Thursday, December 27, 2012
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Smarter Than Me
I assume that Brian Cashman is smarter than me. I begin with that assumption. So I'm figuring he really does have some trick up his sleeve that's going to convince me this offseason hasn't actually made the Yankees worse. Because that would be uncharacteristic.
Cashman is an underrated general manager. People look at the payroll number and say, "Well, even I could put together a great team with that kind of scratch!" But they couldn't. Given the enormous contracts that are givens in the Yankees lineup (Jeter, Mo, Granderson, CC, Tex, and especially Mr. Rod, to name a few), it's amazing he has any room left to put together 25 major league players at one time. But every year, just when you think he's folded his tent and decided third place isn't really all that bad a place for a season or two, Cashman does something--usually a small thing--that makes a huge difference sometime during the baseball-playing year.
This year, and I know it's not even January yet, but still--I'm not seeing it.
I understand this whole business with getting under $189-million (a number virtually every other team would be ecstatic to reach) in 2014. I get that there can't be large multi-year contracts, especially with Robinson Cano becoming a free agent after next season. I comprehend all that. But it's absolutely un-Yankee to see that the team is not going to be as good and shrug. That's not Cashman. I don't believe that's Hal Steinbrenner. But it sure does seem to be what's happening so far.
The big signing of this winter so far is that of Kevin Youkilis and his bizarre batting stance to fill in for the suddenly fragile Mr. Rod for at the very least half the 2013 season (and if you think Mr. Rod will be back on the 4 end of the 4-6 months we've been told it'll take for his hip to fix itself, well, I have some beachfront property in Kansas I'd like to tell you about). Other than that, it's been all retaining players from the 2012 Yankee roster, including Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera, Hiroki Kuroda and Ichiro Suzuki.
Of course I don't have an argument with any of those signings, but the 2012 roster didn't exactly set the world on fire in October, and not adding something other than Youkilis doesn't improve the team.
Add to that the losses of Russell Martin, Nick Swisher and Raul (Mr. Late-Inning Homer) Ibanez, and you see a bleaker, not brighter, future for the coming season.
But Brian Cashman is, don't forget, smarter than me. So I have to operate under the assumption that he knows something I don't. A lot of things I don't. And I'm guessing at least one of those things Cashman knows that I don't is that there are moves coming other than a three-man platoon at catcher and the speediest, least powerful corner outfielders in recent memory.
It might come in the form of some outfielder we haven't thought about yet, the kind Ibanez was last year, who seems to be a bargain basement barrel scraper and turns out to be an emergency regular and prodigious game-saver nobody saw coming.
It might be that there's a blockbuster trade in the works that will bring some crazy good catcher this way in exchange for some autographed pictures of Jeter and digitized recordings of Bob Sheppard useable to introduce any player you like.
Or it might be that Cashman is so smart he knows that Austin Romine is ready for prime time, that Jayson Nix has been holding back on his power stroke his whole career or that Ivan Nova can play a killer right field.
But I know there's something coming. I don't know what, but something.
Because Brian Cashman is smarter than me.
Cashman is an underrated general manager. People look at the payroll number and say, "Well, even I could put together a great team with that kind of scratch!" But they couldn't. Given the enormous contracts that are givens in the Yankees lineup (Jeter, Mo, Granderson, CC, Tex, and especially Mr. Rod, to name a few), it's amazing he has any room left to put together 25 major league players at one time. But every year, just when you think he's folded his tent and decided third place isn't really all that bad a place for a season or two, Cashman does something--usually a small thing--that makes a huge difference sometime during the baseball-playing year.
This year, and I know it's not even January yet, but still--I'm not seeing it.
I understand this whole business with getting under $189-million (a number virtually every other team would be ecstatic to reach) in 2014. I get that there can't be large multi-year contracts, especially with Robinson Cano becoming a free agent after next season. I comprehend all that. But it's absolutely un-Yankee to see that the team is not going to be as good and shrug. That's not Cashman. I don't believe that's Hal Steinbrenner. But it sure does seem to be what's happening so far.
The big signing of this winter so far is that of Kevin Youkilis and his bizarre batting stance to fill in for the suddenly fragile Mr. Rod for at the very least half the 2013 season (and if you think Mr. Rod will be back on the 4 end of the 4-6 months we've been told it'll take for his hip to fix itself, well, I have some beachfront property in Kansas I'd like to tell you about). Other than that, it's been all retaining players from the 2012 Yankee roster, including Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera, Hiroki Kuroda and Ichiro Suzuki.
Of course I don't have an argument with any of those signings, but the 2012 roster didn't exactly set the world on fire in October, and not adding something other than Youkilis doesn't improve the team.
Add to that the losses of Russell Martin, Nick Swisher and Raul (Mr. Late-Inning Homer) Ibanez, and you see a bleaker, not brighter, future for the coming season.
But Brian Cashman is, don't forget, smarter than me. So I have to operate under the assumption that he knows something I don't. A lot of things I don't. And I'm guessing at least one of those things Cashman knows that I don't is that there are moves coming other than a three-man platoon at catcher and the speediest, least powerful corner outfielders in recent memory.
It might come in the form of some outfielder we haven't thought about yet, the kind Ibanez was last year, who seems to be a bargain basement barrel scraper and turns out to be an emergency regular and prodigious game-saver nobody saw coming.
It might be that there's a blockbuster trade in the works that will bring some crazy good catcher this way in exchange for some autographed pictures of Jeter and digitized recordings of Bob Sheppard useable to introduce any player you like.
Or it might be that Cashman is so smart he knows that Austin Romine is ready for prime time, that Jayson Nix has been holding back on his power stroke his whole career or that Ivan Nova can play a killer right field.
But I know there's something coming. I don't know what, but something.
Because Brian Cashman is smarter than me.
Monday, December 17, 2012
You Gotta Have...
There's been something eating at my Yankee fan sensibility for some time now, and I just tonight realized what it is. Something has been missing from the team for a number of years, something that doesn't show up on the stat sheets, so the sabermetric maniacs can't measure it, which bugs them. And that's why the Yankees are always a big threat on paper at the beginning of the year, and then do well and...
Heart. These Yankees don't play with heart.
There are many good things about Joe Girardi as a manager, and most of them have to do with pitching. No. All of them have to do with pitching. He manages a bullpen masterfully, he keeps his starters fresh and knows who to plug in at any given moment. I don't know if he's calling pitches from the dugout, but his catcher always seems to know which way to go at the most opportune times. Joe Girardi is a terrific pitcher's manager.
With the lineup, well, there's not that much that needs to be done when everybody's healthy, but Girardi does seem to know when to give a guy a rest, when to DH somebody, who to plug into a spot when there's an injury or a day on turf that an infielder might not have the legs to handle. Raul Ibanez hit all those clutch home runs at the end of the 2012 season because Girardi knew when to send up Raul Ibanez.
So that's not the problem, then. Girardi can find the right pitcher and the right player when it's necessary. What he doesn't seem capable of doing is inspiring them when things get tough.
Say what you want about Joe Torre's Yankee career; his players would have left limbs on the field for that manager. There's a lot of talk these days about how the dynasty of the late 90s and 2000 wasn't made up of All-Stars, and it wasn't. Nobody had ever heard of Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera or Bernie Williams when they started their run. Paul O'Neill was a nice average hitter. Scott Brosius had hit .203 the year before winning the World Series MVP award.
Joe Torre was not a great tactician; he wore out bullpen arms like other people wear out tube socks. But he could inspire. When he left in 2007, his players looked positively stunned. Jeter appeared to be lost for words, which Jeter never is. The thought of someone other than Joe Torre managing the Yankees was pretty much unthinkable.
I'm a very outside observer, but from the cheap seats, it looks like the Yankees wouldn't actually notice if Joe Girardi didn't show up for spring training.
Again, on the field, Girardi is a good, if not great, manager. He runs things smoothly (except when pinch hitting for a possible Hall of Famer--the steroid thing isn't going to help--in a playoff game). When he gets thrown out of a game, he looks like he's trying to get thrown out of a game. He raises his voice and flails his arms because he seems to think it's part of the show. Then he runs his hand over that Marines brush cut and walks calmly down the tunnel to the clubhouse, probably cracks open a cold protein shake and does some pull-ups.
Inspiring? Not really.
It could be argued--probably with a great deal of evidence, too--that players making gazillions of dollars, who are professionals and veterans (mostly) shouldn't need outside motivation. They should go out there and play their hearts out because that's what they're supposed to do. And I won't argue with that, except to say that one look at the 2012 playoff Yankees would rapidly lead to the conclusion that this team was professional-izing itself to an early exit. They didn't hit, but they didn't panic. Even when they should have been panicking.
This winter, the Yankees are putting together pretty much the same team that left the field having been beaten in four games by the Detroit Tigers, plus a fairly washed-out Kevin Youkilis, who is very professional. We'll get Ichiro back in right field, Pettitte and Kuroda back in the rotation, some closer-by-committee experiment behind the plate (this is all assuming Brian Cashman doesn't have a secret plan up his sleeve) and some version of Mariano Rivera--never count him out, even at 43!--to finish games in which they're ahead.
But will they have heart? In 1996, Paul O'Neill ran at full tilt on a bad leg to save the 1-0 victory in Game 5 of the World Series. That was heart. In 2012, Derek Jeter broke his ankle on a play and still tried to flip the ball to Cano to get the out even when he was lying on the ground in agony. That's heart.
Will Curtis Granderson show us something other than a calm demeanor (and homers and strikeouts) in 2013? Will Robinson Cano at least look like he's something more than smooth at second base? Will Mark Teixeira be cool and professional without fail for another year?
The 2012 Yankees had some guys with heart. Jeter has it in spades. CC Sabathia would pitch with his arm hanging off his shoulder if he had to. Russell Martin had an awful batting average, but you could tell it was killing him. He wanted it so badly.
And of course there was someone with a lot of heart, Nick Swisher. And once he's back in the fold, you know...
Oh, yeah.
This team doesn't seem inspired. And so this team is not, and has not been, inspiring. Baseball is more than stats, sabermetricians. Joe Torre understood that. Joe Girardi has a binder.
Heart. These Yankees don't play with heart.
There are many good things about Joe Girardi as a manager, and most of them have to do with pitching. No. All of them have to do with pitching. He manages a bullpen masterfully, he keeps his starters fresh and knows who to plug in at any given moment. I don't know if he's calling pitches from the dugout, but his catcher always seems to know which way to go at the most opportune times. Joe Girardi is a terrific pitcher's manager.
With the lineup, well, there's not that much that needs to be done when everybody's healthy, but Girardi does seem to know when to give a guy a rest, when to DH somebody, who to plug into a spot when there's an injury or a day on turf that an infielder might not have the legs to handle. Raul Ibanez hit all those clutch home runs at the end of the 2012 season because Girardi knew when to send up Raul Ibanez.
So that's not the problem, then. Girardi can find the right pitcher and the right player when it's necessary. What he doesn't seem capable of doing is inspiring them when things get tough.
Say what you want about Joe Torre's Yankee career; his players would have left limbs on the field for that manager. There's a lot of talk these days about how the dynasty of the late 90s and 2000 wasn't made up of All-Stars, and it wasn't. Nobody had ever heard of Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera or Bernie Williams when they started their run. Paul O'Neill was a nice average hitter. Scott Brosius had hit .203 the year before winning the World Series MVP award.
Joe Torre was not a great tactician; he wore out bullpen arms like other people wear out tube socks. But he could inspire. When he left in 2007, his players looked positively stunned. Jeter appeared to be lost for words, which Jeter never is. The thought of someone other than Joe Torre managing the Yankees was pretty much unthinkable.
I'm a very outside observer, but from the cheap seats, it looks like the Yankees wouldn't actually notice if Joe Girardi didn't show up for spring training.
Again, on the field, Girardi is a good, if not great, manager. He runs things smoothly (except when pinch hitting for a possible Hall of Famer--the steroid thing isn't going to help--in a playoff game). When he gets thrown out of a game, he looks like he's trying to get thrown out of a game. He raises his voice and flails his arms because he seems to think it's part of the show. Then he runs his hand over that Marines brush cut and walks calmly down the tunnel to the clubhouse, probably cracks open a cold protein shake and does some pull-ups.
Inspiring? Not really.
It could be argued--probably with a great deal of evidence, too--that players making gazillions of dollars, who are professionals and veterans (mostly) shouldn't need outside motivation. They should go out there and play their hearts out because that's what they're supposed to do. And I won't argue with that, except to say that one look at the 2012 playoff Yankees would rapidly lead to the conclusion that this team was professional-izing itself to an early exit. They didn't hit, but they didn't panic. Even when they should have been panicking.
This winter, the Yankees are putting together pretty much the same team that left the field having been beaten in four games by the Detroit Tigers, plus a fairly washed-out Kevin Youkilis, who is very professional. We'll get Ichiro back in right field, Pettitte and Kuroda back in the rotation, some closer-by-committee experiment behind the plate (this is all assuming Brian Cashman doesn't have a secret plan up his sleeve) and some version of Mariano Rivera--never count him out, even at 43!--to finish games in which they're ahead.
But will they have heart? In 1996, Paul O'Neill ran at full tilt on a bad leg to save the 1-0 victory in Game 5 of the World Series. That was heart. In 2012, Derek Jeter broke his ankle on a play and still tried to flip the ball to Cano to get the out even when he was lying on the ground in agony. That's heart.
Will Curtis Granderson show us something other than a calm demeanor (and homers and strikeouts) in 2013? Will Robinson Cano at least look like he's something more than smooth at second base? Will Mark Teixeira be cool and professional without fail for another year?
The 2012 Yankees had some guys with heart. Jeter has it in spades. CC Sabathia would pitch with his arm hanging off his shoulder if he had to. Russell Martin had an awful batting average, but you could tell it was killing him. He wanted it so badly.
And of course there was someone with a lot of heart, Nick Swisher. And once he's back in the fold, you know...
Oh, yeah.
This team doesn't seem inspired. And so this team is not, and has not been, inspiring. Baseball is more than stats, sabermetricians. Joe Torre understood that. Joe Girardi has a binder.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Man. That Was Painful.
First of all, congratulations to the Detroit Tigers on their trip to the World Series. Good for you, Tiger fans. Enjoy the ride.
Now. Down to business.
Having said that to the Tiger fans, let's hope they've chosen not to read on, because the sad fact of the matter is that except for Game 4, they didn't win this series. The Yankees lost it. Not even--the Yankees handed it to Detroit. If they ever had it in their possession at all.
The 2012 ALCS was as dispirited a series of games as I have ever witnessed. Other than the ninth inning of Game 1, there was never a glimmer of hope, never an expectation that something good was going to happen. When Game 4 came around and CC Sabathia (about whom I have nothing negative to say--the man is entitled to one off day, no matter how truly awful the timing was--after all, did you think they'd have won the next three if he'd thrown a shutout today?) had given up six runs including two 2-run homers, I called my son and we went out to dinner. There was no point in watching. I knew there'd be no comeback.
Call me a bad fan. But this team didn't hit a lick in this series, and especially since Jeter didn't get up on Saturday night.
There will be changes, but don't expect miracles. No, Mr. Rod is not going anywhere, not with that contract and the way his swing looks these days. No, Swisher will not be back. There might be talk of Granderson leaving; I wouldn't pay it much mind. You have seen the last of Ichiro in pinstripes, which is kind of too bad but makes sense. The same is probably true of Eric Chavez; it is certainly true of Andruw Jones.
Will Hiroki Kuroda be back? Maybe. Will Andy Pettitte? I'd put money on yes. Mariano Rivera? Set your watch for Spring Training. Mo will be there.
If this off season is punctuated solely by news stories about how hard Michael Pineda has been working to get healthy, don't expect 2013 to be a lot of fun.
Is Joe Girardi's job in jeopardy (alliteration--not bad, huh?)? Maybe it should be. He couldn't light a fire under this team with a flame thrower. They shouldn't have to HAVE a fire lit under them; they're professionals and veterans, but it sure looked like they needed one this past two weeks. Maybe a fire-and-brimstone guy would be better. Maybe not. The one thing I've always liked about Girardi has been his handling of the bullpen, and I continue to admire that. But the past two postseasons have been about how the Yankees--the team everyone said had the best offense in the business--couldn't buy a hit with a credit card.
Time for wholesale changes? Could be, but they won't come. There are too many guaranteed contacts and the threat of the 2014 luxury tax threshold at $189-million, a number the Yankees are reportedly taking seriously. That means LESS spending, and with Jeter, Mr. Rod, Sabathia, Teixeira, Soriano (who might opt out if he thinks he can do better elsewhere) all signed for years to come and options coming up on Cano and Granderson, a lot of money--a LOT of money--is already tied up. There's not a lot of maneuverability for Brian Cashman to manipulate.
Expect that he'll try to move Mr. Rod and fail. Maybe the same with the Grandy Man (which might be worth it just to get John Sterling to stop saying that; after all, "Swishalicious" will be out of his lexicon shortly). They'll be in the starting lineup next April1. Against the Red Sox.
For the first time in a long time, I'm not that excited about next year's Yankees.
Now. Down to business.
Having said that to the Tiger fans, let's hope they've chosen not to read on, because the sad fact of the matter is that except for Game 4, they didn't win this series. The Yankees lost it. Not even--the Yankees handed it to Detroit. If they ever had it in their possession at all.
The 2012 ALCS was as dispirited a series of games as I have ever witnessed. Other than the ninth inning of Game 1, there was never a glimmer of hope, never an expectation that something good was going to happen. When Game 4 came around and CC Sabathia (about whom I have nothing negative to say--the man is entitled to one off day, no matter how truly awful the timing was--after all, did you think they'd have won the next three if he'd thrown a shutout today?) had given up six runs including two 2-run homers, I called my son and we went out to dinner. There was no point in watching. I knew there'd be no comeback.
Call me a bad fan. But this team didn't hit a lick in this series, and especially since Jeter didn't get up on Saturday night.
There will be changes, but don't expect miracles. No, Mr. Rod is not going anywhere, not with that contract and the way his swing looks these days. No, Swisher will not be back. There might be talk of Granderson leaving; I wouldn't pay it much mind. You have seen the last of Ichiro in pinstripes, which is kind of too bad but makes sense. The same is probably true of Eric Chavez; it is certainly true of Andruw Jones.
Will Hiroki Kuroda be back? Maybe. Will Andy Pettitte? I'd put money on yes. Mariano Rivera? Set your watch for Spring Training. Mo will be there.
If this off season is punctuated solely by news stories about how hard Michael Pineda has been working to get healthy, don't expect 2013 to be a lot of fun.
Is Joe Girardi's job in jeopardy (alliteration--not bad, huh?)? Maybe it should be. He couldn't light a fire under this team with a flame thrower. They shouldn't have to HAVE a fire lit under them; they're professionals and veterans, but it sure looked like they needed one this past two weeks. Maybe a fire-and-brimstone guy would be better. Maybe not. The one thing I've always liked about Girardi has been his handling of the bullpen, and I continue to admire that. But the past two postseasons have been about how the Yankees--the team everyone said had the best offense in the business--couldn't buy a hit with a credit card.
Time for wholesale changes? Could be, but they won't come. There are too many guaranteed contacts and the threat of the 2014 luxury tax threshold at $189-million, a number the Yankees are reportedly taking seriously. That means LESS spending, and with Jeter, Mr. Rod, Sabathia, Teixeira, Soriano (who might opt out if he thinks he can do better elsewhere) all signed for years to come and options coming up on Cano and Granderson, a lot of money--a LOT of money--is already tied up. There's not a lot of maneuverability for Brian Cashman to manipulate.
Expect that he'll try to move Mr. Rod and fail. Maybe the same with the Grandy Man (which might be worth it just to get John Sterling to stop saying that; after all, "Swishalicious" will be out of his lexicon shortly). They'll be in the starting lineup next April1. Against the Red Sox.
For the first time in a long time, I'm not that excited about next year's Yankees.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Well, It's Been Nice...
Two of the most depressing days in Yankee history (short of the 2004 ALCS, which we won't discuss) are concluded now, and there's little to say except that a team whose most memorable offensive play this postseason has been the strikeout needs to mount a serious rejuvenation starting Wednesday night. Against Justin Verlander.
Uh-huh.
I hope I can eat my words, but right now, it's looking like 2013 will be a whole new year. An outfield of Brett Gardner, Curtis "Swing and a Miss" Granderson and... somebody, a rotation of CC, Phil "That's Hit Deep to Right" Hughes, Ivan Nova, maybe Andy Pettitte (at 41) and... somebody (Michael Pineda?)..., an infield with a clearly depleted Mr. Rod, a Captain on a whole new left ankle, Robinson "Best Hitter Except in October" Cano and Teixiera on a hopefully healthy pair of legs.
And maybe Mariano will grace us with one more season. At 42. But with him, age doesn't count.
Hopefully, Raul Ibanez will come back at 41 to drive balls into the right field stands in streaks of dramatic at-bats and then take a seat on the bench for a while when the streaks end. Some of the best games of the year have been Ibanez games. Go figure.
Catcher? Russell Martin's contract is up. Do they want the guy who hit .300 in September, or the guy who hit .190-something the rest of the year? Hard to say.
Now, it's possible the bats will wake up and the starting pitching will remain outstanding and this postseason won't be over. But it doesn't seem likely. Especially after Jeter's injury, the life was out of this Yankee team, and we've seen them look like this for too many stretches this year to assume it will all end against maybe the best pitcher in baseball, and then three more times in the next five games.
I hope I'm wrong. But I don't think I am. So. 2013. There are a lot of questions to be answered.
Oh, and the fans who got all over Swisher after his years here, on probably his last home game for them? Not cool. Yeah, he's been lousy in the postseason. Show me two other guys in the lineup who haven't. Not cool.
Booing Mr. Rod? I get that. He's never been a favorite of this fan base, he's always been somehow a plastic figure, an automaton of a player, not someone the Yankee fan can warm up to, and he's been conspicuously atrocious this postseason, striking out so many times it's really impressive. Besides, he gets booed wherever he goes. I wouldn't do it myself, but I understand it.
Booing Granderson? The man hit 43 home runs and drove in over 100 this year, and I still cringe when I see him come up in a crucial situation. It's 0-2 before you can blink, and everybody in the park knows the slider going away from him is going to be strike three. There are times I think I could strike him out, and believe me, I can't strike anybody out. It's like he strikes himself out, and the pitcher is simply there for decoration.
But booing Swisher? The fun guy? The fan favorite out in right field? The guy who saluted the Bleacher Creatures each and every home game?
Not cool.
Uh-huh.
I hope I can eat my words, but right now, it's looking like 2013 will be a whole new year. An outfield of Brett Gardner, Curtis "Swing and a Miss" Granderson and... somebody, a rotation of CC, Phil "That's Hit Deep to Right" Hughes, Ivan Nova, maybe Andy Pettitte (at 41) and... somebody (Michael Pineda?)..., an infield with a clearly depleted Mr. Rod, a Captain on a whole new left ankle, Robinson "Best Hitter Except in October" Cano and Teixiera on a hopefully healthy pair of legs.
And maybe Mariano will grace us with one more season. At 42. But with him, age doesn't count.
Hopefully, Raul Ibanez will come back at 41 to drive balls into the right field stands in streaks of dramatic at-bats and then take a seat on the bench for a while when the streaks end. Some of the best games of the year have been Ibanez games. Go figure.
Catcher? Russell Martin's contract is up. Do they want the guy who hit .300 in September, or the guy who hit .190-something the rest of the year? Hard to say.
Now, it's possible the bats will wake up and the starting pitching will remain outstanding and this postseason won't be over. But it doesn't seem likely. Especially after Jeter's injury, the life was out of this Yankee team, and we've seen them look like this for too many stretches this year to assume it will all end against maybe the best pitcher in baseball, and then three more times in the next five games.
I hope I'm wrong. But I don't think I am. So. 2013. There are a lot of questions to be answered.
Oh, and the fans who got all over Swisher after his years here, on probably his last home game for them? Not cool. Yeah, he's been lousy in the postseason. Show me two other guys in the lineup who haven't. Not cool.
Booing Mr. Rod? I get that. He's never been a favorite of this fan base, he's always been somehow a plastic figure, an automaton of a player, not someone the Yankee fan can warm up to, and he's been conspicuously atrocious this postseason, striking out so many times it's really impressive. Besides, he gets booed wherever he goes. I wouldn't do it myself, but I understand it.
Booing Granderson? The man hit 43 home runs and drove in over 100 this year, and I still cringe when I see him come up in a crucial situation. It's 0-2 before you can blink, and everybody in the park knows the slider going away from him is going to be strike three. There are times I think I could strike him out, and believe me, I can't strike anybody out. It's like he strikes himself out, and the pitcher is simply there for decoration.
But booing Swisher? The fun guy? The fan favorite out in right field? The guy who saluted the Bleacher Creatures each and every home game?
Not cool.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Now It's Okay to Panic
Let's face it: The Orioles are tied for first place with the Yankees, and the Tampa Bay Rays are less than two games behind them. Pennant races are fun (when your team is in them) but there's a fly in the ointment of this one:
Both those teams are, right now, better than the Yankees.
A team that was chugging along with the now-famous 10-game lead and looked to be leaving the rest of the league in their dust now can't--with all their money--buy a base hit in a crucial situation. The pitching staff is at best questionable. The manager appears just a hair (if he'd let it grow) short of deranged.
The whole lead is gone now, folks, with a grand total of 27 games left on the schedule, and the two clubs in their division playing better baseball than the Pinstripes.
Time to panic? Yeah, probably. Because this team looks so dispirited, so frustrated, so the-opposite-of-intense that a decent outing from Joba Chamberlain in a losing effort looked like a real high spot for a few minutes there. Then Raul Ibanez struck out again and we remembered what the actual state of the union is right now.
What is there to hang hope on? A couple of things. Mark Teixeira should be back within a few days, perhaps this weekend in Baltimore, where the hate coming out of the stands at him seems to be a good motivator. Curtis (swing and a miss) Granderson is back. Mr. Rod has returned, but his power stroke seems to have remained on the DL.
They say Andy Pettitte might actually make it to a major league mound by the time the Yankees are four or five games out and fighting for a one-game playoff wild card spot.
Okay, maybe not that much hope.
Is this an epic collapse in the style of the fried-chicken-and-beer Red Sox or will the Yankees wake up one day (tomorrow would be good) and remember who they were in June? I was in the Stadium the day Pettitte's ankle took its shot, and believe I can trace this fade back to that date. Will a possible return of Pettitte or Ivan Nova (if he's the 2011 Ivan Nova) spark a comeback?
Or will we be talking about how Cashman can possibly blow up this team in the off season and make next year more exciting?
There are 27 games left, friends. Let's hope at the very least that they're not all so dreary to watch.
Both those teams are, right now, better than the Yankees.
A team that was chugging along with the now-famous 10-game lead and looked to be leaving the rest of the league in their dust now can't--with all their money--buy a base hit in a crucial situation. The pitching staff is at best questionable. The manager appears just a hair (if he'd let it grow) short of deranged.
The whole lead is gone now, folks, with a grand total of 27 games left on the schedule, and the two clubs in their division playing better baseball than the Pinstripes.
Time to panic? Yeah, probably. Because this team looks so dispirited, so frustrated, so the-opposite-of-intense that a decent outing from Joba Chamberlain in a losing effort looked like a real high spot for a few minutes there. Then Raul Ibanez struck out again and we remembered what the actual state of the union is right now.
What is there to hang hope on? A couple of things. Mark Teixeira should be back within a few days, perhaps this weekend in Baltimore, where the hate coming out of the stands at him seems to be a good motivator. Curtis (swing and a miss) Granderson is back. Mr. Rod has returned, but his power stroke seems to have remained on the DL.
They say Andy Pettitte might actually make it to a major league mound by the time the Yankees are four or five games out and fighting for a one-game playoff wild card spot.
Okay, maybe not that much hope.
Is this an epic collapse in the style of the fried-chicken-and-beer Red Sox or will the Yankees wake up one day (tomorrow would be good) and remember who they were in June? I was in the Stadium the day Pettitte's ankle took its shot, and believe I can trace this fade back to that date. Will a possible return of Pettitte or Ivan Nova (if he's the 2011 Ivan Nova) spark a comeback?
Or will we be talking about how Cashman can possibly blow up this team in the off season and make next year more exciting?
There are 27 games left, friends. Let's hope at the very least that they're not all so dreary to watch.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Okay, Calm Down
Things have not been going well lately for the Yankees (I'll bet you've noticed). So a lot of fans were, let's say, irritated when yesterday's non-waiver trading deadline passed and we were not presented with Cliff Lee, Felix Hernandez AND for all I know Pie Trainor to come and play third base until Mr. Rod returns.
Calm down, people.
Consider this: If, the day before the season began, you were told that on August 1, the Yankees would have a five-and-a-half-game lead in the division even with key personnel on the DL, you'd have signed up for that in a heartbeat, wouldn't you? This is an enviable position, made clear by the fact that pretty much every other team in baseball envies it.
Yes, things have been bad lately. The pitching, including even CC Sabathia, has been disappointing and confounding. Hiroki Kuroda has been the most consistent starter, and in his Red Sox game, he got no run support. The hitting has been spotty, with no one currently on one of those white hot streaks that can keep a time going. It's been a while since it felt like winning was consistent. Remember 22 games above .500?
So this is not a suggestion that everything's just peachy. It's a reminder that the Yankees were going like gangbusters for a while, and that couldn't sustain itself. The division is too good, the injuries too numerous and the schedule (that west coast trip was not fun) too grueling.
But bad stretches are like good stretches--they come when you don't expect them and they never last forever, assuming you're not a Cubs fan. These are the New York Yankees. They're in first place by a good few games, and they're not going to lose every series for the rest of the year. So take in a game or two, root for your team, and savor the ride.
Remember--winters are long. Enjoy the summer while you can.
Just calm down.
Calm down, people.
Consider this: If, the day before the season began, you were told that on August 1, the Yankees would have a five-and-a-half-game lead in the division even with key personnel on the DL, you'd have signed up for that in a heartbeat, wouldn't you? This is an enviable position, made clear by the fact that pretty much every other team in baseball envies it.
Yes, things have been bad lately. The pitching, including even CC Sabathia, has been disappointing and confounding. Hiroki Kuroda has been the most consistent starter, and in his Red Sox game, he got no run support. The hitting has been spotty, with no one currently on one of those white hot streaks that can keep a time going. It's been a while since it felt like winning was consistent. Remember 22 games above .500?
So this is not a suggestion that everything's just peachy. It's a reminder that the Yankees were going like gangbusters for a while, and that couldn't sustain itself. The division is too good, the injuries too numerous and the schedule (that west coast trip was not fun) too grueling.
But bad stretches are like good stretches--they come when you don't expect them and they never last forever, assuming you're not a Cubs fan. These are the New York Yankees. They're in first place by a good few games, and they're not going to lose every series for the rest of the year. So take in a game or two, root for your team, and savor the ride.
Remember--winters are long. Enjoy the summer while you can.
Just calm down.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
A Win, and a Bad Day, Together As You've Always Wanted Them
So naturally, today is the day I choose to make my annual pilgrimage to Yankee Stadium III--the Theme Park. And today is the day the starting rotation blows up, almost literally in front of my eyes.
Things were going along really well (oddly, the Yankee Stadium Jumbotron didn't relate the news of CC Sabathia going on the DL with a groin strain--imagine that!) until the fifth inning, when Casey Kotchman hit a ball hard up the middle and broke Andy Pettitte's fibula. And the Yankees won the game, although our pal the anti-Mariano made us sweat for it in the ninth inning.
Once again, the home team chose not to broadcast the news of Pettitte's injury to the hometown faithful (although I'm sure John Sterling would have told us about it--his "coverage" of the game (which is sort of like saying Picasso painted naked ladies) is piped into the men's rooms at the Stadium III, so if I'd had a bladder infection, I might have discovered that our first and second most reliable pitchers were both out for stretches with doctors and trainers.
You'd think a team that makes you spend $10 on a magazine just to get the scorecard inside would do a little bit more to keep its "guests" informed.
These injuries are bad, no two ways around it. Sabathia's, at least for the moment, doesn't seem like it will cause a long-term absence. Pettitte's undoubtedly will. And with not much-to-nothing available on the trade market (Matt Garza, anybody?), the Yankees will see if Seattle really DOES want to trade King Felix this time (they won't) and rely on Freddy Garcia, who saved everybody's bacon this afternoon, and one of a dozen kids they have in AA and AAA to fill in.
Factor in that next week, while Sabathia's groin is still healing, the Yankees will play the Rays and the Red Sox both in their home parks, mostly because the scheduling department at Major League Baseball has decided that July 27 is the perfect time for the arch rivals (who let's face it haven't been that arch for a few years) to meet in the Bronx FOR THE FIRST TIME ALL YEAR. What?
You'd better hope that offense really is newly invigorated, because the pitching isn't going to be what it's been for a while.
The good news? David Robertson got through the eighth without making it interesting. I almost didn't recognize him. And the Carvel in the helmet is still good. Not to mention, we got express trains on the subway AND NJ Transit going home.
So the day wasn't a TOTAL loss.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Is it Time for Joe Girardi to Go?
The first thing to keep in mind is that it's May. It's silly to panic in May, a traditional Boss move that indicates impatience and hysteria rather than thoughtful consideration.
Still.
The Yankees, now officially in last place (tied with the Red Sox, who are showing signs of waking up), haven't hit in a game since roughly Spring Training. Even Derek Jeter, who was doing an impression of Ted Williams for the first five weeks of the season, seems to be slowing down. Curtis Granderson appears to have forgotten what he learned from Kevin Long. Nick Swisher hurt himself and came back swinging at everything. Mark Teixiera has a cough and that has exacerbated his usual slow start.
A-Rod is... who IS that guy at third base, anyway? Oh, right. Eric Chavez.
The frustrating, exasperating quality of the last two weeks or so of Yankee games has led to despair among the fandom. Trade A-Rod! (To WHOM? Who's going to take that contract?) Trade Tex! (See previous comment, not to mention, then who's going to play first base?) Trade Russell Martin (okay, that one's starting to sound reasonable...)
But the fall guy for most underperforming teams is the manager, due to the oft-repeated axiom that "you can't fire all the players." This is true, but not the least bit helpful.
Should Joe Girardi be replaced as manager of the Yankees? Let's discuss:
Although it is far from the powerhouse we were hoping it would be, the starting rotation (especially with Andy Pettitte looking like Andy Pettitte) has not been the problem. The bullpen (except Freddie Garcia) has really not been the problem, despite devastating injuries to both David Robertson and, worst of all, Mariano Rivera. The defense has not been the problem.
Let's see: What does that leave us? Oh, yeah.
The Yankees aren't hitting. And that's a sentence nobody expected to be writing until two weeks ago. The Yankees, with the most expensive, professional, accomplished lineup in the Major Leagues, aren't hitting? How is that possible?
And that's the $193-million-dollar question. The hit totals are down, the RISP numbers are downright embarrassing, and the Yankees appear to be getting shut out about every other night. It's almost like that David Ortiz jersey supposedly buried under the House that Money Built has taken three years for its curse to emerge.
Does the manager take the blame when a team simply doesn't score runs? More to the point: should the manager take the blame when a team doesn't score runs?
Let's face it: Joe Girardi is a decent manager whose strength is handling pitching. He is head and shoulders above the sainted Joe Torre at working a bullpen, and the fact that this year's pitching hasn't been awful might be a testimony to the way he's calmly managing the pitchers.
But dealing with star players--particularly veteran star players--who aren't performing up to their reputations is not Joe G.'s strong suit. When Jeter was struggling mightily last year, Girardi publicly suggested--and continues to suggest to this day--that the pressure of getting his 3000th hit was weighing on Jeter's mind. First of all, that's exactly what Jeter WOULDN'T want his manger to say, and second, it was more likely that the rehab from his leg injury, the dealing with Gary Denbo, and the return to his usual mechanics got Jeter out of his slide, because he'd been hitting before #3000 landed in the stands.
And if what the Yankees need now is a fire lit under them, this is probably not the guy to do it. Girardi is so even-keeled he barely seems awake at some of his postgame press conferences. If you ever have trouble sleeping, the Joe Girardi Show--pardon me, WB Mason Presents the Joe Girardi Show--on YES is an excellent alternative to Xanax.
The fact is, managers probably don't make as huge a difference as they'd like us to believe. Should the Yankees turn it around offensively? Of course they should. (That's probably the moment the pitching will begin to deteriorate, so be warned.) Will they do that no matter who the manager is? Assuming they don't go insane and hire someone as ignorant as I am to be the manager, sure.
Should Joe Girardi get the boot? No. Not in May.
But it's possible what this situation is telling us is that the real catalyst and irreplaceable part of the Yankees offense is actually Brett Gardner.
Friday, May 4, 2012
Not Fair
This isn't the way Mariano Rivera deserves to go out.
For an athlete with this kind of dignity, this amount of class, someone who has never pounded his chest and tried to humiliate the opposition; for a guy who has spent the last 15+ years being the best there ever was at what he does without ever acting like he thought that was a given, this is unacceptable.
But then, when has the world of sports--or any other world, outside of a Hollywood movie--been fair?
Rivera, shagging flies in the outfield as he has done pretty much every other day of his ridiculously long and accomplished career, stepped wrong, hit the wall, and fell to the ground in clear agony, something the rest of the Yankees would surely understand once his diagnosis of an ACL tear and damage to his meniscus was revealed.
"Oh my god," Alex Rodriguez was saying, and you didn't have to be Curtis Pride to read his lips. "Oh my god." Would he have been that devastated if, say, Andruw Jones had hit the turf? Nothing against Jones, who seems like a very nice guy, but no. There are two people on the Yankees whose sudden absence would be this devastating, and the other is Derek Jeter, who at age almost-38 is now hitting .404 for the season.
Maybe CC Sabathia, too.
But it wasn't Jeter, it wasn't Sabathia, it wasn't Rodriguez and it wasn't Jones on that warning track. It was the 42-year-old closer, by his own broad hints playing in his last major league season. It was the player who is considered to be the key to those five World Series championships over the past 16 years. It was a man who believes his ability to throw the cut fastball better than anyone else in history is literally a gift from the heavens.
By all accounts, Mariano Rivera is the greatest gentleman in baseball. His talent, which is impossible to quantify, even in a sport that revels in arcane statistics, comes second to his grace and dignity. Nobody in baseball, no matter how much they loathe the Yankees, dislikes Mariano Rivera. He shows up at All-Star games and shows the competing pitchers how he throws his signature pitch. He mentors young relief pitchers, good and bad, in the Yankee bullpen, not just in mechanics or technique, but in how to carry oneself in the spotlight of New York sports, something Rivera has done just about as well as anyone in history.
Yankee fans have always been aware that there would come a day when that bullpen door would open, but there would be no "Enter Sandman" and there would be no Number 42 trotting out to the pitching mound, a picture of calm in the eye of the hurricane, assuring us all that everything was under control. Mariano Rivera was here.
We just didn't know it would come this abruptly. We thought there would be that victory lap around the league, opposing fans showering their admiration, deservedly, down on Rivera as they did for departing stars like Cal Ripken Jr. That won't happen now, unless Rivera decides against all odds that he'll rehab the knee (which will undoubtedly need surgery) and come back for that victory lap in 2013, at the age of 43, uncertain about his health.
If he does, will be be the "real" Mariano Rivera, or one simply going through the motions? Nah. Rivera has never been about Rivera. If he can't compete at the same level he has--an astounding one--throughout his career, he won't embarrass himself and diminish his team just for accolades. At a thickly emotional press conference after last night's game, the closer, who might otherwise have been on a plane to New York to see to his painful injury, said he would stay with the team in Kansas City "to make sure the guys are all right."
This just isn't fair.
For an athlete with this kind of dignity, this amount of class, someone who has never pounded his chest and tried to humiliate the opposition; for a guy who has spent the last 15+ years being the best there ever was at what he does without ever acting like he thought that was a given, this is unacceptable.
But then, when has the world of sports--or any other world, outside of a Hollywood movie--been fair?
Rivera, shagging flies in the outfield as he has done pretty much every other day of his ridiculously long and accomplished career, stepped wrong, hit the wall, and fell to the ground in clear agony, something the rest of the Yankees would surely understand once his diagnosis of an ACL tear and damage to his meniscus was revealed.
"Oh my god," Alex Rodriguez was saying, and you didn't have to be Curtis Pride to read his lips. "Oh my god." Would he have been that devastated if, say, Andruw Jones had hit the turf? Nothing against Jones, who seems like a very nice guy, but no. There are two people on the Yankees whose sudden absence would be this devastating, and the other is Derek Jeter, who at age almost-38 is now hitting .404 for the season.
Maybe CC Sabathia, too.
But it wasn't Jeter, it wasn't Sabathia, it wasn't Rodriguez and it wasn't Jones on that warning track. It was the 42-year-old closer, by his own broad hints playing in his last major league season. It was the player who is considered to be the key to those five World Series championships over the past 16 years. It was a man who believes his ability to throw the cut fastball better than anyone else in history is literally a gift from the heavens.
By all accounts, Mariano Rivera is the greatest gentleman in baseball. His talent, which is impossible to quantify, even in a sport that revels in arcane statistics, comes second to his grace and dignity. Nobody in baseball, no matter how much they loathe the Yankees, dislikes Mariano Rivera. He shows up at All-Star games and shows the competing pitchers how he throws his signature pitch. He mentors young relief pitchers, good and bad, in the Yankee bullpen, not just in mechanics or technique, but in how to carry oneself in the spotlight of New York sports, something Rivera has done just about as well as anyone in history.
Yankee fans have always been aware that there would come a day when that bullpen door would open, but there would be no "Enter Sandman" and there would be no Number 42 trotting out to the pitching mound, a picture of calm in the eye of the hurricane, assuring us all that everything was under control. Mariano Rivera was here.
We just didn't know it would come this abruptly. We thought there would be that victory lap around the league, opposing fans showering their admiration, deservedly, down on Rivera as they did for departing stars like Cal Ripken Jr. That won't happen now, unless Rivera decides against all odds that he'll rehab the knee (which will undoubtedly need surgery) and come back for that victory lap in 2013, at the age of 43, uncertain about his health.
If he does, will be be the "real" Mariano Rivera, or one simply going through the motions? Nah. Rivera has never been about Rivera. If he can't compete at the same level he has--an astounding one--throughout his career, he won't embarrass himself and diminish his team just for accolades. At a thickly emotional press conference after last night's game, the closer, who might otherwise have been on a plane to New York to see to his painful injury, said he would stay with the team in Kansas City "to make sure the guys are all right."
This just isn't fair.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Should David Phelps and Phil Hughes Swap Jobs?
Um, no.
Not yet, anyway. Hughes, the wunderkind perpetual work-in-progress who's always just 15 minutes away from being the frontline starter we've always heard he would be, has had two not great starts this season. Okay, one not great and one lousy. Granted. And Phelps, who Yankee fans had heard about but not in the same breath as people like Dellin Betances, Manny Banuelos and, you know, Hughes, has been extremely effective as the "long man" coming out of the bullpen. Phelps is projected as a starter anyway.
So it seems logical that the Yankees should consider switching them up. Hughes has been a very good bullpen pitcher before, and with multiple innings of excellent pitching, Phelps appears to have the makeup of a quality Major League starter right now. Why wait?
First of all, because this is a ridiculously small sample on which to base any decision. That's like taking Mariano Rivera out of the closer role and inserting David Robertson because Mo blew his first save opportunity of the year. Yes, Mariano is Mariano and has more good will built up than any relief pitcher in history, but hey, he had one chance and blew it, while Robertson continues to mow 'em down the second he lets someone reach third. Change them!
There's also, as in any discussion of the Yankees rotation this year, the Andy Pettitte wild card to play. No sense in making any changes to the starting five until we know if Michael Pineda will be healthy anytime soon, and how long it will take Pettitte to convince his 40-year-old body he was just kidding in all of 2011.
Besides, falling in love with a pitcher based on two outings is at best an attempt to break one's own heart. Remember Joba Chamberlain in 2007? Remember Joba Chamberlain every year after that?
Phil Hughes is a solid starter who's going to have some bad days. You might have noticed that CC Sabathia hasn't exactly been setting the world on fire based on his first two starts, and nobody's even thinking about questioning his ability. Yankee fans need to exercise something we don't often use--our patience--and see what kind of year this is really going to be for Phil Hughes.
The upside? If David Phelps continues to pitch this well, we'll know we're on to something very, very good, perhaps the next Ivan Nova (or something better; I'm still not sold on Nova) or if it goes the other way, the next David Robertson. That's not a bad thing.
At the end of today, the Yankees will be one game out of first place with 153 left to play. Can't say I'm really all that concerned just yet.
Not yet, anyway. Hughes, the wunderkind perpetual work-in-progress who's always just 15 minutes away from being the frontline starter we've always heard he would be, has had two not great starts this season. Okay, one not great and one lousy. Granted. And Phelps, who Yankee fans had heard about but not in the same breath as people like Dellin Betances, Manny Banuelos and, you know, Hughes, has been extremely effective as the "long man" coming out of the bullpen. Phelps is projected as a starter anyway.
So it seems logical that the Yankees should consider switching them up. Hughes has been a very good bullpen pitcher before, and with multiple innings of excellent pitching, Phelps appears to have the makeup of a quality Major League starter right now. Why wait?
First of all, because this is a ridiculously small sample on which to base any decision. That's like taking Mariano Rivera out of the closer role and inserting David Robertson because Mo blew his first save opportunity of the year. Yes, Mariano is Mariano and has more good will built up than any relief pitcher in history, but hey, he had one chance and blew it, while Robertson continues to mow 'em down the second he lets someone reach third. Change them!
There's also, as in any discussion of the Yankees rotation this year, the Andy Pettitte wild card to play. No sense in making any changes to the starting five until we know if Michael Pineda will be healthy anytime soon, and how long it will take Pettitte to convince his 40-year-old body he was just kidding in all of 2011.
Besides, falling in love with a pitcher based on two outings is at best an attempt to break one's own heart. Remember Joba Chamberlain in 2007? Remember Joba Chamberlain every year after that?
Phil Hughes is a solid starter who's going to have some bad days. You might have noticed that CC Sabathia hasn't exactly been setting the world on fire based on his first two starts, and nobody's even thinking about questioning his ability. Yankee fans need to exercise something we don't often use--our patience--and see what kind of year this is really going to be for Phil Hughes.
The upside? If David Phelps continues to pitch this well, we'll know we're on to something very, very good, perhaps the next Ivan Nova (or something better; I'm still not sold on Nova) or if it goes the other way, the next David Robertson. That's not a bad thing.
At the end of today, the Yankees will be one game out of first place with 153 left to play. Can't say I'm really all that concerned just yet.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Ouch!
Okay, so Michael Pineda has a shoulder issue. That's never good. And maybe he's been hiding it from the team for a while. That's worse.
So, what does this mean, short term? Not that much. Pineda was on the bubble for a rotation spot to begin with, especially with Old Faithful warming himself up to return in May. Depending on how serious this shoulder thing is, Pineda could be back in a few weeks, a few months, or next year. It's too early to know.
What does it mean long term? That's the more disturbing question. If Jesus Montero starts tearing up the American League West, is a strong candidate for Rookie of the Year and hits seven home runs in the six games the Mariners play against the Yankees this year (who made up this schedule?), pressure will start to build. If Pineda doesn't come back in a reasonably short period of time... or is never the pitcher the Yankees thought they were getting... that would be bad.
Montero was that rarest of quantities: A homegrown potential superstar. Now, he could turn out to be Robinson Cano, or he could turn out to be Roberto Kelly. It's far too early to tell. But sit down and think for a moment--when you first heard he'd been traded for Michael Pineda, given the state the Yankee rotation was in at that moment, didn't you think it was a good trade?
It's possible we'll still think that, and it's possible we won't have to wait too long to find out. For right now, the thing to do is reserve judgment, remain calm and remember: the real season, with games that count, starts in less than a week.
Ah. Baseball. Any way you look at it, that's a good thing.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
A.J. We Hardly Knew Ye--No, Wait, We Did Know Ye
Things to remind yourself of when A.J. Burnett is pitching well for the Pirates this year (and he will):
1. He pitched well for the Yankees the first year he was there, too.
2. He's in the National League Central, not the American League East.
3. That cream pie bit was starting to look stupid.
4. There's... how to say this delicately... less pressure in Pittsburgh.
5. Maybe now we'll find out the REAL story about the black eye.
6. Michael Pineda is a LOT younger.
7. This will add three years to Russell Martin's career and possibly save Francisco Cervelli's life.
8. Larry Rothschild can discover there's more than one pitcher on the staff.
9. Joe Girardi won't have to give a hostile postgame press conference every fifth day.
10. We can stop hearing Kim Jones tell us how much A.J. cares.
No hard feelings, A.J. You did well in spots. One game against Boston in particular. But go to Pittsburgh and relax. There's no way it can hurt you.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Hip, Hip
Congratulations, Jorge Posada, on your terrific Yankee career, your classy demeanor at all times, your grit, your talent, your determination, your responsibility. And congratulations on making the right decision--not to show up at Yankee Stadium in the uniform of the Tampa Bay Rays or the New York Mets. You weren't always treated well and you didn't always make the right decisions, but you were always a Yankee, and you remain so now forever. Nicely done.
Three cheers for Jorge Posada!
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