Alright, mehmattski. We need to insert your moss chloroplastic DNA into a YAC, transfect that into my S. pombe, hyper-"evolve" the yeast into a team of man-shaped baseball-playing Yeast-Men and we'll have our replacement for Posada. And we can pay in 680/700 nm light, CO2, and water!
I'll leave the third step to you. They teach that in grad school, right?
Does Gardner start every AB 0-2? Like, does he have one strike for sitting on the bench, and gets a second strike the moment he stands in the batter's box?
I like the idea of Brett Gardner, but he is starting to try my patience.
17 i'll still say that gardner could play up here ... but he's completely lost right now and i don't think he's gonna figure it out up here.
i think he's like melky back in 2005 ... overmatched ... brett should get some time down in SWB to refind his swing and consolidate what he's seen and learned up here ...
ugh. let's hope good rasner has a bit of run in him, aceves only went 3 down in SWB before hitting his pitch count of 65 ... gonna be a few more starts before he's likely going to be a choice as a replacement ...
20 I don't know if he can bunt at all, but he gets to 0-2 so quickly that the option to bunt is gone almost immediately. It's to the point where I I almost wish he would bunt regardless, or just go up hacking.
Gameday says injury delay after Alex's out. My heart stops every time I see that given how battered our team is. Anything actually going on, or is Gameday just wonking out?
If Gardner can't hit .250, we can't afford him out there....
Pete A thinks Cashman's priority should be getting a starter, not a bat. Anybody agree?
It seems to me that it'd be a lot easier to acquire an OF bat who clearly improved on what we've got right now than it would be to acquire a starter. We may have pitching reinforcements coming, three guys who could be ready within 4-6 weeks, but best-case scenario we have a Damon/Melky/Abreu OF with Gardner coming off the bench. It doesn't take a great RH bat to seriously strengthen that outfield.
28 Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but didn't that happen to Joba last year, too? Had a really rough start the night Cashman was down there checking him out?
Or maybe it was a different prospect, Hughes or Kennedy, and I'm getting my wires crossed...
32 well, right now we're drink a california riesling to go with the pasta for dinner ... but some sorta of sacrificial blood probably works here too ...
34 I prefer a bat, but I would lean towards the best 'impact' player. I'd rather have a stud SP then a pretty good OFer. Seeing as how we need an OFer now and for the next few years, that seems the obvious choice. But I don't want a Nady type guy. Bay, Holliday, Dunn might put a charge in the lineup but I dont think a C+/B- type guy will make that much of a difference. Hell, if Melky pulled his head out of his ass, he could be a C+/B- type guy.
34 In four to six weeks the season could be effectively over.
That said, offense is a greater concern than pitching, IMO. But it might be easier to get a middling pitcher--who will probably be an improvement over Ponson, whose pixie dust is bound to run out--than a bat that would actually provide much more pop than Betemit-Sexson (assuming Damon goes back to LF, the only spot improvable spot in the lineup probably will be DH).
38 I don't think Cashman actually makes his decisions based on what he sees, does he? I mean, he relies on numbers and professional scouts/evaluators, right? Please?
Fair enough. It just seems to me that given the endemic overvaluing of pitching, getting an OF who hits better than Gardner and Melky is gonna be a lot cheaper than getting a pitcher who's better than Ponson and Raz.
But a lot depends on whether you think Wang &/or Hughes will be in the rotation on Sept 15 or so...
44 he's probably also there to talk with scouts and the coaches (i seemed to recall that nardi was around AAA and AA recently, though i can't find whether he's in SWB at the moment)
In last night's game thread, I praised the MLB app on the iphone (the video part, anyway). I have to say, though, that this "new" Gameday 3D on the computer really sucks...seems to lag even more than the old version, will lose track of batters, and all the different indicators of game status and pitch status don't always match up. I'll be following A-Rod's at bat, for example, and I'll be told he's out five pitches into what was an eight pitch at-bat.
All this for a few additional angles on viewing the pitcher-batter interaction that don't seem terribly useful.
49 They have someone who can hit better than Gardner--his name is Johnny Damon. Getting someone who can hit better than Melky is easy, but can he play CF?
64 Understandable. I read your expressed hope that he would restore dignity to the reputation of the name you have worked so hard at sullying (that's not exactly how you put it but something like taht).
70 I dunno, Rasner isn't really pitching badly. Gomez' hit was serious, but the others weren't much, and I think pitching around Morneau was strategic.
So, why did Girardi yank Rasner after the bad call at 1B? I'm not paying close attention to the game, but it sound like he was getting Gardnered more than hit hard.
Re: need for pitcher or hitter, I think the staff is doing pretty well and we have reinforcements on the way. Also, cost of pitching >> cost of hitting. I wouldn't be the one to give away good talent to save this particular season.
Also, batters get in there every day. A pitcher will only affect 1 game in 5 and probably only for 6 innings at that. We need offense every day. It's not like we have a staff of Cliff Lees.
You can't blame the umps. We look at it in slo-mo at 4 different angles and it's still a tough call, especially as a tie goes to the runner. He looked out, but only technology can say for sure.
104105106 I have to remember NOT to hit refresh on the banter while watching on MLBTV. I knew about the homer from the reaction of you guys before I saw it.
1. Sit on the bench
2. Throwing error
3. Strikeout for average
4. Strikeout for power
5. And he could run into the Rays Second baseman
Disclaimer: This is satire. I do not personally dislike Shelly Duncan. This post is not intended to be disparaging of any group as a whole or individual personally.
146 Sadly, yes, many times. Arm aside, he was a damn fine fielder. Go check out his Rate at BP.com - its their free week! (Actually I think the Davenport Translation stuff is always free.)
158 It was all three of them. Plunk + Cadaret + Polonia for Rickey Henderson. I was actually happy because I thought that we were done and it was time to sell so we could rebuild. The problem was that we sold LOW.
174 Power never developed. His comparable is A-Rod at the same position. If he was hitting 30 HRs or so a year you could argue it, but not at 15 or so.
By the way, I know that Donnie Baseball wasn't a 5 tooler player because of his lack of speed, but I'll never forget how absolutely great he was in 1984.
Speaking of Donnie -- I think he had a decent hitting streak in 1983 which would have been broken because of the Pine Tar game, but he actually had to come back and hit again in that infamous half inning game and he got out. I think he had a decent hitting strike in the interim and if you linked the two together he might have had 25 games or so. (Maybe I'm wrong b/c I'm basing this on memory alone).
171 monkeypants is referring to the fact that, to get Rickey Henderson from the A's, the Yanks gave up (among many others) Eric Plunk - and then of course re-acquired him from the A's in exchange for Rickey Henderson.
After he left the Yanks the 2nd time, he had a few years as a very good middle reliever for Cleveland. IIRC, he was the losing pitcher in a game of the '97 Serious.
169 Absoultely. I think there are guys like Junior who are more gifted, but ARod works so damn hard at being good. As lame as it was, the slap and even HA! are examples that he is always thinking. I love the guy. I just wish Melky would learn more from him.
By the by, on another blog, someone dubbed Melky as 'the Dopiest Player in Baseball'. A little cruel and maybe not quite fair, but Melky's talent is handicapped by his approach.
171 I just checked BB Reference--It was Eric Plunk who was traded TWICE for Rickey: the Yankees traded him with a package of players for Rickey in 1984, and then the A's traded him back (+ Cadaret + Polonia) for Rickey in 1989.
By the way, the Yankees sure traded for/signed Luis Polonia a lot.
nice to see girardi take a chance on breaking the game open by pinch hitting for moeller there and risking the miniscule chance that there might be an injury ... he's managing 2 catchers better than he did 3.
190 i know i am mostly a melky supporter so can be a bit biased at times - but that is not fair. i think melky lacks fundamentals and i agree with you about his approach - he has not adjusted to what his strengths and weaknesses are
199 Let's not get too excited...he's managing a game with Moeller starting. Let's see if does the same thing with Molina. I suspect that in Torre fashion Molina has become the starting catcher, which means you never PH for him. Moeller as the BUC can be PH for tactically. I hope i'm wrong.
211 never seen Bayless but only heard terrible things about him..you gotta love Stu. "Cano must be the bus driver cause he took Slowey to school!" I could go all night with this...
Hey everyone, just checking in, after watching most of the game sans internet. Looks like it's as lively as I expected with a winning streak.
265 Hybrid moss-yeast catchers? Sounds like something Robert Heinlein would enjoy... I bet that baseball players made out of chlorophyll would still run faster than a Molina, though...
248 So you are willingly listening to the twin voices of Lucifer and Beelzebub? Did you know that playing their broadcasts backwards tells you to desecrate holy places? I'd expect this from cult of basebaal, but not you.
248 Yes, he did.
The thing is, he's right about half the time. It's not like Tim McCarver or, say, Skip Bayless, whom you can count on absolutely to be wrong. That's why Sterling is less useful than Bayless.
259 I wondered why they even bothered to pitch to Cano, with the black hole trio behind him. The guy is so hot that they should just concede (even though Melky has been mildly improved since the break).
between the lazy eye, the bullshit lame attempts at being "street", the utter lack of insight, the "booyahs" and his godawful attempts at "rap poetry", he's hackneyed, tired and the quintessential encapsulation of what's wrong with ESPN.
and don't even get me started on skip bayless, though interested parties can check out the finals of The Road From Bristol's "Worst Sports Media Personality" back in 2005
After such knowledge, what forgiveness? Think now
History has many cunning passages, contrived corridors
And issues, deceives with whispering ambitions,
Guides us by vanities. Think now
She gives when our attention is distracted
And what she gives, gives with such supple confusions
That the giving famishes the craving. Gives too late
What's not believed in, or if still believed,
In memory only, reconsidered passion. Gives too soon
Into weak hands, what's thought can be dispensed with
Till the refusal propagates a fear. Think
Neither fear nor courage saves us. Unnatural vices
Are fathered by our heroism. Virtues
Are forced upon us by our impudent crimes.
These tears are shaken from the wrath-bearing tree.
We came from behind, and had two consecutive multiple run innings. We had hits with RISP, extra base hits at that. Our bullpen is blowing away the opposing batters. We are about to go ten games over .500.
I think my head is going to explode with all the rare phenomena I'm witnessing.
280 i wasted a fair amount of time, at the time of the tournament thinking up ways to describe how horrible i found skip bayless ... i think this was the nicest:
"I think I'd rather take a sponge bath in the collected pus of 1000 Ebola victims, with full knowledge of certain horrible painful death that would occur when my internal organs liquified and ran in bloody rivers from every pore and orifice of my body, than ever, Ever, EVER subject myself again to the sight, sounds or words of Skip Bayless."
ok, if we're going to be literary here on the banter, I suggest everyone check out this thread:
http://tinyurl.com/653clr
My favorite literary reference is the following (and I apologize for the length, but this is really funny. there's also a funny story about jeter turning into a cockroach with range at shortstop).
"In my younger and more vulnerable years my manager gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.
"Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this league haven't had the advantages that you've had."
He didn't say any more but we've always been unusually communicative in a reserved way and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that. In consequence I'm inclined to reserve all judgements, a habit that has opened up many curious rookies to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran retread bores. The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality when it appears in a normal person, and so it came about that in the minors I was unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown pitchers. Most of the confidences were unsought -- frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation or a hostile levity when I realized by some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the horizon -- for the intimate revelations of young ballplayers or at least the terms in which they express them are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions. Reserving judgements is a matter of infinite hope. I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as Joe Torre snobbishly suggested and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally in the amateur draft.
And, after boasting this way of my tolerance, I come to the admission that it has a limit. Conduct may be founded on the infield dirt or the outfield grass but after a certain point I don't care what it's founded on. When I came back from the Yankees this autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in baseball uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart. Only A-Rod, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction -- A-Rod who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn. If baseball is an unbroken series of successful statistics, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register pitch speeds a hundred feet away. This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby passivity which is dignified under the name of "plate discipline" -- it was an extraordinary power stroke, a swing of smoothness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again. No -- A-Rod turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on A-Rod, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of baseball."
63 Going back to Gameday, I don't think it's simply data entry lag or incompetence, because it was never this bad when Gameday was "2D". Their indicators of different aspects of the game fall out of sync a few times a game.
There's an overhead view on the left that tells you who's on base (if anyone). There's a status bar on top that tells you the count and how many outs there are. There's the actual graphic of the batter and pitcher with the animations and the pitch locations. There's the pitch by pitch description. And there's the summary of what happened with each batter after the at-bat is completed.
Too often, I'll find out that there are already two outs while the current at bat is going on, and there's no indication of what happened with the previous batter. Or I'll look at the overhead view and see that someone is on base (like Damon in the last half inning), but I never saw the pitch by pitch with Damon -- it just vaporized.
By the time you're told by Gameday that Damon walked, Jeter has gone ahead and struck out. I think I may actually go back to listening to Sterling...like you said, it's more fun (or at least bearable) when we're on a roll like we are now.
Five in a row -- didn't need Gameday to figure that out! :-)
Mariners already losing in the first. Can't they even try to play? Could they just win one damn game at home against a team with a 22-32 road record? Would that be too much to ask of them?
300 Hell, the bullpen has been so strong, with another arm at least coming soon (Bruney), I wonder if the team shouldn't totally forget about acquiring another starter this season. Instead, go with the current three starters and two pseudo-starters, hoping to get at least four innings out of the back of the rotation guys. Meanwhile, just ride the BP until september call ups, two or three guys every night on a rotation.
If teams insist on going with 12 or 13 man pitching staffs, they might as well take full advantage of the rare, really deep BP. This is a heckuvalot better than carrying a useless LOOGY and burying two or three other guys.
One morning, Derek Jeter awoke to discover that he had transformed into a giant cockroach. The clutchest cockroach ever. He rolled out of bed, ignoring the screams from the nubile Maxim covergirl lying next to him, and quickly donned his uniform as best he could in his current condition. Today was opening day and he had to go to Yankee Stadium to play against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
A quiet murmur circulated through the stands as the Yankee fans contemplated Derek fielding practice grounders before the game. The only indication that this was, in fact, the Yankee captain that they had grown to know and idolize was the familiar "2" on the back of his jersey. In the press box, Michael Kay looked down at the giant cockroach and felt a certain kinship that he couldn't quite explain.
The game began. The Yankee fans began their usual roll call of the players, but instead of "De-rek Jet-er" they chanted "Gi-ant ####-roach." Obviously, they had decided to go with it. Derek discreetly tipped his hat, revealing two long antenna that bounced around slightly in the cool April breeze that blew through Yankee Stadium.
The leadoff hitter for the Devil Rays, a short, unhappy man who secretly desired to be a concert pianist, grounded a ball sharply up the middle. In the past, this had been Derek's only weakness, the groundball that required him to range to his left and dive. Now, however, as a giant cockroach, diving was no longer necessary. Derek deftly scuttled to his left, cleanly picked off the ball with his glove, and fired a strike to first, beating the runner by half a step. As the crowd roared its approval, Derek fist-pumped three of his legs. It was going to be a good season.
Meanwhile, Rogers Sports Net here in Canada does a weird thing. They have the Blue Jays on from 7:00-10:00. Then they have a highlight show on 10:00-10:30, like sports center. Then they cut to a west coast game already in progress at 10;30.
This is not an accident--they do this every night. Anyway, I get to watch the Sox-Ms now. Go Mariners!
309 I would say that it's baffling, but then again, we witnessed some pretty peculiar Cairo shenanigans.
313 I love the part about Michael Kay looking down at the giant cockroach and feeling "a certain kinship that he couldn't quite explain" That's funny as hell.
I have to temper our enthusiasm a little. We're streaking. Up until last week, we were pretty damn mediocre. Granted the team seems to have "found" itself. But we have a tough schedule coming up, we'll get more road games too, and Jorge is likely done. And we're still trotting Snacks and D-Raz out there for another 22 starts this year.
If we're really in it this season, it's time to make a trade now, while we are "seemingly" not desperate. Cash-money -- Go get us Jason Bay. And then let's get a pitcher (either from AAA or from another team).
I am hopeful though. And I really haven't felt that way for a sustained period of time since last year.
318 By the way, since Anaheim (or whatever their damn name is) its Pythag record by a whopping 7 games, maybe the Angels correction to the mean will come against us?
318 I'd like to know a bit more about Johnny Damon's ability to hit and play left field before acquiring a bat. Bay is a terrible fielder and the offensive upgrade over Brett Gardner may be somewhat offset by a defensive downgrade.
It's right to be hopeful. Depending what happens with Boston-Seattle, the Yankees close today's game 3.5 games back in the AL East, perhaps as close as 1.5 games back in the wild card.
But the players that are currently on the team are the ones who have engineered this comeback. I'm hesitant to sacrifice the future for the sake of tinkering; if the answer comes without much cost (in prospects or in future contract ugliness), I'd be much more on board.
I'll leave the third step to you. They teach that in grad school, right?
Echo (echo... echo...)
manny ... manny ... manny ...
mota ... mota ... mota ...
What batspeed to go up and slam that thing into right field.
Man.
I like the idea of Brett Gardner, but he is starting to try my patience.
i think he's like melky back in 2005 ... overmatched ... brett should get some time down in SWB to refind his swing and consolidate what he's seen and learned up here ...
20 I don't know if he can bunt at all, but he gets to 0-2 so quickly that the option to bunt is gone almost immediately. It's to the point where I I almost wish he would bunt regardless, or just go up hacking.
that seems so long ago ...
Root beer? Cream? Or what do basebaal cultists drink, sulfuric acid?
Pete A thinks Cashman's priority should be getting a starter, not a bat. Anybody agree?
It seems to me that it'd be a lot easier to acquire an OF bat who clearly improved on what we've got right now than it would be to acquire a starter. We may have pitching reinforcements coming, three guys who could be ready within 4-6 weeks, but best-case scenario we have a Damon/Melky/Abreu OF with Gardner coming off the bench. It doesn't take a great RH bat to seriously strengthen that outfield.
Or maybe it was a different prospect, Hughes or Kennedy, and I'm getting my wires crossed...
http://tinyurl.com/5ccdww
Didn't delay him for long, not that Aceves is Joba, of course.
That said, offense is a greater concern than pitching, IMO. But it might be easier to get a middling pitcher--who will probably be an improvement over Ponson, whose pixie dust is bound to run out--than a bat that would actually provide much more pop than Betemit-Sexson (assuming Damon goes back to LF, the only spot improvable spot in the lineup probably will be DH).
But a lot depends on whether you think Wang &/or Hughes will be in the rotation on Sept 15 or so...
48 cream sauce, of course ...
Just thought it was interesting that the same thing happened to last year's most-hyped prospect, too.
so, rasner holds up another few innigs, turn it over to the pen; the a's hold on against the rays; and daisuke blows up tonight
Actually, I don't buy into that stuff...I'm pretty much a drink what you like sorta guy.
54 i'm thinking 10bbs and ichiro or someone gets a hit or two
In last night's game thread, I praised the MLB app on the iphone (the video part, anyway). I have to say, though, that this "new" Gameday 3D on the computer really sucks...seems to lag even more than the old version, will lose track of batters, and all the different indicators of game status and pitch status don't always match up. I'll be following A-Rod's at bat, for example, and I'll be told he's out five pitches into what was an eight pitch at-bat.
All this for a few additional angles on viewing the pitcher-batter interaction that don't seem terribly useful.
2nd game in a row they've cost us a run.
Also, batters get in there every day. A pitcher will only affect 1 game in 5 and probably only for 6 innings at that. We need offense every day. It's not like we have a staff of Cliff Lees.
Welcome back to the lead.
97 i mostly like him.
LEMMIWINKS!!!!
112 oh and i was referring to 98 booby - not jeter -
In all seriousness, its unreal how good A-Rod is at every single aspect of baseball (well not popups). Its insane.
This will be embarrassing if I've forgotten one.
134 Who now?
Ponson
Rickey was closest, good.
1. Sit on the bench
2. Throwing error
3. Strikeout for average
4. Strikeout for power
5. And he could run into the Rays Second baseman
Disclaimer: This is satire. I do not personally dislike Shelly Duncan. This post is not intended to be disparaging of any group as a whole or individual personally.
Sorry...so cheap, I just couldn't resist.
140 And was it Plunk or Caderet or Polonia who was part of two Rickey trades?
http://blogs.nypost.com/sports/yankees/archives/2008/07/15_first-timers.html#more
Some first time appearances this year:
Don Baylor
Rickey Henderson
Ramiro Mendoza
and Wayne Tolleson!
Awesome.
melky is swinger a much better bat too - let's see how that goes.
http://tinyurl.com/64yq4y
Just kidding, Jeb and Cult of BB. Ha ha.
Speaking of Donnie -- I think he had a decent hitting streak in 1983 which would have been broken because of the Pine Tar game, but he actually had to come back and hit again in that infamous half inning game and he got out. I think he had a decent hitting strike in the interim and if you linked the two together he might have had 25 games or so. (Maybe I'm wrong b/c I'm basing this on memory alone).
171 monkeypants is referring to the fact that, to get Rickey Henderson from the A's, the Yanks gave up (among many others) Eric Plunk - and then of course re-acquired him from the A's in exchange for Rickey Henderson.
After he left the Yanks the 2nd time, he had a few years as a very good middle reliever for Cleveland. IIRC, he was the losing pitcher in a game of the '97 Serious.
By the by, on another blog, someone dubbed Melky as 'the Dopiest Player in Baseball'. A little cruel and maybe not quite fair, but Melky's talent is handicapped by his approach.
By the way, the Yankees sure traded for/signed Luis Polonia a lot.
190 i know i am mostly a melky supporter so can be a bit biased at times - but that is not fair. i think melky lacks fundamentals and i agree with you about his approach - he has not adjusted to what his strengths and weaknesses are
The bullpen is really good.
over here!
a secret!
if you say, "as in VORPal sword, you get the keys to the executive washroom!"
stu scott is the unholy antichrist of the four-letter network ...
188 198 Maybe Pudge Ponson? That would be sweet!
It's fun to have fast players.
It was the second longest ball he hit all season.
.
.
.
We're kidding of course.
DOUBLE FUCKING STEAL, JOEY GODDAMN JOE JOE!!!
And speed on the base paths!!
(That one's serious, mlb.com guys.)
see joey joe joe, bunting there was a stupid idea.
By the way, wouldn't it be nice to Have Jason Bay OR Holliday and then use Brett as our late inning pinch runner (as opposed to Mr. Fall down).
Maybe next year.
You get four more guesses. I think you're going to get it, you were close.
You may say I'm a dreamer...
2 65 Hybrid moss-yeast catchers? Sounds like something Robert Heinlein would enjoy... I bet that baseball players made out of chlorophyll would still run faster than a Molina, though...
Is that a sign of the apocalypse?
The thing is, he's right about half the time. It's not like Tim McCarver or, say, Skip Bayless, whom you can count on absolutely to be wrong. That's why Sterling is less useful than Bayless.
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table;
seriously.
between the lazy eye, the bullshit lame attempts at being "street", the utter lack of insight, the "booyahs" and his godawful attempts at "rap poetry", he's hackneyed, tired and the quintessential encapsulation of what's wrong with ESPN.
and don't even get me started on skip bayless, though interested parties can check out the finals of The Road From Bristol's "Worst Sports Media Personality" back in 2005
http://www.bravesbeat.com/bravesjournal/bristol/archives/2005/08/the_championshi.html
In the room the women come and go
Talking of Jerry Colangelo.
After such knowledge, what forgiveness? Think now
History has many cunning passages, contrived corridors
And issues, deceives with whispering ambitions,
Guides us by vanities. Think now
She gives when our attention is distracted
And what she gives, gives with such supple confusions
That the giving famishes the craving. Gives too late
What's not believed in, or if still believed,
In memory only, reconsidered passion. Gives too soon
Into weak hands, what's thought can be dispensed with
Till the refusal propagates a fear. Think
Neither fear nor courage saves us. Unnatural vices
Are fathered by our heroism. Virtues
Are forced upon us by our impudent crimes.
These tears are shaken from the wrath-bearing tree.
Talking of Robinson Cano!
This is the way the Twins lose
This is the way the Twins lose
Not with a bang, but with a whimper...
Ah, Kyle with a K!
we tie the Twins with this win and go 2.5 back of Boston...
Stu's "street" pose kept us all in hysterics at the time though...
I think my head is going to explode with all the rare phenomena I'm witnessing.
"I think I'd rather take a sponge bath in the collected pus of 1000 Ebola victims, with full knowledge of certain horrible painful death that would occur when my internal organs liquified and ran in bloody rivers from every pore and orifice of my body, than ever, Ever, EVER subject myself again to the sight, sounds or words of Skip Bayless."
http://tinyurl.com/653clr
My favorite literary reference is the following (and I apologize for the length, but this is really funny. there's also a funny story about jeter turning into a cockroach with range at shortstop).
"In my younger and more vulnerable years my manager gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.
"Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this league haven't had the advantages that you've had."
He didn't say any more but we've always been unusually communicative in a reserved way and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that. In consequence I'm inclined to reserve all judgements, a habit that has opened up many curious rookies to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran retread bores. The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality when it appears in a normal person, and so it came about that in the minors I was unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown pitchers. Most of the confidences were unsought -- frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation or a hostile levity when I realized by some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the horizon -- for the intimate revelations of young ballplayers or at least the terms in which they express them are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions. Reserving judgements is a matter of infinite hope. I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as Joe Torre snobbishly suggested and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally in the amateur draft.
And, after boasting this way of my tolerance, I come to the admission that it has a limit. Conduct may be founded on the infield dirt or the outfield grass but after a certain point I don't care what it's founded on. When I came back from the Yankees this autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in baseball uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart. Only A-Rod, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction -- A-Rod who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn. If baseball is an unbroken series of successful statistics, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register pitch speeds a hundred feet away. This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby passivity which is dignified under the name of "plate discipline" -- it was an extraordinary power stroke, a swing of smoothness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again. No -- A-Rod turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on A-Rod, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of baseball."
Santana goes 8 and gives up 2 to put the Mets up 5-2. The BP then gives up 6 in the top of the 9th against Phily.
Bullllllllpen!
There's an overhead view on the left that tells you who's on base (if anyone). There's a status bar on top that tells you the count and how many outs there are. There's the actual graphic of the batter and pitcher with the animations and the pitch locations. There's the pitch by pitch description. And there's the summary of what happened with each batter after the at-bat is completed.
Too often, I'll find out that there are already two outs while the current at bat is going on, and there's no indication of what happened with the previous batter. Or I'll look at the overhead view and see that someone is on base (like Damon in the last half inning), but I never saw the pitch by pitch with Damon -- it just vaporized.
By the time you're told by Gameday that Damon walked, Jeter has gone ahead and struck out. I think I may actually go back to listening to Sterling...like you said, it's more fun (or at least bearable) when we're on a roll like we are now.
Five in a row -- didn't need Gameday to figure that out! :-)
"First we were friends. Then he was kind of a dick. But now I see he hits baseballs very far. So he's pretty good, I guess."
If teams insist on going with 12 or 13 man pitching staffs, they might as well take full advantage of the rare, really deep BP. This is a heckuvalot better than carrying a useless LOOGY and burying two or three other guys.
poor Johan..guy can't get a break..
One morning, Derek Jeter awoke to discover that he had transformed into a giant cockroach. The clutchest cockroach ever. He rolled out of bed, ignoring the screams from the nubile Maxim covergirl lying next to him, and quickly donned his uniform as best he could in his current condition. Today was opening day and he had to go to Yankee Stadium to play against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
A quiet murmur circulated through the stands as the Yankee fans contemplated Derek fielding practice grounders before the game. The only indication that this was, in fact, the Yankee captain that they had grown to know and idolize was the familiar "2" on the back of his jersey. In the press box, Michael Kay looked down at the giant cockroach and felt a certain kinship that he couldn't quite explain.
The game began. The Yankee fans began their usual roll call of the players, but instead of "De-rek Jet-er" they chanted "Gi-ant ####-roach." Obviously, they had decided to go with it. Derek discreetly tipped his hat, revealing two long antenna that bounced around slightly in the cool April breeze that blew through Yankee Stadium.
The leadoff hitter for the Devil Rays, a short, unhappy man who secretly desired to be a concert pianist, grounded a ball sharply up the middle. In the past, this had been Derek's only weakness, the groundball that required him to range to his left and dive. Now, however, as a giant cockroach, diving was no longer necessary. Derek deftly scuttled to his left, cleanly picked off the ball with his glove, and fired a strike to first, beating the runner by half a step. As the crowd roared its approval, Derek fist-pumped three of his legs. It was going to be a good season.
This is not an accident--they do this every night. Anyway, I get to watch the Sox-Ms now. Go Mariners!
309 I would say that it's baffling, but then again, we witnessed some pretty peculiar Cairo shenanigans.
If we're really in it this season, it's time to make a trade now, while we are "seemingly" not desperate. Cash-money -- Go get us Jason Bay. And then let's get a pitcher (either from AAA or from another team).
I am hopeful though. And I really haven't felt that way for a sustained period of time since last year.
It's right to be hopeful. Depending what happens with Boston-Seattle, the Yankees close today's game 3.5 games back in the AL East, perhaps as close as 1.5 games back in the wild card.
But the players that are currently on the team are the ones who have engineered this comeback. I'm hesitant to sacrifice the future for the sake of tinkering; if the answer comes without much cost (in prospects or in future contract ugliness), I'd be much more on board.
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