10/02: Tony Gwynn is a Smart Man
Posted by: Patrick
Tyler Kepner has the TBS broadcasters' predictions for the playoffs. Of 13 guys, 1 picked the Yankees (Gwynn), 3 picked the Angels, 3 picked the Red Sox, 3 picked the Indians and 1 picked the Cubs (the one who picked the Cubs, Marc Fein, picked the Indians to win the AL pennant, as well).
Posted by: Patrick
Mark Feinsand reports that Clemens had a 49 pitch bullpen session today (no word on how it went) and will throw a simulated game today.
Posted by: Patrick
The YanksBlog.com Fantasy Baseball League has ended. In the championship match, I defeated Sports!!! by the score of 8-2.
Here are the final standings:
Here are the final standings:
Rank TeamThank you to everyone who participated this season. With fantasy baseball finished, we can now turn our full attention to playoff baseball.
1. Patrick (YB)
2. Sports!!!
3. Hip Hip Jorge
4. terpballaz
5. The American Idiots
6. The Holy Muffins
7. Seamus
8. yanks#27in07
Posted by: Patrick
Nike will be unveiling an 80 foot tall billboard of A-Rod tomorrow at the corner of 34th and 7th. Here it is:
Posted by: Patrick
The championship round of the playoffs in the Yankees Bloggers Fantasy Baseball League has come to a close. As such, our season is now over. I'd like to thank everyone who participated this season. It was a lot of fun.
5. Patrick defeats 2. James, 7-3
Just like last week, there was plenty of excitement in this one. I jumped out to an early lead in the 2 week long match up, holding onto it most of the way. But, James made a slow, but sure comeback, chipping away at my lead and, eventually, heading into the final day, had pulled ahead.
After all the dust had cleared on the final day, I had won. I took runs, stolen bases, batting average, wins, saves, strikeouts and WHIP while James took home runs, RBIs and ERA. We went pretty hard at each other over these 2 weeks, with James dropping 16 players and me dropping 15.
My offense was led by Derek Jeter (10 R, 1 HR, 6 RBI, 2 SB, .404 AVG), Carlos Lee (11 R, 3 HR, 8 RBI, 2 SB, .373 AVG), Alex Rodriguez (9 R, 2 HR, 15 RBI, .333 AVG) and Prince Fielder (10 R, 4 HR, 9 RBI, 2 SB, .244 AVG). James got big performances from Chipper Jones (12 R, 3 HR, 11 RBI, .356 AVG), Alfonso Soriano (8 R, 5 HR, 9 RBI, 1 SB, .356 AVG) and Moises Alou (7 R, 1 HR, 10 RBI, .377 AVG).
Pitching wise, for me, Andy Pettitte turned in 2 wins to go along with victories from Nate Robertson, Huston Street, Jamie Moyer, Justin Verlander (13 Ks) and Franklin Morales. Manny Corpas (4), Brian Wilson (3), Joe Borowski (3) and Mariano Rivera (2) had saves. Scott Kazmir had 19 strikeouts. For James, Joakim Soria, Jake Peavy (9 Ks), Adam Wainright (16 Ks), Chad Billingsley and Dustin McGowan (11 Ks) picked up wins and Jose Valverde (2), Bobby Jenks (2) and Jeremy Accardo (2) collected saves. Ted Lilly had 13 strikeouts (and pitched for both teams during this contest).
Final Standings
Here are the final standings for the league:
Once again, thank you to everyone who participated. Hopefully, we'll do it again next year.
5. Patrick defeats 2. James, 7-3
Just like last week, there was plenty of excitement in this one. I jumped out to an early lead in the 2 week long match up, holding onto it most of the way. But, James made a slow, but sure comeback, chipping away at my lead and, eventually, heading into the final day, had pulled ahead.
After all the dust had cleared on the final day, I had won. I took runs, stolen bases, batting average, wins, saves, strikeouts and WHIP while James took home runs, RBIs and ERA. We went pretty hard at each other over these 2 weeks, with James dropping 16 players and me dropping 15.
My offense was led by Derek Jeter (10 R, 1 HR, 6 RBI, 2 SB, .404 AVG), Carlos Lee (11 R, 3 HR, 8 RBI, 2 SB, .373 AVG), Alex Rodriguez (9 R, 2 HR, 15 RBI, .333 AVG) and Prince Fielder (10 R, 4 HR, 9 RBI, 2 SB, .244 AVG). James got big performances from Chipper Jones (12 R, 3 HR, 11 RBI, .356 AVG), Alfonso Soriano (8 R, 5 HR, 9 RBI, 1 SB, .356 AVG) and Moises Alou (7 R, 1 HR, 10 RBI, .377 AVG).
Pitching wise, for me, Andy Pettitte turned in 2 wins to go along with victories from Nate Robertson, Huston Street, Jamie Moyer, Justin Verlander (13 Ks) and Franklin Morales. Manny Corpas (4), Brian Wilson (3), Joe Borowski (3) and Mariano Rivera (2) had saves. Scott Kazmir had 19 strikeouts. For James, Joakim Soria, Jake Peavy (9 Ks), Adam Wainright (16 Ks), Chad Billingsley and Dustin McGowan (11 Ks) picked up wins and Jose Valverde (2), Bobby Jenks (2) and Jeremy Accardo (2) collected saves. Ted Lilly had 13 strikeouts (and pitched for both teams during this contest).
Final Standings
Here are the final standings for the league:
Rank TeamFinally
1. Patrick
2. James
3. Mike (River Ave. Blues)
4. Ben (River Ave. Blues)
5. Dave (Pride of the Yankees)
6. Aziz (Pride of the Yankees)
7. EJ (Pinstripe Potent., Pend. Pinstripes and TBB)
8. Seamus
9. Jen (NoSenseWorrying.com)
10. Joseph (River Ave. Blues)
Once again, thank you to everyone who participated. Hopefully, we'll do it again next year.
10/01: A-Rod's Season
Posted by: Patrick
A-Rod finished his season with the following line (in 158 games): .314 AVG, 54 HR, 156 RBI and 24 SB. I hope that Yankees fans realized what they've seen this year. His OPS this year was 1.067 - the best number of his career. That's saying something. But, even with that in mind, if you enter those numbers into Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index to find how many players have had a season with numbers equal or better to those, you find exactly 0 players. A-Rod is the only one. Crazy. Even if you weaken it a bit (.310 AVG, 50 HR, 150 RBI, 20 SB), you only get him. This has been some kind of year. That's what you call a (hopefully not) walkoff year, right there.
Posted by: Patrick
For the last time in the regular season, let's compare the numbers of Joba and Gagne since the trade deadline:
Joba: 18 G, 2-0, 1 S, 0 BS, 23.2 IP, 12 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 HR, 6 BB, 34 Ks, 0.38 ERA, 0.75 WHIP, .145 BAA.
Gagne: 19 G, 2-2, 0 S, 3 BS, 17.2 IP, 26 H, 14 R, 14 ER, 1 HR, 9 BB, 21 Ks, 7.13 ERA, 1.98 WHIP, .338 BAA.
Joba: 18 G, 2-0, 1 S, 0 BS, 23.2 IP, 12 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 HR, 6 BB, 34 Ks, 0.38 ERA, 0.75 WHIP, .145 BAA.
Gagne: 19 G, 2-2, 0 S, 3 BS, 17.2 IP, 26 H, 14 R, 14 ER, 1 HR, 9 BB, 21 Ks, 7.13 ERA, 1.98 WHIP, .338 BAA.
Posted by: Patrick
From George King:
I understand that everyone needs to be confident in their abilities, but shocked? Your ERA is 4.68, your WHIP is 1.62 and you have not logged a single good, full season, yet in your career. I don't know how you can be all that shocked.
A year ago, [Bruney] pitched in three of the four ALDS games. Yesterday, the Yankees told him to go home, opting to not include the right-handed reliever around like they did with Ross Ohlendorf, Chris Britton and Jose Veras.
“I was shocked,” Bruney said.
“I was shocked,” Bruney said.
I understand that everyone needs to be confident in their abilities, but shocked? Your ERA is 4.68, your WHIP is 1.62 and you have not logged a single good, full season, yet in your career. I don't know how you can be all that shocked.
10/01: Monday Notes
Posted by: Patrick
Bryan Hoch writes about a team meeting in Toronto that, the Yankees say, helped turn the season around.
Michael Phillips has various facts and figures on the season. Ron Villone leads the team in opponents BA? Who knew?
Tom Gordon told Tyler Kepner that the Yankees should keep Joba as a reliever.
Finally, congrats to Bobby Abreu on reaching 101 RBIs or more for the 5th straight season (and 6 out of 7).
The Yankees' season had been on a path to nowhere for about eight weeks when the clubhouse doors slammed shut in Toronto, the team determined to hash out its differences face to face.
Tact went out the window that afternoon. The words bouncing off the walls of a tiny room at Rogers Centre were scathing and heated. And when the faces of those chastised returned to their natural hues, the slumbering, slumping Yankees were gone. ...
"It was not fun," first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz said. "What we heard from the people that were talking, it was embarrassing. It hit you right between the eyes. To hear what we heard from who we did, as a first-year Yankee, I didn't want to go down as the group that was the first team to not make the playoffs. I didn't want that hanging over my head all winter."
Tact went out the window that afternoon. The words bouncing off the walls of a tiny room at Rogers Centre were scathing and heated. And when the faces of those chastised returned to their natural hues, the slumbering, slumping Yankees were gone. ...
"It was not fun," first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz said. "What we heard from the people that were talking, it was embarrassing. It hit you right between the eyes. To hear what we heard from who we did, as a first-year Yankee, I didn't want to go down as the group that was the first team to not make the playoffs. I didn't want that hanging over my head all winter."
Michael Phillips has various facts and figures on the season. Ron Villone leads the team in opponents BA? Who knew?
Tom Gordon told Tyler Kepner that the Yankees should keep Joba as a reliever.
His reasoning was sound: Gordon said Chamberlain would never be able to sustain 100 miles an hour as a starter, over 200 innings. But because he’s had success throwing so hard, Gordon said, Chamberlain would be tempted to try. That, Gordon said, could backfire and cause him to wear down much quicker than he would as a reliever.
Finally, congrats to Bobby Abreu on reaching 101 RBIs or more for the 5th straight season (and 6 out of 7).
Posted by: Patrick
For yesterday's season finale, Jorge was named the honorary manager and Mussina was named the honorary pitching coach. Jorge then picked Andy Pettitte as his bench coach (apparently he initially intended to get Jeter) and Ron Villone as his bullpen coach, once Mo had turned him down. Bryan Hoch, Kat O'Brien, Peter Abraham and Mark Feinsand all have write ups. From Hoch:
O'Brien:
Abraham:
"It was fun until I got here today and they told me all the 'Joba Rules,'" Posada said. "I'm honored. A lot of guys have done this and they've done a [heck] of a job. I hope to win the game. That's the most important thing."
Torre has annually selected one player to take the helm for a day at the conclusion of the regular season, and normally it has been a player expected to leave after the year -- last season, Bernie Williams fulfilled the duties for a day.
But this year provided a tough choice for Torre, who said he had to entertain numerous options before settling on Posada. Mike Mussina was tabbed as honorary pitching coach, while Posada appointed Andy Pettitte as his bench coach. Ron Villone was named bullpen coach.
Torre has annually selected one player to take the helm for a day at the conclusion of the regular season, and normally it has been a player expected to leave after the year -- last season, Bernie Williams fulfilled the duties for a day.
But this year provided a tough choice for Torre, who said he had to entertain numerous options before settling on Posada. Mike Mussina was tabbed as honorary pitching coach, while Posada appointed Andy Pettitte as his bench coach. Ron Villone was named bullpen coach.
O'Brien:
Posada can be pretty funny. He went out to the dugout to do his pregame interview (as Torre normally does), and Tony Pena made some smart-aleck remark, and Posada quickly opened his interview session by announcing, "I've fired my first base coach (Pena)." At the end of the session, he said he had decided to rehire him.
Abraham:
... His pal Derek Jeter was supposed to be the bench coach but was replaced by Andy Pettitte.
"He was a terrible manager. There were a lot of problems that we're going to keep in-house for now," Jeter said. "He was awful.
"He was a terrible manager. There were a lot of problems that we're going to keep in-house for now," Jeter said. "He was awful.
