Yankees News: Life's a popularity contest
by danhanzus on Jun 24, 2011 6:00 AM EDT
in New York Yankees News
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PrintIf nothing else, the latest round of interleague play reminded the baseball world what the New York Yankees mean to the sport.
I know I sound like the Yankees version of Dillon Panthers booster Buddy Garrity when I say that, but the numbers don't lie.
The three-game set at Wrigley Field drew 126,283 fans, a new three-game series record at the iconic park in Chicago. The Great American Ball Park — seriously, they still call it that — drew sellouts for all three games, including a full house for a weekday game after a rainout.
The Yankees make money — and not just for themselves.
Speaking of the Yankees and popularity, the LoHud folk had a nice breakdown of the All-Star vote standings. Expect to see a lot of New York gray at Chase Field.
Here's an interesting ESPN Insider piece (subscription required) that focuses on New York's apparent unwillingness to pull the trigger on talented prospects, even at a time when the parent club needs them. One scout described Jesus Montero's lackluster season at Triple-A Scranton like this:
"He looks like a player who knows he's stuck in Pennsylvania."
- Nick Swisher would like you to know that there ain't nothing better than an off day in New York. Of course, Swishalicious could be trapped in Siberia and tweet with frost-bitten fingers that he was having the time of his life.
- Not Yankee related, but I'm pretty fascinated by the case of Nats manager Jim Riggleman, who resigned Thursday despite Washington's status as the NL's hottest team. I guess he figured a hot stretch was a good time for a power play. He figured wrong.
- File this under trying to get back in the good graces of the captain: Brian Cashman told the Daily News on Thursday that Jose Reyes coming to the Bronx is "not going to happen."
- Speaking of Derek Jeter, don't expect to see him back in the lineup before July 1. Remember what Jimmy Rollins said about the lingering nature of calf injuries? Just sayin' ...
- Ken Shpigel of The New York Times notes that no team has won more games than the Yankees since Jeter exited the lineup on June 14. He then poses a complicated question: Is there a correlation?
- Until next time, hang onto the roof ...
Dan Hanzus is a regular contributor to Pinstripe Alley. He can be reached at dhanzus@gmail.com or on Twitter @danhanzus.
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Russell Martin should not sniff the ASG
Hurray for April stats! Ballot stuffing! Yankee Bias!
Brett Gardner and David Robertson should be there. Seriously what does Gardner have to do to get credit as being one of the best players in the game?
What does Gardner have to do?
BA .500, OBP .700, SLG 1.400, OPS 2.100
50 steals to 0 caught stealing (including stealing home for 20 of those)
Field all 3 outfield positions perfectly simultaneously (and amass 200 outfield assists per game)
Nunez has an 800+ OPS since taking over for Jeter
It’s not like he’s gonna sustain it, but so far so good. Take your time, Jeets
"In a perfect world, we'd all be Yankees." ~Rick Horowitz
Agreed
Jeter needs to make sure he’s completely healthy- calf injuries are tricky in older players. Nunez is doing well so far filling in for him.
CALL UP JESUS MONTERO!
Other than occasionally muffing a grounder or throwing wildly past first
Nunez has made me better appreciate the art of making the plays that are there to be made.
I can't believe Martin and Jeter both might start the ASG
I love it when Yankees are in and if they make it I’ll support them, but they should be nowhere near the top of the leaderboards. There are three Yankees that deserve to start this game, and thats A-Rod, Granderson and Cano. But the Yankees are in position to have 5 and possibly six if Teixeira turns it around. Lets just say those five guys start and Tex and Gardner make it as reserves. Then if CC and Mo both make as pitchers (and they should), that is nine Yankees in the game. Robertson is having an All-Star like season- if he makes it thats ten!
I love the Yankees, but ten players on one team going to the All-Star game should never happen, and thats a possibility. Even 7 or 8 on one team going to the game is too many. If the game didn’t count then I’d love this, but since it does count and the Yankees are a playoff caliber team, the AL needs to win this game. The six Yankees that should be going are Rodriguez, Cano, and Granderson as starters and Tex, CC and Rivera as well.
CALL UP JESUS MONTERO!
In a brief attempt at their defense,
Great American is actually an insurance company in Cincinnati that bought the naming rights, making it less pretentious than it actually sounds
The Great American Ball Park — seriously, they still call it that,
News to me.
Thanks for the info.
"Have faith in the Yankees my son. Think of the great DiMaggio."
Pinstripe Alley | The Hometown Fan | @jscape2000
How could anyone not know this? Next they’re going to think Houston’s park was built in a minute…
I bet it's good to be playing again, huh?
Is it actually a nice ballpark?
I feel like I’ve heard nothing about it, even during this past series
"In a perfect world, we'd all be Yankees." ~Rick Horowitz
by Captain_Mick on Jun 24, 2011 2:19 PM EDT up reply actions
I agree with Riggleman here. Not picking up his option was an a**hole move.
The Nationals are winning at rate that dates back to 2005. I guess rewarding hard work and turn around has gone by the waste side.
That's fine. He knows that.
I think Riggleman’s move was well thought. Sometimes, folks like to have security, i.e. contract extension. He wanted more security and Nationals pretty much told him “no.” Its not like he isn’t doing a good job. They could’ve picked up the option and worked on a contract after the season.
Agree with Riggleman ...
he’s bought that club back to respectability, and has them in line to be a contenda.
All he wanted was a conversation in Chicago about his future … after managing the past two years on one year contracts, the man deserves some stability.
I put this one on the stupidity of the Nationals’ front office, in particular, their GM, Rizzo.
There's plenty of blame to go around
But Rizzo is the wrong guy to complain to about security. He worked for a year on an interim basis, and compensated by going out and doing the job and doing it well. He didn’t issue an ultimatum.
Riggleman had been told before the season that the team was going to let the year play out and not address the contract during the season. So what is the “conversation” going to be?
Riggleman: “I think you are wrong to delay and should extend the contract.”
Rizzo: “I disagree.”
Then what? Requesting a conversation vs. issuing an “extend me” ultimatum is a distinction without much difference IMO. My sympathy in the overall situation is with Riggleman, but this was the wrong move at the wrong time – unless he just decided that he didn’t want to work under these conditions any more. Which is fine, but he has to be prepared (and it seems that he is) to deal with the fallout. Which includes that it’s going to be hard to find a job when you have a record of quitting.
And Riggleman is a small part of what has brought the club back to mediocrity
Oh, and don’t underestimate mediocrity when they’ve been completely awful for the past five years.
What has really helped the Nationals is getting better players – and Rizzo has been the prime mover there. That’s how he converted his “interim” status to a full time secure gig, and so I doubt he was going to be very sympathetic to Riggleman pushing the clock up after the team has been hot for two weeks.
They didn't have to pick up his option
The way to get them to show it was to WIN and force the team’s hand. Riggleman has never been a great manager – even allowing for the fact that he had lousy teams to work with, his teams consistently underperformed against their pythagorean expectations. Even this year with the Nats they are about even with their pythagorean numbers, and they’ve only recently “caught up” with their pythag after a series of one run wins.
Although he shares Girardi’s incomprehensible love of small ball, Riggleman has done a better job this season. I do think that the Nationals should have picked up his option. Personally I would have done it at the All Star Break. But Riggleman signed the contract, and cutting out on his players and coaches when they are just approaching the fringe of possible wild card contention is a bush move IMHO.
And
He knows he’s just a warm body until they can get Bobby V. or Ryne Sandberg, etc.
The Nats are young, starting to play well, have some of the best prospects, and Strasburg coming off the DL next year. He’s coached that team to being watchable (I’ve already been to 5 games this year). So imagine you’d achieved that much with such a bright future ahead but not being able to reap the fruits of your labor. I’d be pissed too. It’s not that they won’t extend him, it’s that they wouldn’t even let him be in the conversation.
Live every week like it's shark week.
+1
Riggleman strongly suspected that they were not going to keep him on long term. Hard to disagree with that assessment when he’s been around since 2009 on one year contracts. Now that they are finally winning some games, and gaining some popularity, ownership will want a big name to help drive ticket sales.
It’s easy for us to sit back and say he should have just kept managing and winning, to show he deserved the job. But how many one-year contracts does it take? It sounds like he just wanted his next (third) one year option to be picked up a month or so early. And for $600K, no less – not much more than Jeffrey Loria was paying Rodriguez in Florida, and he’s as cheap as they come.
Technically, he was on a two year contract with a club option for a third
After coming on board in 2009 they dropped the interim from his title and signed him to a two year deal with a club option for a third. But what made it feel like a one year deal to Riggleman is that the club had a buyout option after 2010 (for $100,000) that they chose not to exercise.
There have been many, many managers, some with WS titles in their resume (LaRussa, Bochy, etc) that have managed through the walk year of their contract with no extension – which is essentially a one year deal. I get why the manager would rather have the extension, but who is Riggleman that he wants a deal/situation that other, better managers have been forced to live with? I like him (some call him “Popeye” in DC – the man has GUNZ) but he’s OK, not great.
But with the buyout option, and the club option
It was, for all intents, three one-year contracts. But I think your response will be the most common one – basically, who is this guy to demand a better deal. I’m not saying he’s right or wrong, just that I can understand the situation. He is not young, and he is looking for a better situation. Perhaps he figured his chances are better leaving after a successful streak, versus sticking around and being let go at the end of the season? I’m not sure his chances were ever going to be that great, though.
Side note
I’m just glad that for once people in DC are talking about baseball.
Live every week like it's shark week.
There are some of us that do all the time
What is interesting is other people talking about DC baseball. There was even a Barndon sighting in Federal Baseball . It will be nice when DC baseball is relevant for something other than tabloid stories like this one.
There are far, FAR worse stadium names than that
"WHO WOULD LEAD?! THE CLOWN?!"
"FUCK INTERLEAGUE" -I'mGivingYouARaise
by I'mGivingYouARaise on Jun 24, 2011 12:13 PM EDT reply actions
“He looks like a player who knows he’s stuck in Pennsylvania.”
Too bad Northeast PA is actually nice.
by MattF15 on Jun 24, 2011 12:40 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
rec'd
"Have faith in the Yankees my son. Think of the great DiMaggio."
Pinstripe Alley | The Hometown Fan | @jscape2000
Also...
"WHO WOULD LEAD?! THE CLOWN?!"
"FUCK INTERLEAGUE" -I'mGivingYouARaise
by I'mGivingYouARaise on Jun 24, 2011 12:40 PM EDT reply actions
one of the great mysteries of our time is how A-Rod came to be so universally hated
He’s had a few black eyes, but he hasn’t done anything a ton of other guys haven’t done. Sure, he chased a big contract, but how many people would turn down the chance to be the highest-paid person in their profession – especially when they deserve to be paid that way, and the stakes are so high?
He was willing to go to the Red Sox, and when that didn’t work out, he willingly switched to third base to come here – despite the fact that he was the better shortstop. (Don’t even get me started on how people would be treating A-Rod if he was slumping like Jeter has been, and showed no signs of being willing to switch positions or move from the top of the order. Mostly don’t get me started because we might be facing those issues in a couple of years, and we’ll see how they’re dealt with.)
I know the steroid thing rubs some people the wrong way, but he’s not the only guy to have done it, and Andy Pettitte and David Ortiz (to name a couple of examples) don’t get nearly as much grief. And yes, he cheated on his wife and broke up his marriage, but he’s hardly the only ballplayer to have strayed from his marriage vows. I’ve always looked at the incident in Toronto (where he induced the guy to drop the pop-up) and wondered how it would have gone down if the roles had been reversed, and the guy yelled at A-Rod and he dropped the pop-up. I think people would have been merciless, saying that he’s easily distracted (or God knows what).
Then there’s the perception that he’s not clutch. He certainly had a rough stretch from Game 4 in 2004 through the end of the 2007 playoffs, but his overall numbers in the post-season were good, even with that prolonged slump. And 2009 should have put an end to all that talk. (CC and Matsui were deserving of their awards, but if they gave a playoffs MVP, it would’ve been A-Rod).
I’ve never heard anyone say he doesn’t work hard, and he’s as smart a player as there is (smart about baseball; I wouldn’t have him doing my taxes). And he’s always been a good teammate, as evidenced by stories like this. As I said, in the future people will wonder why A-Rod got so much grief, much like we wonder why Yankee fans were cool to Mickey Mantle before 1961.
by long time listener on Jun 24, 2011 2:35 PM EDT up reply actions 5 recs
Equinophobia
That’s my guess
"In a perfect world, we'd all be Yankees." ~Rick Horowitz
by Captain_Mick on Jun 24, 2011 2:39 PM EDT up reply actions
Is this really a mystery?
When ARod signed his mega-contract, most people were dumbfounded at all the dollars, but I don’t recall anyone hating on him at the time so much as on Tom Hicks for signing over so much money to one player. But then, word came out after 2003 that Texas was looking to trade him.
For most of the country, watching the best player in baseball go to the best team in baseball was a case of the rich getting (obscenely) richer. Throw in the fact that the Pissants could have had him, but tried to save a few $$$ by asking him to modify his contract (which was, of course, vetoed by the MLBPA for the bad precedent it would set). That seems to me to be when the ARod hate started reaching ridiculous levels, fed by the four-letter network and their staff of Pissant fans. As much as we may wish it weren’t true, we’re all affected by the media’s slant on their own coverage.
Then, throw in the 2004 collapse, and suddenly fair weather fans in New York started piling on the hatewagon. Predictably, it took until the Yankees won a World Series with Alex before the hate in New York started to die. But there is still plenty of hate out there. In my mind, ESPN and Yankee-hating bloggers are the main impetus behind that. Alex doesn’t help himself with some of the dumb things he says, but as LTL pointed out, he’s not done anything nearly bad enough to cause such hate.
I look at the love heaped on players like Kobe Bryant, Ray Lewis, and the like, and I can only shake my head…
the whole team is an embarassment!
Last night, a comedian died in New York. Somebody knows why. Somebody knows
by Rorschach44 on Jun 24, 2011 12:58 PM EDT up reply actions
They’re embarassing the organization!
Rec Generating Database
Ban BBS
Jedi Master A-Rod is a poster on Pinstripe Alley. He can be reached by clicking the "Reply" button below his comments.
by Jedi Master A-Rod on Jun 24, 2011 1:06 PM EDT up reply actions
@Yankees New York Yankees
Periods of rain are in the forecast for today. Please check back for updates on tonight’s game vs Colorado … http://atmlb.com/jNN0Ga
Shocking.
"WHO WOULD LEAD?! THE CLOWN?!"
"FUCK INTERLEAGUE" -I'mGivingYouARaise
by I'mGivingYouARaise on Jun 24, 2011 1:17 PM EDT reply actions
must be that time of the month
Last night, a comedian died in New York. Somebody knows why. Somebody knows
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