Topic: Yankees Baseball

Robert....give me the date the Yankees "caught" Boston in the standings this year????  Plus, going 10-8 is "spanking"?  You should give up talking baseball.  You're comments show that you know nothing about the sport.  You're just a "bandwagon" fan.

Again on Santana, tell me. How could Foston justify to Beckett, their stopper, than he was going to make a lot less than Santana? How do you fix that? Give the same money to Beckett?  Yeah get real. So in their own sissy way Theo & Co were just trying to play spoilers for the Yankees like they had done so often in the last few years.

They were doing the same thing last year by risking nothing in trying to block Matsuzaka from coming to the Yanks. They got caught red-handed and the rest is history because they HAD  to make a factual offer to Matsu to dissipate the rumors about acting in bad faith on that deal to the point that even MLB was planning to look into it.

So they should be thankful that we sort of help them make up their mind and force them to act unexpectedly in good faith and sign Matsu to a contract and the rest is (again) history.

Not so well known aspects of Santana’s career.

He was selected by the Florida Marlins from Houston in the 1999 Rule 5 draft (he was signed by the Astros in 1995) and then traded to the Minnesota Twins for a minor leaguer.

After being signed by the Astros in 1995 Santana waited until the year 2000 for his ML debut with the Twins.

Santana became a promising ML pitcher in 2002 when he was sent down to the MINN minor system for 2 months to learn a changeup to go with his fastball. He went to the pen as a long reliever after not doing very well as a starter and that continued into the first 4 months of the 2003 season when he became an established starter.

In 2004 he finally became an Ace, which means it took him 9 years after he was signed to really be the pitcher considered as one of the best if not the best in all of Baseball (unless facing Sabathia that is).

It took a lot of discipline and hard work for Santana to be the stud he’s now and that should serve as a lesson to our young hurlers: hard work and discipline, refine your mechanics to the point of perfection, your release point, your ensemble of pitches should complement each other and again HARDWORK, consistency and fully trust whatever you have leaned so far.

Become automatically consistent. Trust your stuff and let your talent take over, allow yourself to be great. The secret to success has never been a secret it’s just that very few are truly willing to pay the steep price.

Could you imagine if Santana would have flashed through the minor system like Joba and Kennedy and to a certain extent Hughes had?

The sky would be the limit for him and maybe still is.

If isn’t broken don’t fix it. Leave it to the media to stir things up for lack of news to report.

Cashman was doing his job ( not 100 % perfect but nobody’s perfect) a very fine job I may add and the media, unhappy about not being able to tell us that the Yankees had mortgaged their future by signing Santana, turned their guns to an easy target: Cashman.

An easy target in the sense that he seldom defends himself thinking he’s dealing with intelligent human beings and matured ones at that. They started this thing about Cashman job now being on the line because by listening to them Hanks had practically stated “if this thing doesn’t pan out is going to cost him his job because Cashman took his chances and lost”. DUH

So the news is out there that Cashman is going to be extended/not going to be extended and they got Hank involved. Nothing has been said I’m sure just like I was sure about “Yankees need to make a splash at the winter’s meeting”, “Yankees need Santana to have a chance at catching Boston”, “Yankees will need to add Kennedy to the Hughes, Melky package”, etc, etc

Remember those headlines around April and May?  “Torre on shaky grounds”, “Yankees looking for Torre’s replacement”, “Yankees done for the year”, “early exit for the bombers”   

Then in October: “Torre left twisting in the wind”, “Yankees insulted Torre with one year offer plus incentives”, “Posada and Mo will now make the Yankees wait and suffer”, “Mets close to signing Posada something the Yankees will regret”, “the Boss would have gone and gotten Santana period ”, do I need to go on?

My advice is to take this piece of disinformation, just like the others, with a grain of skepticism and a ton of salt. Brian contract will be extended when it will be extended, I’m sure he’ll be the first one to tell you that. That won’t stop the tabloids from playing “Who wants to get Cashman fired first” a very popular game in the heydays of the Boss. The idea here is to induce Hank into stating that Cashman will be signed upon his current contract expiring which will give the tabloids a fair chance (fair in their minds) to try to get Cashman fired IF the wunderkinder don’t pan out. Who says forecasting the success of a young pitcher is an exact science? The media does.

The next step will surely be contacting Mo, Posada and others to give their opinion about how much Cashman is truly needed or how they felt slighted by him now that the shoe (or so they think) is on the other foot.

Do you think the NY media would have given Santana a break and let him take close to 5 or 8 years to develop into the superstar he’s now? Think again!

One last thing: was Theo fired after the 2006 debacle? Maybe they need to import some NY tabloid sportswriters. That might do the trick.

Matsui going to SanFran?

The Giants know that they need a 100 rbi slugger and a decent OF and Matsui provides that. His putting extra fans on the seats (a nice Japanese population in SF) takes care of his salary so for the Giants is a win-win situation.

Alleviating the payroll size is nice but Matsui san is a switch hitter who provides a decent number of RBI’s year in and year out and the Yankees must bear that in mind.

Does that mean they are trying to go after Rowland regardless of whether they sign Santana or not? Who knows but if that’s the case they have to move a bit faster. They need to replace a 100 RBI man; easier said than done.

Igawa has to come out of the pen: there is no way the Yankees can trust this guy as a replacement starter anymore and if a team is interested in him the Yankees need to eat part of his salary and let him go somewhere else. I think (what everybody else knows) his makeup is not suitable for NY just like Kat Matzu (who did just fine for the Rockies) couldn’t hack it here either.

Keeping Igawa in triple A serve as a bad example for the up and coming studs too he’s not the kind of pitcher you want your future stars to look at (his mechanics and ineffectiveness that is).

I hope Damon is making some healthy stops while driving that Ferrari of his so he’ll be in good shape when he shows up for ST. He seems to be into horsies too, the HP kind.

Lots of fans would like the Yankees to start signing short relief pitchers left and right. It’s only money right? But they forget that each signing helps determine the future asking price of similar pitchers even if they are not at the same performance level.

If you ask their agents they will all tell you how great their clients are (regardless of what their stats show) and they all want big bucks because the market says there are not enough effective relievers out there which is one of the reasons the Yankees are holding to Farnsy.

Try getting a set up man out there one that actually acts like a bridge to Mo instead of a launching platform every time they come out in the 8^th inning.

You offer them a decent salary, good luck you won’t get any. You overpay them, be ready to be burned and face the ire of those fans who kept clamoring: “we need a great relief corps regardless of the price”.

According to Mike Timlin of the sux: "Winning is fun, It's a whole lot more fun than losing," he said. "The guys that lead the team are not afraid to step out, take a chance and tell someone that they need to straighten it up. That's a little bit old school for today's baseball. But it works well there. If you don't stay in line and play the game correctly, the way that the veterans think you should play, you're going to get chastised for it. It just makes for a great team."

I hope the hotdogs on both NY teams are listening.

First you win it all by chasing every ball hit your way, racing to first or home, covering first base on a bunt, executing every potential double play, trying to score from third on a fly ball instead of picking a fight with a second rate catcher. THEN and ONLY then you may celebrate NOT the other way around.

Errare Humanum Est.

Before some sharp baseball fan correctly calls me an idiot for saying Matsui san is a switch hitter I hereby voluntary acknowledge my bad. I will also take this opportunity to save face and say that by shipping Matsui and signing Rowland the Yankees will be getting a righty hitter for a left one which we seem to have plenty of.

Andy Phillips is now a free agent, a guy who was a great Yankee and a warrior this season a guy who reinvented himself and believed in him and became a great first baseman when called upon after Doug went down.

Thanks Andy, remember such is life, the least Torre should do is give you a job since you gave everything for him and us.

Never stop believing in your skills you belong in the Majors.

Same goes for VIZ whose arm was blown by Torre’s philosophy.

Good luck to both of them and Doug our rock of Gibraltar at first before going down.

It was a Tim Tebow kind of day. He threw a pass which was almost intercepted by the Empire State building but was perfectly caught past the Verazano Bridge. Minutes later he ran for a thousand yards across the Hudson River barely beaten his pursuers riding high speed boats.

He declared afterwards that the throw across the San Francisco Bay had been somewhat more difficult. He seems to be in very good shape and ready for the next challenge. The man can talk, throw and run not necessarily in that order. Play safe Tim and enjoy the game.

I can’t stop insisting that Joe and the Yankees have to come out of the starting gate in the 2008 season all concentration and determination and leave Foston in the dust trying to recover from that megaroadtrip to Japan and the rest of main land USA.

That’s our initial advantage and by the time the sux get back to their senses we should be way out of sight never to be caught again until we meet them in the post season IF they make the post season. Careful planning and execution and that could become a reality. Have you ever seen a panicky Foston team? Not a pretty sight.

All we need to do is concentrate on our game (every game, every inning) and our record; the rest will take care of itself just like the second half last year.

Over a 12 year-period we have been very good reaching the post season: we're that good.

Over a 12 year-period we have been very good, reaching the post season every year.

At least this coming season the media won’t be saying we have the most awesome lineup in the majors, that honor should go to Detroit. Have you checked that roster yet? I wouldn’t like to be a Cleveland, Minn, Chicago let alone a KC pitcher. Those guys are going to need a dug out full time therapist.

The only advantage we have is that Leyland is going to have them copy Foston swagger (the swagger du jour) instead of NY this way they won’t follow us as close as Foston next season.

The Mets should have some luck with some SP wanting to come to Flushing instead of staying in the AL and the Mets should also feel lucky they have the bucks and the right credentials: NL baseball team. Even Santana would be dying to get out of Minn and the AL Central before his walk year. Wouldn’t you? Facing Sabathia or the Tigers a few times a year. Can you blame him?

Say good bye to another CY Young award for the 2008 season in you’re still in Minn Johan.