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Credit Where It Is Due

Posted by Moshe Mandel at 3:00 pm 8 Responses »
Oct 112010

I spent much of my “Twitter time” in September defending Joe Girardi’s plan for preparing for the postseason. While the team was clearly struggling as Girardi rested players and held postseason roster auditions, he was skewered in the media for costing the Yankees a division title. I felt at the time that Joe was making the right move, as close observation showed that Joe had most of the players important to a potential Yankees World Series run rested, healthy and effective going into October. Additionally, while losing the division cost the Yankees one home game for the upcoming ALCS, it also ensured that they would face the inferior potential opponent in the ALDS. Once the Yankees swept the Twins, I did not expect any of the media members who had ripped into Girardi every day for a month to do much more than briefly acknowledge that Joe may have known what he was doing.

Surprisingly, I was wrong. Wally Matthews, of all people, penned a column in which he called Girardi the MVP of the ALDS:

Yet no one did more to ensure that the New York Yankees would advance to the second round of playoffs, the final hurdle between them and another World Series, than the only Yankee who didn’t play for one pitch of any of the three games….

For all the head-scratching we self-styled experts have done over some of his in-game moves and his interview-room gyrations of the tumultuous final month of the regular season, it is Girardi who comes out looking like a genius…..

And it was he who, as September became a sticky mess of shoddy play and growing uncertainty, doggedly stuck to his plan of resting his regulars — ultimately at the cost of winning the AL East — in the hopes of having a healthy roster come October.

He was ridiculed for many of these moves, and quite frankly, at times I was one of the ridiculers.

But right is right, fair is fair, and you are what your record says you are. In his fourth season as a manager, Girardi now has one Manager of the Year Award, one World Series ring and, now, a 3-0 record in the 2010 playoffs and the luxury of allowing his team to rest a full five days while waiting for the Texas Rangers and Tampa Bay Rays to settle their increasingly nasty argument…

And thanks to Girardi’s careful rotation of off days and DH days for his aging and aching core, it is likely that by the time the ALCS gets under way, Jeter, Teixeira, Nick Swisher, Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada will be as fresh and rested as it is possible to be after 165 games.

That last paragraph is the reason I credit Girardi for a job well done in both 2009 and 2010. In both seasons, the Yankees have gone into the postseason as healthy as it is possible to be with an aging core of veterans. The lineup does not have single hitter who is exceedingly worn out, and it showed in the Yankees offense against the Twins. The bullpen is fresh as well, as Kerry Wood, Dave Robertson, Boone Logan, and Mariano Rivera look primed to have a strong October. And although the rotation is not perfect, Andy Pettitte pitched well enough to justify his Game 2 start and Phil Hughes looks quite strong despite having surpassed his career high for innings.

Although the Yankees were not winning down the stretch, they were making sure that when the games actually became important, they would be in the best possible position to succeed. It is a credit to Girardi that he had the confidence to execute his plan despite the angry bleatings of some fans and most of the media, and it is a credit to Matthews that he was able to admit that he was wrong and tip his cap to the manager.

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ESPN-NY Debuts With Uninspiring Lineup

Posted by Moshe Mandel at 1:00 pm 12 Responses »
Apr 022010


ESPN-NY went live this morning, and debuted the following roster of writers that will discuss the Yankees:

Andrew Marchand (General) – Marchand has been the managing editor for ESPN Radio 1050 AM since 2007 and has provided on-air reports for over three years. He also contributes extensively to his blog SportsClicker. Previously, Marchand spent ten years at the New York Post covering TV sports and as the Mets beat writer for two years. He will cover all NY area sports on ESPNNewYork.com.
Ian O’Connor (Columnist) – O’Connor is a former a columnist with The Record of New Jersey and New York Daily News and has previously written for The New York Times and The Star-Ledger. He has also been a frequent contributor and blogger for ESPN Radio 1050 AM for the past three years. O’Connor is a New York Times best-selling author for his book titled Arnie & Jack: Palmer, Nicklaus and Golf’s Greatest History.
Wally Matthews (Yankees) – Matthews has covered New York sports since 1983 as a reporter, columnist, radio host and TV commentator. He joins ESPNNewYork.com to cover the Yankees, which he’s done since the days of Stump Merrill, having worked for Newsday, the New York Post, the New York Sun and ESPN Radio 1050 AM.

As @bencs94 noted yesterday on Twitter, all of these writers have existing ties to ESPN 1050 that make them a natural fit for this sort of site. The issue is that none of them consistently produce high-quality content that will draw readers from the local media entities. O’Connor writes well, but as we have noted before, he lacks journalistic ethics and tends towards sensationalism rather than reasoned analysis. Marchand is simply an adequate reporter, and Matthews is a train wreck in every sense of the word, for whom hyperbole and contrarianism are legitimate writing tools. A team of writers such as Joel Sherman (best news-breaker in NY), Ken Davidoff (excellent writing skills and always fair and balanced), and Marc Carig (strong reporter who understand newer forms of analysis) would have been vastly superior to this group, and would have made ESPN-NY a daily destination for many Yankees fans. Instead, we get a group of columnists constantly looking for an athlete or executive to rip, a panic to stir, or a fanbase to anger. That sort of sensationalism tends to drive traffic, and makes ESPN’s choices perfectly understandable. ESPN had a chance to build something special, and instead chose to bring in some easy clicks. It’s unsurprising, but still sad to see.

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Matthews: Giambi The Root of All Evil

Posted by Moshe Mandel at 12:01 pm No Responses »
Apr 222009

A few weeks ago, I swore off posting about Wallace Matthews. However, I read his article on Jason Giambi and could not help myself. Apparently Giambi is to blame for the Yankees’ fall from grace (or at least is to blame until A-Rod comes back and it becomes more relevant to blame him):

Technically, the signing of Mike Mussina to a six-year, $88.5-million deal after the 2000 Series may have been the first shot, but with the Giambi signing, The Boss – drunk on four shots of championship Kool-Aid – was off and running.
Since then, the Yankees have spent $1,466,012,054 on players. That’s one billion, four hundred sixty-six million, twelve thousand and fifty-four dollars. In return, they’ve won this many world championships: zero.

And one thing every one of those teams had in common was the presence of Giambi.

You know what else those teams had in common? Derek Jeter. Mariano Rivera. Joe Torre. Brian Cashman. George Steinbrenner. Yankee Stadium. Yet somehow this is all Giambi’s fault. He apparently forced the Yankees to surround him with high priced players, and then coaxed those players to fail in the postseason. He did so by playing exceptionally well in October, causing the other players to lose focus due to Giambi’s brilliance. Alternatively, Matthews has no idea what he is talking about.

Was Giambi’s tenure in NY a success? Probably not. He had some very good years that were diminished by the awful years he interspersed among them, and he never won a championship. But to point a finger at Jason and say that he was the reason, or even one of the primary causes, for those team failings is ridiculous and revisionist.

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans movie

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Wally Matthews And The Greatest April Fool's Column Ever

Posted by Moshe Mandel at 11:57 am No Responses »
Apr 032009

The function of this blog as it is envisioned by the writers is to bring some intelligent and informed analysis to the discourse on the New York Yankees. At times, that goal requires us to dispel some popularly held notions that are often affirmed by the writing of members of the local media. This often leads to acrimonious and critical posts written about the likes of George King, Anthony Rieber, and Wallace Matthews. However, there are times where we must give credit to those individuals, when they put forth a column so masterful that it approaches art. Wallace Matthews April Fools column on Joba Chamberlain is one of those articles, as he mocks the B-Jobbers by fitting all of their ridiculous points into one piece.

What’s that you say? It was not meant to be an April Fool’s column? It was not written in jest? That cannot be! No salaried writer could ever put forth such a pile of drivel and expect it to be taken seriously! Let’s look at part of the article, FJM style, so that you can judge for yourself:

The Yankees, who have an abundance of guys to start their games this year, think it’s a good idea to take the greatest two-inning pitcher since Mariano Rivera, circa 1996, and turn him into just another starter. I think they’re nuts.

Joba Chamberlain, in 49 relief appearances, has pitched 2 innings 9 times. There is no such role as “2 inning pitcher,” and to just assume that Joba would be used in that fashion is silly. Furthermore, the Yankees have no intention of turning Joba into just another starter. Rather, they are trying to turn him into an ace. If three seasons from now, he is just another guy holding down a rotation spot, I bet he replaces Mo in the pen.

The reality with starters is that they are six-inning pitchers on most days, seven- and eight-inning pitchers on their best days.

In four out of every five starts, they are going to need a guy to come charging out of that bullpen in the seventh inning to hold the game until the closer gets there.

Apparently the Yankees will be winning 4 out of every 5 games entering the 7th inning, and all 4 will be save situations. This sentence cannot be serious.

But Joba isn’t doing that anymore. Greater baseball minds than mine have analyzed this situation at great length and determined that Joba for the first six innings every five days is better than Joba out of the bullpen five times a week.

Joba is apparently going to be receiving a bionic arm, so that he can pitch two inning stints five times a week. Even one inning appearances would have that number totaling 130 IP over the season, which is 40 IP more than the highest total for a non-specialist reliever last season. He would be much more likely to get about 3-4 innings a week, spread over 3 appearances. (Oh, and the “greater baseball minds” bit provides an opportunity for shooting fish in a barrel that I will graciously let pass).

I say that’s like hiring Picasso to paint your garage door or asking Mozart to come up with a toothpaste jingle. Many can start; few can finish. Joba can finish. He was a great setup man, and someday he’ll be a great closer. Those commodities are a lot scarcer on the market than starting pitchers.

Ignoring the fact that Mozart’s music is used for commercials all the time, this is the portion of the column that clearly delineates it as an April Fool’s joke. If many can start and few can finish, why are average starters paid more than many top closers? Closers are scarcer than starting pitchers only because you need 5 starters and only one closer, such that players would be stupid to position themselves as closers unless they are limited by a lack of stamina or light repertoire of pitches. The relevant point here is that dominant starters are significantly more difficult to find than strong closers, and more importantly, are also significantly more valuable.

The rest of the article is pretty straightforward, so I am going to stop here. However, the quoted portions make you tip your cap to Matthews. It was a fine joke, good for many laughs, and I am sure that he enjoyed writing it. Nobody could be that thick-headed, right? Right?

Sigh.

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NY Media Hits New Low

Posted by Moshe Mandel at 10:10 am No Responses »
Feb 092009

Yes, that is the front cover of today’s New York Post. One of New York’s largest daily newspapers has resorted to profanity to discuss a baseball story. That is some real highbrow stuff there.

However, if you think that is offensive, wait until you see what is inside some of the NY papers today. From Bill Madden:

Cut him loose – no matter the cost.
As difficult as it is to imagine eating $270 million, the Bombers will be making a statement, not just for the Yankee brand but for baseball as a whole.
They will be applauded for it…..
As painful as swallowing that $270 million might be, there will be consolation for the Yankees when no other team elects to besmirch their brand by taking in A-Rod – even for nothing.

This is quite possibly the least intelligent thing that I have ever read. Madden is positing that the Yankees would be better off paying 275 Million for A-Rod to play for someone else than to have him play for them. This is a guy who has won multiple MVP’s, whose offensive talents are obviously special, and who is pretty much irreplaceable in the middle of the Yankees lineup. Letting him go would be an awful baseball decision, a knee jerk reaction that would elicit laughter around the league, rather than the applause that Madden suggests. The only people cheering the decision would be the media, who would then bemoan the decision in three years when Alex wins an MVP for another club. Furthermore, the idea that nobody would sign A-Rod is preposterous. He would not last half an hour on the open market, especially if the Yankees were picking up the tab. The whole article is patently ridiculous, and it is amazing to me that a paper that claims to be reputable would print it.

Speaking of ridiculous arguments, here is Wally Matthews’ rant for the day:

Just like everything Bonds did after 1999, when his home run totals skyrocketed from 34 to 49 to 73 in 2001, and Clemens did after 1996, when he jumped from 10 wins for the Red Sox to 21 and 20 for the 1997-98 Blue Jays, everything A-Rod did from 2003 on must be considered bogus…..
As far as I’m concerned, Bonds’ 762 home runs aren’t worth 350 of Babe Ruth’s. Clemens’ 4,672 strikeouts don’t equal 2,500 of Sandy Koufax’s or Bob Gibson’s. A-Rod’s three MVP awards aren’t fit to serve as Ted Williams’ paperweight. To think otherwise is to believe “Speed Racer” is a better movie than “Citizen Kane.”

This idea of “throw out their stats” ignores the fact that cheating and unfairness have always been a part of the game. It is always necessary to judge players by the context within which they acted. I guess Wally would throw out Ruth’s numbers also, being that Ruth played in the age of segregation and did not have to face some of the better athletes of his day. Hank Aaron played in an era where taking greenies were the norm. Just as we look at their accomplishments with reverence while dismissing certain issues as products of their era, we should do the same with the players of the steroid era. If you want to say that A-Rod no longer compares to Ruth, I can understand that sentiment. But to say that he does not belong in the Hall of Fame when he just happened to be a product of his time is unfair.

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