Daily Archives: March 17, 2005

Jay Jaffe is the host of one of the longest-running baseball websites on the Internet, The Futility Infielder. He’s also an author at Baseball Prospectus. And now, Jaffe’s made his television debut. Good gosh, what a week. I haven’t seen the clip yet, but I want to wish Jay kudos and congrats, and all of that good stuff. I can only imagine how nerve-wracking it must be to try and sound coherent, forget articulate on TV. Jaffe writes about his experience here and here. Go check it out and chalk one up for the good guys.

“Everybody wants to hit home runs…It’s all about the long ball. Chicks dig the long ball. Maybe that’s why I don’t have any.” Tony Womack

Every saber-friendly Yankee fan’s favorite, Tony Womack has played well of late, impressing Joe Torre with his wheels of steal. So long as dude is batting ninth, there won’t be too much bitching about him round these parts.

Meanwhile, Kevin Brown, whose fourth child war born on Tuesday, got served by the Pirates in an exhibition game yesterday. Needless to say, Brown wasn’t exactly pleased with his performance. The Post reports:

“He’s not happy when he gives up runs,” said Mel Stottlemyre. “He didn’t think he had anything. I thought he threw good.

“We got him to 78 pitches, right on target. He felt good (physically) afterwards, but he was disgusted.”

Awwww, nutzo.

Finally, Mariano Rivera is expected to throw later today.

Jason Giambi, who was excused from having to testify before Congress, is having as good a spring as anyone could have expected. He isn’t tearing the cover off the ball, but Giambi isn’t especially anxious either. According to Tyler Kepner in the New York Times:

Giambi has one extra-base hit so far, a home run on March 7, and he recently told [hitting coach, Don] Mattingly that he wanted to hit more doubles. Mattingly laughed him off – “You can’t direct it,” he told Giambi – but he understood Giambi’s larger meaning, that he wants to drive balls to the gaps.

“I don’t talk about anything other than getting a good pitch and hitting the ball hard,” Mattingly said. “If he’s having a good path to the ball and he’s seeing the ball good, he can hit. I don’t worry about home runs. They’ll happen.”

Much as been made of Giabmi getting off to a good start once the season begins. Where do you think Torre will bat him in the line-up come Opening Day?