... But Neither Can Just Being Poor.
Yankees are in first place by half a game on June 9th and 12 games over .500.
Either the glass is half full or the glass is half empty.
Dan Graziano:
"But with a little more than 100 games left in the season, it's those injury-ravaged Yankees who look like the best of the bunch. And not just because they're the ones in first place."
Wallace Matthews:
"The truth is, the Yankees problems run much deeper than the loss of two power-hitting corner outfielders. The $25-million third baseman fields as if his glove were made of concrete and can't stick his head out of the dugout without being drowned in boos. If Giambi doesn't hit the ball out of the park, he raps it right at the second baseman playing in shallow rightfield. Bernie Williams, intended as a DH and occasional outfielder, now must play the field every night. Wright is still unreliable beyond five innings, and lately, watching Scott Proctor is about as pleasant as visiting your proctologist."
Let's see...
1) The Yankees only pay ARod $16 million, just so you're not misled.
ARod does not field as if his glove were made of concrete. He is one of the best fielding third basemen in baseball. If a sportswriter says that ARod's glove is made of concrete, you should know instantly that this sportswriter is incompetent at his craft.
2) "If Giambi doesn't hit the ball out of the park, he grounds out to second base."
Hmmm ... interesting criticism. "When baseball players don't get hits, they make outs." It's true for every ballplayer ever.
But as of this moment, Giambi has the highest on-base percentage in the entire American League. So, while Giambi certainly grounds out to second base a lot, he makes out less often than any other player in the entire American League.
So, he's one of the Yankee problems, or something? The kind of problems that run deep?
3) Bernie Williams. You got me there. Despite two homeruns in two nights, he really isn't a viable everyday rightfielder anymore.
But you just said the Yankees wouldn't miss Sheffield because he hasn't even been in a World Series in two whole years and the $350,000 players are better.
You just said "while the news out of the Yankees clubhouse last night sounded bad - surgery on Sheffield's mangled left wrist with a minimum of three months' recovery, if not the entire season - really, how much worse can it get?"
Is this Jeopardy?
"I'll take 'Holes in The Argument' for $400, Alex."
"The answer is 'Bernie Williams.'"
"How much worse can it get?"
"Correct."
4) Watching Scott Proctor is about as pleasant as visiting your proctologist? Good pun. It's true that Proctor has been awful lately.
But methinks Mr. Matthews doth protest too much. I get the feeling he shows up at his proctologist's office about once a week with a new "problem" that required deep, prolonged, satisfying probing. Just the snap of the glove is enough to get him excited.
Oh, and do you remember how Gary Sheffield almost won the MVP two years ago? Remember what a fabulous free agent signing Gary Sheffield has been?
Turns out, you were wrong:
"If Gary Sheffield has played his last game as a Yankee - and the odds are at least 50-50 that he has - then the sum total of his Yankees career is as follows: 238 games played, 1,280 at-bats, 374 hits, a .292 batting average, 74 home runs and 263 RBIs."
I don't feel like adding up Sheffield's stats for the past 2 1/3 seasons. The production stats sound reasonable.
But I know for a fact Sheffield played in more than 238 games. Matthews probably meant to say 338 games. Even though 263 rbis in 238 games would be, like, really good.
Pretty impressive. But in the categories in which the real score is kept around here, the Sheffield Era is decidedly underwhelming. Try eight playoff victories, eight playoff losses, no world championships and not a single World Series game."
Not a single World Series game!!! In two whole years!!!
Wow. I didn't think two years even counts as an "era."
But at least now I know it wasn't all ARod's fault.
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