Blog Archives

The Dodgers’ Blues have Jay Jaffe seeing red. While Manny Ramirez has been getting killed for his final days, in particular his last at-bat, which was classic Manny, Jay takes aim at Joe Torre:

Torre hasn’t exactly covered himself in glory elsewhere this season. He’s made a hash of the bullpen at times, failing to get closer Jonathan Broxton save opportunities early in the year, then overusing him in non-save situations. Worse, he quickly burned out his top setup men, a tale that will be all too familiar to Yankee fans. Righty Ramon Troncoso and lefty George Sherrill made a combined 28 appearances in April and another 25 in May, a pace that comes out to 168 combined appearances over the course of the season; not coincidentally, that not-so-dynamic duo has combined for an 8.06 Fair Run Average while each facing demotions to the minors. To be fair, the Dodger bullpen ranks third in the league by BP’s advanced metrics, but those quality arms may be in Proctorville by the time the season is all said and done.

Worse, the young, homegrown players on whom so much of the Dodgers’ present and future depends have regressed on Torre’s watch. Catcher Russell Martin, first baseman James Loney and center field Matt Kemp have played mediocre ball for most of the season. The production of Martin, who once looked to be the Dodgers’ answer to Derek Jeter — a face-of-the-franchise leader — declined for the third straight season before it ended abruptly due to a hip injury earlier this month. Torre’s overuse — starting him behind the plate 271 games in 2008-2009, the third highest total in the majors, and using him in 298 overall, the highest — can’t help but be implicated in that decline; as a former catcher himself, he should have known better, particularly as Martin’s production flagged. After earning All-Star honors last year, the still-raw Kemp has at times suffered from braindead play at the plate, in the field and on the basepaths. After some heavy-handed benching by Torre which was accompanied by unsubtle comments from henchman Larry Bowa, Kemp appears to want to talk his way out of town if he can’t play his way out.

Finally, there’s Torre’s handling of Ramirez, who at .311/.405/.510 still rates among the game’s top hitters; his .328 True Average would rank third in the league given enough plate appearances to qualify. Around his injuries, he started just 54 games out of the 72 games for which he was active, meaning that Torre didn’t start him a whopping 25 percent of the time — about double what you might expect for an aging player of his caliber. The Dodgers went 32-22 in his starts, scoring 5.3 runs per game, and 35-42 in games he didn’t start, averaging 3.7 runs. Four of those non-starts came in the days immediately after Ramirez hit the waiver wire, three of them against the Rockies, the team directly above them in the NL West standings.

And for an even more lively take-down, head on over to Futility Infielder.

[Photo Credit: Zimbio]

An almost rumor…

Mr. Hughes goes for the Bomb Squad tonight.

Flip it, kid.

Chad Jennings has the line-up:

Brett Gardner LF
Derek Jeter SS
Mark Teixeira 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Jorge Posada C
Marcus Thames DH
Curtis Granderson CF
Ramiro Pena 3B

Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

Today, Picasso paints a cat in action:

Want to see something cool? Dig Sherwood Harrington’s Flicker Page:

Since I brought up Joe Jackson yesterday, here’s a cut from a cool record of covers he once did:

David Lebovitz takes a food tour of New York.

Dig in.

I come from a bookish family but I didn’t much like reading as a kid. Then, in middle school, like so many other kids, I tore through S.E. Hinton’s four novels. Later, I saw all of the movie adaptations, but the one I like most was the first one, Tex.

It is an unaffected movie that features the easy, natural gifts of its star, Matt Dillion. Meg Tilly and Emilio Estevez are winning too, and yup, that’s old Ben Johnson who plays their father. Jim Metzler is also strong as Tex’s put-upon older brother. There is nothing loud about this movie, but the yearning and discomfort of a parentless home is evoked in such a way that seems authentic and true. I feel sad and anxious just thinking about it.

Can a New Yorker feel sad about the closing of a mega-store? Well, the big Barnes and Noble at Lincoln Center is going to close in a few months. And I think that’s a bummer cause I fall through that store relatively often.

Man, what’s the call on Marcus Thames? I can’t figure it out.

This is as close as I can get.

When you watch as much baseball as most of us do, it’s hard not to feel fatigued at times, like when a pitcher gets a dead-arm. Add blogging to the mix–and not just blogging during the season but every day of the year–and it’s hard not to just want to turn everything off and feel some sense of calm. All this information, all the access we have at our disposal, is addicting and exhausting. Not only that, but information is processed at light speed these days. Hell, blogs are practically old-fashioned now in the Twitter-Age.

What we sacrifice with technology is time to think and contemplate, to digest. I got to thinking about this last night watching Derek Jeter, who continues to struggle offensively. What’s wrong? Is he hiding an injury, is this the start of the finish? Maybe he’s just playing the way most 36-year-old shortstops do. Sure, he made a nice play in the field, and yup, there he was giving Marcus Thames a great straight-face after Thames hit another long home run. Same ol’ Jeter, as if nothing was wrong.

I don’t pretend to know if this is just a slump for Jeter, an off-year, or what. What I think is compelling is that he’s having his worst season as a major leaguer in a walk year. Things have always come up roses for Jeter. Not that they’ve come easily, but he’s never really been up against it. His legacy is secure, he’s going to join the 3,000 hit club soon. How much more baseball does he have left? And at what level?

Can a play age gracefully these days? I wonder.

The Yanks are back in the Bronx. They kick off their longest home stand of the year tonight against the Oakland A’s. Here’s Ted Berg with a preview:

And of course, our man CC does his thing.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

I’ve always loved this drawing by Pablo Picasso:

When in doubt, turn to Jacques:

Let’s do a week of sleepers, movies that were overlooked but are worth checking out.

First up, this early Debra Winger movie that went straight to HBO:

Nice soundtrack by Joe Jackson, to boot.

Lists are fun if inherently dorky.

Here’s one to stir you up. The L.A. Times Magazine ranks the 50 Greatest Guitarists of all-time.

Charlie Christian make the cut but no love for Grant Green:

Bring the (beautiful) Noise:

Belated but hearty congratulations go out to Eric Nusbaum of the stellar Pitchers and Poets site. Eric’s story, The Death of a Pitcher, was selected for the Best American Sports Writing 2010, edited by Peter Gammons.

Write on, dude, great job.

If you aren’t already a regular, bookmark Pitchers and Poets, it is as good as they come.

Let’s rip into the week with some style:

Mark Feinsand on Andy Pettitte:

Team trainer Gene Monahan told Pettitte to throw at the same 75% strength he did on Friday, but once Pettitte felt comfortable enough with his leg, he turned it up for his final 20 pitches.

“I heated it up pretty good,” Pettitte said. “I went out there planning on kind of being nice and easy like I did the other day, and it ended up being a little more intensity – and it felt really good. Just another good step in the right direction.”

Pettitte is slated to throw another bullpen session either tomorrow or Wednesday, after which he’ll likely throw a simulated game or live batting practice. There is no firm timetable for his return, but Pettitte estimated that without any further setbacks, he could be back in the rotation by mid-September.

“It just depends on what they want me to do, if they make me throw a couple batting practices and a simulated game,” Pettitte said. “I think the quickest I could get ready would probably be about two weeks or so.”

“That sounds about right,” Joe Girardi said. “As long as we don’t have any setbacks, that’s realistic.”

[Photo Credit: via The New Yorker]

The Future Hall of Famer, Frank Thomas, aka The Big Hurt, had his number retired before the game today in Chicago. Then Ivan Nova, who is a pretty big kid himself, pitched into the sixth inning and left the game with a 2-1 lead. Boy, was he impressive, throwing hard and throwing strikes. He also had a good curve ball. Seven K’s and just one walk.

Marcus Thames–whose hacktastic swing sometimes looks straight out of a beer softball league–hit another home run and Brett Gardner singled home Francisco “4 for 4” Cervelli, putting a couple of runs on the board for the Yanks over the first three innings. After that, it was too much Nova and the Bombers’ bullpen. Kerry Wood slipped out of a bases loaded jam in the sixth and Joba Chamberlain hit 100 mph on the radar gun on his way to 1.1 scoreless innings.

The Great Mariano worked around a one-out walk in the ninth and got Omar Vizquel to pop out in foul territory to Cervelli to end the game.

Final Score: Yanks 2, White Sox 1. That’s win number one for Mr. Nova.

A terrific win for the Bombers on a day when the pitching was good and the fielding was slick–the White Sox turned a lovely 6-4-3 double play in the second inning that is bound for the highlight reels.

Sox and Rays go tonight on Sunday Night Baseball.

Sit back, relax, grab some eats, have a beverage and enjoy. See ya in the a.m.

[Picture by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images and Gourmet Magazine]