I swear Murcer just said the following about Donnely for ANA, "Here's a guy who made his debut. . . as a rookie. ....(Insert incredibly long pause here where you try to figure out why the hell he just said what he did) .... who was 30." Just a funny moment becuase the pause was waaay too long to be in the middle of a sentence.

I had another post here, but Blogger ate it. Hhmmm, pooosssttsss. . ..
- posted by LT @ 7/31/2003 11:27:00 PM

 
Two quick links re: trades. The first is from Bronx Banter which has what might be the funniest title I've seen. The second is the Futility Infielder who I need to break down and add to my list on the side of the page sooner or later.

In other news, does every fan in Anaheim feel the need to wave like a tool when they get in the behind home plate box? This isn't a quick "hey" wave, this is a "my pants are on fire and if you don't come to help me right now I'll never be able to walk again so please stop" wave. It's just annoying.
- posted by LT @ 7/31/2003 09:57:00 PM

 
OK, today was a two for one baseball extravaganza. First was my trip to the Hall of Fame, Second was the trade deadline and the moves which came. First the HOF.

It was pretty sweet. I haven't been there in 8 or 9 years, so it wasn't how I remembered it, but it was still pretty impressive. The Hall of Plaques was really impressive and had a mystical aura around it. I also found a sweet new nickname, "Big Poison." Other than that the hall was pretty nice, but a bit overwhelming as there was so much stuff right after the impressive stuff from the era before it. The display of WS rings was nice, you get to see what they really play for, the bling. The displays seemed to be pretty packed in, and the crowd wasn't exactly always as polite as one would expect. But all in all it was a nice day trip, and definately worth seeing. The shops surrounding the HOF were nice too, very tourist focused, but just autographs of just about any one you could imagine. I was thinking about getting a Yaz autographed photo of him from his days at Notre Dame, but it was $150, and thats a bit out of my price range these days (I also saw a Joe D ball which was $450). Also I went into the research center, and got to look through a lot of old pictures of Joe D which I might include in my research paper (one or two nice ones with Joe and Ted W).

I realized today I really need to start thinking about what I'm going to do to focus my research next semester, and any advice or comments would be greatly appreciated.

As for the trade deadline, I'm not sure I'm ready to dissect these trades just yet, I'd like to read more about them. But here's my quick breakdown. Boone for Claussen seems to lopsided in the future dept, but when you see what we got back from the Dodgers it seems like we added two quality AAA players (although one source said one was AA, and one AAA, YES said they were both AAA). The trade for White seems a little dangerous with his health issues, but assuming he gets healed up, he'll be a real nice addition to a less than stellar pen. I'll write more about this tomorrow. Tonight I'm again going to try and throw posts up during the game, but I may just go to bed as I got up pretty early to head out this morning.
- posted by LT @ 7/31/2003 09:14:00 PM

 
Murcer and Kay are talking about how Appier got cut and will get 12 million (they figured $7 mil after taxes). They asked each other what they would do with it. They both said money wouldn't change them. I hate when people say that. If I was ever asked that I'd be honest, "Hell yes this is going to change me. I'm gonna finish school, but screw grad school. I'm not working a hard job. I'm gonna drive a nice car. I'm gonna live the good life. " But no one is throwing money at me. But ohhhh, if they were.

And unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to turn in a complete game tonight. My allergies are killing me, and we (my dad and I) are getting up early to head to Cooperstown. So with that, g'nite.
- posted by LT @ 7/30/2003 11:31:00 PM

 
They're talking about Mondesi and what happened in BOS. I agree that what he did was wrong, and when he came over from TOR he did have a huge chip on his shoulder, but it seemed to go away with time and Torre's presense. Apparently playing time was what did it, not Torre/The Team. They made a great point in that his comment about how this is a good trade for him shows something about his goals as a player since he's going from a team 1 1/2 games up, to a team 11 or so games back. This is also a good move, hopefully, to improve clubhouse chemistry which the Yankees had in boatloads during the earlier wins, as did the Angels last year. I think that's an untangible which is very important, and I feel BOS and OAK have it this year. OAK from having guys come together up the system and BOS with a bunch of what appeared to be medium-quality free agent signings coming together with a common goal, and with some very good players leading the way.
- posted by LT @ 7/30/2003 11:04:00 PM

 
SI.com - Baseball - Power Rankings: Trade deadline looming: In between innings I've been chatting up my friends and been surfing. A few of these short team summary's have been funny, but the quote in the KCR one was hilarious. It's really pretty funny if you know county fairs out in the country. Maybe someday I'll recall some of my favorite memories of one of my county fair visits (I had to do it for a job, not voluntarily).
- posted by LT @ 7/30/2003 10:37:00 PM

 
I think as much as anything I just missed the mindless drivel that announcers of baseball game spit out during those boring streches. Example, Kay and Mercer tonight (I think that's who's calling it) were talking about how managers have to manage different personalities. So one of these two putzes says, "yah its a lot like that in the booth, I have to keep you happy." "well, i'm pretty easy to make happy, whenever you walk in the booth." Just stupid stuff like that is what you miss when you only catch a game every other week (FOX's Sat game, which has two of my least favorite broadcasters at times).
- posted by LT @ 7/30/2003 10:12:00 PM

 
Giambi just hit a blast. I don't think the right fielder took one step. He just turned around and watched it. 30 HR on the season for the first bagger. . .
- posted by LT @ 7/30/2003 09:48:00 PM

 
In Game Post #1.
Posada is a putz for getting caught off base (3rd base) and thrown after a throw to 2nd by the C.

Garrett Anderson is slugging .634 according to YES, but only .592 according to ESPN. Which is confusing. So I looked up all time SLG stats to see what was the best single season and best above league average. I knew Bonds was #1 on all time, but I wondered how much above average that was.

Top 10 All Time Slugging Seasons
SLG YEAR SLG
1 Barry Bonds 2001 .863
2 Babe Ruth 1920 .847
3 Babe Ruth 1921 .846
4 Barry Bonds 2002 .799
5 Babe Ruth 1927 .772
6 Lou Gehrig 1927 .765
7 Babe Ruth 1923 .764
8 Rogers Hornsby 1925 .756
9 Mark McGwire 1998 .752
10 Jeff Bagwell 1994 .750

Here is the all-time list of players above average in slugging.
SLG YEAR DIFF PLAYER LEAGUE
1 Babe Ruth 1920 .447 .847 .400
2 Babe Ruth 1921 .425 .846 .421
3 Barry Bonds 2001 .423 .863 .440
4 Barry Bonds 2002 .376 .799 .423
5 Babe Ruth 1923 .363 .764 .401
6 Babe Ruth 1927 .361 .772 .411
7 Lou Gehrig 1927 .354 .765 .411
8 Ted Williams 1957 .334 .731 .397
9 Babe Ruth 1926 .331 .737 .407
10 Babe Ruth 1924 .330 .739 .409


I can't explain for the discrepancies in the YES and ESPN stats, but I figured I'd throw these stats up there with the current MLB leaders.
SLG
SLG SLG
1 Barry Bonds .731
2 Albert Pujols .684
3 Jim Edmonds .656
4 J Guillen .629
5 C Delgado .624
6 T Helton .622
7 G Anderson .593
8 G Sheffield .592
9 B Boone .591
10 M Ramirez .589


More to come as the game goes on. . .
- posted by LT @ 7/30/2003 09:45:00 PM

 
You're gonna have to stick with me over the next week and half while I'm home. Even though I have the time to write while I'm home, I just realized I am very allergic to my house, especially the room with the computer. About 1hr after I got home my right eye turned almost pure red and it started crying (just that eye too). But now I have cable so I can actually watch the Yanks and baseball in general, so hopefully the two will counteract each other.

To continue the non-baseball post of the day, here is the non-baseball site of the day. Radio Storm is a streaming radio station which offers 6 streaming stations, and the quality is pretty good (I'm using a cable modem, so I can't say what it would be like with a 56K connection). More baseball stuff to come tonight. A real late game for the Yanks, so if you're lucky I might offer during game live commentary.
- posted by LT @ 7/30/2003 02:23:00 PM

 
OK, here is my outline for the Yankees over the next 2-3 seasons. I know its midseason, and about 36 hours or so before the trade deadline, but assuming the major pieces stay intact, here's what I'd like to see the Bombers do, what pieces to keep onto, and what to get rid of. Mondesi's arm was amazing, but his attitude wasn't, so him leaving for sunny Zona doesn't break my heart or my future Yankee lineups.

C - Jorge Posada - He's signed 'til '09, and by the end of that season he'll be 35. There is a team option/buyout on 2007, but by then age will begin to be a much more serious concern. Pudge is the same age (actually about 3 months younger), and has had major injury problems, but Piazza, while no where near the defensive catcher Pudge is, hasn't had major catching-preventing injuries until this year, and he's about 3 years older than Posada, so that leaves some hope Jorge can avoid major injury for a while.
1B - Giambi/Johnson - One of thearticles in today's NewsDay says that the Yankees should trade Johnson for Giles. Could a more short sighted suggestion be made? Johnson is 7 years younger than Giles and Giambi. Giambi is an adequate defensive 1B, but Johnson is better, and after next year, letting Giambi DH 1/2 the games isn't a bad decision. This tandem is pretty important since Johnson at 25 or so was near the league leaderboards in a crap load of offensive categories. Giambi's locked up until the end of 2008 with a team option on '09, but by then I'm not sure how his defensive game will hold up.
2B - Soriano - Duh.
SS - Jeter - See 2B's comment.
3B - ???? - This is where we need to look into the magical 8-ball of free agency. I have two options, both of which rely on Steinbrenner's willingness to shell out for a WS he's been pining for. Option A) Lowell - He's making 3.7 million this year, and is having a season worth of probably twice that. He'll be a very sought after guy after this season. Option B) Tejada - Yes, he does play short. But I think very few teams are going to be interested in paying what he wants (and deserves, this year I think is just an fluke). This season he's making 11.3 million, and his price tag will go up, but not too much after this lackluster year. But I think he can adapt to the hot corner, and would give the Yankees a great young infield. Also, for the love of pete could we demote Henson to AA for a while. Let him get this baseball thing figured out.
LF - GODZILLA - He's signed for the following two seasons, and I think once he gets more used to big-league pitching he'll do just fine. If next year goes well, I would be opposed to a mid-season 4-year extension, he'll be 30 at the end of next season, and he figures to keep producing untill mid-30s.
CF - Bernabe Williams - He's signed to then end of '05 with a club option on '06. He's getting up there in age but just keeps producing, and as long as that happens, the Boss remains happy.
RF - ???? - I'd like to see them give Juan Rivera a full season shot, and put some faith in him. I think if we do the 2-yr plan with him, we'd be OK. The two-year plan is what I've seen with Sori, Johnson, and hopefully next year, Godzilla. First year they put up solid, but moderately disapointing figures. The next year they blow-up. Another option is Vlad the Destroyer, but again, he'll be hotly pursued, and other, cheaper options are available.
Pitching:
SP1 - Moose.
SP2 - Wells - Pick up his option. Then maybe another 2-yr deal structured similarly. He's got a rubber arm, and can throw and throw and. . .
SP3 - Pettite - Please resign him. He's been here forever, and is the energizer bunny of this staff. Year in year out, you can expect (at least) 15 W and 190 IP (last year was a career low 134, but still scraped together 13 Ws).
SP4 - Good Weaver (King of the Hill reference) - GW need to be out there, throwing regularly, and if he shows up, not his evil twin Weaver, the Yanks can have one of the great young pitchers in baseball. Giving him up in a trade now would be disastrous, because he's bound to flourish immediately in anywhere other than the locus-esque media of Gotham. But I think, once again, he's turned a corner and can begin to provide some stability at the bottom of this rotation (So this comment is more about this year than anything else, but I really have no idea what's going to happen at this trade deadline so I'm just writing w/o too much focus on the future since Cashman may be gone at the end of this year if George doesn't get his ring). So I'm hoping for the best and putting GW as my 4th pitcher for the next 2-3 years.
SP5 - Lieber/Contreras - Either way. If they both are healthy they offer great trade bait to help shore up the pen or whatever breaks in the next year or two.
The Pen (of Confusion):
Who knows. I really don't know what they're gonna do. So here are a few ideas. A) NO MANDO. If he turns out amazing, fine, then consider it. But otherwise cut this loose faster than a . . . (insert something witty that happens quickly of your own choosing). B) Get the Rocket back. If they could somehow talk the ultimate competitor back into a relief role, think how he would dominate. A 1 or 2 inning guy who would make batters look silly. He could setup option C). C) Mo. D) Mo' Mo. Clone him, and have him set himself up.

OK, so my ideas are probably stupid, but I think some of them merit some consideration Mr. Cashman. The rest of you can write me and bitch. Tomorrow on "Mini-Vacation 3" is sub-trip 1: Cooperstown. I'll be sure and write 'bout that for all you kids in the audience.

- posted by LT @ 7/30/2003 11:30:00 AM

 
Again, I'm taking off out of town so my blog will suffer. Please stick with me through this time, once I get back on the 9th I should be able to devote some quality time to writing good posts. Between now and then I'll do my best to post every two or three days, I'll be at home (Upstate NY) most of the time, with a few side trips planned (Cooperstown and Atlantic City). Wednesday I'll try and write down what I think the Yankee plan for the next 3-4 seasons should be. I'm not writing this season off, I'm just merely trying to plan ahead. I'm not too sure if this team's chemistry has gelled just yet, but I think we'll know in a little while what these bombers are really made of. Well, I'm off to sleep before my flight in the AM, and again, sorry for my crappy posts.

As for Jeff Weaver and his bad luck. . . . I'm sorry for that crappy-ness too.
- posted by LT @ 7/29/2003 02:11:00 AM

 
Sorry for the delay in posting after my return from the great state of Kentucky. The city of Louisville is a real nice place, and it's nice to see friends after a summer stuck in a basement (where my room is). And I got some great news as I found out one of my freshman year roommates will return after a 1 year absense (sp?). I also didn't want to jinx Weaver, but apparently, he took care of that in the 7th. After the 6th he had 100 pitches, and Torre pulled him when I thought he should, but apparently it didn't work out. But Giambi got his 29th, and there's still 6 outs left in the ball game for the Bombers.


Minor League Stadiums
I don't have too much stuff to write about, so I'll talk a little about stadiums (I know there's always material in baseball, I'm just tired, and haven't been keeping up on articles, news and rumors). In the past two years I've been to five stadiums at just about every level. Yankee Stadium and Wrigley are amazing, but the environment of each of these two are very different, but I don't really want to focus on those two for now. I think minor league parks are the most interesting, because it shows you a little of everything, the town, the region, the local businesses (who sponsors), etc. The A stadium is Coveleski Stadium where the South Bend Silverhawks (ARI's A) play ball. This is a little (5,000) stadium which is pretty standard in layout, with a "sunken" field. The outfield has no seats, but is a sloped grass hill where you can watch the game and kids can run around. The tickets are around $6 if I remember, and Monday is dollar everything (tickets, hot dogs, beer, soda, etc.). I've gone a few times where there were only like 200 people, so you can sit just about anywhere you want (Monday's apparently are more crowded). Everything is real clean and nice and its a good time.
The AA stadium is NYSEG Stadium where the Binghamton Mets (NYM's AA) play. Its a little bigger than the Cove (6,000), and also doesn't have outfield seats, and in the outfield you see the train tracks which run through parts of Binghamton. I don't remember anything else of major note about this Stadium, except Buddy the Bee is a good mascot, and the free stuff distribution is pretty good, he works his way around the whole stadium. Tickets are a $7 I think, and I don't remember what hot dogs and other stuff run, but everything is pretty clean, and its a fan-friendly stadium.
The AAA stadium is the Louisville Slugger Field where the Louisville River Bats (CIN's AAA) play. This is a fairly large (11,300) stadium, with seats all around the field, and a Jumbo-Tron in leftish-Center. This is a really great stadium, I really enjoyed it. There are a good number of vendors both around the stadium, and wandering around the seats. In the right-center area there are picnic benches which certain companies rented out, and another area where you can just go and sit and eat. Papa John has stations around the stadium, but they run a little steep in the stadium. Beer/Soda was in the $3-4 range depending on size, and hot dogs were around $2. There is a second level of seating behind home plate. Most of the free stuff goes to the people in the behind first-home plate-third area, and doesn't come out to the outfield and further down the lines. The concourse around the stadium is nice, and you can buy shots and mixed drinks at the Jack Daniels store/area. The tickets are $7 I think, and you can get pretty good seats walking up, even though they usually draw 9-10K/game. The stadium is located near the waterfront and if you get there too early before the game it's a really nice place to walk around. This is where the biggest fireworks show in the world is every year (Thunder Over Louisville - two weeks before the KY Derby or so). If you enjoy fireworks, this is the thing to see. They shut down one of the bridges and load that with fireworks. They have to float two barges down the Ohio River and put one on each side because the smoke is so thick from the bridge you couldn't see the other side's fireworks. After friday night games the River Bats have fireworks, and they were pretty good. All-in-all, a great place to watch a ball game, and I heartily recommend it to anyone. Also if you're in town, the Louisville Slugger Museum is a lot of fun and you can get a customized bat with your name on it for about $35-45 in about 1 hr (order before the tour and its ready by the time you get out).


Race
Steve Sailer and Eric McErlain have some interesting things to say in regards to Ralph Wiley's piece in which he basically calls Bill James a racist. Wiley himself comes back later with a few comments in this chat session. A bit pro-Bonds line here now, even though I think he's a jackass, I do think any attention drawn to a quality museum (I'm going on a hunch here, I highly doubt it is just thrown together), is good both for the game in general, and good to acknowledge the problems in our game's past, which were mirrored in our country's past. Like GI Joe says, "Knowing is half the battle."

A few more random comments about my trip and things in general. NBC's show The Restaurant is a crazy show, the premise is they have to get a restaurant built and ready in 6 weeks. Tonight's show is the first night they're open for business, stuff's on fire, the main guy's car gets towed, and he's is cursing like a sailor, it's awesome. And on the topic of food, turns out two visits to White Castle in one day is sure to put you in a good deal of pain. But since I don't get there very often, it was worth it. If you don't know what White Castle is, its a fast food 24-hr joint with these small (1.25"x1.25" or so) hamburgers that are 47 cents. They're greasy, they don't have much meat, they're thrown together, but boy are they good. But they also come back to haunt you a few hours later.

OK, so the Yanks are now down 6-3 going in the 8th (2 outs). Jeez. Weaver throws great, and this happens. Oh well, I guess if I mention him pitching in this then everything falls apart.
- posted by LT @ 7/27/2003 10:15:00 PM