I watch Yanqui games so you don't have to (MFYs 2015)

[Frayed Knot]

Small consolation about last night's sloppy game is that the Yanx have lost twice since the end of our rain-delayed contest and looked at least as bad doing so.

- First on Friday night, despite starting two hours before ours and despite scoring at home in each of the 9th, 16th & 18th innings, they lost to Boston in the 19th in a game which ended about 2 in the morning (just under 7 hours in the cold).
OK I didn't watch much of this one (which is good because every time I did tune in the Yanx were tying the game up again). But considering they never once held a lead and tied it up three times in their potential last AB (a 9th inning/2-out HR by Headley, a 16th inn HR by Teixeira, and an 18th inning RBI 2B by Beltran) I would have hated to see them win it.
17 pitchers were used in the game and I hadn't heard of at least half of them. Lots of turnover on those two staffs over the winter.
Sox 6 - Yanx 5


- and then Saturday afternoon (a start time just 11 hours after the end of Friday's game) they looked even worse in the field than we did vs Atlanta. Part of that was due to a make-shift lineup after the long game, but ARod looks lost on 1B (one error plus at least two other questionable plays) where he was making his first ever ML start, And, like us, there were only 3 official errors but a slew of other mis-plays, throws not made, and stuff hitting off gloves which went for hits, etc.
Sox 8 Yanx 4 (and it was only that close thnx to a late 3R HR by Chris Young)



All of which makes the Yanx 1-4 so far this season and their only win was when they rallied for 3 runs in the 8th vs Toronto, and that's supposing one can call: an infield pop-up double -- a short single -- HBP -- Wild Pitch -- IW -- HBP -- and then a 2-RBI infield single off the pitcher's glove a "rally".

So other than the fact that their pitching, hitting, and defense all looking shaky, they look pretty good.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

The MFYs look like absolute shit, beyond getting okay bullpen performances. I watched last night till the 17th and practically threw up when Teixera hit the game-tying HR. But of course to rally late to tie twice, only to lose, at home, in 19 innings, is all the more shameful.

Arod and Chris Young are their best hitters. Drew and Beltran both look finished.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

It would've been even better if Arod tied up the 19 inning game three times and was making fancy plays on the diamond while the rest of the team sucked rotten eggs around him.

[Ceetar]

apparently Jon Sterling doesn't know the capacity of Yankee Stadium.(I don't know if the Yankees declared it a sellout, but neither yesterday nor Opening Day reached capacity)

I was listening to some of yesterday since I made the foolish choice to time my trip to the Botanical Gardens for 1pm. oops.


They don't look or sound good at all, for sure. It does surprise me a little, the drop off for McCann, Ellsbury, even Beltran, has been pretty steep.

I'm sure there's a Yankee blog or two somewhere lambasting them for letting Cano go.

[bmfc1]

Here's a way to drive some viewers away from tonight's Sunday Night telecast: Karl Ravech said that the announcers would discuss the "Yankees Mount Rushmore."

[Frayed Knot]

Here's a way to drive some viewers away from tonight's Sunday Night telecast: Karl Ravech said that the announcers would discuss the "Yankees Mount Rushmore."

That -- Picking the Franchise's "Top Four" in history -- is actually an MLB-wide thing they're doing for all 30 teams throughout the year so ESPN is going to be flogging that every week - even on those rare occasions when the Yanx aren't on Sunday Night Baseball.

And speaking of Sunday Night Baseball -- or at least the hour-long BB2N show before the game -- remember when it was the place to go for the day's highlights from all the Sunday day games that just ended (or maybe were ending on the west coast)? Now that show seems to be about 50 minutes of promos for the game coming up and/or the crew talking to each other with just a few highlights from selected games only jammed into the remaining time.

[MFS62]

I can't get WOR anywhere near my house - even in the car radio at night.

After so many years of WFAN being the flagship station of the Mets, hearing Jon Sterlings's voice doing an MFY game is still like hearing an Ayatolla at a Bar Mitzvah.

So I listen to music when I drive home from work.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

Ya gotta just treat Sterling as entertainment.
If you're going to get hung up on things like wanting score updates, or actual (and accurate) descriptions of where the hit just landed or where the runners wound up then, yeah, you're going to want to pull your hair out. But if you think of him and Suzyn as akin to the voices of slightly out of place puppets or something -- like maybe the baseball version of those two old guys on the Muppets -- then a radio game of the Yanx can be a real kick.

[MFS62]

Oh, I get THAT part. I liked him when he broadcast for the Nets, and now his broadcasts are like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates - full of surprises.
But, hearing Ma and Pa Pinstripe on WFAN is still jarring, even though this is their second year there.

Later

[Benjamin Grimm]

With insincere apologies to Derek Jeter, the Yankees top four has to be Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, and Mantle.

[dinosaur jesus]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: With insincere apologies to Derek Jeter, the Yankees top four has to be Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, and Mantle.

Yup. Then Yogi, then Whitey Ford. If managers count, then Casey, Joe McCarthy, Miller Huggins, Torre. Which puts Jeter about eleventh. That's pretty good, isn't it? It's his bad luck he had to play for the Yankees, because there are teams where he'd definitely be in the top four.

[Lefty Specialist]

It's guaranteed that Jeter winds up on the top four. This is doofy fan voting, not an actual analysis of who's the best.

[Gwreck]

dinosaur jesus wrote: Yup. Then Yogi, then Whitey Ford. If managers count, then Casey, Joe McCarthy, Miller Huggins, Torre. Which puts Jeter about eleventh. That's pretty good, isn't it? It's his bad luck he had to play for the Yankees, because there are teams where he'd definitely be in the top four.

I'd put Rivera ahead of Jeter too.

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, well, I'm casting votes hand over fist for Chris Young.

[Frayed Knot]

Lefty Specialist wrote: It's guaranteed that Jeter winds up on the top four. This is doofy fan voting, not an actual analysis of who's the best.

I caught part of a heated argument (one I assume was sparked by the introduction of this 'competition') between some WFAN caller and Mike Francesa a few days ago where the caller was arguing for the superiority of Jeter's career over Mantle's. Problem was that the caller's entire argument was based around Jeter having the higher lifetime BA.
Tough to make Francesa sound like the reasonable one in such a head-to-head but this history & perspective challenged caller managed to do just that.

[Fman99]

Now that the MFY games not on YES have moved over to WPIX, the a-holes at FIOS have no excuse other than outright favoritism to pipe in the MFY games on PIX (such as tonight's game) but not the Mets games (such as this past Saturday).

But I showed those bastards.

First, I ordered the MLB.TV premium channel. I have two Sony Blu Ray players capable of streaming that service direct.

To evade blackout rules I also found a nifty service called Unlocator, that prevents MLB from knowing where I am viewing from and therefore allowing me to see the PIX Mets games, finally, in my own home, for the first time since I switched in 2009.

So FUCK THEM in their HOLIES.

[Frayed Knot]

OK, this is annoying:
Chris Young, between the tail end of last year and early this season, now has just over half as many NYY ABs as he did for the Mets, yet already has as many HRs and more XBHs
And with him it's not even like you can blame this all on the Little League fence in RF

CY as NYM: 8 HRs + 12 2Bs in 254 ABs -- .250/.283/.346
CY as MFY: 8 HRs + 13 2Bs in 130 ABs -- .292/.361/.577

[Edgy MD]

Well, they knew he had it in him. They just couldn't give him any more time to find it.

[MFS62]

Edgy MD wrote: Well, they knew he had it in him. They just couldn't give him any more time to find it.

If he was going to be that productive, maybe they should have tried vivisection.

Later

[Edgy MD]

That one is eluding me.

[MFS62]

They could have found it in him:(From Merriam Webster)

Full Definition of VIVISECTION 1 : the cutting of or operation on a living animal usually for physiological or pathological investigation; broadly : animal experimentation especially if considered to cause distress to the subject

His performance last year was causing distress to us.

Later

[Edgy MD]

I certainly know the definition of vivisection.

[Benjamin Grimm]

You said, "Well, they knew he had it in him." MFS62 suggested vivisection as a way of extracting what is "in him."

[Edgy MD]

I guess so. But... Ah forget it.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I know.

[Frayed Knot]

ARod hits #660 (at Fenway). Yanx have 15 days to pay the obligated (or not) $6 million bonus.
Gentlemen, start your lawyers.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Cheaper to just pay him and be done with it.

[Gwreck]

They "have" to fight the issue now because it would come up again if/when he hits 714; and there's still a decent chance he reaches that number.

I do agree that it would be cheaper to pay now though, because I don't think the Yankees should win this dispute.

[Edgy MD]

Six million is hardly worth the lawyers and the lousy publicity, is it? Then again, it's probably $12 million after the luxury tax kicks in.

Seems to me that if the Yankees are too morally upright to honor the contract because Rodriguez held up his end under un-ethical practices, they should really reject anything they gained from his efforts, including but not limited to returning that 2009 Championship trophy. Congratulations, Phillies.

[Frayed Knot]

I can't believe this whole thing was ever allowed in the first place. Pay-for-stats clauses are supposed to be illegal and this one was exactly that just in disguised language. Exactly how that language reads is going to be the deciding factor in the end.

You understand why the Yanx don't WANT to pay him but they should have thought about that earlier when they had stars (and blinders) in their eyes thinking that ARod was going to be their knight in shining armor who was to return the magical HR record back to pinstriped glory where "it belongs". Their problem is that their only real defense essentially involves believing that the then admitted steroid user (admitted that is only after confronted with evidence following repeated denials) had used right up until the moment he joined your club but sworn off them then, logic that is akin believing that the married guy who's cheating on his wife to be with you would never stoop so low as to cheat on you with someone else.

ARod, for his part, at least appears to have wised up and is saying nothing while the behind the scenes stuff goes on, although who knows how long that will last. His HR last night was a PH, 8th inning, game-winner, in Fenway. But the reason he was PH-ing is that he had cooled off after his hot start and how willing each side is to say nothing publicly derogatory about the other often depends on how well things are going on the field.
If nothing else, it should be fun to watch from a distance how all this plays out.