"But Torre has no time for ESPN. He believes they hammered too much on Roger Clemens for throwing the piece of bat at Mike Piazza during the 2000 World Series. So he doesn't yuck it up with Chris Berman or pop up on SportsCenter. He growls a few words when one of their reporters asks a question, then invariably makes some kind of remark when they walk away."

I may disagree with Torre's bullpen management from time to time, but this, this I like!

He did a piece the other day on how the Yankee lineup is posted, and how the cards have become a coveted and authenticated souvenir.

He's obviously a professional writer, and one of the chosen few Yankeeland "insiders," but he often writes from an unjaded fan's perspective.

I love his work, and his take on Torre here.

Thanks for the link, Alex.

I don't like "in the tent" reporting in the first place, but I also don't like endless stories about the process: "I drove up to the Stadium in my Honda Civic, ate a bagel lightly toasted with cream cheese, and sauntered up to Chuck Knoblauch's locker ..."

Torre told a story about a snake, so he's a swell guy, so Abraham will seldom question his on-field strategies.

If a reporter questions Torre's strategies, guess what? That reporter is shut out. No more snake stories for you.

The players who shmooze get gold gloves and MVPs and HOF votes. David Cone must have been a better interview than Randy Johnson. David Wright is apparently a better interview than Carlos Beltran.

I'm sure Torre is a nice guy and a great story teller. Now take off the kid gloves and ask him why T.J. Beam was pitching last night. When he sidesteps the answer, ask him again. No, Farnsworth's sudden injury is not a good enough answer.

And don't you think baseball blogs are more credible when "insiders" like Abraham contribute?

Also, what if Abraham or another writer took Torre to task for pitching Beam? I mean, held him down, gun to his head. How would that change anything? Joe determines who pitches and plays, not the fans.

Here is what Peter Abraham said about his guest column on Baseball Analysts:

"Some other writers I respect -- guys like Bob Klapisch and Will Carroll -- have done guest columns for Rich along with baseball blogging Hall of Famers like Alex Belth and Jay Jaffe. I feel like Miguel Cairo in that lineup."

http://tinyurl.com/oyr4t

You think any reporter can do his/her job effectively if he becomes black listed because he/she is the only one that will ask the tough questions? No manager has to answer the question and simply ignore the reporter. That doesn't not make for a good working relationship. There is a certain amount of give-and-take and every beat writer has to handle that with care.

I think insiders can often provide good inside information. Maybe there's some interesting explanation why Stinnett was DFA'd that I don't know about. {I'm still wondering exactly what happened to Bubba Trammell -- somebody could make a movie of the week.)

But I also find, almost universally, that the game accounts (if you can actually find a game account in a NY tabloid) or player analyses simply don't correspond to what I'm seeing with my own eyes on the field. Abraham's article largely explains why this is the case.

Stick with Beam as an example:

Appropriate followup questions: If Farnsworth was injured, wouldn't the umpire grant his replacement unlimited warmup time? Was Villone already showered and in his street clothes and therefore unavailable? Were you simply trying to get Beam into a tough spot to see if he can be trusted in a tough spot?

Because Joe Torre probably wasn't "in a box" just because Farnsworth got hurt while warming up. Torre probably had many options.

It doesn't change anything, but the answers to these questions may provide some insight into Yankee baseball. (Even more insight than the snake story.)

However, I get the impression that Abraham would be exiled ESPN-style or Kim Jones-style if he pressed this issue.

For me, Joe's actions provide more insight into Yankee baseball than any answer he might come up with. That's why I don't think grilling him really accomplishes anything.

"However, I get the impression that Abraham would be exiled ESPN-style or Kim Jones-style if he pressed this issue."

Yup, and that impression is also an insight to how things work in Yankeeland.

The last thing any organization wants is to make the people in charge look like idiots. That might not be true when a manager/gm is about to get fired and the powers at be could care less that their manager/gm is being ripped apart, but for the most part organizations are protective of the people that run their teams. It's a PR move because if the media is portraying the manager/coach/gm to look like an idiot then the fans will not want to go to the games and they'll lose confidence in their teams.

Case in point, look at how the Dolans are trying to make Zeek look like a genius, a great leader, etc, etc. Everyone knows he's a retard, but he gets away with blaming everything on Larry Brown. When the press started ripping apart Isiah and the Dolans, then they were put in a parking lot across the street from where the Knicks practice.

Meanwhile, they don't exactly show the Clemens/Piazza clip much since Roger's been out of pinstripes, do they now?

It's been a regular Rocket Lovefest over in Bristol since he's been playing for the Astros... Now all of a sudden, Roger's labeled as the 'greatest pitcher of the modern era' - whereas his years in NY were classified as nothing more than some sort of 'mercenary' service for the Evil Empire...

Suck it, ESPN. Good for you Joe.

The Rocket lovefest is just more of that pattern of behavior--he's not a Yankee now, and he's an older guy that's still performing well. Plays well with the non-yankee fan, middle-aged male demographic.

I think MLB loves it because they cash in bigtime with Yankee haters. They probably make more money from Yankee haters than they do from Yankee fans.

When it's dumb:

-- When Hideki Irabu can't win the rookie of the year in 2003 because he's a Japanese veteran, but Ichiro can win it in 2001 and Sasaki can win it in 2000.

-- When the Yankeees win 114 games in 1998, but that success hampers their individual MVP candidacies because they "would have made the playoffs, anyway." Oddly, I haven't heard that logic applied to any other team (Mariners in '01, Mets in '06, Tiger ins '84).

-- When Alex Rodriguez makes three errors in a game and Steve Phillips concludes that the Yankees must trade him NOW. I direct your attention to Mets game of 4/19/2006, which I found easily by typing "David Wright" and "three errors" into a search engine.

Yankee Hating should not warp Basebal Reality.

The thing that ESPN exploits is the fact that they Yankees are at the same time the most popular and most hated team in baseball. They play to both sides. We tend to only mention the negative on this blog, but they Yankees get a lot of airtime on the ESPN as well (especially when playing the Red Sox).

Agreed that they get a lot of air time, but it's rarely air time dedicated to how amazing they've performed in spite of all the problems this season.

The A-Rod 'ballet' montage was it for me - no more ESPN unless I'm tuning in for highlights from a Yankees victory. Otherwise, I'm just begging to be nauseous.

I didn't interpret this resistance as anti-Yankee sentiment, necessarily, but I had never heard of "close-and-late" in an MVP discussion before. Had you?

Anybody off the top of their head remember how IRod did in "close-and-late" in 1999?

I'm also not sure why Manny and Young got so little support last year. But that's just me. Probably like Mauer would get little support if you took a poll today. Or maybe he would. I would not bank on consistency in the logic of MVP voters.

Anyway, getting to the point of your question, I don't think ARods' candidacy was helped by putting on the Pinstripes, put it that way.

Not that this isn't a good discussion, but I for one am starting to get as tired of discussing how awful ESPN is as I was tired of discussing A-Rod's negative portrayal by ESPN. Can we just all agree that ESPN was once great, but sucks big-time now, and leave it at that?

BTW, a question for all the "trade A-Rod" advocates out there (seems to have been a few on here lately): Would you trade A-Rod for Big Papi straight up?

Whatever extra offense we get from Ortiz (assuming any), we would surely lose by not being able to eventually have Giambi DH and an average 1st basemen field the position. Last year, according to his rate of 89, he cost the Yanks 18 runs for the year -- so maybe two games. But I would imagine that rate gets worse over time.

This is assuming that Arod Fielding + Arod offense is not greater than Ortiz offense minus flexibility lost to lineup.

Having one of your top hitters as a DH really hampers your ability to rest players. How do the Red Sox rest Manny? by giving him the day off and replacing him with an average hitter.

How do the Yankees rest their players? Often by DH'ing them. Thus their bat is perserved while Giambi fields. In 2005, Giambi's glove costs the Yanks 2 wins (versus a replacement players) while Manny bat was 6.8 wins over a replacement player.

4ip, 1er, 1 bb, 8ks.