Yankees' notes and quotes

The Yankees 7-1 win over the dismantled Oakland A's last night is a step in the right direction. The game featured Cano's resurgent bat and A-Rod aggressively charging the plate. The lineup had a new guy at first, DH Posada cleaning up , and Giambi sitting. Girardi is in a position where he must win now and the days of coddling flawed veterans is over. It's about time.

Notes & Quotes:

• "He's pretty much been an automatic out for most of the season."--David Cone on Yanks' newest find Richie Sexson. Apparently, Coney doesn't realize Sexson is due.
• Let's hear from the new guy, "I think this lineup hasn't touched what it can do yet it's exciting to come here and have an opportunity to at least push for a playoff spot down the stretch." The expectations in Seattle are a tad different than the Big Apple.
• "How far back are we? Six games back? We've played well enough to be 6 games back."--Yankee captain Derek Jeter. Somewhere, Paul O'Neill is grimacing.
• Help on the way? A few trade rumors to kick off the day: "They'd love to consider Rockies slugger Matt Holliday or either of two Pirates outfielders, Jason Bay or Xavier Nady, if the asking price comes down. But Holliday, a franchise-type player, would require a package of young players and prospects; just the sort the Yankees have come to value. And Pirates people have told competing executives they'd have to be "absolutely overwhelmed'' to deal Bay or Nady (don't rule out that possibility from someone else; the Diamondbacks have prospects to deal and the Cardinals are now said to be willing to consider a deal for top outfield prospect Colby Rasmus).
  If the Yankees like Reds slugger Adam Dunn slightly more than Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi, they understand his all-or-nothing nature. One advantage to Dunn is that, as a rental player with obvious flaws, the asking price has to be lower." Dunn would fit right in with the shrewdly built roster.
• Peter Abraham, from LoHud issues a warning on Holliday: "Yes, he’s available. But before you ask Brian Cashman to throw a bunch of prospects in a sack, consider these stats:
  Career home splits: .364/.427/.659
  Career road splits: .277/.341/.449
  Unless the new Yankee Stadium is at a much higher altitude than the old one, you might want to rethink calling for that trade." There's always a catch, oh well Gardner sure looks good running to first.
• Fox Sports predicts turbulence:
  "Telling times: Red Sox have 49 of final 59 games in Eastern time zone. Yankees play 24 of first 27 games after break against teams with winning records. The Rays have 12 games in 17 days during September against the Red Sox and Yankees.
  Give the edge to: Boston. Experience counts" Two consecutive Wild Card titles? Be still my heart.

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Yanks add Sexson to the mix

Start spreading the news: the New York Yankees have acquired Richie Sexson for nothing--actually a pro-rated share of $390,000. Long time followers of the organization knew something was bound to happen, it's been months since a one-dimensional first baseman was added--another brick in the wall.

Proponents of the new Bombers' regime will say something like, "They have nothing to lose." How about credibility? The biggest, baddest franchise in history now wallows in the scrap heap looking for bargains. Fans paying elite prices deserve more.

In the good old days, when winning was the priority, the Bronx Bombers would flaunt their financial girth by going over-the-top, to win at any cost. We used to hear, "It sends a signal in the clubhouse when ownership is aggressive." Now we hear, "He's cheap and he used to be good." What kind of signal does that send?

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Yankees' trade rumors

The All-Star exhibition is over, time to focus on the games that count. The MLB trade deadline is on the horizon. The Bombers' brass might almost be somewhat ready to spring into action. Let's hear from team architect Brian Cashman: ""I would say any rampant speculation on us involving a player of that magnitude would be extremely premature," Cashman said. "I would caution everybody to not misunderstand that since I'm not saying no to it, that that means, `Oh my gosh, that that might be happening down the line.' It's not something we're focused on at this point...(Cash was responding to speculation the Bonds could be in the mix. Let me interpret the corporate double speak--there's no way the Yankees will bring in the Balco King, to close out the House That Ruth Built.) Don't give up hope there's always another option, "Richie Sexson, released by Seattle last week, could be another option for the Yankees, short-handed because of injuries to Matsui and Johnny Damon.
"I'm not going to tell you if we're pursuing him or not," Cashman said. Brian plays hard to get. In a rare moment of candor, Cashman sums up his method of operation, " "This is kind of like taking a flyer," Cashman said. "That could be something that becomes interesting or it could be a non-story."

There will be no shortage of names thrown out, here's another from The New York Post: "Rockies will definitely deal is Brian Fuentes, and both the Mets and Yanks remain part of that hunt. But at the moment the Mets (Jonathan Niese) and the Yanks (Ian KennedyIan Kennedy ) are showing no inclination to deal the players desired by Colorado" (Hat tip MLB Trade Rumors)

Most minor league players fail, developing a strong system, hyping the potential and trading the right ones is a significant strength. Clinging to every prospect is not an attribute it's a flaw.

MLB All-Star game notes and quotes

The pageant started with pomp and circumstance and ended with baseball. The American League won again in a pitching dominated marathon featuring 34 strikeouts. Here are a variety of links that tell the story:

• "As a brilliant pregame pageant was coming to a close before last night’s Midsummer Classic at the Stadium, we thought we had seen it all when the last of 49 living Hall of Famers was introduced. But no. An announcement was made that someone special would be arriving with the game ball, and we all wondered who could it be? Yogi Berra and Goose Gossage and Dave Winfield and even Mr. October himself, Reggie Jackson, already were on the field.
  It was George, by George...While you may have hated Steinbrenner over the years, can you not agree that, in the end, you loved to hate him? The man brought a special brand of sizzle to the greatest rivalry in sports, doing everything in his power to put the best possible team on the field. He wanted to win. He was obsessed with winning."--The Boston Herald, tips their cap to the Boss.
• "I think it's awesome, the stage takes precedence over the accumulation of talent," Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones said. "When you're 10 years old in your backyard dreaming about this, you don't dream of playing in Turner Field; you dream of playing in Yankee Stadium." Larry, tells it like it is.
• The stirring pregame ceremony was a distant memory, the overcooked closer-subplot reduced to mere tabloid frivolity. The focus had shifted entirely from the historic setting and the petty squabbles to the astonishing spectacle on the field, as the final all-star game at grand old Yankee Stadium lurched deeper into Wednesday morning -- the innings creeping by without resolution, the bases constantly full of base runners who inevitably were marooned there, the worried managers down to their last available pitchers...On the night the greater baseball nation bade a fond farewell to its most storied and exalted venue, the game itself rose from a vehicle for ceremony to an instant classic, a reminder that even the House That Ruth Built would be just another crumbling building without baseball as its soul."--Dave Sheinin, of the Washington Post, delivers some quality sports writing.
• Bronx Cheer: "Papelbon was angry before the game. He stalked through the clubhouse wearing a T-shirt with a drawing of an obscene gesture. In a four-minute talk with reporters, he used more than a dozen profanities and blamed The Daily News for inviting the abuse he had already received from fans. The Daily News’s back page Tuesday had a picture of Papelbon with the headline, “Papelbum!”
  “I feel like I needed to be in a bulletproof car,” Papelbon said. Welcome to the Big Apple, now go home.
• "On an evening honoring the rich tapestry of Yankee Stadium's history, the American League found another reason to celebrate the Midsummer Classic -- but it'd have to wait. The Cathedral isn't one to let the spotlight go easily." Lets hope there's more reason to celebrate in October.

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MLB's All-Star blockbuster

Hype never sleeps and MLB's All-Star break is the latest victim. My disdain for over-the-top, breathless coverage limits my ability to sit through the hoopla. Here are some links that cover the spectacle:

• "For the annual midseason matchup Tuesday night of American League and National League stars, Fox has gotten record TV ad prices, Major League Baseball (MLB) sponsors have spent millions on promotions and fans are paying $150 to $725 for seats, the highest prices in the game's 79-year history.
  AD TRACK: More coverage of the marketing world
  For more than a year, MLB and Fox have been hyping the event as a historic last All-Star Game in Yankee Stadium, which closes after this season when the team moves across the street. It was home to the first World Series in 1923 and 33 since...."It's about scale, history and tradition," says Tim Brosnan, MLB head of business development." Funny, I thought it was about money.
• "Baseball's Home Run Derby is a fake, manufactured-for-TV event that lasts way too long."
• "In a staggering performance in Monday night's All-Star Home Run Derby, Hamilton banged balls off the back wall in right, deep into the upper deck, and, most impressively, off the Hess sign in center field. He shattered the record for home runs in the first round, with 28, and at one point, he hit 13 out in a row.
  "Obviously, I've never experienced a groove like that before," Wonder if he's ever faced a mound opponent like this: "Hamilton's 71-year-old batting practice pitcher, Clay Counsil, threw 54 pitches in the first round, and in a television interview conducted moments afterward, Counsil asked, "We have to go again?" I tried to watch a replay of the spectacle on ESPN, Berman bellowed 'You talk about...' and my finger hit the mute. I've boycotted Berman and Vitale for years, had hoped for better results.
• Fortunately, some actual baseball coverage can be found:"Baseball is always a wonderful conversation, and what better way to talk about the game than with All-Stars at the All-Star Game?
• "As baseball's elite prepare to play the final All-Star game in the storied stadium that opened in 1923, a look back shows how many key events have occurred there." Nice trip down memory lane, although that last paragraph could have been glossed over.

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Yanks' Jeter dissected

Yankees' captain Derek Jeter is under the microscope, again. Here's a few links of interest:

• "Davey Johnson, the manager in the Futures Game and in the upcoming Olympics, joked Sunday that he taught A's general manager Billy Beane "everything he knows" about statistical analysis. Johnson, who was Beane's manager with the Mets in 1984 and '85, first saw the value in numbers when he was playing for the Orioles and writing out lineups for Earl Weaver. "It's not rocket science," Johnson says ."--FOX Sports. Davey's been out of the game for a while, today's plethora of stats would make a rocket scientist proud.
• "Stat-heads and forward-thinking team executives now have several advanced fielding metrics to parse: fielding win shares, fielding runs, fielding runs above replacement, zone rating, range factor, probabilistic model of range, the Wharton guy's SAFE method (that's "special aggregate fielding evaluation"), and many more. There are so many fielding stats now because the sabermetric community has worked together on the scrivenerlike grunt work of generating useful data. Private-sector companies like Baseball Info Solutions and Stats Inc. have done most of the heavy lifting. They watch every play of every major league game and record the things (trajectory, speed, whether a ball was bobbled or fielded cleanly) that go into defense, then package the numbers and license them to baseball front offices and a few dedicated, independent stat guys. The cost of this proprietary data has not necessarily kept the stat masses from making important contributions to fielding knowledge. It has meant, however, that the best systems are the ones that are most dependent on crunching complicated numbers that don't get updated every day."--Slate (Hat tip Baseball Musings) The bottom line? "There's just one small blot on his résumé: When it comes to playing defense, Jeter sucks." Got it.
• Derek's future is also of interest, "Now fast-forward to October 2010, with the newly signed LeBron James taking his first wind sprints in Knicks camp and fixing to hurdle A-Rod and claim Jeter's vacated place as the market's reigning sports prince. Listen to Cashman and Hank Steinbrenner explain how the Yankees need to get younger and more athletic. Listen to the executives tell the public why the 10-year, $189 million contract ol' No. 2 signed in February 2001 represents the last nickel the Yanks ever will pay him." I saw an interview with Jeter a few years ago, he was asked what he would be doing at 40 his immediate response, "playing shortstop for the New York Yankees." (Somewhere, somebody just dropped a pencil.) Sports Illustrated ran a section titled "A sure sign the apocalypse is upon us." If Brian Cashman, is still making decisions for the Bombers in 2010, apocalypse will be an understatement.

Yankees at crossroads

It wasn't long ago that the New York Yankees' organization was easy to figure out. Quotes like, "The season will only be a success if we win it all," reverberated in the House that Ruth Built. The bar was set impossibly high, but at least you knew where they stood. Today was the priority, there was no tomorrow. Times have changed.

The impulsive, overbearing, deep-pocketed, competitive, individual owner has been replaced by a corporate think tank. Prudent discussions have replaced rash action. We want to believe this is a good thing, but as the clock ticks, doubt and questions creep.

Has maximizing return on investment replaced demands of domination on the priority list? The bluster (see Hank) squawks,"We want to win every year," but monitor the actions for the truth. Santana and Sabathia morp into Ponson and Milton. Is this part of a shrewd plan? Buying time for the farm while lowering payroll is prudent, is it effective? Where do we go from here?

"casting a shadow, literally, over the All-Star Game is the new Yankee Stadium, which is expected to add between $235-million and $250-million (all currency U.S.) annually in ticket and suite revenue to the Yankees beginning next year.
Couple that with Yankees general manager Brian Cashman's serious interest in prospects and add in the possibility that the Yankees could shed $89-million off their payroll in the winter..."

On the surface, the Yanks are playing with a stacked deck. Their heralded youth movement is actually a blatant attempt to buy the farm. The exchange rate is more appealing (IE. one Igawa= ten Brackman's.) In other words, it's harder to screw up and has a nice fuzzy connotation--we're not buying a pennant, we're developing our own. No one can argue that this is smart long-term thinking--it's not exactly rocket science. Tomorrow should be secure, if not it will be a failure of epic proportions.

While the organization looks to the future, the present is slipping away. How much time is left on the championship caliber clocks of Rivera, Posada and Jeter? There are no replacements in sight. Do you give them a chance at another ring in these mediocrity-mired times or are the marquee names being used to deflect attention from ownership's new priorities. "The Steinbrenners will do whatever it takes to help us win."--Jeter. That was then, this is now.

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