On the Yankees beat

This isn't on the player, this is on the manager.

After Crawford's collision earlier this week, you'd think Maddon would have reminded the players that they can't make the team if they're on the DL. Sometimes when you think you're the hammer, you could end up being the nail.

Dear Viper,

Let's talk about you comments, which are in the Newsday Archives. I could re-post them but they are in my head.

Let's start with some person information you've written, just as a warm up ...

"I used to drink (at Purdue) but then I stopped."

"I don't have an earring, but I have a tattoo."

(I have a photographic memory, praise the Lord, what a gift!)

When I said Scott Kazmir would be traded ...

Viper: "Get this through your thick ..."

Then when I found an article in the St. Petersburg, Florida local paper saying Scotty the K would be traded, you chastized both me and the author of the article, ranting against, (I quote) that "rag." (It's not a great paper, but it's not THAT bad!)

Maybe if you re-read your comments on Scott Kazmir (we won't even get into your Ted Lilly comments, which are all in the archives too) you will pause, and finally shut that F-ing hole in your face ... or at least change your tone and not be so nasty.

Unless you have eye cancer you can re-read your remarks.

No hard feelings. It must be hard to be you, a lost person, who doesn't know the Lord, who has no faith, no eternal destiny, who thinks when he dies, that's the end, as the worms consume his flesh.

But Viper that's not the END.

It's only the beginning!

Um, yeah. I’m going to try to talk sense to the same guy who can’t write a post without mentioning….

• The Yanks desperate need for Ted Lilly, David Eckstein, Josh Hamilton, and Mike Piazza to win a World Series while getting rid of core players like A-Rod, Posada, Cano, Damon, Matsui, and Mo without any regard to these little legal documents called “contracts” which would prohibit such action.

• A handful of current/former Yankees (or Yankee wives) with questionable morality as judged by the Almighty Anthony.

• Political or religious rants that don’t have a d@nm thing to do with anything whatsoever after dozens of readers have asked you to stop with such inappropriate content.

Sigh. I’m not going to bother to explain my position again on Kazmir because I made it very clear back then. If you weren't sharp enough to understand my argument - then so be it. You don't exactly have any credibility regarding real baseball talk and debate because of the daily rubbish that constantly spews from your keyboard.

People on this board may disagree with my opinion, but at least they don’t automatically roll their eyes and skip my posts every time they see my name

Rieber,
I posted yesterday that I thought the play that injured Cervelli was, in my opinion, not a dirty one. The killed who ran over Cervelli was trying to make his team and I'm sure his toughness and willingness to play hard earned him some points with his teammates and management.
Cervelli also earns some points as he was willing to stand in there and take the hit.
It's funny but two plays at the plate stood out for me yesterday:
The first was the one where the Rays catcher made a horrible play at the plate when they had the Yankees runner out by 10 feet. I think he was afraid to get hurt and lifted his glove to tag the runner up high and it cost him as the runner was (correctly) called safe.
The second was the Cervelli injury play. Just a hard nosed baseball play if you ask me. I hate to see the kid get injured, but he's a catcher and it happens.

Maddon is a jerk who simply could have said "I hate to see it happens, I hope there guy will be okay".

I actually expected to see Ohlendorf throw at the next batter after the play and I think he may have tried, sort of the way Shawn Estes tried to throw at Piazza years ago, but it was a lame attempt if he did.

Jim A. pretty much speaks my mind on this one.

The play was ridiculous for an exhibition game. It's the equivalent of a pitching throwing at a player this time of year. Was Pete Rose right in running down Ray Fosse all those years ago in the All-Star game? Rose was more right then than Maddon is now. A dumb play, pure and simple. Girardi has every right to be angry. It was bush league baseball.

"The Cub Reporter has information the Red Sox are close to reaching an agreement that would send Coco Crisp to the Cubbies for Jason Marquis and outfield prospect Sam Fuld."

More starting pitching depth for the Sox. No idea why they wouldnt go after some bullpen help considering they already havve 6 or 7 starters.

First of all I want to touch on McCarthy's update: That's a really good trade for the Cubs. Jason Marquis is going to be a disaster in the American League - I'm pretty sure he'll end up either being released or traded for junk by June. Think Joel Pinero last year.

As for the play at the plate. My feeling is that for a young team with a losing history, like the Rays, the first thing the manager has to do is establish a sense of winning. You have to teach the players how to win and the first step on that road is to play every game to win and play hard for nine innings. If it happened in the regular season it wouldn't have been questioned at all. Would a team like the Yankees or Mets or Red Sox do it? No, but they are veteran teams who have players that understand what it takes to win. It is unfortunate for Cervelli, but it speaks well of him that he got the out and that's not something Joe Girardi will forget. Remember, in the last game he ever played Girardi, on a play at the plate in a spring training game, stuck out his leg to block the plate when he easily could have just said, "hell with it, I'm retiring tomorrow" and given up the run.

For the record, this is Joe Girardi's take on the situation. In reading this he's not calling it dirty, he's calling it unnecessary.

"I think it was uncalled for, it's spring training and you are going to get people hurt and we got Cervelli hurt," Girardi said of Johnson, a fringe 40-man roster infielder sending Cervelli, the YankeesNew York Yankees ' top catching prospect, to St. Joseph's Hospital. Cervelli has a fractured right wrist, which was put in a cast. "I know they had an incident four or five days ago," Girardi said. "I am all for playing hard but I don't think it's the time to run over a catcher in spring training."

Girardi then hinted Maddon didn't do his part after Carl Crawford laid out Houston catcher Humberto Quintero on Wednesday.

"I have always known you don't do it," Girardi said of instigating home plate collisions in games that don't count.

"I know kids are playing aggressive and playing hard and that's the way you want them to play. But if it happens too much maybe you should mention it.

"It's one thing to get hit by a pitch or twist an ankle running the bases. But to run over someone, I don't understand it.

"During the season I am all for it. If it happens in the season, I understand that, but in spring training I don't believe in it."

the manager is standing up for his squad lighting a fire under them to start the season and too win some GAMES this preseason.

I'm not sure how I feel about the play. I mean, I was always the type that went by the mantra, "practice like you play and play like you practice, so practice hard", but at the same time, I never would put a teammate at risk and I don't think he'd have run over the catcher if it was an intrasquad game. So, I think there's a difference between playing hard and playing rough.

To even call this kid on the Rays a fringe 40 man roster player is crazy. If I recall correctly, he hit under the Mendoza line last year. This kid isn't going to make the club or the 40 man roster. He's 24 years old and is more of a fringe prospect than a frigne player.

The interesting thing to ponder is what our reactions would be if the runner was a Yankee and the catcher a Ray.

Im with you Jim.....I see no issue with that play. It was just two kids playing hard for roster spots.

To Jim A: My personal reaction would be the same if a Yankee did it, i.e. it was a dumb thing to do in a spring training game. This isn't about "installing a winning attitude." It's about stupidity and a lack of common sense. Professionals aren't supposed to do stuff like this. Maddon should be sent to the minors for this.

Should a pitcher be willing to bean a batter because he is just fighting for a roster spot? That's the kind of thing that can end a career. What if Cervelli can't throw as he did before? It's spring training! Not the 7th game of the WS!

Jim...I have to disagree with you. The kid didnt go out of his way to hurt him, that play could happen 100 times and nobody would get hurt, it was a freak accident. I loved that this noname kid trying to make the squad was going 100%, even if he wasnt on our team. It would have been a completely different story if it was Posada behind the plate, hell even Molina. For me, this was nothing more than a kid getting after it. If I was in his shoes, I would have done the same exact thing. For some of these guys it is the 7th game of the WS, most of them will never play in a major league game. This is their one chance to make a name for themselves. It’s a shame someone got hurt, but it could have easily been him tearing a quad or breaking his ankle. These things happen in sports.

Non issue in my mind.

Differences are what makes the world go round. However, just because most of the time no one gets hurt doesn't make it right to do in a spring training game. Professionalism isn't bred by doing something so bush. If I drive 100 MPH on the expressway and the police don't catch me, I get away with it. If I do it and the cops are there, I get a ticket. If I do it, crash and hurt someone, I probably go to jail. Maddon shouldn't go to jail/face suspension, but he shouldn't be given kudos either.

I guess we just view it differently Jim. I love when young kids go full throttle. Maybe he had a little Rose in him that day.

Even though I had no problem with the play, I wish Cervelli a speedy recovery.

I hear you DRU. Hopefully all will end up well.

As a former scout, and minor league manager I will tell you that Girardi crossed the line by questioning how another MGR uses his players. Joe needs to keep his nose in his own dugout. Joe should tell his catchers to not block the plate in Spring Training. Can't have it both ways, if you block the plate on a bang/bang play you are going to get run over. If you want to get a player to slide then you have to allow him some part of the plate and then take it away. This is all ridiculous anyway, it was simply a hard nosed play and each MGR has the responsibility for their own players. Maddon shose not to respond to Giradi's comments which was the wise move. Girardi is way off base questioning the other MGR, if this is what he plans on doing all season he will create some problems for his team. Bottom line is Joe is WRONG on his whole take about this.

Girardi should not have whined to the press about it. Just retaliate and leave one of the Rays grimacing on the ground in pain. That would have said it all. Under Torre this would have gone unchecked, Girardi has to establish that the Yanks are a diferent team under him. I say pick a Ray and make him pay - its as simple as that.

BTW - Maddon's comments were idiotic, he could have expressed some concern for the kid who got hurt. He is a classless tool if you ask me.

mdg4ever - well said.

Perhaps the whole thing with Cervalli could be resolved, and incidents of this kind eliminated if umpires simply followed the rules. When the catcher stands in front of the plate and blocks it without the ball in his hand, he is interfering with the baserunner. It's clearly in the rule book, and the game was played that way for decades. It's only in the last few decades that this has changed. Baseball shouldn't be a sport in which plays are decided by brute force collisions, for the same reason we don't let the first baseman stand in front of first base and try to keep the baserunner off.