sad news for knuckleball fans this morning:

http://tinyurl.com/y7dlqs

good point ...

also ... he might have had a bit more motivation to beat the team that originally had him and dealt him away

http://makeashorterlink.com/?G12925F0E

The Yanks offense fell flat on a number of games this year against not-great pitchers. To me, it was bad offense... but it could have been 'great' pitching?

Was Weaver that good? Was Ryan that good?
These guys lost plenty in the RS against lesser offenses.

I'm tired of games being determined by bad umpiring, bad weather, and especially bad ball/strike calls. Are they still using Questec? Hard to believe, as I've seen many calls that to me, where 'firing' offenses.

With all the $$$ in MLB, mayne its time to mandate that all new stadiums are roofed, and all northern stadiums enclosed? No more rainouts, wet fields or blizzard conditions.

This was the crappiest PS I can remember... and not just because the Yanks weren't in most of it. I'm guessing that Fox's ratings were an all time low by a fair amount. A team that finished 2 games over .500 and had a horrendous Sept. wins the WS.

I dunno. Maybe a 156 game season with a 7 game ALDS and ALCS, and a nine game WS?
All 5 games (regular season) series to try and reduce traveling?

To have a year where the regular season has an all-time attendance high and the WS has an all-time low? Something's wrong.

/rant

P.S. The baseball season is over. It's hard for me not to be depressed.

I would like to see the season reduced by about 20 games, maybe by getting rid of interleague play. Interleague play is just a chance for some NL teams to make money by hosting the Yankees. Get rid of that, and make the DS seven games instead of this nonsensical five game series that is over just as soon as it starts.

While opinions on Matsuzaka will vary, I think most would agree he will cost $15m per season, for a minimum of 3 years. As those may be low end.

That Yankees have lost money 2 years in a row, and are paying a 40% luxury tax. I know we really need pitching, but with all the bad and expensive pitching contracts we have made (staring RJ and Carl), can we really afford another?

And isn't anyone concerned about the milage on his arm?

However, I don't know if we'll outbid all the potential suitors. ESPN said yesterday that they think he'll end up going to Texas.

I'd argue that the worse team won every single playoff series this post-season (given the Mets' pitching woes, you'd even have had to rate the Dodgers better), and that the Cards were the worst of the lot.

Polanco is an especially good example of the vagaries of playoff baseball. Dude has one of the all-time great playoff series against oakland, and then one of the worst WS ever -- 0 fer 24 or something?

and who could predict the post-seasons that Weaver and Rogers had?

I still say the Yanks should trade Arod to the 'Stros for Lidge/Ensberg/minor league power arm, resign Dotel, and then turn Proctor into a starter (the original plan coming out of the 2006 Spring Training).

The number of innings Proctor threw this year made have actually had a positive effect on him by maybe stretching out his arm and thus readying him for starter duties.

This would then result in a sick Mo-Lidge-Farnsworth-Dotel-Bruney-Myers bullpen. Talk about POWER arms in the pen!!! Also though I may not love the guy, Sturtz may be ready for duty by 2007.

Then plug Ensberg into the 3B slot vacated by Alex and let him shine as another Brosius-type.

Lastly, start the season with a Mussina/Wang/RJ/Proctor/Pavano(?) rotation and keep guys like Rasner and Karstens waiting in the wings -- with Mr. Phillips Hughes slotted ot join the rotation after the All-Star Break.

Although the FA market sucks, I say they probably need to sign at least one starter, be it Zito (meh), Jason Schmidt (double meh), or Lilly, just to remain on par with 2005's staff. Hopefully, Hughes or Clippard will be ready by July. Also, perhaps they can deal Sheff for another solid pen arm (Lidge, perhaps), and thus keep A-Rod.

18 Right on, Raf. And not only that, but how many times this season did we see a tired Proctor send a meatball, or hang a curveball up there, and watch it get crushed? If he has a future, its in the pen.

Dr. Michael Watkins operated on the Big Unit in Los Angeles. Watkins also operated on Johnson's back 10 years ago.

"The surgery went fine. The doctor said he was thrilled," said Johnson's agent, Barry Meister. "Randy will return home to Phoenix tomorrow."

We need to resign Moose for the #3 spot and we can expect a similar year out of him in 07. Remember this is his first healthy season in the last three years. He has said he wants to come back so it should be relatively easy to resign him.

RJ will be our #4 and say what you want about him but 17 wins out of your #4 should be just fine. It's not worth 16M but that's George's problem. He also pitched the last three months with a back injury so he could even improve in 07.

The five spots is more complicated. If Pavano is healthy (laugh here) he should battle it out with Darrel Rasner in spring training and let the best man win. I really think Pavano can contribute as his stuff is really nasty when he pitches. Rasner showed promise and I am still at a loss as to why Bowden over in Washington tried to put him through waivers during the off-season last year. He really has great control of his FB and curve. As we see the #5 spot could really be strength for us next year.

We should trade Wright to some NL team for prospects or package him with Sheff in some sort of deal. We really don't need him. Steven White should be the first injury replacement but it could be Ty Clippard depending on how he pitches in Scranton/WB. Phil Hughes should come up at the break and pitch out of the pen a la Liriano. They should slide him into the rotation at mid August and have him ready for the playoffs. Our rotation could be set to have a big year. Lighten up obviously not everything I say here will happen but the sky is not falling we should be OK next year.

What are you talking about???

The NL doesn't need the Yankees to help attendance. Six out of the top eight attendance figures were in the NL, nine teams in the NL topped 2.5 million, while nine AL teams fell short of that mark.

If anything interleague play is designed to help the sad-sack AL teams at the gate.

Maybe we could help Alex and Cliff by coming up with some thoughtful ideas for threads to be posted. It's not easy waiting for 'news' to happen in the off season. Maybe we can contribute by offering ideas for off-season threads.

23
Wang COULD be better... but his low strikeout rate and average impressions left from the minor league/scouts, means a worse year would not be shocking.

I love the idea of Matsuzaka... but in reading a number of opinions and looking at stats, I think he is too expensive. We could get 2 excellent PB guys for that money. What Japanese pitchers have excelled for more then 2 years?

I agree. Bring Mosse back, and we are stuck with RJ.

Wright costs under 3.5 mil, and should be re-signed. Looking at last year's numbers, who else can match them for 3.5 mil? I would only trade him if we got some kind of pitcher in exchange.

If we keep Moose and get one #2-#3 guy, we have all kinds of options for a #5 (Pavano, Wright, Rasner, Karstens and others 'kids'.

Will we bring back Dotel????? Miggy (the best terrible player in the game)??? Who is a realistic FA backup Catcher?

If we trade Shef, do we move Matsui th 1B, and play Melky everyday?

Is BERNIE coming back?

I'm mixed on Matsuzaka, I think he's a great pitcher, and the numbers prove that he's even better than Nomo in his days there. i'm just not sure the Yankees will end up getting him. because the incentives of other teams to outbid the Yankees are pretty high. (though i suppose the luxury tax might even the scale a bit)

I'm not really into the idea of Proctor being a starter. it's not that it's neccesarily a bad idea, it's simply that our bullpen next year without him may be rather scary. i suppose with Farnsworth's tendency to be great one year and crap the next you could assume he'd be good next year though. at most I would have Proctor ready as the 6th man emergency guy out of ST. and adjust after that.

I could live with a rotation of Wang/RJ/Moose/Pavano/ Rasner I guess, Boston looks like a mess right now, even with this rotation we should do fine.

Hughes starting right off the bat next year is not a great idea. the Yankees have coodled him this year to great results, i expect they follow up the logic.

I'm not sure how to make of this off-season, our needs isn't very clear. we were by far the best scoring team, even if we don't get a 1B and just try to move Matsui over to first or play Phillips more we should do fine. our pitching was middle of the pack , but i expect better seasons from RJ next year, and Pavano to contribute something. while a tanduem of Rasner/Karstens / whoever we get in FA /Hughes should at least be better than Aaron Small / Shawn Chacon was this year.

I wouldn't be honestly suprised if we end up getting niether of Zito or Matsuzaka. nor would i be surprised if we ended up with both, this off season is truely difficult to view . we could do a lot, or we could do nothing.

To ship A-Rod to anyone I need to see three things coming back. A better than average third baseman and two young power arms. And yes A-Rod is really worth that much. Anyone who in an off year still leads his team in RBI and hits 35 homeruns is worth an awful lot. However for those still doubting let us give you A-Rod's line for the season
290 154 572 113 166 26 1 35 121 90 139 8 15 4 22 .392 .523 .914
Can you name another third baseman who outstripped this production? I thought so; A-Rod is the best 3B in the game and for most of the duration of the time he plays that will remain so. This year Rodriguez gained the Yankees 5 extra wins as measured by WAARP no other 3B was worth as much. So there is really no possibility of us upgrading third base we already have the best. This is fine, even with a drop-off at third the offence will still produce. Not as well as it would have, but well enough to win games. That comment only holds true, however, if the pitching improves.

Baseball is a game of clichés. One of the most well known is this famous line "good pitching beats good hitting." Unlike many clichés this one is the honest to god truth. As was just demonstrated in game seven of the NLCS we can depend on this principal. Jeff Suppan is not by any stretch of the imagination an Ace. Last night, however, he proved that when a pitcher is on his game he can shut down any offence. The Mets had the consensus best offence in the NL yet Suppan held them without a hit from the first through the time he left in the seventh. This is after he shut out that same offense, the one featuring Beltran, Delgado, and Wright as the 3, 4, 5, through 8 innings in his first game. The lesson stands, when a pitcher is on his game he cannot be hit hard. "Good pitching beats good hitting". It's a true statement. However, you cannot count on your rotation being hot, that is often a matter out of an organizations control. The solution is to build a rotation that can be good without being hot. This means strike out pitchers. Plain and simple, for a control artist to have a good game he needs to have his pitches working and more importantly he needs to be able to throw them where he wants them. That ability is what being hot is all about, sometimes it just all comes together. Sometimes, but not always. This is where power pitchers have the edge. Billy Beane is famous for saying that the playoffs are a crapshoot and its all about luck. That may be true but even in games of chance you can improve your odds. In pitching the way to do that is to strike out batters.

A strike out is the best possible outcome of an at bat for the pitcher. The ball is not put in play; it cannot advance a runner or drive in a runner. In other words it can do nothing beneficial for the offense. If a pitcher can do this say once an inning he has just drastically improved his odds. Now a rate of 9 strikeouts every nine innings is very hard. It is only accomplished by 10 to 15 pitchers a season and these are usually hard throwing relievers. For starters only the elite and we are talking Nolan Ryan, accomplish this but a rate of 8.5 or 8 is easier and pitchers who can do this have just drastically improved their odds. In other words they have removed as much of the luck from the play as they can. Therefore especially in the playoffs strike out pitchers come to the fore.

The Yankees had no pitchers that match this description pitching for them in the playoffs. They allowed luck to reign and luck was not in their favor. We need to get this type of pitchers to have our best chance at winning it all.

With this in mind let's look at the trade proposals again. First I will look at the Cubs.

This is a complete dead end. Aramis Ramirez is not signed, his numbers will dive once he leaves Wrigley field and his fielding is not good enough to make up for that. In fact his fielding is worse than A-Rods so it would be a downgrade not only offensively which is inevitable but also defensively. This alone would torpedo the deal in my eyes but in addition the only pitcher the Cubs have who fits my profile is ace Carlos Zambrano. An ace in the NL is#2 or #3 in the AL and if you don't believe me just ask Josh Beckett or Matt Clement. Not only have that but the AL East evened more of a test then the rest of the league. A pitcher would have to face Boston 3 times Toronto 3 times and T Bay 3 three times. (And yes T Bay will be hard next year. They will boast the best OF in baseball along with solid production at third short and second.). No NL ace will remain that way in the AL East. Even if Zambrano's numbers stay the same one stat jumps put at me, walks, Zambrano offered up over 100 of them and in a league there even the 7,8, hitters can hit that will cost you lots of runs. This moot anyway, Zambrano is the Chicago rotation and there is no way he is leaving. So say no to the Cubs they don't have what we want.

Next option is the Dodgers. It is more promising here but here is the catch, their power arms , Scott Elbert and Clayton Kershaw, are in the minors and that may be a risk the Yankees management is unwilling to take. The Yankees need young power pitchers who can contribute now. They need a Kazmir, a Liriano, and those types of pitchers. Taking Elbert and Kershaw is too much of a risk. Unless of course the dodgers have a good third baseman to give us. They don't. So nix them too.

Our next and probably best option is the white Sox. They have Joe Crede at third to give us. He is definitely above average but he is also plagued with chronic back pain which he refuses to have surgery on. I personally don't want him unless the arms we would get would be really good. A better option would be prospect Josh Fields who is a genuine blue chipper who could become a star. The Yankees would demand Brandon McCarthy who profiles as a top of the rotation starter along with one of Mark Bhurle, Jon Garland, and Freddy Garcia. This deal would be good. Fields would adequately replace A-Rod and McCarthy is exactly the type of starter that we need. But rally I think the Yankees could do better A-Rod is really worth that much.

Next the Angels. They have the pieces, Brandon Wood, Jered Weaver, to get it done but the Angels are our Kryptonite and giving them A-Rod just insures that they make the playoffs every year. No thanks to the Angels or anyone for that matter. Keep A-Rod, when Jeter went through his slump I heard a really good take on it. The opposing pitchers better watch out when Jete gets out of it b/c he will hit like never before. Look for that out of A-Rod next year. When the Yankees stick to him and don't trade him his confidence level will go up and a confident A-Rd means

1. strike outs, it's relevent, but it's basically saying that in general, pitchers that strike out more guys are better pitchers, and teams with better pitchers tend to be better ... but that in term is like saying, the teams taht score more runs and allow less are general better teams... which is ... duhhhhh

The Cardinals this year was far from a great strike out team, Jeff Weaver? Jeff Suppan? all it shows is that they are a mediocare pitchers, that isn't saying much. we all knew that already. flipping it around, having a strike out guy like say... Daniel Cabrera isn't going to help you much either for obvious reasons.

On the other hand, the Tigers weren't exactly strike out machines either, the only guy that is truely a stirke out pitcher on their rotation is Bonderman. Rogers is far below average while Verlander/Robertson were only a tad above. Moose actually struck out people on a far better percentage than everyone on the Tiger rotation, and RJ did better than Verlander/Robertson too in the K department, which again proves it's not saying much, we got the best playoff performance from the worest strike out pitcher in the game too.

As for A-rod trade, I think it doesn't hurt to listen to offers, but it's going to take something serious great to make it happen.

For the Angels and Dodgers i could actually see something that can make it happen.

Angels for something along the lines of

Aybar/Mathis or Napoli / Santana/ Saunders / Morales / Figgins would make a lot of sense. two young pitcher, a young catcher, a guy that can play 2nd or 3rd in Aybar. a solid utility guy in Figgins and a future 1B in Morales.. give or take one guy and it's still an exellent deal. but knowing Stoneman's crazy obession with prospects i doubt this can happen.

for the Dodgers

Kuo/ Penny / Hall/ Laroche/ Broxton . this will do, ok i'm very personally biased on my countrymen Kuo ;), so Elbert or Kreshaw or Billingsly would do too. Penny is mostly there just to offset some money and give another power arm. Hall as the bench catcher is nice, Laroche as the 3B, Broxton give you a great guy in the pen.

For the Cubs, if it's going to happen, it's going to be that because they know Mark Prior can be healthy and great again, otherwise it's not going to happen.

IF IF IF somehow they know Prior is healthy,
Prior / Hill / Soto + a few more guys would interest me. but not quite as much as the once from the LA teams.

The White Sox makes no sense, i just dont' know why everyone keep bringing them up, A-rod and Ozzie hates each other just to start. Crede has a bad back, and is only 2 years away from FA. all their SPs had a fluky 05 season. and right now all 5 looks very unattractive. and are all expensive and only 1 to 2 year left on contract anyway, you don't trade A-rod for a 3B with back problems and a over the hill starter, both expensive , close to FA, and not very young.

The general line for A-rod trade must be.

a.2 to 3 pitcher, needs to be under 25 ish under most circustances.

b. a guy that can play good 2b or 3b. again, needs to be young.

optional: a young catcher

c. a solid bench player or prospect. this is a throw in part that really depends on who or what is comming. and is a mixed bag anyway.

It's a king's ransom really, and i expect that to ransom A-rod from the Yankees.

I also think in that trade requirements there would have to be something in it for Alex in order for him to wave his no trade clause. I don't think money will do it (like it did for Abreu). It would be interesting to see what they (Boras and Alex) would request in return.

I'm going to throw this out there... After seeing how Alex was treated this year in the NY media do you think that would have a negative affect on players wanting to come play for the Yanks? I have seen a couple of post where some of the pitchers that have been mentioned in trade talks with Alex saying they wouldn't want to play in NY. Last thing the Yankees need is another Pavano on their hands.