The Official 2012 Major League Baseball Thread

[rumpleforeskiin]

You're quite alone in that belief, iggy. The rest of Yankee nation is mourning a failed season.

Frankly, I'd rather be in the position the Sox are in. Yes, the finished last, but they have no bad contracts weighing them down and they have 80 million to spend. The Yankees have Sabathia, Teixeira, and A-Rod weighing them down to the tune of $70 per year for the next 4-5 years. They've already got $143 spent for next year (including AJ Burnett) and the Cano and Granderson options. Plus Hughes, Gardner, Robertson, Logan, and Chamberlain are arb eligible. Basically, they have 0 money to spend if they want to remain under the cap. Bye Swisher, Bye Kuroda. Bye, Ichiro. Just a bunch of old guys getting older.

Well, they've always got the Killer Bs, no? No.

 

[Doc Holliday]

Lol..... you old gunslinger you hahahah... Best record in the AL then all went into a slump... so whats the Jays and red sox excuse then? No heart and soul and no talent either? :lol: Like we always said Doc, if only the Jays had good starting pitching, then they would be contenders, then again many teams wish they had good starters, look no further than beantown. "Peeeee Uuuuuuu"

I'm not afraid to say it: THE JAYS SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't care if they had a lot of injuries, but even with the injuries, there was no reason for them to suck this much. Fuck, they sucked even more than the Maple Leafs, believe it or not!

A big reason why they sucked so much was their manager, John Farrell. I don't know what it is with Toronto teams having such lousy coaches and managers. They all suck!!!!!!!!!! And indeed, there was a serious lack of leadership once Bautista suffered a season-ending injury. No one picked up the slack, the idiots were left running the asylum, and it was chaos.

Luckily for the Jays, Farrell is about to be traded to the Red Sox. I have a hunch that the deal will be done by the weekend. I expect a couple of decent prospects headed Toronto's way. Even though chances are slim, there might be a chance that underachieving starter/reliever Daniel Bard might be headed Toronto's way.

Now, if the deal is done, who will the Jays name as John Farrell's replacement? I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't Sandy Alomar Jr.

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

Gotta say, Doc. I don't understand the Sox' infatuation with Farrell.

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

ALCS exposed myriad flaws Yanks need to correct
By JOEL SHERMAN
NY Post
DETROIT — There is only wreckage now, the detritus of having every weakness exposed, of falling apart so completely as to make it difficult to see the outline of a major league team, much less the New York Yankees.

Yankees management wants to take a deep breath, step away from that wreckage to gain perspective, not let the anger and embarrassment of being swept out of the ALCS by the Tigers overly influence decisions about 2013.

Nevertheless, if you believe the Yankees are going to depart from their homer-centric principles because of the long-ball-or-nothing death they suffered this week, Brian Cashman stopped that before the team’s offseason was even an hour old.

“I’m not going to turn myself into the Bronx Bunters because all of a sudden we didn’t hit for this week in October,” the general manager said soon after the Tigers’ 8-1 romp yesterday ended the Yankee season. “That’s not our DNA. That’s not what makes us successful. And that’s certainly not what’s getting us into the postseason every year.”

Cashman characterized the Yankees’ six-run ALCS — the same total driven in by Detroit DH Delmon Young — “as a perfect storm” of elite Tigers pitching and pretty much a collective slump by a lineup of mostly pedigreed hitters. He felt that the 39 ALCS innings — in which the Yankees never led — were not indicative of the lineup’s abilities and that he would not overreact to the small sample size.

But this is not wholly a small sample size. This issue has buzzed around the Yankees all season, nearly led to their ouster in the Division Series and for the second straight postseason ushered in elimination by the Tigers. As Mark Teixeira said, “We live and die by the homer.”

Their 2012 grave came because they managed one run in the ALCS that did not come via a homer, and that was a double by choke-meister-general Nick Swisher with the team down 6-0 yesterday.

The Yankees were an NBA team that relied in total on a low-post offense and had no ability to make a jumper when defenses packed the lane. The Yanks, pretty much up and down the lineup, swung for homers and when that was unplugged, they lacked the diversity to score in other ways.

Yes, some of this is about lack of speed. But it is also about lack of quality at-bats. Championship Yankee teams of recent vintage relied plenty on the homer. However, they also grinded long at-bats that wore down opposing pitchers mentally and physically. The symbol of this team, far too often, including in these playoffs, was the non-competitive at-bat fueled by wild hacks more suitable for Home Run Derby or slow-pitch softball.

The Yanks were 7-for-46 with runners on base in the ALCS and the first three games were so close that they could have tilted in the opposite direction with a few well-timed hits.

Again, this is not about defusing the Bronx Bombers. The Yanks must continue to capitalize on playing 81 games in their short-porched park. Their team-record 245 homers negated a lot of clutch failings and led to the best record in the AL. You do end up overanalyzing those clubs that make it this far, though 26 teams wish they had the Yankee problems.

However, the Yanks define themselves on not just getting in, but winning this time of year. Their mandate is parade or bust. The 2009 champions hit just one fewer homer than this year’s team, but were loaded with better hitters that made each at-bat feel like a little baseball holy war (where have you gone Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui and Jorge Posada, not to mention a better version of Alex Rodriguez?). That team had the one fewer homer, but lots more of just about everything else, including walks, doubles, triples and steals.

So this is not about Cashman renouncing his long-ball religiosity, but finding a way to better augment the lineup for times, like the playoffs, when homers become more difficult to generate.

The Yanks, therefore, have to at least consider if they can have a successful offense with both Brett Gardner and Ichiro Suzuki, especially if they could find backup outfielders with might as supplements. They definitely should commit — no matter the defense — to 400-plus plate appearances for Eduardo Nunez, whose quick bat can hit high-end pitching and whose quick legs can turn games. And, maybe, just maybe, they can rediscover Curtis Granderson’s speed game, Robinson Cano’s opposite-field might and the 50 points that have disappeared from Teixeira’s batting average.

This is not about changing the lineup DNA or becoming the Bronx Bunters. It is about constructing an offense more likely to get one of those parades again.

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

Don't you just hate it when millionaires whine?

Yankees player says team was rocked by booing during Game 2 of ALCS
With Alex Rodriguez, Nick Swisher, Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixeira and Robinson Cano all struggling, fans in stands at Stadium turned on them, and at least one player says


DETROIT — In the end, it looked and felt a lot like six years ago, when an eerily similar form of Alex Rodriguez drama seemed to drain the energy and focus out of a Yankee team against these same Tigers, with an eerily similar result in an October elimination game.

But back then there was a simpler solution going forward: just convince A-Rod to stop fretting so much over the fact that Derek Jeter didn’t want to be his friend.

Obviously it’s much more complicated now. A-Rod doesn’t have another MVP year in him, as he did when he bounced back in 2007, no matter how much work someone does on his psyche.

And this complete no-show by the Yankees these last couple of days, including Thursday’s 8-1 loss to the Tigers that completed the four-game sweep in this ALCS, couldn’t simply have been about Rodriguez.

If anything, it showed a rather startling team-wide lack of mental toughness. You can blame some of that on the loss of Derek Jeter to a broken ankle in Game 1, but that’s no excuse for the complete lack of fight with the season on the line.

And while A-Rod blamed two weeks of postseason futility at the plate, saying it “sucked the energy out of us," another player privately made a far more indicting observation: that the ballclub was affected by the hostility from the fans at Yankee Stadium last weekend.

“I really think the booing spooked a lot of guys," the player said. “A lot of guys hadn’t been booed before, and they couldn’t believe how nasty it got in the stands."

Obviously Nick Swisher admitted to being sensitive to such treatment after Game 2, but the player said Swisher was far from alone in his reaction.

“A lot of guys were talking about it in the clubhouse," he said. “I was surprised by how much it bothered them. I really don’t think they ever recovered."

If that’s true, well, so much for the big, bad Yankees.

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

I like that. "They turned into a team of A-Rods."

Yankees postseason meltdown against Detroit Tigers still doesn't sink to 2004 depths collapse vs. Boston Red Sox
The problem wasn’t just A-Rod in the end. It was that they turned into a team of A-Rods. It was like when the economy crashed four years ago. The best thing they could say then is that it wasn’t October of 1929.

DETROIT – You cannot call it the worst loss in the history of the Yankees, there will never be a worse loss than the one to the Red Sox in ’04, those four nights in October, four losses in a row in another American League Championship Series after the Yankees led the Red Sox three games to none.

So you can’t call what happened to the Yankees against the Tigers, what finally finished at Comerica Park on Thursday night, worse than that. It just felt like ’04 in the end. It looked as bad as that.

It was like when the economy crashed four years ago. The best thing they could say then is that it wasn’t October of 1929.

They got swept in four games, got blown out in Game 4 with CC Sabathia as their starter. Played 39 innings in this ALCS and scored in three of them. When their season was on the line at Comerica, and they were just trying to get a game, they got two hits and lost, 8-1.

The Yankees didn’t just lose this series, they finally got dropped out of a Game 4, fourth-story window.

It ended around 7:30, a walk to Jayson Nix by Octavio Dotel in the top of the seventh the only thing that cheated this series out of the ending it really deserved, which would have been Alex Rodriguez making the last out.

So A-Rod made the second-to-last out, grounding out to shortstop, looking like a shell of himself in this series the way the Yankees became a shell of the team that held off the Orioles in September, then were tough enough to win Game 5 off the Orioles last week at Yankee Stadium. Not only did the Yankees play like losers against the Tigers — who now win their 11th American League pennant, who now beat the Yankees in the playoffs for the third time in six seasons — they played like boring, listless losers. No wonder there were so many empty seats at the Stadium in Games 1 and 2.

So A-Rod, who didn’t hit because hardly any of them did, because the Yankees hit .188 in this postseason, grounded to short and then it was Nix against a tough ex-Yankee named Phi Coke, and Nix hit one sky high, and there was Prince Fielder waiting underneath it, jumping up and down like a kid, the pennant about to land in his glove.

Then the Tigers were rushing Coke and the field, and the last two Yankees in the dugout, the ones left to watch this celebration, the Tigers knocking them out of the season the way they did last year in the first round, were Robinson Cano and Raul Ibanez, leaning over a green rail.

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

And here's the best news of all:
Yankees' Alex Rodriguez says he will return to Bronx next season, will not waive no-trade rights
Benched All-Star and lightning rod third baseman says he has no plans of going to another team even after being forced to watch much of the playoffs this season.


DETROIT – Alex Rodriguez again was omitted from the starting lineup for Thursday’s Game 4, but A-Rod and his future with the Yankees remained the lightning-rod central topics right through the end of an embarrassing ALCS sweep against the Tigers.

One day after GM Brian Cashman denied reports about trade talks regarding Rodriguez, the benched former All-Star said he has no plans to waive his no-trade rights during what figures to be an eventful winter in the Bronx.

“That’s correct. I will be back. I have a lot to prove and I will be back, on a mission,” Rodriguez said after going hitless in two at-bats off the bench in the Yanks’ 8-1 Game 4 loss. “I love New York City, and I love everything about being a Yankee. The highs are very high, and the lows are extremely low.

“But I’ve never thought about going to another team. My focus is on staying here. Let’s make that very, very clear. No. 2, I don’t expect to be mediocre. I expect to do what I’ve done for a long time.”

Rodriguez, who has five years and $114 million remaining on his contract, finished the postseason batting just .120 (3-for-25) with no extra-base hits or RBI. He was even worse against righties (0-for-18 with 12 strikeouts), and never seemed to regain his power stroke after missing more than a month late in the summer with a broken left hand.

Rodriguez was benched by Joe Girardi in three of the Yankees’ final five playoff games, including the decisive Game 5 against Baltimore in the ALDS and the final two games against the Tigers, who boast four righty starters.

“Look, I know it was difficult for Joe. I know Joe didn’t want to sit me,” Rodriguez said. “If I do what I do, Joe doesn’t have a choice, neither does (GM Brain) Cashman, neither does anybody.

“I have to look in the mirror. I sat in this room in 2006, some of you guys were here, there were a lot of doubters. I said I was going to get back to the drawing board and I did. And I came back with a vengeance in ’07. I’m looking forward to hopefully doing the same.”

Eric Chavez made his second consecutive start at third and fared no better than A-Rod, fanning in two Game 4 at-bats to finish the postseason 0-for-16 with eight strikeouts.

A-Rod entered in the sixth inning as a pinch-hitter for Raul Ibanez, and he popped to center with runners on the corners for the third out.

He also grounded out for the second out of the ninth, but it probably would have been fitting for him to make the final out, as he’d done in the previous two postseasons following a team-carrying performance en route to the 2009 World Series.

“Well, you’re crushed,” Rodriguez said. “Obviously, you work eight months to get to this point, but we just came up short. … At the end of the day, I felt the wind was sucked out of us the last two weeks.”

Rodriguez, of course, also made headlines earlier this week for allegedly flirting with two women behind home plate after he was removed from Game 1 last Saturday.

Still, earlier Thursday, Marlins president David Samson backed up Cashman, telling MLB.com, “There have been no conversations between the Yankees and the Marlins” about A-Rod.

“I expect Alex to be here. I expect Alex to come back and be our third baseman,” Cashman said. “Obviously what just happened here, I just don’t think it’s reflective of Alex’s abilities — and I think that’s true of a lot of the guys, not just Alex.”

Girardi doesn’t believe his relationship with Rodriguez needs mending.

“As far as I know, we’re OK,” Girardi said. “I don’t have any signals that he’s mad at me. I know he wanted to be in there. … But if there are things I have to do, I’m going to do them.”

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

Caple nails it.

Exit the aging Yankees
By Jim Caple
ESPN.com

DETROIT -- Now that the Yankees have been swept away in such ugly fashion -- "embarrassing" is one word CC Sabathia used for the final 8-1 loss to the Tigers, while "hard to stomach" is how general manager Brian Cashman described the four losses -- this is the $200 million question:

Did Derek Jeter's postseason career come to a painful end when he collapsed to the infield dirt with a broken ankle late Saturday night in Game 1?

Seriously. The Yankees have played in every postseason but one since 1995, becoming as much an October prime-time fixture as the Treehouse of Horror episode on "The Simpsons," a steady stream of negative campaign ads and Christmas commercials. But they also have an aging roster that probably couldn't adjust to the Tigers' pitching simply because they couldn't figure out how to work the new-fangled video equipment to review their at-bats.

"The energy, I think, was sucked out of us," Alex Rodriguez said of the Yankees' miserable performance against the Tigers in the American League Championship Series. "You can take the whole season and say, this is the one guy, let's blame him, let's get him, let's put the coffin on him, let's knock his ass out. But at the end of the day, I just felt that the wind has been sucked out of us the last two weeks."

Get used to it, A-Rod. That happens when you get older.

Rodriguez is 37 but has missed nearly 200 games the past five years with various injuries, while his production has declined so much that the Yankees pinch hit for him in Game 2 and didn't even start him the final two games of the series. Jeter is 38 and must undergo surgery for a fractured left ankle that is estimated to take five months to heal.

Mariano Rivera turns 43 next month and is coming off a season-ending torn MCL in his right knee. How will he come back, especially at his age? Can Andy Pettitte, who has already retired once, stay healthy and in top form at age 41? Will the Yankees re-sign Hiroki Kuroda, who will be 38?

Nick Swisher is a relatively young man at 32 but is a potential free agent. So is Ichiro Suzuki, who turns 39 next week and has lost several steps even if the July trade to New York revitalized him for a couple of months. So is Raul Ibanez, who was the only star this postseason but also is 40 years old and struggles against left-handers.

"A lot of people are pointing to this team, and saying we're old and that's the reason we're not getting anywhere," Cashman said. "I'm like, 'Hey, we got there and we are old.' You know, if you're old and still good, it's not an issue."

It's not an issue until suddenly it is.

Yes, the Yankees won 95 games this year but an old baseball team is like a car running low on gas. You can still drive 100 miles an hour as if nothing is wrong ... until the fuel tank runs dry and your ride comes to an abrupt end, usually when it's raining and you're miles from a gas station.

I saw this happen up close with the Mariners, who won 116 games in 2001 but haven't been to the postseason since thanks to a roster that got old quickly and was not supplemented through quality draft picks.

Arms get tired as you get older. Bat speed slows over the course of a season, and you look overpowered in October. Injuries are more frequent and take longer to heal. Australian bikini models turn you down and report your bad behavior to the New York tabloids.

Yes, Robinson Cano, despite his baffling postseason, remains an elite, MVP-caliber player while Sabathia still should have several good seasons left in him (although there are a few lingering questions about his elbow). The Yankees are a better team than they looked in the ALCS, in which they scored in only three innings and never led.

And, Rodriguez says, "I will be back [next year]. And I will have a lot to prove. And I will be on a mission."

Well, maybe. But maybe not. Despite A-Rod's promises or what Cashman says about looking for good players and not necessarily young players, the team's age puts a giant question mark over its future.

The Yankees will not tumble the way they did after 1964 when they went a dozen years before returning to the postseason (ahhhh, the good old days). There are two wild cards and 10 teams total in the postseason now, as opposed to just two World Series teams in the 1960s. There also is free agency now, which will always keep the Yankees relevant.

So, much to the joy of broadcasters and the irritation of fans outside New York, the Yankees will be back in the postseason. But looking at the aging roster, it's possible Jeter will be retired with a wife and three kids before it happens.

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

Nice article. I do question his assertion that Kuroda will be back.

Steinbrenner would have issued a public apology
By RONALD BLUM (AP Sports Writer) | The Associated Press – 33 minutes ago

NEW YORK (AP) --
After leading the league in wins this year, the New York Yankees didn't just lose to Detroit in the AL championship series. They got swept in one of the more humiliating moments in the team's history.

The four-game wipeout made headlines - A-Rod's benching, Derek Jeter's injury, Robinson Cano's slump. But it also revealed serious cracks in the foundation, showing a team full of aging All-Stars at the plate, in the field and on the mound that suddenly seems a long, long way from championship caliber.

''Obviously, we're all getting older,'' Andy Pettitte said Thursday night after the season-ending 8-1 loss to the Tigers.

Jeter broke an ankle near the end. Mariano Rivera busted a knee back in the spring. The Yankees transformed baseball's bruisers into the Bashed Bombers, closer to AARP years than MVP seasons.

Alex Rodriguez was so bad, the $275 million man was benched in three of nine postseason games and pinch hit for in three others, a possible prelude to a forced departure from pinstripes.

Six key players didn't hit their weight, with Rodriguez joined by Cano, Curtis Granderson, Nick Swisher, Russell Martin and Eric Chavez.

His life already a soap opera off the field, A-Rod turned into daily fodder for on-field intrigue.

''It wasn't just one guy struggling,'' Rodriguez said. ''It was a collective group, and it was a very unique situation.''
Not quite. They floundered for two months, nearly blowing a 10-game lead in the heat of summer before holding off Baltimore on the final night for the AL East title.

Easily the oldest big league team at the season's start, they're on track to start next year with a 38-year-old shortstop with limited range coming off ankle surgery (Jeter), a 43-year-old closer returning from knee surgery (Rivera), a 37-year-old third baseman overpowered by right-handed pitchers (A-Rod), a 40-year-old left-hander who missed nearly three months because of a broken ankle (Pettitte) and a 38-year-old right-hander who topped the team in starts and innings (Hiroki Kuroda).

Their postseason star was a 40-year-old outfielder (Raul Ibanez), their center fielder struck out 195 times (Granderson), their left fielder played just 17 regular-season games because of an elbow injury (Brett Gardner) and their catcher hit .211 (Martin).

''It's difficult. It's disappointing. It's not where we want to be,'' general manager Brian Cashman said. ''I'm very surprised.''

Their .188 postseason batting average was the lowest ever for a team that played at least seven games. Rodriguez took the brunt of the blame.

Owed $114 million over the next five seasons, Rodriguez became the world's most expensive pinch hitter during the ALCS, a platoon player against left-handed pitchers on a team facing four righty starters.

''I've never thought about going to another team. My focus is to stay here. Let's make that very, very clear,'' he said. ''Number two, I don't expect to be m

 

[lgna69xxx]

Doubt it, and the day anyone takes your word to speak for Yankees Universe is the day i vote for oBama, and that will Never happen my friend. Every season you tell us all how great the red sox "will be" the next season, and how the Yanks will crumble, yet you have a ZERO record to stand on. Thanks rumpie, but i will stick with facts and reality, and also on Mt.T's predictions, who just by chance have helped me meet the lovely June and some other of the goodgirls on my winnings alone. Have a nice day my friend, :wave:

PS. Maybe you should switch teams again, the LA Dodgers with a few key moves this offseason could be a contender next season and should be, that way you can still cheer for Agone, Beckett and Crawford, 3 key guys that were gonna bring the red sox many titles, oops

You're quite alone in that belief, iggy. The rest of Yankee nation is mourning a failed season.

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

Mt.T's predictions

I'm sure his bookie will be quite happy to take your money as well as his.

 

[Doc Holliday]

Gotta say, Doc. I don't understand the Sox' infatuation with Farrell.

Nobody following the Jays does. Way too much of a 'laissez-faire' attitude in his management style. Doesn't seem to hold the players accountable for their dumb mistakes, which continue to repeat themselves on a regular basis.

He's a very nice guy, i'm sure.....but as far as I and many Jays fans are, BOSTON CAN HAVE HIM FOR FREE IF THEY WANT.

 

[Merlot]

Hey BOYZ,

Where were all the Red Sox fans?

How good were the Red Sox this season?

But for this year, the Yankees got a lot further than the Boston Red Sox.

That's one perfect prediction for me. I said there's be lots of excuses. Thanks DD. This is how losing fans cover their butts in the face of disaster...dodge the failure with diversion. The Yankees were as powerless as old men with chronic erectile dysfunction. They couldn't get it up for a hit if the Tigers had been throwing beach balls or a parade of naked college girls were having a free cum-all orgy. But that's okay DD, keep running for cover with irrelevant excuses.

Thats my feeling on the subject...

Because the teams EPIC FAIL leaves nothing else, same as playing who sucks less in hockey. Below is an example of how phoney Iggy's dodge is: :lol:

October 19, 2012, 1:46 pm6 Comments
Does This Top 2004 for Agony Among Yankees’ Fans?
By JAY SCHREIBER

http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/...agony-among-yankees-fans/?partner=rss&emc=rss

So on a dreary Friday in New York, with the weather matching the mood of a million or two very depressed Yankee fans, the question is this: Which hurt worse, the historic collapse to the Boston Red Sox in the 2004 American League Championship Series, or the utter feebleness of the past week?

Did it sting more to see the hated Red Sox rally from a three-games-to-none deficit against the Yankees, something no one had done before against any postseason opponent, or to watch the Yankees barely put up a fight against the Detroit Tigers as they were swept away in four games.

In the Red Sox series, the Yankees were within three outs of a four-game sweep when Boston managed to scratch a run off Mariano Rivera (thanks to the most famous stolen base in history) and then prevail in 12 innings. In Game 5, Boston rallied again off the Yankees bullpen in the bottom of the eighth inning and won the game in the 14th.

Those two extra-inning battles seemed to take something out of the Yankees — Joe Torre said as much when it was all over — and back home, they lost Game 6 to Curt Schilling and his bloody sock and Game 7 to a Red Sox onslaught that included a grand slam from Johnny Damon.

Boston, of course, went on to win the World Series in four games against St. Louis, breaking an 86-year drought. Looking back, it would seem that 2004 had more to do with a tough, rambunctious Red Sox team rising up than it did with the Yankees suddenly playing poorly. And perhaps maybe fate was finally on Boston’s side after all the years of taunting about “1918’’ and the curse of the Babe.

But the 2012 A.L.C.S. is harder to explain. How could an entire Yankees lineup shut down for four straight games? How could it reach the point that Manager Joe Girardi felt compelled to start benching this guy and that guy in a desperate and almost embarrassing bid to get something going?

So which hurt worse? The 2004 collapse, in which a bitter rival prevailed? Or the 2012 fiasco, in which the Yankees disappeared?

GREAT QUESTION!

Does it hurt more to have the other team nearly in it's grave with four shots to close the lid and Mariano Rivera at his peak to seal it, or to be completely and utterly impotent and getting run down four times like road kill never having led or had a chance???

For my money it's better to have put up the good fight at every step despite the humiliation of being within one damn pinch runner of wining it all and losing four straight to your arch-enemy, than to lay down like quitters and let yourselves get beaten over and over for all of 39 innings like helpless pinatas in a total failure of...PRIDE, GUTS, and DETERMINATION. However, when the Red Sox do it to you it's got to sting more.

Either way, it's HUMILIATING!

I'm not afraid to say it: THE JAYS SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't care if they had a lot of injuries, but even with the injuries, there was no reason for them to suck this much. Fuck, they sucked even more than the Maple Leafs, believe it or not!

Major OUCH! A savage cross to Iggy's head and then a vicious thump to his gut.

I'm not sure I want Farrell at all. He may be a pitching asset and command respect, but as for the other necessary talents I have doubts considering the 2011 Jays.

Cashman characterized the Yankees’ six-run ALCS — the same total driven in by Detroit DH Delmon Young — “as a perfect storm” of elite Tigers pitching and pretty much a collective slump by a lineup of mostly pedigreed hitters. He felt that the 39 ALCS innings — in which the Yankees never led — were not indicative of the lineup’s abilities and that he would not overreact to the small sample size.

Ooooohhh, Cashman dealing with the FAAACCCTS, unlike fans here running for excuses.

“I really think the booing spooked a lot of guys," the player said. “A lot of guys hadn’t been booed before, and they couldn’t believe how nasty it got in the stands."

Obviously Nick Swisher admitted to being sensitive to such treatment after Game 2, but the player said Swisher was far from alone in his reaction.

“A lot of guys were talking about it in the clubhouse," he said. “I was surprised by how much it bothered them. I really don’t think they ever recovered."

If that’s true, well, so much for the big, bad Yankees.

Tsk tsk tsk...pinstripe fans turning on the team starting in Game 2 long before it should have been over. Didn't I see pages and pages on this board of how Yankees fans would never turn into angry pink hat spoiled brats. :nod: Joe, DD, Chercher, EB.......IGGY?????

Let Iggy go into DENIAL, the BOOOOS of hometown fans speaks volumes about their judgement on the FAILURE of the season...and so do the plethora of empty seats.

Cheers,

Merlot

 

[Doc Holliday]

Yankees’ collapse gives Cashman rare room to manoeuvre

by Jeff Blair, The Globe and Mail

Brian Cashman can’t afford to let this crisis go to waste.

The sweep of the New York Yankees by the Detroit Tigers was so all-encompassing that the Yankees general manager has been presented with something he’s seldom had: freedom to do whatever it takes without risk of retribution from ownership or the fan base.

Robinson Cano’s horrific postseason slump means naught. He’s the next great Yankees player and he’ll be around forever. Curtis Granderson’s slump doesn’t negate his value to the Yankees, whose offensive philosophy is, as Cashman reminded reporters this week, built on home runs. Nick Swisher’s free-agent exit is now assured ... which brings us to Alex Rodriguez. Doesn’t it always?

A word to the wise: celebrate if you must the Tigers’ 8-1 win on Thursday, which signalled New York’s exit from the playoffs, but bear in mind that the Yankees were in first place in the American League East, either tied or alone, in each of the season’s final 114 days, their longest stretch since 2004. They did not, in other words, creep into the playoffs.

Re-tooling won’t be easy, coming as it does against the backdrop of a new luxury tax in 2014 that gives handsome revenue-sharing rebates to teams that stay under the $189-million (all currency U.S.) threshold.

But the Yankees have just three players under contract past 2013: CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and, of course, Rodriguez, who has five years and $114-million left on his contract. Those are three big tickets, but it’s not unmanageable for this franchise.

Second, the pitching is hardly in crisis. Going into Game 4, Yankees pitchers had a 2.25 postseason earned-run average, their lowest since 1961. The starters were 2-3 (2.37) and had held opponents to a .204 average. Hiroki Kuroda, who is free-agent eligible, has earned a multiyear deal. He has proved he can pitch in the post-season and he, Sabathia, a healthy Michael Pineda – who missed the season with shoulder surgery but will still be just 24 years old on Opening Day – Phil Hughes, Ivan Nova and, possibly, Andy Pettitte leave the Yankees in fine shape.

Closer Mariano Rivera should be back after being sidelined since May with knee surgery. He’ll be 43, but don’t bet against his bread-and-butter cut fastball still having life. David Robertson is his heir apparent, and he’s the only pitcher in baseball history to have averaged at least 10 strikeouts per nine innings pitched in each of his first five seasons.

But in acquiring Pineda, the Yankees bid adieu to their top offensive prospect, Jesus Montero, and if there is another core four on the minor-league horizon to match Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Pettitte and Rivera, it isn’t readily apparent.

The Yankees’ top pitching prospects had injury-plagued seasons, with Dellin Betances finally throwing again after developing shoulder tendinitis and Manuel Banuelos, a fast riser, sidelined for 2013 after Tommy John tendon-transplant surgery.

As for Rodriguez, who has a full no-trade clause in his contract? The Los Angeles Dodgers have money – lots of it – and are keen to put together baseball’s version of Show Time. Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria, the New York art dealer, is a Yankees season-ticket holder and has a relationship with Yankees ownership. Miami is Rodriguez’s hometown, the Marlins need to do something with impact after the glow of a new stadium was diminished by a dysfunctional, underachieving team, and on South Beach, Rodriguez will find blondes a-plenty to keep him occupied.

Keep in the mind that the Marlins brokered a trade in 2002 involving the Colorado Rockies and Atlanta Braves in which the Rockies unloaded one of the worst contracts in baseball history, the remaining $85-million and six years of an eight-year, $121-million deal with pitcher Mike Hampton. When the teams were done, prospects had been shuffled around and the payroll hit was spread three ways, and as Joel Sherman of the New York Post noted: the contracts of Marlins Jose Reyes and Heath Bell roughly cover the cost of the remainder of Rodriguez’s contract.

There are ways around an impossible situation. Like art, beauty can also be in the eyes of the beholder when it comes to judging baseball players. Even A-Rod.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/spor...ashman-rare-room-to-manoeuvre/article4622426/

Very interesting article concerning the current plight of the Yankees.

 

[Joe.t]

Yankees’ collapse gives Cashman rare room to manoeuvre

by Jeff Blair, The Globe and Mail

Brian Cashman can’t afford to let this crisis go to waste.

The sweep of the New York Yankees by the Detroit Tigers was so all-encompassing that the Yankees general manager has been presented with something he’s seldom had: freedom to do whatever it takes without risk of retribution from ownership or the fan base.

Robinson Cano’s horrific postseason slump means naught. He’s the next great Yankees player and he’ll be around forever. Curtis Granderson’s slump doesn’t negate his value to the Yankees, whose offensive philosophy is, as Cashman reminded reporters this week, built on home runs. Nick Swisher’s free-agent exit is now assured ... which brings us to Alex Rodriguez. Doesn’t it always?

A word to the wise: celebrate if you must the Tigers’ 8-1 win on Thursday, which signalled New York’s exit from the playoffs, but bear in mind that the Yankees were in first place in the American League East, either tied or alone, in each of the season’s final 114 days, their longest stretch since 2004. They did not, in other words, creep into the playoffs.

Re-tooling won’t be easy, coming as it does against the backdrop of a new luxury tax in 2014 that gives handsome revenue-sharing rebates to teams that stay under the $189-million (all currency U.S.) threshold.

But the Yankees have just three players under contract past 2013: CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and, of course, Rodriguez, who has five years and $114-million left on his contract. Those are three big tickets, but it’s not unmanageable for this franchise.

Second, the pitching is hardly in crisis. Going into Game 4, Yankees pitchers had a 2.25 postseason earned-run average, their lowest since 1961. The starters were 2-3 (2.37) and had held opponents to a .204 average. Hiroki Kuroda, who is free-agent eligible, has earned a multiyear deal. He has proved he can pitch in the post-season and he, Sabathia, a healthy Michael Pineda – who missed the season with shoulder surgery but will still be just 24 years old on Opening Day – Phil Hughes, Ivan Nova and, possibly, Andy Pettitte leave the Yankees in fine shape.
[/I]

Nice article by Jeff Blair, he definitely knows his baseball, thanks for the link Doc, it was a good read.

 

[Jman47]

October 19, 2012, 1:46 pm6 Comments
Does This Top 2004 for Agony Among Yankees’ Fans?
By JAY SCHREIBER

Any HONEST Yankee fan will say NO...because NOTHING hurt them more than 2004...

But this sure was fun to watch.

 

[daydreamer41]

My how some live in the past.

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

But the Yankees have just three players under contract past 2013: CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and, of course, Rodriguez, who has five years and $114-million left on his contract. Those are three big tickets, but it’s not unmanageable for this franchise.

He's wrong here. That's 70$ for the next 3-4 years. Given the team's desire to get under the threshold by 2014, they're going to be quite limited in what kind of contracts they can give out.

Second, the pitching is hardly in crisis. Going into Game 4, Yankees pitchers had a 2.25 postseason earned-run average, their lowest since 1961. The starters were 2-3 (2.37) and had held opponents to a .204 average. Hiroki Kuroda, who is free-agent eligible, has earned a multiyear deal. He has proved he can pitch in the post-season and he, Sabathia, a healthy Michael Pineda – who missed the season with shoulder surgery but will still be just 24 years old on Opening Day – Phil Hughes, Ivan Nova and, possibly, Andy Pettitte leave the Yankees in fine shape.

Bullshit. Kuroda, for one, is not a Yankee; he is a free agent.

Michael Pineda is a prospect with half a good season and a full missed season under his belt. I was reading a chat on the Lohud Yankees blog yesterday and Chad Jennings, who covers the Yankees every day, expects Pineda to start 2013 in the minors.

Ivan Nova has come back to earth and is a scrub.

We'll see whether or not Andy Pettitte returns.

That leaves Hughes and Sabathia. Hughes is a good, not great pitcher, a fine 3-4 guy. Sabathia has entered the decline phase of his career, having his highest ERA since 2008 and throwing the fewest innings since 2006. And then there's this: Sabathia's elbow is going to be examined. http://bronxbaseballdaily.com/2012/...ed:+BronxBaseballDaily+(Bronx+Baseball+Daily)

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

http://bronxbaseballdaily.com/2012/09/couple-caught-having-sex-in-yankee-stadium-bathroom/

Why is Rodriguez wearing a Sabathia t-shirt?

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

Boras Hints That Soriano Will Opt-Out Of Contract
Scott Boras strongly hinted that Rafael Soriano will opt-out of his contract with the Yankees and become a free agent this offseason, reports Joel Sherman of The New York Post. The agent said he still has to have further conversations with the team before finalizing plans, but the Yankees are unlikely to offer an extension.

“There is a strong chance that he would have tremendous value as a free agent,” said Boras. Sherman notes that big market clubs like the Angels, Dodgers, Nationals, Red Sox, Giants, and Tigers could all be in the market for a high-end closer this winter.

Soriano, 32, pitched to a 2.26 ERA with 9.2 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 in 67 2/3 innings this season. After Mariano Rivera went down with a season-ending knee injury in mid-May, he stepped in at closer and went 42 for 46 in save chances. Soriano signed a three-year, $35MM contract with the Yankees prior to 2010 and has the right to opt-out of the final year. He would be walking away from a $14MM guarantee in favor of a potential multiyear contract.

Sherman says Soriano and Boras have until three days after the end of the World Series to exercise the opt-out clause, and the Yankees would likely make him a qualifying offer to ensure they receive draft pick compensation if he signs elsewhere. We first heard that Soriano was likely to opt-out last month, and team president Randy Levine indicated that they want to keep the reliever in New York.

It will be interesting to see what Soriano draws on the open market. The Yankees are quite questionable as they're not likely to offer a deal beyond 2013, considering their need to cut payroll. Will the pray that Mariano can come back or that Robertson is up to the task?

The Red Sox will certainly be interested, but I doubt they'll give him more than the same 3 year, 35 million he got from the Yankees two years ago. Given that the market for closers has declined in recent years, will that be enough?