Flew back from Miami yesterday afternoon, and I'm looking forward to getting back into the groove of the season. The standings this morning are very funny. Love that Baltimore, Tampa Bay, Oakland and Florida are all playoff contenders. Extremely confident that none of that quartet will make the playoffs.
Let's catch up quickly:
But today, I'd like to refer to Epstein's most honest sentiment of the night. At one point, Epstein _ who was far more careful than his Yankees counterpart _ opined that the catching situation throughout baseball was awful (I can't remember if "awful" was exactly the word he used, but it was in that neighborhood).
Which brings us around to Jorge Posada's first career trip to the disabled list. It's a terrible development for the Yankees, unquestionably, as it looks like Posada could easily miss an extensive period of time (if not the rest of the season). But I'm not sure what the Yankees could have done to avoid this. I still think that re-signing Posada to that 4-year, $52-million deal last November was the right call, because the alternatives (Yorvit Torrealba? Michael Barrett?) were terrible.
Look at Epstein: He let Pedro Martinez (after 2004) and Johnny Damon (after 2005) walk as free agents, yet he retained his catcher, Jason Varitek, after 2004. And Varitek isn't as good as Posada.
In Jose Molina, the Yankees have one of the game's best backups. And yet, Molina represents a significant downgrade from Posada, and as Molina showed earlier this month, he's going to wear down quickly if he plays too often.
More significant for Mets fans, has Delgado finally awoken from his endless slumber? Or was yesterday just a dead cat bounce? I'd bet on the latter. I'm going to need more evidence before buying Delgado futures.
It's amazing that this marks the sixth season since the Mets fired Bobby V. He deserves another chance at managing a big-league team. Yes, he'd probably make some more enemies, but the guy brings so much to the party. If you look back at those 2000 Mets, that team had no right to make the World Series. Bobby always gets a great deal out of his teams (until, like pretty much all managers, he doesn't, anymore).
Dennis, you asked who whould set up for Mariano Rivera, if Joba Chamberlain should graduate to the starting rotation. If I ran the Yankees, I would've made it clear at the outset of spring training that Joba would be a starter, and to have an open audition featuring every live arm in the organization, from Farnsworth to Hawkins to Ohlendorf to Britton to Bruney to Igawa and so on. Strong relief pitchers emerge from nowhere every year in baseball _ just last year, you had Heath Bell, Manny Corpas and Hideki Okajima greatly exceeding expectations _ and then they often fade away just as quickly. But ace pitchers are much more difficult to find and cultivate.
Comments (25)
Bobby V really got a lot out of those Texas Rangers teams, didn't he? All kinds of post season success-not! Biggest collection of juicers this side of the Bash Brothers. But he's a genius- just ask him. His Mets teams were usually number 3 in NL payroll so one LCS and one World Series appearance aren't far out of line. But just as Tiberius named Caligula as his successor to make himself look good, Art Howe made Bobby V look like a genius. Did he undermine Joe McIlvaine in 1998 to get Steve Phillips hired as GM or was that a Wilpon decision?
Bobby V is what his record says he is: a better than average manager. But that is it..a modern-day Charley Dressen.
Ken, relief pitchers every year are up and down. In the case of the Yankees, other than Mariano and Joba, everybody else stinks. Farnsworth and Hawkins both stinks. Bruney even thought he pitch well at the start, I don't trust in a big spot because he very shaky throwing strikes. Ohlendorf I seen enough of him he stinks. The thing is we know what Joba can do as a reliver, but we don't know about him as a starter in the Majors. Ace pitchers, while you need them, only pitch at their best, 7 to 8 Innings. The Bullpen is more important now than in the past because the games are decide between the 8th and 9th innings.
No curtain call - who cares? It's actually the right thing to do.
I saw Willie Aikens do that in 1982 in KC - and it was at the end of the season during the last games of a pennant race.
Give me the ball - anyone wants a curtain call, the next batter gets hit, unless the pitcher gets a curtain call for every strikeout!
I think it is bush to throw at a batter when you cannot get anyone out, but when you get into the "look at me" behavior zone, it is OK.
If you want curtain calls, work on Broadway!
Jim Clark,
You defeated your own argument there. If the Rangers were the biggest juicers this side of the Bash Brothers, wouldn't that explain why the A's won every year?
Please identify all the steroid users on the Rangers in Bobby's years. Jose Canseco wrote that he introduced Juan Gonzalez and Ivan Rodriguez to steroids when he was their teammate in Texas. He didn't get traded to the Rangers until after Bobby had been fired.
So the facts are that Bobby's teams, which were far lower on talent, finished all those years behind the biggest steroid team in the history of baseball.
Then he took a Mets team that had been below .500 for 6 straight years, almost won the wild card in each of his first 2 years, almost pulled off a miracle comeback from a 3-0 NLCS deficit in 1999 and then got a team with a starting outfield of Jay Payton, Benny Agbayani and Timo Perez and a rotation of Al Leiter, Mike Hampton and Bobby Jones and a bullpen of Armando Benitez and John Franco into the World Series, where they lost to these starting pitchers: Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and Denny Neagle, who were all busted in the Mitchell Report.
Steve Phillips was completely exposed as an incompetent shortly after he won that power struggle and the Mets fell into the dark ages for 3 years after Bobby was fired.
You have no facts on your side and no clue at all.
Dennis, how do you figure that "the games are decided between the 8th and 9th innings"? Look at the Yankees' last three seasons, all of which resulted in first-round eliminations: Of the nine postseason losses, seven were charged to the Yankees' starting pitcher. One (2005 ALDS Game 3) was charged to Aaron Small, a middle reliever who lost the game in the sixth inning. And the ninth (2007 ALDS Game 2) was charged to Luis Vizcaino, after the lead was given up in the eighth inning by...Joba Chamberlain!
Ken,
Touche! You are on fire!
Except for your bad info on the nefarious Kerri A. Potts, your stuff is unassailable!
I wish Delgado has stuck his bald head out of the dugout and gave a short wave. I agree with him that what he did didn't deserve a curtain call, and frankly anywhere else in the world this wouldn't be a story, but Mike Francesa was already pouring on the melodrama last night about how "You can't win this battle with the fans!" So this means him and his girlfriend Chris will be talking about it for days and days -- and it'll be another absurd "Why is Wagner coming into games using 'Enter Sandman'"-esque debate. When will there be a third sports-radio option in NY? We're stuck with dumb (WFAN) and dumber (ESPN1050).
B-walk: It's time to make Ken the second "king of all media" and get him a TV show!
For the first time ever, I agree with you guys! Ken should have his own show, no doubt about it!
LOL! Thanks for the support, guys. If only I didn't nod my head so much during my TV gigs...
Ken,
I love the way you nod your head. It's great! You are telling the viewer, "You, the customer, is always right."
It's great! Everything you do is great! All TV people should nod more. Maybe the economy wouldn't be so bad!
If all the people who took bad loans had just nodded a little more when the banks said, "You are not ever going to pay this money back, am I right?" then the subprime situation wouldn't be threatening the job security of so many of your most loyal readers!
I know you know I'm right! I can see you nodding!
Welcome back, Ken!
1. Joba should be in the rotation and should have been all year.
2. The Yankees had all winter to find someone to fill his bullpen role and didn't. They should have used the open audition process you described today. Someone would have been forced into stepping up.
3. I hear you on Gator. It sounds like he is locked in yesteryear. I still have some serious doubts about Eiland and his capabilities at the ML level. Time will tell. But, clearly Guidry had to go.
4. I wasn't in favor of a 4-year deal for Posada. I wouldn't have gone past three years. I don't think he would have walked. If a fourth year had to be part of the deal, it should have been tied to a vesting option to make sure the NYY would still have someone productive on the roster.
5. I'm happy Delgado turned down the curtain call. That's a professional thing to do considering how he has played this spring.
6. I was at the Shea Saturday for Jack Lang Day. Nice that the Mets donated $25K to the Epilepsy Foundation of LI. For some reason I feel so much more energy in Yankee Stadium, but maybe it's just my imagination.
7. Bobby V. is a whacko, but there are plenty of those around MLB. Oh yes, he deserves another chance at managing in the big leagues.
8. Still can't get a good feel for these Yankees.
Ken, the Joba stuff we can debate until the cows come home. You have a side, I have a side, everybody has a side. No matter whi you side with, everybody has a opinion on Joba. As for Bobby Valentine, he did good job with the Mets, but he also wear out his welcome with the Mets as well.
Ken, just a side note: a trio is usually meant when talking about 3 of something (Baltimore, Tampa, Oakland, & Florida), not 4! Also, I think Reyes and Beltran (batting .237 & .224 respectively) have been getting off easy. I'm amazed the Mets are even above .500 with the 3 of them playing the way they are!
Yeesh, thanks for picking up on that, Matt! I think I originally didn't include Florida when I wrote it, and then I declined to change it from "trio" to "quartet." I will fix it now.
I think the Francesa and Russo should consider themselves the 2 luckiest people on Earth. Francesa won't permit anyone, including, Russo, to complete a sentence. He perceives himself as the most knowledgeable sports person in his industry. Russo, more often than not, comes across as a babbling idiot who can't seem to pronounce words or names correctly?? Someone should give Ken a shot. He would be more interesting and knowledgeable than those 2 clowns.
I concluded last year just prior to the Torre mess that I could no longer listen to Francesa and Russo except in very small doses of no more than 10 minutes - if that. They are both sickening. Russo knows very little and Francesa comes across as an almost bitter and angry man that speaks as if he's the voice of God. If you ever watch them on YES, you will observe Russo reading newspapers to learn information. He has no sources of his own and does little to prepare. He's winging it. Francesa actually looks like a grinch that has some type of ax to grind.
Yes, Ken would be fabulous. I would love it if Ken could do a show at least once a week for a couple of hours. Ken actually does have sources and he actually does his homework, and then some.
Unfortunately for me, ESPN Radio isn't an option because I can't take the less than adequate signal.
"I think the Francesa and Russo should consider themselves the 2 luckiest people on Earth"
--
I couldn't agree with you and Jim more. It's even sadder that they each make over a million dollars a year for this.
What would Ken's VORP (value over replacement pundit) be when compared to F and R?
I think I sided with Joba in the bullpen at the beginning of the year. Anyone who still sides with that is just being stubborn. The Yankees would die for Steve Trachel Mets version right about now, and instead their best pitcher pitches one inning. Yuk.
As for Delgado, we live in New York. The best town in the world. I respect people that stand by their convictions. Delgado has proven he stands by his over and over again. He cant win this battle, but he has won my respect.
Odd thing, there's no shortage of informed opinion. At Newsday Ken, Bob Glauber, and Powell all standout from the crowd. yet these two drooling dolts dominate the airwaves. Go figure.
Bobby V's pitching coach is Texas was Tom House..who has admitted he used steroids as a player in the 1970s. Doesn't that sound suspicious? Calling Andy Pettitte a steroid user in 2000 when he used it years later shows that M-Crash has neither logic nor facts on his side. Bobby V had tremendous young talent in Texas and didn't develop it after the first year. He did a better job with the Mets but choked in 1998..losing their final 5 games against the Braves (Bobby V says he's a better manager than Cox) and the pathetic Expos. He almost choked it away in 1999, just got lucky the Brewers beat Cincinnati two out of the last three games to force a tie. His 2002 team set a NL record for most consecutive losses at home..with such high priced imports as Roberto Alomar, Mo Vaughn and Jeromy Burnitz. With his season on the line in 2000 he left Al Leiter in to throw 142 pitches so he could lose on three groundballs that took 15 hops each. But he's a genius..you can tell by his smugness when he brought in Mel Rojas to face Paul O'Neill..how did that turn out?
Bobby V is what his record says he is. A better than average manager. Since two-thirds of all managers have a losing record that says something. But he had to go to the land where Hideki Irabu is a star to win anything. I am suspicious of people like him who find it necessary to say how smart they are. Goose Gossage says the first time he met Valentine when he played for him., Bobby V said "I've forgotten more about baseball than you know". What a strange thing to intoduce yourself to someone.
Bobby V thought it was necessary to dump on one of baseball's classiest players, Cliff Floyd, in 2001 by saying "you're going to the all-star game" and then changing his mind. But that's to be expected of the only man in America who carries a fake mustache with him to circumvent umpire's orders.
Jim Clark,
I was irritated until those last two points. But they tipped me off that you're actually a borderline genius comic, since there's no way anyone with a clue can say Cliff Floyd is a classy guy, or pretend to know what was said in a conversation between an undoubtedly smart person (Bobby V) and the Forest Gump of baseball.
Either that, or you are more full of hatred--and less equipped with facts--than the Black Hearted Murray Chass.
M-Crash, its hard to blame Bobby V. for Timo not running out that Zielle hit, but what in the world was he thinking starting Hampton at Yankee Stadium and Leiter at Shea?? Leiter could have handled the road crowd better and Hampton looked very comfortable at Shea. Not to mention, Hampton was 1000 times a better hitter. That should have been the tie-breaker, but it shouldn't have even come to that.
I think Jim Clark made a lot of good points, though your right that we cant know exactly went on during random convos. Bobby V. was a better than average manager, but not much better.
Richie G.,
Those are excellent points and very fair questions. Thanks for your message. I can't say I remember the reasoning for Leiter and Hampton assignments. Was it the amount they had rested? I don't remember ...
As for defending Bobby V so passionately, I took issue mostly with the tone of the attack on Bobby. There's no reason to have so much anger, especially on this site. We are in a community hosted by a wonderful guy who enjoys healthy, reasonable and friendly debate.
If someone just wants to scream and attack and shout other people down, that person should call WFAN.
I'm definitely biased, but I think Bobby is an excellent manager who hasn't gotten his due. But it's not how you start in life or baseball, it's how you finish, and he's only 57, which is just about the age Joe Torre was when he began a run that transformed him from a 3-times fired manager with a losing record to a Hall of Famer.