Now You See 'Em, Now You Don't

The free agent season is upon us and 5 Yankees have already filed for free agency. Sal Fasano, Nick Green, Miguel Cairo, Octavio Dotel, and Craig Wilson. With exception of maybe Cairo, and I stress the word maybe, I hope the Yanks don't try to resign these guys.
Nick Green strikes out too much and has a pretty weak bat. He strikes out over 25% of the time. You better be able to jack 30 HRs if you want me to overlook that. Hit the weights and get Lasik, then get back to me.
Sal Fasano has a nice 'stache, I'll give him that, but I'm not overly thrilled by backup catchers that can't hit their weight. John Flaherty weighs 200 pounds and hit .165 in his last year as a Yankee. Kelly Stinnett weighs 233 and hit .228 as a Yankee. Fasano weighs 246 and hit a buck forty three. See a pattern? There has to be a better hitting back-up catcher out there. Who knows? Maybe there isn't. I haven't looked at the list to see.
Dotel turned out to be a huge bust. We waited and waited for his return and when he finally was "healthy," which took like forever, he treated us to a 10.80 ERA over a mere 14 games. Nice job. Thanks for stopping by, now beat it.
Craig Wilson might be a little serviceable, but he wasn't exactly his "National League" self when he joined the Yankees. Over his 1/4 of a season in Pinstripes, he batted a ******** .212. That's over 50 points below his career average. His OBP was a little more than 100 points of his career mark. Exercise some plate discipline and we'll talk. Definitely not worth $3.3 million.
Miguel Cairo wouldn't be a bad guy to keep around. He can fill-in anywhere in the infield. He has decent speed and at a million bucks, might be worth taking a look at. The key phrase is might be.
Derek Jeter expects change. I think he'll get his wish.
J-Boogie

Truly Truly Tasteless

My friend Don and his wife Kim, along with their 5-month old Derek (named after Jeter) stopped by for a visit today. They were passing through Buffalo while on vacation, which they spent in Niagara Falls. The hotel at which they were staying has a bar, and that bar was having a Halloween party. They were telling me about this one costume that goes so far beyond tasteless. The person that wore it, and anyone that thought it was funny, deserve to have their membership cards in the human race revoked.
The person was dressed as Cory Lidle, complete with burned Yankee uniform and a miniature steering wheel set which can only be described as what you'd use to fly a plane. I'm at a loss for words. I can't believe someone's brain actually conceived this idea and thought it was funny. It's disturbing and beyond deplorable. I hope what goes around, comes around.
J

Another Loss

The Yankee family suffered another loss today with the passing of Joe Niekro. Joe spent the bulk of his career with the Houston Astros, but spent a brief time at the end of his career with the Yankees. He played 22 seasons in the bigs and racked up 221 wins and had a career ERA of 3.59. He suffered an aneurysm. He was 61 years young.
My thoughts and prayers go out to his brother Phil, his son Lance, and the entire Niekro family. Godspeed Joe.
J

Mazilli Vanilli

Maz is out, Don is in, and I'm a happy camper. It's being reported that Don Mattingly is going to replace Lee Mazzilli as the Yankees bench coach in 2007. It's an obvious sign that Mattingly is the likely successor to Torre's throne, which should become vacant at the end of next season. And who better than Don Mattingly, a Yankee to the core, to take over when Torre retires, especially with Lou Pinella taking over the Cubs. The only logical replacements for Torre would be Pinella, Mattingly, and Joe Girardi. Of the three, I'd prefer Sweet Lou because he's got the experience and he has a father-son type of relationship with A-Rod. But Lou's out of the picture, and I'd rather see Mattingly at the helm than Girardi. Don't get me wrong, Girardi would be a great manager. I loved watching him as an analyst on YES. He's a smart guy and it's pretty obvious if you ever heard him talk, that he has a great grasp on the game. What he did with the Marlins this year was remarkable. I don't think anyone saw that coming. But I'm a Mattingly guy, pure and simple.
Mattingly is without a doubt my favorite Yankee. He joined the Yankees when I was about 10 and much like many Yankee fans, I was instantly a fan of "The Hitman." My wife has even agreed to let me name our first-born son (which isn't on the way) after Donnie Baseball. Now I know what you're thinking. Don is a pretty common name, how can I attribute that to Don Mattingly. That's why I'm going with the name Mattingly as the first name. Now you might think it sounds silly, but it grows on you. I have yet to come across anyone that thinks it sounds silly, and that's saying a lot seeing that all the relatives, both hers and mine, are on board. Mattingly Davis. Has a nice ring to it, don't ya think? If anybody has suggestions for a middle name, lay 'em on me, because I'm stumped.
Mattingly knows the Yankee system. Spending a year as Torre's right hand is all the grooming he'll need. He has all the tools needed to succeed as the Yankee manager even though he has no prior experience. I just hope he's not cursed.
J

Free Gary

According to Gary Sheffield, the Yankees are going to exercise the $13 million dollar option they have on him for 2007. This leaves me scratching my head as I thought for sure Sheffield was on his way out of the Bronx. Now unless Brian Cashman has a master plan for Sheffield, I think it's a bad move. There's simply no room for him. Sure he could play 1B, but do we really need to pay a guy $13 million to do that? I understand that Giambi, if he plays 1B regularly, might need a day off or two, but Sheffield isn't the answer. As I see it, the potential starting 9 is Posada, Giambi, Cano, Jeter, A-Rod, Abreu, Damon, Matsui and then you have the option of Melky Cabrera or Andy Philips to round it out. I don't think there is value in paying Sheffield $13 mill to round out the lineup, when there are much better things to spend the money on, like starting pitching. The Yanks could get by with Melky or Philips. If the Yankee brass aren't enamored with the idea of Melky and/or Philips playing every day, take part of Sheffield's salary and spend it on a guy that's a step or two below Sheffield, and a step or two above Melky and/or Philips. Sheffield isn't our best option.
Now perhaps this move makes sense if Giambi's wrist is going to be a problem. Maybe Cashman is buying some time to see how that plays out before they decide to part ways with Sheff. Exercise the option, and then trade him. That's a possibility. Sheffield has been quoted as saying, "I don't know what they're going to do. Maybe they picked it up just to trade me. If they do that, if I just [go] to a team for one year, there's going to be a problem. A big problem. I will not do this." Well then Gary, maybe you should have thought about this when you signed the contract. You don't really have a choice. Fortunately for him, if he raises a stink, he'll likely get his way and get a ticket out of NY, which is fine with me. I really wish I were in Cashman's head or better yet, a fly on the wall of his office. That would be interesting.
There is some speculation out there that the Yankees want to exercise the option and trade him, just to prevent him from signing as a free agent with the Red Sox, who are one of the rumored suitors for him if he were to become a free agent. Now I could see why they'd want to do this. It makes sense. Perhaps the Yankees already have something in the works? Cashman isn't the type of guy who would do this on a whim. If it's his intent to sign him and trade him, he's got something already cooking on the hot stove.
The only other thing I can think of is that the Yankees are just going to spend, spend, spend this offseason and not worry about the payroll or making an attempt to lower it. Throw money at the problem and hope for the best. The Yankees and their fans have been hoping for the best since 2000, so maybe that approach isn't the answer. It's time to get smart about things, and step one is not having Sheffield in Pinstripes in 2007 and beyond. He's a cancer in the clubhouse and his comments do nothing to detract from that. There is only one thing that Sheffield cares about, and that's himself. Yeah, and you're the real leader of the team. Yeah, right.
Now all of this is speculation right now. The Yankees haven't formally exercised the option. We've all seen these things get reported and turn out to be nothing more than people stirring the pot. It could come down to the Yankees declining the option and allowing Sheffield to walk. I'd be fine with that. Gary Sheffield doesn't scare me. Well he does a little, but I'd have to have front row seats on the third base line for him to do that. The option needs to be exercised by the 5th of November, or within 5 days of the conclusion of the World Series. In all likelihood, weather permitting, the World Series will end before November 1st. Then the clock starts ticking. As I mentioned earlier, Cashman is a smart guy. I've stated in previous posts that he isn't going to make a move if it's not for the good of the team. If the decision is to retain the services of Sheffield, I suppose I can get behind it, but I'd need to know the why first. I just think better things will come from allowing him to walk.
Free Gary!
J-Boogie

And The Winner Is.... Part 2

was in a hurry at the completion of my last entry congratulating Jeter on the Aaron award, so I didn't get to congratulate Yankee closer Mariano Rivera on winning the DHL Delivery Man of the Year Award, for the 2nd year in a row I might add. While I think the fans got it right with the Hank Aaron award, I don't think that Rivera was best reliever in MLB.
Rivera was in the running along with 9 of the game's best relievers: Trevor Hoffman, Bobby Jenks, Joe Nathan, Jonathan Papelbon, Francisco Rodriguez, B.J. Ryan, Billy Wagner, J.J. Putz and Joel Zumaya. Don't get me wrong, Mo had another great year, but I don't think he was the league's best. As hard as this is to say, I thought that Jonathan Papelbon should have gotten the nod. He was the only one with an ERA less than 1.00. He had the lowest WHIP, and he only allowed a total of 8 runs the entire season. In my opinion, the other relievers didn't hold a candle to him in 2006. He was lights out and by far the most dominant. Hands down.
The fans missed the boat on this one.
J-Boogie

And The Winner Is

The winner is not David Ortiz. Nice.
Congratulations to Yankee Captain Derek Jeter for winning the AL's Hank Aaron Award. He's the first Yankee to win the honor, and considering the fact that this is an award that recognizes the league's best offensive player, it's rather impressive considering who else was nominated. He beat out the likes of Travis Hafner, Vladimir Guerrero, Justin Morneau, Paul Konerko, and everybody's favorite cry-baby, David Ortiz. Ha ha ha.
I can hear the cries of Red Sox fans now over Papi's loss. "Jeter o won because the fans voted for him. He doesn't deserve to win. Papi is so much better offensively. Blah blah blah." The problem here is that the majority of Sox fans, if not all of them, come from the school of thought that Ortiz subscribes to. That's it all about home runs. We all remember Ortiz's comments about his chances to win the AL MVP. He said, "the guy who hits 40 home runs and knocks in 100, that's the guy you know helped your team win games." As I said back then, it's not just about the power. Baseball fans, by voting for Jeter to win this award, apparently agree. Kudos to them for being smart.
Now if you don't think that Jeter is deserving of the award, consider this. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Jeter became just the fifth player in the past 75 seasons to hit .340 or higher, drive in at least 90 runs and steal 30 or more bases in the same season. Pretty impressive. He was 3 RBI shy of 100. Not bad for a guy batting 2nd in the lineup. He was 2nd in the league in average and runs scored. He was 3rd in the league in hits and .OBP. The only stats Ortiz can stake claim to being better than Jeter in is HRs, walks, RBI, and slugging percentage. The slugging percentage ties directly into the # of HRs, so for all intent and purposes, it's the same stat. And though Ortiz had 40 more RBI than Jeter, Jeter's contributions in other statistical categories are better than Ortiz's in every statistical category. The BAVG was 57 points higher. He scored 3 more runs, had 10 more doubles, 1 more triple, 15 less strikeouts, and 33 more stolen bases. Yeah, I'll take that. And as for Ortiz having more RBI, one can argue that is only made possible by having more runners on base to knock in. There was an article in mid-September that supported this point. Here is an excerpt from the article, which was written by Steven Goldman.
"Quite often, a player's RBI total is not just an expression of how well he's hit with runners on base, but where he bats in the lineup and how often the players in front of him reached base. Alex Rodriguez has 105 RBI, normally a good total, yet, Rodriguez has seen more runners than any hitter in baseball, 513 of them. He's driven in just 14.4% of them, an average figure. Ortiz has seen the third-highest number of baserunners, 474, and driven in 16.6% of them, a good but not extraordinary percentage.
Jeter, who Ortiz derides as "not… an RBI guy," has had only 439 runners on base in front of him, the 15th-highest total in the game. Despite 34 fewer home runs than Ortiz, Jeter has driven in a slightly higher percentage of his runners,17.7%.Ortiz has driven in 9% of his runners on first (that's those home runs talking), but just 20% of his runners on second and 34% of his runners on third (that's those strikeouts talking). Jeter has driven in only 5% of his runners on first (that's the lack of power) but has plated 22% of runners on second and 46% of runners on third (that's those singles and doubles talking)."
Now that we've compared apples to apples, that pretty much puts Jeter ahead of Ortiz in the RBI category. So all Ortiz really has on the Yankee Captain is more longballs. Which if you haven't realized by now, isn't much to be in amazement of. Jeter was by far, the best offensive player in the American League in 2006.
In a few short weeks, he'll also be the most valuable one.
J-Boogie

Tainted Love

The more I hear and read about Kenny Rogers and the "junk" on his hand, the more I think something shady is going down, and we're now in the "brush it under the rug" phase. It was more than obvious that Rogers had a "substance" on his hand. From what I've gathered, he was also spotted with a "substance" on his pitching hand during the ALCS. I couldn't find anything about that in print, but they were discussing it on "Baseball This Morning" on XM. It's all too shady.
MLB, for obvious reasons, wants this to go away. The last thing they want is for a guy to get caught cheating during the World Series. And who can blame them? In my reading today I came across an article by Dan Wetzel on Yahoo. Give it a read. It's pretty good.
As far as I'm concerned, Rogers was busted, plain and simple. And it's not out of the realm of possibility that the rest of the Tiger pitching staff has been following Rogers lead as they've all been virtually unhittable. Who knows now? Like I said, this all seems way too shady. Rogers went from marginally above average to the league's most dominant pitcher in a matter of 3 starts. I'm not buying it. And for that, the Tigers run to the title is tainted. Go Cards.
J

Mudslinger

Somebody want to tell me when Kenny Rogers turned into Roger Clemens? The guy with the career postseason record of 0-3 with an ERA near 9.00, all of the sudden turn into a guy who's hurled 23 scoreless innings this postseason and is virtually unhittable? I'm not buying it. I find it all very hard to believe.
Don't get me wrong, you don't win over 200 games in the majors if you don't have good stuff. But all of the sudden no one can hit Kenny Rogers?? Like I said, I'm not buying it. It's all too coincidental that he happened to have a "mystery substance" on his pitching hand, don't you think? I noticed it before they made mention of it on the broadcast. I just found it to be, like I said, a little coincidental.
Series knotted up at 1 and it's head to St. Louie. I still have no vested interest in this series, but after watching Rogers pitch his tail off, again, I think I'm pulling for the Cards.
J-Boogie

Remembering The Days Of My Youth

I just spent the last hour and a half or so strolling down memory lane as I watched the classic Baseball flick, "Little Big League" on one of the thousands of HBO channels. I can't remember the last time I saw it, but I enjoyed it just the same. It always brings me back. The one thing that jumped out at me in this viewing happened near the end, when the Twins were playing the Mariners in their final game. The game went into extra-innings and Sweet Lou Pinella called on Randy Johnson to pitch. Seeing Johnson with his old-school mullet had me dying of laughter. It was classic.
I love baseball movies. I can't help it. I can't think of one I wouldn't drop everything to watch if it happened to be on the tube. My favorite has to be a tie between "Major League" and "The Sandlot." Both classics. I always look for the opportunity to use the phrase "You're killing me Smalls." It always makes me laugh when I hear other people use it. A smile is on my grill right now. Good times.
I'm curious to hear what baseball movies everybody out there can't enough of. Lay it on me. It could be a fun discussion and it'll definitely stir up some good memories.
J-Boogie