about Seung-Yeop Lee, does anyone know what kind of player he is? Is he purely a power hitter; or does he hit for high average? does he have speed? I would love it if the yankees signed him IF he hits fot average, has decent speed, and can hit around 20-30 HRs
Some one on the radio the other day said A-rod was like the peyton manning of base ball. Great in the reg season and chokes in the playoffs. They could not be more rite.
As an outsider this is what I see the problem with the Yanks.... NO HEART. As somebody said before they were just a bunch of check cashers that wanted security, while guys like Jeter, Mariano, Jorge and Bernie are getting up there they still play every game like they are fighting for that 1st WS ring. Perfect example, Jeter goes 5-5 in game one, game 2 A Rod comes up with the bases loaded and Ks. These non Yankees have no heart. That is a huge problem for you guys. You need the dirty grungy lunchpail no glory guys like Brosius, Leyritz and Paul O'Neil not All stars who only care about their image at every position. As every Yankee fan learned this weekend good pitching beats good hitting. I called it way back that this Tigers team reminded me alot of the Marlins of a few years ago. Good young pitching with a vet. Good young position players mixed in with an old school manager. The final ingredient was Pudge, he is amazing with those young pitchers and I'm sure has had alot more to do with the play of Bonderman and Verlander than he is given credt for. Detroit let many of these kids take their lumps in 2003 and now look at them. The scary thing is their minor league system is pretty solid as well so they will get better. Bonderman lost what 20 games in 03 and this year he takes a no hitter into the 6th inning in the single biggest baseball game in Detroit in over 20 years. Get some good young pitchers that have the confidence and the heart to take the lumps. The reason Bonderman has matured so much in 3 years is he was able to develop into a good pitcher because the FO and Alan Trammel allowed him to take his lumps. The final thing that needs to change is YOU the Yankee fan. It is unrealistic to think that the Yankees can win WS after WS. Good teams get beat in the playoffs by upstarts all the time. Look at he history of baseball the 88 Dodgers, the 91 Twins both Marlins WS, the Angels of a few years ago. Once you accept the fact that the Yankees can not and will not win every year you'll be better off. As a fan of a team that has made the playoffs for the 1st time since 2000 I can tell you that winning is so much sweeter when it doesn't happen all the time. Repitition is boring and I'll take one playoff appearance every 5 years to know that my team will make it count and isn't just happy to be there.
He wasn't always bad in October. He would have been a hero in 2001 when he hit an 8th inning HR off of Schilling giving the Yanks the lead in game 7.
I think that the thing that is wrong with Yankees (besides pitching) is that since it is a veteran "superstar" team, most of the team believes that they can just turn it on whenever they feel like it. Down 6-0 in the 7th with only 1 hit....No prob, Damon and Jeter will get on, Giambi will hit a HR and now its 6-3. etc..... The complacency was so evident in games 2-4 and in the previous years playoffs that it disgusts me. Never, ever give an at bat away.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=gallo/arod/061009&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab2pos2 Dont Rip Arod, Really By DJ Gallo Special to Page 2 One hit. Zero RBI. Another postseason elimination. Alex Rodriguez's latest playoff performance has made it tougher than ever for A-Rod fans and apologists to defend their man. But it's still possible to do so. You just have to search a little bit to find the silver linings in A-Rod's showing against the Tigers. And so you don't have to do that searching yourself -- because it's really a ridiculous amount of searching -- here are 10 arguments you can use to shoot down even the most ardent A-Rod hater: 1. A-Rod only struck out four times in the series. That may not be great, but do you want to know who struck out four times in the 1977 World Series? Reggie Jackson. Yet Jackson was hailed as a hero and named series MVP, while A-Rod gets dumped on. That's a double standard and it's simply not fair. (Sure, Jackson had five home runs in the 1977 World Series, including three in the clincher, but that's just semantics.) 2. I can't believe people are ripping on A-Rod when baseball is full of steroids abusers. Just think what kind of series he would have had if he used illegal performance-enhancing drugs. We're talking .150 or .200, and maybe even an RBI or two. 3. A-Rod was just pacing himself to turn it on in the ALCS and World Series. I mean, why waste hits against the Tigers? Everyone knows they stink and were overmatched by the Yankees. 4. If the Yankees had big leads in all the games, A-Rod would have produced. It's not his fault his teammates didn't set him up for success. 5. So A-Rod isn't a true Yankee? Well, then neither is Mariano Rivera. New York's "Hall of Fame" closer did absolutely nothing in the final three games. And that's a fact. 6. A-Rod would have had a great series if it wasn't for Joe Torre. A-Rod started the series 1-for-2, and if Torre had pulled him then he would have finished the series batting .500 -- and a .500 batting average in the playoffs is something only an ultra-clutch, all-time great can accomplish. 7. Lay off him. He's only a No. 8 hitter. Guys at the bottom of the order are usually in the lineup for their defense, not their bat. OK, so maybe not defense in certain cases either. But it's a rule that you have to fill a lineup with nine guys, and Rodriguez allowed the Yankees to do that. 8. He'd play better if he didn't have to stand beside Derek Jeter in the field. You try hitting when your eyes are stinging and watery due to having to breath in that skanky cologne all day. The guy pours that nasty stuff on like he's a 14-year-old boy on a date at the mall. 9. Everyone wants to talk about Detroit's starting pitchers. But look at A-Rod's ERA in the series. It was 0.00. No one on the Tigers did any better than that. 10. I think A-Rod is awesome. But, granted, I'm not as bright as he is.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=caple/061009 Enough is enough. Just reaching the postseason might qualify as success in smaller markets such as Minnesota or Los Angeles, but not in New York. The world's greatest team has such lofty standards that even winning the World Series is a disappointment if it takes more than five games. Derek Jeter Jay Gula/WireImage Jeter's great, but the Yanks might be better off without him. So, after two consecutive embarrassing first-round knockouts, three consecutive autumns without a World Series and six without a world championship, it's time for a major change. The Yankees are old. Each year, they get knocked out earlier (World Series in 2003, ALCS in 2004, fifth game of AL Division Series in 2005, fourth game of division series in 2006). A losing culture is slowly taking root in the clubhouse. If New York is to win another World Series before Yankee Stadium is torn down, owner George Steinbrenner and general manager Brian Cashman must take a bold step that will return the team to glory. Firing Joe Torre isn't the answer. They need to end the clubhouse soap opera that is ripping the team apart. They need to address their glaring problem at third base. And the best way to do that is by trading Derek Jeter and moving A-Rod back to short. Oh, I know, I know. Conventional wisdom is that Jeter is a proven winner while Alex Rodriguez is the cause of every problem up to and including the North Korea nuclear test. "What did A-Rod do about Korea? Nothing. Now Jeets is going to have fly around the world backward until he reverses the world's orbit and turns back time to prevent it.'' It's all nonsense. If one of these guys has to go, here are six reasons it makes more sense for the Yankees to trade Jeter instead of A-Rod. 1. A-Rod is the better player. As good as Jeter is, he has hit even half as many home runs as A-Rod only twice. He never has driven in as many runs. True, that's partially a function of where each bats in the lineup, but there's also this: Only four times has Jeter scored more runs, had a higher on-base percentage or stolen more bases than A-Rod. He never has had a higher slugging percentage. He only once has had a higher OPS. Even this year, in what was supposedly a terrible season for A-Rod and an MVP season for Jeter, Rodriguez scored just five fewer runs, hit 21 more home runs, drove in 24 more runs, had a higher slugging percentage and had a higher OPS. He's also the better fielder at shortstop. Right, right. Jeter is a better clutch hitter. No argument there. He's Mr. October and Mr. November, and A-Rod was awful in the division series the past two years. But Rodriguez hit .421 in the 2004 AL Division Series. And in that infamous 2004 ALCS, A-Rod had a higher batting average, a higher on-base percentage, a higher slugging percentage, a higher OPS, more runs and more home runs than Jeter, and as many RBI. Hell, A-Rod might have wound up as Mr. October 2004 if Mariano Rivera could have held a lead. Alex Rodriguez Jim Rogash/WireImage Wouldn't it be strange to see A-Rod playing short for the Yanks? 2. Jeter has more trade value. The Yankees can't make the necessary trades for pitching without giving up something of value. That's why trading Jeter makes more sense. As great a player as he is, A-Rod clearly has an image problem right now. Too many teams will be scared off by his reputation to offer New York full value in a trade. Jeter, on the other hand, carries no such baggage. He is considered the consummate professional, a true team player, the sort of leader who could take a team to the next level. Teams will overpay to get him. Just as importantly, this is the time to make the trade. Coming off what might be his first MVP season, Jeter never again will command as much in a trade. He'll be 33 next year. Sure, he has plenty of good seasons left, but as Branch Rickey said, it's better to trade a player too early than too late. 3. Jeter is a year older. Not only is A-Rod better, he's a year younger. A one-year difference might not sound like much, but it can be huge in sports. For athletes, a year difference in your 30s is as significant as when you're a sophomore boy in high school and you want to ask out a junior. The older players get, the worse they get. All things being equal (and they aren't in this case), always go with the younger player. 4. Jeter is more expensive. Yes, Rodriguez is the highest-paid player in baseball, but don't forget that Rangers owner Tom Hicks, in all his wisdom, agreed to pay $67 million of A-Rod's contract as part of the 2004 trade. That means the Yankees are paying A-Rod less than Jeter. In fact, if the Yankees hold on to both players until their contracts expire after the 2010 season, they actually will pay A-Rod $14 million less than Jeter. Sure, it might seem as though the Yankees have unlimited resources, but even Microsoft occasionally lays off employees. And $14 million could pay for a pretty good middle reliever. 5. Jeter doesn't provide the leadership needed. Jeter gets a lot of credit for his leadership, but where was he when the A-Rod soap opera was plaguing the Yankees this season? As the team leader, Jeter could have -- and more importantly, should have -- put an end to the fans booing and the media carping by walking up to A-Rod in the clubhouse after a tough game, putting his arm around his shoulder and simply reciting his stats until every reporter and fan got the message. Derek Jeter Geoff Burke/WireImage Picture him in another uniform ... "He's already hit more home runs than Joe DiMaggio. He has a higher batting average than Mickey Mantle. A higher slugging percentage than Reggie Jackson. He has almost 250 stolen bases. He has two MVPs, 10 All-Star appearances, two Gold Gloves and a batting title. And you think having him on our team is more of a problem than our pitching?" Instead, Jeter did nothing. He supported Jason Giambi during the BALCO mess, but he let A-Rod twist in the wind. Wouldn't A-Rod and the Yankees have been better if Jeter had helped lessen the pressure on his teammate? "My job as a player is not to tell the fans what to do," Jeter replied when Tom Verducci asked why he didn't stand up for his teammate. "My job is not to tell the media what to write about." This is leadership? No one is saying Jeter has to like A-Rod, but geez, even Tanner came to Timmy Lupus' defense in "The Bad News Bears." 6. It's only fair. Three cities have seen A-Rod play for their team, but New York has been hogging Jeter. In the best interests of baseball, send Jeter to another city. Money is fine, but a future Hall of Famer? Now that's true revenue sharing. More importantly, though, if Yankees fans are right (and aren't they always?), Jeter would make such a difference on a struggling team and lead the Padres, Brewers, Mariners, Royals, Pirates, Rangers, Rockies, Devil Rays, Giants, Cubs or Astros to the World Series championship that has so long escaped them. That's good for baseball, too. And just think how fun it would be to hear fans argue whether Jeter should go into the Hall of Fame wearing a Yankees cap or a Nationals cap. Considering everything, trading Jeter is a win-win for everybody. For the Yankees, who will add several good players and still have a great shortstop. And for whichever team gets Jeter. In fact, the only possible losers might be New York's single women.
The push for Matsuzaka will soon begin. http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...e&cid=1160475125547&call_pageid=1044529390736
Well, we saw this coming hours ago. :wink: Anyway, I am okay with this decision. As long as George made it abundantly clear that Joe has a very short leash this season. Either figure out how to fix things, or he won't be around in October to fire. That means fix the pen usage. Fix the lineup and play the young guys. Be consistent with players who perform, and those that don't (ARod) SIT. Not for a day or two while they nurse "the flu," but for a week. This is baseball. Fundamentals first. That's how the 90s were dominated by pinstripes. It's time to return to basics. Besides, Girardi is almost guaranteed the Cubs job, and I don't want Pinella. This gives Donnie another year to learn the job.
