Sorry I haven't written in a few days. What a "Situation." I got in a little bit of a jam when I decided to show up in Cleveland for the Yankees series with my brand-new LeBron James Miami Heat jersey. For some strange reason, fans didn't really handle it well, and they ran me out of the stadium. The nerve!
Seriously, I've been watching all the games this week. And guess what? While I'm happy the Yankees have been mostly winning, even I'm sick of A-Rod and this 600 homer quest. (I have plans tonight, so my guess is that A-Rod will hit it this evening, when I'm not watching!)
Anyhow, last night I was all set to watch the season premiere of "Jersey Shore" live. It was on at 10 p.m. You would think a game that started at 7 p.m. would be over in time for me to do this, right? Um, no. The Yankee game went on, and on, and on, with yet another at-bat by A-Rod to hit #600. Between that, and Chan Ho Park's lousy pitching, I didn't get to watch "Jersey Shore" live. Bummer. I do have the show taped, though, but I haven't watched it yet. So please, don't tell me any spoilers!)
One other thought - notice how Cleveland third baseman Andy Marte shut the Yankees down in the ninth? The Yankees just can't hit against pitchers they've never seen before, even if the pitchers are really position players!
What do you think? Tell us about it!
Friday, July 30, 2010
New Florida radio show: Armando and the Amigo
South Florida sports radio host Larry Milian has a new gig. He and Miami Herald sports columnist Armando Salguero are going to be hosting a new morning drive time show for WFTL Sports in Fort Lauderdale. The Miami Herald wrote about it today.
It's called "Armando and the Amigo," and it will be on at 640 on your AM dial, if you're in the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale South Florida area. You can also listen live starting this Monday morning by going to the WFTL website.
Anyhow, I'm very excited for Larry's new job. He first interviewed me in 2006, and I've been on his show dozens of times since. Squawker Jon and I also met Larry when he came to New York two years ago, and he's just as cool a guy in person as he is on the air. Congrats, Larry and Armando!
What do you think? Tell us about it!
It's called "Armando and the Amigo," and it will be on at 640 on your AM dial, if you're in the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale South Florida area. You can also listen live starting this Monday morning by going to the WFTL website.
Anyhow, I'm very excited for Larry's new job. He first interviewed me in 2006, and I've been on his show dozens of times since. Squawker Jon and I also met Larry when he came to New York two years ago, and he's just as cool a guy in person as he is on the air. Congrats, Larry and Armando!
What do you think? Tell us about it!
Thursday, July 29, 2010
At least the Mets got a moral victory
After the Mets rallied from six runs down Wednesday night only to lose in 13 innings, David Wright noted that "moral victories don't count in the standings." I wouldn't anyone on the Mets to feel any other way, but I did get some satisfaction out of the comeback, because it's not as if the Mets are making the playoffs this year.
A couple of days ago, reader Jonmouk71 wrote that the Mets would have to go 40-23 the rest of the way to win 90 games, and even if 90 wins got the wild card, the Giants would only have to be around .500 the rest of the year to get there.
Two days later, the situation is only getting worse. The Mets are tied for fifth in the wild card race, 6 1/2 games behind the Giants, five games behind the Reds and four games behind the Phillies, who look like they are about to get Roy Oswalt.
So even if the Mets go on a hot streak the rest of the season, they need to have all of the main contenders struggle, which is extremely unlikely.
No, it's not to exciting to root for the Mets to finish above .500 and ahead of the Marlins, but winning 85 games would still exceed most people's expectations at the start of the year and provide hope for next year.
Just not too much hope, since Omar Minaya and Jerry Manuel still need to go after the season.
A couple of days ago, reader Jonmouk71 wrote that the Mets would have to go 40-23 the rest of the way to win 90 games, and even if 90 wins got the wild card, the Giants would only have to be around .500 the rest of the year to get there.
Two days later, the situation is only getting worse. The Mets are tied for fifth in the wild card race, 6 1/2 games behind the Giants, five games behind the Reds and four games behind the Phillies, who look like they are about to get Roy Oswalt.
So even if the Mets go on a hot streak the rest of the season, they need to have all of the main contenders struggle, which is extremely unlikely.
No, it's not to exciting to root for the Mets to finish above .500 and ahead of the Marlins, but winning 85 games would still exceed most people's expectations at the start of the year and provide hope for next year.
Just not too much hope, since Omar Minaya and Jerry Manuel still need to go after the season.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
What's the deal with all those freak baseball injuries?
There have been a lot of weird injuries this year, from pie-throwing mishaps to sneezes gone bad. I wrote a piece for The Faster Times about the issue. Please check it out.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Fire Oliver Perez now - and Luis Castillo later
Daily News columnist John Harper has come up with the best short-term solution to the Mets' woes - get rid of Oliver Perez now.
I have been opposed to this idea but I have come around. I didn't like the prospect that Ollie's agent Scott Boras could be conspiring to force the Mets to set Perez free so that he could sign with the Yankees or Phillies and suddenly regain his form. Ollie has pitched well in both ballparks. Plenty of teams will be willing to gamble the minimum on Perez, who is still young and appears to be healthy (physically at least).
But as Harper points out, Perez is throwing only 86 mph and "still doesn't know where the ball is going."
A few years ago, the Yankees thought they were being clever when they took Armando Benitez off of the Mets' hands. But they got rid of Benitez just three weeks later.
Squawker Lisa, one advantage of the Yankees getting Ollie is that Joba Chamberlain and A.J. Burnett would no longer have to worry about being the biggest head case on the team.
As Harper notes, dumping Ollie now would send a positive message to the team that they "really do want to win." It would also send the same message to the fans, who have some reason to doubt it.
Just as in the offseason, the Mets are not taking on payroll after saying they would. Bengie Molina and Joel Pineiro were supposedly not worth it. With Molina, the Mets went for a much cheaper option in Rod Barajas, which looked like a good move in May, but now, not so much.
With Pineiro and all the other available pitchers, the Mets tried to say with a straight face that they were no improvement over the likes of Ollie and John Maine.
Actually, I'm more concerned with the Mets giving away prospects for the likes of Ted Lilly than whether or not they take on payroll. After Cliff Lee and Dan Haren, there's not much more that is worth either prospects or payroll.
But perhaps the best thing about eating the rest of Ollie's contract is that it would set a badly-needed precedent. Right now, Luis Castillo is the Mets' best option at second base. But wouldn't it be great if this offseason, the Mets were willing to eat the remainder of Castillo's contract, which will only have a year to run, and finally upgrade the position?
That would be something to look forward to - along with upgrades at manager and GM.
I have been opposed to this idea but I have come around. I didn't like the prospect that Ollie's agent Scott Boras could be conspiring to force the Mets to set Perez free so that he could sign with the Yankees or Phillies and suddenly regain his form. Ollie has pitched well in both ballparks. Plenty of teams will be willing to gamble the minimum on Perez, who is still young and appears to be healthy (physically at least).
But as Harper points out, Perez is throwing only 86 mph and "still doesn't know where the ball is going."
A few years ago, the Yankees thought they were being clever when they took Armando Benitez off of the Mets' hands. But they got rid of Benitez just three weeks later.
Squawker Lisa, one advantage of the Yankees getting Ollie is that Joba Chamberlain and A.J. Burnett would no longer have to worry about being the biggest head case on the team.
As Harper notes, dumping Ollie now would send a positive message to the team that they "really do want to win." It would also send the same message to the fans, who have some reason to doubt it.
Just as in the offseason, the Mets are not taking on payroll after saying they would. Bengie Molina and Joel Pineiro were supposedly not worth it. With Molina, the Mets went for a much cheaper option in Rod Barajas, which looked like a good move in May, but now, not so much.
With Pineiro and all the other available pitchers, the Mets tried to say with a straight face that they were no improvement over the likes of Ollie and John Maine.
Actually, I'm more concerned with the Mets giving away prospects for the likes of Ted Lilly than whether or not they take on payroll. After Cliff Lee and Dan Haren, there's not much more that is worth either prospects or payroll.
But perhaps the best thing about eating the rest of Ollie's contract is that it would set a badly-needed precedent. Right now, Luis Castillo is the Mets' best option at second base. But wouldn't it be great if this offseason, the Mets were willing to eat the remainder of Castillo's contract, which will only have a year to run, and finally upgrade the position?
That would be something to look forward to - along with upgrades at manager and GM.
Curtis Granderson is something sort of grandish as the Yankees win
The Grandy Man Can! Curtis Granderson has hit three homers in the past two days, and his two-run homer Monday night, combined with Javier Vazquez's great pitching, helped the Yankees win.
I'm glad to see that Granderson is finally hitting - he's .427 in his last six games. The center fielder is an easy guy to root for, between his engaging personality, and all the charity work that he does. Grandy is also a fellow blogger, so how could I not like him!
Granderson was one of Brian Cashman's big acquisitions this winter; Javier Vazquez was the other one. And Javy struggled so much in the first month of the year that he looked like Cashman's Folly. But since then, his ERA has dropped over five runs, and he's pitched more like the Atlanta Braves ace he was last year, and not the hurler Yankee fans remember from October 2004.
Anyhow, Granderson and Vazquez were the two big heroes of the night. But strangely enough, the New York Post didn't see fit to mention either of them on today's back page. Instead, with their cynical "Who Needs 'Em!" headline, Joba Chamberlain and Alex Rodriguez are lumped together as the forces of evil in Yankeeland. See why I complain about the media!
Maybe the Post is just mad that four hours after a headline on a George King blog entry claimed that "Girardi says he is sticking with Joba," Girardi went to Dave Robertson and Boone Logan instead!
As for Joba, I think Girardi is doing the right thing in trying something different. If Joba name were Joe Blow, and not Joba Chamberlain, he would have been demoted a long time ago.
A-Rod, of course, did not hit #600, but he did appear to have a lot of Yankee fans in the house cheering him on. I squawked a lot yesterday about Yankee attendance. As Squawker reader Peggy noted, the Indians have the worst attendance in the majors, averaging around 16K a game. For what it's worth, last night's attendance was 27,224, which ranks third for Cleveland's home game attendance, after Opening Day and Stephen Strasburg's second major league game.
What do you think? Tell us about it!
I'm glad to see that Granderson is finally hitting - he's .427 in his last six games. The center fielder is an easy guy to root for, between his engaging personality, and all the charity work that he does. Grandy is also a fellow blogger, so how could I not like him!
Granderson was one of Brian Cashman's big acquisitions this winter; Javier Vazquez was the other one. And Javy struggled so much in the first month of the year that he looked like Cashman's Folly. But since then, his ERA has dropped over five runs, and he's pitched more like the Atlanta Braves ace he was last year, and not the hurler Yankee fans remember from October 2004.
Anyhow, Granderson and Vazquez were the two big heroes of the night. But strangely enough, the New York Post didn't see fit to mention either of them on today's back page. Instead, with their cynical "Who Needs 'Em!" headline, Joba Chamberlain and Alex Rodriguez are lumped together as the forces of evil in Yankeeland. See why I complain about the media!Maybe the Post is just mad that four hours after a headline on a George King blog entry claimed that "Girardi says he is sticking with Joba," Girardi went to Dave Robertson and Boone Logan instead!
As for Joba, I think Girardi is doing the right thing in trying something different. If Joba name were Joe Blow, and not Joba Chamberlain, he would have been demoted a long time ago.
A-Rod, of course, did not hit #600, but he did appear to have a lot of Yankee fans in the house cheering him on. I squawked a lot yesterday about Yankee attendance. As Squawker reader Peggy noted, the Indians have the worst attendance in the majors, averaging around 16K a game. For what it's worth, last night's attendance was 27,224, which ranks third for Cleveland's home game attendance, after Opening Day and Stephen Strasburg's second major league game.
What do you think? Tell us about it!
Monday, July 26, 2010
Are you concerned about Joba Chamberlain?
I was a guest on my friend Larry Milian's radio show last Saturday on South Florida radio station WFTL before Old Timers' Day. He also had on CBS-era pitcher Stan Bahnsen on during the same time, so I got the honor of talking baseball with Stan. Here's very knowledgeable on past and present Yankee history, as well as pitching.
Anyhow, we were talking about Joba Chamberlain, and what to do on him. The subject of whether he needed to be sent to the minors came up, with us talking about how doing so has made others straighten up. Anyhow, it was a very interesting discussion. I mentioned about how miserable it was to watch his starts last year - they were so slow-paced - and how I wanted him in the bullpen as time went on. But how he hasn't been the Joba of old in the pen.
It's now a week and a half after this talk. And Joba, who his own peers voted as "Most Overrated" player, got booed by Yankee fans yesterday after giving up that homer to Scott Podsednik. He also was mentioned as being part of a possible Dan Haren trade. And Joe Girardi is still making noise about replacing Chamberlain with Dave Robertson in the eighth inning.
So I'm wondering what readers are thinking. Are you sick of Joba? Do you want him off the team, or in the minors? Do you want him as a starter again?
Personally, I wouldn't be averse to him being sent to the minors, but even then, I don't know if that will solve him. It's all just a mess.
What do you think? Tell us about it!
Anyhow, we were talking about Joba Chamberlain, and what to do on him. The subject of whether he needed to be sent to the minors came up, with us talking about how doing so has made others straighten up. Anyhow, it was a very interesting discussion. I mentioned about how miserable it was to watch his starts last year - they were so slow-paced - and how I wanted him in the bullpen as time went on. But how he hasn't been the Joba of old in the pen.
It's now a week and a half after this talk. And Joba, who his own peers voted as "Most Overrated" player, got booed by Yankee fans yesterday after giving up that homer to Scott Podsednik. He also was mentioned as being part of a possible Dan Haren trade. And Joe Girardi is still making noise about replacing Chamberlain with Dave Robertson in the eighth inning.
So I'm wondering what readers are thinking. Are you sick of Joba? Do you want him off the team, or in the minors? Do you want him as a starter again?
Personally, I wouldn't be averse to him being sent to the minors, but even then, I don't know if that will solve him. It's all just a mess.
What do you think? Tell us about it!
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