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The New York Yankees are your 2009 World Series Champions.

I’ll be back with much more much later (a close friend from college will be in town through Sunday). But for now, I can’t tell you how happy I am for Alex Rodriguez and Hideki Matsui. Rodriguez… well, we all know what he’s been through, and if you’ve read this space regularly, you know how much I think it was undeserved. He’s an all-time great, he works hard, and he clearly cares (too much, it sometimes appears). Of course, he made a mistake, but the criticism he received (like most steroid-entangled players) was not proportionate to the transgression. Why no one likes the guy, I’ll never understand. I’m thrilled he dispensed with the idea that he’s a team-killer, a choker, and a loser. Good for him.

It seems less and less likely that Hideki Matsui will be on the 2010 Yankees. Even for a cold-hearted crank who sees players as little more than a series of statistics and probabilities (this is 45% true), Matsui’s probable departure tugs at the heartstrings. He was never the best player on the Yankees, never quite lived up to the ridiculous “Godzilla!” hype, but the guy did nothing but hit for seven seasons. He continued that trend in the World Series, hitting .615/.643/1.385 and winning the series MVP. What a way to go out.

Until next time, when you’ll learn more about my hair than you ever wanted to know.

One Win Away

And much of it can be attributed to Chokey McChokeartist himself, Alex Rodriguez. Here’s to Good A.J. tonight.

“If We’re Nice, We’ll Let It Go Six”

On October 26th, Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins predicted that his team would beat the Yankees to win the World Series in five games. Ever munificent, Rollins allowed for the possibility that the series could go six games, but the result would remain the same: a second World Series victory in as many years for the Phillies.

Well, it would appear that Rollins and his teammates were feeling charitable last night, as the Yankees’ 8-5 win ensured that if the Phillies win the World Series, it would be in six or seven games. Generally, I’m not opposed to predictions and other forms of competitive banter. Cincinnati Bengals’ receiver Chad Ochocinco’s checklist is a personal favorite because of its originality and the man’s very real ability to back it up. Rollins’ prediction, however, slightly irked me because of his performance. Rollins hit a miserable .250/.296/.423 in the regular season, making him roughly the 11th-most valuable member of the 2009 Phillies, behind the immortal Carlos Ruiz and barely ahead of Pedro Feliz. Yes, Rollins has a ring and a handful of good seasons to his name, but it must be mentioned that Rollins has been a below-average hitter (97 OPS+) and average-ish fielder (4.9 UZR/150) in his career. Talk is all well and good, but the crank in me believes it should be in proportion to the individual accomplishments of its instigator.

A few remaining thoughts from the game:

• Alex Rodriguez hit a controversial home run and was hit by a couple pitches, bringing his World Series OPS up to .708. Phillies’ slugger Ryan Howard, on the other hand, went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts an a pop-up, making him 2/13 this World Series with nine strikeouts. Trust me when I say that using World Series OPS to make a point makes me want to throw myself off a bridge, but I have to ask: Will we see a national columnist write about Howard’s inability to handle the pressure? Will people question his fortitude and focus? In short, will he (or Mark Teixeira, he of the .607 postseason OPS) get the Alex Rodriguez treatment? No, they will not, because people like Howard and Teixeira, and Rodriguez (for whatever reason) rubs people the wrong way. I know I should get over this double standard, but I simply refuse to.

• For much of the evening, Andy Pettitte drove me nuts. I watched him hold the top of the Phillies’ order to 1/15 with one walk and five strikeouts (Chase Utley twice and Ryan Howard three times). Then I watched him allow the bottom of their order to go 3/11, including a double to Pedro Feliz (.308 OBP), two walks to Carlos Ruiz, and a bunt single to pitcher Cole Hamels. Having slept on it, I’m not longer flustered by Pettitte’s performance. While the two homers to Jayson Werth here tough to swallow, Pettitte did fantastic work against most of the Phillies’ toughest hitters. Holding Utley, Howard, and Raul Ibanez hitless with seven strikeouts is awfully difficult to do, but he did it. This is me tipping my cap. Now stop walking bad hitters.

• Try as I might, I simply can’t resist mentioning another bit of stupid (yes, that word is what I mean) bullpen management. Up 8-4 entering the bottom of the ninth inning, Joe Girardi sent out Phil Hughes to finish up the game. I liked the move; Hughes typically sees action in high-leverage situations, but his postseason struggles warranted his use at the start of an inning, with a significant lead, and a clean slate. Hughes retired the first batter he faced on a ground ball. Then, to his absolute discredit, he allowed a home run to Carlos Ruiz. Unfortunately for Hughes and people with brains everywhere, Ruiz’s homer made the game a save situation. And we all know what that means with Mariano Rivera in the bullpen and Girardi in charge. Rivera entered the game, retired the next two batters, and secured the victory. This was just another example of thoughtless, push-button management. If the Yankees don’t have another reliever that can get two outs before surrendering three runs (they have several), their team is hugely flawed. If Girardi doesn’t believe that he has another reliever that can do that, he’s an idiot. With Rivera coming off two innings pitched in Game Two and C.C. Sabathia going on short rest tonight, Girardi should have used literally any reliever but Rivera in that situation (how about, you know, leaving Hughes in there and not messing with his head like that?). The Yankees could very well need Rivera for an extended appearance tonight, and his usage last night might have sunk that possibility.

1-1

Before last night’s game, I meant to post something like the following:

I just can’t shake the feeling that Bad A.J. will be showing up tonight. The Phillies are patient and Burnett is wild anyway, which is not a good combination. I also can’t shake the feeling that Pedro Martinez is going to junkball his way through six scoreless innings in his return to the Bronx. I would love to be wrong in both cases.

I was mostly wrong, and I couldn’t be happier. Burnett struck out nine and walked two in seven innings of outstanding work. Martinez’s performance (6 IP, 3 ER, 2 BB, 8 K) seemed pedestrian by comparison, but he really was in control for most of his outing. Both pitchers were pleasures to watch, even if I was actively rooting for Pedro’s rehabilitated shoulder to fall off.

On a less heartening note, the front page of ESPN.com has a “story” about Alex Rodriguez’s 0-for-8 performance so far in the World Series. You can get to it by clicking the image captioned “A-Rod’s Struggles.” You can probably imagine how I feel about this, but I want to point how just how stupid (and really, there is no other word for it) this article is. The article basically consists of Yankee players saying “it’s only eight at-bats”, “he’s the reason we’re here”, and “we’re not worried”, while Gene Wojciechowski retorts with “they can dress it up all they want, but A-Rod is choking.” It’s utter nonsense, and I’m profoundly disappointed that it took eight (EIGHT!) unproductive at-bats for national columnists to start readying the torches and pitchforks.

Go get ‘em in Game Three, boys.

Alex Rodriguez: Not A Choker

Alex Rodriguez’s career batting line is .305/.390/.576.

Alex Rodriguez’s career postseason batting line is now .307/.408/.570.

Can we finally agree that Alex Rodriguez isn’t a weak-willed, unclutch, team-killing choker? Can we just recognize that his postseason struggles (which were grossly exaggerated, by the way) were just the randomness of a small sample size? With that explanation in mind, can we do away with the idea that postseason futility means a player lacks fortitude or some superior moral quality? Please?

More than a few people owe Rodriguez an apology for attacking his character and gumption over the last several years.

Reviewing The Twins-Yankees Series

I missed college a great deal yesterday. I don’t miss it often; the South and I had a doomed relationship, I never found a subject that fired me up, and wearing a jacket and tie to a football game will never, ever make sense to me. Two out of those three could easily be classified as self-inflicted, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m at peace with my dispassion towards much of my college experience. But if there were ever a day to make me long for a time machine, yesterday would be it.

The magnitude of the day revealed itself slowly. I woke up eminently cognizant of the Yankees game at seven o’clock. I also knew the Giants were playing the Raiders at one. Then, as if the sports schedule were a coloring book and these games were the thick black lines, I slowly filled in the vacant spaces. The Angels were playing the Red Sox at noon. The Broncos and Rockies were playing at four and ten, respectively. I realized there would be twelve consecutive hours of meaningful sports, and that’s precisely when I started to miss my closest friends from college. If the year were 2007 instead of 2009, the five of us would have procured our adult beverages of choice, secured some terribly unhealthy provisions, and embedded ourselves in front of our too-large television for a day of witty banter, obnoxious proclamations, and the rare enlightening debate. That’s what I missed and will continue to miss the most about college: those endless, sports-filled Saturdays and Sundays that gave us a great excuse to do nothing but enjoy each other’s company.

On a less nostalgic note, yesterday also provided the faint but exhilarating possibility of the elusive fivefecta (I couldn’t find anything higher than a superfecta, so I made this up.) The fivefecta is the unassisted triple play of sports fandom, albeit less sudden in its occurence. If the Red Sox lost, the Giants won, the Broncos won (at the Patriots’ expense), the Yankees won, and the Rockies won, October 11th, 2009 would have to be considered one of the all-time great days in personal fan history. Naturally, I decided to monitor this situation very closely, only to see it fall short because of the uncharacteristically effective Brad Lidge. And so it goes.

As you can probably guess, the most important game of the day for me was the Yankees-Twins contest. Because it’s October and my doctor says it’s bad for me to be a statistically-inclined curmudgeon all the game, I decided to watch it the way most fans do: with youthful exuberance, relentless optimism, and with the belief in the unlikely. Valiantly, that approach lasted until the bottom of the eighth inning, when a perpetual pet peeve and occasional blog topic reared its ugly head. I simply could not resist the temptation. I regressed into curmudgeonhood, which I why I’m writing this right now.

Releasing The Names On “The List” Would Accomplish Nothing

I had nine moments of genuine irritation during last night’s Red Sox-Yankees game. Seven of them were Joba Chamberlain’s walks, which remain his only real weakness as a starting pitcher. The eighth involved Jorge Posada’s base running, which I am reasonably sure will be listed as my official cause of death on that inevitable certificate. The ninth followed an impassioned, well-intentioned, but ultimately wrongheaded plea from Yankees color commentator Ken Singleton. Singleton – with whom I usually find myself in total agreement – expressed frustration with the ongoing denigration of baseball via continued steroid revelations. Paraphrased:

“The way the names are coming out little by little is hurting the game. It’s unfair for players like Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz to get all the criticism while everyone else on the list gets none. Joe Girardi said something very smart about this the other day, and I agree with him: you just have to rip the Band-Aid off. If you rip it off slowly, it’s just going to hurt longer. Just rip it off – get all the names out there – and be done with it. Because these leaks every few months – they’re just hurting baseball.”

I want to be clear about this: the only way Major League Baseball could mess this whole thing up any more is to release the entire list of players who tested positive in 2003. These players have already had multiple rights violated by a variety of parties. Most prominently, their samples were supposed to be kept anonymous and subsequently destroyed; they were labeled and preserved. Then, the federal government overstepped its boundaries and seized the list after discovering that the players’ union was going to file a motion against issued subpoenas. Finally, the outed players have had their HIPAA rights violated with the public release of private medical information (from a court-ordered sealed document, no less). The players, to be coarse about it, have gotten screwed.

It is this point that Ken Singleton, the talking heads, and many, many members of the public continually forget or ignore. Releasing all the names would be nothing short of a tragic violation of guaranteed rights. Singleton is right that it’s not fair to players like Rodriguez and Ortiz to wear the scarlet letter for a much larger group. But releasing the rest of the names and violating one hundred individuals’ guaranteed rights dwarfs Singleton’s concern with respect to unfairness.

Also, it’s important to remember who benefits from the full release of the list. As has always been the case, the appeal (to whatever extent it exists) of the performance-enhancing drugs investigations has always been in acquiring names so that we can point at them, say “he’s a cheater,” and feel better about ourselves and our obvious virtue. If the names are released, mainstream media types get to mount their high horses and lecture us about sportsmanship and integrity, while one hundred United States citizens’ rights fall by the wayside. This is not an even, worthwhile, or ethical exchange.

Releasing the names all at once simply is not the best way to salvage baseball’s image or perceived integrity. In fact, and for reasons already explained, it would have the opposite effect. If people are truly concerned about the game’s health and credibility, they would not demand an en masse release of the players’ identities. Instead, they’d demand answers to basic questions about the institution’s seemingly inherent inability to get out of its own way. They’d ask why Bud Selig’s ignorance of performance-enhancing drug usage conveniently coincided with increasing revenues, attendance, and national popularity. They’d ask why the vast majority of the sports media is totally willing to give players of days gone by a pass for their own brands of cheating, while vilifying current players for doing essentially the same thing. They’d ask why the government even gives a damn about all this. And, most concretely, they’d ask why on Earth union leadership failed to ensure their constituents’ anonymity during testing, and the samples’ destruction after the necessary information was recorded.

Asking these questions would do much more for baseball’s long-term credibility than continuing this stupid witch hunt by releasing more names and violating more rights.

Required Reading On A-Rod

I’ll be back later this afternoon with something more substantial, but until then, I’d like to share this column with you. The money quote:

Somehow, the belief is now pervading that the Yankees will be better off without A-Rod: That he costs as much in anguish and headaches as he pays in home runs and walks.

Usually the mainstream media has difficulty making intelligent observations, but Newsday’s Ken Davidoff nails this one. Somehow, many baseball fans have decided that having Alex Rodriguez in your team’s lineup is a bad thing. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard or read things like “I’d take Mike Lowell over A-Rod any day” or “A-Rod is selfish and it hurts his team.” Then, when Rodriguez gets injured and misses time, these same people jubilantly declare that the Yankees are in trouble. It can’t work both ways. Rodriguez’s presence can’t be detrimental to his team when he’s healthy and injured. 

As is always the case with Rodriguez, he just can’t win.

Yankees Must Consider Moving Teixeira To Third Base

My friends think of me as a baseball mad scientist sometimes. Maybe that’s just how I think of myself. Or maybe I’m simply mad, and there’s nothing scientific about it. Regardless, I come up with some pretty extreme theories related to baseball tactics or strategies. You can determine the theories I espouse the most by how far into the back of their heads my friends’ eyeballs roll when you mention them. Popular tactics include a total ban on bunting or stealing, deployment of relievers based on descending quality (best reliever in the 7th, second best in the 8th, etc.) and an absolute lack of regard for a player’s defensive ability. 

It is that last tactical preference that applies directly to the forthcoming proposal. Since the release of the inauspicious news about Alex Rodriguez’s hip, my thoughts have inevitably turned to figuring out just who in the heck is going to play third base for the Yankees if Rodriguez’s injury persists. I asked this of a friend yesterday while walking home, and the responding text message said only “Ransom?” Cody Ransom, he of the insane vertical leap, is the Yankees’ probable utility infielder. His career line of .251/.348/.432 isn’t all that bad, but that came in only 214 career PAs. Ransom is also 33 years old, so even if that number is indicative of his true ability (which it isn’t), he’s probably declining anyway. If Rodriguez is out for several months, 300 PAs of Ransom would be disastrous for the Yankees’ postseason chances.

The prospect of this happening got me thinking about alternatives, and my mind’s eye shifted slowly towards the Yankees’ new first-baseman, Mark Teixeira. Within a minute, I decided that the Yankees should take a long and hard look at shifting Teixeira to third base for the duration of Rodriguez’s absence. They need not commit to it, or force it if it clearly isn’t going to work. But at the very least, they need to examine all potential solutions, and this one isn’t nearly as ridiculous as you might think.

It really comes down to a simple choice for the Yankees. They can have 300 PAs of .290/.390/.550 hitting at first base with very good defense and 300 PAs of .230/.300/.350 hitting with bad defense at third base. Or they can have 300 PAs of .250/.350/.450 at first base with below-average defense, and 300 PAs of .290/.390/.550 at third base with probably terrible defense. The first scenario would occur if the Yankees kept Teixeira at first base and Ransom at third for the duration of Rodriguez’s injury. The second happens is they put Nick Swisher at first and Teixeira at third during the same time span. Teixeira has a tiny bit of experience playing third base, having played 15 games there for the Texas Rangers in 2003. Six years is probably enough time, however, to make that experience virtually negligible. Thinking about shifting Teixeira to third base is really just an act of faith based on his remarkable athletic ability and work-ethic. 

I am not an unreasonable man. If the Yankees were to act on my potentially harebrained suggestion, I would make some concessions to the difficulty of Teixeira’s task. For example, a better defender should play third base on days that Chien-Ming Wang and Andy Pettitte are pitching, because of their general inability to strike anyone out. When CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett, and Joba Chamberlain are pitching, however, hitters put the ball into play less often, making Teixeira’s presence at third somewhat less of an issue. Late-game defensive substitutions at third would also be a no-brainer.

The point is that the Yankees owe it to themselves, the fans, and sheer rationality to consider moving Teixeira to third base. If they give him a third-baseman’s glove in Spring Training, watch him field grounders, and decide that it would be an unmitigated disaster, then that’s fine. But they should give him a glove and see what he can do, no matter what. Someone much smarter than I am can probably quantify which combination of offense and defense is more valuable: Teixeira (1B) and Ransom (3B), or Swisher (1B) and Teixeira (3B). I bet the answer is much closer than most people think.

Steroid Scandal Reveals More About Us Than The Players

As most of you know by now, Yankees’ third-baseman and Major League Baseball superstar Alex Rodriguez tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003. Over the weekend, sources told Sports Illustrated that Rodriguez was one of the 104 players who tested positive during 2003’s survey tests. Yesterday, Rodriguez admitted to ESPN’s Peter Gammons that he knowingly used PEDs for a period of time that roughly spanned the 2001, 2002, and 2003 seasons.

The sports media has been in a frenzy since Sports Illustrated broke the news. Reactions and analyses have varied from the idiotic to the measured, with very occasional forays into the wise. I have long-since accepted that a certain hysteria exists when it comes to baseball players using steroids, but that does not mean that I understand it. Most of the sports-following world is falling all over itself in its effort to condemn, vilify, and shame the transgressors. For my part, I choose to sit here in awe of the relentless incompetence, negligence, and hypocrisy that have characterized this scandal. It’s a lot to digest, and I’m not sure I’ve finished doing so. I am sure, however, that this whole fiasco says much more about us – our values, perceptions, and prejudices – than it does about the players themselves.