Get Brian Cashman, I said!

Frank from Staten Island saves the Yankees:

"Michael,

I have a question with regard to the future centerfielder for the Yankees. They have a young kid Brett Gardner whom I have seen play when going to the S.I. Yankees games. The guy has tremendous speed, is terrific bunter from what I have seen and can play center well. I'd say he's maybe 2-3 years away. If the Yankees find themselves a good corner outfielder during the offseason to play left and put Matsui in center, do you think the Yanks will have enough patience and wait for a kid whom can be a Mickey Rivers type player. What's your take?

Frank — Staten Island, N.Y.


KAY: Frank,

I have not heard of Gardner but to project a kid with the Staten Island Yankees as the future center fielder of the New York Yankees is a bit hopeful. Perhaps almost delusional."

The fifth-best outfielder in New York.

Actually, now that the Yankees have acquired Matt Lawton, maybe Beltran is the sixth-best outfielder in New York.

Snap!


I don't root for the Mets, so part of my reaction is sour grapes. I don't like when the Mets win and I still suspect they'll be battling the Expos for last place in their division. Forget about catching the Braves, forget about the wild card: I'm not buying it.

If they prove me wrong, then they prove me wrong. It wouldn't be the first time baseball surprised me.


But this Carlos Beltran worship is sickening. Carlos Beltran is not a "gamer" and Carlos Beltran does not deserve any slack. Carlos Beltran sucks.

If Beltran played halfway up to his contract, then the Mets probably would be battling the Braves for the division title.

If Beltran has a great last month of the season, it will be too little, too late.

You don't pay a guy that much money to be outslugged by Chris Woodward.

You've got bullpen problems that will keep you from the playoffs? Well, you wouldn't have bullpen problems if you took $17 mill and spent $1 mill on a light-hitting centerfielder and the remaining $16 mill on the bullpen. It's called "opportunity cost."


To put the spotlight on a truly great player in New York, I'm going to put ARod's season in perspective, vis a vis Carlos Beltran.

I feel the need to reprazent and recognize, since Dan Graziano and Mike Lupica don't seem to want to talk about ARod anymore. You know, since ARod hasn't made an error in two months and has stopped hitting into so many imaginary rally-killing double plays.

Beltran is .267 (123-for-460), 14, and 62 with 31 games left in the season.

ARod is .320 (157-for-490), 40, and 105 with 31 games left in the season.

Imagine Beltran hits his stride, relaxes, gets more comfortable, allows the game to come to him, goes on a streak that has eluded him all season. Say he gets four at-bats per game, gets two hits every game, along with one homerun and two rbis each and every game.

Here are the resultant final stats for Beltran: .317 (185-for-584), 45 hrs, and 124 rbis. Basically, if Beltran bats .500 with a homerun every game, he still won't catch Alex Rodriguez.

In fact, ARod could get zero hits for the rest of the season and it's still a pretty damn good season. ARod could literally go 0-for-September and it would still be just about the best season by any Yankee 3b I can remember.

Things that are horrifying.

"At one point, it was funny, perhaps even cute. Now it's just horrifying. You all know what I'm talking about:"

Hurricane Katrina?

Rush Limbaugh?

The price of oil?

The Real World on MTV?

Keith Richards?

Those Dr. Scholl's commercials where they come up with rhymes like "gellin' like Magellan"?

Michael Jackson's plastic surgery?

Those bronze statues of Princess Diana and Dodi?

Furbies?

The NL West "race"?


" ... the NL West 'race.' Despite being below .500, the Padres (64-66 through Monday's games) have a healthy 4 1/2-game lead over the second-place Dodgers and D'backs."

Yeah, I totally knew you were talking about the NL West race.


"If the Padres take so much as a series, let alone a pennant or a World Series, then all of the statheads who have called the current playoff format a crapshoot will have been proven correct."

Yes, Jacob. Baseball statheads are geeks. They're total losers. They probably even have baseball blogs and everything.

L7; Square; What-E-Ver.


"MLB will have to at least consider a new rule that would disqualify a losing division champion from postseason play and allow the top four records to advance. Hopefully, it won't come to that. The Padres will have every chance to reach the .500 mark and surpass it in September/October, when they play 23 of their remaining 30 games within their own division."

I understand his point. If the Padres win 80 games and the World Series in the same season, it might signify the end of civilization. But as long as they win 81 games, everything's cool.

The Postmodern Joe Torre.

Heard this little pearl of meaninglessness drop out of Joe Torre's mouth while he was being interviewed in the pregame show by the YES Network's Pulitzer Prize-winning tele-journalist, Kim Jones:

"Winning and losing is usually a by-product of what happens on the field."

New York has all the best managers.

The wide-eyed, wet-behind-the-ears New York press is apparently very easy to impress. At least when it comes to Willie Randolph:

Lupica incorrectly states that "the Mets have something else going for them: A rookie manager, Randolph, managing his team as well as some of the World Series managers he is up against, which means Bobby Cox and Tony La Russa and old Jack McKeon."

It is not easy to pick manager of the year. It's usually just the team's record compared to expectations. Ozzie Guillen is the favorite in the American League and all he has done is take advantage of a lousy division.

The Mets are certainly better than they were the past two seasons and they're probably playing with more energy than they did when Art Howe was their manager. But are they really exceeding expectations? I thought the expectations were 86 wins and third place. Randolph and the Mets are right on track for the expected mediocre season.

The freakin' Expos are only one game back of the Mets, and the Expos sure didn't add Pedro Martinez to their starting rotation.

One thing I know for sure: Cox, LaRussa, McKeon -- and Torre, for that matter -- would never, ever, EVER continue to bat Carlos Beltran third in the lineup EVERY SINGLE DAY for 130 games.


Lisa Olson wildly claims that Randolph is a legit candidate for Manager of the Year:

"(Here is where we pause for a PSA: Randolph's mark on a team that has a number of unschooled players in the field - among yesterday's starters were catcher Mike DiFelice, first baseman Mike Jacobs, second baseman Kaz Matsui, right fielder Victor Diaz - is undeniable. Dignified and reticent and unafraid to take dares, Randolph deserves to be considered for Manager of the Year.)"

I'm not sure what she means by the term "unschooled," but Kaz Matsui had ten years to work on his fundamentals in Japan and doesn't seem to be playing any better than he did under Art Howe.

Mike DiFelice is playing his tenth major league season. Any schooling he has received has been with other teams.

Mike Jacobs has a whole 23 at-bats. Any schooling he has received has been at the minor leagues.

I dunno, really ... I suppose Randolph is dignified ... he's certainly reticent (more reticent than Ozzie Guillen, that's for sure) ... if he's so unafraid to take risks, maybe he should actually bat the best hitter third or fourth one of these days.

But none of those attributes are virtues, per se. Winning is the bottom line.

68-62 evidently is very impressive to Lupica and Olson, but it should not be. It's send Pedro out there every fifth day and play just .500 the rest of the time ... even with the best left side of the infield in the history of organized baseball ever.

Rooting is Bad.

Mike Lupica is rooting so hard for the Mets, it clouds his judgement. It is truly amazing how warped one's baseball knowledge would be if they relied solely on Mike Lupica for their baseball knowledge.

Mister Met rips Yankee announcers for effusively praising Jason Giambi:

"There were some times a few weeks ago when I thought Yankee announcers were going to start laying the foundation for Jason Giambi's monument in Monument Park."

Yeah, that would be pretty dumb to compare Jason Giambi to Joe Dimaggio and Lou Gehrig and proven Hall of Famers like that.

Wouldn't that be dumb?:

"In this time in New York, it will be something different. Maybe Terry Cashman can find some music for this debate: About which left side of the infield you would rather have, Wright and Reyes or Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter. For now, the answer still has to be A-Rod and Jeter. For now. But not for much longer."

Same guy who thought the Rangers would be better without ARod than the Yankees are with ARod.

Who Am I?

My lifetime record is 194 wins and 112 losses.

My lifetime ERA is 3.51.

My lifetime winning percentage is .634, which is the 44th-best of all time.

My Hall Of Fame Monitor is 88.5, according to baseball-reference.com.

All in all, I had a pretty great career as a major league pitcher.

Who am I? I'm Dwight Gooden.

According to Mike Lupica, I'm also one of the worst big league pitchers ever.

Jeez, if Dwight Gooden represents the pinnacle of Unrealized Potential, I'd hate to think what Lupica thinks of Carlos Beltran's season.

Wheee! I'm a sportswriter!

Who is this Kristie person?

Today, her intro is the proposition that All Star and outside MVP candidate Hideki Matsui is an unknown entity: "Hideki Matsui doesn't grab headlines like Jason Giambi, Alex Rodriguez or Derek Jeter. But he can deliver heroics as thrilling as any of his Yankee teammates."

He's also totally kewl. His hair is parted down the middle like Erik Estrada and his face is, like, on the side of an airplane in Japan.


This is a day after she suggests that it's difficult to remember how good of a player Alex Rodriguez is.

Well, she doesn't really suggest it, she kind of states it unequivocally: "Amid the fanfare and distractions that have marked his first year and a half with the Yankees, it's sometimes hard to remember how consistently great Alex Rodriguez is as a player."

It is? What "fanfare" and "distractions" are those? When I watch the Yankees every day, the most difficult thing to do is forget how consistently great Alex Rodriguez is as a player.

Like, Omigod! I totally forgot about Alex Rodriguez because I was spending too much time ignoring Hideki Matsui!

Random disconnects from reality.

Random Disconnect From Reality #1

While watching the Yankees on Fox on Saturday afternoon, a graphic which displayed "Could'a, Should'a," or something to that effect. "Missed Opportunities," describing the Yankees' inability to beat bad teams during the '05 season.

Anybody who has been paying attention for the past ten years would have known that the Yankees don't make the playoffs by beating the good teams, they make the playoffs by dominating the bad teams in a manner that Boston has not been able to do.

The supposedly boring, unwatchable games vs. Tampa Bay and Kansas City determine the AL East regular season champion, and they always have. They're all Big Games, even though nobody bothers to pay attention.

This year, the pattern has flipped, and it is the difference between first and second place in the AL East.

Anyway, Fox displayed a graphic which supposedly demontrated how poorly the Yankees were playing against the truly awful teams:

Kansas City: 0-3
Tampa Bay : 4-9
Milwaukee : 1-2

Sure, the Yankees are expected to beat the Brewers, the Yankees have a much higher payroll than the Brewers, and perhaps the Yankees should beat the Brewers.

But the Disconnect from Reality the Brewers being mentioned in the same breath as KC and TB.

KC is 42 games under .500, TB is 23 games under .500, and the Brewers are just 3 games under .500.


Random Disconnect from Reality #2

Saw Lupica on the Sports Reporters again (Why do I do this to myself? Why, indeed?) claiming, once again, that the Mets were about to win NY back from the Yankees. He even went as far to say that he's rooting for the Mets to win the wild card, which partially helps explain why his baseball analyses are so distorted.

The Mets may be more exciting than the Yankees, the Mets may have a better storyline than the Yankees. I think the writers are sick and tired of the Yankees, and this illustrates the fundamental difference between a fan, who follows the team because it's a passion or a hobby, and a writer, who follows the team because it's a job.

Still, I'd be interested in Lupica's criteria for success.

Here are attendance figures for 2005. Not the only criteria for comparison, but the most obvious place to start.

Yankees in first with an average of 50,000. Mets in eighth with an average of 36,000. Not even close.

The Mets are up from 2004, naturally, while the Yankees have somehow managed to squeeze 2,000 more per game into the Stadium. But the only success the Mets are having is in comparison to past failures.

If the Mets and others keep insisting that the Mets can only achieve success by outperforming and outdrawing the Yankees, then it's not happening anytime soon. Get over it and worry about the Braves.

Power Rankings Rule.

I can not imagine any true fan giving a damn about power rankings. If you want to figure out who the best teams are, look at the only rankings that count.

But I am glad I perused Dan George's Personal Opinion Ranking, or I would have missed this charming tidbit from the House that Cleon Jones built:

"People are still talking about that barehanded catch third baseman David Wright made in short left field against the Padres last week. 'If that's not the play of the year, I'll protest' said teammate Doug Mientkiewicz. 'He had better not get a girlfriend between now and the ESPYs, because I want to go with him.' "

This team is totally going to wrest the city away from the Yankees. Any day now.

Before and After.

With the benefit of a couple of days of hindsight, which is a funnier statement?

John Donovan mystifyingly ignoring the evidence; or Dusty Baker predicting a great stretch run by a healthy Nomar one day before Nomar hurts his back?

July 1, 1990.

I don't think the specific link to retrosheet.org works, but it's a great site. Here's the infamous play-by-play for the infamous eighth inning.

A true turning point in my life as the Yankees allowed four unearned runs after there were two outs and nobody on and their pitcher somehow lost a game in which he threw a no-hitter.

WHITE SOX 8TH: Karkovice popped to second; Fletcher popped to second; Sosa reached on an error by Blowers; Sosa stole second; Guillen walked; Johnson walked [Sosa to third, Guillen to second]; Ventura reached on an error by Leyritz [Sosa scored (unearned), Guillen scored (unearned) (no RBI), Johnson scored(unearned) (no RBI), Ventura to second]; Calderon reached on an error by Barfield [Ventura scored (unearned), Calderon to second]; Pasqua popped to shortstop;

4 R, 0 H, 3 E, 1 LOB. Yankees 0, White Sox 4.

Up is down.

The up-and-coming Brew Crew pummel Roger Clemens, Fatty Fatso beats the Red Sox and is a legitimate Cy Young candidate, and Mike Lupica criticizes Joe Torre. All in the same day.

The paraphrase Phil Rizzuto on July 1, 1990, when Jesse Barfield dropped the second fly ball in an inning, which was the third error of the inning, thereby allowing Andy Hawkins to lose a game in which he threw an eight-inning no-hitter, "What's coming off here?"

Of course, it wouldn't be Baseball According To Felz if I didn't rip Lupica for something:

"Everyone will say that Torre will never be fired as Yankee manager, that Steinbrenner never got over the backlash from when he got rid of Buck Showalter after the '95 division series loss to the Mariners. Everyone will say that Steinbrenner would never fire the most popular manager in the history of the team, a manager whose success at Yankee Stadium is now properly discussed with Miller Huggins' and Joe McCarthy's and Casey Stengel's. People will say he especially won't do this at a time when he, the owner, is so desperate to be loved, even as he carries on this charade that he is as dynamic and forceful as ever.

I'm not so sure. Neither are smart people around the team. They still think Torre will be back, no matter what happens. They're just not nearly as sure as they once were."

Earth to Mike Lupica: Nobody thinks Torre is going to back next year.

Rodriguez, Sheffield help their MVP candidacies.

A combined 0-for-10 (.000) with 0 homeruns and 0 runs batted in.

Of course, this only demonstrates their value because the Yankees lost the game.

Dan Graziano's in-depth baseball insight.

Hidden on page three of Dan Graziano's Sunday baseball column is his shocking choice for American League MVP:

"Looking for an MVP candidate in the American League? Through Thursday, Red Sox left fielder MANNY RAMIREZ had hit .360 with 26 home runs and 80 RBI in Boston's 66 victories and .204 with six homers and 27 RBI in Boston's 47 losses."

Gee, that means Manny must be personally responsible for the team's 47 losses.


Dan Graziano is such a baseball insider.

Looking for an MVP candidate in the American League? How about the guy with 108 rbis on a first-place team.

Looking for an MVP candidate in the American League? How about the guy who leads the entire league in rbis.

Looking for an MVP candidate in the American League? How about guy who's the favorite.

Baseball won't cure cancer, homelessness, or war in Iraq.

Rob Dibble, master of prose:

"When Congress wanted to hold hearings on steroids I was amazed. Don't we have bigger problems in this country?

I had just been to Iraq six months earlier and found out there is a giant war going on. And when I was a player with the Cincinnati Reds, my teammates and I helped raise money for the homeless.

...

I am a father of two children and I do get asked way tougher questions everyday. Like 'Dad, why is that man living on the street? Dad, why are all those men and woman [sic] dying in Iraq?'

...

Enjoy the game, it's a distraction, it's entertainment. But I don't think it will cure cancer; I should know, my father died from cancer."

Your guess is as good as mine.

If responding to George Steinbrenner is not Joe Torre's first priority, I'm left to wonder what is Joe Torre's first priority.

The top contenders are:

• Drink bottles of Deer Park water in the dugout.
• Inspire his team to play hard, so they can hold off the hard-charging Blue Jays.
• Bat Robinson Cano second in the lineup, but don't teach him to bunt, because that might take away his aggressiveness.
• Pitch Alan Embree in every game.
• Nurture Tony Womack's psyche.
• Never play Andy Phillips or Bubba Crosby. (Of course, Torre's hands are tied. This guy, who is batting .000, is currently on the roster, in case you weren't aware. Escalona can do some things that Andy Phillips can't do, and that allows Torre do so some things, even if the consistency Torre's looking for isn't there, from an offensive production standpoint.)
• Ask Willie Randolph if he's going to finish his Subway sandwich.
• Make golf plans for October.

Here is another Torre braintwister for you:

Torre said he allowed Embree to face the right-hander Konerko because of Konerko's .209 average against lefty pitching.

Cashman said he understood the reasoning behind the move.

"If I had the same decision to make over again, with the information I had in my hand, I certainly would make the same decision," Torre said.

Next day, basically the same situation, Tom Gordon pitched to Paul Konerko.

Why? Isn't Paul Konerko still hitting only .210 vs. lefties?

Tom Gordon gets Paul Konerko out in the 8th inning of a tie game.

Where was Alan Embree when we needed him?

Maybe Steinbrenner isn't so crazy after all.

A few days ago, Joe Torre was telling us that these games are "precious" and that he was looking for his team to win seven or eight in a row.

Then, he puts in Alan Embree against Paul Konerko in the ninth inning of a one-run game. Even Jim Kaat was, ummm, "surprised."

Why would Torre do it?

Maybe Torre was trying to "do some things" or maybe he had "seen some things" from Embree in the 8th inning that he "liked."

Besides, if it was not for that one pitch to Konerko, it was actually a good job by Embree. He was just one strike away.

So, why did Torre do it? Is there any possible rationale?


As a counter-example, I noticed that White Sox avoided their closer until there were two outs in he ninth. Cliff Politte started the ninth inning and was greeted Impolittely by ARod (get it?). Then, Damaso Marte got two outs before Guillen used Hermanson for the final out.

There may be some logical reasons for this approach. Guillen has a 45-game lead and has an eye on the playoffs. He may need to see how Politte and Marte can handle pressure situations. He may want to hide Hermanson from the Yankees until the playoffs. (Ha ha ha! I just said "Yankees" and "playoffs" in the same sentence.)

But Guillen can afford to play games like this. Torre can not afford to do it anymore. The Yankees are going to continue to slide in the AL East and wild card standings while Torre is more concerned with building Embree's confidence or making Womack feel like he's part of the team.


So, why is Embree facing Konerko in the ninth inning? Is Torre seriously basing his decision on five at-bats?:

Said Torre: "We looked at the numbers on that one." ... Against Embree, [Konerko] was hitting .200 based on a small sample, one hit in five at-bats. But that hit was a two-run homer.

Torre just might be stupider than I thought ... and I thought he was really stupid.

He's got fresh Gordon and fresh Mariano coming off a seven-pitch save. If you want to "look at some numbers," let's look at the guy with the ERA under 1.00.


The good news is that now that Konerko is 2-for-6 ( a whopping .333) vs. Embree, with two homeruns. Next time Torre is faced with the same situation, he will probably "look at the numbers" and decide to go with Mariano instead.

LVP.

Another boring, tack-on homerun by Fake Yankee Alex Rodriguez in an unimportant game against a bad team.

"The Media" Revisits Mariano's Season.

Mike Lupica has completely no shame:

"There is this idea now, because of the wild and wonderful mood swings in the media, that Rivera was Written Off the first week of the season.

Nobody taken seriously around here did that with Rivera anymore than they did it with the Yankees."

Yes, Lupica. "The Media" didn't necessarily write off Mariano. But you sure did.

To quoth from March 27th's "Shootin' From the Lip":

"If you aren't worried about what kind of shape Mo Rivera's right arm is going to be in by October, then you're nuts."

Sounds to me like you were writing off Mariano Rivera in very clear terms.

Make up your own minds, sports fans. Lupica was either lying then, or he's lying now. Or he's lying about lying.

Or maybe, in a roundabout way, Mike Lupica is just admitting that nobody takes him seriously around here.

Games start counting ... now.

Torre says "hell," so you know he must really be angry:

"We need a win (tonight), however the hell we get it," Torre said. "We've let some things get away the last couple of days. I think everyone knows the message now without being told. . . . This time of year, the games are much more precious."

That's weird. According to the standings, the games counted in April and May.

Yankees Stupid, Mets Smart.

"The Mets came out of this weekend looking a whole lot better than the Yankees did."

The Yankees took two out of three from Anaheim while the Mets finished up a 2-5 road trip. But that's not what true baseball fans care about.

"All weekend, all of the talk around baseball was about this humongous deal the Mets were trying to make. They owned the sports pages, coming within an eyelash of landing the kind of impact player for which the Yankees no longer have the ability to even shop. It must have been driving George Steinbrenner nuts (insert wisecrack here), and there was nothing he could do about it.

While the Mets dreamt of deals for Ramirez and Soriano -- two of the most electric bats in the majors -- the Yankees fished around and came up with the following:

• Shawn Chacon, a pitcher the Rockies (the Rockies!) have been trying to dump since the winter.
• Alan Embree, a left-handed reliever so bad that he was released by a first-place team that needs bullpen help and for whom he was a playoff hero just one year ago.
• Hideo Nomo, whose 83-mph fastball has been most effective this year against ... the Yankees."

Huh?

The Mets came out better than the Yankees because they almost got Soriano and/or Ramirez? Because they got a little more play in the newspapers as the deadlines neared?

The Yankees are still in the AL East race and the Wild Card race, even though they clearly have major problems. (It's nice to see that they're finally trying hard. Took 100 games, but better late than never.)

Nobody is claiming that Embree, Chacon, and Nomo are blockbusters, but they came cheap and they couldn't hurt. They're better than nobody.

The Yankees are still drawing 55k to every home game and, you know what else? The Yankees are cutting some deadwood salary after this season, too.


The Mets are in last place, one game over .500. Graziano claims the Mets signed the best pitcher and best hitter in the offseason, but their fans should still be patient. They weren't built to win this year. Any day now, Beltran is going to display one of his five tools.


The Mets are not taking over this town anytime soon, no matter how hard Graziano is rooting for them. Graziano really believes the games are played in the newspapers and not on the field.