11-07-2009, 10:53 PM
Peel, we're the Evil Empire for a reason 
Big Stein takes a lotta bashing, the Yanks have stacks of money to throw at problems, and sure that can pretty much discount small market teams with good players wanting to go where the money is. But, if he was the owner of your team and brought all that, you'd love him for it. End of the day at this point in baseball history, it's a business, players are commodities and owners buy and sell to build their money making portfolio. The ones that don't play that game, ie the Pirates, just become tax write off teams. The owners become lackadasical, any talent is sold off to save salary, and they end up with barely a AAA team. And I agree, that has changed the game radically from it's past glory, that's a very valid arguement, but I don't see that changing ever. There's too much money to be made. The roids though are a joke, it's basically Bud trying to leave the game better then he cames into it, leave his legacy, which he's utterly failed to do. Yeah, guys use HGH, it's ignorant and close minded to think otherwise. Baseball has a storied history of drug use, from the early days back in the 20s to the greenies of the 60s and 70s, stronger amphetamines in the 80s, then legal steroids like the cream and the clear up through the 90s until baseball decided they were going to stop it all together. It's a competitive edge, and guys are always going to take whatever edge they can to play better, and that translates into bigger contracts, more money. It's a golly gee willikers shame guys like Ken Caminiti don't smarten players up to the reality and severity of what they're doing. I agree, I would like to know what I'm watching is legitimate, real contest on an even field, but it'll never be, it's an arms race. As it becomes easier to test for, the drugs become harder to find with masking agents. The real facts though, you can't juice up some average guy and get a Barry Bonds just like that, the talent has to be there first and foremost. Yeah it did get Bonds probably 20 or 30 extra long balls, but most of those that went into the cove would have still been in the seats. You can't take roids and go from not performing at all in the post season, to the next Reggie, they don't work like that. Besides which, his previous runs in post season he was on all the roids he could shoot in his hiney, and they didn't give him an ounce of help. He is Alex Rodriguez, he's going to end his career as one of the, if not the (by the numbers) best player of all time. He's gonna make 3000 hits, so eventually he was gonna break his post season slump, this year was just it. Roids can't make you a better player, just stronger, faster, and quicker healing time. ARod had all that in the past, he just had the yips, it's a mental thing. Look at Chuck Knoblauch, he couldn't get the golly gee willikers ball to first base in the end, he went out of baseball for mental error, it got in his head. Alex had a great year, had something to prove, and was in a better mental state then he's ever been in any post season game prior. A BIG part of it too was Joe taking him out of the starting rotation a couple times a week near the end of regular play, he didn't burn himself out, he still had some in the tank. It's a lotta things that added up, any HGH or roids didn't make him get to the ball better, or give him the talent to make those plays, his home runs might have gone a little further and he might have been a bit quicker around the bases.I knew I'd take some heat for my Torre stance, always do My biggest gripe with Torre is he doesn't take full advantage of the game, he sits back and waits for runs to happpen. Having the teams he's had has worked for that sure, but if he played small ball, made more moves, stopped burning out pitchers, this championship would have been #30 something. Torre was more concerned about being a players manager, and he's the best at that, not one guy who's played under him would say he wasn't a great friend. If you want to win big, you need to be more ruthless, pull guys who are having a bad game, when the pitcher gets ripped in the 2nd inning, jerk his hiney out, don't try to be his buddy and let him get through it, we've all seen where that goes. I'm just much more into the chess game behind the field, playing mind games with the other team, the other manager, trying to get under their skin and make them uncomfortable so they make mistakes. Bunt guys into scoring position, my favourite play in the game is the suicide squeeze, bunt a guy home! I don't think Torre, or Girardi know what that is. I used to go nuts screaming at my TV when Torre was sitting on his hands in the dugout with Stottlemyer and Zimmer in a close game, not trying to win the game with a pinch hit, a bunt, or any kind of move, just waiting for the long ball. I don't even know how many more games we could have won if they'd play that kind of baseball. I look at managers like Larussa, Socia, Pinella, Martin, even yes, Frankona, and see how well they command the game. Now give them the talent of the Yankees and it'd be an almost unstoppable team. That's why I just can't like Torre, yes he was there for those 4 rings in 5 years, but look at the team then, Big George himself couldn't have lost if he was the manager. As soon as the big guys started retiring though, look what happened, nearly a decade without getting close to a ring. Torre still was playing the same game he always had been, take a couple all stars out of the equation, and Torre is exposed as the non move maker he is.With Girardi, I'm seeing the same trend, only worse with his lack of knowledge on the pitching side. I'm not saying he's terrible, he made a few great moves! The line up change for one, that won us a few games for sure. But for the most part, he either didn't make a move in time, or overmanaged the game so badly it was embarassing to watch. When he sent Burnett back out to the mound after getting the lead back, to me that might go down as the WORST managerial decision of all time. It cost us the game, and could have cost us that series. The Robertson pull is another great example. The guy goes out and mows 2 batters, he's lights out, and Joe jerks him for a TERRIBLE numbers match up?? And then he never went back to Robertson, he had a 0.00 ERA and sat on the bench while Hughes, Coke, and Aceves gave up bomb after bomb. He ALWAYS leaves the starters in the game too long, that part might bug me the most of all his failings. He waits till the guy has given up some runs and has at least 2 men on base, enough for the guy to feel like a piece of crap, have thrown 20 extra pitches and cracked his confedence. Then he goes to someone who JUST got up in the bulley and is barely warm to come in, and give up a nice fat BP pitch for a 3 shot jack. Eiland takes a LOT of the blame for that though, he's the man responsible for calling down and getting guys warming up long before they're needed. I could live with Girardi as manager, since there has been some improvement and a LOT of learning this post season, but there HAS to be a tough, knowledgeable pitching coach who can totally take that aspect over. Ron Guidry would be perfect to get back, Gator knows what he's doin.If Nady can come back healthy, he could be our best outfielder hands down! He was fantastic in Pittsburgh, gold glove winner, 300+ career average, fast on the bases, and a hell of a throwing arm. He's a guy we need back badly! He was an excellent aquisition, him and Tex will go down as a couple of the best Yankee gets of all time!Joba's just not a starting pitcher, he's too firey and hot headed. Over 5 or 6 innings he just burns himself out until he gets hit HARD. Give him 2 innings late in the game though, he'll TORCH guys. That would effectivley stop any scoring oppertunities from the 7th through the 9th with Mo. Burnett just scares me, he can have a great game, go a couple hitter no problem, and get the job done! But then he can also just bring a gas can out to the mound with him and start flicking matches. For the games he's great hell yeah I want him in pin stripes, but those other games, which when he's having an off year are more and more. He becomes a liability out there, and in post season play like we've seen, he can turn a series the wrong way in a hurry. If you look at the numbers through his career, it's really not all that impressive, he had his career year with the Jays when he could do no wrong, and he did have a decent year with us, but I really think he's going to be dropping off production quickly. LOL I'd LOVE to see Mo go another 5!! He'd be a guy I wouldn't even be surprised if he did that! I still don't think the dude is human, George had him built With the stuff he still has too, he could tell you flat out I'm gonna throw my cut fastball now, and you still couldn't do a golly gee willikers thing with it but add to his lumber pile LOL
Big Stein takes a lotta bashing, the Yanks have stacks of money to throw at problems, and sure that can pretty much discount small market teams with good players wanting to go where the money is. But, if he was the owner of your team and brought all that, you'd love him for it. End of the day at this point in baseball history, it's a business, players are commodities and owners buy and sell to build their money making portfolio. The ones that don't play that game, ie the Pirates, just become tax write off teams. The owners become lackadasical, any talent is sold off to save salary, and they end up with barely a AAA team. And I agree, that has changed the game radically from it's past glory, that's a very valid arguement, but I don't see that changing ever. There's too much money to be made. The roids though are a joke, it's basically Bud trying to leave the game better then he cames into it, leave his legacy, which he's utterly failed to do. Yeah, guys use HGH, it's ignorant and close minded to think otherwise. Baseball has a storied history of drug use, from the early days back in the 20s to the greenies of the 60s and 70s, stronger amphetamines in the 80s, then legal steroids like the cream and the clear up through the 90s until baseball decided they were going to stop it all together. It's a competitive edge, and guys are always going to take whatever edge they can to play better, and that translates into bigger contracts, more money. It's a golly gee willikers shame guys like Ken Caminiti don't smarten players up to the reality and severity of what they're doing. I agree, I would like to know what I'm watching is legitimate, real contest on an even field, but it'll never be, it's an arms race. As it becomes easier to test for, the drugs become harder to find with masking agents. The real facts though, you can't juice up some average guy and get a Barry Bonds just like that, the talent has to be there first and foremost. Yeah it did get Bonds probably 20 or 30 extra long balls, but most of those that went into the cove would have still been in the seats. You can't take roids and go from not performing at all in the post season, to the next Reggie, they don't work like that. Besides which, his previous runs in post season he was on all the roids he could shoot in his hiney, and they didn't give him an ounce of help. He is Alex Rodriguez, he's going to end his career as one of the, if not the (by the numbers) best player of all time. He's gonna make 3000 hits, so eventually he was gonna break his post season slump, this year was just it. Roids can't make you a better player, just stronger, faster, and quicker healing time. ARod had all that in the past, he just had the yips, it's a mental thing. Look at Chuck Knoblauch, he couldn't get the golly gee willikers ball to first base in the end, he went out of baseball for mental error, it got in his head. Alex had a great year, had something to prove, and was in a better mental state then he's ever been in any post season game prior. A BIG part of it too was Joe taking him out of the starting rotation a couple times a week near the end of regular play, he didn't burn himself out, he still had some in the tank. It's a lotta things that added up, any HGH or roids didn't make him get to the ball better, or give him the talent to make those plays, his home runs might have gone a little further and he might have been a bit quicker around the bases.I knew I'd take some heat for my Torre stance, always do My biggest gripe with Torre is he doesn't take full advantage of the game, he sits back and waits for runs to happpen. Having the teams he's had has worked for that sure, but if he played small ball, made more moves, stopped burning out pitchers, this championship would have been #30 something. Torre was more concerned about being a players manager, and he's the best at that, not one guy who's played under him would say he wasn't a great friend. If you want to win big, you need to be more ruthless, pull guys who are having a bad game, when the pitcher gets ripped in the 2nd inning, jerk his hiney out, don't try to be his buddy and let him get through it, we've all seen where that goes. I'm just much more into the chess game behind the field, playing mind games with the other team, the other manager, trying to get under their skin and make them uncomfortable so they make mistakes. Bunt guys into scoring position, my favourite play in the game is the suicide squeeze, bunt a guy home! I don't think Torre, or Girardi know what that is. I used to go nuts screaming at my TV when Torre was sitting on his hands in the dugout with Stottlemyer and Zimmer in a close game, not trying to win the game with a pinch hit, a bunt, or any kind of move, just waiting for the long ball. I don't even know how many more games we could have won if they'd play that kind of baseball. I look at managers like Larussa, Socia, Pinella, Martin, even yes, Frankona, and see how well they command the game. Now give them the talent of the Yankees and it'd be an almost unstoppable team. That's why I just can't like Torre, yes he was there for those 4 rings in 5 years, but look at the team then, Big George himself couldn't have lost if he was the manager. As soon as the big guys started retiring though, look what happened, nearly a decade without getting close to a ring. Torre still was playing the same game he always had been, take a couple all stars out of the equation, and Torre is exposed as the non move maker he is.With Girardi, I'm seeing the same trend, only worse with his lack of knowledge on the pitching side. I'm not saying he's terrible, he made a few great moves! The line up change for one, that won us a few games for sure. But for the most part, he either didn't make a move in time, or overmanaged the game so badly it was embarassing to watch. When he sent Burnett back out to the mound after getting the lead back, to me that might go down as the WORST managerial decision of all time. It cost us the game, and could have cost us that series. The Robertson pull is another great example. The guy goes out and mows 2 batters, he's lights out, and Joe jerks him for a TERRIBLE numbers match up?? And then he never went back to Robertson, he had a 0.00 ERA and sat on the bench while Hughes, Coke, and Aceves gave up bomb after bomb. He ALWAYS leaves the starters in the game too long, that part might bug me the most of all his failings. He waits till the guy has given up some runs and has at least 2 men on base, enough for the guy to feel like a piece of crap, have thrown 20 extra pitches and cracked his confedence. Then he goes to someone who JUST got up in the bulley and is barely warm to come in, and give up a nice fat BP pitch for a 3 shot jack. Eiland takes a LOT of the blame for that though, he's the man responsible for calling down and getting guys warming up long before they're needed. I could live with Girardi as manager, since there has been some improvement and a LOT of learning this post season, but there HAS to be a tough, knowledgeable pitching coach who can totally take that aspect over. Ron Guidry would be perfect to get back, Gator knows what he's doin.If Nady can come back healthy, he could be our best outfielder hands down! He was fantastic in Pittsburgh, gold glove winner, 300+ career average, fast on the bases, and a hell of a throwing arm. He's a guy we need back badly! He was an excellent aquisition, him and Tex will go down as a couple of the best Yankee gets of all time!Joba's just not a starting pitcher, he's too firey and hot headed. Over 5 or 6 innings he just burns himself out until he gets hit HARD. Give him 2 innings late in the game though, he'll TORCH guys. That would effectivley stop any scoring oppertunities from the 7th through the 9th with Mo. Burnett just scares me, he can have a great game, go a couple hitter no problem, and get the job done! But then he can also just bring a gas can out to the mound with him and start flicking matches. For the games he's great hell yeah I want him in pin stripes, but those other games, which when he's having an off year are more and more. He becomes a liability out there, and in post season play like we've seen, he can turn a series the wrong way in a hurry. If you look at the numbers through his career, it's really not all that impressive, he had his career year with the Jays when he could do no wrong, and he did have a decent year with us, but I really think he's going to be dropping off production quickly. LOL I'd LOVE to see Mo go another 5!! He'd be a guy I wouldn't even be surprised if he did that! I still don't think the dude is human, George had him built With the stuff he still has too, he could tell you flat out I'm gonna throw my cut fastball now, and you still couldn't do a golly gee willikers thing with it but add to his lumber pile LOL