November 30, 2012

Yankees Austerity Measures

by Jamie Insalaco

I was going to write a post about the Yankees and their 2014 austerity plan, but there are already plenty of good posts about this subject, like this one from Yanks Go Yard and this one from Bronx Baseball Daily. Essentially, I think it’s time to call bullshit on the Yankees. Sure, I get that they’ll save some money if they’re under the luxury tax threshold and that getting under the said luxury tax threshold will resent the interest rate paid the next time they go over it, but when they charge $9 for one beer and your first born child for parking, I expect the Yankees to spend – especially when YES is overflowing the Yankees coffers with money, besides their other revenue streams. I’m not saying that saving $10 million isn’t significant, but when you billions… it’s like me saving $100 bucks. Significant for me, yes, but not a lot of money that will change my life.

Meanwhile, Russell Martin got 2 years and $17 million from the Pirates, which begs the question who will be the Yankees opening day catcher next year. Presumably, someone who can at least catch but probably hit .200 with no power, so… I guess that’s that. And with Nick Swisher presumably leaving, the Yankees really need to find some right handed power in a hurry and one that fits their ass hatted, penny pitching, wasting my mother fucking time budget!

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November 16, 2012

Baseball is just Baseball: The Understated Ichiro [book review]

by Jamie Insalaco

I usually post by book reviews on on my other site, but Baseball is just Baseball:  The Understated Ichiro seems like it belongs here.

Before I get into this, here are a few things I think you should know up front:

  1. You know what Yogi-isms are, right?  Well, this is a book of Ichiro-isms.
  2. Essentially, this is a really small coffee table book – it’s not a biography or anything like that.  You’re not going to learn about his childhood in here.
  3. Although Ichiro is wearing a Yankee uniform on the front cover, the back cover and in every picture inside the book, all of the quotes are from 2001.

It’s selling like hot cakes on Amazon – as of this writing, there are only 19 copies left, which I am totally shocked by.  I keep underestimating Ichiro.  The guy can still play, and I forget how famous he is.   It’s also available on Kindle, so hard copies aren’t the only avenue to pursue.  Here’s a few highlights via slide show:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Here are some additional Ichiro quotes:

Experience reality rather than your expectation of reality.

Believe in yourself.

Don’t take yourself seriously, but find an activity to be passionate about and take that activity very seriously.

Don’t buy the hype.

Dissolve hate into love.

Care more about the process than the product.

Find joy in the seeking itself.

The guy doesn’t just have great bat control – he’s got great inner self control, too.

If you love Ichiro, you need this book.  It’s not the most comprehensive guide into his mind, but it’s a snap shot of how he thinks.  “Failure is the mother of success” is actually quite profound, but when asked why he didn’t slide when stealing third, he answered “I didn’t think he would throw,” and that’s this book in a nutshell.  Ichiro isn’t going to give you any complex explanations; if you tell him there’s a fire, he’s not going to give you point by point directions, he’s going to tell you, “Put it out.”  From a more baseball perspective, someone asked him about a tough catch and he responded that he made the catch because the ball was hit to him.  He’s not interested in over-complicating things, and that’s what you get here, cover to cover.

It’s a real shame there aren’t any new quotes here and it’s a bit misleading that he’s wearing a Yankee uniform in every photo, but this is still worth a look for Ichiro fans and philosophy fans alike.

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November 15, 2012

Catch up!

by Jamie Insalaco

Sorry I haven’t been around for a while. Let’s get caught up, list style!

New York Giants have falling off a cliff

And it’s painful to watch! I recommend raking leaves instead and catching up on other chores. Sure, that’s no fun, but neither is watching the Giants.

The Mega Trade

That 12 player trade between the Marlins and Blue Jays certainly makes the Blue Jays better, but I’m not sure it makes them significantly better. Meanwhile, someone in Miami should go to jail after getting all of that government money for the new stadium and then turning the team into a laughing stock. And now, they’re trying to trade Ricky Nolasco and Logan Morrison, too.

Triple A Name Change

The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees (who were the Empire State Yankees during their homeless season this past year) have officially changed their name to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders for some reason. This brings up two important facts:

1. they are actually going to print that on stuff

2. RailRiders is one word

No Yankees received a vote for the Cy Young Award

Nope, not one vote. I didn’t expect anyone to win, but jeez. The Rays’ David Price and the Mets R.A. Dickey won the awards.

No Torri Hunter for you!

The Tigers got Hunter on a 2 year deal – I read that the Yankees just wouldn’t go two years, so that’s probably why they lost out on him. This probably makes the return of Ichio more likely.

Ibanez might be back

The Yankees and Rual Ibanez are talking about bringing his clutch bat back for another season… this is probably a good idea.

Robinson Cano, American

Robinson Cano is officially a US Citizen now, “dontcha know.” This isn’t nearly as impressive as when he learned English, but still pretty neat.

Martin might be back

The Yankees and Russell Martin are talking about him coming back, and given the lack of quality free agents catchers and not exactly ready for prime time minor leaguers in the Yankees system, this is a good thing. The Yankees are also kicking the tires on free agent Mike Napoli, who falls into that aforementioned “lack of quality free agents catchers” category.

Mariano Rivera is coming back!

Mo says he will pitch next year! Hooray! Then why would the…

Yankees want to give Rafael Soriano a 2 year deal

I guess they want Mariano Rivera insurance, but this seems like it interferes with the Yankees $189 million dollar 2014 payroll plan…

Michael Pineda is throwing off flat ground

Maybe he’ll actually pitch next year!

Hiroki Kuroda, Nick Swisher, and Rafael Soriano all declined their qualifying offers

This doesn’t mean the Yankees can’t resign any of these plays (see Soriano note above), but it does mean they want more money than the qualifying offer. I read somewhere that Kuroda is deciding between returning to the MLB and pitching the Japanese league… let’s hope he picks the Yankees. Swisher, on the other hand, is as good as gone. Between the contract he’ll command and his 4 year playoff drought in the Bronx, the Yankees don’t seem interested.

Can and Derek Jeter won Silver Slugger awards

Hooray!

Waiver pickups

The Yankees claimed three dudes off waivers: catcher Eli Whiteside, right-hander David Herndon, and left-hander Josh Spence. Whatever.

No more Scrappy =(

Ramiro Pena is a minor league free agent… I hope the Yankees resign him for depth because I irrationally love him, but somebody else will probably scoop him up first

GM meetings

Nothing I care about happened at the GM meetings – Brian Cashman was just chillin.

Tino hired to coach no one

Tino Martinez is now the Miami Marlins hitting coach. Too bad they don’t have any hitters left…

Up Next

The next Bomber Banter post will be a review of the new Ichiro coffee table book – a must for your Christmas list!

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October 22, 2012

Giants beat Redskins – everyone is shocked that Washington's team is still called the Redskins

by Jamie Insalaco

Sunday’s contest against the Giants and the Redskins (Seriously, guys – you’re still the Redskins? Why not be the "Cottin’ Pickin’ Good Fer Nuttin’ —" well, you see where I’m going with this. And if you don’t get it, let me speak plainly: your team nickname is racist. Very Racist.) was sloppy, but given how few games the NFL plays, every win is important, and all that matters is you win. The Giants didn’t look especially good doing it, but they got it done.

Mr. Robert Griffen III sure can play. I know that’s not news, but jeez, that dude has some moves, some legs and a serious arm. I do think he’s a catastrophic knee injury waiting to happen (based on the way he pivots and scrambles), but wow. He’s an amazing player, and yesterday, it often looked like he had to deal with the ineptitude that Eli Manning usually has to do deal with – although this weekend, Manning contributed a bit of that bad play himself. Anyway, much props to RG3 (as the kids say… right? kids still say that?), but in the end, Eli decided that he preferred to win the game rather than loose it and KABOOM – touchdown! Just like that. Victor Cruz and Eli Manning make it look so easy, don’t they? And that’s how it goes – if you let Eli Manning have the ball with time left late in the game and it’s a one score game, you are screwed. Very, very screwed.

It’s good to be a Giants fan.

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October 19, 2012

Season Over

by Jamie Insalaco

That’s one way to end a season.

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October 18, 2012

Only so much fooling around can be tolerated!

by Jamie Insalaco

Alex Rodriguez continues to invoke ire from the western world.  His latest infraction:  attempting to pick up chicks via ball boy communication while he was benched during the ALCS.

Just to recap for anyone who needs a refresher, behavior for baseball players during games goes as follows:

don-mattingly-popcorn-kid

THIS IS OK
Mattingly: “It’s important for me to get as much grease on my hand as possible before I go out into the field.”

arod-on-bench

THIS IS NOT OK
A-Rod: “Hm, she’s hot. I wonder if she’ll sleep with me after the game? Only one way to find out… Ball Boy!”

Remember, 2 MVPs and 1 World Series title count for NOTHING when you’re benched for lack of production!  (Don Mattingly is beloved by Yankee fans because…  he gave us something to watch while the rest of the team stunk?  I guess…)  This should CLEARLY be the focus of the press as the Yankees face elimination in the ALCS.

CLEARLY!

Just to be clear:  not saying A-Rod’s focus should be on chicks, but the best player on the team (Robinson Cano) hasn’t had a hit since Game 2 of the ALDS.  Seems like a bigger story.

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October 18, 2012

ALCS Game 4 will be today at 4 est?

by Jamie Insalaco

image

Is MLB kidding?  They rescheduled an 8 pm night game to a 4 pm day game?  Can you imagine what people who have tickets to this game are thinking?  I guess I could buy the $5 thing from MLB, but right now, I’m too pissed off.

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October 17, 2012

ALCS 2012: Can I get a replay?

by Jamie Insalaco

I know I’ve been giving Robinson Cano a hard time since the playoffs began, but the umpires seem to really hate him this post season.

cano-safe-at-first

Cano safe at first

out-at-second-2012-alcs

How in the hell did Jeff Nelson miss this call?

Whew – those are some terrible calls, and Cano was involved in both them.  Coincidence?  Perhaps.  More to the point, I love that MLB moved aggressively to add the second wild card team but just can’t seem to adapt instant replay, which is even funnier because they moved fast on something they should have moved slowly on and they can’t seem to move fast enough on something with the word ‘instant’ in it’s name.  It boggles the mind.  They have the tools, they have the technology… but they’ll be fucked if they’re going to use it.

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October 16, 2012

Better get your last looks at Nick Swisher in pinstripes

by Jamie Insalaco

The Yankees might only have two games left this season… So Nick Swisher fans, be aware: On October 15, Mike Axisa of River Ave Blues wrote, "I’ll be stunned if the Yankees do not re-sign Ichiro Suzuki to replace Swisher next year." I was thinking the same thing.

I tend to agree that this will happen and with this as a move the Yankees should make. There was little chance the Yankees were going to resign Swisher anyway because of their 2014 reduced payroll plan and the big dollars Swisher is likely to command – couple those nuggets with the fact that Swisher has been a dud in all four post seasons he’s played with the Yankees (Swisher’s lifetime quad slash in the post season is .167/.284/.300/.584) and that Ichiro looks to be rejuvenated by playing on a good team and will probably only going to get a 1 or 2 yr deal (at most) for maybe $8 million/yr (at most) where as Swish is more likely to command something like 4 yrs @ $15 mil/yr. Ichiro fits in better with the Yankees long term plans and their needs to diversify their offense by adding more contact hitters. Not that Ichiro will be here long term – maybe 2 years, max – but Ichiro helps them as a stop gap right fielder until they can get their 2014 ducks in a row while a new contract for Swisher will just make their path going forward that much more difficult.

What i’m saying is, better get your last looks at Swisher in pinstripes while you can.

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October 15, 2012

Yankees offensive slumber continues, NY Giants rock 49ers

by Jamie Insalaco

Both games started at 4 PM – that’s just genius. I’m sure you know how things went down by now (even though watching all of both games was impossible) – The NY Giants obliterated the 49ers and the Yankees offensive slump continued as the Tigers went up two games to none in the ALCS.

I was surprised that the Giants were able to run all over the 49ers and had two interceptions, but I guess that’s the reality of the situation – I just didn’t think the 49ers were the sort of team that made those kind of mistakes.

Oh the Yankees and their awful, awful offense – what can you say? Here’s some facts that will make you ill: Robinson Cano is hitless since the first inning of Game Two of the ALDS (his last 26 at-bats) and is 2 for 32, and if that doesn’t sound bad enough, please consider:

- it’s the longest hitless streak in Yankees post season history
- 2 for 32 works out to a .063 batting average; small sample size, I know, but still, that’s the number

I know I’m bashing Cano a lot, but I think he deserves it. Well, at least more than A-Rod does. I know A-Rod stinks (3-23 in 2012 post season), but I don’t expect much from him – Cano is in the prime of his career. On the other hand, the umpires took away one hit from Cano and an out he made at second via the tag, so Cano is just having a lot of bad luck in general besides my bashing.

Hiroki Kuroda was brilliant yesterday – let’s not forget about that. Win or loose, I’ll always remember his excellent start in this series. The Yankees need to make bringing him back for 2013 a top priority as this guy was clearly built for the big stage.

Where’s the crowd?
Yankee Stadium looked a little empty – for a playoff game, that is. Just keep jacking up those parking and ticket prices, guys. Oh, and the $12 George Washington Bridge toll is also great for business!

Well, let’s hope Phil Hugues has some magic in him and Joe Girardi continues to yell at the hitters for not making in game adjustments.

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