How the Teix was won

Really, it seems to be this simple:

But Cashman met with Teixeira, Boras and Boras' right-hand man, Mike Fiore, in Maryland Dec. 4. That was just before the winter meetings and before the Yankees landed either CC Sabathia or A.J. Burnett. And even Cashman says the visit was almost a ploy.

"When I met with him, I was doing it more to get leverage on CC," he said. "We weren't playing possum on purpose. We were actually out of it."

But Cashman left that meeting even more enamored of Teixeira. And once the Yankees got Sabathia and Burnett, followed by an apparent breakdown of negotiations between the Red Sox and Teixeira's camp, Cashman sold the Steinbrenners on getting the first baseman.

Perhaps one argument that swayed them was these words from Cashman about the Red Sox: "I know you're not interested, but they're going to get this guy. He's going to fall in their lap, and he's so perfect for us."

Well played by Cashman. Overpaid but well-played.

Yanks to face Ponson

Get ready, fans! Yanks to help christen the remodeled/improved Kauffman Stadium tonite. Best part:

Yankees vs Royals 4:10 p.m. Pettitte (0-0) vs Ponson (0-0)

Woooooo! Of course, if he throws 7 shut-out innings, this post will mysteriously disappear.

Yanks in win column, meet me in Times Square

Get out there and celebrate, folks! Our long suffering season of discontent is finally over!

Some live-blogging updates from Pete Abe, including two well-placed jabs at Pavano:

UPDATE, 1:50 p.m.: Hey, a Yankees starter struck somebody out.

UPDATE, 2:04 p.m.: Wow, Burnett is just so good with the action on that curveball and how he spots his fastball to both sides. He has already had three swing-and-misses, six fewer than Sabathia and Wang had in eight innings.

UPDATE, 2:42 p.m.: Carl Pavano allowed five runs in the first inning in his first start for the Indians. What were the Indians thinking?

UPDATE, 2:49 p.m.: The Idle just gave up two more as Kinsler homered. Hilarious.

UPDATE, 4:06 p.m.: The All-Star version of Robbie Cano has shown up this season, not the half-asleep version of a year ago. He is 5 for 10 with three walks and four RBI in three games. He just homered and the Yankees lead 9-2.

It's important to remember

Yesterday, between a very heavy workload, an early departure and a general funk stemming from the tragic Adenhart news, I didn't have much to say. Probably for the better. My feelings for anyone who is dumb enough to get behind the wheel driving while drunk aren't suitable for print here. There's a special time and place for those people to "get theirs". But in the wake of the Adenhart tragedy, it's also important to remember that other lives were lost in this accident.

Here is a wonderful tribute to one of them. Let it serve as a reminder to make sure we tell those close to us how important they are to us. As often as possible.

I'm sorta sappy this way. I wasn't always. And I am far from spiritual, too. Ever since the first day we knew my wife was first pregnant, more than nine years ago, I've had a ritual before I go to sleep. I have to do this, even if I am on the road or whatever. It's not from a fear of death, but something else and I'm not sure what. In fact, I have no idea why I am sharing this, but what the hell. We're friends here.

The last thing I always say to my wife (even if she's not there) before I go to sleep is "Love you, love the boys". It's the last thing I say... just in case. In case of what, I don't know. I've been doing this every night. Started as "love you, love the baby" long before he was born and he celebrated his 9th birthday on Saturday.

I know you don't come here to get spiritual or sentimental or whatever, but if the Adenhart tragedy touched you in any way, just let it be a reminder to constantly reach out to those you care about and let them know it.

Back to baseball.

Torre finds a new Proctor

{My activity here will be limited today due to an increased workload, so I will try to be brief, which is hard for me.}

Seems that Joe Torre has found a new whipping boy --a new Scotty Proctor, if you will-- to abuse out in LA.

I distinctly remember Vin Scully's soothing voice last night telling me that Dodgers manager Joe Torre didn't want to use Cory Wade on back-to-back days after the second-year setup man battled shoulder soreness early on in spring training.

Yet what did I see today in the eighth inning against the Padres? Yes, that was Cory Wade, for the second day in a row and third time in four days. He entered a one-run game in the eighth with no one on and one out and, after retiring the first batter he faced, gave up a triple, a game-tying single and then a go-ahead double before being removed in favor of Guillermo Mota.

The simple fact is that Torre just can't help himself.

Torre's mismanagement of his bullpen based upon an overreliance on a few of "his guys" is a story well told and borderline legendary/criminal (depending on your perspective). Hell, Torre's abuse of Scott Proctor even spawned a damn fine blog (Scott Proctor's Arm).

R.I.P. Nick Adenhart, age 22

This is simply another senseless tragedy. Condolences to his family, team, friends, loved ones.

Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart was one of three people killed early Thursday morning in a hit-and-run crash in Fullerton.

The crash took place only hours after the 22-year-old pitcher played in last night's Angels game.

Police say the driver of a minivan ran a red light in Fullerton and struck two cars, killing three people in a Mitsubishi and critically injuring a passenger.

And this should be fun

So Wang was terrible last night. What better way to end a season-starting 0-2 hole than to run up newcomer AJ Burnett? Nothing could possibly go wrong, could it?

Sabathia, Wang and Burnett were supposed to be a one-two-three combination that knocked out opponents. Two games into the season, and it's the Yankees starters who are leaving the mound bowed and bloody. Burnett gets the start against the Orioles today. He'd better be throwing lightning bolts or the Yankees will be looking foolish before they get back to their new billion dollar palace in the Bronx next week.

It's still early and there's no need to panic. Joe Girardi and his players said as much, over and over, following the Yankees' 7-5 loss to the Orioles at Camden Yards Wednesday night. Remember 1998 when the team went 1-4 to start and finished with 114 wins, they say.

At 0-2 with 160 to play, no one is jumping off a bridge. But considering the Yankees spent $161 million for Sabathia and $82.5 million for Burnett and not to mention the $180 million for Mark Teixeira, who is 1-for-Baltimore in two games, this is past disappointing. This is embarrassing.

Holy crap, guys. Seriously? Do we need a refresher course in both history and perspective?

Sabathia was dreadful last April and Teix is a notoriously slow starter. Expecting CC to roll a complete game and Teix start 5-8 with 2 HR and 5 RBI is just not fair. Deep breath, fellow Yanks fans. Cleansing breath. Leave the panic to the lame writers.

But since the writers and some overly zealous fans seemed to have forgotten:

• Sabathia
  (March/April 2008): 1-4 record, 7.88 ERA, 6 HR allowed, 1.94 K/BB ratio.
  Highest monthly ERA rest of the year: May, 2.44.
  K/BB ratio May-Sept 2008: 5.19.


• Teixeira
  (March/April Career): 130 games, 0.254 BA, 0.344 OBP, 0.438 SLG, 19 HR (1:26.3 AB)
  2008, by Month:
  March/April: 0.273/0.333/0.464
  May: 0.268/0.379/0.412
  June: 0.287/.0424/0.617
  July: 0.307/0.430/0.545
  August: 0.386/0.479/0.663 (holy crap!)
  Sept/Oct: 0.333/0.417/0.631

So, let's not get too crazy just yet. If Burnett gets hurt while serving up a grand slam tonite, I will get the pitchforks and torches, of course.

Awww, Joba insulted NY'ers? He's right

I can't imagine why fellow New Yorkers would be upset about this? Joba's dead right. Is it because we don't like hearing the truth? The truth is, most NYC'ers are rude as hell. There, I said it.

"The biggest thing that I've noticed driving here and there is if you let somebody in, they open the window and say 'thank you,' " Chamberlain said about getting behind the wheel in Nebraska.

"In New York, they might hit you. Yeah, it's a joke."

A few weeks ago, I changed lanes on the Hutch due to a merge. Rather than letting me in, when there was more than ample room, the guy behind me gunned his engine, ran up on the shoulder (there really isn't one on the Hutch, if you aren't aware) and pushed me back into the middle lane before I could move back myself, causing damage to both cars. Ricky Bobby had nothing on this #$%^&(#. Thankfully, no one was hurt. This was the same guy that 10 minutes earlier I witnessed running the righthand lane shoulder to merge onto the Hutch. Wish I had an on-board video camera like the cops because this guy should have his license revoked. Want his license plate #?

It's not the drivers, it's the rude attitudes that foster the "my time/space/stuff is more important than yours" mentality. Can't stand it.

I hope he has to buy two tickets

Man, this guy is HUGE. I sure hope he has to buy two seats.

Not to mention, how many Mo Rivera's would fit in that #42 jersey? 4? 6?

Picture taken from Yankee Stadium, naturally.



[EDIT: If you are here via Facebook, can you let me know who linked this? Just curious!]

Zing!

Pete Abe's affection for Bobby Abreu's "defense" on full display:

They’re started dismantling the old Yankee Stadium, stripping out the grass and now they’re taking down the outfield walls. This part of the wall had very little wear and tear as Bobby Abreu rarely touched it.

Ouch man, ouch.

Say what?

OK, I had some fun bashing KC and their Farnsworthless acquisition, but reading this made my head spin (emphasis mine):

Brett Tomko will be the Triple-A closer

Pitching cordinator Nardi Contreras said in spring training that the Yankees would rather control a young reliever's innings than his role. That's why you saw Scott Strickland in the closer's role last season and that's why Tomko will be in that role this year.

“Tomko is going to pitch in the closer role right now, and we’ll go from there," pitching coach Scott Aldred said. "We’ll see how it works. I think it will be fine. A lot of experience. Give him some intense work instead of being a long guy and pitching in some games that don’t mean much, I think we’ll get the best out of Brett Tomko by pitching him at the end of the game.”

As for the rest of the bullpen, Mark Melancon, David Robertson, Steven Jackson and Anthony Claggett are lined up to get most of the innings.

At least they have a rational reason for it, ya know, besides winning.

(Of course, Tomko posted a 1.17 ERA in 15 1/3 Grapefruit League innings, so maybe... nah, nevermind.)

Sign of the apocalypse?

It was bound to happen, wasn't it?

It's every kid's dream: become a professional baseball player, take steroids and set home run records. Okay, maybe not EVERY kid's dream, but enough that the folks at Addicting Games have created an new online game that let's you feel what it's like to be in that position, without the public embarrassment of a former trainer's ratting your out or having to lie before Congress.

It's called Baseball: Juiced.

Well, there goes the neighborhood.

Off topic: son of Hanson Brother scores

Now this is just damn cool:

He's a scorer, not a fighter. Unlike Dad.

Christian Hanson, son of one of the brothers (Dave) of "Slap Shot" fame, recorded his first career goal Tuesday night. And he did it in style, poking in a rebound against the legendary Martin Brodeur to give Toronto a 3-0 lead.

Hanson, an undrafted free agent out of Notre Dame, signed with the Maple Leafs last week and quickly ascended to the top line under Ron Wilson. We know it wasn't favoritism that caused his quick rise, because Wilson the film buff never listed the hockey classic among his favorite movies.

Ron Wilson clearly has NO taste in movies. And yes, the movie poster is framed and hanging in my office here at work.

Also, that is a picture of young Hanson, embracing the family "crest", to the upper right.

Your 2009 YAE Nominees are....

Without further ado, Tom Verducci's 2009 Year After Effect nominees are (I tried to make this larger but that's the best I could do. Click on it to get a bigger view):


Says Verducci:

Last year I red-flagged seven pitchers: Jimenez, Gorzelanny, Ian Kennedy (Yankees), Dustin McGowan (Blue Jays), Chad Gaudin (Cubs), Yovani Gallardo (Brewers) and Fausto Carmona (Indians). Except for Jimenez all of them broke down with injuries -- some of them serious, not all arm-related -- and combined to go 29-32. None won 10 games. Previous blowouts that were red-flagged included Francisco Liriano, Gustavo Chacin, Anibal Sanchez, Adam Loewen and Scott Mathieson.

What does that mean for the 10 red flags for 2009? Don't panic, though Cole Hamels, whose elbow was barking in spring training, isn't completely out of the woods just yet. When I talked with Boston pitching coach John Farrell this spring about the Year After Effect on Lester, for instance, Farrell insisted that he has no worries whatsoever about the left-hander. Farrell said Lester is bigger, stronger and throwing harder than he did a year ago. "His progression has been everything you look for," Farrell said.

Like Pelfrey, Lester has age (he turned 25 in January) and size (6-2, 200) on his side. The red flags seem riskier for pitchers such as Hamels (slight build, mild injury history), Tim Lincecum (famously slight build) and Clayton Kershaw (age 21). Indeed, the entire Los Angeles Dodgers season might be riding on this list, with the club counting heavily on Kershaw and Chad Billingsley.

Great stuff. I can't wait to see this develop.

Suck it, Kansas City

Sorry, I really want the Royals to do well, I really do, but this is what you get when you sign Kyle Farnsworthless:

• K Farnsworth (L, 0-1; B, 1) 1.0 IP; 4 H; 3 R; 3 ER; 0 BB; 1 K; 1 HR; 27.00 ERA

Serves up a HR to Thome in the 8th to lift the WhiteSox to a victory! Two years of Farnsworthless. Yee-freakin-haw!

Dunn switches to ash from maple

Fearing the potential horror that would come from a shattered maple bat, Adam Dunn has switched back to ash, stats be damned. Good for him.

"Maple is too dangerous . . . I switched last June," Dunn said. "Those bats shatter. One of them is going to end up sticking out of somebody's neck. Maybe [a fan] in the stands. I'm not being that guy that did it."

With those words, Dunn may be the first player in baseball who has rejected the lethal maple bats that are a tragedy waiting to happen. The whole sport knows it. It's being "studied."

"Using the ash probably does take away some homers, probably. If you don't quite get it, miss it a little, it doesn't go as far," said Dunn. "I'll take one, two, three less homers and not have my name on the barrel of the bat sticking in somebody. I saw a [shattered] bat go around an umpire's head last year."

In case you haven't been paying attention, my thoughts on the maple bat "situation":

• Seriously, can we do SOMETHING about these bats already?
• Maple bats and minus 3.5
• A solution to broken bats, aluminum bats
• It's about the wood, stupid

Sobering reality facing beat writers

After reading this, one can only wonder how many people will be voting on the HOF a few years from now, before the online guys (Neyer, Law, etc.) are eligible:

"I certainly recognize where things are going," says Jack O'Connell, secretary of the Baseball Writers Association of America, the venerable 101-year-old membership organization for the profession. "I certainly see the dark clouds."
[...]
The changing world was on vivid display recently at McKechnie Field in Bradenton, Fla., the spring home of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Opened in 1923 during the golden age of sportswriting, it held its first-ever night game last March -- 20 years after the lights first went on over Chicago's Wrigley Field. At a March 22 game between the Pirates and the Cincinnati Reds two writers from Pittsburgh papers were in attendance, along with two reporters from Major League Baseball's Web site. The Pittsburgh chapter of the BBWAA is down to nine members, an all time low, from 20 in 1988.

Sad times, interesting times. Crises create opportunities. The internet has become the medium of choice, cheaper, faster, better (sometimes), worse (sometimes, too).

We're witnessing a tectonic shift. Hell, friends of ours, like Craig from Shysterball (and his partner in crime Aaron Gleeman, as well as many others) have moved from the blogosphere like this, to a larger platform, and now writes for NBC. That's pretty darned cool. Guys (and gals) with the talent and passion to perform will be elevated where once there was no entry into the "good old boys club" that was the BBWAA. Now, if we can only figure out the financial side of the model for the small fish...

I find this fascinating.

Gotta love this

Guessing this is what Spring Training is for, since clearly Johan has the pitching thing down to a science:

All is well, remain calm!

Despite a truly forgettable debut by Sabathia and Teixeira, I will be very much anti-NY media today and try to to maintain a sense of calm.

Perhaps I am the anomoly, but I'd like to think that most Yanks fans aren't climbing out on the ledge this morning. The media --what those not in NY see-- does a wonderful job of portraying a sense of impending doom and fear. Sure, fans like me are bummed that Sabathia had nothing and Teix looked a bit flummoxed. But I'm not panicking.

The NY media sells lots of papers with outlandish fear-mongering headlines. Some are truly brilliant and funny. But don't think that they speak for all of us, even most of us, when they call for Girardi's head after one game or calling Sabathia and/or Teixeira an abject failure.

Some of the headlines today, getting the bile boiling:

• YANKS' BIG-MONEY MEN MAKE POOR IMPRESSIONS
• CC, TEX STINK IT UP IN OPENER
• Money for nothing
• Opening daze: CC, Yanks rocked
• New Stars Fizzle as the Yankees Absorb a Beating
• Sabathia, Teixeira flop in debuts; Yankees fall
• A tough day for Teixeira all around
• Dreary debut for Teixeira
• Newcomers struggle as New York Yankees fall 10-5 to Baltimore Orioles on Opening Day

You get the point. We all do. It was a dreadful opening day for the team. However, while watching the first half, two things became very clear:

1. Sabathia had no command and only threw breaking pitches. I hope he is not hiding a strain or something.
2. The Baltimore offense is pretty darned good. They might not have the pitching to compete, but they sure can hit. And Adam Jones is gonna be a player.

So not what I wanted to come in and ramble about today. Just know that most of us (Yanks fans) are not in full bore panic mode yet. Talk to me at the end of the month.

Fellow bloggers also seem to be trying to maintain a sense of perspective (perspective and Yanks fans, living together, hilarity ensues):

• Jay at FackYouk seems to be squarely in my corner here, too. Thankfully.
• It’s only one game, from RAB
• It’s one game, calm down, from Pete Abe (LoHud of the Rings)
• Relax! from Sliding Into Home
• Well, there goes the undefeated season, from It Is High...

Anticipating ARod's return

Seems that ARod's at 70% already and eyeing a return before mid-May. Wonderful. I hope he comes back pain-free and can have a typical ARod year.

Now, just for giggles sake, here is the posting that I ran last May 20th, as ARod prepared to return from his thigh injury (with the strike outs being replaced with this year's information):

The NY papers are depicting ARod riding into the Bronx on a white horse, a savior, a returning hero.

Um, sorry. This is not a good move.

The erstwhile ARod, an all-time talent, is not one who seems to react well as the pressure rises. Pressure turns carbon into diamonds but for some reason, in baseball with ARod, it turns a diamond often into dust.

Expecting him to return and go bonkers and save the Yanks is both unrealistic (for the fans to expect) and unfair (for ARod). The last thing we need is for him to struggle to find his groove while the fans ride him incessantly. He's returning from injury; give the guy a chance to get back to form.

Maybe this time will be different. Maybe ARod truly conquered his inner demons last earlier this year after admitting in Spring Training that all was not rosy with he and Cap'n Jetes he used PEDs earlier in his career. Maybe he'll relish the adoration and attention that he's bound to get and use that constructively to hit like he did last April June and July. The truth is, however, that the Yanks DO need ARod to come back and spark this catatonic offense the team. Badly. Nothing would make me happier. However, I am dialing my expectations back a notch.

I'm hoping for the upside surprise.

I really, REALLY hope that I don't have to revise this posting again each year from here on out.