Comments on: News of the Day – 11/17/08

By: Raf

Raf — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:23:41 +0000

[1] And if that’s the case, it’s not hard to understand why the players have lost so much ground to the owners in recent years.

By: Diane Firstman

Diane Firstman — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:12:38 +0000

Matt,

You may be right (I may be crazy)

By: Mattpat11

Mattpat11 — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:57:57 +0000

Jeff didn’t sign the one day contract to retire a Yankee? I know he never played, but I was being cute.

By: Diane Firstman

Diane Firstman — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:30:25 +0000

Matt,

Actually, Jeff was a three-time Mariner and a two-time Yankee.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/n/nelsoje01.shtml

By: Mattpat11

Mattpat11 — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:03:21 +0000

Also, and this is going to sound silly considering he gave up 17 hits in less than 7 innings, but I had thought Graman walked alot more than he did and was really surprised by the merely bad 4 walks he gave up.

By: Mattpat11

Mattpat11 — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:52:07 +0000

Also, isn’t Jeff Nelson technically a three time Yankee?

By: Mattpat11

Mattpat11 — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:45:32 +0000

The Abraham article mentions yet another reason against signing AJ that I’ve been telling people.

Burnett’s great season, which really wasn’t all that great anyway, is significantly worse when you take out games against the Yankees.

The Yankees need to start running like hell pretty soon.

By: Cliff Corcoran

Cliff Corcoran — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:39:44 +0000

I agree with Sheehan on Swisher’s likelihood to bounce back (indeed, I quoted Steve Goldman saying similar things in my review of the trade). Still, it conjures up the Sheehan-penned comment on Andruw Jones from this past year’s Baseball Prospectus annual:

What’s strange about Jones’s 2007 season is that all he lost were the homers. Look at those lines: 2007 is a typical Andruw Jones season, less 15 homers, five singles, and some intentional walks. His fly-ball rate was unchanged, so it wasn’t that. Now, the $90 million question: was it a change in his skills, or just one of those fluke seasons? Given his age [30 going on 31, three years older than Swisher] and the stability of everything else, lean toward the latter. . . .

Gene Steinbrenner’s middle name was Gass. [Insert 'full of hot air" jokes here.]

Finally, Alex Graman was once the Yankees’ top pitching prospect. That said far more about the Yankees’ farm system at the time than it did about Graman.

By: JL25and3

JL25and3 — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:28:01 +0000

“Some in the baseball industry” turns out to be Doug Melvin, who sounds like he’s just polished off a heapin’ helping of sour grapes. This idea of pressure from the union surfaces every year, but there’s no evidence that it actually happens. They’d have some pretty pissed-off members if the union told players who to play for.