News and Notes

- Japan nixes the idea of Igawa pitching for them in the WBC.

Not really a surprise here as Yankees fans and the front office reject the idea of him pitching in the majors as well.  He is lights out in AAA, but can’t make the transition to MLB.  A highly decorated pitcher in NPB, Igawa is being blacklisted for his lack of production overseas… and rightfully so.  Stick him in the bullpen and get it over with.  He can only hurt Japan in the WBC.

- ARod and Gardner each HR in their spring debut.

Second pitch of his first at-bat, Gardner goes deep.  And it actually went over the fence!  2-3 and a stolen base is a good start.  We’ll see how Melky does now.  I hope Gardner wins the job; he’s more exciting to me and brings to lineup what the Yanks lack.

-Girardi has named his starting rotation.

Sabathia, Wang, Burnett, Pettitte, Joba….I know Girardi wanted to break up the lefties and Burnett and Joba because they are very similar.  If everyone is healthy this should be enough to go deep in the playoffs, but that’s a big ‘ if ‘.  And that brings me to the next note…

-Joba is expected to make 30 starts.

This would bring him to around 175 innings pitched on the year if can do so.  So much for plan.  He threw just over 100 innings last year and this dramatic increase is certainly a risk moving forward.  175 of Joba sounds very appealing to Yankee fans, but an increase of around 75 innings is not good news for any pitcher.  But then again, I don’t work in the front office.  If I did and worked in the ticket office, I would call all the season ticket holders and tell them Joba is moving into the bullpen.  How fast would I get fired?  The Dodgers ticket assistant and I could never find another job in baseball ever again.

It’s Finally Here

Baseball is back baby!  Kick back and relax and take in the national pastime for the next eight months.  Who cares if its spring training?  This might be the most relaxing point of the season.  You get to watch your favorite prospects even though you know they can’t make the team.  Win, lose, or draw…it doesn’t matter.  Yet it is quality baseball.  The World Baseball Classic is about to get underway too.  I never know what to make out of this event.  It’s great for the sport of baseball, to essentially grow the game.  But I think it’s in place just because they could put it together.  That’s what the Olympics are for in my opinion.  But with baseball not slated for the Games anymore, this might be an audition for upcoming olympics and to prove to the Committee that baseball can recruit its big stars to play in worldwide events.

Enough of the politics.  I just hope everyone stays healthy during the tournament and will make an impact wherever they play.

On a side note, Girardi finally cracked.  His team was able to take a day off and focus on Pool instead of Baseball.  He definitely took a page out of Coughlin’s book.  Well done sir, well done.  After reading The Yankee Years, the Yankees lacked team chemistry and it was evident by their downfall.  Team interaction is a must in all sports, even in the solo game of baseball.  Sounds like the team had a blast and maybe Rivera needs to spend more time with his family or focus on actually pitching.

Digging Himself a Deeper Hole

Don La Greca on the Michael Kay Show brought up a good point the other day.  Yes, this involves ARod and steroids.  It won’t go away anytime soon so get used to it.  I’m am actually coming to grips with it myself.  Anyway, he said that if ARod can lie about facts that can be checked, what about the facts in his story that can’t be?  Are we just supposed to believe him?  He really might think that people will not check his background information and that is clearly not the case when everyone is trying to bring him down.

He lied about Selena Roberts during his initial interview to hurt the credibility of Ms. Roberts, he lied about his age when he first started using steroids to make himself look younger, and he lied about getting Primobolan over the counter in the Domincan Republic.  All of this misinformation had been checked.  What else is he lying about? Was he really clean in Seattle and NY?

Meet Yuri

Photo from the Daily News

Here is the guy that pumped ARod full of drugs.  This is the guy that made ARod keep his bad habits.  This is the guy that has lead ARod astray.  This is the guy that is ARod’s puppet.  This is the guy who is to blame for everything ARod does…even not producing in the postseason.  He is Yuri Sucart, ARod’s now famous cousin.

I really was expecting someone else.  He’s clearly the fourth cousin removed from the uncle side (that probably didn’t make sense but you get the idea).  What a schmuck.  He’s got sketchy written all over him.  At least you can tell that he wasn’t taking any substances himself.  Does he even know what baseball is?  Has he even played wiffle ball at least?  I can’t believe ARod trusts this guy more than anybody else.  And yes, it WAS amateur hour.

Quick Review of Joe’s Book

Hopefully, we got all the steroid hoopla out of the way because I really hate talking about it.  Well, at least until Selena Roberts’ book comes out in mid-April.

A few nights ago I finished TheYankee Years by Joe Torre.  The first thing that comes to mind is the fact that this book really wasn’t that bad.  Sure Torre broke the unwritten code of exposing some clubhouse secrets, but there was nothing groundbreaking in there.  There were chapters specifically written on ARod, Jeter, and Bernie.  I do think that ARod got the raw end of the deal in the book and some of Torre’s comments were unwarranted, but ARod has bigger things to worry about right now.

About half of the book, if not more is comprised of quotes, mainly by Torre.  Mussina and the Yankees bullpen catcher Mike Borzello also were quoted quite often in the book.  For a bullpen catcher, he sure had a lot to say.  He made a lot of comments that should be taken the wrong way.

If you don’t want to relive the Yankees collapse to the Red Sox on multiple occasions, then please do not read this book.  I was tempted on more than one occasion to skip some chapters.  But the only way to get over some of those games is to just get it over with.  Also, a large part of the book placed empasis on the Red Sox rise and the Yankees fall.  It talks about how Epstein had approached his new philosphy and how he and the owners had turned everything around.  Not exactly what I wanted to hear either.  Cashman was a late bloomer in this statistical philosophy but has now fully embraced it.  A decision that Torre did not agree with all the time.  Torre stated that Cashman and him had a falling out and definitely painted Cashman in a negative light.  I can’t wait until Cashman reads the book.

I really enjoyed the clubhouse stories and the dugout chatter, not necessarily tidbits that should have remained in the clubhouse.  Ex: David Cone being the clubhouse leader and fooling around with Steinbrenner and Billy Crystal’s video.  It seemed like Tom Verducci repeated himself a lot in the book.  I felt like I read the same content multiple times.  All in all it was informative, specifically about certain games.  It was interesting to hear Torre’s strategy and thoughts during the games that are etched in our memory forever.

Torre definitely worried about job security, especially while working for Steinbrenner.  This fact was driven in my head to the point where I wished he was fired.  A lot of Torre’s quotes and comments had a lot of inner meaning to them if that made any sense.  I actually had to re-read some of his comments to actually understand what he was talking about.  As a mentor and a teacher, that is expected of him.

If you do decide to get the book for a specific reason, get it because Pavano is absolutely ripped.

ARod Sketchy Part Deux

Yesterday, ARod addressed the media and shed some light on other details of his steroid use.  Many writers and bloggers don’t know whether this helped him or hurt him.  For some reason I am kind of indifferent.  I think it still takes a lot of guts to do something like that and have to answer all sorts of accusations.    However, I believe he wasn’t telling the whole truth and it was evident in some of his responses.  If ARod just get everything off his chest, he might have been better off.  He has now had two chances to come completely clean with the American people.  At the same time, any response he gave, whether we wanted to hear it or not, would have have criticized.  That’s the downside of being honest.

ARod was clearing dancing around questions throughout the Q &  A segment of the conference.  He said he was young and stupid on several occasions, even during his initial admittance.  Cashman thought otherwise and I tend to agree with him.  Cashman said that he was sure stupid, that was a fact.  But young had nothing to do with it.  At that point in his career he had been a 6-7 year veteran.  I am pretty sure he knew exactly what he was doing and the consequences of it at that time of course.  ARod repeatedly said he was 24-25 years old at the time.  Well, actually he was 26-28 during his Texas years.  Either he wanted us to believe that he was a lot younger than he was or he was taking the same substances while with the Mariners.  Either way, he lied to us.  Then he goes on to say that if he went to college, things would have been different.  College has nothing to do with the fact that you are stupid.  Using a Michael Kay Show reference: Michael Vick went to college and look where he ended up.  ARod is trying to make excuses yet again; it doesn’t make it right.

ARod admitted that he received the steroids from his cousin in the Dominican Republic.  These substances were legal  over the counter drugs in the DR.  If ARod knew that this was legal at the time, why would he get it from the DR?  Why would he not tell a single soul of his actions?  He was asked something along these lines by a member of the media and ARod couldn’t answer it.  It’s actually a rather simple answer.

It’s still going to get a lot worse I believe before it get any better.  Selena Roberts’ book has yet to come out.  I think the media should have asked him, “Do you have anything you want to come clean about that you think or know is in Roberts’ book?  That would have been a great one.

It’s nice to see that so many teammates of his showed up to support him.  When he thanked him initially, he almost started to cry.  If this was an act, we might never know.  But I will give him the benefit of the doubt.  This experience must have been emotionally draining and even ARod is a fragile person.  No different than you or I. (Michael Kay was once told by ARod that he can cry on cue – via The Michael Kay Show)

If I can think of anything else I want to add from the conference, I will update this post.  In the meantime, games are just around the corner…can’t wait.

More rants: ARod admitted that he had been injected by his nameless cousin two times a month for years.  That’s a lot of injections without asking any questions of what’s exactly going into your body.

ARod also stated that he used other amphetamines while a member of the Mariners.  Those drugs have been since taken off the GNC shelves and MLB have banned that particular substance.  I am surprise not a lot of people are making a big deal out of that.

Also, ARod said he really didn’t know the benefit of taken the banned steroid.  He thought it probably gave him an energy boost but that was it.  THEN WHY TAKE IT IF YOU DON”T KNOW THE BENEFITS OR DRAWBACKS.  Isn’t that one of the first things that people do when they receive their medications…read the label and find out the side effects.  But no questions were asked.  He sure knew to take it twice a month for three years.

ARod Calls SRob

According to Yahoo Sports, Alex Rodriguez has apologized to SI’s Selena Roberts for his comments during Monday’s interview with Peter Gammons.

What he apologized for has yet to come out, but I would imagine that she didn’t break in his house and didn’t get picked up by the police.  She probably did stalk him though.  Those types of reporters are borderline stalkers.

Anyway, I’m sure this looks great for his credibility…again.  What else did he lie about last Monday?  I’m sure we will hear exactly what this phone call was for after ARod’s news conference this Tuesday.  I guess he feels that apologizing is the way to go now.  If only he can apologize to his wife now (ok, that was uncalled for).  He must be on the 8-step program.  He sure acted in good spirits at the University of Miami this week, making many jokes at his own expense.

Put Me On That Diet

Via MLB Trade Rumors, Roto Authority’s Spring Training Cliches has been assembled.  Lets take a look at the Yankees:

• Brian Bruney – lost 16 lbs.
• Robinson Cano -  lost 5 lbs.
• Phil Hughes – added 10 lbs.
• Nick Swisher – lost 16 Ibs.

What does this mean for everyone?  A whole lot of nothing if they can’t perform on a regular basis.  But it’s good to see that these players have dedicated themselves during the offseason.  Bruney and Swisher definitely needed to lose weight.  I think Cano is due to take off another 5 pounds as well.  As for Hughes, it’s nice to see he added some weight and apparently its muscle too.  Usually losing weight is a good thing for all players (especially position players), as they are more mobile.  Pitchers, it’s a different story with them.  It really depends on the type of person.

Close Race

Vegas projected team wins came out yesterday.  River Ave. Blues played the over/under game; this seems fun, let’s give it a try.

Over – Mets, Phils, Marlins, Nats, Rays, Orioles, Cubs, Cards, Reds, Indians, Twins, Tigers, Dodgers, Dbacks, Giants,   Rockies, A’s, Rangers

Under- Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Brewers, Astros, Padres

Push (or no freakin’ clue)- Braves, Pirates, White Sox, Royals, Angels, Mariners

Well, I guess I’m half-glass full kind of guy.  The one thing I noticed is that the AL West, AL East (given), NL East, and NL West races are going to be decided the last week of the regular season.  Spring Training hasn’t even started yet.  One step at a time I guess.

Update: I can’t insert the Vegas Win Chart, so click on the Vegas link above to view it.  Sorry, technical difficulties.

Selig Thinks about Suspending ARod

In today’s blog post by Kat O’Brien from Newsday, she points out that Commissioner Bud Selig might suspend ARod after all.  ARod technically didn’t break any rules because the banned substances that he took in 2003 were not illegal.  This would be foolish of Selig do to as many legal battles can come as a result of this, and rightfully so.  These ‘guinea pig’ tests were supposed to be anonymous and MLB baseball screwed up by not destroying the samples and allowing such secretive information to be leaked.  I don’t care even if Congress told him to keep the samples.  Besides, Selig, the Union, owners, and management turned a blind eye to the growing problem of steroids to begin with.

The game of baseball was at its height and nobody wanted to ruin that, especially Selig.  The more money MLB made, the more money he made (2008 salary: $18.35 million).  The more home runs, the more butts in the seats and the more eyes on the tube.  I actually heard this on the radio and it made a heck of a lot of sense.  The players who put MLB back on the map and shouldered the load themselves are now the ones being blacklisted from the game.  McGwire, Bonds, and Clemens were the ones that made baseball what it is today after the strike of ‘94.  Sure they brought it upon themselves, but they have to be given credit for MLB’s success.

So for Selig to even mention a possible suspension is just ludacris.  He should look at himself in mirror and think about all of his mistakes.  He’s the man behind it all.  Take responsibility for your own actions like ARod had done earlier in the week.  It was the right thing to do.