Posted by: Patrick
Posted by: Patrick
The Yankees did a great thing today. The Yankees as a team did a great thing - every member of the team and the organization that participated and supported this did a great thing.
So, I don't want to make this a George Steinbrenner thing. But, the Yankees are, in a way, a reflection of the man. For all his bluster and all of the negative things that will be a part of his legacy, his charitable nature should rank up there with any of them, when the time comes where people analyze and scrutinize what he did. He helps people and you hear stories about it, but something tells me that he's helped countless people who we never hear about.
On most days, you can be proud to be a Yankees fan. Today, you can be just a little prouder.
So, I don't want to make this a George Steinbrenner thing. But, the Yankees are, in a way, a reflection of the man. For all his bluster and all of the negative things that will be a part of his legacy, his charitable nature should rank up there with any of them, when the time comes where people analyze and scrutinize what he did. He helps people and you hear stories about it, but something tells me that he's helped countless people who we never hear about.
On most days, you can be proud to be a Yankees fan. Today, you can be just a little prouder.
03/18: Catching Up
Posted by: James
Jeez, what a brutal last couple of weeks it has been. Not to bore anyone with my drudgery, but work has been consuming most of my time...hence the lack of posts on my part. It doesn't help that there was a ton of Yankee and baseball related goodness out there that I am now wading through. So far, here are a few things that I came across that I found particularly interesting.
There was a great article out on ESPN a while back referencing Nomar and his curmudgeon ways and it really made me think about those ballplayers that do take the time to brighten someone's day and realize how big of an impact their presence can have. Here's a great paragraph:
After this article and in light of what the Yankees organization has done for VT, today is a day when you puff out that chest a little more when you say you're a Yankees fan.
Also, speaking of human interest stories, I don't know how many people caught it but Karen Krouse reported that Daryl Strawberry has actually been at the Met's camp. The Mets hired Strawberry as a a special instructor in spring training among other things. Some people might scoff that Daryl is being given another chance to make good but hey, if you're looking for someone to teach people about what addiction can do to a man in the spotlight, Straw's not a bad choice.
Finally, when I saw that Horatio Ramirez was released a while back, I remembered his league avg seasons with the Braves and thought, hmmm, maybe he wouldn't be a bad longman/lefty reliever. Then I remembered how bad he was last year. How bad you ask? Well, check this out. His line allowed last year: .337/.400/.512 over 459 PA. Wow...and it gets better. He pitched in the pitchers haven that is Safeco so his home numbers are worse than you think. .315/.377/.445. He made every batter he faced into Derek Jeter (he of the 122 OPS+). On the road...and these numbers boggle the mind because of how many total innings they allowed him to pitch....358/.422/.575. He made all the batters he faced into Albert Pujols...with a better average. That's even worse than Kei was last year!
There was a great article out on ESPN a while back referencing Nomar and his curmudgeon ways and it really made me think about those ballplayers that do take the time to brighten someone's day and realize how big of an impact their presence can have. Here's a great paragraph:
I wanted to tell him about George Bell and Ben Oglivie and Kevin McReynolds and Richie Zisk -- long-since-retired men with similar career numbers who nowadays can walk through most any spring training facility and go unnoticed. I wanted to tell him that fame is fleeting, and the ability to make someone's day -- to make a memory -- is a gift few of us possess. I wanted to tell him to wake up, take off his damn sunglasses and look these people in the eye. I wanted to tell him to treat fans like human beings; to remember that, when one gets right down to it, a major league baseball uniform is -- from a fashion standpoint -- a half-step removed from my 4-year-old daughter's Hello Kitty pajamas.
I wanted to tell him all of this and then some. But I was quite certain Nomar Garciaparra wouldn't listen. So I just stood there. And watched.
I wanted to tell him all of this and then some. But I was quite certain Nomar Garciaparra wouldn't listen. So I just stood there. And watched.
After this article and in light of what the Yankees organization has done for VT, today is a day when you puff out that chest a little more when you say you're a Yankees fan.
Also, speaking of human interest stories, I don't know how many people caught it but Karen Krouse reported that Daryl Strawberry has actually been at the Met's camp. The Mets hired Strawberry as a a special instructor in spring training among other things. Some people might scoff that Daryl is being given another chance to make good but hey, if you're looking for someone to teach people about what addiction can do to a man in the spotlight, Straw's not a bad choice.
“I’m going to give these young kids the same advice I give to my own boys about focus, choices, decisions,” Strawberry, a father of five, said, adding, “What it’s like to excel at a high level and really take care of yourself more than anything. What they have to deal with – the pressures and temptations of life.”
...
His long battle with drugs played out in public, giving Strawberry empathy for the players implicated in baseball’s steroids era who are now squirming in the spotlight. Asked what advice he might have for them based on his experience, Strawberry said, “Don’t quit under the pressure. Don’t give up. There’s going to be a lot of things said and a lot of people question who you are and what you are. We all make mistakes. It’s part of life. It’s not a perfect journey.”
...
His long battle with drugs played out in public, giving Strawberry empathy for the players implicated in baseball’s steroids era who are now squirming in the spotlight. Asked what advice he might have for them based on his experience, Strawberry said, “Don’t quit under the pressure. Don’t give up. There’s going to be a lot of things said and a lot of people question who you are and what you are. We all make mistakes. It’s part of life. It’s not a perfect journey.”
Finally, when I saw that Horatio Ramirez was released a while back, I remembered his league avg seasons with the Braves and thought, hmmm, maybe he wouldn't be a bad longman/lefty reliever. Then I remembered how bad he was last year. How bad you ask? Well, check this out. His line allowed last year: .337/.400/.512 over 459 PA. Wow...and it gets better. He pitched in the pitchers haven that is Safeco so his home numbers are worse than you think. .315/.377/.445. He made every batter he faced into Derek Jeter (he of the 122 OPS+). On the road...and these numbers boggle the mind because of how many total innings they allowed him to pitch....358/.422/.575. He made all the batters he faced into Albert Pujols...with a better average. That's even worse than Kei was last year!
Posted by: Patrick
The other night, the Yankees Bloggers League had it's draft. We had 14 teams and 21 rounds, making for a total of 294 players drafted. I drew the 4th pick overall and selected David Wright, after A-Rod, Hanley Ramirez and Ryan Howard had been taken off the board. Over the next four rounds, I selected Derek Jeter at 25, Robinson Cano at 32, Dan Hared at 53 and Bobby Abreu at 60.
Here are my hitters:
C - Jorge Posada (7, 88)
1B - Adrian Gonzalez (9, 116)
2B - Robinson Cano (3, 32)
3B - David Wright (1, 4)
SS - Derek Jeter (2, 25)
OF - Bobby Abreu (5, 60)
OF - Kosuke Fukudome (13, 172)
OF - Aaron Rowand (15, 200)
UTIL - Jose Guillen (OF) (16, 221)
OF - Michael Bourn
1B/2B/3B - Ty Wigginton
1B/3B - Aubrey Huff
With Fukudome in the 13th, I was looking at my team and with over half the draft done, I only had one outfielder (Abreu). You can fit what I know about Kosuke on a quarter of a sticky note, but I did some quick research and decided to give him a try. In the final two rounds, I saw that I already had 9 pitchers and only one bench player - and no bench infielders - so I looked for players with multi-position eligability. I ended up drafting Wigginton and Huff.
The pitchers:
SP - Dan Haren (4, 53)
SP - Fausto Carmona (6, 81)
SP - Chad Billingsley (10, 137)
SP - Chien-Ming Wang (11, 144)
SP - Andy Pettitte (14, 193)
SP - Kyle Kendrick (19, 256)
RP - Mariano Rivera (8, 109)
RP - Jason Isringhausen (12, 165)
RP - Brandon Lyon (17, 228)
I was a little surprised to see Mariano hang around as long as he did. Yahoo! shows that he is drafted, on average, at 90.8 in their leagues. In a league of Yankees bloggers, he falls to 109. I was glad to pick him up, of course, as my first closer. I'm pretty happy with my team. Though, that always tends to be the case before the season. We'll see what happens after it gets started.
Here are my hitters:
C - Jorge Posada (7, 88)
1B - Adrian Gonzalez (9, 116)
2B - Robinson Cano (3, 32)
3B - David Wright (1, 4)
SS - Derek Jeter (2, 25)
OF - Bobby Abreu (5, 60)
OF - Kosuke Fukudome (13, 172)
OF - Aaron Rowand (15, 200)
UTIL - Jose Guillen (OF) (16, 221)
OF - Michael Bourn
1B/2B/3B - Ty Wigginton
1B/3B - Aubrey Huff
With Fukudome in the 13th, I was looking at my team and with over half the draft done, I only had one outfielder (Abreu). You can fit what I know about Kosuke on a quarter of a sticky note, but I did some quick research and decided to give him a try. In the final two rounds, I saw that I already had 9 pitchers and only one bench player - and no bench infielders - so I looked for players with multi-position eligability. I ended up drafting Wigginton and Huff.
The pitchers:
SP - Dan Haren (4, 53)
SP - Fausto Carmona (6, 81)
SP - Chad Billingsley (10, 137)
SP - Chien-Ming Wang (11, 144)
SP - Andy Pettitte (14, 193)
SP - Kyle Kendrick (19, 256)
RP - Mariano Rivera (8, 109)
RP - Jason Isringhausen (12, 165)
RP - Brandon Lyon (17, 228)
I was a little surprised to see Mariano hang around as long as he did. Yahoo! shows that he is drafted, on average, at 90.8 in their leagues. In a league of Yankees bloggers, he falls to 109. I was glad to pick him up, of course, as my first closer. I'm pretty happy with my team. Though, that always tends to be the case before the season. We'll see what happens after it gets started.
Posted by: Patrick
Men's Vogue has a profile of A-Rod, focusing mostly on his timewith the Yankees, the events of his offseason and how he is perceived.
Via Peter Abraham.
The accusations that Rodriguez didn't care about winning and that he was ruining baseball ate at the sensitive superstar, especially since Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter didn't face any such criticism when he signed his own $189-million deal to stay in New York for another 10 years. Ever since they broke into baseball, the press had tied Jeter and Rodriguez together — they were the golden boys, destined to define the game for years to come. The fact that they were close friends who spoke on the phone a couple of times a week only cemented the connection.
But that December, during an interview with Esquire's Scott Raab, A-Rod finally snapped. Why was it, he asked rhetorically, that reporters lionized Jeter? "He's never had to lead... You go into New York...you never say, 'Don't let Derek beat you.'" Those sentences wrecked the two stars' friendship and solidified Rodriguez's reputation as a prima donna. What was ignored at the time — and has been all but forgotten since — is that Boras, who was present at the interview, had egged A-Rod on by reminding him of how many more home runs he'd had than either Jeter or Boston's Nomar Garciaparra, the third shortstop in what was then a kind of holy trinity.
Rodriguez was devastated by the article, but he never made any excuses, never claimed that he had been misquoted, never protested that he had lauded Jeter countless times during that same interview. And Boras, who'd made $12.6 million off of A-Rod's contract, never stepped in to take any of the heat.
But that December, during an interview with Esquire's Scott Raab, A-Rod finally snapped. Why was it, he asked rhetorically, that reporters lionized Jeter? "He's never had to lead... You go into New York...you never say, 'Don't let Derek beat you.'" Those sentences wrecked the two stars' friendship and solidified Rodriguez's reputation as a prima donna. What was ignored at the time — and has been all but forgotten since — is that Boras, who was present at the interview, had egged A-Rod on by reminding him of how many more home runs he'd had than either Jeter or Boston's Nomar Garciaparra, the third shortstop in what was then a kind of holy trinity.
Rodriguez was devastated by the article, but he never made any excuses, never claimed that he had been misquoted, never protested that he had lauded Jeter countless times during that same interview. And Boras, who'd made $12.6 million off of A-Rod's contract, never stepped in to take any of the heat.
Via Peter Abraham.
Posted by: Patrick
Last night, we held the draft for the 2008 edition of the Yankees Bloggers fantasy baseball league. We had a great turnout with 11 or 12 of the 14 managers attending the draft (at various points in time) and a lot of fun. Our lineup of bloggers is Steven from The Yankees: Minors to Majors, Dan from Pinstripes, Pa, Greg from Sliding Into Home, Emma from Eephus Pitch, Joseph, Ben and Mike from River Ave. Blues, Brent from The Bronx Block, Andrew from Scott Proctor's Arm, Dave and Aziz from Pride of the Yankees, Jason from My Baseball Bias and, finally, James and myself. So, 14 bloggers from 10 different blogs.
The draft was 21 rounds long and took about two and a half hours to complete. The draft order was (with first round pick in parentheses): Mike (Alex Rodriguez), Aziz (Hanley Ramirez), Jason (Ryan Howard), Patrick (David Wright), Emma (Miguel Cabrera), Ben (Chase Utley), Brent (Jose Reyes), James (Matt Holliday), Dan (Jimmy Rollins), Greg (Albert Pujols), Steven (Prince Fielder), Dave (Johan Santana), Andrew (Alfonso Soriano) and Joseph (C.C. Sabathia).
The Yankees (and, for fun, Red Sox) taken in the draft were as follows:
Steven: Mike Lowell, Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Jon Lester.
Dan: Melky Cabrera and Phil Hughes.
Greg: Julio Lugo.
Emma: Dustin Pedroia, J.D. Drew and Ian Kennedy.
Joseph: Manny Ramirez and Joba Chamberlain.
Ben: Jason Giambi, Kevin Youkilis and Shelley Duncan.
Brent: David Ortiz and Curt Schilling.
James: None.
Andrew: Jason Varitek and Hideki Matsui.
Mike: Alex Rodriguez and Mike Mussina.
Dave: Hideki Okajima and Clay Buchholz.
Aziz: Jacoby Ellsbury and Jonathan Papelbon.
Jason: Johnny Damon.
Patrick: Jorge Posada, Robinson Cano, Derek Jeter, Bobby Abreu, Mariano Rivera, Chien-Ming Wang and Andy Pettitte.
The final round of the draft saw the following players taken: Pat Neshek (Mike), Carlos Gomez (Aziz), Brian Fuentes (Jason), Aubrey Huff (Patrick), Luis Castillo (Emma), Adam Jones (Ben), Chris Carpenter (Brent), Shaun Marcum (James), Yadier Molina (Dan), Daric Barton (Greg), Chase Headley (Steven), Hideki Okajima (Dave), Paul Lo Duca (Andrew) and Manny Parra (Joseph). Interestingly, Paul Lo Duca was also taken in the final round of last year's draft, but by Seamus.
I'm sure that I'll find a moment to write a bit about my team and maybe James will, too. We'll be talking about the league throughout the season, just as we did last year. Good luck to everyone!
Edit: Mike has an entry on the draft, too.
The draft was 21 rounds long and took about two and a half hours to complete. The draft order was (with first round pick in parentheses): Mike (Alex Rodriguez), Aziz (Hanley Ramirez), Jason (Ryan Howard), Patrick (David Wright), Emma (Miguel Cabrera), Ben (Chase Utley), Brent (Jose Reyes), James (Matt Holliday), Dan (Jimmy Rollins), Greg (Albert Pujols), Steven (Prince Fielder), Dave (Johan Santana), Andrew (Alfonso Soriano) and Joseph (C.C. Sabathia).
The Yankees (and, for fun, Red Sox) taken in the draft were as follows:
Steven: Mike Lowell, Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Jon Lester.
Dan: Melky Cabrera and Phil Hughes.
Greg: Julio Lugo.
Emma: Dustin Pedroia, J.D. Drew and Ian Kennedy.
Joseph: Manny Ramirez and Joba Chamberlain.
Ben: Jason Giambi, Kevin Youkilis and Shelley Duncan.
Brent: David Ortiz and Curt Schilling.
James: None.
Andrew: Jason Varitek and Hideki Matsui.
Mike: Alex Rodriguez and Mike Mussina.
Dave: Hideki Okajima and Clay Buchholz.
Aziz: Jacoby Ellsbury and Jonathan Papelbon.
Jason: Johnny Damon.
Patrick: Jorge Posada, Robinson Cano, Derek Jeter, Bobby Abreu, Mariano Rivera, Chien-Ming Wang and Andy Pettitte.
The final round of the draft saw the following players taken: Pat Neshek (Mike), Carlos Gomez (Aziz), Brian Fuentes (Jason), Aubrey Huff (Patrick), Luis Castillo (Emma), Adam Jones (Ben), Chris Carpenter (Brent), Shaun Marcum (James), Yadier Molina (Dan), Daric Barton (Greg), Chase Headley (Steven), Hideki Okajima (Dave), Paul Lo Duca (Andrew) and Manny Parra (Joseph). Interestingly, Paul Lo Duca was also taken in the final round of last year's draft, but by Seamus.
I'm sure that I'll find a moment to write a bit about my team and maybe James will, too. We'll be talking about the league throughout the season, just as we did last year. Good luck to everyone!
Edit: Mike has an entry on the draft, too.
03/16: Duncan Plans to Appeal
Posted by: Patrick
Tyler Kepner reports that Shelley Duncan plans to appeal his three game suspension.
Posted by: Patrick
From George King:
Edited: Changed the title to be a little more clear.
Major League Baseball has ordered Reggie Jackson out of uniform for the remainder of spring training games after the Hall of Famer was on the field during this past Wednesday's altercation.
Jackson, who was on the field dressed in gray baseball pants, windbreaker and New York Yankees hat, was fined $250 by MLB. Jackson, a special advisor during the season, also doubles as a spring training instructor.
Jackson, who was on the field dressed in gray baseball pants, windbreaker and New York Yankees hat, was fined $250 by MLB. Jackson, a special advisor during the season, also doubles as a spring training instructor.
Edited: Changed the title to be a little more clear.
03/15: Traber Added to the 40
Posted by: Patrick
Peter Abraham reports that lefty reliever Billy Traber has been added to the 40 man roster with Andrew Brackman being placed on the DL.
03/15: Melky Claims Innocence
Posted by: Patrick
Peter Abraham reports that Melky Cabrera claims he is innocent and plans to talk with his agent about appealing the three game suspension that he was handed.
