September 2004 Posts

Good Yankees Piece

Check it out.

A tidbit:

Who better to talk about the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry than Tom Gordon, who calls his days in Boston among his happiest in the game. Gordon came up as a Royal, and was signed away by Boston where he was converted from a starter to a closer. He set the team’s single-season saves record, but blew out his elbow. After stops in Houston and both sides of Chicago, the Florida native was lured to the Yankees. With all due respect to the other teams he’s played for, Gordon said that was all like the minors compared to being a Yankee. When Flash first saw the sign in the Yankees clubhouse and plastered throughout the lower reaches of the stadium with the Joe DiMaggio quote, “I’d like to thank the good lord for making me a Yankee,” he felt it was written for him.

While on the Red Sox’s side of the rivalry, Gordon acknowledged that he felt the Yankees were a bit full of themselves, pompous and conceited. Now on the Yankees’ side, he says it’s merely pride and professionalism. He couldn’t believe it when he got to spring training, and there just roaming around was Yogi Berra and Reggie Jackson along with the pictures every where of DiMaggio, Mantle, Ruth, Gehrig. No franchise has as many all-time great players or parades them as proudly and as often.

Blogging as an Internet Community Management Tool

Fantastic post over at Common Craft.

Gets me thinking. Although it adds a bit to the norm, it certainly could be a more effective means of communicating. Very good points made.

Jeremy on Blogosphere Radio

Take a listen.

Is it just me, or does he kind of sound like Snake from The Simpsons?

Via Jeremy.

Why They Hate Jeter

Good post by Bruce Markusen at All-Baseball.com.

Via Replacement Level Yankees Weblog.

Baseball Weekly Rates the Contenders

I got the latest copy of Baseball Weekly today. In it, they rate the 13 contenders (Red Sox, Yankees, Cardinals, Cubs, Giants, Rangers, Angels, Athletics, Braves, Astros, Dodgers, Twins, Padres) in various categories. Here is how the Yanks rate.

Batting Order
1. Red Sox
2. Yankees

Top of the Order
1. Yankees

Middle of the Order
1. Cardinals
2. Red Sox
3. Giants
4. Cubs
5. Yankees

Rotation (1-3 Starters)
1. Twins
2. Red Sox
3. Cubs
4. Padres
5. Yankees

Rotation (1-4 Starters)
1. Cubs
2. Yankees

Rotation (1-5 Starters)
1. Yankees

Closer
1. Dodgers
2. Yankees

Bullpen
1. Angels
2. Cardinals
3. Braves
4. Twins
5. Yankees

Health
1. Red Sox
2. Giants
3. Athletics
4. Cardinals
5. Yankees

Speed/Pressure
1. Angels
2. Cardinals
3. Dodgers
4. Twins
5. Astros
6. Braves
7. Yankees

Defense
1. Cardinals
2. Dodgers
3. Athletics
4. Giants
5. Rangers
6. Yankees

Experience
1. Yankees

Manager/Coaches
1. Yankees

Home Field
1. Twins
2. Red Sox
3. Yankees

Chemistry
1. Red Sox
2. Rangers
3. Cardinals
4. Twins
5. Yankees

Most Capable of Sweeping First Round
1. Cardinals
2. Yankees

Most Capable of Rallying from an 0-2 Deficit
1. Yankees

Overall
1. Yankees

Mariano for MVP?

I’d love to see Sheff win, but I’d love to see Mo win, too. It seems like this is a real possibility, as well. I was mulling it over while reading an entry by Steve Bonner today.

Peter Gammons picked him last night on ESPN. Reggie says he should be considered. Other people, too.

A pitcher winning an MVP? Since the Cy Young award was created in 1956, it has only happened 9 times (out of the 97 MVP awards handed out since then). All 9 times that pitcher also won the Cy Young. A relief pitcher winning an MVP? That has only happened 3 times in the same span. Dennis Eckersley in 1992, Willie Hernandez in 1984 and Rollie Fingers in 1981.

What type of seasons did they have?

Eckersley went 7-1 with 1.91 ERA and 51 saves in 69 games and 80 innings. He was 6th in games and 1st in saves.

Hernandez went 9-3 with a 1.90 ERA and 32 saves in 80 games and 140.3 innings. He was 1st in winning percentage, 1st in games and 3rd in saves.

Fingers went 6-3 with a 1.04 ERA and 28 saves in 47 games and 78 innings. He was 10th in winning percentage, 2nd in games and 1st in saves.

Mariano is currently 4-2 with a 2.02 ERA and 51 saves in 71 games and 75.6 innings. He is 9th in games and 1st in saves.

He can do it on numbers alone. (I’d like to see him pitch one more shutout inning save, to give him 52 and hopefully knock that ERA below 2, but that really doesn’t matter).

However, there is more to it than numbers, of course. Ponder this:

Daniel Habib:

… But I’ll go out on a limb here and take Mariano Rivera. He’s saved 50 in 54 chances, been as unhittable as usual (2.05 ERA, ,216 opponents’ batting average), and most important, has solidified the New York bullpen when the rotation has scuffled. Without Rivera, Yankee relievers would have a 4.84 ERA, well below the league average. Really, this is a two-man situation: Without Rivera and Tom Gordon, who’s been equally effective in an eighth-inning role, the Yankee pen’s ERA swells to 5.57. Since Rivera’s doing the heavy lifting at the end of the game, he gets the nod. It’s the old criterion: Where would the club be without him? Certainly not in first, and maybe not in the playoffs.

Jon Heyman:

Rivera has saved a franchise-record 51 games against four blown saves. For all the chanting at Yankee Stadium that Gary Sheffield is the MVP, and all the chanting about Manny Ramirez here, maybe it should be Rivera.

Rivera certainly is the MVP of the era. He is the latter-day Babe Ruth, the chief tormentor of the sport’s most tormented team.

If Boston had Rivera, its history would be different.

How does a team win 100 games (well, if we can go .500 for the final 6, that’s what we’ll have done) with a bullpen (excluding Mo) that gives up more than 1 run per every two innings pitched?

We are going to do something at MarianoRivera.com for this. I believe we’ll make some sort of graphic available to other webmasters, etc. Mo for MVP or something. I’ll post when we do it…

Florida Moves

Funny stuff at Chronically Biased.

Bernie Baseball

Bernie can play for me any day of the week. I love the guy. He could go 0 for his next 20 and I’d say the same thing. Some decisions go beyond numbers. But, as far as them, he’s had two TERRIBLE months, one bad month, two solid months (including September) and one great month. He’s there, he’s contributing. He’s hit 20 home runs, he’s maintained a decent OBA and he’s starting to warm for his favorite time of year. Don’t count my man out, just yet. If he wants to play next year and it looks like he does, I want him.

Bingo

Let’s leave it to Steve Bonner:

I think the larger point is that Matsui is a big time ballplayer. And maybe I’m being simplistic here but I think the visible differneces between the Yankees and Red Sox show up in the way they play. The Yankees are clean cut, quiet, professional and execute fundamentals pretty consistently. The Sox with their dirty grimy persona sometimes come off like they don’t really care. We know that Pedro has a set of rules much like Barry Bonds rules in SF. But we also know that that shit doens’t fly in New York. There’s no come and go as you please, have 3 seasons worth of pinetar in your sideburns attitude with the Yankees. The Yankees don’t make boneheaded careless plays that often and I feel like the Red Sox come up with a “huh? who was supposed to catch that?” moment every time I see them play. Matsui doesn’t do those sorts of things. Take the same sixth inning for example.

In the bottom of the inning, Matsui played a long drive off the wall by Kevin Millar, played the carom perfectly and threw a sniper shot to second to catch Millar trying to stretch his hit. What looked like it might have been a home run off the bat turned into a long out on a very impressive throw, by a very impressive player.

Matsui’s awesome.

But, the bigger point is underscored by the play in the game (forget which one it was) where Millar dropped an easy pop that wasn’t even that far away from where he was playing. He looked like he really didn’t even try. Maybe he misjudged it. Whatever. It reminds me of a little league coach I had, he used to say… “Never backpeddle – turn and run!” And he was right.

Don’t Just Drop By

I realize this may be a bit harsh, but it is really annoying when people just drop by when it is not an emergency. People who I don’t really know. At all. You should always call before you come by. If you get the answering machine – guess what? Don’t come.

I rarely meet anyone who thinks along the same wavelength as I do on this… but I consider it to be proper manners, if nothing else.