How Youz Doin Baseball

How Youz Doin

2011-12-06T20:00:00.003-05:00

This is the final post. After this one, we'll be closing up shop and the 1,645 posts and over 12,650 comments on How Youz Doin Baseball will probably just occupy Internet space for eternity. It will be a good running record on the state of the Yankees, Red Sox, baseball, and life in general between the years of 2007 and 2011. It was an interesting time period for both teams, the sports, and two American twenty-somethings growing up, and I don't think it's necessary for us to go over all the stuff that's taken place.

It also, at least for me and for Pat, gave us a way to stay connected (probably too connected) to the game we've loved since we were kids. Part of what made college special was the fact that I got an opportunity to argue with someone from the other side of the rivalry who had the same intensity, passion, and knowledge of the game that I had. Despite the fact that we didn't like each other's teams, Pat and I seemed to agree on quite a bit, including how stupid it was for the Red Sox to trade Hanley Ramirez and Anibal Sanchez for Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell.

The day, at least in my mind, that this blog became virtually unavoidable was the day our senior year when Sanchez threw the no-hitter. Meanwhile, Ramirez won the Rookie of the Year, Lowell went about a month without an extra-base hit, and Beckett gave up 36 home runs. That day, and my apologies for entering the Rocky III semi-weird area here, was the day I disappeared for three hours, seeking refuge and a place to vent at Pat's senior apartment. Over the previous three years, Pat and I had spent countless hours coming up with clever ways to present baseball arguments - many of which are still hovering in the vapor over Dana Dining Hall or Alfond Athletic Center, and some of which were tragically deleted forever once we X'ed out our AOL Instant Messenger windows. (In fact, in honor of my screen name, Pat's girlfriend tolerated a certain amount of "Tuna Time" every night so we could discuss baseball over A.I.M.)

I'd say it was sometime in mid-2006 that Pat started planting the idea in my head that we should go in together on a baseball blog. I was initially hesitant about the idea because I knew that once it started, I wouldn't be able to give a 99% effort on it. But after three hours of my venting, profanities, and baseball frustration disguised as "insight" and "being right all the time" on Anibal Sanchez Night, Pat started pressing harder for the idea. Two and a half months later, once the boy wonder signed JD Drew and Julio Lugo (five years ago tonight, in fact!), it was pretty much time to start planning. So in February 2007, instead of having it all X'ed out at the end of a conversation, we started a blog so that we could eventually look back on how correct, incorrect, and/or entertaining our arguments were.

It wasn't too long until we reached my first goal: To be able to refer to our own previous writing. After a while, we developed a following. We accumulated a small, but loyal and prolific community of followers who contributed to our comments section, including friends from school, friends from home, friends from work, and a couple of people who we either knew vaguely or didn't know at all. We made it to a point where we reached nearly 15,000 hits a year, and most posts gathered dozens of comments. With links coming from a couple of Yankee sites, one really popular Boston site, a Kansas City newspaper, and the foremost Tampa Bay Rays blog, our little blog became a lot bigger than we thought it would be.
Over the years, when most of us graduated from college, got real jobs and lost the time to post during the work day, our lives changed and perhaps the quality of the blog receded a bit (not to mention Pat and I being at each other's throats for a lot of '09 and '10), we kept it going because it was fun to keep that conversation going. I can speak for both of us by saying that if we didn't have the constant back-and-forth with our little community, we would have been out of the game years ago.

But it was you guys who kept it fun. It was Bandi, the Gunn, Tim C, Ross Kaplan, and Jason who started as significant contributors and have stayed with us for the entire duration. Over the years, we had (and occasionally still do have) From the Bronx, John, Mr. H, Rocci, Frankie Firefox, ZWeiss, Mike V, Jvins, Matt, the Big Ticket, Craig, Jack Sox, JFlu, Jon, Beau, Marino, and probably a few others I had forgotten. You guys came up with some of the clever, insightful, and refreshing opinions that Pat and I were often unable to come up with ourselves. In many different homes and workplaces throughout the country, I think there were and are people who checked How Youz Doin regularly and got a couple of laughs or some insightful baseball knowledge by following their bookmark to How Youz Doin Baseball.

I'm proud of the body of work that Pat and I put together. But I'm equally proud and grateful for the work that went into the 12,000 comments from our readers. You really made it fun for Pat and me. It's a lot more gratifying than having one of the countless other blogs across the Web that never got a comment, tossed out a couple of posts, published a normal post on a random Wednesday, and never was logged into again.

I also want to take a quick minute to thank my family for being among the silent followers of the blog, who took some of the stuff from How Youz Doin Baseball and started conversations about it at the dinner table. I'm also very grateful to my fiancee, who had to share me with Pat and the blog from our three-month anniversary all the way to the present. Somehow, me talking trash over the internet until 11:30 PM instead of coming to bed wasn't a dump-able offense, and that's pretty nice to know. She didn't even get mad about last month's Coco Crisp post other than saying that her ex-boyfriend wouldn't have minded. Same goes to Pat's girlfriend and Boston native Allie, who's been tolerant of what has undoubtedly been several thousand hours of Tuna Time.

Lastly, I want to thank Pat for three things. First, thanks for getting me into the blog thing in the first place. How Youz Doin, strangely enough, helped me professionally on a few occasions, as I got to talk about my baseball blog during a chamber of commerce event about two years ago. Second, thanks for your tireless efforts in being just as big a part of this blog as I was despite not having enough passion for writing to use spell check (your words, not mine). Your opinions brought balance to the blog and invaluable opinions that, at least in my eyes, shaped the way a lot of us view the game. I think most of us in the comments section think your input had more impact on our relationship with baseball more than Bill James's input did. Lastly, thanks for staying with it as long as you did. I know that you probably could have called it quits two years ago, but you stayed aboard anyway and maintained our challenging schedule. This is not ignored and will not be forgotten.

If Pat and I live until we're roughly 88 years old, our time writing for How Youz Doin Baseball, but moreso receiving immeasurable entertainment, insight, and a sense of purpose from this blog, will have been a central part of about 1/18 of our lives. One eighteenth, of course, would be the equivalent of one half-inning of a baseball game. And as we all know, one half-inning can make all the difference in the world. Thanks to Pat and thanks to you all for being part of it.

Thanks For A Great 5 Seasons

2011-12-05T21:22:00.005-05:00

This is my last post. DV has one more tomorrow, and that's it for new content on this website. Before that happens I wanted to say a few words to wrap things up on my end.

I first met DV in September of 2003. Oddly enough - as we would go on to author a website together for 5 years - it was in a Freshman Composition/Writing Requirement class in college. I remember talking a little bit about the 2003 ALCS, but on a very general level given that we didn't know each other that well yet (there was no trash talking that I can recall, nothing like what it would be like if a series like that occurred now). DV was authoring a different website at the time, and I remember him giving me the link and me checking it out.

The first acute conversation I remember having with DV about baseball was the day the Yankees traded for Javier Vazquez (the first time). We had class that day (it was actually our last day of class, I think), and I remember I was somewhat reserved about the signing (remember this was back when the Yankees were going to the World Series every year, and getting a lion's share of the bigtime free agents and trade candidates). DV, on the other hand, was flipping out. Capital letters. I remember him pointing out that Vazquez's 241 strikeouts were 3rd to only Kerry Wood and Mark Prior in the game that year, and that he was not happy that the Yankees closed this deal after besting the Red Sox in the ALCS. Little did I know this was the first of many DV flip outs I would witness, and that it was extremely tame in comparison to what he is capable of.

From that point forward DV and I talked baseball a lot for the next 3 years. At the athletic center crossing paths to and from basketball/track practice, around campus (anytime I picked up a package at the mailroom when DV was working was always a great time to get him riled up about whatever Red Sox related issue he was ticked off about at the time), and lots, and lots, and lots of AIM conversations.

Like any sports fanatic in college, I was having similar conversations with other people. Bandi, The Gunn, Kaplan, The Big Ticket, TimC, and on and on. In large part this site was just a continuation of those conversations, just with the ability to include everyone in them at once. And that was, without question, the best part of this project for me. This site never became widely popular, and I'm not sure we ever intended for it to be. It was a place to continue to talk Yankees/Red Sox, baseball, and sports with our buddies after college just like we did in college, with a few others joining and adding to the conversation along the way.

For that DV and I have to thank our readers. All of them, and especially the group that came to read and comment pretty much every day. A few people have made comments during DV's (excellent) Greatest Hits series about realizing how often they commented. And that's absolutely correct. There is no way DV and I would have written posts for this long if we weren't debating those posts in the comments section. I mean, a lot of the time we didn't even talk about the content of the posts. We just talked about whatever somebody felt like talking about.

And that's what made this site worthwhile to maintain for five baseball seasons. Sports is an outlet for me, a hobby, a fun diversion from the things in life that are actually serious. The Yankees are my favorite team, and baseball is my favorite outlet/hobby/diversion, and this was a place to talk about the Yankees and baseball with some really knowledgeable baseball fans.

I'm not sure exactly why DV and I decided to start this site. I remember him interning at a radio station, talking about how cool it would be to have a talk show, and that morphing into the idea of maybe having a website. I remember grabbing lunch together at the dining hall one time to discuss logistics, DV coming up with the name How Youz Doin Baseball (based on the fact that I was always using sayings like that at the time), DV wrote our first post, and away we went. Whatever the exact reasoning was, I'm glad we did it. I had a lot of fun with this, my baseball knowledge increased greatly as a result, and my overall Yankees/baseball following experience was enhanced. This was primarily because of the people that came to read and comment.

Of course, I owe a big thanks to DV as well. His energy, abilities as a writer, baseball knowledge, and passion for the Red Sox were a huge part of starting this site and maintaining it for as long as we did. He put a lot of time and effort into this, and anyone who enjoyed this site can tip there hat to him for making it happen. So thanks, DV.

The best part about all of this is that, since we all pretty much know each other, the sports conversation is not stopping. We're just not using this as the forum anymore. Thank you to everyone who read and contributed to this site for the last five years. I appreciate it, and I know DV does as well. This was a worthwhile project and a lot of fun for the last five baseball seasons. Most importantly, I look forward to discussing the 2012 season with everyone. Go Yankees.

Thanks, JD Drew

2011-12-04T22:21:00.000-05:00

A big part of why How Youz Doin Baseball exists in the first place is because the Boston Red Sox had the nerve to give a seemingly-interminable five-year, $70 million contract to a player who had never exceeded 100 RBIs and had played a brand of flat, underachieving, uninspired, lazy baseball that alienated fan bases in each and every city in which he had ever played. Billed as the next Mickey Mantle because of the occasional flashes of his God-given talent, Drew held out for a year after being drafted because the Philadelphia Phillies wouldn't offer him triple the previous all-time record for a draftee signing bonus. Maybe he'll make it into the Hall of Fame after all as a labor pioneer.

Sure enough, JD came to Boston amid some controversy and delivered in a way only he could. He did in Boston exactly what he did in every other city he played. He showed up about once a week, usually on Friday nights, drew a lot of walks when he needed to get hits instead, underachived his way out of the heart of the order and into the seven spot, and eventually underachived himself out of a starting position. However, statheads loved him because he drew a lot of walks and took a lot of pitches. Drew also sat out a tremendous quantity of games with minor injuries.

He showed a flash of brilliance in the 2007 ALCS after doing virtually nothing throughout the 2007 season, played well and put the team on his back for a month in June 2008, came short of sucking in 2009, and pretty much went into early retirement in July 2010. He was a complete disappointment, not only in his Red Sox career, but in his career in general.

However, I do not think JD Drew is a bad guy. I think he's a capitalist. In the words of one of my co-workers, he treated baseball not as a passion, not as a privilege, but as a 9-to-5 job. JD treated his job the way most Americans (maybe Europeans would be a better way to put it) treated their jobs. Except he got to play a game that most people would love to player, and he got to make up to $14 million a year to play that game and give the bare minimum. Most Americans also negotiate pretty hard to maximize their salary at every juncture of their career. JD Drew is most certainly greedy, but so are most people.

I also think that along with this greed and clear (I'm not going to use "perceived" because even ultra-player's manager Francona crushed this guy for not trying/caring) apathy toward his job, he's a good human being. He seems to have done a lot for his hometown in Georgia, and he seems to care deeply about his family and his church. He doesn't strike me as a guy who beats the crap out of his wife, threatens to kill his pool boy with a machete, smokes crack in Tampa with his cousin, does steroids (doesn't care about baseball enough to do that), drops tens of thousands of dollars at strip clubs, leaks information about his co-workers to the media in a smear campaign, or does other immortal or misanthropic things that many of our favorite baseball figures do. He's probably not the most friendly guy outside of his own inner circles, but who is? A crappy player, a crappy employee, but not a crappy guy.

In the grand scheme of things, there are plenty of players, including Coco Crisp (who irresponsibly racked up a DUI in 2011) who probably deserved a lot more crap than what JD Drew got in this space for the last five baseball seasons. I'm not apologizing for this in any way, because the scope of this blog was to analyze people's performance in their baseball jobs, something that this guy sucked at compared to what he was capable of.

But I am saying that if for any reason this player or one of his friends, family members, or well-wishers, happened to stumble across the unwavering torrent of venom coming from nyycolbysox.blogspot.com, thanks a lot for understanding the passions of a baseball fan who cared a lot more about winning than this player did. Thanks, JD, for being the inspiration of way too many posts here, and thanks for being there to inspire me to come up with creative ways to bash you. But first and foremost, and I can say this for the majority of his baseball career in which he drew the ire of fans across the country, thanks, JD Drew, for being a good sport about it.

Pass the Kool-Aid

2011-12-01T22:49:00.002-05:00

About 27 hours ago, I was lukewarm at best regarding the Bobby Valentine manager decision. Now, I'm chugging the Kool-Aid. Not because I am too thrilled about the continued undermining of Cherington, champion of "subjective" analysis. Not because I'm too thrilled about the blatant disrespect for Gene Lamont. But because of the following turns of events:

1. ESPN Boston started reporting that various Red Sox are unhappy about the decision to hire Valentine.
2. I read an article about Valentine being critical of the way that Beckett takes 40 seconds between pitches.
3. I re-read the "Terry Francona, Fat Little Girlfriend" post.
4. I started reading about how competitive Valentine is. It sounded more like Steinbrenner and not at all like a "marathon" runner.
5. I started to imagine what Valentine's reaction would be to incidents like 46 getting caught stealing third base on September 17th, Beckett getting fat, Lackey whining about the rain, Youkilis whining about competitive disadvantages against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Gonzalez complaining about bus rides and Sunday Night Baseball, Crawford crying about being benched against Price, Ortiz crying about the number of power hitters in the lineup, Ortiz crying about the DH rule, Ortiz crying about official scorer decisions, Ortiz crying about who's the starting pitcher, Ortiz crying about his failed steroid tests, Ortiz crying about his contract, Wakefield crying about how the fans "deserve" to see him walk six guys and fail to make it out of the third inning, Drew asking out of a game after Clay Buchholz had already come in as a pinch runner, and all the other abominations that marked September, June, April, 2009, and pretty much the majority of the JD Drew era in Boston.

There would be blood. There would be accountability. There would be benchings. There would be change. And this line is for Pat: The change would consist of more than mile markers every 0.2 miles on Interstate 95.

6. I read the Bob Ryan article saying that JD Drew wouldn't last "sixteen seconds" under Valentine. Think about this: Francona mentioned to the media back in 2009 that "we already put a pitcher into run. That's all we got to do, put somebody out in [expletive] right. Francona! Who covered for absolutely everybody! Before even being asked a single question, I could imagine what kind of incentive-laden tirade would start.
7. Valentine himself in his press conference referred to his prior criticism, saying he welcomed the reason of why it's a good thing to wait 20 seconds between throwing pitches. In his welcome speech he called out Josh Beckett!

I'm salivating right now. Nothing would make me happier than an uncomfortable 46, Ortiz, Beckett, Gonzalez, and the rest of those entitled stiffs. Them being miserable after being in the country club for so long is sweet revenge for them making me miserable being a Red Sox fan the last three years.

Especially 46. Let's make this guy squirm. He doesn't want to be benched because it might hurt his fantasy stats. So the days of getting caught stealing third to run up his fantasy stats should be over.

As Pat says, he ripped the Red Sox on Sunday Night Baseball repeatedly (if you didn't know, the Sox were on Sunday Night Baseball a lot this year. God's will). The Red Sox, after being told that they're great and how easy it's gonna be their entire lives, apparently don't like criticism. Now, instead of being told that it's not a sprint but a marathon, might actually get yelled at!

One more thing about the "marathon" concept. If the Red Sox had a closer next year, will his third 8th-inning appearance be in September? Nope! Valentine is known to be a pretty competitive guy who wants to win every game. There will be no more babying of closers in the name of October. There will be no more comments about "oh well, we lost, if we win tomorrow we'll be in first again, yay!" There will be no more waiting for a pitcher to pitch the team out of the game (Wait for Seven, my dad calls it) before he's pulled. This is because Bobby Valentine seems like the kind of person who doesn't want to limp into October, but instead the kind of person who wants to win 117 games and take his place on "Immortality Peak" like this team should have according to NESN.com's Eric Ortiz.

I stand by my previous comment about how it's just as easy to ignore a fiery, yelling manager as it is to ignore a coddling, cribbage-playing manager. But this much is true: The Red Sox had their chance to have a fat little girlfriend as a manager. They blew it. And, as Theo Epstein once said...

I like justice.

Final Thoughts on Jacoby Ellsbury

2011-11-30T22:21:00.001-05:00

As I pointed out last week, Jacoby Ellsbury died to me on December 4, 2007. Previous to this date, it was sort of a conflicted thing for me, because he was making my favorite player Coco Crisp a redundant piece (a reason I didn't like the trade for Coco in the first place). But he was a good player (the .353 batting average in 2007 speaks for itself) and one that seemed to like the game, enjoy playing the game, and respect the game. As we've noted here and elsewhere before, fans seem to gravitate towards players who care about the same things that they do (i.e. winning, love for the game).

I'm also okay with players getting paid. Being a baseball player is not an easy thing - being away from your family for six months out of the year, being hassled by the media, being accountable to millions (irony intended) for stuff you do at work, having to live like a celebrity just because you can hit a baseball hard or throw one 95 miles an hour? If you want to be paid the premium for that, go right ahead and do that. But I also expect gratitude, because few people have the natural skills to be able to earn that kind of money. I expect effort being made toward winning and respect being paid to the hand that feeds you. That's why Ellsbury died to me in three different ways.

The first was was in 2007. When Arod opted out of his contract during the clinching game of the 2007 World Series, he and his agent made the clear statement that not even respect to the game is more important than the player's future earnings. Slapped baseball across the face while on its biggest stage. Arod blamed his agent on this tactic to distance himself from this atrocity. Players revolted against Scott Boras after this, including one that has punched out a cameraman and one that was implicated in the BALCO scandal. BALCO and assault are okay, but what Arod did was not, according to these players. It seemed that Scott Boras may have been on his way to being mercifully eradicated from baseball at this point.

The first major league player to reverse this trend and sign Boras to represent his interests after the Arod incident was Ellsbury. He was the first to make the statement of "Arod's opt out was okay with me. Disrespecting baseball is okay with me." I don't like players who disrespect baseball in the interest of future earnings.

Ellsbury's second offense was with the rib injury. Do I believe the Red Sox' medical staff sucked at diagnosing him? Yup, and I am all for him holding that resentment (I have not seen my primary care doctor since he poo-poohed my discomfort that landed me eventually on an operating table in 2010, so I'm on the game page as Ellsbury here). Do I believe Ellsbury really was hurt? Yes, I do. Do I believe he exaggerated the injury? You bet I do. And do I believe he disrespected his team by going to Arizona to rehab? Yes. I also believe that all this took place so that he would not play a single play at less than 100%. There was too much, in terms of his future free agent value, riding on his rate stats and ability to play center field. Is Ellsbury going to let an injury or a managerial decision to play him in left field decrease that market value one iota? Nope. So he effectively went on strike for 144 games in 2010, completely disrespecting my favorite team, the Boston Red Sox. I don't like players who disrespect the Boston Red Sox in the interest of future earnings.

Ellsbury's third offense was with that caught stealing in September. As we have previously gone over, with a 4-2 deficit and a .300 hitter at the plate, stealing third base provides little to no tangible value toward winning that game and solidifying the Red Sox' playoff position. The player gets a green light to steal whenever he wants to, and he decided to try unsuccessfully to steal third base here for one reason only: To get himself closer to forty stolen bases for the year, thereby increasing his market value during his 2013 free agency campaign. I'm sure the sabermetricians would tell you that the moment he took off for third base, Ellsbury (a league-average base-stealer in terms of percentage) probably DECREASED the changes the Red Sox won that pivotal game in the pennant race. That's downright embarrassing and disgusting. It was tangible evidence that this player does not give a crap about winning and only cares about earnings. I don't like players who deemphasize winning baseball games in the interest of future earnings.

So here's a recap:
1. Jacoby Ellsbury cares more about making money than he does about respecting baseball.
2. Jacoby Ellsbury cares more about making money than he does about his team.
3. Jacoby Ellsbury cares more about making money than he does about winning baseball games.

Last time I checked, CC Sabathia did and continues to do everything right. He's not going to be struggling to heat his mansion this winter. Premium players and mediocre players alike are going to get the money they deserve. The bottom line is, Ellsbury has pulled these three separate incidents for what might ultimately be the difference between $108 million and $119 million. If you suck so much at financial management that you would spit on the game for an extra $11 million on the top of $108 million, Oregon State has failed you.
I needed to get this off my chest, once and for all. I'm looking forward to citing this post in all future baseball arguments I enter for the next two years, up until the inevitable day in December 2013 when everyone starts to agree with me.

Valentine Hired; Cherington Hired As Groundskeeper

2011-11-29T22:22:00.001-05:00

Larry Lucchino 2, Ben Cherington 0.

Cherington will THINK he's mowing grass while it's actually Lucchino mowing the grass. Meanwhile, like the 2002 Mets under DISCIPLINARIAN manager Bobby Valentine, maybe the bullpen will be SMOKING grass. The ownership group has given the champion of "subjective" information absolutely no power, so maybe Carmine will make the decision that JD Drew's coming back. What a bunch of smart, professional businessmen. Maybe they'll have the professional courtesy one of these days to tell Gene Lamont that he didn't get the job.

Valentine is not a stupid baseball manager. Not smart, but not nearly as dumb as many others who currently hold major league jobs. I do, however, think many of his opinions are full of crap. I also think that Lucchino's decision to tell the baseball people to F themselves are emblematic of the fact that this team cares more about what happens during the postgame show than what happens during the duringgame show. Well, except for Ben Affleck, Ernie Boch Junior, Jay Peterman (who IS funny), Lenny Clarke (who is NOT funny), and John Kerry appearances with Remy and Orsillo.

It is also possible if not probable that one of the following exchanges takes place:

Bobby: Stop swinging at the first pitch with a man on base.
Gonzalez: F*** you, old man, it was God's will. Plus, I was tired because it's Sunday night and I wasn't concentrating.

Bobby: If you dare trying to steal third base with two outs and a .300 hitter at the plate, you will be either benched or banished to the Arizona Fall League. We're trying to win baseball games.
46: F*** you, old man, I'm not trying to win baseball games, I'm trying to get that paper.

Bobby: Find a salad bar.
Beckett: F*** you, old man, I do what I want.

Bobby: Shut the f*** up and play base--
Ortiz: Bobby, I'mma let you finish, but that was supposed to be an RBI!

Yeah, this is a bonus post, and I didn't want to look forward. But isn't that the point of this blog in the first place?

Greatest Hits (4 of 4)

2011-11-29T06:08:00.000-05:00

My final selection of twelve posts that deserve a second look. Especially looking back on these posts while trying to find the greatest hits, it's put into context that How Youz Doin has remained a significant part of my life for a long time. What started as a daily update of OkayTUNA14's AOL Instant Messenger profile became something a lot bigger. I'm glad Pat talked me into it, and I'm glad we got people reading this stuff for so long.

July 2010: "Overmatched." As DV goes under the knife for surgery, Pat sends him an unfriendly memo. The one-hour special involving a narcissistic basketball player is discussed in great detail.
July 2010: "$4,125,000." Facing off over AJ Burnett and the debate regarding "value" and "winning," the authors and commenters get a little testy.
August 2010: "A Madman, Your Honor." In an indictment of 46's on-field actions, DV channels Fletcher Reede and Ross Kaplan questions Pat's whereabouts in an office-wall-worthy comment.
August 2010: "No." Johnny Damon-to-the-Sox rumors swirl, DV kills the NESCAC in general.
September 2010: "How Wrong Was He?" Pat claims victory in the Battle of Mark Teixeira.
October 2010: "Clueless." As the Yankees are eliminated, Pat provides a cocktail of anger and insight in a way that only he can pull off.
December 2010: "There Isn't a 48% Tax in Soccer." DV's response to John Henry's "Neither Will Your Readers" interview and questions whether the Red Sox ownership cares about winning at all. If people are looking, maybe for a research paper, how Red Sox fans view George Steinbrenner, this might be a good counter-argument.
January 2011: "Texts From Last Night." Sort of a collaborative post between the two authors, the Eric Ortiz NESN.com article about the 2011 Red Sox challenging the 1927 Yankees as the best team in baseball history is dissected line by line.
May 2011: "It's Not the Losing that Bothers Me." It's the fact that Youkilis and Pedroia only hit the Yankees, explains Pat. Angry Pat is really the most entertaining version of Pat.
July 2011: "Great Game." I assume that by the time of this article's publication, Bobby Valentine will be the new manager of the Red Sox. In the wake of Bobby V criticizing Adrian Gonzalez for about five innings straight during an ESPN Sunday Night Baseball game (insert punch line here), this is a more interesting post in hindsight.
July 2011: "DJ3K." In one of our most read articles ever, Pat waxes poetic about Derek Jeter.
September 2011: "Hang Fifty." The Red Sox deserve to lose, argues DV.
September 2011: "Terry Francona, Fat Little Girlfriend." Francona deserves to lose his job, win or lose, argues DV. After about a month, most of these statement prove to be correct.

This is it, guys. Depending on my willingness to contribute one more bonus post, we should be done with this project by the end of the week or next Monday at the very latest.

Greatest Hits (Part 3)

2011-11-27T17:08:00.000-05:00

Continuing to record the best posts we've done. As always, we welcome comments, either to look back or to call attention to other posts if there are any glaring ones we've missed. I understand it's comical to list fifty posts as the best ever, but when you're weeding through over 1,600 posts, it's hard to leave some out.

February 2009: "Your Words In Italics." Dan Shaughnessy writes a stupid article about JD Drew. DV responds. DV's girlfriend drops by in the comments section under the gender-unspecific name "Beau." It was not until 2011 that I found out that was her.
March 2009: "2009 Rivalry Matchups: Bullpen." A major point of contention was surrounding the 2009 Yankee bullpen, consisting of "a bunch of guys from SWB." DV drops the infamous line first here.
May 2009: "Who Wants To Win Baseball Games? Not Brett Gardner." The "Brett Gardner is a legitimate baseball player" versus "No he's not" argument really reaches a boiling point when Pat flips out.
August 2009: "Who Wants To Sweep? Not Francona." Playing off of the previous title, DV writes another post about Francona's unwillingness to manage some games like sprints.
August 2009: "Just Go Home." Francona questions JD Drew's willingness to play baseball after the outfielder asks out of a game during which Clay Buchholz comes in as a pinch runner due to the team's array of injuries. DV responds, Pat leaves a "DV-level analysis" in the comments section that still hangs in DV's office.
October 2009: "F These Guys." For the first time in many years, DV's natural hatred for individuals wearing pinstripes comes out as the Yankees close in on their 27th World Series.
November 2009: "Perfect Attendance." DV pays homage to Hideki Matsui, but as the Yankees clinch the Series, the comments section becomes the place for the New Yorkers to voice their pleasure. Pat writes a poem the next morning.

February 2010: "Come At Me Bro. Come At Me Bud." Allan "Bud" Selig, MLB commissioner, is compared to William "Bro" Adams, Colby College president. Neither character is painted in a favorable light.
February 2010: "In Defense of the Run Batted In." The evolution of HYD's sabermetric odyssey continues.
March 2010: "Earthshattering Run Prevention Breakthroughs!" A look at defensive metrics and "run prevention" that later proves to be downright prophetic.
May 2010: "USC vs. Notre Dame." Similar to USC under Pete Carroll, the Yankees get outmanaged but beat the Bridge Year team due to the significant talent disparity.
June 2010: "The Anti-Red Sox." The likability of the 2009-2010 Celtics is juxtaposed with the dislikability of the 2010 Red Sox. A basketball argument springs up. "Marino" makes an appearance.

This seems like a good transition point, as the next "Greatest Hit" was when "The Decision" sent shockwaves throughout sports and How Youz Doin. Also coming Monday night, PF and DV trade barbs, John Henry's "plane talk" gets ripped apart, Eric Ortiz of NESN writes a stupid article, PF vents his frustration about the fact that Youkilis and Pedroia only hit against New York, the Red Sox collapse, and a little bit of forgotten Bobby Valentine analysis appears.

Greatest Hits (Part 2)

2011-11-23T06:56:00.000-05:00

A continuation of Tuesday's post...

August 2007: "Now People in the Metropolitan Area Do Need A Helmet." Forgot this one yesterday, but ti's another classic Pat F post written between 12:30 and 3 in the morning. Also, Bandi trolls From the Bronx about Phil Rizzuto.
October 2007: "Lots of Consecutive Professional At-Bats." Red Sox win World Series, Matt busts DV's balls about the Beckett/Lowell trade he hated so much.
October 2007: The A-Rod opt-out fall out occupies How Youz Doin for pretty much the rest of the month.
"Teeing Off on the Former Third Baseman."
"More on the Selfish Mutant."
"Red Sox Fans: Will You Quit?"

April 2008: "Fans, Gunn, and THE Waterville House of Pizza." As DV compares pre-pink hat Red Sox fans to "townies," The Gunn offers his own perspective as a townie from Waterville.
June 2008: "Stop Drinking Protein Shakes You Meathead." The second most visited post in our history, Pat blows up at the Yankees' new manager. In the comments section, he said that four Yankee relievers literally suck.
December 2008: "I Am A Professional Athlete." DV does not like the fact that Hideki Okajima decided to run the Honolulu Marathon. Instead of training for a marathon he should have trained for baseball so he would not be a disaster in 2009 and 2010 or out of the majors in 2011. Check out the splits here.

Uh-oh. Here comes the Mark Teixeira stuff.

October 2008: "Tex Education." DV starts calling Teixeira a role player.
November 2008: "No Tex, No Problem." DV uses word play to call Teixeira a bad fit for Boston.
December 2008: "Teixeira is a Yankee." Teixeira ruins Gunn's Christmas.
December 2008: "Step Out [sic] From That Ledge My Friend." The battleground continues in a 36-comment post.

Lots more, including more Teixeira battles, barbs being thrown about New Yankee Stadium, Brett Gardner, and other stuff.

Greatest Hits

2011-11-22T00:13:00.001-05:00

It's an extremely difficult task to isolate the greatest hits we've come up with here on How Youz Doin. I've tried and I've probably failed. In no particular order, I have a few links to the posts I consider the best. I'll try my best to give a little explanation of why these posts are particularly good.

April 2007: "Wanted." Pat blows up on the Yankees' relief pitching core, Gunn takes Pat to task for saying that bad things only happened to the Yankees.
May 2007: "Too Bad Dave Winfield Retired." DV references Dan Johnson as "The Second Coming of Ted Williams," a reference to a 2005 Michael Urban mlb.com mailbag. Of course, in the next few years, things got more interesting regarding this guy.
Days earlier, in "Surprise of the Season So Far," Mets fan The Big Ticket hammers, among other things, Steve Phillips. Phillips also took heat over our time for saying that Julio Lugo had "pop" in his bat and for saying that the 2008 Tigers were going to have the "best offense in the history of baseball."
May 28, 2007: "The State of the Yankees." The debut of "From The Bronx." This guy is one of very few commenters here whom don't know Pat and I personally, but he stuck around for nearly three years, bringing some of that Bronx bravado, keen baseball insight, and constant headaches for Pat F.
June 27, 2007: "What do the New York Yankees need? Me." Pat completely combusts, taking it out especially on Melky Cabrera and Robinson Cano.
September 19, 2007: "Save Him for Later." Though the Red Sox won the World Series this year, the words about saving Papelbon for later instead of bringing him into the game when he's needed most run just as true four years later. This one's a classic DV blowup.
December 2007: "Yo Quiero Mas Dinero." Jacoby Ellsbury dies to DV, DV's friend Jared reveals that he would fit right in on a Bobby Valentine team.

April 4, 2008: "We Could Be That Mistake." A quintessential DV post, praising Coco Crisp for some inane reason, criticizing JD Drew after Drew homers, gets a comment at 7:11 AM on a Saturday morning, gets criticism for overemphasizing spring training stats. A bit of foreshadowing.
April 8, 2008: "Hurricane Katrina is Good for Profit Margins." A DV rip job of Red Sox ownership and its "Red Sox Nation" fan club heirarchy, perhaps calling out "Vice President" Rob Crawford. Gets a comment from "Vice President" Rob Crawford!

Also on April 8 (we actually had a really good week), DV posted the blog's 506th post, "A Good Negotiation to Win" and got a pretty special troll comment:

I'm sorry, i cant resist. I know you guys are doing this all in fun and what-not, so power to you, and i hope you all have fun with it.....BUT The smugness and pretentious odor that you oozes off these blogs is ridiculous. I've never seen such a display arrogance [sic] and stroking of eachothers [sic] and of course your own egos. i'm sure ill get blasted for this and have no interest in some sort of cyber fight. Basically, get over yourselves.....its real easy to blast evryone [sic] and everything sitting in ur damn chinos and cartigans [sic] at your desk. my guess is none of you have played baseball since the glory days of little league......act like it

Arrogant, smug, pretentious: Sure, guilty as charged. After all, a lot of us, including both of us with administrative privileges, went to Colby College. My Little League days weren't even glory days, although the only kid I ever faced who ended up playing professional baseball, I have a 1.000 on-base percentage against. But at this point, the entire comments section did blow up at this tough guy, and that was greatly appreciated. It was probably here that I realized that Pat and I had not only a following of readers that enjoyed our writing, but a following of readers that would stick up for us. I appreciate loyalty, respect, and retaliation, although it may have just been in words. And, to follow up on Pat's reason we're calling it quits after five years, I think if we didn't have you guys, we would have gone on with the rest of our lives a lot sooner than now. The theme of "Chinos and Cartigans" did re-surface several times over the subsequent 1100+ posts on How Youz Doin Baseball over the next few years.

I also like to think that I was adequately critical of myself when it comes to my own performance as a high-level athlete. I hold myself to the same standards as the baseball players I criticize. More on this in the comments section, perhaps.

I hope you guys get a chance to click through some if not all of these links today. There will be more coming throughout the week. I anticipate that we'll be done for good by the first weekend of December.

Final Thoughts on Sabermetrics

2011-11-21T08:42:00.000-05:00

"I thought you were gonna ask me about JD Drew having the second-highest OPS of all AL outfielders."

With that, it was over for me. Over the course of our five years at the helm of How Youz Doin Baseball, Pat and I (and all of you, I'm sure) have had a complicated relationship with sabermetrics, their value, and how important they are when trying to put together, evaluate, and manage a baseball team. I think somewhere around 2009, when Theo Epstein said the line above to justify another painfully mediocre season by JD Drew that you had to start calling everything into question. I'm gonna try to boil an intricate argument into a few bullet points.

1. There is value in sabermetrics and in the stuff contained within the book Moneyball. I still fully support the Moneyball philosophy of preferring college players in the draft because their statistics are more reliable than high school statistics because you know how good the competition is in college whereas high school competition has many other variables. It also provides value within managing games: At times, when it's a toss-up, go with the numbers. Proving the indisputable correlation between getting on base and scoring runs (which is intuitive without looking at the numbers) definitely enabled managers to abandon some "cute" tactics that really didn't provide much value. It's also very interesting to see what happens on the aggregate level.

I also do believe strongly in some of the pitching metrics. FIP is a great statistic in particular. The offensive equivalent, BABIP (I know they're not perfect mirror images, go back under your bridge), is not really as valuable in my book, but I am impressed with the intuitive nature of FIP and the important stories it tells.

2. The problem I have with a lot of statistics, including BABIP many aggregate stats (including Pythagorean winning percentage, and virtually every defensive metric ever invented, is that they force you into a ceteris paribus (all else being equal) assumption. They make you do this stuff in economics classes and science classes alike. The experiments you read about in a textbook are performed in a vacuum, and UZR150 doesn't take anything into consideration, such as where a guy is positioned, what the situational strategy is, whether there's a shift on a lefty hitter, or anything like that. We're told in economics class or science class that in real life a feather and a bowling ball won't fall off the Leaning Tower of Pisa at the same speed or that markets are never actually 100% perfectly competitive. In sabermetrics class, we are not told that a lot of these statistics are only scientific in a vacuum.

2.5. As I wrote in a previous post, OBP was the last frontier of labor market inefficiencies in baseball. Trying to find it in flawed vacuum stats like the defensive ones results in failure. Several Oakland teams, the 2010 Mariners, the 2010 Red Sox. Period. Run prevention does not work.

3. Closely related, these statistics come from a very high volume of data played out over a 162-game season (lest you summons the Sample Size Police). However, baseball is a situational game. It is foolish to play the same style of station-to-station baseball at all situations throughout the game. I always cite the same situation of Drew drawing a walk with a runner on third, one out, and Varitek on deck. On the aggregate, the walk makes sense. In this very specific situation, it does not. While formulating this post in my head, I was consdering the shunning of the bunt. But if you have Mark Reynolds up, say he's hitting .250, hits a lot of home runs, strikes out 1/3 of the time, and you have a guy on second, no outs, and a fly ball hitter at the plate. You gotta think about bunting him. You're taking the bat out of his hands, but he might do the most inefficient thing you could possibly do in baseball, and that's strike out.

4. Some of the math is fuzzy. I have read more books than I care to admit about sabermetrics and the value of a player in a situation. There have been interesting situations about the value of a win, the marginal value of a win, and so forth. Vince Gennaro and JC Bradbury especially write some interesting stuff about it. But (as much as it's a punch line regarding certain terrible catchers with extra letters on their jerseys) intangibles do count, both on the field (sorry, I believe in clutch) and to fans. Even if Jeter hits .260 in his final season in New York, losing him would subtract value from the Yankee franchise. And this is something that cannot be calculated in a lab.

5. Closely related to point #4, it's a human game. We're not playing on the Strat-O-Matic machine, and we're not even playing Baseball Mogul here. Sometimes you need the scouts "selling jeans" (a Moneyball term) to see that despite his high OBP, a player does not give an F about playing the game. Either that or you look at the way that player is viewed by former managers, former players, and each fan base he's ever played for (and one he spurned, of course). Sometimes you need someone selling jeans to tell you that a reliever vomits on the mound during high-leverage situations. Sometimes you need to look at traditional statistics, such as RBIs or wins, to see the way a player actually goes about playing the game. As much as I hate 46, he was aggressive in all the right times (except for one particular Saturday afternoon), and his RBI total reflected that. Spreadsheets do not indicate whether a player has balls.

In closing, I treat hard-core sabermetricians like sky-is-falling global warming advocates. Just because they have a high volume of data they've never had available before, they cannot accept the fact that some of the data is exaggerated, imperfect, or just plain irrelevant. To justify their existence on Planet Earth, they have to exaggerate the importance of the data they have and make a big story about it. As I said earlier, sabermetric statistics have their place in baseball, and when used responsibly they give a club an edge over a team that completely disregards statistics. They also help explain a lot about the nature of the game we watch. However, as Pat and I (and long-lost commenter Craig) have proven over the past five years, if you dig deep enough, you can use a statistic to support any argument.

Laughingstock of Baseball

2011-11-17T23:07:00.001-05:00

This was the blog post tag assigned to the Best Team Ever by legendary baseball blog nomaas.org. But the embarrassing behavior coming from the Best Team Ever's organization will not stop. I thought the thirteen-post rampage I went on throughout the month of October was going to put closure to this. But the continued moves being made by clearly Larry Lucchino and to a lesser extent John Henry and Tom Werner is further solidification of the Best Team Ever's current position of the laughingstock of baseball.

Today, the following broke:

1. Despite a second interview with Dale Sveum, the Best Team Ever sat with their thumbs up their rear ends instead of offering the managerial candidate a job. Sveum took the job with the Cubs.
2. Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports wrote that Sveum was the overwhelming choice of the baseball operations people, but was vetoed by ownership. What a great way to usher in your new general manager than to have him screen out potential hires for one of the most important positions in the organization, then tell him to go and get his shine box. Good job, Larry. If this guy had any balls, he would bust out the gorilla suit immediately. If you like justice, you would hope Cherington tells Lucchino to find another GM as well. After all, Lucchino has John Henry, so he'll never walk alone.

The Rosenthal article said in as many words that Lebron, Liverpool, Fitzy, and Associates kicked Francona's ass out the door, made working conditions so unpleasant that the GM from Brookline ran out of the job not once but twice, and now, in the new GM's FIRST managerial decision, decides to not listen to him. I don't understand why Roush Fenway Racing would so something like that. Then again, NEITHER WILL MY READERS.

3. The Sons of Maverick Carter have not only vetoed Cherington's first recommendation, virtually stripping him of all power, but have already spoken with Bobby Valentine. The same cat who vehemently crushed their coaching staff for their handling of the Gyroball Kid and the same guy who more or less treated the Mets' on-field product like Joe Torre treated the arms of Scott Proctor, Tom Gordon, and Tanyon Sturtze: Drove them right into the ground.

4. Cherington and most of the baseball people are going to the Dominican Republic. Therefore, the Disciples of Carmine very well may re-interview Valentine and, who knows, offer him a freaking job without the general manager actually in the room, region, or country! I have a feeling the private jet only charters flights to Liverpool and Mark Teixeira's house only and doesn't stop by any countries where the primary language is anything but the Queen's English.

The fact that these major baseball-related decisions are being made without the input of the baseball people is just further evidence that this ownership group prioritizes winning baseball games far lower than membership cards, concourse bricks, Sweet Caroline, Pocket Money, Sox Appeal, college GPAs approaching a gillion, income approaching 20% higher than the year before, Liverpool, lower luxury taxes overseas, NASCAR racing, the holes in Carl Edwards's car, Charlie Moore, Ernie Boch Jr. doing play-by-play, Maverick Carter, Phish concerts, rugby games, and at least the first three quarters of certain NBA playoff games. I feel like this group values winning baseball games slightly more than it values performance in the fourth quarter of certain NBA games, because that has not seemed to be a priority either judging by the way #6 plays. Talk all you want about George Steinbrenner; his meddling was borne from an intense desire to win. John Henry, Larry Lucchino, and Tom Werner care about profit.

Speaking of which, Valentine is most certainly a Werner thing. He provides dubious value at all when it comes to managing a baseball team (perhaps a bit of a hyperbole), but his real value corresponds with him being an animated character who will enhance the ratings of post-game press conferences on NESN! Who cares what happens between 7:00 and 10:00 on game nights, it's all about what happens between 10:00 and 11:00. Apparently the team will be in the market to hire a new booth babe with Heidi Watney moving on as well. Great news for the 11th guy on the Lakers' bench.

5. Sources tell Boston radio show hosts Andy Gresh and Scott Zolak that the source of the Bob Hohler article material was none other than Theo Epstein. Interesting, especially considering that the article was reasonably critical of the former general manager and as recently as a few days ago said that the 2011 team was a bunch of "choir boys" compared to the beloved 2004 team, something counterintuitive to anything written in that article. This is clearly Lucchino leaking the information to the Globe in the first place, saying that "there were a lot of articles in the Globe" in a smug, snarky way, denying it, and now throwing Theo under the bus for one very last final time.

6. Sean McAdam and Peter Gammons have also started going after the Lebron Group for undermining the general manager and the Francona smear campaign (respectively).

I was thinking about the following when all this went down on this fine Thursday: The Best Team Ever was a freaking mess when the idea for this blog came about in 2006. They are in far, far worse shape now than they were five years ago.

December 31, 2006

2011-11-16T22:43:00.001-05:00

You don't need Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones to tell you so to know that baseball (or sports in general) intertwines with your lives. I remember writing about "the next Maury Wills" in sixth grade the day after a shortstop named Nomar Garciaparra hit his first home run, I remember a relationship with a baseball-noncompliant girlfriend falling apart the day Nomar hit three home runs on his birthday, and I remember a party at loyal commenter Jason's house the day he was traded for two .246 hitters. I hit my first 100 mile running week when the Red Sox lost a 19-inning game to Chicago, and I remember the Patriots getting blown out by Denver on MNF when my grandfather died. Most recently, I got engaged with the unintentional backdrop of the epic Game 6 (the 8th inning, to be exact) of the 2011 World Series.

Opinions are formed by your own experiences, which is why, as a marginal professional athlete, I hate steroids and why, as someone who suffered from a sports hernia in 2010, had empathy toward Mike Cameron's situation in 2010. No incident shaped an unpopular opinion, however, more than what happened on December 31, 2006. The following story is 100% true.

I was a senior in college, Hanley Ramirez had just won the Rookie of the Year while Josh Beckett gave up 36 home runs, and the Red Sox had an underachieving center fielder. There were preliminary talks about starting a blog with this basketball player with whom I shared a freshman year class, hours in the gym, and an unbridled passion for baseball. I had already been writing prolifically about baseball in my AIM profile, including some choice words about the Red Sox' new center fielder Coco Crisp, whom I thought was a terrible acquisition. Makes no sense to bring in (and extend) a fragile leadoff hitter who had a career OBP worse than the league average, I argued, and I was absolutely correct. However, this night I was to celebrate the New Year with my new girlfriend in her hometown, a reasonably tightly-knit community in which now I also reside.

She was a freshman and shortly before acquiring me, she had let go of her last boyfriend. All indications pointed to the fact that this kid was a terrific boyfriend, and they had parted ways shortly after she went to college. As the replacement boyfriend who was brought into this situation shortly after the previous break-up, I had big shoes to fill and probably unreasonable expectations. I could be a decent to good boyfriend and still be compared unfavorably to the guy who came before me. Whatever, I just did the best I could, including not objecting to the illegality of the Captain Morgan in her trunk while my girlfriend and I stopped at the local convenience store for some Coca-Colas.

We walk into the store together and, inevitably, she knew the kid working behind the counter. Inconveniently for me, my predecessor had also worked at this convenience store, so my girlfriend knew the entire staff, including this poor kid. The first question from this kid to the Franchise was something along the lines of how school was going. The second question was asking how my predecessor was doing. The third question was whether she had seen my predecessor during Christmas break. The fourth question was whether she was spending New Year's with my predecessor. There I was, standing there with the Drew Bledsoe Face on (wow, a Bill Simmons reference!), with all this going on.

At this point, I realized something. I was Coco Crisp. It didn't matter how much trash this guy talked on his way out (there was quite a bit). It didn't matter whom he ended up with in the aftermath of this breakup. It didn't matter if I did the equivalent of hitting .310, stole 40 bases (and didn't get thrown out at third base at an inane point trying to get to 40 bases), and scored a hundred runs. I would seemingly forever be the guy after this guy. There was already a bench mark that was seemingly attainable. If I screwed up or worked on my blog all night instead of hanging out, it was a story of how I sucked and my predecessor was so much better. If I did something good, it was a story of how I was cool but my predecessor did it this way. It could never be a story of I sucked, period, or a story of how I was great, period.

Just like Coco Crisp never, ever got a chance in this town to just suck without being worse than Johnny Damon. He never got a chance to make a catch without being compared to Johnny Damon. He couldn't work a 10-pitch season-saving at-bat in the ALCS after being benched the night before without it being compared to the way Johnny Damon worked at-bats.

The way I saw it after that night, Coco Crisp couldn't walk into a convenience store and buy a self-endorsed gallon of Hood milk without fielding questions about the guy who ran his mouth and went to New York. He never got to suck independently of the guy who came before him. He never got to save the 2008 season independently of the guy who came before him. Yup, Johnny Damon may have been the best to ever fill that role. Good for him. But Coco Crisp never got a chance.

Despite the fact that he wasn't a great player and certainly wasn't a cerebral player, after December 31, 2006, Coco Crisp got a chance from me. When that blog (this blog) started a month and a half later, Coco Crisp was defended mercilessly against a legion of people who thought he sucked and Johnny Damon was so much better. When Crisp was hitting .220 during Senior Week 2007 (as Pat, the Franchise, and many others know), I may have been mid-meltdown, but I continued to plead for this guy getting the chance he deserved.

Coco Crisp was a good player in Boston, and he was certainly underappreciated. Due to the events of December 31, 2006, I was able to appreciate his contributions, his work ethic, and the true magnitude of his 2008 ALCS at-bat. So thanks, Coco Crisp, for doing what you could about an unfair situation and inspiring me to do the same thing. You deserved the chance to come into your own. You deserved the chance I had.

Why We're Stopping HYD At 5 Seasons

2011-11-15T21:49:00.005-05:00

This is probably my second to last post. DV has a bunch of other stuff he wants to tie up, and I hope he takes as long as he needs to do that. The more of his work I get to read, the better. But I've said pretty much everything I want to say. After this I'll have one more post to wrap some things up, but that's about it.

Not that we are remotely serious enough that anyone would expect an explanation as to why we are shutting down - I think everyone understands this particular project has just run its course for us - but I figured I'd offer one up anyway. After all, most of our readers have been with us since the very first day, and are every bit a part of this as we are (more on that in the last post). So before we stop talking baseball here, I think DV and I can at least briefly offer some insight into why.

There's not a whole lot more to it than what I mentioned above - authoring HYD has run its course for both of us. I won't speak for DV beyond that, as I'm sure he'll want to say some things of his own. But for me, that's really what this is about. I have no interest in continuing. Not because I dislike it, but just because I don't like it as much as I used to.

There are a number of reasons for this. When we first started this site, we were in college. There was a lot more time to research and post on all sorts of topics. As there became less and less time to devote to this after college, I found myself posting less frequently and more narrowly regarding subject matter. When we first started, I would post on the Yankees, but also other teams, prospects, and a lot of analysis - both statistical and from a scouting perspective - on individual players on the Yankees and other teams alike. And I would sometimes post 2-3 times per day. As time went on I posted less and increasingly about just the Yankees. More specifically, I was posting more and more about the hot topics surrounding the Yankees, and barely more.

I don't think I had anticipated that I wouldn't like doing this, I just know that once it started I knew I didn't like it. Not because I didn't like talking about the Yankees; obviously, that was the main purpose of starting this site. I just felt like the proportion of time spent talking about the "buzz" topics as opposed to getting more creative discussions was not where I wanted it to be. Obviously, I had complete control of this. But again, when time becomes an issue it's easier to talk about what's right in front of you as opposed to going out and finding new stuff. Further, it's not that I didn't want to talk about the "buzz" stuff. Again, that was a part of the enjoyment of doing it too. It's just that that wasn't the only thing I wanted to be doing. Largely because of time, that became the case.

The time issue also got us into a very structured process here. When we first started posting was fluid. DV and I each went through various periods where we were more and less busy, and we posted accordingly. But between the two of us, we had a lot of posts going up. Sometimes there would be 4-5 in a day, sometimes there would be zero. In all, there was a lot more than 5 per week going up, and it was great because that was happening purely as a result of us posting when we wanted to and when we could. But as time went on we could really only realistically get one post up every day Monday through Friday, and even that was a struggle at times. While I am very proud of the consistency with which we were able to do this for the last few years, the structure of it became somewhat of a chore. Instead of posting when we wanted to, we were sometimes posting just because that's the way it was set up. And that just isn't as fun.

The comments section was the part I continued to and still continue to enjoy. I liked debating the content of the posts as well as different topics that were brought up. But the posting part just wasn't, and isn't, realistic anymore. Which is fine. Things change and this certainly is not a very serious one. I'll miss the comments, but I won't miss putting the time into posting.

That said, just because things have changed, and we're shutting things down, doesn't take anything away from how much I've enjoyed this for the last nearly 5 years. I'll touch on that point more in my final post, but suffice to say I've enjoyed it immensely. Otherwise I wouldn't have done it as long as I did. This is just the right time to stop, and I'm content with that too.

One Less Accountable Guy

2011-11-13T21:17:00.000-05:00

I feel bad for whoever's going to be the Red Sox' manager next year, especially if it's Sandy Alomar, Jr. who thinks this team can police itself. By my calculations at the end of the season - when I was melting down to the same extent that the Red Sox were melting down - there were exactly five players on the 2011 roster (Aceves, Scutaro, Pedroia, Saltalamacchia, Papelbon) that I want to ever see in a Boston uniform again.

Contrary to a lot of stuff I have said over the five years on HYD, Papelbon was one of those five guys. So now there are only four left that I ever want to see again. This guy, and this is a theory that was first developed by Tony Massarotti (unlike David Ortiz, I will cite my sources), was one of the few people on this team who were accountable when they screwed up. Papelbon will go out there and say he f***ed up or sucked out there. He won't blame the ballpark like Lester. He won't blame the official scorer like Ortiz. He won't blame the rain like Ortiz, Lackey, Francona, or many others. He won't blame God or the ESPN schedule like Adrian Gonzalez. He'll take ownership for his own actions.

And he'll take that ownership, accountability, and his talents to Philadelphia. That stuff I mentioned in the last paragraph is, in Cherington's words, subjective stuff. And it's very troubling that the guy who is valuing subjective stuff instead of looking at spreadsheets and listening to Carmine like Theo Epstein did, has also inherited Theo's inability to negotiate poorly when it comes to free agency.

One quick note on the future: Papelbon very well may struggle in Philadelphia because in that stadium, those warning-track fly balls might not be warning-track fly balls.

I may be in the minority on this, but I'm one of the people who would have matched Philadelphia's four-year offer. Sorry, the market for closers was not set by Papelbon, though that was his goal. It was set a week ago with the Phillies and Ryan Madson with the deal that almost fell through. Second-tier closers, as well as first-tier closers, are getting four years now. So why not give four years and pay a premium for someone who has proven over the course of six seasons that he can get the job done? Now Boston will get a guy who pees down the side of his leg in high-pressure situations (remember Toronto and the Wakefield game?), a fat drunk slob who spent more time on the DL than the field, a guy with an elbow that was partially created in 2010, or a guy with exactly 1.3 years of major league closing experience.

I really am trying to wrap things up here, but the core of what we do is discuss current baseball events. Feel free to use this space to talk about your Papelbon memories. I think the 2006-7 utter dominance, wondering if he'll ever give up a run, and putting a case of beer on his head will significantly trump the less favorable memories of bad car commercials, an occasional stupid comment, a few blown saves or extra-inning home runs. Papelbon won me back this year, and it's a shame to see him leave.

I'm still on vacation, y'all have a great Monday.

Big Mouth, Big Performance

2011-11-10T22:08:00.000-05:00

The first post of substance (and something that I had actually written for another blog three months before Pat and I signed up for this gig) on How Youz Doin Baseball was about Johnny Damon. I wrote that Damon's four-year contract with the Yankees (signed in December 2005) was paying double for two years' performance and two years of crap. I compared paying a premium for Damon, which the Yankees did, with paying a premium for a Slurpee at 7-Eleven, which I do with some sort of regularity. I was happy the Red Sox didn't sign him, because I was convinced that after being in the majors since age 21 and after never having played less than 145 games since age 22, Damon was going to crap out sooner than most.

I was wrong.

Damon played for New York at the ages of 32, 33, 34, and 35, and he did a really good job. I will continue to generally crush him for his overall demeanor regarding a business decision the Red Sox made, jumping at a series of microphones nonstop for the past six years so he could talk about how much he was disrespected. But I cannot crush him for performance. Formulating a criticism of the Red Sox' acquisition of Carl Crawford in 2010, I researched a lot of players who featured speed and/or stolen bases as a major part of their game. While most players really fell off a cliff after age 31 (including Rickey Henderson, by the way), Damon wasn't like that. He stole 95 bases with New York after having stolen only three more in four years with Boston. He developed more power, which was certainly helped by the stadium he was in, but posted arguably his best offensive season in 2009. Gotta give it to him.

You also gotta give it to him after the way his 2007 season started. At that point, I was riding high on my brand new blog, talking about how smart I was and how dumb Brian Cashman was and how much Damon sucked in the work ethic department (he got fat, ate cheeseburgers, and contemplated retirement all winter). In the second half of that season and in the entirety of the next two, he came back. He never played less than 141 as a Yankee, which is particularly amazing considering the way he plays baseball. Let's not make him out to be an Aaron Rowand or Kevin Youkilis, playing so hard that he breaks himself every year. But he's not exactly 46 or JD Drew out there either. Guy plays hard but still manages to stay on the field. Even this year, his seventeenth in the majors, he played over 140 games for the sixteenth straight year. He now seems like a lock to be in the 3,000 hit club before the age of forty.

A final thing I want to say about this player is that, contrary to what you'd think about a tried-and-true Scott Boras guy, he's a team guy. He's big into the clubhouse thing, he's big into developing relationships with his teammates instead of his private bankers, and (I hate this word) he does have some kind of intangible, veteran value. You saw it in Boston, New York, to an extent in Detroit, and especially this year in Tampa. Tampa was supposed to have the dream die this year, but that didn't happen. And that's not all Joe Maddon's doing.

So here we are, heading into the 2012 season, and while Damon is certainly becoming the icy, crummy matrix of what he used to be, even if this year is indeed the beginning of the end, it's coming four years and 600 (!) games after I - and the Red Sox organization - expected.

The Best Arguments in HYD History

2011-11-10T09:15:00.001-05:00

Note: This one is coming from Pat F through the email. I probably would have added the topics of Joe Girardi, particularly when it came to his intake of protein shakes and bullpen management, whether Kyle Farnsworth deserves to breathe air that other people can breathe, and the Red Sox ownership treating their entity like a minor league team. I decided also to attached "The Yankees' Former Third Baseman" as a label. Here we go...

DV's excellent post recapping our debates about steroids over the last five years got me thinking about some of the other big topics that were much discussed on this site. If steroids wasn't the biggest topic, it was one of them. But there are certainly others, and thinking back to generate this list was rather entertaining. There were some that I completely forgot about that are downright hysterical when you consider how much time we devoted to them and how ultimately meaningless they were in terms of actually impacting baseball.

Here are the highlights:
- Josh Beckett as an effective pitcher, period.
- Roger Clemens as an effective October pitcher.
- Robinson Cano v. Dustin Pedroia
- Hideki Okajima, real deal v. will get figured out.
- Alex Rodriguez's on-field contributions, specifically big numbers and coming up short in the clutch pre-2009.
- Alex Rodriguez's off-field happenings.
- Chien-Ming Wang, ace or unsustainable style of pitching.
- Phil Hughes/Joba Chamberlain/Ian Kennedy as question marks pre-2008 season.
- Coco Crisp.
- Jacoby Ellsbury.
- Coco Crisp v. Jacoby Ellsbury.
- Jonathan Papelbon's on-field decline.
- Jonathan Papelbon's off-field commentary in media.
- Mark Teixiera as an impact player.
- The legitimacy of Dustin Pedroia's 2008 MVP.
- A.J. Burnett's 2009 Postseason as a pass for the rest of his tenure in pinstripes.
- J.D. Drew, generally.
- Is Pat F. writing too much about NBA and college basketball and not enough about baseball, 2010 offseason.
- Is DV writing too much about Coco Crisp and J.D. Drew, entire tenure of HYD Baseball.
- Does DV have any grasp on reality when it comes to Coco Crisp.
- The New Yankee Stadium, a real baseball park v. a joke.
- The 2009 (World Series Champion, I might add) Yankees bullpen, real depth v. a bunch of guys from SWB (this one still really makes me smile).
- Melky Cabrera.
- Brett Gardner.
- Melky Cabrera v. Brett Gardner.
- Being very careful with pitchers' workloads while they develop v. pushing them.
- 2011 Curtis Granderson v. 2011 Jacoby Ellsbury (Not that the player's vote has any huge meaning because it can be swayed by things like who they like more personally, but Granderson won the AL Most Outstanding Player on the player's ballot. Then again, the writer's vote doesn't carry much weight with me either, so the more data the better.)
- And finally, one of the biggest debates in HYD history, a buzz-name so controversial that any time it was merely mentioned on the blog the comments section went nuts and people we hadn't heard from in weeks if not months would come back to chime in...
M...
D...
C...
Manny Delcarmen.

What were some of the great debates/arguments that we've had that I missed on this list (and I know there are a lot as this list was mostly off the top of my head)?

Last Word on Steroids

2011-11-08T21:55:00.000-05:00

I'm going to try to make this quick, because I think over the past five years we've talked about it pretty much to the point of exhaustion. We all have differing opinions on it, and I think when it comes to the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball, there's a spectrum of opinions on which all of us fall a little differently. As we're wrapping it up, I just want to summarize opinions that come from many different places: As a professional athlete in a dirty sport, as a purist who enjoys what historical baseball statistics used to be, and as one who is not blind to the fact that people respond to incentives. Here we go.

1. The steroid era in baseball is largely over. It will never be completely over until the disincentive to use is greater than the incentive to use. As the players and owners continue to BS around about an HGH test, the disincentive (between probability of being caught and the punishment that comes when you are caught) is still lower than the incentive to use for some. However, public outcry has probably influenced prospective PED users to be more scared to do it or more scared to actually do the math and say "what's fifty games?"

2. The players were not the ones to blame. Think about this: Darnell McDonald got busted for steroids in 2005. Can you blame him? By juicing (or by being in an organization with a center fielder who wanted to take a year off due to sore ribs), he might get his cup of coffee in the major leagues. You know, maybe make a couple million dollars. By not juicing, he stays in the minors, rides buses until he's 32, and gets a real job. If you were him, would you do it? This is why I find it amazing that Lou Merloni, in his new Boston sports media gigs, doesn't flip out about it. Merloni (who has admitted to doing amphetamines), was one of the guys who probably wouldn't have had so many trips between Boston and Pawtucket either if he had used himself or if nobody else did.

The people to blame are Bud Selig and Donald Fehr, who let it happen. And I care because in my sport, I am Lou Merloni and guys like Alene Reta, a guy who shows up to races with big money and no testing, are Manny Ramirez.

3. Fehr and Selig deserve this on their conscience. I hope the record books remain unchanged, as the fact that many of the record holders were in the 1990s and 2000s can be a footnote of an era of heinous, borderline-criminal mismanagement. Cross-referencing the record books with the Hall of Fame and trying to figure out where Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa are, is further historical confirmation that these guys sucked at their jobs, particularly Fehr, because if these guys start dropping dead at 60, it's clear that he didn't work in the best interest in his constituents.

4. The Mitchell Report was crap. Imagine writing a term paper with one source? Imagine being paid millions of dollars to write a term paper and only get one source? Maybe you'd get an A at George Mitchell's alma mater, Bowdoin. The bottom line is that Mitchell decided to tell a stupid story about the tip of the iceberg instead of either actually investigating with any kind of depth or delving into this issue. The issue was and continues to be economic at the very core, and this very obvious fact completely glosses over the root of the problems.

This is now the seventy-sixth, and probably final, post about steroids on How Youz Doin Baseball. I feel that we covered more ground and made more progress than almost anywhere else.

The More Things Change

2011-11-07T20:58:00.002-05:00

The more they stay the same.

As we wind down our fifth and final year on HYD, I've been thinking a lot about how things were for the Yankees and Red Sox the year we started this site. While some things have undoubtedly changed, it's interesting how many things haven't. Let's take a look.

The Red Sox missed the playoffs in 2006, and again in 2011. The Yankees made the playoffs both years.

The Yankees are still getting (varying degrees of) high level production from Rivera and Jeter.

The Red Sox are still looking for a replacement for Trot Nixon.

The Red Sox are still looking for a replacement for Nomar Garciaparra. I know they've had some guys do some good things in short spurts (including Scutaro this year), but it's amazing how unable they have been to fill such a key position for so long.

An intriguing Japanese starting pitcher was posted in 2006 in Daisuke Matsuzaka. It wasn't the first time this had happened, but it was the first time it created that kind of frenzy. The second time such a frenzy will be created is if Yu Darvish is posted this winter.

In 2006 the Yankees were trying to find a #2 pitcher to pitch behind Chien-Ming Wang. In 2011 the Yankees are trying to find a #2 pitcher to pitch behind C.C. Sabathia. I hope they are as successful in that quest as they were finding Andy Pettitte five years ago.

The Yankees, for all their regular seasons dominance (And it has been dominant, Cashman's .605 winning percentage since 1998 is the highest of any GM with at least 5 seasons in one organization since 1950. Think about playing .600+ ball as an organization for 14 years!) are still trying to figure out a way to dominate the playoffs in the same fashion. Unfortunately, it just doesn't seem t work that way. Which is part of what makes baseball beautiful. Once October starts, all bets are off. The Tigers eliminiated the Yankees in 2006, and again in 2011 despite being inferior regular season teams both times.

Alex Rodriguez stuggled in the postseason in 2006, and again in 2011. This is about the things that have stayed the same, but his postseason struggles have gotten so much attention over the course of this site it is worth noting two major changes to subcategories of this "stayed the same". 1. He has company now in Mark Teixeira, who is nearly as high profile and has struggled just as mightily for three straight postseasons now. 2. And much, much, much more importantly is that any postseason struggles are no longer a big deal. And that is because he put together one of the best individual Octobers in the history of this game, leading the Yankees to the one World Series they won during this site's tenure.

The Yankees were excited about Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, and Ian Kennedy in 2006. They are excited about Manny Banuelos and Dellin Betances now.

Jacoby Ellsbury was a prospect in 2006. He's somehow maintained prospect status five years later.

All of the stuff we've covered, discussed, and argued about the last five years has been a lot of fun. It's good to see, as we shut things down, that many of those same things are still there to cover, discuss, and argue about.

What else stayed the same from when we started this site until now?

This Still Counts As Looking Back

2011-11-06T22:40:00.000-05:00

At this pace, we will never shut down the way we are supposed to. Although my vacation between this upcoming Friday and the following Wednesday might not coincide with my posting the most important final posts, so it's not necessarily a bad thing.

With Dan Duquette landing a job in Baltimore, it is necessary to look back at his time in Boston, even though it also pre-dates the How Youz Doin era. Might also be something that we all want to talk about on a Monday. Especially given that Duquette, one of the more polarizing figures in Boston sports since most of our readers were old enough to follow sports, just got a three-year job as the general manager of the Baltimore Orioles.

I have a couple of interesting connections to Duquette. A lot of my former co-workers later worked for him, and he's also friends with my godfather. I'm not interested in protecting people though; as I have been for the last five years, I'm interested in rabblerousing across the internet. However, being as objective as possible here, I can't hammer Dan Duquette, but on the other end, I'm not part of that camp who is so anti-Theo that they're crediting the 2004 and 2007 World Series to Duquette or protecting Duquette.

The way I see it, Duquette was average, no more, no less. He's not as good as Theo Epstein. He's not as good as Andrew Friedman. He's better than Brian Sabean, Omar Minaya, or Steve Phillips. The few times I've met him, he did not seem to be the prickly character he's made out to be; just a socially-awkward guy who could very easily rub people the wrong way. Definitely not the kind of guy who could easily go toe to toe with Scott Boras. The grown-up version of that ultra-nerd in middle school who knew all those baseball stats, got picked on a lot, but didn't know how to talk to anyone. You know, but didn't grow up to find a moderate amount of talent in distance running and didn't have the kind of writing acumen or passion to create a 1600-post baseball blog with a classmate from college.

When we talk about trading for Pedro Martinez and signing Manny Ramirez, the following criticism is something that people criticized Theo Epstein for. It DOES NOT TAKE ANY SHREWDNESS to look at the guy with the best stats of everyone either on the trade or free agent market and throw the world at him. There's no skill involved in writing $200 million checks. Beyond that, his best acquisitions were not in Boston; they were in Montreal. Finding Ramon Martinez's little brother and trading Delino DeShields was smart, but trading for Ramon's little brother a second time was a little more obvious. He did turn the Red Sox from their 1992-1993 disaster mode to the 1995 AL East champions pretty quickly, and this high is really something that the Red Sox have not come back down from. Tim Wakefield and Tom Gordon were good aquisitions; Jose Offerman's on-base percentage was not. Bringing in Heathcliff Slocumb was good; getting rid of him after riding the hot hand was fantastic because what they got back were two minor leaguers named Derek Lowe and Jason Varitek. Troy O'Leary wasn't exactly David Ortiz, but you could still argue that his impact was better than Coco Crisp's.

At the same time, the 1996 team was pretty mediocre. The 1997 team was borderline bad (when Tim C once gave me a quiz of "name the Opening Day rosters," I scored the worst on the 1997 team, but Shane Mack and Bill Haselman might not register as household names). And the 2000 and 2001 teams were just not compatible with each other, which was a symptom of about 50 years of Boston teams, the mid-2000s Yankees teams, and the 2009-2011 Red Sox as well.

His player development: Also not stellar. Obviously you can cite Nomar, Youkilis, Hanley Ramirez, and Freddy Sanchez, and you can also throw in Carl Pavano and Adam Everett. But to Theo Epstein's credit, he put through more similar-impact players in half the time (and we're yet to see the fruits of his later labor). But for every Youkilis or Pavano, you have about five Wilton Verases and Brian Roses. Guys Theo would call "fake prospects." Although, to his credit, the 1994 Expos, many of which were "his" players, were on top when Donald Fehr and Bud Selig "f***ed everything up" (wow, an NBA strike reference?).

You can't talk about Duquette, however, without mentioning four notable tactical F-ups: Kevin Kennedy, Roger Clemens, Mo Vaughn, and More Days in First Place. I actually didn't know about Kennedy until reading the paper this morning, but the GM and manager were at each other's throats. Clemens being in the "twilight of his career" pissed off the player and killed those negotations. Sorry, Tom Gordon didn't fill that gap, and Clemens went "closer to home" by crossing a border into the most inconvenient place to play in the American League. Mo Vaughn was not entirely Duquette's fault (nobody in their right mind would give a big fat guy the money Anaheim gave him), but saying that signing Jose Offerman (who could no longer steal bases) to "replace his on-base percentage" was perhaps the first time the sabermetric school of thinking was used inappropriately and condescendingly. Saying the Red Sox had more days in first place than the Yankees was glorifying early performance and discounting a full 162, which is what really matters: Perhaps Dave "Mr. May" Winfield had more days atop the AL leaderboard when playing for New York in the 80s.

Look, the Baltimore Orioles have some problems: Being in the AL East, having an idiot as an owner, having a power-hungry manager. The idiot owner, however, is willing to spend a couple of bucks. He also has a good core of players, though they're starting to near those arbitration and free-agency years. Duquette is a few moves and a little bit of player development away from making the O's respectable. Even in their previous configuration, they were in the right direction. It's up to him to not drive them off the road.

Keith Foulke Appreciation Post

2011-11-03T23:08:00.000-04:00

I've had the Internet as my platform for the past five years, and as you all know, we are stepping away in a few weeks. We started doing this a little while after Keith Foulke threw his last pitch in Boston, so I never really got to broadcast this opinion when it was pertinent. So before I sign off, I have to put it out there: Keith Foulke deserves your adulation.

I will never forget the infamous "Johnny from Burger King" game on June 28th because I was there. After a really disheartening, deflating game that was really, for all intents and purposes, the end of Keith Foulke's career in Boston, I got some disheartening girl-related news on a bus ride home with a large group. Let's say it was tantamount to Jose Contreras signing somewhere else, minus the creepy parallel of renting out every other room in his hotel room. This news pretty much reinforced the way I already felt after the game. It was not enfuriating. It was not maddening. It was just a deflating, disappointing, disheartening game. They had a commanding lead over a crappy Indians team, not mailing it in after being down 3-0 and 4-3 to go up 8-5 in the sixth. Then Timlin coughed up some runs, then Foulke blew the save, and then Foulke gave up a grand slam to Travis Hafner. After ending the inning, Foulke was booed off the field, while I was in a minority who was just flat-out upset.

The pitcher took offense to it and said, after the game, that he didn't think he deserved to get booed by "Johnny from Burger King." Unlike Youkilis, he didn't complain about his privacy. Unlike Ortiz, he didn't complain about his contract. Unlike Adrian Gonzalez, he didn't blame ESPN's Sunday Night schedule. He was just frustrated. Unlike JD Drew, he actually cared about playing well on the field, and unlike 46, he actually gave a crap that he let his team down. Honestly, the infamous "Johnny from Burger King" comment sounded more like Jonathan "The Only Accountable Red Sox" Papelbon than anything else. He had pitched the entire season injured, and had two knee surgeries after the season.

I thought Keith Foulke deserved a little better than what he got that night, considering (especially looking back on it) he sacrificed his career to win the 2004 World Series.

Say what you want about pink hats - and I have - but this was returning to pre-2004 vitriol from Red Sox fans. And it was just plain not justified, because he left his arm and his legs in 2004. It was evident by May 2005 that he had little to anything left, and we had just watched the ERA creep up and up and up until the June 28th implosion. Eight months earlier, Foulke threw literally 250 maximum-leverage pitches in three weeks (did John Lackey do that at all this year?) from a frame the size of Rheal Cormier's. Daniel Bard would have balked during half of these situations just so he could vomit on the side of the mound.

Foulke also got the job done both before his Red Sox career and during the 2004 regular season. He was key in stabilizing Chicago's bullpen, and he was one of the original Moneyball guys when he went to Oakland in 2003. He was effective, and he provided stability in that bullpen after Theo Epstein and Bill James's "Bullpen By Committee" experiment, Byung-Hyun Kim, and not a hint of stability since (another undersized guy) Tom Gordon blew his arm out against the Atlanta Braves. He absolutely should have won 2004 World Series MVP as a culmination of his postseason performance that very well may stack up (if you're into comparing apples and oranges) of any single Derek Jeter postseason.

I understand the hate of Johnny Damon, although I think a lot of it is misdirected (more on that later on). But there's no reason Keith Foulke should have gotten the same treatment. For Foulke, it was one comment. And he gave you his career.

Foulke was also a success story because he sort of was the Dustin Pedroia of relief pitchers. He was completely undersized, his fastball may have hit 90 at the peak of his career, but he just somehow found a way to get guys out. Your guess is as good as mine had he stayed healthy - whether he'd continue to do what he did or whether he'd get "figured out" a la Okajima. But he didn't because he sacrificed his career in October, 2004. He did it for his teammates. He did it for the World Series. And yes, Johnny from Burger King, he did it for you.

So Keith Foulke, from one fan out in Section 31 that night who was more upset than inclined to hammer you (and if I had a blog back then, I'd probably feel the same way), I just want to say thanks. It may be a small place on the Internet, but your accomplishments, your attitude, your passion toward your job, your career-long body of work, and - most importantly, your sacrifice - are appreciated.

CC and Yankees Do The Right Thing

2011-11-03T08:32:00.000-04:00

Note: Pat wrote this one on Monday night. Sorry for the delay.

The agreement that C.C. Sabathia and the Yankees came to really could not have worked out much better. It was one of those rare situations in sports negotiations these days where each side gave a little monetarily to get what they really wanted. The Yankees wanted Sabathia to stay, and Sabathia wanted to stay. As a result, the Yankees gave Sabathia more money, but not nearly as much as he likely would have gotten - from them or someone else - had he opted out.

Proceeding in this fashion speaks well of both Sabathia and the Yankees, as both spared themselves the drama that comes with a player opting out and free agency in general. The Yankees didn't take a hard line stance on the remainder of the contract, daring Sabathia to find more on the open market, and potentially straining relations. Rather, they recognized both the importance of Sabathia to the team and the fact that opting out - and getting more money - was his contractual right. It made a lot of sense to give him that money before he hit the open market, because he was going to get it no matter what. In addition to retaining Sabathia, they likely saved themsleves a good deal of money by going this route as well.

Sabathia's actions in this process were just further proof that he is one of the true class acts in this game today. He's long had this reputation on (his September with Milwaukee, carring the Yankees in the 2009 playoffs, etc.) and off (his extremely generous work giving back to the community, his presence in the clubhouse as a leader and a unifier) the field. And this only added to it. This opt out was his contractual right. It was written into his contract for a reason. He had no obligation to do anything but what was best for him. He pitched his tail off for the Yankees for three years and won a ring, and if he watned to test what else was out there and seek top dollar good for him. I don't care how much money you have, when you are talking about an extra $10 or $20 or $30 million that's something most anybody would consider. Athletes are not barred from being capitalists, after all.

But C.C. was happy to meet in the middle. He knew his value was beyond the 4 years and $92 million remaining on his contract, but finding out what his maximum value is wasn't most important to him. He clearly likes it in New York, and he clearly cares about the opportunity to win every year. He didn't have any interest in free agent drama in search of the last dollar. He cares about his family being happy, his teammates, and winning. He doesn't have time for all that other stuff, as long as he's getting something close to reflective of what he's worth.

That's what this deal represents. With all the things we complain about in this game in terms of people seeking money over team, it was refreshing to get a different result here. Much like it was when Rivera's extension went so smoothly last winter. Especially from two guys who are truly two of the elite performers in the game, and could have had teams clamoring for their services on the open market. It's a relative analysis, because both players still got a lot of money. But within the relativity of the amount of money elite baseball players make, C.C., like Rivera, made a showing of loyalty with how he conducted himself. That he cares about being here and about winning. As a fan, that's what you want.

The Yankees showed him loyalty in return. They know how important he is to them and they wanted to make it clear how much they wanted him to stay here. It's fitting, at least for me, that this is likely the last deal I will cover for HYD. This site was born, in part, out of DV's and my complaining about the moves our teams made in the early-middle part of this decade. Deals that were, really, the opposite of how this one went down. Drama-filled, not as mutually beneficial, over-spending on players that weren't worth it, etc. This deal really is phenomenal, and is just another reason why C.C. Sabathia is one of my five favorite Yankees of All-Time, a spot he earned before he was two months into his first regular season with the Yankees. He has that "it" factor, that extra level of compete that separates him from most of the field, that leadership, and that talent. It's awesome having him on the Yankees, and I'm thrilled he's back.

Defining Moments

2011-10-31T23:07:00.000-04:00

I'm well underway, not on the homework I should be working on, but on compiling some notes to formulate some "best of" posts. For example, I know exactly how long (three years minus a week) that we were graced with the presence of a gentleman from the Bronx, found one of the two contrarian comments posted by my girlfriend from the comfort of her work-study job, and many other classics that we are all going to enjoy.

What I have also been able to enjoy over the past five baseball seasons is not really being able to miss too much Red Sox baseball due to my responsibility to How Youz Doin Baseball, which is really our creating and something we should probably have pride in for the rest of our lives. In these five seasons, I have isolated one (maybe a few more for the '07 season) defining moment, each of which I will post below, say something about, and link to a How Youz Doin Baseball classic post.

2007: Game 1, World Series, Dustin Pedroia leads off with home run against Jeff Francis. After coming from behind against Cleveland in the ALCS, Pedroia hits the home run, sets a tone of "screw you guys" for the entire series, and blows out a team that had a hand that was arguably hotter than the Cardinals' hand this year. Pedroia is simultaneously running the bases and running his mouth, screaming at Francis. He apparently got stopped by a security guard at Coors Field before Game 3 and told the security guard to "ask Jeff f***ing Francis who I am." The team, even JD Drew and Julio Lugo, fed off of Pedroia's energy after Francona had the balls to keep him in the lineup while slumping early.

Pedroia also inspired this classic from my co-author after he was talking in the papers about how terrible Daniel Cabrera was at pitching. This was after getting drilled by Cabrera.

2008: Game 5, ALCS, Coco Crisp singlehandedly salvages Red Sox season. As someone who fought tooth and nail defending Coco Crisp between December 31, 2006 and the present, Crisp's ballsy game in Game 5, most notably his 10-pitch at-bat that really defines how different the current Red Sox are from even the 2008 team where he fouled pitches off and got an RBI single, was the most inspirational moment of my time as one of HYD's co-authors. Better than the 2007 World Series. Perhaps the third-best Red Sox moment of my life behind the 2004 World Series win and the Dave Roberts steal. Pat's post regarding this moment literally brought tears to my eyes, both at the time and today while I tracked it down.

Please give it a re-read: "You Can Thank Coco."

2009: Game 3, ALDS, Papelbon blows save, loses game. This was defining in many ways: Papelbon had a season that was bad but insanely lucky. He was walking guys, putting guys on, surrendering hits, surrendering doubles, surrending home runs, almost constantly, but people who just looked at the numbers said "NUH UH HE IS INTSNSE ON TEH MOUND!!1" Speaking of misleading stats, this was also the year JD Drew had the second-highest OPS of all AL outfielders. Luck caught up to Papelbon in this game, and it was a relief for everyone. The Red Sox, who spent the entire season whining about one thing or another, no longer had to play baseball and could have either hunting time or tee time all winter. But once the season was over, we didn't have to see any more tears.

It was foreshadowing of this year, to be honest. And it was also the least-likable Red Sox team ever until Adrian Gonzalez iced it with his Ken Rosenthal shenanigans.

2010: August 28, Boston at Tampa. Boston's up 1-0 behind Clay Buchholz, who was about two months removed from pinch running in a game because the Red Sox were so shorthanded (but JD Drew still asked out of this game). It's the bottom of the seventh and Matt Garza's pitching for Tampa - a guy Boston for some reason could never hit. After Buchholz threw a one-out pickoff attempt into the dugout, sending Carlos Pena to third, Matt Joyce hit a foul fly ball to right field. The logical move would be for the right fielder to let the ball drop, especially as Joyce was hitting .230 and Buchholz was having a career year and a great game (surrendering three hits).

JD Drew, for the first time in several months and actually for the last time in his lackluster career, made an effort at a baseball move and made a circus catch in right field. Pena tagged up and scored. Dan Johnson later hit a home run, similar to a 2008 incident and, of course, a 2011 incident. According to Drew "instinct took over" after he was thinking "let it drop, let it drop." A dumb, dumb baseball play, and really the de facto end of the team's contention that year.

2011: September 27, Tampa at Boston. In the bottom of the fifth, the Red Sox are down 4-2, and 46, who may be the fastest guy in the American League, had just stolen second base. There are two outs and Pedroia is at the plate against Jeff Niemann. Stealing third base provides absolutely zero value, but 46 went for it anyway so he could pad his fantasy stats and write another page in his free agent binder. The MVP candidate was undoubtedly one of the players Francona cited when saying some players failed to focus on team goals, instead prioritizing individual goals, and this play was inexplicable any other way. Of course, the team ended up collapsing, inspiring one of the most explosive runs of commentary on this site.

What are your defining moments of the HYD era?

This Was a Good World Series

2011-10-30T22:11:00.000-04:00

Like many of the other great World Series in history, Game 7 was a bit anticlimactic, but it was quite a series. Obviously it captivated the fans in the growing Texas market and the historically-strong St. Louis market, but I think by the end of it, it won over the casual fans and the fans of other teams with a fleeting interest in the rest of the league (sadly, this includes both Pat and I nowadays).

It had pretty much everything you could ask for: Two games with excellent pitching performances on both sides, a game where a transcendent hitter took the game over, a game where a reasonably-unknown (but as we found out later, very quirky) pitcher took the game over, a tactical bullpen battle (that happened to feature an Adrian Beltre one-knee home run), and then the absolute classic that was Game 6. There were the two Pujolses, the downfall of past bullpen ace Alexi Ogando, Derek Holland, meh-performances by CJ Wilson when he had a chance to go Cliff Lee on the field, David Freese, Nelson Cruz's offense, Nelson Cruz's defense, and friggin Mike Napoli. Sac flies won a game; a caught-stealing at third base lost a game. Amazing.

Throughout September, St. Louis was the team that just would not die. True, Atlanta basically gave them the NL Wild Card much like Boston gave Tampa the AL Wild Card. But then they beat the overwhelming favorite in five games in the NLDS and beat the favored Brewers (who went all-in this year, admirably) in the NLCS. Many of the games in these series were captivating as well. But the way St. Louis lost Game 5 (with Napoli striking again), I thought it was going to be all over. But once again, they didn't die.

Within Game 6, there were several additional instances when it was time for the Cardinals to die. But they came back each time. In this game, they were down 7-4 after seven, still 7-5 after eight, and 9-7 in the tenth. Think about this:

In Game 6, the Texas Rangers came back from a deficit after the seventh inning as many times as the Boston Red Sox (2-61 when trailing after 7) did all season. This may be misleading and not exactly true, but you know what I mean, especially if you had followed the Dead Sox all season. You have to give a huge "good for them" to St. Louis, winning in such a fashion. There were a few big moments, including a couple of defensive mishaps (is Texas killing Cruz right now? I can't imagine they would be, as he took them as far as he did). And there was the walkoff.

It had everything. While it was somewhat unfortunate to see the Red Sox gone so quickly (not completely, because that team was so detestable), it was a nice way to wrap up the last season of How Youz Doin Baseball's tenure.

Go Rangers

2011-10-27T23:21:00.006-04:00

I'll be rooting for the Rangers in Game 7, and not just because I picked them to win in 7.

It's always great to see an organization that has never won it win it. They also seem to be a group which plays with energy and aggressively, and I like that. They also happen to be extremely talented, getting to the World Series two years in a row now. And they did it this year despite most predicting they'd take a step back after losing Cliff Lee. This is something they definitely earned.

Putting this in the bigger picture, you also have to wonder if Texas is on the cutting edge of a new era in baseball operations. Most importantly, they have completely flown in the face of the notion that you should develop young pitching in a certain cautious way. They are not reckless, but they are pushing them. And they are having success with it.

Further, I don't know enough to say definitively one way or another, but at the very least it seems like they are not over-reliant on statistical evaluation. Both this and the approach to pitching just discussed are fairly stark departures from recent popular theory, and it will be interesting to see, with their recent success, if the Texas way of doing things catches on the way Oakland's did about 10 years ago.

These are all things that I like a lot about this Rangers club. I also typically root American League once the Yankees are out. Not that I have anything against the Cardinals, because I certainly don't. The comeback they made to make the postseason as the Wild Card, and now to march all the way to the World Series, is very impressive. I'm also a big Lance Berkman fan. And more than anything, I'm rooting for a great Game 7 to cap off what has been a really entertaining World Series. I'd just like to see the Rangers win it.

Thoughts on Cherington Moving In

2011-10-26T22:58:00.000-04:00

First things first: Good thing the Red Sox aren't in the World Series: If tonight and tomorrow night were both rained out in Boston, stupid stuff like major league baseball would get in the way of Spooky World at Fenway! My GPA in college was a gillion.

Although I'm the chief negativity-monger here on How Youz Doin Baseball and I have been for nearly five years, there is little negative I can take out of the arrival of Ben Cherington. This guy is gonna be good. Despite the fact that he went to Amherst College (one strike) and, like me, was an English major (two strikes), he seems to be a guy who realize that baseball games happen on a field and not on a computer screen - something that, especially in later years, seemed to elude the grasp of John, Tom, Larry, and even Theo.

This is something that you could actually glean from listening to this guy speak to the media both Tuesday and Wednesday. He seemed to think that the Red Sox were on the wrong tracks in the last couple of years and were listening to numbers and "objective" analysis (otherwise known as Carmine the Computer) instead of actually looking at what happens on the baseball field. Given the fact that everyone has already recognized the last real inefficiency in baseball (OBP and OPS) upon the popularity of moneyball, and given the overwhelming fact that Moneyball II (fielding metrics) were a loud, 2011-level, failure, doing all of your baseball operations in Microsoft Excel is not the best way to go. As Bandi said years ago and as Pat noticed more recently, numbers should be only a guide.

And Cherington is the right guy to take us away from the Strat-O-Matic machine and back in between the lines. He's been doing scouting with his eyes since 1999 and might actually realize that an RBI very well might be valuable in a situation (such as a Bill Mueller RBI single in 2004, a Coco Crisp RBI single in 2008, or a pair of sacrifice flies in the World Series in 2011), even if racking up RBIs on the aggregate might not be a great way to evaluate a player. He might realize that 9 guys who are dogging it constantly might need to be shaken up a little bit. This is stuff that Theo at least paid a little attention to in the early years before seemingly abandoning it for 100% Carmine analysis in the later years (not surprisingly, I draw December 6, 2006 as the turning point).

He's scouted. He's directed farms. He's been on a baseball field, and has been in front of a baseball field for more than he's been in front of a spreadsheet. He also seems receptive to keep looking for insight from the stat geeks - a pleasant balance that is really what baseball should be heading back toward.

Plus, he seems to be a fan of accountability instead of accounting. A fan of "multifactorial" instead of factorials. I'm looking forward to the Ben Cherington era. Maybe, just maybe, we're on our way back to selling jeans.

Thoughts On Theo Moving On

2011-10-25T20:44:00.005-04:00

Let me just start by saying that by no means am I trying to say that Theo Epstein's job with the Boston Red Sox was easy. It wasn't. Like Brian Cashman, his job is very difficult. The notion that they have it easy because they have a lot of money to spend is ridiculous. While it makes things easier for them than for other GM's, there are resultant ways it is more difficult. Namely expectations. Yes, they have more money with which to achieve success. But the definition of what is success is greatly heightened over what it is for almost every other GM in the game. Further, you sometimes hear the criticism that it would be interesting to see a GM that has had success building a team more cheaply from within be given an opportunity to operate with more money. Well, it might be interesting, but I'm not sure it would be a whole lot more beyond that. And that's because once you have more money, it's more difficult to build from within because you have less First Round draft picks and less time to be patient because you're expected to win now. Being the GM of the Yankees or Red Sox is not as basic or simplistic as some want to make it seem. There are always tradeoffs.

With that all said, we also shouldn't act like there aren't a lot of other GMs that, if given more resources, couldn't do a really good job. Let's get one thing straight: Theo Epstein is a good GM. He's just finished overseeing the best collective decade the Red Sox have had as an organization in nearly a century. Not a high bar to clear, but he's done a good job. But is he really any better than 10-15 or more other executives in the game?

I'm not sure that he is. As good a job as he did from 2003-2007, his teams won the AL East zero times the last four years and missed the playoffs altogether the last two. The playoffs are a crapshoot so it's difficult to criticize 2008-2009 too much (though the 2009 team was flawed), but there is very little getting around the last two seasons. We can talk about injuries and underperformances all we want, and there was no doubt some of that at play. But two years in a row? With that payroll? I don't think so. There's a greater systematic issue at play.

And a big thing to note is that those teams were talented (2011 more than 2010). He assembled talent. But, clearly, they were lacking in other areas. Talent isn't everything, and Epstein did not do a good job of assembling a complete roster that had all of the elements of a winner. Oddly enough, this is exactly what he did early in his tenure with the Sox, and a big part of what made them so successful.

It's also worth noting that, after the Pedro/Schilling 2004 team, Epstein really didn't do a great job of putting together a starting pitching staff. He had some good years (2007), but on the whole the Red Sox have not had great starting pitching relative to their resources. Lester has been fantastic, and even better was developed from withing. Beyond him, have there been any decided victories since 2007? I could be missing someone, but I don't think that their have been.

I couldn't agree with Epstein more when he says he thinks it's best for both him and the organization for him to move on. He's very good at what he does, and he'll probably do a great job in Chicago with a change of scenery and removing himself from all of the drama in Boston. Even though he helped create that drama and this mess. (That's a separate conversation, whether or not he's running away from what he created. While I do think there's some merit to that, I also think Epstein is sincere in that now is a better time for a clean break - for both parties - than next year. They just had a very disappointing season, are hiring a new manager, and need to make some changes. I'm sure DV will tackle this at some point.)

But I also think Boston will do well with a new face and some new ideas in the General Manager's position. I don't think Theo's irreplaceable. Not at all. I'm sure Ben Cherington is very good at what he does, and he'll probably do a great job in Boston. Just like a lot of the other talented baseball minds in the game would. Theo did a great job early with his Moneyball approach, and I don't think every GM would have had the success that he did those first few years. At that time he really might have been unique in his ability. But ever since Moneyball has become mainstream, he's become more very good than elite. One of the Top 15 instead of one of the Top 5, just to throw numbers out there. Something like that.

Theo did a great job in Boston overall. And Red Sox fans should be thankful to him for that. But they also shouldn't be overly upset about his leaving. It's best for Theo, and it will be just fine for the organization.

Five Years, Five Years, Five Years

2011-10-24T22:40:00.000-04:00

Additionally, it's a five letter word: S-T-R-I-K-E.

Time for the obligatory MLB on Fox post for this season. This is a somewhat-unique situation: This is the second straight year we have not had either the Red Sox or Yankees in the World Series, and this is allowing me (and probably Pat) to watch these games a little differently. I've been able to take the Red Sox bias out of evaluating this Fox coverage and zoom out a little bit. I have a few quick things to say about it as this series continues to be a really entertaining one. I'm also so happy that Beltre just crushed one from one knee.

1. Buck and McCarver are inherently in a really difficult position. Unlike regular season games on Fox (when they give a half-assed effort toward it) and unlike local coverage of games (where it's not necessary to do at all), these guys in the playoffs have to appeal to the masses: Casual fans and baseball people alike. It's not an easy thing to do. McCarver basically has to break down what a bunt or what a hit-and-run is into the most simplistic terms. I've tried to notice this especially in the last two games, and I think it's been pretty darn good. Buck and McCarver still stink to high heavens in general, but with this task, they're doing reasonably well.

2. Fox listens to negative commentary - at least to an extent. I famously sent a nasty email to a general Fox Sports email address in April 2004, and ever since the minute I sent it, that email address has been constantly spammed. Thanks, Rupert. However, the ultra-hokey stuff that used to plague Fox broadcasts (such as the RIGHT NOW!!1 graphic and Scooter the Talking Baseball) and appeal to the idiot to the extent that it alienates the person just trying to watch the baseball game, are either reduced or gone completely. They have not over-used the strike zone graphic, and TBS as well has eliminated the nine-foot base-stealing crap. People aren't adding cartoon thing after cartoon thing after cartoon thing. Buck and McCarver themselves crap this thing up well enough themselves, and good for these guys for not adding more garbage to the broadcast.

3. These guys suck a lot more when they're doing Red Sox and Yankees games. This is intuitive, as they both know a lot more about the high-exposure baseball teams. To the best of my knowledge, neither Buck nor McCarver were calling non-Fox Cardinals games, so they don't seem to know that much about the Cardinals this year. That's refreshing. The teams these guys know more about (in the early 2000s it was New York, in the later 2000s it was Boston) are the teams they favor. They told way too many Derek Jeter, Arod, and Tim Wakefield stories while completely ignoring the other team. In this series, they are unable to do such a thing.

4. McCarver was too old to think about ten years ago, and whenever Buck gets excited (rarely), he just sounds like the jerk who dropped the infamous Randy Moss "disgusting act" line. Joe Posnanski wrote his version of this post either last night or this morning, and he suggested that his readers (not to be confused with "Neither Will Your Readers") give their ideal play-by-play and color team for a World Series. Vin Scully's solo act was the overwhelming consensus. Via the SoreGloveHand Twitter account, I actually said something serious: I would have gone with Scully and Steve Lyons. They were an unbelievable fictional team in the movie For Love of the Game, and their combination actually added quite a bit to the movie in my wacky opinion. I'd love to see them together, as they'd make the World Series as classy and dramatic as the movie was.

The Pujols Contract Post

2011-10-23T22:10:00.000-04:00

First of all, I spent way too long coming up for a title for this post, and they were all a little bit too racy for our standards. However, I think it's been a testament to Albert Pujols's body of work that it's rare (if ever) that people make PG-13-rated jokes about his last name. Okay, on the real substance. This kind of stuff is what I live for.

Obviously, Saturday it looked like Pujols was interested in doing in one night what Carlos Beltran did in three weeks by blowing up big time on the very eve of free agency. That's why this post is necessary. I want to start a discussion on one, of not three, of these topics, because this guy is really going to make this offseason interesting. I want to talk about the potential suitors, I want to talk about whether he's going to actually get top-dollar, and I want to explore whether it is possible for the Pujols contract to not be a "bad" contract.

First, let's talk about the serious suitors for this guy. The teams with the deepest pockets are presumably out of the running, although I would never completely take the Yankees out. You gotta think Posada's gone, Montero will catch, and Arod, Jeter, and Teixeira can all still play better than replacement-level defense. But the serious ones will most likely be the Cardinals, Cubs, Giants, Nats (who have been pretty willing to throw some cash around to show they mean business), and Angels.

I don't buy the Angels because they have some front-office turmoil going on - is Scioscia running everything? - and because getting this guy would really just be appeasement after striking out on Teixeira and Crawford in the last few years. I consider the Giants and Nats to be similar to each other: Money to spend, money has been spent previously on what looks like bad-to-awful contracts, and some young guys who could use a little less spotlight as they develop. Depends on who has the balls to assume what might inevitably be a bad contract. The Cubs are interesting because they have Pena's contract expiring (good move by Hendry on the one-year deal) and a new GM who is so smart that he can find a diamond in the rough by looking at the top of all the leaderboards. In all seriousness, if he isn't in the running, both Theo and Tom Ricketts lose credibility immediately, which is potentially dangerous.

I pick him to stay with the Cardinals, because instead of spending $17-27 million more annually than they're already spending at the position, they're only giving the first-base position an $11 million raise if they're paying Pujols $27 million. They're also somewhat desperate because since the unfortunate departure of JD Drew (sarcasm), he's been the main reason they've been so successful. Just my thoughts.

Besides, I'm not entirely positive that Pujols is going to get a contract between $27 million and $30 million or beyond. The only teams that have a heck of a lot to lose (i.e. urgency/desperation) would be Chicago and St. Louis. And I'm not really convinced that either of them will be willing to jack up the price that high. They'll jack it up high enough to most likely knock the other teams out, but are we really talking about Arod money without the Yankees in the bidding for a guy who's 31 years old (in Dominican years, whatever that means) and already has over a decade of service in the major leagues? We might be talking about a tired body sooner rather than later. And if we're talking about Prince Fielder as a consolation prize for whoever loses on Pujols, are we really in the business of guaranteeing that six or seven years from now, Pujols will be a better player than Fielder? We're talking about only two desperate teams, neither of which have Jacques Cousteau pockets, an older player, and a not-too-distant alternative. My point: the big guy might not get THAT much money.

This gets us into my next point: Whatever contract Pujols might get, what are the chances it expires and the team signing it says, "wow, that was awesome!" Unlikely. Look at the Arod and Teixeira contracts: People are already looking at those as bad contracts. Carl Crawford is likely a bad contract. The vast majority of long-term contracts (one of which Pujols will undoubtedly get from someone) end up as bad contracts, because it's a lot of money for a guy who might not even hold a starting lineup position if he didn't have the dollars attached to his name. Obviously the market will dictate whether he'll end up with a "bad" contract, and a lot of that will fall upon the factors in the previous paragraph. But at the same time, I think it's probably inevitable that he'll end up with a "bad" contract because for the most desperate teams, namely the Cubs and Cardinals, are desperate enough to basically pay Pujols $25, $25, $25, $25, $25 $25 million while he provides value of $40, $40, $40, $10, $10, $10. I suppose if that's the case, maybe 6/$150 isn't bad after all. I'm just glad I'm not of those GMs who will have to draw the line between good and bad.

Organized Crapshoot

2011-10-20T22:48:00.003-04:00

You want some evidence that the MLB Playoffs are something of a crapshoot, that getting hot at the right time is just as important as talent? Here it is.

2008 Phillies: Cole Hamels (won World Series)

2009 Phillies: Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee (lost in World Series)

2010 Phillies: Cole Hamels and Roy Halladay and Roy Oswalt (lost in NLCS)

2011 Phillies: Cole Hamels and Roy Halladay and Roy Oswalt and Cliff Lee (lost in NLDS)

Each year they progressively added one more top-flight starter (arguably the most important piece in playoff baseball) and each year they progressively lost one round earlier in the Playoffs. Maybe they sign CC this winter and miss the playoffs in 2012?

Obviously it doesn't work that way as the baseball regular season typically reflects how good a team is. But that exaggeration goes to the point. It's incredible that this team hasn't done more with that rotation. There are certainly other factors at play - there offense the last two years is not what it was in '08 and '09 - but a lot of it has to do not with the offense, the rotation, or the bullpen but the crapshoot nature of the playoffs.

After all, we can say whatever we want about their offense declining, but they've won the most games in baseball the last two years. They've actually won more games (a lot more) as their American League offense has gone back to being a very good National League offense but their starting pitching has gotten substantially better. And as they've won more regular season games than the previous year for each of the last four years, they've done decreasingly worse in the playoffs. That's just how baseball is.

Even look at Texas this year. They lose arguably the best postseason pitcher in the game right now in Cliff Lee and they are right back where they were last year.

Anyway, just thought the Phillies stuff was pretty interesting. I'm amazed by it, that rotation just seems built to make things happen in October. When you look at it on paper at the beginning of the year you wonder how that team is going to lose in the playoffs. I don't want to attribute it all to, or just call it, a crapshoot. So we'll call in an organized crapshoot. Talent and the character of both the players on the team and the team as a whole matter, but there is definitely a randomness of getting hot at the right time at play in the baseball playoffs.

The GM: Excited about the World Series

2011-10-19T22:24:00.000-04:00

I think I've ripped the entire Red Sox organization apart, top to bottom, to the extent that was warranted by September, 2011. I feel better about the whole thing and I'm ready to move on to my best-of topics, my last-word topics, and moving on to the next chapter of my life. However, unlike Alex Rodriguez (who did it) and 46 (who endorsed doing it), I'm not going to disrespect the World Series. In fact, I am looking forward to baseball being on my television for at least another week - as it should be. In fact, here are ten quick hits I'm looking forward to seeing develop.

1. CJ Wilson: He's not Cliff Lee. But he's going to have a Cliff Lee-style free agent job audition. Chances are the Yankees will end up with this guy, but if his audition ends up as awesome as Lee's was, we'll all be lucky to watch it on the biggest stage.

2. Referendum on Don'tbeapussyball. Led by a downtrodden AL West team and an up-and-coming young GM in the AL East, philosophies in baseball are changing. Not Moneyball. But the practice of not babying starting pitchers. We should call it Don'tbeapussyball, because it encourages (with good results so far!) pitchers to not be pussies.

3. Texas as a Dynasty: It may have been Sports Illustrated, but it may not have. But some people are thinking Texas is not some two-year fluke; that it's a team that will be around the top of the American League for a while. Letting Cliff Lee go last year (though his less-money offer acceptance may not prove to be the best example) may indicate that they're not willing to secure their better players in the long run, and though they aren't the Brewers (their core will be around for a while), it will be difficult for this team to be a permanent fixture in the postseason. Even moreso if Don'tbeapussyball is unsuccessful, which we might have to wait years to determine.

4. La Russa and Dave Duncan: Genius? I can't believe this team has made it this far. Without Wainwright. Then again, the "Chris Carpenter Is Not That Good" theme has reached the "recurring joke" level between me and Pat. Duncan obviously did something right, and La Russa did something right with the rest of these guys. Nick Punto? Rafael Furcal? These guys would be bench players on Boston or New York. I hope Jason can provide more insight than I'm qualified to provide, but good for them.

5. JD Drew 2.0. Colby Rasmus must have really sucked. More than one article from that city called him the second coming of JD Drew, a guy whose legacy in St. Louis was as a selfish, aloof dog. Don't think he had any third-party hitting instructors like Rasmus, who was called out by his manager and by Pujols during his time there. The Cardinals went 45-33 after trading Rasmus after going 44-39 before the trade. They must have HATED him there.

6. Is St. Louis the "hot hand?" They snuck into the closing door of the NL Wild Card after the Braves pretty much gave it to them. Then they beat the odds-on favorite and the team in now-mode. Maybe Billy Beane is right about the postseason: Maybe it is about the team that gets hot at the right time.

7. Pujols. Cardinals fans are getting their money's worth. But is Pujols going to stay there (I think so). Or will Theo Epstein make his first order of business in Chicago outbidding the field by 20% for the player (after all, the Yankees and Sox are out of the running for a 1B)? I mean, he is a genius and a boy wonder for looking up at the top of the leaderboard and signing someone. Perhaps the most intriguing question is: Is there a way to prevent the upcoming Pujols contract from being a "bad contract?"

8. Good for Baseball? No East Coast teams, no West Coast teams. I guess the numbers will eventually tell us whether people actually like to see the Red Sox and Yankees. But is having this matchup here good for baseball? I'd say it is.

9. Chemistry versus spending. These are the teams ranked 11th (Cardinals) and 13th (Rangers) in payroll spending this year. This is further evidence that putting together a fantasy team, while it certainly helps you win 83 games from April through August, is not the only way to win big. Both teams (and you can say the same about the other two of the Final Four) have a fair share of stars surrounded by a lot of role players. I mean, David Murphy is in the World Series and JD Drew isn't.

Another Comparison

2011-10-18T21:52:00.003-04:00

DV asked me if I was my post tonight was going to be about the fact that there happens to be a World Series about to get started. Not happening. I'm certainly going to follow the Series, but I'm not all that interested in it. I will give a prediction though: Rangers in 7. If anyone wants to discuss the World Series in the comments at any point by all means.

DV's comparison yesterday of 2004 and 2011 Yankees got me thinking of a comparison of my own: The Yankees progression from 1996-2001 to 2002-2008 and the Red Sox progression from 2003-2008 and 2009-2011 (and counting).

Prior to their "winning" periods, both teams had gone through what could be described as funk periods. Obviously that is a relative term, as the Yankees' was a more acute two decade thing, and the Sox was a longer more generalized thing. They snapped out of it with teams that had a near idealistic balance of veteran star-power and blue-collar diamonds in the rough. Winning made those teams famous. The personalities those teams took on made them among the most well-liked teams in their organizations histories.

After winning initially, the teams continued to operate the same way. And they continued to win. But these teams were winning in a new era of financial opportunity in baseball. That lead to increased revenue on an incredible scale for these two organizations in particular, and that lead to increased spending on players. Which, it is worth pointing out, is a great thing. Both teams have had their hits and misses, and both teams' fan bases want to complain a lot about the misses. But it is important to remember that every team in baseball would rather have ownership and management swinging and hitting sometimes and missing others than not swinging at all, and would switch places with the Yankees and Red Sox in that regard.

Spend these teams did, and that brings us to the "decline" periods. Again, these teams' thought processes were in the right place. Win, make more money as a result, reinvest it in the team, win even more, and make even more money. Rinse, wash, repeat. But what these decline periods might be showing us is that it's not purely about bringing in the most talent possible. The Yankees had a lot of talent from 2002-2008, as do the Sox from 2009-present. But maybe with all of the wealth there are too many guys who have "made it" and not enough guys who are "hungry to make it". Maybe the dreaded word complacency gets brought into the equation, especially considering the ruts a long baseball season can send a player or team into.

Now, in no way am I suggesting that talent isn't the most important thing. It is. But maybe it's just not the only thing. Maybe you do need that human-element balance. Maybe you need scrappers and clubhouse guys who are going to keep things lively and help bring the most out of the stars on an everyday basis. Maybe you need the stars showing the scrappers how they prepare and approach the game and raise their level of play. We could go on forever with examples like this. These are how championship teams interact with each other and have always interacted with each other. And maybe it's particularly magnified and increasingly important with teams that have a high payroll and a lot of highly priced players. Just like you don't want a team of all scrappers (because there isn't enough talent), maybe you also don't want a team of all high-price free agents because (despite their immense talent) there might be just a little bit too much of a tendency to get complacent.

We don't really have many other teams to look at in this analysis besides the Yankees and Red Sox. The Phillies have accomplished the winning, but they haven't taken free agent spending to the extent the Yankees and Red Sox have. The Mets would actually be a better example. They don't have the winning, but a part of that is because of the way they've spent and the way they've failed to build a complete team dedicated to winning.

The Yankees were able to survive their decline period better than the Red Sox because they had a unique leadership and talent core of Jeter, Rivera, Williams, Pettitte, and Posada. The Yankees didn't hit the low the Sox are in missing the playoffs two years in a row. But they hit their own rut, and when they did - after 2008 - they really changed the model that got them into trouble. They replaced some of their high-priced free-agency with still-talented spunk and personality. That has played a big role in their return to the form they've been in from 2009-present. I know an immediate response to that will be that they also brought in Sabathia, Teixeira, and Burnett, and that had something to do with it. But the Yankees have always brought it big free agents, and nobody is suggesting they stop doing that. What we are talking about here is the quality of player brought in (both in terms of talent and character) and the team that is built around them to create balance. We've seen the Yankees go through that process. We will see how the Sox proceed from here and if they are able to continue to mirror the Yankees the way they have throughout the other parts of this comparison.

A Man Needs a Flashback

2011-10-17T22:13:00.003-04:00

Note: Among controversy that the Red Sox' pitchers were drinking beer during games, I think it's necessary to remember that seven years ago tonight, the team filled a Gatorade cup of Jack Daniels while down 3 games to nothing to the Yankees. I need a flashback, and while Pat and the Tank might not, many of you might. "Don't Let Us Win Tonight."

Wednesday, June 22, 2011: In a game between the Red Sox and a hapless San Diego team, it was rainy and there were more than just a few rain delays.

Francona: It looked kind of thick and the field got sloppy, so they stopped it, started it and stopped it. I don't know what else they can do. They kept trying to put that Turface [quick dry] on there, but finally it got to a point where it was getting out of control.

Ortiz: There was a lot of water on the field. I'm not out there fielding, but walking to the on-deck circle, it felt like I was swimming.

Varitek: "It definitely was wet, and it was obvious that [he lost] some feel."

Youkilis: "Not a big interleague fan."

Saturday, July 24, 2004: It rained all night on Friday, and the Red Sox were 9.5 games behind the Yankees in the AL East.

MSNBC: "The game, which started after a 54-minute delay, almost was postponed. The grounds crew wanted to call it off but Boston players argued for it to go on despite wet grounds."

Millar: "The Red Sox wanted to play today."

2011: Red Sox 2-61 after training after 7.

July 24, 2004: Down 3-0, 9-4, and 10-8 heading into the 9th, the Red Sox won against Rivera that game, with Bill Mueller hitting a walkoff against Rivera.

2011: Jason Varitek (wearing the C), probably a sourpuss about playing time, removes himself from all leadership responsibility, according to the Bob Hohler and subsequent Mike Giardi articles last week.

July 24, 2004: Jason Varitek (not wearing any extra letters) stands up for his teammate Bronson Arroyo by punching Arod. Granted, he had his mask on like a total coward, but not nearly as much of a coward and fake leader as he is now.

Winter 2010-2011: Despite his season-long pouting about his contract, franchise legend David Ortiz (who sat out games with a sore neck suffered on a plane ride) remained on the team. In fact, in the winter, Theo Epstein had such lack of balls to pick up his generous $12m option year.

July 31, 2004: Due partially to his season-long pouting about his contract and unwillingness to play with dubious injuries, Theo Epstein trades franchise legend Nomar Garciaparra for two .246 hitters, showing that he had huge balls.

2011: Tim Wakefield believes the fans deserve to see him get 192 wins as a Red Sox.

2004: Tim Wakefield was okay with coming out of the bullpen.

2011: In a pivotal moment for the entire season, a Red Sox fast centerfielder gets caught stealing to end the inning and a rally against Jeff Niemann in a situation that would put him from scoring position (second base) to still scoring position (third base), providing very little value to the team's chances of scoring that run.

2004: In a pivotal moment for the entire season, a Red Sox fast centerfielder steals a base in a situation that puts him from not-scoring position (first base) to scoring position (second base), so he could be scored with a single, thereby providing immense value to the team's chances of scoring that run.

2011: Fat starting pitcher injures ankle with season on the line putting on warmup jersey. Pitcher sits out a week and a half, gets even fatter, while the team continues to tank.

2004: Fat starting pitcher injures ankle with season on the line fielding bunt. Pitcher sits out a few days, has experimental surgery done on his ankle so he could pitch in the next series.

2011: Sweet Caroline in the eighth inning regardless of the score.

2003 (close enough): Rally Karaoke Guy late in close games.

2011: Beer and chicken in fractured groups instead of watching or giving a crap about teammates.

2004: Jack Daniels and winning as a team.

A Man Needs a Muse

2011-10-17T06:10:00.000-04:00

Obviously there's a lot to say about John Henry and the Sox this Monday morning, especially after he gave an impromptu 70-minute radio interview on Friday afternoon. The title of the post is a jab from this Boston Magazine article about when he married a girl 30 years his junior (after all, personal lives aren't off-limits anymore). There's a lot I can say about Red Sox ownership and how they are a huge problem. However, I'm going to try to stay on topic and point to where they came in to partially cause the September collapse. I'd love to talk Lebron again, but it's only marginally relevant.

The problem with these guys is their priorities. It's actually similar to big-time corporate America. I know I have two loyal readers who work for an American division of a European company. Huge company, and due to the size of the company and the lack of central, somewhat local management, their operations at my readers' facility is rife with inefficiency and incompetence. And my friends (they'll say it themselves), JD out A LOT. They're not alone. But upper-level management at their company is clearly not committed to a well-run machine, because their interests are overseas. If ownership can't commit to a well-run, efficient machine fueled by hard work, it's hard for the regular old employees (even if they have doctorates) to commit to that cause.

For another example, if an ownership group buys a team and turns the entire stadium into their own frat house, committing not to improving the stadium, not to winning, and not to running the organization efficiently - BUT instead naming trust-fund friends to managerial positions and getting wasted in the luxury boxes - you cannot expect to have a healthy workplace. I've worked for a team like that, and I've also worked for a team that had ownership committed to healthy, efficient operations and had proper management in place. It was like night and day.

The ownership group's commitment to winning was dubious at best. Lucchino, Henry, and Werner can say "nuh-uh" all they want, but if that questionable commitment and emphasis on ONLY the bottom line is going all the way down to the players - after all, the players complained about the Hurricane Irene doubleheader because they thought ownership was valuing the gate instead of winning - there's a problem. Even if these guys do care about winning (They don't, because if they did, they would have stayed away from Lebron. Another example of lack of focus.), they need to make sure that every employee knows that. If not, you're creating a toxic workplace that fosters the attitude of "if they don't care, we don't care." Same goes for the corporate America example and the red-wine-in-luxury-suite example.

Larry Lucchino is also a problem. Even if John Henry stays (he won a lot of points with me on Friday, by the way), Lucchino should probably be fired. Having a guy represent one of your business interests when he's interested in settling beefs with people six years later (the Theo/Cubs negotiations are hung up because Lucchino wants to get back at Theo) - or interested in retaliating at Francona from deviating from the script - or really doing of the slimy things he's done the past decade or beyond - makes you look like a dick, as well. Of course, so does the "neither will your readers" article.

When the Red Sox went down in flames, Carl Crawford most likely didn't feel bad for too many people. Probably didn't care about how Varitek's career of fake leadership ended this way, and he probably also didn't feel sorry for John Henry as his team had an early series of tee times. Because other than the fact that he had to interrupt Yacht Week, the Red Sox losing has no immediate effects of JWH being "up 20 percent," which was clearly what Henry's interest was. When Henry's baseball team finished in third place last year, he had a word-for-word interview in the Globe where he bitched about baseball's luxury tax and boasted that in the rough economy, he was up 20% thanks to mathematical equations. This interview was conducted in his private jet.

Meddling only when he feels like it is also just plain dumb. There was absolutely no reason for him to say he didn't want Carl Crawford, other than disproving the "Red Sox are a TV Show" theory. This disprovement is negated by the fact that later on, revealing his true colors, he said he wanted an "entertaining, winning" baseball team - in that semantic order. How about this - he should stick to his MacBook and make sure Lucchino doesn't hack anyone up on their way out the door.

Finally, buying the team $300 headphones and taking them on a yacht vacation on a Sunday night to make good for the doubleheader is also wrong on many levels. It's appeasement and pandering to a bunch of whining children instead of telling them to get their stuff together and start winning again. It's like feedling dog human food from the table: They'll stay at the table and whine for the next ten years because they see that it works. It's not because they're "loyal," it's because they're hungry. He's empowering them to continue to bitch. It's perpetuating the country club culture. Even if the new manager rattles the cages of these animals, if they're getting gifts and boat rides every time they have to do their jobs, it's not going to get any better.

If there is another "Second Base Cup" competition next year, fueled by Tom Werner's interest in creating an entertaining TV show, I am absolutely going to flip. Werner's the one who said that a World Series was as good as a really successful TV show like Roseanne or the Cosby Show. Obviously, profits are a byproduct of having an "entertaining, winning" team.

"Winning, entertaining" probably would have been a better way to put it.

Messing with Lucchino

2011-10-15T17:11:00.001-04:00

CSN Chicago, via Pete Abraham (emphasis mine): "Larry Lucchino is one of the most unreasonable people I have ever dealt with and because of his frayed relationship with Theo Epstein he is looking to make a point at the expense of Theo's happiness and his desire to go to Chicago. I didn't believe that ownership group for one second when they said that they wouldn't stand in Theo's way if he wanted out of Boston. They are furious that he wants out and they are trying to make a point."

"When they found Epstein the meat truck he was frozen so stiff it took them two days to thaw him out for the autopsy."

The Terry Francona Exit

2011-10-13T23:21:00.004-04:00

Watching the Francona exit unfold last week, I couldn't help but draw some parrallels to the end of Joe Torre's tenure with the Yankees.

I felt sorry to see Francona go the same way I was sorry to see Torre go in 2007. Two tremendous baseball men who carried themselves with a lot of class and dignity - and most importantly did a lot of winning - in media markets where they are under the microscope 24/7. They both deserved better send-offs. That aside, I think the Francona move, like the Torre move four years ago, is the right move for the Red Sox. Both Francona and Torre were/are good, not great, tactical managers on the field. But where their real genius existed was an ability to always put their players before themselves, protect them from the media limelight, and navigate through all the drama that managing in New York/Boston brings over the course of a long season successfully.

The only issue with that kind of manager, for better or worse, is that it runs its course. It doesn't mean they aren't good managers anymore. It just means they aren't as effective with a particular group. Francona himself admitted he didn't feel he was reaching the players the way he used to, and I imagine Torre might have said a similar thing back in 2007. I guess players get tired of hearing the same thing from the same guy 162 times a year, no matter how good that guy is or how right what he's saying is.

All that said, I was happy to see Francona go out somewhat on his own terms, at least publicly. And at the end of the day, getting compared to Torre, arguably one of the greatest managers of all-time and a first-ballot Hall of Famer, isn't so bad. When the dust settles and emotions dry up from this year's collapse Francona will always be able to fall back on the fact that he brought two World Series to Boston. I suspect he too will be getting Hall of Fame consideration when it's all said and done, if for no other reason than those World Series.

The really unfortunate part about this has been the shots taken at Francona on his way out. We are talking about the most successful Boston manager in nearly a century. Even if issues did develop towards the end of his time at the helm - and Francona wasn't perfect, he certainly played a role in the decline of this team the last 3 seasons - that doesn't erase the totality of his accomplishments in Boston. He deserves a lot better than the things that have been said about him - things that are only coming out now after he's left - the last few days.

One last point on a related but somewhat different note. It's pretty clear at this point the Red Sox have some issues. These things happen in pro sports and teams fix them. One thing that relates here though is that the Sox lack effective player leadership. Guys that were presumed to have some clout - namely Pedroia - obviously do not. And it's not necessarily that a guy like him doesn't want to lead. I'm sure he does. You have to have guys who want to be lead. But the flip side of that is that you want to have a leader that can bring people together, including those who don't are easy to lead. You might not be able to connect with the other 24 guys, but you have to have most of the clubhouse. This does not appear to be the case in Boston, seemed like there were a lot of different groups doing their own thing.

And if you look at it, it makes some sense why leadership is an issue. The Captain is really not a Major League player anymore. He doesn't seem to be a key piece of the clubhouse any longer.

Pedroia is the obvious candidate as the team's best combination of talent and personality. It's not fair to compare him to Jeter, one of the better leaders of this generation, but I'm going to anyway. Pedroia has a lot of those qualities, but he's just not Jeter. Jeter is more Big Man On Campus swagger, Pedroia is more scrapper. It's almost elementary to say but the former is going to have an easier time getting people's attention when he speaks, while the latter might have a tough time being taken seriously. Related, it probably doesn't help that a guy like that is playing Cribbage with the manager every single day. There's nothing wrong with it, but eventually someone who doesn't have the same relationship/appreciation with/for Tito that Pedroia does is going to resent Pedroia for it. Teams don't like perceived favorites.

Youkilis should play the Posada role of enforcer, but it appears he takes it too far. Like Pedroia, if you're too intense all the time you are going to get tuned out. Posada was able to toe that line as an intense guy between the lines who wasn't flipping out at umpires, other players on the other team, other players on his team, and the media all the time.

Finally, and not remotely least importantly, the Sox do not have a Rivera. A guy that when The Big Man On Campus or enforcer are struggling is simultaneously so ridiculously good and such a class act that he commands everybody's respect. This really isn't a fair comparison because these types of guys don't come around very often, but it's worth pointing out nonetheless.

This leadership situation didn't do Francona any favors.

Anyway, congrats to Francona on a truly great run with the Boston Red Sox.

Truly Disgusting

2011-10-13T07:03:00.002-04:00

Table of contents: 1) Francona’s personal life, 2) Irene and Yacht Week, 3) The Media Blowup, 4) Carl Crawford off the hook.

Look, I worked in baseball for three years, and I’ll be honest with you: I have a lot of secrets about baseball players’ personal lives. This includes details from past and present members of the Boston Red Sox. I also have the business cell phone number of a member of the Red Sox’ front office, someone who has been discussed on this blog before. I also have a blog, and when I started this blog, I had none of the information I am currently referring to. Like Eric Ortiz, I also had access to my blog in the wee hours of the morning on January 1, 2011. Nevermind, that’s irrelevant. I never spilled any of these beans.

Whoever in the Red Sox’ upper management, most likely John Henry, Larry Lucchino, or Tom Werner, decided to do his best to smear Terry Francona through this morning’s Bob Hohler Boston Globe article. The revelations that he was having marital problems, living in a Brookline hotel, and popped a couple of pills were a low blow. The fact that the implication of the article was that he had a substance abuse problem (something that was dismissed in March by a team medical specialist, not that those guys have much credibility in the first place) is especially bad.

It marks the latest in a string of smear campaigns against any popular figure who left Boston, and this one really crossed a lot of lines that it shouldn’t have crossed. It also seems that one of the three mentioned above dictated this one to the Boston Globe, similar to the way Lucchino and Dr. Charles Steinberg dictated the infamous “dirty laundry” article to Shaughnessy in 2005. The Globe, who employs Hohler and Shaughnessy, is owned by the NY Times Company, who still owns a portion of the Red Sox team.

The Hohler article talked about a lot of things, which you can get by reading it or getting any slew of recaps from any Boston media outlet (WEEI.com did the best, in my opinion). But the one that got everyone talking was the stuff about Francona’s marriage and pills. It says more about the “anonymous sources” than it does about Terry Francona, and my sentiment is aligned with most of the sentiment on talk radio today.

It sounds like retaliation for the off-script comment from Francona about ownership not having his back, and if it is from Lucchino, Henry, and friends it’s not surprising. It’s becoming more and more obvious these people are vengeful, proud, and generally bad-spirited people who care about nobody else. In other words, they’re a lot like the players they hired. They’re children who are determined to get the last laugh and determined to escape blame no matter what. We can only hope that the public backlash against the clear puppetmasters behind this article can come across worse than Francona does, because this part of the article says a lot more about them than it does about Francona. People get divorced, and the pills were not a problem. Nevermind Lebron James, this might be the end of me with this organization until it’s sold. More on this later.

Regarding Hurricane Irene and Yacht Week, this part’s easier to write. It’s a one-day personification of what the 2011 Red Sox were on the field and off. Crying about rain, crying about scheduling, crying about Sunday Night Baseball, crying about interleague play. This time they were crying about the idea of playing baseball twice on a Saturday because Hurricane Irene was coming on a Sunday. Many players visibly protested, as they allegedly accused ownership of caring more about the gate than winning. A fair gripe. Turns out, the doubleheader was played in the rain on Saturday. To appease this group of children, John Henry bought them all headphones and then took them on a players-only party on the yacht. And they still cried about it for the rest of the season! Pat described this as dealing with a group of teenage girls. Check!

Another thing that melted down on Wednesday was the Boston media. Much of it was killing ownership for a lot of this stuff. They tried to enumerate who looked bad in the wake of this, and it’s pretty much everyone. You’ve got a clique of pitchers eating some fried chicken and drinking beer during games. The “Captain” showed his leadership by continuing to do the personal catching stuff. But then around 3:00 PM, they started cannibalizing each other. Michael Felger and Tony Massarotti, who share the best radio show in Boston, said if in ownership’s eyes it’s okay to start talking about personal stuff, it might be time to talk about John Henry’s two divorces or Jason Varitek’s divorce and the role of a certain NESN reporter in there. They even dropped Heidi Watney’s name, and she was apparently listening and standing by the Twitter machine. She started chirping about Felger’s lack of professionalism. In response, Joe Haggerty of Comcast SportsNet New England said that Heidi wrote the book on journalistic integrity. If she has all this journalistic integrity (nevermind sleeping with Varitek, which she never denied), what was she reporting on when the clubhouse was going down in flames. They’re starting to kill each other, which I’ve never seen before. Considering there are some intertwined alliances between the two competing TV networks and the two competing radio stations, it’s going to be rowdy.

The whole Varitek/Watney/leadership stuff all came from a rumor (confirmed by Watney) that Carl Crawford’s “Talk to the Captain” remarks were said not to Gordon Edes, but to her. If that was a reference to their fling in 2008-2009, which it sounds like, Carl Crawford is off of my “fired” list. How are you supposed to exist in a place where you used to be a leader (he once pinned Pat Burrell against a wall when he was acting like a prick; Burrell was traded the next week), but now you’re surrounded by fake leaders like Varitek, ineffective leaders like Pedroia sitting in the manager’s office playing cribbage with his boy, and guys who don’t care at all. He called a team meeting to call them out in September; it was not effective. It's nice to know that someone was panicking. I very well may buy a Crawford t-shirt and then be done buying Red Sox stuff, including tickets, for a long time: The players suck, the manager and GM are gone, and ownership is a group of scumbags that have no lines of decency.

They Freakin Whacked Him

2011-10-12T18:58:00.002-04:00

A "Red Sox source" goes into Terry Francona's personal life with a Boston Globe reporter.

It was revenge for saying ownership's support...and a lot of other things.

First a fun fact: HYD has been getting a lot of search engine traffic lately, not for the quality of my unprecedented depth of rants, but because HYD's post "Terry Francona, Fat Little Girlfriend" is third on Google when you search for "Terry Francona Girlfriend." Welcome to all of you coming for the first time, but I'm sorry, you will not find what you think you're going to find here. No pics unless they're created poorly in Microsoft Paint.

Guys, here are some FNOs. I know many personal details about Red Sox players, past and present, that I have heard from sources. I strike them from the record, because there used to be an unwritten rule in baseball where you don't go into that kind of stuff. Despite my blog, where I have the power to post a lot of these things if I wanted to, I have more respect for the human beings who happen to play baseball than to do that.

John Schuerholz did this with I think Tom Glavine back around six years ago, and I KILLED him for it in a previous writing incarnation. It's becoming harder and harder to actually write my post on how much the ownership triumvirate sucks because I have so much ammunition.

I Like Justice

2011-10-11T21:39:00.002-04:00

As part of the infamous "I thought you were gonna ask me about JD Drew having the second-highest OPS of all AL outfielders" interview, Theo Epstein said he wasn't necessarily tired of defending Drew, but said "I like justice." (Follow along to roughly 6:05 of the interview.) I also like justice. Therefore, Theo needs to move on.

As much as I like to postulate, and as much as I read and have read over the HYD Baseball era and before, I cannot pretend to know the infrastructure of the Boston Red Sox' front office. But I am under the impression that stuff like Spooky World at Fenway (scheduled for the day after the World Series conclusion, God forbid there's a rainy day), Schooled (my GPA was a gillion!), the Bridal Festival (September 25th, last weekend of baseball season), and the overaggressive sales of personalized concourse bricks (what is this, a high school athletic department?) are not Theo's fault and are not Theo's business. Those things are heinous, but due to space constraints, they might not even make it to Friday's full-blown assault on Henry, Werner, and Lucchino.

I am, however, under the impression that anything that has anything to do with baseball is Theo's responsibility. This includes the medical staff (which should have been canned after the 2010 season), the strength and conditioning coaches (the twelve-ounce PBR curl does not count as exercise), the training staff, major league scouting (including Carl Crawford's private investigators), minor league scouting, amateur scouting, and coaching. I do know for a fact that the organization occasionally emphasizes certain aspects of the game (when I worked in there in 2008, baserunning was emphasized), so I can also attribute overall organizational attitude to Theo, and this includes the attitude of "never get too up, never get too down," "build a team that will work in October," "RBIs don't matter," and anything to do with Carmine the Computer.

Theo is on the hook for the following. I'm going big to small to big:
1. Overall Dbaggery. Sure, not the most eloquent way to put it, but the most accurate. I've gone over this before, but I cannot imagine the Red Sox have a very good reputation across baseball. The botched negotiations with several free agents, including Teixeira, Damon, and going way back Kevin Millar made the organization look bad, as did the gentlemen's agreements surrounding Bronson Arroyo not being traded and Junichi Tazawa bypassing Japanese baseball. The Crawford private I's. The treatment of Mike Lowell, Manny Ramirez, Pedro Martinez, Derek Lowe, Damon, Jason Bay, Victor Martinez (2 years, $20 million is EMBARRASSING) and others. His own childish departure/temper tantrum in 2005. And, most recently, the awful handling of the Terry Francona (deserved) firing. This guy's inability to handle anything tactfully have made the Red Sox look downright foolish. This is beyond 2010. And this is something that must fall on the general manager.

2. Minor League Development: A torpedo: Clay Buchholz and 46 were brought up in 2007. Since then, the Red Sox farm system has developed Daniel Bard. You can give them modest credit for Masterson, Murphy (would have been useful in right field this year!), and the Reddick/Kalish cocktail, and I guess you can give them credit for the stocks of Anthony Rizzo and Casey Kelly, because they brought God's Will to Boston. Otherwise, the Red Sox' prized prospects have been Lars Anderson, Michael Bowden, Felix Doubront, Brandon Moss, Yamaico Navarro, Tazawa, and Jed Williams. Ew. What happened? Re-emphasis of high school prospects? Maybe Moneyball was right on the less-cinematic aspects of the A's operation.

3. Big-name major-league acquisitions: Stuff like Renteria is under the bridge. But Drew, Beckett, Lackey, Crawford, Matsuzaka, the FPT Bobby Jenks, and God's Will were all deciding factors in the collapse of the Best Team Ever. I don't know what this team does with major league scouting, either guys from their own team (how about keeping Victor Martinez) or guys from around baseball with perfectly accurate, quantifiable stats? It did not really require an astrophysics degree to realize that Bobby Jenks was on a downward trend, Drew has underperformed his entire career, and Beckett couldn't last an entire season. It does not require a rocket scientist to throw a lot of money at Adrian Gonzalez. It does not require cleverness and tact to BLOW OUT the field on free agents. He's struck out spectacularly more than he's connected, and it really came back to bite him with the Best Team Ever.

4. Sabermetric insanity: When HYD started, I loved sabermetrics. I have sworn off of them because they have gone in the wrong direction and have glorified minutia. Defensive metrics, in my opinion, are crap, and the 2010 Mariners proved that. The devaluation of the RBI like it's Brazilian currency is a disconnection from understanding the game of baseball. JD Drew proved that. Theo Epstein picked and chose when to use sabermetrics (Carl Crawford's not exactly a Moneyball player, nor is Julio Lugo), and to ignore other things about a baseball player's game. Youkilis began a sabermetric player, then decided that it was his responsibility to knock players in. So he stopped walking and started hitting. If your philosophies are getting outsmarted by Kevin Youkilis, you're doing something wrong. Saying that JD Drew after 2009 was worth "a tick above" $14 million a year is downright insulting. Carmine the Computer should have a date with Peter Gibbons, Michael Bolton, and Samir Nayeenanaja in an open, grassy field.

5. Marathon: I fully appreciate the idea of now years versus rebuilding years. I actually didn't even have a problem with the "retooling" 2006 year and "bridge" 2010 year. But the entire organizational philosophy from the baseball operations standpoint is one of patience, playing for October, getting ready for October, and never getting too panicked if you lose a couple (or ten of twelve) in April, lose a couple more (against Pittsburgh and San Diego) in June, and lose a couple (or twenty of twenty-seven) in September. If you do not have any bit of urgency, which Theo used to have (hence many ill-advised panic moves like Renteria and even my boy Coco Crisp) but no longer has, that attitude bleeds down. Thanks to Theo's acquisition and Theo's organizational philosophy, this team turned into twenty-five JD Drews, never really caring about anything because if you aggregate everything, a walk is more valuable than a sacrifice fly. Guess what? If you don't have any sense of urgency in April through September, maybe there won't be an October. Maybe the Yankees, who play hard the entire time instead of resting for October, can rest their starters and throw ten minor league pitchers on the last game of the season. News flash: The Red Sox could have done that if their overall philosophy wasn't one of six months of coasting.

5a. Injuries. It's Theo's business model ("we tell our players in the minor leagues, you need to be honest with us," around 7:00 into the interview linked above), it's okay to speak up if you're a little bit injured for the best interest of the team being in October. It's better to sit out than aggravate your injury. So if you have a stiff neck from sitting on the plane or getting benched against David Price, if you have an impinged shoulder from realizing you're hitting .219, if you have a sore finger and sore neck from your minor league rehab, if you have a sore ankle from taking off your warmup clothes, or if you have sore ribs as a result of not getting an MRI on your back, you can sit out as many games as possible, because it's not a sprint, it's a marathon. Good philosophy.

6. Second Base Cup. This ties in very closely to the previous point. The team's preparation was apparently not up to Theo Epstein's standards, as he admitted thirteen days ago. Well, he saw it through the entire way. In spring training, were they working on their fitness or were they working on their chip shot? Were they eating correctly or were they having a Heineken after a round of eighteen after practice? Were they working on fundamentals or were they competing in a closest-to-the-pin competition on NESN? It's good that I have a real job: If I didn't, I might still be on tilt enough by February that I might take a trip down to Fort Myers, sneak into the clubhouse, and snap every single five-iron I see. The entire "season's a vacation until October" philosophy affected the way they prepared on the field. And the guy in charge of baseball operations, who has seen this go on for years now, should have put an end to it.
7. Accountability! Wow, this seems to be a problem everywhere! Remember when How Youz Doin wrote a post called "Theo Patrick Epstein?" JD Drew sucking was not true! Theo didn't have to take blame for it! It's because JD Drew was a hideous embarrassment for his entire time here, it's because fans were too stupid to appreciate this stiff! The team sucked in 2006? Wasn't because you split and let the organization blow up the previous offseason! It's because Jason Varitek got hurt! The team sucked again in 2010? Blame it on the injuries! Unbelievable! When the ship was sinking in September, wow, isn't this special? Peter Gammons, Theo apologist and Theo close friend, announced on NESN that there was a "disconnect" between the GM and the manager. In other words, "Hey, this collapse is on Tito, not on me." What a wimp. I appreciate fully the balls it took to trade Nomar on that Saturday afternoon, July 31, 2004. But you lost them. Like the players, who had the balls to convince the umpires to play on a wet field the day Arod and Varitek fought (one week before the trade) and the team came back with a Bill Mueller home run, you changed. You had balls then, and so did your players. Now your players blame the rain and how hard it is to grip a baseball, and you hide behind Peter Gammons to stab your manager in the back. If that's not the 2011 Red Sox, I don't know what is.

8. Organizational Arrogance: True, Theo helped bring a championship to Boston by trading Nomar for two .246 hitters (Cabrera and Mientkiewicz). He thinks he's smarter than you are (and this will be addressed further later on when I crush the ownership triumvirate). You can be really smart, have all the sabermetrics and Heat Charts and Carmine the Computers at your disposal, and tell people in such a smug, arrogant, condescending way like saying "I thought you were gonna ask me about JD Drew having the second-highest OPS of all AL outfielders" how much smarter you are then they are. But when a year like 2011 happens and you look like a complete jerk, you deserve to be under a little more scrutiny.

You like justice, Theo Epstein. Now it's time to serve it. The Red Sox shouldn't get compensation from the Cubs when you split (and hopefully bring Carmine with you). You should be fired.

Ian Patrick Success

2011-10-10T22:29:00.002-04:00

DV technically started his "wind down" posts to this site two weeks ago when the Sox season ended, but really all of his posts since then and for the foreseeable future have been and will be about the end to the Red Sox season. As they should be, the biggest September collapse in baseball history is a big topic, and this particular story has a lot of moving pieces that only seems to get more complicated as more is learned. What I'm going to kick off here are actual wind down posts. Topics that have been prevalent on this site over the last nearly 5 years that deserve to be revisited one final time.

When this site started Ian Patrick Kennedy had not yet pitched a full season of professional baseball. Drafted by the Yankees in the First Round the year before in 2006, he became more widely known during this site's first year in 2007. Largely overshadowed by Phil Hughes and then Joba Chamberlain, he blew through three levels of the minor leagues in roughly 5 months before debuting for the Yankees on September 1, 2007. He made 3 starts that year, pitching 19 innings and living up to the billing early with a 1.89 ERA. Had he not injured his back, he likely would have made the 2007 playoff roster.

That injury was a little bit of foreshadowing, as injuries, ineffectiveness, and a much discussed attitude that was out of touch with reality contributed to the rest of his Yankees career being downhill from that 2007 September. He made 11 appearances (9 starts) over 40.2 innings the next two seasons - all but one of which came in 2008 as he lost most of 2009 to a serious health issue - pitching to a 7.97 ERA.

Since that lone inning in relief on September 23, 2009, it has been all positive for Kennedy. He went to the Diamondbacks as part of the Curtis Granderson trade, and followed a rock solid season (9-10, 3.80 ERA) in his first full-season as a starter with a totally bananas breakout campaign this year (21-4, 2.88 ERA) that will likely net him a Top 5 Cy Young finish. At 26 years old (which DV might tell you is younger than Ellsbury), things are certainly looking very much up for Kennedy, despite the winding road the last 5 years to get there, a winding road that most people experience.

It's just that with the Yankees, that winding road is always magnified and the leash is short. Not that the Yankees wouldn't have been patient with Kennedy the way they have been with say, Hughes, just that they were willing to deal him in the right deal. Getting the best center fielder in the American League is certainly the right deal. No doubt, Kennedy's time with the Yankees was rocky. But it seems a lot rockier than it was because of his ill-advised comments after that one bad start in Anaheim. In terms of on-field opportunity, Kennedy made 3 starts in 2007 and 9 in 2008. He didn't earn more than that with his performance or attitude, and injuries held him back as well. But that's not much of a chance.

He's gotten a chance in Arizona, and has done nothing but perform. He's made 32 and 33 starts in his last two seasons - which are also his first two full seasons - and he's gone a combined 30-14 with a 3.31 ERA in 416 innings at age 25 and 26. Now, the analysis of least resistance is "National League" pitcher. But as we know, most every pitcher gets a bump in the NL and takes a hit in the AL. We have a lot of years worth of data of pitchers changing leagues, and the average is about 1 run on the ERA in either direction. It's not like Kennedy is on the fringes here. He won 21 games, had a 2.88 ERA, and became the ace of a staff on a team that wasn't expected to do much this year and won their division. There is plenty of room for him to regress in an American League environment and be an extremely valuable pitcher based on how he pitched this year. He was lights out.

I still don't condone his attitude or his self-analysis in 2008. But I also understand that was over 3 years ago and he was a 23 year old kid that didn't say the right thing at the right time. He messed up. I'm not going to try to phsycho-analyze him at the time because I don't know enough to do so. But if I had to guess you have a kid who wasn't used to failure - College Pitcher of the Year as a sophomore at USC, First-Round Draft Pick, Minor League Pitcher of the Year his first full year in the minors were his three years prior to the 2008 comments...imagine that - all of a sudden having to deal with failure. He probably wasn't quite sure how to deal, and was trying to make it seem better than it was because he was worried about losing his spot. We often forget that this is these players careers. We're ready enough to just dismiss players who don't perform back to the minors, but they understandably aren't willing to let go so easily. He didn't get it all yet. Certainly not the first 23 year old, in all sorts of different contexts, who didn't get it.

Now all indications are he gets it. And he's certainly not experiencing failure anymore. He became the posterboy on this site for a lack of accountability, denial about performance, and being out of touch with reality. So much so that the utilization of "Ian Patrick" became a monicker for those traits on this site. But he seems to have turned all of those things around, and I couldn't be happier for him. When you make a mistake, or you're struggling, or you get off to a tough start, the only thing you can do is turn it around. Not by talking about it, not by pretending it's turned around when it's really not, but through performance. That's all Kennedy has done the last two seasons. That's what you want to see from a player. That's motivation, pride, and accountability in and for your performance. Kennedy has become what you hope all young players who come highly touted and struggle early will turn into. A success. Which is everything we thought he would be when he flashed that promise at the beginning of his career. Good for him.

Merry Christmas

2011-10-09T16:37:00.001-04:00

Note: I was going to go after the owners for the latest version of Best Team Ever Aftermath, but just as they are unable to formulate a straight answer about Theo, Tito, and improving the team ("Europeans have sports science!" does not count as a straight answer), I can't formulate a logical indictment of them quite yet. I'm not sure if it will exceed the vitriol or the length of Post 1,603, but it might. Luckily, there are other people who need to be hammered before we sign off. And, better yet, I can lead it off with an Eric Ortiz quote.

Every day should feel like Christmas for Curt Young, the new Red Sox pitching coach. The former A’s pitching coach didn’t have anything close to the horses he has now, and Oakland’s staff posted a 3.56 ERA last season, the best in the American League and fourth-best in the majors. Imagine what he can do with a Grade A collection of arms.

Wow. He apparently did as good of a job on Christmas as Bart Simpson did after twelve glasses of water in 1997. Only Young ended up swindling other people out of a lot more than $15,000. You could tell pretty early that the Curt Young experiment was not working out too well, because there were some articles out there about how Matsuzaka (a potential All-Star according to the Ortiz article) and he were trying to work out some kind of compromise.

In April, the night Matsuzaka grooved some fastballs, seemingly in a challenge to whomever said "stop nibbling and throw the ball over the plate," that's when I started to think, "shame on me for being the only person in New England who is critical of John Farrell."

The only thing I cannot blame Curt Young for is Bobby Jenks. That guy is toast. He's a fat pussy toad (hereonin to be called "F.P.T.") with each year's performance being worse than the one before. However...

John Lackey? It's not like he's a bad pitcher or has been a bad pitcher over the course of his career. That's on Curt Young.
Jon Lester's twenty home runs and 75 walks, many of which sunk this team in September when he decided to revert to his 2006 self? That's on Curt Young.
Josh Beckett's weight, Tim Wakefield's weight, and John Lackey's weight: That's at least partially on Curt Young.

The fact that the Red Sox' starting rotation, with the pedigree it had, could only muster quality starts in 43% of their games (league average was 53%), is on Curt Young. The stunning, historic September stats you have been hearing about are also on Young. The fact that the pitching staff was not ready to pitch in the first inning (4.89 ERA, 100 ERA+, .344 OBP) is on Curt Young.

The fact that this starting staff, ON AVERAGE, lasted only 5 2/3 innings where teams like Tampa, Texas, his old Oakland team, and many others could provide you more than two thirds of a baseball game without going to mediocre-by-nature middle relievers, is overwhelmingly embarrassing. And that's on Curt Young.

Think about that: On average, the Red Sox entrusted 3 1/3 innings a night to their bullpen. Let's take reliable players like Papelbon and Bard out of the mix and just credit them for one inning a night. We're talking about on average, seven critical outs being entrusted to Aceves and freaking Matt Albers, Franklin Morales, Tommy Hottovy/Bobby Jenks/Scott Atchison, Andrew Miller/Tim Wakefield, and Dan Wheeler. That's unacceptable.

Considering that the sixth inning is where you saw the HIGHEST ERA (5.11), the MOST walks, the LOWEST K/BB ratio, and the HIGHEST opponents' OPS (the fifth inning was the second-highest) is an indication of three things:

1) The starting pitchers were ALL F.P.T.'s who lacked any kind of arm or aerobic endurance to last more than half a baseball game with 20 minutes' rest after 20 minutes of work.
2) The relievers who came in early in the game were not ready to come into the game. I assume if you take out Alfredo Aceves, that number would be a lot worse.
3) CLA BUCCHOLS GOT HURT!!1 EVERYTHING WOOD BE FINE IF HE DIDDNT GET HURT!11 BEST TEAM EVGER!" Did I hear that the Cardinals may have suffered a few injuries in their pitching staff this year? Shut up, an injury is a lame excuse.

Looking at the players who performed the best under Young (Aceves, Bard, Papelbon), they were either young pitchers or pitchers who had something to prove. If you look at his successful pitching staffs previously (Gio Gonzalez, Dallas Braden, Brett Anderson, and even his last crop in the Moneyball era), they were also young pitchers or pitchers with something to prove. He somehow dropped the ball with the established veterans, especially Beckett when he decided to mail it in for the rest of the season. Hell (yeah), Gonzalez and Anderson are barely old enough to drink beer in the clubhouse like the freaking animals that took the mound every five days for Boston, nevermind Hell Yeah Liking Beer.

Curt Young couldn't lay the law down. Looks like he went on vacation for Christmas, put the automatic timers on his lights, and left the doors unlocked while Lackey, Lester, Beckett, Matsuzaka, and Wakefield drank some beers, plugged the drains, and let the water running.

It's their calling card.

Quick End To A Long Season

2011-10-07T01:17:00.002-04:00

I'm going to keep this short, because I really don't have much interest in recapping a tough elimination game loss. And frankly that won't be too difficult. You play in enough of these things - and I've been fortunate enough to see quite a few - and you come to realize that sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose even though you don't play that badly. Yes, I'm a believer to a certain extent of the crapshoot nature of short playoff series. Baseball isn't the type of sport where the better team wins 80% of the time like football or basketball. But I'm not even totally talking about that here. Sometimes it's just a close series and it doesn't come out your way. That's what happened here.

Don't get me wrong. The Yankees had guys who didn't play well, and Girardi didn't manage a series that other managers will study and try to emulate for years to come. But the Yankees also had guys who played absolutely out of their minds, and Girardi managed certain elements of the series spectacularly. He also did certain things during the season (like constantly backing A.J. Burnett when there was little reason to) that came back to really help the Yankees in this series (like Burnett having some semblance of confidence left to pitch well in a big game, when other managers might have lost him mentally months ago. Girardi found a way to keep him in this season.). They just got bested by another really good team in a really close series. It happens.

It doesn't make losing fun, but at least it wasn't a frustrating performance. The Yankees played hard and played largely well. The thing that really gets me after an ALDS exit is more the investment in the long season followed by such an abrupt end. You watch for 6 months, pay close attention for 8 including Spring Training. You analyze every point. You spend 6-8 weeks talking about playing seeding and the last month looking at playoff strategy. And then it's over in a week. No other sport has anything close to this. The NFL is a shorter season, and the playoffs can be as much as 25% of a regular season. The NBA is longer than football, but much shorter than baseball. It also has a best of 7 first round, and with 9 off days in between each game, even if you lose that first round series you feel like you were around for a little while. If you make a deep run you can play, in terms of total days, for as much as 30-40% of what the regular season is. Baseball you play for 6 months, 162 games, and you can be done in a few days and a few games. It's a very bizarre feeling, like it just vanishes.

One last thing about the series itself. There will be a lot of analysis all over the place about the Yankees offense, and who, what, and where they came up short. And it won't be off base. But I'm going to stick up for the offense because what will get overlooked is the pitching. The Yankees scored 28 runs in 5 games. The two games they won in this series, their offense scored 9 and 10 runs. They got 4 off of Justin Verlander. Meanwhile the Tigers won the series never scoring more than 5 runs in a game and only scored 17 runs all series. Which means they basically won 3 pitching games. The Yankees won zero pitching games. Their offense got them two wins, free and clear. And granted, it's a bit of tough luck because those also happened to be 2 of the games where they got the best pitching (in addition to tonight). But Yankees pitching couldn't best Tigers pitching in any of those other three games, and all they needed was to win one of them. So while you are going to hear this guy hit .200 and that guy struck out in the big spot, the pitching just wasn't tough enough in this series. It's not that the offense is blameless; they certainly could have done more, and could have completely carried the team in this series as opposed to just performing very well. It's just that it's tough to blame them for everything when they win two games for you with 9 and 10 runs.

Finally, I want to end talking about Jorge Posada. If this is indeed his last game in pinstripes - something I don't see as much as a guarantee as I did 3 months ago - the way he played this game and this series epitomized his tremendous career. He hit .429 and got on-base more than half the time in this series. This after a rocky season in which he had to make a late charge with his performance to even be given the chance to contribute in the playoffs. But he just kept grinding away. All season. All series. When a proud player like him gets embarrassed publicly as his skills decline, it's easy to shut down. Especially in this day of pampered stars and entitlement. But Posada is a throwback, an old school competitor. He was angry about it (as anybody who really cares would be - that part of it seemed to be very misconstrued), and after getting past that turned anger into motivation. And then he worked his way back into the lineup not by whining about it or talking about it, but by letting his play do the talking.

The way he spoke in his postgame, it was so incredibly palpable how much he cares about this team and this organization. Which is really refreshing. Posada developed the saying for those late 90's teams "We grind it". No phrase could be more fitting for him as a player. A tough, no excuses, doesn't care how it looks just that it gets done, competitor, wants to win above all else and can't stand to lose. That was all on display in this series, and again, that it came after a long season for him personally is just further tribute to the kind of person and player he is. If he's played his last game for the Yankees, it's been an absolute pleasure to watch him play for and lead this team. With the 7th highest OPS in Major League history for catchers (no pun intended here), and more homers and RBI's than anybody at his position for more than 10 years, I certainly hope he ends up in the Hall of Fame. He deserves to be there.

You Want a Job, Ernie?

2011-10-05T21:56:00.006-04:00

First things first: John Henry speaks. By "speaks" I mean he goes the most professional avenue possible. First, he decides to have a 3-hour conversation with Francona, then hurry to Yacht Week in Boston Harbor, then bump his head for a convenient excuse to skip out on any public accountability regarding firing the most successful manager in the history of the team. At least he was home in time for the soccer game. After five days of going radio silent, JWH decides to express his feelings on Twitter, home of Justin Bieber and not one, but three fake JD Drews. I can't imagine a more classy, accessible, direct, and accountable way of addressing the public than Twitter. Good job, John. I have some more commentary about that in the previous post. If you don't understand the reference, neither will your readers.

But in the whole controversy surrounding JWH, Theo, Tito, and all that take the focus off of who is really to blame for the implosion of the Best Team Ever. It's not like Tito managed this team into the ground, treating Daniel Bard like Jimy Williams treated Tom Gordon or like Joe Torre treated Scott Proctor. He didn't replace Adrian Gonzalez with Lars Anderson unless the former was complaining about a calf injury that was so severe that he could only hit a ball 450 off of it. This is on the actual group of country club members who did not prioritize winning. Francona said as recently as today that personal goals were taking priority over team goals. Well, in the spirit of Christian Bale, I hope the personal goals (except for coming 1 steal short of 40) were f***ing good, because they're useless now, aren't they?

Without further ado, let's pretend I'm the GM. I give you my proposed list of transactions for this offseason. While I cannot dedicate this to Harold Hawkes and Ben Hecht, I can probably dedicate it to George Steinbrenner.

Josh Beckett: I read somewhere today that this guy, who has failed to stay healthy or effective for the entire fall in 83% of his seasons with Boston, started mailing it in when he fell out of Cy Young Award contention. Who knows how true it is, but it makes sense. As I wrote in the spring when killing players for not being in shape in February, how do you allow yourself to become so hideously out of shape? This guy might talk about how much he cares and how good pitches don't get hit. Here's a new one: Fat pitchers don't get outs. You're fired. Trade him to Pittsburgh.

John Lackey: You're right, your numbers look a lot worse than your performances were. You pitched a lot better than the worst pitcher in baseball. It's hard to grip a ball in damp, rainy conditions...unless you're Clayton Richard and are shutting the Red Sox down in the same game. Fired. Trade him to Seattle, where it's rainy all the time but he has a bigger ballpark. You still have to cover first base, though.

Jon Lester: I saw you in the "Hell Yeah, I Like Beer" video too, buddy. Don't like the dimensions of Fenway Park because home runs there are outs in every other ballpark? Fine. You're fired. Trade him to San Diego. Petco Park will be more conducive to his ballpark design specifications. Maybe there he can show up for an entire season. He showed up for April this year, but failed to show up for September. In San Diego, baseball's only five months long. Loser.

Clay Buchholz: Heard you were pissed about being in the minors in '09. If you hadn't imploded in '08 that wouldn't have happened. Also saw you in the "Hell Yeah, I Like Beer" video. You're fired. Traded to Oakland. Maybe they will indeed move to Silicon Valley, where you'll be closer to more laptops than you'll know what to do with.

Daisuke Matsuzaka: Don't like American workouts? Want to undermine your superiors by grooving some to Tampa Bay in April? Fired, sent back to Japan. Maybe you can find your gyroball there, you failure.

Tim Wakefield: You're right. People DESERVE to see you get a few more wins. How about this (I'm taking words from Lou Merloni): "I want to come back so I can win another championship?" Maybe you could have earned your 200th a little faster if you didn't have a gut as big as Beckett's. You're fired. Get a few more wins with the Mets. They allow people like Jose Reyes to put their own stats first.

Dan Wheeler: You're from Rhode Island? Good. You're fired. Report to Pawtucket until you learn how to pitch again.

Matt Albers: The former Oriole was effective for about as long as his old team was in contention. You're fired. Go back to Baltimore, where games in July, August, and September don't matter unless you're spoiling it for a bunch of spoiled brats.

Franklin Morales: Just because you're left handed doesn't mean you can miss the plate. You're fired. Follow Javier Lopez to San Francisco, you might be able to win a World Series there.

Andrew Miller: Same goes for you. You're fired, but have a nice day. I just hope you were as nice of a guy as the guy they traded for you.

Bobby Jenks: You're a disgrace. Find a salad bar. I'm actually counting my blessings because you had so few chances to pitch the Red Sox into fourth place. You're fired. You're traded to the Cubs, because their new GM Theo Epstein thinks your declining stats will reverse themselves.

Daniel Bard: The "can't pitch under pressure" stuff is beyond your road stats. Isn't that what happened in your first year in professional baseball? You're fired, traded to the Marlins. About 400 people show up there, so you'll have no pressure at all.

Kevin Youkilis: The Greek God of Bitching and Moaning. I heard you like privacy, hate being bothered by fans, don't like 46, don't like umpires, don't like Manny, don't like bus rides, and act like an entitled prick all the time. Playing against the Pittsburgh Pirates, whose payroll is about 1/7 of yours, creates an unfair advantage? Jesus, that's the most F'ed up thing I've heard since Oscar Pistorius's unfair advantage (a Catt Williams reference). Nine days without the DH? Totally unfair, because you don't have nine other all-stars on your team. Totally unfair. You like Cincinnati though? You're fired; traded to the Reds for Bronson Arroyo, who actually like to play here.

Mike Aviles: Learn how to run the bases, then come back. You're fired. The Yomiuri Giants are a good fundamental team. Learn some fundamentals such as baserunning.

Jed Lowrie: You hit .210 against lefties. You're fired. Go to Arizona. You can either rehab your recurring injuries like your boy 46 did or Jed Williams can be cryogenically frozen next to Ted Williams at Alcor.

46: You're worse than Jose Reyes. You cost the team a game so you could enhance your chase toward 40 bases. There is no other reason to steal third base with two outs and Pedroia up when it's late and close. You're fired. Go with your boy Lowrie to Arizona.

Adrian Gonzalez: You're an absolute embarrassment. Losing was "God's will?" Too many Sunday night games had an impact on your season? Your calf muscle hurts, but not so much that it will prevent you from hitting home runs, so you have to put in a minor leaguer who can't catch a pickoff attempt? Your shoulder hurts but you won't tell the Boston media about it? You don't know why people are watching you take batting practice? You are being paid a ton of money not because you deserve it or because of God's will. You're getting paid to produce for a fan base that cares about whether you win games. This is what you signed up for.

You also signed up for a fan base that wants you to care as much as they do. And they're mostly Irish Catholics named Sully and Murph, not Calvinists, so they're not going to eat up your "I'm going to coast through life because that's God's plan" crap. Did you forget to read the Old Testament, you piece of laissez-faire, complacent, blase garbage? How about the part about man's free will? See, you might get torn up when you have an 0-15 stretch, but you won't get torn up when your team wins seven games in a month? Nice priorities. I wonder how your fantasy owners think when they see that you led baseball with GIDPs this year. That's okay, you already built in an excuse to never run hard in March because you're just so slow that it LOOKS like you're jogging to first and dogging it worse than Izzy Alcanatara in the outfield. Built-in excuse there. Built-in excuse with the shoulder. Built in excuse of God's plan. You're so fired. Forget San Diego, you don't deserve to go home. You're traded to Florida, where nobody will watch you do anything and you can continue to put up fantasy stats in meaningless games.

Jason Varitek: Your veteran leadership did a lot of good this year. You also handled Josh Beckett really well, teaching him how to be a man and to not have a security blanket personal catcher. You're fired. Go try to find a job somewhere else.

David Ortiz: News flash: You are NOT the media liaison, telling people who to pick on and not to pick on. You are NOT Jay-Z. You are NOT a private investigator of why your Dominican protein shakes tested positive for steroids. You are NOT the commissioner, so you shouldn't be talking about how much interleague play sucks. You are NOT an umpire, so yes, it is possible that you have taken a called strike that's supposed to be a strike before. You are NOT the general manager, so you have no say of whether your option should be picked up. You are NOT the manager, so stop making pitching or lineup decisions. You are NOT on the team next year, so go the F away.

JD Drew: Your sore shoulder, sore finger, and sore neck - and your desire to play through these things instead of lengthing your DL sting - have partially made it an absolute pleasure to absolutely hammer you on this website for the last five baseball seasons. Enjoy your retirement. You came heralded as the next Mickey Mantle, and you had the talent for it. It's too bad you didn't have an ounce of giveacrap factor in your entire body. You're fired. No thanks for your performance. But thanks for the laughs, you freaking joke.

Darnell McDonald: You were hitting .117 on July 4th. That's half a season. You're fired, because that is not Major League eligible.

Josh Reddick: Too bad people started scouting you and saw you as a pitchtoable hitter with holes in your swing and a lazy attitude in the outfield. I rooted for you. Now I'm firing you.

Carl Crawford: Did Jon "Five Months" Lester help you write your August 26 blog post about I HAD a bad season? There's still a month worth of baseball left! But hey, once you're benched against David Price after hitting .245 for a season, you have license to cry, right? Oh, wait, the previous 22 people on this list probably already told you that. You're fired. The Captain told me you're getting dressed and going home, back to Houston where there are no more private investigators and no more $142 million contracts. Don't come back.

Marco Scutaro, Jonathan Papelbon (surprised?), Jarrod Saltalamacchia, and Dustin Pedroia: You want a job?

When are we going to leave?

2011-10-05T20:49:00.002-04:00

Probably never.

It's Terry Francona's fault that he rushed you back to Boston after your three-hour morning meeting. He should have known it was Yacht Week and sailing all day, enjoying the sea and sun takes precedence over personnel moves unless they result in being up 20%.

Forcing Game 5

2011-10-05T01:06:00.004-04:00

The Yankees did what they had to do if they wanted to keep playing in these playoffs. They forced Game 5 back in the Bronx on Thursday night.

A.J. Burnett is a big reason why they are still playing. He pitched arguably the biggest game of his Yankees' career tonight, maybe his career period. That's right, perhaps even bigger than Game 2 of the 2009 World Series. It's close. That was a bigger stage, this was an elimination game. Either way, his performance tonight was absolutely massive. 5.2 innings of 1 run (4 hit, 4 walk, 3 strikeout) baseball was everything Yankees fans were hoping for and then some.

But they say baseball is a game of inches, and that was certainly on display tonight. Of those 4 walks, 3 came in the first inning. Jackson walked to lead off the game, after Burnett got two outs they smartly walked Cabrera intentionally after Burnett fell behind 2-0, and Martinez walked to load the bases. Don Kelly crushed a 1-0 fastball to center. One of the toughest defensive plays in the game, a screaming liner right at the center fielder. Tough to read. Granderson first took a step in, then went back and made an incredible diving play. If that ball gets over his head, it's an easy 3 runs since the runners were off on contact with 2 outs, and with Kelly running it may have been an inside the park Grand Slam.

Either way, needless to say, that would have changed the complexion of the game. Girardi admitted after the game that Burnett may have been out right then and there (the bullpen was ready) in the first inning. The Yankees would have been in an immediate hole and who knows how it plays out. Instead Burnett stayed in and largely cruised and the Yankees took a 2-0 lead two innings later that they would not relinquish. Truly a game of inches.

Can't say enough about Curtis Granderson. In addition to the aformentioned catch, he had another highlight reel catch to end the 6th and a big RBI double to stretch the lead to 3-1 in the 6th after the offense had stalled a bit since the 2 runs in the 3rd. Speaking of the two runs in the 3rd, can't say enough about Derek Jeter. That 2 run double to get the scoring started is what truly great players do in the biggest spot. That, as much as anything, set the tone for this game and swung the momentum in the Yankees' favor.

The Yankees have gotten a lot of contributions from a lot of places in this series offensively - Cano, Gardner, Martin - but how about Jorge Posada? He was 4-8 with 4 walks in the first 3 games. He went 0-2 before Montero pinch hit for him tonight (and he picked up 2 hits in his first two playoff at bats), but was hit by a pitch and scored the Yankees first run of the game. He's been everywhere in this series, and good for him considering the ups and downs of this regular season for him. Performing the way he is after all of that is true mental toughness as an athlete.

Now the Yankees just need to find a way to win one game. At home. All hands on deck. Hopefully the game of inches will go their way again like it did tonight, and they'll get more step-up performances like they did tonight. Those are two of the most important factors in winning big games, as we saw tonight. Go Yankees.

I Can Do It Around The Clock...

2011-10-03T22:21:00.001-04:00

I don't like it a little bit, I like it a lot. Hell yeah, hell yeah, I like beer.

This is partially why Terry Francona had to go. I can give you the preamble, and I actually agree with the preamble of the fact that Francona did a great job as the Red Sox' manager. When he is in charge of a group of self-starting baseball players, his no-meddling, be-your-friend style is fantastic.

When he's in charge of players who after winning a World Series, care more about an entire winter of going out to the bars instead of the pull-up bars, his style doesn't work.
When his players drink beer in the clubhouse while the game is going on, creating a real sense of seriousness and focus on the task at hand, his style doesn't work.
When his players are more concerned with Second Base Cup and the country club atmosphere that is more pronounced now than it has been in literally 45 years (source: Rico Petrocelli's book) than working on fundamentals, his style doesn't work.
When a starting pitcher fails to even saunter over to first base to cover the base, his style doesn't work. The style of a manager who will pull him in the second inning when that happens works. But that's not Terry Francona.
When a buffet table needs to be flipped over in April and again in late August, Terry Francona isn't the one who's going to do it.

Look, Terry Francona was an above-all advocate of the "not a sprint, a marathon" philosophy. Never getting pumped about wins, never getting bummed about losses. Urging players to never panic. Not using your closer in the eighth inning, because that would be putting short-term goals in front of the goal of keeping him rested for October. That's great, but as we saw, if you save it all for October a little too much, which he clearly did during that Toronto series and many times earlier in the season when Papelbon SHOULD have been put in for 5+ outs just so he could get used to the feeling, when it counts your players aren't ready.

In Game 162, Papelbon was not ready. He was clearly not prepared to temper his compete level when he needed to. His compete level was at a 12, and overthrowing the ball cost him - and the team, the game - and the opportunity to get absolutely shelled by Detroit because fat kids don't play baseball in October.

The entire attitude surrounding that clubhouse was poisonous. And the manager has to take the fall for that, because maintaining an overarching attitude of a consistent effort - something that the Yankees clearly did this year - is his job. Maintaining civility in the clubhouse, and an attitude of having each other's backs - somebody senior has to take leadership. Varisuck LEADER LEADER C C LEADER INTANGIBLES C clearly wasn't doing anything about that. It's the manager's job to regulate if senior members of the team cannot do it.

Instead, here is the kind of stuff that went down that Terry Francona failed to put an abrupt halt to:

-Whining about a competitive disadvantage against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
-Whining about the rain against the San Diego Padres.
-Getting shelled and saying you had a good game.
-Blaming it on a strike zone.
-Taking yourself out of a game due to a sore calf after hitting a home run on said sore calf.
-Taking yourself out of two games, including being unavailable to pinch hit, due to a sore back "suffered" on the team plane.
-Whining about bus rides.
-Getting away with questioning his decisions regarding the pitching staff.
-Getting away with questioning his decisions to bench crappy players against David Price by pouting and sitting out the next few games.
-Getting away with missing two months with a case of retirement anticipation AKA sore shoulder, sore finger, and sore neck.
-Having players prioritize personal stats (200 wins, 40 stolen bases) over winning games. Can't wait for Carmine to recommend Jose Reyes this winter.
-Having Dustin Pedroia get away with anything because they're friends. My dad once had a shirt saying "I'm not your friend, I'm your coach." Francona should have embodied the back of that shirt.

I would like to throw in there that the only time I remember Francona crushing someone was when JD Drew asked out of a game when they were so short-staffed that Clay Buchholz had already been used as a pinch runner.

The fact that Francona failed to get thrown out of the game on several occasions to fire up his players was especially telling. Joe Maddon got tossed in a game where Francona SHOULD HAVE gotten tossed. Joe Maddon set an example, and so did Francona - the example of "hey, keep your cool. No time to panic. We're good enough (best team ever) to keep our cool and put it back together."

Well, sometimes, it's time to panic. April was a time to panic. September was a time to panic. At a certain point, it's not about managing for Tim Wakefield's 200th win. If he wanted his freaking win, he should have earned it.

This has been said by others, and now it's being said for me. You cannot fire 37 out of the 40 members of that 40-man roster (although I might in a future post) who no longer listen to the manager. Believe me, if I were actually the GM and had the choice between firing 1) Francona or 2) Beckett, Lackey, Buchholz, Lester, Wakefield, Matsuzaka, Miller, Wheeler, Jenks (twice), Morales, Albers, Bard, Varitek, Gonzalez, Aviles, Youkilis, Lowrie, Crawford, 46, Ortiz (twice), McDonald, AND Drew, not to mention Theo, Carmine, Cherington, Gammons, Curt Young, the entire medical staff, the entire strength and conditioning staff, the caterers, the dieticians, Tim Bogar, Lucchino (three times), Werner (twice), Michael Showalter from the show Schooled, Linda Pizzuti, and Henry (1.20 times because that's once plus 20%), I'd do the latter in a heartbeat. But unfortunately, if the 34 plus the non-specific positions I mentioned cannot fit with the manager, it's easier to fire one guy than 50.

I wrote a lot of this already when I said that Francona had become a "fat little girlfriend" who just told these guys how great they were and how easy it was going to be. No enforcement of making people run a few laps and not get fat. No enforcement of any rules of "take your job seriously." No enforcement of benching guys who fail to do baseball fundamental stuff (cutoff men, routine fly balls, throwing the ball to first base, covering first base, not running into outs, not stealing third base with two outs in a one-run game with a .300 hitter up if you're the fastest person in baseball, and I could go on).

It was the right move to make.

Best Team Ever Aftermath Schedule

2011-10-03T21:09:00.000-04:00

I'm going to try to organize my Francona/Henry/Theo/Werner/Best Team Ever/Beckett/Lackey thoughts in a logical way. Because of this, I'm going to have something to talk about throughout the entire Yankees' playoff run and therefore will not overburden my emotionally-committed co-author. There is so much to say about these guys that we are going to easily exceed our goal of 1620 posts before we hang it up. But if I write it, I will perhaps hold myself accountable for it.

Tonight: Why Francona Had to Go.
Next Time: The GM's 2012 Roster (get your popcorn ready; this one might be long).
Time After That (barring any further implosions): Please Sell the Team.

As far as this playoff run goes, I am rooting modestly for the Tampa Bay Rays. After my full-scale indictment of them a short two years ago, I've changed my tune. They're a team that's doing everything right. They're playing fundamental baseball and seem motivated (even BJ Upton!). Their starting pitchers are skinny, actually tough instead of hiding behind the guise of tough, skilled, and willing to pitch more than five innings a night. Their bullpen, while not fantastic, also doesn't have any high-priced free agents with a drinking problem and worsening statistics. Their most hatable players, Jason Bartlett and Aki Iwamura are gone, and their emo kid manager, while dislikable, is a good motivator and seems like someone who would hold his team accountable. I have a very good friend from the Tampa area, and I'm really happy for him. He has a team you can root for, while the Red Sox do not.

Also, they played hard (though not particularly spectacularly) down the stretch. They recovered from a bad start and a Manny Ramirez suspension. They are the small-market underdog the $180 million Red Sox think they are.

From Pat: Pivotal Game Three

2011-10-03T09:24:00.000-04:00

Note: This one's from PF At Work. Sorry for the delay.

Popular opinion seems to be that the rainout helped the Yankees. Instead of seeing Verlander twice they now will only see him once. I'm not so sure. Yes, seeing Verlander once instead of twice is a good thing. But now, instead of seeing him in Game 1, they are seeing him in Game 3. Game 3 is a far more pivotol game in terms of swinging a five game series than Game 1. The Yankees do have C.C. Sabathia on the mound, but they are still facing Justin Verlander at home instead of on the road in front of a crowd that is going to be bananas. The Yankees also go from being able to use a three-man rotation to now needing a fourth. That means, should they lose tonight, they'll have A.J. Burnett trying to stave off elimination on the road in Game 4. Wonderful.

In general, I'm of the mind that any change in schedule helps the inferior team. Instead of there being a routine things are on the fly. This weekend at Yankee Stadium I was having flashbacks to 2006. The Yankees beat the Tigers pretty handily in Game 1, and then Game 2 was rained out. Instead of being played at night, Game 2 was played during the day, as was the case this weekend. I've always thought Yankee Stadium was a more intimidating place to play at night, especially in the playoffs. The fans are more revved up. There is a little mroe bite in the air. The lights are bright. It's just a little more dull during the day. Having been at both games this weekend, I can confirm that was certainly the case this weekend. Granted, the Yankees gave a lot more to cheer about Saturday night and a lot less on Sunday day, but still. It just didn't have the same feel and Detroit - a team that played sloppy and borderline tight baseball on Friday and Saturday - looked completely comfortable on Sunday.

Not everything about the rainout is bad for the Yankees. The Tigers do not have as deep a bullpen, and they have been forced to use their 3 big arms on the back-end heavily already in this series. And the Yankees have hit them hard. Albequerque only threw 7 pitches on Saturday night, but Cano sent his second pitch of the night for a Grand Slam (only the Cano run was charged to him, but a Grand Slam is a Grand Slam). Then in Game 2, Benoit worked 2 innings and Valverde threw 34 pitches in the 9th. Scherzer no-hit the Yankees for 5.1 innings, and shut them out for 6. Then Detroit's set-up man and closer gave up 5 baserunners and 3 runs in their last two innings of work. I initially thought the rainout would help the Tigers' bullpen. The Yankees have a better back-end, and with the originally planned Sunday off-day it guaranteed that the Yankees would have all of their bullpen available for every game. The rainout made if 4 games in 4 days and took that guarantee away should the first few games be close. But with two games in the books, the Soriano/Robertson/Rivera have combined to throw 3 pitches (Rivera faced the last batter in Game 1, striking him out on 3 pitches). They are all completely rested going into tonight, prepared to go innings 7-9 at a minimum, perhaps more if needed. Meanwhile Detroit's key bullpen arms are pretty spent. They are critical in the middle of the lineup.

Shows you how things can change. Perceived disadvantages turn out to be an advantages, and vice versa. I hope that happens with more perceived disadvantages after the rainout for the rest of this series.

Finally I just want to point out two last things. First, Robinson Cano is absurdly talented. I'm glad that he is finally batting 3rd/4th in the order over A-Rod and Tex. He flat out took that game over on Saturday night, in tough hitting conditions. If the wind wasn't blowing in his first double off the top of the wall might have been 10 rows deep - to the opposite field. Second, the Yankees' offensive performance yesterday was just an embarrassment. After hanging 9 runs on the Tigers in Game 1, they didn't muster a hit until the 6th inning. Give credit to Max Scherzer, who is extremely talented and was great yesterday. And no doubt the Yankees hit some balls hard that were at people. But get a hit. This is a playoff game and there were weak at bats all over the place. Teixeira and Rodriguez need to make some things happen these next two games in Detroit. One hit in two games between the two of them isn't helping this offense score against good pitching. They are critical in the middle of the order for the Yankees.

Neither Will Your Readers

2011-09-30T10:26:00.000-04:00

Pat: Sorry to bury your post. But this is big news.

John Henry fired Francona. Apparently he thinks Lebron James is a better asset to his portfolio than the manager.

I agree that the team needs someone else, but it shouldn't be JWH making the decision.

ALDS Preview: Yankees/Tigers

2011-09-29T22:06:00.003-04:00

For the first time in a while, we don't have the Red Sox late season situation to discuss. I think the topic has been covered pretty well, and I'm sure it will be revisited as people get some time away and the resultant perspective. Not just perspective in regards to the meltdown, but more importantly perspective in terms of what this means for the broader context of where the Red Sox are going. They've gone from winning the World Series, to losing in the ALCS, to getting swept in the ALDS, to missing the playoffs two years in a row. Those things obviously don't all point to a steady decline the way the shear end results indicate (getting bounced at different points in the playoffs is not necessarily a true indicator of talent), but clearly this is not a team heading in the direction they want to be right now, and I'm sure that will be addressed here.

Moving onto previewing the Yankees division series matchup, I think a lot of this series will boil down to Sabathia vs. Verlander. Both are very clearly the ace of their respective staffs, and a there is a lot of playoff question marks after that in both rotations after that. In terms of both overall and underlying statistics, both were probably the two best pitchers in the American League this year as well. It's a bigtime matchup, and even bigger in the context of a 5 game series. That is because both are slated to start Game 1 and a potential Game 4. If one can take control of that matchup, they likely put their team in the driver's seat in this series.

Beyond that, the starting pitching is pretty similar. The Yankees have a better and deeper bullpen (4th best bullpen ERA in the majors to 25th best bullpen ERA in the majors), but the Tigers do have some strong arms on the back end in Valverde, Benoit, and Alburquerque. In the postseason the back-end influences games far more than middle relief in most cases, so the Tigers will have a chance to make an impact here. They will be up against Rivera, Robertson, and Soriano, which is no small task. Especially because the Yankees do have more depth, so should the starting pitching falter and it becomes a contest of middle relief, guys like Hughes, Burnett, and Wade could provide separation. The Yankees also have Logan to neutralize lefties.

The Yankees have a better offense, scoring 80 more runs than Detroit this year. But that is somewhat misleading as the Tigers were 4th in runs scored in all of baseball, only two behind the Yankees who were 2nd in baseball in runs scored. They also have a lot of right-handed/switch-hitting bats, which could help them make things tougher on Sabathia.

As far as the Yankees' offense, they are as deep and talented as any team in the game. For them it's a matter of not having guys disappear. Naturally, in a short sample like the playoffs, some guys are going to get hot and some are going to be cold. The key for the Yankees is having that relentless 1-9 attack, just like they do for most of the regular season. When they do that, as we know, they can make even the best pitches work and get them out of the game early. The problem is, in a playoff setting, the Yankees have at times had complete zeroes in the lineup and that has allowed elite starters, and even just good starters, get in bigtime grooves against them. That was rarely more evident than against Texas last year. They don't work counts, they don't get guys on base, pitchers aren't having long innings, and it starts to look like everyone is thinking home run.

Can't have that in the playoffs. Have to think small, and let the big extra-base hit come when it comes. It's all about getting baserunners and moving them along. A big part of that happening is minimizing the amount of bats that are totally neutralized, because that stagnates the lineup and prevents the lineup from getting in a groove and turning over. Based on the last two postseasons, the biggest players to watch in this regard are Teixeira, Swisher, and Gardner. Tex and Swish have gotten a few big hits each, but for the most part these three have been non-factors. The Yankees need more from them this postseason.

Overall, the Yankees need to come out on the offensive. They're at home, they had the best record in the league, and they played good baseball for a long time to end the season. I'll be at both Game 1 and Game 2. No matter how many times the Yankees get there, playoff baseball, especially the buzz the day before and the day that it begins, never gets old. Go Yankees.

'27 Yankees Retain Title of "Best Team In League History"

2011-09-29T00:29:00.000-04:00

Their major threat, the 2011 Boston Red Sox, billed in January as the best team ever, failed to make the wild card today.

That's okay, though, because it wasn't their fault.

NESN.com's Eric Ortiz: 2011 Red Sox Will Challenge 1927 Yankees for Title Of Greatest Team in Major League History

How Youz Doin Baseball's The GM: Dan Johnson's Baby Shampoo. No More Tears.

Y'all have a good Thursday.

Game 162/163 Reaction Thread

2011-09-28T20:24:00.000-04:00

Like many of the Red Sox players (hunting, contracts, getting Ken Rosenthal a good scoop, Dunkin Donuts commercials)...
the Red Sox owners (Roush Fenway Racing, Liverpool, #6, Sweet Caroline in the 8th inning)...
and the Red Sox' general manager (putting blame on Francona, the Chicago Cubs)...
I have other things that are distracting me from late-season baseball. Like three straight days of classes. Of course, if the Red Sox showed up in either April or September, this would not be an issue. But they failed to do both of those things.

I'm watching. But I can't come up with 500-1,500 words to write about it. At least not tonight.

So this one's all yours.

Tales from the Text Machine

2011-09-27T21:41:00.000-04:00

I pretty much spilled it all in last night's comment section. Hopefully I can remember a month and a half from now to commemorate the Red Sox' 2011 season with my three-comment rant from the office this afternoon.

Currently the Best Team Ever is up 5-3 and the Rays and Yankees are tied at two. I have more work to do than the Red Sox' bullpen after Erik Bedard departed early tonight, so I'm going to give a Red Sox September-level effort toward this post. I imagine whatever ends up happening tonight will be reflected in the comments section. I also anticipate that my cell phone is going to be asking me to delete some texts soon, but as this is my easiest medium of communication with my co-author, I don't like to delete texts when the team is struggling because that's when I maximize overall cleverness. To avoid this problem, it's time to publish.

PF, 9/5, 4:27 PM: Who is going to end the year with more HRs, Montero or Drew?
DV, 4:30 PM: Montero.
PF, 4:31 PM: How many does Drew have? (Answer is 4).

PF, 9/16, 7:03 PM: It's good that the Sox are relying on a guy [Beckett] who lets his gut get out of control EVERY YEAR tonight. Look at that thing!
DV, 7:08 PM: These guys obviously give a [expletive] about their jobs. Wrap your ankle, you [expletive].
PF, 7:09 PM: He'll pitch lights out tonight. The PF jinx.
DV, 7:10 PM: Fat and happy. Big contract. Find a salad bar. If my [expletive] mom is saying the same stuff as you, it's a problem.
PF, 7:11 PM: Did [your mom] just see the same shot I did of him in the bullpen? His gut was popping!
DV, 7:13 PM: That was her commentary when he got hurt. Way to stand on the base after the Julian throw got away, Adrian. [in reference to the Julian Tavarez post-comebacker bowl]
DV, 7:13 PM: [in reference to the 50-run series prophecy] 41 more runs in 80 remaining outs.
DV, 7:14 PM: Staff ERA of 13.50? That would be pretty standard.
PF, 7:15 PM: I'll tell you what, Tampa is a smart team, first pitch bunt testing Beckett.
DV, 7:15 PM: Whatever. Swing away. Francona will let him surrender seven bombs tonight.
DV, 7:17 PM: [after a home run] Six more.

DV, 9/17, 6:38 PM: [In a key spot with a man on and 46 up] GIDP. Calling it now.
DV, 6:40 PM: [after the pitcher threw a wild pitch and 46 grounded out] One wild pitch away from genius.

DV, 9/19, 2:01 PM: Best team ever.
PF, 4:06 PM: Two wild stats: Boston hasn't won a game since August 27th in which they've scored less than 9 runs. And Boston has gotten 4 quality starts in their last 23.
DV, 4:08 PM: "Yet one run is all it might take to win a game on some days with the starting staff the red sox have assembled." -E. Ortiz

DV, 9/20, 11:39 AM: How do you spell the last name of the Red Sox' manager?
PF, 11:44 AM: Francona.
DV, 11:45 AM: Wrong. O-R-T-I-Z.
PF, 11:46 AM: How so?
DV, 11:48 AM: Making [expletive] pitching staff decisions. Shut the [expletive] up and hit. [Expletive] guy thinks he's the GM too. Wah, I deserve an extension. Wah, we need a power hitter. [Expletive] you.
PF, 11:48 AM: What did he say about the pitching?
DV, 11:49 AM: Aceves should start. Popped it off to the press. Whether or not he's right (he is), shut the [expletive] up.
PF, 11:59 AM: Yeah, they don't need more mock GMs right now. They need someone to step up and win games.
DV, 12:01 PM: Whatever. They're two up with ten to play. They can coast now. Didn't you read the Fangraphs percentages? Losers.

DV, 9/20, 11:00 PM: These games have to end earlier. Can't wait so long to watch NESN's original program SCHOOLED! Best team ever.
DV, 11:01 PM: Good times never seemed so good SO GOOD SO GOOD SO GOOD!
PF, 11:02 PM: Sorry bro. At least Tampa lost.
DV, 9/21, 7:51 AM: Don't be sorry, they deserve it.

DV, 9/21, 4:53 PM: Just stumbled across President Adams's desperate letter about Colby's "financial situation." Ah, that was a fun day.

DV, 9/22, 12:07 PM: I should go to the Fenway bridal festival on Sunday that the Sox are advertising. As a journalist. Touching me, touching you!

DV, 9/23, 11:55 AM: Theo Epstein is a [expletive] [expletive]. "Hey, it's not my fault that my expensive players suck! It's Francona's!" [Expletive] you.
DV, 12:45 PM: Also, the AL East predictions on the Worldwide Leader as cited by NoMaas is damn amazing. [100% of ESPN's "analysts" picked Boston to win the AL East. The GM, as you may remember, did not.]
PF, 1:26 PM: I was sending that around yesterday to my buddies. Another buddy sent it to me. 0-50?
DV, 3:36 PM: Good thing Theo traded Yamaico Navarro for Aviles. Otherwise they'd have no #5 hitter tonight. Best team ever.

DV, 9/25, 2:40 PM: Electric Stuff versus Best Team Ever. Something has to give!
PF, 2:51 PM: YES just gave the stat: 43% of all Boston starts have been quality starts this year. League average is 53%.
DV, 3:08 PM: Beckett is a tough guy and Lackey is a bulldog.
DV, 3:12 PM: Also, why did Bigelow Green Tea take out Wakefield? Didn't pitch long enough to get win 201. What the [expletive].
DV, 3:42 PM [shortly after 46 hit his 30th home run]: 46 will not get a hit for the rest of the season. Got his 30/100.
DV, 4:11 PM [when they lost game 1, citing Eric Ortiz]: Every day should feel like Xmas for Curt Young. The former A's pitching coach didn't have anything close to the horses he has now.
PF, 4:13 PM: If they lose tonight, is it tied?
DV, 4:14 PM: Yes sir. Best team ever.

DV, 8:21 PM: Yanks will find a way to win this game.
DV, 10:27 PM [after 46 grounds into a double play]: MV GID P.
DV, 10:31 PM [referring to Morales]: Does Montero throw another strike before the end of the night? [He does.] I'd give even odds.
PF, 10:58 PM: He did his job.
DV, 10:59 PM [as the game stretches deeper into extras]: Fair. How pissed is JD right now?
DV, 11:20 PM [after 46 homers]: Wow.

DV, 9/27, 12:23 PM: Watching the news at lunch. A good mood-boosting food - green tea! No wonder [expletive] Francona has no worries about his choking team.
PF, 12:42 PM: Saw something today putting it squarely on management's shoulders for Lackey/Matsuzaka debacles and having no depth/plan B's behind them or anyone else in event of injury.
DV, 12:44 PM: Eh, I wouldn't call that fair. Andrew Miller was Plan B.
PF, 12:52 PM: Good enough. I guess there is enough else to blame management for as well.
DV, 12:53 PM: Drew and Beckett and organizational attitude are on management. Lackey and Crawford are not. [Debatable, looking back at it, as that's poor scouting.]
PF, 1:19 PM: I have to put Crawford on management. Sucker bet on a guy coming off a career year, paid him for what he was rather than what he'll be on the wrong side of 30.
DV, 1:20 PM: Crawford in 2015 is on management when he can't [expletive] run anymore. Crawford in 2011 is on Crawford.
PF, 1:25 PM: Fair point, and I'm a proponent of that theory as you know. In "win now" years, you sacrifice some long-term risk for short-term gains.
DV, 1:27 PM: By "win now" you mean "television ratings are down," right? Reaching out, touching me, touching you!
PF, 1:38 PM: They are going for it this year, and they were from the start. Agonz and Crawford clear evidence of that.
DV, 1:40 PM: Yeah, agree without sarcasm. TV ratings and membership card/commemorative brick sales were down. Gotta be up 20%.
DV, 1:42 PM: #6 being a disaster in the fourth quarter didn't exactly help JWH's portfolio. [Expletive] baby. The whole team emulates #6.

DV, 2:53 PM: 46 is a [expletive] joke. That caught stealing last week was unconscionable, selfish, and detrimental to winning. [Expletive] that guy.

DV, 6:29 PM: Jed Williams hitting cleanup. The .199 average and .571 OPS since 6/4 must be why.

Best Team Ever

2011-09-27T08:28:00.000-04:00

A few quick ones, as the Best Team Ever enjoys their first day sharing a first place tie with Tampa atop the wild card race:

1. Sorry. Can't kill John Lackey for flipping out at the media the other night. I know you want me to, but I can't do it. It's a group of guys he doesn't (and probably shouldn't) trust, and someone probably leaked his cell phone number to TMZ. Crush him all you want for his lack of performance on the baseball field. And you can't crush him for divorcing his wife in the middle of her cancer battle, either. We're not talking about John Edwards here. Suppose she was tired with his whining and making the whole thing about himself and his life sucking back in May.

2. Josh Beckett is an ace. Notice how he didn't use the curveball last night? Anyone see him in the dugout tugging on his right middle finger during last Wednesday's game? You know where I'm going with this. He continues the trend of a guy who cannot pitch through an entire baseball season.

3. Credit due to 46 for his home run on Sunday, but what are the chances he plays tonight? Also huge ups to the bullpen. Can't believe Franklin Morales gave some innings.

4. Jed Lowrie should not hit left handed.

5. Go easy on Adrian Gonzalez as he gravitates toward the two most inefficient things you can do as an offensive player. He has a sore shoulder.

6. Tampa's playing the Yankees, so the Red Sox can coast into the playoffs now. Just keep the same attitude they've had all year. They have better things to do than play baseball next week, so I have better things to do than watch them play baseball next week.

Creeped Out

2011-09-25T22:24:00.000-04:00

I've been trying all year, and this week was the final straw. Win or lose tonight, Carl Crawford has earned his own post for his role in the failure of the Best Team Ever. This guy is a complete joke.

We should have known early that this guy wasn't fit for the job. He's a guy who depends on speed, which is not exactly aligned with the Red Sox' overall offensive philosophy. In fact, he has barely stolen all season (largely a product of the fact that you can't steal first base). He didn't have a spot in the lineup. Some of his friends from home insinuated that he would have some time adjusting to the spotlight in Boston. And then there came the stories about how Theo Epstein had people tail him like private investigators, something Crawford was "creeped out" by. We should have known.

Everyone gave him the benefit of the doubt in April, with Joe Sheehan (I think) of Sports Illustrated saying that the team should not worry about his slow start. He didn't do anything overly stupid in the first few months except for a long series of bad swings. Then the focus started to wane, something that has spread throughout the Red Sox' roster.

There were the poor caroms off of the wall and many misplayed fly balls. There were the missed cutoff men. There were some missed signs. There was poor baserunning. There was straight-up poor concentration. And it's one thing if you just flat-out suck at playing baseball (example: Coco Crisp), but it's another thing when you suck at thinking, lack focus, or let your physical tools go to waste. Carl Crawford is not Coco Crisp. But he lacked the concentration to play any better than Coco Crisp did this year. And as much as it seemed like he cared about winning, cared about doing well, and all that, his actions since being benched against David Price are the ultimate in inexcusable.

Being a complete baby about things if you're a well-paid professional athlete is inexcusable in my book when you're hitting .330 with 120 RBIs, which is why after Adrian Gonzalez pulled his Ken Rosenthal crap last week, he entered my doghouse as well. But Crawford is combining this deplorable behavior with downright stupid decisions on field. The constant misplaying of fly balls and being, despite your speed and health, Mike Cameron out there because you suck at focusing is unconscionable. Seriously, hit a cutoff man.

And here's a news flash. I do appreciate the accountability, because your ability to say that you suck when you suck is something that your entire roster is unable to do for some reason, but you wrote your blog post about "Sorry for the bad season" on August 26th. Coincidentally, this is the eve of the last time the Best Team Ever strung together two consecutive wins. Since then, there have been 27 games, and the Best Team Ever has won seven of them (pending tonight). Wow, this is exactly 1/6 of the season! Good thing you were already apologizing for 2010 when there was more than a sixth of the season left to go. Nice focus, Carl.

Here's another news flash: When you suck (and your name is not John Lackey, Jason Varitek or Mike Timlin), you're going to get benched on a non-Devil Rays team. Sorry. That's life. You want to hit against David Price? Try hitting against the dregs of the American League first. When some of the real players on the team are actually hurt (or are JD Drew), don't fake a neck injury. That's disgusting. Let's tell the truth here: You "hurt your neck" pouting. Grow up, you punk.

And while you were taking your two-day pout break, I heard Gordon Edes approached you, as reporters are paid to do. Wait, wow, a guy actually doing what he's paid to do! That's like you hitting .300, not misplaying fly balls, and hitting cutoff men! So when this guy does what he's paid to do, you flip out on him and tell him to "ask the captain." Well, everything I said about your accountability in your poorly-timed apology blog post, I take that back. You suck as much as the rest of these country club whiners. Go away. I don't want to see you again until April either, so please continue to gag away the wild card lead to your old team that you were too good for with your pathetic .255 average. Hopefully in the meantime, instead of inviting those very same reporters into your gym Rocky III style, you should extract your head out of your rear end.

I'm creeped out by your play. You should be too, because it's embarrassing.

Further Accountability

2011-09-23T14:58:00.000-04:00

Theo Epstein: The performance of JD Drew, Bobby Jenks, Josh Beckett, and others who have performed prettty much at their expected level is Terry Francona's fault.

Theo Epstein: The poor scouting of Carl Crawford (despite private investigators) and John Lackey (despite the progressively worse numbers since 2002 with the exception of 2007) is Terry Francona's fault.

Theo Epstein: I don't have the balls to admit to my lack of accountability, so I'll let my boy Peter Gammons out to dry and call him a liar. After all, he was wrong about Lackey's elbow.

Have fun in Chicago, you freaking wimp.

Best Team Ever.

The Milestone Afternoon

2011-09-21T23:34:00.000-04:00

There's been a lot said, written, and speculated about accountability surrounding the Boston Red Sox. This is a culture that, at least in my eyes, hit its defining moment on September 30, 2009. This was following a season where I wrote in this very space that I was happy the season was going to be over. Quoted from that article:

Lester, Beckett, and Youkilis were the victims of bad calls. Papelbon's the victim of a front office who doesn't agree with his infallibility. Drew's the victim of sore glove hand and a slave driver in Francona who makes him play through sore groins. Francona says that David Ortiz has been a victim of media criticism (maybe he should have been more careful with his use of vitamins and supplements) and that he deserves an apology.

Please take responsibility for your actions. Obviously in 2009, they didn't do that. They were all victims. The entire team, including (as you'll see) their general manager, was from the 1990s. I'm perfect. If something bad happens to me, it's not that I F up. It's because of bad luck or because it's someone else's fault. I'm perfect. I'm infallible.

And, of course, I'm smarter than you.

On September 30, 2009, Theo Epstein went on 98.5's Felger and Massarotti and started congratulating himself on a wonderful JD Drew contract. "I thought you guys were gonna ask me about JD Drew having the second-highest OPS of all AL outfielders," he said. This is a fact, however misleading, but instead of talking about how his team backed into the postseason, takes accountability for stuff like Lugo...or Drew in seasons 1 and 2...or any of the other mistakes he's made, he goes down that avenue. Similar to all of his players, he thinks he deserves to be absolved of all blame, criticism, or objective analysis of his decisions, even if things go wrong.

Since then, they had a season in which they were in first place on July 3rd, then melted down, citing injuries instead of citing an ineffective closer, poor play by two of their starting pitchers, and a general manager who was unwilling to budge from the idea of the "bridge year." We could get into blaming an ineffective medical staff, but I already devoted two posts in this late summer to that.

Then comes this year, when two large acquisions were made. The team, and there were some legitimate seasons for it, was heralded as the best team in baseball history, then they failed to show up to play baseball in August.

Instead of accountability and saying the team is playing like crap, players were talking about how they're just starting to get their work in. Cool. You showed up to camp around Valentine's Day, so you had to wait until the games started to get yourselves acclimated to baseball. No more golf.

Instead of citing overwork, lack of talent, showing up to shape fat habitually, and grooving pitches down the middle, you blame an elbow injury.

Instead of admitting that you got shelled and that your stuff is mediocre, you say you threw a series of great pitches (maybe except for one) and felt great. This is Suck Patrick Denial. You grimace at the umpires, you grimace at your fielders, you grimace at your manager, because you're a victim of their unfair treatment. You say you don't want to blame problems in your personal life or your elbow, but you mention them anyway (which is kind of offering the excuses in the first place).

You blame a phantom "impinged shoulder" instead of your lack of any interest in playing.

You say the schedule is unfair because your pitchers have to hit instead of your lack of any interest in playing bad National League teams and racking up somewhat automatic wins.

You blame the bat that goes through your legs instead of actually going after the ball.

You blame the restrictive nature of your airplane seats instead of blaming your apathy toward playing certain games.

You blame a slew of injuries instead of the source of the injuries: Being a fat drunk slob.

You blame a calf injury instead of saying you just don't feel like playing the rest of the game. You hit a home run on that calf injury, but instead leave an incompetent player out there to make a game-blowing error.

You blame a sore shoulder on your poor performance instead of your lack of focus. While doing so, you don't even have the balls to say it to the guys covering you everyday.

You blame the schedule and the rain and games that run too late for being unable to show up for the next afternoon's game - against the same teams who also experienced the rain delays.

You blame late nights of travel and lie down like a bunch of dogs instead of having a Red Bull and showing up to play in the face of any kind of adversity.

You blame the Little League park in which you had an ERA of 2.86, a run better than road games, in 2009. Granted, your splits were not friendly in 2010 or 2011. But your home/road splits were 2.86 versus 3.86. But yes, you're a victim of the freaking ballpark, not a victim of failure to get the ball over the plate.

It's never your fault. You're perfect. If something goes bad for you, you're just a victim of extenuating circumstances.

Just like your general manager. He's infallible. He's smart. Instead of owning up to his own error during a third of five mediocre/forgettable to bad seasons, he's talking about the second-highest OPS of all AL outfielders. As they say, it rots from the head down.

Terry Francona, Fat Little Girlfriend

2011-09-20T22:37:00.001-04:00

"Now, their fat little girlfriends have some obvious advantages. For one, their fat little girlfriends are telling them what they want to hear, which is how great you are and how easy it’s going to be."
-Mike Leach, October 2009, after his Texas Tech team lost to a three-touchdown underdog.

Terry Francona is a "fat little girlfriend." As you can see in the post below and in this post, he's not the manager anymore; David Ortiz is. Terry Francona does exactly what the fat little girlfriends at Texas Tech did. He lets these guys get away with anything, and he deserves more than his fair share of blame for this Red Sox month-long coast. All season, he's been telling this team how great they are and how easy it's going to be.

Even when he was asked about the playoff rotation and he channeled Jim Mora, he was joking about the possibility that his team might not make the playoffs. He's taking the regular season as seriously as the rest of these pampered whiners. Maybe at some point he's going to realize that it's not so much of a freaking joke anymore.

Here's an idea: Less cribbage with Dustin Pedroia. You're supposed to be their manager, not their friend.
Here's an idea: No more dicking around with the Wakefield thing. How about letting the player earn his 200th win by lasting five innings?
Here's an idea: If David Ortiz is healthy enough to play the next day with a sore back, pinch hit him the night before. This pussy had a sore back after sleeping wrong on the plane. That's okay, it's a marathon so you can let the inmates run the asylum.
Here's an idea: Stop pitching Kyle Weiland. It's about winning games, not getting the kid confidence.
Here's an idea: If Daniel Bard clearly doesn't have it, don't give him thirty pitches to choke away any games. Let the spoiled brat in the bullpen come in for four outs. At least get him freaking ready to make it look like you're paying attention. Tonight he's pitching in the eighth for the third time all year. It's okay, because when you're the Best Team Ever, it's going to be easy and you'll never have to dig deep. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
Here's an idea: When the above happens once, learn from your mistake. Seeing that Papelbon is pitching now, it took not one, but TWO losses for his manager to wake up.
Here's an idea: How about getting Papelbon mentally prepared for a 4- or 5-out save BEFORE MEANINGFUL GAMES so that it's not foreign territory when it counts!

Hey, it's okay because Red Sox fans still sang about the 9-year-old girl on a horse in the middle of the eighth.

Francona's Bigelow Green Tea consumption has clearly made him completely unable to manage this baseball team. Guess what: It's not the 2004 team anymore. It's not a bunch of guys who want to win, make history, or really do anything except for go through the motions. This was evident when they showed up ill-prepared to play in April and when they took the interleague season off by dropping hideous series to San Diego and Pittsburgh.

The 2004 team could discipline itself. There were a couple of overpaid prima donnas, but their egos were large enough that they wanted to be part of the team that made history. Those guys cared enough to be compatible with a player's manager instead of a hard-ass.

This team, and essentially every team since the 2009 group of whiners, needs someone to drive the ship. Of course, the Red Sox are a little unclear about that, as they have their designated hitter giving advice to the general manager ("WAAAH, WE NEED A POWER BAT!"), the manager while filling out his lineup card ("WAAAH, I DON'T WANT TO BE MOVED DOWN IN THE ORDER!"), and now the manager as he designs his PITCHING rotation ("WAAAH, START ACEVES, WEILAND SUCKS!"). There's also an additional boss on this boat because the backup catcher has this idiotic "Captain" designation. Too many people are driving the ship.

As a result, what you see is your left fielder last year complaining about not playing center and taking his time to return from a questionable injury because his feelings were hurt. You have a starter showing up his teammates and his manager. You have a third baseman talking about the competitive disadvantage his $180 million team has against the Pittsburgh Pirates. You're complaining about scheduling and your second baseman, once heralded as gritty and competitive, downplaying the significance of being in first place. Yup, it's as long as you're backing into the last spot on September 28th. And you have John Lackey.

You have a bunch of guys paid much more than the average player who are not playing to potential, are failing to play fundamental baseball (Lackey covering first base, Crawford's lack of slide, Aviles's two caught stealings, 46's inexplicable caught stealing, and, if you want to go back to last year, Drew's fate-sealing web gem in foul territory last year), all show up to spring training fat, lazy, and out of shape, and fail to make the playoffs. On the radio they talk about a "country club attitude," which is evident because "Second Base Cup" was a spring training event on NESN. Good to know the whole organization is focused on the right stuff during training camp. All Chad Johnson's doing is Twittering. At least he's not golfing.

This has happened before with the "Gold Sox:" The 1960s. And those teams SUCKED under their player's manager up until they hired Dick Williams who was, by all accounts, exactly what his first name suggested. They were not untalented. But they were unmotivated. And here we are, 45 years later, and they're right back to where they started. But at least Caroline Kennedy's in her fifties now and not nine.

Under Francona, golf is the top priority in February and March. A faraway, nebulous October is the top priority in April, deemphasizing the games at hand. Yankees games and AL games are more important than Pittsburgh and San Diego games, so those games don't matter. Losing first place in August to the Yankees in a weekend series determining who's starting the final third in first place is mundane enough to have your former MVP mock its importance. Two hundred wins means more than one win. Health and rest take priority over the ultra-risky four-out save in June or July. Forty stolen bases is better for your contract than not making outs and tying up baseball games. When you have an 11-game lead, it's in the bag and it's about locking up the third-starter spot. It's about saving face with the national media by starting to chat up a shoulder injury.

Winning has not been a priority for this team. This is a reflection of the manager.

And now that it is, they're not ready for it. This is also a reflection of the manager.

The whole time, the manager's job has partially been keeping this team focused. But instead the manager is corroborating their toothless excuses for sucking, is covering for them when instead they should be accountable, and is enabling them to prioritize the wrong stuff, because he is reinforcing the notion that they're the Best Team Ever. He's telling them what they want to hear, how great they are, and how easy it's going to be.

Terry Francona is the Fat Little Girlfriend that all these babies want. But it's not what the Gold Sox need.

Here's the manager

2011-09-20T21:41:00.000-04:00

De Niro: What should I do?

Ortiz: THROW HIM OUT!

De Niro: You hear him. He just said throw him out, he's the boss. Who should I start?

Ortiz: TELL HIM TO START ACEVES!

De Niro: Hey, he just said it, he's the boss.

So Where Do The Yankees Fit Into This?

2011-09-19T23:08:00.003-04:00

First, congratulations to Mariano Rivera for becoming baseball's all-time saves leader. I said everything that needed to be said about that last week. Now I'll just add that it is fitting that the best closer ever - and one of the best pitchers ever - has the most saves ever. It's a nice touch that he reached this milestone in the same season that Jeter got 3,000 hits. Two amazing career achievements for two amazing careers that highlight both their longevity and ability to consistently compete at an elite level over the course of all of those years.

Much of the talk lately has been about the Red Sox and Tampa Bay, and rightfully so. The Red Sox were able to hold off Baltimore tonight, and in doing so kept their streak alive of not winning a game since August 27 where they scored less than nine runs (which is incredible on a few different levels). It also kept the Yankees' magic number at 5 for the AL East and 4 for the Wild Card with 10 games to play. The Yankees' play an interesting piece in this, not only because they too are competing for a playoff spot, but because they play Tampa for 7 and Boston for 3 to end the season. Not only do they have control of their own destiny, they are also going to have a lot of impact on the Sox and Rays destiny as well.

First things first, the Yankees need to play to lock up a playoff spot and win the division. It's business as usual unless they are able to do those things. As we've seen many times in recent years, you don't have a playoff spot until you have a playoff spot, no matter how good it might look. There have been teams in far more commanding positions than the Yankees now to miss the playoffs in recent years. So nothing is near a give on that front yet. In addition, home field always matters to me.

Beyond their own obvious interests, though, how do they factor into these last 10 games for the Sox and Rays? It could become an interesting question. If they are able to lock up a playoff spot and the division at some point before this weekend is over, do they play next week in their last three games against the Rays? That's a time you'd typically be resting guys, and it might only be more so if they have a chance to keep Boston out by rolling over for Tampa.

On that point, I'm of the mind that I want Boston out. I don't care that Boston isn't playing well. And I don't care that Tampa could very well run right over the Yankees in a potential playoff series too. Streaky teams with talent like the Red Sox are dangerous, perhaps especially when they are able to survive stuff like what they are going through now. It's like they have a new life, they stop pressing because the pressure of collapsing is off, and they play with a chip on their shoulder nothing to lose attitude. They play in that funky park where they score runs at will it seems, and I just don't want anything to do with them.

It's moot for now, because the Yankees aren't in the playoffs yet and are not guaranteed to get there by any stretch. The Red Sox are proof of that right in front of them. But if they are able to get in, the Rays should see Scranton Wilkes-Barre's best next week. Outside of lining up the pitching rotation, I see no reason for that not to be the case. Get people some rest, and keep the more dangerous baseball team off the dancefloor at the same time. Hopefully the Yankees will have that luxury, and if not, they key is to just make sure they get in themselves. Take advantage and play good baseball to close out the season.

Amazing

2011-09-18T23:03:00.000-04:00

Poor you.

"We had a 300-foot fly ball that goes out for a homer. That's the difference in the game. That's the joy of playing at Fenway Park. It takes some away and gives some to other guys. If we're in Tropicana, that's an out."
-Jon Patrick Lester, who gave up a two-run home run in the first inning of Saturday's game. Would have been a solo shot had he not walked an eager "pesky" (Dave O'Brien's word) rookie on four straight pitches. Thanks for turning into Javier Lopez. You come in from the bullpen and can't find the plate.

If that one quote doesn't sum up the 2011 Boston Red Sox, I don't know what does.

Stealing third base does you no good if there are two outs and you're the fastest guy on the planet. Learn how to play baseball. MVP. I've said all season that 46 might be the dumbest player on baseball. How can I go back on that?

Tim Wakefield is just plain not that good.

It's time for Buck Showalter to back up the trash he talked in March. Lackey and Weiland should be able to help.

JD, sorry to hear about your sore neck, which has delayed your comeback from sore finger...which has delayed your comeback from sore shoulder. Somehow, sabermetrically-savvy Red Sox fans still vouch for this guy.

A related topic: Yankees fans STILL kill Kyle Farnsworth. Who decides he has a sore elbow. This kind of toughness in the face of injuries makes me wonder if the Red Sox will be pursuing him anytime soon.

On a rare positive note, seems like Beckett is going to be okay. I wonder why he missed so much time with his sore ankle in the first place if he fielded that bunt as smoothly as he did (not sarcastic, more critical). Also, good for Mike Aviles (not sarcastic either, but the next sentence is). He should keep knocking balls out of the park so he eliminates the possibility he gets picked off first base at a critical time.

Hang Fifty

2011-09-15T23:17:00.001-04:00

Okay, the Red Sox and Rays' series, perhaps to be called the Boston Massacre III by Sunday afternoon, is now underway. The Rays took the first game, 9-2, to narrow the Red Sox' lead to three in the wild card.

Bottom line: They deserve it. They deserve to lose this race. The four-game sweep followed by elimination by Tampa would be justice for the 2011 Red Sox. While they are still not as purely dislikable as the 2009 version of whiners and self-congratulators, it's pretty darn close. You got Lackey talking about how great he is after getting shelled, you got Youkilis whining about competitive disadvantages when the team sends out a B-team effort against the Padres and Pirates, and Ortiz continuing to whine about his contract situation.

What the 2009 version didn't do, however, is coast for the entire first month of the season, the entire last month of the season, and in many different times in between. There is no personal pride with this team, there is no desire to win, and these guys read too many articles by Eric Ortiz about how they're the best team to ever live. No games matter until October. That's disgusting.

How about this? The Yankees have prioritized games between March 31st and September 28th. Now, because the Red Sox are melting down into a puddle of mediocrity, apathy, and complacency, their consistent hard play will enable them to rest some players, get their rotation ready, and be ready for the postseason as the regular season comes to a close in thirteen days.

How about this? The Phillies (a heavily-cited team on the radio today) won behind Cliff Lee today. Though he blew a ninth-inning lead, he gave up five hits, one run, and struck out twelve in nine innings. Wait, nine innings in a regular season game...after they already clinched a playoff spot? That's reckless! He might end up getting a tight calf, or a sore back (but that kind of stuff typically happens on an airplane like it did to David Ortiz), or a swollen middle finger! Why win regular season games?

Because winning should be a fun experience for a baseball team. Even in the NBA, putting together a clearly-superior team is FUN because you can throttle the competition. Hanging 50 points on an opponent in a four-game series should be something you'd be trying to do. Winning creates chemistry and a good work environment. And it also means that you can prepare for the playoffs instead of having the last twelve days devoted to holding off a team who actually gives a crap.

The Red Sox, in contrast, prioritize days off, resting, and treating the regular season like a marathon. Not the way someone like me treats the race, of course, but one of the people who show up for the finisher's medal. Not trying to win, just finish. As Ben Affleck once said in the movie Boiler Room, if you want vacation days, go teach third grade public school. It is an organization-wide thing, starting with Theo Epstein, moving down to Francona and the players, and finishing with the fans who will sing about an 11-year-old girl on a horse even if the team's down seven.

I am on the verge of openly rooting for a reality check. A big (and growing) part of me is hoping the Red Sox' bullpen keeps on throwing meatballs, walking and/or hitting guys, and melting down. This growing part of me is hoping that Beckett gives up eight runs and walks off the field with no limp because his injury is just a built-in excuse for continued suckitude. There is a part of me that hopes that the Rays hang fifty runs on the Red Sox in this four-game series just to show the Red Sox that decent teams that care can throttle other teams. Good teams that care can actually fulfill Eric Ortiz's prophecy.

The entire organization needs a vicious reality check, a vicious punch in the stomach. I wrote not long ago that the JD Drew attitude was contagious, but it was suggested on the radio today that it's not the Drew attitude. It's the Theo Epstein and organization-wide attitude that has been embodied by JD Drew. Can't believe I'm saying it, but I'd prefer Steinbrenner and Billy Martin blowing up and demanding accountability any day of the week over this fat, happy, complacent group of TV show producers.

The fact that the radio announcers are fabricating excuses for these whiners is laughable. "If Clay Buchholz got his 17-18 wins this year, imagine what the implications would be in the standings" was said somewhere around 9:10 tonight. How about if Crawford showed up this year? How about if Lackey didn't have an ERA of six? How about if their manager prioritized actually picking up some wins against horrible Pittsburgh or San Diego teams? Those might have some implications, too. How about if the team played like the Phillies, seeing HOW MUCH of a lead they could pull off?
The Rays are having fun in the regular season, and they're killing it (despite being not that good of a team - the Orioles games are an indication of that). They're messing around and wearing varsity jackets while the Red Sox rest slightly-tweaked ankles, sore calves that are healthy enough to hit a home run on, and tweaked backs suffered while sleeping on a plane. Red Sox are playing for a tomorrow that they think they have the mandate to assume. The Rays are playing for a tomorrow that must be earned.

Forty-one runs to go in three games. Given the state of the Red Sox, 13.6 runs per game is not unfathomable. But it's the nail in the coffin the Red Sox so sorely deserve.

600 and 6 Starters

2011-09-15T00:38:00.002-04:00

Mariano Rivera recorded his 600th save last night. Congratulations to him. It's just another great accomplishment in a career full of them. He's now one away from tying Trevor Hoffman's all-time saves record of 601, and if he can tie and break those it will be an even bigger accomplishment. These milestones and records are just another opportunity to reflect on what an incredible career Rivera has had. He's in his 17th season, has appeared in 1,037 games, and has pitched 1,207 innings. Over that time he has a 2.22 ERA, 1106 strikeouts (which seems like a ton for a reliever), and a flat 1.00 WHIP.

And that's excluding his postseason performance, which is even more impressive. Another 94 appearances, 139.2 innings, and 42 saves. The truly absurd numbers, though, are the 0.71 ERA and the 0.766 WHIP. Over the course of 15 separate postseasons, those 94 games, and 139.2 innings (which amounts to about two full extra seasons for Rivera innings wise) he has allowed 11 earned runs. Eleven. And now at the age of 41 he has a 2.05 ERA. I have never seen an athlete that is better at what they do than he is at what he does. Maybe as good, but never better. Amazing athlete, it's been a pleasure to watch his entire career. Congratulations again to Mo.

It seems like we've been talking about the Yankees cutting their rotation from 6 to 5 for about 6 weeks now. And that's because we probably have. I'm not sure this conversation even matters. The Yankees don't seem to think it matters that much either. I think there are two good reasons for keeping it at 6. First, it's a good thing both for the doubleheaders and getting certain pitchers extra rest. Outside of Sabathia and now perhaps Nova, you aren't overly concerned with getting guys starts on regular days rest, and that allows you to give them - specifically Colon and Garcia - an extra few days to stay fresh. It might not be a bad idea to do the same for Sabathia at some point as well if the schedule/standings allow. Somewhat unrelated, at least reduce his pitch count in some of these games a little bit

Second, there's really no rush to go from 6 to 5, because 6 to 5 isn't the big decision. If the Yankees make the playoffs, 6 to 4 is the big decision. With as up and down as certain guys in the rotation have been, why not get the longest look at them that you can to make that determination? As some of the analysts have been saying, once you remove one of them from the rotation and put them in the bullpen it becomes harder to build them back up to starting. Taking that one step further, once you put one of them in the bullpen you are no longer getting a chance to see how they look in a starting role to evaluate for potential playoff purposes. In a way going from 6 to 5 might limit you as opposed to helping you. This may very be exactly what the Yankees are thinking on this front.

Big break for Boston today with Tampa losing. It's still very possible for Tampa to make this interesting, but when you are trying to make a big push like they are, as incredibly as they have been playing, you typically have to avoid back-to-back losses to teams like Baltimore. Getting this thing back to three the day after it stretched back out to four, right before a four game set with Boston, would have been big. Now Tampa needs to go 3-1, in Boston, just to get it to 2. That's a tall order with good but not great returns. It could end up being meaningless, but this just feels like one of those swings in a race like this, and it definitely swung Boston's way.

Citing Specific Examples

2011-09-13T21:02:00.000-04:00

I've wrestled with this one for much of the 2011 season, ever since when Allan Selig announced that major league baseball was moving irreversibly toward adding two more wild card teams to the playoff format. Days before the announcement was made, to the best of my knowledge, I wrote a post entitled "Twenty-Seven Percent," saying that part of the magic of baseball is that you actually have to show up to the regular season in able to qualify for the postseason, something that is not true at all for two (if not three) of the other major professional sports leagues. But as of late, largely because Tony Massarotti had some good points on the radio regarding "punishing" a wild card team for not winning their division, I started to sway to the other side.

The last week and a half of Red Sox baseball has brought me right back to where I started.

Right now, the Red Sox are up 6-5 in the bottom of the fifth, with the bullpen not yet having blown Tim Wakefield's lead. When they do and the end up with not their FIRST, but their SECOND 2-10 stretch of the season, they are still one of three teams fighting for one playoff spot. Using the 5-team playoff format, they would be one of three teams fighting for two playoff spots. All things being equal (and bear with me for a while here), they would have a 66% chance of making the playoffs.

They do not deserve that. The Best Team Ever, if they do indeed finish (theoretically) behind Tampa Bay (who's winning right now) but in front of Anaheim, do not deserve a playoff berth. They're a team that failed to show up for April and failed to show up for September. News flash: The baseball season doesn't start in May, nor does it end in August. If you're a basketball player, yes, you only have to show up for 2/3 of the games. If you're a hockey player, yes, you can go 2-10 TWICE and still be fine for the playoffs. I have always held and want to continue holding baseball to a higher standard than that.

Making it to the playoffs should be an accomplishment. It should be what generational disgrace Scott Nicholson thinks his Colgate degree is, not what his Colgate degree actually is (something anyone can do if he has enough money and/or is capable of thinking). If this Red Sox team continues to collapse like it has the last eleven games and gets the theoretical fifth playoff spot, the playoffs are not an accomplishment.

It's also bad for the game, because the value of those early-round playoff games are diminished even more. Next year, I won't have a blog and therefore I very well might watch a new episode of Jersey Shore opposite a wild-card versus wild-card baseball game. And even without the blog, I feel like I am more than an average casual baseball fan.

Don't cheapen the game. Don't cheapen the regular season to the point that this chronically underachieving switch-off Red Sox team could get a fifth playoff spot next year. No more playoff expansion. It's the right thing to do.

DV: Right Again

2011-09-12T22:38:00.000-04:00

I do not dislike Josh Beckett. At first, I did, and people who were followers of my pre-How Youz Doin writing or really my pre-How Youz Doin life in general know that very well. But I like how he seems to care about winning, I like how he doesn't seem to care too much about money, I like how he is willing to retaliate, and I also like his accountability. His quote of "good pitches don't get hit" is probably the best thing a Red Sox' pitcher has ever said.

But here it is, crunch time in his sixth season as a Boston Red Sox pitcher. He's gone through two contract extensions, one when he was an injury-prone pitcher before the 2006 season and another when he was an injury-prone pitcher before the 2010 season. When it mattered in 2006, he was healthy, but he gave up nine runs and walked nine batters during the second Boston Massacre. When it mattered in 2007, he delivered. When it mattered in 2008, Beckett was hurt. Oblique injury, which (at least in my non-medical opinion) may have had somethning to do with showing up obese to camp. Was pushed back in the ALDS and was ineffective in the ALCS. When it mattered in 2009, Beckett started to break down, posting (Tony Massarotti's words) a 6.02 ERA over the "last quarter of the season" before being outpitched by Weaver in the "No More Tears" ALDS. When it mattered in 2010, he was already out for the season.

Bottom line: I was right. Josh Beckett is a guy who cannot stay healthy. I'll leave it to Felger to question Beckett's toughness. He does, however, deal with facts. Ankles can be taped. Ankles can have cadaver tendons attached to them. Ankle injuries are inevitable when you're a top-heavy pitcher landing on an inclined surface like the front of a pitcher's mound. Those are facts. But I do agree with Felger: If you're as tough as you say you are, you are pitching sooner rather than later.

The Red Sox took a huge gamble on Beckett when they traded Hanley Ramirez and Anibal Sanchez for him. He was a guy who could not stay healthy for a season, had a chronic blister problem, and may have some minor tears in his shoulder. It could actually be argued that they derived more value out of Mike Lowell, because before his hip degenerated itself, he was serviceable for long periods of time. Beckett has given this team a great 2007 season, a good 2011 season, bad 2006 and 2010 seasons, and inconsistent 2008 (oblique injury) and 2009 seasons. Meanwhile, we've had the injuries listed above. While we've heard about the blister problems on his hand when he was in Florida, we have not had any blisters in Boston. We've had "cuts" on his finger and "avulsions" on his finger, though.

Bottom line: Beckett has come pretty much as advertised. He is Rich Harden or Ben Sheets with a higher ceiling.

Josh Beckett has spent more time on the disabled list since 2007 than JD Drew. He has exceeded 200 innings three times: Once in the magical 2007 season, once when he took the whole season at 90%, not throwing the Blister Curveball and therefore giving up thirty-six home runs, and once in a year when he had no bullets left by September.

Awesome.

Look, I understand that there are plenty of pitchers in major league baseball that cannot throw 200 innings or record 32 starts. I understand that Beckett's team accounts for this and gives many of their starters a skipped start or a phantom DL stint for the sake of keeping them healthy at this point of the season. I don't want to say the Red Sox invested in a complete lemon when they gave Josh Beckett not one, but two contract extensions. He's on the team until he's 34.

Good luck.

Tampa Massacre

2011-09-11T21:11:00.001-04:00

First of all, happy birthday to upside upside potential prospect rookie young potential upside outfielder 46, who is now 28 years old. Not even I can deny that he's had a great season, and here I can say I was wrong (to be balanced next paragraph). But this is the prime of his career. Let's stop pretending he's young. Nice catch last night.

Let's go back to the last paragraph I wrote: But the bottom line is, the Red Sox have Tampa right where they want them. This weekend, they won't (they'll probably get swept, making it a 3.5-game lead which seems to always happen around this time of the year - the second-place wild card team never dies), but they should win the series. Time to step on Tampa's throats.

I was pretty darn right about them getting swept, huh? The genius Twitter account SoreGloveHand started hash-tagging "Tampa Massacre" on Friday morning as well, whoever that is. Time to get the bus rolling.

1. Darnell McDonald: Congratulations. You are now only arguably the worst offensive player in major league baseball, having raised your batting average above the Mendoza Line. Since you bottomed out at .109 in late June (late June!), you've hit a blazing .250 and are now hitting .203. But you should know that 46 is fast, can cover a lot of ground, and is more afraid of crashing into someone than most people are of Ray Lewis and his dawgs in a nightclub. Get the F out of his way and let him make his own bed.
2. John Lackey: The Boston Globe said you were arguably the worst starting pitcher in baseball (phrasing intentional for the sake of repetition). Not covering the base is inexusable. Getting lit up by a weak-hitting catcher in John Jaso is inexusable. But at least this weekend you admitted you sucked.
3. Jon Lester: When you needed to be a stopper more than any other time, you reverted to 2006 form. Well, at least he's still four months younger than 46.
4. Kyle Weiland: Matsuzaka is not the best guy to emulate. Over the plate, please.
5. Carl Crawford: It's called a cutoff man.
6. Josh Reddick: It's called a cutoff man.
7. Dustin Pedroia: Not a good time to become bad. You still have a three and a half game lead in the wild card - yay!
8. Adrian Gonzalez: Not a good time to become average. Please ignore the people talking about 46's higher home run totals and go back to being you.
9. Daniel Bard: Not a good time to be like the rest of the bullpen.
10. Mike Aviles: All leading and base-stealing privileges are hereby revoked. Please stand with both feet on the base until the ball is put in play.
11. Matt Albers: Holy crap, are you a middle reliever or what? You're Manny Delcarmen minus being from Roxbury!
12. Michael Bowden: I kinda feel bad for you. What happened to your upside? Your power, your good stuff? You're like the girl everyone wanted to take to junior prom because you had great boobs, then gained a lot of weight in college and showed up to the ten-year reunion having lost a one-sided battle against gravity. What happened?
13. Josh Beckett: We'll talk to you later on this week.
14. JD Drew: Thanks for being such a warrior. Hope your impinged shoulder and sore finger are doing great, and hope your hunting gear is ready to go on September 29th, when the Red Sox are doing playing baseball for the year.

Stepping on the Throat

2011-09-09T08:07:00.000-04:00

There are nineteen games left in the Red Sox season, twenty left in Tampa's. Nevermind that these teams are playing each other this weekend and four additional times next week. If the Red Sox continue on the current path, coasting into October, lining up their rotation for the playoffs, pitching Wakefield on three days' rest so that he can get #200, and letting Beckett sit instead of tape up his ankle - in other words, if they go 9-10 in these remaining 19 games, Tampa has to go 16-4 to tie them atop the wild card standings.

16-4.

While 16-4 would be a pretty spectacular finish, it's not unheard of. I'm pretty sure both the Red Sox and Yankees put together a stretch of this magnitude at some point of the season (if I had cable/Internet I'd know for sure), and the Rays themselves may have as well. Teams have won 20 games in a row as recently as nine years ago. And guess what? Tampa is a good team. And I hate to say it, but they're probably the best managed team in the league.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox are a team with a switch that can and does go off frequently. The 16-6 figure is if the Red Sox play .500 baseball. Let's say they replicate the last ten games and lose thirteen out of the remaining nineteen. Tampa would only need to go 12-8. If this were the borderline detestable group of whiners known as the 2009 Red Sox, a piece of me would hope this would happen. Best believe JD Drew hopes it will happen, as hunting season is coming up and he doesn't want to be part of playoff baseball.

But the bottom line is, the Red Sox have Tampa right where they want them. This weekend, they won't (they'll probably get swept, making it a 3.5-game lead which seems to always happen around this time of the year - the second-place wild card team never dies), but they should win the series. Time to step on Tampa's throats.

The Up and Down Red Sox

2011-09-07T22:26:00.003-04:00

The Sox had back-to-back off days 10 days ago. Since then they've gone 3-6, and need a win tomorrow to avoid losing their third consecutive series. By no means is this the end of the world. There are still 20 games to play. You'd like to be playing better baseball at this stage of the season, but (1) every team goes through stretches like this, some times are just more noticeable than the others (the beginning and end of the season, as two examples), and (2) nothing about how you play in September matters if you get to October.

What is perhaps more interesting from an analytical perspective is the underlying performance, and how erratic the Sox have been in these last 9 games. They get shutout against the Rangers 10-0, win 12-7 the next night, lose 11-4 the next, then lose 1-0 in extras, before winning 14-0, and then losing 11-10. This all directly off scoring 2 in a loss, scoring 9 in a win, and scoring 2 in a loss to the Yankees. Teams are going to ebb and flow over the course of the long season, but the Sox are really all over the place. Not just in total, but their separate starting pitching, bullpen, and offensive components. Each have been a little bit boom or bust recently. The performance by the bullpen tonight, and getting caught stealing to end the game while staging a comeback, were exclamation point type examples of that.

I don't want to say that this is a microcosm of the Sox season, because that's a little bit too strong. Mostly because the overall performance has been so good. But 142 games into the season they remain very much a peaks and valleys team. They can be so good for so long, and then they can get into these extended ruts.

Without watching them every day, it's really hard to say why this is. I'm sure it's difficult to say why even watching them every day. After all, it might not be any more complicated than they're a streaky team. Nevertheless, I'd be interested to hear possible theories from those who do watch everyday. GM has talked about the "switch" theory, and I think there is certainly some merit to that. But I also think there could be some other things at play. Typically speaking, a "switch on/off" team would have the switch on right now. And even though this team likely will turn it on yet again, I'd like to hear any other insights or possibilities as to why this team - who has been so good overall - has gotten to that point by being so dramatically up and down.

September Wish List

2011-09-07T08:42:00.000-04:00

Still a long three days until I actually get the Internet (or television for that matter) at my new house, so greetings from The GM At Work. Now that it's almost a quarter over, I am providing my wish list for this coming September for what I'd like to see from the Red Sox.

1. The switch turned on. What, are the Red Sox now four games behind New York in the loss column? Okay, maybe not, as they blew out Toronto last night. This is how this team should be playing, Beckett or no Beckett, every night. This is how the Yankees (a slightly inferior team) plays every night. But the Red Sox, like the Celtics of late, turned the switch off over the past week.

2. Bullpen stability. I was at the Sunday game, and while Felix Doubront probably won't be on the playoff roster, that was a rough afternoon. The walks, the home runs, everything. Bowden, who also won't be on that roster, gave up the longest home run I've ever seen live. But Albers is still pitching poorly. Everyone except for the two solid guys and Aceves has been shaky at best. Not the best momentum to bring into the postseason. Now that they're pitching against a lot of September call-ups/minor leaguers, it's time to get things right.

3. A .400 average from 46. He's historically hit quite well against September call-up pitchers. Time to do it again.

4. A .400 average from Carl Crawford. Magadan's got all the confidence in the world in this guy. While moving this weekend, I read a Sports Illustrated article from April saying that Crawford's slow start is the least of the Red Sox' worries. It's September 7th. How about now?

5. A healthy Josh Beckett. This obviously is not going to happen. But think about this and it may keep you up at night: When was the last time Beckett was healthy in October? Not last year. Not either of the two years before. It was 2007. That was four years ago. Is it time to return to the old 2006 refrain of "this guy can't stay healthy for a whole season?" Starting to look that way.

6. Iglesias innings. The Lowrie experiment is not exactly successful. Scutaro will likely be done after the year. Aviles should not play every day. Let's get this guy in for some meaningful at-bats just to see how he might be able to hit in the majors.

Four Yankees Deserving Props

2011-09-05T22:54:00.004-04:00

Yanks have picked up 4 games on Boston in the last 7 days, extending their lead in the division out to 3 in the loss column. That's a pretty big swing for one week, and they need to continue to take advantage. With 23 games to play it's not a big lead at all, but it is substantial considering where things were at this time last week. I mention this before getting to the post because, as many have commented here, I do think winning the division and having homefield matters, and so it's worth really monitoring down this final stretch run of the regular season.

Moving on to the actual post, I want to give four Yankees who deserve a lot of credit...a lot of credit. This really probably was four four separate posts that because of time constraints, and because of other post-worthy things coming up, have been condensed into four paragraphs.

Prior to today's game - where he was 1-5 with a double - Derek Jeter had played 50 games since coming off the DL, or roughly 1/3 of the season. During that time he has hit .346/.396/.471 with 34 RBI and 32 runs scored. I'm not sure how a player who struggles like he did for the last 1.5 years doesn't just turn it around, but goes back to playing at as elite a level as he ever had, at the age of 37, but I can't say I'm surprised. Without question, Jeter's play was very frustrating for the 1.5 years prior to this resurgence. The same way it's frustrating when any player isn't really contributing. But this is a yet another reminder of why I have said, ever since the 2009 bounceback after his relatively down 2008, that no matter how poor Jeter is playing I will never count him out until he retires. No matter how bad it looks, and no matter how frustrating it is, he's done this type of stuff too many times for too long now not to be extended that treatment. You just can't count this guy out.

We've spent a lot of time talking about Jacoby Ellsbury in this space this year. And there are a lot of good reasons for that, especially between his good play the long-running debate we've had about this player for most of this site's history. What we haven't talked about is a guy whose play has been even more worthy of conversation, Curtis Granderson. As good as Ellsbury has been, Granderson has been that much better, truly one of the best players in the entire game. His 109 RBI and 126 runs are the most in baseball (the latter by 28, nobody else is even at 100!), and he is second in home runs at 38. All while playing one of the most premium positions in baseball. What's more, as Jeter and A-Rod have had extended absences, when Cano slowed in the second 4th of the season, as Teixeira has been streaky, as Swisher and Gardner got off to very slow starts, and as Posada has been up and down, Granderson has been the constant. He's been so consistent, you can barely find a week in the season where he was in a funk. It sounds a little much to say about a team with the most runs in the game, with the talent they have, and with mostly the whole lineup contributing the way it is now. But there was a time when those things were necessarily the case and Granderson was the main catalyst offensively, by far. These numbers would be elite at season's end, and he's still got a ways to go. Amazing season.

Russell Martin isn't the flashiest player on the Yankees. Not even close. And that's one of many things I love about him. He just goes out and competes and wants to win. He is a tremendous defender behind the plate, has good pop for a catcher, and has gotten big hit after big hit for the Yankees this year. The last two Thursdays alone he hit a go-ahead grand slam against the A's and a go-ahead double against the Sox in major spots. He has a role-player work ethic and mentality with talent and tools that are better than that of a role-player, very much in the model of so many players on those late 90's Yankees teams. He's been an absolute pleasure, has been a huge part of this team's success so far this year, and the Yankees need him to continue to be so moving forward.

You can't tell much about a player in his first four starts. But there are two things we do know after Jesus Montero's first four games. First, even if it doesn't ultimately mean much, it's better to get off to a good start than not, obviously. And Montero is off to a blistering start. He's hitting .385/.467/.846, scored the winning run in his first game (in Fenway against the Sox with first place on the line no less), and hit two homers today, the last of which was the difference in the game, getting two curtain calls in the process. For a player that could really help the Yankees the rest of this season, this has to be a tremendous confidence boost. Second, he looks the part. He hasn't at all looked overmatched at the plate, even against some really tough pitching. Further, there aren't many players in the game who can hit the ball over the fence to the opposite field the way he did today. Especially the first one, that reached the bleachers. The fact that he's doing it at age 21, in his 4th ever start, twice in that game, off of two different right-handed pitchers, is really impressive. One of the things that always got people excited about Montero was his power to all fields, and he showed a little bit of why today. Really, he's been showing a little bit of why he has been so highly touted almost every chance he gets. He may not be able to continue it at this rate, but he's showing himself to be someone who can help the Yankees' win baseball games right now, this year. That's always a great type of addition to be able to make to the roster, in-house, this late in the season. I would not be surprised if he wins the primary DH job within the next few weeks.

Death of the Rivalry

2011-09-02T09:14:00.000-04:00

It's been a hot topic on a lot of media outlets around here in Boston, but the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry is pretty much dead (it was revived a little bit this week, but not much). People are trying to figure out what the causes are for this, and nobody can really come to a consensus. I'm not going to debate that it is dead. Because it's true. It's no longer make-an-appointment TV. But here are some of the theories, divided into "Legit" and "Crap."

CRAP:
-The 19-game schedule. The rivalry was alive and kicking when the teams were playing 19 times a year against each other. In fact, for a while, it intensified it. Plenty of opportunities to throw at each other and antagonize each other. I wrote earlier this year (after the Sox/O's brawl) that 19 games against each other intensifies rivalries in an unnecessary way.
-No playoff meetings for seven years. The five playoff games between 1996 and 2003 didn't cool off the rivalry at all. Sure, this helps intensify it, but it wasn't the fact that there was a meeting, or even a ln intense meeting. If intense playoff series made a difference, the A's would have had a fierce rivalry with both of these teams during the Moneyball era.
-The inconsequential nature of these games. In the height of the rivalry, neither team was in the prime position to knock each other out of the playoffs.

LEGIT:
-Evolved fan bases. We've discussed this at great length. The Red Sox fan in 2011 is a lot different from the Red Sox fan in 2003. Jessica from Brighton is a lot more concerned about singing Sweet Caroline than she is about shouting profanities about Derek Jeter's sexual preference. In 2003, venom was rampant throughout the ballpark from the 2003 typical fan, Sully from Medford. Not only would Sully question Jeter's preference, but he also know who Yuri Sucart is and would start chanting YU-ri SU-cart each time Yuri's Tic-Tac popping cousing came to the plate. And chants like that would catch on with or without the impact of alcohol. Fans went to Red Sox-Yankees games not to promote their upcoming film like Gigli, but to support the team, express their frustration toward the other team, and actually watch the baseball game. They actually knew what was going on. Same thing with the Yankees, as their real fans from the 1990s are now relegated to steerage.
-Fewer hatable players. Even at the beginning of the HYD era, I had trouble saying a nice or respectful thing about Derek Jeter. Now I can, because he's not nearly as hatable as he was. People don't begrudge the way he dives out of the way of pitches on the inside corner anymore. People around here have reverence for Mariano Rivera, and even Posada at this point. Many Red Sox fans like Nick Swisher, and besides Burnett, there's very little negative to say about this pitching staff. Meanwhile, Pat's wrote a post absolutely praising Pedroia and Youkilis. Besides maybe Ortiz, I don't think Yankee fans wish specific harm on anyone. In 2003, I was thrilled that Jeter went to the hospital due to an HBP. When Posada pointed to his head while Pedro was pointing to his head during the Zimmer incident, I hoped Pedro threw right at him. Gary Sheffield, while not smoking crack rocks, was popping off his mouth at the height of this rivalry. Throw in Clemens, Wells, Manny Ramirez, Karim Garcia, Jeff Nelson, and others on both sides, and there were just a lot more guys to hate. Does a 2011 Yankees fan hate Josh Beckett or Papelbon like they hated Pedro Martinez or Curt Schilling? No way. Even Marco Scutaro has fewer hatable characteristics than Kevin Millar.
-Less player buy-in. On and off the respective playing surfaces, the Patriots and Jets don't like each other, and it's genuine (a Curt Schilling sound bite doesn't count). They care. This is the way the Red Sox and Yankees were. Same with the Bruins and Canadiens. Would Trot Nixon and Mike Mussina share an electric razor commercial? Would Rivera and Posada be in a Jimmy Fund commercial alongside Red Sox in 2002? Nope. Beyond Enrique Wilson and Manny going out for a drink, things were different back then.
-Less executive buy-in. The most front-office animosity over the past several years was over Teixeira. But were any hotel rooms trashed like with the Jose Contreras disaster? Were there any truly-resentful barbs going back and forth from the front offices? Nope. Probably since the Johnny Damon incident, all Red Sox-related animosity during contentious free-agent negotiations went toward the player, not the team. And yes, guys, the absence of George Steinbrenner has been a factor.
-Overhype. Everyone in the world wants to talk about it because at one point it was good copy. At this point, people are tired of talking about it (the players), reading about it (the fans), and even watching it (check out the ratings during this midweek series). It's not oversaturated, but it is overhyped. The media is making something out of nothing. The people listening to it have been the players (who downplay it) and the umpires (who overpolice it). I like the Krasinski/Baldwin commercials as much as the next guy, but it's a little too much.

Reflections of the First Game and a Half

2011-08-31T21:19:00.000-04:00

Okay, I got a few things to say about the first game and a half, including some Cervelli stuff, some stuff to address Wednesday's fantastic comments section, and treading on a comple of third rails. That's DV.

1. Let's start with Cervelli. The fantastic Twitter handle "@SoreGloveHand," in between blatant rips of the overarching attitude of Tufts University, made the comment that if 46 had been thrown at every single time he did that insufferable "one clap after modest accomplishment" bit, his ribs - front AND back - would have more dents in them than the green monster. That said, he should have been thrown at for doing what he did. That also goes for Marco Scutaro in 2007 and for 46 whenever he acts like an idiot. Unlike others, I think a well-placed beanball is, and should be, a part of the game. I think both parties acted appropriately after Cervelli pulled the "one clap after modest achievement" act at home plate.

1a. Then again, I'm sure if Jarrod Saltalamacchia read that paragraph, he'd call me a hothead (Goodfellas term) half-Mick, half-Guinea. Adding the part about Cervelli and Latin players was probably not a great idea, although there is a certain truth to the fact that a lot of the more emotive players are Latin American. As they should be. For a lot of them, baseball is very important because baseball took them out of the hood. We've been there before when discussing steroids. In a term paper somewhere around the year 2006 I had to write about and defend the "hothead Latin player" stereotype, which really originated in 1965 with the Juan Marichal/Johnny Roseboro bat-as-a-weapon incident. I'm surprised that someone born in 1985 would say something like that, and I wonder if that comment makes anything awkward in the Red Sox' clubhouse. If so, this further demonstrates the importance of someone like Mike Lowell in a clubhouse.

2. The CC Sabathia workload issue. As Bandi said in the comments section, people have continued to talk about CC being overweight. You know what? At some point, yup, he'll probably break down. Probably not going to be this year, though. I don't blame Girardi for leaving Sabathia in there at all. First of all, each game this series has more at stake for the Yankees than it does for the Red Sox. Better to have your best guy out there. Plus, if a bullpen guy blows this lead, the talk is all about how Sabathia was inefficient, couldn't get out of the sixth, blah, blah, blah. Sabathia's not JD Drew. He cares about doing well, and six innings was probably best for his psyche.

3. Gunn's comments about Lackey and "bend-don't-break" being effective because the team scores ten runs in each of his starts really manifested itself on Tuesday night. I heard a comment on the radio about Lackey "pitching to the scoreboard," which is simultaneously frustrating (why don't you always pitch like it's 0-0?) and understandable (I've let off the gas when blowing out the fields in certain races). Agreed on the fact that his stuff is not as good as Bedard's.

4. Speaking of stuff, Beckett's continues to be quite good on probably about nine out of ten pitches. The Yankees are certainly taking advantage of the tenth pitch, which is commendable. Like last night (and it's the sixth inning), this Yankee team seems to prioritize winning these games quite a bit, and will try to grind out a win by any means possible. I think the Cervelli incident helped the Red Sox turn the switch on, at least in terms of their approach.

5. Last thought: There are certain miniscule things in a baseball game that occasionally literally keep me up at night, irrespective of the amount of caffeine I have. The way Cervelli was pitched to in his first at-bat is one of those things. We're talking about a weak-hitting backup catcher who got thrown at last night and had to talk about it. He's obviously thinking about it. On the first two pitches, breaking balls from Beckett buckle his knees and end up in the strike zone. He Jetered out of the way of each pitch. What should pitch three be? a) behind Cervelli, b) high and tight, c) low and away. There was a man on second and one out, so a) was a bad option, so b) would be the obvious one. You don't want to advance the runner, you got the guy on the ropes, you got a pitch to waste, and you got a batter who crowds the plate. Go for the K in two pitches.

Unparalleled genius Jason Varitek who knows more about every pitcher and hitter in baseball history, so much, in fact, that he'd be invaluable even if he hit .130, goes with option c). A hotshot to first that was hit squarely by an unintimidated hitter advanced the runner. It's baseball fundamentals. The play ended up inconsequential, but it will still keep me up all night.

Grinding A Win

2011-08-30T23:23:00.004-04:00

There will likely be a lot of chatter about what this particular win means for the Yankees. Is this the one that gets them over the hump, stuff like that. Most of it will be overstated. It's one game, let's see what the Yankees do with the next two. One thing I will say is I like the way the Yankees are playing the Red Sox. This really started last series. As much as it stunk to lose that Game 3, and thus the series, the way they did, they were playing good, tough baseball. Not as much of the sloppyness and meltdowns they were displaying vs. the Sox earlier in the season. There was more of a grind it out, find a way to win attitude. Tonight was more of the same.

Leading that charge was C.C. Sabathia. His start tonight was the epitome of grinding out a win. He had really good stuff (10 strikeouts), with a strikezone that could generously be described as tight. But the Sox were working him (10 hits, 2 walks, 128 pitches) the same way he was working them. Considering the way Sabathia has pitched against them this year, these teams' places in the standings, and the pitching matchups the next two nights, the Yankees just needed to find a way to win. And that is exactly what Sabathia did. When runners got on, he got nasty, as the Sox were 3/16 with runners on base.

I talked a lot after C.C.'s last start about how the Sox were all over his fastball. And I still see that as true. But Francona talked in the pregame about the way the Sox have been able to make him work, and there strategy in that respect was never more obvious than it was tonight. You almost feel, at times, that the middle-back of the order is less concerned with getting on base and more concerned with making Sabathia throw as many pitches as possible before the at-bat is over. It's almost like reaching base versus making out is secondary. Great strategy, and maybe that's why C.C. has cracked late in the game after being dominant early in 2 of his previous 4 starts against them. Tonight he stood up, emphatically ending 4 of the 6 innings he pitched with strikouts, and giving the Yankees 6 big innings on a night their bullpen was short (no Robertson) and his pitchcount wasn't really in a place to give them 6 innings on most nights.

The offense followed suit. It wasn't necessarily pretty. Jeter, Granderson, and Teixeira were 0-12. But they put a lot of balls in play, got guys on, and found ways to get guys home. They also got the big solo homer from an unlikely source, and even though it was a monster shot it felt scrappy because it came from a guy with only 1 homer on the season.

On that point, I don't blame Lackey/Boston for being ticked about Cervelli stomping on homeplate and clapping. If a Red Sox player had done that, I'd have been ticked too. But you have to find a better time and way to retaliate than giving the Yankees a free leadoff runner with the top of the order coming up in a 4-2 game in the 7th. As Girardi said in the postgame, every run in that park is huge, and that was a gift run for the Yankees, one they probably shouldn't have gotten. If it holds at 4-2, that changes the way the last two innings get played. Big difference between having a chance to tie every time a runner gets on base versus needing two runners on to tie. Also allows you to manufacture a run and be one solo homer away instead of two. Can't retaliate in that spot.

9 big, scoreless outs from the Yankees' bullpen tonight. Good spot out of them.

Now it's on the Yankees to find a way to win one of the next two games. This was a big win tonight, because it ensures that they leave Fenway no more than 2 back in the loss column. But it will be a bigger win if they find a way to win one of the next two, and get out of there in first place. Maybe one of the next two starters has a night where it's all clicking. And maybe they have a night where they need to dig down, find a way to win, and just grind it out. The way C.C. Sabathia and the offense did tonight.

Observations from the Oakland Series

2011-08-29T22:06:00.000-04:00

The Red Sox/A's three-game series was a game of three lopsided games. There are a few things that I'd like to briefly discuss before we get into another Red Sox/Yankees series with first place on the line.

1. Should Billy Beane be on thin ice yet? The sabermetric/Moneyball genius burst onto the scene when hired as A's GM in 1998. Between 1999 and 2006, the team strung together eight consecutive winning seasons, six of which were 90-win teams and two of which were 100-win teams. Since 2006, however, they have hit .500 once (2010). With the resounding failure of Moneyball II (defensive prowess as the next undervalued commodity) and the outing of the secret of Moneyball I (on-base percentage as the first undervalued commodity), how much longer is Beane's shelf life? Was the Michael Lewis book his downfall, as it popularized OBP and SLG, making it no longer undervalued? Will there be anything as undervalued as those two statistics were in Beane's first years now that sabermetrics is the hobby of legions of nerds?

Whatever. I'm looking forward to the movie, too.

2. Can't feel bad for Tim Wakefield this time around. In attempt #6 he got lit up, plain and simple. With a 2.5-game lead on the Yankees, however, it's not time to force him into early retirement. Let's just hope he's not stranded at 299 a month from today.

3. Did Erik Bedard make a pass at Tim McClelland's daughter or something? We know about the slew of unwarranted balls called against Bedard by McClelland a couple of weeks back. He was squeezed pretty badly in Saturday's Game 2 as well. What did Bedard do to piss off McClelland and his staff?

4. Good for McClelland's crew and the Red Sox' grounds crew for doing all they could during a less-than-ideal situation in the rain on Saturday. The rain started in Boston earlier than I expected it to, and conditions were downright miserable for both games. Making sure the field was playable enough that injury risk was minimized was a huge thing, and it was accomplished. It was important for both teams' September schedules (and probably TBS's broadcasting schedule) that these games were fit in, and everyone involved should be commended. I wrote this in the comments section yesterday, but I feel like thumbs-up from me are rare, and this one should be put out in the spotlight a little more.

5. Same thumbs up go to the Red Sox. I have given them a lot of heat for bilking the fans on a lot of things over the years. Justifiably so. They don't need to be enumerated here, but I will say that Linda Pizzuti Twittering a rainout 20 minutes before it was announced was probably the most heinous of all. Saturday does not make up for it, but it was a good gesture letting fans with Game 2 tickets show up for the end of Game 1, and letting anyone from the street sit in the rain (or under a grandstand) for free is something that goes against the way this team has been run, both since 2002 and especially before. They strike out a lot, but they got this one pretty well.

6. Playing baseball on a losing team...in an empty park on the road...in a driving rainstorm...twice in one day is miserable. The entire A's team made that abundantly clear by the way they went about playing in Game 2. I don't really blame them. If they were the Red Sox, however, this would be a senior thesis.

7. Thursday is the first day of school for JD Drew.

8. I hope this time around nobody says "this is a big start for John Lackey." News flash: Every start right now is a big start for John Lackey. Though he's the anti-Burnett (in other words, he's "bend-don't-break"), he's been short of awful but short of good since the July 4th meltdown. Every start is big because he's competing for 3rd-spot job against Bedard. He's on thinner ice than Bedard because he's been more prone to the meltdown. But he's also more likely to throw a seven-inning, one-run gem.

There are still a lot of interesting things going down in the last month of the season. Even though it looks like both of our teams will be playing beyond September 28th, there is an awful lot to watch.

You Won't!

2011-08-25T22:32:00.000-04:00

Rumor has it that Theo Epstein is intrigued by a potential job opening in Chicago as president of the Chicago Cubs. This is something that was originally reported by Yahoo Sports and then was elaborated on by Buster Olney. Once Olney picked it up, everyone picked it up. It's an interesting topic, as college-aged baseball sycophants looking for an internship that will land them in Theo's job by 2045, females, sabermetricians, freelance private investigators, and those who don't think Julio Lugo is a borderline major leaguer are pretty much convinced that Theo Epstein will be in that position forever. But there are many things, many of which Sean McAdam picked up on Thursday, that would lure him elsewhere.

Lucchino's probably not going anywhere, as he's made too many enemies to become baseball commissioner. He's already done all he could do with the Red Sox. The Cubs job would technically be better than a lateral move. And according to McAdam, he's a competitive guy (the broken chair incident over Jose Contreras would corroborate this) and rebuilding a franchise without the $170 million to f*** up with (or play with) would be a new challenge. Of course, on the other hand, going to a non-competitive division like the NL Central would have an opposite effect. So, as I like to have a little fun on Friday, I have ten reasons Theo Epstein should try his hand in Chicago. These are, obviously, all with a certain degree of sarcasm, and it's up to you to interpret how much is in each thesis.

1. There's already a baseline for the worst move he could ever made. Brock-for-Broglio in 1964, when the Cubs traded Lou Brock to the Cardinals, is considered the worst trade in baseball history. $36 million for Lugo pales in comparison with this one.
2. Fukudome, Soriano, Derrek Lee, and Big Z are some of the big, underwhelming contracts the Cubs have accomplished in recent years. Without any sarcasm, their prolonged stagnation is not completely unlike the Red Sox in the decade before the boy wonder's arrival.
3. Theo's great at putting together a bullpen full of guys who can throw strikes. His contract's up after the 2012 season, so it would be his job to put together the 2013 Cubs. I heard there's a lefty pitcher from Chicago (actually a White Sox fan) who can throw a mean strike, as evidenced by his first pitch thrown at the All-Star Game. Somewhere around January 20, 2013, he'll be a free agent. Upon the signing of Obama, Theo will be the second most irresponsible spender on the squad.
4. Due to Lebron James's stock taking a hit, John Henry will not be up 20% again this year. Maybe Ricketts will be.
5. He sees the writing on the wall, and he knows someone will take the blame on 46 leaving Boston after 2013. He doesn't want to be that guy.
6. Chicago has a really patient fan base who enjoys drinking Kool-Aid and listen to Theo whisper sweet sabermetric nothings into their ears.
7. The Cubs have an uber-talented shortstop in Starlin Castro who could either win an MVP someday or could be traded to the Marlins for an injury-prone starting pitcher and a third baseman who hit .235 in the previous season.
8. Theo and friends have a good track record with players who have instigated fights and intra-clubhouse drama, such as the Kevin Millar dog-crap incident and the Manny-Youkilis fight. Carlos Zambrano will be a breeze.
9. The smaller payroll won't magnify the free-agent blunders that can be hidden in Boston. They will only magnify how much of a boy wonder Theo is.
10. A Red Sox World Series and a Cubs World Series on the resume would qualify Epstein to puff out his chest about his own genius without citing mediocre players' OPSes.