2009 MLB Thread, part 2

[Raiden]

Congrats to the Yankees winning their 27th WS.

Btw, as much as Girardi deserved criticism for his decision to start AJ Burnett in Game 5, he should also deserve credit for winning the Series with Pettite on the mound. I'm very happy to be proven wrong, and I don't mind giving Girardi credit where credit is due. I'm also glad to see Matsui winning the Series MVP, because this may be the last time we see him in Pinstripes. Lastly, props to Phillies for having a fantastic season; they just might return against next year to the WS (if Mets failed again in their division).

 

[Poeman]

Congrats to the Yankees winning their 27th WS.

Btw, as much as Girardi deserved criticism for his decision to start AJ Burnett in Game 5, he should also deserve credit for winning the Series with Pettite on the mound. I'm very happy to be proven wrong, and I don't mind giving Girardi credit where credit is due. I'm also glad to see Matsui winning the Series MVP, because this may be the last time we see him in Pinstripes. Lastly, props to Phillies for having a fantastic season; they just might return against next year to the WS (if Mets failed again in their division).

Lol Raiden that is a creative user title...Funny thing is I live on 28th and Broadway.

 

[Christopher Nolan]

so, yankees are the team of the decade? am I right?

 

[Bob ROARman!]

It's not just that they spend the most money it's that they overpay for players. There is no way AJ Burnett should have gotten the contract he did.

And like I said, it certainly doesn't work out all the time. That's why they play the games. It's been almost 10 years since their last title. And before their last dynasty that began in 96' you have to go back almost another 20 years to the last time they won it. I'll say it again, I will never understand that argument against the Yankees, it's being baseball ******ed.

 

[Darknightnomis]

so, yankees are the team of the decade? am I right?

The Decade of the 90s..For sure.

But NOT the past 10 years.

 

[FlawlessVictory]

Did the Yankees buy their title?

By Craig Calcaterra

Here are the first two I've seen of what I am sure will be many sour grapes reactions to the Yankees' title today:


Kevin Cowherd of the Baltimore Sun:

I hate the Yankees. I feel like crying whenever they win. Still, it was inevitable that the season finish this way. The Yankees were the best team in baseball -- the best team money could buy AGAIN.​

Scott Miller of CBS Sports.com:

The World Series takes personal checks. Credit and debit cards, too. Score one for the Yankees, and their bankers. Hideki Matsui as World Series MVP? Maybe. The three home runs were clutch, and the World Series record-tying six RBI in Game 6 were smashing. But the chief bean counter who sat behind the desk last winter and approved the expenditure of nearly $425 million to hoist CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and A.J. Burnett aboard the U.S.S. Yankee? Now there's a true Yankee.​

Personally I find this line of reasoning to be tired and lazy. Everyone has their own ideas of what ails baseball from a business perspective, and certainly the Yankees are playing a different game than everyone else these days. But counting the Yankees' titles and chalking them up to dollars alone is nonsense.

The Yankees payroll is obviously gigantic, but it did not come out of general lockstep with all of the other teams until around 2002. Before then they didn't always lead the league -- they were behind the Orioles in 1998, for example, -- and when they did lead the league, only a couple of million bucks separated them from a pack of the next highest payrolls. In fact, 2002 was the first time they were as much as $10 million higher than anyone else. Before then: four titles in the Jeter era.

The Bombers' payroll exploded in 2002 and continued to escalate through 2008. They somehow managed to buy no titles during that time. Much is made about signing Sabathia and Teixeira this year, but their 2009 payroll is actually lower than 2008's.

I'm not going to drink the Yankee-fan Kool-Aid and say that there's some level playing field out there. But if the past fifteen years have shown anything, it's that even if you can buy general competitiveness, you can't simply buy a World Title. To get that, you have to be smart, you have to execute and you have to be a bit lucky too.

The Yankees were all of those things this year, and to leave any part of that out is to fail to tell the whole story.

http://bases.nbcsports.com/2009/11/did-the-yankees-buy-their-title.html.php

 

[Colossal Spoons]

I'm simply sick of that BS argument every single year. They make the most money, they spend the most. I don't see anything wrong with that. If owners or players really believe it's unhealthy for the league for the sport to have one team sign all the big name free agents, maybe they shouldn't sign with them or maybe they should spend more money on their respective teams. Or find an owner that will. Or they can just cry about it some more and not do anything.

But what is there to complain about? Their way doesn't always work, it's been almost a decade since they won a World Series. Every year since then except for the Red Sox have been a different World Series winner.

Hate needs not make sense

I went to Modells on 42nd St this morning - it was like Black Friday in there. They didn't have the locker room hat (they said they were expecting more at 2pm, and were expecting to sell out again at 2:30)...but I got 2 t-shirts: the locker room shirt, and a WS Champs shirt with the roster on the back.

I also got a mug, I've been drinking my Diet Coke out of it all morning.

The Yankee Clubhouse store is 2 blocks from my office...that was also mobbed this morning.

Loving it! t:

I'd kill to be back home right now. Here in Delaware, there's not a piece of Yankee apparel for miles. Tons of Utley jerseys that nobody wants though

 

[cyborg ninja 14]

Aight guys we have our newest thread to pollute. Let's pollute!

 

[danoyse]

Wow, Joe Girardi had some night last night...

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/b...es_yankee_manager_joe_girardi_pulls_woma.html

What a night! On way home from World Series, Yankee manager Joe Girardi pulls woman from auto wreck

What can't Joe Girardi do?

Just hours after he steered the Yankees to their 27th world championship, Girardi stopped on a Westchester road to help a damsel in distress.

Marie Henry - who had lost control of her car and slammed into a wall - didn't even recognize the Yankees manager.

"He certainly did a commendable thing stopping and making sure she was OK," said Kieran O'Leary, spokesman for the Westchester County Police Department.

"The woman said that she had a watched the Yankee game and was a Yankee fan, but because she was shaken up, she never realized it was Joe Girardi who stopped to check on her."

Girardi's post-game heroics came about 2:25 a.m. after Henry went careening into a wall where the Cross County Parkway meets the Hutchinson River Parkway.

The Yankees boss, coming off the team's dramatic World Series victory over the Phillies, was the first on the scene.

He pulled his car to the side of the road, ran across traffic and stayed with Henry until police arrived.

"The guy wins the World Series, \[and\] what does he do? He stops to help," Westchester cop Kathleen Cristiano told the Journal News.

Cristiano said she was stunned to see Girardi when she pulled up to the accident site.

"He was jumping up and down, trying to flag me down," she told the Journal News. "You don't expect him standing by a car accident trying to help."

By the time Cristiano reached the scene, the 27-year-old Henry was out of her car and declined to be taken to the hospital.

Girardi, who was decked out in a T-shirt and jeans, then told them he "had to get going," Cristiano told the Journal News.

"It was totally surreal," she added.

 

[War Party]

You can argue that the UEFA Champions League is more difficult

I don't think it is.

 

[Kingfish]

As for Rollins, looks like your mouth did too much talking this time.

He's not stopping either.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/b...s_are_still_better_than_new_york_yankees.html

Btw, as much as Girardi deserved criticism for his decision to start AJ Burnett in Game 5, he should also deserve credit for winning the Series with Pettite on the mound.

How does he deserve any credit for that? For stumbling to a Game 6 which Pettitte happened to win? From all the Yankee fans that ripped him a new one for starting Pettitte again at all? Pettitte deserves plenty of credit, Girardi got pretty damn lucky.

 

[Dark Donnie]

I think he's very right...The Yankees just execute when other teams don't. I don't think The Yanks are miles ahead of any team in the majors. Looks at the teams they played in the playoffs: Twins, Angels, and Phillies. All usually fundamental teams that for the most part play good defense. For some reason when these teams played The Yanks they couldn't execute and played bad fundamental baseball...commiting uncharacteristic errors and making bad decisions. Not sure what the reason for it is but it certainly happened in every series.

 

[Spidey-Bat]

It's the Luis Castillo Effect.

 

[Raiden]

He's not stopping either.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/b...s_are_still_better_than_new_york_yankees.html

Rollins is what one would call a "sore loser". I'd like him to comment on his guarantee that Phillies will win the WS in 5. Perhaps he should go ahead and predict that Phillies will win it all next year as well.

 

[Dark Donnie]

Rollins is what one would call a "sore loser". I'd like him to comment on his guarantee that Phillies will win the WS in 5. Perhaps he should go ahead and predict that Phillies will win it all next year as well.

He probably will. Give it a week. It's really being a sore loser....he does say your team got the job done and his didn't.

BTW, I'm not saying The Phils, Angels, Twins are necessarily a better team then The Yanks...just that they didn't execute.

It's the Luis Castillo Effect.

 

[Dark Donnie]

Abreu re-signs with The Angels for 2 years....according to Twitter.

 

[Kingfish]

It's really no different than Theo Epstein saying David Ortiz is having a great offseason. One day after the World Series ended.

Yep, Abreu is resigned for two years and a club option. Glad to have him back.

 

[omid17]

sweet

 

[Raiden]

He probably will. Give it a week. It's really being a sore loser....he does say your team got the job done and his didn't.

BTW, I'm not saying The Phils, Angels, Twins are necessarily a better team then The Yanks...just that they didn't execute.

Well, Yankees had a better regular-season record than Phillies in a more competitive division, and even if you go player-to-player it'd be hard-pressed to say that Phillies were a better team than Yankees. I do think that Charles Manuel is a better manager than Joe Girardi for now, though.

 

[Raiden]

Abreu re-signs with The Angels for 2 years....according to Twitter.

Great move by the Angels.

 

[omid17]

White Sox, Kotsay agree to 1-year deal

Diamondbacks decline Tracy's $7M option

 

[Erzengel]

Joe Girardi had just put the finishing touches on arguably the greatest feat of his professional career. But that didn't make the Yankees manager too important to help a stranger in need.

On his way home from winning the World Series with a 7-3 win over the Phillies on Wednesday night, Girardi stopped to help a woman who had lost control of her car on the Cross County Parkway in Eastchester, N.Y., and crashed into a wall, according to The Journal News (Westchester County, N.Y.).

The driver was stunned by the accident, but otherwise uninjured, police told the publication.

"The guy wins the World Series, what does he do? He stops to help," Westchester County police officer Kathleen Cristiano, who was among the first to arrive at the accident scene, told The Journal News. "It was totally surreal."

The crash happened at 2:25 ET early Thursday morning on the eastbound lanes along a blind curve where the Cross County meets the Hutchinson River Parkway prior to the New Rochelle Road exit.

Police were in the area conducting a driving-while-intoxicated checkpoint -- the same one Girardi and winning pitcher Andy Pettite passed through about 15 minutes earlier.

Shortly thereafter, a 911 call came about a car accident a short distance away in an area known for blind spots, and that's where Cristiano spotted Girardi helping out. By the time she had arrived, the driver, 27-year-old Marie Henry of Stratford, Conn., was able to get out of the crashed vehicle and declined to be taken to the hospital.

Girardi, dressed in a casual T-shirt and jeans, then told them he "had to get going."

"He was jumping up and down, trying to flag me down," Cristiano, a self-described huge Yankees fan, told The Journal News. "You don't expect him standing by a car accident trying to help.

"The driver didn't know it was him until after I told her."

The Journal News said Girardi ran across traffic to get to the injured motorist -- likely at a much faster rate than when he strolled to the mound to get the ball from Damaso Marte and bring in Mariano Rivera in the eighth inning a few hours earlier -- and police say the newly crowned World Series-champion skipper put his life at risk.

"He could have gotten killed," county Sgt. Thomas McGurn was quoted as saying by The Journal News. "Traffic goes by at 80 mph

 

[Poeman]

Percentage of homegrown players on each team's 25-man roster

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Team Pct.
New York Yankees 56%
Detroit Tigers 52%
Los Angeles Angels 52%
Boston Red Sox 48%
Minnesota Twins 48%
Seattle Mariners 40%
Oakland Athletics 36%
Cleveland Indians 32%
Texas Rangers 32%
Toronto Blue Jays 32%
Baltimore Orioles 28%
Chicago White Sox 28%
Tampa Bay Rays 28%
Kansas City Royals 20%
AL Average: 38%

 

[Erzengel]

I always wonder where they go....

Kids in the Lehigh Valley may not be wearing 2009 Phillies World Series Champions jerseys, but children thousands of miles away in Indonesia, which was devastated by a 7.3 magnitude earthquake in September, will be sporting 2009 Phillies World Series hats, shirts and jackets.

For the third year in a row, unsalable, postseason Major League-licensed apparel that list the wrong winning team, will be donated to children and families in need around the world through World Vision.

Because Major League Baseball produces shirts listing both teams as winners in advance to be prepared for whatever the outcome of the World Series is, there always is a surplus left of the losing team.

At least the Phillies still will look like winners to children who have lost their homes to an earthquake. If the MLB didn’t do this, the merchandise would be destroyed and that would be a waste.

The Phil’s jerseys will join 1,300 pieces of Angels’ and Dodgers’ apparel donated after the American League and National League Championship Series.

The merchandise will be sent to World Vision’s Gifts-in-Kind Distribution Center in Pittsburgh, where it will be distributed to families in Indonesia. In the past, donations of postseason apparel have gone to Ghana, Zambia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Romania.

This year World Vision is aiding earthquake-ravaged Indonesia, opening mobile libraries, distributing family kits consisting of blankets, sleeping mats, tarps, sanitation items and soap and water purification tablets for 12,000 families.

For more information or to sponsor a child from a thrid world country go to www.worldvision.org.

 

[cyborg ninja 14]

Yep, Abreu is resigned for two years and a club option. Glad to have him back.

Good move. He was such a steal for $5 million this year.

Diamondbacks decline Tracy's $7M option

Goodnight sweet prince. You peaked in '05, a shame really.