djtestudo

...and I'm doubley happy because of it

If you hear laughing out in the distance, it's me

__________________
"Final thought: I just rented Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. Frankly, it was the worst sports movie I've ever seen."
--Peter Schmuck, The (Baltimore) Sun

dylanmarsh

Or, if you echoing of the same gut laugh coming from two different directions of the country, it's me out here in Arizona.

pan6467

HAHAHAHAHAHA George your $200 million bought you a bunch of players that have no fire and desire to play.

Kevin Brown is washed up and an ijury waiting to happen

A-Rod is fried and now that he is truly on the big stage and expected to produce = choke

Big Unit is an N.L. pitcher and if you had looked at his interleague stats you'd see he's not going to have that under 4 ERA.

Giambi was a total waste of your money from day 1

Jeter is butt sore over you taking his spotlight away by adding A-Rod

Clement is an average pitcher and you overpaid him ......

Keep it going George it'll be refreshing to see the $200 million dollar team with no farm system and unable to trade because of high salaries fall into a pit and self destruct.....

Gotta love the ignorance of a man who thinks he can keep buying year in and year out championship teams.....

Welcome back to the 80's and early 90's Georgie, where the Yanks have overpaid lazy asses playing and the NEW YORK METS have better teams and go farther than you.

Sad thing is George because of your free spending ignorance and open wallet mentality, you have raised wages so high you hurt a lot of teams.

But you also forced teams to draft better, develop better farm systems and show that money doesn't win the sausage.... it just takes away the desire.

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I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"

Doctor_Max

Jesus George, how many games are in a Baseball season again? Give me a break. Start bitching when they get 25-30 games in and they're doing poorly. This is the equivalent of whining about a loss on opening day in the NFL.

skinnymofo

i hope the yanks stay in last place. maybe the team will learn to entertain instead of just go for cash.
You have a team with unlimited revenue and they are sucking.
HA HA

canuckguy

I love george, he always makes for good headlines. I do hope the yankees continue to suck, as my jays have a good chance then for a wildcard/divison title (dreamer i know), but i doubt they stay in the tank. I do think there a bit overrated, pitching is weak, johnson is just not going to dominate like he did in the NL. I can hope.....

alec

well, lets not underestimate the O's, curious george

that line up is stacked almost more than the yanks, so lets not act all surprised when they crush you

-alec

Glory's Sun

as much as I hate the skankee's, it's WAY to early in the season to be talking shit.

what am I talking about?! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Maybe the yanks should go play at Shea instead.

dylanmarsh

Actually, that would be the Sox who picked up Clement. Now, if you were intending to knock Jaret Wright or Carl Pavano, please carry on.

kutulu

Although I love seeing Stienfucker's meltdowns, it's 12 games into a 162 game season. They can rack up 52 more losses and still win 100 games. George is just out there making a fool of himself.

pan6467

Actually I meant Clement just had the wrong team....

Pavano is ok but in NY he'll get eaten alive (it's not Miami where the press doesn't say much if you have a few bad starts), but he may prove to be the best pitcher on the team.

Jaret Wright is WAY overpaid, having watched him in Cle. he's a NL pitcher. He won't make it in the AL...... esp away from Atl and their pitching coach staff.

__________________
I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"

BalloonKnots

When it's all said and done in October, you will all see the Yankees in the playoffs. Hate 'em or love 'em....you know they'll be there. I have no doubt!

I don't agree with George lashing out this early in the season...only 12 games into the season so there is nothing to cry about. I'm sure this is his demented way of issuing a 'pep talk' to the team. Even though the Red Sox won it all last year, the Yankees are still the team to beat in 2005!

Kurant

Clement was hardly an "average" pitcher until late last year when Dusty simply overworked him.

kutulu

Totally. There were a lot of B-list SP free agents this offseason:

Clement
Ortiz
Wright
Pavano
Millwood
Milton
and some more

They all were about the same age and had similar track records. Somehow *cough* collusion *cough* they all got between 2-4 yrs 7-10M/yr. Out of all of them Clement was the best. I'd rank the rest this way:
Oritz
Pavano
Millwood
Wright
Milton

crewsor

What an idiot. I hope they lose 15 of their next 20. I'd really look forward to the Boss's meltdown then. Heads will roll!!

__________________
We all have wings, some of us just don't know why.

guy44

First, the most egregious mistake: the Orioles lineup cannot match up to the Yankees. Just...no.

Secondly, b-list pitchers got so damn much because of a combination of things. Before the offseason began, the Mets gave Kris Benson, who has never been good, a big contract, and all of a sudden the market became set. If you wanted a b-lister, you had to pay about that much. It isn't those guys' fault that the teams that signed them were stupid.

Thirdly, the Yankees will be fine. Anything can happen in 2 weeks. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays won 12 in a row in June last year. 'Nuff said.

However, I do quite enjoy millions of New Yorkers freaking out. Squirm, piggies, squirm!

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"You have reached Ritual Sacrifice. For goats press one, or say 'goats.'"

RickB

And as a Dodger fan, I would like to thank George for taking Kevin Brown off our hands.

crewsor

I don't know, it looks like they not only matched up but overmatched them this weekend, while outscoring them 47 to 26 through their 6 matchups so far.

__________________
We all have wings, some of us just don't know why.

blakngold4

nooooooooooooo. don't even joke. aside from the fact that the difference between a 7m/yr pitcher and 10m/yr pitcher is huge, do you think owners would be dumb enough to collude, and THEN pay that much money to a bunch of b-list pitchers? use some common sense before you start lobbing allegations at the owners. the benson deal set the market, just like C-Guz for the SS's, and basically all the agents held firm for their clients until they got good deals.

blakngold4

another borderline absurd quote. your analysis is right, IMO, that he'll be a dud in the AL/NY, but he has little in common with the pitcher you saw in cleveland. the last time he pitched more than 10 games in a year for cleveland was 1999, and while Mazzone got him on track, it was arm issues that got him off track in the first place. there's an argument to be made that he'll at least be serviceable pitcher (whether that's good enough for NY remains to be seen) with what knowledge he'll take with him from ATL.

djtestudo

Let's see the breakdown, shall we?

1B - Jay Gibbons vs. Tino Martinez: Very slight edge to Tino.
2B - Brian Roberts vs. Tony Womack: You're kidding me, right?
3B - Melvin Mora vs. Alex Rodriguez: Edge to A-Rod, but if they each repeat their stats from last year, that changes.
SS - Miguel Tejada vs. Derek Jeter: Anyone that says Jeter also thinks Phil Rizzuto deserves to be a Hall-of-Famer.
LF - Larry Bigbie vs. Hideki Matsui: Big edge to Matsui.
CF - Luis Matos vs. Bernie Williams: very slight edge to Bernie, based on his career, but that's the only way.
RF - Sammy Sosa vs. Gary Sheffield: Edge to Sheffield.
C - Javy Lopez vs. Jorge Posada: Draw
DH - Rafael Palmeiro vs. Jason Giambi: Neither is any good anymore, so call it a draw.

The Yankees have a slightly better lineup, but your statement...just...no.

__________________
"Final thought: I just rented Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. Frankly, it was the worst sports movie I've ever seen."
--Peter Schmuck, The (Baltimore) Sun

guy44

Mora is way, way, way, way the hell less valuable than ARod. First off, ARod is a brilliant defensive thirdbaseman, unlike Mora, who is a butcher. Also, Mora is older than ARod, doesn't have the history of career success that ARod has, and is unlikely to post numbers as good as his last couple of years. Let us also not forget that Mora gets injured quite a bit, ARod not so much.

I'm going to give a big edge to Posada over Lopez as I don't think the latter is going to stay healthy at all. If he does, Posada is still a better hitter.

Oh, and Giambi is definitely better than Palmeiro.

__________________
"You have reached Ritual Sacrifice. For goats press one, or say 'goats.'"

dylanmarsh

We're talking 1996 A-Rod versus Mora, right? Since coming to NYC, A-Rod has cracked under the pressure and is NOT a brilliant third baseman. He is a primadona with zero rings, zero heart, and too many zeroes in his contract. I'd take Mora over A-Fraud in a minute.

This is a definite draw. Neither of these guys really know how to call a game behind the plate. The 2004 playoffs proved Jorge couldn't call a game right if Cashman's life depended on it.
Note: I'm giving this a draw due to the one season that Javy was injured, even though since 2000, Javy's stats are clearly better than Jorge's:

Jorge: .277 AVG, 121 HR, 628 K's, 45 Errors

Javy: .290 AVG, 118 HR, 412 K's, 36 Errors

djtestudo

Actually, Mora was a butcher for about six weeks last year, and is now at least equal to A-Rod defensively at third (when you consider what positions each was moved from, that should be considered about as impressive as you can get). The rest you are correct on. Notice what I said originally though.

As for catcher, I would say Javy is a little better offensively, and Posada a little better defensively.

If by "definitely better" then Palmeiro you mean "definately YOUNGER" then Palmeiro, you are correct. Oterwise, we probably ought to wait and see whether the one declining from age or the one declining because because his supply got cut off is better.

__________________
"Final thought: I just rented Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. Frankly, it was the worst sports movie I've ever seen."
--Peter Schmuck, The (Baltimore) Sun

kutulu

That 19-8 romping tonight will allow the Yanks to forget that Wright gave up 8 RUNS. It's too bad you can't withold a W if the SP sucks that much in the game.
pwned

guy44

Look, just calling Alex Rodriguez A-Fraud doesn't make him a worse player than Mora. I don't know how to quantify heart, but I can tell you that every statistic measures ARod as a good thirdbaseman defensively, and Mora as a terrible one.

Also, I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure that neither lack of heart, primadonna status, nor his zero rings makes him a worse player than Mora. First off, Mora has zero rings. Secondly, it isn't ARod's fault that he has played for bad teams. Thirdly, and this is key, just calling a player bad names doesn't in any way eliminate or lessen his value to his team.

Lastly, on what basis have you decided ARod has "cracked" under the NY lights?

__________________
"You have reached Ritual Sacrifice. For goats press one, or say 'goats.'"

jorgelito

guy44, for the most part I agree with your assessment but I disagree about A-Rod's responsibility in playing for bad teams. Of course it's his "fault". He had(s) choices and made them accordingly.

I'm not an A-Rod fan by any stretch but I think he does get measured by a different yard-stick.

He's still a punk though

alec

man, i coulda sworn i watch a-rod drop a routine ground ball against boston in the 9th a week ago? but maybe my eyes deceive me.

anyway, i would say a-rod is a better bat than mora, but mora is nothing to sneeze at. if he stays healthy all year (big if) he is damn fucking good.

in terms of other break downs, the o's line up is equal to the yankees, based on the fact that the orioles have ACTUALLY produced this year.

arod & sheffield are better than their o's counterparts, roberts and tijeda are better than their yanks counterparts, and id say the rest are washes....

by the way, the yankees fucking hammered the d-rays last night (what an opportune time to play a shitty team and have a home stand, eh?). poor o's got hammered too though.

Ilow

A-Rod always looks like a world beater when he's playing the Devil Rays and the score is 15-2, but put him in a pressure situation and he becomes very, very average. He's tremendously skilled, but he seems to have a propensity to pad his numbers in meaningless games (look at the last game against the D-Rays, homers against a crappy team in a blowout game). He really doesn't have any integrity or respect for the game, look at his little bitch move against the Sox last fall when he slapped the ball out of Arroyo's glove because he didn't want to be tagged out.
Finally as for him playing on bad teams, he's been on good teams for the last couple years and has no rings to show for it, and second, he was on bad teams in TX because he was so overpaid that they couldn't afford anyone else, especially pitchers!
[end of rant]

__________________
"Religion is the one area of our discourse in which it is considered noble to pretend to be certain about things no human being could possibly be certain about"
--Sam Harris

kutulu

Since 2004 was A-Rod's first year as a 3B, it's hard to put too much into their defensive skills. Now, first of all ARod is 4 years younger than Mora. Second, ARod's career OPS is .955, Mora has had an OPS over that one time and 2003 (only 96 games) was the only other time he was above .800. Until Mora repeats his 2004 season, I'm calling it a fluke. Currently he's hitting along the lines of his career average (if you exclude his 2004 season).

jasonresno

I oughta pop you in the head.

Since coming to New York A-Rod has sucked? How the heck do you figure, he hasn't been an MVP but he hit THIRTY SIX HOME RUNS in an OFF year. Mora is a VERY average 3rd baseman, bad defence and decent if inconsistent offense. How likely will he repeat last years stats? How likely will A-Rod repeat and surpass last seaons stats, while still being a brilliant defensive 3rd baseman.

"the one declining because because his supply got cut off is better."
They cut off Palmeiros viagra?

guy44

This is the kind of - no offense - stupidity that needs to be weeded out of sports analysis. And it isn't just you, it is most sports writers, too. First of all, it is funny how anyone can assert that any player "chokes" without presenting evidence - or even proving that there is such a thing as "clutch." There isn't. It doesn't exist. There ain't no clutch hitters, or hitters who only produce in blowouts, or anything like that. Just asserting otherwise doesn't make it true. Maybe ARod homered against a crappy team in a blowout game because he was facing a crappy team that was playing exceptionally poorly that day. Maybe he homered because he is a great player. Maybe Kevin Elster once hit three homers in a single day. These things just happen.

(Oh, and stop talking about these first two weeks as evidence of anything. Like I said earlier, the Devil Rays won 12 in a row in June of last year. Two weeks mean nothing whatsoever.)

Also, ARod was drafted by the Mariners, so he had no control over playing for them. As a free agent, he chose the team offering him like $100 million more than the next highest bidder. I'd choose Texas. And it isn't his fault that Texas wasted millions on Chan Ho Park, or that Texas hasn't developed a good pitcher internally since the Reagan administration. Do NOT blame ARod for Texas' inability to find and play a good 24 players around him. Somehow, the A's managed to be better than Texas with a $40 million payroll. They paid ARod $25 million a year. Their total payroll was in the $90 million dollar range. That leaves $65 million to field 24 other players.

He only played there for three years, then went to the Yankees for one year. They were 1 game from the World Series. No one player, with the possible exception of Bonds, is solely responsible for the success of their team.

In fact - that reminds me. Neither Sosa nor Mora nor Tejada nor the best player since Williams, Barry Bonds, has a ring. So what?

EDIT - Also, about ARod's error. Judging the entirety of ARod's fielding ability based on the fact that he booted one grounder is like saying the Beatles sucked because they made one bad song or that you once saw me trip over my shoelaces, and that fact proves that I'm a bad walker.

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"You have reached Ritual Sacrifice. For goats press one, or say 'goats.'"

alec

OK, you just said Barry Bonds was the best player since Ted Williams. Someone has to call bull shit. And I am. Fuck barry bonds. Admittedly, he was awesome before he got all roided up when he was a 40 40 guy with the pirates. But the best since Williams? Bull shit. I could easily name 10 players better than Bonds since Williams, namely their knees could still hold them up at age 40 because their upper bodies didn't look like Hulk Hogan's. And I know you'll ask me which 10, so here: Mantle, Aaron, Mays, Yastremski, Brett, Rose, Schmidt, Molitor, Ramirez, hell I'll even say A-Rod. It's impossible to judge true opinions of these people, because Bonds was real good but his steroid use completely cloats whatever he has done. Same with Sosa and McGwire.

Is Mora really 4 years older than A-Rod too? What the fuck has Mora been doing with himself? i don't know about his defense, but he is a very good hitter. He is definitely slumping right now but things will turn around -- but it all comes down to whether he can play a whole season.

The point about A-Rod is that he's sucked when its mattered. You ask for evidence, then how about his performance in the playoffs last year, since that's all the real pressure situation we have. Hitting sub .250 against the Sox? Killing their momentum by hitting into a shitty groundball with runners in scoring position and making an ass out of yourself by swatting at the pitcher? Fuck A-Rod, he's talented but not when it matters. He should save himself the trouble and go back to a team that won't compete, because his pretty boy bull shit is strictly for the stat books.

I think there is such a thing as clutch. People doing what it matters, when it matters. And I'm sure you can prove it statistically too. See how people do with hitters in scoring position after the 7th inning. See who has higher field goal percentages, higher scored points, more game winning shots in the fourth quarter. Fair enough MJ may have spent the first 7 years of his career clanking some game winners off of the front of the rim, but you can't say his late game success was a product of chance.

guy44

OK, one by one. Regarding Bonds - he's clearly, clearly, clearly the best hitter since Williams. I mean, your list has some greats, but Pete Rose? Paul Molitor? Manny? Puh-leese. Every measure of offensive performance - EQA, RARP, Win Shares, VORP, whatever, says he's the best since Williams. It, well, it really isn't in question.

Yeah, Mora really is 4 years older than ARod. It's weird how some players seem so old - I know Beltre seems like he's been around forever, gotta be older than 26, right?

As for clutch:

Just Google "no clutch baseball" for a zillion other articles proving that clutch hitting doesn't exist in baseball, including ones that do the boring math.

Lastly, I don't say that clutch doesn't exist in other sports. I don't really know, it might. I'm just talking baseball, though.

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"You have reached Ritual Sacrifice. For goats press one, or say 'goats.'"

kutulu

Mora didn't really break into the MLB till he was about 27 or so. True star players don't wait that long to get in.

guy44, I agree with you on everything about Bonds and clutch hitting. Roids or not, Bond is argueably the best ever.

alec

??? Not Pete Rose? If anyone, he is one of the best pure hitters the game has ever seen. And you know what separates all of those players from Bonds too? Championship rings. The closest bonds ever got was when he was on the 1991 Pirates. He is a petulant, childish over-sized boy who fosters about as many winning clubhouses as Albert Belle.

Secondly, as a Red Sox fan, and avid Yankee hater, is there no good reason that Reggie Jackson is called 'Mr. October'. Is it pure coincidence that in his 27 appearances in World Series games, he hit 10 home runs and 27 RBI's? That in his 12 years he led 3 different teams to 10 division titles, 6 pennents, and 5 championships? That's a lot of good luck, hrm?

guy44

Alec, take a random distribution of players that played in the playoffs. The resulting performances will be in a bell curve shape, with extremes at both ends. The reason you will end up with such large outliers on both sides of the curve is that the sample sizes are so small that the standard deviation of player performances is quite great.

Also, many great players had no ring. In fact, Ted Williams had no ring. I guess he really sucked, huh? Billy Williams, Ryan Sandberg, Ron Santo, until last year Pedro Martinez, and many great players never won a World Series. In fact, you are a Red Sox fan, no? So does that mean that all the great players over the years, Yaz and Williams and everyone else weren't great players? Was Pete Rose better than Williams because he had a championship ring?

Frankly, your line of thinking is rather suspect. You cannot blame a player for being on bad teams during his career, or teams that didn't win the World Series. There are 24 other people on the team, you know.

Pete Rose = vastly, vastly overrated. Like Nolan Ryan, he was a hardworking white guy who looked good on the playing field but whose contributions were vastly overstated.

Lastly, Barry Bonds came closest to winning the World Series when the Giants almost won in Game 6 of the 2002 Series. But I guess I couldn't expect anyone to remember all the way to 3 years ago, hrm?

__________________
"You have reached Ritual Sacrifice. For goats press one, or say 'goats.'"

alec

No, Ted Williams was great, but he was an asshole. He barely showed respect for his opponents or even his own teammates. Michael Jordan was still Michael Jordan but a constant loser until he learned to play with a developed Scottie Pippen. Before than his bulls were nothing but perennial second round teams. Barry Bonds is much the same, he's an egocentric, self-centered guy who also is an amazing hitter. But being an amazing hitter doesn't make up for the fact that his ways have isolated him and pushed away the once decent hitters that helped pad him (cough cough i guess we don't need Jeff Kent, do we barry).

Why can't you blame players for being on bad teams during their careers? Things go far beyond box scores. If you're on a star on a bad team, things are usually wrong with you then with your team. IE. Frank Thomas, Late 90's Portland Trail Blazers, Nomar, Thome, Belle, Alomar.

I agree with your view on statistics, but you spoke of small samples. Jackson was on 10 playoff teams in 12 years. That's a pretty large sample and you'd think that his statistics would mirror his regular season stats with that size, but they don't. Fair enough, you will have outliers like Todd Walker becoming hot or Manny (before last year) being horrible.

In the same token, you can't quantify everything. How do you explain the Sox trading (what I thought was down) Nomar for Cabrera, and then rattling off a 40-18 record? Spare me the defensive bull shit, Nomar was/is a great hitter but a clubhouse detrement and the Sox became exponentially better when they lost his attitude.

Further, in a team game, individual statistics are wonderful, but still take second to those who actually win. Back to the original argument, A-Rod is a great player, but he has no dedication to winning and has shown no desire like other players. The Rangers are to blame too, but what can you expect from a mid-market team when you sign to the largest contract in history? He knew what he was getting himself into, the burden of winning was on him, and he couldn't produce.

kutulu

The Midgets were what, about 6 outs away from being champs?

On the Nolan Ryan thing, at first I thought you were crazy, then I checked his stats on Baseball Reference. Over 27 years he had an ERA+ of 112 and only had an ERA+ > 125 5 times (plus two years at 124) and one year with ERA+ > 150. In contrast:

Randy Johnson - 17yrs, ERA+ 144, 12 years with ERA+ > , 8 yr with ERA+ > 150
Roger Clemens - 21 yrs, ERA+ 141, 15 years ERA + > 125, 9 yr ERA+ > 150, 2 yrs > 200
Pedro Martinez - 13 yrs, ERA+ 167, 10 years ERA+ > 125, 9 yr > 150, 4 yr > 200

I guess Ryan's legacy was his longevity. Other than that there are so many pitchers that were better.

kutulu

ARod hit .258/.378/.516. Not the prettiest BA but he was getting on base and getting extra base hits. I wouldn't call an OPS near .900 in a postseason series choking. Overall in 7 postseason series, he's .330/.395/.583. His dropoff in numbers is pretty much in line with a move from a bandbox like Arlington to Yankee Stadium.