The Yankees have signed their first Type A free agent of the offseason, re-upping lefty reliever Damaso Marte, whose $6 million option they had declined just last week, with a three-year deal worth $12 million with a club option for 2012. Marte joined the Yankees just before the trading deadline this year in the deal that also brought Xavier Nady over from the Pirates.

Marte’s Yankee career didn’t get off to the best start as he struggled in two of his first five outings for the Bombers, allowing six runs in his first 4 2/3 innings. His fifth Yankee appearance saw him throw 42 pitches in 101-degree heat in Texas. Marte hadn’t thrown that many pitches in a single outing since August 2006 and promptly developed discomfort in his pitching elbow. Four outings later, Marte turned in another stinker, setting his Yankee ERA at 11.05 after nine appearances. Though Joe Girardi insisted that there was nothing wrong with the Dominican lefty, Marte faced just one batter over the next nine days, eventually informing the media of his elbow discomfort on his own.

The time off did trick as Marte returned to action on August 22 and posted a 1.64 ERA over his last 15 appearances, striking out 13 in 11 innings, while allowing just nine baserunners. The Yankees have clearly chosen to focus on those last 15 outings rather than on the first nine and that bit of elbow pain.

By declining Marte’s option only to resign him to a multi-year deal, the Yankees have done exactly what many expected they would, though I’m troubled by the length of the deal, particularly given that Marte will turn 34 before pitchers and catchers report. Perhaps the most significant success of the 2008 Yankees was their ability to piece together one of the best bullpens in baseball from an assemblage of home-grown arms and minor league free agents. Perhaps just as impressively, they were able to replace parts on the fly when, for example, Brian Bruney broke his foot, or Joba Chamberlain moved into the rotation.

That success seemed to teach the Yankees all they needed to know about the fungibility of relief pitchers, prompting them to release struggling veteran LaTroy Hawkins, whose signing last winter seemed like little more than a hedge against betting the pen on those other unproven arms, and trade Kyle Farnsworth, the lone big-money holdover from past failed attempts to buy a better bullpen, in the wake of the acquisition of Marte. When Marte struggled in his first month as a Yankee without doing much damage to the pen as a whole, that seemed to provide another lesson. Still, here we are again, evaluating a three-year deal for a veteran set-up reliever.

I would have understood if the Yankees had picked up Marte’s option, using him as a hedge against coming set-up man Mark Melancon or against a second look at lefty Phil Coke in the major league pen. I would have understood a two year deal at a reduced salary, which would have allowed the team to trade Marte either at the deadline or next winter. Three years plus an option? That I don’t get. Not when the option would be for Marte’s age-37 season. Not given that bit of elbow trouble in August. Not given all of the pitching already in the Yankee system.

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News you can use …

• At the Times, Tyler Kepner lets Brian Cashman give his impression of how the Yankees will be involved in this year’s free agent market.
• The economic downturn is indeed impacting sales of some of the pricier seats and suites at the new Stadium, as reported by USA Today.  Seven luxury boxes down the foul lines priced at $600,000 remain available for the 2009 season. The team still had seven available in August, too.   As of August, 3,500 of the 4,300 premium seats had been sold, including the $500-$2,500 per-game tickets near home plate in the first nine rows of 25 sections ringing home plate.
• Over at WasWatching, Steve Lombardi points to a Gotham Baseball article which quotes an unnamed Yankee exec suggesting that Jim Edmonds might be a nice CF stopgap until Austin Jackson takes over.  (Oy!)
• MLB.com reports that the Yankees and Cisco Systems held a news conference Tuesday to announce the technological enhancements fans will see in the new stadium.  They include:

1. Live game broadcast on HD video monitors displayed throughout the stadium, including concession areas, the Great Hall, the Yankees Museum and other in-stadium restaurant and bar locations.
2. Premium luxury suites will be outfitted with touch-screen Internet Protocol (IP) phones that will allow fans to order concessions and Yankees merchandise for delivery to the suite.
3. Going forward, the new stadium is equipped to support future fan use of mobile devices for ordering concessions from their seat, viewing instant replays or chatting in real time with friends inside and outside the stadium.

• At that same press conference, Hal Steinbrenner was asked what his primary concern was for this off-season:

“I would be remiss if I didn’t say starting pitching,” he said. “The injuries to (Joba) Chamberlain and (Chien-Ming) Wang certainly didn’t help us last year. We need to build the starting pitching.”

• Still within that conference, Hal denied that his and his brother’s goals were different from Brian Cashman’s philosophy of trimming payroll and developing talent from within.

“Brian is the head of baseball operations,” Steinbrenner said. “The goal, as far as I’m concerned, is balance. Young players built from within and veteran mentors.”

• According to the Boston Herald, Mariano Rivera and A-Rod will be appearing at David Ortiz’s charity golf event in the Dominican Republic next month.  The event helps fund medical care for critically ill children in that country and New England.  (Don’t worry, Mo won’t be swinging a golf club so soon after having had shoulder surgery)
• Happy 36th birthday to Homer Bush.  Homer’s claim to fame may just be that he was included in a trade that brought Roger Clemens to Gotham.  A happy 47th to Greg Gagne, drafted by the Yanks and soon included in a 1982 trade that brought back the immortal Roy Smalley.
• This isn’t a Yankee birthday, but gotta include it.  On this date in 1865, the one and only Archibald “Moonlight” Graham was born. 
• On this date 50 years ago, Bob Turley, who had 21 wins and 19 complete games, is named the Cy Young Award winner (only one award given back in those days).  Turley gathers five votes to four for 1957’s winner, Warren Spahn.
• One year ago today, Jorge Posada re-signed with the Yanks for $52.4 million over four years. This makes Posada the highest-paid catcher in MLB history, edging out Mike Piazza’s $13 million average from 1999-2005.

The Only Bond We Had

by Diane Firstman

My mom was born in the farm country of Monticello, NY in the late 1920s. My dad was born in the Boro Park section of Brooklyn around the same time. They met when my mom moved to NYC after high school to find a job as a secretary. They married in 1958.

Some time shortly thereafter, my dad began exhibiting signs of mental illness … bouts of paranoia and/or delusions. Amidst all this, I was born in 1963. It was obvious that my dad wasn’t capable of being a care-giver to the family, so my mom got a quickie divorce in 1965, and my dad returned to live with his mother in Boro Park. My mom and I stayed in our apartment in Jackson Heights, Queens.

Dad had visitation rights, once a week at my apartment for a few hours on a Saturday or Sunday. He would hop on the B train, then the F, and upon arriving at our house, plop himself down on the couch and turn on the TV, invariably to the Yankee game on Channel 11 with Rizzuto, Messer and White. My mom scolded him for this seeming lack of interaction with me. So, sometimes we’d ride the Q66 bus on Northern Boulevard out past Shea Stadium to Main Street in Flushing to do some shopping or see a movie in the (now boarded-up) RKO Keith theater.

I soon inferred that if I wanted to engage with dad, it was going to involve baseball, especially the Yankees. My dad heartily encouraged this. I took a fondness to Bobby Murcer, since he was the only “name” on those middling early 70s teams. So dad got me a t-shirt with an oversized Murcer head on a cartoon body. He knew I was good with numbers, so he got me a Strat-o-Matic game, and occasionally we sat down to play.

Our “big events” were schlepping on the train to Yankee Stadium (though, in my kid mind, we lived only 15 minutes on the 7 train from Shea … why couldn’t we go there?). In the early to mid-70s, before the Yanks made free agency their own version of “Candy Land”, you could easily walk up and grab a couple of field level seats on game day.

We went to Old Timer’s Day quite often, and regardless of the particular day/game, we always sat on the 3rd base side, seemingly always behind one of the girders (sigh). I’d be sitting there with the program dad had bought me, filling out the scorecard and attempting (in my own baseball shorthand) to keep score. Dad would be enjoying a beer or two and a dog.

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An Airman started his day by unloading a plane at Dover Air Force Base. It had just arrived from Vietnam and was filled with body bags. That was the worst duty at Dover in those days, but it was nothing compared to the duty of the dead American soldiers returning from halfway around the world.

The Airman felt like getting drunk when he finished with the bodies so he headed for a bar in town. He never considered the late-night walk back to the base while he was drinking and trying to forget.

He was about halfway back and starting to sober up when a car stopped and offered a ride. The driver took the Airman to a diner and bought him an early breakfast before dropping him off at the base.

That Airman was my father. He never could remember the name of the guy who gave him a ride and a meal on that long-ago night, but he never forgot what the man did.

My father never passed anyone in the military without at least shaking their hand and thanking them. He gave rides and bought meals, but never felt like it was enough.

He died nearly 10 years ago, but he’ll always be with me. I never pass anyone in uniform without extending a hand. It is my honor and the honor of my father.

I meet so many soldiers and see his face in all of them. I only hope they never come home through Dover Air Force Base.

I have included a couple of stories about soldiers at Yankee Stadium that were originally published on Yankees For Justice. These are just two of several million people that we owe everything – or at least a handshake and a thank you – on this Veterans’ Day and every day.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

A Soldier’s Story

Brian peered over the crowd at the players’ gate outside Yankee Stadium last night. He wore standard-issue military fatigues and clenched a baseball in his left hand.

“Thanks,” I said offering my hand.

Brian shook and smiled.

“Where are you from?” I asked.

“Oklahoma City,” Brian said. “I come from a family of Yankees fans that goes back to Mickey Mantle and Bobby Murcer, but this is my first time here. It’s the first time anyone in my family has been to Yankee Stadium.

“I’m stationed at Ramstein Air Base in Germany,” he continued. “I’m on my way home for a couple of weeks before I have to head back to Iraq. I just had to stop and see a game. I want to get this ball signed for my father. He’d really like that.”

“You can move to the other side of the fence,” I offered. “The players always sign for soldiers, especially Johnny Damon.”

“How do I get over there?” Brian asked.

We walked toward East 157th Street along Ruppert Avenue and appealed to the good nature of the police.

The cops nodded Brian through.

“Thanks,” he said.

Then he turned and waved at me.

“Thank you for helping me out.”

No, Brian. Thank you.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Off The Island

Justin arrived at Yankee Stadium in full uniform. He walked proudly through the tunnel and got his first look at the field.

“It’s beautiful,” he said. “I can’t believe I’m finally here.”

His father placed a hand on his shoulder.

“You earned it,” he said.

Justin is a week off of Parris Island. He is a United States Marine and proud of it. His father is proud, too.

“I bought these tickets awhile ago,” his father said. “I surprised him when he got home from basic training.

“He’s a good kid,” his father continued. “He always tries to do what’s right. I didn’t want him to join, but there was no stopping him. He used to look at my Marine photos when he was little and that’s probably where it started.”

Justin doesn’t know where he’s going next. He might be headed to Iraq or maybe Afghanistan.

“But I’m here tonight,” he said. “Nothing else matters right now.”

Justin put an arm around his father.

“Thanks, Dad.”

Remember the veterans today, then read this:

• Derek Jeter will be gracing one of five regional covers for USA Today Sports Weekly’s Baseball Insider Special Edition, on newsstands today through December 15.  The Special Edition “provides fans with a unique ranking and analysis of all 30 major league teams … based on a formula that measures a teams’ success over five years (2004-2008), including post-season and regular season success, number of draft picks who’ve reached the majors, attendance and affordability for fans attending home games.”
• Joba Chamberlain garnered one 3rd-place vote in the BBWAA’s AL Rookie of the Year balloting.  Evan Longoria was the well-deserved winner.  (Shield your eyes before going to the link … its an “electric lime” background the BBWAA has chosen!)
• Maybe Brian Cashman is following the lead of Theo Epstein in terms of continuing with the same organizational philosophy for 2009.  As quoted in this piece on MLB.com today:

“New York deserves a champion, and that’s part of our mission statement,” Cashman said. “We’re trying to build for the future but win in the present. It’s that balancing act which keeps that payroll to the level it is. Our ownership has always been fantastic in giving us the resources we need to fix what’s broken. They’ll be there again for us.”

• At ESPN.com, Sean McAdam has a brief “Winter Forecast” for the Bombers.  Nothing there that we Banterers don’t already know, but …
• Have your tickets ready as you head over to a site called SecondAveSagas.com for an update on the new Metro North Yankee Stadium stop (thanks to LoHud’s PeteAbe for the link).
• As quoted in the Taiwan News (yes … I do indeed span the globe for my beloved Banter), Chien-min Wang assured the Taiwan public that his ankle injury has completely healed. The article also states “He also promised that he will take care of himself to prevent further injuries. Wang said that his physical therapist warned him against jogging since his ankles are still too weak for intense activities.”  And you MUST check out the outfit he had on upon arriving in Taiwan …. you go boy!
• Over at BaseballAmerica.com, John Manuel gives us the rundown on the Yanks’ Top 10 Prospects (as I alluded to over the weekend).  If you like gazing into a crystal ball, Manuel takes a crack at the 2012 starting line-up (warning: he thinks Jeter will still be manning short …. aiiiiiii!).
• Anthony DiComo of MLB.com has an update on the movement of Monument Park from the old stadium to the new one.  Workers began taking down the team’s 16 retired numbers and their corresponding placards on Monday, packaging them for safety during their move across the street. The monuments — statues of Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio and Miller Huggins, along with a memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, tragedy — are set to follow, with Ruth’s moving to the new park on Wednesday.
• What’s going on in the Hawaiian Winter League?  Tim Bontemps at the Post has the latest.  The best performance so far appears to be that of Jeremy Bleich.  The former Stanford lefty is 3-1 with a 2.05 ERA in 30.2 innings over six starts. He has struck out 31 and walked nine, and is pitching to a 1.08 WHIP.
• There are 183 free agents to be had this off-season, and Yahoo! Sports‘ Jeff Passan has decided to rank them all.  He says you can bookmark that page and track the signings as they occur.  By the way, Abreu comes in at #13 overall, Mussina (#27), Pettitte (#28), Giambi (#31), I-Rod (#35), Marte (#56), Ponson (#116) and Pavano (#118).  ESPN also offers a free agent tracker (unranked) here.

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If you still held out hope of seeing Matt Holliday in pinstripes, you can stop now.

ESPN is reporting that the Rockies are close to dealing Holliday to the Oakland A’s, in exchange for pitcher Greg Smith and some number of other players from a group including P Brett Anderson, OF Ryan Sweeney, OF Carlos Gonzalez and perhaps even closer Huston Street.

The weather was making everyone uncomfortable. The guys gathered around Juan Carlos’s coffee cart opened their collars and glanced at the early-morning sky.

“It looks pretty good,” someone said. “Another nice day is on the way.”

Everyone nodded and went back to their coffee.

“The weather is too damn good,” someone finally said. “We need it to get really cold. We need it to snow and sleet and pour down freezing rain so we can get this over with. We’re all looking forward to Opening Day and winter won’t even get here.”

“You gotta be patient,” someone else said. “The players need to rest up and Brian Cashman needs time to get the team rounded into shape.”

They all cracked smiles.

“We’re still gonna need a break in this nice weather,” someone said.

“It’s always gotta be something with us doesn’t it?” someone else said.

“Yeah.”

Unless you were living under a rock for the past year or so, had absolutely no interest whatsoever in the race for the White House, or somehow missed Cliff’s Honeymoonlighting post from a couple of days ago, you undoubtedly came into contact with Nate Silver and his election projection site www.fivethirtyeight.com.

Nate’s statistical acumen, part of the driving force behind Baseball Prospectus, is unquestioned.  Nate took that knowledge base, and applied it to predicting the outcomes of various political races. His projections for this recent election cycle were quite amazingly on the money.

Today’s New York Times has a very nice piece on our friend Nate.  In a quote similar to what we typically find on the cover of the BP annual, we read:

FiveThirtyEight is “among the very first things I look at when I get up in the morning,” said Allan McCutcheon, who holds the Clifton chair in survey science at the University of            Nebraska-Lincoln. “He helped make sense of some of the things that didn’t seem sensible.”

Nate even got a pat on the back from the analysis-disdaining Murray Chass:

Using his obvious brilliance with statistical analysis, Silver has expanded his numbers game to Presidential politics and has become an instant superstar in his first time at bat. He correctly forecast the outcome of the Obama-McCain race in 49 of the 50 states, called the total popular vote within a percentage point and was closer on the electoral college voting than anyone else.

That’s a performance that is more impressive and more worthwhile than anything he has done with VORP and WHIP.

Congrats to Nate on his work in both realms.

Monday Monday (la la la la la la) …. here’s the press:

• Over at WasWatching.com, the Yankees’ “Top 10 Prospects” are listed, as per Baseball America.  OF Austin Jackson heads the list.
• PeteAbe at LoHud.com notes that Andy Pettitte filed for free agency, but only wants to play for the Bombers for a one-year deal.  Abraham suggests $12-13 million should do the job.
• Mike Lupica of the News joins the list of columnists piling on Mayor Bloomberg for the funding of new stadiums for the Mets and Yankees given the City’s budget cuts.
• John Perrotto of BP.com makes some educated guesses at where the premier free agents will land.  He expects the Yanks to land Sabathia (its all about the Benjamins, at the end of the day).  Also, Derek Lowe will be wearing pinstripes in 2009.  He sees Abreu re-signing, but not for the three years he was seeking.
• Happy 30th birthday to Jorge DePaula.  Happy 44th to “The Gambler”, Kenny Rogers.  Jack Clark turns 53.
• On this date in 1978, the Bombers traded Sparky Lyle and four other players to the Rangers, getting back top pitching prospect Dave Righetti and four others.
• On this date 80 years ago, Knute Rockne delivered his famous “win one for the Gipper” halftime speech to the Notre Dame team during a game at Yankee Stadium.

It’s a tough job. Not many people want it and even fewer can do it. Maybe that’s why everyone is always looking for the next great leader.

I’ve listened to a lot of talk about past leaders and present leaders and future leaders and I keep coming back to the way Charlie Manuel led the Philadelphia Phillies to the World Series title.

Manuel gave everyone a good look at what it means to be leader during the National League Championship Series when he told reporters:

“If I had never gone and played baseball in Japan (where he hit 48 homers for the Kintetsu Buffaloes in 1980), I don’t think I would have been a coach or manager. What I learned was there’s a lot of different people in the world, and there’s more people in the world than Charlie Manuel. And I mean that I learned to respect things more. I learned to care about more things.”

That helped mold Manuel into the best kind of leader: One who understands that everyone is different, but we are all the same.

It’s a simple lesson with a confusing past and an uncertain future. Figuring it out helped make Manuel a better person, a great leader and eventually a champion.

Before you settle in front of the tube for an afternoon of football, here’s what is going on:

• PeteAbe from LoHud gives us audio clips from various Yankees and general gossip while at the Joe Torre event Friday night.
• Over at Newsday, Ken Davidoff compares the organization-building philosophies of the Yanks and BoSox.  Here’s an interesting quote from Theo Epstein on the philosophy they employ:

“I think the goal is always to build a healthy organization. We try to keep that in the front of our mind,” Epstein said this past week at the general managers’ meetings in Dana Point, Calif. “If we ever get too focused on having to fill this hole, or having to get better in this area, we take a step back and say, ‘Does this make sense for what we’re trying to do over five to 10 years?’

• The Post’s Kevin Kernan has a nice piece on star pitching prospect Dellin Betances, who conceivably could be with the big club in 2010.
• ESPN reports that Willie Randolph was named to be bench coach of the Milwaukee Brewers.  Good luck Willie!
• From the “Does the construction union know about this?” department, “with the help of a few legendary players and Bronx teenagers, the New York Yankees carried pailfuls of dirt taken from home plate and the pitchers’ mound at their old home to a new one Saturday.” (Source: Canadian Press).  Here’s MLB.com’s coverage of the “event”, including video.
• Today’s birthdays: The only player in ML history whose last name begins with Mm, Kevin Mmahat, turns 44.  Kevin’s “career” consisted of 4 games in 1989, giving up 13 hits and 8 walks in 7.7 innings.  Dion James is 46.
• On this date in 1953, the United States Supreme Court rules 7-2 that baseball is a sport and not a business and therefore not subject to antitrust laws. The ruling is made in a case involving Yankees minor leaguer George Toolson, who refused to move from Triple-A to Double-A.
• On this date in 1998, Catfish Hunter announces that he is suffering from Lou Gehrig disease.  Hunter will succumb to the disease less than a year later.

It’s about time.

While scoping the coverage of this week’s GM meetings and perusing the papers, blogs, TV, etc., a shift occurred in the news flow, particularly with the timing of how and when stories broke. Understanding the sensitivity here between sports and politics, it should be noted that the major professional sporting leagues and the media coverage of them are one of the last true bastions of traditional conservatism.

(For an example of this, check out this link recapping Thursday night’s Broncos-Browns game, and Brandon Marshall’s thwarted touchdown celebration. Dave Zirin’s analysis at The Nation can be found here. Mike Shanahan’s sound bite is especially telling.)

It’s big businesses assessing a big business; rarely in the mainstream will you find writers like Zirin or Will Leitch of Deadspin openly challenging the establishment. Nor would you look to the supposed leaders in coverage — the mainstream newspapers — aiming to break new ground in reporting, scooping, or information presentation to their reader base.

This week, there was a noticeable change, and it occurred for a number of reasons:

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I’m going to be one of the guests on the Baseball Digest Daily Live podcast today at noon, which you can listen to live. I’ll be talking Yankee hot stove, of course, and will be preceded by BDD’s Rob McQuown, who will be talking Jake Peavy, and followed by Baseball Prospectus’s Christina Kahrl, who will discuss the Mike Jacobs trade. Check it out.

Update: The online player here doesn’t seem to work for me, but if you go here you can download an MP3 of today’s show. I come in at the 21:21 mark, and do stay tuned for Christina, who follows, as she’s always interesting.

BEFORE YOU READ THIS POST: Some will probably be wondering why I’m still writing about the election. It’s a fair question so I’ll give you the numbers up front: Barack Obama received 88.2 percent of the presidential vote in the Bronx. Derek Jeter would have received 100 percent if he was on the ballot. You can finish the math after the story.

A young girl leaned comfortably against her mother on the 2 train this morning. They shared a newspaper and kept smiling at each other.

“It’s good news,” the mother said. “All the news is going to be good from now on.”

Fingers were crossed behind her back because the mother knows that the news is never all good. But nothing was going to ruin this – the first Saturday morning after Barack Obama won the country and inspired world – for her daughter.

“She’s always been more into Derek Jeter,” the mother said. “She watches all the games with her father, but she started following the presidential race with me after the baseball season ended.”

“I love Derek the most,” the little girl said, “but I like Obama a lot.”

The mother beamed.

“She even helped me vote. We pulled the lever together didn’t we, honey?”

“Yeah,” the little girl answered. “We did it together because I’m too young to vote.”

She’ll still be too young in four years, but the quality of the rest of her life depends on Obama’s ability to deliver.

“He’s going to make everything better for all of us,” the little girl said. “It’s like when Derek comes up and you just know he’s going to get a big hit.”

That kind of hope can lead to just about anything.

The GM meetings are over …. so let’s kick back and catch up on the news:

• Newsday reports that the City Comptroller William Thompson found that the Yanks had underpaid the city by $11 million over a three-year period. The team is supposed to pay the city a percentage of all revenue from tickets, parking and cable television.  The team is in the midst of paying it back.
• In the “we’ll pay you to take this off our hands” department, Peter Abraham reports that no one has contacted Brian Cashman regarding the readily-available Kei Igawa.
• The Times Jim Dwyer takes Mayor Bloomberg to task for assisting the Yankees in the funding for the new Stadium, while slashing the City budget.
• Abraham also has some fun facts gleaned from his attendance at the Joe Torre Safe at Home charity event Friday night:

1. Girardi revealed that Mussina told him after the season that he planned to retire. He has not heard from Moose since.
2. Pettitte, contrary to some reports, wants only a one-year deal and only to play for the Yankees.
3. Posada and Rivera said their respective shoulder rehabs are going well and both expect to be ready for spring training.  Posada said he is a catcher and has no interest in playing first base.
4. Don Mattingly said he wants to manage.

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Although his name can be found right below that of the already-legendary Alex Rodriguez in reference books like Total Baseball, he has been mostly forgotten since his playing days ended in 1983. That’s more than a bit sad, partly because the original “A-Rod” left such a distinct impression on me—first as an opposing player and then during a late-career turn with the Yankees.

Aurelio Rodriguez couldn’t hit like today’s more well-known “A-Rod,” but he was one of the most graceful defensive third basemen of the 1970s. Rodriguez had the range of a shortstop and the throwing arm of a right fielder; along with his smooth hands, those skills combined to form a delightful package at the hot corner. In fact, I’ve never seen an infielder with a stronger arm than Aurelio. (A list of such arms would have to include recent infielders like Shawon Dunston and Travis Fryman or current-day players like Rafael Furcal and Troy Tulowitzki. All terrific arms, but all a notch below that of Rodriguez. ) That cannon-like right arm, which Ernie Harwell often described as a “howitzer,” made him a treat to watch during his many stops with the White Sox, Orioles, Yankees, Padres, Tigers, Washington Senators, and Angels.

A product of Cananea, Mexico, Rodriguez struggled with English during his early major league career with the Angels. As Rodriguez once said without bitterness, he knew only three words of English during his first ten days with California. “Ham and eggs” became a frequent refrain, resulting in a less-than-balanced diet for the young Rodriguez.

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Prior to my postmortem this morning, I’ve been relatively quiet this week. The main reason for that is that all of my attempts to write about baseball have come out looking something like this.

Still, baseball is never far from my mind, and that was all the more true this week as the election results proved something I’ve known for a long time: Nate Silver knows a thing or two about statistics and projections. By using the sort of corrections and adjustments Baseball Prospectus has long used to normalize baseball stats, Nate normalized the polls and predicted Obama’s popular vote win down to within a tenth of a percentage point based on the votes counted thus far. As for the electoral college, out of the 50 states, the only one he projected incorrectly was Indiana, which he had as a slim red state and wound up just going blue by less than a percentage point, backing the Democratic candidate for the first time since 1964. It seems he also will have missed the one electoral vote for the Omaha area of Nebraska, but that vote was so close, it still hasn’t been called one way or the other. Still, that’s all he missed.

If you need further proof that the BP statisticians know what they’re doing, check out my last post and note how VORP, SNLVAR, and WXLR explain the difference between the 2007 and 2008 Yankees down to the win. Some who know that I’ve edited and contributed to several Baseball Prospectus books might accuse me of being a shill for the group, but those who know me well know I wouldn’t have participated in those projects if I didn’t believe in the quality of the work they do. I just hope they’re smart enough to cash in on Nate’s newfound fame.

We made it to Friday!  Here’s the latest:

• The Boston Globe’s Tony Massarotti handicaps the race for Manny Ramirez in a blog piece.  He lists the Mets, Phillies and Dodgers as favorites, with the Yanks, Angels and Giants (!?) in the next tier.
• Peter Abraham at the LoHud blog reports that the Yanks have been eliminated from the Peavy sweepstakes.  Its down to three NL teams: the Braves, Cubs and either the Cards or Astros.  He also clues us in on a potential cross-town battle for Derek Lowe.
• Joel Sherman and George King of the Post report that a Mike Cameron for Cabrera and pitching swap might be in the works with the Brewers.  Also, Wilson Betemit may also be on the move.
• At Newsday, Ken Davidoff reports that the Yanks declined their option on Damaso Marte.  He also chimes in on the possible Cameron deal, stating that Ian Kennedy would probably not be included in any package.  An update: No deal will get done until the Brewers know for sure whether Sabathia is staying (he and Cameron are buddies, and the Brew Crew don’t want to do anything to jeopardize the chances of re-signing C.C.)
• Over at ESPN.com, Brian Cashman keeps an open mind on the future of Phil Hughes, “”He’s a significant piece for us as we move forward.  But that doesn’t mean he can’t be traded, either. He continues to be a guy that gets asked about quite often, so he must being doing something right despite the ’08 season.”  Cashman also seems happy to hear that Andy Pettitte would like to return next year.
• Congrats to Mike Mussina on winning his 7th Gold Glove award.  He was the only Yankee so recognized.
• Happy 40th birthday to a guy who made his ML debut with the Yanks at age 23, pitched 14 games for them in 1992, and has since pitched for 7 other teams, Russ Springer. The big 7-0 to a Yankee broadcasting favorite, Jim Kaat.  Also, a happy 70th to the man that preceeded Munson behind the plate, Jake Gibbs.
• On this date in 1963, Elston Howard becomes the first African-American to win the A.L. MVP Award.
• On this date in 1978, Jim Rice edges out Ron Guidry for the A.L. MVP.  Rice led the AL in homers (46), RBI (139), hits (213) and SLG (.600), and became the first AL player to accumulate 400 total bases since DiMaggio in 1937, while Guidry posted a 25-3 record with 248 Ks and a 1.74 ERA.
• On this date in 1997, the bombers trade Kenny Rogers to the A’s for a PTBNL, which turns out to be Scott Brosius.

“What went wrong?” seems like a natural question given the fact that the Yankees’ 13-year streak of playoff appearances came to an end this season, but before we begin to sus out the answer to that inquiry, it’s worth asking, “How wrong did things go?” The answer might surprise those Yankee fans who had become spoiled by a playoff streak that was nearly as old as this fall’s high school freshmen.

To begin with, the Yankees had the fourth best record in the American League this year. Their 89-73 mark was a half-game better than that of the AL Central champion White Sox, who needed a tie-breaking 163rd game to pick up their 89th win. Over in the NL, just three teams won more than the Yankees’ 89 games. Joe Torre’s Dodgers, who took their skipper past the first round of the playoffs for the first time since 2004, won just 84 games while playing in a division in which the other four teams had a combined .449 winning percentage. By comparison, the four non-Yankee teams in the AL East had a combined .535 winning percentage. Here are the aggregate winning percentages of each of baseball’s six divisions:

.535 AL East*
.515 NL Central
.501 AL Central
.490 NL East
.487 AL West
.463 NL West

*not including the Yankees’ .549

Playing in a division in which just one team had a winning percentage below .531, the Yankees had the toughest row to hoe in all of baseball in 2008. Even so, they performed at a 90-win pace against their own division—40-32 (.555)—splitting their season series against the Red Sox and Blue Jays and going 11-7 against both the Orioles and the pennant-winning Tampa Bay Rays. The Yanks were even better in interleague play (.556), and against the AL West (.563) despite once again struggling against the Angels, and stayed above .500 against the AL Central (.525). They had just two losing months all year, combining to be just three games below .500 in April and August, and played .582 ball after the All-Star break (a 94-win pace over a full season).

In fact, for all of the injuries and disappointing performances from young players that they endured this year, the Yankees won just five fewer games than in 2007 and actually won two more games than the 2000 Yankees, the last Bomber squad to win the World Series. Then again, that 2000 team was the only Torre-era Yankee team to win fewer than 92 games, and with the Rays having finally arrived atop the AL East, even 92 wins is unlikely to return the Yankees to the playoffs any time soon. Still, when asking what went wrong, it’s worth noting that, while the 2008 Yankees failed to live up to the standards of the franchise’s 13-year playoff streak, they didn’t miss by that much.

(more…)

The old barbershop just off West Broadway can be a tough place to play. It’s cramped and cluttered and the ceiling hangs low. The men with razors use that to their advantage and they are always tough to beat.

Alexi – the toughest of the five-man crew – pointed me to his chair.

“What are the Yankees gonna do?” he asked before I even sat down. “Can they get Sabathia? And how about Burnett?”

Alexi fired up his razor and kept going:

“Will they go after Teixeira? Should they trade Cano? And what are they gonna do in centerfield?”

“Do I look like Brian Cashman?” I asked.

“Nope, you’re too ugly,” Alexi said.

“Agreed,” I said. “Next question.”

“Okay,” Alexi said. “Who’s gonna win the fight on Saturday?”

“Roy Jones,” I said.

“Joe Calzaghe can handle him,” Alexi said. “Jones is finished.”

I shook my head and said:

“Everyone thought Bernard Hopkins was finished and he beat Kelly Pavlik. They all thought Mike Mussina was finished and he won 20 games.

“That’s the only tip I’ve got for you,” I continued. “Don’t be so quick to write these guys off. They are world-class athletes who are capable of things that people like us can’t even imagine. And you’ll be glad that the Yankees didn’t trade Cano when his big, left-handed bat is parked in the middle of the order next year.”

Alexi nodded and then asked:

“What do you call a barber who can’t hit a curveball?”

I shrugged.

“A beautician,” Alexi said with a laugh.

“Okay, you win,” I admitted.

“I’m unbeatable,” Alexi roared.