Daily Archives: January 4, 2010

No, not this one…

This one.

The Red Sox sign Beltre to a one-year deal.

Beltre is a slick fielder with some pop in his bat. This move has been talked about for the better part of a month.

Geoff Dyer wrote an interesting piece about Americans over the weekend in the Book Review:

The archetypal American abroad is perceived as loud and crass even though actually existing American tourists are distinguished by the way they address bus drivers and bartenders as “sir” and are effusive in their thanks when any small service is rendered. We look on with some confusion at these encounters because, on the one hand, the Americans seem a bit country-bumpkinish, and, on the other, good manners are a form of sophistication.

Granted, these visiting Americans often seem to have loud voices, but on closer examination, it’s a little subtler than that. Americans have no fear of being overheard. Civic life in Britain is predicated on the idea that everyone just about conceals his loathing of everyone else. To open your mouth is to risk offending someone. So we mutter and mumble as if surrounded by informers or, more exactly, as if they are living in our heads. In America the right to free speech is exercised freely and cordially. The basic assumption is that nothing you say will offend anyone else because, deep down, everyone is agreed on the premise that America is better than anyplace else.

…Like many Europeans, I always feel good about myself in America; I feel appreciated, liked. It took a while to realize that this had nothing to do with me. It was about the people who made me feel this way: it was about charm. Yes, this is the bright secret of life in the United States: Americans are not just friendly and polite — they are also charming. And the most charming thing of all is that it rarely looks like charm.

Terrific stuff. Oh, and Dyer once wrote a wonderful collection of fictional essays about Jazz, But Beautiful. If you are a Jazz fan, this book belongs in your collection.

The Red Sox getting new ownership (via some shady Bud Selig-orchestrated machinations), hiring Bill James and a 28-year-old Yale-educated general manager, and ending their 86-year drought with two championships might have been the better story, but objectively speaking, the Yankees were, once again, the team of the decade. The Yankees won more games (965, 45 more than the Red Sox and an average of 96.5 per year), more pennants (four), more division titles (eight), and made more postseasons (nine) than any other team in the just-completed ’00s and were tied with only the Red Sox with two World Series wins. Here then is an objective look back at the Yankees of the ’00s.

The Teams

By Regular-Season Record:

1. 2002: 103-58 (.640), lost ALDS
2. 2009: 103-59 (.636), won WS
3. 2003: 101-61 (.623), lost WS
4. 2004: 101-61 (.623), lost ALCS
5. 2006: 97-65 (.599), lost ALDS
6. 2001: 95-65 (.594), lost WS
7. 2005: 95-67 (.586), lost ALDS
8. 2007: 94-68 (.580), Wild Card, lost ALDS
9. 2008: 89-73 (.549)
10. 2000: 87-74 (.540), won WS

By Postseason Wins:

1. 2009: 11-4 (.733), won WS
2. 2000: 11-5 (.688), won WS
3. 2001: 10-7 (.588), lost WS
4. 2003: 9-8 (.529), lost WS
5. 2004: 6-5 (.545), lost ALCS
6. 2005: 2-3 (.400), lost ALDS
7. 2002, 2006, 2007: 1-3 (.250), lost ALDS

Managers

Joe Torre: 773-519 (.598), 1 championship, 3 pennants, 4 ALCS, 7 division titles, 1 Wild Card

Joe Girardi: 192-132 (.593), 1 championship, 1 pennant, 1 ALCS, 1 division title (all 2009)

Players

Most Games Started by Position:

1B – Jason Giambi (493), Tino Martinez (373)
2B – Robinson Cano (714), Alfonso Soriano (461)
SS – Derek Jeter (1,480)
3B – Alex Rodriguez (862), Scott Brosius (253), Robin Ventura (206)
C – Jorge Posada (1,135)
RF – Bobby Abreu (352), Gary Sheffield (286), Paul O’Neill (266)
CF – Bernie Williams (755), Melky Cabrera (330), Johnny Damon (207)
LF – Hideki Matsui (547), Johnny Damon (234)
DH – Jason Giambi (372), Hideki Matsui (250)

Top 5 Pitchers by Games Started:

Mike Mussina (248)
Andy Pettitte (217)
Roger Clemens (144)
Chien-Ming Wang (104)
Orlando Hernandez (82)

Closer: Mariano Rivera (589 games finished)

Top 5 Relievers by Appearances:

Mike Stanton (252)
Scott Proctor (190)
Kyle Farnsworth (181)
Tom Gordon (159)
Brian Bruney (153)

Top Batting Seasons by Position (per VORP):

1B – Jason Giambi, 2002: 79.4
2B – Alfonso Soriano, 2002: 68.5
SS – Derek Jeter, 2006: 78.9
3B – Alex Rodriguez, 2007: 93.7
C – Jorge Posada, 2007: 71.2
RF – Gary Sheffield, 2004: 52.7
CF – Bernie Williams, 2002: 66.3
LF – Hideki Matsui, 2004: 46.0
DH – Jason Giambi, 2006: 46.1

Top 10 Batting Seasons by VORP:

1. Alex Rodriguez, 2007: 93.7
2. Alex Rodriguez, 2005: 91.4
3. Jason Giambi, 2002: 79.4
4. Derek Jeter, 2006: 78.9
5. Derek Jeter, 2000: 76.7
6. Derek Jeter, 2009: 72.8
7. Jorge Posada, 2007: 71.2
8. Alfonso Soriano, 2002: 68.5
9. Bernie Williams, 2002: 66.3
10. Derek Jeter, 2001: 65.0

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Happy New Year everyone!  Today’s update is brought to you by a classic later edition “Hollywood Squares” moment:

• MLB.com offers 10 questions for the Yankees in 2010, including:

7. What will Johnson add, and can he stay healthy?

The first part of that question is easier to answer than the second. Johnson gives the Yankees a lineup cog powered by on-base percentage, and that’s really the appeal, since he’s obviously not going to start at first base over Teixeira. If he gets on board and becomes RBIs in the stats columns for guys like Teixeira and A-Rod, he’s doing his job.

The problem is that “DL” is almost as attached to Johnson as “OBP.” It’s not like the Yankees didn’t have to treat Matsui carefully as their designated hitter in ’09, but the point is that Johnson will be no help if he’s on the shelf.

8. Is Vazquez going to be able to cut it in New York?

Yankees fans don’t exactly have the greatest memories of Vazquez’s 2004 season, particularly the grand slam he served up to Damon in Game 7 of that year’s American League Championship Series, so it’s easy to understand some hesitation. But he was also pitching with a lingering shoulder problem that he hid from the trainers a little too long, and the makeup of this staff is a lot different than it was in ’04. If you stack Vazquez against the other fourth starters around the AL, he compares very nicely. No one is looking to Vazquez to drive the bus — that’s Sabathia’s job. All he has to do is stay on turn and come along for the ride.

9. What does the year hold for Chamberlain and Hughes?

The Vazquez trade helped create a domino effect in that, on paper, now only one of the two touted righties would have to be in the rotation for Opening Day — and perhaps neither. Chamberlain and Hughes would conceivably fight for the fifth spot in the rotation, and whoever loses that competition either goes to the bullpen or goes to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. It’s worth noting that Chamberlain has no innings restrictions, and Hughes still does. Don’t forget, Alfredo Aceves, Chad Gaudin and Sergio Mitre have to be considered in that mix too, along with Zach McAllister and Ivan Nova.

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