Centerfield

No word from Bayless.Boo Skip.

By the way, the article doesn't make mention of it, but the real bush league move was when the Yanks signed all the best players from the other Pony League teams by paying them more money.

I've gone over this a few times, and I think there is no one "right" answer. Like Diamond Dad says, it depends on the context. None of us have any idea how competitive that Pony League is...though, because it is for 9-10 year olds, and has a 4 run per inning max, it sounds like it's more of a "for fun" league than a competitive one. And if that is the case, that coach's move seems pretty bush league. But it could also be a situation where that Pony League has developed into an extremely competitive one. The question they should be asking, is whether intentional walks are routinely given when a cancer survivor isn't involved. In that league, is it common for a hitter to be intentionally walked to face a weaker hitter? If that's the case, then I agree with the move. Those coaches should not change the way they coach because of a kid's special situation. However, if intentional walks are not common, and they decided to do it because of the kid's special situation, then those coaches are creeps and should be fired. The coach does himself no favors by coming across as extremely unsympathetic. And his justification of the move is weak. Placing your worst fielder in RF or running on a weak catcher isn't the same as an intentional walk. There is no bigger insult in sports than intentionally walking the batter in front of you. Even major leaguers take it personally. (No major leaguer ever gets upset over being placed in RF). The move is what it is. Trying to minimize it only undermines his credibility. For what it's worth, when I was a kid, there were two leagues for kids aged 9-12. One was a "for fun" league in the morning. The other was a more competitive league in the evenings. Those of us with baseball in our blood played in both. I never saw one intentional walk in my years playing, or when my brother played.

Wow. Of all the names listed above, I've only heard of two of them: Dale Ernhardt and Kyle Busch. I think to appreciate a spoof of NASCAR I'd probably have to know something about NASCAR, and clearly I don't know anything about NASCAR, other than that it involves cars. That's what he said about music. Meaning if we ever had a CPF 500 Yancy would dust us all.

I'm with Scarlet, soup and seawolf. My stomach gets knots every time I see an ad for it. If that makes me a wuss like KC, at least I'm in good company.

I love it.

Bayless's article:http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=bayless/060731A-Rod is a choker, Jeter is clutch, bla bla bla...My Response: Skip,I recently read your article �To Boo or Not to Boo...� on Page 2. While I try to avoid arguments along the lines of who should be booed and who shouldn�t, I have to take exception to your characterization of Alex Rodriguez. The implication in your article is that Rodriguez struggles �in the clutch� (�Sure, he'll put up numbers. But will he get the hit? Not likely: His clutch numbers continue to plummet.�) while Jeter is a proven clutch performer (�He has always been at his greatest in the postseason�). While ideas such as this are common in the tabloids here in New York, and amongst the Yes Men at Yes Network, I�m surprised to see you make such generalizations without backing it up with any data. If you look at the numbers, you will see that the �clutchness� of Derek Jeter is a myth.In your article, you make reference to A-Rod�s plummeting clutch numbers. I assume you are talking about his close and late numbers this year (.186 BA). However, despite his struggles this season, a look at a larger sample shows that this year is the exception, not the rule. (For comparison, consider Jeter�s .152 average in close and late situations in 2003) In fact, if you look at close and late stats going back to 2002 (ESPN does not list any stats prior to that year) you will see that in close and late situations, Alex Rodriguez is 98 for 383, which translates to a .256 average. Jeter, during that same span, is 91 for 354, for an average of .257. Clearly, Jeter is not as clutch as some would have you believe.But Jeter proponents, when presented with numbers such as the above, will always cite to his accomplishments in October. You stated that Jeter is �at his greatest in the post-season.� A look at his statistics shows otherwise. In the post-season, Jeter is batting .307, with an OBP of .379 and a SLG percentage of .463. These are good numbers, but they do not reflect any improvement over his regular season stats. For his career, Jeter hits .314, with an OBP of .386 and a SLG percentage of .461. Clearly, there is no spike in any category to indicate that Jeter raises his play in October. In fact, his batting average and OPS both dip in the post-season. You could even make the case that Derek Jeter is a choker. Now, if we look at A-Rod�s post-season numbers, we see that he hits .305, with an OBP of .393 and a SLG percentage of .534. The first two numbers are similar to Jeter�s, though slightly higher. The difference comes in slugging percentage where, as is the case in the regular season, A-Rod hits for more power. So with an OPS of .927 to Jeter�s .842, we see that A-Rod is the superior player even in October. (For what it�s worth, A-Rod�s post-season stats are also similar to his career averages, .307, .385, .577, putting to bed any idea that he shrinks in big spots)Now, there are those who are really intent on canonizing Jeter and demonizing Rodriguez that argue that A-Rod�s numbers with Seattle �don�t count� because it didn�t happen as a Yankee. While I certainly don�t buy into this thinking, it is helpful to humor the short-sighted bunch who makes this argument. In three postseason series involving both Jeter and A-Rod as Yankees, A-Rod has hit .421 (Min), .258 (Bos) and .133 (Ana). During those same series, Jeter has hit .316 (Min), .200 (Bos), and .333 (Ana). Combined over those three series, A-Rod has hit .277 with 3 home runs and 8 RBI. Jeter has hit .271 with 3 home runs and 14 RBI. The more you analyze the results, the more obvious it becomes that the idea that Jeter raises his game in big spots while A-Rod folds, is a myth. I hope the above will cause you to reconsider your characterizations of the two players.CF

Your position is not wrong. Michael Kay is.

Skip is an idiot. He can write coherently, which sets him apart from some of the guys who work for the rags, but too often I've seen him make unsupported, wide-sweeping generalizations in place of real analysis. Recently, he had an article about how fans treat Jeter and A-Rod differently and cited the "fact" that Jeter had outperformed A-Rod in clutch situations. Of course, he failed to back up this "fact" with any numbers. I meant to write him an email about it but, you know, I got busy.Anyway, his statement about Piazza is stupid. "I don't think Piazza deserves to be in the HOF. If he wasn't a catcher, we wouldn't even be having this discussion." But Skip, since he is a catcher, doesn't that mean we should be?

I'm thinking this needs its own thread. I can't believe Michael Kay still has a job. He has to be the dumbest person on TV/Radio. And that is saying something.

Yancy Street Gang wrote: During the telecast, the Marlins' version of Chris Cotter interviewed a 100-year-old Marlin fan celebrating his birthday in a luxury suite at the ballpark. Poor guy hasn't seen a World Championship since he was 97.

I think we just found the spot for our next forum get-together.

In a landslide too.

For what it's worth, I'm almost ok with Wagner's blown save last night. Bloop single...give up a HR challenging a hitter...sometimes those are the breaks. He seems to have gotten over his control problems from earlier this year (knock on wood). And if that's the case, I can live with that. Of course, he does this in October and I say beat his ass. I really didn't like what I saw from Milledge last night when he walked away from Willie. Everything I see from this kid leads me to believe he's an asshole. I wish we had traded Milledge and held on to Nady.

I read Metsblog regularly. Cerrone is definitely not one of those hacks. From what I can tell, he's right in the middle of things...breaking the Sanchez story this morning. He jumped the gun on the Linebrink trade, but so did CBS and ESPN News. He's ok in my book.

From an ESPN.com article: Sanchez was riding in a cab that got into an accident near the team's hotel in Florida on Sunday night, the Mets said. He flew back to New York on Monday and was being treated at a hospital. The Mets expect to learn in about a week whether Sanchez will need surgery. If he does, the right-hander would miss the rest of the season -- potentially a huge blow to the team's World Series hopes. If not, he could return in September, according to general manager Omar Minaya. Is this true? This is the first I've heard anything that Sanchez might be back this year.

The more I think about today, we basically lost two players. The injury to Sanchez I can live with. The trade I can't. Basically, with Sanchez going down, our bullpen gets weakened, but there's a chance that with Pelfrey or Maine going to the pen, he could fill Sanchez's role. And if neither of them can, maybe Bannister can...or Owens...whatever. We have two months to mix and match and see what works. In the post-season, our fifth starter goes to our pen...and maybe even Darren Oliver can chip in here and there. In any case, there were solutions on the team that may be just as good as Robo. So with that being the case, you don't just throw away Nady. He'll hit 20 HR's this year and play solid defense. Bad bad Omar.

I hate the trade deadline.

Metsblog now says the Mets are denying the Linebrink deal. I wonder if Omar did this deal to set up for the Linebrink deal, then hit a snag. Otherwise this deal makes no fucking sense to me. I hate trades.

In two trades, Omar turned a 30 HR, 30 steal Gold Glove CF-er into a 25 year old bust of a pitcher getting beat up in AAA, and a 41 year old reliever making so much we thought it wasn't worth to sign him (without giving up anyone) at the beginning of the season. Bad bad bad.

I hate this deal. So much so that I wish we had gotten Abreu instead.

16 wins in July. Of course, I have no idea if that is good or not because Rotblatt never told us how many we should expect to win.

This is a good start, but if we're going to have any sort of meaningful analysis from this, we need to know pitching matchups, how the team is hitting etc. Like with pitchers, win/loss record is an imperfect way to judge IGT thread starting statistics. We need degree of difficulty...not all IGT"s are created equal. Without this analysis, we will never be able to ascertain the impact of the IGT thread author on the outcome of the game.

MFY's gave up nothing. Since all they have to do is take on money (something they are happy to do), it looks like this deal is a steal for them.

Of course, Floyd would argue that he got hit much worse than Delgado ("I mean did you see my reaction? It must have been worse") but still managed to tough it out and stay in the game.