Sunday, September 16, 2007

Bad Player Makes a Good Play.

"UPDATE, 8:33 p.m.: All the Doug Mientkiewicz haters say you’re sorry. It would be 3-0 if not for that play."

Mark Teixeira couldn't make that play?


Even if Ball Thief was Torre's best choice amongst a lot of bad choices ... and Ball Thief isn't Torre's best choice ... I think the anti-Ball Thief sentiment is always framed in its proper context.

The observation from the "haters" is that the Yankees are embarrassingly awful at 1b/dh, and have been all year

Worse, these positions should be easy to fill because they are not challenging defensively.

Everybody knows that Giambi's defense is abhorrent and his offensive contributions no longer justify his presence on the field. Giambi has degenerated into a dh who bats sixth or seventh, for Cripe's sake.

The other first basemen on Torre's bench simply can not hit. Ball Thief may be the best fielder of the bunch, but when your competition is Andy Phillips and Wilson Betemit, it's a competition that should be taking place in Scranton-Wilkes Barre.

Arguing about which Yankee 1b is better is like arguing if you'd prefer a punch in the nose or a kick in the groin.


I'm not quite sure why Ball Thief attracts such a following with the beat writers.

The rest of us wonder why the Yankees released Josh Phelps in the first place.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Darren:

Just FYI, Mark Teixeira plays for the Braves, not the Yankees. The rosters are available on line.

Also, Mientkiewicz didn't steal the ball. He kept it. Then he gave it back when they asked.

The Yankees are 53-32 without Phelps.

But excellent post.

Darren Felzenberg said...

Yeah, so my gripe is with Cashman, not so much with Torre or with Ball Thief.

It's implicit in the complaint.

http://www.m-w.com in case you need to look up "implicit."

If you think I'm serious about a clown like Phelps, then you may also want to look up "irony."

Darren Felzenberg said...

Didn't ARod have 60 straight errorless games while Ball Thief was on the DL?

I thought DM was going to save, like, 100 ARod throwing errors this year with his dexterity at 1b alone.