just don't be shocked by a slow start. It's a road-heavy April, with trips to Tampa and Boston. If they come through the month a few games over .500, we'll be sitting pretty.

This is the end

2008-08-27T11:39:00.003-04:00

Same problems, same shit from A-Rod. Thank God football and hockey start soon.

Fuck this team, man.

This is it

2008-08-25T20:01:00.002-04:00

This is where the Yankees can make their statement. 3 games against the Wild Card leaders, and quite probably the last time the Red Sox will step foot in Yankee Stadium. It should make for one hell of a series.

It all starts tomorrow night, Andy Pettitte against Tim Wakefield. Wakefield is coming off the DL and making his first start since August 6th against Kansas City. Pettitte will try to build on his last 3 starts, going 7 strong innings in each outing.

The Yankees can put themselves right back into the playoff conversation heading into the last month, let's see if they can do it.

The Big Day

2008-08-23T14:42:00.002-04:00

Carl Pavano is starting tonight. Let that sink in.

I for one, am looking forward to this start. Rumor has it that at one point he was a major league pitcher, and even won a World Series. It'd be nice to see him do something to earn the $40 million dollars he's been paid.

I'm not expecting anything big out of him, but it really is a great unknown as to what he's going to do. So it'll be interesting to see what he has. Baltimore has a shitty lineup, he might be able to take advantage of that.

For the record, I would have started Hughes today, but Girardi and company seemed to know that he wasn't ready yet. He was bombed last night in Triple A again, and seems to be suffering from a combination of the flu and a tired arm. I think he'll be back in the rotation around when Joba returns in 2 weeks.

Sign of the apocalypse?

2008-08-21T18:59:00.002-04:00

Carl Pavano is confirmed as Saturday's starting pitcher against the Orioles.

Going to the game Kevin?

Taking care of business

2008-08-21T00:41:00.002-04:00

Pretty straight forward win tonight. Pettitte was rock solid, Jeter continued his hot hitting, and the Yankees won a game they were supposed to.

I haven't gotten into too much detail about the last two games, because I've only seen bits and pieces of them.

The Sox and Rays bailed the Yankees out by losing, and the Yankees will have a chance to close the Wild Card gap to 5 games, as Boston has an off day Thursday night.

Ponson vs. Halladay

It's simple

2008-08-20T11:31:00.002-04:00

If the Red Sox only go .500 down the stretch, which is a possibility considering injuries, the Yankees would have to go 25-12 to make the playoffs.

Have they shown you any reason to think they can do that?

With the loss last night, they now are required to beat Purcey and Halladay. They're going to need to step it up at some point.

If they are going to make it, it is going to be dramatic as shit.

What to do from here- the August 19th Gameplan

2008-08-19T13:42:00.002-04:00

Step 1-

They're going to need to take care of business against the teams they should beat- Seattle, Oakland, Baltimore, Toronto- and take care of business in matchups they shouldn't win, like tonight Burnett against Rasner. If they do all that, it will give them a chance to move to step 2.

Step 2-

They Yankees are going to need to play very well against Boston and Tampa, something like 9-3, 10-2 to really make this close. Anything much less than that, short of an epic collapse by one of the two, and it's going to start being football season much earlier than usual.

Take care of business tonight and build some confidence going forward.

Why they won't

2008-08-19T13:41:00.002-04:00

5.5 games is a lot when you don't hit. Lots of road games, games left of the West Coast won't be easy. And Boston and Tampa don't give away many wins.

Why they'll make the playoffs

2008-08-19T13:36:00.003-04:00

The Yankees will make the playoffs because they're not as bad as they've been playing most of the season. The offense is showing signs of turning around, and can carry them for a month and a half. Xavier Nady and Hideki Matsui will be two huge parts down the stretch. Derek Jeter has stepped his game up the last few weeks, and Alex Rodriguez has hit a few clutch homeruns. Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain and maybe Chien Ming Wang will be back before or during September to help this team down the stretch.

They've also got 6 games left with Boston and 6 left with Tampa. Chances to make up games head to head is how you get back into the race.

Remember, the Mets blew a 7 game lead with 17 games to play. The Yankees just need to make up 5.5 in 40 to catch Boston.

The team is ready to explode, and they can show that soon. Keep an eye on Gardener.

Why they're not done yet

2008-08-19T13:17:00.003-04:00

Why isn't this season already over? There are a few reasons for that too.

1) Mike. Mussina.- Just look at all that. Soak it all in. It is flat out amazing what he's done this year. Most people, myself absolutely included, had Mussina completely donions. He looked shaky through May, and became a completely different pitcher. He's been one of the best pitchers in the American League and is probably the Most Valuable Player on this year's team. Hopefully he gets to 20 wins for the first time in his career, and helps build his Hall of Fame case.

2) Mariano Rivera- His numbers have been sick, as they usually are. This is one of Rivera's best seasons, and that is saying an awful lot. With his 0.75 WHIP and his near 13-1 K/BB ratio, he's been dominant again.

3) Sidney Ponson, really- Say what you will, but 7 of his 9 starts with the Yankees have been good enough. Bad outings against Boston and Texas skew his overall good numbers since joining the Yankees. He's been Aaron Small '08, and will keep pitching this year.

4) Johnny Damon, Derek Jeter- You're looking at the only 2 regulars who are hitting above their season average with RISP.

Xavier Nady and Hideki Matsui also apply, but need more at bats. They may be big down the stretch.

5) Joe Girardi, Dave Eiland- Girardi certainly hasn't been perfect, but his bullpen management has been superb. He turned a glaring weakness under Joe Torre into a strength, no small feat. Edwar Ramirez, Dave Robertson, Jose Veras and Brian Bruney have all been better than expected, so give credit to Eiland as well.

What's gone wrong

2008-08-19T12:40:00.004-04:00

How have the Yankees gone from one of the most feared teams in baseball to a club that is seriously considering a start from this guy? Let's give the quick list.

1) Injuries- Posada and Matsui, who average 96 and 107 RBIs per 162 games have missed most of the season. Jorge was not only a force in the lineup, but a leader in a clubhouse that is in need of direction. Matsui, who is finally back in the lineup tonight, was tearing the cover off the ball before his injury.

With those two players out, we saw significant at bats handed to Chad Moeller, Justin Christian, Brett Gardener and Jose Molina.

2) Situational hitting- This to me is the biggest problem all season. They're batting .272 overall as a team, which ranks better than the best in baseball Angels, who are hitting .264. They also have a significantly higher on base percentage and slugging percentage as a team. But with runners in scoring position the Yankees have been flat out brutal.

.260 as a team with RISP, and .252 with RISP and less than two outs. They're not getting the job done in the clutch, and that's why they've struggled. Rodriguez, Cano and Giambi have been the worst culprits.

3) Melky Cabrera- After a great April and drawing comparisons to a young Bernie Williams, Melky was abominable as a hitter. Maybe he starting trying to hit homeruns too much, maybe he started pressing once he got into a slump, but for 65% of the season, the Yankees had an automatic out in centerfield. The fact that he's now in Scranton is not a surprise. Despite his excellent defense, he's going to need to rediscover his hitting if he wants to get back to the big leagues.

4) Hughes, Kennedy- Injuries played a big part with Hughes, arrogance a big part with Kennedy. Either way they have not gotten anything near what they were supposed to this season. I pictured Hughes' stats to be somewhere around where Mike Pelfrey is this year.

Kennedy is just not a very good major league pitcher. He has to work on commanding both sides of the plate, and needs an out pitch.

5) Wang, Chamberlain- These injuries have been the most devastating to the team's psyche in my opinion. Despite Wang's struggles before getting hurt, he was dependable for solid starts and eating up 200 innings.

I don't need to say anything about Joba. He was the ace the Yankees haven't had for years, and watching him come out of the game in Texas holding his shoulder definitely impacted the rest of the club.

The 2008 New York Yankees

2008-08-19T12:37:00.002-04:00

So apparently I had a blog about the Yankees a few years ago. With a fresh coat of paint and a wheelbarrow full of problems, I figured I'd write about them again down the stretch, of what could be their first missed postseason since 1993. I need to vent somehow.