Yankees & Baseball

Yankees lost to the Rangers last night 4-2 in the ALCS, and honestly, I'm about as upset about it as I thought I'd be.

Pretty much not at all.

From top to bottom in the lineup, it's filled through and through with the least charismatic uninspired players of possibly all-time. Nick Swisher even seemed subdued this year.

Good for the Rangers, they're playing the hot hand, they've got the whole "chemistry" thing going for them, as do the Giants.  Hopefully they meet them in the World Series.  If anyone deserved to win this ALCS, it wasn't the New York Yankees.

Now the Yankees have a few issues - who to bring back and for how much and for how long?

2010 Baseball: Post All-Star Game Debriefing

Before the beginning of the season I had a few comments about the upcoming baseball season.  Let's see how I did.

AL East Debriefing

Traditionally, the Boston Red Sox are a red hot team to start the season and then fizzle as the season continues beyond the All-Star Break limping into the playoffs.  The New York Yankees are traditionally almost the opposite.  The Red Sox are on a 4 game slide and the Yankees have won their first four series, amassing only 3 losses in the first 12 games of the season.

This is not the same Red Sox team of old.

SportsNation Running Out of Ideas

The current poll on ESPN.com, as in right now, is the following:

Which Baseball Headline from Saturday is more intriguing?


Ubaldo Jimenez tosses Rockies 1st no-hitter
Mets outlast Cardinals in 20 innings

Baseball: Long, Strong and Down to Get the Friction On

I haven't had the time lately to update the blog.  I know the two of you out there are so upset.  In any case, I do want to touch upon the recent comments by Major League Baseball Umpire Crew Chief Joe West.

For those of you that don't know, he essentially called the Red Sox and Yankees pathetic and embarrassing because of the amount of time they take while playing.  See here, and here.

Listen, I understand that the league is trying to speed up games, but first the league needs to make it clear to the players exactly what the parameters are.  If they want to institute a 30 second pitch clock or something, those parameters are clear.  The problem is, when a pitcher takes forever a batter needs to be able to call time to step out of the box and allow things to proceed on more even terms, and if a batter is all over every pitch, a pitcher needs to have the option to slow things down.

The most interesting thing that Joe West said was this:

Have You Seen My Baseball?

That's right.  It's baseball season again.  Along with baseball season comes fantasy baseball season.  I am about as happy as a pig in shit.

Sunday Night Baseball, get to watch me to some of my Yanks.  Get to follow me some statistics online.  Awesome.  Simply awesome.  This is also the time of year that BuDaChick is most likely to leave my ass.  Honestly, I don't blame her.

Big Mac Land To Be Taken Down

In the wake of Big Mac coming out that he took steroids, the Cardinals are removing the Big Mac Land area in their stadium for fear that the Big Mac's acquired from the left field McDonald's stand are also "juiced".

In lieu of Big Mac Land, McDonald's is considering one of the following "land's" to take it's place: Crispy McPujols'Zone or the Filet-O-Whupass Tier.

More Offseason Baseball Stuff

A few things...

The New York Yankees finalize at one year deal with Nick Johnson for $5.75M.  He will be the DH and likely bat #2.  Last year Johnny Damon batted in the 2-hole.  This is ripe for an obvious comparison...

Offseason Baseball Moves

It's no longer the Winter Meetings, but there has been a solid amount of activity.  Let's take a look and see some of the major additions.

New York Yankees
Notable Additions: Nick Johnson, Andy Pettitte, Curtis Granderson
The big question for the Yankees for the rest of the offseason is the rotation.  What happens with Joba and Phil Hughes?  That's likely a question that will be answered in training camp.  The Yankees still have to address the issues in the outfield - where will Johnny Damon be next year?  The signing of Nick Johnson essentially puts a nail in that coffin, but personally, I'd rather rely on Johnny Damon in the 2-hole than Nick the Stick.  Another question mark is the issue with centerfielders of last year - do Melky and/or Brett Gardner get traded, and for who and what?

MLB Winter Meetings Minute-by-Minute

Not really.  There is no way I have the ability to cover every single minute of Major League Baseball's Winter Meetings.

I feel like the Winter Meetings could be a giant hand job, to get media attention for Major League Baseball a few months after the season ends for no good reason.  You know, something sort of similar to the way they release awards once a day, every other day for about three weeks.  Honestly, they can release the Rookie of the Year for the AL and NL on the same day, same with Cy Young and MVP...

As much as I'd have thought these Winter Meetings are just masturbatorial self-promotion, judging from last year and what's happened so far this year, I think I'm nothing but wrong.

LA Angels of Anaheim To Suck 2010 and Beyond

According to some source, Chone Figgins is close to signing a deal with the Seattle Mariners.  See this article here for the details:

[ESPN.com - Source: Chone Figgins, Mariners near deal]

The Angels just won't be the same - BuDaMan said it:

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Chone Figgins (32)

Chone is this teams spark - they live and die by this guy.  When he gets on base, good things happen.  In the ALCS, he didn't get on base.  I think the Angels need to sign him or the look and shape of their team is altered to something completely different.  If they don't sign him, a lot of team out there will look to acquire Chone's services...

That was back in the beginning of November.  Bam.

[BuDa - BLoG - 2009-2010 Offseason Interests]

2009-2010 Offseason Interests

Well the baseball season is over - let's take a look at the teams in baseball, who is becoming a free agent, and what those teams might need to do become a little bit more successful (or remain successful) in 2010.

I will be listing the teams in order of their finish:

New York Yankees

Johnny Damon (36) & Hideki Matsui (36)
There is a big difference between Damon's age of 36 and Matsui's age of 36.  As you could see from the 2009 World Series, both were effective, but Game 4 really highlighted Damon's abilities.  He is a decent fielder with a terrible arm, a very good hitter, and a very intelligent baserunner.  Matsui can't play the field or run the bases.  I would expect the Yankees to offer Damon a decent deal and retaining him for 2 years, but Matsui will probably be offered a low-ball one year deal and he'll go to free agency.  Damon is represented by Scott Boras, so he won't be cheap, but you can't have two left handed DH types.  One stays, not both.  Money's on Damon.

Yankees Buy Themselves Another Championship...

...But did they really?

As a Yankee fan I've heard, pretty much all my life, that the Yankees buy their way to the Championship.  A few facts, before looking into any research, is that the Yankees have topped the payroll charts in the past few years - yes, they've spent a lot of money.  The Yankees during this decade won in the year 2000, and now, 2009.  In ten years of topping the payroll list the Yankees have won 2 World Series.  This is, arguably, not a very nice statistic seeing as I'm sure the Yankee organization would have liked to have the highest salaries for 10 years while winning the World Series each of those years.

So I began to think about the impact of money on the game of baseball.  The Yankees have not won every championship this decade, but they were among the teams with the most playoff appearances and highest winning percentages.  Is this a given for all teams of the highest payrolls?  I wanted to find out, so I did some research.  I have compiled information and am going to go over my findings with you.  I hope you enjoy.

ARod AHomo

Not sure if you saw what I saw in the pregame introductions, but Alex Rodriguez seems to have a "thing" for his teammate Melky Cabrera in particular.

As you can see from this picture, ARod's high-five hand is angled awkwardly; that is because he was flailing it around like a queen on Fire Island.

Seriously, what was that?  This picture looks like a potentially shower scene for a 1970's YMCA.  And Mark Teixeira's left hand, where's that headed?!

Let me know if you can find any video of this, because it's very weird looking and deserves a BuDa-Post about it.

Phillie Phanatic a Commie!!

Listen up you green sack of shit... THIS IS AMERICA!  You take your god dammed hat off when our nations anthem is sung.  I don't care if the singer is ugly, if she's fat, or even if she's tone deaf.  You remove that hat from the top of your head.

Who do you think you are?  Mr. Met?!

I subscribe to the America where you take your hat off and show some freaking respect!  When an officer from our military (flight attendants for the Air Force are still considered to be "working for our military", right?) you get that stupid look off your green face, and put that hat over your heart.  At least turn the hat around and wear it properly man!  This is national television, pull those pants up homeboy!

Quick Reactions

World Series Game 4 ended tonight in a Yankees victory to go up 3-1 in the series.  See some post-game notes and reactions from ESPN.com's writer Rob Neyer here.

In this article, Bill Simmons says the following:

Crap, since I picked the Giants, that means I'm picking the Yankees in Game 4.

May the 2009 World Series never go back to Yankee Stadium.

Bullshit (B.S.) was obviously going for the scenario where the Phillies sweep at home - sorry brah, not going to happen.  In a classic Simmons jinx, there is now a chance that the World Series may actually never go back to Yankee Stadium, but that the Yankees would be the winners of the series.  Does it happen Monday night?  Cliff Lee versus A.J. Burnett - we'll find out in just about 24 hours...

Alex Rodriguez The Centaur?

A centaur is a mythological creature which is half-man, half-horse (not half-pig).  Allegedly Alex Rodriguez has a portait of his likeness in the form of a centaur above his bed.

Pedro Flashes Back And Attacks Manager Manuel

This is unheard of, just unheard of. - Bud Selig, Major League Baseball Press Release

In Game 2 of the World Series, as manager Charlie Manuel came out to relieve Pedro Martinez in the 6th inning, Pedro flipped Charlie Manuel onto his back - Don Zimmer style.

World Series Game 1 Foreboding?!

FACT:  Cliff Lee and C.C. Sabathia have never faced each other since they were teammates, fact. - BuDaMan

That's a true fact.  Irrefutable.  FALSE:  You would be foolish to believe such "facts".  I misled you to bring you back to the flock - follow me for a minute...

Thursday April 16, 2009 - Opening Day for the "New House", the New Yankee Stadium.  1:00PM/ET game time.  The New York Yankees host the Cleveland Indians.  On the hill for their respective teams, the squad's ace's:  C.C. Sabathia for the Yankees, and Cliff Lee for the Indians.

It's Official Bitches

After a week of speculation, rumors, and creepy handwritten messages from fugley 22 year old production assistants, Steve Phillips has once again been fired from a job.

Personally, I'm just really excited that we don't have to listen to this moron say "I'm the guy who found David Wright", because no one cares.  No one cared then, no one cares now.  Steve, if you didn't say it every single time you were on the air, I wouldn't mind so much.  But it's ALL the time man!  If you brought up the Mo Vaughn deal the same amount as the David Wright stuff, I would also give you a bit more credit for owning up to how good (bad) you were as a General Manager.