… let me update you on the game that most of America was interested in - Game 1 of Sox-Yanks 2007. Schilling vs. Pettitte - two okay pitchers. ARod - has hit a couple HRs this month. Sox wearing green - tribute to Red Auerbach, the best coach in NBA history, bar none.
As you know, I follow a baseball discussion group that usually has some interesting stuff posted. What follows is a post by William Juliano, a Yankee fan by trade, and frequent contributor to that discussion group. Thought it might be of interest to you guys here:
I post this as more of a public service annoucnement, seeing as how most of the mainstream media - I’m specifically looking in YOUR direction, ESPN - will provide wall-to-wall coverage of the Yanks/Sox series this weekend.
Mets fell flat last week in ATL - no suprise there, really - but now the weather is warmer and they are playing in the friendly confines of Shea. Met bats seem to be awake - 33 hits and 19 runs the last two games. It’s still only April, and we are only 14 games in to this season, but it’s still important the Mets stick it to those bastards this weekend.
On paper, Braves seeme to have the better rotation for the 3 games, with Smoltz and Hudson going for for ATL (and Hudson seems to be back to the Hudson in OAK circa 2002) against Pelfrey, the enigma known as Oliver Perez and Mr. Reliable, Tom Glavine, looking for win 294 against his old buddy Smoltz.
Bring it on, as they say!
Julian Tavarez on the mound facing Roy Halladay and the Blue Jays. Sox have no chance… or do they? Tavarez pitches into the sixth inning - giving up 6 hits and 3 runs (all earned), with no walks and 4 strikeouts. Almost as important as the walks (at least to Tavarez), he got 10 ground balls and 2 fly balls. Now that doesn’t include the 2 fly balls that ended up over the fence (also called “home runs”… baseball term) - but still… he pitched his game and gave the Sox a chance to win.
with all that has been published/researched/discussed regarding high leverage situations, i am not sure why manager’s don’t utilize any of that information during games. Most teams have a closer that is used exclusively in the 9th inning in “save situations”. That is unlikely to change, so my issue is with a team that has a closer and one other dominant reliever. Obviously, the Tigers with Zumaya, the Padres with Linebrink fall into this category. But let’s rip on Ned Yost for a minute with his use of Derek Turnbow. Turnbow was an All-Star closer last year, and just as good the year before that. While he lost his breaking ball in the second half of last year, that trouble seems to be behind him, and he is as dominant as ever so far this year.
In the game on Tuesday, the Brewers were leading 5-4 in the bottom of the 7th. There were 2 on and 2 outs as their situational lefty had just struck out Griffey and Dunn. Phillips was coming up (a righthander) so Yost brought in Aquino who proceeded to blow the game and then throw some gasoline on top that led to an 11-5 loss. Why not bring in Turnbow to get 4 outs? He hadn’t pitched in 3 days. Why do manager’s get so caught up in narrowly defined roles?
With MLB’s decision to honor Jackie Robinson this past Sunday came the expected glowing biopics of Jackie himself. Not enough can be said about what this man did - and most of us can’t imagine what he went through to accomplish what he did. Just amazing. But we’ve also heard a number of voices expressing concern that the percentage of blacks in MLB is declining, and that’s a “major issue”.
I respectfully disagree.
We’re all familiar with the Don Imus comments regarding the Rutgers women’s basketball team, and the fact that he’s now been fired by MSNBC and CBS Radio. He may or may not work again - though more likely, eventually, he will. We can debate the merits of the consequences he’s faced for what he said last week while “trying to be funny” - and as importantly, what he’s (in part) built his career on, which I submit played as large a role in his dismissals. But the point is, people are talking about it - and inevitably, we’ll hear how this incident will lead to the ubiquitous “dialogue on race in this country”.
Let me start by saying I love Drew Bledsoe. I still (and will always) have hanging on my wall the framed back page of the Boston Globe where Drew says goodbye to the New England fans upon his trade to Buffalo. Not only was he a great player, but he was (and I’d imagine still is) a great person… a total class act. I’ve always respected and admired the way he’s conducted himself. The highlight from the first Super Bowl run, for me, will always be Bledsoe coming into the AFC Championship game in Pittsburgh near the end of the first half for an injured Brady. Zip… frozen rope twenty yards down the middle of the field (to Troy Brown, I wanna say). Another couple throws, then a beautiful TD pass to David Patten in the right corner of the end zone. Bledsoe turns to the sideline to jog off the field, shrugging his shoulders and grinning as if to say, “Hey, I can actually play this game a little.”
Many folks, including us, have discussed the expectations surrounding ARod - given his (perceived) status as “the highest-paid player in MLB”. Now a closer look at the list reveals that ARod is actually #2 this year behind Giambi (at least according to USA Today’s figures) - and as discussed, when one considers that the Yankees specifically are “only” paying him around $16 million this year, he’s actually a bargain.
But before you look at the rest of USA Today’s list of top player salaries for 2007, can you guess who the top ten are? And specifically, who is #10? For a small hint, I’ll tell you that three pitchers and seven non-pitchers comprise the top ten.
Winning the MVP in 2005 wasn’t enough to hold off withering abuse during a sub-par (for A-Rod) 2006. It seemed like a lot of people spent the off season pontificating about how he would do better elsewhere, in less of a fishbowl than Yankee Stadium. Then one week into the season, he slugs a game winning grand slam with 2 out in the bottom of the ninth and we love him again. My only theory to make sense of A-Rod’s treatment is that his salary has made him a victim of unrealistic expectations, layered on top of the persistent popularity of the “clutch player” fallacy. My position is as follows:
1) Derek Jeter is great, but turns neither water to wine nor stone to bread, and therefore is not quite as great as his press. Further, he is only the second-best shortstop on the team.
2) A-Rod is a sure-fire Hall of Famer, and a couple disappointing Octobers don’t change the fact that the Yankees are a lesser team without him. And considering his salary relative to his performance, he is one of the better bargains on the Yanks’ roster.
That is all.