03/26: Weddings Bells For Godzilla
Posted by: James
No baby Godzilla or Mothra jokes! Word comes in from Pete A. that Hideki Matsui is getting married (apparently in the States) to "reportedly a 25-year-old former office worker".
Posted by: James
Still going through the huge backlog in my RSS reader, I just wanted to point out a few more of the links that are worth your time.
Jason over at My Baseball Bias has posted a handy (and quite dandy) list of the 2008 payroll and I, being a finance nerd, am very grateful. Cot's is a good place to get multi-year and contract detail but having all the 08 numbers in one place is great.
The Baseball Crank posted an AL East preview using EWSL (Established Win Shares Levels) as a starting point.
Here's how it breaks out:
Yankees: 2008 W-L: 101-61
Boston: 2008 W-L: 88-74 (Whoa. The Crank took a lot of heat for this one. People even called him a Yankees fan! Trust me, if you've read Crank's stuff, he's a solid Mets fan... heck, he even titled the first section The Hated Yankees.)
Toronto 2008 W-L: 83-79
Tampa 2008 W-L: 71-91
Baltimore 2008 W-L: 68-94
Sigh. This reminds me of the predictions I made before the season last year... and they didn't turn out so well. Still, I would hit up the link for the analysis, of which this was my favorite part:
Jason over at My Baseball Bias has posted a handy (and quite dandy) list of the 2008 payroll and I, being a finance nerd, am very grateful. Cot's is a good place to get multi-year and contract detail but having all the 08 numbers in one place is great.
The Baseball Crank posted an AL East preview using EWSL (Established Win Shares Levels) as a starting point.
Here's how it breaks out:
Yankees: 2008 W-L: 101-61
Boston: 2008 W-L: 88-74 (Whoa. The Crank took a lot of heat for this one. People even called him a Yankees fan! Trust me, if you've read Crank's stuff, he's a solid Mets fan... heck, he even titled the first section The Hated Yankees.)
Toronto 2008 W-L: 83-79
Tampa 2008 W-L: 71-91
Baltimore 2008 W-L: 68-94
Sigh. This reminds me of the predictions I made before the season last year... and they didn't turn out so well. Still, I would hit up the link for the analysis, of which this was my favorite part:
2008 is an exciting year for purist Yankee fans who have waited a long, long time to see the team break in a significant amount of young talent (Melky getting an everyday job, two rookie starters and maybe three if Joba slots in for Mussina), but it's also a year of risk. In a sense - and this was reflected in the desultory pursuit of Johan Santana - the Yankees and Red Sox almost seem to have entered into an unspoken detente this season, both deciding simultaneously to take a breather from big-ticket acquisitions, prepare for the decline in earnest of their aging stars, and start working more youth into their rotations and lineups - a Melky for an Ellsbury, a Hughes for a Buchholz, a Kennedy for a Lester, a Mussina for a Schilling, a Giambi for a Manny (both of whose contracts finally end in 2008). If there was a serious threat to their two-superpower system this would be risky, but as of now there still isn't.
Posted by: Patrick
Andy Pettitte threw 36 pitches as part of a bullpen session and felt fine, according to Peter Abraham.
03/26: Chris Woodward Released
Posted by: Patrick
Peter Abraham reports that infielder Chris Woodward has been released.
Posted by: Patrick
Neil Best reports that Bob Sheppard is aiming for a return this summer. "I don't know when it will be, but it will be," Sheppard said. Jim Hall will helm the PA spot while he is away.
Via Yahoo!
Via Yahoo!
03/25: Pettitte Pushed Back
Posted by: Patrick
Bryan Hoch reports that Andy Pettitte has been pushed back to the third or fourth game of the season. Mike Mussina will pitch the second game, following Chien-Ming Wang and Phil Hughes will pitch the third game if Pettitte cannot go. Ian Kennedy will be the fifth man.
Via Steve.
Posted by: Patrick
John Harper has an interview with A-Rod, where A-Rod talks about the regret he felt when he opted out of his deal with the Yankees and how he compared it to signing the contract with Texas, when he really wanted to play for the Mets.
Via Ben.
A-Rod said he was motivated to break free from Boras partly because of his fear that Hank Steinbrenner was serious about closing the door on his possible return to the Bronx, and because he was simply at a different stage of his life compared to when he had signed with the Rangers.
"My wife and daughter both love New York," said A-Rod. "Four days after I opted out (and was living in Miami), my daughter says, 'I really miss my bedroom and my toys in New York.' I wanted to shoot myself. I said to my wife, 'What the --- are we doing?' "
"My wife and daughter both love New York," said A-Rod. "Four days after I opted out (and was living in Miami), my daughter says, 'I really miss my bedroom and my toys in New York.' I wanted to shoot myself. I said to my wife, 'What the --- are we doing?' "
Via Ben.
Posted by: James
Not really news as everyone knew this was coming, but Deadspin posts today that Jose Canseco has named Roger Clemens, Magglio Ordonez and Alex Rodriguez as users, according to a man named Joe Lavin, who bought a copy accidentally put on sale early and posted about it.
My favorite part of the Lavin post had to be the revelation at the end though.
As for Alex Rodriguez, Canseco says he didn't inject Rodriguez, but that he "introduced Alex to a known supplier of steroids." Canseco didn't mention Rodriguez in the first book because he "hated the bastard." He was worried that people would have "questioned [his] motives" had he included Rodriguez.
My favorite part of the Lavin post had to be the revelation at the end though.
By the way, Clemens and Rodriguez aren't the biggest names in the book. The biggest may well be Mike Wallace. Canseco describes a conversation the two had after his 60 Minutes interview:
When the cameras stopped rolling, Wallace asked me if we could talk, off-camera. He kept me there for another hour, clearly curious about steroids. . . . He wondered how the steroids and human growth hormones (HGH) might help him, a man in his eighties, live a longer, healthier life. He wanted to know everything. . . . When Wallace was done interrogating me, I could see I had piqued his interest. Whether I'd made a convert of him, I can't say. Still, I know, I was pretty convincing.
Yes, apparently, Mike Wallace could be juiced. It makes sense. How else to explain how Wallace has stayed on top of his game well into his eighties? No word yet on whether Andy Rooney is juiced too.
When the cameras stopped rolling, Wallace asked me if we could talk, off-camera. He kept me there for another hour, clearly curious about steroids. . . . He wondered how the steroids and human growth hormones (HGH) might help him, a man in his eighties, live a longer, healthier life. He wanted to know everything. . . . When Wallace was done interrogating me, I could see I had piqued his interest. Whether I'd made a convert of him, I can't say. Still, I know, I was pretty convincing.
Yes, apparently, Mike Wallace could be juiced. It makes sense. How else to explain how Wallace has stayed on top of his game well into his eighties? No word yet on whether Andy Rooney is juiced too.
Posted by: Patrick
The New York Post reported:
Despite this the Yankees are saying it's not true.
Via Steve.
The Yankees and Mets are in secret talks with the city to buy their old ballparks before the wrecking balls hit - so they can plunder them for lucrative memorabilia to peddle to fans, The Post has learned.
A spokesman for Mayor Bloomberg confirmed the negotiations but would not say how the deals might go down - specifically, whether the city would hope to get a lump sum from the teams or a percentage of the profits of any sale or auction of items.
A spokesman for Mayor Bloomberg confirmed the negotiations but would not say how the deals might go down - specifically, whether the city would hope to get a lump sum from the teams or a percentage of the profits of any sale or auction of items.
Despite this the Yankees are saying it's not true.
"The New York Yankees are not in discussions to buy the current Yankee Stadium from the City of New York," Levine said in a statement. "We have been in talks with city officials to determine the best way for the city to realize value in the assets of the current Yankee Stadium.
"The goal is to find the best and most efficient way to make memorabilia items available to the public and our fans."
"The goal is to find the best and most efficient way to make memorabilia items available to the public and our fans."
Via Steve.
03/24: Britton to Minor League Camp
Posted by: Patrick
Peter Abraham reports that Chris Britton has been assigned to the minor league camp.
