A New York Yankees Blog, a New York Giants Blog
Papa Bear CC Sabathia did jot opt out after all but instead accepted a contract extension. Now, the Yankeess and Sabathia are linked for 5 more years and $122 million – a 6th year automatically vests (as long as he’s healthy) at $20 million.
Oh yeah, the cardinals won the world series… nice pun, Bergen Record.
The New York Times’ Tyler Kepner called game 6 of his year’s World Series “a sublime game 6 that will rank among the greatest in World Series history.”
Really? That sloppy, error filled mess was one of the great games in world series history? Not only can I think of better world series games, I can think of a better game 6 – see the 2001 world series.
But whatever – I’m glad the Cardinals won, because who wants to root for Texas?
I picked the Cardinals to win it all and I’m sticking with that.
Tonight, the American League Wildcard Race could be decided (as could the National League Wildcard Race, but yawn), unless both the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays have the same outcome, but that’s not what I foresee.
After last night’s victory over the Orioles, the Red Sox have to be a bit drained. Tonight, the BoSox are sending Jon Lester to the hill on short rest – I know it’s a must win game for them, but is this really their best option? Given the state of their pitching, it actually is. Also, Jonathan Papelbon threw over 25 pitches last night and although he had Monday off, he also threw a ton of pitches against he Yankees on Sunday. If they need him, how much does he have left? What about Daniel Bard? He also pitched yesterday. The Red Sox inabilty to keep the lowly Baltimore Orioles off the scoreboard is a problem that is bound to bite them in the butt again and although the Red Sox offense produced last night, it’s hard to have any faith in the team that has posted a 6-19 mark this month.
As for the Rays, they’re sitting pretty. The Rays will send power lefty David Price up against the Yankees starting pitcher To Be Decided – not to mention the fact that most position players not named Alex Rodriguez will probably ride the pine, and I don’t expect the Yankees to use any of their key relievers tonight, including Mariano Rivera, David Robertson or Rafael Soriano. Maybe the Yankees will start one of their kids like Dellin Betances and back him up with the likes of Andrew Brackman and Scott Proctor, although I also expect Phil Hughes to make an appearance out of the pen as that’s the role he’ll have in the playoffs. So yeah, I expect Tampa to beat the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Yankees tonight. I mean the New York Yankees… whatever.
The Red Sox are certainly a better team than the Rays, but everything is against the Red Sox tonight while down in Tampa, every possible situation the Rays could ask for is coming to fruition. If you’re a gambler, put some money on Tampa to win.
I never thought I would see this day come to pass. Am I the only one that is surprised to see Brad Pitt on the cover of Sports Illustrated starring in a sports movie that isn’t an inspirational sports movie? I haven’t seen Money Ball yet, but I’m looking forward to it – still, Money Ball is about business rather than sports, so it should be interesting to see how they dramatized the material.
I took a trip to San Francisco and was able to see the Dodgers at the Giants in a battle of former New York teams on September 10, 2011.
"Brian, what are you doing here, talking to me? You should be in Texas, begging Andy Pettitte not to retire..."
In all honesty, it doesn’t matter now whether or not Andy Pettitte retires or not. Now that Cliff Lee has become the number two starter in Philadelphia with the Phillies, joining Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels, does it really matter what anybody else does this winter? Can you imagine facing this foursome in the World Series? It boggles the mind! The Phillies are now the immediate favorite (by a lot) to win the 2011 World Series behind their formidable pitching staff that makes the 2010 San Francisco Giants staff look pale by comparison. OK, I admit that I’m panicking a little, but we’re two starters short and December is almost over!
The Yankees Hot Stove has been cooled significantly, and exactly where they go from here is anybody’s guess. Well, we can guess that the Yankees are going to make a trade; they just signed catcher Russell Martin, so maybe they are planning to package a catching prospect (Jesus Montero, Austin Romain) and some pitching prospects together for a starting pitcher… but who knows?
I assume we’ll get the official word on Pettitte any day now. You would assume the Yankees will make their move shortly after that. We can only hope…
Giants clobber another inferior opponent
Another day, another dollar. Good teams have to beat the bad teams, and that’s what the Giants have been doing the last two weeks. The bad news is Steve Smith is hurt again, and he’s done for the season. We’ll have to hope someone will step up in his place, but as we looked toward the playoffs, I don’t really know what to expect… if the team can get hot at the right time and Eli can stop throwing picks, anything is possible.
Like the class act he is, Mariano Rivera resigned with the Yankees for 2 years/$30 million dollars. Sure, other teams offered him more, but Mo doesn’t play that. He’s a Yankee. Besides, $30 million is nothing to sneeze at, even if you are as great as Mo, but especially because he’s over 40 years old. Try explaining that to Jeter…
"Because Derek Jeter, for lack of a better word, is good."
Borderline diva Derek Jeter also resigned for 3 years/$51 million – but really, its either 3 years/$54 million if the Yankees buy out the fourth year player option or 4 years/$59 million if they don’t. Jeter has been out there saying he’s not happy with the way the negotiations were handled, but frankly, when the Yankees offered 3 years/$45 million and Jeter rejected it and then the Yankees bid against themselves just to make Jeter happy… well, I don’t have much sympathy for Jeter. 3 years/$45 million was not a fair offer, it was a generous offer, because even if it was a pay cut from Jeter’s previous salary, it still makes him the richest middle infielder in baseball. But Jeter is mad about how public things got and Brian Cashman’s suggestion that he shop around if he thought their offer was unfair despite Jeter’s testimonial to the Yankee brass that he wouldn’t even talk to other teams. Well, when Jeter turned down a generous offer like 3 years/$45 million and let his representation call it a “baffling” offer and the media said he was greedy… What did he expect to happen? He was being greedy, and that’s fine; this could be the last contract that he gets, and he has every right to pursue every last dollar. But the bottom line is that the Yankee’s first offer was an overpayment, they sweetened the deal and he still wasn’t happy because the negotiations weren’t all hearts and flowers. Anyway, Jeter got his money, shot his mouth off – great. Let’s hope this is the last we hear of this for the next few years.
The Red Sox signed Carl Crawford for 7 years/ $142 million… that’s a spicy falafel ball. Think about it this way – he makes $2 million less than Mark Teixeira. That seems a bit crazy to me. I speculate about whether or not the Yankees were ever really interested in Crawford… I know they’ve been singing his praises for years, but I’m starting to wonder if they were doing that just to drive up the price a little… I never thought Crawford would get this big of a deal. I understand that he hit well in the three spot in limited duty there last year (49 games: .323 avg, .364 OBP, .526 slugging, 7 home runs), but I don’t think anyone expects him to blossom into a power hitter, and as his speed dissipates with age, Crawford will be extremely overpaid… kind of like Derek Jeter at the end of his last deal. It’s also a bit curious why the Red Sox signed a speedster to play the smallest left field in the league, but what do I know? Maybe he’ll be great for all seven years, but I wouldn’t bet on it. I also don’t get why this is a brilliant move… why is paying someone $20 million a year to his singles and steal bases brilliant?
Finally, did you hear what Luke Scott said about the President? It was very 2008:
“[Obama] was not born here,” Scott asserted to Answer Man in the session’s last segment. “That’s my belief. I was born here. If someone accuses me of not being born here, I can go — within 10 minutes — to my filing cabinet and I can pick up my real birth certificate and I can go, ‘See? Look! Here it is. Here it is.’ The man has dodged everything. He dodges questions, he doesn’t answer anything.”
What a loser Scott is. The president should respond with the following statement: “I look forward to meeting Mr. Scott next fall after the Orioles win the World Series… Oh wait, I forgot – the Orioles are horrible. Suck on that, Luke. You’re a born loser. ‘No you can’t!’ Sucka.”
(I was going to write something about the Giants demolishing the Redskins, but I figured, what’s the point? The Redskins are AWFUL.)
I used to work in technical theater, so I’ve seen about a zillion lectures, concerts, plays and performances of all shapes and sizes. Still, I have to say, I was not prepared for Bernie Williams In Words and Music at William Paterson University on Friday, November 12.
Unfortunately, I didn’t bring a pen, so details are going to be sparse. I thought referring back to the program might be helpful, but not as much as I would have liked. First, Mr. Williams played a song with the William Paterson Jazz Orchestra. Then, he joined Phil Pepe, who peppered Mr. Williams with questions about this and that. I’m no Bernie Williams scholar, so I was particularly interested to learn that Mr. Williams went to a performing arts high school. Otherwise, the interview was not particularly revealing. After the interview was over, Mr. Williams rejoined the William Paterson Jazz Orchestra and played several songs – again, what songs were played was not noted in the program and I didn’t bring a pen and paper, so I don’t have that information.
I’m really happy that William Paterson University is really happy with their jazz program, and I enjoyed listening to the students play as well as recognizing the music theory students who wrote the arrangements the jazz band played of Bernie Williams’ songs, but in all honestly, I must say that I didn’t buy a ticket to the event to listen to Dr. WHATSHISNAME sing his own praises, Mr. Williams’ praises, his student’s praises, or practice his stand up comedy. I would agree that the night was about music as much as it was about anything else, but it was supposed to be about Mr. Williams’ music, not the University’s jazz program. Now if Mr. Williams wanted to take a time out and speak for ten minutes about the University or if it was necessary to fill time while Bernie was in the men’s room, that’s one thing, but again, I didn’t buy tickets to this event to watch Bernie stand there awkwardly holding his guitar.
The information I had said the event would last from 7 to 9, but they must have meant they had the Shea Performing Arts Center booked until 9, because they wrapped things up closer to 8:45 if not earlier, which I thought was disappointing. This cut the Q&A terribly short and only allowed maybe six or seven questions from the audience; in my experience, Q&A sessions usually last an hour, or at least an hour is allowed for them. I think a half hour would have been fine, but it went all too quick, and many people who waited patiently on a very short line didn’t get to ask their question. The moderator even suggested that they were running behind… how that could be, I couldn’t guess. The most interesting tidbit to come out of the Q&A was that Bernie has an interest in coaching someday, but he’s not ready yet. Also, Bernie noted that he was not yet officially retired, which might be holding up the Bernie Williams Day crusade.
I also want to say how disappointed I was with a minority of the crowd. People were walking out during the Q&A, like they were trying to beat the traffic or something. It was embarrassing.
Bernie Williams rejoined the jazz band to close out the show with his rendition of Take Me Out To The Ballgame. I found this superior to the version I’ve heard Bernie play by himself; in spite of his superior arranging, I’ve always it repetitive. But I enjoyed the evening, and I hope to see Bernie Williams at a similar event again sometime soon.
program cover from Bernie Williams In Words and Music at William Paterson University
I read an AP article this morning that blew my mind in both the good and bad way:
The first topic centered around Bud Selig’s willingness to expand the MLB playoff schedule. I am in favor of this, but it has to be done correctly, and the only way I see this working is if they shorten the regular season. How much, exactly, I don’t know… maybe reduce 162 games to 150 games, as I’ve suggested before. Again, I think 12 teams in the postseason (like the NFL) rather than 8 teams would be great, leaving 18 teams behind. I think the first round will have to be a best of 5 and the last three rounds can be the preferred best of 7; I don’t want the playoffs to last two months like the NBA and the NHL. This could be great; it just has to be done carefully… if we end up having game 7 of the World Series in Minnesota on November 15, it could be a disaster.
(I don’t want to repeat a bunch of comments you may have already read – check out my post from last September Proposing a new MLB schedule and playoff structure if you missed it)
Also speaking before the game, Rangers president Nolan Ryan said he was in favor of eliminating the designated hitter in order to standardize rules between the leagues.
Whoa there. Where the hell did that come from? I know Nolan Ryan is a crazy Texan that has owned the Rangers for less time than Cliff Lee has pitched for them, but wow – that is straight up crazy shiz. The designated hitter doesn’t need to be eliminated from the American League, it needs to be added to the National League! I understand Ryan is a former pitcher (and a brilliant one at that) and in his mind, having an automatic out in the lineup is just fine, but I don’t agree. At all. Why would you want to watch the pitcher hit? Pitchers almost always stink at hitting. The worst thing you’ll ever hear a baseball announcer say is, “Two on, two out and the pitcher steps to the plate.” It’s almost immediately followed by one of the following:
1. “Strike three looking.”
2. “Strike three swinging.”
3. “A soft grounder to [insert anyone on the infield here], throws to first and [name of pitcher pitching here] works out of trouble.”
Watching the pitcher hit is a painful experience – it’s what they invented the DH for in the first place – to avoid misery. Sure, people love offense, and that’s great, but the DH also exists because it’s ridiculous to expect starting pitchers to hit at the MLB level when they only get a few at bats a week, and its even more ridiculous to expect relief pitchers to hit when they get only a few at bats a month, if any. Sure, it’s fun (or hilarious) when they succeed, but it’s not worth the misery. Ryan must be nuts; somebody make that guy take his meds.
So wow, busy morning. I’ve already forgotten that the Giants dropped a 7 spot on the Rangers late last night during game 2, winning 9-0. If you check my Twitter, you’ll note that I’ve adjusted my picks to the Giants winning this series in 6 games… which isn’t looking like a solid pick right now – more like the Giants in 5.
Stay tuned for 2010-2011 Off Season action!
I wouldn’t say I’m unhappy with the current structure of the baseball playoffs, but I do think it could be improved. SI’s Tom Verducci wrote a silly proposal about creating a Wild Card Weekend of sorts where the winner of the Wild Card would play the next best team in a game playoff for the right to play the team with the best record in the first round of the playoffs. Verducci’s idea is to inject more drama into baseball… This idea is worse than the best of five series, but more on that later.
I do think it’s time for MLB to make some changes. The first thing they should do is take the 3 divisions concept and throw that in the garbage. The next thing to do is to take inter-league play and march that off a cliff. The unbalanced schedule? That’s gone, too. Then they should cut the season down to 150 games or so. Finally, I’d like to see 12 teams make the playoffs. Let’s take this one point at a time:
Removing the Divisions
Do we really need these? No, we don’t. Winning the division essentially means nothing right now – as long as you make the playoffs, you make the playoffs as there is no penalty for winning the wild card. Does it really matter to the Rays and Yankees which one of them wins the AL East? I doubt it.
Removing Inter-League Play
Am I the only one who is tired of inter-league play? Sure, it’s cool to see some players or stadiums you wouldn’t ordinarily see, but this year, we saw the Houston Astros… big deal. The Yankees play the Mets every year, that’s all well and good, but in the end, I don’t need the Yankees to beat the Mets any more than I need them to beat the Orioles – in a 6 month season, it doesn’t really matter.
Removing the Unbalanced Schedule
I don’t understand why MLB thinks that the unbalanced schedule and the wildcard are compatible. Imagine an AL Central team wins the wild card – lets say the Tigers beat out the Rays by 1 game and win the wild card. The Tigers played the Royals 18 games during the year, while the Rays played them 6 times… that sounds unfair to me. Since I want to mothball the divisions, I don’t see why everyone can’t play everyone the same amount of times. Math is hard, but we’ll figure it out.
Shortening the Season
I don’t want to go too crazy, but I think 150 games or so sounds about right. The season doesn’t need to start in March and the playoffs don’t need to end in November, and I think trading 10 plus games for more playoffs is a fair trade.
12 Teams make the Playoffs
Six teams per league, folks. And since there will be no divisions, I want the six teams with the best records. I don’t want any flukes, so no more best of 5 series. I also want only 2 off days per series and 1 off day in between series.
There you have it – a system I think could be a lot more fun than the one we currently have in place. Time will tell if MLB will ever make a change, but as long as Bud Selig is around, I wouldn’t count on it.
Jamie Insalaco
