Hal Steinbrenner has turned into his father. Rafael Soriano - who was signed at Steinbrenner's orders and against Brian Cashman's wishes - is going to be out until July at the earliest. Sound familiar? Does the name "Jaret Wright" ring a bell? How about Randy Johnson? Kevin Brown? There are a lot of common denominators for these infamous names (including big bucks and injuries), but the one we're interested in is Steinbrenner.
George liked to throw his weight around when it came to bringing in big names to play for New York. In a way, the approach of filling a team with superstars that came through other teams' systems makes sense. After all, why put the time and effort into developing talent when you afford to sign it while it's in its prime? No muss, no fuss, just a big check.
Unfortunately, big names often come with two big price tags - one tag has a dollar sign, the other does not. In the Yankees's case, the second price tags were injury tags. Wright, Johnson, and Brown all got injured and ended their Yankee careers rather miserably. (Granted, Carl Pavano seemed to be more Cashman's idea than George Steinbrenner's, and he's more infamous than the other three put together. However, everyone is entitled to one or two mistakes.)
In the end, Brian Cashman has proved himself to be a very intelligent general manager with the ability to put together a World Series team. If Steinbrenner keeps out of Cashman's way, the Yankees might avoid signing clunkers like Soriano.
Things could be worse. The Yankees could have Steinbrenner as an owner and Theo Epstein as a GM. Then they would Stein - we mean sign several clunkers a year.
Hydra
6-4-3 double play... Ballgame over! Yankees win! Theeeeeee Yankees win!
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Surprise and Prejudice
It's difficult to tell whether a team is good or not simply by looking at the first two games of the season. After all, the Orioles are 2-0 this year. However, much to the surprise of many analysts, the Yankees have looked pretty darn good.
With the exceptions of Boone Logan and Luis Ayala, the pitching staff has been good. CC Sabathia finally had a good Opening Day start, and A.J. Burnett gave five innings today despite a bad cold. David Robertson's performance was pretty typical; he pitched himself into a jam before sqeaking out without any runs. And, of course, Mariano Rivera is still Mariano Rivera.
The pitching staff has been merely good, but the Yankee lineup is back to the Bronx Bombers. Much to his chagrin, the media has been all over the little tweak in Derek Jeter's batting stance. Whether the minor adjustment has anything to do with it or not, he's batting .333 so far. However, Mark Teixeira has been the best bomber by far. Who knew that doing less weightlifting over the offseason would result in a better performance early in the season?
Aside from Teixeira's great start, the biggest improvement over last year's position players has to be at catcher. Russell Martin is far and away better behind the plate than Posada has been for several years, and is also a significant improvement over Francisco Cervelli.
According to analysts (who are, naturally, often prejudiced against the Yankees), the Yankees should be pretty much mathematically eliminated already. After all, Theo Epstein's offseason moves such as buying Carl Crawford (who's batting 0 for 2011 with 4 Ks) surely gives the Resilient Red Sox the edge over the Yankees, while the Rays are going to come out of the blue to surprise everyone. Oh, wait. The Yankees have a two-game lead over both teams after only two games.
Hydra
6-4-3 double play... Ballgame over! Yankees win! Theeeeeee Yankees win!
With the exceptions of Boone Logan and Luis Ayala, the pitching staff has been good. CC Sabathia finally had a good Opening Day start, and A.J. Burnett gave five innings today despite a bad cold. David Robertson's performance was pretty typical; he pitched himself into a jam before sqeaking out without any runs. And, of course, Mariano Rivera is still Mariano Rivera.
The pitching staff has been merely good, but the Yankee lineup is back to the Bronx Bombers. Much to his chagrin, the media has been all over the little tweak in Derek Jeter's batting stance. Whether the minor adjustment has anything to do with it or not, he's batting .333 so far. However, Mark Teixeira has been the best bomber by far. Who knew that doing less weightlifting over the offseason would result in a better performance early in the season?
Aside from Teixeira's great start, the biggest improvement over last year's position players has to be at catcher. Russell Martin is far and away better behind the plate than Posada has been for several years, and is also a significant improvement over Francisco Cervelli.
According to analysts (who are, naturally, often prejudiced against the Yankees), the Yankees should be pretty much mathematically eliminated already. After all, Theo Epstein's offseason moves such as buying Carl Crawford (who's batting 0 for 2011 with 4 Ks) surely gives the Resilient Red Sox the edge over the Yankees, while the Rays are going to come out of the blue to surprise everyone. Oh, wait. The Yankees have a two-game lead over both teams after only two games.
Hydra
6-4-3 double play... Ballgame over! Yankees win! Theeeeeee Yankees win!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
The Two Bracketeers
As we've picked the National Champion three years running, we decided to post our bracket online this year. (Which means we'll probably completely embarrass ourselves. But heck, nobody's perfect, and we don't really know much about college basketball.)
For the record, we chose our teams before we knew the results of any games.
Our method of picking games is very simple: 1) Listen to the analysts and choose the teams in the National Championship Game. 2) Choose against all schools, cities, states, and all other location-related criteria that we don't like. 3) Pick against Obama; he is always wrong when it comes to sports. He said the top seeds will do well this year, so we picked against most of the top seeds. The sages have spoken.
Hydra
6-4-3 double play... Ballgame over! Yankees win! Theeeeeee Yankees win!
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For the record, we chose our teams before we knew the results of any games.
Our method of picking games is very simple: 1) Listen to the analysts and choose the teams in the National Championship Game. 2) Choose against all schools, cities, states, and all other location-related criteria that we don't like. 3) Pick against Obama; he is always wrong when it comes to sports. He said the top seeds will do well this year, so we picked against most of the top seeds. The sages have spoken.
Hydra
6-4-3 double play... Ballgame over! Yankees win! Theeeeeee Yankees win!
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